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APPLETONS'

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY

EDITED BY / P I 1 * T •!

WILLIAM JAY YOUMANS \^^»»"C^j^bra^

VOL. XLVIII

NOVEMBER, 1 89 5, TO APRIL, 1 896

NEW YORK

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

1896

COPTKIOHT, 1896,

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ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE.

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

NOVEMBEE, 1895.
PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION.

By DAVID A. WELLS.

" TTie principles of good government art far from easy to learn accurately i and very much
harder to put in practice.^^ — F. B. Sanborn.

INTRODUCTION.

IT is the purpose of the writer in the chapters which follow,
to discuss the principles of taxation from a broader basis and
by different methods than have heretofore been attempted, special
consideration being given to the experience of the United States.

Such a discussion primarily involves the inquiry, of how far
the varied and curious experience of nations leads up through
what may be regarded as a process of evolution, to a recognition
of the underlying and essential principles of a just and at the
same time an efficient system of taxation. And it also necessi-
tates, for the attainment of correct conclusions in the prosecution
of such inquiry, that illustrations drawn from the world's great
record of experience should take precedence of theory, espe-
cially in the way of example and exhibit of the many abuses of
the power of taxation w]iich the ignorance of legislators and the
cupidity of designing men have inflicted upon nations.

The subject is one of transcendent importance, perhiaps more
universally important than any other that can invite public
attention. Its discussion opens questions of the widest possible
range. There can be no civilization without government and no
government without an adequate supply of revenue obtained
from the persons and property of the people governed. There
can be no health in the body politic without sound finance, and
no sound finance without a sound system of taxation. In fact,

VOL. XLVIII. — 1

2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

taxation is to our body politic what blood is to tbe body physical :
if healthy, infusing life and warmth ; but if unhealthy, the agent
for producing discontent, decrepitude, and paralysis.

The absence or existence of limitations on the power of a gov-
ernment to make compulsory levies on the property or persons of
its people for its use or support, constitutes the dividing line be-
tween a despotism and a free government — a fact most pertinent
to legal, economic, and societary studies which has attracted little
attention.

The methods and scope of what is called taxation regulate
more than all other agencies the distribution of wealth, which is
really the great question of the future to all nations. Ever since
Adam Smith wrote his paramount work on the Wealth of Nations
the political economists and students of social science have con-
cerned themselves mainly with the production of wealth. That
problem has been practically solved. Wealth is now produced
with a rapidity that the world had never before supposed possible,*
and the laws governing its production have become well under-
stood by those who have made a special study of the subject. An
inevitable result of this condition of affairs has been, that wealth
produced under the greater control that man in general has ob-
tained over the forces of Nature has aggregated itself, as it always
will, in the hands of those whose faculties especially qualify them
to obtain and manage it, and who, in common parlance, have
received the name of " money-getters" These have become enor-
mously rich, while the masses, whose material condition is also
absolutely much better than at any former period of the world's
history, are, however, relatively poorer. Improved facilities for
transportation have greatly facilitated intercommunication,! and
the opportunity thus afforded for the observation of extreme con-
trasts in individual conditions has operated as a very great factor
in occasioning discontent among the masses, who by reason of the

* Recent investigations indicate that the absolute effective force available to the Ameri-
can people for the production of wealth is more than three times greater at the present time
than it was in 1860. The outflow of British capital for investment in foreign securities
and negotiated in London alone, during the eight years next previous to 1890, has been
estimated by those best qualified to express an opinion, to have amounted to the large sum
of nearly or quite $700,000,000 per annum. And this estimate does not comprise all the
British capital loaned to foreign countries, but only such as was subject to public cog-
nizance.

f The number of people annually transported on the railroads alone in the United States
exceeds many times the total population of the country, the annual number for the New Eng-
land States being more than sixteen times greater than their population. The widening of
the sphere of one's surroundings, and a larger acquaintance with other men and pursuits, have
long been recognized as not productive of content. Writing to his nephew more than one
hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson thus concisely expressed the results of his own observa-
1ic«i : " Traveling," he says, " makes men wiser, but less happy. When men of sober age

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 3

never as yet fully tested experiment of universal suJffrage, have
become, at least theoretically in the United States, the sole arbi-
ters of the policy of their Government and of the selection of the
legislators who are to enact laws in conformity with such policy.*

The problem of the acquisition of wealth having thus been
solved, that of the proper distribution of wealth logically and
necessarily follows, and the character of the measures which
directly or indirectly involve what is called taxation for the at-
tainment of such result, which seem to commend themselves to
the people of the United States, are especially worthy of attention.
They are indicated in part by the adoption of a pension system
unlike anything of the kind ever known in history, and which
necessitates an annual expenditure of money (raised by taxation)
to meet the military expenses of the country — army, navy, and
pensions — in excess of that entailed by the immense military estab-
lishment of any of the countries of Europe, and the enactment of
an income-tax statute whose primary object was not to raise reve-
nue for the support of the Government, but an unmistakably po-
litical and socialistic measure, which threatened to annul the most
important and exceptional feature of the Federal Constitution.

That the diminishing rate of returns, in way of interest or
profits, by the force of laws which no combination of capital can
resist, is seriously impairing the relative value of wealth, and may
eventually reach a minimum which will greatly diminish the in-
ducement to individuals to economize or save it, although not gen-
erally recognized or appreciated, can not be denied. And neither
is it recognized that the current rate of taxation on capital in all
civilized countries even now approximates, and to an extent actu-
ally exceeds, the current rates of interest or profit on its use.
Thus, for example, the rate of discount at the Bank of England
during the greater portion of the years 1894 and 1895 has not
been in excess of two per cent, and the discount (borrowing) rate
for three months during this period was not infrequently less
than a rate of three quarters per cent per annum. If taxes, ac-
cording to popular theory, do not diffuse themselves, but remain
a burden on the person, business, and property subject to their

travel they gather knowledge, but they are, after all, subject to recollections mixed with
regret ; their affections are weakened by being extended over more objects, and they leam
new habits which can not be gratified when they return home."

* " The great, the unanswerable argument in favor of universal suffrage is, not that it
insures a better or purer government, but that all must be contented with a government in
which all have an equal voice. If it be deficient in this particular, if it fail to protect the
poor against the oppression of the rich, or the rich against a destruction of their property
by the poor, it is pro tanto a failure, and another method of representation should be
adopted." — Address of Justice Brovon^ United States Supreme Court, before the Law D^^rt-
ment of Yale University, July, 1895.

4 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

first incidence, there is a problem likely to come at no distant day
before tax legislators, which up to the present time they have
hardly thought of, and which is certain under a free government
to be solved by human nature rather than by statute.*

The scope and methods of raising revenue for the support of a
State are also some of the greatest, if not the very greatest, deter-
mining factors of the morality of a people. " I insist," said an
eminent lawyer and member of the Constitutional Convention of
the State of New York in 1868, " that a people can not prosper
whose officers work and tell lies. There is not an assessment
roll now made out in this State that does not both tell and
work lies." And no member of the convention, or any repre-
sentative of the press, either then or subsequently, has chal-
lenged the assertion. The extent also to which the existing sys-
tem of taxation in the United States has obliterated the sense of
honesty in its people in their individual dealings with the Govern-
ment, removed all repugnance to the act of perjury, and caused
each one to justify himself to his conscience for making a false
return in the matter of taxes, by the supposition that every one
is doing the same, is also strikingly illustrated by the circum-
stance, that a high court in one of the States of the Federal Union
has recently decided that " perjury in connection with a man's
tax lists does not affect his general credibility under oath."

The idea that the proper relation of a State to its people is
essentially of a paternal nature finds much of popular approval,
and is without doubt popularly desired. Accepting this idea as
correct, let us exemplify it in its application to the State. Sup-
pose a father in dealing with his family, placed, so far as his chil-
dren are concerned, a premium on lying and concealment, and
vested with a heavy penalty all truthfulness and straightfor-

* M. L4on Say, the distinguished French economist, in a recent discussion of the income
tax, asserts that the public and private financial history of France has been one of inces-
sant abolition of private and state debts, and in substantiation of such a conclusion he
shows that if a capital of 8,330 francs had been invested in national debt obligations of
France in 1522 and allowed to remain subject to the various changes in respect to capital
and interest which the financial policy of the state has necessitated and required under its
successive governments, the present value of the investment to the legitimate heirs of the
first investor would be but 83 francs.

The reduction of annual income to the holders of the national debts of Europe, contin-
gent on the refunding of the same during the year 1894, is estimated at $24,000,000, requir-
ing an addition of $960,000,000, with an earning capacity of two and a half per cent per
annum, to the total of what is called capital, to make up for the subtraction of income
from the individual holders of such securities in the previous year. In the United States
the shrinkage in the amount of annual dividends paid on the capital stock of its railroads
between the years 1892 and 1894 is reported as in excess of $14,000,000, and in the annual
interest on bonds during the same period at $13,000,000, or a total greater than the losses
contingent on the whole refunding operations of the states of Europe during 1894.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 5

ward dealing, he would be regarded as a worthy inmate for the
States prison. But this is exactly what the Government of the
United States does, or proposed to do, in the case of many of its
so-called tax statutes. Thus in the recent income-tax statute it
offered to its citizens considerations in money if they would for-
swear themselves, or practice deception ; and it imposed a direct
and heavy fine on those who were conscientious and truthful.
Again, when the Government imposes a tax of more than a thou-
sand per cent in excess of the prime cost of the article taxed, as
it did in 1864 in the case of distilled spirits (whiskey), it offered a
premium for the perpetration of fraud that human nature as
ordinarily c&nstituted could not resist. Could any course of ac-
tion, if deliberately intended, be more demoralizing to a people ?
Do not these experiences go far in support of the theory that if a
people desire to have a paternal government it would be wise to
choose a despotic form, inasmuch as all experience has shown that
a republican or popular form of government is least fitted for
such work ? Give democracy a firm hold of the reins of govern-
ment, and it is no easy matter, as the French Revolution of 1789
and the present fiscal condition of France exemplify, to restrain
its excesses.

It should not furthermore be overlooked that that class of
the community to whom the questions of morality and religion
are especially intrusted, rarely, if ever, give this subject of taxa-
tion any attention. If any sermon has ever been preached in this
country by any clergyman of any denomination on the moral
and religious results of a defective system of taxation, the writer
has never heard of it. One reason and apology for such conduct
may be found in the circumstance that intelligent and reliable
expositions of this subject are not readily accessible. Indiffer-
ence or antagonism to the study of taxation is not, however, con-
fined to the clergy. Minds trained in the law are not necessarily,
and indeed rarely, trained thereby to esteem or intelligently dis-
cuss economic subjects. One of the most eminent members of
the American bar recently remarked to the writer that, grant
whatever measure of importance we may to economic principles
and interests, they have no place in the legal profession, the
business of which was, not to make or amend laws as expressed
in enactments, but to interpret and determine their application.
Hence the popularity at the American bar of the legal maxim
stare decisis, which may be interpreted to mean, follow prece-
dents, and do not attempt to invalidate the reasons and conclu-
sions of the lawmakers. Such a theory and rule of practice would,
however, close the door on reason and truth, and constitute an
almost insuperable barrier to all social progress. If Lord Mans-
field, when the negro slave Somerset came before him with a de-

6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

mand that lie be given his freedom, had followed precedents, he
would have denied the application, for such precedents were
opposed to it. But recognizing the change which an advanced
civilization had effected in the government of the English peo-
ple, and that the slave was held, to quote his language, " in virtue
of positive law" (precedent), "which preserves its force long
after the reasons and occasions from whence it was created are
erased from memory," he granted the application ; and incorpo-
rated into the policy of the English Government the principle of
which the British people have ever since been proud — that no
person can continue to be a slave after he has planted his foot on
English soil.

Other obstacles, at present almost insuperable, in the way of
establishing a correct system of taxation, are that the subject is
not properly taught, if taught at all, in the higher institutions of
learning of the United States and Great Britain ; that up to the
present time there is rarely if ever given a correct and scientific
definition of the terms "tax" and "taxation," which makes it
somewhat doubtful if those who talk about their meaning and
incidents know what they are talking about ; that there are no
text-books on the subject generally accepted as authoritative;
that there is no clear and settled understanding even as to what
constitutes the main subject of taxation — namely, property ; that
the meaning of terms which have formed the basis of statutes
and legal practice is entirely different in the United States and
other leading civilized nations ; and that, as a rule, professors of
economic science in the United States have failed to recognize in
their reasoning and teachings of this whole subject, that the Gov-
ernment of the United States, both Federal and State, differs in
many respects, both in theory and practice, from any other gov-
ernment that has heretofore existed ; and that therefore ideas and
experiences which are regarded as the basis of sound policy in
respect to taxation in the former are not accepted as such in the
latter. Thus the United States, alone of the great nations of the
world, regards debts and credits as property rightfully subject to
taxation. The United States is also the only nation in which the
taxation of exports is forbidden both to Federal and State gov-
ernments under any circumstances. To no other government,
furthermore, than that of the United States is applicable the fol-
lowing principle enunciated by the United States Supreme Court
(116 United States Reports, p. 631) respecting the assessment and
collection of taxes : " Any compulsory discovery, by extorting the
party's oath, or compelling the production of his private books
and papers to convict him of a crime or to forfeit his property, is
contrary to the principles of a free government. It is abhorrent
to the instincts of an American. It may suit the purposes of

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 7

despotic power, but it can not abide the pure atmosphere of po-
litical liberty and personal freedom." If this principle was rec-
ognized as the higher law in European states, it would be safe to
say that the revenue collected from their income taxes would be
exceedingly small.

It is also a very curious circumstance that an existing system
of municipal or local taxation, which has proved itself to be most
intelligent, satisfactory, and efficient for revenue, and most worthy
of being studied as a model for adoption, has as yet almost en-
tirely failed of recognition or consideration by any of the recent
writers on taxation or authorities on general economic subjects
on either side of the Atlantic.

Again, ignorance or willful disregard of the true principles of
taxation in the United States has powerfully contributed to fos-
ter the idea among its people that they should look to Govern-
ment for their support, rather than that the people should sup-
port the Government. The practical incorporation of this idea
into the fiscal policy of the Government has enabled a compara-
tively few persons to accumulate vast fortunes, has built up class
distinctions, promoted popular discontent, and established a pre-
cedent for state socialism. Figs, however, can no more be gath-
ered from thistles than class legislation, whether it be the rich
against the poor or the poor against the rich, can be looked to for
the perpetuation of popular government or the spread of demo-
cratic virtues. The evil of bad taxation is not merely economic,
it is moral, and no argument can change its character.

To defective elementary education, in respect to the principles
of taxation, may also be attributed the almost universal disasso-
ciation in the minds of the masses between the payment of taxes
and the benefit, or profitable return consequent upon such pay-
ment. The youth of the United States, and doubtless of all other
countries, as he grows up, finds roads and bridges, schools, courts
and churches, commercial regulation and police — in short, all
national. State, or municipal machinery — provided for him almost
as freely as air, sunshine, or water. He has but to live to expe-
rience their benefits or discomforts. At home these subjects,
regarded as dry and abstruse, are rarely if ever selected as topics
for social conversation, and, if casually brought up, are discussed
merely in reference to their bearing upon the interests of this or
that political party. The sons, therefore, of even refined and in-
telligent American families, so far as home education and influ-
ences are concerned, enter upon their duties as citizens, with votes
and voices for determining the policy of their government, with
not merely an entire ignorance of the principles or methods by
which the cost of the benefits accruing from such policy are
defrayed, but with a disinclination to receive instruction on the

8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

subject. Eacli one, indeed, seems to argue to himself that " as gov-
ernment and society went on very well without thought or care
of mine during the first twenty years of my life, they will un-
doubtedly so continue during my manhood." And if they eventu-
ally become public functionaries, their tendencies, conjoined with
not having inherited or acquired the value-perceiving faculty, are
toward extravagance and waste in governmental matters. What
would have been saved to the people of the United States since
the beginning of the civil war through wise methods of taxation
is almost beyond conception. The loss to the Federal Govern-
ment during the single year 1864, when revenue was most needed
on account of the war, through a needless imperfection of the
law imposing taxes on the single item of distilled spirits, was
proved to have been in excess of $50,000,000.

In short, it is a most singular idiosyncrasy of the American
people, and perhaps the people of all other countries, that they
will defer or neglect the study of the most vital question which
can concern a citizen. Probably not more than one citizen out
of a hundred, even among those who pay taxes, can be induced,
as a rule, either to talk about, think about, or study how much
national Government costs him per annum, or how much his
State or local government costs. And as long as this is the situa-
tion, and until the American citizen does become a student of
taxation, it is difficult to see how the national and State govern-
ments can be wisely and justly managed.

Of the utter lack of comprehension of the results of what may
be termed everyday experiences of taxation, coupled with a gen-
eral indifference to the subject, which often characterizes Ameri-
can legislators, even such as are popularly regarded and spoken
of as statesmen, the following incidents will abundantly illustrate :
Pending a recent presidential election, a distinguished member of
the Senate of the United States, and also of the American bar,
assured a popular audience that the people of the single State of
Illinois paid a larger amount in taxes to the Federal Govern-
ment than were paid by all the people of the former Confederate
States. Such a statement was obviously made on the assumption
that because the State of Illinois annually manufactured a very
large amount of distilled spirits, the burden of a very heavy tax
on the same rested upon its people ; when a very little thought
would have shown that the manufacturers of the spirits incor-
porated the tax in the market price of their product, and that the
payment of the same fell entirely upon the people who consumed
them, who were not in the main the people of Illinois. If this
was not the case, the manufacturers of Illinois paid and assumed
a tax obligation of ninety cents a gallon for the privilege of making
whiskey costing and worth an average of but thirteen cents per gal-

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 9

Ion. The average annual consumption by the people of Illinois at
the time, supposing that they actually paid the tax on their prod-
uct of whiskey, must have also been at the rate of over six gallons
per head for every man, woman, and child of its population.

When " an act to reduce taxation to provide revenue for the
Government and for other purposes " — passed August 28, 1894 —
was under consideration by the Senate of the United States ; and
pending a proposition to increase the revenue by increasing an
existing tax of about seven hundred per cent on the average prime
cost of distilled spirits to a rate of near nine hundred per cent, a
Senator of long experience, apparently utterly oblivious that the
subject involved had years before been thoroughly considered by
the United States Treasury Department and declared to be im-
practicable, submitted a motion, permitting the use of alcohol in
the arts, or in any medicinal or other like compound, without the
payment of any internal revenue tax. The motion in question,
after very brief consideration, was accepted and incorporated in
the statute and now forms a part of the fiscal obligations and laws
of the United States. The result was that the Secretary of the
Treasury reported, that in default of any appropriation to defray
the expenses of the administration of the act and the repayment
of taxes, and " after full consideration of the subject, and an un-
successful attempt to frame regulations which would protect the
Government and the manufacturers, the department was con-
strained to abandon the effort.'* It was also estimated that the
expense to the Government of attempting to administer the act
would probably be not less than one million dollars per annum ;
that the legitimate loss of revenue contingent on its enforcement
would be about ten million dollars yearly, or " more than one half
of the estimated increase of revenue'* that it was expected to
accrue from the increase of the tax, and that the loss of revenue
from the opportunity for illicit and fraudulent practice, which the
act would facilitate would be unquestionably very considerable —
probably an equal amount. The inference from all of which is,
that when a State sends a representative to the United States Sen-
ate who, through indifference or gross ignorance of the most com-
mon principles and domestic experiences of taxation prospective-
ly, entails a loss to the Government of some twenty million dol-
lars per annum, it pays a very great price for such a privilege.

During another comparatively recent fiscal debate in the
United States Senate, a Senator, who is popularly and justly ac-
credited with statesmanship, advocated certain proposed appro-
priations of the public money, which were opposed on the ground
that they were in the nature of extravagances, by saying that
they could not be grievous to the people *' since they would not
amount to more than three cents per day per capita." But three

lo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cents per day assessed on sixty-five millions of people would
amount to nearly eleven dollars per liead per annum, or over
seven million dollars for the entire country.

Finally, there has been one most serious and unfortunate mis-
take, which nearly all who have undertaken to discuss the prin-
ciples and practice of taxation have been prone to make — a mis-
take, moreover, which more than all else is responsible for the
opinion which has come so generally to prevail, that the subject
of taxation, through lack of any fixed principles or axioms, does
not as yet rise to the dignity of a science ; and that its practice at
the best can be but a sort of empiricism, to be varied in propor-
tion to the strength which a Government possesses to enforce its
enactments, or in proportion to the prejudices of the people who
are to be called on for a contribution. The mistake consists in
taking up the subject for investigation and discussion, if we may
so express it, wrong end foremost ; or in devoting time and effort
to warring against abuses ; or in attempting to show how certain
forms of taxation commend themselves in respect to productive-
ness, freedom from personal inquisition, and economy in collec-
tion, and how others are to be avoided for contrary reasons ; and
in not attempting to inquire whether the whole subject was un-
derlaid by any general laws in accordance with which the contri-
butions which the State is compelled as a condition of its exist-
ence to exact of its citizens diffuse themselves ; and which laws,
being once determined, will constitute a certain and sure founda-
tion on which practical administration can be based and conducted.

The fact that such laws exist and only await discovery may
be predicated, as it were, from surface indications, in the form of
a great variety of disconnected economic facts, with just as much
of certainty as the miner who, picking up here and there in the
beds of streams fragments of coal or ore which the elements have
scattered, predicates that somewhere there must be a larger vein
or deposit from which the fragments have been derived.

The aggregates of the sums required by the governments of
the world for their support are annually increasing, but probably
in no greater ratio than the increase in their wealth, or property
rightfully subject to taxation ; and in those states in which there
is a marked and continued increase in the control of the forces of
nature for production, the ratio of taxation to aggregate wealth
undoubtedly tends to diminish.

That there are, however, some striking illustrations that seem
to prove to the contrary, is not to be denied. Thus, we have a
recent statement that the expenses of the city of Philadelphia in
eight years have increased two hundred and thirty per cent, while
the taxable valuation of property in the same time has increased
only twenty-five per cent. In 1862 the aggregate taxation of the

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. n

city of Providence, K. L, was $379,000. In 1892 it was $2,333,000.
In the former year the taxable real and personal estate was valued
at $61,000,000, while for the year 1892 the valuation was $155,000,-
000. Thus the increase in the amount of taxes collected within
the thirty years was five hundred and fifteen per cent, while in
the amount of assessable property the gain was only one hundred
and fifty-four per cent. The rate of tax increased during the
same period from $6.50 per $1,000 to $15.

Among the leading nations of the world the comparative bur-
den of exactions by Government is heaviest in Russia, Italy, and
France. In Russia the present governmental exactions — under
the name of taxes — from the agricultural peasant are reported to
be about forty-five per cent of the value of his annual product or
earnings. In Italy the State exaction is believed to absorb from
one third to one half of the value of its agricultural product. The
present aggregate of annual taxation in France is undoubtedly
the greatest to which any country in modern times has been sub-
jected ; and including all taxes — national and local — is estimated
as in excess of $1,400,000,000, or about one fourth of the annual
income of its people. And yet it is claimed that the prosperity of
the nation is increasing. There can, however, be no doubt that
the financial strain caused by such great and continuous demands
on the income of the French people is beginning to be severely
felt ; and in a recent budget discussion in the Senate of the re-
public, M. Loubet, chairman of its financial committee, insisted
that taxation had reached its utmost endurable limit.*

As far back as 1879 the taxation imposed by Spain on her island
of Cuba was reported to have made the latter the most heavily
taxed country in the world ; the rate on its free population being
then estimated as equal to $34.50 per capita.

The cost of the Government of Great Britain for 1893-^94 de-
frayed by what are termed imperial taxes — mainly customs and
inland revenue, and deducting all items of compensating rev-
enue— as receipts from crown lands, etc. — was £75,427,000. The

* In a recent article in the l^conomiste Fran9ais, M. Leroy-Beaulieu presents some facts
which enable foreigners to form an opinion of the financial management of France under its
present democratic form of government. There is at present, according to this well-recog-
nized authority, an actual annual deficit of between three and four hundred million francs.
The floating debt, " official or concealed," has taken enormous proportions, and is met by a
variety of expedients, and mostly by secret loans (which are always costly), because the
Government does not dare contract a large public loan, the only regular and least expensive
means of extrication from financial embarrassments. Expenses are piling up and nobody
takes any thought of repressing them. In short, according to M. Beaulieu, there is under
the present Government, notwithstanding " constant and vain buzzing on the subject of
democratic reforms, the adhesion of a mollusc to the wretchedest routine and a downright
hatred of every kind of improvement."

12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

total expenditures of tlie local authorities of the kingdom for
1893, defrayed from rates on the annual value of houses, or lands
occupied, from gas and water rents, tolls, dues, loans, etc., and less
the grant of subsidies from the Imperial Government, was about
£56,000,000, making an aggregate of £131,400,000— or $657,000,000.

For the year 1890 the aggregate receipts of the Federal and
State governments of the United States, mainly from taxes, as
reported by the census for that year, were $1,040,473,013, appor-
tioned as follows: Federal taxation, $461,154,000; State or local
taxation, $578,328,000. Deducting the cost of postal service repaid
by postal charges, and the receipts from the sale of public lands,
the aggregate expenditures of the Federal Government would
have been about $390,000,000.

Of these large sums it is safe to say, more especially of the
latter national summary, that very small proportion, not even as
much as a single dollar, has been raised under a statute framed
and enacted solely from recognition of and conformity with any
correct economic principles ; and that in most, if not all, tax legis-
lation, ideas not warranted by thought and experience, and based
on expediency or political considerations, have always predomi-
nated. Illustrations of the truth of this assertion are abundant,
but for the present one most pertinent, drawn from recent experi-
ence, must suffice. In August, 1891, the Farmers' Alliance of the
State of Maryland held a convention in Baltimore, for the purpose
of advocating a complete revision of the tax laws of their State,
the imperfection, injustice, and practical futility of which were
not questioned. And after general debate the following resolu-
tions were unanimously adopted, not one of which is econom-
ically true ; not one of which in the light of experience can be
successfully enforced by other than a despotic government ; and
every one of which, if enforced, would prove prejudicial to the
interests of the community which sanctions and enacts them :

Resolved^ that the burden of all taxation ought to be imposed equally
and impartially on all property, of whatsoever kind, both personal and
real, without distinction and discrimination ; that every exemption from
taxation is equivalent to direct appropriation for the benefit of the owner
of exempt property, and an increased levy on the property of those who
pay taxes ; that no tax law which provides for the exemption of any prop-
erty of any kind can be either expedient or just; that no law, no contract,
no device which by any means directly or indu-ectly imposes the payment"
of any part of any tax upon any man not the bona fide owner of that prop-
erty ought to he tolerated ; that debts secured by mortgages at legal inter-
est are among the best and most productive forms of property, and should
be taxed when the mortgages are recorded,*

* In the following chapters the absurdity of the above resolutions will be specifically
demonstrated.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 13

A recent English writer has claimed that the experience in
reference to taxation of the forty-five anomalous sovereignties
which now make up the United States [none subordinate to a
national Government except to a limited extent and in respect
to particular questions], has thrown a great light upon the temper
of democracies. "Half a century ago every thinker predicted
that the one grand evil of democracy would be meanness ; that it
would display an ' ignorant impatience of taxation,' and that it
would refuse supplies necessary to the dignity, or at least to the
visible greatness, of the state." That prediction has, however,
proved itself, not only by the experience of the United States, but
also of the leading countries in Europe, to be the exact contrary
of the facts. "The lower the suffrage, the higher the budget
mounts. Democracy loves spending, is devoted to dignity, and,
provided they are indirect, or fall heaviest on the rich, will pay
any amount of taxes. The English democracy with household
suffrage, though it has reduced its debt, has increased its budget,
increased rates all over the country, and would not be frightened
to-morrow if a great socialistic experiment were to cost it a hun-
dred millions. It hardly shudders when it is asked to support
in comfort, at a cost of about £17,000,000 ($85,000,000), its whole
aged poor. The French democracy has nearly doubled its taxa-
tion and raised its debt more than a third, apart from the tribute
paid to Germany. The German democracy, with enlarged suf-
frage, a poor soil, and nearly universal poverty, is always grant-
ing new demands, whether for soldiers, ships, colonies, or central-
ized officials."

But it is in the United States, with universal suffrage and the
richest of estates, that the extravagance of government expendi-
tures, sustained by taxation, rises to a point which fiscal experts,
like Alexander Hamilton, Robert J. Walker, and Albert Gallatin
in the United States, and Sir Robert Peel or Ricardo in Eng-
land, could not have been persuaded to believe possible. Either
of them would have declared an American pension list amounting
to $155,000,000 (£31,000,000) a year too absurd for credence, and
would have criticised the prophet who made the prediction for
his poverty of invention.

That the interests benefited by national extravagance will,
under free suffrage, always constitute a formidable obstacle to
judicious tax reform, especially if such reform contemplates na-
tional economizing, can not well be doubted ; and also that this
opposition will be re-enforced to some extent by a popular feeling
that something of color and dignity will go out of national life
by any marked curtailment of the expenditures of the State. On
the other hand, the political supremacy of the United States con-
fessedly yet resides in its agricultural classes, who more than any

14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

other are characterized by a spirit of thrift and a desire for
equitable and low taxes.

Such, then, is the situation which confronts any one who pro-
poses to discuss broadly the great subject of taxation with a view
of effecting reforms in the existing system. It exacts, on the
part of him that is to attempt it with any prospect of success, a
familiarity with theory, not merely gained from the study of
books, but theory based on extensive practical administration.
It requires, on the part of both the teacher and the taught, what
Herbert Spencer has declared to be the conditions of success in
all departments of scientific research, namely, " an honest recep-
tivity and willingness to abandon all preconceived notions, how-
ever cherished, if they be found to contradict the truth."

PRIMIGENIAL SKELETONS, THE FLOOD, AND THE
GLACIAL PERIOD.

