Science from an easy chair

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

RIVERSIDE

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

EXTINCT ANIMALS
THE KINGDOM OF MAN
FROM AN EASY CHAIR

r

2 fa 5

f-1 r> ^

SCIENCE FROM AN
EASY CHAIR

SIR RAY LANKESTER

K.G.B., F.R.S.

WITH EIGHTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS

SEVENTH EDITION

METHUEN & CO. LTD.

36 ESSEX STREET W.G.

LONDON

I

'fis

First Published . . April 14th IQIO

Second Edition . . . May iqro

Third Edition . . . July iqto

Fourth Edition . . . September IQIO

Fifth Edition . . . February 1911

Sixth Edition . . . August 1912

Seventh Edition . . July /0/J

PREFACE

THIS volume is a collection of some of the papers
which I have contributed to the Daily Telegraph
during the years 1908—1909, under the title " Science
from an Easy Chair." I have revised and corrected the
letterpress, and have added some illustrations. A
smaller volume containing earlier papers was published
by Messrs. Constable in 1908, with the title From an
Easy Chair. It is my intention now to produce
additional volumes (under the title " Easy Chair Series ")
as their constituent articles accumulate, and I hope to
be able to publish a second and a third instalment at no
distant date.

I should like to draw the special attention of the
reader to the Frontispiece (Plate I.), which is very
beautifully executed, and is, I believe, the first coloured
drawing yet published showing the difference between
the adult " silver " eel and the more abundant immature
^ " yellow " eel — sometimes called the " frogmouthed eel."
The original drawings were prepared for me through
the kindness of Dr. Petersen, of Copenhagen, who is

the discoverer of many interesting facts about the

•

vi SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

common eel, and is director of the Danish Biological
Laboratory.

I also wish to draw the attention of any one who is
kind enough to look at this preface to one or two more
of my illustrations, because they are, I think, of excep-
tional interest, and should be looked at, at once, before
a decision not to read the book is made. These are the
prehistoric engraving of a horse's head, with rope-bridle
in place, on page 81 ; the drawings of the leaves of the
American Poison-vine and of the Virginian Creeper on
page 95; of the nettle-sting on page 113; of the
Dragon of the Hesperides on page 122 ; of the big tad-
poles on page 217; of the jumping bean on page 298,
and its moth on page 301 ; of the ant milking a green-
fly for its honey-dew on page 324 ; and lastly, the
accurate drawing on page 370 of the most ancient
human skull yet discovered, and the other drawings of
skulls (all to the scale of one-third the actual length),
and those of prehistoric weapons and carvings which
follow it. These drawings have been made from original
scientific memoirs, or in some cases from actual specimens,
for the present volume.

E. RAY LANKESTER

February igio

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. SCIENCE AND PRACTICE i

II. UNIVERSITY TRAINING .... 6

III. DARWIN'S THEORY . . . .12

IV. DARWIN'S DISCOVERIES . . . .18
V. DARWIN'S THEORY UNSHAKEN . . .27

VI. METCHNIKOFF AND TOLSTOI . . . .38

VII. THE LAND OF AZURE BLUE . . . .46

VI J I. FRESH-WATER JELLY-FISHES . . . .58

IX. THE STORY OF THE COMMON EEL . . .65

X. MODERN HORSES AND THEIR ANCESTORS . . 77

XI. A RIVAL OF THE FABLED UPAS TREE . . 91

XII. POISONS AND STINGS OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS . 100

XIII. THE DRAGON: A FANCY OR A FACT . . 114

XIV. OYSTERS 128

XV. MATERNAL CARE AND MOLLUSCS . . .143

XVI. THE HEART'S BEAT 147

XVII. SLEEP ....... 155

XVIII. THE UNIVERSAL STRUCTURE OF LIVING THINGS . 170

XIX. PROTOPLASM, LIFE AND DEATH . . .180

XX. CHEMISTRY AND PROTOPLASM . . .187

XXI. THE SIMPLEST LIVING THINGS . . . 193

XXII. TADPOLES AND FROGS .... 209

XXIII. ABOUT THE STARS ..... 220

XXIV. COMETS 227

XXV. ABOUT CHOLERA ..... 237

XXVI. SEA-BREEZES, MOUNTAIN AIR, AND OZONE . 251

XXVII. OXYGEN GAS FOR ATHLETES AND OTHERS . . 258

viii SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

PAG!

XXVIII. SPARROWS, TROUT, AND SELECTIVE BREEDING . 266

XXIX. THE FEEBLE-MINDED . . . .271

XXX. DEATH-RATES . . . . .283

XXXI. GOSSAMER 287

XXXII. THE JUMPING BEAN .... 296

XXXIII. PROTECTIVE COLOURING IN ANIMALS . . 304

XXXIV. HOP-BLIGHT 314

XXXV. GREEN-FLIES, PLANT-LICE, AND PARTHENO-
GENESIS . . . . . .322

XXXVI. THE DEADLY PHYLLOXERA . . . 334

XXXVII. CLOTHES MOTHS . . . . -339

XXXVIII. STONE AND WOOD BORERS . . .346

XXXIX. CHRISTMAS FARE . . . . .356

XL. THE ORIGIN OF OPIUM . . . .363

XLI. THE MOST ANCIENT MEN . . . .371

XLII. THE CAVE-MEN'S SKULLS . . . -391

XLI 1 1. MORE ABOUT THE NEANDER MEN . . 402

INDEX . . . . . .413

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

DIAGRAMS IN THE TEXT

FIG. PAGH

r. THE LITTLE GREEN TREE-FROG OR "RAINETTE" OF

THE RIVIERA (HYLA ARBOREA) . . .51

2. THE COMMON JELLY-FISH (AURELIA AURITA} . . 59

3. THE FRESH-WATER JELLY-FISH (LIMNOCODIUM) . 60

4. FOUR jELLY-FlSH-PRODUCING POLYPS ADHERING TO A

ROOT-FIBRE OF A WATER-PLANT . . .61

5. THE AFRICAN FRESH-WATER JELLY-FISH (LIMNOCNIDA) 62

6. YOUNG STAGES OF THE COMMON EEL . . .72

7. DRAWING OF AN IVORY CARVING OF A FEMALE

HEAD . . . . . .80

8. DRAWING OF A FULLY ROUNDED CARVING IN REIN-

DEER'S ANTLER OF THE HEAD OF A NEIGHING
HORSE . . . . . . .80

9. DRAWING OF A FLAT CARVING IN SHOULDER-BONE OF

A HORSE'S HEAD, SHOWING TWISTED ROPE-BRIDLE
AND TRAPPINGS . . . .' . .81

10. FORE-FOOT OF THE HORSE- ANCESTOR, HlPPARION . 84

11. SKULLS OF HORSES AND OF DEER . . .86

12. FORE AND HIND LEGS OF HORSE AND Ass . . 88

13. DIAGRAM OF THE UNDER SURFACE OF THE FOOT IN

THE DOG, TAPIR, AND HORSE . . . .89

14. DRAWINGS OF THE LEAVES OF THE COMMON QUINQUE-

FOLIATE VIRGINIAN CREEPER, OF THE ADHERENT
"AMPELOPSIS VEITCHII," AND OF THE POISON- VINE
(RHUS TOXICODENDRON) . . . » -95
if

x SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

FIG. PAGB

15. DRAWING FROM LIFE OF THE DESERT SCORPION

(BUTHUS AUSTRALIS, LlN.), FROM BlSKRA, NORTH
AFRICA . . . . . . .109

15 sis. HIGHLY MAGNIFIED DRAWING OF A STINGING HAIR
OF THE COMMON NETTLE ....

16. THE HERALDIC DRAGON .....

17. THE HERALDIC GRIFFIN .....

18. HERCULES DESTROYING THE HYDRA

19. THE HERALDIC WYVERN .....

20. THE HERALDIC BASILISK, ALSO CALLED THE AM-

PHYSIAN COCKATRICE .....

21. THE CHINESE IMPERIAL DRAGON ....

22. A FLYING SNAKE WITH Two PAIRS OF WINGS .

23. THE " DRAGON " GUARDING THE TREE IN THE GARDEN

OF THE HESPERIDES .....

24. A VOTIVE TABLET .....

25. ANCIENT ROMAN PAINTING OF A SO-CALLED MARINE

SERPENT .......

26. EGYPTIAN FOUR- WINGED SERPENT

27. TWO-WINGED SERPENT .....

28. AN OYSTER WITH THE RIGHT-SIDE SHELL REMOVED .

29. PART OF A Row OF THE LASHING HAIRS OR "CILIA"

WHICH COVER THE GlLLS OF THE OYSTER

30. THE ANIMAL OF AN OYSTER REMOVED FROM THE

SHELL .......

31. THE EGGS OF THE OYSTER ....

32. THE SPERMS OR SPERMATOZOA OF A RIPE OYSTER

33. DEVELOPMENT OF THE EGG OF THE COMMON OYSTER.

34. FREE- SWIMMING YOUNG OYSTER OR OYSTER -LARVA .

35. YOUNG OF THE POND-MUSSEL AFTER ESCAPING FROM

THE MATERNAL GILL-POUCH ....

36. SIMPLE "CELLS," CONSISTING OF NAKED PROTOPLASM,

CHANGING SHAPE AND TAKING IN SOLID FOOD PAR-
TICLES .......

37. CELLS FORMING TISSUES .....

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi

FIG. PACK

38. COPY OF PART OF ROBERT HOOK'S DRAWING OF A

MAGNIFIED PIECE OF CORK . . . .173

39. A PIECE OF CARTILAGE . . . . .174

40. THREE KINDS OF CELLS . . . . .175

41. Two SPECIMENS OF A BELL- ANIMALCULE (VORTICELLA) 196

42. Six SUCCESSIVE STAGES IN THE DIVISION OF A "CELL" 201

43. STAGES IN THE GROWTH FROM THE EGG OF THE

COMMON FROG . . . ' ; . 210

44. OUTLINE DRAWINGS OF THREE EUROPEAN TADPOLES . 217

45. THE COMET SHOWN IN THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY. . 232

46. THE CHOLERA SPIRILLUM, OR COMMA-BACILLUS OF

KOCH . ...... 241

47. A YOUNG SPIDER ...... 288

48. VIEW OF THE LOWER SURFACE OF THE HEAD AND

BODY OF A LARGE BURMESE SPIDER . . . 290

49. SECTION THROUGH THE BODY OF A SPIDER TO SHOW

THE SPINNING ORGANS . . . . .291

50. ONE OF THE Two MIDDLE SPINNERETS OF THE COM-

MON GARDEN SPIDER (EPEIRA DIADEMA} . . 292

51. THE COMMON GARDEN SPIDER, CORRECTLY CALLED

THE WHITE-CROSS SPIDER (EPEIRA DIADEMA) . 293

52. ON THE RIGHT Two JUMPING BEANS : ON THE LEFT

THE CATERPILLAR REMOVED FROM THE JUMPING
BEAN .....-». 299

53. THE CATERPILLAR OF THE MOTH (CARPOCAPSA SAL-

TITANS) REMOVED FROM THE JUMPING BEAN . 300

54. THE MOTH (CARPOCAPSA SALTITANS) . . .301

55. EARLY WINGED FEMALE HOP-LOUSE . . .316

56. MALE HOP-LOUSE ... . 317

57. ORDINARY WINGLESS FEMALE HOP-LOUSE . . 318

58. FOUNDRESS OR STOCK-MOTHER OF THE HOP-LOUSE . 323

59. SIDE VIEW OF WINGED VIVIPAROUS FEMALE OF THE

HOP-LOUSE . - .. . . . 323

60. AN ANT "MILKING" A "PLANT-LOUSE" OR "GREEN-

FLY" FOR HONEY-DEW . . . . .324

xii SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

FIG. PAGB

61. SINGLE EGG-TUBE OR OVARIAN TUBE OF AN INSECT . 329

62. THE DEATH-WATCH BEETLE (XESTOBIUM TESSEL-

LATUM) . . . . . . .35°

63. THE SILVER-FISH INSECT (LEPISMA SACCHARINA} . 353

64. THE BOOK-LOUSE, OR ATROPOS DIVINATORIA . . 354

65. THE HUMAN SKULL FROM THE CHAPELLE-AUX-SAINTS 370

66. AN UNPOLISHED BUT BEAUTIFULLY CHIPPED FLINT

KNIFE OF THE NEOLITHIC AGE . . .374

67. A POLISHED FLINT AXE-HEAD OF THE NEOLITHIC AGE 375

68. HARPOONS OF THE PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD . . 379

69. A PIECE OF MAMMOTH IVORY CARVED WITH SPIRALS

AND SCROLLS . . . . . .380

70. CARVING ON AN ANTLER OF A GROUP OF THREE RED

DEER AND FOUR FISHES . . . .381

71. PAINTING OF A BISON ..... 382

72. BACK AND FRONT VIEW OF A FLINT IMPLEMENT OF

THE MOUSTIER TYPE .... 384

73. FLINT PICK FROM THE LOWER PLEISTOCENE OF THE

THAMES VALLEY . . . . . .387

74. A ROUGH TYPE OF FLINT IMPLEMENT FROM THE

LOWER PLEISTOCENE OF THE SOMME VALLEY . 388

75. A PROFILE AND A FRONT VIEW OF THE SKULL AND

LOWER JAW OF A MAN OF THE CROMAGNARD RACE

OR REINDEER MEN ..... 389

76. THREE VIEWS OF THE SKULL-TOP FROM NEAR DUSSEL-

DORF ON THE RHINE, KNOWN AS THE NEANDERTHAL
SKULL .... ... 392

77. THE GIBRALTAR SKULL FROM A CAVE IN GIBRALTAR . 394

78. THE SKULL-TOP OF THE PRIMITIVE KIND OF MAN

FROM PLEISTOCENE SANDS IN JAVA, CALLED PITHEC-
ANTHROPUS ...... 400

79. DRAWING OF THE LEFT SIDE OF THE LOWER JAW OF

A MODERN EUROPEAN ..... 404

80. OUTLINE OF THE SKULL OF THE NEANDER MAN FROM

THE CHAPELLE-AUX-SAINTS .... 404

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii

PIG. PAGE

81. THE SKULL OF A MALE CHIMPANZEE . . .405

82. THE HEIDELBERG JAW . . . . . 405

PLATES

I. IMMATURE AND MATURE SPECIMENS OF THE

COMMON EEL OF THE NATURAL SIZE . . Frontispiece

II. REAL DRAGONS. THE EXTINCT FLYING REPTILES

KNOWN AS PTERODACTYLES . . Facing p. 118

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY
CHAIR

SCIENCE AND PRACTICE

THE delight which is experienced by those who
discover new things in the various branches of
science is, no doubt, very great. To reveal to other
men processes, properties, existences in the natural world
hitherto unsuspected, or, if suspected, yet eluding the
grasp of man, is to do something which gives to him
who does it a sense that he is of value in the world —
a sense which will uphold him and enable him to endure
adversity, and even persecution, with equanimity. But
there is, perhaps, a greater and more vivid satisfaction for
those who do or make great and splendid things which
all men can see, and for which all men are grateful. The
great artist — poet, painter, builder, or musician — has this
satisfaction, and so also has the man who, by a combina-
tion of personal energy and clearness of intellectual vision,
applies scientific knowledge to the accomplishment of
great public works, and to the acquirement of that control
by mankind of the natural conditions hostile to human
progress which we may call, as did Lord Bacon, "the
establishing of the kingdom of man."

The men who have expelled yellow fever from Cuba

2 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

and Panama have not merely done a piece of sanitary
cleaning up; they have first imagined and then created,
by the force of human will, directed and maintained by
conviction of the reality of science, a new thing — the
tropics without deadly fever, the tropics as a healthy and
welcome home for the white man. That is comparable to
the work of a great artist in the directness of its appeal ;
it is in its actual detail the result of the combination of
the skill of the engineer with the foresight and absolute
domination of his human agents of a military genius.

For this magnificent work the highest credit is due to
the United States chief sanitary officer, Colonel Gorgas.
It is well known how the American Medical Commission
in Cuba proved six years ago that yellow fever is con-
veyed from man to man solely and entirely by a gnat
common in Central America, known as Stegomyia> and
further, how by carrying out measures for preventing the
entrance of these gnats into dwelling-houses, and especi-
ally by keeping them away from yellow fever patients so
that they fail to obtain and carry the yellow fever germ,
even if they do bite healthy men, Colonel Gorgas and
his associates practically eradicated yellow fever in Cuba
The bite of the Stegomyia gnat is the only way in which
a man can acquire yellow fever, and the gnat which bites
him must have taken up the germs of yellow fever from
another man — twelve days (no less) previously.

The application of this knowledge and the methods
devised to give it effect is what has now rendered the
construction of the Panama Canal by the United States
Government possible. The French Canal Company em-
ployed an army of labourers, numbering from 15,000 to
18,000 men. They lost, almost entirely by death from
yellow fever and malaria, so many of their workmen that
others refused to undertake the deadly job, and there was
a general panic. The death-rate was in 1884 over 60 per

SCIENCE AND PRACTICE 3

1000. In 1885 it was over 70 per 1000. The work was
abandoned. In May 1904 Colonel Gorgas and his forces
took possession of the canal zone. This is a zone of
territory running fifty miles north and south, with a good-
sized town — Colon — at one end of it and another —
Panama — at the other end of it. Many hundreds of men
were at once organised and set to work to destroy in both
the towns the Stegomyia gnat. This was effected by doing
away with all the breeding-places of the gnat, that is,
screening and covering every water receptacle in the
town, so that the gnats or mosquitoes cannot breed.
Then a fumigating process was carried out in all houses
and buildings, great and small, to destroy such gnats as
were still alive. No less than 200,000 Ib. of pyrethrum
and 400,000 Ib. of sulphur were used in this fumigation.
In December 1905 the last case of yellow fever occurred.
It took sixteen months of the work just described to
effect this.

In a different way the Anopheles gnat or mosquito,
which carries the germ of malaria from man to man, was
got rid of. This gnat breeds in clean water, where grass
and weeds grow ; it belongs chiefly to country districts.
As it rarely flies more than 200 yards it was sufficient to
destroy the breeding pools within that distance of the
workmen's houses, camps, and villages. All the windows
and doors of all houses were fitted with wire-gauze
screens, which prevent the entrance of the gnats, and the
population was furnished with quinin, a dose of 3 grs. a
day being ordered to bring the men into such condition
that the malaria parasite would not thrive in the blood
even if introduced.

The object with which Colonel Gorgas and his associ-
ates started was accomplished in less than two years.
The control of yellow fever and malaria has become even
more complete in the two years which have followed. It

4 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

is two years since yellow fever disappeared from the entire
zone, including the two towns. Malaria has not been so
completely destroyed. The employes of the Canal Com-
mission and Panama Railway now number 45,000. The
death-rate of this entire force, including both black
(33,000) and white (12,000) employes, was, in the month
of December 1907 only 18 per 1000 per annum — less
than that of the city of Liverpool, which was 20, or that of
Salford, which was over 19. Of all the white employe's
the death-rate was only 13 per 1000 per annum. In the
year 1906 (whole year), among the 6000 white employe's
who had come from the United States, including some
1 200 women and children, their families, the death-rate
from disease was only 4 per 1000. Pneumonia has been
a chief cause of death among the negro labourers, but
seldom affects the whites. Malaria caused, in the whole
army of labourers, only six deaths in December 1907, as
against thirteen in the smaller army at work in the same
month in 1906. There were 800 cases of malaria in the
whole army of 45,000 employe's in December 1907.

It is thus apparent that Colonel Gorgas has converted
this deadly zone from which negroes and white men
hurried in a panic of fear twenty years ago into a region
as healthy — that is to say, with as low a death-rate — as
an ordinary North American or English city. No doubt
allowance must be made in the comparison for the special
nature of the population brought together on the canal
zone. This is favourable to a low death-rate, in so far as
it consists of strong adults, excluding old people and very
young children, but unfavourable in so far as it consists of
negroes and mean whites, who are even less amenable to
sanitary regulations and precautions than the population
of an English city. Colonel Gorgas writes that now that
it is shown that any population coming into the tropics
can protect itself against yellow fever and malaria by

SCIENCE AND PRACTICE 5

measures which are both simple and inexpensive, the
Anglo-Saxon will find life in the tropics more healthful
than in the temperate zones, and tropical countries which
offer a much greater return for man's labour than do those
of the chilly temperate zone, will be in the course of the
next two or three centuries occupied and populated by the
white races. Such an unpleasantly cold spring as that
which all Europe endured last year makes one wish
that the tropics generally were already arranged by
Colonel Gorgas for our reception, and provided with a
sanitated white-faced population. We could go and live
there, warm and comfortable, all the year round, enjoying
the rich luxuriance of tropical nature without fear of either
chill or fever.

II

UNIVERSITY TRAINING

AT Manchester last year, when they installed Lord
Morley, the Secretary of State for India, as
Chancellor of the University, the Right Hon. Arthur
Balfour delivered a very interesting address, in which
he declared himself a believer in the gospel of " Science
the Master." Mr. Balfour's speech did not imply any
disregard for the pursuit of historical knowledge and a
training in literature and the use of language, but it was
a clear recognition of the fact that when the great purpose
for which universities exist is considered it must be
asserted in no hesitating terms that the discovery of
new knowledge is the most important activity which a
university can foster. To train men (and women, too)
to use their faculties not merely to acquire knowledge of
what has been discovered by others in the past, but to
discover new things and to gain further control over the
conditions in which we live, and to secure further under-
standing not only of nature but of man — that is the
great business of the university.

It was fortunate that Mr. Balfour was present and
able to strike this note, for Lord Morley, the new
Chancellor, had not expressed any such conception of
the aims of a university. He declared that, so long as
the Greeks have anything to teach us we should not

UNIVERSITY TRAINING 7

cease to study the Greeks. But, whilst we may agree
to this, it is well to remember that, though pleasure can
still be obtained from Greek poetry and prose by those
who have thoroughly mastered the Greek language, yet
almost all, if not quite all, that the Greeks have to teach
us has been by this time translated and dealt with by
our own writers. Consequently, although we may cordi-
ally approve of the study of ancient civilisations and
ancient literatures and languages, both Greek and bar-
barian, as part of the enterprise of a university, it is
somewhat excessive, not to say belated, to set up the
study of Greek or of any other historic language and
civilisation as the chief and distinctive boon which
universities can offer to their scholars. The matter has,
indeed, been thrashed out, and Greek, together with what
is called the " study of literature " (but is usually an
ineffective dabbling in it), has been put into its proper
subordinate place in all the universities of Europe and
in most of those of Great Britain. The illusion that
flowers of speech and mastery of phrase (though all very
well if honestly used) are an indication of any know-
ledge or capacity which can be of service to the com-
munity, has been, in late years, to a very large extent,
dispelled.

The concluding words of Mr. Balfour's speech were :
" The great advancement of mankind is to be looked for
in our ever-increasing knowledge of the secrets of nature
— secrets, however, which are not to be unlocked by the
men who pursue them for purely material ends, but
secrets which are open in their fulness only to men who
pursue them in a disinterested spirit. The motive power
which is really going to change the external surface of
civilisation, which is going to add to the well-being of
mankind, which is going to stimulate the imagination
of all those who are interested in the universe in which

8 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

our lot is cast— that lies after all with science. I would
rather be known as having added to the sum of our
knowledge of the truth of nature than anything else I
can imagine. Unfortunately for me, my opportunities
have lain in different directions."

That is a splendid confession of faith. I do not
remember that any German statesman of like authority
and standing has ever given expression to so full and
ample a belief in the value of science. Yet German
statesmen have acted, though they have not spoken.
They have arranged for, and continually are arranging
for, a far larger expenditure of public money upon
scientific training and investigation than is assigned to
such purposes in this country. Every department of
government in Germany has its thoroughly trained, well-
taught, well-paid body of scientific experts and investi-
gators, and, moreover, the whole official world, from the
Emperor downwards, has a real understanding of what
science is, of the folly of attempting to proceed without
it, or allowing persons who are ignorant of it to act as
administrators. The need for science is not merely
recognised in words, but steps are taken, and have been
taken now for many years, actually to secure in German
public offices and public administration the predominance
of that scientific knowledge which the German statesmen,
as well as Mr. Balfour, consider so necessary. Is it too
much to hope that in this country those who recognise
the value and importance of scientific knowledge will
also take steps to re-arrange our Government depart-
ments so as to give them the advantage of guidance by
men trained in the knowledge of nature, rather than
by men ignorant of the very existence of such know-
ledge ?

The universities hold the central position in this matter,
and it is their influence and wealth which the State should

UNIVERSITY TRAINING 9

insist on directing towards the extension and diffusion of
science. Those who address the public on this subject not
infrequently take what seems to me to be a disastrous
line at the start. They speak of the new universities as
the universities of the people, and hand over Oxford and
Cambridge, with their enormous endowments, their history
and tradition, to the wealthy class. Such usurpation
cannot be tolerated. It is monstrous that the endowments
of the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, which were
thoroughly popular and democratic in their foundation,
should be, even for a moment, regarded as the peculiar
property of the wealthy. It is also monstrous to suppose
that it is anything less than disastrous to consign the
well-to-do classes in any community to an empty sham
of ancient " culture " rather than to imbue them with the
real and inspiring culture of the modern renaissance. It
is because this notion is allowed to gain ground that the
enormous funds of the colleges and universities of Oxford
and Cambridge, amounting to more than three-quarters
of a million pounds annually, are to a large extent, though
not exclusively, employed in keeping up a couple of huge
boarding-schools, which are shut for six months in the
year.

It is owing to this that it is the rarest thing to find in
Oxford or in Cambridge a great teacher who lectures
or demonstrates to an eager following of disciples. An
overwhelming majority of the young men who go as
students to these universities have no intention of study-
ing anything. They are sent there in order to be sub-
mitted to college discipline and to have, subject to that
safeguard, a good time. A large number are handsomely
paid by scholarships in order to induce them to go there —
and would not go there at all unless they were so paid.
They do not find such teachers there and such an effective
occupation of their student years as would induce them,

10 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

.

if unpaid, to seek the university, or to pay fees out of their
own pockets for the opportunities of seriously pursuing
any branch of learning or science within its walls.

The inefficiency of the old universities is to a large
extent the cause of the neglect and ignorance of science
in the well-to-do class, who furnish the men who become
Government officials of all kinds and members of pro-
fessions which influence public opinion. But this in-
efficiency of the old universities is not due to their
devotion to literary studies and to abstract science, nor
to their objection to the pursuit of practical and commercial
studies. That excuse is sometimes put forward for them,
though at this moment they are, in fact, setting up labora-
tories and lecture-rooms for engineering, agriculture,
forestry, mining, and such applications of science. Nor
is it money which is really wanting at either Oxford or
Cambridge, although they are both begging for it from
the public. What Oxford and Cambridge want is not
money but men ; men as teachers — " professors " is the
usual title given to them in a university — who must be the
ablest, each in his own line, in the whole world. If such
professors existed in either Oxford or Cambridge, and
were allowed to teach, the town (if not the colleges!)
would be full to overflowing of students — eager to pay
their fees and to spend, not three short terms of seven
weeks in each year, but the whole year, and many years,
in the laboratories and lecture-rooms of those commanding
men.

To obtain such men — to set the machinery at work —
you must pay them handsomely, and give them authority
and the means of work. Once they were at work, the
mere fees of the students would furnish a splendid revenue.
There is plenty of money at Oxford and at Cambridge —
a superabundance, in fact — which could and should be
applied to this purpose, namely, that of securing and

UNIVERSITY TRAINING n

establishing there the greatest teachers in the world. The
money is at present administered by the colleges accord-
ing to the directions given in recent Acts of Parliament,
and by no means in any blind obedience to the original
intentions of the founders of the colleges. It is to a large
extent wasted. That portion of it paid out as " scholar-
ships " is for the most part wasted in bringing students to
a place where they cannot get the best opportunities of
study, and the rest is unwisely applied (not so much by
the tenants for life or administrators of college funds as
by rigid Act of Parliament) to providing an excessive
number of totally inadequate salaries by which a corre-
sponding number of young men are induced to enter upon
the career of teachers as underpaid college Fellows.

Ill

DARWIN'S THEORY

ON Wednesday, the 1st of July 1908, half a century
had passed since Darwin's Theory of the Origin of
Species was made known to the world. Fifty years have
now been completed since that immortal book, The Origin
of Species^ was published, and a hundred years since
Charles Darwin was born.

It is not every one who is in a position to understand
how great and momentous was the occasion when Sir
Charles Lyell and Dr. Joseph Hooker communicated to
the Linnean Society of London, on the 1st of July 1858,
two papers, one by Charles Darwin, the other by Alfred
Russel Wallace, under the common title, "On the Tendency
of Species to form Varieties : and on the Perpetuation of
Varieties and Species by Natural means of Selection." The
reason for this conjoint communication to the Linnean
Society was that Darwin, who had been working for years
at the subject, and had already, in 1842, drawn up a
statement of his theory, not for publication, but for the
consideration and criticism of his friend Hooker — un-
expectedly received from Alfred Russel Wallace, who
was, and had been for some years, away in the Malay
Archipelago — a manuscript of an essay on the origin of
species, containing views identical with his own, and even
phrases similar to those he had himself found it necessary

DARWIN'S THEORY 13

to invent. Thus Wallace speaks of the "struggle for
existence," whilst Darwin had used the term " struggle for
life." Darwin had been urged by his friends before this
to publish an abstract or statement of his conclusions, but
now that he had received Wallace's manuscript, he de-
clared in a letter to Hooker, " I would far rather burn my
whole book than that he or any other man should think
that I had behaved in a paltry spirit." And so Lyell and
Hooker took the matter in hand, and communicated to
the Linnean Society, accompanied by an explanatory
statement, the two independent papers, setting forth, as
they say, " the results of the investigations of the in-
defatigable naturalists, Mr. Charles Darwin and Mr.
Alfred Wallace." Such loyalty and regard to each other
as Darwin and Wallace showed then and ever after form
a delightful feature in the history of this great discovery.
A wonderful thing is that Hooker, now Sir Joseph Hooker,
the greatest botanist of the past century, the constant
friend and comrade of Darwin, is still alive, and that
Alfred Russel Wallace, too, is still with us. They both
were present when the Linnean Society celebrated the
meeting of fifty years ago.

The views of Darwin and Wallace have now become
the established doctrine of science. They have led to the
universal recognition of " the origin of species by descent
with modification." That is a statement, in other words,
to the effect that all the various kinds of living things
have been gradually produced by natural birth from pre-
decessors which differ from them only slightly in the later
stages of time, but become simpler and less like their
descendants as we go further back, until we reach the
simplest living things. It has led to the conviction that
there has been no exceptional or " miraculous " suspension
of the order of Nature in this process, but that all has
come about in due and regular course, in virtue of the

14 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

properties of natural things, which we know as the laws of
physics and chemistry. Most important and dominating
of all these results is the inevitable one that man himself
has come from animal ancestors, in the same way, and —
(this is the greatest and most far-reaching conclusion of
all) — that he is still subject to those natural processes of
change and development by which he has reached his
present phase ; that he must completely understand them
and control them (so far as such control is possible) in
order to maintain a healthy, happy, and improving race of
men on the face of the globe. This great possession — the
earth and all that lives on it — is, as Lord Bacon phrased it
three hundred years ago — the Kingdom of Man. Man has
but to use his intelligence in order to take control of it.
The knowledge of his own relation to it, and of the ways
in which the human race is affected for good and for ill,
through the operation of the self-same processes which
affect the breeding, the improvement, the health, the
disease, the destruction, and the perfecting of other living
things, has once and for all been placed within man's
reach by the discoveries of Darwin and Wallace.

Before Darwin — that is, before 1st July 1858 — the origin
of the different species of animals and plants was called
by great thinkers like Sir John Herschel, the astronomer,
" the mystery of mysteries." The word " species " was
denned as " an animal or plant which in a state of nature
is distinguished by certain peculiarities of form, size,
colour, or other circumstance from any other animal or
plant, and propagates after its kind individuals perfectly
resembling the parent, its peculiarities being therefore
permanent." So wrote a great naturalist in the days
before Darwin. This definition may be illustrated by
two common English birds — the rook and the crow.
They differ from each other in slight peculiarities of
form, structure, and habits, and, moreover, rooks always

DARWIN'S THEORY 15

produce rooks, and crows always produce crows, and
they do not interbreed. Therefore it was held that all
the rooks in the world had descended from a single pair
of rooks, and all the crows in like manner from a single
pair of crows, while it was considered impossible that
crows could have descended from rooks, or rooks from
crows. The " origin " of the first pair of each kind was
a mystery, and by many persons was held to have been
due to a miraculous and sudden act of " creation." But
besides our crow and rook, there are about thirty other
birds in various parts of the world so much like our crow
and rook that they are commonly called crows, and are
all regarded as " species " of the genus crow (or Corvus).
It was held before Darwin that all the individuals of each
of these " species " were descended from an ancestral pair
of crows of that species. There would have been thirty
different original kinds, the " origin " of which was un-
known, and by naturalists was regarded as a mystery.
Now, on the contrary, it is held that all the thirty living
species are descended from one, not from thirty, ancestral
species, and have been gradually modified to their present
character in different parts of the world ; and, further,
that this ancestral species was itself derived by slow
process of change and natural birth from preceding crow-
like birds no longer existing.

As Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace has said in his most
readable and delightful book, Darwinism — where he
gives all the credit and glory to his great fellow-worker :
" Darwin wrote for a generation which had not accepted
evolution — a generation which poured contempt on those
who upheld the derivation of species from species by any
natural law of descent. He did his work so well that
'descent with modification' is now universally accepted
as the order of nature in the organic world, and the rising
generation of naturalists can hardly realise the novelty of

1 6 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

this idea, or that their fathers considered it a scientific
heresy to be condemned rather than seriously discussed."

For those who are not naturalists or men of science
it is an object-lesson of the highest importance, that the
speculations and observations which have led to the
general acceptance of a new view as to the origin of
the species of birds, butterflies, and flowers — in itself
apparently a matter of no consequence to human life
and progress — should have necessarily led to a new
epoch in philosophy, and in the higher state-craft; in
fact, to the establishment of the scientific knowledge of
life as the one sure guide and determining factor of civilisa-
tion. How to breed a healthy, capable race of men,
how to preserve such a race, how to educate and to train
it, so that its best qualities of mind and body may be
brought to activity and perfection — this is what Darwin-
ism can teach us, and will teach us when the great subjects
of inheritance and of variation are more fully investigated
by the aid of public funds, and when the human mind
has been as carefully examined and its laws as well
ascertained, as are those of the human body. There is
no reason for delay ; no excuse for it. For two thousand
years the learned men of Europe debated as to whether
this or that place was the site of ancient Troy, or whether
there ever was such a place at all. At last (only twenty-
five years ago) a retired man of business, named Schliemann,
had a "happy thought" — it was not the thought of a
learned pedant, but of a scientific investigator. He said,
"Let us go and see." And at the expense of a few
thousand pounds he went and found Troy and Mycenae,
and revealed — " dis-covered " — the whole matter. That
was the most tremendous and picturesque triumph of the
scientific method over mere talk and pretended historical
learning which has ever been seen since human record
has existed. It ought to be told to every boy and girl,

DARWIN'S THEORY 17

for it is the greatest and most obvious proof of the over-
whelming power of the investigation of tangible things
and the futility of chatter, which has ever been seen. It
is enough to inspire hope and belief in experiment even
in the breast of a Member of Parliament, or of a Minister
of the Crown.

IV
DARWIN'S DISCOVERIES

A LARGE proportion of the public are not aware of
the amount of experiment and observation carried
out by the great naturalist whose memory was honoured
by a splendid ceremony at the University of Cambridge in
the summer of 1909. There are, I am sure, not a few who
are under the impression that Darwin, sitting in his study or
walking round his garden, had " a happy thought," namely,
that man is only a modified and improved monkey, and
proceeded to write an argumentative essay, setting forth
the conclusion that mankind are the descendants of some
remote ancestral apes. Of course there is an increasing
number of more careful and inquiring men and women who
take advantage of the small price at which Mr. Darwin's
wonderful book, The Origin of Species, is now to be
bought, and have read that and some of his other writings,
and accordingly know how far he was from being the hasty
and fanciful theorist they previously imagined him to be.
It is the great distinction of Darwin that he spent more
than twenty years of his life in accumulating the records
of an enormous series of facts and observations tending
to show that the species or "kinds" of animals and plants
in nature can and do change slowly, and that there is,
owing to the fact that every pair produces a great number
of offspring (sometimes many thousand), of which only

DARWIN'S DISCOVERIES 19

a single pair, on the average, survive, a necessary selection
of those which are to survive and breed, accompanied by
a rejection and destruction of the rest This " natural
selection " or survival of favoured varieties, he was
able to show, must operate like the selection made by
breeders, fanciers, and horticulturists, and has in all
probability (for in a history extending over hundreds
of thousands of years we must necessarily deal with
" probabilities," and not with direct demonstration) pro-
duced new forms, new kinds, better adapted to their
surroundings than the parental forms from which they are
derived.

It was necessary, in order that Darwin should persuade
other naturalists that his views were correct, that he
should show by putting examples " on the table " that
variations occur naturally and in great diversity ; further,
that there is great pressure in the conditions of life, and
a consequent survival of the best-suited varieties ; further,
that there is in reproduction a transmission of the peculiar
favouring character or quality which enables a variety to
survive, and thus a tendency to perpetuate the new
quality. It was not enough for Darwin to "imagine"
that these things might be so, or to make the notion
that they are so plausible by arguments drawn from
existing knowledge. He had to do that: but also he
had to make new inquiries and discover new things about
animals and plants which fitted in with his theory and
would not fit in either with the notion that all plants
and animals were created — as the poet Milton supposed
— out of lumps of earth and muddy water, suddenly,
in the likeness of their present-day descendants, nor
with some other notions, such as that of the able and
gifted French naturalist Lamarck. And he spent the
later twenty years of his life in doing so, just as he had
spent the previous twenty years in collecting a first series

20 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

of facts and observations justifying his theory before he
announced it to the world.

A great difference between Lamarck and Darwin
exists, not only in their two theories as to the mode of
origin of the vast diversified series of kinds or species of
plants and animals, but in their way of stating and deal-
ing with the theory which each thought out and gave
to the world. Lamarck had a great knowledge of the
species of plants and animals, partly through having
collected specimens himself when he was an officer in
the French Republican army which was employed on
the Mediterranean shores of France and Italy more than
a hundred years ago, and partly through his later official
position in the great natural history museum at Paris,
where large collections passed through his hands. He was
a man of very keen insight and excellent method, and did
more to plan out a natural and satisfactory " classification "
of animals than any one between his own day and that
of Linnaeus. His theory of the origin of species was
essentially an opposition to the then popular view that
the species of living things have been made by the
Creator so as to fit the conditions in which they live.
Lamarck contradicted this view, and said in so many
words that the real fact is that the peculiar specific
characters of animals or of plants have not been created
for their conditions, but, on the contrary, that the
conditions in which they live have created the peculiarities
of living things. In so far his conception was the same
as Darwin's. But Lamarck then said to himself: How
do the conditions create the peculiarities of different
living things? And he answered this question by an
ingenious guess, which he published to the world in a
book called Philosophical Zoology, without taking any
steps to test the truth of his guess.

That is where Lamarck's method and attitude as a

DARWIN'S DISCOVERIES 21

scientific man is so greatly inferior to that of Darwin.
Lamarck, sitting in his study, said animals (and plants
too) must be affected by the conditions around them, so
that an individual as it lives and grows becomes to a
certain degree slightly changed by and adapted to those
conditions. This, he said, we all see in human beings
and familiar animals and plants. Now, he said, we have
only to admit that the changes so acquired are (especially
when both parents have been similarly changed) trans-
mitted to the young in the process of generation, and to
some degree "intensified," in order to recognise that of
necessity there is in nature a constant change and pro-
gression of living forms, consisting in a more and more
elaborate " adaptation " to the conditions of life, which
will be varied and lead to new adaptations as the living
things spread over the earth or as geological changes
occur. He cited the long neck of the giraffe as an
example of what he meant. In regions where there was
frequent and extensive drought, a deer-like creature
would eat the lower leaves of trees when the grass was
dried up and dead. It would strain and stretch its neck
in reaching after the higher leaves, and the individuals
thus straining and stretching would become an inch or
two longer in the neck in consequence. These individuals
would, said Lamarck, transmit their increased length of
neck to their offspring, who again would strain and
stretch after higher leaves, and get a further increase of
neck-length, and so it would go on, little by little, over
many thousand generations, until the neck-stretchers
had become well marked and distinguished by their long
necks from such of their ancestral stock as survived in
other regions where, the grass being good, there was
no inducement to straining and stretching the neck.

Now the great difference between Lamarck and
Darwin is that Lamarck was quite content to state

22 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

the ingenious supposition illustrated by the imaginary
history of the giraffe, and to declare that this was the law
of Nature and is actually going on every day, without, so
to speak, getting out of his chair. He never attempted to
show by observation or experiment that such a change of
form as the stretching of the neck by straining after food
could and did occur, or that if it did that it could be
transmitted by a parent or couple of parents to their
offspring. And consequently for many years no one
attached much value to Lamarck's notions on the subject.
When, fifty years later, Darwin's very different theory
became widely received, based on the demonstrable fact
that congenital variations (not stretchings and warpings
acquired in the lifetime of a parent, but variations which
are inborn, and occur in some but not other individuals
living under one and the same set of conditions) are trans-
mitted to offspring, and that those among these variations
which are favourable to success in life will enable their
possessor to survive and to produce young inheriting those
favourable variations — then it occurred to 'those naturalists
who were inclined to believe in Lamarck's suggestion to
inquire into the solid facts in regard to that also, and to
see whether his bare statement was true. From that day
to this, it has never been shown that it is true. It is,
indeed, to begin with, a rare thing to find instances of
either wild animals or wild plants which, growing up in
unusual conditions, have their structure altered and
" adapted " so as to be more serviceable in those unusual
conditions than their usual structure would be; and in
those cases where such adaptive alterations have been
produced, every experimenter is agreed in stating that
he has found that when (even after several generations in
the changed conditions) the young are restored to their
original conditions, they simply grow up into the original
forms : no permanent change in the stock or race has

DARWIN'S DISCOVERIES 23

been effected. Every attempt to show by experiment
that a new character can be acquired by the stock in
this way, and show itself by heredity alone — when the
modifying adapting conditions are removed — has com-
pletely failed.

On the other hand, Darwin himself and his followers
have made almost endless experiments and observations
on plants and animals, establishing facts as to structure
and the relation of special kinds of living things to their
surroundings which can only be explained on the sup-
position that Darwin's theory is true in detail ; that is to
say, not merely that the kinds of animals and plants have
arisen from previous kinds by natural descent — that
supposition is much older than either Darwin or Lamarck
— but that the method by which the transformation has
been brought about is (a) the occurrence in every genera-
tion of every animal and plant of minute variations in
every, or nearly every, part, and (b} the continual selection
in the severe struggle for existence of those individuals
to grow to maturity and reproduce, which happen to
present favourable variations, which variations are accord-
ingly transmitted to the next generation, and may be
intensified, so far as intensification is of value, in each
succeeding generation.

A book full of observations and reflections about the
structure, habits, and mode of occurrence and geography
of a great number of plants and animals is Darwin's
Journal of Researches, published in 1845, and now re-
published as A Naturalist's Voyage. In order to know
very minutely the differences and resemblances between
all the kinds or species of one group of living things
Darwin studied for eight years the " cirrhipedes," the name
given to the sea-acorns and ships' barnacles which occur
in all parts of the world, some living on rocks, some on
the backs of turtles, others on whales, on the feet of birds,

24 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

on bits of floating wood or of pumice-stone, and some on
one another ! They are all hermaphrodites, but Darwin
found in several a most singular thing, namely, the exist-
ence of minute males, complemental to and parasitic on
the hermaphrodites. His discovery was doubted and
denied, but he had the pleasure of seeing it at last fully
confirmed thirty years after his book on cirrhipedes was
published.

Darwin discovered that the presence of the same
species of plants and of some few animals on distant
mountain summits and in the Arctic region is due to
the former extension of ice between these situations
during the last glacial period. He was, before every-
thing else and by necessity for the examination of his
theory, a geologist, and wrote many valuable geological
memoirs. The history of the origin of the species of
living things consists largely in tracing them to extinct
creatures, and in showing what were the possible migra-
tions and what the conditions of land and water, tempera-
ture and vegetation, in past periods, and in regard to
given areas of the globe. The book on the Fertilisation
of Orchids was the first published by Darwin after the
Origin of Species. In it he showed how the marvellous
shapes and colours and mechanisms of the flowers of
orchids are adapted to ensure cross-fertilisation by insects,
and how they can be explained as originating by the
natural selection of variations — if the value of cross-
fertilisation is once recognised. The explanation of the
reason for the existence of two kinds of primrose flowers
— the short-styled and the long-styled — clearly arrived
at by him as being a mechanism to secure cross-
fertilisation, delighted him in 1862, and led him to
discover the same sort of modification in other flowers.
Then, in 1864, he published his researches on Climbing
Plants, and later a book on the Movements of Plants, in

DARWIN'S DISCOVERIES 25

which he discovered the mechanism and the wonderful
variety of movements of plants, and showed their value
to the plant, and consequent origin, by natural selection.

He especially loved to discover evidence that plants
can do many things which had been thought to be only
within the powers of the other section of living things —
the animals ; and finding during one summer holiday
that the beautiful little sun-dew moves its red-knobbed
tentacles so as to entrap minute insects, he discovered
the whole history of Insectivorous Plants, and showed
that there are many plants of various groups which catch
insects and digest them in a sort of stomach, as an animal
might do. Thus the water-holding pitchers of the pitcher-
plants of tropical forests were explained as being food-
catchers and digesters of great value to the nutrition of
the plant, and their gradual formation by variation and
natural selection rendered comprehensible.

His greatest book next to the Origin — containing an
immense quantity of original notes and observations and
valuable information from all kinds of breeders and fanciers
— is the Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestica-
tion (1868). The facts recorded are discussed in the light
of the great theory, and honest, fair-minded consideration
is given to those which present difficulties as well as to
those which clearly favour it. In 1871 came the Descent
of Man, followed in 1872 by the Expression of the
Emotions in Men and Animals — in which, again, it was
shown that the facts as to the likeness between man and
apes can be explained on the theory that natural selection
and survival of favourable variations have been at work,
and that the facts are hopelessly without meaning or ex-
planation on any other hypothesis. His last published
book was on The Formation of Vegetable Mould through
the Action of Worms, in which he not only showed what
an important part earthworms play in burying stones and

26 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

rocks, and in fitting the ground for the growth of plants,
but recorded some discoveries as to the senses of worms
and as to their treatment of leaves by a digestive fluid
exuded from the mouth so as to soften a leaf before
swallowing it.

Every one of Darwin's books abounds with new facts
and new points of view disclosed by the application to
first one thing and then another of his vivifying discovery-
causing theory of natural selection. The subsidiary theory
of the selection of brilliantly coloured males by females
in pairing, as a cause of the brilliant colours and patterns
of many birds and insects, is developed in his Descent of
Man. It led him to many important discoveries and
observations as to the colouring and ornamentation of
animals, and when considered, together with Wallace's
and Bates's theory of mimicry and of the warning and
protective colourings of insects, goes far to explain all
the specific colouring of animals and plants as due to
natural selection and survival. A theory which has pro-
duced such prodigious results in the way of "explaining"
all forms, colours, habits, and occurrences of living things
— as has that of Charles Darwin — simply holds the field
against all comers. When Lamarck's theory has been
shown to be consistent with the most elementary facts
as to heredity, and further to afford a rational explana-
tion of any group of biological facts, it will be time to
consider how far it may be entertained in conjunction
with Darwin's theory — but not until then.

DARWIN'S THEORY UNSHAKEN

IT seems ill-mannered, if not ill-natured, that the year
of the centenary of Charles Darwin's birth should
have been chosen by owners of anonymous pens in order
to alarm the public mind with the preposterous state-
ment that his celebrated and universally accepted theory
of the origin of the species or kinds of plants and animals
by natural selection, or " the survival of favoured races in
the struggle for life," is undermined and discredited.
Such a statement once coolly made in the public Press
is necessarily believed by a large number of uninformed
readers, and, like all calumny, is none the less relished
by the foolish, and, for the moment, none the less harmful,
because it is baseless.

Those who seek to belittle Darwin's theory show,
whenever they venture to enter into particulars, that
they do not know what Darwin's theory is. They con-
fuse it with other theories, and even imagine that some
enthusiastic Darwinians who have tried to add a chapter
here or there to Darwin's doctrine, are opponents of the
great theory. Let me briefly state what that theory is :

It rests on three groups of facts — matters of observa-
tion, which are not theory or guess-work at all — but
admitted by every one and demonstrated every day.
These are — (i) Living things, each in its kind, produce

28 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

a far larger number of young than can possibly grow up
to maturity, since the kind of food and the situation
necessary to each kind are limited and already occupied.
Only one oyster embryo out of every five million pro-
duced (the reader may refer to p. 137 on this subject)
grows up through all the successive stages of youth to
the adult state. The total number of a species of animal
or plant on the whole area where it is found does not
increase. Even in those which produce a small number
of young, there is great destruction, and taking all the
individuals into consideration, only a single pair of young
arrive at maturity to replace their parents. There is no
exception to the rule that every organic being naturally
multiplies at so high a rate that, if not destroyed, the
progeny of a single pair would soon cover the earth.
The elephant is reckoned the slowest breeder of known
animals ; it commences to breed at 30 years of age, dies
at 100, and has six young in the interval. After 750
years, supposing all the offspring of a single pair fulfilled
the rule and were not destroyed in an untimely way,
there would be nearly nineteen million elephants alive
descended from the first pair. There is then no doubt
as to the enormous excess in the production of young
living things, nor as to their necessary competition with
one another of the most severe and inexorable kind;
nor again as to the necessary death, in many species,
of hundreds and thousands, for every one which survives
to maturity and in its turn breeds.

(2) The second great fact is that among all the young
born to a pair of parents, no two are exactly alike, nor
are any exactly like their parents ; nor are any two taken
from all produced by all parents of that species exactly
alike. They all resemble their parents at the corre-
sponding age, in a general way and even very closely ;
but the resemblance is far from amounting to identity.

DARWIN'S THEORY UNSHAKEN 29

This is called "variation." It is familiar to us all in the
case of the organism which we know best, and observe
most closely, namely, man. It is also a matter of common
observation in the case of dogs, cats, horses, and other
domesticated animals. Many of these " variations " are
exhibited in points of size, proportion, and colour, which
are easily noted at once by the eye. But " variation " is
really a deep-seated thing, and depends on causes which
lie below the surface. We know that the offspring of
men and of animals and of plants, give evidence of
variations in what we call constitution, tendency, tem-
perament, aptitude, strength, and that the colour, and
even size of this or that part, are really only indications
of a deep-seated difference in the living chemistry, the
forces of nutrition and growth which reside in the living
substance. The fact that many thousands of a species
may be born and only a few survive, means therefore
that many thousand varieties, often varieties not readily
measured by the eye, are produced in each generation,
from which a few individuals are in some way " selected "
for survival.

(3) The third great fact is that though there is varia-
tion, amongst all the offspring in each generation, there
is also a continual and definite inheritance by offspring of
the qualities and structure of their parents to a degree
which altogether preponderates over the variations. To
put it in another way, we all know that every parental
organism transmits to its young not only the qualities and
structure of the species, or of the race, or of the family,
but also transmits its own peculiarities or variations in
which it departed from its parents, and from its brothers
and sisters. This is best illustrated by our daily ex-
perience of human families.

These facts being admitted, and abundantly illustrated
and traced in detail by years of observation and experi-

30 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

mental breeding in all kinds of living things by hundreds
of careful observers who have published the records of
their studies, we come to the step where Darwin makes
use of supposition or hypothesis. The question is, " Does
the one which, out of the thousands of slightly different
varieties, survives — do so by haphazard ? or is there a neces-
sarily acting state of things which selects that one special
variety for survival ? " Gardeners and breeders of pigeons,
dogs, and cattle deliberately select the variations which
they desire, breed from them, and so carry on by inherit-
ance the special variation — whilst they ruthlessly destroy
or restrain from breeding the numerous other variations
in their " stock " which they do not desire. " If," said
Darwin, " there is any necessarily selective mechanism in
Nature which could act as the breeder does, new varieties
might be ' naturally ' selected, and changes of form and
appearance naturally established, which in the course of
long ages would amount to such marked differences as
separate what we call one species from another." He
showed that there is a natural mechanism of the required
kind. "Since," he says, "the competition among the
members of any one kind or species for a place in life is
so very severe, and the hostile circumstances so varied,
and since all the competing offspring differ by ' variation '
ever so little from one another, those varieties which are
better suited in even the smallest degree to hold their own
not merely in fighting with the others, but in withstanding
injurious influences, in escaping enemies, and in procuring
food, will be the ones which will survive, when a large
number of cases, many thousands, extending over a large
area and many years, are considered. Those which are
' best fitted ' to get through the exceedingly numerous
dangers and difficulties of life will be the survivors."
Hence we get the survival of the fit — the fit variations —
by natural selection in the struggle for life. This, it

DARWIN'S THEORY UNSHAKEN 31

will be observed, is an inference, and not a direct obser-
vation.

So long as the conditions remain practically or
effectively unchanged, the animal or plant already " fitted "
to them will be succeeded by those of its offspring which
most resemble it in the essential points of " fitness." But
we know that in the course of ages, more or less rapidly,
climates change, land emerges from the sea, islands join
continents, continents become scattered islands, animals
and plants migrate into regions previously uninhabited by
them. As such changes gradually come on, the natural
selection of favoured varieties will necessarily lead to the
survival of others than those previously favoured, other
variations better suited to the new conditions will survive.

The natural selection of favoured variations would not
amount to much, were the variations not perpetuated by
transmission to the young which they produce. This, it
is common knowledge [see (3)], does take place. It is
known also that a variation so established is as a result
of the regular process of variation presented in larger
volume or emphasised in character in some individuals of
subsequent generations, and by continued " natural selec-
tion" it may become more and more a prominent or
dominant feature of the race.

So far, the only assumption made by Mr. Darwin is
that any or some of the endless variations which occur in
all the offspring of wild plants and animals, in various
combinations and degree in each individual, can be
sufficiently important to determine the survival or non-
survival of the organisms possessing them. That is a
matter which has been largely studied and discussed.
The verdict of those who have studied on the spot (as
Darwin himself did) the teeming life of the tropics, the
insects, birds, and plants of those regions, is that we are
justified in considering that small variations are sufficiently

32 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

important to turn the scale in favour of survival or non-
survival. It is not easy for a man who is not a determined
naturalist, constantly observing the ways of wild living
things, to appreciate the evidence as to the efficacy of
small variations, even were I able here to submit it to
him. It is to be found in the published works of an army
of investigators. In any case it is granted that effective
variations — whether small or great — occur in nature, and
that natural selection favours and perpetuates the new
and fitter variety to the exclusion of the less fit.

The real difficulty to most people comes in the
supposition next made by Mr. Darwin — namely, that this
slow process of change by natural selection of favoured
variations and their transmission and perpetuation by
inheritance is sufficient to effect by its continued opera-
tion through enormous ages of time the conversion of a
race of ancestral three-toed zebras into the one-toed horse
of to-day ; before that, of five-toed beasts into three-toed ;
at an earlier stage of fishlike creatures into four-footed
land animals, and so on. You have to picture the whole
series of animals and of plants which are now or ever
have been, as two gigantic family trees or pedigrees,
meeting in common ancestors of the simplest grade of
microscopic life. All the diverging branches and twigs of
these great " family trees " have been determined by the
adaptation of living form to the endlessly varied condi-
tions of life on this planet, by the natural selection or
survival of variations and the transmission and accumula-
tion of those variations from parent to offspring. This is
a tremendous demand on the imagination. It is, however,
not a difficult one to concede, when one is acquainted with
the facts and conclusions of geology. The history of the
crust of the earth was explained twenty years before
the date of Darwin's theory by Charles Lyell as due to the
continued action through immense periods of time of the

DARWIN'S THEORY UNSHAKEN 33

same natural forces which are now at work. And, more-
over, the examination of the successive stratified deposits
of the earth's crust has yielded the remains of whole
series of animals and of plants (simpler in character the
older and deeper the rock in which they occur), which
can be satisfactorily explained and interpreted as the
ancestral forms from which present organisms have been
developed.

The theory of the natural selection of variations as the
moving spring in the gradual development of living forms
from simplest living matter is Darwin's theory. It is not
possible to find any naturalist of consideration who does
not accept it. There are various views held and discussed
as to the cause of variation, as to the importance of small
and of big variations, as to the non-transmissibility of
some kinds of variation, and as to various peculiarities in
regard to inheritance. They do not for the most part
touch the main features of Mr. Darwin's theory. No
doubt we are learning and shall learn more about the facts
of variation and the details of the process of hereditary
transmission, but such increase of knowledge has not
tended to undermine Mr. Darwin's theory, and does not
seem at all likely to do so.

On the occasion of the celebration at Cambridge in
1909 of the centenary of Darwin's birth, I was invited by
the Vice-Chancellor, on behalf of the University, to deliver
in the Senate-house an address, others being given by
representatives of the United States (Prof. Osborne), of
Germany (Prof. Hertwig), and of Russia (Prof. Metchni-
koff). The following is the text of that address : —

" I feel it a great honour to be called upon to speak
here to-day, and to stand, on behalf of the naturalists
of the British Empire, by the side of the distinguished
men whose orations you have just heard.

" I think that the one thing about Charles Darwin
3

34 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

which the large majority of British naturalists would wish
to be to-day proclaimed, in the first place — with no
doubtful or qualifying phrase — is that, in their judgment,
after these fifty years of examination and testing, his
'theory of the origin of species by means of natural
selection or the preservation of favoured races in the
struggle for life' remains whole and sound and con-
vincing, in spite of every attempt to upset it.

" I am not stating more than the simple truth when
I say that, in the judgment of those who are best
acquainted with living things in their actual living
surroundings, ' natural selection ' retains the position
which Mr. Darwin claimed for it of being the main
means of the modification of organic forms.

"Our admiration for the vast series of beautiful
observations and interesting inquiries carried out by
Darwin during his long life must not lead us to forget
that they were devised by him in order to test the truth
of his theory and to meet objections to it, and that they
were triumphantly successful. They, together with the
work of Alfred Russel Wallace and many of their
followers, have more and more firmly established
Darwin's theory. On the other hand, no attempt to
amend that theory in any essential particular has been
successful.

" The nature of organic variation and of the character
of the variations upon which natural selection can and
does act was not, as we are sometimes asked to believe,
neglected or misapprehended by Darwin. The notion
that these variations are large and sudden was considered
by him, and for reasons set forth by him at considerable
length rejected. That notion has in recent years been
resuscitated, but its truth has not been rendered probable
by evidence either of such an accurate character or of
such pertinence as would justify the rejection of Darwin's

DARWIN'S THEORY UNSHAKEN 35

fundamental conception of the importance of minute and
ubiquitous variations.

" Further, in regard to the important facts of heredity
connected with the cross-breeding of cultivated varieties,
especially in regard to the blending or non-blending of
their characters in their offspring and as to prepotency,
it seems to me important that we should now and here
call to mind the full and careful consideration given to
this subject by Danvin. We cannot doubt that he
would have been deeply interested in the numerical and
statistical results associated with the name of Mendel.
Those results tend to throw light on the mechanisms
concerned in hereditary transmission, but it cannot be
shown that they are opposed in any way to the truth of
Darwin's great theoretical structure — his doctrine of the
origin of species.

" It has often been urged against Darwin that he did
not explain the origin of variation, and especially that
he has not shown how variations of sufficient moment to
be selected for preservation in the struggle for existence
have in the first place originated. The brief reply to the
first objection is that variation is a common attribute of
many natural substances of which living matter is only
one. In regard to the second point, I desire to remind
this assembly that Darwin described with special emphasis
instances of what he calls ' correlated variability.' In my
opinion he has thus furnished the key to the explanation
of what are called useless specific characters and of
incipient organs. That key consists in the fact that a
general physiological property or character of utility is often
selected and perpetuated, which carries with it distinct,
even remote, correlated growths and peculiarities obvious
to our eyes, yet having no functional value. At a later
stage in the history of such a form these correlated growths
may acquire value and become the subject of selection.

3 6 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

" It is thus, as it seems to me, and as, I believe, to the
great body of my brother naturalists, that Darwin's theory
stands after fifty years of trial and application.

" The greatness of Charles Darwin's work is, and will
be for ever, one of the glories of the University of
Cambridge. It is fitting on the present occasion that
one who speaks on behalf of English men of science
should call to mind the nature of his connection with this
great University and the peculiarly English features of
his life-story and of that fine character which endears his
memory to all of us as much as his genius excites our
admiration and reverence. Darwin was not, like so many
a distinguished son of Cambridge, a scholar or a fellow of
his college, nor a professor of the University. His con-
nection with the University and the influence which it had
upon his life belong to a tradition and a system which
have survived longer in our old English universities than
in those of other lands. Darwin entered the University,
not seeking a special course of study with the view of
professional training, nor aiming at success in competitive
examinations for honours and emolument. He came to
Cambridge intending to become a clergyman, but blessed
with sufficient means and leisure to enable him to pursue
his own devices, to collect beetles, to explore the fen
country, and to cultivate his love of nature. It was thus
that he became acquainted with that rare spirit Henslow,
the Cambridge professor of botany, and it is through
Henslow and the influence of his splendid abilities and
high personal character upon Darwin that Cambridge
acquired the right to claim the author of the ' Origin of
Species ' as a product of her beneficence and activity as
a seat of learning.

" As an Oxford man and a member of Exeter College
I may remind this assembly that in precisely the same
way Darwin's dearest friend and elder brother in science,

DARWIN'S THEORY UNSHAKEN 37

Charles Lyell, had a few years earlier entered at Exeter
College, and by happy chance fallen under the influence
of the enthusiastic Buckland, the University reader in
geology and a Canon of Christ Church. The wise
freedom of study permitted and provided for in those
long-passed days by Oxford and Cambridge is what has
given the right to claim the discovery, if not the making,
of Lyell to the one and of Darwin to the other.

" Darwin's love of living nature and of the country life
are especially English characteristics ; so, too, I venture
to think, are the unflinching determination and simple
courage — I may even say the audacity — with which he
acquired, after he had left the University, the wide range
of detailed knowledge in various branches of science
which he found necessary in order to deal with the
problem of the origin of the species of plants and animals,
the investigation of which became his passion.

" The unselfish generosity and delicacy of feeling which
marked Darwin's relations with a younger naturalist,
Alfred Russel Wallace, are known to all. I cannot let
this occasion pass without citing those words of his which
tell us most clearly what manner of man he was and add
to his splendid achievements as an intellectual force — a
light and a beauty of which every Englishman must be
proud. When in old age he surveyed his life's work he
wrote : — ' I believe that I have acted rightly in steadily
following and devoting my life to science.'

" To have desired to act ' rightly,' and to be able to
think of success in life as measured by the fulfilment of
that desire, is the indication and warrant of true great-
ness of character. We Englishmen have ever loved to
recognise this noble kind of devotion in our national
heroes."

VI
METCHNIKOFF AND TOLSTOI

THE Darwin celebration at Cambridge, in June 1909,
brought a wonderful assemblage of celebrated
biologists from all parts of the world to this country.
There never has been seen such a company of great
discoverers of all nationalities in the field of natural
history and the science of living things, as were present
in the University of Cambridge during that week. Even
philosophers, moralists, and jurists were present to join
with the one great political leader of our own country
who really knows and appreciates the importance of the
scientific study of Nature — the Right Hon. Arthur J.
Balfour — in his fervent and heartfelt tribute to the in-
fluence of Darwin's work and theory in all departments
of human knowledge, thought, and activity. One of the
most remarkable men present was Elie Metchnikoff. He
represented both Russia, the country of his birth and
earlier scientific work, and his adopted country, France,
where, as sub-director of the Institut Pasteur, his later and
most important researches have been carried on. Russia
was also represented by Salensky, late director of the
Museum of St. Petersburg, well known to us all as a dis-
coverer in the embryology (growth from the egg) of
marine animals, and by Timiriazeff, the botanist, re-
nowned for his work on the mode in which leaf-green

METCHNIKOFF AND TOLSTOI 39

or " chlorophyll " enables green plants to obtain their food
from the gases of the atmosphere. France had other
representatives in Edmond Perrier, director of the Paris
Museum, and Prince Roland Bonaparte.

Metchnikoff was one of the four representatives
selected by the University to deliver orations in the
Senate House in honour of Darwin. He especially drew
attention to the influence of Darwin's theory on the study
of disease. The recognition of the derivation of man from
animal ancestors, and of the complete community of the
structure and the chemical activity of the organs of man
with those of the organs of animals, had made (he said)
the study of the diseases of animals a necessary feature
in the understanding of the diseases of man. The far-
reaching principle of Darwin that the mechanisms and
processes observed in the bodies of plants and of animals
(including man) must have been selected in the struggle
for existence and perpetuated, because of their utility, led
Metchnikoff to inquire what is the value or use of the
process called inflammation and of the " eating cor-
puscles," or "phagocytes" (so named by him), which
wander from the blood into inflamed tissues. This
question had led him to the discovery that the phagocytes
engulf and destroy disease-germs, and are the great
protectors of the animal and human body against bacteria
and other germs which enter cut and wounded surfaces,
and would start disease were there not " inflammation,"
which is nothing more nor less than a nerve-regulated
stagnation of the circulation of the blood at the wounded
spot, and the consequent arrival at this spot of thousands
of "phagocytes," which pass out of the stagnant blood
through the walls of the fine blood-vessels. These armies
of phagocytes proceed to eat up and destroy all the germs
which fall on to the wound — from the air, from dirty sur-
faces, and from the skin. The utility of inflammation and

40 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

its gradual development, according to Darwinian prin-
ciples, in the animal series, was shown twenty years ago
by Metchnikoff. His important work on "immunity"
and on infection and on protection against germ-caused
disease is thus seen to be one of the many flourishing and
valuable branches of knowledge which have originated
from Darwin's great conception and his example in
experiment and inquiry.

Metchnikoff is now devoting all his attention to the
possibility of prolonging human life. The facts seem to
show that if we ate and drank only what is best for us,
and led lives regulated by reason and knowledge, we
should, nearly all, attain to 80 or even 100 years of age,
having healthy minds and healthy bodies. We should die
quietly and comfortably at the end, with much the same
feeling of contentment in well-earned final repose as
that which we now experience in going to sleep at the
end of a long and happy day of healthy exercise and
activity. Metchnikoff thinks that the causes of too early
death may be ascertained, and when ascertained avoided
or removed. In 1870, in a little book on Comparative
Longevity, I distinguished what we may call the "possible
life," or " potential longevity," of any given human being
from his or her " expectation " of life. Potential longevity
has been well called our " lease " of life. It is probably
not very different in different races of men or individuals
and is probably higher than King David thought, being
100 to 1 20 years, and not merely 70 years. We all, or
nearly all, fail to last out our " lease " owing to accidents,
violence, and avoidable, as well as unavoidable, disease;
so that 70 years is named as our tenure when the injury
done to us by unhealthy modes of life and by actual
disease are considered as inevitable. Metchnikoff pro-
poses to discover and to avoid those conditions which
"wear down" most of us and produce "senility" and

METCHNIKOFF AND TOLSTOI 41

"death" before we have really run out our lease of
life.

Human beings die most abundantly in the earliest
years of life. Statistics show that at birth the chance
or expectation of life is only 45 years, whilst at 10 years
old you may expect to live to be 6 1. At 30 you have
not a much better chance — you will probably, if you are
what is called a " healthy" life, die when you are 65. But
if you survive to be 50 you may expect, if you have not
any obvious disease or signs of " break up," another twenty-
years, and will probably die at 70 ; surviving to 60, you
may expect, if you are what passes for " healthy," to live
to 73. Now, it is especially with regard to life after 40 or
50 years of age that Metchnikoff is interested. Those who
have survived the special dangers and difficulties of youth,
and have arrived at this mature age, ought to be able to
realise much more frequently than they do something like
the full " lease of life." There seems to be no reason why
they should not avoid the usual rapid " senile changes "
or weakness of old age, and survive, as a few actually
do, to something like 100. The causes of >( senile
change " and the way to defeat their operation are what
Metchnikoff is studying. Hardening of the walls of the
arteries set up by certain avoidable diseases contracted
in earlier life, and by the use of alcohol (not only to the
degree which we call " drunkenness," but to such a degree
as to make one depend on it as a " pick-me-up "), is an
undoubted cause of that weakness and liability to succumb
to other diseases which is so general after 50 years of age.
The causes which produce hardened arteries can be
avoided. Another cause of senile changes is declared by
Metchnikoff, to arise from the continual absorption of
poisonous substances produced by the decomposition of
partially digested food in the lower bowel or large intestine.
This is at present the chief subject of his study. It is to

42 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

prevent the formation of these poisons that he has intro-
duced the use of sour milk, prepared with the lactic
ferment. Since the Cambridge celebration he has been
in London in order to examine the condition of certain
patients from whom a distinguished English surgeon has
found it necessary to remove the " large intestine."
Metchnikoff wishes to ascertain what bacteria, poison-
producing or other, are present in these patients, and what
is their general chemical condition now that this poison-
producing part of the digestive canal has been taken from
them.

In Paris, Metchnikoff has some very interesting experi-
ments in progress with bats. He uses the large tropical
fruit-eating bats, or " flying foxes." They have a very
short intestine, and very few bacteria and of very few
kinds are to be found in its contents. On the other hand,
there are as many as thirty distinct kinds of bacteria
producing putrefaction or other chemical change in the
digestive canal of man — and their quantity is gigantic.
They pervade the whole contents of the human digestive
canal by millions. By properly feeding the flying foxes
in his laboratory in Paris Metchnikoff has actually suc-
ceeded in getting rid of all bacteria from their digestive
canal, so that he now has adult mammalian animals, not
very remote from man in their structure, food, and internal
chemistry, which are absolutely free from the intestinal
parasitic bacteria which he supposes to cause poisoning
and senile changes in man. It is obvious, without
pursuing the matter into further detail here, that Metchni-
koff is now in a position to test his views as to the action
of particular kinds of bacteria — he has animals which are
free from them. He can make an experiment, keeping
some of his bats still free from bacteria and causing some
to be largely infected by this or that kind, and he can
compare the result in regard to the health and chemical

METCHNIKOFF AND TOLSTOI 43

condition of the animals. So, too, the patients from whom
the lower intestine has been removed may very probably
furnish him (through his assistant who remains in London)
with important facts for comparison with the condition of
persons who have not been deprived of this part of the
digestive apparatus.

I have given this sketch of what my friend is doing in
order to furnish some notion of the kind of investigation
which he pursues. He does not expect to extend the
"lease" of human life, but by ascertaining in a definite
scientific way the true rules of internal and external
"hygiene" he does hope to give mankind an increased
" expectation " of life ; in fact, to enable a vastly larger
number of men and women to enjoy that lease to the full,
and to die without disappointment and regret, even with
contentment and pleasure, at the end of it.

Metchnikoff was in Russia in the spring of 1909, and
spent a day with Tolstoi. They were " feted " and photo-
graphed together, the greatest artist and the greatest
scientist of Russia. Tolstoi is 81 years of age. He took
Metchnikoff out alone for a drive in his pony-cart so as to
talk with him without interruption. " What do you think
of life ? " was the first question he asked, and one which it
took my friend some time to answer. In regard to vege-
tarianism the two great men did not agree. When Metchni-
koff declared that there was less cruelty on man's part in
killing wild animals to eat them than in leaving them to
die by the tooth and claw of predaceous animals or from
starvation, Tolstoi observed that that was argument and
reason, and that he paid no attention to them ; he only
guided himself (he said) by sentiment, which he felt sure
told him what was good and right ! He was, however,
deeply interested in an account of the cannibalism of
savage races of men, concerning which he seemed to be
quite uninformed. He also was profoundly interested in

44 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

MetchnikofFs view that Goethe, in the second part of
Faust, is chiefly bent upon depicting the persistence of the
amorous passion in old age — of which Goethe himself was
an example — and Tolstoi declared that this gave a new
meaning to the poem, which he had always hitherto found
dull and unintelligible. But when Metchnikoff described
in glowing words the joy and even rapture with which
man will hereafter welcome the repose and mystery of
death, having completed a long and healthy life of some
hundred years, Tolstoi declared that this was indeed a fine
conception, although it was entirely subversive of his own
notions as to the significance of life and death. Tolstoi
also stated that he had written his stories rapidly
and without effort, but that his essays on morality and
religion had cost him great labour ; and, further, that he
could not now remember the former, though the latter still
were developing and incessantly occupied his thought.

It was admitted with regret by Darwin that he ceased
in middle age to care for poetry and art, though there
seems to be no doubt that he mistook fatigue and pre-
occupation of mind for a real change in taste and power
of appreciation. It is interesting to place beside this the
case of the great literary artist, Tolstoi, who not only
frankly confesses that he refuses to be guided by reason
and follows sentiment, but is also profoundly ignorant
upon all the most ordinary topics of human life outside
his own village, and of all Nature and her workings.
Would Tolstoi have been a greater or a smaller artist if
he had had a larger knowledge of the things that are ?
Was Darwin's great scientific achievement really related
to an innate indifference to what is called " poetry " ? I
will not now discuss the matter, but I am convinced that
so far as natural gift is concerned, the keenest scientific
capacity is not only compatible with the fullest sensibility
to art and with the power of poetical vision and expression,

METCHNIKOFF AND TOLSTOI 45

but is often accompanied by them ; and, further, that the
work of an artist, if he is a great artist, cannot be hampered
by knowledge. It is only the small talent or the feeble
genius that can be paralysed rather than developed by
the fullest experience and the widest knowledge. Neces-
sary incompatibility of mental qualities has no place in
this matter; what has led to the erroneous assumption
that it has, is the excessive exercise by exceptional
individuals of certain powers — a specialism necessary for
effort and success, but deliberately chosen, and not due to
an inborn one-sidedness.

VII
THE LAND OF AZURE BLUE

THE Cote d'Azur whither many of my readers will
be travelling — in thought, if not in reality — about
Easter time, is well named the Land of Azure Blue, for
it is the blueness of the sea, of the sky, and of the distant
rocks and mountains, as well as much of the vegetation,
which is when the sun shines, its special charm. And
although one has some wet and some cloudy days, yet
the sun does shine there with a strength and brilliancy not
to be enjoyed in the early part of the year on the Atlantic
and North Sea coast. This tract of country, more com-
monly known to English people as the Riviera, has very
special meteorological conditions owing to its position
as the narrow strip of shore-line existing between the
vast mass of the Western Alps and the Mediterranean
Sea. It is warmed by the sea, and lies too close under
the mountains to be caught by any winds from the north,
and at many points is also effectively protected from
both east and west winds by rocky spurs of the great
mountain chain.

The Riviera is a constant source of delight to those
who love flowers and beautiful vegetation of all kinds.
But few of its visitors appreciate the fact that it is really
from end to end one big garden, cultivated for ages by

its inhabitants, and full of plants introduced by man

46

THE LAND OF AZURE BLUE 47

which at present seem at first sight to be characteristic
natives of it, but are, in reality, quite distinct from its
primitive vegetation. This primitive vegetation is now
represented only in what is locally called the " maquis " —
what we should, perhaps, term the " scrub " or " bush "
in English. It comprises some pines, the juniper, the
lovely rock roses, balsams, rosemary, the giant heath
(bruyere), from which our briar-root pipes are made, the
larger thyme, the myrtle, the rose of Provence, two kinds
of lavender, and many aromatic plants with grey hairy
leaves, and often provided with sharp thorns as additional
defences against browsing goats. The delicious perfumes
of these hardy inhabitants of the dry, rocky grounds,
where little or no grass can flourish, are developed by
them as a protection against browsing animals, who cannot
tolerate much of these pungent volatile oils, although
mankind extracts them and uses them in the manu-
facture of such scents as eau-de-Cologne and also in
cookery.

