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■£>p  nr   .vo 


SCIENCE  CENTER  LIBRARY 


FHOM  THE  BEQUEST  OF 

MRS.  ANNE  E.  P.  SEVER 
OF  BOSTON 

Widow  of  Cd,  James  Warren  Sever 

(C1m«  of  1817) 


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THE    SCIENTIFIC    MONTHLY 


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THE 
SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


EDITED  BY  /.  McKEEN  CATTELL 


VOUJME  XIII 
JULY  TO  DECEMBER,  1921 


NEW  YORK 

THE  SCIENCE  PRESS 

1921 


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CopyriglLt,  1921 

THE  SCIENCE  PRESS 


THOMAS    J.    GBITinit    AN»    IONS 
imCA,    N.    T. 


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VOLXIII,  NO.  1  ^vo'^""'   '"^^^fK     — lijl^IIf"     JULY,  1921 

(       JlJN  27192M 

THE  SCIENTIFIC 
MONTHLY 

EDITED  BY  J.  McKEEN  CATTELL 


CONTENTS 

THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY.     Profesaor  John  Johniton 5 

THE  CENTENNIALS  OF  HERMAN  VON  HELMHOLTZ  AND  RUDOLF 
VIRCHOW: 

HERMANN  VON  HELMHOLTZ.     Profcator  LouU  Karpiniki 24 

RUDOLF  VIRCHOW— PATHOLOGIST.     Dr.  Carl  Vernon  Walker .  33 

RUI>OLF  VIRCHOW— ANTHROPOLOGIST  AND  ARCHEOLOGIST. 

Professor  Arthur  E.  R.  Boak 40 

THE  BIOLOGY  OF  DEATH— THE  INHERITANCE  OF  DURATION  OF  UFE  IN 

MAN.     ProfeMK>r  Raymond  Pearl 46 

VITAMINS  AND  FOOD  DEFICIENCY  DISEASES.     Dr.  Alfred  C.  Reed 67 

HSHING  IN  LAKE  MICHIGAN.    Profeseor  A.  S.  Pearw 81 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE: 

The  Utilization  and  Conservation  of  the  Natural  Resources  of  the  United  States; 
The  Executive  Committee  on  Natural  Resources;  Mme.  Curie's  Visit  to  the 
United  States;  Exchange  of  Professors  of  Engineering  between  American  and 
French  Universities;  Scientific  Items 91 


THE    SCIENCE    PRESS 

PUBUCATION  OFFICE:   11  LIBERTY  ST.,  UTICA,  N.  Y. 
EDITORIAL  AND  BUSINESS  OPnCE:  GARRISON,  N.  Y. 

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COPYRIGHT  1921  BY  THE  SCIEMCE  PRSSS 
Eaiared  u  aeeond-elaM  natter  Febnury  8,  1921,  at  tha  Pott  Office  at  Utiea,  N.  Y..  ander  the  hcl  of  Mareb  8.  1879. 


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rt^^r    sub-divided. 

^"^  wide  varietur  and  ever  increasing  number. 

c/f  selection  of  those  recendj  issued. 

SPACE  AND  TIME  IN  CX)NTEMPORARY  PHYSICS 

fBy  MORITZ  SCHUCK  9l^  ^30 

An  iid«iiiiiw,  yet  dear  Moaiizit  of  Einstein's  epocfa-maldng  theotie*  of  iclativiQr. 

ON  GRAVITATION  AND  RELATIVITY 

Sy  Ralph  Allen  Sabxpson  90c 

The  Halley  lectiue  delivered  by  the  Astronomer  Royal  for  Scotland. 

SOME  FAMOUS  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  THEORY  OF 
NUMBERS 

®y  G.  H.  Hakdy  ^1.15 

Inaugiual  bcture  bjr  the  Savilion  Praftssor  of  Geomatiy  at  Oifocd. 

TUTORS  UNTO  CHRIST 

®y  Alfred  R  Garvib  ^rt  ^2.25 

•  An  interesting  introduction  to  the  study  of  religions. 

FUNGAL  DISEASES  OF  THE  COMMON  LARCH 

"By  W.  E.  Heley  ^5.65 

An  elaborate  investigation  into  larch  canker  with   dcscrq}tions  of  all  other  known 
diiwufii  of  the  larch  and  numerous  fine  illusttadona. 

THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  PLANTS 

®y  M.  E.  Hardy  ^3.00 

More  advanced  than  the  author's  earlier  work  disaissing  fully  the  conditions  in  which 
plants  flourish  and  their  distribution  throughout  the  earth. 

SCHOOLS  OF  GAUL 

*By  Theodore  Haarhoff  ^5.65 

An  important  study  of  Pagan  and  Christian  education  in  the  last  century  of  the 
Wiestem  empire. 

THE  ELEMENTS  OF  DESCRIPTIVE  ASTRONOMY 

'By  E.  O.  Tancock  ^1.35 

A  simple  and  attractive  description  of  the  heavens  ralnilaiyd  to  arouse  the  interest 
of  those  who  know  little  or  nothing  of  the  subject. 

RECENT  DEVELOPMENTS  IN  EUROPEAN  THOUGHT 
Edited  by  F.  S,  Marvin  9^/  ^3.00 

Twelve  essays  bv  noted  scholars  summarizing  the  work  of  the  leading  European 
thinkers  in  the  last  fifty  years. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  TEiE  ATOMIC  THEORY 

By  A.  N.  Mbldrum  70c 

A  brief  historical  sketch   attributing   to   William   Higginsy  not  John  Dehon  as 
generally  supposed,  priority  in  the  discovery  of  the  theory. 

oAt  all  booksellers  or  from  the  fmblishers. 

OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS  American  ^ancb 

35  WEST  32nd  STREET.  NEW  YORK 

XFORD  BOOKS 

0%e  standard  of  textuaC  exce(£ence!^ 


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(       JUN  271921^^,^/1 


THE  SCIENTIFIC 
MONTHLY 


JULY.  1021 

THE  fflSTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY* 

By  Professor  JOHN  JOHNSTON 

YALE  UNIYERSITT 

CHEMISTRY  is  Che  science  of  the  ultimate  composition  and  con- 
stitution of  matter,  of  the  nmtual  reaction  between  two  or  more 
substances,  and  of  the  influence  of  factors  such  as  change  of  temper- 
ature, pressure,  or  extent  of  surface  upon  the  stability  of  a  substance 
and  its  relation  to  other  substances.  The  chemist  studies  the  great 
diversity  of  substances,  organic  and  inorganic,  which  we  see  around 
us;  he  analyzes  these  substances,  ascertains  their  composition,  and 
builds  them  up  again  from  their  components;  he  investigates  their  be- 
havior with  respect  to  change  in  external  conditions  and  in  relation  to 
other  substances.  He  learns  how,  not  merely  to  imitate  a  substance 
oocnring  naturally,  but  to  make  the  identical  material  artificially  and 
to  discover  new  substances  superior  in  usefulness  to  those  found  in 
nature;  and  he  considers  how  useful  substances  may^be  produced  more 
economically  from  the  raw  materials  available.  The  study  of  chemistry 
is  slowly  yielding  information  as  to  the  nature  of  biological  processes 
of  importance  to  every  one  and  so  is  assisting  to  retain  health  and  to 
control  disease.  Indeed  our  material  well-being  and  comfort  depend 
in  large  part  upon  a  fundamental  knowledge  of  chemical  processes  and 
how  to  control  them;  and  continued  progress  along  these  lines  will  be 
limited  only  by  the  rate  at  which  we  extend  our  knowledge  of  funda- 
mentals, what  chemistry  has  achieved  being  but  a  fraction  of  what  it 
may  do  for  us. 

The  great  practical  achievements  of  chemistry  are  comparatively 
recent,  almost  entirely  within  the  last  sixty  years,  quite  largely  indeed 
within  the  present  century.  They  are  so  manifold  that  it  would  not 
be  feasible  in  the  space  allotted  even  to  mention  a  fraction  of  them; 
consequently  I  have  endeavored  only  to  ^etch  in  general  outline,  as 
free  from  technicalities  as  possible,  the  development  of  the  main  funda- 

*A  lecture  delivered  at  Yale  University,  March  25,  1920,  the  second  of  a 
series  on  the  History  of  Science  under  the  auspices  of  the  Yale  Chapter  of 
the  Gamma  Alpha  Graduate  Scientific  Fraternity. 


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i  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

moiital  principles  of  chemistry,  and  even  in  this  have  been  forced  to 
omit  much  that  is  important 

Development  of  the  Idea  of  Chemical  Elements  and  of  THEm 
MirruAL  Relationship 
Two  hundred  years  ago,  at  which  time  the  classical  mathematics 
had  already  reached  a  high  state  of  development,  chemistry  had  not 
begun  to  be  a  science,  nor  even  an  art;  it  was  more  or  less  of  a  mystery, 
in  which  language  was  used  to  conceal  the  fact  that  there  was  no 
thought— as  it  still  is  used  by  some  today.  Boyle  in  'The  Sceptical 
Oiymist,**  first  published  in  1661,  refers  to  the  vagueness  of  the  ideas 
then  current  in  the  following  terms  :^ 

The  confidence  wherewith  chymJsts  are  wont  to  call  each  of  the  sub- 
stances we  speak  of  by  the  name  of  sulphur  or  mercury,  or  the  other  of  the 
hypostatical  principles,  and  the  intolerable  ambiguity  Uiey  allow  themsdves 
in  their  writings  and  expressions,  makes  it  necessary  for  me  ....  to 
complain  of  the  unreasonable  liberty  they  give  themselves  of  playing  with 
names  at  pleasure  ....  I  cannot  but  take  notice,  that  the  descriptions 
they  give  us  of  that  principle  or  ingredient  of  mixt  bodies,  are  so  intricate, 
that  even  those  that  have  endeavored  to  polish  and  illustrate  the  notions  of 
the  chymists,  are  fain  to  confess  that  they  know  not  what  to  make  of  it 
either  by  ingenuous  acknowledgments,  or  descriptions  that  are  not  intelligible 
....  Chymists  write  thus  darkly,  not  because  they  think  their  notions 
too  precious  to  be  explained,  but  because  they  fear  that  if  they  were  explained, 
men  would  discern,  that  they  are  far  from  being  precious.  And,  indeed,  I 
fear  that  the  chief  reason  why  chymists  have  written  so  obscurely  of  their 
three  principles,  may  be,  that  not  having  dear  and  distinct  notions  of  them 
themselves,  they  cannot  write  otherwise  than  confusedly  of  what  they  but 
confusedly  apprehend;  not  to  say  that  divers  of  them,  being  conscious  to 
the  invalidity  of  their  doctrine,  might  well  enough  disceme  that  they  could 
scarce  keep  themselves  from  being  confuted,  but  by  keeping  themselves  from 
being  dearly  understood  ....  If  judidous  men,  skilled  in  chymical 
affau-s,  shall  agree  to  write  dearly  and  plainly  of  them,  and  thereby  keep 
men  from  being  stunned,  as  it  were,  or  imposed  upon  by  dark  and  empty 
words ;  it  is  to  be  hoped,  that  these  (other)  men  finding,  that  ihey  can  no 
longer  write  impertinently  and  absurdly,  without  being  laughed  at  for  doing 
so,  will  be  reduced  either  to  write  nothing,  or  books,  that  may  teach  us  some- 
thing, and  not  rob  men,  as  formerly,  of  invaluable  time;  and  so  ceasing  to 
trouble  the  world  with  riddles  or  impertinendes,  we  shall  either  by  their 
books  receive  an  advantage,  or  by  their  silence  escape  an  inconvenience. 

And  again,'  showing  that  he  had  no  great  opinion  of  their  methods: 

Methinks  the  Chymists,  in  their  searches  after  truth,  are  not  tmlike  the 
navigators  of  Solomon's  Tarshish  fleet,  who  brought  home  from  their  long 
and  tedjous  voyages,  not  only  gold,  and  silver,  and  ivory,  but  apes  and 
peacocks  too:  for  so  the  writings  of  several  (for  I  say  not,  all)  of  your 
hermetidc  philosophers  present  us,  together  with  divers  substantial  and 
noble  experiments,  theories,  which  either  like  peacock's  feathers  make  a  great 

iThe  Sceptical  Chymist,  Everyman's  Edition,  pp.  113-6. 
K>p.  dt  p.  227. 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  7 

•how,  bat  are  neither  solid  nor  useful;  or  else  like  apes,  if  they  have  some 
appearance  of  being  rational,  are  blemi^ed  with  some  absurdity  or  other,  that 
when  they  are  attentively  considered,  make  them  appear  ridiculous. 

The  general  belief  o£  the  aldiemisla  appears  to  have  been  that  there 
ia  a  primordial  matter  which,  when  combined  with  more  or  less  of  one 
or  more  of  their  four  so-called  elements  or  principles — ^fire,  air,  earth 
and  water — ^becomes  apparent  to  our  senses  as  the  various  substances 
we  know;  in  other  words,  that  matter  is  the  carrier  or  embodiment  of 
certain  qualities  which  can  by  appropriate  treatment  be  enhanced  or 
attenuated.  It  is  juster  to  look  upon  the  alchemists'  so-called  elements 
as  qualities — such  as  hotness,  coldness,  dryness,  wetness — typified  by 
the  things  named,  though  no  single  quality  would  suffice  for  a  single 
element,  as  each  alchemist  tended  to  endow  his  elements  with  such  attrib- 
utes as  suited  his  immediate  purpose.  In  addition  to  these  four  elements 
some  made  use  also  of  the  ^bypostatical"  (fundamental)  prindples — 
salt,  sulphur  and  mercury,  which  again  may  be  interpreted  as  typifying 
fizky  in  die  fire  or  incombustibility,  combustibility,  volatility  and 
metallic  lustre,  respectivdy.  Such  views  lead  one  directly  to  believe 
in  the  possibility  of  transmutation,  of  changing  base  metal  into  gold; 
for  to  achieve  this,  it  would  be  necessary  only  to  effect  a  suitable  change 
in  the  proportions  of  the  elemental  qualities,  a  possibility  which  there- 
fore seemed  far  from  hopeless  or  absurd. 

It  is  dear  that  no  great  progress  in  chemistry  as  a  science  could 
have  been  made,  so  long  as  such  false  views  prevailed.  And  indeed  the 
alchemists  contributed  nothing  to  the  real  jdiilosophy  of  chemistry, 
ahhough  they  did  discover — ^by  chance,  more  or  less — a  few  useful 
substances,  such  as  sulphuric  add  (oil  of  vitrei)  and  tartar  emetic, 
some  of  vi^ch  found  application  as  drugs.  For  one  of  the  tasks  they 
set  for  themsdves  was  to  find  the  elixir  of  youth,  a  quest  along  with 
which  went  a  bdief  in  the  efficacy  of  doses  of  the  strangest  mixtures; 
indeed,  an  ingenuous  person  examining  the  present-day  offidal  pharma- 
copeias might  wdl  be  led  to  think  that  the  alchemists  continued  to 
flonridi  and  to  be  powerful  until  very  recent  times. 

The  overdirow  of  this  false  philosophy  was  b^un  by  Robert  Boyle, 
in  his  ''Sceptical  Chymist"  He  endeavored  to  distinguirii  the  quali- 
ties of  a  substance  from  its  composition,  and  enunciated  views  with 
reference  to  the  difference  between  elements  and  cdmpounds  which  are 
still  hdd.  Thus  he  writes:  ''I  must  not  look  upon  any  body  as  a  true 
prindple  or  dement,  but  as  yet  compounded,  which  is  not  perfectly 
homogeneous,  but  is  further  resoluble  into  any  number  of  distinct  sub- 
stances, how  small  soever.  "  ^l  mean  by  elements,  as  those  chymists 
that  speak  plainest  do  by  their  principles,  certain  primitive  and  simple, 
or  perfectly  unmingled  bodies;  irfiich  not  being  made  of  any  other 
bodies,  or  of  one  another,  are  the  ingredients  of  which  all  those  called 


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8  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

perfectly  mizt  bodies  are  immediately  compounded,  and  into  which 
they  are  ultimately  resolved.*^ 

It  ia  diflieult  to  picture  the  exact  status  of  knowledge  of  chemical 
art  at  that  period,  partly  because  the  alchemists  commonly  described 
their  experiments  in  vague  terms,  partly  because  their  false  theories 
prevented  them  from  discovering  all  the  pertinent  facts  and  led  them 
to  misinterpret  much  of  what  they  did  (^>serve.  For  instance,  the  doc- 
trine of  the  indestructibility  of  matter — that  the  total  weight  of  a 
system  remains  unaffected  by  chemical  changes  taking  place  within  it — 
now  r^arded  as  axiomatic,  was  not  definitely  formulated;  the  material 
nature  of  air  had  not  yet  been  recognised,  nor  had  gases  been  really 
differentiated;  the  process  of  combustion  was  not  understood,  and 
analytical  methods  hardly  existed. 

Boyle's  views  gained  ground  very  slowly,  but  the  progress  of 
chemistry  was  hindered  for  a  century  by  a  false  theory,  the  so-called 
phlogiston  theory.  According  to  this  view,  there  is  an  inflammable 
principle— i^ilogiston — ^which  escapes  when  a  substance  is  burned. 
For  instance,  when  a  metal  is  burned,  phlogiston  escapes  and  a  calx 
or  earth  remains;  on  which  basis  the  metal  is  a  compound  of  calx  plus 
phlogiston,  whence  it  would  follow  that  in  order  to  regenerate  the 
metal,  phl<^;iston  must  be  supplied  to  the  calx  by  heating  vrith  some 
substance  (such  as  carbon)  rich  in  phlogiston.  This  theory 
emphasized  the  fundamental  similarity  of  all  combustion  processes, 
and  to  that  extent  was  a  good  and  useful  hypothesis;  but  the  picture 
it  presented  is  almost  the  exact  inverse  of  the  real  facts,  for  we  now 
know  that  a  metal  in  burning  actually  unites  with  oxygen,  that  the  calx 
or  oxide  weighs  more  than  the  metal,  and  that  the  system  as  a  whole 
has  lost  energy,  mainly  in  the  form  of  heat — all  of  tfa^se  changes  having 
to  be  reversed  in  order  to  regenerate  the  metal  from  the  oxide.  The 
phlogiston  theory,  despite  its  falsity,  continued  to  prevail  for  a  century, 
during  which  time  it  befogged  the  whole  subject  and  paralyzed  the 
advance  of  chemical  philosophy;  the  net  result  being  that,  until  nearly 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  subject  was  as  little  clear  as  it 
had  been  a  hundred  years  before,  although  it  had  in  the  meantime  been 
enriched  by  many  new  observations  of  importance,  and  progress  along 
experimental  lines  had  been  quickened  by  improved  tedinique.  This 
prevalence  of  a  false  theory,  which  hindred  progress  so  greatly,  leads 
one  to  wonder  if  some  of  the  hypotheses  now  ccnnmonly  accepted  do  not 
have  a  similar  inverse  relation  to  the  real  facts^  as  was  the  case  with 
the  phlogiston  theory;  it  is  this  type  of  question  which  the  promoters 
of  the  theory  of  relativity  are  in  effect  asking  with  respect  to  our  funda- 
mental physical  ideas. 

Another  mistaken  notion  was  the  material  nature  of  heat    The  fact 

K)p.  cit  p.  187- 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  9 

that  flames  issue  from  burning  bodies  led  to  the  view  that  they  were 
material  objects;  and  so  fire  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  elements.  Even 
after  the  overthrow  of  the  ancient  ideas  of  combustion,  it  was  believed 
that  heat,  or  caloric  as  they  termed  it,  though  devoid  of  weight,  was  a 
substance — an  imponderable,  in  the  same  category  as  light  and 
electricity. 

Thus,  even  as  late  as  1848,  in  a  very  interesting  '^Manual  of 
Chemistry"*  the  author  writes: 

The  first  part  comprehends  an  account  of  the  nature  and  properties  of 
Heat,  Light  and  Electricity — agents  so  diffusive  and  subtile  that  the  com- 
mon attributes  of  matter  can  not  be  perceived  in  them.  They  are  altogether 
destitute  of  weight;  at  least,  if  they  possess  any,  it  cannot  be  discovered 
t^  our  most  delicate  balances,  and  hence  they  have  received  the  appellation 
of  Imponderables.  They  cannot  be  confined  and  exhibited  in  a  mass  like 
other  bodies,  they  can  be  collected  only  through  the  intervention  of  other 
substances.  Their  title  to  be  considered  material  is  therefore  questionable, 
and  the  effects  produced  by  them  have  accordingly  been  attributed  to  certain 
motions  or  affections  of  common  matter.  It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that 
they  appear  to  be  subject  to  the  same  powers  that  act  on  matter  in  general, 
and  that  some  of  the  laws  which  have  been  determined  concerning  them  are 
exactly  such  as  might  have  been  anticipated  on  the  supposition  of  their 
materiality.  It  hence  follows  that  we  need  only  regard  them  as  subtile 
species  of  matter,  in  order  that  the  phenomena  to  which  they  give  rise  may 
be  explained  in  the  language,  and  according  to  the  principles,  which  are  ap- 
plied to  material  substances  in  general. 

From  this  it  is  apparent  that  the  author  did  not  feel  quite  sure  of 
his  ground  although  Rumford's  experiments  in  1798  had  shown  that 
heat  could  be  generated  without  limit  by  friction  alone;  indeed  the 
question  was  not  determined  until  the  experimental  investigations  of 
Joule,  published  1843-9,  established  the  doctrine  of  the  conservation 
of  energy,  that  heat  and  work  are  mutually  and  quantitatively  intercon- 
vertible. 

Thus,  up  to  nearly  the  close  of  the  18th  century  chemistry  had  not 
become  a  science.  No  descriptions  had  yet  been  given  which  cor- 
related change  of  properties  with  change  of  composition  in  such  a 
way  as  to  indicate  new  lines  of  investigation.  Indeed  the  conception 
of  chemical  composition,  as  we  now  understand  it,  had  not  taken  form, 
because  the  phenomena-r-and  in  particular,  the  change  of  weight — ac- 
companying the  transformation  of  one  substance  into  another  had  not 
been  accurately  observed.  From  this  period  date  the  use  of  the  bal- 
ance, perhaps  the  most  characteristic  single  tool  of  the  scientific  chemist, 
and  the  quantitative  analysis  of  chemical  changes;  and  with  this  ad- 
vance chemistry  begins  to  be  a  science,  with  a  growing  body  of  definite 
principles. 

4^'Manual  of  Chemistry  on  the  Basis  of  Dr.  Turner's  Elements  of  Chem- 
istry," by  John  Johnston  (1806-79)  Professor  of  Natural  Science  in  the 
Wesleyan  University;  new  edition,  Philadelphia,  1848;  p.  xiil 


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10  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

In  rendering  chemistry,  a  science  many  men  bore  a  part,  but  tba 
outstanding  fignre  is  Lavoisier,  bom  in  1743,  beheaded  in  1794  because 
^e  Republic  has  no  need  of  scientistB,**  a  yiew  which,  thou^  still 
widely  held  implicitly,  is  not  now  carried  to  its  logical  conclusion  in 
the  same  i¥ay  as  it  was  then.  Lavoisier's  ^Traite  elementaire  de 
chimie,**  published  in  1789,  is  a  systematic  treatise  which  transformed 
the  subject  He  gave  a  definite  meaning  to  the  expression,  ^'chemical 
composition**;  and  recognized  that  the  quantity  of  matter  is  the  same 
at  the  end  as  at  the  beginning  of  every  operation.  He  stated  that  the 
object  of  chemistry  is  *'to  decompose  the  different  natural  bodies, 

and to  examine  separately  the  different  substances  which 

enter  into  their  combination.  We  cannot  be  certain  that  what  we  think 
today  to  be  simple  is  indeed  simple;  all  we  may  say  is,  that  such  or 
such  a  substance  is  the  actual  term  whereat  chemical  analysis  has  ar- 
rived, and  that  with  our  present  knowledge  we  are  unable  to  subdivide 
forther.**  This  quotation  shows  that  Lavoisier  had  a  much  better 
philosophic  attitude  towards  the  whole  matter  than  have  had  many  of 
the  demists  since  his  time;  indeed  until  recently  chemists  were  so  much 
occupied  in  accumulating  observations  that  they  were  prone  to  neglect 
the  philosophy  by  means  of  which  alone  these  multitudinous  observa- 
tions can  be  correlated. 

Lavoisier  gave  a  table  of  elements,  containing  thirty-three  names, 
of  which  twenty-three  are  still  regarded  as  elements — ^the  definition  of 
a  chemical  element  being  that  it  is  a  substance  which  we  have  not  suc- 
ceeded in  breaking  up  into  anything  simpler,  the  atoms  of  the  several 
diemical  elements  therefore  being,  so  to  speak,  the  small  pieces  of 
tile  of  different  kinds  out  of  which  are  built  up  all  of  the  numberless 
patterns  or  mosaics  whidi  we  see  about  us  as  diverse  kinds  of  matter. 
Of  the  others,  five — ^lime,  magnesia,  baryta,  alumina,  silica — are  oxides 
which,  with  the  experimental  means  then  available  to  Lavoisier,  could 
not  be  decomposed.  These  twenty-three  elements,  the  number  known 
at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  comprise  the  following:  carbon, 
hydrogen,  oxygen,  nitrogen,  phosphorus,  sulphur;  antimony,  arsenic, 
bismuth,  cobalt,  copper,  gold,  iron,  lead,  manganese,  mercury, 
molybdenum,  nickel,  platinum,  silver,  tin,  tungsten,  zinc.  This  list,  it 
will  be  noted,  includes  only  six  non-metals,  one  of  which — sulphur — 
was  known  to  the  ancients  though  not  recognized  by  them  as  an  element 
in  the  modem  sense  of  the  term.  Of  the  seventeen  metals  on  Lavoisier's 
list,  seven — gold,  silver,  copper,  iron,  mercury,  lead,  tin — ^were  known 
to  the  ancients,  though  not  as  elements;  most  of  the  others  were  isolated 
for  the  first  time  during  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  In- 
cidentally it  may  be  mentioned,  as  an  illustration  of  the  slowness  with 
which  knowledge  is  applied,  that  some  of  these  metals — notably, 
tungsten,  molybdenum  and  manganese — ^were  not  used  technically  for 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  H 

more  than  a  hundred  yean  after  their  discovery;  we  now  value  them 
highly,  aa  their  use  enables  ua  to  achieve  results  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance technically  and  therefore  economically,  results  which  other- 
wise were  unattainable.  It  is  of  interest,  furthermore,  to  note  that  the 
names  of  two  of  these  elements — cobalt  and  nickel — derive  from  words 
meaning  **the  devil,**  ores  of  copper  admixed  with  these  metals  being 
then  considered  useless;  indeed  we  have  only  learned  to  make  use  of 
such  ores  comparatively  recently.  Nickel  has  been  produced  on  a 
large  scale  for  a  short  time,  and  no  large  use  has  yet  been  made 
of  cobalt,  although  it  is  comparatively  plentiful. 

By  the  year  1800,  twenty-seven  chemical  elements  had  been 
recognized,  the  four  added  since  Lavoisier  being  uranium,  titanium, 
chromium  and  tellurium;  thirty  years  later,  in  1830,  this  number  had 
been  doubled.  The  discovery  of  many  of  diese  elements  (for  instance, 
the  metals  associated  with  platinum — ^palladium,  rhodium,  iri£um, 
osmium)  was  brought  about  by  the  application  of  more  and  more 
careful  analytical  methods,  in  the  hands  of  men  such  as  WoUaston  and 
Berzelius — the  latter  alone  adding  five  to  the  list  The  isolation  of 
others,  notably  the  alkali  and  alkaline  earth  metals,  (potassium, 
sodium,  calcium,  strontium,  barium)  by  Davy  in  1807,  was  achieved  by 
a  new  and  powerful  method  of  analysis,  namely,  the  application  of  the 
electric  current  to  the  breaking  up  of  substances.  Davy,  after  proving 
definitely  by  this  means  that  water  is  composed  solely  of  hydrogen  and 
oxygen,  estd[>lished  the  fact,  surmised  by  Lavoisier,  that  the  alkalis  are 
oxides  of  metals;  therefore  that  oxygen,  the  acid  producer  as  it  had 
been  named  (erroneously  as  we  now  know) ,  is  a  constituent  of  the 
alkalies.  He  was»  however,  puzzled  by  ammonia  and  in  particular  by 
the  ammonium  radicle  or  grouping*  which  in  its  salts  resembles  so 
closely  the  alkali  metals;  and  this  puzzle  was  not  solved  until  about 
1840,  by  which  time  the  idea  of  the  existence  of  similar  compound 
radicles  in  organic  chemistry  was  b^inning  to  find  general  acceptance. 

From  this  period  dates  the  usefulness  of  the  atomic  theory,  first 
clearly  enunciated  by  John  Dalton  in  his  *'New  System  of  C!hemica]r 
Philosophy**  published  in  1808.  The  speculation  that  matter  is  ulti- 
mately composed  of  discrete  particles,  or  atoms,  had  been  common  in 
philosophical  writings;  but  it  had  led  to  no  real  progress  of  knowledge 
until  Dalton  showed  how  the  assumption  that  each  element  is  made 
up  of  atoms  serves  to  correlate  experimental  observations  and  to  sug- 
gest new  inquiries.  On  this  basis,  the  myriad  substances  we  see  about 
us  are  all  made  up  of  combinations  of  a  small  integral  number  of  atoms 
of  the  several  elements  present,  the  atoms  of  each  element  having  char- 
acteristic properties,  and  in  particular  a  characteristic  weight. 
Qiemical  combination  of  one  element  with  another  is  the  union  of  an 

•Sec  infra. 

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13  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

atom  of  one  element  with  an  atom,  or  a  small  number  of  atoms,  of  the 
other;  this  number,  in  compounds  of  two  elements,  seldom  exceeds  four 
and  is  always  less  than  eight,  and  it  is  in  no  wise  arbitrary  but  in  accord- 
ance with  what  is  now  termed  the  relative  valence  of  the  two  elements. 
As  a  simple  case,  in  the  ordinary  combustion  of  carbon  (coal)  one  car- 
bon atom  unites  ¥nth  two  oxygen  atoms,  resulting  in  the  formation  of 
carbonic  acid  gas;  or,  as  the  chemist  writes  it  in  his  shorthand, 
C  +  O2  ^  CO,.  In  more  complicated  structures,  the  number  of  ele- 
ments present  may  be  greater  than  two,  but  is  seldom  greater  than  five; 
the  total  number  of  atoms  making  up  the  structure  characteristic  of  the 
substance  is  in  some  cases  large,  but  in  all  cases  it  can  be  pictured  as 
made  up  of  a  number  of  groupings,  each  composed  of  two  elements. 
As  a  simple  familiar  instance,  limestone  (CaCOg)  is  made  up  of  equiva- 
lent amounts  of  lime  (CaO)  and  carbonic  acid  (COj),  and  is  decom- 
posed into  these  two  proximate  constituents  in  the  operation  of  lime- 
burning,  thus: 

CaCOj  (CaO.CO.)  =  CaO     +     CO,  . 

calcium  carbonate    calcium  carbon 

oxide  dioxide 

Furthermore  the  lime,  when  used  as  mortar,  is  slowly  reconverted  into 
the  carbonate  by  the  action  of  the  carbonic  acid  always  present  in  the 
atmosphere.  In  many  chemical  processes  we  are  dealing  with  an  ex- 
change of  partners,  the  substances  A  B  and  C  D  becoming  A  D  and 
B  C;  for  example,  hydrochloric  (muriatic)  acid  added  to  a  solution 
of  silver  nitrate  (lunar  caustic)  yields  nitric  acid  and  silver  chloride, 
the  latter  appearing  as  an  insoluble  white  curdy  substance;  or  in  sym- 
bols, HCl  +  AgNO,  =  HNO3  +  AgCl.  Tliis  Ulustrates  the  fact  that 
the  apparent  affinity  of  one  kind  of  atom  for  another  is  not  the  same 
under  all  circumstances,  and  that  consequently  a  firm  and  long-standing 
union  of  two  atoms  may  be  broken  up  by  the  entrance  of  a  third  under 
appropriate  conditions. 

The  atomic  theory  was  a  very  great  step  in  advance,  establishing,  as 
it  did,  the  laws  and  processes  of  chemistry  on  a  quantitative  basis. 
Progress  since  Dalton's  time  has  only  served  to  confirm  the  essential 
correctness  of  the  atomic  theory;  indeed  there  is  now  no  longer  need  to 
call  it  a  theory,  for  the  reality  of  atoms  is  no  more  open  to  question 
than  that  of  any  other  fact  of  physical  science.  The  atoms  are  in- 
finitesimally  small,  so  small  that,  if  a  drop  of  water  were  magnified  to 
the  size  of  the  earth,  the  constituent  atoms  would  be  about  the  size  of 
footballs.  Perhaps  a  more  striking  illustration  is  that,  if  the  particles 
in  a  cubic  inch  of  air  were  magnified  until  they  would  just  pass 
through  a  very  fine  sieve  (100  meshes  to  the  inch),  this  fine  sand  of 
particles  would  suffice  to  cover  a  highway  extending  from  New  York  to 
San  Francisco,  and  one  mile  wide,  vrith  a  layer  about  two  feet  deep. 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  18 

We  cannot  see  the  actual  atoms,  it  is  true,  but  we  can  weigh  them  and 
measure  them  and  study  their  characteristics;  the  same  holds  true  for 
dectridty,  whidi,  it  may  be  remarked,  is,  according  to  modem  views, 
also  made  up  of  units,  named  electrons,  which  bear  an  extraordinarily 
intimate  relation  to  the  structure  of  the  atom  itself. 

In  1830,  as  noted  diwre,  about  fifty-five  chemical  elements  had  been 
recognized,  and  these  include  all — ^with  one  notable  exception,  argon, 
to  which  wa  shall  refer  later — ^which  have  yet  been  found  in  appreciable 
quantities  in  the  surface  crust  of  the  earth.  Since  that  time  the  number 
of  recognized  elements  has  been  increased  by  about  thirty,  most  of 
which,  however,  are  so  very  rare  that  only  a  few  grams  of  them  have 
ever  been  isolated — ^in  other  words,  most  of  them  are  chemical  curiosi- 
ties kept  in  small  tubes  in  museums.  Indeed  the  recognition  and  isola- 
tion of  the  majority  of  these  elements  has  been  possible  only  through 
the  discovery,  about  1860,  of  the  possibility  of  spectrum  analysis.  This 
degant  method  depends  upon  the  fact  that  each  chemical  element, 
whedier  in  combination  or  free,  gives,  when  viewed  under  appropriate 
conditions,  a  so-called  spectrum  made  up  of  a  series  of  bright  lines, 
the  poeitionsi  or  colors,  of  which  are  absolutely  characteristic.  This 
method  of  identification  is  so  sensitive  that  an  element  can  be  recog- 
nized even  when  it  is  present  only  in  very  small  amount — an  amount  of 
the  order  of  one-millionth  of  a  gram;  it  therefore  enables  one  to  learn 
how  to  segregate  or  concentrate  an  element  originally  present  in  such 
small  quantities  that  no  ordinary  chemical  test  would  then  suffice  to  de- 
tect it.  Likewise,  by  observation  and  measurement  of  the  spectra  of 
the  sun  and  stars,  it  has  been  definitely  determined  that  the  elements 
pres^it  in  their  upper  layers  are  identical  with  those  which  make  up 
the  crust  of  the  earth  and  are  already  familiar  to  us,  with  one  or  two 
possible  exceptions. 

In  1868  Lockyer,  irfiile  examining  the  solar  spectrum,  observed  a 
bright  line  which  did  not  correspond  to  any  element  then  known,  and 
attributed  it  to  a  hypothetical  element  helium.  This  element  was  not 
recognized  on  the  earth  for  about  thirty  years,  althou^  Hillebrand  had 
in  the  meantime,  while  examining  the  mineral  uraninite,  had  some  in 
his  hands,  but,  by  reason  of  its  inertness,  considered  it  to  be  nterely 
nitrogen.  It  was  identified  by  Rayleigh  and  Ramsay  in  the  course  of 
their  investigation  of  the  inert  gases  of  the  atmosphere,  an  investiga- 
tion which  arose  out  of  the  observation — originally  made,  in  a  sense, 
by  Givendish,  a  century  earlier — ^that  there  is  a  fractional  £CFerence  in 
density  between  nitrogen  prepared  chemically  and  that  obtained  from 
purified  air  by  removal  of  the  oxygen.  This  investigation  resulted  in 
the  discovery  of  a  family  of  five  new  inert  gaseous  elements,  all  of 
which  are  present  in  the  atmosphere,  arg(m  to  the  extent  of  about  one 
percent,  by  volume,  helium  and  the  others  in  the  proportion  of  a  few 


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14  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

parts  per  million.  Argon,  therefore^  although  all  around  ua  in  enor- 
mous quantities — ^within  a  house  33  x  33  x  33  feet  there  is  JbonX  a  ton  of 
air  and  consequently  some  forty  pounds  or  10,000  litres  (400  cubic 
feet)  of  argon — ^was  not  recognized,  by  reason  of  its  inertness;  for 
neither  it,  nor  any  of  the  argon  group,  has  hitherto  been  made  to  enter 
into  chemical  combination.  But  this  very  inertness  is  now  being  taken 
advantage  of;  in  the  case  of  argtxi,  as  a  filling  for  electric  li^  bulbs; 
in  the  case  of  helium,  as  a  non-inflammable  filling  for  balloons,  a  mat- 
ter which,  during  the  war,  was  considered  so  important  that  large 
quantities  of  it  ivere  finally  separated  from  natural  gas  in  Texas,  after 
many  difficulties  and  at  very  large  expense.  Incidentally,  this  is  an 
excellent  illustration  of  the  results  which  may  follow  from  scientific 
woric  carried  on  merely  to  learn  about  things,  and  not  with  any  idea  of 
discovering  something  of  particular  use;  for  the  possibility  of  produce 
Ing  helium  on  a  large  scale  is  a  direct  outcome  of  careful  observations 
of  the  spectrum  of  various  samples  of  natural  gas. 

But  the  greatest  interest  in  helium,  from  a  scientific  point  of  view 
at  least,  is  in  quite  another  direction,  namely,  its  intimate  connection 
with  the  phenomenon  of  radio-activity,  or  better,  with  the  disint^ration 
of  the  so-called  radio-elements.  These  radio-elements,  the  best  known 
of  which  is  radium,  first  discovered  in  1898,  differ  from  the  other  chem- 
ical elements  in  one  req>ect,  but  that  one  very  significant,  in  that  they 
are  disintegrating  before  our  eyes.  This  disintegration,  iidiich  pro- 
ceeds at  a  rate  unaffected  by  any  change  of  tonperature  or  by  anything 
tried  hitherto,  is  accompanied  by  a  continuous  emission  of  energy — a 
million  times  greater  than  is  liberated  in  any  change  of  matter  pre- 
viously known — largely  in  the  form  of  material  particles  shot  out  with 
great  velocity.  This  energy  is  so  great  that  one  can  indeed  count  the 
number  <^  particles  shot  out  by  observing  the  flash  produced  by  the 
bombardment  of  a  suitable  screen,  as  in  the  spinthariscope,  or  the 
luminous  watch  dial  in  which  the  light  is  the  aggregate  of  the  flashes 
produced  by  a  quantity  of  radium  which  weighs  only  a  millionth  of  a 
gram.  This  phenomenon  enables  us  to  detect  the  presence  of  a  small 
number  of  atoms  of  a  radio-element;  trfiereas  the  smallest  number  of 
atoms  of  an  elonent  whidi  it  has  been  possible  to  detect  by  means  of 
the  spectroscope  or  by  the  most  delicate  methods  of  chemical  analysis 
is  at  least  10^',  a  number  the  magnitude  of  which  will  be  more  obvious 
from  the  statement  that  it  is  several  hundred  times  the  total  present 
human  population  of  the  world.  It  is  now  definitely  established  that 
these  material  particles  are  helium  atoms,  and  that  this  disintegration  of 
the  radio-elements  is  an  actual  transmutation,  a  transmutation,  however, 
beyond  our  present  powers  to  control.  If  we  should  ever  learn  to  con- 
trol tUs  atomic  disint^ration,  it  would  effect  a  mudi  greater  revolu- 
tion than  was  caused  by  the  utilization  of  coal  for  power;  for  in  that 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  15 

case  the  energy  deriyable  from  the  atomic  disintegratioii  of  a  shovelful 
of  material  would  be  as  great  as  that  now  derivable  from  a  thousand 
tons  of  coal — ^in  other  words  we  would  then  be  possessed  of  limitless 
stores  of  energy.  This  has  not  been  done  yet,  it  may  not  be  achieved 
for  a  long  time,  it  may  not  be  possible;  but  he  would  be  a  rash  man 
who  would  deny  its  possibility.  The  phenomenon  of  radio-activity  is  a 
very  striking  illustration  of  the  way  in  which  a  new  method,  a  new  tool 
of  researdi,  may  open  up  a  field  which  otherwise  we  would  not  even 
sense — nay,  hardly  be  bold  enou^  to  imagine;  and  there  is  absolutely 
no  reason  for  believing  that  other  equally  novel  and  unsuspected  dis- 
coveries will  not  be  made  in  the  future. 

From  the  fact  that  the  material  particles  shot  out  by  a  disint^rating 
radio-element  are  helium  atoms,  it  would  appear  that  the  helium  atom 
18  one  of  the  kinds  of  brick  which  go  to  make  up  the  more  complex 
type  of  structure  of  the  atoms  of  the  heavier  elements.  Now  the  two 
simplest  and  lightest  atoms  known  are  the  hydrogen  atom  and  the 
helium  atom;  and  there  is  ground  for  believing  that  the  hydrogen  atom 
also  is  one  of  the  bricks  of  the  atom-builder.  Indeed  recent  ezperi* 
ments  of  Rutherford  (1920)  indicate  that  he  has  succeeded,  by  bom- 
barding nitrogen  atoms  with  helium  atoms,  in  dislodging  hydrogen 
atoms  from  somewhere — ^presumably  from  the  nitrogen  atom.  If  this 
is  confirmed,  we  shall  have  to  introduce  an  interpretative  reservation 
into  the  present  definition  of  an  element,  according  to  which  a  chemical 
element  is  a  substance  not  yet  resolved  into  something  simpler.  This 
however,  is  hardly  part  of  the  history  of  chemistry;  though,  one  may  ask, 
what  is  the  use  of  history,  beyond  being  a  sort  of  literary  exercise,  if 
it  does  not  enable  us  to  make  general  predictions  as  to  what  is  going  to 
happen,  for  tten  only  urill  it  be  a  science. 

The  deduction  from  experimental  evidence  that  the  hydrogen  and 
the  helium  atom  are  two  of  the  building  bricks  brings  us  bade  to  a 
very  old  idea,  to  the  idea  that  matter  as  we  see  it  or — one  would  now 
say  preferably, — ^the  chemical  elements  are  made  up  of  one,  two,  or  at 
most  a  few,  kinds  of  primordial  stuff.  The  relative  weight  of  the  atoms 
of  the  several  elements  can  be  determined  by  simple  experiments;  these 
atomic  weights  were  usually  referred  to  hydrogen  as  unity,  hydrogen 
being  the  lightest  known  element,  but  for  practical  reasons  are  now  re- 
ferred to  oxygen  =  16.00,  there  being  only  a  fractional  difference  be- 
tween these  two  standards  of  reference.  It  was  early  observed  that  a 
much  larger  proportion  of  these  atomic  weights  approximate  to  whole 
numbers  than  can  be  accounted  for  on  the  theory  of  diances.  From 
this  it  was  inferred  that  the  hydrogen  atom  was  this  ultimate  unit;  but 
there  were  a  number  of  well  established  marked  exceptions^  which 
would  not  be  explained  away  and  so  tended  to  discredit  the  doctrine. 
Nevertheless  this  hypothesis,  often  called  Front's  hypothesis,  c<mtinued 


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16  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

to  be  a  useful  one,  as  it  was  the  occasion  of  much  of  the  best  work  on 
atomic  weights;  and  in  spite  of  the  exceptions,  it  persisted  as  an  aspira- 
tion which  was  rewarded  in  time  by  the  discovery  of  the  periodic  law 
of  the  chemical  elements,  established  by  the  writings  of  Mendelejeff. 

According  to  this  great  generalization  'The  properties  of  the  ele- 
ments, and,  therefore,  the  properties  of  the  simple,  and  of  the  com- 
pound bodies  formed  from  them,  are  in  periodic  dependence  on  their 
atomic  weights."  In  other  words,  if  the  elements  are  arranged  in  order 
of  increasing  atomic  weight,  we  find  that  like  properties  recur  regularly, 
and  that  by  this  means  like  elements  are  brought  together  into  natural 
groups,  e.  g.  the  alkali  metals,  the  halogens,  the  inert  gases.  This  peri- 
odic classification  had  a  profound  effect  in  leading  us  toward  the 
correct  yalue  of  atomic  weight  of  many  elements;  and  in  enabling 
predictions  to  be  made  as  to  the  existence  and  properties  of  undis- 
covered elements,  predictions  which  were  completely  verified  in  three 
cases  by  the  subsequent  discovery  and  investigation  of  the  properties 
and  relations  of  scandium,  gallium  and  germanium.  But  to  record  all 
the  consequences  of  this  periodic  law  would  be  to  recount  the  achieve- 
ments in  inorganic  chemistry  in  the  fifty  years  elapsed  since  its  dis- 
covery; suflke  it  to  say  that  it  forced  the  chemist  to  cease  thinking  about 
the  elements  as  unrelated  entities  and  instead,  to  consider  them  as 
members  of  a  family  or,  at  the  least,  as  members  of  a  series  of  related 
families. 

Time  has  only  served  to  corroborate  the  essential  correctness  and 
usefulness  of  the  periodic  classification  of  the  chemical  elements;  and 
no  evidence  has  been  more  conclusive  than  that  derived,  within  the  last 
few  years,  from  investigations  of  X-rays  and  of  radio-activity.  This 
work  has  led  to  the  conception  of  a  characteristic  atomic  number  which 
changes  by  unity  in  passing  from  one  element  to  its  neighbor  in  the 
periodic  system.  It  appears  indeed  that  this  atomic  number  is  really 
more  fundamental  than  the  atomic  weight,  that  all  the  properties  of  an 
atom,  save  mass  and  radio-activity,  depend  upon  the  atomic  number, 
which  is  the  number  of  negative  electrons  (i.  e.  atoms  of  electricity) 
surrounding  the  positive  nucleus  at  which  the  mass  of  the  atom  is  as- 
sumed to  be  concentrated;  or  rather,  that  the  distribution  of  the  negative 
electrons  on  which  the  ordinary  physical  and  chemical  properties  de- 
pend is  a  function,  and  a  periodic  function,  of  the  units  of  electric 
charge  on  the  nucleus,  and  hence  of  the  atomic  number.  It  is  believed 
that  the  lightest  known  element  hydrogen  has  an  atomic  number  of  1, 
helium  of  2,  lithium  of  3,  and  so  on  up  to  thorium  and  uranium,  the 

TThese  are  now  showing  signs  of  yielding,  in  that  the  elements  in  ques- 
tion seem  to  be  mixtures  of  so-called  isotopes  which  have  identical  chemical 
properties,  and  so  can  not  be  separated  by  chemical  means,  but  differ  slightly 
in  characterbtic  weight. 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  17 

heaviest  known  elements,  with  atomic  numbers  of  91  and  92  respectively. 
If  these  views  should  be  confirmed — and  their  success  in  correlating  di- 
verse phenomena  makes  it  certain  that  the  picture  they  present  is  one 
aspect  of  reality — ^we  shall  have  nearly  returned  to  the  hypothesis  of  a 
primordial  stuff;  for  present  evidence  indicates  that  the  positive  nuclei 
of  hydrogen  and  helium  and  the  negative  electrcm  are  amongst  the  units 
from  which  the  atoms  of  the  elements  are  built.  But  this  again  is  his* 
tory  in  the  making. 

From  the  considerations  just  outlined  it  appears  that  all  of  the 
chemical  elements  as  we  know  them  are  of  a  similar  order  of  c(Hnplex- 
ity,  since  they  belong  to  a  series  of  families;  and  consequently  that  any 
means  which  will  decompose  one  element  will  also  decompose  others. 
Moreover,  the  sequence  of  atomic  numbers  indicates  that  only  five  ele- 
ments are  missing  in  the  series  up  to  uranium,  the  heaviest  element  now 
known  and  the  parent  of  one  of  the  two  series  of  radio-active  elements. 
Whether  elements  heavier  than  uranium  exist  is  open  to  question;  if 
they  do  exist,  they  would  presumably  be  radio-active,  and  with  a  shorter 
life  than  uranium.  The  most  common  elements  in  and  about  the  surface 
layers  of  the  earth  are  in  general  elements  of  smaller  atomic  number,  as 
is  shown  by  an  estimate  of  the  percentage  of  the  several  elements  which 
go  to  make  up  the  earth's  ^crust,''  defined  for  this  purpose  as  a  layer 
ten  miles  in  thickness. 

It  appears  that  two  elements,  oxygen  and  silicon — the  latter  irfioUy 
in  primary  combination  with  the  former,  the  remainder  of  the  oxygen 
being  combined  with  the  other  elements — together  constitute  three- 
quarters  of  the  earth's  crust;  and  that  the  eight  most  abundant  elements 
make  up  nearly  99  per  cent  of  the  whole. 

It  is  also  noteworthy  that,  of  the  metals  in  daily  and  common  use,  only 
aluminum,  iron,  manganese,  chromium,  vanadium,  and  nickel,  appear  among 
those  elements  that  are  present  in  the  rocks  of  the  crust  in  sufficient  amount 
to  be  commonly  determinable  by  the  usual  processes  of  analysis.  Such  com- 
mon and  "every-day"  metals  as  copper,  zinc,  lead,  tin,  mercury,  silver,  gold, 
and  platinum,  antimony,  arsenic,  and  bismuth— metals  that  are  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  our  civilization  and  our  daily  needs— all  these  are  to  be  found 
in  igneous  rocks,  if  at  all,  only  in  scarcely  detectable  amounts.  Though  they 
are  tdtimately  derived  from  the  igneous  rocks,  they  are  made  available  for 
our  use  only  by  processes  of  concentration  into  so-called  ore  bodies.* 

Up  to  the  present,  then,  the  number  of  known  chemical  elements  is, 
excluding  the  isotopic  radio-elements,  about  eighty.  That  is,  chemists, 
in  spite  of  laborious  and  prolonged  efforts,  analyzing  all  manner  of 
material  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe — and  even  from  the  heavens  in 
the  form  of  meteorites — have  been  able  to  resolve  their  multitudinous 
diversity  into  combinations  and  pemnitations  of  some  eighty  sub- 
stances; and  these  hitherto  irreducible  minima — ^the  so-called  chemical 

«H.  S.  Washington,  J.  Franklin  Institute,  Dec.,  1920,  p.  778. 
VOL.  xm.~4. 


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18  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

elements — are  members  of  a  family,  or  of  a  group  of  families,  and 
so  represent  the  same  stage  of  simplicity  or  complexity  of  structure. 
Knowledge  of  the  structure  of  the  atom  is  extending  rapidly,  but  it 
would  lead  too  far  afield  to  go  into  this  absorbing  question  here. 

Development   of   Ideas   Respecting  Chemical  Combination, 
Particularly  in  Organic  Chemistry 

The  chemical  elements  are  not  all  of  the  same  degree  of  importance 
to  us,  although  there  are  not  very  many  which  we  could  well  do  with- 
out; but  there  are  four,  in  a  sense,  of  supreme  importance,  as  they  are 
the  main  constituents  of  all  living  matter.  These  four  elements  are 
carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen,  nitrogen,  with  which  are  associated  relatively 
small,  but  absolutely  indispensable,  proportions  of  other  elements. 
For  a  long  time  it  was  thought  that  the  substances  which  make  up  living 
matter — ^the  so-called  organic  compounds — were  associated  with  s<Hne 
sort  of  vital  force,  and  so  were  to  be  placed  in  another  category  from 
mineral  substances — the  inorganic  compounds.  But  this  distinction 
was  broken  down,  for  the  first  time,  nearly  one  hundred  years  ago;  it 
remains  now  only  in  the  names  organic  and  inorganic  chemistry,  the 
term  organic  chemistry  now  connoting  merely  the  chemistry  of  carbon 
compounds,  from  whatever  source  derived. 

So  long  as  the  idea  persisted  that  the  behavior  of  organic  substances 
is  determined  more  or  less  by  a  mysterious  vital  force,  progress,  it  is 
obvious,  could  hardly  be  rapid;  and  indeed  the  rise  of  organic  chem- 
istry as  a  science  may  be  said  to  date  from  Wohler's  discovery,  in  1828, 
that  urea — a  typical  product  of  the  animal  organism — could  be  made 
from  materials  classed  as  inorganic  compounds.  Under  certain  condi- 
tions, the  molecule*  of  ammonium  cyanate,  which  is  a  compound  of  the 
ammonium  radicle  (NH4)  with  the  cyanate  radicle  (CNO),  undergoes 
a  rearrangement,  a  change  of  grouping,  yielding  urea;  or  as  we  would 
now  symbolise  it 

NH. 

NH.OCN    >.    OC  < 

NH, 
ammonium  cyanate  urea 

Here  we  have,  therefore,  two  different  substances  composed  of  the 
same  atoms,  and  convertible  one  into  another  by  appropriate  treatment; 
this  instance  illustrates  the  fact  that  the  properties  of  a  compound  de- 

•The  molecule  may  be  defined,  for  our  present  purpose,  as  the  smallest 
portion  of  a  compound  which  can  be  conceired  to  exist  alone ;  for  subdivision 
if  it  were  carried  further,  would  break  up  the  compound  into  its  constituent 
parts.  The  radicle  is  a  grrouping  of  elements,  which  reacts  as  a  unit  and  is 
like  a  chemical  element  in  many  respects,  with  the  outstanding  difference  that 
the  radicle  can,  by  appropriate  treatment,  be  decomposed  into  its  elements  or 
altered. 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  19 

pend,  not  only  upon  the  kinds  of  atoms  and  number  of  each  present, 
but  also  upon  the  arrangement  of  these  atoms  within  the  molecule.  In 
other  words,  the  behavior  of  a  substance  is  dependent  upon  its  constitu- 
tion, just  as  the  behavior  of  an  animal  is  dependent  upon  its  constitu- 
tion. But  this  is  to  anticipate  by  some  thirty  yeais;  for  at  that  time 
chemists  were  still  a  long  way  from  a  clear  understanding  of  the  matter. 
The  primary  reason  was  a  confusion  between  the  atomic  weight  and 
the  combining  weight  to  be  assigned  to  an  element;  this  confusion  re- 
sulted in  a  lack  of  consistency  in  assigning  formulae  to  substances — ^for 
instance  water  was  then  frequently  written  HO — ^a  circumstance  vdiich 
in  turn,  so  to  speak,  hid  the  simple  relations  of  the  several  cmnpounds 
and,  indeed,  makes  it  hard  for  us  now  to  follow  much  of  the  writing  on 
chemistry  at  that  time.  But  it  would  lead  too  far  into  a  field  of  in- 
terest only  to  the  chemist,  to  recount  the  various  steps  in  the  slow  ad- 
vance towards  an  attainment  of  consistent  ideas  of  chemical  combi- 
nation and  constitution.  We  can  only  mention  some  of  the  outstanding 
figures  in  this  advance:  Wohler  and  Liebig,  with  their  discovery 
(1832)  of  the  radicle  benzoyl;  Dumas,  with  his  older  type  theory 
(1839),  Gerhardt  and  Williamson  with  modified  theories  of  types  of 
formulation  of  organic  compounds. 

Liebig's  name  cannot  however  be  passed  over  without  mention  of 
the  enormous  influence  which  he  and  his  teaching  had  upon  the  de- 
velopment of  the  subject.  Shortly  after  becoming  professor  at  Giessen 
in  1824  he  instituted  systematic  laboratory  instruction  in  chemistry, 
and  Giessen  soon  became  the  most  famous  chemical  school  in  the  world, 
attracting  many  who  were  subsequently  themselves  to  become  leaders 
in  further  development  Still  more  important  was  Liebig's  pioneer 
work  on  the  chemistry  of  the  processes  of  life,  both  animal  and  vege- 
table, work  which  makes  him  the  real  f  oimder  of  two  branches  of  the 
subject — biochemistry  and  the  chemistry  of  agriculture;  the  develop- 
ment of  these  two  branches  is  being  attended  with  incalculable  benefits 
to  human  welfare. 

From  about  1830  onwards,  interest  in  chemistry  enhanced  steadily, 
the  number  of  competent  workers  grew  rapidly,  and  there  was  a  con- 
stantly increasing  body  of  facts  of  observation;  but  these  various  ob- 
servations and  the  deductions  from  them  awaited  reconciliation  and  in- 
terpretation which  came  only  when  the  proper  theory  was  developed. 
This  did  not  happen  until  1860  when,  at  a  conference  which  had  been 
called  in  the  hope  of  bringing  about  some  more  general  understanding 
of  the  questions  at  issue,  Carrizzaro  brought  to  the  attention  of  the 
chemical  world  the  hypothesis  of  Avogadro,  showed  how  on  this  basis 
the  apparent  anomalies  disappear,  and  so  clarified  the  whole  situation. 
Indeed  it  may  be  said  that  modem  chemistry  dates  from  1860,  with  the 
enunciation  of  clear  and  consistent  views  with  respect  to  chemical  com- 


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«0  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

binatioiiy  as  a  direct  consequence  of  grasping  the  real  significance  of 
Avogadro's  hypothesis. 

From  the  gas-laws  of  ^Boyle  and  Gay-Lussao — ^namely,  that  equal 
changes  in  pretsure  and  in  temperature  occasion  equal  changes  in  equal 
volumes  of  gases — and  from  Gay-Lussac's  diBcovery  (1809^  that  two 
gases  reacting  with  one  another  do  so  in  simple  proportions  by  volume 
and  that  the  volume  of  the  product,  when  gaseous,  also  bears  a  simple 
relation  to  that  of  the  factors, — ^reasoning  from  these  Avogadro  about 
1811  was  led  to  the  hypothesis:  Under  the  same  conditions  of  tem- 
perature and  pressure,  equal  volumes  of  gases  contain  equal  numbers 
of  molecules.  The  molecule  is  the  smallest  particle  of  a  substance  ob- 
tainable by  mechanical  subdivisi<Hi;  the  atom  can  be  obtained  only  by 
chemical  subdivision  of  the  molecule  of  which  it  constitutes  a  part,  and 
is  therefore  a  particle  usually  incapable  of  persisting  alone  but  m  most 
cases  existing  only  in  combination  with  other  atoms*  This  combination 
may  be  between  like  atoms,  in  which  case  the  molecule  so  formed  is 
that  of  the  element  itself,  or  between  unlike  atoms,  constituting  the 
molecule  of  a  compound.  In  either  case  the  same  principle  holds;  with 
the  obvious  deduction,  as  Avogadro  diowed,  that  the  relative  weight  of 
two  species  of  gaseous  molecules  is  measured  by  the  ratio  of  the  weights 
of  equal  volumes,  under  the  same  conditions  of  temperature  and 
pressure, — i.  e.  of  the  densities — of  the  two  gases.  A  molecule  of  the 
elements  which  are  gaseous  under  ordinary  conditions  is  made  up  of  two 
atoms,  ¥rith  exception  of  the  family  of  rare  inert  gases  which  are  mono- 
atomic;  that  of  other  elements, — ^for  example,  sulphur — may  ccmtain 
six  or  more;  in  all  cases  there  is,  as  we  now  know,  a  progressive  dis- 
sociation of  the  molecules  with  increasing  temperature  and  diminiriiing 
pressure,  so  d&at  at  the  highest  temperatures  and  lowest  pressures  a 
large  proportion  of  the  molecules  are  in  eCFect  broken  up  into  mono- 
atomic  particles. 

With  the  acceptance  of  Avogadro's  hypothesis,  the  chemist  had  at 
last  a  definite  criterion  for  deciding  when  he  was  dealing  with  really 
comparable  quantities  of  d^menXs  or  of  compounds;  he  was  enabled  to 
fix  the  atomic  weight  definitely,'  and  hence  to  deduce  the  correct 
empirical  formula  of  his  compotmds.  When  this  was  done,  many  things 
became  clear.  For  instance,  the  full  significance  of  the  idea  underlying 
the  theories  of  radicles  and  types,  which  had  been  developing  for  the 
previous  tvrenty  or  thirty  years,  became  apparent;  and  this,  in  turn,  led 
to  the  conception  of  valence,  according  to  which  the  atom  of  each  ele- 
ment has  a  maximum  saturation  capacity  with  reject  to  other  atoms. 

Certain  groupings  of  atoms  are  so  relatively  stable  that  they  remain 
in  combination  although  chemical  change  is  eCFected  in  the  molecule  as 
a  whole;  such  groupings,  known  as  radides,  react  commonly  as  units 
and  are  therefore  in  many  respects  analogous  to  chemical  elements,  the 


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THE  HISTORY  OP  CHEMISTRY  ti 

chief  differences  being  that  the  radicle  cannot  commonly  be  isolated  as 
gudi  and  that  it  can,  of  course,  be  decomposed  into  its  constituent  ele- 
ments. The  earliest  dear  example  is  the  ammonium  radicle  (NH4) 
which  forms  a  whole  series  of  salts  differing  no  more  from  the  corres- 
ponding salts  of  potassium  (K)  and  sodium  (Na)  than  these  differ  from 
one  another;  in  other  words,  NH4  can,  in  principle,  replace  K  or  Na  in 
a  whole  series  of  compounds  each  of  which  closely  resembles  its 
analogue.  Likewise  we  have  a  whole  series  of  organic  radicles,  ranging 
from  the  simplest— methyl  (CH,),  ethyl  (C^H.  or  CH^.C!!,)— up  to 
quite  complex  groupings, — such  as  stearyl  (QtHssCO  or  CHs.CCHs)!^ 
CO)  but  all  ideally  reducible  to  a  small  number  of  types.  For  in- 
stance, consider  the  following  series  of  compounds,  with  the  correspond- 
ing analogues  in  which  hydrogen  (H)  is  substituted  for  methyl  (CH3) : 

CHy'H    methane,    the    main    con-  H'H    hydrogen  gas 

stitaent  of  natural  gas 

CHj-OH    methyl  alcohol  H-OH    water 

CHj  -a    methyl  chloride  H  -Q    hydrochloric  add 

CHj-CHO    acetaldehyde  HCHO    formaldehyde 

(formalin) 

CHj-COOH    acetic  add  (vinegar)  H-COOH    formic  acid 

(CH,)jO    methyl  ether  H,0    water 

(CH^)2S    methyl  sulphide  H^S    hydrogen  sulphide 

This  list  could  be  extended  indefinitely,  in  either  direction;  for  a 
whole  series  of  other  radicles  can  be  r^arded  as  derived  from  methyl 
by  successive  substitution  in  place  of  one  or  more  of  its  H  atoms,  of 
CH3  groups  or  chlorine  atoms  or  indeed  of  any  other  atom  or  radicle 
which  exhibits  the  appropriate  aflinity  relations.    For  instance,  we  have: 


CH  -H 

CH  -CH. 

CH,CH    CH, 

CH  -CH  -CH  -CH. 

ck. 

CA 

C,Hy 

cX 

methyl 

eSiyl 

propyl 

bu^l 

and  so  on,  in  homologous  series,  as  it  is  termed;  further  C2H4CI, 
chlorethyl  as  in  (C2H4CI)2S,  dichlorethylsulphide  (mustard  gas) ;  C  CI,, 
trichloromethyl,  as  in  CC1,*CH0,  trichloralddiyde  (chloral),  and  so  on. 
With  the  recognition  of  the  relationships  just  outlined,  of  the 
existence  of  radicles  related  to  one  another  in  a  simple  manner  and 
of  the  fact  that  the  multifarious  compounds  are  formed  by  the  possible 
ccmibinations  of  the  several  radicles  and  elements,  it  became  possible  to 
organize  a  ccmsistent  nomenclature.  The  advantage  of  this  is  obvious; 
for  if  to  each  chemical  compound  had  been  assigned  an  arbitrary  name 
(as  has  been  the  case  in  naming  minerals)  it  would  have  been  possible 
to  read  chemical  literature  only  by  memorizing  a  list  numbered  now 
in  hundreds  of  thousands — a  task  which  would  have  been  harder  than 
learning  the  Chinese  characters,  and  would  have  resulted  in  a  similar 
retardation  of  progress.    For  certain  common  substances  or  common 


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22  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

groupings  specific  names  are  retained,  but  in  general  the  name  is  de- 
signed to  exhibit  the  constitution — ^and  therefore  the  general  properties 
and  behavior — of  the  substance  with  the  least  possible  memory  work; 
and  the  chemist  gets  from  these  names,  in  some  cases  apparently  very 
ccHnplicated — e.  g.  phenyl-dimethyl-isopyrazolone  (antipyrin),  di- 
methyl-methane-diethyl-sulphone  (sulphonal) — ^much  more  informa- 
tion about  the  substance  than  the  layman  gathers  from  the  term  '^third 
assistant  secretary  to  the  fourth  assistant  postmaster-general"  with  re- 
spect to  the  real  function  of  that  personage.  As  simple  examples  of 
systematic  naming,  consider  the  substances  obtainable  by  chlorinating 
methane: 


CH, 

CH3CI 

CH,a, 

CHOj 

ca^ 

methane 

(methyl  chloride) 

(chlorofonn) 

(earboa  tetimehloride) 

Closely  allied  to  the  doctrine  of  radicles  and  types  is  the  doctrine 
of  valency,  according  to  which  each  element  has  a  maximum  saturation 
capacity  with  respect  to  other  elements.  This  doctrine  developed  about 
the  same  time,  though  in  somewhat  more  rigid  form  than  would  now  be 
generally  accepted.  Accordingly,  to  carbon  was  assigned  the  valence  4, 
to  oxygen  2,  to  hydrogen  and  chlorine  1,  and  so  on;  and  it  was  but  a 
short  transition  to  picture  the  valence  numbers  as  the  number  of  Unk- 
ings or  bonds  with'  which  one  atom  may  hold  others,  and  from  this  to 
the  writing  of  graphic  or  structural  formulae.  The  graphic  formula 
enabled  the  organic  chemist  to  represent  still  more  satisfactorily  the 
structure  of  his  substances,  and  has  been  an  indispensable  tool  in  the 
subsequent  great  development  of  organic  chemistry;  the  following 
simple  examples  will  suffice: 

H  H       H  H      H  H      H 

H  — C  — H  H  — C  — C  — O  — H  H  — C  — C  — O  — C  — C  — H 

I  'I  J        i  J        I 

H  H      H  H      H  H      H 

methane  ethyl  alcohol  (diethyl)  ether 

In  1861  appeared  the  first  portion  of  Kekul6's  great  text-book  which 
emphasized  and  illustrated  the  new  views  with  hundreds  of  examples.  The 
foundations  of  modern  organic  chemistry  were  therein  laid  and,  what  is 
more  important  for  us  here,  the  date  marks  the  time  when  the  great  con- 
tribution of  organic  chemistry  to  the  historical  develoixnent  of  tne  science 
as  a  whole  was  fully  rendered. ^^^ 

So  far  we  have  mentioned  only  compounds  whose  structure  can  be 
represented  by  a  straight  chain  of  carbon  atoms,  and  grouped  under 
the  general  name  of  aliphatic  (or  fatty)  compounds  from  the  circum- 
stance that  fats  belong  to  this  category.  But  there  is  another  category, 
the  so-called  aromatic  compounds,  the  simplest,  and  typical  member 
of  which  is  benzene,  which  has  the  empirical  formula  CaH^.  A  satis- 
factory structural  formula  for  this  substance  was  first  given,  in  1865, 

WF.  J.  Moore,  History  of  Chemistry,  p.  173. 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  23 

by  Kekule  who  assumed  that  the  six  carbon  atoms  are  arranged  in  a 
ring,  a  single  hydrogen  being  attached  to  each;  and  all  the  subsequent 
work  on  aromatic  compounds  has  only  senred  to  confirm  the  useful- 
ness of  this  hypothesis.  One  instance  only  can  be  mentioned  here, 
namely,  that  whereas  there  is  only  one  mono-substitution  product,  (i.  e. 
where  one  atom  of  hydrogen  is  replaced  by  a  different  atom  or  group- 
ing, as  in  phenol)  there  are  three  disubstitution  products  (designated 
as  ortho,  meta,  para)  which  differ  by  reason  of  the  different  relative 
position  of  the  two  substituting  groups.  Tliis  will  be  evident  from 
the  structural  formulae,  as  now  written: 

H  NH  OH  OH  OH  OH 


I  H 

V 


uuno'beoaeno  plwnol  ortho-anino-  meU-amiao-  pani*«miao- 

(aBaiae)        (eafboUe  aeid)  phraol  pheool  phenol 

The  long  controversies  which  ended  about  i860  in  the  triumph  of 
Avogadro's  hypothesis  and  the  vindication  of  the  atomic  theory  had  been 
fought  out  in  the  organic  field,  and  had  culminated  in  the  establishment  of 
the  valence  theory  as  the  guiding  principle  in  that  branch  of  the  science. 
This  gave,  perhaps,  to  organic  chemistry  a  somewhat  exaggerated  importance 
— at  any  rate,  the  idea  that  chemical  compounds  could  be  visualized  as 
groups  of  real  atoms  united  by  real  bonds  exerted  a  remarkable  fascination, 
and  young  chemists  in  great  numbers  began  to  devote  themselves  to  synthetic 
studies,  attempting  on  the  one  hand  to  prepare  from  the  elements  the  most 
complex  products  of  nature,  and  on  the  other  to  make  the  greatest  variety 
of  new  combinations  in  order  to  find  the  utmost  limits  of  chemical  affinity 
and  molecular  stability.  The  rise  of  the  coal-tar  industry  and  the  possibility 
of  preparing  from  this  source  so  many  compounds  of  practical  utility  was 
partly  cause  and  partly  effect  of  this  great  movement  which  is  going  on 
uninterruptedly  at  the  present  day. 

If,  however,  we  ask  what  direct  contribution  to  the  science  as  a  whole 
has  been  made  by  organic  chemistry  since  i860  we  can  hardly  give  it  so 
high  a  place.  We  must  rather  confess  that  this  branch  of  the  science  has 
lived  largely  for  itself  and  while  it  has,  during  that  time,  developed  a  real 
history  of  its  own  which  is  of  fascinating  interest  to  the  specialist,  its  great 
historical  service  to  chemistry  culminated  in  the  work  of  Williamson,  Ger- 
hardt  and  K€kvL\€M 

{To  be  eimctmded) 


iiF.  J.  Moore,  History  of  Chemistry,  p.  212;  italics  mine. 

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24  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


HERMANN  VON  HELMHOLTZ^ 

By  Professor  LOUIS  C.  KARPINSKI 

UNIVERSITT  OF  MICHICAN 

rE  history  of  science  concerns  itself  with  the  historical  and  logical 
sequence  of  scientific  concepts.  The  process  of  development 
by  which  man  arrives  at  fundamental  laws  of  the  universe  in  which  we 
live  is  a  vital  study,  having  great  possibilities  for  furthering  the  ad- 
vance of  science.  Studies  in  this  field  have  shown  that  the  part  of  par- 
ticular individuals,  even  men  of  great  genius,  is  much  less  than  is 
commonly  supposed.  Advance  in  science  rests  upon  the  work  of  many 
individuals  whose  observations  and  reflections  cover  rather  long  inter- 
vals of  time.  The  genius  is  that  fortunate  individual  who  arrives  upon 
the  scene  when  the  accumulation  of  observations  enables  the  formula- 
tion of  some  general  law  for  whose  reception  and  acceptance  the  way 
has  been  prepared.  The  genius  "^reaps  where  others  have  sown^;  the 
genius  is  great,  as  Nevrton  intimated,  because  he  stands  upon  the 
shoulders  of  giants. 

Obviously  only  few  men  can  be  successful  in  attaching  their  names 
to  fundamental  laws.  Prominent  in  this  group  is  Hermann  von  Helm- 
holtz,  who  in  1847  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  gave  a  complete  statement 
of  the  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy.  Good  fortune  came  his  way 
in  this  law  of  energy  and  more  than  once  again,  but  it  must  be  said  that 
Helmholtz  met  good  fortune  more  than  half-way,  and  entertained  her 
so  royally  that  no  one  could  dispute  his  right  to  the  visitation. 

Helmholtz  was  favored,  also,  in  living  to  see  the  law  of  the  con- 
servation of  energy  accepted  as  a  truism,  to  see  this  law  made  the 
basis  of  the  researches  of  hundreds  of  able  scientists,  and  in  being  able 
himself  to  devote  nearly  half-a-century  of  vigorous  intellectual  activity 
to  problems  intimately  connected  with  his  first  success.  Towards  the 
very  end  of  his  life  in  1894,  the  great  German  was  working  upon  the 
similar  but  more  inclusive  '^principle  of  least  action**  which  he  hoped 
to  extend  mathematically  so  as  to  apply  to  all  forces  of  nature. 

Helmholtz  applied  rigorously  to  biological  problems  the  methods 
of  physical  science  and  mathematical  reasoning.  His  activity  marks 
the  beginning  of  the  period  in  which  philosophical  speculation  about 

lA  paper  read  at  a  meeting  of  the  Research  Gub,  University  of  Michigan, 
April  20,  192T,  in  commemoration  of  the  centennials  of  Hermann  von 
Helmholtz  and  Rudolph  Virchow. 


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HERMANN  VON  HELMHOLTZ  26 

Bcience  was  definitely  superseded  by  experimental  research  in  science, 
combined  with  mathematical  treatment  of  the  observations.  The  law  of 
the  conservation  of  energy  was  stated  by  him  with  a  wealth  of  illustra- 
tions from  mechanics,  electricity,  heat  and  biology,  but  it  also  included 
a  mathematical  formulation  and  discussion  of  the  problem.  In  the 
study  of  physiological  optics  and  of  light,  in  the  study  of  sound  and 
harmony  and  the  ear,  in  the  study  of  the  psychology  of  the  senses,  in 
the  study  of  vortex  motions,  in  the  study  of  electrical  phenomena  and 
of  physics  generally,  Helmholtz  constantly  reinforced  experimental 
work  with  rigorous  mathematical  demonstration.  Were  one  to  attempt 
to  characterize  in  a  few  words  his  extraordinary  range  of  researches, 
one  would  say  that  Helmholtz  brought  biological  und  physical  problems 
under  the  dominion  of  mathematical  formulas  and  methods. 

The  role  of  the  mathematical  formulation  and  treatment  of  physical 
problems  can  not  be  overestimated.  Kelvin,  the  intimate  friend  and 
active  co-worker  in  science  with  Helmholtz,  has  stated:  ^AU  great 
scientific  discoveries  are  but  the  rewards  of  patient,  painstaking  sifting 
of  numerical  data.''  With  these  data  the  scientist  starts,  making  funda- 
mental assumptions  in  the  mathematical  formulation  of  the  problem. 
The  successful  formulation  explains  on  the  basis  of  the  fundamental 
assumptions  the  observed  facts;  further  than  this,  the  procedure  places 
the  observed  facts  in  harmony  with  other  apparently  widely-diverse 
phenomena,  shovdng  the  harmony  of  natural  forces  and  the  reign  of 
law  in  nature.  But  more  than  this  the  mathematical  formulation  sug- 
gests new  facts  of  observation,  and  permits  the  prediction  of  obser- 
vations which  had  previously  escaped  the  observer.  This  is  the  peculiar 
merit,  for  example,  of  the  Einstein  theory,  that  it  explains  the  facts  of 
the.  Newtonian  universe,  explains  certain  facts  which  were  in  conflict 
with  the  Newtonian  theory  and  enables  the  theorist  to  predict  other 
natural  effects  not  consonant  with  the  Newtonian  theory  and  hitherto 
unobserved.  This  type  of  mathematical  ability  Helmholtz  had  in  a  sur- 
prising degree,  and  it  made  possible  his  contributions  to  the  advance- 
ment of  science. 

In  a  centennial  recognition  of  a  life  of  such  great  significance  for 
mankind,  the  purpose  is  both  historical  and  inspirational.  What  is  the 
historical  setting  of  the  contributions  of  Helmholtz  to  civilization? 
What  were  the  circumstances  of  birth  and  training,  of  academic  posi- 
tion and  environment,  which  made  possible  the  wonderful  productivity 
in  apparently  diverse  fields  of  science?  What  can  we  do  to  foster  the 
production  of  such  men  and  to  encourage  this  type  of  devotion  to  pure 
science?  This  brief  survey  of  the  life  and  activity  of  Helmholtz  is  pre- 
pared from  the  point  of  view  of  these  questions. 

Hermann  von  Helmholtz  was  bom  in  Potsdam,  August  31,  1821. 
His  father  was  a  teacher  of  phiilology  and  philosophy  in  the  Potsdam 


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26  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

gymnasium,  while  his  mother  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  William  Penn. 
Despite  a  certain  frailty  of  body  his  preparatory  work  included  not 
only  the  traditional  classical  course  with  Latin,  Greek  and  Hebrew,  but 
also  English  and  Italian,  privately,  with  a  beginning  of  Arabic,  together 
with  serious  training  in  music.  Even  in  the  schoolroom  he  found 
further  time  for  experimental  work  in  physics  and  science.  At  the 
age  of  sixteen,  although  then  desiring  to  devote  himself  to  physics,  he 
took  an  examination  for  a  scholarship  in  the  Royal  Frederick  William 
Institute  of  Medicine  and  Surgery,  since  the  financial  status  of  his 
family  made  desirable  the  election  of  the  surer  means  of  livelihood  in 
medicine.  One  year  later,  Helmholtz  entered  upon  the  strenuous  five 
year  course  of  the  institute.  Here  he  completed  the  regular  work,  and 
studied,  while  acting  as  librarian,  the  works  of  Euler,  Daniel  Bernoulli, 
d'Alembert  and  La  Grange.  His  thesis,  *The  Structure  of  the  Nervous 
System  in  Invertebrates,"  contained  the  announcement  that  the  nerve- 
fibers  originate  in  the  ganglion  cells  found  by  Von  Ehrenberg  in  1833; 
this  discovery  has  been  regarded  by  some  physiologists  as  the  histo- 
logical basis  of  nervous  physiology  and  histology. 

For  one  year  Helmholtz  acted  as  house  surgeon  at  the  Charite  in 
Berlin  and  then  for  five  years  at  Potsdam  as  army  surgeon  as  required 
of  graduates  of  the  institute.  During  these  six  years,  he  maintained 
active  scholarly  relationships  with  his  teacher  Miiller,  and  with  his  inti- 
mate school  friends,  Brucke  and  du  Bois  Reymond,  physiologists  of 
later  repute. 

At  this  time  the  vitalistic  theory  was  still  dominant  in  physiology. 
Muller  proposed  the  problem  as  to  the  nature  of  the  vital  force, 
whether  self-engendered  or  similar  to  those  of  the  inorganic  world. 
This  study  of  ^yiXdX  forces'*  and  the  formulation  given  to  the  problem 
by  Liebig,  the  chemist,  stimulated  the  young  student  to  several  studies 
concerned  with  animal  heat  and  with  vitalistic  problems.  During  these 
six  years  Helmholtz  acquired  further  familiarity  vrith  mathematical 
physics  and  chemistry,  made  necessary  by  the  problems  he  was  con- 
sidering. It  was  in  this  period,  in  1845,  that  the  Physical  Society  was 
founded  by  du  Bois  Reymond,  Briicke,  Karsten,  Knoblauch,  Beetz  and 
Heintz,  and  Helmholtz  became  one  of  the  most  active  members  with 
many  contributions,  published  in  the  FortschriUe  der  Physik. 

On  July  23,  1847,  Helmholtz  read  before  the  Physical  Society  his 
paper,  "Die  Erhaltung  der  Kraft."  This  paper  was  oflfered  to 
PoggendorflTs  Annalen^  but  rejected  by  Gustav  Magnus,  the  physicist, 
since  he  regarded  experimental  and  mathematical  physics  as  separate 
departments.  In  fact,  Magnus  warned  Helmholtz  ^^against  undue 
partiality  for  mathematics,  and  the  attempt  to  bring  remote  provinces 
of  physics  together  by  its  means." 

Despite  the  peculiar  objection  of  Magnus,  unfortunately  diared 


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HERMANN  VON  HELMHOLTZ  27 

by  many  {Aysicists  of  that  day,  the  article  was  published  and  received 
the  enthusiastic  support  of  a  chosen  few  who  recognized  the  relationship 
to  the  work  of  earlier  mathematical  physicists. 

In  1848,  Helmholtz  received  the  appointment  as  lecturer  in  anatomy 
at  the  Academy  of  Art  and  assistant  in  the  Anatomical  Museum  of 
Berlin,  in  recognition  of  his  researches,  and  a  year  later  was  called  to 
Konigsberg  as  professor  of  physiology. 

In  1885,  Helmholtz  became  professor  of  anatomy  and  physiology 
at  Bonn,  where  he  remained  but  three  years,  being  called  in  1858  to 
Heidelberg  as  professor  of  physiology.  In  1871,  at  the  age  of  fifty, 
he  received  the  call  as  professor  of  physics  to  Berlin,  having  at  that  time 
incidentally  made  contributions  to  physics  comparable  in  both  range 
and  worth  ifith  those  made  by  any  other  physicist  of  the  same  period. 
In  1888,  Helmholtz  was  relieved  of  teaching  to  devote  himself  entirely 
to  the  Riysico-technical  Institute  of  Berlin  of  which  he  became  the  first 
president  In  this  office  the  great  scholar  continued  until  his  death  in 
1894. 

The  first  fruits  of  his  lectures  at  Konigsberg  on  the  physiology  of 
the  sense  organs  was  the  invention,  late  in  1850,  of  the  opthalmoscope, 
an  instrument  which  renders  it  possible  to  examine  the  retina  of  the 
living  eye.    Helmholtz  says: 

While  preparing  my  lectures  I  hit  upon  the  invention  of  the  opthalmo- 
scope, and  then  on  the  method  of  measuring  the  velocity  of  nervous  impulses. 
The  opthalmoscope  became  the  most  popular  of  my  scientific  achievements, 
but  I  have  already  pointed  out  to  the  oculists  that  good  fortune  had  more 
to  do  with  it  than  merit.  I  had  to  explain  the  theory  of  the  emission  of 
reflected  light  from  the  eye,  as  discovered  by  Brticke,  to  my  students. 
Brucke  himself  was  but  a  hair's  breadth  off  the  discovery  of  the  opthalmo- 
scope. He  had  only  neglected  to  ask  himself  what  optical  image  was  formed 
by  the  rays  reflected  from  the  luminous  eye.  For  his  purpose  it  was  not 
necessary  to  put  this  question.  Had  it  occurred  to  him,  he  was  just  the  man 
to  answer  it  as  quickly  as  I,  and  to  invent  the  opthalmoscope.  I  was  turning 
the  problem  over  and  over,  and  pondering  the  simplest  way  of  making  it 
clear  to  my  audience,  when  I  came  on  the  further  issue. 

The  opthalmoscope  establl^ed  the  position  of  Helmholtz  in  the 
scientific  world.  More  than  that,  opthalmic  medicine  had  a  new  birth 
with  this  instrument  and  with  the  opthalmometer  which  Helmholtz  per- 
fected for  measuring  the  physical  constants  of  the  eye.  Many  students 
were  drawn  to  diis  field,  although  his  description  of  the  opthalmoscope, 
published  in  1851,  was  somewhat  slow  in  general  acceptance  because 
of  the  mathematical  and  physical  knowledge  pre-supposed.  Helmholtz 
himself  stated: 

I  attribute  my  subsequent  success  to  the  fact  that  circumstances  had 
fortunately  planted  me  with  some  knowledge  of  geometry  and  training  in 
physics  among  the  doctors,  where  physiology  presented  a  virgin  soil  of  the 
utmost  fertility,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  I  was  led  by  my  acquaintance  with 


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28  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

the  phenomena  of  life  to  problems  and  points  of  view  that  are  beyond  the 
scope  of  pure  mathematics  and  physics. 

With  both  the  opthalmoscope  and  the  opthalmometer,  thorough 
familiarity  with  mathematical  physics  was  absolutely  essential  in  the 
theory  and  construction  of  the  instruments. 

His  inaugural  lecture  **on  the  nature  of  human  sense-perceptions* 
was  delivered  at  Konigsberg  on  June  28,  1852.  This  discussion  in- 
volved, in  connection  with  the  study  of  sensations  of  sight,  problems  of 
the  theory  of  knowledge;  it  also  involved  an  exposition  of  the  un* 
dulatory  theory  of  sound  and  light,  including  the  statement  that  li^t 
rays  and  heat  rays  are  identical,  impinging  on  two  different  kinds  of 
nerve  end  organs. 

For  more  than  fifteen  years,  Helmholtz  worked  intensively  on 
physiological  optics  and  his  ^^Handbuch  der  Hiysiologischeii  Optik** 
(1856-66),  marks  an  epodi  in  the  physiology  of  the  eye,  in  the  physio- 
logical-psychology of  sensations  and  perceptions  of  sight,  and  in  the 
physical  theories  of  light  and  color.  To-day  the  current  issue  of  the 
^Handbuch^  is  published  with  four  editors  to  present  adequately  the 
varied  fields  mentioned.  To  particularize  further  his  numerous  con- 
tributions to  optics  would  take  more  time  than  is  at  my  disposal.  It 
may  be  of  interest  to  the  many  sufferers  from  astigmatism  to  know  that 
this  condition  was  discovered  by  Helmholtz  with  his  opthabnometer; 
the  defect  is  that  the  cornea  and  crystalline  lens  are  not  accurately 
centered,  preventing  the  sufferer  from  seeing  vertical  and  horizontal 
lines  with  equal  clearness  at  the  same  time. 

The  ^Handbuch  der  Physiologischen  Optik**  will  long  remain  as 
one  of  the  most  noteworthy  contributions  made  to  ph3rsiological  psycho- 
logy, not  alone  from  the  strictly  physiological  and  the  psychological 
sides,  but  quite  as  much  because  of  the  comprehensive  grasp  of  geo- 
metrical and  physical  properties  of  light  and  lenses  as  related  to  the 
physiological  structure  of  the  eye  and  the  sensations  communicated  to 
the  brain. 

The  notion  that  sensations  of  light  and  color  are  only  symbols  for 
relations  of  reality,  giving  no  knowledge  of  the  real  nature  of  external 
phenomena,  was  one  fundamental  conclusion  of  these  researches  on 
optics.  The  wide  interest  in  this  subject  induced  Helmholtz  to  investi- 
gate the  subjectivity  of  sensation  for  the  other  senses,  beginning  with' 
acoustics.  In  this  field  the  physicist.  Ohm,  has  suggested  ^that  the  ear 
analyses  and  hears  the  motions  of  the  air  in  exact  correspondence  with 
Fourier's  series.**  This  theorem  of  Fourier  states  that  any  perio(&c 
function  of  a  variable  may  be  expressed  as  the  sum  of  periodic  sine 
functions,  of  x  and  integral  multiples  of  x,  or,  in  other  words  that  any 
repeating  wave  form  may  be  decomposed  into  a  number  of  shnple 
waves  of  different  length,  the  longest  of  the  same  length  as  the  given 


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HERMANN  VON  HELMHOLTZ  » 

wave  and  die  others  of  one  half,  one  third,  one  fourth,  and  so  on, 
integral  portions  of  this  length.  This  application  of  a  mathonatical 
theorem  to  a  physiological  process  was  in  such  harmony  with  the  pre- 
ceding woik  of  Helmholtz  that  no  surprise  is  occasioned  by  his  exten- 
sion and  development  of  the  idea.  Particularly  the  application  of  this 
theory  to  harmony  was  an  outstan(£ng  contribution  made  by  Helmholtz. 
Consonance,  he  taught,  is  produced  when  the  ear  perceives  as  a  con- 
timious  sensation  tone  movements  that  are  regularly  repeated  at  given 
intervals;  on  the  other  hand,  discontinuous  sensation  gives  dissonance. 
Biathematically  he  demonstrated  that  vibrations  in  the  ratio  of  small 
intq;ers  give  rise  to  movements  r^ularly  repeated.  The  place  of 
resonance  and  of  the  upper  partial  tones  in  the  theory  of  consonance 
and  of  sound  was  definitely  established  by  mathematical  methods  with 
most  ingenious  mechanical  d^ces  for  making  these  upper  partials  evi- 
dent to  an  observer.  So  far  as  the  physiological  structure  of  the  ear  is 
concerned,  his  theory  was  that  the  fibers  of  the  basilar  membrane  act 
like  the  strings  of  a  piano,  and  furnish  the  instrument  of  analysis  into 
simple  tones.  Here,  in  this  field  the  text-bode  which  he  wrote  was 
again  the  result  of  a  series  of  contributions  to  the  theory  of  sound,  based 
conunonly  upon  mathematical  formulation  of  the  problems  involved. 

In  mathematical  physics  proper,  probably  the  most  noteworthy  con- 
tribution is  that  of  1857  *^0n  the  integrals  of  the  hydrodynamic  equa- 
tions which  express  vortex-motion.''  The  treatment  both  from  the 
mathematical  and  the  physical  point  of  view  is  still  fundamental  in  the 
discussion  of  the  motions  of  fluids.  Another  paper  of  1859  treats  *^the 
theory  of  aerial  vibrations  in  tubes  with  open  ends,*'  in  which  from 
purely  theoretical  considerations  he  deduces  the  relations  between  the 
plane  waves  of  the  tube  and  hemispherical  waves  that  spread  from  the 
tube,  solving  the  problem  of  the  influence  of  the  open  end  upon  the 
sound  and  determining  the  necessary  lengths^.  Kelvin  elaborated  the 
theory  of  vortex  motion,  the  indestructibility  of  the  vortex  furnishing 
an  approach  to  a  theory  of  the  constitution  of  the  matter. 

The  electrical  researches  of  the  later  years  came  at  a  period  when 
fundamental  dianges  in  point  of  view  were  preparing.  Helmholtz  had 
accepted  and  furthered  Maxwell's  electro-magnetic  theories  and  his 
gifted  pupil.  Hertz,  achieved  the  experimental  confirmation  of  the 
Maxwell  theory,  leading  to  the  development  of  wireless  telegraphy. 
Helmholtz  was  not  only  receptive  to  the  new  ideas,  but  active  in  their 

sit  is  of  some  interest  to  know  that  Steinway  worked  in  the  laboratory 
of  Helmholtz  during  the  time  of  Helmholtz's  researches  on  sound.  One  of 
our  own  Michigan  professors,  Watson,  the  astronomer,  sat  on  the  jury  of 
award  at  the  Paris  Exposition  where  the  Steinway  piano  was  given  first  place 
largely  because  of  its  superiority  from  the  scientific  standpoint  (This  note 
is  supplied  to  the  writer  by  Professor  A.  A.  Stanley.) 


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30  THE   SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

dissemination.  In  his  Faraday  lecture  of  1881,  he  definitely  pro- 
pounded the  atomistic  theory  of  electricity  now  commonly  accepted, 
which  is  intimately  connected  with  fundamental  chemical  problems. 
Several  studies  on  the  thermodynamics  of  chemical  processes  followed, 
and  the  Helmholtz-Gibbs  equation  is  to-day  the  fundamental  theorem  in 
this  field. 

Helmholtz  recurred  so  frequently  in  popular  lectures  and  in  scien- 
tific papers  to  the  conservation  of  energy  that  it  seems  desirable  to  dis- 
cuss the  historical  setting  of  this  contribution.  Particularly  also,  since 
an  acrid  controversy  arose  over  the  question  of  priority  in  statement. 
Englidbmen  to-day  commonly  credit  an  Englishman  with  the  first  state- 
ment, while  the  Germans,  with  better  right  in  this  case,  credit  a  German, 
Robert  Mayer.  This  arouses  popular  interest;  many  more  people  can 
compr^end  the  theft  of  an  idea  than  can  comprehend  the  idea.  Par- 
ticularly to  follow  the  genesis  of  an  idea  requires  a  certain  concentration 
which  is  not  popular. 

At  the  time  of  Helmholtz,  the  indestructibility  of  matter  was  ac- 
cepted, apparently  first  started  by  Huygens,  (1629-95).  The  Academy 
of  Sciences  at  Paris  had  declined  to  receive  any  further  attempts  at 
perpetual  motion  since  they  assumed  that  energy  could  not  be  created. 
Huygens  even  made  a  general  statement,  in  his  treatise  on  light,  that 
true  philosophy  is  that  *4n  which  one  conceives  the  cause  of  all  natural 
efifects  as  mechanical."  So  far  as  heat  and  energy  are  concerned,  it  is 
true  that  at  this  time  many  scientists  still  considered  heat  as  a  sub- 
stance. However,  Rumford,  in  1798,  showed  definitely  by  observations 
on  the  boring  of  cannon  that  the  substance  theory  was  not  tenable;  Sir 
Humphry  Davy,  in  1799,  clinched  the  argument  of  heat  generated  by 
friction  by  rubbing  two  pieces  of  ice  together  and  generating  sufficient 
heat  to  melt  the  ice.  With  Camot,  in  1824,  heat  was  definitely  recog- 
nized as  a  form  of  energy,  and  Clapeyron,  writing  in  1834  in  the  Journal 
de  r Scale  polytechnique  reprinted  in  1843  in  PoggendorflTs  Armalen, 
states  definitely  that  a  quantity  of  heat  and  a  quantity  of  work  are 
^^knagnitudes  of  like  nature  and  that  it  is  possible  to  substitute  the  one 
for  the  other.*' 

The  possibility  of  the  universal  application  of  these  and  other 
related  facts  to  the  whole  field  of  energy  was  seen  almost  simultaneously 
by  different  observers.  Robert  Mayer,  a  German  physician  located  in 
a  small  village,  was  certainly  the  first  of  this  period,  in  1842,  to  make 
the  general  statement  in  a  paper  '^On  the  forces  of  inorganic  nature," 
and  he  had  it  at  first  rejected  by  physicists  of  repute,  and  unnoticed 
after  publication.  Joule,  a  brewer  scientist  of  England,  in  1843  pre- 
sented before  the  British  Association  a  paper  in  which  he  gave  the  me- 
chanical equivalent  of  heat,  and  studied  relationships  between  electrical 
and  chemical  and  mechanical  efifects,  while  in  1847,  he  gave  the  com- 


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HERMANN  VON  HELMHOLTZ  81 

plete  formulation  of  the  principle  of  the  conservation  of  energy.  The 
formulation  by  Helmholtz  came  at  a  more  fortunate  time  and  place, 
with  a  richer  presentation  involving  mathematical  investigation  of  the 
fundamental  considerations.  But  the  priority  of  Mayer  can  not  be  dis- 
puted; nor  can  one  dispute  the  great  value  of  Joule's  determination  of 
the  mechanical  equivalent  of  heat. 

A  general  idea  of  such  wide  significance  is  only  possible  because 
it  is^  more  or  less,  ^*in  the  air.''  The  idea  is  of  value  because  it  is 
definitely  related  to  the  past  and  to  the  present;  the  great  idea  must  be 
capable  of  appreciation  by  an  active  group  of  intellectual  workers,  and 
this  appreciation  is  only  possible  for  an  idea  which  has  had  some 
orderly  process  of  growth. 

Helmholtz  assumes  that  all  problems  of  natural  science  can  be  re- 
duced to  ^unchangeable,  attractive  and  repulsive  forces  whose  intensity 
depends  upon  the  distance.  The  solution  of  this  problem  is  the  condi- 
tion for  complete  compr^ension  of  nature."  This  assumption  has  vdth- 
in  ten  years  been  definitely  rejected.  Notably  Albert  Einstein,  in  a 
paper  on  ^Theoretische  Atomistik,"  and  Max  Planck,  in  a  paper  on 
^Das  Prinzip  der  Kleinsten  Wirkung,"  reject  this  conception,  while  re- 
taining the  greater  part  of  the  theoretical  achievements  of  Helmholtz 
in  his  conception  of  the  conservation  of  energy  and  the  principle  of 
least  action. 

Helmholtz,  it  should  be  noted,  resolutely  set  himself  against  any 
commercialism  or  financial  exploitation  of  his  researches.  His  words 
on  this  subject  are  worthy  of  serious  consideration  to-day  in  every 
great  American  university,  where  in  some  departments  a  tendency  exists 
to  mix  devotion  to  science  and  learning  with  devotion  to  private  iu- 
terests.  Helmholtz  says:  ^'Whoever,  in  the  pursuit  of  science,  seeks 
after  immediate  practical  utility  may  generally  rest  assured  that  he 
will  seek  in  vain,  ...  we  must  rest  satisfied  with  the  consciousness  that 
he  too  has  contributed  something  to  the  increasing  fund  of  knowledge 
on  which  the  dominion  of  man  over  all  the  forces  hostile  to  intelligence 
reposes." 

Helmholtz  was  always  one  of  the  leading  figures  in  the  academic 
communities  in  which  he  worked.  In  the  German  universities  of  that 
day,  as  in  the  English  and  European  Universities  of  to-day,  the  pro- 
ductive scholar  was  given  the  tribute  of  popular  recognition.  No  ad- 
ministrative officers,  neither  presidents  nor  deans,  nor  bursars  nor 
secretaries,  served  to  divert  student  and  popular  attention  from  the  men 
who  made  the  university  a  place  of  learning.  In  fact,  the  attitude  to- 
wards scholarship  was  such  that  political  office  was  tendered  to  Helm- 
holtz, and  every  recognition  the  state  could  bestow  upon  an  individual 
was  given  him. 

One  concession  Helmholtz  made  to  this  popular  interest,  vrhich 


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82  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

should  also  be  seriously  considered  by  American  scholars,  particularly 
in  our  great  universities.  Helmholtz  prepared  popular  expositions  for 
general  audiences  of  the  results  of  his  own  and  allied  researches.  Tliese 
popular  expositions  attracted  in  print  a  great  circle  of  readers,  un- 
doubtedly contributing  to  a  wider  appreciation  and  understanding  of 
the  methods  and  aims  of  science.  This  type  of  activity,  so  much 
neglected  in  our  own  universities,  riiould  be,  as  a  university  matter,  a 
c<Hicem  of  the  Research  Club.  Now  it  is  only  a  matter  of  accident, 
if  students  of  this  university  and  citizens  of  this  state  learn  what  are  the 
real  contributions  to  human  progress  made  within  the  walls  of  this  insti- 
tution. Not  otherwise  can  a  wider  appreciation  for  true  science  be 
obtained  than  through  the  active  cooperation  of  productive  scholars. 

In  closing,  I  wish  to  point  out  how  easily  a  man's  life  may  be  given 
a  false  interpretation  by  apparently  competent  observers.  No  less  able 
a  writer  than  W.  K.  Clifford  states  of  Helmholtz  that  in  studying  the 
eye  and  ear  ^*he  found  it  was  impossible  to  study  the  proper 
action  .  .  •  without  studying  also  the  nature  of  light  and  sound,  which 
led  him  to  die  study  of  physics;  he  is  now  one  of  the  greatest  physicists 
of  the  century  ....  He  then  found  it  was  impossible  to  study  physics 
without  knowing  mathematics;  and  accordingly,  he  took  to  studying 
mathematics,  and  he  is  one  of  the  most  accomplished  mathematicians 
of  this  century."  This  statement  is  both  false  and  pernicious;  and  yet 
has  received  wide  circulation  and  recognition.  False  it  is  because  at  the 
age  of  26,  and  continuously  for  many  years  thereafter,  Helmholtz 
demonstrated  himself  to  be  one  of  the  great  mathematical  physicists  of 
the  world,  having  devoted  many  years  to  mathematical  training. 
Pernicious  it  is  because  students  are  led  to  suppose  that  in  later  years 
they  can  atone  for  the  neglect  of  their  youth,  and  study  fundamental 
subjects  as  the  need  arises.  Helmholtz  is  a  shining  example  of  a  man 
well  prepared  in  fundamentals,  whose  preparation  made  possible  for 
him  the  madiematical  formulation  and  investigation  of  problems  not 
before  subjected  to  this  analysis.  His  complete  command  of  the  tools 
prepared  by  mathematicians  and  physicists  of  preceding  ages  made 
Helmholtz  a  great  contributor  to  modem  civilization. 


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RUDOLPH  VIRCHOW^PATHOLOGIST  83 


I 


RUDOLF  VmCHOW— PATHOLOGIST 
By  Dr,  CARL  VERNON  WELLER 

UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN 

N  his  delightful  autobiography,  the  elder  Gross^  writes  of  his  first 
European  visit  in  1868. 

There  were  three  professional  men  in  Berlin  whom,  as  their  names  had 
long  been  familiar  to  me  as  household  words,  I  was  most  anxious  to  see— 
Virchow,  Langenbeck  and  Gracfc.  Accordingly,  early  in  the  morning  of 
the  second  day  after  our  arrival,  I  went  to  the  Allgoneines  Krankenhaus  in 
search  of  Virchow,  the  illustrious  pathologist  and  accomplished  statesman,  a 
professor  in  the  university  of  Berlin,  and  a  member  of  the  German  parliament 
The  great  man,  upon  my  entrance,  was  in  the  midst  of  his  pupils,  engaged 
in  a  post-mortem  examination.  As  my  presence  attracted  some  attention, 
....  I  deemed  it  my  duty,  although  the  moment  was  not  the  most  op- 
portune, to  pass  my  card  to  the  professor,  at  the  same  time  apologizing  for 
the  intrusion.  He  at  once  saluted  me  with  a  gracious  bow,  and,  shaking  me 
cordially  by  the  hand,  introduced  me  to  his  pupils  and  expressed  his  gratifica- 
tion at  seeing  me.  After  a  few  minutes  spent  in  conversation,  he  resumed 
his  knife  and  completed  his  examination.  He  showed  me  his  laboratory,  his 
lecture-room,  and  many  of  his  more  interesting  pathological  specimens,  most 
of  them  prepared  by  his  own  hands.  His  collections  of  diseased  hearts  of 
children,  the  result  of  inherited  sjrphilis,  is  the  largest  in  the  world,  and,  as 
he  explained  specimen  after  specimen,  he  became  not  only  enthusiastic  but 
eloquent  ....  The  laboratory,  or  work-shop  as  it  may  be  termed,  of 
Professor  Virchow  is  a  model  in  its  way,  admirably  adapted  to  the  wants  of 
the  student  for  improvement  in  the  use  of  the  microscope  and  the  examina- 
tion of  morbid  specimens.  .  .  .  Microscopes  are  provided  in  great  num- 
bers, and,  in  fact,  every  facility  is  afforded  for  the  acquisition  of  knowledge. 
....  Such  a  room  with  the  necessary  appliances  ought  to  exist  in  every 
well-organized  medical  institution  in  the  United  States. 

Dr.  Gross  died  in  1884,  so  diat  he  lived  to  see  but  the  slightest 
realization  of  this  wish,  which  has  now  reached  a  degree  of  fulfilment 
beyond  the  greatest  anticipation  either  of  Virchow  himself  or  of  his 
contemporaries. 

To  continue  Dr.  Grose's  personal  narrative — and  I  can  do  no  better 
m  order  to  give  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  him  whose  centennial 
we  celebrate: 

I A  paper  read  at  a  meeting  of  the  Research  Qub,  University  of  Michigan, 
April  20,  1921,  in  commemoration  of  the  centennials  of  Hermann  von 
Helmholtz  and  Rudolph  Virchow. 

^Autobiography  of  Samuel  D.  Gross.  G.  Barrie,  Philadelphia,  1887. 
VoL  I,  p.  231-335. 

VOL.  XIIL— a. 


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34  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

Virchow  is  a  most  patient  and  laborious  investigator  and  yet  he  never 
seems  to  be  in  a  hurry.  His  dissections  [autopsies]'  seldom  occupy  fewer 
than  two  and  a  half  or  three  hours  each.  Every  organ  of  the  body  is 
thoroughly  explored.  For  years  past  his  habit  has  been  to  open,  every  Mon- 
day morning,  a  cadaver  in  the  presence  of  his  private  pupils  with  a  view  of 
instructing  them  in  the  art  of  conducting  autopsies— holding  the  knife,  using 
the  saw,  and  taking  notes,  the  whole  being  supplemented  by  microscopic  in- 
spections of  the  more  important  diseased  structures.  In  these  dissections 
he  is,  if  possible,  more  patient  even  than  Rokitansky,  his  great  Viennese 
prototype. 

Virchow  is  a  thin,  slender  man,  about  the  medium  height,  with  a  fine 
forehead,  although  the  head  b  not  large,  and  handsome  black  eyes,  con- 
cealed by  a  pair  of  glasses.  He  is  deliberate  in  his  movements,  a  good  talker, 
very  affable,  courteous  and  warm-hearted— in  a  word,  a  gentleman  of  the 
higher  type. 

The  eveitiiig  before  Dr.  Gross  left  Berlin  he  had  further  occasion 
to  appreciate  Virchow's  splendid  courtesy.  While  he  was  the  guest  of 
honor  at  Virchow's  own  table^  together  with  von  Langeubecky  von 
Graefe,  the  oculist,  Bonders,  Gurlt  and  others,  the  host  drew  from 
under  the  table  a  large  book,  which  proved  to  be  the  second  edition  of 
Grosses  ^^Elements  of  Pathological  Anatomy,*'  and,  rising,  took  his 
guest  by  the  hand  and  in  a  graceful  speech  referred  to  the  text  as  one 
from  the  study  of  which  he  had  derived  much  useful  instruction  and 
one  which  he  always  consulted  with  much  profit 

American  medicine  has  too  seldom  received  that  full  appreciation 
in  Berlin  and  Vienna  that  Virchow  was  always  willing  to  give.  In  re- 
views and  abstracted  articles  edited  by  him  one  is  struck  by  the  large 
number  of  English  and  American  references  included. 

Nearly  twenty  years  after  the  visit  of  Gross  to  Berlin,  we  find  Sir 
William  Osier  a  pilgrim  in  Virchow's  laboratory.  Perhaps  it  has  been 
the  growing  breadth  of  vision  during  those  years,  but  not  unlikely  it 
is  the  wonderful  catholicity  of  interests,  possessed  by  the  great  visitor 
himself  which  changes  the  character  of  the  pen  picture.  Part  of  his 
narrative  I  must  reproduce  even  though  it  reaches  beyond  the  limits  of 
my  subject.    Osler^  writes: 

In  1884,  on  returning  to  Berlin  for  the  first  time  since  my  student  days, 
I  took  widi  me  four  choice  examples  of  skulls  of  British  Columbian  Indians, 
knowing  well  how  acceptable  they  would  be.  In  his  room  at  the  Pathological 
Institute,  surrounded  by  crania  and  skeletons,  and  directing  his  celebrated 
diener,  who  was  mending  Trojan  pottery,  I  found  the  professor  noting  the 
peculiarities  of  a  set  of  bones  which  he  had  just  received  from  Madeira. 
Not  the  warm  thanks,  nor  the  cheerful,  friendly  greeting  which  he  always 
had  for  an  old  student,  pleased  me  half  so  much  as  the  prompt  and  decisive 
identification  of  the  skull  which  I  had  brought,  and  his  rapid  sketch  of  the 
cranial  characters  of  the  North  American  Indian.    The  profound  expert,  not 

^Bracketed  words  are  inserted  by  the  author. 

*Osler,  William.  Virchow,  the  man  and  the  student,  Johns  Hopkins 
University  Circulars,  1891,  XI,  17-20. 


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RUDOLF  VIRCHOIV—PATHOLOGIST  35 

the  dilettante  student  has  characterized  all  of  his  work  in  this  line  .  .  . 
As  an  illustration  of  his  capacity  for  varied  work,  I  recall  one  day  in  1884, 
in  which  he  gave  the  morning  demonstration  and  lecture  at  the  Pathological 
Institute,  addressed  the  Town  Council  at  great  length  on  the  extension  of 
the  canalization  scheme,  and  made  a  budget  speech  in  the  House,  both  of 
which  were  reported  at  great  length  in  papers  of  the  next  day. 

Rudolf  Virchow  graduated  in  medicine  from  the  Friedrich- 
Wilhelm  Institute  in  1843  with  the  dissertation  De  rheumate  praesertim 
comeae.  In  the  autumn  of  1844,  he  became  an  assistant  in  pathological 
anatomy  under  Froriep,  and  in  1846  he  was  appointed  prosector  in  the 
same  clinic.  He  became  a  lecturer  in  the  University  of  Berlin  in  1847. 
Possessing  vigorous  political  views,  which  would  be  considered  liberal 
even  today,  he  lost  his  university  connections  during  the  stormy  period 
of  1848  and  1849,  largely  through  the  publication  with  Leubuscher  of 
a  half-medical,  half-political  journal,  which  they  styled  Medicinische 
Reform.  From  1849  to  1856  he  occupied  the  chair  of  pathological 
anatomy  at  "Wiirzburg,  where^  working  with  the  greatest  industry,  he 
raised  his  department  to  foremost  rank  and  pursued  investigations  upon 
which  much  of  his  later  work  was  based.  At  the  end  of  that  period, 
he  was  recalled  to  Berlin  as  professor  of  pathological  anatomy  and 
director  of  the  newly  established  pathological  institute  in  Berlin  Uni- 
versity, with  which  he  was  connected  until  his  death. 

To  understand  Virchow's  relation  to  pathology  and  to  medicine  is 
to  understand  something  of  the  stages  throu^  whidi  scientific  medicine 
has  passed  in  the  last  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  We  are  now,  and 
have  been  for  some  fifty  years,  in  a  period  characterized  by  search 
for  the  etiological  factor  in  disease.  In  part,  the  bacteriologist  has 
been  in  the  ascendency  and  we  already  have  sufficient  perspective  to 
see  the  greatness  of  Pasteur  and  Koch.  Among  our  contemporaries 
there  may  be  those  equally  to  be  honored  by  another  generation.  More* 
over,  there  are  those  who  would  have  us  believe  that  we  are  even  now 
passing  from  the  epoch  of  bacteriology  into  a  period  dominated  by 
biodiemistery,  serology  and  immunology,  but  upon  this  transition,  if, 
indeed,  it  should  be  dignified  as  such,  light  is  still  to  be  shed. 

At  any  rate,  these  present-day  tendencies  will  serve  to  illustrate  the 
shifting  emphasis  in  medical  progress.  Does  it  mean  that  the  stage 
has  been  set  for  a  certain  scene,  or  that  a  brilliant  and  indefatigable 
worker,  inspiring  a  group  of  collaborators,  strides  ofif  into  the  un- 
known? As  we  read  current  medical  history,  the  advance  appears  to 
be  gradual  and  simultaneous  along  interdigitating  lines.  In  re- 
trospect, the  advance  assumes  the  topography  of  a  series  of  steps  rising 
from  plateau-like  surfaces.  The  highest  step  of  the  nineteenth  century 
was  the  rise  of  microscopical  pathology  as  established  and  developed 
by  Rudolf  Virchow. 


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36  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

Cellular  pathology  rose  from  a  foundation  of  gross  pathology.  In 
the  later  half  of  the  preceding  century  John  Hunter  had  developed  his 
wonderful  museum  of  gross  preparations  of  both  normal  and  patholog- 
ical anatomy.  He  had  had  the  hardihood  to  apply  objective  experi- 
mental methods  to  the  investigation  of  pathological  problems.  Through 
the  experimental  production  of  arterial  anastomoses,  he  found  that  it 
was  possible  to  ligate  arteries  whose  flow  had  previously  been  con- 
sidered essential  to  the  life  of  a  part  For  Hunter,  Virchow  had  the 
greatest  admiration,  and  it  has  been  said  that  for  a  long  time  Hunter's 
picture  alone  was  found  upon  the  walls  of  his  laboratory.  Fifty  years 
or  so  after  Hunter,  Rokitansky  in  Vienna  brought  the  period  of  gross 
pathology  to  its  greatest  height  The  first  autopsy  protocol  written  in 
his  own  hand  is  dated  October  23,  1827.  In  March,  1866,  he  achieved 
his  thirty  thousandth  post-mortem  examination.  It  is  said  that  before 
his  death  he  had  access  to  100,000  protocols  of  autopsies  done  by  him- 
self and  his  assistants.  With  this  enormous  material  he  brought  de- 
scriptive gross  pathology  to  a  degree  of  perfection  never  before 
realized. 

As  will  be  noted  by  the  dates  just  given,  Rokitansky  was  well  es- 
tablished in  his  field  of  gross  pathology  when  Virchow  read  his 
inaugural  dissertation.  In  fact,  Virchow  was  still  in  his  assistantship 
when  the  first  volume  of  Rokitansky's  Lehrbuch  der  patholqgischen 
AnaUmUe  appeared  in  1845.  With-  the  microscope  at  his  disposal,  his 
independence  of  thought,  his  originality  in  attack,  and,  above  all,  his 
ability  to  exalt  pure  objective  description  as  an  end  in  itself  made  it 
possible  for  Rudolf  Virchow  to  do  for  the  pathology  of  the  cell  what 
Rokitansky  had  done  for  the  pathology  of  the  organ  and  tissue. 

AH  medicine  before  Virchow  had  been  burdened  with  mysticinn, 
dogma  and  hypothesis.  Witness  the  pertinacity  with  which  the  humoral 
theory  survived  in  its  varying  forms,  even  to  the  extent  of  obscuring  the 
earlier  part  of  Rokitansky's  work.  All  this  Virchow  was  able  to  cast 
aside  and,  avoiding  dogma,  he  developed  a  method  rather  than  a  theory. 

To  those  who  would  lessen  the  importance  of  Virchow's  work  by 
reference  to  Bichat,  it  need  but  be  said  that  while  the  latter  did  resolve 
the  various  organs  and  tissues  of  the  body  into  twenty-one  simple,  and, 
as  he  supposed,  elemental  types,  this  analysis  was  done  on  the  basis  of 
naked-eye  observation  alone.  Bichat  did  not  use  the  microscope.  Like 
Virchow,  however,  he  placed  the  objective  d^ailing  of  facts  before 
speculation.  To  Schleiden  and  Sdiwann,  Virchow  gave  full  credit  for 
the  earlier  development  of  the  idea  of  the  animal  cell  as  interpreted 
in  terms  of  cellular  botany.  Yet,  it  must  be  remembered  that  to  a 
great  extent  Virchow  was  called  upon  to  formulate  for  himself  stand- 
ards of  normal  histology  as  well  as  to  describe  the  changes  produced 
in  the  cell  by  disease. 


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RUDOLF  VIRCHOW^PATHOLOGIST  «7 

No  adequate  analysis  of  Virchow's  published  woxk  can  be  given 
here.  Its  volume  is  remarkable.  In  1901,  Schwalbe^  and  others  whose 
assistance  he  invited,  compiled  a  Virchow  bibliography  as  their  part 
in  the  celebration  of  the  eightieth  birthday  of  their  old  master.  In  the 
preface,  Schwalbe  himself  says  that  a  Virchow  bibliography  lays  bare 
not  alone  the  life-work  of  a  man,  but  exposes  as  well  a  history  of 
medicine  and  anthropology  for  the  preceding  sixty  years.  Requiring 
118  pages,  with  an  average  of  about  eighteen  items  to  the  page,  this  list 
of  approximately  2,000  titles  bears  witness  to  the  industry,  breadth  of 
interest  and  critical  scientific  discrimination  of  the  cellular  pathologist 
From  all  of  this  material  I  can  refer  only  to  the  two  most  important 
books,  to  the  journals  developed  under  his  leadership  and  to  a  few  of 
the  most  important  articles. 

"Die  Cellularpathologie"  appeared  in  1858.  Tliis  book,  presented 
in  the  form  of  twenty  lectures  illustrated  by  numerous  wood  cuts, 
placed  before  the  world  for  the  first  time  a  summation  of  the  author's 
views.  Here  was  demonstrated  that  the  principle  of  omnis  cellula  e 
cellula,  which  he  was  first  to  put  into  words,  applied  equally  to  patho- 
logical formations  and  to  normal  embryologic  development.  Trans- 
lated into  French  by  Picard  and  into  English  by  Frank  Chance, 
"Cellular  Pathology''  was  seized  upon  with  an  avidity  which  must  have 
surprised  even  its  author.  From  that  year  modem  pathology  is  to  be 
dated.  We  cannot  appreciate  the  eflfect  upon  Medicine  of  this  new 
point  of  view.  Before,  all  morbid  products,  tumors,  cancers,  purulent 
collections,  tubercles,  gummas  had  been  explained  as  arising  in,  or 
from,  a  hypothetical  primitive  blastema,  itself  exudative  in  nature. 
Now  these  were  shown  to  be  composed  of  living  body  cells,  diflfering 
in  various  ways  from  the  normal,  exhibiting  alterations  both  in  form 
and  function.  With  histological  technique  in  its  infancy,  much  was  in- 
complete and  misinterpretations  were  bound  to  occur,  even  as  they 
do  to-day. 

Let  me  illustrate  the  accuracy  of  observation  shown  in  the 
"Cellular  Pathology"  by  quotations  dealing  with  the  subject  of 
arg3rria,  the  deposit  of  silver  pigment  in  the  tissues.  Every  student  of 
pathology  now  knows  that  argyriasis  shows  a  selective  affinity  for  the 
fibrillae  of  connective  tissue.  Silver  is  not  deposited  in  epithelial 
structures,  although  it  usually  gains  entrance  to  the  body  by  passing 
through  an  epithelium.    Note  how  clearly  Virchow  states  these  facts. 

We  know  that  when  any  one  takes  salts  of  silver,  they  penetrate  into  tht 
different  tissues  of  his  body.  ...  A  patient  who  had  .  .  .  received 
a  solution  of  nitrate  of  silver  as  a  lotion  [for  the  eyes],  very  conscientiously 
employed  the  remedy    .    .    .     ;    the  result  of  which  was  that  his  conjunctiva 

'Schwalbe,  J.  Virchow-Bibliographie,  1843-1901.  G.  Reimer,  Berlin, 
1901.    Pp.  183. 


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Sft  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

assumed  an  intensely  brown,  nearly  black  appearance.  The  examination  of 
a  piece  cut  out  of  it  showed  that  silver  had  been  taken  up  into  the  parenchyma, 
and  indeed  in  such  a  manner  that  the  whole  of  the  connective  tissue  had  a 
slightly  yellowish  brown  hue  upon  the  surface,  whilst  in  the  deeper  parts  the 
deposition  had  taken  place  only  in  the  fine  elastic  fibers  of  the  connective  tis- 
sue, the  intervening  parts,  the  proper  basis-substance,  being  perfectly  free. 
But  deposits  of  an  entirely  similar  nature  take  place  also  in  more  remote 
organs.  Our  collection  contains  a  very  rare  preparation  from  the  kidneys  of 
a  person  who  on  account  of  epilepsy  had  taken  nitrate  of  silver  internally. 
In  it  may  be  seen  the  Malpighian  bodies,  in  which  the  real  secretion  takes 
place,  with  a  blackish  blue  coloring  of  the  whole  of  the  membrane  of  the 
coil  of  the  vessels,  limited  to  this  part  of  the  cortex,  and  appearing  again,  in 
a  similar,  though  less  marked  form,  only  in  the  intertubular  stroma  of  the 

medullary  substance The  salts  of  silver  do  not  deposit  themselves 

In  the  lungs  [when  present  in  the  circulating  blood],  but  pass  through  them 
to  be  precipitated  only  when  they  reach  the  kidneys  or  the  sldn. 

Taking  second  place  in  importance  among  the  larger  works  of 
Virchow,  is  the  three  volume  treatise  on  tmnors,  *'Die  Krankhaften 
Geschwiilste.*'  This  was  completed  ia  the  years  1863-1867.  In  it 
Virchow  develops  a  systematic  classification  of  neoplasms  based  largely 
upon  their  microscopical  characteristics.  Here  the  influence  of  his 
teacher,  Johannes  Miiller,  is  evident.  The  terminology  used  by  Virchow 
in  this  work  still  survives  to  a  large  degree. 

Of  the  great  array  of  lesser  works,  I  can  mention  but  a  few  groups. 
In  the  late  forties  Virchow,  published  a  series  of  epoch-making  papers 
on  disturbances  of  the  circulation.  Here  for  the  first  time  phlebitis, 
thrombosis,  metastasis  and  embolism  were  clearly  set « forth.  In  fact, 
the  term  Embolia,  or  as  we  now  say,  embolism,  was  introduced  by 
Virchow  himself.  Osier  relates  that  in  1848,  at  the  height  of  Virchow's 
political  activity,  he  performed  an  autopsy  upon  a  patient,  said  by 
Schonlein  to  have  died  from  cerebral  hemorrhage.  Virchow  found  no 
hemorrhage,  but  succeeded  in  demonstrating  an  embolus  blocking  an 
important  cerebral  artery.  Schonlein,  who  was  present  to  see  the  out- 
come of  his  diagnosb,  turned  to  Virchow  and  in  a  half -joking,  half- 
vexed  manner,  said  Sie  sdten  ouch  uberall  Barricaden.  Other  im*- 
portant  monographs,  papers  and  groups  of  papers  were  those  dealing 
with  calcium  metastasis,  pathological  pigmentation,  amyloid,  leukaemia, 
chlorosis,  phosphorus  poisoning,  syphilis,  trichinosis,  rickets,  cretinism, 
encephalitis  and  peptic  ulcer.    The  list  might  be  mudi  extended. 

In  1847,  Virchow  with  Reinhardt  founded  the  Archiv  fur  pathologist 
die  Anatomie  und  Physiologic  und  fur  klinisohe  Medicin.  This  journal 
has  been  continued  since  that  time,  and  constitutes  the  most  important 
collection  of  original  contributions  to  scientific  medicine.  After  Rein- 
hardt*s  death  in  1852,  Virchow  carried  the  editorship  alone  for  many 
years,  so  that  even  now  one  finds  as  many  citations  to  this  journal  by 
the  phrase  **Virchow  Archiv^  as  by  ito  proper  title.    From  1851  to  1893 


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RUDOLF  VIRCHOW-^PATHOLOGIST  3» 

lie  was  the  joint  editor,  and  from  1893  to  1901  the  sole  editor,  of 
Canstatt*8  J^Aresberidu  uber  die  Leistungen  und  Fortschritte  in  der 
gaammien  Medidn.  From  1850  to  1862,  Virchow  shared  with 
Kolliker,  Scherer  and  Scanzoni  the  editorship  of  the  Verhandlwigen  der 
physUociiachrmediclnischen  Gesellschaft  in  WUrzburg. 

A  list  of  Virchow*s  pupils  would  include  most  of  the  makers  of 
medicine  of  the  last  fifty  years.  Scattered  throughout  the  civilized 
world,  they  have  from  time  to  time  brought  together  in  Festschriften 
and  memorial  celebrations  lists  of  names  and  collections  of  original 
contributions  of  which  their  old  master  may  well  have  been  proud. 
The  Festschrift  for  his  seventy-first  birthday  contributed  by  his  former, 
and  then  acting,  assistants  in  the  Berlin  Pathological  Institute  includes 
in  its  table  of  contents  the  names  of  v.  Rechlinghausen,  Klebs, 
Salkowski,  Orth,  Grawitz  and  Langerhans,  among  others,  all  of  whom 
have  had  a  great  influence  on  the  development  of  pathology  and  modem 
medicine.  American  medicine  owes  much  to  those  who  were  under 
Yirchow's  tutelage  in  the  last  three  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Virchow  was  wrong.  The  cell  is  not  the  ultimate  unit  of  life,  but 
the  methods  of  cellular  pathology  have  grown  no  less  important  since 
he  gave  his  great  work  to  the  world.  The  cell  with  its  miscroscopioally 
demonstrable  content  is  still  the  morphological  unit  of  life.  Disease 
processes  are  still  interpreted  in  the  light  of  the  cellular  changes. 

To  Virchow  we  owe  our  conception  of  disease.  Disease  is  not  an 
entity,  entering  the  body  from  without.  Disease  is  life,  life  which 
deviates  from  the  normal.  The  casual  factor  may  reside  ivithin  or 
may  come  from  without  in  the  form  of  trauma,  infection,  intoxication, 
or  what  not,  but  the  cause  is  not  the  disease.  The  disease  is  the 
abnormal  life  of  the  body  cells.  The  methods  of  modem  medicine  are 
therefore  broadly  biologic,  and  along  this  road  of  promise  Rudolf 
Virchow  pointed  the  way. 


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40  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


RUDOLF  VIRCHOW— ANTHROPOLOGIST  AND 

ARCHEOLOGISr 

By  Professor  ARTHUR  E-  R  BOAK 

UmVERSITT  OF  MICHIGAN 

RUDOLF  LUDWIG  KARL  VIRCHOW  was  bom  in  the  litUe 
Pomeranian  town  of  Schivelbein,  on  October  13,  1821.  He  died 
on  September  5,  1902.  His  parents  were  people  in  moderate  circum* 
stances,  his  father  combining  the  occupation  of  a  farmer  with  that  of 
a  retail  merchant  The  young  Virchow  received  his  early  education  at 
the  parochial  school  of  Schivelbein,  with  special  instruction  from  the 
local  clergymen.  He  then  entered  the  gymnasium  at  Koslin,  from  which 
he  graduated  in  1838  at  the  age  of  seventeen. 

At  the  gymnasium  he  followed  the  regular  classical  program  of 
studies,  but  showed  at  the  same  time  great  enthusiasm  for  the  natural 
sciences,  history  and  geography.  He  acquired  and  retained  through- 
out life  a  remarkable  accuracy  in  both  Greek  and  Latin,  and  in  his 
later  years  upon  several  occasions  mercilessly  criticized  the  barbarisms 
which  the  younger  generation  attempted  to  introduce  into  medical 
terminology.  This  same  attention  to  accuracy  of  details  characterized 
Virdiow's  work  in  every  field,  and  gave  him  the  perfectly  astounding 
mass  of  information  which  rendered  him  such  a  deadly  critic  of  unstable 
hypotheses.  In  addition  to  the  study  of  the  classics,  Virchow  found  time 
at  the  gymnasium  to  read  widely  in  the  French  and  German  classics. 
Italian  and  English  he  acquired  later.  It  is  interesting  to  have  his 
reflections  upon  suitable  courses  of  study  for  the  gymnasium,  expressed 
in  an  address  delivered  when  rector  of  the  University  of  Berlin.  He 
maintained  that,  as  a  preparation  for  scientific  work,  a  course  in 
mathematics,  philosophy  and  the  natural  sciences  would  have  equal 
value  with  a  classical  course,  but  that  the  later  could  not  be  replaced 
by  the  modern  languages. 

From  the  gymnasium  at  Koslin,  Virchow  proceeded  to  the  Royal 
Medico-Surgical  Friedrich  Wilhelm*s  Institute  at  Berlin.  Here  he 
qualified  for  the  doctorate  in  1843.  In  connection  with  his  inaugural 
dissertation,  Virchow  defended,  among  other  theses,  two  which  he 
afterwards  looked  upon  as  showing  the  early  ripeness  of  his  intellect 
and  the  breadth  of  his  interests.    The  first  of  these  ran  nisi  qui  liberals 

lA  paper  read  at  a  meeting  of  the  Research  Qub,  University  of  Michigan, 
April  20,  1921,  in  commemoration  of  the  centennials  of  Hermann  von 
Helmholtz  and  Rudolph  Virchow. 


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RUDOLF  VIRCHOW—ANTHROPOLOGIST  41 

hua  rebm  faverU  veram  medidnae  indolem  non  cognoscuiU  (Thoee 
who  do  not  encourage  progress  do  not  grasp  the  true  nature  of 
medicine) ;  the  second  was  an  application  of  Agassiz's  then  recently 
published  glacial  theory  to  Pomerania  Pomeraniae  petrificata  glade 
primordiaU  disiecta.  To  Virchow  there  might  fittingly  be  aj^lied  the 
saying,  hcmo  sum^  et  nihil  humanum  mihi  alienum  puto.  His  ability 
to  connect  science  with  life  as  a  whole  and  his  interest  in  everything 
pertaining  to  life  led  him  from  the  investigation  of  the  dead  to  that  of 
the  living  man,  from  craniology  to  ethnology  and  to  the  history  of 
civilization,  as  well  as  from  the  laboratory  into  the  political  arena. 

In  full  conformity  with  this  atitude  towards  life  was  Virchow's 
report  upon  the  typhus  epidemic  in  Silesia,  published  in  1848.  Here 
he  showed  that  the  source  of  the  epidemic  was  to  be  found  in  the  back- 
ward social  and  political  conditions  of  Silesia,  and  made  radical  sug- 
gestions for  their  amelioration.  The  championship  of  the  people  which 
he  thus  assumed  he  maintained  throughout  a  long  political  career,  as  a 
member  of  the  Prussian  House  of  Representatives,  from  1862  to  1878; 
of  the  Reichstag,  from  1880  to  1893;  and  of  the  municipal  council  of 
Berlin  for  42  years.  He  was  a  founder  of  the  progressive  party 
(FortschriUspartei)  y  and  a  firm  opponent  of  Bismarck's  imperialism, 
being  honored  by  the  latter  with  a  challenge  to  a  duel.  He  f  ou^t  un- 
ceasingly for  the  improvement  of  the  education  as  well  as  the  social 
conditions  of  the  masses,  and  the  term  Kulturhampf  was  an  outgrowth 
of  his  political  manifestoes.  But,  at  the  close  of  his  life,  it  was 
Virchow's  boast  that,  although  he  had  devoted  himself  to  both  politics 
and  medicine,  he  had  always  succeeded  in  preserving  for  science  its 
independence  of  political  influences. 

While  a  professor  at  the  University  of  Wurzburg  (1849-56), 
Virchow  published  two  studies  on  cretinism  in  Lower  Franconia  and 
pathological  skull  forms  (1851-2).  These  may  be  taken  to  mark  the 
banning  of  his  anthropological  work,  and  were  the  first  of  more  than 
one  thousand  publications  in  this  and  allied  fields.  They  were  followed 
(1857)  by  his  ^'Investigations  on  the  Development  of  the  Base  of  the 
Skull  in  Healthy  and  Diseased  Conditions,  and  on  the  Influence  of  the 
same  upon  Skull  Form,  Facial  Structure  and  Brain  Formation."  In 
this  treatise  he  laid  the  foundation  for  an  anatomical  treatment  of 
craniology,  pointing  out  as  the  problem  for  investigation  the  relation- 
ship between  the  shape  of  the  skull,  the  facial  structure  and  the  forma- 
tion of  the  brain.  His  conclusion  was  that  all  typical  variations  in 
facial  structure  rest  chiefly  upon  differences  in  the  formation  of  the 
base  of  the  skull. 

For  about  a  decade  following  his  return  to  Berlin  in  1856,  Virchow*s 
main  interest  and  activity  lay  in  the  field  of  medicine.  Then  he  began  to 
turn  his  attention  in  an  ever  increasing  degree  to  anthropological  and 
allied  studies,  upon  which  he  entered  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  a  true 


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42  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

pioneer.  In  1869,  mainly  through;  his  efforts,  was  organized  the 
Deutsche  Andiropologische  Gesellschaft.  In  the  same  year  he  founded 
the  Berliner  Gesellschaft  fiir  Anthropologie,  Ethnologie  und  Urges- 
chichte,  and  its  organ  the  Zeitschrift  fur  Ethnologie.  In  addition  to 
directing  the  publication  of  the  Zeitschrift^  he  was  also  an  editor  of  the 
CorrespondenzbUAt  of  the  Anthropologische  Gesellschaft  and,  from 
1870,  of  the  Archiv  fiir  Anthropologie.  The  degree  to  which  these  new 
fields  absorbed  Virchow's  activities  nuiy  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that, 
although  it  was  as  a  pathologist  that  he  was  elected  to  the  Royal 
Academy  of  Sciences  at  Berlin  in  1874,  only  three  of  his  numerous 
papers  read  before  the  academy  dealt  with  problems  of  pathology,  while 
nearly  all  the  rest  discussed  anthropological  subjects. 

Passing  from  the  study  of  the  diseased  to  that  of  the  normal  skull, 
in  1874  Virchow  presented  the  results  of  his  attempts  to  find  ethnog- 
nomic  skull  characteristics  in  an  article  entitled  '*0n  Some  Character- 
istics  of  the  Skulls  of  the  Lower  Races  of  Man.^  Here  he  advanced  the 
generally  accepted  view  that  the  frontal  projection  of  the  squamous 
portion  of  the  temporal  bone  is  a  pithecoidal  characteristic,  much  more 
frequent  am(mg  non- Aryan  than  Aryan  peoples;  and  that  the  unproved, 
but  certainly  to  be  suspected,  defective  formation  of  the  temporal  brain 
parts  as  a  result  of  thb  frontal  projection  permits  us  to  see  in  the  latter, 
and  in  the  bare  narrowing  of  the  temporal  area,  a  mark  of  lower,  but 
not  necessarily  of  the  lowest,  races. 

Virchow's  next  efforts  were  directed  towards  the  determination  of 
the  skull  types  of  European  races.  Here  the  prevailing  view  was  that 
of  Retzius:  that  each  of  the  great  racial  divisions  had  a  single  type  of 
skull  and  that  peoples  must  be  differentiated  as  either  dolicooephalic 
or  brachyoephalic.  Virchow  took  a  more  cautious  attitude  and  opposed 
the  selection  of  type  skulls  **until  the  whole  breadth  of  individual 
varieties  was  known."  He  also  combatted  Nilson's  theory  that  an 
original  brachyoephalic  European  population  had  been  overrun  by  a 
dolichocephalic  element  which  stood  upon  a  hi^er  plane  of  physical 
and  mental  development,  i.  e.,  the  Celts  and  the  Germans. 

In  1875,  Virchow  declared  it  impossible  to  establish  definite  cranio- 
logical  types  for  Germans,  Celts,  Slavs,  Finns  or  Italians;  that  the 
postulate  of  originally  pure  and  homogeneous  great  culture  races  is 
erroneous,  and  that  all  these  have  been  formed  by  a  mixture  of  smaller 
elements,  a  view  which  now  receives  general  acceptance.  Then,  in  the 
following  year,  in  his  '^Contributions  to  the  Physical  Anthropology  of 
the  Germans,**  he  claimed  that  even  greater  weight  should  be  laid  upon 
the  height  of  the  skull  than  upon  its  length  or  breadth,  and  he  was  able 
to  show  that  the  old  German  cranial  type,  as  represented  by  the  Frisians, 
were  chamaeprosopic  and  mesooephalic  rather  than  dolichocephalic  as 
had  been  maintained  heretofore. 


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RUDOLF  VIRCHOW— ANTHROPOLOGIST  48 

The  scope  of  Virchow's  anthropological  studies  widened  umil  he 
sought  to  give  an  exact  descriptive  basis  for  the  natural  history  of  man. 
Heace  he  directed  his  investigations  toward  living  peoples,  as  well  as 
toyrard  those  which  are  now  extinct,  and  entered  upon  the  field  of 
ethnology.  One  great  result  of  his  efforts  was  the  census  of  the  school 
children  of  the  German  Empire,  taken  from  the  point  of  view  of  racial 
physical  characteristics.  This  census  brought  out  the  fact  that  the 
historic  characteristics  of  the  old  Germanic  type — ^blond  hair,  white 
skin  and  blue  eyes — ^were  to  be  found  united  in  only  approximately  one 
third  of  the  population  of  Prussia  and  one  fifth  of  that  of  Barvaria. 
Perhaps  in  this  connection  one  should  mention  Virchow's  establishment 
in  1888  of  the  Museum  for  German  National  Costumes  and  Products 
of  Housdbold  Industry,  at  Berlin. 

Carrying  his  investigations  outside  of  Germany,  Virchow  compiled 
anthropological  analyses  of  the  Lapps,  Eskimos,  Patagonians,  Terra 
del  Fuegians,  Kaffirs,  Australians  and  Malays.  One  of  his  most  in- 
leresling  studies  was  that  of  the  population  of  Ceylon,  in  which  he 
established  the  nanocephalism  and  racial  purity  of  the  Veddas,  as  well 
as  dieir  relationship  to  the  older  Dravidian  or  pre-Dravidian  popula- 
tion of  India,  while  showing  that  the  Cingalese,  on  the  contrary,  were 
a  mixed  race. 

Virchow  continued  his  craniological  studies  with  unabated  zeal  until 
the  tizne  of  his  death,  when  his  collection  comprised  some  4,000  skulls, 
ancient  and  modern,  coming  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe.  Yet  he 
had  to  acknowledge  his  inability  to  attain  a  satisfactory  craniological 
differentiation  of  races,  or  an  explanation  of  how  various  skull  types 
arise  among  the  same  people.  He  gave  great  attention  to  the  develop- 
ment of  more  exact  methods  of  craniological  measurements,  and 
hdped  to  bring  about  the  adoption  of  standard  systems  in  this  field. 
Another  beneficial  result  of  his  work  in  this  field  was  the  exclusion 
of  pathological  forms  from  the  list  of  skull  types.  Here  it  may  be 
mentioned  tlutt  he  maintained  that  the  celebrated  Neanderthal  skull 
exhibited  pathological  characteristics,  and  consequently  protested 
against  the  acceptance  of  a  distinct  racial  type  upon  the  evidence  of 
this  single  specimen.  But  in  tins  he  failed  to  win  the  support  of  the 
majority  of  anthropologists. 

In  addition  to  studies  upon  Illyrian,  Trojan,  Cyprian,  Moroccan, 
East  African,  Ancient  and  Modem  Greek,  and  Philippine  skull  types, 
Virchow  published  a  woric  on  American  racial  skulls-~Crania  Etfanica 
Americana— noteworthy  both  for  its  descriptive  details  and  for  its 
differentiation  of  pathological  deformities  of  the  skull  from  futificial 
deformities  resulting  from  accident  or  intent  His  examination  of  the 
remains  of  the  Java  ape-man — pithecanthropus  erectus  Dubois — led 
him  to  the  conclusicHi  tliat  it  did  not  belong  to  the  genus  homo,  but  was 
a  gibbon  of  an  extinct  species,  a  view  which  now  finds  little  acceptance, 


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44  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

It  was  inevitable  that  Virchow  should  be  attracted  by  the  basic 
problems  of  anthropology  and  biology,  such  as  the  origin  of  species 
and  the  place  of  man  in  the  natural  world.  And  it  was  natural  that  his 
point  of  view  in  these  questions  should  depend  upon  his  belief  in  the 
identity  of  physiological  and  pathological  processes.  His  formula  was: 
Individual  and  type  equal  pathology  and  physiology.  Towards  the 
Darwinian  theory  of  evolution  he  was  by  no^  means  hostile,  but  exhibited 
the  same  cautious  attitude  as  in  other  anthropological  questions.  He 
held  diat  there  was  a  great  gap  in  our  knowledge,  namely,  in  regard 
to  the  development  of  the  human  from  the  lower  forms  of  life.  For  the 
time  this  gap  may  certainly  be  filled  by  an  hypothesis,  for  only  by 
hypotheses  can  the  path  of  research  in  unknown  fields  be  marked  out. 
Such  a  hypothesis,  Virchow  felt,  Darwin  had  supplied  in  the  finest  sense 
of  the  word.  ^It  was  an  immeasurable  advance,'*  he  declared,  ^which 
living  Nature  made  when  the  first  man  developed  from  an  animal, 
whether  that  was  an  ape  or  other  creature,  which  was  the  racial  ancestor 
of  the  ape  as  well.  However,  the  actual  proof  of  the  descent  of  man 
from  the  ape  has  not  yet  been  made.  None  of  the  known  apes  supplies 
the  transitional  stage.'*  Still  the  theory  of  the  descent  of  man  was  for 
him,  ^not  only  a  logical,  but  also  a  moral  postulate,"  whose  value  lies 
not  in  being  a  new  dogma,  but  a  light  for  further  research. 

His  attitude  came  to  light  clearly  in  his  famous  controversy  widi 
Haeckel,  in  1887,  when  the  latter  demanded  that  his  monistic  doctrine 
be  introduced  into  the  schools.  Virchow  objected  strenuously  to  the 
teaching  of  the  problems  as  though  they  were  the  conquests  of  science, 
taking  the  ground  that  this  was  contrary  to  the  conscience  of  the 
natural  scientist,  who  reckons  only  with  facts.  He  likewise  protested 
vigorously  against  any  form  of  compulsion  of  conscience. 

In  approaching  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  species,  Virchow  saw 
more  hope  of  attaining  a  solution  through  physiology  and  pathology 
than  through  morphology,  which  gives  only  the  possibility  and  not  die 
proof  of  evolution.  *'He  who  teaches  us,"  he  wrote,  "to  develop  a 
Schimmelpilz  out  of  a  Spaltpilz  will  have  accomplished  more  than  all 
the  heralds  of  the  geneological  tree  of  man." 

In  his  "Rassenbildung  und  Erblichkeit"  (1896),  he  developed  his 
doctrine  of  the  pathological  nature  of  variations  from  type.  Originally 
each  species,  or  variaticm  from  type,  is  produced  by  a  permanent  dis- 
turbance of  the  parental  organism,  and  is  in  this  sense  pathological. 
Only  by  inheritance  in  the  descendants  does  this  con<£ti<Hi  become 
physiological:  but,  up  to  now,  it  is  completely  unknown  why  one  dis- 
turbance is  inherited,  another  not.  Races,  too,  are  only  hereditary 
species,  which  rest  upon  a  pathological  disturbance  in  the  parei^l 
organism.  Probably  in  most  cases  the  disturbance  is  produced  by  the 
environment,  but  often  also  by  causes  contained  within  the  organism, 
which  become  effective  only  after  birth. 


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RUDOLF  VIRCHOW-^ANTHROPOLOGIST  45 

Virchow's  general  interest  in  historical  questions  and  his  special 
anthropological  studies  led  him  into  the  field  of  prehistoric  archeology. 
To  this  study,  in  Germany,  he  did  a  great  service  by  raising  it  from 
dilettantism  to  a  recognized  position  among  the  social  sciences.  He  was 
early  attracted  by  the  history  of  his  birthplace,  Schivelbein,  and,  in 
1866,  wrote  on  its  antiquities.  From  1867  onwards,  he  became  a 
regular  participant  in  the  international  congresses  for  prehistoric 
archeology  and  anthropology.  In  1869,  he  began  his  investigations  of 
North  German  pile  dwellings.  A  careful  study  of  ceramics  enabled 
him  to  determine  that  these  pile  dwellings  were  of  later  origin  than  the 
corresponding  structures  in  South  Germany,  and,  on  the  basis  of  similar 
evidence,  he  showed  that  the  so-called  Wendish  cemeteries  were  really 
pre*Slavic  in  origin. 

Becoming  interested  in  the  questicHi  of  the  mutual  influences  of  pre- 
historic cultures,  Virchow  made  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  ancient 
amber  and  flint  traflEb  routes  in  Central  Europe.  It  was  largely  as  a 
result  of  a  friendship  formed  in  1875  with  the  Homeric  enthusiast 
Schliemann  that  Virchow  extended  his  archeological  studies  beyond  the 
limits  of  his  native  country.  In  1879  he  accompanied  Schlienuum  to 
the  site  of  ancient  Troy,  in  1881  to  the  Caucasus,  and  in  1888  to  Egypt, 
Nubia  and  the  Peloponnesus.  It  was  Virchow's  influence  that  induced 
Schliemann  to  entrust  his  later  excavations  at  Troy  to  the  experienced 
archeologist  Dorpfeld. 

Virchow's  expedition  to  the  Caucasus  was  undertaken  in  the  hope  of 
finding  there  the  source  of  the  European  bronze  age  culture,  but  in  his 
report  on  the  Graveyard  of  Koban  (1883)  he  decided  against  the  pos- 
sibility of  this  theory.  One  important  result  of  his  work  in  Egypt  was 
that  he  was  the  first  to  adduce  positive  evidence  for  a  period  of  neolithic 
culture  in  the  Nile  Valley. 

Hia  Caucasian  studies  led  Virchow  to  encourage  others  to  interest 
themselves  in  the  origins  of  the  civilization  of  the  Near  East,  and 
through  the  work  of  his  pupils  the  civilization  of  the  ancient  kingdom 
of  Colchis  was  revealed.  Shortly  before  his  death,  Virchow  had  as- 
sumed the  honorary  direction  of  a  new  German  Society  for  the  Investi- 
gation of  Asia  Minor,  especially  Anatolia  and  Cappadoda. 

In  these  closely  related  fields  of  anthropology,  ethnol(^  and  pre- 
historic archeology,  Virchow's  fame  rests  not  so  much  upon  the  in- 
fallibility of  his  own  conclusions  as  upon  his  introduction  of  scientific 
methods  of  investigation,  his  establishment  of  organizations  for  co- 
operative effort  in  research,  his  l<^ical  and  independent  thinking  and 
his  deep  sense  of  truth.  A  great  worker  himself,  he  stimulated  the  work 
of  others,  not  only  in  his  own  country,  but  also  abroad,  and  so  became, 
in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  an  international  figure. 


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46  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


THE  BIOLOGY  OF  DEATH— V.  THE  INHERITANCE 
OF  DURATION  OF  LIFE  IN  MAN^ 

By  Professor  RAYMOND  PEARL 
the  johns  hopkins  uniyersfft 

1.    The  Determination  of  Longevity 

IN  the  series  of  papers  up  to  this  point  we  have  seen,  in  the  first 
place,  that  immortality  is  a  potential  attribute  of  cells  generally 
and  becomes  actually  realized  when  conditions  are  so  arranged  as  to 
make  continued  life  possible.  These  conditions  are  not  realiased  in' 
the  metazoan  body  because  of  differentiation  and  specialization  of 
structure  and  function.  What  actually  happens  in  the  metazoa  is  that 
sooner  or  later  some  differentiated  organ  or  system  of  organs  gets  to 
functioning  badly  and  upsets  the  delicate  balance  of  the  whole.  As 
a  result  the  entire  organisn  presently  dies.  We  have  further  seen 
that  in  the  case  of  man,  where  alone  quantitative  data  are  available, 
the  breakdown  of  particular  organ  systems,  and  consequent  death  of 
the  whole,  occurs  in  a  highly  orderly  manner  in  respect  of  time  or  age. 
Eadi  organ  system  has  a  characteristic  time  curve  for  its  breakdown, 
differing  from  the  curve  of  any  other  system.  Tlie  problem  which  now 
confronts  us  is  to  find  out  what  lies  back  of  these  characteristic  time 
curves  and  determines  their  form.  In  view  of  the  biological  facts 
about  death  which  we  have  learned,  what  determines  that  John  Smith 
shall  die  at  58,  while  Henry  Jones  lives  to  the  obviously  more  re- 
spectable age  of  85?  We  have  seen  that  there  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  all  the  essential  cells  of  both  their  bodies  are  inherently 
capable  under  proper  conditions  of  living  indefinitely.  We  are  fur- 
ther agreed  that  it  is  the  differentiated  and  specialized  structure 
of  their  bodies  which  prevents  the  realization  of  these  favorable 
conditions.  But  all  this  helps  us  not  at  all  to  understand  why  in  fact 
one  lives  nearly  30  years  longer  than  the  other. 

It  may  help  to  visualize  this  problem  of  the  determination  of  long- 
evity to  consider  an  illustrative  analogy.  Men  behave  in  respect  of 
their  duration  of  life  not  unlike  a  lot  of  ei^t-day  clocks  cared  for  by 
an  unsystematic  person,  who  does  not  wind  them  all  to  an  equal 
degree  and  is  not  careful  about  guarding  them  from  accident.  Some 
he  winds  up  fully,  and  they  run  their  full  eig^t  days.  Others  he  winds 
only  half  way  and  they  stop  after  four  days.    Again  the  clock  which 

iPapcrs  from  the  Department  of  Biometry  and  Vital  Statistics.  School 
of  Hygiene  and  Public  Health,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  No.  32. 


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THE  BIOLOGY  OF  DEATH  47 

has  been  wound  up  for  the  full  eight  days  may  fall  off  the  shelf  and 
be  brought  to  a  stop  at  the  third  day.  Or  someone  may  throw  some  sand 
in  the  works  when  the  caretaker  is  off  his  guard.  So,  similarly,  some 
men  bdiave  as  though  they  had  been  wound  up  for  a  full  90-year 
run,  while  others  are  but  partially  wound  up  and  stop  at  40  or  65,  or 
some  other  point  Or,  again,  the  man  wound  up  for  80  years  may, 
like  the  dock,  be  brought  up  much  short  of  that  by  an  accidental  in- 
vasion of  microbes,  playing  the  role  of  the  sand  in  the  works  of  the 
clocL  It  is  of  no  avail  for  either  the  clock  or  the  man  to  say  that  the 
elements  of  the  mechanism  are  in  whole  or  in  major  part  capable  of 
further  service.  The  essential  problem  is:  what  determines  the  good- 
ness of  the  original  winding?  And  what  relative  part  do  external 
things  play  in  bringing  the  running  to  an  end  before  the  time  which 
the  original  winding  was  good  for?  It  is  with  this  problem  of  the 
winding  up  and  running  of  the  human  mechanism  that  the  present 
paper  vrill  deal. 

There  are  two  general  classes  of  factors  which  niay  be  involved 
here.  These  are,  on  the  one  hand,  heredity  and,  on  the  other  hand,  en» 
vironment,  using  the  latter  term  in  the  broadest  sense.  Inasmuch  as 
we  can  be  reasonably  sure  on  a  priori  grounds  that  longevity,  like  most 
other  biological  phenomena,  is  influenced  by  both  heredity  and  en- 
vironment, the  problem  practically  reduces  itself  to  the  measuring  of 
the  relative  importance  of  each  of  these  two  factor  groups  in  deter- 
mining the  results  we  see.  But  before  we  start  the  discussion  of  exact 
measurements  in  this  field,  let  us  first  examine  some  of  the  general 
evidence  that  heredity  plays  any  part  at  all  in  the  determination  of 
longevity. 

2.    The  Hyde  Family 

The  first  material  which  we  shall  discuss  is  that  provided  by  the 
distinguished  eugenist.  Dr.  Alexander  Graham  Bell,  in  his  study  of  the 
Hyde  family.  Every  genealogist  is  familiar  with  the  *^Genealogy  of 
the  Hyde  Family,'*  by  Reuben  H.  Walworth.  It  is  one  of  the  finest  ex- 
amples in  existence  of  careful  and  painstaking  genealogical  research. 
Upon  the  data  included  in  this  book.  Bell  has  made  a  most  interesting 
and  penetrating  analysb  of  the  factors  influencing  longevity.  At  first 
thought  one  might  conclude  that  hi^ly  biased  results  would  probabl]f 
flow  from  the  consideration  of  only  one  family.  Bell  meets  this  point 
very  well,  however,  in  the  following  words: 

A  little  consideration  will  show  that  the  descendants  did  not  constitute  a 
single  family  at  all,  and  indeed  had  very  little  of  the  Hyde  blood  in  them. 

Even  the  children  of  William  Hyde  owed  only  half  of  their  blood  to 
him,  and  one-half  to  his  wife.  The  grandchildren  owed  only  one-quarter  of 
their  blood  to  William  Hyde,  and  three  quarters  to  other  people,  etc.  The 
descendants  of  the  seventh  generation,  and  there  are  hundreds  of  them,  owed 
only  one  sixty-fourth  of  their  blood  to  William  Hyde,  and  sixty-three  sixty- 
fourths  to  the  new  blood  introduced  through  successive  generations  of 
marriages  with  persons  not  of  the  Hyde  blood  at  all. 


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48 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  thousands  of  descendants  noted  in  the  Hyde 
Genealogy  constitute  rather  a  sample  of  the  general  population  of  the  country 
than  a  sample  of  a  particular  family  in  which  family  traits  might  be  expected 
to  make  their  appearance. 

K)0 


A6C 
TIG.   1.    SHOWDfC   SURVIVAL  CURVES   OF   MEMBERS   OF   TEE   HYI»   FAMILY 
(Floltttd  from  Ball'a  dftta) 

The  substantial  normality  of  the  material  is  shown  in  Figure  1, 
which  gives  the  1^  line,  that  is,  the  number  of  survivors  at  each  age, 
of  the  1,606  males  and  1,352  females  for  whom  data  were  available. 
The  solid  line  is  the  male  l^  line  and  the  dotted  line  the  female  Ix* 
It  is  at  once  apparent  that  the  curves  have  the  same  general  sweep  in 
their  passage  over  the  span  of  life  as  has  the  general  population  life 
curve  discussed  in  the  preceding  paper.  The  descent  is  a  little  steeper 
in  early  adult  life.  The  female  curve  differs  in  two  respects  from  the 
normal  general  population  curves.  In  the  first  place,  b^inning  at 
age  15  and  continuing  to  age  90,  the  female  curve  lies  below  that  for 
the  males,  whereas  normally  for  the  general  population  it  lies  above 
it.  This  denotes  a  shorter  average  duration  of  life  in  the  females  than 
in  the  males,  the  actual  figures  being  35.8  years  for  the  males  and  33.4 
years  for  the  females.  Bell  attributes  the  difference  to  the  strain  of 
child-bearing  by  the  females  in  this  rather  hi^ly  fertile  group  of 
people,  belonging  in  the  main  to  a  period  when  restrictions  upon  size 
of  family  were  less  common  and  less  extensive  than  now.  In  the  sec- 
ond place,  the  female  Ix  curve  is  actually  convex  to  the  base  through- 


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49 


out  a  considerable  portion  of  middle    life    whereas    normally  this 
portion  of  the  curve  presents  a  concave  face  to  the  base. 

Apart  from  these  deviations,  which  are  of  no  particular  significance 
for  the  use  which  Bell  makes  of  the  data,  the  Hyde  material  is  essen- 
tially normal  and  similar  to  what  one  would  expect  to  find  in  a  ran- 
d<«i  sample  of  the  g^eral  population.  In  this  material  there  were 
2,287  cases  in  which  the  ages  at  death  of  the  persons  and  the  ages  at 
death  of  their  fathers  were  knoivn.  It  occurred  to  Bell  to  arrange 
this  material  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  what,  if  any,  relation  existed 
between  age  at  death  of  the  parent  and  that  of  the  offspring.  He  ar- 
ranged  the  parents  into  four  groups,  according  to  the  age  at  which 
they  died,  and  the  offspring  into  five  groups  upon  the  same  basis.  In 
the  case  of  the  parents  the  groups  were:    First,  those  dying  under  40; 


TABLE   I 
Analysis  of  the  Hyde  family  data  by  person's  age  at  death,  showing 
her  and  percentaae  having  (a)  fathers  and  (6)  mothers  who 
at  the  age  periods  named,      (From  Bell), 

the  num- 
died 

Person's  age  at  death 


F 

"^thei 

•s  age 

at  dea 

ih 

Stated 

-40 

40-60 

60.80 

80+ 

2,287 

66 

522 

1.056 

643 

669 

20 

189 

299 

161 

538 

18 

140 

269 

111 

467 

12 

11& 

215 

124 

428 

18 

67 

196 

162 

186 

8 

20 

77 

85 

Stated 


Under  20 

20  and  under  40. 
40  and  under  60. 
60  and  under  80. 
80  and  over 


Percentages 


Stated 


Under  20 

20  and  under  40. 
40  and  under  60. 
60  and  under  80. 
80  and  over 


100.0 

100.0 
100.0 
100.0 
100.0 
100.0 


2.9      22.8      46.2      28^ 


8.0 
3.4 
2.6 


28.2 
26.0 
24.8 


3.0      13.3 
1.6      10.8 


44.7  24.1 
50.0  20.6 
46.0  26.6 

45.8  37.5 
41.6  46.0 


Person's  age  at  death 


Mother's  age  at  death 


Stated 

-40 

40-60 

60.80 

80+ 

1,805 

191 

435 

713 

466 

511 

88 

129 

199 

95 

407 

42 

104 

176 

85 

379 

27 

92 

159 

101 

360 

26 

80 

129 

125 

148 

8 

30 

50 

60 

Stated 


Under  20 

20  and  under  40. 
40  and  under  60. 
60  and  under  80. 
80  and  over 


Percentages 

Stated 

100.0 

100.0 
100.0 
100.0 
100.0 
100.0 

10.6 

17.2 

10.3 

7.1 

7.2 

5.4 

24.1 

25.2 
25.6 
24.3 
22.2 
20.3 

39.5 

39.0 
43.2 
42.0 
35.9 
33.8 

25.8 

Under  20 

18.6 

20  and  under  40 

20.9 

40  and  under  60 

26.6 

60  and  under  80 

34.7 

80  and  over 

40.5 

VOL.  XnL~4. 


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second,  between  40  and  60;  third,  between  60  and  80;  and  fourth,  at 
age  80  and  over.  The  groups  for  the  offspring  were  the  same,  except 
that  the  first  was  divided  into  two  parts,  namely,  those  dying  under  20 
and  those  dying  between  20  and  40.  The  resulting  figures  are  ex- 
hibited in  Table  1. 


660 

53d 

467 

4^6 

idg 

P£JP90N$ 

PERSONS 

PCflSOW 

PCRSONS 

poiaoHS 

OED 

DICD 

DILD 

0€D 

acD 

~20 

20'^ 

^o-eo 

60-60 

eoi^ 

so 


FIG.    2.    INFLUENCE    OF    FATHER'S    ACE    AT   DEATH    UPON    LONGEVITY    OF    OFFSPRING. 

FIrat  dot  in   Mch  dli«ram  show*  th«  pereenuge  hsTinff  |ath«n  who  died  at  40;   Mcond   dot  the 

perceatage  havinc  father*  who  died  from  40— 60;  third  dot  the  percentage  having  fathera  who  died 

from  60— W;  fovrth  dot  the  percenUge  having  father*  who  died  80+ 

The  results  for  father  and  offspring  are  shown  in  Figure  2,  based 
upon  the  data  of  Table  1.  In  each  of  the  5  polygons,  one  for  each  off- 
spring group,  the  first  dot  shows  the  percentage  of  f adiers  dying  under 
40;  the  second  dot  the  percentage  of  fathers  dying  between  40  and  60; 
and  so  on,  the  last  dot  in  each  curve  showing  the  percentage  of  fathers 
dying  at  age  80  and  over.  It  is  to  these  last  dots  that  attention  should 
be  particularly  directed.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  dotted  line  connecting 
the  last  dots  of  each  of  the  5  polygons  in  general  rises  as  we  pass  from 
the  left-hand  side  of  the  diagram  to  the  right-hand  side.  In  the  case 
of  offspring  dying  under  20,  24  per  cent  of  their  fathers  died  at  ages 
over  80.  About  21  per  cent,  of  the  fathers  of  offspring  dying  between 
20  and  40  lived  to  be  80  years  or  over.  For  the  next  longer-lived  group 
of  offspring,  dying  between  40  and  60,  the  percentage  of  fathers  living 
to  80  or  over  rose  to  27  per  cent  In  the  next  higher  group,  the  per- 
centage is  nearly  38,  and  finally  the  extremely  long-lived  group  of  off- 
spring, the  185  persons  who  died  at  ages  of  80  and  over,  had  46  per 
eent  or  nearly  one  half  of  their  fathers  living  to  the  same  great  age.  In 
other  words,  we  see  in  general  that  the  longer-lived  a  group  of  off- 
spring is,  on  the  average,  the  longer-lived  are  their  fathers,  on  the 
average;  or,  put  in  another  way,  the  higher  the  percentage  of  very 
long-lived  fathers  which  this  group  will  have  as  compared  with 
shorter-lived  individuals. 


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Sll 

407 

J79 

960 

148 

ocesoNS 

PES^ONS 

PCf^SONS 

PERSONS 

PERSONS 

acD 

DIED 

DIED 

DIED 

DIED 

-10 

t(h40 

4o-eo 

6o-eo 

eo-t' 

FIG.   3.    INFLUENCE    OF   MOTHER'S    ACE    AT    DEATH    UPON    LONGEVITY    OF    OFFSPRING. 

Fint  dot  in  each  diafrom  ahowi   Uie   pereenU|fl  haviag  inodieri  who   died  at  40;   aeeond   dot  the 

percentage  haring  mothers  who  died  at  40 — 60;  third  dot  the  percentage  having  mothers  who   died 

60 — 80;    fourth   dot  the   percentage   having   mothers   who   died   80-{- 

Figure  3  shows  the  same  sort  of  data  for  mothers  and  offspring. 
Here  we  see  the  curve  of  great  longevity  of  parents  rising  in  an  even 
more  marked  manner  than  was  the  case  with  fathers  of  offspring.  The 
group  of  offspring  dying  at  ages  under  20  had  only  19  per  cent, 
of  their  mothers  living  to  80  and  over,  whereas  the  group  of  offspring 
who  lived  to  80  and  beyond  had  41  per  cent  of  their  mothers  attain- 
ing the  same  great  age.  At  the  same  time  we  note  from  the  dotted 
line  at  the  bottom  of  the  chart  that  as  the  average  age  at  death  of  the 
offspring  increases,  the  percentage  of  mothers  dying  at  early  ages, 
namely,  under  40,  as  given  by  the  first  dots,  steadily  decreases  from 
17  per  cent  at  the  first  group  to  just  over  5  per  cent  for  the  off- 
spring  dying  at  very  advanced  ages. 

These  striking  results  demonstrate  at  once  that  there  is  a  definite 
and  close  connection  between  the  average  longevity  of  parents  and 
that  of  their  children.  Extremely  long-lived  children  have  a  much 
higher  percentage  of  extremely  long-lived  parents  than  do  shorter 
lived  children.  While  the  diagrams  demonstrate  the  fact  of  this  con- 
nection, they  do  not  measure  its  intensity  with  as  great  precision  as 
can  be  obtained  by  other  methods  of  dealing  with  the  data.  A  little 
farther  on  we  shall  take  up  the  consideration  of  this  more  precise 
method  of  measurement  of  the  hereditary  influence  in  respect  of 
longevity. 

In  the  preceding  diagrams  we  have  considered  each  parent  sepa- 
rately in  connection  with  the  offspring  in  regard  to  longevity.  We 
shall,  of  course,  get  precisely  the  same  kind  of  result  if  we  consider 
both  parents  together.     For  the  sake  of  simplicity,  taking  only  the 


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cases  of  extreme  longevity,  namely,  persons  living  to  80  or  over — ^the 
essential  data  are  given  in  Table  2. 

TABLE  2 
Longevity  of  parents  of  persons  dying  at  8o  and  over.    (From  Bell). 


Age  at  death  of  ^rents 

Number  of 
persona 

Number  of 

persons  lived 

80+ 

Per  cent  of 

persons  lived 

80+ 

Stated 

1.634 

827 
683 
184 

337 
246 

133 

44 

57 
38 

38 
13 

8.7 

Lived  to  be  80+ 
Nelther  Dareut 

5.3 

One  parent  (not  other) . . . 
Both  parents 

3.8 
20.6 

Father  (not  mother) 

Mother  (not  faither) 

11.3 

7.7 

From  this  table  it  is  seen  that  where  neither  parent  lived  to  be  80, 
only  5.3  per  cent,  of  the  offspring  lived  to  be  80  or  over,  the  percent- 
age being  based  upon  827  cases.  Where  one  parent,  but  not  the 
other,  lived  to  be  80  or  older,  9.8  per  cent  of  the  offspring  lived  to  be 
80  or  older,  the  percentage  here  being  based  upon  583  cases.  Where 
both  parents  lived  to  be  80  or  older  20.6  of  the  persons  lived  to  the 
same  great  age,  the  percentage  being  based,  upon  184  cases.  Thus  it 
appears  that  in  this  group  of  people  four  times  as  many  attained  great 
longevity  if  both  of  their  parents  lived  to  an  advanced  age,  as  attained 
this  age  when  neither  parent  exhibited  great  longevity.  The  figures 
from  the  Hyde  family  seem  further  to  indicate  that  the  tendency  of 
longevity  is  inherited  more  strongly  through  the  father  than  through 
the  mother.  Where  the  father,  but  not  the  mother,  lived  to  be  80  or 
older,  11.3  per  cent,  of  the  persons  lived  to  age  80  or  more,  there 
being  337  cases  of  this  kind.  Where  the  mother,  but  not  the  father, 
lived  to  be  80  or  older,  only  7.7  per  cent,  or  nearly  4  per  cent  fewer 
of  the  persons  lived  to  the  advanced  age  of  80  or  more,  there  being 
246  cases  of  this  sort  Too  much  stress  is  not,  however,  to  be  laid  upon 
this  parental  difference  because  the  samples  after  all  are  quite  small. 

One  other  point  in  this  table  deserves  consideration.  Out  of  the 
1,594  cases  as  a  whole,  less  than  9  per  cent  of  the  persons  lived  to  the 
advanced  age  of  80  or  more.  But  out  of  this  number  there  are  767, 
or  48.1  per  cent.,  nearly  one-half  of  the  whole,  who  had  parents  who 
lived  to  80  or  more  years. 

Another  interesting  and  significant  way  in  which  one  may  see  the 
great  influence  of  the  age  of  the  parents  at  death  upon  the  longevity  of 
the  offspring,  is  indicated  in  Table  3,  where  we  have  the  average  dura- 
tion of  life  of  individuals  whose  fathers  and  mothers  died  at  the 
specified  ages. 


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5t 


TABLE  3 

Showing  the  influence  of  a  considerable  degree  of  longevity  in  both  father 

and  mother  upon  the  expectation  of  life  of  the  offspring.    {After  Bell). 

(In  each  cell  of  the  table  the  open  figure  is  the  average  duration  of 

life  of  the  offspring  and  the  bracketed  figure  is  the  number  of 

cases  upon  which  the  average  is  based). 


Father's   age 
at  death 

Mother's  age  at  death 

Under   60 

60^0 

Oyer  80 

Under  60 

32.8  years 
(128) 

33.4  years 
(120) 

36.3  yean 
(74) 

60-80 

35.8 
(261) 

38.0 
(328) 

46.0 
(172) 

Oyer  80 

42.3 
(131) 

46.6 
(206) 

52.7 
(184) 

We  see  that  the  longest  average  duration  of  life,  or  expectation  of 
life,  was  of  that  group  which  had  both  mothers  and  fathers  living  to  age 
80  and  over.  The  average  duration  of  life  of  these  persons  was  52.7 
years.  Contrast  this  with  the  average  duration  of  life  of  those  whose 
parents  both  died  under  60  years  of  age,  where  die  figure  is  32.8  years. 
In  other  words,  it  added  almost  exactly  20  years  to  the  average  life  of 
the  first  group  of  people  to  have  extremely  long-lived  parents,  instead 
of  parents  dying  under  age  60.  In  each  column  of  die  table  the  average 
duration  of  life  advances,  as  we  proceed  from  top  to  bottom — that  is, 
as  the  father's  age  at  death  increases — ^and  in  each  row  of  tke  table  the 
avtf age  expectation  of  life  of  the  o£fspring  increases  as  we  pass  from 
left  to  right — that  is,  with  increasing  age  of  the  mother  at  death.  How- 
ever the  matter  is  taken,  a  careful  selection  of  one's  parents  in  respect 
of  longevity  is  the  most  reliable  form  of  personal  life  insurance. 

So  much  for  Bell's  analysis  of  longevity  in  the  Hyde  family.  We 
have  seen  that  it  demonstrates  with  the  utmost  clearness  and  certainty 
that  there  is  an  hereditary  influence  between  parent  and  oflfspring  af- 
fecting the  expectation  of  longevity  of  the  latter.  Bell's  method  of 
handling  the  material  does  not  provide  any  precise  measure  of  the  in- 
tensity of  this  hereditary  influence,  nor  does  it  furnish  any  indication 
of  its  strength  in  any  but  the  direct  line  of  descent.  Of  course,  if  hered- 
ity is  a  factor  in  the  determination  of  longevity  we  should  expect  its 
effects  to  be  manifested  as  between  brothers  and  sisters,  or  in  the 
avuncular  relationships,  and  in  greater  or  less  degree  in  all  the  other 
collateral  and  more  remote  direct  degrees  of  kinship.  Happily,  we 
have  a  painstaking  analysis,  with  a  quantitative  measure  of  the  relative 
influence  of  heredity  in  the  determination  of  longevity,  which  was  car- 
ried out  many  years  before  Bell's  work  on  the  Hyde  family,  by  the 
pioneer  in  this  field.  Prof.  Karl  Pearson.  His  demonstration  of  the 
inheritance  of  longevity  appeared  more  than  twenty  years  before  that 
of  Bell.    I  have  called  attention  to  the  latter's  work  first  merely  he- 


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cause  of  the  greater  simplicity  and  directness  of  his  demonstration. 
We  may  now  turn  to  a  consideration  of  Pearson's  more  detailed  results. 

3.  Pearson's  Work 
The  material  used  by  Pearson  and  his  student.  Miss  Beeton,  who 
worked  with  him  on  the  problem,  came  from  a  number  of  different 
sources.  Their  first  study  dealt  with  three  series  from  which  all  deaths 
recorded  as  due  to  accident  were  excluded.  The  first  series  included 
one  thousand  cases  of  die  ages  of  fathers  and  sons  at  death,  the  latter 
being  over  22.5  years  of  age,  taken  from  Foster's  ^Teerage."  Ilie 
second  series  consisted  of  a  thousand  pairs  of  fathers  and  sons,  the 
latter  dying  beyond  the  age  of  20,  taken  from  Burke's  ^Xanded  Gen- 
try." The  third  series  consisted  of  ages  at  death  of  one  thousand  pairs 
of  brothers  dying  beyond  the  age  of  20  taken  from  the  ^Teerage."  It 
will  be  noted  that  all  these  series  considered  in  this  first  study  dealt 
only  with  inheritance  in  the  male  line.  The  reason  for  this  was  simply 
that  in  such  books  of  record  as  the  ^Teerage"  and  ^^Landed  Gentry" 
sufficiently  exact  account  is  not  given  of  the  deaths  of  female  relatives. 
In  a  second  study  the  material  was  taken  from  the  pedigree  records  of 
members  of  the  English  Society  of  Friends,  and  from  the  Friends 
Provident  Association.  This  material  included  data  on  inheritance  of 
longevity  in  the  female  line  and  also  provided  data  for  deaths  of  in- 
fants, which  were  lacking  in  the  earlier  used  material.  The  investiga- 
tion was  grounded  upon  that  important  branch  of  modem  statistical 
calculus  known  as  the  method  of  correlation.  For  each  pair  of  rela- 
tives between  whom  it  was  desired  to  study  the  intensity  of  inheritance 
of  longevity  a  table  of  double  entry  was  formed,  like  the  one  shown 
here  as  Table  4. 

TABLE  4 
Correlation  table  showing  the  correlation  between  father  and  son  in  respect 

of  duration  of  life. 
Duration   of   Life  of   Father 


1 

23|28|33|38|43|48|63|  58|  63|  68|  73|  78|  83|  88|  93|  9S|103|Total8 

23 

1 

1 

2 

5 

3 

11 

6 

7 

11 

9 

6 

121 

8 

2 

2 

86 

K 

28 

1 

6 

4 

5 

12 

16 

10 

13 

10 

7 

1 

85 

^ 

33 

1 

2 

2 

5 

7 

8 

7 

10 

7 

8 

8 

4 

70 

38 

1 

1 

2 

2 

8 

5 

3 

9 

11 

11 

9 

5 

1 

70 

§ 

43 

1 

1 

5 

1 

6 

6 

11 

10^ 

10 

17 

5 

72 

48 

1 

1 

2 

5 

5 

4 

6 

9 

12 

15 

5 

3 

68 

J 

53 

1 

3 

5 

7 

3 

2 

11 

11 

14 

10 

1 

1 

70 

58 

1 

3 

4 

5 

10 

8 

10 

5 

8 

9 

8 

2 

68 

h 

63 

2 

1 

3 

6 

1 

4 

8 

13 

9 

11 

11 

11 

5 

84 

o 

68 

1 

6 

3 

6 

7 

5 

5 

6 

14 

16 

12 

7 

90 

{? 

73 

1 

2 

1 

6 

5 

4 

7 

9 

10 

14 

13 

8 

1 

1 

90 

78 

1 

1 

2 

2 

4 

4 

4 

lOj 

5 

8 

9 

4 

8 

67 

88 

1 

1 

5 

8 

1 

2 

i 

7 

10 

13 

3 

2 

53 

g 

88 

1 

2 

3 

1 

4 

7 

5 

1 

2 

2 

28 

^ 

93 
98 

1 
1 

2 

2 

1 

1 

5 
4 

Total8|  1|  8|  9|30|26|65|70|  76|  90|122|131|153|132|  53|  18|  15|    1|    1000 


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55 


The  figures  in  each  cell  or  compartment  of  this  table  denote  the  fre- 
quency of  occurrence  of  pairs  of  fathers  and  adult  sons  having  respec- 
tively the  durations  of  life  indicated  by  the  figures  in  the  margins. 
Thus  we  see,  examining  the  first  line  of  the  table,  that  there  were 
11  cases  in  which  the  average  duration  of  life  of  the  father  was  48 
years  and  that  of  the  adult  son  23  years.  Farther  down  and  to  the 
rigjlit  in  the  table  there  were  13  cases  in  which  the  average  duration  of 
life  of  the  father  and  the  son  was  in  eadi  case  83  years.  Tliese  cases 
are  mentioned  merely  as  illustrations.  The  whole  table  is  to  be  read 
in  the  same  manner. 

From  such  a  table  as  this  it  is  possible  to  calculate,  by  well- 
known  mathematical  methods,  a  single  numerical  constant  of  some- 
what unique  properties  known  as  the  coefficient  of  correlation,  which 
measures  the  d^ree  of  association  or  mutual  dependence  of  the  two 
variables  included  in  such  double  entry  tables.  This  coefficient  meas- 
ures the  amount  of  resemblance  or  association  between  characteristics 
of  individuals  or  things.  It  is  stated  in  the  form  of  a  decimal  which 
may  take  any  value  between  0  and  1.  As  the  correlation  coefficient 
rises  to  1  we  approach  a  condition  of  absolute  dependence  of  the  va- 
riables one  upon  the  other.  As  it  falls  to  zero  we  approach  a  condition 
of  absolute  independence,  where  the  one  variable  has  no  relation  to  the 
other  in  the  amount  or  direction  of  its  variation.  The  significance  of  a 
correlation  coefficient  is  always  to  be  judged,  in  any  particular  case, 
by  the  magnitude  of  a  constant  associated  with  it  called  the  probable 
error.  A  correlation  coefficient  may  be  regarded  as  certainly  signifi- 
cant when  it  has  a  value  of  4  or  more  times  that  of  its  probable  error, 
which  is  always  stated  after  the  coefficient  with  a  combined  plus  and 
minus  sign  between  the  two.  The  coefficient  is  probably  significant 
when  it  has  a  value  of  not  less  than  3  times  its  probable  error.  By 
"significam:"  in  this  connection  is  meant  that  the  coefficient  expresses 
true  organic  relationship  and  not  merely  a  random  chance  result 

In  Table  5  are  the  numerical  results  from  the  first  study  based  upon 
the  "Peerage"  and  "Landed  Gentry.'* 

TABLE  5 

Inheritance  of  duration  of  life  in  male  line.    Data  from  "Peerage"  and 

"Landed  Gentry/*     (Beeton  and  Pearson). 


Relatives 


Correlation 
coefficient 


I\Evt9i6r   ("Peera«re") 
Fatber  (''Landed  Gentry'O 
J^ther  CTeerage") 
Father  ("Landed  Ctentry") 
Brother  (Peerage") 


Son,  25  years  and  over 
Son,  20  years  and  over 
Son,  52.6  years  and  over 
Son,  50  years  and  over 
Brother 


Ratio  of  CO- 
efficiemt  to 
its  piohahle 
error. 


.115  ±  .021 
.142  ±  .021 
.116  ±  .023 
.113  ±  .024 
.260  Hb  .020 


5.5 
6.S 
6.0 
4.7 
13.0 


It  is  seen  at  once  that  all  of  the  coefficients  are  significant  in  com- 
parison with  their  probable  errors.    The  last  column  of  the  table  gives 


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U  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

the  ratio  of  the  coeAdeDt  to  ito  probable  error,  and  in  the  worst  case 
the  coeflbient  is  4.7  times  its  probable  error.  The  odds  against  such  a 
coirelation  having  arisen  horn  chance  alone  are  aboot  655  to  1.  Odds 
snch  as  these  may  be  certainly  taken  as  demonstrating  that  the  results 
represent  true  organic  relationship  and  not  mere  chance.  All  of  the 
other  coeflicients  are  certainly  significant,  having  regard  to  their  prob- 
able errors.  Furthermore,  they  are  all  positive  in  sign,  whidi  implies 
that  a  variation  in  the  direction  of  increased  duration  of  life  in  one 
relative  of  the  pair  is  associated  with  an  increase  in  expectation  of  life 
in  the  other.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  magnitude  of  the  correlation  be- 
tween brother  and  brother  is  about  twice  as  great  as  in  the  case  of 
correlation  of  father  with  son.  From  this  it  is  provisionally  con- 
cluded that  the  intensity  of  the  hereditary  influence  in  respect  of  dura- 
tion of  life  is  greater  in  the  fraternal  relationship  than  in  the  par- 
ental. It  evidently  makes  no  difference,  broadly  speaking,  so  far  as 
these  two  sets  of  material  are  concerned,  whether  there  are  included 
in  the  correlation  table  all  adult  sons,  whatever  their  age,  or  only 
adult  sons  over  SO  years  of  age.  The  coeflicients  in  both  cases  are  es- 
sentially of  the  same  order  of  magnitude. 

Perhaps  some  one  will  be  inclined  to  believe  that  the  correlation 
between  father  and  son,  and  brother  and  brother,  in  respect  of  the 
duration  of  life  arises  as  a  result  of  similarity  of  the  environments  to 
which  they  are  exposed.  Pearson's  comments  on  this  point  are  pene- 
trating, and  I  believe  absolutely  sound.    He  says: 

There  may  be  some  readers  who  will  be  inclined  to  consider  that  much  of 
the  correlation  of  duration  of  life  between  brothers  is  due  to  there  being 
a  likeness  of  their  environment,  and  that  thus  each  pair  of  brethren  is  linked 
together  and  differentiated  from  the  general  population.  But  it  is  difficult  to 
believe  that  this  really  affects  adult  brothers  or  a  father  and  his  adult  off- 
spring. A  man  who  dies  between  40  and  80  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  an 
environment  more  like  that  of  his  brother  or  father,  who  died  also  at  some 
such  age,  than  like  any  other  member  of  the  general  population.  Of  course, 
two  brothers  have  usually  a  like  environment  in  infancy,  and  their  ages  at 
death,  even  if  they  die  adults,  may  be  influenced  by  their  rearing.  But  if  this 
be  true,  we  ought  to  find  a  high  correlation  in  ages  at  death  of  brethren  who 
die  as  minors.  As  a  matter  of  fact  this  correlation  for  minor  and  minor  is 
40  to  50  per  cent  less  than  in  the  case  of  adult  and  adult  It  would  thus  seem 
that  identity  of  environment  is  not  the  principal  factor  in  the  correlation  be- 
tween ages  of  death,  for  this  correlation  is  far  less  in  youth  than  in  old  age. 

The  results  regarding  minors  to  which  Pearson  refers  are  shown 
in  Table  6.  This  table  gives  the  results  of  the  second  study  made  by 
Beeton  and  Pearson  on  inheritance  of  duration  of  life,  based  upon  the 
records  of  the  Friends  Societies.  It  appears  in  the  upper  half  of  the 
table  that  wherever  a  parent,  father  or  mother,  appears  with  a  minor 
son  or  daughter  the  correlation  coeflEcients  are  small  in  magnitude.  In 
some  cases  they  are  just  barely  significant  in  comparison  with  their 
probable  errors,  as  for  example,  the  correlation  of  father  and  minor 


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THE  BIOLOGY  OF  DEATH 


57 


TABLE  6 

Inheritance  of  duration  of  life.    Data  from  Quaker  records, 

(Beeton  and  Pearson). 


1 

Ratio  of  co- 

Relatiyes 

Codrr^ation 

efficient    to 

coefficient 

tta  prohaMe 

^«7 

error. 

X 

y 

r^^  E, 

Father 

Adult  son 

0.135  :±  .021 

6.4 

Father 

Minor  son 

.087  ±  .022 

4.0 

Father 

Adult  daughter 

.130  ±  .020 

6.5 

Father 

Minor  daughter 

.062  ±  .023 

2.3 

Mother 

Adult  son 

.131  ±  .019 

6.9 

Mother 

Minor  son 

.076  ±:  .024 

3.2 

Mother 

Adult  daughter 

.149  ±.  .020 

7.5 

Mother 

Minor  daughter 

.138  ±  .024 

5.7 

Elder  adult  brother 
Adult  brother 
Minor  brother 
Adult  brother 
Elder  adult  sister 
Adult  sister 
Minor  sister 
Adult  sister 
Adult  brother 
Minor  brother 
Adult  brother 
Adult  sister 


Younger  adult  brother 
Adult  brother 
Minor  broths 
Minor  brother 
Younger  adult  sister 
Aduk  sister 
Minor  sister 
Minor  sister 
Adult  sister 
Minor  sister 
Minor  sister 
Minor  brother 


.229  ±  .019 
.285  ±  .020 
.103  ±  .029 

-.026  ±  .025 
.346  ±  .018 
.332  ±  .019 
.175  ±  .031 

-.026  ±  .029 
.232  ±  .015 
.144  ±  .025 

-.006  ±  .035 

-.027  ±  .024 


12.1 
14.3 

8.6 

1.0 
19.2 
17.5 

5.6 

.9 

15.5 

5.8 
.2 

1.1 


The  cases  above  the  horizontal  line  are  all  direct  lineal  inheritance; 
those  below  the  line  collateral  inheritance. 

son,  and  that  of  mother  and  minor  daughter.  In  the  other  cases  in- 
volving minors  the  coefficients  are  so  small  as  to  be  insignificant  On 
the  other  hand,  in  every  case  of  correlation  between  parent  and  adult 
o£fspring  of  either  sex,  the  coefficient  is  6  or  more  times  its  probable 
error,  and  must  certainly  be  r^arded  as  significant  It  will  further  be 
noted  that  the  magnitude  of  the  coeffid^its  obtained  from  these  Quaker 
records  is  of  the  same  general  order  as  was  seen  in  the  previous  table 
based  cm  the  "Peerage"  and  "Landed  Gentry"  material. 

The  lower  part  of  the  table  gives  the  results  for  various  fraternal 
relationships.  In  general  the  fraternal  correlations  are  higgler  than  the 
parental.  The  coefficients  for  minors  or  for  minors  vrith  adults  are 
very  low  and  in  most  cases  not  significantly  di£ferent  from  zero..  In 
four  cases — ^namely,  adult  brother  with  minor  brother;  adult  sister 
with  minor  sister;  adnlt  brother  with  minor  sister;  and  adult  sister  with 
minor  brother — ^the  coefficients  are  all  n^ative  in  sign,  although  in  no 
one  of  the  cases  is  the  coefficient  significant  in  comparison  with  its 
probable  error.  A  minus  sign  before  a  correlation  coefficient  means 
that  an  increase  in  the  value  of  one  of  the  variables  is  associated  ivith 
a  decrease  in  the  value  of  the  other.  So  that  these  negative  coffieients 
would  mean,  if  they  were  significant,  that  the  greater  the  age  at  death 
of  an  adult  brother,  the  lower  the  age  at  death  of  his  minor  brother 


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THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


or  sister.  But  the  coefficients  are  actually  sensibly  equal  to  zero. 
Pearson  points  out  that  the  minus  sign  in  the  case  of  these  correlations 
of  adult  with  minor  exhibits  the  efiFect  of  the  inheritance  of  the  mor- 
tality of  youth.  Minors  dying  from  16  to  20  are  associated  with  adults 
dying  from  21  to  25.  That  is,  minors  dying  late  correspond  to  adults 
dying  early.  This  situation  may  be  a  peculiarity  of  the  Quaker  mate- 
rial with  which  this  work  deals.  There  is  urgent  need  for  further  study 
of  the  inheritance  of  the  duration  of  life  on  more  and  better  material 
than  any  which  has  hitherto  been  used  for  the  purpose.  I  have  under 
way  in  my  own  laboratory  at  the  present  time  an  extensive  investiga- 
tion of  this  kind,  in  which  there  will  be  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pairs 
of  relatives  in  the  individual  correlation  tables  instead  of  thousands, 
and  all  types  of  collateral  kinship  will  be  represented.  Because  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  investigation,  however,  it  will  be  still  a  number  of 
years  before  the  results  will  be  in  hand  for  discussion. 

The  facts  which  have  been  presented  leave  no  doubt  as  to  the  reality 
of  the  inheritance  factor  as  a  prime  determinant  of  the  length  of  the 
life  span. 

At  the  beginning  it  was  pointed  out  that  it  was  on  a  priori  grounds 
hig^y  probable  that  duration  of  life  is  influenced  by  both  heredity 
and  environment,  and  that  the  real  problem  is  to  measure  the  com- 
parative effect  of  these  two  general  sets  of  factors.  We  have  seen  that 
the  intensity  of  inheritance  of  duration  of  life,  taking  averages,  is  of 
the  order  indicated  by  the  foUovring  coefficients. 

Parental  correlation  (adult  children)  r=.i36s 
Fraternal  correlation   (adults)  r=.283i 

Now  we  have  to  ask  this  question:  What  are  the  values  of  parental 
and  fraternal  correlation  for  characters  but  slightly  if  at  all  affected 
in  their  values  by  the  environment?  Happily,  Pearson  has  provided 
such  values  in  his  extensive  investigations  on  the  inheritance  of  physi- 
cal characters  in  man. 

TABLE  7 
Parental  inheritance  of  physical  characters  in  man,      (Pearson). 


Pair 


Organ 


Correlation 


« 

«« 

M 
U 

r  and 
<« 

«( 

«« 

r  and 
<« 

«« 

« 

rand 
«« 

«« 

«< 

« 

« 

«« 

«« 

«4 

Fathei 

Dansrhter 

« 

it 

«« 

M 

M 

M 

Mothe 

Son 

«« 

M 

*« 

M 

« 

M 

Mothe 

D&iurhter 

(« 

«« 

<« 

M 

«( 

U 

Stature  ... 

Span 

Forearm  .. 
Eye  Color 
Stature  ... 

Span 

Forearm  . , 
EJye  Color  . 
Stature  . . . 

Span  

Forearm  .. 
EJye  Color  . 
Stature  ... 

Span  

Forearm  ., 
Bye  Color 


.51 
.46 
.42 
.55 
.51 
.45 
.42 
.44 
.49 
.46 
.41 
.48 
.51 
.45 
.42 
.51 


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THE  BIOLOGY  OF  DEATH  59 

In  Table  7  are  given  the  values  of  the  parental  correlations  for  the 
four  physical  characters — stature,  span,  forearm  length,  and  eye  color. 
Now  it  is  obvious  that  the  differences  of  environmental  forces  imping- 
ing upon  the  various  members  of  a  homogeneous  group  of  middle  class 
English  families  (from  which  source  the  data  for  these,  correlations 
were  drawn)  can  by  no  possibility  be  great  enough  to  affect  sensibly 
the  stature,  the  aim-length,  or  the  eye  color  of  the  adults  of  such  fam- 
ilies. It  would  be  preposterous  to  assert  that  the  resemblance  between 
parents  and  offspring  in  respect  of  eye  color  is  due  solely,  or  even  sen- 
sibly, to  similarity  of  environment. 

It  is  due  to  heredity  and  substantially  nothing  else.  Now  the  aver- 
age value  of  the  16  parental  coefficients  for  the  inheritance  of  physical 
diaracters  shown  in  the  table  is 

r=.4675 

TABLE  8 
Fraternal  inheritance  of  physical  characters  tit  man.       {Pearson). 

Pair  Organ  Correlation 

Brother  and  Brother Stature 51 

"  "  "      Span 65 

Forearm 49 

"  «      Eye  color 52 

"  "      Cephalic  index 49 

"      Hair  color .69 

Sister     and     Sister Stature 54 

««  "  "      Span 56 

«*  "  "      EV)rearm 51 

••  •'  "      Eye  color 45 

'•  "  **      Cephalic  index 54 

"  "  "      Hair  color 56 

Brother  and  Slater    Suture 55 


Span 53 

Forearm 44 

Bye  color 46 

Cephalic  index 48 

Hair  color 56 


Table  8  shows  the  coefficients  for  the  fraternal  inheritance  of  six 
physical  characters,  cephalic  index  (the  ratio  of  head  length  and  head 
bieadth)  and  hair  colour  having  been  added  to  those  given  in  the 
parental  table.  Again  it  is  seen  that  the  coefficients  have  all  about  the 
same  values,  and  it  is  as  apparent  as  before  that  the  resemblance  be- 
tween brother  and  sister,  for  example,  in  eye-color,  or  arm  length,  or 
shape  of  head  can  not  for  a  moment,  because  of  the  nature  of  the 
characters  themselves,  be  supposed  to  have  arisen  because  of  the 
similarity  of  environment.  The  average  value  of  all  these  fraternal 
coefficients  is 

r  =  .5156 

From  these  data,  with  the  help  of  a  method  due  to  Pearson,  it  is 
possible  ^  determine  the  percentage  of  the  death  rate  dependent  upon 
the  inherited  constitution,  and  the  percentage  not  so  dependent     If 


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•0  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

pN  be  the  number  of  deaths  in  N  cases  which  depend  in  no  way  upon 
the  inherited  constitution  of  the  individual,  ibea  (I'p)  will  represent 
the  diance  of  an  individual  dying  because  of  hia  inherited  constitutional 
makeup,  and  (l-p)  *  will  be  the  chance  of  a  pair  of  individuals^  say  two 
brothers,  both  dying  from  causes  determined  by  inheritance.  If  further 
r  denotes  the  observed  correlation  between  individuals  in  reepect  of 
duration  of  life,  and  ro  the  correlation  between  the  same  kin  in  respect 
of  such  measured  i^ysical  characters  as  those  just  discussed,  in  the 
determination  of  which  it  is  agreed  that  environment  can  play  only  a 
small  part,  we  have  the  following  relation: 

Substituting  the  ascertained  values  we  have 

1.  From  parental  correlations. 

0.1365  =  .4675  (l-^)s 

(!-/»)«  =  .292 

il'P)  =  .54 

2.  From  fraternal  correlations 

0.2831  =  .5156  (l-/>)s 
(1-^)  =  .74 

Fr<Hn  these  figures  it  may  be  concluded,  and  Pearson  does  so  con- 
clude, that  from  50  to  75  per  cent  of  the  general  death  rate  within 
the  group  of  the  population  on  which  the  calculations  are  based,  is 
determined  fundamentally  by  factors  of  heredity  and  is  not  capable  of 
essential  modification  or  ameloriation  by  any  sort  of  environmoital 
action,  however  well  intentioned,  however  costly,  or  however  well 
advertised.  Mutatis  mutandis  the  same  conclusion  applies  to  the 
duration  of  life.  I  have  preferred  to  state  the  conclusion  in  terms  of 
death  rates  because  of  the  bearing  it  has  upon  a  great  deal  of  the  public 
health  propaganda  so  loosely  flung  about.  It  need  only  be  remembered 
that  there  is  a  perfectly  definite  functional  relation  betwe^i  death  rate 
and  average  duration  of  life  in  an  approximately  stable  population 
group,  expressible  by  an  equation,  in  order  to  see  that  any  conclusion 
as  to  the  relative  influence  of  heredity  and  environment  upon  the 
general  death  rate  must  apply  with  equal  force  to  the  duration  of  life. 

4.  The  Selective  Death  Rate  in  Man 
If  the  duration  of  life  were  inherited  it  would  logically  be  expected 
that  s<Hne  portion  of  the  deadi  rate  must  be  selective  in  character.  For 
inheritance  of  duration  of  life  can  only  mean  that  when  a  person  dies 
is  in  part  determined  by  that  individual's  biological  constitution  or 
makeup.  And  equally  it  is  obvious  that  individuals  of  weak  and  un- 
sound constitution  must,  on  the  average,  die  earlier  than  diose  of  strong, 
sound,  and  vigorous  constitution.  Whence  it  follows  that  the  dianoes 
of  leaving  offspring  vrill  be  greater  for  those  of  sound  constitution 


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THE  BIOLOGY  OF  DEATH  tt 

than  for  the  weaklings.  The  mathematical  diacuasicm  which  haa  juat 
been  given  indicates  that  from  <Mie-half  to  thxee-f ourths  of  the  death 
rale  is  selective  in  character,  because  that  proportion  is  determined  by 
hereditary  factors.  Jiut  in  proportion  as  heredity  determines  the  death 
rate,  so  is  the  death  rate  selective.  The  reality  of  the  fact  of  a  selective 
death  rate  in  man  can  be  very  easily  shown  graj^cally. 

SO 


1^ 


-wr 


40 


36 


30 


Z5 


20 


15 


C 


MOTHER  AMD   QHLDRCN 
FATHCR  AND    CHtLOXN 


'I II 

M  Z6  36         46  S6         66  76         Q6and  omt 


nc.  4. 


AGL   AT    DEATH     OF    PARENTS 

DIAGRAM   SHOWING  THE   INFLUENCE   OF  AGE   AT  DEATH,   PABENTS  UPON   THE 
PERCENTAGE   OF   OFFSPRING   DYING    UNDER   5   YEARS.       (After   Ploets) 


In  Fig.  4  are  seen  the  graphs  of  some  data  from  European  royal 
families,  where  no  n^lect  of  children,  degrading  environmental  condi- 
tions, or  economic  want  can  have  influenced  the  results.  These  data 
were  compiled  by  the  well-known  German  eugenist,  die  late  Professor 
Ploetz  of  Munich.  The  lines  show  the  falling  percentage  of  the  in- 
fantile death  rate  as  the  duration  of  life  of  the  father  and  mother  in- 


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62  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

creases.  Among  the  children  of  short-lived  fathers  and  mothers,  at  the 
left  end  of  each  line,  is  found  the  highest  infant  mortality,  while  among 
the  offspring  of  long-lived  parents  the  lowest  infant  mortality  occurs, 
as  shown  at  the  righthand  end  of  the  diagram. 

The  results  so  far  presented  regarding  a  selective  death  rate  and 
inheritance  of  duration  of  life,  have  come  from  selected  classes;  the 
aristocracy,  royalty  or  Quakers.  None  of  these  classes  can  be  fairly  said 
to  represent  the  general  population.  Can  the  conclusion  be  transferred 
safely  from  the  classes  to  the  masses?  To  the  determination  of  this 
point  one  of  Pearson's  students.  Dr.  E.  C.  Snow,  addressed  himself. 
The  method  which  he  used  was,  from  the  necessities  of  the  case,  a  much 
more  complicated  and  indirect  one  than  that  of  Pearson  and  Ploetz. 
Its  essential  idea  was  to  see  whether  infant  deaths  weeded  out  the  unfit 
and  left  as  survivors  the  stronger  and  more  resistant  All  the  infants 
bom  in  a  single  year  were  taken  as  a  cohort  and  the  deaths  occurring  in 
this  cohort  in  successive  years  were  followed  through.  Resort  was  had 
to  die  method  of  partial  or  net  correlation.  The  variables  correlated 
in  the  case  of  the  Prussian  data  were  these: 

1.  x^  =  Births  in  year  a  given  cohort  started. 

2.  Xj^  =  Deaths  In  the  first  two  years  of  life. 

3.  x^  =.  Deaths  In  the  next  eight  years  of  life. 

4.  jT    =r  Deaths  in  the  ten  years  of  all  imdividuals  not  included  in 

the  iMirticular  cohort  whose  deaths  are  being  followed. 

In  the  case  of  the  English  data  the  variables  were: 
x^  =  Births  In  specified  year. 
x^  =.  Deaths  In  the  first  three  years  of  life  of   those   bom   in 

specified  year. 
x^  =  Deaths  in  fourth  and  fifth  years  of  life  of  those  bom   in 

specified  year. 
x^  =  The  "remaining"  deaths  under  5. 

The  underlying  idea  was  to  get  the  partial  or  net  correlation 
between  ^^  and  ^29  while  Xq  and  XJ^  are  held  constant.  If  the  mortality 
of  infancy  is  selective,  its  amount  ^ould  be  negatively  correlated  to 
a  significant  degree  with  the  mortality  of  the  next  eight  years  when  the 
births  in  each  district  considered  are  made  constant  and  when  the 
general  health  environment  is  made  constant.  Under  the  constant  con- 
ditions specified  a  n^ative  correlation  denotes  that  the  heavier  the 
infantile  death  rate  in  a  cohort  of  births  the  lighter  will  be  the  deadi 
rate  of  later  years,  and  vice  versa.  The  last  variable,  x^,  is  the  one 
chosen,  after  careful  consideration  and  many  trials,  to  measure  varia- 
tion in  the  health  environment.  If  any  year  is  a  particularly  unhealthy 
one — ^an  epidemic  year  for  example — then  this  unhealthiness  should  be 
accurately  reflected  in  the  deaths  of  those  members  of  the  population 
not  included  in  the  cohort  under  review. 

Snow's  results  for  English  and  Pmssian  mral  districts  are  set  forth 


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THE  BIOLOGY  OF  DEATH 


63 


TABLE  9 
Snov/s  results  on  selective  death  rate  in  man, 
rural  districts. 


English  and  Prussian 


DaU 

Actual 
correlation 

Expected  correla- 
tion   if    no 
selection 

Males: 

English  Rural 
Distrlcte 

(1870) 
(1871) 
(1872) 

-^.4483 

-  .3574 

-  .2271 

-^.0828 

-  .1014 

-  .0807 

Prussian  Rural 
Districts 

(1881) 
(1882) 

-  .9278 

-  .6050 

-  .0958 

-  .0765 

Females : 

English  Rural 
Districts 

(1870) 
(1871) 
(1872) 

-  .4666 

-  .2857 

-  .5089 

-  .0708 

-  .0505 

-  .0496 

Prussian  Rural 
Districts 

(1881) 
(1882) 

-  .8483 

-  .6078 

-  .0933 

-  .0705 

in  Table  9.  From  this  table  it  is  seen  diat  in  every  case  the  correlations 
are  negative,  and  therefore  indicate  that  the  mortality  of  early  life  is 
selective.  Furthermore,  the  demonstration  of  this  fact  is  completed  by 
showing  that  the  observed  coefficients  are  from  3  to  10  times  as  great 
as  they  would  be  if  there  were  no  selective  character  to  the  deadi  rate. 
The  coefficients  for  the  Prussian  population,  it  will  be  noted,  are  of  a 
distinctly  higher  order  of  magnitude  than  those  for  the  English  popula- 
tion. This  divergence  is  probably  due  chiefly  to  differences  in  the 
quality  of  the  fundamental  statistical  material  in  the  two  cases.  The 
Prussian  material  is  free  from  certain  defects  iidierent  in  the  English 
data,  which  cannot  be  entirely  got  rid  of.  The  difference  in  the  co- 
efficients for  the  two  successive  Prussian  cohorts  represents,  in  Snow's 
opinion,  probably  a  real  fluctuation  in  the  intensity  of  natural  selection 
in  the  one  group  as  ccHupared  vnth  the  other.  How  significant  Snow's 
results  are  is  shown  graphically  in  Figure  5. 

Snow's  own  comments  on  his  results  are  significant    He  says: 

The  investigations  of  this  memoir  have  been  long  and  laborious,  and  the 
difficulties  presented  by  the  data  have  been  great  Still,  the  general  result 
cannot  be  questioned.  Natural  selection,  in  the  form  of  a  selective  death-rate, 
is  strongly  operative  in  man  in  the  early  years  of  life.  Those  data  which  we 
believe  to  be  the  best  among  those  we  have  used — the  Prussian  figures — show 
very  high  negative  correlation  between  the  deaths  in  the  first  two  years  of 
fife  and  those  in  the  next  eight,  when  allowance  is  made  for  difference  in 
environment.  We  assert  with  great  confidence  that  a  high  mortality  in  in- 
fancy (the  first  two  years  of  life)  is  followed  by  a  corresponding  low  mor- 
tality in  childhood,  and  conversely.  The  English  figures  do  not  allow  such  a 
comprehensive  survey  to  be  undertaken,  but,  so  far  as  they  go  they  point 
in  the  same  direction  as  the  Prussian  ones.  The  migratory  tendencies  in 
urban  districts  militate  against  the  detection  of  selective  influences  there,  but 
we  express  the  belief  that  those  influences  are  just  as  prevalent  in  industrial 


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64 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


as  in  rural  communities,  and  could  be  measured  by  other  means  if  the  data 
were  forthcoming. 

Our  investigation  substantiates  for  a  general  population  the  results  found 
by  Pearson  and  Ploetz  for  more  restricted  populations,  and  disagrees  with 
many  statements  of  health  officers.  It  is  with  great  reluctance  that  we  point 
out  this  disagreement,  and  assert  a  doctrine  which,  in  the  present  sentiment 
of  society,  is  bound  to  be  unpopular.  We  have  no  feelings  of  antagonism  to- 
wards the  efforts  which  have  been  made  in  recent  years  to  save  infant  life,  but 
we  think  that  the  probable  consequences  of  such  actions,  so  far  as  past 
experience  can  indicate  them,  should  be  completely  understood.  All  attempts 
at  the  reduction  of  mortality  of  infancy  and  childhood  should  be  made  in 
the  full  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  heredity.  Everybody  knows  the  extreme 
differences  in  constitutional  fitness  which  exist  in  men  and  women.  Few 
intelligent  people  can  be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  this  constitutional  fitness 
is  inherited  according  to  laws  which  are  fairly  definitely  known.  At  the 
same  time  marriage  is  just  as  prevalent  among  those  of  weak  stocks  as 
to  I- 


J    — 


.0 


mo 


lerri 


e72 


IQQI 


lOQZ 


ENGU3H 


PRUSSIAN 


FIG.  5.    SNOW'S  RESULTS  ON  SELECTIVE  DEATH  RATE   IN  ICAN.       The  eroM-hatekad   aiw 

may  be  ukeo,  ia  eompariMMi  with  the  muU  clear  area  at  the  botUMB,  to  meaaiue  the  inioeaea  of 

the  aeleetlTe  death  late   in   lacreaaing   the   correlatioaa 


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THE  BIOLOGY  OF  DEATH  65 

among  those  of  the  vigorous,  while  the  fertility  of  the  former  is  certainly  not 
less  than  that  of  the  latter.  Thus  a  proportion  of  the  infants  born  every 
year  mu5t  inevitably  belong  to  the  class  referred  to  in  the  report  as  "weak- 
lings," and,  with  Pearson's  results  before  us,  we  are  quite  convinced  that  true 
infantile  mortality  (as  distinct  from  the  mortality  due  to  accident,  neglect, 
etc — no  small  proportion  of  the  whole)  finds  most  victims  from  among  this 
class.  Incidentally  we  would  here  suggest  that  no  investigation  into  the 
causes  of  infant  and  child  mortality  is  complete  until  particulars  are  gathered 
by  the  medical  officers  of  the  constitutional  tendencies  and  physical  characters 
of  the  parents. 

Our  work  has  led  us  to  the  conclusion  that  infant  mortality  does  effect 
a  "weeding  out"  of  the  unfit;  but,  though  we  would  give  this  conclusion  all 
due  emphasis,  we  do  not  wish  to  assert  that  any  effort,  however  small,  to 
the  end  of  reducing  this  mortality  is  undesirable.  Nobody  would  suggest 
that  the  difference  between  the  infant  rates  in  Oxfordshire  and  Glamorgan- 
shire (73  and  154  per  1,000  births  respectively,  in  1908)  was  wholly  due  to 
the  constitutional  superiority  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  former  county.  The 
"wecding-out"  process  is  not  uniform.  In  the  mining  districts  of  South  Wales, 
accident,  negligence,  ignorance  and  unsanitary  surroundings  account  for 
much.  By  causing  improvements  under  these  heads  it  may  be  possible  to 
reduce  the  infant  mortality  of  Glamorganshire  by  the  survival  of  many  who 
are  not  more  unfit  than  are  those  who  survive  in  Oxfordshire,  and  the  social 
instincts  of  the  community  insist  that  this  should  be  done. 

This  work  of  Snow's  aroused  great  interest,  and  soon  after  its  ap- 
pearance was  controverted,  as  it  seems  to  me  quite  unsuccessfully,  by 
Brownlee,  Saleeby  and  others. 

Happily  the  results  of  Pearson,  Ploetz  and  Snow  on  the  selective 
death  rate  have  recently  been  accorded  a  confirmation  and  extension  to 
still  another  group  of  people — ^the  Dutch — ^in  some  as  yet  unpublished 
investigations  carried  out  by  Dr.  F.  S.  Crum  of  the  Prudential  Life 
Insurance  Company,  with  the  assistance  of  the  dbtinguished  mathe- 
matical statistician,  Mr.  Ame  Fisher.  By  the  kind  permission  of  these 
gentlemen  I  am  able  to  state  the  general  results  of  these  investigations 
In  advance  of  their  publication. 

The  Dutch  Government  publi^es  annually  data  which  undoubtedly 
furnish  the  best  available  material  now  existing  in  the  world  for  the 
purpose  of  determining  whether  or  not  there  is  a  positive  or  negative 
correlation  between  infant  mortality  and  the  mortality  in  the  im- 
mediately subsequent  years  of  life.  Fisher's  naathematical  analysis 
embraces  a  very  large  body  of  material,  including  nearly  a  million  and 
a  half  births,  and  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  deaths  of  males  occur- 
ring in  the  first  five  years  of  life.  The  Holland  data  make  it  possible 
to  develop  life  tables  for  every  cohort  of  births  and  this  has  been  done 
in  the  16  cohorts  of  males  during  the  years  1901-1916.  The  data  also 
make  it  possible  to  work  up  these  life  tables  for  urban  areas  and  for 
rural  areas.  After  carefully  eliminating  secular  disturbances  the 
Holland  material  appears  to  prove  quite  conclusively  for  the  rural  dis- 
tricts  that   there   is   a    definite   negative    correlation,    of    significant 

VOL,  xin.— 5. 


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«6  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

magnitude,  between  infant  mortality  and  the  mortality  in  the  im- 
mediately subsequent  years  of  life.  The  only  place  where  positive  cor- 
relation appears  is  in  the  four  large  cities  of  the  country  with  more 
than  a  hundred  thousand  inhabitants  each.  Fisher  makes  the  following 
point  (in  a  letter  to  the  present  writer)  in  explanation  of  these  positive 
correlations.    He  says: 

The  larger  cities  are  better  equipped  with  hospital  and  clinical  facilities 
than  the  smaller  cities  and  the  rural  districts.  More  money  is  also  spent  on 
child  welfare.  Is  it  therefore  not  possible  that  many  feeble  lives  who  in  the 
course  of  natural  circumstances  would  have  died  in  the  first  year  of  life  are 
carried  over  into  the  second  year  of  life  by  means  of  medical  skill?  But 
medicine  cannot  always  surpass  nature,  and  it  might  indeed  be  possible  that 
among  cohorts  with  a  low  mortality  during  the  first  two  years  of  life  there 
will  be  an  increase  of  death  rate  in  the  following  three  years  of  life. 

Altogether,  we  may  regard  the  weight  of  present  evidence  as 
altogether  preponderant  in  favor  of  the  view  that  the  death  rate  of  the 
earliest  period  of  life  is  selective — eliminating  the  weak  and  leaving 
the  strong.  From  our  present  point  of  view  it  adds  another  broad  class 
of  evidential  material  to  tbe  proof  of  the  proposition  that  inheritance  is 
one  of  the  strongest  elements,  if  not  indeed  die  dominating  factor,  in 
determining  the  duration  of  life  of  human  beings. 


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VITAMINS  AND  FOOD  DEFICIENCY  DISEASES  67 


VITAMINS  AND  FOOD  DEnCIENCY  DISEASES 

By  Dr.  ALFRED  C  REED 

Assistant  Clinical  Professor  of  Medicine,  Stanford  UtovERsiTY 

Medical  School,  San  Francisco 

AMERICAN  scientific  men  have  been  credited  with  lagging  behind 
the  progress  shown  in  England  and  Europe  in  the  domain  of 
medicine.  Surgery  has  oome  fully  into  its  own,  in  the  western  hemi- 
sphere. But  American  medicine  too  often  is  held  to  be  engaged  solely 
in  practising  and  teaching,  and  all  too  little  in  investigating.  Its  con- 
tributions to  scientific  knowledge  are  held  to  be  meager  and  unimport- 
ant Among  many,  one  of  the  finest  refutations  of  this  mistaken  notion 
is  discovered  in  the  impetus  given  by  American  scientists  to  our  under- 
standing of  dietetics  and  food  values,  and  the  use  of  diet  in  the  preven- 
tion and  cure  of  disease.  Strictly  speaking,  modem  medicine  has 
relatively  little  to  do  with  drugs.  Webster's  definition  of  medicine  is 
best,  namely,  the  prevention,  cure  and  alleviation  of  disease. 

It  has  remained  for  American  investigators  to  lead  in  showing  how 
important  is  the  role  assumed  by  diet  in  the  prevention,  cure  and  alle- 
viation of  disease.  The  old  dictum,  *Teed  a  cold  and  starve  a  fever"  has 
been  reversed.  Laboratory  studies  on  the  basis  of  exact  measurements 
of  energy  requirements  in  the  body  under  normal  and  pathologic  condi- 
tions, have  demonstrated  that  in  the  presence  of  fever,  more  energy  is 
required,  and  that,  if  this  additional  energy  is  not  furnished  in  an  in- 
creased diet,  it  will  be  secured  at  the  expense  of  serious  inroads  on  the 
body  reserves,  and  that  such  inroads  result  in  definite  symptoms  and  in 
abnormal  physiologic  processes  which  invariably  tend  to  make  the  in- 
vading disease  more  dangerous. 

Our  appreciation  of  dietary  requirements  for  health  has  advanced 
so  that  the  term,  a  balanced  diet,  means  considerably  more  than  merely 
the  provision  of  a  sufficient  energy  supply.  **Man  shall  not  live  by 
br^d  alone**  is  equally  true  of  his  physiologic  mechanism.  To-day 
a  balanced  diet  implies  of  course  that  the  body  shall  receive  a  sufficient 
quantity  of  energy  from  the  food,  that  there  shall  be  a  proper  number 
of  calories  of  food  energy  per  unit  of  body  weight.  It  means  a  suit- 
able distribution  of  this  total  caloric  requirement  between  carbo- 
hydrate, fat  and  protein.  It  means  also  a  proper  mineral  supply  of 
inorganic  salts.  Water  is  a  prime  necessity  for  digestion,  absorption 
and  for  cellular  function.  Four-fifths  of  die  body  weight  is  water  and 
only  one-tenth  of  the  water  in  the  body  is  found  in  the  blood.  Hence 
the  necessity  for  sufficient  water  intake. 


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68  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

Since  the  epochal  work  of  Emil  Fischer,  we  now  understand  some- 
thing still  further  of  the  mysteries  of  protein  or  nitrogenous  metabol- 
ism. In  food  the  protein  molecule  is  extremely  large  and  complex. 
In  the  process  of  digestion,  through  the  action  of  digestive  juices  and 
enzymes,  this  molecule  is  broken  down  into  relatively  small  units  called 
amino  acids.  In  digestion  all  forms  of  protein  yield  these  ultimate 
amino  acids  or  building  stones.  Less  than  a  score  of  amino  acids  are 
known,  but  all  proteins  are  composed  of  various  groupings  of  two  or 
more  of  these  building  stones.  Thus  it  is  easily  understood  that  for 
repair  of  body  tissue  and  for  growth,  there  must  be  a  correct  selection 
of  amino  acids.  No  protein  contains  all  the  amino  acids  and  many 
proteins  lack  certain  amino  acids  which  are  absolutely  essential  for 
growth  or  for  maintenance  of  body  cells.  Thus  in  practical  dietetics 
it  is  necessary  to  do  more  than  secure  merely  a  certain  total  quantity 
of  protein  per  day.  That  protein  must  be  so  selected,  in  quantity  and 
quality,  as  to  supply  the  required  amino  acids  or  ultimate  building 
stones  in  correct  variety  and  quantity.  This  explains  why  proteins  of 
cereal  or  vegetable  origin  may  not  entirely  substitute  with  safety  for 
proteins  of  animal  origin. 

For  some  time  it  was  supposed  that  nutrition  consisted  solely  in  the 
absorption  and  utilization  by  the  body,  either  for  energy  or  for  tissue 
building,  of  food  stuffs  which,  according  to  the  preceding  description, 
had  been  adequately  prepared  through  the  medium  of  digestion.  These 
food  stuffs  seemed  to  have  been  placed  on  a  level  of  chemical  and  me- 
chanical exactitude  by  the  wonderful  development  of  physiological 
chemistry  to  which  reference  has  been  made,  and  by  the  classification  of 
food  into  the  great  divisions  of  proteins  (amino  acids),  fats,  carbo- 
hydrates, minerals  and  water.  The  rapidly  advancing  and  changing 
conception  of  food  deficiency  diseases  has,  however,  led  to  and  ac- 
companied an  extension  of  the  classification  of  food  elements  to  in- 
clude certain  as  yet  largely  unknown  substances,  called  vitamins,  which 
have  a  definite  controlling  influence  on  nutrition,  health  and  growth. 
Imbalance,  or  lack  of  some  or  all  of  this  group,  is  believed  to  eventu- 
ate in  physiological  perversions  which  proceed  to  clinical  disease.  This 
conception  parallels  the  idea  of  physiologic  perversions  due  to  defici- 
ency in  the  earlier  recognized  food  elements,  as  observed  in  starvation, 
or  in  the  results  of  the  body's  inability  to  burn  carbo-hydrate  in 
diabetes. 

In  general  food  deficiency  may  be  said  to  act  in  one  of  three  ways  to 
produce  a  departure  hom  normal  health  and  nutrition.  It  may  result 
simply  in  mal-nutrition,  or  better,  poor  nutrition,  from  insufficient  sup- 
ply of  the  particular  food  elements  lacking.  This  form  of  mal-nutrition 
is  automatically  more  or  less  compensated  for  by  increased  utilization 
of  other  food  elements.  Such  a  compensatory  use  of  other  food  elements 
occurs   least  in  the  case  of  protein   insufficiency.     Proteins  may  be 


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VITAMINS  AND  FOOD  DEFICIENCY  DISEASES  69 

spared  in  bodily  nutrition  by  increased  utilization  of  carbo-hydrate  and 
fat,  and  thus  the  minknum  necessary  intake  of  nitrogenous  food  may 
be  lowered,  but  no  other  food  can  actually  and  entirely  replace  the 
function  of  protein. 

In  the  second  place,  a  deficiency  of  some  food  element  may  cause 
a  general  disturbance  of  metabolism.  This  is  illustrated  by  the  condi- 
tion of  acid  intoxication,  or  acidosis,  which  may  result  from  a  diet 
excessive  in  fat  and  deficient  in  carbo-hydrate,  as  seen,  for  instance  in 
certain  types  of  infantile  acidosis,  and  in  the  dangerous  and  often  fatal 
acidosis  of  diabetes.  In  the  third  place,  a  food  deficiency  may  pre- 
dispose to  secondary  factors  which  are  directly  responsible  for  disease. 
Thus  a  condition  of  under-nourishment  from  general  deficiency  or 
starvation,  predisposes  to  infection.  Again  deficiency  of  a  particular 
food  element  may  result  in  a  selective  mal-nutrition  of  some  organ  or 
system  of  the  body,  as  illustrated  in  the  nerve  degenerations  of  beriberi. 

Thus  it  is  evident  that  the  problem  of  food  deficiency  is  no  simple 
one,  but  that  it  is  complicated  by  selective  results  produced  in  the 
organism,  by  secondary  factors  which  may  become  operative  in  the 
presence  of  the  deficiency,  and  by  obscure  inter-relations  and  balances 
of  nutritive  equilibrium  which  easily  may  be  disturbed  by  a  variation 
in  the  component  food  elements.  Here  too  must  be  considered  the 
activity  of  various  physiologic  factors  of  safety  in  the  animal  body, 
which  nature  providently  furnishes  as  additional  safeguards  against  dis- 
ruption of  the  delicate  and  sensitive  adjustment  necessary  for  health. 
Sudi  a  factor  of  safety  is  seen  in  the  mechanism  involved  in  maintain- 
ing proper  alkalinity  of  the  blood  serum,  thus  preventing  acidosis. 
Another  illustration  is  the  detoxifying  function  of  the  liver  whereby 
various  diemical  poisons,  if  they  happen  to  gain  access  to  the  blood 
stream,  are  automatically  neutralized. 

Given,  then,  a  dietary  constructed  with  due  regard  for  water,  mineral 
salts,  carbo-hydrate,  fat  and  protein  building  stones,  one  additional  fact 
must  yet  be  taken  into  account  to  secure  a  perfectly  balanced  food  sup- 
ply. This  final  factor  has  reference  to  the  protein-like  substances  called 
vitamins,  or  accessory  food  substances.  At  present  three  types  of  these 
substances  are  recognized  and  a  proper  proportion  of  each  is  required 
to  prevent  serious  derangement  of  the  metabolism.  It  is  not  known 
whether  these  substances  act  in  the  body  in  a  definite  constructive 
fashion,  entering  themselves  into  the  chemistry  of  metabolic  processes, 
whether  they  act  as  catalytes,  stimulating  and  originating  changes  in 
other  substances  but  taking  no  chemical  part  themselves. 

Two  general  lines  of  investigation  are  responsible  for  our  present 
knowle^e  of  vitamins.  For  a  considerable  time  these  two  lines  seemed 
contradictory,  but  they  have  gradually  converged  and  a£Forded  per- 
spective and  unity  to  our  entire  conception.  The  name  'Mtamin**  was 
coined  in  1911  by  Casimir  Funk  for  a  substance  occurring  in  rice 


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70  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

polishings  and  yeast,  which  appeared  to  cure  neuritis  in  birds  and 
beriberi  in  man.  This  line  of  investigation  was  based  on  the  earlier 
work  of  Eijkman  in  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  who,  in  1897,  had  demon- 
strated a  multiple  neuritis  in  fowls  fed  on  a  polished  rice  diet  and  ob* 
served  that  this  neuritis  was  curable  by  feeding  rice  polishings.  In 
1907,  Fraser  and  Stanton,  American  workers  in  the  Philippines,  found 
that  an  alcoholic  extract  of  rice  polishings  would  cure  experimental 
neuritis.  Funk  found  the  same  to  be  true  for  yeast  and  from  an  im- 
perfect knowledge  of  the  chemistry  of  the  substance,  called  it  vitamin, 
an  amino  or  basic  nitrogenous  body  necessary  for  normal  life.  Thus 
the  study  of  beriberi  led  to  the  name  and  conception  of  vitamins. 
Hopkins  has  suggested  ^'accessory  food  substances'*  as  a  better  term,  and 
Graham  Lusk  *'food  hormones."  Both  suggestions  have  merit  and  the 
word  vitamin  has  definite  disadvantages,  but  priority,  conunon  usage 
and  brevity  have  established  vitamin  as  the  term  of  choice  and  so  it 
doubtless  will  remain. 

The  second  line  of  investigation  developed  on  the  basis  of  nutri- 
tional studies  by  Mc€ollum  and  his  associates,  by  Osborne  and  Mendel, 
and  others,  which  showed  that  various  foods  of  approximately  similar 
caloric  value  and  total  content  of  fat,  carbo-hydrate  and  protein,  ex- 
hibited an  enormous  variation  in  their  ability  to  maintain  life  and 
promote  growth.  These  experiments,  in  huge  numbers,  were  carried 
out  on  animals  and  the  results  threw  brilliant  light  on  the  problems  of 
the  food  deficiency  diseases  as  observed  clinically  in  human-kind.  It 
was  found  that  certain  food  stuffs  produced  results  in  growth  and 
nutrition  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  quantitative  or  caloric  value. 
Out  of  a  great  mass  of  carefully  directed  investigation,  there  crystal- 
lized in  1915  the  recognition  of  two  groups  of  vitamins,  named  by  Mc- 
Collum  "fat  soluble  A"  and  "water  soluble  B."  More  recently  evidence 
has  accumulated  in  favor  of  a  third  group  of  vitamins  called  "water 
soluble  C."  This  C  group  has  to  do  with  the  prevention  of  scurvy.  It 
is  now  possible  by  specialized  chemical  procedures  to  concentrate  and 
isolate  vitamins  of  these  three  groups. 

The  exact  chemical  nature  of  vitamins  is  unknown.  The  exact  rela- 
tion of  vitamin  deficiency  is  not  in  all  cases  clear.  We  can  say,  how- 
ever, that  growth,  beriberi  and  xerophthalmia  are  directly  related  to 
A  and  B  factors.  Scurvy  seems  definitely  connected  with  deficiency  of 
the  C  vitamin*  Evidence  has  accumulated  that  pellagra  belongs  with 
the  vitamin  deficiencies,  and  then  follow  a  number  of  less  clearly  de- 
fined conditions,  such  as  rickets,  various  forms  of  infantile  and  adult 
mal-nutrition,  anemia  and  marasmus.  These  latter  seem  to  be  as- 
sociated with  an  excess  of  carbo-hydrate  in  the  diet,  together  with  an 
insufficiency  of  mineral  and  animal  constituents.  While  many  cases 
of  eczema  now  are  known  to  be  caused  by  a  skin  reaction  to  certain 
specific  proteins  of  the  food,  still  a  large  percentage  of  eczema  depends 


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VITAMINS  AND  FOOD  DEFICIENCY  DISEASES  71 

on  or  is  greatly  influenced  by  an  excess  of  fat  or  carbo-hydrate.  The 
last  statement  applies  also  to  acne  or  "^pimples".  A  certain  form  of 
acid  poisoning  in  babies  is  caused  by  excess  fat  in  the  diet  To  a  great 
degree  dietary  irregularities  are  responsible  for  the  uric  acid  abnor- 
malities of  gout,  and  finally  no  small  proportion  of  cases  of  constipa- 
tion follow  a  diet  lacking  in  bulk  or  in  cellulose. 

Again,  as  has  been  mentioned,  symptoms  which  had  been  ascribed 
to  certain  diseases  are  found  to  be  due  in  all  probability  to  defective 
nutrition,  again  illustrating  the  relation  of  food  deficiency  to  disease 
production.  For  example,  diarrhea,  delirium  and  the  so-called 
t]rphoid  state  have  been  considered  integral  elements  of  the  natural 
history  of  typhoid  fever.  However,  since  the  introduction  of  the  high 
calory  diet  in  typhoid,  these  symptoms  are  usually  mild  or  in  abeyance. 
The  inference  is  justifiable  that  these  symptoms  are  due,  not  to  the 
typhoid  infection,  but  to  a  food  deficiency  resulting  in  mal-nutrition. 
This  deficiency  is  doubtless  qualitative  as  well  as  quantitative.  It  will 
be  found  probably  that  many  symptoms  of  many  diseases  are  not  at  all 
pathognomonic  of  those  diseases,  but  are  characteristic  of  and  common 
to  some  form  of  unbalanced  diet 

There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  primary  cause  for  the  onset 
of  many  diseases  vrill  be  found  eventually  to  lie  with  a  dietetic  defici- 
ency of  some  sort.  In  the  case  of  amebic  dysentery,  for  instance,  Mc- 
Carrison  in  Coonoor,  India,  found  experimentally  on  monkeys  that  the 
disease  appeared  in  the  presence  of  a  food  deficiency  where  it  did  not 
develop  when  the  monkeys  were  well  nourished  on  a  balanced  diet. 
There  is  sound  judgment  in  McCarrison's  conclusion  ^emphasizing  the 
importance  in  practice  of  a  study  of  the  dietary  history  of  the  case,  be- 
lieving as  I  now  do  that  bacterial  agencies  are  often  but  weeds  which 
flourish  in  soil  made  ready  for  them  by  dietary  defects,  and  believing 
also  that  in  the  fuller  comprehension  of  the  science  of  dietetics  we 
shall  understand  more  perfectly  the  beginning  of  disease  and  its 
therapy.** 

One  further  illustration  of  the  vast  importance  of  food  deficiency 
in  social,  economic  and  health  welfare,  lies  in  the  situation  stressed  by 
Dr.  Mazyck  P.  Ravenel,  president  of  the  American  Public  Health  As- 
sociation. Dr.  Ravenel  advocates  the  cultivation  of  a  wholesome  fear 
of  those  diseases  and  infections  which,  while  not  apt  to  result  in  death, 
yet  are  attended  by  a  hi^  degree  of  social  inefficiency  and  invalidism. 
Less  emphasis  on  mortality  and  more  emphasis  on  invalidism  figures 
gives  a  better  estimate  of  the  real  human  seriousness  of  disease. 
Malaria  destroyed  Greece  and  Rome,  and  malaria  has  not  a  high  death 
rate.  Influenza  struck  the  world  with  shocking  severity,  but  it  left  no 
social  scar  on  the  race,  no  aftermath  of  invalidism  and  social  ineffici- 
ency.    Chronic  exhaustive  diseases  like  malaria,  hookworm,  tubercu- 


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72  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

losis  and  syphilis  are,  after  all,  the  greatest  scourges  of  mankind,  and 
tl^eir  social  and  economic  cost  is  highest 

In  two  ways  food  deficiency  is  closely  related  to  the  considerations 
detailed  in  the  last  paragraph.  In  the  first  place,  the  greatest  single 
predisposing  factor  to  the  development  of  the  chronic  exhaustive  type 
of  disease  is  food  deficiency  and  mal-nutrition.  Secondly,  just  as  in 
the  case  of  specific  diseases,  the  more  serious  human  losses  are  due  to 
invalidism  and  social  inefficiency,  so  in  the  realm  of  nutrition,  after  all 
is  said,  the  loss  from  the  definite  specific  deficiency  diseases  does  not 
bulk  so  great  as  the  huge  loss  from  vague  ill-health  and  more  or  less 
severe  invalidism  resulting  from  unbalanced  or  insufficient  diet.  In  this 
connection  are  to  be  noted  the  nutritional  dangers  attendant  on  the  in- 
creasing use  of  food  substitutes.  Examples  of  such  substitutes  are  cot- 
ton seed  oil  for  olive  oil,  or  cod  liver  oil,  margarines  for  butter,  and 
the  use  of  milk  powders.  Food  substitutes  are  very  important  and  may 
be  very  dangerous  on  a  broad  scale.  The  tendency  in  America  is  to 
excessive  utilization  of  meats  and  sweets,  with  a  subnormal  employment 
of  vegetables,  fruits  and  dairy  products.  Such  racial,  local  or  indi- 
vidual aberrations  of  diet  are  vastly  important  and  to  an  unbelievable 
degree  are  concerned  with  a  sub-normal  status  socially,  economically 
and  in  health.  From  such  a  sketchy  survey  it  is  evident  that  the  science 
of  dietetics  promises  to  become  ever  more  important  in  the  treatment 
and  prevention  of  disease,  and  as  essential  from  the  sanitary  and  public 
health  point  of  view  as  for  the  individual  man  or  woman. 