By H. p. FITZGERALD MARRIOTT.
PART I. THE PALEOLITHIC SKELETONS OF MENTONE.

IN the rocks near Mentone that go by the name of Les Hochers
Rouges * there was discovered, on the 12th of January, 1894,
another human skeleton. It is that of a man about six feet two
inches in height, but, owing to the head having been crushed, ac-
curate measurement is difficult. M. Adolphe Mdgret,f however,
has calculated the height of the living man to have been 1*984 me-
tre. This he does by multiplying the length of the phalangine J
of the medial finger, 0*031 metre, by 64, a method that in every
case proves successful. The first account of this find, in the local
Anglo-American, mentioned two skeletons, and in spite of it be-
ing now affirmed that only one was discovered, we rather suspect
that there was truth in the first statement, especially as the leg
bones of another are admitted to have been found beside it ; and
all the more, knowing as we do how the skeleton of 1872 was ac-
companied by two others, the existence of which was kept a secret,
as they were too imperfect for the scientific discoverer to describe
conscientiously at the time. This skeleton of 1894, as we must
hereafter call it, lay on its back, inclining to the left side, the body
slightly bent, the legs stretched and crossed below the knee, the
right arm bent and with the hand lying open over the left breast.

* In dialect their name is Baousse-Eousse, the Italian for which 13 Baize Jiosse.

f I^tude de Mensurations sur THomme prehistorique, Nice, 1894.

X La phalangine is probably the smallest and last of the phalanges of the medius.

PRIMIGENIAL SKELETONS. 15

while the left hand was supporting the side of the head. The
teeth are large and strong, but much used ; the front teeth are
nearly as thick as ordinary molars. Near the right hand was a
crystal of quartz, similar to those found on the rocks around to
this day, but pointed at one end, and about two inches long and
an inch and a half thick ; some suppose this to be the top of the
handle of a knife. The head was ornamented with chaplets of
deer teeth and shells. By the remains and on the bones is seen
the same deposit of red ochre that was noticed on all the other
skeletons. Several slabs of stone were found, which seemed to
have formed part of a dolmen. The skeleton, however, was not
resting in a palaeolithic stratum, though it is considered that these
remains are pre-neolithic. A few metres below it, however, in
a stratum that is decidedly palaeolithic, were found several huge
mammoth bones — the hip-joint head of the thigh bone (femur)
and the socket of the pelvis : beneath these was found the remains
of a fire — a line of black in the stratum — and a large flint instru-
ment, thus proving that man was contemporary with the mam-
moth.

The length, or depth, of this cave was once at least forty-five
metres ; and its mouth appeared smaller when it opened nearer
the sea, before quarrying destroyed it, and, in particular, removed
nearly the whole of its eastern side. At present its depth is about
twenty metres, though the end is but a mere crack. It now ap-
pears as a huge fissure that rends the face of the lower end of the
Rochers Rouges for fifteen metres to nearly the height of the cliff ;
but from the sloping and irregular level of its own earth floor,
which rises several yards above that of the base of the cliff, it is
only thirty or forty feet high, and narrows at the top to a mere
crack. In width it is about four metres, diminishing inward.
Within the dark brown mold filling the lowest levels of this
cave, which for facility of reference is called No. 5, were found
also the skeletons of 1884 and 1892.

The rocks in which these human remains, bones of animals,
and flint instruments have from time to time been discovered are
situated at the east end of Mentone, and extend toward the sea,
which washes their rough rocky beach ; they rise on the other
side of the little stream of the St. Louis ravine that divides France
from Italy, and are therefore on Italian soil. Round their base runs
the narrow old Roman road, which crosses a little bridge of the
same date, immediately after rounding the corner. These ruddy
colored cliffs are composed of the secondary cretaceous limestone,
and contain many crevices and small caverns, in which, mixed
with the softer earth covering the floor to many yards in depth,
have been found from time to time mammalian bones, with shells
and Crustacea, imbedded in places in hard sand and calcareous

i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

matter, mixed with flint instruments. Thus they were known in
1848, yet even as early as the last century De Saussure had drawn
the attention of the scientific world to their existence. But in
1858 they were first actually described by M. Frangois Forel, a
Swiss. M. Riviere commenced excavations in 1869 ; it was not,
however, till 1872, while making the cutting for the railway, that
the first human skeletons became unearthed by him on March
26th, six metres and a half below the level of the older excava-
tions, in cave No. 4. Beside the one on which M. Riviere wrote
his monograph in 1873, two others * were discovered lying near it
about the same time, but so badly were they broken that he made
mention of only that one, which is now in the Natural History
Museum of Paris. On its head were found some shells forming
a circlet, as also some carved reindeer teeth in the same position,
while beneath the head was found a curved flint blade. It was
supposed to have been the skeleton of an Ethiopian, at first, but
there were differences that marked a race that has now passed
away, or become somewhat altered: the orbital cavities were
larger, and its height, though not great, was abnormal. We pass
over this skeleton,! and all that M. Riviere has already written
about it, and all the names % that he has given to the flint and

* In a paper of February, 1892, by M. Binet-Heutsch, entitled Nouvelles D6couvertes
aux Grottes de Menton, we find mention of a skeleton that was found in the same cave by
M. Riviere in the following year (1873), far less well preserved than the first. It was of
enormous size, and was more than two metres in height; the skull was damaged during
the excavation. Possibly this may be one of the skeletons that we have mentioned, on the
excellent authority of one who was present with M. Riviere at the time, as having been
discovered with the 1872 skeleton. Mention, however, is made by M. Riviere of three
skeletons, that he found, in a brochure entitled D^couverte d'un second Squelette humain
de PEpoque Pal6olithique dans les Cavemes de Baouss6-Rousse, Nice, 1873. With the
measurements given of these last three skeletons by M. Riviere, M. Adolphe M<§gret (by his
method of multiplying the length of the phalangine of the medial finger by sixty-four), in
his fitude de Mensurations sur I'Homme pr^historique, calculates their living heights to
have been respectively 1*984, 1*920, and 2'048 metre.

f An amusing Box and Cox episode recalls to our mind the name of Mr. Moggeridge, a
gentleman who many years ago lived at Mentone, and who published an excellent outline
panorama of all the mountains as seen from the Borrigo Valley bridge, and who had scien-
tifically studied the exact maximum and minimum temperature at the top of each summit.
This gentleman, bemg equally persuaded that he would find hmnan bones beneath the other
remains of extinct animals and flint instruments, used to work at the cave during hours
when it was deserted, leaving the soil somewhat disturbed, to the bewilderment of M.
Riviere on his return the next day. It fell, however, to the lot of the Frenchman to re-
move the last layers of earth, and, therefore, to have gained the sole honor of being the
discoverer.

X Among other names, M. Riviere, in his monograph published in 1873, D^couverte
d'un Squelette Humain de I'Epoque Paleolithique dans les Cavemes des Baouss6-RousB6
dites Grottes de Menton, gave that of '* hdton de commandement " to a small bone, un meta-
carpien principal gauche^ appartenarU d VEquus cavallua (a chief left metacarpal of a horse),
which is 0'21 metre in length, or about eight inches. It is pierced by a hole, and he re-

PRIMIOENIAL SKELETONS.

J7

bone instruments that were"' found beside it, and we come to the
skeletons discovered in cave No. 5 by M. Bonfils, curator of tbe
Mentone Museum, in February of 1884. Again three were found
together. Owing to the stupidity and jealousy of the actual
owner of the land, an Italian peasant of the name of Abbo, they
were much broken ; but neither of these skulls, which M. Bonfils
has shown to us, seems to be quite of the same formation as those
of 1892, though the peculiar, somewhat quadrangular shape of

Photograph of thk i ai i mi.hhic Skeleton discovered in the Fifth Cave in the Ro-
CHKR8 Rouges, near Mentone, on January 12, 1894. Reproduced by tbe kind per-
mission of M. Bertrand, Mentone.

the orbital cavities, turning up at the outer cornersj is very simi-
lar. Prof. Boyd Dawkins believed these 1884 skeletons to be of
"doubtful antiquity." They, however, appear more ancient than
those found in 1872 ; and th6 male skeleton was of gigantic size,
being six feet nine and a half inches in height, from top of head
to heel, according to M. Bonfils. The latter also discovered with

marks " devait etre port(! suspendu au ecu comme insigne, II ne porte aucun dessin, ni
gravure, ni entaille " (" was probably worn suspended from the neck as an insigtiium. It
bears no drawing, or engraving, or carving "). We may here add that if what he here de-
scribes is in any way like what we have referred to under the skeleton of 189'2, it is prob-
ably a roughly formed totem for veneration.

VOL. XLVIII. — 2

i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

this last specimen several flint blades, one on each shoulder and
one resting on the top of the head. It was 8*40 metres below the
original floor.

Of the three skeletons discovered in February, 1892, Mr.
Vaughan Jennings gave a description in an article to which we
will refer later on. They also were found in the fifth cave, but a
very little further within its depths than those of 1884, and were
first noticed by workmen who were blasting and hewing the face
of the cliff for stone. During this work they gradually destroyed
the sides of the high cleft or cave, and in removing the hard earth
that filled its floor to some eight or ten feet in depth, at the dis-
tance of about twenty-five metres from its original entrance, they
came upon a skull which, unfortunately, was broken by the blow
from a man's pickaxe, or, as some say, by the energetic digging of
one of Abbo's young sons with the iron instrument used for sink-
ing holes for blasting. From that moment, but not with sufiicient
care, the skeletons, lying side by side, were unearthed and rapidly
robbed of the flints and ornaments found about them, with the re-
sult that none can be certain in what position Abbo found them.
At first only two were entirely visible — those of a man and a
woman — but soon a third, that of a youth, lying between the two,
came to light. They lay seven metres and a half below the origi-
nal floor. All are of great size ; the skulls being broken and the
skeletons half in the earth, exact measurement of the height was
very difficult at the time ; but both then and since the skulls have
been pieced together we have managed to take some sort of meas-
urement, showing the biggest skeleton, from the crown of the
skull to the heel, to be six feet ten inches and a half,* and the
other two about six feet six inches and a half. If, then, we allow
for the shrinking of the tendons and for the flesh on the heels
and head, the man must have stood about seven feet four inches,
and the others, to whom the remaining skeletons belonged, about
seven feet and half an inch at most. No child was found, as
was erroneously stated by a newspaper. The skulls are of un-
usual size and thickness, the frontal bone being at least a quarter
of an inch thick, and the parietal and occipital bones fully three
quarters of an inch. The occiput in one of them is enormous, and
is very much larger and out of proportion to the rest of the cra-
nium, being expanded lengthwise, while in another it is the parie-
tal bones which exhibit excessive extension. The orbital cavities
are unusually large and curiously curved up at the outer corners.
The bones, too, are of great thickness ; they are, however, most
friable ; to the slightest touch many of them will crumble, and all

* M. Adolphe Megret, by his usual calculation, makes the height of the living man to
have been 2* 144 metres, or about seven feet and half an inch.

PRIMIGENIAL SKELETONS. 19

of them are covered with a red sort of rust, while they lie in a
sepia-colored earth softer than that which is immediately above
and around them in the cave. M. Bonfils explains this rusty color
by the fact that lumps of red ocher have been found near the
skeletons, probably having been obtained from some rocks that
exist not far off ; with this the bodies most probably had been
covered, and the flesh having disappeared, the ocher had settled
and remained on the bones. It is said that around the head of the
man was a circlet of carved reindeer teeth and a chaplet of shells,
and around the necks of all were found necklaces, of course long
since fallen to pieces, formed from the backbones of fish ; these
latter have been strung together on wire. But so many people
claim to have seen the skeletons first and dispute each other's
assertions with regard to these relics found with them that we
only refer to them for what they are worth : certain it is that
circlets of carved reindeer teeth and other objects have been found
in these caves ; all that has been found we have ourself seen, but,
unfortunately, no authoritative person was able to reach the caves
in time to ascertain in exactly what positions these chaplets,
knives, and other objects were found by the peasant Abbo and his
wife, to whose house, not far from the caves, the articles were at
once transported, to be placed with many others which have from
time to time been discovered. These bones and other objects are
here and there tinged with the same ocher rust with which the
skeletons themselves are covered. The outermost skeleton, that
of the man, was lying on its back, the knees slightly bent toward
its left, its arms stretched out by its side. In the left hand was
found a flint blade exactly nine inches long, held loosely, which
proves that once there was a handle of some perishable material.
The woman and the youth had been buried lying on their left
sides, the legs bent slightly at the knee ; the former held in her
left hand, raised beside her face, a smooth, wide, and hollow-
curved blade of flint that lay under the head as if it had been
placed there for it to rest on, while in the right hands of both
these smaller skeletons were said to have been found flint knives,
as in that of the bigger one. Their right arms were bent so that
the hand reached the shoulder. The third, buried between the
man and woman, and whose skull is missing, we have taken to
be that of a tall youth. From the appearance of these skeletons
they seem to have been buried rather than to have been overcome
by some sudden catastrophe, as has sometimes been supposed of
that of 1872, which was very much bent up and leaning on its left
side. Around them, above and below, were the bones of many
extinct species of mammalia — huge teeth, teeth of reindeer and of
the Bos primigenius and the horse, together with many small
flint instruments ; but these would merely seem to indicate that

20

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

they had been buried in the cave in which, during their lifetime^
they had lived and consumed these animals whose remains
we find.

M. Adolphe M^gret suggests that, in the position in which
all the skeletons that have as yet been discovered were found to
have been buried, we are " in the presence of a funeral and reli-
gious rite that was perpetuated." Here we would further draw
attention to the little bone objects of various dimensions, but al-
ways of the same shape, that have each time been found with the

Photograph of the Paleolithic Skeletons discovered in the Fifth Cave in the
EocHERS Rouges, near Mentone, in February, 1892. Keproduced by the kind peimis-
sion of M. Bertrand, Mentone.

ornaments that are supposed to have been around the heads or
necks ; we refer to the pieces of bone that measure from about
one inch and a half to three inches in length, cut in the center so
as to form two ovals joined together; they are slightly ribbed
longitudinally ; these were supposed to have united the ends of
the necklaces of deer's teeth or shells and thus been suspended in
a prominent position ; they probably were roughly cut " totems ''
or objects of veneration of their " religious " instinct. Even the
same shaped " totems " have been found elsewhere. For further
and fuller explanation of a meaning that we can not express here,.

PRIMIGENIAL SKELETONS. 21

see a note in our Facts about Pompeii, published by Messrs.
Hazell, Watson & Viney, London.

Mr. A. Vaughan Jennings, as we have said, in 1892 had an
article in the June number of Natural Science concerning The
Oave Men of Mentone, which was so peculiarly inaccurate in its
facts as to merit a few lines of criticism. First of all he refers to
M. Riviere's skeleton of 1872 as if discovered in 1873. It was M.
Riviere's monograph that appeared in 1873. Knowing the place,
a,s we have all our life, we can say that he is correct when he
affirms that " the east side of the cavern No. 4 * has been a good
deal cut back by quarrying," although he omits to mention that
both sides of the cavern — indeed, the whole face of the cliff — some
twenty years ago came to within a couple of yards of the rocks
that break the force of the sea. Mr. Jennings, from his state-
ment, shows that he did not see the remains till the 15th of March,
and that by that date they were considerably modified, the skull
and arms having been removed. We saw the skeletons on March
18th, and according to notes we made at the time the arms were
still there ; however, we had the opportunity of seeing them on
the 23d of February in a very complete state. We also saw the
left arm of the third skeleton, that of the woman, bent up, which
Mr. Vaughan Jennings particularly says was not the case. In a
footnote on M. Riviere's measurements and those mentioned by
the papers, Mr. Vaughan Jennings regrets that " the exact meas-
ure will probably never be known, as the neck and shoulder re-
gion is now destroyed." We are happy to have been able to supply
this necessary information, from measurements that we took at
the time on the spot, before the skeletons were removed from the
earth in which they were imbedded. Later on Mr. Hanbury, of
Mortola, very generously bought the skeletons from Abbo and
placed them in the latter's cottage with the other remains ; this
has saved them from further destruction. Mr. Jennings places
the 1892 skeletons between the palaeolithic and neolithic periods
of man, and very rightly deprecates the habit of speaking of
these periods with sharp distinctions ; thus it is possible that an
intermediate race existed, while it is only natural to understand
that the formation of neolithic man was merely a series of pro-
gressions from earlier forms. On the other hand, the period of
time between the existence of palaeolithic and neolithic man may
not have been so great as has been supposed.

PART II. MAN, THE FLOOD, AND THE GLACIAL PERIOD.

Flint instruments, the product of man, for a long time have
been often found in many places. It is merely necessary here to

* M. Rividre's No. 5.

22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

mention a few instances. In 1715 a flint knife, now in the British
Museum, was found imbedded in gravel with the tooth of an ex-
tinct species of elephant, near Gray's Inn Lane, London, thus
marking the extreme antiquity of flint instruments. In 1797 flint
hatchets were found in Suffolk, and in 1847 flint instruments at
Abbeville. In 1858 Sir Charles Lyell found others in the valley
of Somme in Picardy. Flint instruments have been found in
caves all over the earth, mixed with bones of animals that lived
before, during, and after the Glacial period. They can be more
or less classified according to their form and finish.* We believe
that in all instances flint instruments have been found with what
are supposed to be the earliest skeletons of mankind ; moreover,
the oldest type of flint instrument has been found with the skele-
ton of man.f

The diflSculty now is to assign a period to the earliest type of
flint instrument. If this can be done, the period in which man
first appeared on the earth can be more precisely ascertained, and
this in two ways — either by finding these flint instruments be-
neath certain strata which can be assigned to certain periods by
geologists, or by finding them with the bones of certain animals
the period of whose extinction is also approximately known.
This only is certain : that the bones of extinct species of animals,
extinct yet still represented by later races, have been found in
these and other caverns with those of man and with flint instru-
ments. These bones are those of mammalia of the Miocene, Plio-
cene, and Pleistocene periods. Secondly, the caverns in which
these human bones have often been found have, we believe, been
always in the Secondary and Lower Cretaceous rocks, though this
does not, of course, show that man was in existence immediately
after the formation of these rocks, but merely that they were the
most accessible and convenient for him in which to live or be
buried, for many of the skeletons that have been discovered seem
to have been carefully buried by others. The alluvial deposits,
formed by the action of water, which actually contain man's
remains, belong to a more modern era than the newest stage of
the Tertiary epoch and are within the Post-tertiary series, in the
Pleistocene, Glacial, or Bowlderdrift period, as it is variously

* M. Bonfils, curator of the Mentone Museum, in order to prove how rapidly these flint
knives, hatchets, spearheads, daggers, fishing weights, etc., could be made, has himself
made many with the aid of only stones with which to commence, and later on with the help
of the instruments thus formed. And thus he has found that they only took from five hours
to nine days to make, according to the quality of the flint or agate and the form of the in-
strument.

f Previous to flint, man must have used wood, breaking boughs from off the trees and
making them into the form of stout staves and clubs, and later into that of wooden spears^
bows, and arrows, of which perishable materials naturally no traces can be found.

PRIMIGENIAL SKELETONS.

23

called. But then we must remember that this may not have been
the original soil in which they first lay, for the very reason that
it is alluvial and could have been formed afterward. In 1852
human bones were found in a cave at Aurignac, near the foot of
the Pyrenees. In caves in the valley of the Meuse, near Li^ge,
three human skeletons with flint knives and a mammoth's tooth
were found. In 1858 human bones were found in Brixham cave

Photograph or some of the Paleolithic Remains discovered in the Caves near Men-
tone, LN February, 1892, A, B, skulls of two of the three skeletons; C, chains formed
of fish bones strung together by the holes with which they were found to have been
pierced ; D, carved reindeer teeth strung together by the holes with which they were
found to have been pierced ; E, flint knives, etc. ; F, carved bones, shaped as if to be
tied round the middle by a string, and possibly worn round the neck or wrist as an orna-
ment or "totem." (See note, page 12, Facts about Pompeii; Hazell, Watson & Vinej,
London.) Reproduced by the kind permission of M. Bertrand, Mentone.

near Torquay. In 1863 a human tooth and jawbone with flint
instruments and the bones of extinct animals were found in a
gravel pit at Montin-Guignon. In North America human bones
have been found in the caverns of Kentucky, and in South Amer-
ica in caverns in Brazil. In the Dordogne caves in central
France were found perforated teeth, vertebrae, and shells of
Cyprsea, and still more important the bones of mammoth and

24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

reindeer on whicli were etched the figures of mastodons, deer, and
horses. Caves in Saxony, Gibraltar, Austria, and many other
places have been discovered containing human bones. The hu-
man skeletons discovered in a modern limestone formation at
Guadaloupe, in the Windward Islands, are possibly of a later
period and are not even fossilized, though imbedded in compact
stone. In August, 1894, Herr Mascha, director of the Grammar
School at Predmost in Bohemia, who has for many years made
discoveries in that neighborhood • and has found hundreds of
mammoth skeletons, has unearthed a family of six people — a man
of enormous size and a woman and her children — near to the re-
mains of mammoths ; this is said to be the furthest northeast .that
primeval man has been discovered with the bones of antediluvian
animals. It is a pity that more exact information upon certain
interesting points has not come to hand. It is equally a pity
that all such treasures of the ancestry of our race should not be
preserved and indeed systematically sought for by professional
scientists and arch geologists, for we know how those at Mentone
have been ruined and altered and their ornaments removed by
the peasant Abbo and his workmen before competent judges have
had any chance of observing the several different points of inter-
est that seem to require even more than the knowledge of the
anatomist and osteologist. These remains at Predmost and the
men whose bones have been discovered at Mentone must have
been coeval with the animals of either the Miocene, Pliocene, or
Glacial periods. But as late as the Glacial period the bones have
been discovered of mammoth and of extinct species of lions, bears,
rhinoceros, hyenas, reindeer, Irish elk, and of the Bos primige-
nius, animals that had also existed in the two earlier periods, and
with whose bones flint instruments have been in different places
discovered in fluviatile gravels and in caves. This, however, only
proves that man lived either during or just -previous to the Gla-
cial period, the latest at which these animals existed. Till, how-
ever, the bones of man or his flint instruments can be found with
the bones of some animal that became extinct before the Glacial
period, we can not place him at any earlier date.

If, however, man existed before or during the Glacial period,
it is strange that there should be no tradition of such a change
taking place on the earth's surface. It may be that the alteration
in temperature was so gradual, and extended over such a great
length of time, that the generations of men who succeeded each
other were unaware of it ; perhaps, too, almost imperceptibly to
themselves, the then existing races of men moved gradually to
warmer regions, keeping pace with the advance of cold, which
we must, in reasoning thus, suppose to have been so gradual that
at any rate nomadic races would not have noticed it by their tradi-

PRIMIGENIAL SKELETONS. 25

tions. But such a change in one portion of the earth would not
be likely to take place without a coincident change everywhere
else. While ice lay over a great portion of the earth, the rest of
its surface may have possessed a temperate or almost semitropical
climate, of peculiarly equable character the whole year round.
The race of men born in such a zone would probably be hardy
and strong, and this is precisely what we suppose our first ances-
tors to have been. But, though in what appear such favored
conditions, they have left to us, in nearly all the races that have
sprung from them over the whole world, a tradition of a great
catastrophe— a flood. The chiefs of the then world, it seems, were
saved, and, whether in one ark, or in several strangely and won-
derfully built vessels, were preserved to again spread the human
race. But how came this flood, and when ? And why should
immense quantities of rain descend, and why should the seas rise
in every direction ? If we refer to the probable cause of the Gla-
cial period, we shall also see the origin of the flood. It is, we
believe, an accepted theory that the mountain ranges of the globe
were formed by the shrinking of the earth's crust. This was
caused by the diminishing lava or molten earth within having
contracted at length to such an extent as to have been often re-
moved during the globe's rotation on its axis far away from the
still self-supporting crust, till a stage was at length reached when
the outer crust became so cold that ice gradually formed over all
those parts that were furthest from the molten liquid. At the two
poles — that is, furthest from the greatest sunshine, as also from
the lava (since the latter would be naturally drawn round with
the velocity of the equator, and therefore would be furthest from
the poles and nearest to the equator) — there was the greatest
abundance of ice. After many centuries of this there came a
time when the crust could no longer support itself ; the strain of
the internal lava beating loosely within was too great at times ;
great convulsions shook the earth's surface, the crust breaking in
long lines, and forcing up huge mountain ridges covered with
gigantic blocks of ice that rose thousands of feet high. The crust,
diminished in extent, again touched the molten lava, the ice
melted, volcanoes arose, steam escaped from the cracks, the whole
range of the Andes poured forth clouds of steam, the earth again
became warm. But what then happened ? The water that was
formed by the melting icCy that had not risen in steam to the
clouds, spread at once over the lessened area of the earth's surface ;
the seas rose in every direction and chilled the air ; and thus the
■earth's outermost surface also once more cooling somewhat, the
vapor or clouds dispersed around descended again in torrents to
add to the great sea already spreading between the newly raised
and the ancient mountain ranges of the earth. This, then, is the

26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

connection between the Glacial period and the flood, and the
probable reason why no tradition has descended to us of the
former ; first, because man was born during its epoch and was
formed by it and accustomed to it, and living in the one temper-
ate zone on the equator saw nothing strange in his surroundings,
and, secondly, because the only change that man saw was the
sudden accumulation of waters descending from the earthquake-
riven and colder portions of his then unexplored globe.

Thus, man's remains have been found with those of the mam-
moth— a mammal of the warm, subtropical Pliocene period, that
lived on into the cold Pleistocene epoch. Probably his origin was
previous to that of man ; but man may not have appeared until
the end of the Pliocene period and the commencement of the cold,
which, in all likelihood, gradually and surely came on, as the
interior of the globe shrank farther and farther away from con-
tact with the easily chilled outer crust, which it left to fields
of ice bordering a narrow temperate zone ; the ice reaching from
the north pole as far south possibly as 50° north of the equator,
and from the south pole as far north as 40° south of the equator ;
thus the present temperate zones became arctic, and the tropical
zone became almost unvaryingly temperate. Man probably in
his first ages had spread far and wide north and south of the
equator, but not so far as at present we find ourselves ; he had
been gradually driven back by the advancing cold, yet so slowly
that the change did not make itself noticeable to him, and as his
civilization advanced to the time when he began to build and to
establish great cities he found himself settled near the equator,,
even further south than ancient Thebes, and probably where the
great deserts of Arabia, Nubia, and those of the Sahara stretch
their vast plains of sands, and perchance now cover works even
older than the stepped pyramid of Ata. However long, therefore,
these periods of change may have been, it seems very probable
that man first appeared in a fresh, temperate climate, the only
proof of which is that he has several times been found with the
remains of the mammoth, an animal that outlived the primal
warm periods. Probably no preglacial period existed for man. As
for the length of time that must have elapsed between the first
appearance of vegetation upon the earth until the time that the
climax of the Glacial period arrived, when the flood took place,,
ten thousand years need not be too much. Midst the surround-
ings of that Glacial period, however, man's remains have been
found, but not in those of the preglacial ages that lead back to the
ichthyosaurus, plesiosaurus, and other monsters of the deep, or of
the age of gigantic flora, huge pine trees, and enormous ferns.

If the flood, then, as some have calculated, was only five or six
thousand years ago, then the coldest period of the Glacial age can

THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 27

not have been very far removed, and not much, further ojffi than
five or six thousand years from the present date ; and those skele-
tons found near Mentone may be those of men who lived eight
or nine thousand years ago, before the coldest epoch had gradually
driven them further south, near the completion of the evolution
of the race, and its consolidation into the perfect form of man,
whose intelligence lives and breathes as much as does his more
visible and wonderfully formed body.

RECENT TENDENCIES IN THE EDUCATION OF

WOMEN.

By MARY ROBERTS SMITH,

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN SOCIOLOGY, LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY.

THE first women who asked admission to colleges which offered
a higher education to men were those whose strong indi-
viduality and distinctive intellectual bent demanded some other
outlet than housekeeping for their energies. They wished to
teach in the higher schools, or to enter the professions of litera-
ture, law, or medicine. That competition with men in these lines
required better training than was afforded by the " female semi-
nary " was obvious, and they naturally inferred that it was only
to be had by means of the same curriculum as that which men
pursued. These first women, therefore, applied themselves to
mathematics, Greek, and Latin, and found in them satisfaction
for hungry minds, if not a perfect equipment for their business
in life. Although many of them afterward married, their strong
intellectuality is clearly shown by the mark which they have
left on their generation in some lines of professional labor.

At that time women were not prepared to question the meth-
ods of education ; in such matters they were accustomed to be led
by men, and what seemed good to men seemed doubly good to
those to whom it was newly opened. Indeed, before the middle
of this century it had not occurred to many minds that anything
else than the classical curriculum could be the basis of a truly
high education. What wonder, then, that women should eagerly
seek that which men valued most ?

When it had once been granted by even a small number of
intelligent people that it might be desirable for some women to
seek a higher education, the door was practically open to any
ambitious girl who had the will-power to overcome prejudice at
home and the pluck to endure the opposition and scorn of men at
college. Coeducation was- the outcome of this tendency to de-
mand for women precisely the same kind of education as that

28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

which was offered 1o meu. It is a significant fact that the early-
objections to it were primarily women's supposed physical in-
ability and the danger to womanly character. The traditional
curriculum was as well adapted to the needs of women as to the
needs of men in nonprofessional occupations. It was rightly
felt that there is a virtue in culture, irrespective of the aims of
the individual.