Many a visitor to the Riviera never strays from the
cultivated fields and roadways into this scrub-land. The
olive tree, which forms so prominent and beautiful a
feature in the panorama of gardens which unrolls itself
as we steam or drive along the coast from Toulon to
Mentone and from Mentone to Genoa and Spezzia, is not
a native plant ; it was introduced in prehistoric times, and
has been again and again re-established by emigrants from
Italy; but it was brought to Italy from the East. It is
astonishing how many of the cultivated trees of the Riviera
have the same kind of history — the vine came from India
in prehistoric times, the fig tree more recently from Persia,
the lemon from India, the orange and the peach tree from
China. All of them were introduced in very ancient times
to the eastern parts of the Mediterranean basin, and so
gradually were carried to the shores of the Ligurian sea,

4 8 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

and would die out here were they not to a certain extent
under the care of ownership.

The so-called " mimosa," so abundant here, with its
pretty, sweet-scented, yellow blossom, is an Australian
acacia, only introduced some sixty years ago ; whilst the
eucalyptus — a most picturesque and effective addition to
the landscape — is a still later introduction from Australia.
The cypress, that darkest and most shapely of conifers,
long lines of which proclaim to the traveller as he passes
Avignon his arrival in the true " South," is not a native of
these parts, although it flourishes in suitable situations.
It was introduced in mediaeval times from the East.
So, too, the palms, though some have been cultivated
for centuries, have been largely imported from extra
European localities in the last century. There is a native
European palm. It is a kind of fan-palm, and grows
here. I have gathered it in Sicily. It does not " rear its
stately head " more than a foot from the ground, and is
known to botanists as Chamoerops humilis. The gigantic
Mexican agave and the prickly-pear cactus were introduced
in the seventeenth century from the New World, though,
according to Sir Herbert Tree's scenery, they were growing
at Cape Miseno in the time of Antony and Cleopatra !
Bamboos of many kinds have been introduced here from
the Far East, and flourish exceedingly.

The orange tree was brought from India (whither it
was carried from China) and established in Southern
Europe in mediaeval times, though known to the ancient
Greeks and Romans. There are as many as 120 different
varieties of the orange tree now cultivated on the shores
of the Mediterranean, including, besides those which are
valued for their sweet juicy pulp, those which furnish
bergamot oil and similar aromatic products. The "issue
pea" of old apothecaries, which was bound into a cut
made in a patient's flesh for the purpose of producing

THE LAND OF AZURE BLUE 49

inflammation and suppuration, with the notion that such
treatment was beneficial, was a minute unripe orange
dried, and, no doubt, to some extent, antiseptic.

Besides the introduced trees, we find, in ground which
has been more or less under cultivation, and not, therefore,
of the nature of the "maquis," or scrub-land, some beauti-
ful plants, such as the narcissus, iris, and various lilies.
One very small and graceful tulip is, I believe, regarded
as native to the soil, but a magnificent crimson tulip, as
large as the varieties cultivated in English gardens, which
I have found abundantly in open park-like land under
olive trees at Antibes, is said to have been introduced
from Persia in the Middle Ages, and to have taken kindly
to the Riviera. It is the Tulipa oculus soils. In the same
locality were growing many brilliantly coloured " stellate "
anemones.

There is, of course, a third group or " lot " of plants on
the Riviera, which consists of those brought from all parts
of the world during the past century, and regularly culti-
vated and cared for in gardens. The climate of the
Riviera enables the gardener to grow all sorts of sub-
tropical plants in the open air, and a long list of them
could be given. The wonderfully brilliant crimson creeper,
Bougainvillia, covers walls by the roadways, and even the
railway stations, with its rich colour at this season. A
delightful book by the distinguished botanist, Professor
Strasburger, describing and picturing in colours many
of the cultivated as well as the wild plants of the
Riviera, has lately been published (in English) at a small
price.

The animals which come under the notice of those
who go in search of spring sunshine to the Riviera are far
less numerous than the plants. But there is one which is
dear to all, although it makes such a noise for an hour
or so about sunset that some people are irritated or even
4

50 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

alarmed by it. This is the little green tree-frog, Fig. i,
which now comes forth from its winter sleep, and assembles
in thousands — guided by the " croak " or " call " which is
produced by the males. The females have a very small
voice comparatively. I kept two — a male and female —
through a winter in London, and when the spring came
the male terrified the household one night by unexpectedly
uttering his cry — loud and sharp — to which the female
replied. "Wharr! biz" is the nearest expression I can
give in letters to the two sounds. After a great many
evenings spent in these rhythmical declamations, the little
frogs collect round pools and tanks, and at last drop from
the trees into the water, and there deposit their spawn.
When producing his cry the male distends the skin of his
throat like a balloon. The air is driven alternately from
it into the lungs and back again over the vocal chords,
which vibrate with no uncertain sound. These little frogs
are easy to keep in an inverted bell-jar or in a fern-case, but
must be fed regularly with flies and spiders, which they
catch by a sudden dab of the tongue at the moment of
alighting from a long leap on to the glass where the insect
is crawling. They can hold on to smooth glass or leaves
by means of their sucker-like toes (Fig. i).

The colour of the upper surface of the South European
tree-frog is a most vivid and smoothly laid-on grass-green.
Occasionally the colour becomes altered to a brownish
purple, but returns after a day or two to its usual bright
green tint. A great rarity is the blue variety of this frog
— the enchanted Prince of the Cote d'Azur — blue as the
sky and the sea around him — the true genius loci. I
obtained one a few years ago at Mentone, and kept it
alive for three years in London. Its blue was the blue of
the forget-me-not or the finest turquoise. When it died
(I believe of old age, and not from discomfort or disease)
I examined its skin very carefully with the microscope

THE LAND OF AZURE BLUE

52 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

and compared it with that of the ordinary green tree-frog
in order to make out the cause of their difference in
colour.

At Mentone there is a little shop where one may
purchase green tree-frogs and ornamental cages in which
to keep them. Every year the dealer has two or three
specimens of the blue variety on sale — their backs and
heads looking like bits of turquoise-blue kid. Visitors
have sometimes wrongly supposed that the blue frogs
had been artificially changed in colour, but they are real,
natural varieties. A similar substitution of blue for green
has been noticed as a rare variation in other kinds of
frogs and toads in other countries. It really consists in
a suppression of yellow pigment.

The interesting thing about the colour of the little
tree-frogs is that we find, on careful examination of the
skin of a dead specimen with the microscope, that there
is no green nor yet any blue "pigment" present in it
I found, on examining the blue specimen which died
after living three years with me, that there is only black
pigment overlaid by a colourless, semi-transparent layer
of skin. In this outer skin in the ordinary green speci-
mens there is scattered a quantity of excessively minute
yellow particles, which, mixed with the blue, produce the
green appearance. The fact is, that the wonderful " dead "
turquoise-blue of the blue frog is a colour-effect similar to
that of the blue sky and the blue of the human eye. It
is produced by a peculiar reflection of the light from
minute colourless particles, without the assistance of any
blue-coloured substance. The distinction of these two
modes of producing blue colour is important.

Certain transparent bodies are so constituted that
when a beam of light is directed so as to pass through
them, the red, yellow, green, and purple rays which exist
in colourless sunlight are stopped, and only the blue

THE LAND OF AZURE BLUE 53

rays come through. Such a body is blue copperas, or
sulphate of copper ; another is methyl blue, one of the
aniline dyes ; another is pure water, which gives only
a slight advantage to the blue rays, so that the light
must pass through a thickness of 30 feet or more before
the blue tint is obvious. Thus, part of the blueness of
the Cote d'Azur is accounted for — namely, the blueness
of the sea when the sunlight is strong and is reflected
from the white rocks and sand lying 30 feet to 100 feet
below the surface of the water.

There are, of course, other self-coloured transparent
bodies which allow only rays of one colour to pass.
Thus, blood -red, or haemoglobin, the pigment of the
blood, allows chiefly red rays to pass through it. Yellow
rays only pass through a solution of saffron or of chromic
acid ; green only or chiefly through green copperas (sul-
phate of iron) or through leaf-green or chlorophyll. Colour
is very generally due in natural objects to such transparent
bodies which absorb or stop all the coloured rays of light
as it passes through them, excepting those of one tint —
or, to be more correct, nearly all except those of one tint.

But the blue of the blue frog and a great deal of the
blue in nature is due to another cause. If you are a
smoker, or the friend of a smoker, watch the fine curling
lines of smoke ascending from a cigar when it is being
consumed in bright sunshine. You will see that it has
a blue, even an azure blue, tint as the sunlight falls upon
it. But if you let the smoke get between the sun and
your eyes you will notice that the little curling clouds
are no longer blue, but reddish-brown, in appearance.
The smoke is not a transparent blue ; looked at as a
transparent body, it is brown ! Further, when the smoke
has passed into the smoker's mouth and is ejected after
remaining there for a few seconds, the cloud no longer
looks blue, even when the sunlight falls on it and is

54 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

reflected from it to your eye. It is now opaque white
or colourless, with, perhaps, a faint tinge of blue. This
change is due — as was shown by the experiments of the
late Professor Tyndall upon a variety of clouds and
vapours — to the cooling of the smoke and the increased
size of the floating particles which coalesce as the tem-
perature falls. The larger particles reflect white light,
and the cloud is no longer blue. A cloud formed by the
finest particles gives the strongest blue to the light
reflected from it, and it is to this property of the finest
particles of water-cloud floating in our atmosphere that
the blue colour of the sky is due.

No doubt the question arises, " Why do clouds of the
finest particles reflect a predominant amount of blue light
rather than yellow or green or red ? " That question is
answered by mathematicians in accordance with what is
ascertained as to the nature and properties of light, but it
would require a long treatise to put those matters even in
outline before the reader. We may in the meanwhile
accept the conclusions of the physicists, and interest our-
selves in seeing how they apply to some of the concrete
facts about colour in Nature.

There are other instances of " blueness " due to the
reflection of light from a cloud of excessively minute
particles besides that of the azure sky and the blue,
curling smoke of a wood fire. A familiar instance is the
blueness of translucent bodies, such as the " white " of a
boiled plover's egg, especially when a bit of it is placed on
a dead-black ground. The bluish appearance of watered
London milk is another instance. These bodies look blue
owing to the fine, colourless particles suspended in them,
which act on light in the same way as do the fine particles
of newly-produced smoke. Another very interesting case
is the blue colour of the iris of the eye of man and other
animals. It is not due to any blue pigment, but to a

THE LAND OF AZURE BLUE 55

reflection from fine particles in the translucent, but turbid,
tissue of the iris overlying the dark, black chamber of the
eye. White geese and white cats frequently have blue
eyes, the blue being thus produced. The only pigment
which occurs in the human eye is a brown one, which
gives a colour varying from amber yellow to very dark
brown, almost black, according to the quantity present.
When a very little of it is present it gives, in combination
with the blue appearance of the unpigmented iris, a green
tint, so that green eyes owe their colour to the same
combination of causes as does the green skin of the little
tree-frogs, or " rainettes."

No solvent will extract any pigment from the skin of
the blue frog — nor by the finest trituration can one obtain
any coloured particles from it ; only fine black granules
can be separated. Alcohol removes the yellow pigment
from the skin of a green tree-frog (killed, of course, for the
experiment), and for a minute or two the skin becomes
blue when its yellow pigment is thus removed by immer-
sion in spirit ; but it rapidly becomes a dull greyish-brown
in colour, and so remains ; the green cannot be preserved
in spirit-specimens. It is not fully explained how such
a uniform " dead " blue is produced by the reflection of
light from fine particles, as that observed in the blue
frog's skin.

It appears that the blue and the green colour in the
feathers of birds is in most, if not all, cases produced in
the same way as the blue and green of the tree-frog's skin.
It would be interesting were it found possible to produce
a full dead-blue colour by experimentally placing a coat
of a translucent but turbid colourless medium on a dead-
black plate. This, however, has not been done as a
deliberate experiment. It is, however, recorded that
Goethe was delighted to find what he considered to be a
confirmation of his theory of colour when a friend showed

56 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

him an oil-painting of a gentleman in a black coat which
when wetted with a sponge turned bright blue. The
picture had been recently " restored," and the varnish on
the black coat was not " dry." It was precipitated by
the water from the sponge, mixing with the spirit which
held it in solution. A fine colourless cloud was thus
produced overlying the black paint of the coat, and, as in
the case of the cerulean frog, a dead-blue colour, due to
reflection of the light by the fine particles, was the result.
Some friendly physicist might repeat this experiment and
study the matter in detail. The red, orange, and yellow
colours of birds' feathers are produced by pigments which
are either insoluble or only soluble with great difficulty
in fluids of the nature of ether. There is, however, an
exception in the case of the African birds called Turacous,
or Plantain-eaters. These birds have some large quill-
feathers in the wing of a rich crimson colour. This
splendid red pigment can be washed out of the feathers
by water which is slightly alkaline, and a fine blood-red
solution is obtained. Why this curious exception exists
we do not know. The extracted colour is found to
contain the element copper as one of its chemical com-
ponents. Plantain-eaters kept in cages have sometimes
washed all the colour out of their feathers owing to the
water supplied to them for bathing and drinking having
become foul and ammoniacal, and thus capable of dis-
solving the red pigment

The cultivation on the Riviera of flowers for sale as
"cut flowers" in Paris, London, and Berlin, in the colder
months of the year, is now an enormous business, bringing
many thousands of pounds yearly to the small gardeners
around Hyeres, St. Raphael, Nice, and Mentone. Roses,
violets, carnations, " mimosa " of various kinds, anemones,
lilies, and narcissus are sent literally in tons by quick
trains several times a week from these realms of sunshine

THE LAND OF AZURE BLUE 57

to the dreary North. The commencement of this trade
was due to the suggestion made some fifty years ago by
Alphonse Karr, the French poet and journalist, who had a
beautiful garden of his own at St. Raphael, and found
that he could produce flowers in profusion through the
winter. Two years ago I visited this garden (which now
belongs to a French painter) at the beginning of April,
and found it full of interesting flowers and shrubs,
enormous bamboos, palm trees, some twenty different
" mimosas," eucalyptus of several species, camellia trees,
and rose-bushes in quantity.

The influence of man on the vegetation of a favoured
locality like the Riviera is more striking than in the North.
But it is worth remembering that the most familiar tree in
England — the common elm — is not a native, but intro-
duced from South Europe. Our native elm is the
wych-elm, or mountain elm — a much handsomer tree, in
the opinion of many, than the so-called " common elm."
There are doubts as to whether both the spruce and the
larch were not introduced by man at a very remote time,
so that the Scotch fir would be our only aboriginal pine.
The oak, beech, birch, ash, hawthorn, poplar, and alder are
undoubted native English trees. The holly-oak or ever-
green oak, the sycamore, plane-tree, sweet chestnut, horse
chestnut, walnut, and probably the lime or linden tree have
been introduced by migrating men at various periods into
our islands. With the exception of rye and oats none of
the plants which we cultivate for food are derived from
our own wild plants, and none of our domesticated animals
have been produced from native wild kinds.

VIII
FRESH-WATER JELLY-FISHES

MOST people nowadays know a jelly-fish when they
see one — and recognise that it is eminently a
product of the sea — one sees them washed up on the sea-
shore, soft discs of transparent jelly of the size of cheese-
plates (Fig. 2). They have a mouth in the centre of the
disc, often at the end of a depending trunk, like the
clapper of a bell. Some have tentacles, sometimes yards
long, which sting like nettles. They also have eye-spots,
an internal system of canals and muscles which enable
them to swim by causing the edge of the disc or bell to
contract and expand in alternate strokes. There are
hundreds of kinds of marine jelly-fish varying in size from
a sixpence to that of a dinner table, and until twenty-five
years ago none were known to live in ponds, lakes, or rivers.
Although they often are carried up estuaries, and may
stay for a time in brackish water, or even in fresh water,
none were known which really lived and bred in fresh
water. They were regarded, as are star-fishes and sea-
urchins, as distinctively marine, and debarred by the
delicacy of their watery jelly-like substance from tolerat-
ing the change from sea water to fresh water as a per-
manent thing. All fresh-water animals — fishes, shell-fish,
cray-fish, worms, and polyps — are derived from closely
similar marine animals, are in fact sea-things which have
suffered a change, and been able to stand it

FRESH-WATER JELLY-FISHES

59

These being our preconceptions about jelly-fish, great
was the excitement when, in 1 880, hundreds of beautiful
little jelly-fish were suddenly discovered briskly expand-
ing and contracting, rising and sinking in the water of a

Tc

FlG. 2. — The common jelly-fish (Aurelia aurita) one-third the
natural size ; or, one of the four arms or fleshy tentacles
surrounding the diamond-shaped mouth ; Tc, one of the
eight eye-bearing tentacles at the edge of the disc ; GP,
opening of one of the four sub-genital pouches, which bring
sea-water close to the ovaries and spermaries, which, how-
ever, do not open into these pouches ; #and_y, outline of
the sub-genital pouches seen through the jelly.

large fresh-water tank in the middle of London (Fig. 3).
You never know who or what may turn up in London.
A badger, a green parakeet, a whale, an African pigmy,
an Indian scorpion, and a voice worth ten thousand a
year, have all, to my knowledge, been stumbled upon unex-
pectedly at different times in the highways of London. A
new jelly-fish was perhaps one of the least expected
" casual visitors." It was found in the large tank four
feet deep in which the great tropical water-lily — the
Victoria regia — and other tropical water plants are grown

6o

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

in the Botanic Gardens, Regent's Park. It came up by
hundreds every year for some ten years after its first
appearance, dying down in six weeks or so each season.

All the specimens were males, and the puzzle was to
find out how it reproduced itself. After a few seasons

had passed I deter-
mined to solve this
problem. I made the
guess that perhaps the
jelly-fish were budded
off from a fixed weed-
like polyp growing in
the depths of the tank
— as is the case with
many of the marine
jelly-fishes. I remem-
ber that one leading
member of the council,
which still presides
over the destinies ot
the Botanic Gardens,
confided to me in a
hushed whisper his

FIG. 3.-The fresh-water jelly-fish (Limnoco- belief that Providence
dturn] enlarged four times linear measure- , , . ...
ment, as it is seen dropping through the Created this new jelly-
water in a glass jar. PT, one of the four fish year by year in
principal tentacles. MR, the margin of the tank in honour

o^vdum. ^ thC ddiCate mUSCUlai" fri" °f the aUSUSt Patr°n-

ness of the Botanic

Society — Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Teck.
I was obliged to make an end of this flattering theory
when I discovered, after long searching with my assist-
ant— attached to the rootlets of floating water weeds
a minute three-branched polyp (Fig. 4), from which, as
we subsequently were able to observe, the jelly - fish

FRESH-WATER JELLY-FISHES

61

were pinched off as tiny spheres about one - sixteenth
of an inch in diameter. No females of this jelly-fish were
ever discovered. The polyps lived on from year to year,
and budded off each season a swarm of pretty but futile
male jelly-fish. They ripened and died on attaining a dia-
meter somewhat less than that of a shilling. There were
many most interesting points made out as to their structure,
mode of feeding, and growth. You could keep them in a
tall glass jar supported over a small gas-jet (they lived
best at a temperature of 80° Fahr.),
and they would swim up by a series
of strokes to the top of the water, and
then drop like little parachutes through
the eighteen inches of depth to the
bottom — taking in water-fleas and such
food on the way — and immediately
would start upwards again. I used to FIG. 4. —Four of the
take them alive in my pocket corked
up in a test-tube to show to friends.

After they had disappeared from
the tank in Regent's Park (owing to
some unhappy cleaning of the tank)
they suddenly, in 1903, appeared — it
seems incredible — at Sheffield ! Then
they briefly showed up in 1905 at
Munich, and at Lyons had been captured in 1901 —
always in a tepid water-lily tank ! We never could
make out where they came from originally. Of course,
the polyp must have been brought into the tank with
some bundle of water plants from a tropical lake or
river, but we never had any indication as to when or
which.

Since the days of the fresh-water jelly-fish of Regent's
Park, which was called (a name, but why should it not
have a name?) Limnocodium Sowerbii — a jelly-fish of

minute club-shaped
polyps adhering to
a root-fibre of a
water-plant. The
rounded end be-
comes nipped off
and swims away,
free, as a young
'elly-fish.

62 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

about the same size (Fig. 5) but very different in shape
and tentacles — was discovered in the great African fresh-
water lake Tanganyika — in enormous numbers, and was
named Limnocnida Tanganyika. Only five years ago
the same jelly-fish was discovered in the Victoria Nyanza,
and a little earlier in backwaters of the Niger. It is a

FIG. 5. — The African fresh-water jelly-fish (Limnocnida) found in
Tanganyika, Victoria Nyanza, and the Niger.

curious and significant fact bearing upon the history of
these three areas of fresh water connected with the three
greatest African rivers — the Congo, the Nile, and the
Niger — thatthe same little jelly-fish is found in all of
them.

And now we have just been reminded of Limnocodium,
the Regent's Park jelly-fish, from a remote and unexpected

FRESH- WATER JELLY-FISHES 63

source. A thousand miles up the Yang-tse-Kiang River,
in China, in the province of Hupi, the Japanese captain of
a river steamer, plying there and belonging to a Japanese
company, captured ten jelly-fish in the muddy waters of
the river. He brought them home, preserved, I suppose,
in alcohol or formalin, and they have been described by
Dr. Oka, a Japanese zoologist of Tokio, in a publication
bearing the Latin title Annotationes Zoologicce niponenses^
issued in December 1907. European sea captains have
not rarely been ardent naturalists, but I think the Japanese
is the first captain of a river steamboat who has discovered
a new animal on his beat. I have not heard of Mississippi
steamboat captains amusing themselves in this way — other
rivers, other tastes.

Dr. Oka describes the jelly-fish thus brought to him as
a Limnocodium^ differing in a few details from that of
Regent's Park, so that he distinguishes this Chinese
species as Limnocodium Kawaii, naming it after the
naturalist captain, who must have a rare taste for picking
up strange and new things, and a rare goodwill in bring-
ing them home with him. So here is another fresh-water
jelly-fish, for it is not the same as the Regent's Park one,
though closely like it. Possibly Limnocodium is an Asiatic
genus, and the original Sowerby's Limnocodium will be
found in another Chinese river. But it may prove to be
South American, as is the water-lily Victoria regia.

A very small fresh-water jelly-fish was found some
twelve years ago — in 1897 — in the Delaware River at
Philadelphia, United States, and was lately described by
the well-known naturalist, Mr. Potts. It was budded off
from a very minute polyp resembling that found in the
Regent's Park, but the jelly-fish was totally different from
Limnocodium. Only four or five specimens of this
jelly-fish have ever been seen, and the Philadelphian
naturalists ought certainly to look it up again.

64 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

An account of the Philadelphian jelly-fish and of other
fresh-water jelly-fishes, with illustrative plates, will be
found in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science,
1906. Mr. Charles Boulenger has, in the same Journal,
1908, described yet another fresh- water jelly-fish from the
Fayoum Lake in Egypt.

IX
THE STORY OF THE COMMON EEL

THOUGH the Scotch Highlanders are said to have a
^^^ profound objection to eating eels on account of

the resemblance of these fish to snakes (not a very good
reason, since the quality and not the shape of what one
eats is the important thing), yet eels have been a very
popular delicacy in England in past days. Eel-pie
Island, at Richmond, is known to most Londoners, and
eel-pie shops were familiar in London less than a century
ago. A good Thames eel is still appreciated by the few
people who nowadays take some small amount of intelli-
gent interest in what they eat. Abroad, eels are still
popular. Eel-traps are still worked in the rivers. In such
districts as the flat country, on the shores of the Adriatic,
near Venice, millions of young eels are annually " shep-
herded " in lagoons and reservoirs, and reared to marketable
size. The inland eel-fisheries of Denmark and Germany
are carefully regulated and encouraged by the Government
in those States.

The fact is that railways, ice-storage, and steam-
trawling have, in conjunction, revolutionised our habits
in regard to the use of fish as a daily article of diet.
Fresh-water fish are now almost unknown as a regular
source of food in the British Islands. The splendid fish
of the North Sea, the Channel, and the Atlantic coast
5

66 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

have pushed them out of the market. Thirty-eight years
ago, when I was a student in Leipzig and Vienna, " baked
carp " was the only fish to be had in the dining-rooms we
frequented. Once a week there were fresh haddock, for
those who fancied them, in the celebrated Auerbach's
Keller. Now the railway and packing in ice have brought
North Sea fish to the centre of Europe, and created a
taste for that excellent food. Even on the Mediterranean
at Nice, I lately saw North Sea turbot, soles, and
haddock lying on the marble-slabs in the fish market
side by side with the handsome but small bass, mullet,
gurnards, and sea-bream of the local fishery, and the
carp, pike, trout, and eels of the fresh waters of the
South of France.

Nevertheless the eel — the common fresh- water eel —
is still valued on the Continent, as is proved by the fact
that the German Imperial Government has recently sent
an important official of the Fisheries Department to
Gloucester in order to make extensive purchases of the
" elvers," or young eels which come up the river Severn
in millions at this season. The purpose of the German
fisheries officials is to place many hundred thousands of
these young eels in German rivers which are not so well
supplied by natural immigration as is the Severn, and
by so doing to increase the supply of well-grown eels
hereafter in the river fisheries of North Germany.

This interesting practical attempt to increase the
supply of eels in Germany will be further appreciated
when I relate what has been discovered within the last
twenty years as to the reproduction, migrations, and
habits of the common fresh-water eel. It has been
known, time out of mind, that in the early months of
every year millions of young eels a little over two inches
in length, called " elvers " in English and " civelles " in
French, come up the estuaries of the rivers of Europe

THE STORY OF THE COMMON EEL 67

in a dense body. They are so closely packed together
as the narrower parts of the stream are reached, that
thousands may be taken out of the water by merely
dipping a bucket into the ranks of the procession. I
obtained a few thousand of these " elvers " lately from
the Severn and placed them on exhibition in the central
court of the Natural History Museum in London. The
Anglo-Saxon name "eel-fare" is given to this annual
march or " swim " of the young eels from the sea to the
fresh waters.

Though riverside folk have never doubted that the
elvers are young eels which have been hatched from
spawn deposited by parent eels in the sea, and are
" running up " to feed and grow to maturity in the rivers
and streams inland, yet country folk away from the big
rivers have queer notions as to the origin and breeding
of eels. They catch large, plump eels a couple of feet
long in stagnant ponds hundreds of miles from the sea,
far from rivers, and more than a thousand feet above
the sea-level. They have no notion that those eels
originally " ran up " as little eels from the sea, nor that
many of them make their way across wet grass and by
rain-filled ditches back to the rivers and to the sea when
they are seven year's old. But that is now known to be
the fact. Just as there are fish, like the salmon, which
" run down " to the sea to feed and grow big and
" run up " to breed in the small pools and rivulets far
from the river's mouth, so there are other fishes, of
which the eel is one, which run up to feed and grow and
run down to breed — that is to say, to deposit and fertilise
their eggs in the depths of the ocean.

Fishermen who work river-fisheries for eels (far more
valued abroad than in England) distinguish " yellow eels "
and " silver eels " (see Plate I. opposite title page). We
used to distinguish also snigs and grigs, or narrow-nosed

68 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

and broad-nosed eels (probably males and females). The
remarkable fact, admitted by both fishermen and anatom-
ists, was that you could not really tell male from female,
nor, indeed, ever find an eel (that is, a common eel, as dis-
tinguished from the much larger and well-known conger
eel) which was ripe, or, indeed, showed any signs of having
either roe or milt within it. A popular legend exists that
eels are produced by the " vivification " of horse-hair. Occa-
sionally in summer a long, black, and very thin thread-
worm (called Gordius by naturalists) suddenly appears in
great numbers in rivers, and these are declared by the
country-folk to be horse-hairs on their way to become eels !
I remember a sudden swarm of them one summer in the
upper river at Oxford. Really, they are parasitic worms
which live inside insects for a part of their lives, and leave
them in summer, passing into the water. Fanciful beliefs
about aquatic creatures are common, because it is not very
easy to get at the truth when it is not merely at the
bottom of a well but at the bottom of a river or of the
deep sea ! The fishermen of the east coast of Scotland,
who think very highly of their own knowledge and in-
telligence, believe that the little white sea-acorns or rock-
barnacles are the young of the limpets which live side by
side with them, and are scornful of those who deny the
correctness of what they consider an obvious conclusion !

A few years ago the Scandinavian naturalist, Petersen,
showed that the " silver " eels are a later stage of growth
of the "yellow" eels ; that they acquire a silvery coat, and
that the eye increases in size — as a sort of "wedding
dress," just before they go down to the sea to breed. I
owe to Petersen's kindness the coloured drawings of the
heads of the yellow and the silver eel reproduced in
Plate I. These silver eels are caught in some numbers
about the Danish coast and river mouths, moving down-
wards ; and Petersen has been able to distinguish the

THE STORY OF THE COMMON EEL 69

males from the females by finding the still incompletely
formed milt and roe within the silver eels. Not only that,
but one of Petersen's assistants at the Danish Biological
Station has found that you can tell the age of an eel by
the zones or rings shown by its scales, when examined
with a microscope, just as the age of trees can be told by
the annual rings of growth in the wood. Most people,
even if familiar with eels, even cooks who have skinned
an eel, do not know that they have scales ; but they have,
— very small ones. The age of other fishes has been
similarly ascertained by annual zones of growth marked
on the scales ; and lately the age of plaice has been found
to be conveniently given by zones of growth formed
annually on the little ear-stones which we find in the
liquid-holding sac of the internal ear. I am afraid many
of my readers will be surprised to learn that fishes have
an internal hearing apparatus similar to our own, also that
they have olfactory organs, and, in some cases, a well-
grown tongue!

The power thus obtained of telling the age of an eel
has led to the following knowledge about them, namely,
that female eels do not become " silver " eels and " run
down" before they are seven years old, and often not
till eight and a half years of age, or even sometimes
eleven or twelve years, when they are nearly 3 feet long.
The male eel becomes " silver " (instead of " yellow ") at
an earlier age — four and a half years, — and rarely defers
his nuptial outburst until he is seven or eight years old.
The females of the same age are larger than the males ;
a usual size for silver females of seven years old is a little
over 2 feet, and of a silver male of the same age 20 inches.

The further facts which I am about to relate as to the
migration and reproduction of the common eel are of
great interest. The common " yellow " eels of our ponds
and rivers, as we have seen, when they are from five to

70 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

seven years old and over, put on, as it were, a wedding
dress. They become " silver " eels, and descend the rivers
to the sea. There they produce their spawn. The young
eels thus produced, when only 2 inches long, leave the
sea. Every year they ascend the estuaries and rivers of
Europe as " elvers " in enormous numbers, their procession
up the rivers being known as " the eel-fare."

Some eels, shut up in moats and ponds, never escape
— they become more or less " silver " and restless, but fail
to get away. Others crawl up the banks in wet, warm
weather, when the ponds are full to the brim, and over
the meadows. They are found sometimes on their journey

when they

"... have to pass
Through the dewy grass,"

and so to the river, and on to the marriage feast in the
deep sea. The fact is, that usually eels inhabit in large
numbers the rivers and streams, and have no difficulty in
getting down to the sea when they are adult. Those who,
as young elvers, have wandered far off into sunken ponds
and reservoirs, are eccentric spirits who have lost the
normal way of life ; like fellows of colleges in the old
days, they have cut themselves off from the matrimonial
" running down," but they have compensations in quietude,
abundant food, and a long life.

We now know where the silver eels go when they run
down the rivers. They go into the sea, of course ; but we
know more than that. It has now been discovered that
they make their way for many miles along the sea-bottom
— in some cases hundreds of miles — to no less a depth
than 500 fathoms. In the Mediterranean they don't have
very far to go, for there is very deep water near the land,
and Professor Grassi found evidence of their presence in
the depths of the Straits of Messina. But the eels of the
rivers which empty into the North Sea and English

THE STORY OF THE COMMON EEL 71

Channel have much farther to go ; they have to go right
out to the deep water of the Atlantic, off the west coast of
Ireland. That is the nearest point where 500 fathoms can
be touched ; there is no such depth in the North Sea nor
in the Channel. They never come back, and no one has
ever yet tracked them on their journey to the deep water.
Yet we know that they go there, and lay their eggs there,
and that from these remote fastnesses a new generation of
eels, born in " the dark unfathomed depths of ocean," return
every year in their millions as little " elvers " to the rivers
from which their parents swam forth in silver wedding
dress. Soon, we have reason to hope, by the use of
suitable deep-sinking nets, we shall intercept, in the
English Channel, some of the silver eels on their way to
the Atlantic deeps. They must go in vast numbers, and
yet no one has yet come across them. How, then, do we
know that the silver eels ever go to this 5oo-fathom
abysm ?

The answer is as follows : A very curious, colourless,
transparent, absolutely glass-like, little fish, 2\ inches long,
oblong and leaf-like in shape, has been known for many
years as a rarity, to be caught now and then, one at a
time, floating near the top in summer seas (Fig. 6). I
used to get it at Naples occasionally many years ago, and
it has sometimes been taken in the English Channel. It
is known by the name " Leptocephalus." Placed in a
glass jar full of sea-water it is nearly invisible on account
of its transparency and freedom from colour. Even its
blood is colourless. The eyes alone are coloured, and
one sees these as two isolated black globes moving
mysteriously to the right and the left as the invisible
ghostly fish swims around. Twenty years ago one of these
kept in an aquarium at Roscoff, in Brittany, gradually
shrunk in breadth, became cylindrical, coloured and opaque,
and assumed the complete characters of a young eel ! To

72 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

cut a long story short, these Leptocephali were found
twelve years ago in large numbers in the deep water
(400 fathoms) of the Straits of Messina by the Italian

FIG. 6. — Young stages of the common eel, drawn of the natural size by
Professor Grassi. A, The Leptocephalus, transparent stage. D, the
elver, or young eel, which is coloured, and of much smaller size than the
transparent, colourless creature by the change of which it is produced.
It is the elver which swims in millions up our rivers. B and C are
intermediate stages, showing the gradual change of A into D.

naturalists Grassi and Calandruccio, and they conclusively
showed that they were the young phase — the tadpole, as
it were — of eels. They showed that different kinds of
eels — conger eels, the Muraena,and the common eel — have

THE STORY OF THE COMMON EEL 73

each their own kind of transparent " Leptocephalus-young-
phase," living in but also above the very deep water, in
which they are hatched from the eggs of the parent eels.
The Leptocephalus-young when hatched, grow rapidly,
and ascend to near the surface immediately above the
deep water, and are caught at depths of ten to a hundred
fathoms. To become " elvers," or young eels, they have to
undergo great change of shape and colour, and actually
shrink in bulk — a process which has now been completely
observed and described. It is not surprising that their
true nature was not at first recognised. The proof that
the silver eels of North and West Europe go down to
the 5oo-fathom line off the Irish coast, in order to lay
their eggs, is that the Danish naturalist Schmidt and his
companions discovered there two years ago, above these
great depths (and nowhere else), by employing a special
kind of fine-meshed trawling net, many thousands of the
flat, glass-like " Leptocephalus-young-stage," or tadpole of
the common eel, and traced them from there to their
entrance into the various rivers. They showed that the
Leptocephali gradually change on the way landward into
eel-like " elvers."

The rivers nearest the deep water, such as those
opening on the west coast of Ireland and on the Spanish
and French shores of the Bay of Biscay, get their elvers
"running up" as early as November, December, and
January. The farther off the river the farther the elvers
have to travel from the deep-sea nursery, so that in
Denmark they don't appear until May. Not the least
curious part of the migration of the eel is the passage of
the young elvers into the higher parts of rivers and remote
streams. They are sometimes seen a hundred miles from
the sea, actually wriggling in numbers up the face of a
damp rock or wall ten or fifteen feet high, pushing one
another from below upwards, so as to scale the obstacle

74 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

and reach higher waters, like Japanese soldiers at a fort.
I found them (so long ago that I hesitate to name the date
— it was a year of cholera in London, followed by a great
war) in a little rivulet which comes down the cliff at
Ecclesbourne, near Hastings, close to a cottage frequented
at that time by Douglas Jerrold. They were wriggling
up in the damp grass and overflow of the driblet 1 50 feet
above the shore, a stone's throw below. They must have
come out of the sea, attracted by the tiny thread of fresh
water entering it at this spot.

The Danube and its tributary streams contain no eels,
although the rivers which open into the Mediterranean
are well stocked with them. This is supposed to be due
to the fact that the Black Sea does not afford a suitable
breeding-ground, and that the way through the Dardanelles
is closed to eels by some natural law, as it has been to
warships by treaty. Probably, however, it will be found
that the geological changes in the area of sea and land
are intimately connected with the migrations of the eel,
and that the eel is originally a marine fish which did not
in remote ages travel far from the deep waters. Its
gradually acquired habit of running up fresh waters to
feed has led it step by step into a frequentation of certain
rivers which have become (by changes of land and sea)
inconveniently remote from its ancestral haunts. An
interesting question is whether at the not very distant
period when there was continuous land joining England
to France and the Thames and the Rhine had a common
mouth opening into the North Sea, eels existed in the
area drained by those two rivers; and, if so, by what
route did they pass as silver eels to the deep sea, and
by what route did the new generations of young eels
hatched in the deep sea travel to the Thames and Rhine.
It seems most probable that in those days there were no
eels in the Thames and other North Sea rivers.

THE STORY OF THE COMMON EEL 75

Our present knowledge of the romantic history of the
common eel of our own rivers we owe in large part to
the work done by the International Committee for the
Investigation of the North Sea. Who would ever have
imagined when he caught a wriggling eel, with a hook
and worm thrown into a stagnant pool in the Midlands
that the muddy creature was some five or six years ago
living as a glass-like leaf-shaped prodigy in the Atlantic
depths, a hundred miles from Ireland ? Who would have
dreamed that it had come all that long journey by its own
efforts, and would probably, if it had not been hooked,
have wriggled one summer's night out of the pond, across
wet meadows, into a ditch, and so to the river, and back
to the sea, and to the far-away orgy in the dark salt
waters of the ocean-floor, to the consummation of its
life and its strange, mysterious ending?

There are two points of interest to be mentioned in
regard to the rivers Danube and Thames in connection
with eels. I have trustworthy reports of the very rare
occurrence of eels in streams connected with the Danube.
Since the young elvers do not ascend the Danube, where
do these rare specimens come from? There can be no
doubt that they have made their way individually into
the Danube " system " by migration through canals or
ditches from tributaries of the Rhine or the Elbe. A
similar explanation has to be offered of the eels which
at present inhabit the Thames. I cannot find any
evidence of the existence to-day of an "eel-fare" — that
is, " a running up of elvers " in the river Thames. Prob-
ably about the same time as the foul poisoning of the
Thames water by London sewage and chemical works
put an end to the ascent of the salmon (about the year
1830), the entrance of the myriad swarm of young eels
in their annual procession from the sea also ceased.
The elvers were caught and made into fish-cakes in

76 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

London before the nineteenth century, just as they are
to-day at Gloucester. It would be interesting to know
exactly when they ceased to appear in the Thames. A
curious fact, however, is that young eels — not so small
as "elvers," but from three inches in length upwards —
are taken close above London even to-day. Four years
ago I obtained a number of this small size from Teddington.
The question arises as to whether these specimens represent
just a small number of elvers which have managed to
swim through the foul water of London and emerge into
the cleaner part of the river above. This is improbable.
It is more likely that they have come into the Thames
by travelling up other rivers such as the Avon — which
are connected by cuttings with the Thames tributaries.
But it certainly is remarkable that eels of only three
inches in length — and therefore very young — should have
managed to get not merely " into " the Thames (to the
upper parts of which no doubt many thus travel and
remain during growth), but actually " down " the Thames
so far in the direction of its tidal water as is Teddington
lock. The specimens from Teddington were placed by
me in the Natural History Museum.

MODERN HORSES AND THEIR ANCESTORS

THE ever-increasing development of motor traffic
leads to speculation as to what is to be in the
immediate future the fate of the horse. What is its
history in the past?

It is in nearly all cases a matter of great difficulty to
trace the animals and plants which mankind has domesti-
cated or cultivated to the original wild stock from which
they have been derived. Lately we have gained new
knowledge on the origin of the domesticated breeds of
the horse. It is generally agreed that the Mongolian
wild horse represents the chief stock from which the
horses of Europe and those conveyed by Europeans to
America were derived. This wild horse was formerly
known as inhabiting the Kirghiz steppes, and was called
the Tarpan. It became extinct there some seventy years
ago. The natives of that district asserted that the pure
breed was only to be met with farther East in the Gobi
Desert of Central Asia. The Tarpan itself showed signs
of mixed blood in having a mouse-coloured coat, which
is a sure indication amongst horses of cross-breeding.
Prevalsky, a Russian traveller, was the first to obtain
specimens of the pure-bred wild horse of the Gobi Desert,
which still exists. Live specimens have been brought to
Europe, and some are in the possession of the Duke of

;8 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

Bedford. A female is mounted and exhibited in the
Natural History Museum, and also a skeleton and skulls.
Prevalsky's horse, or the Mongolian wild horse, is of
small stature, standing about twelve hands at the shoulder.
The root of the tail is short-haired, the mane short and
upright, without forelock. The body colour is yellow dun,
the mane and tail black, as well as the lower part of the
legs, and there is a dark stripe down the back. The
muzzle in pure-bred specimens is white. The head is
relatively large and the muzzle thick and relatively short.
A very decided character is shown by the great size and
relative length of the row of cheek-teeth, it being one-
third larger than the same row of teeth in a Dartmoor
pony of the same stature.

A very interesting fact, which goes a long way to
establish the view that the European domesticated horse
is derived from the Mongolian wild horse, comes to us in
a most striking way from some of the most ancient
records of the human race. In the South of France the
contents of caves formerly inhabited by men have been
dug out and examined with increasing care and accuracy
of late years, though first investigated fifty years ago.
Similar caves, though not so prolific of evidences of human
occupation, have been explored in England (Kent's Cavern
at Torquay, and others). The astounding fact has now
become quite clear that these caves were inhabited by
men of no mean capacity from 50,000 to 250,000 years
ago, when bone harpoons, flint knives, flint scrapers, and
bone javelin-throwers were the -chief weapons in use,
when these islands were solidly joined to the European
continent, when a sheet of glacial ice, alternately retreat-
ing and extending, covered the whole of Northern Europe,
and when the mammoth, rhinoceros, hyena, lion, bear,
bison, great ox, horse, and later the reindeer, inhabited
the land and were hunted, eaten, and utilised for their

MODERN HORSES AND THEIR ANCESTORS 79

bone, tusks, and skin by these ancient men. I revert to
this subject in a later article (page 371), but would merely
say now that it is all as certain and well-established a
chapter in man's history as that of the ancient Egyptians,
who are really quite modern (dating from 8000 years at
most) as compared with these cave-men of 50,000 years
ago, and the even earlier races which preceded them in
Europe.

The bones of the animals killed and eaten by the
cave-men are found in some cases in enormous quantities.
In one locality in France the bones of as many as 80,000
horses (which had been cooked and eaten) have been dug
up and counted ! The most wonderful and extraordinary
thing about these cave-men is that they carved complete
rounded sculptures, high reliefs, low reliefs, and line-
engravings on mammoth's ivory, on reindeer horn, on
bones, and on stones — the line-engravings being the latest
in date, as shown by their position in the deposits on the
floor of the caves, which are often as much as twenty feet
or thirty feet in thickness ! Not only that, but these
carvings are often real works of art, extremely well drawn,
and showing not mere childish effort but work which was
done with the intention and control of an artist's mind.

An immense number of these carvings are now known.
I have before me one of the most recent publications on
the subject — a series of plates showing the carvings
collected from caves in the Pyrenees, the Dordogne, and
the Landes by M. Piette, who recently died. I have
examined his collection and others of the same kind in
the great Museum of St. Germain, near Paris. We have
in London some of the earlier collections, and especially
that of the Vicomte de Lastic, to purchase which my old
friend Sir Richard Owen journeyed to the Dordogne in the
winter of 1864. Many animals, as well as some human
beings (Fig. 7), are represented in these carvings — the

8o

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

mammoth itself, carved on a piece of its own ivory, is
among them, and a good many represent the horse
(Fig. 8). Now it is a fact that the carvings of the horses
of that period undoubtedly represent a horse which is
identical in proportions, shape of head, mane, and tail,
with the wild Mongolian horse, and is
unlike in those points to modern Euro-
pean horses, or to the Arabian horse.

It was, until the discoveries of M.
Piette, held that though the cave-men
killed, ate, and made pictures of the

FIG. 7. — Drawing
(of the actual size
of the original) or
an ivory carving
(fully rounded) of
a female head.
The specimen was
found in the
cavern of Bras-
sempouy, in the
Landes. It is of
the earliest rein-
deer period, and
the arrangement
of the hair or cap
is remarkable.

FIG. 8. — Drawing (of the actual size of the
original) of a fully rounded carving in rein-
deer's antler of the head of a neighing horse.
The head resembles that of the Mongolian
horse. This is one of the most artistic of the
cave-men's carvings yet discovered. It is of
the Palaeolithic age (early reindeer period),
probably not less than fifty thousand years
old. It was found in the cavern of Mas d'Azil,
Ariege, France, and is now in the museum of
St. Germain.

horse of those remote days, yet that they did not tame
it, put a halter or a bridle on it, and make use of
it. Some of the carvings figured by M. Piette leave,
however, no room for doubt that the cave-men fitted a
bridle to the head and muzzle of the horse. These carvings
(Fig. 9) show a twisted thong placed round the nose and
passing near the angle of the mouth where it is possible,

MODERN HORSES AND THEIR ANCESTORS 8 1

though not certain, that a " bit " was inserted. Con-
nected to this main encircling thong are four twisted
cords (on each side of the head), which run horizontally
backwards, and the two lower of these are joined by a
flat, plate-like piece, which is ornamented. The whole
apparatus is further connected to a twisted cord on each
side, which runs towards the back of the head, but it is
not shown in the carving what becomes of it. Thus it
seems clear not only that
the cave-men of these re-
mote ages were wonderful
artists, but that they
mastered and muzzled the
horse.

Some of the engrav-
ings of horses' heads seem
to indicate the existence

- , . . , . FIG. 9. — Drawmg(of the actual size of the

of a horse alongside the original) of a ffat carving in shoulder.

bone, of a horse's head, showing
twisted rope-bridle and trappings, a
appears to represent a flat ornamented
band of wood or skin connecting the
muzzling rope b with other pieces c and
d. This specimen is from the cave of
St. Michel d'Arudy, and is of the rein-
deer period. This, and others like it,
are in the museum of St. Germain.

commoner form with a
narrower, more tapering
face, and may possibly
be due to the introduc-
tion, even at that remote
period, of another race dis-
tinct from the Northern
or Mongolian wild horse.

That this admixture of a distinct and more slender horse
with the Northern horse has taken place over and over
again in historical times is a matter of knowledge. The
question is, when did it first take place, and where did
the more slender horse come from ? In later days we
know this more shapely breed as the Arab and the Barb,
and the introduction of its blood at various times into
the more Northern stock is well ascertained. The latest
great historical case of such admixture is the production
6

82 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

of the English thoroughbred in the eighteenth century
by such sires as the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin
Barb, and the Brierley Turk, whose blood is transmitted
to modern racehorses through the great historic sires,
Herod, Matchem, and Eclipse, the ancestors of practically
all modern racehorses.

The horse of more Southern origin thus recognised as
distinct from the prehistoric European horse, it is now
convenient to speak of as the Southern or Arabian horse.
There are certain curious structural features which seem
to mark these horses and their offspring, even when their
strain is blended with that of the more Northern horse.
Probably from the time of the cave-men onward the
selective breeding of horses has been carried on, so that
in many breeds size has been vastly increased. It is an
important fact that the English racehorse has never been
selected and bred for " points " (as cattle and sheep are),
but always by performance on the racecourse. Thus it
becomes an extremely interesting matter to see what are
the changes which the breeder of thoroughbred stock
has unconsciously produced — what are the differences
between the racehorse of to-day and that of 50, 100,
and 150 years ago. This was pointed out to me by the
late Duke of Devonshire as a reason for supporting my
proposal to secure and place in the Natural History
Museum the skulls, limb-bones, hoofs, and other in-
destructible parts of great racehorses (and of other
breeds), and also for having very accurately measured
reduced models made of such horses, in order that we
may after some years compare the proportions and
structure at present arrived at with the later develop-
ments which the continual selection of winner's blood in
breeding must unconsciously produce. Such a collection
was started by me in the museum, but it needs the
assistance of owners of horses — both as to placing record

MODERN HORSES AND THEIR ANCESTORS 83

specimens in the museum and in paying for the prepara-
tion of accurately reduced models by competent artists.
It already comprises the skulls of Stockwell, Bend Or,
and Ormonde, and several carefully made reduced models
of celebrated horses. There is no doubt that the English
racehorse has increased in size. He is a bigger animal
to-day than he was 200 years ago, and the opinion of
the best authorities is that he has increased on the
average an inch in height at the withers in every
twenty-five years. The racehorse has a much longer
thigh-bone and upper-arm bone (in proportion to the rest
of the leg) than has the cart-horse, and it is probable that
this length has been continually increased by the selection
of winners for breeding.

There are other points of scientific interest as to
modern horses and their forefathers which are illustrated
by valuable specimens and preparations placed by me in
the Natural History Museum.

All those hairy warm-blooded quadrupeds which
suckle their young, and are hence called mammals, are
the descendants of small five-toed ancestors about the
size of a spaniel. This is equally true of the elephant,
the gorilla, the horse, and the ox. In the sands and
clays deposited since the time of the chalk-sea, the
remains (bones and teeth) of the ancestors of living
mammals are found in great abundance. These sands
and clays are called "the Tertiaries," and are divided
into lower, middle, and upper — whilst we recognise as
" Post-Tertiaries " (or Quaternary) the later formed
gravel and cave deposits in which the remains and
weapons of the cave-men have been found. The Ter-
tiaries consist of a series of deposits amounting to about
3000 feet in thickness, and they have taken several
million years in depositing — no one can say how
many.

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIK

In the upper Tertiary we find the remains of a
kind of horse (the Hipparion), with well-developed
" petti-toes " (like those of a pig) on each side of the
big central toe (Fig. 10). In the middle Tertiary we
find smaller ancestral horses,
with three toes of nearly equal
size, and in the lower Tertiary
a horse-ancestor as small as
a fox-hound (the Hyraco-
therium), with four toes on its
front foot and three on its
hind foot. Coming very close
to this in general character
is another small extinct animal
of the same age, with five
toes on each foot. As the
toes have dwindled in number
and size, leaving at last only
the big central toe (as we
pass upward from the small
ancestors to the big modern
horse), so the cheek-teeth, too,
have changed. At first they
HIP PAR. ON HORSE had shallow crowns and divided

FIG. 10. -To the left, the fore-foot fangs, and Showed four pro-
of the horse-ancestor, Hipparion, minences on the crown which
showing three toes: to the right were ^ if at all worn down
the back view of a long bone of

a modern horse's foot, with rudi- during life. But as the horse
ments of outer toes, called splint- became a bigger animal and
bones- took to eating coarse tooth-

wearing grass, his teeth became deeper, and continued to
grow for a long time, whilst the crown was rubbed down
by the hard food, and a curiously complex pattern was
brought into view by the exposure of the irregular bosses
of the crown in cross section. And, meanwhile, the size

MODERN HORSES AND THEIR ANCESTORS 85

and proportions of the horse-ancestors changed until,
after being pig-like, then tapir-like, they acquired the
perfect form and size for fleet and prolonged movement
over firm, grass-grown plains. Horses and other large
animals have to run, not only to escape pursuit by
carnivorous enemies, but in order to travel, before
they die from thirst, from a region suddenly dried
up by drought to a region where water can be had.
Many thousands of wild animals perish every year
from local droughts in Africa. No small animals
can exist in regions liable to be affected by sudden
drought.

Three-toed horses, like the upper Tertiary Hipparion,
are occasionally born as " monstrosities " from ordinary
horses at the present day. All horses have the remnant
of a toe on each side of the big central toe — in the form
of splint-bones — concealed beneath the skin. In some
breeds, for instance, in the " Shire " horses, which have
enormous hairy feet in proportion to their huge strength
and weight, these splint-bones tend to develop three
little toe-joints, which are immovable, but obviously are
"petti-toes." It is related by Suetonius that Julius
Caesar used to ride a favourite horse which, had several
toes on each foot with claws like a lion. This was one
of the "monstrosities" alluded to above, a throw-back
to the ancestral many-toed condition. Specimens illus-
trating these, and all else which I am here relating
concerning horses, and much more which I have not
space to tell, may be seen in the North Hall of the
Natural History Museum.

The three-toed ancestral horse, Hipparion, attained a
fair size (that of a big donkey), and was shaped like the
recent fleet one-toed horses. In the skull in front of the
orbit, the Hipparion has a strongly marked depression in
the bone, as long and broad as a hen's egg, and in shape

86

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

like one-half of an egg cut through longwise (see Fig. 1 1
pf\ These pre-orbital cavities are known in deer, sheep,
and antelopes ; they lodge a gland resembling the tear-
gland, which has, itself, a separate existence. Similar
"glands" are found in the feet and ankle-joints of sheep and
deer. The fluid which they secrete probably has an odour
(not readily noticed by man) which helps to keep the herd
together, or, on certain tracks when the fluid is smeared

pf

PREVALSKY'S HORSE DEER

FIG. it. — Skulls of horses and of deer to show the pre-orbital pit or cups pf,
and its absence in the Mongolian (Prevalsky's) horse.

on to herbage. It is a remarkable fact that the skulls
of the wild Mongolian horse and of the fossil horse of
the cave-men, as also those of the commoner European
breeds, have no trace of this pre-orbital cup or of the
gland which Hipparion, their three-toed ancestor, pos-
sessed. Nor, indeed, have the asses and zebras. But
the Southern horse, the Arab, and all the breeds into
which his blood has prominently entered — as, for instance,
the English racer (so-called "thoroughbred") and the

MODERN HORSES AND THEIR ANCESTORS 87

" Shire " horse (which is derived from the old English war-
horse, in the making of which certainly four hundred
years ago Arab blood and heavy Northern stock were
mingled), do show, as a rule, a well-marked if shallow,
cup-like depression in front of the orbit ! In fact, as
Mr. Lydekker has pointed out, the presence of this " pre-
orbital cup " is evidence of the descent of its possessor
from Arab ancestry. Many specimens of horses' skulls
showing this "cup" are exhibited in the Natural History
Museum. We have not been able to find any trace
of a gland like the " larmier " of deer and the " cru-
men " of antelopes on examining the soft tissues which
overlie this cavity in horses of Arab descent, but it is
not improbable that occasional instances of such survival
will some day come to light. A very interesting fact in
connection with this concavity and its indication of a
distinction between the Northern (Mongolian) and the
Southern (Arabian) horse is that in India a fossil horse
of very late Tertiary date has been found, a true one-
toed horse, not a Hipparion, which has the pre-orbital
cup well marked, and is possibly the ancestor of the Arab.

There is no very great difference between the wild
horse and wild asses and zebras. They are distinct
" species," but will breed together and produce " mules,"
which in rare cases appear to be themselves fertile,
although this is doubtful. The inner causes of the
infertility of mules are not really known or understood.
Nor, in fact, do we know really and experimentally what
are the causes of fecundity and of infecundity in normally
paired animals, including mankind. It is of the utmost
importance to modern Statecraft that this subject should
be studied, and there is a great field for experimental
inquiry.

A clear mark of difference between the horse and the
other species of the genus Equus (namely, the Asiatic

88 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

and African asses and the zebras) is found in the curious
wart-like knobs1 on the legs, which are called "chest-
nuts." These warty knobs appear to be the remains in
a "dried up" condition of glands, such as are found in
the legs of deer in a similar position, and secrete a glairy
fluid. In new-born colts they sometimes exude a fluid,
and also more rarely in adult horses. The fluid attracts
other horses (probably by its smell), and also causes dogs
to keep quiet. The horse has one of these wart-like
" chestnuts " above the wrist
joint (so-called knee) on the
inner side of the fore-leg. And
so have all the asses and
zebras. But the horse (Fig. 1 2)
has also a similar "chestnut"
HORSE ASS on t'ie inner s*de °f eacn °f

FIG. i2.-Fore and hind legs of its hind-legs, below the heel-
horse and ass, to show the bone, or " hock." This hind-
" chestnuts," and the absence Jeg chestnut is absent in all

&££!!**"* *^* asses and zebras< This differ~

ence between the horse and

ass can be tested by my readers on any roadside by
their own observation. The hind-leg chestnut is also
absent in certain breeds of ponies from Iceland and the
Hebrides. Its presence and absence are interesting in
connection with the disappearance of the face-gland or
pre-orbital gland in all recent horses, asses, and zebras.

The " chestnuts " of the horse have sometimes been
compared erroneously to the " pads " on the feet of other
animals, and supposed to be survivals of a" pad " in

1 The names " malander " and " salander " have been recently
applied by zoological writers, apparently by misconception, to these
"callosities" or "chestnuts." Those names are used by veterinary
surgeons to describe a diseased condition of this part of the horse's
leg (Italian "mal andaren\ and do not apply to the "chestnut"
itself, which is sometimes called "castor."

MODERN HORSES AND THEIR ANCESTORS 89

each foot corresponding to the inner of the three toes of
the Hipparion. The real representative, in the horse, of
the chief pad of the foot of animals which do not (as the
horse does) walk on the very tip of the toe, is a little
knob called the "ergot." The diagram, Fig. 13, shows
how this ergot corresponds
to the chief pad of the
three-toed tapir's foot, and
so to that of the dog also.
The absence of living
horses, or of any kind of
ass or zebra, from the
American Continent, when
first colonised by Euro-
peans in the sixteenth
century, is a very singular
fact. For we find a great
number and variety of
fossil remains of extinct
horses in both North and
South America. It seems
possible that some epidemic
disease swept them from the

TAPIR HORSE

FIG. 13. — Diagram of the under sur-
face of the foot in the dog, tapir,
and horse, to show that the horny
knob of the horse's foot, called the
" ergot," corresponds to the central
" pad " of the other two.

whole Continent not very
many centuries before
Europeans arrived — for

there is evidence in South America of the co-existence
there of peculiar kinds of horse with the " Indian " natives.
It is even alleged that Cabot, in 1530, saw horses in
Argentina, which were the last survivors of the native
South American species. And it is also said that the
Araucanian Indians of Patagonia have a peculiar breed
of ponies, which may be derived in part from a native
South American stock. I have never been able to
procure a skull of this breed, or any detailed description

90 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

of it. What is quite certain is that in the great cave of
Ultima Speranza, in Patagonia — from which the hairy skin,
dried flesh and blood, and unaltered dung as well as the
bones, of the giant sloth Mylodon were obtained — a great
number of the horny hoofs, and the teeth of a peculiar
horse were also found some eight years ago, and are
preserved in the Natural History Museum, together with
the remains of the giant sloth. The condition of these
remains is such that they cannot be many centuries old.
The animals appear to have been contemporaneous with
an early race of Indians who made use of the cave before
the arrival of Europeans. A skull of one and a skeleton
of another of the peculiar extinct South American horses
(called Onohippidium and Hippidium), which survived
until a late period in Patagonia and may possibly have
been seen by Cabot, are shown in the Natural History
Museum. Their bones are found in the superficial gravel
and sand of the pampas.

To revert for a moment to the history of the English
thoroughbred. It appears that in England in the middle
of the eighteenth century a happy new infusion of the Arab
race with that of existing stock (which already contained
some Arab blood mixed with that of the Northern race)
produced once and for all a very perfect and successful
breed. That breed did not derive speed from the Arab,
but " stamina," — probably a powerful heart. It did not
derive its size from the Arab, but the cross proved to be
a large horse. It has never been improved since by any
further admixture of Arab or Southern blood. Hence
the (at first sight) misleading name " thoroughbred." This
name is not intended to imply that the breed is not
originally a " blend," but that those horses so called are
pure-bred from the happy and wonderful mixture which
a hundred and fifty years ago was embodied in the great
sires Matchem, Herod, and Eclipse.

XI
A RIVAL OF THE FABLED UPAS TREE

WE are so accustomed nowadays to danger to life
and health from minute, invisible germs, and to
exerting all our skill in order to destroy them, that the
knowledge of the existence of large and beautiful trees
in our midst which can, and do, cause terrible disease
and suffering by their mere presence, comes as a shock,
and produces a peculiar sense of insecurity greater even
than that excited by unseen micro-organisms. For the
trees of which I am about to speak are cultivated in our
gardens, trained up against the walls of our houses with
loving care, and admired for the beautiful autumn tints
of their leaves. Yet it is now certain that they are the
cause in many persons of most terrible suffering and
illness. I am glad to be able to warn my readers in
regard to these plants, and I shall be very much interested
to hear whether the information which I am about to
give proves to be of value in any particular case.

A married couple, friends of my own, went to live,
about fourteen years ago, in a newly built, detached
house, standing in its own garden, in the neighbourhood
of an English city. After they had been there two
years the lady developed a very painful eruption or
eczema on the face, which, in the course of a few weeks,
caused the eyes, nose, and lips to swell to an extraordinary

92 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

degree, accompanied by the formation of blisters and
breaking of the skin. The affection spread to the body,
and caused constant pain and corresponding prostration.
Her medical attendants were unable either to cure or to
account for her condition. After some months she left
home, and entirely recovered. But every year the same
distressing and disfiguring illness attacked her (com-
mencing in the month of June), and disappeared as soon
as she left her house, only to return when she came back
to it. The doctors spoke of her affliction as a mysterious
form of erysipelas, and even suggested blood-poisoning
as the cause. For long periods she was so ill and in so
much pain that she was unable to see her friends, and
her life was at times in danger.

Two years ago a weekly newspaper published an
account, written by a correspondent, of an illness from
which he had suffered — exactly agreeing with that which
had for so many years tortured my friend's wife. This
writer stated that he had ascertained that the disease
was due to the action of a poison given off by a creeper
which grew on the walls of his house. He had supposed
this plant to be a Virginian creeper ; but he had dis-
covered that it was in reality the Californian poison- vine
called by botanists Rhus toxicodendron. The terribly
poisonous nature of this plant is well-known to the
people of the United States. It is one of the sumach
trees, of which other poisonous kinds are known, whilst
more than one species is used (especially in Japan) for
preparing a resinous varnish which is used in the manu-
facture of " lacquered " articles. The writer in the weekly
paper stated that he had cut down and burnt the poison-
vine which grew on the walls of his house, and that his
sufferings had ceased. My friend happened to read this
account, and immediately examined his own house. He
found a creeper resembling a Virginian creeper, but

A RIVAL OF THE FABLED UPAS TREE 93

having three leaflets or divisions of the leaf instead of
five, growing around his drawing-room window, and
actually spreading its branches and leaves over the
window of his wife's bedroom. He sent specimens of
the creeper to Kew, where it was at once identified
as the Rhus toxicodendron or American poison- vine or
poison-ivy. He caused the plant to be removed and
burnt, and, except for a slight attack in July, due no
doubt to fragments of the leaves still carried about in
the form of dust, his wife has recovered her health.

I have looked into this matter with care, and I find that
(presumably in ignorance) nurserymen in England have
sold specimens of the poison-vine for planting as creepers,
under the name Ampelopsis Hoggii. The smaller-leaved
Virginian creeper, with self-attaching tendrils, is known as
Ampelopsis Veitchii, and is, like the larger Virginian creeper
(A. quinquefoliata), quite harmless. The poison-vine is
not an Ampelopsis at all, not even one of the Vitaceae or
vine family, as that genus is. It is a Sumach or Rhus, and
belongs to a distinct family, the Terebinthaceae. It has a
three-split leaf, not five leaflets, as has the large Virginian
creeper, nor a small three-pointed leaf, as has the Ampe-
lopsis Veitchii. The Veitchii frequently has the leaf also
split into three leaflets, but the stalk of the middle leaflet
is not relatively so long as it is in the poison-vine. The
differences and resemblances in the leaves of these plants
are shown in the accompanying illustration (Fig. 14), which
has been prepared from actual specimens for this book.

The people of the United States are on their guard
against this plant, knowing its terrible properties. Sir
William Thiselton Dyer, formerly director of Kew Gardens,
tells me that specimens of the " American poison-vine "
are grown in the garden at Kew, and that he has been
present when American visitors (ladies) literally screamed
with horror on seeing it, and ran from it as from a mad

94 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

dog. Several cases are on record of the mysterious
poisoning produced by this plant in England ; but it is
strangely unfamiliar to medical practitioners — indeed,
practically unknown to them, although I have ascertained
that many English people, especially ladies, have been
victims for some years to its unsuspected influence.

At the University of Harvard, in Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts, they have made quite recently a thorough
examination of the poison-vine in the laboratory, with
the following results: The poison is an oil — a fixed oil,
not a volatile one, as we might have imagined from
its mysterious action at a distance. The oil exists in
all parts of the plant, even in the fine hairs and cuticle
of the leaf. It can be extracted by means of ether, and
is one of the most virulent irritants known, having a very
curious penetrating and persistent action, and producing
violent pain and destruction of tissue when placed on the
skin in quantity so minute (one-thousandth of a milligram
in two drops of olive oil) as to be beyond the terms of
everyday language. It seems to be usually brought to
the eyes, nose, lips, and skin of the face and body by the
fingers which have touched a leaf or fragments of a leaf
in powder. The dead leaf in winter still retains the oil,
and minute dust-like particles can carry it. The treat-
ment for it is washing with soap, oil, and ether at an
early stage of the attack — especial care being taken to
free the fingers from any minute traces of the oil adhering
to them.

The poison of the poison-vine only acts upon a limited
number of individuals, many people being perfectly im-
mune. At the same time, the effect upon susceptible
people appears to be enhanced with every fresh attack ;
even after the total removal of the poison-vine and its
dust from proximity to a susceptible person, he or she is
apt for some time — owing to the retention of some trace

Fir;. 14. — Drawings, about half the natural size, of the leaves of the common
quinquefoliate Virginian creeper (i and 2), of the adherent " Ampelopsis
Veitchii" (3 and 4), and of the poison- vine, Rhus toxicodendron (5 and
6). From specimens in the Botanical Department of the Natural History
Museum. Note especially the greater length of the stalk of the central
leaflet in the poison-vine. Note also that the common Virginian creeper
has sometimes only three leaflets (2) instead of five, and that " Veitchii"
has either three leaflets, as in 3, or has the leaflets united into one three-
pointed leaf, as in 4.

96 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

of the oil in the skin or clothes — to have slight attacks.
According to a writer who two years ago gave in the
Spectator an account of his own case, the first symptom
of an attack is almost invariably a redness and irritation
of the eyelids, accompanied by shivering. In a few hours
the eyelids are closed, the features unrecognisable, and
the skin covered with little blisters. Then the lips swell
enormously, the glands of the neck also. In four days
the arms and hands are reached, each finger appearing as
if terribly scalded and requiring separate bandaging. Then
sometimes the lower limbs are involved. After ten days
the attack passes off, leaving the patient in a pitiable
state of weakness to grow a new skin and recover from
other painful results of the poisoning. But no immunity
is conferred by an attack ; the unhappy victim (who is
ignorant of the cause of his sufferings) may, and fre-
quently does, get a new dose of the poison as soon as he
has recovered, and the whole course of the illness has again
to be passed through. If this account should fall into
the hands of any one who is being unwittingly poisoned
by the American poison-vine, and may therefore be saved
by what I have written from further suffering, I shall be
greatly pleased.

There are very few plants which have a power of diffus-
ing poison around them ; usually it is necessary to touch
or to eat portions of a plant before it can exert any
poisonous effect. The eighteenth-century story of the
upas-tree of Java, which was fabled to fill a whole valley
with its poisonous emanation, and to cause the death of
animals and birds at a distance of fifteen miles, is now
known to be a romantic invention. The tree in question
is merely one having a poisonous juice which was ex-
tracted and used by the wilder races of Java as an arrow
poison. It is stated that one of the stinging-nettles of
tropical India has such virulent poison and such an

A RIVAL OF THE FABLED UPAS TREE 97

abundance of it in the hairs on its surface, that explorers
have been injured by merely approaching it, the detached
hairs probably floating in the air and getting into the
eyes, nose, and throat of any one coming near it The
poison of the poisonous stings of both plants and of
animals has been to some extent examined of late years.
It is a curious fact that there are proportionately few
plants which sting as compared with the number and
variety of animals which do so. On the other hand,
there are an enormous number of plants which are
poisonous to man when eaten by him, but there are
very few animals which are so.

It will be of interest to my readers to know that
I received, in consequence of the publication of the fore-
going account of the " Poison-vine " or " Poison-ivy,"
more than fifty letters and boxes containing leaves. At
Kew Gardens nearly a hundred applications were made
with a request for the identification of leaves. The pro-
portion of cases in which leaves of true poison-ivy
(Rhus toxicodendron) were sent to me seems to be the
same as that which they observed at Kew — only two
samples of the leaves sent to me were those of the true
poison-ivy. Hence we may conclude that the plant has
not been very largely introduced in this country, and
probably there are not many hundred cases existing in
England of the painful malady which it can, in certain
people, produce. I have, however, received information
of several instances of this poisoning from different parts
of the country, which are either now under treatment
or have been cured, and in some cases the poison-ivy
has been discovered as the cause, owing to the descrip-
tion which I published. It is certainly true that the
illness caused by this plant only attacks a small pro-
portion of those who handle it, and it is possible that
the plant is more virulent at some seasons and in some
7

9 8 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

soils than in others. In the United States, even in the
neighbourhood of New York, it is a real danger, and is
recognised as such, but as appears from a letter which
I quote below, the reason of the dread which the
" poison-ivy " excites in the States depends on the fact
that it is not there a mere garden plant, but grows wild
in great abundance in the woodlands frequented by
holiday-makers and lovers of natural forest and lake-
side wilderness. The poisonous nature of the allied
species of Rhus used for the manufacture of " lacquer "
or varnish is recognised by the Japanese and others who
prepare this product and have to handle the plant — they
wear gloves to protect the hands.

As showing what kind of trouble the " poison-ivy "
and " poison-oak " (another kind of Rhus or Sumach}
give in the United States, I will quote a letter I have
received from an American lady well known in London
society. She says : " I have known, suffered, and
struggled against the poison-ivy in America from my
earliest years, when my poor mother lay for days with
blinded and swollen eyes, having gathered it inadvertently.
The ' poison-ivy,' as we call it, is a curse to country life,
outside the purely artificial and cultivated gardens, and
even there it creeps in insidiously." She describes a
beautiful farm property on Lake Champlain, on the
Canadian border, where she and her family would spend
many weeks in summer in order to enjoy the delights of
complete seclusion in wild, unspoilt country : " The one
and only drawback to the place was," she writes, " the
inexhaustible quantity of poison-ivy. Our first duty had
been to teach my two daughters and their governess how
to distinguish and avoid contact with it. The one and
only rule was that the poison-ivy has the clusters of
three leaflets (the middle leaflet with a longer stalk,
E.R.L}, whereas the woodbine (not the English wood-

A RIVAL OF THE FABLED UPAS TREE 99

bine, which is a convolvulus, E.R.L.), or, as you call it,
'Virginian creeper,' has five leaflets in a cluster. Every
path which we used frequently and necessarily, such as
the path to the boat-house, and to the cove where the
bathing-house stood, we kept cleared of the Rhus for a
sufficient width, but in the woods eternal vigilance was
the price of safety. To uproot and burn is the only
way to destroy it, but, of course, that involves danger to
the one who does the work, because contact with the
spade used, and with the garments which touched the
ivy, might communicate the poison. The farmer and
the countryfolk about declared that the fumes from the
burning plant could and did poison those who breathed
them. We used to turn a flock of sheep into the most
used parts. They prefer the poison-ivy to grass, and
greedily eat down every leaf within reach in hedge or
path. But that, of course, was a mere temporary safety,
as the plant is most tenacious of life. I personally had
a most grievous, experience one summer. I can only
suppose that my dress, though very short for wood and
hill walking, brushed over the poisonous plant, and then,
when I undressed, came into contact with my skin.
Both legs became covered with the eruption, eventually
developing pustules, and the agony of itching, burning,
and smarting was indescribable. The first remedy
applied is usually a frequent use of baths of some alkali,
generally common soda. With me it was altogether
inadequate, and the doctor carefully covered the affected
parts with a thick layer of bismuth, and bandaged them,
so as to exclude all air. But it took weeks to cure me.
A very serious result in many cases is that there is a
recurrence of the itching for several years."

XII

POISONS AND STINGS OF PLANTS
ANIMALS

TO give an account of poisonous plants would require
a whole volume. Among plants of every degree
and kind are many which produce special chemical sub-
stances which are more or less poisonous, and yet often
of the greatest value to man when used in appropriate
doses, though injurious and even deadly if swallowed in
large quantity. Plants are laboratories which build up
in a thousand varieties wonderful chemical bodies, some
crystalline, some oils, some volatile (as perfumes and
aromatic substances), some brilliantly coloured (used as
dyes), some pungent, some antiseptic, some of the
greatest value as food, and some even digestive, similar
to or identical with those formed in the stomach of an
animal.

Man, the chemist, every year is learning how to pro-
duce in his own laboratories, from coal and wood refuse,
many of these bodies, so as to become to an ever-
increasing extent independent of the somewhat capricious
and costly services of the chemists supplied by nature —
the plants. In a recent exhibition there was a case
showing on one side the various essential oils used to
make up a flask of eau-de-Cologne, and specimens of the
plants, flowers, leaves, and fruits from which they are

POISONOUS PLANTS AND ANIMALS 101

distilled. On the other side of the case was a series of
bottles showing the steps in the process by which the
modern chemist manufactures from coal-tar and coker-
butter the same bodies which give value to the vegetable
extracts, and there was finally a bottle of what is called
" synthetic eau-de-Cologne " — that is, eau-de-Cologne put
together from the products manufactured by the human,
instead of the vegetable, chemist.

Whilst man has learnt to avoid swallowing poisonous
plants, although occasionally blundering over pretty-
looking berries and deceptive mushrooms, he has had
little to fear in that way from animals. To a small
degree this is due to the fact that only parts of animals
are eaten by man, and those very generally are cooked
before being eaten, the heating often sufficing to destroy
substances present in flesh, fish, and fowl which would
be poisonous if taken raw. But, as a matter of fact,
animals do not generally protect themselves from being
eaten, as plants largely do, by developing nasty or
poisonous substances in their flesh, though some do.
They fight rather by claws, teeth, and poison glands
therewith connected, or else escape by extra quick loco-
motion, a method not possible to plants. Many insects
(butterflies, beetles, and bugs), however, produce nasty
aromatic substances which cause animals like birds and
lizards to reject them as food. The toad and the sala-
mander both procfuce a very deadly poison in their
damp, soft skins, which causes any animal to drop them
form its mouth, and to regret " bitterly " the attempt to
swallow them. The frog has no such poison in its skin,
but can jump out of harm's way. The strong yellow
and black marking of the European salamander is what
is called a " warning " coloration, just as is the yellow
and black outfit of the poisonous wasp. Animals learn
to leave the yellow and black livery untouched, and

102 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

the creatures so marked escape the injury which would
be caused them by tentative bites.

There is a curious variation as to susceptibility on
the part of man to poison in the flesh of fishes and
shell-fishes when taken by him as food. The word
" idiosyncrasy " is applied to such individual suscepti-
bility, and is, of course, applicable to the susceptibility
shown by some persons to the poison of the American
poison-vine, described in the last article, and of others to
acute inflammation from the dust of hayfields. Some
persons cannot eat lobster, crab, or oysters or mussels
without being poisoned in a varying degree by certain
substances present in those " shell - fish " even when
cooked. Often a " rash " is caused on the skin, and
colic. Others, again, cannot eat any fish of any kind
without being poisoned in a similar way, or possibly are
only liable to be poisoned by grey mullet or by mackerel.
The most curious cases of this individual variability are
found in the rash and fever caused by the vegetable
drug quinine in rare instances, and the violent excite-
ment produced in some persons by the usually soporific
laudanum. All such cases have very great interest as
showing us what a small difference separates an agree-
able flavour or a valuable medicine from a rank poison,
and how readily the chemical susceptibility of a complex
organism like man may vary between toleration and
deathly response, without any concomitant indication of
such difference being apparent (in our present state of
knowledge), in two individuals, to one of whom that is
poison which to the other is meat. They also furnish
a parallel to that marvellous conversion of " toxin " into
" anti-toxin," in consequence of which the blood of an
animal injected with small, increasing doses of deadly snake
poison or diphtheria poison becomes an antidote to the
same poison taken into the blood of an unprepared animal.