We  turn  now  to  that  smaller  group  of  diseases  which  have  been 
noted  as  having  a  direct  relation  to  vitamin  deficiency.  While  we  can 
not  state  with  absolute  accuracy  the  specific  element  lacking  in  each 
case,  we  can  assert  with  complete  safety  that  they  are  due  to  an  un- 
balanced or  faulty  diet,  and  that  certain  dietary  procedures  will  serve 
adequately  to  prevent  and  to  cure  them. 

Having  clearly  in  mind  what  is  meant  by  the  term  vitamin,  and  in 
spite  of  the  disadvantages  of  the  name,  using  it  in  a  generic  sense,  it 
b  next  in  order  to  consider  why  there  should  be  clinical  differences  in 
disease  types  arising  from  a  ccmimon  etiology.  Why  should  a  vitamin 
deficiency  in  one  case  eventuate  in  beriberi,  in  another  in  pellagra  and 
in  a  third  in  scurvy?  While  this  question  can  not  be  fully  answered  at 
present,  certain  suggestive  hypotheses  may  be  predicated.  As  already 
explained,  there  is  ground  for  the  belief  that  vitamins  are  not  unit 
substances,  but  represent  a  group  chemically  related  and  unstable, 
which  may  well  have  certain  inter-relations  necessary  for  their  physio- 
logic functioning.  Thus  absence  of  one  type  might  be  associated  with 
a  special  clinical  syndrome. 

Recalling  the  three  methods  in  which  food  deficiency  may  disturb 
the  nutritional  status,  it  is  apparent  that  a  vitamin  deficiency  may  also 
produce  differing  clinical  results  by  virtue  of  secondary  factors  which 


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VITAMINS  AND  FOOD  DEFICIENCY  DISEASES  78 

may  become  operative  under  varying  conditions  of  climate,  general 
condition  of  patient,  concurrent  infection,  age — in  short,  that  the  e£fect 
of  the  vitamin  deficiency  may  be  influenced  or  even  determined  by  all 
manner  of  extraneous  circumstances,  whose  operation  may  conceivably 
be  initiated  or  modified  by  the  deficiency.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  the 
general  type  of  caloric  food  supply  used  may  be  of  importance,  since 
we  find  for  instance  that  beriberi  is  most  common  in  rice  eaters,  and 
that  pellagra  is  usually  associated  with  maize. 

Before  discussing  the  common  pathologic  features  of  the  deficiency 
diseases  and  methods  of  cure  and  prevention,  it  may  be  well  to  re- 
hearse briefly  the  clinical  picture  of  scurvy,  beriberi  and  pellagra,  with 
some  suggestions  of  the  experimental  basis  for  believing  them  due  to  a 
food  deficiency. 

Scurvy 

Armies  and  ships  have  suffered  notoriously  from  scurvy.  The  name 
suggests  the  days  of  early  exploration,  long  voyages  and  sailing  ships. 
Whalers,  fishermen,  armies,  sailors,  explorers — all  have  feared  and 
fought  scurvy.  As  will  be  seen,  the  very  circumstances  which  now  are 
best  explained  as  due  to  a  food  deficiency,  were  once  considered  con- 
clusive proof  of  the  disease  being  an  infection  and  this  view  has  pre- 
vailed to  some  extent,  as  in  Russia,  for  example,  almost  to  the  present 
time.  Its  true  nature  was  apprehended  by  the  British  much  earlier  as 
witnessed  by  the  virtual  disappearance  of  scurvy  in  the  British  navy 
since  the  regular  rationing  of  lime  juice  b^an  in  1795. 

Scurvy  is  characterized  by  a  pronounced  inclination  to  hemorrhage, 
with  soft,  spongy  bleeding  gums,  and  hemorrhage  under  the  skin  and 
from  mucus  membranes.  Certain  bony  changes  follow  and  a  condition 
of  progressive  weakness  and  anemia.  In  children,  hemorrhages  are 
more  apt  to  occur  under  the  periosteum  causing  what  is  often  diag- 
nosed by  the  mother  as  ^'rheumatism  of  the  legs",  and  characteristic 
^eletal  changes  are  seen.  The  condition  rapidly  improves  upon  the 
addition  of  anti-scorbutic  articles  to  the  diet.  Fresh  meat  and  vege- 
tables, especially  with  limes,  lemons,  onions,  etc.,  are  quickly  curative 
except  in  the  extreme  stage. 

Comrie  has  recently  detailed  his  experiences  while  on  duty  ^vith' 
British  troops  in  northern  Russia  in  1919.  Scurvy  appeared  on  a  large 
scale  among  prisoners  and  natives.  After  several  months  on  a  diet 
deficient  in  protein,  vegetables  and  fresh  foods,  the  disease  appeared  in 
wholesale  fashion.  Its  effects  were  doubtless  intensified  by  the  crowded 
prisons,  general  poor  surroundings,  and  the  long  Arctic  night.  A  pur- 
puric rash  on  the  legs  usually  came  first,  accompanied  by  mental  de- 
pression, loss  of  energy  and  weakness.  Bleeding  gums,  swollen  ankles, 
and  hemmorrhages  into  muscles  and  joints  rapidly  followed.  Pain 
was  noticeably  present    Recovery  was  rapid  with  correction  of  the  diet 


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74  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

alone,  and  in  a  month's  time  the  victims  showed  few  sequels  of  the  dis- 
ease. An  e£Fective  anti^scorbutic  was  found  in  genninated  peas  or 
beans.    Preserved  lime  juice  was  useless. 

Another  striking  outbreak  of  scorbutic  disease  occurred  as  reported 
by  Siccardi,  in  Italian  troops  serving  at  high  altitudes  in  the  Alps.  In 
the  summer  of  1916  these  troops  suffered  from  a  transient  epidemic  of 
a  hemorrhagic  form  of  scurvy.  These  hemorrhages  were  noted  among 
those  sick  of  other  diseases  as  well  as  in  men  who  had  no  other  com- 
plaint The  disease  was  traced  to  an  unbalanced  diet,  in  the  presence 
of  cold,  and  ill  ventilated  under-ground  quarters,  and  it  was  easily 
controlled  by  proper  diet  and  rest 

Infantile  scurvy  is  of  surprising  frequency  especially  in  cities,  where 
the  widespread  use  of  Pasteurized  milk  always  brings  danger  of  scurvy 
unless  corrected  by  anti-scorbutics.  Infantile  scurvy  is  not  conunon  in 
the  advanced  stage  characterized  by  very  poor  nutrition,  ^'rheumatism 
of  the  legs,''  and  bleeding  spongy  gums.  But  of  surprising  frequency, 
especially  in  cities,  is  a  status  of  more  or  less  indistinct  symptoms  as- 
sociated with  failure  to  gain  weight  and  a  tendency  to  hemorrhage, 
especially  beneath  the  skin  and  mucus  membranes,  irritability  and  fret- 
fulness,  and  sometimes  femoral  tenderness.  Pateurized  milk  should  be 
corrected  by  the  addition  to  the  diet  of  orange  juice.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  the  advantage  of  Pasteurization  vastly  overbalances  its 
tendency  to  produce  scurvy,  and  that  this  tendency  is  easily  controlled 
by  a  simple  means. 

In  the  group  of  deficiency  diseases  mid-way  between  scurvy  and 
beriberi  should  be  mentioned  a  peculiar  syndrome  called  **ship  beri- 
beri." This  affection  differs  from  beriberi  in  its  lack  of  involvement 
of  the  peripheral  nervous  system  and  is  related  to  scurvy  by  its  tendency 
to  hemorrhage.  The  Newfoundland  fishermen  suffer  from  a  similar 
condition  in  which  a  beriberi-like  dropsy  is  associated  with  sore,  bleed- 
ing gums.  On  the  Labrador,  the  Esquimaux  are  frequently  victims  of 
scurvy  and  b^iberi. 

Dr.  John  M.  Little,  writing  from  Newfoundland,  has  described  a 
deficiency  disease  related  in  causation  and  also  doubtless  in  path- 
ology, to  this  group.  It  is  known  among  the  natives  as  kallak.  Com- 
menting on  the  need  for  proper  vitamin  content  in  the  diet.  Dr.  Little 
states  that  it  is  largely  unknown  as  to  where  the  Esquimaux  get  the 
necessary  ingredients  for  a  balanced  diet  outside  of  meat  The  meat 
suppfy  comes  from  seals,  caribou,  birds  and  fish.  In  good  seasons 
berries  too,  are  abundant,  and  when  frozen,  keep  well.  Dr.  Little  points 
out  a  possible  source  of  carbo-hydrate  supply  when  either  civilized 
foods  are  not  to  be  had,  or  when  there  is  a  failure  of  the  berry  crop. 
He  says  that  the  great  feast  of  the  Esquimaux  consists  of  a  thid:  soup 
made  of  the  blood  and  stomach  contents  of  the  caribou.    The  caribou 


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VITAMINS  AND  FOOD  DEFICIENCY  DISEASES  75 

eats  coarse  vegetable  matter  such  as  lichens,  moss,  tree  bark  and  small 
twigs,  leaves  and  shoots,  which  are  entirely  unsuitable  for  the  human 
stomach.  The  powerful  digestive  juices  of  the  animal's  stomach  con- 
vert this  coarse  vegetable  mass  into  forms  which  in  turn  can  be  acted 
upon  by  the  more  delicate  digestive  mechanism  of  man,  and  thus 
rendered  assimilable.  Thus  is  there  secured  the  requisite  vitamin  sup- 
ply from  fresh  v^etable  sources. 

Kallak  appears  on  the  Labrador  in  endemic  form  when  there  is 
a  deficiency  especially  of  seal  meat  and  berries,  resulting  probably 
in  a  deficiency  of  the  fat-soluble  type  of  vitamins.  It  is  in  turn  pre- 
vented and  cured  by  an  abundance  of  seal  meat  and  berries.  It  shows 
itself  in  successive  crops  of  a  pustular  emiption  with  intense  itching. 
The  disease  tends  to  recovery  as  soon  as  a  balanced  diet  is  procured. 
Dr.  Darling  has  described  another  variant  of  scurvy  in  the  South  Afri- 
can Rand,  which  has  certain  features  approximating  beriberL 

Beriberi 

Beriberi  is  a  disease  of  antiquity  knovoi  and  described  in  ancient 
China,  and  recorded  as  having  attacked  a  Roman  Army  in  Arabia  be- 
fore the  Christian  era.  It  is  pre-eminently  a  disease  of  the  Orient  and 
Pacific  islands,  although  now  widespread  in  Africa  and  South 
America,  and  not  infrequently  reported  from  other  countries.  It  is 
not  unknown  in  San  Francisco  and  other  parts  of  the  United  States. 
Its  conunon  association  with  a  predominant  rice  diet  does  not  always 
hold  true.  An  instance  of  this  is  afforded  by  Draper,  who  in  1916  re- 
counted nine  early  cases  in  a  crew  of  fourteen  men  on  a  Norwegian 
bark  touching  at  St  Helena.  Here  the  victims  had  eaten  sparingly  of 
rice  and  had  an  abundance  of  fresh  vegetables.  An  evidently  beriberic 
diet  was  not  demonstrable.  Such  instances  lend  credence  to  the 
parasitic  theory  of  causation,  held  especially  by  certain  English  writers. 
For  example,  one  of  the  most  competent  sanitarians  in  the  Far  East, 
Dr.  Arthur  Stanley,  health  officer  of  Shanghai,  wrote  in  his  1914  report, 
The  cause  of  this  disease  (beriberi)  remains  under  close  observation, 
though  up  to  the  present  wrapped  in  obscurity.  The  evidence  prepon- 
derates in  favor  of  the  disease  being  an  infectious  one,  having  no  direct 
relation  to  food  but  infective  through  body  vermin."  This  view,  how- 
ever, is  not  tenable  in  relation  to  the  American  and  Dutch  results  in 
the  Philippines  and  East  Indies. 

Beriberi  can  now  be  classified  accurately  as  a  food  deficiency  dis- 
ease caused  by  a  lack  of  neuritis-preventing  vitamin,  water  soluble  B, 
in  the  food.  Its  occurrence  in  rice-eaters  is  associated  with  the  use  of 
polished  rice,  where  the  pericarp  is  removed  from  the  grain.  In  this 
pericarp  is  the  vitamin.  The  pericarp  also  contains  an  important 
fraction  of  phosphorus  and  the  relative  quantity  of  vitamin  present 
can  be  measured  by  the  quantity  of  phosphorus.    Less  than  0.4  per 


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76  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

cent  of  phosphorus  pentoxide  indicates  a  dangerous  vitamin  deficiency, 
if  rice  is  the  chief  article  of  diet. 

Beriberi  is  essentially  a  disease  of  the  nervous  system  and  shows 
itself  in  poly-neuritis,  accompanied  by  an  edema  especially  of  the 
lower  extremities  and  a  weakened  heart.  This  last  is  an  important 
differential  point,  and  the  extreme  tendency  to  cardiac  failure  is  most 
serious.  The  disease  may  be  acute  and  fatal  within  a  few  days  or  it 
may  pursue  a  chronic  course.  The  term  beriberi,  includes  a  large  and 
more  or  less  ill-defined  group  of  diseases  which  have  not  yet  been 
carefully  separated.  There  are  various  types  and  all  degrees  of  inten- 
sity, now  one  and  now  another  symptom  outstanding.  Many  forms 
are  on  the  borderline  of  scurvy  and  may  represent  a  combined  de- 
ficiency. If  the  neuritis  and  nerve  damage  are  sufficiently  extensive, 
there  may  be  a  residual  paralysis  which  long  outlasts  the  original  dis- 
ease. Beriberi  is  often  of  importance  in  its  incipient  or  larval  form, 
because  it  predisposes  to  other  diseases  and  in  turn,  larval  beriberi 
may  suddenly  fulminate  under  the  excitation  of  some  other  acute  dis- 
order. Thus  beriberi  is  remarkably  frequent  in  association  with  acute 
dysentery.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  beriberi  is  almost  unique  among 
tropical  diseases  in  having  no  features  of  laboratory  importance.  The 
diagnosis  rests  solely  on  clinical  data  and  the  laboratory  findings  are 
entirely  negative  or  normal. 

Pellagra 

Pellagra  is  an  endemic  disease  of  modem  history.  It  is  not  defi- 
nitely known  to  have  been  recognized  earlier  than  the  18th  century, 
when  it  was  described  in  Italy  and  Spain  as  of  rather  wide  distribution. 
From  the  first  reports  in  Italy  it  has  been  ascribed  to  a  maize  dietary. 
It  was  early  identified  with  '^Alpine  scurvy''.  The  disease  was  recog- 
nized in  Egypt  in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  since 
then  in  France  and  other  parts  of  Europe.  It  was  first  described  in 
the  United  States  in  1907  but  had  undoubtedly  existed  there  for  an 
indefinite  time  preceding.  It  is  estimated  that  there  are  125,000  cases 
in  the  United  States  at  present.  According  to  Goldberger  of  the  U.  S. 
Public  Health  Service,  who,  with  his  associates  has  studied  the  disease 
exhaustively,  it  is  one  of  the  foremost  causes  of  death  in  the  southern 
states,  in  1916  ranking  fourth  in  Mississippi,  third  in  Alabama,  second 
in  South  Carolina.  Not  only  this,  but  it  is  responsible  for  an  un- 
guessed  total  of  sickness  and  physical  inefficiency  in  addition.  Its 
actual  death  rate  is  about  5  per  cent.  The  relative  infrequency  of 
pellagra  outside  the  endemic  area  in  the  United  States  will  probably 
be  found  related  to  the  dietary  deficiency  which  we  believe  is  its  cause. 

The  incidence  of  pellagra  has  a  close  relationship  to  economic  cir- 
cumstances and  living  conditions.  High  food  costs  and  hard  times 
lead  to  poor  sanitary  and  unhygienic  living  conditions,  which  as  al- 


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VITAMINS  AND  FOOD  DEFICIENCY  DISEASES  77 

ways,  reach  their  climax  where  housing  and  sanitary  knowledge  are 
meager.  This  tends  to  enforce  a  dietary  favorable  to  the  development 
of  pellagra  especially  in  the  south  where  com,  fat  pork  and  certain 
types  of  vegetable  food,  are  associated  with  a  dearth  of  lean  fresh 
meat,  milk,  eggs  and  green  fresh  v^etables.  Following  the  economic 
conditions  of  1914,  the  incidence  of  pellagra  rose  in  1915,  again  to 
decline  as  conditions  improved  a  year  later.  Again  in  1917  an  in- 
crease was  observed,  due  to  like  causes,  and  accurately  foretold  by  the 
scientists  of  the  Public  Health  Service. 

The  symptoms  of  pellagra  are  in  three  groups,  appearing  re^ 
spectively  in  the  skin,  gastro-intestinal  tract  and  nervous  system. 
Pellagra,  or  *Vough  skin,**  derives  its  name  from  an  early  observation 
of  the  skin.  Roughened,  dry  patches  of  erythema,  often  superficially 
similar  to  sunburn,  and  symmetrically  located,  are  the  characteristic 
lesions.  These  areas  usually  are  on  surfaces  exposed  to  the  sun,  but 
not  necessarily  so.  The  second  major  group  of  symptoms  arises  from 
the  gastro-intestinal  tract,  and  includes  various  forms  of  indigestion, 
diarrhea,  increased  acidity  of  the  stomach,  and  sore  mouth.  The 
mouth  condition,  in  fact,  is  suggestive  of  sprue.  Again,  the  tender 
bleeding  gums  are  suspicious  of  scurvy,  and  represent  a  relationship 
to  that  disease  as  well  as  explaining  the  old  name  of  ^^ Alpine  scurvy". 
The  third  major  group  of  symptoms  is  referable  to  the  nervous  system. 
Fortunately  not  all  cases  of  pellagra  progress  to  insanity.  But  from 
the  first  a  neurasthenic  condition  is  present  to  which  are  added  grad- 
ually various  paresthesias,  dianges  in  reflexes,  suicidal  attempts, 
tremors,  and,  in  the  final  stages,  a  confusional  insanity. 

All  of  these  symptoms  show  a  remarkable  vernal  periodicity,  ad- 
vancing in  the  springtime  and  receding  toward  autumn  and  winter. 
Not  infrequently  for  several  years  the  only  symptoms  noted  will  appear 
in  the  spring  and  not  be  related  to  each  other  by  the  patient.  Fever 
is  not  present  typically,  except  late  in  the  disease  and  probably  repre- 
sents intercurrent  infection  due  to  the  weakened  organism.  The  out- 
look in  pellagra  is  very  dark  unless  the  patient  can  be  subjected  to 
proper  dietary  treatment.  Under  such  proper  conditions,  improve- 
ment and  cure  ensue  even  in  advanced  cases.  Treatment  cannot  repair, 
of  course,  broken  down  tissues  or  remove  organic  changes  in  the  brain 
and  elsewhere. 

Other  Deficienct  Diseases 

As  has  been  pointed  out,  there  is  a  heterogeneous  group  of  diseases 
and  overlapping  clinical  conditions  caused  by  deficiency  of  vitamin 
supply.  One  of  the  most  definite  of  these  is  xerophthalmia,  in  which 
failing  vision  and  blindness  are  produced  by  increasing  opacity  of  the 
cornea.  H.  Gideon  Wells  has  described  the  occurrence  of  xeroph- 
thalmia on  a  large  scale  among    the   famine   sufferers    of  Roumania 


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78  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

where  it  was  promptly  relieved  by  the  administration  of  cod  liver  oil. 
The  malady  is  evidently  due  to  deficiency  of  the  fat  soluble  A  vitamin. 
Another  and  perhaps  less  clearly  defined  disorder  is  war  edema,  war 
dropsy,  famine  edema,  or  perhaps  best,  in  the  words  of  Wells,  "nu- 
tritional dropsy".  It  was  observed  on  a  huge  scale  among  prisoners 
of  war  in  Germany  and  rather  in  those  who  were  compelled  to  work 
while  undernourished  than  among  those  who  were  merely  underfed. 
Decreased  protein  and  caloric  intake  are  associated.  It  was  frequent- 
ly seen  in  conjunction  with  xerophthalmia.  Another  affection,  similar 
in  some  points  to  beriberi  and  again  to  war  edema,  was  reported  from 
northern  Africa  during  the  Great  War.  This  nutritional  edema  is 
probably  identical  with  the  dropsy  occurring  in  infants  fed  for  long 
periods  on  a  highly  carbonaceous  diet 

It  has  been  suggested  that,  succeeding  an  obvious  state  of  mal- 
nutrition in  infantile  life,  there  may  appear  some  disorder  in  later 
life  with  no  apparent  relation  to  the  causal  mal-nutrition.  As  an  ex- 
ample of  this,  indications  are  cited  that  dental  caries  is  produced  by  a 
deficiency  in  early  life  of  a  vitamin  similar  to  fat  soluble  A.  More 
recently  most  interesting  experiments  have  been  conducted  by  W.  G. 
Karr,  who  finds  a  striking  relation  between  the  presence  of  water 
soluble  B  vitamin  and  appetite.  This  appetite-provoking  vitamin  is 
found  in  abundance  in  tomatoes  and  brewers'  yeast 

Comparative  Patholocy 

The  beriberi-scurvy  group  of  deficiency  diseases  exhibit  a  striking 
relationship  in  morbid  anatomy.  Darling  working  in  the  Canal  Zone 
in  1915,  graphically  portrayed  this  relation  in  a  chart  of  overlapping 
circles  whose  centers  were  arranged  in  a  straight  line.  The  chief 
pathologic  findings  were  grouped  in  a  series  along  the  straight  line, 
ranging  from  palsy,  through  dropsy,  cardiac  weakness  and  degenera- 
tion, nerve  degenerations,  spongy  gums,  hemorrhages,  bone  lesions, 
to  the  legions  at  bone  ends  which  are  so  notable  a  feature  of  rickets 
and  often  of  scurvy.  The  overlapping  circles  each  of  which  embraced 
several  of  the  pathologic  series,  began  with  classical  beriberi  and 
ranged  through  ship  beriberi,  scurvy,  guinea  pig  scurvy,  and  infant 
scurvy  to  rickets. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  beriberi  is  a  disease  group  and  not  a  fixed 
disease  entity.  The  same  is  unquestionably  true  of  scurvy  and  doubtless 
the  other  food  deficiency  diseases  will  eventually  appear  as  types, 
varying  with  the  relative  imbalance  of  vitamins,  and  modified  by  odier 
nutritional  and  environmental  factors.  As  has  been  indicated,  scurvy 
and  beriberi  have  many  points  of  pathologic  similarity.  Among  these 
are  especially  to  be  noted  the  nerve  degenerations  and  enlargement  of 
the  ri^t  heart.  Pellagra  differs  somewhat  in  having  a  triple  complex 
in  pathology  and  symptoms,  involving  nervous  system,  gastro-intes- 


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VITAMINS  AND  FOOD  DEFICIENCY  DISEASES  7» 

tinal  tract  and  skin.  It  is  of  interest  that  scurvy  often  shows  a  red- 
dened, roughened  skin.  The  deficiency  diseases  are  characteristically 
afebrile. 

It  is  known  that  after  eating  buckwheat,  many  persons  suflFer  from 
a  severe  dermatitis  on  exposing  the  skin  to  bright  light.  A  similar 
explanation  has  been  ofifered  very  plausibly  for  the  rash  in  pellagra. 
It  has  been  suggested,  too,  that  the  mental  complex  in  pellagra  is  in- 
duced by  bright  light  in  a  nervous  system  predisposed  by  a  nutritional 
deficiency.  The  role  of  light,  or  actinic  energy,  in  the  causation  and 
treatment  of  skin  rashes,  even  in  the  acute  infectious  diseases  such  as 
smallpox,  and  scarlatina,  is  but  poorly  understood. 

Darling  found  that  in  Rand  scurvy,  occurring  with  great  frequency 
in  South  Africa  and  Rhodesia,  there  was  a  striking  eccentric  hyper- 
trophy of  the  right  heart,  along  with  severe  degenerations  of  the  vagus 
nerve.  Hess  has  noted  the  frequency  of  dilated  right  heart  in  infantile 
scurvy.  There  is  often  also  associated  a  cardio-respiratory  disturb- 
ance  which  still  further  illustrates  the  involvement  of  the  nervous  sys* 
tern.  Such  findings  indicate  a  close  relation  between  scurvy  and  the 
beriberi  group.  Darling  calls  attention  to  the  contrast  between  beri* 
beri  as  a  neuro-cachexia,  and  rickets  as  an  osteo-cachexia. 

Vitamins  and  Diet 

The  fat  soluble  vitamins  are  found  abundantly  in  butter,  eggyolk 
and  cod  liver  oil.  The  water  soluble  vitamins  are  found  in  yeast,  and 
in  many  green  vegetables  and  whole  grains.  There  is  reason  for  be- 
lieving that  vitamins  can  not  be  constructed  either  by  animals  or  by 
plants,  but  that  they  are  a  product  of  bacterial  action.  Their  presence 
is  necessary  for  the  growth  of  yeast  and  the  rate  of  yeast  growth  has 
been  used  as  a  measure  of  the  quantity  of  vitamins  present  in  food 
substances.  Vitamins  are  destroyed  by  heat,  either  excessive  or  of 
moderate  intensity  but  long  continued. 

An  interesting  study  of  vitamins  in  bread  was  made  by  Voegtlin, 
Sullivan  and  Myers,  of  the  U.  S.  Public  Health  Service,  in  connection 
with  investigations  on  pellagra.  They  were  impressed  with  the  marked 
reduction  in  two  decades  of  the  vitamin  content  in  the  dietary 
of  the  population  studied  (Spartanburg  county.  South  Caro- 
lina). They  ascribed  this  reduction  to  three  causes.  First,  reduction 
in  usage  of  vitamin-rich  foods  such  as  fresh  meats,  eggs  and  milk,  due 
to  advancing  cost.  Second,  increased  use  of  highly  milled  cereals, 
made  from  wheat  and  com,  in  which  the  vitamin-rich  pericarp,  husk 
and  kernel  are  largely  removed.  Third,  the  increased  use  of  baking 
soda  in  bread-making.  The  danger  from  soda  lies  in  the  fact  that 
too  often  it  is  used  to  raise  bread  in  place  of  yeast,  and  is  not  neutral- 
ized by  acid  as  with  sour  milk.  The  soda  apparently  destroys  the 
vitamin  of  the  grain  and  this  increases  the  deficiency  of  the  excessively 


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80  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

milled  grain.  The  use  of  soda  to  soften  beans  and  other  foods  in 
cookery,  has  an  equally  destructive  result 

It  is  evident  that  the  use  of  highly  milled  grains  is  to  be  condemned. 
The  extensive  utilisation  of  whole  grain  products  during  the  war  was  a 
most  beneficial  modification  of  our  national  dietary,  and  should  be 
continued.  Its  benefits  pertain  to  the  stimulating  effect  on  the  teeth, 
the  avoidance  of  a  concentrated  and  costive  diet,  and  the  provision  of 
more  vitamins. 

Under  ordinary  circumstances  no  particular  attention  is  required 
to  the  practical  details  of  securing  suflkient  vitamin  content  in  the 
dietary  of  the  average  individual  in  this  country.  But  in  the  endemic 
pellagra  district,  or  where  for  any  reason  a  varied  supply  of  fresh 
foods  is  not  to  be  had,  the  securing  of  the  necessary  vitamins  becomes 
a  matter  of  concern.  Such  a  diet  should  include  yeast  bread  made 
from  the  whole  grain.  If  rice  is  used  to  any  considerable  extent,  it 
should  be  undermilled,  with  a  hi^  phosphorus  fraction.  At  least 
once  weekly,  legumes  such  as  beans  or  peas  should  be  served.  Fresh 
fruit  and  vegetables  should  appear  several  times  a  week.  Barley 
is  especially  desirable  and  should  be  added  to  all  soups.  Yellow  or 
water  ground  commeal  is  preferable  to  the  white  variety.  White  pota- 
toes and  fresh  meat  also  should  be  included  at  least  weekly,  and  better 
once  daily.    So  far  as  possible  canned  food  should  be  discarded. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  warn  against  commercial  preparations  of 
vitamins  which  are  beginning  to  appear  on  the  market.  Under  ordi- 
nary  circumstances  of  life  there  is  no  need  for  such  preparations.  It 
is  questionable  whether  any  circumstances  at  present  justify  their  use. 
Further  than  this,  the  chemical  instability  of  vitamins  makes  it  diffi- 
cult to  say  under  what  conditions  of  preparation  and  preservation, 
their  potency  will  be  maintained.  Then,  too,  since  there  is  no  approved 
method  of  standardization  of  vitamins,  there  is  consequently  no  check 
on  adulteration  of  commercial  preparations.  It  seems  probable  that 
the  appearance  of  vitamin  preparations  on  the  market,  coupled  with 
the  present  scientific  and  popular  interest  in  the  subject,  will  lead  to 
an  exuberant  advertising  campaign  parallel  to  the  exploitation  of 
starch-free  foods  for  diabetics.  Among  these  latter,  a  small  minority 
alone  are  found  on  analysis  to  be  what  they  claim. 

Conclusion 
In  summary,  a  new  and  important  chapter  is  being  written  in  our 
knowledge  of  nutrition,  and  to  the  classical  requirements  for  a  bal- 
anced dietary,  has  been  added  the  requirement  of  a  group  of  sub- 
stances called  vitamins.  Vitamins  are  essential  for  growth,  main- 
tenance and  reproduction  of  the  human  body,  and  lack  of  them  leads 
to  definite  disease  on  a  basis  of  mal-nutrition. 


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■-^^ 


IliAKLMCHIGAN 


\ 


THE  Great  Lakes  have  rare  scientific 
interest  Much  of  their  history  has 
already  been  written  by  geologists,  geo- 
graphers, and  hydrographers  —  to  say  T.^ 
nothing  of  historians,  novelists,  and  poets.  ^ 
This  history  contains  thrilling  chapters  x  T* 
about  glacier-built  hills,  the  scouring  out 
of  valleys,  and  changes  in  great  drainage 
systems.  The  evidence  for  these  has  been 
gleaned  from  sedimentary  deposits,  fossil 
beaches,  and  other  enchanted  castles  where 
facts  are  condemned  to  remain  unknown 
until  scientific  knights  set  them  free  and 
they  turn  into  the  most  beautiful  of  fairy 
princesses — knowledge.  It  seems  remark- 
able that  biologists  have  so  long  neglected 
the  opportunities  that  await  research  in 
these  great  bodies  of  water.  Sordid  com- 
merce should  have  urged  science  to  take 
up  such  investigation.    There  is  "money" 


if 


I 

1 
v/l 


u 


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82  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


THE  MACHINE  FOR  HAUUNG  NETS 

in  the  Great  Lakes,  and  commerce  must  always  depend  on  science 
for  the  exploration,  conservation  and  improvement  of  its  re- 
sources. The  fisheries  of  the  Great  Lakes  bring  in  more  than  ten  mil- 
lion dollars  each  year  and  the  chief  contributors  are  Lake  Erie  and 
Lake  Michigan.^ 

The  men  who  fish  in  the  Great  Lakes  have  the  picturesqueness 
which  is  characteristic  of  deep  water  fishermen  the  world  over.  The 
danger  and  uncertainly  of  "open  water"  fishing  give  it  the  touch  of 
romance  that  attracts  bold  spiriite  who  like  to  take  chances.  The  life  is 
hard,  but  it  may,  and  usually  does,  give  rich  rewards  to  those  who  fol- 
low it  with  in-dustry,  courage,  and  common  sense.  Fishermen  are  often 
"rough  on  the  outside",  but  their  life  and  training  make  them  honest, 
independent  and  usually  more  thoughtfully  courteous  than  those  who 
have  acquired  "polish"  in  drawing  rooms.  One  who  has  fished  for  a 
livelihood  seldom  goes  back  to  the  humdrum  of  a  safe  life  on  land. 
To  give  some  idea  of  what  a  fisherman  does  each  day  on  Lake  Mich- 
igan the  following  description  of  a  trip  that  the  writer  took  as  a  guest 
on  board  the  "Albert  C.  Kalmbach"  is  given :  , 

On  July  26  I  got  up  at  half  past  four  and  made  my  way  through  the 
deserted  streets  of  Sturgeon  Bay  to  the  dock.  A  brisk  wind  was  blow- 
ing in  from  Green  Bay  and  the  sky  was  overcast.  Frank  Higgins  and 
his  partner,  Bill,  were  alrady  loading  boxes  on  board  the  "Albert  C." 
when  I  arrived.    "Boxes"  are  really  trays  and  each  holds  about  1,600 

^According  to  the  latest  Report  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Fisheries 
the  value  of  the  fisheries  in  these  two  lakes  for  the  year  1917  was  $4,332,767 
and  $4,038,927  respectively. 


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FJSHJXG  L\  LAKE  MICHIGAN  83 

lineal  feet  of  gill  net  This  morning  the  "boys"  were  loatiing  "small 
mesh"  nets,  for  they  were  going  out  after  chubs  and  bloaters  in  the 
deepest  part  of  Lake  Michigan.  As  they  worked  I  looked  over  the  boat. 
The  "Albeit  C."  had  been  in  the  water  less  than  two  months  and  was  a 
fine  example  of  the  type  of  boat  now  in  growing  favor  with  lake 
fishermen.  Years  ago  fishing  tugs  were  in  common  Use.  But  tugs  are 
expenaiye  to  maintain  and,  as  fishermen  to  man  them  grow  harder  to 
find,  they  are  graduaJly  being  superceded  by  little  gasoline  boats.  The 
"Albert  C."  measured  forty-five  feet  in  lengdi  and  had  twelve  feet  of 
beam.  In  the  center  of  her  cabin  was  a  aKmiTig  new  two-cylinder 
Kahlenberg  engine  which  cost  $2,500  and  would  delight  the  heait  of 
any  fiflfherman — ^a  heavy  duty  engine;  not  speedy,  but  to  be  relied  upon 
in  a  sfUNrm.  Except  for  the  little  platform  forward  for  the  man  at 
the  wheel,  the  remainder  of  the  cabin  was  devoted  to  fishing  tackle. 
Oilskins  and  coiled  lines  hung  on  the  walls  and  boxes  of  nets  were  piled 
on  the  floor  aft.  A  gasoline  hoist  for  hauling  the  nets  occupied  the 
space  on  the  left  side  of  the  cabin  forward. 

As  soon  as  the  boxes  were  stowed  Bill  lighted  the  torches  at  the 
tops  of  the  cylinders.  When  "she"  was  hot  he  "turned  her  over"  and 
we  started.  We  backed  out  of  the  slip  just  after  five  o'clock,  went  under 
the  bridge,  and  set  our  course  toward  the  head  of  Sturgeon  Bay.  A 
dirty  fishing-boat  named  "White  Swan"  tried  to  race  us,  but  Bill  "let 
her  out  a  notch"  and  we  soon  left  the  upstart  behind. 

"Ain't  that  an  engine?"  said  Bill. 

At  a  quarter  of  six  we  passed  the  lighthouse  and  were  on  Lake 
Michigan.    A  noisy  flock  of  herring  gulls  greeted  us.    These  birds  fol- 


PUTTING    THE    GILL    NET    ON    A    REEL 


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84  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

lowed  the  boat  all  day,  continually  on  the  alert  for  fish  or  scraps.  For 
nearly  two  hours  Frank  ran  ^'NNE''.  It  began  to  rain,  the  wind  fresh- 
ened  and  stirred  up  the  lake.  Toward  ten  o'clock,  when  we  were  about 
twelve  miles  offshore,  Frank  sang  out: 

"There's  one'." 

I  peered  in  the  direction  he  indicated  but  could  see  nothing.  As 
we  came  close,  however,  I  made  out  a  couple  of  tattered  squares  of 
canvas  waving  from  a  pole  which  projected  from  the  top  of  a  wooden 


B. 


c. 


.<— SETTING  NETS  OFF  THE  STEM  OF  THE  BOAT 
B— A  TROUT  JUST  OUT  OF  THE  WATER 
C— A  LAKE  TROUT 


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PISHING  IN  LAKE  MICHIGAN  85 

buoy.  The  boys  put  on  their  oilskins.  As  the  buoy  came  alongside 
Frank  tried  to  haul  it  in,  but  the  waves  were  too  much  for  him,  and 
he  missed  it  We  circled  around  and,  approaching  from  a  little  better 
angle,  the  buoy  came  on  board.  Bill  quickly  started  the  hoist,  and 
Frank  threw  the  line  that  had  been  fastened  to  the  buoy  over  it  The 
way  the  little  fingers  on  the  hoisting  wheel  handle  lines  and  nets  is 
almost  uncanny.  The  wheel  is  horizontal  and  as  it  revolves  the  fingers 
around  its  margin  take  hold  on  one  side  and  let  go  on  the  other. 
When  a  line  is  placed  over  the  wheel  it  is  grasped  and  pulled  across 
from  one  side  to  the  other.  In  this  way  the  line  came  into  the  cabin 
and  brought  up  a  '^string'*  of  nets  from  the  bottom. 

The  nets  that  we  pulled  had  been  set  for  seven  days  at  depths  of 
sixty-five  to  eighty  fathoms.  All  of  them  were  tied  together  in  ^'strings'' 
of  four  boxes  each.  A  line  leading  up  to  a  flag  buoy  was  attached  at 
each  end  of  a  string.  Gill  nets  stand  up  from  the  bottom  like  a  tennis 
net;  weighted  along  the  lower  side  with  leads  and  stretched  by  the  pull 
of  corks  along  the  upper  side.  Fishes  swim  into  the  meshes  while  mov- 
ing along  near  the  bottom  and  become  entangled.  Most  of  those 
brought  up  in  the  nets  are  still  alive.  The  deeper  waters  of  lakes  are 
usually  cold  and  fishes  may  live  for  a  long  time  after  being  caught 

Bill  stood  by  the  port  where  the  lines  and  nets  came  in  and  kept 
them  running  smoothly  around  the  hoisting  wheel.  Frank  dextrously 
took  the  fishes  from  the  net,  using  a  short  awl  in  order  to  save  his 
fingers  from  pricks  and  cuts.  He  also  extracted  cinders  and  twigs 
from  the  net  before  coiling  it  down  in  the  box  in  front  of  him. 

By  half  past  twelve  twenty  boxes  had  been  hauled  and  nets  from 
the  same  number  reset  off  the  stem  of  the  boat.  The  catch  consisted 
of  about  500  lake  trout,  200  bloaters,  150  chubs,  12  lawyers,  2  black- 
fins,  and  5  ugly  little  cottids,  which  the  fishermen  call  '^stonerollers". 
The  lawyers,  stonerollers,  and  a  few  of  the  other  fishes  were  thrown 
back  into  the  lake — ^to  the  great  delight  of  the  gulls. 

I  ate  my  lunch  at  eleven  o'clock,  but  Frank  and  Bill  did  not  get 
theirs  until  all  the  nets  were  set.  On  the  way  home  Bill  ran  the  boat, 
while  Frank  cleaned  the  catch.  Frank  performed  his  work  with  re- 
markable speed.  Catching  up  a  fish  by  its  head,  he  laid  it  on  a  board; 
one  movem^it  with  the  knife  removed  the  gills,  another  slashed  open 
the  ventral  wall  of  the  body,  and  a  third  threw  out  the  visceral  organs. 
At  3:10  P.  M.  we  were  back  at  the  dock  with  the  catch  of  the  day 
cleaned  and  the  cabin  floor  scrubbed. 

I  was  glad  to  go  on  shore  and  rest,  having  lost  my  lurch  in  the 
lake,  but  the  crew  still  had  two  or  three  hburs  work  ahead.  The  nets 
had  to  be  boiled,  to  keep  them  from  rotting,  and  then  spread  on  reels 
to  dry.  After  that  the  nets  to  be  set  on  the  following  day  were  to  be 
wound  off  the  reels  into  boxes.  While  the  boat  crew  were  looking 
after  the  nets,  the  men  in  the  fish  market  sorted  the  fish  and  put  them 
on  ice. 


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86  THE  SCIEXriFJC  MONTHLY 

Kalmbach's  fish  market,  in  Sturgeon  Bay,  is  an  interesting  place. 
It  is  well  equipped  to  care  for  all  sorts  of  lake  fishes  and  does  both 
wholesale  and  retail  business.  The  owner  operates  three  boats  which 
fish  on  a  co-operative  basis,  the  owner  furnishing  nets  and  boats  and 
the  crew  getting  a  certain  percentage  of  the  catch.  At  the  market  fishes 
from  pound  nets  are  bought,  mostly  sheepshead  and  perch,  and  line 
fishermen  bring  in  a  number  of  pickerel  each  day.  The  retail  depart- 
ments sells  fish  to  all  who  will  buy — tattered  urchins,  pretty  girls, 
hotel  managers,  dames  in  silken  gowns  come  for  fresh  fish.  Behind 
the  market  are  three  modern  smoke  houses  where  delectable  chubs  are 
prepared. 


B. 


/<— FISHING  BOAT  AT  THE  LOCK 

fl— UNLOADING  BOXES  OF  LAKE  FISH 

C— BOILING  NETS  TO  KEEP  THEM  FROM  ROTTING 


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FISHING  IX  LAKE  MICHIGAX  87 

Accordirg  to  the  Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Fisheries  for  1918  the  value  of  the  equipment  used  for  fishing  in  Lake 
Michigan  in  1917  amounted  to  $4,038,927.  This  amount  includes  boats, 
nets,  traps,  lines,  shore  property,  and  the  cash  capital  necessary  for 
operation.  The  returns  from  the  fisheries  amounted  to  $2,270,859 — 
a  very  fair  amount  for  the  capital  invested.  The  fishes  furnishing  this 
revenue  were  as  follows: 

Fish.  Pounds  Value. 

Trout,  fresh  8,679,845  $856,228.00 

Trout,    salted    12,820  259.00 

Ciscoes  (chubs,  bloaters,  etc.),  fresh 15,341,588  708,038.00 

Ciscoes,  salted  and  smoked 2,917,766  139,344.00 

\vhitefish,    fresh    3,145,780  327,991.00 

Whitefish,   salted    28,048  2,174.00 

Perch,   fresh    2,361,071  11641900 

Perch,    salted    1,725  81.00 

Suckers,   fresh    2,103,163  74,803.00 

Suckers,  salted   14,1 10  625.00 

Wall-eyed  pike  13-2.024  18,445.00 

Carp    246,503  7.500.00 

Catfish  and  bullheads  164466  6,627.00 

Pickerel     40,597  3.375-00 

Sturgeon,  Caviar   346  904.00 

Sturgeon    10,805  2,517.00 

Crawfish    80,495  4,427.00 

Lawyer    166,785  1,436.00 

Rock  bass   1,714  137.00 

Buffalo    1,290  56.00 

During  1917  the  Great  Lakes  as  a  whole  yielded  $6,416,477  on  a 
total  investment  of  $10,732,879.  In  Lake  Michigan  fourteen-fifteenths 
•of  the  product  of  the  fisheries  came  from  the  species  which  were 
•caught  in  deep  water.  In  Lake  Erie,  which  is  shallower,  more  than 
half  the  value  of  the  fisheries  also  came  from  deep  water.  These  lakes 
are  in  marked  contrast  to  those  in  the  course  of  the  Mississippi  River 
(Lake  Pepin,  Lake  Keokuk)  ^  where  practically  all  the  revenue  comes 
from  shallow  water  fishes — carp,  buffalo,  dogfish,  catfishes,  sheeps- 
head,  etc. 

The  fishes  in  Lake  Michigan,  which  are  of  most  value  commercially, 
not  only  live  on  or  near  the  bottom  in  deep  water,  but  secure  their 
food  there.  The  soft  bottom  ooze,  directly  or  indirectly,  supports  many 
detritus-feeding  crustaceans  (Pontoporeia,  Mysis),  clams  (Sphaeri- 
dae),  and  insect  larvae  (mostly  those  of  midges  and  may  flies).  The 
-ciscoes,  which  are  the  most  abundant  fishes,  the  little  cottids,  the  long- 
nosed  sucker,  and  the  whitefish  feed  largely  on  this  bottom  fauna.  The 
trout  and  lawyer  are  primarily  fish  eaters.  All  these  fishes  are  true 
deep-water  species  which  have  not,  in  the  long  period  since  glacial 
times,  migrated  to  any  extent  into  small  inland  lakes  or  into  streams. 
They  are  at  home  in  the' cool  depths  of  large  lakes — where  there  is 
always  low  temperature,  great  pressure,  and  little  or  no  light. 

2 Annual  Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Fisheries  to  the 
Secretary  of  Commerce,  pp.  78,  79. 


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88  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


CLEANING  FISH  ON  THE  WAY  HOME 

In  the  shallow  waters  of  Lake  Michigan  the  yellow  perch  is  the 
most  abundant  species.  It  is  rather  omnivorous  in  its  food  habits,  and 
is  at  home  in  a  variety  of  habitats.  These  characteristics  probably  ac- 
count for  its  abundance,  but  for  some  reason  it  does  not  go  into  deep 
water.  The  pickerel  and  pikes,  which  are  common,  are  fish  eaters. 
The  sheepshead  prefers  snails  to  other  foods.  The  other  shallow  water 
fifihes  which  are  of  commercial  importance  are  dependent  on  aquatic 
vegetation  and  the  small  animals  which  live  among  plants  for  food. 
Where  vegetation  is  plentiful,  as  on  swampy  shores  and  at  the  mouths 
of  rivers,  they  are  abundant. 

The  ability  of  any  body  of  water  to  produce  large  numbers  of 
fishes  depends  primarily  on  its  food  resources.  Somewhere  in  the 
shore  vegetation,  or  in  the  microscopic  life  of  the  open  water,  or  in 
the  soft  bottom  mud  there  must  be  sufficient  quantity  to  permit  many 
fishes  to  maintain  themselves  from  day  to  day.  In  Lake  Michigan  the 
great  bulk  of  the  fish  food  is  in  or  near  the  bottom  mud.  Lake  Erie 
with  its  larger  area  of  shallow  water  has  a  different  ratio  of  food  re- 
sources and  supports  more  shore  fishes. 

Lake  Pepin,  which  is  really  not  a  true  lake,  but  an  expansion  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  has  quite  different  food  resources  for  fishes.  The 
temperature  of  this  lake  is  rather  uniform  at  all  depths  and  varies 
markedly  with  the  seasons.  The  bottom  shifts  continually  and  does 
not  support  an  abundant  fauna.     Hiere  are  none  of  the  deep  water 


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FISHING  IN  LAKE  MICHIGAN  89 

fishes  of  lakes  here,  but  many  species  peculiar  to  rivers — spoonbill, 
redhorses,  quillbacks,  sand  sturgeon,  etc.  The  fishes  in  Lake  Pepin 
feed  more  on  the  microscopic  organisms  in  the  water  and  the  foods 
dependoit  on  aquatic  vegetation  than  those  in  Lake  Michigan.  This 
means  that  the  food  resources  for  the  fishes  that  man  makes  commer- 
cial use  of  are  not  in  Lake  Pepin  (or  in  the  Mississippi  River)  itself 
but  along  the  shores  and  in  the  tributary  swamps  and  lakes.  A  river 
is  a  highway  to  feeding  groimds  in  lakes,  swamps,  or  other  habitats 
where  fish  foods  are  abundant  and  many  fishes  pass  through  it.  The 
open  water  of  a  large  river  contains  food  for  fishes  as  microscopic 
plankton  organisms  which  float  in  the  water,  but  its  bottom  is  rather 
barren.  The  plankton  is  derived  largely  from  swamps,  ponds,  shores, 
and  is  not  developed  in  quantity  in  open  water. 

The  problems  relating  to  conservation  of  the  food  resources  of  the 
fishes  which  have  commercial  value  are  not  the  same  in  Lake  Pepin 
and  Lake  Michigan.  Because  the  former  resembles  a  river  in  being 
largely  dependent  on  is  tributary  lakes  and  swamps  for  food,  it  has 
a  more  precarious  food  supply.  Rainfall  controls  the  height  of  its 
water  and  the  availability  of  its  food  resources.  If  the  swamps  along 
the  Mississippi  are  ever  filled  or  drained  to  further  agriculture,  the 
fisheries  must  suffer.  If  the  access  of  fishes  to  tributary  lakes  is  cut 
off  by  dams,  or  if  the  value  of  the  river  as  a  highway  is  destroyed  by 
the  presence  of  the  wastes  of  commerce  in  the  water,  fishes  must  de- 
crease in  numbers.  The  continued  success  of  the  fisheries  of  the 
Mississippi  depends  largely  on  the  conservation  of  the  habitats  tribu- 
tary to  the  river  itself.  The  fisheries  in  Lake  Michigan  have  greater 
hope  of  continued  stability  because  the  food  resources  of  the  commer- 


KALMBACH'S  FISH  MARKET 


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90  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

cial  fishes  are  in  deep  water,  where  they  are  less  likely  to  be  depleted 
or  destroyed  by  civilization. 

The  quantity  of  food  available  limits  the  number  of  fishes  that 
can  exist  in  a  given  volume  of  natural  water,  but  whether  iishes  grow 
to  large  size  is  dependent  on  other  factors.  Stagnation  or  continued 
movement  of  the  water  may  make  it  impossible  for  fishes  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  foods  which  might  otherwise  be  available.  Parasites  may 
be  so  abundant  as  to  kill  fishes  or  impede  their  growth.  To  state  the 
case  briefly — the  number  of  fishes  that  may  exist  depends  largely  on 
food  resources,  but  ability  of  fishes  to  grow  to  large  size  depends  on 
the  opportunities  they  have  to  live  a  healthy,  normal  life  and  ^row. 
In  this  connection  true  lake  habitats  appear  to  have  the  advantage  over 
those  of  rivers  in  their  stability.  The  bottom  and  the  deep  water  of 
Lake  Michigan  are  dependable;  they  can  be  counted  on  to  furnish  about 
the  same  amount  of  food  each  year  and  to  offer  safe  retreats.  The 
food  for  fishes  in  Lake  Pepin  depends  on  rainfall  and  varies  in  differ- 
ent years.  The  variation  in  the  height  of  the  water  also  makes  condi- 
tions for  breeding  and  shelter  uncertain. 

The  inland  fisheries  of  the  United  States  constitute  great  natural 
resources  which  ought  to  be  as  carefully  and  as  scientifically  conserved 
as  farm  lands,  forests  or  water  power.  Yet  in  proportion  to  their  value, 
they  have  received  comparatively  little  attention.  There  are  stations 
for  hatching  eggs,  and  cars  for  distributing  young  fishes  for  stocking 
inland  waters.  There  are  several  well-equipped  stations  for  the  inves- 
tigation of  problems  relating  to  marine  fisheries.  For  fresh- water 
there  is  only  one  station  where  scientific  work  concerned  with  fisheries 
is  undertaken — on  the  Mississippi  River  at  Fairport,  Iowa.  This  paper 
attempts  to  point  out  that  the  fundamental  problems  relating  to  the 
conservation  of  lake  fishes  are  different  from  those  in  rivers. 


THE  GULLS  FOLLOW  THE  FISHING  BOATS  ALL  DAY  LONG 


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THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIEXCE 


91 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE 


THE  UTILIZATION  AND  CON- 
SERVATION OF  THE  NATURAL 
RESOURCES  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES 

No  part  of  the  world  is  more  richly 
endowed  by  nature  with  all  that  is 
necessary  for  the  building  of  a  great 
nation  than  the  United  States ;  where 
have  these  natural  resources  been 
used  in  a  more  wasteful  and  prodigal 
manner?  Our  nation  has  prospered, 
but  at  the  expense  of  a  milch  larger 
consumption  and  loss  of  its  resources 
than  was  necessary,  and  we  are  now 
actually  confronted  with  the  question 
as  to  how  long  that  which  remains 
will  avail  to  maintain  us.  Our  civili- 
zation is  as  dependent  on  power, 
light,  heat,  metals,  lumber  and  other 
material  supplies,  as  it  is  on  the  air 
we  breathe,  and,  if  it  is  to  endure, 
we  must  quickly  recognize  that  the 
utilization  of  these  necessities  must 
be  based  upon  the  greatest  economy 
compatible  with  effectiveness. 

Reared  in  the  midst  of  national 
abundance,  the  idea  has  become  a  mat- 
ter of  common  expression  that  when 
our  present  resources  are  gone 
"something  else  will  be  found  to  take 
their  place,"  or  that  because  we  have 
not  as  yet  suffered  for  the  want  of 
any  of  them,  the  time  will  never  come 
when  the  nation  will  suffer  in  conse- 
quence of  our  past  and  present  prodi- 
gality. But  whatever  may  be  the  ad- 
vances of  applied  science,  the  re- 
sources that  nature  supplies  will  al- 
ways be  needed. 

The  natural  wealth  that  we  have 
inherited  from  the  past  is  far  from 
inexhaustible,  and  for  this  generation 
to  pass  away  leaving  a  depleted  herit- 
age for  those  to  come,  with  which  to 
maintain  and  advance  th^  civilization 
that  we  have  here  developed,  would 
be  a  folly  and  a  grievous  iniquity. 

Much  that  is  called  development  is 


really  destructive  exploitation;  much 
that  we  call  production  is  really  con- 
sumption; much  that  we  call  utiliza- 
tion is  merely  thr  sacrifice  for  small 
immediate  profits  of  things  that  will 
be  badly  needed  in  the  future.  Nature 
has  been  so  lavish  with  us  that  we 
have  not  felt  the  necessity  of  looking 
at  these  facts  in  their  true  light,  but 
our  nation  and  our  civilization  must 
have  a  future  as  well  as  a  past. 

It  seems,  therefore,  to  be  an  im- 
portant duty  of  scientific  men  to  dis- 
seminate information  and  instruction 
as  to  the  real  condition  of  our  natural 
resources;  to  warn  the  nation  where 
danger  of  exhaustion  lies,  and  in  the 
light  of  the  best  scientific  and  prac- 
tical knowledge  that  we  now  possess, 
and  through  new  researches  directed 
to  this  end,  to  teach  the.  ^fays  in 
which  our  resources  may  best  be 
maintained.  These  great  economic 
problems  are  so  involved  with  indus- 
trial, financial  and  political  questions 
that  little  direct  influence  can  be  ex- 
erted without  a  long  educational  cam- 
paign. This  will  in  time  bear  fruit, 
but  the  longer  the  time  that  will  be 
required,  the  more  important  is  an 
immediate  beginning.  Exact  scientific 
knowledge  alone  can  guide  in  this 
large  field,  but  even  science  can  not 
take  care  of  industrial  waste.  Such 
correction  can  be  made  only  by  an 
enlightened  moral  sense. 

THE  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE 
ON  NATURAL  RESOURCES 

At  the  instance  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Sciences,  a  committee  of 
that  body,  and  similar  committees  ap- 
pointed by  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science  and 
the  National  Research  Council  have 
held  two  meetings  at  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History  in  New 


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Copyright   by   Undencood   and   Undancood, 

JAMES    ROWLAND    ANGELL 

Intulled  on  June  22  ••  President  of  Yale  University.     Dr.  AageU  haa  been  profeMor  of  paychology 

and  dean  of  the  facultiea  in  the  University   of   Chicago.     During   the  past   two   years  he  has  served 

successively  as  chairman  of  the  National  Research  Council  and  president  of  the  Carnegie  Corporation 


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THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE 


98 


York  City,  to  consider  the  status, 
utilization  and  protection  of  our  nat- 
ural resources.  This  joint  board, 
which  has  been  authorized  to  assume 
the  name  of  the  Executive  Commit- 
tee on  Natural  Resources,  plans  to 
promote  the  scientifically  directed  ef- 
fort and  education  for  the  most  ef- 
ficient and  advantageous  use  of  our 
natural  resources. 

The  committee  plans  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  paid  executive  and  the  nec- 
essary clerical  force,  with  an  office  in 
Washington.  Immediate  steps  will  be 
taken  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  as 
many  as  possible  of  the  educational 
and  scientific  institutions  of  the  coun- 
try. The  committee  will  not  duplicate 
the  work  of  any  existing  organiza- 
tion; its  purpose  is  to  help  them  in 
securing  better  support  In  the  mat- 
ter of  correcting  and  furthering  leg- 
islation that  may  bear  on  the  subject 
of  our  natural  resources,  the  commit- 
tee expects  to  provide  the  facts  and 
information  and  furnish  a  broad  sci- 
entific basis  for  State  and  Federal  ac- 
tion, keeping  free  from  specific  legis- 
lative problems. 

This  Executive  Committee  on  Nat- 
ural Resources  lays  claim  to  public 
confidence,  as  it  is  composed  of  sci- 
entific men  of  standing,  representing 
the  leading  scientific  organizations  of 
the  country.  It  is  hoped  that  among 
the  great  body  of  patriotic  and  pub- 
lic-spirited citizens,  there  will  be 
many  to  join  in  ensuring  the  initiation 
and  maintenance  of  the  work  of  the 
committee  by  their  moral  and  finan- 
cial support  and  encouragement,  or 
by  personal  work  for  its  success. 

The  following  is  the  present  mem- 
bership of  the  committee : 

Representing  the  National  Academy 
of  Sciences 
John  C.  Merriam,  President,  the 
Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington; 
John  M.  Clarke,  Director,  New  York 
State  Museum;  J.  McKeen  Cattell, 
Editor,  The  Science  Press, 

Representing  the  National  Research 
Council 
John  C.  Merriam,  John  M.  Clarke, 
J.  McKeen  Cattell,  Vernon  Kellogg, 


Secretary,  National  Research  Council ; 
C.  E.  McQung,  Director,  Zoological 
Laboratory,  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Representing  the  American  Associa- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Sci- 
ence 

John  C.  Merriam,  Henry  S.  Graves, 
Former  Chief,  U.  S.  Forest  Service; 
Isaiah  Bowman,  Director,  American 
Geographical  Society ;  Barrington 
Moore,  President,  American  Ecologi- 
cal Society;  V.  E.  Shelford,  Professoi 
of    Zoology,    University    of    Illinois. 

Chairman,  John   C.   Merriam. 

Vice-chairman,  John  M.  Clarke. 

Secretary,  Albert  L.  Barrows,  Na- 
tional Research  Council,  1701  Massa- 
chusetts Avenue,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Assistant  Secretary,  Willard  G.  Van 
Name,  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

MME.  CURIE'S  VISIT  TO  THE 
UNITED   STATES 

The  events  arranged  in  honor  of 
Mme.  Curie  have  been  fully  reported, 
but  it  may  be  desirable  to  place  them 
in  consecutive  order  for  permanent 
record. 

Mme.  Curie  first  visited  Smith  and 
Vassar  colleges.  On  May  17  she  was 
given  a  luncheon  in  New  York  by 
the  American  Chemical  Society,  the 
American  Electrochemical  Society, 
the  Chemists  Club  and  American  sec- 
tions of  the  Societe  de  Chimie  in- 
dustrielle  and  the  Society  of  Chemi- 
cal Industry.  In  the  evening  a  recep- 
tion in  honor  of  Mme.  Curie  was 
given  at  the  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History  by  the  New  York 
Academy  of  Sciences  and  the  New 
York  Mineralogical  Club. 

On  Wednesday  afternoon  the 
American  Association  of  University 
Women  welcomed  Madame  Curie  in 
Carnegie  Hall.  Addresses  were  made 
by  Dr.  Florence  Sabin,  professor  of 
histology  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity, and  Dr.  Alice  Hamilton,  of 
the  Harvard  Medical  School.  Presi- 
dent Pendleton,  of  Wellesley  College, 
announced  the  award  to  Mme.  Curie 
of  the  special  Ellen  Richards  Re- 
search Prize  of  $2,000.    On  Thursday 


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THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE 


95 


evening,  at  a  dinner  given  in  her 
honor  by  the  National  Institute  of 
Social  Science,  the  gold  medal  of  the 
society  was  presented  to  her. 

I'hc  gram  of  radium  valued  at 
$120,000,  -a  gift  from  the  women  of 
America,  was  presented  to  Mme. 
Curie  by  President  Harding  on  May 
20.  M.  Jusserand,  the  French  Am- 
bassador, made  a  brief  introduction. 
After  the  presentation  Mme.  Curie 
responded  as  follows : 

I  can  not  express  to  you  the  emo- 
tion which  fills  my  heart  in  this  mo- 
ment. You,  the  chief  of  this  great 
Republic  of  the  United  States,  honor 
me  as  no  woman  has  ever  been  hon- 
ored in  America  before.  The  destiny 
of  a  nation  whose  women  can  do 
what  your  countrywomen  do.  to-day 
through  you,  Mr.  President,  is  sure 
and  safe.  It  gives  me  confidence  in 
the  destiny  of  democracy. 

I  accept  this  rare  gift,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, with  the  hope  that  I  may  make 
it  serve  mankind.  I  thank  your  coun- 
trywomen in  the  name  of  France.  I 
thank  them  in  the  name  of  humanity 
which  we  all  wish  so  much  to  make 
happier.  I  love  you  all,  my  American 
friends,  very  much. 

In  the  evening  at  a  meeting  held 
under  the  auspices  of  the  U.  S.  Na- 
tional Museum,  Miss  Julia  Lathrop 
extended  to  Mme.  Curie  greetings, 
and  Dr.  Robert  A.  Millikan,  of  the 
University  of  Chicago,  gave  an  ad- 
dress on  radium,  describing  the  re- 
searches that  led  to  its  isolation  by 
Mme.  Curie.  On  the  following  day 
Mme.  Curie  set  in  motion  the 
machinery  of  the  new  low  tempera- 
ture laboratory  of  the  Bureau  of 
Mines,  which  is  dedicated  to  her. 

The  following  week  Mme.  Curie 
visited  the  laboratories  at  Pittsburgh 
where  was  refined  the  gram  of 
radium  presented  to  her. 

Subsequently  Mme.  Curie  visited 
the  Grand  Canyon  and  Yellowstone 
Park.  Returning  to  Chicago,  the 
Wolcott  Gibbs  medal  was  conferred 
on  her  by  the  Chicago  Section  of  the 
American  Chemical  Society,  and  she 
was  entertained  by  the  University  of 
Chicago  and  by  the  Associated 
Women's  Organizations.  After  a 
visit  to  Niagara  Falls  and  a  reception 


at  Buffalo,  she  proceeded  to  Boston, 
where  among  other  functions  a  din- 
ner was  given  in  her  honor  by  the 
American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sci- 
ences. Mme.  Curie  then  planned  to 
visit  New  Haven  to  be  present  at  the 
installation  of  President  Angell  on 
June  22.  She  expected  to  sail  with  her 
daughters  for  France  on  June  25. 

EXCHANGE    OF    PROFESSORS 

OF  ENGINEERING  BETWEEN 

AMERICAN  AND  FRENCH 

UNIVERSITIES 

There  has  been  for  some  time  a 
regular  annual  exchange  of  profes- 
sors between  individual  universities 
in  France  and  America  in  regular 
academic  fields,  such  as  literature, 
history,  law,  fine  arts,  economics,  etc., 
but  no  such  exchange  in  engineering 
or  applied  science.  These  subjects 
are  taught  in  France  under  special 
faculties,  not  included  in  existing  ex- 
changes with  America.  Furthermore, 
the  French  methods  of  teaching  these 
subjects  are  unlike  our  American 
methods,  for  various  reasons,  based 
on  the  history,  traditions  and  soci- 
ology of  the  two  countries.  The  war 
showed  the  importance  of  engineer- 
ing in  production  and  distribution, 
and  the  many  ties  of  friendship 
which  bind  us  to  France  depend  in 
various  ways  upon  applied  science. 
It  should  therefore,  be  to  the  mutual 
advantage  of  France  and  America  to 
become  better  acquainted  with  each 
other's  ideals  and  viewpoints,  in  the 
study  and  in  the  teaching  of  these 
subjects. 

With  these  purposes  in  mind,  the 
late  Dr.  R.  C.  Maclaurin,  in  1919,  as 
president  of  the  Massachusetts  In- 
stitute of  Technology,  consulted  the 
presidents  of  six  universities  on  or 
near  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  as  to 
whether  they  deemed  it  desirable  to 
cooperate  in  a  joint  exchange  of 
professors  with  France,  on  a  plan 
definitely  outlined.  Their  replies  be- 
ing favorable  to  the  project,  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed,  with  one  mem- 
ber from  each  of  the  seven  institu- 


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96 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


tions,  to  report  on  the  plan,  and  on 
methods  of  carrying  it  into  effect 
The  committee  met  in  December, 
1919,  and  ratified  the  cooperative 
plan  with  some  few  modifications. 
The  present  president  of  the  commit- 
tee is  Director  Russell  H.  Chitten- 
den, of  Yale  University,  and  its  sec- 
retary Dean  J.  B.  Whitehead  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University. 

Since  the  Institute  of  International 
Education,  in  New  York,  concerns 
itself  with  the  interchange  of  college 
students  and  teachers  from  all  parts 
of  the  world,  the  committee  request- 
ed the  director.  Dr.  Stephen  P.  Dug- 
gan,  to  undertake  the  negotiations 
between  the  committee  and  the 
French  university  administration.  The 
French  administration  responded 
cordially  to  the  offer  for  the  annual 
exchange  of  a  professor.  The 
French  have  selected,  for  their  first 
representative,  Professor  J.  Cavalier, 
rector  of  the  University  of  Toulouse, 
a  well-known  authority  on  metallur- 
gical chemistry,  to  come  to  America 
this  fall,  and  to  divide  his  time  dur- 
ing the  ensuing  academic  year,  among 
the  seven  cooperating  institutions, 
namely,  Columbia,  Cornell,  Harvard, 
Johns  Hopkins,  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology,  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Yale. 

The  American  universities  have  se- 
lected as  their  outgoing  representa- 
tive for  the  same  first  year  (1921-22), 
Dr.  A.  E.  Kennelly,  professor  of 
electrical  engineering  at  Harvard 
University  and  the  Massachusetts  In- 
stitute of  Technology. 


SCIENTIFIC   ITEMS 
We   record   with   regret  the   death 
of     Edward     Bennett    Rosa,      chief 
physicist  of  the  Bureau  of  Standards 


and  of  Abbott  Thayer,  the  distin- 
guished artist.  Readers  of  this  jour- 
nal will  remember  Dr.  Rosa's  recent 
article  on  the  economic  importance  of 
the  scientific  work  of  the  government 
and  Mr.  Thayer's  articles  on  protec- 
tive coloration. 

The  Royal  Society  has  elected  as 
foreign  members  Dr.  Albert  Calmette, 
of  the  Pasteur  Institute;  Dr.  Henri 
Deslandres,  of  the  Paris  Observa- 
tory; Professor  Albert  Einstein,  of 
tlie  University  of  Berlin;  Professor 
Albin  Haller,  of  the  University  of 
Paris;  Professor  E.  B.  Wilson,  of 
Columbia  University,  and  Professor 
P.  Zeeman,  of  the  University  of  Am- 
sterdam. 

Professor  Albert  Einstein  sailed 
for  Liverpool  on  the  Celtic  on  May 
30.  He  has  since  delivered  the 
Adamson  lecture  of  the  University  of 
Manchester  and  given  lectures  at 
King's  College,  London,  and  other  in- 
stitutions. 

A  COMMISSION  of  five  engineers  has 
been  appointed  to  visit  England  in 
June  to  present  the  John  Fritz  medal 
to  Sir  John  Hadfield,  in  recognition 
of  his  scientific  research  work.  The 
members  of  the  commission  are  as 
follows :  Dr.  Ira  N.  Hollis,  president 
of  Worcester  Polytechnic  Institute; 
Charles  T.  Main,  of  Boston,  repre- 
senting the  American  Society  of  Civil 
Engineers ;  Col.  Arthur  S.  Dwight,  of 
New  York,  representing  the  Ameri- 
can Institute  of  Mining  and  Metal- 
lurgical Engineers ;  Ambrose  Swasey, 
of  Cleveland,  of  the  John  Fritz  medal 
award  board  and  the  American  So- 
ci:ty  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  and 
Dr.  F.  B.  Jewett,  of  New  York,  of 
the  American  Institute  of  Electrical 
Engineers. 


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VOL.  XIII,  NO.  2  I      JUL  ?9  1921   )  AUGUST,  1921 


THE  SCIENTIFIC 
MONTHLY 

EDITED  BY  J.  McKEEN  CATTELL 


CONTENTS 

THE  SCIENTIFIC  CAREER  FOR  WOMEN.     Dr.  Simon  Flexner 97 

'THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  ZEITGEIST.     Dr.  G.  Stanley  Hall 106 

SWISS  GEODESY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  COAST  SURVEY. 

ProfesBor  Florian  Cajori 1 17 

THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY.      Professor  John  Johnston 130 

THE  BIOLOGY  OF  DEATH— EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES  ON  THE  DURATION 

OF   LIFE.      Professor   Raymond   Pearl 144 

ADAPTATIONS  AMONG  INSECTS  OF  FIELD  AND  FOREST.     Dr.  E.  P.  Felt 165 

STUDIES  OF  THE  OCEAN.      H.  S.  H.  the  Prince  of  Monaco 171 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE: 

The  Second  International  Congress  of  Eugenics;  The  Edinburgh  Meeting  of 
the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science;  Meetings  of  British 
and  American  Chemists;  Edward  Bennett  Rosa;  Scientific  Items 186 


THE    SCIENCE    PRESS 

PUBUCATION  OFFICE:    11  LIBERTY  ST.,  UTICA,  N.  Y. 
EDITORIAL  AND  BUSINESS  OFFICE:  GARRISON,  N.  Y. 

Sini^e  Number*  50  Cents.  Yearly  Subscription,  $5.00 

COPTRICHT  1921  BY  THE  SCIENCE  PRESS 
Essemd  m  weond-elaM  natter  Febnury  8,  1921,  at  the  Post  Office  at  Utlca,  N.  T.,  voder  the  Act  of  March  3.  1879. 


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i 


I 


V 


Hi 


-^^^^^>^C*^F^^B^fiB^B^B^B^a^B^^lB 


yf^CnVTTY.  Today,  every  walk  in  life  has  been  divided  and 
^^y1  sub-divided.  Oxford  books  reflect  this  progress  both  in  their 
^*^  mde  variety  and  ever  increasing  number. 

qA  selection  of  those  recently  issued, 

SPACE  AND  TIME  IN  CONTEMPORARY  PHYSICS 

^y  MORTTZ  SCHUCK  ^/  ^2.50 

An  adequate,  yet  dear  account  of  Einstein's  epoch-making  theories  of  relativity. 

ON  GRAVITATION  AND  RELATIVITY 

^y  Ralph  Allen  Sampson  90c 

The  Halley  lecture  delivered  by  the  Astronomer  Royal  for  Scotland. 

SOME  FAMOUS  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  THEORY  OF 
NUMBERS 

Sy  G.  H.  Hardy  ^1.15 

Inaugural  lecture  by  die  Savilian  Profcnor  of  Geometiy  at  Ozfccd. 

TUTORS  UNTO  CHRIST 

^y  Alfred  E.  Garvib  "l^t  ^2.25 

An  interesting  introduction  to  the  study  of  religions. 

FUNGAL  DISEASES  OF  THE  COMMON  LARCH 

Sy  W.  E.  HiLEY  ^5.65 

An  elaborate  investigation  into  larch  canker  with   descriptions  of  all  other  known 
dispayi  of  the  larch  and  numerous  fine  illustrations. 

THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  PLANTS 

Sy  M.  E.  Hardy  ?3.00 

More  advanced  than  the  author's  earlier  work  discussing  fully  the  conditions  in  which 
plants  flourish  and  their  distribution  throughout  the  earth.  *■ 

SCHOOLS  OF  GAUL 

"By  Theodore  Haarhoff  ^5.65 

An  important  study  of  Pagan  and  Christian  education  in  the  last  century  of  the 
Western  empire. 

THE  ELEMENTS  OF  DESCRIPTIVE  ASTRONOMY 

^y  E.  O.  Tancock  ^1.35 

A  simple  and  attractive  description  of  the  heavens  oilnilatpd  to  arouse  the  interest 
of  those  who  know  little  or  nothing  of  the  subject. 

RECENT  DEVELOPMENTS  IN  EUROPEAN  THOUGHT 
Edited  by  F.  S,  Marvin  ^^  ^3.00 

Tivelve  essays  bv  noted  scholars  summarizing  the  work  of  the  leading  European 
thinkers  in  the  last  fifty  year& 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  ATOMIC  THEORY 

'By  A.  N.  Mbldrum  70c 

A  brief  historical   sketch   attributing   to   William   Higgins,  not  John  Dalton  as 
generally  supposed,  priority  in  the  discovery  of  the  theory. 

c/ft  all  booksellers  or  from  the  publishers. 

OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS  ^American  <Branch 
35  WEST  32nd  STREET,  NEW  YORK 

XFORD  BOOKS 

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l^8gEt5?gtii«^t3J^e8^^^^^^»^^^S^Et^?Ct3?^^ 


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JUL  29  1921 


THE  SCIENTIFIC 
MONTHLY 


AUGUST.  1921 


THE  SaENTIFIC  CAREER  FOR  WOMEN  ^ 

By  DR.  SIMON  FLEXNER 

THE  ROCKEFELLER  INSTITUTE  FOR  MEDICAL  RESEARCH 

MAY  18  of  this  year  witnessed  a  notable  public  event  A  gathering 
of  several  thousand  persons,  for  the  most  part  college  women, 
filling  throughout  the  huge  auditorium  of  Carnegie  Hall  in  New  York, 
assembled  to  do  honor  to  a  woman  who  had  added  a  great  new  fact 
to  sdence,  and  that  audience  was  only  one  of  the  many  that  have 
assembled  during  the  past  few  we^  for  the  same  purpose.  Following 
as  it  did  so  closely  on  the  great  war  and  the  homage  being  paid  to 
military  and  diplomatic  leaders  of  the  victorious  nations,  the  occasion 
stands  forth  by  contrast  as  signalling  a  new  and  precious  order  in 
which  the  triumphs  of  the  intellect,  in  this  instance  as  embodied  in 
Madame  Curie,  received  a  merited  recognition  and  reward.  The  state- 
ment is  often  heard  that  the  achievements  which  society  most  honors, 
even  in  times  of  peace,  are  not  the  laborious  ones  of  learning,  but 
rather  the  more  spectacular  ones  of  the  military  profession;  and  it  is 
just  this  perversion  of  values  which  now  perhaps  more  than  in  any 
previous  period  is  so  disheartening.  And  yet  the  event  just  mentioned 
by  no  means  lends  support  to  this  common  point  of  view,  but  may 
rather  be  looked  upon  as  affording  a  new  hope  and  inspiring  a  new 
courage  with  which  to  meet  the  immeasurably  important  problems  of 
society  now  pending. 

It  is  perhaps  also  permissible  to  find  significance  in  the  fact  that 
the  recipient  of  the  high  honors  now  being  conferred  everywhere  in 
this  country  on  the  discoverer  of  radium  is  a  woman.  In  view  of  the 
discovery  itself  and  the  impetus  given  by  it  to  physical,  chemical,  and 
even  biological  research,  it  may  seem  idle  to  ask  the  question  I  have 
so  often  heard  asked  whether  there  exists  a  scientific  career  for  women. 
But  there  are  without  doubt  many  people  who  will  insist  that  one  such 
achievement,  great  as  it  is,  can  not  be  taken  as  setting  aside  for  once 
and    all  speculation  on    the  subject.     They  may  continue  to    doubt 

1  An  address  given  at  the  commencement  exercises  of  Bryn  Mawr 
College,  on  June  2,  1921. 

VOL.  XIH.— 7. 


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98  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

None  the  leas  one  must  admit  that  Madame  Curie's  example  is  a  great 
and  encouraging  one  for  women. 

The  scientific  career  is  not  under  all  circumstances  one  thing. 
Its  opportunities  adapt  themselves  rather  to  different  times  and  differ- 
ent types  of  mind.  One  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  aphorisms  was  that 
truth  is  always  the  daughter  of  her  period  We  readily  distinguish 
two  main  kinds  of  scientific  achievement  or  discovery  so  called — one  of 
which  is  the  outgrowth  or  the  efflorescence  of  a  line  of  investigation 
dealing  with  things  predictable.  The  result  accomplished  may  be  new 
and  important,  but  having  been  foreshadowed  by  the  march  of  scien- 
tific eveots,  it  lacks  essential  novelty.  For  this  kind  of  discovery, 
knowledge — often  deep  and  precise — and  method,  but  DOt  the  highest 
talent,  are  demanded.  The  other  partakes  of  the  accidental  rather  than 
the  incidental;  it  never  comes  as  a  direct,  but  rather  as  an  unexpected 
result  or  side  issue  to  some  line  of  inquiry,  as  something  for  which 
there  is  no  precedent,  and  hence  it  may  be  easily  overlooked.  Dis- 
covery in  liiis  field  is  more  certainly  the  mark  of  that  individuality  to 
which  the  designation  genius  has  been  applied.  Perhaps  the  qualities 
which  distinguish  it  may  be  aptly  defined  under  the  phrase  invented  by 
Pasteur  of  the  ''prepared  mind,"  that  is,  the  mind  so  gifted  with 
imaginative  insight  and  so  fortified  by  accurate  training  as  to  be  alert 
to  peix^ive  and  quick  to  seize  upon  the  novel  and  essential,  which  is 
turned  at  once  to  unexpected  uses.  It  has  been  well  said  that  ''the  dis- 
covery which  has  been  pointed  to  by  theory  is  always  one  of  profound 
interest  and  importance,  but  it  is  usually  the  close  and  crown  of  a  long 
and  fruitful  period;  whereas  the  discovery  ^diich  comes  as  a  puzded 
surprise  usually  marks  a  fresh  epoch  and  opens  a  new  chapter  of 
science."  * 

The  two  kinds  of  adiievement  are  discernible  in  die  work  of  mave 
than  one  great  investigator.  Thus  Pasteur^s  laborious  and  ingenious 
studies  which  led  firrt  to  the  overthrow  of  the  doctrine  of  the  spontane- 
ous generation  of  life,  and  then  by  way  of  the  all  important  demonstra- 
tion of  the  biological  nature  of  the  processes  of  fermentation  and  putre- 
faction to  the  secure  founding  of  the  germ  origin  of  infectious  disease, 
may  be  considered  as  having  been  previously  foreshadowed;  while  his 
epochal  discoveries  in  crystallography  and  in  the  domain  of  immunity 
were  bb  dearly  the  harvests  of  the  excepti<Mially  brilliant  and  prepared 
mind. 

The  history  of  science  contains  not  a  few  instances  in  which  the 
line  of  investigation  being  carried  on  at  a  particular  juncture  by  the 
master  exerts  a  strong,  often  indelible  and  permanently  directive  im- 
pression up<m  a  pupil.  Thus,  for  example,  the  life  work  of  Professor 
Theodore   Richards   in   this   country,   which   has  corrected   and  re- 

1  Lodge,  Oliver,  Bccquerel  Memorial  Lecture,  Journal  of  the  Chemical 
Society.    Transactions  1912.  V.  loi,  II,  p.  2005. 


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THE  SCIENTIFIC  CAREER  FOR  WOMEN  M 

established  the  atomic  weights  of  certain  elements  and  for  which  he 
has  received  the  highest  honors  in  science,  was  begun  under  his  first 
professor  of  chemietry.  In  like  manner  Pasteur  became  imbued  with 
his  master  Delafosse's  enthusiasm  for  crystal  structure,  considered  with 
reference  to  the  relation  of  atoms  to  the  rotatory  power  upon  a  beam 
of  polarized  light  Hence  when  Pasteur  obtained  his  first  position 
of  '^preparateur^'  to  the  professor  of  chemistry,  he  set  himself  the  task 
of  studying  crystal  forms  and  by  good  chance  chose  the  tartrates  in 
which  the  phencMnena  he  was  seeking  appear  in  the  simplest  form.  Had 
he  chosen  other  crystals,  be  would  have  had  to  search  much  longer  to 
find  the  particular  appearances  so  clear  in  them,  but  that  in  the  end 
he  would  have  succeeded  may  be  assumed.  What  was  constantly  in 
Pasteur^s  mind  at  this  early  period  was  the  correladoo  between  a  par- 
ticular crystalline  form  called  hemihedrism  and  rotatory  power.  This 
relation  is  determined  by  little  faces  on  one-half  of  the  edges  of  the 
crystals,  the  existence  of  which  had  already  been  noted  by  two  chem- 
ists, the  one  a  conscientious  observer  without  inspiration,  or  as  the 
French  say  sans  flamme,  and  the  other  preoccupied  vdth  a  theory 
which  he  endeavored  to  fit  to  all  the  facts  which  his  studies  revealed. 
Both  thus  failed  to  understand  their  significance. 

Pasteur's  discovery,  although  strictly  speaking  a  discovery  in  chem- 
istry,  later  had  its  percussion  through  the  entire  realm  of  science  in  a 
manner  so  profound  that  to-day,  seventy  years  after  the  event,  its  re- 
verberations have  not  yet  ceased.  His  biographer  has  described  it  as 
follows: 

^Pasteur  noticed  that  the  crystals  of  tartaric  acid  and  the  tartrates 
had  little  faces  on  <me-half  of  their  edges  or  similar  angles  (hemihed- 
rism). When  the  crystal  was  placed  before  a  glass  the  image  that 
appeared  could  not  be  superposed;  the  comparison  of  the  two  hands 
was  applicable  to  it.  Pasteur  thought  that  this  aspect  of  the  crystal 
might  be  an  index  of  what  existed  within  the  molecules,  a  dissym- 
metry of  form  corresp<Miding  with  molecular  dissymmetry.  Therefore, 
be  reasoned  the  deviati<m  to  the  right  of  the  plane  of  polarization  pro- 
duced by  tartrate  and  the  optical  neutrality  of  the  parataitrate  would 
be  explained  by  a  structural  law.  Tlie  first  of  these  conclusions  was 
confirmed,  but  when  he  came  to  examine  the  crystals  of  parataxtrate 
hoping  to  find  none  of  them  with  faces,  he  experienced  a  keen  dis- 
appointment. The  paratartiate  was  also  bemihedral,  but  die  faces  of 
Bome  of  the  crystals  were  inclined  to  the  right,  and  those  of  others  to 
the  left.  It  then  occurred  to  Pasteur  to  take  up  these  crystals  one  by 
one  and  sort  them  carefmlly,  putting  on  one  side  those  which  turned 
to  the  left,  and  on  the  other  those  which  turned  to  the  right.  He 
thought  that  by  obtaining  their  respective  solutions  in  the  polarizing 
apparatus,  the  two  contrary  bemihedral  forms  would  give  two  contrary 


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100  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

deviations;  and  then  by  mixing  together  an  equal  number  of  each  kind, 
the  resulting  solution  would  be  neutral  and  have  no  action  upon  ligl^ 
Widi  anxious  and  beating  heart  he  proceeded  to  the  polarizing  ap- 
paratus and  exclaimed  ^I  have  it.*  His  excitement  was  such  that  he 
could  not  look  at  the  apparaitus  again;  he  rushed  out  of  the  laboratory, 
not  unlike  Archimedes.  In  the  passage  he  met  a  curaCor  and  embrac* 
ing  him  dragged  him  out  with  him  into  the  Luxembouig  gardens  to  ex- 
plain his  discovery.  Many  confidences  had  been  whispered  under 
the  shade  of  the  tall  trees  of  those  avenues,  but  never  was  there  greater 
or  more  exubecant  joy  on  a  young  man's  face.  He  foresaw  all  the  con- 
sequences of  the  discovery.*  •♦•••« 

In  like  manner  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  discovery  by  Pasteur 
in  1880  of  the  artificial  immunity  to  fowl  cholera,  which  opened  up 
to  exploitation  the  wide  and  varied  field  of  immunity  in  medicine  and 
which  is  to-day  one  of  the  main  achievements  of  medical  science  and  is 
holding  out  still  greater  pr<Hnises  of  progress  in  the  control  of  disease 
ia  the  future,  came  not  as  a  direct  incident,  but  rather  as  an  accidental 
circumstance  to  the  experiments  on  iof  eotion  being  pursued. 

So  it  was  ailso  with  the  discovery  of  spontaneous  radioactivity  by 
Becquerel,  to  which  are  directly  traceable  the  discovery  of  radium,  and 
the  superlative  and  successful  efforts  now  being  made  to  solve  the  age- 
long problem  of  the  atomic  constitution  of  matter;  while  Madame 
Curie's  discovery  of  radium  itself  ivas  not  the  result  of  a  momentary 
inspiration  on  her  part,  but  rather  the  consummation  of  a  labor  extend- 
ing over  many  years,  begun  under  conditions  of  great  hardship  and 
continued  through  obstacles  and  discouragements  which  only  the  great 
in  spirit  surmount 

1  shall  not  tarry  on  the  threshold  of  the  story  to  repeat  to  you 
the  details  of  the  preliminary  steps  in  the  great  career  of  Madame 
Curie,  during  which  she  did  what  was  virtually  the  menial  service  of 
the  Sorbonne,  in  order  to  gain  the  pittance  of  support  which  enabled 
her  to  enter  on  her  scientific  training.  But  in  the  end  her  ability  was 
detected  and  she  was  placed  in  the  laboratory  to  conduct  an  investiga- 
tion leading  to  a  thesis,  and  as  it  happened,  under  the  young  instructor 
who  afterwards  became  her  husband. 

The  story  b^ins  about  1860,  from  which  time  on  many  obser- 
vations had  been  made  on  the  passage  of  electricity  through  tubes 
from  which  nearly  all  the  air  had  been  pumped.  These  studies  led  in 
1879  to  the  discovery  of  the  cathode  rays  of  Sir  William  Crookes  and 
in  1895  to  the  discovery  of  X-rays  by  Rontgen.  A  year  later,  or  to  be 
exact,  on  March  7,  1896,  Becquerel,  who  was  studying  the  general  be- 
havior of  phosphorescent  bodies,  examined  uranium  and  its  com- 
pounds, and  discovered  that  these  substances  gave  off  rays  which  re- 

2  Vallcry-Radot,  The  Life  of  Pasteur,  Eng.  Trans.  Vol.  I,  p.  so. 

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THE  SCIENTIFIC  CAREER  FOR  WOMEN  101 

sembled  the  X-rays  in  their  action  on  photographic  platee.  He  also 
made  die  exb'emely  important  observation  that  the  rays  '^ionizecT'  the 
air  about  them,  or  converted  it  from  an  insulator  to  a  conductor  of 
electricity.  A  gold-leaf  electroscope,  which  had  been  previously 
charged  with  electricity  so  that  its  two  leaves  diverged,  was  discharged, 
wilhi  the  consequent  collapse  of  its  leaves  as  soon  as  uranium  was 
brou^it  near  it. 

Jhe  comparative  ease  and  rapidity  and  metrical  character  of  this 
method  of  examination  induced  Madame  Curie  to  take  as  the  subject  of 
her  doctorial  thesis  the  measurement  of  the  radioactive  powers  of  an 
immense  number  of  minerals,  and  so  led  her  gradually  to  one  of  the 
most  brilliaDt  and  striking  discoveries  of  modem  times^  the  whole 
representing  a  new  epoch  in  our  knowledge  of  atoms  and  therefore  in 
physicoKJiemical  science. '  Her  initial  momentous  observatioin  related 
to  ihie  mineral  pitchblende  from  which  uranium  is  extracted,  and  which 
she  found  to  be  four  or  five  times  as  radioactive  as  uranium  itself. 
There  was,  of  course,  but  one  possible  conclusion:  the  mineral  con- 
taizied  another  active  element  more  powerful  than  uianium.  At  this 
point  her  husband  joined  in  the  quest  and  the  mineral  was  converted 
into  fractioiis,  each  of  which  was  tested  electroscopioally.  The 
bionuth  fraction  showed  the  presence  of  a  powerful  radioactive  sub- 
stance finally  separated,  and  in  honor  of  Madame  Curie's  native 
country  called  polonium;  but  it  was  the  barium  fraction  whidi  was 
most  active  and  which  finally  yielded  a  salt  of  the  new  elemenl  called 
ra^ima.  Thus  it  was  in  1902,  or  after  four  years  of  arduous  and  in- 
q>iring  woric,  that  the  researches  leading  to  the  doctor's  d^ree  but  also 
unlocking  a  new  door  in  physics  were  brought  to  a  temporary  con- 
clusion, and  it  was  not  until  1910,  as  you  know,  that  Madame  Curie 
a<tiially  obtained  the  element  radium  in  a  pure  state.  It  is  of  some 
interest  to  recall  that  the  radium  salt  proved  2,500,000  times  as  active 
as  the  uranium,  the  point  from  which  her  studies  started. 

Honors  flowed  in  upon  the  discoverer.  In  1903,  she  shared  with 
Becquerel  and  her  husband  the  Nobel  prize.  Then  in  1911,  after  the 
isoladoii  of  pure  radium,  she  was  a  second  time  awarded  that  great 
prize  and  in  the  words  of  the  President  of  the  Swedish  Academy,  was 
the  first  laureate  to  be  awarded  this  distinction  twice  as  ''a  proof  of  the 
importance  which  our  Academy  attaches  to  your  discoveries  *  *  *." 
And  yet,  because  she  was  a  woman,  the  French  Institute  declined  to 
elect  her  to  membership  and  die  five  French  academies  voted  in  favor 
of  uphol^fing  '*an  immutable  tradition  against  die  election  of  women 
which  it  seemed  eminently  wise  to  respect.'* 

Great  discoveries  never  stand  isolated  and  hence  it  frequently  hap- 

3  Lodge,  Oliver,  op.  cit- 


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102  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

peoB  that  their  mam  effect  is  to  set  into  motion  as  by-products,  sec- 
ondary or  new  lines  of  researdi,  the  significance  of  which  often  eclipses 
the  great  discovery  from  which  they  took  origin.  Hence  to-day  it  is 
especially  in  atomic  physics  and  then  in  biology  that  the  fnictifyiog 
influence  of  the  investigations  in  the  field  of  radioactivity  is  note- 
worthy. It  has  happened  that  new  and  unimagined  forces  have  been 
released  suddenly  for  experiment  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
physicist  and  the  biologist.  I  am  not  capable  of  giving  an  account 
of  the  latest  experiments  on  atomic  constitution  which  are  being  con- 
ducted with  radium,  and  I  stand  filled  with  wonder  and  adkniration  as 
I  read  that  the  rapidity  of  the  a-particle  or  helium  atom  derived  from 
radium  is  about  20,000  times  the  speed  of  a  rifle  bullet,  and  that  the 
energy  of  this  motion  is  such  that  an  ounce  of  helium  moving  vrith  the 
speed  of  the  a-particle  is  equivalent  to  10,000  tons  of  solid  shot  pro- 
jected with  the  velocity  of  1000  meters  per  second.  After  having 
been  stunned  by  this  statement,  I  can  well  imagine  that  the  charged 
particle  is  able  to  penetrate  deeply  into  the  structure  of  all  atoms, 
built  up  as  they  are  now  believed  to  be  on  a  plan  similar  to  diat  of 
the  solar  system  with  a  central  sun  or  nucleus,  and  a  system  of  planets 
m  form  ol  negative  electrons,  and  to  pass  through  as  many  as  500,- 
000  of  them  before  being  deflected  and  turned  bad^,  and  thus  made  to 
divulge  the  secrets  of  the  electric  fields  near  the  center  or  nucleus  of 
the  atom. 

But  I  may  be  somewhat  better  able  to  explain  the  present  status 
of  biological  r^earch  being  carried  out  with  radioactive  substances 
derived  both  from  X-ray  and  from  radium.  The  studies  are  proceed- 
ing in  two  directions:  the  one  being  of  theoretical  and  the  other  of 
practical  nature.  The  latter  excite  the  greater  interest  because  they  are 
already  rendering  a  highly  useful  service,  as  in  the  treatment  of  a  cer- 
tain class  of  cancers  and  in  reducing  excessive  amounts  of  lymphatic 
tissue,  even  including  recently  the  ubiquitous  enlarged  tonsils  and 
adenoids.  And  yet,  the  former  may  in  the  end  be  of  surpassing  value 
in  that  they  will  serve  to  explain  the  manner  in  which  radioactivity 
brings  about  the  biological  effects  noted,  and  the  means  by  yAadi  thoee 
which  are  desirable  and  useful  may  be  intensified  and  those  which  are 
undesirable,  because  harmful,  may  be  minimized  or  avoided  altogether. 
Already  we  have  learned  that  the  radiations  act  quite  directly  on  the 
lymphoid  organs  and,  according  to  the  amount  or  dosage  employed, 
either  stimulate  to  over-activity  or  bring  about  destruction;  while  the 
action  on  cancerous  tissue  is  more  indirect  and  bound  up,  in  past  at 
least,  with  the  impression  made  upon  the  lymphatic  system.  But  what 
I  especially  desire  to  emphasize  is  the  connection  which  this  clase  of 
investigations  has  established  between  the  physicist  and  the  biologist. 
It  happens  that  neither  alone  can  compass  the  entire  field;  the  one  is 


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THE  SCIENTIFIC  CAREER  FOR  WOMEN  103 

too  little  a  physicist,  the  other  too  little  a  biologist  in  order  to  man- 
age on  the  one  hand  the  rays  and  on  the  other  the  tissues.  Together 
they  make  a  working  team,  and  already  a  new  division  of  research  in 
biophysics  is  b^inning  to  appear  to  herald  that  co-operation  in 
sdeitfific  research  which  is  to-day  one  of  the  necessities  as  it  is  the 
harbinger  of  progress. 

It  sboald  now  be  apparent  how  impossible  it  is  for  mere  accident 
to  yield  a  discovery  in  science.  Whether  the  investigator  move  in  the 
lower  or  the  upper  realm  of  experiment  and  observation,  there  are 
demanded  as  a  minimum,  knowledge  of  fact  and  familiarity  with 
method,  with  which  not  even  the  moet  fortunately  circumstanced  are 
naturally  endowed.  Environment  and  possibly  heredity  also  play 
parts,  sometimes  highly  important  parts,  in  giving  the  impulsion  which 
leads  into  scientific  careers  and  accomplishment  Moreover  it  is  a 
mi^aken  notion  to  suppose  that  the  scientific  intelligence  can  only  be 
and  always  is  trained  in  school  or  college  as  ordinarily  defined.  The 
history  of  science  indeed  contains  illuminating  pages  recounting  the 
successes  of  men  without  any  real  formal  edueadon  who  have  sur- 
mounted all  difficulties  and  written  their  names  large  in  ks  story.  Such 
a  man  was  Midiael  Faraday,  of  whom  it  has  been  said  that  of  all  the 
men  who  have  spent  their  lives  in  the  search  for  experimental  dis- 
coveries, no  one  has  ever  approached  him  in  the  number,  variety,  or 
the  importance  of  the  new  facts  disclosed  by  his  labors;  and  yet  he  was 
led  into  the  pursuit  of  science  by  reading  the  books  which  passed 
through  bis  hands  while  he  was  a  bookbuider's  apprentice. 

Hitherto  it  has  been  men  rather  than  women  who  have  chosen  the 
scientific  career,  and  up  to  now  the  shining  names  on  the  banner  of 
science  are  those  of  men  and  not  of  women.  It  could  not  have  been 
odierwise;  but  now  that  the  doors  of  opportunity  have  been  thrown 
widely  open  to  women,  one  may  expect  that  many  more  will  pass  their 
portals  and  enter  upon  the  career  of  science.  Already  they  are  feeling 
its  lure  and  perceiving  their  aptitudes.  But  the  lesson,  can  not  be  en- 
forced too  emphatically  that  whether  science  is  entered  by  the  front 
door  of  the  college  or  by  the  back  door  of  the  amateur  or  apprentice, 
in  the  end  the  material  and  means  of  science  must  be  mastered  if  the 
votary  aspires  to  enter  paths  never  trodden  before.  To  acquire  that 
mastery  to-day  is  no  small  undertaking,  since  the  subject  matter  of  the 
sciences  is  so  voluminous  and  the  methods  often  so  intricate  and  pre- 
cise. But  there  is  nothing  in  my  opinion  in  either  which  the  trained 
intelligence  can  not  grasp  and  the  trained  senses  execute. 

I  do  not  recognjflse  a  line  of  demarcation  between  the  sciences 
which  men  on  the  one  hand  and  women  on  the  other  should  choose  as  a 
career.  With  women  as  with  men  what  sibbuld  count  are  taste  and 
aptitude  and  opportunity.    It  is  common  experience  to  find  that  a  man 


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104  THE   SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

is  directed  or  diverted  into  a  given  scientific  field  by  accidental  circum- 
stances: a  book  falling  into  his  hands  at  a  critical  nsoment;  a  par- 
ticularly inspiring  teacher  who,  like  radium,  transmutes  his  pupils  as 
that  does  the  elements;  a  region  favorable  say  to  geological  study;  a 
par^it  or  other  person  with  whom  the  impressionable  child  chances  to 
be  thrown.  Once  fairly  launched  on  a  career,  the  native  ability  de- 
termines the  rest,  just  wfai^  particular  road  is  followed  and  how  far 
the  traveller  is  carried  along  the  road. 

Even  earlier  influences  may  come  to  play  a  deciding  part  in  direct- 
ing ibc  will  and  bent  of  the  child.  It  does  not  take  special  insight  to 
discern  the  differences  in  the  intellectual  atmosphere  surrounding  boys 
and  girh  in  the  home.  While  the  girl  is  complacently  occupied  with 
dolls  and  miniature  dressmakii^  and  millinery,  the  boy's  imagination 
is  being  excited  by  mechaniGal  toys  which  his  aroused  interest  impels 
him  to  destroy,  in  order  that  the  inner  mechanism  may  be  laid  bare. 
This  is  Hae  period  at  which  a  youthful  Galileo  and  Newton  will  con- 
struct windmills  and  water  clocks,  and  a  future  Hersdiel,  aided  per- 
haps by  another  sister  Carolin,  will  fashion  some  sort  of  optical  device, 
the  forerunner  of  his  first  telescope. 

Then  also  custom  and  habit  will  determine  that  the  father  himself 
on  science  bent  will  endeavor  to  communicate  his  taste  to  his  son  rather 
than  to  his  daughter.  It  took  three  generations  of  the  Becquerel 
family,  all  concerned  with  the  study  of  light  phenomena,  to  produce 
the  discoverer  of  spontaneous  radioactivity.  Charles  Darwin's  son 
and  now  his  grandson  are  pursuing  at  Cambridge  with  distinction  the 
related  fields  of  mathematical  astronomy  and  mathematical  physics. 
Perkins,  the  discoverer  when  only  seventeen  years  of  age  of  the  aniline 
dyes,  has  been  followed  by  a  son,  the  eminent  professor  of  chemistry  at 
Oxford;  and  father  and  son  of  the  Bragg  family  have  recently  shared 
the  Nobel  prize  for  discoveries  in  physics. 

The  examples  might  be  multiplied  in  which  because  of  custom  the 
boy,  but  not  the  girl,  has  been  subjected  to  influences  extending  over 
many  years  calculated  to  prepare  or  to  lead  him,  if  only  insensibly, 
into  the  patfis  of  science.  Moreover,  the  boy  has  other  advantages  to 
guide  and  spur  him  on:  once  launched  on  a  scientific  pursuit,  he  looks 
forward  to  a  life's  career  and  indulges  the  hope,  if  not  the  expectation, 
of  being  attended  by  some  good  woman.  Now  women  have  not  yet 
been  offered  anything  approaching  a  like  opportunity  to  that  put  before 
men.  The  scientific  career  means  too  often  for  them,  if  consistently 
pursued,  the  denial  of  domestic  companionships  and  compensations 
which  men  easily  win  and  enjoy.  In  how  far  this  condition  alone  will 
operate  to  bar  women  from  the  higher  pursuits  and  greater  rewards  of 
a  scientific  caieer  only  experience  can  show.  But  as  one  who  would 
write  himself  down  a  lover  of  opportunity  for  women,  I  wish  to  ex- 


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THE  SCIENTIFIC  CAREER  FOR  WOMEN  105 

press  the  hope  that  the  difficulty  may  not  prove  msurmountable. 
Already  in  this  country  and  in  two  fields  of  which  I  have  personal 
knowledge.  Doctor  Florence  Sabin  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Medical 
SdKX>l  and  Doctor  Louise  Pearce  of  the  Rockefeller  Institute  foor 
Medical  Research  have  made  themselves  authorities  in  their  respective 
bnmcfaes  of  medical  science.  The  latter  has  recently  carried  out  a 
difficult  mission  to  the  Belgian  Congo  in  connection  with  African 
sleeping  sickness,  such  as  formerly  would  have  been  entrusted  to  a  man. 
A  last  word.  I  hafve  not  spoken  of  the  rewards  of  the  scientific 
career.  As  with  other  intellectual  pursuits,  diey  are  to  be  reckoned 
only  pertly  in  the  coin  of  the  country.  Science  is  now  so  far  developed 
in  Jhe  United  States  that  in  college,  research  institution,  or  industry  a 
competence  can  readily  enough  be  found.  In  >the  end  the  greater  re- 
ward ¥nll  be  an  inner  satisfaction  and  happiness  arisozig  out  of  a 
ocmscioiis  mastery  of  a  field  of  human  endeavor.  But  for  this  there 
must  be  a  real  mastery  such  as  comes  not  easily  but  only  after  a 
period  of  years  and  as  a  result  of  a  seriousness  of  purpose  and  a  can- 
centration  of  effoit  which  alone  devotion  to  a  high  cause  will  insure. 


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106  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  ZEITGEIST 
By  Dr.  G.  STANLEY  HALL 

CLARK  UNIVERSITY 

rACKERAY  wished  he  could  have  been  Shakespeare's  bootblack, 
and  many  English  men  of  letters  rank  the  Elizabethan  above  the 
Victorian  age.  Classicists  have  often  wished  they  had  lived  in  the  day 
of  Plato  or  Caesar,  asr  if  their  age  were  superior  to  our  own.  F.  W. 
Robertson  said  he  would  give  all  his  life  in  exchange  for  an  hour's  talk 
with  Jesu9  just  after  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Ruskin,  William  Morris 
and  their  group,  since  we  can  not  turn  the  wheels  of  time  backward, 
would  reconstruct  our  owa  industrial  and  social  system  on  the  pattern 
of  the  ancient  guilds.  For  good  Catholics,  the  apical  blossom  of  the 
Tree  of  Life  was  found  in  the  apostolic,  patristic,  or  scholastic  period, 
and  all  that  has  happened  in  the  world  since  is  of  really  far  less  im- 
port. For  Max  Miiller,  the  life  of  the  primitive  Aryan;  for  Schliemann, 
that  of  the  Homeric  age;  for  Tacitus,  the  ancient  Germans,  were  nearest 
the  ideal,  while  for  Plato  the  golden  age  was  in  the  lost  Atlantis  and 
belonged  to  another  era. 

Christianity  first  in  its  doctrine  of  a  millennium  began  the  new 
fashion  of  looking  to  the  future  for  Utopia  when  we  seek  to  escape  the 
pressure  of  present  reality,  and  to  this  tendency  evolution  has  now  given 
a  great  impulse,  as  seen  in  the  vndtings  of  Bellamy,  H.  G.  Wells,  Pataud 
and  Pouget,  C.  W.  Woodbridge,  Chapman,  Cramm,  Howe,  Tangent  and 
many  other  portrayers  of  the  great  and  glorious  things  yet  to  come  on 
earth  or  yet  possible.  For  those  who  abandon  themselves  to  such 
reveries,  the  pres^it  seems  preparatory  for  something  greater,  if  not 
again,  a  trifle  mean  compared  with  Altruria,  Equitania,  Sub-Coelum  or 
even  Meccania.  During  and  since  the  war  there  has  been  a  great 
revival  of  interest  in  what  might,  could,  would,  or  should  be,  often  in 
some  vague  or  obscure  place,  perhaps  at  a  time  no  less  indeterminate, 
and  sometimes  our  El  Dorados  have  been  projected  to  the  center  of  the 
earth  or  to  another  planet — ^Mare — Saturn,  etc. 

Now,  my  thesis  is  that  all  such  fugues  from  actuality  and  what 
Desjardin  made  supreme,  viz,^  le  devoir  present^  are  now  as  never 
before  in  history,  weak  and  cowardly,  flights  from  the  duty  of  the  hour, 
wasteful  of  precious  energy,  and,  perhaps  worst  of  all,  they  are  a 
symptom  of  low  morale,  pereonal  or  civic,  or  both.  True  greatness  con- 
sists solely  in  seeing  everything,  past,  future  or  afar,  in  terms  of  the 
Here  and  Now,  or  in  the  power  of  ^^prosentificaticm.^ 


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THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  ZEIT-GEIST  107 

The  equivalent  of  everything  that  ever  was,  is,  or  can  be  made  to 
happen,  is  not  far  off  or  in  some  other  life,  age,  or  place,  but  wiithin  or 
about  us.  Creative  processes  take  changing  forms,  but  the  energy  that 
impels  them  is  identical  with  that  which  started  cosmic  evolution.  All 
tiie  Hebrew  prophets  did  and  said,  we  now  know  was  inspired  by  the 
needs  of  the  hour  in  which  they  lived,  and  they  never  strove  to  foretell 
the  far  future.  Our  time  is  just  as  ripe  for  a  true  Messiah  as  when  the 
Star  of  Bethlehem  appeared,  and  a  new  dispensation  is  just  as  needed 
and  just  as  possible  as  when  the  Baptist  heralded  the  advent  of  the  great* 
est  of  all  ^^presentifiers."  Now,  when  all  human  institutions  so  slowly 
and  laboriously  evolved  are  impugned,  every  consensus  challenged,  every 
creed  flouted,  as  much  as  and  perhaps  even  more  than  by  the  ancient 
So{rfu8t5,  the  call  comes  to  us  as  it  did  to  Plato  (all  of  whose  work  was 
inspired  by  the  need  he  felt  of  going  back  to  first  principles)  to  ex- 
plore, test,  and  if  necessary  reconstruct  the  very  bases  of  conviction,  for 
all  open  questions  are  new  opportunities.  Old  beacon  lights  have 
shifted  or  gone  out.  Some  of  the  issues  we  lately  thought  to  be  minor 
have  taken  on  cosmic  dimensions.  We  are  all  *'up  against*'  questions 
too  big  for  us  so  that  there  is  everywhere  a  sense  of  insufficiency  which 
is  too  deep  to  be  fully  deployed  in  the  narrow  field  of  consciousness. 
Hence  there  is  a  new  discontent  with  old  leaders,  standards,  criteria, 
methods  and  values,  and  a  demand  everywhere  for  new  ones,  a  realiza- 
tion that  mankind  must  now  reorient  itself  and  take  its  bearings  from  the 
eternal  stars  aikl  sail  no  longer  into  the  unknown  future  by  the  dead 
reckonii^s  of  the  past.  We  must  find  or  make  and  ascend  a  new  out- 
look tower  high  enough  to  command  the  whole  earth  and  its  history,  and 
become  familiar  with  the  perspective  and  other  phenomena  of  altitude, 
akhough  this  is  perhaps  the  hardest  of  all  things  for  our  distracted, 
analytic,  and  spedalist-ridden  stage  of  culture. 

In  a  word,  the  world  is  sick  and  needs  again  a  great  physician  for 
its  soul  just  as  it  does  for  its  body  (onediird  of  our  youth  being  unfit 
to  fight).  Its  distempers,  however,  we  hope  may  prove  to  be  those  of 
youth  and  not  of  old  age,  but  even  if  the  latter,  they  are  ominous  for 
the  maturity  of  the  raca  Many  specialists  have  diagnosed  and  pre- 
scribed but  they  all  deal  with  symptoms,  and  the  real  nature  and  true 
cause  of  the  disease  still  bafiTle  us.  It  may  well  seem  preposterous  to 
the  ¥^oIe  guild  of  doctors  for  a  layman  in  everything,  whose  only  ad- 
vantage is  his  aloofness  from  all  their  works  and  ways,  to  suggest  a 
deeper  cause  demanding  a  more  radical  therapy.  In  what  follows,  how- 
ever, I  shall  venture  to  attempt  nothing  less  than  this.  Underlying 
almost  everything  else  is  the  fact  that  man  has  now  filled  the  whole 
eaith  and  that  it  will  soon  become  even  too  full  of  his  species.  The 
human  population  has  in  nearly  every  nook  of  the  globe  been  increasing 
in  die  last  few  generations  at  a  prodigious  rate,  and  its  pressure  upon 
the  means  of  subsistence  is  already  in  many  regions  more  actite  than  even 


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108  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

Malthus  foresaw.  In  this  country  almost  within  tlie  memory  of  men 
now  living,  not  only  the  Pacific  coast  but  even  the  great  Mississippi 
valley  has  been  filled  with  a  teeming  and  enlterprinng  population.  In 
1890  some  of  the  great  powers  doubted  the  advantage  of  extensive  colon- 
ies in  remote  regions,  but  since  the  great  land  scramble  in  the  decade 
that  followed,  about  every  part  of  the  inhabitable  earth  has  been  ap- 
propriated, explored,  and  is  now  being  exploited.  All  Africa  is  ap- 
portioned, and  not  only  Australia  but  Madagascar,  Borneo,  New  Guinea, 
and  all  the  smallest  of  islands  opened  up  so  that  there  are  not  only 
no  new  continents  but  practically  no  new  acres  to  be  discovered.  The 
great  era  of  di£fusion  and  tenancy  is  practically  ended  Man  has  not  only 
taken  possession  of  every  room  but  of  every  closet  of  his  terrestrial 
habiitation. 

In  this  expansion  he  has  been  wasteful  of  material  resources  to  a 
degree  so  prodigal  that  we  can  now  approximately  date  the  exhaustion 
of  many  of  them.  Prospecting  has  been  so  extensive  and  careful  that 
there  will  probably  be  no  more  great  new  finds  of  gold,  silver,  dlia- 
monds,  coal,  natural  gas,  etc,  like  those  of  the  past,  and  the  lure  and 
glamor  of  great  new  openings  thus  made  is  already  abating;  while  the 
acreage  that  once  yielded  bumper  crops  without  fertilization  is  losing  its 
spontaneous  fertility. 

The  moral  of  all  these  trite  facts  is  that  henceforth  the  progress  of 
the  world  must  depend  upon  quality,  not  quantity;  trust  more  to  nurture 
and  less  to  nature;  realize  that  it  can  reap  only  where  uid  what  it  has 
sown;  must  row  where  it  has  hitherto  drifted  with  the  current.  This 
country  especially  has  grown  to  be  the  richest  and  greatest  in  the  world 
by  its  natural  resources,  but  it  must  henceforth  not  only  conserve  but 
laboriously  cultivate.  We  have  found  that  hereafter  we  must  make  and 
can  not  expect  to  find  our  ways.  And  no  less  important  is  the  develop- 
ment of  our  human  quality. 

In  the  geologic  history  of  the  globe  the  great  epochs  have  been 
maiked  by  the  alternation  of  two  periods:  first,  that  of  the  emergenoe  of 
vast  areas  of  land  from  the  primeval  sea  and  its  tenancy  by  species  whidi 
populated  it  from  the  ocean,  adjusted  themselves  to  terrestrial  condi- 
tions, and  found  a  table  spread  for  them  so  rich  that  they  multiplied, 
varied,  and  spread  with  great  rapidity.  Then  the  tides  turned  and  there 
were  long  periods  of  submergence  and  reduction  of  land  areas  during 
which  many  foims  that  had  established  themselves  upon  teira  firma 
went  back  to  their  first  love,  the  sea,  like  whales  and  dolphins;  dw^dled 
to  insignificant  size;  or  became  extinct,  like  the  great  saurians,  because 
they  could  not  adapt  to  a  new  habitat.  What  makes  our  age  great  be- 
yond all  historic  comparisons  is  that  it  has  seen  within  the  last  few  years 
the  high  tide  of  man's  great  processional  over  the  earth  and  also  the 
beginnii^  of  the  recessional  ebb  when  the  world  must  have  a  new  type 
of  both  men  and  measures  or  else  revert  to  a  more  primitive  stage  of 


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THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  ZEITGEIST  109 

civilization.  Already  we  see  about  us  many  alarming  signs  of  re- 
gression. The  great  war  itself,  which  marked  so  signally  the  turn  of 
this  all-dominating  tide  in  human  affairs,  was  only  the  inauguration  of 
the  ooloflsal  conflict  between  the  old  forces  that  expanded  and  the  new 
ones  now  in  the  ascendant  that  would  redirect  the  progress  of  nuin  by 
adjusting  to  the  new  turn  of  fate. 

If  our  planet  had  doubled  in  size  while  it  has  doubled  in  popu- 
lati<Hk;  if  a  vast,  rich,  new  continent  had  just  been  discovered,  as  in 
1492,  or  emerged  from  the  sea;  if  the  population  of  Europe  had  re- 
mained whut  it  was  in  the  days  of  Napoleon;  if  man's  wants  had  not 
increased  or  the  standards  of  Irving  risen  or  surplus  products  and 
foreign  markets  had  remained  unknown,  and  there  had  been  no  sur- 
plus population  anywhere,  Germany  would  never  have  had  her  mad 
dream  of  subjecting  Europe,  for  the  world  war  marked  the  first  impact 
and  repercusskm  of  the  great  current  of  expansion,  which  had  behind 
it  the  whole  momentum  of  cosmic  evolution  upon  material  limitations. 
Thus  man  has  in  a  sense  outgrown  his  world,  so  that  it  is  now  too 
small  for  him.  From  now  on  development  must  be  intensive  rather 
than  extensive,  and  inward  as  well  as  outward. 

When  a  fidp  is  wrecked  on  a  savage  island,  passengers  and  crew 
are  thrown  back  to  primitive  conditions  and  adapt  to  a  new  environ- 
ment and  adopt  new  leaders,  azid  often  reverse  all  conventional  dis- 
criminations; and  Bolshevism  is  only  an  oetensive  paradigm  of  what 
the  Zeitgeist  is  doing,  only  more  slowly  and  comprehensively,  for  the 
world,  which  is  being  thrown  back  to  first  principles,  and  finding 
these  to  be  no  longer  political  but  chiefly  economic  and  psychological 
so  that  even  its  past  history  has  to  be  rewritten  with  a  new  per^>ective. 

If  the  wealth  of  any  land  were  equally  divided,  everybody  would 
be  poor,  not  rich,  and  there  is  not  wealth  enough  in  the  world  to 
satisfy  one  one-hundredth  of  the  present  demand  for  it.  As  civilization 
advances,  it  costs  not  only  more  money,  but  more  time  and  effort  to 
keep  people  happy.  Thus  there  is  a  rapidly  growing  excess  of  demand 
for  pleasure  over  the  supply,  so  that  the  volume  of  discontent  is  con- 
stantly mounting.  This  life,  which  is  all  man  now  really  believes  in 
or  cares  for,  can  not  b^in  to  give  what  he  asks  of  it.  The  average  in- 
dividual now  never  thinlra  of  the  far  future  of  the  world  or  even  of  his 
own  posterity  for  more  than  a  generation  or  two,  but  wants  all  that  is 
coming  to  him  now  and  here,  and  uses  every  means  in  ius  power  (fair 
and  sometimes  foul)  to  get  it.  Thus  he  plunges  on  toward  the 
bankruptcy  of  his  hopes  in  their  present  form  and  sagacious  minds  are 
now  realizing  that  humanity  can  never  be  satisfied  save  by  restricting 
its  desires  or  by  transforming  and  re-directing  its  aspirations  to  more 
attainable  goals;  or,  in  more  technical  language,  by  finding  more  in- 
ternal surrogates  for  their  gratification. 


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110  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

This  means  nothing  less  than  that  the  world  is  now  squarely  up 
against  the  pr(d[>lem  of  getting  a  deeper  knowledge  of  human  (nature 
and  finding  more  effective  ways  of  guiding  it  or  of  refitting  Teufels- 
drock's  instituticmal  clothes  to  his  person,  if  not  getting  him  a  new  suit 
We  must  not  forget  that  while  our  industrial  system  is  less  than  two 
hundred  years  old  and  even  our  political  institutions  go  back  only  a 
few  thousand  years,  man  is  at  least  a  hundred  thousand  years  old,  and 
that  we  must  readjust  to  all  better  knowledge  of  him,  just  as  we  do 
to  all  the  newly  discovered  laws  of  nature.  Thus  as  man  has  reached 
and  rdbounded  from  hb  geographic  and  other  limits,  has  ideals  of 
material  prosperity  have  also  impinged  upon  adamantine  limits,  and 
the  current  of  his  psychic  evolution  must  now  finally  make  a  new  way 
in  another  direction.  Just  as  there  are  now  countless  individuals  who 
should  never  have  been  bom  and  who  could  in  no  way  so  benefit  the 
world  as  by  taking  themselves  out  of  it  (but  who  will  never  do  it,  so 
that  society  and  industry  must  find  ways  of  utilizing  them  as  best  they 
can,  trusting  the  slow  processes  of  evolution  to  better  the  human 
stock) ,  so  there  are  innumerable  spurious  hopes,  ambitions  and  aspira- 
tions which  should  never  have  arisen,  but  which  we  must  learn  to 
utilize  and  sublimate,  striving  slowly  to  subject  opportunity  to  social 
and  human  aims. 

Nature  and  Man — there  is  nothing  else  outside,  above,  or  beyond 
these  in  the  universe,  and  there  never  was  or  will  be  anywhere  any 
item  of  creative  or  conservative  energy  or  influence  either  in  nature  or 
mansoul  that  is  not  just  as  active  here  and  now  as  it  ever  was  or  mil 
be  an3rwhere. 

The  way  down  the  long  scale  from  cortex  to  cord  or  even  from  man 
to  mollusc  is  as  broad  as  the  way  up  is  straight  and  narrow,  and  many 
there  be  that  walk  therein.  The  lowest  sixKh.  of  the  population  of 
England,  we  are  told,  produce  one-half  of  the  rising  generation,  and 
infra-men  breed  a  hundred  times  as  fast  aa  really  eugenic  super-men. 
The  forces  that  make  for  huiiian  degeneration  were  never  so  many,  so 
active,  or  so  ominous,  and  nothing  less  than  civilization  itself  is  at 
stake.  It  has  never  entered  into  the  heart  of  even  pessimists  to  conceive 
what  might  happen  if  anarchy  should  prevail.  But  as  Christianity 
came  in  to  save  the  world  when  R<Hne  and  the  ancient  order  fell,  by 
proclaiming  immortality,  so  now  the  idea  of  plasmal,  which  comes  by 
better  breeding,  and  of  influential  immortality,  that  saves  by  contribut- 
ing new  knowledge  and  power — these  ccmstitute  our  only  hope  of  salva- 
tion. The  promise  is  to  those  who  sedc,  knock,  adc,  and  is  still  open 
to  the  investigator,  who  is  its  true  heir. 

Man  had  a  most  insignificant  origin — a  finger-long  worm  with  a 
withy  spine;  then  a  timid,  tiny  frugiverous  creature  for  whom  there 
was  no  safety  save  in  trees.  Then  there  was  a  long  and  doubtful 
struggle  whether  he  or  the  great  carnivora  should  be  lords  of  creation 


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THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  ZEITGEIST  lU 

for  lie  was  few  and  his  enemies  many.  But  during  all  this  time  he  was 
acquirkig  unprecedented  power  of  docility  and  adaptation,  and  the 
evolutionary  urge  focussed  on  his  species  as  its  own  chosen  son.  For 
ages,  loo,  he  quailed  before  creatures  of  his  own  imagination  which 
he  fancied  real  and  potent,  and  only  now  is  he  b^inning  to  realize  that 
he  is  truly  supreme  in  all  the  universe  we  know,  and  that  there  is 
nothing  above  or  beyond  him.  Thus  progress  consists  solely  in  the 
subjection  of  nature  to  man  and  of  his  own  instincts  to  reason  and  his 
selfish  interests  to  the  oommon  good,  and  man  sees  his  destiny,  which 
is  to  rule  the  world  within  and  without  by  the  power  that  comes  from 
knowledge.  He  must  go  on  learning  to  control  where  he  has  been 
controlled.  This  is  his  vocation  as  man.  As  the  development  of  erect- 
ness  and  of  the  hand,  which  could  grasp  the  club  and  impel  the  point 
of  flint  first  made  him  man,  so  now  science  is  both  his  organ  of  ap- 
prdieneioQ  and  his  tool  by  which  he  must  make  his  sovereignty  com- 
plete, come  fully  into  his  kingdom  and  make  his  reign  supreme.  Thus» 
again,  we  see  that  researdi  is  his  highest  function.  He  is  and  always 
has  been  the  investigator  par  excellence^  and  now  he  sees  his  calling 
and  election  more  clearly,  and  in  the  new  era  which  is  upon  us  he  has 
new  and  unprecedented  motivation  for  mobilizing  all  his  energies  to 
make  his  title  of  conquisitor  clear. 

If  the  spirit  of  research  be  the  Paraclete,  the  native  breath  and  vital 
air  of  all  true  leaders  in  the  world  now  being  bom,  we  ought  to  know 
UKM-e  about  it.  What,  then,  is  it?  It  is  not  sufficient  to  say  it  is  crea- 
tion in  its  most  modem  active  stage,  impelled  by  the  primal  impulse  by 
which  worlds  evolved  out  of  chaos,  neJbulae  or  any  other  mother-lye. 
This  is  true  but  trite.  If  any  kind  of  auperman  is  ever  evolved,  and 
the  man  <^  the  present  day  is  destined  to  beoome  a  missing  link  like 
the  Java  man,  nurture  must  come  to  the  aid  of  nature  vrith  every 
hebamic  art  that  eugenics  and  education  can  supply,  even  though  our 
remote  posterity  be  as  adiamed  of  having  spmng  from  us  as  some 
still  are  of  our  simian  ancestry.  Curiosity,  seen  in  all  the  higher  forms 
of  animal  life,  so  strong  in  apes  and  so  favored  by  their  safe  arboreal 
life,  and  which  harks  back  to  the  original  fiat  lux,  is  surely  one 
factor  in  the  psychogenesis  of  the  research  urge.  Strong  as  this 
noetic  urge  is,  ambition,  emulation  and  the  desire  to  excel  is  surely 
another  factor.  Perhaps  the  hunting  and  collecting  instinct  made  their 
contributions  to  it.  Philanthropy  or  the  desire  to  better  the  estate  of 
man  and  to  give  him  command  of  new  resources  is  yet  another  element, 
and  this  has  countless  lower  though  always  beneficent  expressions  in  the 
impulse  to  alleviate  suffering  and  in  the  amelioration  of  the  tragedy  in 
the  grim  struggle  for  survival.  But  the  ultimate  motivation  of  the  in- 
vestigator, often  deeper  than  his  consciousness,  is  the  vrill  for  power 
to  dominate  nature,  and  to  make  man  ever  more  completely  raler  and 
master  of  the  world  within  and  vrithout    As  man  is  the  highest  and 


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112  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

best  and  as  mind  is  the  best  thing  in  him,  so  research  is  the  supreme 
function  of  mind,  the  true  heir  of  the  kingd(xn  and  of  all  .the  primiises. 
Research  specializes  because  it  must  divide  in  order  to  conquer.  Ic 
makes  such  conditions  for  ils  eicperimeiils  as  can  be  controlled  and 
excludes  all  others.  We  refine  our  methods  and  apparatus  only  in 
order  to  make  such  answers  as  we  can  extract  from  the  memnonian  lips 
of  the  sphinx  more  definite  and  explicit.  Despite  its  baffling  technique, 
science  is,  as  Vahinger  long  ago  so  convincingly  showed  us,  the  quick- 
est and  easiest  way  of  grasping  the  universe. 

In  view  of  all  this  we  must  regard  nothing  as  quite  so  opportune 
or  80  true  an  expression  of  the  Zeitgeist  as  the  efforts  to  perfect  the 
organization  of  the  National  Research  Council  in  this  country,  the 
British  Privy  Council  of  Scientific  and  Industrial  Research,  and  the 
international  reorganization  at  Brussels  to  the  same  end.  There  are 
countless  new  problems  in  astronomy,  geography,  geology,  archae- 
ology, anthropology,  economics,  and  in  many  other  fields  that  can 
be  solved  only  by  wide  co-operative  methods,  which  often  also  require 
large  funds,  wise  administration,  systematic  publication  of  results,  and 
the  spur,  which  pure  science  in  a  measure  always  lacks,  of  immediate 
utility,  for  every  new  discovery  possible  must  foe  made  serviceable. 

It  is  inspiring  to  be  authoritatively  told  that  whereas  fifteen  years 
ago  there  were  only  four  thousand  individuals  in  this  country  who 
could  be  called  investigators,  there  are  now  more  than  ten  diousand  who 
would  be  called  such,  and  also  that  there  are  yet  possible  ^^finds," 
sometimes  of  great  value,  that  can  still  be  made  even  by  amateurs  and 
non-experts  whom  chance  or  locality  favor,  and  that  more  can  be  re- 
cruited for  this  army  of  advance  by  questionnaire  or  correspondence 
methods.  The  prospector,  placer-miner,  still  has  his  place  in  any  com- 
prehenfidve  survey  of  research  pl^anning,  and  this  work  needs  a  con- 
sistorium  of  its  own. 

But  we  must  not  forget  that  the  true  spirit  of  research  at  its  best 
can  never  be  organized  or  administered  and  that  to  do  so  suggests 
simony,  the  sin  of  the  purchase  of  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  with  money. 
Its  very  essence  is  freedom,  and  we  can  no  more  organize  it  than  we 
can  love,  art,  literature,  or  piety.  The  investigator  is  a  law  unto  him- 
self, and  he  must  often  shatter  old  tables  of  value  and  propound  new 
ones.  *The  spirit  goeth  wherever  it  listeth'*  and  we  can  not  tell 
"whence  it  cometh  or  whither  it  goeth,  such  are  they  who  are  born  of 
the  spirit." 

Now,  universities  are  to-day,  or  should  be,  true  shrines  of  this 
spirit  and  nurseries  of  these  supermen.  Are  they?  Over  tvro  hun- 
dred of  them  have  lately  made  ^drives"  that  have  brought  generous 
and  greatly  needed  increases  of  salary  to  their  professors.  Labor,  too, 
has  doubled  its  wage,  but  the  complaint  is  universal  that  along  with 
increased  pay  has  very  commonly  gone  a  decrease  in  the  quality  and 


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THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  ZEITGEIST  lU 

quantity  of  efficient  work  or  service  rendered.  The  worker  ^^sojers'* 
more  on  his  jdb,  and  not  only  the  hours  but  the  amount  of  work  per 
hour  has  decreased;  as  also  has  the  quality  of  many  kinds  of  goods 
along  with  the  rise  in  Cheir  price.  The  bricklayer  is  now  penalized  by 
his  union  if  he  layc»  more  than  one^f  ourth  the  number  of  bricks  per  day 
he  did  when  his  wage  was  half  its  presemt  amount. 

Are  our  Faculties  to  illustrate  the  same  tendency?  In  a  number 
of  presidential  reports  I  have  lately  lodged  over  I  find  no  word  of 
wammg  agauiet  this  danger,  no  hint  that  to  whom  more  is  given 
will  more  be  required,  no  exhortation  to  investigation,  but 
usually  the  old  cry  for  more,  ever  more  gifts.  Not  content  to  sliand  hat 
m  hand  on  the  street  comer,  academic  agents  and  presidents  appeal 
to  every  graduate,  poor  as  well  as  rich,  to  give,  until  they  are  made  to 
feel  that  they  are  ingrates  or  disloyal  if  they  are  unable  to  do  so. 
TheM  reports  often  complain  of  a  great  influx  of  students,  and  all  our 
larger  institutions  are  already  too  full  for  efficiency  so  that  some  have 
even  forsworn  new  departments  or  set  a  limit  to  the  rush  of  students. 
Two  reports  express  the  fear  that  the  average  quality  of  the  latter  is  de- 
clining, and  one  deplores  the  increase  of  mechanism,  bookkeeping,  and 
deans'  functions  generally,  which  are  necessary  for  the  r^imentation  of 
the  mob  of  new  applicants.  One  very  competent  expert  has  studied  the 
program^  of  the  meetings  of  various  scientific  societies  during  last 
Christmas  week,  with  the  result  that  several  show  in  recent  years  a  very 
marked  increase  in  the  percentage  of  papers  read  by  non-academic  men 
(80%  now  in  one  of  the  largest  and  oldest  of  them),  which  is  not  sur- 
pri»ng  when  we  consider  the  great  number  of  professors  now  being 
lured  away  from  collies  and  universities  by  larger  salaries  offered 
them  to  become  experts  in  industry,  which  has  apparently  just  now 
awakened  to  the  need  of  specialists. 

Now,  if  there  is  any  one  general  lesson  of  these  tumultuous  times, 
any  conclusion  that  underlies  and  conditions  all  others — ^as  I  insist 
there  is — ^it  may  be  stated  very  simply  as  follows.  Henceforth,  as  never 
before,  progress  is  committed  to  the  hands  of  the  intellectuals  and  they 
must  think  harder,  realizii^  to  the  full  the  responsibilities  of  their  new 
leadership.  Science  in  its  largest  sense  is  from  this  time  forth  to  rule 
the  world.  The  age  of  Udssez  faire  is  ended  and  research,  discovery, 
investigation,  and  invention,  which  have  done  so  much  already,  must 
now  take  the  helm  and  be  our  pioneers  in  this  new  era.  In  everything 
it  is  the  expert  who  must  say  die  final  word.  Thus  our  prime  duty  is 
to  inventory  and  e^>ecially  develop  and  devise  every  possible  new 
way  of  fostering  the  spirit  of  original  research  in  this  new  day  that  is 
now  dawning  upon  the  world,  and  in  which  it  is  the  inestimable  privil- 
ege of  diis  generation  to  live.  We  can  not  too  clearly  realize  or  too 
often  repeat  dat  research  is  in  the  very  center  of  the  current  of  creative 


VOL.   XIII.- 


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114  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

evolution  and  has  the  momentum  of  all  the  developmental  urge  behind 
it.  Its  spirit  is  to  the  new  era  what  the  Holy  Ghost  was  to  the  early 
church.  Once  k  made  prophets  and  apostles,  inspired  visions,  sent 
men  to  waste  places  to  meditate  as  hermits,  anchorites,  ascetics 
crucifying  the  flesh,  or  impelled  them  to  challenge  rulers  or  to  become 
martyrs.  Now  it  inspires  men  to  seclude  themselves  in  laboratories, 
museums,  studies,  libraries;  sends  them  to  remote  and  perhaps  hostile 
and  dangerous  corners  of  the  earth  to  observe,  collect,  excavate,  de- 
cipher, reccmstruct  extinct  animals  from  fossils  or  fragments  of  bones 
and  teeth,  or  to  restore  prehistoric  life  from  vestiges  and  utensils  in 
caves,  cromlechs,  relics  of  pile-dwellers;  or  to  reconstruct  temples, 
palaces,  dwellings,  and  even  huts  fr<»n  their  buried  foundations;  per- 
haps to  explore  the  sources  of  mineral,  agricultural,  and  industrial 
wealth;  or  to  study  and  control  the  ways  of  and  antidotes  for  new 
microbes,  insect  pests  and  toxins.  Human  culture  began  with  the  at- 
tempt of  man  to  understand  his  own  soul,  its  nature  and  destiny;  and  to 
this  was  soon  added  interest  in  his  body  and  its  diseases.  Now  we  are 
studying  his  relations  to  his  home  and  his  mother,  Nature,  and  his 
social,  industrial,  and  family  life. 

When  I  lately  asked  my  dentist  why  he  hurt  me  so  cruelly  now 
when  the  same  operation  on  the  other  side  eight  years  ago  was  painless, 
he  replied  that  now  he  had  to  use  American  instead  of  German 
novocain  and  we  have  not  learned  to  make  the  pure  article.  In  looking 
over  Kahlbaum's  catalogue  of  hundreds  of  chemical  compounds  neces- 
sary for  every  research  laboratory,  I  was  told  that  only  a  very  few  of 
them  can  even  yet  be  produced  outside  of  Germany  and  that  our 
chemical  industries  have  focussed  upon  nitrates,  dyes,  and  other  large- 
scale  products  that  bring  great  profits. 

Turning  to  other  departments,  ever  since  the  Reformation  German 
scholarship  has  led  in  all  Biblical  studies,  giving  us  the  higher 
criticism,  and  its  preeminence  has  been  no  less  in  the  study  of  classical 
texts  and  history.  Our  professors  <^  philosophy  have  largely  con- 
cerned themselves  with  problems  of  German  origin  from  Kant  to 
Schopenhauer  and  Nietzsche.  Biological  work  has  for  two  decades 
focussed  on  the  theories  of  Weismann  and  Mendel,  both  Teutonic.  In 
every  psycholc^ical  laboratory  the  name  of  Wundt  outranks  all  others, 
while  Freud  has  more  lately  given  us  another  group  of  great  ideas 
which  are  working  as  leaven  not  only  in  the  studies  of  mind  normal 
and  abnormal,  but  in  our  conceptions  of  art,  literature,  daily  life, 
history,  and  religion.  Students  of  the  exact  sciences  are  agog  over  the 
theories  of  relativity  as  represented  by  Einstein  and  the  even  more 
revolutionary  concept  of  quanta,  also  of  German  origin.  For  decades 
our  best  graduates  who  desired  to  specialize  studied  there  and  a  large 
pairt  of  our  professors  have  been  trained  there,  so  that  the  apex  of 
our  educational  system  was  long  found  beyond  the  Rhine. 


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THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  ZEITGEIST  115 

All  this  was  in  accordance  with  the  policy  laid  down  by  Fichte  only 
a  little  more  than  a  ceiitury  ago  in  his  famous  address  to  the  Gennan 
nation  when  Napoleon  had  annihilated  the  Teutonic  annies,  crushed 
the  German  spirit,  and  his  spies  were  scattered  through  the  very  hall. 
Fichte's  thesis  was  that  Germany  must  become  the  educational  leader 
of  the  world  and  must  thus  rehabilitate  herself  from  bottom  to  top  and 
understand  that  her  only  possible  way  of  escaping  obscurity,  if  not 
annihilation,  was  research,  her  only  asset  was  in  the  truth  to  be  dis- 
covered and  new  powers  to  be  utilized.  In  a  word,  her  soil  was  poor, 
her  armies  gone,  her  finances  ruined,  her  spirit  near  despair,  and  the 
gospel  of  Fichte,  the  ^presentifier"  of  his  day,  was  that  all  the  power 
she  could  ever  expect  in  the  future  muait  come  from  knowledge — ^tfaat 
her  specialty  must  be  in  its  creation  and  di£Fusion.  And  the  world 
knows  the  resttlt  of  this  policy,  which  in  a  century  made  his  country 
the  strongest  in  all  history,  which  never  saw  so  brief  and  great  a 
national  regeneration  in  the  same  short  span  of  years. 

To-day  this  leadership  is  gravely  impaired,  and  possibly  forever 
shattered,  and  it  is  craven  and  imbecile  not  to  see  that  the  situation 
brings  a  new  call  to  this  country,  now  the  richest  and  most  prosperous 
in  the  world — spending  more  money  for  education,  we  have  just  been 
told,  than  all  Europe  combined — ^to  aspire  to  this  succession,  to  pay 
back  our  intellectual  debt,  and  possibly  to  bring  the  keystone  of  the 
educational  arch  again  to  this  country.  Of  course  we  must  not  forget, 
as  Kuno  Francke  reminds  us,  that  Germany  in  her  present  distress  may 
again  hark  bade  to  the  gospel  of  Fichte  and  seek  to  renew  her  strength 
by  a  yet  more  intensive  development  of  culture  and  hope  to  some- 
time achieve  a  new  intellectual  conquest  of  the  world,  such  as  she 
was  so  far  on  the  way  toward  achieving  when  she  turned  from 
culture  to  Kultur  and,  at  length,  not  content  with'  this,  made  her 
sapreme  error  of  appealing  to  the  sword.  Of  course  science  is  universal 
and  knows  no  national  boundaries,  but  our  nationality,  whatever  it  is 
and  is  wordi,  has  here  a  new  opportunity  undreamed  of  before. 

Not  only  does  democracy,  if  it  is  to  be  made  safe  for  the  world, 
require  education  of  its  citizenry  much  above  the  mental  age  of 
thirteen  and  a  half,  which  was  the  average  of  our  soldiers  tested,  (and 
we  have  even  been  called  a  nation  of  sixth-graders),  but  every  land 
— and  this  most  of  all — ^is  now  crying  out  for  new  leaders  in  every 
department  Our  statesmen  need  broader  training  in  international  re- 
lations  and  show  every  symptom  which  alienists  find  in  all  mincb 
grappling  vrith  problems  too  large  for  their  powers.  Our  captains  of 
industry  need  to  look  farther  afield  and  farther  ahead.  The  waste  of 
incompetency  and  the  curse  of  mediocrity  are  upon  us.  We  have  ut- 
teily  lost  all  power  of  discriminating  between  the  best  men,  things, 
ideas,  books,  and  the  second  or  even  the  tenth  best. 


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116  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

The  p»ycbol(^y  of  the  whole  matter  is  that  we  love  knowledge  be- 
cause we  love  power.  As  man  has  domesticated  some  two  hundred 
species  of  animals,  using  for  his  own  benefit  their  sdiength,  inetinoCs, 
keener  senses,  etc.,  so  he  strives  to  command  the  powers  of  nature  and 
to  really  become  the  captain  of  his  own  soul.  Competent  engineers 
tell  us  that  the  average  individual  to-day  commands  some  thirfy'three 
man-power  besides  his  own,  whereas  a  century  ago  all  inventions  gave 
him  conunand  over  only  two  and  a  half  tunes  hie  own  strength.  But 
ever  more  is  and  will  be  needed  although  waste  also  increaBesi  and  all 
we  have  known  and  controlled  is  only  the  beginning.  Man  is  really 
only  just  starting  on  his  career  as  an  iuTestigator  so  that  thus  research' 
is  not  only  the  apex  of  creative  evolution  and  the  highest  vooaiioo.  of 
num  but  ie  the  greatest  joy  that  life  affords  to  mortals.  He  who  reveals 
and  teaches  us  to  command  more  ol  the  world  without  and  within 
is  the  chief  benefactor  of  the  race,  the  true  prophet,  priest,  and  king  in 
our  day. 

Now,  probably  the  univenity  should  be  the  diief  shrine  and  also 
the  power-house  of  this  spirit,  which  ought  to  be  for  the  new  post- 
helium  epoch  now  opening  what  the  Holy  Ghost  was  to  the  early 
church,  for  in  it  the  higher  powers  of  man  have  their  chief  deployment 
There  is  a  final  lesson  from  the  church  that  we  ought  to  lay  to  heart 
Beside  and  above  all  its  elaborate  medieval  organization,  even  when  it 
was  at  the  height  of  its  power  and  aspired  to  universal  dominioa,  its 
greatest  leaders  always  felt  that  above  and  beyond  it  was  the  larger 
Church  Invisible,  eternal,  not  made  ¥ritfa  hands,  the  membership  of 
which  consisted  of  everybody,  everywhere,  who  strove  supremely  for 
righteousness  and  truth.  To-day  we  should  give  a  similar  place  in  our 
scheme  of  things  to  the  University  Invisible,  composed  of  all  those 
everywhere  who  are  smitten  with  the  passion  of  adding  something  to 
the  sum  of  the  world's  knowledge,  even  ever  so  tiny  a  brick  to  the 
splendid  temple  ol  science,  which  is  the  supreme  creation  of  man,  but 
who  realize  that  of  this  temple  only  the  foundations  are  yet  actually 
laid  and  that  the  moet  imposing  part  of  the  structure  is  not  only  not 
built  but  can  not  even  be  cmnpletely  planned.  The  members  of  this 
new  church  of  science  are  those  who  feel  the  call  to  make  some  original 
contribution  of  their  own  toward  either  its  plan  or  its  further  structure, 
for  the  true  university  is,  after  all,  only  found  in  the  investigators  state 
of  mind.  All  through  the  history  of  the  church,  as  Renan  has  shown, 
ran  a  faith  generally  submerged  but  which  had  many  timid  out-crops 
that  in  the  fullness  of  time  there  was  to  come  a  new,  third  dispensation 
superseding  the  old,  viz.^  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit  It  is  that  into 
which  we  are  now  summoned  to  enter.  Have  we  the  virtue  to  hear  and 
heed  the  call? 


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SWISS  GEODESY  AND  THE  U.  S.  COAST  SURVEY  U7 


SWISS  GEODESY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES 
COAST  SURVEY^ 

By  Professor  FLORIAN  CAJORI 

UNIVERSITT  OF  CALIFORNU 

rE  infiuaice  of  the  intellect  transcends  mountains  and  leaps  across 
oceans.  At  the  time  when  George  Washington  warned  his  fellow 
oonntrymen  against  entangling  political  alliances  with  European  coun- 
tries, there  was  started  a  movement  of  far  reaching  scientific  im- 
portance in  a  small  country  in  the  heart  of  the  Alps  which  (as  we  shall 
see)  exerted  a  silent,  yet  potent  scientific  influence  upon  the  young 
republic  on  the  eastern  shores  of  North  America.  Our  government 
executives  can  restrict  the  movements  of  troops  and  can  abstain  from 
making  hazardous  treaties,  but  these  policies  can  not  permanently 
check  the  subtler  movements  of  intellectual  thought  which  often,  like 
aerial  waves,  encircle  the  world. 

In  1785  a  gifted  and  enthusiastic  young  German  named  Johann 
Georg  Tralles  became  professor  of  mathematics  and  physics  at  Berne 
in  Switzerland.  Interested  in  applied  as  well  as  pure  mathematics, 
Tralles  was  active  as  a  metrologist  and  geodesist.  Maps  of  that  part 
of  Switzerland  had  been  altogether  unreliable.  He  entered  upon  re- 
fined surveys  of  the  triangulation  type.  In  this  work  he  was  assisted 
by  one  of  his  pupils,  Ferdinand  Rudolf  Hassler  of  Aarau,  a  young 
man  who  belonged  to  a  well-to-do  family.  His  father  had  mapped 
out  for  him  a  bureaucratic  career  which  would  have  brought  a  good 
competence.  But  the  mathematics  and  the  surveying  instruments  of 
Tralles  exerted  an  attraction  impossible  for  him  to  resist.  In  1791 
Tralles  and  Hassler  measured  a  base-line  together,  using  a  steel-chain 
manufactured  by  the  English  mechanic  Ramsden.  The  base  line  was 
40,000  feet  long;  its  mids  were  marked  on  blocks  of  stone  four  feet 
high,  with  steel  points  held  in  position  by  cast  lead.  Not  satisfied  with 
the  accuracy  reached,  a  few  years  later  they  remeasured  this  base  with 
improved  apparatus.  Carefully  standardized  rods  now  took  the  place 
of  chains.  A  net  of  triangles  was  adopted,  the  principal  points  of 
which  were  the  several  summits  of  the  Jura  mountain  range.  For  the 
great  distances  between  stations  the  instruments  were  found  to  be 
inadequate.     Tralles  wrote  to  a  friend  about  his  angular  measure- 

1  Sigma  Xi  address  delivered  at  Northwestern  University  on  December 
13,1920. 


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118  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

ments:  ^^I  have  tortured  them  out  with  a  theodolite — measurement  I 
can  not  call  this,  when  the  telescope  is  so  weak  that  one  can  not  see 
the  signals,  but  only  guess  their  position.  You  can  readily  see  that 
they  are  not  small,  for  the  telescope  of  the  theodolite  reveals  them 
at  a  distance  of  100,000  feet"  Hie  government  of  the  Canton  of  Berne 
was  appealed  to  for  financial  aid  in  the  purchase  of  a  more  powerful 
instrument.  Six  hundred  dollars  were  voted  immediately.  Mr.  Rams- 
den  in  London,  then  the  most  celdbrated  instrument-maker  living,  for  a 
sum  somewhat  exceeding  this  amount,  promised  to  supply  in  1794  a 
complete  azimuth  circle,  at  least  three  feet  in  diameter.  Due  to  various 
delays  the  great  instrument  did  not  reach  Berne  until  1797.  Mean- 
while some  smaller  instruments  had  been  secured  from  England; 
Tralles  and  Hassler  had  been  active  in  perfecting  their  technique. 
Young  Hassler  received  the  commission  to  determine  the  boundary 
line  between  the  Cantons  Berne  and  Solothum.  Ramsden's  three-foot 
theodolite  was  a  wonderful  instrument;  only  two  other  instruments  of 
that  size  and  precision  are  said  to  have  been  manufactured  by  Ramsden. 
What  a  privilege  for  young  Hassler  to  become  practically  acquainted 
with  the  use  of  an  instrument  of  the  high  type  that  very  few  surveyors 
then  living  had  ever  seen! 

Hassler  repeatedly  took  trips  to  Paris  and  one  trip  to  Germany; 
he  attended  lectures  and  became  personally  acquainted  with  leading 
scientists — among  them  Lalande,  Borda,  Delambre  and  Lavoisier  in 
Paris;  Von  Zach  and  Bohnenberger  in  Germany.  With  funds  liberally 
supplied  by  his  father,  Hassler  purchased  many  instruments  and 
scientific  books.  He  astonished  Von  Zach  late  one  afternoon  by  meas- 
luring  with  a  five-indi  English  reflecting  sextant  and  mercury  horizon 
the  latitude  of  Zach's  observatory  and  differing  only  five  seconds  from 
previously  known  determinations.  We  see  Hassler  occupied  with 
serious  studies  and  becoming  familiar  with  the  practical  operation  of 
the  most  refined  mathematical  instruments  in  existance  at  the  time. 

Geodetic  work  in  Switzerland  was  stopped  by  revolutionary  events. 
In  1798  French  soldiers  marched  into  Berne.  Friction  arose  between 
Franch  and  Swiss  goedesists.  A  few  years  passed  without  bringing 
relief.  Hassler  who  meanwhile  had  married  and  had  held  various 
official  positions  of  responsibility  in  his  canton  of  Aargau  became  weary 
of  European  turmoil,  and  decided  to  se^  his  fortune  in  the  New  World. 
Strange  to  say  we  find  him  engaged  in  the  organization  of  a  stock  com- 
pany for  the  purchase  of  large  tracts  of  land  in  South  Carolina.  In 
1805  he  departed  with  wife,  children,  servants  and  96  trunks,  boxes 
and  bales,  and  travelled  down  the  Rhine,  having  previously  chartered 
in  Amsterdam  the  ship  ^Liberty"  (350  tons)  for  Philadelphia.  He 
was  accompanied  on  his  trip  by  over  100  laborers  to  form  a  Swiss 
colony  in  the  South.    Unfortunately  Hassler's  agent  speculated  with 


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SWISS  GEODESY  AND  THE  U.  S.  COAST  SURVEY  119 

the  funds  entrusted  to  lum  and  Hassler  sustained  heavy  financial  loss. 
He  arrived  in  Philadelphia  without  means  to  support  his  family.  While 
waiting  for  remittances  from  his  father,  he  sold  some  of  his  books 
and  instruments.  He  received  financial  assistance  also  from  John 
Vaughan,  a  prosperous  and  public  spirited  Philadelphian. 

Hassler  soon  got  in  touch  with  scientific  men  in  Philadelphia.  He 
attended  meetings  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society.  On  Decem- 
ber 6th,  1805,  he  donated  to  this  Society  a  model  of  Mont  Blanc, 
two  chamois  horns,  and  a  specimen  of  feldspar.  Hassler  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  Society  on  April  17th,  1807.  The  year  previous  he 
had  sold  to  the  Philosophical  Society  "the  volumes  necessary  to  com- 
plete the  transactions  of  the  French  Academy  of  Science  of  which  the 
Society  possessed  eighty-nine  volumes,  the  bequest  of  Dr.  Franklin." 
Hassler  sold  also  some  volumes  of  the  transactions  of  the  Berlin  Acad- 
emy. I  mention  these  items  to  indicate  the  kind  of  books  Hassler 
brought  to  America. 

He  brought  also  a  number  of  instruments  and  standard  weights 
and  measures,  such  as  had  never  before  been  carried  to  the  American 
shores.  Among  these  were  a  standard  meter,  made  at  Paris  in  1799  by 
the  Conmuttee  of  Weights  and  Measures,  a  standard  kilogram,  an  iron 
toise,  made  by  Cavinet  in  Paris,  two  toises  of  Lalande.  All  of  these 
were  acquired  by  the  American  Philosophical  Society  and  were  loaned 
to  Hassler  twenty-six  years  later  when  he  was  acting  in  Washington 
as  superintendent  of  weights  and  measures. 

In  1806,  Professor  Robert  Patterson  and  John  Vaughan  in  Philadel- 
[rfiia,  John  Gamett  of  New  Brunswick  and  others  were  deeply  im- 
pressed by  the  ability  and  enthusiasm  for  science  displayed  by  Hassler. 
Patterson  was  then  director  of  the  United  States  Mint.  Feeling  no 
doubt  that  the  services  of  this  talented  young  man  of  36,  whose  long 
course  of  special  training  secured  in  Switzerland,  France  and  Germany, 
made  him  one  of  the  very  foremost  living  practical  geodesists,  should 
be  enlisted  by  the  American  Government,  Professor  Patterson  gave 
President  Jefferson  an  account  of  Hassler's  life.  "He  would  willingly 
engage,"  said  Patterson,  "in  an  exploring  expedition,  such  as  those  you 
have  already  set  on  foot." 

As  neither  Patterson's  letter  to  President  Jefferson,  nor  Hassler's 
brief  autobiography  enclosed  with  it,  has  ever  appeared  in  print,  it 
may  be  interesting  to  present  these  documents,  at  least  in  part'  Pro- 
fessor Patterson  wrote: 

2  For  copies  of  these  documents,  and  of  the  letters  written  by  President 
Jefferson  and  President  Madison  which  we  quote  later,  we  are  indebted  to 
the  kindness  of  Dr.  Anita  Newcomb  McGee  of  Washington,  D.  C.  The 
originals  are  in  the  Manuscript  Division  of  the  Library  of  Congress.  Dr. 
McGee  is  a  great  granddaughter  of  Hassler. 


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120  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

(From  Robert  Patterson,  Director  of  the  Mint,  to  Jefferson.) 

Philad.  March  3d  1806. 
**Sir 

"I  beg  leave  to  introduce  to  your  notice  Mr.  Hassler,  a  gentleman 
lately  from  Switzerland.  He  is  a  man  of  science  &  education;  and,  as 
will  appear  from  the  enclosed  paper,  written  by  himself  at  my  request, 
was  a  character  of  considerable  importance  in  his  own  country.  It  is 
his  wish  to  obtain  some  employment  from  the  United  States,  which 
would  require  the  practice  of  surveying  or  astronomy.  He  would  will- 
ingly migage  in  an  exploring  expedition,  such  as  those  you  have  already 
set  on  foot;  for  which,  I  have  no  doubt,  he  would  be  found  well 
qualified. 

**In  his  education  he  paid  perticular  attention  to  the  study  of 
astronomy,  and  statistical  surveying;  &  from  the  enclosed  paper  you 
will  see,  that  he  is  well  versed  in  the  practice.  He  is  a  man  of  a  sound, 
hardy  constitution,  about  35  years  of  age,  &  of  the  most  amiable  con- 
ciliating manners.  Besides  his  knowledge  of  the  Latin  language,  he 
speaks  the  German,  French,  Italian  &  English.  To  his  acquaintance 
with  mathematics  in  general,  which,  as  far  as  I  am  capable  of  judging 
from  a  *short  though  not  slight  acquaintance,  is  very  extensive,  he  adds 
a  good  knowledge  of  chemistry,  mineralogy,  and  all  the  other  branches 
of  natural  philosophy.  In  short.  Sir,  I  believe  his  services  may  be 
rendered  useful  to  this  his  adopted  country.  He  possesses  a  very  val- 
uable library,  and  a  set  of  surveying  &  astronomical  instruments, 
scarce  inferior  to  any  I  ever  saw. 

**I  shall  only  add,  that  the  cause  for  which  he  struggled  in  his 
native  country,  and  the  reasons  for  his  seeking  an  asilum  here,  will  not, 
Sir,  I  am  sure,  detract  from  his  merit  in  your  estimation. 
^*I  have  the  honour  to  be, 

*Vith  sentiments  of  the 
^^greatest  esteem, — 

^our  most  obedient  servt. 

R.  Patterson. 

*T.  S.  I  forgot  to  mention,  that  Mr  Hassler  is  at  present  settled 
with  his  family  (a  wife  &  three  children  with  a  few  domestics)  on  a 
small  farm  near  the  banks  of  the  Schuylkill,  and  that  he  proposes  very 
shortly  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  seat  of  government." 

Hassler's  sketch  of  his  life  which  was  enclosed  in  the  letter  that 
Patterson  sent  to  President  Jefferson,  is  reproduced  here  with  all  its 
orthographic  peculiarities: 

"Feb.  27,  1806. 
"After  my  first  education  in  public  and  private  schools  at  Arau, 
my  native  town,  I  went  in  my  16th  Year  1787  as  a  Voluntary  in  an 


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SWISS  GEODESY  AND  THE  U.  S.  COAST  SURVEY  121 

office  of  the  government  of  Berne,  appointed  for  all  kind  of  surveyings 
and  the  care  of  the  archives  of  the  state,  in  which  businesses  I  worked; 
following  at  the  same  time  the  lessons  of  the  College,  then  newly  es- 
tablished under  the  name  of  political  institute,  and  the  private  instruc- 
tions of  Mr.  Tralles  Professor  of  Mathematics,  (now  member  of  the 
Academy  of  Berlin)  aplying  chiefly  to  practical  geometry  &  astronomy. 
As  a  practical  exercise  of  these  instructions  Mr  Tralles  &  I  undertoock 
in  1791.  (on  my  expenses)  the  trigonometrical  mesurements  for  a  map 
of  the  country,  and  mesured  a  base  of  7%  Miles  length  and  s<Hne 
triangles,  with  proper  means  and  instruments,  till  the  season  inter- 
rupted the  further  prosecution. 

^The  Government  of  Berne,  seeing  the  various  advantages  of  this 
Work,  undertook  to  follow  it,  and  appointed  proper  funds  for  the  in- 
struments; which  were  comitted  to  Mr  Ramsden  in  London. 

^*In  1792  I  went  to  the  university  of  Gottinguen,  (staying  a  short 
time  in  my  passage  at  the  Observatory  of  Mr  de  Zach  at  Seeberg)  where 
I  continued  my  studies  in  mathematics  and  natural  Philosophy,  under 
Kaatner  and  Lichtenberg;  (with  whom  I  was  particularly  acquainted) : 
Obliged  nevertheless  by  the  wishes  of  my  father,  to  give  some  time  to 
the  study  of  Diplomatics  under  Gatterer. 

In  1796,  I  went  to  Paris  applying  half  a  Year  chiefly  to  Mineralogy  & 
Chymistry  under  Hauy,  Vauquelin,  Fourcroy  &c.  (being  already  ac- 
quainted by  a  former  Voyage  there  ¥rith  LaLande  &  Borda.) 
In  1797.  a  large  Theodalite  of  Ramsc^  beeing  arrived  at  Berne  Mr 
Tralles  &  I  endeavoured  to  prosecute  now  for  the  Government  the  Geo- 
graphical Operations  begun  in  1791.  but  ware  soon  stoped  again  by 
the  Revolution  of  Switzerland  early  in  1798.  which  event  changed 
at  the  same  time  my  position  by  annulating  a  post  of  my  father  the 
succession  of  which  was  secured  to  me  since  my  16th  Year. 
Though  the  ministry  of  Finances  of  the  Helvetic  Republic,  desireous 
of  an  accurate  mape  of  the  country  gived  me  on  a  new  the  commission 
to  follow  the  Work  and  I  worked  at  it  a  short  time  in  2  Seasons  the 
perpetual  changes  &  finally  extinction  of  the  unitary  Government 
put  an  end  to  this  Work  for  which  I  could  neither  get  my  advances 
repayed  nor  my  Labour.  On  my  leaving  the  Country  I  left  the  un- 
finished Work  to  one  of  my  friends  to  be  sold  for  a  trifle  to  the  new 
Government. 

Though  I  took  no  trouble  to  get  any  public  office  I  was  early  in  1798. 
elected  to  the  Court  of  appeal  of  the  Canton  of  Argovia  for  the  direc- 
tion of  criminal  affairs,  (accusateur  public)  from  which  place  I  was 
called  in  1799.  by  the  Central  Government  to  the  same  functions  at 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Helvetic  Republic,  after  the  extinction  of 
which  in  1803, 1  went  at  home  were  I  was  elected  by  the  representatives 
of  the  Canton  a  member  supleant  of  the  Court  of  Appeals,  and  by  my 


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122  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

fellow-Citizens  a  member  of  the  Counsel  of  the  town,  in  which  I  was 
trusted  with  the  chief  Direction  of  public  buildings  and  Archives. 
But  foreseeing  the  constant  oscillations  in  the  state  of  the  Country  in- 
volving always  my  position  according  to  past  experiences  (intrigues 
and  ambition,  which  are  wanted  in  such  circumstances,  beeing  out 
of  my  Caracter)  I  took  with  seme  of  my  friends  the  resolution  to 
come  over  to  America  in  search  of  more  solidity  in  a  peaceable 
Country. 

Thou^  I  shall  be  one  of  the  Directors  of  a  Society  of  my  countrymens 
intending  to  come  over  in  this  Country  my  presence  beeing  not  always 
nor  absolutely  wanted,  I  could  and  wished  to  be  employed  in  some 
business  where  practical  Geometry  &  Astronomy  would  be  the  requisites, 
by  preference. 
Philadelphia  27th  Febr:  1806:  F:R:Hassler.'' 

In  addition  to  Professor  Patterson's  letter  and  enclosure.  President 
Jefferson  received  a  letter  from  Dr.  C.  Wistar  of  Philadelphia,  recom- 
mending Hassler.  President  Jefferson's  reply  to  Dr.  Wistar,  which 
has  never  been  printed,  is  as  follows: 

"Yours  of  the  19th,  [FAruary  19th  1807]  has  heea  received,  as 
was  a  former  one  proposing  Mr.  Hassler  to  be  employed  in  the  survey 
of  the  coast.  I  have  heard  so  much  good  of  him  as  to  feel  a  real  wish 
that  he  may  find  the  employment  of  the  nature  to  which  his  physical 
constitution  &  habits  may  be  equal.  I  doubt  if.  in  yielding  this  as  to  Mr. 
Hassler,  I  transgress  a  principle  I  have  considered  as  important  in  mak- 
ing appointments.  The  foreigners  who  come  to  reside  in  this  country, 
bring  with  them  an  almost  universal  expectation  of  office.  I  recieve 
more  applications  from  them  than  would  fill  all  the  offices  of  the  U.  S. 
*  *  *  It  is  true  there  are  some  employments  ♦  ♦  ♦  into  which 
meritorious  foreigners  &  of  peculiar  qualifications  may  sometimes  be 
introduced,  such  is  the  present  case." 

It  appears  that  the  starting  of  the  survey  of  the  coast  of  the  United 
States  was  taken  under  consideration  by  members  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society  at  Philadelphia  for  the  reason  that  there  had 
come  into  their  midst  a  man  preeminently  qualified  to  undertake  such 
a  survey.  In  other  words,  had  Hassler  not  come  to  the  United  States, 
probably  no  effort  would  have  been  made  at  that  time  to  organize  such 
a  slurvey.  Upon  President  Jefferson's  recommendation.  Congress 
passed  a  law,  authorizing  a  survey  on  February  10th,  1807,  and  made 
an  appropriation  of  $50,000.  Albert  Gallatin,  Secretary  of  the  Treab- 
ury,  addressed  a  circular  letter  to  scientific  men,  asking  for  plans  for 
carrying  the  survey  into  effect.  Among  the  replies  were  letters  from 
Robert  Patterson  of  the  U.  S.  Mint,  James  Madison,  then  President  of 
William  and  Mary  College,  Andrew  Ellicott  who  had  long  been  active 
as  a  surveyor  in  the  United  States,  John  Garnett  of  New  Brunswick  who 


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SWISS  GEODESY  AND  THE  U.  S.  COAST  SURVEY  123 

was  interested  in  astronomic  and  geodetic  affairs.  Hassler's  reply  was 
written  in  the  French  language;  it  carefully  outlined  a  trigonometric 
survey  and  the  use  of  chronometers  in  localities  where  trigonometric 
surveys  would  be  very  difficult.  At  President  Jefferson's  direction,  a 
commission  passed  upon  these  plans.  That  Hassler's  plans  would  be 
chosen  seemed  to  be  a  foregone  conclusion  in  the  minds  of  most  scien- 
tists interested.  The  commission  was  formed  of  the  very  men  who  had 
submitted  plans,  with  the  omission  of  Hassler,  who  was  then  at  West 
Point  In  rejection  of  their  own  plans,  they  recommended  Hassler's. 
On  account  of  political  disturbances  in  Europe  and  America  the  sur- 
vey was  not  begun  in  1807.  Meanwhile  Hassler  had  been  appointed 
acting  professor  of  mathematics  at  West  Point,  where  he  served  two 
years.  Later  he  was  for  one  year  professor  at  Union  College  at  Sche- 
nectady. 

During  his  residence  at  West  Point  and  Schenectady  he  had  occa- 
sional correspondence  with  Patterson  regarding  details  for  the  coast 
survey,  especially  the  necessary  instruments.  On  September  2,  1807, 
Patterson  asked  him  by  letter  whether  he  would  be  willing  to  go  to 
London  to  direct  the  construction  of  the  instruments  there.  Hassler 
expressed  his  willingness  to  undertake  the  mission,  but  not  until 
August,  181 1,  was  the  government  able  to  send  him.  Hassler  embarked 
with  his  large  family  for  England. 

After  the  death  of  Ramsden,  Edward  Trou^ton  came  into  ascend- 
ency as  a  skilled  mechanic.  It  was  his  ambition  in  life  to  surpass 
Ramsden  as  an  instrument  maker.  Hassler  set  Trou^ton  and  others 
to  work,  manufacturing  under  bis  direction  instruments  for  the  United 
States  Coast  Survey.  Some  of  the  principal  instruments  were  of  Hass- 
ler's own  design.  He  secured  instruments  and  books  also  from  Paris. 
Politically  the  time  was  unfavorable;  the  war  of  1812  broke  out. 
Hassler  was  in  the  country  of  the  enemy.  Once  he  was  refused  a 
passport  in  London  until  after  a  personal  application  was  made  to 
the  foreign  secretary,  who  granted  the  passport  with  the  generous  re- 
mark *^that  the  British  Government  made  no  wars  on  science." 

The  total  amount  expended  for  instruments  during  four  years  in 
England  and  France  was  $37,500;  including  books,  Hassler's  salary 
and  travelling  expenses,  the  outlay  exceeded  $55,000.  Troughton,  the 
celebrated  London  instrument  maker,  remarked  that  there  was  not  so 
complete  and  useful  a  collection  of  instruments  m  the  possession  of 
any  government  in  Europe. 

On  October  16,  1815,  Hassler  informed  Mr.  Dallas,  then  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  of  his  safe  arrival  with  the  instruments,  in  Delaware 
Bay;  they  were  deposited  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Some  of 
the  instruments  were  intended  for  use  in  two  astronomical  observa- 
tories that  were  to  be  established  according  to  Hassler's  plans  which 


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124  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

had  been  matured  some  time  in  the  interval  1807-1811.  He  brought 
back  all  the  instruments  then  deemed  essential  for  the  astronomical 
observatories  except  a  mural  circle  and  zenith  sector,  which  he  ^'did 
not  venture  to  order,  as  their  absolute  necessity,  in  connection  with 
the  survey  of  the  coast,  was  not  so  obvious  as  that  of  the  instruments 
procured." 

*'To  procure  the  greatest  advantage  to  the  survey,**  continued  Hass- 
ler,  "their  positions  [positions  of  the  observatories]  should  be  as  far 
North  East  and  South  West  as  the  very  favorable  position  of  the 
United  States  admits" — one  in  the  district  of  Maine,  the  other  in  Lower 
Louisiana.  "Nearly  every  celestial  phenomenon  observable  from  the 
tropic  to  the  arctic  circle  and  within  about  two  hundred  degrees  of 
difference  of  longitude,  could  be  observed  at  one  or  the  other  of  them." 
Little  did  Hassler  realize  at  that  time  that  over  a  quarter  of  a  century 
would  elapse  before  Congress  would  authorize  a  national  astronomical 
observatory. 

Not  until  May  2,  1816,  did  Congress  pass  appropriations  for  the 
survey  of  the  coast.  In  August  of  the  same  year  Hassler  was  appointed 
Superintendent  of  the  Survey  of  the  Coast.  In  his  eagerness  to  begin 
work  Hassler  had  gone  to  Long  Island  and  reconnoitered  the  neighbor- 
hood during  the  month  before  his  regular  appointment.  At  first  he 
had  only  three  inexperienced  cadets  from  West  Point  to  help  him;  in 
September,  Major  Abert,  one  of  his  West  Point  acquaintances,  was 
detailed  to  assist  him.  Great  difficulty  was  experienced  in  finding  a 
satisfactory  locality  for  the  measuremoit  of  a  base  line.  Bad  weather 
caused  further  delays.  Once  his  work  was  interrupted  by  a  law-suit 
brought  by  a  man  who  charged  that  Hassler  had  cut  off  some  branches 
of  a  cedar  bush,  to  make  the  remaining  part  of  the  bush  answer  as  a 
temporary  signal.  There  were  no  railroads  in  those  days;  public  hi^- 
ways  were  few.  Hassler's  work  took  him  to  localities  not  easily  reached. 
For  conveying  of  himself,  his  men  and  his  delicate  instruments,  he  had 
constructed  early  in  1817  a  spring  carriage,  of  special  design,  to  be 
pulled  by  two  or  four  horses.  This  carriage  became  famous  because 
of  its  odd  appearance  and  because  political  opponents  of  Hassler 
charged  that  he  indulged  in  luxurious  travel,  such  as  was  enjoyed  by 
no  other  government  official. 

Delays  occurred  also  because  of  tardiness  on  the  part  of  the  Gov- 
ernment in  sending  the  necessary  funds.  At  times  Hassler  advanced 
money  of  his  own,  to  prevent  interruption  of  the  work.  The  difficulties 
experienced  from  wooded  marshes  and  the  absence  of  sharp  points  near 
the  coast  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  plan  for  a  full  chain  of  triangles 
back  from  the  shore.  The  proper  locality  for  a  base  was  not  found 
until  April,  1817.  In  February  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  asked 
Hassler  to  state  the  probable  time  required  for  the  execution  of  the 


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SWISS  GEODESY  AND  THE  U.  S.  COAST  SURVEY         125 

survey.  This  was  a  disquieting  question;  as  yet,  the  survey  had  hardly 
begun!  In  the  Canton  of  Berne,  Switzerland,  four  years  had  been  con« 
sidered  none  too  long  a  period  for  a  much  smaller  project  With 
Major  Abert  as  his  only  trained  assistant,  Hassler  worked  during  1817 
from  the  opening  of  the  season  in  April  until  the  end  of  December, 
when  none  but  Hassler  ^Uougfat  it  possible  to  stand  it  any  longer"  on 
account  of  the  cold.  He  worked  early  and  late,  whenever  weather  per- 
mitted, and  displayed  an  enthusiasm  seldom  equalled.  At  that  time 
Hassler  knew  little  about  American  politics.  He  proceeded  on  the 
supposition  that  if  he  maintained  high  scientific  standards,  if  he  worked 
hard  and  faithfully,  his  services  would  be  appreciated.  He  learned  by 
sad  experience  that  this  is  not  necessarily  the  case,  that  the  head  of  a 
government  scientific  bureau  must  take  pains  to  keep  in  touch  with 
political  leaders  and  through  personal  contact  and  courtesies  extended 
must  endeavor  to  secure  the  inter^t  and  good  will  of  these  leaders; 
in  other  words,  that  political  leaders  must  be  educated  to  the  apprecia- 
tion of  science.  Hassler  did  not  work  in  Washington  at  that  time.  In 
winter,  when  work  in  the  field  was  impossible,  he  resided  in  Newark, 
New  Jersey.  Even  if  he  had  tried,  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  have 
kept  in  touch  with  Congressmen. 

In  1817  eight  triangles  were  formed,  determining  the  distances  of 
about  forty  points  with  great  accuracy;  two  bases  were  measured;  lati- 
tudes and  azimuths  were  ascertained.  After  December,  the  winter  was 
passed  in  performing  the  necessary  computations.  On  April  6,  1818, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  apprised  Hassler  of  the  fact  that  the  little 
progress  made  in  the  survey  had  caused  general  dissatbf  action  in  Con- 
gress. This  was  a  bolt  from  an  almost  clear  sky.  Hassler  replied  by 
telling  what  had  been  accomplished — ^more  than  double  what  had  been 
achieved  in  the  English  survey  in  the  same  time.  After  sending  this 
reply,  Hassler,  who  was  in  Newark,  concluded  that  he  had  better  go  to 
Washington  with  all  his  documents,  so  that  he  could  offer  any  explana- 
tion desired.  His  explanations  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  were 
of  no  avail;  on  April  14,  1818,  the  law  authorizing  the  survey  was  so 
modified  by  Congress  as  to  exclude  Hassler,  a  civilian,  and  leave 
the  survey  in  charge  of  military  and  naval  officers. 

The  fundamental  difference  between  Hassler  and  Congress  was  that 
Hassler  aimed  to  make  a  triangulation  survey  that  would  be  a  credit 
to  America  in  the  eyes  of  scientific  men  of  the  world;  such  a  survey 
requires  time.  Congress,  on  the  other  hand,  had  no  intention  of  aiding 
science;  they  wanted  a  map  of  the  coast  and  that  without  delay. 

Terrific  as  this  blow  must  have  been  to  Hassler,  he  took  it  calmly. 
Defeats  never  subdued  him;  they  spurred  him  on  to  renewed  efforts. 
Krusenstern  wrote  him  from  St.  Petersburg,  ^'In  Russia  your  talents 
would  have  been  better  appreciated." 


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126  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

For  fourteen  years  nothing  creditable  was  done  on  the  coast  sur- 
vey. No  one  connected  with  it  had  the  training,  experience  and  vision 
to  carry  it  on  successfully.  These  years  constitute  the  dark  ages  of 
the  United  States  Coast  Survey. 

For  Hassler  these  fourteen  years  from  the  age  of  48  to  62  should 
have  been  scientifically  the  most  productive  years  of  his  life;  but 
eleven  of  the  fourteen  were  the  most  barren.  We  pass  in  silence  his 
years  of  struggle  to  support  his  large  family,  years  during  which  the 
operation  of  a  farm  in  northern  New  York  proved  financially  disas- 
trous, years  during  part  of  which  his  energy  was  dissipated  by  school 
teaching  in  small  private  academies  and  in  the  compilation  of  elemen- 
tary teKt-bodcs;  years  of  mental  anguish  over  the  breaking  of  family 
ties.  I  may  add  parenthetically  that  Hassler  had  nine  children,  several 
of  whom  died  in  childhood.  Hassler's  eldest  son  has  many  descendants 
in  this  country.  Hassler's  son,  Charles  Augustus,  was  a  surgeon  in  the 
U.  S.  Navy  and  was  the  father  of  Mary  Caroline,  wife  of  the  late  Simon 
Newcomb,  the  astronomer.  Mrs.  Newcomb  is  now  living  in  Wash- 
ington. 

In  1830  Hassler  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  work  of  weights  and 
measures — a  scientific  department  of  the  Federal  Government  organ- 
ized by  him.  His  ten  years  of  preparation  in  Switzerland  and  his  trips 
to  France  and  Germany  fitted  him  admirably  for  such  work.  Finally 
in  1832,  when  Hassler  was  62  years  old.  Congress  experienced  a  lucid 
interval  and  re-enacted  the  law  of  1807  on  the  Coast  Survey.  Hassler 
was  reinstated  as  superintendent  For  eleven  years  he  labored  assidu- 
ously, until  death  claimed  him.  During  that  time  the  Coast  Survey  ad- 
vanced with  rapid  strides,  notwithstanding  continual  interference  by 
government  officials  and  members  of  Congress. 

Hassler  remained  mentally  alert  to  the  very  last.  He  kept  in  touch 
with  geodesists  and  astronomers  of  Europe.  He  was  in  correspondence 
with  Gauss  of  Gotting^i.  He  was  in  touch  with  Bessel  who  wrote  a 
critical  yet  very  appreciative  review  of  Hassler's  description  of  his  plans 
and  instruments  for  the  U.  S.  Coast  Survey,  printed  in  1825.  Bessel 
saw  in  thos»  plans  original  features  which  placed  them  higher  than  any 
plans  then  in  operation  in  other  countries.  Hassler  was  in  regular 
correspondence  with  Schumacher,  the  editor  of  Astronomische  Nachr 
richten;  with  Admiral  Krusenstem  and  the  elder  Struve  in  Russia; 
Hassler  communicated  with  the  astronomer  Tiarks  and  with  Edward 
Troughton  in  England;  occasionally  he  contributed  papers  to  European 
journals.  He  was  an  associate  of  the  London  Royal  Astronomical  So- 
ciety. In  our  country  he  kept  in  correspondence  with  Thomas  JefiPerson 
and  James  Madison.  Thus,  instead  of  living  a  submissive,  passive  life, 
instead  of  vegetating,  he  kept  his  mind  alert,  young  and  creative. 

The  reader  may  be  interested  in  an  unpublished  letter  which  ex- 


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SWISS  GEODESY  AND  THE  U.  S.  COAST  SURVEY  127 

Prendent  Madison  wrote  Hassler  on  February  22,  1832,  when  Madison 
was  in  his  eighty-first  year: 

Montpelier,  f  ebruary  22,  1832. 
Dear  Sir : 

I  have  received  your  favor  with  the  accompanying  copies  of  your  report 
on  weights  and  measures.  I  have  forwarded  the  two,  one  for  Professor 
Patterson  and  one  for  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  shall  dispose  of  the 
others  as  you  desire.  For  the  copy  allotted  to  myself,  I  return  you  my  thanks. 
The  decrepit  state  of  my  health,  added  to  my  great  age  and  other  causes, 
have  prevented  me  from  looking  much  into  the  work.  My  confidence  in  your 
aptitude  for  it,  takes  the  place  of  a  positive  proof  of  its  merits. 

I  am  glad  to  learn  that  you  are  to  resume  the  important  labor  of  sur- 
veying the  coast  I  hope  you  will  be  able  to  complete  it;  and  to  your  own 
satisfaction,  in  which  case  I  doubt  not  it  will  be  to  the  satisfaction  of  those 
who  invite  you  to  the  undertaking. 

I  tender  you  sir  my  esteemed  friendly  salutations. 

(Signed)     James  Madison. 

The  creative  side  of  Hassler  is  seen  mainly  in  the  design  of  new 
instruments.  He  put  forth  an  improved  repeating  theodolite.  For 
signals  at  geodetic  stations,  Hassler,  in  1806,  recommended  spherical 
reflectors,  such  as  he  had  used  in  Switzerland,  but  later  introduced 
truncated  cones  of  tin  which  could  be  manufactured  easily  and  cheaply 
and  under  ordinary  and  easy  conditions,  possessed  advantages  over 
the  heliotrope  invented  later  by  Gauss.  Hassler  appears  to  be  the 
earliest  geodesist  who  thought  of  using  the  bright  reflection  of  solar 
light  from  a  gilt  ball  or  cone.  After  1836  Hassler  used  Gauss'  helio- 
trope for  great  distances  to  be  pierced  under  bad  atmospheric  condi- 
tions. Most  original  was  Hassler's  base  line  apparatus  which  involved 
an  idea  worked  out  by  him  in  Switzerland  and  perfected  in  this  coun- 
try. Instead  of  bringing  different  bars  in  actual  contact  during  the 
progress  of  base-measurements,  he  used  only  one  bar  and  optical  con- 
tact Each  end  of  the  bar  was  marked  by  a  spider  web;  a  compound 
microscope  standing  upon  a  separate  support  was  placed  at  the  forward 
end,  right  over  the  spider-web.  As  the  place  of  this  end  of  the  bar 
was  determined  by  the  microscope  the  bar  could  be  moved  forward  and 
its  back  end  placed  under  the  microscope.  This  was  truly  an  ingenious 
procedure. 

It  is  interesting  that  Hassler's  plans  for  an  observatory  in  the  United 
States  which  were  presented  to  the  Government  in  1816  and  published 
in  1825  should  resemble  those  actually  carried  out  later  by  Schumacher 
in  the  Altona  Observatory  in  1826.  From  obvious  principles  both 
scientists  deduced  independently  of  one  another,  plans  closely  resem- 
bling each  other. 

In  the  making  of  maps,  Hassler  used  what  is  now  called  the  Ameri- 
can polyconic  projection.  This  projection  was  well  adapted  for  the 
eastern  coast  of  the  United  States  which  is  a  narrow  strip  extending  ap- 


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128  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

proximately  north  and  soutL  Mr.  C.  H.  Deetz  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey,  says  that  ^*Hassler's  polyconic  projection  possesses  great  popu- 
larity on  account  of  mechanical  ease  of  construction  and  the  fact  that 
a  general  table  for  its  use  has  been  calculated  for  the  whole  spheroid.** 
^'It  has,"  adds  Mr.  0.  S.  Adams,  ''been  extensively  used  by  the  United 
States  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey." 

When  Hassler  resumed  work  on  the  Coast  Survey  in  1832  his  health 
was  somewhat  broken,  but  his  mind  was  clear  and  his  spirit  unbroken 
and  defiant  of  his  opponents,  to  the  very  last  ^'Difficulties  have  never 
subdued  me  in  my  life,"  ''I  have  worked  in  sick  days  and  in  well  days" 
are  statements  the  more  impressive,  when  we  recall  his  struggles 
against  poverty,  the  large  family  dependent  upon  him,  the  illness  of 
his  children,  his  serious  family  vicissitudes,  the  advantages  taken  of 
him  by  supposedly  personal  friends,  the  limitations  placed  upon  him 
by  government  red  tape,  and  the  political  attacks  hurled  against  him. 
In  these  respects  his  career  resembles  that  of  the  immortal  Kepler. 

In  his  struggles  with  government  officials,  Hassler  insisted  that  for 
the  greatest  success  of  the  Coast  Survey,  the  Superintendent  must  be 
given  liberty  to  hire  men  whenever  the  work  required  it,  to  arrange 
for  transportation  of  instruments  by  land  or  water,  the  purchase  of 
instruments  and  books  within  the  limits  set  by  the  appropriations  made 
by  Congress.  This  liberty,  said  Hassler,  the  Superintendent  of  the  Coast 
Survey  should  have,  just  as  a  sea-captain  is  allowed  ''to  set  the  sails 
of  his  vessel  according  to  the  wind  and  sea."  Hassler's  signing  the 
list  of  accounts  with  the  statement  "these  expenses  were  incurred  in 
consequence  of  my  direction  for  the  survey  of  the  coast"  were  objected 
to  by  auditors  of  the  treasury  department  as  insufficient.  Hassler  en- 
tered a  vigorous  protest  and  in  this  struggle  won  out  on  many  points. 

A  bone  of  contention  was  Hassler's  salary.  An  anecdote  became 
current  about  1836  that  Secretary  Woodburry  and  Hassler  could  not 
agree  on  this  point,  and  that  Hassler  was  referred  to  President  Jackson. 
^So  Mr.  Hassler,  it  appears  the  Secretary  and  you  cannot  agree  about 
this  matter,"  remarked  President  Jackson,  when  Hassler  had  stated 
his  case  in  his  usual  emphatic  style.  "No  sir,  we  can't".  "Well,  how 
much  do  you  really  think  you  ought  to  have?"  "Six  thousand  dollars. 
Sir."  "Why,  Mr.  Hassler,  that  is  as  much  as  Mr.  Woodbury  himself 
receives."  "Mr.  Voodburry!"  declared  Hassler,  rising  from  his  chair, 
"there  are  plenty  of  Voodburrys,  plenty  of  Everybodys  who  can  be 
made  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  But,"  said  he,  pointing  his  forefinger 
toward  himself,  "there  is  only  one,  one  Hassler  for  the  head  of  the 
Coast  Survey."  President  Jackson,  sympathizing  with  a  character 
having  some  traits  in  common  with  his  own,  granted  Hassler's  demand. 

One  objection  raised  to  Hassler  in  Congress  was  that  hb  survey 
was  too  slow  and  expensive;  a  modified,  less  scientific,  more  expedi- 


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SWISS  GEODESY  AND  THE  U.  S.  COAST  SURVEY  129 

tioiis  plan  was  advocated.  As  we  look  back  now  after  the  passage  of 
four  score  years,  Hassler  stands  out  greatest  in  perceiving  and  singling 
out  what  was  best  in  the  practical  goedesy  of  his  time,  in  making  im- 
provements upon  what  he  found,  and  then  clinging  to  his  plan,  which 
was  a  triangulation  scheme,  as  being  the  best  that  the  science  of  his  day 
brou^t  forth — clinging  as  a  mother  does  to  her  child  in  danger.  What 
looms  highest  is  his  moral  quality  and  strength  to  resist  compromises, 
to  resist  hazardous  alterations  suggested  by  engineers  and  statesmen, 
to  maintain  this  opposition  against  the  adoption  of  ^'cheaper*'  yet  **just 
as  good*'  plans,  and  to  persist  in  this  opposition  year  after  year, 
decade  after  decade,  from  young  manhood  to  old  age.  The  services  of 
Hassler  to  the  Nation  loom  larger  and  larger  with  the  lapse  of  time. 
Hassler  scorned  pretensions  and  shams.  Says  a  recent  writer:  *^Due 
to  hb  far  sightedness  the  best  foundation  was  thus  laid  for  geodetic 
operations." 

Switzerland,  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  embodied  in  its 
triangulation  surveys  the  best  that  European  science  could  offer. 
Tralles  and  Hassler  introduced  some  novelties  of  their  own.  The 
Swiss  science  and  art  of  geodesy  were  carried  by  Hassler  to  the 
United  States.  Keeping  in  constant  touch  with  European  progress, 
Hassler  exercised  his  genius  in  adopting  European  practice  to  Ameri- 
can conditions  and  adding  improvements  of  his  own.  Thus,  Switzer- 
land became  the  mother  of  Americ^in  Geodesy. 


VOL.  xni.- 


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130  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


THE  fflSTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY— H. 

By  Profeasor  JOHN  JOHNSTON 

tale  untversitt 

Development  of  Organic  Chemistry  in  the  Last  Fifty  Years 

TIE  science  of  organic  chemistry  developed,  as  we  have  seen,  very 
slowly  until  consistent  ideas  as  to  the  mode  of  combination  of  the 
elements,  and  consequently  as  to  the  structure  of  compounds,  were 
established;  but  since  then  its  growth  has  been  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
To-day  the  organic  chemist  has  prepared,  described,  and  ascertained 
the  constitution  of  compounds  numbering  150,000  or  more;  amongst 
these,  in  addition  to  a  large  number  which  had  previously  been  isolated 
from  natural  products,  are  a  vast  number  never  known  until  built  up 
in  the  laboratory.  Indeed  as  soon  as  he  established  the  structural  prin- 
ciples upon  which  organic  compounds  are  built  up,  he  became  an 
architect  and  designer  of  chemical  structures,  using  as  units  the  radicles 
or  groups,  and  proceeded  in  his  laboratory  to  learn  how  to  build  up 
such  structures.  And  so  it  is  now  possible  to  synthesize  in  the  labor- 
atory a  relatively  complex  substance  such  as  uric  acid  from  its  ele- 
ments; or,  starting  from  benzene  or  napthalene,  the  chemist  may  finish 
with  a  dye-stuff,  a  regular  skyscraper  of  a  compound  whose  structural 
formula  fills  half  a  page  and  whose  systematic  name  requires  several 
lines  of  type  in  more  than  one  font. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  so-called  coal-tar 
or  aniline  dyes  bear  about  the  same  relation  to  coal-tar  or  aniline  as 
a  steel  battleship  does  to  a  heap  of  iron  ore,  the  latter  being  merely 
the  raw  material  from  which  the  former  is  fashioned.  Moreover,  an 
artificial  or  synthetic  substance  is  no  imitation  or  substitute,  but  is 
the  real  thing  and  indeed  is  often  purer  and  better  than  the  natural 
product;  synthetic  indigo  is  real  indigo,  a  synthetic  ruby  is  a  real  ruby, 
the  only  difference  bdng  that  one  is  produced  by  what  we  are  pleased 
to  call  natural  processes,  whereas  in  the  other  the  process  is  controlled 
so  as  to  yield  a  pure  product 

The  successful  synthesis  of  a  substance  is  usually  not  possible  until 
its  structure  has  been  established,  a  matter  which  may  require  long- 
continued  laborious  effort  and  analysis;  even  then  it  may  be  realized 
very  slowly,  for  one  must  learn  how  to  make  his  units  combine  to  form 
the  structure  desired.  Successful  synthesis  in  the  laboratory  does  not 
imply  that  this  synthesis  will  directly  be  carried  out  on  a  large  scale; 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  131 

the  development  of  an  economically  feasible  scheme  of  operations 
requires  a  time  measured  in  years  rather  than  in  monthsr— even  in  war- 
time, when  considerations  of  financial  economy  are  secondary  and 
when  more  effective  co-operation  can  be  secured,  the  interval  between 
preparation  by  the  gram  and  production  by  the  ton  is  a  matter  of  many 
mcmths.  Indeed  in  some  cases— e.  g.,  sugar  and  rubber — there  is  no 
immediate  prospect  of  synthetic  production  on  any  large  scale,  be- 
cause the  material  can  be  built  up  in  the  growing  plant — the  sugar 
cane  or  the  rubber  tree — at  a  cost  comparable  with  that  of  the  basic 
raw  material  required  in  its  artificial  production. 

The  story  of  even  a  single  achievement  in  synthesis  would  be  so 
long  and  would  involve  so  many  technical  details  and  explanations  that 
it  cannot  be  given  here;  we  shall  have  to  limit  ourselves  to  a  mention 
of  some  of  the  outstanding  examples,  premising  that  these  achieve- 
ments became  possible  only  because  of  knowledge  slowly  accumulated 
by  the  efforts  of  many  men  possessed  by  a  curiosity  with  respect  to 
the  inwardness  of  things. 

Aniline,  discovered  first  in  1840  as  a  decomposition  product  of 
indigo,  was  found  in  coal-tar  by  Hofmann  in  1843;  in  1845,  after  his 
discovery  of  benzene  in  coal-tar,  Hofmann  could  make  aniline  in  large 
quantities  from  benzene.  In  1856  Perkin,  a  student  of  Hofmann,  while 
oxidizing  some  crude  aniline,  obtained  a  dye;  this  was  mauve,  the  first 
of  the  aniline  dyes,  the  starting-point  of  an  industry  which  has  since 
grown  to  enormous  proportions.  In  1868  alizarin,  hitherto  prepared 
from  madder  root,  was  synthesized,  and,  within  a  few  years,  was  being 
made  on  a  large  scale,  to  the  complete  displacement  of  the  natural 
product  Indigo  was  prepared  first  in  1870,  made  from  accessible  coal- 
tar  derivatives  in  1880,  but  it  was  not  until  1890  that  the  process  was 
discovered  which  ultimately  proved  successful  commercially;  about 
1902  the  synthetic  indigo  came  on  the  world-market,  and  by  1914  Ger- 
many was  selling  over  a  million  pounds  a  month  at  about  fifteen  cents 
a  pound,  as  compared  with  a  price  four  times  as  great  ten  years  earlier. 
This  list  of  materials  made  from  coal-tar  derivatives  could  be  extended 
indefinitely  to  include  a  whole  host  of  compounds,  many  of  which  were 
not  known  at  all  until  built  up  by  the  chemist,  used  as  dyes  or  drugs, 
antiseptics  or  anaesthetics,  perfumes  or  flavors,  and  now  indeed  con- 
sidered indispensable. 

About  a  hundred  years  ago,  Biot  observed  that  a  ray  of  light  polar- 
ized in  one  plane  has  that  plane  twisted  in  passing  through  certain 
organic  substances;  and  that  the  direction  and  extent  of  this  rotation 
of  the  plane  of  polarization  is  different  for  different  substances.  In 
1848,  Pasteur — who  later  elucidated  the  whole  question  of  fermenta- 
tion and  became  the  father  of  the  science  of  bacteriology — observed 
that  ordinary  tartaric  acid  rotates  the  polarized  ray  strongly  to  die 
ri^t,  but  that  certain  tartars  yielded  an  acid  called  raoemic  add,  iden- 


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132  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

tical  with  tartaric  acid  in  every  respect  except  that  it  was  optically  in- 
active. On  further  investigation  he  discovered  that  this  racemic  acid  is  a 
mixture  of  two  kinds  of  tartaric  acid  in  equal  quantities  and  having 
equal  but  opposite  effects  on  polarized  light;  and  that  the  crystals  of  the 
dextro  form  and  of  the  laevo  form  differ  only  as  the  right  hand  differs 
from  the  left  or  an  object  from  its  mirror-image.  Pasteur  also  found 
that  any  organic  optically  active  substance  will  yield  two  forms  of 
crystal,  left-handed  and  right-handed,  and  concluded  that  in  such  pairs 
of  substances  the  arrangement  of  atoms  must  in  one  case  be  the  inverse 
of  the  other.  There  the  interpretatiim  of  the  matter  rested  until  1874, 
when  vanH  Hoff  and  Le  Bel  correlated  the  observations  by  the  dis- 
covery that  the  molecule  of  an  optically  active  organic  compound  con- 
tains at  least  one  so-called  asymmetric  carbon  atom — that  is,  a  carbon 
atom  linked  to  four  different  groups — showing  that  optical  activity 
vanishes  as  soon  as  the  carbon  atom  ceases  to  be  asymmetric.  This 
type  of  isomerism  cannot  be  readily  visualized  through  structural 
formulae  written  in  one  plane;  but  van't  Hoff  made  it  clear  by  pictur- 
ing the  carbon  atom  as  a  r^ular  tetrahedron  with  linkages  extending 
outwards  from  the  four  apices,  and  by  using  solid  models  to  represent 
the  compounds.  On  this  basis  it  is  apparent  that  a  molecular  struc- 
ture comprising  an  asymmetric  carbon  atom  may  be  either  right-  or 
left-handed  and  that  there  will  be  two  such  stereoisomers  for  each 
asymmetric  carbon  atom  present;  and  the  facts  have  been  found  to  be 
in  complete  accordance  with  these  deductions. 

The  phenomenon  of  optical  activity  and  its  interpretation  on  a 
stereo-chemical  basis  have  proved  of  great  usefulness,  for  it  has  been 
to  the  chemist  a  very  powerful  tool  in  ascertaining  the  constitution  of 
many  organic  compounds.  Particularly  is  this  so  in  the  case  of  the 
sugars  which  have  the  general  empirical  formula  CeHisOn.  When  Emil 
Fischer  started  systematic  work  upon  the  sugars,  in  1883,  practically 
nothing  was  known  as  to  their  constitution;  in  1908,  when  his  col- 
lected papers  on  sugar  were  published,  the  C(Hnplex  relationships  had 
been  resolved.  Fischer  had  succeeded  in  determining  the  structural 
formula,  and  in  synthesizing,  each  of  the  important  sugars;  he  had 
prepared  many  of  the  possible  stereoisomers,  thereby  confirming  the 
usefulness  of  van't  Hoff's  theory,  and  had,  indeed,  systematized  the 
whole  matter.  This  is  only  one  of  his  great  achievements;  for  he  had 
simultaneously  established  the  constitution  of  many  compounds  of  the 
so-called  purin  group,  a  group  which  includes  substances  such  as 
caffeine  and  uric  acid.  His  work  on  sugars  brought  in  its  train  the 
necessity  for  examining  further  the  nature  and  properties  of  substances 
which  bring  about  the  process  of  fermentation;  from  this  it  is  but  a 
short  step  to  the  proteins,  a  class  of  substances  more  directly  connected 
with  life  processes  than  any  other.  And  in  this  field  likewise,  which  at 
the  outset  presented  unparalleled  difficulties,  Fischer  progressed  a  long 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  133 

way;  he  was  able  to  break  down  the  complex  substances  into  simpler 
amino-acids  and  other  nitrogenous  compounds,  to  ascertain  the  struc* 
tore  of  these  decomposition  products,  and  by  bringing  about  recom- 
bination of  these  units  to  prepare  synthetic  peptides  which  approximate 
to  the  natural  products. 

The  measure  of  Fischer's  achievement  in  this  matter  is  brought  out 
by  a  quotation  from  a  short  history  of  chemistry  published  as  recently 
as  1899:^ 

Not  only  the  simple  formic  and  acetic  acids,  but  complex  vegetable  acids, 
such  as  tartaric,  citric,  salicylic,  gallic,  cinnamic;  not  marsh  gas  and  ethylic 
alcohol  only,  but  phenols,  indigo,  alizarin,  sugars,  and  even  alkaloids  identical 
with  those  extracted  from  the  tissues  of  plants,  are  now  producible  by  purely 
chemical  processes  in  the  laboratory.  It  might  appear  that  such  triumphs 
would  justify  anticipations  of  still  greater  advances,  by  which  it  might  be- 
come possible  to  penetrate  into  the  citadel  of  life  itself.  Nevertheless  the 
warning  that  a  limit,  though  distant  yet,  is  certainly  set  in  this  direction 
to  the  powers  of  man,  appears  to  be  as  justifiable  now,  and  even  as  necessary, 
as  in  die  days  when  all  these  definite  organic  compounds  were  supposed  to 
be  producible  only  through  the  agency  of  a  "vital  force."  Never  yet  has 
any  compound  approaching  the  character  and  composition  of  albumen  or  any 
proteid  been  formed  by  artificial  methods,  and  it  is  at  least  improbable  that 
It  ever  will  be  without  the  assistance  of  living  organisms. 

This  illustrates  again  the  danger  of  prophecies  as  to  the  limitation 
of  man's  powers;  for  the  limitaticHis  set  are  continually  being  trans- 
cended by  the  genius,  and  he  would  be  rash  who  would  now  set  a  limit 
to  what  may  be  learned  from  biochemical  investigations,  in  view  of 
the  extraordinary  progress  made  within  the  present  cmitury;  but  to 
discuss  this  fascinating  subject  is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  ^etch 
of  the  development  of  the  principles  of  chemistry. 

General  and  Inorganic  Chemistry  Since  1860 

Compared  with  the  enormous  growth  of  organic  chemistry,  that  of 
inorganic  chemistry  was  for  a  long  time  insignificant.  It  remained  for 
many  years  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  so-called  practical  man,  who 
has  been  defined  as  the  man  who  practices  the  errors  of  his  grand- 
father; and  contented  itself  largely  with  descriptions  of  substances 
rather  than  with  their  interrelations  and  structure.  As  one  instance 
among  many,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  there  has  been  no  real  technical 
improvement  in  the  Chamber  Process  of  making  sulphuric  acid — 
which  is  the  key  substance,  made  by  the  millions  of  tons  yearly,  in  all 
chemical  manufacture — since  Gay-Lussac  invented  his  absorption  tower 
nearly  one  hundred  years  ago;  nor  does  this  mean  that  there  is  no  room 
for  improvement,  but  merely  that  it  was  not  sought  properly.  Indeed 
as  late  as  1900,  many  chonists  considered  that  but  little  more,  and 
that  little  not  of  the  first  importance,  remained  to  be  done  in  inorganic 
chemistry;  the  truth  being  the  exact  opposite — that  we  had  then  barely 

WW.  T.  Tilden,  "A  Short  History  of  the  Progress  of  Scientific  Chem- 
istry," p.  154. 


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134  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

scratched  the  surface  of  this  enormous  field.  It  had  not  been  ade- 
quately recognized  that  chemistry  had  been  dealing  in  the  main  widi 
the  bdiavior  of  a  rather  restricted  range  of  substances  over  a  narrow 
range  of  temperature  (say,  from  somewhat  below  the  freezing  point  up 
to  400°)  and,  practically,  at  a  single  pressure — with  a  mere  slice  of 
the  whole  field,  in  fact — and  that  these  conditions  are  quite  arbitrary 
when  we  consider  the  whole  subject-matter  of  chemistry. 

Nor  is  the  development  of  inorganic  chemistry  of  subsidiary  im- 
portance, from  any  point  of  view.  If  judged  with  respect  solely  to  the 
monetary  value  of  its  products  it  would  be  far  ahead  of  organic  chem- 
istry, as  will  be  obvious  if  we  recall  that  it  is  concerned  with  the  produc- 
tion of  all  our  metals,  of  building  materials  such  as  brick,  cement, 
glass,  and  with  the  manufacture  of  all  kinds  of  articles  in  every-day 
use.  One  reason  for  its  comparative  neglect  for  so  many  years  is  that 
inorganic  chemistry  is  in  a  sense  the  more  diflKcult  in  that,  whereas 
organic  compounds  usually  stay  put  and  behave  regularly— cme  might 
say  Aat  organic  radicles  are  conservative  and  conventional — ^the  be- 
havior of  many  inorganic  compounds  is  more  complex,  somewhat 
analogous  to  that  of  Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde;  another  is  that  the  great 
successes  of  organic  chemistry  attracted  a  majority  of  the  workers. 
But  the  main  reason  is  that  the  proper  theories  for  the  interpretation 
of  the  phenomena  had  not  been  available,  consequently  proper  tools 
and  adequate  methods  of  investigation  had  not  been  developed. 

The  fmidamental  idea  which  was  lacking  is  the  conception  of  chem- 
ical equilibrium,  the  importance  of  which  was  not  really  grasped  until 
about  thirty  years  ago  and  is  not  yet  adequately  apprehended  by  many 
chemists.  The  first  contribution  to  this  question  we  need  notice  dates 
from  1865,  when  Guldberg  and  Waage  published  the  so-called  law  of 
mass-acticm.  This  paper  may  be  said  to  inaugurate  the  quantitative 
study  of  chemical  equilibrium,  though  progress  for  many  years  was 
quite  slow.  Indeed  at  that  time  the  conception  of  equilibrium  was  very 
recent;  of  the  few  cases  then  known,  the  majority  were  certain  gases 
which  had  been  observed  to  expand  with  rise  in  temperature  in  an 
apparently  anomalous  manner  as  compared  to  the  so-called  permanent 
gases;  this  anomaly  was  accounted  for  on  the  basis  that  a  progressive 
dissociation  of  the  gas,  e.  g.  ammonium  chloride  (NH^Cl)  into  simpler 
molecules  of  ammonia  (NH,)  and  hydrochloric  acid  (HCl),  takes 
place  on  heating  and  that  the  constituents  recombine  on  subsequent 
cooling.  Hundreds  of  instances  are  now  kno¥m,  all  of  which  are  in 
quantitative  accord  with  the  law  of  mass-action. 

According  to  this  law,  the  extent  of  chemical  action  within  a  homo- 
geneous gaseous  system  is  determined  by  the  ^'active  mass", — or  better, 
the  effective  concentraticm — qf  each  species  of  molecule  taking  part  in 
the  reaction;  this  implies  that  an  apparently  stationary  condition,  a 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  135 

state  of  equilibriiim,  is  finally  reached,  at  which  point  the  tendency 
of  the  reaction  to  go  forward  is  just  counterbalanced  by  the  tendency 
of  the  reverse  reaction^  This  may  be  made  more  objective  by  an  actual 
example.    By  the  equati<m 

CO  +         H,0       -<=>.         H^  +  CO, 

carbon  monoxide  steam  hydrogen  carbon  dioxide 

we  symbolize  the  fact  that  under  appropriate  conditions  in  any  mix- 
ture of  the  ^ses  CO  and  HgO  some  proportion  of  the  gases  H,  and  CO, 
will  be  formed,  and  conversely,  in  any  mixture  of  H,  and  COj  some 
proportion  of  CO  and  HjO  will  be  formed;  and  the  law  of  mass-action 
states  that  the  concentrations  of  the  several  gases  will  always  adjust 
themselves  so  that  ultimately 

["»]  [">»]   ^^ 

[CO]       [H,0] 

where  the  symbols  [H,],  etc.,  doiote  the  concentrations  of  the  several 
reacting  species,  and  K  is  a  constant,  the  equilibrium  constant,  the  value 
of  which  depends  upon  the  temperature  but  not  upon  the  original 
amounts  of  any  of  the  substances.  From  this  it  is  obvious  that,  if  we 
know  the  value  of  K  corresponding  to  any  temperature,  we  are  in  posi- 
tion to  predict  exactly  what  will  happen  in  any  mixture  in  which  this 
reaction  may  take  place,  and  consequently  to  select  the  conditions  under 
which  the  maximum  yield  of  any  one  of  the  substances  may  be  expected. 
The  usefulness  of  this  is  so  apparent  as  to  require  no  ccmunent. 

The  law  of  mass-acdcm  is  but  a  special  case  of  the  general  question 
of  equilibrium  treated  so  comprehensively  by  Willard  Gibbs,  at  that 
time  Professor  of  Mathematical  Physics  at  Yale,  on  the  general  basis 
of  the  laws  of  thermodynamics.  These  two  laws  now  underlie  so  much 
of  the  reasoning  upon  which  advances  in  chemistry  and  physics  have 
been  based  that  we  must  go  back  a  little  to  consider  them. 

The  doctrine  that  heat  is  an  imponderable  became  finally  untenable 
about  1860,  when  the  work  of  Mayer  in  Germany  and  of  Joule  in  Elng- 
land  had  finally  convinced  everybody  that  heat  is  a  form  of  energy, 
and  that  heat  and  work  are  quantitatively  interchangeable.  This  leads 
directiy  to  the  First  Law  of  Thermodynamics,  the  doctrine  of  the  con- 
servation of  Clergy,  that  energy  is  indestructible  and  uncreatable,  that 
energy,  though  apparentiy  disappearing,  is  simultaneously  reappearing 
in  another  form.  The  second  law  in  its  briefest  form  is  that  a  ther- 
modynamic perpetual  motion  is  impossible;  perhaps  I  can  best  convey 
an  idea  of  it  by  means  of  the  picturesque  analogies  of  a  recent  writer:^ 

There  is  one  law  that  regulates  all  animate  and  inanimate  things.  It 
is  formulated  in  various  ways,  for  instance:  Running  down  hill  is  easy. 
In  Latin  it  reads,  facUis  descensus  Averni.  Herbert  Spencer  calls  it  the  dis^ 
solution  of  definite  coherent  heterogeneity  into  indefinite  incoherent  homo- 

i^Slosson,  Creative  Chemistry,  page  145. 


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136  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

geneity.  Mother  Goose  expresses  it  in  the  fable  of  Humpty  Dumpty,  and 
Sie  business  man  extracts  the  moral  as,  "You  can't  unscramble  an  egg."  The 
theologian  calls  it  the  dogma  of  natural  depravity.  The  physicist  calls  it 
the  second  law  of  thermodynamics.  Clausius  formulates  it  as  "The  entropy 
of  the  world  tends  toward  a  maximum."  It  is  easier  to  smash  up  than  to 
build  up.  Children  find  that  this  is  true  of  their  toys;  the  Bolsheviki  have 
found  that  it  is  true  of  a  civilization. 

These  two  laws,  which  had  been  established  largely  by  the  work  of 
Mayer,  Joule,  Clausius  and  William  Thomson  (later  Lord  Kelvin), 
have  only  been  confirmed  by  all  subsequent  work;  and  they  are  now 
considered  as  fundamental  as  any  laws  in  physical  science.  The  great 
advance  in  applying  them  generally  to  chemical  processes  is  due  to 
Gibbs,  who  in  1876  and  1878  printed  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Con- 
necticut Academy  the  two  parts  of  his  epoch-making  paper  **0n  the 
Equilibrium  of  Heterogeneous  Substances.^  Gibbs  was,  however,  so 
far  in  advance  of  his  time  and  his  paper  was  moreover  so  inaccessible, 
that  the  importance  of  his  work  was  not  recognized  for  ten  years,  when 
it  was  proclaimed  by  Roozeboom  and  began  to  be  used  as  a  guide — 
almost  entirely  by  Hollanders  and  Germans — in  the  interpretation  of 
chemical  phenomena.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  the  very  large 
number  of  subsequent  advances  in  this  field  are  merely  applications 
and  variations  of  Gibbs'  fundamental  considerations;  that  his  paper 
mapped  out  the  lines  of  advance  in  a  new  field  of  chemical  science 
comparable  in  importance  to  that  uncovered  by  Lavoisier.  The  concep- 
tion of  equilibrium  in  chemical  processes  constitutes  the  central  idea 
of  what  is  commonly  called  physical  chemistry,  which  however  would 
be  better  termed  theoretical  or  general  chemistry  since  it  deals  with 
the  general  principles  of  the  science. 

To  many  Gibbs'  name  is  familiar  only  as  the  formulator  of  the 
phase  rule,  a  general  principle,  derived  from  his  thermodynamic  dis- 
cussion of  chemical  equilibrium,  which  enables  one  to  sort  chemical 
systems  tending  to  equilibrium  into  categories,  and  to  state  qualita- 
tively what  behavior  may  be  expected  in  each  type  of  system.  The 
phase  rule  has  been  of  indispensable  service  in  the  elucidation  of  prob- 
lems as  apparently  diverse  as  the  constitution  of  alloys  (another  large 
field  in  which  we  have  done  little  more  than  scratch  the  surface 
hitherto) ;  the  origin  of  salt-deposits  in  the  earth;  the  separation  of 
potash  or  other  valuable  salts  from  the  waters  of  saline  lakes;  the  rela- 
tion between  different  crystal  forms  of  the  same  chemical  substance, 
as  exemplified  in  many  minerals  and  in  the  so-called  allotropic  modifi- 
cations of  the  elements  themselves  (e.  g.  diamond  and  graphite;  phos- 
phorus, white  and  red,  etc.).  Indeed  the  service  which  these  doctrines 
with  respect  to  chemical  equilibrium  have  rendered  is  but  a  fraction  of 
what  they  will  render- to  chemical  science,  and  hence  to  the  people 
at  large. 

For  a  long  time  there  had  been  investigations  looking  towards  a 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  137 

relation  between  physical  properties  and  chemical  ccmstitution.  An 
early  instance  is  the  work  of  Dulong  and  Petit,  who  discovered  that 
equal  amounts  of  heat  are  required  to  raise  equally  the  temperature  of 
solid  and  liquid  elements,  provided  quantities  are  taken  proportional 
to  the  atomic  weights;  and  this  was  frequently  used  as  a  criterion  in 
fixing  upon  the  proper  atomic  weight.  This  is  an  instance  of  the  neces- 
sity of  comparing  quantities  which  are  really  comparable  chemically, 
instead  of  equal  weights;  that  r^ularities  which  otherwise  would  re- 
main hidden  will  be  appar^it  when  an  equal  number  of  chemical  units 
— ^molecules — are  considered.  Hence  it  is  obvious  that  few  such  regu- 
larities would  be  observed  so  long  as  there  was  confusion  with  respect 
to  atoms  and  molecules;  but  since  1860  there  has  been  continuous  prog- 
ress in  this  direction,  though  until  very  rec^itly  chemists  had  in  their 
comparisons  often  made  insufficient  use  of  chemical  units,  as  compared 
with  the  arbitrary  unit  of  weight,  the  gram.  As  examples  of  this  type  of 
relationship  we  may  mention:  the  heat  capacities  (specific  heats)  of 
gases;  the  molecular  volume,  the  heat-change  acc(»npanying  combus- 
tion, formation,  or  melting,  particularly  as  applied  to  homologous 
series  of  organic  compounds;  the  relation  between  constitution  and 
color  and  other  optical  properties,  etc. 

Along  with  this  went  naturally  the  question  of  the  properties  of  a 
substance  as  affected  by  mixture  with  another,  of  solutions  in  particu- 
lar. The  fact  that  the  boiling-point  of  a  solution  is  hi^er  than  that 
of  the  solvent  itself  had  long  been  known,  and  measurements  of  the 
rise  in  boiling  point  caused  by  equal  weights  of  dissolved  material  had 
been  made;  but  it  was  not  until  1884  that  Ostwald  pointed  out  that  this 
rise  is  approximately  the  same,  for  any  one  solvent,  when  computed 
for  equal  numbers  of  molecules  dissolved  in  the  same  amount  of  the 
solvent.  The  measurements  had  been  mainly  of  solutions  of  a  salt 
in  water;  but  in  1886  Raoult  extended  the  observations  to  other  sub- 
stances and  stated  what  is  now  known  as  Raoult's  law,  which  may  be 
considered  as  the  fundamental  law  formulating  the  dependence  of  the 
general  properties  of  a  perfect  solution  upon  its  composition;  namely, 
the  lowering  of  the  vapor  pressure  of  the  solvent  is  proportional  to  the 
nim:iber  of  dissolved  molecules  per  unit  of  solvent,  or  as  now  fre- 
quently phrased,  the  partial  pressure  of  a  component  of  a  solution  is 
proportional  to  its  molar  fraction,  the  molar  fracticm  being  defined  as 
the  ratio  of  the  number  of  molecules  of  that  component  to  the  total 
number  of  molecules  present.  Soon  thereafter  van't  Hoff  gave  the 
thermodynamic  relationships  between  lowering  of  vapor  pressure  and 
raising  of  boiling-point,  lowering  of  freezing-point,  and  osmotic  pres- 
sure; by  means  of  which  any  one  of  these  may  be  deduced  from  another 
provided  that  certain  constants  characteristic  of  the  solvent  are  known. 
It  was  then  possible,  from  such  measurements,  to  calculate  the  mole- 


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138  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

cular  weight  of  the  substance  in  solution;  when  this  was  done,  many  of 
the  results  were  anomalous — in  particular,  the  apparent  molecular 
weight  of  a  salt  in  solution  in  water  was  little  more  than  half  what  one 
would  expect  from  its  formula. 

Now  it  had  long  been  known  that  certain  classes  of  substances  dis- 
solved in  water  yield  a  solution  which  is  a  good  conductor  of  electricity, 
and  that  aqueous  solutions  of  other  substances  are  poor  conductors; 
the  former  class,  called  electrolytes  by  Faraday,  comprises  salts,  acids 
and  bases  (alkalies) ,  whereas  the  typical  non-electrolyte  is  an  organic 
substance  such  as  sugar.  And  it  was  precisely  these  electrolytes  which 
exhibited  the  anomalous  molecular  weight  To  account  for  this  ano- 
maly Arrhenius  propounded  the  theory  of  electrolytic  dissociation,  the 
basic  idea  of  which  is  that  the  electrolytes,  when  dissolved  in  water, 
dissociate  into  two  or  more  constituent  particles,  that  these  constituents 
are  the  ions,  or  carriers  of  electricity  through  the  solution,  and  that 
each  ion  affects  the  general  properties  of  the  solution  just  as  if  it 
were  an  independent  molecule.  This  theory  is  another  landmark  in 
the  field  of  chemistry,  for  it  has  served  to  correlate  and  systematize  a 
very  large  number  of  apparently  diverse  facts. 

It  would  lead  too  far  to  go  into  the  consequences  and  applications 
of  the  theory  of  ionization;  how  it  enables  us  to  choose  the  optimum 
conditions  under  which  to  carry  out  many  analytical  operations;  how 
it  leads  to  the  view  that  acidity  is  determined  by  the  actual  concentra- 
tion of  hydrogen-ion  (H+),  and  basicity  (alkalinity)  by  hydroxyl-i<xi 
(OH"*) ,  etc  Its  usefulness  and  importance  in  aiding  us  towards  a  real 
knowledge  of  aqueous  soluticms — a  knowledge  so  essential  to  progress 
in  many  lines — ^is  so  great  as  to  require  no  emphasis.  And  yet  the 
theory  is  not  completely  satisfactory,  there  being  still  some  outstanding 
anomalies,  particularly  in  connection  with  the  so-called  strong  electro- 
lytes as  typified  by  ordinary  salts;  but  there  is  hope  that  these  dis- 
crepancies will  disappear  with  the  growth  of  knowledge  of  electro- 
chemistry. 

The  fundamental  law  of  electrochemistry  was  discovered  by  Fara- 
day prior  to  1840,  namely:  that  one  unit  of  electricity  transports  one 
chemical  equivalent  of  an  ion,  irrespective  of  voltage,  temperature,  con- 
centration or  other  conditions.  Later,  it  was  established  that  these  ions 
move  independently  of  one  another,  and  with  characteristic  velocities, 
facts  which,  with  others,  were  satisfactorily  coordinated  by  the  theory 
of  ionization;  which  in  turn  led  to  greatly  improved  control  of  prac- 
tical electrochemical  processes,  such  as  electroplating.  Again,  it  had 
long  been  known  that  an  electromotive  force  is  set  up  whenever  there 
is  a  differ^ice  of  any  kind  at  two  electrodes  immersed  in  an  electrolyte, 
and  when  two  similar  electrodes  are  placed  in  different  solutions,  or  in 
solutions  of  the  same  substance  at  different  concentrations.    The  next 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  139 

step  in  advance  was  taken  by  Nernst,  in  1889,  who,  from  thermodyna- 
mical  reasoning  confirmed  by  direct  experiment,  deduced  the  relation 
between  the  electro-motive  force  and  the  ratio  of  effective  concentra- 
tion of  the  active  ion  ki  one  solution  to  that  in  the  other.  Measure- 
ment of  electromotive  force,  dierefore,  under  appropriate  conditions, 
yields  independent  information  as  to  the  effective  concentration,  or 
activity,  of  the  ions.  Nor  is  this  the  only  application  of  this  princi- 
ple to  the  development  of  chemistry;  for  it  also  affords  a  measure  of 
chemical  affinity. 

One  of  the  characteristic  phenomena  accompanying  a  chemical 
change  is  an  evolution  or  absorption  of  heat;  in  other  words,  the 
amount  of  heat  contained  by  the  reacting  system  changes  with  the 
chemical  change.  The  measurement  of  this  heat  change,  which  may 
range  from  a  large  negative  quantity  through  zero  to  a  large  positive 
quantity,  is  the  province  of  thermo-chemistry.  Our  knowledge  of  these 
heats  of  reaction  is  largely  due  to  Thomsen  and  to  Berthelot,  each  of 
whom  started  irom  the  supposition  that  the  heat  effect  is  a  direct  meas- 
ure of  relative  affinity;  and  it  was  with  this  end  in  view  that 
they  carried  out  the  very  laborious  work  involved  in  these  determina- 
tions. It  is  now  clear  that  this  supposition  is  erroneous,  that  the  maxi- 
mum work  producible  by  a  reaction,  or  its  free  energy,  is  a  truer  meas- 
ure of  affinity,  the  heat  effect  being  an  important  factor  in  this  maxi- 
mum work  or  free  energy.  The  systematic  determination  of  the  free 
energy  of  reactions,  one  of  the  most  potent  methods  being  the  electrical 
method  outlined  above,  is  an  outstanding  task  of  modem  chemistry,  of 
consequence  to  the  progress  of  the  science  as  well  as  to  industrial 
progress. 

Graham,  the  discoverer  in  1829  of  the  law  relating  the  rate  of  diffu- 
sion of  a  gas  to  its  d^isity,  later  made  experiments  on  the  rate  of  diffu- 
sion of  dissolved  substances  through  animal  membranes;  this  work  led 
him  to  divide  substances  into  two  categories — ^the  rapidly  moving 
crystalloids,  typified  by  salt,  and  the  slow  moving  colloids,  typified  by 
gum  arable  or  gelatine.  For  a  long  time  this  distinction  persisted, 
colloids  being  regarded  as  somewhat  mysterious,  rather  messy,  sub- 
stances; and  it  was  apparently  considered  a  good  explanation  of  some 
ill-understood  phenomenon  to  attribute  it,  if  possible,  to  a  colloid.  This 
whole  matter  received  little  systematic  attention  for  forty  years  and 
only  after  1900  did  it  become  evident  that  we  should  not  speak  of  a  col- 
loid as  a  distinct  class  of  substances,  but  may  speak  only  of  the  colloidal 
state.  The  characteristic  phen<Hnenon  is  the  dispersion  of  one  sub- 
stance in  another,  the  system  being  therefore  heterogeneous;  and  the 
properties  of  the  colloidal  system  depend  upon  the  kind  of  particle, 
and  upon  their  fineness, — in  short,  upon  the  nature  and  extent  of  the 
surface  of  separation  of  the  two  phases.    In  an  outline  on  the  present 


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140  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

scale  <me  cannot  go  further  into  colloid  chemistry,  except  to  say  that 
nearly  everything  remains  to  be  done  and  that  increased  knowledge  of 
the  subject  is  fundamental  to  progress  along  many  lines  in  biology  and 
medicine,  and  is  also  of  inestimable  impoitance  to  ail  manner  of  in- 
dustries, ranging  from  tanning  to  pottery. 

Closely  connected  with  this,  since  they  also  are  surface  effects,  are 
the  phenomena  of  adsorption  and  of  catalysis,  both  known  in  more  or 
less  isolated  instances  for  a  long  time,  and  both  very  ill  understood. 
Their  importance  has  been  demonstrated  recently,  the  former  in  con- 
nection with  the  provision  of  a  satisfactory  gas-mask,  the  latter  as  a 
means  of  making  certain  products — for  instance,  edible  fats  out  of 
inedible  oils, — in  the  fixation  of  atmospheric  nitrogen,  etc.  And  there 
is  no  question  that  both  phenomena  will  be  made  use  of  increasingly, 
and  that  this  increase  will  be  accelerated  as  soon  as  we  begin  to  under- 
stand the  principles  underlying  these  phenomena,  a  matter  up<m  which 
we  are  still  in  the  dark.  Indeed,  even  as  it  is,  extension  of  the  use  of 
catalytic  methods  is  proceeding  so  rapidly  that  predictions  are  being 
made  that  we  are  entering  upon  what  might  be  called  a  catalytic  age 
in  so  far  as  the  making  of  many  chemical  products  is  concerned. 

As  we  have  already  noted,  practically  all  chemical  work,  until  very 
recently,  had  been  carried  out  within  a  temperature  range  extending 
only  from  0°  up  to  400°  and  at  pressures  ranging  from  atmospheric 
dovm  to,  say,  0.01  atmosphere.  But  the  recent  extension  of  these 
ranges  has  had  so  many  practical  consequences  as  to  require  some  men- 
tion. This  extension,  though  it  hardly  involves  any  important  new 
chemical  principle,  has  in  a  sense  been  equivalent  to  erne,  in  that  it 
has  forced  chemists  to  consider  the  subject  more  broadly  and  to  re- 
member that  ^'ordinary  ciHiditions"  are  quite  arbitrary  in  reference  to 
the  subject  as  a  whole.  To  illustrate,  the  chemistry  at  the  1000°  hori- 
zon, though  subject  to  the  same  general  principles,  has  to  deal  with 
only  a  small  fracti<m  of  the  compounds  familiar  to  us  at  the  25° 
horizMi,  and  is  inc<»nparably  simpler;  at  the  2000°  horizon  it  would  be 
still  simpler,  and  at  still  higher  temperatures — as  in  many  of  the  stars 
— ^tfae  elements,  at  that  temperature  all  gaseous,  in  place  of  being  com- 
bined with  one  another,  would  probably  be  in  part  themselves  disso- 
ciating. 

Before  1845  Faraday  had  succeeded  in  liquefying,  by  cooling  and 
compressing,  many  of  the  gases  thai  known;  but  a  few  of  the  most 
common  gases — ^viz.,  nitrogen,  oxygen,  hydrogen,  carbon  monoxide, 
nitric  oxide,  methane — ^resisted  all  his  efforts,  wherefore  they  were  often 
alluded  to  as  the  ^^permanent  gases."  The  clue  was  givoi  in  1861  by 
Andrews,  who  showed  that  there  is  for  each  gas  a  critical  temperature 
above  which  it  cannot  be  liquefied  by  any  pressure  whatever;^*  and 
the  reason  for  lack  of  success  with  the  permanent  gases  was  that  the 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  !« 

lowest  temperature  employed  had  been  above  the  critical  point  of  those 
gases.  With  appreciation  of  this  point  and  with  improvements  of 
technique,  resukmg  in  part  from  theory  and  in  part  from  practice, 
success  was  finally  achieved  in  all  cases;  all  known  gases  have  there- 
fore now  been  liquefied,  and  there  is  only  a  difference  in  degree  of 
^^permanence"  between  hydrogen  which  condenses  to  liquid. at  30° 
absolute  and  water  vapor  (steam)  which  condenses  at  373°  absolute. 
Hie  main  victories  in  conquering  this  region  are  given  in  the  follow- 
ing table: 

UQUEFACTION  OF  THE  "PERMANENT**  GASES 
Snbitance     Date  whes        ObMnrer  Llqald 

liquid    fixM  Critical  Temperature       Boiling  Temperature       Freea'f  Temp, 

obuined  C.  aba.  C.  aba.  C.  aba. 

Oxygen       1883    Wroblewski   — 1180      155       — 181°    92       —235      38 


Nitrogen     1883    Wroblewski  —146        127       —195      78       — 2i5      S8 
Hydrogen    1898    Dewar  —243  3©       —252      21        —248      17 

Helium        1908    Onnes  —268  5        --269        4  2.5 


To  this  may  be  added  that  liquid  air  was  first  obtained  by  Wroblew- 
ski in  1885,  was  available  for  research  purposes  in  1891,  and  since 
1895,  with  the  development  of  the  commercial  machine  for  producing 
it,  has  become  an  industry;  it  is  now  indispensable  to  several  lines  of 
work — ^for  instance,  wherever  very  low  pressures  are  required.  Inci- 
dentally, too,  its  development  resulted  in  the  invention  of  the  vacuum- 
jacketed,  or  Dewar,  tube  which  is  now  a  necessary  tool  in  all  work  at 
low  temperatures  and  a  convenience  to  the  community  generally. 

With  the  command  of  low  temperatures,  it  is  now  possible  to  make 
accurate  measurement,  e.  g.  of  specific  beats,  at  temperatures  not  so 
far  removed  from  the  absolute  zero.  And  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  this  type  of  work  is  going  to  furnish  very  valuable  information 
on  some  moot  questions;  for  instance,  on  the  entropy  of  substances 
at  the  lowest  temperatures  and  on  the  applicability  of  the  Nemst  heat 
theorem,  called  by  some  the  third  law  of  thermodynamics — questions 
which  bear  a  very  intimate  relation  to  the  problem  of  the  nature  of 
chemical  aflhiity. 

Apart  frcHU  mainly  qualitative  work,  such  as  that  of  Moissan  with 
his  arc-furnace  on  the  carbides,  little  accurate  high-temperature  work 
was  done  until  about  1900.  In  the  meantime  methods  of  control  and 
measurement  have  been  developed  to  such  an  extent  that  many  types 
of  measurement  may  be  made  just  as  accurately  at  1000^  as  at  100°. 
This  has  enabled  many  equilibria,  both  homc^eneous  (usually  in  gas 
systems)  and  heterogeneous  (that  is,  essentially  solubilities),  to  be 
determined  carefully  over  a  wide  range  of  temperature.  Such  knowl- 
edge is  essential  for  many  purposes,  both  practical  and  theoretical — 
from  the  nature  of  ccMnbusticm  to  the  constitution  of  alloys  and  the 
mode  of  formation  of  minerals  and  rocks.     Very  recently  high  tem- 

WThough,  as  we  now  know,  it  may  be  solidified  by  application  of  sufficient 
pressure  at  tonperatures  higher  than  the  critical  end-point  of  the  liquid. 