By the Morrill Land Grant of 1862 coeducation was assured,
potentially at least, in one institution in every State. The other
provisions of the act, compelling the teaching of agriculture and
the mechanic arts, also indicated the rise of a new and broader
idea in education. The colleges thus founded were not intended
primarily for rich men's children, but for the sons and daughters
of the great middle class. Coeducation seems to have been a con-
cession to the American sense of fairness. If the farmer's boy
should have a school, then the farmer's girl must have a school
too ; it was obviously cheaper to educate them together, while
social tradition, less developed among the farming classes and in
the States west of New England, offered no obstacle to this pur-
pose. While, therefore in New England coeducation was still
mentioned with horror as an impropriety,* in the more crude and
democratic West it was having a natural and wholesome growth.

The logical consequences of coeducation in these institutions
were evidently not anticipated. The boy who went to the State
college took lectures in scientific agriculture or mechanical en-
gineering, with so many hours a day on the farm or in the shop,
under a trained instructor; the girl who went to college took
whatever was considered strictly ornamental in the course —
French, literature, ancient history, rhetoric, with a certain number
of hours per day of domestic work. But the hours of sweeping,
bed-making, and dish-washing were illuminated by no applica-
tion of scientific principles from the mind of a trained instructor.
In fact, nobody knew very well what she was there for ; it seemed
only fair that she should "have a chance too," but a chance
for what ? Why, to marry, of course ! But nobody ever said
that aloud, and nobody thought of adapting her training to her
probable and desirable business in life.

The West had solved the problem of woman's education by
offering her the same curriculum under essentially the same con-
ditions of life and discipline as those of men. The disasters to
coeducation which had been prophesied had not occurred. Girls

* Young men and young women have been taught together in the Maine Wesleyan
Seminary, Kent's Hill, Maine, one of the best known classical and preparatory schools in
New England, since at least 1828, and in the seminary at Cazenovia, N. Y., since 1830. —
Editor Popular Science Monthly.

THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN, 29

showed no physical or mental inability to endure the strain of
college life, and apparently lost none of the precious bloom of true
womanliness. But no sooner had the system become thoroughly
established than a whole world of new social problems was dis-
covered in connection with it. The primeval attraction of men
and women for each other was not obliterated by the higher edu-
cation. Conventionality stood aghast at the primitive and unre-
fined social life sometimes found within college walls. The social
tone of these new colleges could not be much higher than that of
the rural communities from which it came. It was not to be
expected that students from progressive but uncultured commu-
nities should at once be transformed into dignified, self -restrained,
conventionally proper young men and women.

Eastern scholars and teachers who went West to fill chairs in
these colleges were shocked at the crudity which they met ; in
their eyes and in the eyes of the cultured New Englander all im-
proprieties, unconventionalities, and crudities were the oifspring^
of the vicious principle, coeducation. In New England, conse-
quently, the pressure of social conservatism compelled a less rad-
ical solution of the impending problem of woman's education.

Following the type of Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith were
founded still with the curriculum based on the old classical model
of Harvard and Yale, but with living conditions and social re-
straints especially intended to preserve and develop womanliness.
A liberal allowance of the classics, a little harmless inorganic sci-
ence, some music or art by way of sweetening, and domestic labor
as a reminder of housewifely occupations, constituted the regimen
of the typical woman's college. No inducements or opportunities
were offered for young women to enter any professions except
literature and teaching. Curiously enough, few women could be
found prepared to fill the professorships except those who had
been coeducated at Oberlin, Michigan, and Cornell, and to them
was set the task of preserving femininity by a harmlessly miscel-
laneous culture.

Meanwhile the great tide of scientific education had risen ; the
evolutionary theory had been proposed, attacked, accepted by the
greater scientists. New fields were thus opened to men, which
women as yet could not enter. That which they had supposed
would insure to them the highest intellectual life no longer suf-
ficed. In the larger coeducational colleges, laboratories and
elaborate scientific equipments were rapidly acquired. Women,,
more conservative and true to the traditions of higher education,
continued to choose classical courses long after science had become
the most prominent feature of the younger institutions. Slowly
the women's colleges were compelled to add zoology and physiol-
ogy, laboratories and apparatus to their meager courses in science^

30 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In 1886 two thirds of the senior class at Wellesley graduated
from the classical course ; in 1890 more than one half took the
degree of Bachelor of Science.

Competition with coeducational colleges made it evident that
the women's colleges were offering almost no facilities for special-
ization and graduate study. To meet this deficiency, and yet to
preserve the distinctive ideals of separate education, a new com-
bination was devised. Bryn Mawr proposed to offer opportuni-
ties for advanced study similar to those afforded at Johns Hopkins
and Cornell, but under social conditions and restraints such as
characterized the women's colleges, thus securing womanliness at
no cost of intellectual development. Harvard Annex offered ap-
proximately the same courses under the same professors as Har-
vard itself, but with meager equipment and social isolation.
Barnard College, and recently the Yale graduate department, have
recognized the principle of coeducation in a restricted form.

The tendency to provide the same kind of education for
women as for men, and the desire to preserve that intangible
quality, womanliness, were constantly at variance in all these
different methods, producing some unexpected results. Here
and there women who were coeducated specialized. Perhaps Ph.
D.'s of Zurich, after a short and brilliant career, fell in love in a
hopelessly feminine manner, married, and apparently wasted all
their intellectual achievements in cuddling babies and training
the immigrant domestic ; all this without any sign of discontent
or domestic tragedy. On the other hand, as many sweet, femi-
nine, docile creatures from the women's colleges, whose femininity
had been preserved to ideal sweetness, went into law or medicine,
declined to marry at all, and lived happy, unregretf ul lives.

The same contradictions were to be found among educated
men. The farmer's boy who had taken a course in scientific agri-
culture refused to farm and went into journalism; the college
professor's son failed in the classics, but made a fortune on a
Western cattle ranch ; the orthodox became the heterodox, and,
behold, everything was topsy-turvy ! Given a boy, a girl, and a
curriculum — results : The boy a poet, the girl a lawyer, and the
curriculum something which had somehow missed fire ! No anx-
ious parent or zealous professor could be sure of the effect of a
given training.

Into the midst of this uncertainty the elective system was
projected by one of the most conservative of Eastern colleges ; it
said, " Let him follow his bent." The thought spread like con-
tagion to the coeducational colleges, where traditions were less
fixed, and gradually to the older men's colleges as well ; but not
to the women's colleges. If a girl followed her bent, who knew
what might happen ? She might become too " learned for the

THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN 31

common uses of life." The fear that she will not marry was less
alarming than the thought " men will not marry her." The elect-
ive system meant freedom of choice, the inevitable result of
which is freedom of life. Intelligent men saw clearly that an in-
telligent, highly-educated woman might possibly hesitate to sac-
rifice the pure delights of scientific learning for the pettiness of
domestic routine and the satisfactions of burden-bearing mother-
hood. Therefore she must not be too highly educated, lest
freedom turn her from her proper sphere.

In our day the cry of alarm has again been raised ; more and
more women are coming up to the doors of the colleges ; if intelli-
gent women do not marry, the future of this race is uncertain,
and civilization itself is in danger. Some would even make this
question the test of the varied systems of education for women, in
the hope of finding one which may be labeled, " Warranted not
to divert women from marriage ! " But the problem is neither so
imminent nor so serious as many suppose. Two thirds of all
women graduates marry ; the one third who do not are an infini-
tesimal part of the thirty million five hundred thousand women
in the whole United States. The one third in our day have, on
the whole, as good a chance to obtain a suitable training as men
in the same lines. They specialize and find growth and content-
ment in the sense of power and usefulness. It is not their destiny
which should concern us, but rather the destiny of the other two
thirds who do marry. The question arises, Does their college
training bear so definite and satisfactory a relation to their after-
lives ? I fear not. It is constantly impressed upon a boy during
these four years that he must find out what he is good for ; he
must either be fit or ready to be fitted to do something which
will have a definite market value. But the destiny of the girl
who goes to college is carefully concealed frbm her. During
these four years, who says to her : If you marry, you will need
biology, the sciences of life and reproduction ; hygiene, the wis-
dom to attain and preserve health ; sociology, the laws which
govern individuals in society ; chemistry, physics, economics, all
the sciences which may help to solve the problems which the
housewife must meet; literature and language, the vehicles of
poetry and inspiration ? No one has the courage to suggest any
of these as suitable— nay, absolutely essential — to the successful
fulfillment of her probable vocation in life. Young women are
turned blindly adrift among a mass of subjects, with no guide
but a perverted instinct, and with many a hindrance in the shape
of tradition and ridicule. In all ages men have united in adora-
tion of the dignity of domesticity and the sacredness of mother-
hood, yet any loving, foolish, untrained, ineflB.cient creature has
been held good enough to be a wife and mother. We do not ex-

32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE 'MONTHLY.

pect a man to become a distinguished engineer or a professor of
Latin by studying a little literature, history, music, and lan-
guage ; yet we expect a woman to undertake an occupation for
which, in this age at least, a certain definite kind of training i&
necessary, without anything more applicable than " general cul-
ture/'

The want of co-ordination between training and the needs of
life in the education of women has repeatedly brought into ques-
tion the desirability of the higher education at all for a woman
who is to return to the home. As a result, there is a distinct
tendency to demand a differentiation in the education of women.
The recent proposal of a new type of woman's college is, in fact,
a demand for a separate technical school in which there shall be
a liberal scientific training with special reference to their domes-
tic occupations and functions.

This is, however, not a new idea. In all those State colleges in
which agriculture and the mechanic arts are taught a similar
problem and a like solution were presented. The farmers de-
manded that the agricultural colleges teach how to plow, sow, and
reap, rather than how to think ; as a result, many of these insti-
tutions are to-day little more than high schools, with manual
training added. In others it was perceived that, to make a suc-
cessful farmer or engineer, a man must have the power to think
clearly, accurately, effectively on any subject. The best agricul-
tural colleges give little beyond what may be called laboratory
demonstrations in field and barn, while the most progressive en-
gineering schools no longer attempt to turn out skilled mechan-
ics. Teachers of these subjects prophesy the complete elimination
of shop work and practical farm operations from university
courses, and their relegation to the position of entrance require-
ments.

Shall, then, the woman's college be a technical school, where
she may learn all the practical details of housekeeping and sani-
tary science ? It is the same problem, and must also be answered
in the negative. Technical schools, wherever outside the uni-
versity atmosphere, show a fatal lack of breadth. Physicians
with only the training of the medical school, engineers with no
ideas beyond their own specialty, farmers who despise pure sci-
ence, housewives who are only perfect housekeepers, are the in-
evitable product of a purely technical education.

While such propositions as this are being widely discussed,,
the true solution is coming by a natural process. Within the
boundaries of the new universities a few courses are offered to-
meet the specific needs of women's occupations. What women
need is not to know how to cook, and wash, and lay a table, but
how to think out clearly, accurately, and effectively any problem.

CONSUMPTION AS A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE. 33

wliicli they may meet in every-day life. As tlie numbers of
women in the universities increase, and the influence of educated
wives and mothers is more widely felt, there will be an adaptation
of university work to the needs of women as well as of men. The
now scarcely perceptible tendency to emphasize the profession of
wifehood and motherhood in its proper relations will be increas-
ingly controlling in all education of women. Surrounded by the
atmosphere of generous culture, molded by men and women of
varied abilities, guided in the special preparation for her future,
the young woman will soon be able to obtain as broad and as
specialized a training as her profession shall require — a training
which shall put her in touch with the best of the world for the
benefit of her home and her children.

CONSUMPTION CONSIDERED AS A CONTAGIOUS

DISEASE.

By a. L. benedict, M. D.

A FEW years ago the newspapers were discussing rumors of
the advent of leprosy in this country. Many were appre-
hensive of an epidemic of this disease, whose very name suggests
all that is unclean, horrible, and loathsome. Although official re-
ports made it certain that the lepers who had reached our shores
were few, and that comparatively simple precautions could pre-
vent the spread of the disease, public sentiment demanded the
most rigorous quarantine and the sending back of those lepers
who had already landed.

But there is in our midst another leprosy whose victims we
meet, not outside the city wall warning us of their presence with
the cry " Unclean ! unclean ! " but who walk the public streets,
whom we meet in our places of business and amusement, in social
gatherings, and, too frequently, in our very homes. It is doubt-
less a surprise that consumption should be mentioned in terms
applicable to leprosy, but investigation shows that a close analogy
may be drawn between the two diseases. Consumption or phthi-
sis, as either word implies, is a consuming or wasting disease,
characterized by a progressive failure of strength and an almost
certain tendency toward death. Although the exact lesions differ
in different cases, the essential nature of consumption is in inflam-
mation, excited by a small germ which, magnified five hundred
times, is just visible as a minute hyphen, usually tilted up at one
end.

The same germ — the Bacillus tuberculosis — may lodge in bones,
joints, the intestines, the membranes of the brain, and, in fact, in

TOL. XLVIII.— 8

34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

almost any part of the body. Thus, consumption is only a special
manifestation of the general disease — tuberculosis. The germs
are not merely thorns in the flesh, producing a local inflammation,
but they are plants which multiply rapidly, and form in their
growth poisons as dangerous to life as if they were elaborated in
one large plant instead of millions of small ones.

The germ of leprosy is very like that of tuberculosis. In both
diseases, little masses of inflammatory tissue form around the
bacilli, and then, not having the vitality of normal structures,
these break down, involving other parts in their own destruction.
Leprosy attacks chiefly those parts of the body which are exposed,
like the hands, feet, arms, and legs, though it occasionally invades
the mucous membranes, and it is seen in the nose, mouth, and
throat. Tuberculosis, on the other hand, seeks the deeply seated
organs by preference, though it, too, may affect the throat ; and
many of the so-called scrofulous sores are tubercular. Leprosy
thrusts out its hideous deformities and disgusting ulcers to the
gaze of the passer-by ; tuberculosis hides its devastations beneath
an exterior which may be even beautiful. The greater sufferer
from fever, lassitude, and pain is the consumptive. So, too, is
his mental suffering greater, since the leper is usually a person
who has lived in filth and squalor, while the tubercular patient is
more likely than not to be one who has worked hard to gratify
some ambition and who feels more keenly than bodily pain the
necessity of abandoning active life. Leprosy is not a rapidly
fatal disease, usually lasting from nine to twenty years after its
recognition. Consumption fortunately does not allow its victims
to linger so long, but kills in from one to four years in the great
majority of cases.

In order to see how formidable an enemy we have in tubercu-
losis, let us contrast it with some other diseases which are even
more dreaded. Leprosy is rare in most civilized countries ; even
in Asia Minor it causes less than one per cent of the total death
rate. Typhoid and scarlet fevers are each held responsible for
three per cent ; diphtheria and pneumonia, for five per cent each.
The deaths from consumption alone, omitting such tubercular
troubles as hip-joint disease. Pott's disease of the spine, some forms
of meningitis, intestinal marasmus, caries of bone, and many ab-
scesses, make up, according to one authority, about twenty per
cent of the total death rate of this country. It is estimated that
one third of all deaths occurring in the medical wards of hospitals
are due to tuberculosis, and that a fifth of all surgical cases
treated — many of which are cured — are tubercular. We may
bring these statistics home by saying that you and I were born
with one chance in five of dying of some form of tuberculosis. If
our chance of being instantaneously and decently killed by an

CONSUMPTION AS A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE, 35

electric shock were one in five liundred, we would turn tlie wheels
of progress back twenty years rather than allow an electric light
or a trolley car to threaten our safety. No pains and no expense
are thought too great in maintaining a quarantine against cholera,
smallpox — which the sensible part of the community is already
vaccinated against — diphtheria, and the like. Large appropria-
tions are made that there may be tried a yet unproved defense
against diphtheria, but to the insidious enemy that numbers its
dead by hundreds where these other open foes count theirs by
scores we are blind. It is time that the veil should be drawn
from the loathsomeness of " the great white scourge,'' that the
false sentiment which poetry and prose have thrown over infec-
tion, blood poisoning, suppuration, and decay should be dissipated.

In the case of a disease so fatal and so general as tuberculosis,
the considerations of cause and prevention become all-important,
especially since few cases are curable. The most sanguine author-
ity on the subject — a New York physician whose patients can com-
mand every means of relief, and who usually seek medical advice
at the first suspicion of illness — claims to cure only one consump-
tive out of six. Most physicians would consider this an extremely
high proportion, while with regard to well-established cases there
is no question that all or nearly all end in death.

It has been demonstrated by the experimental inoculation of
guinea-pigs and other animals that the tubercle bacillus needs no
dormant period outside the body — such as is requisite for certain
other germs — but that the disease is directly transmissible. There
are two factors in the establishment of any disease — the presence
of the germ and a certain predisposition. It is not a metaphor
but a plain statement of fact to compare the former to the plant-
ing of a vegetable, the latter to the adaptability of the soil. Some
germs will thrive only under the most favorable conditions, others
will grow in almost any person. In other words, some diseases
are liable to occur only under definite circumstances of predispo-
sition, and these may be readily prevented, while others are viru-
lent, attacking whole communities at once. Fortunately, the lat-
ter usually " exhaust the soil,'' so that if the patient recovers from
one attack he is not liable to a second, though there are excep-
tions to all such rules. Measles, scarlet fever, smallpox — in fact,
nearly all the eruptive fevers — find the proper soil in almost every
body, but the something on which they thrive is exhausted, so
that thereafter an immunity exists. Tuberculosis never "ex-
hausts the soil." Even if the patient recovers — as not infre-
quently happens in surgical cases, hip-joint disease, inflammation
of bones, etc. — ^he is always liable to a subsequent attack of tuber-
cular disease, not necessarily in the same organ. On the face of
the matter it would seem that a germ that kills a fifth — or, to give

36 THE POPULAR SCIENCE. MONTHLY,

the lowest estimate, a tenth — of the civilized human race is not
very exacting as to the soil afforded. Yet until recently con-
sumption has not been recognized as a contagious disease, and
the factor of predisposition, as determined by heredity, lack of
proper air and exercise, failure of vital strength, impoverished
blood, " weak lungs," etc, has been considered paramount. It is
certainly true that a robust person may be placed in the most
intimate contact with the germs of tuberculosis and throw them
off or inclose them as inert foreign bodies in his tissues ; on the
other hand, nearly every one is at one time or another susceptible
to tuberculosis and escapes or becomes a victim according as he
is free from or is exposed to contagious influences. A mother and
her baby, for instance, both die of consumption and heredity is
blamed. Bat does the child inherit the bacilli, or does it imbibe
them in the milk — where they have been repeatedly found — or
are they inhaled as the mother bends over the child and smothers
it with kisses ? Again, brothers and sisters drop oft' one after
another, and it is said that " consumption runs in the family " ;
but we would seek another explanation if the same succession of
deaths were due to scarlet fever. Tubercle bacilli have been
found in the dust on the top of the door and window casings, in
carpets, bedding, and wall paper. Is it not rational to suppose
that these foci of infection have more to do with the death of
successive members of the family than a hereditary taint ? "When
we note that members of the family who leave home escape the
disease and that other persons occupying the same house later
contract it, is not the evidence tolerably clear ? Are not hus-
bands and wives, roommates, and other persons intimately asso-
ciated almost as likely to follow one another with consumption as
if there were a blood relationship ? Such questions can only be
fully answered by a careful collection of statistics, taking ad-
vantage of the experiments of chance ; enough evidence has been
already gathered to warrant the adoption of the contagiousness of
tuberculosis as a practical basis for preventive measures.

The predisposing tendencies to tuberculosis may be modified,
often absolutely removed, by hygienic and tonic treatment. If,
however, any systematic attempt is to be made to stamp out the
disease, such an attempt as has been eminently successful in the
case of cholera and smallpox, it must depend upon isolation and
disinfection. We may logically hope to be able to vaccinate
against any disease which occurs but once in a lifetime— that is to
say, we may dwarf the germs so that their growth will occasion
no dangerous symptoms while they will still " exhaust the soil "
so as to prevent a subsequent development of the corresponding
unmitigated germs. This hope has been realized only in the case
of smallpox, but it is quite likely that the bacteriological horti-

CONSUMPTION AS A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE, 37

culturist may learn to dwarf the germs of scarlet fever, typhoid,
and similar diseases. Diseases, on the other hand, which are
essentially chronic, which remain or recur without a tendency to
self -limitation, must be attacked in another manner. The failure
of Koch's tuberculin was simply an illustration of this general
principle.

At present the main obstacle to the carrying out of measures
of quarantine against tuberculosis is public sentiment. Public
sentiment requires all smallpox patients to be sent to a pest
house, though, with rare exceptions, such patients can be of danger
only to the ignorant who have refused vaccination. Public senti-
ment kept a poor Chinese leper confined in a bare stone cell with
almost the same neglect of humanity as characterized the treat-
ment of prisoners in the dark ages. Public sentiment checked
immigration and commerce in the effort to quarantine against
cholera. Yet this same public sentiment would characterize as
barbarous the isolation of consumptives, with every provision for
their comfort, in hospitals so arranged as not only to prevent the
spread of the disease, but to afford every possible chance for the
relief or cure of their inmates.

While yielding to the inevitable, something may still be done
to limit the spread of tubercular disease without removing the
consumptive from his customary associations. Barring surgical
tuberculosis, in which the ordinary antiseptic dressings and the
destruction of old bandages by fire will suffice, we have to contend
against the dissemination of germs by the various excretions of
the body. Fortunately, in the vast majority of instances we can
restrict our attention to the expectorated matter. Few germs are
exhaled in the breath, yet it is unwise for any one with a severe
cold or bronchitis to be in the same room with a consumptive,
and no one should sleep night after night in the same bed. If it
is absolutely necessary for an attendant to sleep in the same room,
the freest ventilation should be insisted on.

Our sleeping cars are, I believe, a positive source of infection.
A considerable proportion of travelers are consumptives seeking
warmer or drier climates. An almost equal number are persons
predisposed to the disease, but not yet infected, going to the same
resorts to escape our northern winters. Imagine such a person
passing three or four days in the confined air of a palace car, with
several consumptives sleeping in a berth whose hangings have
been infected from the exhalations of consumptives on previous
trips, and, on reaching his destination, spending a number of
months at a hotel which is practically a hospital for consump-
tives I In many instances public hospitals are breeding places for
tuberculosis, patients with various depressing ailments, includiDg
those that render the lungs particularly vulnerable, being assigned

38 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to wards occupied also by consumptives. Sucli instances are more
often due to lack of funds than to a failure to appreciate the
danger.

The idea is apparently widely entertained that sidewalks and
the floors of public conveyances and buildings are a sort of ever-
ready cuspidor. The habit of ubiquitous expectoration — always
disgusting and unnecessary in health— becomes dangerous when
practiced by consumptives. Sweeping trains catch a surprising
amount of filth, and tubercle bacilli as well as other germs have
been found in the skirts of ladies' dresses, whence they may be
introduced into houses. How often do we see a consumptive
shivering over a register and dropping the scourings of the cavi-
ties in his lungs down the hot-air pipe, to be dried and dissemi-
nated throughout the building ! An apparatus, differing only in
detail from the ordinary register, is used in laboratories for the
experimental inoculation of guinea-pigs with tuberculosis.

On the other hand, the consumptive must not swallow the
infectious material raised from the lungs, for, by so doing, he
might set up tubercular inflammation of the stomach and intes-
tine. The expectoration should take place into a cup that can be
readily disinfected, or into a waterproof -paper receptacle that can
be burned. For disinfection, strong carbolic acid or a solution
of zinc chloride may be used, and the disinfectant must remain in
contact with the sputum for a long time; preferably the cup
should always contain some of the solution. For use away from
home, pocket cuspidors, or those fitted into canes, may be used.
The sputum should never be allowed to dry. Handkerchiefs,
sheets, etc., should be boiled for at least half an hour — so resistant
are the tiny plants that cause the trouble — apart from other
clothing.

The communication of tuberculosis through cow's milk is at
length obtaining the attention that it deserves. Milk once in-
fected can not be made safe except by such treatment as will
seriously interfere with its nutritious qualities. Ordinary germs
of putrefaction may be killed by boiling, or even by letting the
milk stand in water previously brought to the boiling point, but
the only satisfactory dealing with tuberculous milk is destruction
at the hands of Government inspectors.

So long as tubercular patients are allowed the freedom of so-
cial intercourse they must be held to the moral obligation of cer-
tain restrictions. Kissing has been called an elegant method of
transmitting disease. Consumptives must hold their affection in
check ; above all, they must not kiss little children, whose resist-
ance to disease is slight. They must recognize the necessity, if
they are not to be isolated from their surroundings, of isolating
from themselves children and those at all inclined to tubercular

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF GOLD. 39

trouble. Cleanliness of habit and tborougli disinfection of spu-
tum must largely depend upon the conscientiousness of consump-
tives themselves. All these precautions involve a great amount of
self-sacrifice on the part of those affected with this terrible dis-
ease ; they necessitate the realization of certain facts which we
would gladly keep from the sufferer ; they demand a sacrifice of
sentiment on the part of those near and dear to the patient. To
this extent the attempt to exterminate the greatest plague of
civilization is cold-blooded. But a worse alternative confronts
us. So long as we neglect to consider tuberculosis as a contagious
disease, though not so conspicuously so as the eruptive fevers;
so long as we occupy homes in which the germs of this disease
linger, neglecting to disinfect, repaint, and repaper ; so long as sick
and well mingle without an effort to destroy the virus, so long
will the great white scourge shorten valuable lives and bring
mourning on millions. Because its foulness is concealed, because
it strikes painlessly and its wound is not felt for weeks or months,
because it does not mark its victims in letters of red or choke them
in a week with a visible mass of poison, shall we ignore the fact
that this insidious, relentless foe is the chief lieutenant of Death ?

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF GOLD.

By CHAELES 8. ASHLEY.

IT is, I think, universally claimed by advocates of the free
coinage of silver that the so-called demonetization of silver
has led to an appreciation in the value of gold; and that this
appreciation has worked grievous hardship to the debtor, or, what
is largely the same, the producing classes, who are thus obliged
to pay in a more valuable currency than that in which their
debts were contracted. The claim is that, by an artificial change
in the value of the dollar, the farmer has to produce twice or
three times as many bushels of wheat as formerly to pay off his
mortgage. The resulting embarrassment of the debtor classes
has, in this view, spread among other classes, and has led to
panics and long-continued depression in business. Aside from
the natural desire of the silver miners to have their product
doubled in debt-paying power, this is the whole basis of the silver
agitation.

If one were to say that for this theory, upon which an interna-
tional agitation has been built, and which is countenanced by a
large number who have given the matter considerable investiga-
tion, some of whom are generally reputed to be competent for the
purpose, there is absolutely no foundation in fact, and that, s(?

40 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

far from tliere having been a rise in the value of gold, there has
been an appreciable fall, he might be thought to take an extreme
position. To that position, however, a careful examination of the
facts has led me ; and this article is written to present the evi-
dence on the question.*

To ascertain the value of gold, two sources of inquiry are open :
First, what is the comparative standing of gold in the mass of
commodities, such as labor, land, agricultural products, manufac-
tured products, etc. ? Second, what are the influences directly-
affecting the value of gold, such as rate of production and rela-
tive demand for its use ? In considering the evidence on the first
point we must be careful to bear in mind what our silver friends
generally, if not always, ignore — i. e., the influence of railways
and inventions in cheapening products. Kerosene sold at Toledo
forty years ago for seventy-five cents a gallon ; recently as low as
five cents. If, then, we ignored all other commodities and the
influence of discovery, we might reach the absurd conclusion that
gold had appreciated fifteen times and silver seven and a half
times in forty years. So with the value of wheat and cotton
in Liverpool. Improvements have cheapened transportation so
vastly that, though the Ohio farmer now gets more for his wheat
and com than he did in the "forties," those products sell in
Liverpool for one third the former price. So this low price in
Liverpool does not mean that gold, as compared with wheat and
corn, has risen. It merely registers the force of other circum-
stances. In using this method of comparison, therefore, we must
be careful to consider not simply present as compared with for-
mer prices, but also other matters affecting market values ; and it
is best, whenever possible, to make comparison with commodities
where the methods of production and transportation are compara-
tively unchanged.

I. For the purpose of comparison we shall go back a period
of fifty years, and by observing the change in price-level of a
given amount of gold we shall have pretty clear evidence of its
rise or fall. Such a method ought to meet with acceptance by
the silver men, because they are, I think, universally fond of as-
serting that for hundreds of years the " bimetallic standard" pro-
vided a good currency, free from all objections, and that our great

* Never until the past few months have the " gold " men seemed to put forth their
case in public argument. Their feeling seemed to be that the silver agitation was a
piece of childish folly which required simply a little soothing talk about international bi-
metallism and " increased use of silver," and other Utopian schemes. Accordingly, the silver
men have really had the field to themselves, and have filled the air with talk about the
" appreciation " of gold, " the crime of "73," etc., almost without contradiction ; so that the
public mind has given far more credit to these fairy tales than could otherwise have hap-
pened.

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF GOLD, 41

object is to reverse tlie current of events and return to the practice
of the past, from which the nations have one by one unfortunately-
departed. The '' bimetallic standard " was in force in the United
States fifty years since — so it is claimed— although the actual
standard of the country after 1834 was gold, and less silver was
then coined in a year than has been issued of late years in a month
or even in a week, because the gold constituting a dollar could
be bought slightly cheaper than the silver in a silver dollar, and
therefore, though the coinage of silver was nominally " f ree,'^ it
had really ceased to be '' basic money " long before the " crime of
1873 " had been thought of.* If, now, the evidence shows that
the existing standard of value, or " basic money," has lost instead
of gained in value since the days of the " bimetallic standard " of
glorious memory, then the complaints and theories of the free-
silver men are without any solid foundation; and the existing
agitation is like all agitations destitute of justice, simply a hin-
drance to the establishment of firm confidence and prosperity,
and, in short, an unmitigated nuisance with which no compromise
should be made.

It is a singular fact that the method of showing that the gen-
eral level of prices has greatly fallen, and that therefore the gold
dollar has risen, is to take the statistics of prices in great centers
as a final basis. Wheat is cheaper in London in 1895 than it was
in 1845 — much cheaper ; so is cotton, so is corn — the three great
staples. Therefore, say our friends, gold has risen, and the debtor,
the farmer, and the producer are robbed! This, with a little
bogy-talk about Shylocks, England, and Wall Street, is all there
is of their argument.