POISONOUS PLANTS AND ANIMALS 103

There is, over and above these special cases of fish
foods which are tolerated by some and are poison to
others, a whole series of fishes which cannot be eaten by
any one without serious poisoning being the result, even
when the fish are carefully cooked. Happily, these
fishes are rarely, if ever, caught on our own coasts.
They produce, when even small bits are eaten, violent
irritation of the intestine, and death, the symptoms
resembling in many respects those of cholera. The
curious bright-coloured, beaked fish of tropical seas and
coral reefs, with two or four large front teeth and
spherical spine-covered bodies, and the trigger fish of
the same regions, are the chief of these poisonous fish.
But there is a true anchovy on the coast of Japan, and a
small herring in the West Indies, and a goby on the
Indian coast (Pondicherry), all of which are deadly
poison even when cooked ; and there are many others.
So one has to be careful about fish-eating in the remoter
parts of the world. The poisons of these fish with
poisonous flesh have not been carefully studied, but they
seem to resemble chemically the poisons produced by
certain putrefactive microbes.

Let us now revert to the more special subject of
poisonous stings. Every one knows that although it is
unpleasant to be pricked by the little spines on the leaf
of a thistle, it is not the same unpleasantness as being
" stung " by a nettle. There is no poison in the thistle.
The hairs which beset the leaves of the common nettle
are firm, but brittle and hollow ; they break off in the
skin, and a poison exudes from their interior. Under
the microscope — and it is quite easy to examine it with
a high power — the hollow nettle hair is seen to be partly
occupied by living protoplasm — a transparent, viscid
substance which shows an active streaming movement,
and has embedded in it a dense kernel or nucleus (see

104 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

Fig. i 5 bis). It is, in fact, a living " cell," or life unit
The space in the cell not occupied by protoplasm is filled
with clear liquid, which contains the poison. This has
been examined chemically by using a large quantity of
ntttle hairs, and is found to contain formic acid — the same
irritating acid which is secreted by ants when they sting,
whence its name. But later observations show that the
juice of the nettle hair contains also a special poison in
minute quantities, an albuminous substance, which resem-
bles that contained in the poison-sacs at the base of the
teeth of snakes.

In tropical regions there are nettles far more power-
ful than that of our own country. The one called
Urtica stimulans, which is found in Java, and that called
Laportea crenulata, found in Hindostan, when bruised
emit an effluvium which poisonously affects the eyes and
mouth, and if handled produce convulsions and serious
swelling and pain in the arms, which may last for three
or four weeks, and in some cases cause death. They
are not unknown in the hothouses of our botanical
gardens, and young gardeners are sometimes badly
stung by them. There are other plants provided with
poisonous stinging hairs besides the true nettles or
UrticacecB) though they are not numerous. The Ameri-
can plants called Loasa sting badly, so do some of the
Spurges (Euphorbiacece), and some Hydrophyllece.

The Chinese primrose (Primula obconica), lately intro-
duced into greenhouses, has been found to be almost as
injurious as the poison-vine. Its effects, of course, are
limited to a much smaller group of sufferers. And it is
worth while, in connection with poisoning by primula and
the poisoning by Rhus toxicodendron of only certain in-
dividuals predisposed to its influence, to point out that the
malady known as hay fever seems to be similar in its
character to these vegetable poisonings. It is, of course,

POISONOUS PLANTS AND ANIMALS 105

well known that only certain individuals are liable to the
more violent and serious form of hay fever. It is not at
all improbable that this irritation of the air passages,
often attributed to the mechanical action of the pollen of
grass and other plants — really is due to minute quantities
of a poison like that of the poison-vine, present in the
pollen of some hay plant yet to be suspected, tried, and
convicted.1

With regard to a poisonous action at a distance being
possibly exerted by plants, we must not overlook the
effects of some perfumes discharged into the air by
flowers. Primarily such perfumes appear to serve the
flowers by attracting to them special insects, by whose
movements and search for honey in the flowers the pollen
of one is conveyed to another and fertilisation effected.
Human beings are sometimes injuriously affected by the
heavy perfume given out by lilies and other flowers,
headache and even fainting being the result. No instance
is known of serious injury or death resulting in the
regions where they grow from the overpowering perfume
of such flowers. But that admirable story-teller, Mr. H.
G. Wells, has made a legitimate use of scientific possibilities
in imagining the existence of a rare tropical orchid which
attracts large animals to it by its wonderful odour. The
effects of the perfume are narcotising ; the animal, having
sniffed at the orchid, drops insensible at the foot of the
tree trunk on which the orchid grows. Then the orchid
rapidly, with animal-like celerity, sends forth those smooth
green fingers or " suckers," which you may see clinging
to the pots and shelves on which an orchid is growing

1 Since the above was written, I have seen the account by an
American physician— in a recently issued volume of Osier's Treatise
on Medicine — of his recent discovery of the grass which produces in
its pollen the poison of hay fever, and of the preparation by him of
an anti-toxin which appears to give relief to those who suffer from hay
fever.

106 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

As they slowly creep, in their growth, over the poisoned
animal, they absorb its life's blood painlessly and without
disturbing the death-slumber of the victim. Mr. Wells
supposes a retired civil-servant, with feeble health and a
passion for orchids, to have purchased an unknown speci-
men, which, after some months of nursing, is about to
blossom in the little hothouse of his suburban home. He
goes quietly and alone one afternoon, when his housekeeper
is preparing his tea, to enjoy the first sight and smell of
the unknown flower, and is found, some three hours later,
lying insensible before the orchid, which is giving out
an intoxicating odour, and is looking very vigorous and
wicked. A blood-red tint pervades its leaves and stalks,
and it has already pushed some of its finger-like shoots
round the orchid-lover's neck and beneath his shirt front.
When they are pulled away a few drops of blood flow
from the skin where the absorbent shoots had applied
themselves. The victim recovers.

When we take a survey of the " stings " and poison-
fangs and spurs of animals, we find a much greater
abundance and variety of these weapons than in plants.
They serve animals not only as a means of defence, but
very often for the purpose of attacking and paralysing
their prey. We have to distinguish broadly between
(a) gut-poisons and (^) wound-poisons. The slimy sur-
face of the skin and the juices of animals are often
poisonous if introduced into wounds, but harmless if
swallowed, though in the toad and salamander the skin
contains a poison which acts on the mouth and stomach.
Thus the blood of the eel is poisonous to higher animals
if injected beneath the skin, though not poisonous when
swallowed. Pasteur found that the saliva of a healthy
human baby a few weeks old produced convulsions when
injected beneath the skin of a rabbit. The fluid of the
mouth in fishes (Murcena), in some lizards (Helodermd],

POISONOUS PLANTS AND ANIMALS 107

and some warm-blooded quadrupeds, like the skunk, is
often poisonous, and is introduced into the wound inflicted
by a bite. The elaboration of a sac of the mouth-
surface secreting a special quantity of poison to be
injected by aid of a grooved tooth, such as we find in
poisonous snakes, is only a mechanjcal improvement of
this more general condition. The same general poison-
ous quality is found in the slime of the skins of fishes
which have spines by means of which poisonous wounds
are inflicted (sting-rays). And here, too, an elaboration
is effected in some fishes in which a sac is provided for
the accumulation of the poison, and a specially grooved
spine, to convey the poison into the wound inflicted by
it. A common fish on our coasts, the weever (probably
the same word as viper), is provided with grooved, sting-
ing spines, but no special poison-sac. Some of the
poison-carrying spines support the front portion of the
dorsal fin, which is of a deep black colour, a striking
instance of the warning coloration which poisonous
animals often possess.

The poison introduced into wounds by the spines or
fangs of animals is essentially similar to that of nettle
hairs ; it has the effect of paralysing and of producing
convulsions. It is a remarkable fact that formic acid
often in insects accompanies the paralysing poison —
as it does in the nettle — and produces intense pain
and irritation, which the more dangerous nerve-poison
does not. Immunity to a given wound-poison may be
produced by the injection of doses of it, at first exces-
sively minute, but gradually increased in quantity. A
remedial " anti-toxin " is thus prepared from the blood of
immunised animals, which is used as a cure or as a pro-
tection by injecting it into other animals exposed to bites
or wounds conveying the particular poison by the use of
which the anti-toxin was produced. Bee-keepers who have

1 08 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

often been stung become in many cases immune, and do
not suffer from bee-sting. Men who in France pursue
a business as viper-catchers, are said to become immune
to viper's poison in the same way Snakes and scorpions
are but little, if at all, affected by their own poison when
it is injected into them. This appears to be due to the
fact that the poison-producing animal is always absorb-
ing into its blood very minute doses of the poison which
it has elaborated and stored up in its poison-sac con-
nected with the poison-gland. This small quantity of
poison continually absorbed is continually converted into
an anti-toxin — just as happens when a horse is treated
with doses of snake-poison to prepare the remedial anti-
toxin for use in cases of snake-bite, or with diphtheria-
poison in order to prepare the diphtheria anti-toxin now
so largely used. The anti-toxin is a substance very
closely similar in chemical constitution to the toxin by
the conversion of which it is formed in the blood. Its
action on the toxin (or essential poisonous substance of
the venom) appears to be a very delicate and slight
chemical disturbance of the constitution of that chemical
body. Yet it is enough to cause the injurious quality of
the toxin to be suddenly and completely abrogated,
although from the point of view of chemical composition
it is only, as it were, shaken or given a twist ! Such
great practical differences in the action on living creatures
of chemical bodies having themselves so subtle a differ-
ence of chemical structure as to almost defy our powers
of detection, are now well known.

I made some experiments a few years ago on the
poison of scorpions, which were published by the Linnaean
Society. I obtained live scorpions — a beautiful citron-
coloured kind, of large size — from Biskra, in Algeria
(Fig. 15). The poison-gland and sac are double, and
contained in the last joint of the tail, which is swollen,

POISONOUS PLANTS AND ANIMALS 109

and ends in a splendid curved spine or sting. The
scorpion carries its tail raised in a graceful curve over its
back, and strikes with the sting by a powerful forward
stroke. One can seize the tail by the last joint but one,
and thus safely hold the animal, and see the poison
exude in drops from the perforated sting. I found that
if I pressed the sting thus held into the scorpion's own
body, or into that of another scorpion, no harm resulted

FIG. 15. — Drawing from life of the desert scorpion (Buthus australis, Lin.),
from Biskra, N. Africa, of the natural size. (From Lankester, Journ.
Linn. Soc. Zool.,vol. xvi. 1881.)

to the wounded animal, although plenty of the poison
entered the little wound made by the sting. A large
cockroach or a mouse similarly wounded by the sting
was paralysed, and died in a few minutes. It is a custom
in countries where scorpions abound, and are trouble-
some, and even dangerous to human life, for the natives
to make a circle of red-hot charcoal, and to place a large
scorpion in the centre of the enclosed area. The
scorpion, it is stated, runs round inside the circle, and,
finding that escape is impossible, deliberately drives its
sting into its back, and so commits suicide. My experi-

no SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

ments showed that the scorpion could not kill itself in
this way, as its poison does not act on itself. Moreover,
it has been shown by Professor Bourne, of Madras, that
although scorpions constantly fight with one another,
they never attempt to use their stings in these battles,
but only their powerful, lobster-like claws. The stings
would be useless, and are reserved for their attacks on
animals susceptible to the poison. I also found the
ground for the belief that the scorpion kills itself when
enclosed in a fiery circle. Incredible as it may appear in
regard to such denizens of the hot regions of the earth,
both the desert scorpion and the large dark-green
Indian scorpions actually faint and become motionless
and insensible when exposed for a few minutes to a
temperature a little above that of the human body. This
was carefully ascertained by using an incubator and a
thermometer. The scorpion in the fiery circle lashes
about with its sting, and then suddenly faints owing to
the heat. If removed from the heat it recovers com-
pletely ; but, of course, when it is supposed to have
committed suicide, no one takes the trouble to remove it.
I made, several times, the actual experiment of placing a
large active scorpion within a ring-like wall, a foot in
diameter, formed by live coals. The scorpion never
stung itself. On one occasion it walked out over the
coals, and on other occasions, after lashing its tail and
running about, fainted, and became motionless.

Jelly-fishes are often called " sea-nettles," because of
the microscopic poison-bearing threads which they dis-
charge from their skin. These are used to paralyse
their prey, and, in a few kinds only, are sufficiently
powerful to cause a " stinging " effect when they come
into contact with a bather's skin. Sea-anemones are
also armed with these minute threads, and their poison
has been extracted and studied. The spines of star-

POISONOUS PLANTS AND ANIMALS in

fishes and sea-urchins have a very deadly poison
associated with them, which has recently been examined.
Among insects we have the bees, wasps, and ants, with
their terminal stings ; caterpillars, with poisonous hairs ;
gnats, with poisonous mouth glands. Residents in
mosquito-infested countries become " immune " to the
poison of gnat-bite, but not to the deadly germs of
malaria and yellow fever carried by the gnats. The
centipedes have powerful jaws, provided with poison-
sacs ; the spiders have stabbing claws, fitted with poison-
glands. Shell-fish, such as crabs and lobsters, do not
possess stings or poison-sacs, but some of the whelk-like
sea-snails have poison-glands, which secrete a fluid deadly
to other shell-fish. We have already spoken of the poison-
spines of fishes ; among reptiles it is only some of the
snakes which are poisonous, and are known to have poison-
glands connected with grooved fangs. Only one kind of
lizard — the Heloderm of North America, already men-
tioned— has poison-glands in its mouth, but it has no
special poison-fangs, only small teeth. There is a most
persistent and curious popular error to the effect that the
rapidly moving bifid tongue of snakes and lizards is a
"sting." It is really quite innocuous. No sting is
known among birds, although some have fighting
" spurs " on the leg, and " claws " on the wing.

Only the lowest of the mammals or warm-blooded
hairy quadrupeds — namely, the Australian duck-mole
(Ornithorhynchus) and the spiny ant-eater (Echidna) —
have poison-glands and related " spurs, " or stings. They
have on the hind-leg a " spur " of great size and strength,
which is perforated and connected with a gland which
produces a poisonous milky fluid. Recent observations,
however, as to the poisonous character of this fluid are
wanting. Many mammals have large sac-like glands,
which open by definite apertures, in some cases between

H2 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

the toes, in others upon the legs, at the side or back of
the head (the elephant), in the middle of the back or
about the tail. The fluid secreted by these glands is not
poisonous nor acrid, but odoriferous, and seems to serve
to attract the individuals of a species to one another.
They resemble in structure and often in position the
poison-glands of the spurs of the duck-mole and spiny
ant-eater.

Many insects produce a good deal of irritation, and
even dangerous sores, by biting and burrowing in the
human skin, without secreting any active poison. Often
they introduce microscopic germs of disease in this way
from one animal to another, as, for instance, do gnats,
tsetze-flies, and horse-flies, and as do some small kinds of
tics. The bites of the flea, of midges, gnats, and bugs are
comparatively harmless unless germs of disease are intro-
duced by them, an occurrence which, though exceptional,
is yet a great and terrible danger. We now know that
it is in this way, and this way only, that malaria or ague,
yellow fever, plague, sleeping-sickness, and some other
diseases are carried from infected to healthy men. Various
diseases of horses and cattle are propagated in the same
way. The mere bites of insects may be treated with an
application of carbolic acid dissolved in camphor. The
pain caused by the acid stings of bees, wasps, ants, and
nettles can be alleviated by dabbing the wound with weak
ammonia (hartshorn). Insects which bury themselves in
the skin, such as the jigger-flea of the West Indies and
tropical Africa, should be dug out with a needle or fine
blade. The minute creature, like a cheese-mite, which
burrows and breeds in the skin of man and causes the
affliction known as the itch must be poisoned by sulphur-
ous acid — a result achieved by rubbing the skin freely
with sulphur ointment on two or three successive days.
A serious pest in the summer in many parts of England

POISONOUS PLANTS AND ANIMALS

is a little animal known as the harvest-man. These are
the young of a small red spider-like creature, called
Trombidium. They get on to the feet of persons walk-
ing in the grass, and crawl up the legs and burrow into
the tender skin. Benzine will keep them away if applied
to the ankles or stockings when they are about, and will
also destroy them once they have effected a lodgment.

FIG. 15 bis. — A. Highly magnified draw-
ing of a stinging hair of the common
nettle. The hair is seen to be a single
cell or capsule of large size, taper-
ing to its extremity, but ending in a
little knob. The hard case e is filled
with liquid a, and is lined with slimy
granular " protoplasm " b, which ex-
tends in threads across the cavity to the
" nucleus " c. The ordinary small cells
of the nettle leaf are marked d. B shows
the knobbed end of the stinging hair,
and the way in which, owing to the
thinness of its walls, it breaks off along
the line xy when pressed, leaving a sharp
projecting edge, which penetrates the
skin of an animal, whilst the protoplasm
p, distended with poisonous liquid, is
shown in C, issuing from the broken
end. It would escape in this way when
the sharp, freshly broken end had pene-
trated some animal's skin.

b.

XIII
THE DRAGON: A FANCY OR A FACT

I AM about to write of loathly dragons, " gorgons
and hydras and chimaeras dire." Every one knows
what a dragon looks like, though probably most people
could not give a minute description of the beast. A
number of quite distinct creatures, some living on land,
some in sea, are spoken of in the Bible by a word which
is translated as " dragon." The ancient Welsh chieftains,
like many fighting princes of old days, bore a " dragon "
on their banners, and were themselves called " dragons "
(Pen-dragon), and when a knight slew such a chieftain
fabulous stories grew up as to his combat with and
slaughter of a " dragon."

The complete, legitimate dragon of the present day
is the dragon of heraldry, which is maintained in proper
form and with authorised attributes by the Heralds'
College. I have a drawing of this " official " beast before
me (Fig. 16). He is represented as of large size, but
whether theoretically the heralds of to-day consider him
to be as large as a lion or ten times as long and tall I do
not know. His body is lizard-like, and covered with
scales resembling those of some lizards (unlike a crocodile
in this respect). His head is not unlike that of a croco-
dile, excepting that he has a short, sharp horn on his
nose, and a beard on his chin, and also a pair of large

THE DRAGON: A FANCY OR A FACT 115

pointed ears which no living reptile possesses. His
mouth is open, showing teeth like those of a crocodile,
and from it issues a remarkable tongue, terminating in an
arrow-head-shaped weapon (presumably a " sting ") un-
like anything known in any living animal. His tail is
very long and snake-like (an important fact when we
come to consider his ancestry), and is thrown into coils.
It terminates in an arrow-head-
shaped structure like that of the
tongue, quite unlike anything known
in any real animal. He has four
powerful limbs, which are not like
those of a lizard or a crocodile.
They resemble those of an eagle,
and have grasping toes and claws,
three directed forward and one back-
ward. In addition, he has a pair FlG- l6> _The heraldic
of wings, which are leathery, and dragon : observe the bat-
supported by several parallel bars, like wings> the ears> the

... . , . horned nose, the beard,

a structure which gives the wings a the arrow.like tongue and
remote resemblance to those of a tail -piece, the scaly body,
bat. The wing is quite unlike that the dorsal crest« &e

f j L 1 /ii. i- snake-like tail with its

of a pterodactyle (the great extinct unnatural arrow.like ter.
flying lizard), and has no resemblance mination.
whatever to that of a bird, which is,
of course, formed by separate quill feathers set in a row
on the bones of the fore-arm and hand. The wings are
always represented (even in illegitimate and Oriental
dragons) as much too small to carry the dragon in flight.
The dragon has, further, a crest of separate triangular
plates set in a row along the mid-line of his back, extend-
ing from his head to the end of his tail. Some lizards
(but not crocodiles) have such a crest. The most like it
is that of the New Zealand lizard, called the Sphenodon.
Such is the creature called " the " dragon. But

n6

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

heraldry recognises some other terrible beasts allied to the
dragon ; in fact, what zoologists would call " allied species."
The griffin, for instance (Fig. 1 7), is
a four-legged beast like the dragon,
but has the beak and wings and fore-
feet of an eagle, and the hind-legs
and tail of a lion. The heraldic
hydra is a dragon, such as I have
above described, but with seven heads
and necks. The ancient Greek re-
presentation of the hydra destroyed
FIG. 17.— The heraldic by Hercules (as painted on vases)

griffin. It alone of the w Qn the contrary) based Upon the
dragon - like monsters . , , 1^1

has feathery wings. octopus, or eight-armed cuttle-fish,
each arm carrying a snake-like head
(Fig. 1 8). The wyvern is an important variety of the
dragon tribe, well known to heralds, but not to be seen
every day. It so far conforms to natural laws that it has
only two legs, the fore-limbs being the wings (Fig. 19).
The true dragon and the
griffin, like the angel of eccle-
siastical art, have actually six
limbs — namely, a pair of fore-
legs or arms, a pair of hind-
legs, and, in addition, a pair of
wings. Occasionally an artist
(even in ancient Egyptian
works of art) has attempted
to avoid this redundance of
limbs by representing an
angel as having the arms
themselves provided with an
expanse of quill feathers. This

is certainly a less extraordinary arrangement than the
outgrowth of wings (which in birds bats, and pterodactyles

FIG. 1 8. — Hercules destroying the
hydra (copied from an ancient
Greek vase).

THE DRAGON: A FANCY OR A FACT 117

actually are the modified arms or fore-limbs), as an extra
pair of limbs rooted in the back.
The wyvern and the cockatrice and
the basilisk (Fig. 20) (which, like
the Gorgon Medusa, can strike a
man dead by the mere glance of
the eye) are remarkable for con-
forming to the invariable vertebrate
standard of no more than two pairs
of limbs, whether legs, wings, or
fins. The name " lind-worm " is
given to a wyvern without wings
(hence the Linton Worm and the
Laidley Worm

FIG. 19.— The heraldic
wyvern.

of Lambton), and
appears in various heraldic devices
and in legendary art ; whilst in the
arms of the Visconti of Milan we climb
down to a quite simple serpent-like
creature without legs or wings, known
as the " guivre."

Without looking further into the
basilisk, also called strange and fantastic catalogue of
the Amphysian imaginary monsters, one must recog-

r:±d °n: ->« ** * fa a *.«« of ^ ta.

terest to trace the origin of these
marvellous creations of human fancy,
and the way in which they have first
of all been brought into pictorial exist-
ence, and then variously modified and
finally stereotyped and maintained by
tradition and art. It has not infre-
quently been suggested, since geolo-
creature is the head gists made us acquainted with the

and which is the tail. , c i j 11-

bones of huge and strange-looking
fossil reptiles dug from ancient rocks, that the tradi-

FlG. 20. — The heraldic

the end of its tail— a
feature due to per-
version of the obser-
vation that there are
some snake -like crea-
tures (Amphisbena)
with so simple a
head that it is at first
sight difficult to say
which end of the

n8 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

tion of " the dragon " is really a survival of the actual
knowledge and experience of these extinct monsters on
the part of " long-ago races of men." It is a curious
fact, mentioned by a well-known writer, Mrs. Jameson,
that the bones of a great fossil reptile were preserved
and exhibited at Aix in France as the bones of the
dragon slain by St. Michael, just as the bones of a
whale are shown as those of the mythical Dun-cow of
Warwick in that city.

There are three very good reasons for not enter-
taining the suggestion that the tradition of the dragon
and similar beasts is due to human co-existence with the
great reptiles of the past. The first is that the age of
the rocks known as cretaceous and Jurassic (or oolitic),
in which are found the more or less complete skeletons
of the great saurians — many bigger in the body than
elephants, and with huge tails in addition, iguanodon,
megalosaurus, diplodocus, as well as the winged ptero-
dactyles (see Plate II., where a representation is given of
what we know as to the form and bearing of two species
of pterodactyle) and a vast series of such creatures — is
so enormously remote that not only man but all the
hairy warm-blooded animals like him, did not come into
existence until many millions of years after these rocks
had been deposited by water and the great reptiles
buried in them had become extinct. The cave-men of
the Pleistocene period are modern, even close to us, as
compared with the age when the great saurians flourished.
That was just before the time when our chalk-cliffs were
being formed as a slowly growing sediment on the
floor of a deep sea. No accurate measure of the time
which has elapsed since then is possible, but we find that
about 200 ft. thickness of deposit has been accumulated
since the date of the earliest human remains known to
us — whilst over 5000 ft. have accumulated since the

THE DRAGON: A FANCY OR A FACT 119

chalk began to be deposited, and the great saurians
ceased to exist. If we reckon, in accordance with the
most moderate estimate, a quarter of a million years for
the upper 200 ft. of deposit or human period (Pleistocene),
we must suppose that twenty or thirty times as long a
period has elapsed to allow time for the deposit of the
5000 ft. of sand and rock since the great saurians ceased
to exist. This would be some six or seven million
years — a long while for tradition to run, even supposing
man existed all that time, which he did not. And the
probability is that this estimate of the time is far too
small : a hundred million years is nearer the truth.

Suppose that man came into existence as an in-
telligent creature, capable of handing on a tradition, as
much as half a million or even a million years before
the date of the remains of the earliest cave-men dis-
covered in Europe, we yet get no long way down the
avenue of past time. Man would still be separated by
millions of years and long ages of change and develop-
ment of the forms of animal life on the earth's surface,
from the period of the great reptiles or saurians who
flourished before the chalk was deposited. And there
is good evidence that none of those great saurians
survived the date of the chalk. They died out and
their place was taken by the earliest ancestors of
elephants, rhinoceroses, horses, cattle, lions, and monkeys,
from which in the course of ages the animals we know
by those names were developed, whilst very late in the
history man was produced. The reptiles continued as
small, furtive creatures — the lizards and a few biggish
snakes and crocodiles — but no descendants of " the great
Dinosaurs " survived.

Another reason against the supposed survival of a
real tradition of dragons is that, even in regard to much
later — immensely later — creatures, such as the mammoth

120 SCIENCE EROM AN EASY CHAIR

or hairy elephant, which we know was contemporary with
man, there is no real tradition. The natives of the sub-
arctic regions in which the skeletons and whole carcases
of the mammoth are found in a frozen state, and from
whence many hundreds of tusks of the mammoth have
been since the earliest times yearly exported and used
in Europe as ivory, have no "fradition" of these
creatures. They have fanciful stories about the ghosts
of the mammoths, but they call their tusks " horns,"
and have no legends of the monster as a living thing.
The use of mammoth's ivory in Northern Europe dates
back for a thousand years historically, and probably has
never ceased since the. days of the cave-men. Three
years ago I examined the richly carved drinking horn
of a Scandinavian hero, dating from the tenth century,
and preserved amongst the treasures of York Minster,
and I have little doubt that it is fashioned from the tusk
of a mammoth.

A third reason for rejecting any connection of the
dragon with a real reminiscence of the great extinct
saurians is that its origin and its gradual building up in
human fancy can be traced in the same way as that of
many other fanciful and legendary creatures by reference
to the regular operation of the imagination in successive
ages of mankind. All races of men have imagined
monsters by combining into one several parts of different
animals. The centaur of the Greeks is a blend of man
and horse, the great " divine " chimera of the Greeks
was a two-headed blend of lion and goat, and any such
mixed creature is technically called nowadays " a chimera".
The dragon is classed by heralds as a chimera. Some-
times one of these imaginary beasts has its origin in a
terrible or weird animal, which really exists in some
distant land, and is celebrated or even worshipped by the
inhabitants of that distant land, whose descriptions of it

THE DRAGON: A. FANCY OR A FACT 121

are carried in a distorted and exaggerated form to regions
where it does not exist.

The dragon ap-
pears to be nothing
more nor less in its
origin than one of the
great snakes (pythons),
often 25 ft. in length,
which inhabit tropical

T. FlG. 21. — The Chinese Imperial Dragon

from a drawing on a tile of the old Imperial
Palace of Nankin. It has five claws. No
one outside the Imperial service may use
it, under penalty of death. Ordinary
people have to be content with a four-
clawed dragon. Compare this with the
European heraldic dragon, Fig. 16.

India and Africa,
dangerous character
and terrible appear-
ance and movement
impressed primitive
mankind, and tradi-
tions of it have passed

with migrating races both to the East and to the West,
so that we find the mythical dragon in ancient China and
in Japan, no less than in Egypt and in Greece. It
retains its snake-like body and tail, especially in the

Chinese and
Japanese repre-
sentations (Figs.
21 and 22) ; but
in both East and
West, legs and

wings have been
added

FIG. 22. — A flying snake with two pairs of wings —

a " fabulous" creature thus drawn in an ancient gradually

Chinese work, the " Shan Hai King." This to it for the pur-

book dates from about 350 A.D., but probably pOse of making it

isbased on records of a thousand years' earlier ^^ terrjb]e and

expressing some

of its direful qualities. Chinese traditions indicate the
mountains of Central Asia as the home of the dragon,
whilst the ancient Greeks considered it to have come

122 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

from the East. As a matter of fact, the Greek word
" drakon " actually meant plainly and simply a large

snake, and is so used
by Aristotle and
other writers. There
is a beautiful Greek
vase - painting (Fig.
23) showing the dra-
gon which guarded
the golden apples of
the Hesperides as
nothing more than a
gigantic snake (with-
out legs or wings),
coiled round the
trunk of the tree on
which the apples are
growing (like the
later pictures of the
serpent on the apple
tree in the Garden
of Eden), whilst the
ladylike Hesperides
are politely welcom-
ing the robust Her-
FIG. 23.— The dragon guarding the tree in cujes to their garden.

rp,

* ne worship and

the garden of the Hesperides on which grew
the golden apples, in quest of which, according
to Greek legend, the hero Hercules went, propitiation of the
The drawing is copied from an ancient Greek serpent is an im-
vase, and the original includes figures of the i i j r r

Hesperides and of Hercules, not reproduced Densely old form of
here. religion (antecedent

to Judaism), and

exists, or has existed, in both the old world and the
new. The Egyptians revered a great serpent-god called
" Ha-her," or " great Lord of fear and terror " ; to him

THE DRAGON: A FANCY OR A FACT 123

the wicked were handed over after death to be bitten
and tortured. The evil spirit in the Scandinavian
mythology was a huge snake — and the connection, not to
say confusion, of the terrible snake with the dragon on
the part of the early Christians is shown by the words
in Revelation xx. I, 2, " the dragon, that old serpent,
which is the Devil, and Satan." The mediaeval devil
with goat's feet retained the dragon's tail with its curious
triangular termination.

To the Greeks and Romans snakes were not such
very terrible creatures, since the kinds found in South
Europe are small and harmless — only the viper being
poisonous — and they regarded the serpent as a beneficent
creature, the familiar of Esculapius the god of medicine,
companion of the household gods (the Lares), and
guardian of sacred places, tombs, and concealed treasure
(Fig. 27). The snake was the special earth-god, sub-
terranean in habit, cunning, subtle, and gifted with
powers of divination. The conception of the serpent
as an avenging monster kept continually thrusting itself
from the East into the popular mythology of the Greeks,
and finally led to the building up of the dragon as a
winged and clawed creature distinct from the harmless
but cunning snake familiar to them. Even in India
there arose a sort of double attitude towards the snake
(as is not uncommon in regard to deities). On the
one hand he was regarded as all that was terrible, de-
structive, and evil, and on the other as amiable, kindly,
and wise. The services of the beautiful rat-snake in
destroying house rats rendered him and his kind welcome
and valued guests. In Egypt we find representations
of small winged snakes without legs, and the ancient
traveller, Herodotus, believed that they represented real
creatures, as did the Roman naturalist, Pliny. Very
probably the belief in winged snakes is due to the

124 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

similarity of the snake and the eel in general form, since
the paired fins of the eel close to the head (see Figs. 24
and 25) correspond in position with the wings shown in
the Egyptian drawings of winged serpents. The particular
form of winged snake pictured on Egyptian monuments
(see Figs. 26, 27) appears to me to be a realisation of
stories and fancies based on real experience of the locust.
It was the terrible and destructive locust of which Hero-
dotus tells — calling it "a winged serpent." The Egyptian

FIG. 24.— A votive

tablet (ancient
Rome) showing
what is meant for
a snake, but has
been "improved"
by the addition of
fins like those of
the eel.

FlG. 25. — Ancient Roman
painting of a so-called
marine serpent— really an
eel-like fish — inaccurately
represented. The fins
show how, from such pic-
tures, the belief in winged
serpents might take its
origin.

pictures of winged serpents have wings resembling those
of an insect (see Figs. 26 and 27), and sometimes they
are represented with one and sometimes with two pairs.

Aristotle says that, as a matter of common report in
his time, there were winged serpents in Africa. Hero-
dotus, on the contrary, says there were none except in
Arabia, and he went across the Red Sea from the city of
Bats in order to see them. He did not, however, succeed
in doing so, though he says he saw their dead bodies and
bones. He says that they hang about the trees in vast
numbers, are of small size and varied colour, and that

THE DRAGON: A FANCY OR A FACT 125

they are kept in check by the bird known as the Ibis,
which on that account is held sacred, since they increase
so rapidly that unless devoured they would render it
impossible for man to maintain himself on the earth.
They invade Egypt in swarms, flying across the Red Sea.
All this agrees with my suggestion that the winged
" serpents " heard of by Herodotus were really locusts ;
and the creature drawn in Fig. 27 may well be a locust
transformed by fancy into a winged snake.

It would be a very interesting but a lengthy task to
trace out the origin and history of the various traditional

FIG. 26. — Egyptian four-winged
serpent — as drawn on ancient
Egyptian temples.

FIG. 27. — Two-winged ser-
pent, symbolic of the
goddess Eileithya, from
a drawing on an Egyptian
temple.

monsters, such as the basilisk, the gorgon, the cocka-
trice, the salamander, and the epimacus, which have
come into European legend and belief, and to give some
account of the special deadly qualities of each. St.
Michael and St. George slaughtering each his dragon
and rescuing a lovely maiden from its clutches are only
appropriations by the new religion of the similar deeds
ascribed to Greek heroes, such as Hercules, Bellerophon,
and Perseus. Often a belief in the existence of a
monster has arisen by a misunderstanding, on the part
of a credulous people, of a drawing or carving showing
a strange mixture of the leading characteristics of
different animals, which was meant by the man who

126 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

made it to be only symbolic of a combination of qualities.
Just as the Latins and mediaeval people credulously
accepted Greek symbolic monsters as real, and trans-
muted Greek heroes into Christian saints, so were the
Greeks themselves deluded by strange carvings and
blood-curdling legends which reached them at various
dates from mysterious Asia into a belief in the actual
existence of a variety of fantastic monsters. " The
Greeks," says M. E. Pettier, a distinguished French
writer on Greek mythology, " often copied Oriental
representations without understanding them." The con-
ventional dragon probably came from Indian sources
through Persia to China, on the one hand, spreading
eastwards, and to the Latins of the early Roman Empire,
on the other hand, spreading westwards ; but at what
date exactly it is difficult to make out.

In mediaeval, as well as in earlier times, marvellous
beasts were brought into imaginary existence by the
somewhat unscrupulous enterprise of an artist in giving
pictorial expression to the actual words by which some
traveller described a strange beast seen by him in a
foreign land. Thus the " unicorn," which was really the
rhinoceros, was seen by travellers in the earliest times,
and was described as an animal like a horse, but with a
single horn growing from its forehead. The heraldic
draughtsman accordingly takes the spirally twisted
narwhal's tusk, brought from the northern seas by
adventurous mariners (the narwhal being called " the
unicorn fish ") as his unicorn's horn, and plants it on the
forehead of a horse, and says, " Behold ! the unicorn."
Meanwhile the real " unicorn," the rhinoceros, became
properly known as navigation and Eastern travel ex-
tended, and true unicorns' horns, the horns of the
rhinoceros, richly carved and made into drinking cups,
not at all like the narwhal's tusk, were brought to

THE DRAGON: A FANCY OR A FACT 127

Europe from India. One was sent to Charles II. by
" the Great Sophy," and handed over to the Royal
Society by the King for experiment. These horns were
asserted to be the most powerful antidote or destroyer
of poison, and a test for the presence of poison in drink.
There was no truth whatever in the assertion, as the Royal
Society at once showed. Yet they were valued at enor-
mous prices, and pieces were sold for their weight in gold.
A German traveller in the time of Queen Elizabeth saw
one which was kept among the Queen's jewels at Windsor,
and was valued, according to this writer, at ;£ 10,000.

Credulity, fancy, and hasty judgment are accountable
for the belief in mythical and legendary monsters. Yet
they have great interest for the scientific study of the
growth of human thought and of the relationships of the
races of mankind. They are often presented to us in
beautiful stories, carvings, or pictures, having a child-
like sincerity and a concealed symbolism which give to
the wondrous creatures charm and human value.

XIV
OYSTERS

OYSTERS are delicate morsels — still appreciated by
that class of the population which nevertheless
shudders at the thought of eating the high-flavoured
" whilk " or the gristly " periwinkle," and neglects the
admirable mussel, so rightly valued by our French friends.
There are a number of interesting facts about the nature
and life-history of oysters, and the different kinds of
them — a knowledge of which does not diminish, but, on
the contrary, rather adds to the pleasure with which one
swallows the shell-fish. I remember the time when
" natives " were sold in London at sixpence the score.
When I was a schoolboy at St. Paul's they were no
more than sixpence a dozen at the best shops in Cheap-
side. That inevitable form of British enterprise which
is known as " monopoly," many years since laid hold of
the oyster business, and rapidly raised the price of the
best natives to eight times what it had been, while the
typhoid " scare " came subsequently as a sort of poetical
justice, and threatened to ruin the oyster monopolists.
As a matter of fact, there is no difficulty in freeing
oysters from any possible contamination by the typhoid
germ. They have only to be kept for ten days or a
fortnight in large tanks of sea-water of unquestionable
purity — after removal from the fattening grounds (tanks

OYSTERS 129

or waterways), and they rid themselves of any possible
infection. It is the interest of the oyster merchant to
make sure that this treatment is strictly enforced. It is
a noteworthy fact that the anciently established habit of
drenching an oyster with vinegar before eating it is
precisely the best treatment, except cooking them, which
could have been adopted in order to destroy the vitality
of typhoid germs — although the existence of such germs
was unknown when the practice arose, and vinegar or
lemon-juice was taken with uncooked oysters as a matter
of taste, not as a safeguard.

The oyster is sometimes grandiloquently styled " the
succulent mollusc " — and it is classed together with other
bivalve shells and true " shell-bearing " shell-fish, such as
whelks and snails (not lobsters and crabs, which are
Crustacea), in a great division of animals known to
naturalists as the Mollusca. This word is only a Latin
form of the name Malakia, which was given to the
cuttle-fishes by that wonderful man Aristotle, the Greek —
and means " soft creatures." A bivalve, or two-shelled
mollusc, like the oyster, may be compared to an oblong
notebook. The hard covers correspond to the two
shells and the back to a horny piece by which the two
shells are united, forming the hinge. If you place a
piece of indiarubber (a thickish bit) between the covers
of the notebook so that it lies near the back, and then
try to shut the book, you find that it requires some
pressure to do so ; when you leave off pressing them the
covers gape. The horny hinge-piece or ligament of the
shells of the oyster and other bivalves acts in this way.
The shells are only kept closed by a strong muscle,
which runs across from shell to shell (Figs. 28 and 30772).
When the oyster is at rest or when it is dead the muscle
does not act, and the elastic hinge-piece or ligament
causes the shells to gape. The animal within the shells
9

130 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

may be compared to the leaves of the notebook. Suppose
there are twenty-six leaves, then the outermost leaf on
each side corresponds to the two soft living membrane-

d

FlG. 28. — An oyster with the right-side shell removed ; c,
the pearly inner surface of the left-side shell ; d, the
horny outer layer projecting beyond c ; a, the thick
edge of the " mantle "-flap of the left side ; b, the
thick edge of the mantle-flap of the right side thrown
back towards the centre, so as to show what underlies
it ; e, notch in the surface (pulled a little upwards and
forwards) where the ligament is formed ; h, the hinge
urface, where the removed shell rested on the left-side
shell ; g1 to g*, the four gill-plates or flaps, two right
two left — the so-called beard ; /, the four correspond-
ing lip lobes : the mouth lies deeply between the
second and third — that is between the right pair and
the left pair ; m, the central shell-muscle, which runs
from one shell to the other.

ous flaps which secrete the two shells or covers of the
oyster and lie closely on them (a, b, Figs. 28 and 30);
the next two on each side (rather shortened leaves, folded

OYSTERS 131

in from below) are the flat gills or " gill-plates " of the
mollusc (g* to g* in Fig. 28); whilst we must suppose
the twenty middle leaves to be " pulped " and fused
together to represent the body of the shell-fish.

The oyster's gill-plates, commonly called " the beard,"
are covered on the surface by microscopic hairs of a very
remarkable kind (Fig. 29). They are soft, living proto-
plasm, and are continually " lashing," bending forwards
and straightening again at the rate of some three or four
hundred strokes to the minute. They all work rhythmically
together, and produce a strong current in the water, which

FIG. 29. — Part of a row of the lashing hairs or " cilia " which cover the gills of
the oyster. This represents part of a single row, only the T^-gth of an inch
long from one end to the other. The whole surface of the gill and other
parts is beset with these hairs, not in single rows, but closely, as the hairs
of fur are set. The drawing is intended to show the way in which the
hairs actively bend downwards (or "lash"), and then rise up again in
regular waves, the movement or wave passing along in the same way as a
wave of bending and returning to the upright passes over a ripe cornfield
when a light breeze blows across it (see also Fig. 40).

bathes the surface of the oyster when the shells are open.
Such microscopic vibrating hairs are very common in
aquatic animals, and are called " cilia." The current
which they produce causes oxygen-holding water to flow
from without over the gills, and so aerate the blood of the
oyster, and also carries into the chamber protected by
the shells excessively minute particles, chiefly microscopic
plants, which are driven on to the small, open mouth of
the oyster, placed far up on its body. These micro-
scopic food-particles are wafted down the oyster's throat
by similar vibrating hairs into the stomach and intestine.
An oyster has no other means of taking food, and almost
without cessation, as the oyster lies on the sea bottom

132 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

heart

with its muscle relaxed and its shell " gaping," the
nourishing stream is kept going. If poisonous matter,
bad water, or some violent disturbance make themselves
apparent, the shell-muscle acts, and the oyster tightly
closes his shell. Such things make themselves " apparent "
to the oyster, for it has a nervous system, and though it
has no eyes (the nearly allied " scallop " has a number of
eyes) it has a delicate sense of smell and touch, and also
what is usually considered to be an organ of hearing.
The oyster has also a heart and blood-vessels (Fig. 30)

and blood ; in some
few bivalves and
snails the blood is
red like our own.
I The beating of the
heart may be seen
by careful examina-
tion of a freshly
opened specimen.
The oyster has also
a " liver," or diges-
tive gland, and a
kidney and a soft,
branched, tubular
structure embedded
in the body, within
which the egg-cells
and sperm-cells grow
by means of which
the oyster propagates

itself in the summer. Our north European oyster pro-
duces in the same individual both egg-cells, and the male
fertilising sperm-cells or spermatozoa. The eggs are just
visible to the unaided eye (Fig. 31), and as many as a
million are produced in the warm breeding season by a

FIG. 30. — The animal of an oyster removed
from the shell : a, the thick edge of the
left side mantle-flap or skirt ; b, same of
the right side ; /, position of the mouth ;
m, shell-muscle or adductor-muscle, bring-
ing the two shells tightly together when it
contracts.

OYSTERS 133

single ripe oyster. About a fortnight after the eggs have
been shed, the same tubular chambers in the oyster's body
which produced the eggs by growth from their inner walls,
produce the spermatozoa, so that they are too late to
fertilise the eggs of the same oyster. They pass out of
the oyster into the sea water, and are carried within the

FIG. 31. — The eggs of the oyster — taken from
a ripe individual — magnified 500 times
linear.

shelter of the shells, and so on to the surface of the
protected bodies of other neighbouring oysters by
the currents created by the " ciliated " gill-plates of these
neighbours.

The sperm particles or spermatozoa (Fig. 32) are
produced by millions, and form a cloud finer than dust
in the sea water. They are carried within the shells of
both egg-producing and sperm-producing oysters, and are

134 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

driven along into the openings of the tubular reproductive
sacs, and into those sacs in the case of those oysters
which are at the time producing eggs.
There they fertilise the eggs. The
\. V <4 J " J~ minute eggs begin to develop whilst still
T^ within the parent's body, and continue
/-r* to do so whilst remaining within the
4 X shelter of the shell, adhering to the
gill-plates (Fig. 33). In a day or two
each fertilised egg has developed into a
very mmute creature, provided with a
tiny circlet of cilia or vibratile hairs, the
FIG. 32.— The sperms movements of which cause it to swim

or spermatozoa of /T-,. ,-,, ~,

a ripe oyster, as (Fl£- 33*> The parent oyster is now
seen swimming in a said to be " white-sick." In the course
drop of sea water : of a COuple of days the young oyster
dmeTHneat 2OCO still within its parent's shell becomes dark
in colour, and has formed on its surface
a pair of symmetrical shells, not like those of an adult
oyster, but convex (Fig. 34) like those of a clam or
a cockle. The head region, with its circlet of vibrating
cilia, can be projected between the open shells or with-
drawn between them when the shells are shut. The
mother oyster, laden with these little dark specks, is now
said to be " black-sick."

In the course of a week or so the brood of dark
young oysters escapes by thousands from the parent's
shell into the surrounding water. They swim by their
circlet of vibrating hairs, or " velum," as it is called,
towards the surface, and are carried far and wide by the
tides. They are active, transparent little " dots," very
unlike their parent (Fig. 34). The next thing that
happens to them — after a few days, perhaps weeks — is
that owing to the increasing weight of their shells, they
sink to the bottom. More than half perish by dropping

OYSTERS

sk-

FIG. 33. — Development of the egg of the common oyster, after fer-
tilisation within the tubular passage of the reproductive sacs.
A, surface view. B, section through a very early stage — the
separate cells or protoplasmic corpuscles which have resulted
from the dividing up of the fertilised single egg-cell are seen ;
bl, in-pushing to form the gut ; skt in-pushing to form the rudi-
ment of the double shell. C and D, the same a few hours
later. The mouth, m, is now seen. E, still later stage surface
view: a ring of cilia has appeared. F, the young free-swimming
oyster nearly ready to leave its mother's protection, who is now
laden with such young, and is said to be " white-sick." The
top of the head, tp, is now well marked and surrounded by a
ring of lashing cilia. The outline of the right-side shell is seen,
and the foot,//, between the mouth, m, and the arius, a. The
stomach, st, and the intestine, e, show by transparency.

136 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

thus on to bad ground ; a vast number have already
been eaten by young fishes and shrimps. Those which
are lucky enough to fall on to some-
thing hard — stones, rocks, old oyster-
shells, or the shells of living oysters —
become cemented to those hard sub-
stances by the new shelly substance
formed by the growing edge of the
lowermost of their little shells, which
now spread out, lose their cockle-like
shape as they grow, and become, the
one (the left by which it is fixed) large,
deep, and bossed, the other flat. The
little oysters are only one-fortieth of
an inch in diameter when first they
become fixed, but they grow rapidly,
feeding in the same way as their
parents. Vast numbers are eaten by
other animals. In some localities in

head, with its tuft
of cilia projecting
from between the
two shells, / and r.

FIG. 34. — F r e e-

swimming young
oyster or oyster-

larva, showing the two years, in others in three years,
they have grown to a couple of inches
in length, and now produce in the
summer breeding season a certain
quantity of eggs and sperm to start
new generations. The oyster continues to grow, and at
five to seven years of age is in full vigour and maturity ;
at ten years of age it produces few eggs, or sperm-cells ;
and in the course of another year or so, under natural
conditions, dies.

Enormous as is the output of young by a single
oyster — amounting to something like a million a year
in probably four or five successive years — yet it must be
remembered that on the whole, taking all the various
oyster-beds into account, some of which increase whilst
others dwindle or actually die out altogether, there is no

OYSTERS 137

increase in the oyster population of the seas. Taking
them all round, five million young oysters start life in
order that one may finally come to maturity, so many
and varied and incessant are the dangers, the predatory
enemies, the destructive effects of cold currents, bad
ground, and other chances of life and death on to which
the swarming swimming young are launched.

The above brief history applies to the North Sea or
Channel oyster, which is also found (with other species)
in the Mediterranean. The American and the Portuguese
oyster differ from it in being of distinct sexes, and in the
fact that the eggs are discharged into the sea by the
females, and are there fertilised by the sperm discharged
by the male oysters, instead of in the parent's body.

Other " molluscs," such as snails and whelks, enclose
their fertilised eggs, when they lay them, in egg-shells.
Some snails enclose a single egg in a shell which is
filled up with clear liquid — corresponding to the " white "
of a bird's egg — in which the egg floats and develops.
The eggs of the common snail are not bigger than a hemp-
seed, but some Indian snails lay eggs as big as those of
a robin, with a hard, calcareous shell, and the young
snail has quite a large coiled shell of its own before it
escapes from the egg-shell. So that it looks, when one
of the big snail's eggs is broken, as though a snail had
managed to get inside a bird's egg without making a
hole in it ! The whelks and their kind lay many eggs
in one shell or capsule, and the sea-slugs produce a sort
of firm jelly, in cords like vermicelli, the jelly enclosing
hundreds of little sacs filled with liquid, in which the true
germs or fertilised egg-cells float. These are all methods
for protecting the young in their earliest condition. One
of our pond-snails — the Paludina — keeps her eggs, whilst
they develop, inside the dilated end of the tube which leads
from the egg-producing organ or ovary to the exterior,

I3& SCIENCE EROM AN EASY CHAIR

The young snails nearest the opening to the exterior are
the furthest advanced in development, and are as big
as a dried pea. All stages, from the minute germ just
fertilised to well-formed young, may be found in these
snails, and the whole course of their development and
gradual change and growth can be minutely studied with
the microscope in one specimen.

Similar devices for protecting the young in their
earliest helpless stages of growth from the egg-shell are
found in all classes of animals. What is very curious is
the fact that, of two closely allied animals, one species
will recklessly lay its eggs and leave them, whilst
another has special arrangements for retaining in the
parent's body the eggs as they develop, and so pre-
serving them from danger. Such parents are called
" viviparous." Of course, in all viviparous animals, as
well as in those which lay their eggs in hard shells, the
fertilisation of the egg must be effected within the
maternal body. Amongst our common fishes there is
the viviparous blenny, often found in pools at low tide
on the seashore. All the other British fresh-water
and marine fishes lay their eggs and abandon them,
excepting some sharks, dog-fish, and skates, which are
viviparous ; others of the shark and skate tribe lay eggs
of large size encased in hard, horny shells. Every one
knows that frogs and toads lay their eggs, but there are
some kinds in which the eggs remain inside the mother's
body during the development of the young, which only
escape into the world as well-formed little frogs. All
the hairy, warm-blooded quadrupeds known as " the
mammals " are viviparous, except the duck-mole and
the spiny ant-eater of Australia. These extraordinary
little " beasts " lay eggs like those of a bird.

The most ingenious devices for the protection of the
young are (as perhaps those who believe in the superior

OYSTERS 139

intelligence of the male would expect) put into practice
by the male parent. Thus, there is a large fish in
tropical rivers which takes the eggs laid by the female
into his capacious mouth, and swims about with them
for three or four weeks, giving them the advantage of
a current of water which runs through his mouth to his
gills. When the young hatch they swim out of their
fond father's mouth. The male of pipe-fishes and of the
little " sea-horse " receives the eggs laid by the female
into a pouch excavated along his ventral surface. There
the young hatch, and are guarded by the nursing father.
On the other hand, some fathers impartially eat their
own young, as well as those of other parents, and the
mother has a hard job to protect her offspring. A female
octopus (the poulp or eight-armed cuttle-fish) sits over
her eggs in a nest built of pebbles at the bottom of the
sea (or of an aquarium tank in the instance studied by
me many years ago at Naples), and squirts a stream of
pure sea-water over them. She resents the approach of a
fish or a crab or a landing-net with splendid fury and
recklessness of attack. Often the males of fishes, frogs,
and birds guard the eggs, or guard the nest where the
female is occupied in caring for the eggs or the young.

There are various species of oysters common in
all parts of the world which are eaten as delicacies.
Primeval (Neolithic) man ate oysters (the common sort)
in Denmark in enormous quantity — great heaps of the
discarded oyster-shells are found, buried among which
are discovered stone axe-heads and bits of rude pottery.
In the West Indies travellers relate that the oysters
"climb" the trees which overhang the water of quiet
creeks and inlets of the sea. The fact is that the
branches of the mangrove trees dip into the water, and
the young oyster " spat " attaches itself to the immersed
twigs. After a year or two, the tree grows vigorously,

140 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

and raises its branches up in its growth, so that the
oysters are carried far up above the sea waves. Of
course they die under these conditions, but their position
suggests the explanation that the oysters have climbed
up the trees. Ship barnacles fix themselves, similarly, to
the twigs of willow trees in the quiet sea lochs of the
West of Scotland, and this led 500 years ago to the
belief that the catkins of the willow tree ripen into
barnacles. Since it was also held that the little animal
of the barnacle hatches out of its shell as a young goose
— the so-called " barnacle goose " — the marvellous story
was believed that these geese are actually budded from
willow trees. I believe that the supposed relationship of
the goose and the ship's barnacle arose solely from the
accidental similarity of the names of the two animals —
the " bernack " goose and the sea " barnacle " being names
of independent origin. The names were different origin-
ally in sound and signification, but were corrupted by
fisher-folk into one and the same word. Hence a
fantastic fable took its growth.

In Paris you may test and compare several local
varieties of the common oyster in a celebrated oyster-
shop. There are Courseilles, Cancales, Marennes, Ostend,
Zeeland, Arcachon, English natives, Cotes Rouges (red
banks), and Black Rocks. And you can eat sea-urchins
there, too, if you wish. They have not, however, got
the celebrated oysters from the Lake Fusaro, near
Naples. This was the ancient Acherusia palus, and in
the neighbouring Lake Avernus and the Lucrine lake
oysters were cultivated by the ancient Romans, the young
oysters being made to affix themselves at " the fall of the
spat " to wooden "stands" or frames, which were then
placed in the lake (a salt-water lake), where they had
abundant minute vegetable food and grew large and fat.
The same cultivation, with the same shape of " stands,"

OYSTERS 141

is carried on at the present day in the Lake Fusaro.
My friend, Mr. Glinther, of Magdalen College, Oxford,
has published pictures of Roman tiles from this neigh-
bourhood showing the oysters adhering in rows to the
wooden frames. These tiles were apparently sold to
holiday visitors in the time of the Roman emperors as a
memento of a happy day spent at the Lucrine lake, just
as a sugar basin or a mug is now sold at our seaside
resorts with the inscription, " A present from Margate,"
or Southport, or Blackpool, and the picture of a shrimp
above it.

The care of the breeding oyster and the plans
adopted by the owners of oyster-beds for catching the
" spat," or young oysters, when they fall to the bottom,
by placing movable tiles or frames for them to fix them-
selves to, form an important part of the craft of the
oyster-man. It is a difficult business, and is variously
carried out in England, France, Holland, and America.
The young oysters, when they have fixed themselves, are
carried on the movable tiles or frames from one region
to another for the purpose of encouraging their growth
and avoiding a variety of dangers to their life and health
(sometimes from the Bay of Biscay to the mouth of the
Thames !). They are often — but not always — finally
fed up in sea-ponds or inlets, which are peculiar in con-
taining an enormous number of those very minute
microscopic plants, with beautifully shaped siliceous
shells, which are known as diatoms. These are so
abundant in such ponds as to form a sort of powder or
cloud near the bottom, and the oysters draw them, day
and night, by their gill-currents into their mouths, digest
them, and grow fine and fat. The district of Marennes,
on the west coast of France, is celebrated for having sea-
ponds or tanks in which a wonderful diatom of a bright
blue colour abounds ; so abundant are they that the

1 42 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

cloud produced by them in the pools is of a deep cobalt-
blue. When oysters are placed in these tanks to fatten,
their gills or beards become rich blue-green in colour.
They lose the colour after ten days, when removed to
ordinary tanks. These are the celebrated green oysters
or " Marennes vertes " of French restaurants. The
colouring matter of the little diatoms — swallowed by
the million and digested — is taken up by the blood of
the oyster from its stomach, and is excreted by certain
corpuscles on the surface of the gills — as I showed some
twenty-five years ago — just as red madder is deposited
in the bones of a pig fed upon madder, and as the
feathers of the canary take up the colour of cayenne
pepper when it is mixed with the canary's food. It used
to be thought that the green colour of the green oyster
is due to copper — and that opinion was supported by
the curious fact that the blood of all oysters and other
molluscs, and also of lobsters, scorpions, and king-crabs,
does really contain a minute quantity of copper, just as
our blood contains iron ! It was also supported by the
fact that occasionally a fraudulent fishmonger, when
asked to supply green oysters, has been convicted of
colouring the beards of ordinary oysters with green
copper salt, so as to imitate the real article ! The real
history of the green-bearded oysters is now quite certain,
and any one interested in the matter should look at the
coloured pictures of the beautiful little blue-coloured
Navicula ostrearia — the diatom on which this oyster
feeds, published by me in the Quarterly Journal of Micro-
scopical Science in 1885.

XV
MATERNAL CARE AND MOLLUSCS

THE American and Portuguese species of oysters,
which are called respectively Ostrea virginiana
and Ostrea angulata, as opposed to the common oyster,
which is known as Ostrea edulis, are not hermaphrodite
like the latter, but have distinct males and females.
Moreover, the young are not fertilised within the parent's
body, nor do they pass their earliest stages of growth
within the parent's shell adhering to the " beard," or gills,
as in the common oyster. The eggs (Fig. 31) are, on the
contrary, discharged by the females into the sea, and at
the same time the males discharge a cloud of microscopic
sperm filaments, or spermatozoa (Fig. 32), which dart
about in the water and fertilise the eggs. That is a more
prodigal and less certain process than that pursued by
the common oyster. The American and Portuguese
oyster have to pay for it. The female produces in one
season not a million eggs, as does the common oyster,
but nine millions. And out of every fifty million so pro-
duced (in some five or six years) only a single male and
a single female individual, taking the whole oyster
population of these species into consideration, survive
to maturity.

This enormous excess of egg-production in order to
ensure the survival of a single pair to replace their

144 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

parents is a very frequent thing in aquatic animals.
But there are many devices by which the necessity for
such lavish scattering of a new brood is avoided. The
common oyster is already a step in advance of the
American in this matter, since it protects its young in
the very earliest stages within the shelter of its shell.
A further advance in this direction is found in the
fresh-water mussels (not to be confused with the very
different sea-mussels, since they are bitter and tough,
and quite inedible, though used as bait in sea-fishing)
The pond-mussel (Anodon) and the river-mussel (Unid)
are of distinct sexes, and the gills of the female become
swollen up at the breeding season so as to form two
large bags, into which the eggs are laid by her, as many
as 500,000 in number. They are fertilised by the sperm
filaments discharged by the males, which are carried into
the female's shell by currents produced by the vibrating
hairs on the gills, as in the common oyster. But the
young remain much longer in the mussel's gills than do
the young oysters in those of their parent's. Late in
the season you find the bag-like gills of the female pond-
and river-mussels full of extraordinary little creatures
one-thirtieth of an inch long, each provided with a pair
of triangular shells. They are discharged into the water,
and swim very actively by rapidly opening and shutting
the little shells (Fig. 35). The common scallop (Pecten,
or Pilgrim's shell) swims every now and then in the
same way as do these young mussels, and so do some
other bivalves. The young fresh-water mussels produce
a long, sticky thread, which trails from the shell (Fig. 3 5 by).
Very few have the good chance to get further on in life
than this stage, for all depends on their stumbling across
fish — a stickleback, or a perch, or a pike — as they
blindly snap their shells and wobble through the water.
The lucky triangular mite whose sticky thread happens

MATERNAL CARE AND MOLLUSCS 145

to touch a fish's body becomes immediately fastened by
it to the fish and then grips the skin with its snapping
shells, the edges of which are provided with a few long,
sharp teeth. The fish probably is quite unaware of the
lodgment of the young mussel on its skin, but there it
remains, and gets buried for a time in the soft tissues
of the fish, becoming thus actually a parasite for some
two or three months during the winter season. It
nourishes itself on the juices of the fish, and grows to

FIG. 35. — Young of the pond-mussel after escaping from the maternal
gill -pouch : A, as it escapes, swimming by opening and shutting the
shells ; sh, shell of one side ; al, shell-muscle ; t, teeth of the shell's
edge ; by, adhesive filament. B, after it has fixed to a fish ; mt,
mantle ; f, muscular foot ; br, gill processes ; pad, aad, al, muscles ;
auv, heart. (From drawings by the late Frank Balfour.)

the size of a pin's head, whilst it is carried away from its
birthplace by the peregrinations of its host, the fish. Its
shell now ceases to be triangular, and becomes like that of
its parents. Eventually the young mussel drops off the
fish and rests on the muddy bottom of pond or river,
where it remains for many years, growing vastly in size,
and barely moving during its long life from the spot
where it fell.

A beautiful little bivalve common in weedy streams
in England is known as Cyclas (it has no English name) ;
it has a pair of shells shaped like those of a cockle, but

146 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

smooth, and only half as big as one's little finger-nail.
The nursing of the young in the gill-sacs is carried to
a much further point by Cyclas than by the pond- or
river-mussel. Before they are ejected by the parent
they are quite large — like their parent in appearance,
and half as big as a hemp-seed. Necessarily there are
not many produced in a season — there is not room for
more than twenty or thirty young in the gill-sacs.

XVI
THE HEARTS BEAT

THE beat of the heart is one of those great and
elemental features of man's life which, in spite of
our familiarity with it and its momentary recurrence, never
loses its quality of mystery and isolation. The ceaseless
accompaniment to our lives which the heart is always
beating, like the inexorable stroke of an unseen
pendulum, fills even the stoutest and bravest at times
with a sense of awe. It seems now and then as though
an independent living thing were in our breasts, and
when it quickens and struggles, as it were, with its work,
or languishes and hesitates in its efforts we have a sense
of helpless domination by an existence — a living thing —
over whose vagaries we have no control.

The heart of man is no special endowment of the
human race, nor even of the higher animals. As I
mentioned a few pages back, the oyster and other shell-fish
have a heart which keeps time and beats the seconds for
their uneventful lives, as does that of man for his more
varied career. Not only the molluscs, but the insects,
the spiders, the crabs, lobsters, and shrimps, and even
the worms, have each a rhythmically beating heart. In
all of them the significance of this heart and its beat
are the same — it is driving the nourishing, oxygen-carry-
ing blood through the great vessels (arteries), which

1 48 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

branch from it like a tree into the living tissues of the
body, whence it returns by other vessels (the veins) back
to the heart.

In man and the warm-blooded quadrupeds, in birds,
reptiles, and fishes, the blood is of a splendid red colour,
and the transparent vessels can be easily traced in their
graceful ramifications and intricate networks, in conse-
quence of the red blood showing through their walls.
The red colour is due to a peculiar body, which can be
easily separated from the blood as crystals. It has the
special duty of carrying oxygen gas dissolved and
attached to it ; and of giving up that essential element
to cause slow burning or oxydation in all parts of the
body whilst taking up fresh supplies of oxygen on its
passage through the lungs or the gills. In many of the
lower animals (for instance, the oyster) the blood is
devoid of this red crystalline substance (which, by the
bye, is called haemoglobin), and accordingly we cannot
easily catch sight either of the heart or the blood-vessels
(see, however, Fig. 30). But in shell-fish the blood has
a very pale blue tint, and this colour is due to a sub-
stance like haemoglobin, which also can be crystallised,
and is the oxygen-carrier. Some sea-worms have a green
substance of a similar nature dissolved in their blood,
and one can trace their blood-vessels as a beautiful green
network. A good many worms, for instance the common
earth-worm and the leeches (a discovery made by Cuvier,
and referred to by him on his deathbed), and many sea-
worms have deep-red-coloured blood, due to the presence
of the same crystalline substance which we find in man's
blood. And even a snail, common in the ponds at
Hampstead and such places — the flat coiled snail known
as Planorbis — has blood of a fine crimson colour, due to
the presence of the same red oxygen -carrier, as an excep-
tion to the colourless or pale-blue blood found in most

THE HEARTS BEAT 149

shell-fish. Perhaps if oysters, too, had red blood, there
would be a prejudice against eating them in the uncooked
condition.

The heart is essentially an enlargement of the great
stem or main blood-vessel which, like the trunk of a
tree, has branching roots at one end of it and ordinary
branches at the other. The trunk branches, and roots of
the "heart-tree" are, of course, hollow blood-holding
tubes, not solid fibrous structures, as are the woody
branches and trunk of a vegetable tree. Further, the
finest rootlets and the finest terminal branches in the
case of the heart-tree are connected to one another by
the network of very fine branches or by great blood-
holding cavities, which occupy all parts of the body of an
animal. The enlarged part of the trunk of the tree-like
system of blood-vessels — the heart — has powerful muscles
forming its walls, the fibres disposed so as to surround
the contained chamber. When these muscular fibres
contract, they squeeze the walls of the chamber together
and drive the blood out of it into the forward branches,
called " arteries." It is prevented from going backwards
into the hinder branches called " veins " (which we com-
pare to the roots of a tree) by flaps which are so set on
the inside of the great vessel at the entrance to those
branches that the flaps are made to move out across the
space by the backward current, and thus prevent any
backward flow, whilst a forward current merely presses
them flat against the wall of the vessel, and thus no
obstruction to a forward flow is presented. These
flaps are called the valves of the heart. The con-
sequence of this arrangement is that whilst blood
flows freely into the heart from the veins or hinder
(root-like) set of vessels, it is driven by the muscular
contraction of the heart — only in one direction — namely,
forwards into the arteries. This movement in one

150 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

direction is helped in some elongated hearts by the
contraction of the wall of the heart beginning behind
and spreading quickly forward like a wave. The heart
of the common earth-worm and of small transparent
worms with red blood like it, which are common in the
mud of ponds and rivers and can be easily watched with
the microscope so that one can see through their glass-
like skin what is going on inside them, shows very
beautifully this wave of contraction. The heart in these
worms is a long contractile vessel which runs the whole
length of the body along the back. You can watch the
red blood flowing into it through the veins in each ring
or segment of the worm's body — slowly swelling it out
— so that it looks like a long red cord. Then, sud-
denly, there is a movement like a flash in its rapidity,
passing from behind forwards ! The walls of the red
cord-like heart contract so as to drive the blood forward
into the arteries, which also are present in every ring of
the worm's body. At the same time you can see the
.valves, which hang at the entrance of the veins to the
heart, swing with a sudden " chuck " and close those
vessels against the driven blood. The red cord becomes
colourless progressively from behind forwards, owing to
the squeezing out of the blood, and by the time the
movement has reached the head of the worm, the hinder
part of the cord-like heart is beginning slowly to dilate
again with the influx of red blood from the veins.

What causes the muscles of the heart to contract at
regular intervals ? There is no doubt that the " stimulus "
which excites the heart muscles to contraction is in these
simpler animals merely the tension or strain produced by
the presence of a sufficient quantity of blood which has
flowed into the heart from the veins. The heart muscle,
after its rapid contraction, rests ; it has no other rest, no
sleep, as have all the other parts of the body. It must

THE HEARTS BEAT 151

rest and take refreshment after each effort. Whilst it
rests the blood quietly flows in and dilates the heart's
cavity ; then the rested muscular wall of the heart, gently
stretched by the recovery after compression of its elastic
components, nourished and oxygenated by the blood, is
ready for another " stroke," and again it contracts tightly,
emptying its cavity of blood, which is driven into the
arteries. So it goes on — effort and rest, effort and rest
alternating without cease. Whilst it is the stroke of the
heart which causes the blood to flow through the arteries
into the finest network of hair-like vessels, what is it that
causes the blood to flow on through the collecting veins,
to reach the heart, and actually to distend that collapsed
cavity after its stroke ? It must be remembered that a
very low pressure is enough to effect this. In the simplest
arrangements of worms and such-like animals, there is
probably some pressure transmitted to the blood in the
veins by the heart-stroke ; but the elasticity of the heart-
wall and its necessary tendency to resume its dilated con-
dition after its squeezing by its rings of muscle, is what
is chiefly effective in drawing on the blood in the veins
into the heart.

In man and the higher animals the whole mechanism
of the heart is greatly complicated by the action of the
nervous system upon it and upon the contraction or ex-
pansion of the blood vessels. In this way the rate of the
beat of the heart is affected and brought into relation with
the needs of the blood circulation in remote parts of the
body. The beat of the heart in the human species is
more rapid in children than in adults, and more rapid in
women than in men, and it differs in all individuals under
differing conditions. Before birth it is 140 per minute,
in the first month after birth 130, and gradually diminishes
to 90 at nine years of age, and at twenty-one to 70 in
man and to 80 in woman. But these figures only repre-

152 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

sent a general average ; there are healthy men whose
pulse usually is less than 45 per minute, and there are
individuals who, without being invalids, yet have the
movement of the heart so liable to increase in rapidity
through mental or other excitement, acting by nerves
directly on the heart muscle, that the pulse often goes up
to 1 20. In the horse and the ox the pulse or heart beat
is 36 to 40 a minute ; in the sheep 60 to 80 ; in the dog
100 to 120; in the rabbit 150; and in small creatures,
like mice and moles, 200, and even more ! I do not know
what is the record for the elephant, but as it seems that
the larger the mammal the slower the pulse, one would
not expect more than 20 to 25 beats a minute in his
case.

It is easy to watch the beating of the heart of a flea
or other small insects — under the microscope — since the
skin is sufficiently transparent. It is not usually much
more rapid than in man, but in the very transparent little
fresh-water shrimps which are called water-fleas (Ento-
mostracd) I have seen the heart beating so rapidly that I
could not count its rate. The heart in insects and shrimps
and their like is remarkable for the fact that whilst it
pumps out blood through arteries both in front and behind,
it has no actual veins opening into it. All the veins, which
in their ancestors entered the heart in a row on each side
of it, have united, and their walls broken down, so that
the heart lies in a sac full of venous blood from which it
draws its fill, when it dilates, through a series of valve-
bearing openings on its surface, openings which, in an
earlier stage of development, were connected with indi-
vidual veins.

The heart of the Ascidians or sea-squirts, common
sac-like marine creatures of most varied form, size, and
colour, is perhaps the most extraordinary in the whole
animal series. I have often watched it in transparent

THE HEARTS BEAT 153

individuals of this group. It is an oblong sac with branch-
ing vessels at either end. It beats for some thirty or forty
strokes so as to drive the blood forwards ; it then pauses,
and the onlooker is astounded to see the wave of move-
ment changed, and the heart steadily beating the same
number of strokes in the reversed direction. What were
arteries become veins, and the veins become arteries. Then
again there is a pause — which seems like a moment of
hesitation and doubt — and the original direction of move-
ment is resumed ; then again there is a pause and a
reversal, and so on, with absolute regularity. It is still
a matter for investigation as to why and how this alto-
gether exceptional alternating reversal of the heart's action
is brought about.

It is a curious fact in illustration of the essential
character of the heart and its beat that "hearts " are pro-
duced in some animals by dilatation of the lymph-vessels
— a system of delicate vessels, difficult to see, which take
up the colourless fluid which the blood-vessels exude into
the tissues and return it to the heart. The eel has a pair
of these " lymph-hearts " in its tail, and the common frog
has a pair near the shoulder-blades and another pair at
the hips. These sacs have muscular walls, and pulsate
rhythmically like the blood-heart, driving on the lymph
fluid through the lymph vessels to join the blood-stream.

The simplest thing in the animal world which can
claim the name of a heart — or, at any rate, be compared
with that organ — is found in those microscopic animal-
cules which consist of only a single " cell " or corpuscle
of living protoplasm. These animalcules may be com-
pared to a single brick or unit of structure, whereas all
other animals consist of thousands, or even millions, of
such corpuscles or units aggregated and fitted together
as are the bricks and planks of a house. In most of
these uni-cellular animalcules you may observe with a

154 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

high-power microscope a little spherical liquid-holding
cavity, which slowly enlarges, then bursts at the surface
and collapses. After a brief interval it forms again, and
again bursts to the exterior. In the " bell-animalcule "
— a beautiful active little creature only one-thousandth
of an inch in diameter — it may be seen to form, swell,
collapse, and re-form as often as twenty times in a minute
(see Fig. 41). Soluble colouring matter taken in by the
animalcule with food is excreted by the liquid accumulated
in and ejected to the exterior by this spherical chamber.
It is called the " pulsating " or " contractile " vacuole, and
by its rhythmical pulsating movement of dilatation and
collapse presents definite points of similarity to the alter-
nately dilating and contracting hearts of higher animals.
The entering flow of liquid here, as in the veins and heart
of higher animals, is continuous. The rhythm is due, as
is the rhythm of the heart, to the alternation of a brief
period of activity or contraction, and a brief period of
consequent exhaustion, rest, and repair on the part of
living contractile substance.

XVII
SLEEP

AN enterprising journalist has recently published
the replies of a number of well-known men to
an inquiry as to how many hours' sleep they are in the
habit of taking, and what they find to be the best
remedy for sleeplessness. Such an inquiry naturally
leads on to further thoughts about " Sleep." What a
mysterious, yet sweet and lovable thing it is ! How
strange it is that we all regularly and gladly abandon
ourselves to it ! How terrible is the state of those who
cannot do so ! And then one is led to ask, what is it ?
and why is it ? Do all living things sleep for some part
of the twenty-four hours ? How does it differ from
mere resting, and in what does its virtue consist ?

Shakespeare has said the most beautiful words that
have ever been uttered about sleep, and that because he
knew what it was to seek for it in vain —

" Methought I heard a voice cry, ' Sleep no more !
Macbeth does murder sleep,' the innocent sleep ;
Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast."

And again, when the strenuous life of the great
Bolingbroke has at last overtaxed his brain, and he can

156 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

no more find rest and unconsciousness at night, Shake-
speare makes him say —

" How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep ! O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness ?
Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,
And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state,
And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody ? "

Poets have as a rule been too ready to make much
of the likeness of sleep and death, whereas there is an
absolute difference in their mere appearance. Sleep
makes even those who are ill-favoured and coarse look
beautiful, imparts to its subjects a graciousness of
expression and of colour, and a gentle rhythmic move-
ment, whilst suffusing them as it were with an " aura "
of contented trustfulness. These things are far from
the cold stillness of pallid death. And this depends
upon the fact that in sleep, though many of the
activities of the body and mind are checked, and even
arrested, there are yet still present the never-ceasing
pulse of the heart, the flow of the blood, the intake and
output of the breath, and a certain subdued but still
active tension of muscles, so that though the body and
limbs are relaxed they never assume the aspect of com-
plete mechanical collapse which we see in death. The
pupils of the eyes are strongly contracted during sleep,
not relaxed and expanded as are those of wide-awake
people in the dark. There are some well-known works
of art — both painting and sculpture — in which the dead
are not truly represented, but are made to retain the

SLEEP 157

resistfulness and pose of living men and women ; others
show true observation in presenting the startling and
distinctive flaccidity of the newly dead, which is followed
after a few hours by the equally characteristic rigor
mortis, or stiffness of the dead. There are many fine
studies of sleep by sculptors, but none which to my
thinking so delicately and truthfully present its most
beautiful and peculiar effects on the muscular " tone "
as a work in the Luxembourg Gallery in Paris, called
" Le Nid " — a baby of a year old and a little girl of
three or four years, asleep side by side on the cushion
of a capacious arm-chair. The pose and the details of
muscular relaxation differ greatly and characteristically
in the two children. One would like to see sleep at
different ages and under various conditions of fatigue
similarly portrayed, for there is a range and variety of
expression in those who sleep, not perhaps as extensive,
but as beautiful as that to be found in those who are
awake.