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142  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

peratures  have  been  coupled  with  minimal  pressures  in  experimental 
work  on  electron  emission  and  related  topics;  but  this  is  at  the  moment 
usually  considered  a  part  of  the  domain  of  physics,  which  has  not  yet 
received  adequate  attention  from  a  chemical  point  of  view.  In  the  field 
of  high  pressures,  as  in  that  of  high  temperatures,  recent  technical 
progress  has  made  it  possible  to  follow  many  types  of  changes  with 
as  high  accuracy  at  a  pressure  of  10,000  atmospheres  (i.  e.  150,000 
pounds  to  the  square  inch)  as  at  10  atmospheres.  This  is  bringing  to 
light  phenomena  hitherto  unsuspected;  thus,  when  the  whole  range  is 
considered,  it  appears  to  be  the  rule,  rather  than  the  exception,  that  a 
substance  when  solidified  exists  in  more  than  one  crystalline  form,  each 
stable  within  a  definite  range  of  temperature  and  pressure.  As  an  in- 
stance of  this,  there  are  in  addition  to  ordinary  ice,  at  least  four  other 
forms  of  crystalline  water,  stable  at  high  pressure;  and  under  increas- 
ing high  pressure  the  freezing  temperature  of  water  steadily  rises  until 
at,  for  instance,  a  pressure  of  20,000  atm.  it  freezes  about  73^  (centi- 
grade) higher  than  its  ordinary  freezing  point. 

The  phenomena  observed  at  high  and  low  temperatures  and  at 
high  and  low  pressures  all  illustrate  the  fact  that  chemistry  should  not 
be  looked  upon  as  a  collection  of  isolated  things  which  can  be  manipu- 
lated in  a  sort  of  magical  way,  but  is  to  be  thought  of  as,  in  a  sense, 
almost  a  continuum  all  parts  of  which  are  subject  to  definite  laws,  still 
incompletely  elucidated;  the  relative  behavior  of  all  substances  being 
controlled  by  these  laws  in  the  same  sense  as  the  relative  motions  of 
the  heavenly  bodies  are  controlled  by  the  law  of  gravitation. 

In  this  brief  sketch  of  the  development  of  chemical  scioice,  many 
things  must  remain  unmentioned.  Yet  it  must  not  be  supposed  that 
these  things  are  intrinsically  unimportant;  indeed  an  explanation  of 
some  puzzling  phenomenon  may  arise  out  of  work  in  another  field,  ap- 
parently entirely  unrelated,  each  advance  in  knowledge  of  any  field 
being  that  much  wrested  from  the  domain  of  ignorance,  and  reacting 
in  favor  of  advances  at  oth^  points  of  the  line.  In  particular  it  has 
not  been  practicable  to  mention  the  several  branches  of  applied  chem- 
istry, for  instance,  the  study  of  the  substances  and  reactions  involved 
in  life-processes,  with  its  remarkable  advance  within  the  last  few  years, 
which  would  require  a  chapter  to  itself;  or  even  analytical  chemistry,  an 
essential  branch  of  the  subject,  which  develops  with  each  development  of 
principle,  and  is  to  be  regarded  as  including  all  methods  of  anal3rsis 
and  not  merely  the  semi-traditional  methods  applied  to  a  scHuewhat  re- 
stricted group  of  salts  of  certain  metallic  bases.  The  growth  of  the 
whole  subject-matter  may  perhaps  be  gauged  frc»n  the  fact  that  the 
1920  volume  of  Chemical  Abstracts,  which  gives  merely  brief  ab- 
stracts of  papers  of  interest  to  chemists  published  within  the  year,  con- 
tains more  than  4,000  pages,  and  that  die  index  to  this  volume  alone 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  CHEMISTRY  143 

will  cover  more  than  600  pages  closely  printed  in  double  column. 
From  this  it  is  obvious  that,  even  though  a  large  proportion  of  these 
papers  contain  little  of  real  value,  one  cannot  keep  abreast  of  advances 
in  the  whole  subject  but  can  only  hope  to  have  a  general  knowledge 
of  principles  and  to  acquire  a  special  knowledge  of  some  restricted 
field. 

These  principles  of  chemical  science  are  of  its  essence  and  consti- 
tute its  philosophy;  only  with  development  of  this  philosophy  will  it 
be  possible  to  progress  in  the  correlation  and  systematization  of  the 
multitudinous  facts  of  chemistry.  The  progress  of  this  philosophy, 
which  indeed  demands  the  services  of  the  physicist  as  much  as  those 
of  the  chemist,  is  obliterating  the  line  of  demarcation  between  these 
two  sciences.  Initially  physics  dealt  mainly  with  changes  which  affect 
matter  independently  of  its  composition,  whereas  chemistry  was  con- 
cerned mainly  with  the  change  of  composition;  but  the  physicist  and 
chemist  came  to  meet  on  common  ground  for  the  reason  that  the  quanti- 
tative measures  of  most  of  the  so-called  physical  properties  are  inti- 
mately connected  with  the  constituticm  of  the  substance.  And  it  may 
be  said  that  the  recent  very  significant  advances — dating,  say  from  the 
discovery  of  the  X-rays — concern  the  chemist  just  as  much  as  the  physi- 
cist, and  that  each  of  them  should  be  conversant  with  the  general  mode 
of  thought  of  the  other.  Indeed  the  several  sciences  have  in  the  past 
been  too  far  apart  from  one  another,  and  we  should  now  sedc  in- 
creased co-operation,  for  it  is  precisely  in  the  boundary  regions  be- 
tween them  that  the  most  valuable  advances  in  the  immediate  future 
will  be  made. 


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144  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


THE    BIOLOGY    OF    DEATH— VL      EXPERIMENTAL 
STUDIES   ON   THE   DURATION   OF   LIFE^ 

By  Professor  RAYMOND  PEARL 
the  johns  hopkins  university 

1.    Inheritance  of  Duration  of  Life  in  Drosophila 

IN  the  last  paper  there  was  presented  indubitable  proof  that  in- 
heritance is  a  major  factor  in  determining  the  duration  of  life  in 
man.  The  evidence,  while  entirely  convincing  and  indeed  in  the  writ- 
er's opinion  critically  conclusive,  must  be,  in  the  nature  of  the  case, 
statistical  in  its  nature.  Experimental  inquiries  into  the  duration  of 
human  life  are  obviously  impossible.  Public,  opinion  frowns  upon  them 
in  the  first  place,  and  even  if  this  difficulty  were  removed  man  would 
furnish  poor  material  for  the  experimental  study  of  this  particular 
problem  because  he  lives  too  long.  It  is  always  important,  however, 
as  a  general  principle,  and  particularly  so  in  the  present  instance,  to 
check  one's  statistical  conclusions  by  independent  experimental  evi- 
dence. This  can  be  successfully  done,  when  one's  problem  is  longevity, 
only  by  dioosing  an  animal  whose  life-span  relative  to  that  of  man  is 
a  short  one,  and  in  general  the  briefer  it  is  the  better  suited  will  the 
animal  be  for  the  purpose. 


FIG.    1.    male    and    female    FRUIT    FLY    {Drotophila    meUnogatUr),     (From    Morgan) 

1  Papers  from  the  Department  of  Biometry  and  Vital  Statistics,  School 
of  Hygiene  and  Public  Health,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  No.  33. 


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THE  BIOLOGY   OF   DEATH  U5 

An  organism  which  rather  completely  fulfils  the  requirements  of 
the  case,  not  only  in  respect  of  the  shortness  of  the  life  span,  but  also 
in  other  ways,  such  as  ease  of  handling,  feeding,  housing,  ^c.,  is  the 
common  ^^fruit**  or  ^'vinegar"  fly,  Drosophila  melanagaster.  This  crea- 
ture, which  every  one  has  seen  hovering  about  bananas  and  other  fruit 
in  fruit  shops,  has  lately  attained  great  fame  and  respectability  as  a 
laboratory  animal,  as  a  result  of  the  brilliant  and  extended  investiga- 
tions of  Morgan  and  his  students  upon  it,  in  an  analysis  of  the 
mechanism  of  heredity.  Drosophila  is  a  small  fly,  perhaps  one  fourth 
as  large  as  the  conmion  house  fly.  It  has  striking  red  eyes,  a  browni^ 
body,  and  wings  of  length  and  form  varying  in  different  strains.  It 
lives  normally  on  the  surface  of  decajring  fruit  of  all  sorts,  but  because 
of  a  more  or  less  well  marked  preference  for  banana  it  is  sometimes 
called  the  ^^banana"  fly.  While  it  lives  on  decaying  fruit  surfaces  its 
food  is  mainly  not  the  fruit  itself,  but  the  yeast  which  is  always  grow- 
ing in  such  places. 

The  life  cycle  of  the  fly  is  as  follows:  The  egg  laid  by  the  female 
on  some  fairly  dry  spot  on  the  food  develops  in  about  1  day  into  a 
larva.  This  larva  or  maggot  squirms  about  and  feeds  in  the  rich 
medium  in  which  il  finds  itself  for  about  3  to  4  days  and  then  forms  a 
pupa.  From  the  pupa  the  vdnged  imago  or  adult  form  emerges  in 
about  4  or  5  days.  The  female  generally  begins  to  lay  eggs  within  the 
first  24  hours  after  she  is  hatched.  So  then  we  have  about  8  to  10  days 
as  the  minimum  time  duration  of  a  generation.  The  whole  cycle  from 
egg  to  egg,  at  ordinary  room  temperature,  falls  within  this  10-day 
period  with  striking  accuracy  and  precision. 

The  duration  of  life  of  the  adult  varies  in  an  orderly  manner  from 
less  than  1  day  to  over  90  days.  The  span  of  life  of  Drosophila  quan- 
titatively parallels  in  an  extraordinary  way  that  of  man,  widi  only 
the  difference  that  life's  duration  is  measured  with  different  yardsticks 
in  the  two  cases.  Man's  yardstick  is  one  year  long,  while  DrosophiUis 
is  one  day  long.  A  fly  90  days  old  is  just  as  decrepit  and  senile,  for  a 
fly,  as  a  man  90  years  old  is  in  human  society. 

This  parallelism  in  the  duration  of  life  of  Drosophila  and  man  is 
well  shown  in  Fig.  2,  which  represents  a  life  table  for  adult  flies  of 
both  sexes.  The  survivorship,  or  Ix  figures,  are  the  ones  plotted.  The 
curves  deal  only  with  flies  in  the  adult  or  imago  stage,  after  the  com- 
pletion of  die  larval  and*  pupal  periods.  The  curve  is  based  upon  3,216 
female  and  2,620  male  flies,  large  enough  numbers  to  give  reliable  and 
smooth  results.  We  note  at  once  that  in  general  the  curve  has  the 
same  form  as  the  corresponding  Ix  curve  from  human  mortality  tables. 
The  most  striking  difference  is  in  the  absence  from  the  fly  curves  of  the 
heavy  infant  mortality  which  characterizes  the  human  curve.  There  is 
no  specially  sharp  drop  in  the  curve  at  the  beginning  of  the  life  cycle, 


VOL.  xni.— 10. 


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146 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


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FIG.  2.    LIFE  LINES  FOR  DrotophiU  m^Umogutsr,  SHOWING  THE  SURVIVORS  AT  DIFFERENT 
AGES  OUT  OF  1000  BORN  AT  THE  SAME  TIME 

such  as  has  been  seen  in  the  Z,  curve  for  man  in  an  earlier  paper  in  this 
series.  This  might  at  first  be  thought  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact 
that  the  curve  begins  after  the  infantile  life  of  the  fly,  but  it  must  be 
remenJbered  that  the  human  Ix  line  begins  at  birth,  and  no  account  is 
taken  of  the  mortality  in  utero.  Really  the  larval  and  pupal  stages  of 
the  fly  correspond  rather  to  the  foetal  life  of  a  human  being  than  to  the 
infant  life,  so  that  one  may  fairly  take  the  curves  as  covering  compar- 
able portions  of  the  life  span  in  the  two  cases  and  reach  the  conclusion 
that  there  is  not  in  the  fly  an  especially  heavy  incidence  of  mortality  in 
the  infant  period  of  life,  as  there  is  in  man.  The  explanation  of  this 
fact  is,  without  doubt,  that  the  fly  when  it  emerges  from  the  pupal  stage 
is  completely  able  to  take  care  of  itself.  The  baby  is,  on  the  contrary, 
in  an  almost  totally  helpless  condition  at  the  same  relative  age. 

It  is  further  evident  that  at  practically  all  ages  in  Drasophila  the 
number  of  survivors  at  any  given  age  is  higher  among  the  females  than 
among  the  males.  This,  it  will  be  recalled,  is  exactly  the  state  of  the 
case  in  human  mortality.  The  speed  of  the  descent  of  the  Drasophila 
curve  slows  off  in  old  age,  just  as  happens  in  the  human  life  curve. 
The  rate  of  descent  of  the  curve  in  early  middle  life  is  somewhat  more 
rapid  with  the  flies  than  in  the  case  of  human  beings,  but  as  will 
presently  appear  there  are  some  strains  of  flies  which  give  curves  almost 
identical  in  this  respect  with  the  human  mortality  curves.  In  the  life 
curves  of  Figure  2,  all  different  degrees  of  inherited  or  constitutional 
variation  in  longevity  are  included  together.  More  accurate  pictures 
of  the  true  state  of  affairs  will  appear  when  we  come,  as  we  presently 
shall,  to  deal  with  groups  of  individuals  more  homogeneous  in  respect 
of  their  hereditary  constitutions. 


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THE   BIOLOGY    OF    DEATH  147 

Having  now  demonstrated  that  the  incidence  of  mortality  is  in 
general  aimilar  in  the  fly  DrosophUa  to  what  it  is  in  man,  with  a  suit- 
able change  of  unit  of  measure,  we  may  proceed  to  examine  some  of  the 
evidence  regarding  the  inheritance  of  duration  of  life  in  this  organism. 
The  first  step  in  such  an  examination  is  to  determine  what  degree  of 
natural  variation  of  an  hereditary  sort  exists  in  a  general  fly  popula- 
tion in  respect  of  this  characteristic.  In  order  to  do  this  it  is  necessary 
to  isolate  individual  pairs,  male  and  female,  breed  them  together  and 
see  whether,  between  the  groups  of  offspring  so  obtained,  there  are 
genetic  differences  in  respect  of  duration  of  life  which  persist  through 
an  indefinite  number  of  generations.  This  approaches  closely  to  the 
process  called  by  geneticists  the  testing  of  pure  lines.  In  such  a  process 
the  purpose  is  to  reduce  to  a  minimum  the  genetic  diversity  which  can 
possibly  be  exhibited  in  the  material.  In  a  case  like  the  present,  the 
whole  amount  of  genetic  variation  in  respect  of  duration  of  life  which 
can  appear  in  the  offspring  of  a  single  pair  of  parents  is  only  that 
which  can  arise  by  virtue  of  its  prior  existence  in  the  parents  them- 
selves individually,  and  from  the  combination  of  the  germinal  varia- 
tion existing  in  the  two  parents  one  with  another.  We  may  call  the 
offspring,  through  successive  generations,  of  a  single  pair  of  parents  a 
line  of  descent  If,  when  kept  under  identical  environmental  conditions 
such  lines  exhibit  widely  different  average  durations  of  life,  and  if 
diese  differences  reappear  with  constancy  in  successive  generations,  it 
may  be  justly  concluded  that  the  basis  of  these  differences  is  hereditary 
in  nature,  since  by  hypothesis  die  environment  of  all  the  lines  is  kept 
the  same.  In  consequence  of  the  environmental  equality  whatever  dif- 
ferences do  appear  must  be  inherently  genetic 

The  manner  in  which  these  experiments  are  performed  may  be  of 
interest  An  experiment  starts  by  placing  two  flies,  brother  and  sister, 
selected  from  a  stock  bottle,  together  in  a  half -pint  milk  bottle.  At  the 
bottom  of  the  bottle  is  a  solidified,  jelly-like  mixture  of  agar-agar  and 
boiled  and  pulped  banana.  On  this  is  sown  as  food  some  dry  yeast. 
A  bit  of  folded  filter  paper  in  the  bottle  furnishes  the  larvae  opportun- 
ity to  pupate  on  a  dry  surface.  About  ten  days  after  the  pair  of  flies 
have  been  placed  in  this  bottle  fully  developed  offspring  in  the  imago 
stage  begin  to  emerge.  The  day  before  these  offspring  flies  are  due  to 
appear,  the  original  parent  pair  of  flies  are  removed  to  another  bottle 
precisely  like  the  first,  and  the  female  is  allowed  to  lay  another  batch 
of  eggs  over  a  period  of  about  nine  days.  In  the  original  bottle  there 
will  be  offspring  flies  emerging  each  day,  having  developed  from  the 
eggs  laid  by  the  mother  on  each  of  the  successive  days  during  which 
the  was  in  the  bottle.  Each  morning  the  offspring  flies  which  have 
emerged  during  the  preceding  twenty-four  hours  are  transferred  to  a 
small  bottle.    This  has,  just  as  the  larger  one,  food  material  at  the 


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THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


bottom  and  like  the  larger  one  is  closed  vrith  a  cotton  stopper.  All  of 
the  offspring  flies  in  one  of  these  small  bottles  are  obviously  of  the 
same  age,  because  they  were  bom  at  the  same  time,  using  this  term 
''bom"  to  denote  emergence  from  the  pupal  stage  as  imagines.  EaxH 
following  day  these  small  bottles  are  inspected.  Whenever  a  dead  fly 
is  found  it  is  removed  and  a  record  made  in  proper  form  of  the  fact 
that  its  death  occurred,  and  its  age  and  sex  are  noted  Finally,  when 
all  the  flies  in  a  given  small  bottle  have  died  that  bottle  is  discarded,  as 
the  record  of  the  duration  of  life  of  each  individual  is  then  complete. 
All  the  bottles  are  kept  in  electric  incubators  at  a  constant  temperature 
of  25°  C,  the  small  bottles  being  padced  for  convenience  in  wire 
baskets.  All  have  the  same  food  material,  both  in  quality  and  quantity, 
so  that  the  environmental  conditions  surrounding  these  flies  during 
their  life  may  be  regarded  as  substantially  constant  and  uniform  for 
all. 


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60        U        7Z         70       dd       90 


no.  S.    UFE  UNES  FOR  DIFFERENT  INBRED  LINES  OF  DESCENT  IN  DnuopkUm 

Fgure  3  aihows  the  survival  frequency,  or  Ix  line  of  a  life  table, 
for  six  different  lines  of  DrosophUa,  which  have  been  bred  in  my 
laboratory.  Each  line  represents  the  survival  distribution  of  the  off- 
spring of  a  single  brother  and  sister  pair  mated  together.  In  forming 
a  line  a  brother  and  sister  are  taken  as  the  initial  start  because  by  so 
doing  the  amount  of  genetic  variation  present  in  the  line  at  the  begin- 
ning is  reduced  to  the  lowest  possible  minimum.  It  should  be  said  that 
in  all  of  the  curves  in  Figure  3  both  male  and  female  offspring  are 
lumped  together.  This  is  justifiable  for  illustrative  purposes  because 
of  the  small  difference  in  the  expectation  of  life  at  any  age  between 
the  sexes.  The  line  of  descent  No.  55  figured  at  the  top  of  the  diagram 
gives  an  Ix  line  extraordinarily  like  that  for  man,  with  the  exception  of 


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the  omission  of  the  sharp  drop  due  to  infantile  mortality  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  curve.  The  extreme  duration  of  life  in  this  line  was  81 
days,  reached  by  a  female  fly.  The  Ix  line  drops  off  very  slowly  until 
age  36  days.  From  that  time  on  the  descent  is  more  rapid  until  72  days 
of  age  are  reached  when  it  slows  up  again.  Lines  50,  60,  and  58  show 
Ix  curves  all  descending  more  rapidly  in  the  early  part  of  the  life 
cycle  than  that  for  line  55,  although  the  maximum  d^ree  of  longevity 
attained  is  about  the  same  in  all  of  the  four  first  curves.  The  general 
shape  of  the  Ix  curves  changes  however,  as  is  clearly  seen  if  we  contrast 
line  55  with  line  58.  The  former  is  concave  to  the  base  through  nearly 
the  whole  of  its  course,  whereas  the  Ix  curve  for  line  58  is  convex  to 
the  base  practically  throughout  its  course.  While,  as  is  clear  from 
the  diagram,  the  maximum  longevity  attained  is  about  the  same  for  all 
of  these  upper  four  lines,  it  is  equally  obvious  that  the  mean  duration 
of  life  exhibited  by  the  lines  falls  off  as  we  go  down  the  diagram.  The 
same  process,  which  is  in  operation  between  lines  55  and  58,  is  con- 
tinued in  an  even  more  marked  degree  in  lines  61  and  64.  Here  not 
only  is  the  descent  more  rapid  in  the  early  part  of  the  Ix  curve,  but  the 
maximum  degree  of  longevity  attained  is  much  smaller,  amounting  to 
about  half  of  that  attained  in  the  other  four  lines.  Both  lines  61  and 
64  tend  to  show  in  general  a  curve  convex  to  the  base,  especially  in  the 
latter  half  of  their  course. 

Since  each  of  these  lines  of  descent  continues  to  show  through  suc- 
cessive generations,  for  an  indefinite  time,  the  same  types  of  mortality 
curves  and  approximately  the  same  average  durations  of  life,  it  may 
safely  be  concluded  that  there  are  well  marked  hereditary  differences 
in  different  strains  of  the  same  species  of  Drosophila  in  respect  of 
duration  of  life.  Passing  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  the  diagram 
the  average  expectation  of  life  is  reduced  by  about  two-thirds  in  these 
representative  curves.  For  purposes  of  experimentation,  each  one  of 
dtese  lines  of  descent  becomes  comparable  to  a  chemical  reagent.  They 
have  a  definitely  fixed  standard  duration  of  life,  each  peculiar  to  its 
own  line  and  determined  by  the  hereditary  constitution  of  the  in- 
dividual in  respect  of  this  character.  We  may,  with  entire  justification, 
speak  of  the  flies  of  line  64  as  hereditarily  and  permanently  short-lived, 
and  those  of  line  55  as  hereditarily  long-lived. 

Having  established  so  much,  the  next  step  in  the  analysis  of  the 
mode  of  inheritance  of  this  character  is  obviously  to  perform  a 
Mendelian  experiment  by  crossing  an  hereditarily  short-lived  line  with  a 
hereditarily  long-lived  line,  and  follow  through  in  the  progeny  of  suc- 
cessive generations  the  duration  of  life.  If  the  character  follows  the 
ordinary  course  of  Mendelian  inheritance,  we  should  expect  to  get  in 
the  second  offspring  generation  a  segregation  of  different  types  of  flies 
in  respect  of  dieir  duration  of  life. 


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AOC  IN   DAVS 

FIG.  4.    LIFE  UNES  SHOWING  THE   RESULT  OF  ICENDELUN  EXPERIMENTS  ON  THE 
DURATION  OF  UFE  IN  DrtuophiU,      ExpkiutioD  in  text 

Figure  4  shows  the  result  of  such  Mendelian  experiment  performed 
on  a  large  scale.  In  the  second  line  from  the  top  of  the  diagram,  label- 
led *Type  I  Zz,**  we  see  the  mortality  curve  for  an  hereditarily  long- 
lived  pure  strain  of  individuals.  At  the  bottom  of  the  diagram  the 
**Type  IV  Ix^  line  gives  the  mortality  curve  for  one  of  our  hereditarily 
short-lived  strains.  Individuals  of  Type  I  and  Type  IV  were  mated 
together.  The  result  in  the  first  offspring  hybrid  generation  is  shown 
by  the  line  at  the  top  of  the  diagram  marked  ^^F^  l^.**  The  Fi  denotes 
that  this  is  the  mortality  curve  of  the  first  filial  generation  from  the 
cross.  It  is  at  once  obvious  that  these  first  generation  hybrids  have  a 
greater  expectation  of  life  at  practically  all  ages  than  do  either  of  the 
parent  strains  mated  together  to  produce  the  hybrids.  This  result  is 
exactly  comparable  to  that  which  has  for  some  time  been  known  to 
occur  in  plants,  from  the  researches  pcuticularly  of  Professor  E.  M. 
East  of  Harvard  University  with  maize.  East  and  his  indents  have 
worked  out  very  thoroughly  the  cause  of  this  increased  vigor  of  the 
first  hybrid  generation  and  show  that  it  is  directly  due  to  the  mingling 
of  different  germ  plasms. 

The  average  duration  of  life  of  the  Type  I  original  parent  stock  is 
44.2  dz  .4  days.  The  average  duration  of  life  of  the  short-lived  Type  IV 
flies  is  14.1  +  .2  days,  or  only  about  one  third  as  great  as  that  of  the 
other  stock.  The  average  duration  of  life  of  the  first  hybrid  generation 
shown  in  the  Fi  Ix  line  is  51.5  +  .5  days.  So  that  there  is  an  increase 
in  average  duration  of  life  in  the  first  hybrid  generation,  over  that  of 
the  long-lived  parent,  of  approximately  7  days.  In  estimating  the 
significance  of  this,  one  should  remember  that  a  day  in  the  life  of  a 


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THE  BIOLOGY    OF   DEATH  151 

fly  corresponds,  as  has  already  been  pointed  out,  almost  exactly  to  a 
year  in  the  life  of  a  man. 

When  individuals  of  the  first  hybrid  generation  are  mated  together 
to  get  the  second,  or  Fg  hybrid  generation  we  get  a  group  of  flies  which, 
if  taken  all  together,  give  the  mortality  curve  shown  in  the  line  at  about 
the  middle  of  the  diagram,  labelled  **A11  F,  ^.^  It,  however,  tells  us 
little  about  the  mode  of  inheritance  of  the  character  if  we  consider  all 
the  individuals  of  the  second  hybrid  generation  together,  because  really 
there  are  several  kinds  of  flies  present  in  this  second  hybrid  generation. 
There  are  sharply  separated  groups  of  long-lived  flies  and  of  short- 
lived flies.  These  have  been  lumped  together  to  give  the  ^All  F,  l^ 
line.  If  we  consider  separately  the  long-lived  second  generation  group 
and  the  short4ived  second  generation  group  we  get  the  results  shomm 
in  the  two  lines  labelled  "Long-lived  Fj  Segregates  Zxi"  and  "Short-lived 
Fj  Segregates  /x*''  It  will  be  noted  that  the  long-lived  F,  segregates 
have  a  mortality  curve  which  almost  exactly  coincides  with  thait  of  the 
original  parent  Type  I  stock.  In  other  words,  in  the  second  generation 
after  the  cross  of  the  long-lived  and  short-lived  types  a  group  of 
animals  appears  having  almost  identically  the  same  form  of  mortality  j 

curve  as  that  of  one  of  the  original  parents  in  the  cross.  The  mean 
duration  of  life  of  this  long-lived  second  generation  group  is  43.3  +  .4 
days,  while  that  of  the  original  long-lived  stock  was  44.2  +  .4  days. 
The  short-lived  F^  segr^ates  shown  at  the  bottom  of  the  diagram  give 
a  mortality  curve  essentially  like  that  of  the  original  short-lived  parent 
strain.  The  two  curves  wind  in  and  about  each  other,  the  Fj  flies  show- 
ing a  more  rapid  descent  in  the  first  half  of  the  curve  and  a  slower 
descent  in  the  latter  half.  In  general,  however,  the  two  are  very  clearly 
of  the  same  form.  The  average  duration  of  life  of  these  short-lived 
second  generation  segregates  is  14.6  +  .6  days.  This,  it  will  be  re- 
called, is  almost  identically  the  same  average  duration  of  life  as  the 
original  parent  Type  IV  gave,  which  was  14.1  +  .2  days. 

It  may  occur  to  one  to  wonder  how  it  is  possible  to  pick  out  the 
long-lived  and  short-lived  segregates  in  the  second  generation.  This 
is  done  by  virtue  of  the  correlation  of  the  duration  of  life  of  these  flies 
with  certain  external  bodily  characters,  particularly  the  form  of  the 
¥dngs,  so  that  this  arrangement  of  the  material  can  be  made  with  per- 
fect ease  and  certainty. 

These  results  show  in  a  clear  manner  that  duration  of  life,  in 
DrosophUa  at  least,  is  inherited  essentially  in  accordance  with  Men- 
delian  lavrs,  thus  fitting  in  with  a  wide  range  of  other  physical  charact- 
ers of  the  animal  which  have  been  thoroughly  studied,  particularly  by 
Morgan  and  his  students.  Such  results  as  these  just  shown  constitute 
the  best  kmd  of  proof  of  the  essential  point  which  we  are  getting  at — 
namely,  the  fact  that  duration  of  life  is  a  normally  inherited  character. 


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152  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

I  do  not  widi  at  this  time  to  go  into  any  discussion  of  tbe  details  of  the 
Mendelian  mechanism  for  this  character,  in  the  first  place,  because  it 
is  too  complicated  and  technical  a  matter  for  discussion  here,'  and  in 
the  second  place,  because  the  investigations  are  far  from  being  com- 
pleted yet.  I  wish  here  and  now  merely  to  present  the  demonstration 
of  the  broad  general  fact  that  duration  of  life  is  inherited  in  a  normal 
Mendelian  manner  in  these  fly  populations.  The  first  evidence  ihaX  this 
was  the  case  came  from  some  work  of  Dr.  R.  R.  Hyde  with  Drosophila 
some  years  ago.  The  numbers  involved  in  his  experiment,  however, 
were  much  smaller  than  those  of  the  present  experiments,  and  the  pre- 
liminary demonstration  of  the  existence  of  pure  strains  relative  to 
duration  of  life  In  Drosophila  was  not  undertak^i  by  him.  Hyde's  re- 
sults and  those  here  presented  are  entirely  in  accord. 

With  the  evidence  which  has  now  been  presented  regarding  the  in- 
heritance of  life  in  man  and  in  Drosophila  we  may  let  that  phase  of 
the  subject  rest.  The  evidence  is  conclusive  of  the  broad  fact,  beyond 
any  question  I  think,  coming  as  it  does  from  such  widely  different  types 
of  life,  and  arrived  at  by  such  totally  different  methods  as  tbe  statis- 
tical, on  the  one  hand,  and  the  experimental,  on  the  other.  We  may 
safely  conclude  that  the  primary  agent  concerned  in  the  winding  up 
of  the  vital  clock,  and  by  the  winding  determining  primarily  and  funda- 
mentally how  long  it  shall  run,  is  heredity.  The  best  insurance  of 
longevity  is  beyond  question  a  careful  selection  of  one's  parents  and 
grandparents. 

2.  Bacteria  and  Duration  of  Life  in  Drosophila 
But  clocks  may  be  stopped  in  other  ways  than  by  running  down. 
It  mil  be  worth  while  to  consider  with  some  care  a  considerable  mass 
of  most  interesting,  and  in  some  respects  even  startling,  experimental 
data,  regarding  various  ways  in  which  longevity  may  be  influenced  by 
external  agents.  Since  we  have  just  been  considering  Drosophila  it 
may  be  well  to  consider  the  experimental  evidence  regarding  that  form 
first.  It  is  an  obviously  well-knomm  fact  that  bacteria  are  responsible 
in  all  higher  organisms  for  much  organ  breakdown  and  consequent 
death.  An  infection  of  some  particular  organ  or  organ  system  occurs, 
and  the  disturbance  of  the  balance  of  the  whole  so  brought  about 
finally  results  in  death.  But  is  it  not  possible  that  we  overrate  the  im- 
portance of  bacterial  invasion  in  determining,  in  general  and  in  the 
broadest  sense,  the  average  duration  of  life?  May  it  not  be  that  when 
an  organ  system  breaks  down  under  stress  of  bacterial  toxins,  that  it  is 
in  part  at  least,  perhaps  primarily,  because  for  internal  organic  reasons 
the  resistance  of  that  organ  system  to  bacterial  invasion  has  normally 

3  Full  technical  details  and  all  the  numerical  data  regarding  these  and 
other  Drosophila  experiments  referred  to  in  this  and  other  papers  m  the  series, 
will  shortly  be  published  elsewhere. 


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THE  BIOLOGY    OF   DEATH  153 

and  naturally  reached  such  a  low  point  that  its  defenses  are  no  longer 
adequate?  All  higher  animals  live  constantly  in  an  environment  far 
from  sterile.  Our  mouths  and  throats  harbor  pneumonia  germs  much 
of  the  time,  but  we  do  not  all  or  always  have  pneumonia.  Again  it 
may  fairly  be  estimated  that  of  all  persons  who  attain  the  age  of  35^ 
probably  at  least  95  per  cent,  have  at  some  time  or  other  been  infected 
with  the  tubercle  bacillus,  yet  only  about  one  in  ten  breaks  down  with 
active  tuberculosis. 

What  plainly  is  needed  in  order  to  arrive  at  a  just  estimate  of  the 
relative  influence  of  bacteria  and  their  toxins  in  determining  the  aver- 
age duration  of  life  is  an  experimental  inquiry  into  the  efifect  of  a 
bacteria-free,  sterile  mode  of  life.  Metchnikoff  has  sturdily  advocated 
the  view  that  death  in  general  is  a  result  of  bacterial  intoxication.  Now 
a  bacteria  free  existence  is  not  possible  for  man.  But  it  is  poesible  for 
certain  insects,  as  was  first  demonstrated  by  Bogdanow,  and  later  con- 
firmed by  Delcourt  and  Guyenot.  If  one  carefully  washes  either  the 
egg  or  the  pupa  of  DrosophUa  for  10  minutes  in  a  strong  antiseptic 
solution,  say  85  per  cent,  alcohol,  he  will  kill  any  germs  which  may  be 
upon  the  surface.  If  the  bacteria-free  egg  or  pupa  is  then  put  into  a 
sterile  receptacle,  containing  only  sterile  food  material  and  a  pure 
culture  of  yeast,  development  will  occur  and  presently  an  adult  imago 
will  emerge.  Adult  flies  raised  in  this  way  are  sterile.  They  have  no 
bacteria  inside  or  out.  Normal  healthy  protoplasm  is  normally 
sterile,  so  what  is  inside  the  fly  is  bound  to  be  sterile  on  that  account, 
and  by  the  use  of  the  antiseptic  solution  what  bacteria  were  on  the  out- 
side have  been  killed. 

The  problem  now  is,  how  long  on  die  average  do  such  sterile  speci- 
mens of  Drosophila  live  in  comparison  with  the  ordinary  fly,  whidi  is 
throughout  its  adult  life  as  much  beset  by  bacteria  relatively  as  is  man 
himself,  it  being  premised  that  in  both  cases  an  abundance  of  proper 
food  is  furnished  and  that  in  general  the  environmental  conditions 
other  than  bacterial  are  made  the  same  for  the  two  sets?  Fortunately, 
there  are  some  data  to  throw  light  upon  this  question  from  the  experi- 
ments of  Loeb  and  his  associate  Northrop  on  the  duration  of  life  in  this 
form,  taken  in  connection  with  experiments  in  the  writer's  laboratory. 

Loeb  and  Northrop  show  that  a  sample  of  70  flies,  of  the  Drosophila 
with  which  they  worked,  which  were  proved  by  the  most  careful  and 
critical  of  tests  to  have  remained  entirely  free  of  bacterial  contam- 
ination throughout  their  lives,  exhibited,  when  grown  at  a  constant 
temperature  of  25°  C.  an  average  duration  of  life  of  28.5  days.  In  our 
experiments  2620  male  flies,  of  all  strains  of  Drosophila  in  our  cultures 
taken  together,  thus  giving  a  fair  random  sample  of  genetically  the 
whole  Droalophila  population,  gave  an  average  duration  of  life  at  the 
same  constant  temperature  of  25°  C.  of  31.3  +  .3  days,  and  3216 


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THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


females  under  the  same  temperature  lived  an  average  of  33.0  ±:  .2 
days.  These  were  all  non-sterile  flies,  subject  to  all  the  bacterial  con- 
tamination incident  to  their  normal  laboratory  environment,  which  we 
have  seen  to  be  a  decaying  germ-laden  mass  of  banana  pulp  and  agar. 
It  is  thought  to  be  fairer  to  compare  a  sample  of  a  general  population 
with  the  Loeb  and  Northrop  figures  rather  than  a  pure  strain  because 
prc^ably  their  Drosophila  material  was  far  from  homozygous  in  re- 
spect of  the  genes  for  duration  of  life. 

The  detailed  comparisons  are  shown  in  Table  1. 

TABLE  1 

Average  duration  of  life  of  Drosophila  in  the  imago  stage  at  25°  C. 


Experimental  group 

Mean  dura- 

Uon  of  life 

in  days 

Number    of 
flies 

flteii'lff  (liOeb  and  Northroo) 

28.5 
31.3 
33.0 
322 

70 

Non-sterile,      males,     all  genetic  lines  (Pearl) 

Non-sterile,    females. 

Non-sterile,  both  sexes. * 

2620 
3216 
5836 

Difference  in  favor  of  non-sterile 

3.7 

±.   1.0 

Probable  error  of  difference  about 

• .  • . 

We  reach  the  conclusion  that  bacteria-free  Drosophila  live  no 
longer  on  the  average,  and  indeed  perhaps  even  a  little  less  long,  under 
otherwise  the  same  constant  environmental  conditions,  than  do  normal 
non-sterile — ^indeed  germ-laden — ^flies.  This  result  is  of  great  interest 
and  significance.  It  emphasizes  in  a  direct  experimental  manner  that 
in  a  broad  biological  sense  bacteria  play  but  an  essentially  accidental 
role  in  determining  length  of  the  span  of  life  in  comparison  with 
the  influence  of  heredity.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  if  the 
same  sort  of  experiment  were  possible  with  man  as  material,  somewhat 
the  same  sort  of  result  in  broad  terms  would  appear. 

3.  Poverty  and  Duration  of  Life 
But  we  must  take  care  lest  we  seem  to  convey  the  impression  that  no 
sort  of  environmental  influence  can  affect  the  average  duration  of  life. 
Such  a  conclusion  would  be  manifestly  absurd.  Common  sense  tells 
us  that  environmental  ccHiditions  in  general  can,  and  under  eome  cir- 
cumstances, do  exert  a  marked  influence  upon  expectation  of  life.  A 
recent  study  of  great  interest  and  suggestiveness,  if  perhaps  some  lack 
of  critical  soundness,  by  the  eminent  Swiss  statistician,  Hersch,  well 
illustrates  this.  Hersch  became  interested  in  the  relation  of  poverty 
to  mortality.  He  gathered  data  from  the  20  arrondissements  of  the  City 
of  Paris  in  respect  of  the  following  points,  among  others: 

a.  Percentage  of  families  not  iMiying  a  personal  property  tax. 

b.  Death  rate  per  1000  from  all  causes. 

c.  Still  births  per  1000  living  births. 


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165 


PERSONAL      PfXJPOny      TAX     IN     PARIS       191 1 -1913 

I 1  mYIN9  Hi  CXCNPT 


FIG.   S. 


1023    5^12   141518    11      13  19  20  I       JL      SI      ET       /MRS 

CLASSES    OF 
ARfONOSSEMCm  /WRI«fSSC«m 

DISTRIBUTION   OF   POVERTY  IN   PARIS    (1911-13)    AS   INDICATED   BY   EXEMPTION 
FROM   PERSONAL   PROPERTY   TAX.       (After   Bench) 


Figure  5  shows  in  the  black  the  percentage  of  families  too  poor 
to  have  any  personal  property  tax  assessed,  first  for  each  arrondissement 
separately,  then  at  the  right  in  broader  bars  for  the  four  groups  of 
arrondissements  separated  by  wider  spaces  in  the  detailed  diagram,  and 
finally  for  Paris  as  a  whole.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  poverty  of  the 
population,  measured  by  the  personal  property  yardstick,  is  least  at 
the  lefthand  end  of  the  diagram,  where  the  smallest  percentages  of 
families  are  exempted  from  the  tax,  and  greatest  at  the  right  hand  ead^ 
where  scarcely  any  of  the  population  is  well  enough  to  do  to  pay  this 
tax. 

MORTAUTY      IN      PARIS       1911  ■  1913 


77"   77F7   7 151  »  K  4  5  II  a  »    19200        1    n    or    r       /w» 

CLASSCS   CF 

ARIXH)l5Xf€NTS  ARUOOSSEMO/rS 

FIG.  6.    DEATH  RATES  IN  PARIS  (1911-13)   FROM  ALL  CAUSES.       (After  Eaaeli) 

Figure  6  shows  the  death  rates  from  all  causes  for  the  same  ar- 
rondissements and  the  same  groups.  It  is  at  once  apparent  that  the 
blad^  bars  in  this  group  run  in  a  parallel  manner  to  what  they  did 
in  the  preceding  one.  The  poorest  districts  have  the  highest  death  rates, 
the  richest  districts  the  lowest  death  rates,  and  districts  intermediate  in 
respect  of  poverty  are  also  intermediate  in  respect  of  mortality.  On 
the  face  of  the  evidence  there  would  seem  to  be  here  complete  proof  of 


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the  overwhelmingly  important  influence  upon  duration  of  life  of  degree 
of  poverty,  which  is  perhaps  the  most  potent  single  environmental 
factor  affecting  civilized  man  to-day.  But,  alas,  pitfalls  proverbially 
lurk  in  statistics.  Before  we  can  accept  this  so  alluring  result  and  go 
along  with  our  author  to  his  final  somewhat  stupendous  conclusion 
that  if  there  were  no  poverty  the  death  rate  from  certain  important 
causes,  as  for  example  tuberculosis,  would  forthwith  become  zera,  we 
must  exercise  a  little  inquisitive  caution.  What  evidence  is  there  that 
the  inhabitants  of  the  districts  showing  a  high  poverty  rate  are  not 
biologiadly  as  well  as  economically  differentiated  from  the  inhabitants 
of  districts  with  a  low  poverty  rate?  And  again  what  is  the  evidence 
that  it  is  not  such  biological  differentiation  rather  than  the  economic 
which  determines  the  death  rate  differences  in  the  two  cases?  Un- 
fortunately, our  author  gives  us  no  whit  o{  evidence  on  these  obviously 
so  important  points.  He  merely  assumes,  because  of  the  facts  shown, 
that  if  some  omnipotent  spook  were  to  transpose  all  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Menilmontant  arrondissement  to  the  Elysee  arrondissement,  and 
tdce  versa  for  example,  and  were  to  permit  each  group  to  annex  the 
worldly  goods  of  the  dispossessed  group,  then  the  death  rates  would 
be  forthwith  interchanged.  There  is  no  real  evidence  that  any  sudi 
result  would  follow  at  all.  Probably  from  what  we  know  from  more 
critical  studies  than  this  of  the  relation  of  social  and  economic  condi- 
tions to  mortality,  each  group  would  exhibit  under  the  new  circum- 
stances a  death  rate  not  far  different  from  what  it  had  under  the  old 
conditions.  One  can  not  diake  in  the  slightest  degree  from  its  solidly 
grounded  foundation  the  critically  determined  fact  of  the  paramount 
impoitance  of  the  hereditary  factor  in  determining  rates  of  mortality, 
which  have  been  summarized  in  this  and  the  preceding  paper,  by  any 
such  evidence  as  that  of  Hersch. 


TABLE  2 

StUl  births  in  Paris  (1911-13)  by  classes  of  arrondissement s  (Hersch) 


Absolute    figures 

Still    births 

per  100  Uv- 

ing  births 

Classes  of  Arrondiseements 

StUl 
births 

Living 
births 

I 
II 
III 
IV 

1,004 
1,390 
7.279 
3,024 

12,313 
19,998 
82,821 
30,853 

8.2 
7.0 

8.8 
98 

Paris 

12,679 

145,986 

8.7 

This,  indeed,  he  himself  finds  to  be  the  fact  when  he  considers  the 
extremely  sensitive  index  of  hereditary  biological  constitution  furnished 
by  the  still-birth  rate.  Table  2  gives  the  data.  We  see  at  once  that 
there  is  no  such  striking  increase  in  the  total  mortality  as  we  pass  from 


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157 


the  richest  class  of  districts,  as  was  shown  in  the  death  rate  from  all 
causes.  Instead  there  is  practically  no  change,  certainly  none  of 
significance,  as  we  pass  from  one  class  of  districts  to  another.  The  rate 
is  8.2  per  100  living  births  in  the  richest  class  and  9.8  in  the  poorest. 

4.  Experiments  on  Temperature  and  Duration  of  Life 
Altogether  it  is  plain  that  we  need  another  kind  of  evidence  than 
the  simple  unanalyzed  parallelism  which  Hersch  demonstrates  between 
poverty  and  the  general  death  rate  if  we  are  to  get  any  deep  understand- 
ing of  the  influence  of  environmental  circumstances  upon  the  duration 
of  life  or  the  general  death  rate.  We  shall  do  well  to  turn  again  to 
the  experimental  method.    About  a  dozen  years  ago  Loeb, 

starting  from  the  idea  that  chemical  conditions  in  the  organisms  are  one 
of  the  main  variables  in  this  case,  raised  the  question  whether  there  was  a 
definite  coefficient  for  the  duration  of  life  and  whether  this  temperattu*e 
coefficient  was  of  the  order  of  magnitude  of  that  of  a  chemical  reaction.  The 
first  experiments  were  made  on  the  unfertilized  and  fertilized  eggs  of  the 
sea  urchin  and  could  only  be  carried  out  at  the  upper  temperature  limits  of 
the  organism,  since  at  ordinary  temperatures  this  organism  lives  for  years. 
In  the  upper  temperature  region  the  temperature  coefficient  for  the  duration 
of  life  was  very  high,  probably  on  account  of  the  fact  that  at  this  upper  zone 
of  temperature  death  is  determined  by  a  change  of  the  nature  of  a  coagulation 
or  some  other  destructive  process.  Moore,  at  the  suggestion  of  Loeb,  in- 
vestigated the  temperature  coefficient  for  the  duration  of  life  for  the  hydranth 
of  a  tubularian  at  the  upper  temperature  limit  and  found  that  it  was  of  the 
same  order  of  magnitude  as  that  previously  found  for  the  sea  urchm  egg. 
In  order  to  prove  that  there  is  a  temperature  coefficient  for  the  duration  of 
life  throughout  the  whole  scale  of  temperatures  at  which  an  organism  can 
live  experiments  were  required  on  a  form  whose  duration  of  life  was  short 
enough  to  measure  the  duration  of  life  even  at  the  lowest  temperature. 

A  suitable  organism  was  found  in  Drosophila.  This  was  grown 
under  aseptic  conditions,  as  already  described.  The  general  results  are 
shown  in  Table  3. 


TABLE  3 

Effect  of  temperature  on  duration  of  life  of  Drosophila, 
(After  Loeb  and  Northrop) 


Duration 

(in    days)     of 

Temperature 

Total    duration 

Larval  stage 

Pupal    stage 

Life  of 
imago 

of  life  from  egg 
to  death 

oC 

10 

57 

Pupae  die 

120.5 

177.5 +  ;r 

15 

17.8 

13.7 

92.4 

123.9 

20 

7.77 

6.33 

40.2 

54.3 

25 

5.82 

4.23 

28.5 

38.5 

27.5 

(4.15) 

320 

.... 

.... 

30 

4.12 

3.43 

13.6 

21.15 

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158  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

From  this  t^le  it  is  seen  that  at  the  lowest  temperature  the  duration 
of  life  is  longest,  and  the  highest  temperature  shortest.  Cold  slows  up 
the  business  of  living  for  the  fly.  Heat  hastens  it.  One  gathers,  from 
the  account  which  Loeb  and  Northrop  give  of  the  work,  that  at  low 
temperature  the  flies  are  sluggish  and  inactive  in  all  three  develop- 
mental stages  and  perhaps  live  a  long  time  because  they  live  slowly. 
At  high  temperatures,  on  the  other  hand,  the  fly  is  very  active  and  lives 
its  life  through  quickly  at  the  ''pace  that  kills."  These  results  are 
exactly  comparable  to  the  effect  of  a  regular  increase  of  temperature 
upon  a  chemical  reaction.  Indeed,  Loeb  and  Northrop  consider  that 
their  results  prove  that 

With  a  supply  of  proper  and  adequate  food  the  duration  of  the  larval 
stage  is  an  tmequivocal  function  of  the  temperature  at  which  the  larvae  are 
raised,  and  the  temperature  coefficient  is  of  the  order  of  magnitude  of  that  of 
a  chemical  reaction,  L  e.,  about  2  or  more  for  a  difference  of  10°  C.  It  in- 
creases at  the  lower  and  is  less  at  the  higher  temperatures.  The  duration  of 
the  pupal  stage  of  the  fly  is  also  an  unequivocal  function  of  the  temperature 
and  the  temperature  coefficient  is  for  each  temperature  practically  identical 
with  that  for  the  larval  stage.  The  duration  of  life  of  the  imago  is,  with 
proper  food,  also  an  unequivocal  function  of  the  temperature  and  the  tempera- 
ture coefficient  for  the  duration  of  life  is  within  the  normal  tnnperattu-e  limits 
approximately  identical  with  that  for  the  duration  of  life  of  the  larva 
and  pupa. 

How  are  these  results  to  be  reconciled  with  the  previous  finding 
that  heredity  is  a  primary  factor  in  the  determination  of  duration  of 
life  of  Drasophila?  We  have  here,  on  first  impression  at  least,  an 
excellent  example  of  what  one  always  encounters  in  critical  genetic 
investigations:  the  complementary  relations  of  heredity  and  environ- 
ment In  our  experiments  a  general  mixed  population  of  Drosapfula 
kept  under  constant  erwironment  was  shown  to  be  separable  by  selec- 
tion into  a  number  of  very  diverse  strains  in  respect  of  duration  of  life. 
In  Loeb  and  Northrop's  experiments  a  general  mixed  population  of 
Drasophila^  but  of  presumably  constant  genetic  constitution,  at  least 
approximately  such,  throughout  the  experiment,  was  shown  to  exhibit 
changes  of  duration  of  life  with  changing  environments.  It  is  the  old 
familiar  deadlock.  Heredity  constant  plus  changing  environment 
equals  diversity.  Environment  constant  plus  varying  hereditary  con- 
stitution also  equals  diversity. 

Can  we  penetrate  no  farther  than  this  into  the  matter?  I  think  in 
the  present  case  we  can.  In  Lo^  and  Northrop's  experiments, 
temperature  and  duration  of  life  were  not  the  only  two  things  that 
varied.  The  different  temperature  groups  also  differed  from  each 
other — because  of  the  temperature  differences  to  be  sure  but  not  less 
really — ^in  respect  of  general  metabolic  activity,  expressed  in  muscular 
movement  and  every  other  way.    In  the  genetic  experiments  metabolic 


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THE  BIOLOGY    OF   DEATH  169 

activity  was  substantially  equal  in  all  the  hereditarily  different  lines. 
The  idea  suggests  itself,  both  on  a  priori  grounds  and  also  upon  the 
basis  of  certain  experimental  data  presently  to  be  in  part  reviewed,  that 
possibly  duration  of  life  may  be  an  implicit  function  of  only  die  two 
variables 

a.  Genetic  constitution 

b.  Rate  of  metabolic  activity. 

The  functional  relations  of  metabolic  activity  with  temperature, 
food,  light  and  other  environmental  factors  are  all  well  known.  For 
present  purposes  we  do  not  need  to  go  into  the  question  of  their  exact 
form.  The  essential  point  is  that  all  these  environmental  factors  stand 
in  definite  functional  relations  to  rate  of  metabolic  activity,  and  do  not 
so  stand  in  relation  to  genetic  constitution.  Genetic  constitution  is  not 
a  function  of  the  environment,  but  b  for  any  individual  a  constant, 
and  only  varies  between  individuals. 

This  may  be  thought  merely  to  be  an  involved  way  of  saying  what 
one  knows  a  priori;  namely,  that  duration  of  life,  in  general  and  in 
particular,  depends  only  upon  heredity  and  environment.  So  in  one 
sense  it  is.  But  the  essential  point  I  would  make  here  is  that  the 
manner  in  which  the  environmental  forces  (of  sub-leihal  intensity^  of 
course)  chiefly  act  in  determining  duration  of  life  appears  to  be  by 
(hanging  the  rate  of  metabolism  of  the  individual.  Furthermore  one 
would  suggest,  on  this  view,  that  what  heredity  does  in  relation  to 
duration  of  life  is  chiefly  to  determine,  within  fairly  narrow  limits^  tha 
total  energy  output  which  the  individual  can  exhibit  in  its  life  time^ 
This  limitation  is  directly  brought  about  presumably  through  two 
general  factors;  viz,  (a)  the  kind  or  quality  of  material  of  which  this 
particular  vital  machine  is  built,  and  (b)  the  manner  in  which  the 
parts  are  put  together  or  assembled.  Both  of  these  factors  are,  of 
course,  expressions  of  the  extent  cmd  character  of  the  processes  of 
organic  evolution  which  have  given  rise  to  this  particular  species  about 
which  we  may  be  talking  in  a  particular  instance. 

There  is  some  direct  experimental  evidence,  small  in  amount  to  be 
sure,  but  exact  and  pertinent,  to  the  effect  that  the  duration  of  life  of 
an  animal  stands  in  inverse  relation  to  the  total  amount  of  its  metabolic 
activity,  or  put  in  other  words,  to  the  work,  in  the  sense  of  theoretical 
mechanics,  that  it  o^  a  machine  does  during  its  life.  Slonaker  kept  4 
albino  rats  in  cages  like  the  old  fashioned  revolving  squirrel  cages,  with 
a  properly  calibrated  odometer  attached  to  the  axle,  so  that  the  total 
amount  of  running  which  they  did  in  their  whole  lives  could  be 
recorded.    The  results  were  those  shown  in  Table  4. 


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TABLB   4 

Relation  of  longevity  to  muscular  activity  in  rats   (Slonaker) 

Tbtal  number  of  miles  run  during  life 


Age  in  monthB 
at  death 

Rat  No.  1 
MileB 

No.  4 
MUes 

No.  2 

MUes 

No.  3 

Miles 

26 

1266 

1391 

2098 

26 

32 

34 

6447 

It  will  be  perceived  that  the  amount  of  exercise  taken  by  these  rats 
was  astonishingly  large.  For  a  rat  to  run  5,447  miles  in  the  course  of 
its  life  is  indeed  a  remarkable  performance.  Now  these  4  rats  attained 
an  average  age  at  death  of  29.5  months.  But  three  control  rats  confined 
in  stationary  cages  so  that  they  could  only  move  about  to  a  limited 
degree,  but  otherwise  under  conditions,  including  temperature,  identical 
with  those  in  the  revolving  cages,  attained  an  average  age  at  death  of 
40.3  months.  All  were  stated  to  have  died  of  **old  age.**  From  this  ex- 
periment it  appears  clearly  that  the  greater  the  total  work  done,  or 
total  energy  output,  the  shorter  the  duration  of  life,  and  vice  versa.  Or, 
put  in  another  way,  if  the  total  activity  per  imit  of  time  is  increased  by 
some  means  other  than  increasing  temperature,  the  same  results  appear 
as  if  the  increased  activity  is  caused  by  increased  temperature.  It  ap- 
pears, in  short,  to  be  the  activity  per  5e,  and  not  the  temperature  per  se 
that  is  of  real  significance.  There  is  other  evidence,  for  which  space 
lacks  h^re,  pointing  in  the  same  direction. 

If  we  may  be  permitted  to  make  a  suggestion  regarding  the  interpre- 
tation of  Loeb  and  Northrop's  results  in  conjunction  with  our  own  on 
Drosophiloj  it  would  be  to  this  eflfect  Any  given  genetically  pure 
strain  of  Drosophila  is  made  up  of  individual  machines,  constructed  to 
:tum  out  before  breaking  down  a  definite  limited  amount  of  energy  in 
the  form  of  work,  mechanical,  chemical,  and  other.  This  definitely 
limited  total  energy  output  is  predetermined  by  the  hereditary  consti- 
tution of  the  individual  which  fixes  the  kind  of  physicochemical  ma- 
chine that  that  individual  is.  But  the  rate  per  unit  of  time  of  the  energy 
output  may  be  influenced  between  wide  limits  by  environmental  circum- 
stances in  general  and  temperature  in  particular,  since  increased 
temperature  increases  rate  of  metabolic  chemical  changes  in  about  the 
same  ratio,  as  demonstratea  by  a  wealth  of  work  on  temperature  co- 
eflicients,  as  it  increases  other  chemical  changes.  But  if  the  rate  of 
energy  output  per  unit  of  time  is  changed,  the  total  time  taken  for  the 
total  output  of  a  predetermined  amount  of  energy  as  work  must  change 
in  inverse  proportion  to  the  change  of  rate.  So  we  should  expect  just 
precisely  the  results  on  duration  of  life  that  Loeb  and  Northrop  got, 
and   so  far   from  these   results  being   in  contradiction  to  ours   upon 


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THE   BIOLOGY    OF   DEATH  161 

lieredity  they  may  be  looked  upon  as  a  necessary  consequence  of  them. 
Loeb  and  Northrop's  final  conclusion  is:  'The  observations  oh  the 
temperature  coefficient  for  the  duration  of  life  suggest  that  this  duration 
is  determined  by  the  production  of  a  substance  leading  to  old  age  and 
natural  death  or  by  the  destruction  of  a  substance  or  substances  which 
normally  prevent  old  age  and  natural  death/'  The  view  which  I  have 
here  suggested  completely  incorporates  this  view  within  itself,  if  we 
suppose  that  the  total  amoui^  of  hypothetical  ''substance  or  substances 
which  normally  prevent  old  age  and  natural  death''  was  essentially  de? 
termined  by  heredity. 

5.  Gonads  and  Duration  of  Life 
There  is  another  and  quite  different  line  of  experimental  work  on 
the  duration  of  life  which  may  be  touched  upon  briefly.  The  daily 
press  has  lately  had  a  great  deal  to  say  about  rejuvenation  accom- 
plished by  means  of  various  surgical  procedures  undertaken  upon  the 
primary  sex  organs,  particularly  in  the  male.  This  newspaper  notoriety 
has  especially  centered  about  the  work  of  Voronoff  and  Steinach.  The 
only  experiments  which  at  the  present  time  probably  deserve  serious 
consideration  are  those  of  Steinach.  He  has  worked  chiefly  with  white 
rats.  His  theory  is  that  by  causing  through  appropriate  operative  pro- 
cedure an  extensive  regen^ation,  in  a  senile  animal  about  to  die,  of 
certain  glandular  elements  of  the  testis,  senility  and  natural  death  will 
for  a  time  be  postponed  because  of  the  internal  secretion  poured  into 
the  blood  by  the  regenerated  "puberty  glands"  as  he  calls  them.  The 
operation  which  he  finds  to  be  most  effective  is  to  ligate  firmly  the 
eflferent  duct  of  the  testis,  through  which  the  sperm  normally  pass,  close 
up  to  the  testis  itself  and  before  the  coiled  portion  of  the  duct  is 
reached.  The  result  of  this,  according  to  Steinach's  account,  is  to  bring 
about  in  highly  senile  animals  a  great  enlargement  of  all  the  sex  organs, 
a  return  of  sexual  activity  previously  lost  through  old  age,  and  a 
general  loss  of  senile  bodily  characteristics  and  a  resumption  of  the 
conditions  of  full  adult  vigor  in  those  respects. 

Space  is  lacking  to  go  into  the  many  details  of  Steinach's  work, 
much  of  which  is  indeed  chiefly  of  interest  only  to  the  technical  biolo- 
gist, and  from  a  wholly  different  standpoint  than  the  present  one.  I 
should,  however,  like  to  present  one  example  from  his  experiments. 
As  control  a  rat  was  taken  in  the  last  degree  senile.  He  was  26  months 
old  when  the  experiment  b^an.  He  was  obviously  emaciated,  had  lost 
much  of  his  hair,  particularly  on  the  back  and  hind  quarters.  He  was 
weak,  inactive  and  drowsy,  as  indicated  by  the  fact  that  his  eyes  were 
closed,  and  were,  one  infers  from  Steinach,  kept  so  much  of  the  time. 

A  litter  brother  of  this  animal  had  the  efferent  ducts  of  the  testes 
ligated.    This  animal,  we  are  told,  was  at  the  time  of  the  operation,  in 


VOL.  xni.— 11. 


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162  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

so  much  worse  conditioii  of  senility  than  his  brother  above  described 
that  it  was  not  thought  worth  while  even  to  photograph  him.  His  con- 
dition was  considered  hopeless.  To  the  surprise  of  the  operator,  how- 
ever, he  came  back,  slowly  but  surely  after  the  operation,  and  after 
three  lEind  a  half  months  presented  a  perfect  picture  of  lusty  yoimg  rat- 
hood.  He  was  in  full  vigor  of  every  sort,  including  sexual.  He  out- 
lived his  brother  by  8  months,  and  himself  lived  10  months  after  the 
operation,  at  which  time  he  was,  according  to  Steinach,  practically 
moribund.  This  represents  a  presumptive  lengthening  of  his  expected 
span  of  life  by  roughly  a  quarter  to  a  third.  It  is  to  be  remembered, 
however,  that  Slonaker^'s  rats  to  which  nothing  uxa  done  lived  to  an 
average  age  of  40  months. 

The  presumption  that  Steinach's  experiments  have  really  brought 
about  a  statistically  significant  lengthening  of  life  is  large,  and  the 
basis  of  ascertained  fact  small.  After  a  careful  examination  of  Stein- 
ach's  brilliant  contribution,  one  is  compelled  to  take  the  view  that 
however  interesting  the  results  may  be  from  the  standpoint  of  functional 
rejuvenation  in  the  sexual  sphere,  the  case  is  not  proven  that  any 
really  significant  lengthening  of  the  life  span  has  occurred.  In  order 
to  prove  such  a  lengthening  we  must  first  of  all  have  abundant  and  ac^ 
curate  quantitative  data  as  to  the  normal  variation  of  normal  rats  in 
respect  of  duration  of  life,  and  then  show,  having  regard  to  the  prob- 
able errors  involved,  that  the  mean  duration  of  life  after  the  operation 
has  been  significantly  lengthened.  This  Steinach  does  not  do.  His 
paper  is  singularly  bare  of  statistical  data.  We  may  well  await  ade- 
quate quantitative  evidence  before  attempting  any  general  interpreta- 
tion of  his  results. 

6.  The  Pituitary  Gland  and  Duration  of  Life 
Robertson  has  been  engaged  for  a  number  of  years  past  on  an  ex- 
tensive series  of  experiments  regarding  the  effect  of  various  agents  upon 
the  growth  of  white  mice.  The  experiments  have  been  conducted  with 
great  care  and  attention  to  the  proper  husbandry  of  the  animals.  In 
consequence  the  results  have  a  high  degree  of  trustworthiness.  In  the 
course  of  these  studies  he  found  that  the  anterior  lobe  of  the  pituitary 
body,  a  small  gland  at  the  base  of  the  brain,  normally  secretes  into  the 
blood  stream  minute  amounts  of  an  active  substance  which  has  a 
marked  effect  upon  the  normal  rate  of  growth.  By  chemical  means 
Robertson  was  able  to  extract  this  active  substance  from  the  gland  in 
a  fairly  pure  state  and  gave  to  it  the  name  tethelin.  In  later  experi- 
ments the  effect  of  tethelin  given  by  the  mouth  with  the  food  was  tried 
in  a  variety  of  ways. 

In  a  recent  paper  Robertson  and  Ray  have  studied  the  effect  of  this 
material  upon  the  duration  of  life  of  the  white  mouse  with  the  results 
shown  in  Table  5. 


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THE   BIOLOGY    OF   DEATH 


163 


TABLE  5 

Effect  of  tethelin  on  duration  of  life  in  days  of  white  mice. 
(Robertson  and  Ray) 


MALES 

FEMALES 

•aiaab 

ATtfage 

dandoB 
oflif« 

from 
nonnal 

D0V. 
P.  E. 

ChADce 

der.wM 

■eeideo' 

Ul 

ATsnfe 

dandon 

ofUf« 

Der. 

fron 
nomftl 

D0V, 
P.  E. 

Chane* 
der.wM 

•eclden. 
tttl 

Nomial 

Tethfllia 

7«7 
8M 

+  99 

S.0O 

1:22^ 

719 
800 

+  n 

2.25 

lt«.7S 

Both 
Mze* 

tofethor 

Cluneo 

der.  WM 

•od- 

denul 

ia50.2 


From  this  table  it  is  apparent  that  the  administration  of  tethelin 
with  the  food  from  birth  to  death  prolonged  life  to  a  degree  which  in 
the  case  of  the -males  may  be  regarded  as  probably  significant  statis- 
tically. In  the  case  of  the  finales  whe)re  the  ratio  of  the  deviation  to 
its  probable  error  (Dev.  /  P.  El)  falls  to  2.25  the  case  is  very  doubtful. 
The  procedure  by  which  the  chance  of  1:150.2  that  results  in  both  sexes 
together  were  accidental,  was  obtained  is  of  doubtful  validity.  Putting 
males  and  females  together  from  the  original  table  I  find  the  following 
results. 

TABLE   6 

Duration  of  life  of  white  mice,  both  sexes  taken  together 
(From  data  of  Robertson  and  Ray) 


No.  of  deaths 

Afo 

No.  of  amih* 

of  tethelin 

Cn«p 

of  nomak 

fed 

(BothSosM) 

(Both  Seset) 

200-299 

3 

.. 

•J*'*'  Jarir 

2 

400-409 

2 

I 

500-599 

9 

3 

600-699 

7 

9 

700-799 

15 

, , 

800-899 

10 

10 

900-999 

10 

6 

1000-1099 

6 

9 

1100-1199 

•  •• 

I 

64 

39 

Tethelin  fed :  Mean  age  at  death  =  839  ±  20 

Normal   fed:  Mean   "    "       "     =  743  ^  I7 

Difference  =   96  ±  26 

Difference   =   3.7 


P.E. 


Diff. 


One  concludes  from  these  figures  that  tethelin  can  be  regarded  as 
having  lengthened  the  span  of  life  to  a  degree  which  is  just  significant 
statistically.  One  would  expect  from  the  variation  of  random  sampling 
alone  to  get  as  divergent  results  as  these  about  1^  times  in  every  100 
trials  with  samples  of  64  and  39,  respectively. 

In  any  event  it  is  apparent  that,  making  out  the  best  case  possible, 
the  differences  in  average  duration  of  life  produced  by  administration 
of  tethelin  are  of  a  wholly  different  and  smaller  order  than  those  which 


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164  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

have  been  shown  in  the  earlier  portion  of  the  paper  to  exist  between 
pure  strains  of  Drosophila  which  are  based  upon  hereditary  differences. 
Putting  together  all  the  results  which  have  been  reviewed  in  this 
and  the  preceding  paper,  it  appears  to  be  clearly  and  firmly  established 
that  inheritance  is  the  factor  of  prime  importance  in  determining  the 
normal,  natural  duration  of  life.  In  comparison  with  this  factor  the 
influence  of  environmental  forces  (of  sub-lethal  immediate  intensity  of 
course)  appears  in  general  to  be  less  marked. 


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ADAPTATIONS  AMONG  INSECTS  OF  FIELD  AND  FOREST 


ADAPTATIONS  AMONG  INSECTS  OF  FIELD  AND 

FOREST 

By  Dr.  E.  P.  FELT 

STATE  ENTOMOLOGIST  OF  NEW  YORK 

ris  well  known  that  there  are  more  kinds  or  species  of  insects  in 
the  world  than  of  all  other  animals.  The  number  has  been  placed 
by  various  authorities  at  from  one  to  ten  million  and  careful  estimates 
indicate  that  we  have  in  the  State  of  New  York  some  20,000  kinds  or 
species  of  insects,  all  diflfering  from  each  other  by  more  or  less  striking 
characters  and  in  the  great  majority  of  species,  there  are  also  recogniz- 
able variations  between  the  eggs,  the  maggots,  larvae  or  caterpillars^ 
and  the  pupae  or  chrysalids,  not  to  mention  striking  diflferences  between 
the  life  habits  of  these  varied  forms. 

Summarizing,  we  have  among  insects  an  immense  complex  exhibit- 
ing innumerable  variations,  some  large,  many  minor  and  practically  all 
significant  It  is  proposed  to  examine  briefly  some  of  the  more  striking 
of  these  differences  in  the  hopes  of  reaching  a  better  understanding  of 
the  insect  problem  as  a  whole. 

It  happesis  that  some  years  ago  a  list  of  all  the  insects  known  to 
occur  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey  was  prepared  and  a  careful  analysis 
of  this  ^ows  that  nearly  one-half  of  all  the  insects  therein  recorded  are 
plant  feeders,  about  one-sixth  are  predaceous,  living  mostly  upon  other 
insects,  another  one-sixth  are  scavengers  and  live  mostly  upon  decaying 
organic  matter  and  one-eighth  are  parasitic  upon  other  animals,  mostly 
insects. 

Among  plant  feeders  we  find  one  or  more  species  living  at  the 
expense  of  practically  every  growing  plant.  It  may  be  that  some 
plants,  such  as  oak  and  apple  trees,  are  particularly  adapted  to  insect 
requirements  an<I  support  a  very  large  number  of  species.  It  may  also 
be  observed  that  practically  all  parts  of  the  plant  are  liable  to  attack, 
including  the  roots,  the  wood  or  bark  of  the  trunk,  of  the  larger  limbs, 
of  die  smaller  limbs,  the  buds,  the  developing  leaves  and  flowers  in  the 
buA,  the  fully  developed  flowers,  the  expanded  leaves,  the  immature 
fruit  and  the  mature  fruit;  and  broadly  speaking  there  are  insects  which 
confine  themselves  exclusively  or  nearly  so  to  the  parts  designated. 
This  restriction  is  so  marked  that  we  have  a  large  series  of  small 
beetles  known  as  seed  weevils,  because  they  live  almost  entirely  in  seeds 
of  various  plants.    There  is  one  entire  family,  the  members  of  which' 


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166  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

bare  almost  exclusively  in  the  bark  and  outer  sap  wood  of  trees  and 
because  of  tbis  habit  they  are  commonly  known  as  bark  beetles.  Many 
of  the  plant  feeders,  it  might  be  added,  are  considered  injurious  be- 
cause of  the  extensive  losses  they  cause  in  cultivated  crops;  but  it  should 
be  remembered  that  comparatively  few  of  the  many  plant  feeders  are 
numerous  enough  to  be  of  economic  importance. 

The  predaceous  inseots,  approximately  one-sixth  of  all  the  spedes, 
habitually  prey  upon  smaller  animals,  mostly  insects,  and  are  indirectly 
beneficial  because  they  destroy  intentionally  or  otherwise  many 
destructive  forms.  The  rapid,  active,  brightly  colored  tiger  beetles, 
nmny  of  the  ground  beetles,  the  ferocious  dragon  flies,  the  peculiar 
aphis  lions  (the  young  of  the  lazy  golden-eyed  fly),  all  come  in  this 
cat^ory  together  with  many  others. 

The  scavenger  insects,  comprising  the  burying  beetles,  many  flies, 
etc.,  are  nearly  as  numerous  as  the  predatory  forms  and,  like  other 
insects,  exhibit  marked  variations  in  structure  and  habks. 

The  parasites,  somewhat  less  numerous  than  the  two  preceding 
groups,  are  in  many  cases  indirectly  beneficial  since  they  prey  upon  in- 
jurious forms  and  incidentally  hunt  their  prey  under  conditions  which 
would  frequently  seem  to  promise  inmiunity  from  attack.  Here  we 
find  hyperparasitism  which  may  involve  three  or  even  four  of  these 
pirates  working  in  the  same  host  and  each  attacking  the  one  ahead,  as 
it  were. 

Semi-aquatic  and  even  aquatic  insects  are  not  protected  by  the  sur- 
rounding water  from  parasites  and  also  borers  inhabiting  deep 
galleries  in  hard  wood  by  no  means  escape  many  enemies  of  this 
character.  Even  the  caterpillars  of  the  pitch  moth,  living  and  moving 
about  readily  in  pitch  and  covered  with  this  medium  for  a  large  propor- 
tion of  their  existence  succumb  to  the  attacks  of  these  vigilant  enemies. 
There  is  one  entire  family  of  small  parasites  which  specialize  upon  in- 
sect eggs,  some  being  so  minute  that  they  can  develop  successfully  in 
the  extremely  small  codling  moth  egg,  which  latter  has  a  diameter  only 
about  one-half  that  of  the  head  of  an  ordinary  pin  and  is  furthermore 
very  flat  and  scale-like. 

A  general  survey  of  insects  as  a  whole  shows  all  manner  of  varia- 
tions from  the  minute  midge  approximately  one-fiftieth  of  an  inch  in 
length  to  our  largest  moths  or  grass-hoppers  with  a  wing  spread  of 
some  eight  inches.  There  are  endless  modifications  in  form  from  the 
oval  body  of  certain  beetles  or  even  scale  insects  to  the  extremely  at- 
tenuated forms  such  as  dragon  flies  and  walking  sticks.  The  principal 
organs  of  the  body,  such  as  the  antennae  or  feelers,  the  eyes,  the  legs 
and  the  wings  are  modified  in  innumerable  ways  and  in  some  insects 
have  disappeared  entirely  while  in  others  they  have  been  developed  to 
an  extraordinary  degree. 


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ADAPTATIONS  AMONG  INSECTS  OF  FIELD  AND  FOREST  167 

We  have  been  taught  that  kiaects  have  heads,  wings,  and  legs  and 
pass  through  four  stages  of  development,  namely,  the  egg,  the  larva  or 
the  caterpillar,  the  pupa  or  chrysalis  and  the  adult;  and  yet  modifica- 
tion has  proceeded  to  such  an  extent  that  it  is  possible  to  find  some 
insects  where  both  structures  and  stages  have  been  eliminated  or  con- 
cealed to  such  an  extent  that,  in  a  broad  sense,  there  are  species  or 
stages  with  and  without  such  important  accessories  as  heads,  wings,  legs, 
mates,  eggs,  larvae,  pupae  or  chrysalids  and  adults. 

There  is  also  a  very  great  variation  in  the  time  required  to  pass 
through  the  various  transformations  or  what  is  known  as  the  life-cycle, 
this  ranging  from  approximately  7  days,  in  certain  species  of  plant  lice 
or  aphi(k  to  17  years  in  the  case  of  the  periodical  cicada,  sometimes 
kno¥m,  though  improperly,  as  the  17  year  locust. 

Insects  and  warm  weather  are  synonymous  so  to  speak  and  yet  snow 
fleas  may  be  found  by  the  millions  on  snow  in  late  winter,  canker  worm 
moths  fly  and  deposit  eggs  under  equally  adverse  conditions  and  at 
this  season  a  peculiar  wingless  crane  fly  as  well  as  the  odd  Boreus  may 
be  found  crawling  upon  the  snow.  The  Arctic  r^ions  fairly  swarm 
with  mosquitoes  which  have  adapted  themselves  to  the  rigors  of  exist- 
ence in  the  far  north  and  issue  in  clouds  in  the  cool,  Arctic  spring; 
nevertheless  it  is  true  that  most  insects  abound  during  warm  weather 
and  the  midsummer  months  of  the  temperate  zone  and  the  tropical 
regions  are  remarkable  for  their  abundance.  Some  thrive  best  under 
humid  conditions  and  others  have  adapted  themselves  to  the  arid 
wastes  of  desert  r^ions.  These  are  simply  suggestions  regarding 
climatic  diversities  endurable  by  insects. 

Turning  from  the  general  to  special  instances,  aphids  or  plant  lice 
illustrate  iii  a  striking  manner  the  possibilities  of  relatively  defenseless 
forms  maintaining  themselves  under  adverse  conditions.  These  are  all 
soft  bodied  insects  with  indifferent  powers  of  flight  and  slow  movement 
on  foot;  nevertheless  there  are  something  over  300  species  living  upon 
a  considerable  variety  of  plants  atid  frequently  occurring  in  enormous 
numbers.  Individually,  they  are  not  particularly  prolific,  they  are 
preyed  upon  by  a  considerable  series  of  aggressive  parasites  and  pre* 
dators;  but  in  spite  of  these  handicaps  are  able  to  maintain  themselves, 
because  many  of  them  produce  a  generation  within  a  very  diort  time, 
some  7  days,  and  in  addition  certain  species  at  least  periodically 
migrate  to  other  plants.  One  migration  is  from  birch  to  witchhazel 
and  vice  versa.  This  change  enables  the  aphids  to  escape,  for  a  time  at 
least,  from  the  frequently  abundant  natural  enemies  on  the  infested  trees 
and  it  also  provides  the  insects  with  fresh  and  more  acceptable  food, 
since  badly  infested  plants  soon  become  unsuitable  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  insects. 


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168  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

The  indirect  efifect  of  climate  is  well  illustrated  among  aphids  since 
a  rise  in  temperature  in  warm  weather  in  the  spring  is  favorable  to  the 
development  of  a  number  of  efficient  enemies  and  consequently  such 
conditions  are  very  likely  to  result  in  a  speedy  control  of  a  plant  louse 
outbreak  through  natural  agencies. 

Certain  gall  making  aphids  exhibit  very  striking  adaptations.  Some 
species  only  curl  the  leaves  and  through  such  distortion  obtain  con- 
siderable protection  from  the  elements  and  presimiably  also  from 
parasites,  while  certain  of  these  forms  simply  establish  themselves  upon 
the  part  of  the  plant  selected  and  apparently,  as  a  result  of  the  with- 
drawal of  sap  due  to  its  feeding,  the  adjacent  plant  cells  grow  up 
around  the  insect  and  eventually  inclose  it  with  protective  walls,^ 
within  which  the  mother  plant  louse  and  her  young  develop  in  security. 
There  is  such  a  close  adaptation  between  plant  and  insect  in  some  cases 
that  the  aphid  is  dependent  upcm  finding  a  given  species  of  plant  and 
being  able  to  establish  itself  upon  a  certain  developing  part,  such  as  a 
leaf  stem,  the  base  of  the  leaf  or  the  developing  shoot. 

Biological  modifications  among  plant  lice  have  gone  farther  than 
this  and  we  not  only  find  an  alternation  of  food  plants  with  a  more  or 
less  well  defined  migration  but  also,  in  some  species,  well  marked 
alternations  of  series  of  generations,  these  series  being  so  different  that 
before  the  connection  was  established,  they  were  supposed  to  belong  to 
entirely  different  species. 

There  is  a  very  intimate  relation  between  many  insects  and  the  host 
plant  and  this  is  especially  close  in  the  case  of  the  oaks  and  the  long 
series  of  gall  wasps,  a  large  and  peculiar  group,  nK>stly  confined  to  the 
oaks,  remarkable  because  of  the  varied  forms  of  the  numerous  galls 
they  produce  and  noteworthy  on  account  of  the  fact  that  a  considerable 
series  presents  a  peculiar  phenomenon  known  as  alternation  of  genera- 
tions. This  may  be  briefly  described  as  a  series  of  unlike  alternate 
generations;  in  other  words  parents  and  children  are  unlike,  while 
parents  and  grandchildren  are  alike.  It  appears  to  be  a  special  adapta- 
tion due  to  the  fact  that  one  generation  frequently  develops  upon  the 
leaves  while  the  other  lives  in  galls  on  the  twigs  or  even  roots.  The 
adults  of  one  appear  in  warm,  midsummer  weather  and  those  of  the 
other  issue  under  the  inclement  conditions  of  late  fall  or  early  spring. 

The  long  series  of  plant  feeding  insects  mentioned  above  show 
marked  specialization  in  the  case  of  some  forms  which  actually  live 
upon  a  peculiar  fungus  cared  for  and  grown  by  themselves.  This  may 
easily  be  seen  in  the  case  of  a  number  of  our  timber  beetles,  insects 
which  make  deep  galleries'  in  the  dying  wood  of  trees  and  utilize  the 
moist  conditions  there  present  for  the  growing  of  a*  small  fungus  known 
as  Ambrosia,  which  they  carry  from  one  tree  to  another.  Certain 
species  of  ants,  mostly  tropical  or  sub-tropical,  cultivate  fungi  in  under- 


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ADAPTATIONS  AMONG  INSECTS  OF  FIELD  AND  FOREST  169 

ground  chambers  to  which  they  carry  portions  of  leaves  cut  from 
trees,  using  this  material  as  a  stratum  upon  which  to  grow  the  fungus. 

It  should  be  noted  in  addition  that  insects  may  be  found  in  almost 
every  environment.  There  are  the  salt  marsh  mosquitoes,  for  example, 
represented  by  several  species,  each  with  distinct  limitations  and  yet 
so  well  adapted  to  the  struggle  for  existence  that  one  species,  at  least, 
may  be  found  breeding  in  saline  pools  hundreds  of  miles  from  salt 
marshes.  The  series  of  fresh  water  mosquitoes  is  larger,  exhibits  even 
under  and  more  varied  adaptations  than  the  salt  marsh  forms  and  as  an 
extreme  case  we  may  mention  the  peculiar  mosquito  which  lives  only, 
so  far  as  known,  in  the  water  of  pitcher  plants.  The  silted  bottom  of 
shallow  pools  a£Fords  a  suitable  habitat  for  small  midge  larvae,  one 
species  of  which  may  be  utilized  to  render  milk  waste  from  creameries 
and  cheese  factories  inoffensive.  The  maggots  of  another  small  fly 
are  important  agents  in  rendering  sewage  innocuous.  The  quieter 
portions  of  fresh  water  streams  are  inhabited  by  many  caddis  worms 
wkh  their  peculiar  cases,  the  rapids  in  such  streams  support  large 
patches  of  black  fly  larvae  and  between  the  adjacent  stones,  there  may 
be  found  the  delicate  silken  webs  of  fishing  caddis  worms.  Some 
aquatic  forms  have  developed  to  such  an  extent  that  they  thrive  by  the 
millions  in  the  very  saline  or  alkaline  lakes  of  the  west  and  in  at  least 
one  case  the  maggots  of  a  small  fly  develop  in  pools  of  petroleum,  a 
product  frequently  used  for  the  destruction  of  insect  life. 

The  same  varied  life  conditions  obtain  among  terrestrial  forms. 
Insects  are  found  in  almost  every  conceivable  situation,  though  abun- 
dance is  dependent  to  a  very  great  extent  upon  environment.  One  of 
the  most  remarkable  cases  of  adaptation  is  found  in  the  buffalo  carpet 
beetle  and  its  close  allies.  One  species  has  been  able  to  maintain  itself 
for  17  years  in  an  ear  of  very  dry  popcorn  kept  in  a  practically 
hermetically  sealed  fruit  jar.  More  remarkable  than  this,  an  investi- 
gator has  recently  demonstrated  that  grubs  of  these  beetles  react  to 
conditions  so  perfectly  that  the  normal  process  of  molting  to  permit 
increase  in  size  and  development  to  maturity  may  be  reversed  and  in 
the  prolonged  absence  of  suitable  nourishment  these  grubs  may  actually 
mok  and  decrease  in  size;  and  not  only  this  but  the  process  may  be 
continued  in  eidier  direction  in  individual  cases  through  a  series  of 
molts  by  simply  providing  or  withholding  suitable  nourishment.  This 
behavior  may  well  be  considered  an  extreme  illustration  of  adaptability 
so  commonly  found  among  insects. 

A  general  knowledge  of  insects  suggests  that  they  have  developed  in 
such  varied  forms  and  abundance  because  of  an  inherent  adaptability 
which  has  enabled  them  to  exist  under  a  great  variety  of  conditions. 
This  adaptability  to  environment  has  been  sealed  as  it  were  by  per- 
sistent tendencies  toward  structural  variations,  which  latter  incline  to 


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170  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

become  more  defined  whenever  a  group  is  somewhat  isolated,  a  condi- 
tion very  likely  to  follow  variations  in  habit.  It  is  difficult  otherwise 
to  explain  the  almost  endless  structural  modifications  found  among 
insects,  because  it  would  severely  tax  human  ingenuity  to  defend  them 
all  on  the  ground  of  their  bestowing  a  distinct  advantage  upon  the 
possessor,  except  possibly,  as  suggested  above,  in  more  firmly  estab< 
lishing  specific  distinctions  and  the  usual  accompanying  variations  in 
habits.  The  relatively  long  series  of  similar  species  of  such  well  segre- 
gated units  as  the  cut  worms  and  grass  web  worms  in  the  Lepidoptera 
and  the  June  beetles  in  the  Coleoptera,  indicate  very  material  advant- 
ages in  biological  adaptations,  subsequently  confirmed  by  minor 
structural  variations,  since  deviations  from  the  normal  mean  a  wider 
field  for  the  unit  as  a  whole  and  consequently  a  greater  probability  of 
the  type  persisting. 

Consideration  of  the  general  problem  compels  the  admission  that 
insects  have  gained  their  present  important  position  in  the  natural 
world  through  an  adaptability  unequalled  in  other  groups.  This  has 
been  accomplished  by  variations  favorable  to  the  invasion  of  unoc- 
cupied territory  rather  than  by  forcing  other  organisms  into  the  back- 
ground, aside  from  the  inevitable  limitations,  in  many  cases  important, 
which  insects  have  imposed  upon  plant  life.  It  is  noteworthy  that  this 
status  should  be  occupied  by  a  group  of  comparatively  weak,  defense- 
less creatures  and  the  fact  that  this  has  been  done  indicates  the  pos- 
sibilities of  adaptation.  Insects  have  succeeded  where  apparently  better 
endowed  forms  failed,  largely  because  of  their  greater  adaptability. 


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STUDIES  OF  THE  OCEAN  171 


STUDIES  OF  THE  OCEAN ' 
By  H.  S.  H.  THE  PRINCE  OF  MONACO 

AFTER  exploring  for  five  and  twenty  years  all  the  levels  of  the  North 
Atlantic  Ocean,  from  the  tropical  to  the  polar  regions,  chiefly 
in  order  to  enlarge  our  knowledge  of  zoological  and  physical  oceano- 
graphy, I  was  commencing  more  especially  such  studies  as  concern 
physiology,  when  the  German  war  came  and  upset  the  lives  of  all 
workers.  Eight  years  were  then  wasted  in  the  activities  of  those  men 
who  devote  themselves  primarily  to  the  chief  interests  of  humanity. 

Yet  such  is  to-day  the  power  of  human  thought  that  in  the  whole 
course  of  the  war  my  oceaaiographical  laboratories  never  desisited  com- 
pletely from  this  appointed  task;  and  I  was  gratified  with  the  sight 
of  two  hundred  thousand  boys  of  your  army  visiting  the  Museum  at 
Monaco  while  staying  on  our  sunny  shore  either  to  heal  their  wounds 
or  to  improve  their  strength. 

When  I  gave  more  prominence  in  my  scientific  undertakings  to 
physiology,  I  enjoyed  the  cooperation  of  such  noted  scientists  as 
Charles  Richet  and  Portier,  or  a  few  younger  men  who  were  thus 
preparing  for  their  future.  Joubin  and  Bouvier  had  previously  visited 
with  me  the  awful  spaces  of  the  ocean,  which  alnoost  daily  yielded  tons 
of  beings  unknown  to  science — abyssal  cephalopods  or  pelagic  Crus- 
tacea. Buchanan  and  Thoulet,  those  veterans  of  the  early  great 
labors  dealing  with  the  sea,  have  been  for  thirty  years  closely  con- 
nected with  my  investigations.  And  the  head  of  that  pleiad,  the  like 
of  which  is  hardly  likely  to  be  seen  again  in  the  laboratory  of  any 
ship,  was  Richard,  director  of  the  Oceanographical  Museum  at 
Monaco,  the  faithful  fellow-laborer  in  all  my  voyages  and  conse- 
quently of  all  oceanographers,  the  best  versed  in  our  science  as  a  whole. 

Owing  to  Dr.  Richard's  ingenious  ideas  and  to  those  of  Com- 
mandant Bouree,  there  have  been  of  late  years  made  available  large 
nets  with  extremely  email  meshes  with  which  I  have  explored  the  inter- 
mediate depths  of  the  ocean  from  the  surface  down  to  over  5000 
meters.  In  some  instances  it  has  been  possible,  by  means  of  a  special 
bathometer  attached  to  the  net,  to  ascertain  at  about  what  level  the 
capture  has  taken  plaoe. 

It  was  already  known  that  there  exists  between  the  great  depths 
and  the  surface  of  the  seas  a  fauna  consisting  of  many  species  and 
wearing  a  unique  aspect.    A  sample  of  that  singular  world  is  sometimes 

1  Address  before  The  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  April  25,  1921. 

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172  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


THE   MONACO   OCEAIMOGRAPHICAL  MUSEUM    FROM   THE   GARDENS   OF   SAINT   MARTIN 


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STUDIES  OF  THE  OCEAN  173 

fouiul  floating  as  a  corpse  in  the  very  early  morning  before  the  sea- 
birds  have  picked  up  these  remnants  of  nightly  struggles  for  life. 
After  the  improvements  in  our  operations,  unexpected  facts  were 
gradually  brought  to  light  and  confirmed  by  other  oceanographers. 
And  in  1912  I  obtained,  by  turning  to  account  the  bathometer  above 
mentioned,  which  had  been  manufactured  in  Germany  with  great 
difficulty,  the  true  curve  of  the  levels  the  net  had  passed  through  in 
one  operation. 

Shortly  after,  I  was  able  to  make  a  net  the  opening  and  closing  of 
which  could  be  controlled  on  board  the  ship.  This  ensemble  of  im- 
provements enabled  us  to  establish,  by  means  of  operations  carried  out 
by  day  and  by  night  at  various  depths,  that  there  exists  in  those  vast 
spaces  a  whole  bathypelagic  world  undergoing  vertical  oscillation  by 
which  some  individuals  are  dragged  up  from  the  lowest  level  at  which 
they  live  to  within  fifty  meters  of  the  surface,  the  process  occurring 
only  at  night.  Consequently,  we  now  find  at  about  midnight,  quite 
close  to  the  surface,  strange  animals  which  we  formerly,  when  opera- 
ting in  broad  daylight,  had  to  seek  through  most  elaborate  means  at  a 
depth  of  several  thousand  meters.  Hence  we  know  that  those  animals 
live  in  a  state  of  perpetual  vertical  oscillation  the  period  of  which  is 
twenty-four  hours.  We  have  also  found  that  such  animals  as  are  able 
to  undergo  this  enormous  displacement  more  frequently  belong  to  the 
species  provided  with  luminous  organs. 

Of  the  broad  researches  to  which  I  have  applied  myself  for  over  a 
quarter  of  a  century  in  order  to  throw  light  on  the  problems  concern- 
ing the  science  of  the  sea,  I  will  mention  here  my  investigation  of  the 
currents  in  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean.  Those  motions  of  the  sea 
waters,  so  varied  and  at  times  so  extensive,  which  are  chiefly  brought 
about  by  meteorological  influences,  in  their  turn  exercise  a  consider- 
able influence  over  life  in  the  seas.  This  occurs  through  the  distri- 
butkm  of  the  plankton,  which  is  an  entire  faima  of  forms  extremely 
minute  and  therefore  unable  to  direct  themselves  among  the  sea-forces. 

The  plankton — the  miniature  animal  and  plant  forms  of  the  sea 
world — is,  consequently,  swept  about  by  currents  over  special  regions 
of  the  sea  and  is  followed  by  troops  of  stronger  animals  that  feed  upon 
it  and  are  themselves  fed  upon  by  a  yet  mightier  fauna.  So  it  comes 
about  that  there  has  been  established  in  the  living  sea-world,  from 
the  plankton  masses  to  the  biggest  cetaceans,  a  broad  cycle  wherein 
we  see  life  constantly  arising  out  of  death,  amid  the  waters  striving  for 
their  equilibrium.  Currents  thus  exercise  supreme  influence  over  the 
shoals  of  sardine  or  herring,  as  well  as  a  good  many  other  fish  which 
they  supply  with  food  under  such  conditions,  that  once  upon  ex- 
amining the  fltomach  of  one  of  those  fish,  we  could  calculate  the  num- 
ber of  peridinians  lying  there  at  twenty  million. 

Out  of  the  ensemble  of  the  facts  concerning  the  history  of  sea- 


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174  THE  SCIEXTIFIC  MONTHLY 


DREDGING  WITH  THE  NET  ON  BOARD  THE   "PRINCESSE  ALICE."  THE   YACHT   BUILT   BY 
THE  PRINCE  OF  MONACO  FOR  THE  STUDY  OF  OCEANIC  LIFE.       VOYAGE  OF  1908 

organifims  I  see  more  convincing  grounds  arise  for  regarding  the  sea 
as  the  cradle  of  life.  Looming  on  the  horizon  of  human  knowledge,  I 
descry  the  line  of  the  species  sprung  one  from  another  as  they  are  dis- 
tributed between  surface  and  bottom.  And  while  I  compare  that  world, 
which  has  remained  homogeneous  through  the  ages,  with  those  more 
distinct  animals  held  on  one  plane  on  the  earth's  surface  as  though  they 
had  fled  from  the  ocean;  it  seems  to  me  that  the  whole  of  this  terrestrial 
fauna  because  of  its  slower  evolution  tends  to  speedier  disappearance, 
oynag  to  the  unstable  light  environment.  A  few  groups,  the  pinnipedea 
and  cetaceous  manmialians,  for  instance,  have  not  been  able  to  gain 
even  the  requisite  fitness  and  have  remained  half  and  half,  with  im- 
perfect means  of  breathing  and  locomotion. 

Having  for  a  score  of  years  observed  the  currents  of  the  North 
Atlantic  Ocean  by  means  of  extensive  experiments  based  on  organized 
flotation  methods,  I  was,  when  the  German  war  broke  out,  quite 
prepared  for  the  question  of  what  bec(»nes  of  the  wandering  mines 
drifting  from  the  mine  fields  which  were  soon  placed  near  the  coasts 
of  both  continents.  I  again  took  up  my  previous  formulae  which  had 
enabled  me  to  draw  a  chart  of  the  great  currents  sweeping  along  or  con- 
necting Europe  and  America,  and  owing  to  the  similarity  between  the 
drifting  of  mines  and  the  method  I  had  used  during  my  earlier  investi- 
gations it  became  possible  for  me  recently  to  present  the  navigators 
on  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean  with  a  very  accurate  chart  of  the  course 
followed  by  those  formidable  engines.    On  this  chart  one  can  see  an 


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STUDIES  OF  THE  OCEAN  175 


AIMING  AT  A  WHALE   (1902) 

inmiense  cycle,  whose  center  is  indicated  by  the  Azores,  described  by 
the  mines  in  a  period  of  about  four  years,  such  being  the  ^>aoe  of 
time  necessary  for  the  completion  of  their  voyage  from  the  English 
Channel  to  the  Canaries,  the  West  Indies  and  back. 

My  calculations  for  this  work  are  accurate  with  respect  to  the  di- 
rection and  the  velocity  of  the  currents,  for  the  hydrographical  and 
meteorological  officers  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean  observe  the  passing 
by  or  meeting  of  mines  in  the  manner  I  had  announced  to  navigators. 
The  two  sets  of  results  mutually  confirm  each  other  after  thirty-five 
years'  interval. 

I  will  content  myself  with  quoting  here  some  phenomena  connected 
widi  orientation  in  animals  in  their  relation  to  the  sea. 

One  of  my  operations,  carried  out  with  a  large  fish-pot  at  a  depth 
of  about  1500  meters,  brotught  up  not  only  very  large  Geryon  crabs, 
which  had  been  caught  inside,  but  a  number  of  the  same  clinging  to 
die  outside.  Thus  I  witnessed  the  perplexity  the  latter  must  have 
been  in  through  want  of  resolution  when  the  fish-pot  was  just  leaving 
the  bottom.  They  were  merely  crawlers,  unable  to  swim ;  and  a  sudden 
separation  from  the  bottom  whereon  the  apparatus  was  lying  prevented 
them  from  being  resolute  enough  to  drop  back  to  their  environment 
by  simply  falling  down  the  very  small  height  by  which  at  first  they 
were  separated  from  it.  They  allowed  themselves — for  they  were 
found  to  be  thoroughly  alive — ^to  be  lifted  through  a  height  of  1500 


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176  THE  SCIEXTIFIC  MONTHLY 


FIRING    A    LANCE    HARPOON    FROM    A    CANNON    AT    A    WHALE    IN    THE    ARCTIC    OCEAN. 
Photofraph   by   Lieutenant   Bouree 

meters  up  to  the  surface  in  spite  of  the  inconvenience  they  must  have 
felt  owing  to  the  change  in  temperature  and  the  decrease  in  pressure. 

Another  time,  in  the  Mediterranean  between  Corsica  ainl  France, 
I  met  with  a  large  whale  which  was  apparently  repairing  to  a  pre- 
^letermined  goal,  and  accompanied  it  with  my  ship  the  "Princesee- 
Alice,"  keeping  close  to  its  flank.  For  six  hours  it  went  on  the  same 
«compa66-route,  without  departing  from  it  more  than  two  or  three  de- 
grees, covering  about  40  kilometers  without  a  deviation  although  there 
was  no  visible  object  to  guide  it.  Moreover,  its  divings  and  surface 
breathings,  as  measured  with  a  chronometer,  showed  no  marked  differ- 
ences, 10  minutes  under  water  alternating  with  6  to  8  breathings. 

Lastly,  with  respect  to  terrestrial  birds  flying  over  the  sea  in  their 
migrations,  I  have  always  found  facts  showing  complete  lack  of 
orientation  under  definite  circumstances.  Thus  they  swerve  from  their 
northward  or  southward  route  when  there  is  no  more  land  in  either  of 
these  directions.  The  migratory  birds  swept  by  some  storm  away 
from  continental  Europe  at  length  drop  down  to  the  sea,  lacking  the  in- 
stinct which  would  help  them  to  find  the  lands  that  sometimes  lie  a 
short  distance  eastward. 

On  the  other  hand  those  birds  which  in  their  chance-guided 
endeavors  have  been  so  lucky  as  to  reach  the  Azores  never  afterwards 
left  them.     Several  of  these  islands  are  therefore  peopled  with  wood- 


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STUDIES  OF  THE  OCEAN  177 


A   METEOROLOGICAL   KITE   FROM    THE   EXPLORING   YACHT   IN   THE     MEDITERRANEAN 

(1906) 

cock  and  quail  and  wood-pigeons,  which  never  depart;  and  there  can 
be  visited  at  Sao  Miguel  de  Ponta  Delgado  a  large  collection  of 
species  captured  under  thoee  circumstances. 

With  regard  to  phenomena  relating  to  light,  Messrs.  Bertel  and 
Grein  have  pursued  very  important  investigations  at  the  Monaco 
Oceanographical  Museum  concerning  the  penetration  of  the  various 
light  radiations  into  the  depth  of  sea-water.  Mr.  Grein  in  particular 
has  succeeded  in  securing  a  photographic  print  on  highly  sensitive 
plates  exposed  between  10  a.  m.,  and  1  p.  m.,  at  a  depth  of  1500  meters. 

The  main  results  may  be  stated  as  follows:  If  we  set  down  as  1000 
the  amount  of  light  radiations  reaching  1  meter  down,  we  find  that 
there  remains  at  5  meters  but  3.7  of  red  and  at  50  meters  but  0.0021; 
at  5  meters  there  remains  but  2.5  of  orange-yellow  and  at  100  meters 
but  0.001.  For  green  the  figures  are  230  at  5  meters  and  0.0003  at 
1000  meters;  for  blue  they  are  450  at  5  meters  and  0.0001  at  1000 
meters;  for  violet  blue,  866  at  5  meters,  0.003  at  1000  meters,  and 
0.00001  at  1500  meters. 

It  was  already  known  that  the  light  radiations  were  absorbed  in  the 
above  order  but  in  what  ratios  they  reach  various  depths  was  not 
known.  M.  Grein  has  moreover  sitated  the  ratios  of  the  various  per- 
centages of  radiations  at  any  given  depth:  thus  at  a  depth  of  1  meter 
there  are  96.7  per  1000  of  red;   165.7  of  orange  yellow,  green  and 


VOL.  XIII.— 12. 

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178  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


THE    KING   OF   SPAIN    (LEFT)    AND   THE    PRINCE    OF    MONACO    (RIGHT)    ON    BOARD    THE 
PRINCE'S  YACHT,   THE   "PKINCESSE   ALICE,"   AT  ST.   SEBASTIAN.     (JULY.    1903) 

green  blue;  198.9  of  blue;  and  207.3  of  violet  blue.  Below  1000 
meters  only  blue  remains  and  below  1500  meters  only  violet  blue. 

But  there  is  still  one  question  of  biology  that  offers  a  very  great 
deal  of  interest.  On  my  ship  Dr.  Charles  Richet,  assisted  by  Dr. 
Portier,  brought  to  light  the  following  facts:  The  tentacles  of  certain 
marine  animals  like  Physalia  provoke  by  simple  contact  local  irritation 
and  hypesthesia.  When  injected  with  the  extracts  from  these  tentacles 
the  dog,  the  pigeon,  and  other  animals  are  plunged  into  a  state  of 
conscious  semi-narcosis  more  or  less  prolonged  during  which  they  re- 
main absolutely  insensible  to  pain.  Richet  and  Portier  have  named 
this  benumbing  substance  ''hypnotoxine.'' 

In  experimenting  with  extracts  from  the  tentacles  of  certain  sea- 
anemones,  Richet  and  Portier  found  that  dogs  after  having  received 
one  injection  became  excessively  susceptible  to  the  action  of  a  second 
dose.  These  dogs  could  be  killed  by  a  quantity  representing  only  a 
fraction  of  the  dose  that  would  be  fatal  for  a  dog  not  previously 
treated.  They  gave  the  name  "anaphylaxis"  to  this  state  of  abnormal 
sensitiveness  of  a  subject  to  the  action  of  certain  substances,  which 
might  be  foreign  albumens  of  any  kind,  animal  or  vegetable;  for  ex- 
ample, the  blood-serum  of  an  animal  of  a  different  species,  egg- 
albumen,  substances  usually  harmless  like  milk,  the  extracts  of 
various  organs,  bacteria  or  the  extracts  from  bacteria  (bacterial 
proteins)  etc. 

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STUDIES  OF  THE  OCEAN  179 


THE  PRINCE  OF  MONACO   (RIGHT)    AND  MR.   KOHN   (LEFT)    ON   BOARD  THE   "PRINCESSE 
ALICE"  ON  THE  VOYAGE  OF  1905.       Photograph  by  Dr.  Richard.  Director  of  the  Monaco  Museum 

If,  for  example,  a  small  amount  of  serum  from  the  horse,  even  one 
one-bun<iredth  of  a  cubic  centimeter,  is  injected  into  a  guinea-pig,  the 
latter  is  rendered  hypersensitive  to  horse  serum.  This  hypersensitive- 
ness  goes  completely  unnoticed  unless  after  a  certain  lapse  of  time  the 
guinea-pig  is  again  injected  with  serum  from  the  horse;  under  these 
conditions  the  anaphylactic  state  reveals  itself  by  a  condition  of 
"shock*'  with  grave  symptoms  and  sometimes  even  death  in  a  few 
minutes. 

There  was  at  first  considerable  surprise  and  incredulity  because 
scientist  had  hitherto  been  accustomed  to  r^ard  the  reaction  of  im- 
munization or  of  diminution  of  sensitiveness  as  the  appropriate  re- 
sponse of  an  organism  to  the  injection  of  foreign  substances.  It  was 
therefore  astoni^ing  that  exactly  the  opposite  phenomenon  could 
result.    Thus  the  laws  of  immunity  were  completely  upset. 

Though  but  a  few  years  have  passed  since  the  condition  of  anaphy- 
laxis was  studied  for  the  first  time,  it  has  now  become  one  of  the  sub- 
jects which  have  brought  forth  the  most  work  in  the  domain  of  im- 
munity. The  amount  of  research  carried  out  upon  anaphylaxis  is 
enormous,  and  every  day  its  literature  increases.  It  is  a  field  of  the 
highest  importance  not  alone  on  account  of  its  practical  application  in 
serum  therapy  but  because  as  a  mystery  it  enfoWs  within  its  depths 
the  secret  of  many  deep-seated  questions  relating  to  mankind;    also 


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180  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


EXAMINING  A  CATCH  OF  THE  BOUREE  NET 

because  the  researches  alrea<}y  performed  upon  anaphylaxis  give  great 
hopes  for  the  elucidation  of  these  questions  and  for  the  discovery  of 
a  method  of  rendering  the  human  body  insusceptible. 

Among  the  things  which  contribute  to  the  harmony  of  our  ter- 
restrial sphere  we  should  observe  the  role  pkyed  by  the  marine  plants 
as  frequently  intermediaries  between  the  living  and  the  lifeless  realms 
of  our  planet.  While  on  the  one  hand  they  furnish  for  many  organisms 
both  protection  and  nouridbment,  still  another  important  function  falls 
to  their  lot :  they  fix  certain  mineral  substances  which  are  more  or  less 
abundant  in  the  bosom  of  the  ocean  and  deliver  them  up  for  exploita- 
tion by  human  activity.  Thus  it  would  be  eminently  fitting  to  con- 
serve and  to  cultivate  these  products  of  the  sea  which  are  to-day  our 
auxiliaries  in  obtaining  iodine,  bromine,  algine,  chloride  of  sodium, 
and  the  salts  of  potassium,  magnesium,  lime,  iron  and  manganese. 
Unfortunately  in  some  places  they  are  already  the  victims  of  waste. 
Finding  himself  in  the  presence  of  wealth,  one  might  say,  man  loses 
completely  the  idea  of  providence.  He  seems  then  to  suffer  from  a 
vertigo  which  drags  him  to  the  radical  destruction  of  things  for  there 
is  no  gift  of  nature  that  can  survive  the  ill-considered  enterprises  of 
human  industry. 

Paul  Gloess  has  said:  ''It  is  in  the  marine  plants  that  we  find, 
and  shall  always  find  with  more  certainty  than  elsewhere,  that  which 
thus  far  in  our  carelessness  we  have  neglected  to  ask  of  them  or  which 


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STUDIES  OF  THE  OCEAN  181 


A  FISHING  SCENE  ON  BOARD  THE   "HIRONDELLE/*  THE  YACHT  BUILT   BY  THE  PRINCE 

OF  MONACO  FOR  OCEANIC  EXPLORATION.     FROM  LEFT  TO  RIGHT  ARE  PRINCE  ALBERT  I 

OF  MONACO:  L.  TINAYRE.  ARTIST;  DR.  RICHARD.  DIRECTOR  OF  THE  MONACO  MUSEUM | 

M.   FUHRMEISTER.   PRIVATE   SECRETARY.   AND   DR.   LOUET.   PHYSICIAN 

in  otir  extravagance  we  have  squandered.  ♦  ♦  ♦  The  fertile  soil  of 
the  earth  is  constantly  becoming  poorer  while  the  nourishing  fluid  of 
the  sea  is  growing  richer  and  richer/' 

All  these  data  are  valuable  for  the  study  of  the  beings  living  at 
various  depth-levels  in  the  ocean« 

A  professor  at  my  Oceanographical  Institute,  Monsieur  Joubin,  has 
lately  sug^sted  the  use  of  seaplanes  to  help  open^sea  fishermen  by 
guiding  them  towards  the  shoals  of  the  fish  they  are  sedcing  while  the 
latter  in  their  turn  are  pursuing  large  shoals  of  such  Crustacea  as  serve 
them  for  food.  For  instance,  it  has  been  found  that  the  germon  (the 
blue  tunny  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay)  is  plentiful  in  the  places  tenanted  by 
certain  red-colored  amphipodous  crustacea  (EiUhemisto)  of  which  the 
germon  is  fond.  Seaplanes  would  have  no  difficulty  in  signalling  to 
fishermen  those  red  fields  which  distinctly  mark  off  certain  spaces  in 
the  sea  and  move  about  as  they  are  swept  by  the  currents.  Again,  they 
could  signal  the  presence  of  various  other  shoals  recognizable  by  dif- 
ferent signs.  Thanks  to  this  cooperation,  fishermen  might  save  time 
and  much  undue  wear  of  their  nets. 

Now  1  shall  take  up  a  matter  which  I  have  had  in  hand  for  some 
time  and  which  is  one  of  a  really  serious  nature.  I  mean  fishing 
generally,  the  destructive  effects  of  which  are  becoming  greater  and 
greater  in  the  seas  where  more  and  more  powerful  and  numerous  im- 
plements such  as  steam  trawlers  are  being  used.    The  latter  now  graze 


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182  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

the  very  soil  of  continental  plateaux,  plucking  off  the  sea-weeds  and 
ruining  the  bottoms  that  are  fittest  for  the  breeding  as  well  as  the 
preservation  of  a  grea/t  many  species.  So  much  so  ihat  in  a  few  years' 
time  the  tneans  of  maintenance  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  fishermen 
and  their  families  on  the  coasts  of  Europe  will  have  disappeared. 

The  trawlers  steadily  work  farther  and  farther,  deeper  and  deeper, 
in  ever  increasing  numbers;  and  wherever  their  devastation  is  possible 
a  waste  is  involved  which  certainly  exceeds  50  per  cent,  of  the  edible 
produce  they  seek.  For  we  must  include  iu  this  summary  valuation  the 
young  the  trawl  maims  and  kills  as  it  passes  and  those  that  reach  the 
ship  in  such  condition  that  they  are  useless  and  in  some  cases  untrans- 
portable.  Near  the  Arguin  bank  on  the  west  African  coast  a  still  more 
intensive  waste  occurs  which  is  owing  to  purely  c(Hmnercial  causes. 

In  order  to  check  this  evil,  I  suggest  the  meeting  of  international 
conferences  possessing  the  most  drastic  powers  to  enforce  the  decisions 
that  are  to  be  arrived  at.  I  would  recommend  the  adoption  of  the 
reserved  district  principle,  which  has  always  been  very  efficient  for 
the  preservation  of  wild  terrestrial  species,  because  it  rests  on  logic  and 
simplicity.  Besides,  it  is  now  showing  its  value  in  those  parts  of  the 
sea  where  the  war  raged  and  fishing  was  held  up  for  a  few  years;  as 
soon  as  fis^hing  was  resiuned  plenty  of  fish  has  been  found,  some  speci- 
mens being  of  a  size  unheard  of  for  thirty  years. 

I  have  included  within  the  domain  of  oceanography,  for  the  present 
at  least,  the  study  of  phenomena  observed  in  the  upper  atnwsphere 
floating  over  the  oceans.  That  these  expanses  receive  from  the  sea  the 
principal  elements  of  their  activity  seems  evident  when  one  remembers 
the  effects  of  evaporation  on  an  inunense  scale  and  of  the  win<l9  whidi 
sweep  continually  over  the  surface  of  the  waters. 

Only  with  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  have  we  succeded  in  obtaining 
observations  on  the  speed  and  direction  of  the  wind  and  the  temper- 
ature and  humidity  of  the  air  up  to  altitudes  of  25,000  meters. 
During  several  years  I  pursued,  by  means  of  aluminum  instruments 
weighing  very  little,  the  delicate  experiments  which  these  researches 
entail.  In  the  construction  of  these  instruments  Professor  Hergesell, 
who  now  accompanied  me,  had  participated.  Just  as  the  Americans, 
Edy  and  Rotch,  had  already  done,  I  at  first  entrusted  my  instruments 
to  kites  which  carried  them  up  to  4500  meters.  But  soon  I  abandoned 
this  means  and  adopted  a  new  one  which,  on  land,  furnished  satis- 
factory results  to  the  French  investigators  Hermite  and  Bezancon.  This 
was  an  arrangement  of  two  linked  balloons  unequally  filled,  of  which 
the  one  less  inflated  carried  the  instruments.  On  reaching  a  certain 
height  the  better  filled  balloon  would  be  burst  by  the  expansion  of  the 
gas  it  contained,  whereas  the  second,  not  sufficient  alone  to  carry  the 
weight  of  the  instruments,  redescended  toward  the  surface  of  the  sea. 
I  was  able  to  make  such  apparatus  reach  an  altitude  of  14,000  meters. 


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STUDIES  OF  THE  OCEAN  183 


THE  PRINCE  OF  MONACO  VISITING  THE  GROTTO  DEL  CASTILLO,  SPAIN,  WHICH  HE 
EXPLORED  FOR  PREHISTORIC  HUMAN  REMAINS.  THE  PRINCE  IS  SEATED  ON  THE 
RIGHT  OF  THE  CAVE'S  MOUTH,  WHILE  ON  THE  EXTREME  LEFT  STANDS  HIS  COLLABO- 
RATOR.  THE  ABBE  BREUIL.  AND  NEXT  TO  HIM  THE  ARTIST  OF  THE  EXPEDITION, 
LOUIS  TINAYRE 

The  most  serious  difficulty  presented  in  these  operations  was 
always  that  of  recovering  the  balloon  that  carried  the  instruments  after 
its  descent  to  the  sea,  since  the  point  of  its  fall  was  sometimes  50  to 
100  miles  distant  from  that  of  its  ascent  and  in  a  direction  quite  differ- 
ent from  what  the  wind  at  lower  levels  would  inilicate.  Moreover,  the 
whole  apparatus,  though  followed  by  the  ship  and  located  repeatedly  as 
long  as  it  remained  visible,  would  finally  disappear  without  our  being 
able  subsequently  to  judge  the  effect  of  the  wind  which  carried  it. 

On  board  the  "Princesse-Alice  IF'  we  solved  this  problem  by 
special  calculations  which  allowed  us  to  mark  on  a  map,  as  soon 
as  the  balloon  had  disappeared  from  view,  an  approximate  point  to- 
ward which  to  direct  the  course  in  order  to  rediscover  it  without  fail. 
Thanks  to  an  ingenious  idea  of  Professor  Hergesell,  this  balloon  left 
to  itself  remains  floating  with  its  instruments  at  a  height  of  50  meters 
above  the  water,  its  lifting  power  being  recovered  through  a  weight 
suspended  below  which  has  only  to  touch  the  surface. 

By  using  much  smaller  balloons,  of  about  1-meter  size,  which 
carried  no  instruments  but  the  movements  of  which  were  measured  with 
the  theodolite  as  long  as  it  was  possible  to  observe  them,  we  succeeded, 
in  arctic  regions,  in  determining  the  velocity  and  direction  of  the  wind 
in  the  upper  layers  of  the  atmosphere,  even  up  to  25,000  meters,  as 
before  mentioned.  Then  our  balloon  was  80  kilometers  from  us  in  a 
straight  line;  that  such  a  visibility  is  possible  results  from  the  limpid 


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184  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


TH€   PRINCE   OF   MONACO  AND   HIS   PARTY   VISIT   THE   GROTTO   OF   LA   PASIEGO.   NEAR 
PUENTE   VIESCO.    NOT   FAR    FROM    SANTANDER 

arctic  atmosphere  free  from  dust  and  water-vapor.  This  same  limpid- 
ity permitted  me  one  day  to  follow  easily  all  the  actions  of  4  men 
whom  I  had  sent  on  a  mission  to  a  snowfield  situated  at  a  distance  of 
40  kilometers  towards  the  interior  of  Spitzbergen. 

To-day,  therefore,  I  can  release  in  the  open  ocean  a  balloon  of  2- 
or  3-meter  size  furnished  with  instruments  and  can  find  it  mathe- 
matically after  it  has  made  a  long  journey  in  a  direction  of  which  we 
otherwise  would  have  to  remain  totally  ignorant. 

I  shall  close  my  all  too  brief  survey  of  the  mighty  dcHnain  created 
by  the  science  of  oceanography  by  speaking  to  this  distinguished 
assembly  of  the  bathymetric  chart  of  all  the  seas  of  the  globe  the 
preparation  of  which  I  undertook  at  the  time  of  the  International  Con- 
gress at  Berlin  in  1899.  I  realized  then  that  this  task  was  necessary 
as  a  basis  and  a  program  for  the  great  work  to  which  I  have  conse- 
crated my  life.  To  Conunandant  Bouree  I  entrusted  the  direction  of 
this  enterprise  and  to-day  its  imperativeness  is  already  evident  All 
the  hydrographic  and  oceanographic  centers  of  the  world  have  ap- 
preciated this  fact  and  are  now  sending  me  abundant  data  bearing  on 
the  subject 

This  chart,  on  a  scale  1  to  1,000,000,  occupies  24  sheets  and  meas- 
ures, without  its  separate  polar  circles,  2  meters  40  cm.  by  4  meters. 
The  isobathic  lines  are  those  of  200,  500,  1000,  2000  meters,  and  so  on. 


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STUDIES    OF    THE    OCEAN  185 

The  surfaces  contained  between  succeeding  contours  are  colored  in 
blues  becoming  progressively  deeper  in  shade.  The  oceanic  r^one  of 
which  the  depA  still  remains  unknown  are  immediately  disclosed. 

If  we  had  no  more  rapid  system  for  taking  soundings  than  that 
which  requires  each  time  the  stopping  of  the  ship  to  send  a  lead  to  the 
bottom,  many  years  would  still  be  required  for  the  completion  of  such 
a  task;  but  the  method  of  M.  Marti,  a  hydrographic  engineer  in  the 
French  navy,  will  doubtless  soon  enable  us  to  take  lines  of  soundings 
with  almost  the  usual  speed  of  a  ship  under  way. 

M.  Marti  obtains  the  maiking  upon  a  very  sensitive  recorder  of  a 
slight  explosion  produced  always  under  the  same  conditions.  This 
record  being  repeated  in  like  manner  by  the  echo  sent  back  from  the 
submarine  floor  allows  of  a  measurement  of  depth  with  greater  precision 
than  by  any  other  procedure.  The  principal  experiments  have  been 
carried  on  at  the  Oceanographic  Museum  of  Monaco  and  it  is  to 
be  hoped  that.  M.  Marti's  method  of  sounding  will  be  employed  every- 
where. When  applied  to  slight  depths  it  would  render  great  services 
to  navigation;  and  as  for  my  bathymetric  map,  it  would  very  soon  be 
completed. 

I  have  already  told  you  that  my  life  has  been  occupied  ip  anthro- 
pological research  as  well  as  in  oceanographic  studies.  My  conjectures 
on  the  origin  of  life  in  the  sea  carried  with  them  as  a  necessary 
corollary  the  formation  of  a  group  of  beings  susceptible  to  the  laws  of 
evolution  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  led  toward  the  synthetic  whole  that 
has  become  the  human  form.  Hence  it  was  necessary  to  sec^  in  the 
series  of  marine  animals,  either  among  the  living  or  among  the  fossils 
which  led  the  same  life,  whatever  indications  might  shed  light  upon 
such  a  question.  From  what  marine  ancestors  has  come  the  stem  of 
anthropoids  from  which  one  may  ask  the  secret  of  the  drama  in  which 
we  are  now  taking  part? 

In  the  midst  of  these  reveries  came  the  desire  to  found,  under  the 
conditions  of  independence  necessary  for  the  development  of  scientific 
truth,  a  home  where  anthropology  could  grow  freely  in  the  solicitude 
accorded  by  the  most  trusted  <£sciples  of  this  science.  So  I  created 
beside  the  Oceanographic  Institute  of  Paris  the  Institute  of  Human 
Paleontology,  where  the  professors  without  gathering  cumbersome  col- 
lections study  all  the  materials  with  which  excavations  supply  us. 

I  come  among  you  the  better  to  express  my  happiness  and  my 
pride  in  the  great  favor  you  have  done  me  by  bestowing  upon  me  this 
medal  which  commemorates  the  work  of  oceanographers.  Nothing 
could  honor  more  the  efforts  to  which  I  have  consecrated  my  life  that 
the  spirit  of  men  might  no  longer  be  left  ignorant  of  all  that  concerns 
the  science  of  the  sea  when  it  had  already  penetrated  so  many  secrets 
of  the  earth,  this  infinitesimal  portion  of  the  universe. 


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186 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


THE   PROGRESS   OF   SQENCE 


THE  SECOND  INTERNATIONAL 
CONGRESS  OF  EUGENICS 

Arrangements  are  well  advanced 
for  the  International  Congress  of  Eu- 
genics which  will  be  held  at  the 
American  Museum  of  Natural  His- 
tory, beginning  September  22.  The 
officers  are:  Honorary  president, 
Alexander  Graham  Bell,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. ;  president,  Henry  Fairfield 
Osborn,  Columbia  University  and  the 
American  Museum;  honorary  secre- 
tary, Mrs.  C.  Neville  Rolfe,  Lon- 
don; treasurer,  Madison  Grant, 
chairman  of  the  Zoological  Society, 
New  York;  secretary-general,  C.  C. 
Little,  Department  of  Genetics,  Car- 
negie Institution  of  Washington. 

The  congress  is  organized  in  four 
sections.  In  the  first  section  will  be 
presented,  on  the  one  hand,  the  re- 
sults of  research  in  the  domain  of 
pure  genetics  in  animals  and  plants, 
on  the  other,  studies  in  human 
heredity.  The  application  to  man  of 
the  laws  of  heredity  and  the  physiol- 
ogy of  reproduction  as  worked  out  on 
some  of  the  lower  animals  will  be 
presented.  The  leading  address  will 
be  by  Dr.  Lucien  Cuenot,  Nancy, 
France. 

The  second  section  will  consider 
factors  which  influence  the  human 
family  and  their  control;  the  rela- 
tion of  fecundity  of  different  strains 
and  families  and  the  question  of  so- 
cial and  legal  control  of  such  fecun- 
dity; also  the  differential  mortality  of 
the  eugenically  superior  and  inferior 
stocks  and  the  influence  upon  such 
mortality  of  special  factors,  such  as 
war  and  epidemics  and  endemic  dis- 
eases. First  in  importance  among  the 
agencies  for  the  improvement  of  the 
race  is  the  marriage  relation,  with  its 
antecendent  mate  selection.  Such  se- 
lection should  be  influenced  by  nat- 
ural sentiment  and  by  a  knowledge  of 


the  significant  family  traits  of  the 
proposed  consorts  and  of  the  meth- 
od of  inheritance  of  these  traits. 
In  this  connection  will  be  brought 
forward  facts  of  improved  and  unim- 
proved families  and  of  the  persist- 
ence, generation  after  generation,  of 
the  best  as  well  as  of  the  worst  char- 
acteristics. The  leading  address  will 
be  by  Dr.  Herman  Lundborg,  Upsala, 
Sweden. 

The  third  section  will  concern  itself 
with  the  topic  of  human  racial  differ- 
ences, with  the  sharp  distinction  be- 
tween racial  characteristics  and  the 
unnatural  associations  often  created 
by  political  and  national  boundaries. 
In  this  connection  will  be  considered 
the  facts  of  the  migration  of  races, 
the  influence  of  racial  characteristics 
•on  human  history,  the  teachings  of 
the  past  with  bearings  on  the  policies 
of  the  future.  The  results  of  research 
upon  racial  mixture  in  relation  to  hu- 
man history  will  be  presented.  Also 
the  topics  of  racial  differences  in  dis- 
eases and  psychology  will  be  taken  up. 
The  history  of  race  migrations  and 
their  influence  on  the  fate  of  na- 
tions, especially  modern  immigrations, 
should  be  set  forth.  The  leading  ad- 
dress will  be  by  Dr.  M.  V.  de  La- 
pouge,  Poitiers,  France. 

The  fourth  section  will  discuss  eu- 
genics in  relation  to  the  state,  to  so- 
ciety and  to  education.  It  will  in- 
clude studies  on  certain  practical  ap- 
plications of  eugenic  research  and  on 
the  value  of  such  findings  to  morals, 
to  education,  to  history,  and  to  the 
various  social  problems  and  move- 
ments of  the  day.  In  this  section  will 
be  considered  the  bearing  of  genetical 
discoveries  upon  the  question  of  hu- 
man differences  and  upon  the  desir- 
ability of  adjusting  the  educational 
program  of  such  differences.  Here 
will  be  considered  the  importance  of 


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family  history  studies  for  the  better 
understanding  and  treatment  of  va- 
rious types  of  hospital  cases  and  those 
requiring  custodial  care.  The  bear- 
ings of  genetics  on  sociology,  eco- 
nomics and  the  fate  of  nations  may 
be  considered  in  this  section.  The 
leading  address  will  be  by  Major 
Leonard  Darwin,  London. 

In  connection  with  this  congress  a 
Eugenics  Exhibition  will  be  held  from 
September  22  to  October  22,  in  the 
Forestry  Hall  of  the  American  Mu- 
seum of  Natural  History.  It  is  de- 
sired to  secure  the  most  striking  ex- 
hibits available  or  which  can  be  pre- 
pared for  this  purpose.  While  the  ex- 
hibits must  be  able  to  withstand  the 
test  of  professional  scrutiny,  still 
they  should  be  of  a  nature  which  the 
man  of  ordinary  intelligence  and  edu- 
cation, but  without  special  scientific 
training,  may  readily  comprehend  and 
appreciate.  Provision  will  be  made 
for  exhibiting  displays  of  highly  tech- 
nical work,  but  the  popular  aspect 
will  be  given  the  preference. 

THE  EDINBURGH  MEETING  OF 
THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIATION 
FOR  THE  ADVANCE- 
MENT OF  SCIENCE 
The  British  Association  holds  its 
eighty-ninth  annual  meeting  at  Edin- 
burgh, from  September  7  to  14.  Ac- 
cording to  an  announcement  in  the 
London  Times,  the  president,  Sir 
Edward  Thorpe,  will  address  the  as- 
sociation on  aspects  and  problems  of 
post-war  science,  pure  and  applied. 
An  evening  discourse  will  be  given 
by  Professor  C.  E.  Inglis  on  a  com- 
parison of  the  Forth  and  Quebec 
Bridges,  and  there  will  be  an  oppor- 
tunity to  visit  the  former.  Another 
discourse  will  be  given  on  Edinburgh 
and  oceanography  by  Professor  W. 
A.  Herdman,  who,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, as  president  of  the  association 
at  Cardiff  last  year,  pressed  for  a  new 
exploration  of  the  oceans  like  that  of 
the  Challenger,  nearly  50  years  ago. 


Some  presidents  of  sections  will  in- 
troduce discussions  on  their  ad- 
dresses. Hitherto  all  addresses  have 
been  formally  read,  and  never  dis- 
cussed, but  in  the  present  program 
the  following  addresses  are  announc- 
ed to  initiate  debates:  Sir  W.  Mor- 
ley  Fletcher,  on  the  boundaries  of 
physiology;  Professor  Lloyd  Morgan, 
on  consciousness  and  the  uncon- 
scious, opening  the  newly  established 
section  of  psychology;  Dr.  D.  H. 
Scott,  on  the  present  position  of  the 
theory  of  descent  in  relation  to  the 
early  history  of  plants;  Sir  Henry 
Hadow,  on  the  place  of  music  in  a 
liberal  education;  and  Mr.  C.  S.  Or- 
win,  on  the  study  of  agricultural  eco- 
nomics. Other  addresses  will  be 
given  on  problems  of  physics  by  Pro- 
fessor O.  W.  Richardson,  on  the  lab- 
oratory of  the  living  organism  by  Dr. 
M.  O.  Forster,  by  Dr.  J.  S.  Flett  on 
experimental  geology,  by  Professor 
E.  S.  Goodrich  on  some  problems  in 
evolution,  by  Dr.  D.  G.  Hogarth  on 
the  application  of  geography,  by  Mr. 
W.  L.  Hichens  on  principles  by  which 
wages  are  determined,  and  by  Pro- 
fessor A.  H.  Gibson  on  water  power. 

This  year  the  council  called  all  sec- 
tional committees  to  meet  together  to 
consider  common  action,  and  out  of 
many  suggestions  then  received  sev- 
eral topics  of  first-rate  importance 
were  selected  to  be  debated  by  ap- 
propriate groups  of  sections,  at  joint 
meetings  which  will  form  the  princi- 
pal items  of  the  sectional  programs. 
These  topics  include  the  structure  of 
molecules,  the  age  of  the  earth,  bio- 
chemistry, the  proposed  Mid-Scot- 
land canal,  the  origin  of  the  Scottish 
people,  vocational  training  and  tests 
and  the  relation  of  genetics  to  agri- 
culture. 

Among  the  other  promised  fea- 
tures there  is  a  popular  exposition  of 
Einstein's  theory  of  relativity  by  Pro- 
fessor A.  S.  Eddington ;  and  the  usual 
public  lectures  will  be  given  to  the 


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DR.     LIVINGSTON     FARRAND 
Elected   pretident   of   Cornell   University  to  succeed   Dr.   Jacob   Gould   Schnrman.     President   Fsrrand 
has   been   adjunct   professor   of   psychology   and   professor   of   anthropology   in    Columbia    UniTorsity, 
president   of   the   University   of   Colorado  and   chairman   of   the   Central   Committee   of    the   American 
Red   Cross. 


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THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE 


189 


citizens  of  Edinburgh.  The  speakers 
will  include  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  on 
speech  through  the  ether,  Professor 
A.  Dendy  on  the  stream  of  life,  and 
Professor  H.  J.  Fleure  on  countries 
as  personalitieSi  and  a  special  lecture 
will  be  arranged  on  market  day  in 
Edinburgh  for  the  agricultural  com- 
munity by  Dr.  E.  J.  Russell  on  science 
and  crop  production. 

The  association,  having  failed  to 
regain  its  former  concession  of  re- 
duced railway  fares  for  members, 
proposes  that  they  shall  be  offered  fa- 
cilities for  traveling  by  motor  coach 
to  Edinburgh  from  most  of  the  uni- 
versi^  and  many  other  principal 
towns  in  England,  at  fares  substan- 
tially less  than  those  of  the  railways. 
Full  particulars  of  membership  may 
be  had  from  the  office  of  the  asso- 
ciation at  Burlington  House,  or  from 
the  local  secretary  at  the  University 
of  Edinburgh. 

MEETINGS  OF  BRITISH  AND 
AMERICAN  CHEMISTS 

Joint  meetings  will  be  held  this 
autumn  by  chemists  of  Great  Britain, 
Canada  and  the  United  States.  Mem- 
bers of  the  Society  of  Chemical  In- 
dustry of  Great  Britain  will  join  with 
the  Canadian  branch  of  their  organ- 
ization in  sessions  in  Montreal  late 
in  August.  The  scientific  and  busi- 
ness sessions  will  center  at  McGill 
University,  where  there  will  be  a  spe- 
cial convocation.  The  Canadian  and 
British  chemists  will  inspect  numer- 
ous plants  and  will  proceed  to  Ot- 
tawa and  Toronto,  where  they  will  be 
entertained  by  the  local  sections.  On 
September  5,  they  will  reach  Niagara 
Falls,  where  they  will  view  the  vast 
establishments  which  modern  physics 
and  chemistry  have  created. 

The  members  will  then  cross  the 
border,  being  met  by  a  committee  of 
the  American  section  of  their  society 
and  conducted  through  the  industrial 
plants  on  this  side  of  the  Falls.  Din- 
ner will  be  served  at  Buffalo,  and  on 


their  arrival  at  Syracuse,  they  will 
have  luncheon  with  the  Solvay 
Process  Company.  The  chemists  will 
then  go  to  Albany  and  New  York 
City,  where  they  will  be  welcomed  by 
the  American  Section  of  the  Society 
of  Chemical  Industry.  Elaborate  ar- 
rangements for  the  reception  of  the 
chemists  will  be  carried  out,  through 
the  co-ordinating  committee,  of  which 
Dr.  B.  C.  Hesse  is  chairman  and  Dr. 
Allen  Rogers  is  secretary.  The  fes- 
tivities, meetings  and  entertainments 
which  will  follow  are  designed  to 
bring  into  closer  bonds  all  chemists 
of  Anglo-Saxon  stock. 

The  fall  meeting  of  the  American 
Chemical  Society,  with  its  15,500 
members,  is  to  be  held  in  New  York 
City  from  September  6  to  10,  inclu- 
sive. The  first  contact  will  be  at  a 
lawn  party,  to  be  given  on  the  after- 
noon of  September  7  to  foreign 
guests  and  to  scientific  societies  at 
Columbia  University.  Other  so- 
cieties asked  to  participate  in  the 
welcoming  of  the  visitors  from 
abroad  are:  The  American  Electro- 
chemical Society;  the  American  In- 
stitute of  Chemical  Engineers;  the 
American  Section  of  the  Societe 
de  Chimie  Industrielle ;  and  the  Man- 
ufacturing Chemists'  Association  of 
the  United  States.  The  foreign 
guests  have  also  been  invited  to  the 
smoker  and  entertainment  of  the 
American  Chemical  Society,  which 
will  be  held  on  the  evening  of  Wed- 
nesday, September  7. 

Scientific  sessions  of  the  American 
Chemical  Society,  in  which  many 
matters  concerning  chemical  research 
and  applied  chemistry  will  be  dis- 
cussed, are  to  be  held  at  Columbia 
University.  To  these  meetings  the 
British  and  Canadian  guests  have 
been  bidden.  They  will  also  be  pres- 
ent at  the  banquet  of  the  American 
Chemical  Society  on  the  evening  of 
September  9  at  the  Waldorf-Astoria. 

The  fortnight  beginning  September 
12    will    be    dedicated    to    American 


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EDWARD  BENNETT  ROSA 


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THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE 


191 


chemistry  in  all  its  phases,  for  it 
marks  the  holding  of  the  National 
Exposition  of  Chemical  Industries, 
which  is  to  be  held  in  the  Coast  Ar- 
tillery Armory  in  the  Bronx.  There 
will  be  brought  together  under  one 
roof  a  demonstration  of  what  has 
been  accomplished  in  this  country 
since  the  European  War  in  adapting 
the  resources  of  the  United  States  to 
national  needs. 

EDWARD  BENNETT  ROSA 
The  death  of  Dr.  Edward  Bennett 
Rosa,  chief  physicist  of  the  Bureau 
of  Standards,  Washington,  D.  C,  is 
a  serious  loss  to  science  and  to  the 
government  service.  Born  in  Rogers- 
ville,  N.  Y.,  in  1861,  he  was  a  grad- 
uate of  Wesleyan  University  in  the 
class  of  i886,  receiving  the  degree  of 
doctor  of  philosophy  from  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University  in  1891.  For 
a  short  time  he  was  instructor  at 
the  University  of  Wisconsin,  leaving 
there  to  become  professor  of  physics 
at  Wesleyan  University.  He  became 
the  chief  physicist  at  the  Bureau  of 
Standards  in  190 1. 

He  did  notable  work  in  science  and 
electrical  engineering.  At  Wesleyan 
University  he  developed  the  physical 
side  of  the  respiration  calorimeter 
with  Professor  W.  O.  Atwater.  This 
apparatus  was  of  great  value  in  the 
pioneer  investigations  on  the  value  of 
foods  and  the  study  of  nutrition  prob- 
lems. He  took  a  leading  part  in  the 
researches  to  establish  the  funda- 
mental electrical  units  after  going  to 
the  Bureau  of  Standards  and  served 
as  secretary  of  the  International 
Committee  on  Electrical  Units  and 
Standards.  He  has  developed  the 
electrical  work  of  the  Bureau  of 
Standards  from  small  beginnings 
into  an  organization  covering  the 
scientific  and  engineering  aspects  of 
a   great  national  laboratory. 

When  Dr.  Rosa  began  his  work  in 
the  Electrical  Division  it  was  his  am- 
bition to  determine  a  number  of  the 


fundamental  electrical  constants.  In 
conjunction  with  Dr.  Dorsey  he  im- 
mediately undertook  the  determina- 
tion of  the  ratio  of  the  electromag- 
netic and  electrostatic  units.  About 
1907  they  started  their  work  on  the 
determination  of  the  ampere.  This 
was  followed  by  work  on  the  silver 
voltameter  and  apparatus  for  deter- 
mining the  absolute  value  of  the 
ohm. 

During  his  early  years  at  the  bu- 
reau, Dr.  Rosa  published  a  large 
number  of  papers  on  the  computing 
of  inductance,  and  later,  with  Dr. 
Grover,  he  collected  together  prac- 
tically all  the  known  formulae  for 
computing  inductance.  In  1910,  there 
was  instituted  under  Dr.  Rosa's  di- 
rection an  exhaustive  investigation 
into  the  subject  of  electrolytic  corro- 
sion of  underground  ^as  and  water 
pipes,  and  lead  cable  sheaths  due  to 
stray  currents  from  electric  railways. 

During  the  war,  Dr.  Rosa  directed 
the  development  of  a  number  of 
scientific  instruments  which  were  of 
inestimable  value  to  the  American 
Forces  in  France.  Among  these 
might  be  mentioned  a  sound-ranging 
device  for  locating  big  guns ;  the  geo- 
phone  for  the  detection  of  mining  op- 
erations, the  development  of  aircraft 
radio-apparatus,  and  the  improve- 
ment of  radio. 

In  addition  to  his  diversified  work 
in  the  field  of  electrical  research,  Dr. 
Rosa  was  keenly  interested  in  the 
prevention  of  industrial  accidents 
and  in  the  promulgation  of  safety 
standards  for  use  by  state,  municipal 
and  insurance  organizations.  He 
conceived  the  idea  of  a  National 
Electrical  Safety  Code  several  years 
ago,  and  the  present  code  is  largely 
the  result  of  his  efforts.  Similarly 
the  bureau  has  undertaken  a  number 
of  other  national  safety  codes,  the 
Safety  Code  Section  working  under 
his  direction. 

His  broad  vision  showed  him  the 
need  of  a  central  clearing  house  for 


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THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


engineering  standards.  For  years  he 
worked  whole-heartedly  to  bring 
about  the  formation  of  such  an  or- 
ganization. It  was  due  in  no  small 
measure  to  his  efforts  that  the  Amer- 
ican Engineering  Standards  Com- 
mittee is  now  functioning. 

The  broader  aspects  of  the  scien- 
tific and  engineering  work  of  the 
Federal  Government  were  clearly 
presented  in  a  series  of  papers  by  Dr. 
Rosa.  His  analysis  of  government 
expenditures,  printed  in  this  joumali 
was  largely  quoted  by  leading  period- 
icals as  well  as  in  both  Houses  of 
Congress. 

SCIENTIFIC  ITEMS 

Wz  record  with  regret  the  death 
of  Dr.  Francis  Bacon  Crocker,  the 
electrical  engineer,  formerly  profess- 
or at  Columbia  University;  of  Dr. 
Marsh  man  Edward  Wads  worth,  dean 
emeritus  of  the  School  of  Mines  of 
the  University  of  Pittsburgh,  and  of 
Dr.  Gabriel  Lippman,  professor  of 
ph3rsics  in  the  University  of  Paris. 

Dr.  Frank  Pierrepont  .  Graves, 
dean  of  the  school  of  education  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  has 
been  appointed  commissioner  of  edu- 
cation of  the  state  of  New  York  and 
president  of  the  University  of  the 
State  of  New  York. 

The  Adamson  lecture  was  deliv- 
ered at  the  University  of  Manches- 


ter on  June  9  by  Professor  Einstein, 
who  had  been  invited  by  the  council 
in  accordance  with  a  senate  recom- 
mendation passed  on  February  3.  At 
the  opening  of  the  proceedings  the 
honorary  degree  of  D.Sc  was  con- 
ferred on  him.  Professor  Einstein 
lectured  on  June  13  at  King's  Col- 
lege, London,  on  "The  development 
and  present  position  of  the  theory  of 
relativity."  After  the  public  lecture 
Professor  Einstein  was  the  guest  of 
the  principal  of  King's  College  at  a 
dinner  given  in  the  college. 

The  Louisiana  State  University 
will  receive  $7,500,000  for  new  build- 
ings and  equipment  as  a  result  of  the 
action  of  the  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion which  has  just  adjourned,  this 
sum  having  been  set  apart  for  the 
purpose  from  funds  accruing  from 
the  newly  established  severance  tax 
on  oil  and  other  natural  resources. 
Plans  are  now  being  made  for  the 
erection  of  the  new  buildings  on  a 
tract  of  two  thousand  acres  near 
Baton  Rouge,  Olmstead  Brothers,  of 
Brookline,  Mass.,  having  been  secured 
as  landscape  architects.  The  new  con« 
stitution,  which  has  just  gone  into 
effect,  also  provides  for  a  half-mill 
tax,  which  it  is  estimated  will  yield 
an  annual  income  of  approximately 
a  million  dollars  for  the  mainten- 
ance of  the  university. 


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VOL.  XIII,  NO.  3  .^^^  ^'^^^  SEPTEMBER,  1921 

(      AUP  311921) 


^fiHAn^/'^ 


THE  SCIENTIFIC 
MONTHLY 

EDITED  BY  J.  McKEEN  CATTELL 


CONTENTS 


THE  BIOLOGY  OF  DEATH— NATURAL  DEATH.  PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  THE 

POPULATION  PROBLEM.       Professor  Raymond  Pearl 193 

IMPENDING  PROBLEMS  OF  EUGENICS.       Professor  Irving  Fisher 214 

A  FEW  QUESTIONABLE,  POINTS  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  MATHEMATICS. 

Professor  G.   A.   Miller 232 

THE  EARLIEST  PRINTED  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY. 

Professor    William    A.    Locy 238 

GETTING  MARRIED  ON  FIRST  MESA,  ARIZONA.     Dr.  Elsie  Clews  Parsons 259 

HARMONIZING  HORMONES.     Professor  B.  W.  Kunkel 266 

GRAZING  PRACTICE  ON  THE  NATIONAL  FORESTS  AND  ITS  EFFECT  ON 

NATURAL  CONDITIONS.     Clarence  F.  Korstian 275 

THE  TOOGRESS  OF  SCIENCE: 

Helmholtz  and  VircKow;  The  International  Institute  of  Agriculture;  The  Na- 
tional Geographic  Society's  Gift  of  Big  Trees;  Field  Work  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution;  Birds  Banded  by  tKe  Biological  Survey;  Scientific  Items 282 


THE    SCIENCE    PRESS 

PUBUCATION  OFFICE:    11   LIBERTY  ST.,  UTICA,  N.  Y. 
EDITORIAL  AND  BUSINESS  OFnCE:    GARRISON,  N.  Y. 

Single  Number,  50  Cents.  Yearly  Subscription,  $5.00 

COPYRIGHT  1921  BY  THE  SCIENCE  PRESS 
Entered  ••  tecovd'ckis  matter  Febnury  8,  1921,  at  the  Pmi  Office  at  Utiea,  N.  Y..  under  the  Act  of  March  3,  1879. 


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4 

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1 

I 


g^gfe^atei-riM^^e^^^^ 


/TCZlWTPi.  Today,  every  walk  in  life  has  been  divided  and 
^yi  sub-divided.  Oxford  books  reflect  this  progress  both  in  their 
^"^  wide  variety  and  ever  increasing  number. 

c4  seUction  of  those  recently  issued. 

SPACE  AND  TIME  IN  CONTEMPORARY  PHYSICS 

^y  MORTTZ  SCHUCK  ffet  JJ2^0 

An  adequate,  yet  dear  account  of  Einstein's  epodi-maldng  theories  of  relativity. 

ON  GRAVITATION  AND  RELATIVITY 

®y  Ralph  Allen  Sampson  90c 

The  Halley  lecture  delivered  by  the  Astronomer  Royal  for  Scotland. 

SOME  FAMOUS  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  THEORY  OF 
NUMBERS 

^  G.  H.  Hardy  ^1.15 

Inaugural  lecture  by  the  Savilian  Ptofcasor  of  Geomeny  at  Oifbcd. 

TUTORS  UNTO  CHRIST 

^y  Alfred  E.  Garvib  ^/  ;^2.25 

An  interesting  introduction  Xo  the  study  of  religions. 

FUNGAL  DISEASES  OF  THE  COMMON  LARCH 

%  W.  E,  HiLEY  '  ^5.65 

An  elaborate  investigation  into  larch  canker  with    descriptions  of  all  other  kno%vn 
diff*^fy*f  of  the  larch  and  numerous  fine  illusecations. 

THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  PLANTS 

Sy  M.  E.  Hardy  ?3.00 

More  advanced  than  the  author's  earlier  work  discussing  fully  the  conditions  in  which 
plants  flourish  and  their  distribution  throughout  the  earth. 

SCHOOLS  OF  GAUL 

Sy  Theodore  Haarhoff  ^5.65 

An  important  study  of  Pagan  and  Christian  educatkm  in  the  last  century  of  the 
Western  empire. 

THE  ELEMENTS  OF  DESCRIPTIVE  ASTRONOMY 

Sy  E.  O.  Tancock  ^1.35 

A  simple  and  attractive  description  of  the  heavens  calculated  to  arouse  the  interest 
of  those  who  know  little  or  nothing  of  the  subject. 

RECENT  DEVELOPMENTS  IN  EUROPEAN  THOUGHT 
Edited  by  F.  S.  Marvin  '5^^/  jia.OO 

Twelve  essays  bv  noted  scholars  summarizing  the  work  of  the  leading  European 
thinkers  in  the  last  fifty  years. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  ATOMIC  THEORY 

'By  A.  N.  Meldrum  70c 

A  brief  historical   sketch   attributing   to   William   Higgins,  not  John  Dalton  as 
generally  supposed,  priority  in  the  discovery  of  the  theory. 

cAt  all  booksellers  or  from  the  publishers, 

OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS  'American  branch 
35  WEST  32nd  STREET.  NEW  YORK 

XFORD  BOOKS 

Q/&  standard  cf  textuaC  excefience. 


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THE  SCIENTIFIC 
MONTHLY 


SEPTEMBER.    1921 


THE  BIOLOGY  OF  DEATH— VH.  NATURAL  DEATH, 

PUBLIC  HEALTH,  AND  THE  POPULATION 

PROBLEM^ 

By   Professor   RAYMOND    PEARL 
the  johns  hopkins  university 

1.    Summary  of  Results 

IN  this  series  of  papers  I  have  attempted  to  review  some  of  the  im- 
portant biological  and  statistical  contributions  which  have  been 
made  to  the  knowledge  of  natural  death  and  the  duration  of  life,  and 
to  synthesize  these  scattered  results  into  a  coherent  unified  whole.  In 
the  present  paper  I  shall  endeavor  to  summarize  in  the  briefest  way  the 
scattered  facts  which  have  been  passed  in  review  in  the  series,  and  to 
follow  a  presentation  of  the  general  results  to  which  they  lead  with 
some  discussion  of  what  we  may  reasonably  regard  the  future  as  hav- 
ing in  store  for  us,  si>  far  as  may  be  judged  from  our  present  knowl- 
edge  of  the  trend  of  events. 

What  are  the  general  results  of  our  review  of  the  general  biology 
of  death?  In  the  first  place,  one  perceives  that  natural  death  is  a 
relatively  new  thing  which  appeared  first  in  evolution  when  differentia- 
tion of  cells  for  particular  functions  came  into  existence.  Unicellular 
animals  are  and  always  have  been  immortal.  The  cells  of  higher 
organisms,  set  apart  for  reproduction  in  the  course  of  differentiation 
during  evolution,  are  immortal.  The  only  requisite  conditions  to 
make  their  potential  immortality  actual  are  physico-chemical  in  nature 
and  are  now  fairly  well  understood,  particularly  as  a  result  of  the 
investigations  of  Loeb  upon  artificial  parthenogenesis  and  related 
phenomena.  The  essential  and  important  somatic  cells  of  the  body, 
however  much  differentiated,  are  also  potentially  immortal,  but  the 
conditions  necessary  for  the  actual  realization  of  the  potential  im- 
mortality are,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  as  has  been  shown  by  the 
brilliant  researches  of  Leo  Loeb,  Harrison  and  Carrel  on  tissue  culture, 

1  Paper  from  the  Department  of  Biometry  and  Vital  Statistics,  School  of 
Hygiene  and  Public  Health,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  No.  34. 
VOL.  xra.— u. 


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194  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

such  as  can  not  be  realized  so  long  as  these  cells  are  actually  in  and  a 
part  of  the  higher  metazoan  body.  The  reason  why  this  is  so,  and 
why  in  consequence  death  results  in  the  Metazoa,  is  that  in  such  organ- 
isms the  specialization  of  structure  and  function  necessarily  makes  the 
several  parts  of  the  body  mutually  dependent  for  their  life  upon  each 
other.  If  one  organ  or  group  breaks  down,  the  balance  of  the  whole 
is  upset  and  death  follows.  But  the  individual  cells  themselves  could 
go  on  living  indefinitely  if  they  were  freed,  as  they  are  in  cultures,  of 
the  necessity  of  depending  upon  the  proper  functioning  of  other  cells 
for  their  food,  oxygen,  etc. 

So  then  we  see  emerging,  as  our  first  general  result,  the  fact  that 
natural  death  is  not  a  necessary  or  inevitable  conseqpuence  of  life.  It 
is  not  an  attribute  of  the  cell.  It  is  a  by-product  of  progressive  evo- 
lution— the  price  we  pay  for  differentiation  and  specialization  of 
structure  and  function. 

The  first  result  leads  logically  to  the  attachment,  in  any  particular 
organism  such  as  man,  of  great  importance  to  the  quantitative  analysis 
of  the  manner  in  which  different  parts  of  the  body  break  down  and  lead 
to  death.  Such  an  analysis,  carefully  worked  through,  demonstrates 
that  this  breaking  down  isi  not  a  haphazard  process,  but  a  highly 
orderly  one  resting  upon  a  fundamental  biological  basis.  The  progress 
of  the  basic  tissue  elements  of  the  body  along  the  evolutionary  path- 
way is  the  factor  which  determines  the  time  when  the  organ  systems 
in  which  they  are  chiefly  involved  shall  break  down.  Those  organ 
systems  that  have  evolved  farthest  away  from  original  primitive  con- 
ditions are  the  soundest  and  most  resistant,  and  wear  the  longest  under 
the  strain  of  functioning.  So  then,  the  second  large  result  is  that  it  is 
the  way  potentially  immortal  cells  are  put  together  in  mutually  de- 
pendent organ  systems  that  immediately  determines  the  time  relations 
of  the  life  span. 

But  it  was  possible  to  penetrate  more  deeply  into  the  problem  than 
this  by  finding  that  the  duration  of  life  is  an  inherited  character  of  an 
individual,  passed  on  from  parent  to  offspring,  just  as  is  eye  color  or 
hair  color,  though  not  with  the  same  degree  of  precision.  This  has 
been  proved  in  a  variety  of  ways,  first  directly  for  man  (Pearson)  and 
for  a  lower  animal,  DrosophUa^  (Hyde,  Pearl)  by  measuring  the  de- 
gree of  hereditary  transmission  of  duration  of  life,  and  indirectly  by 
showing  that  the  death  rate  was  selective  (Pearson,  Snow,  Bell,  Ploetz) 
and  had  been  since  nearly  the  beginning  of  recorded  history,  at  least. 
It  is  heredity  which  determines  the  way  the  organism  is  put  together — 
the  organization  of  the  parts.  And  it  is  when  parts  break  down  and 
the  organization  is  upset  that  death  comes.  So  the  third  large  result 
is  that  heredity  is  the  primary  and  fundamental  determiner  of  the 
length  of  the  span  of  life. 


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THE    BIOLOGY    OF    DEATH  196 

Finally,  it  is  possible  to  say.  probably^  though  not  as  yet  definitely 
because  the  necessary  mass  of  experimental  evidence  is  still  lacking, 
but  will  I  believe  be  shortly  provided,  that  environmental  circum- 
stances play  their  part  in  determining  the  duration  of  life  largely,  if 
not  in  principle  entirely,  by  influencing  the  rale  at  which  the  vital 
patrimony  is  spent.  If  we  live  rapidly,  like  Loeb  and  Northrop's 
Drosophila  at  the  high  temperatures,  our  lives  may  be  gayer,  but  they 
will  not  be  so  long.  The  fact  appears  to  be,  though  reservation  of 
final  judgment  is  necessary  till  more  returns  are  in,  that  heredity  de- 
termines the  amount  of  capital  placed  in  the  vital  bank  upon  which 
we  draw  to  continue  life,  and  which  when  all  used  up  spells  death, 
while  environment,  using  the  term  in  the  broadest  sense  to  include 
habits  of  life  as  well  as  physical  surroundings,  determines  the  rate  at 
which  drafts  are  presented  and  cashed.  The  case  seems  in  principle 
like  what  obtains  in  respect  of  the  duration  of  life  of  a  man-constructed 
machine.  It  is  self-evident  that  if  of  two  automobiles  of  the  same  make 
leaving  the  factory  together  new  at  the  same  time,  one  is  run  at  the 
rate  of  1,000  miles  per  year  and  the  other  at  the  rate  of  10,000  miles 
per  year,  the  useful  life  of  the  former  is  bound  to  be  much  longer  in 
time  than  that  of  the  latter,  accidents  being  excluded  in  both  cases. 
Again,  a  very  high  priced  car,  well-built  of  the  finest  materials,  may 
have  a  shorter  duration  of  life  than  the  shoddiest  tin  bone-shaker,  pro- 
vided the  annual  mileage  output  of  the  former  is  many  times  that  of 
the  latter. 

The  first  three  of  these  conclusions  I  believe  to  be  as  firmly 
grounded  as  any  of  the  generalizations  of  science.  The  last  rests  at 
present  upon  a  much  less  secure  footing.  Because  it  does,  it  offers  an 
extremely  promising  field  for  both  statistical  and  experimental  re- 
search. We  need  a  wide  variety  of  investigations,  like  those  of  Loeb 
and  Northrop  and  of  Slonaker,  on  the  experimental  side.  On  the 
statistical  side,  well-conceived  and  careful  studies,  by  the  most  refined 
of  modem  methods,  upon  occupational  mortality  seem  likely  to  yield 
large  returns. 

2.    Public  Health  Activities 

Fortunately,  it  is  possible  to  get  some  light  on  the  environmental 
side  from  existing  statistical  data  by  considering  in  a  broad  general 
way  the  results  of  public-health  activities,  so-called.  Any  public-health 
work,  of  course,  deals  and  can  deal  in  the  present  state  of  public  senti- 
ment and  enlightenment  only  with  environmental  matters.  Attempts  at 
social  control  of  the  germ-plasm — the  innate  inherited  constitutional 
make-up — of  a  people,  by  eugenic  legislation^  have  not  been  con- 
spicuously sucoeseful.  AxuA  there  is  a  good  deal  of  doubt,  having 
regard  to  all  the  factors  necessarily  involved,  whether  they  have  always 


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1»6  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

been  even  well-conceived.  As  an  animal  breeder  of  some  years*  ex- 
perience, I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that  almost  any  breeder  of  average 
intelligence,  if  given  onmipotent  c<mtrol  over  the  activities  and  destinies 
of  human  beings,  could  in  a  few  generations  breed  a  race  of  men  on 
the  average  considerably  superior — by  our  present  standards — to  any 
race  of  men  now  existing  in  respect  of  many  of  his  qualities  or  at- 
tributes. But,  as  a  practical  person,  I  am  equally  sure  that  nothing 
of  the  sort  is  going  to  be  done  by  legislative  action  or  any  similar  dele- 
gation of  powers.  Before  any  sensible  person  or  society  is  going  to 
entrust  the  control  of  its  germ-plasm  to  science,  there  will  be  demanded 
that  science  know  a  great  deal  more  than  it  now  does  about  the  vagaries 
of  germ-plasms  and  how  to  control  them.  Another  essential  difficulty 
is  one  of  standards.  Suppose  it  to  be  granted  that  our  knowledge  of 
genetics  was  sufficiently  cunple  and  profound  to  make  it  possible  to 
make  a  racial  germ  plasm  exactly  whatever  one  pleased;  what  in- 
dividual or  group  of  individuals  could  possibly  be  trusted  to  decide 
what  it  should  be?  Doubtless  many  persons  of  uplifting  tendencies 
would  promptly  come  forward  prepared  to  undertake  such  a  responsi- 
bility. But  what  of  history?  If  it  teaches  us  anything,  it  is  that  social, 
moral  and  political  standards  change,  and  change  radically,  with  the 
passing  of  time.  What  a  group  of  onmipotent  thirteenth  century 
geneticists — all  well-meaning,  sincere,  and,  for  their  time,  enlightened 
individuals — ^would  have  thought  to  be  an  ideal  race  of  human  beings 
would  be  very  far  from  what  we  should  so  regard  to-day.  One  can  not 
but  feel  that  man's  instinctive  wariness  about  experimental  interfer- 
ences with  his  germ  plasm  is  well-founded. 

But  becauae  of  the  altogether  more  impersonal  nature  of  the  case, 
most  men  individually  and  society  in  general  are  perfectly  willing  to 
let  anybody  do  anything  they  like  in  the  direction  of  modifying  the 
environment,  or  trying  to,  quite  r^ardless  of  whether  science  is  able  to 
give  any  slightest  inkling  on  the  basis  of  ascertained  facts  as  to  whether 
the  outcome  will  be  good,  bad  or  indifferent.  Hence  many  kinds  of 
weird  activities  and  propaganda  flourish  like  the  proverbial  bay  tree, 
and  with  a  singularly  unanimous  and  outspoken  manifestation  of  that 
unenlightened  self-indifference,  which  is  so  charming  a  characteristic 
of  the  highest  descendants  of  the  anthropoids  collectively,  we  go  on 
paying  out  large  sums  of  money  to  the  end  that  they  may  continue  to 
flourish. 

Of  all  activities  looking  towards  the  direct  modification  of  the 
environment  to  the  benefit  of  mankind,  that  group  comprised  under 
the  terms  sanitation,  hygiene  and  public  health  have  by  all  odds  the 
best  case  when  measured  in  terms  of  accomplishment.  Man's  expecta- 
tion of  life  has  increased  as  he  has  come  down  through  the  centuries 
(cf.  Pearson  and  Macdonell.)     A  very  large  part  of  this  improvement 


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THE    BIOLOGY    OF    DEATH 


197 


must  surely  be  credited  to  his  improved  understanding  of  how  to 
cope  with  an  always  more  or  less  inimical  environment  and  assuage  its 
asperities  to  his  greater  comfort  and  well-being.  To  fail  to  give  this 
credit  would  be  okanifestly  absurd. 

But  it  would  be  equally  absurd  to  attempt  to  maintain  that  all 
decline  in  the  death-rate  which  has  occurred  has  been  due  to  the  efforts 
of  health  officials,  whether  conscious  or  unconscious.  The  open-minded 
student  of  the  natural  history  of  disease  knows  perfectly  well  that  a 
large  part  of  the  improvement  in  the  rate  of  mortality  can  not  possibly 
have  been  due  to  any  such  efforts.  To  illustrate  the  point,  I  have  pre- 
paid a  series  of  illustrations  dealing  with  conditions  in  the  Registra- 


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TREND  OF  DEATH  RATES  FOR  FOUR  CAUSES  OF  DEATH  AGAINST  WHICH  PUBLIC 
HEALTH  ACTIVITIES   HAVE    BEEN   PARTICULARLY   DIRECTED 


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198  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

tian  Area  of  the  United  States  in  the  immediate  past.  All  these 
diagrams  (Figures  1,  2,  and  3)  give  death  rates  per  100,000  from 
various  causes  of  death  in  the  period  of  1900-1918,  inclusive,  both 
sexes  for  simplicity  being  taken  together.  The  lines  are  all  plotted  on 
a  logarithmic  scale.  The  result  of  this  method  of  plotting  is  that  the 
slope  trend  of  each  line  is  directly  comparable  with  that  of  any  other, 
no  matter  what  the  absolute  magnitude  of  the  rates  concerned.  It  is 
these  slopes,  measuring  improvement  in  mortality,  to  which  I  would 
especially  direct  attention. 

In  Figure  1  are  given  the  trends  of  the  death  rates  for  four  diseases 
against  which  public  health  and  sanitary  activities  have  been  par- 
ticularly and  vigorously  directed,  with,  as  we  are  accustomed  to  say, 
most  gratifying  results.     The  diseases  are: 

1.  Tuberculosis   of   the   lungs. 

2.  Typhoid  fever. 

3.  Diphtheria  and  croup. 

4.  Dysentery. 

We  note  at  once  that  the  death  rates  from  these  diseases  have  all 
steadily  declined  in  the  19  years  under  review.  But  the  rate  of  drop 
has  been  slightly  unequal.  Remembering  that  the  slopes  are  oompar- 
able,  wherever  the  lines  may  lie,  and  that  an  equal  slope  means  a 
relatively  equally  effective  diminution  of  the  mortality  of  the  disease, 
we  note  that  the  death-rate  from  tuberculosis  of  the  lungs  has  decreased 
slightly  less  than  any  of  the  other  three.  Yet  it  may  fairly  be  said  that 
so  strenuous  a  warfare,  or  one  engaging  in  its  ranks  so  many  earnest 
and  active  workers,  has  probably  never  in  the  history  of  the  world  been 
waged  against  any  disease  as  that  which  has  been  fought  in  the  United 
States  against  tuberculosis  in  the  period  covered.  The  rates  of  decline 
of  the  other  three  diseases  are  all  practically  identical. 

Figure  2  shows  entirely  similar  trends  for  four  other  causes  of 
death — ^namely : 

1.  Bronchitis  (Acute  and  Chronic). 

2.  Paralysis  without  specified  cause. 

3.  Purulent  infection  and  septicemia. 

4.  Softening  of  the  brain. 

Now  it  will  be  granted  at  once,  I  think,  that  public  health  and  sani- 
tation cam  have  had,  at  the  utmost,  extremely  little  if  anything  to  do 
with  the  trend  of  mortality  from  these  four  causes  of  death.  For  the 
most  part  they  certainly  represent  pathological  entities  far  beyond  the 
present  reach  of  the  health  officer.  Yet  the  outstanding  fact  is  that  their 
rates  of  mortality  have  declined  and  are  declining  just  as  did  those  in 
the  controllable  group  shown  in  Figure  1.  It  is  of  no  moment  to  say 
that  the  four  causes  of  death  in  the  second  group  are  absolutely  of 
less  importance  than  some  of  those  in  the  first  group,  because  what  we 
are  here  discussing  is  not  relative  force  of  mortality  from  different 
causes,  but  rather  the  trend  of  mortality  from  particular  causes.    The 


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THE    BIOLOGY    OF    DEATH  199 

NON  -  CONTROLLED     CAUSES    OF  DEATH 


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nC.   2.       TREND   OF  DEATH   RATES  FR<»f   FOUR   CAUSES   OF   DEATH   UPON   WHICH   NO 
DIRECT   ATTEMPT   AT   CONTROL   HAS    BEEN   MADE 

Toie  of  decline  is  just  as  significant,  whatever  the  absolute  point  from 
which  the  curve  starts. 

It  is  difficult  to  carry  in  the  mind  an  exact  impression  of  the  slope 
of  a  line,  so,  in  order  that  a  comparison  may  be  made,  I  have  plotted 
in  Figure  3,  first,  the  total  rate  of  mortality  from  the  four  controllable 
causes  of  death  taken  together  and,  second,  the  total  rate  of  mortality 
from  the  four  uncontrolled  causes  taken  together.  The  result  is  in- 
teresting. The  two  lines  were  actually  nearer  together  in  1900  than 
they  were  in  1918.  They  have  diverged  because  the  mortality  from  the 
uncontrolled  four  has  actually  decreased  faster  in  the  19  years  than 
has  that  from  the  four  against  which  we  have  been  actively  fighting. 


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3.       TREND    OF    COMBINED    DEATH    RATE    FROM    THE    FOUR    CAUSES    SHOWN    IN 
FIGURE   I   AS   COBfPARED  WITH  THE   FOUR  CAUSES   SHOWN   IN   FIGURE   2 


The  divergence  is  not  great,  however.  Perhaps  we  are  only  justified  in 
saying  that  the  mortality  in  each  of  the  two  groups  has  notably  de- 
clined, and  at  not  far  from  identical  rates. 

Now  the  four  diseases  in  this  group  I  chose  quite  at  random  from 
among  the  causes  of  death  whose  rates  I  knew  to  be  declining,  to  use  as 
an  illustration  solely.  I  could  easily  pick  out  eight  other  causes  of 
death  which  would  illustrate  the  same  point.  I  do  not  wish  too  much 
stress  to  be  laid  upon  these  examples.  If  they  may  serve  merely  to 
drive  sharply  home  into  the  mind  that  it  is  only  the  tyro  or  the  reckless 
propagandist  long  ago  a  stranger  to  truth  who  will  venture  to  assert 
that  a  declining  death-rate  in  and  of  itself  marks  the  successful  result 
of  human  effort,  I  shall  be  abundantly  satisfied. 


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THE    BIOLOGY    OF    DEATH  20.1 

There  is  much  in  our  public  health  work  that  is  worthy  of  the 
highest  praise.  When  based  upon  a  sound  foundation  of  ascertained 
fact  it  may»  and  does,  proceed  with  a  step  as  firm  and  inexorable  as 
that  of  Fate  itself,  to  the  wiping  out  of  preventable  mortality.  Some 
of  the  work,  one  regrets  to  say,  has  no  such  foundation,  but  is  built 
upon  the  exceedingly  shifty  sands  of  ignorance.  Having  jumped  with- 
out the  slightest  real  evidence  to  an  unsupported  conclusion,  the  pub- 
lic health  propagandist  puts  into  active  practice  and  at  great  public 
expense  measures  which  totally  lack  any  scientific  validity.  I  am  in 
great  sympathy  with  the  words  of  the  distinguished  English  patholc^ist, 
William  Bulloch,  who  said,  in  discussing  tuberculosis,  that  he  wished 
^Ho  enter  a  protest  against  the  wild  statements  now  being  made  in  the 
lay  and  medical  press,  that  the  whole  problem  of  phthisis  was  one  of 
infection.  Medical  history  showed  that  in  tuberculosis,  as  also  in  the 
case  of  other  diseases,  the  most  extreme  views  were  taken,  not  by  those 
who  had  contributed  the  actual  advancement  in  knowledge,  but  by  those 
whose  business  it  was  to  apply  those  advancements  for  the  needs  of  the 
public.  There  were  a  large  number  of  well-ascertained  facts  which 
were  not  entirely  explicable  on  the  doctrine  that  disposition  was  not 
an  important  factor  in  the  genesis  of  the  disease,  and  that  before  rigor- 
ous measures  were  applied  on  a  wide  scale  the  actual  facts  should  be 
ascertained.  He  did  not  agree  that  public  health  authorities  must 
always  ^do  something.'  This  Moing  something'  should  be  put  a 
stop  to  until  there  was  a  reasonable  supposition  that  it  was  going  to 
achieve  its  end.  He  did  not  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  the  tubercle 
bacillus  was  not  a  potent  factor.  What  he  did  refuse  to  believe  was 
that  it  was  the  only  factor.  He  considered  that  the  disposition,  the 
power  of  the  individual  to  resist  the  aggressive  inroads  of  the  bacillus, 
was  greater  than  many  people  held  at  the  present  day." 

While  this  statement  of  Bulloch's  turns  upon  a  controverted  issue 
in  the  etiology  of  clinical  tuberculosis,  namely,  as  to  the  relative  in- 
fluence of  heredity  and  environment,  the  same  principle  applies  to 
some  other  phases  of  public-health  work.  We  shall  save  a  good  deal 
of  money  and  human  energy,  if  we  first  take  the  trouble  to  prove  that 
what  we  are  undertaking  to  do  is  in  any  degree  likely  to  achieve  any 
useful  end. 

3.    The  Population  Problem 

Turning  to  another  phase  of  the  problem,  it  is  apparent  that  if, 
as  a  result  of  sanitary  and  hygienic  activities  and  natural  evolution, 
the  average  duration  of  human  life  is  greater  now  than  it  used  to  be  and 
is  getting  greater  all  the  time,  then  clearly  there  must  be  more  people 
on  the  earth  at  any  time  out  of  a  given  number  bom  than  was  formerly 
the  case.    It  is  furthermore  plain  that  if  nothing  happens  to  the  birth- 


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rate  there  must  eventually  be  as  many  persons  living  upon  the  habitable 
parts  of  the  globe  as  can  possibly  be  supported  with  food  and  the  other 
necessities  of  life.  Malthus,  whom  every  one  discusses  but  few  take 
the  trouble  to  read,  pointed  out  many  years  ago  that  the  problem  of 
population  transcends,  in  its  direct  importance  to  the  welfare  of  human 
beings  and  forms  of  social  organization,  all  other  problems.  Lately 
we  have  had  a  demonstration  on  a  ghastly  gigantic  scale  of  the  truth 
of  Malthus'  contention.  For  in  last  analysis  it  can  not  be  doubted  that 
the  underlying  cause  of  the  great  war  through  which  we  have  just 
passed  was  the  ever-growing  pressure  of  population  upon  subsistence. 

Any  system  or  form  of  activity  which  tends  by  however  slight  an 
amount  to  keep  more  people  alive  at  a  given  instant  of  time  than  would 
otherwise  remain  alive  adds  to  the  difficulty  of  the  problem  of  popula- 
tion. We  have  just  seen  that  this  is  precisely  what  our  public-health 
activities  aim  to  do,  and  in  which  they  succeed  in  a  not  inconsiderable 
degree.  But  someone  will  say  at  once  that  while  it  is  true  that  the 
death-rate  is  falling  more  or  less  generally,  still  the  birth-rate  is  falling 
concomitantly,  so  we  need  not  worry  about  the  population  problem. 
It  is  evident  that  if  we  regard  the  population  problem  in  terms  of 
world-area,  rather  than  that  of  any  particular  country,  its  degree  of  im- 
mediacy depends  upon  the  ratio  of  births  to  deaths  in  any  given  time 
unit.  If  we  examine,  as  I  have  recently  done,  these  death-birth  ratios 
for  different  countries,  we  iBnd  that  they  give  us  little  hope  of  any  so- 
lution of  the  problem  of  population  by  virtue  of  a  supposed  general 
positive  correlation  between  birth  rates  and  death  rates. 

The  relation  of  birdi-rate  and  death-rate  changes  to  population 
changes  is  a  simple  one  and  may  be  put  this  way.  If,  neglecting  migra- 
tion as  we  are  justified  in  doing  in  the  war  period  and  in  considering 
the  world  problem,  in  a  given  time  unit  the  percentage 

100  Deaths 
Births 

has  a  value  less  than  100,  it  means  that  the  births  exceed  the  deaths 
and  that  the  population  is  increasing  within  the  specified  time  unit 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  percentage  is  greater  than  100,  it  means  that 
the  deaths  are  more  frequent  than  the  births  and  that  the  population 
is  decreasing,  again  wkhin  the  specified  time  unit.  The  ratio  of  deaths 
to  births  may  be  conveniently  designated  as  the  vital  index  of  a  popula- 
tion. 

From  the  raw  data  of  births  and  deaths,  I  have  calculated  the  per- 
centage which  the  deaths  were  of  the  births  for  (a)  the  77  non-invaded 
departments  of  France;  (b)  Prussia;  (c)  Bavaria;  and  (d)  England 
and  Wales,  from  1913  to  1920  by  years.  The  results  are  shown  in 
Table  1. 


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TABLE  1 
Percentage  of  Deaths  to  Births 


77  non-invaded 

Year 

departments 

of  France 

1913 

97   per   cent 

1914 

no     "       " 

1915 

169     "       " 

1916 

193     "       " 

1917 

179     "       « 

1918 

198     "       " 

1919 

154     «       " 

1920 

Prussia 


66 

per 

cent. 

lOI 

(( 

117 

« 

(( 

140 

« 

« 

132* 

u 

u 

Bavaria 


58  per  cent 
74 


131 
127 
146 


England   and 
Wales 


57  per  cent. 
59    "      " 
69    " 
65    " 
75    " 
92    - 

73    " 

42*  " 


*  First  three- fourths  of  year  only. 


The  points  to  be  especially  noted  in  Table  1  are: 

1.  In  all  the  countries  here  dealt  with  the  death-birth  ratio  in 
general  rose  throughout  the  war  period.  This  means  that  the  pro- 
portion of  deaths  to  births  increased  so  long  as  the  war  continued. 

2.  But  in  England  it  never  rose  to  the  100  per  cent  mark.  In 
other  words,  in  spite  of  all  the  dreadful  effects  of  war,  England's  net 
population  went  on  increasing  throughout  the  war. 

3.  Immediately  after  the  war  was  over,  the  death-birth  ratio  began 
to  drop  rapidly  in  all  countries.  In  England  in  1919  it  had  dropped 
back  from  the  high  figure  of  92  per  cent  in  1918  to  73  per  cent  In 
France  it  dropped  from  the  high  figure  of  198  in  1918  to  154  in  1919, 
a  lower  figure  than  France  had  shown  since  1914.  In  all  the  countries 
the  same  change  is  occurring  at  a  rapid  pace. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  possible  illustration  of  this  is  the 
history  of  the  death-birth  ratio  of  the  city  of  Vienna,  shown  in  Figure 
4,  with  data  from  the  United  States  and  England  and  Wales  for  com- 
parison* Probably  no  single  large  city  in  the  world  was  so  hard  hit 
by  the  war  as  Vienna.  Yet  observe  what  has  happened  to  its  death- 
birth  ratio.  Note  how  sharp  is  the  decline  in  1919  after  the  peak  in 
1918.  In  other  worcb,  we  see  how  promptly  the  growth  of  population 
tends  to  regulate  itself  back  towards  the  normal  after  even  so  disturb- 
ing an  upset  as  a  great  war. 

In  the  United  States,  the  death-birth  ratio  was  not  affected  at  all 
by  the  war,  though  it  was  markedly  so  by  the  influenza  epidemic.  The 
facts  are  shown  in  Figure  4  for  the  only  years  for  which  data  are  avail- 
able. The  area  covered  is  the  United  States  birth  registration  area. 
We  see  that  with  the  very  low  death-birth  ratio  of  56  in  1915,  there  was 
no  significant  change  till  the  influenza  year  1918,  when  the  ratio  rose 
to  73  per  cent  But  in  1919,  it  promptly  dropped  back  to  the  normal 
value  of  57.98,  almost  identical  with  die  1917  figure  of  57.34. 

In  England  and  Wales,  the  provisional  figure  indicates  that  1920 


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THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 


i9/£  I9i3  t9i4.  tots 


yCAR 
FIG.  4.      SHOWING  THE  CHANGE  IN  PERCENTAGE  WHICH  DEATHS  WERE  OF  BIRTHS  IN 

EACH  OF  THE  YEARS  1M2  TO  1919  FOR  VIENNA  ( ) ;  1915  TO  1919  FOR  THE  UNITED 

STATES  ( );  AND  1912  TO  1920  FOR  ENGLAND  AND  WALES   ( ) 

will  show  a  lower  value  for  the  vital  index  than  that  country  has  had 
for  many  years. 

So  we  see  that  neither  the  most  destructive  war  the  modem  world 
has  ever  known  nor  the  most  destructive  epidemic  since  the  Middle 
Ages  serves  more  than  to  cause  a  momentary  hesitation  in  the  steady 
onward  march  of  population  growth. 

The  first  thing  obviously  needed  in  any  scientific  approadi  to  the 
problem  of  population  is  a  proper  mathematical  determination  and 
expression  of  the  law  of  population  growth.  It  has  been  seen  that  the 
most  devastating  calamities  make  but  a  momentary  flicker  in  the  steady 
progress  of  the  curve.  Furthermore,  population  growth  is  plainly  a 
biological  matter.  It  depends  upon,  in  last  analysis,  only  the  basic 
biological  phenomena  of  fertility  and  mortality.  To  the  problem  of 
an  adequate  mathematical  expression  of  the  normal  growth  of  popula- 
tions, my  colleague,  Dr.  Lowell  J.  Reed,  and  I  have  addressed  ourselves 
for  some  time  past.  The  known  data  upon  which  we  have  to  operate 
are  the  population  counts  given  by  successive  censuses.  Various  at- 
tempts have  been  made  in  the  past  to  get  a  mathematical  representa- 
tion of  these  in  order  to  predict  successfully  future  populations,  and 
to  get  estimates  of  the  population  in  inter-censal  years.  The  most 
noteworthy  attempt  of  this  sort  is  Pritchett's  fitting  of  a  parabola  of 
the  third  order  to  the  United  States  population  from  1790  to  1880  in- 


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elusive.  This  gave  a  fairly  good  result  over  the  period,  but  was 
obviously  purely  empirical,  expressed  no  real  biological  law  of 
change,  and  in  fact  failed  badly  in  prediction  after  1890. 

We  have  approached  the  problem  from  an  a  priori  basis,  set  up  a 
hypothesis  as  to  the  biological  factors  involved,  and  tested  the  result- 
ing equation  against  the  facts  for  a  variety  of  countries.  The  hy- 
pothesis was  built  up  around  the  following  considerations: 

1.  In  any  given  land  area  of  fixed  limits,  as  by  political  or  natural 
boundaries,  there  must  necessarily  be  an  upper  limit  to  the  number  of 
persons  that  can  be  supported  on  the  area.  To  take  an  extreme  case, 
it  is  obvious  that  not  so  many  as  25,000  persons  could  possibly  stand 
upon  an  acre  of  ground,  let  alone  live  on  it  So  similarly  there  must 
be  for  any  area  an  upper  limiting  number  of  persons  who  can  possibly 
live  upon  it.  In  mathematical  terms  this  means  that  the  population 
curve  must  have  an  upper  limiting  asymptote. 

2.  At  some  time  in  the  more  or  less  remote  past  the  population  of 
human  beings  upon  any  given  land  area  must  have  been  nearly  or 
quite  zero.  So  the  curve  must  have  somewhere  a  lower  limiting 
asymptote. 

3.  Between  these  two  levels  we  assume  that  the  rate  of  growth  of 
the  population,  that  is,  the  increase  in  numbers  in  any  given  time  unit, 
is  proportional  to  two  things,  namely: 

a.  The  absolute  amount  of  growth    (or  size   of   population)   already 

attained ; 

b.  The  amount  of  as  yet  unutilized,  or  reserve,  means  or  sources  of 

subsistence  still  available  in  the  area  to  support  further  population. 


*f  • 


nC.   5.       SHOWING  THE  THEORETICAL   CURVE   OF  POPULATION   GROWTH 


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206  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

These  hypotheses  lead  directly  to  a  curve  of  the  form  shown  in 
Figure  5,  in  which  the  position  of  the  asymptotes  and  of  the  point  of 
inflection,  when  the  population  is  growing  at  the  most  rapid  rate,  are 
shown  in  terms  of  the  constants.  It  is  seen  that  the  whole  history  of  a 
population  as  pictured  by  this  curve  is  something  like  this:  In  the 
early  years  following  the  settlement  of  a  country  the  population 
growth  is  slow.  Presently  it  begins  to  grow  faster.  After  it  passes  the 
point  where  half  the  available  resources  of  subsistence  have  been 
drawn  upon  and  utilized,  the  rate  of  growth  becomes  slower,  until 
finally  the  maximum  population  which  the  area  will  support  is 
reached. 

This  theory^  of  population  growth  makes  it  possible  to  predict 
what  the  maximum  population  in  a  given  area  will  be,  and  when  it 
will  be  attained.  Furthermore,  one  can  tell  exactly  when  the  popula- 
tion is  growing  at  the  mflTJmum  rate.  To  test  the  theory,  we  have  only 
to  fit  this  theoretical  curve  to  the  known  facts  of  population  for  any 
country  by  appropriate  mathematical  methods.  If  the  hypothesis  fits 
well  all  the  known  facts  for  a  variety  of  countries  in  different  stages 
of  population  growth,  it  may  well  be  regarded  as  a  first  approximation 
to  a  substantially  correct  hypothesis  and  expressive  of  the  biological 
law  according  to  which  population  grows.  In  making  this  test  the 
statistician  has  somewhat  the  same  kind  of  problem  that  confronts  the 
astronomer  calculating  the  complete  orbit  of  a  comet.  The  astronomer 
never  has  more  than  a  relatively  few  observations  of  the  position  of 
the  comH.  He  has,  from  Newtonian  principles,  a  general  mathematical 
expression  of  the  laws  of  motion  of  heavenly  bodies.  He  must  then 
construct  his  whole  curve  from  the  data  given  by  the  few  observations. 
So  similarly  the  statistician  has  but  a  relatively  few  population  ob- 
servations because  census  taking  has  been  practiced  along  presmt  lines 
only  a  little  more  than  a  century.  According  to  the  stage  in  historical 
development  of  the  country  dealt  with  he  may  have  given  an  early,  a 
late,  or  a  middle  short  piece  of  the  population  ^'orbit''  or  history. 
From  this  he  must  construct  on  the  basis  of  his  general  theory  of 
"population  orbits*'  the  whole  history,  past  and  future,  of  the  popula- 
tion in  question. 

To  demonstrate  how  successful  the  population  curve  shown  in 
Figure  5  is  in  doing  this,  three  diagrams  are  presented,  each  illustrat- 
ing the  gro¥^h  of  the  population  in  a  different  country.     The  heavy 

2  The  mathematical  hypothesis  here  dealt  with  is  essentially  the  same  as 
that  of  Verhulst  put  forth  in  1844.  As  Pearl  and  Reed  pointed  out  in  this 
first  paper  on  the  subject  it  is  a  special  case  of  a  much  more  general  law. 
A  comprehensive  general  treatment  of  the  problem  we  are  publishing  shortly 
in  anotiier  place.  The  generalization  in  no  way  alters  the  conclusions  drawn 
here  from  a  few  illustrative  examples. 


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1700  eo  ^   60  eo  BOO  x>   4o   eo  so  ooo »  4o   60  9a  tooo  a>  4o   eo  ao  zioo 


YEARS 
FIG.    6.       SHOWING    THE    CURVE    OF    GROWTH    Of    THE    POPULATION    OF    THE    UNITED 
STATES.       For  further  expUnation   of   this  and   the   two  following   diagxami,   lee   text.' 

solid  portion  of  each  curve  shows  the  region  for  which  census  data 
exist.  The  lighter  broken  part  of  the  curve  shows  the  portions  outside 
this  observed  range.  The  circles  show  the  actual,  known  observations. 
The  first  curve  deals  with  the  population  of  the  United  States.  Here 
the  observations  come  from  the  first  part  of  the  curve,  when  the  popula- 
tion was  leaving  the  lower  asymptote.  First  should  be  noted  the  extra- 
ordinary accuracy  with  which  the  mathematical  theory  describes  the 
known  facts.  It  would  be  extremely  difficult  by  any  process  to  draw  a 
curve  through  the  observed  circles  and  come  nearer  to  hitting  them 
all  than  this  one  does. 

Before  considering  the  detailed  consequences  of  this  United  States 
curve  in  relation  to  the  whole  population  history  of  the  country,  let  us 
first  examine  some  curves  for  other  countries  where  the  observed  data 
fell  in  quite  different  portions  of  the  ''population  orbit."     Figure  7 


YCAlfS 
FIG.  7.      SHOWING  THE  CURVE  OF  GROWTH  OF  THE  POPULATION  OF  FRANCE 


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THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 


noo  MO  4o  CO  60  igoo  »  40  eo  do  ooo  20  4o   60  ao  eooo  so  4b  id  00  aoo 

YLARS 
FIG.  8.      SHOWING  THE  CURVE  OF  GROWTH  OF  THE  POPULATION  OF  SERBIA 

gives  the  curve  for  France.  Since  before  the  time  when  definite 
census  records  began  France  has  been  a  rather  densely  populated 
country.  All  the  data  with  which  we  had  to  work  belong  therefore 
towards  the  final  end  of  the  whole  population  history  curve.  The 
known  population  data  for  France  and  for  the  United  States  stand  at 
opposite  ends  of  the  whole  historical  curve.  One  is  an  old  country 
whose  population  is  nearing  the  upper  limit;  the  other  a  new  country 
whose  population  started  from  near  the  lower  asymptote  only  about  a 
century  and  a  half  ago.  But  it  is  seen  from  the  diagram  that  the 
general  theory  of  population  growth  fits  very  perfectly  the  known  facts 
regarding  France's  population  in  the  120  years  for  which  records  exist. 
While  there  are  some  irregularities  in  the  observation,  due  principally 
to  the  eflfects  of  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  it  is  plain  that  on  the  whole 
it  would  be  practically  impossible  to  get  a  better  fitting  line  through 
the  observational  circles  than  the  present  one. 

We  have  seen  that  the  general  theory  of  population  describes  with 
equal  accuracy  the  rate  of  groivth  in  a  young  country  with  rapidly 
increasing  population  and  an  old  country  where  the  population  is  ap- 
proaching close  to  the  absolute  saturation  point.  Let  us  now  see  how 
it  works  for  a  country  in  an  intermediate  position  in  respect  of  popula- 
tion. Figure  8  shows  the  population  history  of  Serbia.  Here  it  will 
be  noted  at  once  that  the  heavy  line,  which  denotes  the  region  of  known 
census  data,  lies  about  in  the  middle  of  the  whole  curve.  Again  the 
fit  of  theory  to  observation  is  extraordinarily  close.  No  better  fit  by 
a  general  law  involving  no  more  than  3  constants  could  possibly  be 
hoped  for. 


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300 

^^ — - 

- 

^ 

• 

/ . 

QR(Mr 

TH  OF  [» 
XiPUUmOH 

osoPHa-A^ 

/ 

tZ5 
MOO 

fK 

^ 

KO 

ms 

100 

—/ 

/ — 

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o  6  le  le  t*  so  s 

OCT  NO^. 

FIG.   9.       SHOWING  THE   GROWTH  OF  A  DROSOPHILA   POPULATION   KEPT   UNDER 
CONTROLLED  EXPERIMENTAL   CONDITIONS 

I  think  that  these  three  examples,  which  could  be  multiplied  to  in- 
clude practically  every  country  for  which  accurate  population  data 
exist,  furnish  a  cogent  demonstration  of  the  essential  soundness  and  ac- 
curacy of  this  theory  of  population  growth.  Indeed,  the  facts  warrant, 
I  believe,  our  regarding  this  as  a  first  approximation  to  the  true 
natural  law  of  population  growth.  We  now  have  the  proper  mathe- 
matical foundation  on  which  to  build  sociological  discussions  of  the 
problem  of  population. 

As  a  further  demonstration  of  the  soundness  of  this  theory  of 
population  grovrth,  let  attention  be  directed  for  a  moment  to  an  ex- 
ample of  its  experimental  verification.  To  a  fruit  fiy  (Drosophila)  in 
a  half  pint  milk  bottle  such  as  is  used  in  experimental  work  on  these 
organisms,  the  interior  of  the  bottle  represents  a  definitely  limited  uni- 
verse. How  does  the  fly  population  grow  in  such  a  universe?  We 
start  a  bottle  with  a  male  and  a  female  fly,  and  a  small  sample,  say 
10,  of  their  offspring  of  different  ages  (larvae  and  pupae).  The  re- 
sults are  shown  in  Figure  9.  The  circles  give  the  observed  population 
growth,  obtained  by  census  counts  at  3-day  intervals.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  this  population  has  grown  in  accordance  with  our  law. 
The  two  final  observations  lie  below  the  curve  because  of  the  difficulty 
experienced  in  this  particular  experiment  of  keeping  the  food  supply 
in  good  condition  after  so  long  a  period  from  the  start. 

Let  us  return  to  the  further  discussion  of  the  population  problem 
of  the  United  States  in  the  light  of  our  curve. 

The  first  question  which  interests  one  is  this:  When  did  or  will 
the  population  curve  of  this  country  pass  the  point  of  inflection  and 
exhibit  a  progressively  diminishing  instead  of  increasing  rate  of 
growth?  It  is  easily  determined  that  this  point  occurred  about  April 
1,  1914,  on  the  assumption  that  our  present  numerical  values  reliably 
represent  the  law  of  population  growth  in  this  country.    In   other 


VOL.  Xm.— 14. 


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210  THE    SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

words,  so  far  as  we  may  rely  upon  present  numerical  values,  the  United 
States  has  already  passed  its  period  of  most  rapid  population  growth, 
unless  there  comes  into  play  some  factor  not  now  known  and  which 
has  never  operated  during  the  past  history  of  the  country  to  make  the 
rate  of  growth  more  rapid.  The  latter  contingency  appears  improb- 
able. The  1920  census  confirms  the  result,  indicated  by  the  curve,  that 
the  period  of  most  rapid  population  growth  was  passed  somewhere  in 
the  last  decade.  The  populaticm  at  the  point  of  inflection  works  out 
to  have  been  98,637,000,  which  was  in  fact  about  the  population  of  the 
country  in  1914. 

The  upper  asymptote  given  by  our  equation  has  the  value  197,274,- 
000  roughly.  This  means  that  the  maximum  population  which  con- 
tinental United  States,  as  now  areally  limited,  will  have  will  be 
roughly  twice  the  present  population.  This  state  of  affairs  will  be 
reached  in  about  the  year  2,100,  a  little  less  than  two  centuries  hence. 
Perhaps  it  may  be  thou^  that  the  magnitude  of  this  number  is  not 
sufficiently  imposing.  It  is  so  easy,  and  most  writers  on  population 
have  been  so  prone,  to  extrapolate  population  by  geometric  eeries  or 
by  a  parabola  or  some  such  purely  empirical  curve  and  arrive  at 
stupendous  figures,  that  calm  consideration  of  real  probabilities  is 
most  difficult  to  obtain.  While  we  regard  the  numerical  results  as 
only  a  rough  first  approximation,  it  remains  a  fact  that  if  anyone  will 
soberly  think  of  every  city,  every  village,  every  town  in  this  country 
having  its  present  population  multiplied  by  2,  and  will  further  think 
of  twice  as  many  persons  on  the  land  in  agricultural  pursuits,  he  will 
be  bound,  we  think,  to  conclude  that  the  country  would  be  fairly 
densely  populated.  It  would  have  about  66  persons  per  square  mile 
of  land  area. 

It  will  at  once  be  pointed  out  that  many  European  countries  have 
a  mudb  greater  density  of  population  than  66  persons  to  the  square 
mile,  as,  for  example,  Belgium  with  673,  the  Netherlands  with  499, 
etc.  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  these  countries  are  far  from 
self-supporting  in  respect  of  physical  means  of  subsistence.  They  are 
economically  eelf-supporting,  which  is  a  very  different  thing,  because 
by  their  industrial  development  at  home  and  in  their  colonies  they 
produce  money  enough  to  buy  physical  means  of  subsistence  from  less 
densely  populated  portions  of  the  world.  We  can,  of  course,  do  the 
same  thing,  provided  that  by  the  time  our  population  gets  so  dense  as 
to  make  it  necessary  there  still  remain  portions  of  the  globe  where 
food,  clothing  material  and  fuel  are  produced  in  excess  of  the  needs 
of  their  home  populations. 

Now  197,000,000  people  will  require  on  the  basis  of  our  present 
food  habits  about  260,000,000  million  calories  per  annum.  The  United 
States,  during  the  seven  years  1911-1918,  produced  as  an  annual  aver- 


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THE    BIOLOGY    OF    DEATH  211 

age,  in  the  fonn  of  human  food,  both  prurmry  and  secondary  (£.  e., 
broadly  v^etable  and  animal),  only  137,163,606  million  calories  per 
year.  So  that,  unless  our  food  habits  radically  change,  and  a  man 
is  able  to  do  with  less  than  3,000  to  3,500  calories  per  day,  or  unless 
our  agricultural  production  radically  increases,  which  it  appears  not 
likely  to  do  for  a  variety  of  reasons  which  can  not  be  here  gone  into, 
it  will  be  necessary  when  even  our  modest  figure  for  the  asymptotic 
population  is  reached  to  import  nearly  or  quite  one-half  of  the  calories 
necessary  for  that  population.  It  seems  improbable  that  the  popula- 
tion will  go  on  increasing  at  any  very  rapid  rate  after  such  a  condition 
is  reached.  East,  in  what  appears  to  be  the  most  able  and  pen^rating 
discussion  of  population  of  this  generation,  has  shown  that  the  United 
States  has  already  entered  upon  the  era  of  diminishing  returns  in 
agriculture  in  this  country.  Is  it  at  all  reasonable  to  suppose  that  by 
the  time  this  country  has  closely  approached  the  asymptote  here  in- 
dicated, with  all  the  competition  for  means  of  subsistence  which  the 
already  densely  populated  countries  of  Europe  will  then  be  putting 
up,  there  can  be  found  any  portion  of  the  globe  producing  food  in 
excess  of  its  own  needs  to  an  extent  to  make  it  possible  for  us  to  find 
the  calories  we  shall  need  to  import? 

Altogether,  we  believe  it  will  be  the  part  of  wisdom  for  any  one 
disposed  to  criticize  our  asymptotic  value  of  a  hundred  and  ninety- 
seven  and  a  quarter  millions  because  it  is  thought  too  small,  to  look 
further  into  all  the  relevant  facts. 

The  relation  of  this  already  pressing  problem  of  population  to  the 
problem  of  the  duration  of  life  is  obvious  enough.  For  every  point 
that  the  death  rate  is  lowered  (or,  what  is  the  same  thing,  the  average 
duration  of  life  increased)  the  problem  of  population  is  made  more 
immediate  and  more  difficult  unless  there  is  a  corresponding  decrease 
in  the  birth-rate.  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  most  thoughtful  students 
of  the  problem  of  population  are  ardent  advocates  of  birth-control? 
Or  is  it  remarkable  that  Major  Leonard  Darwin,  a  son  of  Charles 
Darwin  and  president  of  the  Eugenics  Education  Society  in  England, 
should  say  in  a  carefully  considered  memorandum  to  the  new  British 
Ministry  of  Health:  ^In  the  interests  of  posterity  it  is  most  desirable 
that  parents  should  now  limit  the  size  of  their  families  by  any  means 
held  by  them  to  be  right  (provided  such  means  are  not  injurious  to 
health,  nor,  like  abortion,  an  offence  against  public  morals)  to  such  an 
extent  that  the  children  could  be  brought  up  as  efficient  citizens  and 
without  deterioration  in  the  standards  of  their  civilization;  and  that 
parents  should  not  limit  the  size  of  the  family  for  any  other  reasons 
except  on  account  of  definite  hereditary  defects,  or  to  secure  an  ade- 
quate interval  between  births." 

It  seems  clear  that  the  problem  of  population   can  not  be  com- 


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212  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

pletely  or  finally  solved  by  limitation  of  the  birth-rate,  however  much 
this  may  help  to  a  solution.  There  are  two  ways  which  have  been 
thought  of  and  practiced,  by  which  a  nation  may  attempt  to  solve  its 
problem  of  population  after  it  has  become  very  pressing  and  after  the 
effects  of  internal  industrial  development  and  its  creation  of  wealth 
have  been  exhausted.  These  are,  respectively,  the  methods  of  France 
and  Germany.  By  consciously  controlled  methods  France  endeavored, 
and  on  the  whole  succeeded,  in  keeping  her  birth-rate  at  just  such 
delicate  balance  with  the  death-rate  as  to  make  the  population  nearly 
stationary.  Then  any  industrial  developments  simply  operated  to  raise 
the  standard  of  living  of  those  fortunate  enough  to  be  born.  France's 
condition,  social,  economic  and  political,  in  1914  represented,  I  think, 
the  results  of  about  the  maximum  efficiency  of  what  may  be  called  the 
birth-control  method  of  meeting  the  problem  of  population. 

Germany  deliberately  chose  the  other  plan  of  meeting  the  problem 
of  population.  In  fewest  words,  the  scheme  was,  when  your  own  popu- 
lation pressed  too  hard  upon  subsistence,  and  you  had  fully  liquidated 
the  industrial  development  asset,  to  go  out  and  conquer  some  one, 
preferably  a  people  operating  under  the  birth-control  population  plan, 
and  forcibly  take  his  land  for  your  people.  To  facilitate  this  operation 
a  high  birth-rate  is  made  a  matter  of  sustained  propaganda  and  in 
every  other  possible  way  encouraged.  An  abundance  of  cannon  fodder 
is  essential  to  the  success  of  the  scheme. 

Now  the  morals  of  the  two  plans  are  not  at  issue  here.  Both  are 
regarded,  by  many  people,  on  different  grounds  to  be  sure,  as  highly 
immoral.  Here  we  are  concerned  only  with  actualities.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  in  general  and  in  the  long  run  the  bandit  plan  is  bound 
to  win  over  the  birth-control  plan  if  the  issue  is  joined  between  the 
two  and  only  the  two,  if  its  resolution  is  purely  military  in  character, 
and  if  there  is  no  international  police  force  of  a  magnitude  and  cour- 
age adequate  to  cope  with  bandit  and  othermse  criminal  nations.  As 
between  two  nations,  allowed  free  rein  to  **fight  it  out'*  by  themselves 
without  help  or  hindrance,  the  decisive  element  is  a  mathematically 
demonstrable  one.  A  stationary  population  where  birth-rate  and 
death-rate  are  made  to  balance  is  necessarily  a  population  with  a 
relative  excess  of  persons  in  the  higher  age  groups,  not  of  much  use 
as  fighters,  and  a  relative  deficiency  of  persons  in  the  lower  age  groups 
where  the  heat  fighters  are.  On  the  contrary,  a  people  with  a  high 
birth-rate  has  a  population  with  an  excess  of  persons  in  the  younger 
age  groups. 

So  long  as  there  are  on  the  earth  aggressively  minded  peoples  who 
from  choice  deliberately  maintain  a  high  birth-rate,  no  people  can 
afford  to  put  the  birth  control  solution  of  the  population  problem  into 
too  extensive  operation  until  such  time  as  the  common-sense  of  man- 


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THE    BIOLOGY    OF    DEATH  21S 

kind  decides  that  peace  is  in  fact  a  more  desirable  state  of  society  than 
war  and  implements  this  decision  to  practical  realization  through 
some  international  equivalent  of  a  police  force,  which  will  restrain  by 
force,  and  plenty  of  it,  the  activities  of  disturbers  of  the  peace.  '^Dis- 
turbanoe  of  the  peace"  is  not  tolerated  in  our  domestic  affairs.  It  is 
no  more  a  virtue  in  international  relations.  The  only  effective  method 
which  society  has  yet  devised  to  secure  that  our  home  peace  shall  not 
be  seriously  disturbed  is  that  of  an  adequate  police  force.  There  ap- 
pears no  insuperable  difficulty  in  applying  the  same  principle  inter- 
nationally. And  any  competent  economist  can  easily  show  that  its 
cost  as  compared  with  war  would  be  extremely  small.  Because  some- 
thing of  the  sort  is  not  done,  one  seems  bound,  however  reluctantly,  to 
conclude  that  nations  as  nations  prefer  wars  and  the  opportunities  for 
wars  to  a  state  of  enduring  peace.  What  a  long  way  the  average  human 
intellect  has  still  to  proceed  on  its  evolutionary  pathway! 


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214  THE   SCIENTIFIC    MONTHLY 


IMPENDING  PROBLEMS  OF  EUGENICS  ^ 
By  Professor  IRVING  FISHER 

YALE  UNIVERSITY 

I  feel  a  double  sense  of  my  unworthiness  of  the  honor  which  you 
have  bestowed  upon  me  by  electing  me  president  of  this  associa- 
tion. On  the  one  hand,  I  feel  that  eugenics  is  incomparably  the  most 
important  concern  of  the  human  race  and,  on  the  other,  I  am  pain- 
fully aware  of  the  fact  that  I  can  bring  to  you  no  original  contribution. 
All  that  I  can  hope  to  do  is  to  point  out  from  my  viewpoint  as  a  student 
of  economics,  and  to  some  extent  of  hygiene,  the  opportunities  which 
would  seem  to  mark  out  some  of  the  paths  which  eugenists  should  ex- 
plore more  fully. 

My  main  thought  is  that  there  is  now  a  golden  opportunity  for 
eugenists  to  ^^gear  in,"  so  to  speak,  with  the  great  world  of  events.  It 
was  the  dream  of  Galton  that  eugenics  should  not  forever  remain 
academic  but  that,  being  the  vital  concern  of  us  all,  it  should  become 
a  sort  of  religion.  Hitherto  eugenics  has  been  largely  studied 
**microscopically,"  that  is,  by  special  technical  laboratory  investiga- 
tions. The  neart  step  is  to  study  it  more  "telescopically,"  that  is  by 
observations  of  the  general  facts  of  human  history. 

I  do  not  mean,  of  course,  that  eugenists  should  drop  their  study 
of  the  inheritance  of  finger  prints  or  of  the  inheritance  of  musical 
capacity,  eye  defects,  skeleton  abnormalities  and  twinning.  The  woric 
of  Pearson  in  London  and  of  Davenport  here  and  of  their  co-workers 
and  colleagues  everywhere  must  go  on  uninterruptedly.  But  in  addi- 
tion to  all  these,  steps  should  be  taken  to  organize  a  study  of  the 
eugenics  or  dysgenics  of  such  historical  events  as  war,  immigration, 
colonization,  prohibition,  hygiene,  birth  control,  feminism,  capitalism, 
industrialism,  democracy,  socialism,  bolshevism,  population  growth, 
urbanization  and  diminishing  returns  in  agriculture. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  in  passing  that  these  historical  occur- 
rences are  due  in  large  part  to  the  inventions  and  discoveries  of  civiliza- 
tion, including  especially  those  of  rapid  transportation,  military 
science,  hygienic  knowledge  and  devices  for  birth  control.  These  in- 
ventions are  generally  regarded  as  landmarks  of  progress.  They  have, 
thus  far,  undoubtedly  caused  progress  in  economic  well-being  and 
permitted  an  ever  increasing  number  of  people  to  subsist  in  a  given 
area. 

1  Address  of  the  president  of  the  Eugenics  Research  Association,  Cold 
Spring  Harbor,  June  24. 


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IMPENDING   PROBLEMS    OF   EUGENICS  215 

Mechanical  inventions,  particularly  those  which  abridge  distance, 
have  given  us  more  and  more  room  for  expansion  and  we  have  mis- 
taken this  progressive  conquest  of  nature  for  a  progressive  improve- 
ment in  ourselves.  A  few  years  ago  the  then  president  of  the  American 
EconcHnic  Association  cited  the  increase  of  population  as  the  best  ob- 
tainable criterion  of  "progress.*' 

But  the  eugenist  is  interested  in  the  quality  of  human  beings  rather 
than  their  quantity,  and  one  of  the  great  problems  to  be  seriously  con- 
sidered, is  whether  our  boasted  "progress"  is  not  an  illusion  and 
whether  after  all  the  human  race,  in  spite  of  its  rapid  multiplication 
and  its  increase  in  per  capita  wealth,  may  not  be  deteriorating.  The 
discovery  that  this  is  the  case  would  doubtless  surprise  and  shock  the 
country  just  as  did  the  discovery  that  one  man  out  of  every  three  in 
our  army  draft  was  unfit  The  conunon  opinion  is  undoubtedly  that 
we  have  made  great  progress  and  are  making  great  progress  now. 
The  same  opinion  was  held,  so  historians  tell  us,  just  before  the  down- 
fall of  Rome  and  of  other  civilizations  which  have  failed. 

We  know  that  affluence  often  ruins  men  and  women,  and  history 
has  at  least  produced  a  strong  suspicion  that  it  was  the  cause,  or  a 
cause,  of  ruin  of  many  civilizations  now  dead.    As  Goldsmith  says: 

111  fares  the  land  to  hastening  ills  a  prey, 
Where  wealth  accumulates,  and  men  decay. 

The  economist  has  shown  that  wealth  accumulates.  The  eugenist 
may  show  that  men  decay.  Dr.  Pearce  Bailey  states  that  in  the  army 
examinations  mental  defectives  amounted  to  two  thirds  of  one  per  cent, 
and  be  concluded  that  a  greater  proportion  existed  In  the  general 
population. 

The  statistics  of  the  feeble-minded,  insane,  criminals,  epileptics, 
inebriates,  diseased,  blind,  deaf,  deformed  and  dependent  classes  are 
not  reassuring,  even  though  we  keep  up  our  courage  by  noting  that  the 
increasing  institutionalization  of  these  classes  gives  the  appearance  of 
an  increase  which  in  actual  fact  may  be  non-existent  because  institu- 
tionalization makes  it  possible  to  collect  these  statistics. 

In  Massachusettes  thirty-five  per  cent,  of  the  state  income  goes  in 
support  of  state  institutions  and  Mr.  Laughlin,  the  secretary  of  this 
association,  who  compiled  the  government  report  on  defectives,  delin- 
quents and  dependents,  estimates  that  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the 
inmates  have  bad  heredity.  The  cost  of  maintaining  these  institutions 
in  the  United  States  in  1915  was  eighty-one  millions  of  dollars.  This 
takes  no  account  of  the  town  and  county  care,  while  all  the  official  costs 
fail  to  take  into  account  the  cost  to  families  and  associates,  the  keeping 
back  of  school  children  by  the  backward  diildren,  the  cost  from  fires 
of  pyro-maniacs,  the  cost  from  thievery  of  kleptomaniacs,  the  cost  from 
crime,  vice,  etc.,  of  paranoiacs,  maniacs  and  paretics  and  the  loss  of 


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216  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

services  of  able  men  and  women  drained  away  from  other  use  to  take 
care  of  the  defectives,  delinquents  and  dependents. 

I  believe  that  any  one  who  has  worked  in  these  statistics  with  the 
sincere  desire  to  get  the  truth  has  an  uneasy  feeling  that  degeneracy 
may  be  really  increasing  and  increasing  fast  Several  competent 
students  in  eugenics  and  related  fields  have  already  reached  strong 
convictions  on  the  subject. 

As  I  write,  I  find  Professor  William  McDougall's  new  book,  ^Is 
America  Safe  for  Democracy?"  in  which  he  says:  *^As  I  watch  the 
American  nation  speeding  gaily,  with  invincible  optimism,  down  the 
road  to  destruction,  I  seem  to  be  contemplating  the  greatest  tragedy  in 
the  history  of  mankind."  Research  should  make  our  conclusions  on 
this  subject  beyond  question.  A  great  load  of  degeneracy  is  certainly 
upon  us,  whether  it  be  true  or  not  that  it  is  increasing  in  weight.  It  is 
incumbent  upon  us  to  reduce  it.    The  first  step  is  to  measure  it. 

There  are  many  startling  evidences  of  racial  decay.  One  is  diat 
the  war  has  damaged  the  potential  fatherhood  of  the  race  by  destroy- 
ing over  seven  million  young  men,  medically  selected  for  fighting  but 
thereby  prevented  from  breeding.  In  quantity  the  loss  of  seven  million 
men  by  war  is  not  great.  If  numbers  were  really  our  criterion  of 
progress  we  could  take  comfort  in  the  fact  that  the  world  as  a  whole 
to-day  has  undoubtedly  more  inhabitants  than  before  the  war.  The 
gap  made  by  the  war  has  been  more  than  filled.  This  was  mostly  out- 
side of  Europe.    In  a  few  years  Europe  itself  will  catch  up. 

But  small  as  is  the  number  of  lives  lost  as  a  fraction  of  population, 
their  loss  may  nevertheless  be  the  loss  of  most  of  the  good  male  germ 
plasm  of  the  nations  concerned,  particularly  in  Europe.  In  the  United 
States,  of  course,  the  war  has  been  less  injurious. 

Herbert  Spencer,  David  Starr  Jordan,  Vernon  Kellogg  and  others 
have  urged  with  convincing  force  this  reason  for  believing  that  war,  in 
general,  is  dy^enic. 

Professor  Roswell  H.  Johnson  maintains  that  war  may  sometimes 
be  eugenic,  that  it  is  always  partly  so,  although  he  has  no  hesitation  in 
concluding  that  the  recent  world  war  has  left  a  big  net  dysgenic 
balance. 

We  all  agree,  I  think,  that  the  destruction  of  seven  million  picked 
young  men  in  their  prime  is  not  only  an  irretrievable  loss  for  this  gene- 
ration but  for  all  succeeding  generations — increasingly  rather  than 
otherwise.  A  little  reflection  will  show  the  argument  In  the  first 
place,  to  apply  the  argument  backward,  let  us  consider  that  our  parents 
were  probably  above  the  average  of  their  generation.  This  is  evidenced 
by  the  very  fact  that  they  were  parents.  None  of  them  died  in  infancy; 
for  if  they  had  they  could  not  have  been  parents.  They  all  had  enough 
vitality  to  have  gone  through  childhood  and  enough  vitality  and  at- 


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IMPENDING   PROBLEMS    OF   EUGENICS  217 

tractiveness  to  become  married  and  to  have  children.  To  put  their  sup- 
posed superiority  in  figures,  let  us,  to  fix  our  ideas,  assume  that  they 
constituted  the  upper  fifty  per  cent,  of  their  generation.  The  other 
half  of  the  people  in  their  generation  have  left  no  living  descendants. 

Our  grandparents  were,  in  turn,  presumably  a  still  more  select 
class  of  the  generation  in  which  they  lived,  for  they  not  only  had  the 
vitality  to  become  parents  but,  in  every  single  case  they  possessed  the 
vitality  to  have  had  at  least  some  children  strong  enough  themselves  to 
beoonie  parents.  These  grandparents,  therefore,  unlike  our  parents 
were  not  simply  the  upper  fifty  per  cent,  of  their  generation  but,  let  us 
say,  the  upper  forty  per  cent.  Some  of  the  remaining  sixty  per  cent, 
had  children  but  their  progeny  ceased  there  and  did  not  ladt  to  the 
second  generation.  Likewise  our  great  grandparents  were  still  more 
select,  forming,  let  us  say,  the  upper  thirty  per  cent  of  their  gene- 
ration, the  other  seventy  per  cent  having  no  desoendantB  surviving 
through  three  generations  to  the  present  day.  And  so  the  further  back 
we  go  the  more  select  must  have  been  our  ancestors,  until  when  we 
reach  one  thousand  years  back  it  may  be  that  (if  there  were  only  a 
Eugenics  Record  Office  to  tell  us)  we  should  find,  say,  but  ten  per 
cent,  of  thai  generation  whb  had  left  any  descendants  in  ours.  Had  that 
ten  per  cent,  been  medically  selected  out  and  commissioned  to  shoot 
each  other  to  death  none  of  us  to-day  would  be  here  but  instead  there 
would  be  the  descendants  of  inferior  stock.  And  that  would  seem  to 
be  what  must  happen  a  thousand  years  hence.  Europe  will  be  in- 
habited by  the  descendants  of  second-rate  men  of  to-day  simply  because 
they  can  not  be  descendants  of  those  who  now  sleep  in  Flanders  Fields. 

But  such  pessimistic  conclusions  are  apt  to  be  rejected  as  too  ter- 
rible to  be  believed.  Hope  and  optimism  spring  eternal  in  the  human 
breast  Jeremiahs  and  Cassandras  are  always  unpopular.  If  the 
eugenic  argument  against  war  is  fallacious  it  should  be  disproved, 
while  if  it  is  correct  it  should  be  fortified  by  further  research. 

During  the  next  decade  there  should  be  a  wealth  of  statistical  ma- 
terial on  this  subject,  which  should  enable  us  not  only  to  demonstrate 
further  the  truth  but  to  bring  the  truth,  whatever  it  be,  home  to  the 
men  and,  more  particularly,  to  the  women  of  all  lands. 

It  may  be,  of  course,  that  the  bad  results  of  the  war  in  other  coun- 
tries will  be  neutralized  by  some  counterbalancing  good  results.  It 
is  one  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  human  behavior  to  react  so  to  an 
evil  as  to  convert  it  into  a  good.  We  did  not  have  safety  at  sea  until 
the  Titanic  disaster  had  opened  our  eyes  to  the  need.  New  York  City 
did  not  have  a  good  health  department  until  afflicted  by  an  epidemic. 
We  have  still  reason  to  hope  that  the  world  war  and  the  prospect  of 
another,  tenfold  more  horrible,  as  portrayed  in  Will  Irwin's  book 
Trhc  Next  War,'*  may  supply  the  needed  stimulus  to  organize  the 


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218  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

nations  into  an  '^association,'*  or  a  league,  or  the  league,  to  abolish  war 
or  at  least  to  minimize,  localize  and  control  it 

And  I  have  the  further  hope  that  the  results  of  the  eugenic  research 
in  this  field,  may  in  the  not  distant  future,  give  so  great  an  impetus 
to  eugenics  as  a  great  social  movonent  as  ultimately  to  neutralize  the 
dysgenic  effect  of  the  great  war. 

If  nothing  of  the  sort  happens  and  there  should  be  lacking  the 
brains  and  energy  to  accomplish  at  least  some  of  these  things,  then 
surely  the  dark  ages  lie  ahead  of  us.  The  Nordic  race  will,  as 
Madison  Crant  says,  vanish  or  lose  its  dominance  if,  in  fact,  the  whole 
human  race  does  not  sink  so  low  as  to  become  the  prey,  as  H.  G.  Wells 
imagines,  of  some  less  degenerate  animal! 

With  this  thought  in  view  we  should  perhaps  shudder  as  well  as 
laugh  at  the  reflections  of  Clarence  Day  in  his  entertaining  phantasy 
*This  Simian  World,"  where  he  observes  what  a  different  place  this 
world  would  be  if  its  masters,  instead  of  being  the  descendants  of 
anthropoid  apes,  vrere  the  descendants  of  lions  or  elephants,  or  other 
types  of  the  animal  kingdom! 

But  the  obvious  direct  effect  of  war  in  destroying  so  much  of  the 
best  germ  plasm  from  which  our  race  would  otherwise  be  largely  bred 
is  by  no  means  the  only  possible  d3rsgenic  effect  of  the  war.  Hrdlicka 
thinks  that  the  roar  of  artillery  and  the  other  excitements  of  battle  may 
make  such  an  impression  on  the  nervous  system  of  soldiers  as  to  affect 
injuriously  their  children. 

Similarly  there  should  be  considered  the  possible  effects  on  future 
generations  of  the  undernourishment  and  general  undercare  of  the 
children  and  other  noncombatants  who  will  be  the  parents  of  the  next 
generation. 

Dr.  Lorenz,  of  Viemia,  was  recently  quoted  as  saying  that  the  aver- 
age child  of  Vienna  is  about  four  inches  below  the  normal  height  and 
sixteen  and  a  half  pounds  below  the  normal  weight,  that  thousands  are 
suffering  from  rickets  and  not  infreqfuently  from  broken  bones  which 
have  given  way  because  of  their  unhealthy  condition. 

We  are  apt  to  shut  our  eyes  to  these  possibilities  of  race  damage 
from  the  unsanitary  environment  and  unhygienic  mode  of  life  brought 
about  in  Europe  by  the  war  because  of  the  widely  accepted  dictum  that 
acquired  characters  are  not  inherited.  On  this  assumption  we  are  in 
danger  of  jumping  to  the  conclusion  that  the  stunted,  rickety  or 
generally  decrepit  individuals  now  constituting  a  large  part,  probably 
a  majority,  of  the  European  population  will  have  children  just  as  large 
and  healthy  as  these  particular  parents  could  have  had  under  ordinary 
circumstances.  We  are  severely  told  that  rickets  and  broken  bones  are 
not  inherited. 

Conklin  says:    ^How  could  defective  nutrition,  which  leads  to  the 


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IMPENDING   PROBLEMS   OF   EUGENICS  219 

production  of  rickets,  afiPect  the  germ  cells,  which  contain  no  bones, 
so  as  to  produce  rickets  in  subsequent  generations,  although  well 
nourished?" 

But  granted  all  this  as  ^'gospel  truth,"  its  complacent  application  to 
the  existing  European  conditions  would  be  altogether  unjustified  and 
misleading. 

Conklin  himself,  on  the  very  next  page  after  that  from  which  I  have 
quoted,  expresses  an  important  qualification.  He  says  ^'that  unusual 
conditions  of  food,  temperature,  moisture,  etc.,  may  affect  the  germ 
cells  so  as  to  produce  general  and  indefinite  variations  in  offspring  is 
probable,  but  this  is  a  very  different  thing  from  the  inheritance  of 
acquired  characters." 

For  our  present  purposes,  however,  the  difference  is  small  and  the 
similarity  great.  If  the  depleted  vitality  of  Europe  is  to  show  in 
future  generations  it  is  just  as  much  depletion  whether  general  or 
specific,  whether  the  rickets  of  this  generation  will  be  followed  in  the 
next  by  rickets  or  by  tuberculosis  or  neuro-pathic  conditions  or  feeble- 
mindedness or  any  other  manifestation  of  damage  done.  From  a 
practical  point  of  view  the  question  is  whether  damage  to  the  present 
generation  will  still  be  damage  in  succeeding  generations,  and  not  the 
technical  question  of  whether  the  specific  form  of  that  later  damage 
will  be  the  same  as  of  the  present  damage.  Biologists  are  in  danger 
of  deluding  themselves  by  clinging  to  form  rather  than  substance  in 
this  instance  however  technically  correct  is  the  insistence  that  acquired 
characters  are  not  inherited. 

In  this  insistence  they  often  give  the  impression,  if  in  fact  they  do 
not  receive  it  themselves,  that  the  sins  and  misfortunes  of  this  gene- 
ration are  not  visited  on  the  next  Observations  and  experiments  on 
the  mutations  of  the  primrose,  of  yeast  and  of  insects  indicate  that 
environment  often  does  leave  permanent  marks  on  the  species.  Gy 
in  France  has  found  that  tobacco  not  only  damaged  the  animals  on 
which  he  experimented  but  their  offspring  as  well.  Van  der  Wolk 
found  that  maple  trees  injured  by  bacterial  infection  (rot)  gave  rise 
to  leaves  of  a  changed  color  and  to  flowers  which,  unlike  the  original, 
were  monosexual;  also  that  these  changes  were  transmitted.  The  bac- 
terial infection  thus  originated  a  new  species! 

One  great  field,  therefore,  for  eugenic  research  is  the  study  of  the 
extent  to  which  future  generations  are  damaged  because  of  damage  re- 
ceived by  their  parents  of  the  present  generation,  in  other  words  the 
extent  to  which  hygienic  or  unhygienic  conditions  for  the  individual 
are  eugenic  or  dysgenic  for  his  offspring — ^in  short,  the  extent  to  which 
hygiene  is  eugenic. 

If  it  be  true,  as  I  have  little  doubt,  that  the  recent  unhygienic  con- 
ditions of  war  are  sure  to  crystallize  into  permanent  dysgenic  condi- 


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220  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

tians  of  peace,  it  is,  by  the  same  token,  also  true  that  in  general  and 
quite  irrespective  of  the  war  eugenics  must  take  account  of  hygiene. 

Now  if  what  is  poison  to  the  individual  is  in  general  poison  to  the 
race,  if  what  helps  or  hurts  the  individual  in  his  own  life  leaves,  to 
some  extent,  a  beneficial  or  harmful  impress  on  posterity,  theb  the  im- 
portance of  eugenics  is  greatly  extended  and  it  becomes  a  task  of 
eugenic  research  to  study  the  extent  to  which  the  indbcreCions  and  bad 
environment,  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  good  habits  and  good  environ- 
ment, on  the  other,  affect  our  descendants.  And  it  becomes  a  mission 
of  the  eugenics  movement  to  discover  and  set  itself  against  race  poisons. 
These  may  include  not  only  alcohol,  habit-forming  drugs  and  infec- 
tions but,  if  Gy  is  right,  tobacco  and,  if  Kellogg  is  right,  even  tea  and 
coffee.  We  have  no  right,  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge,  to 
assume  that  these  are  harmless  to  the  race,  if  they  are  harmful  to  the 
individual. 

I  would  emphasize  this  partly  because,  so  far  as  I  have  any  right 
at  all  to  speak  as  a  eiigenist,  it  is  on  account  of  studies  in  the  neighbor- 
ing field  of  hygiene. 

Civilization  has  thrown  the  daily  life  of  the  individual  out  of  bal- 
ance, so  that  not  one  person  in  a  hundred  lives  what  might  be  called  a 
biologic  life.  He  is  insufficiently  exposed  to  the  air,  he  eats  too  fast 
and  often  too  much.  In  America  he  eats  far  too  much  protein  and 
far  too  little  bulk.  His  food  is  far  too  soft.  It  is  usually  lacking  in 
vitamines.  His  evacuations  are  too  infrequent,  his  posture  is  usually 
abnonnal  and  unhealthful.  His  activities  are  too  one-sided.  His  mind 
is  too  excited,  worried  and  hurried.  Worst  of  all,  he  is  the  unconscious 
victim  of  many  physical  poisons  and  infections.  The  examinations  of 
the  Life  Extension  Institute  show  some  physical  imperfections  in 
practically  every  person  examined.  And  the  average  man  is  blissfully 
unconscious  of  the  damage  he  thus  does  himself,  cumulatively,  day 
after  day  and  year  after  year.  Yet  this  damage  keeps  on  like  a  creep- 
ing fire  under  the  leaves  in  the  woods. 

Hygiene  and  eugenics  should  go  hand  in  hand.  They  are  really  both 
hygiene — one  individual  hygiene  and  the  other  race  hygiene — ^and  both, 
eugenics — one  indirectly  through  safeguarding  the  quality  of  the  germ 
plasm  and  the  other  directly  through  breeding. 

I  do  not  mean  to  assert  that  hygiene,  as  practiced,  is  necessarily 
eugenic.  It  may  well  be  true  that  misapplied  hygiene— hygiene  to  help 
the  less  fit — ^is  distinctly  dysgenic.  I  remember  being  astonished  at  the 
attitude  of  a  university  president,  who  became  very  enthusiastic  over 
the  triumph  of  hygiene  saying,  "I  know  of  a  girl  who  had  many  dis- 
abilities. She  had  a  surgical  operation  to  remedy  one  difficulty  and  a 
course  of  hygiene  to  remedy  others,  so  that  finally  she  was  so  repaired 
and  improved  as  to  be  converted  into  quite  a  respectable  human  being 


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IMPENDING   PROBLEMS   OF   EUGENICS  221 

and  now  she  is  married^  Schools  for  tubercular  children  give  them 
better  air  and  care  than  normal  school  children  receive.  Institutional 
care  of  defectives  often  surpasses  that  in  the  home. 

Eugenic  research  can  help  the  eugenic  cause  by  showing  the  folly 
of  such  differential  care  of  the  biologically  unfit,  especially  when  such 
differential  care  is  not  accompanied  by  safeguarding  against  the  mar- 
riage of  the  unfit  Undoubtedly  the  rule  of  eugenics  should  be  ^^to 
those  that  have  shall  be  given**  and  this  maxim  will  have  added  eugenic 
worth  the  more  it  can  be  shown  that  biologic  gifts  belong  not  only  to 
the  present  generation,  but  to  all  that  come  after. 

The  picture  of  this  world  and  especially  of  Europe  suggested  to 
our  minds  by  what  has  thus  far  been  said  is  that  population  is  increas- 
ing in  quantity  but  declining  in  quality. 

At  present  the  world  contains  seventeen  hundred  million  people 
and,  according  to  Professor  East,  its  population  is  increasing  by  about 
fifteen  millions  per  annum.  It  is  fast  filling  up  the  empty  spaces  of 
the  globe.  The  rapid  filling  up  of  North  America  during  the  last 
century  will  surely  be  followed  by  the  filling  up  of  South  America  and 
Africa  in  the  next  century. 

In  a  few  generations  as  Thompson  and  t^t  emphasize,  the  ex- 
pansion in  numbers  must  itself  approach  an  end.  Within  the  life  time 
of  many  living  there  will,  in  all  probability,  come  a  realization  such 
as  at  present  scarcely  exists  of  the  profound  truths  set  forth  by  Malthus 
at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  We  must  not  be  deceived 
by  the  exceptional  conditions  under  which  we  have  been  living  in  the 
last  two  or  three  centuries.  The  opening  up  of  America  gave  a  new 
outlet  for  population  and  reduced  and  postponed  the  operation  of 
Malthus*  checks  to  population.  Mechanical  inventions,  which  increased 
physical  productivity,  had  the  same  effect.  But  after  the  lands  now 
empty  are  full  and  those  now  waste  are  reclaimed  no  increase  of  the 
food-producing  area  of  the  globe  is  conceivable.  Nor  is  it  likely  that 
inventions  which  have  made  two  blades  of  wheat  grow  where  one  grew 
before  can  go  on  at  a  geometrical  progression  and  so  keep  pace  with 
the  biologically  possible  growth  of  population.  And  unless  this  be 
possible  population  must  necessarily  in  a  few  generations  oome  prac- 
tically to  a  halt,  either  by  the  relentless  check  of  an  increased  death 
rate  or  by  the  more  preventive  check  of  a  decreased  birth  rate. 

What  will  be  the  eugenic  significance  of  this  future  limiting  of 
population?  This  is  one  of  the  great  questions  for  eugenic  research. 
The  answer  will  doubtless  depend  largely  on  which  of  the  two  checks 
will  be  put  on  population,  whether  it  is  to  be  the  check  from  an  in- 
creased death  rate  operating  through  lack  of  subsistence  or  the  check 
from  a  decreased  birth  rate  operating  by  volition  of  parents. 

The  former  check  shown  by  Malthus  led  Darwin  to  conceive  his 


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222  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

theory  of  natural  selection,  which  in  turn  led  GalUm  to  suggest 
eugenics. 

In  so  far  as  the  future  check  on  population  is  to  be  of  this  kind, 
even  though  an  increased  death  rate  involve  much  misery,  the  presump- 
tion is  that,  on  the  whole,  it  will  be  eugenic  rather  than  dysgenic  in  its 
effects.  Those  should  survive  who  are  best  fitted  to  earn  a  livelihood. 
But  this  is,  as  the  critics  of  Malthus  complained,  a  dismal  outlook. 

The  operation  of  the  other  check  is  not  so  obvious.  To-day  we 
have,  in  a  way  and  to  a  degree  of  which  Malthus  probably  never  dream- 
ed, the  exercise  of  this  prudential  check  under  the  title  of  neo- 
Malthuftianism  or  birth-control. 

Until  recently  this  subject  was  not  discussed  in  the  open,  partly 
because  the  movement  had  not  gained  sufficient  momentum,  partly  be- 
cause of  the  conventional  reticence  on  all  matters  of  sex  and  partly 
because  of  the  continual  existence  (in  this  country  alone  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth)  of  laws  passed  at  the  instigation,  chiefly,  of 
Anthony  Comstock,  forbidding  the  dissemination  of  information  on 
birth-control. 

But  the  subject  is  one  especially  deserving  eugenic  research;  for,  of 
all  human  inventions,  those  relating  to  birth-control  probably  have  the 
most  direct  bearing  on  the  birth  rate  and  its  selective  possibilities. 