Now, if we ask what the Ohio farmer received fifty years
ago for his wheat and corn, we come upon the fact — which
must be a disagreeable one for the cheap- money men — that he
did not get as much then as he does to-day. No books of sta-
tistics take any account of the prices obtained by the Ohio
farmer in 1845 ; and our statistical friends, overlooking (or " re-
membering to forget ") the difference in transportation and
other conditions then and now, conveniently assume that because
wheat was higher in London in 1845 than now, the Ohio farmer
must have been rolling in wealth. In the forties, the Ohio farmer
seldom got twenty cents a bushel for his corn, and frequently
burned it up ; and men still living can remember how, in those

* This fact, which must be well known to men like Senators Teller, Jones, and
Stewart, renders it difficult to acquit the leading advocates of free coinage of deliberate
hypocrisy, when they so loudly declaim about " the crime of ISYS " (which Senator
Stewart himself voted to enact), and the " dollar of our daddies," which was practically
non-existent.

42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

glorious bimetallic days, the farmer got but twenty-five cents
a bushel for his wheat. In those times the western farmer lived
chiefly by consuming his own products, buying almost noth-
ing. It is too clear for argument or dispute that it has been rail-
roads, telegraphs, produce exchanges, and such-like means of
facilitating exchange, and not gold or silver, that have caused
the fall of the great staples in commercial centers — a fact easily
verifiable by any western man who will consult the oldest resi-
dents of his town.

In a late number of The Forum, that excellent statistician, Mr.
Edward Atkinson, has given a most interesting table which, in
the present connection, I can not do better than copy. The table
was constructed to show at a glance the variations in price of the
principal commodities as expressed in gold.*

Prices, Wages, Purchcmng Power.

Meat

Other food

Cloths and clothing

Fuel and lighting

Metals and implements

Lumber and building material

Drugs and chemicals

House furnishings

Miscellaneous

Average of all prices

Average of all wages

Average wages by importance

Salaries of city teachers

Paper money

Gold price of silver bullion in London
Purchasing power of wages

1845.

79-4
82-8
97-1

110-8

106-7

121-0

102-3

114-8

102-8

86-8

85-7

74-8

100-0

95-8

84-4

1880.

100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100

1865.

197-0
240-3
299-2
237-8
191-4
182-1
271-6
181-1
202-8
216-8
143-1
148-6
134-7
49-5
99-0
66-0

1870.

174-3
146-3
139-4
196-5
127-8
148-3
149-6
121-6
148-7
142-3
162-2
167-1
186-3
81-1
98-2
114-1

1880.

103-6
116-9
104-5
100-2

96-3
130-9
113-1

85-2
109-8
106-9
141-5
143-0
182-8
100-0

84-7
132-3

1890.

82-

92-

73'
123-

87-

69-

89-

92-3
158-9
168-2
186-3
100-0

77-4
172-1

In brief, the table shows that the prices of many commodities
rose very much between 1845 and 1865, and afterward fell a little
lower than the 1845 level ; while wages, on the contrary, not only
did not recede, but continued to advance after 1865. It shows
another interesting fact — that 1865 is the date when prices began to
fall, and not 1873 ; and thus discloses the purely artificial nature
of the effort to make the era of cheap prices coincide with the
" demonetization of silver " in that year.

In Mulhairs History of Prices (page 7) the author brings to-
gether in a short comparison a statement of the views of various
authorities on the subject of the rise and fall of prices.

* For the excellent discussion as to the price variations of the different commodities, the
reader must be referred to the article itself, which is a good antidote for the reckless asser-
tions and hasty theories current on this subject.

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF GOLD,

43

Yeabb.

Soetbeer.

Jevons.

Laepeyre.

" Economist."

Mulhall.

Medium.

1845 to 1850

100
114
125
127
125
136
127
124

100
107
120
120
121

100
111
122
123

100

i27

140
127
115
105

100
104
105
110
111
112
99
92

100

1851 to 1855

109

1856 to 1860

120

1861 to 1865

121

1866 to 1870

124

1871 to 1875

1876 to 1880

125
114

1881 to 1884

107

A study of any of these tables will convince one that there is
an enormous exaggeration in the way the cheap-money men talk
about the fall of prices. While there has been to some extent a
fall in the price of most products in centers of trade, it is by no
means very extensive or portentous.

According to Mulhall (History of Prices, page 7), cotton in the
United States averages thirty-three per cent higher in 1881-83
than in 1841-'50 ; and wheat two per cent higher. Owing, how-
ever, to the great fall in transportation, and to improvements in
agricultural machinery, the farmers' increased remuneration is
by no means expressed by these figures. For corn the showing
is still better, probably amounting to something like one hundred
per cent for the average American farmer. During the same
period pork has risen fifty-six per cent ; tobacco, forty-four per
cent ; butter, forty-five per cent, and cheese eighty per cent — all in
centers of distribution, while they have risen still more in the
hands of the producer. If my personal recollection is at all
reliable, we pay in Toledo, Ohio,, to-day more for eggs, chickens,
potatoes, and fruits than twenty years ago in greenbacks. Thus,
by a little discrimination, we see that the " great fall in prices,"
so often and so lugubriously spoken of, is in the great centers
where the consumers and not where the producers live. In-
stead, therefore, of being a calamity, this fall in prices has
been an unmixed blessing. The farmer gets more for his prod-
uct; the city man pays less. Such has been the result of the
construction of railroads, the most beneficent and far-reach-
ing of all practical inventions. And yet, with locomotive whis-
tles reaching well-nigh every ear in the country, from lines of
railroads having a mileage of nearly one hundred and seventy
thousand in the United States, our free-silver friends ignore their
existence, and, on the basis of London prices in former times,
build up a purely imaginary farmers' paradise in contemporary
America.

The evidence afforded by wages shows either that the money
standard has not risen, as claimed, or that the working classes
have received an astounding increase of wages. Take the trades
in which the conditions are wholly or comparatively unchanged

44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

by modern inventions, and in a country where no economic revo-
lution has occurred — England : *

Ybar.

BHILLIKGS FEB WEEK.

Blacksmith.

Mason.

Carpenter.

1740

16
21
32

16
23
35

16

1840

20

1880

80

Thus wages are seen to have advanced about twice as much in
the forty years, 1840 to 1880, as in the previous century. In the
United States Mulhall gives tables (Dictionary of Statistics, page
463) showing that operatives' wages have risen from two hundred
and fifty to three hundred dollars per annum in the thirty years
beginning witb 1850. Even during the last few years, in spite of
the depression prevailing, I very much doubt if wages and sal-
aries have, taken as a whole, declined at all, or at any rate so
much as is usually supposed. Only a few days since I read in a
newspaper of the city in which I live a table showing that the
salaries of teachers in the public schools had had a steady average
increase during the past four years; and the increase was not
confined to any one year, but continued gradually through the
whole period. However this may be, we can not turn to any
reputable authority which does not show that a large increase of
wages has occurred during the past fifty years in every civilized
country. If, therefore, " gold has risen fifty per cent " in value,
the working classes have had a far more wonderful advance than
they or any one else supposed.

Again, real estate is one of the greatest of commodities, and if
the dollar has increased in value it ought to be reflected in the fall
of real estate. No such fall has, however, taken place. Farms in
the United States, irrespective of cattle, implements, etc., rose
from two hundred and fifty dollars per inhabitant to two hundred
and eighty dollars per inhabitant during the thirty years ending
in 1880 t — a fine increase, considering the accompanying increase
of population.

Another consideration is of far greater weight than any de-
rived from a single commodity. If land rises in value, the rent
increases ; if money rises in value by reason of scarcity, the rate of
interest advances. If, then, the combined Shylocks of the world,
together with the banks, England, and Wall Street, have " de-
monetized silver " in order to " corner money '* and boom the rate
of interest, there ought to be traces of it. Singular as it may be
to our silver friends, there seem to be none. In fifty years the

* Mulhall, Dictionary of Statistics, p. 461. f Ibid., p. 9.

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF GOLD, 45

average rate of interest in the United States lias been about
cut in two. Tlie best railroad bonds formerly bore seven and
ten per cent interest; now they bear four and five per cent.
The same proportion holds good of United States bonds and
of municipal indebtedness. Every decade has seen a great
decline in the rate of interest. If, now, money is getting
scarce, and if, as our silver friends claim, the quantity of money
regulates its value, then interest should be three or four times
as high as we find it. While I do not claim that the fall of
interest, which has taken place in Europe as well as America,
absolutely proves that the value of money has not risen, I do
think it very good evidence of the fact ; and it certainly shows
that the " bankers' conspiracy " theory of the free-silver men is
one of the wildest ideas ever put forth by men outside of insane
asylums.

II. Having briefly considered what may be called the direct
evidence bearing on the subject, it remains to consider the indi-
rect— the circumstances occurring during this half century which
would naturally have an influence on the value of gold money.
One of the most prominent of these is the growth of banks and
the popularization of checks. The first English bank was
established just two hundred years ago. " Since 1840 the bank-
ing of the world has increased about eleven fold — that is, three
times as fast as commerce, or thirty times faster than popu-
lation.''

In 1870 the Bank of Germany did about seventy-five times the
business it transacted in 1820. A like state of affairs prevails in
the United States. A very large proportion — some say ninety-
five per cent — of the country's business in done by checks which
supply the place of currency, and diminish to their extent the
necessity of the use of gold. Fifty years since comparatively
little business was done through banks. In this way the cur-
rency, while maintaining its quality, has been vastly expanded ;
so that the actual currency (counting checks) circulating in the
United States to-day is perhaps one hundred times what it was in
1845. Banks and the use of checks also save the loss of gold aris-
ing from shipwreck and other accident, and, by storing it quietly
in vaults, save the loss by abrasion which would occur if it were
actually used in business.

A great economy in the use of gold has been made by modern
electroplating inventions. Few things are now made of solid
gold. Solid gold watch cases are superseded by " filled," which
are stronger and wear sufficiently well. Plate, too, has largely
gone out of style, a circumstance which is a principal cause in the
decline of silver. " Official returns of silver stamped in Great
Britain for plate and ornament show an annual average of 1,091,-

46 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

000 OTinces in the years 1821-'50, and only 790,000 ounces in the
decade ending 1880." *

But the most tangible and solid evidence that can be found
on the subject lies probably in the history of the production
of gold. On page 174 of the Report of the Director of the
Mint for 1894 is a table giving a statement of the annual
product of gold from the discovery of America. It may be
summarized as follows :

Periods. Average annual product.

1493 to 1520 $3,855,000

1701 to 1720 8,520,000

1801 to 1810 11 ,815,000

1850 to 1856 132,613,000

1890 1 18,849,000

1893 157,222,000

Prior to the Californian period the average product for three
hundred and fifty years was about $8,794,000. Before 1493 it was
still less. The value of gold therefore — its standing relatively to
other commodities — may be said to have been determined by this
long-continued rate of production. Then almost in the twinkling
of an eye came the Californian and Australian discoveries. The
annual product of gold became nearly twenty times what it had
been : and this rate of production has not only been substantially
maintained, but is now showing a rapid increase. The extraor-
dinary contrast between the annual product of gold prior to and
after 1850 deserves a diagram ;

World's annual product of gold, 1493 to 1850. — — «

World's annual product of gold, 1850 to 1893. _^__^^^— i—

Total product, 1493 to 1860, $3,158,233,000. ^^^^^^^^-^—

Total product, 1850 to 1893, $5,240,878,000. ^— — — i— — ^— — ~

It is therefore difficult to imagine that gold has appreciated
fifty per cent, or to any other extent, in the face of this wonderful
and continuous production.! The facts above stated — its standing
relative to labor, land, and commodities not greatly affected by
modern conditions, the economy in its use effected by banks and
checks, and its novel rate of production — lead me, on the contrary,
to think that since 1845 gold has suffered a slight decline, some-

* Mulhall, History of Prices, p. 11. "Notwithstanding the great increase which has
taken place in the means of all classes during the interval, the average Englishman of the
present day consumes less gold than the Englishman of fifty years back." (J. E. Caimes,
Essays, p. 134.) M. Chevalier likewise finds a decrease in the consumption of gold for
tableware purposes during the present century, both in England and France.

f J. E. Cairnes (Essays, p. 115) states the gold production of the three hundred and
fifty-six years from 1492 to 1848 to have been, in round numbers, £400,000,000 — an
amount nearly supplied, as he states, every decade at the present rate of production.

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF GOLD. 47

thing like twenty-five per cent.* The decline was much dis-
cussed and feared about 1855, owing to the then novel rate of pro-
duction ; but men get used to all wonderful things, and cease to
consider what they get used to. Nevertheless, the force of vast
production continues to operate year after year.f

So much for the past of gold ; now for its future. In 1877 Dr.
Suess, of Austria, an eminent geologist, startled the economic and
financial world by proving to his own satisfaction that the world's
production of gold was destined to decrease and in no very long
time to become insignificant. His theory was based on the fact
that gold, being one of the heaviest metals, would naturally, dur-
ing the molten period of the earth, have sunk very far from the
surface — too far to be mined successfully. This theory, though
not corroborated by any direct or historical evidence, obtained
considerable currency, and was an important factor in promoting
the sentiment for bimetallism.

Like the other scientific theory that no man could ride a two-
wheeled vehicle because of the perpetual tendency to fall over,
and another, supposed to be based on the laws of motion, that a
ball-pitcher could not " curve " a baseball, this theory has proved
to have no foundation in fact. It is now evident that the produc-
tion of gold for the next fifty years will be altogether unprece-
dented. This production has been vigorously stimulated by fresh
discoveries of mines, by new and cheap mining processes, and by
the fall of silver, leading miners to pay greater attention to the
other metal. The operation of the latter factor is best seen in

* M. Chevalier, in his once celebrated book on the Depreciation of Gold, says that since
1492 silver has fallen in the ratio of six to one and gold four to one — i. e., that gold is
worth only twenty-five per cent what it was in 1492.

f In volume clviii of the North American Review, p. 464 (April, 1894), President E. B.
Andrews, of Brown University, asserts that "it is universally admitted that since 1873
there has been an extraordinary appreciation of gold." This is a very easy way to settle
a question. For my part I do not think there is much more evidence of a rise since
1873 than since 1845. Land has risen, wages have risen, cheese, butter, eggs, beef, and
many other commodities have risen, and interest has fallen — all going to show that gold
has continued to fall. The only commodities which have fallen greatly are those like iron,
in which great inventions have been made, tending to reduce the cost of production, or,
like coal, where the extension and improvement of railways, canals, and telegraphs have
quickened and cheapened transportation. The Suez Canal, Indian railways, and western
railroad building in the United States have naturally had a profound effect on the prices of
wheat, corn, and cotton. In Mr. Atkinson's article, above referred to, this claim of an ap-
preciation of gold since 1873 is not admitted, but controverted. Instead of being "uni-
versally admitted," this alleged appreciation is, in my opinion, generally denied by the best
authorities on the subject, among whom Mr. Atkinson stands high. It is true, however,
that gold has not depreciated since 1873 so fast as in the fifties. The reason is not far to
seek. The production of the Californian period was extremely sensational, so long as it
was new, and led men to fear that gold would be a dmg in the market — thus *' bearing "
the price of gold.

48 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Colorado, wliere the production of gold rose from $5,300,000 in
1892 to $7,527,000 in 1893, and to about $12,000,000 in 1894. The
production for 1895 in Colorado is confidently expected to reach
$20,000,000. The Director of the Mint is of opinion that the pro-
duction of the United States rose from $33,014,981 in 1892 to about
$39,500,000 in 1894, while other good authorities put the produc-
tion for 1894 at $50,000,000. The annual product of other great
producing countries shows a large increase of late years. In his
notable article in the North American Review,* Mr. Preston
states that the world's production of gold for 1893 was "the largest
in history, amounting in round numbers to $155,522,000." The
product for 1894, however, very largely exceeded — probably by
twenty-five per cent — the product of 1893. There is scarcely any
assignable limit to the gold known to exist in the world or even
in the United States. It is said that simply by the removal of
the restrictions on hydraulic mining California can produce half
a billion of gold. The quantity easily obtainable in Colorado is
stupendous. Other parts of the United States are also rich, while
Australia and Russia probably possess a stock equal to our own,
and are increasing the annual output every year.

But the most surprising and, so to speak, revolutionary facts
regarding gold that have recently come to light are those con-
cerning the great Witwatersrandt mines of South Africa. There
gold is found in enormous quantities and in a cheaply workable
form in a new geological situation — " in strata the component
parts of which are pieces of quartz held together by a clayey
cement." A part of this tract — about one fifth of the whole — has
been separately explored by a mining expert sent by the German
Government and by a distinguished American mining engineer,
Mr. Hamilton Smith. Each of these gentlemen concluded that
the minimum amount of gold obtainable from the tract surveyed
was upward of a billion dollars. These mines began production
in 1887, when their product was about $500,000. In 1893 it was
nearly $30,000,000. It is therefore not hazardous to predict that
from this one mine will come in the near future enough gold to
double the total existing stock of about $4,000,000,000.

There is therefore, in my opinion, not the slightest fear of an
appreciation of gold arising from its scarcity. It is as certain as
anything can well be that the abundance of gold will be such as
not only to prevent a rise in its value, but materially to accelerate
its fall. It is not probable that the increased production will be
relatively as great as that of the Calif ornian period ; but the ab-
solute increase may well be larger, and it would not be surprising
to see an annual production of $300,000,000 worth of gold by the

* January, 1895, p. 46.

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 49

end of this century. The real danger is that gold will fall so
much as to cause a contraction of credits ; for no one will volun-
tarily give credit in a falling commodity or depreciating money
standard. As the greater part of the world's business is done on
credit, this possibility is most serious. It would be difficult to
borrow large sums on long time for the construction of railways
and other great works if capitalists were convinced that after ten
or twenty years they would receive in full payment of a dollar of
the present value of one hundred cents a dollar of the value of
seventy-five cents.

Probably, however, the world will soon get used to the great
increase in gold production, and cease to pay any attention to it,
as was the case in the Californian period. Now, as then, we may
expect that the vast gold production now going on will result in
a rise of the general price level, in wages, and in the great relief
of the debtor class. Barring the possibility of foolish experi-
ments in currency legislation, which, in spite of much noise in
irresponsible quarters, is but small, we are entering on an era of
great prosperity, where all business will sail along triumphantly
on an ever-rising tide of gold.

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

Vn.— JUDGE AND LAWYER.
By HEEBERT SPENCER.

IN the preceding division of this work, and more particularly
in § 529, it was shown that in early societies such regulation
of conduct as is effected by custom, and afterward by that hard-
ened form of custom called law, originates in the expressed or im-
plied wills of ancestors — primarily those of the undistinguished
dead, and secondarily those of the distinguished dead. Regard
for the wishes of deceased relatives greatly influences actions
among ourselves, and it influences them far more among savage
and semi-civilized peoples ; because such peoples think that the
spirits of the deceased are either constantly at hand or occasion-
ally return, and in either case will, if made angry, punish the
survivors by disease or misfortune. When, in the course of so-
cial development, there arise chiefs of unusual power, or con-
quering kings, the belief that their ghosts will wreak terrible ven-
geance on those who disregard their injunctions becomes a still
more potent controlling agency ; so that to regulation of con-
duct by customs inherited from ancestors at large, and ordinarily
enforced by the living ruler, there comes to be added regulation
by the transmitted commands of the dead ruler.

VOL. XLVIII. — 4

50 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Hence originates that early conception of law which long con-
tinues with slowly increasing modification, and which, in our
day, still survives in those who hold that Right means "that
which is ordered " — firstly, by a revelation from God, and second-
ly by god-appointed or god-approved kings. For the theological
view implies that governments in general exist by divine permis-
sion, and that their dictates have consequently a divine sanction.
In the absence of a utilitarian justification which only gradually
emerges in the minds of thinking men, there of course exists for
law no other justification than that of being supernaturally de-
rived— first of all directly and afterward indirectly.

It follows, therefore, that primitive law, formed out of trans-
mitted injunctions, partly of ancestry at large and partly of the
distinguished ancestor or deceased ruler, comes usually to be
enunciated by those who were in contact with the ruler — those
who, first of all as attendants communicated his commands to his
subjects, and who afterward, ministering to his apotheosized
ghost, became (some of them) his priests. Naturally these last,
carrying on the worship of him in successive generations, grow
into exponents of his will ; both as depositories of his original
commands and as mouth-pieces through whom the commands of
his spirit are communicated. By necessity, then, the primitive
priests are distinguished as those who above all others know
what the law is, and as those to whom, therefore, all questions
about transgressions are referred — the judges.

In small rude societies judicial systems have not arisen, and
hence there is little evidence. Still we read that among the Gui-
ana Indians the Pe-i-men are at once priests, sorcerers, doctors,
and judges. Concerning the Kalmucks, who are more advanced,
Pallas tells us that the highest judicial council consisted partly
of priests, and also that one of the high-priests of the community
was head- judge.

Though among the semi-civilized Negro races of Africa, theo-
logical development has usually not gone far enough to establish
the cult of a great god or gods, yet among them may be traced the
belief that conduct is to be regulated by the wills of supernatural
beings, who are originally the ghosts of the distinguished dead ;
and in pursuance of this belief the ministrants of such ghosts
come to be the oracles. Thus Lander tells us that " in Badagry
the fetich-priests are the sole judges of the people." Cameron
describes a sitting of Mganga, chief medicine man at Kow^di.
After the chief's wife had made presents and received replies to
her inquiries others inquired.

Questions were " put by the public, some of which were quickly disposed
of, while others evidently raised knotty points, resulting in much gesticula-

PROFJEJSSIONAL INSTITUTIOJ^S. 51

tion and oratory. When tlie Waganga [apparently the plural of Mganga]
pretended they could not find an answer the idols were consulted, and one
of the fetich men who was a clever ventriloquist made the necessary reply,
the poor dupes believing it to be spoken by the idol."

Of ancient historic evidence readers will at once recall that
which the Hebrews yield.

There is in the Bible clear proof that the ideas of law and of
divine will were equivalents. Their equivalence is shown alike
in the bringing down of the tables from Sinai and in the elaborate
code of regulations for life contained in Leviticus-, where the
rules even for diet, agricultural operations, and commercial trans-
actions, are set down as prescribed by God. Still more specific
evidence, elucidating both the general theory of law and the func-
tions of the priestly class, is supplied by the following passages
from Deuteronomy: —

" If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood
and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being
matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get
thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose ; and thou
shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in
those days, and inquire ; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judg-
ment; and thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that
place which the Lord shall choose shall shew thee."
Moreover, beyond the often recurring injunction to " inquire of
the Lord," we have the example furnished by the authority and
actions of Samuel, who, dedicated to him from childhood was a
" prophet of the Lord," who as a priest built an altar, and, as we
see in the case of Agag, was the medium through whom God con-
veyed his commands, and who played the part of both judge and
executioner.

Of course we may expect that Egypt with its long history fur-
nishes good evidence, and we find it. Here are relative facts from
three authorities — Bunsen, Brugsch, and Erman.

" That the oldest laws were ascribed to Hermes, implies however noth-
ing more than that the first germ of the civil law sprung from the Sacred
Books, and that it was based in part upon the religious tenets which they
contained."

Mentu-hotep, a priest and official of the 12th dyn., on his tomb,
"prides himself on having been 'a man learned in the law, a legis-
lator.'"

" The chief judge was always of highest degree; if he was not one of the
king's own sons, he was chief priest of one of the great gods, an hereditary
prince."

"All the judges of higher rank served Mo'at, the goddess of Truth, as
priests, and the chief judge wore a small figure of this goddess as a badge
round his neck."

A court which held a sitting in the 46 of Ramses H consisted of 9 priests

52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

(prophets and priests) and one lay member, the registrar. But in another
case (Ramses IX) the lay element preponderated.

Which last statement implies a step toward differentiation of
the secular from the sacred in local administration.

To tlie circumstance that the Greek States did not become
fully united has already been ascribed the fact that the Greek
priesthood never became a hierarchy. Says Thirl wall — "the
Greek priests never formed one organized body . . . even within
the same State they were not incorporated." Hence the normal
development of sundry professions is less distinctly to be traced.
Nevertheless the relation between the priestly and the judicial
functions is visible in a rudimentary, if not in a developed, form.
Among the Greeks, as among the Hebrews, it was the habit in
cases of doubt to " inquire of the Lord " ; and the oracular utter-
ance embodying the will of a god was made by a priest or priest-
ess. Moreover, the circumstance that Greek laws were called
themistes or utterances of the goddess Themis, as the mouthpiece
of Zeus, shows that among the early Greeks, as among other peo-
ples, a law and a divine fiat were the same thing. That systems
of law were regarded as of supernatural origin, is also evidenced
by the code of Lycurgus. Says Hase : — " The origin of his code
was religious. A declaration of the Delphic god contains the
fundamental principles of the measures by which he reconciled
the rival claims " [of the Spartans]. That the non-development
of a legal class out of a priestly class followed from the lack of
development of the priestly class itself, seems in some measure
implied by the following extract from Thirlwall : —

" The priestly oflBce in itself involved no civil exemptions or disabilities,
and was not thought to unfit the person who filled it for discharging the
duties of a senator, a judge, or a warrior. . . . But the care of a temple
often required the continual residence and presence of its ministers."
Possibly the rise of priest-lawyers, impeded by this local fixity
and by want of co-operative organization among priests, may
have been also impeded by the independence of the Greek nature ;
which, unlike Oriental natures, did not readily submit to the ex-
tension of sacerdotal control over civil affairs.

How priestly and legal functions were mingled among the early
Romans is shown by the two following extracts from Duruy : —

The patricians "held the priesthood and the auspices; they were priests,
augurs, and judges, and they carefully hid from the eyes of the people the
mysterious formulae of public worship and of jurisprudence."

The " servile attachment to legal forms [which characterized the early
Romans] came from the religious character of the law and from the belief
imposed by the doctrine of augury, that the least inadvertence in the
accomplishment of rites was sufficient to alienate the goodwill of the gods."
It seems probable, indeed, that legal procedure consisted in part
of ceremonies originally devotional, by which the god Numa was

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 53

to be propitiated, and that the complex symbolic actions used
were superposed. For of the judges, who "sat only on days fixed
by the secret calendar of the pontiffs," it is said that "they did
not admit the litigants to set forth simply the matters in dispute ;
mysterious formulae, gestures, and actions were necessary/' In
further evidence of this priestly character of the judicial admin-
istration is the following statement of Professor W. A. Hunter : —

'' Pomponius, in his brief account of the history of Eoman Law, informs
us that the custody of the XII Tables, the exclusive knowledge of the
forms of procedure (Jtegis actiones), and the right of interpreting the law,
belonged to the College of Pontiffs."
And Mommsen tells us in other words the same thing.

But while we here see, as we saw in the cases of other early
peoples, that the priest, intimately acquainted with the injunc-
tions of the god, and able to get further intimations of his will,
consequently became the fountain of law, and therefore the judge
respecting breaches of law, we do not find evidence that in ancient
Rome, any more than in Greece, Egypt, or Palestine, the advocate
was of priestly origin. Contrariwise we find evidence that among
these early civilized peoples, as at the present time among some
peoples who have become civilized enough to have legal pro-
cedures, the advocate is of lay origin. Marsden says that in
Sumatra —

"the plaintiff and defendant usually plead their own cause, but if circum-
stances render them unequal to it, they are allowed to pinjam mulut (bor-
row a mouth). Tbeir advocate may be a proattin^ or other person indif-
ferently ; nor is there any stated compensation for tbe assistance, though
if the cause be gained, a gratuity is generally given."
So, too, from Parkyns we learn that the Abyssinians have a sort
of lawyers — merely " an ordinary man with an extraordinary gift
of the gab. These men are sometimes employed by the disputants
in serious cases, but not invariably.'' Indeed, it must everywhere
have happened in early stages when litigants usually stated their
respective cases, that sometimes one or other of them asked a
friend to state his case for him ; and a spokesman who became
noted for skill in doing this would be employed by others, and
eventually a present to him would become a fee. It was thus
among the Romans. After knowledge of the Twelve Tables had
been diffused, and after the secrets of legal procedure had been
disclosed by a secretary of Appius Claudius, there grew up a class
of men, the jurisconsulti, learned in the law, who gave their ad-
vice, and also, later, advocates distinguished by their oratorical
powers, who, as among ourselves, were furnished with materials
and suggestions by lawyers of lower grade.

The superposing of civilizations and of religions throughout
Northern Europe after Roman days, complicated the relations

54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

between religion and law, and between those who administered
them. Nevertheless, the evidence everywhere points to the con-
clusion we have already reached.

Beginning with heathen times there may be put first the facts
which Sir George Dasent gives us respecting the ancient Norse.
He writes : —

The priest *' was the only civil, just as he was the only religious author-
ity— minister and magistrate in one."

" In trials ... it fell on him [the priest] to name the judges, and to
superintend the proceedings."

But it seems that even in those rude days there had come into ex-
istence non-clerical advocates.

*' There were the lawmen or lawyers (logmenn), a class which we shall
find still flourishing in the time of which our Saga tells. They were pri-
vate persons, invested with no official character." "They seem to have
been simply law-skilled men, * counsel ' to whom men in need of advice
betook themselves."

In harmony with these statements are those made by an au-
thority respecting Old-English institutions, Mr. Gomme. He
says —

'* We learn from the historians of Saxony that the ' Frey Feldgericht ' of
Corbey was, in pagan times, under the supremacy of the priests of the
Eresburgh."

*' There can be little doubt that the church or temple of primitive so-
ciety was the self- same spot as the assembly -place of the people and the
court of justice."