All things on the earth may be said (if we use the
term in a wide sense) to sleep, for all are affected by
the stimulation to activity caused by sunlight and by its
cessation during night. It is only of late years that we
have come to know of fishes, crabs, worms, and star-
fishes (many of them without eyes) which live in the
depths of the ocean, where no light penetrates and it
is always night. The ultimate source of their food
is in the upper sunlit layers of water, to which they
never penetrate, and from which particles of dead but
nutritious matter (the bodies of those who have lived
up there) rain down upon them incessantly, like
manna on the Israelites. All things accessible to the
sun's rays are not equally, nor even similarly, affected
by the alternation of day and night, and some not
directly at all, but only by the sleeping and waking of

158 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

other things. The food of all living things comes ulti-
mately from plants which, in the presence of sunlight,
and only in that presence, and in virtue of its action
upon their green leaves, manufacture starch and sugar
from the carbonic acid which exists in the air and water
around them, whilst they are also thus enabled to take
up nitrogen, and so to form their living substance or
protoplasm. At night those particles or cells of the
living protoplasm of plants which are furnished with
transparent green granules, so as to entangle the sun-
light, and by its aid feed on carbonic acid, cease this
work. They necessarily repose from their labour because
the light has gone. This is the simplest example of the
sleep of living things. And that here, too, as in higher
creatures, sleep is not a merely negative thing — a mere
cessation — is shown by the fact that it is at night that
other changes go on in the plant. The manufactured
food takes effect on the cells or particles nourished by it ;
in the night the well-fed, enlarged " cells " in the growing
parts of many plants slowly divide each one into two,
and each of these again into two, and so on, so as to
increase their total number and produce growth and
development of the plant. This alternation of activities
in day and night occurs even in the invisible microscopic
vegetation of pools and streams. Animals — even the
most minute, only visible with a strong microscope —
move about in search of " bits " of food — in fact, bits of
other animals or of plants — and they, too, are, with
special exceptions, checked in their search for food by
the darkness, for even extremely minute and simple
animals are guided in their search by light — that is to
say, by a more or less efficient sense of sight. Thus we
see that in a general way the sun is truly the ruler of
life, and that when he is hidden from us we all become
quiescent, a condition which may be rightly considered

SLEEP 159

as the elementary form — the simplest equivalent of the
sleep of man. The quiescence which falls on the earth
with the setting of the sun has, however, become the
opportunity of two different classes of living things to
seize an advantage. Beasts of prey, many of them, sleep
during the day, and steal forth at night on velvet foot to
pounce on the slumbering animals which are their neces-
sary food. Another group of timid animals, moths and
small beasts like mice, hedgehogs, and lemurs, find their
safety in the dark, and only then venture forth. Even
so, the moths are met by special nocturnal enemies, the
bats. So that the primitive arrangement is complicated
by a wakefulness, exchanging day for night.

It is natural to apply the word " sleep " to the state
of profound repose which other living things appear to
enter upon at night, so far as we can judge by changes
of activity and attitude — although it must be remembered
that the sleep of man is what we really indicate by that
word, and that it is difficult to trace anything beyond a
superficial similarity between man's sleep and the repose
or quiescence following upon activity in other living
things — excepting those which by their structure and
the working of their mechanism are obviously com-
parable to man, such as beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes.
The " sleep of plants " is the term applied to the closing
of the flower, the drooping of the flower-head and of the
leaves of many of the common flowering plants, which
occurs at sunset or during the later hours of sunlight.
But it seems that this is not really comparable to man's
sleep. The closing of the flower appears to be a pro-
tection of its perfume from useless evaporation during
the darkness, and the drooping a device to avoid the
settlement of dew and the injurious action of cold.
Living things always furnish us with examples of
adaptations resisting the general law — and as there are

i6o SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

moths which fly by night, so also there are flowers
which remain closed by day and open at night to attract
these moths, by whom their pollen is carried and their
fertilisation effected. The tobacco-plants of our gardens
are examples of these night-opening flowers, which attract
the nocturnal moths by their heavy perfume, and there
are many others.

The movements of plants are much more definite
and varied than one is apt to suppose. Leaves and
flowers turn to or away from the sun, or to or from the
position which will favour a deposit of moisture ; or,
again, their tendrils will explore and seize upon supports,
enabling them to secure a hold, and so to climb. The
sensitive plant exhibits rapid drooping movements of its
leaflets and leaf-stalks when touched or subjected to
vibration.

An allied plant which shows slower but definite
movement of its leaflets has been supposed to furnish
thereby prophetic indications of the weather, and even to
foretell earthquakes. This plant is the Abrus precatorius,
the seeds of which are called crab's-eyes, and are used in
India by jewellers and druggists as weights — averaging
a little less than two grains. They are harmless when
eaten, but contain a poison called abrine, which causes
them rapidly to produce fatal results when introduced
beneath the skin. Under the name " jequerity " they
were introduced into this country in 1882 for the treat-
ment of ophthalmia. This is the plant which was cele-
brated, about twenty years ago, as the earthquake plant
or weather plant, owing to the statements of an Austrian
naturalist as to its marvellous powers of prophecy by the
movement of its leaflets — statements which were care-
fully examined by botanists at Kew Gardens at the time
and shown to be devoid of justification. Earth tremors,
like other vibrations, cause the leaflets to move and

SLEEP 161

change their pose as they may cause animals to utter
cries of alarm, but the movements of the leaflets have no
more prophetic character than have those of the delicate
pendulums, called seismographs, by which it is now usual
to register the constantly occurring slight vibrations of
the earth's crust.

That beasts and birds enjoy a nocturnal sleep similar
to that of man, which is occasionally — like his sleep —
transferred from night to daytime, is a matter of common
knowledge. These animals, like man, lower the eyelids
and adopt a position of ease when sleeping, even though
they often remain poised on their legs. The question
has been raised as to whether fishes sleep, since they
have no eyelids and remain when at rest poised in the
water. We made some inquiries on this subject in the
laboratory of the Marine Biological Association at Ply-
mouth some years ago, and came to the conclusion, from
the observation of various marine fishes in the aquarium
there, that fishes do sleep at night. They come to rest
on the bottom of the tanks, and are not so quickly
responsive to a touch or intrusion of any kind as they
are in the daytime. It is probable that this condition
of repose is more definitely marked in some kinds of
fishes than in others, but in all shallow-water marine
organisms the absence of light produces a corresponding
period of quiescence. That there is a good deal more
than this involved in the sleep of the higher animals and
of man will be apparent when we come to study it more
closely.

The sleep of man, and of animals which have, like
man, a large and well-developed nervous system — has
for its salient feature the cessation or extreme lowering
of the "psychical" activity of the brain. When sleep
is at its height external agents (such as a touch, a sound,
a flash of light) which in the waking state set up through

1 62 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

the nerves of the organs of the senses complex changes
in the brain, no longer do so. They not only fail to
excite consciousness and to leave their mark on the
memory, but they do not produce even a simple uncon-
scious response. Yet if they are of a sufficient degree
of violence (varying according to the depth of the sleep),
they do reach the brain, and thus " awake " the sleeper.
Corresponding to the absence of receptive activity of the
brain in sleep is the absence of outgoing impulses from
that organ ; there is no such control of the muscles as
in the waking state, the head nods, the eyelids droop,
and the muscular action by which the erect posture
is maintained is in abeyance, although in a greatly
lessened degree some amount of muscular tone is un-
consciously retained.

The passage from the waking state to that of deep
sleep is not sudden but graduated, and so is the process
of awakening. In the intermediate condition, either
before or after deep sleep (often only a minute or two
in duration) the brain can still receive, more or less
confusedly, impressions from the exterior through the
organs of sense, and it is in this way that " dreams " are
set going, and may be afterwards either forgotten or
remembered. In full sleep the mind is a blank. As a
rule healthy sleep becomes gradually more complete in
the first hour, and then very slowly less profound. But
there are not any sufficient observations on the " quality "
of sleep after short or long duration. In sleep it is not
only the brain which is at rest: the whole body shares
in the condition. The pulse and breathing are slower,
the digestive organs and the bladder are more or less at
rest. Both the intake of oxygen into the lungs and the
expiration of carbonic acid are lessened. The chemical
changes within the body are lessened though still proceed-
ing, and as a consequence the temperature is lowered.

SLEEP 163

It is curious how incomplete at present is the physio-
logist's knowledge of both the actual condition of the
brain in sleep and of the immediate causes which produce
that condition. It is probably true (though it is dis-
puted) that the brain becomes pale during sleep, owing
to a contraction of the blood vessels, and that the in-
activity of the brain arises from this condition. But it is
not obvious what determines the contraction of these
vessels at the definitely recurring period of sleep. It is
probable that the nervous tissue of the brain is, as are
the muscles of the body, poisoned or choked (as it were)
by the chemical products of the day's activity, and so
readily cease to be active until the injurious products
have had time to be carried away by the blood stream.
Muscular substance undoubtedly is affected in this way,
and that great muscle the heart, though never resting for
a lengthened period, rests after each pulse or contraction,
and recovers itself in the brief interval.

It is also probable that the exhaustion by the day's
activity of the oxygen stored up in the various tissues of
the body produces a condition of quiescence whilst the
store is replenished. Stimulation of the nerves through
the sense-organs of sight, hearing, and touch will prevent
or retard this natural quiescence, and the cessation of
that stimulation is favoured first of all by the darkness of
night and by the closing of the eyelid, as well as by the
removal of clothes which more or less irritate the skin ;
also by the would-be sleeper taking up a position of
perfect rest, and by the exercise of his will, withdrawing
his brain as much as possible from all external influences.
The would-be sleeper also controls, when possible, that
internal stimulation of the brain which we call attention.
It is the failure (owing to unhealthy conditions) to
control the latter which leads to the most serious kind of
sleeplessness, when the brain gets for hours out of re-

1 64 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

straint and works incessantly like an independent existence.
The disturbance of the nervous system set up by irritation
of the digestive organs, whether accompanied by pain or
not, is an independent cause of sleeplessness which often
co-operates with the first, and is (through the mechanism
of the nerves) often set going (though it may arise inde-
pendently) by an unhealthy excess in the excitement of
the brain's activity. There is no panacea for sleepless-
ness; the only thing to do is to consult a first-rate
physician, and strictly follow his advice.

There are many irregularities and abnormal mani-
festations of sleep. There is the sleep which is induced
by drugs such as opium, chloral, and alcohol, and that
induced by chloroform, ether, and nitric gas. There is
the heavy sleep accompanied by stertorous breathing,
and there is the unconscious condition called "coma."
Then there is the prolonged sleeping called " trance," of
which that of the Sleeping Beauty, only to be broken by
a kiss, is an example. It is not possible, in the present
state of knowledge, to give an adequate account and
explanation of the condition of the brain in these different
forms of sleep, nor of the causes which induce that
condition. One of the most interesting forms of sleep is
the condition called " somnambulism," or sleep-walking,
in which part only of the brain is asleep, and other parts
connected with various degrees of mental activity are in
waking order. Sleep-walking is a condition which occurs
spontaneously. On the other hand, " hypnotism " is the
name for a peculiar kind of sleep produced intentionally
by an operator on a patient by certain treatment and
direction. In one of the stages of artificially induced hyp-
notic or " mesmeric " sleep — called the somnambulic stage
— only so much of the brain is asleep as is concerned
with conscious memory. The brain receives stimulation
through the sense-organs, and the patient has the eyes

SLEEP 165

open and appears to be awake. In this state he is
peculiarly open to suggestion by words, which can be
made to set up the most extraordinary illusions and
consequent behaviour. On " waking " the patient has no
memory of what has occurred, though a suggestion
received in the somnambulic stage may persist in the un-
conscious memory, and cause conduct on the part of the
patient (many hours after the brief hypnotic sleep has
passed) which is entirely inexplicable by the patient
himself or by those who are not aware of the fact that he
had received a " suggestion " or " direction " when in the
hypnotised state. The senses of smell, hearing, and touch
are often abnormally acute in a hypnotised patient, but
there is no evidence to show that the brain of such a person
can be influenced or " communicated with " excepting
through the ordinary channels of the sense-organs. " Day-
dreaming " and " reverie " are conditions resembling the
hypnotic sleep. The brain of each of us is constantly
doing much of its work in a state of partial hypnotism,
and the term " unconscious cerebration " has been used
to describe it. A most interesting and difficult chapter
of the study of mental disease belongs here.

The prolonged sleep of some animals in the winter,
called " hibernation," seems to be closely similar to
ordinary sleep, but is set up by the depressing action
of continuous cold instead of by the daily recurring
quiescence of night and by the exhaustion due to the
day's activity. Many animals — such as the marmot
and dormouse, the frog and the snail — exhibit this
winter sleep. It has been found by experiment that even
in midsummer the dormouse can be made to " hibernate,"
by exposing it artificially to a low temperature, and
hibernating animals can be roused from their long sleep
by bringing them into warmth. During the winter
sleep hibernating animals take no food, the pulse is

1 66 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

slowed down, and the body temperature falls. The
scattered fat of the body, and fatty matter and other
material stored in special structures called " hibernating
glands," are oxidised and slowly consumed during this
period, which may last for three or even four months.
The animal on waking is often in a very emaciated
condition.

It is undoubtedly the case that the human natives of
high latitudes (such as the Norwegians), where there is
no night in full summer, and where there is prolonged
darkness in winter, have acquired the habit of keeping
awake for many days in succession in summer, whilst
making up for the loss of sleep by excessive indulgence
in it during the winter. It is by no means clear how
far man is capable of resisting the demand for recurrent
daily sleep without injury to health. Undoubtedly many
men are compelled by their avocations to sleep by day
and wake by night. The length and duration of " spells
of sleep " and the power to sleep little or not at all at
one season, and almost uninterruptedly at another, with-
out injury to health, are matters of habit, occupation,
and circumstance. We have no ground for saying that
every man "ought" to sleep eight hours or more per
diem, or, on the contrary, for insisting that he should
only sleep five or less. All depends on what he is
doing when he is awake, and what other people are
doing (so as to disburb him) when he is asleep ; and we
do not even know whether ten or twelve hours' sleep
would injure a man, were he able to take it, nor can we
suggest how it would injure him supposing it did not
interfere with his feeding and exercise.

As to quantities of sleep, there is the curious fact that
the amount habitually taken in the civilised communities
of this part of the world differs at different ages. Babies
sleep a good part of the twenty-four hours, and prob-

SLEEP 167

ably schoolboys and schoolgirls (under our present
conditions of life and work) ought to be given ten hours
or more. Whilst adult men sleep from six to eight or
nine hours, it is a curious fact that old people — not very
old people, but those of sixty-five or thereabouts — often
find themselves unable to sleep more than four hours at
night, and take an hour or two in the daytime to make
up for the deficiency. I remember hearing Mr. Darwin
state this as to himself to his physician, Sir Andrew
Clarke, who said it was very usual at his age, and diffi-
cult to explain, since at a greater age, when a man is
called " very old," a more or less continuous somnolent
condition sets in. The father of a great judicial dignitary
of these days, himself a barrister in large practice, when
he was sixty years old would snatch fifteen or twenty
minutes' sleep at any and every opportunity throughout
the day, even at the midday meal sometimes, so as
altogether to disconcert those who were with him, and
he told me that he never slept more than four hours at
night, but got up and commenced work at four in the
morning. The cessation in early old age of the desire
for more than half the amount of sleep taken by younger
men suggests that the regulating cause of the number
of hours which are needed for sleep may be simply and
directly the actual amount of work done by body and
mind. This imperceptibly becomes less as men grow
older, and so less recuperative sleep is necessary, though
what work they do may be more effective and better
adjusted to its purpose when they have arrived at the
condition which is called " old age."

We have seen that sleep in its widest sense comprises
the simple condition of quiescence brought about in
even the minutest living things by the recurring night,
as well as the strangely elaborated varieties of cessation
of activity in the whole or parts of the brain of man

1 68 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

and of his body. Some of these cessations of activity
naturally and spontaneously occur in unsophisticated
mankind, when darkness falls on the earth at each suc-
ceeding evening. And it is hardly possible to doubt that
a tendency to periodic sleep has become fixed in the sub-
stance of living things by the alternation of night and day
— as well as in some cases by the change of the seasons.

I must conclude these notes about sleep by relating
a very curious case of sleep, resembling the winter-sleep
of higher animals, on the part of a snail. This was the
case of a desert snail from Egypt, which was withdrawn
into its shell, the mouth of the shell being closed with a
glistening film secreted by the snail, as is usual with
snails in this country in winter when they sleep. The
desert snail in question was affixed to a tablet of wood
in a glass case in the natural history department of the
British Museum on March 25, 1846. On March 7,
1850, that is four years afterwards, it was noticed by a
visitor looking at the case that the snail had emerged
from his shell and discoloured the paper around, but had
again retired. So the officials unlocked the case and
removed the snail from the tablet and placed him in
tepid water. He rapidly and completely recovered,
crawled about as a wide-awake snail should, and sat for
his portrait. This may be regarded as an instance of
unusually long sleep, natural to this species of snail, and
related probably to the frequently prolonged dryness of
the snail's surroundings.

We are led by such a case as this on to what are
called examples of " suspended animation." Wheel-
animalcules, and some other minute creatures which are
found living in tiny pools of water, on the bark of trees,
and in the hollows of leaves, naturally dry up when the
water evaporates. You may dry them yourself in a
watchglass ; they appear as nothing more than shapeless

SLEEP 169

dust particles mixed with the dried mud of a drop of
dirty water. They may be kept in this state for months
— even years. I do not know that any limit has been
ascertained. But when you add pure rain-water to the
dust in the watchglass, it softens, and in less than an
hour the little wheel-animalcules have softened too, and
expanded into life, swimming about whilst the delicate
spikes on their " wheels " vibrate regularly as though they
had never ceased to do so, and as though the animalcules
had not for years been dried- up little mummies,

Of course, the term " suspended animation " has been
applied in earlier times to the often exaggerated stories
of " trance " and deathlike sleep in human beings. But
it is now with more justice applied to these instances of
dried animalcules which return to life when wetted, and
to similar cases of prolonged retention of vitality by
seeds, since it would appear that in these dried ani-
malcules life really is actually and totally suspended,
although the mechanism is there which resumes its life
when the necessary moisture is supplied. In cases of
trance in man and hibernation in animals, the heart is
still very slowly and feebly beating, and the breathing
is still — almost imperceptibly — at work. The chemical
changes are still very slowly and gently proceeding.
The buried Indian wizard, and the snail, and the Sleep-
ing Beauty are moist, and chemically active, though
feebly so ; life is not absolutely suspended. But in the
dried animalcule (though complete chemical desiccation
is not effected), the removal of the water from the body
actually arrests the changes which we call life, just as a
needle may arrest the balance-wheel of a watch. Supply
the water, or remove the needle, and life ceases to be
suspended ; it goes on once more (as one of the rules of
Bridge ambiguously enacts) " as though no mistake had
been made."

XVIII

THE UNIVERSAL STRUCTURE OF LIVING
THINGS

WITHOUT doubt, the greatest and most important
statement which can be made about living
things is that they are either separate minute particles
of living matter or (more commonly) are built up by
thousands of such minute particles which have in each
individual animal and plant originated from a single
such particle (the fertilised germ), by its division into two,
and the subsequent division of these two each into two,
and of the four so produced each into two — and so on,
until by repeated division into two, millions of corpuscles,
hanging together as one mass, are the result.

The particles of living matter are spoken of as " cells "
for a very curious reason, to which I will revert. The
living matter is called " protoplasm " (primitive or funda-
mental slime). A " cell " in the language of micro-
scopists means a corpuscle or more or less rounded or
irregularly shaped particle of protoplasm. Cells com-
monly vary in size from ^ooth to -gij-gth of an inch in
breadth, and may be much larger. Protoplasm — the
living substance of "cells" — is a slimy body, almost
liquid, but yet tenacious. It is transparent, but clouded
by fine granules, and can often be seen with a very high
power of the microscope to consist of more and of less

STRUCTURE OF LIVING THINGS

171

liquid matter, intermixed like an emulsion. It often has
within it large cavities filled with liquid, and also often

B

FIG. 36. — Simple "cells," consisting of naked protoplasm, changing shape
and taking in solid food particles. A, is a series of four successive changes
of shape of a fresh-water animalcule, the proteus or amoeba ; B, is a
similar series of three views of a separate creeping kind of corpuscle
found in the blood and lymph-spaces of animals, and called a " phago-
cyte." It is also said to be " amoeboid," from its resemblance to the
amoeba or proteus-animalcule. B, is from the blood of the guinea-pig.
It is not a parasite, but one of the various kinds of cells which build up
the animal body, and are derived from the single original egg-cell (see
Fig. 3 1 ) by continued division. The three drawings show three changes
of shape occurring in the same "phagocyte" in a few minutes. It is
engulphing a fever-producing blood-parasite, a spirillum, marked a,
into its soft, slimy protoplasm, to be there digested and destroyed. In
the same way the amoeba, A, is seen in four stages of engulphing the
vegetable particle, a. In the fourth figure the letter b points to water
taken into the amoeba's protoplasm with the food-particle a. In all the
figures, c points to the " vacuole" or liquid-holding cavity, which bursts
and re-forms in A ; the letter d points to the cell-nucleus.

oil drops ; in other cases hard concretions or coarse
granules. But apart from other things, the protoplasm

i;2 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

of a " cell " always contains within it a special, firmer,
and denser part, enclosed in an enveloping coat or skin.
This dense body is the " nucleus," or kernel, and is of the
very greatest importance in the chemical changes and
movements which constitute the life of the cell. It is
usually spherical, and in the living state often looks clear
and bright. All cells, whether they are found building

FIG. 37. — A, cells forming soft vegetable tissue ; a, cell-wall ; b, pro-
toplasm ; c, liquid-holding cavity in the protoplasm ; d, the nucleus.
B, a pigment-cell from the frog's skin, expanded. C, the same
cell contracted. D, a nerve-cell : observe the nucleus. E, a muscle-
cell stretched. F, the same contracted : observe the nucleus.

up the bodies of plants and animals like so many living
bricks, or living freely and singly as animalcules, have
the essential structure just described — a semi-liquid yet
tenacious material enclosing a globular firmer body, the
nucleus.

How did these viscous nucleated corpuscles come to
be called " cells " ? It was in this wise. At the end of
the seventeenth century Dr. Robert Hook, secretary of

STRUCTURE OF LIVING THINGS 173

the Royal Society, published a beautiful book of folio
size, entitled Micrographia. In this he pictured various
minute insects and various natural products as seen
under his microscope. Among the objects figured and
described was a piece of cork (Fig. 38). Hook showed
that it was built up of a number of empty, air-holding,
box-like chambers, less than the hundredth of an inch
in length, and these he called " cells," comparing them
to the " cells " of the bee's honeycomb. Later observers

FIG. 38. — Copy of part of Robert Hook's drawing of a magnified
piece of cork, showing the "cells " so named by him in 1665.

found that this " cellular " structure was very common in
plants — but it was not until more than a hundred years
later that it was observed that the " cells " which build
up the soft stems and leaves of plants are not empty or
merely air-holding, but contain a liquid or viscid matter.
Robert Browne, a great botanist, who lived within the
memory of some of our older naturalists, first observed and
described the " nucleus," or kernel, within the cells of some
lily-like plants, and gave it that name (Fig 37 A, d}.
About the thirties of last century, by aid of improved

174 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

microscopes, a structure like that of the vegetable " cell "
and its " nucleus " was discovered in some animal materials,
or " tissues," as they are termed — for instance, in carti-
lage (Fig. 39). The word "tissue" is applied to each of
the various layers and masses, such as epiderm, fibrous
tissue, muscle, nerve, cartilage, bone, which can be dis-
tinguished in an animal body and separated from one
another, just as we may separate the "tissues" of a
man's clothes — the leathern, woollen, silken, cotton,

linen : the cords, laces,
threads, and pads or
stuffing. The full
meaning of this exist-
ence of "cells" or
" cellular " structure
in the tissue of plants
and animals only
gradually became evi-
dent. A very re-
FIG. 39.— A piece of cartilage, showing the markable discoverer,

cells which have formed it embedded in Professor Schwann, of
the (shaded) firm substance, and con- Liege (with whom

when he was an old
man I spent an after-
noon a great many years ago), was the first to grasp the
great facts and to put forward what has been ever since
called " the cell theory " of animal and vegetable struc-
ture and life.

Schwann, in 1836, showed that the important thing
about a " cell " is not the box or cell-wall so much as
the viscid contents and the nucleus. But the name
" cell " was (strangely enough) retained for the contents,
even when the box-like chamber was absent — much as
we speak ol " a bottle of wine," meaning the contents of
the bottle, and not the glass vessel holding it. It was

nected to one another by branching pro-
cesses of protoplasm.

STRUCTURE OF LIVING THINGS

175

shown that the box-like case or cell-wall (the original
" cell " of Hook) is actually formed by the living
nucleated plasm or viscid matter within it, just as a snail
forms its shell, by the
separation or "secre-
tion " of a dead, firm,
chemical deposit on
its living surface.
Schwann showed that
a 1 1 — n o t merely
special exceptional
instances, but all —
the tissues of plants
and of animals are
built up by nucleated
cells, the cell-wall be-
ing often not hard
and box-like, but soft,
gelatinous, irregular
in shape, and some-

FlG. 40. — Three kinds of cells, magnified a
thousand times linear. A, a row of cilia-
bearing cells. B, a single detached ciliated
cell : observe the nucleus in each cell. C,
a goblet-cell, from a mucous surface, pro-
ducing f, a slimy secretion ; d, the wall of
the cell ; b, the nucleus ; a, the protoplasm
in which the secretion c was accumulated
until it burst out at the free end of the cell.
D, a fat-cell ; a, the nucleus surrounded by
protoplasm ; e, the thin layer of protoplasm
enveloping the great oil drop /, which has
formed within it.

times very thin,
sometimes very thick.
Every living cell is
thus surrounded by
the chemical products
of its own activity, or
may deposit those
products within itself
as in the goblet-cell
and the fat- cell seen

in Fig. 40, C and D,

and these products differ in different tissues. The cells
of a tissue, using the word to mean the soft nucleated
particles or corpuscles of protoplasm or " cell-substance,"
must be regarded as the microscopic living "weavers"

i;6 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

or makers of the tissue. The cells in one tissue may
form a honeycomb of boxes ; in another a jelly-like
mass or a fibrous network, with the cell-substance
scattered as nucleated particles in it (Fig. 39). Or the
cells may be elongated and contractile (Fig. 37, E, F).
They may be more or less fused with one another, as
in flesh or muscular fibre ; but we can always recognise
the presence of the individual cells under the microscope
by their distinct and separate " nuclei."

Schwann's most important conclusion from this uni-
versal presence of soft corpuscles of cell-substance, each
with its globular nucleus, in all the tissues and most
varied parts of animals as well as plants, was that the
life of a living thing, the chemical and physical changes
which go on in it from birth to death, consist in chemical
and physical changes in each of these microscopic, nu-
cleated bodies, and that the life of the whole animal or
plant is the sum of the lives of these microscopic units.
If we wish to know more about the real nature of the
growth and activities of living things, said Schwann, we
must thoroughly study and ascertain the chemical and
physical changes, and the properties of the cell-substance
in all the different varieties of tissue. That is the cele-
brated " cell-theory " of Schwann. And this examina-
tion of, and experiment with, the cells of all kinds of
tissues of plants and animals has been going on ever
since Schwann made his historic statement more than
seventy years ago. The branch of science called " his-
tology " is the outcome of that study.

Microscopes have been immensely improved since
Schwann wrote, first in England by the father of the
present Lord Lister, then later in Germany by Abbe
and Zeiss, of Jena. A variety of methods have been
devised for making the " cells " in thick, solid tissues
visible. Very thin sections — thin enough to be trans-

STRUCTURE OF LIVING THINGS 177

parent — were at first cut from the fresh tissues, and
examined by transmitted light. This did very well in
a rough way, but better results were obtained by hard-
ening the tissues in alcohol or chromic acid, when
wonderfully fine sections could be cut and rendered
translucent by soaking in varnish, in which they were
preserved for study with the microscope, between two
plates of glass. The sections were stained with various
dyes, such as carmine, log-wood, the aniline dyes, etc.,
and it was found that the nuclei of the cells and the
granules and fibres both in the minute cells and in the
surrounding substance manufactured by them, could be
distinguished more clearly by means of their differing
affinity for the dyes. And whilst endless section-cutting
and staining and careful drawing and record of the
structure discovered, was proceeding in hundreds of
laboratories — other observers especially devoted them-
selves to the difficult task of seeing the cell-substance or
protoplasm and its nucleus under the highest power of
the microscope, whilst still alive ! It would seem a
hopeless task to examine with a high-power microscope
the cells (less than a thousandth of an inch broad) inside
the solid stem or leaves of a plant or of an animal's body
without killing the plant or animal and the cells of which
they consist. As most of my readers know, the front
lens (or " glass ") of a high-power microscope has to be
brought very close indeed to any object in order to
bring it into focus — as near as the one twenty-fifth of
an inch. Then the object examined must be very small
and transparent, in order that the light may pass through
it, as through the slide-picture in a magic lantern, and
so form a clear, well-defined picture in the focus of the
microscope, where the eye receives it.

Fortunately, there are some facts about living cells
or corpuscles of protoplasm which enable us to examine

178 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

living cells, in spite of these difficulties. In the first
place, there are a whole host of minute animals and
plants — of many different kinds — which consist of only
one cell or nucleated corpuscle of protoplasm (Fig.
36 A) ; they are transparent, abound in fresh water and
sea water, and can be searched for with the microscope in
a drop of water placed on a flat glass plate and covered
with a specially thin glass slip. Many of these have
been studied for hours^ — and even days — continuously,
and the remarkable internal currents and movements of
their viscid " protoplasm," its changes of shape, its feed-
ing and growth, and the details of the process of division
into two — by which it multiplies — have been ascertained,
as well as the action upon it of light, heat, electricity,
and mechanical shock, and of all sorts of chemical sub-
stances, carefully introduced beneath the cover-glass. A
second fact of great importance is that the " cells " or
protoplasmic corpuscles, which build up a complex plant
or animal, do not die at once when the plant or animal
" dies," that is to say, the animal or plant may be " killed "
and fine bits of transparent tissue removed from it and
placed beneath the microscope, where, with proper care,
the cells may be kept alive for some time. The hairs
of many plants are strings of transparent " cells," or
boxes, containing living, streaming, active protoplasm.
These hairs can be cut off, and the cells will remain alive
for a long time whilst they are under the microscope (see
Fig. 15 bis). The transparent wall of the eye — called
the cornea — can be removed from a frog after it has
been killed, and the still-living cells in the delicate glass-
like tissue can be studied with the highest powers of
the microscope, and give evidence of their life by their
movements and other changes. Most convenient and
important for this study is the blood — for there the
cells are loose, floating in the liquid. The cells in a

STRUCTURE OF LIVING THINGS 179

minute drop of human blood can be kept alive for hours,
if the glass slide is kept warm, as it easily can be, and
I have seen the cells in a drop of frog's blood (skilfully
treated) still alive, and exhibiting active movements, a
fortnight after the frog, from which the drop of blood
came, was dead and buried. These floating, moving
cells of the blood are the " phagocytes," which engulf
and digest disease germs and other particles (Fig. 36 B).
Other more numerous cells of the blood are the oxygen-
carriers, or red corpuscles, which do not show any move-
ments or changes of an active kind whilst alive.

XIX
PROTOPLASM, LIFE AND DEATH

THE result of the study of living cell-substance, or
protoplasm, is to show that every cell has an
individual life, and often makes this manifest by its move-
ment, change of shape, and internal currents of granules,
as well as by the special chemical substances it pro-
duces and consumes. All depend for their activity upon
the presence of free oxygen ; all are killed by heat far
less than that of boiling water ; they continually imbibe
water charged with the chemical substances which nourish
them and cause them to grow in bulk and to divide into
two ; and they manufacture various chemical bodies in
the protoplasm and emit heat, electrical discharges, and
sometimes light. Some or other of them, in fact, do in
their small microscopic way all that the complex, big
animal or plant, of which they are constituents, is seen to
do. The cells of the liver manufacture the bile, those of
the salivary glands the saliva, and those of the intestinal
wall a mucous fluid, and squeeze out or eject those pro-
ducts into the adjacent ducts (see Fig. 40 C). Other
cells lay down (as cell-wall or coating) fibrous and hard
substances which form the skeleton ; others become con-
verted into horn and are shed from the surface of the
skin in man as "scurf"; others form the great contractile
masses called muscles. One lot are told off to control

180

PROTOPLASM, LIFE AND DEATH 181

the other cells by something resembling a system of
electrical wires and batteries — these are the nerve-cells
(Fig- 37 D), with their fine, thread-like branches, the
nerve-fibres, which are long enough to permeate every
part of the body and place it in connection with the
nerve-cells in the great centres called brain, spinal cord,
and ganglia.

At one time it was thought that the cells in the
tissues of plants and animals could originate de novo by
a sort of precipitation of liquid matter. But it is now
known that every cell has originated by the division of a
pre-existing cell into two, the nucleus of the mother cell
first dividing and then the rest of the cell. " Every cell
originates by the fission of a preceding cell " is the law,
and to that is added, " Every individual organism, plant
or animal, itself originates from a single cell, the fertilised
germ-cell." These are two laws of fundamental impor-
tance in the study of living things. They are true of
man as well as of the smallest worm ; of the biggest tree
as well as of the most insignificant moss or water-weed.
When the fertilised egg-cell divides, and its progeny keep
on dividing and growing in bulk by the conversion of
nutriment into protoplasm, the dividing cells do not neces-
sarily become entirely nipped off from one another. In
large tracts of cells (or tissues) we often find that the
neighbouring cells are connected to one another by ex-
cessively fine filaments of protoplasm. Only twenty years
ago it was supposed, whilst the neighbouring cells were
thus connected as a rule in animals, as well as being often
connected to the finest nerve-filaments, yet that in plants
the firm, box-like cases which surround the protoplasm —
and when seen dried and empty by Robert Hook led him
to introduce the word " cell " to describe them — form
completely shut cases, so that the living protoplasm of
each plant-cell is entirely cut off from its neighbour.

1 82 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

This has now been found by improved methods of micro-
scopic examination to be a mistake. The cell-wall in a
great many plants, though so firm and cleanly cut in
appearance, is yet perforated by fine threads of the cell
protoplasm, so that each cell is in living communication
with its neighbour. Thus, in plants as well as in animals,
the individual cell-units form a more or less continuous
whole of living matter, separated by dead, inert cell-
walls and products of cell activity ; but, nevertheless, con-
nected in definite tracts and regions to one another by
continuity of the living matter in the form of excessively
fine threads.

Those animals and plants which are built up of many
cells of many varieties — that is to say, all but the micro-
scopic unicellular kinds — may be considered as compo-
site organisms — cell-states or communities in which the
individual cells, all derived from one original mother-cell,
are the citizens, living in groups and habitations (tissues),
having their different occupations and capacities, carrying
on distinct operations and working together for the
common good, the " life," as we call it, of the individual
plant or animal which they constitute. This comparison
should serve merely as an illustration of the individual
character and co-ordinated activity of the cells of a many-
celled plant or animal. It must not be forgotten that the
separate cells are all derived by binary division from the
original germ-cell, that they have not come into juxta-
position from distinct sources, but often are held together
by threads of their living material, which remain after the
process of division of one cell into two.

Protoplasm has been called " the physical basis of
life." Since the activities to which we give the name
" life " reside in protoplasm, and are chemical and
physical activities like those of other bodies, even though
more subtle and complicated — we are justified in regard-

PROTOPLASM, LIFE AND DEATH 183

ing protoplasm as the substance in us and other organisms
which " lives." Death consists in the destruction — the
chemical undoing or decomposition of protoplasm.1 In
simple microscopic unicellular animals and plants, this is
obvious — so long as the protoplasm retains its chemical
structure it is not " dead." Thus, it is possible with
many small simple organisms — such as animalcules and
the seeds of plants — to dry them, and to expose them
to extreme cold, and to deprive them (by aid of a vacuum
pump) of all access of free oxygen or other gases. All
chemical change is thus necessarily arrested. But the
atomic structure of the chemical molecules in the proto-
plasm is not destroyed. Sir James Dewar, M. Becquerel,
and others have shown this by most carefully conducted
experiments. Seeds of clover, mustard, and wheat so
treated do not " die " ; the mechanism remains intact, and
when, after many weeks, the seeds are moistened, warmed,
and admitted to contact with the atmosphere, the mechan-
ism again begins to work, the protoplasm resumes its
activity, the seed " sprouts." Similarly Dewar has shown
that bacteria are not killed by extreme cold, the tempera-
ture of liquid hydrogen. When thus frozen they remain
inert — but are even in this condition liable to be " killed "
by exposure to the blue and ultra-blue rays of sun-
light ! Life was defined by Herbert Spencer as " the
' continuous ' adjustment of internal to external relations,"

1 Protoplasm is not a single chemical compound ; it is the name
given to the soft, slimy substance of cells, and contains many chemical
compounds— proteids, fats, and others ; some on the way to assume
greater chemical complexity ; others in process of destruction. The
critical highest chemical body concealed in protoplasm has no gener-
ally recognised name. It is a proteid-like body, consisting chiefly of
carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, with some saline con-
stituents. This is the real ultimate " living matter," and I suggested
in the Encyclopedia Britannica (article Protozoa) in 1886 that it
should be called " plasmogen."

1 84 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

and this implied that what is called " suspended anima-
tion " was not really a possible thing, but that there
could only be an apparent or approximate suspension.
On the contrary, it seems that just as we may stop a
watch by holding back the balance-wheel with a needle,
and yet not " kill " the watch — for it will resume its
movement as soon as the needle is removed — so the
changes of the chemical molecules of protoplasm can be
arrested, but if the chemical " structure " is uninjured the
mechanism of protoplasm can resume its activity when
the arresting causes are removed. The inactive, un-
changing protoplasm is not "dead," it has not been
" killed " so long as its mechanism is intact.

On the other hand, it is the fact that this mechanism
— the chemical structure of protoplasm — is very easily
destroyed. A unicellular organism is chemically de-
stroyed by crushing or disruption, and the consequent
admixture of an excess of water with its particles, also by
a temperature high enough to cause pain if applied to our
skin, but yet much below that of boiling water, also by
strong sun-light, and by very many varieties of chemical
substances, especially acids, even when very much diluted.
Complex animals and plants are liable to have the proto-
plasm of essential and important cells of the body de-
stroyed, whereupon the destruction or death of the other
cells, not involved in the original trouble, frequently and as
a rule results. The protoplasm of the cells of a complex
animal is dependent on the proper activity of many
other cells besides those of its own tissue or locality in
the body. If the protoplasm of certain nerve-cells or of
blood-cells or of digestive-cells is poisoned or injured or
chemically upset, other cells lose as a consequence —
not at once but after a short interval — their necessary
chemical food, their oxygen, their accustomed tempera-
ture, and so bit by bit the great " body " — the complex

PROTOPLASM, LIFE AND DEATH 185

organism — ceases to live, that is to say, its protoplasm
undergoes step by step and bit by bit irrevocable
chemical change or breaking down.

When a man enters upon that condition which we
call " death," the general muscular movements first cease,
then the movements of respiration (so that a mirror held
to the mouth was used to test the coming and going of
the breath, and the absence of a film of moisture on the
mirror's surface was held to be a proof of death), then
the movement of the heart, which is followed by the
awful pallor of the bloodless face and lips, and the
chilling of the whole body, no longer warmed by the
blood-stream. But for long after these changes have
occurred the protoplasm of the cells in many parts is
not injured. The beard of a corpse will grow after all
the great arrests of movement above noted have been
established for hours. In cold-blooded animals, such as
the frog, the protoplasm of the muscles is still uninjured
many hours after decapitation, and they can be stimu-
lated and made to contract. Death, in fact, only occurs
in the tissues of a multicellular animal, as their proto-
plasm becomes chemically destroyed by injurious tempera-
ture, poisonous accumulations, or active bacterial germs,
which become predominant owing to the stoppage of the
great mechanisms of breathing, circulation, and nerve
control.

Is it, then, necessary to suppose that a something,
an essence, a spirit, an intangible existence called " life "
or " vitality," or the " anima animans," passes away, or, as
it were, evaporates from a thing which was living and is
now dead ? Assuredly no more than it is necessary to
suppose that an essence or thing called " death " takes
possession of it when it ceases to carry on the changes
which we call " living." It must not be supposed that
we regard the unique and truly awe-inspiring processes

1 86 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

which go on in the protoplasm of living things as some-
thing simple, easily understood and accounted for,
because we have given up the notion that life is an
entity which enters into living things from without arid
escapes from them at death. The real fact is, that the
notion of " spirits," whether of a lower or of a higher
kind, supposed to enter into and " affect " various natural
objects, including trees, rivers, and mountains, as well as
animals and man, does not help us, and only stands in
the way of our gaining more complete knowledge of
natural processes. When we say that life and even its
most tremendous outcome — the mind of man — are to be
studied and their gradual development traced as part of
the orderly unfolding of natural processes, we are no
whit less reverent, in no degree less impressed by the
wonder, immensity, and mystery of the universe, than
those who, with happy and obstinate adherence to primi-
tive conceptions, think that they can explain things by
calling up vital essences and wandering spirits.

XX
CHEMISTRY AND PROTOPLASM

WHEN the chemist examines living cell-substance
or protoplasm — as free as possible from dead
envelopes and products of its own activity — so as to
make out, if he can, what it is chemically, he finds that
it consists of the elements carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and
nitrogen, with some sulphur. Phosphorus and some
potash, soda and lime in small quantity, are also very
usually associated with the elements named. These are
combined in the protoplasm so as to form chemical
compounds resembling and including white of egg, and
are called " proteids." A chemical compound is a very
definite and special thing, and when one says so-and-so
is a definite chemical compound, one means that it is not
a mere " mixture," but is composed of chemical elements
(some out of the long list of about eighty indestructible,
undecomposable, " simple " bodies — gases, liquids, metallic
and non-metallic solids — recognised by chemists and
known as such), peculiarly united to, or " combined " with,
one another in definite proportions by weight.

Take, as an example, water. Water is a definite
chemical compound, formed by the chemical union of
two pure elements, the gases hydrogen and oxygen —
eighteen ounces of water consist of two ounces of

hydrogen and sixteen ounces of oxygen. At a tem-
187

i 88 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

perature above that of boiling water the gases, when
they unite, contract to form water-vapour, three pints of
the uniting gases (consisting of two pints of hydrogen
and one of oxygen) forming two pints only of water-
vapour. This, when it is cooled to a temperature below
212 deg. Fahr., suddenly contracts to a few thimblefuls
of pure liquid water. Neither oxygen nor hydrogen
"uncombined" liquefy till far below zero.

A proteid, in the same way, is a chemical combina-
tion of the elements already mentioned — carbon, oxygen,
hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulphur — but the proportions by
volume of these elements to each other are represented
by very high figures, not merely by two to one, as in the
case of water. It is the carbon in them that makes " pro-
teids " turn black when they are destroyed by burning,
and it is the sulphur which causes the smell of rotten
eggs. Whilst an ultimate molecule or physical particle
of water consists of two atoms of hydrogen and one of
oxygen — the molecule of the proteid called " albumen "
is built up by seventy-two atoms of carbon, one hundred
and twelve atoms of hyrodgen, eighteen atoms of nitrogen,
twelve atoms of oxygen, all brought into relation with
one atom of sulphur. Probably in some other proteids
the number of these atoms must all be multiplied by
.three. The elaborate " atomic composition " of a
molecule of proteid renders it very unstable ; it easily
falls to pieces, the elements combining, in other and
simpler proportions, to form less "delicate" bodies. Living
protoplasm consists chiefly of proteids and of compounds
which are on the way up, forming step by step more
elaborate combinations till they reach the proteid stage —
and of many others which are degradation products,
coming down, as it were, from the giddy heights of the
proteid combination. The protoplasm of a cell contains
finer and grosser granules, which are these ascending

CHEMISTRY AND PROTOPLASM 189

and descending substances ; it also contains others in
solution and invisible — for, like a lump of jelly (such as
the cook serves up shaped by a mould and soaked with
flavour and colour), protoplasm can soak up either a large
or a small quantity of water, and with the water (that is
the important point) all sorts of chemical bodies soluble
in water. Just as a lump of quivering calves'-foot jelly
(which is a chemical compound of a lower grade than
proteids, but like them), when placed in a shallow dish
of water coloured red by carmine, does not dissolve in
the water, but absorbs the water and the carmine, allowing
the coloured water and any chemical bodies in solution
in it to diffuse into and become physically, though not
chemically, a part of its substance, so protoplasm takes
up water and the compounds dissolved by it. Just as a
" jelly " of water-holding gelatine can give up its water
and become hard and horny, so is protoplasm capable of
gradually giving up much of its water, and even in some
cases of becoming hard and horny, yet able to return,
when remoistened, to its active state. Moreover, a
"jelly" can be made to "soak up" or take into itself
water and let it pass through its substance, so as to wash
out from it all soluble matters. In the same way the
protoplasm of a living cell is supplied with nourishing
and oxygenating fluids which diffuse into it, and is
" washed out," purified, and cleansed of waste or effete
chemical compounds by the water which first permeates
it, and then diffuses out of it into surrounding watery
fluids carrying the excess of soluble chemical bodies
with it.

Whilst proteids are the compounds of the highest
stage of chemical complexity recognised in protoplasm,
and appear to form the bulk of its substance, we must
carefully avoid the error (which is not uncommon) of
supposing that protoplasm is itself a definite chemical

190 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

compound. It is not. Cell-protoplasm includes the
nucleus, that denser central body, and is a structure
consisting of " proteids " and of many granules and
dust-like particles, and of more and of less liquid
or watery parts which are less complex in chemical
nature than are proteids. Some of the visible granules
and invisible liquids present in protoplasm are being
built up to the proteid stage of elaboration, whilst some
are steps in degradation and decomposition. We have
no reason to suppose that the molecules of any proteid
known at present to the chemist really are the highest
degree of chemical complexity attained to in living
protoplasm. Probably there is present a further stage
of elaboration, a chemical body even more complex than
is " proteid," which is continually attracting the lower
chemical compounds to itself and as continually break-
ing down. This is the ultimate chemical substance of
life. It is hidden invisibly in the protoplasm, yet all the
chemical changes which go on in the protoplasm of a
cell are either leading up to this supreme life-stuff or are
leading downwards from it. This ultimate compound,
which we suppose to exist but have not demonstrated,
has been called " plasmogen." It is this body in which
resides the peculiar property of living matter, namely,
that of attracting to itself substances containing the so-
called " organic " elements — carbon, oxygen, hydrogen,
and nitrogen — and of acting on them in such a way
that they " nourish " it — that is to say, combine chemically
with it to form more " plasmogen."

The intermediate steps leading up to plasmogen and
the products arising from its incessant breaking down
are formed under the influence of this unique chemical
body, and by it alone. Chemists have not yet succeeded
in making them ; only the less elaborate kinds have
been "artificially" constructed without the aid of the

CHEMISTRY AND PROTOPLASM 191

living plasmogen. To construct plasmogen itself is a
task for the chemists of the distant future. In early
geological ages plasmogen came into being ; it has gone
on ever since "nourishing" itself, maintaining itself,
growing and spreading over the earth. It is improbable
that the conditions which led to its formation have ever
recurred. All subsequent plasmogen has been formed
by the growth and increase of that first sample of it,
which once in a remote period of the earth's history was
built up by chemical conditions, which came to an end
as soon as they had produced it.

The only process in nature of which we know, which
resembles the " building " action of plasmogen, the
ultimate molecule of life, buried in the cell's protoplasm,
is the selective action of crystals, which draw to them-
selves from a solution or magma of all sorts of chemical
bodies those molecules of a chemical nature identical
with their own, and build them up into special and
definite crystalline forms. But there is a very wide gap
between this process and even the mere assimilation by
living matter of the organic elements, so as to raise them
from a lower to a higher grade of chemical complexity
of combination. And over and above this we have
added, in the case of living material, to the mere power
of assimilation and growth the almost unthinkable com-
plications and variations of specific form and quality,
and yet further of individual form and quality, which
are determined by special complications and variations
of the plasmogen, that unique compound concealed in
the cell-protoplasm.

We cannot at present, if ever, picture to ourselves
adequately the mechanism of plasmogen, though the
attempt has been, and must be, made. But we can
watch its workings closely ; we can ascertain the con-
ditions which promote, check, or modify its activity ; in

1 92 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

fact, we can observe its output and experiment on it in
a thousand ways, and so get more and more knowledge
of it. We are not led to suppose that it is possessed by
a demon, nor that in it resides an elsewhere unknown
essence. It is enough for us to satisfy ourselves that its
qualities, whilst they can be grouped with the chemical
and physical qualities of other bodies, so far transcend
them in complexity and in immensity of result — the
whole creation of plant and animal life — that their
appearance constitutes in effect a new departure, a
sudden and, to us, unaccountable acquirement. But
then we must remember that it is also an unaccountable
thing to us that water suddenly becomes ice at a low
temperature, and suddenly becomes vapour at a high
temperature, even if we are able to imagine the mechanism
which necessitates those changes. We cannot " explain "
the nature of things. Even though we can classify
them and arrange them in order, and more or less
satisfactorily guess what their inner mechanism is, we
cannot, in our present state of knowledge, trace them in
detail to a first beginning. Even though we believe
that such a history lies behind us, we ourselves cannot
as yet show how exactly every quality and property
and form of matter has developed in due order as a
matter of necessity during the cooling of the cosmic gas.
All we can do is to ascertain, bit by bit, some sequences,
some lines of orderly development and interaction, adding
thus step by step to our knowledge of what has taken
place.

XXI
THE SIMPLEST LIVING THINGS

IN old times, if one wanted to compare a man to the
humblest and simplest of animals, one called him
"a worm." But really a worm is a very elaborate
creature, with skin, muscles, blood-vessels, kidneys,
nervous system, pharynx, stomach, and an intestine,
and is built up by hundreds of thousands of protoplasmic
cells. Shakespeare got nearer the mark when he made
one- of his uncompromising professional "murderers"
exclaim, as he stabbed the young Macduff to the heart,
" What, you egg ! " An egg is a single cell or corpuscle of
protoplasm, and the simplest living things are of the
same structure — mere units, single corpuscles of proto-
plasm, often less than the one-thousandth of an inch in
diameter, and invisible except with the microscope,
though in some cases big enough to be seen by the
naked eye as they swim or crawl in a glass of pond-
water. Many thousands of kinds of these simplest
animals and plants have been carefully recorded, distin-
guished from one another, and named by naturalists.

Many of these unicellular animals (or " Protozoa ")
crawl by a curious irregular flowing movement of the
viscid tenacious protoplasm of which they consist.
There is no firm coat or cell-wall, only the thinnest
pellicle on the surface. The Proteus-animalcule (Fig.

194 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

36A) is so called because of its constant change of
shape; it is also called Amceba on this account. It
flows out into broad, sometimes elongated, finger-like
processes, of which one or several of different sizes may
be formed at the same time, and then quickly disappear
as the whole creature moves. Solid particles of food —
minute unicellular plants — are engulfed by the moving
viscid protoplasm and digested within it — that is to say,
chemically dissolved, just as food is digested in the
stomach of a big animal. The colourless cells of our
blood and lymph (Fig. 366) are called "amoeboid,"
because of their identity with an Amceba in shape and
movement and digestive power. In some of these
animalcules (sun-animalcules and others) the processes
of the protoplasm are in the form of very fine, long
spreading threads which entangle a food particle, and
then contract, drawing it up into the disc-like central body.
A whole group or division of these simplest animals
are provided with special moving or vibrating hair-like
extensions of the protoplasm called "cilia," that being
the Latin name for " eyelashes," to which they are com-
pared. These cilia are arranged with great regularity
in rows, circlets, or spirals, on the surface of the " cell."
They are found not only on cells which are independent
unicellular animals and plants, but also on cells which
form the clothing or surface layer of many larger animals
(Fig. 4OA and B). Thus, in ourselves, they are found
lining the windpipe, and they also line the internal cavity
of the brain and spinal cord. The gills of the oyster,
and such shell-fish, and other parts of their skin, are
paved with ciliated or cilia-bearing cells, set side by side
in thousands. A single " cilium " is like a little lash of
a whip, and is always making its lashing movement.
For a fraction of a second it is straight and upright,
then suddenly curves over and bends to one side with

THE SIMPLEST LIVING THINGS 195

/

a " flick," and immediately recovers its upright position
(see Fig. 29, p. 131). All the cilia on one cell or one
surface " beat " in the same direction, and with a
common rhythm, so that if the cell is a free, independent
animalcule it is driven along through the water by the
rapid strokes of these numberless tiny "oars," or
" paddles." If the cilia are on a surface — like the
oyster's gill — they drive the water along and create a
constant current. Each cilium consists of an elastic and
a contractile fibre closely fused together : the contraction
of the one part causes a flick or bending of the hair-
like cilium, the elasticity of the other substance causes it
at once to straighten out again.

The ciliated unicellular animalcules (often called the
infusoria, because they flourish in decomposing "infusions")
not only swim by means of their cilia, but have a definite
mouth or opening in the firm outer layer of the proto-
plasm of the cell, into which solid particles of food are
driven by whirlpool-like currents set up by special lines
of cilia (Fig. 41 A a). The mouth leads through a definite
" gullet " into the interior of the cell. Remember that
the whole creature is but a single minute cell or corpuscle
of protoplasm ! It is only from the hundredth to the
thousandth of an inch long — with nucleus (e in the figure)
of denser structure within — just like, in essential structure
and properties, one single cell of the many thousands
which build up the liver, or are packed in layers to form
our outer skin, or are piled side by side (by self-division)
to make the stems and leaves of plants. Yet here is
such a cell — self-sufficing. When it divides (as it does)
the two resulting cells do not remain in contact as they
do when a germ cell (a fertilised egg-cell) divides. They
simply separate, and each swims away, and carries on its
own life. Many of them are fitted out with these cilia
as a most serviceable locomotor apparatus, and as pro-

196 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

ducers of food currents driving the food right in to a
permanent, definitely-shaped mouth. Some have also a

FIG. 41. — Two specimens of a bell-animalcule (VorticelZa). A, extended.
B, with retracted disc and coiled stalk, a, the ciliated disc ; b, the firm
ring behind the disc, called "peristome"; c, the pulsating chamber,
called often the contractile vacuole ; d, a completely digested particle of
food on its way to be cast out through the gullet ; e, the sausage-shaped
nucleus ; /, a particle of food which has just sunk into the protoplasm
from the gullet, and is surrounded by a little water ; g, the gullet ; A, the
reservoir leading from the pulsating chamber to the gullet ; i, the hollow
stalk ; k, the spirally attached muscle within the stalk ; /, the attachment
of the stalk to a weed m.

separate opening by which the undigested remains of the
food are extruded. They have also a liquid-holding

THE SIMPLEST LIVING THINGS 197

cavity or series of cavities which, when distended,
contract and discharge their contents to the exterior.
This is an apparatus for " washing out " the protoplasm
of the unicellular animalcule and getting rid of excretory
products ; it is definitely comparable in its use, though
so different in origin, to the many-celled kidneys and
bladder of higher animals.

One of the numerous kinds of "bell-animalcules"
affords an excellent example in which we can watch the
structures and life-processes in a single cell (Fig. 41).
It is a pear or bell-shaped body, little more than one-
thousandth of an inch broad, supported on a long, hollow
stalk (though sometimes it breaks off from its stalk and
swims freely) ; inside the stalk is a muscle (£), so attached
that when it contracts it shortens the stalk by throwing
it into a close-set, corkscrew spiral (Fig. 4 IB). The
bell-shaped body has a relatively firm surface, beneath
which is soft, viscid protoplasm and a large sausage-like
nucleus. The body can expand itself so as to look like
a solid bell or trumpet-shaped figure, with a flat, disc-
like surface where the " hollow " of the bell should be, or
it can draw the edges of the disc together and assume
the shape of a ball. A line of " cilia " is set on the edge
of the bell's disc (a) and takes a spiral course.

There is a deep pit on one side of the disc. This
is the mouth. It is easy to feed this minute " egg " of
a creature ! A powder of fine particles — boiled bacteria,
in fact, are what I have used — is introduced into the
water between two slips of glass in which the bell-
animalcule is displaying itself under our microsope.
We see the particles whirling about in a vortex, hitting
the disc of the bell-animalcule and then driven into
the pit or cavity of the open mouth, whence they
sink, enclosed in a sphere or droplet of water (f) into
the internal protoplasm ! If the " boiled bacteria," before

198 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

they are introduced, are stained with an alkaline blue
such as blue litmus, they are seen in the course of a few
seconds to turn red — showing that an acid has been
secreted by the protoplasm (probably accompanied by
a ferment) into the little sphere of water, in which the
digestion of the boiled bacteria now goes on. In the
course of a few minutes you will see the little sphere of
water dwindling in size — the nourishing liquid being
absorbed by the protoplasm — and then you will see
the undigested fragments passed on by a slow movement
to the vestibule or " pit " of the mouth, extruded through
a temporary opening from the protoplasm, and whirled
away by the water currents ! If you colour the " boiled
bacteria " with water-soluble anilin-blue — as I did many
years ago — you will see that the colour vanishes
from the particles taken into the bell-animalcule's
protoplasm, and presently an independent sphere of
bright blue liquid begins to form in the protoplasm.
This sphere or globule is the renal organ mentioned
above — here very simple and single (Fig. 40^). It is
called the pulsating chamber or " contractile vacuole."
It enlarges rapidly, filling with blue liquid (when special
coloured food has not been supplied the liquid is colour-
less), then suddenly contracts, squirting its blue contents
out through a special reservoir (fi) into the mouth-pit
(as shown by an arrow in the figure).

The nucleus of these unicellular animals is often
elongated (2), and shaped according to the general shape
of the animalcule ; but it is the same thing as the
"nucleus" of all cells, whether of plants or animals —
a denser " kernel " of protoplasm, limited by its own
delicate sheath or membrane. It shows, like the cell-
nucleus of ordinary cells, a special affinity for certain
dyes, which do not stain the rest of the cell, so that it
can be made very obvious and clear when the animalcule

THE SIMPLEST LIVING THINGS 199

is killed by alcohol, picric acid, or other preservative
solutions, and then stained ; and it shows a curious
breaking-up of its substance into thread-like fibres when
the animalcule is about to divide into two — as is seen
also in all cells when the regular process of division of one
cell into two commences. The larger animalcules have
enabled us to find out what are the special properties of
the nucleus of cells, as contrasted with those of the rest
of the protoplasm. The trumpet animalcule (Stentor)
is a single cell, and though only one-thirtieth of an inch
long, is large enough to be cut into pieces by very skilful
use of a fine blade. It is found that, if we cut the
Stentor into four or five bits, all continue to " live " ; that
is to say, to swim about by the vibration of the hair-like
cilia on their surface. But those bits which have no
part of the nucleus in them die after a few hours. They
cannot take nourishment nor grow. On the other hand,
all the bits which comprise a slice of nucleus commence
to contract, and shape themselves like the original
Stentor, then form a mouth, and take nourishment, and
grow up to be fully-sized, complete Stentors — animalcules
like that by the cutting-up of which they were formed.
This and similar experiments are held to prove that the
processes of nutrition, growth, and production of specific
form are dependent on the nucleus. In its absence, you
may have contractility and active movement for a
time, but no repair, no building-up of new material, no
directed or seemingly " purposive " movement. Such
movements, viz., advance in one direction, arrest, hesitating,
or exploring movement to the right and left, followed by
rapid retreat or advance in a straight line, are often
exhibited by these minute animalcules, and cannot be
distinguished in character from those, say, of a fly or even
of a mouse.

These facts throw a great light on the significance

200 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

of the structure of the protoplasmic corpuscle which we
call a " cell," and show that the universal presence of the
nucleus in every " cell " is due to the fact that it plays
the most important part in the life of the cell. It is the
seat of control, and contains substances in virtue of which
the changes which constitute growth and form-production
take place, and in the absence of which the rest of the
protoplasm cannot " carry on," although for a time it lives ;
that is to say, remains chemically undecomposed, and
shows active movement. At the same time, we must
not underrate the importance of the general protoplasm,
without the presence of some of which the nucleus cannot
do its work, nor even exist. It is no wonder, then, that
when a cell divides, there are curious and elaborate
proceedings in the nucleus, by which each daughter cell
gets its due half of the all-important nuclear substance.

When a cell divides the fission or splitting of the
cell is preceded by peculiar changes in the nucleus.
There is a material in the nucleus of every cell — of those
which are simple animalcules, as well as of those which
are germ-cells and sperm-cells, and of those which form,
heaped up in enormous numbers, the living substance of
larger animals and plants — a material which is an
elaborated sort of proteid (see p. 185) and stains strongly
with carmine, logwood, and such dyes, and is called
" chromatin." It exists often in the shape of minute
granules and filaments (Fig 42^), but always takes on,
sooner or later, the form of an irregularly undulated
thread or threads. When the cell is about to divide into
two — as all growing and active cells do — the thread
arranges itself like a zigzagging girdle around the
equator of the globular nucleus (Fig. 42<5). The margin
of the nucleus then seems to melt away into the general
protoplasm, and the zigzag bits of the stain able thread
break from each other, forming a ring-like group of

THE SIMPLEST LIVING THINGS

201

V-shaped pieces (Fig. 42*:). There is a remarkable fact as
to the number of these V-shaped pieces. They are identi-

FlG. 42. — Six successive stages in the division of a "cell," to show the
appearance of the V-shaped filaments of colourable matter or chromatin.
a, resting-cell, with chromatin dispersed as fine irregular filaments in the
nucleus ; b, the chromatin takes the form of a wreath with twelve loops —
it lies horizontally across the cell ; ct the loops break from one another,
and form twelve separate V-shaped pieces ; d, each of the twelve pieces
divides along its length into two parallel V-shaped pieces ; e, the divided
pieces now separate from one another, so as to form two wreath-like
groups of twelve V-shaped pieces at each end of the cell ;f, the wall of the
cell forms across between the separated groups of V-shaped pieces, which
lose their regular arrangement. Each group becomes enclosed in a cap-
sule, and is the nucleus of a new cell. This is the regular process of
cell-division, and the mode in which the chromatin of the nucleus is
broken up, so as to be equally shared by the two daughter cells. In some
species of animals the cells have as many as thirty-six V-shaped chromatin
bodies ; in others as few as two. Different plants also show a similar
difference in the number of chromatin bodies characteristic of the species.

cal in number in all the cells of one species or kind of
animal or plant, but may be of a different number in

202 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

allied species. The salamander has twenty-four of
them ; some worms have only two, some insects thirty-
six, some plants eight, others twelve, and so on. When
the V-shaped pieces have thus taken up their position
in the dividing cell, each splits longitudinally, so as to
form two V-shaped pieces lying one over the other (Fig.
42d). Then the halves separate and travel away from
each other. In this way two circlets, each made up by
the correct number of V-shaped pieces, come into place
at opposite sides of the cell (Fig. 42*?). After this the
protoplasm becomes nipped in between the two circlets
so as to separate the cell into two halves, each with its
circlet of exactly the correct number of V-shaped pieces
of " chromatin " formed by the splitting of those of the
parent cell (Fig. 42 /). It is in this way that the nuclei
of the new cells are accurately provided with not merely
half of the nuclear chromatin of the mother cell, but
with half taken from all parts of it, owing to the thread-
like form of the chromatin and the longitudinal splitting
of the thread.

Fertilisation of the egg-cell by the sperm-cell con-
sists essentially in the junction or fusion of the nuclear
chromatin threads of the egg-cell with the nuclear
chromatin threads of a single sperm-cell or spermatozoon,
which sinks into the egg-cell and fuses with it. This
has been witnessed and studied with the greatest care.
The leading fact of interest is that the egg-cell and the
sperm-cell have only half the number of V-shaped
nuclear pieces which the ordinary cells of the same
animal or plant possess. Thus a salamander's ripe egg
and ripe spermatozoid have each only twelve V-shaped
pieces — not twenty-four. This is brought about by the
parent cells, which divide to form the egg-cell of the
female and the spermatozoid of the male, not splitting
their V-shaped nuclear bits ; consequently, the number is

THE SIMPLEST LIVING THINGS 203

reduced to half (that is, twelve) in the daughter cells
resulting from the division. Accordingly, when the
fusion of egg-cell and sperm-cell occurs — each bringing
twelve V-shaped pieces — the proper number is re-
established, namely, twenty-four. In the first division of
this fertilised germ-cell — the cell resulting from the
fusion of egg-cell and sperm-cell — the V-shaped nuclear
pieces split in the regular way, and the first two embryo-
cells are formed, each with its twenty-four pieces. Each
of these cells undergoes the regular process, and so by
continued growth and division into two an immense
series of cells are produced, which may separate as they
form, or in the case of multi-cellular creatures, remain in
continuity with one another as a bulky plant or animal.
Clearly the whole process arises from the value to the
growing mass of protoplasm of having its substance
closely sown or dotted with centres of nuclear matter —
that specially active, co-ordinating material — and of
having those centres of equal volume and quality ; and,
lastly, of having that nuclear matter equally, or nearly
equally, derived from the male and female parent, It is,
however, not certain from observation of what occurs
when the twelve male and twelve female V-shaped pieces
(or whatever the number may be in any given animal or
plant which have become grouped together in the
fertilised germ-cell) split and separate to form the
nucleus of two new cells — that exactly twelve male and
twelve female pieces go into each of the new cells. It
is certain that twenty-four pieces go into each, but
although it is possible that exactly half of them are male
and half female in origin, it is not certain from observa-
tion that this is necessarily so. Supposing different
proportions to obtain in each of the two first embryo-
cells, it would help to account for the facts that offspring
are not an exact blend of their parents in all their

204 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

qualities, and that all the offspring of the same two
parents are not exactly alike, but often very different
from one another.

Some of the simplest living things, consisting of but
one microscopic cell, are animals, and some are plants.
The essential difference between an animal and a plant
is shown very clearly by some of these microscopic
creatures. Animals feed on the flesh or " proteid " sub-
stances manufactured by other animals or by plants ;
they also feed on oils or fats, and on the sugar and starch
manufactured by other animals or by plants. But they
cannot construct these " foods " themselves from the
simpler stable chemical compounds called " mineral
bodies," which, nevertheless, contain the elements they
require — carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen. Such
stable mineral bodies are carbonic acid, ammonia, and
water. In fact, ordinary " smelling salts " (which is
chemically carbonate of ammonia) dissolved in water, if
we add to it a trace of phosphates, sulphates, and
chlorides of potash, soda and lime, contain all the actual
chemical elements that an animal needs. Yet no animal
can be nourished by such a " mineral " soup.

On the other hand, it is the special distinction of
plants — of green plants, be it noted — that they can feed
on this simple diet, and, moreover, cannot feed on any-
thing else. The green colouring matter which gives its
beautiful tint to the grass and weeds and the leaves of
the big trees which clothe the earth is absolutely essential
in this process ; so also is sunlight. The living proto-
plasm of the green-coloured parts of plants is crowded
with microscopic discs or plates of a brilliant transparent
green colour. The peculiar substance causing the colour
is called " leaf-green," or " chlorophyll." It can be dis-
solved out of a leaf, not by water, but by spirit or by
ether, and separately studied. It may be seen in solu-

THE SIMPLEST LIVING THINGS 205

tion (to cite a commercial instance) in the liqueur known
as " creme de menthe," being used to give its fine green
colour to that preparation. Sunlight shining on to the
green parts of plants is " screened " or " strained " by the
leaf-green, so that only some of the coloured rays pass
through it, and it is only by this peculiarly " strained "
green sunlight that the protoplasm of the cells of the
leaf is stimulated to its remarkable chemical activity.
The carbonic acid in the air or in the water in which
the green plant is living is taken up by the protoplasm.
Carbonic acid consists of oxygen and of carbon. The
protoplasm, when the green sunlight acts on it, actually
takes out of carbonic acid and throws off as a gas (seen
as bubbles in the case of a water plant) some of its con-
stituent oxygen, thus keeping up the supply of free
oxygen in air and water. Then at the same time it
combines the carbon and the rest of the oxygen with
water (hydrogen and oxygen) inside itself, forming solid
starch, which, with the microscope, we can see actually
manufactured as little oblong grains in the green cells.
Not only this, but the element nitrogen is, so to speak,
" forced " in other cells of the plant to combine with the
three elements of the newly-formed starch (carbon,
hydrogen, and oxygen), and thus the first steps leading
to the building up of those wonderful bodies, the proteids,
are passed. Nothing of the sort can be done by the
protoplasm of an animal cell.

Consequently we distinguish among the simplest
living things those which are provided with leaf-green,
and feed, as do the larger green plants, on dissolved
" mineral " solids and gases. There are many thousands
of kinds of them — single simple cells. Some are known
to microscopists as Diatoms and Desmids — often of
curious spindle or crescent-shape, others star-like. The
diatoms form on their surface a delicate, wonderfully-

206 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

sculptured coat of glass-like silica (quartz), which resists
destruction and persists long after the protoplasm is
dead and washed away. They are favourite objects for
examination with the microscope on account of their
great beauty and variety.

Those simplest living things which have not got leaf-
green to enable them to feed on mineral food must —
unless they are parasites (as many important kinds are) —
get their food, as do bigger animals, by feeding on the
solid substance of other living things. All living things
are, in fact, ultimately dependent on the green plants —
whether microscopic or of larger kinds — not only for
food, but for oxygen gas. If you could take away green
plants altogether from the world, the animals would eat
one another and use up the oxygen gas of the atmo-
sphere, and at the last there would be a few only of the
strongest left, like the last survivor of the shipwrecked
crew of the Nancy Bell, and even they would be suffocat-
ing for want of oxygen. The single cells, which are
independent animalcules, and feed like animals on whole
creatures smaller than themselves, or on bits of the fresh
substance of other animals or of plants, are of extra-
ordinary diversity of form and activity. Unlike the
unicellular plants, whose food is dissolved in the water
in which they live, the single-cell animals of necessity
take their food in " lumps " into their inside and digest
it, and so their cell-protoplasm has either a soft surface
which can take up a food-morsel at any point or it has
a firm surface with a definite mouth, or aperture, in it
(see Fig. 41) where the mouth is marked by an arrow.
Many of them, especially those with soft glutinous pro-
toplasm, which extends from the main-mass in long
threads or branching processes searching for food-morsels,
form marvellous, perforated shells by chemical deposit,
either of silica or limestone (Radiolaria and Foraminifers).

THE SIMPLEST LIVING THINGS 207

The kinds with a firm or tough surface to the cell-
protoplasm and a permanent mouth and gullet leading
into the cell-substance have very usually a single large
lashing-whip (Flagellata), which drives them through
the water in search of prey, or they are clothed with
hundreds of such lashing threads of smaller size — the
" cilia " described above (p. 195) — arranged in rows or
circles, whence these animalcules are called " Ciliata."
The ciliates or one-celled animals are enabled by their
cilia to move with all the grace, variety, facility, and
apparent intelligence of the highest animals, and also to
create powerful vortex-currents by which food particles
are driven into the cell-mouth.

It is a most remarkable and thought-stirring fact
that here we have " animalcules " which are no more
than isolated units of the kind and structure which go by
hundreds of thousands to build up a larger animal — just
as bricks are units of the kind which to the number of
many thousands build up a house. And yet each of
these free-living units has a complete organisation —
mouth, pharynx, renal organ, locomotive organs, and so
on — similar in activity and general shape to the system
of large, capacious organs built up by the agglomeration
of millions of cell-units to form the body of a higher
animal. It is as though a single brick were provided
with door, windows, staircase, fireplace, chimneys, and
wine-cellar ! It is clear that there is only a resemblance
and not an identity of origin between the organs of the
multicellular animal and those of the single-celled
animalcule. The history of the growth of an animal
from the single egg-cell, and also the series of existing
many-celled animals, leading from simple forms to the
most complex, proves this. And in view of that fact
the wonderful elaboration of these diminutive creatures
— many of them so small as to be absolutely invisible

208 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

to the naked eye — is all the more curious and impressive.
We have, in fact, parallel organisation and elaboration of
structures with special uses, in two absolutely separated
grades or strata of living things — the one grade marked
off by the limitation that only a single cell, a single
nucleated corpuscle of protoplasm, is to be the basis and
material of elaboration — the other and higher grade per-
mitting the use of millions of single cells, of endless
variety and plasticity, capable of hanging together and
being grouped in layers and tissues, in such enormous
masses that an elephant or a whale is the result. And
we see that the same needs are met, not actually in the
same way, but in the same kind of way, in the two cases
— the food-orifice, the cilia, and the " pulsating vacuole "
of the unicellular animalcule do the same services as
those done by the structurally different mouth, legs, and
kidneys of the elephant.

XXII
TADPOLES AND FROGS

THE season of tadpoles is not a season recognised
by housekeepers and gourmets (except in France,
where frogs are eaten in April), but one dear to school-
boys and all lovers of Nature. The ponds on heaths and
in the corners of meadows now show great masses of
soft jelly-like balls of the size of a marble, huddled
together and marked each by a little black spot at its
centre, as big as a rape-seed. This is the " spawn " of
our common frog. The spawn of the common toad is
very similar, but the black spots are set in long strings
of jelly, not in separate balls. The little black body is
precisely the same thing as the yellow part of a hen's
egg, and the jelly around it corresponds to the " white" of
the bird's egg ; but there is nothing to represent the
shell. The " yelk " of the bird's egg is, it is true, much
larger, but corresponds to the black sphere of the frog's
egg — the actual germ — and is like the latter a single
protoplasmic cell, distended with nourishing granular
matter. It is the excess of this matter which makes the
yellow ball of the bird's egg so much bigger than the
black or rather deep-brown germ of the frog. The little
black spheres elongate from day to day in the warm
spring weather, and at last the minute tadpoles (see
Fig. 43 and its explanation) break loose from the jelly,

2IO

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

hanging on to its surface by aid of a tiny sucker, and
feeding on the minute green vegetable growths which

FIG. 43. — Stages in the growth from the egg of the common
frog — drawn of the natural size. I. Egg in its jelly-like
envelope. 2. Very young tadpoles adhering to weed by
their suckers (placed just below the mouth). 3. Very young
tadpole, showing two pair of external gills : a third pair is
present, but so small as to be invisible without magnifica-
tion. 4, 5, 6. Stages in the later growth of the tadpole :
the external gills have disappeared, but the legs have not
yet made their appearance. 7. Tadpole of full size, with
fore and hind legs. 8. The tadpole has now become a
small frog, and has left the water. The tail has shrunk,
but has not entirely disappeared : it remains throughout life
hidden by the skin and the large thighs of the growing frog.
This figure has been kindly supplied by Messrs. Macmillan
& Co., from Dr. Gadow's volume on the "Amphibia and
Reptiles," in the Cambridge Natural History.

have appeared all over the jelly-like mass. Their rate
of growth depends very much on the temperature, and

TADPOLES AND FROGS 211

is much more rapid in Italy and the South of France
than in England. At first they are so small that it is
difficult to distinguish, except with a pocket-lens, the
little black plume-like gills on each side of the head,
and it is only as they grow bigger and lose these little
plumes that the young things assume the characteristic
shape of a rounded head — really head and body — with
a long flattened tail which strikes vigorously to the right
and left, and enables the tadpole to swim like a fish.