It  is  startling  to  think  that  the  sex  impulse  whidh  hitherto  has  been 
the  unerring  reliance  of  nature  to  insure  reproduction  can  no  longer 
be  relied  upon.  Some  insects  sacrifice  their  lives  to  reproduction. 
Nature  relies  on  their  blind  instinct  to  reproduce  regardless  of  any 
consequences  to  themselves.  If  we  could  suppose  such  an  insect  sud- 
denly to  be  given  an  option  in  the  matter  so  that  it  could  satisfy  its 
sex  impulse  without  the  consequences  of  offspring  or  of  immediate 
death  to  itself,  its  instinct  of  self-preservation  would  presumably  refuse 
to  make  the  ancient  sacrifice  and  the  species  would  perish  from  off  the 
earth. 

In  the  case  of  the  human  species  nature  demands  no  such  extreme 
sacrifice  of  the  mother;  if  this  were  the  case  birth  control  would  almost 
surely  mean  the  ultimate  extinction  of  the  human  race.  But  the  human 
mother  has  nevertheless  had  to  sacrifice  personal  comfort  and  both 
parents  have  had  to  sacrifice  some  economic  well-being  and  some  social 
ambitions  to  meet  the  obligations  of  parenthood.  Hitherto  the  only 
effective  ways  to  avoid  this  and  still  satisfy  the  sex  instinct  have  been 
infanticide  and  abortion.  Birth-control  offers  another  way,  easier, 
less  objectionable  and  therefore  destined  to  be  far  more  widely  prac- 
ticed among  civilized  peoples. 

This  is  largely  a  development  of  "feminism"  in  the  interests  of 
women.  It  opens  up  amazing  possibilities  of  race  extinction  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  of  race  betterment. 


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IMPENDING   PROBLEMS    OF   EUGENICS  223 

If  the  birth-control  exercised  by  individual  parents  could  itself  be 
controlled  by  a  eugenic  committee  it  could  undoubtedly  become  the 
surest  kad  most  supremely  important  means  of  improving  the  human 
race.  We  could  breed  out  the  unfit  and  breed  in  the  fit.  We  could  in 
a  few  generaticms  and,  to  some  extent  even  in  the  life  time  of  us  of 
to-day  conquer  degeneracy,  dependency  and  delinquency,  and  develop  a 
race  far  surpassing  not  only  our  own  but  the  ancient  Greeks. 

Thus  birth-control  is  like  an  automobile.  It  can  convey  us  rapidly 
in  any  direction.  As  now  practiced  which  way  is  it  carrying  us? 
Where  will  birth-control  really  take  us?  This  is  a  matter  for  eugenic 
research  to  settle.  There  are  three  possibilities:  (1)  it  may  cause 
depopulation  and  ultimately  bring  about  the  extinction  of  the  human 
race;  (2)  it  may  reduce  the  reproduction  of  the  prudent  and  intelligent 
and  the  economically  and  socially  ambitious,  leaving  the  future  race  to 
be  bred  out  of  the  imprudent,  unintelligent  and  happy-go-lucky  people, 
thus  resulting  in  race  degeneration;  or  (3)  it  may  cut  off  the  strain  of 
the  silly  and  selfish,  the  weak  and  inefficient  who  will  dispense  with 
children  for  the  very  good  reason  that  they  lack  the  physical  stamina 
or  the  economic  ability  to  support  a  large  family. 

The  advocates  of  birth-control  maintain,  with  much  show  of  reason, 
that  it  diminishes  poverty,  increases  efficiency,  prevents  damage  to  the 
mother's  health,  and  improves  the  health  and  education  of  the  children. 

What  does  history  tell  us  so  far?  The  best  opinion  seems  to  be  that 
in  Holland  birth-control  has  reduced  infant  mortality  by  making  better 
intervals  between  successive  children  and  by  increasing  their  size  and 
vigor  as  well  as  the  per  capita  wealth  of  the  country.  In  countries 
where  birth-control  has  been  exercised  only,  a  short  time  the  reduction 
in  the  total  number  of  births  has  been  accompanied  by  an  almost  equal 
reduction  in  the  total  number  of  deaths.  There  is  a  distinct  correlation 
between  the  death  rate  and  the  birth  rate  so  that  a  moderate  amount  of 
birth-control  need  not  reduce  much,  if  at  all,  the  rate  of  increase  of 
population.  In  Russia,  Roumania,  Bulgaria  and  Serbia,  presumably 
without  birth-control  and  where  the  birth  rates  are  forty  or  fifty  per 
thousand,  there  is  an  increase  of  population  between  fifteen  and  twenty 
per  thousand,  and  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  with  birth  control 
and  where  the  birth  rates  are  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  per  thousand, 
there  is  substantially  the  same  rate  of  increase.  When  birth-control 
in  these  last  named  countries  has  been  in  use  longer  and  more  generally 
the  same  effects  as  in  France  may  perhaps  be  expected.  In  France 
population  was  actually  declining  before  the  war,  a  situation  realized 
in  no  other  country,  except  in  the  time  of  the  World  War,  when  it  was 
temporarily  true  of  Ejigland,  Serbia  and  some  other  countries. 

It  is  worth  noting  here  that  if  feminism  is  to  have  a  depopulating 
effect  the  first  element  it  will  extinguish  is  the  feminist  element  itself. 


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224  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

So  far  as  it  elevates  woman,  feminism  is  to  be  commended.  But  friends 
of  womankind  should  heed  well  the  warning  of  some  other  movements 
which  contained  the  seeds  of  their  own  destruction.  "Shakerism**  killed 
itself  because  it  shunned  marriage.  Feminism  may  kill  itself  if  it  shuns 
children.  A  bragging  feminist  recently  referred  to  the  old  child- 
bearing  women  as  a  type  which  has  disappeared  below  the  historical 
horizon.  If  it  has,  then  the  type  which  will  not  bear  children  will 
surely  disappear  in  its  turn  just  because  it  will  have  no  children  in  its 
own  image. 

The  world's  experience  with  birth-control  thus  far  does  seem  to 
show  that  the  average  family  which  practices  it  does  not  practice  it  in 
the  required  moderation.  Dublin  has  shown  that,  under  present  condi- 
tions, it  takes  an  average  of  about  four  children  in  the  family  for  the 
upkeep  of  population.  An  average  of  three  means  decrease  of  popula- 
tion and  an  average  of  five  means  increase  of  population. 

But  aside  from  the  danger  of  depopulation  as  shown  in  France  is 
the  question  of  the  kind  of  selective  birth  rate  which  birth-control  will 
bring  about.  Will  this  be  a  good  or  a  bad  selection?  As  birth-control 
leaves  births  to  human  dioice  instead  of  to  instinct,  many  jump  to  the 
conclusion  that  this  is  necessarily  a  step  forward.  But  whether  it  is  or 
not  depends  on  how  this  human  choice  will  actually  operate. 

Professor  McDougall  has  given  reason  to  believe  that  the  present 
occupational  stratification  of  society  corresponds  roughly  to  the 
stratification  of  intelligence;  that  the  four  classes,  (1)  professional 
men  and  business  executives,  (2)  other  business  men,  (3)  skilled  work- 
men and  (4)  unskilled  workmen  represent  on  the  whole  four  classes  of 
human  beings  graded  as  to  innate  mental  ability.  The  college  gradu- 
ate means  the  professional  man  and  business  executive. 

Cattell  finds  that  the  average  Harvard  graduate  is  the  father  of 
three-fourths  of  a  son  and  the  average  Vassar  graduate  the  mother  of 
one-half  of  a  daughter  and  that  the  average  family  of  American  men 
of  science  is  only  2.22  as  compared  with  an  average  of  4.66  for  the 
country.  Popenoe  and  Johnson  give  similar  results  sununarizing  many 
statistical  studies  of  Yale,  Harvard,  and  other  educational  instituti<ms« 

At  present,  then,  our  educational  system  seems  to  be  destroying  the 
very  material  on  which  it  works!  Colleges  seem  to  be  engines  for  the 
mental  suicide  of  the  human  race!  Are  the  colleges  of  to-day  sterilize 
ing  our  scholars  as  did  the  monasteries  and  nunneries  of  the  middle 
ages?  Sudi  race  suicide  of  scientific  and  educated  men  and  of  the  well- 
to-do  classes  means  that  their  places  will  speedily  be  taken  by  the  un- 
intelligent, uneducated  and  inefficient. 

Up  to  the  present  time,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  birth-control  has  done 
harm  to  the  race,  exactly  in  the  same  way  as  has  the  war. 

But  it  is  plain  that  the  extension  of  birth-control  to  all  classes  will 
tend  to  rectify  this  condition.     At  present  it  is  practiced  only  in  the 


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IMPENDING   PROBLEMS    OF   EUGENICS  225 

upper  one  or  two  of  the  four  strata  which  McDougall  distinguishes  in 
his  statistics.  Its  extension  is  rapidly  going  on,  thanks  to  the  propa- 
ganda of  Sanger,  Drysdale  and  others  and  will  inevitably  include  all 
classes  eventually.  It  is  therefore  too  early  to  condenm  utterly  birth- 
control.  It  may  still  prove  to  be  a  great  instrument  for  eugenic  im- 
provement. 

It  will  probably  require  long  years  of  research  to  determine  what 
the  ultimate  effect  will  be.  The  hypothesis  which  now  seems  to  be 
probable  is  that  there  will  be  three  stages. 

The  first  effect  of  birth-control  seems,  as  has  been  said,  distinctly 
bad  because  it  is  first  practised  by  the  intelligent  class  and  is,  for  that 
class,  as  Mr.  Rgosevelt  said,  "race  suicide." 

The  second  effect  will  be  that  where  birth-control  is  practised  among 
all  classes,  as  has  almost  been  the  case  in  France,  an  actual  decline  in 
population  will  occur  which  will  seem  alarming. 

The  third  effect  may  then  follow.  It  is  a  rapid  repopulation  from 
the  small  minority  of  the  strongest,  most  efficient,  and  the  most  child- 
loving  and  altruistic  persons  of  the  population.  We  all  know  people 
who,  though  fully  aware  of  the  possibilities  of  birth-control,  never- 
theless cb  not  practise  it  or  do  not  practise  it  to  excess,  but  rear  large 
old-fashioned  families  because  they  love  children,  can  afford  to  have 
them,  and  have  no  physical  or  economic  difficulties  in  bearing  and  rais- 
ing them.  These  vigorous  champions  of  humanity  will  doubtless 
possess  not  only  physical  strength  but  the  intelligence  necessary  to  earn 
a  sufficient  livelihood  to  justify  their  choice  of  having  large  families. 

Whenever  civilizations  have  decayed,  and  many  probably  have  done 
so  from  race  suicide,  their  places  have  been  taken  by  strong  and 
fecund  invaders.  In  the  case  of  birdi-control  the  invasion  need  not 
OMne  from  outside.  It  may  come  from  inside  the  decadent  nation 
itself.  It  is  said  that,  in  this  way,  the  Breton  portion  of  the  French 
population  is  replacing  the  other  portions.  Multiplying  by  geometrical 
progression,  a  tenth  part  of  our  population  can  in  a  few  generations  of 
large  families  fill  up  all  the  gaps  made  by  birth-control  and  make  a 
stronger  race  than  we  ever  have  had.  Should  this  rosy  prospect 
actually  work  out  in  the  twenty-first  or  twenty-second  century,  birth- 
control  would  go  down  in  human  histor}%  like  the  flood  in  the  Bible,  as 
a  means  first  of  wiping  out  the  old  world  and  then  replacing  it  by  a 
new,  from  the  best  seeds  of  the  old. 

At  any  rate,  while  there  are  undoubtedly  grave  possibilities  of  evil 
facing  us  in  birth-control,  we  must  not  be  misled  by  averages.  The 
average  Harvard  graduate  may  not  reproduce  his  kind,  but  among 
thousands  of  college  graduates  there  will  almost  certainly  be  found  a 
few  who  do  and  by  geometrical  progression  the  few  can  become  the 
majority. 

VOL.  XUI.— 15. 


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226  THE    SCIENTIFIC    MONTHLY 

An  apparent  objection  to  this  forecast  is  that  the  most  reckless 
will  practice  birth-control  the  least  and  so  will  haye  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  children.  But  this  objection  may  possibly  be  answered  by  the 
fact  that  such  people  will  soon  become  public  charges,  as  paupers  for 
instance,  and  that  we  may  then  stop  their  reproduction  by  enforcing 
celibacy,  segr^ating  the  sexes. 

But  the  truth  is  that  we  can  not  yet  tell  what  will  ultimately  happen 
as  the  net  result  of  birth-control,  whether  race  degeneracy,  depopula- 
tion, or  race  improvement  or,  as  I  have  suggested,  all  three  in 
succession. 

One  of  the  claims  of  enthusiastic  advocates  of  birth-control  is  that 
it  will  help  save  us  from  further  war  because  it  will  save  us  from  that 
pressure  of  population  which  results  in  imperialistic  ambitions.  Hux- 
ley and  others  are  quoted  to  support  the  view  that  pressure  of  popula- 
tion and  the  need  of  an  outlet  for  surplus  population  lie  b^ind  emigra- 
tion, colonization,  conquest  and  war.  It  is  inferred  thi^  the  real  remedy 
for  the  yellow  peril  or  the  "rising  tide  of  color"  must  consist  in  the 
extension  of  birth-control  to  the  Orient  How  much  truth  there  is  in 
this  view  is  a  matter  for  eugenic  research  to  determine.  The  same 
argument  for  extending  birth-control  to  other  nations  applies  as  for 
extending  it  to  other  races  within  our  own. 

At  present  the  white  race  is  still  increasing  faster  than  the  other 
races  but  it  is  easy  to  see  that  birth-control  will  soon  put  an  end  to 
this  unless  birth-control  is  extended  from  the  white  race  to  the  colored. 
Birth-control,  war  and  immigration  are  certainly  associated  problems. 

Economically,  immigration  of  cheap  labor  is  beneficial  (initially  at 
least)  to  capital  and  injurious  (initially  at  least)  to  native  labor. 
The  conflict  between  these  two  interests,  of  capital  and  of  labor,  consti- 
tutes most  of  what  is  ordinarily  included  in  the  immigration  problem. 

The  core  of  the  problem  of  immigration  is,  however,  one  of  race 
and  eugenics,  despite  the  fact  that  in  the  eighteen  volumes  of  the  report 
of  the  Immigration  Commission  scarcely  any  attention  is  given  to  this 
aspect  of  the  inmiigration  problem.  If  we  could  leave  out  of  account 
the  question  of  race  and  eugenics  I  should,  as  an  economist,  be  in- 
clined  to  the  view  that  unrestricted  immigration,  although  injurious  to 
some  classes,  is  economically  advantageous  to  a  country  as  a  whole, 
and  still  more  to  the  world  as  a  whole.  But  such  a  view  would  ignore 
the  supremely  important  factors. 

The  character  of  the  present  immigration  will  make  a  great  differ* 
ence  in  the  character  of  our  future  inhabitants. 

Between  1788  and  1840  Elngland  sent  many  of  its  undesirables  to 
Botany  Bay,  near  Sydney,  Australia,  and  to-day  the  excessively  large 
slums  of  Sydney  are,  according  to  the  findings  of  Dr.  Davenport,  to  a 
large  extent  the  progeny  of  those  undesirables.    At  present  the  United 


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IMPENDING   PROBLEMS   OF   EUGENICS  227 

States  inherits,  both  socially  and  biologically,  probably  as  much  from 
the  eighty  thousand  original  immigrants,  who,  Benjamin  Franklin 
said,  had  come  to  this  country  up  to  1741,  as  from  all  the  other  im- 
migrants since  that  time.  Our  problem  is  to  make  the  most  of  this 
inheritance.  We  can  not  do  so  if  that  racial  stock  is  overwhelmed  by 
the  inferior  stock  which  ^^assisted"  immigration  has  recently  brought 
If  we  allow  ourselves  to  be  a  dumping  ground  for  relieving  Europe 
of  its  burden  of  defectives,  delinquents  and  dependents,  while  such 
action  might  be  said  to  be  hmnane  for  the  present  gaieration,  it  would 
be  quite  contrary  to  the  interests  of  humanity  for  the  future.  Not 
only  should  we  be  giving  these  undesirable  citizens  far  greater  oppor- 
tunity to  multiply  than  they  had  at  home,  but  we  would  be  taking  away 
the  checks  on  the  multiplication  of  those  left  at  home.  It  would 
be  a  step  backward,  a  step  towards  populating  the  earth  with  defectives, 
delinquents  and  dependents.  That  the  foreign  bom  multiply  faster 
than  the  native  stock  has  been  shown  by  the  Immigration  Commission 
and  by  East,  Dublin,  Baker  and  others.  There  is  great  danger,  there- 
fore, not  only  to  this  country,  but  to  the  whole  world,  of  injuring  the 
germ  plasm  of  the  human  race  by  the  indiscriminate  immigration  of 
recent  times.  The  best  service  we  can  render,  not  only  to  ourselves,  but 
in  the  end  to  those  very  nations  which  would  feign  empty  their  alms- 
houses, asylums  and  prisons  on  us,  is  to  prevent  their  doing  so.  In 
the  words  of  Professor  Ross  in  "The  Old  World  in  the  New": 

I  am  not  of  those  who  consider  humanity  and  forget  the  nation,  who 
pity  the  living  but  not  the  unborn.  To  me,  those  who  are  to  come  after  us 
stretch  forth  beseeching  hands  as  well  as  do  the  masses  on  the  other  side  of 
the  globe.  Nor  do  I  regard  America  as  something  to  be  spent  quickly  and 
cheerfully  for  the  benefit  of  pent-up  millions  in  the  backward  lands.  What 
if  we  become  crowded  without  their  ceasing  to  be  so?  I  regard  it  (America) 
as  a  nation  whose  future  may  be  of  unspeakable  value  to  the  rest  of  man- 
kind, provided  that  the  easier  conditions  of  life  here  be  made  permanent  by 
high  standards  of  living,  institutions,  and  ideals  which  finally  may  be  appro- 
priated by  all  men.  We  could  have  helped  the  Chinese  a  little  by  letting 
their  surplus  millions  swarm  in  upon  us  a  generation  ago;  but  we  have 
helped  them  infinitely  more  by  protecting  our  standards  and  having  some- 
thing worth  their  copying  when  the  time  came. 

What  has  been  said  applies  to  immigration  even  from  countries  of 
our  own  race. 

The  problem  of  Oriental  immigration  has  a  somewhat  special 
character.  It  involves  race  prejudice  and  impossibility  of  assimilation, 
socially  and  racially.  The  arguments  usually  brought  forward  in  this 
connection  are  largely  partisan  and  inconsistent.  The  Japanese  immi- 
grant in  California  is  hated  as  belonging  to  an  inferior  race,  on  the  one 
hand,  and,  on  the  other  because  his  industry,  frugality  and  intelligence 
are  such  that  the  native  laborer  can  not  compete  with  him.  In  other 
words  he  is  hated  both  because  he  is  inferior  and  because  he  is  superior. 


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228  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

Of  him  I  would  say,  as  of  immigrants  generally,  that  from  a  narrow, 
shortsighted  economic  point  of  view,  his  immigration  should  be  en- 
couraged, but  if  we  should  let  down  the  bars  for  Oriental  immigration, 
under  modern  conditions  of  rapid  transportation,  the  country  might  be 
inundated  with  Chinese,  Japanese  and  Hindoos.  We  should  then  lose 
even  that  modest  degree  of  politioal  solidarity  which  we  now  possess. 
There  would  probably  be  a  demoralization  and  disintegration  of  our 
general  social  structure  and,  what  most  concerns  us,  we  should  add 
to  our  present  southern  and  black  race  problem  a  western  and  yellow 
race  problem;  race  wars,  lynchings  and  massacres,  such  as  we  have 
just  been  witnessing  would  ensue.  Ultimately,  if  not  speedily,  actual 
war  with  a  United  Asia  would  undoubtedly  be  brought  about.  What 
Japan  has  done  in  one  generation,  China  can  do  in  the  next  And  when 
China  is  fully  equipped  with  battleships,  machine  guns,  aeroplanes  and 
poisonous  gases,  she  and  Japan  could  possibly  conquer  the  whole 
white  world. 

We  have  often  laughed  at  the  yellow  "peril"  especially  when  it  was 
the  nightmare  of  the  Kaiser.  But  later  he  showed  us  what  peril  vfiay 
be  in  even  one  comparatively  small  nation.  To-day  the  yellow 
color  peril  is  the  subject  of  a  seriously  alarming  book  by  Lothrop  Stod- 
dard, ^The  Rising  Tide  of  Color."  It  is  in  the  thoughts  of  many  far- 
seeing  people  on  the  Pacific  coast.  Under  unrestricted  immigration, 
within  a  century  a  majority  of  this  country  might  become  Oriental, 
especially  if  we  commit  race  suicide.  It  would  require  only  a  few 
years  for  millions  to  enter  and  by  geometrical  progression  it  requires 
only  a  few  generations  for  millions  to  become  scores  or  hundreds  of 
millions. 

What  has  been  said  is  from  the  point  of  view  of  our  own  white  race 
and  American  nationality.  Theoretically  and  academically  it  may  be 
that  true  eugenics  for  the  human  race  as  a  whole  may  favor  some  other 
race  than  ours,  and  that,  say,  yellow  domination  rather  than  white 
domination,  may,  in  some  distant  future,  be  the  ideal  domination.  But 
we  can  not  be  expected,  especially  in  the  absence  of  any  proof  that  we 
are  an  inferior  race,  to  act  on  that  assumption  and  quietly  lie  down  and 
let  some  other  race  run  over  us. 

Again,  it  is  possible  that  the  ideal  for  remotely  future  ages  may  be 
a  human  race  which  is  a  mixture  of  all  existing  human  races.  That  is 
also  a  subject  for  eugenic  research.  The  solution,  for  instance,  of  the 
Jewish  problem,  if  such  exists,  may  be  their  racial  assimilation.  But 
if  such  a  mixture  is  ever  effected,  especially  a  mixture  of  widely  dif- 
ferent races,  it  must  come  slowly.  We  can  not  ignore  race  prejudice, 
and  any  sudden  mixture  is  sure  to  produce  an  unstable  compound, 
which  will  blow  up  in  race  war  and  social  demoralization.  Professor 
East  believes  that  die  black  and  white  mixture  in  Africa  will  be  one  of 


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IMPENDING   PROBLEMS    OF   EUGENICS  229 

the  greatest  of  race  problems  three  generations  hence.  The  obvious 
safeguard  at  present  is  restriction  of  immigration  of  a  drastic  kind. 
This  should  be  done  tactfully  and  reasonably.  As  Stoddard  points  out, 
if  the  white  world  does  not  wish  to  be  dominated  by  the  world  of  color 
it  ought  to  cease  its  own  attempts  at  dominating  the  latter. 

Of  the  great  problems  which  I  mentioned  at  the  outset,  I  have 
sketched  briefly  the  problems  of  war,  hygiene,  birth-control  and  im- 
migration in  their  relations  to  eugenics. 

The  results  of  a  cursory  bird's  eye  view  seem  to  indicate  that  much 
of  what  we  call  progress  is  an  illusion  and  that  really  we  are  slipping 
backwards  while  we  seem  to  be  moving  forwards.  Human  ambitions 
under  the  opportunities  afforded  by  civilization  seem  to  sacrifice  the 
race  to  the  individual.  We  congregate  in  great  cities  and  pile  up  great 
wealth  but  are  conquered  by  our  very  luxury.  We  seek  imperial  power 
and  not  only  damage  but  destroy  our  germ  plasm  in  war.  We  seek 
social  status  and  education  but  limit  motherhood.  Like  moths  attracted 
by  a  candle,  we  fly  toward  the  glamour  of  wealth  and  power  and 
destroy  ourselves  in  the  act 

In  concluding  this  telescopic  review  of  big  eugenic  problems,  I  may 
be  permitted  to  point  out  the  directions  in  which  it  seems  to  me  we  may 
hope  for  remedies. 

If  it  be  granted  that  war  is  dysgenic,  then  a  League  or  Association 
of  Nations  which  will  prevent  or  minimize  war  is  an  important  eugenic 
device. 

If  it  be  true  that  birth-control  among  the  intelligent  is  due,  to  a 
certain  extent,  to  the  fact  that  children  are  an  economic  handicap. 
Professor  McDougalFs  suggestion  of  putting  an  economic  premium  on 
large  families  among  the  fit  ought  not  to  be  overlooked.  A  millionaire 
like  Carnegie,  instead  of  pensioning  professors  or  rewarding  heroes, 
might  subsidize  children  among  a  specific  group  of  biologically  fit  to 
be  determined  by  a  committee  of  award.  Ultimately  when  public  opin- 
ion is  ripe,  the  government  might  subsidize  the  children  of  school 
teachers  also  instead  of,  as  is  at  present  sometimes  the  practice,  dis- 
charging women  school  teachers  if  they  marry. 

Coeducation  In  colleges  ought  not  to  go  unmentioned  as  promising 

somewhat  to  increase  the  marriage  rate  among  college  graduates. 

S^regation  of  the  sexes  in  public  institutions  is  a  eugenic  device 

of  undoubted  value.    It  does  no  violence  to  our  humanitarian  ideas  to 

take  care  of  the  present  crop  of  undesirables  on  condition  that  they 

shall  not  act  as  seeds  for  future  crops. 

If  it  be  granted  that,  from  our  standpoint  at  least,  indiscriminate 

ixnmigration  is  dysgenic,  a  discriminating  exclusion  must  be  eugenic. 

Laughlin's  proposal  of  having  aliens  examined  in  their  home  town  for 

mental  and  other  defects  is  full  of  promise:    The  proposal  of  registra- 


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230  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

tion  of  immigrants  and  then  deporting  and  purging  the  country  of  the 
most  undesirable  among  thrai  as  soon  as  these  undesirables  turn  up 
later  at  feeble-minded  and  other  institutions  is  likewise  full  of  promise. 

Doubtless  much  can  be  added  to  this  meager  program  as  a  conse- 
quence of  eugenic  research  and  some  things  may  be  subtracted  from  it 

But,  in  order  to  lead  to  anything  practical  and  e£fective  eugenic  re- 
search must  be  followed  by,  and  in  fact  accompanied  by,  some  far- 
reaching  publicity.  I  mean  that  there  must  be  a  di£fusion  of  the  knowl- 
edge gained  and,  what  is  far  more  important  from  the  standpoint  of 
securing  action,  a  diffusion  of  a  sense  of  the  pre-eminent  importance  of 
eugenics.  Finding  ourselves  in  the  shadow  of  the  Great  War,  in  a 
world  damaged  by  that  war  and  by  the  other  causes  of  degeneracy 
which  have  been  mentioned,  we  can  not  stand  silently  by  and  see  the 
general  public  enjoying  a  fooFs  Paradise.  In  the  bliss  of  ignorance 
they  mistake  economic  production  and  expansion  for  genuine  progress 
and,  with  the  best  of  intentions  are,  we  fear,  paving  the  road  to  hell. 

There  are  millions  of  people  in  the  world  to-day  whose  enthusiastic 
support  for  eugenics  could  probably  be  obtained  at  the  price  of  a  little 
publicity.  We  now  have  a  golden  opportunity  that  should  not  be 
missed. 

One  means  of  enlightening  the  public  is  through  increasing  in- 
terest in  hygiene,  especially  individual  hygiene.  Charity  begins  at  home 
and,  psydiologically,  the  only  route  to  race  hygiene  is  through  indi- 
vidual hygiene. 

The  teaching  of  both  hygiene  and  eugenics  in  schools  and  colleges 
merely  enough  to  show  the  elements  of  both,  including  the  Mendelian 
principles  of  heredity  and  the  responsibility  of  each  person  to  the  race, 
will  appeal  alike  to  self  interest  and  to  that  idealism  which  is  always 
present  in  young  people  whose  lives  lie  ahead  of  them.  Just  as  the 
Catholic  church  proselytes  by  getting  children  at  the  formative  age, 
just  as  prohibition  got  its  grounding  in  the  public  schools,  so  hygiene 
and  eugenics  can  become  the  life-long  possession  of  the  next  generation 
if  inserted  in  the  school  books  of  the  present  generation. 

In  our  public  schools  should  also  be  included  eduoalioDal  and 
mental  measurements.  They  are  rapidly  coming  into  use  in  our  col- 
leges and  universities  throughout  the  nation.  They  emphasize  indi- 
vidual differences  and  will  serve  to  correct  the  view  that  **men  are 
created  equal"  in  the  biological  sense  while  leaving  them  equal  in  op- 
portunity before  the  law. 

We  may  hope  that  the  proposed  national  Department  of  Public 
Welfare  will  spread  knowledge  in  regard  to  scientific  ^^humaniculture'' 
as  knowledge  of  scientific  agriculture  has  been  spread  through  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture. 

Another  vehicle  or  starting  point  which  should  not  be  forgotten  is 


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IMPENDING   PROBLEMS   OF   EUGENICS  231 

the  coming  International  Congress  of  Eugenics  in  the  fall.  Extraordin- 
ary pains  should  be  taken  to  see  that  the  newspaper,  magazine  and 
moving  picture  publicity  in  regard  to  that  congress  may  be  adequate 
and  effective.  This  congress  should  be  followed  up  by  an  organized 
movement  for  general  publicity  on  eugenics.  This  may,  or  may  not, 
be  the  proper  function  of  the  Eugenics  Research  Association.  If  it  is 
not,  a  new  association  should  be  started  as  a  go-between  to  connect 
scientific  research  with  the  public. 

Needless  to  say,  in  any  propaganda  care  must  be  exercised  to  pre- 
vent the  hasty  endorsement  of  unproved  methods  and  theories.  But 
there  is  ample  basis  already  for  a  movement  the  initial  purpose  of 
which  will  not  be  so  much  a  detailed  specific  program  as  a  general 
spread  of  the  idea  that  eugenics  is  the  hope  of  the  world.  Details  can 
wait.  Where  there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way  and  without  a  will  there  is 
oeortainly  no  way  at  all.  While  eugenic  science  is  painfully  finding 
the  way  there  is  ample  work  for  a  propaganda  organization  to  secure 
the  will. 

I  believe  in  Galton's  idea  that  eugenics  must  be  a  religion.  It  will 
prove  a  wonderful  touchstone  by  which  to  distinguish  between  what  is 
racially  and  radically  right  and  what  is  racially  and  radically  wrong. 
It  will  bring  home  to  parents  the  thought  that  much,  if  not  all,  of  their 
conduct  may  be  fraught  with  future  significance  for  their  children 
and  children's  children.  It  will  throw  its  searchlight  into  every  nook 
and  cranny  in  the  life  of  the  individual  and  of  society. 

Therefore  it  will  help  mould  all  human  institutions.  Especially  will 
it  help  mould  that  fundamental  institution,  human  marriage.  While 
marriage  is  a  most  intensely  individual  and  private  matter,  it  has 
been  regarded,  from  time  immemorial,  as  of  vital  concern  to  society. 
Around  this  great  institution  of  human  marriage  have  always  clustered 
many  sorts  of  folkways.  In  civilized  times  the  law  has  made  legitimate 
marriage  a  binding  contract  and  religion  has  given  it  its  divine  blessing. 
It  now  remains  for  science  which  in  so  many  other  ways  is  remodeling 
the  whole  modern  world,  to  affix  its  seal  of  approval. 

And  just  as  law  and  religion  discriminate  and  refuse  their  seal  of 
approval  to  alliances  which  are  found  to  be  improper  from  their  re- 
spective viewpoints,  so  must  science  discriminate.  Dysgenic  marriages 
must  be  discountenanced  just  as  bigamous  or  incestuous  marriages  are 
discountenanced. 

In  thus  withholding  or  giving  a  coveted  approval  eugenic  science 
will  elevate  maiTiage  in  its  way  as  greatly  as  have  law  and  religion  in 
theirs.  It  will  shed  the  light  of  reason  on  the  primeval  instinct  of  re- 
production. It  will  exalt  what  is  already  a  "legal  contract**  and  "holy 
matrimony**  into  a  dedication  of  all  we  are  to  what  we  want  posterity 
toJi>e. 


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222  THE    SCIENTIFIC    MONTHLY 


A  FEW  QUESTIONABLE  POINTS  IN  THE  HISTORY 
OF  MATHEMATICS 

By  Professor  G.   A.   MILLER 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

MOST  of  the  professional  mathematical  historians  have  been  base- 
ment builders  and  many  of  our  general  histories  of  mathe- 
matics remind  one  of  the  church  buildings  which  consist  of  a  basement 
roofed  over  while  funds  for  completing  the  structure  are  being  awaited. 
In  some  cases,  such  as  Cantor*s  noted  Vorlesungen  uber  Geschichte  der 
Mathematik,  the  beisement  is  not  even  roofed  over. 

In  fact,  the  work  of  Cantor  might  remind  one  in  a  mild  way  of  the 
following  statement  in  the  Scriptures:  "This  man  began  to  build  and 
was  not  able  to  finish.*'  If  it  is  true  that  about  fifteen  volumes  would 
be  required  in  order  to  cover  the  developments  of  the  nineteenth 
century  as  completely  as  Cantor  covered  the  period  up  to  the  begin- 
ning of  this  century,  as  is  suggested  in  the  preface  to  Volume  1  of 
Didcson's  "History  of  the  Theory  of  Numbers,"  1919,  it  results  that 
Cantor  did  not  complete  one-fifth  of  the  job  of  writing  a  general  history 
of  mathematics  up  to  the  end  of  his  scientific  activity. 

It  seems  questionable  whether  a  basement  history,  even  when  the 
basement  is  roofed  by  slight  attention  to  the  developments  of  the 
nineteenth  and  the  twentieth  centuries,  is  the  most  suitable  history  to 
place  in  the  hands  of  the  young  student.  Present  day  activities  in 
mathematics  have  received  entirely  too  little  attention  even  on  the  part 
of  the  students  who  specialize  in  this  subject. 

A  considerable  number  of  questions  in  the  history  of  mathematics 
have  been  answered  diflFerently  by  different  writers  and  hence  this  sub- 
ject offers  unusual  opportunities  for  the  exercise  of  judgment  and  for 
argumentation.  To  sOTie  this  may  appear  to  be  an  attractive  feature 
since  disputation  has  long  been  recognized  as  a  useful  educational 
exercise  and  elementary  mathematics  presents  comparatively  few  ques- 
tions to  which  different  answers  have  been  given  by  good  recent  writers. 
Hence  the  student  of  this  subject  is  inclined  to  confine  his  attention 
too  closely  to  questions  which  can  be  answered  definitely. 

It  is  not  the  object  of  the  present  paper  to  give  a  definite  answer 
to  some  of  the  questions  which  have  been  in  dispute  for  a  long  time 
but  rather  to  direct  attention  to  a  few  more  questions  which  seem  to  be 


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QUESTIONABLE  POINTS  IN  HISTORY  OF  MATHEMATICS   233 

open  to  dispute,  in  the  hope  that  the  interest  in  these  questions  may 
thereby  be  increased  and  the  interest  in  the  history  of  our  subject 
may  thus  be  fostered.  In  the  main  the  present  writer  will  present  here 
arguments  exhibiting  a  point  of  view  which  is  not  in  accord  with  the 
one  presented  in  the  second  edition  of  Cajori's  "History  of  Mathe- 
matics," 1919,  and  our  references  to  pages  relate  to  this  work. 

On  page  142  it  is  stated  that  "the  foremost  French  mathematician 
before  Vieta  was  Peter  Ramus  (1515-1572),  who  perished  in  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew.''  It  can  not  be  assumed  that  the  fact  that 
Ramus  perished  during  the  massacre  of  St  Bartholomew  constitutes  a 
a  claim  to  mathematical  fame  since  thousands  of  others  were  then  slain, 
but  one  consults  the  index  of  Gijori's  history  in  vain  for  other  reasons 
for  calling  Ramus  the  foremost  French  mathematician  before  Vieta. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  the  history  of  many  a  country  there 
is  a  record  of  some  mathematician  who  is  very  much  better  known  than 
any  of  his  predecessors  in  the  same  country.  As  instances  we  may  cite 
Newton  in  England,  Leibniz  in  Germany,  Napier  in  Scotland,  Abel  in 
Norway,  etc.  In  some  cases  very  little  is  known  about  any  of  the 
predecessors  of  such  a  man  in  the  country  in  question.  For  instance, 
C.  A.  Gibson  stated  that  before  Napier  (1550-1617)  Scotland  made  not 
a  single  contribution  to  mathematical  science  ^.  In  case  more  is  known 
about  the  predecessors  of  such  a  man  it  is  a  question  of  some  interest 
to  inquire  into  the  relative  merits  of  their  contributions. 

Hence  one  is  naturally  interested  in  knowing  something  about  the 
work  of  the  French  predecessors  of  Vieta  who  is  doubtless  much  better 
known  than  any  of  these  predecessors.  Among  these  there  are,  in  addi- 
tion to  Ramus,  such  favorably  known  men  as  N.  Oresme  and  N. 
Chuquet.  The  reader  who  recalls  the  many  references  to  the  works  of 
the  last  two  mathematicians  (e.  g.,  on  page  14  of  tome  3,  volume  3,  of 
the  "Encyclopedic  des  Sciences  Mathematiques"  G.  Enestrom  notes  that 
a  work  by  Oresme  serves  as  a  graphic  preamble  to  the  introduction  of 
analytic  geometry)  will  naturally  wonder  why  Ramus  is  placed  ahead 
of  them  in  both  editions  of  Cajori's  "History  of  Mathematics.'' 

It  is  true  that  Ramus  is  better  known  in  general  than  Oresme  or 
(^uquet,  but  Ramus  is  known  principally  on  account  of  his  attacks  on 
the  accepted  views  of  his  day  and  not  on  account  of  his  contributions 
towards  the  advancement  of  mathematics.  In  mathematics  he  also 
exhibited  his  quarrelsome  disposition  but  he  failed  even  to  understand 
the  more  subtle  points  involved  in  some  of  the  mathematical  methods 
which  he  attacked.  He  emphasized  the  importance  of  teaching  the 
practical  methods  of  calculation  employed  by  the  merchants  of  the 
street  and  his  mathematics  was  of  the  business  college  type  rather  than 
of  the  university  type. 

1  "Napier  Tercentenary  Celebration  Handbook,"  1914,  p.  2. 

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234  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

His  contention  that  the  method  of  giving  a  collection  of  definitions 
first,  as  is  done  in  Euclid's  ^EHements,"  is  unnatural  since  a  forest 
was  not  created  by  growing  the  roots  of  the  trees  first  may  have  had 
considerable  influence  on  later  textbooks  on  elementary  mathematics. 
It  is,  however,  a  question  whether  a  quarreling  and  quarrelsome 
dialectician,  sudi  as  Ramus  was,  should  be  placed  ahead  of  Oresme 
and  Chuquet  as  a  mathematician  even  if  his  activities  had  a  wholesome 
influence  on  mathematical  instruction  and  may  have  been  largely  re^ 
sponsible  for  the  early  and  radical  departure  from  EkiclicPs  "Elements" 
on  the  part  of  French  textbooks  on  geometry. 

As  the  names  of  Oresme  and  Chuquet  are  prominent  in  the  history 
of  exponents  in  elementary  madiematics,  the  former  having  used  frac- 
tional exponents  and  the  latter  the  exponent  zero,  their  work  naturally 
calls  in  question  the  following  statement  found  on  page  149:  "It  is 
one  of  the  greatest  curiosities  in  the  history  of  science  that  Napier  con- 
structed logarithms  before  exponents  were  used."  The  notion  of 
exponents  and  not  the  formal  use  of  them  in  tbe  modem  way  is  related 
to  the  development  of  logarithms,  and  this  notion  was  much  older 
even  than  the  work  of  Oresme,  who  lived  more  than  two  centuries 
before  Napier. 

In  view  of  the  great  mathematical  influence  of  the  Ecole  Normale 
of  Paris  it  may  be  of  interest  to  refer  to  the  statement  found  in  various 
places  to  the  effect  that  its  first  students  were  young  pupils.  For 
instance,  on  page  256,  it  is  stated  that  "at  the  establishment  of  the 
Ecole  Normale  in  1795  in  Paris,  he  (Lagrange)  was  induced  to  accept 
a  professorship.  Scarcely  had  he  time  to  elucidate  the  foundations  of 
arithmetic  and  algebra  to  young  pupils,  when  the  school  was  closed." 

While  the  term  "young  pupils"  is  not  very  definite,  yet  few  people 
would  be  likely  to  associate  it  ¥rith  students  whose  ages  varied  from  21 
to  66.  In  fact,  according  to  "Le  Centenaire  de  TEcole  Normale," 
1895,  page  125,  nearly  half  of  these  "young  pupils"  were  from  30  to 
60  years  old,  and  among  them  was  Bougainville,  a  celebrated  navigator, 
who  was  66  years  old.  The  law  prescribed  that  none  of  these  students 
should  be  less  than  21  years  old  but  it  did  not  fix  an  upper  limit  to 
their  ages  as  the  best  prepared  available  students  were  desired. 

In  view  of  the  great  influence  which  this  ephemeral  experiment  had 
on  the  teaching  of  mathematics  and  other  sciences  in  the  secondary 
schools  of  France  and  the  fact  that  the  professors  of  mathematics 
(Lagrange,  Laplace  and  Monge)  were  eminent  matfaonaticians,  it  is 
of  interest  to  know  that  these  early  students,  who  were  paid  to  come 
to  Paris  from  various  parts  of  France,  were  not  "young  pupils"  in 
the  sense  in  which  this  term  is  commonly  understood,  but  were,  in  the 
main,  mature  men  who  could  derive  much  profit  from  a  profound  pre- 
sentation of  the  elements  of  various  educational  subjects.     Some  of 


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QUESTIONABLE  POINTS  IN  HISTORY  OF  MATHEMATICS  235 

Lagrange's  lectures  prepared  for  these  students  were  translated  by  T. 
J.  McCormack  and  published  in  1901  under  the  title  "Lectures  on  Ele- 
mentary Mathematics,  by  Joseph  Louis  Lagrange/'  The  Open  Court 
Publishing  Company. 

It  may  be  noted  here  that  the  official  journal  of  this  normal  school 
during  the  first  brief  period  of  its  existence  was  entitled  Seances  des 
Ecoles  Normalesy  and  not  Journal  des  Ecoles  Norrnales  as  is  stated  in 
various  places  including  the  Encyklopadie  der  Mathematischen 
Wissenschaften,  volume  3,  page  519,  and  on  page  274  of  the  history 
noted  above.  In  the  latter  work  we  find  also  on  page  204  the  title 
Transactions  of  the  London  Mathenuoiced  Society  instead  of  Proceed- 
ings of  this  society.  In  this  case  the  title  is  the  more  misleading  since 
the  number  of  the  volume  is  also  incorrectly  stated  as  20  instead  of  22. 

It  is  true  that  the  said  Seances  really  were  a  journal  and  the  said 
Proceedings  really  involve  what  is  commonly  called  transactions,  but 
the  work  of  the  beginner  is  apt  to  be  greatly  increased  by  a  failure  to 
give  exact  references  and  it  is  the  beginner  who  should  be  especially 
encouraged  to  look  up  references.  If  such  a  reader  fails  to  find  a 
journal  which  bears  the  exact  title  given  in  the  reference  he  seldom 
looks  further. 

While  a  study  of  the  history  of  mathematics  doubtless  tends  towards 
the  formation  of  clearer  mathematical  concepts  it  is  evidently  neces- 
sary for  the  student  of  this  history  to  distinguish  carefully  between 
the  good  and  the  bad  in  ancient  methods.  Some  of  the  ancient  methods 
which  may  appear  to  be  praiseworthy  for  the  time  when  they  originated 
would  be  questionable  and  perhaps  even  intolerable  if  they  were  used 
in  our  modem  textbooks.  Possibly  the  ancient  Gredc  proof  of  the  fact 
that  V2  is  not  a  rational  number  belongs  to  this  category  since  it  is 
special  and  does  not  appear  any  easier  than  the  following  more  general 
proof,  which  is  based  upon  the  elementary  fact  that  if  a  rational  frac- 
tion is  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms  than  every  integral  power  of  this 

fraction  is  also  in  its  lowest  terms. 

» 

Suppose   that    \Jm-=ic/d,   where   c/d   is   reduced   to    its    lowest 

tenns  and  d  is  not  equal  to  1.  By  raising  both  members  of  this  equa- 
tion to  the  /I**  power  it  results  that  c"/(f»=7n,  and  since  c»/(/"  is  re- 
duced to  its  lowest  terms  m  can  not  be  an  integer.  This  known  proof 
establishes  at  one  stroke  the  existence  of  an  infinite  number  of  ir- 
rational numbers  if  we  assume  the  existence  of  at  least  one  real  n*^  root 
of  every  positive  integer.  To  the  extent  that  a  knowledge  of  the  history 
of  mathematics  leads  us  to  prefer  old  historic  methods  to  equally 
simple  more  general  methods  it  is  positively  injurious. 

Young  teachers  who  study  the  history  of  mathematics  with  the 
laudable  purpose  of  increasing  their  efficiency  in  the  class-room  should 


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236  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

bear  in  mind  that  there  are  exceptions  to  the  rule  that  the  mathe- 
matical development  of  the  student  is  similar  to  the  mathematical  de- 
velopment of  the  human  race.  The  modem  student  can  not  afford  to 
acquaint  himself  with  all  the  special  and  crude  methods  of  the  ancients 
before  becoming  familiar  with  the  more  powerful  modem  methods. 
The  history  of  our  subject  is  useful  to  the  teacher  provided  he  uses  it 
to  suggest  methods  rather  than  to  supply  these  methods. 

One  of  the  most  important  questionable  points  in  a  general  history 
of  mathematics  is  the  emphasis,  or  the  lade  of  emphasis,  on  mathe- 
matical insight  into  the  questions  under  consideration.  It  is  evident 
that  statements  which  have  no  mathematical  sense  such  as  the  follow- 
ing: "In  1869  C.  F.  Geiser  showed  that  *the  projection  of  a  cubic  sur- 
face from  a  point  upon  it  on  a  plane  of  projection  parallel  to  the 
tangent  plane  at  that  point,  is  a  quartic  curve;  and  that  every  quartic 
curve  can  be  generated  in  this  way,*'  which  is  found  on  page  318  of 
the  history  noted  above,  should  be  avoided  as  far  as  possible. 
Similarly,  authors  should  aim  to  avoid  statements  which  are  apt  to  be 
misunderstood  because  additional  data  must  be  supplied  before  they 
have  any  real  significance,  such  as  the  following:  "Newton  uses  his 
formulas  for  fixing  an  upper  limit  of  real  roots;  the  sum  of  any  even 
power  of  all  the  roots  must  exceed  the  same  even  power  of  any  one  of 
the  roots,"  which  is  found  on  page  202  of  the  same  work. 

There  are,  however,  many  statements  which  are  perfectly  accurate 
and  yet  fail  to  bring  out  the  real  mathematical  situation.  As  regards 
modem  developments  some  such  statements  can  scarcely  be  avoided  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  details  would  involve  an  almost  endless  amount  of 
explanations,  but  such  details  can  be  more  easily  supplied  as  r^ards 
ancient  mathematics.  For  instance,  the  following  theorem  relating  to 
the  addition  of  the  digits  of  a  positive  integer  is  found  in  various  general 
histories  of  our  subject.  If  any  three  consecutive  positive  integers,  of 
which  the  largest  is  divisible  by  3,  are  added  together  there  results  a 
number  which  is  either  6  or  reduces  to  6  by  the  successive  addition  of 
its  digits.  The  full  significance  of  this  theorem  becomes  clear  only 
after  considering  it  as  a  special  case  of  the  theorem  that  numbers 
which  are  congruent  modulo  9  constitute  an  invariant  with  regard  to 
the  operation  of  adding  digits,  and  observing  the  connection  between 
this  theorem  and  the  ancient  rales  relating  to  "casting  out  the  ^s." 

We  shall  direct  attention  here  to  only  one  more  questionable  his- 
torical statement  which  appears  on  page  175  of  the  history  to  which 
we  referred  several  times  above,  and  reads  as  follows:  *TTie  new 
feature  introduced  by  Descartes  was  the  use  of  an  equation  with  more 
than  one  unknown^  so  that  (in  case  of  two  unknowns)  for  any  value  of 
one  unknown  (abscissa),  the  length  of  the  other  (ordinate)  could  be 
computed."    From  the  words  in  italics  one  would  naturally  infer  that 


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QUESTIONABLE  POINTS  IN  HISTORY  OF  MATHEMATICS  237 

the  emphasis  was  to  be  placed  on  the  fact  that  Descartes  used  equations 
involving  more  than  one  unknown.  On  the  contrary,  the  emphasis 
should  be  placed  on  the  functional  relation  between  the  unknowns. 

Equations  with  more  than  one  unknown  are  very  old  in  mathe- 
matics.    In  fact,  it  is  well  known  that  statements  equivalent  to  such 
equatioDB  appear  on  one  of  the  oldest  fragments  of  papyri.    In  modem 
notation  these  equations  have  been  expressed  as  follows: 
x^+y^=100  y=%x. 

A  considerable  part  of  the  well  known  ^^Arithmetica''  by  Diophan- 
tus  relates  to  equations  in  two  unknowns  and  the  Hindus  used  equations 
with  more  than  one  unknown,  distinguishing  them  by  colors,  as  the 
black,  blue,  yellow,  red,  or  green  unknown.  As  regards  the  expression 
of  functional  relations  Descartes*  work  is  well  known  to  have  been 
epoch-making. 

In  die  present  state  of  our  knowledge  of  the  history  of  mathematics 
it  seems  almost  impossible  to  avoid  questionable  statements  in  works 
which  aim  to  cover  the  entire  field.  The  suggestions  here  offered  re- 
lating to  the  other  side  of  questions  involved  in  various  such  statements 
may  serve  to  arouse  interest  in  a  few  important  historical  matters, 
especially  on  the  part  of  those  who  enjoy  the  cla^  of  views  in  a 
friendly  combat. 


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238  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 


THE    EARUEST    PRINTED    ILLUSTRATIONS    OF 
NATURAL   fflSTORY 

By  Professor  WILUAM  A.  LCXIY 

NORTHWESTERN  UNIVERSITY 

IN  1475,  soon  after  the  completion  of  the  first  quarter-century  of 
printing,  there  appeared  in  Augsburg  a  popular  book  on  natural 
history  illustrated  by  woodcuts  of  animals  and  plants,  some  of  which 
bear  internal  evidence  of  having  been  drawn  from  nature  and  of  having 
been  especially  prepared  for  this  book.  Under  the  archaic  title  "Das 
Puch  der  Nature"  by  Conrad  von  Megenberg  we  have  the  prototype  of 
illustrated  treatises  on  natural  history  and  popular  medicine.  It  stands 
alone  and  is  not  genetically  connected  with  any  other;  nevertheless  it 
was  the  first  of  its  kind,  and  perhaps  it  served  as  a  model  for  other 
illustrated  books  of  similar  purpose  which  were  published  in  Germany 
within  the  next  ten  or  fifteen  years.  Conrad^s  book  of  nature  passed 
through  six  editions  before  the  year  1500  and  enjoyed  a  wide  circula- 
tion; we  might  even  speak  of  it  as  one  of  the  b^t  sellers  of  the  period, 
and  thus  the  venture  of  the  enterprising  publisher,  Hans  Bamler, 
justified  itself. 

Since  the  book  was  the  first  to  contain  printed  pictures  of  animals 
and  plants  it  is  of  especial  interest  and  challenges  examination,  not 
alone  for  philological  study  of  the  old  dialect  (Bavarian-Austrian)  in 
which  it  is  printed,  but  more  especially  as  representing  the  scientific 
aspect  of  the  period. 

Another  book,  the  "Gart  der  Gesuntheit"  ("Herbarius  zu  Teutsch,** 
etc),  published  in  Mainz  in  1485,  surpasses  all  odiers  in  the  quality 
of  its  illustrations  even  up  to  the  herbal  of  Brunfels  published  in  1530. 
This  statement  is  so  much  at  variance  with  the  commonly  expressed 
opinion  of  well-known  writers  of  biological  history  (Sachs,  Greene, 
Miall  and  others)  that  it  seems  desirable  to  reexamine  the  originals  of 
each  of  these  books  from  the  standpoint  of  content  and  quality  of  illus- 
trations. Both  books  are  very  rare  and  have  been  accessible  to  few 
naturalists.  One  bibliographer,  Dr.  Jos.  Frank  Payne,  has  (1902)  dis- 
cerned the  unique  position  occupied  by  the  Gart,  "the  publication  of 
which  (he  says)  forms  an  important  landmark  in  the  history  of 
botanical  illustration,  and  marks  perhaps  the  greatest  single  step  ever 
made  in  that  art.  It  was  not  only  unsurpassed  but  unequaled  for  nearly 
half  a  century.**  Dr.  Payne  does  not  comment  on  the  few  pictures  of 
animals  in  the  "Gart  der  Gcsuntheit**  but  they  are  equally  notable. 


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PRINTED  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY       239 

The  book  of  nature  and  the  *'Gart"  (for  this  title  see  below)  have 
not  received  the  notice  of  which  they  are  deserving  partly  becau^  at- 
tention has  been  diverted  from  them  by  the  notice  given  to  the  Hortus 
Sanitatis  which  was  published  in  1491  and  in  many  editions  thereafter. 
The  ^Hortus  Sanitatis^'  belongs  to  the  same  family  of  publications  as 
the  ^'Gart  der  Gesuntheit/'  but  on  account  of  its  size,  its  numerous 
illustrations  (1066) ,  its  later  date  of  publication  and  its  great  popular- 
ity, it  has  been  natural  to  assume  that  the  ^^Hortus  Sanitatis"  represented 
the  highest  development  of  this  class  of  books,  and  as  a  consequence,  the 
two  earlier  (and  much  rarer)  books  have  been  passed  by  lightly  and 
much  greater  attention  given  to  the  ^^Hortus  Sanitatis." 

The  book  of  nature  (1475)  and  the  "Gart"  (1485)  not  only  ante- 
date the  Hortus  Sanitaitis  but  they  are  superior  to  it  in  several  par- 
ticulars; as  already  mentioned  this  superiority  is  especially  marked  in 
the  better  class  of  illustrations  of  the  "Gart."  These  two  early  printed 
books  represent  a  forward  trend  of  the  human  spirit  and  should  come 
under  separate  consideration.  If  ever  we  are  able  to  gage  the  thought- 
life  of  the  later  Middle  Ages,  and  especially  of  that  interesting  period 
of  intellectual  development  just  preceding  the  full  bloom  of  the 
Renaissance,  it  must  be  accomplished  by  a  study  of  the  publications  of 
the  period.  Accordingly,  let  no  one  assume  that  these  books  are  merely 
curiosities  of  antiquarian  interest 

The  bocJcs  of  the  time  which  have  claimed  most  attention  fropi 
scholars  show  another  phase  of  the  mental  life  of  the  period — ^that  of 
the  mystical-minded  scholar  and  the  theologian  whose  writings  were 
more  subjective  in  type,  while  Conrad's  book,  as  well  as  the  "Gart," 
represent  the  more  objective  or  scientific  attitude  of  mind.  These  two 
cnirrents  of  mental  life  ran  parallel,  but  at  this  time  the  instinct  for 
creation  through  subjective  methods  was  more  conspicuous  and  the 
scientific  attitude  was  undeveloped  if  not  primitive. 

The  literary  output  of  the  period  was  more  diversified  than  one 
might  at  first  suppose.  Besides  Bibles,  books  of  devotion,  the  famous 
**City  of  God"  of  Augustine,  other  religious  writings  and  also  legal 
treatises,  a  reader  of  the  period  found  to  hand  printed  copies  of  secular 
writings — some  of  belles-lettres  and  others  of  diversion:  Dante, 
Petrarch,  Boccaccio,  Chaucer,  Aesop's  fables,  the  Bidpai  stories  showing 
aflbiities  with  the  **Arabian  Nights,"  Breidenbach's  travels,  the  "Dia- 
logues of  the  Creatures,"  "Reynard  the  Fox,"  "Romaunt  of  the  Rose," 
etc  All  these  lay  outside  the  field  of  the  scientific  and  realistic  books 
which  were  embodied  in  medical  treatises  and  nature  books. 

Also  dealing  with  nature  (as  well  as  other  subjects)  were  such  wri- 
tings as  the  huge  encyclopedias  of  Vincent  of  Beauvais,  the  "Properties 
of  Things"  by  Bartholomaeus  Anglicus  and  the  "Liber  de  naturis 
rerum"  of  Thomas  of  Cantimpre   (the  latter  being  the  original   of 


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240  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

Conrad's  book  of  nature) .  Furthermore,  it  should  be  remembered  tbat 
the  printing  presses  were  turning,  out  on  a  relatively  large  scale  the 
remains  of  classical  and  early  mediaeval  learning.  Among  these  may 
be  mentioned  the  scientific  writings  of  Aristotle,  Theophrastus,  Pliny, 
Dioscorides  and  Galen. 

But  the  book  publishers  of  the  period  were  desirous  to  stimulate  a 
wide  market  for  the  sale  of  their  wares  and  did  not  depend  wholly  on 
curiosity  and  mental  interest.  In  the  Latin  preface  of  the  ^Hortus 
Sanitatis,''  published  in  1491,  there  is  a  clever  appeal  to  the  commercial 
instinct  The  writer,  or  compiler,  says  that  he  has  been  moved  first 
and  foremost  by  compassion  for  the  poverty  of  those  sufferers  who  have 
not  the  means  to  hire  doctors  and  apothecaries  and  that  by  the  teach- 
ings of  the  book  these  persons  ^Vith  quite  small  expense  to  themselves 
will  be  able  to  compound  helpful  remedies  and  perfect  medicines.*^ 
This  gives  it  the  character  of  a  book  on  popular  medicine  intended  for 
the  people.  Another  feature  had  more  influence  on  the  thought  of  the 
time;  by  pictures  and  descriptions,  the  attention  of  the  people  was 
directed  to  the  productions  of  nature  and  information  was  spread  re- 
garding animals,  plants  and  minerals.  As  Klebs  says,  '^almost  the  entire 
structure  of  modern  (biological)  science  rests  on  such  humble  begin- 
nings." These  books  gathered  what  the  monastic  student  had  "milked,** 
often  uncritically,  from  the  brain  of  the  ancients  and  added  comments 
and  observations  of  their  own.  These  additions  mark  the  onset  of  in- 
ductive science.  On  the  whole,  the  "Book  of  Nature,**  the  "Gart**  and 
other  similar  books  represent  a  phaae  of  the  struggle  to  get  away  from 
the  mystical  and  the  subjective  and  to  arrive  at  independent  observation 
of  nature.  This  was  the  call  of  the  human  spirit  to  engage  in  objective 
studies  to  which  some  types  of  mind  are  temperamentally  inclined. 

Conrad  von  Mecenberg's  "Puch  der  Nature'* 

This  nature  book  was  a  German  translation,  with  some  changes, 
from  the  Latin  "De  Naturis  Rerum*'  of  Thomas  of  Cantimpre.  The 
original  was  completed  by  Thomas  about  1248,  and  translated  by  "Cun- 
rat  von  Megenberg'*  a  hundred  years  later.  It  was  a  complete  review 
of  nature  and  the  first  book  of  its  kind  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  German 
translation  existed  in  manuscript  for  125  years  before  it  vras  first  printed 
in  1475.  That  it  was  popular  and  widely  circulated  in  manuscript  form 
is  attested  by  the  numerous  manuscripts  in  existence.  Pfeiffer  mentions 
17  copies  of  the  German  translation  in  the  library  at  Munich,  18  are 
reported  from  Vienna  and  many  copies  are  known  in  other  continental 
libraries. 

In  its  printed  form  the  book  is  now  very  rare.  There  are  two  copies 
of  the  first  (1475)  edition  in  the  United  States,  both  in  the  J.  Pierpont 
Morgan  library  at  New  York.    Through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Morgan  and 


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FIG.   1.     TKACINC     OF   FOUR  FIGURES   FROM  A  FOUO  PLATE   OF   TWELVE   QUADRUPEDS. 
PUCH  DER  NATURE   (1475).     ORIGINAL  IN  THE  J.  PIERPONT  MORGAN  LIBRARY 


FIG.    2.     TRACING   OF    THE    FALCON    FROM    A    PL.ATE    OF    THIRTEEN    BIRDS.      PUCH    DER 
NATURE    (1475).     ORIGINAL  IN  THE   J.  PIERPONT  MORGAN  LIBRARY 


VOL.  XIIL— 16. 


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FIG.  3.     PHOTOGRAPH  OF  A  FOLIO  PLATE  OF  LNVERTEBRATES.       PUCH  DER   NATURE 
(1175).     ORIGINAL  IN  THE  J.  PIERPONT  MORGAN   LIBRARY 


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PRINTED  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY       243 

his  librarian  I  have  had  the  opportunity  of  examining  these  books  and 
taking  photographs  of  the  plates. 

The  short  foreword,  which  was  probably  inserted  by  the  publisher, 
telling  the  scope  and  the  source  of  the  book  is  as  follows: 

Here  follows  the  book  of  nature  which  treats  first  of  the  peculiarities 
and  nature  of  man,  then  of  the  nature  and  the  properties  of  the  heavens, 
of  beasts,  of  birds,  of  plants,  of  stones  and  of  many  other  natural  things. 
And  upon  this  book  a  highly  learned  man  worked  for  fifteen  years  collecting 
for  his  use  from  the  following  named  sacred  and  secular  teachers,  poets 
and  other  approved  doctors  of  medicine,  such  as  Augustine,  Ambrosius,  Aris- 
totle, Basil,  Isadore,  Pliny,  Galen,  Avicenna,  etc.,  and  many  other  masters 
and  teachers.  Out  of  these  and  others  he  read,  made  excerpts  and  com- 
piled the  book.  Which  book  Master  Conrad  von  Megenberg  transferred  from 
Latin  into  German  and  wrote  it  out.  Here  is  a  useful  and  entertaining 
material  from  which  every  man  can  learn  many  unusual  things. 

Among  the  several  other  authorities  cited  in  the  book,  but  not  men- 
tioned in  the  preface,  is  the  "Physiologus." 

In  its  original  form,  therefore,  it  purported  to  be  merely  a  compila- 
tion and  not  a  book  of  original  studies.  After  fifteen  years  of  labor 
Thomas  of  Cantimpre  had  completed  the  "De  naturis  rerum**  and  Con- 
rad merely  translated  it.  The  German  translation  was  repeatedly 
printed  and  widely  distributed,  while  the  original  remains  unpublished 
to  this  day.  A  curious  turn  of  fate,  as  remarked  by  SudhofiF  who  says 
further,  that  the  original  Thomas,  "in  spite  of  all  its  faults  and  errors, 
had  always  served  as  an  important  document  of  medieval  science  and 
deserved  publication  certainly  more  thkn  many  another  work." 

Conrad's  translation  was  not  made  directly  from  the  text  of  Thomas, 
but,  as  Haupt  has  shown,  from  a  working  over  and  rearrangement  of 
Thomas  by  Bishop  Albert  of  Regensburg. 

Conrad,  the  translator,  was  a  cleric  and  teacher,  who  after  various 
vicissitudes  of  life,  became  Canon  at  Regensburg.  Evidently  he  was  a 
lover  of  nature  and  had  written  a  book  on  the  world  (Sphsera)  and 
another  on  the  "Gestelt  der  Welt.'*  In  translating  the  book  of  nature  he 
says  he  rearranged  and  added  to  the  book  as  well  as  omitted  some 
points.  Indeed,  some  of  the  manuscripts  of  Thomas  contain  an  account 
of  193  animals  not  found  in  the  translation  (Cams),  but  there  still  re- 
main 267  animals  commented  upon.  He  seems  to  have  improved  and 
added  to  the  plants  (Meyer).  From  time  to  time,  he  makes  original 
comments,  either  expressing  doubt  of  some  statement  or  adding  a  re- 
mark of  his  own — introducing  what  he  has  to  say  by  "I  also  Megen- 
berger  says" — but  these  comments  are  not  of  weighty  importance. 

Evidently  the  manuscript  used  by  Conrad  did  not  contain  the 
author's  name  since  he  expresses  doubt  as  to  the  writer  of  the  Latin 
book,  **whether  Albertus  Magnus  or  not,  I  do  not  know."  The  source 
oi  the  book,  however,  is  now  well  established. 


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FIG.   4.       PHOTOGRAPH  OF  ONE  OF  THE   TWO  BOTANICAL  PLATES.     PUCH  DER   NATURE 
(1475).       ORIGINAL  IN  THE  J.  PIERPONT  MORGAN  LIBRARY 


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PRINTED  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY       245 

A  complete  copy  of  Conrad's  book  should  contain  292  folio  leaves 
and  twelve  plates  of  woodcuts.  The  two  copies  of  1475  which  I  have 
seen  in  the  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  library  are  rather  handsome  volumes 
as  to  format  and  printing.  They  were  derived  from  the  library  of 
William  Morris.  Each  copy  contains  the  twelve  folio  plates  and  is 
nearly  complete  as  to  text.  This  is  somewhat  notable,  since  Hugh 
William  Davis  says  that  five  of  the  plates  are  missing  in  the  copy  of 
the  first  edition  in  the  British  Museum.  All  cuts  of  both  books  in 
Mr.  Morgan's  library  are  colored  alike  in  detail;  accordingly,  I  pre- 
sume that  they  were  both  done  by  the  same  hand  or  that  there  was  a 
conventional  type  of  coloring  prevailing  at  that  time. 

The  descriptive  part  of  the  book  is  disappointing.  The  art  of 
description  rests  on  good  observation  and  at  this  period  in- 
dependent observation  had  not  been  developed.  The  text  is 
diiefly  a  series  of  brief  quotations  from  the  writers  of  classical 
antiquity  and  the  Middle  Ages — ^Avicenna  and  Averroes  (1198) 
being  among  the  most  recent.  The  excerpts  are  mainly  folk 
stories  and  trivial  observations  about  animal  behavior.  The 
book  is  comprehensive  in  range  but  the  largest  part  of  it  is  devoted 
to  animals.  In  relatively  brief  compass,  the  text  preserves  for  us  the 
medieval  lore  about  animals,  plants  and  stones,  but  it  is  not  descriptive 
science.  I  have  not  found  a  systematic  or  methodical  description  of 
any  animal,  but  only  quotations  beginning  ''Aristotle  says,  Pliny  says,'' 
etc.  A  few  authors  are  cited  under  each  title.  Habits  and  behavior  are 
spoken  of  but  there  is  no  description  of  appearance,  color  form,  etc. 
Among  flowers,  rarely  is  the  color  of  the  flower  mentioned  (as  fre- 
quently it  is  in  the  ''Gart**) .  The  conunents  on  particular  objects  vary 
in  length  from  seven  lines  up  to  two  or  three  pages.  Frequently  one 
account  occupies  from  one  quarter  to  one  half  a  page. 

The  general  tone  of  the  writing  is  shown  by  the  following  slightly 
abbreviated  quotation  about  the  lion.  This  is  one  of  the  longer  (but 
by  no  means  the  longest)  accounts  and  answers  for  the  others. 

The  Lion  is  king  of  all  other  animals,  as  Jacobus  and  Solinus  say.  This 
beast  has  nothing  false,  untrue  or  cunning  about  him.  He  is  so  hot  by  nature, 
that  one  may  think  he  is  always  in  a  fever.  The  lioness  always  at  first  gives 
birth  to  fiye  whelps,then  to  four,  then  to  three,  thereafter  to  two  and  the  fifth 
time  to  one  only.  After  that  she  is  barren.  Augustine  says,  when  the  cubs 
arc  bom,  they  sleep  three  days  until  the  father  comes;  he  cries  very  loud 
over  them,  and  being  frightened  by  the  noise  they  awaken.  The  lion  fears 
the  sharp  sting  of  the  scorpion  and  flees  from  it  as  from  a  deadly  enemy.  He 
fears  also  the  rattling  of  wheels  as  they  turn  on  the  wagon,  but  he  fears 
fire  the  most.  Solinus  says,  that  the  lion  is  not  easily  angered,  but  being 
enraged,  he  seeks  the  offender  (Zornmacher)  and  tears  him  to  pieces.  He 
never  attacks  man  willingly,  and  only  in  great  hunger.  Adelius  says,  when 
the  lion  sleeps,  he  has  his  eyes  open.  When  he  travels,  he  blots  out  his 
footsteps  with  his  tail,  so  that  the  hunter  may  not  find  him.  Also  Pliny  says, 
that  lions  arc  friendly  among  themselves  and  do  not  fight.     Aristotle  says, 


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^cc  amiimft^  fmit  vcvMtct  bcpicta  ficuc  viMmud  in  ^ ,  m  liuicta 

FIG.    5.       PHOTOGRAPH    OF    A    FOLIO    PLATE    OF    ANIMAL    FIGURES.      BREIDENBACH*S 
TRAVELS  (1486).    ORIGINAL  IN  THE  J.  PIERPONT  MORGAN  LIBRARY 


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PRINTED  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY       247 

the  lion  hides  his  bone  the  same  as  the  dog.  When  in  hunger,  he  draws 
with  his  tail  a  large  circle  on  the  ground  and  roars  loud  and  frightens  other 
beasts  so  they  do  not  dare  to  come  within  the  circle.  He  scorns  the  eating 
of  yesterday  and  the  remains  of  his  former  feasting.  Some  say  that  the  lion 
dies  of  his  own  anger,  he  is  so  violent.  The  lion  willingly  captures  the 
wild  ass  and  chases  him  in  nature.  Ambrose  says,  when  he  is  sick,  if  he 
catches  an  ape  and  eats  him,  he  becomes  well.  When  the  lion  drinks  dog's 
blood,  he  becomes  well.    Solinus  and  Pliny  say,  that  when  the  lion  holds  his 

tail  quiet,  he  is  mild  and  friendly;  but  that  is  seldom Pliny  says, 

that  lion's  flesh  and  especially  the  heart  is  good  for  people  to  eat ;  those  who 
are  too  cold  by  nature,  when  they  eat  lion's  flesh,  will  become  warm.  The 
lion's  bones  are  so  hard,  that  one  can  strike  Are  with  them  as  with  a  flint. 
The  lion's  fat  is  an  antidote  against  poison.  When  a  man  annoints  himself 
^with  wine  and  lion's  fat,  it  drives  away  all  beasts  from  him,  also  snakes. 
The  lion's  fat  is  of  warmer  nature  than  that  of  any  other  animal.  The  lion 
is  continually  afflicted  with  a  quartan  fever  so  that  he  desires  especially  the 
flesh  of  apes,  that  he  may  become  well.  Lion's  fat  with  oil  of  roses  frees 
man's  face  from  freckels,  clears  it  and  keeps  it  so.  The  lion's  neck  is  thick 
and  the  flesh  of  the  neck  is  cartilaginous,  so  he  can  not  raise  his  head 
backwards.  Alexander  says,  that  the  lion  has  great  strength  in  his  breast, 
in  his  fore  feet  and  in  his  tail.  Leon  in  Greek  is  a  king,  therefore  is  this 
beast  called  leo,  because  he  is  the  king  of  all  other  beasts.  The  lion  is  warmer 
by  nature  in  the  fore  part  of  the  body  and  colder  in  the  hinder  part;  also 
the  sun  is  in  the  constellation  of  the  lion.  Aristotle  says,  that  of  all  animals 
the  lion  has  no  marrow  in  its  bones  except  in  the  femur.  Therefore  his 
bones  are  harder  than  those  of  any  other  animal,  except  the  dolphin.  The 
lion's  intestine  is  like  the  dog's  intestine.  The  lion  is  feverish  in  the  sum- 
mer, but  is  well  in  the  winter.  He  also  becomes  feverish  before  the  face 
of  man.i 

The  duck  is  dismissed  with  seven  lines,  while  the  account  of  the 
hen  is  unusually  long,  occupying  three  and  one-half  pages.  Regarding 
the  ass,  "Pliny  says,  it  has  white  milk  .  .  .  that  Nero  was  nourished  on 
ass's  milk." 

Elach  of  the  twelve  parts  into  which  the  book  is  divided  is  preceded 
by  a  general  introduction  in  which  one  often  finds  moralizations  and 
expression  of  theological  views.  In  various  places  Conrad  makes  un- 
complimentary allusions  to  the  profligate  priests  (iippigen  Pfaffen), 
who  like  the  ass  are  weak  when  they  should  carry  the  cross  and  strong 
when  they  are  unchaste.  The  bishop  is  compared  to  the  peacock  and 
also  to  the  raven.  It  is  merely  a  conjecture,  but  the  great  rarity  of  the 
book  may  be  partly  owing  to  these  attacks  on  the  priests.  These 
allusions  would  naturally  arouse  the  hostility  of  the  very  powerful 
theological  bodies  and,  not  unlikely,  lead  to  attempts  to  suppress  the 
book.  In  looking  over  the  Index  Librorum  Prohibitorum,  however,  I 
have  not  found  the  "Book  of  Nature"  on  the  prohibited  list. 

The  illustrations  in  Conrad's  book  of  nature  are  on  twelve  folio 

II  am  indebted  to  my  colleague,  Professor  James  T.  Hatfield,  for  assist- 
ance in  translating  some  of  the  more  obscure  passages. 


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^.^^^tpriliatmilnftfo^  l^tnmi(iaul(blanabaiittit'ed(b« 
J  e#foti(iel»  bafilifcu8io  eS  ferpms  Qramotus  nt  (tipza 

•<4.  v^ttttmcftiadpafoffo quatizagcfimopziiiio mtneDin , 

.  mKt«H3ittaieH)fii6iaimel(o  mrcumfiiltce  ^optat  vmiat 
ttpugnato  cii  eo  ^tSuiN)  atitntt  in  meOio  pzoccCTit  ram  tpfii 
puQiiatuiii  ^Mttti  attttin  fimtd  puguatcnt  bafibtfiK  raptc^ 
batmm  mozOmet  to;rtcQte*(i^  ttttodo  ttalitliac  rt  catnit 
ft  pftR(  in  conc^flm  ^  non  potccot  cam  tonffttt  |9o(iMQf  * 

,  w>  mraOriW  tt  bafiKfaun  ram  DtntibMft  et  nagulia  aratei  - 
betfit  mfrnpfctneangto'eRUbtiit  INtdttlmnpoft  OemioGr 
btttSit6ak*ttvekaBk  mvibta^ttttt  tuxptst  ojctneait* 
ptto  m  iwi^icaie*  fi  tS  inttt  000  aliqnj^  pzAiuoi  m^ 

FIC.  6.       ANIMAL  FIGURES   IN  THE   DIALOCUS  CREATURARUM    (1«0).     ORIGINAL  IN   THE 
J.   PIERPONT   MORGAN   LIBRARY 


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PRINTED  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY       249 

plates,  inserted  as  leaves  separate  from  the  text,  one  plate  at  the  begin- 
ning of  each  division  of  the  book.  The  wood-cutting  is  coarse,  and  the 
drawings  are  by  no  means  so  good  as  those  of  the  ''Gart.''  So  far  as 
known  these  fetches  have  no  forerunners;  they  are  not  traditional 
figures  copied  from  earlier  manuscripts,  as  was  frequently  the  case 
of  illustrations  printed  before  1530.  On  ten  of  the  twelve  plates  there 
are  not  less  than  eighty-six  figures  of  animals  (some  of  the  smaller 
repetitions  not  being  counted).  The  remaining  two  plates  contain  nine- 
teen figures  of  plants  and  trees. 

The  illustrations  vary  in  quality — when  the  figures  are  of  domestic 
animals,  so  that  the  designer  could  see  examples,  the  figures  are  rather 
good — see  the  dog  and  the  horse  in  Fig.  1.  The  goose,  dear  to  the 
heart  of  the  German  for  festive  occasions,  the  falcon  (Fig.  2) ,  the  wood- 
pecker, the  peacock,  although  crude  are  evidently  drawn  from  nature. 
The  exotic  animals,  however  such  as  the  camel,  the  lion,  and  especially 
the  elephant  (Fig.  1),  with  cleft-hoof  and  schematic  trunk,  are  very 
bad — ^the  designer  had  no  specimens  to  locJc  at.  The  fishes  are  not 
well  drawn.  The  general  appearance  of  the  plates  with  a  rough  border 
is  shown  in  Figs.  3  and  4.  The  plate  of  animals  (Fig.  3) ,  shows  several 
insects — ants,  bees,  grasshoppers,  butterfly, — a  spider,  a  snail,  etc.  The 
plate  of  plants  (Fig.  4),  shows  the  grape  vine,  the  apple  tree,  the  pear 
tree,  and  other  pictures  less  easily  recognizable. 

The  figures  in  the  "Book  of  Nature"  are  the  earliest  printed  pictures 
of  natural  history — they  mark  the  b^inning  of  scientific  iconography. 
Arnold  Klebs,  in  his  Incunabula  Lists  (1917),  speaking  of  the  "Her- 
barium" of  Apuleius  Barbarus,  Rome,  1483  (and  1484),  says:  "Its 
illustrations,  crude  formalized  pictures  of  plants,  are,  with  possibly  one 
exception,  the  earliest  ones  in  a  printed  book.'*  He  does  not  mention 
the  "Book  of  Nature,"  but  certainly  there  were  two  plates  of  botanical 
illustrations  in  this  book  published  in  1475.  The  rarity  of  Conrad's 
book,  and  especially  of  perfect  copies,  accounts  for  the  little  notice  it 
has  received  and  also  for  misconceptions  regarding  the  number  of 
plates  which  it  contains.  Mrs.  Arber  in  her  very  fully  illustrated 
treatise  on  herbals  reproduces  one  of  the  plates  from  the  "Puch  der 
Nature"  (1475),  and  speaks  of  it  as  "the  single  plant  figure"  with 
which  the  book  is  illustrated.  Hugh  William  Davis,  in  "Early  German 
Books"  has  already  pointed  out  that  five  plates  are  missing  from  the 
copy  of  the  first  edition  in  the  British  Museum.  For  the  second  plate 
of  botanical  figures  see  Fig.  4. 

The  introduction  of  pictures  into  printed  books  of  science  was  an 
important  step.  The  preparation  of  cuts  forced  observation  and 
sharpened  it.  Through  this  means  attention  was  directed  to  details 
and  observation  was  promoted.  This  was  an  entering  wedge  of  inde- 
pendent observation  at  a  time  when  observation  was  struggling  for  the 
right  to  exist.    The  preparation  of  the  figures  required  greater  accuracy 


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PHOTOGRAPH   OF   A   FOLIO   PLATE    OF   ANIMALS.      BARTHOLOMAEUS    ANCLICUS 
(1486).     ORIGINAL  IN  THE  J.  PIERPONT  MORGAN  LIBRARY 


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PRINTED  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY        251 

and  some  independent  observation  and  these  original  efforts  were  al- 
lowed to  stand.  They  did  not  provoke  the  hostility  of  the  censors  as 
did  original  comments.  The  pictures  might  pass,  but  expressions  of 
independent  opinion  might  be  contrary  to  theological  doctrine.  The 
pictures  of  the  *^Gart  der  Gesuntheit"  were  so  much  more  notable  that 
further  comment  will  be  withheld  until  the  next  section. 

It  will  be  interesting  for  local  color  to  compare  figures  of  animals 
in  contemporary  bo(dcs  of  different  purpose.  In  connection  with  the 
special  examination  of  the  ^^Book  of  Nature/'  I  also  had  for  use  in  the 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan  Library  copies  with  illustrations  of  Breidenbach's 
*Travels"  (1486);  several  copies  of  Bidpai  (1486  and  others);  the 
^^Dialogus  Creaturarum"  (1480  and  others) ;  Bartholomaeus  Anglicua, 
in  Flemish  (1486),  and  in  English  (1495);  the  former  with  good 
pictures  of  animals  and  plants,  the  latter  with  wr^ched  ones. 

The  single  plate  of  animal  pictures  in  Breidenbach's  'Travels" 
(Fig.  5)  contains  pictures  that  are  superior  as  to  drawing  and  as  to 
woodcutting.  Although  there  are  some  mythical  animals  represented, 
the  camel  and  the  giraffe  are  well  executed  and  are  evidently  drawn 
from  nature.  William  Morris  says,  in  general,  of  many  pictures  in 
Breidenbach's  book:  'These  woodcuts  are  remarkable,  not  only  as 
the  best  executed  illustrations  in  any  medieval  book,  but  as  being  the 
first  woodcuts  in  which  shading  is  used  in  masses  and  not  merely  to 
help  the  outline.*'  In  Bidpai  ("Buch  der  Weisheit"  and  other  titles) 
is  a  grotesque  figure  of  an  elephant  with  cleft  hoofs  and  a  long  bovine 
tail  and  also  a  schematic  trunk  similar  to  the  one  in  Conrad's  picture 
(Fig.  1).  In  the  "Dialogus  Creaturarum*'  (1480),  )there  occurs  an 
elephant  with  the  soliped  hoof  of  the  horse  and  with  the  horse's  tail 
(Fig.  6) .  Now  these  are  not  pictures  drawn  for  a  sciei^fic  book  but 
as  representing  the  conception  of  these  animals  by  designers  of  the 
time  they  are  significant.  The  figures  in  the  Flemish  edition  of 
Bartholomaeus  Anglicus  (erroneously  de  Glanville),  (Fig.  7),  although 
published  in  1486,  far  surpass  those  of  the  English  translation,  pub- 
lished in  1495,  by  Wynkyn  De  Worde.  The  plate  of  quadrupeds 
(Fig.  7),  of  birds  and  of  plants  of  the  Flemish  edition  show  signs  of 
observation  from  nature  (note  especially  the  elephant  in  Fig.  7) .  The 
figures  in  the  English  edition  on  the  other  hand  are  wretched  caraci- 
tures — some  of  them  being  degraded  copies  of  the  figures  of  Conrad^s 
book.  Mrs.  Arber  published  the  plate  of  plants  from  the  English  edi- 
tion of  1495,  but  the  botanical  plates  in  the  earlier  Flemish  edition  are 
much  superior. 

For  readers  who  may  be  interested  in  looking  over  the  literature 
relating  to  the  "Book  of  Nature"  and  its  translator,  I  make  note  of 
the  chief  references  consulted.  Besides  the  original  edition  of  1475,  I 
have  made  use  of  the  analyses  of  the  book  by  Choulant  ("Anfange 
wissenschaftlicher  Naturgeschichte  und  naturhistorischer  Abbildung  in 


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FIG.    8.        PHOTOGRAPH    OF    THE    YELLOW    FLAG.        GART    DER    GESUNTHEIT     (1485). 
ORIGINAL  IN  THE   SURGEON  GENERAL'S  LIBRARY 


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PRINTED  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY       253 

christlichen  Abendlande,"  1856);  by  Meyer  ("Geschichte  der 
Botanik,"  1857) ;  by  SudhoflF  ("Studien  zur  Geschichte  der  Medizin/' 
1908)  and  the  bibliographical  notice  by  Hugh  William  Davis  in 
"Early  German  Books"  in  the  library  of  G.  Fairfax  Murray,  1913.  In 
1861,  Pfeififer  published  (without  illustrations)  the  entire  book  under 
the  title  "Das  Buch  der  Natur,  von  Konrad  von  Megenberg,  Die  erste 
Naturgeschichte  in  Deutcher  Sprache."  This  is  a  study  of  the  book 
from  the  philological  standpoint  and  is  accompanied  by  a  dictionary  of 
some  250  pages.  There  is  also  a  metrical  translation  in  Flemish,  and 
in  rimed  verse,  entitled  "Naturen  Bloeme."  This  was  made  by  Jacob 
de  Mserlandt  Who  died  in  1300,  so  that  his  translation  preceded  that 
of  Conrad.  The  first  part  of  the  Naturen  Bloeme  was  published  in 
1856  and  the  complete  work  in  1878. 

The  "Gart  Der  Gesuntheit" 

While  the  "Book  of  Nature"  had  a  long  history  in  manuscript,  the 
German  translation  going  back  to  1349,  the  Gart,  on  the  other  hand, 
although  a  compilation,  seems  to  have  been  a  product  of  the  time — 
arising  about  the  printing  house.  It  was  thus  an  expression  of  pub- 
lisher's enterprise — ^the  excerpts  being  chiefly  made  by  a  physician  who 
acted  as  the  scientific  collaborator,  and  the  blocks  being  cut  under 
the  eye  of  the  publisher.  No  anticipations  of  the  illustrations  nor  of 
the  text  are  known,  except  that  the  text  is  pieced  together  out  of  earlier 
HTitings  on  nature.  From  the  account  in  the  preface  it  would  appear 
to  have  been  the  product  of  the  combined  labors  of  the  original  de- 
signer, a  master  of  medicine  and  a  skilful  artist.  The  following  quo- 
tation is  taken  from  Mrs.  Arbor's  translation  of  the  preface : 

Since,  then  man  can  have  no  greater  nor  nobler  treasure  on  earth  than 
bodily  health,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  I  could  not  perform  any  more 
honorable,  useful  or  holy  work  or  labor  than  to  compile  a  book  in  which 
should  be  contained  the  virtue  and  nature  of  many  herbs,  and  other  created 
things,  together  with  their  true  colors  and  form,  for  the  help  of  all  the 
world  and  the  common  good.  Thereupon  I  caused  this  praiseworthy  work  to 
be  begun  by  a  Master  learned  in  physic,  who,  at  my  request,  gathered  into  a 
book  the  virtue  and  nature  of  many  herbs  out  of  the  acknowledged  masters 

of  physic But  when,  in  the  process  of  the  work,  I  turned  to  the 

drawing  and  depicting  of  the  herbs,  I  marked  that  there  are  many  precious 
herbs  which  do  not  grow  here  in  these  German  lands,  so  that  I  could  not 
draw  them  with  their  true  colors  and  form,  except  from  hearsay.  Therefore 
I  left  unfinished  the  work  which  I  had  begun,  and  laid  aside  my  pen,  until 
such   time  as   I   had   received   grace   and   dispensation   to    visit    the    Holy 

Sepulchre,  and  also  Mount  Sinai Then,  in  order  that  the  noble 

work  I  had  begun  and  left  incomplete  should  not  come  to  nought,  and  also 
that  my  journey  should  benefit  not  my  soul  alone,  but  the  whole  world,  I 
took  with  me  a  painter  ready  of  wit,  and  cunning  and  subtle  of  hand.     And 

so   we   journeyed    from   Germany In   wandering   through    these 

kingdoms  and  lands,  I  diligently  sought  after  the  herbs  there,  and  had  them 
depicted  and  drawn  with  their  true  color  and   form.     And  after  I  had  by 


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MiiiaM  mFOUIim   .   OEap^t^^ 


FIG    9.       PHOTOGRAPH  OF  THE  WHITE  LILY.     GART  DER  GESUNTHEIT   (1485).     ORIGINAL 
IN   THE    SURGEON   GENERAL'S   LIBRARY 


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PRINTED  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY       255 

God's  grace,  returned  to  Germany  and  home,  the  great  love  which  I  bore  this 
work  impelled  me  to  finish  it,  and  now,  with  the  help  of  God,  it  is  accomp- 
lished. And  this  book  is  called  in  Latin,  Ortas  Sanitatis,  and  in  German, 
gart  d'gesuntheyt. 

Considerable  confusion  has  arisen  as  ,to  the  distinctive  title  by 
which  this  work  should  be  known.  Choulant,  who  in  1857,  gave  the 
first  complete  analysis  of  the  book,  called  it  the  "smaller  Hortus"  and 
thus  it  came  to  be  confused  with  the  "larger,"  or  true  "Hortus  Sanitatis" 
which  was  first  published  in  Mainz  in  1491,  and  became  widely  dis- 
tributed in  later  editions.  Although  the  "Hortus  Sanitatis"  owes  some- 
thing to  the  "Gart"  as  a  forerunner  of  the  same  type,  it  differs  in 
language  and  in  extent — ^being  much  more  voluminous  and  having 
1066  figures,  while  the  "Gart"  originally  had  a  total  of  397  illustra- 
tions. Most  of  the  pictures  of  the  "Gart"  were  copied  and  recut  for 
the  "Hortus  Sanitatis,"  but  they  were  d^raded  and  of  much  lower 
quality.  The  "Gart"  was  originally  prepared  in  German;  "the  Hortus 
Sanitatis"  was  in  Latin,  but  not  a  translation  of  the  "Gart"  although 
modeled  after  it  and  showing  generic  resemblances  to  it.  Neither  was 
the  "Gart"  a  German  translation  of  the  Latin  "Herbarius"  which  pre- 
ceded it  by  one  year  (1484).  The  text  and,  notably,  the  illustrations 
are  different,  not  only  more  numerous  (150  in  the  Herbarius  and  397 
in  the  "Gart")  but  of  superior  quality. 

The  extant  copies  are  rarely  complete  and  the  title  page  is 
frequently  missing ;  but,  whatever  the  title  on  the  fly  leaf  of  the  various 
issues  and  variants  of  the  "Gart" — ^'*Herbarius  zu  Teutsch,"  "Ortus," 
etc*,  there  occurs  an  unvarying  title  in  every  preface — "And  this  book 
is  called  in  Latin  Ortus  Sanitatis,  in  German  ein  Gait  der  Gesuntheit." 
(From  the  first  Mainz  edition,  1485).  Arnold  Klebs  in  his  Incunabula 
Lists  (1917)  has  greatly  clarified  the  matter  by  a  complete  analysis  of 
what  he  calls  the  Hortus  family,  showing  the  family  to  consist  of  some 
forty  issues  of  related  books — the  "Hortus  Sanitatis"  of  1491  being  the 
central  member  and  the  most  extensive.  The  origined  edition  of  the 
"Gart"  is  the  most  important  for  determining  the  quality  of  its  illus- 
trations and  any  confusion  of  title  should  by  all  means  be  avoided. 
The  suggestion  of  both  Sudhofi'  and  Klebs  to  designate  the  work  by 
the  short  title  "Gart"  is  opportune  since  this  gives  a  distinctive  title 
that  can  not  be  confused  with  that  of  any  other  member  of  the  "Hortus" 
family.  The  "Gart"  is  the  original  of  the  entire  "Hortus"  family. 
The  name  of  the  designer  of  the  book  is  not  known  but  the  scientific 
collaborator  is  believed  to  have  been  Johann  de  Cube  (mentioned  on 
page  127  near  the  end  of  chapter  76)  and  identified  by  Sudhoff  with 
Johann  de  Woninecke,  a  practicing  physician  of  Frankfurt  at  the  end 
of  the  fifteenth  century. 

A  complete  copy  of  the  "Gart"  of  1485  should  contain  356  folio 


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1         f:flfld?6ui:^vifl?an^c€^imftccata5m(onytttp 


FIG.    10.       PHOTOGRAPH    OF    THE    FOX.        CART    DER    GESLNTHEIT    (1485).      ORIGINAL    IN 
THE    SURGEON    GENERALS    LIBRARY 


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PRINTED  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY       257 

leaves,  435  numbered  chapters  with  386  pictures  of  plants  (one  re- 
peated) and  eleven  of  animals  (one  repeated).  The  copy  placed  at 
my  disposal  at  the  Surgeon  General's  Library  in  Washington  has  320 
leaves,  and  427  chapters  but  lacks  a  few  intervening  leaves.  I  am 
greatly  indebted  to  Colonel  Garrison  and  others  of  the  library  staff  for 
assistance  and  opportunity  to  photograph  the  plates  of  the  book. 
Choulant  mentions  thirteen  issues  of  the  ^^Gart."  The  number  of 
illustrations  varies  in  the  different  issues — one  edition,  with  the  addi- 
tion  of  genre-pictures,  has  as  many  as  542  pictures  (Klebs). 
Choulant  says  that  die  pictures  of  the  pirated  edition,  printed  in 
Augsburg  five  months  after  the  Mainz  edition  and  attributed  to  the 
press  of  Anton  Sorg,  aire  for  the  most  part  better  than  those  of  the 
original  edition.  I  have  been  much  puzzled  by  this  statement  of 
Choulant  as  to  the  quality  of  the  pictures,  and,  owing  to  the  recognized 
thoroughness  of  Choulant's  work,  am  reluctant  to  question  it.  How- 
ever, the  book  to  which  Choulant  refers  (Hain  8949*)  is  assigned  by 
recent  bibliographical  experts  to  the  press  of  Schonsperger.  I  have 
recently  seen  a  perfect  copy  of  this  in  the  Newberry  Library  of 
Chicago,  which  is  not  listed  in  the  Census  of  Fifteenth  Century  Books 
owned  in  America.  It  is  dated  at  Augsburg,  August  22,  1485,  but  the 
name  of  the  printer  is  not  given.  As  determined  by  reference  to 
Haebler's  Typenrepertorium,  the  book  is  printed  in  Schonsperger  type, 
No.  1,  and  is  120  as  to  size.  There  remains  the  question  of  the  quality 
of  the  illustrations — those  in  the  book  of  the  Newberry  Library  are 
smaller  and  inferior  to  those  of  the  original  Mainz  edition.  I  have  also 
sem  die  Augsburg  edition  of  March,  1486,  from  the  Schonsperger 
press,  derived  from  the  collection  of  the  late  Theodore  L.  De  Vinne,  and 
_now  owned  by  the  John  Crerar  Library  of  Chicago.  This  is  a  smaller 
book,  printed  in  two  columns  instead  of  full-page,  and  its  illustrations 
are  much  smalls  and  much  inferior  to  those  of  either  the  Mainz  or 
the  Augsburg  edition  of  1485. 

It  is  in  reference  to  the  illustrations  that  the  '^Gart"  is  especially 
notable.  Tlie  pictures  are  chiefly  those  of  plants,  numbering  386,  while 
there  are  only  eleven  pictures  of  animals.  The  pictures  vary  in 
quality,  but  seven  pictures  of  animals  and  five  or  six  of  plants  are  of 
unique  perfection  among  the  early  printed  illustrations.  The  picture 
of  die  yellow  flag  (Acorus)  (Fig.  8),  of  the  white  lily  (Fig.  9)  and  of 
the  fox  (Fig.  10)  are  fine  examples  of  drawings  from  nature.  The  cut 
of  die  yellow  flag  has  been  published  full-size  by  Dr.  Payne  and  by 
Mrs.  Arber,  but,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  the  figures  of  the  white  lily,  and 
of  the  fox  and  other  animals  have  not  been  reproduced. 

No  one  can  examine  the  original  cuts  and  retain  any  doubt  that  they 
were  drawn  from  nature  by  a  skilful  artist  and  a  careful  observer. 
The  lines  of  the  woodcuts  are  coarse  but  the  few  best  sketches  rival 


VOL.  Xra.— 17. 


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258  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

those  published  by  Brunfels  (1530)  and  Fuchs  (1542).  The  best 
figures  in  the  '^Gart"  show  the  highest  level  to  which  botanical  and 
zoological  illustrations  attained  not  only  in  the  fifteenth  century  but 
also  in  the  first  third  of  the  sixteenth.  Fifty-five  years  before  the  reno- 
vation of  botanical  illustration  by  Brunfels,  and  sixty-seven  years  before 
the  publication  of  the  figures  of  Fuchs,  the  best  pictures  of  the 
*^Gart''  stand  out  as  beacon  lights  in  the  development  of  scientific 
illustration.  They  are  of  singular  importance  in  the  history  of 
scientific  iconography  and  are  deserving  of  great  praise.  An  un- 
predjudiced  examination  of  them  can  not  fail  to  modify  the  incorrect 
estimate  as  to  the  quality  of  all  printed  illustrations  of  natural  history 
before  those  of  Brunfels. 

In  the  botanical  books  that  followed  for  fifty-five  years  from  the 
printing  presses  of  various  countries,  the  pictures  of  the  "Cart"  were 
copied  and  recopied,  but  in  the  process  they  were  degraded  and  conven- 
tionalized, so  that  one  can  get  a  correct  impression  as  to  quality  only 
by  examining  those  of  the  first  Mainz  edition.  Even  so  careful  and 
original  a  student  as  E.  L.  Greene,  whose  ^'Landmarks  of  Botanical 
History"  shows  great  thoroughness,  maturity  of  judgment  and  first- 
hand acquaintance  with  the  sources,  repeats  the  generally  accepted 
opinion,  saying  (p.  195) :  ^To  a  generation  that  had  been  accustomed 
to  such  books  as  the  ^Hortus  Sanitatis,'  filled  with  the  most  wretched 
caricatures  of  plants  in  place  of  true  representations  of  them,  this  great 
book  of  Fuchsius  must  have  appeared  as  nothing  less  than  luxurious" 
and  again,  (p.  167) :  "Even  40  or  50  years  before  these  fathers  of 
plant  iconography  there  were  printed  copies  of  the  'Hortus  Sanitatis,' 
and  its  German  version  ^Gart  der  Gesuntheit'  illustrated  by  some  500 
wood  engravings  of  plants.  Doubtless  the  wretched  character  of  these 
first  printed  plant  pictures,  along  with  the  great  popularity  of  the  books 
containing  them,  were  what  moved  Brunfels  to  undertake  the  publica* 
tion  of  the  'Herbarium  Vivae  Icones.' "  Here  a  direct  reference  is 
made  to  the  **Gart  der  Desuntheit"  (the  "Hortus  Sanitatis"  having 
1066  figures,  instead  of  500) .  The  criticism  will  apply  to  the  degraded 
pictures  of  the  "Hortus  Sanitatis"  but  not  to  the  better  pictures  of  the 
"Gart."  The  explanation  of  such  an  unwarranted  sweeping  conclusion 
is  doubtless  to  be  set  down  to  the  great  rarity  of  the  "Gart,"  and  to 
the  belief  that,  since  the  "Gart"  was  an  earlier  publicaticm  of  the  same 
type,  the  pictures  of  the  "Hortus  Sanitatis"  can  be  taken  as  showing  the 
quality  of  the  pictures  of  the  earlier  book. 

No  one  can  look  at  the  pictures  of  the  dodder,  the  yellow  flag,  the 
white  lily,  the  fox,  etc.,  and  consider  them  as  wretched  caricatures; 
they  rival  the  printed  pictures  in  the  herbals  of  Bnmfels  and  of  Fuchs 
as  to  quality  and  fidelity  to  nature. 


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GETTING  MARRIED  ON  FIRST, MESA,  ARIZONA  259 


GETTING  MARRIED  ON  FIRST  MESA,  ARIZONA 
By  Dr.  ELSIE  CLEWS  PARSONS 

TIHERE  are  three  towns  or  rather  two  towns  and  a  suburb  on  First 
^  or  East  Mesa,  Walpi,  the  Hopi  town,  with  its  suburb  Sichumovi, 
and  Hano  or  Tewa,  a  Tanoan  settlement  from  the  East,  made,  it  is 
said,  two  hundred  or  more  years  ago. 

It  was  from  Yellow-pine,  a  young  Tewa  woman  married  for  about 
three  years  that  I  heard  most  about  Tewa  wedding  practices.  Yellow- 
pine  spoke  English  comparatively  well,  well  enough  to  tell  a 
story  in  English  in  about  the  same  way  as  she  would  tell  it  in  Tewa. 
This  is  her  narrative: 

"The  boy  goes  to  the  girl's  house  at  night  to  see  her.  If  the  girl's 
mother  does  not  want  him,  she  tells  the  girl.  If  she  wants  him,  she  says, 
'You  can  talk*  to  him/  she  says.  (But  if  the  girl  wants  the  boy,  even  if  her 
people  do  not  want  him,  she  can  talk  to  him.)  The  boy  tells  his  people;  if 
they  say  yes,  then  the  boy  comes  again  and  tells  the  girl.  Then  the  girl 
makes  piki  [wafer  bread,  in  Tewa,  mowa],  the  narrow  kind  of  piki,  like 
sticks  (makana).  She  makes  piki  all  day.  She  piles  it  high,  beginning  early 
in  the  morning.  At  night  the  girl  and  her  mother  take  the  piki  to  the  boy's 
house.  The  boy's  people  are  happy  and  say.  Thank  you,'  and  give  them  meat. 
They  bring  it  home.  From  that  they  all  know  that  he  is  going  to  marry  her. 
Now,  any  night,  they  take  piki  again  to  the  boy's  house,  and  the  boy's  people 
give  meat.    From  then  on  they  begin  to  get  married.    .    .    . 

They  grind  corn  every  day  until  they  fill  ten  or  twelve  boilers  [store- 
bought  tin  boilers].  It  takes  a  month  to  complete  that  work.  They  also  pre- 
pare white  corn  to  put  in  water  for  the  boys  to  drink.  Then  they  are  ready. 
They  go  to  the  boy's  house  to  tell  the  boy's  people  they  will  come  in  four 
days.  The  boy's  people  get  things  ready  to  eat.  The  girl  tells  her  uncles 
[maternal  uncles  or  kinsmen]  and  fathers  [paternal  kinsmen]  to  come  to  her 
house  on  the  night  they  plan  for.    .    .    . 

On  this  night  they  dress  the  girl  in  her  manta  [i.  e.  ceremonial  blanket] 
and  wheel  her  hair.  Then  they  go  to  the  boy's  house  where  all  the  boy's 
people  are  gathered  together,  and  where  they  have  set  out  meat  and  bread 
and  coffee.  *We  have  brought  this  girl  to  you  to  grind  as  much  as  she  can/ 
say  the  girl's  uncles.  *Is  that  so?  All  right.  We  are  glad  to  have  her/ 
they  say.    .    .    . 

Next  day,  early  in  the  morning,  the  girl  starts  to  grind.  She  has  to 
grind  all  day ,2  stopping  only  to  eat.    For  three  days  the  girl  grinds.    Early  in 

1  At  Zuni,  the  New  Mexico  pueblo  where  custom  is  most  like  Hopi  cus- 
tom, "to  talk  to"  is  also  the  usual  expression  for  courting. 

2  I.  e.,  until  about  4  p.  m.,  the  closing  time  of  the  Hopi  work  day. 

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260  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

the  morning  of  the  fourth  day  they  wash  the  girl's  head.  The  girl  grinds 
once  more  and  finishes.  They  [in  the  girl's  house]  make  many  bowls  of  blue 
com  meal,  and  they  make  tnowasi,  (com  boiled  and  wrapped  in  com  husk). 
The  girl's  clanswomen  come  in  to  help.  That  night  the  girl's  people  take  to 
the  girl's  house  five  or  six  boilers  [empty]  from  which  they  are  to  give  out 
meal  to  the  boy's  people,  his  aunts  [father's  sisters],  uncles,  and  mothers 
[mother's  sisters  or  kinswomen],  meal  and  piki  and  on  top  mowasi.  What- 
ever is  left  over  is  given  to  the  boy's  mother. 

That  day  the  boy's  clansmen  have  brought  out  cotton  to  weave  into  a 
blanket  for  the  girl.  They  take  the  cotton  to  the  girl's  house.  Her  mother 
thanks  them,  and  puts  meal  for  them  in  the  bowl  that  held  the  cotton.  The 
men  take  the  cotton  to  the  kiva  to  work  on  it  While  they  work,  the  girl  has 
to  stay  on  in  the  boy's  house  and  do  the  cooking  of  the  house  and  the  sweep- 
ing, while  they  work  for  her  in  the  kiva.    .    .    . 

When  the  men  in  the  kiva  start  to  make  the  white  blanket,  they  take  piki 
to  them  and  white  com  water  to  drink.  And  every  day  they  take  bread  and 
meat.  At  the  girl's  house  they  are  making  heaps  of  meal  and  the  girl's  dans- 
women  are  making  piki,  all  night  the  women  are  making  piki,  and  all  night 
there  is  a  meal  set  out  for  thenL  The  next  night  they  make  pigami  (a  stew 
of  samp  and  mutton). 

A  day  or  two  later  they  take  water  to  the  girl's  house  and  to  the  boy's 
house  to  get  ready  to  make  piki  early  in  the  moming.  In  both  houses  they 
make  piki  to  take  to  the  houses  of  the  men  who  are  working  in  the  kiva  for 
the  girl.    In  that  way  they  pay  the  men  for  making  things  for  the  girl. 

Then  the  boy's  mother  tells  the  girl's  mother  in  how  many  nights  they 
are  going  to  take  the  girl  home  again.  They  get  ready,  they  cook  for  that 
night.  .  .  .  They  put  on  the  girl  her  blanket  and  moccasins.  That  night 
they  cut  the  girl's  hair  on  the  sides.*  The  boy's  mother  and  sisters  take  the 
girl  to  the  girl's  house.  There,  to  thank  them,  are  assembled  the  girl's 
uncles. 

Early  the  next  moming,  they  wash  the  boy's  head  [he  has  followed  his 
wife],  all  the  girl's  mothers  and  father's  sisters  wash  his  head. 

Four  days  later  they  make  piki  all  day  in  the  girl's  house  and  towards 
evening  they  take  it  all  to  the  boy's  house.    .    .    . 

Afterwards,  at  any  time,  perhaps  two  or  three  years  afterwards,  the 
girl  has  ground  in  her  house  ten  boilerfuls  of  com,  including  one  boilcrful 
of  white  com  and  one  of  sweet  com.  After  this  grinding,  the  boy's  people 
go  to  the  girl's  house  and  whitewash  the  walls  and  clean  house.  The  next 
day  the  boy's  mothers  and  father's  sisters  bring  water  to  the  girl's  house. 
The  next  day,  early  in  the  mornmg,  in  the  girl's  house  they  start  to  make 
piki  They  make  piki  and  they  grind  meal  all  day.  They  fill  up  the  baskets 
to  take  them  to  the  boy's  mothers.  With  a  pan  of  beans  the  girl's  mother 
goes  first,  the  girl  in  her  white  blanket  follows  and  the  other  wwnen.  The 
boy's  people  are  waiting,  they  get  happy.  They  go  to  the  girl's  house  and 
eat.    That  is  all,  except  that  afterwards,  at  any  time  when  the  men  who  made 

«  Like  the  hair  of  Zufii  and  Keresan  women.  Hopi  women,  married 
women,  part  the  hair  and  with  a  string  twist  the  locks  on  either  side  of  the 
face.  .  ;  .  ,  That  the  Tewa  women  have  thus  preserved  their  own  style  of 
hairdressmg  IS  an  mteresting  fact.  Style  of  hairdressing  and  language  are, 
as  far  as  I  know,  the  only  distinctive  traits,  exclusive  of  religion  or  public 
ceremony,  preserved  by  these  Tewa  immigrants  whose  town  is  within  a 
stone  s  throw  of  the  houses  of  their  Hopi  neighbors. 


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GETTING  MARRIED  ON  FIRST  MESA,  ARIZONA  261 

her  things  are  going  to  dance,  the  girl  dresses  in  her  white  blanket  and  takes 
the  dancers  pigami,* — It  is  hard  work  for  us  to  get  married. 

A  long  time  ago,  it  was  not  so  hard.    But  now  we  get  married  just  like 
Hopi,  and  it  is  much  longer  and  harder." 

It  is  quite  likely,  as  Yellow-pine  suggested,  that  Tewa  marriage 
ceremonial  was  formerly  more  simple,  as  it  is  among  other  Pueblo 
Indian  peoples.  In  Tewa  folk-tales  the  ceremonial  or  etiquette  of  get- 
ting married  is  much  the  same  as  in  Zuni  tale  and  practice  ^  and 
probably  in  ancient  Keresan  practice.^  The  youth  comes  to  the  girl's 
house.  She  sets  food  out  for  him,  he  tells  the  parents  what  he  has 
come  for,  they  say  that  it  is  not  for  them  to  say,  but  for  their  daughter. 
(As  Yellow-pine  remarked,  the  choice  is  really  with  the  girl.'')  The 
youth  leaves,  to  return  another  night  with  his  bundle,  his  gifts  of 
blankets,  belt,  and  moccasins  to  the  girl.  If  she  accepts  them,  she 
carries  in  her  turn  a  gift  of  com  meal  to  the  young  man's  house,  where 
she  stays  four  days  to  grind.  There  on  the  fourth  morning  her  head 
is  washed.  Then  the  couple  return  to  live  at  the  house  of  the  girl's 
mother.  A  gift  of  apparel  from  the  man,  a  gift  of  meal  from  the 
girl,  her  visit,  a  betrothal  visit,  so  to  speak,  to  the  man's  maternal 
house,  the  rite  of  head  washing,  and  the  return  to  the  girl's  maternal 
bouse — ^this  seems  to  be  the  generic  Pueblo  form  of  wedding  to  which 
the  Hopi  and  then  the  Tewa,  in  imitation,  gave  elaboration.  Curiously 
enough,  Spanish  influence  in  the  Eastern  pueblos,  Keresan  and  Tan- 
oan,'  has  tended  to  a  somewhat  analogous  elaboration,  a  case  of  sim- 
ilarity, we  can  but  think,  due  to  convergence. 

The  extent  of  the  Hopi  elaboration  appears  even  more  fully  in 
another  account  of  Hopi  wedding  practices  given  me  by  a  Tewa  man, 

•  At  Oraibi,  Voth  notes  that  all  the  brides  of  the  year  appear  in  their 
white  blankets  at  the  close  of  the  niman  kachina  or  farewell  performance  in 
July,  the  most  elaborate  of  the  masked  dances.  ("Oraibi  Marriage  Customs," 
p.  246.    American  Anthropologist,    II.  1900). 

5  Cp.  Parsons,  E.  C.  "Notes  on  Zufii,"  pt.  II,  302,  307,  322,  325.  Mem. 
American  Anthropological  Association,  IV,  No.  4,  1917.  Lack  of  weaving  at 
present  day  Zufii  and  the  comparatively  small  amount  there  of  clan  cooperation 
would  account  in  large  part  for  the  simpler  way  of  getting  married. 

Second  marriage  is  among  the  Hopi  comparatively  simple  because  no 
bridal  outfit  is  to  be  made. 

•  Dumarest,  N.  "Notes  on  Cochiti,  New  Mexico,"  pp.  148,  149.  Mem. 
American  Anthropological  Association,  VI,  No.  3,  1919. 

7  On  the  other  hand  I  have  been  told  that  among  old-fashioned  people  the 
girl's  parents  and  uncle  (mother's  brother — note  the  significance  of  participa- 
tion by  the  uncle  to  the  theory  of  cross-cousin  marriage,  p.  265)  would  look 
for  a  boy  for  her.  "My  daughter,  you  will  marry  that  boy,"  they  would  say  to 
her.  To  be  sure,  "she  might  leave  the  boy  they  chose  and  choose  her  own 
boy,"  and,  if  her  fsmiily  were  angry,  she  would  go  to  live  with  some  kins- 
woman. 

•  Cp.  Parsons,  E.  C.  "Further  Notes  on  Isleta,"  American  Anthropologist, 
in  proof. 


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262  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

a  Bear  clansman  married  into  a  Hopi  (Sichumovi)  bouse  and  the 
father  of  a  girl  whose  wedding  was  not  yet  completed,  although  she 
was  the  mother  of  a  three  months'  old  infant.  The  final  gift  of  meal 
was  not  yet  made.  My  Tewa  friend  had  the  wedding  of  hb  daughter 
Butterfly  in  mind,  as  he  talked,  I  think,  although  he  put  his  narrative 
into  an  impersonal  form.  Some  of  his  narrative  is  supplemented  by 
information  from  his  wife,  Butterfly's  mother. 

Whenever  a  girl  finds  a  boy,  the  boy  comes  to  see  the  girl's  parents. 
After  >he  comes,  the  parents  ask  what  he  wants.  "I  come  to  see  about  your 
daughter,"  he  says.  "I  don't  know  about  it,"  says  the  father  of  the  girl,  also 
the  mother  of  the  girl.  "We  will  tell  her  uncles  (taamato,  her  mother's 
brothers,  etc.),  and  see  what  they  have  to  say"  .  .  .  The  mother  of  the 
girl  tells  her  uncles  to  come  to  her  house.  They  come  at  tlie  time  she 
says.  (There  were  six  uncles  who  came  in  to  talk  about  Butterfly).  The 
mother  of  the  girl  says,  T  called  you  because  there  is  a  boy  wants  our  child. 
I  told  him  I  had  nothing  to  say  until  I  called  you.*  An  uncle  may  say,  T  don't 
think  we  want  that  boy  to  marry  our  niece  (tatiwaiya,  sister's  child).'  Or 
an  uncle  may  say,  *Well,  it  is  all  right.'  [In  this  case]  the  next  time  the  boy 
comes,  the  mother  of  the  girl  says,  *I  told  my  uncles.  It  is  all  right,  they 
say.  Tell  your  mother  and  father,  and  they  will  tell  your  uncles,  and  what 
your  uncles  say  you  tell  us.'  Then  the  mother  of  the  boy  will  call  in  her 
uncles  and  tell  them  that  the  boy  has  been  to  the  girl's  house.  'Her  mother 
and  father  said  for  me  to  call  you  and  see  what  you  think  about  it'  .  .  . 
If  it  is  all  right,  the  girl's  people  take  some  food  (piki)  to  the  boy's  house  to 
let  them  know  that  the  girl  is  going  to  marry  the  boy.  This  piki  the  boy's 
mother  distributes  to  all  members  of  her  clan.  .  .  .  After  this  the  parents 
of  the  boy  have  to  look  for  buckskin,  and  for  cotton  to  weave  into  the  wedding 
blankets  (kwatskyapa)  .  .  .  The  girVs  people  begin  to  grind  corn  to  fill 
ten  bowls.  (To  help  Butterfly,  there  were,  besides  her  mother  and  mother's 
mother  and  mother's  sister,  one  other  close  relative  and  five  clanswomcn). 
Then  they  say  when  they  will  take  the  girl  to  the  boy's  house;  they  tell  the 
mother  of  the  girl  to  tell  the  mother  of  the  boy.  The  mother  of  the  girl 
goes  and  tells  the  mother  of  the  boy,  and  she  tells  all  her  uncles  to  come  to 
her  house  and  all  her  clans  women  (nahimatd)  and  all  the  aunts  (kyamato, 
father's  sisters)  of  the  girl  and  all  the  girl's  father's  brothers  (namato)  i.  e. 
clansmen.  (When  our  girl  married  only  my  own  two  brothers  came,  but 
we  asked  all  the  Bear  men.  We  can't  tell  who  will  come.)'  The  girl's  aunts 
take  some  corn  meal  to  the  girl's  house,  in  the  evening,  and  the  aunt  ^o  of  the 
girl  dresses  the  girl  and  puts  her  hair  up  in  wheels.  They  all  talk  to  the 
girl,  each  of  them  saying  she  must  work  at  the  boy's  house  and  not  be 
lazy.  .  .  .  They  go  to  the  boy's  house,  the  girl's  aunt  goes  first,  carrying 
corn  meal  on  her  back,  then  the  girl,  then  the  girl's  mother  and  then  the 
girl's  father,  then  the  uncles,  then  the  girl's  brothers.  They  all  go  single  file 
— [the  usual  Hopi  formation  for  any  formal  group  in  progress].  At  the 
boy's  house  they  have  prepared  supper  for  all  who  are  to  come.  They  eat 
supper,  they  leave  the  girl  there,  they  go  back  home.  This  night  the  mother 
of  the  boy  takes  care  of  the  girl.    Early  in  the  morning  the  girl  gets  up  to 

9  This  is  characteristic  of  all  invitations  to  clanspeople,  whether  to  join 
in  a  work  party  or  a  name-giving  rite  or  other  ceremonial  occasion.  All  arc 
asked;  but  only  the  closer  relatives  feel  any  obligation  to  come. 

w  The  senior  sister  or  cousin  of  the  girl's  father,  her  aunt  par  excellence. 

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GETTING  MARRIED  ON  FIRST  MESA,  ARIZONA  263 

grind  corn.  Across  the  place  where  the  girl  is  grinding  they  hang  a  blanket 
or,  nowadays,  a  wagon  cover,  so  nobody  may  talk  to  her  or  the  sun  shine 
on  her.  They  give  her  breakfast.  .  .  .  The  boy's  father's  mother  tells 
all  her  clanswomen  to  go  to  the  boy's  house,  carrying  water.  The  boy's 
mother  goes  around  and  invites  her  clanswomen  to  come  to  help  her  against 
the  boy's  father's  clanswomen.  Then  they  start  to  fight.  {Moungkipoh  mowa, 
female  connection  by  marriage;  kipoh,  go  to  fight).  [See  p.  265  for  explana- 
tion]. Then  they  go  back  home.  .  .  .  The  girl  grinds  all  day.  The 
mother  of  the  boy  tells  the  girl  when  to  stop  grinding.  They  cat  supper, 
they  go  to  bed,  and  the  mother  of  the  boy  takes  care  of  the  girl.  .  .  . 
The  first  day  the  girl  grinds  white  corn,  the  second  and  third  days,  blue  com, 
the  fourth  day,  pop  corn  to  be  drunk  in  water.  On  the  third  day,  in  the 
evening,  the  mother  of  the  girl  begins  to  put  up  her  meal  to  take  to  the 
boy's  house.  The  father  or  brother  of  the  girl  are  to  take  it  to  the  boy's 
house.  All  night  any  of  the  townswomen  may  go  to  the  girl's  house  to  help 
make  piki^^  as  well  as  the  girl's  clanswomen,  even  clanswomen  from  other 
towns.  .  .  .  Early  in  the  morning  they  wash  the  girl's  head;  first  the 
mother  of  the  boy  takes  down  one  wheel  of  the  girl's  hair  and  washes,  then 
the  father  of  the  boy  takes  down  the  other  wheel  and  washes,  then  the  boy's 
sisters  wash  and  then  his  clanswomen.12  [They  wash,  as  usual,  with  jucca 
root  suds,  dipping  the  suds  on  the  head  with  an  ear  of  white  corn  that  is 
completely  kemelled,  one  of  the  ears  people  refer  to  as  "mother"  and  which 
is  used  on  many  ceremonial  occasions.  The  dipping  is  quite  formal,  the  head 
touched  lightly  four  times,  when  a  few  words  of  prayer  may  be  said.  A 
thorough  washing  follows.  After  the  washing,  corn  meal  is  rubbed  on  face, 
arms,  and  body,  and  meal  is  given  to  the  person  washed  to  take  out  and 
sprinkle,  perhaps  in  a  shrine,  or  on  the  eastern  edge  of  the  mesa,  with  a 
prayer  for  long  life  and  prosperity.]  They  dress  the  girl's  hair  in  a  roll  along 
each  side  of  the  head.i3 

After  the  head  washing  they  eat  the  piki  brought  from  the  girl's  house 
and  the  pigami  made  in  the  bo/s  house  and  for  which  his  father  has  killed 
a  cow.  Other  piki  is  given  later  in  the  day  to  the  boy's  clanswomen  who 
come  in  to  wash  the  girl's  head,  piki  and  on  top  of  it  chakobiki,  sweet  corn 
meal,  which  is  to  be  drunk  in  water. 

Then  the  boy's  uncles  (taamato)  and  the  boy's  father's  brothers  (natnato) 
[L  e.  clansmen]  bring  in  cotton  to  spin  and  weave  for  the  girl.  The  girl's 
mother  who  is  in  the  boy's  house  refills  the  baskets  holding  the  cotton  with 

11  At  Oraibi  the  girl  friends  of  the  bride  bring  in  trays  of  corn  meal. 
The  following  morning  the  trays  are  returned  filled  with  ears  of  corn  by  the 
groom's  mother.     ("Oraibi  Marriage  Customs,"  p.  241). 

^  On  Third  Mesa  at  Oraibi  the  groom's  head  is  also  washed  at  this  time, 
by  his  mother-in-law.  The  bodies  of  the  couple  are  also  bathed.  The  heads 
of  bride  and  groom  are  first  washed  in  separate  bowls,  then  in  the  same  bowl, 
a  symbolic  act  of  union,  according  to  Voth.  which  has  lapsed  in  the  case  of  a 
bridegroom  who  has  had  his  hair  cut  short  at  school.  (Voth,  H.  R.  "Hopi 
Marriage  Rites  on  the  Wedding  Morning,"  .pp.  147-9.  Brief  Miscellaneous 
Hopi  Papers,  Field  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.  Pub.  157.  Anthrop.  Ser:  Vol.  XI, 
No.  2.  1912).  At  this  headwashing  rite  at  Oraibi  wrangling  by  the  women 
(see  above  and  pp.  264-265)  is  said  to  occur,  the  visiting  women  trying  to 
displace  the  bride.     ("Oraibi  Marriage  Customs,"  p.  242). 

w  At  Oraibi  the  girl's  hair  is  taken  down  from  the  wheels  or  whorls  worn 
by  virgins  by  her  own  mother  before  mother  and  daughter  take  their  first 
gift  of  meal  to  the  boy's  house  ("Oraibi  Marriage  Customs,"  p.  240).  The 
two  rolls  of  the  married  woman's  hair  are  wrapped  with  brown  yam  stiffened 
with  grease,  so  that  the  hair  slips  in  and  out  of  the  wrapping  or  rather  casing. 


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264  THE    SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

corn  meal,  in  return  for  the  cotton.  The  cotton  is  divided  into  four  piles, 
the  father  of  the  boy  is  to  make  one  oba  (white  blanket  with  red  and  black 
border),  the  boy's  uncle,  an  oba  and  an  ato,  (larger  white  blanket,  em- 
broidered), and  the  boy's  father's  brother,  a  belt  (wokukwewa).  [They  may 
also  make  a  dress  of  black  wool].  They  take  the  cotton  into  the  kiva,  to 
spini*  and  weave  They  don't  Imow  how  long  it  will  take— several  days, 
sometimes  a  month,  sometimes  less.  (For  Butterfly  they  were  spinning  three 
days,  and  weaving  three  days).  During  this  time  the  girl  is  grinding  or 
making  piki  in  the  boy's  house,  where  her  clanswomen  come  to  help  her. 
This  is  for  the  men  at  work  in  the  kiva  to  eat.  They  take  the  piki  to  them 
every  afternoon,  and  sweet  corn  meal  in  water.  Besides,  at  this  time,  the 
boy's  clanspeople  come  to  the  boy's  house  to  eat.  Whatever  com  meal  or 
piki  is  left  over  is  given  to  the  guests  to  carry  away  with  them,  [as  is  usual 
in  Pueblo  Indian  circles  when  a  meal  is  thought  of  as  pay  in  kind.] 

Through  with  weaving,  they  make  the  moccasins,  perhaps  the  boy's 
father  makes  them,  perhaps  his  uncle.  The  night  of  the  day  they  finish 
making  the  moccasins,  they  take  the  girl  back  to  her  house,  first  dressing  her 
up  in  her  new  things,  and  the  boy  follows  her.  For  all  of  them,  the  mother 
of  the  girl  has  a  meal  ready.  Earlier  in  the  day  the  boy's  mother  has  carried 
the  girl's  mother  a  basket  of  corn.  Before  the  boy  leaves  his  house,  his 
people  talk  to  him,  telling  him  not  to  be  lazy  and  to  be  good  to  everybody 
in  his  wife's  house — "that  is  why  he  is  getting  married." 

Early  the  next  morning  [after  the  night  return  to  the  girl's  house]  the 
clanswomen  of  the  girl  come  in  to  wash  the  boy's  head,  just  as  the  girl's 
head  has  been  washed.  Three  days  later  the  boy  has  to  get  wood.  On  the 
fourth  day  the  girl's  clanswomen  come  in  to  make  piki  all  day.  That  evening 
they  take  the  piki  to  the  boy's  house.  The  following  evening  those  piki 
makers  return  to  the  girl's  house  to  which  the  boy's  mother  brings  some  piki 
and  meat  for  them  to  eat.    That  is  the  end  of  it.    .    .    . 

If  the  girl  is  married  in  the  fall,i5  the  following  fall  [i.  e.  a  year  later] 
they  begin  to  grind  corn  again.  They  put  the  meal  into  twelve  baskets  *•  to 
take  to  the  boy's  house  to  pay  for  the  wedding  outfit." 

"When  is  the  first  time  they  sleep  together?*'  I  asked.  **The  night 
of  the  morning  they  wash  the  girl's  head.  I  forgot  that.''  He  forgot 
that,  because,  I  presume,  it  was  the  ceremonial  that  was  of  significance, 
not  the  personal  relationship.  "I  forgot  that" — ^what  more  telling  com- 
mecnt  on  wedding  ceremonial — anywhere? 

On  my  last  visit  to  First  Mesa  I  had  the  good  ludc  to  witness  a 
wedding  attack,  the  kind  of  mock  or  ceremonial  attack  referred  to  in 
the  foregoing  narrative,  by  the  groom's  father's  kinswomen  on  his 
own  kinswomen.    High  pitched  voices  were  heard  out  of  doors  near 

M  Voth  got  the  impression  at  Oraibi  that  any  townsman  might  join  in 
the  spinning.    ("Oraibi  Marriage  Customs,"  pp.  243-244). 

15  Fall  or  winter  is  the  usual  season  for  weddings  (Oraibi  Marriage 
Customs,"  p.  240).  None  would  marry  in  Kyamuye,  the  dangerous  moon, 
i.  e.  our  December. 

w  The  flat  gayly  colored  baskets  got  in  trade  from  Second  Mesa.  .  .  . 
At  the  time  of  my  November  visit  a  year  after  Butterfly's  wedding,  her 
family  had  acumulated  only  eight  baskets  and  when  I  left  they  had  but  seven, 
as  they  gave  me  one. 


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GETTING  MARRIED  ON  FIRST  MESA,  ARIZONA  265 

by,  about  four  o'clock  of  an  afternoon,  and  I  was  called  out  to  see  the 
sport  of  the  ^Vomen's  fight"  and  join  in  the  laughter  of  the  neighbors 
standing  about  There  were  but  two  women  on  either  side,  to  throw 
water  and  any  refuse  they  could  pick  up  in  the  street.  One  woman  had 
already  had  her  face  smeared  with  mud  when  I  arrived  on  the  scene, 
and  all  were  drenched.  The  attackers  would  vociferate  in  shrill  tones 
against  the  closed  door  of  the  house  of  the  groom's  mother — ^they 
were  charging  the  bride  with  being  lazy,  unable  to  cook  or  to  work — 
and  then  one  of  the  women  would  burst  out  from  inside  to  throw  water 
and  to  talk  back,  to  say  that  the  bride  caidd  work,  ivas  industrious,  etc. 
(No  other  insults  appear  to  be  indulged  in  on  these  occasions,  there 
are,  for  example,  no  sex  jeers.)  But  for  the  amused  and  non-inter- 
fering bystanders,  two  dozen  or  so,  the  row  seemed  thoroughly  realistic. 
It  was  vigorous,  though  brief,  lasting  less  than  an  hour. 

The  bride  of  this  occasion  was  the  sister  of  the  town  chief,  the 
gigyaumxti  or  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  houses,  corresponding  to  the 
woman  member  of  the  kyakweamosi  (chiefs  of  the  houses)  of  Zuni. 
She  had  been  married  before  and  separated,  as  had  the  groom.  During 
the  ceremonial  row  she  remained,  not  in  the  maternal  house  of  the 
groom,  but  in  her  own  house  at  Walpi.  That  morning  she  had  been 
married  by  government  license  in  the  schoolhouse  below  the  Mesa.^'^ 
Marriage  by  license  in  the  morning  and  in  the  afternoon  a  wedding 
assault,  what  uncritical  theorizers  would  once  have  called  a  'Vape 
syn^ol"!  New  custom  and  old,  side  by  side,  as  is  ever  the  way  in 
Pueblo  Indian  life 

Although  the  old  custom,  the  assault,  is  not  a  symbol  of  rape,  since 
the  grievance  is  on  the  part  of  the  groom's  people,  his  father's  people 
against  his  mother's  people,  it  is,  nevertheless,  we  may  fairly  assume, 
give  certain  other  data,*®  a  symbol  or  survival  of  an  earlier  custcxn,  that 
of  cross-cousin  marriage,  where  the  favored  or  acceptable  marriage  was 
with  the  father's  sister's  daughter  or  clanswoman. 

17  Hopi  converts,  "Qiristians"  as  they  are  called,  are  married  in  tbc 
church;  but  the  unconverted  are  likewise  required  by  govermnent  to  be 
married,  in  the  schoolhouse. 

18  See  Freire-Marecco,  B.  "Tewa  Kinship  Terms  from  the  Pueblo  of 
Hano,  Arizona,"  American  Anthropologist,  XVI,  286,  1914.  For  his  paternal 
aunt  to  call  a  boy  "our  bridegroom"  is  also  Hopi  practice  or  joke.  Another 
Hopi  joke  is  that  were  a  man  to  marry  his  fathers  sister's  daughter  (clans- 
woman),  a  certain  lizard  called  manana  would  dart  at  him.  Oppositely,  at 
Laguna,  children  are  told  that  if  they  are  shy  of  calling  certain  connections 
by  the  cross-cousin  terms  of  relationship,  which  is  "just  like  saying  husband 
or  wife,"  the  lizard  will  dart.  The  cross-cousin  terms  of  relationship  in  sev- 
eral Pueblo  tribes  point  to  some  time  cross-cousin  marriage.  In  the  Hopi 
hoinazve,  a  war  dance,  the  girl  dancers  appoint  the  men  dancers,  appointing 
from  their  mother's  brother's  sons.  As  sexual  license  once  characterized  war 
dances,  in  this  choice  of  dance  partners  may  be  seen  another  hint  of  cross- 
cousin  mating. 


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tM  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 


HARMONIZING   HORMONES 
By  ProfesM>r  B.   W.    KUNKEL 

LAFAYETTE  COLLEGE 

rE  mechanism  of  coordination  within  the  animal  body  is  one  of 
the  most  subtle  of  all  the  organ  systems  of  the  higher  animals,  as 
it  is  one  of  the  subtlest  properties  of  the  microscopic  body  of  die  pro- 
tozoa. What  it  is  in  the  single  cell  of  the  Paramecium,  for  example, 
that  enables  all  the  cilia  covering  its  body  to  beat  harmoniously  in 
order  to  propel  the  organism  either  forward  or  backward  is  quite  un- 
known. Our  ignorance  we  cover  by  saying  it  is  a  property  of  the  living 
substance  to  adapt  itself  to  its  environment  and  hence  to  advance  or 
retreat  according  to  the  stimuli  it  receives.  I  have  no  desire  at  this 
time  to  inquire  into  diis  question  of  adaptation,  interesting  diou^  it  be, 
nor  have  I  any  desire  to  become  involved  in  the  discussion  of  a  possible 
"vital  principle"  at  work  to  keep  the  organism  behaving  as  a  perfectly 
unified  body  capable  of  maintaining  itself  in  a  changing  environment. 
The  problem  I  would  consider  very  briefly  has  to  do  with  the  vis- 
ible or  physical  coordinators  that  can  be  demonstrated  in  the  labora- 
tory and  that  do  not  lead  us  at  once  into  the  realm  of  metaphysics. 

There  are  three  well  defined  coordinating  systems  in  the  higher  ani- 
mals. The  simplest  is  made  up  of  the  connective  tissues  which  hold  the 
different  parts  of  the  body  in  proper  spatial  relations  to  each  other, 
which  exert  pressures  and  tensions  on  different  parts  and  prevent  the 
mechanical  interference  of  one  part  with  another.  Ligaments  and  bones 
by  their  special  forms  and  attachments  prevent  us  from  wringing  our 
own  necks.  In  addition  to  the  connective  tissues,  which  are  mechanical 
coordinators,  the  muscles  may  also  be  mentioned.  The  muscles  of  the 
neck  must  be  strong  enough  to  keep  the  head  balanced  and  the  tongue, 
though  it  may  be  *%ung  in  the  middle'^  in  some  of  us  must  not  be  too 
large  to  fit  comfortably  within  the  mouth  cavity.  The  second  and  far 
and  away  the  most  complex  system  of  coordination  is  the  nervous  sys- 
tem which  has  evolved  in  the  course  of  the  history  of  living  things  to 
an  elaborateness  beyond  that  of  any  other.  Coordination  by  means  of 
the  nervous  system  is  brought  about  by  the  peculiarly  specialized  prop- 
erty of  nerve  cells  of  transmitting  certain  changes  along  their  l^igth  so 
that  the  modification  of  one  part  of  the  body  by  a  stimulus  is  transmit- 
ted to  other  distant  parts  and  throws  them  into  activity.  The  exact 
nature  of  these  nerve  impulses  is  still  quite  problematical  bu,t  there  has 
recently  cotne  to  light  evidence  of  their  chemical  nature  since  carbon 


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HARMONIZING    HORMONES  267 

dioxide  is  liberated  more  abundantly  by  a  nerve  along  whicb  impulses 
are  passing  than  by  one  not  active.  The  third  form  of  coordinator  in 
the  body  is  the  circulatory  system  by  means  of  which  materials  are 
transported  through  the  medium  of  the  blood  and  lymph.  By  virtue 
of  the  rapid  movement  of  the  blood  stream,  all  parts  are  furnished  with 
a  uniform  nutriment  and  oxygen  supply  and  washed  free  of  accumu- 
lated wastes,  and  at  the  same  time  bathed  with  special  chemical  sub- 
stances which  modify  the  action  of  different  parts  of  the  body. 

It  is  only  very  recently  that  the  full  significance  of  this  last  class  of 
coordinators  has  been  realized  and  it  is  to  this  system  that  I  would  call 
your  attention  specially.  Within  the  past  few  years  the  energies  of 
a  great  number  of  physiologists  have  been  directed  to  certain  specialized 
organs  having  the  structure  of  glands  but  not  conununicating  with  any 
free  surface  by  means  of  ducts.  These  organs  secrete  internally,  di- 
rectly into  the  blood  stream  from  which  they  have  derived  the  raw  mate- 
rials from  which  the  hormone  is  secreted.  The  eflfects  on  neighboring 
organs  of  the  products  of  other  organs  has  been  studied  with  great 
earnestness  for  some  years,  but  our  knowledge  is  still  in  its  infancy. 
From  the  medical  point  of  view  there  have  been  some  remarkable  ad- 
vances made  in  this  field.  As  Sir  William  Osier  said  recently,  medicine 
has  made  no  more  brilliant  advance  than  in  the  cure  of  certain  dis- 
eases of  these  ductless  glands. 

One  of  the  most  important  hormones  which  is  produced  by  every 
living  cell  in  the  body  is  carbon  dioxide.  This  is  the  normal  product 
of  cellular  activity  and  affords  a  kind  of  measure  of  the  vitality  of  a 
part.  Resting,  inactive  cells  produce  comparatively  little;  actively  con- 
tracting muscles  or  secreting  glands  produce  large  quantities.  This  waste 
matter,  the  product  of  the  metabolism  of  the  cells,  is  poured  into  the 
blood  to  be  eliminated  finally  in  the  lungs.  But  before  it  is  finally  got 
rid  of,  it  stimulates  the  respiratory  center  of  the  brain  which  activates 
the  respiratory  muscles.  The  more  active  the  respiratory  center,  the 
more  rapid  and  deep  is  the  respiration.  There  is  a  most  perfect  co- 
ordination between  the  respiratory  activity  and  the  muscular  activity 
of  the  body  generally  so  that  the  quantity  of  carbon  dioxide  in  the 
blood  is  maintained  practically  constant.  Although  breathing  is  under 
the  control  of  the  will  within  limits,  we  ordinarily  respire  involuntarily 
and  unconsciously,  and  we  take-  a  breath  only  when  the  blood  reaching 
the  respiratory  center  of  the  brain  contains  an  excess  of  carbon  dioxide 
and  stimulates  it  to  greater  activity;  a  fact  which  may  be  proved  by 
any  one  most  readily.  Sitting  quietly  with  watch  in  hand,  the  experi- 
menter breathes  rapidly  and  moderately  deeply  for  from  one  half  to 
one  minute  thus  ventilating  the  lungs  thoroughly.  Then  without  trying 
to  hold  the  breath  he  will  note  how  long  an  interval  passes  before  the 
slightest  impulse  to  breathe  is  felt.    In  this  case,  by  the  thorough  ven- 


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268  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

tilation  of  the  lungs  more  than  the  normal  quantity  of  carbon  dioxide 
passes  out  of  the  blood  and  is  exhaled  so  that  the  blood  reaching  the 
respiratory  center  is  abnormally  poor  in  CO,.  The  interval,  until  the 
impulse  to  breathe  again  is  felt,  represents  the  time  it  Cakes  for  carbon 
dioxide  to  accumulate  in  the  blood  to  the  normal  amount.  Conversely, 
the  inhalation  of  carbon  dioxide  leads  to  more  rapid  and  forced  breath- 
ing because  of  the  over-stimulation  of  the  respiratory  center.  Before 
the  young  mammalian  is  bom  it  does  not  breathe  air  through  the  lungs; 
in  fact,  its  lungs  do  not  begin  to  function  until  the  infant  is  separated 
from  the  maternal  blood  circulation  and  the  carbon  dioxide  produced 
by  the  activity  of  its  cells  has  accumulated  suflBciently  in  the  blood  to 
throw  the  respiratory  center  into  activity  and  in  consequence  the  mus- 
cles by  means  of  which  the  air  is  changed  in  the  lungs.  This,  of  course, 
is  simply  a  matter  of  seconds. 

That  it  is  the  composition  of  the  blood  which  determines  the  activ- 
ity of  the  respiratory  muscles  may  also  be  demonstrated  in  another  way. 
The  lungs  of  birds  are  so  connected  with  air  spaces  which  extend 
through  the  bones  that  it  is  possible  to  pass  a  continuous  stream  of 
fresh  air  through  them  by  connecting  the  cut  end  of  one  of  the  larger 
bones  with  a  suitable  pump.  Under  the  circumstances,  the  bird  makes 
not  the  slightest  respiratory  movement  for  an  indefinite  time  since  its 
blood  is  maintained  in  a  perfectly  normal  arterial  condition,  with  an 
abundance  of  oxygen  in  it  and  unable  to  stimulate  the  respiratory 
center. 

Another  most  clearly  proved  chemical  harmonizer,  which  makes 
the  pancreas  secrete  at  the  moment  its  secretion  is  needed,  is  the  sub- 
stance secretin  which  is  formed  in  the  intestine  by  the  stimulation  of 
the  intestinal  wall  by  an  acid.  This  substance  is  carried  to  the  pancreas 
in  the  circulation  and  causes  that  organ  to  secrete  pancreatic  juice,  the 
most  important  digestive  juice.  The  stimulation  of  the  pancreas  by 
some  material  transported  thither  rather  than  by  nervous  stimulus  has 
been  proven  in  several  ways.  All  the  nerves  connected  with  an  isolated 
loop  of  intestine  are  cut,  so  that  no  impulses  can  pass  from  the  stimu- 
lated part  of  the  intestine,  but  the  blood  vessels  are  left  intact  An 
acid,  like  the  acid  of  the  gastric  juice,  is  introduced  into  this  isolated 
part  of  the  intestine  and  the  flow  of  pancreatic  juice  is  noted.  The  in- 
crease of  the  flow  of  pancreatic  juice  is  quite  as  great  as  when  the  nerves 
are  not  cut  Again,  it  has  been  found  that  the  blood  leaving  the  intes- 
tine which  has  been  stimulated  by  an  acid  has  the  power  of  stimulating 
the  flow  of  pancreatic  juice  in  a  second  animal  into  whose  blood  ves- 
sels this  blood  is  injected.  It  has  been  demonstrated  also  that  acid  in 
the  blood  alone  has  no  such  effect  on  the  flow  of  pancreatic  juice.  Here 
we  have  a  clear  example  of  harmonious,  purposeful  action;  namely,  the 
secretion  of  pancreatic  juice  at  the  time  that  the  contents  of  the  stomach 


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HARMONIZING   HORMONES  269 

pass  into  the  intestine,  effected  through  a  definite  chemical  substance 
manufactured  in  the  intestine  under  the  influence  of  an  acid  and  trans- 
ported to  the  pancreas. 

Some  very  interesting  cases  of  accurate  coordination  through  chem- 
ical means  have  been  noted  in  the  development  of  the  embryo  from  the 
c^g.    Let  me  illustrate  with  some  experiments  on  the  development  of  the 
eye  of  the  tadpole.    You  may  recall  that  the  fine  coordination  displayed 
by  the  development  of  the  eye  was  a  stumbling  block  to  Darwin  in  the 
way  of  the  g^ieral  acceptance  of  the  theory  of  natural  selection.    The 
experimenter,  however,  has  shown  that  to  some  extent  this  beautiful 
and  complex  coordination  of  parts  is  accomplished  by  chemical  sub- 
stances produced  by  certain  organs.    Before  explaining  the  experiments, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  describe  very  briefly  the  embryology  of  the  eye. 
At  a  very  early  age  before  the  body  form  of  the  embryo  has  been  es- 
tablished and  before  many  organs  have  been  laid  down,  the  brain 
broadens  out  in  the  form  of  a  small  conical  projection  on  each  side. 
The  apex  of  this  cone  finally  reaches  the  level  of  the  skin.    This  swell- 
ing is  known  as  the  optic  vesicle  and  from  it  is  derived  the  portion  of 
the  eye  which  is  sensitive  to  light,  the  retina.    The  bit  of  skin  in  con- 
tact with  the  apex  of  the  optic  vesicle  sinks  down  beneath  the  surface 
like  a  little  cup  or  pit,  pushing  the  optic  vesicle  down  with  it,  }ust 
as  one  might  push  in  one  side  of  a  rubber  ball  with  the  thumb.    The 
margins  of  this  depression  finally  close  together  forming  a  hollow  ball 
which  becomes  separated  from  the  skin.    This  later  becomes  the  lens 
of  the  eye.    These  are  facts  which  could  be  demonstrated  to  you  in  a 
half  hour  in  the  laboratory.    The  lens  of  the  eye,  of  course,  is  very 
different  from  the  skin  and  if  we  did  not  know  its  embryological  his- 
tory we  would  hardly  guess  that  it  was  derived  from  the  skin.    The 
embryologist  used  to  think  that  the  bit  of  skin  which  came  to  lie  di- 
rectly over  the  optic  vesicle  was  unlike  the  rest  of  the  skin,  being  en- 
dowed vrith  special  powers  of  forming  the  crystalline  lens  of  the  eye, 
and  the  mystery  was,  how  it  chanced  that  these  lens-potentialities  were 
accumulated  at  exactly  the  right  spot  and  that  there  did  not  occur  at 
times  stray  lenses  scattered  about  on  other  parts  of  the  body.     The 
experimentalist,  however,  who  has  done  so  much  to  destroy  illusions 
and  push  further  back  the  limits  of  the  mysterious,  has  shown  that  the 
formation  of  the  lens  depends  entirely  upon  the  contact  of  the  optic 
vesicle  and  that  any  part  of  the  skin  under  the  influence  of  this  structure 
will  develop  into  a  lens.    Under  the  dissecting  microscope  with  very 
fine  needles  it  is  possible  to  operate  on  the  young  tadpole  before  the 
eye  is  formed  and  to  transplant  the  optic  vesicle  to  some  other  part  of 
the  body.    The  results  of  this  very  drastic  treatment  are  that  any  part 
of  the  skin  which  overlies  the  transplanted  optic  vesicle  will  form  a 
lens.    Any  embryonic  skin  of  the  right  age  apparently  has  the  power 


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270  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

of  developing  into  a  lens  under  the  proper  stimulus.  In  fact  the  ex- 
perimenter has  gone  so  far  as  to  graft  two  tadpoles  of  different  species 
in  such  a  way  that  the  optic  vesicle  of  one  comes  to  lie  directly  beneath 
the  skin  of  the  abdomen  of  the  other.  But  even  here  the  skin  of  the 
abdomen  of  the  strange  tadpole  developed  a  lens  in  a  perfectly  ortho- 
dox fashion. 

Darwin  today  would  not  be  so  mystified  over  the  question  of  how 
the  different  layers  of  tissue  of  different  degrees  of  transparency  and 
refraction  chanced  to  occur  in  the  right  relations  to  each  other  to  form 
a  complex  purposeful  organ  like  the  eye.  The  difficulty  to-day  is  to 
explain  how  the  skin  of  the  embryo  is  endowed  with  such  wonderful 
powers  and  how  the  optic  vesicle  is  able  to  call  forth  such  a  complex 
response. 

The  phenomenon  of  internal  secretion,  that  is,  the  discharge  of  sub- 
stances manufactured  by  an  organ  directly  into  the  blood  passing 
through  the  organ  and  not  to  a  free  surface,  was  discovered  by  the  great 
French  physiologist,  Claude  Bernard,  in  1876,  when  he  demonstrated 
that  the  liver  manufactures  sugar  and  pours  it  constantly  into  the  blood 
passing  through  that  organ.  Besides  these  organs  which  only  incidrat- 
ally  to  other  functions  secrete  into  the  blood,  like  the  liver,  the  pan- 
creas, the  sex  glands  and  the  developing  fetus  in  the  mammal,  there 
are  certain  organs  specialized  for  this  purpose  alone.  These  are  called 
ductless  glands,  because  they  have  no  outlet  to  a  surface,  or  endocrine 
organs,  that  is,  organs  secreting  to  the  inside.  The  most  important  of 
these  are  the  pituitary  body,  situated  on  the  under  side  of  the  brain 
next  to  the  roof  of  the  pharynx  and  tucked  into  a  little  pocket  on  the 
floor  of  the  skull ;  the  pineal  body,  on  the  upper  side  of  the  brain  but 
buried  deep  in  the  crease  between  the  two  halves  of  the  cerebrum;  the 
thyroid  gland  situated  on  the  front  of  the  throat  just  below  the  "Adam's 
apple"  and  enlarged  in  goitre;  the  thymus  gland  situated  in  front  of 
the  heart,  from  which  the  true  "neck  sweetbreads"  are  taken;  and  the 
adrenal  bodies  situated  just  above  the  kidneys. 

The  ductless  glands  just  enumerated  seem  to  have  the  most  marked 
effect  upon  growth,  development,  and  nutrition.  Some  of  them,  espe- 
cially the  adrenal  body,  also  have  a  marked  effect  upon  the  blood  pres- 
sure. 

The  thyroid  gland  influences  powerfully  the  growth  of  the  body  and 
the  rate  at  which  the  mature  state  is  reached. 

A  few  years  ago  one  of  our  American  experimenters  showed  that 
the  growth  of  the  tadpole  may  be  stopped  almost  immediately  by  feed- 
ing thyroid  gland.  At  the  same  time  that  the  increase  in  size  ceases, 
the  transformation  of  the  tadpole  into  a  frog  goes  on  with  increased 
speed.  Tadpoles  were  obtained  which  had  the  fore  legs  in  fifteen  days 
from  the  time  that  they  issued  from  the  egg  while  ordinarily  they  ap- 


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HARMONIZING   HORMONES  271 

pear  only  after  about  four  months.  The  action  of  the  thyroid  gland  on 
the  human  subject  seems  to  be  somewhat  different  from  that  just  de- 
scribed although  its  action  affects  development  The  distressing  dis- 
ease, cretinism,  characterized  by  the  squat  stature  and  low  mentality, 
with  puffy  skin  and  bleary  eyes,  is  the  result  of  insuflksient  activity  of 
the  thyroid  which  may  be  made  good  by  feeding  thyroid  glands  from 
oxen  or  sheep.  Thyroid  feeding  is  sometimes  ooiployed  to  reduce 
obesity,  as  under  its  stimulus  more  rapid  oxidation  of  the  tissues  takes 
place.  Thyroid  fed  to  immature  rats  retards  growth.  Rats  fed  thyroid 
gland  do  not  gain  weight  as  rapidly  as  normal  ones.  To  one-half  of  a 
litter  kept  under  conditions  as  nearly  like  the  other  half  as  possible 
were  fed  small  quantities  of  thyroid.  In  three  or  four  days  the  thyroid 
individuals  gained  only  4.2  gms.  on  the  average  as  compared  with  10.1 
gms.  for  those  not  specially  fed. 

Another  organ  which  has  a  very  marked  effect  upon  growth  is  the 
pituitary  body,  a  small  structure  which  is  attached  to  the  under  side  of 
the  brain  and  which  originates  in  the  embryo  from  the  roof  of  the 
mouth.  When  this  gland  secretes  more  than  the  normal  amount  in 
childhood  before  growth  is  completed,  gigantism  results  and  the  child 
continues  its  growth  beyond  the  normal  and  becomes  a  giant  The 
overactivity  of  the  same  gland  later  in  life  when  normal  growth  is 
complete  leads  to  a  disease  known  as  acromegaly  in  which  the  extremi- 
ties of  the  body  alone  grow  abnormally.  Conversely,  if  the  pituitary 
body  is  removed  or  if  it  is  not  suflBciently  active  on  account  of  disease, 
there  follows  a  condition  known  as  infantilism,  characterized  by  the 
develojHnent  of  much  fat  beneath  the  skin  and  more  or  less  atrophy 
of  the  sexual  organs. 

Regarding  the  function  of  the  thymus  we  are  especially  in  the  dark. 
As  is  well  known  it  degenerates  before  the  adult  condition  is  attained 
and  it  may  be  removed  from  young  animals  apparently  without  caus- 
ing any  modification  in  the  rate  of  growth  or  any  special  symptoms  of 
any  kind.  The  feeding  of  thymus  gland  to  tadpoles  has  been  found, 
however,  to  have  a  marked  effect  upon  growth,  prolonging  the  period 
of  growth  and  inhibiting  the  metamorphosis  of  the  tadpole. 

The  action  of  die  adrenal  bodies  has  already  been  alluded  to.  The 
removal  of  the  organs  is  followed  by  death  in  about  36  hours  in  the 
mammals  ordinarily  used  for  experimental  purposes  like  dogs,  cats, 
rabbits,  and  the  like.  When  the  adrenals  are  diseased,  a  number  of 
definite  symptoms  known  as  Addison's  disease  appear;  the  skin  assumes 
a  coppery  color,  there  is  great  muscular  weakness  and  lowering  of  the 
tanperature  of  the  body.  The  application  of  the  extract  of  the  gland — 
adrenalin — to  a  bleeding  or  inflamed  part  is  followed  at  once  by  a  con- 
striction of  the  capillary  blood  vessels  and  a  blanching  of  the  part. 
This  property,  of  course,  makes  the  extract  of  great  value  to  the  sur- 


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272  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

geon  in  operations  in  which  there  is  profuse  bleeding  from  many  tiny 
blood  vessels^  like  many  operations  on  the  nose.  So  powerful  is  the 
hormone  of  the  adrenal  body  that  one  part  of  adrenalin  in  one  hundred 
million  of  Ringer's  solution  produces  marked  effect  on  the  contraction  of 
involuntary  muscle. 

The  pineal  body,  which  Descartes  thought  was  the  seat  of  the  soul 
of  man,  has  a  most  obscure  function  which  cannot  at  present  be  clearly 
defined  The  removal  of  the  organ  is  very  difficult  ¥dthout  serious 
injury  in  the  operation.  When  it  is  successfully  removed  without  injury 
to  the  animal  there  has  been  found  to  be  in  some  cases  a  precocious 
development  of  the  sexual  organs  but  in  other  experiments  the  effects 
have  been  negative. 

The  ductless  glands  seem  to  be  more  or  less  closely  related  to  each 
other  in  function  so  that  the  removal  of  one  may  be  accompanied  by 
changes  in  others,  but  it  is  apparent  that  there  is  much  still  to  be 
learned  regarding  the  exact  working  of  these  very  subtle  organs.  The 
fact,  however,  that  the  precise  functions  of  some  of  these  organs  have 
not  been  exactly  determined  does  not  mean  that  they  have  little  effect 
upon  the  organism  as  a  whole.  What  has  just  been  said  regarding  the 
pituitary,  suprarenals,  and  thyroids  shows  that  the  contrary  is  the  fact 

Considering  the  organs  which  only  incidentally  secrete  internally, 
the  pancreas  exhibits  a  very  interesting  harmonizing  action.  The  func- 
tion of  the  pancreas  is  not  only  the  secretion  of  a  digestive  juice  which 
performs  the  great  bulk  of  the  digestion  of  food  in  the  intestine,  but 
also  the  secretion  into  the  blood  of  something  which  enables  the  sugar 
absorbed  from  the  intestine  to  be  stored  in  the  liver  until  needed  in  the 
active  organs  of  the  body.  If  the  pancreas  is  removed  entirely,  diabetes 
appears  at  once  due  to  the  failure  of  the  liver  to  remove  the  sugar  from 
the  blood.  In  order  to  determine  that  this  condition  is  not  due  simply 
to  the  elimination  of  the  pancreatic  juice  from  the  alimentary  canal, 
the  experiment  has  been  made  of  simply  tying  off  tightly  the  duct  lead- 
ing from  the  pancreas  to  the  intestine,  but  not  interfering  with  the  cir- 
culation of  the  blood  through  the  organ,  and  also  of  grafting  the  pan- 
creas which  has  been  cut  out,  on  some  other  part  of  the  body  so  that 
blood  will  pass  through  it  In  both  these  experiments  diabetes  does 
not  appear  and  we  must  conclude  that  the  pancreas  secretes  into  the 
blood  a  substance  which  enables  the  liver  to  store  up  grape  sugar. 

The  effects  of  the  reproductive  organs  upon  the  body  as  a  whole 
have  been  known  in  a  general  way  from  time  immemorial.  Especially 
in  the  male  sex  have  the  reproductive  organs  been  removed  for  economic 
or  social  reasons.  Emasculation  in  the  human  subject  when  performed 
in  early  youth  prevents  those  changes  from  taking  place  which  normally 
occur  at  puberty,  such  as  growth  of  hair  on  various  parts  of  the  body, 
the  growth  of  the  larynx  with  the  consequent  lowering  of  the  pitch  of 


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HARMONIZING   HORMONES  273 

the  voice,  and  the  growth  of  the  chest.  It  has  been  said  also  that  in 
oxen  and  horses  the  removal  of  the  male  sexual  organs  at  an  early  age 
causes  the  haunch  bones  to  change  to  the  female  type.  It  has  been 
known  for  years  that  if  the  very  young  male  deer  is  castrated,  the 
antlers  never  appear  and  if  the  operation  is  performed  when  the  antlers 
have  already  begun  to  develop,  they  fail  to  reach  their  normal  size  and 
remain  covered  with  the  velvet,  like  young  antlers.  In  the  adult  deer 
castration  causes  the  antlers  to  be  shed  precociously  and  they  are  re- 
placed, if  at  all,  by  imperfect  antlers  which  are  never  renewed.  Thus 
we  see  that  the  complex  changes  involved  in  the  development  of  the 
antlers  are  dependent  upon  the  presence  of  something  supplied  by  the 
sex  glands  of  the  male. 

The  female  sex  organs  are  no  less  potent  in  determining  the  course 
of  development.  One  experimenter  removed  the  testes  of  a  guinea  pig 
and  a  rat  and  replaced  them  with  ovaries  from  a  female.  The  pres- 
ence of  the  ovaries  in  the  body  of  the  emasculated  male  led  to  a  remark- 
able development  of  the  mammary  glands  and  a  change  in  the  propor- 
tions of  the  skeleton  to  more  nearly  those  of  the  female.  Another 
important  change  is  that  the  size  of  the  feminized  males  is  less  than 
that  of  the  normal  castrated  males,  showing  that  there  is  something 
produced  by  the  ovary  which  prevents  the  normal  growth  of  the  male. 
These  experiments  are  not  numerous  but  they  indicate  something  of  the 
power  of  the  sexual  organs  to  determine  by  their  internal  secretions 
the  growth  and  relative  size  of  parts  of  the  body. 

Equally  marked  eifects  have  been  noted  in  the  case  of  birds.  The 
desirable  effects  of  removiniz;  the  male  organs  have  been  known  for 
many  years  and  capons  have  been  highly  esteemed  as  delicacies.  It  is 
well  known,  of  course,  that  the  removal  of  the  male  organs  in  poultry 
leads  to  increased  size  and  deposition  of  fat.  Notwithstanding,  the 
male  plumage  with  all  the  secondary  sexual  characters  appear  as  in 
normal  birds.  During  the  past  few  years  the  experiment  of  removing 
completely  the  ovaries  from  a  female  bird  has  been  successful.  In  this 
case  the  ovaries  were  removed  from  a  very  young  Mallard  duck,  in 
which  the  plumage  of  the  male  and  female  are  very  different.  It  was 
found  that  the  plumage  of  the  spaye.d  female  became  similar  to  that 
of  the  male. 

The  developing  fetus  within  the  uterus  of  the  female  exercises  an 
important  effect  upon  the  development  of  the  milk  glands  so  that  the 
latter  are  able  to  supply  an  abundant  nourishment  for  the  young  which 
are  to  be  bom  shortly.  This  effect  is  produced  by  the  discharge  of 
some  substance  into  the  blood  stream  of  the  mother  through  the  pla- 
centa. This  has  been  demonstrated  with  rabbits  by  injecting  into  the 
blood  vessels  of  a  virgin  rabbit,  in  which  the  milk  glands  are  prac- 
tically invisible,  the  extract  of  a  fetus  taken  from  a  pregnant  female. 


VOL.  Xni.— 18. 

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274  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

The  injection  is  followed  by  a  rapid  growth  of  the  glands.  That  this 
e£fect  is  produced  directly  upon  the  milk  glands  and  not  indirectly 
through  the  action  of  the  uterus  and  ovaries  has  been  shown  by  making 
the  injection  after  the  removal  of  those  organs.  The  efiFect  upon  the 
milk  glands  is  just  as  marked  as  when  ovaries  and  uterus  are  present 
A  further  confirmation  of  the  harmonizing  of  the  activity  of  the  mam- 
mary glands  and  the  needs  of  the  body  throu^  hormones  is  afforded 
by  the  famous  case  of  the  Blazdc  sisters  who  were  joined  like  the 
Siamese  twins  with  blood  vessels  united  but  with  entirely  separate 
nervous  systems.  In  spite  of  the  absence  of  nervous  connections  be- 
tween the  two,  pregnancy  in  the  one  produced  a  normal  growth  of  the 
manmiary  glands  of  the  other,  and  with  the  birth  of  the  child  the  secre- 
tion of  milk  by  the  glands  of  the  two  sisters  occurred.  A  third  method 
of  demonstrating  the  chemical  control  of  the  manunary  glands  is  by 
severing  the  spinal  cord  at  the  level  from  which  the  nerves  going  to  the 
glands  are  given  off,  so  that  the  nervous  connections  between  the  two 
ends  of  the  mammary  glands  in  such  an  animal  as  the  dog  whose  glands 
extend  along  the  entire  length  of  the  abdomen,  are  severed.  In  spite  of 
this  separation,  however,  secretion  occurs  simultaneously  in  all  the 
glands. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  presence  and  action  of  hormones  in  the  blood 
is  in  its  infancy.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  further  investigations 
will  prove  that  many  more  are  working  in  the  body  than  we  dream  of 
now  and  that  their  effects  may  be  found  to  be  of  far  more  importance. 
The  endocrine  organs  can  not  be  supposed  to  allow  of  the  complex 
development  which  the  nervous  system  has  experienced  in  the  animal 
kingdom  nor  can  it  ever  have  the  same  far-reaching  effects,  but  enough 
perhaps  has  been  presented  to  show  how  the  integration  of  the  body 
as  a  whole  is  brought  about  by  non-living  products  of  cells  circulat- 
ing in  the  blood.  In  conclusion,  however,  we  can  hardly  say  that  the 
physiologist,  studying  the  chemical  harmonizers  of  the  body,  has  solved 
the  problem  of  individuality,  or  that  the  conception  of  the  animal  body 
has  been  rendered  more  simple  as  a  result  of  these  discoveries.  TTie 
explanation  of  the  timely  appearance  of  these  harmonizers  and  the 
mechanism  of  the  complex  reactions  to  them  is  quite  as  difficult  and 
perplexing  as  that  of  the  harmonies  themselves.  The  knowledge  of 
these  chemical  bodies  is  an  aid  to  us  in  pushing  back  further  in  the 
life  cycle  those  forces  or  mechanical  devices  which  are  capable  of  pro- 
ducing the  integrated  living  body,  and  the  harmonizers  of  the  body 
afford  a  mechanical  explanation  of  many  phenomena  which  in  the  past 
required  a  mystical  or  vitalistic  explanation.  The  chemical  harmon- 
izers in  their  action  and  the  response  of  the  body  to  them  are  quite  as 
baffling  as  the  fact  of  harmonious  action  itself,  so  that  pushing  back 
the  mystery  only  deepens  it. 


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GRAZING  PRACTICE  ON  THE  NATIONAL  FORESTS         276 


GRAZING  PRACTICE  ON  THE  NATIONAL  FORESTS 
AND  ITS  EFFECT  ON  NATURAL  CONDITIONS* 

By  CLARENCE  F.  KORSTIAN 

U.  S.   FOREST  SERVICE 

rE  Statutory  purposes  of  the  national  forests  are  to  insure  a  per- 
petual supply  of  timber,  to  preserve  the  forest  cover  which  regu- 
lates the  flow  of  streams,  and  to  provide  for  the  use  of  all  resources 
which  the  forests  contain,  in  the  ways  which  will  make  them  of  the 
greatest  peimanent  good  to  the  entire  nation.^ 

Grazing  on  the  national  forests  is  regulated  with  the  object  of  using 
the  forage  resources  to  the  fullest  extent  consistent  with  the  protection, 
development  and  use  of  the  other  resources.  Since  the  national  forests 
were  established  primarily  for  the  protection  and  development  of  the 
forest  resources  and  the  protection  of  the  watersheds,  great  care  is 
taken  to  harmonize  grazing  with  these  primary  purposes.  The  im- 
portance of  adjusting  grazing  so  as  to  secure  the  perpetuation  of  the 
range  resources  and  yet  not  to  interfere  with  the  requirements  of  the 
other  resources  is  emphasized  in  the  administration  of  the  national 
forests.^  If  the  fundamental  principles  of  range  management,  such  as 
the  proper  division  of  the  range  among  different  classes  of  stock,  the 
establishment  of  correct  periods  of  grazing,  stocking  the  range  to  actual 
carrying  capacity,  and  securing  proper  management  of  the  stock  are 
followed  in  practice,  actual  damage  to  the  forests  will  be  limited  to 
unusual  cases  where  a  combination  of  factors  makes  special  treatment 
necessary  to  insure  the  proper  protection  of  the  forest  resources  and  the 
watersheds.  The  forest  officers  in  charge  of  the  administration  of  graz- 
ing fully  appreciate  that  much  remains  to  be  done  in  developing  range 
management,  especially  in  connection  with  the  determination  of  the 
proper  grazing  season  and  methods  of  handling  stock  on  the  national 
forest  ranges. 

Through  a  series  of  investigations  and  experiments  extmding  over 

*  Prepared  for  the  Committee  on  the  Preservation  of  Natural  Conditions 
of  the  Ecological  Society  of  America. 

1  U.  S.  Forest  Service.  The  National  Forest  Manual;  Regulations  and 
Instructions.    1914. 

The  Use  Book;  A  Manual  of  Information  about  the  National  Forests. 
1918. 

*  Jardine,  James  T.  and  Anderson,  Mark.  Range  Management  on  the 
N'ational  Forests.    U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agri.  Bull.  790.    1919 . 


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FIG.  1.  SHEET  AND  GULLEY  EROSION  ON  AN  OVERGRAZED  RANGE  IN  NORTHWESTERN 
NEVADA.  Snow  lie*  on  the  Lare  portion  in  the  background  until  early  tummer  and  die  cattle 
follow  the  receding  anow,  eating  all  of  the  succulent  vegetation  before  it  haa  become  eatablirfiad. 
The  Forest  Service  has  closed  this  watershed  together  with  three  others  aggregating  20,000  acres  to 
grazing  by  all  classes  of  livestock,  for  a  period  of  at  least  five  years  for  the  purpose  of  revegettting 
the   range  with  palauble   forage  plants  and   of   regenerating   the  sunds   of  aspen   on   the   watershed*. 


FIG.  2.  ASPEN  SPROUTS  AND  A  FAIR  STAND  OF  FORAGE  ON  THE  AREA,  A  PORTION  OF 
WHICH  IS  SHOWN  IN  FIG.  1,  AFTER  IT  HAD  BEEN  CLOSED  TO  GRAZING  FOR  TWO  YEARS. 
After  the  aiipen  reproduction  has  become  established  and  is  out  of  reach  of  the  gracing  of  livestock, 
the  areas  will  be  opened  to  regulated  grazing  and  probably  other  areas  closed  for  a  like  period. 
This  practice  will  be  rontinued  until  the  entire  Fore*t  has  been  revegetated  to  forage  plants  and 
regenerated   to  aspen  reproduction. 


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GRAZING  PRACTICE  ON  THE  NATIONAL  FORESTS         277 

a  period  of  years,  a  number  of  important  principles  of  range  manage- 
ment and  management  of  livestock  have  been  developed  for  harmoniz- 
ing grazing  use  with  the  regeneration  and  growth  of  forests.' 

A  proper  understanding  of  the  forest  cover  in  relation  to  the  regula- 
tion of  stream  flow  and  erosion  is  important  in  range  management,  since 
"cover"  in  the  sense  used  includes  the  tree  cover,  the  herbaceous  and 
shrubby  cover,  and  the  surface  soil  with  its  comparatively  rich  admix- 
ture of  organic  matter.  *  Over-grazing  frequently  results  in  padcing 
the  soil,  decreases  its  power  of  absorbing  and  holding  precipitation, 
and  causes  the  partial  or  complete  destruction  of  the  ground  cover,  a 
condition  almost  invariably  associated  with  erosion  and  the  reversion 
of  the  native  vegetation  to  a  lower  successional  stage.^  In  this  case 
the  reestablishment  of  the  more  permanent  type  of  vegetation  is  pre- 
vented until,  with  the  return  of  the  original  fertility  of  the  soil,  the 
8ttb-climax  species  again  appear. 

The  grazing  of  livestodc  may  either  retard  or  promote  the  develop- 
ment of  the  vegetative  cover  and  cause  either  retrogression  or  progres- 
sion of  the  types,  depending  chiefly  upon  the  closeness  with  which  the 
herbage  is  grazed  annually  and  the  time  of  cropping.*  Continuous  pre- 
mature and  too  close  grazing  not  only  favor  degeneration  of  the  cover 
and  ultimately  the  destruction  of  the  vegetation,  but  also  tend  to  impair 
the  fertility  of  the  soil  through  erosion.  On  the  other  hand,  deferred- 
and-rotation  grazing,  that  is,  grazing  the  depleted  range  only  after  seed 
maturity  and  later  applying  this  practice  in  rotation  to  all  the  other 
parts  of  the  range  favors  progressive  succession. '  The  efiFects  of  graz- 
ing upon  plant  succession  depend  not  only  on  the  character  and  in- 
tenflity  of  grazing,  but  also  upon  the  type  of  vegetation.  However,  it 
may  be  said  that  properly  regulated  grazing  shows  a  tendency  to  hold 

»Cf. 

Sampson,  Arthur  W.  and  Dayton,  William  A.  Relation  of  Grazing  to 
Timber  Reproduction.  U.  S.  Forest  Service  Review  of  Forest  Service  In- 
vestigations, Vol.  2,  pp.  18-24,  1913. 

Hill,  Robert  R.  Effects  of  Grazing  Upon  Western  Yellow  Pine  Repro- 
duction in  the  National  Forests  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico.  U.  S.  Dcpt. 
of  Agri.  Bull.  580,  1917. 

Sparhawk,  W.  N.  Effects  of  Grazing  Upon  Western  Yellow  Pine  Re- 
production in  Central  Idaho.    U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agri.  Bull.  738,  1918. 

Sampson,  Arthur  W.  Effect  of  Grazing  Upon  Aspen  Reproduction.  U. 
S.  DcpL  of  Agri.  Bull.  741,  1919. 

♦  Reynolds,  Robert  V.  R.  Grazing  and  Floods :  A  Study  of  Conditions 
in  the  Manti  National  Forest.    U.  S.  Forest  Service  Bull.  91,  1911. 

5  Sampson,  Arthur  W.,  and  Weyl,  Leon  H.  Range  Preservation  and  its 
Relation  to  Erosion  Control  on  Western  Grazing  Grounds.  U.  S.  Dept.  of 
Agri.  Bull.  675,  1918. 

«  Sampson,  Arthur  W.  Plant  Succession  in  Relation  to  Range  Manage- 
ment.   U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agri.  Bull.  791,  1919. 


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FIG.  3.  A  BADLY  OVERGRAZED  AREA  ON  A  POORLY  MANAGED  CATTLE  RANGE 
ADJACENT  TO  THAT  SHOWN  IN  FIG.  2  IN  NEED  OF  REMEDIAL  MEASURES.  Th«  compUce 
■btence  of  atpen  reprodoetion  and  the  dearth  of  palatable  forage  planu  is  evideaced  by  the  bairen 
'appearance  of  the  aurface  of  the  ground.     Eroaion  is  alao  evident. 


FIG.  4.  AN  OLD  BURN  IN  A  LODGEPOLE  PINE  FOREST  IN  CENTRAL  IDAHO  WHICH  IS 
ADEQUATELY  RESTOCKING  WITH  NATURAL  REPRODUCTION.  The  forage  ia  b«iBg  piopetly 
utilised  as  a  result  of  regulated  grazinK,  so  that  no  injury  is  reaulting  to  either  the  foreat  tree 
seedlings  or  to  the  forage  pUots  themselves. 


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GRAZING  PRACTICE  ON  THE  NATIONAL  FORESTS        279 

the  vegetative  succession  in  one  of  the  sub-climax,  or  occasionally 
climax  stages  of  the  herbaceous  and  shrubby  vegetation,  but  should 
o£Fer  little  or  no  interference  with  the  climax  forest  type,  since  grazing 
is  very  frequently  excluded  from  forest  areas  being  regenerated. 

The  value  of  regulated  grazing  as  a  means  of  fire  protection  is 
recognized  in  the  utilization  of  the  annual  growth  of  grass,  which,  if 
not  utilized,  becomes  dry  and  inflanmiable,  and  a  real  cause  of  forest 
fires.  ^  It  is  thus  seen  that  grazing  in  itself  is  beneficial  as  a  control 
of  fires.  In  addition  to  this,  the  extensive  work  in  forest  fire  prevention 
and  suppression  is  a  very  important  factor  in  promoting  and  maintain- 
ing climax  types  of  vegetation. 

With  the  development  of  the  livestock  industry  in  the  West,  came 
the  economic  necessity  of  controlling  predatory  animals.  The  decrease 
in  their  number,  especially  of  the  coyotes,  probably  resulted  in  an  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  rodents,  many  of  which  are  active  range 
destroyers.  These  in  turn  have  had  to  be  controlled.  With  the  decrease 
in  the  number  of  predatory  animals  there  should  be  an  increase  in  the 
number  of  game  animals;  but  this  has  been  largely,  if  not  wholly,  offset 
by  the  increased  number  killed  by  hunters  within  recent  years. 

The  national  forest  policy  provides  that  the  protection  and  develop- 
ment of  the  wild  life  of  the  forest  must  go  hand  in  hand  with  the  de- 
velopment and  management  of  the  range  resources  for  use  by  domestic 
stock.  Before  opening  up  new  range  to  domestic  stock  the  use  or 
probable  use  of  the  area  by  game  is  carefully  considered. 

Suitable  camping  grounds  are  provided  on  the  national  forests  and 
^re  given  sufficient  protection  from  grazing  to  preserve  their. natural 
attractiveness  for  the  recreational  use  of  campers  and  tourists. 

The  conserving  of  the  national  parks  in  an  unmodified  condition  in 
the  interests  of  natural  history  and  research  and  the  desirability  of 
maintaining  the  original  balance  between  the  plant  and  animal  life  has 
already  been  emphasized.^  The  management  of  areas  for  game  and 
fidi  production  will  doubtless  cause  disturbances  and  readjustments  in 

7  Sampson,  Arthur  W.  Range  Improvement  by  Deferred  and  Rotation 
Grazing.    U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agri.  Bull.  34,  I9i3- 

Sampson,  Arthur  W.  Natural  Revegetation  of  Range  Lands  Based  upon 
Growth  Requirements  and  Life  History  of  the  Vegetation.  Journal  of  Agri- 
cultural Research,  Vol.  3,  No.  2,  pages  93  to  148,  1914. 

Jardine,  James  T.  Improvement  and  Management  of  Native  Pastures 
"in  the  West    U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agri.  Yearbook  Separate  678,  191 5. 

•  Graves,  Henry  S.  Grazing  and  Fires  in  National  Forests.  American 
Forestry  17:435.     191 1. 

Hatton,  John  H.  Livestock  Grazing  as  a  Factor  in  Fire  Protection  on 
the  National  Forests.    U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agri.  Circ.  134,  1920. 

•  Grinnell,  Joseph  and  Storer,  Tracy  L  Animal  Life  as  an  Asset  of 
National  Parks.    Science,  N.  S.  44:375-380,  1916. 


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FIG.  5.  AN  OPEN  STAND  OF  LODGEPOLE  PINE  IN  CENTRAL  IDAHO  ON  AN  AREA  WHICH 
IS  BEING  GRAZED  TOO  HEAVILY  BY  LIVESTOCK.  Note  the  absence  of  forage  plants  and  the 
flattened,  bnahy  shape  of  the  lodgepolc  pine  aeedlinga,  which  is  not  characteristic  of  this  species, 
due  to  being  browsed  by  the  stock.  The  injury  was  eliminated,  and  the  range  is  being  restored 
through  properly  regulated  grazing  based  on  the  scientific  principles  of  range  management  as  worked 
out  by  the  grazing  specialists  of  the  Foiest  Service. 


FIG.  6.  YOUNG  DEER  ON  GARDINER  RIVER,  MONTANA.  The  concentration  of  game  animals 
on  winter  ranges  may  result  in  over>graxlng  and  even  eliminate  certain  desirable  forage  plants  fron^ 
the  range. 


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GRAZING  PRACTICE  ON  THE  NATIONAL  FORESTS         281 

the  ecological  balance  between  the  plant  and  animal  life,  both  terrestrial 
and  aquatic.  The  introduction  of  exotic  species  may  become  a  danger- 
ous factor  in  disturbing  the  original  balance,  even  to  the  extent  of  as- 
suming economic  proportions.  The  uncontrolled  increase  of  game 
animals  on  game  preserves  may  produce  conditions  very  similar  to  those 
resulting  from  the  grazing  of  domestic  stock.  However,  in  most  cases 
the  number  of  game  animals  on  any  range  should  be  limited  to  the 
number  which  the  range  will  carry  through  the  winter. 


FIG.  7.  AREA  IN  BIG  COTTONWOOD  CANYON  ON  THE  WASATCH  NATIONAL  FOREST  IN 
CENTRAL  UTAH  WHICH  IS  CLOSED  TO  LIVESTOCK  GRAZING  BECAUSE  IT  IS  ONE  OF  THE 
MAIN  SOURCES  OF  SALT  LAKE  CITY'S  MUNICIPAL  WATER  SUPPLY  AND  ALSO  ON  AC 
COUNT  OF  ITS  IMPORTANCE   FOR   RECREATIONAL   USE. 

In  rendering  the  secondary  uses  of  the  national  forests  compatible 
with  the  primary  uses  and  in  harmonizing  the  secondary  uses,  it  fre- 
quently becomes  necessary  to  close  areas  to  grazing  as,  for  example, 
watersheds  which  comprise  important  sources  of  municipal  water  sup- 
ply; recreational  areas  and  those  of  unusual  scenic  attractiveness,  such 
as  the  national  monuments ;  areas  on  which  the  range  is  needed  for  im- 
portant game  animals;  and  forest  areas  in  the  course  of  regeneration. 
From  the  list  of  areas  on  which  natural  conditions  are  now  being  pre- 
served, ^®  it  is  seen  that  the  forest  areas  are  of  considerable  size. 


w  Compiled  by  the  Committee  on  Preservation  of  Natural  Conditions  of 
the  Ecological  Society  of  America  and  to  be  published  in  the  near  future. 


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282 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


THE   PROGRESS   OF   SCIENCE 


HELMHOLTZ  AND  VIRCHOW 

One  hundred  years  ago  were  born 
in  Prussia  Hermann  Helmholtz  and 
Rudolf  Virchow,  the  former  in  Potts- 
dam  on  August  31,  1821,  the  latter  in 
an  obscure  village  of  Pomerania  on 
October  13,  182 1. 

The  University  of  Berlin  was  open- 
ed in  18 10  after  Prussia  had  lost  by 
the  peace  treaty  of  Tilsit  the  Univer- 
sity of  Halle,  which  Napoleon  in- 
cluded in  his  new  kingdom  of  West- 
phalia. Germany,  defeated  in  war, 
required  to  pay  an  immense  indem- 
nity, its  army  limited  to  42,000,  turn- 
ed its  energies  to  education  and  to 
science.  Both  Helmholtz  and  Vir- 
chow were  students  of  medicine  in 
Berlin,  and  later  became  professors 
in  the  university.  Their  genius  was 
born  with  them,  but  the  stimulus  and 
the  opportunity  to  apply  it  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  science  must  in  large 
measure  be  attributed  to  the  spirit 
of  the  university  founded  by  Hum- 
boldt and  his  associates  when  the 
political  fortunes  of  Prussia  were  at 
low  ebb. 

Helmholtz  was  the  son  of  a  gym- 
nasium teacher,  his  mother,  Caroline 
Penne,  being  a  descendant  of  William 
Pcnn.  After  a  childhood  of  ill 
health,  he  studied  medicine  and  was 
for  four  years  a  military  surgeon; 
for  a  year  he  was  teacher  in  the  Ber- 
lin Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  and  after- 
wards from  1849  to  1855  professor  of 
physiology  at  Konigsberg.  He  was 
professor  at  Bonn  for  three  years 
and  was  then  professor  of  physiology 
at  Heidelberg  from  1858  to  1871, 
when  he  was  transferred  to  Berlin  as 
professor  of  physics.  In  1888  he 
was  made  president  of  the  Reichsan- 
stalt,  organized  under  his  direction. 
All  possible  academic  and  national 
honors  were  conferred  upon  him. 

A  list  of  von  Helmholtz's  contri- 


butions to  science  would  fill  many 
pages.  The  essay  on  the  conservation 
of  energy  was  printed  in  1847.  Re- 
searches of  great  range  and  import- 
ance, including  the  invention  of  the 
ophthalmoscope,  led  to  his  two  epoch- 
making  books  on  physiological  psy- 
chology— "Tonempfindungen"  (1862) 
and  "Physiologische  Optik"  (1867). 
Helmholtz  always  continued  his 
work  in  physiological  psychology,  but 
his  transfer  from  a  chair  of  physi- 
ology to  one  of  physics  represented 
a  change  in  his  main  interests.  His 
great  contributions  to  mathematical 
physics,  especially  electrodynamics, 
are  of  almost  unparalleled  import- 
ance. 

Virchow  more  than  any  other  one 
man  established,  the  science  of  path- 
ology and  made  it  possible  for  medi- 
cine to  become  an  applied  science. 
Only  second  in  importance  to  his  con- 
tributions to  pathology  was  his  work 
in  anthropology  which  covered  all 
branches  of  the  science.  His  scien- 
tific work  was  singularly  complete. 
He  made  numerous  and  exact  ob- 
servations and  experiments;  he  de- 
duced from  them  wide-reaching 
theories;  he  conducted  an  important 
journal  for  more  than  fifty  years;  he 
wrote  text-books,  summaries  of  sci- 
entific advances  and  books  populariz- 
ing science;  he  established  a  school 
to  which  students  came  from  all 
parts  of  the  world,  while  at  the  same 
time  taking  part  in  the  education  of 
the  people;  he  founded  a  great  mu- 
seum and  took  a  leading  part  in  sci- 
entific societies;  he  applied  science 
directly  to  human  welfare. 

It  is  almost  incredible  that  among 
these  multifarious  scientific  activities 
Virchow  should  have  been  one  of  the 
leading  statesmen  of  his  coucftry. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  municipal 
council  of  Berlin  for  more  than  forty 


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From  a  drawing  by  Lembach   {1894) 
HERMANN     VON     HELMHOLTZ 


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.^v.     ..^^^ 


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THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE 


285 


years,  and  through  him  the  hygienic 
conditions  of  the  capital  were  revolu- 
tionized. He  was  from  1862  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Prussian  chamber  and 
was  for  twenty-five  years  chairman 
of  the  committee  on  finance.  He 
was  leader  of  the  radical  party  in 
the  Reichstag.  In  his  public  career 
he  opposed  centralization,  autocracy 
and  war,  and  advocated  all  measures 
for  the  welfare  of  the  people.  He 
was  at  one  time  compelled  to  leave 
the  University  of  Berlin  owing  to  his 
political  activity,  but  his  personality 
and  eminence  were  such  that  he  was 
recalled  to  a  professorship  in  1856, 
and  he  was  thereafter  the  preeminent 
representative  of  academic  freedom. 

THE  INTERNATIONAL  INSTI- 
TUTE  OF   AGRICULTURE 

The  president  of  the  International 
Institute  of  Agriculture  at  Rome  has 
transmitted  to  the  Secretary  of  Agri- 
culture, through  the  State  Depart- 
ment, a  copy  of  resolutions  adopted 
in  April,  1921,  by  the  permanent  com- 
mittee of  the  institute,  authorizing 
the  conferring  of  the  title  "donating 
member"  upon  any  person  who 
makes  a  gift,  donation,  or  contribu- 
tion to  the  institute  amounting  in 
value  to  10,000  Italian  lire,  which  at 
normal  rates  of  exchange  is  equiva- 
lent to  about  $2,000. 

The  International  Institute  of  Agri- 
culture was  established  as  the  direct 
result  of  the  eflForts  of  David  Lubin, 
a  successful  merchant  of  California, 
with  the  active  support  of  the  King 
of  Italy,  who  foresaw  the  advantages 
which  would  accrue  to  agriculture, 
commerce,  and  industry  from  an  in- 
ternational clearinghouse  for  system- 
atically collecting  and  disseminat- 
ing official  information  supplied  by 
the  various  governments  of  the  world 
on  agricultural  production,  consump- 
tion, movements,  surpluses,  deficits, 
and  prices  of  agricultural  products, 
transportation,  plant  and  animal  dis- 
eases and  insect  pests,  rural  credits 
and  insurance,  standard  of  living, 
wages  and  hours  of  labor  on  farms, 


cooperative  organizations  of  farmers, 
legislation  affecting  agriculture,  and 
similar  information.  The  interna- 
tional treaty  was  drafted  at  Rome  on 
June  7,  1905,  and  has  since  been  rati- 
fied by  more  than  60  governments. 

The  institute  survived  the  trying 
period  of  the  World  War  and  is  now 
entering  upon  a  period  of  expansion 
and  increased  usefulness.  Its  work 
benefits  all  peoples.  In  accordance 
with  the  recent  action  of  the  perma- 
nent committee,  which  is  made  up  of 
delegates  from  the  adhering  govern- 
ments and  serves  as  a  board  of  direc- 
tors of  the  International  Institute  of 
Agriculture,  citizens  of  the  United 
States  and  other  countries  who  are 
in  sympathy  with  the  purposes  of  the 
institute  have  an  opportunity  to  con- 
tribute to  its  support  and  develop- 
ment and  to  receive  permanent  recog- 
nition therefor  as  "donating  mem- 
bers" by  having  their  names  and  na- 
tionality and  the  date  of  their  dona- 
tion inscribed  on  a  marble  tablet 
which  will  be  placed  in  a  conspicuous 
position  in  the  halls  or  vestibule  of 
the  marble  palace  occupied  by  the  in- 
stitute, situated  in  a  beautiful  park 
on  an  elevation  overlooking  the 
Eternal  City.  Such  donations  can  be 
made  either  through  the  Secretary  of 
Agriculture,  the  Secretary  of  State, 
or  the  American  delegate  to  the  In- 
ternational Institute  of  Agriculture, 
Rome,  Italy. 

THE  NATIONAL  GEOGRAPHIC 
SOCIETY'S  GIFTS  OF  BIG 

TREES 
The  trustees  and  officers  of  the  Na- 
tional Geographic  Society  announce 
to  members  that  the  society  has  been 
continuing  its  efforts,  begun  in  19 16, 
to  preserve  the  Big  Trees  of  Sequoia 
National  Park.  By  a  final  purchase 
in  April,  1921,  of  640  acres  of  land  in 
Sequoia  National  Park,  these  famous 
trees,  oldest  and  most  massive  among 
all  living  things,  the  only  ones  of 
their  kind  in  the  world,  have  been 
saved ;  they  will  not  be  cut  down  and 
converted  into  lumber. 


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Were  a  monument  of  human  erec- 
tion to  be  destroyed,  it  might  be  re- 
placed; but  had  these  aborigines  of 
American  forests  been  felled,  they 
would  have  disappeared  forever.  The 
Big  Trees  could  no  more  be  restored 
than  could  those  other  survivals  of 
indigenous  American  life,  the  red  man 
and  the  buffalo,  should  they  become 
extinct. 

Members  of  the  National  Geo- 
graphic Society  will  recall  that,  in 
1916,  G>ngress  had  appropriated  $50,- 
000  for  the  purchase  of  certain  pri- 
vate holdings  in  Sequoia  National 
Park,  but  the  owners  declined  to 
sell  for  less  than  $70,000.  In  that 
emergency  the  National  Geographic 
Society  took  the  first  step  toward  sav- 
ing the  Big  Trees  by  subscribing  the 
remaining  $20,000.  Thus  667  acres 
were  purchased.  The  society's  equity 
in  them  was  conveyed  to  the  govern- 
ment, and  this  tract  became  the  prop- 
erty, for  all  time,  of  the  American 
people. 

In  1920,  inspired  by  the  first  bene- 
faction, three  members  of  the  society 
gave  the  society  sums  equivalent  to 
the  purchase  price  of  $21,330  neces- 
sary to  acquire  three  more  tracts,  ag- 
gregating 609  acres.  Thus  the  orig- 
inal area  of  Sequoias  saved  from  de- 
struction was  almost  doubled. 

There  still  remained  one  other  im- 
portant private  holding  in  Sequoia 
National  Park  amounting  to  640 
acres.  Through  this  tract,  which  is 
covered  by  a  splendid  stand  of  giant 
sugar-pine  and  fir,  runs  the  road  to 
Giant  Forest.  To  acquire  this  ap- 
proach to  the  unique  forest  and  to 
eliminate  the  last  of  the  private  hold- 
ings in  this  natural  temple,  the  Na- 
tional Geographic  Society  and  friends 
of  the  society,  in  1921,  contributed 
$55iOOO,  with  which  the  tract  was  pur- 
chased. On  April  20,  1921,  it  was  for- 
mally tendered  in  the  name  of  the 
society,  through  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior Albert  B.  Fall,  to  the  American 
people. 

This  sum  of  $55>ooo  includes  $10,- 
000  from  the  tax   fund    of    Tulare 


County,  California,  within  which  the 
Sequoia  National  Park  is  situated,  a 
practical  evidence  that  the  people 
closest  to  the  park  are  alive  to  the 
importance  of  our  government  own- 
ing the  land. 

FIELD  WORK  OF  THE  SMITH- 
SONIAN INSTITUTION 

The  Smithsonian  Institution  has  is- 
sued its  annual  exploration  report 
describing  its  scientific  field  work 
throughout  the  world  in  1920. 
Twenty-three  separate  expeditions 
were  in  the  field  carrying  on  re- 
searches in  geology,  paleontology, 
zoology,  botany,  astrophysics,  an- 
thropology, archeology,  and  ethnol- 
ogy, and  the  regions  visited  included 
the  Canadian  Rockies,  fourteen  states 
of  the  United  States,  Haiti,  Jamaica, 
four  countries  of  South  America, 
Africa  from  the  Cape  to  Cairo, 
China,  Japan,  Korea,  Manchuria, 
Mongolia,  Australia,  and  the  Hawai- 
ian Islands. 

Secretary  Walcott  continued  his 
geological  work  in  the  Cambrian 
rocks  of  the  Canadian  Rockies  in  the 
region  northeast  of  Banff,  Alberta. 
The  particular  questions  involved  in 
the  season's  research  were  settled  sat- 
isfactorily and  some  beautiful  photo- 
graphs of  this  wild  and  rugged  region 
obtained.  Other  geological  field  work 
was  successfully  carried  on  in  various 
states  of  the  United  States  by  mem- 
bers of  the  staff. 

In  astrophysical  research  the  insti- 
tution was  unusually  active.  Through 
the  generosity  of  Mr.  John  A.  Roeb- 
ling  of  New  Jersey,  the  Smithsonian 
solar  observing  station  located  on  the 
plain  near  Calama,  Chile,  was  moved 
to  a  near-by  mountain  peak,  where 
the  observations  will  be  unaffected  by 
the  dust  and  smoke,  and  a  new  station 
was  established  on  the  Harqua  Hala 
Mountain,  Arizona,  probably  the  most 
cloudless  region  in  the  United  States. 
From  daily  observations  of  the  radia- 
tion of  the  sun  at  these  two  widely 
separated  stations,  it  is  hoped  to  es- 
tablish definitely  the    value    of    the 


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"solar  constant"  observations  in  fore- 
casting weather.  Dr.  C.  G.  Abbott, 
director  of  the  work,  also  describes 
the  successful  operation  on  Mt  Wil- 
son, California,  of  a  solar  cooker  de- 
vised by  him.  With  this  apparatus  it 
was  possible,  using  only  the  sun's 
heat,  to  cook  bread,  meat,  vegetables, 
and  preserves. 

Mr.  H.  C.  Raven  represented  the 
Smithsonian  on  an  extensive  collect- 
ing expedition  tlirough  Africa  from 
south  to  north.  Although  many  dif- 
ficulties were  encountered,  among 
others  a  railway  wreck  in  which  two 
members  of  the  expedition  were  kill- 
ed, Mr.  Raven  shipped  to  the  institu- 
tion much  interesting  zoological  mate- 
rial, which  was  greatly  needed  for 
purposes  of  comparison  in  working 
up  the  famous  Roosevelt  and  Rainey 
collections  already  in  the  National 
Museum.  Many  interesting  photo- 
graphs of  the  animals,  the  natives, 
and  the  country  itself  are  shown  in 
this  account  and  in  that  of  Dr.  Shantz, 
who  accompanied  the  expedition  as  a 
botanical  collector.  In  Australia, 
a  Smithsonian  naturalist  collected, 
through  the  generosity  of  Dr.  W.  L. 
Abbott,  specimens  of  the  fast  disap- 
pearing remarkable  fauna  of  the  con- 
tinent, while  Dr.  Abbott  himself  se- 
cured a  great  number  of  plants,  birds, 
and  other  natural  history  material  for 
the  National  Museum,  in  various 
regions  of  Haiti.  A  number  of  other 
zoological  and  botanical  expeditions 
are  briefly  described  and  illustrated. 


BIRDS  BANDED  BY  THE  BIO- 
LOGICAL SURVEY 
Persons  engaged  in  outdoor  activi- 
ties, whether  or  not  trained  bird  ob- 
servers, are  requested  to  cooperate 
with  the  Bureau  of  Biological  Survey, 
United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, by  furnishing  data  to  supple- 
ment the  bird-banding  work  that  is 
being  conducted  by  the  bureau.  When 
any  one  happens  to  capture  a  banded 
bird  or  to  come  upon  one  that  has 
been  hurt  or  killed,  it  will  be  of  great 


assistance  to  the  investigations  of  the 
department  to  have  a  report  made  of 
the  facts  by  returning  the  band  (if 
the  bird  is  dead;  otherwise  the  band 
should  not  be  removed,  but  its  num- 
ber noted),  together  with  details  as  to 
when  and  where  the  bird  was  found. 

The  aluminum  bands  issued  by  the 
Biological  Survey  carry  the  abbrevia- 
tion "Biol.  Surv."  and  a  serial  num- 
ber on  one  side,  and  "Wash.,  D.  C." 
on  other.  But  as  other  bands  have 
been  used  on  a  large  number  of  birds 
by  various  individuals  and  institu- 
tions, it  would  be  advisable  for  any- 
one finding  a  bird  that  carries  a  band 
not  marked  as  above  indicated,  or  of 
which  the  address  is  not  clearly  un- 
derstood, to  forward  the  information 
to  the  Biological  Survey,  where  every 
effort  will  be  made  to  locate  the  per- 
son responsible.  These  bands  are 
placed  on  the  bird's  tarsus,  the  bare 
portion  of  the  leg  immediately  above 
the  toes. 

Experts  in  bird  work  are  using  the 
banding  method  to  solve  a  variety  of 
problems  relative  to  the  migrations 
and  life  histories  of  our  native  birds 
which  are  thus  approached  from  the 
aspects  of  the  individual  birds.  Some 
of  the  more  important  questions  that 
can  be  solved  by  banding  operations 
are:  How  fast  do  the  individuals 
of  any  species  travel  on  their  periodic 
migrations;  does  any  one  flock  con- 
tinue in  the  van  or  is  the  advance 
made  by  successive  flocks  passing  one 
over  the  other  in  alternate  periods  of 
rest  and  flight?  Do  individuals  of 
any  species  always  follow  the  same 
route,  and  is  it  identical  for  both 
spring  and  fall  flights?  Do  migrat- 
ing birds  make  the  same  stop-overs 
every  year  to  feed?  How  long  do 
birds  remain  in  one  locality  during 
the  migration,  the  breeding,  or  the 
winter  seasons?  Do  birds  adopt  the 
same  nesting  area,  nest  site,  and  win- 
ter quarters  during  successive  sea- 
sons? For  how  many  broods  will 
one  pair  remain  matted,  and  which 
bird,  if  not  both,  is  attracted  next 
year  to  the  old  nesting  site?     How 


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far  from  their  nests  do  birds  forage 
for  food;  and,  after  the  young  have 
left  the  nest,  will  the  parent  birds 
bring  them  to  the  feeding  and  trap- 
ping station?  How  long  do  birds 
live? 

A  minimum  of  100,000  banded  birds 
is  planned,  from  which  it  is  hoped 
that  valuable  information  will  be  ob- 
tained in  regard  to  the  habits  of 
migratory  birds. 


SCIENTIFIC    ITEMS 

We  record  with  regret  the  death  of 
Winthrop  E.  Stone,  since  1900  presi- 
dent of  Purdue  University,  and  pre- 
viously professor  of  chemistry;  of 
Edmond  Perrier,  director  of  the 
Paris  Museum  of  Natural  History ;  of 
Gabriel  Lipi^nan,  professor  of  physics 
in  the  University  of  Paris,  and  of 
Professor  Viktor  von  Lang,  formerly 
professor  of  physics  at  Vienna. 

The  Mathematical  Association  of 
America  and  the  American  Mathe- 
matical Society  will  hold  their  sum- 
mer meetings  at  Wellesley  College, 
September  6-7  and  7-9,  respectively. 
Two  joint  sessions  will  be  devoted  to 
a  symposium  on  "Relativity."  On  the 
afternoon  of  the  seventh,  Professor 
Pierpont,   of  Yale    University,     will 


give  a  paper  entitled  "Some  mathe- 
matical aspects  of  the  theory  of  rela- 
tivity," while  on  the  forenoon  of  the 
eighth,  Professor  Lunn,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago,  will  speak  on 
"The  place  of  the  Einstein  theory  in 
theoretical  physics." 

The  Municipal  Observatory  at  Des 
Moines,  Iowa,  which  is  said  to  be  the 
only  municipal  observatory  in  the 
world,  was  opened  on  August  i.  The 
observatory  building  is  to  be  equip- 
ped by  Drake  University  with  an  8- 
inch  equatorial  telescope.  It  is  to  be 
under  the  control  of  the  university 
and  open  to  the  public  at  least  three 
times  a  week,  and  at  any  other  time 
when  occasion  may  warrant. 

A  NEW  forest  experiment  station, 
the  first  in  the  Eastern  States,  has 
been  established  at  Asheville,  N.  C, 
by  the  Forest  Service  of  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture. 
Steady  depletion  of  the  Southern  Ap- 
palachian thnber  supply  has  been  re- 
sponsible for  the  location  of  this  sta- 
tion in  the  East,  and  the  object  of 
the  work  to  be  conducted  will  be  to 
secure  the  information  needed  by 
foresters  to  determine  the  best  meth- 
ods of  handling  forest  lands  in  the 
southern  mountains. 


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VOL  XIII,  NO.  4  V     ,  y  OCTOBER,  1921 


THE  SCIENTIFIC 
MONTHLY 

EDITED  BY  J.  McKEEN  CATTELL 


CONTENTS 

THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIATION  FOR  THE  ADVANCEMENT  OF  SCIENCE: 

THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  MATTER.     Sir  T.  Edward  Thorpe 289 

THE  LABORATORY  OF  THE  UVING  ORGANISM.     Dr.  M,  O.  Forater 301 

EXPERIMENTAL  GEOLOGY.     Dr.  J.  S.  Flett 308 

SOME  PROBLEMS  IN  EVOLUTION.     Profcwor  Edwin  S.  Goodrich 316 

APPLIED  GEOGRAPHY.     Dr.  D.  G.  Hogarth 322 

SCIENTIFIC  IDEAUSM.     Dr.  WUliam  E.  Ritter 328 

FIELD  CROP  YIELDS  IN  NEW  JERSEY  FROM  1876  TO  1919.   Harry  B.  Weiw 342 

THE  PLAY  OF  A  NATION.     Professor  G.  T.  W.  Patrick 350 

EVARISTE  GALOIS.     Dr.  George  Sarton 363 

MARS  AS  A  UVING  PLANET.     G.  H.  Hamilton 376 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE: 

Scientific  Meetings;  The  Activities  of  the  Rockefeller  Foundation;  The  Har- 
vard School  of  Public  Health;  Scientific  Items.. 380 


THE    SCIENCE    PRESS 

PUBUCATION  OFFICE:    11  LIBERTY  ST.,  UTICA,  N.  Y. 
EDITORIAL  AND  BUSINESS  OFFICE:    GARRISON,  N.  Y. 
Sinsle  Number,  50  Cents.  Yearly  Subscription,  $5.00 

COFnUGHT  1921  BY  THE  SCIENCE  PRESS 

mm  MtOBd-cbM  natter  Febnury  8,  1921,  at  the  Po«t  Office  at  UUca.  N.  Y.,  vnder  the  Act  of  Mureh  3.  1879. 

Digitized  by  VjCJOy  IC 


WITHIN  THE  ATOM 

By  JOHN  MILLS 
(Author  of  "Realities  of  Modem   Science'') 

A  fascinating  non-technical  exposition  of  the  structure  of  the 
atom  and  the  electron  theory. 

Describes  with  entire  freedom  from  mathematics  the  recent  dis- 
coveries of  Langmuir,  Bohr,  Millikan,  Einstein,  and  others  of  our 
foremost  modem  scientists. 

The  charm  of  its  lucid  style  will  appeal  to  the  reader  untrained 
in  science. 

UP-TO-DATE  CLEAR  INTERESTING 

232  Pages  Qoth  $2.00  Rlus.  5x7l^ 

Send  this  '  'ad, "  with  $2. 00  to  your  dealer,  or  to 

D.  VAN  NOSTRAND  CO, 
8  Warren  Street  New  York 


Third  Edition — 'Soto  Ready 

AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

A  BIOGRAPHICAL  DIRECTORY 
Edited  by  J.  McKeen  Cattell  and  Dean  R.  Brimhall 

The  third  edition  of  the  Directory  contains  about  9,600  sketches  as  compared  with 
4,000  in  the  first  edition  and  5,500  in  the  second  edition.  The  work  should  be  in  the 
hands  of  all  those  who  are  directly  or  indirectly  interested  in  scientific  work. 

( 1 )  Men  of  science  will  find  it  indispensable.  It  gives  not  only  the  names,  ad- 
dresses, scientific  records  and  the  like  of  their  fellow  workers,  but  also  an  invaluable 
summary  of  the  research  work  of  the  country,  completed  and  in  progress. 

(2)  Those  interested  in  science,  even  though  they  may  not  be  professionally  en- 
gaged in  research  work,  will  find  much  of  inte^?*t  and  value  to  them  in  the  book. 

(3)  Executives  in  institutions  of  learning  and  others  brought  into  relations  with 
scientific  men  will  use  the  book  constantly. 

(4)  Editors  of  newspapers  and  periodicals  will  find  it  to  be  one  of  the  w^orks  of 
reference  that  they  will  need  most  frequently. 

(5)  Libraries  will  find  the  book  to  be  a  necessary  addition  to  their  reference 
shelves. 

Price,  Ten  Dollars,  Net,  Pottage  Paid 

THE  SQENCE  PRESS 

GARRISON,   N.   Y.  LANCASTER   PA 

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THE  SCIENTIFIC 
MONTHLY 


OCTOBER.    1921 


THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIATION  FOR  THE 
ADVANCEMENT  OF  SCIENCE' 

THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  MATTER 
By  Sir  T.  EDWARD  THORPE.  CB..  F.RS. 

PRESIDENT   OF   THE    ASSOCIATION 

rE  molecular  theory  of  matter — ^a  theory  which  in  its  crudest  fprm 
has  descended  to  us  from  the  earliest  times  and  which  has  been 
elaborated  by  various  speculative  thinkers  through  the  intervening  ages, 
hardly  rested  upon  an  experimental  basis  until  within  the  memory  of 
men  still  living.  When  Lord  Kelvin  spoke  in  1871,  the  best-established 
development  of  the  molecular  hypothesis  was  exhibited  in  the  kinetic 
theory  of  gases  as  worked  out  by  Joule,  Clausius,  and  Clerk-Maxwell. 
As  he  then  said,  no  such  comprehensive  molecular  theory  had  ever 
been  even  imagined  before  the  nineteenth  century.  But,  with  the  eye 
of  faith,  he  clearly  perceived  that,  definite  and  complete  in  its  area  as 
it  was,  it  was  ^but  a  well-drawn  part  of  a  great  chart,  in  which  all 
physical  science  will  be  represented  with  every  property  of  matter 
shown  in  dynamical  relation  to  the  whole.  The  prospect  we  now  have 
of  an  early  completion  of  this  chart  is  based  on  the  assumption  of  atoms. 
But  there  can  be  no  permanent  satisfaction  to  the  mind  in  explaining 
heat,  light,  elasticity,  diffusion,  electricity  and  magnetism,  in  gases, 
liquids  and  solids,  and  describing  precisely  the  relations  of  these 
different  states  of  matter  to  one  another  by  statistics  of  great  numbers 
of  atoms  when  the  properties  of  the  atom  itself  are  simply  assumed. 
When  the  theory,  of  which  we  have  the  first  instalment  in  Clausius  and 
Maxwell's  work,  is  complete,  we  are  but  brought  face  to  face  with  a 
superlatively  grand  question:  What  is  the  inner  mechanism  of  the 
atom?' 

If  the  properties  and  affections  of  matter  are  dependent  upon  the 
inner  mechanism  of  the  atom,  an  atomic  theory,  to  be  valid,  must  com- 
prehend and  explain  them  all.  There  cannot  be  one  kind  of  atom 
for  the  physicist  and  another  for  the  chemist.  The  nature  of  chemical 
affinity  and  of  valency,  the  modes  of  their  action,  the  difference  in  char- 
acteristics of  the  chemical  elements,  even  their  number,  internal  con- 


I  Extracts  from  addresses  given  at  the  Edinburgh  Meeting. 
VOL.  Xm.— 19. 

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290  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

stitution,  periodic  position,  and  possible  isotopic  rearrangements  most 
be  accounted  for  and  explained  by  it.  Fifty  years  ago  chemists,  for  the 
most  part,  rested  in  the  comfortable  belief  of  the  existence  of  atoms  in 
the  restricted  sense  in  which  Dalton,  as  a  legacy  from  Newton,  had 
imagined  them.  Lord  Kelvin,  unlike  the  chemists,  had  never  been  in 
the  habit  of  'evading  questions  as  to  the  hardness  or  indivisibility  of 
atoms  by  virtually  assuming  them  to  be  infinitely  small  and  infinitely 
numerous.'  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  did  he  realize^  with  Boscovich, 
the  atom  'as  a  mystic  point  endowed  with  inertia  and  the  attribute  of 
attracting  or  repelling  other  such  centres.'  Science  advances  not  so 
much  by  fundamental  alterations  in  its  beliefs  as  by  additions  to  them. 
Dalton  would  equally  have  regarded  the  atom  'as  a  piece  of  matter  of 
measureable  dimensions,  with  shape,  motion,  and  laws  of  action,  in- 
telligible subjects  of  scientific  investigation.' 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  atomic  theory,  as  formulated  by  Dalton, 
has  J)een  generally  accepted  for  nearly  a  century,  it  is  only  within  the 
last  few  years  that  physicists  have  arrived  at  a  conception  of  the  struc- 
ture of  the  atom  sufficiently  precise  to  be  of  service  to  chemists  in  con- 
nection with  the  relation  between  the  properties  of  elements  of 
different  kinds,  and  in  throwing  light  on  the  mechanism  of  chemical 
combination. 

This  further  investigation  of  the  'superlatively  grand  question — the 
inner  mechanism  of  the  atom,' — has  profoundly  modified  the  basic 
conceptions  of  chemistry.  It  has  led  to  a  great  extension  of  our  views 
concerning  the  real  nature  of  the  chemical  elements.  The  discovery 
of  the  electron,  the  production  of  helium  in  the  radioactive  disint^ra- 
tion  of  atoms,  the  recognition  of  the  existence  of  isotopes,  the  possibility 
that  all  elementary  atoms  are  composed  either  of  helium  atoms  or  of 
atoms  of  hydrogen  and  helium,  and  that  these  atoms,  in  their  turn,  are 
built  up  of  two  constituents,  one  of  which  is  the  electron,  a  particle  of 
negative  electricity  whose  mass  is  only  1/1800  of  that  of  an  atom  of 
hydrogen,  and  the  other  a  particle  of  positive  electricity  whose  mass  is 
practically  identical  with  that  of  the  same  atom — the  outcome,  in  short, 
of  the  collective  work  of  Soddy,  Rutherford,  J.  J.  Thomson,  Collie, 
Moseley  and  others — are  pregnant  facts  which  have  completely  altered 
the  fundamental  aspects  of  the  science.  Chemical  philosophy  has,  in 
fact,  now  definitely  entered  on  a  new  phase. 

Looking  back  over  the  past,  some  indications  of  the  coming  change 
might  have  been  perceived  wholly  unconnected,  of  course,  with  the 
recent  experimental  work  which  has  served  to  ratify  it.  In  a  short 
paper  entitled  'Speculative  Ideas  respecting  the  Constitution  of  Matter,* 
originally  published  in  1863,  Graham  conceived  that  the  various  kinds 
of  matter,  now  recognised  as  different  elementary  substances,  may 
possess  one  and  the  same  ultimate  or  atomic  molecule  existing  in 
different  conditions  of  movement.  This  idea,  in  its  essence,  may  be 
said  to  be  as  old  as  the  time  of  Leucippus.    To  Graham  as  to  Leucip- 


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THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  MATTER  291 

pus  'the  action  of  the  atom  as  one  substance  taking  various  fonns 
by  combinations  unlimited,  was  enough  to  account  for  all  the 
phenomena  of  the  world.  By  separation  and  union  with  constant  mo- 
tion all  things  could  be  done.'  But  Graham  developed  the  conception 
by  independent  thought,  and  in  the  light  of  experimentally  ascertained 
knowledge  which  the  world  owes  to  his  labours.  He  might  have  been 
cognisant  of  the  speculations  of  the  Greeks,  but  there  is  no  evidence 
that  he  was  knowingly  influenced  by  them.  In  his  paper  Graham  uses 
the  terms  atom  and  molecule  if  not  exactly  in  the  same  sense  that 
modem  teaching  demands,  yet  very  differently  from  that  hitherto  re- 
quired by  the  limitations  of  contemporary  chemical  doctrine.  He  con- 
ceives of  a  lower  order  of  atoms  than  the  chemical  atom  of  Dalton,  and 
founds  on  his  conception  an  explanation  of  chemical  combination  based 
upon  a  fixed  combining  measure^  which  he  terms  the  metron,  its  relative 
weight  being  one  for  hydrogen,  sixteen  for  oxygen,  and  so  on  with  the 
other  so-called  'elements.'  Graham,  in  fact,  like  Davy  before  him, 
never  committed  himself  to  a  belief  in  the  indivisibility  of  the  Dal- 
tonian  atom.    The  original  atom  may,  he  thought,  be  far  down. 

The  idea  of  a  primordial  yle,  or  of  the  essential  unity  of  matter,  has 
persisted  throughout  the  ages,  and,  in  spite  of  much  experimental  work, 
some  of  it  of  the  highest  order,  which  was  thought  to  have  demolished 
it,  it  has  survived,  revivified  and  supported  by  analogies  and  arguments 
drawn  from  every  field  of  natural  inquiry.  This  idea  of  course  was  at 
the  basis  of  the  hypothesis  of  Prout,  but  which,  even  as  modified  by 
Dumas,  was  held  to  be  refuted  by  the  monumental  work  of  Stas.  But,  as 
pointed  out  by  Marignac  and  Dumas,  anyone  who  will  impartially  look 
at  the  facts  can  hardly  escape  the  feeling  that  there  must  be  some  reason 
for  the  frequent  recurrence  of  atomic  weights  differing  by  so  little 
from  the  numbers  required  by  the  law  which  the  work  of  Stas  was 
supposed  to  disprove.  The  more  exact  study  within  recent  years  of 
the  methods  of  determining  atomic  weights,  the  great  improvement 
in  experimental  appliances  and  technique,  combined  with  a  more 
rigorous  standard  of  accuracy  demanded  by  a  general  recognition  of 
the  far-reaching  importance  of  an  exact  knowledge  of  these  physical 
constants,  has  resulted  in  intensifying  the  belief  that  some  natural 
law  must  be  at  the  basis  of  the  fact  that  so  many  of  the  most  carefully 
determined  atomic  weights  on  the  oxygen  standard  are  whole  numbers. 
Nevertheless  there  were  well  authenticated  exceptions  which  seemed  to 
invalidate  its  universality.  The  proved  fact  that  a  so-called  element 
may  be  a  mixture  of  isotopes — substances  of  the  same  chemical  attri- 
butes but  of  varying  atomic  weight — ^has  thrown  new  light  on  the 
question.  It  is  now  recognised  that  the  fractional  values  independently 
established  in  the  case  of  any  one  element  by  the  most  accurate  experi- 
mental work  of  various  investigators  are,  in  effect,  'statistical  quanti- 
ties' dep^ident  upon  a  mixture  of  isotopes.  This  result,  indeed,  is  a 
necessary  corollary  of  modem  conceptions  of  the  inner  mechanism  of 


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292  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

die  atom.  The  theory  that  all  elementary  atoms  are  composed  of 
heliun  atoms,  or  of  helium  and  hydrogen  atoms,  may  be  regarded  as  an 
extension  of  Prout's  hypothesis,  with,  however,  this  important  distinc- 
tion, that  whereas  Front's  hypothesis  was  at  best  a  surmise,  with  little, 
and  that  little  only  weak,  experimental  evidence  to  support  it,  the  new 
theory  is  directly  deduced  from  well-established  facts.  The  hydrogen 
isotope  Hg,  first  detected  by  J.  J.  Thomson,  of  which  the  existence 
has  been  confirmed  by  Aston,  would  seem  to  be  an  int^ral  part  of 
atomic  structure.  Rutherford,  by  the  disruption  of  oxyg^i  and 
nitrogen  has  also  isolated  a  substance  of  mass  3  which  enters  into 
the  structure  of  atomic  nuclei,  but  which  he  regards  as  an  isotope 
of  helium,  which  itself  is  built  up  of  four  hydrogen  nuclei  together 
with  two  cementing  electrons.  The  atomic  nuclei  of  elements  of  even 
atomic  number  would  appear  to  be  composed  of  helium  nuclei  only, 
or  of  helium  nuclei  with  cementing  electrons;  whereas  those  of  ele- 
ments of  odd  atomic  number  are  made  up  of  helium  and  hydrogen 
nuclei  together  with  cementing  electrons.  In  the  case  of  the  lighter 
elements  of  the  latter  class  the  number  of  hydrogen  nuclei  associated 
with  the  helium  nuclei  is  invariably  three,  except  in  that  of  nitrogen 
where  it  is  two.  The  frequent  occurrence  of  this  group  of  three  hydro- 
gen nuclei  indicates  that  it  is  structurally  an  isotope  of  hydrogen  with 
an  atomic  weight  of  three  and  nuclear  charge  of  one.  It  is  surmised 
that  it  is  identical  with  the  hypothetical  ^nebulium'  from  which  our 
^elements'  are  held  by  astro-physicists  to  be  originally  produced  in  the 
stars  through  hydrogen  and  helium. 

These  results  are  of  extraordinary  interest  as  bearing  on  the  question 
of  the  essential  unity  of  matter  and  the  mode  of  genesis  of  the  elements. 
Members  of  the  British  Association  may  recall  the  suggestive  address  on 
this  subject  of  the  late  Sir  William  Crookes,  delivered  to  the  Chemical 
Section  at  the  Birmingham  meeting  of  1886,  in  which  he  questioned 
whether  there  is  absolute  uniformity  in  the  mass  of  the  atoms  of  a 
chemical  element,  as  postulated  by  Dalton.  He  thought,  with  Marignac 
and  Schutzenberger,  who  had  previously  raised  the  same  doubt,  that 
it  was  not  improbable  that  what  we  term  an  atomic  weight  merely 
represents  a  mean  value  around  which  the  actual  weights  of  the  atoms 
vary  within  narrow  limits,  or,  in  other  words,  that  the  mean  mass  is 
^a  statistical  constant  of  great  stability.'  No  valid  experimental  evi- 
dence in  support  of  this  surmise  was  or  could  be  offered  at  the  time 
it  was  uttered.  Maxwell  pointed  out  that  the  phenomena  of  gaseous 
diffusion,  as  then  ascertained,  would  seem  to  negative  the  supposition. 
If  hydrogen,  for  example,  were  composed  of  atoms  of  varying  mass 
it  should  be  possible  to  separate  the  lighter  from  the  heavier  atoms 
by  diffusion  through  a  porous  septum.  *As  no  chemist,'  said  Maxwell, 
lias  yet  obtained  specimens  of  hydrogen  differing  in  this  way  from 
other  specimens,  we  conclude  that  all  the  molecules  of  hydrogen  are 
of  sensibly  the  same  mass,  and  not  merely  that  their  mean  mass  is  a 


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THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  MATTER  2W 

statistical  constant  of  great  stability.'^  But  against  this  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  any  chemist  had  ever  made  experiments  sufficiently 
precise  to  solve  this  point 

The  work  of  Sir  Norman  Lockyer  on  the  spectroscopic  evidence  for 
the  dissociation  of  'elementary'  matter  at  transcendental  tempera- 
tures, and  the  possible  synthetic  intro-stellar  production  of  elements, 
through  the  helium  of  which  he  originally  detected  the  existence,  will 
also  find  its  due  place  in  the  history  of  this  new  philosophy. 

Sir  J.  J.  Thomson  was  the  first  to  afford  direct  evidence  that  the 
atoms  of  an  element,  if  not  exactly  of  the  same  mass,  were  at  least 
approximately  so,  by  his  method  of  analysis  of  positive  rays.  By  an 
extension  of  this  method  Mr.  F.  W.  Aston  has  succeeded  in  showing 
that  a  number  of  elements  are  in  reality  mixtures  of  isotopes.  It  has 
been  proved,  for  example,  that  neon,  which  has  a  mean  atomic  weight 
of  about  20  and  .2  consists  of  two  isotopes  having  the  atomic  weights 
respectively  of  20  and  22,  mixed  in  the  proportion  of  90  per  cent 
of  the  former  with  10  per  cent,  of  the  latter.  By  fractional  diffusion 
through  a  porous  septum  an  apparent  difference  of  density  of  0.7 
per  cent  between  the  lightest  and  heaviest  fractions  was  obtained.  The 
kind  of  experiment  which  Maxwell  imagined  proved  the  invariability 
of  the  hydrogen  atom  has  sufficed  to  show  the  converse  in  the  case 
of  neon. 

The  element  chlorine  has  had  its  atomic  weight  repeatedly  deter- 
mined, and,  for  special  reasons,  with  the  highest  attainable  accuracy. 
On  the  oxygen  standard  it  is  35.46,  and  this  value  is  accurate  to  the 
second  decimal  place.  All  attempts,  to  prove  that  it  is  a  whole 
number — 35  or  36— have  failed.  When,  however,  the  gas  is  analysed 
by  the  same  method  as  that  used  in  the  case  of  neon  it  is  found  to 
consist  of  at  least  two  isotopes  of  relative  mass  35  and  37.  There  is  no 
evidence  whatever  of  an  individual  substance  having  the  atomic  weight 
35.46.  Hence  chlorine  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  complex  element  con- 
sisting of  two  principal  isotopes  of  atomic  weights  35  and  37  present 
in  such  proportion  as  to  afford  the  mean  mass  35.46.  The  atomic 
weight  of  chlorine  has  been  so  frequently  determined  by  various 
observers  and  by  various  methods  with  practically  identical  results  that 
it  seems  difficult  to  believe  that  it  consists  of  isotopes  present  in  definite 
and  invariable  proportion.  Mr.  Aston  meets  this  objection  by  pointing 
out  that  all  the  accurate  determinations  have  been  made  with  chlorine 
derived  originally  from  the  same  source,  the  sea,  which  has  been  per- 
fectly mixed  for  aeons.  If  samples  of  the  element  could  be  obtained 
from  some  other  original  source  it  is  possible  that  other  values  of 
atomic  weight  would  be  obtained,  exactly  as  in  the  case  of  lead  in 
which  the  existence  of  isotopes  in  the  metal  found  in  various  radioactive 
minerals  was  first  conclusively  established. 

Argon,  which  has  an  atomic  weight  of  39.88,  was  found  to  consist 

1  Clerk-Maxwell,  Art   'Atom/  Ency.  Brit  pth  Ed. 


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294  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

mainly  of  an  isotope  having  an  atomic  weight  of  40,  associated  to  the 
extent  of  about  3  per  cent.,  with  an  isotope  of  atomic  weight  36. 
Krypton  and  xenon  are  far  more  complex.  The  former  would  appear 
to  consist  of  six  isotopes,  78,  80,  82,  83,  84,  86;  the  latter  of  five 
isotopes,  129,  131,  132,  134,  136. 

Fluorine  is  a  simple  element  of  atomic  weight  19.  Bromine  con- 
sists of  equal  quantities  of  two  isotopes,  79  and  81.  Iodine,  on  the 
contrary,  would  appear  to  be  a  simple  element  of  atomic  weight  127. 
The  case  of  tellurium  is  of  special  interest  in  view  of  its  periodic  rela- 
tion to  iodine,  but  the  results  of  its  examination  up  to  the  present  are 
indefinite. 

Boron  and  silicon  are  complex  elements,  each  consisting  of  two 
isotopes,  10  and  11,  and  28  and  29,  respectively. 

Sulphur,  phosphorus,  and  arsenic  are  apparently  simple  elements. 
Their  accepted  atomic  weights  are  practically  integers. 

All  this  work  is  so  recent  that  there  has  been  little  opportunity, 
as  yet,  of  extending  it  to  any  considerable  number  of  the  metallic 
elements.  These,  as  will  be  obvious  from  the  nature  of  the  methods 
employed,  present  special  difficulties.  It  is,  however,  highly  probable 
diat  mercury  is  a  mixed  element  consisting  of  many  isotopes.  These 
have  been  partially  separated  by  Bronsted  and  Hervesy  by  fractional 
distillation  at  very  low  pressures,  and  have  been  shown  to  vary  very 
slightly  in  density.  Lithium  is  found  to  consist  of  two  isotopes,  6  and 
7.  Sodium  is  simple,  potassium  and  rubidium  are  complex,  each  of 
the  two  latter  elements  consisting,  apparently,  of  two  isotopes.  The 
accepted  atomic  weight  of  caesium,  132.81,  would  indicate  complexity, 
but  the  mass  spectrum  shows  only  one  line  at  133.  Should  this  be 
confirmed  caesium  would  afford  an  excellent  test  case.  The  accepted 
value  for  the  atomic  weight  is  sufficiently  far  removed  from  a  whole 
number  to  render  further  investigation  desirable. 

This  imperfect  smnmary  of  Mr.  Aston's  work  is  mainly  based  upon 
the  account  he  recently  gave  to  the  Chemical  Society.  At  the  close 
of  his  lecture  he  pointed  out  the  significance  of  the  results  in  relation 
to  the  periodic  law.  It  is  clear  that  the  order  of  the  chemical  or 
'mean'  atomic  weights  in  the  periodic  table  has  no  practical  signifi- 
cance; anomalous  cases  such  as  argon  and  potassium  are  simply  due  to 
the  relative  proportions  of  their  heavier  and  lighter  isotopes.  This 
does  not  necessarily  invalidate  or  even  weaken  the  periodic  law  which 
still  remains  the  expression  of  a  great  natural  truth.  That  the  expres- 
sion as  Mendeleeff  left  it  is  imperfect  has  long  been  recognised.  The 
new  light  we  have  now  gained  has  gone  far  to  clear  up  much  that  was 
anomalous,  especially  Moseley's  discovery  that  the  real  sequence  is  the 
atomic  number,  not  the  atomic  weight.  This  is  one  more  illustration 
of  the  fact  that  science  advances  by  additions  to  its  beliefs  rather  than 
by  fundamental  or  revolutionary  changes  in  them. 

The  bearing  of  the  electronic  theory  of  matter,  too,  on  Front's  dis- 
carded hypothesis  that  the  atoms  of  all  elements  were  themselves  built 

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THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  MATTER  295 

up  of  a  primordial  atom — his  protyle  which  he  regarded  as  probably 
identical  with  hydrogen — ^is  too  obvious  to  need  pointing  out.  In  a 
sense  Front's  hypothesis  may  be  said  to  be  now  re-established,  but 
with  this  essential  modification — ^the  primordial  atoms  he  imagined  are 
complex  and  are  of  two  kinds — atoms  of  positive  and  negative  elec- 
tricity— respectively  known  as  protons  and  electrons.  These,  in  Mr. 
Aston's  words,  are  the  standard  bricks  that  nature  employs  in  her 
operations  of  element  building. 

The  true  value  of  any  theory  consists  in  its  comprehensiveness  and 
sufficiency.  As  applied  to  chemistry,  this  theory  of  'the  inner  mechan- 
ism of  the  atom'  must  explain  all  its  phenomena.  We  owe  to  Sir 
J.  J.  Thomson  its  extension  to  the  explanation  of  the  periodic  law,  the 
atomic  number  of  an  element,  and  of  that  varying  power  of  chemical 
combination  in  an  element  we  term  valency.  This  explanation  I  give 
substantially  in  his  own  words.  The  number  of  electrons  in  an  atom  ; 
of  the  different  elements  has  now  been  determined,  and  has  been  found 
to  be  equal  to  the  atomic  number  of  the  element,  that  is  to  the  position 
which  the  element  t)ccupies  in  the  series  when  the  elements  are  arranged 
in  the  order  of  their  atomic  weights.  We  know  now  the  nature  and 
quantity  of  the  materials  of  which  the  atoms  are  made  up.  The 
properties  of  the  atom  will  depend  not  only  upon  these  factors  but 
also  upon  the  way  in  which  the  electrons  are  arranged  in  the  atom. 
This  arrangement  will  depend  on  the  forces  between  the  electrons 
themselves  and  also  on  those  between  the  electrons  and  the  positive 
charges  or  protons.  One  arrangement  which  naturally  suggested  itself 
is  that  the  positive  charges  should  be  at  the  centre  with  the  negative 
electrons  around  it  on  the  surface  of  a  sphere.  Mathematical  investi- 
gation shows  that  this  is  a  possible  arrangement  if  the  electrons  on  the 
sphere  are  not  too  crowded.  The  mutual  repulsion  of  the  electrons 
resents  overcrowding,  and  Sir  J.  J.  Thomson  has  shown  that  when 
there  are  more  than  a  certain  number  of  electrons  on  the  sphere,  the 
attraction  of  a  positive  charge,  limited  as  in  the  case  of  the  atom  in 
magnitude  to  the  sum  of  the  charges  on  the  electrons,  is  not  able  to 
keep  the  electrons  in  stable  equilibrium  on  the  sphere,  the  layer  of 
electrons  explodes  and  a  new  arrangement  is  formed.  The  number  of 
electrons  which  can  be  accommodated  on  the  outer  layer  will  depend 
upon  the  law  of  force  between  the  positive  charge  and  the  electrons. 
Sir  J.  J.  Thomson  has  shown  that  this  number  will  be  eight  with  a  law 
of  force  of  a  simple  type. 

To  show  the  bearing  of  this  result  as  affording  an  explanation  of  the 
periodic  law,  let  us,  to  begin  with,  take  the  case  of  the  atom  of  lithium, 
which  is  supposed  to  have  one  electron  in  the  outer  layer.  As  each 
element  has  one  more  free  electron  in  its  atom  than  its  predecessor, 
glucinum,  the  element  next  in  succession  to  lithium,  will  have  two 
electrons  in  the  outer  layer  of  its  atom,  boron  will  have  three,  carbon 
four,  nitrogen  five,  oxygen  six,  fluorine  seven  and  neon  eight  As  there 
cannot  be  more  than  eight  electrons  in  the  outer  layer,  the  additional 

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296  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

electron  in  the  atom  of  the  next  element,  sodium,  cannot  find  room  in 
the  same  layer  as  the  other  electrons,  but  will  go  outside,  and  thus  the 
atom  of  sodium,  like  that  of  lithium,  will  have  one  electron  in  its  outer 
layer.  The  additional  electron,  in  the  atom  of  the  next  element, 
magnesium,  will  join  this,  and  the  atom  of  magnesium,  like  that  of 
glucinum,  will  have  two  electrons  in  the  outer  layer.  Again,  alu- 
minum, like  boron,  will  have  three;  silicon,  like  carbon,  four;  phos- 
phorus, like  nitrogen,  five;  sulphur,  like  oxygen,  six;  chlorine,  like 
fluorine,  seven;  and  argon,  like  peon,  eight  The  sequence  will  then 
begin  again.  Thus  the  number  of  electrons,  one,  two,  three,  up  to  eight 
in  the  outer  layer  of  the  atom,  will  recur  periodically  as  we  proceed 
from  one  element  to  another  in  the  order  of  their  atomic  weights,  so 
that  any  property  of  an  element  which  depends  on  the  number  of  elec- 
trons in  the  outer  layer  of  its  atom  will  also  recur  periodically,  which 
is  precisely  that  remarkable  property  of  the  elements  which  is  expressed 
by  the  periodic  law  of  Mendeleeff,  or  the  law  of  ^octaves  of  Newlands. 