In support of this last conclusion it may be remarked that as in
early times gatherings for worship afforded occasions for trad-
ing, so they also afforded occasions for legal settlements of dis-
putes ; and further that the use of the sacred edifice for this pur-
pose (as among the Babylonians) was congruous with the concep-
tion, everywhere anciently entertained, that legal proceedings
tacitly or avowedly invoked divine interposition — tacitly in the
taking of an oath and avowedly in trial by judicial combat.

The conquest of northern heathenism by Christianity gradu-
ally led to subjugation of the heathen system of law by the sys-
tem of law the Church imposed — partly its own, the canon law,
and partly that inherited from Roman civilization, the civil
law. The rules of conduct which, transmitted from the heathen
priesthood, had become the common law, were in large meas-
ure overridden by the rules of conduct which the Christian
priesthood either enacted or adopted. In early English days
lay and clerical magnates co-operated in the local courts: laws
derived from the old religion and from the new religion were
jointly enforced.

" The clergy, in particular, as they then engrossed almost every other
branch of learning, so (like their predecessors, the British Druids), they

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 5^

were peculiarly remarkable for their proficiency in the study of the law.
. . . The judges therefore were usually created out of the sacred order, as
was likewise the case among the Normans ; and all the inferior ofiBces
were supplied by the lower clergy, which has occasioned their successors
to be denominated clerks to this day."

But with the growth of papal power a change began. As writes
the author just quoted, Stephen —

" It soon became an established maxim in the papal system of policy, that
all ecclesiastical persons, and all ecclesiastical causes, should be solely and
entirely subject to ecclesiastical jurisdiction only.''

After the conquest, when shoals of foreign clergy came over, and
when they and the pre-existing monastic clergy were bribed
by endowments to support the Conqueror, the papal policy pre-
vailed so far as to separate the ecclesiastical court from the
civil court ; after which " the Saxon laws were soon overborne
by the Norman justiciaries." In subsequent reigns, according
to Hallam —

" the clergy combined its study \i. e., the Roman law] with that of their
own canons ; it was a maxim that every canonist must be a civilian, and
that no one could be a good civilian unless he were also a canonist."
Along with acceptance of the doctrine that the Christian high
priest, the pope, was an oracle through whom God spoke, there
was established in Christendom a theory of law like that held by
ancient peoples : laws were divine dicta and priests divinely au-
thorized interpreters of them. Under these circumstances the
ecclesiastical courts extended their jurisdiction to secular causes ;
until, gradually, the secular courts were almost deprived of
power : the removal of criminal clerics from secular jurisdiction
and the penalty of excommunication on those who in any serious
way opposed the clerical power, being of course efficient weapons.
The condition of things then existing is well shown by the fol-
lowing statement of Prof. Maitland : —

" If we look back to Richard I.'s reign we may see, as the highest tem-
poral court of the realm, a court chiefly composed of ecclesiastics, presided
over by an archbishop, who is also Chief Justiciar; he will have at his side
two or three bishops, two or three archdeacons, and but two or three lay-
men. The greatest judges even of Henry III.'s reign are ecclesiastics,
though by this time it has become scandalous for a bishop to do much sec-
ular justice."

Not only were priests the judges and the interpreters of law,
but they at one time discharged subordinate legal functions. In
Germany, according to Stolzel, the notarial profession was in the
hands of ecclesiastics. France, during the 13th century, furnished
like evidence. Clerics played the parts of procureurs or attorneys,
according to Fournier, who says : —

" les ecclesiastiques ne pouvait, en principe, accepter ces fonctions que pour
representer les pauvres, les eglises, ou dans les causes spirituelles. "

$6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

So, too, was it with the function of advocate. Sainte Palaye
writes —

" Loisel . . . remarks that in the time of Philip [the Fair] and since, the
best of them were ' ecclesiastical persons instructed in the Canon and Civil
Law, learning practice chiefly by the decretals.' "

However, according to Fournier, this function was limited to cer-
tain cases —

" le pretre ne pent exercer les fonctions d'avocat si ce n'est au profit de son
Eglise et des pauvres, et sans recevoir de salaire."

But in England, when ecclesiastics had been forbidden by the
pope to make their appearance in secular courts, it appears that
they evaded the prohibition by disguising themselves.

"Sir H. Spelman conjectures (Glossar. 335), that coifs were introduced
to hide the tonsure of such renegade clerks, as were still tempted to remain
in the secular courts in the quality of advocates or judges, notwithstanding
their prohibition by canon."

From which it would seem that the " renegade clerks " became
barristers who personally received the profits of their advocacy.

By what steps the complete secularization of the legal class
was effected in England, it does not here concern us to ascertain.
It suffices to observe the state of things now arrived at.

So long have our judges ceased to display any clerical attri-
butes, that now, to the ordinary citizen, the statement that they
were once priests is surprising. If there remains any trace of the
original condition of things, it is only in such a fact as that the
Archbishop of Canterbury retains the power of conferring the de-
gree of Doctor of Civil Law ; which degree, however, is one cover-
ing only a restricted sphere of practice. But, while, save perhaps
in observance of certain ceremonies and seasons, separation of
judicial functionaries from clerical functionaries has long been
complete, separation of certain areas of jurisdiction has taken
place quite recently. Until some five and thirty years ago eccle-
siastical courts still had jurisdiction over some secular matters —
testamentary and matrimonial ; but they were then deprived of
this jurisdiction, and retained none save over affairs within the
Church itself.

In conformity with the usual course of things, while the legal
profession has been differentiating from the ecclesiastical, there
have been going on differentiations within the legal profession
itself. Originally, beyond the judge and the two suitors there
occasionally existed only the advocate — a functionary who, be-
coming established, presently rendered his services to defendants
as well as to plaintiffs. Gradually these ancillary agencies have
complicated ; until now there are various classes and sub- classes
of those who conduct legal proceedings.

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 57

The original body of them has separated itself primarily into
two great divisions — those directly concerned in carrying on
causes in law-courts and those indirectly concerned who prepare
the cases, collect evidence, summon witnesses, etc. Within the
first of these classes has arisen a partial distinction between those
whose business is mainly in courts and those whose business is
mainly in chambers ; and there are further segregations deter-
mined by the different courts in which the pleadings are carried
on. To which add the cross-division of this class into Queen's
Counsel or leaders, and ordinary barristers or juniors. Then in
the accessory class — lawyers commonly so-called — we have the
distinction, once well recognised, between attorneys and solic-
itors, arising from the separate divisions of jurisprudence with
which they were concerned, but which has now lapsed. And we
have various miscellaneous subdivisions partially established, as
of those mainly concerned with litigious matter and those mainly
concerned with non-litigious matter ; of those who transact busi-
ness directly and of those who act for others ; those who are par-
liamentary agents ; and so on.

In their general character, if not in their details, the facts now
to be named will be anticipated by the reader. He will look for
illustrations of the integrating tendency, and he will not be mis-
taken in so doing.

Very soon after the divergence of the legal class from the
clerical class had commenced, there arose some union among
members of the legal class. Thus we read that in France —
"En 1274, le concile de Lyon, dans quelques dispositions relatives aux pro-
cureurs, les met a peu pres sur le meme pied que les avocats. C'est que d^s
lors les procureurs forment une corporation qui se gouveme sous I'autorite
des Juges d'Eglise."

In England also it appears that the two processes began almost
simultaneously. When the deputies of the king in his judicial
capacity ceased to be wholly nomadic, and fixed courts of justice
were established at Westminster, the advocates, who were before
dispersed about the kingdom, began to aggregate in London,
where, as Stephen says, they " naturally fell into a kind of col-
legiate order." Hence resulted the Inns of Court, in which lec-
tures were read and eventually degrees given: the keeping of
terms being for a long time the only requirement, and the pass-
ing of an examination having but recently become a needful
qualification for a call to the bar. Within this aggregate, consti-
tuting the collegiate body, we have minor divisions — the benchers
who are its governors, the barristers, and the students. This pro-
cess of incorporation began before the reign of Edward I; and
while certain of the inns, devoted to that kind of law which has

58 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

now ceased to be marked off, have dwindled away, the others still
form the centres of integration for the higher members of the
legal profession.

Then we come to the lower members, who in early days be-
came incorporated.

" It was ordained by stat. 4 Henry IV. c. 18, that all attornies should be
examined by the justices, and by their discretions their names should be
put in a roll: they were to be good and virtuous, and of good fame. ^"^

Other groupings of more modern and less coherent kinds have
to be named. There is the Bar Committee, serving as an organ
for the practising barristers; and there are the relatively vague
unions of barristers who go the same circuits. For solicitors
there is in London a central Law Society, along with which may
be named Law Societies in leading provincial districts ; and there
are also various benevolent associations formed within these
larger bodies.

Nor let us omit to notice how in this case, as in all cases, the
process of integration has been accompanied by progress in defi-
niteness. Early in its history the body of barristers separated
itself by its regulations from the trading community ; and then,
more recently, it has increased its distinctness of demarcation by
excluding those not adequately instructed. So too, with the body
of solicitors. This has fenced itself round by certain regulations
respecting admission, conduct, and practice, in such wise that by
striking off the rolls those who have not conformed to the rules
complete precision is given to the limits of the body.

And then, as serving to hold together these larger and smaller
definitely consolidated aggregates, we have various periodicals —
several weekly law-journals, and now also a law-quarterly.

A CURIOUS case of dual consciousness is recorded in the English journal
Brain, by Dr. Lewis C. Bruce, late of the Derby Borough Lunatic Asylum.
Deterioration is going on in the brain of the patient, but at different rates in
the two lobes. Sometimes the right side alone acts ; and then the patient
talks Welsh, takes little interest in life, does not care for money or tobacco
or for anything but his food, is left-handed, and is almost idiotic. When
that side of the brain is inert and the left side is acting, the patient speaks
chiefly English, is eager for money and tobacco, being even almost ready
to steal them, and is right-handed. For a short interval between these
two conditions, he mingles Welsh and English words, uses both hands,
and is about halfway active. Of specimens of his handwriting in both
stages, the Welsh can hardly be read and goes from right to left, while the
English is legible, from left to right, and is generally normal. In either
stage he seems to have no knowledge of what has passed in the other.
The case seems to suggest that the two sides of the brain may have action
independently of one another, and may be organs of communication with
the external world of often very different degrees of power.

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY, 59

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY.*

By DANIEL G. BRINTON.

A MODERN philosopher has advanced the maxim that what
is first in thought is last in expression, illustrating it by
the rules of grammar, which are present even in unwritten lan-
guages, whose speakers have no idea of syntax or parts of
speech.

It may be that this is the reason why man, who has ever been
the most important creature to himself in existence, has never
seriously and to the best of his abilities made a study of his own
nature, its wants and its weaknesses, and how best he could sat-
isfy the one and amend the other.

The branch of human learning which undertakes to do this is
one of the newest of the sciences ; in fact, it has scarcely yet
gained admission as a science at all, and is rather looked upon as
a dilettante occupation, suited to persons of elegant leisure and re-
tired old gentlemen, and without any very direct or visible prac-
tical applications or concern with the daily affairs of life.

It is with the intention of correcting this prevalent impres-
sion that I address you to-day. My endeavor will be to point out
both the immediate and remote aims of the science of anthro-
pology, and to illustrate by some examples the bearings they
have, or surely soon will have, on the thoughts and acts of civi-
lized communities and intelligent individuals.

It is well at the outset to say that I use the term anthropology
in the sense in which it has been adopted by this association — that
is, to include the study of the whole of man, his psychical as well
as his physical nature, and the products of all his activities,
whether in the past or in the present. By some writers, es-
pecially on the Continent of Europe, the term anthropology is
restricted to what we call physical anthropology or somatology, a
limitation of the generic term which we can not but deplore.
Others again, and some of worthy note, would exclude from it
the realm of history, confining it in time to the research of pre-
historic epochs, and in extent, to the investigation of savage
nations.

I can not too positively protest against such opinions. Thus
"cabined, cribbed, confined," it could never soar to that lofty
eminence whence it could survey the whole course of the life of
the species, note the development of its inborn tendencies, and
mark the lines along which it has been moving since the first

* Address of the retiring president of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, delivered at Springfield, Mass., August 29, 1895.

6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

syllables of recorded time ; for this, and nothing less than this,
is the bold ambition toward which aspires this crowning bough
of the tree of human knowledge.

You will readily understand from this the magnitude of the
material which anthropology includes within its domain. First,
it investigates the physical life of man in all its stages and in
every direction. While he is still folded in the womb, it watches
his embryonic progress through those lower forms, which seem
the reminiscences of far-off stages of the evolution of the species,
until the child is born into the world, endowed with the heritage
transmitted from innumerable ancestors and already rich in per-
sonal experiences from its prenatal life. These combined decide
the individual's race and strain, and potently incline, if they do
not absolutely coerce, his tastes and ambitions, his fears and
hopes, his failure or success.

On the differences thus brought about, and later nourished by
the environment, biology, as applied to the human species, is
based ; and on them as expressed in aggregates, ethnography, the
separation of the species into its subspecies and smaller groups,
is founded. It has been observed that numerous and persistent
although often slight differences arose in remote times, independ-
ently, on each of the great continental areas, sufficient to charac-
terize with accuracy these subspecies. We therefore give to
such the terms " races " or " varieties " of man.

All these are the physical traits of men. They are studied by
the anatomist, the embryologist, the physician; and the closest
attention to them is indispensable if we would attain a correct
understanding of the creature man and his position in the chain
of organic life.

But there is another vast field of study wholly apart from
this and even more fruitful in revelations. It illustrates man's
mental or psychical nature, his passions and instincts, his emo-
tions and thoughts, his powers of ratiocination, volition, and ex-
pression. These are preserved and displayed subjectively in his
governments and religions, his laws and his languages, his words
and his writings, and, objectively, in his manufactures and struc-
tures, in the environment which he himself creates — in other
words, in all that which we call the arts, be they " hooked to some
useful end " or designed to give pleasure only.

It is not sufficient to study these as we find them in the pres-
ent. We should learn little by such a procedure. What we are
especially seeking is to discover their laws of growth, and this
can only be done by tracing these outward expressions of the in-
ward faculties step by step back to their incipiency. This leads
us inevitably to that branch of learning which is known as
archaeology, " the study of ancient things," and more and more

TEE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 61

to that part of archaeology called prehistoric, for that concerns
itself with the most ancient ; and the most ancient is the simplest,
and the simplest is the most transparent, and therefore the most
instructive.

Prehistoric archaeology is a new science. I can remember
when neither its name nor its methods were known to the most
learned anthropologists. But it has already taught us by incon-
trovertible arguments a wonderful truth — a truth opposing and
reducing to naught many teachings of the sages and seers of past
generations. They imagined that the primal man had fallen from
some high estate ; that he had forfeited by his own falseness, or
been driven by some hard fate, from a pristine paradise, an Eden
garden, an Arcadia ; that his ancestors were demigods and heroes,
himself their degenerate descendant.

How has prehistoric archaeology reversed this picture ? We
know beyond cavil or question that the earliest was also the
lowest man, the most ignorant, the most brutish, naked, homeless,
half speechless. But the gloom surrounding this distant back-
ground of the race is relieved by rays of glory, for with knowl-
edge not less positive are we assured that through all hither time,
through seeming retrogressions and darkened epochs, the advance
of the race in the main toward a condition better by every stand-
ard has been certain and steady, " ne'er known retiring ebb, but
kept due on."

Archaeology, however, is, after all, a dealing with dry bones, a
series of inferences from inanimate objects. The color and the
warmth of life it never has. How can we divine the real mean-
ing of the fragments and ruins, the forgotten symbols and the
perished gods, it shows us ?

The means has been found, and this through a discovery little
less than marvelous, the most pregnant of all that anthropology
has yet offered, not yet appreciated even by the learned. This
discovery is that of the physical unity of man, the parallelism of
his development everywhere and in all time ; any, more, the nigh
absolute uniformity of his thoughts and actions, his aims and
methods, when in the same degree of development, no matter
where he is or in what epoch living. Scarcely anything but his
geographical environment, using that term in its larger sense,
seems to modify the monotonous sameness of his creations.

I shall refer more than once to this discovery, for its full recog-
nition is the corner stone of true anthropology. In this connec-
tion I refer to it for its application to archaeology. It teaches us
this : That when we find a living nation of low culture we are
safe in taking its modes of thought and feeling as analogous to
those of extinct tribes whose remains show them to have been in
about the same stage of culture.

62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This emphasizes the importance of a prolonged and profound
investigation of the few savage tribes who still exist, for, al-
though none of them is as rude or as brutelike as primitive man,
they stand nearest to his condition, and, moreover, so rapid now-
adays is the extension of culture that probably not one of them
will remain untouched by its presence another score of years.

Another discovery, also very recent, has enabled us to throw
light on the prehistoric or forgotten past. "We have found that
much of it, thought to be long since dead, is still alive and in our
midst, under forms easily enough recognized when our attention
is directed to them. This branch of anthropology is known as
folklore. It investigates the stories, the superstitions, the beliefs,
and customs which prevail among the unlettered, the isolated, and
the young ; for these are nothing less than survivals of the my-
thologies, the legal usages, and the sacred rites of earlier genera-
tions. It is surprising to observe how much of the past we have
been able to reconstruct from this humble and long-neglected
material.

From what I have already said, you will understand some of
the aims of anthropology, those which I will call its " immediate "
aims. They are embraced in the collection of accurate informa-
tion about man and men, about the individual and the group, as
they exist now and as they have existed at any and all times in
the past, here where we are and on every continent and island
of the globe.

We desire to know about a man his weight and his measure,
the shape of his head, the color of his skin, and the curl of his
hair ; we would pry into all his secrets and his habits, discover
his deficiencies and debilities, learn his language, and inquire
about his politics and his religion — yes, probe those recesses of his
body and his soul which he conceals from wife and brother. This
we would do with every man and every woman, and, not content
with the doing it, we would register all these facts in tables and
columns, so that they should become perpetual records, to which
we give the name " vital statistics."

The generations of the past escape such personal investigation,
but not our pursuit. We rifle their graves, measure their skulls,
and analyze their bones ; we carry to our museums the utensils
and weapons, the gods and jewels, which sad and loving hands
laid beside them ; .we dig up the foundations of their houses and
cart off the monuments which their proud kings set up. Nothing
is sacred to us; and yet nothing to us is vile or worthless. The
broken potsherd, with half-gnawed bone, cast on the refuse heap,
conveys a message to us more pregnant with meaning, more in-
dicative of what the people were, than the boastful inscription
which, their king caused to be engraved on royal marble.

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY, 63

This gleaning and gathering, this collecting and storing of
facts about man from all quarters of the world and all epochs of
his existence, is the first and indispensable aim of anthropologic
science. It is pressing and urgent beyond all other aims at this
period of its existence as a science, for here more than elsewhere
we feel the force of the Hippocratic warning that the time is
short and the opportunity fleeting. Every day there perish price-
less relics of the past, every year the languages, the habits, and
the modes of thought of the surviving tribes which represent the
earlier condition of the whole species are increasingly trans-
formed and lost through the extension of civilization. It devolves
on the scholars of this generation to be up and doing in these
fields of research, for those of the next will find many a chance
lost forever of which we can avail ourselves.

And here let me insert a few much-needed words of counsel on
this portion of my theme. Why is it that even in scientific circles
so little attention is paid to the proper training of observers and
collectors in anthropology ?

We erect stately museums, we purchase costly specimens, we
send out expensive expeditions ; but where are the universities,
the institutions of higher education, that train young men how to
observe, how to explore and collect in this branch ? As an emi-
nent ethnologist has remarked, in any other department of science —
in that, for instance, which deals with flowers or with butterflies —
no institution would dream of sending a collector into the field
who lacked all preliminary training in the line or knowledge of
it; but in anthropology the opinion seems universal that such
preparation is quite needless. Carlyle used to say that every
man feels himself competent to be a gentleman farmer or a crown
prince ; our institutions seem to think that every man is compe-
tent to be an anthropologist and archaeologist; and let a plausible
explorer present himself, the last question put to him will be
whether he has any fitness for the job.

Hence our museums are crammed with doubtful specimens,
vaguely located, and our volumes of travel with incomplete or
wholly incorrect statements, worse than purely fictitious ones,
because we know them to be the fruit of honest intentions, and
therefore give them credit.

But you will naturally ask. To what end this accumulating
and collecting, this filling of museums with the art products of
savages and the ghastly contents of charnel houses ? Why write
down their stupid stories and make notes of their obscene rites ?
When it shall be done, or as good as done, what use can be made
of them beyond satisfying a profitless curiosity ?

This leads me to explain another branch of anthropology to
which I have not yet alluded— one which introduces us to other

64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

aims of this science quite distinct from those I have mentioned.
That branch is ethnology.

Ethnology in its true sense represents the application of the
principles of inductive philosophy to the products of man's facul-
ties. You are aware that that philosophy proceeds from observed
facts alone ; it discards all preconceived opinions concerning these
facts ; it renounces all allegiance to dogma, or doctrine, or intui-
tion ; in short, to every form of statement that is not capable of
verification. Its method of procedure is by comparison — that is,
by the logical equations of similarity and diversity, of identity
and difference ; and on these it bases those generalizations which
range the isolated fact under the general law, of which it is at
once the exponent and the proof.

By such comparisons ethnology aims to define in clear terms
the influence which the geographical and other environment exer-
cises on the individual, the social group, and the race ; and, con-
versely, how much in each remains unaltered by the external
forces, and what residual elements are left, defiant of surround-
ings, wholly personal, purely human. Thus, rising to wider and
wider circles of observation and generalization, it will be able at
last to offer a conclusive and exhaustive connotation of what man
is — a necessary preliminary, mark you, to that other question, so
often and so ignorantly answered in the past, as to what he
should be.

Ethnology, however, does not and should not concern itself
with this latter inquiry. Its own field is broad enough and the
harvest offered is rich enough. Its materials are drawn from the
whole of history and from pre-history. Those writers who limit
its scope to the explanation of the phenomena of primitive social
life only have so done because these phenomena are simpler in
such conditions, not that the methods of ethnology are applicable
only to such. On the contrary, they are not merely suitable, they
are necessary to all the facts of history, if we would learn their
true meaning and import. The time will come, and that soon,
when sound historians will adopt as their guide the principles
and methods of ethnologic science, because by these alone can
they assign to the isolated fact its right place in the vast struc-
ture of human development.

In the past, histories have told of little but of kings and their
wars ; some writers of recent date have remembered that there is
such a thing as the people, and have essayed to present its hum-
ble annals ; but how few have even attempted to avail themselves
of the myriad of sidelights which ethnology can throw on the
motives and the manners of a people, its impulses and acquisi-
tions !

It is the constant aim of ethnology to present its results free

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 6s

from bias. It deprecates alike enthusiasm and antipathy. Like
Spinoza's god, nullum amat, nullum edit. Its aim is to compare
dispassionately all the acts and arts of man, his philosophies and
religions, his social schemes and personal plans, weighing and
analyzing them, separating the local and temporal in them from
the permanent and general, explaining the former by the condi-
tions of time and place, referring the latter to the category of
qualities which make up the oneness of humanity, the solid
ground on which he who hereafter builds "will build for aye."

This, then, briefly stated, is the aim of that department of
anthropology which we call ethnology. In yet fewer words, its
mission is "to define the universal in humanity," as distin-
guished from all those traits which are the products of fluctu-
ating environments.

This universal, however, is to be discovered, not assumed.
The fatal flaw in the arguments of most philosophers is that
they frame a theory of what man is and what are the laws of
his growth, and pile up proofs of these, neglecting the counter-
evidence, and passing in silence what contradicts their hypoth-
eses.

Take, for instance, the doctrine of evolution as applied to man.
It is not only a doctrine but a dogma with many scientists. They
look with theological ire on any one who questions it. I have
already said that in the long run and the general average it has
been true of man. But that we have any certainty that it will
continue true is a mistake ; or that it has been true of the vast
majority of individuals or ethnic groups is another mistake. As
the basis for a boastful and confident optimism it is as shaky as
sand. Taken at its real value, as the provisional and partial
result of our observations, it is a useful guide; but swallowed
with unquestioning faith as a final law of the universe, it is not
a whit more inspiring than the narrowest dogma of religious
bigotry.

We have no right, indeed, to assume that there is anything
universal in humanity until we have proved it. But this has been
done. Its demonstration is the last and greatest conquest of eth-
nology, and it is so complete as to be bewildering. It has been
brought about by the careful study of what are called " ethno-
graphic parallels " — that is, similarities or identities of laws, games,
customs, myths, arts, etc., in primitive tribes located far asunder
on the earth's surface. Able students, such as Bastian, Andree,
Post, Steinmetz, and others have collected so many of these paral-
lels, often of seemingly the most artificial and capricious charac-
ter, extending into such minute and apparently accidental details
from tribes almost antipodal to each other on the globe, that Dr.
Post does not hesitate to say : " Such results leave no room for

VOL. ILTIII. — 5

66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

doubt that the psychical faculties of the individual as soon as
they reach outward expression fall under the control of natural
laws as fixed as those of inorganic nature."

As the endless variety of arts and events in the culture history
of different tribes in different places, or of the same tribe at different
epochs, illustrates the variables in anthropologic science, so these
independent parallelisms prove beyond cavil the ever-present con-
stant in the problem — to wit, the one and unvarying psychical
nature of man, guided by the same reason, swept by the same
storms of passion and emotion, directed by the same will toward
the same goals, availing itself of the same means when they are
within reach, finding its pleasure in the same actions, lulling its
fears with the same sedatives.

The anthropologist of to-day who, like a late distinguished
scholar among ourselves, would claim that because the rather
complex social system of the Iroquois had a close parallel among
the Munda tribes of the Punjab, therefore the ancestors of each
must have come from a common culture center ; or who, like an
eminent living English ethnologist, sees a proof of Asiatic rela-
tions in American culture because the Aztec game of patolli is like
the East Indian game of parchesi — such an ethnologist, I say,
may have contributed ably to his science in the past, but he does
not know where it stands to-day. Its true position on this crucial
question is thus tersely and admirably stated by Dr. Steinmetz :
"The various customs, institutions, thoughts, etc., of different
peoples are to be regarded either as the expressions of the differ-
ent stadia of culture of our common humanity or as different
reactions of that common humanity under varying conditions and
circumstances. The one does not exclude the other. Therefore
the concordance of two peoples in a custom, etc., should be ex-
plained by borrowing or by derivation from a common source
only when there are special known and controlling reasons indi-
cating this ; and when these are absent, the explanation should be
either because the two peoples are on the same plane of culture or
because their surroundings are similar.''

This is true not only of the articles intended for use, to supply
the necessities of existence, as weapons and huts and boats — we
might anticipate that they would be something similar, otherwise
they would not serve the purpose everywhere in view ; but the
analogies are, if anything, still more close and striking when we
come to compare pure products of the fancy, creations of the
imagination or the emotions, such as stories, myths, and motives
of decorative art.

It has proved very difficult for the comparative mythologist
or the folklorist of the old school to learn that the same stories —
for instance, of the four rivers of Paradise, the flood, the ark, and

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 67

the patriarch who is saved in it — arose independently in western
Asia, in Mexico, and in South America, as well as in many inter-
vening places, alike even in details, and yet neither borrowed one
from the other nor yet drawn from a cpmmon source. But until
he understands this he has not caught up with the progress of
ethnologic science.

So it is also with the motives of primitive art, be they sym-
bolic or merely decorative. How many volumes have been writ-
ten tracing the migrations and connections of nations by the dis-
tribution of some art motive, say the svastika, the meander, or
the cross ! And how little of value is left in all such speculations
by the rigid analysis of primitive arts that we see in such works as
Dr. Grosse's Anf ange der Kunst, or Dr. Haddon's attractive mono-
graph on the Decorative Art of British New Guinea, published
last year ! The latter sums up in these few and decisive words
the result of such researches pursued on strictly inductive lines :
" The same processes operate on the art of decoration, whatever
the subject, wherever the country, whenever the age.'' This is
equally true of the myth and the folk tale, of the symbol and the
legend, of the religious ritual and the musical scale.

I have even attempted, 1 hope not rashly, to show that there
are quite a number of important words, in languages nowise re-
lated by origin and contact, which are phonetically the same or
similar, not of the mimetic class, but arising from certain common
relations of the x^hysiological function of language ; and I have
urged that words of this class should not be accounted of value in
studying the affiliations of language.

And I have also endeavored to demonstrate that the sacred-
ness which we observe attached to certain numbers, and the same
numbers, in so many mythologies and customs the world over, is
neither fortuitous nor borrowed the one from the other, but de-
pends on fixed relations which the human body bears to its sur-
roundings, and the human mind to the laws of its own activity ;
and therefore that all such coincidences and their consequences
— and it is surprising how far-reaching these are — do not belong
to the similarities which reveal contact, but only to those which
testify to psychical unity.

So numerous and so amazing have these examples of culture
identities become of late years that they have led more than one
student of ethnology into a denial of the freedom of the human
will under any of the definitions of voluntary action. But the
aims of ethnology are not so aspiring. It is strictly a natural
science, dealing with outward things — to wit, the expressions of
man's psychical life, endeavoring to ascertain the conditions of
their appearance and disappearance, the organic laws of their
birth, growth, and decay. These laws must undoubtedly be cor-

68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

related with certain mental traits, but it is not the business of the
ethnologist to pursue them to their last analysis in the realm of
metaphysics. For instance, we may trace all forms of punish-
ment back to the individual's passion for revenge, or we may
analyze all systems of religion until we find the common source
of all to be man's dread of the unknown, and these will be suffi-
cient ethnologic explanations of both these phenomena, but not a
final analysis of the emotion of dread or the thirst for vengeance.
Ethnology declines to enter these realms of abstraction.

I repeat that to define " the universal in humanity " is the aim
of ethnology — that is, the universal soul or psyche of humanity.