I suppose that every one, or nearly every one, knows
that these swarming little black tadpoles are the young
of frogs and toads. As the season goes on they grow
to as much as an inch and a quarter (sometimes an inch
and three-quarters) in length, and develop a number of
golden metallic-looking spots in the skin, which give
them a brownish hue. Both the fore and the hind
limbs have now developed, but are hidden beneath the
skin, and all this time the tadpole is breathing, like a
fish, by means of gills, concealed from view by a fold of
skin. Very early it acquires a pair of lungs, and by the
time the legs break through the skin (the hind legs do
so first) the lungs are inflated, and help in respiration.
Now the head becomes modelled like that of a young
frog, the tail ceases to grow, its flat transparent border is
absorbed and eaten by " phagocytes," and the legs
become strong and large. Soon the gills atrophy, and
the young creature crawls out of the water and spends
much of its time in the damp grass and herbage near its
native pond, rapidly assuming the shape of a frog. An
interesting fact is that all the time that it is a tadpole
the little animal eats vegetable food or soft animal food
(even other tadpoles), has horny lips, and a very long
intestine, coiled like a watch-spring. But as soon as it
leaves the water it becomes purely carnivorous, feeding
on small insects and worms, and its intestine straightens

212 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

out and becomes, relatively to the increased size of the
body, quite short.

Even those who know frog-spawn when they see it
and something of the history of the growth of the tad-
pole and its change into the young frog or toad (as the
case may be) do not, as a rule, know about the laying of the
eggs. In the early spring (end of March) the full-grown
frogs and toads which have passed the winter buried in
holes and cracks in the ground in a state of torpor wake
up and make their way to neighbouring good-sized
ponds. In these the eggs are deposited. The male
frogs wait for the females whom they seize from behind,
placing their arms under hers and round the chest.
They hold so firmly that nothing will persuade them to
let go. They often retain their hold for days or even
weeks. Sometimes by mistake they seize a fish and
hold on securely to its head — a fact which has led to the
belief among country-folk that the frog is an enemy
of the carp, and tries to blind him by forcing his
hands into the carp's eyes. At this season a frog will
clasp your finger or the handle of a stick so persistently
that you can lift him out of the water. A large pad of a
black colour grows in the breeding-season on the inside
of the first finger of the frog's hand, and is richly
supplied with nerves. It is this growth which is sensi-
tive and when touched sets up the cramp-like clasping
action of the muscles of the arms. The eggs are
eventually squeezed from the female's body, and are
fertilised by the spermatic fluid of the male as they
pass into the water. They are, when " laid," covered
with only a thin transparent layer of albumen (or white
of egg), and it is only after a few hours that this imbibes
water and swells up into a ball-like mass around each
little black egg.

Years ago I used to collect the spawning toads and

TADPOLES AND FROGS 213

frogs at Baden, near Vienna, in order to observe (in the
laboratory of the celebrated microscopist, Professor
Strieker, the most gifted of his day) the earliest changes in
the little black egg, the size of a rape-seed, which follow
upon fertilisation. Properly placed in a watch-glass full
of water under a low power of the microscope one little
egg could be watched for hours. If it had not been
fertilised, nothing occurred. But if it had been, then
there were strange movements of its surface and a
puckering and sinking in along one definite line, coming
and going, but at last becoming well marked like a deep
furrow. Without actually splitting, the little sphere was
divided by the cleft into two halves. Then, at right
angles to the first cleft, a second began to form, and so
on, until in the course of hours the sphere became divided
on its surface like a blackberry. The separate pieces
thus marked out are the first " cells," or units, of living
protoplasm of the young tadpole. They continue to
divide and to chemically convert the granular matter
with which they are charged into living material whilst
the mass slowly, in the course of days (taking up water
for its increase in actual size), becomes elongated, and
shows the rudiments of head, eyes, ears, spinal cord, and
projecting tail. It is a fascinating task to watch this
gradual development — and a difficult, but necessary, one
(which has now been carried out in the minutest detail
by patient students), to harden with chemical solutions
the growing embryos taken at successive stages, to embed
them in wax or paraffin (as Strieker was the first to do),
and to cut them into the finest slices, then to clarify
these slices in balsam-varnish, examine them with the
microscope, and record and draw every "cell," every
constituent unit, as they increase in number and com-
plication of arrangement. That wonderfully difficult feat
has now been carried out not only in the case of the frog

214 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

and toad, but in the case of hundreds of different kinds
of animals of all sorts. Thus we know the history of the
growth from the egg in its minutest details in every
kind of animal — the " cell-lineage " of the tissues of the
full-grown animal traced back to the single original
egg-cell.

The egg of animals is always originally a single
" cell " — that is to say, a minute corpuscle of slimy con-
sistence, with a dense capsulated kernel or " nucleus "
within it. The kernel or nucleus divides into two, and
the cell itself divides ; each of the daughter cells again
divides, and so the process continues, until thousands, and
in larger animals millions, of cells are the result, as the
mass of cells takes up nourishment and increases in
volume. When (as is the case in many animals, e.g.
starfishes, worms, and mammals) there is only a little
granular food-material mixed in with the protoplasm of
the egg-cell, that cell is of small size, only the one two-
hundredth of an inch in diameter (see Fig. 31). But in
the frog there is much granular food-material, and the egg-
cell is distended to the size of a rape-seed. When there
is still more, as in the bird and many fishes, the egg-cell
does not entirely divide as it does in smaller eggs on
commencing growth after fertilisation. The protoplasm
collects into a disc incompletely separated from the food-
material, and it is the disc only which divides into two
four, eight, and ever so many more cells. Some of the
cells resulting from the division of the disc form the
embryo's body, and others spread, as they multiply, all
over the rest of the egg-ball from its edges so as to
enclose the granular food-material in a sac, called the
yelk sac. In the frog, on the contrary, the protoplasm
does not separate as a disc : the whole egg-cell or ball
divides to form the embryo-cells, and the food granules
are included in the substance of the dividing cells.

TADPOLES AND FROGS 215

" Growth from the egg " is a long story ; we must revert
now to the tadpoles and their parents.

There is a tradition that Dr. Edwards, the father of
Henri and grandfather of Alphonse Milne Edwards,
directors of the Natural History Museum of Paris, kept
some tadpoles in a sort of cage sunk in the Seine, so that
they could not come to the surface to breathe air nor
escape on to the land, and that they grew to be very big
tadpoles, much larger than the size at which tadpoles
usually change into frogs. I tried to repeat this experi-
ment when I was a boy — without success — and I have
never heard of any one having succeeded with it.1 It is
not cited or credited at the present day. But some thirty
years ago it was discovered that something of this kind
happens in the case of the Mexican salamander. The
English " newts " and the so-called salamanders are
creatures of lizard-like shape, which are closely related to
frogs and toads. They lay eggs in the water, and the
young are tadpoles, with beautiful large plume-like gills
on each side of the head. The tadpole of the common
English newt may either lose its gills and leave the water
in the summer, if it was hatched early in the season, or
may remain longer in the gilled condition, and grow to
more than two inches in length, if it was hatched late.
In certain lakes in Mexico there is a tadpole-like creature
with gill-plumes, which grows to eight inches or more in
length, and becomes adult and breeds when in that con-
dition. It is known as the " axolotl," and was considered

1 I am told by Mr. Boulenger, of the Natural History Museum, who
is the greatest authority on these animals, that the explanation of this
is that unawares Dr. Edwards made use of the young tadpoles of the
obstetric toad (Alytes], which is very common near Paris, though it
does not occur in England. These tadpoles regularly grow to be three
inches and more in length (see Fig. 44 B). Dr. Edwards thought
he had used the tadpoles of the common frog, but had, by accident,
got hold of those of Alytes.

216 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

to be a distinct kind of gill-bearing adult tadpole-like
animal similar to some few others which are known
(Siren and Necturus). When, however, they were brought
to Europe and kept in a cage with only a small provision
of water, some of these axolotls were found to leave the
water, lose their gills, change their colour and shape in
several respects, and become, in fact, transformed into a
terrestrial salamander, of a kind already known in North
America. It was thus established that the axolotl of the
Mexican lake is nothing more nor less than the tadpole
of a species of salamander or newt, which has " given up "
the habit of leaving the water, and actually grows to full
size, and lays its eggs without becoming converted into a
gill-less land-dwelling creature ! The greatest interest was
excited forty years ago, when the discovery was made
that, by gradually drying up the water in which the
axolotl is kept, it can be induced to resume its transforma-
tion, and become changed into a salamander. Thus, the
notion of converting the tadpoles of the common frog into
very big tadpoles by preventing them from leaving the
water, seems not to have been an unreasonable one.

There are some very big kinds of tadpoles, which are
the young of toads of other kinds than our British species.
In England we have only two kinds of frogs — the common
frog and the edible frog — and two kinds of toads, the
common toad and the natter-jack or crawling toad (dis-
tinguished by the pale line along the middle of his back).
But on the Continent of Europe there are others besides
those which we have. There is the beautiful little green
tree-frog, and there are the fire-bellied toad, and the
obstetric toad (the male of which carries the eggs after
they are laid, coiled in a string around his hind legs) ;
and then there is the little spur-heeled toad (Pelobates
fuscus), which smells like garlic, and is remarkable for
having a broad, horny claw on his heel. This toad is

TADPOLES AND FROGS

217

only about two inches and a half long (measured from
snout to vent) when full grown, but its tadpole often

exceeds four inches in length, and in rare cases attains
the gigantic size of seven inches, so that it actually shrinks
in size when it ceases to be a tadpole, and takes on the
adult form. Many years ago I found some of these huge

218 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

tadpoles in a pond near Antwerp, and thought they must
be a realisation of Dr. Edwards' experiment. They were
enormous, and it was only on bringing them home that
I heard for the first time of the spur-heeled toad and its
gigantic tadpoles (Fig. 44 C).

Among frogs and toads from distant lands are some
which bring forth their young alive, the female retaining
the eggs in her body instead of laying them in water.
The black-and-yellow salamander of Europe (which, like
the common toad, has a highly poisonous secretion in
the skin) retains its eggs inside its body until the
tadpoles are well advanced in development, when they
pass from her — about seventy in number — into the
water. In the closely allied black Alpine salamander
only two, out of thirty or more eggs produced, develop.
These two remain inside their mother until they have
ceased to have gills and have become terrestrial air-
breathing young salamanders like their mother. The
Alpine salamander lives where there are no pools suitable
for the tadpoles, and so they never enter the water, but
remain inside the mother's body. Some experiments
have recently been made with these two species of
salamander by varying the conditions as to moisture in
which the young grow to maturity, and results of con-
siderable interest have been obtained. One of the most
curious arrangements in regard to the young is seen in
the Surinam toad, of which we had living specimens five
or six years ago in the London Zoological Gardens. In
this toad the skin of the female's back becomes very soft
and plastic at the breeding-season. As she lays the
eggs the male takes them one by one and presses them
into the soft skin of her back, into which they sink.
The eggs are thus embedded separately to the number
of fifty or sixty, each in a little pit in the mother's back.
They slowly develop, each in its "pit," the orifice of

TADPOLES AND FROGS 219

which is closed by a sort of lid. When the young have
grown to the condition of little toads, they push open
the lids of the pits and swim out of their mother's back.
Specimens of these toads, with the eggs and young, in
various stages, embedded in their mother's back, are to
be seen in most museums of natural history. Toads
and frogs catch their prey by throwing forward the
sticky tongue which is attached near the front of the
lower jaw, and so lick up their victim with startling
abruptness. The Cape frog of South Africa (Xenopus),
like the Surinam toad (Pipd), has no tongue, and is also
remarkable for possessing hard, pointed ends to its toes.
It rarely, if ever, leaves the water.

XXIII
ABOUT THE STARS

THE young astronomer in Two on a Tower — that
bitter-sweet story in which our great novelist
Hardy tells of the weird fascination with which the study
of the stars appeals to a sensitive nature, exclaims : " The
imaginary picture of the sky as the concavity of a dome
whose base extends from horizon to horizon of our earth,
is grand, simply grand, and I wish I had never got beyond
looking at it in that way. But the actual sky is a horror."
" There is," he continues, " a size at which dignity begins ;
further on there is a size at which grandeur begins ; further
on there is a size at which solemnity begins ; further on a
size at which awfulness begins ; further on a size at which
ghastliness begins. That size faintly approaches the size
of the stellar universe." " If you are cheerful and wish to
remain so," he concludes, " leave the study of astronomy
alone. Of all the sciences, it alone deserves the character
of the terrible. If, on the other hand, you are restless and
anxious about the future, study astronomy at once — your
troubles will be reduced amazingly. But your study will
reduce them in a singular way, by reducing the importance
of everything, so that the science is still terrible, even as a
panacea." The facts revealed by the study of astronomy
which have this feature of ghastliness and terror relate to
the enormous distances in space at which the stars are
placed, and to their enormous number.

ABOUT THE STARS 221

One may sometimes see on the coast or in some
marshland a "pile-driver" at work. At a quarter of a
mile distance you can see the great weight hoisted up by
cranks and chains above the " pile," which stands upright
but not yet driven very far into the ground. You see the
weight let go ; it drops vertically on to the pile, and you
watch it rising some two or three feet on its return journey
upwards, when suddenly you hear the sound of a sharp
blow, and only after an effort realise that the sound was
made more than a second ago, and that the workmen
have had time to raise the weight 3 ft. before the sound
travelled to you. Sound travels less than a quarter of
a mile in a second. Light also takes time to travel, but
it advances ever so much more quickly than sound,
namely, 186,000 miles (and a bit more) in a second. It
is, therefore, easy to calculate the number of miles
traversed by light in a minute or in a year. There are
thirty million seconds in a year. The light of the sun
takes eight minutes to reach the earth, so, instead of
stating the number of miles of this distance, we may say
that the sun is eight "light-minutes" distant from the
earth (about 89,000,000 miles). This is an enormous
figure. The sun and his planets may be represented
proportionately by a golden ball a foot in diameter, and
a number of little spheres varying in size from that of a
dried pea to a boy's marble, placed at distances from the
golden ball varying from 50 ft. to 200 ft. Such a model
is shown in the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn
Street, London. Minute and scattered far apart as the
planets of the solar system appear when thus represented,
yet the solar system is a compact little group when we
come to consider the distance from it of the other suns —
the "fixed stars," which exist literally in millions beyond
it. The nearest of these stars (its name is Alpha Centauri)
is no less than three light-years distant from us. A light-

222 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

year is five and a half billion (that is, five and a half
million million) miles. The nearest sun to us after our
own sun is, therefore, about sixteen billion miles away
and if its light were suddenly extinguished, we should not
know of its extinction for three years.

How many — we may well ask — how many of these
fixed stars — suns like our own — are there? Roughly
speaking, we can see with the naked eye, reckoning both
the northern hemisphere and the southern together (for
the stars seen from the former are other than those seen
from the latter), about 8000. Not many after all, one is
inclined to say. But stop a minute and hear what the
telescope reveals. With the best telescope about one
hundred million can be seen, less and less brilliant and
more difficult to see in proportion to their remoteness.
And now we go further even than that. For within the
last thirty years the great science of astronomy has been
rejuvenated by the application of photography to its task.
The invention of the " dry " plate, a sensitive photographic
plate which does not spoil by prolonged exposure as the
"wet" plate does, enables the astronomer to keep his
telescope fixed by slow-moving clockwork on to a given
region of the sky for four or five hours or more, and the
very faint stars, invisible by the aid of the most powerful
telescope — stars the light from which is so feeble that it
could not affect the plate in a few seconds or minutes,
have time by the continued action of their faint light to
print themselves on the plate and sign, as it were, a
definite record of their existence for man to see and
measure, though they are themselves for ever invisible to
his eye. It is not possible to say how many may be
recorded in this way by photography; it depends on
length of exposure. But some thousands of millions of
stars can certainly be so recorded. These " unnumbered
hosts" are of various degrees of brightness, and by

ABOUT THE STARS 223

methods which astronomers have invented, but cannot be
described here, it is actually known how they differ in
size from one another (many are far bigger than our sun),
and with some approach to certainty, how far off they are.
Stars of four, five, ten, and more " light-years " away from
us are well known. Astronomers actually estimate the
decreasing abundance in space of stars as one passes from
a sphere or spatial envelope of fifty light-years' distance
to one of 250 light-years. Finally, reasons have been
given of late for considering many of the " photographic "
stars to be at a distance of 32,000 light-years. I will not
produce the awful figure in miles, but the reader can refer
back to the number of billion miles in a light-year ! And
what is beyond that ? No one has seen, nor can any one
guess. We cannot imagine a limit to space ; neither can
we imagine unending space dotted with an infinity of
suns !

It is a legitimate and, indeed, a necessary inference,
from what we know of these millions of suns — intensely
hot, light-giving spheres — that they, too, like our own
sun, are accompanied by much smaller bodies, planets
which circle round them, as our sun's planets circle round
him. Those planets have cooled down, as have those of
the solar system, and so do not give out light. In any
case, they are too small to be seen at so vast a distance.
It is, on the whole, probable that the changes on some —
indeed, many — of these planets have led to the production
of living material similar to, but not necessarily identical
with, that on this earth. It is, on the whole, more likely
than not that there are intelligent beings existing on the
planets of thousands of suns invisible to our eyes : suns
revealed only by the print on a photographic plate of
their light, which has taken thousands of years to travel
from the regions of unseen obscurity to us. To have
arrived by sober observation and reasoning at this con-

224 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

ception is, indeed, a tremendous flight of human thought
and ingenuity !

It is the courage, the audacity — one may almost call
it the superhuman calmness — of astronomers, in the face
of this truly overwhelming immensity — that not only
redeems their study from the oppressive and terrifying
character with which it at first assails the human spirit,
but gives to their proceedings and discoveries, so far as
the ordinary man can follow them, an unequalled fascina-
tion. The daring, the patience, the accuracy, and the
supreme intellectual gifts of the great astronomers rightly
fill other men with pride in the fact that there are human
minds capable of revealing things of such stupendous
vastness and of indicating their order and relation to one
another. It is a splendid fact, and one which must give
hope and courage to all men, that the astronomer's mind
does not totter — it is equal to his task. Astronomers are,
in fact, triumphant : they are very far indeed from suffer-
ing from the depression which Mr. Hardy's young star-
gazer experienced.

Among the many conclusions of astronomers as to
the movements of the "heavenly bodies" none is more
strange and mysterious in its suggestion than that recently
arrived at to the effect that in all this vast array ot
millions of stars, the limits of which we can neither dis-
cover nor imagine, there are two huge streams moving in
opposite directions, and in one or other all the stars are
involved. Whence do they start ? Where are they going ?
There is no answer. Another conclusion, which is arrived
at quite simply by the examination with the spectroscope
of the light coming from the star named Vega by astro-
nomers, is that our sun and its attendant planets are
moving towards that star. It is true that it is many
billions of miles away from us, but we are rushing towards
it somewhat rapidly according to mundane notions —

ABOUT THE STARS 225

namely, at the rate of nineteen miles a second ! That, I
think, is a fact likely to make the sentimental young
astronomer as miserable as any of the records of im-
mensity. In fact, the only comfort to be got in view of
this fact is in the enormous distances which separate us
from other stars, and the length of time which must
elapse before any serious consequence can ensue from
this alarming career. And there is further the prob-
ability that the general result of attractions and repulsions
in the vast roadway of space will, when the time comes,
take us safely past Vega, just as a motor-car passes safely
through the traffic and obstructing " refuges " and lamp-
standards of the London streets as you recline in it,
abandoned to the natural forces described as " chauffeurs."
The spectroscope has done no less than photography
to reanimate the study of astronomy. The fact is that,
with these two helping means of observation, it has
become possible for the ordinary man to witness and
appreciate some of the discoveries of astronomers, though
the true and accurate handling of all that is revealed
concerning the stars is essentially a matter of measure-
ment, and therefore only to be dealt with strictly by
mathematicians. The desire to obtain ever more and
more accurate measurement of the movement and the size
of the heavenly bodies is the mainspring of all astro-
nomical discovery, and, indeed, the attempt to gain more
and more detailed measurement of the factors at work
is the motive — more or less immediate — of all accurate
investigation of nature. Recently the astronomers of
the Royal Observatory at Greenwich have photographed
the new comet (the third of 1907) in a way in which no
comet has ever been photographed before. On many
consecutive nights for several weeks they were at work
photographing it on the dry plate, at intervals of two or
three hours, and the pictures obtained (which I have
15

226 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

seen at the rooms of the Royal Astronomical Society)
show the most wonderful changes of form of its tail, so
that they look more like the record of the changes of
some living creature than those of a heavenly body.
Already, in October 1909, Halley's comet, which has been
anxiously awaited, has been seen, though it is not expected
to be bright and visible to all until May 1910. Comets
are among the exceptional delights of the astronomer —
that is to say, big comets, for two or three small comets
visible only by a telescope or by photography turn up
every year. Some comets are expected visitors, others
make their appearance quite casually, some because they
apparently have no regular period, some because that
period is as yet undiscovered. Edmund Halley was the
first to discover the law of movement of a comet and to
predict the return in 1758 of that seen in 1682. He did
not live to witness the verification of his prediction. This
comet, now called Halley's comet, was, he conjectured,
the same which had appeared in 1531 and in 1607. His
prediction of its return proved to be a year out (owing to
perturbations caused by Neptune and Uranus, two planets
undiscovered in his day), but it appeared in 1759, and
went round once again and reappeared in 1835, and now
is eagerly expected by astronomers to appear in full
brilliancy in 1910. Its period is about seventy-five or
seventy-six years.

XXIV
COMETS

A COMET is so called from the hair-like stream of
light or " tail," which stretches to a greater or less
length from its bright head or " nucleus." A large comet,
when seen to greatest advantage, may have a tail which
stretches across one-third of the "vault of heaven," and
may be reckoned by astronomers at as much as one
hundred and twenty million miles long. Donati's comet
— which some of my readers will remember, as I do, when
it visited us in 1858 — was of this imposing size. Halley's
comet, on the other hand, when it was last " here," namely,
in 1835, showed a tail estimated by astronomers to be fifty
million miles long. The tail was more than twice as long
when Halley's comet appeared in 1456. There was a big
comet " on view "in 181 1 — the year celebrated for its wine
— and in recent times a fine comet appeared in 1861, and
another (Coggia's comet) in 1874.

The ancient records of comets are naturally full of
exaggeration. Up to Milton's time — two hundred and
fifty years ago — they caused the greatest terror and excite-
ment by their sudden appearance in the sky. This is due
to the fact that mankind from the very earliest periods of
which we have record has not merely gazed at the " starry
host" by night in solemn wonder, but even in early
prehistoric times studied and watched the stars so as to

228 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

know much of their movements and regular comings and
goings. The earliest priests, the earliest " wise men," were
those who knew the stars and could fix the seasons by
their place ; the earliest temples — Stonehenge, and others
older still — were star-temples or observatories, and their
priests were astronomers. To such a pitch did reverence
for star-knowledge attain that our ancestors confused the
astral signs of changing season and cycle with the cause
itself of change, and attributed all kinds of mundane events
and each man's fate to " the influence of the stars." Hence
the sudden appearance of a flaming comet was held to be
a portent, and was always supposed either to foretell or
even to produce some very unpleasant event, such as a big
war or a pestilence, or the death of some one supposed to
be of consequence. The earliest Greek poetry enshrines
the superstition, which is handed on by Virgil, and finally
by Milton. In Pope's translation of the Iliad we find the
helmet of the terrible Achilles described as shining

"Like the red star, that from his flaming hair
Shakes down diseases, pestilence, and war."

And Milton, in 1665, in his Paradise Lost, wrote —

"On th'other side,

Incenst with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrifi'd ; and like a comet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In th' Arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war."

In this year of the celebration of the tercentenary of
Milton's birth, it is not a little curious to find that John
Milton, himself a scholar of St. Paul's School, wrote those
lines when Edmund Halley, the future Astronomer Royal,
had just entered the same great school, then standing in
St. Paul's Churchyard, as it did when I was " one of the
fishes," and used to see men hanging in the Old Bailey

COMETS 229

— I once saw five * — on Monday mornings as I passed on
my way to the school. To a Pauline it is not without
significance that the return of Halley's comet is awaited
within a year of Milton's tercentenary, and that the
greatest astronomer and the greatest poet of their age
were London boys and Paulines.

Ancient records tell of comets of gigantic size, of the
shape of a sword, the head as big as the moon, and so on.
There is no reason to suppose that within historic times
there have been any much bigger than that of 1858.
Milton, in the lines above quoted, was not referring to an
imaginary comet, but to one which actually did appear
when he was a boy of ten (1618), in the constellation called
Ophiuchus. It was of enormous size, the tail being
recorded as longer even than that of 1858. It was held
responsible by educated and learned men of the day for
disasters. Evelyn says in his diary, " The effects of that
comet, 1618, still working in the prodigious revolutions
now beginning in Europe, especially in Germany." The
comet of 1665 was, with equal assurance, regarded as the
cause of the Great Plague of London. In that year was
published the first number of the Philosophical Trans-
actions of the Royal Society of London, then recently
founded " for the promotion of natural knowledge." It
contains an account of a paper by a learned French
gentleman, M. Auzout, in which an attempt is made to
predict the movements among the stars of the comet of
1664. Astronomers had long known and been able to
predict the movements of the planets and the swinging of
the constellations, but, as the French author observes, " all
the world had been hitherto persuaded that the motions of
comets were so irregular that they could not be reduced
to any laws." He also hoped, by examining the move-
ments of the comets of 1664 and 1665, to determine "the
1 The pirates of the Flowery Land.

230 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

great question whether the earth moves or not." At that
time the earth was " suspected " to move round the sun,
but no proof of that motion had been given. M. Auzout
did not succeed in his laudable attempt, simply because
Newton's great discovery of the law of gravitation had
not then been made.

Edmund Halley was the intimate friend and passionate
admirer of Newton. He paid out of his own pocket for
the publication of Newton's Principia by the Royal
Society in 1686, the society having expended all its
available funds in printing a great work on Fishes (which
shows how at the first, as now, the society cared for the
whole range of the study of Nature). Halley was able
to show that comets move regularly round the sun, in
obedience to the same law of gravitation which controls
the movements of the planets and of our earth itself; so
that many of them are regular members of the solar
system. Halley especially calculated out the form of the
orbit of the comet of 1682 as an ellipse, and the time
of its journey and recurrence, or " period," as it is called,
which he showed to be about seventy-five or seventy-six
years. He predicted its recurrence in 1758. Halley died
in 1742, at the ripe age of eighty-six, having, amongst other
good deeds, founded the Royal Society Club, which still
dines every Thursday in the session. His comet reappeared
in 1759, a few months later than he had, owing to incom-
plete details used in his calculation, expected; but the
accuracy of his scheme of its movement was demonstrated.
It duly appeared again in 1835, and it is now awaited in
the spring of 1910. Halley himself had identified his comet
with that of 1607 and of 1531, and lately, by the aid of
records from an ancient seat of astronomical observation
— actually from China — it has been traced back to the
month of May in the year 240 B.C. It has caused con-
sternation and terror times enough since then, of some

COMETS 231

of which we have record. Finally, it has become the
leading instance of the triumph of scientific knowledge
and accuracy over ignorance and superstition. Halley's
comet caused great alarm in Rome in the year 66 A.D. A
thousand years later (1066) it was seen when William the
Conqueror was preparing to descend on the coast of
England, and is actually represented in the Bayeux
tapestry. A number of men are drawn (or rather
"stitched"), with fingers pointed and eyes raised to a
shape in the sky which resembles a star-fish with a large
triangular-ribbed petticoat attached to it, ending in eight
flames or tongues (Fig. 45). The picture is labelled
" Isti mirant stella." There is now no doubt, as accurate
calculations have demonstrated, that William the Con-
queror's "star" was Halley's comet — a fact which must
give its reappearance in 1910 an additional interest in
the eyes of Englishmen.

The shape given to the representations of stars in old
pictures and engravings is a puzzle. Why do they repre-
sent a star by the shape of a star-fish ? No star ever
looks like that, or produces a picture of that shape on
the retina. The thing is purely conventional. The shape
which we call " star-shaped " — a term we apply to flowers
and other things — is not in the least like a real star as
seen by an unprejudiced person. What one really sees is
an ill-defined point of light. The pretended conventional
star of ancient drawings perhaps arose from the simple
artifice of picturing tongue-like flames around or upon
any representation of a fire or a source of light — " to show
what it was meant to be." Then the notions of perfection
and symmetry in regard to the celestial bodies led to the
" tongues " being arranged for the purposes of draughts-
manship as perfectly symmetrical-pointed rays of a six- or
eight-limbed geometrical design — and latterly it is possible
that the mystical figure known as the "pentacle" was

COMETS 233

utilised by astrologers and others as the emblem of a
star. However they arose, neither the weird and astonish-
ing representations of mediaeval times nor the geometrical
decorative " stars " of later date seem to have any relation
to an attempt to represent a star as it really appears to
the human eye and the interpreting brain behind it.

The orbits of comets, says Professor Turner, of Oxford,
in a delightful lecture delivered in Dublin in the summer
of 1908, from which I have culled many interesting facts
and presented them to my readers, " differ from those of
the planets in being far more highly elliptical. Our own
path round the sun is nearly a circle, so that our distance
from him remains nearly the same all the year round ; but
the distance of a comet from the sun varies greatly from
' perihelion,' when it is near, and consequently bright, to
' aphelion,' when he is so distant and faint that we lose
sight of him." The sun is not at the centre of the ellipse
described by a comet's path, but is quite near to one end
of it, so that comets approach the sun far more closely
than do the planets, some taking so close a turn round the
sun that the heat from it to which they are exposed is
2000 times as great as that which the earth receives. If
the orbit of a comet is really elliptic, then there at last
comes a time, though it may be only after thousands of
years, when the comet, having rounded the sun at close
quarters, and journeyed off into space; has his journey
brought to a turning-point at the other end of the ellipse,
and begins to draw near again, advancing towards the
sun. The length of the orbit of Halley's comet is about
3255 million miles, and the breadth at its broadest is
about 800 million miles, and he takes about thirty-eight
years to travel the full length (along the curve) and thirty-
eight years to come back again ! Other comets have
other lengths and breadths of orbit, and take longer or
shorter periods to go round. But the conditions of attrac-

234 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

tion affecting a comet may be such that the return journey
never occurs. They may be such that the comet goes on
indefinitely travelling away from our sun, until he is
caught by some other star, and his orbit changes its shape,
with the new sun as attracting centre. These are the
" wandering comets " as distinct from the " periodic
comets," which have been shown to conform to Halley's
scheme of their movement and recurrence.

And now some one will ask, perhaps impatiently,
" What, after all, is a comet ? " We have seen that many
are continuously, and others casually, members of the solar
system. What do they consist of? Spectrum-analysis
shows that they consist chiefly of the chemical element
carbon.1 Though they have weight, and are attracted by
the sun, yet they seem to be for all their size and terrifying
shape and glare incredibly light and airy things. Herschell
declared that the tail of a big comet probably consisted of
but two or three pounds of solid matter — diffused, rarefied,
and luminous. And the head or nucleus certainly does not
weigh many hundreds of tons. In the eighteenth century
astronomers observed a comet pass right in among the
moons of the planet Jupiter. You might expect the
moons to be terribly knocked about by such an impact.

1 I am indebted to Mr. Rolston, of the Solar Physics Observatory,
South Kensington, for some information on this matter.

Generally speaking, it appears that the spectra of these bodies
indicate carbon — in some form — as the principal constituent.

As to the particular form of carbon, there is still a considerable
doubt, so much that, in describing the spectrum of Morehouse's
comet, Professor Frost says (Astrophysical Journal, xxix., p. 59,
1909) : — " We avoid the still unsettled question of the ' carbon ' bands
(of the so-called ' Swan ' spectrum) which have been so often ascribed
to a hydrocarbon, specifically acetylene, and we use for them the
simple designation 'carbon.'"

In addition to this " carbon " there is the cyanogen spectrum
present in most cases.

Sodium and iron have been detected in the spectra of some few

COMETS 23 5

They were not ; they were not deflected in the smallest
appreciable degree from their position and regular move-
ment ! One is naturally inclined to look upon the tail of
a comet as something like the smoke of a railway engine
trailing behind the advancing " head." As a matter of
fact, it does not always trail behind, but is always turned
away from the sun, so that when the comet is travelling
away from the sun the tail is in front ! It is now held
that the tail is caused by the radiant energy (light and
heat) of the sun, blowing, as it were, the lighter particles
from the incandescent head, and causing them to spread
out in a long track of variable shape. The photographs
of the third comet of the year 1908 show that the tail
can vary to an astonishing extent and with great rapidity
— that is to say, in four or five hours. It is seen in those
photographs as a scimitar-like curved blade, then with a
second head or nucleus behind the leading one, then
actually bent like the letter Z, and then divided into
seven distinct diverging " plumes," and then it returns to
its former simple shape — all in the course of a few days.
Astronomers have now shown that there is a close con-
nection between comets and the showers of "shooting
stars" or meteors which frequently strike the earth's

comets, e.g. Wells (1882, ii.), whilst Holmes (1892) showed only
continuous spectrum.

An interesting suggestion is made by Newall, namely, that the
spectrum is not indicative of the comet's composition, but of that of
the medium through which the body passes. Thus the persistent
identification of the cyanogen bands in cometary spectra is attributed,
primarily, to the " heating up " of cyanogen existing, free, in circum-
solar space.

Till 1907 most of the cometary spectrograms showed only the
"carbon" and cyanogen radiations, but in Daniel's comet of that
year, and in Morehouse's of 1909, other lines were detected for which
origins have not, as yet, been found.

Thus, some form of carbon + unknown + (occasionally) sodium and
iron seems to sum up our present knowledge of cometary composition.

236 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

atmosphere. It is considered probable that comets
eventually break down into streams of meteors, and that
their "life" (if one may use that term) is, relatively to
that of other heavenly bodies (which -are all undergoing
change and, in many cases, decay), not a very long one.
But there are no facts at present known which enable us
to tell whether a given comet is young or old, and it would
have been a decided shock had it been found that Halley's
comet, which has so happily spent every seventy-sixth
year with us for so many centuries, had " burst up," or by
' indisposition " had been unable to pay his usual visit as
expected in 1910.

XXV
ABOUT CHOLERA

WHAT is this terrible disease which every few
years travels from the banks of the Indian
Ganges, where it is always present, and makes its way
to one or more of the great cities of Europe, killing its
thousands with horrifying rapidity ? The word " cholera "
is used by the great Greek physician of antiquity, Hippo-
crates, and by his followers down to the days of our own
Sydenham, to describe a malady which occurs commonly
in summer, is often of severe character, but rarely fatal,
and is characterised by the exudation from the walls of
the intestine of copious fluid, usually accompanied by
vomiting and sometimes by "cramps." This malady is
now distinguished by physicians as " simple cholera," or
European cholera, the last name being misleading, since
the disease occurs all over the world. It is caused by a
special microbe, which multiplies in the intestines and
produces a poison. Other microbes produce similar
results. One which causes luminosity in foul salt water
has been found to produce cholera-like results when
cultivated in a state of purity and swallowed by man.
Other poisons besides those produced by microbes set up
a sort of " cholera " in animals and man. Drugs of both
mineral and vegetable origin have this effect, as every one
knows, and are used in small quantities to produce

238 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

purging. Microbes which are noted for other obvious
effects which they produce by the poisons they form in
man's intestines — such as the microbe of typhoid fever —
also produce cholera-like purging.

But the name "cholera," or "the cholera," is now
applied without any further qualification to what would
be more correctly described as " Indian cholera," or
"epidemic cholera." It is a disease which first became
known to Europeans in India in 1817, less than a hundred
years ago. It resembles " simple " cholera in its general
features, but is usually much more violent in its attack,
and often causes complete collapse in two or three hours
from its onset, and death in as many more. The main
point about it is, however, that it is a quickly spreading
" epidemic " disease ; it invades a whole population, and
travels from place to place along definite routes. Al-
though the outbreak of cholera in India in 1817 was the
first to attract the attention of Europeans, it was nothing
new in India, and was recognised in distant ages by Hindu
writers. Its usual name on the delta of the Ganges is
" medno-neidan." Ninety per cent, of the population
perished of cholera in some districts of India in 1817, and
English troops were attacked by it with terrible results.

Cholera gradually made its way in subsequent years
through Persia to Russia, and at last to Western Europe;
but it was not until late in the year 1831 that Indian
cholera arrived for the first time in England, and in the
following year it caused something like a panic. There
have been at least three subsequent outbursts of Indian
cholera (before that of the year 1908) which have reached
Europe, and two of these have reached England and
caused profound alarm and anxiety. That in 1854
reached us just before the Crimean War, and caused such
rapid and numerous deaths in London, especially in the
West End (St. James's, Westminster), that the corpses

ABOUT CHOLERA 239

were removed in carts as in the days of the plague. It
was then that the Broad Street pump became famous, and
the carefully demonstrated history of a cesspool leaking
into the well of the pump, of the existence of a cholera
patient in the house to which the cesspool was attached
and of the infection with cholera of healthy people who
sent all the way from Hampstead to fetch what they
thought was the beautifully pure, cool, and palatable
water of Broad Street, St. James's, caused a most vivid
and salutary impression on the public mind. The " water-
carriage" of the cholera infection was established as a
fact, and the subsequent abolition of surface wells and
pumps, as well as of cesspools, in London and other cities
was the result. Indeed, the active development of sani-
tation and sanitary measures of all kinds in Great Britain
may be traced to the panic caused by the cholera in 1854
and to the .well-founded conviction that it was in the
power of the community, by the construction of sewers
and the provision of untainted water-supply, to protect
itself against such disaster in the future.

Years passed by, and still the actual germ of cholera
was unknown. In India it was not even admitted that
its diffusion was especially connected with water-supply.
The methods of observing with the microscope those
minute swarming organisms which are called " bacteria "
became immensely improved. They were isolated, culti-
vated in purity, and the activity of a vast number of
different kinds of different shapes, sizes, and modes of
growth was ascertained. They were distinguished accord-
ing to their shape as bacilli, spirilla, micrococci, and so
on, and separate kinds were characterised — one producing
ordinary putrefaction, another the souring of milk, an-
other the "cheesing" of the same fluid, another the
destruction of teeth and of bone, another the terrible
anthrax of cattle or wool-sorters' disease, another (a

240 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

spiral thread in the blood this!) the recurrent fever of
East Europe — each producing its own special poison or
other chemical substance.

So it went on till Koch, of Berlin, discovered the
bacillus of tubercle and Hansen that of leprosy.
Others had failed to find what Koch now found as the
result of a special mission on behalf of the German
Imperial Government to India (undertaken as nearly as
I can recollect about the year 1884) — namely, the living
organism (Fig. 46) which by its growth in man's intestine
causes Indian cholera. Koch found a spiral threadlike
" bacterium " in cholera patients, which readily breaks up
into little curved segments like a comma (each less than
the one ten-thousandth of an inch in length), and swarms
by the million in the intestines of such patients. He
showed that it can be cultivated in dilute gelatinised broth,
and obtained in spoonfuls. It was, however, only with
great difficulty that he could produce cholera in animals
by administering this pure concentrated growth of cholera
germs to them.

Then a most courageous thing was done. A great
and very acute investigator of cholera in Munich, Petten-
kofer by name — who did not believe that Koch's
comma-bacillus was really the effective germ of cholera
— himself swallowed a whole spoonful — many millions —
of the cultivated cholera germ. His assistants did the
same — and none of them suffered any ill effect ! Few, if
any, of the investigators of this question gave up, as a
consequence, their conviction that Koch's bacillus was
the real and active cause of cholera. They supposed
that it must be necessary for the human intestine to be
in a favourable condition — an unhealthy condition — for
the Koch's bacillus to multiply in it. It was by this time
known that bacteria of all kinds are exceedingly sensitive
in regard to the acidity or alkalinity, the oxygenation or

ABOUT CHOLERA

241

de-oxygenation of the fluids
and organic substances in which
they can, when exactly suited,
multiply with tremendous ra-
pidity. Thus the tubercle
bacillus cannot be cultivated on
pure blood-serum, but if a trace
of glycerine be added to the
serum the tubercle bacillus
grows, divides, multiplies like
yeast in a brewing -vat. A
little later Pettenkofer's auda-
cious experiment was repeated
by Dr. Metchnikoff in Paris.
He swallowed a cultivated mass
of the cholera germ on three
successive days, and had no
injurious result. Others in his
laboratory did the same, with
the result of only a slight in-
testinal disturbance. But of a
dozen who thus put the matter
to the proof in the Institut
Pasteur, one individual acquired
an attack of true Indian cholera,
accompanied by all the most
violent symptoms, which very
nearly caused his death. This
experiment put an end to all
discussion, and demonstrated,
once for all, that the comma-
bacillus (or spirillum) of Koch
is really capable of producing
Indian cholera, and is the actual
agent of this disease.
16

FIG. 46.— a, 6, c, d. The cholera
spirillum, or comma-bacillus of
Koch ; a, spirillum stage of
growth, with vibrating flagel-
lum, by which it is driven along
with screw-like movement ; b,
the spirillum has lost its flagel-
lum, and is motionless : it is
marked off into separate seg-
ments ; c, the segments have
separated from one another as
comma-shaped pieces, hence
the name " comma-bacillus "
given to it by Koch; d, a
number oi comma-bacilli of
cholera which have developed
tails of vibratile protoplasm
(like a single cilium), and are
swimming about, being driven
by the lashing of these tails ;
e, a cubical packet of sarcina ;
y, a double row of the spheri-
cal units (cocci or micrococci),
which form a sarcina-packet ;
g, similar cocci separated.

242 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

The circumstances which determine whether the
cholera-bacillus, when it gets into the human intestine,
will develop and cause an attack of cholera, or will simply
be digested or will remain alive, but inactive, for a time,
have yet to be exactly determined. Obviously a knowledge
of them must be of immense importance. Certain experi-
ments show that other minute parasitic organisms —
especially those called Sarcina (Fig. 46, e\ which often, but
by no means always, are abundant in the human intestine —
favour the growth of the cholera-bacillus — in fact, prepare
the ground or soil, as we may call it, for that deadly
organism. This has been shown experimentally by
sowing cholera-bacillus on plates of slightly acid gelatine,
or jelly. It will not grow on this, but if at certain points
on the surface of the jelly the Sarcina organism is planted,
then it is found that all around the points where the
Sarcina is growing the cholera-bacillus also flourishes and
multiplies. And it seems probable that, just as there are
microbes which are adjuvant or helpful to the cholera
microbe, so there are others which are repressive or
destructive of it. We know that this is the case with
regard to some other microbes — namely, that a microbe
which will flourish abundantly on a prepared jelly if it is
alone, is entirely repressed and arrested in its growth by
the presence of one other ascertained kind. It is, in fact,
thus that some of the commoner putrefactive kinds of
microbes occurring in river water are repressive of the
typhoid-bacillus, which, if it should get there, flourishes
best in the purest water or in water containing no other
microbe. There is some ground for thinking that in
certain districts there may be microbes present which
make their way into the human intestine, and then
actually repress the cholera-bacillus, should it subsequently
be taken in with food or water. It would, of course, be
of immense importance to discover such a microbe, if it

ABOUT CHOLERA 243

exist, and the inquiry is at the present moment proceeding
in Paris.

A very striking and at first sight astonishing fact in
regard to this subject is that there are a very large
number and variety of microbes habitually present in the
human digestive tract. There are so many different kinds
— differing altogether from one another in their chemical
action — which are present in greater or less abundance in
this tract from one end to the other, that no one is at
present able to say even approximately how many there
are, nor to give anything like a complete account of their
properties. The fact is that their isolation and study,
and the definite determination of their properties, is not
an easy job. Many workers are engaged on it, and it
will be years before the matter is threshed out. One
most curious result of these studies is that a person may
have the cholera-bacillus in his intestine — not growing
with any activity, but still alive — and yet be perfectly
well. He can, therefore, carry the cholera-bacillus from
one locality to another and spread the disease, and yet
be entirely devoid of suspicion, free himself from disease,
and certified as healthy ! The same is true of the bacillus
of typhoid fever. Persons who have had typhoid fever
have been shown to retain the typhoid-bacillus flourishing
for as long as fourteen years afterwards in their intestine,
without any ill effects to themselves, and to have been the
constant source of infection and disease to those living in
the same house with them by spreading the bacillus.
The classical case of this is that of a woman who carried
on a baker's business at Strasburg. Infection by and
protection from microbes is by no means so simple a
thing as it is sometimes represented to be.

Now that we are quite sure as to Koch's comma-bacillus,
or spirillum, being the definite poison-producing agent
causing Indian cholera, it is comparatively easy to under-

244 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

stand its mode of dispersal and infection, and consequently
how to avoid its attack. It is cultivated in the laboratories
devoted to the study of such matters — kept in confinement,
so to speak, for ten years and more — and its properties
and conditions of life are well known. For instance, it is
destroyed by " dryness," hence it cannot be carried in a
living infective state as "dust" in the air. It is also
destroyed by exposure to a heat a good deal below that
of boiling water, so that water itself can be freed from it
by boiling, and food dipped in boiling (or nearly boiling)
water, or heated on a metal tray beneath which a spirit
or gas flame is burning, can be rendered safe just before
it is swallowed, even when cholera is rife in the neighbour-
hood. Ordinary lime is a great destroyer of the bacillus,
and can be used on a large scale to abolish it in refuse.

When the cholera is near one cannot be too scrupu-
lously clean. The fingers must be carefully washed with
antiseptic before a meal, and everything purified by heat
only a few moments before being put into the mouth,
since flies and careless handling may soil food or anything
else exposed in a cool condition even for a few minutes.
It is best when cholera is actually present in the house or
town in which you live to swallow nothing which has been
allowed to get cool ; everything should be heated and
eaten when hot. Mephistopheles, in Goethe's Faust,
complains of the swarming, pullulating life on the earth.
He — the great destroyer — says :

" How many have I sent to grass !
Yet young, fresh blood, do what I will
Keeps ever circulating still.
In water, in the earth, in air,
In wet, dry, cold — everywhere
Germs without number are unfurl'd,
And but for fire, and fire alone,
There would be nothing in the world
That I could truly call my own."

ABOUT CHOLERA 245

The version is Sir Theodore Martin's. Mephistopheles
might be a bacteriologist explaining the difficulty of
dealing with disease germs. In any case, it is the
Mephistophelian spirit of annihilation, and flame as its
instrument, which man brings to his service in the contest
with cholera germs.

The great carriers of cholera are human beings them-
selves travelling in caravans, pilgrimages, shiploads. For
the fact has now been established that a man may harbour
inside him the cholera-bacillus without its multiplying
largely or rendering him seriously ill. Once it is brought
by such an individual into a favourable locality, it is
spread by water contaminated by him, and yet used for
drink and domestic purposes ; and also it is spread by his
touching things in which the bacillus can grow, such as
cooked food, fruits, etc., swallowed subsequently by un-
suspecting purchasers or employers. You have, in order
to avoid cholera (and similar infections), not only to have
very clean fingers yourself, but to see to it that your
servants' fingers are clean also, or else that anything they
touch is afterwards heated for a few minutes to near
boiling-point before you let it enter your mouth. A little
history illustrative of the need of this precaution is on
record. In Egypt during a recent outbreak of cholera
there was a very wealthy lady who lived alone in an
isolated palace under the charge of a physician. She
had a delicate appetite ; her food was most carefully
prepared. She drank and used only boiled sterilised
water; no one was allowed to approach her except her
servants, who never left the palace grounds, and were in
good health. She sickened of cholera and died. It was
a puzzle as to how she had acquired the infection. Her
physician at last discovered that she daily partook of cold
chicken-broth, prepared carefully by her cook. The cook,
though practically well, was found to be infected with the

246 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

cholera-bacillusj which had probably lodged in his intestine
some weeks previously at the commencement of the out-
break of the disease in Egypt. Though living in him the
cholera-bacilli had not found a favourable field of growth.
This man in handling the cold broth, the cloth used to
rub the spoon with which it was stirred, or the basin itself,
had, it was found by making the actual experiment, been
able to transfer the minute bacillus to the cold broth, a
most favourable and nourishing medium for its growth,
and so his isolated carefully guarded employer received
an abundant crop of the bacilli and developed a fatal
attack of cholera. Had the lady taken the broth hot,
there would have been no living cholera-bacillus in it, and
if she had thus guarded herself in regard to all food, by
the use of heat and great cleanliness, she would have
escaped infection.

The most interesting development of knowledge and
speculation with regard to the microbes which infest the
human intestine and other regions of the human body
is (as I mentioned above) connected with the fact that one
kind or species of microbe has the power of favouring the
growth of another, if present alongside of it, and that
another kind has the power of checking or antagonising
its growth. Thus common putrefactive microbes of river
water are hostile to the cholera-bacillus and to the typhoid-
bacillus. Those disease-producing bacilli live longest and
best in very pure water ! Thus, too, it is found that the
microbe of sour milk — the lactic-bacillus — is antagonistic
to the common putrefactive microbe of the intestinal con-
tents— the well-known bacillus coli. In virtue of the acid
which it produces, the microbe of sour milk arrests the ex-
cessive growth and activity of the putrefactive bacillus coli.
Hence the utility of sour milk in many cases of intestinal
trouble. We contain within us a microbian flora of such
variety and abundance of kinds and so nicely balanced

ABOUT CHOLERA 247

in their antagonisms and co-operations in a healthy man,
that one cannot wonder at the timidity of the medical
man who hesitates to interfere with their conflicts and
established 'modus vivendi. Yet that seems to be the
direction in which action will have to be taken. It seems
likely that in different localities — towns, forests, highlands,
lowlands, seaboards — there are prevalent different microbes
which enter the bodies of human visitors and act as
disturbers of the native microbian flora previously estab-
lished in the stranger.

That there are great differences in the microbian flora
(including herein minute moulds and fungi as well as
bacteria) of different localities, is shown by the great
experiment of cheese-making which mankind carries on.
Each kind of cheese — Stilton, Cheshire, Dutch, Roquefort,
Gruyere, Gorgonzola, etc. — is the result of the combined
and successive action on milk of a vast number of microbes ;
and it is the fact that the combination which produces any
given kind of cheese is only found and (unconsciously of
the exact nature of what he is doing) brought into activity
by man at certain places. You cannot make Cheshire
cheese in France nor Gruyere in Cheshire, and so on. It
is suggested — and the matter is being pursued by experi-
ment and observation at the present time in France —
that possibly amongst the other things which go to make
up the qualities of the air which agrees or disagrees with
one in any given locality — are the local microbes. This
must not be regarded as a conclusion which has been fully
worked out — it is an ingenious and promising suggestion
made by Metchnikofif as the result of some observations,
and will be fully inquired into. The fact which I have men-
tioned above (p. 242) — that the presence of the microbe
Sarcina favours the growth of the cholera-bacillus — indeed,
enabling it to grow and flourish in conditions in which it
was inert until the Sarcina was " sown " alongside of it —

248 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

renders it worth investigating the question as to whether
there are " local " germs or microbes which in this or that
region are abundant and get into man's food and drink,
and so into his intestine, and become established there,
helping or antagonising the growth of other microbes
already there or subsequently introduced. Thus, to the
various considerations in regard to the " air " of a locality,
such as rarefaction, moisture, temperature, movement,
ozone, and the perfumes and exhalations of pine trees,
rosemary, and sweet-smelling grasses, which seem to be
those which are the most likely to affect the health of
inhabitants and visitors, it is not improbable that we must
add the influence of an invisible local flora of microbes.
The inquiry is a long and laborious one, but it will be
carried through. The microbes, whether in air or water,
or on the surfaces of things, can be collected by washing
them into warm liquid gelatine. Then the gelatine is
poured out on a plate, and hardens as a thin sheet of jelly.
This is protected from all further contamination, and,
after a few hours, each invisible microbe embedded im-
movably in the jelly makes itself apparent. It multiplies
enormously whilst remaining stuck to one spot, and is no
longer invisible, but presents itself to the eye as a little
sphere, or disc, of characteristic shape, colour, and quality,
consisting of many hundred thousands of crowded
microbes produced by the growth and division of the
original invisible one. Some dozens or some hundreds of
little growing " dots," and of many various kinds, will thus
reveal themselves in the jelly according to the number and
kinds of utterly invisible parent microbes introduced by
your " washings" into the jelly. And so the investigator
has the means of getting at each kind of invisible microbe
quite detached from the others, and of separating it for
further cultivation and experiment as to its chemical and
disease-producing qualities. These microbial gardens of

ABOUT CHOLERA 249

jelly-plates are, indeed, a wonderful revelation and a fit-
ting " horticultural " accompaniment to the dark and
gloomy forests of rampant wild microbes in our insides,
where all are struggling for the soil, one crushing out
another by its sheer exuberance, a third choked by the
encircling luxuriance of a fourth, just as the trees, mosses,
and climbers of a tropical jungle are budding, pushing,
grasping, destroying one another in their irrepressible
growth.

Pettenkofer, of Munich, when he found (as Metchni-
koff did later) that the cholera-bacillus could be swallowed
in spoonfuls without producing any harm, came to the
conclusion that, though it was a necessary agent of the
disease " cholera," yet that there was still an unknown
additional determining " cause " of a local character which
must be present in order to render the " cholera-bacillus "
effective. Metchnikoff is now seeking this " local " cause
and parallel antagonistic causes, in the microbian flora of
localities which locally effect an entry into the human
body, and are, on the one hand, " favourable," or on the
other hand " antagonistic." Take as a concrete example
Versailles. When cholera has been rife in Paris, there has
been no cholera at Versailles. There is something at or
about Versailles which does not permit cholera to flourish
in men who live there. The guess — the hypothesis — which
is being investigated at this moment, is that there is
possibly a microbe present at Versailles which enters into
the microbial jungle of the intestine of mankind there,
and is inimical to, repressive of, the cholera-bacillus when
it also arrives there. Similarly, the suggestion is enter-
tained, and is being experimentally tested, that there is
in Paris a microbial inhabitant of the intestine which is
favourable to the energetic growth of the cholera-bacillus
when it puts in an appearance, but that this favouring (as
yet undetermined) microbe does not exist at Versailles.

250 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

These imaginings and guesses as to favouring and
antagonising microbes must not be confused with the
definitely ascertained facts as to the cholera-bacillus. But
they are quite sufficiently important and probable to
justify their narration to a discreet and sympathetic
public.

XXVI
SEA-BREEZES, MOUNTAIN AIR. AND OZONE

FIFTY years ago people were very fond of talking
about "ozone," and the word is popularly used
nowadays to signify a mysterious attribute of the air of
the sea-coast or moorland without its real significance
being generally understood. When Sir Oliver Lodge the
other day warned people against hurting their nasal
passages by sniffing up an unduly strong dose of ozone
produced by a special ozone-making apparatus, I am
inclined to think that most people who read what he said
wondered what " ozone " might be.

In the eighteenth century it was noticed that the
sparks from a frictional electrical machine are accompanied
by a peculiar pungent smell in the air. Many years after
that, namely in 1840, the great chemical experimenter,
Schonbein, the friend and correspondent of Faraday and
discoverer of gun-cotton, found that the smell in question
is produced by a special gas, which is formed in the air
when electric discharges take place. He found that this
gas was a powerful oxydiser — would, in fact, oxydise
iodide of potassium so as to set free iodine — and thus its
presence could be detected by means of paper slips
coated with a mixture of starch and iodide of potassium.
When they were exposed in air which contained even

minute traces of this strange gas they became purple-blue,
251

252 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

owing to the liberation of iodine and the formation of its
well-known blue combination with the starch. Schonbein
found that in breezy, fresh places his test-papers turned
blue, and concluded from that (confirmed by other evidence)
that this smelling gas, to which he gave the name ozone —
which simply means "the smelling stuff" — is present in
good, ordinary atmospheric air, as well as in artificially
"electrified" air. It is destroyed when such air is heated
above the boiling-point of water, and seems to be, as it
were, " taken out " of the air by all sorts of dead organic
matter, so that it is not present in the air of large cities.
I remember that when I was a boy we used to test the
air for ozone with Schonbein's papers (I am aware that
their colour change is not absolute proof of the presence
of ozone, as other oxydising gases might, if present, act in
the same way), and we used to find more ozone when a
south-west wind was blowing than in a north-easter !

Schonbein wrote sixty papers on ozone — but its real
nature was made out by others who succeeded him,
chiefly by Andrews, of Belfast, and Tait, of Edinburgh.
It turns out that ozone is a condensed form of the
elemental gas oxygen — squeezed, as it were, and literally
" intensified," so that three measures of oxygen gas become
only two of ozone. It very readily changes back again —
two measures of ozone expanding to form three of oxygen.
It is produced by the action of an electric discharge upon
oxygen gas driven over the discharge and in greatest
quantity when that kind of gently-buzzing electric spark
which is called "the silent discharge" is used. It can be
produced in quantity by passing atmospheric air, or better,
pure dry oxygen gas through a glass tube in which such a
silent discharge is made to take place. As much as seven-
teen parts in a hundred of the gas can be thus converted
into "ozone," and some twenty years ago two French
chemists succeeded in getting even a larger proportion,

SEA-BREEZES, MOUNTAIN AIR, AND OZONE 253

and by submitting it to a tremendous pressure at a
temperature of 100 degrees below the freezing-point of
water, they obtained pure ozone as a transparent liquid.
It was of a dark indigo-blue colour, and somewhat danger-
ous and explosive when the pressure under which it had
formed was removed. Ordinary oxygen gas has since
then been also liquefied in the laboratory : it is of a paler
blue colour.

The "smell" which old writers had noticed and
Schonbein had named was thus actually obtained as a
distinct blue liquid. It is this which, though present only
in minute quantities, gives special oxydising activity to
fresh air. When pure, or present even to the small
extent of 4 per cent, in air, ozone is a destructive agent, a
sort of extra-quality oxygen of triple instead of double
power. Indiarubber is rotted and destroyed by it in a few
minutes — a sort of combustion or quick oxydation taking
place — and it is, of course, dangerous to the softer parts
of the human body, such as the air passages and lungs
and the eyes — when present in more than a minimal
proportion. I believe that no one has yet determined
exactly how great a percentage of ozone can be tolerated
by a human being in the air taken into the lungs. In
ordinary fresh country or sea-coast air only one part by
measure in 700,000 has been found to be ozone, that
is, TT^ per cent. But it is quite likely that much more
is occasionally present, since it is very difficult to arrange
a satisfactory examination of the air of any locality so as
to determine how much ozone it contains. It is said that
at higher levels the atmosphere contains more ozone than
it does at lower levels.

It is not to be wondered at that ozone should thus
have attracted general attention and interest as the dis-
tinctive and specially active agent present in the pure
air of the sea- coast and the mountain-top. People not

254 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

infrequently, on arriving at the seaside, sniff up the odours
of decomposing seaweed (containing a little iodine), and
think they are smelling the "ozone." It is doubtful
whether enough ozone is ever present in the atmosphere
under simple natural conditions to affect even a highly-
sensitive nose. But it is easy to produce enough by
passing air over a silent electrical discharge to fill a
large room with its peculiar smell. Whether it really
is of benefit to the human being who inhales a properly
limited percentage of it seems not to have been clearly
decided by experiment, although both in London and
the United States of America there are enterprising
medical men who are convinced of its value and are
using it. It would certainly seem that if the peculiar
benefit which is often derived from sea air or from
mountain air is due to the presence of this extra oxygen
in such air, then nothing can be simpler or more rational
than to introduce the proper and useful percentage of
ozone into the air of specially-arranged chambers in
London and other large towns, so that we can visit or
even inhabit them and breathe ozonised air at will without
going on a journey for it.

But it is a remarkable fact that, as with various
natural so-called " mineral waters," so with various " airs "
which people find beneficial — no one has yet clearly and
decisively shown, in the first place, whether they exert
any chemical effect of a special kind on the people who
seem to benefit by drinking the one or breathing the
other ; still less has any one shown what is the particular
chemical ingredient of the air or of the water of any given
resort which exerts the beneficial effect attributed to that
air or that water.

The air in different localities differs most obviously
and importantly in four particulars, namely, as to whether
it is still or windy, whether it is cool or hot relatively to

SEA-BREEZES, MOUNTAIN AIR, AND OZONE 255

the local surface, whether it is heavy or rarefied, whether
it is dry or saturated with moisture. It is also an im-
portant fact that the atmosphere consists of layers and
currents differing in these qualities, and that the higher
layers can be reached by ascending to high-lying lands.
At the same time it seems that in a flat country the
ascent of a comparatively low hill brings you into a layer
or " stratum " of air differing more from that of the plain
or valley than would be the case were you to ascend to
the same height in a mountainous region. The seaside
and the mountain may owe the beneficial character of
their air to some of the varying qualities noted above.
Chemical differences may or may not be important, and
seem hardly to have been as yet brought within the range
of accurate knowledge. Ozone may be more or less
present, so may perfumes and volatile oils, such as are
given off by pine trees, and there may be more or less
minute quantities of carbonic acid and of sulphurous acid,
and still minuter quantities of the newly-discovered gases
— argon and helium — which, for all we know, may have
some effect on the human body. There seems to be a
great field open for accurate investigations in regard to
the action upon human health of all these varying con-
ditions of the air. In the meantime, we proceed by guess-
work, and are influenced by tradition and beliefs which
are based on a sort of experience, but are of a very vague
and unsatisfactory description.

The case is much the same with regard to the natural
waters of celebrated resorts. So far as their chemical
composition is known, they can be manufactured and
applied for drinking or bathing anywhere. But minute
quantities of certain gases and other elements may be
present in these natural waters and have escaped until
now the observation of the chemist, and it is possible,
though not demonstrated, that these rare chemical con-

256 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

stituents may have some action on those who drink or
bathe in the water. Ever since the time of the Romans
natural mineral waters have been sought, and the springs
which discharge them have been frequented, not because
their chemical composition was known, but because ex-
perience seemed to show that they produced a beneficial
result. It can hardly be doubted that the baths and
springs frequented at the present day are not so much
themselves the cause of the benefit to the cure-seekers
as are the change of scene and diet, and the repose and
regular life willingly accepted by those who travel so far
to reach these springs.

With regard to ozone, there remains something more
to be said, namely, in regard to its application, in a far
less diluted form than is possible when it is taken into
the lungs, to the destruction of putrefying organic matter
and putrefactive and disease-producing bacteria. It is
now some five or six years since air containing a high
percentage of ozone — produced by the action of the
electric discharge — was used for the purification of the
water-supply of large towns. It is a fact that river water
into which such ozone containing air is pumped becomes
pure in the highest degree, in consequence of the destruc-
tion by the ozone's oxydising action, both of the bacterial
germs always present in vast numbers in river water and
of the organic matter on which the bacteria depend.
This application of ozone is in use in several large towns
for the purification of drinking-water, for which purpose it
has very great advantages. It has also been successfully
used by Dr. Allen, the director of the Plymouth Marine
Laboratory, for keeping the water of the marine aquarium
there in a state of purity and well charged with oxygen
gas. A similar use has been made of oxygen containing
a considerable percentage of ozone by enterprising surgeons
for the cleansing of ulcer and abscess. It is clear that such

SEA-BREEZES, MOUNTAIN AIR, AND OZONE 257

a gas may present mechanical advantages over any liquid
application.

Ozone is not, apparently, in favour or fashion with the
general body of medical practitioners at the present day
but possibly further examination and determination of its
physiological properties may lead to its receiving more
attention in medicine. Already the peroxide of hydrogen
— which is more or less correctly described as " ozonised
water," and is used (under the name " Auricomous hair-
wash ") to change dark hair by its oxydising action to a
golden tint — is used by surgeons for washing out purulent
wounds and abscess. Those who use the gas itself only
go a step further. Some day we may see a more general
use of ozone ; on the other hand, it remains to be seen by
direct and accurate experiment whether its properties are
as valuable to man as we may hope they will prove to be.

XXVIT
OXYGEN GAS FOR ATHLETES AND OTHERS

SINCE the preceding chapter on ozone was written
I have learned that this peculiar triple-condensed
variety of oxygen (it is called by chemists "O3"
whereas ordinary oxygen is " O2 ") is now being most
successfully applied to the purification of the water-
supply of several large cities. A notable case is that
of the great winter resort, Nice. Ozone gas is one of
the most effective destroyers of organic impurity known ;
it destroys both bacterial germs and the putrescible
impurities of water completely, and is itself converted
in the process into harmless health-giving oxygen, whilst
the water is rendered absolutely free of all germs. It
is readily manufactured by treating oxygen with the
electric discharge, and is produced at a cost which
renders its use in water-purification an economical and
financially satisfactory method. The use of ozone gas
as a medicinal application to cavities in the living body
in which disease-producing bacteria are lodged is making
progress. It has to be administered with great care by
a medical expert, and though there has been delay and
opposition on account of the novelty of the treatment,
there are signs that ozone will become established as a
valuable therapeutic agent. It is a singular fact that so
little has been done of late by scientific observers either

OXYGEN GAS FOR ATHLETES 259

as to the presence of ozone in the atmosphere or as to
the action of ozone on the healthy animal body when
present in minute quantity in the air taken into the
lungs. The general opinion appears to be that it is
either altogether absent from the atmosphere or present
only in quantity so minute as to be negligible from
the point of view of the physiologist except in very
high mountain regions, and there the exact quantity
remains undetermined. The only experiments in the
last ten years on the subject of its action on animals
are some which led the inquirers to the conclusion that
constant exposure (in a closed chamber) to an atmosphere
containing 4 per cent, of ozone caused death after five
or six days by an inflammation of the lungs. Clearly
it is desirable that further investigation on this subject
by competent authorities should be made, and the effect
of smaller quantities of ozone in the air respired, whether
continuously or at intervals, should be ascertained.

The action of ordinary oxygen gas is a separate
matter. The atmosphere which we breathe consists of
one part by volume of this gas and of four parts of
nitrogen gas. It is the oxygen which is necessary to
us and to all animals, and the nitrogen is merely an
inert diluting accompaniment of the essential oxygen
gas. It is, of course, easy to increase or to diminish the
proportion of oxygen in the air breathed accordingly as
one introduces additional pure oxygen or, on the other
hand, diluting nitrogen into a collapsible bag or sac from
which one continuously draws breath. Such a bag can be
connected by a tube to a helmet or mask enveloping
the head. The expired air is discharged by a specially
provided passage. It used to be thought that it was
dangerous to breathe pure undiluted oxygen, although
the proportion of oxygen to nitrogen in the air taken
into the lungs might be increased to as much as a half

260 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

without injury, and, indeed, with great benefit in some
serious conditions of collapse. Dr. Leonard Hill, F.R.S.,
of the London Hospital Medical College, has, however,
recently shown that oxygen gas, of 97 per cent, purity,
may be breathed continuously for as much as two hours
without any ill-effects or sense of inconvenience.
Contrary to what has been stated, it is neither exciting
nor unpleasant. He has made the experiment on
himself and on some of his assistants, and in doing so
has made use of such an apparatus as that above-
mentioned — so as to ensure the in-take of undiluted
oxygen.

Dr. Hill and Mr. Martin Flack have further found that
the exhaustion and labouring of the heart which is
brought on by such special exertion as that involved in
running a hundred yards race or a quarter-mile race, is
almost completely avoided if the runner "fills his lungs"
with oxygen gas before starting. The runner takes the
oxygen gas into the lungs for some two or three minutes
before starting to race ; of course, the lungs are not
thus actually "filled" with oxygen, but a much larger
proportion of that gas is lodged in them than when
ordinary air is breathed, and a full supply is thus afforded
to the blood. The " distress " caused by violent athletic
efforts appears to be entirely due to the using up of the
available oxygen by the unusual activity of the muscles.
The heart itself suffers most, the breathing becomes
laboured, and there is a sense of suffocation, due simply
to the urgent demand by the blood, heart and muscles
for more oxygen. If, therefore, we ensure that there is
an extra supply of pure oxygen in the lungs before
the unusual effort is made, we avert these distressing
symptoms : the unusual quantity of oxygen needed is
ready for use. Dr. Hill himself and young men who
have tried the plan of inspiration of oxygen before a

OXYGEN GAS FOR ATHLETES 261

foot-race, declare that they cannot believe that they are
really running hard, even when surpassing their usual
performance. They come in at the end of the quarter-
mile, having beaten their record ; and with no sense of
having made a special effort ; they feel fresh and ready
to start again after more oxygen and a short rest. More-
over, the after-effect on the muscles is stated to be such
that " stiffness " and what is called " grogginess " (due in
ordinary circumstances to the retention of lactic acid in
the muscle) do not supervene.

Swimming and diving, as one would expect, are
greatly affected by the preliminary oxygen inhalation ;
the length of time during which submersion can be
endured without discomfort is doubled, and the great
effort of fast swimming rendered less rapidly exhausting.
Cycling uphill at a rapid pace becomes, according to
Dr. Hill's own frequent experience, possible after oxygen
inhalation when in ordinary conditions it was impossible.
Hockey players and boxers he has found notably benefited
by oxygen given both in the intervals of and after
the exercise. It is, of course, to be expected that a
wider practical application should be made of this simple
method of increasing our power of sustaining muscular
effort, and of enduring submersion. Dr. Hill suggests
that the divers of the Mediterranean, who, without any
apparatus, plunge into the shallow sea and remain below
long enough to find, cut, and bring to the surface the
valuable sponges of commerce, might use the method
of preliminary inhalation of pure oxygen gas. He has
also tried the method with a young racehorse, but owing
to the fact that the course run was only a mile, and the
animal perfectly fit and strong, he tells me that no
advantage was found to result from the inhalation. With
an older cart-horse somewhat tired by a day's work —
he obtained the most satisfactory results, the animal

262 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

becoming obviously recuperated and working without
distress.

The question has been raised as to whether the
administration of oxygen gas to a man or to a horse
when about to run a race should be considered as
" doping." It may perhaps be objected to by sportsmen,
as involving the provision of special apparatus which all
competitors would not be equally able to secure. But it
is not " doping," since that applies to the use of a drug,
which, whilst exciting to violent effort, produces an
injurious after-effect. Oxygen is not in this category ;
to take an extra quantity of oxygen into the lungs before
starting on a race is no more unnatural or risky than
to take an extra drink of water into the stomach or to
swallow meat extract and such special preparations before
or during a race. It would be interesting to see whether
a runner in the Marathon race would (as Dr. Hill would
expect) be greatly assisted if his trainer carried with him
a supply of pure oxygen, and from time to time refreshed
him with it. Football players might also be given oxygen
at half-time; an oxygenated team would, one surmises,
beat its uninspired competitors. A Fife team is reported
to have done so. On the roads favoured by cyclists one
may expect hereafter to find at the bottom of a long
ascent hawkers of " breaths of oxygen " provided with
gas-bags and calling out "Buy the lady a breff, sir!" It
is, perhaps, worth noting that the relief afforded by
oxygen-breathing is no less definite when the gas is taken
immediately after a race or sustained effort than when
used as a preliminary. The excess of choke-gas or
carbonic acid formed during great muscular effort is not
the principal cause of the distress experienced. That
gas is thrown off by increased expiration. It is the
using up of the oxygen and the insufficiency of the
supply in the atmospheric air inspired that causes, under

OXYGEN GAS FOR ATHLETES 263

these circumstances, giddiness, exhaustion, and often
collapse.

The difficulty in breathing and the prostration ex-
perienced by many people in mountain-climbing is largely
due, not merely to the muscular effort of climbing, but to
the fact that the rarefied atmosphere at heights of 8000 ft.
to 15,000 ft. and more gives into the lungs in every
inspiration but a fraction of the oxygen which is inspired
at low levels, and moreover, owing to the low pressure,
much less is held in the blood. Even when conveyed by
mule, cog-rail, or balloon to these heights — and, therefore,
without muscular exertion, sensitive people suffer severely
from temporary "oxygen-starvation." They as well as
the laborious mountaineer could be saved from all such
inconvenience by the use of a skilfully-constructed
" traveller's flask " of oxygen gas.

The observations and experiments as to the possible
use of pure oxygen by athletes suggest that we might all
benefit by occasional if not frequent use of such an atmo-
sphere. Indeed, there are some individuals — amongst
others a well-known and distinguished actor — who before
making some special effort, or even when feeling tired
and unequal to their daily work, inhale under medical
supervision a certain quantity of oxygen gas. It would
certainly seem that since country air, sea air, and
mountain air are useful and refreshing, an artificial
supply of extra oxygen might be inhaled in London,
either in one's own house or in establishments provided
for the purpose, with definite benefit to health, especially
if the inhalation were combined with exercise.

The experiments made by Dr. Hill have come about
in connection with work undertaken for the purpose of
improving the diving and life-saving apparatus named
after its inventor, Fleuss. This invention consists essenti-
ally in a water-tight helmet and jacket connected with a

264 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

cylinder of compressed oxygen gas which is carried by
the diver. The advantage of such an arrangement is that
the diver is free from pumping apparatus and can go
where an ordinary diver could not. Mr. Fleuss was able,
by diving with this apparatus, to prevent an immense loss
of property by arresting the flooding of the Severn tunnel
which was imminent during its construction. A difficulty
in regard to the Fleuss apparatus has been that oxygen
gas is a poison, causing inflammation of the lungs and
convulsions when under a pressure of from two to three
atmospheres — that is to say, at from 30 ft. to 60 ft. depth
in water. The pressure exercised by the air of the atmo-
sphere at sea-level is equal to that exercised by a column
of water 30 ft. high, and hence at 30 ft. depth in the sea
the oxygen gas would be under the pressure both of the
atmosphere itself and of water to the same amount —
which is expressed by saying that it is under two atmo-
spheres' pressure, or twice the atmosphere's pressure. The
pressure of the atmosphere is, in plain figures, 15 Ib. on
every square inch of surface. Of course, the oxygen is
compressed far beyond this point in the cylinders in
which it is carried. In using it, it is allowed to escape by
opening a valve leading into an elastic sac, and is then
and there subject to the pressure depending on the depth
of water to which the diver has descended. It is found to
be dangerous for a diver with this apparatus to descend
to a depth of more than 30 ft. having pure oxygen in his
apparatus, because the oxygen is then compressed under
a pressure of two atmospheres. Accordingly, Dr. Haldane,
of Oxford, has proposed that the oxygen should be
diluted with atmospheric air, so as to give a mixture
of equal volumes of oxygen and nitrogen. With this
mixture the diver can safely descend to a depth of 60 ft.
The apparatus is provided with a partition containing
caustic soda, which absorbs the carbonic gas thrown out

OXYGEN GAS FOR ATHLETES 265

of the lungs in expiration. With such an apparatus a
diver can safely remain under water at a depth of 60 ft,
and walk about and explore for as long as two hours. A
most important application of this self-contained diving
apparatus is found in its use in the exploration of mines,
where smoke or gaseous products resulting from an
explosion render it impossible for rescue parties to pene-
trate without its use. It has been the means of saving
many lives in such circumstances. A form of this
apparatus is made in which the oxygen is supplied, not
by a cylinder of compressed gas, but by granules of a
chemical compound called pneumatogen, a peroxide of
sodium and potassium, which when breathed into absorbs
carbonic acid from the air expired by the lungs, and gives
off pure oxygen. Submarine ships are now being provided
with a dress or outfit of this description for each member
of the crew, so that in the case of the entrance of water
into the submarine, every man can put on his "oxygen
helmet," and one by one, when the ship is full of water,
they can pass out by the conning tower and float to the
surface. The perfected diving dress, with self-contained
diluted oxygen supply and other improvements, has been
constructed by Siebe, Gorman, and Co., and was
exhibited by Dr. Leonard Hill at a soiree of the Royal
Society.

XXVIII

SPARROWS, TROUT, AND SELECTIVE
BREEDING

THE talk about the urgent need for the destruction
of sparrows reminds me that the word " sparrow "
is applied commonly in this country to at least two very
different but common birds. No doubt farmers and
gardeners know well enough the house-sparrow (Passer
domesticus or Fringilla domestica of Linnaeus), which is
the one they consider injurious. But some boys and
some newly-fledged proprietors of country places may
inadvertently confuse the house - sparrow with a very
different bird, though only a little smaller and of a
general brown colouring, also called " sparrow," namely,
the hedge-sparrow (Accentor modularis}.