The  valency  of  the  elements,  like  their  periodicity,  is  a  consequence 
of  the  principle  that  equilibrium  becomes  unstable  when  there  are  more 
than  eight  electrons  in  the  outer  layer  of  the  atom.  For  on  this  view 
the  chemical  combination  between  two  atoms,  A  and  B,  consists  in  the 
electrons  of  A  getting  linked  up  with  those  of  B.  Consider  an  atmn 
like  that  of  neon,  which  has  already  eight  electrons  in  its  outer  layer; 
it  cannot  find  room  for  any  more,  so  that  no  atoms  can  be  linked  to  it, 
and  thus  it  cannot  form  any  compounds.  Now  take  an  atom  of  fluor- 
ine, which  has  seven  electrons  in  its  outer  layer;  it  can  find  room  for 
one,  but  only  one,  electron,  so  that  it  can  unite  with  one,  but  not  with 
more  than  one,  atom  of  an  element  like  hydrogen,  which  has  one  elec- 
tron in  the  outer  layer.  Fluorine,  accordingly,  is  monovalent.  The 
oxygen  atom  has  six  electrons;  it  has,  therefore,  room  for  two  more, 
and  so  can  link  up  with  two  atoms  of  hydrogen:  hence  oxygen  is 
divalent  Similarly  nitrogen,  which  has  five  electrons  and  three  vacant 
places,  will  be  trivalent,  and  so  on.  On  this  view  an  element  should 
have  two  valencies,  the  sum  of  the  two  being  equal  to  eight  Thus,  to 
take  oxygen  as  an  example,  it  has  only  two  vacant  places,  and  so  can 
only  find  room  for  the  electrons  of  two  atoms;  it  has,  however,  six  elec- 
trons available  for  filling  up  the  vacant  places  in  other  atoms,  and  as 
there  is  only  one  vacancy  to  be  filled  in  a  fluorine  atom  the  electrons 
in  an  oxygen  atom  could  fill  up  the  vacancies  in  six  fluorine  atoms, 
and  thereby  attach  these  atoms  to  it  A  fluoride  of  oxygen  of  this  com- 
position remains  to  be  discovered,  but  its  analogue,  SF^,  first  made 
known  by  Moissan,  is  a  compound  of  this  type.  The  existence  of  two 
valencies  for  an  element  is  in  accordance  with  views  put  forward  some 
time  ago  by  Abegg  and  Bodlander.  Professor  Lewis  and  Mr.  Irving 
Langmuir  have  developed,  with  great  ingenuity  and  success,  the  conse- 
quences which  follow  from  the  hypothesis  that  an  octet  of  electrons 
surrounds  the  atoms  in  chemical  compounds. 

The  term  'atomic  weight'  has  thus  acquired  for  the  chemist  an  alto- 
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THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  MATTER  297 

gether  new  and  much  wider  significance.  It  has  long  been  recognised 
that  it  has  a  far  deeper  import  than  as  a  constant  useful  in  chemical 
arithmetic  For  the  ordinary  purposes  of  quantitative  analysis,  of  tech- 
nology,  and  of  trade,  these  constants  may  be  said  to  be  now  known  with 
sufficient  accuracy.  But  in  view  of  their  bearing  on  the  great  problem 
of  the  essential  nature  of  matter  and  on  the  'superlatively  grand  ques- 
tion. What  is  the  inner  mechanism  of  the  atom?*  they  become  of 
supreme  importance.  Their  determination  and  study  must  now  be 
approached  from  entirely  new  standpoints  and  by  the  conjoint  action  of 
chemists  and  physicists.  The  existence  of  isotopes  has  enormously 
widened  the  horizon.  At  first  sight  it  would  appear  that  we  should 
require  to  know  as  many  atomic  weights  as  there  are  isotopes,  and  the 
chemist  may  well  be  appalled  at  such  a  prospect.  All  sorts  of  difficul- 
ties start  up  to  affright  him,  such  as  the  present  impossibility  of  isola- 
ting isotopes  in  a  state  of  individuality,  their  possible  instability,  and 
the  inability  of  his  quantitative  methods  to  establish  accurately  the  rela- 
tively small  differences  to  be  anticipated.  All  this  would  seem  to  make 
for  complexity.  On  the  other  hand,  it  may  eventually  tend  towards 
simplification.  If,  with  the  aid  of  the  physicist  we  can  unravel  the  na- 
ture and  configuration  of  the  atom  of  any  particular  element,  determine 
the  number  and  relative  arrangement  of  the  constituent  protons  and 
electrons,  it  may  be  possible  to  arrive  at  the  atomic  weight  by  simple 
calculation,  on  the  assumption  that  the  integer  rule  is  mathematically 
valid.  This,  however,  is  almost  certainly  not  the  case,  owing  to  the 
influence  of  'packing.'  The  little  differences,  in  fact,  may  make  all  the 
difference.  The  case  is  analogous  to  that  of  the  so-called  gaseous  laws 
in  which  the  departures  from  their  mathematical  expression  have  been 
the  means  of  elucidating  the  physical  constitution  of  the  gases  and  of 
throwing  light  upon  such  variations  in  their  behaviour  as  have  been 
observed  to  occur.  There  would  appear,  therefore,  ample  scope  for  the 
chemist  in  determining  with  the  highest  attainable  accuracy  the  de- 
partures from  the  whole-number  rule,  since  it  is  evident  that  much 
depends  upon  their  exact  extent 

These  considerations  have  already  engaged  the  attention  of  chemists. 
For  some  years  past,  a  small  international  committee,  originally  ap- 
pointed in  1903,  has  made  and  published  an  annual  report  in  which 
they  have  noted  such  determinations  of  atomic  weight  as  have  been 
made  during  the  year  preceding  each  report,  and  they  have  from'  time 
to  time  made  suggestions  for  the  amendment  of  the  tables  of  atomic 
weights,  published  in  text-books  and  chemical  journals,  and  in  use  in 
chemical  laboratories.  In  view  of  recent  developments,  the  time  has 
now  arrived  when  the  work  of  this  international  committee  must  be 
reorganised  and  its  aims  and  functions  extended.  The  mode  in  which 
this  should  be  done  has  been  discussed  at  the  meeting  in  Brussels,  in 
June  last,  of  the  International  Union  of  Chemistry  Pure  and  Applied, 
and  has  resulted  in  strengthening  the  constitution  of  the  committee  and 
in  a  wide  extension  of  its  scope. 

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298  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

The  crisis  through  which  we  have  recently  passed  has  had  a  pro- 
found effect  upon  the  world.  The  spectacle  of  the  most  cultured  and 
most  highly  developed  peoples  on  this  earth,  armed  with  every  offensive 
appliance  which  science  and  the  inventive  skill  and  ingenuity  of  men 
could  suggest,  in  the  throes  of  a  death  struggle  must  have  made  the 
angels  weep.  That  dreadful  harvest  of  death  is  past,  but  the  aftermath 
remains.  Some  of  it  is  evil,  and  the  evil  will  persist  for,  it  may  be, 
generations.  There  is,  however,  an  element  of  good  in  it,  and  the 
good,  we  trust,  will  develop  and  increase  with  increase  of  years.  The 
whole  complexion  of  the  world — ^material,  social,  economic,  political, 
moral,  spiritual — has  been  changed,  in  certain  aspects  inmiediately 
for  the  worse,  in  others  prospectively  for  the  better  It  behoves  us, 
then,  as  a  nation  to  pay  heed  to  the  lessons  of  the  war. 

The  theme  is  far  too  complicated  to  be  treated  adequately  within  the 
limits  of  such  an  address  as  this.  But  there  are  some  aspects  of  it 
germane  to  the  objects  of  this  association,  and  I  venture,  therefore,  in 
the  time  that  remains  to  me,  to  bring  them  to  your  notice. 

The  Great  War  differed  from  all  previous  internecine  struggles  in 
the  extent  to  which  organised  science  was  invoked  and  systematically 
applied  in  its  prosecution.  In  its  later  phases,  indeed,  success  became 
largely  a  question  as  to  which  of  the  great  contending  parties  could 
most  rapidly  and  most  effectively  bring  its  resources  to  their  aid.  The 
chief  protagonists  had  been  in  the  forefront  of  scientific  progress  for 
centuries,  and  had  an  accumulated  experience  of  the  manifold  applica- 
tions of  science  in  practically  every  department  of  human  activity  that 
could  have  any  possible  relation  to  the  conduct  of  war.  The  military 
class  in  every  country  is  probably  the  most  conservative  of  all  the 
professions  and  the  slowest  to  depart  from  tradition.  But  when  nations 
are  at  grips,  and  they  realise  that  their  very  existence  is  threatened, 
every  agency  that  may  tend  to  cripple  the  adversary  is  apt  to  be  resorted 
to — no  matter  how  far  it  departs  from  the  customs  and  conventions  of 
war.  This  is  more  certain  to  be  the  case  if  the  struggle  is  protracted. 
We  have  witnessed  this  fact  in  the  course  of  the  late  War.  Those  who, 
realising  that  in  the  present  imperfect  stage  of  civilisation,  wars  are 
inevitable,  and  yet  strove  to  minimise  their  horrors,  and  who  formulated 
the  Hague  Convention  of  1899,  were  well  aware  how  these  horrors 
might  be  enormously  intensified  by  the  applications  of  scientific  know- 
ledge, and  especially  of  chemistry.  Nothing  shocked. the  conscience 
of  the  civilised  world  more  than  Germany^s  cynical  disregard  of  the 
undertaking  into  which  she  had  entered  with  other  nations  in  regard, 
for  instance,  to  the  use  of  lethal  gas  in  warfare.  The  nation  that 
treacherously  violated  the  Treaty  of  Belgium,  and  even  applauded  the 
action,  might  be  expected  to  have  no  scruples  in  repudiating  her  obliga- 
tions under  the  Hague  Convention.  April  25,  1915,  which  saw  the 
clouds  of  the  asphyxiating  chlorine  slowly  wafted  from  the  German 
trenches  towards  the  lines  of  the  Allies,  witnessed  one  of  the  most 


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THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  MATTER  299 

bestial  episodes  in  the  history  of  the  Great  War.  The  world  stood 
aghast  at  such  a  spectacle  of  barbarism.  German  KuUur  apparently 
had  absolutely  no  ethical  value.  Poisoned  weapons  are  employed  by 
savages,  and  noxious  gas  had  been  used  in  Eastern  warfare  in  early 
times,  but  its  use  was  hitherto  unknown  among  European  nations. 
How  it  originated  among  the  Germans — ^whether  by  the  direct  un- 
prompted action  of  the  Higher  Command,  or,  as  is  more  probable,  at 
the  instance  of  persons  connected  with  the  great  manufacturing  concerns 
in  Rhineland,  has,  so  far  as  I  know,  not  transpired.  It  was  not  so 
used  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  War,  even  when  it  had  become  a  war 
of  position.  It  is  notorious  that  the  great  chemical  manufacturing 
establishments  of  Germany  had  been,  for  years  previously,  sedulously 
linked  up  in  the  service  of  the  war  which  Germany  was  deliberately 
planning — ^probably,  in  the  first  instance,  mainly  for  the  supply  of 
munitions  and  medicaments.  We  may  suppose  that  it  was  the  tenacity 
of  our  troops,  and  the  failure  of  repeated  attempts  to  dislodge  them  by 
direct  attack,  that  led  to  the  employment  of  such  foul  methods.  Be  this 
as  it  may,  these  methods  became  part  of  the  settled  practice  of  our 
enemies,  and  during  the  three  succeeding  yeeirs,  that  is  from  April  1915, 
to  September  1918,  no  fewer  than  eighteen  different  forms  of  poison — 
gases,  liquids  and  solids — ^were  employed  by  the  Germans.  On  the 
principle  of  Vespasian's  law,  reprisals  became  inevitable,  and  for  the 
greater  part  of  three  years  we  had  the  sorry  spectacle  of  the  leading 
nations  of  the  world  flinging  the  most  deadly  products  at  one  another 
that  chemical  knowledge  could  suggest  and  technical  skill  contrive. 
Warfare,  it  would  seem,  has  now  definitely  entered  upon  a  new  phase. 
The  horrors  which  the  Hague  Convention  saw  were  imminent,  and  from 
which  they  strove  to  protect  humanity,  are  now,  apparently,  by  the 
example  and  initiative  of  Germany,  to  become  part  of  the  established 
procedure  of  war.  Civilisation  protests  against  a  step  so  retrograde. 
Surely  comity  among  nations  should  be  adequate  to  arrest  it.  If  the 
League  of  Nations  is  vested  with  any  real  power,  it  should  be  possible 
for  it  to  devise  the  means,  and  to  ensure  their  successful  application. 
The  failure  of  the  Hague  Convention  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  despair. 
The  moral  sense  of  the  civilised  world  is  not  so  dulled  but  that,  if 
roused,  it  can  make  its  influence  prevail.  And  steps  should  be  taken 
mthout  delay  to  make  that  influence  supreme,  and  all  the  more  so  that 
there  are  agencies  at  work  which  would  seek  to  perpetuate  such 
methods  as  a  recognised  procedure  of  war.  The  case  for  what  is  called 
chemical  warfare  has  not  wanted  for  advocates.  It  is  argued  that  poison 
gas  is  far  less  fatal  and  far  less  cruel  than  any  other  instrmnent  of  war. 
It  has  been  stated  that  'amongst  the  ^'mustard  gas"  casualties  the 
deaths  were  less  than  2  per  cent,  and  when  death  did  not  ensue  complete 
recovery  generally  ultimately  resulted.  .  .  .  Other  materials  of 
chemical  warfare  in  use  at  the  armistice  do  not  kill  at  all ;  they  produce 
casualties  which,  after  six  weeks  in  hospital,  are  discharged  practically 


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SOO  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

without  pennanent  hurt'    It  has  been  argued  that,  as  a  method  of 
conducting  war,  poison-gas  is  more  humane  than  preventive  medi- 
cine.   Preventive  medicine  has   increased  the   unit  dimension  of  an 
army,  free  from  epidemic  and  communicable  disease,  from  100,000 
men  to  a  million.    Treventive  medicine  has  made  it  possible  to  main- 
tain 20,000,000  men  under  arms  and  abnormally  free  from  disease, 
and  so  provided  greater  scope  for  the  killing  activities  of  the  other 
military  weapons.     .     .     .    Whilst  the  surprise  effects  of  chemical  war- 
fare aroused  anger  as  being  contrary  to  military  tradition,  they  were 
minute  compared  with  those  of  preventive  medicine.    The  former  slew 
its  thousands,  whilst  the  latter  slew    its   millions  and    is    still  reap- 
ing the  harvest.'    This  argument  carries  no  conviction.    Poison  gas  is 
not  merely  contrary  to  European  military  tradition;  it  is  repugnant 
to  the  right  feeling  of  civilised  humanity.    It  in  no  wise  displaces  or 
supplants  existing  instruments    of    war,    but   creates  a  new  kind  of 
weapon,  of  limitless  power  and  deadliness.    ^Mustard  gas'  may  be  a 
comparatively  innocuous  product  as  lethal  substances  go.    It  certainly 
was  not  intended  to  be  such  by  our  enemies.    Nor,  presumably,  were 
the  Allies  any  more  considerate   when    they    retaliated  with  it.     Its 
effects,  indeed  were  sufficient  terrible  to  destroy  the  German  morale. 
The  knowledge  that  the  Allies  were  preparing  to  employ  it  to  an  almost 
boundless  extent  was  one  of  the  factors  that  determined  our  enemies  to 
sue  for  the  armistice.    But  if  poisonous  chemicals  are  henceforth  to  be 
r^arded  as  a  regular  means  of  offence  in  warfare,  i&  it  at  all  likely  that 
their  use  will  be  confined  to  bustard  gas,'  or  indeed  to  any  other  of 
the  various  substances  which  were  employed  up  to  the  date  of  the 
armistice?    To  one  who,  after  the  peace,  inquired  in  Germany  concern- 
ing the  German  methods  of  making  'mustard  gas,'  the  reply  was: — 
•Why  are  you  worrying  about  this  when  you  know  perfectly  well  that 
this  is  not  the  gas  we  shall  use  in  the  next  war?' 

I  hold  no  brief  for  preventive  medicine,  which  is  well  able  to  fight 
its  own  case.  I  would  only  say  that  it  is  the  legitimate  business  of 
preventive  medicine  to  preserve  by  all  known  means  the  health  of  any 
body  of  men,  however  large  or  small,  committed  to  its  care.  It  is  not 
to  its  discredit  if,  by  knowledge  and  skill,  the  numbers  so  maintained 
run  into  millions  instead  of  being  limited  to  thousands.  On  the  other 
hand,  'em  educated  public  opinion'  will  refuse  to  give  credit  to  any 
body  of  scientific  men  who  employ  their  talents  in  devising  means  to 
develop  and  perpetuate  a  mode  of  warfare  which  is  abhorrent  to  the 
higher  instinct  of  humanity. 

This  association,  I  trust,  will  set  its  face  against  the  continued 
degradation  of  science  in  thus  augmenting  the  horrors  of  war.  It 
could  have  no  loftier  task  than  to  use  its  great  influence  in  arresting  a 
course  which  is  the  very  negation  of  civilisation. 


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THE  LABORATORY  OF  THE  LIVING  ORGANISM  301 

THE  LABORATORY  OF  THE  LIVING  ORGAiNISM 
By  Dr.  M.  O.  FORSTER.  FRS. 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  CHEMICAL  SECTION 

AMONGST  the  many  sources  of  pleasure  to  be  found  in  contempla- 
ting the  wonders  of  the  universe,  and  denied  to  those  untrained  in 
scientific  principles,  is  an  appreciation  of  infra-minute  quantities  of 
matter.  It  may  be  urged  by  some  that  within  the  limits  of  vision  im- 
posed by  telescope  and  microscope,  ample  material  exists  to  satisfy  the 
curiosity  of  all  reasonable  people,  but  the  appetite  of  scientific  inquiry 
is  insatiable,  and  chemistry  alone,  organic,  inorganic,  and  physical, 
offers  an  instrument  by  which  the  investigation  of  basal  changes  may 
be  carried  to  regions  beyond  those  encompassed  by  the  astronomer  and 
the  microscopist 

It  is  not  within  the  purpose  of  this  address  to  survey  that  revolu- 
tion which  is  now  taking  place  in  the  conception  of  atomic  structure; 
contributions  to  this  question  will  be  made  in  our  later  proceedings 
and  will  be  followed  with  deep  interest  by  all  members  of  the  section. 
Fortunately  for  our  mental  balance  the  discoveries  of  the  current  cen- 
tury, whilst  profoundly  modifying  the  atomic  imagery  inherited  from 
our  predecessors,  have  not  yet  seriously  disturbed  the  principles  under- 
lying systematic  organic  chemistry;  but  they  emphasise  in  a  forcible 
manner  the  intimate  connection  between  different  branches  of  science, 
because  it  is  from  the  mathematical  physicist  that  these  new  ideas  have 
sprung.  Their  immediate  value  is  to  reaffirm  the  outstanding  impor- 
tance of  borderline  research  and  to  stimulate  interest  in  sub-micro- 
scopic matter. 

This  interest  presents  itself  to  the  chemist  very  early  in  life  and 
dominates  his  operations  with  such  insistence  as  to  become  axiomatic. 
So  much  so  that  he  regards  the  universe  as  a  vast  theatre  in  which 
atomic  and  molecular  units  assemble  and  interplay,  the  resulting  pat- 
terns into  which  they  fall  depending  on  the  physical  conditions  im- 
posed by  nature.  This  enables  him  to  regard  micro-organisms  as  co- 
practitioners  of  his  craft,  and  the  chemical  achievements  of  these 
humble  agents  have  continued  to  excite  his  admiration  since  they  were 
revealed  by  Pasteur.  The  sixty  years  which  have  now  elapsed  are  rich 
in  contributions  to  that  knowledge  whicH  comprises  the  science  of  mi- 
cro-biochemistry, and  in  this  province,  as  in  so  many  others,  we  have  to 
deplore  the  fact  that  the  principal  advances  have  been  made  in  countries 
other  than  our  own.  On  this  ground,  fortified  by  the  intimate  relation 
of  the  science  to  a  number  of  important  industries,  A.  Chaston  Chap- 
man, in  a  series  of  illuminating  and  attractive  Cantor  Lectures  in  De- 
cember, 1920,  iterated  his  plea  of  the  previous  year  for  the  founda- 
tion of  a  National  Institute  of  Industrial  Micro-biology,  whilst  H.  E. 
Armstrong,  in  Birmingham  a  few  weeks  later,  addressed  an  appeal  to 
the  brewing  industry,  which,  although  taking  the  form  of  a  memorial 


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302  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

lecture,  is  endowed  with  many  lively  features  depicting  in  characteristic 
form  the  manner  in  which  the  problems  of  brewing  chemistry  should, 
in  his  opinion,  be  attacked. 

Lamenting  as  we  now  do  so  bitterly  the  accompaniments  and  conse- 
quences of  war,  it  is  but  natural  to  snatch  at  the  slender  compensations 
which  it  offers,  and  not  the  least  among  these  must  be  recognised  the 
stimulus  which  it  gives  to  scientific  inquiry.  Pasteur's  Etudes  sur  la 
Biere  were  inspired  by  the  misfortunes  which  overtook  his  country  in 
1870-71,  and  the  now  well-known  process  of  Connstein  and  Ludecke 
for  augmenting  the  production  of  glycerol  from  glucose  was  engendered 
by  parallel  circumstances.  That  acquaintance  with  the  yeast-cell  whidi 
was  an  outcome  of  the  former  event  had,  by  the  time  of  the  latter 
discovery,  ripened  into  a  firm  friendship,  and  those  who  slander  the 
chemical  activities  of  this  genial  fungus  are  defaming  a  potential 
benefactor.  Equally  culpable  are  those  who  ignore  them.  If  children 
were  encouraged  to  cherish  the  same  intelligent  sympathy  with  yeast- 
cells  which  they  so  willingly  display  towards  domestic  animals  and 
silkworms,  perhaps  there  would  be  fewer  crazy  dervishes  to  deny  us 
the  moderate  use  of  honest  malt-liquors  and  unsophisticated  wines, 
fewer  pitiable  maniacs  to  complicate  our  social  problems  by  habitual 
excess. 

Exactly  how  the  cell  accomplishes  its  great  adventure  remains  a 
puzzle,  but  many  parts  of  the  machinery  have  already  been  recognised. 
Proceeding  from  the  discovery  of  zymase  (1897),  with  passing  refer- 
ence to  the  support  thus  given  by  Buchner  to  Liebig's  view  of  fermoita- 
tion.  Chapman  emphasises  the  importance  of  contributions  to  the  sub- 
ject by  Harden  and  W.  J.  Yoimg,  first  in  revealing  the  dual  nature  of 
eymase  and  the  distinctive  properties  of  its  co-enzyme  (1904),  next 
in  recognising  the  acceleration  and  total  increase  in  fermentation  pro- 
duced by  phosphates,  consequent  on  the  formation  of  a  hexosediphos- 
phate  (1908). 

In  this  connection  it  will  be  remembered  that  a  pentose-phosphate 
is  common  to  the  four  nucleotides  from  which  yeast  nucleic  acid  is 
elaborated.  The  stimulating  effect  developed  by  phosphates  would  not 
be  operative  if  the  cell  were  not  provided  with  an  instrument  for 
hydrolysing  the  hexose-diphosphate  as  produced,  and  this  is  believed 
by  Harden  to  be  supplied  in  the  form  of  an  enzyme,  hexosephosphatase, 
the  operation  of  which  completes  a  cycle.  As  to  the  stages  of  dis- 
ruption which  precede  the  appearance  of  alcohol  and  carbon  dioxide, 
that  marked  by  pyruvic  acid  is  the  one  which  is  now  most  favoured. 
The  transformation  of  pyruvic  acid  into  acetaldehyde  and  carbon  di- 
oxide under  the  influence  of  a  carboxylase,  followed  by  the  hydrogena- 
tion  of  aldehyde  to  alcohol,  is  a  more  acceptable  course  than  any  alter- 
native based  upon  lactic  acid.  Moreover,  Fembach  and  Schoen  (1920) 
have  confirmed  their  previous  demonstration  (1914)  of  pyruvic  acid 
formation  by  yeast  during  alcoholic  fermentation. 


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THE  LABORATORY  OF  THE  UVING  ORGANISM  303 

Hie  strict  definition  of  chemical  tasks  allotted  to  yeasts,  moulds, 
and  bacteria  suggests  an  elaborate  system  of  microbial  trades-unionism. 
£.  C.  Grey  (1918)  found  that  Bacillus  coli  communis  will,  in  presence 
of  calcium  carbonate,  completely  ferment  forty  times  its  own  weight 
of  glucose  in  forty-eight  hours,  and  later  (1920)  exhibited  the  threefold 
(Jiaracter  of  the  changes  involved  which  produce  (1)  lactic  acid, 
(2)  alcohol  with  acetic  and  succinic  acids,  (3)  formic  acid,  carbon 
dioxide,  and  hydrogen.  Still  more  recent  extension  of  this  inquiry  by 
Grey  and  E.  G.  Young  (1921)  has  shown  that  the  course  of  such 
changes  will  depend  on  the  previous  experience  of  the  microbe.  When 
its  immediate  past  history  is  anserobic,  fermentation  under  anserobic 
conditions  yields  very  little  or  no  lactic  acid  and  greatly  diminishes 
the  production  of  succinic  acid,  whilst  acetic  acid  appears  in  its  place; 
admission  of  oxygen  during  fermentation  increases  the  formation  of 
lactic,  acetic,  and  succinic  acids,  diminishes  the  formation  of  hydrogen, 
carbon  dioxide,  and  formic  acid,  but  leaves  the  cpiantity  of  alcohol 
unchanged.  The  well-known  oxidising  effect  of  Aspergillus  niger  has 
been  shown  by  J.  N.  Currie  (1917)  to  proceed  in  three  stages  marked  by 
citric  acid,  oxalic  acid,  and  carbon  dioxide,  whilst  Wehmer  (1918) 
has  described  the  condition  under  which  citric  acid  and,  principally, 
fumaric  acid  are  produced  by  Aspergillus  fumaricuSy  a  mould  also  re- 
quiring oxygen  for  its  purpose.  The  lactic  bacteria  are  a  numerous 
family  and  resemble  those  producing  acetic  acid  in  their  venerable 
record  of  service  to  mankind,  whilst  among  the  most  interesting  of  the 
parvenus  are  those  responsible  for  the  conversion  of  starch  into  butyl 
alcohol  and  acetone.  Although  preceded  by  Schardinger  (1905),  who 
discovered  the  ability  of  B.  macerans  to  produce  acetone  with  acetic 
and  formic  acids,  but  does  not  appear  to  have  pursued  the  matter 
further,  the  process  associated  with  the  name  of  A.  Fembach,  and  the 
various  modifications  which  have  been  introduced  during  the  past  ten 
years  are  those  best  known  in  this  country,  primarily  because  of  the 
anticipated  connection  with  synthetic  rubber,  and  latterly  on  account 
of  the  acetone  famine  arising  from  the  War.  The  King's  Lynn  factory 
was  resuscitated  and  arrangements  had  just  been  completed  for  adapt- 
ing spirit  distilleries  to  application  of  the  process  when,  owing  to  the 
shortage  of  raw  material  in  1916,  operations  were  transferred  to  Canada 
and  ultimately  attained  great  success  in  the  factory  of  British  Acetones, 
Toronto. 

Mudi  illuminating  material  is  to  be  found  in  the  literature  of  1919- 
20  dealing  with  this  question  in  its  technological  and  bacteriological 
aspects.  Ingenuity  has  been  displayed  in  attempting  to  explain  the 
chemical  mechanism  of  the  process,  the  net  result  of  which  is  to  pro- 
duce roughly  twice  as  much  butyl  alcohol  as  acetone.  The  fermenta- 
tion itself  is  preceded  by  saccharification  of  the  starch,  and  in  this  re- 
spect the  bacteria  resemble  those  moulds  which  have  lately  been 
brought  into  the  technical  operation  of  starch-conversion,  especially  in 


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304  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

France.  The  amyloclastic  property  of  certain  moulds  has  been  known 
from  very  early  times,  but  its  application  to  spirit  manufacture  is  of 
recent  growth  and  underlies  the  amylo-process  whidi  substitutes  Mucor 
Boulard  for  malt  in  effecting  saccharificadon.  Further  improvement 
on  this  procedure  is  claimed  for  B,  mesentericusy  which  acts  with  great 
rapidity  on  grain  which  has  been  soaked  in  dilute  alkali;  it  has  the 
advantage  of  inferior  proteolytic  effect,  thus  diminishing  the  waste  of 
nitrogenous  matter  in  the  raw  material. 

Reviewing  all  these  circumstances  we  find  that,  just  as  the  ranks 
of  trades-union  labour  comprise  every  kind  of  handicraftsman,  the 
practitioners  of  micro-biochemistry  are  divisible  into  producers  of 
hydrogen,  carbon  dioxide,  formic  acid,  acetaldehyde,  ethyl  alcohol, 
acetic,  oxalic,  and  fumaric  acids,  acetone,  dihydroxyacetone,  glycerol, 
pyruvic,  lactic,  succinic  and  citric  acids,  butyl  alcohol,  butyric  acid. 
Exhibiting  somewhat  greater  elasticity  in  respect  of  overlapping  tasks, 
they  nevertheless  go  on  strike  if  underfed  or  dissatisfied  with  their 
conditions;  on  the  other  hand,  with  sufficient  nourishment  and  an  agree- 
able temperature,  these  micro-trades-unionists  display  the  unusual 
merit  of  working  for  twenty-four  hours  a  day.  One  thing,  however, 
they  have  consist^itly  refused  to  do.  Following  his  comparison  of 
natural  and  synthetic  monosaccharides  towards  differoit  families  of 
yeast  (1894),  Fischer  and  others  have  attempted  to  beguile  unsuspect- 
ing microbes  into  acceptance  of  molecules  which  do  not  harmonise  with 
their  own  enzymic  asymmetry.  Various  aperitifs  have  been  adminis- 
tered by  skilled  chefs  de  cuisine^  but  hitherto  the  little  fellows  have 
remained  obdurate. 

Beyond  a  placid  acceptance  of  the  more  obvious  benefits  of  sun- 
shine, the  great  majority  of  educated  people  have  no  real  conception  of 
the  sun's  contribution  to  their  existence.  What  proportion  of  those 
who  daily  use  the  metropolitan  system  of  tube-railways,  for  instance, 
could  trace  the  connection  between  their  progress  and  the  sun?  Very 
moderate  instruction  comprising  the  elements  of  chemistry  and  energy 
would  enable  most  of  us  to  apprehend  this  modem  wonder,  contem- 
plation of  which  might  help  to  alleviate  the  distresses  and  exasperation 
of  the  crush'hours. 

For  many  years  past,  the  problem  connected  with  solar  influence 
which  has  most  intrigued  the  diemist  is  to  unfold  the  mechanism 
enabling  green  plants  to  assimilate  nitrogen  and  carbon.  Althou^ 
atmospheric  nitrogen  has  long  been  recognised  as  the  ultimate  supply 
of  that  element  from  which  phyto-protoplasm  is  constructed,  modem 
investigation  has  indicated  as  necessary  a  stage  involving  association 
of  combined  nitrogen  with  the  soil  prior  to  absorption  of  nitrogen 
compounds  by  the  roots,  with  or  without  bacterial  cooperation.  Con- 
currently, the  agency  by  which  green  plants  assimilate  carbon  is  be- 
lieved to  be  chlorophyll,  operating  under  solar  influence  by  some  such 
mechanism  as  has  been  indicated  in  a  preceding  section. 


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THE  LABORATORY  OF  THE  LIVING  ORGANISM  305 

Somewhat  revolutionary  views  on  these  two  points  have  lately  been 
expressed  by  Benjamin  Moore,  and  require  the  strictest  examination, 
not  merely  owing  to  the  fundamental  importtmce  of  an  accurate  solution 
being  reached,  but  also  on  account  of  the  stimulating  and  engaging 
manner  in  which  he  presents  the  problem.  Unusual  psychological 
features  have  been  introduced.  Moore's  'Biochemistry,'  published 
three  months  ago,  will  be  read  attentively  by  many  chemists,  but  the 
clarity  of  presentation  and  the  happy  sense  of  conviction  which  per- 
vade its  pages  must  not  be  allowed  to  deter  independent  inquirers  from 
confirming  or  modifying  his  conclusions.  The  book  assumes  a  novel 
biochemical  aspect  by  describing  the  life-history  of  a  research.  The 
first  two  chapters,  written  before  the  experiments  were  begun,  suggest 
the  conditions  in  which  the  birth  of  life  may  have  occurred,  whilst 
dieir  successors  describe  experim^its  which  were  conducted  as  a  test  of 
the  speculations  and  are  already  receiving  critical  attention  from  others 
(e.g.,  Baly,  Heilbron  and  Barker,  Transactions  of  the  Chemical  Society, 
1921,  p.  1025). 

It  is  with  these  experiments  that  we  are,  at  the  moment,  most  con- 
cerned. The  earliest  were  directed  toward  the  synthesis  of  simple 
organic  materials  by  a  transformation  of  light  energy  under  the  influ- 
ence of  inorganic  colloids,  and  indicated  that  formaldehyde  is  produced 
when  ca]i>on  dioxide  passes  into  uranium  or  ferric  hydroxide  sols 
exposed  to  sunlight  or  the  mercury  arc  lamp.  Moore  then  declares 
that,  although  since  the  days  of  de  Saussure  (1804)  chlorophyll  has 
been  regarded  as  the  fundamental  agent  in  the  photosynthesis  of  living 
matter,  there  is  no  experimental  evidence  that  the  primary  agent  may 
not  be  contained  in  the  colourless  part  of  the  chloroplast,  chlorophyll 
thus  being  the  result  of  a  later  synthetic  stage.  The  function  of  the 
chlorophyll  may  be  a  protective  one  to  the  chloroplast  when  exposed 
to  light,  it  may  be  a  light  screen  as  has  been  suggested  by  Pringsheim, 
or  it  may  be  concerned  in  condensations  and  polymerisations  subsequent 
to  the  first  act  of  synthesis  with  production  of  formaldehyde'  (p.  55) . 
In  this  connection  it  is  significant  that  chlorosis  of  green  plants  will 
follow  a  deficiency  of  iron  even  in  presence  of  sunlight  (Molisdh, 
1892),  and  that  a  development  of  chlorophyll  can  be  restored  by  sup- 
plying this  deficiency,  although  iron  is  not  a  component  of  the  chlo- 
rophyll molecule;  moreover,  green  leaves  etiolated  by  darkness  and 
then  exposed  to  light  regain  their  chlorophyll,  which  is  therefore  itself 
a  product  arising  from  photosynthesis. 

H.  Thiele  (1907)  recorded  the  swift  conversion  of  nitrate  into 
nitrite  by  the  rays  from  a  mercury  quartz  lamp,  whilst  0.  Baudisch 
(1910)  observed  that  daylight  effects  the  same  change,  and  from  allied 
observations  was  led  (1911)  to  conclude  that  assimilation  of  nitrate 
and  nitrite  by  green  plants  is  a  photochemical  process.  Moore  found 
(1918)  that  in  solutions  of  nitrate  undergoing  this  reduction  green 
leaves  check  the  accumulation  of  nitrite,  indicating  their  capacity  to 


VOL.  XIII.— 20. 

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306  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

absorb  the  more  active  compound.  Proceeding  from  the  hypothesis 
that  one  of  the  organisms  arising  earliest  in  the  course  of  evolution 
must  have  possessed,  united  in  a  single  cell,  the  dual  function  of  assimi* 
lating  both  carbon  and  nitrogen,  he  inquired  (1918)  whether  the  sim* 
plest  unicellular  algse  may  not  also  have  this  power.  He  satisfied 
himself  that  in  absence  of  all  sources  of  nitrogen  excepting  atmos- 
pheric, and  in  presence  of  ca]i>on  dioxide,  the  unicellular  alge  can 
fix  nitrogen,  grow  and  form  proteins  by  transformation  of  light  energy; 
the  rate  of  growth  is  accelerated  by  the  presence  of  nitrites  or  oxides 
of  nitrogen,  the  latter  being  supplied  in  gaseous  form  by  the  atmos- 
phere. From  experiments  (1919)  with  green  seaweed  {Enteramorpha 
compressus)j  Moore  concluded  also  that  marine  algae  assimilate  carbon 
from  the  bicarbonates  of  calcium  and  magnesium  present  in  sea-water, 
which  thereby  increases  in  alkalinity,  and  further  convinced  himself 
that  the  only  source  of  nitrogen  available  to  such  growth  is  the  at- 
mosphere. A  description  of  these  experiments,  which  were  carried  out 
in  conjunction  with  E.  Whitley  and  T.  A.  Wd)ster,  has  appeared  also 
in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society  (1920  and  1921). 

For  the  purpose  of  distinguishing  between  (1)  the  obsolete  view 
of  a  vital  force  disconnected  with  such  forms  of  energy  as  are  exhibited 
by  non-living  transformers  and  (2)  the  existence  in  living  cells  of  only 
such  energy  forms  as  are  encoimtered  in  non-living  systems,  Moore 
uses  the  expression  ^biotic  energy'  to  represent  that  form  of  energy 
peculiar  to  living  matter.  *11ie  conception,  in  brief,  is  that  biotic 
energy  is  just  as  closely,  and  no  more,  related  to  the  various  forms 
of  energy  existing  apart  from  life,  as  these  are  to  one  another,  and  that 
in  presence  of  the  proper  and  adapted  energy  transformer,  the  living 
cell,  it  is  capable  of  being  formed  from  or  converted  into  various  of 
these  other  forms  of  energy,  the  law  of  conservation  of  energy  being 
obeyed  in  the  process  just  as  it  would  be  if  an  exchange  were  taking 
place  between  any  two  or  more  of  the  inorganic  forms'  (p.  128).  The 
most  diaracteristic  feature  of  biotic  energy,  distinguishing  it  from  all 
other  forms,  is  the  power  whidi  it  confers  upon  the  specialised  trans- 
former to  proliferate. 

In  The  Salvaging  of  Civilisation,'  H.  G.  Wells  has  lately  directed 
the  attention  of  thoughtful  people  to  the  imperative  need  of  reconstruct- 
ing our  outlook  on  life.  Convinced  that  the  state-motive  which, 
throu^out  history,  has  intensified  the  self -motive  must  be  replaced  by 
a  world-motive  if  the  whole  fabric  of  civilisation  is  not  to  crumble  in 
ruins,  he  endeavours  to  substitute  for  a  League  of  Nations  the  con- 
ception of  a  World  State.  In  the  judgment  of  many  quite  benevolent 
critics  his  essay  in  abstract  thought  lacks  practical  value  because  it 
underestimates  the  combative  selfishness  of  individuals.  Try  to  dis- 
guise it  as  one  may,  this  quality  is  the  one  which  has  enabled  men  to 
emerge  from  savagery,  to  build  up  that  most  wonderful  system  of 
colonial  organisation,  the  Roman  Empire,  and  to  shake  off  the  barbaric 


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THE  LABORATORY  OF  THE  UVING  ORGANISM  307 

lethargy  which  engulfed  Europe  in  the  centuries  following  the  fall  of 
Rome.  The  real  problem  is  how  to  harness  this  combative  selfishness. 
To  eradicate  it  seems  impossible,  and  it  has  never  been  difficult  to  find 
glaring  examples  of  its  insistence  among  the  apostles  of  eradication. 
Why  cry  for  the  moon?  Is  it  not  wiser  to  recognise  this  quality  as  an 
inherent  human  characteristic,  and  whether  we  brand  it  as  a  vice  or 
applaud  it  as  a  virtue  endeavour  to  bend  it  to  the  elevation  of  man- 
kind? For  it  could  so  be  bent.  Nature  ignored  or  misunderstood  is 
die  enemy  of  man;  nature  studied  and  controlled  is  his  friend.  If  the 
attacking  force  of  this  combative  selfishness  could  be  directed,  not 
towards  the  perpetuation  of  quarrels  between  different  races  of  man- 
kind, but  against  nature,  a  limitless  field  for  patience,  industry,  ingenu- 
ity, imagination,  scholarship,  aggressiveness,  rivalry,  and  acquisitive- 
ness would  present  itself;  a  field  in  which  the  disappointment  of  baf- 
fled effort  would  not  need  to  seek  revenge  in  the  destruction  of  our 
fellow-creatures:  a  field  in  which  the  profit  from  successful  enterprise 
would  automatically  spread  through  all  the  communities.  Surely  it  is 
the  nature-motive,  as  distinct  from  the  state-motive  or  the  world-motive, 
which  alone  can  salvage  civilisation. 

Before  long,  as  history  counts  time,  dire  necessity  will  have  impelled 
mankind  to  some  sudi  course.  Already  the  straws  are  giving  their 
proverbial  indication.  The  demand  for  wheat  by  increasing  popula- 
tions, the  rapidly  diminishing  supplies  of  timber,  the  wasteful  ravages 
of  insect  pests,  the  less  obvious,  but  more  insidious  depredations  of 
our  microscopic  enemies,  and  the  blood-curdling  fact  that  a  day  must 
dawn  when  the  last  ton  of  coal  and  the  last  gallon  of  oil  have  been 
consumed,  are  all  circumstances  which,  at  present  recognised  by  a  small 
number  of  individuals  comprising  the  scientific  community,  must  in- 
evitably thrust  themselves  upon  mankind  collectively.  In  the  campaign 
which  then  will  follow,  chemistry  must  occupy  a  prominent  place 
because  it  is  this  branch  of  science  which  deals  with  matter  more  in- 
timately than  any  other,  revealing  its  properties,  its  transformations, 
its  application  to  existing  needs,  and  its  response  to  new  demands. 
Yet  the  majority  of  our  people  are  denied  the  elements  of  chemistry 
in  their  training,  and  thus  grow  to  manhood  without  the  slightest  real 
understanding  of  their  bodily  processes  and  composition,  of  the  wiz- 
ardry by  which  living  things  contribute  to  their  nourishment  and  to 
their  aesthetic  enjoyment  of  life. 

It  should  not  be  impossible  to  bring  into  the  g^ieral  scheme  of 
secondary  education  a  sufficiency  of  chemical,  physical,  mechanical, 
and  biological  principles  to  render  every  boy  and  girl  of  sixteen  pos- 
sessing average  intelligence  at  least  accessible  to  an  explanation  of 
modem  discoveries.  One  fallacy  of  the  present  system  is  to  assume 
that  relative  proficiency  in  the  inorganic  branch  must  be  attained  before 
approaching  organic  chemistry.  From  the  standpoint  of  correlating 
scholastic  knowledge  with  the  common  experiences  and  contacts  of  daily 


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308  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

life  this  is  quite  illogical;  from  baby's  milk  to  grandpa's  Glaxo  the 
most  important  things  are  organic,  excepting  water.  Food  (meat,  car- 
bohydrate, fat),  clothes  (cotton,  silk,  linen,  wool),  and  shelter  (wood) 
are  organic,  and  the  symbols  for  carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen  and  nitrogen 
can  be  made  the  basis  of  skeleton  representations  of  many  fmidamental 
things  which  happen  to  us  in  our  daily  lives  without  first  explaining 
their  position  in  the  periodic  ti^le  of  all  the  elements.  The  curse  of 
mankind  is  not  labour,  but  waste;  misdirection  of  time,  of  material,  of 
opportunity,  of  humanity. 

Realisation  of  such  an  ideal  would  people  the  ordered  communities 
with  a  public  alive  to  the  verities,  as  distinct  from  irrelevandes  of  life, 
and  apprehensive  of  the  ultimate  danger  with  which  civilization  is 
threatened.  It  would  inoculate  that  public  with  a  germ  of  the  nature- 
motive,  producing  a  condition  which  would  reflect  itself  ultimately  upon 
those  entrusted  with  government.  It  would  provide  the  mental  and 
sympathetic  background  upon  which  the  future  truthseeker  must  work, 
long  before  he  is  implored  by  a  terrified  and  despairing  people  to  pro- 
vide them  with  food  and  oiergy.  Finally,  it  would  give  an  unsuspected 
meaning  and  an  unimagined  grace  to  a  hundred  commonplace  experi- 
ences. The  quivering  glint  of  massed  bluebells  in  broken  sunshine, 
the  joyous  radiance  of  young  beedi-leaves  against  the  stately  cedar, 
the  perfume  of  havrthom  in  the  twilight,  the  florid  majesty  of  rhodo- 
dendron, the  fragrant  simplicity  of  lilac;  periodically  gladden  the  most 
careless  heart  and  the  least  reverent  spirit;  but  to  the  chemist  they 
breathe  an  added  message,  the  assurance  that  a  new  season  of  refresh- 
moit  has  dawned  upon  the  world,  and  that  those  delicate  syntheses, 
into  the  mystery  of  which  it  is  his  happy  privilege  to  penetrate,  once 
again  are  working  their  inimitable  miracles  in  the  laboratory  of  the 
living  organism. 


EXPERIMENTAL  GEOLOGY 
By  Dr.  J.  S.  FLETT,  F.R.S. 

PR£SU>ENT  OF  THE  GEOLOGICAL  SECTION 

AMONG  the  citizens  of  Edinburgh  in  the  closing  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century  there  was  a  brilliant  little  group  of  scientific, 
literary,  and  philosophical  writers.  These  were  the  men  who  founded 
the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh  in  the  year  1783,  and  many  of  their 
important  papers  appear  in  the  early  volumes  of  its  Transactions. 
Among  them  were  Adam  Ferguson,  the  historian  and  philosopher; 
Black,  the  chemist  who  discovered  carbonic  acid  and  the  latent  hei^  of 
water;  Hope,  who  proved  the  expansion  of  water  on  cooling;  Clerk  of 
Eldin,  who  made  valuable  advances  in  the  theory  of  naval  tactics,  and 
his  brother.  Sir  George  Clerk;  Hutton,  the  founder  of  modem  geology; 


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EXPERIMENTAL   GEOLOGY  309 

and  Sir  James  Hall,  the  experimental  geologist  These  men  were  all 
intimate  friends  keenly  interested  in  one  another's  researches.  Quite 
the  most  notable  member  of  this  group  was  Hutton,  who,  not  mainly 
for  his  eminence  in  geology,  but  principally  for  his  social  gifts,  his 
bonhomie,  and  his  versatility,  was  regarded  as  the  centre  of  the  circle. 
Hutton  showed  an  extraordinary  combination  of  qualities.  His  father 
was  Town  Clerk  of  Edinburgh.  After  starting  as  an  apprentice  to  a 
Writer  to  the  Signet,  he  took  up  the  study  of  medicine  at  the  Univer- 
sities of  Edinburgh  and  Paris,  and  graduated  at  Leyden.  He  then 
became  a  farmer  on  his  father's  property  in  Bervrickshire,  and  also 
carried  on  chemical  manufactures  in  Leith  in  partnership  with  Mr. 
Davie.  He  studied  methods  of  agriculture  in  England  and  elsewhere, 
and  was  an  active  supporter  of  the  movement  for  improving  Scottish 
agriculture  by  introducing  the  best  methods  of  other  countries.  A 
burning  enthusiast  in  geology,  especially  in  the  ^theory  of  the  earth,' 
he  travelled  extensively  in  Scotland,  England,  and  on  the  Continent 
making  geological  observations. 

His  interests  were  not  confined  to  geology,  for  he  wrote  a  treatise 
on  metaphysics,  which  seems  to  have  been  more  highly  esteemed  in  his 
day  than  in  ours,  and  in  his  last  years  he  produced  a  work  on  agri- 
culture which  was  never  published.  The  manuscript  of  this  work  is 
now  in  the  library  of  the  Edinburgh  Geological  Society.  He  also  made 
interesting  contributions  to  meteorology.  Hutton's  writings  are  as 
obscure  and  involved  as  his  conversation  was  clear  and  persuasive,  and 
it  is  only  from  the  accounts  of  his  friends,  and  especially  Playfair's 
^life  of  Hutton,'  that  we  can  really  ascertain  what  manner  of  man 
he  was. 

It  could  easily  have  happened  that  when  Hutton  died  his  unread- 
able writings  might  have  passed  out  of  notice,  to  be  rediscovered  at  a 
subsequent  time,  when  their  value  could  be  better  appreciated.  But 
Playfair's  ^Explanations  of  the  Hutton  Theory,'  as  attractive  and  con- 
vincing still  as  when  it  was  originally  published,  established  at  once 
the  true  position  of  Hutton  as  one  of  the  founders  of  geology.  Sir 
James  Hall  undertook  a  different  task;  he  determined  to  put  Hutton's 
theories  to  the  test  of  experiment,  and  in  so  doing  he  became  the  virtual 
founder  of  modem  experimental  geology.  It  is  my  purpose  in  this 
address  to  show  what  were  the  problems  that  Hall  attacked,  by  what 
methods  he  attempted  to  solve  them,  and  what  were  his  results.  I 
shall  also  consider  how  far  the  progress  of  science  has  carried  us  since 
Hall's  time  regarding  this  department  of  geological  science. 

Hutton  was  a  friend  of  Hall's  father:  they  were  proprietors  of 
adjacent  estates  in  the  county  of  Berwick,  and  much  interested  in  the 
improved  practice  of  agriculture,  and  though  the  elder  Hall  (Sir  John 
Hall  of  Dunglass)  has  apparently  left  no  scientific  writings,  he  was  one 
of  those  who  were  famiiliar  with  Hutton's  theories  and  a  member  of 


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310  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

the  social  group  in  which  Hutton  moved.  Sir  James  Hall  was  the 
eldest  son;  bom  in  1761,  he  succeeded  to  the  estate  on  his  father's  death 
in  1776.  Educated  first  at  Cambridge  and  then  at  Edinbur^  University, 
at  an  early  age  he  became  fascinated  by  Hutton's  personality,  though 
repelled  by  his  theories.  He  tells  us  how  for  three  years  he  argued 
with  Hutton  daily,  rejecting  his  principles.  Hutton  prevailed  in  the 
long  run,  and  Sir  James  Hall  was  convinced.  Hall's  objection  to 
Hutton's  theories  is  not  diflknilt  to  understand,  though  he  has  not  him- 
self explained  it.  The  world  was  sick  of  discussions  on  cosmogony  in 
which  rival  theorists  appealed  to  well-known  facts  as  proof  of  the 
most  extravagant  speculations.  Serious-minded  men  were  losing  in- 
terest in  these  proceedings.  The  Geological  Society  of  London  was 
founded  in  1807,  and  one  of  its  objects  is  stated  to  be  the  avoidance  of 
speculati<m  and  the  patient  accumulation  of  facts.  No  doubt  Hall  also 
was  greatly  influenced  by  the  discoveries  that  Black  and  Hope  had 
made  by  pure  experimental  investigation.  His  bent  of  mind  was  to- 
wards chemical,  physical,  and  experimoital  work,  while  Hutton  was 
not  only  a  geologist  but  also  a  metaphysician. 

Foreign  travel  was  then  an  essential  part  of  the  education  of  a 
Scottish  gentleman,  and  the  connection  between  France,  Holland,  and 
Scotland  was  cloder  than  it  is  today.  Hall  travelled  widely;  in  his 
travels  two  subjects  seem  to  have  especially  digressed  him.  One  was 
architecture,  on  which  he  wrote  a  treatise  which  was  published  in  1813 
and  is  now  forgotten.  The  other  was  geology.  He  visited  the  Alps, 
Italy,  and  Sicily.  In  Switzerland  he  may  have  met  De  Saussure  and 
discussed  with  him  the  most  recent  theories  of  their  time  regarding 
metamorphism  and  the  origin  of  granites,  schists,  and  gneisses.  In 
Italy  and  Sicily  one  of  his  objects  was  to  observe  the  phenomena  of 
active  volcanoes,  and  to  put  to  the  test  of  facts  the  theories  of  Werner 
and  of  the  Scottish  school  regarding  the  origin  of  basalt,  whinstone, 
trap,  and  the  older  volcanic  rocks  of  the  earth's  crust.  At  Vesuvius 
he  made  his  famous  observation  of  the  dykes  that  rise  nearly  vertically 
through  the  crater  wall  of  Somma,  which  he  held  to  prove  the  ascent 
of  molten  magma  from  below  through  fissures  to  the  surface.  This  was 
in  opposition  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Wemerians,  who  regarded 
them  as  filled  from  above  by  aqueous  sediments,  and  Hall's  conclu- 
sions, which  were  strikingly  novel  at  the  time,  have  been  abundantly 
confirmed. 

We  obtain  a  pleasant  glimpse  of  Hall's  life  in  Berwickshire  in  the 
account  of  his  visit  vdth  Hutton  and  Playfair  to  Siccar  Point  in  the 
year  1788.  The  start  was  made  from  Dunglass,  where  probably  the 
party  had  spent  the  night.  The  great  conglomerates  of  the  Upper  Old 
Red  Sandstone  of  that  district  had  much  impressed  Hutton.  He  saw 
in  them  the  evidence  of  new  worlds  built  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  old, 
with  no  sign  of  a  beginning  and  no  prospect  of  an  end — a  thesis  which 


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EXPERIMENTAL   GEOLOGY  311 

was  one  of  the  corner-stones  of  his  Theory  of  the  Earth.'  No  doubt 
Hall  knew  or  suspected  that  in  the  cliff-exposures  at  Siccar  Point, 
where  the  Old  Red  rests  upon  the  Siluriaii,  there  was  evidence  which 
would  put  this  dogma  to  a  critical  test 

Hall's  first  experimoits  were  b^un  in  the  year  1790,  his  object 
being  to  ascertain  whether  crystallisation  would  take  place  in  a  molten 
lava  which  was  allowed  to  cool  slowly.  It  was  generally  believed  that 
the  results  of  fusion  of  rocks  and  earths  were  in  all  cases  vitreous,  but 
glassmakers  knew  that  if  glass  was  very  slowly  cooled,  as  sometimes 
happened  when  a  glass  furnace  burst,  the  whole  mass  assumed  a  stony 
appearance.  An  instance  of  this  had  come  under  Hall's  notice  in  a 
glassworks  in  Leith,  and  its  application  to  geology  was  clear.  Hutton 
taught  that  even  such  highly  crystalline  rocks  as  granite  had  been  com* 
pletely  fused  at  the  time  of  their  injection,  and  their  coarse  crystallisa- 
tion was  mainly  due  to  slow  cooling. 

For  the  purpose  of  his  experiments  Hall  selected  certain  whin- 
stones  of  the  neighborhood  of  Edinburgh,  such  as  the  dolerites  of  the 
Dean,  Salisbury  Crags,  Edinburgh  Castle,  the  summit  of  Ardiur's 
Seat,  and  Duddingston;  but  he  also  used  lava  from  Vesuvius,  Etna, 
and  Iceland.  He  made  choice  of  graphite  crucibles,  and  conducted  his 
experiments  in  the  reverberatory  furnace  of  an  ironfoundry  belonging 
to  Mr.  Barker.  As  had  been  shown  by  Spallanzani,  to  whose  experi- 
ments Hall  does  not  refer,  lavas  are  easily  fusible  under  these  condi- 
tions. Hall  had  no  difficulty  in  melting  the  whinstones  and  obtaining 
completely  glassy  products  by  rapid  cooling.  He  now  proceeded  to 
crystallise  the  glass  by  melting  it  again,  transferring  it  from  the  fur- 
nace to  a  large  open  fire,  where  it  was  kept  surrounded  by  burning 
coals  for  many  hours,  and  thereafter  very  slowly  cooled  by  allowing 
the  fire  to  die  out.  He  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  stony  mass  in  which 
crystals  of  felspar  and  other  minerals  could  be  clearly  seen.  Some  of 
his  specimens  were  considered  to  be  very  similar  in  appearance  to  the 
dolerites  on  which  his  experiments  were  made. 

The  only  means  of  measuring  furnace  temperatures  available  at 
that  time  were  the  pyrometers  which  had  recently  been  invented  by 
Wedgwood.  Hall  found  that  a  temperature  of  28  to  30  Wedgwood 
yielded  satisfactory  results.  This  seems  to  be  about  the  melting-point 
of  copper,  approximately  1000^  C. 

Whether  by  design  or  accidoit.  Hall  chose  for  his  experiments 
precisely  the  rocks  which  were  most  suitable  for  his  purpose.  If 
granite  had  been  selected  no  definite  results  would  have  been  obtained. 
De  Saussure  had  already  made  fusion  experiments  on  granite.  Ninety 
years  afterwards  the  problem  was  completely  solved  by  Fouque  and 
Levy,  who  used  a  gas  furnace  and  a  nitrogen  thermometer.  They 
found  that  it  was  possible  to  obtain  either  porphyritic  or  ophitic  stmc* 
ture  by  modifying  the  conditions,  and  that  the  minerals  had  exactly 


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312  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

the  characters  of  those  of  the  igneous  rocks.  Some  of  HalFs  re- 
crystallised  dolerites  were  examined  microscopically  by  Fouque  and 
Levy,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  they  proved  to  be  only  partly  crystal- 
lised, showing  skeleton  crystals  of  olivine  and  felspar  with  grains  of 
iron  ore  in  a  glassy  base. 

Some  curious  observations  made  by  Hall  in  his  experimental  work 
were  also  ccmiirmed  by  Fouque  and  Levy.  The  crystalline  whinstones 
were  more  difficult  to  melt  than  the  glasses  which  were  obtained  from 
them,  and  the  glass  crystallised  best  when  kept  for  a  time  at  a  tem- 
perature a  little  above  its  softening  point  It  is  not  possible  to  assign 
a  definite  melting-point  to  the  Scottish  whinstones  with  which  Hall 
worked.  Many  of  them  contain  zeolites,  which  fuse  readily.  Minerals 
are  also  present  that  decompose  on  heating,  such  as  calcite,  dolomite, 
chlorite,  and  serpentine.  The  whole  process  is  very  complex,  and 
probably  takes  place  by  several  stages  not  sharply  distinct.  Similarly 
the  glasses  cannot  be  said  to  have  a  melting-point  They  are  really 
super-cooled  liquids.  A  full  explanation  of  what  took  place  in  Hall's 
crucibles  cannot  be  given  at  the  present  day,  but  there  is  no  room  for 
doubt  that  his  experiments  were  good  and  his  inferences  accurate. 
His  friend  Kennedy,  who  had  recently  discovered  the  presence  of 
alkalis  in  igneous  rocks,  furnished  valuable  support  to  Hall's  ccmclu- 
sions  by  showing  that  the  chemical  composition  of  whinstone  and  of 
basalt  were  sfubstantially  identical. 

Apparently  the  results  of  Hall's  work  were  not  received  with 
unmixed  approbation.  Hutton  was  distinctly  uneasy,  and  it  has  been 
suggested  that  he  feared  if  experimental  work  turned  out  unsuc- 
cessful it  might  bring  his  theories  into  discredit  The  Wemerians 
frankly  scoffed;  they  preferred  argument  to  experiment,  and  the  end- 
less discussion  went  on.  Gregory  Watt  repeated  Hall's  experiments  by 
fusing  Glee  Hill  dolerite,  a  hundredweight  or  two  at  a  time,  in  a  blast- 
furnace. But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  among  those  who  were  not 
already  committed  to  the  principles  of  Werner  the  new  evidence  pro- 
duced a  strong  impression,  and  helped  to  widen  the  circle  of  Hutton's 
supporters. 

Hall's  most  famous  experiments  were  on  the  effect  of  heat  com- 
bined with  pressure  on  carbonate  of  lime.  The  problem  was,  Gan 
powdered  chalk  be  converted  into  firm  limestone  or  into  marble  by 
heating  it  in  a  confined  space?  In  this  case  Hutton's  theories  were 
in  apparent  conflict  with  experimental  facts;  from  general  observations 
he  held  it  proved  that  heat  and  pressure  had  consolidated  limestones 
and  converted  them  into  marbles.  It  was  well  known,  of  course,  that 
limestone,  when  heated  in  an  open  vessel,  was  transformed  into  quid^- 
lime,  and  Black  had  shown  that  the  explanation  was  that  carbonic 
acid  had  been  expelled  in  the  form  of  gas. 

The  experiments  were  begun  in  1790,  but  deferred  till  1798  after 


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EXPERIMENTAL   GEOLOGY  313 

Hutton's  death.  Hutton  quite  openly  disapproved  of  experiments.  His 
famous  apophthegm  has  often  been  quoted  about  those  who  'judge 
of  the  great  operations  of  the  mineral  kingdom  by  kindling  a  fire  and 
looking  in  the  bottom  of  a  crucible.'  In  deference  to  the  feelings  of 
his  master  and  his  father's  friend,  Sir  James  Hall,  with,  admirable 
self-restraint,  decided  not  to  imdertake  experimental  iavestigations  in 
opposition  to  Hutton's  expressed  opinion.  With  a  few  month's  inter- 
ruption in  1800  they  were  continued  till  1805.  A  preliminary  account 
of  the  results  was  communicated  to  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh 
on  August  30,  1804,  and  the  final  papers  submitted  on  June  3,  1805. 
Hall  states  that  he  made  over  500  individual  experiments  and  destroyed 
vast  numbers  of  gun-barrels  in  this  research. 

The  method  adopted  was  to  use  a  muffle-furnace  burning  coal  or 
coke  and  built  of  brick.  No  blast  seems  to  have  been  employed.  The 
chalk-powder  was  enclosed  in  a  gun-barrel  cut  off  near  the  touch-hole 
and  welded  into  a  firm  mass  of  iron.  The  other  end  of  the  barrel  could 
be  kept  cool  by  applying  wet  cloths,  and  as  it  was  not  in  the  furnace 
its  temperature  was  always  comparatively  low.  Various  methods  of 
plugging  the  barrel  were  adopted;  at  first  he  used  clay,  sometimes  with 
powdered  flint.  Subsequently  a  fusible  metal  which  melted  at  a  temper- 
ature below  that  of  boiling  water  was  almost  always  preferred.  Borax 
glass  with  sand  was  used  in  some  of  the  experiments,  but  it  was  liable 
to  cracking  when  allowed  to  cool,  and  consequently  was  not  always 
gas-dght.  It  was  essential,  of  course,  that  in  sealing  up  the  gun-barrel, 
and  in  subsequently  removing  the  plug,  the  temperatures  should  never 
be  so  high  as  to  have  any  sensible  effect  on  the  powdered  chalk  or  lime- 
stone. Hall  tried  vessels  with  screwed  stoppers  or  lids  at  first,  but  never 
found  them  satisfactory. 

In  the  gun-barrel  there  was  always  a  certain  amount  of  air  enclosed 
with  the  chalk.  Very  early  in  the  experiments  it  was  shown  that  if 
no  air-space  was  provided  the  fusible  metal  burst  the  barrel.  No  means 
was  found  to  measure  the  size  of  the  air-space  accurately,  but  approxi- 
mately it  was  equal  to  that  of  the  powdered  chalk  used  in  the  experi- 
ment. If  the  air-space  was  too  large,  or  if  there  was  an  escape  of  gas, 
part  of  the  chalk  was  converted  into  lime. 

As  each  experiment  lasted  several  hours  the  temperature  of  the 
chalk  was  approximately  equal  to  that  of  the  part  of  the  muffle  in  which 
it  was  placed.  Pyrometry  was  as  yet  in  its  infancy.  Wedgwood  had 
invented  pyrometric  cones  and  Hall  had  heard  of  them,  but  apparently 
at  first  he  was  not  in  possession  of  a  set.  He  made  his  own  cones 
as  nearly  similar  as  possible  to  those  of  Wedgwood,  and  subsequently 
obtaining  a  set  of  Wedgwood's  cones  he  standardized  his  own  by  com- 
parison with  them.  His  gun-barrels  of  Swedish  and  Russian  iron  ('Old 
Sable')  were  softened,  but  seldom  gave  way  except  when  the  internal 
pressures  were  of  a  high  order.    Some  of  the  gun-barrels  seem  to  have 


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S14  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

been  used  for  many  experiments  irithout  failure  occurring.  As  Hall 
made  his  own  pyrometric  cones,  and  we  have  no  details  of  their  com- 
position and  the  method  of  preparation,  it  is  not  possible  to  do  more 
than  guess  at  the  temperatures  to  which  his  powdered  lime  and  chalk 
were  exposed.  There  is  no  doubt  that  by  constant  practice  and  careful 
observation  he  was  able  to  regulate  the  temperature  vdthin  fairly  wide 
limits. 

Hall  began  his  experiments  as  already  stated  in  1798.  They  were 
interrupted  for  about  a  year  (March  1800  to  March  1801),  and  on 
March  31, 1801,  he  had  obtained  a  considerable  measure  of  success.  A 
charge  of  forty  grains  of  powdered  chalk  was  converted  into  a  firm 
granular  crystalline  mass  of  limestone.  The  loss  on  weighing  was 
approximately  10  per  cent.  Another  charge  of  eighty  grains  was  con- 
verted into  marble  (on  March  3,  1801),  vdth  a  loss  of  approximately 
5  per  cent,  and  the  crystalline  mass  showed  distinct  rhomlx^iedral 
cleavage. 

Though  it  cannot  be  said  that  his  success  was  easily  won  he  was  by 
no  means  satisfied,  and  for  another  four  years  he  continued  his 
researches.  Many  different  methods  were  tried  in  order  to  ascertain 
the  most  satisfactory  and  reliable;  his  ambition  was  to  attain  complete 
control  of  the  process  so  that  he  could  always  be  certain  of  the  result. 
Porcelain  tubes  were  tried,  which  he  obtained  from  Wedgwood.  They 
were  very  liable,  however,  to  allow  escape  of  the  gases  through  pores. 
Many  different  methods  of  obtaining  gas-tight  stoppers  were  experi- 
mented on,  but  he  does  not  seem  to  have  found  anything  really  better 
than  the  fusible  metal.  A  slight  loss  of  weight  in  the  chalk  used  seemed 
inevitable,  and  the  amount  of  loss  varied  irregularly;  after  long  trials 
he  ultimately  succeeded  in  reducing  this  to  less  than  one  per  cent. 
Various  kinds  of  carbonate  of  lime  were  used,  including  chalk,  lime- 
stone, powdered  spar,  oyster  shells,  periwinkles,  and  each  of  these  was 
crystallised  in  turn.  Many  experiments  showed  that  a  reaction  might 
take  place  between  the  chalk  powder  and  the  glass  of  the  tube  in  which 
it  was  contained.  The  result  was  a  white  deposit  often  crystalline,  and 
a  certain  amount  of  uncombined  carbonic  acid  gas  which  escaped  when 
the  tube  was  opened.  No  doubt  the  white  mineral  was  woUastonite. 
Hall  proved  that  it  was  a  silicate  of  lime  which  dissolved  in  acid  and 
left  a  cloud  of  gelatinous  silica.  Thereafter  he  used  platinum  vessels 
instead  of  glass  to  contain  the  charge  of  carbonate  of  lime  which  he 
wanted  to  fuse.  The  effect  of  impurities  in  the  material  used  was  also 
investigated.  Critics  had  urged  that  his  limestone  was  not  pure.  Hall 
aptly  replied  that  this  was  so  much  the  better;  natural  limestones  were 
seldom  pure,  and  his  point  was  that  limestone  might  be  fused  under 
heat  and  pressure.  He  obtained  the  purest  precipitated  carbonate  of 
lime,  and  used  also  perfectly  transparent  crystalline  spar;  the  results 
were,  as  we  might  expect,  that  the  pure  substances  and  the  fairly  coarse 


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EXPERIMENTAL   GEOLOGY  316 

crystalline  powder  were  more  difficult  to  fuse  than  the  very  finely 
ground  natural  chalk.  These  results  show  that  Hall  had  very  complete 
control  of  his  experimental  processes,  and  that  even  small  differences 
in  fusibility  did  not  escape  his  observation. 

As  natural  limestones  are  always  moist,  Hall's  attrition  was  next 
directed  to  the  influence  of  water  on  the  crystallisation  of  his  powders. 
This  added  greatly  to  the  difficulty  of  the  experiments,  but  by  wonderful 
skill  he  succeeded  in  using  a  few  grains  of  water  (apparently  up  to 
five  per  cent,  of  the  weight  of  the  chalk) .  The  result  was  to  improve 
the  crystallisation,  for  the  reason,  as  Hall  believed,  that  the  pressure 
was  increased.  He  noticed  at  the  same  time  that  hydrogen  was  pro- 
duced, which  took  fiie  \Aien  the  gun-barrel  was  discharged.  Ptobably 
there  was  also  some  carbonic  oxide.  About  this  time  he  was  using  bars 
of  Russian  iron  into  which  a  long  cylindrical  cavity  had  been  bored. 
He  then  tried  other  volatile  ingredients  such  as  nitrate  of  ammona, 
carbonate  of  ammonia,  and  gunpowder.  In  January  1804  he  was  able 
to  convert  chalk  into  firm  limestone  at  a  temperature  about  960^  (melt- 
ing-point of  silver)  in  presence  of  small  quantities  of  water  with  a  loss 
of  less  than  one-thousandth  part  of  the  chalk  used. 

Finally  he  attempted  to  measure  the  pressure  which  was  necessary 
to  effect  re-crystallisation  under  the  conditions  of  his  experiments.  No 
pressure  gauges  were  available  at  that  date,  and  after  many  trials  he 
employed  a  stopper  faced  with  leather  and  forced  against  the  mouth  of 
his  iron  tube  by  means  of  weights  acting  either  directly  or  through  a 
lever.  He  ultimately  succeeded  in  obtaining  gas-tight  junctions  under 
pressures  ranging  from  52  up  to  270  atmospheres,  and  concluded  that 
52  atmospheres  was  the  least  pressure  which  could  be  satisfactory. 
This  is  equal  to  the  pressure  of  a  column  of  water  1,700  feet  high  or 
to  a  column  of  rock  700  feet  high.  A  ^complete  marble'  was  formed 
at  a  pressure  of  86  atmospheres  and  carbonate  of  lime  ^absolutely 
fused'  under  a  pressure  of  173  atmospheres. 

In  reviewing  these  classic  experiments  after  a  lapse  of  120  years 
we  feel  that  there  are  many  points  on  which  we  should  have  liked  more 
detailed  information.  One  essential,  for  example,  is  exact  chemical 
analysis  of  all  the  materials  employed.  Even  chalk  is  variable  in  com- 
position to  a  by  no  means  negligible  extent.  Oyster  shells  and  peri- 
winkle shells  contain  organic  matter,  which  would  account  for  the 
considerable  loss  in  weight  they  always  exhibited.  The  use  of  glass 
tubes  was  a  defect  in  the  early  experiments  afterwards  remedied  by 
employing  platinum  vessels.  Although  in  all  the  experiments  the 
charge  was  weighed  it  seems  clear  that  at  first  at  any  rate  the  materials 
were  not  carefully  dried.  In  the  experiments  with  water  it  was  seldom 
possible  to  provide  absolutely  against  the  escape  of  moistiuTe  when  the 
fusible  metal  was  introduced.  Most  of  all  we  may  regret  the  inadequate 
means  of  measuring  the  temperatures  at  which  the  experiments  were 


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316  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

conducted.  The  measurements  of  pressure  were  made  by  the  simplest 
possible  means,  and  it  was  only  by  great  experimental  skill  and  care 
that  even  approximate  results  could  be  obtained. 

Such  criticisms,  however,  do  not  mar  the  magnificent  success  of 
Hairs  experiments.  For  nearly  a  hundred  years,  in  spite  of  the  advance 
of  physical  and  chemical  science,  no  substantial  improvement  on  his 
results  was  attained.  His  work  was  immediately  recognized  as  trust- 
worthy and  conclusive,  and  became  a  classic  in  the  literature  of  experi- 
mental geology.  Although  not  exactly  the  founder  of  this  school  of 
research,  for  Spallanzani  and  De  Saussure  had  made  fusion  experi- 
ments on  rodcs  before  his  time,  he  placed  the  subject  in  a  prominent 
position  among  the  departments  of  geological  investigation,  and  did 
great  service  in  supporting  Hutton's  theories  by  evidence  of  a  new  and 
unexpected  character. 

SOME  PROBLEMS  IN  EVOLUTION 

By  Profeseor  EDWIN  S.  GOODRICH  F.RS. 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  ZOOLOGICAL  SECTION 

IN  all  probability  factors  of  inheritance  exist,  and  the  fundamental 
problem  of  biology  is  how  are  the  factors  of  an  organism  changed, 
or  how  does  it  acquire  new  factors?  In  spite  of  its  vast  importance, 
it  must  be  confessed  that  little  advance  has  been  made  towards  the 
solution  of  this  problem  since  the  time  of  Darwin,  who  considered 
that  variation  must  ultimately  be  due  to  the  action  of  the  environment 
This  conclusion  is  inevitable,  since  any  closed  system  will  readi  a 
state  of  equilibrium  and  continue  unchanged,  unless  affected  from 
without.  To  say  that  mutations  are  due  to  the  mixture  or  reshuflUng 
of  pre-existing  factors  is  merely  to  push  the  problem  a  step  farther 
back,  for  we  must  still  account  for  their  origin  and  diversity.  The 
same  objection  applies  to  the  suggestion  that  the  complex  of  factors 
alters  by  the  loss  of  certain  of  them.  To  account  for  the  progressive 
change  in  the  course  of  evolution  of  the  factors  of  inheritance  and 
for  the  building  up  of  the  complex  it  must  be  supposed  that  from  time 
to  time  new  factors  have  been  added;  it  must  further  be  supposed 
that  new  substances  have  entered  into  the  cycle  of  metabolism,  and 
have  been  permanently  incorporated  as  self-propagating  ingredients 
entering  into  lasting  relation  with  pre-existing  factors.  We  are  well 
aware  that  living  protoplasm  contains  molecules  of  large  size  and 
extraordinary  complexity,  and  that  it  may  be  urged  that  by  their  com- 
bination in  different  ways,  or  by  the  mere  r^rouping  of  the  atoms 
within  them,  an  almost  infinite  number  of  changes  may  result,  more 
than  sufficient  to  account  for  the  mutations  which  appear.  But  this  does 
not  account  for  the  building  up  of  the  original  complex.    If  it  must 


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SOME  PROBLEMS  IN  EVOLUTION  317 

be  admitted  that  such  a  building  process  once  occurred,  what  right 
have  we  to  suppose  that  it  ceased  at  a  certain  period?  We  are  driven, 
then,  to  the  conclusion  that  in  the  course  of  evolution  new  material  has 
been  swept  from  the  banks  into  the  stream  of  germ-plasm. 

If  one  may  be  allowed  to  speculate  still  further,  may  it  not  be  sup- 
posed that  factors  differ  in  their  stability? — that  whereas  the  more 
stable  are  merely  bent,  so  to  speak,  in  this  or  that  direction  by  the 
environment,  and  are  capable  of  returning  to  their  original  condition, 
as  a  gyroscope  may  return  to  its  former  position  when  pressure  is 
removed,  other  less  stable  factors  may  be  permanently  distorted,  may 
have  their  metabolism  permanently  altered,  may  take  up  new  substance 
from  the  vortex,  without  at  the  same  time  upsetting  the  system  of 
delicate  adjustments  whereby  the  organism  keeps  alive?  In  some  such 
way  we  imagine  factorial  changes  to  be  brou^t  about  and  mutations 
to  result. 

Let  it  not  be  thought  for  a  moment  that  this  admission  that  factors 
are  alterable  opens  the  door  to  a  Lamarckian  interpretation  of  evolu- 
tion !  According  to  the  Lamarckian  doctrine,  at  all  events  in  its  modem 
form,  a  character  would  be  inherited  after  the  removal  of  the  stimulus 
which  called  it  forth  in  the  parent.  Now  of  course,  a  response  once 
made,  a  character  once  formed,  may  persist  for  longer  or  shorter  time 
according  as  it  is  stable  or  not;  but  that  it  should  continue  to  be 
produced  when  the  conditions  necessary  for  its  production  are  no 
longer  present  is  unthinkable.  It  may,  however,  be  said  that  this  is 
to  misrepresent  the  doctrine,  and  that  what  is  really  meant  is  that  the 
response  may  so  react  on  and  alter  the  factor  as  to  render  it  capable 
of  producing  the  new  character  under  the  old  conditions.  But  is  this 
interpretation  any  more  credible  than  the  first? 

Let  us  return  to  the  possible  alteration  of  factors  by  the  environ- 
ment Unfortunately  there  is  little  evidence  as  yet  on  this  point  In 
the  course  of  breeding  experiments  the  occurrence  of  mutations  has  re- 
peatedly been  observed,  but  what  led  to  their  appearance  seems  never 
to  have  been  so  clearly  established  as  to  satisfy  exacting  critics.  Quite 
lately,  however.  Professor  M.  F.  Guyer,  of  Wisconsin,  has  brought 
forward  a  most  interesting  case  of  the  apparent  alteration  at  will  of  a 
factor  or  set  of  factors  under  definite  well-controlled  conditions.^  You 
will  remember  that  if  a  tissue  substance,  blood-serum  for  instance,  of 
one  animal  be  injected  into  the  circulation  of  another,  this  second 
individual  will  tend  to  react  by  producing  an  anti-body  in  its  blood  to 
antagonise  or  neutralise  the  effect  of  the  foreign  serum.  Now  Pro- 
fessor Guyer's  ingenious  experiments  and  results  may  be  briefly  sum- 
marised as  follows.  By  repeatedly  injecting  a  fowl  with  the  sub- 
stance of  the  lens  of  the  eye  of  a  rabbit  he  obtained  anti-lens  serum. 
On  injecting  this  'sensitised'  serum  into  a  pregnant  female  rabbit  it 

f American  Naturalist,  vol.  Iv.  1921 ;  Jour,  of  Exper,  Zoology,  vol.  xxxi. 
1920. 


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318  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

was  found  that,  while  the  mother's  eyes  remained  apparently  mi- 
affected,  some  of  her  offspring  developed  defective  lenses.  The  defects 
varied  from  a  slight  abnormality  to  almost  complete  disappearance. 
No  defects  appeared  in  untreated  controls,  no  defects  appeared  with 
non-sensitised  sera.  On  breeding  the  defective  offspring  for  many 
generations  these  defects  were  found  to  be  inherited,  even  to  tend 
to  increase  and  to  appear  more  often.  When  a  defective  rabbit  is 
crossed  with  a  normal  one  the  defect  seems  to  behave  as  a  Mendelian 
recessive  character,  the  first  generation  having  normal  eyes  and  the 
defect  reappearing  in  the  second.  Further,  Professor  Guyer  claims  to 
have  shown  that  the  defect  may  be  inherited  through  the  male  as  well 
as  the  female  parent,  and  is  not  due  to  the  direct  transmission  of  anti- 
lens  from  mother  to  embryo  in  utero. 

If  these  remarkable  results  are  verified,  it  is  clear  that  an  environ- 
mental stimulus,  the  anti-lens  substance,  will  have  been  proved  to 
affect  not  only  the  development  of  the  lens  in  the  eidbryo,  but  also  the 
corresponding  factors  in  the  germ-cells  of  that  embryo;  and  that  it 
causes,  by  originating  some  destructive  process,  a  lasting  transmissible 
effect  giving  rise  to  a  heritable  mutation. 

Professor  Guyer,  however,  goes  farther,  and  argues  that,  since  a 
rabbit  can  also  produce  anti-lens  when  injected  with  lens  substance,  and 
since  individual  animals  can  even  produce  anti-bodies  when  treated 
with  their  oym  tissues,  therefore  the  products  of  the  tissues  of  an  in- 
dividual may  permanently  affect  the  factors  carried  by  its  own  germ- 
cells.  Moreover  he  asks,  pointing  to  the  well-known  stimulative 
action  of  internal  secretions  (hormones  and  the  like),  if  destructive 
bodies  can  be  produced,  why  not  constructive  bodies  also?  And  so  he 
would  have  us  adopt  a  sort  of  modem  version  of  Darwin's  theory  of 
Pangenesis,  and  a  Lamarckian  view  of  evolutionary  change. 

But  surely  there  is  a  wide  difference  between  such  a  poisonous  or 
destructive  action  as  he  describes  and  any  constructive  process.  The 
latter  must  entail,  as  I  tried  to  show  above,  the  drawing  of  new  sub- 
stances into  the  metabolic  vortex.  Internal  secretions  are  themselves 
but  characters,  products  (perhaps  of  the  nature  of  ferments  behaving 
as  environmental  conditions,  not  as  self-propagating  factors,  moulding 
the  responses,  but  not  permanently  altering  the  fundamratal  structure 
and  composition  of  the  factors  of  inheritance. 

Moreover,  the  early  fossil  vertdbrates  had,  in  fact,  lenses  neither 
larger  nor  smaller  on  the  average  than  those  of  the  present  day.  If 
destructive  anti-lens  had  been  continually  produced  and  had  acted,  its 
effect  would  have  been  cumulative.  A  constructive  substance  must, 
then,  have  also  been  continually  produced  to  counteract  it  Such  a 
theory  might  perhaps  be  def^ided;  but  would  it  bring  us  any  nearer 
to  the  solution  of  the  problem? 

The  real  weakness  of  the  theory  is  that  it  does  not  escape  from 
the  fundamental  objections  we  have  already  put  forward  as  fatal  to 


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SOME  PROBLEMS  IN  EVOLUTION  319 

Lamarckism.  If  an  effect  has  been  produced,  either  the  supposed  con- 
structive substance  was  present  from  the  first,  as  an  ordinary  internal 
environmental  condition  necessary  for  the  normal  development  of  the 
character,  or  it  must  have  been  introduced  from  without  by  the  appli- 
cation of  a  new  stimulus.  The  same  objection  does  not  apply  to  the 
destructive  effect.  No  one  doubts  that  if  a  factor  could  be  destroyed 
by  a  hot  needle  or  picked  out  with  fine  forceps  the  effects  of  the  opera- 
tion would  persist  throughout  subsequent  generations. 

Nevertheless,  these  results  are  of  the  greatest  interest  and  impor- 
tance, and,  if  corroborated,  will  mark  an  epoch  in  the  study  of  heredity, 
being  apparently  the  first  successful  attempt  to  deal  experimentally 
with  a  particular  factor  or  set  of  factors  in  the  germ-plasm. 

There  remains  another  question  we  must  try  to  answer  before  we 
close,  namely,  'What  share  has  the  mind  taken  in  evolution?*  From 
the  point  of  view  of  the  biologist,  describing  and  generalising  on  what 
he  can  observe,  evolution  may  be  represented  as  a  s^ies  of  metabolic 
changes  in  living  matter  moulded  by  the  environment  It  will  natu- 
rally be  objected  that  such  a  description  of  life  and  its  manifestations 
as  a  physico-chemical  mechanism  takes  no  account  of  mind.  Surely,  it 
will  be  said,  mind  must  have  affected  the  course  of  evolution,  and  may 
indeed  be  considered  as  the  most  important  factor  in  the  process. 
Now,  without  in  the  least  wishing  to  deny  the  importance  of  the  mind, 
I  would  maintain  that  there  is  no  justification  for  the  belief  that  it 
has  acted  or  could  act  as  something  guiding  or  interfering  with  the 
course  of  metabolism.  This  is  not  the  place  to  enter  into  a  philo- 
sophical discussion  on  the  ultimate  nature  of  our  experience  and  its 
contents,  nor  would  I  be  competent  to  do  so;  nevertheless,  a  scientific 
explanation  of  evolution  cannot  ignore  the  problem  of  mind  if  it  is  to 
satisfy  the  average  man. 

Let  me  put  the  matter  as  briefly  as  possible  at  the  risk  of  seeming 
somewhat  dogmatic.  It  will  be  admitted  that  all  the  manifestations  of 
living  organisms  depend,  as  mentioned  above,  on  series  of  physico- 
chemical  changes  continuing  without  break,  each  step  determining  that 
which  follows;  also  that  the  so-called  general  laws  of  physics  and  of 
chemistry  hold  good  in  living  processes.  Since,  so  far  as  living  pro- 
cesses are  knovm  and  understood,  they  can  be  fully  explained  in  ac- 
cordance with  these  laws,  there  is  no  need  and  no  justification  for 
calling  in  the  help  of  any  special  vital  force  or  other  directive  influence 
to  account  for  them.  Such  crude  vitalistic  theories  are  now  discredited, 
but  tend  to  return  in  a  more  subtle  form  as  the  doctrine  of  the  inter- 
action of  body  and  mind,  of  the  influence  of  the  mind  on  the  activities 
of  the  body.  But,  try  as  we  may,  we  cannot  conceive  how  a  physical 
process  can  be  interrupted  or  supplemented  by  non-physical  agencies. 
Rather  do  we  believe  that  to  the  continuous  physico-chemical  series 
of  events  there  corresponds  a  continuous  series  of  mental  events  in- 
evitably connected  with  it;  that  the  two  series  are  but  partial  views 


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320  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

or  abstractions,  two  aspects  of  some  more  complete  whole,  the  one 
seen  from  without,  the  other  from  within,  the  one  observed,  the  other 
felt.  One  is  capable  of  being  described  in  scientific  language  as  a 
consistent  series  of  events  in  an  outside  world,  the  other  is  ascertained 
by  introspection,  and  is  describable  as  a  series  of  mental  events  in 
psychical  terms.  There  is  no  possibility  of  the  one  a£fecting  or  con- 
trolling the  other,  since  they  are  not  independent  of  each  otho:. 
Indissolubly  connected,  any  change  in  the  one  is  necessarily  accom- 
panied by  a  corresponding  change  in  the  other.  The  mind  is  not  a 
product  of  metabolism  as  materialism  would  imply,  still  less  an  epi- 
phenomenon  or  meaningless  by-product  as  some  have  held.  I  am  well 
aware  that  the  view  just  put  forward  is  rejected  by  many  philosophers, 
nevertheless  it  seems  to  me  to  be  the  best  and  indeed  the  only  working 
hjrpothesis  the  biologist  can  use  in  the  present  state  of  knowledge.  Hie 
student  of  biology,  however,  is  not  concerned  with  the  building  up  of 
systems  of  philosophy,  though  he  should  realise  that  the  mental  series 
of  events  lies  outside  the  sphere  of  natural  science. 

The  question,  then,  which  is  the  more  important  in  evolution,  the 
mental  or  the  physical  series,  has  no  meaning,  since  one  cannot  happen 
without  the  other.  The  two  have  evolved  together  pari  passu.  We 
know  of  no  mind  apart  from  body,  and  have  no  right  to  assume  that 
metabolic  processes  can  occur  without  corresponding  mental  processes, 
however  simple  they  may  be. 

Simple  response  to  stimulus  is  the  basis  of  all  bdiaviour.  Responses 
may  be  linked  together  in  chains,  each  acting  as  a  stimulus  to  start  the 
next;  they  can  be  modified  by  other  simultaneous  responses,  or  by  the 
effects  left  behind  by  previous  responses,  and  so  may  be  built  up  into 
the  most  complicated  behaviour.  But  owing  to  our  very  incomplete 
knowledge  of  the  physico-chemical  events  concerned,  we  constantly, 
when  describing  the  behaviour  of  living  organisms,  pass,  so  to  speak, 
from  the  physical  to  the  mental  series,  filling  up  the  gaps  in  our  know- 
ledge of  the  one  from  the  other.  We  thus  complete  our  description 
of  behaviour  in  terms  of  mental  processes  we  know  only  in  ourselves 
(such  as  feeling,  emotion,  will)  but  infer  from  external  evidence  to  take 
place  in  other  animals. 

In  describing  a  simple  reflex  action,  for  instance,  the  physico- 
chemical  chain  of  events  may  appear  to  be  so  completely  known  that 
the  corresponding  mental  events  are  usually  not  mentioned  at  all,  their 
existence  may  even  be  denied.  On  the  contrary,  when  describing  com- 
plex behaviour  when  impulses  from  external  or  internal  stimuli  modify 
each  other  before  the  final  result  is  translated  into  action,  it  is  the 
intervening  physico-chemical  processes  which  are  unknown  and  perhaps 
ignored,  and  the  action  is  said  to  be  voluntary  or  prompted  by  emotion 
or  the  will. 

The  point  I  wish  to  make,  however,  is  that  the  actions  and  be- 
haviour of  organisms  are  responses,  are  characters  in  the  sense  de- 


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SOME  PROBLEMS  IN  EVOLUTION  321 

scribed  in  the  earlier  part  of  this  address.  They  are  inherited,  they 
vary,  they  are  selected,  and  evolve  like  other  characters.  The  distinc- 
tion so  often  drawn  by  psychologists  between  instinctive  behaviour  said 
to  be  inherited  and  intelligent  behaviour  said  to  be  acquired  is  as 
misleading  and  as  little  justified  in  this  case  as  in  that  of  structural 
characters.  Time  will  not  allow  me  to  develop  this  point  of  view,  but 
I  will  only  mention  that  instinctive  behaviour  is  carried  out  by  a 
mechanism  developed  under  the  influence  of  stimuli,  chiefly  internal, 
which  are  constantly  present  in  the  normal  environmental  conditions, 
ndiile  intelligent  behaviour  depends  on  responses  called  forth  by  stimuli 
which  may  or  may  not  be  present  Hence,  the  former  is,  but  the  latter 
may  or  may  not  be  inherited.  As  in  other  cases,  the  distinction  lies  in 
the  factors  and  conditions  which  produce  the  results.  Instinctive  and 
intelligent  behaviour  are  usually,  perhaps  always,  combined,  and  one 
is  not  more  primitive  or  lower  than  the  other. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  think  that  these  problems  concerning 
factors  and  environment,  heredity  and  evolution,  are  merely  matters  of 
academic  interest.  Knowledge  is  power,  and  in  the  long  run  it  is 
always  the  most  abstruse  researches  that  yield  the  most  practical  re- 
sults. Already,  in  the  effort  to  keep  up  and  increase  our  supply  of 
food,  in  the  constant  fight  against  disease,  in  education,  and  in  the 
progress  of  civilisation  generally,  we  are  b^inning  to  appreciate  the 
value  of  knowledge  pursued  for  its  own  sake.  Could  we  acquire  the 
power  to  control  and  alter  at  will  the  factors  of  inheritance  m  domes- 
ticated animals  and  plants,  and  even  in  man  himself,  such  vast  results 
might  be  achieved  that  the  past  triumphs  of  the  science  would  fade  into 
insignificance. 

Zoology  is  not  merely  a  descriptive  and  observational  science,  it  is 
also  an  experimental  science.  For  its  proper  study  and  the  practical 
training  of  students  and  teachers  alike,  well-equipped  modem  labora- 
tories are  necessary.  Moreover,  if  there  is  to  be  a  useful  and  progres- 
sive school  contributing  to  the  advance  of  the  science,  ample  means 
must  be  given  for  research  in  all  its  branches.  Life  doubtless  arose 
in  the  sea,  and  in  the  attempt  to  solve  most  of  the  great  problems  of 
biology  the  greatest  advances  have  generally  been  made  by  the  study 
of  the  lower  marine  organisms.  It  would  be  a  thousand  pities,  there- 
fore, if  Edinburgh  did  not  avail  itself  of  its  fortunate  position  to  offer 
to  the  student  opportunities  for  the  practical  study  of  marine  zoology. 

In  his  autobiography,  Darwin  complains  of  the  lack  of  facilities  for 
practical  work — ^the  same  need  is  felt  at  the  present  time.  He  would 
doubtless  have  been  gratified  to  see  the  provision  made  since  his  day 
and  the  excellent  use  to  which  it  has  been  put;  but  what  seems  adequate 
to  one  generation  becomes  insufficient  for  the  next  We  earnestly  hope 
that  any  appeal  that  may  be  made  for  funds  to  improve  this  department 
of  zoology  may  meet  with  the  generous  response  it  certainly  deserves. 

VOL.  Xm.— 21. 


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322  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

APPLIED  GEOGRAPHY 
By  Dr.  D.  G.  HOGARTH  CM.G. 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  SECTION 

r[E  term  which  I  have  taken  for  the  title  of  my  address  has  been 
in  use  for  some  years  as  a  general  designation  of  lendings  or  bor- 
rowings of  geographical  results,  whether  by  a  geographer  who  applies 
the  material  of  his  own  science  to  another,  or  by  a  geologist  or  a 
meteorologist,  or  again  an  ethnologist  or  historian,  who  borrows  of  the 
geographer.  Whether  geography  makes  the  loan  of  her  own  motion  or 
not,  the  interest  in  view,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is  primarily  that,  not  of 
geography,  but  of  another  science  or  study.  The  open  question  whether 
that  interest  will  be  served  better  if  the  actual  application  be  made 
by  the  geographer  or  by  the  other  scientist  or  student  does  not  con- 
cern us  now. 

Such  applications  are  of  the  highest  interest  and  value  as  studies, 
and,  still  more,  as  means  of  education.  As  studies,  not  merely  are 
they  links  between  sciences,  but  they  tend  to  become  new  subjects 
of  research,  and  to  develop  with  time  into  independent  sciences.  As 
means  of  education  they  are  used  more  generally,  and  prove  them- 
selves of  higher  potency  than  the  pure  sciences  from  which  or  to  which, 
respectively,  the  loans  are  eflfected.  But,  in  my  view,  geography,  thus 
applied,  passes,  in  the  process  of  application,  into  a  foreign  province 
and  under  another  control.  It  is  most  proper,  as  well  as  most  profit- 
able, for  a  geographer  to  work  in  that  foreign  field;  but,  while  he  stays 
in  it,  he  is,  in  military  parlance,  seconded. 

Logical  as  this  view  may  appear,  and  often  as,  in  fact,  it  has  been 
stated  or  implied  by  others  (for  example,  by  one  at  least  of  my  pre- 
decessors in  this  chair.  Sir  Charles  Close,  who  delivered  his  presidential 
address  to  the  section  at  the  Portsmouth  Meeting  in  1911),  it  does  not 
square  with  some  conceptions  of  geography  put  forward  by  high 
authorities  of  recent  years.  These  represent  differently  the  status  of 
some  of  the  studies,  into  which,  as  I  maintain,  geography  enters  as  a 
subordinate  and  secondary  element  In  particular,  there  is  a  school, 
represented  in  this  country  and  more  strongly  in  America,  which  claims 
for  geography  what,  in  my  view,  is  an  historical  or  ethnological  or  even 
psychological  study,  using  geographical  data  towards  the  solution  of 
problems  in  its  own  field;  and  some  even  consider  this  not  merely  a 
function  of  true  geography,  but  its  principal  function  now  and  for 
the  future.  Their  *new  geography'  is  and  is  to  be  the  study  of  %uman 
response  to  land-forms.'  This  is  an  extreme  American  statement;  but 
the  same  idea  is  instinct  in  such  utterances,  more  sober  and  guarded, 
as  that  of  a  great  geographer,  Dr.  H.  R.  Mill,  to  the  effect  that  the 


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APPLIED   GEOGRAPHY  323 

ultimate  problem  of  geography  is  ^the  demonstrative  and  quantitative 
proof  of  the  control  exercised  by  the  Earth's  crust  on  the  mental  pro- 
cesses of  its  inhabitants.  Dr.  Mill  is  too  profound  a  man  of  science 
not  to  guard  himself,  by  that  saving  word  'ultimate,*  from  such  retorts 
as  Professor  Ellsworth  Huntington,  of  Yale,  has  ofifered  to  the  ex- 
treme American  statement.  If,  the  latter  argued,  geography  is  actually 
the  study  of  the  human  response  to  land-forms,  then,  as  a  science  it  is 
in  its  infancy,  or,  rather,  it  has  returned  to  a  second  childhood;  for 
it  has  hardly  begun  to  collect  exact  data  to  this  particular  end,  or  to 
treat  them  statistically,  or  to  apply  to  them  the  methods  of  isolation 
that  exact  science  demands.  In  this  country  geographers  are  less  in- 
clined to  interpret  'new  geography'  on  such  revolutionary  lines;  but 
one  suspects  a  tendency  towards  the  American  view  in  both  their 
principles  and  their  practice — in  their  choice  of  lines  of  inquiry  or  re- 
search and  their  choice  of  subjects  for  education.  The  concentration 
on  man,  which  characterizes  geographical  teaching  in  the  University  of 
London,  and  the  almost  exclusive  attention  paid  to  Economic  Geog- 
raphy in  the  geographical  curricula  of  some  other  British  Universities 
make  in  that  direction.  In  educational  practice,  this  bias  does  good, 
rather  than  harm,  if  the  geographer  bears  in  mind  that  Geography 
proper  has  only  one  function  to  perform  in  regard  to  man — ^namely, 
to  investigate,  account  for,  and  state  his  distribution  over  terrestrial 
space — ^and  that  this  function  cannot  be  performed  to  any  good  pur- 
pose except  upon  a  basis  of  Physical  Geography — ^that  is,  on  knowledge 
of  the  disposition  and  relation  of  the  Earth's  physical  features,  so  far 
as  ascertained  to  date.  To  deal  with  the  effect  of  man's  distribution 
on  his  mental  processes  or  political  and  economic  action  is  to  deal 
with  him  geographically  indeed,  but  by  applications  of  geography  to 
psychology,  to  history,  to  sociology,  to  ethnology,  to  economics,  for 
the  ends  of  these  sciences;  though  the  interests  of  geography  may  be, 
and  often  are,  well  served  in  the  process  by  reflection  of  light  on  its 
own  problems  of  distribution.  If  in  instruction,  as  distinct  from  re- 
search, the  geographer,  realising  that,  when  he  introduces  these  subjects 
to  his  pupils,  he  will  be  teaching  them  not  geography,  but  another 
science  with  the  help  of  geography,  insists  on  their  having  been 
grounded  previously  or  elsewhere  in  what  he  is  to  apply — ^namely,  the 
facts  of  physical  distribution — all  will  be  well.  The  application  will 
be  a  sound  step  forward  in  education,  more  potent  perhaps  for  train- 
ing general  intelligence  than  the  teaching  of  pure  geography  at  the 
earlier  stage,  because  making  a  wider  and  more  compelling  appeal  to 
imaginative  interest  and  pointing  the  adolescent  mind  to  a  more  com- 
plicated field  of  thought  But  if  geography  is  applied  to  instruction  in 
other  sciences  without  the  recipients  having  learned  what  it  is  in  itself, 
then  all  will  be  wrong.    The  teacher  will  talk  a  language  not  under- 


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324  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

stood,  and  the  value  of  what  he  is  applying  cannot  be  appreciated  by 
the  pupils. 

If  I  leave  this  argument  there  for  the  moment,  it  is  with  the  intention 
of  returning  to  it  before  I  end  today.  It  goes  to  the  root,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  of  the  unsatisfactory  nature  of  much  geographical  insruction 
given  at  present  in  our  islands.  The  actual  policy  of  the  English 
Board  of  Education  seems  to  contemplate  that  geography  should  be 
taught  to  secondary  students,  only  in  connection  with  history.  If 
this  policy  were  realised  in  instructional  practice  by  encouragement  or 
compulsion  of  secondary  students  to  undergo  courses  of  geography 
proper,  with  a  view  to  promotion  subsequently  to  classes  in  historical 
geography  (i.  e.,  if  history  be  treated  geographically  by  application  of 
another  science  previously  studied),  it  would  be  sound.  But  I  gather 
from  Sir  Halford  Mackinder's  recent  report  that  such  is  not  the 
practice.  Courses  in  geography  proper  are  not  encouraged  during  the 
secondary  period  of  education  at  all.  Encouragement  ceases  with  the 
primary  period,  at  an  age  before  which  only  the  most  elementary  in- 
struction in  such  a  science  can  be  assimilated — when,  indeed,  not  much 
more  can  be  expected  of  pupils  than  the  memorising  of  those  summary 
diagrammatic  expressions  of  geographical  results,  which  are  maps. 
How  these  results  have  been  arrived  at,  what  sort  of  causes  account 
for  physical  distribution,  how  multifarious  are  its  facts  and  features 
which  maps  cannot  express  even  on  the  minutest  scale — ^these  things 
must  be  instilled  into  minds  more  robust  than  those  of  children  under 
fourteen;  and  until  some  adequate  idea  of  them  has  been  imbibed  it  is 
little  use  to  teach  history  geographically.  So,  at  least,  this  matter 
seems  to  me. 

It  will  be  patent  enough  by  now  that  I  am  maintaining  geography 
proper  to  be  the  study  of  the  spatial  distribution  of  all  physical  features 
on  the  surface  of  this  earth.  My  view  is,  of  course,  neither  novel 
nor  rare.  Almost  all  who  of  late  years  have  discussed  the  scope  of 
geography  have  agreed  that  distribution  is  of  its  essence.  Among 
the  most  recent  exponents  of  that  view  have  been  two  directors  of 
the  Oxford  School,  Sir  Halford  Mackinder  and  Professor  Herbertson. 
When,  however,  I  add  that  the  study  of  distribution,  rightly  under- 
stood, is  the  whole  essential  function  of  geography,  I  part  company 
from  the  theory  of  some  of  my  predecessors  and  contemporaries,  and 
the  practice  of  more.  But  our  divergence  will  be  found  to  be  not 
serious;  for  not  only  do  I  mean  a  great  deal  by  the  study  of  distri- 
bution— quite  enough  for  the  function  of  any  one  science! — but  I  claim 
for  geography  to  the  exclusion  of  any  other  science  all  study  of  spatial 
distribution  on  the  earth^s  surface.  This  study  has  been  its  well 
recognised  function  ever  since  a  science  of  that  name  has  come  to  be 
restricted  to  the  features  of  the  terrestrial  surface — that  is,  ever  since 
'geograph/  in  the  eighteenth  century  had  to  abandon  to  its  child  geo- 


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APPLIED   GEOGRAPHY  325 

logy  the  study  of  what  lies  below  that  surface  even  as  earlier  it  had 
abandoned  the  study  of  the  firmament  to  an  elder  child,  astronomy. 
Though  geography  has  borne  other  children  since,  who  have  grown 
to  independent  scientific  life,  none  of  these  has  robbed  her  of  that  one 
immemorial  fimction.  On  the  contrary,  they  call  upon  her  to  exercise 
it  still  on  their  behalf. 

Let  no  one  suppose  that  I  mean  by  this  study  and  this  function 
merely  what  Professor  Herbertson  so  indignantly  repudiated  for  an 
adequate  content  of  his  science — physiography  plus  descriptive  topo- 
graphy. Geography  includes  these  things,  of  course,  but  she  embraces 
also  all  investigation  both  of  the  actual  distribution  of  the  earth's  super- 
ficial features  and  of  the  causes  of  the  distribution,  the  last  a  profound 
and  intricate  subject  towards  the  solution  of  which  she  has  to  summon 
assistance  from  many  other  sciences  and  studies.  She  includes,  further, 
in  her  field,  for  the  accurate  statement  of  actual  distribution,  all  the 
processes  of  survey — a  highly  specialised  function  to  the  due  perform- 
ance of  which  other  sciences  again  lend  indispensable  aid;  and,  also, 
for  the  diagrammatic  presentation  of  synthetised  results  for  practical 
use,  the  equally  highly  specialised  processes  of  cartography.  That 
seems  to  me  an  ample  field,  with  more  than  sufficient  variety  of  expert 
functions,  for  any  one  science.  And  I  have  not  taken  into  account 
either  the  part  geography  has  to  play  in  aiding  other  sciences,  as  they 
aid  her,  by  application  of  her  data,  or,  again,  certain  investigations  of 
terrestrial  phenomena,  at  present  incumbent  upon  her,  because  special 
sciences  to  deal  with  them  have  not  yet  been  developed — or,  at  least, 
fully  developed — ^although  their  ultimate  growth  to  independence  can 
be  foreseen  or  has  already  gone  far.  Such,  for  the  moment,  are 
geodetic  investigations,  in  this  country  at  any  rate.  In  Germany,  I 
understand,  geodesy  has  attained  already  the  status  of  a  distinct 
specialism.  Here  the  child  has  hardly  separate  existence.  But  beyond 
a  doubt  it  will  part  from  its  parent,  even  as  oceanograf^y  has  parted. 
Indeed  some  day,  in  a  future  far  too  distant  to  be  foreseen  now,  many, 
or  most,  of  the  investigations  which  now  occupy  the  chief  attention  of 
geographical  researchers  may  cease  to  be  necessary.  A  time  must  come 
when  the  actual  distribution  of  all  phenomena  on  the  earth's  surface 
will  have  been  ascertained,  and  all  the  relief  upon  it  and  every  super- 
ficial feature  which  cartography  can  possibly  express  in  its  diagram- 
matic way  will  have  been  set  out  finally  on  the  map.  That  moment, 
however,  will  not  be  the  end  of  geography  as  a  science,  for  there  will 
still  remain  the  investigation  of  the  causes  of  distribution,  the  scientific 
statement  of  its  facts,  and  the  application  of  these  to  other  sciences. 
Let  us  not,  however,  worry  about  any  ultimate  restriction  of  the  func- 
tions of  our  science.  The  discovery  and  correlation  of  all  the  facts 
of  geographical  distribution  and  their  final  presentation  in  diagram- 


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826  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

matic  form  are  not  much  more  imminent  than  the  exhaustion  of  the 
material  of  any  other  science! 

In  the  meantime,  for  a  wholly  indeterminate  interval,  let  us  see 
to  it  that  all  means  of  investigating  the  phenomena  of  spatial  distri- 
bution on  the  earth  be  promoted,  without  discouragement  of  this  or 
that  tentative  means  as  unscientific.  The  exploration  of  the  terrestrial 
surface  should  be  appreciated  as  a  process  of  many  necessary  stages 
graduated  from  ignorance  up  to  perfect  knowledge.  It  is  to  the  credit 
of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  that  it  has  always  encouraged  tenta- 
tive, and,  if  you  like,  unscientific  first  eflforts  of  exploration,  especially 
in  parts  of  the  world  where,  if  every  prospect  pleases,  man  is  very 
vile.  Unscientific  explorations  are  often  the  only  possible  means  to 
the  beginning  of  knowledge.  Where  an  ordinary  compass  cannot  be 
used  except  at  instant  risk  of  death  it  is  worth  while  to  push  in  a  succes- 
sion of  explorers  unequipped  with  any  scientific  knowledge  or  apparatus 
at  all,  not  merely  to  gain  what  few  geographical  data  untrained  eyes 
may  see  and  uneducated  memories  retain,  but  to  open  a  road  on  which 
ultimately  a  scientific  explorer  may  hope  to  pass  and  work,  because  the 
local  population  has  grown,  by  intercourse  with  his  unscientific  precur- 
sors, less  hostile  and  more  indififerent  to  his  prying  activities.  There 
seems  to  me  now  and  then  to  be  too  much  criticism  of  Columbus.  If 
he  thought  America  was  India  he  had  none  the  less  found  America. 

I  have  claimed  for  the  geographer's  proper  field  the  study  of  the 
causation  of  distribution.  I  am  aware  that  this  claim  has  been,  and 
is  denied  to  geography  by  some  students  of  the  sciences  which  he 
necessarily  calls  to  his  help.  But  if  a  science  is  to  be  denied  access  to 
the  fields  of  other  sciences  except  it  take  service  under  them,  what 
science  shall  be  saved?  I  admit,  however,  that  some  disputes  can  hardly 
be  avoided,  where  respective  boundaries  are  not  yet  well  delimited. 
Better  delimitation  is  called  for  in  the  interest  of  geography,  because 
lack  of  definition,  causing  doubts  and  questions  about  her  scope,  con- 
fuses the  distinction  between  the  science  and  its  application.  The  doubts 
are  not  really  symptoms  of  anything  wrong  with  geography,  but,  since 
they  may  suggest  to  the  popular  mind  that  in  fact  something  is  wrong, 
they  can  be  causes  of  disease.  Their  constant  genesis  is  to  be  found 
in  the  history  of  a  science,  whose  scope  has  not  always  been  the  same, 
but  has  contracted  during  the  course  of  ages  in  certain  directions  while 
expanding  in  others.  If,  in  the  third  century  B.  c,  Eratosthenes  had 
been  asked  what  he  meant  by  geography,  he  would  have  replied,  the 
science  of  all  the  physical  environment  of  man  whether  above,  upon, 
or  below  the  surface  of  the  earth,  as  well  as  of  man  himself  as  a  physi- 
cal entity.  He  would  have  claimed  for  its  field  what  lies  between  the 
farthest  star  and  the  heart  of  our  globe,  and  the  nature  and  relation  of 
everything  composing  the  universe.  Geography,  in  fact,  was  then  not 
only  the  whole  of  natural  science,  as  we  understand  the  term,  but  also 


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APPLIED   GEOGRAPHY  327 

everything  to  which  another  term,  ethnology,  might  now  be  stretched 
at  its  very  widest. 

Look  forward  now  across  two  thousand  years  to  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  a.  d.  Geography  has  long  become  a  mother.  She 
has  conceived  and  borne  astronomy,  chemistry,  botany,  zoology,  and 
many  more  children,  of  whom  about  the  youngest  is  geology.  They 
have  all  existences  separate  from  her  and  stand  on  their  own  feet,  but 
they  preserve  a  filial  connection  with  her  and  depend  still  on  their 
mother  science  for  a  certain  conunon  service,  while  taking  off  her  hands 
other  services  she  once  performed.  Restricting  the  scope  of  her  activi- 
ties, they  have  set  her  free  to  develop  new  ones.  In  doing  this  she  will 
conceive  again  and  again  and  bear  yet  other  children  during  the  century 
to  follow — ^meteorology,  climatology,  oceanography,  ethnology,  anthro- 
pology and  more.  Again,  and  still  more  narrowly,  this  new  brood  will 
limit  the  mother's  scope;  but  ever  and  ever  fecund,  she  will  find  fresh 
activities  in  the  vast  field  of  earth  knowledge,  and  once  and  again  con- 
ceive anew.  The  latest  child  that  she  has  borne  and  seen  stand  erect 
is,  as  I  have  said,  geodesy;  and  she  has  not  done  with  conceiving. 

Ever  losing  sections  of  her  original  field  and  functions,  ever  adding 
new  sections  to  them,  geography  can  hardly  help  suggesting  doubts  to 
others  and  even  to  herself.  There  must  always  be  a  certain  indefinite- 
ness  about  a  field  on  whose  edges  fresh  specialisms  are  for  ever  devel- 
oping toward  a  point  at  which  they  will  break  away  to  grow  alone  into 
new  sciences.  The  mother  holds  on  awhile  to  the  child,  sharing  its 
activities,  loth  to  let  go,  perhaps  even  a  little  jealous  of  its  growing  in- 
dependence. It  has  not  been  easy  to  say  at  any  given  moment  where 
geography's  functions  have  ended  and  those  of,  say,  geology  or  ethnology 
have  begun.  Moreover,  it  is  inevitably  asked  about  this  fissiparous 
science  from  which  function  after  function  has  detached  itself  to  lead 
life  apart — ^what,  if  the  process  continues,  as  it  shows  every  sign  of 
doing,  will  be  left  to  geography  later  or  sooner?  Will  it  not  be  split 
up  among  divers  specialisms,  and  become  in  time  a  venerable  memory? 
It  is  a  natural,  perhaps  a  necessary,  question.  But  what  is  wholly  un- 
necessary is  that  any  answer  should  be  returned  which  implies  a  doubt 
that  geography  has  a  field  of  research  and  study  essentially  hers  yester- 
day, to-day,  and  to-morrow;  still  less  which  implies  any  suspicion  that 
because  of  her  constant  parturition  of  specialisms  geography  is,  or  is 
likely  in  any  future  that  can  be  foreseen,  to  be  moribund. 


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328  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


SCIENTIFIC  IDEALISM* 

By  Dr.  WILUAM  E.  RITTER 

SCRIPPS  INSTITUTE,  LA  JOLIA,  CAUFORNIA 

IDEALISM  is  dead — at  least  many  people  think  so.  And  no  small 
nmnber  of  those  who  think  thus  are  persons  of  humane  sentiments 
withal,  and  hold  their  belief  under  compulsion  rather  than  willingly. 
They  believe  the  evidence  compels  them  to  accept  this  view,  whether  it 
be  agreeable  to  them  or  not  How  else,  they  reason,  can  the  coarse  of 
events  of  these  later  decades  be  interpreted? 

The  history  of  man  is  the  story  of  the  terribly  brutal  reality  of  his 
existence  on  earth  and  his  efforts  to  escape  from  this  reality  into  some 
ideal  realm  wherein  the  peace  and  happiness  and  joy  occasionally  ex- 
perienced in  life  shall  be  perfected  and  endure  forever. 

So  powerful  has  been  the  allurement  of  this  ideal  realm  that  many 
of  our  race  in  ages  past  have  devoted  their  best  power,  sometimes  even 
their  very  lives  to  exploiting  it  and  devising  ways  and  means  by  which 
all  may  finally  reach  this  promised  land.  These  rare  ones  are  ac- 
claimed great  among  men  and  accepted  as  teachers  and  leaders  just  be- 
cause they  express  the  common  longings  of  mankind,  of  the  lowly  as 
well  as  of  the  great. 

In  all  the  ages  and  culture  stages  of  the  past  unaginarily  perfect 
conditions,  of  life  have  been  among  die  most  compelling  motives  with 
humanity.  These  imaginings  have  been  near  the  heart  of  all  the  great 
religions  and  all  the  great  philosophies  of  the  world,  their  culmination 
as  philosophy  having  been,  probably,  the  several  forms  of  idealism  of 
the  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  centuries.  But  what  has  come  of 
it  all? 

If  the  realism  of  these  questioners  is  of  the  dramatic  sort,  the  an- 
swer they  give  to  their  own  question  is  likely  to  be  brirf  and  laconic. 
A  few  dozen  words  and  a  gesture  will  tell  the  story:  Germany  and 
Austro-Hungary  in  August,  1914,  and  again  in  October,  1918!  Russia 
in  August,  1914,  in  April,  1917,  in  November,  1918,  and  today! 
Treaty  making  in  Versailles  in  1919!  The  human  misery  of  all  Europe 
during  the  war  years  and  up  to  the  present  moment!  The  astounding 
transformations  that  have  occurred  in  the  hearts  and  lives  of  our  ovm 
people  since  the  new  era  opened!     Finally,  the  uncertainty,  the  fore- 

1  President's  address  at  the  Berkeley  Meeting  of  the  Pacific  Division, 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  August  4-7,  1921. 


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SCIENTIFIC  IDEALISM  329 

boding,  the  background  of  distrust,  hatred,  and  fear  with  which  all  the 
peoples  of  the  earth  look  toward  the  future! 

Surely  there  is  ground  enough  for  the  supposition  that  realism,  a 
realism  as  stupid  and  brutal  as  Satan  himself  could  rejoice  in,  has  at 
last  established  its  full  claims — ^that  idealism  has  departed  from  the 
earth  wholly  and  for  all  time. 

And  what,  they  ask,  has  contributed  more  to  these  results  than 
science?  Have  not  scientific  discovery  and  invention  based  on  such 
discovery  so  involved  man  in  a  network  of  material  forces  and  me- 
chanical devices  that  he  can  hardly  satisfy  a  single  need,  gratify  a  single 
desire,  form  a  single  idea,  or  think  a  single  thought  without  the  per- 
mission of  this  tyranny  of  material  things? 

For  a  modem  seriously  to  attempt  to  live  traditional  idealism  for 
one  day  could  result  only  in  death  or  something  worse  before  the  setting 
of  the  sun. 

Nor  is  this  the  worst  that  science  has  done.  In  these  grosser  mat- 
ters the  injury  to  idealism  has  consisted  only  in  thrusting  the  sensible 
realities  of  nature  more  numerously,  more  variedly  and  more  insistently 
than  ever  before  into  the  problem  of  living  from  hour  to  hour  and  day 
to  day. 

Of  graver  concern,  science  has,  we  are  told  to  remember,  entered  die 
very  domain  of  philosophy  and  besieged  the  citadel  of  idealism  itself. 
Even  the  strongholds  of  morality  and  religion  are  not  spared  by  the 
advance  of  realistic  science.  Copemican  astronomy,  Lavoisian  chem- 
istry, Lyellian  geology  and  Darwinian  biology  have  united  in  construct- 
ing so  solid  a  foundation  for  a  realistic  philosophy  of  all  life  that  the 
time-honored  super-structure  of  idealistic  philosophy  is  doomed  to  col- 
lapse and  ruin. 

The  fact  is  thrown  into  our  faces  by  the  acceptors  of  the  view  that 
science  is  implacably  hostile  to  idealism,  that  in  these  last  years,  not 
satbfied  with  its  imminent  victory  over  theoretic  idealism,  it  has  en- 
tered into  full  alliance  with  the  ancient  powers  of  darkness  and  ma- 
lignity to  accomplish  the  destruction  of  idealism  itself  and  of  all  that 
idealism  has  created  in  the  world. 

High  power  explosives  with  guns  and  tanks  and  dreadnaughts  and 
submarines  and  aircraft  to  make  them  effective  went  far  toward  real- 
izing this  ambition,  but  the  finishing  stroke  is  poison  gases.  The 
abundance  of  raw  material  for  their  manufacture,  the  ease  of  their 
transportation,  the  secrecy  with  which  their  nature  and  manufacture 
can  be  surrounded  and,  finally,  the  large  co-efficient  of  deadliness  of 
the  best  of  them,  make  them  very  promising  as  means  for  completing 
the  business  of  destroying  all  the  works  of  civilized  races,  if  not  the 
races  themselves.    Of  course  no  people,  not  even  the  scientists  whose 


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33©  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

demotion  to  research  diacovers  the  gases,  intended  to  nae  these  npon 
themselves.  The  enemy  alone  are  to  be  destroyed.  But  since  the  enemy 
can,  if  also  scientifically  civilized,  discover  poison  gases  too,  the  result, 
whether  consciously  aimed  at  or  not — ^the  destruction  of  all  idealism 
and  its  fruits — is  certain. 

But  is  this  picture  of  the  state  of  things  really  true?  Is  sdenoe 
indeed  so  destructive  an  enemy  to  idealism? 

I  deny  it  Never,  I  aflBrm,  has  science  been  purposely  hostile  to 
idealism.  Never  has  it  designed  to  act  against  idealism.  In  so  far  as 
science  has  injured  idealism  it  has  done  so  undesignedly  and  unmrit- 
tingly.  Science  has  gone  on  its  way,  singl&dninded,  bent  only  on  ever 
increasing  man's  store  of  natural  knowledge,  on  penetrating  ever 
farther  into  the  depths  of  natural  truth. 

But  denial  that  the  harm  done  by  science  to  idealism  has  been  in- 
tentional is  of  little  consequence.  What  I  chiefly  care  about  is  not  the 
blamelessness  of  science  for  its  injury  to  idealism.  I  would  set  forth 
the  true  relation  of  science  to  idealism  and  the  moral  obligation  whidi 
this  relation  forces  upon  science.  My  aim  is  to  acknowledge  the  ter- 
rible error  committed  by  science  in  holding,  even  by  implication,  that 
it  knows  nothing  about  morals  and  has  no  moral  obligations,  and  to 
show  something  of  the  nature  of  its  obligation. 

Speaking  in  broad  terms,  what  I  want  to  point  out  is  that  once 
science  gives  serious  attention  to  the  question  of  its  own  relation  to 
idealism  and  realism  it  recognizes  that  the  first  question  to  be  decided 
is  not  that  of  idealism  vs.  realism,  not  that  of  idealism  or  no  idealism, 
nor  of  realism  or  no  realism.  Rather  it  is  the  question  of  what  in  es- 
sence idealism  is,  and  what  realism  is. 

To  push  this  inquiry  to  exhaustiveness  would  need  days.  We  seem 
stopped  on  the  tlireshold  by  the  demand  for  a  treatise  while  all  we  can 
have  is  a  tract.  But  it  is  not  wholly  so.  From  its  very  oflSce  as  a  minis- 
trant  to  the  common  life  of  mankind,  science  can,  if  true  to  herself, 
concentrate  her  elaborate,  forbidding  treatises  into  simple,  dramatic, 
appealing  tracts  at  the  urgent  need  of  humanity. 

It  is  in  response  to  the  danger  call  of  civilization  that  I  seek  to  re- 
duce to  the  dimensions  of  a  tract,  the  laborious  findings  of  science  on 
the  real  nature  of  the  conflict  between  humanity's  longings,  beliefs, 
hopes  and  faiths  and  those  forces — ^grim,  powerful  and  ever  alert — 
which  oppose  their  attainment 

Notice,  in  the  first  place,  the  kinship  of  science  with  our  ordinary 
intelligence.  Nobody  doubts  that  every  item  of  our  matter-of-fact 
knowledge  about  the  universe  in  which  we  live  is  anything 
else  than  part  and  parcel  of  our  general  store  of  knowledge. 
Surely  what  the  housewife  knows  about  the  things  of  her  home;  what 


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SCIENTIFIC  IDEALISM  331 

the  workman  knows  about  his  tools  and  materials;  what  the  merchant 
knows  about  his  goods;  what  the  engineer  knows  about  the  structure, 
the  plans  and  the  materials  of  which  it  is  made;  what  the  physician 
knows  about  our  bodily  members  in  health  and  disease,  are  but  parts 
of  common  knowledge.  But  the  articles  that  so  much  concern  die 
housewife,  the  workman,  the  merchant,  the  engineer,  the  physician  are 
the  very  same  that  concern  the  scientist.  The  only  difference  is  that 
they  concern  the  housewife,  workman,  engineer  and  physician  more 
immediately,  more  vitally  than  they  do  the  scientist.  So  the  scientist, 
being  perforce  also  domestic,  workman,  merchant  and  so  on,  is  less 
apt  to  contend  that  his  special  knowledge  is  wholy  different  in  kind 
from  the  knowledge  of  work-a-day  men  and  women.  None  have  cher- 
ished the  characterization  of  science  as  organized  common  sense  more 
than  have  scientists. 

But  again,  has  anybody  ever  doubted  that  mental  structures  in  die 
f  onn  of  memories,  guesses,  views  and  ideas  enter  essentially  and  largely 
into  the  intelligent  pursuit  of  all  callings?  Planning  the  next  meal,  the 
next  house-cleaning,  the  next  jacket  for  baby;  visualizing  more  ef- 
fective wrenches  and  augurs  and  knives;  imagining  hats  and  shoes  and 
gowns  more  appealing  to  customers,  are  part  of  the  very  life  of  the 
successful  housekeeper,  mechanic,  merchant.  Just  so  it  is  as  to  essen- 
tial mental  procedure  with  the  scientific  investigator.  Apart  from 
something  mentally  pictured  but  not  yet  realized — apart  from  some 
hypothesis — scientific  discovery  is  unthinkable.  Would  any  scientist 
daim  that  science  is  less  dependent  on  ideas  than  is  housekeeping, 
bladcsmithing  or  merchandizing? 

But  having  ideas  is  never  the  whole  story  in  any  department  of 
rational  human  living.  Everywhere  and  always  the  mental  picture, 
the  idea  is  something  aimed  at,  something  needed  or  desired  for  the  ful- 
filment or  completion  or  rounding  out  of  some  still  larger,  more  in- 
clusive need  or  desire.  Whether  the  adage  "Nothing  existeth  to  itself 
alone"  be  strictly  true  or  not,  it  certainly  is  true  as  to  ideas.  It  is  as 
much  the  nature  of  ideas  to  be  in  relation  with  one  another  and  with 
other  things  as  it  is  for  them  to  exist  at  all.  It  is  from  this  inter-related- 
ness,  this  mutual  dependence  of  ideas  and  their  relation  to  the  indi- 
vidual's life  as  a  whole  that  they  get  whatever  drive  and  potency  they 
have.  But  ideas  plus  the  valuations  placed  upon  them  and  die  im- 
pulsions to  act  connected  with  them  are  exactly  the  things  to  which  com- 
mon experience  has  given  the  name  ideals.  Ideals  are  ideas  in  action 
or  ready  for  action  toward  some  supposedly  good  end. 

From  this  it  is  seen  that  the  scientist,  especially  the  investigator,  is 
of  necessity  an  idealist  by  the  same  token  by  which  the  ordinary  indi- 
vidual is  an  idealist.    His  idealism  differs  from  that  of  other  men  only 


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332  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

as  his  technical  knowledge  differs  from  their  common  knowledge; 
namely,  in  that  he  uses  his  technical  knowledge  differently  from  the 
way  practical  men  use  their  common  knowledge.  The  outcome  of  this 
is  the  perception  that  science  is  not  only  idealistic  but  that  its  idealism 
marks  the  very  summit  of  true,  that  is  natural,  idealism. 

The  idealism  of  Christian  theology  and  last  century's  speculative 
philosophy  are  pseudo-idealism.  They  are  disembodied  idealism. 
They  are  mythical  or  dramaturgic  idealism.  If  consequently,  they  have 
been  stripped  of  some  of  their  power  it  is  only  false  power  that  has 
been  taken  from  them  and  they  have  suffered  only  as  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  other  products  of  man's  imagination  have  suffered  when  it 
breaks  away  from  its  naturalistic  setting  and  its  control  by  the  totality 
of  human  life. 

If  science  is  so  beneficent  in  aim,  how  comes  it  that  in  spite  of  its 
gigantic  prevalence  in  our  day,  that  day  fraught  though  it  be  with 
calamity  and  human  misery  perhaps  as  terrible  as  any  of  all  the  ages 
past,  is  yet  heavy  with  borebodings  of  still  greater  calamity?  Mani- 
festly something  has  stood  in  the  way,  is  standing  in  the  way  of  man's 
becoming  the  beneficiary  of  this,  surely  one  of  the  most  notable  and 
unique  of  all  his  creations. 

Is  it  possible  that  man  should  bring  into  existence  so  mighty  a 
thing,  so  potentially  beneficent  a  thing  as  science  and  yet  fail  to  reap 
its  benefits;  indeed,  should  allow  it  to  become  a  powerful  ally  of 
forces  working  to  his  ruin? 

Astounding  though  the  truth  may  be,  an  open-minded  reading  of  the 
story  of  man's  career  on  earth  reveals  that  he  has  always  been  doing 
just  thai  sort  of  thing!  Human  history  furnishes  no  guarantee  that  man 
will  use  any  good  thing,  even  of  his  own  creating,  to  his  own  full  and 
lasting  benefit 

In  all  the  stages  of  human  culture  from  the  lowest  savagery  to  the 
highest  civilization  men  demonstrate  their  ability  to  employ  their  blu- 
est spiritual  powers  as  well  as  their  lowest  physical  powers  to  their 
own  harm,  even  to  their  destruction.  Religion,  art,  learning,  philan- 
thropy no  less  than  appetite,  sex  and  material  wealth — man  has  time 
and  again  made  to  contribute  to  his  own  undoing.  This  is  a  truth  the 
perception  of  which  is  greatly  important.  But  of  still  greater  im- 
portance is  the  perception  of  another  closely  related  truth,  namely  that 
with  civilized  man  it  lies  ever  within  the  range  of  his  intelligence  to 
choose  that  course  of  action  which  will  make  him  a  continuous  benefi- 
ciary of  anything  his  intelligence  enables  him  to  produce.  In  its  very 
nature  intelligence  is  able  to  prevent  its  own  creations  from  being 
harmful.  Of  course  man  will  never  choose  that  which  he  is  certain 
will  do  him  more  harm  than  good.  It  is  only  as  to  probabilities  of 
harm  and  good,  or  greater  and  lesser  good,  or  greater  and  lesser  harm, 
that  his  choosing  so  often  goes  amiss. 


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SCIENTIFIC  IDEALISM  333 

To  gain  an  understanding  of  these  wonderful  paradoxes  of  humaB^ 
nature  would  require  a  treatise.  Sufficient  to  say  that  it  is  possible  to 
go  far  toward  such  an  understanding  if  we  start  with  a  mind  wide  open 
to  the  idea  of  man's  kindred  with  the  rest  of  living  nature,  particularly 
with  the  rest  of  animal  nature,  and  go  through  to  the  end  vigorously 
and  unflinchingly.  For  myself,  I  am  convinced  that  western  civiliza- 
tion has  come  at  last  to  a  situation  where  nothing  short  of  an  unquali- 
fiedly and  carefully  worked  out  system  of  juOaral  ethics  will  secure  its 
continued  progress;  indeed,  will  save  it  from  deterioration  and  final 
decay. 

Ours  is  a  day  for  great  and  fateful  decisions.  Mighty  goals  of  ob- 
jective reality  and  mighty  possibilities  of  action  must  be  chosen  among. 

Neither  optimism  nor  pessimism  but  that  confidence  which  the 
wisely  informed  can  alone  possess  is  now,  as  never  before,  the  way 
of  salvation. 

Let  me  outline  what  seems  to  me  the  most  important  part  scientists 
must  play  in  developing  such  an  ethics  as  has  just  been  mentioned  and 
making  the  vital  choices  presented  by  the  situation.  The  first  thing  for 
them  to  do  is  to  accept  unfalteringly  and  insist  upon  the  necessity  that 
all  others  shall  accept,  the  facts,  all  of  them,  without  addition  or  sub- 
traction, which  the  system  of  nature,  including  human  nature  pres^its. 
The  haggling  that  has  gone  on  among  the  learned  of  the  western  world 
for  two  thousand  years  over  the  question  of  whether  nature  revealed 
throuj^h  our  senses  is  the  ultimate  reality  or  an  illusion  of  one  sort  or 
another,  must  be  and  I  believe  is  in  a  fair  way  to  be  brought  to  an  end 
before  long.  Nevertheless  it  is  astonishing,  once  one's  attention  is  fixed 
on  the  point,  how  prevalent  still  even  among  men  of  science  is  the 
ancient  state  of  uncertainty  about  the  value  of  facts,  and  the  still  more 
ancient  custom  of  furbishing  them  up  in  hundreds  of  ways  to  suit  pre- 
adopted  ideas  and  ideals.  Many  an  excellent  scientist  still  speaks  of 
the  laws  of  nature  as  though  they  were  quite  apart  from  and  above  the 
facts  of  nature.  To  such  scientists  laws  are  the  essence  of  trutli  while 
facts  are  without  much  dignity,  being  mere  objects  of  sense.  Beyond  a 
few  such  vital  facts  as  the  body's  need  for  air,  water  and  solid  food, 
it  seems  that  many  scientists,  in  common  with  millions  of  the  un- 
scientific, still  conceive  themselves  privileged  to  select  such  facts  as 
interest  them  and  to  ignore  all  such  as  do  not  interest  them.  Uncritical 
a  priorism  still  flourishes  mightily  in  one  form  or  another  in  the  home 
of  science.  These  marks  of  immaturity  of  science  produce,  under  the 
stress  of  modem  conditions,  sundry  untoward  consequences.  For  one 
thing  a  new  kind  of  criticism  of  science  has  been  growing  up  in  very 
recent  years.  The  old  conflict  which  theology  forced  upon  science  dur- 
ing the  early  centuries  of  the  intellectual  rejuvenation  of  Europe  vir- 
tually ended  about  fifty  years  ago  with  science  triumphant 


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334  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

This  new  criticism  which  science  is  encountering  is  sociological  and 
ethical  rather  than  theological.  The  essense  of  the  criticism  is  that 
science  is  not  regardful  of,  indeed  is  largely  inimical  to,  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  man.  This  results,  it  is  charged,  from  the  avowed  material- 
istic and  mechanistic  character  of  science.  For  one  I  frankly  admit 
that  there  is  much  justice  in  this  criticism,  but  I  believe  close  scrutiny 
of  the  situation  will  discern  that  the  real  grounds  of  it  are  less  in  the 
fact  that  science  is  materialistic  and  mechanistic  than  that  it  beludes 
what  is  grealest  and  best  in  human  nature^  especially  in  human  per- 
sonality. 

What  is  the  defect  within  the  body  of  science  that  makes  it  open  to 
such  criticism? 

For  several  decades  past  there  has  been  great  controversy  witUn 
the  domain  of  the  biological  sciences  over  the  relative  merit  of  mechan- 
ism and  vitalism.  This  controversy  is  largely  academic,  and  conse- 
quently shows  no  signs  of  reaching  a  conclusion.  The  solution  will 
come,  I  am  quite  sure,  through  the  emergence  of  the  problem  from  the 
realm  of  pure  theory  into  that  of  practical  life.  The  form  which  the 
inquiry  assumes  when  it  comes  into  the  realm  of  human  actuality  is 
this:  Accepting  the  patent  fact  that  man  is  so  wonderfully  machine- 
like that  he  may  be  called  a  machine,  at  least  provisionally,  the  ques- 
tion arises  in  what  sense  a  machine?  Would  he  be  a  machine  in  the 
sense  of  mathematical  mechanics  or  in  some  other  sense?  The 
theory  that  he  is  a  machine  after  the  manner  of  mathematical  me- 
chanics disposes  of  itself  quickly  and  completely  the  moment  it  sub- 
mits to  the  test  of  practicability.  Nothing  is  more  distinctive  of  manu- 
factured machines  than  that  they  can  be  standardized.  All  the  indi- 
vidual machines  of  a  particular  kind  can  be  so  constructed  that  all  the 
parts  are  interchangeable.  Wheel  for  wheel,  shaft  for  shaft,  lever  for 
lever,  plate  for  plate,  bolt  for  bolt — they  are  cast,  often  literally,  in 
the  same  mold.  To  the  last  detail  it  matters  not  at  all  which  piece  goes 
into  which  machine.  And  note  what  is  implied  in  the  expression  the 
'^assembling*'  of  manufactured  machines — ^predesign  and  independent 
fabrication  are  implied. 

These  marks  set  off  the  manufactured  machine  so  sharply  from 
the  human  machine,  if  we  decide  it  may  so  be  called,  that  no  one,  not 
even  the  most  dogmatic  bio-mechanist,  would  deny  the  facts.  Several 
other  equally  important  differences  could  be  pointed  out,  but  may  be 
omitted  for  brevity's  sake.  If  men,  actual  men,  are  to  be  called  ma- 
chines, the  term  must  have  a  sharply  different  meaning  from  what  it 
has  to  the  manufacturer.  What  shall  this  different  meaning  be?  How 
shall  it  be  arrived  at? 

Nothing  stands  out  more  unequivocally  in  the  natural  history  of  the 
human  species,  particularly  of  those  portions  of  it  that  have  made  no- 
table advances  in  culture,  than  that  such  advances  have  been  due  pri- 


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SCIENTIFIC  IDEAUSM  385 

marily  to  a  very  few  individuals  who  are  called  great  because  of  their 
special  capacities.  The  fact  is  never  denied.  All  progress  is  initiated 
by  the  great  warrior,  the  great  political  organizer,  the  great  poet,  the 
great  philosopher,  the  great  explorer,  the  great  inventor,  the  great  physi- 
cian, the  great  teacher — one  or  a  very  few  of  each  kind  for  each  na- 
tion. Except  for  these  rare  ones  there  would  be  little  or  no  cultural 
progress,  little  or  no  civilization.  The  fact,  I  say,  is  not  in  question. 
Even  when  due  allowance  is  made  for  the  pressure,  external  and  in- 
ternal, of  general  need,  the  importance  and  role  of  which  I  do  not  for 
a  moment  minimize,  that  pressure  seems  sure  to  come  largely  to  naught 
miless  the  exceptional  individual  arises  to  lead  and  guide  the  latent 
forces.  Only  when  it  comes  to  interpreting  the  facts  is  there  question. 
Of  course  one  who  is  committed  to  the  dogma  that  natural  law  in  the 
sense  of  unvarying  regularity,  of  perfect  evenness  of  procedure,  is  the 
essence  of  natural  truth,  while  facts  are  only  sensory,  is  bound  to  find 
some  way  to  avoid  accepting  these  great  personalities  as  truly  signifi- 
cant so  far  as  the  general  scheme  of  things  is  concerned.  They  must  be 
reduced  to  '^nothing  huts"  somehow,  when  a  universal  view  is  sought 
They  are  to  be  regarded  as  accidents  or  by-products  in  the  operation  of 
central  forces  or  of  environmental  pressure  according  to  the  last 
decade's  biological  orthodoxy.  Or  according  to  this  decade's  biologi- 
cal orthodoxy  they  are  mere  somatic  variants,  wholly  independent  of 
the  germ  plasm  and  consequently  meaningless  so  far  as  the  real  part  of 
organic  matter  is  concerned.  It  is  admitted  that  such  exceptional  per- 
sonalities have  cut  some  figure  in  the  past  career  of  man.  For  the  future, 
with  the  improvement  of  the  germ  plasm  under  eugenic  guidance,  their 
role  will  become  less  and  less  until  finally  there  will  be  reached  the  far- 
off  state  of  absolute  uniformity  in  an  excellence  which  formerly  would 
have  been  called  divine. 

The  logically  ideal  human  goal  of  the  mechanistic  philosophy  is  that 
all  men  shall  be  standardized  after  the  manner  of  automobiles,  on  a 
model  that  is  eugenically  perfeqt  Man,  germinally  perfected,  accord- 
ing to  this  philosophy  would  be  standardized  on  the  level,  say  of 
Packard  limousines.  Fords,  Chevrolets,  Essexes — small,  cheap,  and 
worst  of  all,  different,  would  be  eliminated. 

Pray  do  not  miss  the  main  point  here.  You  can  hardly  fail  to  see 
that  it  concerns  the  moral  bearings  of  the  mechanistic  philosophy.  But 
particular  moral  qualities  and  criteria  of  right  and  wrong  are  not  my 
present  subject.  My  point  is  rather  to  show  that  the  dead-levelness  of 
that  philosophy  has  no  room  for  such  conception  as  right  and  wrong  at 
all.  The  basal  question  is:  Could  there  be  such  a  thing  as  virtue  if  there 
were  nothing  but  virtue,  or  if  virtue  were  one  only  and  that  one  wholly 
devoid  of  gradation?  The  mechanistic  philosophy  of  life  implies  a 
solution  of  the  problem  of  good  and  evil  by  eliminating  difference. 


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336  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

This  brings  me  to  the  plaoe  were  I  can  indicate  the  direction  in  which 
the  solution  lies  of  biology's  controversey  over  mechanism  and  vitalism. 
The  cue  is  given  by  the  demand  of  nature  herself  that  personality  shall 
be  accepted  and  respected.  Common  sense  surely  finds  no  difficulty  in 
heeding  this  demand,  nor  can  it  object  to  calling  man  a  machine  if  some 
way  of  designating  the  machine  shall  be  adopted  which  recognizes  the 
obvious  difference  between  the  human  and  any  inanimate  machine  what- 
soever. And  no  designation,  thus  discriminative,  could  be  more  satisfac- 
tory than  the  simple  word  ^'living"  prefixed  to  the  word  machine  when 
the  human  or  any  other  kind  of  animal  is  referred  to.  If  the  difference 
between  a  living  man  and  the  same  man  dead  be  accepted  at  face  value, 
I  am  quite  sure  all  sensible  persons  would  willingly  recognize  men  as 
machines — ^would  even  be  willing  to  be  called  machines  themselves. 

The  practical  objection  to  the  mechanical  philosophy  of  life  is  that 
because  it  has  no  place  in  its  scheme  for  the  person  it  really  has  no 
plaoe  for  life  itself.  A  non-living  thing  is  more  real  and  hence  more 
significant  than  a  living  one  to  this  philosophy.    A  dead  horse  would  . 

be  as  valuable  as  a  live  one  to  the  mechanistic  philosopher  who  should  | 

stick  to  his  philosophy  in  his  practical  life. 

For  brevity's  sake  I  am  going  to  assume  that  in  any  imaginable  real 
world  of  real  men,  women  and  children,  difference  both  in  kind  and  de- 
gree is  as  indispensable  to  virtue  as  is  food  or  anything  else  without 
which  life  could  not  exist.  And  here  our  reflections  reach  far  beyond 
the  mechanical  philosophy,  for  we  cut  square  across  the  main  axis  of 
ethical  theory  that  has  dominated  European  thought  for  many  cen- 
turies, that  theory  hinging  on  belief  in  the  ultimate  good,  necessarily 
one  and  alone  because  without  a  rival,  as  the  proper  goal  of  human 
striving. 

There  is  now  general  agreement,  I  believe,  among  those  who  work 
practically  as  contrasted  with  those  who  discourse  abstractedly  on 
moral  problems,  that  one  cannot  rightly  assess  or  wisely  promote  a 
particular  good  until  he  knows  what  evil  lurks  within  or  bdiind  it 
Nor  can  he  effectively  combat  a  particular  evil  until  he  knows  what  good 
is  mingled  with  it.  These  things  I  assume  without  argument,  for  I  must 
leave  a  little  time  in  which  to  show  how  diversity  of  talent  and  virtue, 
even  to  the  greatest  genius,  though  irreconcilable  with  a  rigorously 
mechanistic  philosophy  of  human  life,  is  perfectly  reconcilable  mth  a 
naturalistic  philosophy  conceived  in  accordance  with  the  best  tradi- 
tions of  the  natural  history  sciences. 

Let  me  be  very  objective.  Systematic  botany  and  zoology  have  long 
been  the  type  of  natural  history  or  the  natural  sciences.  In  common, 
practice  they  have  been  placed  over  against  the  physical  sciences  on 
the  one  hand  and  the  humanistic  sciences  on  the  other.  Fixing  atten- 
tion more  on  subject  matter  than  on  knowledge  corresponding  to  it,  we 
see  at  once  that  nothing  sets  the  plant  and  animal  worlds  off  from  the 


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SCIENTIFIC  IDEALISM  337 

inanimate  world  more  obtrusively  than  the  enormous  number  and  di- 
versity of  kinds  in  the  former  as  contrasted  with  those  in  the  latter. 
Then  comparing  the  plant  and  animal  world  with  the  human  world  we 
see  that  nothing  stands  out  more  sharply  than  the  diversity  of  indi- 
viduals in  the  human  world  as  contrasted  with  that  in  the  plant  and 
animal  worlds.  The  point  is  brought  home  with  great  force  by  noticing 
that  each  individual  in  the  human  world  has  a  name  all  to  itself  where- 
as very  little  of  this  occurs  in  either  of  the  other  worlds.  But  the  excep- 
tions are  highly  significant  A  few  of  the  higher  animals,  notably  those 
most  closely  associated  with  man,  do  have  names.  Speaking  broadly, 
the  human  world  presents  itself  to  our  understanding  as  composed  of 
individuals  and  the  plant  and  animal  worlds  as  composed  of  species, 
while  the  inanimate  world,  sharply  contrasted  with  both,  stands  in  our 
knowledge  as  composed  of  a  comparatively  few  kinds  of  mass  and 
energy.  The  continents  of  the  earth  appear  as  land  masses  and  the  seas 
as  bodies  of  water.  Cloud  masses  bring  rain,  and  coal  and  oil  de- 
posits and  mountain  streams  furnish  power.  The  point  to  be  kept  in 
the  foreground  is  the  indubitable  fact  that  all  solid  advance  in  science 
has  done  as  much  to  validate  diversity  in  nature  as  it  has  to  validate 
uniformity.  It  may  be  said  with  strict  truthfulness,  I  think,  that  science 
rests  just  as  much  on  laws  of  diversity  as  it  does  on  laws  of  uniformity. 
There  is  no  justification,  psychological,  logical  or  of  any  other  sort  for 
the  common  assumption  that  the  essence  of  scientific  knowledge  is 
uniformity  alone.  Surely  we  cannot  affirm  that  there  could  be  scien- 
tific or  any  other  knowledge  without  uniformity  in  nature.  But  equally 
surely,  we  cannot  affirm  that  there  oould  be  scientific  or  any  other 
knowledge  without  diversity  in  nature. 

Of  the  many  chapters  in  the  history  of  science  that  could  be  drawn 
upon  for  proof  of  the  conclusions  just  stated  time  will  permit  the  no- 
tice of  but  one.    But  that  one  is  epochal  and  crucial. 

I  refer  to  the  fact  that  variety — difference — in  living  nature  had  to 
be  taken,  as  though  a  thing  of  free  grace,  by  Darwin  for  the  very  foun- 
dation of  his  theory  of  descoit.  And  I  call  attention  to  this  vital  truth: 
Darwin  and  all  the  ablest  naturalists  since  bis  time  have  devoted  some 
of  their  best  powers  of  observation  and  of  thought  to  the  problem  of 
organic  variety  and  variation,  the  one  unqualifiedly  positive  result  of 
which  has  been  to  widen  and  deepen  the  recognized  fact  of  such  diver- 
sity. Almost  endless  has  been  the  controversy  over  the  casual  explanO' 
tion  of  variation;  but  over  the  fact  of  it,  no  controversy  at  all.  So  it 
happens  that  when  the  naturalist  passes  from  the  world  of  plants  and 
of  animals  to  that  of  man,  preserving  the  mental  attitude  and  using 
the  general  method  which  his  whole  career  has  made  second  nature  to 
him,  he  finds  the  individuality  and  personality  so  distinctive  of  the 
new  realm  readily  conformable  to  his  disciplinary  predilection,  his 
mental  and  manual  technique,  and  his  conceptual  scheme. 

VOL.  Xin.— 22. 

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338  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

One  fact,  however,  though  by  no  means  new  to  him,  stands  out  with 
such  boldness  in  the  new  reahn  as  to  make  him  ply  his  methods  of 
treating  diversity  with  more  assiduity  and  thoughtfulness  than  ever 
before.  That  fact  is  this  very  one  of  personality.  The  material  with 
which  he  deals  in  the  human  realm  compels  him  to  notice  attentively 
that  the  separateness  and  independence  of  human  beings  are  not  only 
quantitative  and  numerical  but  are  qualitative  as  well.  They  are  not 
only  isolated  and  thus  individual  but  they  are  differently  individual. 
Every  human  being  is  not  merely  an  oAer,  relative  to  all  the  rest,  but 
it  is  a  different  other. 

I  call  special  attention  to  the  fact  that  otherness  and  qualkaUvely 
different  otherness  are  very  distinct  conceptions,  and  I  insist  on  the  im- 
portance of  the  distinction,  so  vitally  does  it  concern  practical  human 
affairs.  Recognition  of  this  distinction  would  be  promoted  by  adopting 
distinctive  terms  for  the  two.  There  should  be  a  general  term  for  mere 
numerical  otherness  and  another  term  for  qualitatively  different  other- 
ness. In  my  own  usage  I  have  come  to  make  the  two  terms  individuality 
and  personality  serve  these  ends.  Latterly  for  me  an  individual  man, 
woman,  child,  is  only  an  other  man,  woman,  child;  while  a  personal 
man,  woman,  or  child  is  not  only  an  other  but  a  different  other.  The 
full  significance  of  thus  distinguishing  individuality  from  personality 
is  seen  only  when  we  consider  it  as  pertaining  to  the  social  and  ethical 
realms. 

In  order  rightly  to  exhibit  it  in  these  realms  it  is  necessary  to  refer 
to  still  another  aspect  of  the  evolution  theory,  that  is  the  adaptive  char- 
acter of  living  things.  That  man  is  dependent  upon  adaptation  to  his 
environment,  as  are  all  other  organisms,  is  now  so  much  a  truism  that 
the  general  fact  only  needs  referring  to  as  a  preliminary  to  mentioning 
an  aspect  of  the  broad  problem  which  has  not  yet  got  a  sufficiently  se- 
cure and  influential  place  either  in  conunon  knowledge  or  science.  That 
men,  like  all  other  organisms  must  be  adapted  to  their  surroundings 
is  so  obvious  that  no  one  questions  it.  But  recognizing  that  adaptation 
is  essential  in  certain  aspects  of  life  and  in  the  relation  of  life  to  cer- 
tain aspects  of  environment,  is  quite  a  different  thing  from  recognizing 
that  every  aspect  of  life  whatever,  is  adaptive  to  environment,  environ- 
ment being  considered  broadly  enough. 

Beginning  in  modem  times  with  the  astronomy  of  Copernicus  and 
Galileo  the  whole  march  of  physical  science  onward  to  this  very  day 
with  its  discoveries  like  those  of  the  Curies  and  Michelson,  have  been 
toward  a  commanding  outlook  from  which  may  be  seen  the  unity  of 
all  inanimate  nature.  Similarly  the  march  of  biological  science  has 
been  toward  a  commanding  outlook  from  which  the  unity  of  living 
nature  is  in  clear  sight.  All  this  has  brought  it  to  pass  that  an  ade- 
quate interpretation  of  man's  relation  to  nature  cannot  be  reached  by 


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SCIENTIFIC  IDEALISM  339 

taking  man  and  environment  each  piece-meal,  with  many  of  the  pieces 
quite  ignored  even  at  that. 

Nothing  less  than  human  nature  in  its  entirety  will  suffice  for  the 
basis  of  modem  interpretation  of  man's  relation  to  nature.  Conse- 
quently when  that  relation  is  expressed  in  the  terms  of  adaptation  and 
environment  each  must  be  generalized.  Every  aspect  of  human  life, 
spiritual  as  well  as  physical,  must  be  recognized  as  adaptively  related 
to  some  of  the  aspects  of  the  system  of  nature  as  a  whole  in  its  role  as 
environment  of  human  life.  Not  positive  kowledge  alone,  but  art,  fine 
as  well  as  industrial,  philosophy,  and  religion,  are  manifestations  of 
man's  ^ort  to  solve  the  problem  of  his  existence  upon  earth.  They 
are  all  partly  means  and  partly  ends  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  this 
familiar  and  much  abused  phrase  being  rightly  understood. 

And  now  for  the  main  point  in  connection  with  the  idea  of  adapta- 
tion. I  have  just  referred  to  the  abused  phrase  ^^struggle  for  existence." 
One  aspect  of  the  abuse  of  it  is  in  applying  it  everywhere  and  at  all 
times  but  without  any  analytical  definition  of  it.  It  is  constantly  used 
with  its  most  general  meaning  but  rarely  so  applied  to  any  special  in- 
stance. Yet  a  little  reflection  brings  to  light  the  glaring  inadequacy 
of  such  usage.  Does  any  one  suppose  that  the  struggle  of  a  tree  for 
existence  is  the  same  kind  of  struggle  as  that  of  a  fish  or  a  bird  or  a 
man?  Is  anything  more  obvious  than  that  what  a  sea  anemone  does 
in  struggling  fot  existence  is  quite  different  from  what  a  lion  does? 
All  manner  of  sophistical  argument  can,  I  am  aware,  be  produced 
to  justify  common  practice  in  this  matter.  But  the  facts  of  the  situation 
are  so  obvious  that  for  the  unsophisticated  these  arguments  do  not  need 
reviewing  or  answering.  Manifestly  the  principle  according  to  which 
the  idea  of  struggle  in  living  nature  must  be  applied  if  it  is  to  corre- 
spond to  the  facts  and  to  be  really  useful,  must  be  expressed  about  as 
follows:  The  general  phrase^  struggle  for  existence^  is  meaningless 
for  any  particular  plant  or  animal  except  as  the  struggle  is  for  the  ex- 
istence of  that  plant  or  animal^  according  to  its  particular  kind. 

A  tree  struggles  for  a  tree's  existence  not  for  a  fish's  or  a  bird's  or 
a  man's  existence;  and  furthermore  in  each  case  for  some  particular 
kind  of  tree  or  fish  or  man.  An  oak's  struggle  is  different  from  a  pine's 
struggle;  a  Fijian's  struggle  is  different  from  a  Parisian's,  and  so  on 
through  the  whole  gamut  of  life,  past,  present  and  future. 

Let  us  bring  this  principle  home  with  all  its  inherent  force.  To  this 
end  we  fix  attention  upon  that  portion  of  the  animal  realm  to  which  we 
ourselves  belong;  namely  the  portion  equipped  with  highly  developed 
muscular  and  nervous  systems  and  body  members  for  making  these 
systems  effective.  Nothing  is  more  obvious  even  to  commonsense 
zoology  than  that  the  part  of  animal  creation  thus  equipped  falls  nat- 
urally into  two  main  divisions.    There  are  brute  animals  and  there  are 


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340  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

human  animals.  And  what  differences  between  brutes  and  humans  axe 
the  most  striking?  There  are  at  least  two  which  stand  out  so  conspic- 
uously that  even  a  child  notices  them.  These  are  first,  the  upright 
posture  of  the  human  being,  by  which  his  hands  are  freed  from  die 
locomotor  function  and  made  available  for  all  sorts  of  activities  in 
obedience  to  intelligence;  and  second,  the  language  mode  of  expression 
of  the  human  animal.  To  be  sure,  neither  of  these  separates  the  hu- 
man from  the  brute  absolutely.  If  they  did  they  would  be  quite  out 
of  harmony  with  the  principles  which  prevail  everywhere  in  natural 
history  and  so  would  be  far  less  significant  Many  brute  aninmls  do 
assume  the  upright  posture  to  some  degree  and  use  their  fore  limbs  for 
other  purposes  than  moving  about;  and  many  of  them  surely  express 
themselves  to  some  extent  in  ways  which  can  be  properly  designated 
as  language.  But  the  fullness  of  development  of  each  of  these  attri- 
butes in  the  human  as  contrasted  with  its  development  in  any  of  the 
brutes  is  such  that  no  one  ever  fails  to  distinguish  the  lowest  living  hu- 
man from  the  highest  living  brute.  When  we  come  to  scrutinize  closely 
these  two  differences,  the  free  hands  and  language — ^we  find  the  bipedal 
form  and  habit  of  the  human  as  contrasted  with  the  quadrupedal  form 
and  habit  of  the  brute  and  likewise  the  linguistic  power  of  the  human  as 
contrasted  with  the  brute  are  both  inseparably  connected  with  the  fact 
that  the  activities  of  brutes  are  predominantly  hereditary;  that  is,  are 
performed  according  to  plans  and  methods  passed  along  from  parents  to 
offspring  in  the  same  way  that  plans  of  physical  organs  and  parts  are 
passed  along.  On  the  other  hand,  with  humans  we  find  the  activities  not 
predominantly  hereditary.  That  is  to  say,  they  are  not  inborn  but  have 
to  be  acquired,  learned  afresh  by  each  individual.  We  express  diis 
difference  by  calling  the  activities  of  brutes  mainly  instinctive  and  those 
of  humans  mainly  rational  and  intelligent  Brute  animal  activity  is 
largely  instinct  while  human  animal  activity  is  largely  on  the  basis  of 
intelligence  and  reason. 

When  civilized  man  is  reached  in  the  evolutional  scale  the  eons  old 
struggle  for  existence  takes  the  form  of  the  struggle  of  mankind  for 
and  on  the  basis  of  ideas  and  ideals.  These  ideas  and  ideals  are  nat- 
ural by  the  same  token  that  sensations,  reflex  actions  and  instincts  are 
natural — ^that  token  being  that  all  alike  belong  in  deepest  essence  to 
the  very  nature  of  man. 

About  the  most  convincing  sign  that  an  attribute  of  any  living 
being  is  natural  is  its  adaptability.  An  attribute's  adaptiveness  is  that 
by  virtue  of  which  it  contributes  to  the  fitness  of  the  being  to  live  in 
the  surroundings  in  which  its  life  is  set 

The  fact  of  natural  origin — origin  by  birth  and  growth — and  of 
natural  adaptiveness  imply  that  adaptation  is  never  absolutely  perfect, 
hence  forever  needs  improvement,  is  forever  open  to  progress.  It  is 
demonstrated  by  observations  on  the  activities  of  brute  animals  and 


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SCIENTIFIC  IDEALISM  341 

of  primitive  men  as  they  live  in  nature  that  the  imperfection  of  adaptive- 
ness  to  conditions  of  life  mider  purely  sensory  and  rdlexive  activity  is 
very  serious.  In  fact  it  is  so  serious  that  great  injury,  even  great  de- 
struction comes  to  individual  and  race  because  of  it.  Indeed  I  believe 
it  demonstrable  that  had  not  nature  found  a  way  of  correcting  the  in- 
jurious activities  to  which  purely  instinctive  behavior  is  ever  liable, 
progress  in  animal  evolution  would  have  ended  in  such  classes  as  in- 
sects and  reptiles.  But  to  find  such  correctives  is  a  part  of  the  very 
essence  of  organic  origin  and  growth. 

The  great  correctives  found  by  nature  are  what  we  call  reason  and 
intelligence,  essential  elements  in  which  are  Ideas  and  Ideals.  Accord- 
ing to  common  conception  ideas  have  their  seat  in  the  human  brain, 
while  ideals  are  seated  first  and  foremost  in  the  human  heart. 

This  sketch  of  the  part  Science  is  playing  and  still  more  must  play 
in  the  herculean  task  of  producing  a  system  of  natural  ethics,  is  now 
finished.  But  before  leaving  it  I  will  try  to  compact  into  the  limits 
of  a  last  minute,  the  substance  of  what  has  been  said. 

Brute  animal  life  became  transformed  into  human  animal  life 
through  the  countless  millenniums  of  struggle  of  all  life  to  fit  itself 
ever  more  completely  to  the  conditions  which  make  any  life  at  all 
possible. 

Victory,  under  the  name  humanity,  finally  crowned  the  struggle 
when  and  because  of,  the  slow  and  painful  acquisition  by  the  coming 
victor  of  the  power  to  wage  the  struggle  on  the  basis  of  ideas  and  ideals 
instead  of  on  the  ancient  basis  of  the  purely  hereditary,  that  is  instinct- 
ive activity  of  his  brute  ancestors. 

Tliis  new  and  higher  form  of  the  struggle  as  it  occurs  within  and 
among  the  members  of  the  human  species  gives  what  in  broadest  gen- 
erality we  name  the  Moral  Law.  And  so  it  is  that  Moral  Law  is  Nat- 
ural Law,  Natural  Law  in  its  application  to  man  being  the  totality  of 
the  impulsions,  the  efforts,  and  the  acts,  by  which  mankind  strives  to 
attain  its  own  highest  good  by  making  itself  ever  better  fitted  for  liv- 
ing, whether  in  this  or  in  any  other  world  that  may  be  its  abode. 


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342  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


FIELD   CROP   YIELDS   IN   NEW   JERSEY   FROM 
1876  TO  1919 

By  HARRY  B.   WEISS 

CHIEF,  BUREAU  OF  STATISTICS  AND  INSPECTION,  NEW  JERSEY  DEPARTBfENT 

OF  AGRICULTURE 

WHILE  New  Jersey,  on  account  of  its  extensive  trucking  areas,  its 
peach  and  apple  orchards,  its  plantations  of  small  fruits,  etc., 
is  generally  known  ad  the  ''Garden  Staite,"  as  a  matter  of  fact  about 
75  per  cent,  of  its  agricultural  acreage  is  devoted  to  the  growing  of 
corn,  wheat,  rye,  oats,  buckwheat,  potatoes,  sweet  potatoes  and  hay. 
In  spite  of  its  varied  and  intensive  manufacturing  ii^erests  aod  its 
growing  suburban  territory,  its  farms  produced  in  1920  over  11,- 
000,000  bushels  of  corn,  1,500,000  bushels  of  wheat,  over  1,000,000 
bushels  of  rye,  almost  3,000,000  bushels  of  oats,  2,000,000  bushels 
of  sweet  potatoes,  almost  15,000,000  bushels  of  white  potatoes  and 
545,000  tons  of  hay.  It  is  entirely  with  tbese  crops  that  the  present 
paper  deals,  particularly  with  their  average  yields  per  acre  from 
1876  to  1919.  A  study  of  the  yields  over  such  a  length  of  time  should 
indicate  at  least  in  part  either  agricultural  progression  or  retrogresdcm 
and  should  afford  some  evidence  as  to  the  value  and  results  of  agricul- 
tural teachings  over  that  period. 

Of  the  factors  controlling  yields,  climate  undoubtedly  is  the  most 
important  and  by  climate  is  meant  sunlight,  the  presence  or  absence 
of  which  influences  the  amounts  of  sugars,  starches,  fats,  proteins,  etc; 
temperature,  which  influences  germination,  growth  and  in  pait  die 
activities  of  soil  bacteria  and  moisture  or  rainfall  which  detennines 
the  activities  of  soil  bacteria  and  hence  the  availability  of  plimt  food. 
Only  occasionally  are  all  of  the  elements  making  up  climate  favorable 
for  the  plant  over  its  entire  period  of  growth  and  when  this  happens 
we  have  as  a  rule  maximum  yields  and  bumper  crops.  Climate  as  a 
whole  can  not  be  regulated,  although  by  irrigation  rainfall  can  be 
supplemented.  By  the  selection  of  hardy  species  of  plants  %an»  cli- 
matic effects  can  be  overcome  and  by  mulches,  evaporatitm  and  there- 
fore loss  of  heat  from  the  soil  can  be  reduced.  For  the  most  pait  how- 
ever yields  are  at  the  mercy  of  dimate. 

Another  important  factor  entering  into  yields  and  one  whichi  is 
controllable  to  a  certain  point  is  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  The  natural 
fertility  can  be  added  to  by  the  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  and  farm 


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FIELD  CROP  YIELDS  IN  NEW  JERSEY  343 


and  green  manures.  The  soil  itself  can  be  improved  by  the  use  of 
green  and  animal  manures  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  amount 
of  vegetable  matter  and  therefore  its  water  holding  power  and  bacterial 
activities.  Increasing  the  yielding  power  by  the  addition  of  fertilizers 
is  of  course  possible  only  up  to  the  point  where  the  law  of  diminishing 
returns  starts  to  operate  and  other  limiting  factors  are  extra  labor 
and  material  costs  which  must  be  considered  together  with  the  prices 
received  for  farm  products. 

Still  another  element  is  crop  rotation.  A  good  rotation  favors  high 
yields  by  utilizing  plant  food  more  evenly,  by  conserving  moisture  and 
regulating  humus  and  by  the  prevention  of  rapid  losses  of  fertility. 
In  other  words,  one  crop  helps  to  prepare  the  soil  for  another  or  for 
the  following  one.  Additional  elements  influencing  yields  are  seed 
selection,  preparation  of  seed  bed,  winterkilling,  wind  injury  and  the 
activities  and  control  of  injurious  insects  and  plant  diseases. 


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344  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

Having  thus  briefly  and  geoerally  covered  the  more  important 
factors  bearing  upon  yields,  let  us  turn  our  attoitioD  to  the  charts 
showing  the  curves  of  yearly  average  yields  per  acre,  together  with 
ten-year  averages  and  the  fifty-year  average  for  the  important  field 
crops  of  New  Jersey.  The  ten-year  average  curves  are  based  on  the 
yearly  averages,  this  resulting  in  lines  which  are  much  easier  to  follow. 
It  is  with  such  curves  that  we  will  deal  principally.  As  shown 
in  the  chart,  the  average  yield  of  com  began  to  decline  below 
the  fifty-year  average  about  1883  and  continued  until  1890  when  the 
lowest  point  was  reached.  From  1891  it  rose  slowly  but  not  until  1909 
or  18  years  later  did  it  reach  the  fifty-year  average  again.  From  1891 
however  the  ten^year  average  slowly  increased.  Buckwheat  dropped 
below  the  fifty-year  average  line  about  1881  and  further  declined  until 
1890  when  it  reached  its  lowest  point  From  then  on  it  increased 
sharply  until  1899,  when  the  fifty-year  average  was  readied  and  con- 
tinued less  sharply  from  that  date.  Rye  b^an  to  decline  in  average 
yields  in  1881  and  reached  a  low  level  in  1890,  after  which  it  gradually 
increased  Wheat  followed  a  course  similar  to  that  of  rye.  The  ten- 
year  average  curve  for  oats  shoivs  little  variation  for  the  entire  period. 
The  hay  curve  shows  a  slight  decrease  about  1880  and  continues  down 
until  1889.  From  1890  on  it  rises  slowly.  The  potato  curve  shows 
little  variation  until  1902  after  which  date  it  climbs  steadily.  The 
sweet  potato  curve  indicates  a  steady  increase  in  average  yields  from 
1878  on  with  the  greatest  rate  of  increase  taking  place  after  1899. 

Comparison  of  Ten-Year  Average  Curves 
Crop  Decline  Lowest  Increase 

begins  point  reached  begins 

Com    1883  1890  1891 

Buckwheat   1881  1890  1891 

Rye  1881  1890  1891 

Wheat    1881  1890  1891 

Hay    1880  1889  1890 

Potatoes    (white)    1902 

Sweet  potatoes    1899 

From  1880  to  1883  all  of  the  above  crops  except  white  and  sweet 
potatoes  b^an  to  yield  less,  the  lowest  points  being  reached  in  tlie 
years  1889  and  1890.  From  1891  on,  the  average  yields  of  most 
gradually  increased,  potatoes,  sweet  potatoes  and  buckwheat  at  a 
faster  rate  than  com  and  hay. 

In  an  attempt  to  explain  the  causes  underlying  the  dips  and  rises 
in  the  ten-year  average  curves,  the  climatic  fdctor  can  be  ignored.  It 
is  difficult  to  find  any  single  definite  reason  which  will  account  for  the 
declines  in  the  cases  of  corn,  buckwheat,  rye,  wheat  and  hay  fr(»n  1880 
to  1890.    It  was  su^ested  that  a  loss  of  the  natural  fertility  might 


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FIELD  CROP  YIELDS  IN  NEW  JERSEY  845 


2C 


have  taken  place  at  that  time  but  this  is  not  possible  because  the  culti- 
vation of  the  soil  in  New  Jersey  was  neither  intensive  nor  long  con- 
tinued enough  by  1890  to  produce  such  a  state  of  affairs.  It  was  also 
suggested  that  this  decline  was  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
farmers  at  that  time  were  not  getting  enough  money  for  their  products 
to  warrant  the  purchase  of  fertilizers.  A  study  of  the  prices  received 
by  New  Jersey  farmers  for  their  products  from  1866  to  1920  as  shown 
by  the  diart  in  which  corn,  wheat  and  potato  prices  are  plotted  as  fair 
examples,  indicates  that  while  prices  from  1880  to  1890  were  low  ccMn- 
pared  with  the  prices  for  previous  years,  they  were  on  the  whole 
slightly  higher  than  the  prices  received  from  1900  to  1910  during 
which  time  more  commercial  fertilizers  were  being  used  and  yields 
were  increasing.  However  between  the  years  1880  and  1890  the 
prices  of  farm  products  were  undoubtedly  dropping  faster  than  the 
prices  of  manufactured  articles  and  such  a  condition  would  lead  to 
retrenchment  on  the  farms.    Dr.  Jacob  G.  Ldpman,  director  of  the  New 


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346  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


DC 


f 


Jersey  Agricultural  Experiment  Stations,  informs  me  that  tfie  early 
'80's  marked  the  end  of  the  extensive  use  of  greensand  marl  in  New 
Jersey  and  that  commercial  fertilizers  were  just  beginning  to  come  in. 
With  the  discontinuance  of  the  extensive  use  of  marl  after  1875  and 
the  lack  of  familiarity  on  the  part  of  the  farmers  with  commercial 
fertilizers,  there  was  naturally  a  period  of  depression  in  &e  fertility 
conditions. 

There  is  the  additional  fact  to  consider  that  in  the  early  years 
statistics  were  not  gathered  as  accurately  as  they  were  later,  and  in 
view  of  a  lack  of  figures  on  which  to  compute  ten-year  averages  before 
1876  the  declines  between  1880  and  1890  may  quite  possibly  be  parts 
of  a  more  or  less  natural  cycle  such  as  one  might  find  when  consider- 
ing such  variable  items  as  yields  and  the  factors  influencing  them  over 
a  long  period  of  time.     Moreover,  for  the  most  part,  the  declines  are 


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FIELD  CROP  YIELDS  IN  NEW  JERSEY  847 


i 


not  startling  as  will  be  seen  by  examining  the  scale  af  the  charts  and 
may  represent  simply  a  low  level  in  production. 

The  rises  of  the  ten-year  average  curves  are  of  more  interest.  These 
show  no  tendency  to  follow  definite  cycles  arrangeable  into  up  and 
down  periods,  at  least  not  for  the  thirty-year  period  from  1891  to  the 
present  time.  Practically  all  of  them  except  the  one  for  oats  show  a 
more  or  less  gradual  increase  from  1891  on.  In  explaining  the  reason 
for  this,  some  light  may  be  thrown  on  the  subject  by  noting  the  graph 
showing  the  rapid  growth  in  the  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  in  New 
Jersey.  The  New  Jersey  Experiment  Station  was  established  in  1880 
and  its  work  in  developing  the  knowledge  of  the  use  of  commercial 
fertilizers  is  one  of  the  outstanding  services  that  it  has  rendered. 
From  1882  to  1890  the  nine-year  average  consumption  was  about 
36,000  tons.    From  1890  on,  the  tonnage  gradually  increased  until  at 


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the  present  time  about  150,000  tons  are  used  each  year.  At  present 
there  is  a  more  or  less  marked  tendency  toward  the  use  of  more  con- 
centrated fertilizers,  which  means  that  a  smaller  tonnage  is  furnish- 
ing the  same  amount  of  plant  food  formerly  furnished  by  a  larger 
tonnage.  The  curve  of  fertilizer  consumption  from  1890  on  fits  in 
nicely  mth  the  ten-year  average  crop  yield  from  that  date  and  it  is 


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FIELD  CROP  YIELDS  IN  NEW  JERSEY  849 

reasonable  to  aasume  that  such  fertilizers  are  in  part  responsible  for 
the  increase  in  average  yields.  This  is  especially  true  for  potatoes 
on  which  comparatively  large  applications  are  made  and  to  a  less 
extent  for  sweet  potatoes.    Both  are  cash  crops. 

About  75  per  cent  of  the  fertilizer  tonnage  is  used  in  the  southern 
two-thirds  of  the  state  and  some  of  this  is  used  for  crops  not  considered 
in  this  paper.  It  is  in  this  section  that  the  bulk  of  the  white  potato 
and  all  of  the  sweet  potato  crops  are  grown.  North  of  where  most 
of  the  commercial  fertilizer  is  used,  are  found  the  bulk  of  the  wheat 
crop,  about  one-half  of  the  rye  and  practically  all  of  the  oat  and  budc- 
wheat  crops.  Com  and  hay  are  generally  distributed  over  the  entire 
agricultural  section  of  the  state.  The  slow  rate  of  increase  in  hay 
yields  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  fact  that  in  the  usual  rotations  prac- 
ticed in  New  Jersey,  hay  follows  such  crops  as  corn,  potatoes  and 
wheat  and  does  not  receive  fertilizer  applications  to  the  same  extent 
as  other  crops.  Oats  not  being  a  cash  crop  would  naturally  receive 
less  attention  than  the  others  and  this  accounts  for  the  little  variation 
in  the  ten-year  average  curve.  In  the  potato,  sweet  potato  and  tomato 
sections  of  the  state,  other  crops  like  com  and  grass  are  the  bene- 
ficiaries from  the  use  of  large  amounts  of  fertilizers.  Buckwheat, 
which  is  a  minor  crop,  has  received  little  or  no  attention  in  the  way  of 
improvement.  It  is  a  crop  which  yields  well  on  poor  land.  According 
to  the  chart  this  crop  shows  a  somewhat  higher  rate  of  yiel<d  increase 
than  the  others.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  has  ridden  in  on  the 
crest  of  the  improvement  wave  and  its  success  insofar  as  increased 
yields  are  concerned  is  due  to  the  improvement  which  took  place 
generally. 

In  addition  to  the  increased  and  intelligent  use  of  commercial  ferti- 
lizers, which  appears  to  be  the  most  important  factor,  other  factors 
which  have  played  their  parts  in  helping  to  increase  yields  and  which 
are  of  varying  degrees  of  importance,  are  improved  methods  of  soil 
management,  seed  selection  particularly  in  the  case  of  com  and  pota- 
toes during  the  past  few  years  and  increased  efficiency  in  controlling 
injurious  insects  and  plant  diseases.  It  may  also  be  noted  that  the 
introduction  and  extension  of  the  acreage  of  alfalfa  and  the  more 
intelligent  growing  of  other  legumes  have  played  a  part  in  the  im- 
provement of  the  productive  power  of  the  land.  Some  of  the  more 
common  l^umes,  like  soybeans,  cowpeas,  crimson  clover,  alfalfa  and 
vetch,  have  been  introduced  into  the  state  since  1880,  although  small 
acreages  of  some  were  known  before  that  date. 

These  increases  in  yields  can  be  taken  as  part  of  the  evidence  that 
farming  is  becoming  more  efficient  and  credit  is  due  to  all  agricultural 
agencies  in  the  state  which  have  contributed  toward  this  result  by 
advocating  and  striving  to  advance  new  or  better  methods. 


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350  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


THE  PLAY  OF  A  NATION 

By  Profcasor  G.  T.  W.  PATRICK 

UNIVEBSITT  OF  IOWA,  IOWA  CITT 

IF  we  use  the  term  play  quite  broadly  to  include  all  forms  of  sport, 
recreation  and  relaxation,  then  it  is  evident  that  in  work,  sleep 
and  play  most  of  our  time  is  spent.  Excepting  the  very  young  and  the 
very  old,  we  sleep  on  the  average  about  eight  hours  of  the  twenty-four. 
Most  of  us  work  at  something  or  other  eight  or  ten  hours,  more  or  less. 
This  leaves  six  or  eight  hours  for  recreation  and  relaxation. 

Of  course  there  are  other  ways  of  passing  the  time  not  strictly 
included  either  in  work,  sleep  or  play,  such,  for  instance,  as  eating 
and  love-making,  the  latter,  although  a  serious  and  instinctive  form 
of  behavior,  often  infringing  upon  or  wholly  absorbing  the  hours 
claimed  for  recreati<Hi. 

Evoi  at  the  worst,  however,  a  good  many  hours  of  every  day,  say 
two,  four,  six,  eight,  ten,  are  spent  in  some  form  of  play.  Since  we  in 
America  number  more  than  a  hundred  million  people,  it  follows  that  a 
good  many  hundred  million  hours  are  daily  spent  in  something  which 
goes  by  the  name  of  play,  be  it  recreation,  relaxation,  sports  or 
pastimes. 

Now  there  are  certain  psychological  laws  by  which  the  value  (rf 
play  may  be  tested,  enabling  us  to  say  in  advance  to  what  extoit  it  is 
real  play  having  restorative  and  recreational  value.  In  the  light  of 
these  laws,  it  will  be  interesting  to  study  the  actual  plays  of  our  Ameri- 
can people,  for  our  national  health  and  our  social  welfare,  as  well  as 
our  personal  health  and  happiness,  depend  a  good  deal  on  the  charac- 
ter of  our  play. 

When  we  think  of  our  national  sports,  baseball  comes  to  our  minds 
— and  football  and  basketball  and  golf  and  tennis.  When  we  think 
of  our  recreations,  perhaps  music  suggests  itself  or  the  theatre  or  spe- 
cial individual  pursuits  and  interests.  When  we  use  the  word  play, 
probably  we  visualize  children  at  some  indefinite  game — say  hide-and- 
seek. 

But  a  moment's  reflection  will  show  us  that  in  the  lives  of  our  hun- 
dred million  people  the  time  actually  spent  in  any  of  the  above  pursuits 
is  very  little.  Evidently,  if  this  study  is  to  be  of  value  as  a  social 
survey,  we  shall  have  to  be  more  concrete,  or  even  get  into  a  statistical 
mood. 


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THE  PLAY  OF  A  NATION  351 

How  then  do  we  as  a  people  actually  pass  our  hours  of  recreation 
or  relaxation?  Well,  some  of  us  read,  say  newspapers  or  magazines 
or  books  of  fiction,  some  of  us  smoke  or  even  drink,  some  make  social 
calls  or  just  lounge  and  chatter,  some  simply  sit,  some  talk  or  fuss  or 
gossip,  some  play  pool  or  billiards.  A  very  large  number  go  to  the 
movies.  Some  play  bridge.  Some  play  poker  or  shoot  craps.  Some 
bet  on  baseball,  football,  or  horseracing.  Many  ride  in  motor  cars. 
Occasionally  one  or  two  ride  horseback.  A  few  walk.  A  very  few 
swim  or  exhibit  themselves  in  scanty  costumes  with  the  ostensible  pur- 
pose of  swimming.  Once  in  a  while  one  may  go  to  the  g}innasium. 
Some  play  golf  or  toinis.  A  large  number  dance.  A  few  go  fishing 
or  hunting  or  camping.  A  certain  number  actually  participate  in  base- 
ball, football  or  basketball. 

This  is  not  intended  as  a  complete  list  of  our  recreational  activities 
but  may  a£ford  a  basis  for  the  present  study. 

We  in  America  live  rather  a  tense  life,  under  high  pressure.  Our 
diversified  interests,  our  many  social  duties,  our  multitudinous  respon- 
sibilities, our  insistent  worries,  even  our  stimulating  climate  combine 
to  make  our  modem  life  very  strenuous,  taxing  our  minds  and  bodies 
to  the  limit.  Many  succumb  to  the  rapid  pace  and  neuroses  of  various 
forms  increase.  In  a  way  we  are  all  at  the  front  and  in  the  trenches 
and  shell  shock  is  getting  to  be  pretty  common.  Hence,  the  need  of 
relaxation,,  recreation  and  play.  Psychologists,  social  workers,  re- 
ligious workers  and  employers  of  labor  have  all  awakened  in  recent 
years  to  the  importance  of  play. 

But  play  in  order  to  be  recreative  must  conform  to  certain  require- 
ments. All  plays  are  pastimes  but  not  all  pastimes  are  play.  Some  of 
them  seem  merely  to  satisfy  a  longing  for  excitement  Why  is  it,  since 
our  whole  modem  life  is  so  exciting  as  compared  with  former  ways  of 
living,  that  in  our  leisure  hours  we  seek  exciting  pastimes?  Why  the 
craving  for  gambling,  for  alcohol,  for  tea  and  coffee  and  all  sorts  of 
stimulants?  Why  do  we  not  seek  rest  and  complete  relaxation — a  let- 
ting down  and  slowing  up  of  our  rapid  pace?  Why  the  demand  for 
stimulating  drinks,  stimulating  moving  pictures,  stimulating  risks  in 
gambling,  stimulating  speed  in  driving?  Why  the  dancing  craze  and 
the  amusement  craze  which  at  first  sight  would  seem  to  increase  our 
fatigue  rather  than  allay  it? 

Fortunately  the  psychologists  have  worked  out  the  problem  for  us 
and  we  now  understand  fairly  well  the  psychology  of  play.  We  have 
learned  that  it  is  not  excitement  that  we  seek  in  play  but  release  from 
those  forms  of  mental  activity  which  are  fatigued  in  our  daily  life  of 
grind.  Play,  if  it  is  to  be  real  play,  that  is  if  it  is  to  have  recreational 
value,  must  be  of  a  sort  to  relieve  those  parts  or  tracts  of  the  brain 
which  are  overtaxed  in  our  daily  life  of  work  and  worry.    It  must  be 


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352  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

essentially  different  from  our  work,  opposite  in  every  respect.  The 
work-a-day  world  of  the  present  involves  certain  mental  processes 
which  are  comparatively  late  in  development  in  the  long  history  of 
human  evolution,  such,  for  instance,  as  concentration,  analysis,  ab- 
stract thought,  sustained  attention,  sustained  effort,  and  controlled  as- 
sociation, while  the  exigencies  of  our  social  life  demand  the  constant 
checking  or  inhibition  of  a  vast  number  of  natural  impulses  and  ap- 
petites. 

He  result  is  that  that  manner  of  cerebral  functioning  with  which 
these  higher  intellectual  and  volitional  processes  are  associated  is 
brought  under  a  severe  stress  and  strain,  leading  to  rapid  neural  fatigue 
and  an  urgent  demand  for  rest  and  relaxation.  It  is  not  more  sleep 
that  is  needed,  nor  rest  of  the  whole  body  and  brain,  but  relief  frcmi 
that  special  kind  of  activity  so  stressed  in  our  modem  competitive  life. 
It  is  probably  just  for  this  reason  that  we  crave  alcohol  and  tobacco 
because  they  are  not  stimulants  but  narcotics,  putting  a  temporary 
quietus  upon  just  these  overworked  forms  of  cerebral  activity. 

Figuratively  speaking,  we  may  say  that  what  is  needed  is  that  kind 
of  activity  which  will  relieve  the  higher  brain  centers,  while  allowing 
the  older  and  lower  ones  to  function.  This  is  not  strictly  accurate  from 
our  present  day  conception  of  the  brain.  What  really  happens  when 
we  think  hard,  pay  attention  closely,  decide  quickly,  or  hold  our  mind 
steadily  to  a  given  task,  is  better  expressed  as  a  kind  of  total  integra- 
tion of  cerebral  processes,  these  processes  taking  the  form  probably 
in  all  cases  of  reflex  arcs  or  reaction  arcs,  as  we  now  call  them.  This 
total  integration  of  brain  processes  is  impossible  for  childr^i  and  ex- 
tremely fatiguing  for  adults.  Children  therefore  must  play  all  the 
time  and  grown-ups  much  of  the  time,  if  break-down  is  to  be  avoided; 
and  by  play  we  mean  here  some  form  of  activity  which  does  not  in- 
volve this  total  int^ration  of  the  brain  areas. 

Play  then  to  be  wholesome  and  truly  recreative  must  involve  only 
those  areas  of  the  brain  and  those  parts  of  the  nervous  system  whidi 
in  the  evolution  of  man  are  old  and  pervious  and  easy.  They  are, 
so  to  speak,  the  brain  channels  which  are  deep-worn  and  natural.  The 
muscular  responses  in  play  must  be  those  which  past  ages  and  long 
usage  have  made  easy  and  familiar.  We  see,  therefore,  why  the  plays 
of  children  repeat  the  life  history  of  the  race.  The  cave,  the  tree- 
house,  the  swimming  pool,  the  camp-iire,  the  bow  and  arrow,  the  canoe, 
the  jack-knife,  the  ball  bat,  the  mimic  fight,  kites,  tops,  marbles, 
hunting,  fishing,  gathering  nuts,  the  cat,  the  dog,  the  teddy  bear,  the 
horse-race,  the  game  of  hide  and  seek,  the  charms  and  talismans  and 
superstitions — all  these  are,  as  it  were,  reminiscences  of  the  past  life 
of  the  human  species.  They  involve  brain  patterns  that  are  old  and 
familiar,  the  only  ones  in  fact  that  are  developed  as  yet  in  childhood 


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THE  PLAY  OF  A  NATION  353 

and  the  ones  that  in  adult  life  give  rest  and  release  from  the  fatiguing 
activity  of  the  hi^er  brain  centres  continually  stressed  in  our  daily 
life  of  grind. 

As  a  rough  rule  we  may  say  that  the  more  primitive  a  sport  is  the 
higher  its  recreational  value.  Good  sports,  therefore,  are  those  which 
involve  these  older  brain  patterns  and  this  criterion  we  can  use  in  judg- 
ing the  recreational  value  of  our  sports  and  pastimes  today. 

The  elements  of  rivalry,  competition,  and  contest,  as  ancient  forms 
of  self-expression,  act  as  purifying  motives  in  all  good  sports.  When 
these  are  absent,  as  in  the  moving  pictures,  the  dance,  and  the  automo- 
bile, the  recreational  value  of  the  play  falls  o£F  a  little.  In  human 
society,  especially  in  our  modem  crowded  social  groups,  we  are 
obliged  to  live  together  in  peace  and  harmony  and  have  to  inhibit  and 
suppress  a  great  many  of  our  natural  and  ancient  feelings  of  rivalry 
and  hatred.  This  constant  suppression  of  our  egoistic  impulses  re- 
sults in  many  serious  mental  complexes.  Games  of  rivalry  thus  pro- 
vide a  compensatory  element,  purifying  the  mind.  This  explains  why 
tliere  is  so  great  a  demand  for  games  in  which  this  element  of  rivalry 
takes  a  very  direct  and  primitive  form — the  form  of  a  regular  face  to 
face  battle— as  in  prize  fighting  and  football,  and  we  understand  why 
immense  crowds  flock  to  these  sports. 

I  know  a  husband  and  wife  who  live  together  in  great  peace  and 
happiness.  They  play  once  a  day  a  game  of  backgammon  in  which 
all  their  pent-up  and  unconscious  animosities  are  given  full  expression. 
During  the  time  of  this  game  they  exhibit  the  most  ruthless  antagon- 
ism, showing  no  mercy  to  their  opponent  but  bent  on  his  complete 
destruction  and  annihilation.    It  is  a  fight  to  the  finish. 

But  there  are  other  rules  by  which  to  measure  the  value  of  our 
play.  Since  our  modem  work-a-day  world,  at  least  in  our  American 
climate,  is  to  a  large  extent  sedentary,  confined  and  indoors,  our  sports 
to  be  of  the  greatest  value  must  be  out-of-door  sports. 

Finally,  our  sport  must  provide  for  self-expression.  In  self-expres- 
sion there  is  a  mystical  recreational  power.  Nothing  rests  one  so 
much  as  victory,  pursuit  and  capture.  All  good  games  introduce  the 
element  of  rivalry. 

Now,  equipped  with  these  tests  and  measures  of  good  play«  sports, 
and  pastimes,  we  are  prepared  to  examine  the  actual  recreations  of  our 
American  people  to  see  whether  they  stand  the  tests.  And  we  have 
already  discovered  what  these  sports  and  pastimes  are  and  have  only  to 
enumerate  them  again.  If  we  attempt  to  name  them  roughly  in  the 
order  of  their  prevalence,  the  order  would  seem  to  be  something  like 
this:  Reading,  movies,  dancing,  motoring,  walking,  card  games,  pool, 
baseball,  golf,  tennis,  football,  basketball,  swimming,  fishing,  hunting, 
camping,  gymnastics,  and  horseback  riding.    Such  a  classification  must 


VOL.  Xni.— 23. 


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364  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

be  very  general  and  even  the  most  popular  of  these  pursuits  might  be 
surpassed  in  popularity  by  other  less  definite  forms  of  recreation  or 
relaxation  such  as  sitting,  talking,  gossiping,  fussing,  lounging,  smok- 
ing, drinking,  gambling,  shopping,  etc. 

Applying  our  tests  to  these  forms  of  play,  it  becomes  clear  at  once 
that  golf,  tennis,  baseball,  football  and  basketball  stand  out  pre-emi- 
nently as  real  recreative  sports.  From  the  psychologist's  point  of  view, 
golf  may  be  cited  as  the  perfect  ideal  sport.  It  has  all  the  needed 
recreational  elements.  It  has  a  restorative  power  excelling  all  thera- 
peutic arts.  It  represents  a  reversion  to  the  natural  outdoor  life.  We 
range  over  hills  in  the  open,  using  the  muscles  of  the  legs,  arms,  and 
trunk.  We  carry  a  club  and  strike  viciously  at  a  ball.  We  search  for 
the  ball  in  the  grass  as  our  ancestors  searched  for  their  arrows.  There 
is  a  goal  and  the  spirit  of  rivalry  and  a  chance  for  self-expression. 
The  nerve  currents  course  through  ancient  channels.  We  return  to  our 
work  refreshed  and  rejuvenated.  Golf,  to  be  sure,  requires  fine  ad- 
justments of  eye  and  hand  at  the  mom^it  of  striking  but  there  is  no 
continuous  strain  upon  them  and  skill  of  this  kind  is  a  proper  element 
in  play.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  opportunities  for  golf  are  now 
limited  to  the  few.  Nothing  better  could  happen  to  our  nation  than 
a  wide  extension  to  our  people  of  the  opportunities  to  play  golf. 

As  regards  tennis  much  the  same  may  be  said.  Though  laddng 
some  of  the  distinctive  psychological  elements  of  perfect  sport  pos- 
sessed by  golf,  it  is  still  a  very  excellent  and  healthful  form  of  recrea- 
tion.   Opportunities  for  it  should  be  widely  extended. 

Baseball  and  football  have  certain  peculiar  qualities  whidi  rank 
them  as  high  or  possibly  even  higher  than  golf.  Being 'more  strenuous, 
they  are  better  suited  to  the  young  males,  while  golf  and  tennis  may  be 
played  by  all.  We  see  at  once  that  football  meets  all  the  conditions 
which  we  have  outlined  as  marks  of  good  sport.  There  is  running, 
kicking,  dodging,  tackling,  pursuit  and  capture.  There  are  also  the 
opposing  groups,  as  in  battle,  and  the  rough  rude  shock  of  personal 
collision.  All  these  ancient  responses  offer  complete  relaxation  and 
release  from  the  proper  and  pent  up  inhibitory  life  of  our  modem 
world.  Hiey  arouse  lat^it,  deep-seated  instincts  and  impulses,  allow 
us  to  revel  for  an  hour  in  these  ancient  memories  and  restore  us  to  our 
work  refreshed  and  purified.  It  is  the  grip  upon  us  of  that  which  is 
racially  old  which  explains  the  immaise  throngs  which  gather  at  the 
football  games.  Seventy  or  even  a  hundred  thousand  spectators  have 
been  reported  at  scxne  of  the  great  games. 

The  racial  elements  in  baseball  are  not  quite  so  old  but  are  sulEcient 
to  permit  the  catharsis  element  in  rare  degree.  Striking  and  throwing 
are  dear  to  every  boy,  and  these  ancient  responses,  the  ancestral  condi- 
tions of  race  survival,  are  dominant  in  baseball,  while  the  running  and 


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THE  PLAY  OF  A  NATION  355 

catching,  and  the  opposition  of  the  teams,  and  the  reward  of  skill  and 
of  strength  and  quick  decision  add  Co  the  real  recreational  value  of  the 
game.  The  recent  extension  of  non-professional  baseball  and  football 
among  school  boys  is  a  contribution  to  social  welfare.  Here  again, 
however,  the  application  of  the  statistical  method  awakens  our  con- 
cern. For  if  baseball  is  fitted  to  all  young  men  from  the  ages  of  four- 
teen to  thirty,  actual  regular  participation  in  it  will  be  foimd  to  be 
limited  to  relatively  few.    It  should  be  extended  to  a  larger  number. 

But  professional  basdball  as  a  national  sport  presents  a  different 
problem.  Here  the  '^players"  are  not  playing  but  working.  The  game 
18  a  profession,  a  strife  for  glory  and  for  money.  The  recreational 
features  are  now  transferred  to  the  spectators.  To  what  extent  is  base- 
ball of  recreational  value  to  the  fans?  lliey  usually  ride  out  to  the 
ball  park  in  auto  or  street  car,  sit  on  the  bleachers  during  the  game 
and  return  as  they  go.  Nevertheless  the  game  has  considerable  recrea- 
tional value  for  the  spectator.  The  galling  social  checks  and  inhibi- 
tions of  the  daily  grind  are  thrown  off  for  a  time.  Free  expression  is 
given  to  one's  feelings  and  enthusiasms.  There  is  a  mental  participa- 
tion in  the  game  and  no  doubt  usually  a  considerable  degree  of  rest 
and  relaxation  is  gained.  But  it  does  not  permit  of  self-expression 
and  is  far  from  an  ideal  form  of  play  and  at  the  best  the  number  en- 
joying it  is  relatively  small.  Basketball,  though  lacking  in  some  of  the 
distinctive  recreational  elements  of  baseball  and  football,  is  neverthe- 
less of  the  greatest  value  as  a  sport  and  stands  high  in  our  list 

Hunting  and  fishing,  swimming  and  camping  constitute  a  group  of 
sports  which  rank  high  in  the  list  of  valuable  recreations.  They  rep- 
resent a  return  to  the  conditions  of  primitive  life  and  involve  only 
racially  old  and  familiar  brain  patterns.  They  are  out-of-door  sports, 
using  the  fundamental  muscles  of  the  arms  and  legs  and  ccHupletely 
releasing  the  strain  upon  the  eye  and  hand  and  nervous  system.  Hunt- 
ing with  the  camera,  recommended  by  the  humane  societies,  is  well 
enough,  but  the  camera  it  not  a  substitute  for  the  gun  in  recreational 
value.  When  we  consider  the  horrors  of  the  late  war  and  remember 
that  if  the  nervous  tension  of  a  people  gets  too  high  it  may  overflow 
m  an  actual  orgy  of  human  bloodshed,  the  '^cruelty"  of  hunting  and 
fishing  seems  less  serious,  especially  if  they  act  as  a  release  of  the 
nervous  tension  increased  by  our  high  pressure  modem  life. 

Swimming  as  a  form  of  play  stands  very  high.  It  is  unfortunate 
that  so  fine  a  sport  should  be  degraded  by  the  entrance  of  other  ele- 
ments, such  as  sex  and  dress,  whidi  detract  from  its  pure  recreational 
value.  On  the  whole  the  reviving  interest  in  swimming,  bathing  and 
camping,  in  the  Boy  Scout  movement,  in  the  Campfire  Girls'  move- 
ment, and  in  the  whole  outing  cult  in  general,  is  a  most  encouraging 
sign.    These  are  healthy  forms  of  play. 


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366  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

But  here  again,  if  we  count  noses,  how  many  of  our  hundred  milli<m 
people  are  able  to  avail  themselves  of  these  sports?  The  relative  num- 
ber of  those  who  actually  do  engage  in  any  of  them  sufficiently  often 
to  serve  the  purpose  of  recreation  adequately  is  rather  small.  Oppor- 
tunity for  them  is  lacking  among  the  greater  number  of  our  people 
both  young  and  old.  One-half  of  our  whole  social  group,  namely  girls 
and  women,  are  at  once  debarred  from  participation  in  most  of  the 
sports  thus  far  discussed,  excepting  only  tennis  and  swinmiing  and 
perhaps  golf. 

We  have  therefore  to  consider  now  the  value  of  the  forms  of  recrea- 
tion in  whidi  there  is  actual  participation  by  large  numbers  of  our 
people  of  both  sexes,  young  and  old.  Motoring  first  demands  our  at- 
tention. As  there  are  more  than  eight  million  automobiles  in  the  United 
States,  as  most  of  these  are  kept  pretty  busy  through  many  if  not  all 
months  of  the  year,  as  each  one  may  carry  several  people  of  both  sexes, 
old  and  young,  and  as  a  considerable  proportion  of  this  riding  is  for 
purposes  of  recreation,  we  see  at  once  that  we  have  here  a  form  of  play 
of  very  wide  extension.  What  is  its  value  as  determined  by  our  psycho- 
logical tests?  Well,  it  is  out-of-doors  at  any  rate.  Fresh  air  is  fur- 
nished in  abundance,  and  for  our  indoor  workers  that  is  certainly 
something.  Man  is  by  nature  a  roamer.  He  resents  confinement.  He 
must  hav:,  a  change  of  scene.  He  loves  adventure.  For  old  men  and 
house-pent  women  the  motor  car  is  a  boon.  For  workers  whose  daily 
tasks  keep  them  on  their  feet,  the  automobile  is  a  rest  and  comfort.  It 
has  also  another  recreational  feature,  namely,  speed.  The  craving  for 
speed,  which  gives  zest  to  coasting,  skating,  and  flying,  is  probably  a 
survival  of  the  ancient  joy  of  pursuit  and  escape. 

Nevertheless,  for  the  average  man  and  woman,  and  especially  for 
the  child,  the  automobile  is  anything  but  a  blessing  as  a  form  of  play. 
For  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years  the  human  being  has  lived  on  his 
feet  and  made  his  living  by  means  of  his  legs.  Now  he  has  become,  to 
a  considerable  extent,  a  sitting,  lounging,  reading,  studying,  and  think- 
ing being,  and  a  whole  group  of  new  diseases  has  followed  this  seden- 
tary life.  It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  a  sitting  race  can  survive.  The 
motor  car  deprives  many  people  of  the  little  walking  whidi  they  would 
otherwise  do.  Each  new  car  advertises  softer  cushions,  an  easier  up- 
holstered back  to  support  the  shoulders  or  even  the  head,  and  more 
delicate  springs  to  ward  off  every  jar.  The  ease  is  seductive  and  we 
ride  even  to  our  offices  or  places  of  business. 

With  horseback  riding  the  case  is  wholly  differ^it  Here,  to  be 
sure,  the  legs  are  not  used,  but  a  whole  series  of  valuable  psychological 
factors  are  present  which  make  this  one  of  the  best  of  all  sports.  The 
horseback  rider  does  not  need  the  offices  of  the  osteopath  or  chiro- 
practor; his  spinal  colunm  gets  the  necessary  limbering  up;  and  the 


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THE  PLAY  OF  A  NATION  857 

mere  association  with  horses  adds  a  subtle  historical  element  of  the 
greatest  value.    The  automobile  is  suitable  for  convalescents. 

Walking  is  not  usually  classified  as  play.  It  is  nevertheless  of  ex- 
ceedingly great  value  as  a  means  of  recreation  for  sitting  people.  It 
lacks  many  of  the  prime  features  of  play  but  it  is  at  any  rate  always 
available  and  may  easily  be  a  life  saver. 

So  we  come  in  the  end  to  the  dance  and  the  moving  pictures,  for 
we  may  leave  out  of  consideration  a  long  list  of  recreations  whose  value 
the  reader  may  easily  appraise  by  using  the  tests  which  have  been 
enumerated,  such  for  instance  as  pool,  billiards,  card  games,  reading, 
gossiping,  gambling,  etc. 

If,  as  we  are  told,  twenty  million  people,  men,  women  and  children 
visit  the  movies  every  day,  we  have  at  least  one  form  of  recreation 
which  even  by  the  statistical  method  actually  reaches  the  whole  popu- 
lation without  distinction  of  age,  sex,  or  social  status.  The  moving 
picture  theater  is  everywhere,  in  the  large  city  accessible  almost  with- 
out the  use  of  a  street  car,  in  the  country  town  more  prominent  than 
the  church  and  school  house.  The  price  of  admission  is  so  moderate 
that  the  poorest  may  attend,  while  evening,  afternoon,  and  Sunday  ex- 
hibitions make  the  time  convenient  for  all. 

The  dance  is  not  quite  so  universal  as  the  movies  but  is  widely  en- 
joyed by  both  sexes  in  city,  town,  and  country. 

What  is  the  recreational  value  of  these  two  universal  forms  of 
play?  If  we  refer  again  to  our  table  of  tests,  it  would  seem  that  the 
dance  meets  all  the  conditions  except  the  out-of-doors  requirement  It 
is  an  ultra-primitive  form  of  human  activity,  as  old  as  mankind  itself. 
It  relieves  completely  the  strain  upon  the  eye  and  finger  muscles,  in- 
volving only  the  ear  and  the  larger  muscles  of  the  trunk  and  legs,  die 
rhythmical  movements  being  ancient,  easy,  and  natural.  The  higher 
brain  centers  are  completely  rested,  for  they  have  nodiing  to  do.  Tlie 
brain  patterns  of  the  dance  are  the  simplest  conceivable,  being  very 
old  and  familiar.  There  is  a  thrill  of  cherished  memories  associated 
with  the  dance  in  the  life  history  of  the  race.  This  explains  in  part 
its  fascination.  When  social  restrictions  are  lifted,  the  craze  for  danc- 
ing bursts  upon  a  sitting  and  sedentary  race  almost  with  the  furor  of 
an  epidemic  A  tired  and  nervous  people  finds  here  its  release,  a  re- 
laxation complete  and  satisfying.  There  is  opportunity  also  for  self- 
expression. 

The  more  primitive  the  manner  of  dancing  becomes  the  greater  its 
charm.  The  recent  revival  of  barbaric  syncopated  forms  of  music  to 
accompany  the  dance  and  the  still  further  reversion  to  steps  and  atti- 
tudes of  Ae  most  primitive  type  heighten  the  joy  and  accentuate  4e 
recreational  effects. 

But  it  is  right  here  that  we  encounter  certain  serious  difficulties  with 


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358  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

the  dance  as  a  means  of  recreation.  We  liye  in  highly  complex  social 
groups,  in  which  other  factors  than  merely  physiological  and  psydio- 
logical  ones  comit  The  social  and  moral  aspects  of  every  form  of 
recreation  have  to  be  considered.  The  modem  dance  owes  its  attrac- 
tiveness, not  wholly  but  partly,  to  the  sex  motive.  To  that  extent  it 
passes  out  of  the  sphere  of  play  activity  into  the  wholly  different 
sphere  of  love-making.  As  such  it  does  not  come  within  the  purpose 
of  this  paper.  This  mixture  of  motives,  however,  very  greatly  lessens 
the  value  of  the  dance  as  a  form  of  recreation,  excepting  of  course  the 
graceful  and  healthful  forms  of  folk  dancing,  the  revival  of  which  is 
a  sign  of  hope. 

Still  other  factors  lessen  the  value  of  the  dance  as  recreation.  Not 
only  is  it  indoors;  it  is  largely  a  night  pastime  and  has  incidental  asso- 
ciations of  late  hours,  extravagance  in  dress,  and  moral  surroundings 
not  always  good.  On  the  whole,  it  may  probably  be  said  that  while 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  individual  the  dance  in  itself  has  unlimited 
possibilities  as  recreation,  from  the  standpoint  of  social  health  and 
welfare  the  results  are  bad. 

If  we  consider  the  esthetic  dances  and  the  esthetic  factor  in  all 
dancing,  a  point  in  favor  of  the  dance  may  be  urged.  No  recreational 
force  could  be  imagined  better  for  a  spent  and  nervous  people  than  the 
enjoyment  of  beauty  in  all  its  forms.  Could  the  attention  of  the  Amer- 
ican nation  be  diverted  for  certain  hours  of  the  day  or  week  from 
its  feverish  pursuit  of  wealth  and  power  to  the  quiet  enjoyment  of 
beautiful  things,  its  salvation  would  be  insured.  Of  all  the  forms  of 
esthetic  ^oyment,  that  of  music  is  the  most  restful,  harmonizing,  and 
tranquilizing.  And  this  is  not  altogether  due  to  the  intrinsic  excellence 
of  music  over  the  arts  of  painting,  sculpture,  architecture  and  poetry, 
although  even  that  claim  might  be  urged.  The  restful  and  recreational 
value  of  music  for  our  people  is  due  in  a  peculiar  way  to  the  fact  of 
our  prevailing  eye-mindedness  and  finger-mindedness.  In  music  we 
find  our  release.  It  is  thus  a  hopeful  sign  for  the  permanoice  of  our 
civilization  that  in  our  public  schools  a  constantly  increasing  time  is 
given  to  music  and  the  other  fine  arts. 

The  compensatory  character  in  play  which  we  have  emphasized  is 
incidentally  well  illustrated  by  the  wave  of  jazz  that  has  swept  the 
world  and  now  spent  itself.  Ethically  and  esthetically  no  music  could 
be  worse  than  this.  But  as  a  temporary  restorative  of  nerves  shattered 
by  a  terrible  world  war,  no  music  could  be  better.  For  the  moment  the 
world  needed  a  complete  release,  a  primeval  pacifier.  It  seized  with 
joy  upon  the  music  and  the  dance  of  primeval  man  and  perhaps  for 
the  same  reason  has  reverted  in  other  ways  to  primeval  practices  and 
morals.  Having  thus  been  flushed  and  purged,  the  toiling  upward  way 
may  again  be  undertaken. 


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THE  PLAY  OF  A  NATION  359 

As  regards  the  movies,  one  point  in  their  favor  has  been  noted. 
Tliey  are  accessible  and  available.  They  satisfy  vicariously  the  love  of 
adventure,  the  roaming  instinct,  the  delight  in  the  new  and  the  strange 
and  the  wonderful.  They  are  absorbing,  diverting  the  weary  soul  from 
its  troubles.  They  relieve  the  strain  upon  the  will  by  the  plot-interest, 
which  carries  the  observer  along  without  effort.  They  bring  a  glimpse 
of  fairy  land  into  some  lives  that  are  drab  and  prosy.  Those  who 
cannot  even  dance  may  here  participate  in  the  sight  of  dancing.  To 
those  who  have  no  beauty  in  their  daily  surroundings,  beauty  is  brought 
in  many  forms  upon  the  screen. 

But  when  this  is  said,  all  is  said,  for  if  we  refer  again  to  our  table 
of  tests  of  recreational  factors,  we  find  nearly  all  the  elements  of  good 
play  wanting  in  the  movies.  Good  play  is  out  of  doors  and  involves 
the  larger  fundamental  muscles  of  the  trunk  and  legs,  and  for  children 
this  is  primary  and  indispensable.  They  must  be  active  in  play  and 
all  sedentary  people  must  be  active  in  play.  It  is  bad  enough  that 
children  should  be  confined  in  a  school-room  five  precious  hours  of 
the  day.  It  js  worse  if  they  are  penned  in  between  a  desk  and  a  seat. 
For  such  children  to  spend  still  other  hours  of  the  day  or  evening  or 
any  hours  of  their  holidays  in  confinement  is  serious,  and  especially  in 
these  days  of  universal  reading,  when  old  and  young  alike  spend  so 
many  hours  sitting,  reading  fascinating  books  of  fiction,  and  interest- 
ing magazines  and  pap^s. 

In  the  moving  picture  theater  the  bodily  confinement  is  complete 
and  uncompromising.  In  the  school-room  the  child  can  at  least  wrig- 
gle. In  the  movies  the  attention  is  so  wrapt  as  to  result  in  a  statue- 
like  rigidity  of  the  whole  body  for  hours.  For  adults  this  is  unfor- 
tunate; for  children  it  is  fatal.  Many  moving  picture  theaters  are 
stuffy.  Most  of  them  are  crowded.  The  physical  conditions  are  thus 
the  worst  possible  from  the  standpoint  of  recreational  needs. 

As  regards  the  use  of  the  sense-organs,  the  eye,  overworked  among 
our  modem  reading  people,  gains  no  rest  from  moving  pictures  but  is 
taxed  to  the  very  utmost  and  kept  under  strain  for  hours.  To  what 
extent  the  eyes  will  suffer  from  the  moving  pictures  I  am  not  here  dis- 
cussing. I  am  only  pointing  out  the  failure  of  the  movies  to  conform 
in  this  respect  to  recreational  requirements.  The  relations  of  the  eye 
and  ear  to  our  modem  life  are  such  that  good  music  is  of  far  greater 
value  as  recreation  and  relaxation  than  any  appeal  to  the  eye.  If  our 
play  is  to  take  the  form  of  any  oitertainment  on  the  stage,  good  music 
in  any  form,  whether  in  concert,  recital,  folk  songs,  or  opera,  would 
seem  to  be  deserving  a  very  high  place. 

Incidentally  it  should  be  mentioned  here  that  in  the  history  of  the 
race  the  most  intimate  and  human  relations  are  associated  with  the 
voice  as  used  in  speech.    The  Greek  tragic  drama,  which  drew  whole 


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360  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

populations  of  a  city  to  the  outdoor  stage,  depended  for  its  powerful 
appeal  largely  upon  the  human  voice.  The  spectacular  character  of 
the  modem  theater  seems  like  a  distinct  loss.  But  when  this  is  carried, 
as  in  the  moving  pictures,  to  the  point  where  human  life  and  society 
are  wholly  divorced  from  the  expressive  and  meaningful  tones  of  the 
voice,  we  seem  to  be  living  in  a  dessicated  and  ddumanized  world,  from 
which  all  intrinsic  worth  has  departed.  The  visual  world  depicted  on 
the  screen  has  movement,  plot-interest,  strangeness,  novelty,  excitement, 
intensity,  but  lacks  the  elements  whidi  are  soothing,  tranquilizing  and 
harmonizing.    It  is  neither  relaxation  nor  recreation. 

Another  aspect  of  the  moving  pictures  in  their  relation  to  the  human 
mind,  which  must  be  taken  into  account,  is  their  effect  upon  the  emo- 
tions. Aristotle's  catharsis  theory  of  the  drama  has  been  long  discussed. 
The  mind  is  supposed  to  be  purified  by  sudi  mild  excitement  of  the 
emotions  of  pity  and  fear  as  is  offered  by  the  tragic  scene  upon  the 
stage.  Our  pent  up  emotions  are  supposed  to  demand  expression  and 
the  drama  serves  as  a  kind  of  safety-valve,  allowing  the  emotions  a 
legitimate  and  harmless  outlet 

There  is  scant  psychological  evidence  to  support  this  theory.  The 
emotional  flooding  of  the  mind  whidi  the  spectator  experiences  prob- 
ably has  no  recreational  value  in  itself.  In  the  legitimate  drama  this 
tumult  of  the  emotions,  tempered  by  the  human  voice  and  by  all  the 
settings  of  real  art,  may  be  for  the  adult  a  harmless  accompaniment 
of  esthetic  enjoyment  In  the  moving  pictures  such  frequent  and  exces- 
sive overflow  of  the  emotional  life  can  hardly  fail  to  disturb  the  deli- 
cate balance  between  real  life  and  its  natural  emotional  response.  Cer- 
tain films  widely  exhibited  to  large  audiences  draw  too  heavily  upon 
the  emotions.  Old  time  revivalists  have  been  censured  for  working 
upon  the  feelings  of  their  hearers  by  appeals  to  the  very  intimate  and 
personal  experiences  connected  with  birth,  death,  and  marriage.  These 
tales  were  innocent  compared  with  the  harrowing  scenes  sometimes 
presented  on  the  screen.  Tears  flow  and  the  breast  heaves  but  the  nat- 
ural expression  of  emotional  states  through  action  is  prohibited.  In 
real  life  such  emotional  situations  lead  to  action.  In  the  movies  noth- 
ing happens.    The  natural  response  is  ladcing. 

We  must  conclude  therefore  that  from  the  standpoint  of  the  psy- 
diology  of  play,  the  movies  offer  little  of  recreational  value,  while  for 
children  they  may  be  the  source  of  the  most  pernicious  misdiief.  The 
physical  decadence  which  is  anyway  threatening  our  people  because 
of  our  modem  life  of  comfort,  ease,  and  inactivity,  with  its  excessive 
demands  upon  the  brain  and  its  neglect  of  physical  devdo^nnent,  is 
likely  to  receive  a  considerable  impetus  from  the  moving  pictures. 

As  I  am  speaking  here  of  recreational  values  only,  I  need  not  dwell 
on  the  moral  influence  of  the  movies.    Neither  can  one  pass  the  sub- 


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THE  PLAY  OF  A  NATION  361 

jeot  in  complete  silence.  From  this  point  of  view  one  needs  stronger 
phrases  than  ^*a  national  calamity"  and  ^'the  world's  worst  failure," 
which  have  recmitly  been  applied  to  these  pictures. 

Hitherto  humanity  by  tadt  and  universal  consent  has  been  willing 
for  the  sake  of  the  innocence  of  its  children  and  the  piurity  of  its  women 
to  draw  a  veil  before  the  worst  evils  of  the  world,  and  by  a  delicate 
instinct  to  touch  lightly  and  reverently  upon  its  most  sacred  insdtu- 
tiona.  It  has  always  been  assumed  that  there  are  some  things  too 
sacred,  some  too  intimate  to  be  exposed  to  public  view.  But  in  the 
moving  pictures  all  is  cheapened.  The  veil  is  ruthlessly  torn  from 
everything,  and  for  commercial  motives  only. 

The  pernicious  effects  of  flaming  abroad  to  every  toum  and  country- 
side moving  pictures  of  the  most  decadent  phases  of  city  life  must  be 
apparent  to  everybody,  but  to  introduce  our  young  children  to  all  this 
seems  like  social  suicide.  The  plot-interest  of  a  cheap  play  we  enjoy 
for  an  hour  but  the  plot-interest  in  life  itself  is  discounted  in  advance 
and  deadened.  The  moving  picture  concerns  say  that  the  public  de- 
mands sensational  and  erotic  pictures.  That  an  enlightened  social  com- 
munity should  allow  great  commercial  interests  to  exploit  its  children 
for  motives  such  as  these  is  beyond  belief.  Certainly  we  are  a  ccMn- 
placent  people. 

Whoi  society  comes  to  its  senses  and  sweeps  the  bad  pictures  from 
the  stage,  then  the  question  of  the  recreational  and  educational  value 
of  the  movies  will  be  more  carefully  raised.  The  recreational  value, 
aa  we  have  seen,  is  slight,  while  the  educational  value  has  been  gready 
overestimated.  The  diild,  as  any  educator  knows  now,  learns  by  doing, 
not  by  seeing.  The  moving  pictures  may  bring  to  the  child  a  visual 
image  of  many  things  but  what  is  more  important  is  that  he  himself 
should  learn  to  contribute  to  human  utilities,  that  he  should  take  his 
part  in  life,  that  he  should  learn  to  control  himself,  to  express  himself, 
to  read  and  write  and  speak  correctly,  that  he  should  know  how  to  ap- 
preciate good  language,  good  books,  good  music,  and  good  art,  that 
he  should  conduct  himself  as  a  responsible  moral  being  in  the  family 
and  in  the  social  group.  These  things  cannot  be  learned  by  seeing 
them  on  a  screen.  They  must  be  learned  by  long  and  persistent  train- 
ing in  the  actual  doing. 

In  conclusion,  it  would  seem  that  in  regard  to  the  actual  present 
day  recreations  of  the  great  body  of  our  American  people,  the  three 
which  rank  highest  in  respect  to  the  numbers  participating  in  them, 
namely,  the  dance,  the  movies,  and  the  automobile,  do  not  rank  high 
in  real  recreational  value  while  one  of  them  has  a  doubtful  social  value, 
and  one  a  widespread  pernicious  influence. 

Mr.  Chesterton  says  that  our  modem  people  do  not  know  how  to 
amuse  themselves  because  they  are  not  free  men.    Our  amusements  are 


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362  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

mechanical,  as  our  whole  life  is.  We  have  to  be  amused  by  machinery, 
such  as  the  cinema  and  the  automobile.  True  recreation  is  that  in  which 
we  ourselves  participate.    There  must  be  action  and  self-expression. 

It  will  not  do  to  lay  all  the  evils  of  the  present  time — and  they  aie 
very  threatening — upon  our  institutions  nor  upon  the  war.  To  a  con- 
siderable extent  they  have  their  source  in  the  unstable  brain  of  the  in- 
dividual. Our  material  and  social  environment  is  changing  very 
rapidly  while  the  human  brain  and  body  are  changing  little  or  not  at 
all.  Hence,  we  are  not  adjusted  to  our  environment  and  social  irrita- 
bility results,  venting  itself  usually  in  an  attack  upon  our  political  in- 
stitutions. 

Nothing  would  do  more  towards  the  solution  of  our  social  problems 
than  providing  healthful  and  harmonizing  recreations  for  the  nation. 
The  way  to  do  this  may  be  beset  with  difficulties  but  the  true  approach 
seems  to  be  through  the  public  schools.  The  cultivation  of  good  taste 
in  selecting  our  amusements  would  do  something,  but  practical  results 
will  be  more  likely  to  follow  the  enlarged  opportimities  for  good  sports 
and  healthful  plays  and  a  revision  of  our  school  program  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  English  system,  in  which  sports  and  play  are  an  integral 
part  of  the  public  school  curriculum. 


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EVARISTE   GALOIS  868 


EVAMSTE  GALOIS 
By  Dr.  GEORGE  SARTQN 

CARNEGIE  INSTITUTION 

NO  episode  in  the  history  of  thought  is  more  moving  than  the  life 
of  Evariste  Galois — ^the  yoimg  Frenchman  who  passed  like  a 
meteor  about  1828,  devoted  a  few  feverish  years  to  the  most  intense 
meditation,  and  died  in  1832  from  a  wound  received  in  a  duel,  at  the 
age  of  twenty.  He  was  still  a  mere  boy,  yet  ydthin  these  short  years  he 
had  accomplished  enough  to  prove  indubitably  that  he  was  one  of  the 
greatest  mathematicians  of  all  times.  When  one  sees  how  terribly  fast 
this  ardent  soul,  this  wretched  and  tormented  heart  were  consumed  one 
can  but  think  of  the  beautiful  meteoric  showers  of  a  summer  night 
But  this  comparison  is  misleading,  for  the  soul  of  Galois  vrill  bum  on 
throughout  the  ages  and  be  a  perpetual  flame  of  inspiration.  His  fame 
is  incorruptible;  indeed  the  apotheosis  ¥dll  become  more  and  more 
splendid  mth  the  gradual  increase  of  human  knowledge. 

No  existence  could  be  more  tragic  than  his  and  the  only  one  at 
all  comparable  to  it  is,  strangely  enough,  that  of  another  mathe- 
matician, fully  his  equal,  the  Norwegian  Niels  Henrik  Abel,  who 
died  of  consumption  at  twenty-six  in  1829;  that  is  just  when  Galois  was 
ready  to  take  the  torch  from  his  hand  and  to  run  with  it  a  little  further. 
Abel  had  the  inestimable  privilege  of  living  six  years  longer,  and  think 
of  these  years — ^not  ordinary  years  of  a  humdrum  existence,  but  six  full 
years  at  the  time  that  genius  was  ripe — six  years  of  divine  inspiration. 
What  would  not  Galois  have  given  us,  if  he  had  been  granted  six  more 
such  years  at  the  climax  of  his  life?  But  it  is  futile  to  ask  such  ques- 
tions. Prophecies  too  are  futile,  yet  a  certain  amount  of  anticipation 
of  the  future  may  be  allowed,  if  one  does  not  contravene  the  experience 
of  the  past.  For  example,  it  is  safe  to  predict  that  Galois'  fame  can 
but  wax,  because  of  the  fundamental  nature  of  his  work.  While 
the  inventors  of  important  applications,  whose  practical  value  is  ob- 
vious, receive  quick  recognition  and  often  very  substantial  rewards,  the 
discoverers  of  fundamental  principles  are  not  generally  awarded  much 
recompense.  They  often  die  misunderstood  and  unrewarded.  But  while 
the  fame  of  the  former  b  bound  to  wane  as  new  processes  supersede 
their  own,  the  fame  of  the  latter  can  but  increase.  Indeed  the  impor- 
tance of  each  principle  grows  with  the  number  and  the  value  of  its 
applications;  for  each  new  application  is  a  new  tribute  to  its  worth. 


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364  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

To  put  it  more  concretely,  when  we  are  very  thirsty  a  juicy  orange  is 
more  precious  to  us  than  an  orange  tree.  Yet  when  the  emergency  has 
passed,  we  learn  to  value  the  tree  more  than  any  one  of  its  fruits;  for 
each  orange  is  an  end  in  itself,  while  the  tree  represents  the  innumer- 
able oranges  of  the  future.  The  fame  of  Galois  has  a  similar  founda- 
tion; it  is  based  upon  the  unlimited  future.  He  well  knew  the  preg- 
nancy of  his  thoughts,  yet  they  were  even  more  far-reaching  than  he 
could  possibly  dream  of.  His  complete  works  fill  only  sixty-one  small 
pages;  but  a  French  geometer,  publishing  a  large  volume  some  forty 
years  after  Galois'  death,  declared  that  it  was  simply  a  ommientary 
on  the  latter's  discoveries.  Since  then,  many  more  consequences  have 
been  deduced  from  it,  and  Galois'  fundamental  ideas  have  influenced 
the  whole  of  mathematical  philosophy.  It  is  likely  that  when  mathe- 
maticians of  the  future  contemplate  his  personality  at  the  distance  of 
a  few  centuries,  it  will  appear  to  them  to  be  surrounded  by  the  same 
halo  of  wonder  as  those  of  Euclid,  Ardmnedes,  Descartes  and  Newton. 

Evariste  Galois  was  bom  in  Bourg-la-Reine,  near  Paris,  on  the  25th 
of  October,  1811,^  in  the  very  house  in  which  his  grandfather  had  lived 
and  had  founded  a  boys'  school.  This  being  one  of  the  very  few  board- 
ing schools  not  in  the  hands  of  the  priests,  the  Revolution  had  much  in- 
creased its  prosperity.  In  the  course  of  time,  grandfather  Galois  had 
given  it  up  to  his  younger  son  and  soon  after,  the  school  had  received 
from  the  imperial  government  a  sort  of  oflbnal  recognition.  When 
Evariste  was  bom,  his  father  was  thirty-six  years  of  age.  He  had  re- 
mained a  real  man  of  the  eighteenth  century,  amiable  and  witty,  clever 
at  rhyming  verses  and  writing  playlets  and  instinct  vdth  philosophy. 
He  was  the  leader  of  liberalism  in  Bourg-la-Reine,  and  during  the  Hun- 
dred Days  had  been  appointed  its  mayor.  Strangely  enough,  after 
Waterloo  he  was  still  the  mayor  of  the  village.  He  took  his  oath  to 
the  King,  and  to  be  sure  he  kept  it,  yet  he  remained  a  liberal  to  the  end 
of  his  days.  One  of  his  friends  and  neighbors,  ThcHnas  Francois  De^ 
mante,  a  lawyer  and  judge,  one  time  professor  in  the  Faculty  of  Law 
of  Paris,  was  also  a  typical  gentleman  of  the  ^^ancien  regime,"  but  of  a 
different  style.  He  had  given  a  very  solid  classical  education  not  only 
to  his  sons  but  also  to  his  daughters.  None  of  these  had  been  more 
deeply  imbued  ¥dth  the  examples  of  antiquity  than  Adelaide-Marie  who 
was  to  be  Evariste's  mother.  Roman  stoicism  had  sunk  deep  into  her 
heart  and  given  to  it  a  virile  temper.  She  was  a  good  Christian,  though 
more  concerned  with  the  ethical  than  with  the  mystical  side  of  religion. 
An  ardent  imagination   had   colored   her   every  virtue  with  passion. 

1  The  biographical  facts  are  borrowed  from  P.  Dupu/s  exhaustive 
biography,  published  in  the  "Annates  Scientiiiques  de  I'Ecole  Normale 
Sup6rieure/^  t.  xiii,  Paris,  1896. 


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EVARISTE  GALOIS  365 

Many  more  people  have  been  able  to  appreciate  her  character  than  her 
son's,  for  it  was  to  be  her  sad  fortune  to  survive  him  forty  years.  She 
was  said  to  be  generous  to  a  fault  and  original  to  the  point  of  queer- 
ness.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Evariste  owed  considerably  more  to  her 
than  to  his  father.  Besides,  until  the  age  of  eleven  the  little  boy  had  no 
teadier  but  his  mother. 

In  1823,  Evariste  was  sent  to  college  in  Paris.  This  college— Louis 
le-Grand — was  then  a  gloomy  house,  looking  from  the  outside  like  a 
prison,  but  within  aflame  with  life  and  passion.  For  heroic  memories 
of  the  Revolution  and  the  Empire  had  remained  particularly  vivid  in 
this  institution,  which  was  indeed,  under  the  clerical  and  reactionary 
r^ime  of  the  Restoration,  a  hot-bed  of  liberalism.  Love  of  learning 
and  contempt  of  the  Bourbons  divided  the  hearts  of  the  scholars.  Since 
1815  the  discipline  had  been  jeopardized  over  and  over  again  by  boy- 
ish rebellions,  and  Evariste  was  certainly  a  witness  of,  if  not  a  partner 
in,  those  which  took  place  soon  after  his  arrival.  The  influence  of  such 
an  impassioned  atmosphere  upon  a  lad  freshly  emancipated  from  his 
mother's  care  cannot  be  exaggerated.  Nothing  is  more  infectious  than 
political  passion,  nothing  more  intoxicating  than  the  love  of  freedom. 
It  was  certainly  there  and  then  that  Evariste  received  his  political  initia- 
tion.   It  was  the  first  crisis  of  his  childhood. 

At  first  he  was  a  good  student;  it  was  only  after  a  couple  of  years 
that  his  disgust  at  the  regular  studies  became  apparent.  He  was  then 
in  the  second  class  (that  is,  the  highest  but  one)  and  the  ^^provisor**  sug- 
gested to  his  father  that  he  should  spend  a  second  year  in  it,  arguing 
that  the  boy's  weak  health  and  immaturity  made  it  imperative.  The 
child  was  not  strong  but  the  provisor  had  failed  to  discover  the  true 
source  of  his  lassitude.  His  seeming  indifference  was  due  less  to  imma- 
turity than  to  his  mathematical  precocity.  He  had  read  his  books  of 
geometry  as  easily  as  a  novel,  and  the  knowledge  had  remained  firmly 
anchored  in  his  muid.  No  sooner  had  he  begun  to  study  algebra  than 
be  read  Lagrange's  original  memoirs.  This  extraordinary  facility 
had  been  at  first  a  revelation  to  himself,  but  as  he  grew  more  conscious 
of  it,  it  became  more  difficult  for  him  to  curb  his  own  domineering 
thought  and  to  sacrifice  it  to  the  routine  of  class  work.  The  rigid  pro- 
gram of  the  college  was  to  him  like  a  bed  of  Procrustes,  causing  him 
unbearable  torture  without  adequate  compensation.  But  how  could 
the  provisor  and  the  teachers  understand  this?  The  double  conflict 
withiu  the  child's  mind  and  between  the  teachers  and  himself,  as  the 
knowledge  of  his  power  increased,  was  intensely  dramatic.  By  1827 
it  had  reached  a  critical  point  This  might  be  called  the  second  crisis 
of  his  childhood:  his  scientific  initiation.  His  change  of  mood 
was  observed  by  the  family.  Juvenile  gaiety  was  suddenly  re- 
placed by  concentration;  his  manners  became  stranger  every  day.    A 


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366  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

mad  desire  to  march  forward  along  the  solitary  path  which  he  saw  so 
distinctly,  possessed  him.  His  whole  being,  his  every  faculty  was  mo- 
bilized in  this  immense  endeavor. 