But let me not be understood as speaking of this as of some
entity, like the ame humaine of the Comtists. That were sophis-
tical word-mongering in the style of ancient scholasticism. There
is no such entity as humanity, or race, or people, or nation.
There is nothing but the individual man or woman, the " single,
separate person," as Walt Whitman says. Hence some of the
most advanced ethnologists are ready to give up the ethnos itself
as a subject of study. Those terms so popular a few years ago,
Volkerpsychologie, Volkergedanken, racial psychology, ethnic sen-
timents, and the like, are looked upon with distrust. The ex-
ternal proofs of the psychical unity of the whole species have
multiplied so abundantly that some maintain strenuously that it
is not ethnic or racial peculiarities, but solely external conditions
on the one hand and individual faculties on the other, which are
the factors of culture evolution.

While I admit that this question is still suh judice, I add that
the position just stated seems to be erroneous. All members of
the species have common human mental traits ; that goes with-
out saying ; and in addition it seems to me that each of the great
races, each ethnic group, has its own added special powers and
special limitations compared with the others ; and that these eth-
nic and racial psychic peculiarities attached to all or nearly all
members of the group are tremendously potent in deciding the
result of its struggle for existence.

I must still deny that all races are equally endowed, or that
the position with reference to civilization which the various eth-
nic groups hold to-day is one merely of opportunity and exter-
nalities. I must still claim that the definition of the ethnos is
one of the chief aims of ethnology ; and that the terms of this
definition are not satisfied by geographic explanations. Let me,
with utmost brevity, name a few other connotations, prepotent, I
believe, in the future fate of nations and races.

None, I maintain, can escape the mental correlations of its
physical structure. The black, the brown, and the red races differ
anatomically so much from the white, especially in their splanch-

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 69

nic organs, that even with equal cerebral capacity they never
could rival its results by equal efforts.

Again, there is in some stocks and some smaller ethnic groups
a peculiar mental temperament, which has become hereditary and
general, of a nature to disqualify them for the atmosphere of
modern enlightenment. Dr. Von Buschan has recently pointed
out this as distinctly and racially pathologic ; an inborn morbid
tendency, constitutionally recreant to the codes of civilization,
and therefore technically criminal.

Once more, one can not but acknowledge that the relations of
the emotional to the intellectual nature vary considerably and
permanently in different ethnic groups. Nothing is more incor-
rect than the statement so often repeated by physicians that the
modern civilized man has a more sensitive emotional system than
the savage. The reverse is the case. Since the dark ages, Europe
has not witnessed epidemic neuroses so violent as those still
prevalent among rude tribes.

These and a number of similar traits separate races and peo-
ples from each other by well-marked idiosyncrasies, extending to
the vast majority of their members and pregnant with power for
weal or woe on their present fortunes and ultimate destinies.
The patient and thorough investigations of these peculiarities is
therefore one of the most apposite aims of modern ethnology.

In this sense we can speak of the Volhsgeist and Volkergedan-
ken, a racial mind, or the temperament of a people, with as much
propriety and accuracy as we can of any of the physical traits
which distinguish it from other peoples or races.

For the branch of anthropology which has for its field the in-
vestigation of these general mental traits the Germans have pro-
posed the name " Characterology " {KaraMerologie), Its aim is
to examine the collective mental conditions and expressions of
ethnic groups, and to point out where they differ from other
groups and from humanity at large ; also to find through what
causes these peculiarities cam.e about, the genetic laws of their ap-
pearance, and the consequences to which they have given rise.

This branch of anthropology is that which offers a positive
basis for legislation, politics, and education as applied to a given
ethnic group ; and it is only through its careful study and appli-
cation that the best results of these can be attained, and not by
the indiscriminate enforcement of general prescriptions, as has
hitherto been the custom of governments.

The development of humanity as a whole has arisen from the
differences of its component social parts, its races, nations, tribes.
Their specific peculiarities have brought about the struggles
which in the main have resulted in an advance. These peculiari-
ties, as ascertained by objective investigation, supply the only

70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sure foundation for legislation ; not a priori notions of the rights
of man, nor abstract theories of what should constitute a perfect
state, as was the fashion with the older philosophies and still is
with the modern social reformers. The aim of the anthropolo-
gist in this practical field is to ascertain in all their details, such
as religions, language, social life, notions of right and wrong,
etc., wherein lie the idiosyncrasies of a given group, and frame
its laws accordingly.

Perhaps what I have said sufficiently explains the aims of eth-
nology. Some one has pertinently called it " the natural science
of social life," because its methods are strictly those of the natu-
ral sciences, and its material is supplied by man living in society.

The final arbiter, however, to whom it appeals is, I repeat, not
the ethnos, not the social group, but the individual. I think it
was Goethe who, nearly a century ago, uttered the pithy remark,
"Man makes genera and species; Nature makes only individ-
naW Hence the justification of any result claimed by ethnol-
ogy must come from the psychology of the individual; in his
personal feelings and thoughts will be discovered the final and
only complete explanation of the forms of sociology and the
events of history. As I have elsewhere urged, man himself, the
individual man, is the only final measure of his own activities, in
whatever direction they are directed.

On the other hand, the only rational psychology — using that
term as a science of the mental processes — must be the outcome of
anthropology conducted as a natural science. For thousands of
years other plans have been pursued. The philosopher would
delve in his " inner consciousness " ; the theologian would turn to
his revelation ; the historian would reason on his undigested facts ;
but the psychologist of the future, taking nothing for granted,
will define the mentality of the race by analj^zing each of its lines
of action back to the individual feelings which gave them rise.

It is quite likely that some who have heard me thus far, and
have agreed with me, are still dissatisfied. On their lips is that
question which is so often put to, and which so often puzzles, the
student of the sciences, cui bono ? What practical worth have
these analyses and generalizations which have been referred to ?

Fortunately, the anthropologist is not puzzled. His science,
like others, has its abstract side, seemingly remote from the inter-
ests of the workaday world ; but it is also and pre-eminently an
applied science — one the practicality and immediate pertinence of
which to daily affairs render it utilitarian in the highest degree.

Applied anthropology has for its aims to bring to bear on the
improvement of the species, regarded on the one hand as groups,
and on the other as individuals, the results obtained by ethnog-
raphy, ethnology, and psychology.

THE AIMS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 71

Such an improvement is broadly referred to as an increased or
higher civilization ; and it is the avowed aim of applied anthro-
pology accurately to ascertain what are the criteria of civiliza-
tion, what individual or social elements have in the past contrib-
uted most to it, how these can be continued and strengthened, and
what new forces, if any, may be called in to hasten the progress*
Certainly no aims could be more immediately practical than these.

Here, again, anthropology sharply opposes its methods to those
of the ideologists, the dogmatists, and the deductive philosophers.
It refuses to ask. What should improve man ? but asks only.
What has improved him in the past ? and it is extremely cau-
tious in its decision as to what " improvement " really means. It
certainly does not accept the definition which up to the present
the philosophies and theologies have offered any more than it
accepts the means by which these claim that our present civiliza-
tion has been brought about.

This department of anthropology is still in its infancy. We
are only beginning to appreciate that, in the future, political
economy, like history, will have to be rearranged on lines which
this new science dictates. The lessons of the past, their meaning
clearly apprehended, will be acknowledged as the sole guides for
the future. It may be true, as De Tocqueville said of the United
States, that a new world needs a new political science; but the
only sure foundation for the new will be the old.

Applied anthropology clearly recognizes that the improvement
of humanity depends primarily on the correct adjustment of the
group to the individual ; and, as in ethnology, its ultimate refer-
ence is not to the group, but to the individual. In the words of
John Stuart Mill, the first to apply inductive science to social
evolution, it is that the individual may become " happier, nobler,
wiser," that all social systems have any value.

We may profitably recall what the same profound thinker and
logician tells us have been up to the present time the prime mov-
ers in human social progress. They are : First, property and its
protection ; second, knowledge and the opportunity to use it ; and
third, co-operation, or the application of knowledge and property
to the benefit of the many.

But Mill was altogether too acute an observer not to perceive
that while these momenta have proved powerful stimulants to the
group, they have often reacted injuriously on the individual, de-
veloping that morbid and remorseless egotism which is so preva-
lent in modern civilized communities. Nor should I omit to add
that the remedy which he urged and believed adequate for this
dangerous symptom is one which every anthropologist and every
scientist will fully indorse — the general inculcation of the love of
truth, scientific, verifiable truth.

72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

It seems clear, therefore, that the teachings of anthropology,
whether theoretical or practical, lead us back to the individual as
the point of departure and also the goal. The state was made for
him, not he for the state ; any improvement in the group must
start by the improvement of its individual members. This may
seem a .truism, but how constantly is it overlooked in the most
modern legislation and schemes of social amelioration! How
many even of such a learned audience as this have carefully con-
sidered in what respects the individual man has improved since
the beginning of historic time ? Is he taller, stronger, more beau-
tiful ? Are his senses more acute, his love purer, his memory
more retentive, his will firmer, his reason stronger ? Can you
answer me these questions correctly ? I doubt it much. Yet if
you can not, what right have you to say that there is any im-
provement at all ?

To be sure there is less physical suffering, less pain. War and
famine and bitter cold are not the sleuthhounds that they once
were. The dungeons and flames of brutal laws and bigoted reli-
gions have mostly passed away. Life is on the average longer, its
days of sickness fewer, justice is more within reach, mercy is
more bountifully dispensed, the tender eye of pity is ever
unscarfed.

But under what difficulties have these results been secured !
What floods of tears and blood, what long wails of woe, sound
down the centuries of the past, poured forth by humanity in its
desperate struggle for a better life — a struggle which was blind,
unconscious of its aims, unknowing of the means by which they
should be obtained, groping in darkness for the track leading it
knew not whither !

Ignorant of his past, ignorant of his real needs, ignorant of
himself, man has blundered and stumbled up the thorny path of
progress for tens of thousands of years. Mighty states, millions
of individuals, have been hurled to destruction in the perilous
ascent, mistaking the way, pursuing false paths, following blind
guides.

Now anthropology steps in, the new Science of Man, offering
the knowledge of what he has been and is, the young but wise
teacher, revealing the future by the unwavering light of the past,
offering itself as man's trusty mentor and friend, ready to con-
duct him by sure steps upward and onward to the highest sum-
mit which his nature is capable of attaining ; and who dares set
a limit to that ?

This is the final aim of anthropology, the lofty ambition which
the student of this science deliberately sets before himself. Who
will point to a worthier or a nobler one ?

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. -jt,
RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION.

By Pkof. E. p. EVANS.
\Concluded.'\

AN article published in the Popular Science Monthly for De-
cember, 1892, and entitled Modern Instances of Demoniacal
Possession, gives an account of the casting out of a devil from a
boy named Michael Zilk, by Father Aurelian, a Capuchin monk,
in Wemding, Bavaria. The exorcist accused a Protestant woman,
Frau Herz, of having conjured the devil into the boy and de-
nounced her as a witch, and was prosecuted by the woman's hus-
band for defamation. The trial, which took place in November,
1892, resulted in the condemnation of the defendant, who was sen-
tenced to pay a fine of fifty marks, with costs, and, in default of
payment, to five days' imprisonment. The case derives its chief
interest from the testimony of two ecclesiastical experts, whom
Father Aurelian called in for the purpose of proving that he had
acted strictly in accordance with the rules and regulations of the
Catholic Church. These experts were Dr. J. E. Prunner, provost
of the cathedral in Eichstadt, and the cathedral capitular, Dr.
Schneidt, both of whom approved of Father Aurelian's method
of proceeding. That men may enter into a league with Satan,
says Dr. Prunner, is affirmed by Holy Writ and by canon law ;
both the truth of Scripture and the teachings of the Church estab-
lish the possibility and actuality of demoniacal possession beyond
a peradventure, which must therefore be accepted as incontesta-
ble. As regards Michael Zilk, Father Aurelian was perfectly
justified in assuming that he was possessed with a devil, since all
the signs favored this presumption, such as sudden paroxysms,
abnormal bodily strength, hagiophobia, or strange dread of holy
things, and demoniac ecstasy. The demon becomes firmly estab-
lished in the organism and uses it as a base of operations, causing
the individual to curse and rage and foam, using his tongue to
speak languages unknown to him, and endowing his muscles
with preternatural force. When these manifestations convinced
Father Aurelian that the devil was to pay, it was his duty to
investigate the matter and to ascertain the causa posse ssionis, and
whether it was produced by ars magica or witchcraft. " Malefi-
cium always presupposes factum cum d(Bmone" ; in other words,
sorcery implies a compact with Satan. In the course which he
pursued. Father Aurelian followed the instructions and obeyed
the injunctions of the ritual, even to the assumption that the dried
pears given by Frau Herz to the boy had been the means of con-
veying the demoniac infection, since the ritual expressly enjoins

74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

upon tlie exorcist to pay heed to what the energumen has eaten.
He was also right in believing what the devil said on this point,
for "if the devil is the father of lies, he can nevertheless be
compelled by the Church to tell the truth ; that he was forced
in this case to bow to ecclesiastical authority, is proved by the
result."

Dr. Schneidt indorsed the opinion of his colleague, adding a
few remarks from a " philosophical-psychological " point of view
and denouncing the scientific materialism of the day, which de-
nies the existence of spirits and their influence on corporeal sub-
stances. He admitted that the symptoms of Saint Vitus's dance
and hysteria are very similar to those of demoniacal possession,
but can be readily distinguished by two tests, both of which were
applied by Father Aurelian : the boy Zilk raged and fumed when
sprinkled with holy water, but remained quiet if ordinary water
was used ; the utterance of a benediction in ecclesiastical Latin
rendered him extremely violent, whereas he was wholly unaf-
fected by the recitation of a passage from a Latin classic. Dr.
Schneidt thought Father Aurelian was right in laying great stress
upon these two criteria, and in regarding the manner of their " re-
action " as conclusive proof of diabolic agency.

That learned doctors of theology and high Church dignitaries
should be willing to appear before a court of justice at the present
day with such expert testimony as this, is a curious psychological
phenomenon and a remarkable instance of superstitious survival.
It would also be a greater miracle than any wrought by the holy
coat of Trier, if the inculcation and dissemination of these me-
diaeval notions by the bishops and other clergy should not pro-
duce a benighting and degrading effect upon the masses intrusted
to their instruction and guidance in spiritual things. A few ex-
amples may be cited to show to what extent the popular belief in
witchcraft, demoniacal possession, and the efficacy of conjurations
still prevails. In the spring of 1894 a Hungarian named Jordan
started on a bicycle from Bucharest, with the intention of making
a tour through the Balkan peninsula to Constantinople. Not far
from Philipoppel, in Roumelia, he was overtaken by night and
obliged to stop at a hovel which served as a public house, and
after confiding his "wheel" to the care of the innkeeper, who
took charge of it with considerable distrust, went to bed. Very
soon the news spread abroad that a sorcerer had arrived riding
on a magic car drawn by invisible spirits, and a crowd of excited
peasants filled the inn under the direction of the pope, or village
priest, who sprinkled the bicycle with holy water and adjured
the demon to depart. The " magic car " of the itinerant sorcerer
was then taken out of doors and demolished. On the next morn-
ing, when Mr. Jordan wished to continue his journey, he found

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 75

his bicycle broken to pieces, and was nnder the necessity of walk-
ing a long distance to the nearest railway station. It was only
the fear of his enchantments as a wandering magician that saved
him from personal harm.

In October, 1894, a chromolithograph of St. Anna, in a church
at Naples, showed suddenly on the breast of the saint a white
spot, which in the eyes of her worshipers gradually grew into
the form of a lily. The rumor of this wonder caused thousands
of people to flock to the sacred shrine, and several miracles were
already reported, when the police ordered the print to be taken
down and examined. On investigation, the white lily proved to
be mold. It is hardly credible that the Neapolitan clergy should
not have known the nature of this phenomenon, and yet they did
nothing to expose the delusion, but made capital out of it by
holding solemn services at the altar in recognition of its sup-
posed miraculous character.

The results of such superstitious notions are not always so
harmless as in the cases just cited. Thus, a peasant living at Pon-
tea Ema, about a mile from Florence, in Tuscany, had a daughter
who was subject to severe hysterical convulsions ; she had also
"suffered many things of many physicians,^' and was thereby
" nothing bettered, but rather grew worse " — a result which will
not surprise any one who knows what a wretched quacksalver the
country doctor is in Italy. The parish priest intimated that the
girl was probably possessed with a devil, and one day in Febru-
ary, 1893, the peasant and his daughter, after hearing several
masses suitable to the occasion, went to Florence to consult a wise
woman famous for sorceries, who informed him that an ordinary
conjuration would cost five lire, and might not be effective,
whereas the invocation of Beelzebub, which would cost twenty-
five lire, would be an infallible remedy. The peasant paid the
twenty-five lire and the old witch began her conjurations, drag-
ging herself over the floor on her knees and howling fearfully.
Finally she ceased, and declared that the conjuration had been
successful. " Now go home,'' she added, " and heat the oven. The
first person who comes to your door will be the one who has
caused your daughter's malady; thrust this person into the oven
in the presence of your daughter, and there will be no recurrence
of the disease." The peasant obeyed these instructions and kept
the oven heated all night. Early the next morning there was a rap
at the door. "Chi e 9 " (Who's there ? ) asked the peasant. " For
heaven's sake, a piece of bread!" was the reply. The peasant
rushed to the door, seized the beggar woman as she stood there
pale with hunger and shivering with cold, and without a mo-
ment's hesitation put her into the heated oven. Two milkmen
passing by heard her cries, and, breaking open the bolted door of

76 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the house, rescued her, already half-suffocated, from a horrible
death.

About a year ago an old woman named Theresia Kleitsch
was crucified at Kekeseley, in Hungary, on suspicion of having
bewitched the stalls of her neighbors and thus caused many
cattle to die of murrain. Not long since, in a village near Moscow,
a woman seventy-three years of age, named Darya, was clubbed
and stoned to death by the inhabitants because she was supposed
to have an " evil eye," which brought sickness and other misfor-
tunes upon her neighbors. Seven of the chief culprits were sen-
tenced to four years' hard labor in Siberia. When brought to
trial they pleaded not guilty, declaring that the old hag was well
known to be a witch, and that they were perfectly justified in not
suffering her to live.

The measures recently devised to suppress a witch at Lupest,
in Hungary, are the more noteworthy because they emanated
from the civil authorities. The death of an old woman who had
the reputation of being in solemn covenant with the devil was
the occasion of public rejoicings. In the midst of the festivities
it was announced that a villager's cow had died suddenly and
under suspicious circumstances. The common council, after an
official investigation, reported that the cow had been bewitched
by the deceased beldame, and, in order to prevent her from doing
further harm, commanded that a stallion should be brought and
made to leap over her grave. The horse, however, showed signs
of fright and refused to jump, and this circumstance greatly
added to the public excitement. Finally, it was decreed by the
common council that the body of the witch should be exhumed
and stabbed with red-hot pitchforks. This proceeding proved
effective, and the old hag ceased to trouble her former neighbors.

In the little town of Gif, about twelve miles from Paris, was a
girl nineteen years of age, who had suffered for several months
from an aggravated form of hysteria accompanied by catalepsy.
One of the most distinguished Parisian physicians. Dr. Dumontpal-
lier, made a diagnosis of the disease, declared it to be curable, and
offered to treat it gratuitously if the parents would send the
patient to one of the city hospitals. This generous offer was de-
clined, owing to the intervention of the village priest, who had
meanwhile informed the family that it was a clear case of de-
moniacal possession, with which the Church alone was competent
to cope, and had applied to Monseigneur Goux, Bishop of Ver-
sailles, for permission to proceed with the exorcism. The right
reverend ecclesiastic not only granted this request, but also sent
the director of the theological seminary of Versailles to assist
him in the conjuration. Both appeared at the bedside of the
maiden in full canonicals, each with a crucifix in his hand and

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION, jj

attended by their acolytes, and went through, with the benedic-
tions, adjurations, and aspersions prescribed by the ritual. No
sooner did the girl perceive them than she cried out, " There
come the parsons with their hocus-pocus ! " and as they recited
the litany, instead of responding with or a pro nobis, she used the
word said to have been uttered by Cambroche at the battle of
Waterloo when the Old Guard was summoned to surrender, re-
peating it three times in an angry tone. This conduct only con-
firmed the exorcists in their theory of diabolism. Indeed, one
young priest recognized the different devils by their accent in
speaking, and made a long list of their names: Satan, Lucifer,
Beelzebub, Mammon, etc. Thus encouraged, the conjurers con-
tinued their efforts with unabated zeal, and finally succeeded, ac-
cording to their own statement, in casting out all the large
demons, and had only twenty-eight lesser demons to expel, when
the bishop of Versailles, in view of the scandal which the discus-
sion of the affair by the press threatened to bring on the Church,
recalled the director .of the seminary, and put an end to the cere-
mony which he had himself authorized. What became of the
residue of devilkins that remained in possession of the maiden
we are not informed.

About the same time, in the spring of 1893, in the French
hamlet of Cras-Culot, the parents of a small boy who had fallen
ill and was assumed to have been bewitched, enticed into their
house a woman suspected of having caused the trouble and com-
manded her to exorcise the victim of her sorceries. On her pro-
testing that she knew nothing of such arts, the parents of the
child and their assembled friends began to beat the supposed
witch and to stick hairpins into her neck and shoulders, and one
of the fanatical crowd expressed his regret that it was no longer
possible to burn her publicly at the stake. Perhaps a private
auto da fe would have been held had she not succeeded finally in
escaping and claiming the protection of the police court, which
sentenced her principal persecutors each to fourteen days im-
prisonment and a fine of twenty-six francs.

In June, 1891, a Viennese waitress named Fanny Strobl brought
a suit for slander against Maria Wirzar, a servant girl, who had
sent the plaintiff several postal cards, addressing her as "canni-
bal, witch, night liag,^' and accusing her of coming down the
chimney in the dark and sucking all the blood out of her (Maria
Wirzar's) veins until she was reduced to skin and bone. The
curiosity of the judge was excited, and he requested the defendant
to state more clearly what she meant. " Well," she replied, " such
a night hag comes over a person when asleep like a current of air,
benumbing and stupefying him: If the sleeper is able to rouse
himself and cry out * Jesus ! Mary ! Joseph ! ' then the witch de-

78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sists and departs. This woman (pointing to the plaintiff) is such
a night hag. She drives me out of every place, so that I can never
stay anywhere more than three weeks. At midnight she comes
out from under my bed when I am asleep, sits on me, and sucks
the blood out of my breast. I am so weak that I can not work.
Formerly I was strong and healthy, now I am lank and lean, be-
cause she has drained me of all my blood.'' Thereupon a woman
in the court room exclaimed : " That is true ; the witch ought to
let her alone. I myself have seen the red spot on her breast and
the bites on her arm with the marks of real teeth." The case was
then adjourned in order to obtain the opinion of a physician as
to the mental condition of the defendant. But if the psychiater
declares Maria Wirzar to be crazy, what should he say of the
sanity of priests like Dr. Bischofberger, or of the Catholic bishops
and other ecclesiastical dignitaries whose teachings are directly
responsible for the spread of such gross popular delusions ?

Still later, in the autumn of 1892, Victoria Seifritz was charged
with having bewitched the stall of the burgomaster of Schapbach,
in Baden, and thereby produced an epidemic of hoof disease. As
the circulation of this report was injurious to her reputation, and
she found it inconvenient to prosecute the burgomaster, with
whom it appears to have originated, she published a notice in the
local newspaper denying that she ever possessed or exercised any
power as a witch. In December of the same year a maid-servant,
Elizabeth Horrath, of Obermichelbach, in Bavaria, was sentenced
to ten days' imprisonment for having accused her aunt of being a
house witch and her own mother of being a stall witch, asserting
that she saw the latter riding on the back of a cow, which imme-
diately afterward went dry. The remarkable thing was, not that
an ignorant and malevolent girl should have started such a re-
port, but that many of the neighbors should have believed it and
broken off all intercourse with the two satellites of Satan.

In June, 1885, at Kempten, in Bavaria, Xaver Endtes, a pro-
fessional wizard, was tried and condemned to jail for three weeks
because he swindled a peasant named Ostheimer out of seventeen
marks under the pretext of casting devils out of cattle. He
kindled a fire in the stable and heated two iron bars red hot, then
poured on them a quantity of milk, and persuaded Ostheimer that
the film of scalded milk that remained was the skin of the witch,
who had thus been burned and rendered harmless for the future.

In 1891 a witch conjurer (Hexenbanner), a mason by trade, was
arrested by the police at Ulm, where he had established himself
as an exorcist, charging twenty-five marks for his services and
finding apparently plenty of customers. He was also sentenced
to three weeks' imprisonment as a common swindler. The possi-
bility of brazen-faced deceptions of this sort implies a general

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 79

prevalence of gross superstition in the communities where they
are practiced. The first and strongest impulse of the European
peasant even in the most enlightened countries is to ascribe all
extraordinary good or evil fortune to diabolical agencies. If a
man's hens lay more eggs, or his cows give more milk, or his fields
yield better crops than those of his neighbors, the latter are pretty
sure to attribute his prosperity to witchcraft. Pliny records a
case of this kind in which the freedman C. Furius Cresinus was
summoned to appear before the sedile Spurius Albinus on the
charge of sorcery, because he raised richer harvests on his small
farm than others did on their large estates. In his defense he
pointed to his well-fed slaves, his superior agricultural imple-
ments, and his fat oxen, and exclaimed: "These, O Quirites, are
some of my magic arts; but my night- waking and continuous
toil I can not show you here on the forum ! " Curiously enough,
in the early part of the last century precisely the same accusation
was brought against a woman who cultivated her own land at
Bischofswerder, in west Prussia; and again in November, 1893,
at Dresden, a shoemaker named Liebscher instituted a suit against
a miner and small innkeeper named Timmel to recover damages
for defamation of a like character. Both parties lived in the vil-
lage of Miidisdorf, not far from Freiberg. It seems that Lieb-
scher's hens and cows supplied him abundantly with eggs and
milk, whereas TimmeFs were remarkably unproductive. Lieb-
scher was then charged with practicing sorcery, and thereby
transferring the eggs and milk from TimmeFs poultry and kine
to his own. As this report was diligently circulated by the de-
fendant and believed by the great majority of the inhabitants of
Miidisdorf and of the surrounding country, it naturally proved to
be very injurious to the reputation and the business of the shoe-
maker, who appears to have been a man of intelligence far supe-
rior to that of his neighbors. The testimony taken at the trial
revealed the startling fact that nine tenths of the population of
this mining district, although good Protestants, hold firmly to
the belief in witchcraft and the reality of satanic compacts.

In the summer of 1874 a woman named Frenzel, living at
Trulben, in the Bavarian palatinate, consulted a famous wizard at
Ixheim, near Zweibriicken, in order to ascertain who had be-
witched her child that he should have fallen sick. The wizard
placed a key in an open Bible and told Frau Frenzel to lay her
finger on it and then to repeat the names of all the people in
Trulben. No sooner had she mentioned Margaret Klein than the
key turned over. "That is the witch," exclaimed the wizard,
who also learned through the movements of the key that she had
acquired her knowledge of the magic art from her grandmother,
and had the power of transforming herself into a cat or dog at

8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

pleasure. When the mother returned home and was washing her
child she heard the melancholy mewing of a cat near the house,
and was now thoroughly convinced of the truth of the wizard's
statements. Margaret Klein, an estimable maiden of twenty-two,
was on this account decried and shunned by nearly every person
in the village, and was finally compelled, for the sake of her good
name, to prosecute Frau Frenzel, who was sent to jail for five
days and condemned to pay the costs of the trial.

It is hardly necessary to multiply instances of this kind.
They are of constant occurrence and endlessly repetitious, the
tautological echo of old superstition, a striking illustration of the
persistency of tradition and the poverty of the popular imagina-
tion. The question as to when the last witch was burned has been
frequently discussed by historians, who differ as to the exact date,
but generally agree that it was not later than the second half of
the eighteenth century. As a matter of fact, a woman named
Agraf ena Ignatyeva was burned as a witch by her fellow-country-
men at Vratshevo, in the Russian province of Novgorod, in 1879, if
not with the co-operation at least with the collusion of the local
authorities, and we have no reason to suppose that she was or
will be the last victim of this cruel delusion.

The unpleasant smell of garlic which so often offends the nos-
trils of travelers in Servia and other countries of eastern and
southern Europe is due in a great measure to the notion that
witches have a strong aversion to this plant. It is chiefly for this
reason that the common people not only eat it, but also rub them-
selves and their children with it, especially on going to bed, so as
not to be visited by any wandering night hag who might other-
wise strike the sleeper on his breast with her magic wand, open
his side, and devour his heart ; the wound would then close up
without leaving any scar to show the cause of his death.

In some districts of Dalmatia it is still customary to throw all
the women into the water on a specified day to see whether they
will sink or swim. A rope is attached to each one in order to
save from drowning those who prove their innocence by sinking.
The witches who float are also pulled out, and after being rather
roughly handled are made to promise to renounce the devil on
pain of being stoned. The Dalmatians are evidently of Heine's
opinion, that

" Genau bei Weibern
Weiss man nicht wo der Engel
Aufhort und der Teufel anfangt."

Hence they deem it necessary to apply their simple but decisive
test occasionally, and the prevalence of an epidemic or epizooty is
pretty sure to be followed by a general immersion of the fairer
and frailer sex.

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION, 81

In August, 1893, at Montelepre, in Sicily, a girl of seventeen
suffered from a painful malady wliicli her family and kinsmen
suspected of being the result of demoniacal possession. This
opinion was confirmed by the village strega or witch, who gave
them full information concerning the name, character, origin, and
power of the indwelling demon, and recommended the fifteenth
of the month, the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, as
the fittest time for casting out the evil spirit. On the appointed
day the witch prepared a bath of boiling-hot water, into which
she threw snail shells, lobsters' claws, nettles, and similar ingre-
dients of a powerful hell-broth, recalling the contents of the cal-
dron over which the three weird sisters in Macbeth muttered
their potent charm. The patient was then put into the water and
covered with a bed blanket, under which a pound and a half of
burning incense was placed. The screams and struggles of the
unfortunate girl were of no avail, and not until she fainted away
was she taken out in a parboiled condition and laid on a bed,
where she soon afterward expired. As she was at the last gasp
the witch said, " Now the charm is beginning to work and the
demon is about to go out of her."