The hedge-sparrow is a true denizen of the country.
It does not live on grain, but on insects and grubs, and
is useful on that account to agriculturists. Its eggs are
pure blue. A spotted egg of a cuckoo laid amongst them
readily catches the eye, so that cuckoos' eggs are often
found in hedge-sparrows' nests. It seems that it is all a
mistake on the part of the cuckoo hen when this occurs.
The strain of cuckoos properly attached to hedge-sparrows
lay a beautiful blue egg differing only in its somewhat
larger size from those of the hedge-sparrow itself, and
hence difficult to detect. These blue cuckoo-eggs — proper

SPARROWS, TROUT, AND BREEDING 267

to cuckoos which make use of the hedge-sparrow as foster-
mother — escape detection both by boys and the foster-
parents, and successfully hatch out and propagate the
race of blue-egged cuckoos with a memory and a sense of
smell which bring them back if they are hen-birds to the
little hedge-sparrow's nest when they are grown up and'
have an egg to dispose of. The spotted grey or brownish
eggs are, if not discovered by boys, ejected (there is reason
to believe) by the hedge-sparrows themselves. They were
deposited by mistake by some pippet-loving or warbler-
seeking strain of cuckoo in a hurry, or are throw-backs
to a common ancestral colouring of the egg due, perhaps,
to the male parent not being of the true blue strain. A
very fine series of " clutches " and nests of hedge-sparrow,
robin, shrike, reed-warbler, pippet, yellow-hammer, and
other birds with the accompanying cuckoo's egg may be
seen in the Natural History Museum, and they show how
closely the parasitic egg often resembles that of the foster-
parent, though striking failures also occur.

The hedge-sparrow is placed in that group of small
birds which includes the robin, the thrushes, and the
warblers; it is not a finch. On the other hand, the
house-sparrow is a finch, allied to the chaffinch, the gold-
finch, and the brambling. It has, like all the finches, a
very powerful broad-based beak, and is more than a
match for bigger birds than itself. It is really a parasite
or " commensal " (messmate) of man, living and flourishing
entirely by helping itself to the grain and the young
buds of shrubs grown by man, and in towns to the waste
fragments of his food and the grain left in horse-dung.
Whether it does any good in the early part of the year by
eating grubs seems to be doubtful, but the conclusion is
justified that it does more harm than good, especially as
it drives away other small birds which are exclusively
insectivorous. It has gone with European man to all

268 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

temperate climates. There are Spanish, African, Italian
and Indian species, closely related to the common house-
sparrow, which I should like to see put out side by side
with it and some of its varieties for the public edification
in the Natural History Museum. These are the true
" sparrows," and should be compared side by side with
the hedge-sparrow, and the differences pointed out.

There is another true sparrow in England, called the
" tree-sparrow," which is not nearly so common as the
house-sparrow. They are, however, so closely allied to
one another that hybrids have been produced between
the two. On the other hand, the hedge-sparrow is a
great deal too remote from the finches to interbreed
with the house-sparrow or any other of the finch group.

There ought to be a careful report on the probable
effects, in every direction, of a great destruction of house-
sparrows before any very drastic measures are taken in
that direction. The employers of gamekeepers should
remember that by destroying owls, hawks, and weasels
they may not only enable small injurious birds to flourish
in excess, but that they may encourage disease and weak-
ness in the game-birds which they so eagerly desire to
multiply, since the natural extermination of weakly birds
by birds and animals of prey is put an end to when the
latter are abolished. In all such matters more knowledge
is needed, and reasonable people will not take irretriev-
able action until they have taken the trouble to obtain
thorough knowledge.

It is a curious fact that though the house-sparrow does
not naturally sing, yet hand-reared house-sparrows have
been made, by association with bull-finches, to acquire the
song of that bird — a truly astonishing instance of hidden
or latent capacity.

A lover of trout-fishing has been writing lately upon
the question as to whether the trout in much-fished rivers

SPARROWS, TROUT, AND BREEDING 269

and lakes do or do not exhibit increased " wariness," or
even " intelligent caution " in avoiding the flies so cunningly
thrown before or above them by the skilful angler. It is
argued that there cannot really be any increased indisposi-
tion of trout to take the fly based on experience, because
on an estimate of the number of trout in a river like the
Test, and of the limited number of anglers, every fisher-
man would have to hook and lose some thousands of fish
every year for the experience to be general among trout
that the horrid artificial flies "hide a still more horrid
hook." It is, of course, held that the trout cannot com-
municate their experiences to one another by any form of
conversation (though leadership and imitative habit might
have some effect), and it is also not suggested that a trout
which had acquired an overpowering aversion to the
angler's fly as a result of being hooked and breaking free,
could transmit that aversion to its offspring by the mere
fact of reproduction. Hence it is maintained that there is
no such increasing " wariness " in English and Scotch
trout. It is a curious thing that in discussing this matter
the fundamental principle should have been overlooked by
which Darwin and Wallace have long ago explained to
the satisfaction of naturalists, the aversions and cautious
proceedings of all kinds of animals, from the smallest
insects up to birds, beasts, and fishes. The principle of
natural selection and survival of the fittest accounts for
the increased caution of trout in well-fished rivers in the
simplest way. Assume (as is perfectly reasonable) that
some trout are more shy than others " by nature," that is
to say, are born so, that some are born with a slightly
more rapid response to the sight of food than others — as
one sees often enough with a lot of the young of any
animal — then the increased shyness or pretended " intelli-
gence" of the trout after many years' fishing follows as a
necessity. The rash fish are caught and destroyed, the

270 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

shy fish remain in the river, and — here is the important
point, a well-ascertained fundamental law of heredity —
propagate their like. They produce shy fish. Every
year this selection goes on till you get a race of fish in the
well-fished river which are so shy that they cease to rise at
all ! This unpleasant result is avoided by the proprietors
of trout streams to a certain extent by introducing a race
of trout which has not in consequence of over-fishing
developed an innate shyness of character (such as the
Loch Leven and some others) to mix and breed with the
timid over-fished race.

It is in the same way that the human population of
country villages, most sad to see, is every year rendered
less intelligent than it was a hundred years ago. All the
enterprising, intelligent young men and maidens are
" fished " away, drawn by baits and hooks to the great
towns ; only the dull and relatively incapable are left in
the village to marry and produce a new generation. The
village population necessarily becomes made up of a dull
stock — incapable, as appears from official reports, of being
educated beyond a very low stage. In some districts
70 per cent, of the children are thus unintelligent, though
not unhealthy or imbecile. It is possible that the want of
home-training and example in very early childhood is to
some extent a cause of the dullness of village children.
And so it goes on, generation after generation, as facilities
for leaving the village increase and inducements to stay
or return decrease. The 30 per cent, of the new genera-
tion who have any "wits" leave the village, never to
return. And no one re-stocks the village. That must be
taken in hand soon,

XXIX
THE FEEBLE-MINDED

A CONSIDER ABLE proportion of the young which
are produced as a new generation of either plants
or animals are not merely unlike their parents in some
small particulars of colour, proportion, activity, and so on,
but are, as compared with the normal or usual standard
of the species, " defective " ; that is to say, they are want-
ing in some organ or part, as though maimed, or by some
cause restricted or reduced in regard to that part. This
occurs in human beings, and in domesticated animals
more obviously than in wild animals and plants, for two
reasons : firstly, because in wild conditions the defective
young die off very early in the struggle for existence and
so escape human observation ; whereas man protects his
own " defective " young, and often, also, those of domesti-
cated animals, so that they are allowed to " grow up " more
or less ; secondly, such defective structure appearing at
birth, and therefore called " congenital," is carried on by
heredity, more or less completely, should the defective
animal or plant be allowed to breed. Such breeding of
defective individuals is prevented in wild nature by their
early destruction ; their defects cause their early death by
unfitting them for the competition and struggle which are
in natural conditions rigidly severe. Only a few survive
among the many thousands of each species born into

272 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

conditions of limited food and space — conditions which
are not sufficient to support more than a very small
number so as to enable them to reach the adult or breed-
ing stage of life. But man, on the contrary, protects his
own young, and often those of his domesticated animals
and plants, from this destructive competition, and thus
allows those which are to a certain extent defective to
breed.

The official returns of the Registrar-General record
every year a proportion of deaths of infants which are
entered as due to " congenital defects." These defects are
of many and various kinds. A frequent "congenital
defect" is one which does not necessarily cause death,
namely, the imperfection of the wonderfully elaborate
organ of sight, rendering it useless. Children often are born
blind, and so are a certain proportion of each species of
animal normally provided with eyes — dogs, horses, cattle,
birds, fish. Even insects, lobsters, and crabs are in quite
considerable and definite number born blind. The inborn
or congenital defects of the eyes which result in blindness
are of several kinds. The whole of the eyeball or eye-
structure may be atrophied, that is to say, dwindled and
incomplete, or one essential part only may be defective,
and the rest quite well-formed ; or, again, the nerves con-
necting the eye with the brain or the several parts of the
brain concerned in the function of sight may, one or more
of them, be defective. Wild animals born in this condition
must perish, except when they happen to be born in
caverns or in the deep sea. Then they are no worse off
than animals with " good " eyes. But the animals with
good eyes, or even with only somewhat defective eyes,
will follow up the gleams of light which in moving about
they have the fortune to encounter, and so will escape
from the cavern or dark depths of the sea, leaving behind
in the dark only those with defective eyes. These will

(THE FEEBLE-MINDED 273

breed together, and perpetuate their defective eyes in a
more and more marked degree in successive generations.
Always those which can see, or see only a little, will leave
the dark place, and so at last there will be a race of
animals established in such places with defective eyes (as
in the ocean, at a depth of two thousand fathoms, and in the
great caves of Europe, and notably in the Mammoth Cave
of Kentucky, U.S.A.), and often the eyes will altogether
disappear. This, however, is a digression.

The cause of congenital defect in eyes is not obvious.
The failure of the germinal substance of the reproductive
egg or particle detached from parents with sound eyes, to
unfold itself — to develop — into a creature with sound eyes
like those of its parents, is apparently due, in some
instances, to one cause, and in other instances to other
causes, of none of which can it be said that we have a
satisfactory and comprehensive knowledge. The same
want of full knowledge exists in regard to the causation
of other congenital defects. These are as numerous and
varied as the parts of the body which may be from birth
onwards, in one instance or another, distorted, devoid of
some essential inner structure, swollen to great size, or
shrunken, or even absent altogether. Such defects are
sometimes caused by mechanical pressure or nipping in
early stages of growth before birth, but there are many
which cannot be accounted for in that way. The wonder
really is not that the inconceivably complex structure of
higher animals should sometimes fail, in this or that part,
to develop in due course from the simple-looking germ,
destitute of visible structure, but that it should, on the
contrary, so regularly and completely come off successfully
in millions of instances every day. We can imagine or
suggest disturbing agencies which may be the causes of
failure, but it is very difficult to demonstrate with certainty
the causes which have been at work in each and every case.

274 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

One result of failure of the germ to " grow up " into
the perfect likeness of its parents is that it may " throw
back," as the breeders say, and resemble in this or that
quality a remote, even an extremely remote, ancestor.
It is suggested by some inquirers that the congenital or
inborn defect, frequent in human beings, which is called
" feeble-mindedness " is a reversion or throw-back to the
condition of the brain in the animal ancestors of man.
That is possible, and, in view of some cases, seems prob-
able. But it must be noted that we do not know what
are the causes which favour throwing-back, or " atavism,"
as it is called, in regard to all sorts of structures, and
that the mechanical conditions connected with the growth
of the cavity of the skull in which the brain itself grows
are so very elaborate that it is obvious that a very slight
disturbance of one element or another might arrest or
turn aside the growth of that vastly complex organ, which
has become so much larger and more delicate in man
than in the animals from which he has, at no remote
period in the history of life on the earth, taken his origin.

Mankind have always within the period of written
records (a mere trifle in the lapse of time since man
became man) regarded mental defect and aberration as
due to fantastic causes. To this day we use the word
" lunatic " for one of the two typical forms of mental
aberration : we imply that the moon is concerned in its
production. The other form of brain-failure has appropri-
ated the term " idiot," which, it is surprising to find, was
less than two centuries ago applied in common speech
to any person who was characterised by independence of
judgment. The term "softy" is a common and really
more suitable term for this class, whilst " cracked " is the
word applied to a lunatic. The notion that mental
aberration is due to " possession " by evil spirits, which
can be expelled and the patient accordingly cured, was

THE FEEBLE-MINDED 275

prevalent a century ago, and the belief is common at the
present day (though quite erroneous) that people " go mad "
in virtue of some immaterial and unaccountable influence,
and may therefore " go sane " again. The lunacy laws and
the laws relating to the care of the feeble-minded in this
country are admitted to be tainted with ignorance and
misconception, and both are in process of correction by
the Government of the day.

The approved professional terms used in distinguishing
the varieties of " the mind diseased " are not accepted
with much favour by the public, and it is unnecessary to
introduce them here. The important fact is that persons
of diseased mind may be separated into two groups —
(a) the idiots or softies, and (fr) the lunatics or cracked
people. The idiotic group are those with a defective
amount or quality of brain substance (whether the skull
itself is small or abnormally distended by " water on the
brain " ), and are more or less incapable of being educated.
They are often subject to epileptic fits, and are usually
weakly in build, though they sometimes have great
muscular strength. The " feeble-minded," of whom so
much has lately been written, owing to the recent report
of a Government Commission, belong to this group.
They are distinguished from the more marked section of
idiots in that they are not absolutely devoid of some
intelligence, and are capable, under proper supervision,
of some degree of self-control. Some of them even can
take part in industrial operations, though they require
constant direction when so employed, and are never, even
in the least serious cases, susceptible of mental develop-
ment beyond a strangely and abruptly limited degree.
Contrasted with the idiots are the lunatics ; they often
are gifted with the highest receptivity, and frequently are
men or women of the highest education and intellect,
normal in every feature of body and mind except that

276 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

their mental machinery works in a defective, " mad " way
as to one or more subjects — often only as to one subject
or class of subjects. They exhibit in different individuals
a vast variety of illusions and propensities which may be
merely unreasonable or may be dangerous to themselves
and to others.

It seems that the idiotic and feeble-minded are devoid
of, or defective in, general mental receptivity, although in
regard to a few things they may have retentive but unin-
telligent memory. Even the less afflicted among them
are incapable of " thinking " at all, because their defective
memory or receptivity gives them nothing to think about.
On the other hand, the lunatic exhibits the ordinary
receptivity of a healthy human being, but thinks wrongly
or absurdly upon one or a few lines, though normally and
soundly upon every other.

The State in civilised countries has long since made
provision for the proper medical care and restraint
of lunatics and of the extreme cases of the other class,
the idiots. But by an oversight in this country, which the
gravedigger in Hamlet would consider very natural, the
less extreme cases of idiocy — the so-called feeble-minded
— have been left without State guardianship. It is a fact
that these cases occur both in the wealthiest and the
poorest class of the community, though they are put
away under medical care by well-to-do families, and are
left by the very poor to wander about and get into terrible
mischief. Hence there has grown up a belief that feeble-
minded offspring are more frequently produced by
mentally sound parents who are very poor than by
those who are rich or well-to-do, though there are not
facts or figures which establish that conclusion. It has
further been maintained that this supposed large pro-
portional rate of production of feeble-minded among
the poorest, ill-fed, ill-housed, and vicious dregs of the

THE FEEBLE-MINDED 277

community is due to the action of defective nutrition,
alcoholism, and lack of fresh air and healthy occupation
upon the parents, and that a deterioration of the repro-
ductive material, a twist, as it were, of the inner substance
of the stock or breed in the direction of feeble-minded-
ness, has been thus established.

In reply to this somewhat hasty but at first sight
plausible conclusion, we maintain (i) that the definite
defect called feeble- mindedness is as common in well-
nourished, well-to-do families as in the poorest ; (2) that
it is not proved that lack of food and good air can act
upon the germs contained in a parental animal, so as to
alter it in such a way that the brain of offspring begotten
by that parent will not develop in normal structure and
proportion ; and, moreover, that " it has not been shown "
(that is the important clause of the statement) that
defective food and air can so alter the germs in a parent
as to cause other deformation or structural defect in the
young which grow from those germs. It is, on the other
hand, true that such defect of food and air may cause the
death of the parent, or may directly cause the death of
the young, if the young are subjected to such defective
conditions of life. It is necessary to point out, in reply to
those who hold the starvation theory, of feeble-minded-
ness that it is capable of being handed on by hereditary
transmission once it has appeared, and that in the most
wretched groups of the population, both in cities and
in country villages/ the feeble-minded are not taken in
charge by any authority, but leave their parents and shift
for themselves, and, owing to their weakness, accompanied
by unrestrained animal desires, they become, in an irregular
way and at a very early age, themselves the parents of
feeble-minded children. Thus feeble-mindedness is in-
creased in the poorest class, but not in that of the rich.
The facts ascertained are too horrible and painful for

278 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

citation here. The recent Commission has made it clear
that it is absolutely necessary for the State to interfere
and prevent this terrible increase of helpless imbeciles.

There are eighty-four schools in London for the edu-
cation of children who are not included under the extreme
terms idiots or imbeciles, but are " feeble-minded and
defective." They are attended by 6000 children, of whom
about two-thirds learn some useful manual work, whilst
the rest are hopeless, and require permanent custodial
care — which at present is not to be had by those whose
parents cannot pay for it — but will, there is every reason
to hope, soon be provided for them by the State. In its
absence they constitute a real and ghastly danger to the
community, since some of them are certain to propagate
their kind, and not only will thus add to the existing large
body of imbeciles, but perpetuate the taint of feeble-
mindedness in the race.

It is an interesting question as to whether there is a
definite gap — a difference of kind between these poor,
defective children and the markedly stupid boys and girls
of some village schools. I am inclined to believe that
there is. The one group does not pass by a gradual series
into the other. It has been stated that in some remote
country districts of England only one-third of the school
children can be taught more than the merest elements of
writing, reading, and arithmetic; the majority are im-
movably dull, only the minority are as bright as ordinary
London children. But even the dull village children get
so far as to master the elements of learning, and probably
their brains are not structurally defective, but only inactive
for the time being. They may hereafter become village
Hampdens. It certainly does seem to be the fact that
the villages are continually deprived of the more intelligent
members of their population by the attractions of the big
towns, and that only the duller portion stay to breed in

THE FEEBLE-MINDED 279

the village like the blind animals in a cave. But dullness
is not identical with feeble-mindedness.

It is maintained that even in towns the multiplication
of the hard-working, cautious, and capable section of the
community is at a standstill. Its members seek comfort,
intellectual exercise, and self-culture ; they refuse to de-
prive themselves of these things, which cost money, and
to spend that money on bringing up large families. On
the other hand, the far more numerous " working-class "
has no such ambition as a rule, and no anxiety as to what
is to become of its offspring, however numerous. The
more children the larger are the earnings of the family,
and all in turn shift for themselves at an early age. The
rates pay for such education as they require, and their
parents have no desire to push them up the social ladder ;
but food, lodging, and clothes cost money. The working-
man who desires to read, see things for himself, and be
more than an animated cog on a wheel, cannot afford
to have children and transmit to them that modicum of
intelligence above the average which distinguishes him
from his fellows, and demands for its cultivation the
money with which he might keep a large family. Conse-
quently the population is more and more largely replenished
by the unenterprising poor and the unenterprising rich;
the group which is enterprising and capable, and directs
the work and thought of the civilised world, is, by the
very qualities which make the increase of its strain desir-
able, debarred from contributing its fair proportion to the
increase of the population. Is it possible for the com-
munity, by any system or by legislation, to overcome or
evade this unfortunate tendency ?

The neglect by both the local and central government
to provide any supervision of feeble-minded children has
had a special result of a strange and unhappy description.
Let me hasten to say that now that we have secured by

280 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

recent legislation the vitally important medical inspection
of children in connection with Board schools, and the
registration and official inspection of feeble - minded
children which will surely be made compulsory before
another year has passed, the danger of which I am about
to speak will very shortly no longer exist. It is this.
Feeble-minded children (whose condition falls short of
that of actual idiocy) are almost impossible to manage
as members of an ordinary family or household. Their
condition is often not properly recognised ; their parents
or guardians find them to be obstinate, unteachable, and
dirty. Often, when the family is poor, they are, under
these circumstances, (c boarded out " for a very small pay-
ment, or even taken charge of, out of charity. None of
the persons concerned in these transactions know that
they are dealing with a hopelessly unteachable child, born
with this defective brain. They find scolding has no
effect in guiding the child, mild chastisement fails, and
the poor ignorant foster-parent (sometimes even the
child's own mother) becomes exasperated and determined
to subdue what seems to be mere obstinacy and indiffer-
ence. The awful demon of cruelty is let loose. What
seems at first a virtuous determination to control and
regulate the child's behaviour for its own good leads to the
infliction upon it of blows of savage violence, then to the
less dangerous but revolting attempt to enforce obedience
by the pain caused by a burn, and to starvation as a final
instrument of discipline. A very large number of the
cases of cruelty to children and adolescents which from
time to time are brought into the law courts have their
origin in the fact that the victim was " feeble-minded,"
and that the guardian found guilty of cruelty did not (any
more than do the judge and jury) understand or, indeed,
know anything at all about such a condition. Often the
feeble-mindedness itself has been attributed to the cruel

THE FEEBLE-MINDED 281

treatment of the child, whereas the latter really was set
going by the former. To a large extent the community is to
blame for allowing " feeble-minded " children to be boarded
out except in proper medical institutions, guaranteed and
inspected by State authority. It is the same story as that
which was once common enough in regard to " lunatics,"
but has now been put an end to by the law. The board-
ing-out of children, whether healthy or weak-minded,
should in all cases be illegal, except under proper official
sanction and guarantee. It is not only for the sake of the
children that this provision is necessary. It is certain
that foolish people have been led, in the absence of all
restraint and interference by public authority, to under-
take without evil intention the care of discarded children,
and have been led on by the hopeless dullness and obstin-
acy of a child with defective brain into cruel treatment of
it ; and when in some cases the child has died as the
natural consequence of its congenital feebleness, the
miserable guardians have been found guilty of causing its
death. Though little excuse can be made for such mis-
creants, it is greatly to be desired that the law should
step in at an earlier period, and both ensure proper care
for the feeble-minded child and remove from unqualified
guardians the chance of developing from a state of mere
ignorance into one of criminal responsibility.

The Government Commission on the Treatment of the
Feeble-Minded, which has recently reported, has adopted
the view which I have explained in this article as to the
origin of feeble-mindedness. A large amount of evidence
was taken by the Commission from medical experts
and others. A certain number of the witnesses main-
tained the opinion that feeble-mindedness arises from the
action of deficiency of food, of overcrowding, and possibly
of drunkenness upon individuals of healthy strain, whose
offspring, as a consequence, exhibit feeble-mindedness.

282 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

Some naturalists, who have committed themselves to a
pious belief in what is vaguely called "the transmission
of acquired characters," think themselves called upon to
support this opinion, in consequence of a notion that their
belief would be rendered more reasonable than it is at
present were such an origin of feeble-mindedness demon-
strated. Apart from the fact that it is not demonstrated,
it is difficult to see how, supposing it were, such a causa-
tion could be considered as a transmission of an acquired
character. The ill-fed, drunken parent of a feeble-minded
child (when discovered and examined) is not found to
have " acquired " a condition of the brain agreeing with
that of his or her feeble-minded offspring, though some-
times such parent is found to have been himself or herself
born with a defective brain. No theory of organic
memory, of engrams, inscripts, or transfer of molecular
vibrations can enable us to present a plausible mechanical
scheme of the way in which the acquired general condition
(restricting ourselves to what is new and acquired) of an
ill-fed parent can be definitely and specifically re-embodied
in his or her offspring, as the peculiar structural condition
of brain which is called " feeble-mindedness." It has not
been shown, so far as I am aware, that privation in regard
to the food of a parental organism gives rise to new con-
genital qualities in the reproductive germs which that
organism throws off.

XXX
DEATH-RATES

THE chief index or measure of the health of any
locality is what is called " the death-rate " of that
locality. Although there are several other important
evidences as to the healthiness or unhealthiness of any
given area, the " death-rate " is the chief and most obvious
indication of the advantageous or disadvantageous action
of the conditions of any given city or other chosen area
upon human life. Its records are more easily kept with
an approach to accuracy than are records of cases of
sickness not terminating in death. The cause of death
has to be certified in civilised communities by a medical
man ; the total number of deaths in a year is given by the
number of burial certificates. The death-rate is stated
at so many per thousand of the population per annum.
Thus, in a city of 5 million inhabitants, — that is to say,
5 thousand thousands — a record of eighty thousand
deaths in the year gives 16 deaths for every thousand
persons living. That is called " an annual death-rate of
1 6." The record for any single month may be stated
(as it is stated at intervals in the newspapers) " as at the
rate of so many in the thousand per annum," by multiply-
ing the actual monthly number per thousand by 12.
Thus, in the case of the city just cited, if the death-rate

were the same in every month of the year — namely,
383

284 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

16 — it would mean that 6500 persons died regularly
every month. But we should probably find that in some
month or other as few as 5417 persons died. That
would be reported "as at the rate of" 13 per thousand
per annum ; since, if every month gave only 5417 deaths,
we should get 65,000 deaths a year, which works out at

13 in the thousand in a population of 5 millions. In
other months it might run as high as 19 or 20 (represent-
ing over 8000 deaths a month), although, taking all the
months together, the deaths are at the rate of 16 in the
thousand for the year.

The bald statement of the death-rate, of course, admits
of much analysis where proper records are kept. Thus
the death-rate from different diseases and groups of
diseases can be stated, and the death-rate in each group
at different ages and for the two sexes can be given where
proper records are kept. In this country the records of
population in various areas and for the whole country,
and of the deaths from various causes, and at different
ages, are collected and tabulated by the Registrar-General
and his officials. The annual reports issued by him show
what an amazing progress has been made in increasing
the security of life in our great cities within the last fifty
years. Thus, in London, the death-rate was, fifty years
ago, 24 in the thousand. In 1906 it was only 15*1 in
the thousand — it has gradually fallen, year by year, so
that now it is less than two-thirds of what it was half a
century ago. In Manchester and Liverpool it was about
26 twenty years ago, and has fallen to 19 in Manchester
and to a little over 20 in Liverpool. In the same period
the improvement has been (omitting fractions) from 19 to

14 in Bristol; from 20 to 16 in Birmingham ; from 20 to
14 in Leicester. This great diminution in the death-rate
has been coincident with the expenditure of public funds
on the improvement of the water supply and the sewage

DEATH-RATES 285

arrangements of those cities, as well as with the enforce-
ment of regulations to prevent overcrowding, and with the
demolition of the most insanitary houses. Rules as to
the removal of filth from the neighbourhood of dwelling-
houses have been obeyed, and sick persons suffering from
infectious diseases have been removed from dwelling-
houses and conveyed to special hospitals. There is no
doubt that the diminished death-rate is due to the action
thus taken, and more will be done in the future to the
same end. The proper provision of pure milk (at a
reasonable price) for the food of the youngest children,
of regular meals for older children, and the protection
of adults from the too frequent inducement to indulge in
the use of distilled spirits, will be taken in hand by the
municipalities, and lead to a further diminution in the
death-rate.

We may, indeed, soon have to ask whether, in a
population which has become so much less subject to
diminution by death than was formerly the case, there is
not too great an increase by birth — too great, that is to
say, for the existing means of employment and food-
production. A most serious, indeed, an alarming fact,
has recently come to light in the study of this question,
namely, that the increase of the population is due (as
pointed out on p. 279) to the proportionately larger
number of births amongst the poorer, and even destitute,
sections of the community who have not the means of
training and rearing their children satisfactorily, and are
themselves likely to transmit incapacity of one kind and
another to their offspring ; whilst those who have valuable
hereditary qualities and are prosperous have — it is clearly
established — relatively few children — and, in fact, do not
increase the population. Whether this condition of things
constitutes a real danger, how it will ultimately work out
if left alone, and how the difficulty is to be met, are

2g6 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

problems for statesmen which cannot be solved off-hand,
but require knowledge not only of the crude facts of
statistics, but also of the causes at work. Scientific
knowledge — that is to say, thorough and unassailable
knowledge — of the laws of heredity, of psychology, and
of the natural history of human populations, are among
the essential qualifications for those who have to face and
deal with this difficult matter. And who is there who has
this knowledge or is even trying to obtain it ? Not the
State in this country or its officials : for in every depart-
ment of government (however capable some of the
subordinates may be) there is a determined opposition
to and fear of Science on the part of the political and
highly paid chiefs — the jealous fear due to complete and
deadly ignorance.

XXXI
GOSSAMER

FINE as gossamer ! Town-bred folks never see it,
and do not believe in its existence; they think
it is a poetical figment, like "honey-dew." That, too,
is nevertheless a real thing — a honey- like juice poured
out by the little plant-lice or aphides. Gossamer is a
very real and a most beautiful thing. You may see it
on the hill-sides in fine October weather, when the sun
is bright but low enough to illuminate the delicate
threads and reveal the " veil of silk and silver thin "
spread over Nature's loveliness. The innumerable threads
glisten, and are so fine that they shine with iridescent
colours, as do the equally delicate soap-bubbles fabri-
cated by men and boys, and from the same cause. When
the eye gets accustomed to them and traces them —
rippling and glimmering over acres and acres of grass-
land— one feels disconcerted, almost awestruck, by the
revelation of this vast network of threads. Sometimes
the gentle currents of air break them loose from the
herbage, and they float at a higher level and envelop
the puzzled intruder in an almost invisible entanglement
of fairy lines. Sometimes they become felted together
in flakes and float or rest as incredibly delicate tissue,
woven by unseen mysterious agency.

When the slopes of the new golf course at Wimbledon
.87

288

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

FIG. 47. — A young spider (four times the
natural length) raising its body upwards,
whilst the four silk threads (gossamer)
spun by it float in the air, and so draw out
further liquid silk from the spider. They
increase in length to three or four yards,
when they float upwards, carrying the
spider with them. (After McCook.)

were covered last
autumn with gossamer,
my friends were asking
what was its origin,
some boldly asserting
that it was impossible
that such a vast acreage
of threads could be pro-
duced, as others main-
tained, by tiny unseen
spiders! Yet that is
the true history of
gossamer. Hundreds
of thousands of minute
spiders, young, and of
a small kind, are
present in grass fields
in autumn, and throw
out these marvellously
fine threads from their
little bodies (Fig. 47).
Those who at first
sight doubt this origin
of gossamer are only
in accordance with
their forefathers. The
French peasants call it
fil de la Vierge; old
English writers held it
to be " dew evapor-
ated." A great dis-
coverer and leader of
science in his time,
Robert Hook, who
was elected with Nehe-

GOSSAMER 289

miah Grew as secretary of the Royal Society in 1677,
and published a wonderful illustrated book called Micro-
graphia (see p. 173), wrote of gossamer. He was so far
from recognising its true nature that he says : " It is not
unlikely that those great white clouds which appear all
the summer time may be of the same substance." Yet
it is now a simple and certain fact of observation that
the countless threads in question are the work of minute
spiders !

The pretty name " gossamer " has puzzled the etymo-
logists and led to some far-fetched suggestions. That
favoured by the authority of the great Oxford dictionary
of the English language is that it is a corruption of
" Go-summer," because gossamer appears in autumn and
is associated with St. Martin's summer. This is like
saying that the word "cray-fish" refers to fish that live
in a "cray" or brook, instead of deriving it from the
French word farevisse. The Germans call gossamer
Sommenveben. But the Latin word for cotton \sgossypium, ;
and there is an Italian word, gossampino, which occurs
in an English form, gossampine, in the sixteenth century,
and means a kind of silk or cotton obtained from the
fluffy hairs of a plant called bombax. We also find
" gossamer " spelt " gossamire " in English of that date ;
and it seems to me most likely that an Italian word
gossamira, signifying " fairy-cotton " or " magic goose-
down," is the origin of our word.

There are 500 different kinds of spider carefully
described as occurring in the British Islands, and about
2000 others from remoter regions. Precisely which of
them forms the " gossamer " of our meadows it is difficult
to say, as all have the habit of secreting a viscid fluid from
one or two pairs of projecting spinning knobs or stalks,
which are seen at the hinder end of the body (Figs. 48, 49,
and 50). The viscid fluid is poured out by a great number

'

290

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

of minute tubes, and hardens at once into a thread, which
is wonderfully fine, yet strong.
Different kinds of spiders make
use of these threads for differ-
ent purposes, hence their name
" spinners." Some make burrows
in the ground and line them with
a felt of these threads, others
enclose their eggs in a case
formed by winding them round
the eggs, others form "snares"
of the most marvellous mechani-
cal ingenuity with them, by which

FIG. 48.— View of the lower & * , ,

surface of the head and body msects are entangled and are
of a large Burmese spider, then paralysed by the poisonous
known as Liphistius, to show stab of the spider's claws, and

the spinnerets (3 and 4), which haye the}r jujces sucked out Qf

are really reduced or rudi- , * .«»"«.

mentary legs, and are in this them at the sPlder s leisure,

spider retained in their original The snares of Spiders are in

position, instead of being some species merely irregular

£t^"«£ -*» ^ened and suspended

spiders (see Fig. 49, j/»). I. to by threads, in other cases they

VI., the basal joints of the legs are gracefully-modelled funnels

and palps of the head-region; Qr , whilst a third kind, the

I, the first abdominal seg- ,. ... , , /. ,.

ment ; 2, the second ; 3 and 4, dlSC-llke webs made up of radl-

the legs of the third and ating and circularly - disposed
fourth abdominal segments, threads fixed in a geometrical
which are the spinnerets ; ii, tt excel— in the mechanical

the eleventh abdominal seg- l . . ...

ment-in front of it rudiments precision of their workmanship
of the segments 5 to 10 are and the masterly treatment of
seen ; an, anus ; a, b, inner engineering difficulties— the con-

and outer lobes of the first pair , . - . , . , c

of spinnerets. structions of any other kind of

animal. It is amongst this kind

of spiders that the formation by the spinning knobs of
threads or lines and their use in various ways is most

GOSSAMER

291

general and frequent. The smaller spiders expel the viscid
thread, drawing it out from their bodies by their own
movement away from the object to which it at first
adhered. When it breaks loose from that support it is
carried upwards by air-currents and drawn out from the
spinner's body to many yards' length (Fig. 47). It then
becomes a " flying-line,"
and the spider may sail li ov

away on it or run up
it and disappear. The
celebrated story of the
Indian juggler's perform-
ance — traditional and
even solemnly attested by
witnesses, but failing to

pass the test of photo- FIG. 49. — Section through the body of a

graphy— must have been sPider to show the sPinning organs-
suggested by this common,
yet wonderful, proceeding
of small spiders. The
juggler, standing in an
open place, surrounded by
a ring of spectators, un-
coils a rope, 50 feet long,
from his waist,and holding
one end, throws the other
up into the air. The rope,
without any support, remains stretched and upright. A
small boy now enters the ring and climbs up the rope,
draws it up after him, and disappears with it in the upper
air ! That is an illusion, but it is precisely what thousands
of small spiders are continually doing. A big spider —
the well-grown female of the common garden spider, for
instance, cannot do this — her thread is not strong enough,
and her weight is too great. But the male of the same

h, heart connected by four big veins
with b, the lung-bosks or air-gills ; f,
genital lid ; ov, ovary ; a, the anus ;
spn, the three pairs of spinnerets or
spinning warts ; t, e, and d, the three
kinds of glands producing liquid silk,
viz., cylindrical, tree-form, and pyri-
form. These are one thousand in
number in the common garden spider,
and each has its separate spout or
spigot standing up on one of the spin-
nerets (see next figure).

292

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

sp.c

species, who is much smaller, fortunately for him, can
safely run on a hanging line — and thus can rapidly escape
from the side of his mistress, who, after receiving his
caresses, has an unpleasant habit of seizing, killing, and

sucking the blood of the
adventurous male, should
he linger longer in her com-
pany, and fail in the agility
and rapidity of his exit.

The threads of the gar-
den spider (the Porte-croix
of the French, white-cross
spider, Epeira diadema, Fig.
5 1) are fixed by astronomers
in their telescopes for the
purpose of giving fine lines
in the field of view, by which
the relative positions of stars
may be accurately measured.

For a century astronomers
desired to make use of such
lines of the greatest possible
fineness, and procured at
first silver wire drawn out
to the extreme limit of

FIG. 50. — One of the two middle
spinnerets of the common garden
spider (Epeira diademd), to show
the three kinds of spouts or spigots
(one thousand in all) corresponding
to the three kinds of silk-glands.
Each kind of " spigot " pours out a
different kind and size of thread.
sp.c, one of the big spigots of the
cylindrical glands; sp.t, middle- tenuity attainable with that
sized spigots belonging to the tree- metal. They also tried hairs

form glands ; ss and s.ss, the small- (^-th of an inch thick) and

threads of a silk-worm's
cocoon, which are split into
two component threads each only ^A^th of an inch
thick. But in 1820 an English instrument maker named
Troughton introduced the spider's line. This can be
readily obtained three or four times smaller in breadth than
the silk-worm's thread, and has also advantages in its

GOSSAMER

293

strength and freedom from twist. In order to obtain the
thread, the spider is carefully fixed on a miniature " rack,"
and the thread, which at the moment of issue from the
body is a viscid liquid, is made to adhere to a winder,
by turning which the desired length of firm but elastic
thread can be procured. It has been proposed to use
spiders' silk in manufactures as a substitute for silk-worms'
silk, and pioneers have woven gloves, stockings, and other
articles from it. It appears that there are species of
spider in other parts of the world
whose thread is coarser and more
suitable for this purpose than that
of any of our British spiders. But
it is estimated that the expense
in feeding the spiders — which re-
quire insect food — would make
the thread obtained from them far
too costly to compete with silk-
worm silk.

A number of different kinds
of the lower animals besides spiders
have the power of producing
threads. The caterpillars of some
moths are especially noted for
this, since their thread is familiar

to us all as "silk." It is secreted as a viscid fluid by
a pair of tubes opening at the mouth, and hardens on
escape. Even some marine creatures — the mussels —
produce threads, in this case from a gland or sac in the
muscular foot, by means of which they fix themselves
to rocks. A very big mussel — the Pinna — called Capo
lungo by the Mediterranean fishermen and Capy longy at
Plymouth, where they are also found, produces a sufficient
quantity of fine horny threads to be used in weaving, and
gloves have been made at Genoa from the shell-fish silk.

FIG. 51. — The common
garden spider, more cor-
rectly called the white-
cross spider (Epetra
diadema) : a female drawn
a little (one-fifth) larger
than life.

294 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

The threads produced by the hardening of the
tenacious fluid exuded by these various animals were
probably simply protective in origin. The curious cater-
pillar-like creature Peripatus spits out a viscid fluid when
it is disturbed, which hardens into threads, and hopelessly
entangles any small enemy -which may venture to attack
it. Threads of a poisonous nature are thrown out by
jelly-fishes, polyps, and sea anemones, and serve them
both as defence and as means of paralysing and capturing
prey. A later stage in the use of such threads is their
" felting " to form a case or tube (as in the sea anemone
called Cerianthus\ and so their application has gradually
developed to the formation of egg-cases, snares, and the
wonderful web of the geometric spider, and the countless
" flying-lines " of smaller spiders, which make up the
mysterious thing we call "gossamer."

As to the limits of the tenuity of the threads of
gossamer there are no direct observations. Probably they
are often as fine as the Tr.^inyth or s^i^th of an inch in
diameter. The condensation of a very minute quantity
of moisture on gossamer threads and spiders' webs no
doubt helps to make them more readily visible to us in
October weather than they are in full summer, when such
moisture would not condense except in early morning or
at sunset. It seems strange that man should have been
unable to produce a thread so fine as that of the spider,
but this reproach has now been removed. Spun glass is
easily obtained Trnnrth of a inch in diameter ; but Mr. C.
V. Boys, F.R.S., has, by fusing quartz (rock-crystal) by the
oxy-hydrogen flame, and drawing it out by means of a
small arrow (a straw), discharged from a bow — the near
end of the arrow being adherent to a fused droplet of
quartz which is held fast — produced threads of great
strength and of extraordinary tenuity. The fineness can
be regulated by the rapidity with which the drawing is

GOSSAMER 295

effected. The threads are prepared (for use in suspending
swinging bars in delicate measurements of force) of a
thickness of y^thnrth of an inch. Some have been made
so fine as to be not only invisible to the naked eye, but
to be only vaguely indicated by the highest powers of the
microscope. They are estimated to be only one-millionth
of an inch in diameter. It is difficult to form any mental
picture or conception of these finest quartz threads spun by
Mr. Boys. But the following fact helps us to realise how
delicate they are. A grain of sand just visible to the eye
— that is to say, T^th of an inch long, the same in breadth,
and the same in height — would make twenty miles of such
thread.

XXXII
THE JUMPING BEAN

ONE way of thinking of the six hundred thousand
kinds or species of insects — those tiny, ubiquitous
fellow-creatures of ours which inhabit nearly every corner
and cranny of the earth's surface — is to associate them
with the plants upon which, either for food or protection,
the greater number of them are dependent. This makes
them appear less overwhelming in their astonishing and,
at first sight, meaningless variety, than when one calls
them to mind pinned out in long lines in innumerable
drawers and cases, or assorted, like with like, in the
wonderfully accurate and interminable pictures of them
produced by those patient benefactors of mankind the
systematic entomologists. Every plant of any size has
a number of insects associated with it, living more or
less completely on its substance, or making its home in
some part of the plant. Some trees are known to have
more than a hundred and fifty kinds or species of insects
thus dependent on them, those which are vegetarian
serving in their turn as food to a variety of carnivorous
insects.

The ways in which insects are associated with plants
may be briefly stated. It must be remembered that
often, though not always, one particular species of plant,

and that only, is capable of serving the needs of a given

296

THE JUMPING BEAN 297

species of insect. Thus, the leaves of a given plant are
the necessary food of the grubs of one or more insects
which bite their food; its internal juices serve others
which suck ; its roots others ; its nectar in the flower
others, which in return serve the plant by carrying away
its pollen and fertilising the other plants of the same
species which they visit. Protection is sought and ob-
tained from the same plant by insects which burrow in
its leaves, or roll them up, or cut them into slices and
carry them away, or hide in its bark, or in the flowers,
or in other parts — or burrow for food and shelter into its
wood. Others lay their eggs in the soft buds, producing
or not producing according to their kind distorted growths,
known as " galls " (one plant is known to have as many
as thirty species of gall-flies which make use of it).
Other insects lay their eggs in the flower-buds and im-
mature fruits, or place them on the plant so that the
young grubs, when hatched, can at once eat into those
soft parts. Others bore into the wood or into hard or
fleshy fruits expressly to lay their eggs, or into the ripe
seeds. Certain ants live in chambers specially provided
by the woody parts of the plant for them, and benefit
both themselves and the plant by devouring other insects
which seek the plant in order to devour it. In a museum
of natural history there should be exhibited at least one
plant with specimens and enlarged models of all the
insects which depend upon it for food, protection, or
nursery, and with accompanying illustrations of the way
in which those purposes are served.

A curious product of the relationship of an insect and
a plant is the so-called "jumping bean," which is brought
to this country from Mexico, and may be purchased in
some of the London shops which deal in "miscellaneous"
articles. They have been known for some years, but are
becoming now a regular article of commerce. As one buys

298

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

them (Fig. 52) they are segments of a globular fruit which
has divided into three, comparable to the familiar seg-
ments of an orange, but less numerous. They are about
one-third of an inch long, light, quite dry, and apparently
hollow, without any visible opening. Two sides of the
little capsule are flat, and the third side is bulged and

rounded, so that the
capsule easily rocks
when resting on that
side. When these dry
fruits or segments of

FIG. 52.— On the right two jumping beans ; a fruit are brought

on the left the caterpillar removed from a into a warm room Of

jumping bean. The figures are a little placed near a fire SO
larger th>n life-size, as is shown by the line , i . ,

drawn near the caterpillar giving its actual ES l°

length. The shape of the " beans," as seg- warm as the hand,

ments of a tripartite sphere, is seen. One they commence to

shows a round hole, with a lid-like piece rock and moye wjth
marked a, removed from the hole. This . 1*1 •

hole did not exist when the bean first came CUriOUS little jerks,

into my possession in November 1908. At They jump as much

that time the caterpillar within was active, as one-eighth of an

and the bean or fruit-segment often jumped. inch frQm fa nj

In April the caterpillar cut this round hole '

from within, leaving the circular lid in and advance as much

place, and became a chrysalis. The lid as a quarter of an inch

was pushed out, as shown in the drawing, a*. a time thoufh hv
by the moth when it escaped from the .«. 57

chrysalis in July. (Drawn from nature for r°llin£ they m&Y Pr°'

thiswork.) gress a good deal

more. They will often

move seven or eight times in the same direction so as to
make a progress of a couple of inches on a flat surface,
and I have found that if a cool surface or protection from
warmth is within reach they will in the course of time
arrive at that cool area and come to rest. When the plate
on which they are placed becomes cool or the temperature
of the room falls to what we should call " chilly," they

THE JUMPING BEAN 299

cease to move, but can be roused again by renewed
warmth.

How and why do these " beans," or, rather, fruit-seg-
ments (for they are not beans), move in this determined
purposeful manner? The whole proceeding has a mysteri-
ous and uncanny aspect. They have no legs, no spring ;
they are simple little smooth capsules, and yet they jump
and seemingly "walk" about. The explanation is that
there is a grub inside each so-called " bean." Cut one of
the beans or capsules open, and you find that it is a very
thin-walled and hollow case, but coiled on itself in the
cavity you open, and about half filling it, is a yellowish
white grub (Figs. 52 and 53). It is not a " maggot," but a
" caterpillar," that is to say, it is not legless, but has eight
pairs of legs — namely, three pairs of short walking legs in
front, four pairs of sucker-like legs, and a hinder pair of
larger size called " claspers." It has a hard brown plate
on its head, and possesses hard jaws. It refuses to leave
the opened capsule, and crawls back again if forcibly
removed, and in the course of a few hours spins a silken
cover to replace the piece of " shell " you have cut away.
Mr. Rollo has lately succeeded in getting the caterpillar
to patch up its injured residence with a thin piece of
glass, such as is used by microscopists, which he put
in place of a side of the capsule removed by a knife.
He was thus able subsequently to watch through the
glass the movements of the little creature when it
causes the mended capsule or "bean" to jump. It
rears itself from the lower surface of the capsule, and
gives a series of sharp blows to the roof, projecting its
body with each blow, and thus overbalances the capsule,
or, if the flat side is lying downwards, jerks it along
much as one may sit with one's feet on the rail of a
chair and cause it to jerk along the floor by the swing-
ing movements of the body. The caterpillar does not

300 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

die at once when removed from the capsule; it has
been kept alive in a glass tube for a month.

So far so good. The next questions are: What
Mexican plant is it that forms the capsule or tripartite
fruit in which the caterpillar is found? How did the
caterpillar get there? What kind
of an insect does it turn into, and
when ? I will answer the last
question first. The caterpillar turns
into a chrysalis in the early part of
the year, having first cut a perfectly
circular ring in the shell of the
capsule. The circular plate thus
within the ring is not disturbed,
and cannot be observed without
FIG. 53.— The caterpillar of very cjose inspection. The making
^rl^rrtt °f this perfectly circulars without
jumping bean : magnified removing the piece marked out
three diameters. Observe must be effected by a rotation of
the jaws (with which the the caterpillar's head and jaws as a

circular plate is cut in the . .

bean before the grub be- centre-bit— an astonishing perform-
comes a chrysalis), eyes, ance. But when the moth emerges
three pairs of pointed legs, from the chrysalis, a gentle push is

enough to cause the little circular

minal segment with a pair
of suckers. (Drawn from
nature for this work. )

four sucker legs placed in
the middle region, and fol-
lowed by three segments plate to fall out, and the moth
without legs, and a ter- creeps through the hole to the outer
world. The moth, which comes out
of the chrysalis-coat, is a very pretty
little creature (see Fig. 54), measur-
ing two-thirds of an inch across the opened wings, which
are marked with dark and reddish-brown-coloured bands.
It is a close ally of the British codling moth, the cater-
pillar of which eats its way into the core of apples, and is
familiar to all growers and eaters of that fruit. The codling
moth and the Mexican "jumper" belong to a group of

THE JUMPING BEAN

301

small moths called Tortricince, and they are named re-
spectively Carpocapsa saltitans (the one whose grub or
caterpillar inhabits the " jumping bean ") and Carpocapsa
pomonana, the codling moth. There are other British
species of Carpocapsa, the grubs of which eat into the
acorn, the walnut, the chestnut, and the beechnut — a dis-
tinct kind or species for each. None of these grubs cause
the nuts they attack to "jump."

The "jumping bean " of Mexico
is a segment of the triply divided
fruit of a large spurge, which is
called Sebastiana palmeri. The
spurges are known in England as
little green-leaved annuals, with
yellow-green flowers and a milky
juice. Botanists call them the
Euphorbiacea, and in that "natural
order" are included the boxwood
tree and some tropical trees of great
value and importance. None other
than the Brazilian indiarubber tree,
Hevea, of which we hear so much
nowadays, its rubber to the value
of ;£ 1 4,000,000 being exported
every year from Brazil, is one
of them. So also is the Chinese

candle-tree, which furnishes a tallow-like fat, made into
candles in China. Others are the croton oil and the castor
oil shrubs, natives of India, and the manihot or tapioca
plant. The fruits of Sebastiana (the jumping bean) are very
much like those of the croton ; and as there are crotons
(though not the one of the purgative oil) in abundance
in Mexico, it has taken some time to make sure that the
"jumping bean" is not the fruit of a croton, but that of
the allied plant Sebastiana. It appears that there is no

FlG. 54. — The moth, Carpo-
capsa saltitans, which
escapes from the jumping
bean or segment of the
fruit of the Mexican spurge,
Sebastiana palmeri, in
which its caterpillar and
chrysalis have passed their
lives. The crossed lines
indicate the natural size of
the moth. (Drawn from
nature for this work.)

302 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

commercial value for this plant, and that those capsules
which happen to contain a grub and move are collected
from the ground by the native Mexican boys and sold as
curiosities.

The moth (Carpocapsa saltitans) lays its eggs on the
Sebastian shrub, and the young grub, on hatching, eats
its way into the young fruit when the latter is still quite soft
and the seed unformed, and so leaves no hole to mark its
entrance. As the fruit swells the grub eats out the seed
and surrounding pulp of the segment of the fruit into
which it entered early in life. By the time the fruits are
dry and fall to the ground the caterpillar is fully grown.
Of course, it is only a very few of the capsules which are
thus invaded by a grub.

The question very naturally arises, " Why should the
caterpillar put itself to the great muscular effort of
making the little capsule in which it is contained jump
and move over the ground?" It seems probable that
these movements are made in order to bring the capsule
from an exposed position when it falls on to the ground
— where it might be crushed or eaten by some animal —
into a position of shelter, either into a hole, or under some
stone or fallen wood. The warmth of the sun in an ex-
posed position excites the caterpillar to activity, which
ceases when it has reached the shade offered by some
protecting cranny. In the same way I have applied
artificial heat and, alternatively, shelter from heat, so as
to cause the movements or the resting of the jumping
bean in a London sitting-room.

These things and others of absorbing interest may be
seen in the truly wonderful museum of Kew Gardens,
where perhaps the visitor will be disposed to spend more
time in cold weather than in the summer. The park at
Kew Gardens, with its splendid forest and lakes, and its
Italian tower, is one of the beautiful things of England,

THE JUMPING BEAN 303

and it has a special quality even in this season of mist
and veiled sunshine. I found there recently, under
the trees, as I did fifty years ago, a rare and strange-
looking fungus, the Phallus impudicus of botanists, — a
furtive denizen of the glades which in late spring are
purple with wild hyacinths. The same spot in June
presents within a few minutes' journey from the smoke
and smell and noise of Piccadilly a perfect sample of what
is, perhaps, the most beautiful sight in Nature — bright
sunlight breaking through the young green leaves of a
forest on to green herbage. And close by are the
azaleas I

XXXIII
PROTECTIVE COLOURING IN ANIMALS

EVERY one is familiar with some of the instances
in which the natural colour of an animal helps to
hide it from view. Green caterpillars, for instance, are
less visible when among the green leaves which they eat
than they would be were they brown, blue, red, yellow,
or black. The little green tree-frog is difficult to see
when he is clinging to a leaf, because his colour is the
same as that of the leaf. Sandy-brown-coloured animals,
birds, reptiles, and beasts of prey, are found on the sands
of the desert ; white birds, foxes, hares, and bears on the
Arctic snow. The similarity of the colouring of these
animals to that of the ground on which they live results
in their escaping the observation of man's eye, and we
are entitled to believe that they escape for the same
reason the observation of other animals. They are thus
in many cases protected from the attacks of enemies
searching for them as prey, or in other cases they may
themselves be enabled the more easily in consequence of
their concealing colour to creep upon other animals and
seize them as food. Some of the simpler cases of this
resemblance between an animal and its surroundings are
easy to observe, and the value of the resemblance as
protection, or as a means of secret attack, is plain
enough.

PROTECTIVE COLOURING IN ANIMALS 305

But there are far more numerous cases in which the
significance of colour as concealment, is not so immedi-
ately obvious. There are the curious stick insects, with
long bodies and delicate long legs, sometimes with bud-
like knobs on the body which look like bits of the branches
of trees, not merely on account of their colour, but on
account of their shape. Shape or modelling has a great
deal to do with the effective concealment of an animal.
Then, too, there is the curious fact that some insects (and
also some birds) when at rest on the stems of trees, are
practically invisible, but if they spread their wings are
conspicuous. The beech-leaf butterfly of Assam and
Africa is of a purple colour, marked with a great orange-
coloured bar on each forejwing when the wings are open,
and it is obvious enough. But when the wings are closed
and the insect is at rest, the undersides only are seen, and
are coloured so as to represent the veining and fungus
marks of a dry brown leaf, so that not even a human
observer, let alone a bird or a lizard, can distinguish at
two-feet distance the butterfly from dried leaves placed
near it.

A well-known little moth, with pale green mottled
wings, is the only case in which I have myself watched
the protection afforded by colour at work. It was on a
summer's evening, when I saw this little moth zigzagging
up and down with the most extraordinarily irregular
flight, and a bird pursuing it. Twice the bird swooped
and just missed his prey owing to a sudden turn and drop
on the part of the moth. And then to my great delight
the moth flopped against the stem of a tree on which was
growing a greenish-grey lichen. The bird swooped again
close to the tree, but failed to see the insect, and quitted
the chase. It took me an appreciable time to detect the
little moth resting against the lichen, and closely matching
it in colour. There are endless examples known of such
20

306 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

" protective resemblances," some of them (such as that of
the buff-tip moth, which, with its wings closed, looks like a
broken birch twig) being most unexpected and fascinating.
In the forests of Madagascar, the whitish-grey tree lichens
are imitated by thread-like growths on beetles, tree-bugs,
locusts, and even lizards, with a wonderful concealing
effect, and some other flat membrane-like insects are so
much like the greenish and yellowish bark of trees, that
we actually lost a specimen for some time in the case
labelled " Mimicry," in which a series of these things was
arranged by me for the edification of visitors to the
Natural History Museum. It was found, after a day
or two, to have been present all the time with other
specimens on a piece of bark, from which it was indis-
tinguishable.

Some eight years ago a distinguished American
painter, Mr. Abbott Thayer, was able to add very import-
antly to our knowledge of the ways in which colour
serves to conceal animals when in their natural surround-
ings. Mr. Thayer was able to do this owing to the fact
that he was a devoted student of woodland life. This,
however, alone was not enough. Mr. Thayer had the
special ability to deal with this subject which comes from
the trained eye of an artist. He had, above all, the know-
ledge of " tone values " and of the illusive and delusive
effects of false shading and of colour-spots and bars, and
of complementary colours and " irradiation " — which only
a painter who deals every day in the most practical way
with these matters can attain to. Mr. Thayer showed
eight years ago — and demonstrated conclusively by means
of models, one of which he presented to the Natural
History Museum at my request — that in very many cases
it is of no use for an animal to be of the same colour as
its surroundings, since if the animal (a bird, or a quad-
ruped, or a fish) is of plump and rounded shape and is

PROTECTIVE COLOURING IN ANIMALS 307

observed under the open canopy of heaven, a deep shadow
will exist on its lower surface and make it as obvious as a
shaded charcoal drawing on a piece of light-brown paper.
But if the back of the animal is of a dark tint and its belly
white or whitish, then the effect of light and shade is
(Mr. Thayer showed) completely counteracted and the
animal becomes totally invisible in its natural sur-
roundings.

Mr. Thayer's model demonstrating this consists of two
life-size wooden models of ducks seated on a stick — one
to the left, the other to the right. The stick, with the
two models on it, is fixed horizontally in a box, which is
open above (that is, has no lid) and is also open in front.
The box is, in fact, a little stage, lit from above by the
light of the sky, and its three remaining sides are suffi-
ciently high to form a complete background to the model
ducks, whose perch runs across the "scene" at some
7 in. or 8 in. from the floor of the box. The box itself
is lined with a pale purplish-brown flannel, and each
bird is tightly covered with the same material. When so
prepared the box is placed on a table under a skylight
(where it is to stay), the table being high enough to bring
the ducks just below the line of sight. Of course, deep
shadows are formed by the top-light on the under side of
the beak, head, and body of the models, and in spite of
their colour being itself identical with that of the walls of
the box, they are as obvious as it is possible for anything
to be. Now Mr. Thayer takes his paints and very carefully
darkens the back of one of the ducks and whitens its
belly and the under side of its head and beak. The light
and dark regions merge into one another along the side of
the bird by skilful gradation. When this shading and
whitening is finished (and, of course, the perfection of the
result depends on the continuance of the right amount
of sunlight, which is not a thing one can always ensure

308 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

in a London museum) the duck-model so treated is
absolutely invisible at a distance of 10 ft. or 15 ft. —
and even when one is nearer escapes notice — looking like
a haze or vague shadow of a bird even to an observer who
knows nevertheless that it is there and is really as solid
and large as the untreated model by its side. If now
some one stretches out his hand so as to cut off the top-
light falling on the painted model, it immediately becomes
as solid to the eye as the untreated one, and when the
hand is withdrawn it melts away again like Banquo's
ghost The models made by Mr. Thayer were, so long as
I was director, exhibited in the small room between the
fish gallery and the central hall of the Natural History
Museum, and, if they have not yet been removed, are
well worth a visit.

Mr. Thayer's models work perfectly, and astonish
every one who sees them. The great point of interest
about them, however, is, that the bird with dark back and
light belly is really in the condition which is quite common
in a number of birds, especially ducks and wading birds,
where it must act as a means of concealing the bird — just
as it does in the painted model. Of course, there are vast
numbers of birds not so shaded, but it is possible to
explain the darker and lighter colouring, in various
arrangements seen in birds, as helping to produce con-
cealment or disappearance from view, when the habits
and natural surroundings of the bird are known. So, too,
with many hairy quadrupeds (mammals, or " animals," or
" beasts," as they are often called). The white hair under
the tail and about the rump, helps a running animal to
escape the vision of its pursuer — blending, as Mr. Thayer
shows that it does — with the white colour of the sky-line.
In the case of fish — especially fresh-water fish — the dark
back and light belly are very common, and although they
do not help to conceal the fish when seen from above, swim-

PROTECTIVE COLOURING IN ANIMALS 309

ming over a light-coloured river-bed, yet when looked at
by other fishes or by otters in the water, the effect of the
light from above on this disposition of dark and light
tints on the fish's body must be the same as that demon-
strated by Mr. Thayer's " disappearing duck," and must
often render the fish absolutely invisible, even at close
quarters.

Mr. Thayer has pursued this subject during the past
seven years, and last autumn he gave some interesting
demonstrations in the Zoological Gardens in London.
He showed a model of a white egret, which was but little
noticeable when standing up clear against a bright, white-
clouded sky. The long plumes on the wings, developed
in the breeding season, were shown (by putting them on
and taking them off) to assist in causing invisibility,
since they made the side of the body flat and concealed
the shadow on its rounded underside. A similar bird-
model marked with strong black on the neck and legs —
the rest being white — refused (so to speak) to shape itself
as a bird at all, and looked at a distance of twenty yards
like a bit of rock or stump of wood with a twig and dead
leaf attached. The effect of different tones of brown
cardboard cut into the form of a butterfly, when seen on
different backgrounds, was shown ; but the most inter-
esting experiment was made with a black-green piece
of cloth cut to the shape of a butterfly and fastened on
to a sheet of dead-black cloth in the open air, in the
presence of white cloud light of moderate brilliancy. At
five yards one could see the outline of the dark-green
butterfly-shaped piece ; at fifteen yards one could just dis-
tinguish the edge separating the dark-green piece from
the black cloth. Now Mr. Thayer stuck in the middle of
the dark-green butterfly-wing a small circle of pure white
(about one-third of an inch across). The effect was
entirely to obliterate the previously visible edge; one

3io SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

could no longer see the dark-green area at all — one only
saw a white spot on a continuous dark ground, the dark-
green and the black were merged into one. That is no
doubt due to the powerful stimulation of the sensitive
" retina " of the eye by the white light of the spot ; the
feeble stimulation by the dark-green and black, though
these remain physically as distinct from one another as
before, ceases to affect the brain, which is, as it were,
entirely occupied with the strong white spot. This,
according to Mr. Thayer, is the value to butterflies and
other animals of a violently contrasted white spot or
band on a dark general colouring. The fringe of white
dots and connected white flakes nearer the centre of the
wing — common on the wings of butterflies — has, similarly,
the result of rendering the wing-outline imperceptible and
the butterfly invisible. Many such relations of colour
spots and bands, as well as of dark and light markings,
have been elucidated by Mr. Thayer, and will be illustrated
by coloured drawings in the book which he is preparing
on the subject.

While it is the fact that Mr. Thayer has thrown new
light on the colour-protection and invisibility of animals,
it must be remembered that there are other explanations
of certain cases of brilliant colouring in animals besides
that which he has so well illustrated. " Warning " colours,
recognition marks, and sexually attractive colouring all
certainly and demonstrably exist in well-known and well-
studied kinds of animals. It is very possible that some
of these colour-markings have been produced by a slight
change in what were previously "concealing" patterns or
colour-markings. The tendency of the human observer
is to regard any colour, spot, or pattern on a bird, fish,
beast, or insect as a " mark " or distinguishing " sign."
We examine these things at close quarters, and do not,
unless we reflect a good deal on the matter and experi-

PROTECTIVE COLOURING IN ANIMALS 311

ment with the object, realise that what is a mark of
distinction or recognition when seen at a few inches' dis-
tance may be an illusive and obscuring colour-scheme
when seen at a distance of some feet, and in natural and
habitual surroundings. It is not unlikely that we shall
arrive at definite knowledge of the psychological "sight
interpretations " of animals by a further study of this
subject. It is in the highest degree probable that the
retinal picture produced in an animal's eye by certain
spots of colour, shade, and light exhibited by another
animal, are not interpreted by the receptive animal in the
same way as they would be by a scrutinising, inquiring,
reasoning man, even one who is what we call a "savage."
Moreover, though many English naturalists have travelled
and seen " life and light " in the sunny regions of the
earth, there are few students of the colour-markings of
animals in our museums, especially in great cities, who
have adequate experience of what colour-markings really
can effect in the way of concealment and illusion when
light and surrounding objects are as they are, in the
tropics or sub-tropical regions. It is a fashion nowadays
in the best-provided museums of natural history to exhibit
stuffed beasts, birds, and insects in what are called " their
natural surroundings." The fatal objection to such ex-
hibitions is that were the beasts, birds, and insects placed
in their most usual " natural surroundings," they would be
invisible !

It is the merit of Mr. Thayer to have drawn attention
to these considerations, and to have carried out some
interesting demonstrations of the more frequent signifi-
cance of colour-markings as means of concealment and
illusion than had been recognised before his work. At
the same time, it is not possible to consider the yellow
and black livery of wasps, of certain evil-tasting grubs,
and of poisonous salamanders as anything but a " danger-

3I2 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

flag," a warning to other animals that the yellow and black
animal had better not be bitten and tasted. So the
previous experience of animals who have bitten yellow
and black creatures is appealed to, and ensures the safety
of the yellow and black gentry from tentative bites which
would kill them. Other recognition marks by which ill-
tasting, nauseous butterflies are distinguished, and in con-
sequence of which they escape attack, and, not only that,
but are " mimicked " (as the yellow and black poisonous
wasp is mimicked by some innocuous flies which thus
escape attack) by other pleasant-tasting butterflies which
fly with them, are considered by Mr. Thayerto be wrongly
interpreted as recognition or " warning " marks. He
shows, with more or less success, that the markings of the
butterflies known as Heliconiae are effective as conceal-
ment, and is therefore inclined to deny their value as
"warning" marks, serving to indicate a noxious quarry
best left untasted.

It is, of course, quite possible that what are " conceal-
ment markings" when viewed by an aggressive bird or
lizard at a distance, may be recognised as " warning
marks" when seen by the same observers at close
quarters, and it is also possible that the latter may have
become the more important or only important result of
the colour marks of a given butterfly which were once
useful as " concealment." The possible change of signifi-
cance of colour spots and markings in wild animals may be
illustrated by the effect on human beings of the burglar's
crepe mask. At the present moment probably the most
prominent result of the appearance in a house full of
people in the dead of night of a man with a crepe mask
over his face would be terror to those who saw him. The
mask would be interpreted as a " mark " or " sign " of evil,
not to say violent intentions on the part of the masked
man. It would be a "warning colour," and most un-

PROTECTIVE COLOURING IN ANIMALS 313

athletic individuals would severely avoid it ; in fact, retire
from it in alarm. But actually, the burglar's mask — as
possibly some noxious insects' distinctive markings — was
not invented for the purpose of causing alarm. Far from
it ! The burglar, or nocturnal malefactor, dons his crepe
mask in order to cover the white glitter of his face, and so
to escape observation. In origin it is a protective color-
ation leading to invisibility, and only secondarily has it
become a " warning colour " or " mark " at close quarters.
There will be much more ascertained, and much in-
structive discussion as to the colours and markings of not
only animals, but also of flowers and foliage, before this
wonderful subject is thrashed out. I have only been able
here to indicate its outlines.

XXXIV
HOP-BLIGHT

HOPS have for many years now been a very un-
certain investment for those who, in England,
devote capital to the growing, drying, and marketing of this
crop. In some years a fortune may be made, in some years
a dead loss, in many a bare return of expenditure. Hence,
it is not surprising that English hop-growers should wish
for legislation which shall make their business more secure
by taxing the hops produced in other countries, and im-
ported by our brewers. The whole subject of " hops " is
a very complicated one. It is the fact that every plant
and animal cultivated by civilised man has led to the
accumulation of an astonishing amount of detailed know-
ledge and experience in each case, and that there are
increasing difficulties and surprises in regard to varieties,
and the competition of new supplies brought from all
quarters of the globe. New areas of cultivation, new
methods of transport, new fashion and taste continually
disturb, and even destroy, old-established industries. It
is for statesmen to consider how far the remorseless
current of unforeseen changes should be checked and
manipulated, so as to prevent disaster in the old-established
and flourishing industries of the countryside.

The hop (called Humulus luputus by botanists) is a
native of this country, and of the more temperate parts of

HOP-BLIGHT 315

Europe. The Greeks and Romans never made "beer,"
and were unacquainted with the use of the hop. More
than a thousand years ago the German and Scandinavian
peoples made use of various fragrant herbs (sweet gale,
bark of tamarisk and oak) to flavour the sweet beer which
they brewed from malted grain, just as borage, cucumber,
and other plants are still used to flavour " cups." Wild
hops were used, amongst other herbs, for this purpose, and
gradually — but only gradually — became the favourite
source of flavour. The hop owes its selection not merely
to its bitter tonic quality, but also to its wonderful and
most delicate perfume. Not only that, but the hop is
found to be effective in checking continued fermentation
and souring — and also to have a narcotic sleep-producing
quality, for which it is still used medicinally. Distinct
chemical compounds are found in hops to which these
several properties are due. A warm " hop-pillow " — a
pillow stuffed with dried hop-flowers — has given, and still
gives, sleep to many a wakeful countryman. The older
use of other fragrant plants in the making of beer survives
in some foreign beers, such as the Norwegian ale, the beer
of Louvain, and the " green " spruce-beer of Jena.

Hops were first cultivated with a view to obtaining
varieties which would furnish abundant and large, well-
flavoured flower-heads. The flower-heads are " cones,"
consisting of numerous minute flowers, protected by over-
lapping green-coloured scales or bracts. The cultivated
hop was brought to this country in the time of Henry
VIII, and the cultivation of hops in hop-gardens and
the skilful drying of the flower-heads in large bulk was
commenced, and regulated by law. The male or pollen-
producing hop-vine is distinct from the female seed-
bearing hop-vine; it is the female flower-cone which
carries the valuable fragrant and resinous products which
the brewer desires. Hops are artificially propagated by

316 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

root-cuttings, and it is interesting to note that the hop-
grower finds that it is not desirable to allow the female
flowers to be fertilised, since, although the hops weigh
more after the setting of the seed, the valuable extractive
substances contained in the flower are diminished, used
up in the growth of the seed. Hence, often only one
male hop-vine to every 200 female hop-vines is allowed in
a hop-garden.

It does not follow because a plant is a native of a given

FIG. 55. — Early winged female hop-louse, produced viviparously by the
first generation of daughters of the "Foundress," Fig. 58. These
winged females migrate from the plum tree, where they were born, to the
hop-vines by aid of their wings, and produce viviparously the form drawn
in Fig. 57.

country that it can be easily cultivated anywhere in that
country, or that its finest cultivated varieties will be
hardy. Only a few limited territories (owing to the
nature of the soil, climate, and exposure) in Germany
(chiefly in Bavaria), and in Kent, Sussex, Worcestershire,
and Herefordshire, seem to be really favourable to hop-
growing in Europe. Certain parts of the Pacific coast of
the United States have of late years proved a very
successful ground, although hops were introduced from
Europe and first cultivated with considerable success in

HOP-BLIGHT 317

the State of New York. The same dangers and troubles
attend the hop-crop in all these regions. These are blight,
red-spider, mildew and mould, besides several less im-
portant insect pests. The hop-blight, or "black-blight,"
is a plant-louse or aphis (Fig. 55) like the rose-aphis, and
does great and increasing damage to the hop-crop in
England, destroying the young and tender shoots in the
months of June Tand July. In 1882 the hop-crop was
reduced from 459,000 cwt. (of the preceding year) to

FIG. 56. — Male hop-louse, not appearing until late autumn.

115,000 cwt. by this insect, and the wages paid for hop-
picking from ^350,000 to £1 50,000. These figures give
an idea both of the damage done by blight and of the
amount and value of the annual crop, for the mere picking
of which so large a payment is made. Red-spider is a
small mite or acarid which has done a good deal of
damage in Kent. But mildew and mould are more serious.
These are due to a delicate, thread-like kind of fungus,
which spreads on the leaf. Many kinds are known in
various parts of the world and on various plants. They
may grow on one kind of plant without doing injury to it,

3i8 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

but if they get on to another, cause deadly destruction of
the foliage. It was an otherwise harmless mould, or leaf-
fungus, which destroyed the coffee plantations of Ceylon.
It had lived in the Ceylon forests on other plants without
attracting notice ; but when the coffee tree was introduced
and cultivated in large areas, this little fungus seized on
it, grew with terrible activity, and received the name
" vastatrix " from the botanists who traced its history, and
showed that it was the destroyer of the coffee plantations.
Hop-growers are constantly contending with these pests
in the same way as other growers
of crops have to contend with
similar pests, but the hop-growers
have the more difficult and delicate
" patient " to steer through its
diseases. The finest kinds of hops
are not robust ; it is a chance
„ . ,. . whether or no they will suffer from

1 V"t"^ I a we^ anc^ co^ season, or other

^* irregularity of climate, to such a

degree as to fall ready victims to
blight and mildew. Yet they pay
better, provided the season is
favourable, and so the grower risks

planting the fine, delicate variety instead of being content
with the more certain but smaller profits yielded by a
more robust variety of hop. The hop-lice, or blight
insects, are destroyed by washing with soft soap and
quassia — a process requiring, even when a machine is
used, a good deal of care and labour. Mildew and mould
are destroyed and also prevented by dusting the hop-vines
in hot summer weather with finely powdered sulphur.
But both diseases can be combated by keeping the source
of infection away from the hop-garden. The mould-
fungus can be checked by burning all leaves and plants

FlG. 57. — Ordinary wingless
female hop-louse, multi-
plying parthenogenetically
throughout the summer.

HOP-BLIGHT 319

attacked by it within the hop-garden. If the infected
leaves are left to rot they carry on the parasitic fungus to
a new season.

An interesting fact has been discovered about the hop-
blight aphis (called by zoologists Phorodon humuli). It
appears that the winter brood of this little insect (when the
hop-vine has died down) deposit their eggs on the bark
of the sloe (the wild plum), and also that any cultivated
plum trees serve them for the same purpose. When the
hop is dead they must of necessity get nourishment and
shelter from the plum tree. Clearly, then, if you can keep
all plum trees at a distance of half a mile from your hop-
garden you will render it very difficult, if not impossible,
for the blight aphis to carry on from season to season. It
will rarely, if ever, travel half a mile, and not in any
number. But hop-growers have not always the control of
the cultivation for half a mile around their hop-fields,
though large growers should be able to acquire it. The
skilful grower even finds it useful to leave one or two plum
trees in the hop-field, so as to attract the winter brood of
the blight aphis to them, and then he falls upon the
devastating but minute rascals with quassia and other
poisons, and ensures their destruction. The increase of
plum orchards in the neighbourhood of hop-gardens is
probably a chief cause of the increased loss by hop-blight
of late years in Kent.

The hop-louse has other enemies besides the grower.
These are the lady-birds (less prettily called "lady-bugs"),
which feed greedily on the parasites, so that when the
hop-grower sees plenty of them on a hop-vine he does
not trouble to wash it. And there are other predaceous
insects which tend to keep the hop-lice down. Cultivation
and excessive production have resulted in putting, as it
were, too heavy a task upon the natural enemies of the
pest, whilst the more delicate but valuable varieties of

320 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

hop cannot withstand the attacks of blight, which less
valuable varieties would tolerate without fatal injury.

Another complicated and difficult problem for the
hop-grower is the " curing " of the hops when gathered.
He has to arrange to grow a number of varieties which
will not be all ready for picking at the same moment, so
that the hop-pickers may be employed for some six weeks,
and gather each kind at the exact time of ripeness. Then
the gathered hops have to be "dried" and "cured." In
Germany (where the highest-priced hops are produced)
small cultivators dry them in the sun, and they are
" cured " by the purchaser, but in England they are dried
in kilns (called " oasts " in Kent) near the hop-grounds.
They are cured with sulphur fumes on the spot as soon as
dried. The object of the drying and curing is quickly to
get rid of the water, which forms 75 per cent, of the
weight of the green flower-heads, but is reduced by dry-
ing to 10 per cent., and to destroy the "mould" (fungus)
which may be present, and to keep the hops free from
new access of mould by the slight deposit of sulphur
fumes on their surface. The drying and fumigating
require a great deal of skill, and a fine crop may be
injured or even rendered worthless by want of care,
rapidity, and judgment in treating the freshly gathered
flower-cones. It is said that it takes years to acquire
the art, and that skilled hop-curers are more difficult to
obtain than formerly.