I  cannot  give  a  more  vivid  idea  of  the  growing  strife  between-  this 
inspired  boy  and  his  miinspired  teachers  than  by  quoting  a  few  extracts 
from  the  school  reports: 

1826-1827 
This  pupil,  though  a  little  queer  in  his  manners,  is  very  gentle  and  seems 
filled  with  innocence  and  good  qualities.    ...    He  never  knows  a  lesson 
badly:  either  he  has  not  learned  it  at  all  or  he  knows  it  well.    .    .    . 

A  little  later: 

This  pupil,  except  for  the  last  fortnight  during  which  he  has  worked 
a  little,  has  done  his  class  wbrk  lonly  from  fear  of  punishment.  .  .  .  Hb 
ambition,  his  originality— often  affected— the  queemess  of  his  character  keep 
htm  aloof  from  his  companions. 

1827-1828 

Conduct  rather  good.  A  few  thoughtless  acts.  Character  of  which  I 
do  not  flatter  myself  I  understand  every  trait;  but  I  see  a  great  deal  of 
self-esteem  dominating.  I  do  not  think  he  has  any  vicious  inclination.  His 
ability  seems  to  me  to  be  entirely  beyond  the  average,  with  regard  as  much 
to  literary  studies  as  to  mathematics.  .  .  .  He  does  not  seem  to  lack 
religious  feeling.    His  health  is  gt>od  but  delicate. 

Another  professor  says: 

His  facility,  in  which  one  is  supposed  to  believe  but  of  which  I  have  not 
yet  witnessed  a  single  proof,  will  lead  him  nowhere:  there  is  no  trace  in 
his  tasks  of  anything  but  of  queemess  and  negligence. 

Another  still: 

Always  busy  with  things  which  are  not  his  business.  Goes  down  every 
day. 

Same  year,  but  a  little  later: 

Very  bad  conduct  Character  rather  secretive.  Tries  to  be  originaL 
.  .  .  Does  absolutely  nothing  for  the  class.  The  furor  of  mathematics 
possesses  him.  ...  He  is  losing  his  time  here  and  does  nothing  but  tor- 
ment his  masters  and  get  himself  harassed  with  punishments.  He  does  not 
lack  religious  feeling;  his  health  seems  weak. 

Later  still: 

Bad  conduct,  character  difficult  to  define.  Aims  at  originality.  His  talents 
are  very  distinguished ;  he  might  have  done  very  well  in  "Rh6torique"  if  he 
had  been  willing  to  work,  but  swayed  by  his  passion  for  mathematics,  he 
has  entirely  neglected  everything  else.  Hence  he  has  made  no  progress 
whatever.  .  .  .  Seems  to  affect  to  do  something  different  from  what  he 
should  do.  It  is  possibly  to  this  purpose  that  he  chatters  so  much.  He 
protests  against  silence. 

In  his  last  year  at  the  college,  1828-1829,  he  had  at  last  found  a 
teacher  of  mathemi^cs  who  divined  his  genius  and  tried  to  encourage 
and  to  help  him.    This  Mr.  Richard,  to  whom  one  cannot  be  too  grate- 


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EVARISTE   GALOIS  367 

f ul,  wrote  of  him :  ^^This  student  has  a  marked  superiority  over  all  his 
school-mates."  '*He  works  only  at  the  highest  parts  of  mathematics." 
You  see  the  whole  difference.  Kind  Mr.  Richard  did  not  complain  that 
Evariste  neglected  his  regular  tasks,  and,  I  imagine,  often  forgot  to 
do  the  petty  mathematical  exercises,  which  are  indispensable  to  drill 
the  average  boy;  he  does  not  think  it  fair  to  insist  on  what  Evariste 
does  not  do,  but  states  what  he  does  do:  he  is  only  concerned  with  the 
highest  parts  of  mathematics.  Unfortunately,  the  other  teachers  were 
less  indulgent.  For  physics  and  chemistry,  the  note  often  repeated  was: 
"Very  absent-minded,  no  work  whatever." 

To  show  the  sort  of  preoccupations  which  engrossed  his  mind:  at 
the  age  of  sixteen  he  believed  that  he  had  found  a  method  of  solving 
general  equations  of  the  fifth  degree.  One  knows  that  before  succeed- 
ing in  proving  the  impossibility  of  such  resolution,  Abel  had  made  the 
same  mistake.  Besides,  Galois  was  already  trying  to  realize  the  great 
dream  of  his  boyhood:  to  enter  the  Ecole  Polytechnique.  He  was  bold 
enough  to  prepare  himself  alone  for  the  extrance  examination  as  early 
as  1828 — ^but  failed.  This  failure  was  very  bitter  to  him — the  more  so 
that  he  considered  it  as  unfair.  It  is  likely  that  it  was  not  at  all 
unfair,  at  least  according  to  the  accepted  rules.  Galois  knew  at  one 
and  the  same  time  far  more  and  far  less  than  was  necessary  to  enter 
Polytechnique;  his  extra  knowledge  could  not  compensate  for  his  de- 
ficiencies, and  examiners  will  never  consider  originality  vdth  favor. 
The  next  year  he  published  his  first  paper,  and  sent  his  first  communi- 
cation to  the  Academic  des  Sciences.  Unfortunately,  the  latter  got  lost 
through  Cauchy's  negligence.  This  embittered  Galois  even  more.  A 
second  failure  to  enter  Polytechnique  seemed  to  be  the  climax  of  his 
misfortune,  but  a  greater  disaster  was  still  in  store  for  him.  On  July 
2  of  this  same  year,  1829,  his  father  had  been  driven  to  commit  suicide 
because  of  the  vicious  attacks  directed  against  him,  the  liberal  mayor, 
by  his  political  enemies.  He  took  his  life  in  the  small  apartment  which 
he  had  in  Paris,  in  the  vicinity  of  Louis-le-Grand.  As  soon  as  his 
father's  body  reached  the  territory  of  Bourg-la-Reine,  the  inhabitants 
carried  it  on  their  shoulders,  and  the  funeral  was  the  occasion  of  dis- 
turbances in  the  village.  This  terrible  blow,  following  many  smaller 
miseries,  left  a  very  deep  mark  on  Evariste's  soul.  His  hatred  of  in- 
justice became  the  more  violent,  in  that  he  already  believed  himself  to 
be  a  victim  of  it;  his  father's  death  incensed  him,  and  developed  his 
tendency  to  see  injustice  and  baseness  everywhere. 

His  repeated  failures  to  be  admitted  to  Polytechnique  were  to  Galois 
a  cause  of  intense  disappointment  To  appreciate  his  despair,  one  must 
realize  that  the  Ecole  Polytechnique  was  then,  not  simply  the  highest 
mathematical  school  in  France  and  the  place  where  his  genius  would  be 
most  likely  to  find  the  sympathy  it  craved,  it  was  also  a  daughter 
of  the  Revolution  who  had  remained  faithful  to  her  origins  in  spite 


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368  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

of  all  efforts  of  the  governmeiit  to  curb  her  spirit  of  independence. 
The  young  Polytechnidans  were  the  natural  leaders  of  every  political 
rebellion;  liberalism  was  for  them  a  matter  of  traditional  duty.  This 
house  was  thus  twice  sacred  to  Galois,  and  his  failure  to  be  accepted 
was  a  double  misfortune.  In  1829  he  entered  the  Ecole  Normale,  but 
he  entered  it  as  an  exile  from  Polytechnique.  It  was  all  the  more 
diflicult  for  him  to  forget  the  object  of  his  former  ambition,  because  the 
Ecole  Normale  was  then  passing  through  the  most  languid  period  of 
its  existence.  It  was  not  even  an  independent  institution,  but  rath^  an 
extension  of  Louis-le-Grand.  Every  precaution  had  been  taken  to  insure 
the  loyalty  of  this  school  to  the  new  regime.  Yet  there,  too,  the  main 
student  body  inclined  toward  liberalism,  though  their  convictions  were 
very  weak  and  passive  as  c<Mnpared  with  the  mood  prevailing  at  Poly- 
technique; because  of  the  discipline  and  the  spying  methods  to  which 
they  were  submitted,  their  aspirations  had  taken  a  more  subdued  and 
hypocritical  form  only  relieved  once  in  a  while  by  spasmodic  up- 
heavals. Evariste  suffered  doubly,  for  hb  political  desires  were 
checked  and  his  mathematical  ability  remained  unrecognized.  Indeed 
he  was  easily  embarrassed  at  the  blackboard,  and  made  a  poor  impres- 
sion upon  his  teachers.  It  is  quite  possible  that  he  did  not  try  in  the 
least  to  improve  this  impression.  His  French  biographer  very  clearly 
explains  his  attitude: 

There  was  in  him  a  hardly  disguised  contempt  for  whosoever  did  not 
bow  spontaneously  and  immediately  before  his  superiority,  a  rebellion  against 
a  judgment  which  his  conscience  challenged  beforehand  and  a  sort  of  un- 
healthy pleasure  in  leading  it  further  astray  and  in  turning  it  entirely  against 
himself.  Indeed,  it  is  frequently  observed  that  those  people  who  believe  that 
they  have  most  to  complain  of  persecution  could  hardly  do  without  it  and,  if 
need  be,  will  provoke  it  To  pass  oneself  off  for  a  fool  is  another  way  and 
not  the  least  savory,  of  making  fools  of  others. 

It  is  clear  that  Galois'  temper  was  not  altogeth^  amiable,  yet  we  should 
not  judge  him  without  making  full  allowance  for  the  terrible  strain  to 
which  he  was  constantly  submitted,  the  violent  conflicts  which  obscured 
his  soul,  the  frightful  solitude  to  which  fate  had  condemned  him. 

In  the  course  of  the  ensuing  year,  he  sent  three  more  papers  to 
mathematical  journals  and  a  new  memoir  to  the  Academic.  The  per- 
manent secretary,  Fourier,  took  it  home  with  him,  but  died  before  having 
examined  it,  and  the  memoir  was  not  retrieved  from  among  his  papers. 
Thus  his  second  memoir  was  lost  like  the  former.  This  was  too  mud 
indeed  and  one  will  easily  forgive  the  wretched  boy  if  in  his  feverish 
inood  he  was  inclined  to  believe  that  these  repeated  losses  were  not  due 
to  chance  but  to  systematic  persecution.  He  considered  himself  a  vic- 
tim of  a  bad  social  organization  which  ever  sacrifices  genius  to  medioc- 
rity, and  naturally  enough  he  cursed  the  hated  regime  of  oppression 
which  had  precipitated  his  father's  death  and  against  which  the  storm 


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EVARISTE   GALOIS  369 

was  gathering.  We  can  well  imagine  his  joy  when  he  heard  the  first 
shots  of  the  July  Revolution!  But  alas!  While  the  boys  of  Poly- 
technique  were  the  very  first  in  the  fray,  those  of  the  Ecole  Normale 
were  kept  under  lock  and  key  by  their  faint-hearted  director.  It  was 
only  when  the  three  glorious  days  of  July  were  over  and  the  fall  of  the 
Bourbons  was  accomplished  that  this  opportunist  let  his  students  free 
and  indeed  placed  them  at  the  disposal  of  the  provisional  government! 
Never  did  Galois  feel  more  bitterly  that  his  life  had  been  utterly  spoiled 
by  his  failure  to  become  an  alumnus  of  his  beloved  Polytechnique. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  summer  holidays  began  and  we  do  not  know 
what  happened  to  the  boy  in  the  interval.  It  must  have  been  to  him  a 
new  period  of  crisis,  more  acute  than  any  of  the  previous  ones.  But 
before  speaking  of  it  let  me  say  a  last  word  about  his  scientific  efforts, 
for  it  is  probable  that  thereafter  political  passion  obsessed  his  mind 
almost  exclusively.  At  any  rate  it  is  certain  that  Evariste  was  in  the 
possession  of  his  general  principles  by  the  beginning  of  1830,  that  is, 
at  the  age  of  eighteen,  and  that  he  fully  knew  their  importance.  The 
consciousness  of  his  power  and  of  the  responsibility  resulting  from  it  in- 
creased the  concentration  and  the  gloominess  of  his  mind  to  the  danger 
point;  the  lack  of  recognition  developed  in  him  an  excessive  pride.  By 
a  strange  aberration  he  did  not  trouble  himself  to  write  his  memoirs 
with  sufficient  clearness  and  to  give  the  explanations  which  were  the 
more  necessary  because  his  thoughts  were  more  novel.  What  a  pity 
that  there  was  no  understanding  friend  to  whisper  in  his  ear  Descartes' 
wise  admonition:  "When  you  have  to  deal  with  transcendent  ques- 
tions, you  must  be  transcendentally  clear.''  Instead  of  that,  Galois  en- 
veloped his  thought  in  additional  secrecy  by  his  efforts  to  attain  greater 
conciseness,  that  coquetry  of  mathematicians. 

It  is  intensely  tragic  that  this  boy  already  sufficiently  harassed  by 
the  turmoil  of  his  own  thoughts,  should  have  been  thrown  into  the  po- 
litical turmoil  of  this  revolutionary  period.  Endowed  with  a  stronger 
constitution,  he  might  have  been  able  to  cope  with  one  such; 
but  with  the  two,  how  could  he — how  could  anyone  do  it?  During 
the  holidays  he  was  probably  pressed  by  his  friend.  Chevalier,  to  join 
the  Saint-Simon ists,  but  he  declined,  and  preferred  to  join  a  secret  so- 
ciety, less  aristocratic  and  more  in  keeping  with  his  republican  aspira- 
tions— the  "  Societe  des  amis  du  peuple".  It  was  thus  quite  another  man 
who  reentered  the  Ecole  Normale  in  the  autumn  of  1830.  The  great 
events  of  which  he  had  been  a  witness  had  given  to  his  mind  a  sort  of 
artificial  maturity.  The  revolution  had  opened  to  him  a  fresh  source 
of  disillusion,  the  deeper  because  the  hopes  of  the  first  moment  had 
been  more  sanguine.  The  government  of  Louis-Philippe  had  promptly 
crushed  the  more  liberal  tendencies;  and  the  artisans  of  the  new  revo- 
lution, who  had  drawn  their  inspiration  from  the  great  events  of  1789, 


VOL.  Xni.— 24. 


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370  THE    SCIENTIFIC    MONTHLY 

soon  discovered  to  their  intense  disgust  that  they  had  been  fooled.  In- 
deed under  a  more  liberal  guise,  the  same  oppression,  the  same 
favoritism,  the  same  corruption  soon  took  place  under  Louis-Philippe 
as  under  Charles  X.  Moreover,  nothing  can  be  more  demoralizing 
than  a  successful  revolution  (whatever  it  be)  for  those  who,  like  Galois, 
were  too  generous  to  seek  any  personal  advantage  and  too  ingenuous 
not  to  believe  implicitly  in  their  party  shibboleths.  It  is  such  a  high 
fall  from  one's  dearest  ideal  to  the  ugliest  aspect  of  reality — and  they 
could  not  help  seeing  around  them  the  more  practical  and  cynical  revo- 
lutionaries eager  for  the  quarry,  and  more  disgusting  still,  the  clever 
ones,  who  had  kept  quiet  until  they  knew  which  side  was  gaining,  and 
who  now  came  out  of  their  hiding  places  to  fight  over  the  spoils  and 
make  the  most  of  the  new  regime.  Political  fermentation  did  not  abate 
and  the  more  democratic  elements,  which  Galois  had  joined,  became 
more  and  more  disaffected  and  restless.  The  director  of  the  Ecole  Nor- 
male  had  been  obliged  to  restrain  himself  considerably  to  brook  Galois' 
irregular  conduct,  his  "laziness,"  his  intractable  temper;  the  boy's 
political  attitude,  and  chiefly  his  undisguised  contempt  for  th&  director's 
pusillanimity  now  increased  the  tension  between  them  to  the  breaking 
point.  The  publication  in  the  "Gazette  des  Ecoles"  of  a  letter  of  Galois 
in  which  he  scornfully  criticised  the  director's  tergiversations  was  but 
the  last  of  many  offenses.  On  Dec.  9,  he  was  invited  to  leave  the  school, 
and  his  expulsion  was  ratified  by  the  Royal  Council  on  Jan.  3,  1831. 

To  support  himself  Galois  announced  that  he  would  give  a  private 
course  of  higher  algebra  in  the  backshop  of  a  bookseller,  Mr.  Caillot, 
5  rue  de  la  Sorbonne.  I  do  not  know  whether  this  course,  or  how  much 
of  it,  was  actually  delivered.  A  further  scientific  disappointment  was 
reserved  for  him:  a  new  copy  of  his  second  lost  memoir  had  been  com- 
municated by  him  to  the  Academic;  it  was  returned  to  him  by  Poisson, 
four  months  later,  as  being  incomprehensible.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
Galois  was  partly  responsible  for  this,  for  he  had  taken  no  pains  to  ex- 
plain himself  clearly.  This  was  the  last  straw.  Galois'  academic  career 
was  entirely  compromised,  the  bridges  were  burned,  he  plunged  himself 
entirely  into  the  political  turmoil.  He  threw  himself  into  it  with  his 
habitual  fury  and  the  characteristic  intransigency  of  a  mathematician; 
there  was  nothing  left  to  conciliate  him,  no  means  to  moderate  his  pas- 
sion, and  he  soon  reached  the  extreme  limit  of  exaltation.  He  is  said 
to  have  exclaimed:  "If  a  corpse  were  needed  to  stir  the  people  up,  I 
would  give  mine."  Thus  on  May  9,  1831,  at  the  end  of  a  political  ban- 
quet, being  intoxicated — not  with  wine  but  with  the  ardent  conversation 
of  an  evening — ^he  proposed  a  sarcastic  toast  to  the  King.  He  held  his 
glass  and  an  open  knife  in  one  hand  and  said  simply:  "To  Louis- 
Philippe!"  Of  course  he  was  soon  arrested  and  sent  to  Ste.  Pelagic. 
The  lawyer  persuaded  him  to  maintain  that  he  had  actually  said:    "To 


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EVARISTE   GALOIS  •  371 

Louis-Philippe,  if  he  betray"  and  many  witnesses  affirmed  that  they 
had  heard  him  utter  the  last  words,  though  they  were  lost  in  the  uproar. 
But  Galois  could  not  stand  this  lying  and  retracted  it  at  the  public  trial. 
His  attitude  before  the  tribunal  was  ironical  and  provoking,  yet  the  jury 
rendered  a  verdict  of  not  proven  and  he  was  acquitted.  He  did  not 
remain  free  very  long.  On  the  following  Fourteenth  of  July,  the  gov- 
ernment, fearing  manifestations,  decided  to  have  him  arrested  as  a 
preventive  measure.  He  was  given  six  months'  imprisonment  on  the 
technical  charge  of  carrying  arms  and  wearing  a  military  uniform,  but 
he  remained  in  Ste.  Pelagic  only  until  March  19  (or  16?),  1832,  when 
he  was  sent  to  a  convalescent  home  on  the  rue  de  Lourcine.  A  dreadful 
epidemic  of  cholera  was  then  raging  in  Paris,  and  Galois'  transfer  had 
been  determined  by  the  poor  state  of  his  health.  However,  this  proved 
to  be  his  undoing. 

He  was  now  a  prisoner  on  parole  and  took  advantage  of  it  to  carry 
on  an  intrigue  with  a  woman  of  whom  we  know  nothing,  but  who  was 
probably  not  very  reputable  ("une  coquette  de  has  etage,"  says  Ras- 
pail) .  Think  of  it!  This  was,  as  far  as  we  know,  his  first  love — and  it 
was  but  one  more  tragedy  on  the  top  of  so  many  others.  The  poor  boy 
who  had  declared  in  prison  that  he  could  love  only  a  Cornelia  or  a 
Tarpeia^  (we  hear  in  this  an  echo  of  his  mother's  Roman  ideal),  gave 
himself  to  this  new  passion  with  his  usual  frenzy,  only  to  find  more 
bitterness  at  the  end  of  it.  His  revulsion  is  lamentably  expressed  in  a 
letter  to  Chevalier  (May  25,  1832) : 

.  .  .  How  to  console  oneself  for  having  exhausted  in  one  month  the 
greatest  source  of  happiness  which  is  in  man — of  having  exhausted  it  without 
happiness,  without  hope,  being  certain  that  one  has  drained  it  for  life? 

Oh !  come  and  preach  peace  after  that !  Come  and  ask  men  who  suffer 
to  take  pity  upon  what  is!  Pity,  never!  Hatred,  that  is  all.  He  who  does 
not  feel  it  deeply,  this  hatred  of  the  present,  cannot  really  have  in  him  the 
love  of  the  future.    .    .     . 

One  sees  how  his  particular  misery  and  his  political  grievances  are  sadly 
muddled  in  his  tired  head.  And  a  little  further  in  the  same  letter,  in 
answer  to  a  gentle  warning  of  his  friend: 

1  like  to  doubt  your  cruel  prophecy  when  you  say  that  I  shall  not  work 
any  more.  But  I  admit  that  it  is  not  without  likelihood.  To  be  a  savant,  I 
should  need  to  be  that  alone.  My  heart  has  revolted  against  my  head?  I  do 
not  add  as  you  do :   It  is  a  pity. 

Can  a  more  tragic  confession  be  imagined  ?  One  realizes  that  there 
is  no  question  here  of  a  man  possessing  genius,  but  of  genius  pos- 
sessing a  man.  A  man?  a  mere  boy,  a  fragile  little  body  divided  within 
itself  by  disproportionate  forces,  an  undeveloped  mind  crushed  merci- 

2  He  must  have  quoted  Tarpcia  by  mistake. 
*  The  italics  are  mine. 


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372  THE    SCIENTIFIC    MOXTHLV 

lessly  between  the  exaltation  of  scientific  discovery  and  the  exaltation 
of  sentiment. 

Four  days  later  two  men  challenged  him  to  a  duel.  The  circum- 
stances of  this  affair  are,  and  will  ever  remain,  very  mysterious.  Ac- 
cording to  Evariste's  younger  brother  the  duel  was  not  fair.  Evariste, 
weak  as  he  was,  had  to  deal  with  two  ruffians  hired  to  murder  him.  I 
find  nothing  to  countenance  this  theory  except  that  he  was  challenged 
by  two  men  at  once.  At  any  rate,  it  is  certain  that  the  woman  he  had 
loved  played  a  part  in  this  fateful  event.  On  the  day  preceding  the 
duel,  Evariste  wrote  three  letters  of  which  I  translate  one: 

May  29,  1832. 
Letter  to  all  Republicans. 

I  beg  the  patriots,  my  friends,  not  to  reproach  me  for  dying  otherwise 
than  for  the  country. 

I  die  the  victim  of  an  infamous  coquette.  My  life  is  quenched  in  a 
miserable  piece  of  gossip. 

Oh!  why  do  I  have  to  die  for  such  a  little  thing,  to  die  for  something 
so  contemptible! 

I  take  heaven  to  witness  that  it  is  only  under  compulsion  that  I  have 
yielded  to  a  provocation  which  I  had  tried  to  avert  by  all  means. 

I  repent  having  told  a  baleful  truth  to  men  who  were  so  little  able  to 
listen  to  it  coolly.  Yet  I  have  told  the  truth.  I  take  with  me  to  the  grave 
a  conscience  free  from  lie,  free  from  patriots*  blood. 

Goodbye !    I  had  in  me  a  great  deal  of  life  for  the  public  good. 

Forgiveness  for  those  who  killed  me;  they  are  of  good  faith. 

E.    Galois. 

Any  conmient  could  but  detract  from  the  pathos  of  this  document 
I  will  only  remark  that  the  last  line,  in  which  Galois  absolves  his  ad- 
versaries, destroys  his  brother's  theory.  It  is  simpler  to  admit  that  his 
impetuosity,  aggravated  by  female  intrigue,  had  placed  him  in  an  im- 
possible position  from  which  there  was  no  honourable  issue,  according 
to  the  standards  of  the  time,  but  a  duel.  Evariste  was  too  much  of  a 
gentleman  to  try  to  evade  the  issue,  however  trifling  its  causes  might 
be;  he  was  anxious  to  pay  the  full  price  of  his  folly.  That  he  well 
realized  the  tragedy  of  his  life  is  quite  clear  from  the  laconic  post- 
scriptum  of  his  second  letter:  Nilens  lux,  horrenda  procella,  tCFiebris 
aeternis  involuta.  The  last  letter  addressed  to  his  friend,  Auguste  Chev- 
alier, was  a  sort  of  scientific  testament.  Its  seven  pages,  hastily  written, 
dated  at  both  ends,  contain  a  summary  of  the  discoveries  which  he  had 
been  unable  to  develop.  This  statement  is  so  concise  and  so  full  that 
its  significance  could  be  understood  only  gradually  as  the  theories  out- 
lined by  him  were  unfolded  by  others.  It  proves  the  depth  of  his  in- 
sight, for  it  anticipates  discoveries  of  a  much  later  date.  At  the  end 
of  the  letter,  after  requesting  his  friend  to  publish  it  and  to  ask  Jacobi 
or  Gauss  to  pronounce  upon  it,  he  added:  "After  that,  I  hope  some 
people  will  find  it  profitable  to  unravel  this  mess.    Je  Cembrasse  avec 


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EVARISTE   GALOIS  373 

effusion"  The  first  sentence  is  rather  scornful  but  not  untrue  and  the 
greatest  mathematicians  of  the  century  have  found  it  very  profitable  in- 
deed to  clear  up  Galois'  ideas. 

The  duel  took  place  on  the  30th  in  the  early  morning,  and  he  was 
grievously  wounded  by  a  shot  in  the  abdomen.  He  was  found  by 
a  peasant  who  transported  him  at  9:30  to  the  Hopital  Cochin.  His 
younger  brother — the  only  member  of  the  family  to  be  natified--came 
and  stayed  with  him,  and  as  he  was  crying,  Evariste  tried  to  console 
him,  saying:  "Do  not  cry.  I  need  all  my  courage  to  die  at  twenty." 
While  still  fully  conscious,  he  refused  the  assistance  of  a  priest.  In  the 
evening  peritonitis  declared  itself  and  he  breathed  his  last  at  ten  o'clock 
on  the  fallowing  morning. 

His  funeral,  which  strangely  recalled  that  of  his  father,  was  at- 
tended by  two  to  three  thousand  republicans,  including  deputations 
from  various  schools,  and  by  a  large  number  of  police,  for  trouble  was 
expected.  But  everything  went  off  very  calmly.  Of  course  it  was  the 
patriot  and  the  lover  of  freedom  whom  all  these  people  meant  to  hon- 
our; little  did  they  know  that  a  day  would  come  when  this  young  po- 
litical hero  would  be  hailed  as  one  of  the  greatest  mathematicians  of 
all  time. 

A  life  as  short  yet  as  full  as  the  life  of  Galois  is  interesting  not 
simply  in  itself  but  even  more  perhaps  because  of  the  light  it  throws 
upon  the  nature  of  genius.  When  a  great  work  is  the  natural  culmina- 
tion of  a  long  existence  devoted  to  one  persistent  endeavour,  it  is  some- 
times difficult  to  say  whether  it  is  the  fruit  of  genius  or  the  fruit  of 
patience.  When  genius  evolves  slowly  it  may  be  hard  to  distinguish 
from  talent, — but  when  it  explodes  suddenly,  at  the  beginning  and  not 
at  the  end  of  life,  or  when  we  are  at  a  loss  to  explain  its  intellectual 
genesis,  we  can  but  feel  that  we  are  in  the  sacred  presence  of  something 
vastly  superior  to  talent.  When  one  is  confronted  with  facts  which 
can  not  be  explained  in  the  ordinary  way,  is  it  not  more  scientific  to 
admit  our  ignorance  than  to  hide  it  behind  faked  explanations?  Of 
course  it  is  not  necessary  to  introduce  any  mystical  idea,  but  it  is  one's 
duty  to  acknowledge  the  mystery.  When  a  work  is  really  the  fruit 
of  genius,  we  cannot  conceive  that  a  man  of  talent  might  have  done  it 
"just  as  well"  by  taking  the  necessary  pains.  Pains  alone  will  never 
do;  neither  is  it  simply  a  matter  of  jumping  a  little  further,  for  it 
involves  a  synthetic  process  of  a  higher  kind.  I  do  not  say  that  talent 
and  genius  are  essentially  different,  but  that  they  are  of  different  orders 
of  magnitude. 

Galois'  fateful  existence  helps  one  to  understand  Lowell's  saying: 
**Talent  is  that  which  is  in  a  man's  power,  genius  is  that  in  whose  power 
man  is."  If  Galois  had  been  simply  a  mathematician  of  considerable 
ability,  his  life  would  have  been  far  less  tragic,  for  he  could  have  used 


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374  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 

his  mathematical  talent  for  his  own  advancement  and  happiness;  in- 
stead of  whichy  the  furor  of  mathematics — as  one  of  his  teachers  said — 
possessed  him  and  he  had  no  alternative  but  absolute  surrender  to  his 
destiny. 

Lowell's  aphorism  is  misleading,  however,  for  it  suggests  that  talent 
can  be  acquired,  while  genius  cannot.  But  biological  knowledge  points 
to  the  conclusion  that  neither  is  really  acquired,  though  both  can  be  de- 
veloped and  to  a  certain  extent  corrected  by  education.  Men  of  talent 
as  well  as  men  of  genius  are  bom,  not  made.  Genius  implies  a  much 
stronger  force,  less  adaptable  to  environment,  less  tractable  by  educa- 
tion, and  also  far  more  exclusive  and  despotic.  Its  very  intensity  ex- 
plains its  frequent  precocity.  If  the  necessary  opportunities  do  not 
arise,  ordinary  abilities  may  remain  hidden  indefinitely;  but  the 
stronger  the  abilities  the  smaller  need  the  inducement  be  to  awaken 
them.  In  the  extreme  case,  the  case  of  genius,  the  ability  is  so  strong 
that,  if  need  be,  it  will  force  its  own  outlet. 

Thus  it  is  that  many  of  the  greatest  accomplishments  of  science,  art 
and  letters  were  conceived  by  very  young  men.  In  the  field  of 
mathematics,  this  precocity  is  particularly  obvious.  To  speak  only 
of  the  two  men  considered  in  this  essay,  Abel  had  barely  reached  the 
age  of  twenty-two  and  Galois  was  not  yet  twenty,  perhaps  not  yet  nine- 
teen, when  they  made  two  of  the  most  profound  discoveries  which  have 
ever  been  made.  In  many  other  sciences  and  arts,  technical  appren- 
ticeship may  be  too  long  to  make  such  early  discovery  possible.  In 
most  cases,  however,  the  judgment  of  Alfred  de  Vigny  holds  good. 
"What  is  a  great  life?  It  is  a  thought  of  youth  wrought  out  in  ripen- 
ing years."  The  fundamental  conception  dawns  at  an  early  age — 
that  is,  it  appears  at  the  surface  of  one's  consciousness  as  early  as  this  is 
materially  possible — ^but  it  is  often  so  great  that  a  long  life  of  toil  and 
abnegation  is  but  too  short  to  work  it  out.  Of  course  at  the  beginning 
it  may  be  very  vague,  so  vague  indeed  that  its  host  can  hardly  dis- 
tinguish it  himself  from  a  passing  fancy,  and  later  may  be  unable  to 
explain  how  it  gradually  took  control  of  his  activities  and  dominated 
his  whole  being.  The  cases  of  Abel  and  Galois  are  not  essentially  dif- 
ferent from  those  contemplated  by  Alfred  de  Vigny,  but  the  golden 
thoughts  of  their  youth  were  wrought  out  in  the  ripening  years  of  other 
people. 

It  is  the  precocity  of  genius  which  makes  it  so  dramatic.  When  it 
takes  an  explosive  form,  as  in  the  case  of  Galois,  the  frail  carcass  of  a 
boy  may  be  unable  to  resist  the  internal  strain  and  it  may  be  positively 
wrecked.  On  the  other  hand  when  genius  develops  more  slowly,  its  host 
has  time  to  mature,  to  adapt  himself  to  his  environment,  to  gather 
strength  and  experience.  He  learns  to  reconcile  himself  to  the  condi> 
tions    which    surround    him,    widely    different    as    they    are,    from 


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EVARISTE   GALOIS  375 

those  of  his  dreams.  He  learns  by  and  by  that  the  great  majority  of 
men  are  rather  unintelligent,  uneducated,  uninspired,  and  that  one  must 
not  take  it  too  mudi  to  heart  when  they  behave  in  defiance  of  justice  or 
even  of  conmion  sense.  He  also  learns  to  dissipate  his  vexation  with  a 
smile  or  a  joke  and  to  protect  himself  under  a  heavy  cloak  of  kindness 
and  humour.  Poor  Evariste  had  not  time  to  learn  all  this.  While  his 
genius  grew  in  him  out  of  all  proportion  to  his  bodily  strength,  his 
experience  and  his  wisdom,  he  felt  more  and  more  ill  at  ease.  His  in- 
creasing restlessness  makes  one  think  of  that  exhibited  by  people  who 
are  a  prey  to  a  larvate  form  of  a  pernicious  disease.  There  is  an  inter- 
nal disharmony  in  both  cases,  though  it  is  physiological  in  the  latter, 
and  psychological  in  the  former.  Hence  the  suffering,  the  distress  and 
finally  the  acute  disease  or  the  revolt! 

A  more  congenial  environment  might  have  saved  Galois.  Oh!  would 
that  he  had  been  granted  that  minimum  of  understanding  and  sympathy 
which  the  most  concentrated  mind  needs  as  much  as  a  plant  needs  the 
sun!  .  .  But  it  was  not  to  be;  and  not  only  had  he  no  oi^e  to  share 
his  own  burden,  but  he  had  also  to  bear  the  anxieties  of  a  stormy 
time.  I  quite  realize  that  this  self-centered  boy  was  not  attractive — 
many  would  say  not  lovable.  Yet  I  love  him;  I  love  him  for  all  those 
who  failed  to  love  him;  I  love  him  because  of  his  adversity. 

His  tragic  life  teaches  us  at  least  one  great  lesson:  one  can  never 
be  too  kind  to  the  young;  one  can  never  be  too  tolerant  of  their  faults, 
even  of  their  intolerance.  The  pride  and  intolerance  of  youth,  however 
immoderate,  are  excusable  because  of  youth's  ignorance,  and  also  be- 
cause one  may  hope  that  it  is  only  a  temporary  disorder.  Of  course  there 
will  always  be  men  despicable  enough  to  resort  to  snubbing,  as  it  were, 
to  protect  their  own  position  and  to  hide  their  mediocrity,  but  I  am 
not  thinking  of  them.  I  am  simply  thinking  of  the  many  men  who  were 
unkind  to  Galois  without  meaning  to  be  so.  To  be  sure,  one  could 
hardly  expect  them  to  divine  the  presence  of  genius  in  an  awkward  boy. 
But  even  if  they  did  not  believe  in  him,  could  they  not  have  shown  more 
forbearance?  Even  if  he  had  been  a  conceited  dunce,  instead  of  a 
genius,'  could  kindness  have  harmed  him?  ...  It  is  painful  to 
think  that  a  few  rays  of  generosity  from  the  heart  of  his  elders  might 
have  saved  this  boy  or  at  least  might  have  sweetened  his  life. 

But  does  it  really  matter?  A  few  years  more  or  less,  a  little  more 
or  less  suffering.  .  .  .  Life  is  such  a  short  drive  altogether. 
Galois  has  accomplished  his  task  and  very  few  men  will  ever  accom- 
plish more.  He  has  conquered  the  purest  kind  of  immortality.  As  he 
wrote  to  his  friends:  "I  take  with  me  to  the  grave  a  conscience  free 
from  lie,  free  from  patriot's  blood".  How  many  of  the  conventional 
heroes  of  history,  how  many  of  the  kings,  captains  and  statesmen  could 
say  the  same? 


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376  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MOSTHLY 


MARS  AS  A  LIVING  PLANET 
By  G.   H.   HAMILTON 

LOWELL  OBSERVATORY,  FL.\GSTAFF,  ARIZONA 

IN  contradistinction  to  the  Moon  as  a  dead  world,  I  can  speak  of 
Mars  and  the  Earth  as  living  planets. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  present  observational  evidence  to 
show  that  Mars  has  an  atmosphere  and  is  imbued  with  a  considerable 
degree  of  warmth — that  the  changes  observed  upon  its  surface  would 
necessitate  such  an  atmosphere,  in  fact  that  the  planet  approaches  the 
conditions  that  we  know  upon  the  Earth,  even  if  it  does  not  quite  attain 
them. 

To  approximate  the  unchangeableness  and  sterility  seen  on  the 
Moon — because  of  its  lack  of  atmosphere  and  the  intense  cold  due  to 
its  long  night — it  would  be  necessary  here  on  Earth  to  resort  to  a 
vacuum  or  other  preservatives.  A  similar  condition  on  Mars  is  incon- 
ceivable from  what  we  know  of  its  surface  features  and  the  changes 
which  have  occurred  in  them  from  the  earliest  reliable  observations. 
Disintegration  and  growth  depend,  not  only  on  the  action  produced  by 
atmosphere  but  also  on  the  presence  of  organisms.  It  is  true  that  in- 
organic material  suffers  change  from  mechanical  and  chemical  action, 
but  this  again  admits  water  and  atmosphere  into  the  consideration  of 
its  cause. 

CLOUD  OVER  SOUTHERN  PORTION  OF  SYRTIS  MAJOR 
1903  19-20 


June  I  May  26 

P.  L.  G.  H.  H. 


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MARS  AS  A  LIVING  PLANET  377 

The  germination  and  gemination  of  the  canals  from  the  time  of 
Schiaparelli  show  an  unaccountable  seasonal  change,  if  we  are  to  be- 
lieve in  a  cold  as  intense  as  that  which  some  people  have  suggested  ex- 
ists, 6t  an  atmosphere  so  thin  that  it  would  be  lacking  in  those  gases 
commonly  supposed  necessary  for  the  support  of  organic  material.  One 
would  hardly  suppose  that  an  atmosphere  sufficiently  dense  to  produce 
mechanical  changes  to  the  extent  that  they  have  been  observed  in  in- 
organic matter,  would  have  little  or  no  effect  in  the  production  of 
organisms. 

The  dependence  of  the  canals  on  the  seasons  of  Mars  for  their 
visibility  established  by  Lowell,  and  the  variations  in  the  dark  areas 
are  confirmatory  evidence  of  an  atmosphere;  for  these  changes  would 
be  inexplicable  on  any  object,  most  certainly  a  planet,  placed  in  a 
refrigerator  or  vacuum  bell. 

There  were,  at  this  opposition,  two  regions  on  the  planet  where  a 
considerable  haze  existed;  this  was  very  evident  near  either  limb,  but 
when  these  regions  were  on  or  near  the  center  of  the  disk  the  haze  was 
only  noticeable  by  its  diffusing  and  dimming  effect  on  the  surface  mark- 
ings. It  appeared  to  cover  the  Syrtis  Major  and  its  surroundings,  and 
also  a  region  opposite — about  the  Lacus  Lunae  south  of  the  Mare  Acid- 
alium.    Detail  outside  of  these  regions  was  usually  clear  cut. 

When  on  the  limb  or  terminator,  i.  e.,  near  sunrise  or  sunset,  the 
haze  above  these  regions  seemed  to  condense  and  became  itself  visible 
in  the  form  of  a  dull  blue-white  covering  very  easily  seen  on  account  of 
the  contrast  of  this  color  to  that  of  the  surrounding  desert  or  dark 
areas  over  which  it  appeared  to  hang.  These  condensations  in  the  haze 
remained  of  a  nearly  constant  area  close  up  to  the  terminator,  and  re- 
mained close  to  the  terminator  during  the  time  that  they  lasted.  In 
consequence  those  areas  of  the  planet  coming  onto  the  disk  from  the 
terminator  or  leaving  the  disk,  appeared  from  behind  this  covering  or 
disappeared  under  it  in  a  remarkable  manner.  The  change  in  form- 
ation of  these  blue-white  areas  was  of  a  character  that  one  would  ex- 
pect if  it  had  been  atmospheric  and  cloud-like  in  nature.  It  was  de- 
cidedly an  evening  and  morning  effect.  The  shift  of  the  surface  of 
the  planet  with  respect  to  these  apparent  clouds  was  incompatible  with 
the  assumption  that  they  belonged  to  the  surface,  but  pointed  expressly 
to  the  fact  that  they  were  above  the  surface  and  atmospheric. 

This  article  is  illustrated  by  two  plates.  The  first  shows  two  draw- 
ings, one  made  in  1903  by  Dr.  Lowell,  the  other  in  1920,  by  myself. 
Dr.  Lowell's  drawing  of  June  1,  1903,  depicts  a  season,  for  that  region 
on  Mars,  corresponding  on  our  Earth  to  August  6.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  my  drawing  of  May  26,  1920,  shown  with  his,  corresponds  in 
season  to  about  August  13.  It  will  be  noticed  that  though  a  period  of 
seventeen  years  has  elapsed,  the  cloud  formation  is  very  similar  over 


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878  THE   SCIENTIFIC   MONTHLY 


M.\RS   1020 

Mar. 
A  = 

8 
34 

Mar. 
A  = 

4 

May      II 
A  =    1-27 

May      II 
A  =     91 

Apr. 
A  = 

28 

250 

May 
A  = 

26 
262 

May      24 
A  =    305 

May      26 
A  =   308 

May 
A  = 

22 

312 

Apr. 
A  = 

13 
344 

May      24 
A  =    342 

June     21 
A  =       I 

June 
A  = 

21 
51 

June 
A  = 

ri 

May        7 
A=    166 

Georg< 

June       4 
A  =    211 
?  Hall  Hamilton. 

A  =    Longitude  of  Central  Meridian  at  time  of  drawing. 


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MARS  AS  A  LIVING  PLANET  379 

the  Syrtis  at  approximately  the  same  season.  The  drawings,  of  course, 
have  only  been  used  in  comparison  for  this  particular  feature. 

The  second  plate,  made  up  of  sixteen  selected  drawings,  not  only 
shows  the  curious  cloud  formation  over  the  Syrtis  Major  and  the  Mare 
Acidalium,  but  also  gives  one  a  complete  view  of  the  Martian  surface 
except  that  portion  near  the  southern  pole  which  was  continuously 
turned  away  from  us  at  this  opposition. 

It  will  be  noticed  from  these  drawings  that  both  the  Syrtis  and  the 
Mare  Acidalium  are  nearly  completely  free  from  cloud  when  on  the 
center  of  the  disk,  but  that  they  are  covered  by  cloud  to  a  great  extent 
when  near  the  limb  or  terminator. 

The  drawings,  which  are  typical  of  all  those  made  at  this  opposition, 
show  unmistakeable  evidence  of  a  considerable  atmosphere.  This  can 
not  be  wondered  at  when  one  realizes  the  amount  of  water  vapor  trans- 
ported from  one  pole  to  the  other  each  Martian  half-year :  it  is  an 
atmosphere  quite  capable  of  being,  in  fact,  a  mechanical  transferer  of 
this  material  from  pole  to  pole. 

That  Mars  is  a  living  planet  seems  certain  from  these  changes  that 
are  seen  to  continually  take  place  on  its  surface  and  above  the  ground. 
The  dark  areas  and  canals  are  seemingly,  at  least  in  part,  organic.  The 
polar  caps  by  their  disappearance  and  reappearance  each  year,  imply 
bath  mechanical  and  physical  change,  as  do  also  the  daily  variations  in 
the  cloud  formations. 

How  far  organic  evolution  has  progressed  it  would  be  hard  to  tell, 
but  that  there  is  a  succession  of  seasons  on  Mars  as  on  the  Earth,  and 
consequent  germination  is  evident. 


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THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTIiLY 


THE   PROGRESS    OF   SCIENCE 


SCIEXTIFIC  MEETINGS 
We  are  able  to  print  iii  the  present 
issue  of  The  Scientific  Monthly 
extracts  from  addresses  given  at  the 
meeting  of  the  British  Association 
held  at  Edinburgh  from  September  7 
to  14.  The  meeting  is  in  progress  as 
this  journal  goes  to  press,  and  prac- 
tically nothing  from  England  regard- 
ing its  proceedings  has  been  cabled. 
The  addresses  of  the  president  of  the 
association  and  of  the  presidents  of 
the  sections  are  usually  the  best  sum- 
maries of  the  progress  of  science  pre- 
pared each  year,  and  the  English 
newspapers  and  journals  have  been  in 
the  habit  of  paying  much  more  atten- 
tion to  them  than  is  the  case  in  this 
country  with  the  corresponding  ad- 
■  dresses  of  the  American  Association. 
This  more  general  attention  naturally 
causes  the  preparation  of  addresses 
of  greater  interest,  which  in  turn 
leads  to  their  more  widespread  pub- 
lication to  the  advantage  of  science 
and  of  the  national  welfare. 

The  American  Association  meets 
this  year  at  Toronto,  and  the  meeting 
should  be  of  more  than  usual  inter- 
est. Dr.  L.  O.  Howard,  chief  of  the 
Bureau  of  Entomology  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  who  gives  the 
address  of  the  retiring  president,  is 
master  of  a  subject  of  great  scientific 
and  economic  concern,  and  it  is  de- 
sirable that  his  address  and  the  ad- 
dresses of  the  vice-presidents  and  the 
other  proceedings  of  more  than  tech- 
nical interest  should  be  given  wide 
publicity.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
recently  organized  Science  Service 
may  be  of  use  in  this  direction.  Two 
distinguished  English  men  of  science 
have  been  invited  to  Toronto  as 
guests  of  the  association,  one  in  the 
biological  and  one  in  the  physical  sci- 
ences, and  Professor  Bateson  has 
consented  to  be  present. 


At  the  same  time  as  the  meeting  of 
the  British  Association  in  Edinburgh, 
the  chemists  have  been  holding  Anglo- 
American  meetings.  The  British  So- 
ciety of  Chemical  Industry  met  with 
the  Canadian  Branch  in  Montreal 
under  the  presidency  of  Sir  William 
Pope,  professor  of  chemistry  in  the 
University  of  Cambridge.  After 
visits  to  Ottawa  and  Toronto,  the 
English  and  Canadian  chemists  joined 
in  the  New  York  meeting  of  the 
American  Chemical  Society.  The 
number  was  small,  but  they  were  ad- 
mirably represented  by  their  presi- 
dent, who  took  part  in  the  interna- 
tional program  and  made  an  address 
at  the  dinner.  The  American  Chemi- 
cal Society  was  also  fortunate  in  its 
president.  Dr.  Edgar  Fahs  Smith, 
provost  emeritus  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  who  first  held  the  office 
twenty-five  years  ago.  In  his  presi- 
dential address,  in  his  address  at 
the  dinner  and  at  the  meetings  on 
educational  chemistry  and  the  history 
of  chemistry.  Dr.  Smith  did  much  to 
emphasize  the  broader  aspects  of  the 
science. 

In  the  attendance  and  on  the  pro- 
grams, industrial  and  engineering 
chemistry  were  largely  represented. 
Much  interest  was  manifested  in  the 
embargo  on  German  chemicals  and 
in  the  Chemical  Warfare  Service. 
There  were  elaborately  arranged  ex- 
cursions to  industrial  plants  in  and 
around  New  York  City  and  during 
the  week  following  the  meeting  a 
large  national  exposition  of  Chemi- 
cal Industries  was  held  in  one  of  the 
armories  of  the  city. 

Following  the  meeting  of  the  chem- 
ists an  International  Congress  of 
Eugenics  is  being  held  in  New  York 
City.  While  the  time  has  scarcely 
come  when  international  congresses 
can  be  held  and  while  eugenics  ap- 


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Photograph    by    Underwood   and   Underwood. 
SIR    WILLIAM    POPE 
President    of   the    Society    of    Chemical    Industry 


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382 


THE   SCIENTIFIC    MONTHLY 


•  IMrtoWofI 

•  0»Mlr  Ncan  Wfttk  taclHliH  M 
O    TrtMFcw 

^  Titarntoiis 

M  08mi  fiMc  NctM  Wort 


MAP  SHOWING  WORLD-WIDE  ACTIVITIES 


pears  to  be  still  an  amateur  science, 
mainly  promoted  by  amateurs,  the 
meeting  promises  to  be  of  interest. 
The  program  gives  prominence  to 
genetics  which  has  become  a  real  sci- 
ence in  which  America  may  perhaps 
claim  leadership.  At  the  opening 
meeting  addresses  were  announced  by 
Dr.  Henry  Fairfield  Osborn,  presi- 
dent of  the  congress  and  of  the 
American  Museum  of  Natural  His- 
tory; Major  Leonard  Darwin,  presi- 
dent of  the  Eugenics  Education  So- 
ciety, London;  and  Dr.  Charles  B. 
Davenport,  director  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Genetics  of  the  Carnegie  In- 
stitution. Among  those  from  abroad 
who  make  addresses  before  the  sec- 
tions are  M.  Lucien  Cuenot,  Nancy, 
France ;  Professor  Herman  Lundborg, 
Upsala,  Sweden,  and  M.  Georges 
Vacher  de  Lapouge,  Poitiers,  France. 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  THE 
ROCKEFELLER  FOUNDA- 
TION 
The  president  of  the  Rockefeller 
Foundation,  Dr.  George  E.  Vincent, 
has  issued  a  popular  review  of  the 
work  carried  out  during  the  year  1920, 
which  gives  a  good  idea  of  its  mag- 
nitude and  wide  influence  in  aid  of 
medical  education  and  in  the  field  of 
public  health.  A  map  of  the  world 
showing  the  widespread  distribution 
of  the  various  activities  of  the  foun- 
dation is  here  reproduced.  The  total 
endowment  now  amounts  to  over 
174  million  dollars,  and  during  the 
year  approximately  seven  million  dol- 
lars have  been  spent  in  carrying  out 
the  program  of  the  foundation.  Of 
this  amount,  over  two  million  dollars 
were  contributed  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  public  health  in  various 


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THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE 


383 


^  Mcdictl  Sdwol  Sippertcd  ia  F«l 

A   Mcdiul  SdMwb  Mtd 
4  hc-«Md««l  Sdwob  Mf4 


A  Cnrgtacy  AstiitaiKC  pt«vidin{  SdMlihe  Cqui^mwl 

and  Mcdtcjl  Joiirntit 
O  FMtf  (Mid  GA  to  Ammcw  IM««  AiuciiliM 


OF  THE  ROCKEFELLER  FOUNDATION 


parts  of  the  world,  especially  towards 
the  eradication  of  hookworm,  malaria 
and  yellow  fever,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  adequate  institutions  for  the 
training  of  public  health  officials. 
Over  $300,000  was  given  to  the  School 
of  Hygiene  and  Public  Health  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University. 

In  its  second  great  field  of  en- 
deavor, that  of  improving  the  stand- 
ards of  medical  education,  the  foun- 
dation has  expended  nearly  four  and 
a  half  million  dollars  during  the  year. 
The  greater  part  of  this  sum  has  been 
used  for  the  building  and  equipment 
of  a  medical  school  in  China,  the 
Peking  Union  Medical  College,  and  to 
aid  other  schools  already  established 
in  that  country.  Substantial  sums 
have  been  pledged  to  the  University 
College  Hospital  in  London — a  total 
of  about  five  million  dollars,  to  be 


equally  divided  between  buildings  and 
endowments  for  increased  education 
and  research  facilities.  In  addition, 
aid  has  been  given  to  a  number  of 
schools  in  this  country  and  in  Canada. 

The  foundation  has  contributed  to 
the  support  of  a  number  of  humani- 
tarian and  charital^le  organizations, 
including  the  appropriation  of  a  mil 
lioii  dollars  to  the  child-feeding  fund 
of  the  American  Relief  Administra 
tion,  and  to  various  miscellaneous 
enterprises  having  for  their  object 
the  stimulation  of  research  and  the 
improvement  of  the  medical  stand- 
ards of  the  world. 

The  report  indicates  that  good 
progress  is  being  made  in  the  aim  of 
the  Rockefeller  Foundation  to  in- 
crease the  common  store  of  knowl- 
edge of  the  causes  of  disease,  and 
through  demonstrations  and  the  ser- 


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384 


THE    SCIENTIFIC    MONTHLY 


vices  of  trained  experts    to    diffuse 
this  information  as  widely  as  possible 


among  all  peoples. 


THE  HARVARD  SCHOOL  OF 
PUBLIC  HEALTH 

Plans  for  the  organization  of  a 
School  of  Public  Health  in  Harvard 
University,  with  the  aid  of  an  initial 
gift  of  $1,785,000  by  the  Rockefeller 
Foundation,  are  announced  by  the 
university  and  the  officers  of  the 
foundation.  The  announcement  says 
that  an  excellent  general  course  for 
the  training  of  public  health  officers 
as  well  as  special  courses  in  preven- 
tive medicine,  in  tropical  medicine  and 
industrial  hygiene  have  already  been 
developed  at  Harvard.  The  work  has 
been  hampered,  however,  by  lack  of 
adequate  funds  and  by  uneven 
growth.- 

The  new  school  will  provide  op- 
portunities for  research,  will  unify 
existing  courses  and  will  offer  new 
or  extended  teaching  facilities  in 
public  health  administration,  vital 
statistics,  immunology,  bacteriology, 
medical  zoology,  physiological  hygiene 
and  communicable  diseases. 

For  the  housing  of  the  school  the 
university  hopes  to  secure  an  exist- 
ing building  of  verjr  suitable  charac 
ter  immediately  adjacent  to  the  Medi- 
cal School.  Funds  for  the  purchase 
and  equipment  of  the  building  will 
be  drawn  from  the  gift  of  the  Rocke 
feller  I-'oimdation.  The  cost  of 
maintenance  and  development  of  the 
school  will  be  met  from  endowment 
funds  in  part  set  aside  by  the  uni- 
versity and  in  part  contributed  by  the 
Foundation.  The  Foundation's  im- 
mediate appropriations  to  the  project 
will  aggregate  $1,785,000.  The  ar- 
rangement also  provides  for  further 
gifts,  if  the  growth  of  the  school 
seems  to  demand  it,  to  any  amount 
which  shall  not  exceed  $500,000. 

Though  the  School  of  Public  \ 
Health  at  Harvard  will  have  its  1 
headquarters  in  a  well-equipped  build-  j 
ing  of  its  own  and  have  its  own  sepa-    ' 


rate  faculty  and  administration,  it 
will  be  developed  in  close  relation 
with  other  divisions  of  the  imiversity, 
especially  the  Medical  School.  The 
administration  buildings  of  the  two 
schools  will,  it  is  hoped,  stand  side  by 
side  on  the  same  grounds;  certain 
heads  of  departments  will  be  mem- 
bers of  both  faculties;  and  a  number 
of  laboratories  and  lecture  rooms 
will  be  used  in  common. 

The  school  will  be  able  to  co- 
operate with  a  large  number  of 
laboratories,  hospitals  and  public 
health  agencies  in  Boston  and  thus 
afford  its  students  unusual  oppor- 
tunities for  first-hand  investigation 
and  practical  field  experience.  In  ad- 
dition, the  school,  through  coopera- 
tive relations  with  a  niunbcr  of  man- 
ufacturing and  commercial  corpora- 
tions, will  be  able  to  offer  the  stu- 
dents practical  experience  in  indus- 
trial hygiene. 

SCIENTIFIC  ITEMS 
We  record  with  regret  the  death  of 
Joel  Asaph  Allen,  curator  of  the  De- 
partment of  Birds  and  Mammals  at 
the  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History;  of  George  Trumbull  Ladd. 
for  forty  years  professor  of  moral 
philosophy  and  metaphysics  at  Yale 
University;  and  of  Peter  Cooper 
Hewitt,  the  electrical  and  mechanical 
engineer  of  New  York  City. 

On  July  21,  a  memorial  was  un- 
veiled in  the  public  gardens  at  Dart- 
mouth to  the  memory  of  Thomas 
Xewcomen,  the  pioneer  of  the  steam 
engine.  Newcomen  was  bom  in 
Dartmouth  in  1663;  he  followed  the 
trade  of  blacksmith  there,  and  was 
also  a  Baptist  preacher. 

The  John  Burroughs  Memorial  As  - 
sociation  has  been  inaugurated  at  a 
meeting  of  a  number  of  his  friends 
at  the  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History,  the  immediate  purpose  of 
the  association  being  to  protect  Mr. 
Burroughs'  home  and  camps  and  to 
preserve  them,  with  their  wild  life, 
for  future  generations. 


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VOL.  XIII  NO.  5  .'^^^    "*«'^  NOVEMBER,  1921 


THE  SCIENTIFIC 
MONTHLY 

EDITED  BY  J.  McKEEN  CATTELL 


CONTENTS 

THE  INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  EUGENICS: 

THE  FIELD  OF  EUGENIC  REFORM.     Major  Leonard  Darwin 385 

THE  CONSEQUENCES  OF  WAR  AND  THE  BIRTH  RATE  IN  FRANCE. 

M.  Lucicn  March 399 

THE  TRUE  ARISTOCRACY.     Vice-chancellor  George  Adami 420 

SCIENCE  IN  FRANCE.     M.  Emile  Boutroux 435 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  ELECTRICAL  FLUID  THEORIES.     Professor  Fernando 

Sanford 448 

THE  MIOCENE  SHORE-FISHES  OF  CALIFORNIA.     Dr.  David  Starr  Jordan 460 

A  CALIFORNIA  ELK  DRIVE.     Dr.  C.  Hart  Merriam 465 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE: 

The  Second  International  Congress  of  Eugenics;  The  Meeting  of  Chemists  in 
New  York  City;  The  American  Public  Health  Association;  Scientific  Items 476 


THE    SCIENCE    PRESS 

PUBUCATION  OFnCE:    11   LIBERTY  ST.,  UTICA,  N.  Y. 
EDITORIAL  AND  BUSINESS  OFnCE:    GARRISON,  N.  Y. 

Single  Number,  50  Cents.  Yearly  Subscription,  $5.00 

COPYRIGHT  1921  BY  THE  SCIENCE  PRESS 
Entered  ai  gecond-cliiM  matter  February  8.  1921,  at  the  Poat  Office  at  Utica,  N.  Y.,  under  the  Act  of  March  3,  1879. 

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AMERICANA 

JUSTaf  America  leads  the  world  in  recon*' 
structlon.wealtK.iiwention ,  manufactuye.so 
The  AMERICANA estabUshes  anew  lead- 
ership over  all  reference  works. 
The  revolntions  in  thoudhi  andprodress.broudM; 
about  by  the  War,  max  all  encyclopedias 
ol>solete.  A  restatement  of  the  Worlds  knowledge 
thus  became  imperative.  The  AMERICANA 
dives  a  wide  view  of  the  world  as  it  is  todw—> 
nat  as  it  was  ten  years  9qo. 

COPYRiaHTBD     — —     I9SO 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  AMERICANA. 
CORPORATION 

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The  Boston 

_     Public 
Library  s^yrs: 

•This  l5  the  first 
edition  oF 
any  one  o/* 
the  larg  er 
encycloped' 
ias  to  be 
published 
since  the 
close  of  the 
European 
War." 

from 

NEWS  KOIIS 

OF      THE 

BO  S  TOU 

PUBLIC 

LIBRARY 

Janaary 
/5^    i9SU 

<Joogk 


HOV  1   »921 

THE  SCIENTIFIC 
MONTHLY 


NOVEMBER.    1921 


THE  SECOND  INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF 

EUGENICS^ 

THE  FIELD  OF  EUGENIC  REFORM 
By  Major  LEONARD  DARWIN 

Ti£  section  of  which  this  is  the  opening  meeting  deals  with  eugenics 
in  relation  to  the  state,  to  society  and  to  education;  it  may  he 
described  as  the  section  for  applied  genetics.  I  have  been  tempted  to 
describe  it  as  the  section  for  practical  eugenics;  but  that  description 
would  hardly  be  appropriate.  The  details  of  experimentation  and  re- 
search fall  outside  our  sphere;  but  to  make  experiments  is  the  most 
practical  thing  one  can  do.  Your  practical  manufacturer  knows  full 
well  that  if  he  trusted  to  running  forever  on  the  old  lines  he  would 
soon  come  to  grief.  We  are,  therefore,  here  dealing  with  the  practical 
application  of  knowledge  acquired  by  practical  research. 

Differences  of  opinion'  no  doubt  exist  amongst  those  who  have  con- 
ducted the  researches  on  which  we  have  to  build  our  practical  super- 
structure; differences  both  as  to  methods  and  as  to  results.  Even  more 
marked  differences  are,  however,  sure  to  be  felt  in  this  section,  where 
we  have  to  apply  to  human  conduct  the  knowledge  acquired  by  others. 
Ought  this  to  alarm  us?  I  think  not.  I  remember  long  ago  seeing  a 
picture  in  our  English  Punch  in  which  a  tailor  is  depicted  when  making 
excuses  for  some  misfit  as  saying,  ^'You  must  remember,  sir,  that  tailor- 
ing has  not  yet  been  reduced  to  the  level  of  one  of  the  exact  sciences." 
My  views  about  eugenics  are  somewhat  similar,  though  that  is  not  the 
way  I  should  express  them.  But  we  must  remember  that,  as  evolution- 
ary science  teaches  us,  uniformity  always  means  stagnation.  If  we 
all  felt  alike,  no  one  of  us  could  ever  pick  up  from  a  neighbor  any 
wiser  thoughts  than  his  own;  and  we  should  therefore  neither  regret 
a  certain  amount  of  divergence  of  opinion  nor  attempt  to  hide  it.  If 
the  beasts  of  the  field  had  never  fought  together  in  the  struggle  for 
existence,  mankind  would  never  have  been  developed  out  of  our  ape- 

1  Held  at  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  New  York  City, 
from  September  22  to  28,  1921. 

VOL.  xra.— 2S. 


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386  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

like  ancestors.  But  do  not  mistake  me.  I  am  not  advocating  war, 
which  is  the  most  damnable  thing  on  earth  both  as  to  its  inmiediate  and 
its  racial  consequences.  We  must  obtain  the  benefits  which  did  result 
from  savage  warfare  in  some  other  way ;  but  competition  we  must  have 
in  everything,  our  opinions  included.  If  any  other  eugenist  should  dis- 
agree entirely  with  my  assertions,  I  shall  feel  in  no  way  hurt! 

But  what  is  the  foundation  on  which  we,  in  this  section,  have  to 
build?  As  I  have  already  stated  in  this  room,  I  hold  that  our  aim  as 
eugenists  should  be  to  increase  the  rate  of  multiplication  of  stocks  above 
the  average  in  hereditary  qualities  and  to  decrease  it  amongst  the  less 
fit  Others  may  wish  to  make  our  efforts  cover  a  wider  field,  holding, 
for  example,  that  the  immediate  benefits  likely  to  arise  from  the  teach- 
ing of  sex  hygiene  should  be  included.  With  such  as  these  I  shall 
not  quarrel  for  I  am  in  full  sympathy  with  their  aims.  But  I  do  think 
that  as  a  matter  of  convenience  it  would  be  as  well  to  restrict  the  mean- 
ing of  ^'eugenics''  so  as  to  make  it  cover  no  more  than  was  intended 
by  Sir  Francis  Galton  who  coined  the  word,  that  is,  that  it  should  apply 
only  to  measures  affecting  the  inborn  qualities  of  future  generations. 

Now  as  to  the  differences  of  opinion  amongst  us,  I  am  glad  to  think 
that  we  are  not  divided  into  definitely  antagonistic  camps;  for  all  are, 
as  it  were,  linked  together  by  the  existence  of  every  intermediate- shade 
of  opinion.  No  doubt  at  one  end  of  the  scale  there  are  eugenists  who 
regard  racial  progress  as  an  assured  law  of  nature,  a  progress  merely 
to  be  hastened  by  the  elimination  of  certain  extremely  undesirable 
types,  such  as  the  insane,  the  feeble-in-mind,  and  those  endowed  with 
grossly  defective  inborn  constitutions.  At  the  other  end  of  the  scale 
are  those  who  regard  the  signs  of  the  times  as  pointing  without  doubt 
to  a  slow  and  progressive  deterioration  in  the  innate  qualities  of  all 
civilized  peoples;  that  is,  to  national  degradation,  which  it  will  only  be 
possible  to  arrest  by  national  efforts  covering  a  wide  field  of  endeavor. 
In  short,  though  all  eugenists  aim  at  improving  the  inborn  qualities  of 
posterity,  yet  some  would  attack  on  a  wider  front  than  others.  In  this 
connection  it  may  be  convenient  also  to  divide  inborn  qualities  into 
two  groups;  groups  which  also  can  not  be  separated  from  each  other 
by  any  very  definite  line  of  demarcation.  At  one  end  of  the  series 
we  have  qualities  dependent  on  a  single  something  which  the  child 
received  before  its  birth  from  its  parents,  whilst  qualities  at  the  other 
end  of  the  series  depend  on  a  large  number  of  such  somethings;  just 
as  we  may  divide  tables  into  those  which  have  one  leg  and  those  whidi 
have  many  supports.  In  technical  language,  the  distinction  here  sug- 
gested for  consideration  is  that  between  qualities  dependent  on  a  single 
Mendelian  factor — or  let  us  say  on  one  or  but  few  such  factors — and 
qualities  dependent  on  large  numbers  of  factors.  The  qualities  be- 
longing to  these  two  groups  demand  somewhat    different    treatment. 


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THE  FIELD  OF  EUGENIC  REFORM  387 

and  some  eugenists  attach  more  importance  to  the  one  group  and  some 
to  the  other. 

Let  us  first  consider  the  single  factor  qualities — ^the  one  legged 
tables — in  cases  where  such  qualities  are  harmful;  and  let  us  take  as 
a  single  example  a  deformity  called  brachydactyly,  the  symptoms  of 
which  are  the  fingers  being  excessively  short.  Now  a  child  before  its 
birth  either  has  or  has  not  been  endowed  with  the  factor  resulting  in 
this  aihnent.  If  it  has  not,  it  will  not  show  these  symptoms,  and  there 
is  an  end  of  the  matter.  If  it  has. been  so  endowed,  it  is  certain  to  have 
its  hands  crippled  in  this  way,  and  it  is,  moreover,  certain  to  pass  on 
this  deformity  to  many  of  its  offspring.  How  the  factor  first  arose  in 
the  ancestry  of  the  brachydactylous  child  is  unknown;  but  its  appar- 
ently spontaneous  appearance  is  at  all  events  such  a  rare  event  that  for 
practical  purposes  it  may  be  neglected.  This  is  the  very  simplest 
eugenic  problem  with  which  we  have  to  deal;  for  if  we  could  prevent 
parenthood  in  the  case  of  all  brachydactylous  persons,  we  might  thus 
stamp  out  this  ailment  forever.  The  matter  is  not  often  quite  as  simple 
as  this;  for,  in  regard  to  many  defects,  the  child  must  receive  the  harm- 
ful endowment  from  bath  parents  in  order  to  be  harmed  thereby.  If 
the  endowment  be  received  from  one  parent  only,  its  recipient  is  ap- 
parently normal ;  but  all  the  same  he  is  the  carrier  of  this  hidden  evil, 
very  likely  to  be  passed  on  to  future  generations,  and  to  show  its  harm- 
ful effects  when  it  chances  to  be  combined  in  one  individual  with  a 
similar  endowment  from  another  line  of  descent.  Here  also  all  that 
can  be  done  is  to  prohibit  parenthood  in  the  case  of  all  those  who, 
by  exhibiting  the  symptoms  in  question,  show  that  they  have  the 
double  dose  of  defective  heredity;  though  here  the  beneficial  effects 
will  be  more  slowly  obtained.  In  both  cases  all  that  has  to  be  decided 
is  whether  the  defect  in  the  present  and  in  all  future  generations  con- 
stitutes an  injury  sufficiently  grave  to  justify,  in  this  one  generation 
onlyy  the  actual  prevention  of  parenthood  or  the  self-sacrifice  needed 
for  its  voluntary  abandonment.  The  world  could  be  freed  from  all 
such  ailments  more  less  quickly,  and  it  is  only  a  question  in  each 
case  whether  it  is  worth  the  cost  of  thus  freeing  it.  But  please  note — 
and  this  is  the  point  to  which  I  especially  wish  to  call  your  attention — 
if  we  were  to  rid  the  world  of  any  one  of  these  single-factor  hereditary 
effects  we  should  proba]>ly  thus  benefit  mankind  in  no  other  respect 

Here  I  cannot  refrain  from  saying  a  few  words  about  the  feeble-in- 
mind;  though  to  do  so  is  in  a  measure  to  depart  from  the  thread  of 
my  argument.  Whatever  may  be  the  final  verdict  of  science  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  factors  on  which  this  grave  evil  depends,  all  experts  now 
agree  that  it  should  be  treated  in  the  way  in  which  single  factor  qualities 
should  be  dealt  with;  that  is  to  say,  each  case  should  be  studied  sepa- 
rately and  dealt  with  on  its  individual  merits.      Here  in  the  United 


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388  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

States  you  have  at  least  three  hundred  thousand  or  four  hundred  thous- 
and of  these  unfortunates,  and  the  numbers  would  probably  be  far 
greater  if  high  grade  cases  were  to  be  included.  A  very  large  propor- 
tion of  the  mental  defectives  who  become  parents  will  pass  on  this  ail- 
ment to  many  of  their  children;  whilst  many  of  their  offspring,  though 
apparently  normal  themselves,  will  be  endowed  with  the  power  of  trans- 
mitting this  to  their  descendants;  and,  if  the  interests  of  posterity  are 
not  to  be  grossly  neglected,  no  feeble-minded  person  should  be  allowed 
to  become  a  parent  Moreover,  those  who  have  studied  the  problem, 
all  of  them,  I  believe,  agree  that  the  right  method  to  adopt  is,  as  a  rule, 
segregation;  by  which  is  meant  confinement  in  comfort,  the  sexes  being 
kept  apart  We  all  hate  interfering  with  liberty;  but  let  it  always  be 
remembered  that  liberty  necessitates  equality,  and  that  as  equality  is 
impossible  with  the  feeble-in-mind,  they  can  under  no  circumstances 
ever  have  true  liberty.  Segregation  is  unquestionably  the  kindest 
course  to  adopt  in  most  cases,  especially  when  all  the  natural  protectors 
of  the  afflicted  have  disappeared.  The  creation  of  the  necessary  ac- 
commodations would  present  difficulties,  but  it  would  be  a  national 
economy  in  the  long  run. 

There  is,  however,  one  difficulty  to  be  faced  which  some  eugenists 
have  passed  over  too  lightly.  The  feeble-in-mind  often  attract  to 
themselves  far  more  affection  than  would  be  expected  by  the  inexperi- 
enced, and  in  nearly  all  cases  the  mother  has  strong  instinctive  senti- 
ments in  regard  to  her  children.  The  removal  of  the  mentally  defective 
infant  from  its  home  is  in  consequence  often  keenly  resented;  a  resent- 
ment which  may  no  doubt  frequently  be  overcome  by  argument,  except 
when  it  is  backed  up  by  less  reputable  desires  dependent  on  the  pos- 
sible economic  advantages  to  the  family.  Here  is  a  difficulty  whidi 
must  by  no  means  be  neglected;  though  in  my  country  at  all  events, 
what  is  now  greatly  needed  is  to  make  the  segregation  of  the  mentally 
defective  more  easy,  not  more  difficult,  than  it  is  at  present.  Now 
these  conflicting  considerations  have  forced  me  to  consider  what  part 
sterilization  could  be  made  to  play  in  the  eugenic  program.  It  is  not 
for  me  to  discuss  what  has  been  done  in  this  respect  in  the  United 
States;  for  there  are  many  present  who  can  deal  with  this  topic  better 
than  I  can.  I  am  aware  that  the  American  Breeders  Association  has 
investigated  this  subject  with  care,  and  I  wish  to  urge  as  strongly  as  I 
possibly  can  that  a  continuation  of  these  scientific  researches  is  the 
most  practical  thing  that  can  now  be  done.  We  want  to  know  what  is 
the  best  method  of  sterilization,  and  what  are  all  the  objections  to  it 
Is  the  X-ray  method  to  be  relied  on?  What  effect  would  it  have  on 
the  offspring  if  insufficiently  applied  to  produce  sterility?  Is  there  any 
danger  of  cancer  as  a  result?  I  strongly  press  this  inquiry  with  regard 
to  X-rays  because  I  think  that  the  adoption  of  surgical  methods  does 


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THE  FIELD  OF  EUGENIC  REFORM  389 

increase  the  prejucHoe  against  sterilization,  especially  in  regard  to  the 
operation  needed  for  women.  The  prejudice  itself  is  very  likely  to  be 
instinctive;  for  natural  selection  is  almost  certain  to  have  eliminated 
all  mental  traits  which  are  opposed  to  procreation.  If  this  be  so,  this 
is  a  prejudice  certain  to  be  met  with,  and  only  to  be  overcome  by 
reason. 

If  a  sufficiently  safe  method  of  sterilization  is  available  for  both 
sexes  as  some  experts  now  hold  to  be  actually  the  case,  would  it  not  be 
a  useful  auxiliary  to  segregation?  Mentally  defective  persons  ought  to 
be  allowed  to  live  at  home,  or  boarded  out  where  they  can  be  useful 
provided  that  ample  precautions  are  taken  to  make  it  certain  that  they 
can  thus  be  maintained  in  equal  contentment  to  when  living  in  an  insti- 
tution, that  all  other  conditions  are  suitable,  and  that  procreation  will 
be  very  improbable.  Might  not  voluntary  sterilization  be  regarded  as 
a  strong  plea  in  favor  of  permission  being  given  by  the  authorities  for 
the  mentally  defective  person  not  to  be  taken  to  an  institution?  Many 
parents  would,  I  believe,  gladly  welcome  this  alternative,  if  carefully 
explained,  in  order  to  retain  their  child  under  their  own  care;  though 
here  again  it  should  be  ascertained  that  the  home  conditions  are  all 
suitable.  No  doubt  sterilization  may  in  some  cases  facilitate  im- 
morality; but  if  the  authorities  were  given  power  to  enforce  segrega- 
tion in  the  case  of  all  sterilized  persons  found  to  be  living  an  immoral 
life,  the  harmful  consequences  might  be  largely  diminished.  I  am 
myself  inclined  to  favor  the  introduction  of  sterilization  as  a  voluntary 
and  experimental  measure;  for  if  it  proved  to  be  successful,  its  use 
would  certainly  be  extended,  its  racial  advantages  being  obvious. 

To  revert  to  my  main  theme,  we  have  seen  that  as  regards  such  bad 
qualities  as  are  dependent  on  one  or  but  few  mendelian  factors,  the 
right  course  to  adopt  is  to  consider  and  to  deal  with  each  case  sepa- 
rately; and  this  is  no  doubt  the  way  in  which  many  eugenists  wish  to 
treat  all  such  human  qualities  as  need  be  considered.  Probably  we 
shall  all  agree  that  the  grossly  unfit  whether  they  be  habitual  criminals, 
utterly  incorrigible  wastrels,  or  those  endowed  with  excessively  bad 
natural  constitutions,  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  become  parents,  each 
individual  being  separately  weighed  in  the  balance.  But  most  of  the 
bad  qualities  leading  to  gross  unfitness  are  dependent  on  many  factors, 
and  what  I  now  wish  to  suggest  for  your  consideration  is  that  the 
recognition  of  this  fact  ought  to  make  us  modify  in  certain  respects 
the  policy  which  we  recommend  for  adoption.  To  make  the  point 
clear  it  will  be  better  to  turn  to  the  consideration  of  good  qualities  and 
to  study  the  methods  of  increasing  the  rate  of  multiplication  of  those 
well  endowed  by  nature.  No  single  good  qualities  known  to  me  can 
be  certainly  attributed  to  the  presence  of  a  single  factor;  and  if  we 
consider  the  make-up  of  a  man  of  genius,  including  reasoning  power, 


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3M  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

concentration  of  mind,  energy,  pcrecverance,  faculty  of  observation, 
et  cetera,  et  cetera,  we  may  feel  sure  that  many  factors  are  involved. 
Almost  every  student  of  eugenics  has  at  some  time  or  other  during  his 
career  attempted  to  sketch  out  schemes  for  the  individual  selection  of 
a  number  of  highly  endowed  persons,  for  inducing  thmn  to  marry 
superior  mates,  and  for  the  encouragonent  of  the  production  of  large 
families  by  these  selected  couples.  Ought  we  not,  therefore,  to  inquire 
to  what  extent  reliance  is  to  be  placed  on  such  methods  when  the 
qualities  involved  are  dependent  on  many  factors?  The  matter  is  com- 
plicated; but  as  it  is  one  to  which  I  am  very  anxious  that  the  attention 
of  cugenists  should  be  directed,  I  beg  for  your  patience  whilst  I  try  to 
illustrate  the  point  in  question. 

If  a  few  millionaires  were  to  be  selected,  and  all  their  wealth  were 
to  be  distributed  broadcast  amongst  the  people,  we  may  be  certain  that 
the  result  would  be  a  feeling  of  keen  disappointment  amongst  the 
originators  of  the  plot,  for  each  recipient  would  receive  such  a  minute 
share  of  the  booty.  Again,  if  it  were  possible  to  create  a  few  million- 
aires, wealth  and  all,  and  if  generation  after  generation,  their  descoid- 
ents  were  to  dissipate  this  newly  created  wealth  until  it  was  widely 
scattered  throughout  the  whole  land,  in  this  case  also  the  ultimate 
benefits  to  the  mass  of  the  people  would  be  very  small.  Now  the 
eugenist  who  wishes  to  see  a  number  of  eminent  persons  picked  out 
and  induced  to  produce  large  families  is  no  doubt  aiming  at  what 
would  be  equivalent  to  the  creation  of  a  number  of  distinguished  per- 
sons in  the  coming  generations;  and  I  do  not  doubt  that  at  all  events 
as  regards  the  next  generation  only,  a  marked  success  in  this  respect 
could  thus  be  reaped.  But  we  have  seen  that  the  good  qualities  of  the 
selected  parents  would  be  due  to  many  factors;  and  these  factors,  like 
the  money  of  the  spendthrift  descendants  of  our  millionaire  would 
tend  to  become  more  and  more  widely  scattered  amongst  the  people  in 
accordance  with  an  inevitable  law  of  nature;  the  final  result  being,  we 
may  be  equally  certain,  very  disappointing  to  the  eugenist,  as  far  as 
ultimate  racial  results  are  concerned.  If  we  want  more  millionaires — 
I  am  not  saying  whether  we  do  or  do  not — one  way  to  secure  their 
presence  in  greater  numbers  in  the  future  would  be  to  raise  the  level 
of  the  wealth  of  the  whole  people ;  for  the  more  we  were  to  enrich  the 
soil  of  any  country,  as  it  were,  by  increasing  its  total  wealth,  the 
greater  would  be  the  number  of  its  inhabitants  who  would  in  the  ordi- 
nary course  of  trade  grow  so  rich  as  to  become  millionaires.  In 
nearly  the  same  way,  if  we  want  more  persons  eminent  in  morals,  intel- 
lect, or  physical  strength  to  spring  into  existence  in  all  the  generations 
to  come,  the  most  certain  method  of  achieving  this  result  would  be 
to  raise  the  level  of  the  whole  people  in  regard  to  their  inborn  qualities. 
For  if  this  could  be  done,  the  factors  needed  for  the  production  of  a 


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THE  FIELD  OF  EUGENIC  REFORM  391 

man  of  genius  would  exist  in  greater  numbers;  their  union  by  chance 
in  any  one  individual,  or  the  actual  appearance  of  a  genius,  would 
occur  very  often;  whilst  all  the  while  the  mass  of  the  people  would  be 
receiving  the  benefits  due  to  their  improved  natural  endowments. 
Surely  this  then  is  a  policy  not  to  be  neglected.  ^ 

The  efifects  of  the  wide  distribution  of  a  millionaire's  wealth,  even 
though  disappointing  to  those  concerned,  yet  if  accepted  as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  racial  consequences  of  increasing  the  progeny  of  a  num- 
ber of  selected  persons,  certainly  give  a  greatly  exaggerated  idea  of 
the  benefits  thus  to  be  obtained;  and  we  must  seek  for  some  more 
accurate  method  of  attempting  to  estimate  the  probable  results.  Sir 
Francis  Galton  stated  that  one  man  in  4,000  might  be  fairly  described 
as  being  ^'eminent'*  in  intellect;  and  we  may  perhaps  in  like  manner 
describe  the  tallest  of  a  group  of  4,000  men  as  being  eminent  in 
stature.  Now  Frederick  the  Great  is  said  to  have  picked  out  the  biggest 
men  he  could  lay  hands  on,  and  then  to  have  mated  them  by  no  gentle 
means  to  very  tall  women,^  with  the  object  of  securing  a  number  of 
huge  recruits  in  the  coming  generation.  To  what  extent  the  royal 
aspirations  were  fulfilled  in  this  respect  I  do  not  know.  But  let  us 
follow  Frederick's  example  in  imagination  and  consider  what  would 
be  the  e£fect  of  such  a  scheme  on  the  average  height  of  the  people  in 
future  generations.  In  a  town  of  8,000  inhabitants  there  would  proba- 
bly be  one  man  and  one  woman  eminent  in  stature  and  let  us  imagine 
that  we  bring  these  two  together,  with  the  result  that  two  more  children 

1  The  analogy  of  the  inheritance  of  money  is,  of  course,  faulty  in  many 
respects.  With  natural  inheritance  the  chances  of  a  person  receiving  a  good 
endowment  from  his  parents  are  the  same  whether  he  has  few  brothers  and 
sisters  or  many.  Again,  many  have  no  money  to  leave  to  their  descendants, 
and  often  money  is  only  received  from  one  parent.  With  natural  inheritance 
every  one  is  certain  to  receive  an  endowment,  good  or  bad,  from  each 
parent,  and  one  endowment  is  as  important  as  the  other.  Lastly,  whilst  we 
can  aim  at  a  more  even  distribution  of  wealth,  it  would  be  impossible,  even 
if  we  would,  to  prevent  the  fortuitous  coming  together  of  the  necessary 
factors  so  as  to  produce  a  man  of  genius. 

2  Frederick  would  have  produced  nearly  the  same  ultimate  results  on  the 
race  if  he  had  allowed  his  male  and  female  giants  to  marry  whom  they 
liked  provided  their  progeny  increased.  It  has  not  been  sufficiently  recognized 
that,  putting  aside  the  effects  of  assortive  mating,  the  only  racial  advantages 
of  mating  the  selected  individuals  are  (a)  the  immediate  production  of  giants, 
for  example,  and  (b)  that  greater  results  can  perhaps  thus  be  obtained  for 
the  same  money,  as  one  stimulus  then  affects  two  selected  individuals.  It 
should  also  be  noted  that  if  in  consequence  of  their  selection  the  selected 
persons  were  moved  out  of  a  more  fertile  into  a  less  fertile  stratum  of  society, 
and  if  their  descendants  remained  in  that  less  fertile  stratum,  then  the  ulti- 
mate results  would  be  dysgenic,  whatever  might  be  the  more  immediate  con- 
sequences. In  these  circumstances  thus  to  create  an  improved  type  in  per- 
petuity would  necessitate  the  establishment  of  a  rigid  caste  system. 


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392  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

are  brought  into  the  world  than  would  be  the  case  if  we  had  not 
interfered.  Looking  to  the  male  part  of  the  population  only — for  sim- 
plicity and  not  out  of  disrespect  to  the  female  half — ^we  should  find 
that  our  tall  man  was  rather  under  nine  inches  in  height  above  the 
average;  and,  as  a  rough  approximation  to  the  truth,  we  may  imagine 
that  after  many  generations  these  nine  inches  would  become  evenly 
distributed  amongst  the  whole  male  population  of  the  tovm;  or,  in 
other  words,  that  we  should  thus  have  raised  the  average  stature  of 
that  town  by  a  little  more  than  one  five-hundredth  part  of  an  inch.^ 
If  this  be  a  true  conclusion,  as  I  believe  it  to  be,  you  may  judge  that 
if  you  were  to  pick  out  the  12,500  tallest  men  and  12,500  tallest 
women  in  each  generation  in  the  United  States,  if  you  were  to  mate 
them  together  and  if  somehow  or  other  you  were  to  induce  each  couple 
to  have  two  additional  childr^i,  you  would  thus  in  about  1,500  years 
raise  the  average  height  of  your  citizens  by  one  inch!  In  passing  I 
can  not  help  expressing  my  pity  for  any  official  in  charge  of  a  depart- 
ment of  state  dealing  with  any  such  duties!  But  what  I  really  wish 
you  here  to  note  is  that  mental  qualities  though  not  as  easily  measured 
as  physical  characteristics,  are  distributed  in  accordance  with  the  same 
laws  and  are  no  more  easily  improved  by  dealing  with  selected  groups. 
Does  not  this  way  of  regarding  the  matter  throw  serious  doubts  on  the 
ultimate  advantages  of  eugenic  reform  of  this  kind;  that  is,  of  picking 
out  a  comparatively  small  number  of  selected  persons  on  account  of 
qualities  dependent  on  many  factors.  Our  main  endeavor  ought  to  be 
to  raise  the  level  of  the  whole  people  in  regard  to  their  inborn  qualities, 
for  which  purpose  large  numbers  must  be  afifected;  and  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  the  success  of  our  efforts  to  promote  racial  progress 
will  depend  largely  on  this  fact  being  fully  recognized  by  eugenic 
reformers. 

Since  we  are  getting  on  well  enough  as  we  are,  why  not  let  things 
alone?  Before  adopting  the  hopeful  attitude  indicated  by  this  inquiry 
we  ought  carefully  to  consider  whether  at  the  present  time  civilized 
nations  are  advancing  or  deteriorating  in  r^ard  to  their  inborn  quali- 
ties; a  most  difficult  question  to  answer  decisively.  Here  we  enter  the 
region  where  keen  feelings  are  likely  to  be  aroused;  and,  to  avoid  the 
distorting  effect  of  prejudice,  let  us  look  to  the  future  rather  than  to 
the  present.  Now  these  young  men  of  to-day  who  are  endowed  with 
good  natural  abilities  and  constitutions  will  be  nearly  all  certain  in 
time  to  earn  for  themselves  a  fairly  good  livelihood,  whilst  the  reverse 
will  be  the  case  with  those  ill-endowed  by  nature.    Then  again,  those 

s  The  increase  in  stature  would  in  truth  be  materially  less  than  .002  of  an 
inch;  for  regression  due  to  dominance  and  other  circumstances  has  to  be 
taken  into  account.  See  "Correlation  between  Relatives,"  R.  A.  Fisher 
Trans,  Royal  Soc.   Edin.    Vol.  Ill,  Part  2  (No.  15). 


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THE  FIELD  OF  EUGENIC  REFORM  393 

who  are  members  of  small  families  will  receive  greater  advantages  in 
education  and  in  many  other  respects  than  will  the  members  of  big 
families  and  they  will  in  consequence  more  easily  win  their  way  to 
the  front.  These  two  selective  processes  will  be  more  eflfective  as 
civilization  advances;  and  as  a  result  we  may  expect  to  find  in  the 
future  in  the  ranks  of  the  well  to  do  a  most  harmful  combination  of 
qualities  more  and  more  often  appearing;  that  is  to  say,  superior  in- 
born qualities  more  and  more  often  combined  with  all  those  natural 
tendencies  which  tend  to  favor  the  production  of  small  families;  these 
latter  including  natural  infertility  and  an  innate  desire  to  consider  the 
welfare  of  children  as  yet  unborn.  The  result  to  be  anticipated  is 
that,  in  comparison  with  the  ill-endowed,  the  naturally  well-endowed 
will  as  time  goes  on  take  a  smaller  and  smaller  part  in  the  production 
of  the  coming  generations,  with  a  tendency  to  progressive  racial  de- 
terioration as  an  inevitable  consequence.^  And  if  we  ask  whether 
existent  facts  confirm  or  refute  this  dismal  forecast,  what  do  we  find? 
Statistical  inquiries  at  all  evoits  prove  conclusively  that,  where  good 
incomes  are  being  won,  there  the  families  are  on  the  average  very 
small.  Moreover,  history  teaches  us  that  in  the  remote  past  ancient 
civilizations,  after  rising  to  a  climax,  often  b^an  to  sink  and  sink 
until  they  disappeared  o£f  the  face  of  the  earth.  These  problems  are 
too  complex  now  to  be  discussed  at  length;  and  I  can  only  assert  that 
I  can  find  no  facts  which  refute  the  theoretical  conclusion  that  the 
inborn  qualities  of  civilized  communities  are  deteriorating,  a  process 
which  must  inevitably  lead  in  time  to  an  all  round  downward  move- 
ment. I  am,  of  course,  regarding  this  question  broadly  and  generally, 
but  I  can  not  refrain  from  adding  that  the  United  States  has  a  mighty 
future  before  it,  on  which  the  civilization  of  the  whole  world  may  in 
a  large  measure  depend.  It  is,  therefore,  doubly  incumbent  on  its 
citizens  to  consider  whether  their  best  or  their  worst  stocks  are  now 
multiplying  most  rapidly.  If  it  is  the  worst  stocks,  and  if  no  steps  are 
taken  to  remedy  the  evil,  then  this  country  may  in  consequence  miss 
an  opportunity  of  filling  a  most  glorious  page  in  future  history. 

4  The  theoretical  side  of  all  these  questions  is  here  quite  inadequately 
discussed.  Many  authorities  have  pointed  out  the  effect  of  wealth  in  redu- 
cing fertility,  a  subject  not  here  dealt  with,  though  I  have  been  convinced  it 
is  a  most  important  factor.  As  to  the  possible  influence  of  physiological  in- 
fertility, see  "Human  Fertility"  by  J.  A.  Cobb,  Eugenics  Review,  January  1913. 
As  to  the  effect  of  mental  traits  on  fertility  and  racial  progress,  see  "Some 
Hopes  of  a  Eugenist"  by  R.  A.  Fisher,  Eugenics  Review,  January  1914.  These 
topics  have  been  discussed  by  me  at  greater  length  in  "The  Need  for  Wide- 
spread Eugenic  Reform,"  Eugenics  Review,  October  1918;  "Eugenics  in  Re- 
lation to  Economics  and  Statistics,"  Journal  of  Royal  Statistical  Society, 
January  1919;  "Some  Birth  Rate  Problems,"  Eugenics  Review,  October  1920 
and  January  1921.  See  also  "The  Habitual  Criminal,"  Eugenics  Review, 
October  1914. 


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394  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

If  in  all  civilized  countries  the  forces  the  existence  of  which  I  have 
but  too  briefly  indicated,  are  producing  deteriorating  influences  by 
acting  on  the  masses  of  the  people,  then  the  only  way  to  counteract 
this  tendency  is  to  set  in  operation  other  forces  which  will  affect  large 
numbers  in  the  opposite  direction.  But  how  is  thb  to  be  accomplished? 
As  to  good  qualities,  what  I  hold  to  be  the  main  remedy  can  be  ex- 
pressed in  so  few  words  that  its  great  importance  is  likely  to  be  over- 
looked. What  is  necessary  is  to  make  it  widely  and  deeply  felt  that  it 
is  both  immoral  and  unpatriotic  for  couples  sound  in  mind  and  body 
to  unduly  limit  the  size  of  their  families.  No  doubt  difficulties  will  be 
experienced  in  deciding  to  what  extent  the  duty  of  parenthood  is  im- 
posed in  individual  cases;  difficulties  which  I  have  no  time  to  discuss. 
The  main  difficulty  will,  however,  be  to  get  this  duty  strongly  felt  by 
the  mass  of  the  people;  for  success  in  this  endeavor  would,  I  am  con- 
vinced, have  a  much  greater  effect  on  the  size  of  families  than  com- 
mon sense  alone  would  indicate.  Failure  is,  however,  certain  if  the 
problem  is  not  attacked  with  religious  zeal.  There  ought  to  be  a  great 
moral  campaign  against  the  selfish  regard  for  personal  comfort  and 
social  advancement,  for  these  aims  must  in  a  measure  be  sacrificed  on 
the  altar  of  family  life  if  racial  progress  is  to  be  insured.  We  must  all 
learn  that  if  envy  and  jealousy  could  be  banished,  the  happiness  of 
our  children  would  depend  greatly  on  their  inborn  qualities  and  but 
little  on  their  place  in  society.  We  should  recognize  that  we  shall 
best  serve  our  country  by  bringing  healthy  and  intelligent  children  into 
the  world,  provided  that  we  can  give  them  a  sound  education  and  a 
fair  chance  of  winning  a  good  livelihood;  and  all  of  us  should  be  ready 
to  make  some  sacrifice  of  social  position  in  order  to  obey  our  country's 
call  in  this  respect.  The  nation  that  wins  in  this  moral  campaign  will 
have  gone  half  way  towards  gaining  an  all  round  racial  victory. 

There  are  no  doubt  many  economic  methods  of  increasing  the  rate 
of  multiplication  of  the  people;  methods  which  would  be  beneficial  if 
applied  to  good  stocks  and  harmful  in  the  case  of  inferior  types.  The 
main  reason  why  persons  of  high  character  limit  the  size  of  their 
families  is  in  order  to  insure  that  all  the  children  they  do  bring  into 
the  world  shall  have  a  good  start  in  life.  Obviously  the  simplest  way 
to  remove  this  check  on  fertility  is  for  the  state  to  step  in  and  ease  the 
financial  strain  on  parents  due  to  the  upbringing  of  their  children. 
This  method  must,  however,  never  be  applied  indiscriminately  or 
without  consideration,  for  the  qualities  of  the  types  affected  must  ever 
be  held  in  view;  and  this  is  especially  to  be  noted  in  connection  with 
all  schemes  for  motherhood  endowment  Then  again  an  increase  of 
taxation  is  equivalent  to  an  increase  in  the  poverty  or  a  decrease  in 
the  wealth  of  the  persons  taxed;  and  such  a  change  in  their  prospects 
will  tend  to  make  all  couples  still  further  limit  the  size  of  their  families; 


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THE  FIELD  OF  EUGENIC  REFORM  395 

anless  indeed  they  are  naturally  incapable  of  taking  thought  for  the 
morrow.^  It  follows  that  to  increase  the  taxation  on  the  more  fit  in 
order  to  ease  the  strain  of  family  life  amongst  the  less  fit  would  do  a 
double  dose  of  harm;  that  is  by  decreasing  the  output  of  children  where 
it  should  be  increased  and  by  increasing  it  where  it  should  be  dimin- 
ished. There  are  no  doubt  evils  which  can  not  altogether  be  avoided; 
for  we  are  bound  to  pay  attention  to  the  needs  of  all  who  suffer,  what- 
ever may  be  their  natural  qualities.  If  only  looking  to  the  types  whose 
multiplication  we  want  to  promote,  what  we  can  safely  do  is  to  increase 
the  taxation  on  the  unmarried  and  the  childless  and,  out  of  the  pro- 
ceeds, to  give  advantages  to  the  parent  of  growing  families  in  the  scone 
social  stratum.  In  regard  to  all  proposals  such  as  that  recently  made 
in  Australia,  for  directly  or  indirectly  taking  from  all  workmen  a  por- 
tion of  their  earnings  and  for  distributing  the  money  thus  obtained 
amongst  parents  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  their  young  children, 
here  again  the  racial  effects  will  be  good  if,  and  only  if,  the  benefits  re- 
ceived by  each  couple  are  porportionate  to  the  contributions  made  by 
members  of  the  same  group  to  which  they  belong,  a  condition  almost  cer- 
tain to  be  neglected.  The  economic  principles,  which  I  have  all  too 
hastily  alluded  to,  involve  many  puzzling  questions  in  regard  to  their 
application;  but  to  neglect  them  altogether  is  to  court  a  great  racial 
danger. 

Turning  to  the  consideration  of  influences  which  would  tend  to 
diminish  the  rate  of  multiplication  of  inferior  types,  we  see  that  the 
grossly  unfit  can  be  separated  from  the  normal  population  with  but 
little  doubt,  and  that  they  are  often  a  serious  nuisance  to  society.  As 
regards  most  of  these  types  it  is  probable  that  seven  mendelian  factors 
are  involved;  but  even  if  that  be  so  it  is  not  improbable  that  some 
one  of  the  resulting  bad  qualities  may  be  due  to  a  single  factor.  For 
all  these  reasons  it  seems  right  that  the  grossly  unfit  should  be  selected 
individually  from  the  rest  of  the  population,  and  that  in  their  case 
parenthood  should  be  prevented  by  segregation,  with  voluntary  sterili- 
zation as  an  experimental  auxiliary.  But  here  also  some  attention 
should  be  paid  to  the  principle  which  I  am  advocating,  namely,  that 
with  qualities  dependent  on  many  factors  it  is  as  a  rule  best  to  aim 
at  dealing  with  large  numbers  rather  than  with  the  extreme  cases. 
Taking  the  criminal  population  as  a  single  example,  it  is  found  .that 
those  who  have  been  frequently  in  prison  are  practically  certain  to 
revert  to  crime  when  liberated.  These  habitual  criminals  form  the 
bulk  of  the  prison  population;  they  have  no  good  qualities  to  recom- 
mend them;  they  are  too  stupid  to  avoid  detection,  and  the  only  courage 

5  It  should  be  noted  that  I  am  speaking  of  an  increase  of  taxation  and 
not  of  high  taxation.  The  ultimate  racial  effects  of  high  taxation  are  difficult 
to  foretell. 


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396  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

which  they  show  is  that  needed  to  face  disgrace  and  imprisonment. 
Merely  to  reduce  the  fertility  of  large  nmnbers  of  this  class  would 
be  more  beneficial  from  the  racial  point  of  view  than  to  absolutely 
prohibit  parenthood  in  the  case  of  a  small  number  of  persons  convicted 
of  grave  crimes;  persons  who  at  all  events  are  often  intelligent  and 
courageous.  With  the  habitual  criminal  the  length  of  detention  should 
be  increased  and  its  severity  diminished  after  each  conviction;  periods 
of  liberty  should  be  given  until  it  is  quite  certain  that  no  cure  can  be 
eflfected;  and  in  the  end  the  malefactor  should  be  r^arded  as  a  person 
to  be  permanently  detained  because  he  is  incapable  of  self  manage- 
ment, all  idea  of  punishment  being  abandoned.  The  benefits  thus  to 
be  derived  are  indicated  by  the  statistically  proved  facts  that  lengthy 
imprisonment  does  lessen  the  number  of  progeny  of  the  criminal,  and 
that  his  children  are  at  least  ten  times  more  likely  to  be  sent  to  prison 
than  are  the  children  of  honest  parents.  Even  those  who  do  not 
believe  in  heredity  may,  therefore,  be  inclined  to  hold  that  permanent 
segregation  is  justifiable  after  many  convictions.  We  should  endeavor 
to  deal  in  the  same  way  with  the  wastrel,  the  drunkard,  and  the  work 
shy;  that  is  as  members  of  large  classes  the  size  of  which  ought  to  be 
diminished  rather  than  as  individuals  requiring  separate  consideration. 
If  it  be  true,  as  I  hold,  that  there  are  hidden  forces  continually  at 
work  tending  to  relatively  increase  the  rate  of  multiplication  of  large 
numbers  of  those  who  are  below  the  average  in  the  various  qualities 
held  to  be  desirable,  then  efforts  to  deal  with  the  obviously  unfit  would 
not  alone  stem  this  tendency  toward  racial  deterioration.  To  prevent 
our  civilization  from  slowly  sinking  in  the  future,  some  far  more  wide- 
spread action  is  needed.  But  how  are  we,  it  may  be  well  to  ask,  to 
pick  out  large  numbers  of  the  population  whose  hereditary  influence  on 
posterity  will  tend  to  drag  down  the  average?  •  Now  we  shall  all 
probably  agree  that  the  fewer  young  men  there  are  in  any  country,  who 
prove  themselves  to  be  incapable  of  winning  sufficient  wages  to  main- 
tain a  family  in  decency,  the  better  it  will  be  for  the  community  as  a 
whole.  This  is  true  even  if  we  only  look  to  the  comfort  and  well  being 
of  the  children  destined  to  be  bom  in  these  ill-found  homes.  Here  we 
are  of  course  tempted  to  urge  that  the  state  should  step  in  and  see  to  it 
that  no  disadvantages  are  felt  by  the  little  unfortunates  likely  to  be 
brought  up  in  bad  surroundings  for  which  they  would  be  in  no  way 
responsible.  Any  such  action  would,  however,  increase  the  birth  rate 
of  the  class  affected.  Now  bad  surroundings  doubtless  tend  to  in- 
crease the  number  of  social  failures;  a  cause  of  failure  which,  we  may 
believe  will  become  less  and  less  operative  with  every  advance  in 
civilization.    But  a  very  large  proportion  of  those  incapable  of  support- 

<  It  must  be  remembered  that  this  must  be  true  of  half  the  population. 


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THE  FIELD  OF  EUGENIC  REFORM  397 

ing  a  family  in  decency  in  normally  prosperous  times  are  character- 
ized by  certain  inborn  defects;  such  as  weak  constitutions,  inferior 
mental  powers,  unstable  moral  qualities,  etc.,  all  of  which  are  in  a 
measure  to  be  passed  on  to  posterity.  State  action  of  the  kind  just 
suggested  must  therefore  be  harmful  in  its  racial  efifects;  for  we  ought 
to  check  rather  than  to  increase  the  size  of  families  bom  in  squalid 
surroundings.  How  can  this  be  done?  This  is  a  problem  to  which 
I  most  earnestly  hope  that  eugenists  will  turn  their  attention;  for  I  con- 
fess I  have  found  myself  no  very  satisfactory  solution.  I  can  only  sug- 
gest that  state  and  charitable  aid  should  never  be  given  in  such  pro- 
fusion as  to  prevent  the  appearance  of  each  child  from  causing  any 
additional  financial  strain  on  the  housdiold,  for  fertility  is  decreased 
by  financial  pressure;  but  I  hardly  know  what  to  suggest  in  the  case 
of  those  who  in  spite  of  this  pressure  persist  in  procreation  in  evil  sur- 
roundings; and  perhaps  for  the  present  we  should  concentrate  our 
attention  on  the  attempt  to  secure  a  general  approval  of  the  desire  to 
lessen  the  output  of  diildren  in  such  circumstances.  But  the  problems 
involved  must  be  solved  sooner  or  later,  and  in  attempting  to  solve 
them  we  must  remember  that  every  reform  does  harm  as  well  as  good, 
and  that  all  we  can  do  is  to  make  reasonably  certain  that  the  good  re- 
sults will  preponderate  over  the  evil.  In  order  to  prevent  the  civilized 
nations  of  the  world  from  slowly  losing  what  has  been  won  by  long  ages 
of  suffering,  no  doubt  sacrifices  must  be  made  and  some  suffering  yet 
endured.  But  if  we  have  courage  to  face  this  problem  without  flinching; 
if  we  fearlessly  advocate  what  we  hold  to  be  right,  in  spite  of  the  un- 
popularity of  the  safeguards  and  remedies  we  suggest;  and  if  we  can 
in  the  end  secure  wide  approval  of  our  aims;  then  I  am  myself  certain 
that  we  shall  be  able  to  introduce  reforms  which  will  secure  untold 
benefits  for  mankind,  in  all  the  long,  long  ages  to  come. 

In  conclusion  may  I  once  again  indicate  the  contrast  which,  I  sug- 
gest, ought  always  to  be  held  in  view  in  framing  plans  for  eugenic 
reform;  a  contrast  which  I  have  painted  with  such  a  broad  brush  that 
many  qualifications  have  of  necessity  been  omitted  and  many  points  but 
ill-explained.  I  have  endeavored  to  show  that,  for  the  purpose  of  our 
discussions,  human  qualities  may  be  divided  into  two  ill-defined  groups, 
with  intermediate  types  between  them.  At  the  one  extreme  there  are 
the  single  factor  qualities;  in  the  case  of  persons  possessing  bad  quali- 
ties near  this  end  of  the  series,  they  should  be  individually  selected 
and  examined  and  then  each  treated  accordingly.  Here  we  should  be 
dealing  for  the  most  part  with  pathological  cases  or  with  persons  who 
are  likely  to  become  a  nuisance  to  society;  the  aim  of  the  eugenic 
reformer  would  usually  be  to  rid  the  world  of  some  definite  defect 
These  are  the  cases  which  are  least  in  dispute,  and  where  racial  bene- 
fits can  be  most  rapidly  obtained;  and  for  these  reasons  it  is  perhaps 


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398  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

to  these  qualities  that  our  attention  should  first  of  all  be  directed.  At 
the  other  extreme  are  those  characteristics  which  separate  whole  classes 
of  a  community  from  each  other,  and  which  obviously  depend  on  a 
great  many  factors.  Here  we  generally  have  to  look  to  the  class  as  a 
whole,  and  to  apply  such  remedies  as  do  not  necessitate  the  selection  of 
individuals,  the  aim  being  to  raise  the  level  of  the  whole  people.  It  is 
on  such  qualities  as  these  that  the  slow  improvement  or  deterioration 
of  our  civilization  will  in  the  main  ultimately  depend;  and  if  they  be 
neglected  in  our  schemes  of  eugenic  reform,  we  shall  before  very  long 
begin  to  lapse  back  again  towards  barbarism,  thus  following  in  the 
footsteps  of  many  highly  cultivated  nations  in  the  past.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  our  biologists  face  these  problems  more  earnestly  in  the  future 
than  they  have  in  the  past,  if  our  politicians  pay  more  attention  to 
the  advice  of  scientific  experts  than  has  hitherto  been  customary,  and 
if  the  general  public  will  be  guided  by  common  sense  in  regard  to 
heredity,  then  I  hold  that  we  shall  have  more  right  to  look  with  con- 
fidence to  the  future  than  ever  has  been  the  case  since  the  dawn  of 
civilization. 


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CONSEQUENCES  OF  WAR  AND  BIRTH  RATE  IN  FRANCE    399 


THE  CONSEQUENCES  OF  WAR  AND  THE  BIRTH 
RATE  m  FRANCE 

By  M.  LUCIEN  MARCH 

TREASURER  OF  LA  SOCIETE  FRANCAISE  D  EUGENIQUE 

AS  a  result  of  the  war,  the  France  of  1914  has  lost  1,400,000  of  her 
inhabitants  in  the  prime  of  life,  most  of  them  fit  for  producing 
children.  And  among  the  survivors  of  the  fighters  of  the  great  war, 
a  certain  part  of  the  800,000  total  invalids  will  never  be  able  to  pro- 
duce strong  healthy  children,  either  because  they  are  no  longer  capable 
of  marrying,  or  because  they  are  affected  with  tuberculosis  or  other  con- 
stitutional maladies. 

To  these  direct  losses  must  be  added  the  loss  of  births.  Before  the 
war,  the  number  of  living  births  balanced  with  a  slight  excess  the 
number  of  deaths;  the  annual  number  was  about  750,000.  During  the 
six  years  from  1914  to  1919  inclusive,  the  deficit  reached  400,000  births, 
which  ought  to  have  survived  normally  and  which  were  lost  owing  to 
the  war. 

On  the  other  hand,  deaths  in  the  civil  population  have  been  more 
numerous  than  formerly,  so  that  400,000  more  deaths  are  added  to  the 
1,400,000  unborn  and  to  the  1,400,000  soldiers  killed  in  war,  giving  a 
total  of  more  than  2,000,000,  taking  into  consideration  possible  repeti- 
tion and  inunigration.  These  results  are  calculated  on  the  supposition 
that,  in  the  invaded  regions,  the  loss,  estimated  proportionally  to  the 
number  of  inhabitants,  was  the  same  as  in  the  uninvaded  territory;  on 
the  other  hand,  the  numbers  are  applied  to  the  territory  of  1914,  but 
Alsace  and  Lorraine  can  not  nearly  fill  the  loss  of  population  of  this 
region.  The  provisional  results  of  the  census  of  1921  confirm  these 
suppositions. 

But  that  is  not  all.  Privations  have  broken  down  the  health  of  many 
children  bom  during  the  war  or  a  few  years  before,  especially  in  the 
regions  of  the  northeast,  where,  during  the  German  occupation,  they 
lived  in  a  state  of  veritable  physical  misery.  Indeed,  infant  mortality, 
even  in  the  uninvaded  districts,  has  been  notably  higher  during  the  war 
than  before,  in  spite  of  the  low  birth  rate. 

Finally,  a  certain  recrudescence  of  alcoholism,  tuberculosis,  venereal 
disease  and  various  nervous  diseases  influenced  unfavorably  the  vitality 
of  the  nation  and  the  race. 

Many  years  will  be  necessary  to  repair  the  loss  of  population,  direct 


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400  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

or  indirect,  attributable  to  the  war  or  to  the  evils  which  have  accom- 
panied it. 

To  avoid  the  inauspicious  consequences  of  these  miseries,  certain 
people  believe  it  is  necessary  to  encourage  procreation  by  all  possible 
means;  they  do  not  fear  an  excess  of  population  for  a  long  time. 
Others  think  it  expedient  that  each  man  of  proper  age  to  have  offspring 
should  have  the  3  or  4  childroi  necessary  to  permit  a  moderate  increase 
of  population.  And  still  others  estimate  that  a  continued  increase  of 
population  would  create  an  economic  peril  and  contain  the  germ  of 
future  wars.  Again  some  wish  certain  restrictions,  especially  in  con- 
finements, among  the  poorest  of  the  population,  to  improve  the  quality 
of  this  population. 

The  considerations  which  are  the  most  important  are  the  following, 
which  shall  be  examined  from  the  point  of  view  of  eugenics  and  the 
point  of  view  of  economics. 

I. 

To-day,  respect  of  human  life  in  all  its  degrees  makes  us  condemn 
infanticide  and  abortion.  There  remains  then  as  a  means  of  artificial 
selection  only  the  prevention  of  births. 

But  the  universal  concern  which  determines  parents  to  limit  the 
number  of  their  children  is  the  burden,  at  least  momentarily,  which 
the  latter  represent 

The  question  of  the  birth  rate,  in  its  entirety,  with  an  exception  to 
be  referred  to  later,  comes  back  again  to  a  question  of  economic  morale. 
For  physical  passion  finds  play  without  producing  the  being  which  is 
its  end,  and  this  being  is  often  to-day  the  reward  of  a  sacrifice  freely 
agreed  upon. 

Humanity  ought  not  to  perish  by  its  own  error.  Such  is  the  hi^er 
principle  which  ought  to  be  reconciled  with  the  practical  impossibility 
of  unlimited  multiplication. 

According  to  etymology  and  the  definition  given  by  Galton,  eugenics 
is  a  general  study  of  the  improvements  of  which  the  race  is  susceptible, 
race  being  characterized  by  common  physical  or  mental  qualities  mani- 
festing themselves  in  certain  groups  of  men  and  differentiating  them 
from  other  groups.  Two  conceptions  enter  here,  that  of  improvement, 
and  that  of  the  race.    To  what  realities  do  they  correspond? 

We  cannot  define  progress,  the  process  of  making  perfect;  but, 
when  we  look  back,  we  feel  the  differences  which  separate  the  life  of 
other  times  from  that  of  the  present;  evolution  appears  to  us  to  follow 
a  certain  direction.  We  can  then  legitimately  aim  to  continue  life  in 
this  direction. 

In  the  second  place,  although  in  a  biological  sense  pure  human 
races  are  not  numerous,  one  can  prove  that  a  number  of  groups  of  in- 


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CONSEQUENCES  OF  WAR  AND  BIRTH  RATE  IN  FRANCE   401 

dividuals  are  distinguished  by  their  physical  and  mental  characters, 
apparent  and  distinct  as  a  whole,  from  another  group.  Without  modi- 
fying these  characters  to  the  point  of  making  the  differences  disappear, 
one  can  improve  their  manifestations,  the  manner  in  which  they  act 
in  each  human  group;  that  is  the  aim  which  eugenics  seeks.  But  we 
must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact — for  other  sciences,  the  science  of  educa- 
tion for  example,  seek  the  same  end — that  eugenics  is  concerned,  it 
seems,  only  with  measures  capable  of  effect  upon  descendants,  that  is 
to  say,  transmissible  by  heredity  or  capable  of  operating  a  selection 
advantageous  for  future  generations. 

The  general  principles  of  this  new  science  have  not  yet  been  well 
established.  It  is  not  yet  settled;  it  is  still  in  a  period  of  development. 
And  this  permits  some  liberty,  some  difference  of  opinion  to  those 
who  try  to  attack  the  problem. 

There  are,  however,  acquired  facts,  indisputable  connections;  for 
the  moment  we  may  withdraw  to  this  ground. 

Whatever  our  opinion  as  to  the  relative  importance  of  the  factors 
heredity  or  environment — ^that  is  the  principal  point  on  which  personal 
opinions  are  opposed — the  influence  of  heredity  can  not  be  denied. 
Physical  and  mental  resemblances  of  parents  and  children  are  obvious; 
the  hereditary  transmission,  at  least  in  the  most  closely  related  genera- 
tions, of  certain  physical  peculiarities,  such  as  stature,  conformation  of 
the  skull,  hemophilia,  polydactylism,  etc.,  or  of  mental  defects  such  as 
epilepsy,  certain  forms  of  mental  deficiency  or  feeblemindedness,  are 
to-day  almost  proved.  Provided  always  that  the  tendencies  involved  are 
simple  and  that  their  existence  can  be  removed,  resonblances  between 
children  bom  of  the  same  parents  do  not  prevent  great  differences  some- 
times appearing  in  these  children.  The  heredity  of  abilities  or  that  of 
defects  is  not  a  matter  of  fate:  education  may  modify  nature. 

As  to  the  influence  of  environment,  of  the  mode  of  development  of 
the  created  being,  whatever  may  be  its  importance  for  this  being  itself, 
the  question  which  interests  eugenics  is  to  know  whether  this  influence 
acts  upon  the  descendants  after  being  hidden  for  a  number  of  genera- 
tions. On  this  point,  certain  savants,  Weismann  in  particular,  have 
declared  negatively.  Others  have  shown,  by  experiments  on  lower 
organisms,  that  organic  modifications  brought  about  in  these  organisms 
are  transmitted  to  their  descendants. 

As  Dr.  Apert  has  remarked  in  France,  as  far  as  man  is  concerned, 
it  seems  that  only  the  modifications  relating  to  the  nervous  system  have 
yielded,  up  to  the  present,  observations  truly  conclusive.  Yet  the  in- 
terpretation of  these  facts  has  been  contested;  they  have  been  attributed 
to  hereditary  predispositions,  but  it  is  always  easy  to  draw  into  the  re- 

voL.  xm.~a& 


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402  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

suits  of  an  observation  the  effect  of  a  hidden  influence  as  mysterious  as 
that  of  heredity. 

Our  knowledge  is  not  sufficient  to  warrant  our  issuing  a  challenge 
on  these  obscure  questions.  And  yet  of  such  great  importance  to 
humanity  is  a  sustained  and  growing  development  of  scientific  re- 
searches relative  to  the  heredity  of  man,  that  this  is  the  desire  of  all 
those  who  are  interested  in  eugenics. 

The  transmission  of  character,  from  one  generation  to  another, 
works  through  the  germ-plasm,  but  this  action  can  be  guided  by  selec- 
tion: natural  selection  by  death,  artificial  selection  by  sexual  union. 

M.  Edmond  Perrier,  president  of  the  Societe  f rangaise  d'  Eugenique, 
recently  stated  that,  in  primitive  nature,  natural  selection  may  not  have 
had  the  exclusive  effect  which  the  Darwinians  have  attributed  to  it. 
Moreover,  what  precisely  is  natural  selection?  Does  it  mean  simply 
that  an  individual  incapable  of  adapting  itself  to  the  conditions  im- 
posed on  it  by  environment  disappears  and  only  those  individuals  sur- 
vive who  are  capable  of  adapting  themselves?  That  does  not  add  a 
great  deal  to  our  knowledge,  as  Mr.  Balfour  (speaking  before  the  First 
International  Eugenics  Congress)  remarked,  since  it  amounts  to  saying 
that  only  those  are  capable  of  surviving  who  survive  a  veritfd>le  truism. 
And  if  one  means  that  only  those  survive  who  are  capable  of  surviving, 
M.  Perrier  answers  {Eugenique,  mai  1921,  page  197)  that  those  who 
are  incapable  of  surviving  in  one  region  can  escape  death  by  flight,  and 
it  is  thus  perhaps  that  the  living  world  has  evolved. 

In  truth,  death  and  survival  are  a  form  of  selection  from  which  may 
result  for  humanity,  as  for  all  living  beings,  good  or  evil  according 
to  the  qualities  of  the  individual  involved  and  the  surrounding  cir- 
cumstances. If  we  are  unable  to  modify  the  innate  qualities  of  the 
individual,  we  may  often,  by  acting  upon  the  surrounding  circum- 
stances, make  useful  the  qualities  which  it  has. 

This  is  one  of  the  essential  duties  of  eugenics:  to  favor  and  en- 
courage the  work  of  health  and  the  work  of  educating  the  promoters 
of  social  progress. 

As  to  artificial  selection,  we  may  endeavor  to  increase  births  among 
those  who  possess  the  best  qualities  and  to  decrease  births  among  those 
who  show  defects  and  faults.  However,  we  ought  to  ask  ourselves 
whether  there  does  jaot  exist  now  and  then  a  certain  opposition  to 
these  two  movements:  that  which  makes  for  the  improvement  of  con- 
ditions of  existence  and  that  which  makes  for  the  best  qualities  in*the 
descendants. 

Opposition  has  been  noted  many  times,  especially  among  English 
eugenicists.  Nature,  they  say,  in  a  convenient  anthropomorphic  lan- 
guage, nature  has  arranged  for  the  beings  least  endowed  for  life,  to 
disappear  before  those  who  are  better  endowed.      Thb  observation 


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CONSEQUENCES  OF  WAR  AND  BIRTH  RATE  IN  FRANCE    403 

is  just;  admitting  that  in  the  shadowy  beginning  of  life,  flight  was 
a  means  of  preservation,  this  means  is  not  worth  much  when  it  is 
impossible  to  flee  from  danger.  This  is  the  case  when  illnesses 
and  bodily  struggles  cause  the  disappearance  of  the  least  worthy  be- 
ings, the  least  capable  of  resistance.  But  when  human  fraternity,  pity, 
science,  and  hygiene  unite  their  efi'orts  to  defend  the  weak,  many  in- 
dividuals who  would  have  disappeared  if  left  to  themselves,  live  in 
spite  of  their  disabilities  and  transmit  these  to  their  descendants.  As 
is  often  remarked,  the  humanitarian  tendencies  of  our  time,  our  social 
l^islation  and  all  the  measures  which  come  from  the  same  principle, 
have  this  effect — of  which  people  are  not  sufficiently  warned — to  op- 
pose the  play  of  natural  selection.  This  manner  of  thinking  contains 
a  great  deal  of  truth.  However,  no  defender  of  eugenics  thinks  of 
suppressing  pity,  or  hygiene,  to  reestablish  natural  selection  in  its 
barbaric  despotism.  The  efforts  of  humanity  tend  to  utilize  the  natural 
forces  for  their  own  ends  and  not  to  let  them  act  blindly.  Also  when 
the  ideal  of  healthfulness  and  social  progress  is  opposed  to  the  ideal 
of  perfection  of  race,  because  the  first  is  contrary  to  the  effect  of  natural 
selection,  it  becomes  necessary  to  demand  from  artificial  selection  much 
more  important  effects,  and  especially  those  better  regulated,  than 
those  which  it  produces  among  primitive  peoples. 

This  we  shall  now  consider  in  passing  to  the  special  question  of 
birth.  Even  though  we  can  lessen  the  effects  of  natural  selection,  we 
can  much  more  surely  intervene  by  artificial  selection  to  favor  the 
perfecting  of  the  race  and  above  all  to  prevent  its  degeneration.  The 
point  is  to  make  good  use  of  this  power. 

II. 

In  all  times,  man  has  tried  to  deal  with  the  multiplication  of  his 
race.  Independently  of  wars,  famines,  epidemics,  whose  destructive 
effects  extend  themselves  over  entire  populations,  suppression  of  in- 
fants already  bom,  abortion,  and  prevention  of  births  have  been 
practised. 

Eugenics,  as  well  as  economics,  can,  to  be  sure,  tell  us  what  the 
social  interest  demands.  From  the  point  of  view  of  eugenics,  the 
experience  of  centuries  and  of  numerous  researches  teaches  us  above 
all  that  there  are  transmissible  defects,  reproduction  of  which  must 
be  avoided  at  all  costs.  These  are  notably  the  hereditary  predisposi- 
tions to  insanity,  to  feeble-mindedness,  to  epilepsy,  and  to  detrimental 
malformations;  or  again  the  acquired  dispositions  chargeable  to  the 
poisons  of  the  nervous  system,  such  as  alcohol  and  the  spirochete  of 
syphilis. 

Evidently  one  can  not  always  be  sure  in  advance  of  the  effect  of 
those  influences  which,  acting  in  the  mass,  result  in  differences.   Never- 


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404  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

theleu  there  are  individuals  whose  duty  it  is  not  to  procreate,  not  to 
give  birth  to  offspring,  since  the  chances  of  def  onnity  or  mental  de- 
ficiency are  really  too  great  This  duty  is  all  the  clearer  when  one  is 
forced  to  conserve  the  life  of  those  beings  who,  in  other  times,  would 
have  been  condemned  to  a  more  rapid  death  by  the  brutalities  of 
existence. 

Apart  from  circumstances  which  justify  and  command  abstinence, 
there  are  still  others  which  can  be  drawn  in  very  legitimately  to  limit 
the  number  of  children;  for  instance,  in  the  very  crowded  urban  dis- 
tricts, the  insufficiency  of  homes  and  the  promiscuity  cause  an  excessive 
mortality  when  families  are  large,  and  there  are  no  means  for  choosing 
spacious  dwellings.  Finally,  there  are  individual  proprieties  worthy 
of  respect,  for  example,  the  care  of  the  mother's  health  when  she  cannot 
stand  numerous  pregnancies,  not  to  speak  of  the  limits  which  can  im- 
pose the  legitimate  fear  of  an  undeserved  loss,  if  a  large  family  assumes 
a  burden  which  surpasses  its  strengtL 

We  cannot  then  accept  the  formula  of  an  unfortunate  equality, 
which  would  impose  on  all  adults  the  obligation  of  having  a  deter- 
mined number  of  children,  any  more  than  we  would  dream  of  recom- 
mending an  unlimited  fecundity.  It  is  therefore  necessary  to  discard 
formulas  which  are  precise  but  too  simple  and  to  keep  within  the 
bounds  of  asking  that  each  adult  have  children  if  he  reasonably  can. 
Each  one,  in  fact,  has  the  duty  of  transmitting  the  life  that  he  has 
received,  as  well  as  of  improving  the  value  of  that  life  just  as  those 
who  have  preceded  have  striven  to  do.  And  thus  is  imposed,  according 
to  the  limits  of  one's  means  and  capacities,  the  duty  of  perpetuating 
the  family  to  which  one  belongs,  the  duty  of  contributing  to  the  scope 
of  one's  country  and  to  the  progress  of  all  humanity. 

The  formula  is  doubtless  very  vague;  it  is  addressed  to  conscience, 
for  it  is  conscience  alone  which  is  the  judge  of  the  degree  to  which 
the  order  has  been  obeyed.  It  is  the  same  as  when  one  appeals  to  the 
conscience  of  each  one  to  participate  in  the  defence  of  country  or  of 
national  burdens.  In  this  case,  it  is  true  that  legislation  mforces  the 
moral  obligation;  is  it  not  necessary  that  legislation  also  intervene  in 
favor  of  the  birth  rate?  The  answer  to  this  question  is  not  doubtful; 
we  can  not  omit  a  certain  social  organization  capable  of  stimulating 
conscience  and  assuring  the  desired  result,  that  is  to  say,  the  number 
of  births  which  appear  necessary  for  the  whole  population. 

However,  two  objections  have  been  made.  One  declares  that  before 
increasing  the  birth  rate,  it  would  be  better  to  reduce  mortality  and, 
above  all,  infant  mortality. 

It  is  obvious  that  all  measures  capable  of  reducing  mortality  are 
good  in  themselves.  But,  since  the  remotest  historical  times,  it  has  not 
appeared  possible  to  lengthen  the  maximum  of  human  life.    We  can 


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CONSEQUENCES  OF  WAR  AND  BIRTH  RATE  IN  FRANCE   405 

only  hope  to  lengthen  the  mean  duration  of  life.  But  that  will  not  pro* 
duce  an  appreciable  increase  in  population  in  the  countries  where  the 
number  of  births  depends  on  familial  foresight,  when  the  parents  de- 
termine, so  to  speak,  in  advance  the  number  of  children  they  will  raise. 
Three  years  out  of  four  in  France,  the  number  of  births  in  one  year 
is  related  to  the  number  of  infants  who  have  died  in  the  preceding; 
if  many  children  die,  they  are  replaced. 

The  second  objection  is  that  instead  of  seeking  the  striving  for  a 
great  number  of  children,  it  is  preferable  to  concern  oneself  about 
die  quality.  We  have  seen  that  the  quality  of  population  is  in  fact  the 
principal  aim  of  eugenics. 

We  shall  consider  successively  the  family  and  the  nation. 

In  the  family,  when  the  number  of  children  does  not  exceed  the 
reasonable  limit  of  which  we  have  spoken,  one  can  affirm  that  quality, 
far  from  being  opposed  to  quantity,  goes  hand  in  hand  with  it.  The 
case  of  the  only  child  has  often  been  tried.  Numerous  examples  have 
also  been  cited  of  brilliant  men  who  are  among  the  young  manbers  of 
families,  sometimes  of  very  high  rank. 

As  to  the  nation,  she  may  claim  a  certain  choice,  a  selection  the 
importance  of  which  we  have  mentioned  in  the  first  part  of  thb  paper. 

But,  admitting  that  those  who  carry  defects  are  to  be  prevented  from 
procreating,  what  sign  enables  us  to  recognize  inferiority  and  superior- 
ity of  qualities?  It  has  been  proposed  to  take  wealth  for  an  index. 
Numerous  inquiries  have  proved  in  fact  that  in  the  slums  of  cities, 
among  the  individuals  who  have  no  care  for  the  morrow,  are  found 
the  greatest  number  of  transmissible  defects  and  the  most  afflicted 
children.  On  the  other  hand,  manifestations  of  intelligence  and  vari* 
ous  abilities  have  appeared  more  frequently  in  the  children  of  well-to-do 
families  than  among  those  of  poor  families. 

But  here  the  influence  of  environment  as  well  as  that  of  education 
is  considerable.  Omitting  the  small  part  of  the  population  which  is 
composed  principally  of  social  outcasts,  we  can  not  but  affirm  that  the 
innate  qualities  (we  do  not  speak  of  acquired  qualities)  are  less  in 
the  families  of  small  income  than  those  of  large  income,  especially 
if  one  takes  into  consideration  all  classes  of  population,  city  and 
country,  intellectual  and  artisan. 

Reserving  the  elimination  of  undesirables,  it  does  not  seem  that 
there  is  serious  reason,  from  the  single  point  of  view  of  eugenics,  to 
sedc  births  in  one  class  of  population  more  than  in  another.  The 
numerous  statonents  which  have  been  made  on  the  retrogression  or 
even  the  degeneration  of  families  which  have  not  renewed  themselves 
sufficiently,  tend  on  the  contrary  to  promote  the  incessant  mixing  of 
social  classes  rather  than  their  separation.  When  one  considers  the 
state  of  the  population,  one  perceives  great  differences  in  the  birth  rate. 


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406  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

In  Franoe,  the  birth  rate  is  generally  greater  in  the  country  than  in  the 
city,  greater  in  the  mountainous  regions  than  in  the  valleys,  greater 
among  agriculturists,  sailors,  fishermen,  the  colliers  of  the  north,  the 
heads  of  great  industries,  than  in  the  middle  classes,  among  artisans 
and  especially  among  clerks.  These  differ^ices  explain  themselves; 
they  appear  in  the  nature  of  things,  and,  for  the  moment  at  least,  they 
do  not  carry  any  danger.  We  know  that  depopulation  does  not  reach 
the  towns,  which  are  being  filled  unceasingly  by  an  influx  of  inhabitants 
from  the  country.  It  is  then  the  birth  rate  in  the  country  upon  which 
effort  should  principally  be  brought  to  bear;  it  is  there  that  results 
can  be  gained  most  easily,  at  the  least  expense  and  under  the  best 
conditions  from  the  point  of  view  of  hygiene,  as  well  as  from  the 
point  of  view  of  eugenics. 

Moreover,  social  action  ought  not  to  confine  itself  to  facilitating  the 
birth  of  children;  it  is  also  necessary  to  raise  children  up  to  a  certain 
age.  Questions  of  education,  emigration  and  immigration  are  also 
questions  on  which  eugenics  has  something  to  say,  especially  the  ques- 
tion of  immigration  which  has  gained  since  the  war  an  importance  and 
character  previously  unknown  in  France. 

Eugenics  has  also  something  to  say  on  the  psychological  and  moral 
side  of  the  question  of  birth  rate.  Prevention  of  births,  regarded  as 
necessary  in  a  certain  measure,  can  be  recommended  only  according 
to  the  means  indicated  by  Malthus;  the  delay  of  marriage. 

Fecundity  of  marriage,  which  one  supposes  sufficient  to  allow  the 
maintenance  of  a  healthy  family  well  adapted  to  life,  ought  not  to  be 
fettered  by  an  excessive  fear  of  life,  or  by  the  fear  of  effort.  No  hope 
of  the  future  can  be  realized  except  with  a  certain  present  sacrifice. 
It  is  necessary  to  make  some  personal  sacrifices  and  to  have  hope  in 
the  future. 

These  sacrifices  will  be  moreover  fruitful  for  posterity.  In  what 
measure  can  they  be  shared;  what  profit  can  they  yield  for  it?  That 
is  what  the  examination  of  the  question  from  the  point  of  view  of 
economics  will  show. 

III. 

The  economic  power  of  a  country  depends  primarily  on  its  pro- 
ducers, that  is  to  say,  on  those  who  by  their  work  render  natural  riches 
serviceable. 

Now  we  have  already  seen  the  loss  of  population  since  the  war. 
The  loss  comes  principally  from  the  avoidance  of  marriage.  During 
the  war,  many  young  men  rightly  wished  to  wait  for  the  end  of  hostilities 
before  marrying.  Hence  has  resulted  the  increase  of  marriages  in  1919 
and  1920.  The  same  phenomenon  has  been  observed  after  all  wars; 
it  is  easily  explained. 


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CONSEQUENCES  OF  WAR  AND  BIRTH  RATE  IN  FRANCE   407 

But  in  spite  of  this  the  deficit  is  an  important  fact  in  our  country 
and  in  Belgium.  While  the  population  of  Great  Britain  has  increased 
by  1,300,000  during  the  same  time,  that  of  Germany  has  hardly  dimin- 
i^ed  and  if  it  has  diminished  at  all,  we  are  still  ignorant  of  it. 

Imagine  the  state  of  the  French  population  in  fifteen  years.  At  that 
time,  there  will  be  lacking,  taking  account  of  the  mortality,  500,000 
young  men  of  the  ages  of  15  to  21  years,  a  loss  which  must  be  added 
to  the  1,400,000  men  of  18  to  50  years  of  age  killed  during  the  war, 
and  who  would  then  be  33  to  65  years  old,  as  well  as  the  500,000  young 
men  of  the  same  ages  who  have  died  in  the  civil  population  in  excess 
of  the  normal  mortality.  In  all,  about  2,000,000  individuals  will  be 
missing  from  the  male  population  of  15  to  65  years. 

In  1935  one  sixth  of  those  whose  work  must  furnish  the  principal 
source  of  income  of  the  nation  will  be  lacking.  In  spite  of  the  restora- 
tion of  Alsace-Lorraine,  which  brings  us  400,000  adults  of  15  to  65 
years  but  which  also  demands  workers  for  its  fields  and  iron  foundries, 
it  is  certain  that  French  production  will  be  deprived  of  an  important 
part  of  its  active  forces  and  that  the  economic  life  of  the  country  will 
languish  for  many  years  if  energetic  measures  are  not  taken  without 
delay  to  ward  off  the  threatening  deficit. 

Without  doubt,  one  might  temporarily  appeal  to  foreign  workers. 
Assimilable  populations,  however,  can  furnish  only  a  small  part.  It 
will  be  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  unassimilable  races  very  different 
from  ours,  which  will  quickly  furnish  undesirable  elements. 

The  deficit  of  male  workers  has  caused  the  more  general  employ- 
ment of  women.  But  the  women  who  work  cannot  be  fruitful  mothers. 
Feminine  work  will  be  only  a  short-lived  mitigation. 

For  all  time,  since  the  infant  brings  care  and  pain  as  well  as  joy, 
maternity  has  been  a  cause  of  care  and  effort  Among  primitive  tribes 
which  are  displaced,  it  is  necessary  not  only  to  nourish  but  even  to 
carry  these  children.  In  our  civilized  societies,  and  especially  in  urban 
centers,  where  civilization  is  most  refined,  the  burden  is  often  very 
heavy.  The  difficulties  of  lodging,  the  hindrances  of  traffic,  the  care 
for  appearance,  which  is  applicable  to  children  as  well  as  to  parents, 
the  care  for  the  health  of  the  mother  and  all  the  complications  of  urban 
life;  the  laws  for  working  women,  the  educational  obligations  and  the 
impossibility,  in  poor  families,  of  using  the  work  of  young  children, 
make  the  maintenance  of  even  a  limited  number  of  children  sufficiently 
burdensome. 

Formerly  in  poor  families,  who  are  the  most  numerous,  the  help 
which  grown  children  gave  to  their  old  parents,  compensated  in  some 
measure  for  the  privations  which  they  had  caused  at  first.  To-day, 
collective  insurance  is  substituted  for  this  kind  of  family  insurance  of 
previous  times.     In  consequence,  the  child  usually  never  brings  any 


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408  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

repayment  in  exchange  for  what  he  cost  Also  the  care  for  his  future 
causes  the  f oresighted  parents  of  our  time  to  assure  themselves  of  the 
excellent  probabilities  of  his  future  establishment,  which  leads  them 
also  to  restrain  their  responsibility.  When  the  children  may  soon  be 
an  aid  to  the  family,  the  burden  is  much  lighter.  Moreover  one  finds 
the  greatest  number  of  children  among  the  people  chiefly  concerned 
with  agriculture,  and,  in  every  country,  in  the  rural  populations. 

However,  the  first  obstacle  to  births  is  the  possibility  of  raising  the 
children.  Doubtless  this  obstacle  exists  for  many  animal  species  and 
does  not  hinder  their  fecundity,  but  in  those  species  there  b  no  reasoning 
power,  no  foresight,  no  respect  of  life,  at  least  in  a  degree  comparable 
to  that  which  may  be  observed  in  civilized  human  society. 

A  second  obstacle,  which  does  not  exist  in  any  degree  outside  of 
humanity,  is  the  foresight  of  parents  exercised  beyond  the  time  of 
growth  of  their  children.  It  is  not  sufficient  to  have  brought  children 
into  the  world  and  to  have  raised  them  to  an  age  when  they  have 
strength  enough  to  answer  for  themselves;  the  environment  in  which 
they  are  placed  must  permit  them  to  live.  To  understand  the  economic 
mechanism  of  the  phenomenon  of  birth  it  is  convenient  to  distinguish 
three  orders  of  circumstances: 

1.  The  means  of  keeping  children  alive  during  their  growth. 

2.  The  eventual  means  by  which  these  children  can  live  by  them- 
selves after  growth. 

3.  The  view  of  parents  on  these  future  circumstances. 

It  is  necessary  to  understand  here  by  means  of  life,  the  means  of 
leading  a  certain  kind  of  life;  one  can  say  in  general  that  it  is  a  kind 
of  life  at  least  equal  to  that  to  which  the  parents  are  accustomed.  Often 
even,  the  parents  desire  their  children  to  reach  a  higho:  stage  of  life. 

But  the  means  of  living  are  governed  in  part  by  circumstances  ex* 
temal  to  living  beings  and  in  part  by  the  circumstances  which  depend 
on  these  beings  themselves.  The  analysis  of  these  circumstances  makes 
up  what  is  called  the  theory  of  population. 

Long  before  Malthus,  who  formulated  this  theory,  estimates  had 
been  made  of  the  facility  of  increasing  the  human  species,  a  faculty 
analogous  to  that  of  every  other  living  species,  when  no  limitation  in- 
tervenes. It  is  wrong  to  coisure  Malthus  for  having  employed  the 
formula  of  geometric  progression,  since  a  simple  reasoning  founded  on 
a  not  dissimilar  hypothesis  establishes  it.  Where  Malthus  appears  to 
be  mistaken  is  in  his  attempt  to  justify  his  law  by  experience  or  to 
deduce  from  one  isolated  experience  the  reason  of  progression.  If 
he  could  have  extended  his  observations  still  farther,  he  would  have 
seen  that  this  reason  was  not  constant,  and  in  consequence  the  pro- 
gression was  not  geometric. 

If  on  the  contrary  one  keeps  to  the  domain  of  hypothesis,  as  others 


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CONSEQUENCES  OF  WAR  AND  BIRTH  RATE  IN  FRANCE   400 

had  done  before  Malthus,  then  supposing  that  nothing  limits  the 
fecundity  of  women,  as  a  woman  can  bring  into  the  world  at  least  8 
children,  and  taking  account  of  cases  of  involuntary  sterility  and 
physiological  mortality,  it  is  easy  to  understand  that  in  thirty  years  a 
population  not  meeting  any  obstacle  would  increase  in  the  proportion 
of  1  to  4  at  least,  that  is  to  say,  that  it  would  be  more  than  doubled 
in  15  years. 

Malthus  admitted  that  the  population  of  the  United  States  doubled 
every  25  years;  a  more  rapid  progression  has  been  cited,  that  of  the 
Hebrews  passing  through  Egypt:  70  adults  became  600,000  in  two  cen- 
turies, which  means  a  doubling  in  exactly  every  fifteen  years,  and  cor- 
responds to  the  period  of  doubling  of  capital  placed  at  interest  of  5 
per  cent,  a  year.  Every  one  knows  what  a  fantastic  sum  is  reached  with 
a  sufficient  number  of  periods  of  doubling.  If  the  doubling  every  15 
years  had  taken  place  since  the  beginning  of  historic  times,  the  men 
living  in  our  time  not  only  could  not  find  place  on  earth,  but  would 
even  fill  the  space  which  separates  our  globe  from  far  distant  stars. 
The  hypothesis  which  leads  to  an  idea  of  constant  geometric  progression 
is  not  verified  by  facts.  In  reality  the  matter  changes  with  the  times 
because  of  obstacles  which  meet  the  indefinite  multiplication  of  a 
species,  for  men  as  well  as  for  all  living  beings.  The  interest  of  the 
work  of  Malthus  is  that  this  author  has  classified  the  obstacles  and 
made  a  choice. 

A  second  error,  which  is  often  made,  consbts  in  assigning  also  a 
general  law  to  the  development  of  the  means  of  existence.  These  can 
only  increase  by  following  an  arithmetic  progression. 

This  supposed  law  has  no  theoretic  foundation,  even  admitting  that 
one  works  in  a  limited  territory,  since  the  production  of  subsistence 
depends  on  putting  to  work  the  means  of  production.  In  fact  the 
means  of  existence  have  progressed  much  more  rapidly  in  certain  epochs 
than  in  others.  In  the  nineteenth  century  for  example,  the  population 
of  the  most  civilized  states  increased  more  rapidly  than  during  the 
previous  centuries.  There  is  then  no  general  law  for  increase  of  popu- 
lation. 

If  one  applies  the  formula  which  would  recapitulate  the  theoretic 
movement  of  population,  one  would  begin  to  say  that  population  is 
developed  in  the  measure  that  the  means  of  living  are  developed,  that 
there  is  a  correlation  between  the  two  phenomena.  But  this  vague 
formula  is  only  pure  tautology,  since  one  can  not  conceive  of  a  popula- 
tion which  would  develop  without  means  of  life.  Such  a  formula  can 
serve  only  as  a  preliminary  to  a  true  theory  of  population.  In  order 
to  have  a  theory,  one  must  indicate  some  mechanism  for  the  relation 
between  population  and  the  means  of  subsistence. 

The  theory  of  Malthus  tends  to  establish  the  fact  that  individuals. 


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410  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

according  to  nature,  have  an  action  weaker  than  the  reaction  exercised 
by  it.  Inversely,  other  theorists,  before  Malthas  the  mercantilists  and 
populationists,  after  Malthus  the  advocates  of  patriotic  fecundity,  have 
claimed  that,  in  certain  limits  at  least,  man  could  always  obtain  from 
nature  what  he  needed  to  live.  These  two  theories  have  been  translated 
by  picturesque  formulas. 

Where  bread  is  bom,  man  is  bom,  say  those  who  believe  in  blind 
fecundity  and  limited  productivity.  Where  man  is  bom,  bread  is  bom, 
answer  those  who  measure  the  limitation  of  fecundity  and  have  faith 
in  the  powers  of  invention. 

In  reality  these  brief  formulas  are  too  general:  in  some  epochs, 
and  countries  natural  increase  of  population  tends  to  diminish  pro- 
duction; in  other  cases  the  contrary  is  true. 

In  China,  in  India,  when  the  population  is  increased  to  a  certain  de- 
gree, a  deficient  production  results  in  veritable  hecatombs  of  human 
beings,  after  which  equilibrium  is  restored.  In  other  countries  where 
patriarchal  life  has  given  place  to  a  complicated  organization  founded 
on  the  division  of  labor  and  the  specialization  of  services,  the  means 
of  production  increase  sometimes  to  such  a  point  that  production  sur- 
passes the  needs.  In  this  case,  it  is  true,  the  conditions  of  existence  of 
the  people  are  in  a  mutual  dependence,  and  this  dependence  gives  rise 
to  terrible  conflicts. 

In  the  human  species,  as  in  all  living  beings,  death  appears  as  an 
inflexible  regulator  of  the  interaction  of  the  two  factors  of  life:  natural 
fecundity  and  nourishment  But,  in  the  human  species,  the  individuals 
are  capable  of  foreseeing  in  some  measure  future  events;  foresight  is 
the  principal  instrument  of  progress  of  the  species  and  of  civilization. 
Malthus  has  well  noted  this  difi'erence  between  the  human  species  and 
others,  and  he  has  declared  that  for  the  brutal  regulator  of  other  species 
one  may  substitute  that  of  reason.  This  has  been  expressed,  in  rather 
rude  form,  by  a  German  economist,  Julius  Wolf,  who  sees  in  the 
universal  decrease  of  the  birth  rate  the  effect  of  rationalism  increasing 
life. 

However,  Malthus  has  not  seen  the  imponance  which  this  factor 
will  have  and  the  danger  which  will  result  when  this  factor  is  capable 
of  suppressing  all  the  principles  of  life.  He  believed,  on  the  contrary, 
that  the  power  of  instinct  would  always  be  stronger  than  the  fear  of 
overpopulation,  and  he  impregnated  the  thought  of  his  century  with 
a  dangerous  pessimism. 

But  is  it  true  that  increase  of  population  is  necessarily  a  menace  to 
the  existence  of  this  population?  The  facts  answer  for  themselves. 
Not  only  has  the  19th  century  seen  the  civilized  nations  increase  in  pro- 
portions unknown  in  the  preceding  centuries  vrithout  these  nations  hav- 
ing suffered  want;  but,  among  them,  the  most  rapid  increase  in  wealth 


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CONSEQUENCES  OF  WAR  AND  BIRTH  RATE  IN  FRANCE   411 

has  gone  with  the  most  rapid  increase  in  population.  In  England  at  the 
beginning  of  the  19th  century,  poor  laws  imposed  excessive  burdens 
on  the  parishes,  misery  ruled  and  the  lamentable  state  of  the  popula- 
tion at  the  beginning  of  the  age  of  machinery  justified  later,  in  the 
eyes  of  Karl  Marx,  its  attacks  against  the  capitalistic  regime.  Since 
then  the  production  of  foodstuffs  has  diminished,  and  the  population 
has  quadrupled  from  9  to  36  million  (1911). 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  an  increase  of  popula- 
tion was  feared  in  Germany  as  much  as  in  England.  Measures  for  re- 
straining marriages  were  even  passed  in  the  legislatures  of  certain  states 
such  as  Bavaria  and  Wurtemberg.  In  order  to  have  the  right  to  marry, 
one  had  to  show  sufficient  means.  Thanks  to  these  restrictive  measures 
and  to  propaganda,  the  increase  of  population  remained  very  slow — 
slower  than  in  France — during  a  great  part  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
Thus  during  the  period  of  25  years,  1847-1871,  the  number  of  inhabit- 
ants increased  13  per  cent  in  Bavaria,  and  9  per  cenL  in  Wurtemberg, 
while  they  increased  17  per  cent,  in  France. 

Events  happened  which  transformed  the  state  of  mind,  and  without 
doubt  the  faith  in  the  future,  without  modifying  the  natural  conditions 
of  production,  and  the  view  changes.  During  a  second  period  of  35 
years,  from  1871  to  1915,  the  number  of  inhabitants  increased  34  per 
cenL  in  Bavaria  and  27  per  cent,  in  Wurtemberg,  while  the  propor- 
tional increase  fell  to  9  per  cent,  in  France. 

A  good  element  of  appreciation  of  the  activity  and  the  power  of 
expansion  of  a  people  is  furnished  by  the  development  of  its  exports, 
or,  if  we  consider  ten  states  for  which  we  can  give  at  the  same  time 
the  proportional  increase  of  the  number  of  inhabitants  from  1875  to 
1913  and  the  relative  progress  of  exports,  a  close  relation  between  the 
two  movements  is  proved. 

PROPORTIONAL  INCREASE  BETWEEN  1875  AND  1913 

Population  Ex];K)rtB 

Per  cent.  Per  cent. 

Prance 10  80 

Italy 29  145 

United  Kingdom 45  160 

Belgium  54  237 

Russia  65  260 

Austria-Hungary  38  383 

German  Empire 58  380 

Canada 103  423 

United  States 138  386 

Argentine  Republic 330  828 

The  two  series  of  numbers  vary  in  the  same  direction. 

IV. 
What  is  to  be  concluded  from  these  results?     Simply  that  the 
phenomenon  is  too  complex  to  be  analyzed  in  its  entirety  without  going 
back  to  elemental  facts. 


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412  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

Let  us  turn  to  the  father  of  the  family,  for  it  is  in  fact  upon  the 
fathers  of  families  that  the  birth  rate  of  the  country  depends.  We 
have  said  that  this  decision  depended  most  generally  on  three  factors: 

1.  The  expense  represented  by  bringing  up  a  child  to  the  time 
when  it  can  care  for  itself. 

2.  The  chances  this  child  has  of  living  eflfectively,  at  least  in  the 
conditions  under  which  its  parents  have  lived. 

3.  The  view  of  the  parents  on  this  expense  and  these  chances. 
Other  factors  intervene  also:  considerations  of  health,  well-being, 

etc.,  but  we  will  concern  ourselves  only  with  those  which    are   most 
general  and  least  synthetic 

It  is  not  regrettable  that,  in  this  grave  question,  reason  is  substi- 
tuted for  the  most  simple  instincts.  We  must  force  ourselves  to  see 
only  that  which  commands  the  true  meaning  of  things. 

At  the  origin  of  the  problem  of  the  birth  rate  are  found  two  economic 
and  one  psychological  fact  This  last  dominates  the  two  others,  par- 
ticularly the  second.  Moreover  the  psychological  fact  intervenes  only 
where  the  customs  and  legislation  are  directed  by  the  sentiment  of 
respect  for  life.  For  among  the  primitive  peoples,  abortion  and  in- 
fanticide excuse  the  parents  from  diinking  of  the  future.  They  let  the 
sexual  instinct  act  freely,  for  they  may  cause  to  disappear  the  results 
of  this  action,  sometimes,  as  in  Sparta,  with  the  illusory  f  orethou^t  of 
selecting  the  survivors. 

In  our  modem  society,  these  procedures  are  no  longer  permitted; 
they  are  supplanted  by  the  prevention  of  births;  that  is  left  to  the 
will  of  the  parents  who  bear  the  burdens.  But  this  will  is  guided  by 
judgment  and  sentiment.  If  judgment  is  clear  and  sound,  if  sentiment 
is  right,  the  voluntary  action  will  be  well  directed;  in  the  contrary 
case,  it  will  come  to  evil.  But  the  first  condition,  in  order  that  the 
parents  be  not  hindered  by  a  too  fearful  foresight,  that  they  may  act 
in  a  sense  best  conforming  to  the  good  of  society  of  which  they  are  a 
part,  is  that  they  have  a  certain  moral  force,  that  they  know  how  to  sac- 
rifice a  little  of  their  personal  interest  to  the  common  interest — ^for 
maternity  always  brings  some  sacrifice,  at  least  physical — ^and  that  they 
have  confidence  in  the  future.  One  may  say  that  the  question  of  popu- 
lation is  above  all  a  moral  question.  A  certain  optimism  is  necessary 
but  this  optimism  ought  to  follow  from  facts. 

It  is  always  imprudent  to  ask  too  much  of  the  sentiment  of  duty 
when  one  addresses  a  whole  population.  During  the  war,  when  invasion 
roused  patriotism,  it  was  necessary  to  impose  military  service  by 
force. 

Even  when  it  is  a  question  of  the  birth  rate,  when  general  educa- 
tion, when  the  comparison  of  military  or  economic  power  of  the  coun- 
try shows  all  families  a  common  duty,    nothing    better    is    needed. 


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CONSEQUENCES  OF  WAR  AND  BIRTH  RATE  IN  FRANCE   413 

However,  although  in  this  matter  no  sanction  will  be  legitimate  or  ef- 
ficacious, still  it  will  be  proper  to  facilitate  the  accomplishment  of 
this  duty. 

What  concerns  provision  for  the  future  is  one  of  the  legitimate  pre* 
occupations  of  the  head  of  the  family.  The  movement  of  general 
prosperity  must  be  such  as  to  make  the  establishment  of  children 
appear  easy. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  there  are  fewer  children  in  well-to-do 
families  than  in  poor  families.  This  is  true  in  the  sense  that  if  the 
income  of  poor  families  increases,  the  number  of  their  children  tends 
to  diminish.  But  it  is  not  really  exact  for  all  categories  of  rich  or 
poor  families. 

Let  us  consider  for  instance  the  French  statistics  of  1906  where  the 
families  were  classified  according  to  the  number  of  children  bom  in 
these  families,  whether  living  or  dead.  In  the  families  where  the  mar- 
riage has  lasted  25  years  or  more,  the  number  of  children  per  100 
families  is  equal  to  303  among  clerks  and  increases  to  360  among 
their  employers,  409  among  laborers,  and  more  than  480  among  fisher- 
men and  sailors  of  the  merchant  marine. 

If  one  classifies  the  employers  who  have  been  married  more  than 
25  years  and  who  are  from  60  to  70  years  old,  one  finds  that  the  mean 
number  of  children  bom  in  100  families  is  only  305  in  the  liberal  pro- 
fessions, that  it  increases  to  347  in  commerce,  370  in  agriculture,  385 
in  all  industries  properly  so-called. 

The  relative  situation  of  employers  in  agriculture  and  industry  is 
not  the  same  when  one  considers  the  marriages  which  have  lasted  less 
than  25  years.  For  the  marriages  having  lasted  less  than  5  years, 
from  5  to  14  years,  or  from  15  to  25  years,  productivity  is  greater  in 
agriculture  than  in  industry.  Everything  happens  as  if  the  heads  of 
agricultural  enterprises,  after  having  had  a  determined  number  of 
children  more  rapidly  than  the  chiefs  of  industrial  enterprises,  stopped 
sooner  than  the  latter. 

The  details  of  professions  permit  even  a  distinction  between  the 
groups  of  similar  industries.  The  number  of  children  for  100  married 
men  exceeds  390  in  mines  and  quarries,  in  the  ^^inoterie,**  in  the 
textile  industries,  in  the  enterprises  of  building  and  of  transportation, 
while  it  falls  to  350  and  below  in  industries  of  food  production,  in 
goldsmithing  and  jewelry.  Thus  it  appears  that  in  the  great  industries 
the  employers  have  more  children  and  in  the  small  ones  fewer. 

Among  the  commercial  professions,  the  smaller  number  of  children 
per  100  families  is  slightly  higher  among  die  butchers;  it  is  least 
among  bankers  and  heads  of  financial  enterprises,  who  form  a  sort  of 
transition  between  industrial  or  commercial  professions  and  the  liberal 
professions. 


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414  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

Thus,  among  employers,  productivity  seems  bound,  in  a  certain 
measure,  to  the  professional  characteristics,  but  these  are  rather  com- 
plex. On  the  one  hand,  the  intellectuality  of  the  profession,  if  one  may 
so  call  it,  causes  a  small  productivity,  so  that  the  number  of  children 
per  family  is  small  in  the  liberal  professions,  in  the  learned  profes- 
sions and  in  financial  enterprises,  while  the  manual  professions  have  a 
productivity  relatively  higher;  on  the  other  hand,  the  heads  of  great 
industries  seem  to  have  a  productivity  higher  than  that  of  the  small 
industries  and  merchants. 

Two  factors  act  in  a  quasi-independent  way;  on  the  one  hand,  the 
intellectual  character  of  the  professions,  which  leads  to  late  marriages 
and  creates  an  environment  little  favorable  to  fecundity  for  reasons 
which  it  is  not  necessary  to  develop  here;  on  the  other  hand,  preoccupa- 
tion with  the  fate  reserved  for  the  children.  In  great  industries,  the 
latter  will  easily  find  employment  for  their  abilities  and  will  obtain 
without  too  many  difficulties  situations  equivalent  to  those  of  their 
parents,  either  in  or  out  of  the  country.  In  the  little  enterprises,  on 
the  contrary  (except  in  special  instances,  such  as  that  of  butcher, 
where  the  employment  of  the  entire  family  is  almost  a  condition  of 
success) ,  the  father  of  the  family  does  not  look  ahead  without  uneasi- 
ness to  the  future  laid  out  for  his  children. 

Certain  of  these  characteristics  will  be  found  among  clerks  and 
laborers.  Among  the  clerks,  it  is  the  young  butchers  who  show  the 
greatest  productivity,  then  the  inspectors  and  foremen,  whose  produc- 
tivity seems  to  border  on  that  of  the  laborers.  The  smallest  number 
of  children  is  observed  among  the  clerks  of  stores,  waiters  in  cafes, 
hotels  and  restaurants,  office  and  public  service  employees.  Among  the 
laborers,  the  greatest  productivity — ^more  than  5  children  being  bom  in 
a  family  founded  more  than  25  years — is  among  smaller  laborers  and 
workers  in  spinning  mills.  The  lace  weavers,  of  whom  a  great  num- 
ber work  at  home,  have  a  smaller  productivity  than  the  spinners  (489 
per  100  families  against  540  among  the  spinners) .  Moreover,  in  agri- 
culture, the  domestic  workers  of  the  farm,  generally  lodged  at  the  farm, 
have  395  children  per  100  families,  while  the  field  workers  proper 
have  426. 

But  the  industries  in  which  the  workers  have  less  than  4  children 
per  family  are  numerous.  Those  who  have  about  350  children  per  100 
families  founded  more  than  25  years  are  makers  of  wooden  shoes, 
coopers,  toy  makers,  saddlers,  tailors,  printers,  metalworkers,  elec- 
tricians, jewelers  and  silversmiths,  various  workers  in  commerce, 
drivers  and  deliverymen.  It  seems  that  professions  of  small  industries, 
and  especially  professions  in  cities,  give  the  smallest  figures.  For  the 
masons,  day  laborers,  and  people  without  profession,  generally  em- 
ployed in  the  cities,  there  are  464  children  born  per  100  families; 


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CONSEQUENCES  OF  WAR  AND  BIRTH  RATE  IN  FRANCE   416 

among  the  workers  of  industrial  service  of  the  state,  roadmenders,  etc., 
the  productivity  exceeds  390  children  bom  per  100  families;  it  de* 
creases  to  360  among  the  police,  and  customs  employees,  etc.,  to  350 
for  workers  and  sub-agents  of  the  post  and  telegraph  service.  Finally, 
among  personal  servants,  it  decreases  to  less  than  3  children  bom  per 
family,  always  for  the  heads  of  families  married  more  than  25  years. 

On  the  whole,  among  laborers  and  workers  in  great  industries  where 
the  work  is  relatively  regular  and  abundant,  when  the  agricultural  work 
offers  a  real  stability,  when  the  dwelling  is  either  in  the  country  or  in 
industrial  communities  consisting  of  laborers  of  the  same  class,  pro- 
ductivity is  relatively  high.  It  is  lowest  among  the  small  artisans,  in 
the  trades  carried  on  in  cities,  also  where  the  profession  demands 
physical  force  to  the  minimum  degree.  It  is  also  small  where  the 
persons  classified  as  workers  are  confined  to  the  category  of  clerks  and 
especially  where  the  conditions  of  employment,  the  conditions  of  lodg- 
ing make  preferable  households  without  children  or  with  few,  rather 
than  housholds  burdened  with  children. 

From  the  preceding  statements,  we  remember  that  if  the  workers 
in  general  have  more  children  than  the  employers  there  are  not  lack- 
ing professions  where  they  have  fewer.  In  the  second  place,  for  one  as 
for  the  other,  it  is  the  great  industries  which  seem  more  favorable  to 
productivity  and  small  industries  less  favorable.  Naturally  here  the 
environment  exercises  a  certain  influence,  the  regions  of  great  industry 
being  generally  other  than  those  of  small  industry. 

The  preceding  observations  (they  are  illustrated  by  the  pictures 
shown  in  the  exposition  rooms  of  the  congress)  confirm,  although  not 
entirely,  those  that  have  often  been  made  on  the  relation  between  fer- 
tility and  social  standing.  This  being  at  once  a  function  of  income  and 
education,  the  most  fortunate  categories  are  those  where  education  is 
the  most  refined,  or  where  the  number  of  children  is  the  most  limited. 
On  the  contrary,  fertility  would  be  greatest  in  the  poorest  environments, 
in  those  where  the  kind  of  life  is  the  plainest. 

If,  in  a  general  way,  this  observation  contains  a  great  element  of 
truth — this  is  shown  by  the  comparison  of  districts  of  great  cities  classi- 
fied according  to  exterior  signs  of  income — ^there  are  reservations 
which  must  be  taken  into  account  There  is  no  doubt,  for  example,  that 
employers  are  generally  more  fortunately  situated  than  their  employees, 
and  yet  they  have  notably  more  children  than  the  latter.  On  the  other 
hand,  employees  who  generally  receive  higher  wages  than  laborers^ 
have  fewer  children  than  the  latter.  The  question  has  often  been 
studied,  and  it  is  important  that  new  contributions  be  brought  to  it. 

We  will  borrow  for  new  indications  recent  statistics  of  France  drawn 
up  by  the  aid  of  family  bulletins  filled  out  in  1907  by  a  great  number 
of  employees  and  workers  remunerated  by  the  budgets  of  the  state. 


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416  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

departments  and  communes  (Conscil  superieur  de  statistique,  bulletins 
10  et  11:  "Statistique  Generale  de  la  France,"  **Statistique  des  families 

en  1906"). 

These  functionaries  have  been  classified  according  to  the  annual 
showing  of  the  actual  emoluments  and,  considering  only  those  whose 
marriages  have  lasted  more  than  15  years,  the  number  of  children  bom 
per  100  families  has  been  calculated: 


TABLE 

Annuaa    500   501   1001   1501   2501   4001   6001 
nalary    at   to    to    to    to    to    to 
In  francs  most  1000   1500   2500   4000   6000  10000 

more 

than 

10000 

Aver- 
age 

Clerks    277 
Laborers  329 

Marriages  lasting  15  to  25  years. 
241    259    245    223    231    239 
321    293    280    254    234 

238 

237 
307 

Clerks    330 
lAborers  348 

Marriages  lasting  more  than  25  years. 
301    305    280    264    264    261 
363    346    329    305    240 

286 

285 
385 

When  all  classes  are  taken  together,  the  above  figures  are  in  accord 
with  those  which  have  been  determined  with  the  aid  of  the  general 
census,  either  for  clerks  or  for  laborers  or  sub-agents  of  the  public 
service. 

Comparing  now  the  numbers  of  children  by  classes  of  salaries,  it 
will  be  noted  that,  among  the  laborers,  the  number  of  children  dim- 
inishes regularly  as  the  salary  increases ;  among  the  clerks  it  diminishes 
until  it  reaches  a  minimum  for  clerks  earning  2500  to  10,000  francs  p^ 
year;  it  rises  for  clerks  whose  annual  income  exceeds  10,000  francs. 

To  complete  these  proofs,  it  is  proper  to  remark  that  salaries  and 
emoluments  depend  in  great  measure  on  the  region  or  settlement  where 
each  clerk  or  laborer  lives.  Change  in  fertility  is  submitted  to  a  double 
influence,  showing  that  salary  is  only  one  of  the  factors  involved. 

The  influence  of  environment  becomes  evident  when  we  observe  the 
families  of  limited  classes  of  employees  scattered  throughout  all  France, 
generally  in  the  rural  conununes  the  roadmenders  and  the  rural  police. 
For  these  employees,  fertility  is  analogous  to  that  of  the  population  in 
the  midst  of  which  they  live,  greater  in  the  regions  of  high  birth  rate, 
smaller  in  the  regions  with  a  low  rate. 

A  similar  investigation  has  been  conducted  among  the  clerks  prop- 
erly so  called  of  prefectures  and  mairies.  The  personnel  of  the  em- 
ployees (not  composed  of  boys,  laborers,  etc)  has,  in  general,  fewer 
children  as  the  number  of  inhabitants  of  the  city  increases;  the  same 
is  true  of  the  populations  of  these  cities.  But  a  comparison  between  the 
fertility  of  these  functionaries  and  general  fertility  shows  that  the  first 
is  less  variable  than  the  second. 

In  1901,  100  families  founded  more  than  15  years  had  199  sur- 
viving children  in  Paris,  228  in  cities  of  more  than  500,000  inhabitants. 


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CONSEQUENCES  OF  WAR  AND  BIRTH  RATE  IN  FRANCE   417 

266  in  the  smaller  cities.  Among  the  administrative  employees,  the 
corresponding  numbers  are  183,  198,  215,  or  92  per  coit,  87  per  cent, 
and  81  per  cent,  of  the  preceding.  Employees  have  in  some  degree  a 
specific  fertility  which  depends' less  on  environment  than  that  of 
laborers.  Results  analogous  to  the  preceding  are  obtained  when  the 
proportional  number  of  sterile  families  is  determined. 

Among  the  marriages  having  lasted  more  than  25  years,  the  number 
of  sterile  marriages  in  1,000  marriages,  varies  as  follows,  according  to 
annual  income: 

Annual  less      1001      1501      2501      4001      6001      more      Average 

salary  than        to         to         to  to         to        than 

In  francs        1000      1500      2500      4000      6000    10000    10000 

Clerks                  96          86          99        113        101        HI        109        101 
Laborers  70         74         91         98        100        78 

And  the  proportional  number  of  families  having  had  more  than 
7  children: 

Clerks  56  58  41  33  26  23  52  44 

Laborers  95  86  75  55  50  88 

On  the  whole,  the  statistics  of  French  families  permit  us  to  see  in 
what  measure  fertility  is  bound  up  with  the  social  situation.  Numerous 
factors  intervene:  for  instance,  the  heads  of  enterprises  in  the  most 
industrial  regions  of  the  country — ^the  north,  the  r^on  about  Lyons-^ 
have  many  diildren,  more  children  per  family  than  many  other  less 
fortunate  classes.  Among  the  laborers,  the  miners  of  Pas-de-Calais 
have  likewise  many  children  in  relation  to  other  laborers.  In  these  two 
cases,  the  parents  have  no  fear  as  to  the  future  of  their  children.  The 
great  employer  knows  that  he  can  easily  establish  his;  the  mine  laborer 
knows  that  there  will  always  be  work  in  the  mine  for  his. 

This  sentiment  becomes  general  when  one  perceives  continued  prog- 
ress everywhere,  in  the  agricultural,  industrial  and  commercial  move- 
ments, and  in  the  action  of  public  authorities  in  favor  of  education, 
apprenticeship,  exportation,  ^nigration  and  public  works.  Confidence 
in  the  future  is  then  assured.  It  is  this  factor  which  seems  to  have 
played  an  important  role  in  Germany  after  the  constitution  of  the  em- 
pire and  the  war  of  1870.  But  the  two  factors  which  we  have  just  con- 
sidered, a  certain  courage  on  the  one  hand  and  a  certain  optimism  on 
the  other,  do  not  suffice  always;  it  seems. useful  to  ward  off  at  first  the 
obstacles  which  we  have  recognized,  that  is  to  say,  to  lighten  the  bur- 
dens which  the  maintenance  of  children  causes  parents.  Here  it  is 
proper  to  proceed  methodically.  Since  it  is  a  question  of  financial 
participation,  it  is  expedient  to  exert  the  effort  where  it  is  most  neces- 
sary and  to  seek  to  obtain  the  maximum  result  from  the  sums  used. 
It  b  humane  to  sedc  that  the  children  brought  into  the  world  be  raised 
under  the  best  conditions  for  health.    It  is  good  not  to  go  against  the 


vm.  xin.~87. 


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418  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

natural  course  of  things,  to  limit  oneself  to  bringing  simply  the  spark 
which  sets  fire  to  the  pile. 

V. 

These  considerations  tend  to  favor  the  birth  rate  in  the  country.  It 
is  there  that  depopulation  is  raging — ^not  that  the  birth  rate  is 
lower  than  in  the  cities  (the  contrary  is  true) — ^but  because  of  the  emi- 
gration from  the  country  to  the  city.  This  is  noticed  when  one  com- 
pares the  movement  of  the  number  of  inhabitants  in  the  French  censuses 
of  different  periods,  either  in  the  urban  or  the  rural  population. 

In  1856  the  rural  population  was  26  million  of  the  36  million  in- 
habitants in  all  France;  in  1911,  the  number  had  fallen  to  22  million, 
while  the  total  population  had  increased  to  almost  40  million.  The 
urban  has  been  considerably  augmented — ^almost  doubled — passing 
from  9,800,000  inhabitante  in  1856  to  17,500,000  in  1911.  It  has 
doubled  also  in  the  class  of  cities  of  more  than  10,000  inhabitants. 

It  is  useless  consequently  to  setk  to  increase  the  population  of  cities 
by  artificial  means  since  they  increase  so  rapidly  by  themselves  that 
there  is  a  veritable  overcrowding  in  great  cities.  But  it  is  necessary  to 
increase  the  population  of  the  country  for  reasons  of  hygiene,  social 
stability,  and  also  good  economy,  for  it  is  there  that  children  cost  least 

It  is  in  the  country  that  the  birth  rate  is  already  the  highest,  that 
one  will  find  families  best  disposed  to  have  numerous  children.  It  is 
stated  that  the  birth  rate  increases  in  proportion  to  the  altitude.  But, 
in  France  at  least,  it  is  from  the  high  altitudes  that  have  came  the 
strongest  currents  of  emigration. 

Children  cost  much  less  to  raise  in  the  country  than  in  the  city. 
In  the  country  poverty  is  most  disquieting,  which  ought  to  cause  farmers 
to  assure  themselves  of  a  sufficient  number  of  children  capable  of 
helping  them  by  their  work.  There  the  growth  of  children  takes  place 
under  the  best  conditions  of  health,  especially  if  a  system  of  maternal 
education  is  instituted;  there  one  is  near  the  foundation  of  the  popula- 
tion, and  there  marriages  are  made  with  full  knowledge  of  antecedents. 
Even  as  one  rejuvenates  trees  from  the  stump,  so  the  renewing  of  the 
population,  necessary  to  combat  retrogression,  ought  to  be  worked  from 
the  base.  The  best  always  come  from  a  vigorous  stock,  as  the  best 
fruits  and  the  most  beautiful  flowers  spring  from  well  grafted  roots. 
In  the  cities,  national  effort  ought  to  tend  to  improve  lodgings,  to 
facilitate  rapid  communication  which  will  permit  the  largest  extensions 
outside  the  crowded  areas. 

In  France  a  law  of  July  14,  1913,  gives  to  every  family  which  has 
at  least  three  children  less  than  13  years  of  age  a  monthly  allotment  for 
each  child  beyond  the  third  under  13  years,  while  the  child  is  living 
and  has  not  reached  the  age  of  13  years.  The  conununes,  the  depart- 
ments and  the  state  share  the  expense.    Another  law,  that  of  June  28, 


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CONSEQUENCES  OF  WAR  AND  BIRTH  RATE  IN  FRANCE    419 

1918,  gives  an  important  share  of  the  state  power  to  the  departments 
which  encourage  births.  This  participation  varies  in  inverse  ratio  to 
the  richness  of  the  department  and  in  direct  ratio  to  the  nmnber  of 
families  having  more  than  4  children.  It  carries  at  the  same  time  the 
useful  premium  for  the  maintenance  of  children  and  a  premium  destined 
to  assure  a  life-annuity  to  old  parents  or  a  capital  to  grown  children. 

In  cities  and  industrial  centers,  numerous  patronal  associations 
have  been  formed  to  assure  to  laborers  and  clerks  allotments  varying 
according  to  the  number  of  children.  The  treasury  is  kept  filled  by 
payments  of  heads  of  enterprises  proportional  to  the  salaries  paid  by 
each  one  of  them.  Thus  the  industrial  head  has  no  interest  in  employ- 
ing a  bachelor  any  more  than  a  head  of  a  family.  The  employees  of 
the  state  and  those  of  great  private  enterprises  receive  the  same  family 
allotments  added  to  their  salaries. 

Finally,  the  fiscal  legislation  assures  important  exemptions  to  heads 
of  large  families  and  a  surcharge  to  bachelors  and  families  without 
children. 

The  tariffs  of  income  tax — ^''impots  cedulaires  et  impots  globa" — 
takes  account  of  the  number  of  children;  impot  globa  surcharges  the 
bachelors  as  well  as  married  men  without  children.  The  inheritance 
taxes  grant  reductions  according  to  the  number  of  children  living  or 
represented,  and  surcharges  when  the  defunct  has  left  no  children. 
Reductions  are  given  on  the  railroads  to  members  of  families  which 
have  many  children. 

A  severe  law  has  been  promulgated,  July  31,  1920,  against  abortion 
and  the  sale  of  contraceptive  measures. 

An  important  movement  thus  exists  in  France  which  cannot  but  be 
favorable  to  increasing  the  birth  rate.  None  of  the  measures  adopted 
offers  dispositions  contrary  to  the  legitimate  exigencies  of  eugenics. 

Let  us  add  that  the  struggle  against  tuberculosis  and  the  effects  of 
venereal  disease  have  gained  much  activity  since  the  war;  numerous 
dispensaries  have  been  erected  so  that  in  spite  of  the  increase  of  these 
diseases,  one  cannot  find,  as  might  have  been  feared,  an  increase  in  the 
special  disability  of  children,  excepting  naturally  those  who  were  bom 
or  who  passed  their  childhood  in  the  regions  invaded  by  the  enemy. 

The  decline  of  the  birth  rate  is  a  phenomenon  which  has  shown  itself 
in  a  great  number  of  countries.  The  intensity  of  the  movement  is  very 
different  in  different  states;  its  effects  depend  in  great  part  on  the  long 
or  short  duration  of  time  since  the  phenomenon  conunenced  to  appear. 
The  causes  are  ahnost  the  same  everywhere;  the  means  of  combatting  the 
causes  are  not  known  to  be  very  different,  although  the  action  of  moral 
influences  depends  naturally  much  on  general  mentality.  As  to  the  other 
influences,  the  experience  of  France  can  not  fail  to  be  instructive  for  all 
nations  and  for  all  those  who  are  interested  in  thb  still  conjectural 
science  known  as  eugenics. 


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420  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


THE  TRUE  AMSTOCRACY^ 
By  GEORGE  ADAML  CB.E..  F.R.S. 

VICE-CHANCEXXOR  OF  THE  UMIVERSITT  OF  UVERPOOL 

STUDENTS  of  heredity  are  ineintably  eugenists:  they  are  forced  hy 
their  studies  to  recognize  that  men  are  not  equal,  are  not  even  bom 
equal  save — and  possibly  this  is  all  that  Montesquieu  had  in  his  mind — 
in  the  eyes  of  the  law: 

That  equal  justice  with  indulgent  face 
May  shine  undouded  on  the  budding  race. 

They  are  forced  to  see  that  men  come  into  the  world  endowed  widi 
different  powers;  that  these  endowments  have  descended  to  them  from 
their  progenitors  and  as  regards  any  power,  it  may  be  either  from  the 
paternal  or  the  maternal  side,  in  such  a  way  that  the  different  members 
of  one  family  from  the  varying  admixture  of  paternal  and  maternal 
attributes  themselves  differ  in  their  powers;  that  defects  tend  to  be 
inherited  every  whit  as  much  as  do  positive  or  beneficial  attributes; 
that  where  any  particular  defect,  or,  equally,  any  beneficial  property, 
is  present  on  both  sides  the  likelihood  is  that  it  will  show  itself  in  the 
majority  of  the  offspring  and  then,  it  may  be,  in  an  intensified  form; 
that,  therefore,  if  the  race  is  to  be  improved,  or  even  to  be  kept  from 
deteriorating,  steps  are  to  be  taken  to  encourage  the  mating  of  those  with 
the  better  endowments  and  to  discourage  the  mating  of  the  defectives. 
Whether  they  join  the  Eugenic  Society  or  no,  they  'axe  eugenists.  And — 
though  in  so  saying  I  may  shock  my  audience— as  eugenists  they  are,  if 
not  themselves  aristocrats,  believers  in  an  aristocracy.  Their  desire  is 
that  for  the  good  of  the  race  the  best  shall  prevail,  that  we  shall  be 
led  and  governed  by  them. 

Now  from  the  earliest  times  up  to  the  present,  man — and  woman 
too— has  sought  after,  and  indeed  experimented  over  rule  by  the  best. 
Before  the  tribal  or  clan  system  became  established  and  for  long  gen- 
erations after,  the  best  woman  either  actively  by  her  own  will,  or 
passively,  by  the  superiority  of  his,  became  in  the  ordinary  course  of 
affairs  the  possessor,  or  possession,  of  the  best,  most  virile  man;  and 
if  in  many  parts  of  the  world  for  a  time,  for  reasons  that  are  reasonably 
obvious,  it  seemed  better  to  establish  the  matriarchate  and  the  child 
became  a  member  of  its  mother^s  and  not  its  father's  family,  neverthe- 
less, everywhere  that  system  died  out  from  its  inherent  weakness.  The 
woman  might  nourish  and  bring  up,  but  could  not  protect  the  family. 

1  An  address  contributed  to  the  International  Eugenics  Gonflnress  heM  in 
New  York  in  September  1921. 


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THE   TRUE  ARISTOCRACY  421 

The  man  must  be  the  hmitsman  and  provide  the  food  and,  what  is  more, 
must  be  depended  upon  to  defend  the  family.  And  once  from  the 
family  the  clan  system  developed,  for  purposes  of  defence  as  for  ag- 
gression and  enrichment  of  the  clan,  it  was  essential  to  choose  the 
most  powerful,  most  resourceful,  and  most  all-round  man  of  the  tribe 
as  leader.  It  matters  little  whether  he  fought  his  way  to  the  top,  or 
found  himself  there  through  recognition  of  his  prowess  and  free  will 
appointmoit  by  the  other  men  of  the  tribe.  Such  was  the  first  aris- 
tocracy. 

And  in  those  simple  days,  seeing  that  this  best  man  had  a  practically 
unfettered  choice  and  that  the  most  comely  and  capable  girl  of  his 
generation  was  his  to  secure,  the  probability  was  that  their  children 
likewise  would  be  of  superior  quality  so  that  they  in  their  turn  would 
make  the  best  leaders.  Wherefore,  through  experience  men  came  first 
to  be  prepared  for  and  then  to  accept  a  hereditary  aristocracy,  acknowl- 
edging the  existence  of  first  families  and  finding  it  for  the  good  of 
the  tribe  that  an  Amurath  should  an  Amurath  succeed,  and  Harry, 
Harry. 

Now  oitertaining  as  it  would  be,  more  particularly  here  in  New 
York,  to  trace  the  further  development  of  this  hereditary  aristocracy 
until  it  came  to  include  emperors  and  kings,  and  a  succession  of  grades 
of  nobility,  and  reached  its  fullest  elaboration  in  the  feudal  period,  I 
am  not  going  to  do  this.  All  I  want  to  impress  upon  you  is  that  the 
elemental  idea  of  an  aristocracy  is  sound  and  natural,  but,  granting 
this,  that,  thus  far,  however  successful  we  may  have  been  in  the  practical 
application  of  the  idea  to  the  establishment  of  the  four-footed  ^^aristo- 
crats'' of  the  turf  and  trotting  ring,  and  in  the  breeding  of  animals 
possessing  superlative  speed  or  power  or  form  or  mass  of  flesh,  be  they 
racers  or  Clydesdales,  greyhounds,  red  Berkshires  or  Plymouth  Rocks, 
we  have,  to  speak  frankly,  made  rather  a  mess  of  it  among  ourselves, 
until  to  many  the  idea  of  a  hereditary  aristocracy  of  any  order  is  ' 
intolerable,  an  opinion  strengthened  by  the  observation  that  those  who 
most  loudly  proclaim  their  aristocratic  relationships  are  most  often 
such  as  those  aristocratic  relations  least  care  to  acknowledge,  the  said 
cluimants  having  family  and  beyond  that  nothing  of  worth.  Where- 
fore one  has  come  to  doubt  the  worth  of  family. 

And  yet  so  perverse  is  humanity  that  those  to  whom  aristocratic 
r^ime  is  most  abhorrent  cling  in  their  innennost  hearts  to  their  family 
tree  and  either  pride  themselves  on  the  possession  of  this  or  that  an- 
cestor or  upon  the  mingling  of  this  or  that  stock  into  theirs.  I  may 
note  incidentally  that  here,  in  this  great  republic,  genealogy  is  pursued 
to  an  extent  unknown  elsewhere.  While  those  unfortunates  who,  to 
put  it  generously,  can  not  look  down  their  family  tree,  look  up  to  the 
fair  tree  that  is  to  spring  from  their  loins  and  see  its  future  growth  to 
overtop  its  neighbors. 


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422  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

In  other  words,  the  love  of  good  family,  either  as  something  already 
attained  or  as  something  to  be  attained,  is  inherent  in  the  hmnan  race. 
We  seek  higher  things.  Through  all  the  centuries  we  have  been 
eugenists  in  principle,  even  if  in  practice  we  have  made  a  painful  mess 
of  it.  For  in  practice  all  these  centuries  we  have  mistaken  accidentals 
for  fundamentals,  have  elevated  immediate  advantages  above  future 
well  being.  With  royal  and  princely  families  the  stamina  and  capacity 
of  the  bride  to  be  has  been  the  lesser  instead  of  the  prime  consideration: 
the  choice  of  consorts  has  been  limited  to  a  parlous  not  to  say  sinister 
extent,  and  the  political  importance  of  alliances  between  royal  families 
has  too  often  led  to  matings  that  could  but  result  in  a  deteriorated 
progeny.  And  where,  as  in  France,  among  the  people  in  general,  there 
is  a  well  established  opinion  as  to  the  importance  of  carefully  selected 
matings,  there  also  the  quality  of  the  stock  has  been  subordinated  in 
general  to  the  size  of  the  ^'dot*':  more  has  been  thought  of  the  property 
that  will  come  into  the  family  than  of  the  richness  of  the  blood  that 
will  be  conmiingled.  The  results  on  the  whole  have  not  been  any 
more  satisfactory  than  have  been  those  of  the  *'mate  as  you  please" 
system  which  obtains  in  Anglo-Saxon  countries. 

Now,  with  the  twentieth  century,  we  have  awakened  to  the  fact  that 
the  principle  of  ^^laissez  faire"  is  as  pernicious  in  the  matter  of  mar- 
riage as  it  is  in  politics.  Our  eyes  have  become  unwillingly  opoied 
to  the  fact  that  with  the  improved  well  being  of  the  people  and  die 
very  material  lessening  of  the  death  rate  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the 
multitudinous  children  of  defectives  and  those  who  both  physically 
and  mentally  are  of  the  lower  order  are  forming  the  bulk  of  our  popu- 
lation, since  those  who  are  pre-eminent,  intellectually  and  bodily, 
marry  late  and  have  small  families.  In  other  words,  the  social  condi- 
tions of  the  present  day  are  such  as  to  favor  the  preponderance  of  what 
are  from  every  point  of  view  the  lower  classes,  the  survival  of  the  un- 
fit and  the  inevitable  deterioration  of  the  race. 

But  here  is  the  difficulty.  Among  what  we  regard  as  the  lower 
classes  are  included  not  a  few  families  of  good  quality,  both  moital 
and  physical,  which  through  accident,  as  for  example,  illegitimacy, 
or  the  fortunes  of  war,  or  the  premature  death  of  the  breadwinner, 
are  in  poor  circumstances,  occupying  a  menial  position.  Circumstances 
have  been  against  them.  Thus  it  follows  that  from  time  to  time  we 
encounter  men  sprung  from  the  ranks  who,  given  the  opportunity,  come 
to  the  front  and  make  their  mark  in  the  world  of  commerce  or  of  in- 
tellect. Even  when  the  feudal  system  was  at  its  height  and  when  caste 
was  most  repressive,  men  of  this  order  could  occasionally,  although 
rarely,  force  their  way  to  the  front,  either  through  the  Oiurch  (althou^ 
then  they  still  more  rarely  founded  families)  or  through  their  mili- 
tary prowess  as  leaders  of  mercenary  troops,  or,  like    the    Medici, 


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THE   TRUE  ARISTOCRACY  423 

through  the  city  guilds  and  the  power  of  the  purse.  The  last,  industrial, 
century,  with  its  broad  middle  class  forming  a  bridge  between  the 
working  and  the  ruling  classes  has  seen  this  becoming  so  frequent  a 
phenomenon  that  it,  with  the  equally  obvious  but,  I  think,  less  frequent 
examples  of  the  decadence  of  families  that  for  generations  have  been 
held  in  hi§^  repute,  has  led  to  what  was  a  wide  spread  conviction, 
namely,  that  birth  and  breed  count  for  little  and  that  fortunate  up- 
bringing and  environment  are  the  more  important  factors  in  a  man's 
success.    Even  to-day  this  opinion  is  held  by  a  large  number. 

Now  I  am  not  going  to  discuss  the  still  debated  problem  as  to  the 
extent  to  which  environment  modifies  the  individual  and  so  the  family 
and  the  race.  I  am  going  to  satisfy  myself  with  the  well  established 
principle  or  biological  law,  that  by  cautious  selective  mating,  qualities 
of  very  various  orders,  in  man,  equally  with  other  animals  and  with 
plants,  can  be  strengthened  and  intensified.  I  do  not  say  that  they  are 
capable  of  indefinite  expansion.  We  have,  indeed,  no  proof  that  this  is 
so.  Rather  the  evidence  indicates  that  we  can  by  selection  lead  up  to 
what  I  may  term  optimum  development — development  best  suited  to 
the  size  and  state  of  other  parts  and  properties  of  the  individuals  of 
any  particular  species  in  its  particular  environment  Developments  in 
excess  of  this  proper  correlation  may,  it  is  true,  show  themselves  in 
individual  members  of  the  species,  but,  even  when  mated  vrith  others 
showing  a  similar  excess,  the  progeny  do  not  exhibit  the  excess.  Let 
me  give  an  example  of  what  I  mean.  By  careful  selection,  proper 
feeding  and  surroundings,  we  can  gradually  improve  the  laying  proper- 
ties of  various  breeds  of  fowls,  ^ut  this  only  up  to  a  certain  point 
Occasionally,  it  is  true,  we  encounter  individual  pullets  of  a  particular 
breed  who  yield  it  may  be  ten  or  twoity  eggs  per  year  above  this 
established  optimum.  But  now  it  is  found  that  if  we  mate  the  male 
and  female  progeny  of  such  excessive  layers,  they  only  produce  at 
most  the  optimmn,  indeed,  most  often  less  than  the  optimum.  It  is  as 
though  the  exhibition  of  a  particular  property,  above  a  certain  limit, 
odiausts  the  individual  in  other  directions  and  leads  to  deterioration 
rather  than  to  improvement 

I  am  not  suggesting  therefore  that,  the  environment  remaining 
unaltered,  man,  as  man,  is  by  selection  capable  of  indefinite  improve- 
ment The  most  I  urge  is  that  to-day  so  large  a  proportion  of  human 
individuals  is  so  far  below  the  optimum  that  there  is  vast  room  for 
improvement:  that  under  modem  conditions  through  the  larger  families 
of  the  unfit  the  race  is  deteriorating  and  not  improving,  and  that  it 
behooves  us  to  take  active  measures  whereby  to  encourage  the  selective 
mating  of  the  best  and  the  production  of  those  endowed  with  sound 
and  useful  qualities. 

Now  the  function  of  societies  for  the  promotion  of  eugenics  is,  I 


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424  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

hold,  to  promote  this  better  mating,  but,  if  I  may  speak  bluntly,  I  am 
impressed  with  the  fact  that  they  have  begun  at  the  wrong  end.  Pass- 
ing in  review  the  pages  of  the  volumes  of  the  Eugenics  Review  what  I 
find  in  them  is,  with  all  due  deference  to  the  high-minded  ideals  of  the 
leaders  of  the  movement,  a  vast  amount  of  spade  work  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  broad  principles  of  heredity,  a  profound  appreciation 
of  Mendelism,  sundry  lamentations  of  latter  day  prophets,  such  as  the 
most  witty,  albeit  most  doleful,  dean  of  St  Paul's,  upon  the  down- 
fall of  Jewry,  or  more  accurately,  the  sure  and  certain  deterioration  of 
humanity,  the  qualified  approbation  of  sundry  destructive  procedures 
such  as  restriction  of  criminals  and  segregation  of  defectives  as  adopted 
by  certain  states,  but  with  this  singularly  little  constructive  policy; 
or  if  I  may  so  express  it,  a  ha'porth  of  bread  to  an  intolerable  deal 
of  sack. 

Now  possibly  the  leaders  in  this  movement  are  acting  most  wisely 
in  devoting  their  time  to  making  sure  the  foundations,  and  in  the  first 
place  driving  home  to  people  the  extent  and  the  dangers  of  national 
degeneracy.  Possibly  the  fear  of  degeneracy  is  in  this  matter  of 
eugenics  the  beginning  of  wiser  courses.  Nevertheless,  I  can  not  but 
feel  that  usually  in  this  world  with  the  planning  of  foundations  there 
is  requisite  some  considered  design  of  the  building  that  is  to  rise 
upon  those  foundations,  and  that  design  is  here  largely  wanting. 

As  for  what  I  have  just  termed  the  destructive  procedures,  I  have 
strong  doubts  as  to  their  politic  value.  Some  experience  of  the  world 
has  taught  me  that  while  a  majority  of  mankind  is  law-abiding  and 
will  obey  commands  of  the  order  of  ^Thou  shalt  not,''  there  exists  a 
very  considerable  minority  to  whom  such  commands  act  as  a  stimulus 
or  incentive  to  set  them  at  defiance.  Grave  as  are  the  consequences, 
prohibition  of  marriage  on  account  of  the  existence  of  venereal  disease 
in  one  or  other  of  the  contracting  parties  will  not  put  a  stop  to  sudi 
marriages;  nor  will  segregation  of  the  feeble-minded  prevent  those 
feeble-minded  seeking  or  consenting  to  illicit  conjugation  whenever  oc- 
casion arises.  The  ordinary  every  day  individual,  thinking  only  of 
matters  of  the  moment  and  careless  of  the  future,  will  not  hesitate  to 
transgress  laws  which  interfere  with  his  liberty.  The  only  laws  inter- 
fering with  personal  liberty  that  are  generally  kept  are  those  the 
transgression  of  which  is  followed  by  a  personal  penalty,  such  as  that 
of  the  judicial  murder  of  those  committing  murder.  Public  opinion  is 
not  as  yet  ripe  for  the  infliction  of  castration  upon  those  who,  for  in- 
stance, enter  into  the  married  state  while  knowingly  sufferers  from 
venereal  disease,  richly  as  they  deserve  it. 

What  is  more,  even  granting  that  by  these  and  like  methods  we  re- 
duce the  number  of  defectives,  thereby  we  only  advance  the  avo'age 
quality  of  the  race:  we  do  not  actively  increase  the  number  of  those  of 


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THE   TRUE  ARISTOCRACY  426 

first-class  ability.  This  I  am  glad  to  see  is  being  recognized  in  the 
United  States.^  The  need  is  to  promote  the  propagation  of  the  best 
in  the  race.  And  it  is  to  show  how  this  can  be  accomplished  that  now 
I  want  particularly  to  direct  your  attention. 

In  the  first  place,  I  would  lay  down  that  encouragement  is  more 
effective  than  punishment;  that  the  '^thou  shalt  not's**  of  the  decalogue 
and  older  dispensation  have  given  place  to  the  blessing  of  the  positive 
virtues  of  the  new;  in  the  second,  that  the  war  has  supplied  the  solution. 

Making  enquiries  as  to  the  proportion  of  rejections  from  the  British 
Army,  to  compare  with  the  Canadian  figures,  it  was  my  good  fortune 
to  be  promptly  appointed  by  my  late  colleague  at  Montreal,  then  min- 
ister of  national  service,  now  British  minister  in  Washington,  on  the 
scientific  committee  of  the  Advisory  Council  of  his  ministry — and  as  a 
member  of  that  committee  it  fell  to  my  lot  to  oversee  the  analysis  of 
the  physical  state  of  the  manhood  of  Great  Britain  in  the  last  year  of 
the  great  war.  That  you  should  understand  the  significance  of  this 
analysis  and  of  the  figures  presented  to  us  it  is  necessary  that  I  enter 
into  certain  explanations. 

1  may  remind  you  that  service  in  the  British  Army  had  at  first  been 
voluntary  and  then  as  the  situation  and  needs  became  more  and  more 
giave,  first  conscription  became  what  I  may  term  persuasive  with . 
^'combing  out,'*  and  then  in  1917,  became  generally  compulsory,  all 
able-bodied  men  between  the  ages  of  18  and  51  being  called  up.  In 
the  middle  period,  large  bodies  of  men  employed  in  industries  of  pri- 
mary importance  to  the  nation  had  been  directed  not  to  join  the  colors. 
Their  industrial  services,  indeed,  were  deemed  of  such  importance  that 
then  began  that  undue  augmentation  of  wages  which  has  been  at  the 
root  of  the  present  economic  trouble  in  Great  Britain. 

For  generations  prior  to  1914  men  volunteering  for  military  service 
had,  prior  to  acceptance,  to  undergo  medical  examination  into  their 
physical  fitness.  Hitherto,  this  had  been  conducted  by  adequately 
trained  officers  of  the  Royal  Army  Medical  Corps.  The  war  with  its 
sudden  augmentation  of  the  army  and  need  for  battalion  medical  of- 
ficers and  ambulance  and  hospital  corps  at  the  front  and  at  the  base 
found  the  corps  all  too  small.  Every  well-trained  man  belonging  to 
it  was  needed  at  the  front  along  with  many  times  the  number  of  sur- 
geons and  practitioners  enrolled  out  of  private  life.  Inevitably  the 
younger  and  more  vigorous  of  these  joined  the  army  and  went  over- 
seas, leaving  behind  the  older  and  less  vigorous  who  now  were  called 

2  "While  the  need  of  cutting  off  defective  and  degenerate  lines  is  becom- 
ing widely  recognized  and  is  being  met  with  legislative  enactment,  there  is  as 
yet  little  organized  effort  to  direct  the  evolution  of  lines  among  our  mediate 
and  superior  classes." — ^W.  E.  Key,  Journal  of  Heredity,    ii.     1920.    359. 


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426  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

upon  not  only  to  take  over  the  patients  and  practices  of  their  absent 
colleagues,  but  also,  without  adequate  training,  to  undertake  for  the 
government  at  different  centers  throughout  the  country  the  routine  ex- 
amination of  would-be  recruits  for  the  army.  The  results  were  what 
might  be  expected.  Many  were  passed  for  service  who  were  totally 
unfitted,  who  subsequently  had  to  be  weeded  out  of  the  army  at  heavy 
cost  to  the  nation;  there  were  repeated  cases  of  wide  and  inexcusable 
differences  in  the  findings  of  successive  examiners,  damaging  criticisms 
in  the  public  press,  and  development  of  a  feeling  of  public  insecurity. 
As  a  result  the  government  determined  to  take  from  the  Royal  Army 
Medical  Corps  the  responsibility  for  examining  recruits,  and,  under 
the  Military  Service  Act  of  1917,  it  withdrew  the  matter  of  **cat^ori- 
sation"  from  the  army,  placing  it  under  the  control  of  the  minister 
of  national  service,  who  forthwith  proceeded  to  organize  the  physical 
examination  of  the  men  called  up,  placing  the  task  in  the  capable  hands 
of  Dr.,  later,  Sir,  James  Galloway,  and  a  small  but  carefully  selected 
committee. 

The  country  was  divided  into  regions,  conmiissioners  were  placed 
in  charge  of  each,  with  deputy  commissioners  and  a  staff  under  than. 
The  deputy  commissioners  were  brought  together  and  trained  so  as  to 
employ  common  standards  and  arrive  at  a  common  agreement  regard- 
ing the  categorisation  of  border  line  and  doubtful  cases:  a  dear  and 
admirable  code  of  directions  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  every  member 
of  the  new  boards  and,  in  short,  every  endeavor  was  made  to  conduct 
the  physical  examination  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other  under 
a  single  standard.  Thus,  at  the  end  of  1918,  it  fell  to  our  committee 
to  direct  an  analysis  into  the  results  obtained  from  the  physical  ex- 
amination of  close  upon  two  and  a  half  million  men  conducted  under 
these  standardized  conditions. 

Here  it  will  be  out  of  place  to  detail  the  difficulties  encountered  in 
analysing  and  weighing  the  figures  before  us.  Those  are  to  be  found 
discussed  in  the  Government  Blue  Book  containing  the  report  of  the 
conmiittee  drawn  up  by  Dr.  H.  W.  Kaye  as  secretary  to  the  committee.' 
Nor  again  am  I  going  to  dwell  upon  the  alarming  picture  this  report 
disclosed  of  the  wide  spread  physical  unfitness  of  the  adult  male  popu- 
lation of  Great  Britain.  That  is  apart  from  my  present  object.  What 
is  to  the  point  is  that  for  the  purposes  of  arriving  at  the  significance 
of  the  figures  under  review.  Professor  Arthur  Keith,  F.R.S.,  the  dis- 
tinguished anatomist  and  anthropologist,  who  was  a  member  of  the 

'  Report  upon  the  Physical  Examination  of  men  of  military  age  by  Na- 
tional Service  Medical  Boards  from  November  i,  1917,  to  October  31,  1918, 
London.  February,  1920.  Those  to  whom  the  British  Government  publica- 
tions are  not  easily  available  will  find  an  abstract  of  some  of  the  main  find- 
ings of  the  report  in  the  Lancet  (London),  Vol.  i,  1920,  pp.  557,  726  and  780. 


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THE   TRUE  ARISTOCRACY 


427 


committee,  pointed  out  that  the  established  ^'categories*'  of  the  army, 
A,  B,  C,  D/  could  be  translated  into  ^'Grades"  I  to  IV  in  the  terms  of 
the  polygon  of  frequency. 

Let  me  explain.  It  was  found  that  a  thousand  Cambridge  Univer- 
sity students,  measured  for  stature,  arranged  themselves  in  a  significant 
manner.  (The  same  has  been  found  true  of  other  exact  human  measure- 
ments) •  In  this  particular  set  of  men,  those  measuring  more  and  less 
than  this  tailed  off  inch  by  inch  on  either  side  of  this  mean  with  striking 
symmetry. 

There  were  roughly,  within  a  few  digits,  as  many  men  of  stature  1 
inch  below  this  mean  as  there  were  men  1  inch  above,  and,  from 
this  mean  of  5  feet  9  inches,  those  more  or  less  in  height  formed  classes 


Fig.  1. 

tailing  off  in  a  curiously  balanced  manner.  On  such  a  ^'polygon  of 
frequency'*  as  shown  in  the  diagram  one  can  construct  a  curve  of  fre- 
quency. 

Keith  pointed  out  that  the  mean  class  (that  of  5  feet  9  inches)  together 
with  all  those  above  the  mean  and  the  class  just  below  the  mean, 
together  constitute  70  per  cent,  of  the  total,  and  he  assumed  that  the 
combined  measurements  employed  to  determine  a  man's  physical  fitness 
should  follow  the  same  general  law.  Along  these  lines  he  laid  down 
that  the  active  service  group  should  include  all  average  men  and  those 

♦  Category  A.    Men  physically  fit  for  active  service  at  the  front. 

"  B.  Men  able  to  undergo  a  considerable  degree  of  physical 
exertion  and  with  fair  hearing  and  vision,  but  in  conse- 
quence of  partial  disabilities  unable  to  stand  severe 
strain;  fit  for  any  form  of  service  overseas  save  active 
service  at  the  front. 

"  C.  Men.  who  in  consequence  of  physical  disabilities  could  not 
undertake  marching  but  could  be  employed  for  the  less 
arduous  and  sedentary  occupations. 

"         D.    The  rejected,  unfit  for  any  form  of  military  service. 


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428  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

above  the  average  in  physical  fitness  together  vrith  those  just  below  the 
average,  and  that  therefore  we  should  expect  in  a  reasonably  healthy 
sample  of  the  male  population: 

TOO  out  of  each  looo  should  be  "A"  men,  belong^g  to  Grade       I. 
200  "  "  "B"      "  "         Grade     II. 

75  "  "  "C"      "  "  Grade  III. 

25  "  "  "D"     "  "         Grade    IV. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  these  index  figures  of  Professor  Keith  showed  them- 
selves close  to  the  mark  and  most  useful  for  purposes  of  comparison. 
Certain  mining  and  agricultural  districts  indeed  yielded  well  above 
700  per  1,000  Grade  I  men.  Scottish  miners  between  18  and  21  years 
of  age  yielded  80.62  per  cent.,  young  adult  Scottish  ironworkers  86.18 
per  cent  But  while  in  general  mining  and  agricultural  districts  yielded 
the  expected  70  per  cent,  or  thereabouts,  the  great  tovms  afforded  con- 
scripts gravely  below  the  standard.  I  take  the  18-year  old  group  as 
that  which  should  physically  be  fittest,  least  affected  by  the  deleterious 
influences  of  industrial  and  commercial  or  sedentary  occupations. 
Even  in  this  most  favorable  class,  studying  the  results  obtained  in  dif- 
ferent areas,  cities  like  Liverpool  and  Birmingham  yielded  49.5  and 
36.0  per  cent  Grade  I  men,  respectively:  they  were  lower  in  the  big 
manufacturing  towns,  for  example,  1,000  youths  in  Burslem  yielded 
only  270  in  place  of  700  physically  fit  for  active  service,  in  Dudley 
only  219.  So  serious  a  state  of  affairs  was  disclosed  that  it  is  of  first 
importance  to  the  nation  to  discover  whether  this  is  due  to  progressive 
deterioration  of  the  town-bred  and  industrial  stock  or  whether  the  ef- 
fects of  unfavorable  environment  on  the  growing  individual  are  wholly 
responsible.  For  myself  I  cannot  imagine  the  stunted  and  anemic 
mill-hands  of  Lancashire  bringing  forth  offspring  which  under  the 
most  favorable  environment  could  develop  into  men  and  women  of 
full  stature  and  all  round  physical  capacity. 

This,  however,  is  away  from  my  immediate  point  What  is  of  first 
importance  is  that  the  report  of  the  Ministry  of  National  Service  has 
demonstrated  that  it  is  possible  to  establish  a  series  of  tests  for  the 
exact  and  uniform  measurment  of  physical  capacity  and,  having  these, 
to  grade  those  who  undergo  the  tests  into  a  succession  of  clearly  de- 
fined classes. 

For  eugenic  purposes,  however,  it  will  never  do  to  take  over  the 
national  service  grading.  We  do  not  want  to  clump  together  the  av^- 
age,  those  just  below  and  all  above  the  average  into  one  conmion  group. 
That  was  well  enough  for  determining  men  capable  of  becoming  front 
line  troops.  But  we  need  to  select  the  best,  not  the  average.  Thus  as 
I  suggested  three  years  ago,^  just  as  the  army  for  its  purposes  recognized 

5  "The  Physical  Census,"  an  address  delivered  before  the  Medical  Society 
of  London,  25  Novensjber,  1918,  and  printed  in  the  Transactions  of  that 
Society,  as  also  in  the  Canadian  Medical  Association  Journal,  September,  1919. 


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THE   TRUE  ARISTOCRACY 


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three  categories  below  the  mean,  so  for  our  purposes  we  might  well 
establish,  as  shown  in  the  diagram,  three  classes  above,  making  in  all 
seven  classes. 

In  this  way  Class  A  would  contain  the  very  pick  of  manhood,  a  se- 
lect class  of  some  2  per  cent  of  the  whole  body,  men  of  exceptional  all 
round  physical  development;  Class  B,  men  thoroughly  well  developed, 
who  might,  only  in  some  one  respect  such  as  stature,  fail  to  be  included 
in  Class  A;  Class  C,  good  all-round  men  distinctly  above  the  average; 
while  Class  D  would  repres^t  the  large  group  of  ordinary  average 
men,  and  Classes  E,  F  and  G  would  correspond  with  Grades  II,  III,  and 
IV  of  the  National  Service  system  (Army  categories  B,  C,  and  D.) 

This,  however,  is  only  half  the  matter.  Neither  Great  Britain  nor 
any  other  European  nation  made  any  attempt  to  pick  out  from  the  start 
the  men  most  likely  to  develop  into  good  officers  and  non-commissioned 
officers.  For  that  they  depended  upon  the  actual  test  of  army  condi- 
tions. In  other  words,  not  a  single  European  nation  applied  any  test 
of  intellectual  capacity.  It  was  left  to  the  United  States  to  apply  this 
eminently  rational  procedure  to  the  army  she  raised  for  overseas  service. 

Scarcely  had  war  been  declared  by  the  United  States  in  the  Spring 
of  1917  before  the  American  Psychological  Association  brought  together 
its  members  to  consider  how  they  might  serve  the  country  in  the 
emergency. 

It  should  be  explained  that  the  pioneer  work  of  the  late  Professor 
Alfred  Binet,  of  the  Sorbonne,  had  made  a  greater  impression  in  North 
America  than  it  had  in  France  or  Europe  in  general.  In  1905  Binet 
had  shown  that  it  was  possible  to  devise  reliable  tests  of  mental  capacity 
applicable  for  each  year  of  age  of  the  developing  child,  so  that,  ac- 


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430  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

cording  to  the  way  a  child  responded  to  the  tests,  it  might  be  accurately 
graded — e.  g.,  a  child  of  the  actual  age  of  10  years  might  be  shown  to 
have  the  mental  capacity  of,  it  might  be,  the  ordinary  child  of  12  years 
of  age,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  only  that  of  a  child  5  years  old.  This 
method  had  been  extensively  tested  by  various  American  psychologists, 
more  particularly  for  the  elimination  or  segregation  from  the  public 
schools  of  those  mentally  defective.  Important  advances  in  the  methods 
of  testing  and  evaluating  the  tests  had  been  represented  by  the  Goddard 
revision  of  the  Binet  scale,  the  Yerkes-Bridges  Point  scale  and  the  later 
and  fuller  Stanford  revision  of  the  Binet  scale,  for  which  Terman  was 
largely  responsible.^ 

The  chief  purpose  of  the  psychological  assistance  originally  offered 
to  the  Army  Medical  Department  in  the  Spring  of  1917  was  the  prompt 
elimination  of  recruits  whose  grade  of  intelligence  was  too  low  for 
satisfactory  service.  But  when  in  the  autunm  in  order  to  test  the  value 
of  the  methods  of  the  committee  they  were  applied  to  enlisted  men 
of  all  orders  in  four  selected  cantonments  the  results  obtained  tallied 
so  closely  with  the  more  slowly  acquired  judgment  of  the  officers  in 
command  as  to  warrant  the  reconunendation  ^^that  all  company  officers, 
all  candidates  for  officers  training  camps  and  all  drafted  and  enlisted 
men  be  required  to  take  the  prescribed  psychological  tests"  and  in 
January  1918  the  recommendation  was  acted  upon.  Every  soldier  was 
tested  and  assigned  an  intelligence  rating  on  the  basis  of  a  systematic 
examination.  Through  this  system  men  of  superior  intelligence  were 
selected  from  the  first  for  advancement  for  special  posts  and  particular 
types  of  military  duty,  or  recommended  to  enter  military  training 
schools.  A  school  for  training  in  military  psychology  was  established, 
and  by  Armistice  Day,  in  November  1918,  the  psychological  personnel 
attached  to  the  Army  Medical  Departmait  had  risen  to  120  officers  and 
350  enlisted  men  together  with  some  500  additional  clerks  engaged  in 
the  examining  service  in  thirty-five  camps  throughout  the  country.  The 
tests  had  been  applied  to  1,726,966  men,  of  whom  41,000  were  officers; 
7,800  men  had  been  recommended  for  immediate  discharge  on  account 
of  mental  inferiority;  10,014  had  been  recommended  for  labor  bat- 
talions, and  other  service  organizations  on  account  of  low  grade  in- 
telligence. Men  qualified  to  be  non-commissioned  officers  and  candi- 
date-officers on  the  basis  of  satisfactory  intelligence  scores  were  picked 
out  within  forty-eight  hours  of  their  arrival  in  camp.^ 

•  There  is  abundant  American  literature  on  the  subject,  for  which  con- 
sult more  especially  the  "Manual  of  Mental  and  Physical  Tests"  by  Whipple, 
and  "The  Measurement  of  Intelligence"  by  L.  M.  Terman,  (Houghton, 
Mifflin  Co.)  Boston. 

7  For  further  particulars  sec  "Army  Mental  Tests"  compiled  and  edited 
by  Clarence  S.  Yoakum  and  Robert  M.  Yerkes,  New  York :  Henry  Holt  and 
Company,  1920. 


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THE   TRUE  ARISTOCRACY  431 

The  new  procedure  must  have  proved  itself  eminently  serviceable 
and  practical  to  have  became  applied  universally  to  all  recruits  within 
six  months  of  its  experimental  introduction  into  the  army.  As  a  matter 
of  experience,  the  rating  awarded  to  a  man  as  a  result  of  the  tests  was 
found  to  furnish  a  fairly  reliable  index  of  his  ability  to  learn,  to  think 
quickly  and  accurately,  to  analyze  a  situation,  to  maintain  a  state  of 
mental  alertness,  and  to  comprehend  and  follow  instructions.  The  score 
was  little  influenced  by  schooling  or,  more  accurately,  it  was  so  in- 
fluenced,^ even  though  at  the  same  time  some  of  the  brightest  records 
were  made  by  men  who  had  not  completed  the  eighth  grade  of  the  U.  S. 
public  school  system. 

It  is  a  not  uninteresting  coincidence  that  the  American  scale  was 
worked  out  in  percentages,  100  being  taken  as  the  highest  available 
mark,  and  that  here  also  seven  classes  were  recognized,  namely  : 

A.  (rated  96  per  cent  and  over).  Very  superior  intelligence— usually 
earned  by  from  3  to  5  per  cent,  of  a  draft— men  of  pronounced  intellectuality 
of  the  high  officer  type  (if  endowed  also  with  capacity  for  leadership  and 
qualities  which  admittedly  are  not  revealed  by  the  standard  tests). 

B.  (80-95  per  cent,)  Intelligence  superior  but  not  exceptional.  Obtained 
by  8  to  10  per  cent,  of  a  draft— men  of  the  officer  type  and  many  non-com- 
missioned officers. 

C.  4-  High  average  intelligence,  comprising  from  15  to  18  per  cent,  of  all 
soldiers,  with  a  large  amount  of  N.  C.  O.  material.  With  power  of  leader- 
ship men  of  this  grade  are  fitted  for  commissioned  rank.  (The  three  C 
groups  include  those  grading  from  40  to  79  per  cent) 

C.  Average  intelligence,  the  main  mass  (25  per  cent)  of  soldiers. 
Excellent  "private"  type. 

C—  Low  average  intelligence  (about  20  per  cent,  of  material).  Men 
satisfactory  for  work  of  a  routine  nature. 

D.  (20-39  per  cent)  Inferior  intelligence  (15  per  cent  of  all  soldiers). 
Fair  soldiers  but  low  in  rank.  Slow  in  learning  with  little  initiative,  rarely 
attaining  higher  rank  than  "private." 

E.  (0-19  per  cent)  These  along  with  D—  arc  of  very  inferior  intelligence. 
D—  men  were  considered  fit  for  service.  Some  E  men  were  placed  in  labor 
battalions  but  most  were  rejected.  D—  and  E  men  were  below  ten  years 
in  mental  age. 

It  deserves  emphasis  that  the  tests  only  indicate  intelligence.  They 
do  not  measure  loyalty,  bravery,  power  to  command,  or  those  emo- 
tional  traits  that  make  a  man  "carry  on/'  Nevertheless,  next  to  physical 
fitness,  intelligence  is  the  most  important  single  factor  in  military  ef- 
ficiency. 

«  Thus  while  stating  (p.  22)  that  the  rating  was  little  influenced,  Yoakum 
and  Yerkes  give  a  table  showing  that  there  was  a  steady  increase  in  intel- 
Ugcnce  in  the  students  of  the  successive  years  at  the  University  of  Illinois; 
9iu|  per  cent,  of  the  freshman  class  were  rated  in  the  two  topmost  grades' 
as  compared  with  92.3  per  cent,  of  the  sophomores,  94.1  of  the  juniors  and 
95.9  of  the  final  year. 


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432  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

Thus,  to  come  to  the  point,  the  great  war  has  in  one  respect  been  of 
service:  it  has  alForded  material  for  testing  on  a  great  scale  and  dem- 
onstrating the  possibility  of  devising  accurate  and  satisfactory  methods 
of  measurement  of  physical  and  intellectual  capacity.  Henceforth 
there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  practicability  of  establishing  stand- 
ards of  efficiency  and  quality.  Nor  is  there  any  reason  why  these  tests 
be  not  applied  to  women  as  to  men.  The  method  has  been  tested  and 
found  of  proved  value. 

And  what  I  would  urge  is  that  here  at  last  we  have  before  us  the 
obvious  line  of  practical  work  for  eugenic  societies  and  the  eugenic 
movement  in  geno'al.  Encourage  the  best!  Either  organize,  or  make  the 
state  organise  in  every  district  a  trained  staff  provided  with  a  well- 
equipped  set  of  roonu  for  the  routine  testing  of  every  young  person 
whether  male  or  female,  who  has  reached  the  age  of  eighteen  years.  I 
say  eighteen  because,  while  intelligence  does  not,  so  far  as  we  can  see, 
improve  beyond  the  standard  which  some  are  capable  of  reaching  at 
the  age  of  sixteen,  undoubtedly  there  are  slow  developers  whose  in- 
tellectual capacity,  below  normal  at  this  life  period,  improves  after  the 
age  of  sixteen,  while  in  general  physical  capacity  is  at  its  best  at  the 
age  of  eighteen,  and  from  other  practical  considerations  this  latter  age 
is  the  best  for  purposes  of  record. 

Do  not  make  the  tests  compulsory.  What  indeed  is  the  need  to 
trouble  about  the  average  man  or  woman.  We  want  to  pick  out  the  best 
in  the  community.  And  having  picked  them  out  publish  their  existence 
in  the  world.  Establish  an  annual  record  of  all  the  A  I  youths  and 
maidens  of  the  year,  ^A**  standing  for  the  first  class  in  physical  fitness, 
"I"  for  the  first  class  in  intelligence.  Nay,  I  would  say  publish  the 
list  of  all  who  attoin  to  ""A"  and  all  who  attain  to  'T'  standards.  There 
are  positions  in  which  physical  fitness  is  sought  after  irrespective  of 
mental  capacity,  and  vice  versa.  Like  considerations  might  favor  the 
publication  also  of  all  the  ''B''  and  the  '*2"  classes,  for  both  are  well 
above  the  average. 

Think  of  the  effect  of  such  a  publication.  Think  of  the  start  in  the 
world  it  would  give  to  a  man  or  woman  to  be  able  to  refer  to  his  or 
her  record  as  belonging  to  the  A  1  class;  think  of  the  status  it  would 
give  him  or  her  for  the  years  to  come,  of  the  preferential  treatment 
that  would  be  afforded  whra  applying  for  posts.  Consider  the  prefer- 
ence the  A  1  man  or  woman  would  have  in  marriage,  how  parents  be- 
fore giving  their  consent  would  require  that  he  who  sought  their 
daughter's  hand  should  produce  his  eugenic  society  certificate  and  show 
where  he  stood  in  physical  and  mental  capacity;  of  the  advantage  the 
A  1  man  would  have  in  seeking  the  hand  of  a  desirable  damsel.  Think 
how  in  years  to  come  these  annual  publications  would  establish  the  good 
strains,  the  desirable  families  with  which  to  become  associated,  how 
in  short  they  would  become  the  human  stud  book. 


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THE   TRUE  ARISTOCRACY  «3 

But,  it  may  be  objected,  the  man  who  at  eighteen  is  rated  as  A  1 
might  from  a  variety  of  causes — tuberculosis  for  example,  or  grave  ac- 
cident such  as  fracture  of  the  skull,  or  acute  infectious  disease,  or 
venereal  disease,  or  overwork,  mental  or  bodily,  fail  to  maintain  his 
rating:  the  fact  that  in  youth  he  was  A  1  is  no  assurance  that  by  thirty 
he  is  not  an  undesirable.  Quite  so.  But  this  is  by  no  means  an 
insuperable  objection — once  the  published  record  appeared,  the  first- 
class  man  would  come  to  ask  to  have  his  rating  renewed  so  long  as  he 
continued  to  be  first  class,  say  every  five  years,  at  23,  28  and  33  years, 
and  if  he  could  not  produce  certificates  of  continued  efficiency  this 
would  tell  against  him,  unless  he  could  give  a  satisfadtory  explanation 
of  the  cause  of  his  reduction  in  rank. 

Now  the  indications  are  that  there  is  a  natural,  or,  under  present 
methods  of  life,  an  expected  reduction  in  physical  efficiency  after 
twoity-five  years  of  age  and  of  mental  alertness  after  thirty-five  or  so. 
These  would  have  to  be  taken  into  account'  So  far  we  do  not  possess 
data  sufficient  to  establish  what  may  be  termed  the  normal  curves  of 
physical  and  mental  efficiency  for  successive  age  periods  after  eighteen.^^ 
The  accumulated  statistics  of  A  1  men  and  women  would  supply  mate- 
rial for  the  establishmait  of  a  table  of  what  may  be  termed  age- 
efficiency,  mental  and  physical,  for  successive  years  of  age  from  fifteen 
to  fifty. 

Here  would  be  the  ideal  Debrett — here  the  establishment  of  a 
veritable  aristocracy  of  the  country,  personal  and  hereditary.  I  ask 
you  to  think  over  it  The  scheme  is  not  impossible.  It  only  needs  to 
be  started  to  show  its  usefulness.  Nay,  more,  it  would  be  self-support- 
ing. Men  and  women  of  good  quality  would  gladly  pay  a  moderate 
fee  to  cover  the  cost  of  the  examinations  and  for  the  cost  of  announce- 

•  Sec  Adami,  Loc  Cit 

10  A  beginning  has  been  made.  The  Bulletin  of  the  National  Research 
Council  on  the  "Intellectual  and  Educational  Status  of  the  Medical  Profes- 
sion in  the  United  States  Army"  by  M.  V.  Cobb  and  R,  M.  Yerkes  (Washing- 
ton, February,  1921)  shows  (p.  483)  that  there  is  no  significant  decrease  in 
intelligence  rating  (of  officers)  rating  from  20  to  26  years  but  thereafter  to 
the  age  of  60  there  is  a  marked  decrease.  The  relations  of  intelligence  to 
age  of  95>742  medical  officers  examined  at  Camp  Greenleaf  gave: 

Age  of  25  (303  cases)  277 

30  (334  cases)  258 

34-35  (257  cases)  262 

40  (305  cases)  25s 

44-45  (241  cases)   235 

50-51  (131  cases)  223 

54-55  (63  cases)   212 

These  figures  indicate  a  slow  descent  from  25  to  35  and  after  that  a  more 
rapid  one. 


VOL.  xm.- 


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434  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

ment  and  publication  of  their  superior  merits.  Compare  the  cost  of 
encouragement  thus  of  the  best  to  that  of  hunting  out  and  suppressing 
the  unwilling  worst  Again,  I  say  it  only  needs  to  be  taken  up  seriously 
and  started  to  demonstrate  its  value  and  desirability.  Here  at 
last  we  aid  and  encourage  the  improvement  of  the  national  stock,  the 
advancement  of  the  quality  and  well  being  of  the  nation  through  the 
establishment  by  scientific  and  democratic  means,  irrespective  of  wealth 
and  influence,  of  the  real  aristocracy  of  the  nation. 


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SCIENCE  IN  FRANCE  435 


SCIENCE  IN  FRANCE 
By   Professor    PIERRE   BOUTROUX 

rE  very  title  of  this  article  seems  to  imply  two  preliminary 
assumptions  which  many  modem  readers  will  be  inclined  to 
question.  First,  that  in  this  time  of  technical  achievements  and  highly 
specialized  work,  there  still  exists  such  an  entity  as  "'Science/'  distinct 
from  the  various  sciences.  Second,  that  when  industry,  commerce, 
politics,  even  literature,  become  more  and  more  international  in  their 
scope  and  character,  science  may  still  be  considered  as  some  sort  of 
national  enterprise. 

I  have  no  intention  to  ignore  the  questions  thus  raised.  But  the 
best  way  to  throw  some  light  on  them  is  precisely,  I  think,  to  fix  our 
attention  on  some  particular  case,  on  some  concrete  country,  and  to 
observe  whether  the  diflferent  scientists  of  that  country  have  or  have  not 
something  in  common,  some  definite  standards  and  ideals  which  may 
be  called  their  own. 

Such  a  problem  has  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  enumeration  of 
the  notable  discoveries  achieved  in  such  and  such  country.  A  true 
discovery,  being  the  mastering  of  some  new  piece  of  universal  truth, 
must  have  an  objective  and  therefore  an  international  value.  The  greater 
the  discovery,  the  more  impersonal  it  is.  So  that  the  prevailing  cus- 
t(Hn,  which  makes  us  call  discoveries  and  laws  of  nature  by  the  names 
of  persons  is,  in  point  of  fact,  just  as  misleading  as  it  could  be. 

But  the  objective  discovery  is  not  all  of  science.  It  is  only  the  end 
of  it,  the  result  obtained  by  scientific  work,  that  is,  by  human  activity. 
Furthermore,  any  single  discovery  has  to  be  linked  and  compared  with 
other  discoveries  and  hypotheses:  as  soon  as  it  is  acquired,  it  becomes 
part  of  a  theory  which  is  largely  contingent  and  human.  Now,  on  the 
one  hand,  it  is  a  well  known  fact  that  there  is  no  sure  method,  no 
marked  and  traceable  path  for  obtainiug  scientific  discoveries;  only  by 
trying  and  trying  over  again,  by  toiling,  approaching  questions  from 
various  sides,  opening  our  minds  to  inspiration  and  intuition,  may  we 
hope  to  fall  upon  the  idea  which  will  lead  us  to  discovery.  Theories^ 
on  the  other  hand,  are  always  provisional  and  changeable,  and  there 
is  no  absolute  standard  to  fix  their  value.  This  being  so,  is  it  not  to 
be  expected  that  the  type  of  education  a  man  has  been  given,  the  habits 
of  mind  which  he  has  acquired  in  life,  the  models  which  he  finds  be- 
fore him,  the  general  ways  and  inclinations  of  his  surroundings,  will 
have  a  notable  influence  on  his  methods  and  on  his  work? 


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486  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

There  are  surroundings^  there  are  countries  m  which»  for  some 
reason,  some  kind  of  work  is  more  likely  to  succeed  than  in  others,  in 
which  some  discoveries  have  a  greater  chance  to  be  arrived  at,  in  whidi 
some  types  of  scientific  system  are  more  likely  to  spring  up.  The  in- 
fluence so  exerted  is  felt  even  by  foreigners  and  it  is  worth  while  study- 
ing it  I  said  a  moment  ago  that  to  associate  names  with  discoveries 
is  a  task  void  of  any  real  interest  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not 
uninteresting  to  learn  that  the  Wright  brothers  achieved  decisive  suc- 
cess and  gave  a  great  impetus  to  aviation  while  they  were  working  in 
France.  To  take  a  more  convincing  example,  it  is  interesting  to  know 
that  the  great  scientist  and  philosopher  of  Hanover,  Leibniz,  did 
come  to  Paris  as  a  young  man  and  found  there  the  inspiration  and  the 
ideas  which  led  him  to  his  first  discoveries. 

What  was  it  that  Leibniz  and  many  other  scientists  of  his  time  and 
other  times  have  found  on  French  soil  more  than  they  did  elsewhere? 
What  are  the  qualities  that  have  made  French  scientists  often  success- 
ful and  given  them  followers  all  over  the  world?  On  the  other  hand, 
can  we  trace  any  characters  of  scientific  Aeories  which  are  especially 
appreciated  by  the  French  and  are  generally  apparent  in  their  produc- 
tions? Such  are  the  questions  which  I  would  try  to  answer,  consider- 
ing first  the  tradition  of  scientific  work  in  France,  and  second  its  pres- 
ent condition. 

•     •     • 

The  traditions  upon  which  modem  French  science  is  based  were 
laid  down  during  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

This  does  not  mean  that  science  was  not  an  important  factor  in 
ancient  French  civilization.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  part  played  in 
the  first  revival  of  science  by  the  University  of  Paris,  the  oldest  in  the 
Western  Worid,  has  been  exceptionally  brilliant  However,  the  merits 
of  die  work  then  done  are  not  exactly  of  the  type  which  can  be  con- 
templated from  a  national  standpoint  Science  in  the  Middle  Ages  was 
highly  international,  more  international  than  it  has  ever  been  since. 
Besides,  the  brilliant  era  started  by  the  old  University  of  Paris  was 
followed  by  a  period  of  comparative  obscurity.  Science  was  again 
at  a  standstill  until  the  revival  of  the  study  of  the  original  Gredc  treat- 
ises gave  it  a  new  impetus.  Later  still  came  the  time  when  a  reaction 
against  too  close  an  imitation  of  the  Gredcs  was  deemed  desirable  and 
when  it  became  apparent  that  new  ways  should  be  tried.  Then  it  was 
that  the  national  character  and  national  ideal  had  an  opportunity  to 
show  themselves.  This  happened  in  France  at  the  very  moment  when 
French  literature,  French  art,  French  culture  generally,  reached  th«r 
highest  point.  The  time  of  Comeille,  Moliere,  Bossuet  is  also  the  time 
of  Descartes  and  Fermat.  There  is  a  deep  significance  in  diat 
fact,  and  it  is  not  through  a  mere  coincidence  that  a  man  like  Pascal 


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SCIENCE  IN  FRANCE  487 

was  as  famous  as  a  physicist  and  mathematiciaii  as  he  was  as  a  mor- 
alist and  as  a  writer.  Pascal,  by  the  way,  might  be  regarded  as  a 
fair  representative  of  the  French  scientific  spirit  of  his  time.  Des- 
cartes, however,  is  the  leading  figure.  Descartes  stands  first,  not  only 
because  his  influence  has  been  the  widest,  but  because  he  was  the  man 
who  realized  fully  that  the  old  conceptions  were  to  be  changed 
iBdically.  He  was  the  man  who  had  the  clearest  and  most  prophetic 
vision  of  a  new  type  of  science. 

But,  before  trying  to  define  Descartes'  position,  I  wish  to  make  a 
few  prelimmary  remarks. 

In  the  system  of  knowledge  which  forms  a  science,  two  kinds  of 
elemoits  are  fundamental:  First,  the  logical  deductions  or  construc- 
tions, which  combine  abstract  principles,  notions  or  statements; 
second,  the  facts,  which  are  either  experimental  facts  or  such  facts  as 
may  be  found  in  pure  mathematics. 

The  logical  aspect  of  science  had  been  dominant  in  the  work  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  During  the  later  period  of  its  evolution,  at  least, 
scholastic  science  was  based  chiefly  on  logical  constructions.  Such  a 
science  will  not  be  worthless  if  it  happens  to  rest  upon  solid  founda- 
tions. But  it  is  likely  to  become,  in  most  cases,  a  purely  formal  and 
abstract  system,  which  will  care  little  about  the  value  of  its  material  as 
long  as  its  deductions  are  correct  and  consistent.  The  weakness  of 
sdiolastic  science  was  that  its  aim  was  not  definite,  its  development  was; 
not  guided.  Logical  combinations,  worthless  for  any  practical  pur- 
pose, without  any  appeal  to  human  intelligence  at  large,  may  be  piled 
up  and  piled  up  and  form  an  endless  chain.  Huge  books  have  been 
filled  with  them,  the  aspect  of  which  is  somewhat  terrifying  nowadays. 
It  took  a  man's  life  to  write  one  of  these  books  and  years  to  study  it. 
And  the  trouble  was  that  sdiolars  were  actually  compelled  to  read  all 
those  books;  for,  to  prolong  the  chain  of  science,  one  logically  had 
first  to  go  through  the  whole  length  of  it.  So  that  scholastic  science 
could  not  but  soon  degenerate  into  hopeless  erudition. 