It is not merely among ignorant and superstitious Sicilians
that such things are possible. Not many years ago a young
man at Urschtitz, near Rosenberg, in Upper Silesia, was treated
by a "wise woman" in precisely the same manner and with
equally fatal results.

It was recently reported from Catania, in Sicily, that a fiddler
named Carmolo had killed twenty-four children and saturated
the earth with their blood as a means of finding hidden treasure.
A little later the bodies of twenty children were discovered in the
woods near the hamlets of Cibali and Santa Sofia ; at the same
time the parents received anonymous letters, in which the writer
told them not to grieve for the dead, since their blood would en-
able him to unearth an immense amount of money, which he
would share with them and thus amply compensate them for
their loss.

In March, 1894, a farm laborer, Sier, was sentenced to four-
teen months' imprisonment for having exhumed the body of a
newly buried child in the graveyard at Moosbach, in Bavaria,
and taken out one of its eyes, which, he believed, would render
him invisible, like the tarn-helmet of the old German saga, and
thus make it possible for him to thieve with impunity. The
notion that a bridge will remain firm for all time if a living
human being is immured in its foundations is quite prevalent in
eastern Europe, and the gypsies are generally suspected of steal-
ing children and selling them for this purpose. Not long since,
when a bridge was to be built over the Save, near Breczka, in

TOL. XLTIII. — 6

82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Bosnia, the whole population, Christian and Mohammedan, rose
up in arms against a band of gypsies who were camping in the
neighborhood, and would have put them to death had it not been
for the energetic intervention of the authorities. The excite-
ment was caused by a rumor that negotiations were going on be-
tween the bridge builders and this vagabond folk for the pur-
chase of a child. There is a popular tradition that a bridal pair
were walled up in the old Roman bridge over the Narenta at
Mostar, and that the structure owes its strength to this sacrifice.
A fresh human liver, especially that of a woman, is supposed to
confer magical powers upon him who eats it ; and it is highly
probable that the desire to become a great magician may explain
the many mysterious murders and horrible mutilations of women
which have occurred within the past few years, such as the other-
wise incomprehensible exploits of Jack the Ripper in London,
and similar hideous deeds near Innsbruck, in the Tyrol, and else-
where. A like exhibition of superstition was recently witnessed
in Barcelona at the execution of six anarchists, when old women
dipped their handkerchiefs in the blood that flowed from the
coffins, making the sign of the cross three times and holding the
dirty clouts to their noses. Such a blood-stained cloth is prized
as a powerful talisman and carefully preserved.

In some districts on the Rhine the belief that mid wives may be
in league with the devil and substitute an imp for the newborn
infant is not uncommon. Such changelings are called Kiel-
kropfe, and this term would imply that their fiendish origin is
indicated by a wen on the throat. It is well known that Luther
was firmly convinced of the reality of these substitutions, and
urged the Prince of Anhalt to have every hellish succubus or
succuba drowned at once ; but the sovereign, whose theological
education on this point seems to have been neglected, could not
be fully persuaded of the existence of such creatures and declined
to act upon the reformer's advice.

During the reign of Frederick the Great the statue of a ma-
donna in the Catholic church of a Prussian town was robbed of a
costly ornament. A soldier, whose frequent and fervent devo-
tions at this shrine had been remarked, was arrested, and the
jewels were found in his possession. He was accordingly tried
for church robbery and sacrilege and condemned to be shot.
The sentence of the court-martial was submitted to the king for
approval, together with the culprit's protest that he had not stolen
the precious stones, but that while he was engaged in prayer
and laying his necessities before the seat of mercy, the Virgin
took the ornament from her neck and gave it to him. One can
imagine the malicious pleasure with which the cynical and skep-
tical monarch referred the whole matter to the Catholic bishop.

BE CENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION, 83

requesting him to give his official opinion as to the possibility
of such a miracle. The bishop was in a quandary. He knew
that the soldier's statement was false and absurd, but he could
not say so without contradicting the teachings and traditions of
the Church and impeaching the testimony of the saints and all
the records of hagiology. In his report he was therefore com-
pelled to admit that the prayer may have been answered in the
manner described. On the strength of this " expert evidence "
Frederick annulled the sentence of the court-martial, but forbade
the soldier on penalty of death to offer henceforth petitions of
this kind to any image of the Virgin.

One of the most characteristic as well as anachronistic exhibi-
tions of religious folly and frenzy in our day is the Springpro-
cession, or procession of jumpers, which takes place yearly at
Echternach, in Luxemburg, on the first Tuesday after Whitsun-
day, and is popularly regarded as a sure cure for epilepsy, St.
Vitus's dance, syntexis, murrain, and other maladies of men and
cattle. A full description of this performance was given in a
book published more than twenty years ago and entitled Die
Springprocession und die Wallfahrt zum Grabe des heiligen
Willibrord in Echternach (Luxemburg, Briick, 1871), the author
of which, J. B. Krier, a priest and religious instructor in the Ech-
ternach preparatory school, expresses his firm belief in its thera-
peutic efficacy and general wonder-working power. " We can
not but envy these people,^' he says, " on account of their living
faith, and in our inmost soul praise God, who in our cold and in-
different age has kept alive such a fire in the hearts of our fellow-
men.*' A few Catholics of superior culture, like Prof. Froscham-
mer, of Munich, vigorously protested against the glorification of
such crass fanaticism, but it received the approval and encour-
agement of the episcopate, and, instead of disappearing in the
light of the nineteenth century, as one would expect such a sur-
vival of medisevalism to do, has been growing stronger ever since.
On May 15, 1894, 16,905 persons, including one bishop, 140 clergy,
267 musicians, 2,213 prayers, 2,448 singers, and 11,836 springers,
took part in the strange ceremony. This number, which has
been derived from official documents, is the largest on record, and
furnishes a drastic illustration of the manner in which the patron-
age of the Church contributes to the promotion of superstition.

The " springprocession " is, in fact, one of the queerest sights
that have been witnessed in Christendom since the Flagellants
of the thirteenth century made the streets of Italian cities hideous
with their scourgings and bowlings. The men, women, and chil-
dren who are to join in the choral dance — which an ancient Greek
or Roman, if he should rise from the dead, might easily mistake
for a Bacchanalian orgy — assemble on a meadow near the town,

84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

where they are arranged in rows or groups, the schoolboys and
schoolgirls being in charge of their respective teachers, as if they
were going on a picnic. At a given signal the musicians strike
up the lively tune known as " Willibrord's Dance," and the salta-
tory movement begins, the whole mass moving three or four steps
forward and one or two steps backward, or four steps to the right
and the same number to the left in a diagonal direction, thus
advancing, as it were, on the hypothenuse instead of on the per-
pendicular of a triangle. From a distance, the bobbing and
swaying throng resembles the swell and fall of a restless sea, or
the bubbling of boiling water in an immense caldron. In this
manner the procession moves on for more than two hours through
the streets of the town and up the sixty-two steps leading to the
parish church, where the dance is kept up for some time around
the tomb of St. Willibrord. The dancers join hands, or more
frequently hold together by means of a handkerchief, for the sake
of greater freedom of motion. Here and there an old man may
be seen dragging along an infirm son, who makes desperate at-
tempts to leap with the rest, or a stout woman gasping and sweat-
ing under the heavy burden of a paralytic daughter, whom she
bears in her arms as she bounds to and fro.

Many legends are afloat concerning the origin of this custom.
Thus it is said that in the latter half of the eighth century a
sort of epizootic chorea broke out in the region round about
Echternach, and caused all the horses, cows, sheep, and goats to
dance in their stalls and to refuse to eat. As no medicine gave
relief, the people made a vow that they would dance round the
grave of St. Willibrord, and no sooner was this vow fulfilled than
the plague ceased, apparently in accordance with the homoeopathic
principle — saltus saUibus curantur. Another tradition connects
it with the pestilence known as the black death, which prevailed
about the middle of the fourteenth century. In all probability,
however, it is a survival of the old pagan feast which was cele-
brated at the summer solstice in honor of the sun, and changed
by Willibrord into a Christian festival. This policy of adopting
heathen observances that could not be easily abolished was urged
by Pope Gregory the Great as early as the sixth century, in his
famous letter to the Benedictine Augustine, first Bishop of Can-
terbury, and followed by Boniface, Willibrord, and all the other
Anglo-Saxon missionaries to the German tribes. It was due to
this prudent spirit of compromise that the feast of Ostara, the
German goddess of spring, was transformed into Easter, and the
nativity of John the Baptist, the herald of the Sun of Righteous-
ness, was placed on June 24th, so as to correspond with the pagan
festivities of midsummer.

In Italy the belief in the baneful power of *' the evil eye/' or

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 85

jettatura, is almost universal among the peasants and common
people, and quite prevalent even among the higher and more cul-
tivated classes. Pope Pius IX was generally supposed to be a
jettatore, and many good Catholics, while kneeling before him for
his benediction, were wont slyly to extend toward him their hands
doubled into a fist, with the thumb thrust between the index and
middle finger as a means of warding off the malign influence.
Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti was born with this uncanny gift,
and neither his consecration to the priesthood nor his elevation to
the papacy sufficed to eradicate it or to suspend its operation.
The benignity of aspect which distinguished this kind-hearted
successor of St. Peter might conceal, but could not counteract, the
fatal fascination that lurked in his " evil eye."

In Germany, it is only in the Tyrol that this superstition ap-
pears to prevail, although sporadic cases of it occur in Thuringia,
where the witchcraft delusion still has a strong hold on the rural
population. The village of Espenfeld, for example, numbers two
hundred inhabitants, of whom one half are firmly convinced that
the other half are skilled in sorcery; of the latter, several are
supposed to have grown rich by paying out money and then con-
juring it back into their own coffers. A peasant, who imagined
that he had lost considerable money in this way, was advised by
a " wise woman " to put the coin thus received into a glass jar and
then seal it up. He did so, and soon afterward the coins began to
hop and skip as if they wished to get out, but, finding it impossi-
ble to escape, gradually grew quiet. By taking this precaution he
tjircumvented the conjurer and saved his money.

In England, men or kine that are supposed to suffer from the
witchery of the evil eye are said to be " overlooked." " If a mur-
rain afflicts a farmer^s cattle," says the author of a recently pub-
lished work on this subject (The Evil Eye, by Frederick T. El-
worthy ; London, Murray, 1895), " he goes off secretly to the ' white
witch ' — that is, the old witch finder — to ascertain who has ' over-
looked his things,' and to learn the best antidote. Only the other
day a farmer in North Devon, whose cattle were dying of an-
thrax, applied, not to a first-class veterinary surgeon, but to a
' white witch,' for a remedy against the pestilence, and as a conse-
quence lost almost his whole herd." The same writer states that
a pig's or sheep's heart stuck full of pins is found in many chim-
neys in old farmhouses as a reprisal against witches. It was
believed that the witch, who had " overlooked " the animal and
caused its death, would have her own heart pricked and pierced
by the pins thrust into the heart of her victim, which had been
" ill wisht " by her. This sort of retribution, based upon the prin-
ciple of sympathy, plays a prominent part in the annals of witch-
craft. The Somerset peasant says : " Nif you do meet wi' anybody

86 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

wi' a north eye, spat dree times." Pliny speaks of spitting in tlie
"bosom as a means of inducing the gods to grant any presumptu-
ous desire {veniam quoqiie a deis spei alicujus audacioris peti-
muSy in sinum spuendo), and Juvenal refers to the custom of
bespitting the upper folds of the toga {conspuere sinus) in order
to avert divine wrath provoked by haughtiness of speech ; and if
we go back nearly four centuries earlier to the Greek poet Theoc-
ritus, we find that the remedy prescribed by the English boor for
warding off the influence of the evil eye was employed by the
rustics of that ancient time for precisely the same purpose. The
sixth idyl of this pastoral poet consists of a dialogue between two
herdsmen, Daphnis and Demoitas, of whom the latter, in the
course of conversation, remarks : " Lest I should be enchanted by
the evil eye, I spit three times into my breast " (ws /xr] paa-KavOut
Si T/ots €ts ifwv hrrva-a koAttov), and adds that in doing so he had fol-
lowed the advice of an old wizard.

An ornament in the shape of a crescent moon (o-cXt^vcs or
a-fX-qvUrKoi) was wom by the Greeks or placed on the walls of their
houses as a Trpopaa-Kdviov or preservative against the evil eye, and
the luluncB, with which Roman women adorned their persons,
were also regarded as safeguards against witchcraft. We have
a survival of this superstition in the half moons so often seen on
harness and occasionally on buildings. Indeed, in Oriental coun-
tries all jewels are amulets, and are prized more for their occult
virtue than for their superficial beauty. The Romans hung a
fascinum in the form of a phallus round the necks of children
as a preventive against witchcraft, and the pieces of red coral
used by our teething infants to facilitate dentition are a reminis-
cence of this usage connected with the Priapian cult. The Dru-
denfuss, or pentagram (*), which the Tyrolese draws on the
threshold of his stable to protect his cattle against enchantment,
is a relic of Pythagorean mysticism and mediaeval magic.

A dreadful tale of cruelty caused by the witchcraft delusion
comes to us from the Emerald Isle. A few months ago, at Bally-
vadlea, in the county of Tipperary, a woman named Bridget
Cleary had an attack of influenza or grippe, which, as is usually
the case with maladies of m^ and beasts, was ascribed to demo-
niac influences. Her husband, a cooper by trade, got the notion
into his head that she had been " overlooked," and thereby spirited
away by a wicked fairy, who had taken possession of her body.
He called a family council, consisting of her father, an aunt, four
cousins, a couple of neighbors, and the village simplist,who unan-
imously confirmed his suspicion, and went to work to exorcise
and expel the evil spirit, so that the unfortunate woman might
return to herself and her friends. The simplist prepared a dis-
gusting decoction, which her husband poured down her throat.

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION, 87

exclaiming, "There, take that, thou witch!'' He then put this
question to her twice: "Art thou Mary Boland, the wife of
Michael Cleary ? Speak by the Lord ! '' She replied : " I am
Mary Boland, the daughter of Pat Boland, by the Holy Ghost ! "
It now occurred to one of the neighbors, named Dunin, that if
they should put her on the fire, which fairies are notoriously
much afraid of, the indwelling spirit would speak the truth, and
probably be compelled also to depart. This clever suggestion
was at once acted upon. The sick woman was taken out of her
bed and held over the flames, while in the midst of her fearful
screams her tormentors kept shouting, " Come home, Bridget
Boland, come home ! " She was again put to bed, and Cleary,
who had become greatly excited, continued to cry out, " In the
name of God, art thou Bridget Cleary, my wife ? " declaring that,
if she did not give a satisfactory answer three times, he would
burn her up. As she was too exhausted to heed this threat, he
threw the petroleum lamp at her and she was soon all ablaze,
and, in the words of an eyewitness, " burned like a torch.'* No
voice of compassion responded to her shrieks, which only pro-
voked the harsh command of her husband : " Be still ! Troth, Fm
not burning Bridget ; in a minute, begorrah, you'll see the witch
going up the chimney." The charred body was put into a sack
and thrown out of the window. There it was found and borne to
the graveyard by the constables of the village, but no member
of the family of the deceased attended her funeral. They were
all scattered about on the neighboring hills, each armed with
a sharp knife and awaiting the appearance of Bridget Cleary
mounted on a white horse which the fairies had given her.
There they watched day and night, firmly believing that if
they could only succeed in cutting the reins of the bridle
the spell would be broken and the unfortunate woman disen-
chanted. Instead of the magic steed, they were met by a body of
policemen and taken to Dublin, where they are to be tried for
murder.

In Ireland the laws against witchcraft were not abolished
until 1821 ; and as the Catholic Church still prescribes formulas
and performs rites for the exorcism and expulsion of evil spirits,
it is no wonder that the delusion lingers in the minds of the peo-
ple, and sometimes gives rise to horrible cruelty like that igno-
rantly inflicted upon Bridget Cleary.

About thirty years ago printed prayers addressed to " the true
stature of Jesus," which had been supernaturally revealed to some
ecstatic soul, were extensively sold in Bavaria as talismans to
prevent and destroy diseases. But superstition, too, is not wholly
free from the whims of fashion, and these prayers have now been
superseded by another panacea called " Lourdes waffle," a thin

88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

piece of pastry in the form of a madonna made of flour and the
water of Lonrdes by the Order of Redemptorists at Cortona, in
Tuscany. Quantities of these new-baked fetiches are manufac-
tured and exported every year with the approval of His Holiness
Leo XIII, by whom they are especially commended as a specific
for demoniacal infestations.

In 1887, when the phenomena of hypnotism began to excite
general interest and to be discussed by the press. La Civitt^ Cat-
tolica, the official organ of the Vatican, published an article
ascribing these strange manifestations to diabolical agencies, and
asserting them to be desperate attempts of Satan to recover the
sovereignty of this world, which the Church is gradually wrest-
ing from his grasp.

Unfortunately for the progress of knowledge and the general
diffusion of enlightenment, this explanation of hypnotism is a
fair example and illustration of the attitude of the papacy toward
every puzzling problem which presents itself to the human mind
for investigation. There is only one solution : the devil is to pay.
The same opinion is held and taught by the Greek Church, as
well as by conservative Lutheranism and many other rigidly
orthodox sects of Protestantism. Luther asserted that "if a man
loses an eye or hand, falls into the fire and is burned to death, or
into the water and is drowned, mounts a ladder and breaks his
neck, tumbles down without knowing why or how, or incurs daily
unforeseen accidents, all these things are mere tricks and onsets
of the devil" {eitel Teufelswiirf' und Schldg'). If a big blue-
bottle buzzed about in his study and happened to light on his
pen, he was sure that it was an emissary of Satan endeavoring to
hinder him in his work. Even the refined and scholarly Melanch-
thon relates similar experiences : " When I was in Tubingen," he
says, " I saw every night flames which burned a long time and
then vanished in a dense cloud of smoke. Likewise in Heidel-
berg, forms like falling stars appeared to me every night. They
were undoubtedly devils, which are constantly roving about
among men." This belief in the omnipresence of satanic satel-
lites, embodied in animate and inanimate objects, was easily con-
firmed by the citation and frequent perversion of scriptural texts.
Thus the words of the Psalmist, " Set a watch, 0 Lord, before my
mouth : keep the doors of my lips," was interpreted, not as en-
treaty to be saved from the sin of evil- speaking, but as a prayer
for protection against evil spirits, who might take advantage of
the act of oscitation to enter into and get possession of the human
body. It was formerly believed that the devil drowzed people
and thus incited them to yawn for this express purpose ; hence
the custom, once generally prevalent and still practiced in Spain
and Italy, of making the sign of the cross over the mouth in

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 89

yawning, of which, the habit of covering the month with the hand
when yawning is said to be a survival.

Delusions growing out of the dread of demons die hard, espe-
cially when it is in the supposed interest of sacerdotalism to up-
hold them. Every invasion of the realm of supernaturalism
through the progress of science is feared and resented by ecclesi-
astical organizations, lest it should prove to be an entering wedge
destined to destroy the foundations upon which they rest. It is
this apprehension that often leads men as a body to sustain and
perpetuate beliefs which as individuals they know to be false,
boldly asserting and often honestly believing that the overthrow
of their own little system of faith would imperil the whole edifice
of religion and society, although the existence of such solidarity
is shown by all the teachings of history to be utterly illusive.
Hierarchical and official Christianity to-day bears about the same
relation to contemporary scientific and philosophic culture that
paganism did to the best thoughts of the period when Lucretius
wrote his didactic poem De Rerum Natura, or when Lucian, more
than two centuries later, composed his satirical dialogues.

The Tyrolese Jesuit Tanner had brought himself into grave
suspicion by advising inquisitors to proceed with caution in the
prosecution and punishment of witches ; and when he died, in
1632, he was denied Christian burial, because there was found in
his possession a dangerous hairy devil, which, on closer examina-
tion, proved to be a flea under a magnifying glass. The Church,
however, obstinately refused to recognize its error, and still holds
to the legend of the "dangerous hairy devil." Recantation is
fatal to the prestige of infallible authority, which is forced by its
pretensions to cling to its decisions, however absurd, and to close
its mind to all sources of enlightenment. It is in this necessity
that the divergence of scientific from theological conceptions of
the universe originates and gradually widens into an impassable
gulf. A divinely inspired and therefore inerrable record can
adapt itself to the progress of human thought only by forced in-
terpretations and positive perversions of its original meaning.
Hence the supreme importance which all systems of religion
attach to hermeneutics, the science of sciences, as Origen called
it, absolutely essential to the evolution of doctrinal theology. It
was Samuel Werenfels who said of the Bible :

" Hie liber est, in quo quisque sua dogmata quaerit,
Invenit et pariter dogmata quisque sua."

The same idea is expressed by Rtickert in Die Weisheit des
Brahmanen :

" Des Glaubens Bilder sind unendlich umzudeuten ;
Das macht so brauchbar sie bei so verschiednen Leu ten."

90 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This sort of exegetical jugglery, with its allegorical, anagogic-
al, and tropological methods of exposition, is not confined to
the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, but extends to the sacred
books of all nations. Veda, Avesta, Tripitaka, Ta5-t6-King, Ko-
ziki, Kur'an, Adi Granth, Kurral, and Popol Yuh have all been
put to the rack by hermeneutical inquisitors and made to confess
whatever doctrines their tormentors wished them to teach. We
have a striking illustration of this tendency in recent attempts to
deprive the Hebrew cosmogony of its true character as the terse
and highly poetical version of an ancient Assyrian creation myth,
in order to bring it into harmony with the modern theory of evo-
lution.

The same fatality compels the Church in the nineteenth cen-
tury to observe the forms of propitiation, incantation, and conju-
ration which were the natural outgrowth and consistent expres-
sion of primitive demonolatry, but are utterly repugnant to all
rational conceptions of the constitution of the universe and of the
laws that govern it. Some years ago the writer was the guest of
a Catholic priest in a remote region of the Tyrol. The house was
a massive building of the tenth century, formerly used as a clois-
ter, and still adorned with portraits of the old abbots and distin-
guished monks who were once its inmates. Attached to it was a
spacious chapel which now served as the parish church. One
day as a severe storm was gathering the church bells began to
ring violently in order to affright and drive away the devils who
were supposed to be riding on the tempest as satellites of the
"prince of the power of the air," and hurling thunderbolts
against the habitations of men. The priest admitted that the cus-
tom was a relic of pagan superstition and of no efficacy what-
ever, denied the demonic origin of meteorological phenomena,
and added that the ringing of many large bells, like the firing of
cannon, would rather tend to produce storms by agitating the air
than to disperse them. " But if I should act according to my own
judgment and neglect this time-honored practice," he continued,
"I should be held morally responsible for all damage done by
lightning within the precincts of my parish." He placed his own
person and property under the protection of a lightning-rod, but
was constrained by his ecclesiastical affiliations to pander to medi-
aeval tradition, and cause the mountain valley to resound with the
devil-defeating clangor of consecrated bells.

In November, 1894, it was reported that a statue of the Virgin
Mary at Keggio, in Calabria, had been seen opening her mouth
and moving her lips, and this absurd rumor attracted thousands
of persons, who came to present offerings and to prostrate them-
selves before the wonderful image, praying to be delivered from
the perils of earthquake and similar calamities. It is not surpris-

RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION, 91

ing tliat tlie ignorant and credulous peasantry of southern Italy
should fall into gross f etichism of this sort ; the astonishing thing
is that the priests of a Church which sends missionaries to Africa
should encourage such crass superstition at home, and, instead of
seeking to enlighten the minds of the masses, should march in
procession to the scene of the supposed miracle with banners and
censers, singing hymns and chanting litanies, and displaying all
the pomp and paraphernalia of an imposing religious ritual in
confirmation of a vulgar delusion.

In August, 1894, the population of one of the suburbs of Vi-
enna was thrown into intense excitement by the rumored appari-
tion of the Virgin Mary, who was said to have been seen at
sundry times sitting on the branch of a tree in an old cemetery
and holding the child in her arms. The throng became so great
as to require the intervention of a squadron of police in order to
prevent a complete interruption of the city traffic. Not only was
the reality of the supernatural appearance generally believed, but
several persons turned it to practical account by noting the exact
time of the occurrence, hour, day, month, and year, so as to secure
lucky numbers for the lottery, and even attributed the presence
of the police to the anxiety of the Austrian Minister of Finance
lest, by a happy combination of these numbers, some one should
win a tern and thus deplete the state treasury. A workman from
a neighboring factory, who chanced to pass by, endeavored to
demonstrate the impossibility of such phenomena, and urged the
crowd not to give credence to idle tales of this sort; but this
laborer was the only one who acted the part of Paul on Mar's Hill
and reproved the multitude for being " too superstitious." Not a
representative of the clergy, from the humblest ecclesiastic to the
highest dignitary of the Church, has ever been known to improve
occasions of this kind for the religious instruction and intellectual
elevation of the people. Indeed, it would be difficult for them to
do so, in view of the fact that the literature which the Catholic
Church still publishes and disseminates for the promotion of
piety consists chiefly of similar legends ; and it would not sur-
prise us if a full and authentic account of the Vienna apparition
should appear in the columns of the Innsbruck periodical. Monthly
Roses to the Honor of the Immaculate Mary, Mother of God, as
an incentive to more ardent adoration of the Virgin.

Some years ago, in the month of May, I was walking up the
Ludwigstrasse, in Munich, with a German friend well known as
a genial poet and earnest Catholic. Just then a procession of
maidens dressed in white, with wreaths of flowers on their heads
and an image of the Virgin borne aloft, came out of the church
and passed through the garden, in which are the stations with
Fortner's frescoes representing the life and passion of Christ.

92 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" There is something that appeals to the imagination/' remarked
the German. " And purely a creation of the imagination, too,"
was my reply. A conversation ensued, from which it appeared
that my friend regarded all religious beliefs, institutions, rites,
and ceremonies solely from an aesthetic and poetic point of view.
He even declared that it made no difference to him whether such
a person as Christ ever lived, and whether the popes were the
successors of Peter or not ; he should still be a Christian and a
Catholic. He admitted that all sacred literatures are more or less
mythical, and that our Holy Writ forms no exception to the rule.
With the progress of the race the old myths are refined and
transformed, both artistically and ethically, and thus adapted to
every advance in civilization, but they never die out. "The
masses," he added, " are mentally and morally mere children and
will probably always remain so, and the most interesting and
instructive books for children are mdrchen" Here was a schol-
arly and thoughtful man who stood wholly out of reach of " the
higher criticism," since he was ready to assent to its most radical
conclusions without the slightest change in his attitude to the
current system of belief.

A mind thus constituted would regret the decay of supersti-
tion as a decline of ideality and a limitation of the undefined
and unknown regions of the supernatural, in which that errant
sprite, the imagination, is free to expatiate and quick to discover
wonders more strange than any invented by the Moor of Venice
to win the heart of Senator Brabantio's daughter. We fully ap-
preciate the poetical side of popular mythology and the unfading
fascination of folklore, and feel the charm that lingers in cus-
toms growing out of these survivals of primitive beliefs; but
this is another phase of the subject which can not be discussed in
the present paper. There are many tourists who remember Rome
as it was under papal rule, with its countless beggars and chronic
filth and perennial sources of malarial fever, and are fain to
lament the disappearance of these picturesque features through
the purification and regeneration of the ancient city. It is the
same sort of false sentiment that mourns over what the poet calls

" The fair humanities of old religion,"

the loss of which has been more than made good by the marvelous
discoveries of modern science, whose achievements rival the an-
nals of credulity in their appeals to the imagination, and render
the visible and invisible forces of Nature, once the terror of man,
now tributary to his happiness.

EVOLUTION IN FOLKLORE, 93

EVOLUTION IN FOLKLORE.

SOME WEST AFEICAN PEOTOTYPES OF THE "UNCLE
EEMUS" STOEIES.

By the late Colonel A. B. ELLIS.

IN the process of collecting the folklore of West Africa, but
chiefly that of the Gold Coast, I have found several tales
which are evidently the West African variants of some of the
stories collected in the Southern States by Mr. Joel Chandler
Harris, and published under the title of " Uncle Remus," and a
comparison of the two sets may be of some interest to American
readers, besides affording an example of the extent to which folk-
lore is affected by change of environment.

The role of Brer Rabbit is filled on the Gold Coast by the
Spider (Anansi), and on the Slave Coast by the Tortoise (Awon),
who is doubtless the prototype of the Terrapin in " Uncle Remus."
In both districts the Hare figures in the tales, and possibly Brer
Rabbit is the Hare amid new surroundings, but in West Africa
" Long Ears " rather takes the place of Brer Fox, as he is usually
outwitted by the Spider and the Tortoise.

So large a number of the folklore tales of the Gold Coast have
the Spider for their hero that the title Anansi' sem, "Spider
stories," is now the generic native name for all folklore tales
whatever, no matter what the subject may be ; and this designa-
tion survives in the British West Indies in the name " Nancy
stories," which is there applied by the negro to his local folk-
lore. The supply of slaves for the British West Indies was drawn
almost exclusively from the Gold Coast, so that all, or almost all,
of the existing folklore of those islands is derived direct from
the Spider stories, and can be readily traced ; but in the Southern
States the connection is not always so apparent, for although up
to the beginning of the present century Gold Coast negroes
formed the bulk of the imported slaves, yet, after about 1810,
when the African kingdom of Yoruba broke up, large numbers
of Slave Coast negroes were introduced, with the result that the
local tales present features peculiar to both districts of West
Africa.