The natural difficulties and fluctuations with which the
English hop-grower has to contend are made far more
serious by the fact that he does not know what will be the
yield of the American and German hop-plantations, and so
cannot prepare beforehand for the demands of the market.
It appears that ice-storage is now being made use of in
some districts to hold over any excess of produce of par-
ticular kinds of hop beyond the special demand for those

HOP-BLIGHT 321

kinds. But a formidable source of trouble exists (and,
it appears, must always exist) in the enormous changes
and expansion of the brewing industry in all parts of the
globe. It is actually the case that there has been a
greatly increased and unforeseen demand for hops of less
highly developed aroma, for the purpose of brewing light
ales with little of the perfume given by the finest and
hitherto most highly priced hops. So that, having ex-
pended skill and money to produce the finest hops, and
having been favoured by the weather, a grower may find
that his pains have been thrown away, and that there is a
sudden falling-off in the demand for the beautiful high-
priced crop which he has gathered in. There is no remedy
for these world- wide fluctuations in the market, and the
only way in which the grower can protect himself is by
combining with others to procure information from every
part of the world as to the probable production and the
probable demand of the various qualities of hops a year
or more in advance of his planting. More has been done
in America and in Germany in this way than in England,
and it is probable that the future success or failure of
hop-growing in this country depends more on the possi-
bility of obtaining correct information in regard to the
tendencies of production in all hop-growing countries, and
in regard to the demand in all the brewing industries of
the world, than on anything else.

This brief sketch of the hop-growing industry is
sufficient to show what a very difficult problem is before
those who desire to take legislative measures for the pre-
servation of the old industry of the hop-garden in this
country. But it must not be at once assumed, because
the case is a difficult and complicated one, that nothing
can be done, and that the beautiful hop-vines and the
finest hops are necessarily to be banished from the
English soil.

XXXV

GREEN-FLIES, PLANT-LICE, AND
PARTHENOGENESIS

THE minute "green-flies" which attack all kinds of
plants, and among which are ranked the hop-
louse or hop-blight, the rose aphis or green-fly of rose
trees, the woolly blight or aphis of apple trees and pear
trees, and the terrible vine-killer — the Phylloxera vastatrix
— form a special group of bug-like insects known as the
Aphides. They have soft cylindrical bodies, six legs,
sometimes two pairs of transparent wings, sometimes
none, and a sharp beak (in some kinds this is one and a
half times as long as the body), with which they prick the
soft parts of plants, when they suck up the juices which
issue from the wound (Fig. 59). There is in the temperate
regions of the world a special kind of aphis or plant-louse
peculiar to each of many kinds of flowering plants,
including most trees. A very complete, illustrated account
of the kinds or species of British aphides, amounting to
some two hundred, was produced by the late Mr. Buckton,
F.R.S., and published by the Ray Society.

There are many facts of extraordinary interest about
these tiny swarming insects. In the first place, they are
closely related to the minute scale-insects or Coccidce,
several species of which produce the celebrated lac of
lacquer-work and the dyes known as lake, cochineal, and

GREEN-FLIES AND PLANT-LICE

323

kermes, the latter a dye manufactured in South Europe

and used to colour wool and cloth crimson before

cochineal reached us from Mexico.

The Coccida include also the

"mussel-scale" and other destruc-
tive diseases of fruit trees. A

beautiful purple colour can be

extracted from crushed masses of

some kinds of aphides (as well

as from Coccida), and has been

used as a dye. The aphides have

very generally a green colour, like

many insects (caterpillars and leaf

insects) which pass their lives upon

green leaves and feed on them.

It is often supposed that this green

colour is merely the green colour-
ing matter (so-called chlorophyll)

of the leaf, taken up by the insects

in feeding on the leaf. But this is not so ; it is a peculiar

substance derived in a crude state from the plant-juice,

but digested in the stomach and completed in the insects'

blood and tissues.
Then, again, the aphides
produce curious secre-
tions, often in great
abundance, which sur-
round them as the lac
surrounds the lac-insect.
The threads which are
produced in such
abundance, by the
woolly aphis of apple

trees, as to look like masses of cotton wool adhering to

the twigs of the tree, are of this nature.

FIG. 58.— Foundress or
stock-mother of the hop-
louse: the individual
hatched from a winter egg,
laid on the bark of a plum
tree, who produces vivi-
parously a wingless virgin
brood. That brood pro-
duces wing-bearing young,
which fly off to the hop-
plants.

FIG. 59. — Side view of winged viviparous
female of the hop-louse, b, the stabbing
beak.

324 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

Another curious production of the aphides — common
on the leaves of elms and other trees infested by them — is
known as " honey-dew." It is sticky and sweet, and was
supposed by old writers to have distilled from the stars, or
otherwise to have dropped from heaven. It is this sweet
secretion which has led to the establishment of a most

FIG. 60. — An ant "milking" a " plant-louse "or "green-fly" for honey-
dew. The drop of honey-dew is seen exuding from one of the two long
tubes or spouts (called " cornicles ") on the back of the plant-louse at a.
These spouts are seen at the hinder part of the body in the drawings of
the hop-louse (Figs. 55 to 59). The ant is causing the aphis to pour
out its honey-dew (in fact "milking" it) by "drumming" on the body
of the plant-louse with its clubbed antennae, and has taken the drop of
honey-dew between its jaws. This drawing was made from life by the
late Mr. Buckton, F.R.S., a great student of these creatures. The ant
is that kind known as Myrinica rubra. The plant-louse is the Aphis
sambucim blight of the elder-tree.

curious friendship between ants and aphides, or plant-lice.
It has long been known that an ant will approach an
aphis, and tickle it, when at once the aphis exudes from
its cornicles (see Fig. 60) a drop of sweet honey-dew,
which the ant swallows — just as a man may milk a cow
and drink the milk. And the resemblance goes further,
for the ants take possession of certain aphides, and keep

GREEN-FLIES AND PLANT-LICE 325

them either underground or in specially constructed
chambers, where they can gain ready access to them and
" milk " them for honey-dew. There has been a certain
amount of exaggeration in the description of these facts
by some of the older writers ; but it is undoubtedly true
that some species of ants keep special flocks or herds of
aphides, and feed on their sweet secretion.

Other small insects nourish themselves on the enor-
mous swarms of plant-lice in a less gentle way, but a way
which man is very glad to see in active operation, namely,
by biting them and sucking out their soft entrails — thus
destroying them in great numbers. The lady-bird beetle
is especially active in this matter, both when it is a grub
and on attaining its adult form. A trustworthy observer
saw as many as forty aphides consumed by a lady-bird in
an hour. Where the plant-lice or aphides abound, there
come also in countless swarms the beetles known as
lady-birds. In the year 1869, such a cloud of these
beetles passed over and settled on the fields and gardens
of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, as to cause something like
terror; it was impossible to walk in the lanes without
crushing hundreds under foot. But the little lady-birds
are not like the terrible locust, which appears in millions
and devours all vegetation before it ; on the contrary,
they are what are called " beneficials," and come solely to
feed on and destroy the plant-lice of the hops, plum trees,
and apple trees. A first-rate hop crop in the year 1870
was the consequence of the abundance of lady-birds in
1869. It is this beneficent activity of the lady-birds which
has given them their name. In Italy they are called
Bestioline del Signore, also Madonnine, and Marioline, and
in France Bete a Dieu. In English they are " our lady's
blessed bugs," which save the crops from destruction.

The exertions of the aphides in pricking the plants
they infest so as to get at their juices lead to the

326 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

growth of galls on the leaves, and also on the rootlets
of many plants, and often the leaves become rolled
up into bag-like bodies filled with aphides. Many trees
and smaller plants are killed by these attacks, but it is
probable that "where the plants have not been rendered
delicate by nursing and cultivation, and where the aphides
are not a strange foreign kind, introduced by man's care-
lessness or by some rarely (if ever) occurring wind or
flood, the aphides do not actually destroy any plants by
their visitation, excepting the weaklings, and that their
numbers are kept within bounds by their natural enemies
the lady-birds and other such carnivorous insects.

We must now notice the most interesting of all the
wonderful things which have been discovered about these
tiny insects, which are even smaller than fleas. Any one
who has a rose-garden and chooses to spend some hours
a day in studying the "green-fly" can follow out the
facts. They reproduce themselves — that is to say, pro-
pagate— with astounding rapidity. The great Linnaeus,
a hundred and fifty years ago, came to the conclusion,
from his observation of one kind or species, that in
one year a single aphis would produce a quintillion of
descendants ! Without insisting upon the exact numbers
in different kinds of aphides, we may say that that is a
fair indication of the rate at which they produce young.
No sooner does a mother aphis produce some thirty or
forty young, than in a few hours or days, according to
the warmth of the season and the abundance of food,
these young have grown to full size and themselves each
produce the same number of young, and so on through
the summer, and even into the autumn. Nineteen genera-
tions in sixteen weeks have been counted in some kinds
of the plant-lice. Hence it is no wonder that these little
creatures increase exceedingly and cover the leaves and
shoots on which they feed ; no wonder that they furnish

GREEN-FLIES AND PLANT-LICE 327

a plentiful nourishment for the lady-birds which prey on
them. But the most curious thing is this, that these
abundant and rapidly reproducing broods of aphis are
all females, and that they do not lay eggs, but extrude their
young in a more or less complete state of development,
that is to say, they are viviparous. They are all females !
It is only late in the season that males are produced !

In fact, the summer broods of the " green-fly " and other
aphides which do so much damage to rose bushes, hops,
and other cultivated plants, are produced by females
alone, without the intervention of a male. These minute
insects present true instances of that very remarkable and
interesting occurrence which is called " parthenogenesis,"
or virginal propagation. It is further a noteworthy thing
that the virginal aphis mothers do not lay or deposit eggs,
but that the young grow from the eggs inside their mothers
(Fig. 61), and are only extruded when they are complete
little six-legged insects, capable of walking, and ready to
feed themselves by stabbing the soft leaves of the plant
on which they find themselves, and sucking up its juices.
The summer aphides are spoken of as being both " vivi-
parous " and " parthenogenetic." The words are really
useful, and we cannot get on without them.

No case is known to medical men or to naturalists
of the birth of young from an unimpregnated or virgin
mother among what are called the higher animals — those
which are classed as vertebrates, and include mankind,
mammals, birds, reptiles, batrachians, and fishes. But
though uncommon, this virginal reproduction (or "par-
thenogenesis ") does occur constantly in a very few kinds
of small insects and in some small shrimp-like creatures.
It has excited the greatest interest amongst naturalists
from the early days when it was first observed until the
present, and it has been very carefully studied in the past
thirty years.

328 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

In order to appreciate this matter it is necessary to
know the chief facts about the ordinary process of repro-
duction in animals and plants. All animals and plants
are built up of minute particles of living matter called
''cells" (see p. 170). Really, these are not cells, or hollow
boxes, or cases. We use the word " cell " for the contents
of a cell. Each is a droplet of protoplasm or living matter
lying in a small or large envelope or case of dead matter
which it has produced around itself (Fig. 61). Observers
using their microscopes saw at first only the case, and
called it a " cell," and the word " cell " is now used almost
universally for the soft stuff within the cell (see p. 173).
Each soft cell of " plasm " or " protoplasm " has a very
special structure. The existence in it of a central kernel,
or " nucleus " of peculiarly active substance, is the most
obvious feature. These " cells " are so small (for instance,
those which build up the human body) that from one to
two thousand could be placed side by side on a line an
inch long. They are the " units " which make up the body
of an animal or plant, just as bricks and planks and rods
make up a building constructed by human contrivance.
Two most important things about them are — first, that
each is always the seat of chemical activity, absorbing
liquid material, changing it and either fixing it or throw-
ing it out in a new chemical condition ; and, second, that
as a result each cell grows, and after a very little growth
divides into two. This " dividing into two " is immensely
important, for in this way the number of cells forming a
very young or small animal or plant is increased from
a few thousands to many millions whilst the organism
grows. And not only that, but we find on tracing the
young animal or plant back to its beginning as an indi-
vidual that it actually started as a single cell. The germ
of every living thing, then, is a single nucleated particle
of protoplasm — a cell which we call the " egg-cell," because

GREEN-FLIES AND PLANT-LICE

329

" eggs " are merely shells and packing to hold and protect
this all-important egg-cell.

Every individual flower, tree, insect, snail, fish, and
man started as a single egg-cell,
which became detached from the
mother's body. Take the case of
a common marine animal, the
star-fish. At the breeding season,
early in the year, the female star-
fish discharges thousands of these
egg - cells into the sea - water.
Each floats separately in a delicate
case of its own. Before any one
of those floating egg-cells can
commence to divide so as to
build up a new mass of cells —
a new young star-fish — it must
undergo the process of " fertilisa-
tion." That is to say, its sub-
stance must fuse with that of
a " sperm-cell." These " sperm-
cells " are discharged into the
sea-water in countless thousands
by the male star-fishes. They
are excessively minute, actively

jling threads, swollen out at

FIG. 61. — A single egg-tube
or ovarian tube (usually there
are many) of an insect.
The youngest and smallest
eggs are at the narrow end.
o o are larger egg-cells with
a striated shell or envelope ;
g, nucleus of the egg-cell.
The unshaded egg is one
grown to full size, and in the
parthenogenetic aphis would
develop where it is without
fertilisation into a young
aphis.

one end to form a little knob, the
" nucleus " of the sperm-cell (see
p. 134 for figures of the sperma-
tozoa, and eggs of the oyster).
The water is rendered cloudy by

the abundance of these microscopic filaments, which are
called "spermatozoa." One sperm-cell, or spermatozoon
comes into contact, in the sea-water, with each of the dis-
charged floating egg-cells. It burrows into it and fuses or

330 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

melts and mixes with the substance of the egg-cell. The
whole process is easy to watch with a microscope, and I
am writing of what I, in common with many others, have
actually seen.

The egg-cell after this process consists really of the
substance of two equal cells — the egg-cell and the sperm-
cell — completely fused so as to form a single cell, having
a single " nucleus," which has resulted from the fusion of
the nucleus of the egg-cell with that of the sperm-cell.
Now, and not before, the egg-cell can divide, take up
nourishment, and continue to divide and grow, so as to
form a constantly increasing mass of young cells, a young
animal which gradually assumes the form of a star-fish.
All animals, and plants, too, reproduce themselves in this
way. When the animal or plant is not aquatic in its
habits the sperm-cell and the egg-cell cannot be dis-
charged and take their chance of coming into contact
with one another outside the parent's body ; the sperm-
cells are, in such cases, received into a chamber of the
egg-producing parent's body, and there the fusion of the
egg-cells with them, one sperm-cell to one egg-cell, takes
place. Parthenogenesis then consists in the omission of
the fusion of a sperm-cell with the egg-cell. The egg-
cell develops, divides again and again, and produces the
young animal without the addition to it of a sperm-cell —
without, in fact, being " fertilised," as it is called. That is
what happens in the summer broods of the little plant-
lice or aphides (Fig. 57). When, however, the cold weather
comes the virgin mothers suddenly produce two kinds of
young — males as well as females — and then the solitary
winter egg, which the late autumn females lay to last
through winter until spring, is fertilised by a sperm-cell
derived from the late produced autumn male (Fig. 56) in
the ordinary way.

Another parthenogenetic animal is the rare little fresh-

GREEN-FLIES AND PLANT-LICE 331

water shrimp called Apus, which goes on multiplying in
this manner in wayside ponds for years, thousands of
female individuals being produced in successive seasons,
laying their eggs and carrying on the race for an indefinite
time until at last — one fine day — we do not know why
then and not before, that rare creature a male Apus is
hatched. Why these and one or two other such small
shrimps and insects are able to set aside the almost
universal law as to the necessity for fertilisation of
the egg-cell by a sperm-cell, naturalists have not yet
found out. It is quite certain that these exceptional
creatures have been derived from ancestors which had
their eggs fertilised in the regular way, and that this
elimination of the male is a special device, an innova-
tion.

There are incomplete attempts at it in other insects.
Thus it has been discovered that the queen bee produces
only females from the eggs which are fertilised before she
lays them. When the stock of sperm-cells which she
received from a drone in her nuptial flight is exhausted,
or if we carefully remove by a painless operation the
internal sac in which they are stored, the eggs are no
longer fertilised, but they are not rendered sterile or
^abortive. They develop into drones ! And drones or
male bees are produced in no other way, and only drones
are so produced, never worker-females (so-called neuters)
nor queens.

Another curious fact is that in rearing moths in
captivity some naturalists have quite unexpectedly found
that when they have hatched out female moths from the
chrysalids and kept them from the moment of hatching
quite apart from the male moths (which are of another
size and colour, and easily distinguished), these females
will sometimes lay eggs — unfertilised eggs — which give
birth to caterpillars, which feed and complete all their

332 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

changes. The second generation of moths so produced
are male and female, but the females, being kept apart
again, produce a parthenogenetic brood, and the process
has been repeated to a third generation. These instances
are very rare. The remarkable thing about them is that,
apparently, the parthenogenesis is only due to the experi-
mental interference of an entomologist, and that unless
some such accident had befallen the moths, the eggs
would have been fertilised in the usual way, since there
was no deficiency of male moths. These facts have led
to many interesting speculations, and are particularly
curious in regard to the inquiry as to what determines
the sex of offspring, about which sensational announce-
ments are sometimes made in the foreign correspondence
columns of our newspapers. Here we find the partheno-
genetic eggs of the moths producing both males and
females, those of the aphides and the pond-shrimp pro-
ducing predominantly females, and those of the queen bee
producing exclusively males (drones). Biologists have not
yet arrived at a solution of the problem raised by these
divergent results.

It is necessary, in regard to this subject, to remember
that many lower animals and plants can reproduce or
propagate by separating " buds," or large bits of thei
bodies, built up of thousands of cells, and, therefore, not
to be confused with the single egg-cell. The egg-cell is
a cell specially prepared for fusion with a sperm -cell,
necessitating — except in very rare instances — the union
in the new individual or young of living material from
two separate parental organisms, and, therefore, in many
cases, from two widely separate lines of ancestry. A
snippet, or bit cut from a begonia leaf, will produce a
new individual plant ; a bit cut or torn from a polyp will
similarly give rise to a new individual : but the partheno-
genetic egg is not to be confused with these masses of

GREEN-FLIES AND PLANT-LICE 333

cells. It is a true egg-cell which might have been
fertilised, and it is found in animals such as insects and
crustaceans, which are more highly elaborated in structure
than any which, like the polyps and zoophytes, multiply
by buds and cuttings.

XXXVI
THE DEADLY PHYLLOXERA

IT was only after long and patient investigation that,
the various broods of the terrible Phylloxera which
between 1868 and 1888, destroyed half the vineyards of
France, became known, their relations to one another
determined, and the final cure for the devastation caused
by them decided upon and put into practice.

In all ordinary plant-lice or green-fly (aphides) at the
end of the summer, the last parthenogenetic brood pro-
duces a generation of distinct males and females, which
differ a good deal in appearance from the virginal broods
of the spring and summer. Each female, after receiving
sperm-cells from a male, lays a single egg, which consists
of a fertilised egg-cell enclosed in an egg-shell. It is
deposited in a safe place in a crack of the bark of a tree,
or on the rootlets of some plant, and remains unchanged
through the winter. In the spring from every such egg
hatches a single female aphis, which feeds and increases
in size. In a very short time (a week or so) this solitary
female (Fig. 58) proceeds to produce, without male inter-
vention, young which grow from true egg-cells which are
not laid but remain inside her. The young are born or
pass out of her as small six-legged insects. They feed and
grow up, and in turn produce " parthenogenetically " and
viviparously broods of young like themselves. The first

THE DEADLY PHYLLOXERA 335

female thus hatched from the winter egg is called a
" foundress," or " stock-mother," because she starts a
whole colony of young which, by virginal propagation of
successive broods, may number many millions in a season.
These are known as "virgin-mothers" (Fig. 57), and
eventually their later generations always produce males
and females, so that we distinguish, in the course of a year,
four sets of aphides, starting from the egg, namely (i) the
foundresses, (2) the numerous generations of virgin-mothers,
(3) the males, and (4) the egg-laying females.

In different kinds of plant-lice any of these " sets " may
be either winged or wingless (Figs. 5 5, 56, 59); many genera-
tions of the virgin-mothers are wingless, but not all, in all
species. According to the species or kind of aphis and its
requirements in regard to the plants on which it feeds,
wings are developed so as to enable the aphis to fly from
one tree or locality to another, or are not developed if the
aphis has to remain where it was born. The whole series
of successive broods of some kinds of aphis remain on
one plant and about the same part of it, and then there
is little need for wings. Others have their summer broods
on the twigs or leaves, but the later broods descend in
winter to the roots of the same plant. The woolly aphis
of the apple trees and pear trees behaves in this way ; other
species again produce a late-winged brood, which leaves
the plant on which its parents were feeding, and travels
some distance to the twigs or to the roots of a quite
distinct kind of plant to produce an autumn brood, and
from these the final males and females are born, and the
winter eggs are then deposited. The hop-louse leaves the
hop when the hop- vine dies down in autumn. The
abundant wingless form (Fig. 58) of which there have usually
been ten generations, produces at last a winged " migrant "
brood (Fig. 59) which flies away to plum trees and sloe
bushes, perhaps a quarter of a mile distant. There the

336 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

migrants produce wingless females on the plum tree.
They are followed to the plum trees by a final migrant
brood from the dying hops which are males — the first yet
seen (Fig. 56). The males fertilise the wingless females
born on the plum tree — and the latter lay each one
fertilised egg in the crevices of the bark of the plum tree
near the young buds. Winter now sets in : all are dead
except the eggs. In the following late spring a foundress
hatches out from each egg so deposited. The " foundress "
(Fig. 58) in this species, the hop aphis, is wingless. She
produces parthenogenetically and viviparously a brood of
wingless females. They similarly produce on the plum
tree a third generation of virgin females, but these have
wings! (Fig. 55). They fly back to the hop-vines, which
are now well risen from the ground and offer abundant
juice to the wingless virgin brood which escapes from the
winged migrants as soon as they have settled on the hop,
and feed and grow and produce new wingless broods
(Fig. 57) in rapid succession.

The phylloxera of the vine is a plant-louse or aphis,
which exhibits an interesting adaptation of winged and
wingless broods to the requirements of the insect's nutri-
tion and multiplication. A " foundress " hatches from an
egg on the bark of the vine where it has passed the winter.
It proceeds to attack the young leaves and to produce a
brood of young. The leaves of the vine when thus attacked
swell up and produce galls, in which the young phylloxera
are enclosed, and there the phylloxeras continue to
multiply, producing more galls and thus destroying the
leaves. Some of the young broods now crawl down the
vine to its roots ; others stay on the leaves and continue
their destructive work there. There are several varieties
of form and size amongst these broods. Those which go
to the roots attack the rootlets and produce knobs and
swellings on them, leading to their destruction as feeding

THE DEADLY PHYLLOXERA 337

organs. Meanwhile the root-phylloxeras multiply exceed-
ingly, and those on the leaves are still feeding and multi-
plying. From one foundress mother as many as twenty-
five millions are produced in six months. At last in the
autumn the root-parasites produce a winged generation of
virgin-mothers, which come up from the ground and fly
away to other vines, upon which they produce males and
females. These females each lay a fertilised egg on the
bark of the previously healthy vine, and so the infection
is spread. The root-infesting forms continue to multiply,
and in warm climates there is no cessation of this process
even in winter.

This parasite — the Phylloxera vastatrix — was intro-
duced with some American species of grape-vine —
brought over as experimental samples from Colorado —
about 1864. In its native country it does comparatively
little harm, for the roots of the American species of vine
are, though attacked by it, not seriously injured. They
have the property of throwing out new rootlets when
those already existing are punctured and injured by the
phylloxera, and so are not killed by the attack, as is the
European grape-vine.

The introduction of this deadly parasite to Europe
was a mere chance, due to ignorance and stupid want of
supervision of importations on the part of the Government,
such as is common in this country, though less so in
France and Germany — part of the blind mixing-up of the
nicely adjusted products of all parts of the earth which
civilised man is always bringing about with disastrous
and terrifying results. In twenty years France lost 400
million pounds in consequence; three million acres of
vineyards were destroyed. Other countries — Germany,
Italy, and the Cape — also suffered. All sorts of remedies
were suggested and tried, such as the application of
poisons to the roots and the sinking of the vineyards

338 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

under water. Gradually the only effective method of
dealing with the case has been established. The old
European vine-stocks or standards have been grubbed up
in all but the very choicest vineyards, and American vines
have been planted in their place. On to these have been
grafted cuttings of the local French vines, and they have
taken kindly to their new conditions. The produce of
the French vineyards is now greater than it has ever been.
It had fallen from an annual yield of 1,300,000,000 gallons
to 650,000,000 — but in 1900 it had risen again to a yield
of more than 1,400,000,000 gallons.

This history is a striking instance of the vast import-
ance to civilised communities of a knowledge and control
of even such minute living things as the plant-lice, and of
the extraordinarily large results which obscure living things
may produce. It must tend to convince reasonable men
of the importance of accurate knowledge as to living
things and of the necessity of expending public money in
constantly improving and extending that knowledge.

An ingenious illustration of the enormous fecundity
of the plant-lice occurs to me as worth giving in conclusion.
The late Professor Huxley — a careful and trustworthy
authority — calculated that the produce of a single aphis
would, in the course of ten generations, supposing all the
individuals to survive, " contain more ponderable substance
than five hundred millions of stout men ; that is, more than
the whole population of China." And this calculation is
held by some authorities to be below rather than above
the mark I

XXXVII
CLOTHES MOTHS

THE way in which the lives of all animals and plants
are interwoven with that of other animals and
plants, often in obscure and unsuspected ways, comes
home to man when he contemplates the numbers and
variety of living things which exist with him and upon
him — that is to say, at his expense and to the detriment
of the stores which he accumulates, the clothing with
which he covers himself, and the buildings which he
constructs. Man not only has carefully taken a number
of animals and plants in hand and cultivated them as
food-givers, as sources of clothing, and other useful
material, but, much to his annoyance, he finds, per contra,
that other animals (and plants, too), with similar self-
seeking habit, make use of him in his turn, and of his
belongings, with a complete disregard of his convenience,
treating him and his arrangements as so much available
" food-stuff," and showing no atom of respect to him as
the lord of creation. Just as in dealing with the more
deadly attacks of disease-producing parasites, so in
meeting the destructive invasions made by his fellow-
creatures of all sizes and kinds in search of food and
shelter — man has to be continually on the alert, and to
wage a constant warfare, unless he will consent to see
himself and his possessions moth-eaten, fly-blown, worm-

239

340 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

burrowed, reduced to fragments and powder. And this
warfare he has incessantly carried on with increasing
skill and knowledge from the earliest times of which we
have any record.

The sparrow and the rat, of which there has lately
been much talk, are examples of fairly large, easily de-
tected enemies of this kind. The almost ultra-microscopic
bacteria — similar to those which produce disease by
multiplying in the living body — are examples of the most
minute living pests which injure man by causing sourness,
putrefaction, and destructive rot in his food and stores.
Every year civilised man is gaining greater knowledge
of these " ferment organisms," and vastly increased skill
in preserving his possessions, such as food and drink,
from the attacks of their ubiquitous swarms. Between
the larger depredators, such as birds and rats, and the
smallest, such as the microscopic bacteria and moulds
(to whom alone putrefaction is due, and without whom
it would never occur), there are a host of small trouble-
some creatures, which belong chiefly to the group of
animals called " insects " — beetles, moths, flies, and bugs —
which give man incessant occupation in warding off their
attacks upon his food, his clothes, his furniture, his build-
ings, his crops and fruit trees, and his domesticated
animals. The study of these things and of the means
of grappling with them is the fascinating occupation of
those who are called " economic " zoologists and botanists.
Of course, in order to carry on their inquiries successfully
they have to bring to bear on the questions they investi-
gate as complete and thorough a knowledge as possible
of all the kinds of animals and plants, and of their ways
of feeding, reproducing, and protecting themselves in
natural conditions.

One of the most widely celebrated and anciently
detested of insect pests is the clothes moth. It is the

CLOTHES MOTHS 341

caterpillar of this moth which is objectionable — biting off,
eating, and using to weave a case the hair of furs and the
fine filaments of woollen fabrics. Not every one is able
to recognise the clothes moth, which is a very small
creature of a greyish-yellow colour. The wings when set
for flying measure only half an inch in expanse, and when
the moth is walking or at rest, shut closely to the body
so as to give it an almost cylindrical shape, with an
attenuated snout. Much bigger moths occasionally get
into our rooms, but do no harm. These little clothes
moths lay their eggs on fur or wool, and the caterpillars
which hatch from them do the damage. The moths
themselves have no jaws and take no food. But the
caterpillar or grub, though soft and readily crushed, has
a pair of very hard, minute, dark-coloured jaws, with
which it works away, cropping the fur and wool on which
it lives. The moths are seen in houses commonly between
January and October, and it is, of course, the object of
the victimised householder to destroy them before they
can lay eggs, or, what is more practical, to keep woollen
and fur clothes away from their reach. Things which
are in daily use are not very liable to receive a deposit of
eggs from the clothes moth, and as a rule the enemy may
be kept at bay by daily shaking and beating the things
in question, and hanging them up in the air. But coats,
flannels, etc., which are hidden away, left quietly in
drawers or cupboards, offer the undisturbed conditions
which the clothes moth seeks. There is no safety for
them unless they are wrapped up or shut in with a quan-
tity of naphtol or of camphor, or, as is nowadays more
usual, placed in a refrigerating chamber.

The little caterpillar which does all the damage is of
a dull white colour, with a reddish head. It is remarkable
for the fact that it makes a sort of movable tunic or case
for itself out of the hair or wool which it crops, and it crawls

342 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

about protected by this case. There are not many insects
which thus construct portable cases for themselves when in
the grub or caterpillar state of life. Such " cases " must
not be confused with the very similar " cocoons " by which
some moth-grubs surround themselves (as, for instance,
the silkworm moth) when their growth is completed, and
they become quiescent and hard, and are known as
chrysalids. Such " cocoons " are constructed in the same
way as the lining of the clothes moth's case, by threads of
silk secreted by the caterpillar, but they are made once
for all when the grub has ceased activity. The little
clothes moth caterpillar, on the other hand, has con-
tinually to enlarge its tunic or case as it itself increases
in size. There is a hole at the end, from which the head
and three legs of the caterpillar emerge, so that it can
crawl and feed freely. The outer surface of the case
consists of cut lengths of the fibre on which the grub is
living, and so is protective in resembling the surrounding
material and hiding the minute ravager. It is easy
enough for the little grub to add a bit to the case at
the end from which its head protrudes, and, being very
flexible, it can turn right round in the tube and put its
head out at the other end and secrete a bit more there,
cementing cut hairs to the outer surface. But in order
to increase the breadth of the tube or case, the caterpillar
has, from time to time, to undertake a formidable operation.
It actually slits up the case lengthwise for about half its
extent, and fills in the gaping space with new material ;
then it cuts up the opposite face of the same half of the
tube, and puts in a new patch there. And after that, it
has to treat the remaining half of the tube in the same
way, making two more cuts, one opposite the other, and
filling in the gap in each case as before. Students of
these little creatures have amused themselves by changing
the position of the caterpillar and its case, from fur or

CLOTHES MOTHS 343

wool of one colour to fur or wool of another colour, and
in this way the industrious caterpillar is made to work
in different coloured fibre in successive enlargements of
his case, so that it becomes a Joseph's coat of many
colours.

An interesting fact about the movable case made by
the clothes moth caterpillar is that the nearest thing in
nature to it is the case made by the aquatic grubs or
caterpillars of another kind of insects — the caddis-worms
("case-worms") which are common in ponds and streams.
They show extraordinary powers in making their cases so
that they balance nicely in the water, as the animal crawls
along on the bottom of a pool, with his head and six legs
emerging from one end of the case. Caddis-worms are of
various kinds or species, and some attach to their cases
little broken sticks, others minute empty snail-shells,
others the fine green threads of water-plants. The
caddis-worm becomes changed into a delicate fly, with
transparent wings, just as the clothes-grub becomes
changed into a moth — and it is an interesting fact that
the caddis-flies, though they are classed with the May-
flies and such net-winged insects, and not with the moths
and butterflies (the Lepidoptera, or insects with wings
covered with dust-like scales, which give the colour and
patterns to the wings), yet agree with moths in having
some scales on the wings and with one kind of minute
moth, namely, the clothes moth, in having grubs which
make movable cases.

The clothes moth caterpillar was known to the
Romans by the name Tinea, and is described with
correct detail by the Roman naturalist Pliny. Modern
naturalists have accepted this name Tinea as that of the
genus to which the clothes moth belongs. There are
thirty different British species of Tinea, of which four are
guilty of attacking animal fabric, and so causing trouble

344 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

to man. The one which builds a case and is the titular
chief of the clan of clothes moths — "the" clothes moth,
just as one may say "the" Macintosh — is scientifically
indicated by the name Tinea pellionella. The other three
do not form movable cases when in the caterpillar stage,
and attack coarser stuff than fur and fine wool. One of
them is known as the " tapestry moth," because its cater-
pillar establishes itself in old tapestry and carpets, and
burrowing into these thickish materials is concealed with-
out the aid of any self-provided tunic or case. The name
Tinea is often used by entomologists in an expanded
form as Tineina, to indicate the whole series of minute
moths of which the genus Tinea is only one little group.
Many of these moths are much smaller even than the
clothes moth, and they are found in all parts of the world
and in all sorts and conditions of life — in relation to trees,
shrubs, and plants of all kinds. It has been estimated
that there are as many as 200,000 distinctly marked
different kinds of these minute creatures. The insect
collectors and students who occupy themselves with the
magnificent butterflies and larger moths (of which there
are an enormous variety of kinds) refuse to deal with the
somewhat dull-looking and almost innumerable minute
moths which are classed as Micro-lepidoptera, in contrast
to the Macro-lepidoptera (or big moths and butterflies).
Consequently they have become the favourite study of a
few enthusiasts, who are known as Micro-lepidopterists,
and have a wide but not uninteresting field of exploration
all to themselves. The Micro-lepidoptera include, besides
the Tineina, a group of less minute though small moths,
with narrow, fringed wings, amongst which are the
window moth, the milk moth, the tabby moth, the meal
moth, and the grease moth. Though the clothes moths
may well be described as "tiny" moths, yet the word
Tinea, as applied to them, has no such origin, but is the

CLOTHES MOTHS 345

name given to the destructive grub by the Romans. The
same word has unfortunately been applied by medical
men and botanists to a vegetable parasite which causes a
skin disease (ringworm) resulting in baldness. The Tinea
calvans of the doctors has only this in common with the
moth Tinea pellionella — that it causes hair to disappear
and baldness to ensue ; but the vegetable parasite attacks
the hair on a living man's head, the caterpillar that on his
fur coat.

XXXVIII
STONE AND WOOD BORERS

BORING into wood is a favourite proceeding on the
part of many small creatures, insects, shrimps, and
ship-worms, by which they not only acquire nourishment,
but at the same time penetrate more and more deeply
into safe quarters and concealment. It is not surprising
that it has become the necessary and regular mode of life
of a host of small animals, and consequently that man
who wants wood in good sound blocks and planks for
his various constructions is a good deal put out by the
voracity of the wood-boring community. To some extent
he has given up the task of checking their proceedings,
and now uses metal where he formerly used wood, but
that only applies to a limited field. Wood is still the
great material of rough construction, and the main sub-
stance used in fittings and furniture.

In our own country and in most parts of the world
there are large grubs or caterpillars, such as those of the
goat moth, three inches long and as thick as one's finger,
which eat into the stems of trees and spoil the timber.
The grub of the handsome moth known as the wood
leopard is another of these. It attacks poplar trees, and
we used to take it in numbers in the London parks and
squares when* I was a collector. The goat moth is

specially destructive to willow trees. But there are a
346

STONE AND WOOD BORERS 347

very large series of smaller grubs and adult insects which
injure trees or bore or devour wood already cut and dried.
Among these are the saw-flies and a number of beetles,
and in Sicily and the tropics there are the wonderful white
ants which are not ants at all, but more like May-flies.
The destruction caused by these borers and eaters of
wood is increased by the fact that when they have riddled
a piece of wood, moisture penetrates it, and vegetable
" moulds " flourish within it and complete the break-up.
Among the most destructive borers of wood are those
which attack the ships and piers of wood placed by man
in the sea. These are certain shell-fish, called ship-worms
(Teredo), which are really peculiarly modified mussels.
There is also a tiny shrimp-like creature, the Limnoria
terebrans, which does enormous damage by its borings to
piers of wood erected in the sea. True insects do not
flourish in the sea. There are marine bivalve shell-fish
which bore into clay, sandstone, chalk, and even into hard
granite-like rock. They do not use jaws or teeth for this
purpose, but the surface of their shells, which are sharp
and spiny, and also the sand which adheres to their soft
muscular bodies like emery powder to the pewter-plate of
a lapidary's wheel. You may see the large and small
holes made by Pholas (called also " the piddock ") and
other bivalve shell-fish in the clay and chalk rocks of the
seashore on most parts of the English coast.

Most boring animals swallow the material which they
excavate in the act of boring, just as the earth-worm
swallows the soil into which it bores, and as many sand-
worms do, throwing out from the hind end of the body,
in the form of a little coiled-up heap, a vast quantity of
undigested matter which has passed through them. But
many insects which swallow some of the material dis-
engaged by their jaws remove, in addition, a large
quantity which is ejected from the boring as powder, like

348 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

sawdust, and others do not swallow any of the material
into which they bore. So, too, the Pholas and marine-
boring mussels do not swallow the material which they
loosen. It is a very slow process, the boring in rock, and
the fine particles rubbed away by incessant movement are
carried off in the sea-water.

To some extent the marine creatures which bore in
rocks seem to be helped by chemical action, since they
show a preference for chalk and limestone, easily dissolved
by weak acid secreted by the borer, though, clearly
enough, they are not dependent on such chemical aid
since we find them also boring in insoluble granite rock
and shale and clay. There is one true worm-borer which
perforates hard limestone pebbles and chalk rocks, so as
to give them the appearance which we call " worm-eaten "
when caused by another sort of worm and observed in
a very different material, namely, old furniture and
woodwork. At Tenby, in South Wales, the limestone
pebbles on the beach are quite commonly riddled with
these worm-holes, truly "worm-eaten." When they are
not too abundant one can see that the holes are
arranged in pairs like a figure 8, about half the size here
printed. On splitting the rock or stone one finds a
deeply-running U-shaped double tube excavated in the
stone. In this the little worm lived. It is easiest to get
at the worms in a fresh and living state on a coast where
there are chalk-rocks and sea-washed lumps of chalk.
The chalk is easy to split and cut at low tide, and then
the little key-hole apertures can be broken across and the
soft red worm extracted. It is a beautiful red-blooded
little worm — little more than half an inch long — with two
tactile horns on its head and little bristles and gills on the
rings of its annulated body. It is a true " worm," like the
earth-worm, what naturalists call by the not displeasing
name an " annelid." It seems at first sight impossible

STONE AND WOOD BORERS 349

that this delicate little thing should "worm-eat" the
hardest limestone. It has no jaws, but one of the rings
or segments of the front part of the body has two of its
bristles swollen to relatively gigantic size, hard and black.
These are its boring organs, but I have no doubt that it is
helped, especially in its young state when commencing to
bore, by an acid secretion from the surface of the body.

Curiously enough, in the strict sense of the word
" worm," the boring of chalk and stones by the little
marine creature just mentioned (whose name is Polydora)
is the only instance of a " worm-eaten " condition being
produced by a real worm. The worm-eaten condition
of wood is produced either by the grub of a minute
beetle (which is not in the strict sense a " worm " ) or by
an ingenious human maker of "antiques" who imitates
the little holes on the surface of the woodwork of old
furniture, so as to pass off clever reproductions for really
ancient cabinet work. The little holes to imitate those of
the true insect furniture-borer are sometimes produced by
discharging a gun loaded with fine shot at the piece of
furniture which is to be passed off as ancient. But
knowing purchasers probe the holes so made with a carpet
needle, and discover the lead-shot sunk in the wood.
Hence there has arisen a profession of specially-skilled
" worm-eaters," who, by careful boring, imitate the holes
made by insect grubs.

And now we come at last to the actual, real furniture
worm or grub. It is the grub of a small beetle — the
Anobium domesticum, scarcely one-fifth of an inch long
(Fig. 62 c~), greyish-brown in colour, of a cylindrical shape,
with the head completely concealed or overhung by the
next division of the body, the thorax. The grubs are
longer, soft, pale, and fleshy. The sign of the presence
of the Anobium in your furniture is the existence of small
circular holes here and there on the surface of the wood,

350

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

with occasionally a little heap of yellow dust on the
ground beneath them. This last sign is in fact the only
proof you can have that the holes are not ancient and the
burrows deserted, and that the enemy is still alive and at
work. Rarely, if ever, can you see either the grub or the
completed beetle into which it changes after forming a
cocoon within the burrows, for they very seldom leave
their excavations. But if you
break up the wood you will
find a surprising number of
long, cylindrical passages, run-
ning side by side, and for many
inches, through the deeper part
of the wood, so that it may
be quite rotten and ready to
crumble, although presenting
an uninjured surface save for
the little round holes here and
there. In these passages you
will find both the grubs and
the adult beetles.

A closely-allied and some-
what smaller species oi Anobium
common in houses is of a more
voracious character, not con-
fining itself to dry wood, but
eating bread, biscuits, rhubarb,
ginger, and even cayenne pepper. This second kind,
called Anobium paniceum, is the real "book-worm"; it
gets into old libraries, and the grubs bore their cylindrical
tunnels from cover to cover of the undisturbed volumes
In a public library twenty-seven folio volumes standing
side by side were perforated in a straight line by one
individual Anobium, grub or book-worm, and so regular
was the tunnel thus eaten out that a string could be passed

FIG. 62.— a, the death-watch
beetle (Xestobium tesscllatum)
of the natural size (one-third of
an inch long) ; b, the same
beetle enlarged ; c, the beetle
(Anobium domesticum) whose
grub is the furniture-worm, of
the natural size, a side view.

STONE AND WOOD BORERS 351

through the whole length of it, and the entire set of
twenty-seven volumes lifted up at once by it.

There are one or two other grubs which less com-
monly injure books, and pass as " book-worms." But the
most notable of the insect enemies of books and papers
is a curious little wingless insect which never passes
through a grub stage of existence, but hatches out in the
complete form of his parents. He is about a third of an
inch long, has the shape of an elongated kite, with a long
tail and six legs, and is called by old writers " the silver-
fish," and by entomologists Lepisma (Fig. 63). This little
pest does not burrow, but nibbles, and has destroyed
many a valuable old document and ancient book. Paste
and sugar are a great attraction to him, and he will
destroy a boxful of printed labels or a valuable manu-
script, leaving only the ink-marked parts untouched, but
ready to crumble.

Closely allied to the book-worm beetle, Anobium, is
a larger beetle, called Xestobium tessellatum (Fig. 620)
which infests old woodwork, its grubs making corre-
spondingly larger tunnels. The entire woodwork of a
house has had to be removed and replaced in conse-
quence of this creature's depredation, and such pieces of
furniture as a four-post bedstead have been riddled and
made rotten in two or three years by its burrowing. It
is still common in England in old wood-panelled rooms
and in wooden mantelpieces. The most interesting fact
about it is that it is the maker of those nocturnal tappings
which are known as the " death-watcli." It is the beetle
itself (Fig. 62 a), not the grub, which makes these sounds.
It makes them by deliberately striking the wood on which
it stands, with its head. The taps are usually from five
to seven in quick succession, the sound dying away in
intensity in the later strokes. A second, and even a third,
beetle will then reply with similar taps from the woodwork

352 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

of some other part of the room. Years ago I used to be
gently lulled to sleep by these "raps" in my rooms at
Oxford, accompanied by the sound of spasmodic rushes
of mice behind the woodwork. At first I thought the
tapping was caused by the falling of drops of water through
a leaky roof, but soon ascertained the actual cause. One
does not notice these tappings until the dead of night
when all else is still, and they are so mysterious and per-
sistent that one can understand superstition arising in
connection with them, and that the nerves of any one
already overwrought, might be so affected by them as to
lead to the belief that evil spirits are " rapping," or that a
ghostly coffin is being nailed together for a dying man.
The little beetle has often been tracked by a naturalist,
and discovered in some concealed position nodding its
diminutive but hard head with sharp jerks, and producing
an almost incredible volume of sound in proportion to its
size. If the beetle, when discovered, is kept in captivity
in a wooden box, it is easy to set it " tapping " or " rapping "
by tapping oneself with a pencil on the table on which
the box is placed, when the faithful little death-watch will
unfailingly reply. Possibly some of the " raps " recorded
by the pioneers of spirit-rapping, when not produced by
the toes of designing mediums like the young ladies of
Rochester, N.Y., were actually made by death-watch
beetles. It is certain that the somewhat eccentric
supposition that disembodied spirits endeavour to make
signals to living humanity by " rapping " owes its origin
(long before the nineteenth-century craze for " spirit-
rapping") to the measured tap-tap-tapping of the death-
watch beetle, and the consequent superstition at a time
when the beetle was not known to be the " tapper."

Whilst the bigger beetle, Xestobium, is the common
death-watch, it has been proved that the little furniture
beetle, Anobium, is also a tapper, making regular and

STONE AND WOOD BORERS

353

persistent strokes like the ticking of a watch. Another
insect, called the book-louse (Atropos divinatoria), very
minute, only one-twentieth of an inch, soft, white, and
wingless, not a beetle at all, but also a devourer of
literature (Fig. 64), is declared by some good observers to
be a " ticker " or " tapper," but other naturalists deny that
it can make such sounds. It seems unlikely on account
of the extremely small size and
softness of the book-louse, but
the matter needs further investi-
gation.

A curious fact is that the
grubs of beetles such zsAnobium
and Xestobium (or other closely
allied kinds) are not arrested in
their tunnelling by soft metal.
They cannot tackle iron plate
or brass sheeting, but they will
penetrate tinfoil and, what is
more astonishing, lead plate and
leaden waterpipes. Specimens
showing such perforations are in FIG. 63.— The silver-fish insect

the museums of Oxford and (Lepisma saccharina). The
T j j T i j line to the right shows its

London, and I have received an naturai size
account of a lead pipe packed in

wood in the wall of a house being perforated by these
beetle-grubs. Once at work on the wood, " the straight-
forward intentions " of the grub are not to be diverted by
such an obstacle as lead : it goes straight on through the
lead as it would through the cover of a book or a knot
in the wood.

I have sometimes been asked to give advice as to the

best method of destroying the furniture worm or grub.

If the piece of furniture (or its pieces) can without injury

be " baked " in a hot chamber for twenty-four hours, at a

23

354 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

temperature a little above that of boiling water, that is the
easiest method of destroying the pest. Or, again, I should
suggest placing the piece of furniture in a refrigerating
chamber for a week or two. If neither of these methods
can be used, the piece of furniture should be placed in a
very hot room, and creosote or bisulphide of carbon or
solution of cyanide of potassium should be injected with
a very fine-nosed syringe into
the little circular holes of the
burrows on the surface of the
wood; then the piece of furniture
must be at once exposed to the
cold, which will cause the air to
be drawn into the burrows and
diffuse the volatile poison within.
The " worm holes " on the sur-
face should, as soon as the piece
of furniture is quite cold, be

FIG. 64-The book-louse, or d°Sed b^ mdted Paraffin" If
Atropos divinatoria, a soft, the piece of WOOd which it is
cream-coloured, wingless in- desired to " CUre " will stand

sect smaller than a flea, it submersion in water for a few

is believed by some observers . , . . ,

to be capable of making sounds minutes, and is not larger than

like the ticking of a watch. a cricket bat, it is, of course,

easy, by first warming it through

and then plunging it into water containing corrosive
sublimate or other poison, fairly to impregnate the
burrows, and make an end of the beetles and their
grubs. Painting is the common and approved means
of protecting wood against these attacks, and in some
positions metal sheathing is used. The method most
largely used for protecting wood in the open air against
" worm " and " mould " is that of forcing creosote into
its pores — an improvement on the old system of painting
with coal tar. A more expensive but beautiful method

STONE AND WOOD BORERS 355

of protecting wood is to force hard paraffin in a melted
condition by pressure into the pores. The wood becomes
wonderfully firm and waterproof. Neither damp and
mould, nor boring insect, nor shrimp can then penetrate
it. This method was introduced some years ago, but I do
not know whether it has been largely used.

XXXIX
CHRISTMAS FARE

MOST English people who can afford it eat more
than is good for them on Christmas Day, and
consider it more or less of a religious duty to do so,
even though they shrink from the ordeal. It is an
interesting tendency, and at the same time one readily
explained. Primitive men, and our own remote ancestors,
had few, if any, joys greater than those afforded by an
abundant meal of roasted meat. When a great beast
such as a mammoth was taken in a skilfully-prepared
pitfall, and slaughtered, the whole tribe of palaeolithic
huntsmen assembled and gorged themselves with its
flesh, which, it seems fairly certain, they cooked on open
fires. The strongest seized the most and ate the most,
and were able to bear up the longest in something like
full vigour until such time as another big beast should
be killed, and another opportunity for " gorging " should
arise, when they would naturally again get the largest
share, having eaten most on the previous occasion, and
so being least famished. Hence the belief that a great
appetite is a fine thing, and that the more you can eat,
the stronger and better you are, is one of the deeply-laid
traditions of humanity which civilised men have inherited
from barbarians, and are only slowly commencing to

criticise and to put aside. The negroes who accompany
356

CHRISTMAS FARE 357

European sportsmen in Central Africa gorge themselves
when elephants are killed, and a recent account tells of
the serious illness and danger to an expedition caused
by the whole countryside flocking to the carcasses of
twenty-three elephants killed by an ivory-hunter. The
blacks continued to eat the flesh of the elephants for
three weeks, when it had become decidedly " high," and
many died, whilst others took weeks to recover, in conse-
quence. The notion of " festivity," which, especially in
England, has been, even in recent times, that of eating
and drinking to excess, is prehistoric and barbaric.
Serious physiologists and medical men have expressed
the opinion that we shall never arrive at a satisfactory
mode of nourishing ourselves so as to take neither too
much nor what is in itself injurious to health, until the
practice of seeking gaiety and celebrating a memory or
honouring a friend or friends by means of profuse eating
(often followed by wearisome speeches) has given place
to a mode of rejoicing which is more likely to produce
hilarity and lightness of heart, and less certain to be
followed by painful and injurious results. We certainly
eat less and drink less of intoxicating liquors than we
did, but there is, it seems, still room for improvement.

To connect heavy feeding with Christmas, the third
in rank of the great festivals of the Church, is not a
universal custom, and is, in fact, a peculiarity of our
own country, arising from the rearing and management
of cattle in early times, when English pasture land
furnished a splendid means of enriching its owners by
the production of " hides " and leather. Large numbers
of cattle had to be stalled during winter and fed on
stored herbage, and a great many were at this season
killed and the meat " salted down," since it would not
pay to keep them on stored food. It was not until the
introduction of " root-crops " that oxen could be kept in

358 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

any number through the winter months. Hence there
was an excess of fresh meat and fat about Christmas
time, and the " roast beef," plum puddings, and mince-
meat of Christmas fare were abundant. The true Christ-
mas pudding and mince-pie had meat as part of their
components, and, of course, beef-suet enters largely into
their composition at the present day.

The practice of eating sweet fruits and preserves
with meat (as in the true mince-pie) still lingers in this
country, but has become less general than it is in Ger-
many. We still eat red-currant jelly with roast mutton,
and also with hare, and apple sauce is considered appro-
priate to roast pork and to goose ; but pickled plums and
cherries and sugared crab-apples, which are usually taken
with meat in Germany, are not known to us. I have
heard a schoolboy express indignation at being given
plums with roast meat. Mincemeat, for mince-pies, was
originally (like a " Cornish pasty," in which raisins are
mixed with meat) one of these combinations of sweet-
ness and strength — of sugar and meat — the taste for
which has unaccountably disappeared in these days of
mechanical uniformity and lack of " homely cheer."

The introduction of the turkey as a Christmas dish
dates from the early time of the importation of that
bird into Europe, namely, about 1550. It is already
spoken of in connection with Christmas fare in 1570.
The " turkey-cock," as its full name was, is an American
bird, and was brought originally from Mexico to Europe,
though it is possible that the more northern American
species may have been also introduced by the navigator,
Jean Cabot. There is a very gorgeous turkey-cock of
iridescent bright blue and green, with orange-red warts
on his head and neck, found in Honduras. But he has
never been acclimatised. He is on view in the Natural
History Museum. The turkey belongs to the pheasant

CHRISTMAS FARE 359

family, and is compared by old writers to the peacock,
and also to the guinea-fowl (Numida meleagris of orni-
thologists). Indeed, there was great confusion when the
turkey first arrived between it and the guinea-fowl, and
it appears to be owing to this mixing up of the two birds
that the American bird was called a turkey-cock, since
the guinea-fowl is an African bird, and came into the
hands of Europeans through Mussulman traders or
" Turks." So far did the confusion go that the great Lin-
naeus applied the Latin name Meleagris, which was that
of the guinea-fowl, to the " turkey " of America ! Some
people think that the turkey-cock established his mis-
leading name by his cry, which they say is represented
by the words " Turk-turk-turk." Probably the turkey-
cock, though an American bird, was imported by traders
who were called " Turkey merchants " because their
chief business was with the Levantine and Morocco ports.
Another mistake or vagueness as to the native home of
the turkey was hit upon by the French, who called
it the Poule d'Inde, whence their modern name for it,
Dindon; and the same error is found in an old
German name for it, Kalkuttisch Hiln (from Calicut,
on the Malabar coast of India, where the turkey was
introduced from America in the seventeenth century, and
has flourished ever since). The Swedish name for the
turkey is Kalcon, and is only a modification of this
old German name. Probably few animals or birds have
been so persistently misrepresented by the names given
to them as the American bird which we call the turkey.

Our farmyard names for him are far better. In Scot-
land they call him the " Bubbly-jock," which vividly
suggests his airs and graces, whilst in Suffolk we call
him a " Gobble-cock." I know an old farmhouse near
Woodbridge, in Suffolk, which bears the delightful name
of "Gobblecock Hall." "The squire of Gobblecock

360 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

Hall " would have furnished Randolph Caldecott with
inspiration for a Christmas picture story ; and so, indeed,
would the country round the " Hall," with its vast sandy
tract, ten miles long, known as Hollesley Heath, ending
on the seashore near Orford Castle.

The misleading indication as to the native land of an
animal — due to the name commonly applied to it — is
remarkable in the case of the guinea-pig. Though the
guinea-fowl is correctly so called, since it comes from the
Guinea Coast of Africa, the guinea-pig has nothing to do
with that coast, but comes from South America ! It is
not a pig, but a rodent, and it does not come from
Guinea. It appears that the ships of the " Guinea
merchants " of this country established trading relations
with South American ports, and hence the little " pig "
(Shakespeare calls the hedgehog " hedge-pig ") which
they brought home was called a " guinea-pig," just as
the big " cock " imported by Turkey merchants was
called a " Turkey-cock." The guinea-pig suffers other
" indignities of appellation." The Germans call him
Meersckweinchen, that is, " little sea-pig." Apparently
" sea " pig, because he was brought over the sea. But
this leads to unjustifiable suggestions as to the guinea-
pig's character. For the Germans call the porpoise
Meerschwein, which would seem to mean "pig of the
sea " ; and those imperfectly acquainted with the German
language have been known to take allusions made by
German writers to the former animal as intended to
apply to the young of the latter. Thus one reads in an
English medical book of a number of " young porpoises "
being fed upon carrots when it was really " guinea-pigs "
which consumed this nutriment. The German physi-
ologists, who often make use of guinea-pigs in their
investigations, now call them Cobayas, so as to avoid
any further misunderstanding. The French word for a

CHRISTMAS FARE 361

porpoise, marsouin, is a corruption of the German name
Meerschwein.

I have pointed out above the origin of heavy feeding
at Christmas. Whether it is necessary or not to continue
that precise mode of celebration, the sentiments of peace
and goodwill which belong to Christmas, the meeting of
kinsmen, — and, above all, the dedication of many of its
customs to children, — are things to be cherished and
treated tenderly. The 25th day of December was fixed
by the Church for the celebration of the birth of Christ,
but it is fairly certain that the period of the year indicated
in the Gospel as that when the shepherds were watching
their flocks and saw the star of Bethlehem, was not
December, but October. It is also certain that the
children owe their share in Christmas to the combination
with it of customs proper to the Epiphany, which
celebrates the bringing of gifts to the child Christ by the
wise men of the East. It appears that the greatest and
gayest of the feasts of pagan Rome — the " Saturnalia "
— was held at the end of December, and that the early
Church in this, as in many other cases, adapted a pagan
custom to its own uses, and fixed the feast of the
Nativity at this date expressly in order to take over,
as it were, the gaiety of the Saturnalia. The brilliant
foliage and berries of the holly-tree were used for
decorations at the Saturnalia, and thus became a Christ-
mas emblem. The fun and frolic of the Saturnalia were
transferred to the name of Christmas, and thus it comes
about that the Yule Log and the Lord of Misrule and
the Abbot of Unreason, and also snapdragon and clown,
harlequin and columbine, are found in full swing at
Christmas-tide. Later St. Nicholas, who took the place
of Neptune, and was the patron saint of sailors, became
associated with Christmas celebrations as Santa Claus or
Father Christmas. His regular day was at the beginning

362 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

of December, and so it was easy to postpone his festivities
to three weeks later.

Mistletoe is not a Christmas decoration. It comes
to us from the Druids, and belongs to the New Year. It
is not allowed to appear in church, and should not be
hung up in private houses till Christmas is over and the
New Year has come. The hanging up of the mistletoe
is in itself a beautiful survival of an ancient worship, and
should be associated in our minds with Stonehenge and
the prehistoric star temples, whose priests were astro-
nomers. On New Year's Day they solemnly distributed
branches of the mistletoe to the people as a charm
ensuring fertility. In December there are many hundred-
weight of mistletoe cut down and despatched from the
ancient Druidical haunts of the Welsh border, and from
over-sea Brittany, to all-devouring London, where it is
heedlessly nailed up in doorways, and made the excuse
for much giggling and embracing. May those who read
these lines treat it with due reverence, and when they
kiss beneath the beautiful strange branch with its white
berries, think of our ancestors — the noble youths and
lovely maidens of prehistoric days, who kissed three
thousand years ago, and sent this living token of their
happy lives down the long ages — to us, distracted hustlers
of the motor-car. Prehistoric feeding may not be good
for us, but the prehistoric rite of the mistletoe must not
be neglected in these days of strange political aspirations
on the part of those who have not discovered its sedative
virtue.

XL
THE ORIGIN OF OPIUM

THAT Europe is the original home of the opium-
poppy, and not Asia, is even more contradictory
of our settled traditions and belief than the fact that
Europeans gave tobacco to the East. Yet it is the fact
that opium, like tobacco, came to the Far East from
Europe. The opium-poppy does not grow wild in
Asia; it is a cultivated variety of a Mediterranean
poppy, the Papaver setigerum, which has a pale purple
flower, and was conveyed, long ago, by man from the
Levant to Asia. We have true poppies of four species
which grow wild in England, all with splendid scarlet or
crimson petals, easily distinguished from one another
by the shape of the seedboxes, or capsules, which they
form. If you scratch the surface of the seed capsule of
one of these poppies a milky juice appears. It is this
which is collected from the capsules of the much larger
opium-poppy in India and China, and when dried forms
a hard brown cake, which is called " opium." It consists
of resinous matter, in which is contained a small quantity
of the invaluable narcotic called " morphia," and also
small quantities of other powerful poisons.

The pale - purple poppy of the Mediterranean
(Papaver setigerum'} was cultivated hundreds — even
thousands — of years ago in the South of Europe and
363

364 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

on the Mediterranean shores of Africa — not for opium,
but for the oil which can be expressed from the seed,
" poppy-seed oil." The oil is free from narcotic
properties. The purple poppy is still cultivated for
that oil in France, and poppy-seed oil is an article of
commerce used as food, both in the pure state and for
adulterating other oils. The earliest cultivation of this
poppy is even as remote in Europe as 7000 years,
for we find that the Swiss lake-dwellers of the Stone
Age cultivated it, and that the variety they obtained
was nearer to the wild Papaver setigerum than to its
cultivated derivative, the modern opium -poppy, Papaver
somniferum. How and when it first was recognised that
the narcotic substance " opium " could be prepared from
the juice exuding from the cut capsule is not exactly
known, but it is probable that it was not until the early
Middle Ages that the poppy was cultivated for the
habitual use of opium as a narcotic indulgence, and that
its earlier cultivation was, as to some extent at the present
day, for the sake of the oil contained in the seed, its use
in medicine requiring but a very small supply. The
ancient Greeks were well acquainted with the cultivated
poppy. Homer mentions it, and at a much later period
Theophrastus and Dioscorides do so. They call it
" mekon," and were aware of the somniferous properties
of the sap. Dioscorides, whose wonderful book on
plants dates from the first century of our era, speaks
of the drug derived from the sap by the name " opos,"
and it is from that word that the name " opium " has
come. The Romans cultivated the poppy before the
republic, and mixed its seeds with their flour in making
bread. The story of King Tarquin taking the governor
of a rebellious province into a poppy-field, lopping off
the heads of the taller poppies with his stick, and then
turning to his visitor, without a word, but with a look

THE ORIGIN OF OPIUM 365

which said, " That is the way to govern " — is evidence of
the very early cultivation of the poppy by the Romans.
Hebrew writings do not mention the opium poppy,
though it seems to be certain that it has been cultivated
in Asia Minor for at least 3000 years. There is no
evidence that the plant was cultivated in more ancient
times in Egypt, although in Pliny's time the Egyptians
used the juice of the poppy medicinally. In the Middle
Ages it was, and in our own day it is, one of the chief
objects of cultivation in that country, especially for the
manufacture of opium.

The cultivated variety P. somniferum of the present
day differs from the wild P. setigerum, in having the
seed-capsule surmounted by ten or twelve stigmas (the
free ends of the leaves which are united to form the
capsule), instead of by eight as in the wild form. It
seems that the introduction of the poppy from the
shores of the Mediterranean into Persia, India, and
China is due to Arab traders, and is coincident with the
rise of Mohammedanism ; and it is probable that it was
valued and cultivated from that time onwards, not so
much for the sake of its seed and oil, as for the narcotic
juice, which was made up by Arabian " confectioners "
into a kind of paste, and eaten, as were other vegetable
extracts — such as " bang," from hemp — for the sake of
the pleasurable effects produced by its poisonous action
on the nervous system. It is certain that the opium
poppy does not occur at all in the wild state in the
Middle and Far East. In 1516 opium was already an
article of trade from India to China. The poppy was
cultivated, and the use of opium known and frequent
in India for some five centuries before that date.
Probably the cultivation of the plant in China was not
started until the eighteenth century.

It was the Chinese who hit upon the mode of in-

366 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

dulging in opium by smoking it in a pipe. There is no
record, written or pictorial, of this practice earlier than
1730, about fifty years before which date (1680) we find
the smoking of tobacco represented on Chinese pottery.
Very soon the Chinese were not content to import their
opium from India, but large areas were put under culti-
vation with the Indian poppy in China and Manchuria.
For a century or more the export of opium from India to
China continued and increased as the consumption of the
drug increased, the native Chinese production not being
sufficient to meet the demand. In 1730 and 1796 the
Chinese Government issued edicts forbidding the smoking
of opium, and in the last century the efforts of the
Chinese authorities to prevent the importation of Indian
opium, whether with a view to suppress a dangerous vice
or to favour the home-grown article, led to war with
England. In some parts of China — for instance, Amoy
— three-fourths of the population are, or were until lately,
opium-smokers. Now it is believed that the Chinese
Government is genuinely determined to put a stop to the
dangerous and enervating indulgence in this narcotic, and
the opium-growers of India will have to limit their out-
put, and employ their land and labour for other crops.

It is the fact that the eating of opium (for it is not
" smoked " there) does very little harm in India, since it
is not used by a large proportion of the people nor in
excess. Many persons who have studied the subject
maintain that the widely-spread injury caused by opium
in China is due to the short time during which it has
been in use there as compared with India. It is held
that a population after a few centuries becomes immune
to such poisonous but attractive indulgences by the kill-
ing out of those who cannot resist excess — and the
suggestion is that the simplest way of dealing with such
cravings for poison is to let those who have them and

THE ORIGIN OF OPIUM 367

cannot resist their demand, freely indulge and die, and
their stock with them. This is, however, a slow and
tedious way of eradicating an evil tendency. It may,
perhaps, be the only way, and hereafter, when the pro-
duction by careful and restricted breeding of a sound
and healthy population becomes recognised as being part
of the duty of the makers and administrators of the law
in civilised states, it is not improbable that we shall see
something of the kind deliberately put into practice.

The opium-pipe and the mode of smoking at present
in use in China are very different from the pipe and
smoking of tobacco used there or elsewhere. I investi-
gated the matter myself twenty years ago in an opium-
den near the London Docks, under the instruction of a
polite Chinaman. The opium-pipe has a very narrow
cavity, about one-sixth of an inch wide. The prepared
opium, in a condition resembling treacle, is smeared on
the walls of the cavity with a pin, and the pipe is held to
a lighted lamp. The flame drawn into the pipe causes
the opium to frizzle and give off smoke, but it does not
" light " and continue to burn. Each whiff which the
smoker inhales has to be procured by applying the pipe
to the lamp. The smoke is tasteless, and it requires a
good deal of patience and several re-smearings of the
inside of the pipe before the smoker begins to experience
the pleasant effects of the drug. These consist in the
production of a sense of perfect contentment and in-
difference to all trouble and care, whilst the imagination
gives a rose-colour, or an even more alluring aspect, to
all that one sees or thinks of — until a gentle sleep closes
the scene.

The Chinese, having obtained the seeds, cultivated
the opium-poppy, and made opium before the prepared
article was imported in any great quantity from India.
There is, of course, no doubt as to the injury which is

368 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

done to a population by the habitual use of opium. At
the same time, there is no one who knows anything
about medicine and the use of drugs who does not speak
of opium with reverence and even affection. Forty years
ago, at a dinner-party where the leading physicians of
London were present, it was suggested that they should
each write down in order of merit the ten drugs to which
they attached the greatest value. I heard from one who
was present that they all put opium in the first place,
and that mercury, iodide of potassium, and ipecacuanha
followed in that order in the majority of the lists. The
value of opium as a medicinal agent is one thing ; its
deadly effect on those who have become victims to its
daily use is another. The origin of the medicinal use of
opium can be traced to Egypt in Pliny's time, but
beyond that nothing is known.

As I am writing of botanical matters, I may briefly
refer to an ambiguity about the names "banana" and
" plantain." There is no difference (as is sometimes
suggested) between the fruits indicated by these two
words. Our word " plantain " is merely a corruption
of the Spanish word platano, which is the name of
the plane-tree. It was loosely applied in South America
by the Spanish colonists to the banana palm (Musa
sapientuni)) just as they called the North American bison
a buffalo, and as the Anglo-Americans call a stag an elk,
and a red thrush a robin. The banana palm is not an
American tree, but was introduced there from the East
Indies by the early navigators, and was very soon culti-
vated by the South American Indians as well as by the
colonists. There have been great authorities — for in-
stance, Humboldt — who have believed that there is a
native South American banana palm as well as an East
Indian one ; but the definite conclusion of botanists, after
careful inquiry, is that there is only one species, and that

THE ORIGIN OF OPIUM 369

it is of South Asian origin. There are an enormous
number of cultivated varieties — forty-four are described ;
they can all be arranged in two groups, the large-fruited
bananas (fruit 7 inches to I 5 inches long), and the small-
fruited bananas, commonly called fig-bananas (fruits I
inch to 6 inches long). All are equally entitled to the
name " plantain " as well as " banana." The finest
flavoured varieties are cultivated in Hindustan, and there
only, being often of very great value and rarity. Those
which come into the English market are chiefly, if not
entirely, of West Indian production. The foliage of the
banana palm consists of oblong leaves of magnificent size
and unbroken surface ; small trees are to be seen in hot-
houses (they bear fruit at Kew), and are frequently used
for decorative purposes.

ill!

•• 1 44**

~> B

XLI
THE MOST ANCIENT MEN

IN the winter of 1908—09 a very interesting discovery
was announced in the daily newspapers — the dis-
covery of a human skull and some bones buried in a
cave called the Grotto of the Chapelle-aux-Saints, in
the central department of France, known as the Correze,
not very far from Perigueux, in the Dordogne. An
account was given of this discovery by Professor Marcelin
Boule, of the Paris Museum, to the Academic des
Sciences, and the description of the bones, which had
been carefully pieced together, and were exhibited to
the meeting of the Academy, was sent by him to me
(see Fig. 65). Some exaggerated statements as to the
monkey-like character of the race to which these bones
belonged (exaggerated, but not altogether devoid of
truth) were circulated by imaginative correspondents
in the newspapers. It is the fact that these human
remains are of enormous antiquity, and belong to a very
peculiar and primitive race known as the Neander Men,
so called because a skull and some bones of this same
race were found fifty years ago in a cave in the Neander
valley,1 near Elberfeld, on the Rhine.

The French archaeologists, or " prehistorians," as we

1 So named after one Neumann, a religious enthusiast, who in-
habited the cave.

37'

372 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

now call them — are the leading discoverers in all that
relates to very early man. The caves in Central and
Southern France (Dordogne, Pyrenees, and Riviera)
and the gravels in the north have furnished the most
wonderful and interesting evidences of the existence of
human beings at an immensely remote period in this
part of Europe. Enthusiastic excavators and collectors
of French nationality have discovered, preserved, and
described the weapons, carvings, and drawings made by
the old cave-dwellers of Southern France, buried by the
accumulated deposits of ages deep in the caverns where
the human artists who made these things used to live.
In England only two such caves containing the imple-
ments of prehistoric men have been found — whilst a few
are known in Belgium, Moravia, and Switzerland.

Although we know an immense number of the flint
instruments, bone harpoons, and carvings and drawings
of the ancient cave-dwellers, yet skulls and bones of
the men themselves are extremely rare. Bones, skulls,
and teeth of the animals they killed and ate are
abundant in the caves — such as those of great bulls,
deer, and horses. The bones also of animals which
lived in these caves and contended with the ancient men
for the possession of the shelter afforded by them, are
abundant : bones of hyaena, of bear, of lion, and wolf.
But human bones are exceedingly rare. This arises
partly from the fact that human bones are not so thick
and strong as those of large animals, and more easily
soften, break up, and are lost. It is also due partly to
the fact that the men were not nearly so numerous as
the wild animals ; but it is chiefly due to the fact that
these people usually, but not always, buried their dead
in the open ; and whilst the bones of animals which had
been eaten were left about in heaps on the floor of the
caves, and became cemented together by the petrifying

THE MOST ANCIENT MEN 373

deposit caused by water dripping from the walls of these
limestone caverns or by streams actually flooding the
caverns, the bodies of the men themselves were removed
when they died by their friends and families, and buried
in the open ground, where they have gradually dissolved
and broken up. Only a few here and there of the more
ancient races were buried in a cave, and are in conse-
quence preserved until the present day. Obviously, it
would only be an exceptional honour or superstition
which would cause the giving up of a cave to the inter-
ment of a dead body, or only rarely that a corpse could
be tolerated in the floor of the cave still inhabited by
living men.

It is a mistake to suppose that all the bones of all
the men and animals which have lived on the earth's
surface are naturally and as a matter of course permanent
enduring things. On the contrary, when they are buried
in soil or sand permeated by water, they slowly soften
and decay, dissolve and disappear. When washed into
streams and rivers or into the sea, they break up and
dissolve. No bones were dredged up from the floor of
the ocean by the explorers of the Challenger expedi-
tion. A bone sunk in the sea gradually dissolves.
Only those bones (and the same is true of shells) are
permanently preserved which happen to get into certain
favourable positions, embedded in clay or hard deposit,
which is not disturbed, and becomes slowly raised up
and free from soaking water before the bone is dissolved ;
or, again, those which have been protected in the accumu-
lated deposits of the floor of a cavern covered in by
layers of hard calcareous slab or stalagmite, which
usually is formed by the water dripping from the lime-
stone roof and walls. The limestone is dissolved like
sugar, and is deposited when the water evaporates —
" petrifying " the floor of the cave. It is owing to this

374 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

.

rarity of the natural pre-
servation of bones that we
never find more than a few
of those of extinct animals
of various degrees of anti-
quity, and never more than
a very few of those of the
ancient men who lived in
caverns and made " flint im-
plements."

As a preliminary to deal-
ing below with the story of
" the Neander Men " — to
which race the newly-found
skull and bones from the
Correze belong — it will help
to make the importance of
that skeleton obvious if I
very briefly and dogmatically
state what are the great
periods in the prehistoric
record of man, and the pro-
bable distance in time from
us of those periods. It
must be remembered that
what I have to say applies
only to the " prehistoric his-
tory " of man in Western
Europe and the Mediter-
ranean region, for it is only

FIG. 66. -An unpolished but beauti- this Part of the world which
fully chipped flint knife, of the has been sufficiently care-
Neolithic Age, from Denmark. funy examined to yield any

j e •., i • T

defimtG Conclusions. Let

US suppose that VVC Can

(This figure and Fig. 67 are from
theguidetotheantfquitiesofthe
Stone Age in the British Museum).

THE MOST ANCIENT MEN

375

travel back through the ages, and proceed to do so.
We find that there are three well-marked successive
periods in Europe — which are called the Iron Age, the
Bronze Age, and the Stone Age. When we go back to
Julius Caesar conquering Gaul and parts of Germany and
Britain, we find that the Romans had steel swords, and
freely made use of that metal
for a variety of tools and con-
structive purposes. The Gauls
and Belgi and Allemanni and
Britons were still in the Bronze
Age ; they had beautifully made
bronze swords and daggers and
helmets and shields, which were
weaker and softer than those
of iron used by the Romans.
The use of iron was soon spread
by the conquerors, and the rest
of Europe entered on the Iron
Age. When the Anglo-Saxons
arrived in England they had
iron weapons. At what date
precisely the Romans them-
selves took to the use of iron is

not known, probably they learnt FIG. 67.— A polished flint axe-
its use from the peoples of
Africa ; but at no distant date,
a few hundred years before Christ, they, too, and the
Greeks were in the Bronze Age. In Western Europe
we see the Bronze Age, as we travel back in time,
disappearing, and we come to the Stone Age, about
2000 B.C. Copper was used at the later stage of the
Stone Age, and then the alloy with tin, which is called
"bronze." At the time that the big stones of Stone-
henge were set up (the smaller stones of the outer circle

head, of Neolithic Age, from
Denmark.

376 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

are more ancient) the Stone Age was coming to its end,
and the Bronze Age coming in.

Everywhere, but not always within the same thousand
years or so, we see as we go still farther back, the use of
metal giving place to the use of stone. In Europe we
see a highly-developed material civilisation from three to
seven thousand years ago. The people till the land, sow
crops, keep herds, build houses (of wood), make pottery
combs for the hair, necklaces of amber and of shells,
and other ornaments, but they have no metal weapons or
implements. They sometimes use native gold to make
decorative ornaments ; but their knives, daggers, swords,
saws, and hammers are all of stone, either flint or dense
greenstone. We reach this purely Stone Age in Europe
at 2000 B.C. ; in Egypt we do not get back to it so
soon, but, about 5000 B.C., we there come upon a pre-
Pharaonic population which made use of beautifully-
finished stone knives in place of metal. The first people
we come upon in Europe as we pass from the Bronze to
the Stone Age had a great deal of skill and an elaborate
social organisation. Their stone weapons were beautifully
chipped and often highly polished (Figs. 66 and 67). We
find the slabs of grit upon which they rubbed the chipped
flint adzes in order to make them smooth. But soon
we find, as we go back, that polishing is unknown, and
that the chipped flint adzes are used in a rough state.
On entering the Stone Age we find that we are
only on the fringe of an immense period of " stone-
weaponed humanity," extending back for tens of
thousands of generations of men, when stone (and in
Europe especially, that stone which we call " flint ") was
the one great stand-by of the human race — the one
hard cutting material which man learnt to shape and
apply to his own purposes — so as to make holes with it,
saw with it, scrape with it, cut with it, kill with it. On

THE MOST ANCIENT MEN 377

account of its prodigious range in time it is found neces-
sary to divide the Stone Age into two periods — a later,
called the " Neolithic " (the new stone period), and an
older, stretching back until the traces of it are lost
in geologic changes of the earth, which is called the
" Palaeolithic " (the old stone period).