The  case  would  be  very  nearly  the  same  for  a  system  of  knowledge 
based  on  the  second  kind  of  elements,  which  we  have  discriminated  in 
science;  namely,  ftuOs. 

In  the  age  of  Descartes,  to  be  sure,  no  attempt  to  build  a  science 
on  facts  only  had  ever  actually  been  made.  Experimental  work  was 
still  in  its  infancy.  However,  a  man  like  Descartes,  who  was  fully 
aware  of  the  value  of  such  work,  could  not  but  perceive  the  danger 
whidi  a  science  based  on  experiments  would  have  to  face.  The  danger 
was  to  pile  up  facts  without  the  guidance  of  reason.  Such  a  task  would 
be  entirely  indeterminate  just  as  is  the  piling  up  of  logical  proposi- 
tions. It  would  be  endless,  and  a  man  might  consume  his  life  in  this 
task  without  becoming  any  wiser. 


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438  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

Notwithstanding  this  clanger,  the  kind  of  science  to  which  I  am  now 
alluding  is  still  favored,  in  our  own  time,  by  a  few  scientific  circles. 
Arguing  that  theory  is  always  open  to  doubt,  while  a  fact  in  itself, 
is  something  solid,  there  are  men  who  believe  that  the  scientist's  activ- 
ity  should  all  be  concentrated  upon  this  one  aim:  to  acquire  new  fads. 
The  men  who  are  promoting  such  views  do  not  always  realize  that 
their  science — although  very  different  as  to  the  materials  from  the  old 
scholastic  science— will  be  exactly  the  same  in  spirit;  or  rather  it  will 
be  the  same  in  the  lack  of  spirit.  Accumulation  of  particular  truths, 
but  no  leading  principle,  no  illuminating  light.  Erudition  exalted. 
Discrimination  and  intelligence  secondary.  A  cumbrous,  aimless, 
hopeless  and  dead  science. 

It  is  against  such  an  ideal,  such  a  conception  of  science  that  Rene 
Descartes  took  his  stand. 

Descartes  was  endowed  with  a  revolutionary  turn  of  mind.  He 
had,  as  far  as  science  is  concerned,  no  respect  whatever  for  tradition. 
Even  Gredc  geometry,  which  we  consider  so  perfect,  is  condemned  by 
him.  He  mentions  that  all  scientific  productions  of  former  generations 
are  entirely  worthless. 

All  that  we  know  of  Descartes^  indeed,  is  in  sharp  contrast  with 
the  figure  of  the  old  schoolman. 

First  of  all,  Descartes  is  not  a  professor. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  and  later,  most  of  the  students  of  science  were 
engaged  in  the  teaching  profession.  Secluded  from  the  world  of 
action,  they  were  anxious  not  to  let  any  outsider  intrude  into  their 
field  of  knowledge.  They  jealously  closed  the  doors  of  science  in  the 
face  of  all  Philistines. 

Not  so  with  Descartes.  How  could  a  man  with  his  temperament 
be  contented  with  university  routine?  From  his  youth,  Descartes  had 
felt  inclined  to  live  an  active,  independent  and  dangerous  life.  He 
travelled  all  over  Europe,  he  was  a  soldier  and  fought  in  Holland  and 
Germany.  Later  he  moved  from  one  place  to  another,  not  being  able 
to  settle  anywhere  until  he  met  with  a  premature  death  in  Sweden. 

These  facts  we  have  to  bear  in  mind  if  we  want  to  understand,  not 
Descartes  only,  but  all  the  great  French  scientists  of  the  same  time. 
Fermat,  who  is  considered  by  many  as  the  most  prominent  mathematic- 
ian of  that  age,  was  not  a  university  man  either,  but  a  judge  at  Toul- 
ouse. Desargues,  famous  among  geometers,  was  an  enginer.  Pascal 
was  a  private  gentleman,  self-taught. 

The  lives  of  all  these  learned  men  were  widely  different  And  yet 
they  all  had  something  in  common  and  belonged  to  the  same  class. 
They  represented  the  type  which  the  French  of  the  seventeenth  century 
called  an  honnete  homme.  To  all  of  them  the  scholar  of  the  sdiolastic 
type  is  equally  abhorrent.     He  is  the  man   who  has  been  so   fitly 


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SCIENCE  IN  FRANCE  439 

ridiculed  by  Moliere,  in  the  Thomas  Diafoirus  of  the  ''Malade  imagin- 
aire."  Diafoirus  is  a  reputed  magister,  who  has  much  dialectic  ability, 
but  no  judgment  The  honnete  homme  does  not  boast  of  any  special 
acquirements  or  training,  but  is  richly  endowed  with  good,  simple, 
common  sense. 

On  that  notion  of  ^good  sense"  (hon  sens)  is  based  the  whole 
Cartesian  theory  of  science.  According  to  Descartes,  bon  sens  is  a 
common  property,  a  common  gift  of  which  all  men  have  their  share. 
It  is  the  power  which  men  have  to  act  and  think  not  only  in  agreement 
with  their  bodily  experience  and  with  the  laws  of  logic,  but  in  agree- 
ment with  reason. 

From  this  view  an  obvious  inference  follows  Science  shall  not  be 
the  exclusive  property  of  specialists  any  more.  But  it  will  be  open  to 
laymen;  and  die  layman  will  even  do  better  than  the  specialist  because 
he  will  not  indulge  in  formal  erudition  and  bluJBP,  but  his  aim  will  be 
to  make  science  clear,  simple,  well  ordered,  intelligible  to  any  sensible 
human  being,  and  to  make  it  a  living,  instead  of  a  dead  thing. 

The  chief  characteristics  of  such  a  science  may  be  summed  up  as 
follows: 

First  of  all,  as  we  just  said,  science  will  be  simple,  A  scientific 
system  which  would  lack  simplicity  would  be  ivrong. 

This,  I  admit,  will  be  considered  by  many  as  a  bold  and  rather 
imprudent  statement  We  certainly  agree  with  Descartes  when  he 
condemns  those  conceited  scholars  who  are  prone  to  make  science  com- 
plicated just  for  the  sake  of  appearing  as  great  men  in  the  eyes  of 
ignorant  people.  But  why,  indeed,  should  we  believe,  and  believe  on 
principle,  that  a  science  explaining  the  laws  of  mechanics,  physics  and 
other  natural  phenomena,  is  bound  to  be  simple  or  can  be  simple? 

To  confirm  such  an  opinion,  Descartes  feels  compelled  to  build  an 
elaborate  metaphysical  system  which,  according  to  philosophy,  is  now 
a  thing  of  the  past  As  a  scientist,  however,  we  may  think  that 
Descartes  was  right;  for  the  conception  of  science,  which,  after  numy 
trials,  mankind  has  finally  reached,  seems  to  vindicate  his  statement 
Not  that  science  will  be  just  as  simple  as  Descartes  thought  But  we 
have  come  to  regard  science  largely  as  an  arbitrary  construction  which 
justifies  its  course  and  its  hypotheses  chiefly  by  being  convenient  and 
simple. 

The  second  characteristic  of  Cartesian  science  is  that  it  will  not 
be,  in  any  respect,  a  collection  of  data  or  propositions.  As  we  don't 
know  beforehand  what  data,  what  deductions,  what  theorems  will  be 
needed  for  future  scientific  or  practical  purposes,  therefore,  Descartes 
would  say,  it  is  quite  useless  to  gather  and  hoard  such  commodities  in 
advance.  What  we  need  is  a  method  which  will  give  us  the  power  to 
get  the  data  and  to  get  the  propositions  as  soon  as  we  require  them. 


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440  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

A  third  fundamental  cfaaracteriatic  of  science — ^which  is  not  ex- 
plicitly defined  by  Descartes  himself,  but  follows  from  his  concep- 
tions— ^relates  to  the  sort  of  work  which  the  scientist  of  high  rank  has 
to  accomplish,  and  to  the  special  abilites  that  are  required  of  him. 

Since  the  task  of  the  scientist  does  not  consist  in  piling  up  data  and 
reasonings,  but  in  presenting  a  few  clear,  comprehennve  and  far- 
reaching  notions,  it  follows  that  this  task  will  be  chiefly  one  of  choice 
and  discrimination.  Not  all  the  things  that  are  true  are  useful  and 
worth  saying,  but  only  a  few,  which  the  intelligent  man  has  to  pick  out 
and  to  discriminate 

How  will  such  a  discrimination  be  carried  out?  There  is  no  ready 
answer  to  this.  The  question  is  one  for  intuition,  for  intelligence  and 
foresight  to  decide.  To  choose  the  fundamental  notions  or  hypotheses 
on  which  a  scientific  construction  will  be  based,  to  select  a  pUm,  for 
this  construction,  to  find  out  the  tests  which  will  help  to  con^re  the 
construction  with  experiments,  all  this  forms  the  most  delicate  part  of 
the  scientist's  task.  And  the  most  important  part  too.  Between  the 
man  who  is  only  capable  of  deducing  and  combining  ideas  or  data 
and  the  man  capable  of  making  the  right  choice,  there  is  the  difference 
which  divides  scientific  ability  from  genius. 

Let  us  finally  mention  a  fourth  characteristic  of  Cartesian  science, 
which  concerns  its  form,  not  its  contents.  It  is  quite  obvious  that,  if 
a  scientific  system  is  to  be  simple,  comprehensive,  and  built  up  ivith 
discrimination,  the  presentation  of  this  system  will  have  to  offer  cor- 
responding qualities.  It  must  be  brief;  it  must  be  well  ordered;  it 
must  be  expressed  in  precise,  well  chosen  words;  above  all  it  will  be 
dear. 

Boileau  said,  ^ce  que  Ton  congoit  bien  s'enonce  clairement.'^  The 
reverse  is  also  true.  If  an  idea  can  not  be  clearly  worded,  there  is 
ground  to  fear  that  it  is  badly  conceived.  The  fact  that  a  scientific 
statement  is  expressed  clearly  is  the  test  showing  dial  the  statement  is 
sound  in  regard  to  reason  and  is  properly  discriminated. 

A  fine  example,  in  this  respect,  is  set  by  Descartea  himself  in  his 
^H^ometrie,**  a  treatise  which,  just  in  a  few  pages,  lays  the  foundations 
of  analytical  geometry.  Another  beautiful  example  is  found  in 
Pascal's  dissertations  on  hydrodynamics,  which  have  often  been  de- 
scribed as  being  as  many  little  gems.  But  I  can  not  enter  here  into  a 
survey  of  the  results  to  which  the  Cartesian  prindples  have  led.  My 
object  was  simply  to  show  how  these  principles  have  been  introduced 
into  science  and  what  they  do  mean. 

They  were,  as  we  have  seen,  the  natural  outcome  of  the  views  held 
by  the  best  French  scientists  of  a  time  in  which  modem  thou^t 
generally,  and  French  thought  particularly,  began  to  develop  on  new 
and  most  promising  lines.     Descartes  had  a  clear  conception  of  the 


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SCIENCE  IN  FRANCE  441 

type  of  edeace  which  was  wanted  in  his  age.    However,  the  promise 

then  given  of  a  sound  rational  science,  as  opposed  to  a  purely  logical 

or  merely  empirical  science,  was  not  actually  made  good  until  a  much 

more  recent  daite.    If  we  except  pure  mathematics,  or  rather  some  parts 

of  pure  mathematics,  the  system  of  science  on  which  we  rely  today  was 

not  actually  framed,  in  its  present  shape,  before  the  end  of  the  eigh- 

teeoith  century.     Then  it  was  that  the  older  sciences,  like  analysis, 

physics,  chemistry,  were  placed  upon  really  strong  foundations,  while 

biology  and  all  the  new  sciences  were  just  emerging  from  the  chaotic 

state.    The  nineteenth  century  has  justly  been  described  as  the  century 

of  science.    It  is  therefore  of  special  interest  for  the  student  of  French 

civilization  to  see  how  France  has  played  her  part  during  that  most 

remarkable  period. 

•     •     • 

It  was  shoitly  before  1800  that,  after  a  period  of  comparative  stag- 
nation, a  new  revival  of  scientific  thought  became  apparent  in  France. 
Curiously  enough  this  revival  took  place  at  a  time  which  does  not  seem 
at  all  favorable — in  the  midst  of  the  French  revolution  and  the 
Napoleonic  campaign.  This  is  a  strange  coincidence.  But  we  must  re* 
member  that  the  French  scientist  of  Descartes'  class  is  not  bound  to 
be  an  indoor  scholar  or  a  white-bearded  doctor.  For  him,  there  is  no 
contradiction  between  learning  and  life.  Rather  would  he  believe  that 
active  life  is  an  inducement  to  scientific  work,  that  the  great  ex- 
penditure  of  energy  which  comes  from  danger  is  likely  to  give  an  im- 
petus to  science  itself.  So  did  it  happen  that  the  period  about  the 
year  1800  was  one  of  great  scientific  production,  and  tiie  very  men  to 
whom  we  owe  that  production  have  played  a  personal  part  in  the  great 
drama  which  was  then  shaking  France  and  all  Europe. 

A  few  names  will  be  sufficient,  I  think,  to  prove  the  correctness  of 
tiiis  association. 

Lazare  Camot,  bom  in  1753,  was  one  of  the  promoters  of  modem 
geometry.  But,  at  the  same  time,  he  was  an  army  officer  and  a  states- 
man. He  proved  a  most  efficient  minister  of  war.  He  was  one  of  the 
first  to  discover  Napoleon's  ability  and  himself  deserved  the  title  of 
%rganisateur  de  le  victoire." 

Another  member  of  the  Camot  family,  Sadi  Camot,  one  of  the 
founders  of  thermodynamics,  was  also  an  army  officer  engaged  in  active 
service. 

Gaspard  Monge  was  a  great  inventor  in  geometry.  But  he  took  an 
active  part  in  the  Revolution,  was  a  state  minister  and  a  member  of 
Napoleon's  expedition  to  Egypt.  Other  members  of  the  same  expe- 
dition were  Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire,  a  well  known  biologist,  and  Ber- 
thollet,  famous  in  chemistry. 

Fourier,  a  promoter  of  mathematical  physics,  lived  a  most  threat- 


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442  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

ened  life  throughout  the  Revolution.  Lavoisier,  who  is  considered  by 
many  as  the  chief  founder  of  modem  chemistry,  held  various  posts  in 
the  Revolutionary  administration,  and  was  finally  sentenced  by  a 
Revolutionary  court  and  put  to  death. 

Poncelet,  a  most  original  geometer,  was  an  oiEcer  in  Napoleon's 
army  and  made  his  greatest  discoveries  when  a  prisoner  in  Russia. 

Arago,  a  great  astronomer  bom  in  1786,  was  also  a  strenuous  man 
of  action.  Just  when  the  war  was  raging  between  England  and  France, 
he  was  engaged  in  the  measurement  of  a  geodesic  arc  in  Spain  and 
North  Africa.  He  was  taken  prisoner  a  number  of  times  but  always 
managed  to  escape  under  the  most  perilous  circumstances. 

Such  were  the  French  scholars  of  the  beginning  of  the  last  century. 

But  quieter  times  have  come,  and  the  scientist  of  the  Camot  type 
is  now  a  figure  of  the  past.  Occasionally,  to  be  sure,  the  tradition  of 
1800  has  been  renewed.  Not  to  speak  of  a  recent  prime  minister,  there 
are  a  number  of  scientists  who  have  played  an  active  part  in  Frendi 
public  affairs.  Conspicuous  among  them  was  Berthelot,  one  of  the 
founders  of  organic  chemistry,  who  not  only  was  a  senator  and  states- 
man, but  took  personal  interest  in  nearly  all  fields  of  knowledge  and 
action. 

Berthelot's  case  is  however  an  exception.  Scientific  woric  nowadays, 
when  of  the  original  and  creative  kind,  requires  so  much  time,  so  much 
application  and  concentration,  that  it  can  not  be  easily  associated  with 
outside  activities.  The  reverse,  however,  is  not  true.  It  is  quite  feas- 
ible and  most  useful  for  a  man  engaged  in  active  life  to  be  thoroughly 
trained  in  science.  In  this  respect,  at  least,  France  has  preserved  the 
tradition  of  120  years  ago.  To  promote  scientific  thought  among  men 
of  action,  the  great  inventors  of  that  time  had  opened  a  new  school,  the 
Ecole  Polytechnique.  Up  to  the  present  day,  this  school  has  played  an 
important  part  in  the  life  of  the  country;  through  this  institution  and 
others,  the  best  French  engineers,  officers,  administrators,  are  given  a 
scientific  training  of  high  standard  and  many  of  them  thus  develop  a 
turn  of  mind  in  which  we  easily  recognize  the  Cartesian  spirit:  clear- 
ness, preciseness,  a  rigorous  method.  The  scientific  ability,  the  direct- 
ness of  mind  of  the  French'  artillery  officers  has  often  been  praised  dur- 
ing the  war.  It  is  largely  due  to  the  training  and  tradition  of  the  Ecole 
Polytechnique, 

But  let  us  turn  to  the  genuine  research  woric  done  in  France  and 
see  what  remarks  may  be  offered  about  it 

Coming  to  this  point,  I  confess  that  I  feel  somewhat  puzzled.  The 
pure  scientist  of  modem  times  is  not  in  the  least  a  striking  figure.  He 
is  a  simple  man,  living  a  simple  life  in  his  study  or  his  laboratory. 
Many  would  even  suspect  him  of  being  some  kind  of  fossil  with  no 
passion,  no  feeling,  no  human  weakness.    Of  course,  this  suspicion  is 


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SCIENCE  IN  FRANCE  443 

not  correct.  A  mao  who  does  creative  work  is  bound  to  have  passions, 
but  not  of  the  sort  that  break  out  in  every  day  life.  Let  us  try,  however, 
to  discover,  under  the  monotonous  surface  of  his  existence  some 
characteristic  features  of  the  man. 

I  have  already  mentioned  the  fact  that  the  French  tradition,  as 
defined  by  Descartes,  is  strongly  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  the  old  schools 
of  specialists.  The  modem  French  student,  to  be  sure,  is  mostly 
d[>liged  to  specialize.  This  has  become  necessary  if  one  wants  to  do 
useful  work.  But  the  French  student  rather  r^rets  this  restriction  on 
his  activity,  and  he  has  none  of  the  specialist's  tastes  or  manners. 

A  natural  consequence  of  the  specializing  habit  is  the  way  in  which 
followers  of  the  same  line  (the  same  Focft,  as  the  Germans  would  say) 
are  wont  to  associate  together  and  live  a  distinct  life.  In  so  doing 
modern  specialists  are  quite  in  keeping  with  the  old  custonL  The  old 
universities  were  precisely  such  associations  of  learned  men  who  con- 
versed €md  discussed  among  themselves  without  any  regard  for  the 
opinions  of  the  lay  people  outside.  Their  one  aim  was  to  gain  author- 
ity  and  influence  over  their  own  kind.  And  the  ambition  of  every  young 
scholar  in  former  times  was  to  become  a  professor,  a  magistrate  in  his 
turn,  and  to  be  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  docile  followers. 

The  scheme  is  not  altogether  a  bad  one.  Anyone,  I  think,  who  has 
studied  in  one  of  the  older  German  universities  must  admit  that  there, 
at  least,  some  of  the  traditions  of  the  past  have  been  preserved  with 
great  advantages  to  all  concerned.  In  the  quiet  city  of  Gottingen, 
among  the  woods  and  hills  of  the  Hanover  province,  famous  pro- 
fessors, a  few  years  ago,  still  lived  the  same  learned,  methodic  life 
which  their  predecessors  had  led.  They  woiiced  in  close  association 
with  their  students.  They  ate  and  drank  with  them.  They  guided  them 
step  by  step.  And  they  used  to  share  with  them  their  intimate  thoughts, 
their  hopes,  the  difficulties  which  they  met  in  their  own  researdies; 
thus  occasionally  getting  valuable  assistance  from  the  same  young  men 
whom  they  helped  to  get  a  start  in  academic  life.  The  deep  humility 
of  many  a  student  in  such  surroundings,  his  complete  submission  to  his 
master,  were  rather  suiprising  to  the  foreigner;  but  it  can  not  be  denied 
that  the  cooperation  which  such  a  submission  made  possible  was  fol- 
lowed in  many  cases  by  remarkable  results. 

In  France,  however,  the  ways  of  scientists  and  the  conditions  of  uni- 
versity life  are  of  a  diJBPerent  type. 

Like  Descartes,  the  French  student  of  scienee  is  mostly  a  man  with 
an  independent  turn  of  mind.  There  lies  his  strength  as  well  as  his 
weakness.  Working  alone,  and  avoiding  too  frequent  contact  with  his 
fellow-workers,  he  may  thus  have  a  better  chance  to  discover  really 
new  and  unexplored  ways.  He  is  less  exposed  to  the  danger  of  having 
his  vision  obscured  by  tradition,  by  opinions  or  prejudices  of  other 


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444  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

men,  by  the  natural  inclination  to  imitate.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  are  some  kinds  of  work  in  which  a  single-handed  man,  whatever 
be  his  own  resources,  is  not  likely  to  succeed,  in  which  some  sort  of 
cooperation  is  highly  desirable.  This  is  specially  true  of  laboratory 
work,  where  a  long  series  of  delicate  experiments  is  required.  In  this 
respect  many  Frenchmen  will  frankly  admit  that  they  have  often  been 
somewhat  deficient  In  organized  scientific  work,  in  teamwoik,  France 
is  not  as  successful  as  she  mi^t  have  been.  However,  it  should  not  be 
forgotten  that,  so  far,  the  most  original,  the  deepest  discoveries  have 
not  been  obtained  by  teamworL  And  it  is  not  unusual  that  one  single 
man,  in  a  small,  inconvenient  laboratory,  lacking  all  modem  con- 
veniences, will  make  a  striking  discovery.  Such  was  the  case  of  Pasteur 
forty  yeard  ago.    Such'  has  been  the  case  of  the  Curies. 

To  the  individualistic  turn  of  mind  of  the  French  man  of  science  is 
probably  due  the  fact  that  the  intercourse  between  teachers  and  pupils 
is  not  in  French  universities  what  it  is  in  a  place  like  Gottingen. 

We  have  seen  that  Fermat,  Descartes  and  Pascal  were  not  university 
men.  Even  at  the  present  day,  the  French  scientist,  aldiough  he  usuidly 
teaches  in  some  university,  is  not  exactly  the  man  whom  most  people 
would  call  a  professor.  He  does  not  associate  with  his  stud^EiCs  as 
doeely  as  the  typical  teacher  does.  Henri  Poincare,  for  instance,  was 
often  described  as  being  peculiarly  closed  and  inscrutable  to  the  many 
who  came  to  study  under  him.  He  utterly  disliked  to  speak  about  his 
own  work  while  it  was  going  on.  He  believed  that  absolute  concentra- 
tion was  necessary  to  bring  forth  original  thought  and  that  academic 
intercourse,  during  the  period  of  invention,  could  not  but  spoil  the 
process.  This  view,  it  will  be  noticed,  is  in  perfect  agreement  with'  the 
Cartesian  principles.  According  to  the  French  notion  science  is  by  no 
means  the  result  of  addition,  of  accumulation  of  knowledge  and  re- 
seardi.  It  is  an  accomplishm^it  of  reason,  an  act  of  direct  intuitimi, 
which  can  not  be  divided  and  can  not  be  made  easier  by  combining  the 
brains  of  several  people. 

It  would  be,  however,  quite  a  mistake  to  believe  that  Frendi  pro- 
fessors don't  care  to  have  frequent  and  friendly  intercourse  with  their 
students.  Henri  Poincare  was  much  interested  in  beginners.  But  he 
did  not  try  to  impress  his  ideas  upon  them.  He  was  rather  anxious 
to  get  out  of  them  the  ideas  which  they  might  be  forming  in  secret 

French  students,  like  those  of  some  other  countries,  are  rather  fond 
of  criticizing.  They  have  not  too  much  respect  for  their  teachers  and 
sometimes  follow  their  leadership  chiefly  by  taking  opposed  views. 
Now  you  will  find  that  the  French  professor,  as  a  rule,  does  not  try 
to  check  that  tendency.  He  knows  that  there  is  an  exa^eration  in  it, 
which  will  wear  out  with  youth;  but  he  thidcs,  as  Descartes  did,  that  a 
young,  vigorous^  not  too  scholarly  mind,  even  if  it  has  not  yet  hoarded 


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SCIENCE  IN  FRANCE  445 

a  big  amount  of  knowledge,  is  apt  to  fall  upon  new  and  original  ideas 
which  a  more  experienced  man  might  overlook.  He  believes  in  the 
power  of  fresh  minds,  not  hampered  by  erudition,  and  he  does  his  best 
to  stimulate  such  mind». 

The  conditions  which  I  have  described  so  far  as  prevailing  in 
modem  France  relate  chiefly  to  creative  work  and  invention.  Inven- 
tion,  however,  is  only  one  part,  the  most  important  one,  of  scientific 
activity.  Another  part  is  the  presentation  and  explanation  of  the  facts 
and  ideas,  the  making  of  a  system  or  theory. 

What  diall  we  call,  in  science,  a  theory?  This  point  we  touched 
already  when  we  were  discussing  Cartesian  science.  But  it  is  only  in 
recent  years  that  die  meaning  and  purport  of  constructive  dieories 
have  been  distinctly  recognized;  and  Frendi  scientists  and  philosophers 
have  helped  mudi  to  clarify  the  question. 

The  Frendi  idea  is — ^let  us  repeat  it  once  more — that  it  is  less  im« 
poFtant  to  collect  data  than  to  make  a  pertinent  choice  between  them 
and  to  order  and  handle  them  according  to  clear  principles,  well 
reasoned  out.  From  this  it  follows  that  the  French  scientist  is  bound 
to  pay  special  attention  to  the  requirements  and  to  the  merits  of 
theories. 

In  what  respect  may  we  say  that  a  scientific  theory  is  contingent? 
To  what  extent  is  the  theory  a  thing  of  our  ovm  making,  the  result  of 
our  own  discrimination?  To  what  extent,  on  the  other  hand,  is  it  im« 
posed  upon  us  from  the  outside  by  an  external  necessity?  Such  were 
the  problems  which  several  French  thinkers  have  discussed  at  length 
from  the  point  of  view  of  modem  science. 

The  conclusion  reached  was  quite  in  keeping  with  Descartes'  view, 
namely,  that  the  best  science  is  the  one  which  is  most  convenient  and 
simple.  Many  different  systems  of  science  would  be  equally  correct 
(for  instance  non-Euclidean  geometry  is  just  as  true  as  Euclidean 
geometry).  But  only  the  science  which  is  simple  will  be  commendable. 
It  is  not  for  me  to  discuss  these  views  from  the  standpoint  of 
philosophy.  The  metaphysical  questions  which  they  call  forth  may  be 
debatable.  But  the  scientific  conclusions  and  precepts  which  men  like 
Henri  Poincare  cultivate  have  often  been  described  as  a  scientific  form 
of  pragmatism.  This  is  partly,  but  only  partly  tme.  To  describe  that 
position  correctly  we  have  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  Girtesian  concep- 
tions are  still  dominant  in  France.  We  are  trying  to  mould  science  so 
as  to  make  it  simple.  Now  what  does  the  word  ^simple**  mean  here? 
Is  it  exactly  the  same  thing  as  convenient?  Descartes'  answer  to  this 
question  is  based  on  principles  which  don't  satisfy  us  today.  Yet  his 
leading  idea  has  survived;  namely,  that  simplicity  in  science  does  not 
mean  primarily  practical  convenience,  but  rather  means  being  simple 
in  regard  to  reason,  in  regard  to  Cartesian  good  sense.    The  constant 


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446  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

aim  and  preoccupation  of  the  French  scientist,  when  he  makes  up  a 
theory,  will  be  to  take  reason  for  his  guide. 

But  if  we  put  the  matter  so,  one  may  ask,  how  then  shall  we  define 
that  faculty  of  reason  on  which  we  cause  all  science  to  rest?  This 
question  the  modem  scientist  will  not  answer.  It  is  beyond  him.  He 
is  not  as  bold  as  Descartes  and  does  not  venture  to  describe  reason. 
But  he  firmly  believes  that  he  knows  quite  distinctly,  quite  definitely, 
what  a  theory  is  to  be  like  if  it  is  built  in  accordance  with  the  precepts 
of  that  undefined  faculty  of  reason. 

Take,  for  instance,  the  modem  theories  of  physics  as  they  grow  in 
the  hands  of  such  great  scientists  as  Hertz,  Marwell,  Oliver  Lodge,  and 
see  what  becomes  of  the  same  theories  when  they  are  accommodated  to 
French  taste  by  Henri  Poincare,  Duhem,  Langevin  or  Perrin.  You  will 
recognize  at  once  that  the  said  theories  are  distinctly  modified  when 
they  cross  the  borders  of  the  different  countries — ^which  shows  that 
there  is  really  such  a  thing  as  a  national  ideal  in  scientific  construction. 

A  striking  feature  in  the  books  of  many  great  English  scientists  of 
recent  date  is  the  constant  appeal  which  they  choose  to  make  to  ma- 
terial illustration,  to  concrete  images  and  comparisons.  Open  an 
English  treatise  of  electricity,  Pierre  Duhem  used  to  say.  You  will 
be  surprised  to  find  there  constant  talking  about  strings,  ropes,  wheels, 
pulleys,  waterfalls  and  so  on.  It  seems,  indeed,  that  such  comparisons 
and  interpretation  are  a  distinct  help  to  the  English  mind.  It  would 
not  be  quite  so  with  the  French  mind.  The  French  would  think  that 
this  repeated  resorting  to  imagination  is  rather  likely  to  obscure  the 
deep  meaning  of  the  theory. 

Let  us  take,  now,  some  German  treatise  of  the  first  rank  on  the  same 
subject  There  we  find  a  predilection  for  abstract,  logical,  well  de- 
duced constructions  and  mathematical  reckoning.  No  material  illus- 
tration of  the  facts,  no  attempt,  even,  to  justify  the  long  work  except 
when  it  comes  to  be  concluded.  The  peruser  of  the  treatise  is  expected 
to  be  a  disciplined,  docile  sort  of  man  who  will  take  the  trouble  of 
going  through  the  whole,  of  devoting  himself  to  hard  reading  ivith- 
out  knowing  beforehand  where  he  is  tak^i  to  and  why  he  is  asked  to 
go  that  way.  Science,  so  conducted,  b  diiefly  a  formal  systenL  It 
may  finally  lead  to  practical  applications,  but,  all  along  the  way,  you 
don't  know  whether  it  will;  and  the  useful  construction  does  not  differ 
in  form  and  character  from  any  other  which  would  be  useless. 

The  French  point  of  view  in  such  matters  is  somewhat  different.  It 
is  neither  the  English  nor  the  German  standpoint  just  described.  The 
leading  feature,  in  the  presentation  of  a  theory  of  physics  in  France  is 
neither  concrete  interpretation  nor  pure  deduction  and  computation. 

Few  images,  to  avoid  dispersion  of  the  mind,  and  a  logical  ap- 
paratus as  reduced  as  possible,  to  avoid  obscuration  of  the  ideas  by  the 


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SCIENCE  IN  FRANCE  447 

formal  elements  of   deduction.     The  ideas  themselves  as   clear,   as 

obvious,  as  approachable  to  common  sense  as  they  can  be.    Such  will 

be  for  the  French  the  ideal  theory. 

•     •     • 

I  have  tried  to  define,  in  the  preceding  pages,  the  features  which 
seem  to  be  most  apparent  in  the  personality,  the  work  and  the  achieve- 
ments of  French  men  of  science.  To  close  this  article,  I  confess  that  I 
have  no  definite  conclusion  to  offer;  nor  would  it  be  safe  to  synthetise 
any  more  an  account  which  is  already  too  schematic.  In  fact,  real 
conditions  can  not  possibly  be  as  simple  as  one  might  infer  from  this 
account.  The  tendencies  which  I  have  tried  to  point  out  are  often  more 
potential  than  actual  and  only  half — if  at  all — conscious.  The  excep- 
tions, also,  are  numerous,  so  that  any  synthetic  picture,  like  the  one 
I  have  had  in  view,  can  never  be  more  than  partly  true.  But  should 
the  picture,  for  this  reason,  be  dismissed  as  illusory  and  devoid  of  any 
practical  value?  I  don't  think  so.  When  there  is  so  much  talk  about 
exchanging  professors,  students,  ideas,  between  distant  nations,  I  believe 
that  it  may  be  worthwhile  to  emphasize,  even  with  some  exaggeration, 
the  traits  that  are  most  likely  to  affect  a  would-be  visitor  to  a  country. 
This  may  help  to  avoid  misunderstandings.  If  science  ot  the  type 
which  i  have  described  is  to  your  liking,  then  go  to  France  and  you 
will  probably  come  across  some  good  representatives  of  sudi  a  science. 
If  it  disagrees  with  you,  then  stay  at  home  and  be  indulgent 


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448  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  ELECTRICAL  FLUID  THEORIES 
By  Professor  FERNANDO  SANFORD 

STANFORD    UNIVERSITY 

IN  a  previous  paper  an  attempt  was  made  to  show  how  the  hypothesis 
of  an  electric  effluvimn  or  an  electric  atmosphere,  by  means  of 
which  electrified  bodies  were  supposed  to  exert  an  attraction  or  repul- 
sion upon  each  other,  played  a  prominent  part  in  electrical  theory  for 
more  than  150  years.  In  the  meantime  two  kinds  of  electrification  had 
been  discovered,  and  this  discovery  greatly  increased  the  difficulty  of 
finding  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  attraction  and 
repulsion. 

The  discovery  of  electric  induction  by  Stephen  Gray  was  referred 
to  in  the  previous  paper.  This  discovery,  along  with  many  other  im- 
portant electrical  discoveries,  was  made  in  1729.  In  1733,  du  Fay,  a 
French  officer  and  engineer,  who  had  been  repeating  Gray's  experiments, 
conununicated  to  the  Royal  Society  throu^  the  Duke  of  Richmond  the 
first  announcement  of  the  discovery  of  two  kinds  of  electrification,  or, 
as  he  believed,  two  kinds  of  electricity.  This  letter  was  read  before 
the  Royal  Society  and  is  published  in  volume  38  of  the  Philosophical 
Transactions.  In  it  du  Fay  describes  a  number  of  new  electrical  dis- 
coveries which  he  had  made,  some  of  them  very  important,  as,  for  ex- 
ample, the  fact  that  all  solids  when  suitably  insulated  may  be  electrified 
by  friction  or  contact  with  other  bodies.    Then  he  says: 

Chance  has  thrown  in  my  way  another  Principle,  more  universal  and 
remarkable  than  the  preceding  one,  and  which  casts  a  new  Light  on  the  Sub- 
ject of  Electricity.  This  Principle  is,  that  there  are  two  distinct  Electricities, 
very  different  from  one  another;  one  of  which  I  call  vitreous  Electricity, 
and  the  other  resinous  Electricity,  The  first  is  that  of  Glass,  Rock-Crystal, 
Precious  Stones,  Hair  of  Animals,  Wool  and  many  other  Bodies ;  The  second 
is  that  of  Amber,  Copal,  Gum-Lack,  Silk,  Thread,  Paper,  and  a  vast  Number 
of  other  Substances.  The  Characteristick  of  these  two  Electricities  is,  that 
a  Body  of  vitreous  Electricity,  for  Example,  repels  all  such  as  are  of  the 
same  Electricity;  and  on  the  contrary  attracts  all  those  of  the  resinous  Elec- 
tricity; so  that  the  Tube  made  electrical,  will  repel  Glass,  Crystal,  Hair  of 
Animals,  &c.  when  rendered  electrick  and  will  attract  Silk,  Thread,  Paper, 
&c.  though  rendered  electrical  likewise.  Amber,  on  the  contrary  will  attract 
electrick  Glass,  and  other  Substances  of  the  same  Class  and  will  repel  Gum- 
Lac,  Copal,  Silk  Thread,  &c. 

Two  Silk  Ribbons  when  rendered  electrical  will  repel  each  other;  Two 
Woollen  Threads  will  do  the  like,  but  a  Woollen  Thread  and  a  Silk  Thread 
will  mutually  attract  one  another. 


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ORIGIN  OF  THE  ELECTRICAL  FLUID  THEORIES  449 

Du  Fay  justly  regarded  this  newly  discovered  fact  regarding  electrifi- 
cation as  capable  of  explaining  many  electrical  phenomena  which  up  to 
that  time  had  been  incapable  of  explanation.  He  does  not  propose  any 
hypothesis  as  to  the  mechanism  of  attraction  or  repulsion,  nor  does  he 
propose  any  theory  as  to  the  coexistence  of  the  two  kinds  of  electricity 
in  the  same  body  or  have  anything  to  say  about  their  neutralizing  each 
other  when  combined  in  suitable  proportions.  His  part  of  the  two- 
fluid  theory  seems  to  have  been  proposed  by  Robert  Symmer  about  25 
years  later. 

In  1745  a  great  impetus  was  given  to  the  study  of  electrical  phe- 
nomena by  the  discovery  of  the  shock  which  may  be  produced  by  the 
discharge  of  an  electrical  condenser  through  the  body.  This  discovery 
was  first  made  by  Dean  von  Kleist  of  the  Cathedral  of  Camin  in  Pome- 
rania.  Dean  von  Kleist  found  that  he  apparently  could  lead  a  larger 
quantity  of  electricity  down  a  nail  into  a  flask  containing  mercury  or 
alcohol  when  he  held  the  flask  in  his  hand  than  when  it  stood  on  a 
table.  In  trying  to  remove  the  nail  from  the  flask  after  he  had,  as  he 
supposed,  filled  it  with  electricity,  he  received  a  shock.  He  described 
this  experiment  and  his  sensations  on  receiving  the  shock  in  letters  to 
several  scientists  in  Berlin,  Halle  and  elsewhere.  These  men  failed  to 
verify  the  experiment,  perhaps  on  account  of  the  poor  insulating  quality 
of  the  glass  used,  and  none  of  them  seemed  to  attach  much  importance 
to  the  announcement  of  Father  von  Kleist. 

Within  three  months  a  similar  discovery  was  accidentally  made  in 
the  laboratory  of  Peter  van  Musschenbroeck  in  Leyden.  Van  Musschen- 
broeck  was  one  of  the  leading  scientific  men  of  his  day  and  his  dis- 
coveries were  widely  published.  He  communicated  his  discovery  in 
a  letter  to  Reaumur,  in  Paris,  and  it  was  published  in  the  Memoires  of 
the  Academic  in  1746. 

The  letter  to  Reaumur  was  written  in  January,  1746,  and  the  ac- 
count of  the  discovery  which  it  contained  is  given  below  as  translated 
in  Benjamin's  "Intellectual  Rise  of  Electricity." 

I  wish  to  inform  you  of  a  new  but  terrible  experiment,  which  I  advise 
you  on  no  account  personally  to  attempt.  I  am  engaged  in  a  research  to  de- 
termine the  strength  of  Electricity.  With  this  object  I  had  suspended  by 
two  blue  silk  threads,  a  gun  barrel,  which  received  electricity  by  communica- 
tion from  a  glass  globe  which  was  turned  rapidly  on  its  axis  by  one  operator, 
while  another  pressed  his  hand  against  it.  From  the  opposite  end  of  the  gun 
barrel  hung  a  brass  wire,  the  end  ot  which  entered  a  glass  jar,  which  was 
partly  full  of  water.  This  jar  I  held  in  my  right  hand,  while  with  my  left 
I  attempted  to  draw  sparks  from  the  gun  barrel.  Suddenly  I  received  in  my 
right  hand  a  shock  of  such  violence  that  my  whole  body  was  shaken  as  by 
a  lightning  stroke.  The  vessel,  though  of  glass,  was  not  broken,  nor  was  the 
hand  displaced  by  the  commotion;  but  the  arm  and  body  were  affected  in  a 
manner  more  terrible  than  I  can  express.  In  a  word,  I  believed  that  I  was 
done  for. 

VOL.  xni.— 29. 


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450  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

This  ""new  and  terrible  experiment''  of  van  Musschenbroeck's  was 
widely  published,  and  was  repeated  by  scientific  men  all  over  Europe, 
in  many  cases  before  large  audiences.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  scientific 
experiment  ever  created  a  more  profound  interest  with  the  public  to 
whom  it  was  demonstrated  than  did  the  shock  from  van  Musschen- 
broeck's electrified  vial,  and  nothing  ever  seemed  a  greater  mystery 
than  it  did  until  Franklin  proposed  the  explanation  which  is  still  ac- 
cepted. The  apparatus  by  which  the  shock  was  produced  came  to  be 
called  generally  the  Leyden  phial  or  Leyden  jar;  but  in  Germany,  out 
of  consideration  for  Dean  von  Kleist's  discovery,  it  is  called  the 
Kleistschen  Flasche. 

Soon  after  the  announcement  of  van  Musschenbroeck's  discovery, 
Benjamin  Franklin,  of  Philadelphia,  was  presented  with  a  tube  of  flint 
glass  and  was  told  of  some  of  the  wonders  of  electricity  and  the  prop- 
erties of  the  mysterious  flask  by  his  friend,  Peter  Collinson ;  and  he  at 
once  b^an  the  series  of  electrical  experiments,  the  results  of  which 
have  profoundly  modified  all  electrical  theories  from  that  time  until 
the  present,  and  which  seem  destined  to  determine  to  a  large  degree 
the  electrical  theories  of  the  future. 

Franklin's  original  discoveries  were  not  more  nimierous  than  those 
of  Stephen  Gray,  though  he  discovered  the  dOTect  of  points  in  collecting 
or  discharging  electricity,  proved  the  identity  of  atmospheric  and  fric- 
tional  electricity,  discovered  that  bodies  within  a  charged  hollow  con- 
ductor will  take  no  charge  from  the  inner  surface  of  the  charged  con- 
ductor and  explained  the  phenomena  of  the  mysterious  flask  of  von 
Kleist  and  van  Musschenbroeck;  but  Franklin  proposed  a  physical  in- 
terpretation of  the  phenomena  of  electricity  which  received  almost  uni- 
versal acceptance  at  the  time,  and  which  now,  since  several  other 
theories  have  been  tried  and  have  proved  unsatisfactory,  seems  destined 
again  to  become  the  fundamental  theory. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  know  that  the  theory  of  a  single  electric 
fluid  as  the  cause  of  both  kinds  of  electrification  discovered  by  du  Fay 
was  proposed  almost  simultaneously  by  Franklin  in  Philadelphia  and 
by  William  Watson  in  London,  and  from  virtually  the  same  experiment. 
Franklin  announced  his  theory  in  a  letter  to  Peter  Collinson,  dated 
June  1,  1747.  After  speaking  of  two  men  insulated  on  cakes  of  wax 
and  electrifying  themselves,  one  from  rubbing  a  glass  tube  and  the 
other  from  holding  his  knuckles  near  to  the  rubbed  tube,  while  a  third 
man  stands  on  the  floor  near  them,  he  says: 

These  appearances  we  attempt  to  account  for  thus;  We  suppose,  as 
aforesaid,  that  electrical  fire  is  a  common  element,  of  which  every  one  of 
the  three  persons  above  mention  has  his  equal  share  before  any  operation 
is  begun  with  the  tube.  A,  who  stands  on  wax  and  rubs  the  tube,  collects 
the  electrical  fire  from  himself  into  the  glass ;  and  his  communication  with  the 
common  stock  being  cut  off  by  the  wax,  his  body  is  not  again  immediately 


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ORIGIN  OF  THE  ELECTRICAL  FLUID  THEORIES  451 

supplied.  B,  (who  stands  on  wax  likewise)  passing  his  knuckle  along  near 
the  tube,  receives  the  fire  which  was  collected  by  the  glass  from  A;  and  his 
communication  with  the  common  stock  being  likewise  cut  off,  he  retains  the 
additional  quantity  received.  To  C,  standing  on  the  floor,  both  appear  to  be 
electrified:  for  he  having  only  the  middle  quantity  of  electrical  fire,  receives 
a  spark  upon  approaching  B,  who  has  an  over  quantity;  but  gives  one  to  A, 
who  has  an  under  quantity.  If  A  and  B  approach  to  touch  each  other,  the 
spark  is  stronger,  because  the  difference  between  them  is  greater :  after  such 
touch  there  is  no  spark  between  either  of  them  and  C,  because  the  electrical 
fire  in  all  is  reduced  to  the  original  quantity. 

It  may  not  be  without  interest  to  compare  this  concise  explanation 
with  the  much  more  labored  one  proposed  by  Watson  for  the  same 
phenomenon.  Watson  refers  to  an  observation  that  had  been  made 
that  a  man  standing  oh  wax  and  holding  his  hand  on  a  rotating  glass 
globe  could  take  no  appreciable  charge  so  long  as  the  globe  was  in- 
sulated and  held  at  a  distance  from  other  conductors,  but  would  be- 
come charged  if  a  conductor  or  another  person,  either  insulated  or  un- 
insulated, should  draw  off  the  charge  from  the  glass. 

Watson's  discussion  of  this  experiment  is  given  in  Volume  45  of 
the  Philosophical  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society^  and  is,  in  part  as 
follows: 

1.  That  what  we  call  Electricity  is  the  Effect  of  a  very  subtil  and 
elastic  Fluid,  diffused  throughout  all  Bodies  in  Contact  with  the  terraqueous 
Globe  (those  Substances  hitherto  termed  Electrics  per  se  probably  excepted), 
and  everywhere,  in  Its  natural  State  of  the  same  Degree  of  Density. 

2.  That  this  Fluid  manifests  itself  only,  when  Bodies  capable  of  receiv- 
ing more  thereof  than  their  natural  Quantity  are  properly  disposed  for  that 
Purpose;  and  that  then,  by  certain  known  Operations,  its  Effects  shew  them- 
selves by  attracting  and  repelling  light  Substances,  by  a  snapping  Noise, 
Sparks  of  Fire  &c.  directed  towards  other  Bodies,  having  only  their  natural 
Quantity,  or,  at  least,  a  Quantity  less  than  those  Bodies  from  which  the 
Snappings,  &c.  proceed. 

3.  That  no  Snapping  is  observed  in  bringing  any  two  Bodies  near  each 
other,  in  which  the  Electricity  is  of  the  same  Density,  but  only  in  those  Bodies 
in  which  the  Density  of  the  Fluid  is  unequal 

4.  That  this  snapping  is  greater  or  less,  in  proportion  to  the  different 
Densities  of  the  Electricity  in  Bodies  brought  near  each  other,  and  by  which 
Snapping  each  of  them  becomes  of  the  same  Standard. 

5.  That  Glass,  and  other  Bodies  which  we  call  Electrics  per  se,  have 
the  Property  of  taking  this  Fluid  from  one  Body,  and  conveying  it  to  another, 
and  that  in  a  Quantity  sufficient  to  be  obvious  to  all  our  Senses. 

6.  That  in  the  Experiment  in  question,  the  Reason  why  no  Snapping  is 
observed  by  a  Person  upon  the  Floor  touching  him  who  rubs  the  Globe  with 
his  hands  standing  on  Wax,  without  at  the  same  time  some  other  Non-electric 
supported  by  Originally  Electrics,  or  otherwise  being  in  contact  with  the 
Globe,  is  owing  to  whatever  Part  of  this  Man's  natural  Quantity  of  Electricity, 
taken  from  himself  by  the  Globe  in  Motion,  being  restored  to  him  again  by 
the  Globe  in  its  Revolutions;  there  not  being  any  other  Non-electric  near 
enough  to  communicate  the  Electricity  to;  and  therefore,  in  this  Situation, 
the  Electricity  of  the  Man  suffers  no  diminution  of  its  Density. 


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452  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

7.  That  the  fact  is  otherwise,  when  everything  else  being  as  before, 
either  a  Gun-barrel  suspended  in  Silk  Lines,  or  a  Man  supported  by  Wax,  or 
such  like,  is  placed  near  the  Globe  in  Motion;  because  then,  whatever  part 
of  the  Electricity  of  the  Person  rubbing  is  taken  from  him,  is  communicated 
either  to  the  other  Man  or  the  Gun-barrel,  these,  from  their  Situation,  being 
the  first  Non-electrics,  to  which  Electricity  taken  from  the  Person  can  be 
communicated. 

8.  That  under  these  Circumstances,  as  much  Electricity  as  is  taken  from 
the  Person  rubbing  is  given  to  the  other;  by  which  means  the  Electricity 
of  the  first  Man  is  more  rare  than  it  naturally  was,  and  that  of  the  last  Man 
more  dense. 

9.  That  the  Electricity  in  either  of  these  Persons  is  in  a  very  different 
State  of  Density  from  what  it  naturally  was,  or  from  that  of  any  Person 
standing  upon  the  Earth;  this  last  being  in  a  middle  State  between  the  two 
other  Persons;  that  is,  he  has  not  his  Electricity  so  rare  as  the  Man  rubbing 
the  Globe,  nor  so  dense  as  that  of  him  supported  by  Electrics  per  se,  and 
touching  the  Equator  of  the  Globe. 

10.  That  therefore  the  same  Effect,  a  Snapping,  is  observed  upon  bring- 
ing any  Non-electric  near  either  of  these  Persons,  from  very  different 
Causes :  For  it  is  apprehended,  that,  by  bringing  the  Non-electric  near  him, 
whose  Electricity  is  more  rare,  this  Snapping  restores  to  him  what  he  had 
lost;  and  that  by  bringing  it  near  him,  whose  Electricity  is  more  dense,  it 
takes  of  his  Surcharge,  by  which  means  their  original  Quantity  is  restored 
to  each. 

Watson  then  refers  to  the  explanation  of  the  same  phenomenon  by 
Franklin,  with  which  he  had  been  made  acquainted  after  the  presenta- 
tion of  his  paper  to  the  Royal  Society.    Thus  he  says: 

At  this  time  I  am  tne  more  particular  concerning  the  Solution  of  this 
singular  Appearance  as  Mr.  Collinson,  a  worthy  member  of  this  Society,  has 
received  a  Paper  concerning  Electricitjr  from  an  ingenious  Gentleman,  Mr. 
Franklin,  a  Friend  of  his  in  Pennsylvania,  This  Paper,  dated  June  i,  1747, 
I  very  lately  perused,  by  Favour  of  our  most  worthy  President.  Among 
other  curious  Remarks,  there  is  a  like  Solution  of  this  Fact;  for  though  this 
Gentleman's  Experiment  was  made  with  a  Tube  instead  of  a  Globe,  the  Differ- 
ence is  in  no-ways  material.  As  this  Experiment  was  made,  and  the  Solution 
thereof  given  upon  the  other  Side  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  before  this  gentleman 
could  possibly  be  acquainted  with  our  having  observed  the  same  Fact  here, 
and  as  he  seems  very  conversant  in  this  part  of  Natural  Philosophy,  I  take 
the  Liberty  of  laying  before  you  his  own  Words. 

Then  follows  Franklin's  explanation  of  the  experiment  as  we  have 
already  quoted  it. 

Franklin's  theory  of  the  relation  of  electricity  to  material  bodies 
is  more  fully  given  in  a  letter  to  Peter  Collinson  under  date  of  July 
29,  1750,  the  year  of  the  publication  of  Watson's  paper.    He  says: 

i)  The  electrical  matter  consists  of  particles  extremely  subtile,  since 
it  can  permeate  common  matter,  even  the  densest  metals,  with  such  ease  and 
freedom  as  not  to  receive  any  perceptible  resistance. 

2)  If  any  one  should  doubt  whether  the  electrical  matter  passes  through 
the  substance  of  bodies,  or  only  over  or  along  their  surfaces,  a  shock  from  an 
electrified  large  glass  jar,  taken  through  his  own  body,  will  probably  con- 
vince him. 


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ORIGIN  OF  THE  ELECTRICAL  FLUID  THEORIES  453 

3)  Electrical  matter  differs  from  common  matter  in  this,  that  the  parts 
of  the  latter  mutually  attract,  those  of  the  former  mutually  repel  each  other. 
Hence  the  appearing  divergency  in  a  stream  of  electrified  effluvia. 

4)  But  though  the  particles  of  electrical  matter  do  repel  each  other, 
they  are  strongly  attracted  by  all  other  matter. 

Franklin  introduced  the  use  of  the  algebraic  signs  +  and  —  to  in- 
dicate the  electrical  conditions  which  Watson  referred  to  as  denser  or 
rarer  electrical  states.  Thus  a  body  which  contained  a  greater  amount 
of  the  electrical  fluid  than  it  would  contain  if  in  electrical  contact  with 
the  earth  was  said  by  Franklin  to  have  a  -j-  charge,  and  one  which  con- 
tained less  of  the  fluid  than  it  would  naturally  take  from  the  earth  was 
said  to  have  a  —  charge.  From  this  point  of  view,  the  body  with  a  + 
charge  would  give  electricity  to  the  earth  and  a  body  with  a  —  charge 
would  take  electricity  from  the  earth  if  put  into  electrical  contact 
with  it. 

Cavendish  used  the  term  ''pressure"  to  indicate  the  same  idea.  He 
regarded  the  electrical  fluid  in  all  bodies  as  under  an  external  pressure 
and  as  always  flowing  in  the  direction  of  least  pressure.  A  body  with  a 
-f-  charge  would  then  be  one  in  which  the  electrical  fluid  was  under 
greater  pressure  than  in  the  earth,  and  a  body  with  a  —  charge  as  one 
whose  electrical  fluid  was  under  a  less  pressure  than  the  earth's  elec- 
trical fluid.  If  the  electrical  fluid  is  regarded  as  compressible,  as  it 
must  have  been  by  Watson,  the  -)-  condition  would  indicate  both  an 
increased  pressure  and  an  increased  density. 

All  of  these  concepts  assumed  an  electrified  earth,  and,  as  was  shown 
in  the  previous  paper,  it  was  upon  the  assumption  of  an  electrified 
earth  that  Cavendish,  and  probably  Aepinus,  undertook  to  prove  the 
absence  of  an  electrical  atmosphere  about  charged  bodies. 

The  concept  of  an  electrically  neutral  earth  seems  to  be  due  to 
Robert  Synmier,  in  England.  In  1759,  during  Franklin's  residence  in 
England,  Symmer  borrowed  some  electrical  apparatus  from  him  and 
repeated  some  of  his  experiments.  As  a  result  of  these  experiments,  he 
came  to  a  difl'erent  opinion  as  to  the  nature  of  electrification  from  the 
one  proposed  by  Franklin  but  failed  to  convert  Franklin  to  his  point 
of  view. 

In  Volume  51  of  the  Philosophical  TroTisactions  is  a  group  of  four 
papers  by  Symmer  in  which  he  gives  his  reasons  for  believing  in  two 
electrical  fluids.  Of  the  two  principal  arguments  which  he  proposes, 
one  is  derived  from  the  sensation  experienced  when  the  two  coatings  of 
a  weakly  charged  Leyden  jar  are  touched  by  the  fingers  of  one  hand. 
In  this  case,  Symmer  says  the  sensation  is  that  of  a  shock,  or  blow,  upon 
the  fingers  touching  both  coatings  of  the  jar,  with  no  distinction  to 
indicate  that  the  electricity  strikes  from  one  coating  rather  than  from 
the  other. 


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454  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

The  other  argument  is  based  upon  the  fuzzy  appearance  on  both 
sides  of  a  card  or  of  several  sheets  of  paper  of  the  perforation  made  by 
a  single  electric  spark,  ^'indicating  that  the  electric  fluid  has  either  en- 
tered or  left  both  sides,"  and  upon  the  dOTect  of  a  spark  discharge 
through  a  number  of  sheets  of  paper  with  a  sheet  of  tin-foil  between 
them.  In  this  case  the  tin-foil  may  not  be  perforated  and  the  holes 
made  by  the  spark  on  opposite  sides  of  the  tin-foil  may  not  meet  op- 
posite the  same  point  in  the  foil.  In  this  case  there  is  a  little  dent  in 
the  tin-foil  opposite  both  perforations,  indicating  that  the  tin-foil  has 
been  struck  from  opposite  sides  in  the  two  cases. 

After  referring  to  the  apparent  difficulty  of  explaining  these  phe- 
nomena by  a  single  electric  fluid,  Symmer  sums  up  his  cas6  as  follows: 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  my  opinion  that  there  are  two  electrical  fluids 
(or  emanations  of  two  distinct  electrical  powers)  essentially  different  from 
each  other;  that  electricity  does  not  consist  in  the  efflux  and  afflux  of  those 
fluids,  but  in  the  accumulation  of  the  one  or  the  other  in  the  body  electrified; 
or,  in  other  words,  it  consists  in  the  possession  of  a  larger  portion  of  the  one 
or  of  the  other  power,  than  is  requisite  to  maintain  an  even  balance  within 
the  body;  and,  lastly,  that  according  as  the  one  or  the  other  power  prevails, 
the  body  is  electrified  in  one  or  in  another  manner. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Synuner  has  added  to  du  Fay*s  notion  of  two 
electricities  the  assumption  that  all  bodies  in  their  natural  state  possess 
both  kinds  but  in  such  quantities  that  their  individual  effects  are  neu- 
tralized. 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  Franklin  was  ignorant  of  du  Fay's 
discovery  when  he  proposed  his  theory  of  a  single  electric  fluid.  Later, 
his  friend,  Mr.  Kinnersly,  of  Boston,  who  had  taken  part  in  some  of 
Franklin's  work,  made  the  discovery  that  the  electricity  induced  by  the 
friction  of  the  hand  on  a  sulphur  globe  would  discharge  the  electricity 
induced  in  the  same  way  on  a  glass  globe.  Thus,  if  he  charged  a  Ley- 
den  jar  by  sparks  from  a  rubbed  glass  globe  and  then  allowed  a  rubbed 
sulphur  globe  to  spark  into  it,  he  found  that  the  jar  was  first  discharged 
and  then,  if  the  sparking  were  kept  up,  became  charged  again.  He  also 
found  that  the  jar  remained  discharged  if  the  glass  globe  and  the  sul- 
phur globe  were  allowed  to  spark  into  it  at  the  same  time.  This  caused 
him  to  inquire  of  Franklin  whether  the  glass,  or  the  sulphur,  acquired 
a  +  charge  when  rubbed. 

Franklin  concluded  for  several  reasons,  the  most  important  of  which 
seems  to  have  been  the  different  character  of  the  brush  discharge  of  the 
two,  that  glass  took  the  excess  charge  from  the  body  rubbing  it,  while 
sulphur  gave  off  electricity  to  the  rubber.  Thus,  the  brush  discharge 
from  a  positively  electrified  body  is  longer  and  more  diverging  than 
from  a  negatively  electrified  body.  Franklin  also  observed  that  the 
'^electric  wind"  given  off  from  a  point  is  stronger  from  a  body  elec- 
trified from  glass  than  one  electrified  from  sulphur.    He  concluded  for 


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ORIGIN  OF  THE  ELECTRICAL  FLUID  THEORIES  455 

these  reasons  that  the  electric  fluid  was  escaping  from  the  charged  glass 
and  was  being  collected  by  the  charged  sulphur. 

Franklin  did  not  attach  much  importance  to  his  attempted  identifi- 
cation of  the  4~  ^^d  —  electric  conditions.  Priestley  says  that  one 
question  which  greatly  puzzled  Franklin  was  why  negatively  electrified 
bodies  should  repel  each  other,  since  his  theory  was  that  particles  of 
electric  fluid  repel  each  other  while  the  particles  of  material  bodies 
attract  each  other.  It  would  seem  from  these  hypotheses  that  two  bodies 
containing  a  deficiency  of  the  electric  fluid  should  attract  each  other. 

The  opinion  that  the  electric  fluid  is  attracted  by  the  particles  of 
material  bodies  led  to  the  modification  of  Franklin's  theory  by  the  in- 
troduction of  the  assumption  that  the  particles  of  material  bodies,  when 
free  from  electricity,  must  also  repel  each  other.  In  making  this  as- 
sumption, an  important  discovery  made  by  Stephen  Gray  was  seem- 
ingly overlooked,  and  though  this  observation  has  been  repeated  thou- 
sands of  times  it  seems  still  to  be  overlooked  by  most  writers  on  elec- 
trical theory.  Gray  found  that  a  hollow  box  of  wood  when  charged 
seemed  to  take  as  great  a  charge  as  a  solid  block  of  the  same  size,  and 
every  student  of  electricity  now  knows  that  a  hollow  conductor,  no  mat- 
ter how  thin  its  walls,  has  the  same  electric  capacity  as  a  solid  con- 
ductor of  the  same  shape  and  size.  If  the  particles  of  the  electric  fluid 
were  attracted  by  the  particles  of  the  conductor,  this  would  not  be  the 
case. 

The  Franklinian  theory,  even  when  modified  by  the  assumption  of 
a  repulsion  between  the  atoms  of  material  bodies  still  differed  in  im- 
portant respects  from  the  two  fluid  theory  of  du  Fay  and  Symmer,  since 
in  the  latter  theory  in  its  final  form  an  electric  discharge  always  con- 
sisted in  the  passage  of  both  kinds  of  electricity  in  opposite  directions 
between  the  two  conductors.  This  theory  as  it  was  developed  prior  to 
1767  is  described  by  Priestley,  in  his  "History  of  Eleptricity,"  as 
follows: 

To  show  my  absolute  impartiality,  I  shall,  notwithstanding  the  preference 
I  have  given  to  Dr.  Franklin's  theory,  endeavor  to  represent  this  to  as  much 
advantage  as  possible,  and  to  do  it  more  justice  than  has  yet  been  done  to  it, 
even  by  Mr.  Symmer  himself;  who,  as  I  observed  before,  has  fallen  into 
some  mistakes  in  his  application  of  it.  Indeed,  hitherto  very  little  pains  has 
been  taken  with  this  theory,  nor  has  it  been  extended  to  any  great  variety 
of  phenomena. 

Let  us  suppose  then,  that  there  are  two  electric  fluids,  which  have  a  strong 
chymical  affinity  with  each  other,  at  the  same  time  that  the  particles  of  each 
are  as  strongly  repulsive  of  one  another.  Let  us  suppose  these  two  fluids,  in 
some  measure,  equally  attracted  by  all  bodies,  and  existing  in  intimate  union 
in  their  pores,  and  while  they  continue  this  union  to  exhibit  no  mark  of  their 
existence.  Let  us  suppose  that  the  friction  of  any  electric  produces  a  separa- 
tion of  these  two  fluids,  causing  (in  the  usual  method  of  electrifying)  the 
vitreous  electricity  of  the  rubber  to  be  conveyed  to  the  conductor,  and  the 
resinous  electricity  of  the  conductor  to  be  conveyed  to  the  rubber.  The  rub- 
ber will  then  have  a  double  share  of  the  resinous  electricity,  and  the  conductor 
a  double  share  of  the  vitreous;  so  that,  upon  this  hypothesis,  no  substance 


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456  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

whatever  can  have  a  greater  or  less  quantity  of  electric  fluid  at  dififerent 
times;  the  quality  of  it  only  can  be  changed. 

The  two  electric  fluids,  being  thus  separated,  will  begin  to  show  their 
respective  powers,  and  their  eagerness  to  rush  into  reunion  with  one  another. 
With  whichsoever  of  these  fluids  a  number  of  bodies  are  charged,  they  will 
repel  one  another,  they  will  be  attracted  by  all  bodies  which  have  a  less  share 
of  that  particular  fluid  with  which  they  are  loaded,  but  will  be  much  more 
strongly  attracted  by  bodies  which  are  wholly  destitute  of  it,  and  loaded  with 
the  other.    In  this  case  they  will  rush  together  with  great  violence. 

Upon  this  theory,  every  electric  spark  consists  of  both  the  fluids  rushing 
contrary  ways,  and  making  a  double  current  When,  for  instance,  I  present 
my  finger  to  a  conductor  loaded  with  vitreous  electricity,  I  discharge  it  of 
part  of  the  vitreous,  and  return  as  much  of  the  resinous,  which  is  supplied 
to  my  body  from  the  earth.  Thus  both  the  bodies  are  unelectrified,  the  bal- 
ance of  the  two  powers  being  perfectly  restored. 

When  I  present  the  Leyden  phial  to  be  charged,  and,  consequently,  con- 
nect the  coating  of  one  of  its  sides  with  the  rubber,  and  that  of  the  other 
with  the  conductor,  the  vitreous  electricity  of  that  side  which  is  connected 
with  the  conductor  is  transmitted  to  that  which  is  connected  with  the  rubber, 
which  returns  an  equal  quantity  of  its  resinous  electricity;  so  that  all  the 
vitreous  electricity  is  conveyed  to  one  of  the  sides  and  all  the  resinous  to 
the  other.  These  two  fluids,  being  thus  separated,  attract  one  another  very 
strongly  through  the  thin  substance  of  the  intervening  glass,  and  rush  to- 
gether with  great  violence,  whenever  an  opportunity  is  presented,  by  means 
of  proper  conductors.  Sometimes  they  will  force  a  passage  through  the  sub- 
stance of  the  glass  itself;  and,  in  the  meantime,  their  mutual  attraction  is 
stronger  than  any  force  that  can  be  applied  to  draw  away  either  of  the  fluids 
separately. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  the  two  fluid  theory  involves  more  assumptions 
than  does  the  theory  of  a  single  fluid.  In  the  two  fluid  theory  the  notion 
of  combined,  or  neutralized,  electricities  seems  to  be  necessary  to  ac- 
count for  some  of  the  commonest  phenomena  of  electrification.  Max- 
well speaks  of  this  necessity  as  follows: 

The  introduction  of  the  two  fluids  permits  us  to  consider  the  negative 
electrification  of  A  and  the  positive  electrification  of  B  as  the  effect  of  any 
one  of  three  different  processes  which  would  lead  to  the  same  result  We 
have  already  supposed  it  produced  by  the  transfer  of  P  units  of  positive  elec- 
tricity from  A  to  B.  together  with  the  transfer  of  N  units  of  negative  elec- 
tricity from  B  to  A.  But  if  P-^N  units  of  positive  electricity  had  been  trans- 
ferred from  A  to  B,  or  if  P-|-A^  units  of  negative  electricity  had  been  trans- 
ferred from  B  to  A,  the  resulting  "free  electricity"  on  A  and  B  would  have 
been  the  same  as  before,  but  the  quantity  of  "combined  electricity"  in  A 
would  have  been  less  in  the  second  case  and  greater  in  the  third  than  it  was 
in  the  first. 

It  would  appear  therefore,  according  to  this  theory,  that  it  is  possible 
to  alter  not  only  the  amount  of  free  electricity  in  a  body,  but  the  amount  of 
combined  electricity.  But  no  phenomena  have  ever  been  observed  in  elec- 
trified bodies  which  can  be  traced  to  the  varying  amount  of  their  combined 
electricities.  Hence  either  the  combined  electricities  have  no  observable 
properties  or  the  amount  of  the  combined  electricities  is  incapable  of  varia- 
tion. The  first  of  these  alternatives  presents  no  difficulty  to  the  mere  mathe- 
matician, who  attributes  no  properties  to  the  fluids  except  those  of  attraction 
and  repulsion,  for  he  conceives  the  two  fluids  simply  to  annul  one  another, 
like  4-  e  and  —  e,  and  their  combination  to  be  a  true  mathematical  zero.  But 
to  those  who  cannot  use  the  word  fluid  without  thinking  of  a  substance  it  is 
difficult  to  conceive  how  the  combination  of  the  two  fluids  can  have  no  prop- 
erties at  all,  so  that  the  addition  of  more  or  less  of  the  combination  to  a 
body  shall  not  in  any  way  affect  it,  either  by  increasing  its  mass  or  its  weight 
or  altering  some  of  its  other  properties.  Hence  it  has  been  supposed  by  some, 
that  in  every  process  of  electrification  exactly  equal  quantities  of  the  two 
fluids  are  transferred  in  opposite  directions,  so  that  the  total  quantity  of  the 
two  fluids  in  any  body  taken  together  remains  always  the  same.    By  this  new 


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ORIGIN  OF  THE  ELECTRICAL  FLUID  THEORIES  457 

law  they  'contrive  to  save  appearances/  forgetting  that  there  would  have 
been  no  need  of  the  law  except  to  reconcile  the  "Two  Fluids"  theory  with 
facts,  and  to  prevent  it  from  predicting  non-existent  phenomena. 

In  the  one  fluid  theory  as  stated  by  Maxwell  the  notion  of  saturation 
takes  the  place  of  neutralization.    Thus  Maxwell  says: 

If  the  quantity  of  electric  fluid  in  a  body  is  such  that  a  particle  of  the 
fluid  outside  the  body  is  as  much  repelled  by  the  electric  fluid  in  the  body  as 
it  is  attracted  by  the  matter  of  the  body,  the  body  is  said  to  be  saturated. 
If  the  quantity  of  fluid  in  the  body  is  greater  than  that  required  for  satura- 
tion, the  excess  is  called  the  Redundant  fluid  and  the  body  is  said  to  be  Over- 
charged. If  it  is  less,  the  body  is  said  to  be  Undercharged,  and  the  quantity 
of  fluid  which  would  be  required  to  saturate  it  is  sometimes  called  the  De- 
ficient fluid. 

The  Franklinian  theory  as  modified  by  the  addition  of  the  hypothe- 
sis that  the  particles  of  ordinary  matter,  as  well  as  the  particles  of  the 
electric  fluid,  must  be  self  repellent  lasted  well  into  the  19th  Century. 
Its  replacement  by  the  two  fluid  theory  seems  finally  to  have  been  due 
to  its  assumption  of  an  electric  attraction  between  the  particles  of  the 
electric  fluid  and  the  particles  of  material  bodies. 

Thus  Dr.  Thomas  Thomson,  in  his  Outline  Of  The  Sciences  of  Heat 
And  Electricity^  published  in  1830  and  just  before  the  important  work 
of  Faraday,  says: 

The  second  datum,  that  the  electric  fluid  is  attracted  by  matter  with  a 
force  inversely  as  the  square  of  the  distance,  is  also  inconsistent  with  the 
electrical  phenomena.  For  the  quantity  of  electricity  accumulated  in  bodies 
is  always  proportional  to  the  extent  of  their  surface,  and  not  to  the  quantity 
of  matter  in  them,  as  would  be  the  case  if  any  attraction  or  affinity  existed 
between  them.  All  substances,  whatever  their  nature  may  be,  are  capable 
of  receiving  the  same  quantity  of  electricity,  provided  the  extent  of  their  sur- 
faces be  equal.  And,  finally,  it  has  been  shown  that  electricity  accumulates 
only  on  the  surfaces  of  bodies,  and  that  nothing  but  the  pressure  of  the 
ambient  atmosphere  prevents  it  from  making  its  escape. 

This  objection  to  the  single  fluid  theory  seems  valid,  but  it  should 
also  apply  equally  well  to  the  theory  of  two  fluids  when  an  attraction 
is  assumed  between  either,  or  both,  the  fluids  and  the  particles  of  ma- 
terial bodies.  That  is,  this  objection  is  not  more  fatal  to  a  theory  of  a 
single  fluid  than  to  one  of  two  fluids,  and  cannot  be  looked  upon  as  de- 
ciding between  them.  This  fact  seems  to  have  been  implicitly  recog- 
nized by  the  physicists  of  that  day,  since  it  came  to  be  assumed  as  a 
part  of  the  accepted  theory  of  the  day  that  no  attraction  or  affinity  exists 
between  either  of  the  electric  fluids  and  material  bodies. 

But  if  this  be  assumed,  how  may  an  electrified  body  attract  an  un- 
electrified  body?  Or  how  may  two  oppositely  electrified  bodies  attract 
each  other?  This  question  is  asked  and  answered  by  Dr.  Thomson  as 
follows: 

But  if  there  be  no  affinity  or  attraction  between  electricity  and  matter, 
it  may  appear,  at  first  sight,  difficult  to  account  for  the  fact  that  when  bodies 
are  excited,  that  is,  contain  a  super-abundance  of  electricity,  they  attract  or 
repel  each  other  with  forces  varying  inversely  as  the  square  of  the  distance ; 
bodies  having  the  same  kind  of  electricity  repelling,  and  those  having  different 


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458  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

kinds  attracting  each  other.  But  this  apparent  difficulty  admits  of  a  very 
simple  explanation. 

If  we  suppose  two  excited  and  insulated  spheres  placed  at  a  small  dis- 
tance from  each  other,  it  is  obvious  that  the  only  forces  which  can  occasion 
the  motion  of  the  bodies,  are  the  mutual  attraction  or  repulsion  of  the  fluid 
in  the  one,  to  the  fluid  in  the  other.  For  the  repulsions  exercised  by  the 
particles  of  fluid  in  each  body  on  one  another,  can  have  no  effect  in  producing 
a  motion  in  the  center  of  gravity  of  either  body.  If  the  two  spheres  consist 
of  non-conducting  matter,  the  unknown  power  which  gives  them  the  non- 
conducting property,  will  prevent  the  escape  of  the  electricity  from  each. 
Therefore  the  mutual  attractions  and  repulsions  of  the  fluids,  as  they  cannot 
escape  from  the  matter,  may  be  supposed  to  carry  the  matter  along  with  them, 
and  thus  to  cause  the  globes  to  approach  or  recede,  *  according  as  they  are 
charged  with  different  kinds  of  electricity,  or  with  the  same  kind. 

\Vhen  an  excited  conducting  body  is  insulated  the  superinduced  electricity 
forms  a  coating  on  its  surface,  and  (if  we  suppose  the  body  spherical)  the 
thickness  of  this  coating  will  be  everywhere  the  same.  This  electricity 
presses  upon  the  ambient  air,  which  prevents  it  from  making  its  escape.  The 
excited  sphere,  in  consequence  of  this  action  of  the  electricity,  which  is  pro- 
portional to  the  square  of  its  thickness,  will  be  less  pressed  upon  by  the  sur- 
rounding atmosphere,  than  if  it  were  not  excited.  But  as  the  pressure,  though 
diminished,  is  everywhere  equal,  there  will  be  no  tendency  of  the  sphere  to 
move  from  its  place.  Let  us  suppose  the  conducting  sphere  to  be  charged 
with  positive  electricity,  and  let  us  conceive  a  mass  of  sealing  wax  or  gum 
lac,  charged  negatively,  to  approach  it,  a  portion  of  the  combined  electricity 
natural  to  the  sphere,  will  be  decomposed.  The  positive  portion  will  accumu- 
late on  the  surface  of  the  sphere  next  the  mass  of  sealing  wax,  being  at- 
tracted by  its  negative  electricity.  The  superabundant  positive  electricity 
already  in  the  sphere  will  accumulate  at  the  same  surface  for  the  same  reason. 
While  the  decomposed  negative  electricity  will  accumulate  at  the  opposite 
surface  of  the  sphere,  being  repelled  by  the  negative  electricity  of  the  sealing 
wax.  Thus  the  coating  of  electricity  next  the  sealing  wax  will  become  thicker 
than  before,  while  the  coating  at  the  greatest  distance  will  become  thinner. 
Hence  the  electricity  in  the  part  of  the  sphere  next  the  sealing  wax  will  press 
more  upon  the  air  than  before,  while  the  air  will  press  more  than  before  upon 
that  surface  of  the  sphere  which  is  farthest  from  the  sealing  wax.  Both 
of  these  pressures  have  a  tendency  to  cause  the  sphere  to  move  towards  the 
sealing  wax,  and  if  the  weight  of  the  sphere  be  sufficiently  small  it  will  move 
accordingly. 

It  se^ns  impossible  that  any  one  with  even  a  smattering  of  me- 
chanics could  take  the  above  explanation  seriously,  much  less  accept 
it  as  "a  very  simple  explanation,"  but  Dr.  Thomson  evidently  took  it 
seriously,  and  he  proceeded  immediately  after  the  above  quotation  to 
put  it  into  mathematical  form.  And  Dr.  Thomson  was  a  very  eminent 
scientific  man,  professor  of  chemistry  in  Glasgow,  fellow  of  the  Royal 
Societies  of  London  and  Edinburgh  and  member  of  most  of  the  learned 
societies  of  England  and  the  Continent.  It  accordingly  is  probable  that 
this  represents  the  best  explanation  at  that  time  available  of  this  diffi- 
cult electrical  problem. 

De  La  Rive,  in  his  great  treatise  on  Electricity  published  twenty- 
three  years  later,  is  still  wrestling  with  this  problem.  He  still  seemed 
satisfied  with  the  explanation  which  Thomson  had  given  with  regard 
to  insulators,  that  while  their  particles  could  have  no  attraction  for 
electricity,  still  "The  unknown  power  which  gives  them  the  non-con- 
ducting property  will  prevent  the  escape  of  electricity  from  each,"  and 
accordingly  that  they  may  be  pulled  together  by  the  attraction  of  their 


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ORIGIN  OF  THE  ELECTRICAL  FLUID  THEORIES  459 

electric  fluids;  but  in  the  meantime  Becquerel,  Sir  W.  Snow  Harris,  and 
others,  had  repeated  the  discovery  made  one  hundred  years  before  by 
Hauksbee  and  Stephen  Gray  that  electric  attraction  and  repulsion  may 
take  place  in  the  best  air  pump  vacuum.  De  la  Rive,  referring  to  this 
experiment,  says: 

Sir  W.  Snow  Harris  has  observed  that .  the  attractions  and  repulsions 
between  electrifed  bodies  take  placc^  in  vacuo  as  they  do  in  air ;  a  further 
proof  of  the  error  we  should  commit  by  admitting  the  atmospheric  pressure 
to  play  a  part  in  the  phenomena.  This  fact,  on  the  other  hand,  is  very  well 
explained  by  admitting  that  the  electricities  are  retained,  in  the  portions  of 
the  surfaces  where  they  are  distributed,  by  the  insulating  effect  of  the  film 
of  air  that  remains  adjacent,  and  m  no  degree  by  atmospheric  pressure:  once 
retained  at  the  surface  by  this  cause,  as  they  would  have  been  by  a  coating 
of  varnish,  they  are  no  longer  able  to  obey  their  mutual  attraction  or  repul- 
sion, except  by  drawing  with  them  the  bodies  themselves,  if  their  mass  is 
not  too  great.  This  explanation,  even  though  it  should  not  be  based  upon 
observations  made  in  vacuo,  would  seem  to  us  in  every  case  preferable  to 
that  in  which  atmospheric  pressure  is  made  to  intervene;  this  intervention 
being  implicitly  founded  on  a  purely  hypothetical  idea,  namely,  that  electric- 
ity is  a  fluid  of  the  same  kind,  and  about  the  same  tenuity  as  air  and  gases. 

Further,  while  still  believing  that  the  electric  effects  observed  in  vacuo, 
as  well  as  others  no  less  curious,  of  which  we  shall  speak  hereafter,  are  due 
to  the  film  of  air  that  remains  adhering  to  the  surface  of  bodies,  we  by  no 
means  wish  to  pretend  that  conducting  bodies  have  not  for  themselves  the 
property  of  preserving,  or  rather  coercing  on  their  surface  a  certain  dose  of 
electricity,  feeble,  it  is  true,  but  nevertheless  sensible. 

At  the  time  of  writing  of  de  la  Rive's  treatise  the  interest  in  statical 
electrical  phenomena  was  declining,  owing  to  Volta's  discovery  of  the 
electric  current  at  the  end  of  the  18th  century  and  the  brilliant  dis- 
coveries of  Davy  and  Faraday  in  electrochemistry  and  of  Oersted,  Am- 
pere and  Faraday  in  electromagnetic  induction.  The  question  as  to  how 
two  oppositely  electrified  bodies  may  attract  each  other  while  there  is 
no  attraction  between  the  particles  of  the  electric  fluid  and  material 
particles  was  overlooked  for  the  time  being.  Then  the  electric  theory 
of  Faraday  was  at  this  time  coming  to  the  front  in  English  speaking 
countries,  and  from  the  point  of  view  of  this  theory  this  question  could 
have  no  significance,  since  no  electric  fluid  of  any  kind  was  assumed 
in  the  Faraday  theory. 

Since  the  discovery  and  isolation  of  the  electric  fluid  by  J.  J.  Thom- 
son and  his  followers  at  the  close  of  the  19th  century,  the  question  as 
to  what  part  this  fluid  takes  in  the  attraction  or  repulsion  of  electrified 
bodies  has  assumed  its  earlier  importance,  but  the  electrical  theory  of 
the  present  time  is  not  concerned  with  the  physical  interpretation  of 
phenomena,  but  only  with  the  mathematical  statement  of  their  quantita- 
tive relations,  and  all  qualitative  relations  are  being  ignored.  The 
problem  of  the  nature  of  electric  attraction  accordingly  remains  in  the 
hopeless  condition  in  which  it  was  left  by  de  la  Rive. 


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460  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


THE  MIOCENE  SHORE-FISHES  OF  CALIFORNIA 

By  Dr.   DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 

STANFORD  UNIVERSITY 

RECENT  studies  of  the  fossil  fishes  in  the  Miocene  deposits  about 
Los  Angeles  and  at  Lompoc  in  Southern  California,  have  enabled 
us  to  distinguish  about  sixty-five  species  of  bony  fishes,  besides  a  dozen 
or  more  species  of  sharks.  Most  of  the  latter  are  from  the  shales  of 
Kern  County,  north  of  the  Tahachapi  range.  With  the  exception  of 
two  extinct  t3rpes  {Hemiprisds  and  the  so-called  Wodnika)  the  genera 
are  all  still  represented  on  the  coast.  The  present  paper  deals  with 
true  fishes  only  and  these  belonging  to  a  period  roughly  estimated  as 
two  million  years  ago. 

The  study  of  these  fishes  of  California  shows  certain  facts  very 
clearly. 

1.  The  present  fauna  of  California  is  derived  from  it,  with  a  cer- 
tain admixture  from  the  north  and  from  Japan.  In  the  Miocene  fauna 
so  far  as  known  there  are  no  types  characteristic  of  Japan. 

2.  The  Miocene  fauna  is  a  transitional  one,  having  its  roots  in 
the  Eocene  or  Cretaceous.  But  of  neither  of  these  periods  have  repre- 
sentatives been  found  in  Pacific  Coast  deposits  either  in  America  or 
Asia. 

3.  The  Tertiary  fauna  of  California  is  nearly  all  included  in  fam- 
ilies still  extant  on  the  coast.  All  of  the  species  are  distinct  from  their 
living  allies,  and  most  of  them  must  be  placed  in  different  genera. 

4.  The  Miocene  faima  is  plainly  ancestral  to  the  present  one. 

5.  The  most  striking  difference  which  appears  is  that  thus  far  we 
have  found  no  trace  among  the  fossils,  of  the  viviparous  surf -fish  {Em- 
biotocidae)  which  form  so  conspicuous  a  part  in  the  existing  fauna  of 


THYRSOCLES    VELOX    (JORDAN    AND    GILBERT)    RESTORED 


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MIOCENE  SHORE-FISHES  OF  CALIFORNIA  461 


THYRSOCLES    VELOX    (JORDAN    AND    GILBERT)    LOMPOC 
A  Mackerel,  Allied  to  the  Spanish  Mackerel,  Scomberomorus  Maculatus  (Mitchill). 

California,  and  which  should  abound  in  just  the  conditions  in  which 
fossils  have  been  preserved.  As  two  genera  {DUrema  Neoditrema)  of 
this  family,  representing  different  sections,  are  found  in  Japan,  it  is 
possible  that  the  California  surf-fishes  are  of  Asiatic  origin  and  have 
crossed  to  California  in  relatively  recent  times.  Among  the  fossil 
fishes  actually  known  we  find  none  which  suggests  any  affinity  with 
Asiatic  forms.  Most  of  them  are  distinctly  characteristic  of  California, 
a  few  only  belonging  to  types  now  wanting  in  California  but  found  in 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  in  one  or  two  cases  in  the  Mediterranean. 

Besides  the  surf  fishes  there  are  some  other  forms  rare  or  missing 
which  one  might  have  expected  to  find.  Gobies  are  very  scarce  al- 
though species  are  now  abundant  in  all  shallow  waters  along  the  coast 
Sculpins  (Cottidae)  now  extremely  abundant  along  the  coast  are  want- 
ing. As  the  Okhotsk  region  is  their  center  of  distribution,  they  may  be 
late  comers  in  California.  There  are  no  sardines,  anchovies,  or  true 
herring,  the  extremely  numerous  herring-like  forms  being  all  of  ex- 
tinct genera.  We  find  no  blennies,  which  is  also  an  unexpected  fact, 
as  numerous  species  frequent  just  such  small  bays  as  then  occurred  in 
the  Archipelago  about  Los  Angeles.  There  are  also  no  Labroid  fishes, 
forms  which  now  abound  in  the  kelp  banks  outside  the  bays. 

6.  No  species  either  distinctly  tropical  or  distinctly  subarctic  ap- 
pear among  these  Tertiary  fishes.  We  must  therefore  conclude  that  the 
Miocene  temperature  differed  little  from  that  which  obtains  at  present. 

7.  It  is  evident  from  the  absence  in  the  deposits  containing  fishes, 
of  silt  or  other  rain-washed  material,  that  the  climate  was  arid.  In  the 
Lompoc  deposits  of  pure  diatoms  there  is  no  sedimentary  material 
whatever. 

8.  The  localities  in  which  fossil  fishes  have  been  found  are  of 
two  categories: 


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462  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


ZORORHOMBUS    VELIGER.    JORDAN.    (RESTORED) 
A  flounder  allied  to  the  European  brill.     Bothus  rhombus,  L. 

(a)  Shallow  inlets  within  a  group  of  small  islands  scattered  about 
in  the  region  now  comprised  in  the  counties  of  Los  Angeles  and  Orange. 
The  deposits  in  these  little  bays  are  mixed  diatoms  and  fine  clay,  and 
the  individuals  are  all  either  of  species  of  small  size  or  else  the  young 
of  larger  forms.  In  a  few  places  individuals  are  found  in  clay  or  in 
fairly  hard  sandstone,  more  rarely  in  pure  diatoms.  It  is  a  curious 
fact  that  the  species  found  about  Los  Angeles  are  with  the  possible 
exception  of  two  small  fishes  {Lygisma^  Quaesita)  all  different  from 
those  taken  in  the  diatom  beds  at  Lompoc. 

(b)  The  deposits  of  pure  diatoms,  unmixed  with  sand  or  clay,  and 
rarely  showing  other  organisms.  Here  are  found  multitudes  of  fishes, 
a  few  birds  (petrels,  gannets  and  wading  birds)  and  an  occasional  por- 
poise. We  found  no  crustaceans  and  no  echinoderms.  There  are  a  few 
annelids,  in  one  place  a  small  clay  bank  burrowed  fuH  of  holes  by 
Pholadided  or  some  similar  mollusk,  and  in  another  place  a  single  shell 
of  some  species  of  Area,  With  the  diatoms  are  occasional  microscopic 
rhizopods  and  spicules  of  sponges. 

The  Lompoc  deposit  fills  what  was  once  a  small  narrow-moutheif 
or  bottle-shaped  inlet,  on  the  north  side  of  the  Sierra  Santa  Ynez,  the 
backbone  of  Santa  Barbara  County.  Since  these  mountains  rose  from 
the  sea,  this  little  bay  of  Lompoc  became  filled  mdi  diatoms  in  in- 


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MIOCENE  SHORE-FISHES  OF  CALIFORNIA  463 

credible  numbers  to  the  depth  of  1,400  feet.  A  little  stream  having 
eroded  one  side  and  large  cuttings  having  been  made  for  commerciaT 
purposes,  we  may  now  see  a  section  of  the  whole  mass  from  top  to 
bottom.  I  have  elsewhere*  shown  that  a  species  of  herring  (Xyne  grex) 
had  at  one  time  gathered  in  such  numbers  as  to  cover  the  whole  floor 
of  the  bay  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  kinds  of  fish.  This  was  at  a 
level  of  950  feet  above  the  sandstone  and  shales  on  which  the  all  dia- 
tom deposits  rest.  Among  these  millions  on  millions  of  herring  young 
specimens  are  not  found,  all  the  individuals  ranging  from  6  inches  to 
8  inches  in  length,  and  not  a  foot  in  the  whole  four  square  miles  so  far 
as  yet  exposed  has  less  than  eight  or  ten  of  these  fishes.  In  one  single 
place  all  by  themselves  there  is  a  deposit  of  young  herring  two  or 
three  inches  long. 

Dr.  Edward  C.  Franklin  figures  on  data  which  I  have  furnished  that 
there  must  have  been  some  1,200  millions  of  these  herring  and  that  the 
number  of  diatoms  in  the  whole  bay  might  be  represented  by  the  unit 
1  followed  by  at  least  30  ciphers. 

Among  the  herring  we  find  no  other  kinds  of  fish  whatever,  and  the 
question  of  what  caused  the  sudden  death  of  this  vast  multitude  and  the 
sudden  burial  in  clouds  of  white  diatoms  constitutes  a  problem  very 
difficult  to  solve.  The  only  clews  to  the  solution  have  been  offered  by 
Dr.  Albert  Mann,  who  suggests  that  the  great  crowding,  whatever  its 
cause,  may  have  raised  the  temperature  of  the  water,  a  matter  to  which 


ZORORHOMBUS  VELIGER,  JORDAN,  LOlfPOC 

1  "A  Miocene  Catastrophe"  Natural  History,  American  Museum,  New 
York,  XX,  p.  i8,  1920. 


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464  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

herring  are  peculiarly  sensitive.  The  bulk  of  the  other  fishes  found 
are  predatory  forms  which  have  come  to  this  bay  in  search  of  the  her- 
ring. Two  specimens  of  a  large  mackerel  have  herrings  in  their  stom- 
achs. These  various  forms  I  have  described  in  two  papers  written  in 
collaboration  with  Dr.  Gilbert  of  Los  Angeles.  These  are  ^Tossil 
fishes  of  Southern  California"  (David  Starr  Jordan  and  James  Zac- 
cheus  Gilbert),  Stanford  University  Publication,  University  series,  1919 
(Sept.  6)  and  "Fossil  fishes  of  diatom  beds  of  Lompoc"  (Jordan  and 
Gilbert),  1.  c,  1920  (February). 

No  fossil  fish  is  ever  quite  complete — one  part  or  another  is  want- 
ing. Ordinarily  the  head  is  the  least  satisfactory  part.  While  the 
bones  of  the  skeleton  are  picked  clean  by  small  organisms  in  the  sea, 
the  soft  mass  of  the  brain  decays  and  in  rotting  it  disintegrates  the 
bones  which  lie  around  it.  Although  in  most  fishes  the  bones  of  the 
head  are  especially  firm  and  hard,  they  are  very  seldom  preserved  in 
fossil  forms  and  the  student  of  bony  fishes  is  obliged  to  give  his  atten- 
tion to  the  skeleton  and  to  the  neural  and  haemal  structures  which  spring 
from  it.  The  position  of  the  fins  can  be  made  out  from  these  bones, 
but  the  rays  are  usually  broken.  Hence,  however  determined,  there  are 
always  elements  of  doubt  as  to  the  accuracy  and  completeness  of  any 
restoration. 

No  traces  of  sharks  are  found  in  the  diatom  deposits  although  mul- 
titudes of  sharks'  teeth  are  found  in  the  rocks  which  in  other  regions 
overlie  the  deposits  of  diatom.  As  each  living  diatom  contains  a  minute 
droplet  of  oil,  it  is  thought  that  the  great  oil  deposits  of  Southern  Cali- 
fornia may  come  from  these  masses  of  diatoms,  and  it  is  thus  evident 
that  the  abundance  of  sharks'  teeth  may  be  an  indication  of  oil.  This 
is  especially  true  in  Kern  County,  where  sharks'  teeth  exist  in  enormous 
abundance.  It  is  possible  that  the  oil  escapes  to  the  air  in  regions 
where,  as  in  Lompoc,  the  diatom  deposits  are  exposed;  but  where  they 
are  covered  by  later  layers  of  sand  and  shale,  the  oil  has  been  pre- 
served to  our  own  tinie. 


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A  CALIFORNIA  ELK  DRIVE  465 


A  CALIFORNIA  ELK  DRIVE 
By  Dr.   C   HART  MERRIAM 

WASHINGTON.  D.  C. 

CALIFORNIA  enjoys  the  distinction  of  having  within  its  borders  a 
number  of  animals  and  plants  that  do  not  inhabit  other  parts  of 
the  United  States.  Among  these  are  several  giants — the  redwood  of  the 
coast  and  the  bigtree  or  giant  sequoia  of  the  Sierra;  the  great  California 
condor  whose  spread  of  wing  equals  if  it  does  not  exceed  that  of  the 
condor  of  the  Andes;  and  several  species  of  grizzly  bears  culminating 
in  the  huge  Ursus  magister  of  the  Cuyamaca  and  Santa  Ana  Mountains, 
now  believed  to  be  extinct. 

Another  interesting  animal  peculiar  to  the  state,  though  by  no 
means  a  giant  among  its  kind,  is  the  valley  elk  (Cervus  nannodes),  a 
species  now  confined  to  the  south  end  of  the  San  Joaquin  plain  but 
formerly  abundant  throughout  the  Great  Interior  Valley.  Within  the 
memory  of  men  now  living,  large  bands  of  these  elk  inhabited  the  tule 
marshes  and  sloughs  of  Tulare,  Buena  Vista,  and  Kern  Lakes,  and  those 
bordering  the  San  Joaquin  and  Sacramento  Rivers,  but  a  couple  of 
decades  ago  the  handful  of  survivors  had  drifted  south  to  the  southern 
border  of  the  Tulare  plain  and  had  there  made  their  last  stand.  The 
exact  locality  is  the  neighborhood  of  Buena  Vista  Lake,  on  what  is 
known  as  Buttonwillow  Ranch— one  of  the  vast  cattle  ranches  of  the 
Miller  and  Lux  Company. 

Here  they  had  a  measure  of  protection  but  proved  costly  wards, 
making  light  of  the  high  enclosing  fences  and  playing  havoc  with  the 
alfalfa  and  other  crops.  In  the  spring  of  1904,  Miller  and  Lux  offered, 
through  the  Biological  Survey  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  to 
present  the  herd  to  the  Government.  The  offer  was  accepted,  it  being 
agreed  that  the  ranch  owners  should  corral  the  animals.  But  what  to 
do  with  them  was  a  serious  question.  However,  a  location  was  finally 
selected,  on  Middle  Fork  Kaweah  River  within  the  boundaries  of  the 
Sequoia  National  Park,  where,  through  the  courtesy  of  the  Department 
of  the  Interior,  I  was  permitted  to  establish  and  fence  an  elk  park. 

Miller  and  Lux  had  previously  built  a  corral  for  shipping  cattle; 
it  was  on  the  railroad  4  miles  west  of  Buttonwillow  at  a  place  called 
Lokem.  The  plan  was  to  drive  the  elk  into  this  corral,  which  had  been 
strengthened  for  the  purpose  and  had  been  extended  by  the  addition  of 
long  arms  reaching  far  out  on  the  plain. 


VOL.  XIII. -30. 


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466  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

The  country  is  desert,  comprising  broad  stretches  of  bare  alkaline 
clayey  and  sandy  soil,  dotted  at  intevals  with  dull  desert  brush — a  hot 
arid  uninviting  region,  bounded  on  the  south  and  west  by  the  barren 
treeless  foothills  of  the  Templor  and  San  Emidio  Mountains — a  region 
strikingly  unlike  that  inhabited  by  the  elk  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and 
Pacific  Coast. 

There  were,  we  were  told,  three  bands  of  elk:  the  main  band  num- 
bering about  100;  another  of  about  40;  and  an  independent  group  of 
five  very  old  bulls.  The  main  herd,  composed  of  cows,  calves,  two- 
year-olds,  and  a  few  adult  bulls,  had  been  for  some  time  in  the  habit  of 
feeding  nightly  in  an  alfalfa  field  a  few  miles  southwest  of  Button- 
willow;  the  next  largest  bend  ranged  a  little  farther  wesC;  while  the 
small  group  of  very  old  bulls  could  usually  be  found  not  far  away. 

The  plan  was  to  drive  the  main  band  from  their  nightly  feeding 
ground  to  the  corral,  a  distance  of  6^  miles.  The  date  had  been  set 
for  November  12,  1904,  and  riders  of  neighboring  ranches  had  been 
invited  to  take  part.  About  35 — all  expert  vaqueros  and  cattle-ropers — 
had  volunteered.  Some  went  out  the  night  before  and  camped  along 
the  route  of  the  proposed  drive,  but  the  main  body  set  out  from  Button- 
willow  in  the  very  early  morning — long  before  daylight — in  order  to 
get  behind  the  elk,  between  them  and  the  foothills,  while  it  was  still 
dark. 

The  affair  was  in  charge  of  the  superintendent  of  the  ranch, 
James  Ogden,  who  went  with  the  vaqueros  to  personally  direct  the  drive. 


THE    LEADER   OF   THE    HERD 


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A  CALIFORNIA  ELK  DRIVE  467 

They  rode  quietly  to  the  far  side  of  the  alfalfa  field  in  which  the  Elk 
were  feeding  and  waited  for  them  to  come  out.  The  place  is  where  the 
level  Joaquin  plain  ends,  giving  way  to  the  barren  foothills  of  the 
San  Emidio  and  Templor  ranges  that  stretch  away  to  the  south  and 
west.  The  riders  were  expected  to  prevent  the  elk  from  entering  the 
hills  and  to  drive  them  slowly  to  the  corral. 

I  did  not  take  part  in  the  drive,  but  accompanied  by  my  then 
assistant  E.  W.  Nelson  (now  chief  of  the  Biological  Survey) ,  went  direct 
to  the  corral  and  waited.  We  had  arranged  to  photograph  the  incoming 
elk,  and  were  also  charged  with  the  duty  of  keeping  the  onlookers  from 
crowding  forward  and  frightening  the  approaching  animals.  While 
waiting,  we  saw  from  time  to  time  moving  patches  of  dust;  they  ap- 
peared in  various  directions,  all  heading  toward  the  corral,  and  were 
caused  by  persons  from  distant  ranches  riding  in  to  witness  the  drive. 
Some  came  on  horseback,  some  in  buggies,  some  in  heavy  ranch 
wagons. 

Suddenly,  far  away  to  the  southeast,  a  very  different  cloud  ap- 
peared; it  was  a  broad  low  sheet  of  dust  moving  steadily  westward, 
obvioufily  coming  nearer.  Instantly  all  eyes  were  strained.  One  man 
climbed  the  water  tank,  from  which  point  of  vantage  he  called  out  that 
he  could  distinctly  see  elk  in  the  front  of  the  moving  dust.  Our  spirits 
rose;  all  was  excitement  at  the  corral.  Then,  the  dust  vanished — ^almost 
as  suddenly  as  it  had  appeared — and  we  saw  it  no  more. 

In  the  course  of  an  hour  a  rider  arrived  with  the  depressing  news 
that  the  elk  had  broken  for  the  hills  and  could  not  be  turned;  they  had 
charged  the  line  of  oncoming  vaqueros,  had  pu^ed  on  between  the 
horsemen  and  escaped  to  the  hills.  A  few  had  been  pursued,  roped, 
and  ^hog-tied',  and  a  horseman  had  been  sent  to  the  ranch  for  wagons 
to  bring  them  in. 

After  a  long  wait  the  first  wagon  arrived,  drawn  by  six  horses.  On 
its  broad  platform  were  three  elk,  flat  on  their  sides,  each  with  all 
four  legs  lashed  together.  There  was  an  old  bull  )vith  large  antlers, 
battered  and  broken  from  much  fighting,  a  two-year-old  bull  with  long 
spike-horns,  and  a  calf  about  two  thirds  grown.  They  had  been  in- 
jured in  the  beginning,  in  the  roping  and  violent  fighting  before  they 
were  thrown  and  tied,  and  during  subsequent  struggles  had  beaten  their 
heads  against  the  hard  floor  boards  of  the  dead-ax  wagon.  The  calf 
was  already  dead;  the  others  were  nearly  paralyzed  from  lying  so  long 
in  one  position  in  the  hot  sun. 

The  wagon  was  driven  into  the  corral,  where  the  two  live  elk  were 
seized,  carried,  and  dragged  into  one  of  the  enclosures.  Then  the  ropes 
binding  their  feet  were  loosed  and  the  gates  closed. 

The  animals  had  great  difficulty  in  getting  up  and  still  more  in 


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468  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


ARRIVING   AT   THE   CORRAL.    "HOG-TIED" 

standing  after  they  were  up,  and  were  some  time  in  recovering  the  use 
of  their  legs. 

Nevertheless,  the  old  bull  did  things  that  amazed  the  onlookers. 
When  roped  he  had  fought  so  furiously  that  the  skill  and  agility  of  the 
vaquero  were  taxed  to  the  utmost  to  save  himself  and  his  horse  from  a 
bloody  death.  And  when  in  the  corral,  no  sooner  were  the  ropes  cut 
than  the  bull  charged  with  such  earnestness — in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
he  was  unable  to  stand  still  on  his  feet — ^that  the  men  were  obliged  to 
«9cape  over  the  fence  with  the  utmost  promptness.  He  was  *game'  from 
the  start,  and  never  for  an  instant  relaxed  his  determination  to  fight 
every  animate  thing  within  reach.  Discovering  the  spike-horn  bull, 
whose  fetters  had  been  loosed  simultaneously  with  his  own,  leaning 
against  the  corral  fence  near  by,  he  instantly  lowered  his  head  and 
•charged,  driving  his  strongly  curved  brow-tines  into  the  side  of  the 
younger  animal,  which  soon  began  to  bleed  at  the  mouth  and  nose,  and 
later  died.  The  old  bull,  although  for  some  time  unable  to  walk,  or 
even  to  stand  erect  without  leaning  against  the  corral,  was  nevertheless 
able  to  make  sudden  rushes  at  those  who  were  bold  enough  to  enter  the 
•enclosure  or  to  sit  on  the  nearby  fence.  To  prevent  further  harm  he 
was  again  roped  and  stretched,  and  his  horns  were  sawed  off  close  to  his 
head.  This  was  intended  to  break  his  spirit  and  render  him  easy  to 
manage,  but  as  subsequent  events  proved,  it  had  no  such  effect. 

Shortly  after  noon  the  second  wagon  was  seen  approaching.  It  had 
teen  obliged  to  travel  a  long  distance  over  the  dry  hills  to  pick  up  the 
ividely  scattered  elk,  of  which  it  brought  five — an  old  cow,  a  two-year- 


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A  CALIFORNIA  ELK  DRIVE  46» 


SAWINt   OFF    HIS    HORNS    IN   THE    CORRAL 


old  bull,  a  cow  calf,  and  two  bull  calves.  Three  of  these  were  already 
dead,  only  the  cow  and  one  of  the  bull  calves  reaching  the  corral  alive. 
This  made  8  elk  at  the  corral,  4  alive  and  4  dead.^  Of  the  4  living,  it 
will  be  remembered  that  one — ^the  spike-horn  buck — ^had  already  re- 
ceived a  mortal  wound.  The  cow,  calf,  and  wounded  spike-horn  were 
moved  from  the  corral  compartments  to  the  middle  passage  and  thence 
through  the  narrow  chute  into  a  cattle  car,  which  had  been  brought  for 
the  purpose.  This  was  accomplished  without  serious  difficulty.  But 
with  the  old  bull  the  case  was  very  different.  He  stubbornly  refused 
to  be  either  led  or  driven,  and  in  spite  of  his  hornless  condition  and 
the  weakness  of  his  legs,  no  one  could  be  found  who  was  willing  to 
enter  his  compartment  to  argue  with  him  at  close  quarters.  His  ag- 
gressive attitude  continued  and  his  face  wore  an  expression  of  defiant 
ra^^e.  When  any  one  approached,  he  dilated  his  nostrils,  gritted  his 
teeth,  and  uttered  a  low  expiratory  snort — the  only  noise  he  ever  made. 
Volunteers  were  called  for,  but  no  one  responded.  A  hundred  men, 
including  the  best  riders  and  boldest  vaqueros  of  the  Joaquin,  were 
gathered  at  the  fence,  but  no  one  pressed  forward  to  try  his  mettle  with 
the  hornless  bull.  Then  Ogden,  the  superintendent,  turning  to  his  head 
vaquero,  Billy  Woodruff,  asked  if  he  was  afraid  to  go  in  and  get  that 
elk  out.    Woodruff  replied  that  if  he  could  ride  his  horse  in  he  would 

^  The  skins  and  skulls  of  the  elk  that  died  during  the  drive  were  pre- 
served and  sent  to  the  Biological  Survey  and  are  now  in  the  U.  S.  National 
Museum.  They  proved  to  be  a  new  species, 'which  because  of  its  relatively 
small  size  I  named  Cerzms  uannodcs. — Proc.  Biological  Soc.  Washington,  Vol. 
l8,  pp.  24-25,  Feb.  2,  1905. 


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470  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

do  it,  whereupon  he  swung  himself  into  the  saddle  and  rode  through 
the  gate. 

The  scene  that  followed  is  not  likely  to  be  forgotten  by  any  who 
witnessed  it.  WoodrufiTs  horse  was  a  magnificent  animal — ^nearly 
black,  large,  broad-chested,  powerful — experienced  and  daring  in 
everything  relating  to  the  .roping  and  handling  of  cattle.  From  first 
to  last  he  and  his  rider  moved  as  if  impelled  by  a  single  purpose. 
There  seemed  to  be  no  attempt  to  guide  on  the  part  of  the  man,  and  no 
attempt  at  independent  action  on  the  part  of  the  horse — ^they  were  one, 
not  two.  The  instant  the  horse  entered  the  enclosure  it  was  evident  to 
everyone  that  he  not  only  understood  his  master,  but  also  that  he 
thoroughly  understood  the  business  he  was  there  for.  He,  as  well  as 
the  onlookers,  knew  that  he  was  there  to  get  that  elk  out  of  the  corral. 
But  no  sooner  had  he  entered  the  gate  than  the  bull,  who  by  this  time 
had  regained  the  use  of  his  legs,  met  him  with  a  fierce  charge,  striking 
him  full  in  the  breast  with  the  butts  of  his  sawed-off  horns.  The  horse 
received  the  shock  without  a  tremor  and  took  in  the  situation  at  a 
glance.  As  the  elk  backed  for  a  second  charg#the  horse  sprang  for- 
ward and  crowded  him  back  to  prevent  him  from  getting  leeway  for 
another  rush.  By  force  of  greater  weight  the  horse  pressed  his  ad- 
versary to  the  fence  and  tried  to  push  him  out  through  the  corral  gate. 
But  the  elk  stubbornly  refused  to  go,  and  in  spite  of  inferior  size 
punished  the  horse  so  severely  that  it  is  a  marvel  he  didn't  break  and 
run.  The  elk  was  an  experienced,  aggressive,  and  expert  fighter;  his 
strength,  activity  and  quickness  were  amazing,  and  the  way  he  rained 
fearful  blows  on  that  horse  was  painful  to  behold.  By  turning  and 
slipping  a  little  to  one  side  he  managed  repeatedly  to  swing  his  head 
so  as  to  strike  the  horse  in  the  ribs  and  with  the  stubs  of  his  horns  to 
tear  and  fray  the  fenders  and  sweat  leathers  of  the  saddle.  Once  he 
hit  the  rider  a  glancing  blow  on  the  leg  which  nearly  broke  it.  The 
horse  tried  hard  to  receive  the  attacks  on  his  breast,  and  did  so  when- 
ever possible,  never  for  an  instant  relaxing  his  efforts  to  crowd  the 
animal  out  of  the  corral;  but  the  elk,  taking  advantage  of  the  corners, 
<;ould  not  be  forced  out. 

Finally,  realizing  the  hopelessness  of  further  attempts  at  crowding, 
Woodruff  and  the  horse  tried  a  new  dodge.  They  backed  slowly  out  to 
and  through  the  open  gate.  This  gave  the  elk  the  opportunity  he  had 
all  along  sought  of  getting  a  running  start  for  his  blows,  with  nothing 
to  intercept  or  lessen  their  force,  and  he  availed  himself  of  it  to  the 
utmost.  For  a  distance  of  thirty  or  forty  feet  the  brave  horse  backed 
slowly  to  the  gate,  receiving  terrible  punishment  from  the  sledge- 
hammer-like blows,  which  he  received  full  on  the  breast.  In  this  way 
the  old  bull  was  slowly  enticed  to  the  open  gateway,  where,  as  if  realiz- 
ing the  trick,  he  suddenly  stopped.      But  it  was  too   late.     The   gate 


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A  CALIFORNIA  ELK  DRIVE  471 

opened  in,  and  at  this  moment  several  men  who  had  been  watching 
from  the  top  of  the  fence,  dropped  down  quickly  behind  the  gate  and 
by  a  united  effort  pushed  it  shut,  thus  crowding  the  elk  out  into  the 
narrow  middle  passage,  where  the  battle  was  immediately  resumed. 
Here  the  absence  of  comers  and  angles  in  which  the  elk  could  gain  a 
purchase  soon  told  in  favor  of  the  horse,  who,  straining  every  muscle, 
forced  his  adversary  into  the  narrowing  chute  that  led  to  the  car. 
But  even  now  the  elk  had  no  thought  of  giving  in.  Once,  by  a  tre- 
mendous effort,  he  rose  up  under  the  horse's  breast  and  actually  lifted 
the  heavy  animal  off  his  fore  feet.  Then  the  horse,  recovering,  lowered 
his  broad  breast  against  the  elk  and  by  a  swift  and  powerful  rush 
pushed  him  backward  through  the  narrow  chute  to  the  open  door  of  the 
car.  Here  the  elk,  finding  himself  unable  to  stand  against  the  force 
that  was  driving  him  backward,  and  unable  to  see  where  he  was  being 
carried,  whirled  and  sprang  into  the  car.  The  shout  that  burst  from  the 
throats  of  the  onlookers  was  in  appreciation  of  the  achievement  of 
Woodruff  and  his  splendid  n\punt;  while  a  second  shout  voiced  admira- 
tion for  the  undaunted  valor  of  the  poor  old  bull  who,  against  such 
tremendous  odds,  had  fought  to  the  very  last. 

After  all  the  elk  had  been  brought  in,  the  vaqueros  and  spectators, 
about  a  hundred  in  all,  were  treated  by  Ogden  to  a  barbecue  lunch. 
Half  a  beef  and  some  elk  meat  had  been  roasted  over  coals  in  a  long 
trench,  a  huge  pot  of  coffee  was  boiled,  and  there  was  bread  enough  for 
all. 

The  vaqueros  had  many  tales  to  tell  of  the  events  of  the  chase,  the 
main  facts  of  which  appear  to  be:  At  early  daybreak  a  small  bunch 
of  bull  elk  with  antlers  came  out  of  the  alfalfa  field,  ran  off  to  the 
westward  and  were  not  again  seen.  A  little  later  the  main  band  ap- 
peared. Their  numbers  were,  variously  estimated  at  from  85  to  105. 
They  consisted  mainly  of  cows,  calves,  and  two-year-old  males  -with 
spike-horns.  There  were  only  two,  or  at  most  three,  adult  males  with 
branching  antlers.  The  herd  set  out  in  a  northwesterly  direction  along 
an  old  channel  of  Kern  River,  going  toward  the  corral.  The  riders 
were  behind,  between  them  and  the  Templor  foothills.  The  elk  moved 
off  on  an  easy  trot — a  pace  that  made  it  necessary  for  the  horses  to 
strike  a  lively  gait  to  keep  up.  For  two  or  three  miles  the  elk  held  their 
course  toward  the  corral  and  the  riders  began  to  think  it  would  be 
an  easy  matter  to  drive  them  in.  Then  suddenly,  and  without  apparent 
cause,  the  band  turned  abruptly  to  the  left  and  made  for  the  hills. 
This  brought  them  face  to  face  with  the  riders,  who  had  kept  a  parallel 
course.  The  men  shouted,  threw  up  their  arms,  and  bore  down  upon 
the  rapidly  approaching  elk,  but  the  elk  paid  absolutely  no  attention 
to  them  and  continued  their  course  to  the  hills.  When  the  two  forces 
met,  the  elk  passed  between  the  horses,  some  so  close  that  the  horsemen 


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472  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


TAKING  ELK  TO  THE  PARK.  NOVEMBER.  1914 

were  obliged  to  get  out  of  the  way  to  escape  injury — for  the  bulls  with 
horns  were  exceedingly  dangerous  and  could  not  be  closely  approached 
without  risking  the  lives  of  the  horses.  But  most  of  the  animals  were 
temales  and  young. 

Finding  it  impossible  to  drive  the  elk,  several  of  the  vaqueros 
yielded  to  temptation,  gave  chase  to  an  individual  animal,  overtook  it^ 
kept  it  alongside  for  some  distance,  crowding  it  with  the  horse,  hitting 
it  repeatedly  with  the  riata,  or  even  in  some  cases  kicking  it,  in  a 
futile  effort  to  turn  it  back,  and  finally,  in  sheer  desperation,  roping  it 
The  two  adult  bulls  with  branching  antlers,  two  spike  bucks,  a  cow  and 
several  calves  were  lassooed,  thrown,  "hog-tied" — the  front  and  hind 
legs  lashed  firmly  together — and  left  on  the  ground  to  be  picked  up 
later  by  the  wagons.  One  of  the  old  bulls  was  so  far  away  that  the 
wagons  did  not  reach  him  at  all,  and  later  a  horseman  was  sent  to 
liberate  him.  The  other — the  first  one  roped — was  the  terrible  fighter 
already  mentioned  at  the  corral.  He  was  believed  to  be  the  leader  of 
the  band  and  obviously  had  earned  the  distinction.  From  first  to  last 
he  had  shown  no  fear  and  had  fought  every  living  thing  within  reach. 

The  car  containing  the  four  elk  was  taken  to  Exeter,  whence  the 
animals  had  to  be  hauled  by  wagon  35  miles  to  the  park.  The  wounded 
spike-horn  and  the  old  cow  had  died,  leaving  only  the  old  bull  and  the 
calf. 

In  anticipation  of  the  moving,  three  huge  and  very  strong  wagon- 
crates  had  been  built,  each  to  be  hauled  by  a  six  mule  team.  Each 
crate  was  divided  into  six  compartments,  separated  by  gates  that  could 
be  lifted  up  between  solid  uprights;  and  the  rear  end  also  had  been 
made  a  sliding  gate. 


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A  CALIFORNIA  ELK  DRIVE  473 

When  the  car  containing  the  elk  arrived  at  Exeter,  one  of  the 
wagons  was  backed  up  against  it  and  so  placed  that  the  elk  could  step 
directly  from  the  car  into  the  cage.  The  calf  did  this  promptly,  but  the 
old  bull  declined  to  enter.  While  in  transit  he  had  fought  and  butted 
and  kicked  until  he  had  splintered  several  of  the  side  boards  of  the 
car.  A  half  barrel  of  water  that  had  been  put  into  the  car  stood  in 
the  doorway.  By  means  of  a  pole  it  was  upset  and  pushed  to  one  side. 
No  sooner  had  this  been  done  than  the  elk,  seeing  it  in  a  new  position, 
charged  and  dealt  it  a  resounding  blow  that  sent  it  rolling  over  the 
floor.  This  evidently  pleased  him,  for  arching  his  back  and  leaping 
forward  he  struck  it  again  and  again,  making  a  great  noise,  and  fol- 
lowed it  around  the  car,  butting  it  furiously  as  if  it  were  the  cause  of 
all  his  trouble. 

Finally,  after  repeated  efforts  to  drive  him  out  had  failed,  a  rope 
operated  by  long  poles  was  slipped  over  his  neck,  he  was  dragged 
through  the  open  door  into  the  crate  and  the  two  rear  gates  were  closed 
behind  him.  This  enraged  him  still  more  and  he  attacked  the  crate  with 
vigor,  butting  furiously  in  one  spot  until  the  boards  began  to  give  way. 
Meanwhile  the  men  on  top  of  the  crate  suceeded  in  forcing  down  the 
gates  inmoediately  in  front  and  behind  him,  so  that  he  was  confined  in 
a  narrow  cell  only  two  feet  in  width.  Finding  that  he  could  no  longer 
butt,  having  no  room  to  swing  his  head,  he  at  once  began  to  kick  and 
kept  on  kicking,  dealing  the  boards  behind  him  a  series  of  rapid  sledge- 
hammer blows  until  it  was  evident  that  they  would  soon  be  reduced 


CALF  ELK  AFTER  ARRIVING  AT  THE  ELK  PARK 


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474  IHE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

to  splinters.  When  he  had  kicked  as  long  as  he  could  with  one  foot, 
he  would  change  and  kick  with  the  other.  The  force  and  rapidity  of 
the  blows  were  astonishing;  it  seemed  incredible  that  his  strength  could 
hold  out  so  long. 

When  the  wagon  reached  Lemon  Cove  (a  distance  of  12  miles)  the 
constant  kicking  had  so  demoralized  the  crate  that  it  had  to  be  taken 
to  a  blacksmith  shop  for  repairs.  An  old  ranch  gate  was  secured  and 
roped  on  the  outside,  and  the  crate  was  further  strengthened  by  addi- 
tional iron  bolts.  When  Three  Rivers  was  reached  at  9  in  the  evening, 
still  other  repairs  were  necessary,  and  a  halt  was  made  for  the  ni^t 
In  the  morning  the  driver,  who  had  laid  his  bed  close  to  the  wagon, 
announced  that  the  elk  had  kicked  all  night,  never  resting  more  than 
five  minutes  at  a  time. 

After  again  repairing  the  crate  we  set  out  for  the  park,  still  12  miles 
distant.  Arriving  at  the  enclosure,  the  wagon  was  driven  through  the 
gate  and  turned  around,  facing  the  entrance;  the  horses  were  taken  out, 
and  holes  were  dug  for  the  hind  wheels  in  order  to  let  the  wagon  bed 
down  to  the  level  of  the  ground.  Then  the  rear  gates  were  lifted,  giving 
the  calf  his  liberty.  He  was  not  at  all  afraid  and  at  once  ate  grass 
from  my  hand.  But  he  did  not  like  the  looks  of  the  bull  and  soon 
climbed  a  nearby  hill.  Then  the  other  gates  were  raised,  giving  the 
bull  an  opportunity  to  step  out.  For  the  first  time  since  his  capture 
he  did  what  was  wanted;  he  voluntarily  crept  to  the  rear  of  the  wagon 
and  hobbled  out  on  the  ground.  Looking  around  for  an  enemy  to 
attack  and  not  seeing  any — some  of  the  men  having  stationed  them- 
selves outside  the  park  fence,  the  others  on  top  of  the  crate — ^he  set 
out  for  the  river,  only  a  few  rods  away.  His  courage  had  not  forsaken 
him,  but  his  strength  had;  he  was  no  longer  the  proud  aggressive 
wild  beast  he  had  been.  He  had  reached  his  limit.  The  terrible  ordeal 
he  had  been  through:  the  struggle  incident  to  his  capture;  the  rough 
hot  ride  to  the  corral,  hog-tied,  on  the  hard  floor  of  the  dead-ax  wagon; 
the  outbursts  of  passion  in  the  corral;  the  fighting  and  second  roping 
in  connection  with  the  sawing  off  of  his  horns;  the  battle  with  the  big 
horse;  the  ceaseless  violence  of  his  destructive  assaults  first  in  the  car, 
then  in  the  crate,  continued  for  three  days  and  nights,  had  finally  under- 
mined even  his  iron  frame,  so  when  at  last  he  found  himself  free  on  the 
ground  he  presented  a  truly  pitiful  picture.  With  his  head  bent  to  one 
side  and  back  curved,  with  one  ear  up  and  the  other  down,  and  with  a 
dejected  helpless  expression  on  his  face,  he  hobbled  wearily  away, 
barely  able  to  step  without  falling.  Slowly  he  made  his  way  to  the 
river,  waded  in,  drank,  crossed  to  the  far  side,  staggered  laboriously 
up  the  low  bank,  and  lay  down.  The  next  day  he  was  found  in  the 
same  spot — dead. 

Profiting  by  the  failure  to  drive  the  elk  into  the  corral  in  1904,  Mr. 


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A  CALI FORMA  ELK  DRIVE  475 

Ogden  in  the  following  year  adopted  a  wholly  diflferent  plan,  which 
proved  far  more  successful.  Instead  of  a<ttempting  to  drive  the  animals 
he  organized  a  chase  by  experienced  vaqueros,  the  object  being  to  rope 
the  individual  elk.  The  chase  took  place  a  few  miles  from  Button- 
willow  on  October  15,  1905.  Nearly  30  were  roped.  Of  these,  3  died 
before  shipment;  25  were  shipped,  and  20  reached  the  park  alive,  form- 
ing a  splendid  nucleus  for  a  growing  herd. 

The  wild  elk  remaining  on  the  Buttonwillow  ranch  multiplied 
steadily,  and  their  depredations  on  alfalfa  and  Egyptian  corn  were  cor- 
respondingly severe.  In  1914  the  Miller  &  Lux  Company  decided  to 
attempt  the  capture  of  a  very  large  number  and  invited  the  California 
Academy  of  Sciences  to  take  charge  of  their  distribution.  The  offer 
was  accepted,  and  Dr.  B.  W.  Evermann,  director  of  the  Academy's 
activities,  arranged  for  the  shipment  of  the  elk  to  municipal  parks  and 
other  available  tracts  in  different  parts  of  California. 

A  new  method  was  inaugurated  by  the  superintendent,  Mr.  Ogden. 
A  huge  corral  a  quarter  of  a  mile  long  was  built  in  an  alfalfa  field  to 
which  the  elk  came  every  night  to  feed.  Here  on  the  night  of  October 
11,  1914,  150  came  into  the  corral  and  were  enclosed,  but  the  next 
day  90  escaped.  Three  days  later  about  25  more  were  captured. 
During  the  latter  part  of  the  month  54  were  distributed  to  different 
localities  in  the  state. 

Again,  in  1915,  the  same  corral  was  used  in  the  same  way,  resulting 
in  the  capture  of  more  than  100  elk,  of  which  92  were  distributed. 
At  that  time  it  was  estimated  by  Dr.  Evermann  that  the  number  still 
remaining  in  Kern  County  was  between  350  and  400. 


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476 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


THE   PROGRESS   OF   SQENCE 


THE  SECOND  INTERNATIONAL 
CONGRESS  OF  EUGENICS 

In  this  journal  special  attention  has 
always  been  given  to  problems  of 
evolution,  heredity  and  eugenics.  As 
older  readers  of  the  The  Popular 
Science  Monthly  will  remember,  it 
gave  the  first  American  publication 
to  the  work  of  Spencer,  and,  to  a 
certain  extent  of  Darwin,  Huxley 
and  the  other  leaders  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  doctrine  of  evolution. 
It  was  indeed  under  the  elder  You- 
mans  a  journal  primarily  devoted  to 
the  cause  of  evolution  at  a  time  when 
the  word  stood  for  heresy  not  only 
With  the  general  public,  but  also 
among  most  men  of  science. 

During  the  past  twenty  years  under 
its  present  editorial  control,  The  Sci- 
entific Monthly  has  continued  to 
devote  a  considerable  part  of  its 
space  to  work  bearing  on  heredity 
and  eugenics.  Francis  Galton  printed 
here  articles  laying  the  foundation  of 
eugenics,  and  the  leading  American 
students  of  genetics — Brooks,  Wilson, 
Morgan,  Conklin,  Davenport,  Jen- 
nings, Pearl  and  many  others  have 
communicated  the  results  of  their 
work  to  the  wider  scientific  and  edu- 
cated public  through  this  journal.  In 
like  manner,  many  articles  by  leaders 
in  the  subject  have  been  printed  on 
human  heredity  in  so  far  as  it  is  open 
to  experimental  or  statistical  study, 
and  in  other  subjects  on  which  a  sci- 
ence of  eugenics  must  rest — popula- 
tion, birth  and  death  rates,  immigra- 
tion, racial  differences,  human  be- 
havior, etc. 

We  are  consequently  pleased  to  be 
able  to  record  the  holding  in  New 
York  City  of  the  second  International 
Congress  of  Eugenics  and  to  print  in 
the  present  issue  of  the  Monthly 
several  of  the  more  important  ad- 
dresses by  foreign  representatives. 
Shakespeare  left  no  descendants,  and 


Ben  Jonson  remarked  that  nature, 
having  made  her  masterpiece,  broke 
the  mold.  The  four  sons  of  Charles 
Darwin  have  followed  scientific  ca- 
reers, a  fine  example  of  family 
heredity  and  tradition.  It  is  a  special 
privilege  to  welcome  to  the  United 
States  and  to  print  the  address  in 
advocacy  of  eugenics  of  Major  Leon- 
ard Darwin,  based  so  largely  on  the 
works  of  his  father,  Charles  Dar- 
win, and  of  his  cousin,  Francis 
Galton.  We  hope  to  be  able  to 
publish  in  subsequent  issues  a  gen- 
eral account  of  the  congress  by  Dr. 
C.  C.  Little,  the  secretary,  and  several 
of  the  papers  containing  the  results 
of  more  special  scientific  research. 
The  program  was  strong  in  genetics, 
in  which  America  now  probably  is 
leading.  But  all  the  divisions  main- 
tained good  standards,  the  more 
doubtful  theories  and  premature  ap- 
plications of  ignorance,  to  which 
newer  sciences  such  as  eugenics  and 
psychology  are  subject,  having  been 
in  general  avoided. 

THE  MEETING  OF  CHEMISTS 
IN  NEW  YORK  CITY 

The  sixty-second  meeting  of  the 
American  Chemical  Society,  held  like 
the  Congress  of  Eugenics  in  New 
York  during  September,  may  lead  to 
the  hope  that  the  city  will  give  as 
much  concern  to  becoming  the  center 
of  the  scientific  as  of  the  financial 
world.  It  was  partly  an  Anglo- 
American  meeting,  for  the  Society  of 
Chemical  Industry  having  met  in 
Canada,  a  number  of  the  English  and 
Canadian  members  took  part  in  the 
New  York  meeting. 

When  the  visiting  guests  crossed 
the  border  into  the  United  States  at 
Niagara  Falls,  President  Harding 
welcomed  them  with  the  following 
telegram : 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  extend  greetings 


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THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE 


477 


to  the  gathering  of  American,  Cana- 
dian and  British  Societies  represent- 
ing  the  chemical  sciences  and  in- 
dustries meeting  on  American  soil. 
Probably  none  of  the  materialistic 
sciences  holds  promise  of  so  great 
contributions  to  human  welfare  in  the 
coming  generations  as  that  which 
your  organization  represents.  The 
developments  of  applied  chemistry  in- 
volve both  a  possibility  of  vastly  in- 
creased horrors  in  human  conflict  and 
alternately  inestimable  benefits  to  a 
peaceful  civilization.  Let  us  hope 
that  a  science  so  fraught  with  either 
good  or  vicious  possibilities  may  be 
turned,  thtough  the  wisdom  of  the 
nations,  to  the  benefit  and  advance- 
ment of  mankind. 

The  meeting  in  New  York  was  ap- 
propriately presided  over  by  Dr. 
Edgar  F.  Smith,  lately  provost  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  and 
twenty-five  years  before  president  of 
the  society.  At  the  opening  meeting 
at  Columbia  University,  addresses 
were  made  by  Francis  P.  Garvan  on 
"Chemistry  and  the  State,"  by  Sir 
William  Pope  on  "Chemical  Warfare'* 
and  Professor  R.  F.  Ruttan  on  "Or- 
ganization of  Industrial  Research  in 
Canada."  At  the  closing  general 
meeting  Dr.  Smith  gave  the  presi- 
dential address  on  "Progress  in 
Chemistry."  This  address  was  pre- 
ceded by  the  unveiling  of  the  Priest- 
ley portrait  which  is  to  be  placed  in 
the  National  Museum,  the  unveiling 
being  accompanied  by  a  description  of 
the  life  and  work  of  Priestley,  by  Dr. 
C.  A.  Browne. 

An  international  meeting  was  held 
in  the  grand  hall  of  the  College  of 
the  City  of  New  York  after  an  organ 
recital  by  Professor  Samuel  A.  Bald- 
win. 

Chemistry  and  Civilisation:  Dr. 
Ed^ar  F.  Smith,  provost  emeritus, 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  in  the 
chair. 

Science  and  Civilization;  The  Role 
of  Chemistry:  Dr.  Chas.  Baskerville, 
director  of  the  laboratories,  College 
of  the  City  of  New  York;  chairman. 
International  Committee. 

Energy;  Its  Sources  and  Future 
Possibilities:  Dr.  Arthur  D.  Little, 
chemical  engineer  and  technologist, 
Boston. 


The  Engineer;  Human  and  Superior 
Direction  of  Power:  Dr.  Leo  H. 
Baekeland,  honorary  professor  of 
chemical  engineering,  Columbia  Uni- 
versity. 

Chemistry  and  Life:  Sir  William 
J.  Pope,  professor  of  chemistry,  Cam- 
bridge University. 

Theories:  Dr.  Willis  R.  Whitney, 
head  of  research  department.  General 
Electric  Company. 

Research  Applied  to  the  World's 
Hork:  Dr.  C.  E.  K.  Mees,  head  of 
research  department,  Eastman  Kodak 
Company^ 

Problem  of  Diffusion  and  Its  Bear^ 
ing  on  Civilijsation :  Professor  Ernst 
Cohen,  professor  of  chemistry.  Uni- 
versity of  Utrecht. 

Catalysis;  The  New  Economic  Fac- 
tor: Professor  Wilder  D.  Bancroft, 
I  professor  of  physical  chemistry,  Cor- 
nell University. 

THE    AMERICAN    PUBUC 

HEALTH  ASSOCIATION 
A  third  scientific  meeting,  like  the 
Congress  of  Eugenics  and  the  Chemi- 
cal meeting  concerned  largely  with 
the  public  welfare,  will  be  held  in 
New  York  City  during  the  autumn. 
The  fiftieth  annual  meeting  of  the 
American  Public  Health  Association 
will  be  the  occasion  of  a  health  fort- 
night from  November  8-19.  It  is 
hoped  that  its  slogan,  ^'Health  First," 
will  stimulate  interest  throughout  the 
country.  Health  fortnight  will  in- 
clude three  major  divisions — a  Health 
Institute  from  November  8-1 1;  a 
Health  Exposition,  November  14-19; 
the  Fiftieth  Annual  Meeting  of  the 
American  Public  Health  Association, 
November  14-19. 

The  Public  Health  Exposition  will 
be  conducted  under  the  joint  auspices 
of  the  Department  of  Health  of  the 
City  of  New  York  and  the  American 
Public  Health  Association.  Already 
allotments  of  space  indicate  that  at 
least  two  entire  floors  of  the  Grand 
Central  Palace  will  be  occupied  by 
the  exhibitors.  The  exhibits  will  in- 
clude those  of  educational  and  philan- 
thropic organizations  and  those  of 
commercial  houses  producing  ap- 
proved articles  of  health  value.    The 


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MAJOR   DARWIN  PROFESSOR   OSBORN  MRS.   OSBORN 

MEMBERS  OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  EUGENICS 


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PROFESSOR  MOF.RNS  PROFESSOR  SHULL  DR.   DAVENPORT 

AT  THE   AMERICAN   MUSEUM   OF   NATURAL   HISTORY 


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MAJOR   DARWIN  PROFESSOR   OSBORN  MRS.   OSBORN 

MEMBERS  OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  EUGENICS 


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PROFESSOR  MOKRNS      PROFESSOR  SHULL      DR.  DAVENPORT 
AT  THE  AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 


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480 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


profits  from  the  sale  of  tickets,  after 
the  cost  of  the  exposition  and  the 
convention  are  defrayed,  will  be  de- 
voted to  establishing  nutritional  clin- 
ics for  the  benefit  of  undernourished 
children. 

The  Health  Institute  from  Novem- 
ber 8-1 1  will  present  to  visitors  an 
opportunity  to  see  the  operations  of 
established  methods  applied  to  vari- 
ous phases  of  public  health  work. 
About  forty  demo  strations  have 
been  planned. 

Following  the  week  of  the  insti- 
tute and  the  observance  of  Health 
Sunday,  will  come  the  oiienirig  of  the 
scientific  sessions,  the  meetings  of  tlie 
American  Public  Health  Association 
in  celebration  of  its  semi-centennal. 
I'he  sessions  will  begin  on  Novembei 
f4  and  the  headquarters  will  be  at  the 
Hotel  Astor.  The  scope  of  the  meet 
ings  is  indicated  by  their  division  into 
die  following :  General  Sessions,  Pub- 
lic Health  Administration,  Child  Hy- 
giene, Public  Health  Publicity  and 
Education,  Laboratory  Section,  Vital 
Statistics  Section,  Industrial  Hygiene 
Section,  and  Food  and  Drug  Section. 

SCIENTIFIC  ITEMS 
We  record  with  regret  the  death  of 
J.  W.  Richards,  professor  of  metal- 
lurgy at  Lehigh  University;  and  of 
Dr.  Arno  Behr,  the  American  indus- 
trial chemist;  of  G.  W.  Walker,  the 
English  seismologist;  and  of  Henry 
Beaunis,  known  for  his  work  on 
physiological  psychology  and  hypno- 
tism at  Nancy  and  later  at  Paris. 

Dr.  C.  S.  Sherrington,  professo. 
of  physiology  at  Oxford  University 
and  president  of  the  Royal  Society, 
has  been  elected  president  of  the 
British  Association  for  the  meeting  tu 
be  held  at  Hull  in  1922.  It  is  ex- 
pected that  the  meeting  of  1923  will 
be  at  Liverpool  and  the  meeting  of 
1924  at  Toronto. 


The  University  of  Edinburgh  has 
conferred  the  degree  of  doctor  of 
laws  on  Dr.  Irving  Langmuir,  of  the 
research  laboratory  of  the  General 
Electric  Company,  Schenectady,  who 
at  the  meeting  of  the  British  Asso- 
ciation in  that  city  opened  the  dis- 
cussion on  **The  Structure  of  Mole- 
cules." 

Dr.  Alexis  Carrel,  of  the  Rocke- 
feller Institute  for  Medical  Research 
has  been  elected  a  national  associate 
of  the  French  Academy  of  Medicine, 
of  whom  there  are  only  twenty. 

The  192 1  volume  of  the  Summar- 
ized Proceedings  of  the  American  As- 
sociation for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,  the  publication  of  which  has 
been  delayed  owing  to  the  printers* 
strike,  will  soon  be  issued  from  the 
office  of  the  permanent  secretary  of 
the  association.  The  volume  contains 
the  old  and  the  new  constitution,  the 
lists  of  officers,  and  references  to 
Science  for  the  reports  of  the  Pacific 
Coast  meeting  (summer  of  1915),  the 
Columbus  meeting  (1916),  the  New 
York  meeting  (1917),  the  Pittsburgh 
meeting  (1918),  the  Baltimore  meet- 
ing (1919),  the  St.  Louis  meeting 
(1920),  and  tlie  Chicago  meeting 
(1921).  It  also  contains  the  com- 
plete list  of  members  of  the  associa- 
tion, corrected  to  June  15,  1921. 
Members  who  have  already  ordered 
the  volume  will  be  sent  copies  as  soon 
as  the  book  is  published;  those  who 
have  not  ordered  it  may  still  do  so, 
the  price  being  two  dollars,  payable 
when  the  order  is  placed.  The  price 
to  others  is  two  dollars .  and  fifty 
cents.  The  new  list  constitutes  a  di- 
rectory containing  the  names,  de- 
grees, positions,  addresses,  etc,  of 
about  12,000  scientific  workers  and 
others  interested  in  scientific  progress. 
It  has  been  prepared  from  data  ob- 
tained through  special  information 
blanks  sent  to  all  members. 


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VOL.  XIII,  NO.  6  r\nM  7n^w^\  DECEMBER,  1921 


THE  SCIENTIFIC 
MONTHLY 

EDITED  BY  J.  McKEEN  CATTELL 


CONTENTS 


THE  INBRED  DESCENDANTS  OF  CHARLEMAGNE:  A  GLANCE  AT  THE  SCI- 
ENTIFIC SIDE  OF  GENEALOGY.      Dr.   David  Starr  Jordan 481 

STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY.     Dr.  John  B.  Watson  and  Rosalie 

Rayner  Watson 493 

AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  SCIENTIFIC  VAGARIES.     Professor  D.  W.  Hering 516 

THE  GOVERNMENT  LABORATORY  AND  INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH. 

Dr.  George  K.  Burgess 523 

AMERICA'S  FIRST  AGRICULTURAL  SCHOOL.     Dr.  Neil  E.  Stevens 531 

THE  RESEARCHER  IN  SCIENCE.      Professor  Michael  F.  Guyer 541 

FEARSOME  MONSTERS  OF  EARLY  DAYS.     Dr.  Leon  Augustus  Hausman 560 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE: 

The  American  Public  Health  Association;  Scientific  Problems  of  the  Pacific; 
Government  Educational  Courses;  The  Optical  Society  of  America;  Scientific 
Items 570 

INDEX  TO  VOLUME  XIII 595 


THE    SCIENCE    PRESS 

PUBUCATION  OFnCE:    11   LIBERTY  ST..  UTICA,  N.  Y. 
EDITORIAL  AND  BUSINESS  OITICE:    GARRISON.  N.  Y. 

Single  Number,  50  Cents.  Yearly  Subscription,  $5.00 

COPYRIGHT  1921  BY  THE  SCIENCE  PRESS 
Entered  ••  ■econd-cIaM  mstter  February  8,  1921.  at  the  Poit  Office  et  Utica,  N.  Y.,  under  the  Act  of  March  3,  1879. 


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ENCYCLOPEDIA 


Our 
Subscribers 
Include : 

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AMERICANA 

JUST  as  America  leads  the  world  in  recon^ 
St  ruction,weaIt)L,inventlon,ituittufactuie,so 
The  AMERIGAh^A establishes  anew  lead^* 
ershlp  over  all  reference  works. 
The  revolutions  in  thoudht  andprodress.brouAt 
about  by  the  War,  ma&  all  encyclopedils 
obsolete.  A  restatement  of  tVie  Worlds  knowledge 
thus  became  imperative.  The  AMEItICA^fA 
^ives  a  wide  view  of  the  world  as  it  is  today  -* 
not  as  it  was  ten  years  a§o. 

coPYni«HTBD    •«—•    i9ao 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  AMERICANA. 
CORPORATION 

27WILUAM  ST..  NEW  YORK  PEOPLE'S  OAS  BLDO^CHICAOO 

Oentlffm^nt 

PlMf«  99nd  dMcripliw  Ilt«raticrf  -  AMERICAj^A. 

NAME 

A  DDRS55 


The  Boston 
_    Public 
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edition  o  P 
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THE   INBRED   DESCENDANTS    OF    CHARLEMAGNE: 
A  GLANCE  AT  THE  SCIENTIFIC  SIDE  OF  GENEALOGY 

By  Of:  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 

STANFORD  UNIVERSITY 

See  the  march  of  history 
Strewn  with  cast-off  finery, 
And  the  way  of  common  things 
Cluttered  with  the  pomp  of  kings. 

rERE  has  lately  been  placed  in  my  hands  a  great  chart  of  Ameri- 
can genealogy  rmming  back  to  the  marriages  of  Isabel  de  Verman- 
dois  with  two  successive  hu^ands — ^Robert  de  Bellomont,  Earl  of  Lei- 
cester, and  William,  Second  Earl  of  Warren  and  Surrey — and  showing 
the  lines  of  descent  of  some  hundreds  of  well-known  families  from  the 
beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  reign  of  Henry  I  of  England, 
down  to  the  present  time.  This  chart,  the  work  of  Miss  Sarah  Louise 
Kimball  of  Palo  Alto,  California,  furnishes  the  text  of  the  present 
essay.  It  embodies  the  results  of  long  and  patient  research  by  its 
maker,  supplemented  by  conclusions  of  many  other  experts  in 
genealogy.  But  my  present  purpose  is  to  consider  only  one  scientific 
phase  of  the  matter. 

And  first  I  may  premise  that  to  the  biologist  an  ancestor  is  not 
primarily  a  forbear,  but  a  carrier  of  inheritable  potentialities.  For 
men  and  women  transmit  to  posterity  not  their  actually  developed 
traits,  but  rather  their  inborn  tendencies,  ^the  raw  material  out  of 
which  character  is  forged'\  a  complex  of  potentialities.  That  is  to  say, 
heredity  carries  potentiality,  not  the  completed  results  of  education 
and  environment.  I  shall,  however,  waive  further  discussion  of  the 
physiology  or  psychology  of  inheritance;  I  wish  only  to  indicate  some 
generalizations  drawn  (largely)  from  a  study  of  Miss  Kimball's  chart. 
Let  us  first  note  that  notwithstanding  its  elaboration,  its  thousand 
or  more  ancestral  names  constitute  merely  a  fragment,  a  scant  shred 
in  the  great  warp  and  woof  of  the  genealogy  of  even  a  single  person, 
or  of  the  record  of  descendants  of  even  a  single  pair.^    For  if  the  an- 

I  In  this  connection  I  remarked  with  interest  that  in  the  "Waldo 
Genealogy"  {1902)  by  Waldo  Lincoln  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  the  record  of  a 
single  family  for  less  than  tfiree  hundred  years,  or  eight  generations,  upwards 


VOL,  xin.-5/. 

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482  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

cestry  of  one  individual  running  back  to  the  twelfth  century  could  be 
written  out,  using  a  square  inch  to  each  name,  it  would  occupy  some- 
thing like  a  fourth  of  a  square  mile.  A  full  chart  of  all  the  two  hun- 
dred millions,  more  or  less,  of  people  of  English  ancestry  scattered 
over  the  world  would  cover  some  twenty-five  millions  of  square  miles. 

The  simplest  numerical  calculation  gives  bewildering  results.  As 
each  person  has  had  two  parents,  four  grandparents,  eight  great-grand- 
parents, and  so  back  endlessly  in  geometrical  progression,  every  adult 
of  today,  allowing  three  generations  to  a  century,  would  (if  facts  per- 
mitted) count  not  less  than  134,192,256  separate  ancestors  in  the  year 
1100.  Furthermore  as  in  the  indicated  progression  with  a  ratio  of  two, 
the  sum  of  the  series  is  equivalent,  minus  one,  to  its  highest  term,  each 
descendant  should  have  134,192,255  intervening  forbears,  making 
268,384,511  in  all.  Again,  each  child  of  this  generation  has  twice  as 
many  ancestors  as  either  parent — ^that  is  536,769,022  in  all,  of  which 
incalculable  number  not  one  would  have  died  in  infancy  or  without 
issue.  This  computation,  however,  has  led  us  to  figures  manifestly 
impossible  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  total  population  of  England  in 
1100  did  not  exceed  two  millions,  and  that  probably  not  one-tenth  of 
these,  beset  as  they  were  by  war  and  pestilence,  left  permanent 
descendants. 

The  simple  explanation  is,  of  course,  that  every  ancient  forbear 
must  be  counted  over  and  over  thousands  of  times  in  each  individual 
case.  Indeed,  no  one  can  guess  how  many  tangled  lines  lead  down  to 
him  from  a  single  pair  in  the  days  of  Henry  I. 

Conversely,  if  any  one  couple  of  the  twelfth  century  and  their  suc- 
cessors left  on  an  average  four  children,  thus  doubling  the  number 
three  times  to  the  century,  their  descendants  alone,  facts  permitting, 
would  count  134,192,256,  as  would  the  descendants  of  every  other 
pair  similarly  fertile, — ^the  whole  making  a  nominal  total  far  exceed- 
ing the  present  population  of  the  globe!  Thus,  in  this  computation 
also,  intervening  individuals  must  be  reckoned  over  and  over  again 
almost  to  infinity. 

These  conclusions  as  to  the  tangled  lineeige  of  the  English  people 
give  a  clue  to  the  origin  and  persistence  of  racial  traits  in  general; 
they  are  the  stigmata  of  blood  relationship.  Moreover,  as  we  have 
abundant  evidence  that  the  children  of  Warren  and  Isabel,  like  hun- 
dreds of  other  early  notables,  were  descended  from  Alfred  the  Great 
and  Charlemagne  alike,  it  is  not  without  reason  that  Miss  Kimball 
calls  the  English  people  "the  inbred  descendants  of  Charlemagne". 

of  19,000  persons  are  named  as  either  descended  from  Cornelius  Waldo  and 
Hannah  Cogswell — ^both  of  whom  came  from  Berwick  in  Wiltshire,  England, 
to  Ipswich,  Massachusetts,  about  1640— or  else  married  to  one  of  their  pos- 
terity; these  many  individuals  were  residents  of  11,700  different  towns  in 
the  United  States.  Besides  Waldo,  upwards  of  3,000  other  surnames  appear, 
brought  into  the  series  by  the  marriage  of  Waldo  women. 


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THE  INBRED  DESCENDANTS  OF  CHARLEMAGNE  483 

This  fact  now  leads  us  to  another  important  consideration;  noble 
and  peasant  are  really  of  one  blood.  For  studies  of  American  ancestry 
show  clearly  the  eflfects  of  the  law  of  primogeniture.  The  eldest  sons 
of  "good  families"  or  of  the  nobility  naturally  developed  into  Royal- 
ists and  Cavaliers;  younger  sons  and  daughters'  sons,  left  without  in- 
heritance, became  as  easily  Roundheads,  Dbsenters  and  Puritans. 
The  l^end  on  one  of  Cromweirs  battle  flags  asked:  "Why  should  the 
elder  son  have  everything  and  we  nothing?"  To  put  it  another  way, 
why  should  "blue  blood"  be  supposed  to  flow  in  the  veins  of  the  first 
bom  only? 

Fortunately,  those  exposed  to  the  deteriorating  influences  of  ease 
and  unearned  power  were  few  in  number,  a  conspicuous  minority.  Ilie 
others  became  part  of  the  mass  of  commoners  who  have  made  England 
great.  Samuel  Johnson  once  cynically  observed  that  primogeniture  is 
an  excellent  thing,  as  "it  ensures  that  there  shall  be  but  one  fool  in  the 
family!"  Happily  it  also  provides  that  the  high  qualities  which  in 
other  days  set  nobleman  apart  from  peasant  shall  be  spread  through  the 
whole  body  of  the  people  by  means  of  a  constant  transfusion  from  the 
"first  estate"  to  the  third.  The  lack  of  such  a  system  left  France,  es- 
pecially, a  prey  to  the  reaction  inevitable  in  a  people  overrun  by  a 
hungry  and  impecunious  nobility. 

Miss  Kimball's  chart  shows  plainly  the  method  by  which  the  dif- 
fusion takes  place.  The  daughter  of  a  king,  for  example,  marries  a 
nobleman;  one  of  her  descendants  takes  a  squire  or  younger  son;  a 
daughter  of  the  squire  marries  a  yeoman,  whose  children  are  accord- 
ingly of  kingly  descent.  And  every  farmer  of  English  lineage  may 
boast  of  as  much  of  the  "germ  plasm"  of  William,  Alfred,  or  Charle- 
magne as  any  royal  household  in  Europe;  reversedly,  plebeian  blood 
may  be  mingled  with  the  "bluest",  usually  to  the  betterment  of  both. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  indeed,  very  few  Englishmen  or  Americans  of  Eng- 
lish origin  are  without  royal  blood;  nor  is  it  likely  that  the  coat  of 
arms  of  any  king  living  does  not  conceal  the  bar  sinister  of  the  peasant. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  as  already  stated,  Isabel  de 
Vermandois  married  successively  Robert  de  Bellomont,  Earl  of  Lei- 
cester, and  William  de  Warren,  Earl  of  Warren  and  Surrey.  The 
charms  or  virtues  of  that  far-off  lady  are  not  concerned  in  this  dis- 
cussion, any  more  than  the  manly  qualities  of  either  of  the  earls, 
though  all  three  exalted  personages  were  no  doubt  ancestors  of  yours, 
gentle  reader,  as  well  as  of  the  present  writer. 

Isabel  died  on  February  13,  1131.  Her  record  comes  down  to  us 
because  of  a  very  distinguished  lineage,  her  ancestral  line  on  both 
sides  leading  back  through  six  separate  strains  to  Charlemagne.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  Prince  Hugh  the  Great,  Duke  of  France  and  Bur- 
gundy, leader  in  the  First  Crusade  and  father  of  Hugh  Capet,  King  of 


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484  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

France;  her  mother,  Adelheid  de  Vennandois,  boasted  blood  equally 
blue,  and  her  second  husband  was  descended  from  Alfred. 

By  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  Isabel  had  two  children — ^Robert  and  Eliz- 
abeth de  Bellomont;  by  the  Earl  of  Warren,  two  others — Gondred  and 
Ada  de  Warren.  Each  of  the  four  lines  of  descent  then  passes  through 
a  long  series  of  English  nobility,  each  allowing  a  younger  son  or 
daughter,  or  daughter's  son  to  drop  from  time  to  time  into  the  undis- 
tinguished ranks  of  the  middle  class  or  even  into  the  common  peas- 
antry, while  a  few  of  the  line  of  Elizabeth  de  Bellomont,  thou^  by 
no  means  the  most  eminent  of  their  group,  were  set  apart  by  laws  of 
inheritance  as  occupants  of  royal  thrones.  Meanwhile,  as  I  have  im- 
plied, the  elder  sons,  holding  land  and  titles,  remained  in  the  Cavalier- 
Tory-Conservative  caste,  while  their  disinherited  brothers  and  sisters 
became  Dissenters,  of  whom  many  of  the  most  obstinate  or  most  enter- 
prising sought  freedom  or  fortune  in  the  New  World. 

To  illustrate  these  propositions  I  give  below  a  series  of  ancestral 
records,  each  showing  one  of  the  many  "direct  lines"  leading  down 
from  Isabel  de  Vermandois  to  Americans,  well-known  or  otherwise. 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON 
Let  us  begin  with  George  Washington,  a  man  of  the  highest  personal 
character  and  unquestioned  statesmanship,  but  socially  rather  a  t3rpical 
English  country  squire,  though  one  of  the  wealthiest  colonials  of  His 
day.  The  reasons  which  lay  behind  the  emigration  of  Washington's 
ancestors  to  Virginia  I  shall  not  try  to  indicate,  but  apparently  they 
did  not  seek  fortune  nor  freedom  of  worship. 

Robert  de  Bellomont,  Earl  of  Leicester,  m.  Isabel  de  Vermandois 
Elizabeth  de  Bellomont  m.  Gilbert  de  Clare,  Earl  of  Pembroke 

Richard  de  Clare,  "Strongbow,"  Earl  of  Pembroke,  m 

Isabel  de  Clare  m.  William  le  Mar^chal,  Earl  of  Pembroke 
Eve  de  Mar^chal  m.  William,  Baron  de  Braose 
Maude  de  Braose  m.  Roger,  Baron  Mortimer 
Edmund,  Baron  Mortimer 
Roger,  Baron  Mortimer 
Edmund  Mortimer 
Roger  Mortimer,  Earl  of  March 
Edmund  Mortimer,  Earl  of  March 

Elizabeth  Mortimer  m.  Sir  Henry  Percy,  "Hotspur,"  Earl  of   North- 
umberland 
Henry  Percy,  Earl  of  Northumberland 
Margaret  Percy  m.  Sir  William  Gascoigne 
Elizabeth  Gascoigne  m.  Gilbert  de  Talboys 
Sir  George  de  Talboys 
Anne  de  Talboys  m.  Sir  Edward  Dymoke 
Frances  Dimoke  m.  Thomas  Windebank 
Mildred  Windebank  m.  Robert  Reade 
Col.  George  Reade  (Virginia,  1637) 
Mildred  Reade  m.  Col.  Augustine  Warner 
Mildred  Warner  m.  Lawrence  Washington 
Augustine  Washington  m.  Mary  Ball 
George  Washington 


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THE  INBRED  DESCENDANTS  OF  CHARLEMAGNE  485 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
My  next  example  presents  certain  marked  contrasts.  Beginning 
with  the  same  aristocratic  ancestry,  the  line  of  descent  passes  into 
Wales,  then  through  a  group  of  Welsh  farmers,  one  of  whom,  doubt- 
less to  better  his  condition,  came  over  to  Pennsylvania,  whence  his 
pioneer  descendants  moved  on  to  Virginia  and  westward.  Out  of  this 
series  rose  one  who  became  the  most  truly  eminent  statesman  of  his 
century.  The  career  of  Lincoln  thus  perfectly  illustrates  the  possi- 
bilities of  "noble"  self -extrication  among  a  people  unburdened  by  the 
caste  system  of  Europe. 

Robert  de  Bellomont,  Earl  of  Leicester,  m.  Isabel  de  Vermandois 

Elizabeth  de  Bellomont  m.  Gilbert  de  Clare,  Earl  of  Pembroke 

Richard  de  Clare,  "Strongbow,"  Earl  of  Pembroke 

Isabel  de  Clare  m.  William  le  Marechal,  Earl  of  Pembroke 

Eve  de  Mar6chal  m.  William,  Baron  de  Braose 

Maude  de  Braose  m.  Roger,  Baron  Mortimer 

Edmund,  Baron  Mortimer 

Roger,  Baron  Mortimer 

Maude  Mortimer  m.  John,  Lord  Charleton 

Jane  de  Charleton  m.  John,  Baron  Le  Strange 

Elizabeth  Le  Strange  m.  Gryffydd  Wychan 

Gryffydd  Wychan 

Lowry  Wychan  m.  Robert  Puleston 

John  Puleston 

Margaret  Puleston  m.  David  ap  levan  ap  Einion 

Einion  ap  David 

Griffith  ap  Llewellyn 

Catherine  Griffith  m.  Edward  ap  Evan 

Lewis  ap  Griffith  m.  Ellen  Edwards 

Robert  ap  Lewis 

Evan  ap  Robert 

Evan  ap  Evan 

Cadwallader  Evans  (Pennsylvania,  1700) 

Sarah  Evans  m.  John  Hank 

John  Hank 

Joseph  Hank  (Virginia  about  1740)  m.  Nancy  Shipley 

Nancy  Hanks  m.  Thomas  Lincoln 

Abraham  Lincoln 

GEORGE  V 

We  have  seen  that  the  early  English  forbears  of  Washington  and 

Lincoln  are  identical  for  two  hundred  years  and  more.    It  is  interesting 

also  to  note  that  the  ancestry  of  the  present  king  of  England  (as  well 

as  that  of  the  late  Kaiser  and  most  of  the  continenal  princes  now  in 

exile  or  otherwise)  derives  from  the  same  initial  series. 

Robert  de  Bellomont,  Earl  of  Leicester,  m.  Isabel  de  Vermandois 
Elizabeth  de  Bellomont  m.  Gilbert  de  Qare,  Earl  of  Pembroke 
Richard  de  Clare,  "Strongbow,"  Earl  of  Pembroke 
Isabel  de  Clare  m.  William  le  Marechal,  Earl  of  Pembroke 


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486  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

Eve  de  Marechal  m.  William,  Baron  de  Braose 

Maude  de  Braose  m.  Roger,  Baron  Mortimer 

Edmund,  Baron  Mortimer 

Roger,  Baron  Mortimer 

Edmund  Mortimer 

Roger  Mortimer,  Earl  of  March 

Anne  Mortimer  m.  Richard  Plantagenet,  Earl  of  Cambridge 

Richard  Plantagenet,  Earl  of  York,  m.  Cecily  Neville 

Edward  IV  m.  Elizabeth  Woodbridge 

Elizabeth  Plantagenet  m.  Henry  VII  (Tudor) 

Margaret  Tudor  m.  James  IV  (Stuart)  of  Scotland 

James  V  (Stuart) 

Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of  Scots,  m.  Lord  Damley 

James  I  (Stuart,  James  VI  of  Scotland) 

Elizabeth  Stuart  m.  Frederick  V.  of  Bohemia 

Sophia  m.  Ernest  Augustus  of  Brunswick 

George  I.  m.  Sophia  Dorothea 

George  II  m.  Wilhelmina  Carolina  of  Brandenburg-Anspach 

Frederick  Louis,  Prince  of  Wales 

George  III  m.  Charlotte  Sophia  of  Mecklenburg-Strelitz 

Edward,  Duke  of  Kent,  m.  Victoria  Mary  Louise  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha 

Victoria  m.  Albert  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha 

Edward  VII  (Guelph)  m.  Alexandra  of  Denmark 

George  V 

GROVER  CLEVELAND 

This  ^'first  citizen"  of  our  land  also  belongs  to  the  Bellomont- 

Vermandois  line. 

Robert  de  Bellomont,  Earl  of  Leicester,  m.  Isabel  dc  Vermandois 

Elizabeth  de  Bellomont  m.  Gilbert  de  Clare,  Earl  of  Pembroke 

Robert  de  Bellomont,  "the  Consul,"  Earl  of  Gloucester 

Mabel  de  Bellomont  m.  William  de  Redvers  de  Vernon,  Earl  of  Devon 

Mary  de  Redvers  de  Vernon  m.  Peter  Prouz 

William  Prouz 

Walter  Prouz 

William  Prouz 

Sir  William  Prouz 

William  Prouz 

Alice  Prouz  m.  Sir  Roger  Moelis 

Alice  Moelis  m.  John  Wotton 

Alice  Wotton  m.  Sir  John  Chichester 

Richard  Chichester 

Nicholas  Chichester 

John  Chichester 

Amias  Chichester 

Frances  Chichester  m.  John  Wyatt 

Margaret  Wyatt  m.  Matthew  Allyn  of  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Mary  AUeyn  m.  Capt.  Benjamin  Newberry 

Rebecca  Newberry  m.  Samuel  Marshall 

Abiel  Marshall 

Sarah  Marshall  m.  James  Hyde 

Abiah  Hyde  m.  Rev.  Aaron  Qeveland 

William  Cleveland  m.  Margaret  Falley 

Richard  Falley  Cleveland 

Grover  Cleveland 


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THE  INBRED  DESCENDANTS  OF  CHARLEMAGNE  487 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 
Two  lines  of  descent  from  Isabel  down  to  Roosevelt  are  on  record, 
the  one  leading  through  a  long  series  of  Scottish  worthies,  the  other  by 
way  of  the  Puritan  forbears  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 

Robert  de  Bellomont,  Earl  of  Leicester,  m.  Isabel  de  Vermandois 

Elizabeth  de  Bellomont  m.  Gilbert  de  Clare,  Earl  of  Pembroke 

Richard  de  Qare,  "Strongbow,"  Earl  of  Pembroke 

Isabel  de  Clare  m,  William  le  Marechal,  Earl  of  Pembroke 

Isabel  Marshall  m.  Robert  Bruce,  Earl  of  Annandale 

Robert  Bruce,  Earl  of  Warwick 

Robert  Bruce,  King  of  Scotland 

Marjory  Bruce  m.  Walter,  High  "Steward"  of  the  King 

Robert  II  (Stuart),  King  of  Scotland 

Robert  III,  King  of  Scotland 

Marjory  Stewart  m.  Sir  Duncan  Campbell 

Elizabeth  Stuart  m.  Sir  James  Douglas 

Sir  James  Douglas 

Sir  John  Douglas 

James  Douglas 

Arthur  Douglas 

John  Douglas 

James  Douglas 

John  Douglas 

Euphemia  Douglas  m.  Dr.  John  Irvine  (Georgia,  1765) 

Anne  Irvine  m.  Capt  James  Bulloch 

Major  James  Stephens  Bulloch 

Martha  Bulloch  m.  Theodore  Roosevelt  (i) 

Theodore  Roosevelt 

ROBERT  EDWARD  LEE 

I  may  next  present  one  of  the  greatest  of  American  generals,  whose 
forhears  throughout,  so  far  as  the  present  recorded  line  goes,  were 
people  of  at  least  local  distinction. 

William  de  Warren,  Earl  of  Warren  and  Surrey,  m.  Isabel  de  Vermandois 

Mildred  de  Warren  m.  Roger  de  Bellomont  de  Newburgh,  Earl  of 
Warwick 

Waleran  de  Newburgh,  Earl  of  Warwick 

Alice  de  Newburgh  m.  William,  Baron  de  Mauduit 

Isabel  de  Mauduit  m.  William,  Baron  de  Beauchamp 

William  de  Beauchamp 

Isabel  de  Beauchamp  m.  Sir  Patrick  de  Chaworth 

Maud  Chaworth  m.  Henry  Plantagenet,  Earl  of  Leicester 

Mary  Plantagenet  m.  Henry  Percy 

Maud  Percy  m.  Sir  John  Neville 

Anne  Neville  m.  Sir  Thomas  Blount,  Lord  Mont  joy 

Elizabeth  Blount  m,  Arthur,  Baron  Wyndsore 

Edith  Wyndsore  m.  George  Ludlow 

Thomas  Ludlow 

Roger  Ludlow,  Governor  of  Massachusetts 

Gabriel  Ludlow 

Sarah  Ludlow  m.  Sir  John  Carter 

John  Carter  m.  Elizabeth  Hall 

diaries  Carter  m.  Anne  Butler  Moore 

Anne  Carter  m.  General  Henry  Lee 

Robert  £.  Lee 


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488  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

HENRY  ADAMS 
A  typical  New  England  lineage  of  its  kind  is  that  of  the  descend- 
ants and  forbears  of  Abigail  Smith,  the  broad-minded  and  efficient 
wife  of  our  second  president  Unlike  the  Hanks-Lincoln  series,  none 
of  the  Adams  line  ever  knew  poverty,  or  was  deprived  of  the  educa- 
tion which  enables  a  man  of  parts  to  reach  his  highest  possible  devel- 
opment. 

Robert  dc  Bellomont,  Earl  of  Leicester,  in.  Is^l  de  Vcrmandois 

Robert  de  Bellomont,  Earl  of  Leicester 

Margaret  de  Bellomont  m.  Saier  de  Quincy,  Earl  of  Winchester 

Roger  de  Quincy,  Earl  of  Winchester 

Margaret  de  Quincy  m.  William  de  Ferrers,  Earl  of  Derby 

Anne  dc  Ferrers  m.  John  Grey,  Baron  de  Ruthyn 

Maude  de  Grey  m.  Sir  John  dc  Norville 

John  dc  Norton 

John  de  Norton 

Richard  Norton 

William  Norton 

Rev.  William  Norton  (Ipswich,  1630) 

Rev.  John  Norton 

Elizabeth  Norton  m.  Col.  John  Quincy 

Elizabeth  Quincy  m.  Rev.  William  Smith 

Abigail  Smith  m.  John  Adams,  President  of  the  United  States 

John  Quincy  Adams  m.  Louisa  Catherine  Johnson 

Charles  Francis  Adams  m.  Abigail  Brown  Brooks 

Henry  Adams 

JONATHAN  EDWARDS 
The  ablest  of  the  uncompromising  theologians  of  Puritan  blood  was 
undoubtedly  Jonathan  Edwards.^  His  lineage  is  fairly  typical,  differ- 
ing but  little  in  its  general  lines  from  that  of  the  others  whose  pioneer 
forbears  built  up  Massachusetts  and,  through  New  England,  the  United 
States  as  it  is. 

Robert  de  Bellomont,  Earl  of  Leicester,  m.  Isabel  de  Vermandois 

Elizabeth  de  Bellomont  m.  Gilbert  de  Clare,  Earl  of  Pembroke 

Richard  de  Clare,  "Strongbow,"  Earl  of  Pembroke 

Isabel  de  Clare  m.  William  le  Marechal,  Earl  of  Pembroke 

Eve  de  Marechal  m.  William,  Baron  de  Braose 

Maude  de  Braose  m.  Roger,  Baron  Mortimer 

Edmund,  Baron  Mortimer 

Roger,  Baron  Mortimer 

Edmund  Mortimer 

Roger,  Baron  Mortimer,  Earl  of  March 

Catherine  Mortimer  m.  Thomas  de  Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick 

Thomas  de  Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick 

Richard  de  Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick  and  Albemarle 

Margaret  de  Beauchamp  m.  Sir  William  Cavendish 

Sir  Thomas  Cavendish 

2  "She  had  the  hard,  cold  Edwards  blood 
Within  her  veins,  and  so  she  died."    (Bret  Harte) 


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THE  INBRED  DESCENDANTS  OF  CHARLEMAGNE  489 

Sir  William  Cavendish 

Frances  Cavendish  m.  Sir  Henry  Pierrepont 

William  Pierrepont 

Rev.  James  Pierrepont,  of  Ipswich,  Mass. 

Sarah  Pierrepont  m.  Rev.  Jonathan  Edwards,  President  of  the  College 

of  New  Jersey 
Jonathan  Edwards,  President  of  Union  College 

From  the  brothers  and  sisters  of  Jonathan  Edwards  have  descended 
a  remarkable  group  of  university  professors  and  executives: 

Daniel  Coit  Oilman,  President  of  Johns  Hopkins 
Merrill  Edwards  Gates,  President  of  Rutgers 

Timothy  Dwight,  as  well  as  his  grandson  of  the  same  name,  and  Theo- 
dore Dwight  Woolsey,  Presidents  of  Yale 
Sereno  Edwards  Dwight,  President  of  Hamilton 
Egbert  Coffin  Smitli  and  Edward  Amasa  Park,  Presidents  of  Andover 
Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  President  of  Columbia 
Aaron  Burr,  President  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey 
Aaron  Burr,  Jr.,  Vice  President  of  the  United  States 
Theodore  William  Dwight,  founder  of  the  Columbia  Law  School 
Charles  Sedgwick  Minot,  of  the  Harvard  Medical  School 
Theodore  Roosevelt,^  President  of  the  United  States 

SARAH  LOUISE  KIMBALL 

As  illustrative  of  the  genealogy  of  the  rank  and  file  of  cultivated 
Americans,  I  present  below  that  of  the  recorder  of  Isabel's  progeny. 

William  de  Warren,  Earl  of  Warren  and  Surrey,  m.  Isabel  de  Vermandois 

Gondred  de  Warren  m.  Roger  de  Bellomont  de  Newburgh 

Waleran,  Earl  of  Warwick 

Alice  de  Newburgh  m.  William,  Baron  Mauduit 

Isabel  de  Mauduit  m.  W^illiam,  Baron  Beauchamp 

William  de  Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick 

Isabel  de  Beauchamp  m.  Sir  Patrick  de  Chaworth 

Maud  de  Chaworth  m.  Henry  Plantagenet,  Earl  of  Lancaster  and  Leicester 

Mary  Plantagenet  m.  Henry  Percy 

Henry  Percy  m.  Margaret  Neville 

Maud  Percy  m.  Sir  John  Neville 

Sir  Ralph  Neville,  Earl  of  Westmoreland,  m.  Margaret  Stafford 

Joan  Plantagenet  m.  John,  Baron  Mowbray 

Sir  Thomas  Mowbray,  Duke  of  Norfolk,  m.  Elizabeth  Fitz-Alan 

Margaret  Mowbray,  Duchess  of  Norfolk,  m.  Sir  John  Howard 

Sir  John  Howard,  Duke  of  Norfolk 

Catherine  Howard  m.  Sir  John  Bourchier,  Lord  Berners 

Joanne  Bourchier  m.  Edmund  Knyvet 

Anne  Knyvet  m.  Richard  Sayer 

John  Bourchier  Sayers  m.  Marie  Lamoral  van  Egmont 

Richard  Sears  (Plymouth,  1630) 

Deborah  Sears  m.  Zachariah  Paddock 

Zachariah  Paddock 

Peter  Paddock 

Bethial  Paddock  m.  David  Crosby 

Deborah  Crosby  m.  Dr.  Hezekiah  Hjratt 

Mary  Louise  Hyatt  m.  Col.  Simeon  DcWitt  Clough 

Mary  Anne  Qough  m.  Charles  Bradbury  Kimball 

Sabah  Louise  Kiiiball  *    ' 

3  Through  the  Edwards-Tyler-Roosevelt  Imc. 


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490  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

FREDERICK  ELDERKIN  FARR 

In  support  of  my  statement  that  the  average  New  England  farmer 
has  as  good  a  claim  to  royal  blood  as  any  house  in  Europe,  I  now  set 
forth  a  characteristic  example,  one  of  which  adequate  records  are  avail- 
able to  me, — ^that  of  Mr.  Frederick  Elderkin  Farr,  late  of  Wethersfield, 
now  of  Perry,  New  York,  a  worthy  man  not  essentially  different  from 
the  body  of  his  fellows.  And  the  reader  will  at  once  observe  that  the 
following  series  is  for  a  long  period  identical  with  that  of  Washington, 
Lincoln,  and  George  V. 

Robert  de  Bellomont,  Earl  of  Leicester,  m.  Isabel  de  Vermandois 
Elizabeth  de  Bellomont  m.  Gilbert  de  Clare,  Earl  of  Pembroke 
Richard  de  Clare,  "Strongbow,"  Earl  of  Pembroke 
Isabel  de  Clare  m.  William  le  Marechal,  Earl  of  Pembroke 
Eve  de  Marechal  m.  William,  Baron  de  Braose 
Maude  de  Braose  m.  Roger,  Baron  Mortimer 
Edmund,  Baron  Mortimer 
Roger,  Baron  Mortimer 
Edmund  Mortimer 
Roger  Mortimer,  Earl  of  March 
Edmund  Mortimer,  Earl  of  March 

Elizabeth  Mortimer  m.  Sir  Henry  Percy,  "Hotspur,"  Earl  of   North- 
umberland 
Henry  Percy,  Earl  of  Northiunberland 
Margaret  Percy  m.  Sir  William  Gascoigne 
Elizabeth  Gascoigne  m.  Gilbert  de  Talboys 
Sir  George  de  Talboys 
Anne  de  Talboys  m.  Sir  Edward  Dymoke 
Arthur  Dymoke 
Edward  Dymoke 

Thomas  Dimmock  (Barnstable,  1640)  m.  Ann  Hammond 
Shubael  Dimmock  m.  Joanna  Bursley 
Thankful  Dimmock  m.  Edward  Waldo 
Edward  Waldo  m.  Abigail  Elderkin 
Zachariah  Waldo  m.  Elizabeth  Wight 
John  Elderkin  Waldo  m.  Beulah  Foster 
Anne  Waldo  m.  David  Hawley 
Diantha  Hawley  m.  Samuel  Farr 
Frederick  Elderkin  Farr 


But  by  way  of  cumulative  evidence  on  the  origin  of  the  Puritan 
farmer,  I  herewith  present  a  second  Farr  line,  this  one  leading  back 
to  Ada  de  Warren,  youngest  child  of  Isabel  de  Vermandois. 

William  de  Warren,  Earl  of  Warren  and  Surrey,  m.  Isabel  de  Vermandois 

Ada  de  Warren  m.  Henry  of  Scotland,  Earl  of  Huntingdon 

Margaret  de  Warren  m.  Humphrey  de  Bohun  IV,  Earl  of  Hereford  and 

Essex 
Henry  de  Bohun 

Humphrey  de  Bohun  V,  "the  Good,"  m.  Matilde  Exouden 
Humphrey  de  Bohun  VI  m.  Eleanor  de  Braose 
Humphrey  de  Bohun  VII  m.  Maud  de  Fiennes,  descendant  of  Hugh 

Capet  and  of  Charlemagne 
Humphrey  de  Bohun  VIII  m.  Elizabeth  de  Plantagenet,  Countess   of 

Holland,  daughter  of  King  Edward  I  and  EUeanor  of  Castile 
Lady  Margaret  de  Bohun  m.  Sir  Hugh  de  Courtenay,  Earl  of  Devon 


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THE  INBRED  DESCENDANTS  OF  CHARLEMAGNE  491 

Edward  Courtenay,  Earl  of  Devon,  m.  Emiline  D'Auney 

Sir  Hugh  Courtenay  m.  Maud  Beaumont 

Margaret  Courtenay  m.  Sir  Theobald  Grenville 

Sir  William  Grenville  m.  Philippa  Bonville 

Thomas  Grenville  m.  Elizabeth  Gorges 

Sir  Thomas  Grenville  m.  Elizabeth  Gilbert 

Sir  Roger  Grenville  m.  Margaret  Whitleigh 

Amy  Grenville  m.  John  Drake 

Robert  Drake  m.  Elizabeth  Prideaux 

William  Drake  m.  Philippa  Denys 

John  Drake,  of  Windsor,  Conn.  (Boston,  1636)  m.  Elizabeth  Rogers 

Elizabeth  Drake  m.  John  Elderkin 

John  Elderkin,  Jr.,  m.  Abigail  Fowler 

Colonel  John  Elderkin  m.  Susannah  Baker 

Abigail  Elderkin  m.  Edward  Waldo,  Jr. 

Zachariah  Waldo  m.  Elizabeth  Wight 

John  Elderkin  Waldo  m.  Beulah  Foster 

Anne  Waldo  m.  David  Hawley 

Diantha  Hawley  m.  Samuel  Farr 

Frederick  Elderkin  Farr 


Another  series  of  records^  carries  Mr.  Farr's  line  still  farther  back 
to  the  very  beginnings  of  royalty  in  both  England  and  France,  a  con- 
spicuous lineage  which,  however,  if  all  the  facts  were  known,  would  be 
seen  to  be  shared  by  most  Englishmen  and  Americans. 

Egbert  of  Wessex,  first  King  of  England,  m.  Lady  Radburga 

Ethelwulf  m.  Lady  Osburga 

Alfred  the  Great  m.  Lady  Alswitha 

Alfritha  m.  Baldwin  II,  King  of  Jerusalem,  great  grandson  of  Louis  le 
Debonaire,  son  of  Charlemagne 

Amolph  I,  Count  of  Flanders,  m.  Adela  de  Vermandois 

Baldwin  III,  Cotmt  of  Flanders,  m.  Mathilde  of  Savoy 

Amolijh  II,  Count  of  Flanders,  m.  Rosalie  dlvrce 

Baldwin  IV,  "le  Barbu,"  Count  of  Flanders,  m.  Ogive  de  Luxembourg 

Baldwin  V,  the  Pious,  Coimt  of  Flanders,  m.  Adela  of  France 

Mathilde  m.  William  I,  the  Conqueror 

Henry  I,  Beauclerc,  m.  Maud  of  Scotland 

Mathilde  d'Anjou  m.  Geoff roy  Martel  Plantagenet 

Henry  II  m.  Eleanor  D'Aquitaine 

John,  King  of  England,  m.  Isabella  de  Taillefer,  daughter  of  Aymar  de 
Taillefer  and  Lady  Alice  de  Courtency 

Henry  III   (1216)  m.  Eleanor  de  Bercnger  of  Provence 

Edward  I  m.  Eleanor  of  Castile,  daughter  of  Ferdinand  III,  San  Fer- 
nando Rey  d'Espafia 

Elizabeth  Plantagenet  m.  Humphrey  de  Bohun  VII 

Margaret  de  Bohun  m.  Hugh  de  Courteney,  Earl  of  Devon 

Edward  Courteney  m.  Emeline  D'Auney  (Dawney) 

Sir  Hugh  Courteney  m.  Maud  Beaumont 

Margaret  Courteney  m.  Sir  Theobald  Grenville 

Sir  William  Grenville  m.  Philippa  Bonville 

Thomas  Grenville  m.  Elizabeth  Gorges 

Sir  Thomas  Grenville  m.  Elizabeth  Gilbert 

Sir  Roger  Grenville  m.  Margaret  Whitleigh 

Amy  Grenville  m.  John  Drake 

Robert  Drake  m.  Elizabeth  Brideaux 

William  Drake  m.  Phillippa  Denys 

John  Drake  (Boston,  1636)  m.  Elizabeth  Rogers 

Elizabeth  Drake  m.  John  Elderkin 

John  Elderkin  m.  Abigail  Fowler 

♦  Drawn  from  the  extensive  compilations  of  my  brother-in-law,  the  late 
Edward  J.  Edwards. 


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492  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

Abigail  Elderkin  m.  Edward  Waldo 
Zachariah  Waldo  m.  Elizabeth  Wight 
John  Elderkin  Waldo  m.  Beulah  Foster 
Ann  Waldo  m.  David  Hawley 
Diantha  Hawley  m.  Samuel  Farr 
Fkederick  Elderkin  Farr 

I  now  cite  a  few  more  of  the  leading  American  descendants  of 
Isabel  de  Vermandois,  surnames  only  being  given.  (It  is  raiderstood, 
of  course,  that  a  change  in  surname  indicates  descent  through  a  daugh- 
ter whose  children  carry  the  father's  name.) 

Nathaniel  Bacon  :  Bellomont,  de  Clare,  Meschines,  Bacon  for  six  genera- 
tions, Thorpe,  Bacon  again  for  nine  generations. 

Phillips  Brooks  :  Bellomont,  de  Clare,  Marechal,  Mortimer,  Percy,  Gascoigne, 
Markenfield,  Mauleverer,  Kaye,  Saltonstall,  Cotton,  Brown,  Brooks. 
Francis  Parkman  and  Edward  Everett  also  go  back  to  the  same  (Brooks) 
group. 

William  Ellery  Channing  :  Bellomont,  de  Quincy,  Zouche,  de  Vere,  Grey, 
D'Arcy,  Dighton,  Woodbridge,  Remington,  Ellery,  Channing. 

George  Dewey  :  Bellomont,  DeQuincy,  Umf raville  for  six  generations,  Lam- 
bert, Lyman  for  seven  generations,  Dewey  for  eight  generations. 

Charles  William  Eliot:  Bellomont,  DeQuincy,  Ferrers,  Berkeley,  Pyn- 
chard,  Bassett  for  eleven  generations,  Deighton,  Dudley,  Atkins,  Eliot 

Ulysses  Simpson  Grant:  Bellomont  deClare,  Marechal,  Braose,  Mortimer, 
Beauchamp,  Minor,  Clinton,  Booth,  Grant.  The  same  series  leads  from 
Grant  through  Marsh-Watson  to  Richard  H.  Dana. 

Benjamin  Harrison  :  Lineage  identical  with  that  of  Lee  except  for  the  last 
surname. 

Patrick  Henry:  Bellomont,  deClare,  Sutherland,  Sinclair,  Stuart,  Robert- 
son, Henry. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes:  Bellomont,  de  Quincy,  Zouche,  de  Vere,  Grey, 
D'Arcy,  Yorke,  Dudley,  Bradstreet,  Wendell,  Holmes— a  line  duplicated 
by  that  of  Wendell  Phillips  up  to  the  last  surname. 

Thomas  Jefferson:  Bellomont,  de  Quincy,  Zouche,  de  Vere,  Isham,  Ran- 
dolph, Jefferson. 

J.  Pierrepont  Morgan  :  Warren,  Newburgh,  Mauduit,  Beauchamp,  Plantage- 
net,  Percy,  Somerset,  Vaughan,  Morgan  for  eleven  generations. 

John  Davison  Rockefeller:  Warren,  Newburgh,  Mauduit,  Beauchamp, 
Plantagenet,  Percy,  Neville,  Brooks,  Wyatt,  Pole,  Hastings,  Clinton, 
Humphrey,  Palmes,  Avery,  Rockefeller. 

William  Thompson  Sedgwick:  Bellomont  de  Clare,  Marechal,  Braose, 
Mortimer,  Beauchamp,  Cavendish,  Pierrepont,  Edwards,  Dwight,  Sedg- 
wick. 

Two  generalizations  stand  out  in  studies  of  this  kind;  first,  that  of 
the  boundless  range  of  combinations  possible  from  the  same  essential 
traits  or  ^'unit  characters";  second,  the  gradual  rise  in  importance  of 
the  self-respecting  middle  class  which  slowly  but  surely  develops  at 
the  expense  of  those  artificially  maintained  as  master  or  serf  under 
the  caste  system.  As  to  the  first,  each  is  the  sum  of  his  own  combina- 
tion of  developed  unit  characters.  Never  yet  were  any  two  people 
exactly  alike;  Nature  has  infinite  variety  at  her  disposal.  Among  all 
these  combinations,  one,  here  and  there,  spells  true  distinction,  and 
from  humble  (though  never  feeble)  ancestry  spring  many  of  our 
greatest,  "the  elements  so  mixed  in  them"  that  the  blend  is  especially 
favorable.  For  originality  rests  not  on  new  traits  but  on  new  adjust- 
ments of  the  old. 


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STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY  493 


STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY* 

By  Dr.  JOHN  B.  WATSON  and 
ROSAUE  RAYNER  WATSON 

NEW  TORK  CITY 

AT  no  previous  time  in  the  history  of  the  human  race  has  so  much 
interest  centered  in  the  life  and  growth  of  the  infant  One  sees 
evidence  of  this  in  the  development  of  various  organizations  and  insti- 
tutions for  furthering  the  bodily  welfare  of  the  child;  in  the  fact  that 
kindergartens  are  admitting  younger  and  younger  children;  and  in  the 
fact  that  the  whole  field  of  preventive  medicine  is  focusing  more  and 
more  upon  the  study  of  methods  by  means  of  which  the  infant  and  the 
child  may  be  kept  free  from  disease.  At  a  recent  conference  of  physic- 
ians and  psychologists  held  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  the  feeding 
and  the  care  of  infants  and  their  medical  and  psychological  study,  the 
remark  was  often  made,  albeit  somewhat  grudgingly,  *4t  seems 
astonishing  but  true  that  everything  in  the  last  diree  years  in  medicine 
and  psychology  has  been  headed  toward  the  infant.**  From  the 
moment  of  birth  and  even  before  his  advent  the  young  human  animal 
is  looked  after  from  every  material  standpoint  in  a  way  which  would 
have  made  our  frontier  ancestors,  who  simply  let  their  babies  grow, 
doubt  our  sanity. 

The  conviction  is  growing,  however,  and  rapidly,  that  our  knowl- 
edge is  still  too  scanty  to  enable  us  to  care  properly  for  all  phases  of 
the  welfare  of  the  infant  and  child.  Pediatricians,  dieticians  and  even 
general  practitioners  have  had  the  conclusion  forced  upon  them  that 
merely  keeping  the  bottle  plentifully  supplied  with  nH)dified  cow's 
milk  or  feeding  the  infant  with  some  new  form  of  ^^balanced  diet'* 
combined  with  a  little  welfare  work  in  the  home,  has  not  prevented  a 

1  This  manuscript  was  prepared  on  the  basis  of  the  experimental  work 
done  in  the  psychological  laboratory  of  Tohns  Hopkins  University  in  the 
years  1919  and  1920.  We  are  greatly  indebted  to  Dr.  John  Howfand  and 
to  Dr.  J.  Whitridge  Williams,  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  for  making 
this  study  possible. 

Acknowledgement  should  be  made  to  the  Committee  on  Grants  for  Re- 
search of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  for 
assistance  in  making  these  studies.  In  1917  the  Committee  on  Grants  upon 
recommendation  of  Dr.  J.  McKeen  Cattell  appropriated  the  sum  of  $100.00 
for  our  assistance  in  studying  the  development  of  reflexes  and  instincts  in 
infants. 

The  work  at  Hopkins  was  left  in  such  an  incomplete  state  that  verified 
conclusions  are  not  possible;  hence  this  summary,  like  so  many  other  bits  of 
psychological  work,  must  be  looked  upon  merely  as  a  preliminarv  exposition 
of  possibilities  rather  than  as  a  catalogue  of  concrete  usable  results. 


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494  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

high  rate  of  infant  mortality.  Nor  have  we  any  guarantee  even  if  the 
body  weight  is  kept  normal  by  any  form  of  diet  other  possibly  than 
the  mother's  milk  that  the  infant  will  develop  properly  along  psy- 
chological lines.  And  by  psychological  in  this  connection  we  mean 
the  plain  matters  of  common  occurrence  such  as  crawling,  walking, 
sitting  up,  beginifing  to  speak,  smiling,  blinking,  reaching,  imitation, ' 
the  putting  on  of  habits,  the  expression  of  emotional  activity,  and  the 
like.  It  lies  very  well  within  the  bounds  of  possibility  that  a  diet  and 
regime  which  will  keep  up  the  body  weight  might  nevertheless  cause 
an  infant  to  put  on  its  various  necessary  activities  at  a  very  slow  rate 
or  possibly  at  a  too  rapid  rate.  This  might  end  in  giving  us  either  a 
child  or  an  adult  with  a  very  unbalanced  and  unstable  disposition  or 
an  indolent  or  phlegmatic  one.  Research  work  along  many  lines — 
nutritional,  glandular,  the  effects  of  difficult  labor,  inheritance,  and  the 
psychological  study  of  infant  activity — ^is  called  for  from  our  best 
qualified  men. 

On  the  psychological  side  our  present  knowle<%e  of  infant  life  is 
almost  nil.  If  an  anxious  mother  wishes  to  determine  whether  her  in- 
fant is  developing  normally  along  psychological  lines  there  are  no 
data  at  presei^  to  guide  her  and  no  individual  or  institution  to  whom 
she  may  turn  to  get  a  reasonable  answer.  Who  would  pretend  to 
say  what  the  activity  chart  or  stream  of  activity  of  a  three  months', 
six  months'  or  year  old  child  should  reveal?  The  ordinary  doctor 
will  say,  ^'Don't  worry  about  the  infant,  it  is  getting  along  all 
right.  Anyway  it  is  too  young  for  anybody  to  tell  much  about  it" 
Nor  is  this  let-alone  policy  confined  solely  to  the  general  practitioners. 
Even  our  educators  do  not  escape  it.  A  prominent  professor  of  educa- 
tion once  said  to  us,  *^You  will  find  when  you  have  taught  as  many 
children  as  I  have  that  you  can  do  nothing  with  a  child  until  it  is 
over  five  years  of  age."  Our  own  view  after  studying  many  hundreds 
of  infants  is  that  one  can  make  or  break  the  child  so  far  as  its  per- 
sonality is  concerned  long  before  the  age  of  five  is  reached.  We  be- 
lieve that  by  the  end  of  the  second  year  the  pattern  of  the  future  in- 
dividual is  already  laid  down.  Many  things  which  go  into  the  making 
of  this  pattern  are  under  the  control  of  the  parents,  but  as  yet  they 
have  not  been  made  aware  of  them.  The  question  as  to  whether  the 
child  will  possess  a  stable  or  unstable  personality,  whether  it  is  going 
to  be  timid  and  beset  with  many  fears  and  subject  to  ragee  and  tan- 
trums, whether  it  will  exhibit  tendencies  of  general  over  or  und«* 
emotionalism,  and  the  like,  has  been  answered  already  by  the  ^id  of 
the  two  year  period. 

There  are  several  reasons  why  the  minute  psychological  study  of 
infant  life  is  important.  (1)  As  was  pointed  out  diere  are  no  stan- 
dards of  behavior  or  conduct  for  young  infants.     Our  own  experi- 


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STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY  495 

mental  work  which,  even  at  the  end  of  two  years  is  just  beginning,  has 
taught  us  that  the  study  of  infant  activity  from  birth  onward  will 
enable  us  to  tell  with  some  accuracy  what  a  normal  child  at  three 
months  of  age  can  and  should  do  and  what  additional  complexities  in 
behavior  should  appear  as  the  months  go  by.  Psychological  labora- 
tories in  many  institutions  ought  to  be  able  to  make  cross-sections  of 
the  activity  of  any  infant  at  any  age  and  tell  whether  the  streams  of 
activity  are  runmng  their  normal  course  and  whether  certain  ones  are 
lagging  or  have  not  even  appeared.  After  sufficient  work  has  been  done 
to  enable  us  to  have  confidence  in  our  standards  we  should  be  able  to 
detect  feeble-mindedness,  deficiencies  in  habit,  and  deviations  in 
emotional  life.  If  a  proper  analysis  of  the  activity  streams  can  be 
made  at  a  very  early  age  the  whole  care  of  the  child  may  be  altered 
with  beneficial  results.  (2)  Modern  psychology  catalogues  most  ela- 
borate lists  of  instincts  and  emotions  in  human  beings.  These  cata- 
logues are  not  based  upon  experimental  work  but  upon  the  precon- 
ceived opinions  of  the  men  making  up  the  lists.  At  present  we 
simply  have  not  the  data  for  the  enumeration  of  man's  original  ten- 
dencies and  it  will  be  impossible  to  obtain  such  data  until  we  have 
followed  through  the  development  of  the  acitvity  of  many  infants  from 
birth  to  advanced  childhood.  Children  of  five  years  of  age  and  over 
are  enormously  sophisticated.  The  home  environment  and  outside 
companions  have  so  shaped  them  that  the  original  tendencies  can  not 
be  observed.  The  habits  put  on  in  such  an  environment  quidcly  over- 
lay the  primitive  and  hereditary  equipment.  A  workable  psychology 
of  human  instincts  and  emotions  can  thus  never  be  attained  by  merely 
observing  the  behavior  of  the  adult  (3)  By  reason  of  this  defect 
the  study  of  vocational  and  business  phychology  is  in  a  backward  state. 
The  attempt  to  select  a  vocation  for  a  boy  or  girl  in  the  light  of  our 
present  knowledge  of  the  original  nature  of  man  is  little  more  than  a 
leap  in  the  dark.  High  sounding  names  like  the  constructive  instinct, 
the  instinct  of  workmanship  and  the  like,  which  are  now  so  much'  used 
by  the  sociologists  and  the  economists,  will  remain  empty  phrases  until 
we  have  increased  our  knowledge  of  infancy  and  childhood.  The  only 
reasonable  way,  it  would  seem  to  us,  of  ever  determining  a  satisfactory 
knowledge  of  the  various  original  vocational  bents  and  capacities  of 
the  human  race  is  for  psychologists  to  bring  up  under  the  supervision 
of  medical  men  a  large  group  of  infants  under  controlled  but  varied 
and  sympathetic  conditions.  Children  begin  to  reach  for,  select,  play 
with  and  to  manipulate  objects  from  about  the  150th  day  on.  What 
objects  they  select  day  by  day,  what  form  their  manipulation  takes,  and 
what  early  habits  develop  upon  such  primitive  instinctive  activity 
should  be  recorded  day  by  day  in  black  and  white.  There  will  be 
marked  individual  differences  in  the  material  selected,  in  the  length  of 


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4»6  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

time  any  type  of  material  will  be  utilized,  and  in  the  early  constructive 
babits  which  will  arise  with  respect  to  all  materials  worked  with  by  die 
infant  Without  instruction  one  infant  (eighteen  to  twenty  months  in 
an  observed  case)  will  build  a  neat  wall  with  her  blocks,  with  one 
color  always  facing  her.  If  the  block  is  turned  while  ^e  is  not  look- 
ing she  will  quickly  change  it  and  correct  the  defect  In  other  chil- 
dren such  a  bit  of  behavior  can  be  inculcated  only  with  the  greatest 
difficulty.  Still  another  child  can  not  be  made  to  play  with  blocks  but 
will  work  with  twigs  and  sticks  by  the  hour.  Variations  in  the  elec- 
tion and  use  of  materials  are  the  rule  in  infancy  but  until  we  have  fol- 
lowed up  the  future  course  of  such  variations  upon  infants  whose  pasi 
we  have  waiched  day  by  day  we  are  in  no  position  to  make  generaliza- 
tions about  the  original  tendencies  which  underlie  the  vocations.  (4) 
Finally,  until  we  have  obtained  data  upon  the  emotional  life  of  the 
infant  and  the  normal  curve  of  instinctive  and  habit  activity  at  the 
various  ages,  new  methods  for  correcting  deviations  in  emotional,  in- 
stinctive and  habit  development  can  not  be  worked  out  Let  us  take  a 
concrete  example.  A  certain  child  is  afraid  of  animals  of  every  type, 
furry  objects,  the  dark,  etc.  These  fears  are  not  heredkary.  Our  ex- 
periments will  be  convincing  upon  that  point  What  steps  can  we  take 
to  remove  these  fears,  which  unless  they  are  removed  in  infancy,  may 
become  an  enduring  part  of  the  child's  personality? 

An  Experimental  Study  of  what  Infants  can  do  at  Different 
AcESw    Instincts  and  Early  Habits 

The  human  infant  in  general  is  sturdy  and  well  able  to  stand  all  of 
the  simple  tests  we  need  to  apply.  Certainly  the  stresses  and  strains  upon 
his  nervous  system,  the  muscular  pulls  and  twists  he  gets  in  merely 
being  bom  are  a  thousand  times  harder  upon  him  than  anything  we 
will  later  do  to  him  in  the  laboratory.  Probably  none  of  our  tests  is 
any  more  strenuous  for  him  than  giving  him  his  morning  badi  or 
chafing  his  clothes.  We  have  worked  upon  more  than  five  hundred 
infants  and  so  far  without  the  slightest  temporary  or  permanent  mis- 
hap. These  remarks  seem  necessary  in  view  of  the  fact  that  sentimen- 
talists sometimes  feel  when  visiting  our  laboratory  that  our  woxk  may 
be  a  little  hard  on  the  infant.  The  work  is  done  under  the  constant 
supervision  of  physicians  and  we  take  the  stand  that  what  we  are  doing 
will  be  important  in  the  long  run  in  lessening  human  misery  and  mal- 
adjustment 

When  the  newborn  infant  is  first  brought  into  the  laboratory  and 
undressed  most  visitors  exclaim:  ^'Wfaat  can  you  see  to  study  in  that 
highly  unstable  but  wholly  delightful  bit  of  helpless  protoplasm?** 
Observation  does  seem  all  but  hopeless  at  first.  But  closer  inspection 
soon  makes  it  clear  that  there  are  many  forms  of  infant  adjustment 
which  can  be  studied  easily  under  controlled  experimental  conditions. 


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STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY  497 

Our  first  problem  in  the  psychological  study  of  the  infant  was  the 
finding  out  of  those  activities  that  can  be  seen  at  birth  and  those  that 
appear  as  the  infant  increases  in  age.  Whidi  among  those  activities 
drop  out  or  change  as  age  advances?  What  is  the  significance  for  the 
later  make-up  of  the  individual  of  those  that  remain  in  the  stream? 
How  are  they  tied  together  so  as  to  form  suitable  bases  for  the  putting 
on  of  the  stable  and  constructive  habits  of  the  adult?  We  can  possibly 
present  our  problem  and  our  methods  by  considering  a  few  of  the 
activities  as  they  appear  under  laboratory  scrutiny. 

Grasping.  One  of  the  easiest  things  to  note  about  the  new  bom 
human  infant  is  that  when  any  small  object  such  as  a  stick,  a  tuft  of 
hair,  or  a  finger  is  placed  in  the  palm,  its  fingers  close  down  upon  the 
object  and  clasp  it  tightly.  For  experimental  purposes  we  used  a  small 
twisted  wire  rod  covered  with  a  piece  of  rubber  tubing.  The  infant's 
fingers  are  open,  the  rod  is  placed  in  the  palm  and  a  gentle  shake  ad- 
ministered, whereupon  its  grasp  of  the  rod  tightens.  The  experimenter 
then  catches  the  two  ends  of  the  rod  and  raises  the  child  up  over  a 
soft  mattress.  One  assistant  takes  the  time  that  the  infant  hangs  sus- 
pended while  a  second  assistant  puts  both  hands  under  it  to  catch  it 
when  it  lets  go.  The  evidence  seems  to  be  good  that  all  but  about  two 
per  cent,  of  normal  infants  of  average  weight  at  birth  can  suspend 
themselves  for  an  appreciable  interval  of  time.  Many  of  them  will 
hang  suspended  for  only  a  fraction  of  a  second  while  others  will  hang 
suspended  for  many  seconds.  The  longest  suspension  we  have  had  was 
one  minute.  Often  times  the  infant  is  made  to  suspend  itself  with  dif- 
ficulty. In  such  cases  it  is  emotionally  aroused  by  holding  the  head, 
feet  or  legs  or  by  holding  the  nose  for  an  instant  If  a  good  healthy  cry 
is  started  the  muscular  strength  seems  to  be  increased.  Whether  this 
bears  out  Cannon's  coitfention  that  the  major  emotions  such  as  fear  and 
rage  are  biologically  serviceable  can  possibly  not  be  concluded  from 
diese  experiments.  His  view  is  that  under  the  influence  of  stimuli  that 
produce  the  major  emotions  a  greater  than  normal  amount  of  adrenalin 
b  set  free  by  the  adrenal  glands  (one  of  the  so-called  ductless  glands) . 
This  adrenalin  attacks  the  stored  sugar  in  the  liver  (glycogen)  setting 
it  free  in  the  blood  stream  in  such  a  form  that  it  can  serve  rapidly  as 
food  for  the  muscles  and  for  neutralizing  fatigue  products  in  the 
muscles.  At  any  rate  the  fact  remains  that  in  many  cases  when  the 
sluggirfi  infant  can  be  stirred  up  emotionally  it  can  be  made  to  suspend 
itself  on  the  rod. 

This  instinctive  reaction  undoubtedly  begins  before  birth  since  it  is 
present  in  children  bom  prematurely.  We  have  followed  it  through 
day  by  day  on  a  great  many  children.  The  daily  time  of  suspension 
vanes  greatly.  It  does  not  seem  to  increase  or  decrease  with  the  age 
of  the  diild  in  any  r^ular  way.    TTie  most  significant  fact  for  the 


VOL.  XllL— 32 


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498  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

woik  we  are  engaged  in  is  that  the  instinct  disappears  at  about  the  age 
of  one  hvindred  and  twenty-four  days,  although  in  some  infants  it 
persists  to  a  greater  age.  Once  it  disappears  from  the  stream  of  activ- 
ity under  normal  conditions  it  never  returns.  It  will  be  seen  here  at 
once  that  this  observation  of  the  grasping  instinct  gives  us  one  of  our 
desirable  points.  If  we  take  a  cross-section  of  the  activities  of  the 
child  at  any  time  from  hirth  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  days,  we 
shall  find  this  instinct  present  After  the  period  of  its  disappearance, 
not  yet  exactly  determined,  the  behavior  of  the  infant  would  give  no 
evidence  that  such  an  instinct  had  ever  been  present  Having  de- 
termined what  is  called  a  normal  distribution  curve  for  the  disap- 
pearance of  this  instinct  in  normal  children,  it  will  be  seen  that  we 
have  a  basis  or  standard  for  testing  infants  whose  developmoot  seems 
to  be  delayed;  for  example,  comparing  widi  presumably  normal  infants, 
infants  whose  parents  are  feeble-minded,  since  we  know  that  a  large 
percentage  of  the  infants  of  feeble-minded  parents  will  turn  out  to  be 
feeble-minded.  We  are  not  yet  ready  to  advise  the  practical  use  ot 
this  test  Our  work  progressess  slowly  by  reason  of  the  fact  that 
normal  infants  suitable  in  age  are  diflkult  to  obtain  in  the  laboratory 
and  infants  suspected  of  abnormality  are  still  more  difficult  to  obtain. 
What  slender  evidence  we  have  would  seem  to  show  that  in  these  sus- 
pected cases  this  primitive  instinct  persists  for  a  much  longer  time  than 
it  does  in  the  supposedly  narmal  infants.  A  word  of  warning  should 
be  introduced  here  in  order  that  motiiers  may  avoid  needless  anxiety 
in  case  they  find  that  their  infants  possess  the  grasping  instinct  at  a 
much  later  age  than  we  have  indicated  a^  beii^  the  usual  one.  Our 
work  has  not  gone  far  enough  for  us  to  say  that  even  if  the  instinct  is 
present  at  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  days  of  age  the  infant  must 
necessarily  be  abnormally  slow  in  development.  One  should  not  draw 
any  conclusions  on  the  basis  of  either  the  presence  or  the  absence  of 
any  one  such  hereditary  form  of  activity.  It  is  only  when  we  have 
established  workable  standards  for  many  such  modes  of  bdiavior  and 
find  deviations  from  these  norms  in  many  particulars  that  alarm  need 
be  felt 

Reaching.  As  soon  as  the  grasping  reflex  begins  to  disappear  a 
much  more  serviceable  form  of  activity,  partly  hereditary  and  partly 
learned  (habit) ,  begins  to  take  its  place,  and  that  is  extending  the  hand 
for  an  object,  grasping  it,  and  carrying  it  to  the  mouth  or  manipulating 
it.  This  is  probably  the  most  fundamental  group  of  activities  appear- 
ing in  man.  Tests  for  reaching  are  begun  at  one  hundred  days  of  age. 
The  subject  is  seated  in  the  lap  of  an  assistant  in  a  well  lighted  room. 
The  experimenter  takes  a  stick  of  candy  and  slowly  extends  it  toward 
the  infant  After  the  lips  have  been  toudied  with  the  candy  several 
times  the  sight  of  it,  even  before  the  reaching  stage  is  attained,  will 


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STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY  499 

tend  to  bring  about  heightened  activity,  especially  of  the  hands.  As 
the  days  go  by  this  activity  becomes  greater  and  at  one  time  or  anodier 
the  experimenter  will  find,  if  his  patience  is  sufficient,  that  the  infant 
will  slap  the  inside  of  the  palm  against  the  candy,  will  grasp  it  and 
carry  it  towards  the  face.  When  this  happens  the  subject  is  always 
allowed  to  suck  the  candy  for  just  an  instant.  The  candy  is  then  re- 
moved and  the  test  repeated.  Five  or  six  such  tests  are  ^ven  on  each 
weddy  experiment.  The  grov^  of  this  combined  instinct  and  habit 
activity  is  extremely  instructive  to  watdb.  In  normal  infants  at  one 
hundred  and  fifty  days  who  have  had  weddy  practice  for  several  wedcs 
the  reaction  is  fairly  definitely  established.  At  that  time  almost  any 
object  will  be  reached  for.  One  of  the  most  significant  factors  appear- 
ing is  that  apparently  the  infant  is  positive  to  all  objects,  that  is  it 
reaches  out  for  practically  every  object  and  avoids  none.  With  sli^t 
exceptions  all  avoiding  reactions^  that  is  drawing  back  or  turning  from 
objects,  have  to  be  learned.  This  can  be  illustrated  very  nicely  with 
the  lighted  candle.  We  usually  establish  the  reactions  of  reaching  for 
the  candy  and  avoiding  the  candle  flame  at  the  same  time.  If  the 
candle  is  made  to  approach  the  infants  face  the  same  eager  random 
activity  is  exhibited  as  to  the  candy.  Care  is  taken  always  not  to  allow 
the  hand  to  come  close  enough  to  produce  a  bum.  But  the  hand  is  al- 
lowed on  every  trial  to  be  momentarily  touched  by  the  flame.  Tliis 
produces  a  slight  reflex  withdrawal  of  die  finger,  sharp  closing,  fan- 
ning or  spreading  of  the  fingers,  etc.,  and,  if  the  temperature  is  too 
great,  an  actual  reflex  withdrawal  of  die  arm.  The  candle  is  then  hid 
for  a  momrat  and  the  child  again  stimulated.  The  growth  of  this  activ- 
ity is  very  similar  to  that  of  readiing  for  the  candy.  It  takes  not  one 
slight  bum  of  the  candle  but  many  before  the  infant  learns  to  let  its 
hands  hang  at  its  sides  when  the  candle  gets  widiin  reaching  distance. 
Possibly  if  the  bum  were  made  severe  enough  only  a  few  such  tests 
would  be  required  (a  ^conditioned  reflex"  would  arise  instead  of  the 
ordinary  habit). 

Another  feature  of  the  reaching  reaction  has  been  worked  out  and 
that  is  the  distance  to  vrhich  the  diild  will  readi  for  objects.  When 
we  started  our  studies  we  believed  with  the  poet  that  the  child  would 
reach  for  any  object  coming  within  its  ken  regardless  of  the  actual 
distance  of  the  object.  Mudi  to  our  surprise  we  found  that  in  no  case 
were  objects  reached  for,  even  when  fixated  and  followed  with  the 
eyes,  at  a  greater  distance  than  twenty  inches.  When  a  lighted  candle 
is  brought  slowly  across  the  room  and  extended  toward  an  infant  which 
has  just  learned  to  reach,  die  hands  and  arms  do  not  begin  to  get  active 
undl  the  candle  is  twenty-five  indies  from  the  face.  The  body  dien 
begins  to  bend  toward  the  object  and  finally  as  it  is  brought  nearer 
still  the  hands  and  fingers  take  on  the  proper  adjustment  for  grasping; 
actual  reaching  then  soon  follows. 


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500  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

We  thus  see  that  in  the  study  of  reaching  we  obtain  another  point 
on  our  infant  activity  chart  An  infant  tested  at  one  hundred  and 
fifty  days  should  have  as  a  part  of  its  equipment  the  ability  to  reach 
for  objects,  to  grasp  them  and  to  carry  them  to  the  mouth  or  other- 
wise manipulate  them,  and  the  ability  to  learn  to  avoid  a  candle  or 
other  harmful  stimuli  provided  proper  training  has  been  instituted. 

Righl-  and  Lefuhandedness.  At  the  present  time  a  good  deal  of 
interest  is  manifested  in  the  question  as  to  whether  handedness  is 
hereditary  or  whether  it  is  simply  a  learned  response.  The  discussion 
so  far  has  been  of  the  ^arm  chair"  variety.  Most  individuals  are  right- 
haxided  and  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  we  would  try  to  instil  in 
youngsters  almost  from  the  beginning  the  dominance  of  the  right  hand. 
We  bring  this  about  possibly  even  vrithout  trying  to  by  handing  objects 
toward  die  child's  right  hand,  by  shaking  its  right  hand,  patting  its 
right  hand,  and  by  leaving  its  right  hand  free  in  carrying  it  in  our 
arms.  Does  this  behavior  on  our  part  simply  carry  on  right-Eanded- 
nesB  traditicmally  or  is  there  something  hereditary  and  instinctive  about 
this  reaction?  The  problem  is  both  an  interesting  one  scientifically 
and  at  the  same  time  a  practical  one  since  it  cuts  deep  into  actual 
school  procedure.  All  children  are  told  when  they  come  to  writing, 
*'Now  take  your  pencil  in  your  right  hand.''  We  do  not  wish  to  criti« 
cise  such  a  custom  in  the  light  of  our  present  knowledge.  We  know 
that  most  children  thrive  more  or  less  well  under  such  a  procedure.  On 
the  other  hand  there  is  a  slight  but  growing  body  of  evidence  to  show 
that  in  some  children  at  least  stammering  and  other  emotional  mis- 
haps may  result  when  a  child  has  for  whatever  reason  predominantly 
used  its  left  hand  and  has  been  forced  to  change  over  to  the  right  In 
some  cases  the  bad  symptoms  disappear  if  the  child  is  allowed  to  go 
back  to  the  free  use  of  its  left  hand. 

We  have  carried  through  a  rather  wide  series  of  studies,  not  yet 
completed,  however,  upon  the  problem  of  handedness.  Our  thesis 
for  the  moment  is:  If  the  predominant  use  of  one  hand  b  an 
instinctive  and  hereditary  matter  from  birth  onward,  it  would  be 
better  to  let  the  child  learn  to  use  the  hand  in  line  with  its  in- 
stinctive endowment  On  the  other  hand  if  no  such  instinctive  fac- 
tor is  present  it  would  be  less  embarrassing  for  the  child  in  most 
situations  if  it  were  forced  to  use  the  right  hand.  In  order  to  test  this 
matter  we  made  a  careful  study  upon  twenty  infants  of  the  length  of 
time  they  could  hang  suspended  with  the  right  and  left  hands.  Eadi 
of  the  infants  was  brought  into  the  laboratory  at  birth  and  each  day 
thereafter  for  a  period  of  ten  days  and  tested.  Our  results  show  con- 
clusively that  the  infant  does  not  suspend  itself  on  the  average  widi 
the  right  hand  for  a  longer  time  than  with  the  left.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  the  total  time  of  suspension  for  the  ten  days  was  exactly  the  same 
for  the  two  hands. 


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STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY  501 

In  order  to  make  our  results  more  conclusive  still  we  devised  a  small 
^Srork  adder**  by  means  of  which  the  random  slashing  movements  of 
the  infant  could  be  recorded.  A  cord  is  attached  at  one  ^oid  to  the 
infant's  wrist  and  at  the  other  to  a  small  escapement  device  which 
when  operated  caused  a  toothed  wheel  to  revolve  always  in  one  direc- 
tion. To  the  toothed  wheel  is  connected  a  small  drum.  A  cord  bear- 
ing a  small  lead  weight  is  fastened  to  the  dnun.  As  the  infant  makes 
its  random  mov^nents  this  weight  is  wound  higher  and  higher  from 
the  ground.  Such  an  apparatus  is  of  course  attached  simultaneously 
to  eadi  wrist.  At  the  end  of  five  minutes  the  experiment  is  stopped  and 
the  height  to  which  the  weights  have  been  wound  up  from  the  floor  is 
measured.  The  same  twenty  infants  whose  grasping  reflex  was  tested 
were  used  in  this  experiment.  This  method  gave  us  abundant  oppor- 
tunity to  determine  experimentally  whether  one  hand  was  used  more 
than  the  other.  Our  results  show  that  the  amount  of  work  done  on 
the  work  adders  is  almost  identically  the  same  for  the  two  hands 
(the  diff'erence  is  less  than  P.  E.)  if  the  work  of  the  two  hands  for  the 
whole  ten  days  is  averaged.  On  any  one  day  there  was  a  disparity  in 
the  amount  of  work  done  with  the  two  hands,  but  an  infant  markedly 
right-handed  today  is  just  as  likely  to  be  left-handed  tomorrow. 

One  other  step  has  been  taken  in  the  attempt  to  settle  the  problem 
of  handedness.  Infants  from  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  days  to  one 
year  of  age  have  been  tested  once  each  week  to  find  out  whidi  hand  was 
first  used  in  reaching  for  objects.  On  each  weddy  test  from  ten  to 
twenty  trials  were  given.  A  stick  of  peppermint  candy  or  a  candle  was 
generally  used  as  a  test  object.  The  object  was  brought  slowly  toward 
the  face  of  the  infant  At  the  proper  distance  reaching  finally  oc- 
curred. An  assistant  recorded  on  each  trial  the  hand  first  used  and  if 
both  hands  were  used,  as  was  often  the  case,  which  one  first  touched 
the  object  Again  our  tests  fail  to  show  any  predominant  use  of  either 
hand.  So  that  we  must  conclude,  albeit  tentatively,  Aat  there  is  yet 
no  evidence  for  assuming  a  hereditary  basis  for  handedness. 

This  result  seems  to  be  confirmed  by  the  anatomical  measurements  we 
have  recently  made  (so  far  upon  only  one  hundred  infants) .  The  length 
of  the  forearm  to  the  tip  of  the  middle  finger  is  measured  very  accurately 
with  a  device  which  resembles  somewhat  the  instrument  that  is  used  for 
measuring  the  length  of  the  foot  in  shoe  stores.  The  breadth  of  the 
wrist  likewise  is  measured  with  calipers  and  the  vridth  of  the  palm  at 
the  knuckles.  In  these  one  hundred  cases,  whidi  we  adbdit  are  too  few 
for  any  certain  conclusion,  we  find  almost  no  difference  betwen  right 
and  left  measurements. 

Early  Eye  Movements.  This  excursion  into  the  field  of  our  studies 
upon  right-and-left-handedness  has  taken  us  a  little  aside  from  our 
main  problem  which  was  to  show  the  course  and  development  of  those 


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502  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

instinctive  movements  which  will  yield  us  an  activity  chart  Early  eye 
movements  furnidi  us  with  at  least  three  definite  new  points  on  this 
chart.  The  eye  movements  of  the  infant  are  not  dificult  to  study.  The 
infant  is  placed  upon  its  back  with  the  face  held  lightly  in  a  vertical 
position  by  the  observers.  Immediately  above  the  baby's  head  is  sus- 
pended a  perimeter  carrying  a  small  light.  This  perimeter  looks  like 
the  half  of  a  barrel  hoop.  The  light  is  thus  always  equi-distant  from 
the  baby's  eye.  It  can  be  made  to  appear  first  on  the  left  side  and 
then  on  the  right.  We  start  with  it  usually  on  the  left  In  a  second  or 
two  after  the  light  is  turned  on  the  infant's  eyes  swing  to  the  lighted 
side.  There  is  no  fixation  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word  but  all  of  the 
roving  movements  of  the  eyes  take  place  in  the  lighted  field.  As  soon 
as  the  eyes  have  swung  over  the  light  is  turned  out,  shifted  to  the  right 
and  again  lighted.  In  a  few  seconds  the  eyes  swing  slowly  over  to 
the  right  This  reaction  seems  to  take  place  with  the  same  regularity 
as  do  the  responses  to  light  of  lower  organisms.  Indeed,  we  have 
called  it  the  tropism-like  response  of  the  human  eye.  This  reacticm 
takes  place  equally  well  but  more  slowly  if  one  eye  is  screened  from 
the  light  At  a  fairly  definite  time,  which  we  are  not  yet  ready  to  state, 
this  response  seems  to  disappear  and  something  corresponding  to  defi- 
nite fixation  occurs.  At  that  later  age  the  infant  begins  to  focus  upon  ob- 
jeots.  To  test  this  second  type  of  eye  movement  the  infant  is  placed  in 
a  sitting  position  on  an  attendant's  lap.  A  lighted  candle  is  then  moved 
to  the  right  side  and  then  over  to  the  left,  then  up  and  then  dovrn  in 
straight  lines.  Its  eyes  fixate  the  candle  and  move  with  it  but  do  not 
follow  the  light  if  it  is  rotated  in  a  circle.  This  is  the  second  stage  in 
the  development  of  eye  responses.  When  the  candle  is  held  to  the  rig^t 
or  left,  fixation  is  easier  to  obtain  than  when  it  is  placed  above  or  below 
the  eyes.  Again  fixation  is  easier  to  obtain  when  the  candle  is  held 
above  the  eyes  than  when  it  is  held  below  them.  The  third  stage  is 
what  we  have  called  complete  fixation;  it  occurs,  let  us  say  tentatively, 
around  the  one  hundredth  day.  The  eye  of  the  infant  is  then  able  to 
follow  a  candle  when  it  is  moved  in  a  complete  circle.  It  is  worth 
noting  in  passing  that  very  few  children  are  bom  with  badly  crossed 
eyes.  Occasionally  we  do  find  one  with  the  muscular  balance  so  poor 
that  the  early  tropism  response  is  hard  to  obtain. 

The  Babinski  Reflex.  If  the  sole  of  the  foot  of  a  normal  adult  is 
stroked  with  the  end  of  a  match  all  five  toes  show  flexion,  that  is,  the 
toes  bend  downward  toward  the  ground.  On  the  other  hand,  in  certain 
pathological  cases  where  there  is  a  lesion  in  the  central  nervous  system 
a  new  type  of  response  appears.  When  stimulated  by  the  match  stick 
the  great  toe,  instead  of  showing  flexion,  shows  extension,  that  is  to 
say,  flies  upward.  The  other  toes  usually  spread  out  like  a  fan  or  show 
the  normal  flexion  described  above.     This  is  usually  known  as  the 


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STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY  503 

*^6igii"  or  reflex  of  Babinsld.  Its  presence  in  the  adult  is  definitely 
pathological.  Strange  to  say  the  infant  exhibits  this  reflex.  Ap- 
parently its  presence  is  due  to  the  fact  that  there  is  a  lack  of  complete 
development  of  one  ol  the  tracts  in  the  central  nervous  system.  It 
would  seem  at  first  eight  that  its  study  would  give  us  one  of  our  safest 
criteria  in  determining  what  one  might  call  die  activity  or  develop- 
mental age  ot  the  child  as  opposed  to  its  chronological  age,  since  its 
disappearance  does  apparently  mark  the  completion  of  the  growth  of 
certain  structures  in  the  nervous  system.  Such  seems  not  to  be  the 
case,  however.  It  is  a  most  variable  type  of  response.  We  have  made 
many  hundreds  of  tests  on  children  from  birth  to  three  years  of  age. 
In  rare  cases  it  is  absent  from  birth.  In  certain  other  cases  it  can  be 
obtained  in  one  foot  and  not  in  the  other.  Sometimes  it  can  be  obtained 
on  one  day  and  not  on  the  next  Again  it  disappears  at  a  very  variable 
age.  It  is  orcKnarily  said  that  the  Babinsld  reflex  disappears  around 
six  months  of  age.    Here  are  a  few  actual  figures: 

0  to    3  months,  24  cases  observed,  present  in  21  cases,  absent  in  3 

4  to    6  months,  8  cases  observed,  present  in    6  cases,  absent  in  2 

7  to  12  months,  12  cases  observed,  present  in    7  cases,  absent  in  5 

Over  I  year,  6  cases  observed,  present  in    i  case,  absent  in  5 

These  do  not  represent  all  of  our  results  but  merely  those  obtained 
from  a  rather  homogeneous  group.  The  indication  on  these  few  cases 
is  that  it  is  absent  or  approaches  senescence  at  one  year  of  age  or  there- 
abouts. It  would  thus  seem  that  the  Babinsid  can  never  be  used  as  any 
safe  kind  of  guide  in  determining  the  normal  activity  age  of  infants. 
Nevertheless  if  it  persists  to  a  much  greater  age  than  one  year  one 
should  want  to  make  a  pretty  thorough  examination  of  the  whole  reflex 
and  instinctive  equipment. 

Sitting  Alone,  The  ability  to  sit  alone  is  an  extremely  important 
index  of  development,  comparable  probably  in  all  respects  to  reaching. 
In  order  to  study  progress  in  this  act  the  infant  is  placed  in  a  sitting 
position  on  a  hard  mattress  with  legs  outstretched  at  a  given  angle. 
Tests  are  usually  b^un  at  about  one  hundred  days  of  age.  We  give 
below  the  progress  of  one  infant.  The  first  evidence  that  sitting  alone 
was  possible  was  obtained  at  138  days.  She  fell  over  in  2  minutes 
and  12  seconds  to  the  right  side.  It  was  found  that  if  the  infant  was 
stimulated  by  holding  some  object  in  front  of  her  or  by  getting  the 
mother  to  cause  her  to  smile  and  reach  out  her  hand  the  sitting  position 
could  be  maintained  for  a  Ibnger  period  of  time  than  if  she  were  left 
alone.  On  the  150th  day,  while  the  infant  did  not  sit  up  for  a  longer 
period  of  time,  she  began  to  pull  at  her  sock,  leaned  over  and  touched 
the  foot  with  nose  and  mouth,  and  looked  around,  sitting  up  the  while. 
On  the  159th  day  she  sat  up  steadily,  played  with  her  toes,  used  the 
hands  in  striking  die  mattress,  then  gradually  sagged  forward,  drop- 


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604  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

ping  at  the  end  of  4  minutes.  She  was  making  steady  progress  in  this 
response  when  one  day  at  home,  while  sitting  alone,  she  fell  over  back- 
ward and  struck  her  head  on  a  stone,  producing  a  coma-like  state 
whidi  lasted  for  an  hour  and  a  half.  This  one  experience  markedly 
delayed  her  progress  in  sitting  alone.  We  have  noticed  the  same  thing 
when  children  are  learning  to  stand  and  to  walk.  If  the  child  has  a 
fall  or  a  midiap  while  standing  it  is  likely  to  cry  when  again  placed 
in  a  standing  position  and  almost  immediately  begin  to  ^^feeF  its  way 
to  the  ground  without  attempting  to  put  forth  the  best  that  is  in  it 
While  our  records  are  few  we  should  say  that  most  infants  so  far 
studied  are  able  to  sit  up  for  a  short  length  of  time  at  the  age  of  six 
months. 

The  types  of  infant  behavior  so  far  discussed  serve  singly  to 
illustrate  the  purpose  and  methods  of  our  work.  The  development  of 
many  other  instinctive  activities  is  being  followed  through.  We  can 
only  briefly  indicate  some  of  them.  The  early  defensive  rehouses  of 
children  can  be  quite  readily  observed.  If  one  pinches  slightly  the 
inside  of  the  right  knee  the  left  foot  is  drawn  upward  and  will  begin  to 
pu^  at  the  offender's  hand.  If  the  nose  is  held  the  hands  are  thrust 
upward  and  strike  at  the  obstructing  object.  In  normal  youngsters 
these  responses  are  quick  and  active.  They  are  present  from  birth  and 
persist  throughout  life.  Again,  in  infants  the  thumb  is  useless  and  lies 
folded  across  the  palm.  At  about  one  hundred  days  of  age  in  normal 
infants  it  can  be  brought  parallel  widi  the  forefinger;  a  little  later 
it  can  be  used  like  the  other  fingers  in  grasping  and  takes  the  adult 
position  when  the  hand  and  fingers  are  extended.  Blinking  is  another 
activity  which  has  a  partly  defensive  function.  This  response  can  be 
obtained  by  passing  the  hand  or  other  object  rapidly  across  the  baby's 
eyes  and  between  the  eyes  and  the  source  of  light.  Care  must  be  taken 
to  keep  from  touching  the  eyebrows  or  creating  a  draft  of  air.  Unless 
these  precautions  are  taken  we  can  obtain  blinking  from  birth;  but 
blinking  due  to  a  rapid  shadow  passing  across  the  eyes  can  not  be 
obtained  earlier  than  die  sixtieth  day.  In  many  supposedly  normal 
infants  it  can  not  be  elicited  before  the  one  hundred  and  twentieth  to 
one  hundred  and  fiftieth  day.  Crawling  is  another  most  important 
function.  Progression  of  some  kind  is  undoubtedly  instinctive,  but  the 
form  that  the  progression  takes  differs  markedly  in  every  child  and 
probably  depends  upon  a  lack  of  balance  in  structural  development 
and  partly  upon  habit  factors.  Some  infants  make  progress  by  springs 
and  dives  when  the  leg  and  waist  muscles  are  well  developed.  When 
the  arm  muscles  are  better  developed  progression  takes  place  by  using 
mainly  one  or  both  elbows,  and  if  one  arm  is  weaker  than  the  other 
the  child  moves  in  a  circle.    By  degrees,  however,  it  learns  to  compen- 


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STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY  506 

sate  for  this  and  to  make  progress  even  though  one  arm  remains  weak. 
As  a  forerunner  of  the  ability  to  stand  alone  and  walk  one  must  ob- 
serve wedc  by  wedc  the  development  of  the  ^extensor  thrust"  of  the 
leg.  At  a  certain  age,  which  we  are  not  yet  ready  to  fix  exactly,  this 
reflex  appears.  It  is  easy  to  observe.  Place  the  infant  on  its  back, 
take  hold  of  the  two  hands  and  pull  it  slowly  to  a  sitting  position  and 
then  gradually  upward.  As  soon  as  any  part  of  the  sole  of  the  foot 
touches  the  mat  a  noticeable  stiiffening  of  the  leg  appears  and  as  the 
whole  weight  of  the  infant  is  borne  by  the  feet  the  legs  suddenly 
stiffen  and  take  the  whole  load.  In  backward  children  it  is  unques^ 
tionably  delayed;  in  some  cases  the  reflex  can  not  be  brought  out  in 
children  even  three  and  four  years  of  age. 

This  almost  random  sampling  of  our  laboratory  studies  on  the 
instinctive  and  habit  activities  of  infants  teaches  us  first  that  there  is 
a  wealth  of  material  to  observe  and  study  in  the  infant  at  every  age 
and  that  as  this  material  is  worked  up  it  becomes  useful  from  both 
the  scientific  and  the  practical  standpoint,  in  the  latter  case  enabling 
us  to  tell  when  an  infant,  whatever  its  regime  or  diet,  is  progressing 
properly  on  the  activity  side. 

Most  of  our  woric  has  been  done  upon  subjects  under  ten  months 
of  age.  Observations  which  we  are  just  beginning  on  older  infants 
show  that  here  is  a  very  rich  and  promising  field  of  work  in  the  period 
lying  between  ten  and  twenty-four  months.  Imitation  of  varied  kinds 
appears,  spoken  language  begins,  standing  and  walking  develop,  and 
then  the  whole  world  of  objects  is  examined  by  the  child  under  his 
own  steam.  Here  become  more  marked  and  complex  the  varied  activ- 
ities which  most  immediately  show  what,  for  lade  of  a  better  term,  we 
may  call  personality.  It  is  here  that  we  expect  to  find  most  of  our 
data  on  the  human  being's  repertoire  of  instincts  and  vocational  bents. 
Again,  during  this  period  we  shall  have  our  best  opportunity  for 
studying  methods  by  means  of  which  we  can  shape  the  early  habits 
along  desirable  lines,  socialize  the  instincts,  break  up  harmful 
emotional  attachments  and  stabilize  the  whole  of  the  general  system 
of  emotional  expression.  The  second  year  of  childhood  development 
is  from  our  standpoint  the  one  most  fraught  with  possibilities  of 
mishap  along  emotional  lines.  For  an  understanding  of  the  infant's 
emotional  life  and  how  emotional  expression  becomes  linked  up  with 
the  instinctive  and  habit  activities  sudi  as  we  have  just  examined,  it 
seems  best  to  turn  once  more  to  the  laboratory. 