Thus if we start on a time-journey to explore the
earliest traces of man in Europe, we pass along the centuries
back, through the Iron and the Bronze Ages of humanity,
and arrive at the vast Stone Age, which stretches away
into the obscurity of more than a hundred thousand, pro-
bably of many hundred thousand, years. The later or
newer fringe of the Stone Age is called the " Neolithic,"
or newer Stone Age, or Age of Polished Stone, because
the men of that period polished their stone implements
after chipping them into shape. That which we dimly
see beyond is the "Palaeolithic," or older period of "stone-
weaponed " humanity, when polishing was unknown.

The Neolithic civilisation comprised the Swiss and
Glastonbury lake-dwellers, who built houses on piles in
the water: also the makers of the kitchen-middens of Den-
mark, and the builders of the great stone avenues, circles,
and cromlechs, and the elevators of the solitary big stones
called " menhirs " — most of them rougher and probably
two thousand or three thousand years older than the big
stones of Stonehenge. Our journey has now brought us
into the full darkness of prehistoric times. We cannot tell
how far back this " Neolithic " period reaches, but there
are things found which make it certain that it reaches to
7000 B.C., and probably a good deal farther. We are
now far in time behind the most ancient Greeks and the
more ancient Egyptians. Europe is a rich, moist pasture-
land, peat bogs are abundant and luxuriant woodlands ;
the climate is mild ; the wild animals are those which
to-day inhabit Central Europe, but more abundant. The

378 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

domesticated animals kept by the men are those which
we have to-day, and many of the crops and cultivated
plants are those of our own time, such as wheat, barley,
oats, and rye. We know also by their remains that the
Neolithic men fed on chestnuts, hazel nuts, walnuts,
plums, apples, pears, and strawberries, and cultivated the
vine, the pale opium-poppy, and the narrow-leaved flax.
Hemp was not known to them.

As we push back still farther into the night of
antiquity — we cannot say at how many thousand years
from to-day, whether ten, twenty, or fifty thousand —
the climate becomes very cold, the glaciers extend far
down the valleys, and we note that the level of sea
and land has changed. Great Britain and Ireland are part
of the Continent of Europe. There are strange animals
in the south of what was England, and there, as well as
in France, reindeer abound, wild horses, the bison, the
Siberian saiga antelope, the great ox, bears, gluttons, and
wolves ; and there are men living in caves — the natural
caverns which form in limestone rock. These men are
chipping flints (but do not polish them) and carving
bones, but now have no herds, nor cultivated fields, nor
pottery (some very rough fragments have been found),
nor buildings, nor earthworks. They are like some
modern savages, Nature's gentlemen, " who toil not,
neither do they spin," but they hunt and fish. They
live entirely on the produce of the chase and on fish, wild
fruits, and roots.

They wear undressed skins and furs, and paint or
tattoo their faces. They make twisted ropes (probably
of skin) which they fix as a halter round the head and
jaw of the wild horse, as shown by their own carvings
(Figs. 8 and 9). Probably they ride him. They certainly
eat him. At Solutre, near Macon, the bones of no less
than a hundred thousand horses were found piled up as

THE MOST ANCIENT MEN

379

a sort of kitchen-midden round a camp of Palaeolithic
men ! They have the art of making fire, and have a
wonderful artistic skill in carving and drawing on bone
and ivory and on stones, and
in painting on the walls of
their caves, the animals which
surround them and are hunted
by them (Fig. 71). They
make great numbers of carved
harpoons or toothed spear-
heads (Fig. 68) from bone,
and also needles for sewing
skins ; whilst from flint they
chip spear-heads, knives, hand-
hatchets, and saws. They
decorate their carvings with
spirals, lozenges, and circles
cut in low relief (Fig. 69).
But their truly astonishing
skill and mental development
is shown in their carvings and
engravings of animals and fish
(Fig. 70), which are executed
either on bones or stones, or
on pieces of the ivory of the
mammoth. Besides the rein-
deer, horses, goats, saiga ante-
lope, rhinoceros, mammoth,
and seal, their carvings include
statuettes and drawings of men
and women (Fig. 7).

At the best period some
of these carvings show a mastery of the material, a
directness and a simplicity and beauty of essential line,
together with true observation of characteristic form, which

FIG. 68. — A. Perforated harpoon
of the transition period (Azilian
or Red Deer period), between
Palaeolithic and Neolithic, made
from antler of red deer, found
in quantity in the upper layers
of deposit in the cavern of the
Mas d'Azil (Arriege). B and C.
Imperforate harpoons or lance
heads made from reindeer antler
of the Magdalenian period (Rein-
deer epoch). B from Bruniquel
Cave (Tarn-et-Garonne). Cfrom
a cavern in the Hautes Pyrenees.
Same size as the objects.

38o

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

separate these works from those of the ordinary savage
of modern times, and have caused living artists of
authority to declare that these craftsmen had those
definite gifts which entitle them to be recognised as
brother artists — an assurance which confirms my own
impression based on a long study of large series of the
actual specimens. The best works of their later period
(for their skill took time to
develop, and follows the laws
of growth of all art) represent
animals, such as deer, in move-
ment and often turning round
or foreshortened (Fig. 70); some
of their carvings of horses'
heads are worthy of the Par-
thenon (Fig. 9). On the other
hand, as is often observed in
primitive art, their representa-
tions of the human face and
figure are very inferior, and tend
to caricature.

FIG. 69.— A piece of mammoth We are now in the Palaeo-

ivory carved with spirals and Hthic period, and, what is more,

scrolls from the cave of Arudy h . d wh j ^

(Hautes Pyrenees). Same size

as the object. call the recent or modern epoch,

and have entered on "geologic"

times; this is the Pleistocene or Quaternary epoch. It is a
legitimate and useful thing thus to draw a strong line
between the Neolithic and the Palaeolithic portions of the
Stone Age. The Neolithic men belong, so to speak, to
our own days. They were, even seven thousand years
ago, only a little rougher in their tools than were the
peasants of the remoter parts of Central Europe a few
hundred years ago. They had not even as much ten-
dency to or gift for artistic work as the ploughmen of

THE MOST ANCIENT MEN

our own days, and have left none behind them. Except-
ing that they used stone axes and knives instead of steel
ones, they really led the life of mediaeval country-folk

But once you pass them in your journey backwards

once you enter the Pleistocene circle — you find that
climate, land surface,
animals, plants,
mode of life are as
utterly changed as
were you suddenly
transferred from the
English countryside
to Terra del Fuego
or to an Eskimo
village. The Palaeo-
lithic men and their
whole surroundings
and arts of life have
no touch of famili-
arity for the modern
inhabitants of
Europe.

When we ex-
plore this Palaeo-
lithic, Pleistocene, or
Quaternary epoch
— the last of the

bh c

FIG. 70. — Carving on an antler of a group of
three red deer and four fishes, remarkable
for the attitude and movement of the deer :
a, hind legs of front deer, the rest broken
away : bf, second deer : c, third deer looking
back : d, lozenge marks, supposed to be the
artist's signature : 6A, the hind legs of the
second deer, wonderfully true to nature in
their "hanging" pose. From the cavern of
Lorthet, near Lourdes (Hautes Pyrenees),
deposit of the Reindeer epoch. The carving
runs all round a cylindrical rod of bone
(as very many of these carvings do), and is
here represented as ' " un-rolled " or "de-
veloped," that is to say, laid out flat. The
drawing is a little reduced as compared with
the actual carving.

geologists' long
series of epochs and
deposits — we find that it represents by no means a
trivial episode in the world's long change. It is true that
compared to geologic periods which follow on below
it — namely, the Pliocene, Miocene, and Eocene of the
Tertiary, the Chalk and the vast ages below that white
sea-sediment, indicated by the sixty thousand feet of

382

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

stratified rock (Jurassic, Triassic, Carboniferous, Devonian,
Silurian, Cambrian !), the Pleistocene exhibits but a small
thickness of deposit (amounting to but two' or three
hundred feet of sand and gravel) as its contribution to
the earth's crust.

Yet, on account of the nearness to our own times of
the events which took place in the Pleistocene period,

FIG. 71. — Painting of a bison in orange-brown, grey, black, and white, the
outline partly engraved, from the roof of the cave of Altamira, near
Santander, in the north of Spain, upon which many others as well as
wild-boar, horses, and deer are depicted. The original is about two and
a half feet long. These drawings were executed by the Reindeer Men
in the period of the Upper or Post-Glacial Pleistocene.

geologists and prehistorians have studied its details with
minute care, and have accumulated an immense array of
facts and specimens by digging and carefully collecting
in Western and Central Europe. They have divided up
this Pleistocene period and the deposits in river-valley
and cave which have occurred within its limits into three
great consecutive ages. These are distinguished from one
another by the distinctive wild animals which flourished

THE MOST ANCIENT MEN 383

in each, by the climate which is indicated, and by the
progressive development of the art and workmanship of
the Palaeolithic men discovered in successive layers of
deposit. Let me here refer the reader to the tabular
statement on page 384 bis.

These ages of the Pleistocene are : — No. I. The Upper
or Post-Glacial Pleistocene, or Epoch of the Reindeer.
The climate was cold and dry, like that of the Russian
steppes. The contents of the celebrated cave of La
Madeleine, in the Dordogne, and the upper layers of
deposit in a whole series of caves (including Kent's
Cavern and the Creswell Cave in England) belong to this
age. This was the period in which the caves were in-
habited by the artistic race " who came no one knows
whence, and went no one knows whither," accompanied
by the reindeer. Before them there was no carving in
the caves, or only very rough work, and we are justified in
concluding that the men who inhabited the caves before
this period belonged to a totally distinct and inferior race.
The " Reindeer Men " must have developed their art by
gradual steps before they arrived in the caves of Western
Europe — where we do not know. At the end of this
period the climate became much milder, and the red deer
of our own day took the place of the reindeer, during a
long transition in which the " Reindeer Men " and their
art disappeared, and the pastoral, land-tilling, stone-
building, pottery-making communities of the Neolithic
Age came into existence, showing no trace of the art of
their predecessors. The mammoth and rhinoceros, bison,
and aurochs, and, in fact, all the commoner animals of
an earlier period were present nearly all through the Rein-
deer period (they disappear in the late " transition period "
of the red deer, called " Azilian "), and were known to
the " Reindeer Men," but great herds of reindeer and of
horses occupied the grassy lands in this age, which were

384

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

not abundant previously. These herds probably were to
some extent protected by the men, whilst the lion, bear,
hyaena, mammoths, and rhinoceroses were diminishing in
number, and were kept at a distance.

The next lower division of the Pleistocene is No. 2,
the Middle Pleistocene or Last Glacial Age, or better,

FIG. 72. — Back and front view of a flint implement of the Moustier type
(period of the Neander Men or Middle Pliocene), half the size (linear) of
the object. Observe the bulb of percussion at b, and the completion of
one face by a single blow. Note also the fine edge and point of the
weapon.

the Epoch of the Mammoth. The climate was cold
and humid. For the third and last time great
glaciers existed over the whole of Northern Europe,
and only bits of the south of England and the central
and southern parts of France were free from the ice-
covering, and carried a rich vegetation. Deeper
deposits in caves are of this age, and also much of the

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8 -

Sa •"

, f l

^6^

" m

8 fe

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ffliii

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WVEMIDE

THE MOST ANCIENT MEN 385

river gravels of the lower terraces of English and French
rivers. By the French it is often called the Moustierian
period, because it is well seen in the rich deposits of the
caves and plateau of Le Moustier, on the river Vezere
(an affluent of the Dordogne), which contain bones of
mammoth and rhinoceros, and flint implements of a
special form (Fig. 72), but no carvings or artistic work.
Hyaenas made some of the caverns into their dens,
and the cave-lion and the cave-bear were there too.
The men of this period actually contested with these
carnivors for the possession of the caves, and made great
fires to keep out wild beasts, as well as to grill the meat
on which they fed. They were of an inferior race to the
Reindeer Men, and had not such command of the situa-
tion as their successors. We find their remains, their
flint weapons, and in rare cases their own bones as well
as the bones of the mammoth and hairy rhinoceros (on
which they fed), and the bones of their competitors, the
hyaenas, bears, and lions, in the deeper deposits of some
caves, underlying, and separated often by calcareous de-
posit from, the layers which belong to the subsequent and
prosperous days of the Reindeer Men. Most striking is
the fact that in the layers of deposit of this older age,
there are no works of art nor any implements carved
from bone or ivory. These earlier men, devoid of art and
living at a low level of savagery, were the Neander Men.
It is in this layer and under these conditions that the few
broken skulls, agreeing in shape and character with that
of the Neander Valley, have been found.

Lastly we come to division No. 3, the Lower Pleisto-
cene, or Epoch of the Hippopotamus. The later climate
of this age was mild. It came between two glacial
periods, owing to the retreat of the glaciers, which
had earlier increased in extent so as to produce the
second Great Glacial period. The hippopotamus swam
25

386 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

in the Thames and Severn in those days, and left
its bones and teeth in the older gravels of those and
other European rivers, where we now find them. The big
almond-shaped and leaf-shaped flint implements of the
English (Fig. 73) and French gravels (Fig. 74) belong
to this period. We have no knowledge whatever of the
men who made them.1 The mammoth was not there,
but another species of elephant (E. antiquus) and a
peculiar rhinoceros (R. merckii). The deepest and oldest
deposits in some caves belong to this age, as well as the
high-lying gravels of St. Acheuil, of many English river-
valleys, and of Chelles on the Seine. This period is not
represented by much deposit in caves, though some
caves contain very deep-lying layers enclosing bones or
teeth of the animals characterising this period.

Older than the Age of the Hippopotamus are de-
posits which are reckoned by geologists as " Pliocene " —
no longer Pleistocene — and are called " Tertiary," not
" Quaternary." The forest bed of Norfolk (regarded by
Professor Marcelin Boule as of transitional character, as
shown in the tabular view on p. 384 bis}, the Norwich
crag, the Suffolk red and coralline crag, and very ex-
tensive sandy deposits all over Europe belong to the
Pliocene. The earliest or first great extension of glaciers
occurred late in this period. The animals are very
different from those of the Pleistocene ; the great mastodon
and the tapir are there, and the sabre-toothed tiger.
Implements manufactured by man are found in the
oldest Pleistocene, and there is no reason to doubt that
we shall find his workmanship in the Pliocene, too,
though it is not admitted that this has yet been done.
It is a question still eagerly studied and debated as
to whether the roughly chipped flints found in gravels
on high downs in the south of England, and called
1 See, however, farther on as to the lower jaw found at Heidelberg.

FIG. 73.— Flint pick from the Lower Pleistocene of the Thames Valley.
Two-thirds the size of the object.

3 88 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

" eoliths," are (as I think many of them are) the work
of man, and whether the high-lying gravels in which
they are found are to be regarded as of the oldest
Pleistocene Age or as late Pliocene. It is an exciting

and deeply interest-
ing field of practical
exploration and
reasoned inference.

It will have been
gathered from what
I have said that, in
seeking for know-
ledge of the sequence
of events in the period
of Palaeolithic Man,
everything depends
upon extreme care in
removing the deposits
from a cave inch by
inch, and keeping all
objects found distinct
from one another and
assigned to their
proper layer. The
same system is now
applied with great
success to the ex-

FlG. 74.— A rough type of flint implement ploration of ancient
from the Lower Pleistocene of the Somme ••• • -n- . i

Valley (St. Acheuil). One-half the size of Cltl6S m E^?t and
the object. Central Asia.

As to the actual

bones and skulls of men discovered in these Pleistocene
deposits, they show us that the Reindeer Men were a
fine, full-brained people, as we should expect, with as
large a brain cavity on the average as that of modern

390 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

Europeans. The skulls of this race, which do not
differ in character from those of highly developed
modern races, were first found at Cromagnon, and hence
we may call them "the Cromagnards " (Fig. 75).
The Neander Men are the men of the middle period
— the last glacial period — who were displaced by the
splendid and accomplished Cromagnards. The Neander
Men, of which the new French specimen (Fig. 65)
from the cave of the Chapelle-aux-Saints is one, were
a very inferior race, and so different from any living
race of men as to justify the recognition of them as
a distinct species of man, the Homo Neander thalensis.
Only a few other imperfect skulls and skeletons of
them are known (Figs. 76 and 77), and show them
to have been short people, with very low, flat heads
and retreating foreheads. It is in accordance with
what one would expect, that they should make no
works of art, and should be displaced, as climatic con-
ditions changed for the better, by the arrival of the fine,
full-brained Cromagnards or Reindeer Men. But where
did they, these delightful artists and happy hunters of
the Reindeer Epoch, come from ? We cannot say. And
what became of them ? We do not know. They did
not give rise to the Neolithic race, but were replaced,
turned out by that race. To them, indeed, are appro-
priate the words of the Roman poet — Prolem sine matre
creatam, mater sine tirole defuncta

XLII
THE CAVE-MEN'S SKULLS

A CERTAIN number of human skulls and a few com-
1JL plete skeletons have been found in the cave-deposits,
and even in open ground (as at Predmont, in Moravia)
associated with the bones of extinct animals, or with
carvings and ornaments like those which occur abundantly
in the caverns. The ancient cave-men of the Cromagnard
type — often called "the Reindeer Men" — buried their dead
sometimes in the caves, but more usually in the open.
Sometimes the skeletons are found in a crouching position,
as though tied up when buried ; more rarely (as in some
examples found in the caves at Mentone) they are
stretched out and decorated with a necklace or wreath
made of shells, or of the teeth or small bones of animals.
In many cases the flesh was removed from the corpse,
and red ochre was smeared on the bones (as by some
recent savages). The " Reindeer " people used red ochre
and charcoal to colour the engravings of animals (Fig. 71)
which they made on the walls of their caves, and prob-
ably for painting or tattooing their own faces. The
existence of these wall paintings, wonderful representa-
tions of bison, great ox, deer, and other animals, proves that
these men had artificial light (lamps or torches) to send
fitful gleams on to the paintings, and it is probable that
the " wall pictures " had to do with some kind of witch-

C.

FIG. 76. — Three views of the
skull-top from near Elber-
feld on the Rhine, known
as the Neanderthal skull —
(Middle Pleistocene, Mous-
tierian, or last Glacial
Period : epoch of the Mam-
moth). These figures are
partly copied by kind per-
mission of Mr. Worthington
G. Smith, F.LS., from
excellent figures published
by him in his interesting
book, Man, the Primitive
Savage (Stanford, 1899).
In all respects the measure-
ments of this skull-top agree
very closely with those of
the skull from the Chapelle-

in front. B. Side view show-
ing the line a-/>, and the
other lines, a-c, d, e, and/",
exactly as in Fig. 65. The
shallowness of the cranial
dome and the small pro-
jection of the frontal boss
d, agree exactly with the
measurements of the Chap-
elle skull shown in Fig. 65.
C. View of the skull-top
from below. This gives the
outline of the Neander-
man's skull as seen from
above, and shows the
curious vizor-like expansion
of the ridges over the orbits,
the pinching in just behind
them, and the elongate
shape of the skull, with its
great breadth in the hinder
region. The French skull
from the Chapelle agrees
exactly in outline with this,
and in both the volume of
the cranial cavity given by
this large expanse amounts
to 1600 cubic centimetres,
in spite of the flatness of
the cranial dome — a greater
volume than that of the
Cromagnon skull drawn in
Fig. 75, or of the average
modern European.

THE CAVE-MEN'S SKULLS 393

craft. Stone lamps have actually been discovered in
the caves. Their ceremonial treatment of the dead
shows that already the lines were laid for that worship
of the " spirits of the departed," which became general,
and is especially familiar to us in the comparatively
modern civilisation of Rome and the Etruscans. There
is also evidence that they made simple musical instru-
ments.

In the cave-deposits of the Post-Glacial or Reindeer
Age, the human skulls and skeletons which have been
found (not indicating more than thirty or forty indi-
viduals altogether from widely separate localities) show
a very well-developed race, with large brain -case (Fig. 75),
quite equal to that of modern Europeans. Some of
these men were very tall, one of the skeletons from the
Mentone caves being that of a man 6 ft. 3^ in. in height.
The cavity of the skull (which corresponds very closely
in size with that of the brain which it contained) would
hold about 1550 units of water (the unit referred to is
a cubic centimetre, 1550 of which are equal to a little
less than two and a half English pints). It is not
surprising that these Reindeer Men had fine brains,
for their carvings and pictures show them to have been
real artists, not mere savage scrawlers. This race is
called the " Cromagnards," after the first skulls dis-
covered at Cromagnon, in Central France. They had
big, strong lower jaws, with prominent chins, like many
fine modern races (e.g. the New Zealanders), and fine,
narrow noses. The face and upper jaws were somewhat
prominent, though not nearly so much so as in modern
negroes. The skull-bones were thick and strong. The
brain-case or cranial part of the skull was oblong rather
than round.

The skulls of the older race — that ol the Last
Glacial or Moustierian Age — the Neander Men, were

394

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

long skulls, too, but had a peculiarly flattened shape
and a retreating forehead. The bony ridges over the
eyes, corresponding to the eyebrows, were enormous, and
projected forwards like the vizor of a cap (Figs. 65, 76,
and 77). There are but few specimens to guide our con-
clusions, but they show that though of short stature (some
not more than 5 ft. 4 in.), these people were very
muscular. The top of a skull from the cave in the

FlG. 77. — The Gibraltar skull from a cave in Gibraltar, now preserved in the
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. It is of the Neander
race. Compare the dotted lines and lettering with those of Fig. 65, and
the explanation there given. The drawing is one-third (linear) of the
natural size.

Neander Valley, known as the Neanderthal skull, two
imperfect skulls from the cave of Spy, in Belgium, an im-
perfect skull from Brunn, in Moravia, and other fragments
from Krapina, in Croatia, and, lastly, one from a cave
in Gibraltar, are the best known. Others, including
fragments of several skeletons less fully described, which
have been found at Predmort, in Moravia, probably
belong to this race. But the newly obtained skull and
bones from the centre of France (Chapelle-aux-Saints)

THE CAVE-MEN'S SKULLS 395

are the most important of all yet discovered. They all
date from the middle Pleistocene period, the age of the
last great glaciers, earlier than the age of the Reindeer.
The Gibraltar skull (Fig. 77) we have all known for a
long time; it has been in the museum of the Royal
College of Surgeons for forty years, and two years ago
was very carefully examined and figured by Professor
Sollas, of Oxford. It is a specially valuable specimen,
because it shows the bones of the face as well as the
brain-case. From other specimens we know the lower
jaw. The lower jaw was deep and powerful, but, like
that of an ape, had a receding chin, or rather, we should
say, had no "chin-prominence" at all (compare Figs. 79,
80, 8 1, and 82). The new French specimen (Fig. 65)
is strongly prognathous. The orbits are enormous, and
the nose very flat and quite unique in its great breadth.
One of the two Neander-man skulls from the Belgian
cave of Spy shows the face bones, and these agree with
what has just been stated as to the French skull.

Hence it appears that a short race with a very
strange and low-browed type of skull preceded the men
of the Reindeer Age. When, thirty years ago, only the
original skull-top from the Neander cave (Fig. 76) was
known, Virchow, of Berlin, considered it to be probably
that of an idiot, whilst Huxley expressed the opinion
that it indicates a race of men with decidedly low de-
velopment, and in some respects more ape-like characters
than modern Europeans ; but he held that it is not to
be considered as " a missing link," nor as taking us
appreciably nearer from modern man to the apes, since
it is most closely approached by the flat skulls, already
well known, of some of the South Australian natives,
both in shape and in the cubical capacity of the brain -
cavity. What I mean by the flatness of the skull may
be understood by looking at a side view of a monkey's

396 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

skull (Fig. 81) and of an ordinary European human skull
(take the Cromagnon skull as equivalent, Fig. 75) placed
upright, so that the eyes are looking forward. If in an
outline or photograph of each of these skulls you draw a
straight line from a point between the eyebrows back
to a point just below the most projecting ridge of the
hindermost region of the skull, you will find that above
that line in the monkey's skull is a slightly curved surface
— the roof of the brain-case. But in the human skull
above the similarly drawn line the roof bulges so as to
form an almost hemispherical dome, rising sometimes
vertically in the front region to form " the straight, high
forehead " (which Shakespeare commended, even in
woman). It swells out in the hinder region also. Now
the Neander skulls, and to a less extent the skulls of
many of the Australian aborigines, are more like the
monkey's in this matter ; the dome of the roof is shallow
and flat, and the forehead does not rise up, but slopes
backwards, so that the whole contents of the brain-case
are lessened by the reduction of the frontal and upper
region. And there is reason to consider this frontal
region of the brain as specially connected with some
of the higher intellectual qualities of the mind.

We know a little more about the skull of the
Neander race since Huxley wrote, owing to the further
discovery of specimens. The Australian's skull has
usually a more projecting upper jaw and upper front
teeth than has the Neander Man's. The Neander skulls
stand alone in the great breadth of the orbits and of the
nasal region as compared with all known skulls. They
are also alone (the Gibraltar skull and the new French
specimen are the only ones which show it) in the contour
of the upper jaw. In other human skulls there is a broad
depression of the surface — a nipping-in, as it were —
behind the root of the canine tooth on each side. This

THE CAVE-MEN'S SKULLS 397

is absent in the Neander race ; the bone here is flat, and
not in-pushed. This absence of " modelling," absence of
the canine " fossa " or valley (as it is called), is seen in
the larger apes as well as in the Neander Men. This
point does not show in our figures. Some writers think
it probable that the Neander Men of the late Glacial Age
were the ancestors of the Cromagnards of the Reindeer
Age, and also that the artistic Cromagnards were trans-
formed, after many thousand years, into the comparatively
dull and inartistic people of the Neolithic period. It
seems to me, on the contrary, more probable (as is held
by some of the French prehistorians) that the Reindeer
Men died out, and were replaced by the Neolithic herds-
men who migrated into Western Europe as the climate
became milder. The notion that the Esquimaux of
to-day are the Reindeer Men of France who have
migrated northwards with their reindeer, following the
receding ice, has been entertained, but is regarded by the
most careful inquirers as untenable. As to the earlier
change of race, I hold that it is not possible to contend
that the Neander Men developed into the Cromagnards of
the Reindeer Age actually in the south of France. If the
lower race or species gave rise to the higher, the enormous
transformation did not occur here nor in Europe at all,
nor during the later Pleistocene period. Human skulls
of the Reindeer Age are known which present an ap-
proach to the characters of the Neander race, such as
the heavy bony eyebrows. But it seems that this is
accounted for by the survival of some Neander families
alongside of the powerful Cromagnard men and the
interbreeding of the two. The Cromagnards had pro-
bably lived with their reindeer in some more southern
area during the late Glacial Age, and arrived in southern
France as the climate improved and became suitable to
their accustomed quarry. How and where they de-

398 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

veloped from a lower type of men we have at present
no indication.

A very remarkable discovery of the last five years
made in the course of the careful excavation of the four
caverns of Mentone by the Prince of Monaco, where as
many as sixteen human skeletons of the Pleistocene Age
have been brought to light, gives us a new point of view
as to the presence of more than one race in Europe in
these immensely remote times, as in later periods. In
one of the caves, and in a position showing them to date
from the deepest layer of the middle Pleistocene, or late
Glacial Age, two complete skeletons have been found (and
may be seen alongside those of the Cromagnon race in
the museum at Monaco), which are obviously different
from those of both the Neander and the Cromagnon
people. They have skulls which decidedly resemble that
of the modern negro race, so that they have been definitely
assigned to a new race hitherto unknown in European
caves, and are spoken of as " the negroid skeletons " and
" the Grimaldi race." This is indeed a startling fact. There
was land stretching across the Mediterranean in those
days, and these skeletons suggest that already there was
a negroid race in Africa, individuals of which had
wandered north as far as the maritime Alps.1 Two or
three negroid skulls of Neolithic (therefore very much
later) Age have been found in Brittany and in Switzerland.
When we reflect that the negroid skeletons of Mentone
and those of the contemporary Neander Men are probably
more than 100,000 years old, we are at once impressed
with the important conclusion that already in that remote
period three great branches of the human race had come

1 In this connection it seems to be important to note the
" Ethiopic " character of the arrangement of the hair in the little
carving of a woman's head from the Brassempouy Cave (dep.
Landes), shown in Fig. 7.

THE CAVE-MEN'S SKULLS 399

into existence — the negroid, the Neander, and probably,
at a more distant spot, also the highly developed
Cromagnards. The origin of the really primitive race of
man is thrown back in time by these facts to a still more
remote period, in fact, to -an earlier geologic epoch. And
it is to be noted over and above these facts that we have no
indication as to where the much later race, the Neolithic
Men, came from, nor who were their contemporaries out-
side the European area ; nor again do we know where
the historic races who succeeded the Neolithic Men
took their origin. When other regions of the earth
have been examined as carefully as Western Europe
has been, we shall no longer be in such complete
darkness.

When one ventures to speculate as to the story of
the earliest men in Europe, one can but feel, even after
handling the specimens and carefully following the ex-
cavations, how small and fragmentary and difficult to
interpret is the evidence at present brought to light. And
yet there the evidence is, gathered with the utmost care
and intelligent method, discussed and interpreted by men
of rare knowledge and experience, who, after long
comparison of contending opinions and the discovery of
an ever-increasing body of fact, have arrived at a definite
certainty as to the sequence of arts, races, animals, and
climates which I have given above, and is again sum-
marised in the tabular statement on page 384 bis.

Hereafter these conclusions will be modified and
extended by excavations in other parts of the world,
at present untouched. The one point upon which the
best authorities will not commit themselves is the exact,
or even approximately exact, number of thousands of
years which these events have occupied. The whole
story, so far as it is at present worked out, is a marvellous
result of patient research and scientific reasoning. Some

400 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

of the cave collections upon which it is based are to be
seen in London, in the British Museum.

There is one other discovery of a fossil man which
comes properly at this point, to cap and confirm what
has already been said. Fifteen years ago a skull-top and
a thigh-bone were found by Dr. Dubois at Trinil, in the
island of Java, at a depth of thirty feet in a sandy deposit,
considered by good authority (but not certainly) to be of
Pliocene age. From recent reports on the deposit it
seems that it may very well be of Pleistocene age.

FIG. 78. — The skull-top of the primitive kind of man from Pleistocene sands
in Java, called Pithecanthropus. One-third (linear) of the natural size.
Compare with Fig. 65, and refer to that figure for the explanation of
the letters and dotted lines.

These remains have become celebrated as those of a
monkey-like man, and the name Pithecanthropus has
been given to the creature to which they belonged. This
skull-top (or cranial roof) is now in Utrecht, and is well
known (Fig. 78). It indicates a race of men or men-like
creatures, with the flatness of skull, receding forehead,
and large bony eye-ridges, such as we see in the
Neander Men and in some South Australians, but greatly
exaggerated. The skull was so low and flat as greatly
to resemble that of the Gibbon, though much larger.
The volume of the cranial cavity (showing the size of

THE CAVE-MEN'S SKULLS 401

the brain) was about 900 units — far smaller than that
of the average Australian — the skull of smallest cavity
among living races of men. The volume of the brain-
cavity of the largest ape (gorilla) amounts to about 500
units (cubic centimetres) ; so that, allowing for rare
individual fluctuations of as much as one-fourth more or
one-fourth less (an amount of variation which, great as it
is, is definitely known and recorded in specimens of the
skulls of human races), we get the following list of
" cranial capacities " or brain-sizes, forming a nearly un-
broken series between the highest European and the ape.
The middle figure represents the normal or average, and
the first and last figure in each group the constant,
though rare, minimum and maximum. Gorilla, 350, 500,
650; Java race, 675, 900, 1125; Australians, 900,
1 200, 1500; Cromagnard and European, 1165, 1550,
1 940 (European skulls of this great capacity are known).
The Neander-man skulls are left out of the above list —
although the Correze specimen allows of a satisfactory
measurement of its capacity — for a very curious reason,
which is explained in the next chapter.

XLIII
MORE ABOUT THE NEANDER MEN

SINCE writing what precedes I have been able more
than once to gratify my keen desire to examine
the wonderful human skull from the Chapelle-aux-Saints
in the Correze (Central France). The skull has been
photographed, and an excellent figure of it is reproduced
in our Fig. 65. But it is one thing to look at a picture
of such a specimen, and another to take it into one's
hands and closely examine it. The skull is in the care
of my friend, Professor Marcelin Boule, who is at the
head of the great collection of remains of extinct animals
in the Jardin des Plantes.

It has been treated by him with great skill so as to
render the bone firm and hard, whilst detached portions
have been fitted into place, so that it is fairly complete
(Fig. 65). The skull was found (together with many
bones of the skeleton of the same individual) by two
enthusiastic local archaeologists buried at such depth
and in such position in the cave known as the Chapelle-
aux-Saints as to leave no doubt as to its belonging to
one of a race of men contemporary with the mammoth
and hairy rhinoceros — a race which inhabited Europe in
the great glacial period — called by prehistorians " the
Moustierian period," which cannot be less than a hundred
thousand years behind us, and probably is more. The

MORE ABOUT THE NEANDER MEN 403

chief importance of this skull lies in the fact not only
that its position in the cave-deposits, and therefore its
relative age, was carefully ascertained, but that it agrees
in its very peculiar form with the Neanderthal skull
(from the Rhineland), the Spy skulls (Belgium), and
the Gibraltar skull. It, in fact, confirms the conclusion
that at this period the caves of Western Europe were
inhabited by a race of men with peculiar skulls, which
may be called the Neander race in reference to the first-
discovered skull of the kind. They were altogether
different from the Reindeer Men, or Cromagnards, who
came later upon the scene.

The fact was published some four months ago that
the new Correze skull agrees with the celebrated skull-
top (called a " calvaria " by anatomists) of the Neander-
thal (Fig. 76) in the extraordinary shallowness or
absence of " dome," in the retreating forehead, the thick
prominent eyebrow ridges, and in the excessive " lowness,"
or want of elevation of the back region. But further
study of the new skull has enabled Professor Boule to
show, as he demonstrated to me, that the outline of
the new skull looked at from above coincides not
merely approximately, but exactly with that of the
Neanderthal skull. There is the same great length from
eyebrows to occiput, and the same great breadth at a
series of corresponding regions. The curious thing is
that both these skulls are of enormous size — a good deal
bigger in length and breadth than modern European
skulls, and not small and ape-like, though they are far
shallower (that is, less high in the dome) than any
skulls of living men. I had, myself, always been
astonished by the great breadth and length of the casts
of the Neanderthal skull which we possess in England,
and supposed that possibly the casts were carelessly
made. Now Professor Boule shows that both the

404 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

FIG. 79. — Drawing one-third the size of nature, of the left side of the lower
jaw of a modern European. Observe the small size as compared with
the jaw in Figs. 80, 81, and 82, also the prominent chin : the small breadth
of the up-turned ramus, and the deep bay or notch (not seen in the other
lower jaws) separating the coronoid process from the condyle.

FIG. 80. — Outline (one-third the size of nature) of the skull of the Neander
Man from the Chapelle-aux-Saints, with all fractures and defects made
good. The bony sockets of the teeth and the teeth themselves (lost and
atrophied by inflammatory disease in the actual skull) are here given their
full size and healthy condition. The lower jaw is seen to be very similar
to that from Heidelberg (Fig. 82). From a photograph taken by Professor
Marcelin Boule from a cast of the actual skull. The cast was "made
good " by modelling upon it the deficient parts.

MORE ABOUT THE NEANDER MEN 405

FIG. 81. — The skull of a male chimpanzee. Drawn one-third the natural
size (linear) to compare with the human skulls and jaws here figured.
The dotted lines and the letters a, b, c, d, e, and /have the same significa-
tion as in Fig. 65, to which reference should be made. The flatness of
the cranial dome and the reduction of the frontal boss (d) are very marked.
So are the relatively large size of the jaws and teeth. Compare the shape
of the lower jaw with that from Heidelberg (Fig. 82), and with that of a
modern European (Fig. 79).

FIG. 82. — The Heidelberg jaw, from a lower Pleistocene deposit, near
Heidelberg. Observe the absence of chin and the great breadth of the
up-turned part of the jaw. Compare with the lower jaws drawn to the
same scale in Figs. 79, So, and 81. One-third the size of nature.

406 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

Neanderthal and the Correze skull are so much larger in
breadth and length than average European skulls, that in
spite of its flat, depressed shape, the Correze skull (and
consequently the Neanderthal skull, too) has a brain-
cavity holding 1 600 cubic centimetres, whilst the average
modern European skull only holds 1500 to 1550. The
estimate given by former observers for the Neanderthal
skull was as low as 1200. This calculation was based
on the diminution of volume caused by the flatness of
the skull, and would be correct were the skull of the
Neander race no longer or broader than an ordinary
European skull. If we imagine a skull of the ordinary
European proportionate height, but as long and as broad
as the Neander skulls, then its volume would be some-
thing like 2000 cubic centimetres. This is a very
remarkable result. The ancient Neander Men's brain
was not smaller, but actually a little bigger than that of
modern Europeans ; it was bigger in regions where the
modern European is small, and smaller where that is
large !

If we had any sufficient knowledge of the mental
qualities which belong to different regions of the brain
(if, indeed, such localisation of qualities is possible), we
might draw some interesting conclusions from this differ-
ence between the two races. But unfortunately our
knowledge on that matter is very defective. We are
not in a position to say that length and breadth of the
brain either can or cannot compensate (so to speak) for
shallowness. It is probable that the mental qualities
of the two forms of brain were in important respects
different, but that is all that can at present be said. No
accredited brain student would, until more is known,
venture to draw conclusions as to mental quality from
such facts as mere breadth, length, and depth of the
cranial cavity.

MORE ABOUT THE NEANDER MEN 407

The Correze skull has a strongly-projecting face,
depending not merely on a protrusion of the dentary
border of the upper jaw, but on a forward thrust of the
entire face. This is not shown by the Gibraltar skull
(Fig. 77). It is not improbable that this region has
been flattened in the Gibraltar skull whilst it was buried
in the cave deposit and softened by water. The lower
jaw is preserved in the new French specimen, and is
very remarkable on account of the retreating chin and
the lowness and backward flexion of the articular process,
as well as for the large size of the surface by which it
articulates with the skull. All the cheek-teeth have been
shed (see Fig. 65), and the sockets closed owing to
inflammation, showing that primitive European man was
subject to the same trouble with his teeth from which
civilised men of to-day suffer. In comparing the skull
with the skulls of modern races, Professor Boule is not
inclined to insist much on the resemblance to Australian
and Tasmanian skulls presented by the thick and large
brow-ridges. A careful study of the skull is giving
to Professor Boule many facts of importance which
will be published ere long. The articular surfaces or
" condyles " of the skull (for instance) by which it was
set on the neck vertebrae are so set that the head must
have been habitually carried with a droop like that of
an animal, and not poised upright on the neck as in
modern races of man.

Not less important than the skull are some of the
bones of the arm and leg. Indeed, they show more novel
characters than the skull, and definitely distinguish the
Neander Men so as to justify us in regarding them as
a distinct species, Homo Neander thalensis. The thigh-
bone is very short : as compared with that of a modern
European, it is as 14 to 18. Also it is thick and curved.
This was already known in the Neander Man of the Spy

408 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

cave, and its confirmation by the specimen from the
Correze establishes this shortness of the thigh as a specific
character. There are also strange features in the articu-
lation of the bones of the thumb and of the heel which
Professor Boule will make known when he publishes his
full account of this most astonishing skeleton.

It is worth noting here that another skull of the same
race — that of a young individual — was dug out in 1908
at Moustier by Mr. Hauser, a Swiss explorer. The speci-
men was broken into many fragments and has not been
satisfactorily put together, so that at present it is not
possible to say whether it gives any further information
as to the Neander Man. Also in 1909 the French
explorers have found another skull and skeleton of the
same age and race at Ferassi, near Moustier, on the
Veyzere. It has been carefully removed, but not yet
studied. The bones of the hand and of the foot are
complete, and will be available for confirming the
observations made on the skeleton of the Chapelle-aux-
Saints.

We have, a few pages back, noted that behind the
Glacial or Moustierian period of the Pleistocene (the
second of our list, the Reindeer period being the latest),
geologists recognise a third or warm period which is
represented by deeper cave-deposits and by some of the
older sands, clays, and gravels of our river valleys. As
in the Moustierian deposits, so in these older deposits
(called " Chellean " after a French township) we find
abundant large flint implements (Figs. 73, 74) indicating
the presence of man. But the animals associated with
him were not the mammoth and the hairy rhinoceros ;
they were the Elephas antiquus and a distinct kind of
rhinoceros, and most distinctively the hippopotamus.
These beds and their animal remains and worked flints
occur abundantly in the South of England, and have

MORE ABOUT THE NEANDER MEN 409

been more or less mistaken for and confused with the
glacial Moustierian deposits which also are common in
England. No bones or skulls of the men of this Chellean
period have been found, excepting a lower jaw, which
was not long ago discovered in a deposit of this warmer
and earlier age, near Heidelberg (Fig. 82). This jaw-
bone is remarkably well preserved, and the great differ-
ence between it and that of a modern European may be
seen by comparing our Figures 79 and 82. In the
absence of chin, the great breadth of the up-turned part
of the jaw and the shallowness of the notch separating
the condyle or articulating knob from the more forwardly
placed " coronoid " process (a well-marked triangular
process in the modern European jaw), the Heidelberg
jaw differs from the modern European, and resembles
that of the chimpanzee (Fig. 81).

Dr. Schoettensack of Heidelberg, who has described
this remarkable jaw-bone and has very kindly presented
casts of it to the Natural History Museum, to Oxford,
to Cambridge, and to myself, was of the opinion that
it indicated a distinct race or even a distinct species
of man. But Professor Marcelin Boule has found that
when the lower jaw of the skull from the Chapelle-aux-
Saints is " reconstructed," not only by replacing the parts
broken away, but by restoring the teeth and the absorbed
sockets of the teeth, it comes out very closely identical
with the Heidelberg jaw. In Fig. 80 I have reproduced
the profile of Professor Boule's complete restoration of
the " Chapelle " skull, and it will be seen that the lower
jaw differs very little from that of the Heidelberg
specimen. Indeed, Professor Boule has published a
photograph in which he attaches the Heidelberg lower
jaw to the restored Chapelle skull in place of its own,
and the similarity of the two becomes very obvious.

As will be seen by the drawings which I give here, the

4io SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

Heidelberg jaw is even more powerful than that of the
Chapelle skull. The lower jaw of a modern European
(Fig. 79), drawn to the same scale as the other two, and as
that of the chimpanzee (Fig. 81), is an elegant little thing
with its forwardly-projecting chin, its short measurement
from front to back, and the narrowness and delicacy of
its up-turned part or ramus, with its well-marked angle
at the lower corner and deeply cut upper border between
the condyle (hindermost projection with knob) and the
coronoid.

The imperfect lower jaw (without teeth and with the
articular condyle broken away) of the Cromagnon skull,
drawn in Fig. 75, should also be compared : it is, though
broken, similar to that of the modern European. Lower
jaws differ in some of the points which we have been
looking at, from one another, but there is no known living
race of men the lower jaw of which is not far nearer to
that of the modern European (Fig. 79), than to that from
the Chapelle-aux-Saints or from Heidelberg (Fig. 82);
and I may add that the imperfect lower jaw of the
Neander-man skull, from the Spy Cave in Belgium, agrees
in the absence of chin and in other points with that of
Heidelberg and of the Chapelle skull. There is not
sufficient ground afforded by the characters of the lower
jaw for considering that the race indicated by the
Heidelberg specimen was distinct from the Neander race,
as may be seen by comparing Fig. 80 with Fig. 82.

As these pages are going to press, I am able to add
that I have seen in Paris a very interesting and striking
restoration of the appearance in the flesh or during life
of the head of the man of the Chapelle-aux-Saints,
carefully modelled in Professor Boule's laboratory by a
young sculptor, by applying his clay to a cast of the
completed restoration of the skull. It is, I understand,
proposed to publish this restoration firstly as strictly

MORE ABOUT THE NEANDER MEN 411

determined by anatomical fact and devoid of hair, and
then to add the hair of the scalp, the eyebrows, eyelashes,
and beard, and to place artificial eyes in position. We
shall thus get a representation of this ancient race or
species of man, based on the sure foundation of the
actual bones. Fanciful portraits of " primitive man "
have before to-day been produced by some imaginative
artists, but this will be the first portrait of him with an
inner framework of truth.

INDEX

Amoeba, term applied to proteus

animalcule, 194
Andrews, discoveries of, with regard

to ozone, 252

Animalcules, bell, unicellular struc-
ture exemplified in, 197-199
ciliated unicellular, graceful move-
ments of, 207
dried, examples of "suspended

animation " in, 168, 169
proteus, processes of protoplasm

in, 195
sun, processes of protoplasm in,

X95
unicellular plants and, essential

differences between, 204-

207

Animals, aquatic, excess of egg pro-
duction to ensure survival to

maturity, 143, 144
aversions and cautious proceedings

of, 269

blindness of, congenital, 272, 273
colour-protection and invisibility

of, 304, 312
' ' concealment " and ' c warning ' '

marks, distinction between,

310-313

destructive invasions made by

various, 339, 340.
devices adopted for protection of

young by, 138, 139, 144
domesticated, reasons for continued

congenital defects in, 271,

272

hibernation of, 165, 166
lower, various thread-producing,

293. 294

mankind and, causes of congenital
defects in, 273

Animals — continued

parthenogenetic powers possessed
by certain, 330, 331

poisonous, methods of self-protec-
tion used by, 101
"warning" coloration pos-
sessed by, 107

propagation of, 132-137, 144-145,
329-330

sleep of, salient features connected
with, 161-164

structure of multicellular and uni-
cellular, comparisons be-
tween, 207-208

unicellular, uses made of cilia by,
194-197, 207

wild, congenital defects less ob-
vious in, 271, 272

wood-boring, 346, 347
Anopheles Gnat, 3
Ants, aphides and, friendship

between, 324, 325
Aphides —

enemies of, 319, 325

hop-blight caused by species of,
317,31?

parthenogenetic propagation of,
326-327, 330, 334, 336

rapid propagation of, 326, 338

relationship of Coccida to, 322,

.323

secretive productions of, 323-325
various species of, 322
Archaeology, discoveries in connection
with pre-historic man, 371—
372, 39i, 394-395, 398, 400,
402

Art, knowledge compatible with, 45
Astronomers, stupendous nature of
work, 224

414

SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

Astronomy, Halley's discoveries in

connection with, 226
Newton's discovery of law of

gravitation as affecting, 230
photography as affecting study of,

222
spectroscope as affecting study of,

224, 225
Atavism, feeble-mindedness resulting

from, suggestion as to, 274
Athletes, experiments as to possible

use of pure oxygen by, 260-

263
Auzout, M., astronomical predictions

attempted by, 229, 230

Bacon, Lord, quotation from, I,
Bacteria, destructive invasion made

by, 340

microscopic observation of, im-
provement in, 239

Balfour, Rt. Hon. Arthur, speech at
Manchester by, 6, 7 (quota-
tion)
Bananas, cultivated varieties of, 369

plantains and, identity of, 368
Bayeux tapestry, 231
Becquerel, M., experiments of, 183
Beetles, book-worm, depredations

of, 350-351
death-watch, tapping made by,

351, 352

wood-boring, 351, 352
wood-boring, 349-350
ladybird, beneficial activity of,

319, 325, 326
origin of name, 325
perforation of soft metal by grubs

of, 353

Bell-animalcules, 197
Birth-rate, increased, amongst

poorer classes, 285, 286
Blood, lack of red colour in, cause

of, 148, 149
red-coloured, cause and special

duty of, 148

Bonaparte, Prince Roland, French
representative at Darwin
Centenary Celebration, 39
Book-worm beetle, 350
Boulenger, Charles, Egyptian fresh-
water jelly-fish described by,
64

3oys, C. V., fine quartz threads
spun by, 294, 295

"addis-worms, movable cases made

by grubs of, 343
Calandruccio, discovery of young of

the eel by, 71-72

Cambridge — Darwin Centenary Cele-
bration, Address by Sir Ray
Lankester at, 33-37
held at, 1 8, 33, 38
notable representatives at, 33,

38, 39
Cave-men, ancient, artistic skill of,

8o,8l
horse mastered and muzzled by,

80, 8 1
Caves, care taken in excavation of,

3.88

discoveries of human remains in
deposits of, 371, 374, 383,
393, 395, 402, 407-409
discovery of bones of ancient men

in, rarity of, 372-374
French and English, evidences of
human occupation found in,
78-79
Cells, definition and origin of term,

170-173, 328
egg-cell, process of fertilisation,

202-204, 330, 332
important part played by nucleus
in life of, 198-200, 328,
329.

individual character and co-
ordinated activity of, 170,
180-182, 184, 328
process of division, 200-202, 328
" Cell-theory," explanation of Pro-
fessor Schwann's, 174-176
Chapelle-aux - Saints, discovery at,
important, 371, 374, 390,
402

Children, feeble - minded, number
attending schools provided
for, 278
result of neglect to provide

supervision for, 279-281
China, introduction of opium smok-
ing into, 366, 367

Chinese primrose, similarity between
poisonous properties of
Rhus toxicodendron and,
104

INDEX

415

Cholera, bacillus of, organisms favour-
ing or checking growth, 242,
243, 246-249
carriers of, 245
causes of, 237

MetchnikofTs and Pettenkofer's
experiments in connection
with, 240-341
definition of word, 237, 238
germs, destruction of, 244, 245
Indian, active development of
sanitation in Great Britain,
due to panic caused by, 239
date of first appearance in

England, 238
diffusion through water-supply,

239
discovery by Koch of bacillus

producing, 240
epidemic nature of, 238
Europeans first attacked by, 238
recognition of, by Hindu writers,

238

precautions to be observed for
prevention of, 244, 245, 246
Cholera-bacillus. See Cholera
Christmas fare, origin of, 356-358
Cilia, animals provided with, and

action of, 194, 195, 207
definition of term, 194
uses made of, by unicellular

animals, 195-197, 207
" Cirrhipedes," Darwin's discovery

with regard to, 23, 24
Civilisation, scientific knowledge as

affecting, 16
Clothes moths, 341
Coccida, relationship of aphides to,

323

Colour, in bird's feathers, 55, 56
nature and properties of light as

affecting, 52-55

Comets, ancient records of, exaggera-
tion in, 227, 229
composition of, 234, 235
Donati's, imposing size of, 227
early superstitions with regard to,

227, 228

elliptical orbits of, 233
Halley's — Chinese astronomical ob-
servations relating to an-
tiquity of, 230

length and breadth of orbit, 233
length of tail, 227

Comets — continued.
Halley's — continued.

predicted recurrences by dis-
coverer of, 226, 230
recent appearance of, 226, 230,

236
significance of date of return,

228, 229
superstition and consternation

caused by, 230, 23 1
William the Conqueror's "star,"

identical with, 231
important, various, 227
Milton's reference in Paradise

Lost to, 228, 229
periodic and wandering, distinction

between, 233, 234
photographs obtained at Royal
Observatory, Greenwich, of
new, 225, 226
shooting stars and, connection

between, 235, 236
signification of name, 227
superstitions with regard to, 229
Correze skull, 371
Cromagnards, designation of Reindeer

men as, reason for, 390
Cuba, measures adopted for prevention
of yellow fever and malaria
in. 2, 3

Darwin Centenary Celebration at

Cambridge, 18, 33, 38
Darwin, Charles —

comparison between theories of
Lamarck and,-i9, 20

connection with University of
Cambridge, 36

establishment of " natural selec-
tion " theory, 34

extent of time spent in experi-
ments and observations, 18-
19, 22-23

friendly relations between Wallace
and, 13, 37

geological discoveries of, 24

Henslow's influence upon, 36

"Natural selection" theory ex-
plained, 27-29

study of disease influenced by
discoveries and research of,
39. 40

Darwinism (Wallace), 15, 16 (quota-
tion)

4i 6 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

Death-rate, diminished, reasons ac-
countable for, 284, 285
health of locality determined by,

283

records of, methods of keeping,
283, 284

Death-watch beetle, 351, 352

De Lastic, Vicomte, carvings from
caves in collection of, 79

Dewar, Sir James, experiments of,
183

Divers, Mediterranean, suggested in-
halation of pure oxygen gas
by, 261

Diving, Fleuss apparatus, diluted
oxygen supply to, 263-265

Donati's comet, 227

Dragon, heraldic, description of,

"4, "5

Dragons, classification of, by heralds,
120

conventional, probable sources of,
126

probable origin, 121-123

snakes and, connection between,
120-123

tradition of, reasons for discrediting

suggested, 118-120
Drugs, individual variability (idiosyn-
crasy) with regard to, 102

Eau-de-Cologne, volatile oils from
aromatic plants of Riviera
used in manufacturing, 47

"Eel-fare," term for annual "run-
ning up" of young eels, 67,

7°, 73, 75

Eel-fisheries, regulation and en-
couragement by Danish
Government of inland, 65
German Government of inland,

65,66

Eels, age of, knowledge resulting
from power of telling, 69
shown by scales, 69
common, period when change from
" yellow " to " silver " takes
place in, 67, 69, 70
reproduction, migrations and

habits of, 66-67, 69-76
" leptocephalus- young -phase" or

tadpole of, 71-73, 75
migrations of, geological changes
as affecting, 74

Eels — continued

Petersen's researches with regard

to "silver," 68, 69
popularity of, abroad, 65, 66
rare 'occurrence of, in river

Danube. 74, 75
" Elvers," term for young eels, 66,

67, 70, 71, 73. 75. 76
Europe, iron, stone, and bronze ages

of, 375-377
Evelyn, diary of, 229 (quotations)

Feeble-minded, distinctions between

lunatics and, 274-276
laws relating to lunatics and, need

for improvement in, 275
necessity for state guardianship of,

276-278

Feeble-minded children, 278
Feeble-mindedness, atavism "sug-
gested cause of, 274
hereditary transmission of, 277
occurrence of cases in all classes of

community, 276
views of Government Commission

on origin of, 281

Festivals, Christmas, origin of chil-
dren's customs associated
with, 361-362

English Christmas, introduction of
turkey in connection with,

. .358

origin of heavy feeding at, 357
prehistoric and barbaric customs
in connection with, 356-357
Fever, yellow, comparative death-
rate from, in Panama Canal
zone, 2-4

measures adopted in Cuba and
Panama for prevention of, 2, 3
Fish, shell-fish and, individual sus-
ceptibility to poison from,
102, 103

Fishes, age of, method of telling, 69
poisonous, 103
poison-spines of, 107, 1 1 1
Fixed stars, 221

Flack, Mr. Martin, experiments of,
with regard to oxygen gas,
260

Fleuss apparatus, 263-265
Flowers, perfumes discharged into
the air by, various effects of,
105, 106

INDEX

417

France, cultivation of purple variety
of poppy in, 364

French archaeologists, leading dis-
coveries with regard to pre-
historic man made by, 371,

Frogs, common, eggs of, 209, 212
growth from the egg, 213-215
English species, 216
European species, 216, 219
green tree-frog of Riviera, 49, 50,

52, 55

method of catching prey, 219
Furniture worm, 351, 352

Gases-
oxygen, action of ordinary, 259
experiments as to possible use

by athletes, 260-263
Fleuss diving apparatus and

diluted supply of, 263-265
ozone, destructive powers of, 253
discoveries of Andrews and Tait

with regard to, 252
experiments of Schonbein with

regard to, 251, 252
methods of producing, 252, 253,

258

nature of, 252
proportion of, to fresh country

or sea-coast air, 253
result of experiments with regard

to, 259

signification of name, 252
therapeutic value and uses of,

258, 259
use in water-purification, 256,

258
Geology, Darwin's discoveries in,

24
table showing history of man in

Western Europe, 384 bis
Germany, custom of eating preserves
with meat in, prevalent, 358
predominance of scientific know-
ledge in, 8
Gnats, Anopheles, malaria germ

carried by, 3
Stegomyia, yellow fever germs

carried by, 2, 3

Gorgas, Colonel, work of, in connec-
tion with yellow fever and
malaria, 2-5

"Gossamer," origin of term, 289
27

Grassi, discovery of the history of the

eel by, 70-72
Green-flies, 322
Green tree-frog, 49, 50
Griffin, heraldic, 116
Guinea-pig, native home and original

introduction of, 360, 361
various names given to, 360, 361

Halley, Edmund, astronomical dis-
coveries of, 226
date of death, 230
foundation of Royal Society Club

by, 230

law of movement of comets dis-
covered by, 226, 230
Milton and, scholars of St. Paul's

School, 228, 229
Newton and, friendship of, 230
Halley's comet, 226, 230
Hansen, leprosy-bacillus discovered

by, 240
Hay fever, individual susceptibility

to, 102, 104, 105
probable cause, 105
similarity between vegetable

poisonings and, 105
Heart, action of nervous system upon,
in man and higher animals,

151
muscular contraction, cause of,

15°. 'Si

rate of beat in higher and lower

animals, 152-154
in human species, 151, 152
significance of its beat, 147, 148
valves, action of, 149

Hedge-sparrow, 267

Henslow, Professor, Darwin as in-
fluenced by, 36

Herschel, Sir John, definition of
word "species" by, 14,
15

Hertwig, Professor, German repre-
sentative at Darwin Cen-
tenary Celebration, 33

Hill, Dr. Leonard, experiments of,
with regard to use of oxygen
gas, 260-265

Hipparion horse, 84, 85, 86

Hippopotamus age, 380, 386

Histology, origin of 176

Hook, Robert, Micrographia by, 173,
288, 289

4i 8 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

Hooker, Sir Joseph, Darwin and
Wallace . papers communi-
cated to Linnean Society by,

12, 13

Hop-blight, causes of, 317-319

prevention of, 318, 319
Hop-louse, 317

Hops, brewing industry as affecting
growers of, 321

cultivation of, 315-316

curing of, 320

English growers as affected by
American and German hop-
plantations, 320, 321

uses made of, 315

Horses, absence from American
continent in fifteenth
century of living asses,
zebras, and, 89

ancestral, change in size and pro-
portions of, 84, 85
lower Tertiary Hyracotherium,

84

middle Tertiary, 84
"pre-orbital cup" in Hip-

parion, 85, 86

upper Tertiary Hipparion, 84-
86

ancestry of, scientific points of
interest with regard to, 83-
90

descent from Arab ancestry
evidenced by presence of
"pre-orbital cup" in, 86

English thoroughbred, history and
ancestors of, 82, 90

" Ergot " of, 89

European, stock from which de-
rived, 77-78

fossil remains of extinct, in North
and South America, 89, 90

mark of difference between asses,
zebras, and, 87, 88

mastery and muzzling of, by
ancient cave-dwellers, 80,
81

Mongolian wild, absence of "pre-
orbital cup " in, 86
derivation of European horses

from, 77-78
description of, 78

prehistoric European, verified by
ancient carvings found in
caves, 79-81

Horses — continued

selective breeding of, from time of

cave-men onward, 82, 83
Southern or Arabian breeds of,

presence of "pre-orbital

cup " in, 86, 87
House-sparrows, 266
Huxley, Professor, calculation of,

with regard to fecundity of

plant-lice, 338

Hydra, heraldic, derivation of, 116
Hyracotherium horse, 84

India, practice of opium eating in,

366

Infants, blindness of, congenital, 272
mortality of, varied congenital

defects causing, 272
Insects, association of, with plants,

296
colour-protection and invisibility

of, 304-312
destructive invasions made by

various, 339-345
jumping bean as exemplifying

association of plants and,

297, 298-300, 302
parthenogenetic powers possessed

by certain, 331, 332
poisonous, methods of self-protec-
tion used by, 101, 102
various weapons of, 1 1 1
"silver-fish," depredations of, 351
skin burrowing, 112, 113
wood-boring, 346-354

Telly-fishes, common, description of,

58
fresh-water, discovery of African,

6l, 62
Chinese, 63
Philadelphian, 63, 64
Regent's Park, 59, 60
reproduction of, 60, 6 1
poison-bearing threads of sea-
anemones and, no
Jumping bean, Mexican, caterpillar

contained in, 229, 300, 302
movements of, 298, 299, 302
plant from which derived, 301,

302
relationship of insect and plant

exemplified in, 297, 298-

300, 302

INDEX

419

Kew Gardens, beauty and interest of,

3°2, 303
specimens of Rhus toxicodendron

at, 93. 94

Koch (Berlin), cholera-bacillus dis-
covered by, 240

tubercle-bacillus discovered by,
240

Ladybird, 325

Lamarck, inferiority of scientific
methods, as compared with
Darwin, 19-22, 26
Philosophical Zoology by, 20

Lankester, Sir Ray, address -by,
Darwin Centenary Celebra-
tion at Cambridge, 33-37

Leprosy, bacillus of, discovery by
Hansen, 240

"Leptocephali," discovery of, 70-72

Life, protoplasm the seat of, 182-184,

328

Herbert Spencer's definition of, 183,
184

Light, rate at which it travels, 221

Locusts, winged serpents and, pro-
bable connection between,
124-125

Lunatics, distinctions between feeble-
minded and, 274-276
laws relating to feeble-minded and,
need for improvement in, 275

Lyell, Sir Charles, Darwin and
Wallace papers communi-
cated to Linnean Society by,
12, 13

Malaria, comparative death-rate from,

in Panama Canal zone, 2-4
measures adopted in Cuba and

Panama for prevention of,

2, 3

Mammoth age, 380, 386
Man, sleep of, compared with repose

or quiescence of other living

things, 159-161
Mankind, congenital defects in,

causes of, 273
Mental defect, 274
Metchnikoff, Professor, discoveries

with regard to use and value

of "phagocytes," 39
experiment by, in connection with

cholera-bacillus, 241

Metchnikoff — continued
experiments and investigations of,

for prevention of "senile

change," 40-43
influence of Darwin's discoveries

upon study of disease by,

39, 40
researches of, with regard to

microbian flora of localities,

249
Russian and French representa-

tive at Darwin Centenary

Celebration, 33, 38
Tolstoi's meeting with, 43,

44
use of sour milk prepared with

lactic ferment introduced

by, 41, 42

y,

raphi

Micrographia (Hook), 173, 289
Microscopes, improvements in, 173,

176-178
Milton, celebration of tercentenary 01

birth, Halley's comet in

relation to, 228
Halley and, scholars of St. Paul's

School, 228, 229
Mistletoe, pre-historic rites associated

with, 362
Mollusca, animals classed as, and

definition of word, 129
Molluscs, protection of young, 137-

139, 144, 146
Mongolian wild horses, 86
Morley, Lord, installation of, as

Chancellor of Manchester

University, 6
Morphia, product of opium poppy,

363

Moths, British species allied to
Mexican "jumper," 300
301
clothes, mischief effected by cater

pillar of, 341-343
movable case made by cater

pillar of, 341-343
propagation of, 341
various species of, 343-345
Mexican "jumper," 300, 301
silk threads produced by cater

pillars of certain, 293
Mountain-climbing, use of oxygen

gas in, suggested, 263
Moustierian period, definition of,
384, 385, 408

420 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

Moustierian period — continued

skulls and skeletons found in

cave - deposits allotted to,

37i» 385, 393-395. 406,

408
Mussels, pond and river, propagation

of, 144, 145

protection of young, 144
Mycenae, discovery of, by Schlie-

mann, 16

Neander men, comparison between
skulls of Australian abori-
gines and, 396, 397

inferiority of, as compared with
Cromagnards, 390

reasons for recognition of, as
distinct and primitive
species, 371, 385, 390, 402-

403, 407

Neolithic Period, civilisation com-
prised in, 377-378, 380
definition of, 377
Nettles, poisonous stinging hairs of,

103, 104
Newton, Sir Isaac, discovery of law

of gravitation, 230
Halley and, friendship of, 230

Opium, derivation of word, 364
eating, practice in India of, 366
medicinal value of, 368
poppy used for manufacture of, 363,

364
smoking, introduction by Chinese

of, 366-367
Osborne, Professor, United States

representative at Darwin

Centenary Celebration, 33
Oxygen gas, 259
Oysters, care of breeding, methods

adopted for, 141
classification of, 129
common, protection of young, 134,

144
destruction of typhoid germs in,

128, 129

French "green," 141, 142
gill-plates or "beard," 131
growth and maturity of, 134, 136
heart and blood-vessels, 132
lake, cultivation by ancient

Romans, 140, 141
nervous system, 1 32

Oysters — continued
primeval man and, 139
propagation of American and
Portuguese species, 137, 143,
144

common or North Sea and
Channel species, 132-137,
143

structure and nature of, 129-137
Ozone gas, 251

Palaeolithic period, definition of, 377
period of chipped flints, primitive
arts and surroundings of,
378-381

Panama, measures adopted for pre-
vention of yellow fever and
malaria in, 2, 3

Perrier, Edmond, French representa-
tive at Darwin Centenary
Celebration, 39

Petersen, researches of, with regard
to "silver" eels, 68, 69

Pettenkofer (Munich), experiment by,
in connection with cholera-
bacillus, 240

" Phagocytes," use and importance of,

39, 179

Philosophical Transactions, date of

first published number, 229
Philosophical Zoology (Lamarck), 20
Phylloxera, 336

injury and loss caused by, 334, 337
introduction into Europe, 337
parasitic nature of, 337
propagation of, 336, 337
Piette, M., carvings from caves in
collection of the late, 79, 80
Planets, changes on, probable result

of, 223, 224
Plant-lice, 322

Plants, American, poisonous stinging
hairs possessed by certain,
104

association of, with insects, 296
jumping bean as exemplifying
association of insects and,
297, 298-300, 302
movements of, definite and varied,

160, 161

poisonous, special chemical sub-
stances produced from, 100
use of, in manufacture of Eau-de-
Cologne, 100, 101

INDEX

421

Plasmogen, formation of, 190-192
Pleistocene period, discovery of re-
mains belonging to, 383,
385. 386
skeletons, found in caverns of

Mentone, 398-399
epochs, table of, 384 bis
Pliocene period, discovery of remains

belonging to, 386, 388
distinctions between Pleistocene

and, 386-387
Poisonous animals, 101
fish, 103
insects, 102
plants, 92, 100, 104
Poisons, distinctions between gut-
poisons and wound-poisons,
106-107

immunity from wound-poisons,
method of producing, 107,
108

Poppies, cultivated variety from
which opium manufactured,

3.63
ition

cultivation of, in remote ages, 364,

365 .
earliest cultivation of, for oil, 363,

364

English varieties of, 363
opium, introduction from Europe

into Far East of, 363-365
origin of medicinal uses of, 364, 365
Population, increased, due to higher

birth-rate amongst poorer

classes, 279, 285, 286
Post - Tertiaries (or Quaternary),

gravel and cave - deposits

termed, 83
Proteids, building up of, in plants,

204, 205
cell-protoplasm consisting of, 189,

190

chemical composition of, 188, 189
" Proteus," definition of term as

applied to unicellular

animals, 193, 194

Protoplasm, chemical elements con-
tained in, 187
death caused by destruction of,

183-185

active life of, 182-184, 328
explanation of term, 170-172, 328

Quaternary (Post-Tertiaries), 384 bis

Reindeer age, 384 bis
Reindeer men (or Cromagnards),
artistic work of, 383, 390,
391, 393

brain cavity of, comparable with
modern European, 388, 390

customs of, 391, 393

skulls and skeletons of, found in

cave-deposits, 391, 393
Rhus toxicodendron, American poison-
vine or, poisonous nature of,
92

case of poisoning by, recorded in
The Spectator, 96

differences and resemblances
between Virginian creeper,
Veitchii, and, 93

individual susceptibility to poison
of, 94, 96, 102

painful malady produced in
certain persons by poison of,
91, 92

recognition in United States and
Japan of danger of, 92, 98

results of examination in
laboratory at University of
Harvard (Mass. ), with re-
gard to, 94

similarity between poisonous pro-
perties of Chinese prim-
rose and, 104

specimens at Kew Gardens, 93,
94

use in Japan, 92

Riviera, cultivated trees and plants
of, 47-49

flowers for sale, cultivated in, 56, 57

green tree-frog of, 49, 50, 52, 55

meteorological conditions of, 46

primitive vegetation of, 46, 47

tree-frog, blue variety of, 50, 52,

53, 55, 56

vegetation of, influence of man
upon, 57

Salamanders, European species,

various, 218
Mexican, various species of, 215,

216
Sanitation, active development in

Great Britain, cholera panic

as affecting, 239
Schliemann, discovery of Troy and

Mycenae by, 16

422 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR

Schonbein, experiments of, with re-
gard to ozone, 251, 252
Schwann, Professor, "cell theory"

of, explained, 174-176
Science, discoveries in, satisfaction
experienced by those mak-
ing, I
sensibility to art compatible with

capacity for, 44

state officials' opposition to, 286
value and importance of, 7, 8
Scorpions, poison of, experiments

with regard to, 108-1 10
Sea-anemones, poison-bearing threads

of jelly-fishes and, no
Serpents, winged, probable connec-
tion between locusts and,
124-125
worship and propitiation of, 122-

123
Shell-fish, poison-glands of, 1 1 1

boring in stone, 347, 348
Siebe, Gorman and Co., perfected
diving dress constructed by,
265
"Silver-fish" book-worm. See

Insects

Skulls, ancient and modern, com-
parison between, 410
comparison between, of various

periods, 393-401
Correze, comparison between

Neanderthal and, 403-406
discovery of, 371, 374, 390, 402
restoration of, 410-411
European, compared with Neander-
thal and Correze, 406
Sleep, alternation of night and day in
its bearing upon periodic,
157-158, 159, 167, 168
animals' winter, 165, 166
artists' varied portrayal of, 156, 157
definition of term, varied, 157-161
irregularities and abnormal mani-
festations of, 164-166
length and duration of, conditions

affecting, 166-167
man's, compared with repose or
quiescence of other living
things, 159-161
salient feature connected with, 161-

164

Shakespeare on, 155, 156 (quota-
tions)

Snails, whelks and propagation ot,

137, 138

protection of young, 137, 138
Snakes, dragons and, connection

between, 120-123
winged serpents, and probable

origin of, 121—125

Solar system, comparative distance
from "fixed stars," 221-222
Sound, rate at which it travels, 221
Sparrows —

hedge and house, distinction

between, 267

differences between, 266-268
cuckoo eggs laid in nests of, 266,

267

use to agriculturists, 267
house and tree, close connection

between, 268
harm done by, 267, 268
hidden or latent capacity in, 268
probable effects of destroying, 268
various species related to, 268
Spectator, The, case of poisoning by
Rhus toxicodendron recorded
in, 96

Spiders, garden, use made by astro-
nomers of thread of, 262, 263
gossamer threads of minute

autumn, 287-289
spinnerets of, 289-291
threads produced by, various uses

made of, 289-292
various species of, 289
Spurges (Euphorbiacea), various

species of, 301

Star-fishes, propagation of, 329-330
Stars, early superstitions with regard

to, 227, 228
fixed, comparative distance of solar

system from, 221
estimated number of, 222
measurement of, 225
" photographic," estimated distance

of, 223

shape of, 231, 233
"Vega," position of, 224, 225
Stegomyia Gnat, 2, 3
Stings, poisonous, American plants

possessing, 104

comparison between plants and
animals possessing, 97, 106
nettles and other plants provided
with, 103, 104

INDEX

423

Stone-borers, shell-fish and worm,

347-349
" Suspended animation," examples of,

168, 169
Symbolism, legendary monsters in

relation to, 125, 127

Tadpoles, food of, 211, 212

growth and development of, 210,

211

gigantic, 218
Tait, discoveries of, with regard to

ozone, 252
Tapestry, Bayeux, representation of

Halley's comet in, 231
Tertiaries, the, sand and clay deposits

termed, 83
Thayer, Abbott, colour-protection

and invisibility of animals as

demonstrated by, 306-312
Throughton, use of spider's lines in

telescopes introduced by,

292

Tissue, explanation of term, 174
Toads, English species, 216

European species, various, 216-219
gigantic tadpoles of spur-heeled,

216-218

method of catching prey, 219
Tolstoi, Metchnikoffs meeting with,

43.44

"Toxin," conversion into "anti-
toxin," 102
Trees, English, derivation of various,

57

Tree-sparrows, 268
Trout, "natural selection" theory in

relation to increased caution

of, 269, 270
Troy, discovery of, by Schliemann,

16

Tubercle - bacillus, discovery by

Koch, 240
Turkey-cock, native home and original

introduction of, 358-359
various names given to, 359
Two on a Tower (Hardy), quotation

from, 220

Unicorn, heraldic, origin of, 127
Universities, extension and diffusion

of science by, need for, 6,

8,9
Oxford and Cambridge, reasons for

inefficiency of, 10
Oxford and Cambridge, result of

usurpation by wealthy

classes, 9, 10
Upas-tree, Java, fabled effect of, 96

"Vega," position of our sun and
planets with regard to star,
224, 225

Village population, increasing de-
generacy of, 270, 278, 279

Wallace, Alfred Russel, Darwinism

by, 15, 1 6 (quotation)
friendly relations between Darwin

and, 13, 37
theories of, 12-14, 2^
Wood, protection against " worm "
and "mould," methods
advocated for, 354, 355
" worm-eaten," production of, 349
Wood-borers, animal, 346-347
death-watch beetle, 351-352
furniture beetle, 348-350
Worms, stone-boring, 347-349
Wyvern, heraldic, 116

Yellow fever, 2-4

Printed by

MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED
Edinburgh

METHUEN'S
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AUTUMN 1912

THE HEATHER MOON

By C. N. and A. M. WILLIAMSON, Authors of 'The

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very original kind with many conflicting interests has been evolved.

LONDON LAVENDER : An Entertainment

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This is Mr. Lucas's fourth novel, or ' Entertainment ' as he prefers
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BURIED ALIVE

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DARNELEY PLAGE

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The story of two girls united by kinship and affection, but divided
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THE HOLIDAY ROUND

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THE ANGLO-INDIANS

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MARY PECHELL

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JUDITH LEE : Some Pages from her Life

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6 METHUEN'S POPULAR NOVELS

HAUNTING SHADOWS ; or, The House
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An English girl, brought up under harsh surroundings, considers
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NANCE OF MANCHESTER

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METHUEN'S POPULAR NOVELS 7

Dr. Anthony Belton called Nance ' the bravest girl in Manchester,'
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HONOURS EASY

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The interest of this story centres in the will of a Professor Clifford,
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THE OAKUM PICKERS

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A story treating of modern social life, and incidentally of the
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HER SERENE HIGHNESS

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IT HAPPENED IN SMYRNA

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A vivid record of Eastern travel and adventure by a new author.
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3 METHUEN'S POPULAR NOVELS

leads us via Port Said to Smyrna. There and in the interior
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BETTY HARRIS

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' Happy Island.' Crown 8vo, 35. 6d.

Betty Harris, the only child of an American millionaire, strays one
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the spirit of the old world and the new, meeting in the grimy Chicago
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CHARLES THE GREAT

By Mrs. H. H. PENROSE, Author of 'The Sheltered

Woman,' etc. Crown 8vo, 6s.

Charles the Great is a very light comedy, and it therefore counts
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away.

THE ACE OF HEARTS

By C. THOMAS-STANFORD. Crown 8vo, 6s.

An English Member of Parliament, spending a holiday in the
Portuguese island of Madeira in January 1912, becomes unwittingly
privy to a plot against the Republican Government. The conspirators,
fearful that he will betray their secrets, make him prisoner ; but he
escapes to experience a series of adventures on the rugged coast, and
amid the wild mountains of the island. Through the tangled web of
plot and counterplot runs the thread of a love story.

LYNETTE

By JOHN OVERTON. Crown 8vo, 6s.

Although Lynettet by a new writer, does not claim to be an historical
novel, it is based on facts connected with the struggle between the
Cavaliers and Roundheads, and is a wholesome story of love and
adventure, of bard fighting and high ideals.

METHUEN & CO. LTD., 36 ESSEX STREET, LONDON, W.C.

COLONIAL BOOK SERVICE

45 FOURTH AVE.

New York City 3. GRamercy 5-8354

We Hunt Out-of-Print Books

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Library Bureau Cat. No. 1137