Experimental  Study  of  the  Emotional  Life  of  Infants 
The  experimental  study  of  the  emotions  in  adults  is  in  a  backward 
state  in  psychology.    For  one  reason,  emotions  seem  too  evanescent  and 


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506  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

too  complex  for  study.  They  run  all  the  way  in  complexity  from  the 
simple  blush  of  the  boy  or  girl  to  the  violent  states  we  see  in  love  and 
rage  in  which  the  individual  is  totally  unfitted  to  carry  out  his  ordinary 
activities.  Early  in  our  study  of  the  emotional  life  of  the  infant  we 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  in  them  the  emotional  patterns  are  really 
quite  simple  and  that  the  later  complexity  we  see  in  the  adult  is 
brought  about  by  training  and  environmental  influence.  But  this 
training  has  been  of  an  accidental  character  and  under  the  control 
neither  of  the  person  in  whom  the  emotion  was  built  up  nor  of  his 
parents  and  other  associates.  It  seemed  worth  while  to  test  out  this 
hjrpothesis  experimentally  because  it  is  important  to  bring  the 
emotional  life  under  some  kind  of  scientific  and  practical  control  and 
to  do  this  we  must  study  how  the  early  environment  of  the  child  forces 
emotional  states  upon  hiuL  Such  a  study  it  was  hoped  might  result 
in  a  practical  procedure  by  the  use  of  which  the  child's  life  might  be  so 
shaped  that  undesirable  emotions  might  not  be  implanted.  On  the 
other  hand,  granting  that  they  had  been  implanted  through  cardess- 
ness  or  ignorance  of  parents  and  associates,  we  hoped  to  find  methods 
by  means  of  which  they  could  be  got  rid  of. 

Our  earliest  observation  showed  that  from  birth  three  fundamental 
inherited  emotional  patterns  could  be  observed.  Without  assuming 
that  our  observations  are  complete  we  feel  reasonably  sure  that  fears 
rtige  and  love  are  original  and  fundamental.  Our  me&od  of  observ- 
ing these  emotions  is  a  purely  behavioristic  one,  that  is,  we  make  no 
effort  to  read  into  the  mind  of  the  child  those  things  which  psychol- 
ogists have  attempted  to  do  for  so  long.  We  bring  the  child  into  the 
laboratory  and  stimulate  it  ¥rilh  those  objects  whidi  we  know  ivill 
produce  emotion  in  many  adults  and  in  nearly  all  children  who  have 
had  the  ordinary  home  bringing  up.  We  then  note  the  reaction  that 
takes  place.  In  other  words,  in  any  bit  of  behavior  which  can  be 
observed  there  is  always  a  stimulus  or  object  present  which  calls  out  a 
reaction.  The  psychologist,  then,  must  search  for  the  objects  which 
will  call  out  emotions  and  then  observe  the  reactions  to  each  so  that 
new  forms  of  emotional  expression  may  be  found.  We  will  apply  this 
simple  procedure  to  the  infants  brought  up  in  the  sheltered  environ- 
ment of  the  hospital  where  contact  with  the  outside  world  has  been 
kept  at  a  minimum. 

Fear.  What  are  the  stimuli  (objects  or  situations)  which  ivill 
bring  out  fear  responses  in  infants?  Our  observation  shows  thiat  die 
stimuli  to  fear  are  quite  constant  and  quite  simple.  If  the  infant  is 
held  over  a  pillow  and  allowed  to  drop  suddenly,  the  fear  response 
appears.  It  can  be  brought  out  generally  by  a  sudden  shake  or  push 
or  by  suddenly  pulling  the  blaiJcet  upon  which  it  is  lying.    We  might 


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STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY  607 

group  all  of  these  and  say  that  sudden  removal  of  support  is  an  ade- 
quate stimulus  to  fear.  The  other  most  far  reaching  and  important 
stimulus  is  that  of  a  loud  sound;  for  example,  the  striking  of  a  long 
steel  bar  vrith  a  hammer  is  one  of  the  most  effective  means  of  calling 
out  this  response.  These  are  the  common  stimuli  which  are  present 
almost  daily  in  the  life  of  every  infant  The  reaction  or  response  to 
such  stimuli  is  a  sudden  catching  of  the  breath,  clutching  randomly 
with  the  hands,  the  sudden  closing  of  the  eyes,  and  the  puckering  of 
the  lips  followed  in  some  cases  by  crying.  In  older  children  these  re- 
actions appear  and  in  addition  there  is  crawling  away,  running  away 
and  in  some  cases  hiding  the  face.  We  have  found  no  other  stimuli 
ivfaich  vfill  call  forth  fear  in  the  very  young  infant  It  has  been  often 
stated  that  children  are  afraid  of  the  dark,  or  animals,  of  furry  objects 
in  general.    We  shall  show  later  that  this  is  not  the  case. 

Rcige.  In  a  similar  way  we  have  studied  the  question  as  to  the 
original  objects  and  situations  which  will  produce  the  response  of 
rage.  Our  observations  show  conclusively  that  the  hampering  of  the 
infanfs  movements  is  the  one  stimulus  which  apart  from  all  training 
brings  out  the  movements  we  should  characterize  as  rage.  If  the  head 
is  held  lightly  between  the  hands^  if  the  arms  are  held  closely  to  the 
sides  or  if  the  legs  are  held  tightly  together  the  response  appears.  The 
body  stiffens  and  if  the  arms  are  free  slashing  movements  of  the  hands 
and  arms  result  If  the  legs  are  free  the  feet  and  legs  are  drawn  up 
and  down,  the  breath  is  held  until  the  child's  face  is  flushed.  There  is 
crying  at  first,  then  the  mouth  is  opened  to  the  fullest  extent  and  the 
breath  is  held  until  the  face  appears  blue.  These  states  can  be  brought 
on  without  the  pressure  in  any  case  being  severe  enough  to  produce  the 
slightest  injury  to  the  child.  The  experiments  are  discontinued  the 
moment  the  slightest  blueness  appears  in  the  skin.  Almost  any  child 
can  be  thrown  into  such  a  state  and  the  reactions  ¥rill  continue  until 
the  irritating  situation  is  relieved  and  sometimes  for  a  considerable 
period  thereafter.  We  have  had  this  state  brought  out  when  the  arms 
are  held  upward  by  a  cord  to  which  is  attached  a  lead  ball  not  exceed- 
ing an  ounce  in  weight  The  constant  hampering  of  the  arms  produced 
by  even  this  slight  weight  is  sufficient  to  bring  out  the  response.  When 
the  child  is  lying  on  its  back  it  can  occasionally  be  brought  out  by 
pressing  on  each  side  of  the  head  with'  cotton  wool.  In  many  cases 
tfiis  state  can  be  observed  quite  easily  when  the  mother  or  nurse  dresses 
the  child  especially  in  winter  clothing. 

Love.  The  study  of  this  emotion  in  the  infant  is  beset  ivith  a  great 
many  difficulties  on  the  conventional  side.  Our  observations  conse- 
quently have  been  incidental  rather  than  directly  experimental.  The 
stimulus  to  love  apparently  is  the  stroking  of  the  skin,  tickling,  gentle 


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608  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

rocking,  patting  and  turning  the  child  across  the  attendant's  knee  on 
its  stomach;  it  is  especially  brought  out  by  the  stimulation  of  what, 
for  lack  of  a  better  term,  we  may  call  the  erogenous  zones,  such  as  the 
nipples,  the  lips  and  the  sex  organs.  The  response  in  an  infant  de- 
pends upon  its  state.  If  it  is  crying  the  crying  will  cease  and  a  smile 
may  appear.  In  slightly  older  children  there  is  a  gurgling  and  cooing 
and  in  still  older  children  the  extension  of  the  arms  which  we  shall 
class  as  the  forerunner  of  the  embrace  of  adults.  It  is  thus  seen  that 
we  use  the  term  ^iove"  in  a  much  broader  sense  than  it  is  popularly 
used.  The  responses  we  intend  to  mark  o£F  here  are  those  popularly 
called  "aflfectionate,'*  "good  natured,**  "kindly,**  etc.  The  term  "love** 
embraces  all  of  these  as  well  as  the  responses  we  see  in  adults  between 
the  sexes.    They  all  have  a  common  origin. 

Whether  these  are  all  the  emotional  patterns  that  axe  strictly 
hereditary  and  not  due  to  training  we  are  not  sure,  and  whether  there 
are  other  stimuli  which  irill  call  out  these  responses  we  must  also 
leave  in  doubt;  but  if  our  observations  are  in  any  way  complete  it 
would  seem  that  the  emotional  reactions  are  quite  simple  in  the  infant 
and  the  stimuli  which  call  ihem  out  quite  few  in  number.  Our  own 
observations  did  not  at  first  satisfy  us  because  the  whole  problem 
appeared  too  simple  and  stereotyped.  We  determined  then  to  con- 
tinue ¥rith  our  work  along  a  slightly  different  line.  It  was  our  good 
fortune  to  have  six  or  seven  older  diildren  brought  up  in  the  hospital 
under  a  strict  r^ime.  These  children  varied  in  ages  from  about  four 
months  to  one  year.  They  had  had  practically  no  outside  contact 
with  the  world,  having  never  left  the  hospital  buildings.  They  had 
never  seen  an  animal  or  any  of  the  objects  whidi  were  later  presented 
to  them  in  the  laboratory.  All  of  these  children  were  extremely  wdl 
and  healthy  in  view  of  the  fact  that  they  belonged  to  the  wet  nurses 
attached  to  the  hospital. 

The  infants  were  brought  to  the  laboratory  and  seated  in  the  lap  of 
the  mother  or  of  an  attendant  As  soon  as  the  infant  became  still  a 
hitherto  concealed  live  animal  was  suddenly  presented.  We  can  only 
illustrate  two  or  three  9nch  tests  and  summarize  the  general  results. 
For  example  the  f  ollomring  experiment  was  made  upon  baby  T.,  a  girl, 
165  days  of  age: 

A  very  lively,  friendly  black  cat  was  allowed  to  crawl  near  the  baby. 
She  reached  for  it  with  both  hands  at  once.  The  cat  was  purring  loudly. 
She  touched  its  nose,  playing  with  it  with  her  fingers.  It  was  shown  three 
times.  Each  time  she  reached  with  both  hands  for  it,  the  left  hand  being 
rather  more  active.  She  reached  for  it  when  it  was  placed  on  a  lounge  before 
her  but  out  of  reach. 

Then  a  pigeon  in  a  paper  bag  was  laid  on  the  couch.  The  pigeon  was 
struggling,  and  moving  the  bag  about  on  the  couch  and  making  a  scraping 


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STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY  509 

noise.  The  baby  watched  it  intently  but  did  not  reach  for  it  The  pigeon 
was  taken  out  of  the  bag  on  the  couch  before  her,  cooing  and  struggling  in 
the  experimenter's  hands.  She  reached  for  it  again  and  again  and  failing, 
of  course,  to  get  hold  of  it  put  her  hands  in  her  mouth  each  time.  She  was 
allowed  to  touch  its  head.  The  pigeon  moved  its  head  about  with  quick,  jerk- 
ing movements.  It  was  then  held  by  its  feet  and  allowed  to  flap  its  wings 
near  the  baby's  face.  She  watched  it  intently,  showing  no  tendency  to  avoid 
it,  but  did  not  reach  for  it.  When  the  bird  became  quiet  she  reached  for  it, 
and  caught  hold  of  its  beak  with  her  left  hand. 

Test  with  a  rabbit.  The  animal  was  put  on  a  couch  in  front  of  her.  (The 
child  was  sitting  on  her  mother's  lap).  She  watched  it  very  intently  but  did 
not  reach  for  it  until  the  experimenter  held  it  in  his  hands  close  to  her ;  then 
she  reached  for  it  immediately,  catching  one  of  its  ears  with  her  left  hand, 
and  attempted  to  put  it  into  her  mouth. 

The  last  animal  presented  to  her  was  a  white  rat.  She  paid  little  attention 
to  it,  only  fixating  it  occasionally.  She  followed  it  with  her  eyes  somewhat 
when  it  moved  about  the  couch.  When  held  out  to  her  on  the  experimenter's 
arm  she  turned  away,  no  longer  stimulated. 

April  24,  172  days  old.  The  baby  was  taken  into  a  dark  room  with  only 
an  electric  light  behind  her  (faint  illumination).  A  stranger  held  the  baby. 
The  mother  sat  where  she  could  not  be  seen.  A  dog  was  brought  into  the 
room  and  allowed  to  jump  up  on  the  couch  beside  her.  The  baby  watched 
intently  every  move  the  dog  made  but  did  not  attempt  to  reach  for  it  Then 
she  turned  her  head  aside.  The  front  light  was  then  turned  up  and  the  dog 
again  exhibited.  The  infant  watched  very  closely  every  move  the  dog  and 
the  experimenter  made,  but  did  not  attempt  to  catch  the  animal.  She  ex- 
hibited no  fear  reactions  no  matter  how  close  the  dog  was  made  to  come 
to  her. 

The  tests  were  continued  by  taking  the  child  in  its  chair  to  the  dark 
room  and  building  a  small  bonfire  in  front  of  it  The  final  trial  with 
every  diild  was  made  by  taking  it  to  the  zoological  park  and  confront- 
ing it  with  many  different  types  of  animals,  special  pennission  being 
accorded  us  for  close  inspection  of  the  primates. 

Never  in  any  experiment  on  any  child  was  the  slightest  fear  re- 
sponse obtained.  Almost  the  invariable  mode  of  behavior  was  a  reach- 
ing for  the  object,  followed  by  handling  or  manipulation.  Our  results 
seem  to  show  conclusively  that  when  children  are  brought  up  in  an 
extremely  sheltered  environment,  such  as  never  is  afforded  by  the 
home,  fears  are  not  present  to  other  stunuli  than  those  which  we  have 
already  enumerated. 

How  can  we  square  these  observations  with  those  which  show  the 
enormous  complexity  in  the  emotional  life  of  the  adult?  We  know 
that  hundreds  of  children  are  afraid  of  the  dark,  we  know  that  many 
women  are  afraid  of  snakes,  mice  and  insects,  and  th«t  emotions  are 
attached  to  many  ordinary  objects  of  almost  daily  use.  Fears  become 
attached  to  persons  and  to  places  and  to  general  situations,  such  as  the 
woods,  the  water,  etc.  In  the  same  way  the  number  of  objecte  and 
situations  which  can  call  out  rage  and  love  become  enormously  in- 
creased.   Rage  and  love  at  first  are  not  produced  by  the  mere  sight  of 


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510  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

an  object.  We  know  that  later  on  in  life  the  mere  sight  of  persons 
may  call  out  both  of  these  primitive  emotions.  How  do  such  '^attach- 
ments"  grow  up?  How  can  objects  which  at  first  do  not  call  out 
emotions  come  later  to  call  them  out  and  thus  enormously  increase  the 
richness  as  well  as  the  dangers  of  our  emotional  life? 

Until  recently  no  experimental  work  had  been  done  which  would 
show  such  emotional  attachments  in  the  making.  We  were  rather  loath 
to  conduct  sudi  experiments,  but  the  need  of  this  kind  of  study  was  so 
great  that  we  finally  decided  to  undertake  the  building  up  of  certain 
fears  in  the  infant  and  then  later  to  study  practical  methods  for  remov- 
ing them.  We  chose  as  our  first  subject  Albert  B.,  an  infant  weighing 
turenty-one  pounds  at  eleven  months  of  age.  We  chose  him  par- 
ticularly because  of  his  stolid  and  phl^matic  disposition. 

Before  turning  to  the  eiperiments  by  means  of  which  we  built  up 
fears  in  this  infant  it  is  necessary  to  give  a  brief  description  of  a 
method  which  has  recently  been  developed  in  psydiology,  that  of  the 
^^conditioning  of  reflexes.'*  If  a  subject  sits  irith  the  palm  of  his  hand 
upon  a  metal  plate  and  hb  middle  finger  upon  a  metal  bar  and  an 
electrical  current  is  sent  through  the  circuit  thus  completed  by  the 
hand,  the  finger  will  fly  upward  from  the  metal  bar  the  moment  the 
electric  shodc  b  given.  This  painful  stimulus  b  thus  the  native  or 
fundamental  stimulus  which  calls  out  the  defensive  reflex  of  the  finger. 
The  si^t  of  an  apple  or  the  sound  of  a  bell  will  naturally  not  produce 
this  upward  jerk  of  the  finger.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  bell  is 
sounded  or  the  colored  object  is  shown  the  moment  the  electric  current 
is  completed  through  the  hand,  and  this  routine  b  repeated  several 
times,  the  situation  becomes  wholly  difi'erent.  The  finger  b^ins  to 
jerk  up  reflexly  now  and  then  when  the  bell  is  rung  or  the  colored 
object  shown  even  if  the  electrical  current  is  not  sent  through  the  hand. 
After  a  longer  or  shorter  period  of  training  the  colored  object  will 
cause  the  jump  of  the  finger  just  as  inevitably  as  does  the  current 
This  we  call  a  conditioned  motor  response  and  we  have  shown  that 
these  conditioned  responses  persbt  for  long  periods  of  time,  in  some 
cases  possibly  throughout  the  life  of  the  individual.  There  is  no 
'Reasoning"  or  ^'association  of  ideas**  involved,  because  we  can  pro- 
duce conditioned  reflexes  in  very  low  forms  of  animals.  The  same 
thing  occurs  in  our  glands.  If  one  attaches  a  small  apparatus  to  die 
parotid  gland — one  of  the  salivary  glands  in  the  chedc — in  such  a  way 
that  the  saliva  flows  out  drop  by  drop,  it  can  be  shown  lliat  the  direct 
stimulus  of  the  gland  is  actual  contact  with  some  edible  or  drinkable 
substance,  for  example,  weak  hydrochloric  acid,  vinegar,  etc.  The 
moment  such  an  acid  touches  the  tongue  the  gland  begins  to  flow  pro- 
fusely. Ordinarily  the  sight  of  objects  does  not  produce  an  increased 
flow  of  the  glands,  but  if  combined  stimulations  are  given,  the  object 
being  shown  at  the  same  time  the  acid  is  given,  the  sight  of  the  object 


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STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY  511 

finally  will  produce  an  increased  flow  of  the  gland  This  is  of  course 
what  happens  every  time  food  or  drink  is  brought  to  the  mouth.  Tluis 
the  youngster's  mouth  has  every  reason  to  ^water"  when  a  stick  of 
candy  is  held  in  front  of  him  or  our  own  when  we  are  hungry  and  a 
toothsome  morsel  is  held  before  our  eyes.  It  is  probable  that  all  of 
our  glands,  even  the  so-called  ductless  ones  such  as  the  thyroid  or  the 
adrenals,  become  conditioned  by  means  of  such  environmental  factors 
throughout  our  life. 

We  began  to  question,  with  such  results  as  the  above  in  front  of  ua» 
whether  or  not  entire  emotional  reactions  such  as  are  seen  in  fear 
might  be  conditioned  in  this  simple  way.  If  so  we  have  an  adequate 
way  for  accounting  for  the  enormous  increase  in  the  complexity  of 
adult  emotional  life  as  contrasted  with  its  simpler  manifestations  in 
infants.  To  start  the  experiment  it  became  necessary  to  use  some 
simple  native  or  fundamental  stimulus  which  would  produce  fear 
(corresponding  to  the  electrical  shock).  We  have  already  pointed  out 
that  loud  sounds  are  the  most  potent  of  all  such  stimuli.  We  de- 
termined to  take  Albert  and  attempt  to  condition  fear  to  a  white  rat 
by  showing  him  the  rat  and  as  soon  as  he  reached  for  it  and  touched 
it  to  strike  a  heavy  steel  bar  behind  him.  We  first  showed  by  repeated 
tests  that  Albert  feared  nothing  under  the  sun  except  loud  sounds  (and 
removal  of  support) .  Everything  coming  within  twelve  inches  of  him 
was  reached  for  and  manipulated.  This  was  true  of  animals,  persons 
and  things.  His  reaction,  however,  to  the  sound  of  the  steel  bar  was 
characteristic  and  what  we  had  been  led  to  believe  is  true  of  most  if 
not  all  infants.  When  it  was  suddenly  sounded  there  was  a  sudcfen 
intake  of  the  breath  and  an  upward  fling  of  the  arms.  On  the  sec(Mid 
stimulation  the  lips  began  to  pucker  and  tremble,  on  the  third  he  broke 
into  a  crying  fit,  turned  to  one  side  and  began  to  crawl  away  as  rapidly 
as  possible  with  head  averted. 

The  result  of  this  observation  showing  that  the  loud  sound  would 
produce  an  expression  of  extreme  fear  gave  us  hope  that  we  might  be 
able  to  use  this  stimulus  for  bringing  about  a  conditioned  emotional 
response  just  as  the  electric  shock  combined  with  the  sight  of  the 
colored  object  brought  about  in  the  end  the  conditioned  response  of  the 
finger  just  referred  to.  Our  laboratory  notes  showing  the  progress  of 
this  test  are  most  convincing. 

Eleven  months,  3  days  old.  (i)  White  rat  suddenly  taken  from  the 
basket  and  presented  to  Albert.  He  began  to  reach  for  rat  with  left  hand. 
Just  as  his  hand  touched  the  animal  the  bar  was  struck  immediately  behind 
his  head.  The  infant  jumped  violently  and  fell  forward,  burying  his  face 
in  the  mattress.    He  did  not  cry,  however. 

(2)  Just  as  his  right  hand  touched  the  rat  the  bar  was  again  struck. 
Again  the  infant  jumped  violently,  fell  forward  and  began  to  whimper. 

In  order  not  to  disturb  the  child  too  seriously  no  further  tests  were 
given  for  one  week. 


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B12  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

Eleven  months,  ten  days  old,  (i)  Rat  presented  suddenly  without 
sound.  There  was  steady  fixation  but  no  tendency  at  first  to  reach  for  it 
The  rat  was  then  placed  nearer,  whereupon  tentative  reaching  movements  be- 
gan with  the  right  hand.  When  the  rat  nosed  the  infant's  left  hand  the  hand 
was  immediately  withdrawn.  He  started  to  reach  for  the  head  of  the  animal 
with  the  forefinger  of  his  left  hand  but  withdrew  it  suddenly  before  contact 
It  is  thus  seen  that  the  two  joint  stimulations  given  last  week  were  not  with- 
out effect.  He  was  tested  with  his  blocks  immediately  afterwards  to  see  if 
they  shared  in  the  process  of  conditioning.  He  began  immediately  to  pick 
them  up,  dropping  them  and  pounding  them,  etc.  In  the  remainder  of  the 
tests  the  blocks  were  given  frequently  to  quiet  him  and  to  test  his  general 
emotional  state.  They  were  always  removed  from  sight  when  the  process  of 
conditioning  was  under  way. 

(2)  Combined  stimulation  with  rat  and  sound.  Started,  then  fell  over 
immediately  to  right  side.    No  crying. 

(3)  Combined  stimulation.  Fell  to  right  side  and  rested  on  hands  with 
head  turned  from  rat    No  crying. 

(4)  Combined  stimulation.    Same  reaction. 

(5)  Rat  suddenly  presented  alone.  Puckered  face,  whimpered  and  with- 
drew body  sharply  to  left. 

(6)  Combined  stimulation.  Fell  over  immediately  to  right  side  and 
began  to  whimper. 

(7)  Combined  stimulation.  Started  violently  and  cried,  but  did  not 
fall  over. 

(8)  Rat  alone.  The  instant  the  rat  was  shown  the  baby  began  to  cry. 
Almost  instantly  he  turned  sharply  to  the  left,  fell  over,  raised  himself  on 
all  fours  and  began  to  crawl  away  so  rapidly  that  he  was  caught  with  dif- 
ficulty before  he  reached  the  edge  of  the  table. 

This  was  as  convincing  a  case  of  a  completly  conditioned  fear 
response  as  could  have  been  theoretically  pictured  It  is  not  unlikely 
had  the  sound  been  of  greater  intensity  and  the  child  more  delicately 
organized  that  one  or  two  combined  stimulations  might  have  been 
sufficient  to  condition  the  emotion.  We  thus  see  how  easily  such  con- 
ditioned fears  may  grow  up  in  the  home.  A  child  that  has  gone  to  bed 
for  years  without  a  light  with  no  fears  may,  through  the  loud  slamming 
of  doors  or  through  a  sudden  loud  clap  of  thunder,  become  conditioned 
to  darkness.  We  can  easily  explain  how  it  is  that  a  sudden  flash  of 
lightning  finds  you  all  set  and  tense,  often  times  with'  the  hands  over 
the  ears,  before  the  clap  of  thunder,  which  is  the  true  stimulus  to  such 
action,  appears.  We  can  thus  see  further  how  it  is  that  the  sight  of  a 
nurse  that  constrains  the  movements  of  the  youngster  or  dresses  it 
badly  may  cause  the  infant  to  go  into  a  rage,  or  how  the  momentary 
glimpse  of  a  maiden's  bonnet  may  produce  the  emotional  reactions  of 
love  in  her  swain. 

The  experimental  question  arose  as  to  whether  Albert  would  be 
afraid  henceforth  only  of  rats,  or  whether  the  fear  would  be  traaS' 
fered  to  other  animals  and  possibly  to  other  objects.  To  answer  this 
question  Albert  was  brought  back  into  the  laboratory  five  days  later 
and  tested.  Our  laboratory  notes  again  show  the  results  most  con- 
vincingly. 


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STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY  513 

Eleven  months,  fifteen  days  old, 

(1)  Tested  first  with  blocks.  He  reached  readily  for  them,  playing  with 
them  as  usual.  This  shows  that  there  has  been  no  general  transfer  to  the 
room,  table,  blocks,  etc. 

(2)  Rat  alone.  Whimpered  immediately,  withdrew  right  hand  and 
turned  head  and  trunk  away. 

(3)  Blocks  again  ofifered.  Played  readily  with  them,  smiling  and 
gurgling. 

(4)  Rat  alone.  Leaned  over  to  the  left  side  as  far  away  from  the 
rat  as  possible,  then  fell  over,  getting  up  on  all  fours  and  scurrying  away  as 
rapidly  as  possible. 

(5)  Blocks  again  offered.  Reached  immediately  for  them,  smiling  and 
laughing  as  before. 

The  above  preliminary  test  shows  that  the  conditioned  response  to 
the  rat  had  carried  over  completely  for  the  five  days  in  which  no  tests 
were  given.  The  question  as  to  whether  or  not  there  is  a  transfer  was 
next  taken  up. 

(6)  Rabbit  alone.  A  rabbit  was  suddenly  placed  on  the  mattress  in 
front  of  him.  The  reaction  was  pronounced.  Negative  responses  began  at 
once.  He  leaned  as  far  away  from  the  anknal  as  possible,  whimpered,  then 
burst  into  tears.  When  the  rabbit  was  placed  in  contact  with  him  he  buried 
his  face  in  the  mattress,  then  got  up  on  all  fours  and  crawled  away,  crying 
as  he  went.    This  was  a  most  convincing  test 

(7)  The  blocks  were  next  given  him,  after  an  interval.  He  played 
with  them  as  before.  It  was  observed  by  four  people  that  he  played  far 
xnort  energetically  with  them  than  ever  before.  The  blocks  were  raised  high 
over  his  head  and  slammed  down  with  a  great  deal  of  force. 

(8)  Dog  alone.  The  dog  did  not  produce  as  violent  a  reaction  as  the 
rabbit  The  moment  fixation  of  the  eyes  occurred  the  child  shrank  back  and 
as  the  animal  came  nearer  he  attempted  to  get  on  all  fours  but  did  not  cry 
at  first.  As  soon  as  the  dog  passed  out  of  his  range  of  vision  he  became 
quiet.  The  dog  was  then  made  to  approach  the  infant's  head  (he  was  lying 
down  at  the  moment).  Albert  straightened  up  immediately,  fell  over  to  the 
opposite  side  and  turned  his  head  away.    He  then  began  to  cry. 

(9)  Blocks  were  again  presented.  He  began  immediately  to  play  with 
them. 

(10)  Fur  coat  (seal).  Withdrew  immediately  to  the  left  side  and  began 
to  fret.  Coat  put  close  to  him  on  the  left  side,  he  turned  immediately,  began 
to  cry  and  tried  to  crawl  away  on  all  fours. 

(11)  Cotton  wool.  The  wool  was  presented  in  a  paper  package.  At 
the  ends  the  cotton  was  not  covered  by  the  paper.  It  was  placed  first  on  his 
feet  He  kicked  it  away  but  did  not  touch  it  with  his  hands.  When  his  hand 
was  laid  on  the  wool  he  immediately  withdrew  it  but  did  not  show  the  shock 
that  the  animals  or  fur  coat  produced  in  him.  He  then  began  to  play  with 
the  paper,  avoiding  contact  with  the  wool  itself.  He  finally,  under  the  im- 
pulse of  the  manipulative  instinct,  lost  some  of  his  negativism  to  the  wool. 

(12)  Just  in  play  W.  put  his  head  down  to  see  if  Albert  would  play  with 
his  hair.  Albert  was  completely  negative.  The  two  other  observers  did  the 
same  thing.  He  began  immediately  to  play  with  their  hair.  A  Santa  Claus 
mask  was  then  brought  and  presented  to  Albert  He  was  again  pronotmcedly 
negative,  although  on  all  previous  occasions  he  had  played  with  it 

VOL.  xni.-^3 


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514  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

We  see  that  the  conditioned  fear  to  the  rat,  which  was  experi- 
mentally set  up,  transferred  to  many  other  objects.  The  transfer  was 
immediate  and  without  any  additional  experience  in  connection  with 
these  other  objects.  In  these  transferred  emotional  reactions  we  thus 
would  find  a  reason  for  the  mdespread  change  in  the  personality  of 
children  and  possibly  even  of  adults  once  even  a  single  strongly  con- 
ditioned emotional  reaction  has  been  set  up  to  any  object  or  situation. 
It  accounts  for  the  many  unreasoning  fears  and  for  a  good  deal  of  the 
sensitiveness  of  individuals  to  objects  for  which  no  adequate  ground 
for  such  behavior  can  be  o£Fered  in  the  past  history  of  that  individual. 
The  importance  of  such  a  factor  in  shaping  th«  life  of  the  child  needs 
no  further  emphasis  from  us. 

At  present  we  are  engaged  upon  the  study  of  methods  by  means 
of  which  such  directly  conditioned  fear  responses  and  their  transfers 
may  be  removed.  The  importance  of  establishing  methods  for  the 
removal  of  these  undesirable  reactions  is  apparent  to  all.  That  such 
conditioned  reactions  are  present  in  the  life  of  every  child  many  par- 
ents can  testify.  We  have  repeatedly  had  children  brought  to  us  whose 
emotional  life  had  been  so  warped  and  twisted  by  such  factors  that  the 
formation  of  the  stable  habits  by  means  of  which  the  race  must  main- 
tain itself  was  seriously  interfered  with.  Some  practical  procedure  in 
the  control  of  these  factors  must  be  found  if  we  are  to  care  for  those 
children  in  whom  accidents  of  nurture  have  built  up  emotional  reaction 
systems  which,  unless  corrected,  must  inevitably  bring  them  to  grief. 
The  report  on  this  phase  of  our  laboratory  work  is  not  yet  completed. 

The  sceptic  will  be  inclined  to  say  that  such  things  happen  in  the 
life  of  a  child  every  day  but  that  the  child  inunediately  puts  them  aside 
and  soon  forgets  or  outgrows  such  happenings.  We  have  not  the  full 
experimental  data  to  combat  this  view,  but  we  have  the  evidence  to 
show  that  in  Albert  at  least  both  the  original  fear  of  the  rat  and  the 
transferred  emotional  reactions  remained  after  a  period  of  thirty  days 
in  whidi  no  experiments  were  made.  Furthermore,  the  latter  were 
still  called  out  by  the  same  objects  which  called  them  out  in  the  above 
test.  Our  view  is  lliat  such  happenings  are  permanently  impressed 
upon  the  gro¥ring  child.  They  remain  not  only  as  a  part  of  his  re- 
action system  but  also  they  tend  to  modify  or  prevent,  by  limiting  the 
number  of  objects  that  he  deals  with,  the  formation  of  constructive 
habits.  In  other  words,  they  modify  his  vocational  future.  When  we 
consider  that  these  conditioned  emotional  responses  are  being  con- 
stantly set  up  in  the  groidng  child,  not  only  in  the  realm  of  fear  but  in 
the  realm  of  love  and  rage,  and  that  they  bring  in  their  train  a  host 
of  transferred  responses,  we  begin  to  realize  the  importance  of  the  pre- 
school age  of  the  child;  we  then  wonder  whether  our  home  syston 
which  more  or  less  allows  our  children  to  "just  grow,"  like  Topsy, 
until  public  school  life  begins,  is  not  a  pretty  dangerous  procedure. 


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STUDIES  IN  INFANT  PSYCHOLOGY  615 

We  spend  an  enormous  sum  of  money  each  year  for  the  education  of 
our  youth  in  colleges  and  universities.  When  it  is  realized  that  the 
college,  that  institution  for  teaching  the  adolescent  to  become  a  man, 
is  at  present  being  regarded  somewhat  critically,  and  that  the  uni- 
versities reach  only  an  extremely  small  percentage  of  the  population — 
namely  that  portion  which  intends  to  enter  some  specialty — it  makes 
us  wonder  whether  it  would  not  be  a  valuable  experiment  for  the 
government  or  other  institutions  to  spend  a  small  amount  of  our  vast 
educational  funds  for  teaching  the  infant  how  to  become  a  child. 
When  one  realizes  that  probably  more  than  the  income  from  a  million 
dollars  is  spent  each  year  in  the  several  marine  biological  institutions 
for  the  study  of  three  lower  forms — the  sea  urchin  and  its  progeny, 
the  coral,  and  the  jelly  fish — it  seems  not  unreasonable  to  point  out 
that  it  would  not  be  bad  economy  to  have  one  or  more  institutions 
where  continuous  researches  might  be  made  upon  human  progeny.  An 
institution  where  the  human  infant  can  be  studied  from  birth  to  at  least 
three  years  of  age  would  be  one  of  the  most  profitable  research  invest- 
ments that  could  be  made  at  the  present  time.  It  would  lead  to  an 
untold  wealth  of  new  scientific  conclusions  and  to  a  practical  and  com- 
mon sense  set  of  data  upon  the  psychological  care  of  the  infant. 


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516  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  SQENTIFIC  VAGARIES 
By  Professor  D,  W.  HERING 

NEW  YORK  UNIVERSITY,  NEW  YORK  CITY 

HOW  to  account  for  the  ^^crank,"  and  what  to  do  with  him,  are 
questions  that  concern  the  general  public  as  well  as  the  specialist. 
Restrain  him?  He  is  irrepressible.  Ignore  him?  That  may  be  un- 
wise for  often  he  is  half  right,  sometimes  wholly  so.  He  is  always 
disturbing,  and  though  always  abnormal  he  is  not  always  imworthy, 
and  the  genus  is  of  such  infinite  variety  that  it  can  never  grow  stale. 
No,  the  crank  cannot  be  ignored  because  he  is  always  the  embodiment 
of  notions  that  influence  others,  sometimes  in  large  numbers;  he  is  a 
type.  Much  depends  upon  the  point  of  view.  Columbus  was  a  wise 
and  learned  man  to  his  simple  minded  sailors;  to  companions  of  like 
temper  with  himself  he  was  a  daring  adventurer  and  a  hero;  to  the 
incredulous  savants  he  was  a  crank. 

A  really  normal  man  is  one  whose  mental,  moral  and  physical 
qualities  put  him  in  what  is  called  ^'normaP  relation  to  the  age  and 
conditions  of  society  in  which  he  lives;  he  is  in  harmony  with  his 
environment  and  lives  among  his  fellows  without  discord  or  friction. 

One  who  continues  to  shape  his  conduct  after  the  pattern  of  his 
predecessors,  while  failing  to  regard  the  advances  that  have  been  made; 
who  will  not  ride  in  railroad  cars  or  tolerate  instrumental  music  in 
church;  who  declares  that  what  was  good  enough  for  his  ancestors  is 
good  enough  for  him,  is  behind  the  times";  while  he  who  is  dissatis- 
fied with  prevailing  views  and  customs,  and  chafes  under  the  restraints 
which  they  impose  upon  him  and  consequently  endeavors  to  better  them, 
is  either  a  crank  or  is  ^in  advance  of  the  age."  If  the  latter  is  the  case 
only  the  future  can  prove  it;  sometimes  it  does  so — it  may  be  soon,  it 
may  be  centuries  later. 

As  the  ^*norm"  would  be  in  perfect  equilibrium  under  the  forces 
acting  upon  him  from  all  sides,  any  excess  or  defect  of  qualities  in  an 
individual  not  thus  normal,  would  leave  him  unbalanced.  Just  how 
far  or  in  how  many  respects  he  may  depart  from  the  normal  without 
being  generally  regarded  as  erratic,  is  indeterminate,  but  there  are  few 
persons  who  have  not  some  crotchets,  and  those  few  we  consider  un- 
interesting and  expect  no  especial  achievement  from  them.  It  is  only 
to  the  abnormal  that  we  can  look  for  any  disturbance  of  an  established 
order,  whether  for  good  or  ill.  Of  these,  some  are  a  little  out  of  line 
(but  only  a  little)  on  many  subjects;  others  are  out  of  line  on  one 


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AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  SCIENTIFIC  VAGARIES  517 

subject  only,  but  very  much  out;  they  may  be  very  right  in  general, 
and  yet  on  some  one  topic  their  aberration  may  amount  to  mania. 
The  crankiness  that  crops  out  in  various  fields  of  endeavor  often  ex- 
hibits surprising  acumen,  shrewdness,  and  insight,  coupled  with  de- 
fects of  reasoning  no  less  remarkable.  All  this  is  trite,  of  course,  to 
the  alienist.  Probably  an  expert  in  any  profession  encounters  and 
could  cite  instances  of  such  aberration  related  to  his  own  profession, 
and  these  might  all  be  classified.  In  any  one  branch  of  science  they 
would  make  a  formidable  array,  but  it  may  be  that  they  are  all  ulti- 
mately psychological.  Sometimes  the  purely  psychological  aberration 
affects  chiefly  the  actor  himself,  as  in  **New  Thought"  and  such  systems; 
and  sometimes,  when  the  performer  is  dishonest,  it  is  meant  to  affect 
his  victims,  as  in  the  Keely  Motor  and  devices  of  that  nature. 

It  is  exhilarating  to  read  the  propaganda  of  strange  cults  among 
the  announcements  of  Sunday  services  in  the  Saturday  afternoon  or 
Sunday  morning  newspapers  of  any  large  city.  Employing  various 
tricks  of  phraseology,  especially  alliteration,  they  fall  readily  in  step 
with  Mother  Goose's  rhymes  or  suggest  the  Mark  Twain  jingle: 

Punch,  brothers,  punch  with  care; 

League  for  the  larger  life. 
Many  of  these  ^'movements"  are  poorly  disguised  schemes  for  wheedling 
money  from  faddists — ^the  old  trick  of  "stealing  the  livery  of  the  court 
of  heaven  to  serve  the  devil  in."  While  it  is  true  that  some  projects 
once  thought  chimerical  have  been  realized,  and  have  thus  justified  their 
protagonists — at  first  villified  as  crack-brained,  and  then  glorified  as 
geniuses — ^the  utterly  fantastic  character  of  other  schemes  shows  an 
unquestionable  wryness  in  the  persons  at  work  upon  them.  Education 
has  been  thought  the  cure  for  both  moral  and  intellectual  depravity, 
but  the  advocate  of  any  of  these  absurdities  would  be  classed  as  a 
"sport,"  a  lusus  naturae,  which  no  amount  of  educating  could  convert 
into  the  norm.  Why  he  so  frequently  and  continually  recurs  is  a 
mystery. 

It  is  hard  to  tell  which  exhibits  the  greatest  departure  from  the 
normal;  the  eager  chaser  after  the  will-o'-the-wisp,  who  is  so  wholly 
possessed  by  his  idea  that  it  becomes  an  obsession  (that  condition  is 
abnormal  even  if  he  is  sincere) ;  the  unscrupulous  rogue  who,  by  his 
plausibility,  swindles  his  victims;  or  the  admirers  and  victims  them- 
selves who,  astute  enough  in  general,  are  peculiarly  susceptible  to 
some  particular  form  of  deception,  say  scientific  or  religious,  and  who, 
along  that  line,  are  abnormally  credulous  and  easily  deceived — even 
in  some  instances  pleased  at  being  humbugged.  The  scientific  mind  is 
necessarily  an  open  mind,  and  the  over  credulous  imagine  themselves 
especially  scientific  in  their  readiness  to  accept  evidences  of  strange 
new  truths.    But  they  do  not  always  properly  weigh  the  evidence.    An 


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518  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

array  of  testimony  in  the  guise  of  facts,  and  of  consequences  that  are 
unmistakable  is  often  convincing  before  the  evidence  is  knovm  to  be 
genuine,  with  no  certainty  that  it  means  what  they  suppose,  and  least 
of  all  with  any  assured  connection  between  the  supposed  cause  and 
eflfect;  and  although  **one  swallow  does  not  make  a  summer,"  a  single 
fact  is  sometimes  used  to  brace  up  a  host  of  irresponsible  and  un- 
founded statements.  There  are  well  meaning  people  vrith  a  fair  amount 
of  intelligence,  who  will  take  keen  interest  in  the  pretensions  of  a 
mountebank  if  only  he  makes  his  claims  startling  or  upsetting  in  char- 
acter, and  presses  them  with  sufficient  assurance  and  effrontery. 

It  is  not  the  sincere  worker  whose  efforts  are  based  upon  sound 
doctrine  and  real  facts,  and  who  works  on  in  the  face  of  discourage- 
ment, that  we  are  considering,  but  the  aberrant  Whatever  may  be  his 
contention,  his  favorite  method  of  establishing  it  is  to  challenge  every- 
thing and  everybody  to  refute  it.  If  he  is  dishonest  he  wants  notoriety 
and  this  will  procure  it  for  him,  whether  the  challenge  is  accepted  or 
ignored;  if  he  is  honest  he  is  so  far  deluded  that  if  his  challenge  is  not 
accepted  he  is  convinced  that  it  is  unanswerable,  and  if  he  b  contro- 
verted he  feels  that,  like  Galileo  and  a  noble  army  of  predecessors,  he 
is  a  martyr  to  the  conservatism  of  the  age  which  resents  enlightenment 
It  is  not  always  possible  to  take  these  disputants  seriously,  no  matter 
how  seriously  they  take  th^nselves,  neither  is  it  always  safe  to  dismiss 
their  ideas  as  ridiculous,  for  many  a  wise  man  has  been  ridiculed  and 
contenmed  by  others  less  wise  than  himself ;  and  we  need  not  look  upon 
a  quotation  from  the  Alice  books  as  a  sign  of  feeblemindedness. 

In  speaking  of  the  Keely  motor,  an  English  engineer  and  critic 
makes  a  generalization  upon  the  psychology  of  Americans  that  is  pretty 
broad  yet  perhaps  not  without  justification.    He  says: 

It  is  a  peculiar  psychological  fact  that  among  a  people  so  energetic  and 
hard  headed  as  the  Americans  every  imposture,  depending  for  its  success 
upon  mystery,  should  find  multitudes  of  believers.  America  is  the  home  of 
Mormon,  Christian  Scientist,  and  a  host  of  other  sects,  who  each  follow  the 
leadership  of  a  single  person,  it  may  be  ignorant  and  impudent,  or  it  may 
be  of  that  much  learning  that  maketh  mad,  but  at  least  all  agreeing  in  being 
mystics  of  the  very  first  water.  .  .  .  American  geese  are  always  swans, 
and  really  Keely  deserves  a  good  deal  of  attention.  (Henry  Riddell.  M.  E., 
on  "The  Search  for  Perpetual  Motion,"  in  the  Report  and  Proceedings  of 
the  Belfast  Natural  History  and  Philosophical  Society,  1915-1916.) 

Instead  of  indicating  superstition,  however,  does  not  susceptibility 
to  the  unknown  or  the  mysterious  belong  rather  to  the  unmatured  stage 
of  a  people,  or  such  part  of  them  as  are  not  restrained  by  the  conven- 
tions of  those  from  whom  they  have  become  detached?  To  a  people 
who,  in  some  sense,  are  still  pioneers,  before  they  have  grown  stale,  and 
while  they  retain  a  freshness  of  imagination  to  which  they  are  not  un- 
willing to  give  a  loose  rein;  a  condition  which  made  Americans  exuber- 
ant and  bombastic,  and  gained  for  them  a  reputation  that  will  require 


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AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  SCIENTIFIC  VAGARIES  519 

a  long  time  to  live  down.  That  would  account  for  the  free  play  of 
fantastic  ideas  among  Australians  as  well  as  among  Americans — ^ideas 
which  usually  find  fertile  soil  in  newly  settled  and  rapidly  developing 
countries. 

Libraries  serve  as  reservoirs  into  which  erratic  papers  and  pamphlets 
flow  in  streams.  A  typical  collection  of  sixteen  quasi-scientific  pam- 
phlets, bound  together  under  the  general  title  ^Taradoxes/'  in  the  New 
York  Public  Library,  illustrates  the  lengths  to  which  such  aberration 
may  go.  Several  of  the  papers  are  notable,  and  one  or  two  are  notori- 
ous. Merely  to  scan  the  titles  is  enough  to  make  one  dizzy;  they  are  not 
all  old,  some  might  be  called  recent.  One  or  two  will  serve  for  illus- 
tration.   No.  4  is: 

Six  General  Laws  of  Nature— (A  New  Idealism)— A  COMPENDIUM— 
of— A  Large  Work  Divinity  and  The  Cosmos — Containing— The  Positive 
Cause  of  Force  and  Matter,  An  Explanation  On  All  The  Physical  Phenomena 
in  the  Actuality  of  The  Universe,  and  an  Attack  on  the  Modern  Scientists 
and  Philosophers. — Solomon  J.  Silberstein — New  York— 1894. 

To  judge  from  the  weightiness  of  this  ^'Compendium"  the  "Large  Work" 
would  be  crushing.  Mr.  Silberstein  also  has  another  on  'The  Existence 
of  the  Universe — ^The  Causation  of  Its  Origin,  etc."  which  sets  one 
wondering. 

The  papers  are  most  varied  and  fantastic;  one  is  a  rhapsody  of  Man. 
God,  Geography,  Electricity,  Sun,  Moon,  and  Tides,  and  contains  the 
announcement  of  "an  extensive  work  entitled  *A  New  Bible'  to  explain 
in  detail  the  scientific  principles  in  the  above  topics"!  In  another  the 
Rev.  John  Jasper  is  revived  and  the  earth  is  proved  to  be  a  "stationary 
plane  circle";  the  Newtonian  theory  of  gravitation  is  severely  man- 
handled by  several  of  the  writers;  and  cosmic  theories  are  proposed 
by  some  and  overthrown  by  others;  one  especially  affects  odd  words, 
and  another  article  is  made  up  wholly  of  epigrams  and  ejaculations  of 
two  or  three  words  eadi. 

An  attendant  in  an  asylum  for  the  insane,  speaking  of  the  idosyn- 
crasies  of  the  patients,  said  that  the  form  their  hallucination  would 
take  "depended  altogether  on  the  temperaUire  of  their  minds.**  (He 
was  himself  apparently  somewhat  mixed  on  temper,  temperature,  and 
temperament)  Some  of  the  writers  of  these  papers  rival  the  projector 
in  the  Grand  Academy  of  Lagado,  spending  his  labors  on  a  project  to 
extract  sunbeams  from  cucumbers. 

During  the  Middle  Ages  superstition  was  rife  in  science,  and 
vagaries  abounded;  in  the  eighteenth  century  a  great  clarifying  was  in 
progress,  and  by  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  extreme  ideas  of  sci- 
ence were  thought  to  have  reached  their  acme  of  extravagance  in  seven 
different  forms  corresponding,  perhaps,  to  the  seven  wonders  of  the 
world,  and  called  the  "Seven  Follies  of  Science."  This  designation  is 
itself  a  survival  of  a  tendency  as  old  as  counting,  to  recognize  some 


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520  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

peculiar  potency  in  a  number  like  three  or  seven  (particularly  seven) 
as  magical  or  sacred;  and  this  tendency  may  be  only  another  instance 
of  the  very  peculiarities  we  are  setting  out  to  consider. 

The  late  John  Phin,  in  "The  Seven  Follies  of  Science,"  distinguishes 
properly  between  fraud  and  honest  efifort  to  discover  and  utilize  the 
secrets  of  nature.  In  so  discriminating  he,  with  others,  rejects  astrology 
and  magic  because  they  are  frauds,  and  gives  as  the  generally  accepted 
list  of  "Follies'': 

1.  The  quadrature  of  the  circle;  or  as  it  is  called  familiarly, 
squaring  the  circle. 

2.  The  duplication  of  the  cube. 

3.  The  trisection  of  an  angle. 

4.  Perpetual  motion. 

5.  The  transmutation  of  the  metals. 

6.  The  fixation  of  mercury. 

7.  The  elixir  of  life. 

I.  Disraeli,  in  "Curiosities  of  Literature,'*  enumerates  the  "Six 
Follies  of  Science,"  omitting  Nos.  3,  5,  6,  and  7  of  the  above  list,  and 
including: 

4.  The  Philosophical  (or  Philosopher's)  Stone. 

5.  Magic. 

6.  Judicial  Astrology. 

Nos.  1,  2,  and  3  above  are  purely  math^natical  and  do  not  belong  in 
a  list  that  is  limited  to  the  physical  sciences.  The  others  are  things  to 
be  achieved  or  produced  by  experimental  processes  or  search  and  in 
that  class  come  also, 

8.  The  Universal  Solvent;  and  9,  The  Fountain  of  Youth.  This, 
indeed,  is  only  a  variant  of  No.  7,  but  it  has  been  hardly  less  alluring 
than  the  others. 

In  their  relation  to  the  existing  state  of  knowledge  these  have  all 
stood,  in  their  day,  as  rational  topics  of  inquiry,  and  therefore  as 
legitimate  questions  to  which  a  conclusive  answer  mi^t  be  expected. 
For  this  reason  they  ought  not  to  be  called  follies,  for  even  if  they 
may  now  be  regarded  as  such  it  was  not  always  so,  and  with  as  good 
reason  we  might  regard  as  folly  almost  any  novelty  in  the  development 
of  science.  So  we  call  them  fallacies  or  foibles  when  we  are  not  deal- 
ing with  outright  fraud;  in  that  case  we  have  "perversion"  of  science. 
In  most  instances  the  great  difficulty  has  been  to  determine  the  line 
between  honesty  and  deceit.  Even  frauds  would  not  be  excluded  from 
foibles  in  all  cases,  for  it  is  impossible  to  know  how  far  astrologers 
and  soothsayers  came  to  believe  in  their  own  schemes  of  forecasting 
and  divining.  Charlatans  and  fakers  have  possibly  been  self  deceived, 
especially  in  religion.  Certainly  some  weather  predicters  have  believed 
in  their  scheme  of  forecasting,  even  if  they  did  not  believe  in  themselves. 


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AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  SCIENTIFIC  VAGARIES  521 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  the  above  lists,  some  of  the  subjects  that  have 
been  dismissed  as  chimerical  have  been  capable  of  reaching  a  phase 
such  as  science  now  approves,  and  various  chimeras,  once  laughed  out 
of  court,  have  returned  to  make  good  their  claim  to  acceptance  and  to 
serve  us.  As  notable  examples  that  have  been  realized  we  have  aviation, 
self  propelled  vehicles,  and  apparently  the  transmutation  of  metals. 
Geographical  vagaries  have  sometimes  been  of  wide  scope  and  long 
sustained  interest  as,  for  example,  the  myth  of  Atlantis,  the  Northwest 
Passage,  the  Fountain  of  Youth,  El  Dorado,  Symmes*  Theory  of  Con- 
centric Spheres,  and  still  others.  In  1492  the  spherical  form  of  the 
earth  was  a  foible  of  Columbus. 

An  announcement  of  any  startling  achievement  for  which  the  public 
has  not  been  prepared  by  gradual  approach,  is  almost  certain  to  en- 
counter incredulity.  Today  the  X-rays  are  commonplace,  yet  not  only 
laymen  but  professional  physicists  were  skeptical  of  them  when  the 
first  announc^nents  of  them  were  received  in  this  country.  A  final 
solution  of  the  great  problems  of  physics  and  chemistry,  such  as 
gravity,  heat,  electricity,  radiation,  etc.,  involves  the  ultimate  nature 
of  matter — ^itself  the  greatest  problem  of  th^n  all — and  while  the  search 
for  its  solution  continues  vagaries  will  certainly  come  and  perhaps  go. 
No  innovation  that  appears  to  be  subversive  of  established  ideas  can 
acquire  a  standing  without  overcoming  opposition  in  various  forms, 
and  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  effective  forms  that  it  has  to  encounter 
is  ridicule  or  satire.  But  it  has  happened  more  than  once  that  the  chief 
fault  with  the  innovation  was  that  it  was  premature;  and  while  in  such 
case  it  needs  great  vitality  to  survive  the  ridicule  with  which  it  is  met, 
if  it  is  really  true  it  is  likely  to  reappear  after  an  eclipse.  Does  it 
necessarily  follow,  however,  that  if  it  reappears  it  is  really  true?  That 
has  occurred  with  some  systems  of  divining  that  have  been  scouted  by 
orthodox  scientists.  Nevertheless,  doctrines  that  have  stood  as  sound 
science  in  their  day,  reached  maturity  and  flourished,  which  died  and 
were  buried,  may  yet  be  awaiting  resurrection.  Some  of  them,  if  they 
were  now  being  promulgated  for  the  first  time,  would  be  either  ignored 
or  laughed  at  in  the  light  of  modem  knowledge  which  would  show  their 
fallacy.  Again,  apparently  defunct  notions  have  been  resuscitated  and 
revamped  and  brought  into  harmony  vdth  present  day  knowledge  and 
practice,  have  been  shorn  of  excrescences  that  deformed  them  and 
stripped  of  dress  that  disfigured  them;  and  in  consequence,  doctrines 
that  had  been  rather  fantastic  have  received  a  real  scientific  character, 
and  truths  that  had  fallen  into  disrepute  may  have  been  rescued.  This 
seems  to  be  the  case  with  physiognomy.  Some  vagaries  are  veritable 
Banquo's  ghosts  and  will  not  down.  Insuppressible  and  irrepressible, 
with  these  revival  takes  the  place  of  survival,  and  they  return  again 
and  again  to  plague  one,  or  else  to  establish  finally  an  indisputable 
right  to  live.    Reversing  the  usual  order,  the  follies  of  one  generation 


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522  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

have  sometimes  become  the  wisdom  of  the  next.  But  it  is  not  easy  to 
escape  contamination  with  bad  associates,  and  upon  any  recurrence  of 
old  vagaries,  even  if  they  come  bearing  the  promise  of  reform,  they  are 
apt  to  be  put  in  the  same  class  with  new  ones.  Of  these  we  have  a 
superabundance  in  the  shape  of  New  Thought,  Faith  Healing,  The 
Power  of  Will,  etc.,  crowding  the  advertising  colunms  of  newspapers 
and  magazines.  What  with  short  cuts  to  success,  and  marvelous  meth- 
ods of  increasing  one's  power  in  all  lines  of  endeavor,  along  with  the 
ability  to  read  character  at  sight,  it  would  seem  as  if  there  were  no 
excuse  for  anybody  with  moderate  ability  to  stop  short  of  the  topmost 
rung  in  the  ladder  of  Fortune  or  indeed  to  rest  with  only  moderate 
ability.  The  situation  is  hit  off  well  in  an  editorial  of  a  current 
periodical : 

Life  as  it  is  lived  by  the  rest  of  us  must  seem  like  loafing  to  those  who 
have  had  their  memories  trained  so  that  they  can  get  the  telephone  book  by 
heart  in  an  evening,  who  have  studied  the  science  of  physiognomy  until  they 
can  place  a  passing  stranger  at  a  glance,  and  who  have  mastered  the  secrets 
of  will  power  to  such  an  extent  that  it  is  folly  to  dispute  their  purposes. 
Existence  must  appear  a  strangely  pallid  affair  to  you  when  there  is  no  oc- 
casion to  which  you  are  not  equal  and  when  you  have  reduced  the  problems 
of  every  day  to  a  series  of  logarithms,  and  locked  them  fast  in  an  unshakable 
memory.    (The  Globe  and  Commercial  Advertiser,  New  York,  Nov.  12.  1919.) 

While  some  of  the  old  "Follies"  persist,  the  progress  of  science  has 
brought  new  ones  to  the  fore  and  has  focused  attention  upon  wonders 
of  a  kind  that  did  not — could  not — enter  the  minds  of  the  ancients. 
Whether  the  elixir  of  life,  the  fountain  of  youth,  or  the  universal  sol- 
vent has  passed  out  of  question  or  not,  perpetual  motion  still  engages 
the  attention  of  inventors.  The  fact  is,  the  thing  that  has  become  known 
and  established  has  ceased  to  inspire  the  researcher.  He  is  ready  to 
pass  that  on  to  the  utilizer,  while  his  imagination  revels  in  chimeras. 
A  world  consisting  entirely  of  known  facts  would  be  as  fatal  to  imagi- 
nation as  an  arid  world  to  vegetation. 


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THE  GOVERNMENT  LABORATORY  AND  RESEARCH       523 


THE  GOVERNMENT  LABORATORY  AND  INDUS- 
TRIAL  RESEARCH^ 

By  GEORGE  VL  BURGESS.  Sc  D. 

CHIEF  OF  THE  DIVISION  OF  METALLURGY^  BUREAU  OF  STANDARDS 

YOUR  Chairman  has  asked  for  a  contribution  to  this  symposium  on 
Research  setting  forth  the  relations  of  the  Government  Laboratory 
to  Industrial  Research.  In  the  short  time  available,  you  will  not  expect 
more  than  the  briefest  outline  of  the  attitude  of  one  or  more  typical 
laboratories  toward  the  encouragement  and  development  of  research 
in  industry,  the  most  concise  possible  of  statements  describing  how  a 
government  laboratory  functions  in  relation  to  industrial  research 
problems,  and  a  bare  mention  of  but  a  few  of  them. 

There  has  been  a  great  deal  written  recently  concerning  the  various 
aspects  of  industrial  research  and  especially  the  role  that  is  being 
played,  or  should  be  played,  by  each  of  the  various  types  of  organiza- 
tion, such  as  the  Engineering  Society,  the  university,  the  independent 
research  organization,  the  Government,  and  industry  itself;  and  the 
discussion  often  has  centered  about  the  cooperative  aspects  of  research 
as  between  two  or  more  of  these  parties. 

It  is  generally  conceded  by  representatives  of  industry  that  indus- 
trial research  has  for  its  immediate  object  the  increase  of  profits,  and 
consequently  the  brunt  of  the  cost  of  maintenance  should  be  borne  by 
industry,  which  should  also  itself  carry  out  at  least  the  greater  part  of 
the  research  work  required.  There  is  a  very  great  divergence  of  ap- 
preciation of  the  need  and  value  of  research  in  the  various  industries, 
and  the  practices  and  methods  also  vary  greatly. 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  the  role  of  the  university  is  to  train 
men  and  increase  our  store  of  knowledge;  many  think  useful  coopera- 
tive arrangements  in  research  may  be  made  between  the  university  and 
industry,  and  many  illustrations  are  available. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  go  into  a  philosophical  or 
academic  discussion  of  what  part  the  government  laboratory  should 
play  on  the  stage  of  industrial  research  but  rather,  accepting  the  facts 
and  tendencies  as  they  are,  to  state  briefly,  if  inadequately,  what  two 
of  the  government  bureaus  are  trying  to  do  to  encourage  and  help 
industry  through  research  in  science,  engineering  and  technology. 

I  American  Society  for  Steel  Treating,  September  23,  1921,  Annual  Con- 
vention at  Indianapolis. 


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524  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

It  has  been  well  said:  **A11  research  is  in  the  public  interest,  and 
that  from  the  public  viewpoint  the  sole  difference  between  abstract 
and  applied  science  is  one  of  degree  and  not  of  fact;  that  the  important 
point  is  increased  research  activity  irrespective  of  where  or  by  what 
means  it  is  carried  on/' 

If,  therefore,  the  public  has  an  interest  in  and  derives  benefit  from 
industrial,  scientific  research,  it  is  both  fitting  and  fair  for  the  public, 
through  the  agency  of  the  Government  Laboratories,  to  both  participate 
in  and  help  support  such  research. 

It  also  follows  that  there  should  be  established  and  maintained  the 
closest  relations  between  the  representatives  of  industry,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  the  government  laboratories,  on  the  other.  This  intimate 
contact  should  evidently  not  be  limited  to  scientific  and  technical  staffs 
of  the  industrial  and  government  laboratories,  but  should  embrace  also 
the  directors  of  policy  in  industry  and  government. 

There  is  another  and  most  important  characteristic  of  the  govern- 
ment laboratory  in  its  relation  to  this  question  of  industrial  research, 
one  that  has  been  often  mentioned,  namely,  the  desirability  in  many 
cases  of  having  the  woik  done,  in  whole  or  in  part,  by  an  impartial 
body  representing  the  public  and  on  whose  results  will  be  impressed 
the  stamp  of  authority;  as  in  cases  in  which  if  one  or  the  other  party,  as 
producer  and  consumer,  either  alone  or  together,  published  the  results, 
they  would  not,  however  well  executed,  carry  the  desired  weight 

Again,  one  should  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  our  government  is 
the  largest  business  organization  in  the  country,  the  most  important 
buyer  and  also  maintains  several  types  of  industrial  or  manufacturing 
plant  of  a  highly  technical  nature.  So  the  government  itself,  in  the 
conduct  of  its  business,  is  a  party  vitally  interested  in  the  progress  of 
industrial  research,  economies  in  buying,  and  standardization  of  prod- 
ucts. The  results  obtained  in  its  laboratories  on  its  own  problems  are 
freely  given  to  industry.  The  role  of  the  Bureau  of  Standards  has 
been  preeminent  in  research  for  the  government  and  many  of  its  ac- 
tivities in  the  field  of  industrial  research  have  been  started  for  the  pur- 
pose of  meeting  government  needs  for  information  relating  to  improve- 
ments in  manufacturing  processes,  standardization  and  the  formulation 
of  specifications.  As  illustrations,  may  be  cited  the  investigations  rela- 
ting to  cement,  concrete,  paper,  leather,  rubber  and  textiles,  for  which 
small  manufacturing  plants  have  been  installed. 

It  is  often  maintained  there  are  three  essential  steps  in  many 
branches  of  industrial  research,  particularly  as  related  to  new  pro- 
cesses; first,  the  laboratory  investigation;  second,  the  development  on 
a  small  manufacturing  scale;  and  last,  full  scale  production,  all  of 
which  require  experimentation.  The  government  bureau  may  be  and 
often  is  associated  with  all  three  of  these  stages. 


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THE  GOVERNMENT  LABORATORY  AND  RESEARCH       626 

What  now  do  we  find  to  be  the  relation  of  the  government  laboratory 
to  the  industries  of  the  country? 

We  may  perhaps  best  approach  the  subject  by  asking  of  what  aid 
can  the  government  laboratory  be  to  the  American  Society  for  Steel 
Treating,  to  its  members  individually  and  to  the  industries  it  rep- 
resents? 

There  are  two  government  bureaus  the  work  of  which  is  most  nearly 
related  to  the  scope  of  interests  covered  by  this  society,  namely,  the 
Bureau  of  Mines  and  of  Standards.  Each  of  these  bureaus  is  vitally 
concerned  with  promoting  the  welfare  of  the  nation  in  matters  relating 
to  their  respective  fields.  They  may  be  considered  as  great  technical 
service  bureaus  to  which  the  engineering,  scientific  and  technical  in- 
terests of  the  country  may  apply  for  help  in  solving  many  of  the  under- 
lying problems  of  general  interest  in  mining,  technology,  engineering, 
physical  and  chemical  science,  and  in  standardization,  on  all  of  which 
progress  in  industry  is  based. 

From  the  viewpoint  of  cooperation  with  industry,  how  do  these  two 
institutions  function  with  respect  to  industrial  research,  which  we  may 
define  as  research  with  an  avowed  utilitarian  motive? 

Let  us  consider  first  the  Bureau  of  Mines.  In  the  annual  report 
of  the  director  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1920,  appears  this  state- 
ment: 

During  the  past  few  years  the  bureau  has  been  building  up  investigative 
work  with  outside  cooperating  agencies  in  a  manner  unique  among  Federal 
bureaus.  The  detailed  agreements  entered  into  differ  among  themselves,  but 
the  fundamentals  are  these: 

1.  Some  state,  or  university,  private  or  semi-private  organization  has 
problems  in  mining  or  metallurgy  the  solution  of  which  would  benefit  itself 
and  the  public. 

2.  These  outside  agencies  agree  to  pay  part  or  all  of  the  cost,  both  in 
personnel  and  materials,  of  the  investigation,  which  is  to  be  carried  on  under 
the  direction  of,  and  according  to,  the  methods  of  the  Bureau  of  Mines. 

3.  The  Bureau  of  Mines  retains  the  right  to  make  public  and  print  the 
results  of  all  such  investigations. 

So  successful  has  this  method  of  solving  problems  been  that  at  present 
the  bureau  has  cooperative  agreements  with  State  agencies  in  ii  states,  with 
12  different  universities,  and  with  19  private  and  semi-private  agencies.  And 
the  total  amount  of  money  being  spent  by  the  outside  agencies  on  these  co- 
operative agreements,  mostly  under  the  direction  of  the  bureau,  has  amoimted 
to  approximately  half  a  million  dollars  during  the  present  fiscal  year.  In 
addition,  a  number  of  representative  concerns  in  leading  mining  and  metal- 
lurgical industries  have  appropriated  money  to  be  spent  under  the  direction  of 
the  Bureau  of  Mines  in  production  of  educational  motion  pictures  illustrating 
various  mining  and  metallurgical  industries.  The  bureau  has  f  otmd  tliat  these 
films  are  in  great  demand  by  the  public,  and  that  they  have  materially  assisted 
the  wide  dissemination  of  information  concerning  the  industries. 

As  in  the  case  of  agriculture,  the  mining  industry  is  scattered  over  a 
wide  geographical  area  and  the  problems  to  be  solved  are  often  local; 


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626  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

therefore  it  was  but  natural  for  the  Bureau  of  Mines  to  follow  the 
practice  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  establishing  experiment 
stations  at  suitably  located  points  for  the  study  of  problems  relating 
to  the  mining  industry. 

The  Bureau  of  Mines  is  also  charged  with  the  govemmrat  work  on 
fuels — a  subject  of  no  little  interest  to  the  membership  of  this  society — 
which  include,  of  course,  coal  and  petroleum  products  of  widely  diver- 
sified types  and  situated  in  many  areas.  In  its  study  of  fuel  problems, 
the  Bureau  of  Mines  has  carried  on  both  the  field  and  station  type  of 
investigation  but  has  also  been  able  to  concentrate  in  one  or  more  cen- 
tral laboratories  much  of  its  fundamental  research  work. 

In  problems  relating  to  process  metallurgy,  such  as  the  recovering 
of  the  various  metals  from  their  ores,  much  the  same  procedure  has,  of 
necessity,  been  followed  as  for  the  mining  operations,  namely  work 
at  outlying  stations.  In  both  mining  and  metallurgical  investigations 
it  is  the  custom  to  cooperate  on  an  intimate  and  intensive  scale  with 
existing  industrial  plants,  to  the  very  great  benefit  in  the  increase  of 
our  knowledge  and  improvement  of  the  processes  concerned,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  evident  economies  of  such  methods  of  cooperative  in- 
vestigation. With  the  experience  gained  by  this  Bureau  in  successfully 
overcoming  the  difficulties  in  one  region  available  for  new  problems 
as  they  may  arise  elsewhere,  there  is  evidently  also  elimination  of  much 
wasted  effort  in  trying  out  a  new  or  modified  metallurgical  process. 

In  its  investigations  relating  to  mineral  technology  and  elimination 
of  waste  in  metallurgical  operations,  this  Bureau  is  doing  much  of 
direct  interest  to  this  society,  such  as  smoke  and  fume  abatement,  health 
conditions  in  shops,  furnace  design  and  operation,  metallurgical  re- 
fractories, and  the  making  of  alloy  steels,  a  long  list,  the  consideration 
of  which  here  would  take  us  far  afield. 

Turning  now  to  the  Bureau  of  Standards,  we  may  note  certain  dif- 
ferences in  methods  and  procedure  as  compared  with  the  Bureau  of 
Mines.  We  have  seen  how  the  latter  bureau  maintains  a  large  number 
of  widely  scattered  units  or  stations.  In  contrast  to  this  decentralized 
practice,  the  Bureau  of  Standards  has  practically  all  its  work  concen- 
trated in  a  group  of  laboratories  at  Washington  although  it  has  main- 
tained an  important  station  at  Pittsburgh  mainly  for  engineering  work 
on  structural  materials  which  station,  however,  is  being  moved  to  Wash- 
ington; there  are  also  a  few  small  detached  stations  for  cement  and 
ch^nical  testing. 

Again,  the  Bureau  of  Standards  has  followed  less  generally  than 
the  Bureau  of  Mines  the  practice  of  entering  into  formal  cooperative 
agreements  with  States,  and  other  public  or  private  bodies.  We  have 
usually  adopted  the  less  formal,  but  nevertheless  effective,  practice, 
in  our  relations  with  industry,  of  orienting  and  organizing  our  work 
through  the  instrumentality  of  committees  representing  industry. 


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THE  GOVERNMENT  LABORATORY  AND  RESEARCH       527 

It  has  been  said  committees  do  no  work  and  therefore  are  unneces- 
sary, but  a  moment's  consideration  will  show  that  in  many  ways  a  well 
organized  committee  is  most  valuable,  if  not  indispensable,  in  laying 
down  principles  and  suggesting  policies,  resulting  from  the  united 
experience  of  all  its  members.  The  Bureau  of  Standards  finds  in  many 
lines  of  its  work  relating  to  industrial  research  that  the  conunittee 
method  of  outlining  the  probl^n  is  the  only  feasible  one.  There  is 
established  a  mutual  confidence  among  all  interested  parties  so  essential 
in  attaining  the  maximum  output  with  minimum  risk  of  misdirected 
effort. 

As  a  text  defining  the  Bureau's  relation  to  industry,  let  us  quote 
again  from  Mr.  A.  W.  Berresford  in  his  presidential  address  before  the 
American  Institute  of  Electrical  Engineers: 

I  conceive  it  to  be  the  prime  duty  of  the  industry,  first  to  agree  on  what 
shall  be  the  scope  of  the  Bureau;  second,  to  educate  the  Bureau  in  its  con- 
ditions; and  third,  by  demanding  that  its  interests  be  heeded,  to  secure  ade- 
quate support  of  the  Bureau. 

At  the  outset,  it  may  be  laid  down  as  axiomatic  that  the  director  of 
the  bureau  has  never  considered  undertaking  any  problem  in  research 
relating  to  industry  without  first  consulting  representatives  of  that  in- 
dustry, either  as  a  group  through  some  organized  body  speaking  for 
the  industry  or  by  consulting  with  men  of  authority  in  the  industry. 
Many  are  the  illastrations  of  this  practice;  for  example,  there  has  been 
for  years  a  committee  appointed  by  various  bodies  interested  in  non- 
ferrous  metals,  known  as  the  ^'Committee  Advisory  to  the  Bureau  of 
Standards  on  Non-Ferrous  Metals,"  or  for  short,  the  non-ferrous  com- 
mittee, which  meets  at  the  bureau  twice  a  year.  All  the  work  on  this 
subject  is  gone  over  before  and  during  its  execution,  so  that  the  non- 
ferrous  metal  investigations  of  the  bureau  have  not  only  the  endorse- 
ment of  the  industry  but  the  industry  itself  formulates  the  program. 
If  progress  in  this  domain  has  been  less  rapid  and  extensive  than  we 
should  like,  may  we  then  say  that,  although  the  first  two  of  Mr.  Berres- 
ford's  conditions  have  been  met,  the  third  is  lacking? 

The  woik  on  railroad  materials  has,  less  formally,  been  largely 
mapped  out  as  a  result  of  meetings  held  at  the  bureau  of  representative 
railroad  groups.  Sometimes  a  specific  problem  that  appeals  to  the 
bureau  may  be  presented  by  some  railroad  together  with  a  manufac- 
turer; such  was  our  work  on  rails  from  different  ingot  types,  and  the 
investigation  now  being  conducted  on  Titanium  treated  rails;  or  again 
a  manufacturer's  association  as  that  of  Chilled  Iron  Car  Wheels  may 
ask  the  bureau  to  cooperate  in  carrying  out  an  investigation — ^just  com- 
pleted— on  thermal  stresses  in  chilled  iron  car  wheels  as  related  to 
design  and  braking;  or  it  may  be  an  unorganized  group,  as  that  of  the 
steel  wheel  manufacturers,  asking  for  and  getting  a  similar  investiga* 
tion.    Nor  should  there  be  forgotten  the  bureau's  activities  in  the  realm 


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52S  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

of  engineering  materials  in  ite  relation  to  the  numerous  committees  of 
the  American  Society  for  Testing  Materials,  which  committees  are 
fairly  representative  of  both  the  consmning  and  producing  elements 
of  their  respective  industries  and  represent  as  well  the  engineering  pub- 
lic. I  suppose  the  list  of  direct  or  implied  requests  for  work  by  this 
engineering  body  alone  would  reach  the  size  of  a  substantial  volume. 

Another  problem  and  another  type  of  organization.  Whether  he 
realizes  it  or  not,  every  one  in  this  country  is  vitally  concerned  in  the 
limitations  set  for  sulphur  and  phosphorus  content  in  various  grades 
of  steel.  If  these  limits  are  fixed  too  rigidly  the  cost  of  living  rises, 
if  too  loosely,  the  life  hazard  of  all  of  us  is  increased.  This  problem 
was  brought  formally  to  the  bureau's  attention  by  two  bodies,  one  rep- 
resenting the  government,  the  other  the  engineering  fraternity;  or  by  the 
Railroad  Administration  and  the  Society  for  Testing  Materials.  A 
joint  conunittee  was  formed  representing  the  government  departments, 
the  specification  making  bodies,  and  the  manufacturers.  The  testing  and 
research  is  carried  out  in  the  government  laboratories  at  Watertown, 
Annapolis  and  Washington,  and  the  steel  is  specially  produced  for  the 
investigation  by  the  manufacturers  under  the  oversight  of  the  com- 
mittee. A  unique  feature  of  the  conduct  of  this  investigation  is  that 
there  is  not  a  two  sided  table  with  manufacturers  on  one  side  and  the 
users  on  the  other — but  it  is  a  round  table  affair  with  each  man  re- 
sponsible for  endorsing  each  stage  of  the  program  so  that  no  member 
can  later  say,  why  did  you  not  do  this  or  that? 

The  bureau's  investigations  on  electrolysis  as  related  to  public  serv- 
ice companies  and  cities  are  being  organized  on  a  somewhat  diff'erent 
but  nevertheless  highly  satisfactory  basis,  in  which  all  interested  parties 
jire  represented  and  the  program  put  up  to  the  bureau  by  them. 

Hardly  a  day  passes  that  there  is  not  one,  sometimes  several,  formal 
or  informal  conferences  at  the  bureau  by  groups  representative  of  in- 
dustry who  are  interested  in  having  the  bureau  undertake  problems  of 
research  fundamental  to  their  industry,  and  at  those  conferences  the 
work  to  be  done  is  usually  mapped  out,  at  least  on  general  lines  and 
often  in  great  detail. 

At  the  present  time  much  attention  is  being  given  to  problems  re- 
lating to  the  elimination  of  industrial  wastes.  The  possibilites  of 
progress  in  this  field  are  of  unlimited  extent.  In  a  sense,  of  course, 
all  industrial  research  from  which  beneficial  results  are  obtained  lead  in- 
evitably to  the  equivalent  of  elimination  of  waste  by  conservation  and 
better  utilization  of  materials,  improved  quality  of  products,  recovery 
of  by-products,  increased  efficiency  of  performance,  or  discovery  of 
new  processes  and  products.  There  are,  however,  many  instances  in 
industry  in  which  the  waste,  as  such,  is  evident  and  manifestly  prevent- 
able, and  it  is  to  problems  dealing  with  these  classes  of  waste  to  whidi 


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THE  GOVERNMENT  LABORATORY  AND  RESEARCH       529 

I  refer.  As  examples  we  may  mention  the  enormous  losses  caused  by 
corrosion,  ineflScient  furnace  operations,  excessive  use  of  manganese, 
and  other  preventable  losses  of  material  and  energy  in  steel  manufac- 
turing operations. 

Another  field  of  industrial  research,  and  one  that  will  grow  in 
importance,  relates  to  our  foreign  trade,  particularly  the  specification 
and  testing  of  materials  for  export  The  establishment  and  maintenance 
of  standards  in  this  wider  competitive  field  will  require  much  more 
experimental  research  than  might  be  thought  necessary  by  one  who 
gives  the  matter  but  hasty  attention.  In  fact  in  the  realm  of  standardi- 
zation and  specifications,  as  those  of  you  know  who  may  be  familiar 
with  some  phases  of  this  subject,  you  never  get  far  in  writing  a  specifi- 
cation before  you  enter  the  unknown,  and  the  way  can  be  cleared  only 
by  further  experimental  investigation. 

We  might  cite  many  other  types  of  problem  related  to  industrial 
research  on  which  the  Bureau  of  Standards  is  now  woridng  or  is  quali- 
fied to  assist  in  solving  in  collaboration  with  industry,  but  I  trust  what 
has  preceded  has  given  you  a  better  idea  than  you  had  before  of  the 
relation  of  the  Bureau  to  industry  and  the  readiness  at  all  times  on  its 
part  to  participate  with  industry  in  the  solution  of  those  problems  of 
general  interest  coming  within  its  scope.  The  same  is,  of  course, 
equally  true  of  the  Bureau  of  Mines. 

Before  closing,  I  would  like  to  mention  one  other  type  of  activity  at 
the  Bureau — still  in  an  undeveloped  state — which  gives  promise  of  be- 
ing of  considerable  value  to  industry.  I  refer  to  the  practice  started 
about  two  years  ago  of  an  industry  sending  men  to  work  at  the  bureau 
on  problems  that  industry  is  interested  in  having  solved  and  for  which 
the  equipment  and  atmosphere  of  the  bureau  may  be  particularly  suited. 
This  practice  was  instituted  by  the  bureau  largely  in  self-defense  at  a 
time  when  manufacturers  were  drawing  men  from  it  in  alarming  num- 
bers and  it  was  also  coincident  with  the  reduction  of  the  bureau^s  funds. 
We  call  these  men  Research  Associates  or  Assistants,  and  at  the  present 
time  there  are  twenty,  six  of  whom  are  working  on  metallurgical  prob- 
lems, and  the  others  on  problems  relating  to  hollow  tile,  terra  cotta, 
visibility,  lime,  gypsum,  plasticity  of  fats,  cement,  and  the  constants  of 
ammonia.  There  are  great  possibilities  in  the  extension  of  this  system 
under  which  men  are  trained  as  well  as  problems  solved,  and  the  bene- 
fits to  industry  are  self-evident 

Much  mi^t  be  said  of  the  educational  advantages  of  the  govern- 
ment laboratory  in  training  men  for  research  positions  in  industry.  The 
Bureaus  of  Mines  and  Standards  often  have  been  severely  crippled  by 
losing  men  to  industry.  It  is  not  in  general  to  the  advantage  of  industry 
to  so  cripple  an  organization  working  for  the  benefit  of  industry. 

A  last  word — and  only  a  word — as  to  the  cost  of  research,  indus- 

VOL.  xra.-3^ 


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530  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

trial  or  any  other.  It  is  trite  to  say  it.  is  expensive,  so  is  life  insurance; 
but  it  is  far  more  costly  not  to  support  research  adequately,  just  as  it 
is  not  to  make  provision  for  future  contingencies.  It  has  been  said  that 
such  government  laboratories  as  the  Bureaus  of  Standards  and  Mines 
are  luxuries  we  can  easily  dispense  with;  yes,  just  as  the  farmer's  seed 
and  fertilizer  can  be  dispensed  with  to  his  ruin.  What  does  it  cost  per 
capita  for  the  Bureau  of  Standards  or  the  Bureau  of  Mines?  Almost 
exactly  a  cent  apiece  for  each  inhabitant  of  this  country,  which  if  I  were 
not  a  member  of  the  staff,  I  would  characterize  as  dirt  cheap,  the  price 
of  the  tax  on  one  ten  cent  "movie"  ticket 

The  American  Society  for  Steel  Treating  is  concerned  with  many 
problems,  some  of  them  of  great  intricacy,  involving  not  only  the  per- 
fection of  practice  in  the  subject  of  heat  treating  but  dependent  also 
upon  the  new  facts  to  be  discovered  relating  to  the  properties  of  the 
various  types  of  steel  and  the  characteristics  of  many  auxiliaries  sudi 
as  fuels,  refractories,  pyrometers,  quenching  media,  furnace  control  and 
design;  problems  relating  to  geometry  and  mass  of  heating  and  cooling 
objects,  and  many  others. 

We,  at  the  Standards  Bureau,  would  be  glad  to  see  formed  ivithin 
this  society,  a  committee  advisory  to  the  Bureau  on  Heat  Treatment  of 
Steel,  which  would  enable  us  to  keep  in  touch  with  each  other  so  that 
the  bureau's  efforts  in  this  field  of  investigation  would  be  constantly  in 
harmony  with  the  most  progressive  minds  in  the  country  interested  in 
furthering  progress  in  this  subject 

Finally,  I  want  to  make  a  special  plea  for  scientific  research  in  in- 
dustry at  this  time.  We  have  been  witnessing,  during  this  period  of 
depression,  the  cutting  down  and  even  entire  wiping  out  of  many  re- 
search departments.  How  many  times  have  we  all  heard  the  argument: 
in  times  of  prosperity  we  have  not  the  time  and  do  not  need  research, 
and  in  hard  times  we  cannot  afford  it?  In  my  opinion,  the  wise  Board 
of  Directors  is  the  one  which  stimulates  research  in  hard  times  even  if 
it  has  to  borrow  money  to  do  so.  Competition  will  be  keener  than 
ever  as  prosperity  returns  and  the  company  which  has  in  the  meantime 
sharpened  its  tools  by  increasing  its  research  facilities  will  score  in  the 
long  run.  There  is  no  greater  economic  waste  than  wrecking  a  going 
research  group. 


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AMERICA'S  FIRST  AGRICULTURAL  SCHOOL  531 


AMERICA'S  FIRST  AGRICULTURAL  SCHOOL 
By  Dr.  NEIL  E.  STEVENS 

U.  S.  DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE 

r[E  establishment,  a  century  ago,  of  ^an  institution  destined  to  pre- 
pare youth  by  a  scientific  education  to  become  skillful  farmers  and 
mechanics"  is  in  itself  notable.  As  the  Gardiner  Lyceum  was  not  only 
our  first  agricultural  school,  but  the  first  institution  to  receive  a  state 
appropriation  for  agricultural  instruction,  its  foundation  may  almost 
be  said  to  mark  an  epoch.  The  importance  of  agricultural  schools 
and  colleges  in  our  educational  system  renders  of  present  interest  a 
brief  sketch  of  this  pioneer  institution,  which  emphasized  the  practical 
value  of  science,  and  introduced  an  elective  system,  student  self  gov* 
emment  and  winter  short  courses. 

The  idea  of  such  a  school  originated  with  Robert  Hallowell 
Gardiner,  who  was  a  member  of  its  board  of  trustees  and  its  chief 
benefactor.  Of  this  remarkable  man,  pioneer  in  many  lines  and  pro- 
moter of  everything  that  seemed  for  the  good  of  the  community  iivfaich 
now  bears  his  name,  little  need  be  said.  Sympathetic  biographical 
sketches  are  avilable  (5)  and  his  work  is  mentioned  in  several  histories 
of  Gardiner,  Maine  (7).  His  part  in  the  origin  of  the  Lyceum  is, 
however,  of  direct  interest  and  is  told  in  the  manuscript  autobiograph- 
ical notes  which  he  prepared  some  years  before  his  death  and  which 
are  now  in  the  possession  of  his  descendants,  who  have  courteously 
made  them  available  to  the  wxiter. 

In  beginning  his  account  of  the  foundation  of  the  Lyceum,  Gardiner 
states  that  he  had  frequently  been  impressed  by  the  fact  that  skilled 
workmen,  such  as  surveyors  and  millwrights  were 

wholly  ignorant  of  the  principles  upon  which  their  arts  depend,  so  that  when 
anything  occurred  out  of  the  common  routine,  I  found  them  utterly  at  a 
loss  how  to  proceed.    Our  fanners  were  still  less  intelligent 

After  reflecting  much  upon  this  subject,  I  became  impressed  with  the 
belief  that  an  institution  might  be  established  which  would  put  the  acquisition 
of  so  much  science  as  was  requisite  to  make  skillful  farmers,  millwrights, 
and  other  mechanics,  within  the  reach  of  all  who  wished  to  follow  these 
branches  of  business.  I  communicated  these  views  to  a  number  of  gentle- 
men of  practical  intelligence  who  highly  approved  them,  as  was  shown 
by  their  subsequently  sending  their  sons  to  the  Lyceum  when  it  was  estab- 
lished. Wishing  the  co-operation  of  my  fellow  citizens,  I  called  a  meeting 
and  proposed  the  subject,  which  produced  a  hearty  response. 

I  proposed  to  give  as  an  endowment  312  acres  of  land  fronting  on 
Kennebec  River,  and  valued  at  $3,744.00  to  which  I  subsequently  added  122 
acres  adjoining,  making  a  total  of  434  acres  valued  at  $5,208.00.  They  pro- 
posed to  erect  the  building  to  which  I  only  contributed  $100.00. 


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632  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

The  building  referred  to  was  a  substantial  two-story  st<»ie  struc- 
ture, and  its  erection  by  subscription  is  evidence  of  real  interest  in 
technical  education  in  that  conununity.  In  the  development  of  such 
a  sentiment  the  work  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Vaughn  (3)  in  making  available 
through  publication  in  this  country  European  work  on  agriculture, 
notably  the  now  little  known  ^^Rural  Socrates"  (1800)  and  some  ex- 
tracts from  Buffon's  works,  in  urging  the  importance  of  experimental 
study  of  £^icultural  problems,  and  in  the  establishment  of  agricul- 
tural societies,  must  have  played  a  large  part. 

The  grounds  and  building  for  the  new  school  being  thus  assured 
the  state  legislature  was  petitioned  for  an  act  of  incorporation  and  for 
assistance.  A  portion  of  this  petition  is  here  quoted  for  the  statement 
it  gives  of  the  purposes  of  the  Gardiner  Lyceum. 

The  petition  of  the  subscribers  represents  that  a  donation  has  been 
offered  of  land  lying  on  Kennebeck  River,  estimated  at  $4,000.00  for  the  pur- 
pose of  establishing  ...  a  school  for  teaching  mathematics,  mechanics, 
navigation  and  those  branches  of  natural  philosophy  and  chemistry  which 
are  calculated  to  make  scientific  farmers  and  skillful  mechanics. 

And  whereas  it  is  an  object  of  very  great  importance  to  any  state  .  .  . 
that  its  citizens  should  possess  an  education  adapted  to  make  them  skillful 
and  able  to  improve  the  advantages  which  nature  had  so  lavishly  bestowed 
upon  them,  and  whereas  the  State  of  Maine  ...  has  hitherto  omitted  to 
make  provbions  for  giving  instruction  to  her  seamen,  her  mechanics,  and 
her  farmers,  upon  whom  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the  State  mainly 
depend    .    .    . 

They  would  therefore  pray  your  honorable  bodies  to  incorporate  a 
school  for  the  above  purposes,  with  a  body  of  seven  Trustees  with  the  usual 
powers  and  privileges,  to  be  called  the  "Gardiner  Lyceum^'  and  to  grant 
such  aid  as  will  enable  the  Trustees  to  bring  the  school  into  immediate  use- 
fulness.    Signed  by  R.  H.  Gardiner  and  53  others. 

In  response  to  this  petition  the  Maine  legislature  passed  what  is 
apparently  the  first  recognition,  by  an  American  legislative  body,  of 
a  distinctively  agricultural  school. 

Private  acts  of  the  State  of  Maine,  Chapter  CVIII. 

AN  ACT  to  incorporate  the  Trustees  of  the  Gardiner  Lyceum. 

Sec  X.    Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  m 

Legislature  assembled.  That  an  institution,  designed  to  prepare  youth  by  a 

scientific  education  to  become  skillful  farmers  and  mechanics,  be  established 

in  the  town  of  Gardiner,  to  be  called  the  Gardiner  Lyceum;  and  that  Robert 

Hallowell  Gardiner,  Peter  Grant,  Sanford  Kingsberry,  Frederick  Allen,  John 

Stone,  and  Edward  Swan,  Esquires,  be  and  they  are  hereby  incorporated  into 

a  body  politic,  by  the  name  of  the  trustees  of  the  Gardiner  Lyceum;    .    .    . 

(This  act  passed  January  30,  1822). 

The  Gardiner  autobiography  states  that  the  name  ^had  been  chosen 
to  distinguish  the  institution  as  distinct  from  a  high  school  or  college** 
and  further  that  ''Mr.  Allen  almost  immediately  resigned  and  Mr. 
Evans,  who  was  very  efficient  in  carrying  out  the  objects  of  the  insti- 
tution was  elected  in  his  place'*. 


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AMERICA'S  FIRST  AGRICULTURAL  SCHOOL  583 

The  next  step  was  the  publication,  in  1822,  of  an  ^'Address  to  the 
Public"  from  the  trustees  of  the  Gardiner  Lyceum.  This  address, 
which  was  prepared  by  Mr.  Gardiner  and  signed  by  him  in  the  name 
of  the  trustees,  stresses  the  importance  of  a  knowledge  of  science  in 
practical  affairs,  and  outlines  the  objects  of  the  institution,  as  indi- 
cated by  the  following  quotations: 

The  practical  utility  of  science  cannot  be  doubted,  in  an  age  where 
its  investigations  have  produced  such  astonishing  improvements  as  in  the 
present  There  is  scarcely  an  art,  which  has  not  directly  or  indirectly  re- 
ceived from  it  important  services,  for  science  must  necessarily  be  the  founda- 
tion of  every  art 

With  a  view  to  furnish  to  farmers  and  mechanics  the  education  here 
represented  as  so  useful,  the  Gardiner  Lyceum  has  been  established;  and 
the  course  of  study  will  be  arranged  with  particular  reference  to  the  wants 
of  those  classes,  for  whose  particular  benefit  it  was  designed.  As  soon  as  a 
suitable  apparatus  can  be  provided,  lectures  will  be  given  upon  the  sciences 
there  taught;  and  the  application  of  those  sciences  to  the  arts  will  be 
illustrated  as  fully  as  the  nature  of  lectures  will  admit. 

Gardiner  states  in  his  autobiography  that,  ^Copies  of  the  address 
were  sent  among  others  to  the  two  ex-presidents,  Adams  and  Jefferson, 
from  both  of  whom  I  received  civil  answers  approving  the  plan**. 
Thus,  even  in  small  ways,  did  these  two  great  Americans  promote  the 
cause  of  education. 

The  address  referred  to  announces  the  opening  of  the  school  early 
in  January,  1823,  and  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Benjamin  Hale,  a  tutor 
in  Bowdoin  College,  as  principal  and  lecturer  in  natural  philosophy. 
Of  him  the  Gardiner  autobiography  says  with  apparent  fairness: 

Mr.  Hale  was  admirably  adapted  to  the  situation.  He  was  a  man  of 
great  insight  into  character,  and  with  a  strong  disposition  to  break  through 
established  routine  when  change  offered  improvement,  and  therefore  entered 
warmly  into  a  plan  which  though  novel,  promised  essential  benefit  to  an 
important  class  in  the  community.  He  had  the  power  of  gaining  the  con- 
fidence and  commanding  the  respect  of  young  persons  intrusted  to  his 
charge,  for  while  he  was  earnest  to  give  them  high  motives  of  action,  he 
thought  it  better  not  to  notice  and  punish  trifling  misdemeanors  arising  rather 
from  boyishness  than  from  bad  disposition. 

Mr.  Hale's  inaugural  address,  whidh  was  published  by  the  trustees, 
foUoirs  Mr.  Gardiner's  publication  in  emphasizing  the  practical  im- 
portance of  science  and  states  the  object  of  the  Lyceum  in  these  words: 

In  exhibiting,  as  we  have  endeavored  briefly  to  do,  the  connexion  of 
science  with  the  useful  arts,  and  showing  the  importance  of  the  former  as 
the  foundation  of  the  latter,  we  have  given  you  in  part  the  views,  which 
led  to  establishment  of  the  Gardiner  Lyceum.  It  is  the  object  of  this  insti- 
tution to  give  instruction  in  those  branches  which  arc  most  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  arts,  and  to  teach  them  as  the  foundation  of  the  arts.  In 
this  respect  we  believe  its  design  to  be  original. 

But  it  is  plain  that  to  practical  men  science  must  be  taught  in  a  prac- 
tical manner.  Wc  are  taught  this  by  the  frequent  failures  of  men  who  are 
not  deficient  in  the  general  principles  of  science,  but  who  are  unacquainted 
with  the  particular  science  of  the  arts. 


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534  THE   SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

Under  Hale's  enthusiastic  leadership  the  institution  throve.  In 
January,  1823,  an  appropriation  of  one  thousand  dollars  and  the  tax 
on  the  Gardiner  bank  amounting  to  another  thousand  was  secured  fr<«i 
the  state  legislature.  The  catalogue  published  in  November,  1823, 
shows  that  there  were  twenty  students,  the  next  fall  there  were  fifty- 
three  and  in  February,  1828,  a  committee  of  the  Maine  legislature 
reported  that. 

Since  the  Institution  commenced  its  operations,  the  number  of  students 
who  have  been  instructed  there,  for  longer  or  shorter  periods  of  time,  is 
one  hundred  and  ninety-one.    Many  of  these  have  completed  the  whole  term 

f  of  three  years    .    .    .    Several  have  remained  for  shorter  periods  having 

in  view  the  attainment  of  but  one  particular  science,  such    as    surveying, 

I  mechanics,  navigation,  chemistry,    .    .    . 

I  The  catalogue  for  1823  announces  (p.  9)  an  elective  system  which 

must  have  been  as  much  of  an  innovation  as  the  school  itself. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once,  from  the  remarks  above  made,  that  the  course 
which  will  be  pursued  cannot  be  minutely  detailed  as  it  must  often  be  sub- 
ject to  variations  from  the  necessities  of  students,  arising  from  the  nature  of 
the  object  they  have  in  view  and  the  pursuit  for  which  they  wish  to  be 
qualified.  These  objects  and  destined  pursuits  of  the  students  will  ever  be 
attended  to,  and  no  one  will  be  obliged  to  study  that,  which  will  not  be  of 
material  service  to  him  .  .  .  Where  there  are  several  who  are  under 
the  necessity  of  leaving  the  common  course,  and  their  studies  take  the  same 
direction,  they  will  form  a  class,  and  if  a  suitable  text  book  can  be  found, 
recitations  will  be  had  as  usual.  But  in  most  cases,  particular  studies,  such 
as  the  application  of  chemistry  to  the  individual  Arts,  will  be  pursued  by 
one  or  two  only,  and  suitable  books  for  recitation  can  rarely  be  had.  Such 
students  must  pursue  such  a  course  of  reading  as  will  be  pointed  out  to 
them,  and  will  be  assisted  by  frequent  Examinations  and  Explanations,  and 
will  have  when  necessary  the  liberty  of  privately  experimenting. 

The  announcements  in  the  catalogue  for  1824  were  even  more 
startling  and  include  the  inauguration  of  winter  short  courses  for 
those  unable  to  attend  the  full  session,  with  instruction  in  surveying, 
navigation,  architecture,  and  chemistry;  and  the  development  of  a  plan 
of  student  self  government  not  unlike  that  in  use  in  some  colleges 
to-day.    The  catalogue  for  1824  concludes  with  this  optimistic  remark: 

We  hope  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant,  when  it  shall  be  as  conunon 
for  farmers  and  artists,  to  prepare  themselves  for  their  business  by  a 
suitable  and  thorough  education  as  for  lawyers  and  physicians. 

In  August,  1827,  Mr.  Hale  resigned  to  become  professor  of  di«n- 
istry  at  Dartmouth.    Of  this  the  Gardiner  autobiography  says: 

His  loss  was  irreparable.  He  had  identified  himself  with  the  institution, 
and  associated  its  success  with  his  own  reputation. 

In  January,  1828,  there  appeared  the  first  number  of  the  New 
England  Farmers  and  Mechanic's  Journal^  this  monthly  which  was 
published  in  Gardiner,  continued  for  ten  numbers,  and  contained 
original  and  quoted  articles  arranged  under  three  headings.  Mechanics, 


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AMERICA'S  FIRST  AGRICULTURAL  SCHOOL  585 

Agriculture  and  Miscellaneous.  Under  the  first  head  were  included 
descriptions  of  such  machines  as  the  ^Bliss  moveable  hay  press"  and 
**Lane*s  patent  Corn-Sheller";  under  the  second  were  discussed  **Econ- 
omy  in  f odder''  and  ^Treservation  of  Potatoes"  and  similar  subjects; 
while  the  third  division  included  such  timely  matter  as  '^Method  of 
making  Transparent  Soap"  and  ^Blacking-Balls  for  shoes."  The  cover 
of  the  journal  bears  the  inscription. 

Conducted  by  E.  Holmes,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Chemistry,  Natural 
History  and  Agriculture  in  Gardiner  Lyceum. 
Ezekiel  Holmes,  a  graduate  of  Brown  in  1821,  and  of  Bowdoin 
Medical  School  in  1824,  was  appointed  to  the  faculty  of  the  Gardiner 
Lyceum  in  the  fall  of  1824.  Whatever  his  influence  in  that  school,  and 
the  Gardiner  autobiography  indicates  that  it  was  not  great,  his  con- 
nection with  it  was  apparently  effective  in  directing  his  attention  from 
medicine  to  agriculture  to  the  great  benefit  of  agriculture  in  the  State 
of  Maine.  He  was  for  over  thirty  years  editor  of  the  Maine  Fanner^ 
the  first  secretary  of  the  state  board  of  agriculture,  and  of  the  state 
agricultural  society  and  the 

last  public  act  of  his  life  was  that  of  securing  from  the  legislature  in  Febru- 
ary, 1865 — ^but  a  week  before  his  death — an  act  which  established  the  State 
College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic  Arts  as  a  separate  and  independent 
institution.  (4:44-416), 

After  1831  state  aid  for  the  lyceum  was  withdrawn,  and  at  this 
time  Mr.  Gardiner  himself  recommended  that  the  school  be  closed, 
^but  the  feeling  of  the  citizens  was  so  strong  for  its  continuance'*  that 
an  attempt  was  made  to  carry  on  the  work.  The  nature  of  the  institu- 
tion, however,  became  gradually  changed  until  the  studies  were  prac- 
tically those  of  the  other  academies  throughout  the  state.  Whereas 
in  1824  the  course  of  study  included  no  languages  except  English,  and 
featured  chemistry,  natural  philosophy,  agricultural  chemistry,  mathe- 
matics and  navigation;  fifteeen  years  later  (catalogue  of  1839)  the 
course  of  study  included  Gredc,  Latin,  French  and  Spanish,  with 
science  occupying  an  inconspicuous  place.  In  1839  a  ^Temale  De- 
partment" was  opened  in  the  lyceum.  In  1848  it  was  reorganized  as 
an  academy,  and  in  1857  the  building,  which  was  later  (1869)  de- 
stroyed by  fire,  was  sold  to  the  city  of  Gardiner  and  occupied  as  a 
high  school.    (7). 

The  question  naturally  arises  why  an  institution  so  broadly  planned 
and  so  successfully  started  should  have  decayed  so  quickly.  For  its 
continuation  as  a  popular  institution  state  aid  was  necessary  and  this 
could  not  be  secured  after  18^1  Tor  reasons  set  forth  by  Gardiner  in 
his  autobiography. 

The  plan  of  the  school  required  considerable  funds  for  its  support,  and 
from  the  general  approbation  with  which  the  plan  was  received  by  the  pub- 
lic, it  was  supposed  that  these  funds  would  be  readily  granted  by  the  Legis- 


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536  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

lature.  It  had  however  been  but  a  short  time  in  operation  before  jealousies 
were  excited,  and  opposition  grew  up  in  various  quarters.  The  Academies 
found  their  scholars  attracted  to  the  superior  education  at  the  Lyceum,  and 
the  Colleges  believed  that  they  would  lose  scholars  who  could  dispense  with 
the  classics  and  be  satisfied  with  a  more  practical  knowledge,  attained  with 
a  less  amount  of  time  and  money. 

Then  came  into  operation  the  religious  prejudice.  All  the  higher  in- 
stitutions of  learning  were  under  the  patronage  of  some  particular  denomi- 
nation.   They  therefore  combined  against  an  institution  which  claimed  no 

sectarian  support [and]    it  was  evident  that  no   further  aid 

could  be  expected  from  the  State. 

The  work  begun  by  the  Gardiner  Lyceum  has  not  been  neglected, 
however.  Robert  Hallowell  Gardiner  concludes  his  autobiographical 
record  of  the  lyceum  with  a  reference  to  the  establishment  of  the  Law- 
rence Scientific  School  and  to  the  fact  that  many 

colleges  have  modified  their  laws  ...  a  higher  practical  education  is 
therefore  now  afforded  to  those  who  desire  it  than  could  be  attained  at 
the  Lyceum,  which  was  only  designed  to  give  needful  instruction  to  the 
laboring  mechanic  without  raising  him  out  of  his  position. 

The  very  years  those  words  were  written  (probably  1859-1861) 
there  was  being  pressed  in  Congress  an  act  which  was  to  establish  in 
every  state  institutions  for  the  very  purpose  and  along  much  the  same 
lines  as  the  Gardiner  Lyceum.  Indeed,  so  wholly  in  sympathy  with 
the  aims  of  the  lyceum  was  the  author  of  that  act,  Justin  S.  Morrill, 
that  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  the  belief  that  he  knew  of  the  Gardiner  insti- 
tution. Morrill  was  a  young  clerk  in  Portland,  then  the  capital  of 
Maine,  from  1828  to  1831,  years  in  which  its  claims  were  being  actively 
pressed  before  the  legislature.  May  not  the  future  l^slator  then  have 
followed  with  interest  the  discussions  upon  the  Gardiner  Lyceum? 

STATE  AID 

One  thousand  dollars  as  the  annual  expenditure  of  a  state  for 
agricultural  education  seems  small,  but  a  century  ago,  forty  years 
before  the  passage  of  the  Morrill  Act  by  Congress,  such  a  step  was 
evidence  of  unusual  progressiveness  and  interest.  Tliis  appropriation, 
first  made  in  1823,  and  renewed  in  1825  for  three  years,  and  again  in 
1828  for  three  years,  was  apparently  the  first  allotment  of  public  funds 
for  agricultural  education  in  the  United  States.  When  it  is  remem- 
bered that  this  enactment  was  made  by  the  legislature  of  a  new  and 
sparsely  settled  state,  for  an  institution  wholly  new  in  design,  the 
wonder  is  not  that  the  appropriation  was  so  small  and  continued  for 
only  seven  years,  but  that  it  was  made  at  all. 

That  so  advanced  a  position  was  taken  by  Maine  legislatures  at 
this  early  date  is  due  to  several  influences.  The  state  was  strongly 
committed  to  a  policy  of  public  support  of  education  by  the  recently 
adopted  constitution.  In  fact  the  portion  of  that  constitution  which 
deals  with  education  and  authorizes  state  support  of  academies  and  col* 


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AMERICA'S  FIRST  AGRICULTURAL  SCHOOL  587 

leges  (Article  VIII)  had  been  prepared  only  a  few  years  before  by 
Thomas  Je£ferson,  founder  and  even  then  the  acknowledged  leader  of 
the  party  to  which  a  large  majority  of  the  legislature  belonged.  More- 
over, Maine  was  fortunate  in  her  early  years  m  having  a  succession  of 
able  and  progressive  governors  who  were  interested  in  education. 

The  first  governor,  William  King,  was,  as  a  member  of  the  constitu- 
tional convention,  active  in  having  Article  VIII  included  in  the  con- 
stitution, and  later  (2)  vouched  for  the  fact  that  it  was  in  substance 
prepared  by  ex-president  Jefferson.  The  portion  of  the  message  of 
Governor  Albion  K.  Parris,  which  deals  with  the  Gardiner  Lyceum, 
deserves  partial  quotation. 

An  institution  has  recently  been  established  in  Gardiner,  upon  a  plan 
original  in  its  design,  but  promising  much  solid  public  utility.  The  en- 
couragement of  those  arts,  by  which  the  labor  of  man  can  be  aided  and 
rendered  more  productive,  is  worthy  of  the  patronage  of  any  govern- 
ment ...  As  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from  this  institution  will  be 
realized  by  the  agriculturalist  and  the  mechanic  it  may  properly  be  con- 
sidered in  connection  with  these  employments,  as  promotive  of  the  public 
interest,  and  consequently  entitled  to  the  public  patronage.  (January  2, 
1823). 

Two  years  later,  the  law  having  ccmstituted  the  Governor  a  member 
of  the  Board  of  Visitors  of  the  Lyceum,  Governor  Parris's  message 
discusses  it  more  at  length  and  concludes: 

There  was  no  institution  in  which  those  branches  were  exclusively 
taught  which  are  particularly  applicable  to  the  agricultural  and  mechanical 
employments  of  the  people  and  to  the  ordinary  business  of  life.  The 
institution  at  Gardiner  will  supply  this  instruction  in  such  a  manner,  that 
the  individual  who  seeks  knowledge  in  one  branch  only  of  the  useful  arts 
will  not  necessarily  be  diverted  from  his  paramount  object.  .  .  .  Such 
establishments,  which  have  for  their  primary  object  the  dissemination  of 
useful  knowledge  among  the  productive  classes  of  the  community,  are 
obviously  entitled  to  liberal  support     (January  7,  1825). 

The  next  governor,  Enoch  Lincoln,  whose  older  brother  Levi,  as 
governor  of  Massachusetts,  was  responsible  for  the  establishment  of 
our  first  state  geological  survey,  was  also  much  interested  in  educa- 
tion, and  commented  favorably  on  the  work  of  the  Gardiner  Lyceum 
in  his  message  of  January  8,  1829.  It  was  during  his  administration 
that  the  last  state  appropriation  for  the  institution  was  made. 

THE  UNIVERSmr  OF  VIRGINIA  AND  THE  GARDINER  LYCEUM 

To  associate  a  state  university  with  a  small  agricultural  school,  the 
very  name  of  which  has  been  forgotten  half  a  century,  may  seem 
forced.  Yet  so  striking,  in  some  respects,  is  the  similarity  of  the 
Gardiner  Lyceum  and  the  University  of  Virginia  that  it  could  not 
escape  the  notice  of  any  student  of  the  history  of  science  in  this  coun- 
try. Tliey  were  founded  at  about  the  same  time,  the  Gardiner  Lyceum 
opening  to  students  in  1823,  the  University  of  Virginia  in  1825.    Bodi 


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5S8  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

depended  largely  on  state  aid  for  sopport  and  both,  at  a  time  when 
practically  all  academies  and  colleges  were  directly  aiEliated  with  some 
religious  denomination,  followed  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  in 
remaining  free  from  sectarian  influence.  The  introduction  of  an  elective 
system  in  the  Gardiner  Lyceum  has  abeady  been  referred  to,  and,  as 
is  well  known,  the  University  of  Virginia  was  the  first  collegiate  insti- 
tution in  America  to  adopt  this  system. 

A  further  resemblance  between  these  institutions  is  that  they  intro- 
duced, almost  a  century  ago,  a  system  of  student  self  government 
The  catalogue  of  the  lyceum  for  1824  states  (p.  9) : 

One  of  the  most  important  subjects,  which  engage  the  attention  of 
those,  who  have  the  care  of  a  literary  institution,  is  that  of  discipline. 
The  common  methods,  from  some  cause  or  other,  are  in  a  great  measure 
ineffectual,  and  the  fact  that  they  are  so  under  the  best  instructors,  leads 
us  to  suppose  that  something  wrong  exists  in  the  very  principle,  upon 
which  they  are  founded. 

These  methods  have  been  long  in  use,  were  adopted  in  times  very 
different  from  the  present,  and  have  remained  unchanged  amid  very  im- 
portant revolutions  of  opinion.  They  commenced  during  the  prevalence 
of  absolute  governments,  and  are  now  almost  the  only  vestiges  of  such 
governments  to  be   found  in  countries  like  our  own. 

In  schools,  in  which  the  government  is  wholly  in  the  hands  of  the 
officers,  and  the  students  have  no  part  but  to  ob^,  they  are  often  sub- 
jected to  regulations,  of  which  they  are  not  taught  the  propriety,  or  which 
they  consider  unreasonable,  and  the  result  is,  they  look  upon  their  instruc- 
tors as  tyrants,  whose  laws  it  is  heroism  to  disobey. 


It  is  probably  to  the  arbitrary  nature  of  school  discipline,  which  finds 
no  parallel  in  the  political  institutions  of  our  country,  that  we  may  trace 
that  party  spirit  in  public  institutions,  which  arrays  the  students  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  government,   [and]  which  of  times  renders  obedience  unpopular. 

The  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  himself  could  hardly 
have  offered  a  more  scathing  denunciation  of  college  administrative 
methods.  Indeed,  Jefferson's  own  words  in  his  report  to  the  legislature 
of  Virginia  (1  p.  94)  seem  mild  by  contrast. 

The  best  mode  of  government  for  youth  in  large  collections  is  cer- 
tainly a  desideratum  not  yet  attained  with  us.  It  may  be  well  questioned 
whether,  fear,  after  a  certain  age,  is  a  motive  to  which  we  should  have 
ordinary  recourse. 

Jefferson's  report  and  the  catalogue  of  the  Gardiner  Lyceum  further 
agree  in  calling  attention  to  the  system  of  student  self  government  then 
in  use  in  certain  English  schools. 

The  most  distinctive  resemblance  between  the  two  institutions  is  in 
the  fact  that  both  emphasized  die  practical  importance  of  science,  the 
importance  of  science  in  education,  and  even  the  relation  of  science 
to  agriculture.  These  indeed  furnished  the  very  reason  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Gardiner  Lyceum  and  they  were  uppermost  in  the  minds 
of  the  founders  of  the  University  of  Virginia.     The  attitude  of  the 


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AMERICA'S  FIRST  AGRICULTURAL  SCHOOL  589 

^Father  of  the  University  of  Virginia"  on  the  importance  of  science 
in  the  state  (1  p.  89)  and  of  science  in  edocation  is  well  known.  It  is 
not,  however,  always  remembered  that  in  his  original  plan  (1  p.  83) 
agriculture  was  included  among  the  subjects  to  be  taught  in  the  uni- 
versity. Indeed,  about  the  time  the  Gardiner  Lyceum  was  founded 
(1822)  the  Agricultural  Society  of  Albemarle  attempted  to  raise  funds 
for  the  establishment  of  a  professorship  of  agriculture  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Virginia  (8  p.  163).  The  following  quotation  taken  from  the 
letters  sent  out  at  this  time  by  the  society  and  signed  by  James  Madi- 
son, then  its  president  and  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Visitors  of  the 
University  of  Virginia,  undoubtedly  represents  the  attitude  of  the  other 
university  authorities. 

This  science  [chemistry]  is  every  day  penetrating  some  of  the  hidden 
laws  of  nature  and  tracing  the  useful  purpose  to  which  they  may  be 
made  subservient  Agriculture  is  a  field  on  which  it  has  already  begun 
to  shed  its  rays,  and  on  which  it  promises  to  do  much  toward  unveiling 
the  processes  of  nature  to  which  the  principles  of  agriculture  are  related. 
The  professional  lectures  on  Chemistry,  which  are  to  embrace  those 
principles,  could  not  fail  to  be  auxiliary  to  a  professorship  having  lessons 
on  agriculture  for  its  essential  charge. 

A  brief  quotation  from  the  first  "address  to  the  public'*  prepared 
by  Robert  Hallowell  Gardiner  will  show  how  similar  were  the  ideas 
of  those  who  founded  the  two  institutions. 

Agriculture,  too  depends  much  upon  chemistry.  It  is  the  business  of 
this  science  to  investigate  the  nature  of  soils,  the  cause  of  their  fertility 
or  barrenness,  to  ascertain  the  composition  of  manure,  and  the  kind  best 
suited  to  give  fruitfulness  to  each  kind  of  soil.  The  experience  of 
Lavoisier,  who  in  a  few  years,  doubted  his  crops,  is  sufficient  to  prove 
the  utility  of  chemistry,  when  applied  to  the  cultivation  of  the  earth. 

In  comparing  the  ideas  expressed  in  the  foundation  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Virginia  and  the  Gardiner  Lyceum,  one  is  tempted  to  go  fur- 
ther and  note  the  similarity  of  tastes  of  their  founders.  They  had  much 
in  common,  a  generous  hospitality,  an  appreciation  of  education  and 
the  need  of  wider  opportunities  for  scientific  training,  keen  interest 
in  farm  problems  and  a  love  of  out  of  doors.  Both  even  kept  careful 
meteorological  records.  In  political  thought,  however,  they  could 
hardly  have  been  further  apart.  Indeed,  viewed  at  the  distance  of  a 
century,  Robert  Hallowell  Gardiner's  attitude  toward  Thomas  Je£ferson 
seems  like  irrational  prejudice.  Tlie  school  he  established  was  of  the 
type  nearest  Jefferson's  ideal  and  had  his  personal  endorsement,  the 
legislature  from  which  the  school  drew  support  was  overwhelmingly 
of  the  party  Jefferson  founded  and  was  strongly  under  the  influence 
of  his  ideas,  the  very  section  of  the  state  constitution  which  authorized 
appropriations  for  such  purposes  was  written  by  the  great  Virginian 
and  the  school  at  Gardiner  was  finally  wrecked  through  the  pressure 
of  that  selfish  sectarianism,  the  power  of  which  Jefferson  did  so  much 


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540  THE   SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

to  destroy  in  his  own  state.  Yet  throughout  his  life  Gardiner  main- 
tained toward  Jefferson  that  attitude  of  political  hostility  and  personal 
criticism  which  was  natural  in  a  New  England  Federalist,  who  was  the 
son  of  a  loyalist,  and  a  devout  churchman.  It  may  be  questioned 
whether  Jefferson's  partisanship  was  more  generous.  It  is  the  more  to 
the  credit,  then,  of  these  two  pioneers  in  education,  that  in  their  inter- 
est in  education  they  were  ready  to  forget  political  differences,  that 
Gardiner  sent  the  prospectus  of  his  school  to  ex-president  Jefferson  as 
well  as  to  ex-president  Adams,  and  that  Jefferson,  like  Adams,  sent 
a  **civil  answer  approving  the  plan". 

LITERATURE  CITED 

Much  of  the  material  presented  was  obtained  from  the  mantiscript 
autobiographical  notes  of  Robert  Hallowell  Gardiner,  here  usually  referred 
to  as  the  Gardiner  autobiography;  from  the  publications  of  the  Gardiner 
Lyceum  preserves  in  the  libraries  of  the  Historical  Societies  of  Maine  and 
Massachusetts ;  and  from  the  published  Acts  and  Resolves  of  the  Maine  Legis- 
lature, with  which  are  included  the  Governors'  messages.  In  addition  there 
are  mentioned  several  publications  which  are  listed  herewith : 

1.  Adams,  Herbert  B.  Thomas  Jefferson  and  the  University  of 
Virginia,  308  p.,  illus.,  pi.  Washington,  D.  C,  1888.  U.  S.  Bur.  Educ,  Circ 
Inform,  i^ 

2.  Benson,  Samuel  P.  Literature  in  the  constitution  [of  Maine]. 
Collect  Maine  Hist  Soc.  7:241-242.    1876. 

3.  Boardman,  Samuel  L.  The  agriculture  and  industry  of  Kennebec 
County.    200  p.  Augusta,  1867. 

4. Afi^ictdtural  bibliography  of  Maine.    117  p.,  pL,  Augusta, 

1893. 

5.  Burgess,  George.  Notice  of  Robert  Hallowell  Gardiner.  Collect 
Maine  Hist.  Soc.  7:403-428.    1876. 

6.  Hasse,  Adelaide  R.  Index  of  economic  material  in  documents  of  the 
states  of  the  United  States.  Maine  1820-1904.  95  p.  Baltimore,  1907. 
(Carnegie  Inst,  Washington,  Pub.  85). 

7.  Maxcy,  Josiah  S.  A  brief  sketch  of  Gardiner's  early  history.  The 
Centennial  of  Gardiner  p.  23-46,  Gardiner,  Maine,  1903.  (The  notes  on  the 
(jardiner  Lyceum  p.  38  were  evidently  taken  largely  from  the  (ku'diner 
Autobiography.  There  is  included  a  picture  of  the  Lyceui|i  building,  from 
an  old  print.) 

8.  True,  A.  C.  Agricultural  education  in  the  United  States.  U.  S.  Dept. 
Agr.  Year  Book  1899,  p.  157-190.    1900. 


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THE  RESEARCHER  IN  SCIENCE  641 


THE  RESEARCHER  BV  SCIENCE^ 
By  Professor  MICHAEL  F.  GUYER 

UNIVERSITT  OF  WISCONSIN 

ris  the  custom,  at  this  time,  for  your  president  to  sing  his  swan-song 
and  make  as  graceful  an  exit  from  his  hi^  office  as  his  natural 
urbanity-— or  lack  of  it — will  permit.  As  retiring  president  I  have 
chosen  the  theme  of  The  Researcher  in  Science  for  the  remarks  which 
I  have  to  make.  I  may  say  at  the  outset  that  they  aie  intended,  not  for 
the  veteran  researcher,  not  for  the  blase  professor  who  has  been  bored 
into  dumb,  unresisting  endurance  by  an  endless  succession  of  such  ad- 
dresses, but  they  are  directed  to  our  newly  eleoted  members. 

To  you,  our  novitiates,  this  evening  is  devoted.  Yours  is  a  sacred 
trual.  For  it  is  to  keep  the  heart  of  science  throbbing  and  to  see  that 
this  mighty,  man-made  giant,  blind  and  ruthless  of  itself,  is  devoted  to 
the  safety  and  the  progress  of  civilization.  In  your  hands  and  in  the 
hands  of  those  who  come  after  you  it  is  destined  to  save  or  to  wredc  the 
world,  depending  upon  tl^  outlook  you  give  it,  the  motives  you  instill. 
The  terrible  catastrophe  of  science  turned  to  the  destruction  of  man  has 
been  vividly  before  us  during  the  past  few  years,  and  what  we  have 
already  experienced  is  but  the  prelude  to  what  will  happen  if  a  later 
war  is  to  be  fought. 

You  are  to  be  the  leaders  of  to-morrow  and  you  should  get  a  clear- 
eyed  vision  of  the  fact  that  a  heavy  responsibility  is  to  be  laid  upon 
you.  It  is  no  less  than  the  guidance  of  civilization.  Human  society 
has  become  so  complex  that  no  longer  can  its  conduct  be  entrusted  to 
the  man  in  the  street.  It  must,  if  it  is  not  to  prove  the  colossal  failure 
of  all  time,  be  del^ated  to  the  expert.  Without  intent  to  flatter, 
I  wish  to  impress  you  with  the  distinction  of  your  position.  You  are  a 
chosen  few  from  the  large  number  of  students  of  science  in  our  great 
university.  You  have  been  selected  because  of  promise.  Your  sponsors 
believe  that  they  have  detected  in  you  the  divine  spaik  of  creative  ability 
which  means  new  discovery,  new  understanding,  new  accomplishment 
in  the  realm  of  nature,  promise  of  leadership.  And  while  I  want  you 
to  feel  the  honor  of  this  choice,  I  desire  still  more  that  you  realize  the 
responsibility  it  places  upon  you.  It  means  that  in  entering  Sigma  Xi 
you  are  pledging  yourself  to  live  up  to  your  full  capacity.  Your 
motto  becomes  noblesse  oblige  no  less  surely  than  this  became  the  motto 
of  the  born  nobleman  in  the  days  of  knighthood.     High  ability  un- 

1  An  address  before  the  Wisconsin  chapter  of  The  Sigma  Xi. 


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542  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

questionably  means  increased  obligation  to  make  the  most  of  that 
ability. 

The  emblem  of  science  is  the  question  mark.  If  you  feel  no  com- 
pelling urge  in  you  to  know  the  how  and  the  why  of  things,  then  you 
are  not  destined  to  be  a  scientist;  if  you  have  not  the  desire  in  your 
heart,  not  only  to  discover  truth  but  to  follow  it  wherever  it  may  lead, 
and  to  turn  it  to  the  betterment  of  your  fellowman,  then  you  are  not 
worthy  of  being  a  scientist. 

In  world  and  national  affairs  if  anything  is  to  be  read  certainly 
from  social  and  industrial  conditions  to-day,  it  is  the  truth  of  the 
Biblical  maxim,  ^*Ye  are  part  one  of  another.  *  *  *  For  none  of  us 
liveth  to  himself  and  no  man  dieth  to  himself.''  It  is  becoming  clearer 
every  day  that  part  of  the  world  can  not  be  in  distress  and  the  rest  care- 
free. This  truth  ranges  all  the  way  down  from  the  major  to  the  minor 
affairs  of  modem  life.  Particularly  in  a  democracy  it  is  obvious  that 
all  must  stand  or  fall  together.  In  the  material  things  of  life,  for  in- 
stance, it  is  being  driven  home  to  us  daily  through  the  pinch  of  shrink- 
ing purses  and  annoying  inconveniences  that  we  can  not  exist  indefinite- 
ly under  the  pressure  of  either  the  profiteering  parasite  or  the  greedy 
laborer;  that  we  can  not  have  an  eight  hour  day  in  town  and  a  twelve 
hour  day  in  the  country — ^a  fat  daily  wage  in  the  one  place  and  a  leais 
one  in  the  other.  It  is  equally  plain  in  the  sphere  of  intellect  and  good 
taste  that  we  can  not  have  a  cultured  aristocracy  and  a  boorish  pro- 
letariat, a  group  of  exclusive  intellectuals  intent  only  upon  their  own 
cultivation,  and  a  mass  of  ignorant  '^hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water."  Society  as  a  whole  must  have  a  favorable  attitude  toward  the 
projects  and  teachings  which  result  from  the  concentrated  endeavor  of 
men  of  high'  mentality;  otherwise  little  can  be  permanently  accomplish* 
ed.  This  means  that  not  only  must  the  scientist  make  his  discoveries, 
but  he  must  carry  the  public  with  him  if  he  is  not  soon  to  reach  the  limit 
of  public  support.  As  scientists  of  the  future,  then,  you  will  not  only 
have  to  make  researches  but  you  must  keep  the  public  educated  to  the 
value  and  the  necessity  of  your  research. 

As  a  ^latter  of  fact,  keeping  the  public  posted  on  the  progress  of 
science  is,  in  my  estimation,  not  such  a  hopeless  undertaking  as  some  of 
our  scientific  Jeremiahs  would  make  out.  I  fully  believe  that  no  really 
great  scientific  discovery  has  ever  been  made  in  the  past  or  is  likely  to 
be  made  in  the  future  which  can  not  be  stripped  of  its  technical  jargon 
and  reduced  to  terms  that,  in  its  broader  bearings  at  least,  render  it  in- 
telligible to  the  ordinary,  educated  citizen.  I  am  one  of  those  incurable 
optimists,  moreover,  who  believes  that  to  interest  the  layman,  every  new 
discovery  in  science  need  not  have  some  obvious  practical  use  attached 
to  it  Nor  do  I  believe  that  appeals  for  popular  support  need  to  be 
based  on  the  economic  aspects  of  science  only.    For  once,  at  least,  I 


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THE  RESEARCHER  IN  SCIENCE  548 

should  like  to  see  some  one  with  the  knack  of  clear  presentation  and  a 
conviction  of  the  justice  of  his  cause,  go  before  the  public  with  the  di- 
rect plea  of  science  for  its  own  sake.  I  believe  that  the  appeal  would 
meet  with  a  cordial  response.  It  is  so  easy  to  show  that  all  truth  must 
in  the  long  run  redound  to  the  advantage  of  man  in  other  than  material 
ways,  that  we  lose  much  of  our  effectiveness  when  we  confine  our  argu- 
ments for  support  to  those  aspects  of  science  which  mean  merely  a 
fuller  purse  or  a  fatter  paunch,  a  more  profitable  mine  or  a  more  ef- 
fective machine. 

We  hear  not  a  little  in  these  days  about  science  and  the  humanities — 
that  is,  we  hear  not  a  little  aibout  than  from  the  professional  humanists. 
The  word  ^'science"  in  this  setting  is  sometimes  spoken  with  a  sort  of 
haunting  fear  as  though  the  downfall  of  beauty,  sentiment,  and  poesy 
were  at  hand.  Science  and  these  elusive  entities  vaguely  termed  the 
humanities  se^n  to  be  r^arded  as  in  some  way  antipodal  and  antagon- 
istic. To  be  sure  we  are  told  by  Trench  that  the  Romans  meant  by 
^'humanitas^'  the  highest  and  most  harmonious  cultivation  of  all  the 
faculties  and  powers^  but  their  modern  successors  seem  to  have  changed 
the  inclusive  all  to  the  restrictive  same,  that  is,  they  apparently  exclude 
the  faculties  and  powers  which  have  to  do  with  science. 

When  a  scientist,  seeking  enlightmmient,  makes  a  determined  effort  to 
lay  hold  upon  the  idea  labeled  ^'humanities,'*  in  the  broad  modem  usage 
of  the  term,  he  comes  back  at  last  with  such  morsels  as  these:  cultiva- 
tion of  the  emotions  and  perceptions;  interpretation  of  the  soul  of  man; 
interpretation  of  pa^  human  experience,  emotional,  rational,  etc;  ele- 
vation and  refinement  of  taste;  knowledge  of  human  nature  as  revealed 
in  literature  and  history;  development  of  ideals;  interpreting  ideals  of 
beauty;  culture. 

He  may  be  a  bit  puzzled  by  the  indefiniteness  of  his  catch,  but  still 
all  of  the  conceptions  have  a  familiar  look  and  feel,  and  he  b^ins  to 
wonder  just  why  they  are  r^arded  as  the  exclusive  prerogatives  of  the 
non-scientific.  He  has  encountered  them  all  in  literature  and  even 
more  vividly  in  his  attempts  to  further  the  cause  of  humanity  by  solving 
the  problems  of  nature.  Just  because  he  has  an  ineradicable  conviction 
that  the  universe  is  intelligible  if  he  can  only  discover  enough  links  of 
the  chain  of  cause  and  effect,  and  is  bending  his  chief  efforts  toward 
working  out  this  faith  that  is  in  him,  he  fails  to  see  just  where  he  falls 
short  in  his  desire  to  cultivate  his  emotions,  develop  ideals,  refine  his 
taste,  and  interpret  the  soul  of  man.  He  has  thought  all  along  that  these 
were  some  of  the  important  things  he  was  doing.  In  fact  he  would,  I 
suspect,  define  the  main  objects  of  education  about  as  follows:  to  learn 
how  to  extract  knowledge  not  only  from  the  past,  but  also  from  the 
things  around  us,  and  how  to  use  such  knowledge;  to  learn  to  weigh  evi- 
dence that  we  may  know  how  to  deal  with  facts  and  to  evaluate  the 
conclusions  of  others;  to  gain  understanding  of  the  fundlamental  laws 


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W4  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

of  nature  that  we  may  work  in  harmony  with,  rather  than  fall  a  prey 
to  them;  to  learn  to  express  our  thoughts  dearly,  forcibly,  and  mth  a 
reasonable  degree  of  grace;  and  to  form  character  and  develop  an  in- 
telligent appreciation  of  the  things  which  enrich  and  re&ne  life.  To 
be  sure,  he  does  not  woik  much  through  intuition  or  pure  fancy,  or 
subservience  to  authority,  and  he  looks  somewhat  askance  upon  pro- 
ducts of  such  an  origin.  He  believes  furthermore,  that  the  world  of  the 
emotions  which,  I  suspect,  we  unconsciously  imply  when  we  talk  of  the 
humanities  as  consoling  us  in  adversity  or  revealing  human  life  and 
feelings,  is  likely  to  prove  an  untrustworthy  guide  unless  grounded  upon 
the  hard  substratum  of  objective  facts.  He  makes  use,  for  the  most 
part,  of  what  he  teims  the  method  of  science. 

With  its  mode  of  procedure  in  mind,  Huxley  once  defined  science 
as  ^^trainad  and  organized  common  sense."  The  method  of  science  is 
not,  then,  scone  abstruse  system  which  is  being  expounded,  nor  a  re- 
cently discovered  panacea  for  mental  aberrations.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  as  old  as  the  time  when  a  mind  first  existed  capable  of  distinguish- 
ing the  relations  of  things.  So  common  is  it  that,  whether  merchant, 
mechanic,  child  or  scientist,  we  use  it  in  a  simplified  way  in  nearly  all 
our  daily  occupations.  The  method  has  been  expressed  in  words  in  one 
form  or  another  by  many  logicians  and  educators^  that  we  might,  by 
focussing  our  attention  upon  it,  recognize  its  value  more  clearly  and  use 
it  for  the  more  economical  guidance  of  our  minds.  The  principle  when 
thus  formulated  becomes  a  sort  of  handrail  to  our  mental  stairway 
which  keeps  us  from  tumbling  down  into  the  realm  of  inanity,  illusion 
and  superstition.  It  is  one  of  those  great  modes  of  mental  activity 
which,  more  or  less  unconsciously,  all  follow,  but  which,  like  steam  in 
a  cylinder,  become  power  to  a  purpose  when  followed  ccmsciously. 

When  he  invades  the  realm  of  the  humanists,  the  prying  scientist 
soon  discovers  that  these  self-appointed  arbiters  of  culture  and  humane- 
ness are  not  in  agreement  among  themselves  as  to  what  is  the  Simon 
pure  brand  of  their  ware.  Seemingly,  one  has  almost  as  mudi  choice  in 
alternatives  as  he  has  of  styles  in  theosophy.  He  finds  such  major 
labels  as  classicism  and  romanticism  together  with  a  whole  host  of  sub- 
ordinate ones.  Clearly,  the  humanists  still  have  some  time  to  bicker 
among  themselves,  apart  from  that  spent  in  decrying  the  gross  material- 
ism of  science  and  weeping  over  the  vanishing  auras  of  culture.  I  say 
'auras  because,  as  stated,  you  can  never  get  them  to  agree  on  just  ivfaat 
the  particular  aura  is  that  is  being  lost. 

After  one  becomes  a  bit  acclimated  to  this  rarified  atmosphere  one 
makes  the  interesting  discovery  that  the  real  creators  in  this  realm,  the 
poets,  philosophers  and  makers  of  beHe-lettres,  are  not  the  complain- 
ants. Scarcely  any  one  more  than  the  poet,  in  fact,  has  made  avid  use 
of  the  findings  and  doings  of  science.  One  needs  but  to  pick  up  his 
Tennyson,  his  Browning  or  his  Kipling  to  verify  this  to  the  full. 


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THE  RESEARCHER  IN  SCIENCE  545 

But  let  us  admit  at  once  that  some  scientists  are  crass,  plodding 
specialiste  who  have  neither  breadth  of  vision  nor  depth  of  soul.  And 
let  us  also  express  the  suspicion  that  some  humanists  belong  in  an 
equally  narrow,  uncompromising  class.  Just  as  there  are  beetles  whose 
sole  place  in  the  scheme  of  nature  seems  to  be  to  hunt  up  dead  mice  and 
other  small  lifeless  creatures  and  either  devour  or  bury  them,  so  there 
are  individuals,  apparently,  whose  idea  of  culture  is  the  devotions  of 
one's  life  to  devourii^  the  fragments  of  various  dead  languages,  not 
with  the  idea  of  revealing  to  their  less  accomplished  brethren  whatever 
there  may  be  of  valuable  thought  or  sentiment  concealed  there,  but  for 
the  mere  joy  of  the  feast  Now  no  one  will  deny  the  useful  part  the 
sexton  beetle  plays  in  the  world,  nor  does  any  one  doubt  the  great  serv- 
ice the  classicist  can  really  do  for  us  when  he  stops  tinkering  with  the 
mechanism  of  language  long  enough  to  reveal  to  us  some  of  the  great 
thoughts  conveyed  by  it.  Neither  would  any  scientist  quarrel  with  even 
the  classicist  given  over  entirely  to  necrophilism  if  the  latter  did  not 
keep  on  insisting  that  his  is  the  only  real  portal  to  culture  and  beauty. 

Am  I  tilting  against  a  man  of  straw?  Let  me  cite  a  specific  ex- 
ample. Some  time  ago  I  was  walking  along  a  ravine  through  a  beauti- 
ful park  with  such  an  aesthete  of  classicism.  The  prevailing  trees  of  the 
vicinity  were  giant  beeches,  and  with  their  fresh  new  leaves,  gray  trunks 
and  drooping  branches  they  were  a  joy  to  the  eye.  The  ravine  itself 
was  bordered  with  a  profusion  of  the  lesser  trees  and  shrubs  of  the 
woodland.  A  shower  had  just  passed  and  the  drops  of  water  still  cling- 
ing to  the  leaves  flashed  back  the  gold  of  the  late  afternoon  sunshine. 
Many  of  the  choicer  early  spring  flowers  still  lingered  in  the  depths  of 
the  ravine — the  bloodroot,  the  wild  ginger  and  the  trilium.  The  even- 
ing song  of  the  woodthrush  was  all  around  us  and  a  specimen  of  the 
rare  hermit  thrush  shyly  glided  through  the  underbrush.  A  trim  fox- 
sparrow  eyed  us  pertly  from  beneath  a  nearby  shrub.  One  good  deep 
breath  of  the  newly  washed  air  was  like  a  fresh  draught  of  life.  Upon 
remaiking  on  the  beauty  of  the  scene  I  was  met  with  the  rather  bored 
rejoinder,  *Tes,  but  for  it  to  be  really  beautiful  there  ought  to  be 
pieces  of  statuary  here  and  there  among  the  trees,  and  the  ruins  of  a 
Grecian  temple  visible  in  the  distance."  Then  with  eyes  bent  to  the 
bridle-path  along  which  we  were  strolling  he  babbled  on  of  beauty. 

Verily,  if  this  be  a  fair  sample  of  what  classicism  yields,  then  in 
preference  to  it  I  suspect  most  scientists  would  cry,  *'Back  to  intellectual 
Nirvana  and  an  instinctive  life  with'  the  creatures  of  the  wilderness!" 
Certainly  the  picture  of  the  beast-world  as  Walt  Whitman  paints  it  is 
far  more  alluring: 

They  do  not  sweat  and  whine  about  their  condition, 
They  do  not  lie  awake  in  the  dark  and  weep  for  their  sins, 
They  do  not  make  me  sick  discussing  their  duty  to  God, 
Not  one  is  dissatisfied,  not  one  is  demented 
VOL.  xm.— 35 


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546  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

With  the  mania  of  owning  things; 

Not  one  kneels  to  another,  nor  to  his  kind  that  lived  thousands 

of  years  ago; 
Not  one  is  respectable  or  unhappy  over  the  whole  earth. 

Fortunately,  however,  my  example  is  not  a  fair  one,  but  it  is  no 
more  unfair  than  those  you  see  exhibited  not  infrequently  to  typify  the 
scientist  Such  a  classicist  demands  attention  only  because  of  the 
assiduity  with  which  he  fights  the  intrusion  into  our  educational  pro- 
grams of  anything  bearing  the  mark  of  science,  although  he  himself 
is  often  innocent  of  any  knowledge  of  the  subject.  It  should  be  well 
understood  that  there  is  no  quarrel  with  classicism  itself.  Many 
scientists  have  a  high  regard  for  both  Gredc  and  Latin  and  wish  most 
heartily  that  their  students  had  had  some  training  in  one  or  both.  Aside 
from  the  question  of  other  values,  the  single  one  of  inculcating  some* 
thing  of  the  significance  of  words  is  certainly  one  that  appeals  to  most 
teachers  of  biology,  for  now-a-days  the  simplest  technical  term, 
etymologically  considered,  is  to  most  of  our  proteges,  as  one  of  my 
students  put  it,  **only  a  funny  noise.**  For  purely  selfish  reasons,  if  for 
no  other,  I  for  one,  should  like  to  have  students  come  to  me  with  some 
knowledge  of  Greek  and  Latin  roots,  and  practice  in  making  deriva- 
tions. 

There  is  another  type  of  less  classical  demeanor  which  merits 
passing  attention.  Fortunately  again  this  type  is  relatively  rare,  though 
it  makes  up«in  obnoxiousness  what  it  lacks  in  numbers.  It  professes 
humanism  rampantly,  though  I  suspect  that  real  humanists  would  dis- 
claim it.  It  deserves  only  such  diagnosis  as  will  enable  us  to  avoid 
confusing  it  with  men  of  real  culture  and  discernment  Like  the  wise 
men  of  Biblical  tradition,  not  infrequently  it  comes  to  us  out  of  the 
East,  shedding  sweetness  and  light  at  every  stride.  It  invariably  pro- 
nounces 6  e  e  Tt,  bean — lovingly  and  lingeringly,  as  though  culture  sat 
enshrined  in  this  single  word.  It  is  fond  of  discoursing  on  the  ideals  of 
culture  at,  let  us  say,  W —  University  compared  with  ideals  at  X — 
University,  from  which  it  sprang;  always,  of  course,  to  the  disparag- 
ment  of  the  former.  If  music,  art,  literature  or  philosophy  is  the  thane 
of  conversation,  it  is  always  ready  with  an  authoritative  dictum — its 
own — of  what's  what  or  who's  who  in  these  realms.  In  its  defmse,  the 
plea  may  be  made  that  usually  it  is  young,  and  presumably  it  dies 
early,  for  it  is  rarely  encountered  after  its  fortieth  year.  If  you  meet 
it,  don't  be  perturbed  by  its  strictures  on  science;  science  will  survive. 

As  he  listens  day  by  day  to  the  diagnosis  of  the  situation  at  the 
hands  of  his  humanistic  friends,  the  scientist  hears  more  frequently 
perhaps  than  any  other,  the  word  culture^  and  gradually  the  conviction 
arises  that  humanists  regard  culture  and  humanism  as  practically 
synonymous  terms.     He  suspects,  moreover,  that  some  of  them  feel. 


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THE  RESEARCHER  IN  SCIENCE  547 

deep  down  in  their  hearts,  that  they  have  some  sort  of  monopoly  on  ap- 
preciation of  the  thoughts,  deeds  and  motives  of  the  cultured  world  of 
to-day  and  yesterday.  The  implication  seems  to  he  that  in  turning  to 
science  the  misguided  one  is  somehow  missing  the  refinements  of  life. 
If  you  are  to  believe  them,  apparently,  the  scientist  can  not,  in  imagin- 
ation^ 'Vander  lonely  as  a  cloud  that  floats  on  high  o'er  hill  and  dale" 
because  to  this  literal  mind  a  cloud  is  only  vaporized  water,  and 
inanimate  things  can  not  be  lonely.  Nor  can  his  heart  dance  with  the 
daffodils  because  strictly  speaking  Narcissus  pseudo-narcissus  does  not 
dance. 

When  the  wind  is  low  and  the  sea  is  soft 
And  the  far  heat-lightning  plays 
On  the  rim  of  the  west  where  the  ^Sirk  clouds  rest 
On  a  darker  bank  of  haze 

should  remain  a  meaningless  jumble  to  him  because  his  mind  must  in- 
evitably be  distracted  by  the  fact  that,  strictly  speaking,  the  west  does 
not  possess  a  rim.    It  can  not  be  sweet  for  him 

^to  hear  the  faithful  watch-dog's  honest  bark 

Bay  deep-mouthed  welcome  as  we  draw  near  home 

because,  presumably,  he  r^ards  the  dog  as  only  so  much  laboratory 
material.  If  by  some  mischance  he  wanders  into  Southern  Italy,  he 
can  not  be  struck  with  the  symbolism  of  the  asphodel,  *'pale  flower  of 
Hades  and  the  dead,"  which  riots  over  the  crumbled  walls  and  around 
the  deserted  temples  of  Paestum,  because  he  must  be  preoccupied  with 
the  knowledge  that  the  asphodel  is  a  plant  with  fleshy  fasicular  roots, 
tufted  radical  linear  leaves,  long  racemes  of  lily-like  flowers  on  scapes, 
and  that  it  is  a  perennial  herb  of  the  family  Liliaceae.  Besides,  there 
is  a  suspicion  tliat  Paestum,  far  from  having  a  romantic  history,  was 
an  ordinary  swampy  settlement  from  which  the  inhabitants  were  driven 
by  the  onslaughts  of  malaria.  Again,  his  mind  must  be  closed  to  im- 
pressions pictured  in  the  mystical  blue  lights  of  unusual  fancy — as  by 
Hawthorne  in  literature  or  Grieg  in  music — since  fancy  is  not  reckoned 
as  a  tool  of  his  trade. 

However,  the  scientist  is  very  likely  to  meet  these  implications  with 
the  challenge,  "What  is  your  evidence,  and  by  what  authority  have 
you  become  mentor?''  Or  in  the  query  of  the  Israelites  to  Moses, 
"Who  made  thee  a  prince  and  a  judge  over  us?**  Have  you  had  equal 
training  in  the  sciences  and  the  humanities,  or  are  you  presuming  to 
pass  judgment  in  the  matter  without  really  ever  getting  into  the  spirit 
of  modem  science?  In  listening  during  the  last  twenty-five  or  more 
years  to  the  perennially  recurrent  debate  over  the  relative  educational 
importance  of  science  and  the  humanities,  or  more  narrowly  sciences 
and  languages,  I  have  always  been  struck  by  the  fact,  apart  from  the 
intrinsic  merits  or  demerits  of  the  case,  that  many  of  the  scientists  had 


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548  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

a  reading  knowledge  of  French  or  German  or  both,  and  could  boast  at 
least  a  passing  acquaintance  with  Greek  or  Latin,  while  their  opponents 
rarely  knew  any  science  through  direct  contact  in  laboratory  or  field. 
In  fact,  in  not  a  few  instances  the  crowning  glory  of  the  latter,  in  their 
own  estimation  at  least,  appeared  to  be  that  they  had  kept  themselves  un- 
sullied from  that  world  of  unrighteousness.  Some  of  them  seemed  not 
to  have  even  an  inkling  of  the  fact  that  to  understand  science  is  not 
merely  to  be  aware  of  or  experienced  in  its  material  achievements; 
that  it  is  not  only  ability  to  use  its  tools  and  on  occasion  express  one's 
self  in  the  abbreviations  which  constitute  scientific  terminology;  but 
that  it  is  also  to  see  in  it  the  struggle  of  the  human  mind  toward  new 
concepts  of  nature,  and  to  realize  the  place  of  such  concepts  in  the 
fabric  of  civilization. 

Science  has,  indeed,  a  much  broader  significance  than  application  to 
immediate  ends  only.  To  level  one's  whole  effort  to  meet  the  shifting 
needs  of  present  occupations  is,  so  far  as  true  progress  is  concerned, 
clearly  suicidal.  Science  should  never  be  regarded  as  a  mere  commodity 
or  means  of  subsistence.  Human  progress  requires  application  of  our 
knowledge,  to  be  sure,  but  we  must  never  lose  sight  of  the  great  fact  that 
discovery  and  explanation  must  precede  application.  Value  of  mind 
must  always  come  above  value  of  money  and  the  first  question  of  the 
scientist  should  be,  not  **Is  it  useful?"  but  **Is  it  true?"  If  true,  then 
pari  passu  it  is  useful. 

The  conventional  distinction  between  pure  and  applied  science  is 
in  fact  partly  academic.  A  vast  proportion  of  the  material  advantages 
of  modem  civilization  rests  on  results  obtained  by  the  scientist  un- 
motived  by  the  immediately  practical.  Perhaps  no  conquest  of  nature 
is  more  impressive  than  that  of  wireless  telegraphy,  yet  this  utilitarian 
accomplishment  was  made  possible  only  through  the  discoveries  of 
Professor  Hertz,  a  pure  scientist,  in  his  studies  on  light  and  electricity. 
On  the  other  hand,  perhaps  nothing  has  done  more  to  stimulate  new 
researches  than  has  practical  wireless  telegraphy.  Almost  any  school- 
boy can  to-day  cite  striking  instances  of  economic  applications  of 
principles  or  facts  discovered  without  any  thought  of  their  utility,  and 
any  technologist  will  tell  us  that  he  can  not  scrape  through  even  the 
veneer  of  his  practical  problem  before  he  heads  full  tilt  into  countless 
other  problems  which  require  all  varieties  of  science,  pure,  impure  and 
mixed  in  their  solution.  Thus  even  the  most  thoughtless  can  easily 
see  that  to  interfere  with  pure  science  is  to  kill  the  goose  that  lays  the 
golden  egg. 

However,  I  would  not  belittle  the  part  that  our  daily  bread  pla3rs  in 
fostering  even  the  humanities.  According  to  Westermann,  the  prosper- 
ity, and  with  it  the  culture  of  Ptolemaic  and  Roman  Egypt,  waxed  with 
increase  of  wheat  production  and  waned  with  its  decline.  Upon  the 
passing  of  the  extensive  system  of  irrigation  which  had  wrested  fertile 


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THE  RESEARCHER  IN  SCIENCE  549 

lands  from  the  desert  and  maintained  them  at  a  high  degree  of  pro- 
ductivity for  hundreds  of  years,  the  desert  claimed  its  own  again,  and 
the  brilliant  intellectualism  of  that  ancient  world  vanbhed. 

Not  long  ago,  I  heard  a  historian  express  hb  disapproval  of  a  con* 
temporary  with  the  stat^nent  that  B —  was  not  a  historian  but  a 
scientist,  thus  revealing  his  own  conception  of  a  scientist  as  a  mere 
collector  of  facts.  Instantly  there  flashed  up  in  my  mind  the  memory 
of  a  revered  teacher  of  my  young  manhood,  who,  though  untiring  in 
his  quest  for  necessary  facts  and  meticulous  in  his  demands  for  ac- 
curacy, held  before  us  the  constant  reminder  that,  in  his  own  words, 
**fact  knowledge  is  the  fool's  paradise,"  and  that  *^an  ounce  of  ability 
to  turn  facts  into  general  ideas  is  worth  tons  of  information,"  and  I 
reflected  that  my  friend  the  historian  still  had  much  to  learn  about  the 
true  spirit  and  significance  of  science.  It  so  happened  that  within  less 
than  twenty-four  hours  a  scientific  colleague  expressed  the  idea  that 
C —  was  not  a  scientist  but  a  mere  historian;  that  is^  presumably,  a 
chronicler  of  events.  And  I  had  opportunity  to  reflect  again;  this  time 
to  the  effect  that  the  scientists  no  less  than  the  historian  may  be  afflicted 
with  seriously  myopic  vision  when  he  views  the  other  man's  domain. 

And  is  not  this  emblematical  of  the  whole  difficulty?  Each  knows 
too  little  of  the  other's  point  of  view;  each  misunderstands  the  other's 
motives  and  accomplishments.  This  is  a  malady  of  world-wide  range 
which  is  not  restricted  to  the  supposed  conflict  between  science  and  the 
humanities.  As  we  have  already  seen,  it  is  common  within  the  human- 
ities themselves,  and  it  certainly  is  prevalent  within  the  sciences.  Even 
in  so  restricted  a  realm  as  that  of  music  we  discover  no  end  of  disagree- 
ments and  miscomprehensions.  In  looking  through  a  reminiscence  of 
Tshaikovsky  some  time  ago,  for  instance,  I  was  impressed  by  the  fact 
that  although  this  master  of  tone-drama — creator  of  the  somber 
Manfred  and  of  the  melancholy  Symphony  Pathetique — admired 
Wagner  personally,  he  expressed  his  utter  inability  to  grasp  what  this 
great  artist  was  trying  to  do  in  his  music  drama.  And  toward  Brahms, 
who,  because  of  his  adherence  to  established  forms,  had  unwittingly 
become  the  champion  of  the  anti-Wagnerian  party,  Tshaikovsky  reveals 
an  actual  antipathy,  saying  that  Brahms  coquets  with  the  intricacies  of 
musical  composition  to  hide  his  poverty  of  ideas.  Yet  Brahms  is  almost 
universally  admired  by  other  technical  musicians  and  is  regarded  as 
one  of  the  greatest  creators  of  music  which  is  original,  beautiful,  and 
of  faultless  form.  With  such  disharmony  of  opinion  in  what  is  sup- 
posed to  be  the  most  harmonious  of  the  arts,  is  it  any  wonder  that  the 
place  of  science  in  the  realm  of  human  culture  may  be  variously  ap- 
praised by  different  cultured  people? 

Even  when  we  speak  or  read  the  same  words  we  may  understand  by 
them  very  different  things,  since  we  are  almost  sure  to  impute  to  them 
meanings  derived  from  our  own  mental  content.    How  easily  this  mis- 


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550  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

take  can  be  made  was  brought  vividly  to  my  attention  only  a  few  days 
ago.  In  an  idle  moment  I  had  picked  up  the  volume  of  Thomas  a 
Kempis  '^Of  the  Imitation  of  Christ/*  and  was  sampling  it  here  and 
there.  In  Chapter  3  of  the  first  bode,  I  chanced  upon  the  expression 
^^And  what  have  we  to  do  with  genera  and  species?  He  to  whom  the 
Eternal  Word  speaketh  is  delivered  from  many  an  opinion,"  and  came 
up  with  a  start  To  the  modern  evolutionist,  that  could  only  be  an 
echo  of  the  Darwinian  controversy,  and  yet  as  a  matter  of  fact  the 
volume  in  question  was  written  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
three  hundred  years  before  Linnaeus  led  us  toward  the  modem  usage 
of  the  words  genus  and  species,  and  over  four  centuries  before  Darwin 
was  born. 

It  is  to  a  certain  extent  a  matter  of  opinion,  of  course,  as  to  what 
constitutes  culture;  but  in  the  main,  many  educated  people  of  to-day 
will  agree  that  the  best  culture  is  that  subtle  attribute  whidh  comes  with 
proper  education,  simultaneously  quickening  the  intellectual,  the  moral, 
and  the  esthetic  sides  of  man's  nature.  It  is  not  learning  alone,  but 
learning  refined  into  wisdom  and  intelligent  social  activity.  Matthew 
Arnold's  familiar  definition  of  it  as  ''the  study  and  pursuit  of  perfec- 
tion'* is  known  to  you  all.  But  he  did  not  limit  it  to  pursuit,  for  he  said 
we  are  justified  in  the  quest  for  perfection  only  "to  make  it  prevail." 
His  idea  of  culture  was,  then,  not  only  acquisition  of  knowledge,  but 
also  its  utilization  for  the  betterment  of  man. 

Are  we  essentially  more  cultured,  if  in  fancy  we  watch  some  goat- 
I^ged  god  go  capering  through  the  pastures  and  forests  or  along  the 
streams  of  Arcadia  piping  to  the  wood  nymphs,  than  if  we  actually  go 
into  the  woods  and  along  the  streams  in  search  of  our  friends  in  feath- 
ers or  fur,  watching  their  home-making,  learning  their  habits,  under- 
standing the  part  they  play  in  nature,  enjoying  their  beauty  of  form, 
action  or  song?  Are  we  necessarily  more  learnedly,  ethically  or  es- 
thetically  employed  when  we  are  gazing  down  through  the  portals  of  a 
borrowed  mind — say  Dante's — into  the  murk  of  hell,  or  ascending  with 
him  through  the  seven  planetary  heavens  to  the  empyrean,  than  we  are 
when  striving  to  analyse  the  obscure  motives  of  man  in  terms  of  the 
behavior  of  lower  animals  where  many  of  them  stand  unveiled,  or  in 
studying  the  part  living  things  play  in  the  world,  and  man's  relation  to 
them,  so  that  his  place  in  nature  shall  not  always  remain  a  sealed  book 
to  him?  Each  type  of  occupation  unquestionably  has  its  own  value. 
Dante,  so  aptly  termed  the  "voice  of  ten  silent  centuries,"  depicts  al- 
legorically  the  wrestling  of  man's  soul  with  the  problems  of  human 
existence;  science  represents  the  wrestling  of  man's  reason  ivith  the 
world  as  it  is,  to  the  end  that  human  existence  may  become  based  less 
on  fantasy,  more  on  fact 

If  proper  balance  of  tone,  contrast  and  color  are  to  be  secured  in  a 
great  orchestra,  not  one  family  of  instrum«its — strings,  wood-winds. 


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THE  RESEARCHER  IN  SCIENCE  551 

brass  or  percussion — can  be  dispensed  with.  Think  what  a  hiatus 
would  result  between  strings  and  brass  if  the  wood-winds  were  lacking; 
or  if  even  the  horns,  which  in  orchestral  usage  merge  the  wood-winds 
with  the  harsher  brass,  were  missing.  What  could  take  the  place  of  the 
trio  for  horns  in  the  ^^Eroica,"  or  the  horn  solo  in  the  scherzo  of  the 
"Pastoral"  Symphony,  or  the  well-known  passage  for  four  horns  in 
"Der  Freischutz'*?  The  peculiar  tonal  quality  of  each  separate  instru- 
ment, indeed,  whether  considered  individually  or  in  combination  with 
other  instruments,  is  essential  to  the  finished  efifect.  The  expressiveness 
of  the  bassoon,  bass  of  the  wood-winds,  is  inimitable  in  certain  sus- 
tained melodies  like  that  given  to  it  in  the  Weber  Mass  in  G,  ^Agnus 
Dei";  so,  too,  is  its  drollery  in  the  hands  of  good  old  Father  Haydn, 
or  its  ghastliness  in  Meyerbeer's  resurrection  of  the  nuns,  or  Handel's 
scene  between  Saul  and  the  Witch  of  Endor.  What  else  could  impart 
the  spirit  of  gayety,  or,  on  occasion,  of  melancholy,  that  that  auto- 
crat of  the  orchestra,  the  oboe,  does?  Or  what  can  pander  more  to 
savagery  in  musical  taste  than  the  yelping,  braying  saxophone,  hybrid 
of  reed  and  brass,  which  so  intoxicates  our  modem  devotees  of  "jazz"? 
The  point  I  would  make  is,  that  just  as  a  great  diversity  of  instruments 
of  distinctive  individual  and  group  qualities  must  be  combined  to  secure 
the  marvelous  effects  of  the  symphony  orchestra,  so  the  blending  of  a 
wide  range  of  sciences  and  humanities  is  indispensable  to  well-balanced 
modern  culture. 

Thus  no  one  aspect  of  learning  is  sufficient  The  study  of  science 
in  some  form  should  be  accorded  a  prominent  place,  however,  because 
of  its  obvious  bearing  upon  the  principles  involved.  It  is  the  most 
direct  of  all  learning,  and  from  the  very  necessity  of  obtaining  correct 
knowledge  through  personal  contact  with  the  facts  concerned,  it 
engenders  in  large  degree  the  ability  "to  make  it  prevail."  Training  in 
science,  therefore,  must  demand  recognition  as  one  of  the  fundamental 
components  leading  to  that  perfection  which,  with  Arnold,  we  may 
recognize  as  the  goal  of  culture.  "Perfection  *  *  *  is  a  harmonious 
expansion  of  all  the  powers  which  make  the  beauty  and  worth  of  human 
nature,  and  is  not  consistent  with  the  over-development  of  any  one 
power  at  the  expense  of  the  rest." 

Even  if  we  choose  such  aspects  of  culture  as  art,  we  can  not  escape 
the  fundamental  necessity  of  accurate  observation  and  clear  reasoning — 
the  very  essence  of  science — and  this  is  as  necessary  to  literary  art  as 
to  other  forms.  For  before  we  can  have  art  in  literature,  we  must  first 
see  the  truth,  then  state  it  accurately  and  clearly.  Walter  Pater,  one 
time  apostle  of  precision  and  fitness  in  style,  says,  "Truth!  there  can  be 
no  merit,  no  craft  at  all,  without  that.  And  further,  all  beauty  is  in  the 
long  run  only  fineness  of  truth."  That  accuracy  in  the  use  of  language 
which  must  result  if  one  records  his  observations  faithfully,  then,  must 
be  one  of  the  foundation  stones  upon  which  literature  as  art  is  builded; 


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552  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

for  if  we  are  to  believe  this  critic,  fine  art  in  literatme  results  only 
from  the  writer's  eflfort  to  transcribe  the  essence  of  the  tmdis  whidi  he 
perceives;  not  necessarily,  to  be  sure,  the  actual  qpedfic  fact,  bot  ''his 
sense  of  it,**  and  the  result  is  ''good  art  in  proportion  to  the  troth  of  his 
presentment  of  that  sense." 

We  sometimes  hear  the  curious  assertion  that  training  in  sdenoe 
tends  to  destroy  the  powers  of  imagination,  that  it  renders  cme  prosaic 
But  what  has  suggested  any  of  our  great  laws  or  principles  in  the  world 
of  science,  if  it  has  not  been  a  legitimate  working  of  the  imagination? 
It  was  the  imagination  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton  that  led  him  from  the 
simple  perception  of  a  falling  body  to  the  great  law  of  gravitation, 
whereby  we  have  compassed  the  heavens  and  are  able  to  follow  the 
celestial  bodies  with  the  precisi<Hi  of  clodnfrorL  It  can  be  nothing  else 
than  the  imngination  which  has  disclosed  the  realm  of  the  imperceptible 
molecule  and  atom,  or  in  the  discovery  of  electricity  enabled  us  to  out- 
do Puck  in  putting  "a  girdle  round  about  the  earth  in  forty  minutes." 
Or  what  but  the  imagination,  based  on  scientific  fact,  has  carried  us 
back  step  by  step  peering  into  the  depths  of  ancestry  till  we  perceive 
the  remotest  dead,  and  has  thus  enabled  us  to  formulate  the  great 
law  of  organic  evolution?  In  truth,  as  pointed  out  long  ago  by 
Tyndall  in  a  famous  lecture  on  The  Scientific  Use  of  the  Imagination," 
to  science  should  be  attributed  a  legitimate  cultivation  of  the  imagin- 
ative faculty  rather  than  its  destruction.  To  flights  of  pure  fancy  un- 
hampered by  knowledge  or  common  sense,  however,  science  is  perhaps 
less  cordial. 

And  last  of  all  let  us  take  cognizance  of  beauty,  that  quality  which 
appeals  to,  and  gratifies,  our  esthetic  sense.  Where  else  than  in  nature 
can  one  find  more  of  that  perfection  of  form  or  circumstance,  of 
harmonious  combination,  which  is  the  essence  of  beauty?  Only  one 
trained  in  interpreting  the  processes  of  nature  can,  in  fact,  see  its  great- 
est beauties.  To  such  a  one  a  graceful  tree  has  a  tenfold  beauty  un- 
suspected by  the  oasual  observer.  It  is  not  only  a  thii^  of  symmetry 
and  of  life,  a  harmony  of  color,  or  a  picturesque  bit  of  the  landscape; 
it  is  infinitely  more.  Its  every  attitude,  every  part,  is  a  response  to  the 
wonderful  energy  of  the  universe.  Locked  in  every  leaf  is  the  secret  of 
creation  which  can  wrest  life  from  the  sunbeam  and  embody  it  to  our 
view.  The  very  arrangement  of  bough  on  trunk  and  leaf  on  bough 
points  to  the  silent  struggle  of  each  to  gain  the  most  favorable  position 
for  this  transmutation  of  life.  Its  roots,  prompted  by  cm  iimer  inqiulae 
of  response  to  the  external  world,  no  less  marvelous  than  that  of  leaf 
and  bough,  thread  their  way  in  darkness  for  the  soil-food  and  water 
which  shall  later  with  the  ingestions  of  the  leaves  form  the  mechanism 
of  living  substance. 

From  the  standpoint  of  beauty  our  wild  animals  are  not  only  grace- 
ful creatures  suited  to  ornament  some  menagerie  or  zoological  park; 


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THE  RESEARCHER  IN  SCIENCE  553 

they  are  not  merely  a  delight  to  the  eye  because  of  form,  color  or 
action;  but  they  are  also  living  examples  of  that  higher  beauty  to  be 
perceived  through  a  compr^ension  of  the  marvelous  fitness  of  living 
things  to  their  environment  One  trained  to  read  such  records  need  not 
fltupidly  go  to  a  natural  history  every  time  he  wants  to  find  out  the 
essential  facts  about  some  particular  animal,  for  the  account  of  its 
native  haunts,  its  habits  of  life,  the  nature  of  its  friends  and  foes  are 
before  him  in  the  living  animal  itself.  The  sfpotted  coat  of  the  forest, 
the  stripes  of  the  jungle  or  the  meadow,  the  dunes  of  the  desert,  the 
whites  of  the  polar  r^ions,  the  symmetry  and  proportions  of  body,  the 
claws  or  hoofs,  the  beaks  or  teeth,  the  position  of  the  eyes^  the 
characteristics  of  the  ears,  nose  or  jaws,  in  short  any  particular  part  of 
the  body  when  taken  with  the  equally  obvious  context  to  be  read  else- 
where in  the  animal,  tells  its  unmistakable  story. 

To  one  who  can  interpret,  the  flower,  in  addition  to  mere  formal 
beauty  and  fragrance,  has  a  wonderful  history  to  disclose  of  ingenious 
device,  which  reaches  even  to  the  other  world  of  life,  the  world  of 
sentient  beings,  and  forces  bee  or  butterfly  to  serve  its  ends.  The 
trained  observer  may  see,  furthermore,  in  every  spear  of  grass  or  every 
forest  tree  an  emblem  of  triumph;  for  has  not  each  through  endless 
struggle  won  victory?  It  is  the  understanding  of  this  victory  which 
enables  the  sedker  after  truth  to  pry  even  into  the  very  inception  of  all 
life  and  form,  whether  plant  or  animal,  and  point  the  path  by  which  it 
has  arrived  at  its  present  perfection. 

And  not  only  in  the  field  of  animate  nature,  but  in  the  realm  of 
astronomy  with  its  romance  of  worlds  in  the  making  and  worlds  in  de- 
cline, with  its  myriads  of  solar  systems  in  incredible  gyrations,  yet  all 
apparently  orderly  and  harmonious;  in  chemistry  with  its  wonderful 
systems  of  combination  and  exchange,  of  creative  possibilities  that  beg- 
gar the  lamp  of  Aladdin;  in  physics,  forging  ahead  with  astonishing 
strides  into  the  solution  of  matter  itself  and  of  all  performances  of  mat- 
ter; in  geology  with  its  ingenious  readings  of  the  past  in  earth  shrink- 
age, crust  warping  and  climatic  oscillations,  with  its  re-creation  for  us 
of  successive  ages  of  flood  and  ice,  land  and  sea,  of  strange  monsters 
long  since  vanished;  in  all  of  these  there  are  worlds  upon  worlds  of 
beauty  unsuspected  by  those  who  are  strangers  to  the  paths  of  science. 

Thus  from  the  standpoint  of  esthetics,  nature  becomes  to  the  student 
a  wonderful  harmony.  As  he  perceives  something  of  the  medianism  of 
the  universe,  how  each  part  moves  cog  within  cog  in  marvelous  unity, 
knowledge  does  not  reduce  his  emotional  enjoyment,  but  enhances  it 
through  a  higher  sense  of  beauty. 

When  all  is  said  and  done,  after  admitting  that  many  scientists 
have  their  crudities  and  some  humanists  their  asininities,  we  must  real- 
ize that  science  and  the  humanities  have  far  more  in  common  than  they 
have  apart.    The  old  idea  of  conflict  betiveen  them  is  largely  fictitious. 


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554  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

They  are  or  should  be  cooperants,  not  antagonists.  For  the  most  part 
they  look  toward  the  same  problem,  in  last  analysis  the  great  problem 
of  what  is  worth  while  for  humanity.  They  but  view  it  from  different 
angles.  And  it  will  be  a  sorry  day,  not  only  for  science  but  for  ciyili- 
zation  itself,  if  scientists  ever  lose  sight  of  the  humaner  aspects  of  their 
pr<^lems.  It  is  my  serious  conviction,  indeed,  that  one  of  the  im- 
perative, outstanding  duties  of  the  modem  scientist  is  to  do  away  with 
what  remains  of  the  no-man's-land  between  these  two  great  aspects  of 
human  culture  and  blend  them  into  one.  No  one  more  than  the  thought* 
f ul  scientist  recognizes  to-day  that  science  in  the  sense  of  mere  material 
accomplishment,  of  greater  accumulation  of  knowledge,  or  of  more 
precise  logic — ^if  thi«  be  all — ^is  futile;  it  must  be  humanized.  With- 
out the  final  touch  of  human  altruism,  science  may  easily  become  a 
soulless  Moloch  whidi  will  devour  its  own  creators. 

Further  applications  of  scientific  knowledge  unquestionably  will 
mean  growing  complexity  of  social  organization.  And  our  organiza- 
tion is  already  so  intricate  that  a  slip  anywhere  in  the  machinery,  be  it 
but  the  obstinacy  of  a  few  striking  switchmen  or  the  discontent  of  a 
handful  of  coal  miners,  may  throw  the  whole  machine  into  disorder. 
With  the  dep^idence  of  one  upon  another  to  which  we  are  becoming 
more  and  more  committed,  serious  disruptions  of  the  system  become  in- 
creasingly probable  and  increasingly  hazardous. 

In  his  more  pessimistic  moods,  when  he  ponders  the  trend  of  present 
economic  and  social  conditions,  the  mind  of  the  evolutionist  harks  back 
to  the  grotesque  monsters  of  Mesozoic  times  whose  very  hugeness  prob- 
ably led  to  their  final  extinction,  and  he  is  filled  with  apprehension  for 
the  outcome  of  the  human  race.  This  much  is  sure,  human  society  will 
need  all  of  brotherly  love,  all  of  tolerance,  all  of  the  refinements  of 
existence  that  scientists  and  humanists  can  muster  jointly,  if  the  giant 
organism  known  as  civilization  is  not  to  succumb  to  its  own  intricacy. 

It  becomes  your  duty  then  as  a  part  of  the  rising  generation  of 
scientists  to  do  your  share  toward  imbuing  science  with  a  soul,  and  one 
of  the  easiest  ways  of  doing  this  is  to  help  promote  the  humanities  as 
you  do  your  science,  in  every  way  you  can.  The  relation  of  man  to  his 
fellowman  is  no  less  important  than  the  relation  of  man  to  his  physical 
environment.  Recognizing  as  we  companions  of  Sigma  Xi  do  that  re- 
search is  the  highest  form  of  human  activity,  let  us  not  take  a  narrow 
view  of  it    The  goal  of  science  and  of  the  humanities  alike  is  truth. 

The  desire  for  truth,  indeed,  is  a  well  nigh  universal  human  at- 
tribute. The  many  observances  and  beliefs  common  to  all  the  great 
religions  symbolize  the  cravings  of  the  human  mind  for  truth.  Thus 
the  Vedianta  maintains  that  the  final  deliverance  of  the  soul  frotn  its 
burden  of  repeated  carnal  existence  can  be  attained  only  by  the  removal 
of  ignorance.  In  the  teachings  of  Zoroaster  we  find  that  chief  among 
the  "worshipful  ones'*  who  guide  the  forces  of  nature  is  Mithras,  per- 


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THE  RESEARCHER  IN  SCIENCE  566 

sonification  of  light  and  truth.  And  as  for  the  Buddha,  his  very  name 
comes  from  a  word  which  means  "he  to  whom  truth  is  known."  More 
familiar  still  is  the  .pronouncement  of  the  gentle  Nazarene,  "Ye  shall 
know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free." 

The  great  poet,  the  true  artist,  the  sincere  novelist  is  striving  in  his 
way  for  truth,  for  reality,  in  no  less  a  measure  than  is  the  physicist  or 
the  chemist  And  the  most  cursory  glance  into  the  past  shows  that  this 
has  been  so  thoroughout  all  history.  We  find  Aeschylus^  five  centuries 
B.  C;  grappling  in  his  poetry  with  a  conception  of  the  mental  evolution 
of  man.  His  graphic  description,  in  his  Prometheus  Bounds  of  the  part 
number  and  the  rudiments  of  science  played  in  the  awakening  of  man 
from  blind  instinct  into  reason  is  well  worth  considering  (translation 
of  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning) : 

How,  first  beholding,  they  beheld  in  vain, 

And  hearing,  heard  not,  but,  like  shapes  in  dreams. 

Mixed  all  things  wildly  down  the  tedious  time. 

Nor  knew  to  build  a  house  against  the  sun 

With  wicketed  sides,  nor  any  woodwork  knew. 

But  lived,  like  silly  ants,  beneath  the  ground 

In  hollow  caves  unsunned.    There  came  to  them 

No  steadfast  sign  of  winter,  nor  of  spring 

Flower-perfumed,  nor  of  summer  full  of  fruit, 

But  blindly  and  lawlessly  they  did  all  things. 

Until  I  taught  them  how  the  stars  do  rise 

And  set  in  mystery,  and  devised  for  them 

Number,  the  inducer  of  philosophies, 

The  synthesis  of  Letters,  and,  beside. 

The  artificer  of  all  things.  Memory 

That  sweet  Muse-mother. 

Somewhat  later  we  note  the  endeavors  of  Plato  to  make  knowledge 
and  conduct  go  hand  in  hand,  and  in  his  pupil,  Aristotle,  we  see  per* 
haps  one  of  the  most  ideal  combinations  of  scientist  and  humanist  in 
one  that  history  reveals.  Still  farther  down  the  ages  we  find  Lucretius 
not  only  propounding  a  theory  of  the  confluence  of  atoms  into  stable 
and  adapted  forms,  but  even  foreshadowing  the  idea  of  a  struggle  for 
existence,  the  conception  which  became  of  such  importance  in  the 
Darwinian  theory.  Thus,  "  •  •  •  And  many  races  of  living  things 
must  then  have  died  out  and  been  unable  to  beget  and  continue  their 
breed.  For  in  the  case  of  all  things  which  you  see  breathing  the  breath 
of  life,  either  craft  or  courage  or  else  speed  has  from  the  beginning  of 
its  existence  protected  and  preserved  each  particular  race.  *  *  *  In 
the  first  place,  the  fierce  breed  of  lions  and  the  savage  races  their 
couitage  has  protected,  foxes  their  craft,  and  stags  their  proneness  to 
flight.^' 

With  all  of  these,  as  with  the  scientist  to-day,  the  unmistakable  note 
is  the  quest  for  truth.    So  that  we  scientists  in  our  pre-occupation  with 


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556  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

our  own  fragments  of  truth  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  the  ex- 
pressions of  human  emotions,  character,  taste,  and  cultivated  imagina- 
tion, all  have  their  share  in  the  finished  product  of  our  search.  In  fact, 
when  we  stop  to  consider,  it  is  obvious  that  the  motives  for  our  conduct, 
our  likes  and  dislikes,  lie  far  more  in  the  realm  of  the  ^notions  than 
in  that  of.  the  intellect.  And  all  history  implies  that  man  can  no  more 
live  without  beauty  than  he  can  live  without  bread. 

Beauty  is  truth,  truth  beauty—that  is  all 

Ye  know  on  earth,  and  all  you  need  to  know. 

Even  the  prehistoric  cave-man  showed  his  craving  for  beauty  in 
crude  attempts  at  picture-making.  The  colored  drawings  may  still  be 
found  on  the  walls  of  his  caves.  The  warring,  pirating  Gredcs  bore  a 
Winged  Victory  at  the  prow  of  their  boat.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  while 
the  shepherds  of  the  church  were  burning  heretics,  great  artists  were 
painting  Madonnas,  great  architects  were  erecting  magnificent 
cathedrals  to  the  glory  of  God,  great  writers  were  giving  voice  to  the 
tortured,  struggling,  inarticulate  soul  of  humanity.  Seek  any  period 
in  history,  no  matter  how  sordid,  how  tyrannical,  how  merciless  man  in 
the  aggr^ate  may  have  become;  there  was  always  abroad  somewhere  in 
the  land  the  spirit  of  beauty,  the  leaven  of  humaneness  which  in  the  end 
redeemed  the  whole. 

And  where  is  he  shall  figure 
The  debt,  when  all  is  said. 
Of  one  who  makes  you  dream  again 
When  all  the  dreams  were  dead. 

And  we  may  note  to  good  advantage  also  that  our  knowledge  of  such 
facts  as  these  has  come  down  to  us  mainly  through  the  eflForts  of  human- 
ists. Without  them  what  indeed  should  we  know  of  *^the  beauty  that  was 
Greece  and  the  grandeur  that  was  Rome?'*  The  nations  themselves 
have  long  since  passed  into  the  night,  but  their  thoughts,  their  motives, 
their  accomplishments  have  been  added  to  our  own  civilization,  thanks 
to  the  tireless  efforts  of  our  iclassical  scholars.  And  who  shall  say  how 
much  of  the  efforts  of  these  scholars  was  science,  how  much  humanism? 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  reconciliation  of  science  and  the  humanities, 
in  spite  of  complainants  sometimes  heard  to  the  contrary,  is  already  in 
progress.  This  is  evinced,  on  the  one  hand,  in  the  increasing  drafts  the 
humanists  are  making  on  the  methods  and  materials  of  science,  and 
through  their  tacit  or  avowed  acceptance  of  the  worth  of  science  and, 
on  the  other,  by  the  spirit  of  greater  tolerance  exhibited  by  scientists. 
Even  in  the  short  period  between  the  present  and  the  close  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  one  can  notice  a  decided  change  of  attitude  on  the  part 
of  science.  The  cocksureness  and  belligerency  of  the  earlier  period  has 
softened  into  a  willingness  to  reconsider  evidence  and  a  spirit  of  friendli- 
ness towards  all  types  of  scholarly  endeavor.    To-day,  while  his  at- 


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THE  RESEARCHER  IN  SCIENCE  557 

tempt  to  explain  things  mechanistically  does  not  falter,  the  scientist 
recognizes  more  clearly  the  limits  of  possibilities. 

The  reason  for  his  earlier  attitude,  however,  is  not  far  to  seeL  In 
the  last  century,  particularly  following  the  proclamation  anew  of  the 
theory  of  organic  evolution  by  Darwin  and  his  followers,  science  in 
general,  though  especially  biological  science,  suffered  the  fierce  on- 
slaught of  the  powerful  leaders  of  the  day,  the  clergy,  who  saw  their 
authority  challenged,  their  privileges  threatened.  Driven  to  fight  this 
hostile  element  for  the  very  life  of  science,  the  result  was  just  what 
might  have  been  expected — ^tbe  exaggerated  dogmatism  of  a  Haeckel  or 
the  caustic  tongue  of  a  Huxley.  The  latter,  with  his  crystal-clear  style 
of  presenting  the  facts  of  science,  his  bulldog  pugnacity  and  his  quick 
wit,  was  particularly  effective.  Now  we  find  him  urging  one  of  his 
hecklers  who  could  or  would  not  understand  what  he  was  saying,  to  use 
the  full  length  of  his  ears  and  he  would  surely  understand.  On  another 
occasion,  in  his  famous  tilt  with  Bishop  Wilberf orce,  he  expresses  his 
preference  for  a  respectable  monkey  as  an  ancestor  to  relationship 
with  a  bigoted  bishop  who  uses  his  great  gift  to  obscure  the  truth. 
Again  we  hear  him  pronouncing  the  conviction  that  "Extinguished 
theologians  lie  about  the  cradle  of  every  science  as  the  strangled  snakes 
beside  that  of  the  infant  Hecrules."  Such  retorts  as  these  show  what  the 
provocation  must  have  been,  and  it  requires  little  further  exercise  of 
one's  powers  of  inference  to  discover  why  the  science  of  the  nineteenth 
century  had  the  ring  of  dogmatism.  Unquestionably  the  modem  re- 
searcher has  Huxley  to  thank  for  much'  of  his  own  immunity  from  such 
attadcs. 

But  to-day  the  clergy  have  come  to  see  that  a  God  of  an  orderly 
universe  is  quite  as  acceptable  as  a  God  of  an  arbitrary  chaos.  The 
educated  clergyman  now  recognizes  the  importance  and  more  or  less  of 
the  significance  of  science,  even  of  evolution,  and  is  finding  more  than 
enough  to  keep  him  busy  in  the  immediate  problems  of  the  human  soul 
without  worrying  so  much  about  its  future.  He  is  content  to  give  us 
help  in  the  present  instead  of  hell  in  the  hereafter.  His  aid  in  keep- 
ing the  spirit  of  altruism  alive  in  the  world,  in  upholding  ideals,  in 
vrinning  men  from  the  fiercer  passions  of  life,  was  never  more  needed 
and  never  more  tolerantly  and  wisely  given  than  it  is  to-day. 

But  as  scientists  we  are  not  so  much  interested  in  the  duties  of 
some  other  profession  as  we  are  in  our  own.  The  only  excuse  I  would 
offer  for  stepping  outside  bounds  is  that  if  we  are  to  have  perspective  in 
our  work,  if  we  are  to  secure  a  clear  vision  of  future  world  problems 
we  must  see  these  problems  from  various  points  of  view  and  realize  that 
our  duty  is  not  done,  our  fullest  possibilities  are  not  realized,  until  we 
have  fitted  our  findings  as  researchers  into  this  general  scheme  of 
things.    To  have  but  a  narrow  angle  of  vision  is  to  miss  most  of  the 


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558  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

richness  of  life  and  much  of  the  good  we  can  do  for  our  fellowman. 
We  want  to  escape  the  type  of  accuracy  exhibited  by  the  literal- 
minded  printer  who,  upon  coming  to  the  quotation,  ^^rmons  in  stones 
and  books  in  running  brooks^''  corrected  it  to  read  **Sermons  in  books 
and  stones  in  running  brooks." 

To  each  of  you  as  researchers  civilization  is  entrusting  its  future. 
It  is  yours  to  do  great  deeds,  to  dream  great  dreams.  And  you  may 
well  remember  that  "the  dreamer  lives  forever  while  the  toiler  die©  in  a 
day.*'  To  most  of  you  will  come  the  seemingly  small,  but  actually  the 
fundamentally  important  duty  of  making  accurate  records  of  observa- 
tions and  conclusions,  together  with  necessary  qualifications  and  limita- 
tions. This  is  indispensable  as  a  foundation  for  one's  own  scientific 
procedure  and  is  equally  important  as  the  basis  of  fact  from  which 
others  may  take  up  the  duties  of  discovery  after  the  recorder  has  passed 
away.  To  some  of  you  may  be  given  that  rare  vision  which  will  enable 
you  to  weave  together  from  the  ever  accumulating  strands  of  scientific 
truth  some  new  far-reaching  generalization.  But  whatever  your  part, 
be  it  great  or  small,  be  assured  of  its  dignity,  of  its  worth,  as  long  as  it 
is  honestly  performed.  You  may  not  live  to  see  the  great  poet  honored 
more  than  the  successful  politician,  nor  the  great  scientist  more  valued 
than  the  wealthy  trader,  but  you  can  at  least  throw  the  weight  of  your 
influence  into  the  proper  scalepan.  Yours  is  a  rare  opportunity  to 
create,  to  produce,  and  I  know  of  no  better  admonition  to  ui^e  upon 
you  than  this  sentiment  expressed  in  the  clarion  call  of  Carlyle: 

"Be  no  longer  a  Chaos,  but  a  World,  or  even  Worldkin.  Produce  I  Pro- 
duce !  Were  it  but  the  pitif ullest  infinitesimal  fraction  of  a  Product,  produce 
it,  in  God's  name  I" 

In  closing,  may  I  urge  again  that  for  the  researcher,  ideals  as  well 
as  achievements  are  indispensable  to  progress,  and  that  both  must  often 
run  far  in  advance  of  what  for  the  moment  may  seem  practical.  If  the 
world  is  to  be  ruled  by  truth  rather  than  by  tradition  and  the  chance 
compensation  of  errors,  you  and  others  like  you  who  are  entering  into 
the  scientific  communion  of  Sigma  Xi  must  give  up  your  life  to  continu- 
ous processes  of  thought  and  experimentation.  Since  the  creative  mood 
demands  quiet,  poise  and  concentration,  you  will  have  to  make  a  con- 
stant fight  to  see  that  your  strength  and  ability  are  not  drained  off  by 
trivial  and  irrelevant  demands  into  non-productive  channels.  You  will 
doubtless  be  called  upon  to  make  financial  sacrifices.  And  your  re- 
ward? Your  reward  will  be  consciousness  that  you  have  fulfilled  your 
real  function  of  discovering  truth,  diffusing  knowledge  and  developing 
ideals. 

Have  I  named  one  single  river?    Have  I  claimed  one  single  acre? 
Have  I  kept  one  single  nugget — (barring  samples)  ?    No,  not  I, 
Because  my  price  was  paid  me  ten  times  over  by  my  Maker. 
But  you  wouldn't  understand  it.    You  go  up  and  occupy. 


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THE  RESEARCHER  IN  SCIENCE  559 

And  while  I  am  quoting  Kipling,  I  shall  leave  this  other  bit  with 
you  as  voicing  the  real  spirit  of  the  researcher: 

Till  a  voice,  as  bad  as  Conscience,  rang  interminable  changes 
On  one  everlasting  Whisper  day  and  night  repeated — so: 
"Something  hidden.    Go  and  find  it    Go  and  look  behind  the 

Ranges — 
Something  lost  behind  the  Ranges.      Lost  and  waiting  for 

you.    Go  1 


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560  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


FEARSOME  MONSTERS  OF  EARLY  DAYS 
By  Dr.  LEON  AUGUSTUS  HAUSMAN 

CORNELL  UNIVERSITT 

rE  reading  of  natural  history  has  ever  been  a  popular  pastime 
among  young  and  old.  As  living  beings  we  are  supremely  inter- 
ested in  the  phenomenon  of  life;  first  as  it  is  manifested  in  creatures 
of  our  own  kind,  and  second  as  we  see  its  animating  power  vitalizing 
the  many  animal  forms  about  us.  We  take  keen  delight,  moreover,  in 
hearing  accounts  of  the  curious  and  the  strange;  in  listening  to  tales  of 
hunters  of  big  game  as  they  tell  us  of  extraordinary  creatures  in  lands 
beyond  the  sea,  or  in  reading  the  narratives  of  whalers  who  describe  the 
habits  of  the  monsters  of  the  deep.  We  know  much,  in  general,  con- 
cerning the  animal  life  of  the  world  today,  at  least  concerning  those 
creatures  large  enou£^,  or  common  enough  to  have  made  their  pres- 
ence known  to  man.  Through  the  medium  of  photography,  through  the 
collections  of  living  forms  in  our  zoological  gardens,  and  through  for- 
eign travel,  we  have  become  familiar  with  the  appearance  of  many 
creatures,  with  which  we  would  not  otherwise  have  been  acquainted. 

The  peoples  of  earlier  days,  however,  were  less  fortunately  situ- 
ated with  respect  to  ease  of  acquiring  natural  knowledge.  Their  sources 
of  information  in  this  fidd  were  a  meagre  collection  of  works,  compiled 
in  the  main  from  the  ancient  writers,  and  the  tales  of  a  limited  numbo* 
of  credulous  travelers. 

Few  persons,  perhaps,  know  with  what  sort  of  creatures  the  world 
of  the  early  naturalists  was  populated.  Doubtless  many  of  us  remem- 
ber the  tales  of  the  griffin,  unicorn,  dragon,  and  others,  which  were 
told  to  us  out  of  the  old  rhymed  and  fairy  stories  of  our  childhood. 
These  were  glorious  creatures,  never  failing  to  appeal  to  the  imagina- 
tive instincts  which  make  childhood  so  attractive  a  period  to  us  as  we 
look  back  upon  it  from  the  world  of  unpoetic  realities!  The  dragon 
and  unicorn  and  their  ilk,  have  survived  the  times  and  have  passed  into 
the  literature  of  the  race.  But  they  represent  only  a  fraction  of  the 
vast  host  of  marvelous  creatures,  whose  names  and  attributes  are  now 
known  only  to  scholars;  creatures  in  whom  the  early  writers  and  their 
readers  placed  full  confidence;  creatures  which  were  soberly  discussed 
and  pictured  in  the  early  volumes  of  natural  history. 

Books  on  natural  history  were  extremely  popular  in  the  fourteenth, 
fifteenth,  and  sixteenth  centuries;  and  as  soon  as  the  art  of  printing 
(introduced  about  1450)  had  made  available  to  a  large  number  of 


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FEARSOME  MOXSTERS  OF  EARLY  DAYS  561 


le 


FIG.  1.    TITLE   PAGE   OF   EDW.   TOPSELL'S   "HISTORIE   OF   SERPENTS" 

readers  the  works  of  the  early  naturalists,  interest  in  the  fearsome 
creatures  reported  from  strange  lands  beyond  the  sea  and  little  known 
oceans  became  widespread.  This  is  not  surprising.  Many  of  these 
early  works  were  embellished  with  illustrations  which  could  not  fail 
to  catch  the  eye  and  enchain  the  interest,  even  of  the  most  casual.  And 
then  the  text!  Even  today,  who  can  read,  for  example,  these  words 
from  the  famous  "Voyages  and  Travels  of  Sir  John  Mandeville"  with- 
out a  thrill  of  wonder,  so  convincing  is  the  exuberance  and  certainty 
o£-the  glowing  phraseology!  The  passage  I  quote  is  from  that  portion 
of  the  'Travels"  in  which  the  author  is  describing  the  inhabitants  of 
various  islands,  or  "yies",  as  he  calls  them,  in  some  far  southern  ocean ; 

And  in  another  yle  are  foule  men  that  have  the  lippes  about  the  mouth 
so  greate,  that  when  they  sleepe  in  the  sonne  they  cover  theyr  face  with  the 
lippe.  And  in  another  yle  are  lytte  men,  as  dwarfes,  and  have  no  mouth,  but 
a  lyttle  rounde  hole  &  through  that  hole  they  eate  theyr  meate  with  a  pipe, 
&  they  have  no  tongue,  &  they  speake  not,  but  they  blow  &  whistle,  and  so 
make  signes  to  one  another.  In  Ethiope  are  such  men  as  have  but  one  foote, 
and  they  go  so  fast  yt  is  a  great  marvaill,  and  that  is  a  large  foote.  that  tlie 

VOL.  XIII.— 36 


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562  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 

shadow  thereof  covereth  ye  body  from  son  or  rayne,  when  they  lye  upon 
their  backes;  and  when  theyr  children  be  first  borne  they  loke  like  russet 
and  when  they  waxe  olde  then  they  be  all  black. 

It  appears  that  the  most  credulous  times  were  during  the  fourteenth, 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  No  tales  which  travelers  brought 
from  remote  lands  or  seas,  no  statements  taken  out  of  early  nmters, 
were  too  gross  for  belief.  Quite  naturally  the  less  accessible  the  lands 
from  which  the  travelers  returned,  the  less  frequented  the  seas  over 
which  the  adventurous  mariners  voyaged,  the  more  grotesque  and  fear- 
ful were  the  monsters  reported  as  having  been  seen,  partially  seen, 


FIG.  2.    TITLE  PACE  OF  ALBERTUS  MAGNUS'  "THIERBUCH" 

or  heard  of.  The  natural  histories  of  these  days  were  not,  it  can 
be  seen,  records  of  careful  observations  by  trained  observers.  They 
were  a  mixture  of  travelers'  tales  and  compilations  of  earlier  authors. 
Much  of  this  compiled  material  was  from  Pliny,  who  in  his  turn  had 
drawn  upon  Aristotle,  and  others.  The  "physiologus"  and  the  various 
bestiaries  also  furnished  an  abundance  of  animal  anecdote,  chiefly 
mythical. 

These  early  books  are  by  no  means  dull  reading,  even  today.    They 
teem  with  curious  anecdotes  concerning  all  sorts  of  marvelous  creatures. 


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FEARSOME  MONSTERS  OF  EARLY  DAYS  563 


€rmiu^« 


FIG.  3.    THE  ERINUS  FROM  ALBERTUS  MAGNUS'  "THIERBUCH" 


3<brofi«?  • 


2fAbif<^m  mccr/Mn  fcfomryppcn  pflcgc  man  mfold^mCAti^r/ffdr^ 
rilgU<b€if  palVflin)nb4t9m/^€fm  fiiM 

FIG.  4.  THE  ZEDROSLS.  FROM  ALBERTUS  MAGNUS'  "THIERBUCH" 


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564  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


FIG.  5.    THE  UNICORN,  FROM  EDW.  TOPSELL'S   "HISTORIE  OF  FOUR-FOOTED  BEASTES" 

^creatures  who  are  described  either  as  of  positive  benefit  to  man  or  as 
of  positive  evil.  Note  for  example  the  naive  way  in  which  Topsell,  in 
the  title  page  of  his  "Historie  of  Serpents"  (Fig.  1)  describes  them 
as  bearing  "deepe  hatred  to  Mankind."  The  title  page  referred  to  also 
gives  us  a  hint  of  the  manner  of  compiling  these  early  natural  his- 
tories, for  Topsell  tells  us  that  his  accounts  are,  "Collected  out  of 
diuine  Scriptures,  Fathers,  Phylosophers,  physitians,  and  Poets:  ampli- 
fied with  sundry  accidentall  Histories,  Heirogliphicks,  Epigrams,  Em- 
blems, and  Aenigmaticall  obseruations."  Who  can  doubt  that  a  book 
heralded  by  so  enticing  a  title  page  would  engross  the  interest  of  even 
the  most  casual  general  reader?  And  the  frontispiece!  Could  anyone 
pass  over  it  in  apathy?  Would  not  the  terrible  Boas  here  shown  be 
the  ogre  of  childhood,  the  fear  of  the  traveler,  the  subject  of  countless 
discussions  euid  yarns  among  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men?  In  com- 
parison with  some  of  the  marvelous  "beastes"  of  primitive  zoology  how 
insipid  and  uninteresting  are  our  "real"  creatures  of  today.  How  can 
even  a  ninety-foot  sperm  whale,  blowing  his  column  of  pearly  spray 
high  in  the  air,  compete  successfully  in  interest  with  a  fire-breathing 
dragon,  whose  scales  were  of  gold,  and  who  withered  and  blasted  by 
his  very  glance? 

The  illustrations  in  this  article  were  photographed  from  several  of 
the  most  important  of  the  early  works  on  natural  history,  books  which 
are  now  extremely  rare  and  to  be  found  only  in  college  libraries  or  in 
extensive  collections.    They  represent  creatures,  which,  in  the  opinion 


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FEARSOME  MONSTERS  OF  EARLY  DAYS  565: 

of  the  writer,  touch  the  pinnacle  of  the  absurd  in  imaginative  zoologi- 
cal conception.  With  the  exception  of  the  unicorn  and  the  basilisk,, 
they  are  practically  unknown  except  to  students  of  the  history  of  zoo- 
logical thought. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  only  interest  attaching  to  these 
curious  creatures  of  bygone  days  is  in  the  amusement  they  afford.  To 
the  historian  of  zoology  they  are  significant  as  indicative  of  various 
epochs  in  the  development  of  biological  conceptions. 

With  the  unicorn  and  the  sea-serpent  (Fig.  7)  we  are  already  some- 
what familiar.  In  Fig.  5  is  shown  Topsell's  superb  illustration  of  the 
former,  and  surely  no  unicorn  figured  in  any  of  the  other  early  writers, 
rejoiced  in  the  possession  of  a  more  impressive  horn?  In  this  figure 
b  also  shown  a  portion  of  the  quaint  old  text.  Topsell's  phraseology 
is  most  rich  quaint,  and  yet  graceful.  Listen,  as  he  discourses  "of 
tho  Unicorne' "...  by  the  Unicorne  wee  doe  understand  a  pe- 
culiar beaste,  which  hath  naturally  but  one  home,  and  that  a  very  rich 
one  that  groweth  out  of  the  middle  of  the  foreheade.  .  .  .  Like- 
wise the  Buls  of  Aonia  are  saide  to  have  hooves  and  one  home  grow- 
ing out  of  the  middle  of  their  foreheads.  .  .  .  Now  our  discourse 
of  the  Unicorne  is  of  none  of  these  beasts  for  their  is  not  any  vertue 
attributed  to  their  homes."  He  tells  us  that  there  is  a  "vertue"  in 
the  horn  of  the  unicorn,  but  that  there  are  many  who  cannot  believe 
that  this  is  so.  Of  this  "vertue,"  he  say,  "ther  were  more  proofes  in 
the  world,  because  of  the  noblenesse  of  his  horn.  .  .  .  they  have 
ever  been  in  doubt:  by  which  distraction  it  appeareth  unto  me  that 
there  is  some  secret  enemy  in  the  inward  degenerate  nature  of  man, 
which  continually  blindeth  the  eies  of  God  his  people  from  beholding 
and  beleeving  the  greatnesse  of  God  his  workes." 

The  Gorgon  (Fig.  6)  is  another  of  Topsell's  famous  illustrations,  to 
be  found  on  the  title  page  of  his  "Historic  of  the  Four  Footed  Beastes". 


FIG.    6.    THE    GORGON,    FROM    THE    TITLE    PAGE    OF    EDW.    TOPSELL'S 
-HISTORIE   OF   FOURFOOTED   BEASTES' 


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566  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


FIG.    7.     THE    SEA    SERPENT.    FROM    KONRAD    GESNERS    -HISTORIAE    ANIMALIUM." 
COPIED    FROM    OLAUS    MAGNUS 

Topsell's  chief  interest  was  in  the  larger  forms  of  animal  life,  as  his 
work,  in  two  parts,  attests. 

In  Ulysses  Aldrovandus,  however,  we  find  a  naturalist  to  whom 
the  lowlier  forms  of  life  made  more  appeal.  His  tremendous  folio 
volume  on  insects  and  other  primitive  creatures,  published  in  Latin  in 
1602,  contains  many  curious  forms  not  known  to  zoologists  of  the  pres- 
ent day.  Fig.  8  is  one  of  these  bizarre  forms,  a  snail,  whose  remark- 
able fore  limbs  are  of  no  less  anatomical  interest  than  they  are  of 
artistic  conception.  It  is  a  curious  and  noteworthy  thing  how  often 
the  early  naturalists  depicted  their  beasts  with  these  rather  pleasing, 
leaf-like  appendages,  slashed  into  fringes  and  lobes.  No  doubt  they 
thought  that  this  gave  an  artistic  "finish"  to  the  beasts,  as  it  indispu- 
tably does.  In  this  connection  compare  the  appendages  of  the  creatures 
in  Fig.  9  with  Erinus  (Fig.  3)  and  Zedrosus  (Fig.  4). 

The  sea-serpent  has  been  with  us  from  time  inunemorial  and  it 
some  sections  of  the  country  belief  in  it  still  lingers  with  tenacious 
hold.  Fig.  7,  taken  from  Konrad  Gesner's  "Historiae  animalium"  shows 
a  mediaeval  conception  of  this  terror  of  the  sea,  a  conception  which  cer- 
tainly depicts  the  serpent  in  all  his  fabulous  terrors.  Note  the  ease 
with  which  he  arches  his  back  and  selects  out  the  fattest  seaman  of 


FIG.  8.       A  IMQLE  SNAIL.   COCHLEA.   FROM  ALDROVANDUS*  "DE  ANIMALIBUS*' 


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FEARSOME  MOXSTERS  OF  EARLY  DAYS  567 


FIG.    9.     A    CROUP    OF    SEA    MARVELS    OR    "MEERWUNOERN,"    FROM 
ALBERTIS    MACMS'    "THIERBUCH" 


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568 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


the  crew  of  the  helpless  vessel.     Of  illustrations  of  sea-serpents  there 
are  legion.     This  one  I  have  selected  as  fulfilling  perhaps  our  most 

morbid  notions  of  a  creature,  than 
whom  nothing  more  awful  exists  in 
the  sea  of  our  imagination. 

Dragons,  chimaeras,  basilisks, 
cockatrices,  and  gorgons,  seemed  to 
have  exerted  a  by  no  means  meagre 
fascination  for  the  early  writers.  Ac- 
counts of  them  are  numerous  and 
lengthy  in  almost  all  of  the  old  works. 
Nor  were  their  habits  less  strange 
than  their  forms.  Of  fierce  and  vin- 
dictive dispositions,  in  league  often 
with  the  Evil  One  himself,  breathing 
fire,  and  blasting  or  killing  by  their 
very  glance  or  touch,  they  formed  a 
theme  upon  which  the  credulous  old 
naturalists  were  never  tired  of  de- 
scanting. In  Fig.  10  is  shown  a 
group  of  typical  ''dragons  and 
chimaeras  dire"  from  Albertus  Mag- 
nus, Aldrovandus,  Topsell,  and  Ges- 
'  ner.     Topsell  in  his  long  discussion 

of  dragons,  says  of  one  sort:  "Their 
aspect  is  very  fierce  and  grimme, 
and  whensoever  they  move  uppon  the 
earth,  their  eyes  give  a  sound  from 
theyr  eyeliddes,  much  like  unto  the 
tinckling  of  Brasse.  .  .  ."  And 
again,  speaking  of  the  classification 
of  dragons  he  says:  "There  be  some 
dragons  which  have  wings,  and  no 
feete,  some  again  have  both  feete  and 
wings,  and  some  neither  feete  nor 
wings,  but  are  onely  distinguished 
from  the  common  sort  of  Serpents  by 
the  combe  growing  uppon  their  heads 
and  the  beard  under  their  cheekes." 

Those,  however,  who  wish  to  be 
ushered  into  a  world  more  populous 
in  bizarre  and  marvelous  animal 
forms  than  any  other  of  which 
the  writer  is  aware,  have  but  to 
open    the   magic    door    of   Albertus 


FIG.  10.    AN  ASSORTMENT  OF  "DRAGONS 

AND    CHIMAERAS    DIRE,"    FROM   ALBER. 

TUS   MAGNUS.   TOPSELL.    ALDROVANDUS 

AND    GESNER 


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FEARSOME  MONSTERS  OF  EARLY  DAYS  569 

Magnus'  immortal  "Thierbuch,"  unfortunately  for  those  who  read 
no  language  but  English,  written  in  rather  antiquated  German.  A 
copy  of  this  rare  work  (printed  in  1545),  in  heavy  embossed  leather 
with  brass  clasps,  and  riddled  with  bookworm  holes,  fell  into  the 
author's  hands  recently.  From  it  were  photographed  the  title  page 
(Fig.  2)  and  the  "Meerwundem",  or  sea  marvels  (Fig.  9),  Albertus 
Magnus  begins  his  pretentious  work  with  the  story  of  Adam  and  Eve 
(so  as  to  be  certain  that  he  makes  a  start  from  the  very  beginning)  and 
then  follows  this  with  accounts  of  all  sorts  of  creatures;  accounts  il- 
lustrated with  figures  beautifully  drawn,  and  embellished,  in  many 
cases,  with  artistic  flourishes  of  the  artist's  own.  In  the  figure  of  the 
Zedrosus  (Fig.  4)  is  included  some  of  the  text,  a  beautiful  example 
of  the  artistic  typography  of  the  times.  The  letters  are  clear,  bold, 
and  easily  read,  and  the  style  of  the  font  of  type  pleasing  in  its  pro- 
portions. In  Fig.  9  is  shown  a  group  of  sea  marvels,  or  "Meerwun- 
dem", a  title  which  no  one  would  presume  to  dispute.  In  the  writer's 
opinion,  however  the  Ultima  Thule  of  absurdity  is  attained  in  the 
conception  of  the  beast  Erinus  (Fig.  3).  Albertus  (no  wonder  he  was 
accorded  the  title  of  "the  great")  says  of  this  creature:  "Erinus  is 
also  a  fish  in  the  water  which  has  its  mouth  and  face  bent  down  under 
itself,  and  the  opening  for  the  excreta  located  above."  He  tells  us 
that,  according  to  Pliny  it  is  feared  by  other  fishes,  and  that  its  flesh 
is  red,  like  cinnabar.    Truly  a  fearful  "Wunder"  was  the  Erinus. 

It  might  appear  that  the  author  is  in  sympathy  with  the  early 
writers  only  when  they  happen  to  afford  amusement.  This  is  far  from 
being  the  case.  No  one  can  read  the  early  writers  without  a  smile,  it 
is  true;  nevertheless  he  is  a  blind  reader  indeed  who  cannot  detect  the 
true  purpose  of  these  sturdy  though  credulous  old  naturalists,  who 
cannot  perceive  that  their  one  ambition  was  to  further  the  bounds  of 
natural  knowledge,  to  glorify  the  Creator  by  showing  forth  the  won- 
ders of  His  works,  and  lastly,  and  in  this  case  also  least,  to  acquire  some 
renown  for  themselves. 

In  conclusion  listen  to  these  words  of  Topsell,  in  his  Epilogue  to 
the  "Historic  of  Four  Footed  Beastes": 

If  you  think  my  endeavors  and  the  Printers  costs  necessarie  and  com- 
mendable, and  if  you  woud  ever  farther  or  second  a  good  enterprise,  I  do 
require  al  men  of  conscience  that  shall  ever  read,  hear,  or  see  these  His- 
tories or  wish  for  the  sight  of  the  residue,  to  helpe  us  with  knowledge,  and 
to  certifie  their  particular  experiences  of  any  kinde,  or  any  one  of  the  living 
Beastes :  and  withall  to  consider  how  great  a  task  we  do  undertake,  travelling 
for  the  content  and  benefit  of  other  men,  and  therefor  how  acceptable  it 
would  be  unto  us,  and  procure  everlasting  memorie  to  themselves  to  be 
helpers,  incouragers,  ayders,  procurers,  maintainers,  and  abbettours,  to  such 
a  labor  and  needfull  endeavor,  as  was  never  before  enterprized  in  England. 


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570 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  MONTHLY 


MEDAL  IN  HONOR  OF  DR.  STEPHEN  SMITH 

The    plaque    (photographed    by    Paul    Thompson)    from    which    the    touvenir    medal    in    honor    of    Dr. 

Smith  was  made.     It   was  modeled   by  Michele  Martino,   the  New  York  sculptor. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE^ 


THE     AMERICAN      PUBLIC 
HEALTH   ASSOCIATION 

New  York  has  been  the  scene 
of  semi-centennial  meetings  of  the 
American  Public  Health  Association 
from  November  8  to  19.  During 
the  first  .week,  there  was  a  public 
health  institute  which  included  dem- 
onstrations on  vital  statistics,  hygiene 
of  mother  and  child,  public  health 
nursing,  socio-health,  sanitary  engi- 
neering, communicable  diseases,  lab- 
oratory work,  food  and  drugs  and  in- 
dustrial hygiene.  This  was  the  oc- 
casion for  visits  to  clinics,  stations, 
institutions,  centers,  laboratories, 
hospitals,  water  and  sewage  plants, 
and  other  public  health  activity  cen- 
ters in  New  York  City  and  its  vi- 
cinity. 

During  the  week  of  November  14, 
the  largest  health  exposition  ever  at- 
tempted was  held  at  the  Grand  Cen- 
tral Palace  through  the  cooperation 
of  the  American  Public  Health  Asso- 


ciation and  the  Department  of  Health 
of  the  City  of  New  York.  This  ex- 
hibit was  marked  by  many  novelties, 
such  as  children's  health  games,  fat 
reducing  squads,  perfect  baby  con- 
tests, perfect  teeth  and  foot  contests. 
Social  service  and  scientific  organi- 
zations joined  in  the  exhibition. 
Among  them  were  the  National  Tu- 
berculosis Association,  the  National 
Health  Council,  the  American  Social 
Hygiene  Association,  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  the 
American  Society  for  the  Control  of 
Cancer  and  the  National  Committee 
for  Mental  Hygiene. 

The  fiftieth  annual  meeting  of  the 
association,  held  from  November  14 
to  18,  included  both  general  and  sci- 
entific sessions.  Representatives  from 
Canada,  Cuba  and  Mexico,  as  well  as 
all  parts  of  the  United  States,  were 
in  attendance.  Dr.  Mazyck  P.  Ra- 
venel,  as  president  of  the  association, 
delivered   the   principal   opening  ad- 


1  Edited  by  Watson  Davis,  Science  Service. 


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DR.   STEPHEN   SMITH 

Founder  of  the  American  Public  Health  Association,  which  is  now  celebratinK  its   fiftieth  anniversary. 

Although  99  years  of  age,   Dr.   Smith  it  active  in   the  work  of   the  association. 


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dress.  The  scientific  papers  and  ad- 
dresses included  a  wide  variety  of 
subjects  under  the  general  topics  of 
public  health  administration,  labora- 
tory work,  vital  statistics,  food  and 
drugs,  sanitary  engineering,  indus- 
trial hygiene,  child  hygiene,  health 
education  and  publicity.  In  com- 
memoration of  the  semi-centennial 
celebration,  the  association  is  also 
publishing  a  jubilee  historical  volume. 
Attending  these  sessions,  and  guest 
at  a  banquet  in  his  honor,  was  Dr. 
Stephen  Smith,  who  fifty  years  ago 
founded  the  American  Public  Health 
Association  and  became  its  first  presi- 
dent. Though  now  ninety-nine  years 
old,  Dr.  Smith  still  takes  an  active 
part  in  the  affairs  of  the  association. 
He  was  further  honored  during  the 
health  fortnight  by  a  souvenir  bronze 
medal  bearing  his  portrait  and  fit- 
tingly inscribed  to  denote  his  partici- 
pation in  the  fiftieth  annual  meeting. 
In  addition  to  his  activities  in  the 
American  Public  ^Health  .Association, 
Dr.  Smith  has  been  a  leader  in  city 
and  national  health  work.  He  is  the 
author  of  books  on  surgery  and  other 
medical  subjects  and  before  the  Civil 
War  was  editor  of  several  medical 
journals.  As  surgeon,  he  has  served 
Bellevue  Hospital  many  years,  and 
in  1896  he  represented  this  country  at 
the  Ninth  International  Sanitary 
Convention. 

SCIENTIFIC    PROBLEMS    OF 
THE    PACIFIC 

The  Pacific  Division  of  the  Ameri- 
can Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  at  its  recent  meeting 
in  Berkeley  endorsed  the  idea  of  the 
Washington  Conference  on  the  Limi- 
tation of  Armaments  and  Pacific 
Problems  and  offered  the  services  of 
scientific  men  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States  for  solving  such 
Pacific  problems  as  may  require  ex- 
pert scientific  knowledge. 

Dr.  William  E.  Ritter,  director  of 
the  Scripps  Institution  for  Biological 
Research,  La  Jolla,  California,  writes: 

The    resolutions   adopted    had   two 


aims.  One  was  generally  informa- 
tive. It  would  let  the  government 
and  people  of  the  United  States 
know,  so  far  as  it  might,  where  the 
scientists  thus  expressing  themselves 
stand  relative  to  the  purposes  of  the 
conference.  The  hope  was  that  the 
resolutions  would  do  something  to- 
ward correcting  the  belief,  now  too 
prevalent,  that  science  is  in  effect 
more  favorable  than  unfavorable  to 
the  militaristic  type  of  international 
dealing.  The  other  aim  was  more 
concrete.  It  would  make  scientific 
knowledge  and  research,  and  techni- 
cal skill,  positive  factors  in  solving 
international  problems  by  intelligence, 
which  usually  follows  the  way  of 
peace,  instead  of  by  emotion,  which 
usually  follows  the  way  of  war. 

The  National  Research  Council 
has  a  committee  on  Pacific  Investi- 
gations composed  of:  Herbert  E. 
Gregory,  chairman.  Bishop  Museum, 
Honolulu,  Hawaii:  T.  Wayland 
Vaughan,  vice-chairman.  United 
States  Geological  Sur\'ey:  William 
Bowie,  United  States  Coast  and 
Geodetic  Survey;  Barton  W.  Ever- 
mann,  California  Academy  of  Sci- 
ences; John  C.  Merriam,  Carnegie 
Institution  of  Washington;  William 
E.  Ritter,  Scripps  Institution  for  Bio- 
logical Research ;  W.  T.  Swingle, 
United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture; and  Clark  Wissler.  Ameri- 
can Museum  of  Natural  History. 

GOVERNMENT  EDUCATIONAL 
COURSES 

Two  scientific  branches  of  the  gov- 
ernment are  helping  their  scientific 
staffs  to  become  more  useful  to  them- 
selves and  to  the  government  by 
offering  the  opportunity  to  take 
courses  of  graduate  study  after  office 
hours. 

For  more  than  ten  years  the  Bureau 
of  Standards  has  been  maintaining 
advanced  courses  in  physics,  mathe- 
matics and  chemistry,  and  this  year 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  has 
inaugurated  a*  system  of  advanced 
instruction  in  those  scientific  and 
technical  subjects  related  to  the  work 
of  the  department  in  which  adequate 
instruction  is  not  available  in  Wash- 
ington. 


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578 


AN  AIRPL\NE  VIEW  OF  KODAK  PARK,  THE  PLANT  OF  THE  EASTMAN  KODAK  COMPANY 


Jt  is  expected  that  the  successful 
completion  of  any  of  the  courses  will 
be  recognized  for  adequate  credit  in 
some  of  our  better  educational  in- 
stitutions, both  for  undergraduate 
and  for  postgraduate  work.  This 
has  already  been  the  case  with  the 
Bureau  of  Standards  courses. 

Those  offered  this  year  at  the 
Bureau  of  Standards  include :  Ad- 
vanced optics  by  Dr.  C.  A.  Skinner; 
differential  equations  by  Dr.  L.  B. 
Tuckerman ;  chemical  thermodyna- 
mics by  Dr.  L.  H.  Adams  of  the 
geophysical  laboratory ;  interpreta- 
tion of  data,  including  the  theory  of 
errors  and  methods  for  numerical, 
graphical  and  mechanical  computa- 
tion, by  Dr.  Chester  Snow. 

The  courses  of  study  at  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture  were  worked 
out  by  a  committee  from  the  various 
bureaus  of  the  department  headed  by 
Dr.  E.  D.  Ball,  formerly  assistant  sec- 
retary and  now  director  of  the  sci- 
entific work  of  the  departmfent. 


There  are  two  more  or  less  distinct 
kinds  of  work  offered :  (a)  lecture 
and  drill  courses  on  certain  funda- 
mental subjects  in  which  the  per- 
sonnel of  two  or  more  bureaus  may 
be  interested;  (b)  intensive  gradu- 
ate training  in  special  topics. 

The  courses  now  being  given  at 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  arc: 
.Agricultural  Economics,  by  Dr.  H. 
C.  Taylor ;  Statistical  Methods,  by  H. 
R.  Tolley;  Biochemistry,  by  Dr.  C. 
O.  Appleman;  Mycology,  by  Dr.  C. 
L.  Shear;  Plant  Physiology,  by  Dr. 
Burton  E.  Livingston;  Genetics,  by 
Dr.  Sewall  Wright;  Physics  of  the 
Air,  by  Dr.  W.  J.  Humphreys;  Stat- 
istical Mechanics  applied  to  Chemical 
Problems,  by  Dr.  R.  C.  Tolman. 

THE    OPTICAL    SOCIETY    OF 
AMERICA 
At  the  sixth  meeting  of  the  Optical 
Society  of  America,  held  in  Roches- 
ter, X.  Y.,  the  most  notable  feature 
was  the  Helmholtz  Memorial  Meet- 


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ing  held  on  the  afternoon  and  even- 
ing of  October  24.  The  afternoon 
program  was  as  follows: 

A  brief  surz'cy  of  the  historieal 
development  of  optical  science:  Pro- 
fessor J.  P.  C.  SOUTHALL. 

Helmholts's  early  zvork  in  physics — 
the  conseri'ation  of  energy :  Profes- 
sor Henry  Crew. 

Helmholts's  contributions  to  phys- 
iological  optics:    L.   T.   Troland. 

Professor  Crew  exhibited  lantern 
slides  showing  Helmholtz  at  the  time 
he  wrote  the  essay  on  the  Conserva- 
tion of  Energy  (age  26)  and  also  at 
later  periods  of  his  life. 

At  the  evening  session,  Professor 
M.  I.  Pupin  spoke  informally  and  in 
a  most  interesting  and  delightful 
manner  on  his  Personal  Recollections 
of  Helmholtz.  Professor  E.  L. 
Nichols,  Professor  Ernest  Merritt, 
Dr.  Ludwik  Silberstein,  Mrs.  Chris- 
tine Ladd-Franklin  and  Professor  C. 
R.  Mann  also  spoke  of  their  memories 
of  Helmholtz  as  a  teacher.  Professor 
Mann  showed  a  lantern  slide  of  a 
photograph  which  he  himself  made 
on  July  7,  1894,  showing  Helmholtz 
at  his  lecture  desk  only  a  few  days 
before  his  last  illness. 

At  the  regular  sessions  of  the  so- 
ciety some  twenty  papers  were  pre- 
sented, special  attention  being  given 
to  physiological  optics.  A  commit- 
tee was  appointed,  the  duty  of  which 
is:  (i)  To  prepare  the  program  of 
the  sessions  on  vision;  (2)  to.  co- 
ordinate the  work  of  the  society  in 
this  field  with  the  work  of  other  so- 
cieties and  (3)  to  recommend,  from 
time  to  time,  such  further  steps  as 
may  be  deemed  effective  in  encour- 
aging research  in  physiological  optics 
and  allied  problems. 


f  Rochester  is  the  world's  chief  cen- 
'  ter  for  the  manufacture  of  optical 
'  and  photographic  apparatus.  Visits 
were  arranged  to  go  through  the  re- 
search laboratories  of  the  Eastman 
Kodak  Company  and  the  glass  plant, 
optical  shops  and  observatory  of  the 
Bausch  and  Lomb  Optical  Company. 
The  research  work  of  these  labora- 
tories is  of  great  magnitude  and  even 
in  contributions  to  pure  science  may 
soon  rival  the  chemical  and  physical 
laboratories  of  any  university. 

SCIENTIFIC  ITEMS 

We  record  with  regret  the  death  of 
Alexander  M.  Gray,  professor  of 
electrical  engineering  in  Cornell  Uni- 
versity; of  Seymour  C.  Loomis,  for- 
merly secretary  of  the  section  of  so- 
cial and  economic  sciences  of  the 
American  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science;  of  Dr.  Emil 
A.  Budde,  German  electrical  engineer ; 
of  Emile  Houze,  professor  of  an- 
thropology at  the  University  of  Brus- 
sels and  at  the  Ecole  d*Anthropologie 
of  that  city ;  and  of  Sir  William  Ed- 
ward Garforth,  pioneer  worker  for 
safety  in  coal  mines. 

Dr.  Harlow  Shapley,  formerly  of 
the  Mount  Wilson  Solar  Observatory, 
has  been  appointed  director  of  the 
Harvard  College  Observatory  in  suc- 
cession to  the  late  Edward  C.  Picker- 
ing. 

Professor  George  C.  Com  stock, 
who  has  been  director  of  the  Wash- 
burn Observatory  at  the  University 
of  Wisconsin  since  1889,  will  retire 
at  the  end  of  this  year.  His  place 
will  be  taken  by  Dr.  Joel  Stebbins, 
formerly  of  the  University  of  Illinois 
department  of  astronomy  and  direc- 
tor of  its  observatory  since  1913. 


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575 


INDEX 


NAMES  OF  CONTRIBUTORS   ARE   PRINTED  IN    SMALL   CAPITALS 


Adami,  George,  The  True  Aristoc- 
racy, 420 

Agricultural  School,  America's  First, 
Neil  E.  Stevens,  531 

Agriculture,  International  Institute 
of,  285 

American  Public  Health  Associa- 
tion, 570 

Big  Trees,  Gift  of,  285 

Birds  banded  by  the  Biological  Sur- 
vey, 287 

BoAK,  Arthur  E.  R.,  Rudolph  Vir- 
chow — Anthropologist  and  Archeol- 
ogist,  40 

BouTRoux,  Emile,  Science  in  France, 

435 

British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  Edinburgh  Meet- 
ing, 187;  289 

Burgess,  George  K.,  The  Govern- 
ment Laboratory  and  Industrial  Re- 
search, 523 

Cajori,  Florian,  Swiss  Geodesy  and 
the  United  States  Coast  Survey,  117 

California  Elk  Drive,  C.  Hart  Mer- 
riam,  465 

Charlemagne,  The  Inbred  Descend- 
ants of,  DA\aD  Starr  Jordan,  481 

Chemists.  British  and  American 
Meeting  of,  189,  in  Xew  York,  476 

Chemistry,  The  History  of,  John 
Johnston,  5,  130 

Crops,  Field,  in  New  Jersey,  Harry 
B.  Weiss,  342 

Curie,  Mme.,  Visit  to  the  United 
States,  93. 

Darwin,  Leonard,  The  Field  of 
Eugenic  Reform,  385 

Death,  The  Biology  of,  Raymond 
Pearl;  The  Inheritance  of  Dura- 
tion of  Life  in  Man,  46;  Experi- 
mental Studies  in  the  Duration  of 
Life,  144;  Natural  Death,  Public 
Health  and  the  Population  Prob- 
lem, 193 

Electrical  Fluid  Theories,  Origin  of, 
Fernando  Sanpord,  448 

Elk  Drive  in  California,  C.  Hart 
Merriam,  405 

Engineering,  Exchange  of  Professors 
of.  95 

Eugenic  Reform,  The  Field  of,  Leon- 
ard Darwin,  385 

Eugenics,  Congress,  The  Second  In- 
ternational, 183,  385,  476;  impend- 
ing Problems  of,  Irving  Fisher, 
214 


Evolution,  Some  Problems  in,  Edwin 
S.  Goodrich,  316 

Exchange  of  Professors  of  Engineer- 
ing between  American  and  French 
Universities,  95. 

Felt,  E.  P.,  Adaptations  among  In- 
sects of  Field  and  Forest,  165 

Field  Crops  in  New  Jersey,  Harry 
B.  Weiss,  342 

Fisher,  Irving,  Impending  Problems 
of  Eugenics,  214 

Flett,  J.  S.,  Experimental  Geology, 
308 

Flexner,  Simon,  The  Scientific  Ca- 
reer for  Women,  97 

Forests,  National,  Grazing  Practice 
on  the,  Clarence  F.  Korstian, 
275. 

Forster,  AI.  O.,  The  Laboratory  of 
the  Living  Organism,  301 

Galois,  Evariste,  George  Sarton,  363 

Geography,  Applied,  D.  G.  Hogarth, 
322 

Geology,  Experimental,  J.  S.  Flett, 
308 

Government,  Educational  Courses, 
572 ;  Laboratory  and  Industrial  Re- 
search, George  K.  Burgess,  523 

Goodrich,  Edwin  S.,  Problems  in 
Evolution,  316 

GuYER,  Michael  E.,  The  Researcher 
in  Science,  541 

Hall,  G.  Stanley,  The  Message  of 

the  Zeitgeist,  106 
Hamilton,  G.  H.,  Mars  as  a  Living 

Planet,  376 
Harmonizing  Harmones,  B.  W.  Kun- 

KEL,  266. 
Hausman,    Leon    Augustus,    Fear- 
some Monsters  of  Early  Days,  560 
Health,  Public;   Harvard  School  of, 

384 :  American  Association,  477,  570 
Helmholtz,     Hermann     von,     Louis 

Karpinski,  24;  and  Virchow,  282 
Hering,  D.  W.,  An  Introduction  to 

Scientific  Vagaries,  516 
Hogarth,  D.  G.,  Applied  Geography, 

322 

Infant  Psychology,  Studies  in.  John 
B.  Watson  and  Rosalie  Rayner 
AV'atson,  493 

Insects  of  Field  and  Forest,  Adapta- 
tions among,  E.  P.  Felt,  165 

Johnston,  John,  The  History  of 
Chemistry,  5,  130 


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Jordan.  David   Starr,  The   Miocene   ' 
Shore-Fishes    of    California,    460; 
The  Inbred  Descendants  of  Charle-   | 
magne,  481 

Karpinski,     Louis,     Hermann     von 

Helmholtz,  24 
KoRSTiAN,     Clarence     F.,     Grazing 

Practice  on  the   National   Forests, 

275 
KuNKEL,  B.  W.,  Harmonizing  Har- 
mones,  266 

Lal)oratory  of  the  Living  Organism, 

M.  O.  Forster,  301 
Lake   Michigan,    Fishing    in,    A.    S. 

Pearse,  81 
Locv.     William     C,    The     Earliest 

Printed    Illustrations    of    Natural 

History,  238 

March,  Lucien,  The  Consequences 
of  War  and  the  Birth  Rate  in 
France,  399 

Married  on  First  Mesa,  Arizona, 
Elsie  Clews  Parsons,  259 

Mars  as  a  Livhig  Planet,  G.  H.  Ham- 
ilton, 376 

Mathematics,  Questionable  Points  in 
the  History  of,  G.  A.  Miller,  232 

Matter,  The  Constitution  of,  T.  Ed- 
ward Thorpe,  289    . 

Merriam,  C.  Hart,  A  California  Elk 
Drive,  465 

Message  of  the  Zeitgeist,  G.  Stanley 
Hall,  106 

Miller,  G.  A.,  A  Few  Questionable 
Points  in  the  History  of  Mathe- 
matics, 232 

Miocene  Shore-Fishes  of  California, 
David  Starr  Jordan,  460 

Monaco,  H.  S.  H.  The  Prince  of. 
Studies  of  the  Ocean,  171 

Monsters,  Fearsome,  of  Early  Days, 
Leon  Augustus  Hausman,  560 

Natural,  Resources  of  the  United 
States,  Utilization  and  Conserva- 
tion of,  91 ;  Executive  Committee 
on,  91 ;  History,  The  Earliest 
Printed  Illustrations  of,  William 
C.  Locv,  238 

Ocean,  Studies  of  the,  H.  S.  H.  The 

Prince  of  Monaco,  171 
Optical  Society  of  America,  574 

Parsons,  Elsie  Clews,  Getting  Mar- 
ried on  First  Mesa,  Arizona,  259 

Patrick,  G.  T.  W.,  The  Play  of  a 
Nation,  350 

Pearl,  Raymond,  The  Biology  of 
Death — The  Inheritance  of  Dura- 
tion of  Life  in  Man,  46;  Experi- 
mental Studies  on  the  Duration  of 
Life,    144;    Natural    Death,   Public 


Health  and  the  Population  Prob- 
lem, 193 

Pearse,  a.  S.,  Fishing  in  Lake  Michi- 
gan, 81 

Play  of  a  Nation,  G,  T.  W.  Patrick, 
350 

Progress  of  Science,  91,  186,  282,  380, 
476,  570 

Reed,  Alfred  C,  Vitamins  and  Food 
Deficiency  Diseases,  67 

Research,  Industrial,  and  the  Govern- 
ment Laboratory,  George  K.  Bur- 
gess, 523 

Researcher  in  Science,  Michael  F. 
GuYER,  541 

RiTTER,  William  E.,  Scientific  Ideal- 
ism, 328 

Rockefeller  Foundation,  Activities  of, 
382 

Rosa,  Edward  Bennett,  191 

Sanford,   Fernando,   Origin   of   the 

Electrical  Fluid  Theories,  448 
Sarton,  George,  Evariste  Galois,  363 
Science  in  France,  Emile  Boutroux, 

435 

Scientific,  Items,  96,  192,  288,  384,  480, 
574;  Career  for  Women,  Simon 
Flexner,  97;  Idealism,  William  E. 
Ritter,  328;  Meetings,  380;  Va- 
garies, An  Introduction  to,  D.  W. 
Hering,  516;  Problems  of  the  Pa- 
cific, 572 

Smithsonian  Institution,  Held  Work 
of,  286 

Stevens,  Neil  E.,  America's  First 
Agricultural  School,  531 

Swiss  Geodesy  and  the  United  States 
Coast  Survey,  Florian  Cajori,  117 

Trees,  Xational  Geographic  Society's 

Gift  of,  28s 
Thorpe,  T.  Edward,  The  Constitution 

of  Matter,  289 

Virchow,  Rudolph,  and  Hermann  von 
Helmholtz,  Centennials  of,  24; 
Pathologist,  Carl  Vernon  Walker, 
T^S]  282;  Anthropologist  and  Arche- 
ologist,  Arthur  E.  R.  Boak,  40 

Vitamins  and  Food  Deficiency  Dis- 
eases, Alfred  C.  Reed,  67 

Walker,    Carl    Vernon,    Rudolph 

Virchow — Pathologist,  33 
War  and  the  Birth  Rate  in  France. 

LuciEN  March,  399 
Watson,  John  B.  and  Rosalie  Ray- 

NER,  Studies  in  Infant  Psychology, 

493. 
Weiss,  Harry  B.,  Field  Crop  Yields 
in  New  Jersey  from  1876  to  19 19, 
342 

Zeitgeist.  Message  of  the,  G.  Stanley 
Hall,  106 


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THE  AMERICAN  BOTANIST 

For  more  than  twenlty  years  the  only 

journal   of  Elcononiic  and  Elcologic 

Botany  in  America,      Only  25  sets 

left. 

QUARTERLY,  $1.50  a  year. 

Sample,  25  cents. 

Willard  N.  Qute  &  G>mpany 

Joliet,  Illinois 

SCIENTiriC   BOOKS 


INTERRELATIONS  OF  THE  FOSSIL  FUELS 

By  JOHN  J.  STEVENSON 

From  Proeeedingt  of  American  PUL  Soeletj.     Bound,  with 
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G.  E.  Stechert  &  Co.,  151  W.  25th  St., 
New  York. 

PRINCIPLES  OF  HUMAN  GEOGRAPHY 

Br  ELLSWORTH   HUNTINGTON 
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An  intereatinc  praotical  and  traly  ednoational  geognphy.   The 
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Deaigned  eapeelally  for  the  biologiat,  thb  woifc  ahoold  be  read 
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