The second tale in Mr. Harris's ''Uncle Remus" series is en-
titled The Wonderful Tar-baby, and, briefly, is as follows : Brer
Fox makes an effigy of tar, mixed with turpentine, and sets it up
by the roadside. Brer Rabbit, coming along the road, sees the
tar-baby and bids it " Good morning." The tar-baby makes no
^^JJjly, upon which Brer Rabbit grows angry and strikes it, with
the result that his hand sticks to the effigy. Then he strikes with

94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

his other hand, with the same result ; then he kicks with his feet,
and, finally, butts with his head, until he is completely fixed to
the tar-baby. As will be readily seen, this is evidently a variant
of the following Gold Coast tale :

SPIDER AND THE FARMER.

There was a famine in Spider's country, and Spider had noth-
ing to eat. Now Spider had a son, named Kwaku Tyom, and
Spider's son used to go to a farm not far away and steal
cassava. And every day when he brought home the cassava, his
father would ask him, " Where dost thou get this cassava ? " But
Spider's son always made answer that he could not tell him, for
if he, Spider, were to go there, some harm might befall him.
Spider said, "Oh! my son, did I not beget thee, and yet thou
thinkest thyself to be more clever than I ? Show me the place,
and I will be careful that no one sees me." But Spider's son still
refused to show Spider.

Now, whenever Spider's son went to the farm to dig cassava,
he used to carry a bag, which he filled with cassava, and so
brought home ; and Spider played his son Kwaku Tyom a trick,
for, when night fell, and Spider's son had laid himself down and
was sleeping. Spider put wood ashes into the bag and made a hole
in the bottom thereof.

Next morning Spider's son arose, and slung the bag around
his neck, and set forth to go to the farm ; and as he walked, the
ashes fell through the hole in the bag and marked the path. Then
Spider came after his son and saw the road, but he did not go to
the farm that day ; he returned home and said nothing. In the
evening Spider's son returned home and brought cassava.

Next morning Spider arose early and followed the track of the
ashes to go to the farm ; and when he reached the place he saw a
something there made of crossed sticks, standing in the midst of
the farm, and there were snail ^shells hanging thereon, which the
breeze rattled.*

When Spider saw this he was afraid. He saluted the some-
thing, and said, " Good morning, sir " ; but the something made
him no answer. Then Spider became vexed, and he said, " Oh !
oh ! dost thou want to shake me by the hand before thou answer-
est me ? " He put out his hand to the something, and his hand
became fixed to the sticks so that he could not draw it back.

* What we should call a scarecrow, but on the Gold Coast such things scare people
rather than birds, for they are meant to protect crops from thieves, and are believed to
possess a latent power, derived from some god, to entrap or bring misfortune upon any one
who interferes with what is under their guardianship. The snail shells here mentioned are
those of the large edible snail of West Africa.

EVOLUTION IJSr FOLKLORE, 95

Then Spider became more vexed, and said, " What sort of man-
ners are these ? I was so polite as to come and shake thy hand,
and now thou dost hold my hand and will not leave it." He put
forth his left hand to the something, and the left hand became
fastened also. " Well, well," said Spider, "what is it that thou
wishest me to do ? Thou hast caught my two hands. Dost want
me to embrace thee ? " He put his face to the shoulder of the
something, and it remained fixed there so that he could not draw
it back. He kicked with his two feet at the sticks, and they also
were caught and held.

In this wise Spider remained all that day and until the morn-
ing of the next day, when the plantation owner came there and
saw Spider fastened to the something. And the farmer said:
*' Hallo, Father Spider, and is it thou who hast been coming to
take my cassava all this time ? At last I have found thee out ! "

Spider's wife and Spider's son Kwaku Tyom knew that Spi-
der had gone to the farm, because they had not seen him in the
house all the night.

The farmer said to Spider, " I have lost about two hundred
and fifty cassavas from my farm since this began, and unless thou
pay est me thou wilt not go from here." Then Spider begged for
pardon, and prayed the man to release him, saying that he would
pay for all, and the farmer released him.

Then Spider said to the man that he must return home with
him, and they went together ; and when they arrived at Spider's
house, they met there Spider's wife and son. The farmer said to
Spider's wife : " I saw Spider in my farm this morning, quite fas-
tened up, and, as I have lost about two hundred and fifty cassavas
from my farm, I asked Spider concerning them, and he confessed
it was he who had taken them, and said he would pay me, so I
have come hither with him to receive payment."

Then Spider's son spake to Spider and said : " Father, I told
thee not to go to the farm. My mother has told me that, when I
was sleeping one night, thou didst put some ashes into my bag,
and picked a hole in the bag ; but I knew not when I was going
next morning that the ashes were falling along the road. Now,
father, how art thou going to pay for so much ? " Spider an-
swered softly, " Never mind, my son, I will pay him up in the
roof."

Then Spider made an excuse to the farmer that he wanted to
go into his sleeping room, but the farmer said : " No, I will not
let thee do so, for thou art too tricky." But Spider begged the
farmer, saying that he only wanted to go into the room to get the
money wherewith to pay him, and that he would return at once ;
and at last, after much talking, the farmer left Spider.

Then, when Spider had moved about three steps from where

96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the farmer was sitting, lie cried : " Oli ! oli ! daddy farmer, I have
no money for thee. I will pay thee on the roof top." And he
jumped at once into the rafters, where he said, " I shall not come
down again."

Since then Spider has not come down from the roof, for he
owes the farmer too much, and the farmer is still looking for
him.

The eighteenth of Mr. Harris's tales, entitled Mr. Kabbit finds
his Match at Last, describes how Brer Rabbit runs a race with
the Terrapin, which the Terrapin wins by distributing his wife
and children at the different mileposts along the track, and by
concealing himself near the winning post, up to which he crawls
when Brer Rabbit draws near. In the introduction Mr. Harris
mentions a similar tale from the South Atlantic States, where the
Terrapin, by the same stratagem, wins a race that he runs against
the Deer. In this instance, however, the race is for a bride, who
is to marry the winner, and so the tale probably has reference to
the once widely distributed marriage custom known as "bride
racing." The Gold Coast tale, equally with that of Uncle Remus,
has no reference to marriage. It is as follows :

THE FROG AND THE LEOPARD.

One day the Frog challenged the Leopard to run a race with
him from Axim to Accra, and the Leopard answered: "This
is foolishness. A little slow-moving creature such as thou art
could not race with me " ; but the Frog said, " Yes, I will, and
we will then see who is a man " ; so the Leopard agreed, and they
fixed a day for the race.

Then the Frog went to Axim, and he placed frogs all along
the road from Axim to Accra. He hid them in the bush, putting
here five and there ten ; and when the time came, the Leopard
came and called the Frog to go and race.

When they started, they started together, and the Leopard at
once made one leap and came to Shamah, and when he alighted
on the ground he called " Frog," and a frog answered " Yaow."
The Leopard said : " What ! such a little creature as that can beat
me in a race ? No, it is not possible. I will go on again " ; and he
skipped from Shamah to Kommenda, and when he alighted he
called again, "Frog," and a frog answered "Yaow." Then the
Leopard was ready to scream with vexation, he did not know
what to do, and it was bitter to think that such a slow creature
as a frog could leap as far as he.

The Leopard made another leap, and he leaped from Kommen-
da to Amkwana, and as he alighted he called " Frog," and a frog
answered "Yaow." The Leopard said, "What! art thou here
again ? " and he was angry, and he made a bound from Amkwana

EVOLUTION IN FOLKLORE. 97

to Simpa, without touching anywhere, and when he came down
at Simpa he called " Frog," and a frog said " Yaow." The leop-
ard said : " I am the King of the Bush. Every creature is under
me. I am the King, I can cut off heads, and yet a little creature
like thee is able to race with me, and now thou seekest to beat
me."

Then he leaped at once from Simpa to the Sakum River, and
when he came there he thought, " Frog is not here," and he did
not call the Frog, but said he would first drink some palm wine,
because he was tired. And after he had drunk the palm wine he
called " Frog," and a frog answered " Yaow." The Leopard asked,
" What ! art thou here. Frog ? " And the frog again said " Yaow."
Then the Leopard made a leap from that place and came to Accra,
and called " Frog," and a frog answered " Yaow." At every place
to which he came ho met the Frog, because a frog was there be-
fore he leaped.

At that time the Frog lived in the bush — he lived there with
all the other animals ; but now the Leopard said to him, " I am
the King of the Bush, and after this I will not keep thee there
any more. I will put thee down close to the water side."

That is why ye can hear frogs crying by the water side where-
ever ye go. The Leopard has driven them out of the bush, be-
cause the Frog was the only animal that could race with him.

Another Gold Coast tale is :

HOW SPIDER AND KWAKU TSE KILLED THE KING'S COWS AND TOOK

HIS WIVES.

There was a certain king who had two fine cows, and these
two cows were in the same town with the king. In this town
people often could not get meat to eat, but the king always had
meat to eat from the two cows, for they used to void meat every
morning.

Now, Spider and Kwaku Tse came to that town as strangers,*
and when they came the people had no meat to eat ; they had
nothing but plantains and dokonno ; f so Spider and Kwaku Tse
asked the master of the house in which they lodged, since he had
no meat to give them, to show them the house of the king.

Then Spider and Kwaku Tse went to the king, and said to
him : " We are strangers who have come to thy town, and to-mor-

* It should perhaps have been stated before that Spider and his family are able to as-
sume the human form at will. When Spider is in human shape he is small, lean, and
hairy, and these peculiarities are shared by his children. In the tale of Spider and the
Farmer it is to be understood that Spider goes to the farm in human shape and, when in
his own house, escapes from the farmer by becoming a spider again and climbing up
among the rafters.

f Dokonno — a kind of boiled maize bread.

TOL. XLVIII. — 1

98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

row we will pass on our way, and we can find no meat to eat, but
as we were coming liitlier to thee we saw two fine cows." The
king answered, " The cows are mine, and they are not to kill."
Spider asked, " Why should not the cows be to kill ? " and the
king answered, " They supply me with meat." Then Spider and
Kwaku Tse asked the king if he could not give them even a small
piece of meat, and the king refused.

They departed from the king and returned to the house in
which they were lodging, and they told the owner of the house
of all that they had said to the king, and how the king had re-
fused to give them even a small piece of meat. They said to the
man : " The king said that his two cows supplied him with beef,
and that therefore he could not kill them." Spider said, " My
name is Spider, and this man is my namesake Kwaku. Never be-
fore have I seen a cow that could supply meat and yet live. I
came hither only to pass through and go upon my way, but now
I will tarry here and see how it is that these cows can supply
the king with meat." The owner of the house answered, " That
thou wilt not be able to see, for they do it in the king's private
yard." Spider said, " I am he who is called Kwaku Anansi, and
anything in this world that I want to see or want to do and that
I am not able to see or do, I have not yet found it." He said :
" These two cows of the king, I will kill them and I will take
their heads. I and my friend will do it ; we will each kill one,
and as for the heads of the cows, the king will cut them off and
give them to us."

When Spider spake thus the owner of the house marveled
greatly to hear such words, and he ran and called his neighbor
and said to him, " Come and listen, for there is a great trouble
which these strangers who have come to lodge with me are about
to bring upon me." When the neighbor came the owner of the
house told him, in the presence of Spider, what Spider had said,
and Spider gave them a proverb, saying, " If the load on thy
head is heavy, and it is something to eat, whilst thou art eating it
thou art lightening it." Then Kwaku Tse said : " We have spoken
this in thy house ; it is no concern of any one else."

Then Spider and Kwaku Tse told the owner of the house that
they were going out to see if they could not get the heads of the
two cows and bring them there. And they departed and went to
the king's yard, and it was night time, and they found the place
wherein the cows used to sleep. Now they had with them a leaf
that, when a person smelled it, it made him sneeze, and they
rubbed the leaf upon the noses of the two cows. Then the cows at
once looked as if they wanted to sneeze ; they opened their mouths
wide open, and Spider and Kwaku Tse turned themselves very
small and each of them jumped into the mouth of a cow, and the

EVOLUTION IN FOLKLORE, 99

cows swallowed them up. Then they cut meat from the insides
of the cows, but the cows did not die.

Next morning the king came to his cows to get meat, and the
cows voided meat for the king, but this time the meat was not
fresh as it always used to be, because Spider and Kwaku Tse had
cut it and left it inside all night. The king said, " I wonder why
the meat is not fresh as it always is ? " and he sent for a medicine
man to see if he could cure the cows, for he thought that they
were sick. When the medicine man came, he said that the cows
had eaten a bad leaf, and he poured medicine down their throats.
Then the medicine purged them and they voided more meat, but
it was all stinking.

When the king and the medicine man had gone away, and
there was nobody left with the cows, Kwaku Tse came out and
went into the cow in which was Spider, and when he came there
he found that Spider had done the same as he, Kwaku Tse, had
done in the other cow. He said to Spider : " I do not know why
we can not make these two cows die. We have cut all the meat
inside. I am going back to my cow, and after I have gone inside
I will cut its belly right through with a knife." Spider answered :
" No, do not do that. When thou goest in, thou must cut neither
the belly nor the heart." Kwaku Tse asked, " Why not ? " and Spi-
der said, " Because if we kill the cows while we are yet inside, we
shall not be able to get out again, and what shall we do then ? "
Kwaku Tse asked, " Why should we not be able to come out ? "
Then Spider said, " Is not thy mother dead ?" and Kwaku Tse an-
swered, " Yes." Spider said again, "And what caused her death ? "
and Kwaku Tse answered, " She died by poison." Spider said :
" When she was dead, did not a medicine man come and try to
make her sneeze or open her mouth, and did he not fail to do it ?
Thus thou must know that if the cows die while we are yet inside
them, we can not get out. But we can hide ourselves, and that is
what we will do. The king will rip open their bellies to discover
the cause of their death, so thou must chop the meat on one side
very small, so that they will think that the cows have received a
blow, and have died therefrom. When the king rips open the
cow thou must hide in the stomach, and if thou seest that they
are about to search there, thou must run into the bowels and hide.
When thou goest into thy cow now, after thou hast chopped the
side as I told thee, thou must search for the heart and cut it down.
When thou hast cut the heart down the cow will die, and then
thou must be careful where thou hidest, so as to escape the knife
with which they will open the belly. But before thou doest this,
first run to the man in whose house we lodge and tell him that
we are going to the water side to wash." Then Kwaku Tse went
to the house-master and told him, and returned into the belly of

loo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the cow, and chopped the side and cut the heart down, and the
cow died. And Spider did the same in his cow, and both cows
were dead.

When the king came and saw that his cows were dead, he
ordered his people to go and bring the medicine man who had phys-
icked the cows, and when the medicine man came he said that if
the king would allow it he would rip open the cows^ bellies. The
king consented, and they ripped open the cows, and the medicine
man said that something had struck the cows a blow in the side
and that that was the cause of their death. The king asked the
medicine man if the cows were still good to eat, and the medicine
man said that they were. Then the king said : " When thou camest
first to the cows thou didst say that they had eaten a bad leaf.
How, then, can their flesh now be good to eat ? " The medicine
man answered that at first he thought the cows had eaten a bad
leaf and were sick therefrom, but now he found that a blow had
been struck them, and therefore the flesh would be good to eat.
He said that the people must cut up the cows and carry the
paunches to the water side and wash them.

Then the king had the cows cut up, and he ordered two of his
slaves to carry the paunches to the water side ; and when they
went there they threw them down in the water. When the
paunches fell into the water Spider and Kwaku Tse broke forth
from their hiding places and changed themselves at once, and
looked up at the two slaves and cried unto them : " See how ye
have acted to us ! see how ye have acted to us ! We were bathing
here in this water and ye came and cast cows' paunches upon us."

The two slaves were frightened, and they left the paunches
and ran away and returned to the king and told him : " When
we carried the cow paunches to the stream and cast them into the
water, two men arose and said we had cast the cow paunches up-
on them. The king asked, " And did ye throw the paunches upon
them ? " The slaves answered : " We saw them not ; but when
they jumped up before us they were covered with the filth from
the cow paunches.''^ The king asked, " How deep was the place ? "
and the slaves answered that it was about the depth of a man's
knees. Then the king said, " If it were only of that depth ye
m.ust have seen the men when ye cast in the cow paunches."

The king called two elders and sent them to the water side to
see the two men, and when the elders came they found Spider and
his friend covered with filth and the cow paunches in the water.
Spider said to them : " That which these two slaves have done to
us, if we were not strangers here in the town, we would deal with
them for it. We asked if we might come here and wash before
we came here." The elders said, " This is the place where we
always are used to wash. The slaves have done wrong, but they

EVOLUTION IN FOLKLORE. loi

are the king's slaves, therefore we beg thee to let the matter rest."
Spider answered : " Ye are begging us while the filth is still upon
us. Ye can not beg us so with empty hands. If the cows have
been killed 'twill not be so grave a matter, but if they have died
our medicine will be spoiled, therefore we will go with ye and see
the cows. When first we came to this town we could get no
meat. We went to the king and told him we were strangers and
had no meat to eat, and he told us he had no meat to give us.''

While they were still talking by the water side, the son of the
man in whose house Spider and Kwaku Tse were lodging came
there and saw them with the elders, and he ran home and told his
father. Then the father came to see what was the matter, but
when he came he did not find the two strangers, for they had
already departed with the elders to go to the king's house. Then
he went to the king's house, and when he reached there the
strangers and the two elders had not yet arrived. When the man
came, the king asked him what he came for, and he answered :
" Two strangers came to me three days past and lodged in my
house. They went out this morning, and after a time one of them
returned to me and told me they were going to the water side to
wash. Afterward my son came and told me he had seen them at
the water side talking with two elders. So I have come hither to
learn what the matter is." The king asked: "What strangers
are they ? Whence do they come ? " and the man answered :
" King, thou knowest them. They are the two young men who
came to thee and asked for meat, because they were strangers."
Then tfie king said, " Ah ! I know them now." He said : " When
thou doest good for a man it is good for thyself.* These young
men came and asked me for meat, and I said I had none to give
them. Now my cows are dead, and the slaves whom I sent to
wash the paunches at the water side have cast them upon the
young men. I have sent two elders to go and soothe them, but
they have not yet returned."

While the king was speaking. Spider and Kwaku Tse and the
two elders came, and with them the slaves bearing the paunches
of the cows, and Spider and Kwaku Tse were still covered with
the dirt from the paunches. The king asked the elders: "The
place where these slaves cast down the paunches, if any persons
were there, could they see them ? " The elders answered that the
slaves could not fail to see them. Then the king said, " Then the
slaves must have done this thing purposely," and the elders an-
swered, " Thou hast said it." Spider said : " If thou art a stranger
and thou goest to another country, they treat thee like a stranger,
in truth. The slaves, when they saw my small body, they thought

* A proverb.

102 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

I was a young boy, or else they would not have done such a
thing." The king said : " Thou must not say so. I am here for
all people, for the townfolk and for strangers also, to protect
them and be a father to them." Kwaku Tse answered : " How
canst thou say thou art a father to the stranger ? Did not we
come and ask thee for meat, and didst not thou tell us that thou
hadst only meat for thine own household ? " Spider said : " In
this world in which we live it is not everybody that likes every-
body, so it behooves every man to keep a little medicine * to guide
him. If the cows died of sickness then our medicine is spoiled,
but if the cows were killed no great harm was done." The king
said that the cows had died, and then Spider sang :

" My namesake, Kwaku, we are wearied, we are wearied.
We are wearied without cause."

The king asked what this song might mean, and Spider said that
the little medicine which they possessed was a medicine which for-
bade them even to pass by dead animals, and now the flesh of ani-
mals that had died had been thrown upon them. He said : " Had
these two slaves killed one of us, instead of throwing the paunches
upon us, it would have been better, because the one who lived
would have mourned for the other, and that is something. As
we are standing before thee now, O king, if war came upon thee
we are thy men. And if war did come upon thee now, we should
be the first to die in battle on account of what thy slaves have
done." He said, " No son can be older than his father." Then
the king asked what this proverb might mean, and Spider and
Kwaku Tse showed each a medicine that was upon their loins,
and said : " This medicine, when we were born it was not upon us.
After we were born we made it, and if thou wilt help us we will
make fresh medicine again, and let this matter rest, for thy sake."
The king said, " Whatever it is ye want, say it," and they an-
swered, " That which we want, perchance thou thyself will want
it also." The king said, " As ye are strangers, ask for what ye
wish, and, even though I want it, ye shall have it." Then they
said that they wanted the two heads and the two hearts of the very
cows whose paunches had spoiled their medicine, and hair from
two of the king's own wives. The king answered that he would
give them the cows' heads and the two hearts, but as for his
wives' hair, that was too much to ask. Spider said, " If the cows
were not thine own it would be different, but as the cows were
thine own we must ask for the hair." Then the king said he
would give them the hair according to their wish, but only a
little ; and Spider and Kwaku Tse said that a little would suffice.

* I. e., an amulet or charm.

EVOLUTION IN FOLKLORE. 103

Then the king called two of his wives, and when they came he
was ashamed to tell them what he wanted, so he said to them that
their hair had grown too much, and that they must cut it down.
Then the two women went into their own room and cut the hair,
and the king came behind them and gathered some of it and gave
it to Spider and Kwaku Tse, together with the two heads and the
two hearts of the cows.

Spider and Kwaku Tse departed from the king and carried
all the things to the house wherein they lodged, and they told the
house-master that they wished to marry and to give a wedding
feast. The house-master said that there was no meat in the town,
and though people passed by driving cows to other towns yet they
would not sell them. Then Spider and Kwaku Tse took the two
cows' heads, and went into the road where the people used to pass
driving their cows, and there was much mire at a certain part of
the road, and they took the two heads and planted them in the
mire so that the severed necks were hidden.

By and by some people came driving cows, and Spider and
Kwaku Tse called to them, and said : " We were passing here with
our cows, and lo ! this mire has swallowed them up, and we can
not draw them out. Can ye take them out for us ? " The people
said " Yes " ; and they left their own cows, and went and laid hold
of the horns of the cows' heads that were in the mire, and pulled
hard to pull the cows out, and when they pulled the two heads
came up out of the mire. Then Spider and Kwaku Tse cried
aloud and said : " See what ye have done ! See what ye have done !
Ye have pulled the heads off our cows and left the bodies still in
the mire. Ye must pay us for our two cows." Then the people
were obliged to give them two of their own cows, and they took
the two heads and cast them among the bushes.

Spider and Kwaku Tse take the heads from the bushes and
play the same trick upon some other passers-by, after which they
make a medicine with the hair of the king's wives, and by means
of it compel the two wives to come to them at night, and in the
end deprive the king of his wives altogether.

This tale furnishes the material for two of the stories of Uncle
Remus. The notion of entering a cow and cutting meat from its
inside is to be found in No. XXXIV— The Sad Fate of Mr. Fox.
Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox enter a cow and cut meat, and Brer
Rabbit, through disregarding Brer Fox's injunction and cutting
into the " haslet," kills the cow, so that they can not make their
way out again. Then one hides in the maul and the other in the
gall when the cow is cut open. The trick of planting the cows'
heads in the mire and pretending that the animals had foundered
appears in No. XX — How Mr. Rabbit saved his Meat — where
Brer Rabbit plants a cow's tail in the earth and tells Brer Fox

104 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

that the cow has sunk into the ground. They both pull at the
tail, and when it comes out Brer Rabbit winks his eye and says,
" Dar ! de tail done pull out en de cow gone/'

No. XXXIII, Why the Negro is Black, is practically the same
as the Gold Coast tale. Why Some People are Black and Some
White. In the Uncle Remus variant there is a pool of water in
which those who wash become white ; but the water is soon used
up, and the last comers only find enough to whiten the palms of
their hands and the soles of their feet. In the Gold Coast tale
the change of color is brought about by means of the blood , of a
handsome boy, who has committed suicide by casting himself
down from a tree.

No. VI, Mr. Rabbit Grossly deceives Mr. Fox, which describes
how Brer Rabbit, by a trick, rides Brer Fox to Miss Meadows's
house, is like the Slave Coast tale. How the Tortoise rode the
Elephant to Town, and the stratagem by which the Tortoise es-
capes being killed by the Elephant is similar to that employed by
Brer Rabbit when Brer Fox is about to kill him (No. IV, How Mr.
Rabbit was too Sharp for Mr. Fox), and also by the Terrapin when
in the same dilemma (No. XII, Mr. Fox tackles Old Man Tarry-
pin). In the first case Brer Rabbit says, " I don't keer w'at you
do wid me. Brer Fox, so you don't fling me in dat brier patch,"
and in the second the Terrapin begs Brer Fox not to drown him,
but to burn him. In the Slave Coast tale, the Tortoise begs the
Elephant to dash him down upon the stones, but not to throw him
into the swamp, as the water and mire would drown him.

In No. XVII— Mr. Rabbit Nibbles up the Butter— where Brer
Rabbit rubs the butter upon the mouth of the sleeping Opossum,
and causes him to be thought guilty of the offense, we find a more
delicate version of an incident in the Gold Coast tale — How the
Cat got the Better of Spider — but as this paper has already
reached sufficient length, this and the other stories above men-
tioned can not be given in detail.

Prof. Angelo Heilprin points out as a field where thorough geo-
graphical explorations may be made with profit and additions to knowl-
edge, the regions of the North Pacific uniting North America — by stepping
stones — with Asia : the Aleutian Islands and peninsula, Bering Sea and
Strait, and the peninsula of Kamchatka. " Where two continents approach
one another so closely and give evidence of having been united at seem-
ingly no very ancient date ; where a connecting land-bridge could not but
most effectually influence the distribution of life — human, animal, and
vegetable — upon two hemispheres; there, manifestly, the harvest of explo-
ration must be great, for bound in with the research are problems of deep
significance, touching alike the sciences of physical geography, ethnology,
geology, and botany."

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 105

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD.

XII.— UKDEK LAW.

By JAMES SULLY, M.A.,LL.D.,

OBOTE PBOFESSOB OF THE PHILOSOPHT OF MIND AND LOGIC AT THE UNIVEBSITT COLLEGE,

LONDON.

(a) THE STRUGGLE WITH LAW.

IN the last chapter we tried to get at those tendencies of child-
nature which, though they have a certain moral significance,
may in a manner be called spontaneous and independent of the
institution of moral training. We will now examine the child^s
attitude toward the moral government with which he finds him-
self confronted.

Here, again, we meet with opposite views. Children, say some,
are essentially disobedient and lawbreaking. A child as such is
a rebel, delighting in nothing so much as in evading and dodging
the rule which he finds imposed by others.

The view that children are instinctively obedient and law-abid-
ing has not, I think, been very boldly insisted on. A follower of
Rousseau at least, who sees only clumsy interference with natural
development in our attempts to govern children, would say that
child-nature must resist the artificial and cramping system which
the disciplinarian imposes.

It seems, however, to be allowed by some that a certain num-
ber of children are docile and disposed to accept authority with
its commands. According to them, children are either obedient
or disobedient. This is probably the view of many mothers and
pedagogues.

Here, too, it is probable that we try to make nature too simple.
Even the latter view, in spite of its apparent wish to be discrimi-
nating, does not allow for the many-sidedness of the child and for
the many different ways in which the instincts of child-nature
may vary.

Now it is worth asking whether, if the child were naturally
disposed to look on authority as something wholly hostile, he
would get morally trained at all. Physically mastered and mor-
ally cowed he might, of course, become ; but this is not the same
thing as being morally induced into a habit of accepting law and
obeying it.

In inquiring into this matter we must begin by drawing a dis-
tinction. There is first the attitude of a child toward the gov-
ernor, the parent, or other ruler, and there is his attitude toward
law as such. These are by no means the same thing, and a child
of three or four begins to illustrate the distinction. He may seem
to be lawless, opposed to the very idea of government, when, in

io6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

reality, lie is merely objecting to a particular ruler and tlie kind
of rule (or, as the child would say, misrule) which he is carrying
out.

Let us look a little into the noncompliant, disobedient attitude
of children. As we have seen, the very liveliness of a child, the
abundance of his vigorous impulses, brings him into conflict with
others' wills. The ruler, more particularly, is a great and con-
tinual source of crossings and checkings. The child has his natu-
ral wishes and propensities. He is full of fun, bent on his harm-
less tricks, and the mother has to talk seriously to him about being
naughty. How can we wonder at his disliking the constraint ?
He has a number of inconvenient active impulses, such as putting
things in disorder, playing with water, and so forth. As we all
know, he has a ducklike fondness for dirty puddles. Civilization,
which wills that a child should be nicely dressed and clean, inter-
venes in the shape of the nurse and soon puts a stop to this mode
of diversion. The tyro in submission, if sound and robust, kicks
against the restraint, yells, slaps the nurse, and so forth.

Such collisions are perfectly normal in the first years of life.
"We should not care to see a child give up his inclinations at an-
other's bidding without some little show of resistance. These con-
flicts are frequent and sharp in proportion to the sanity and vigor
of the child. The best children, best from a biological point of
view, have, I think, most of the rebel in them. Not infrequently
these resistances of young will to old will are accompanied by
more emphatic protests in the shape of slapping, pushing, and
even biting. The ridiculous inequality in bodily power, however,
saves, or ought to save, the contest from becoming a serious phys-
ical struggle. The resistance where superior force is used can
only resolve itself into a helpless protest, a vain yelling, or other
utterance of baffled impulse.

If, instead of physical compulsion, authority is asserted in the
shape of a highly disagreeable command, a child, before obedience
has grown into a habit, will be likely to disobey. If the nurse, in-
stead of pulling the mite away from the puddle, bids him come
away, he may assert his self in an eloquent "I won't," or, less
bluntly, " I can't come yet." If he is very much in love with the
puddle and has a stout heart, he probably embarks in a tussle of
words ; " I won't," or, as the child will significantly put it, " I
mus'n't," being bandied with " You must," until the nurse has to
abandon the " moral " method and to resort, after all, to physical
compulsion.

Our sample child has not, we will assume, yet got so fa;r as to
recognize and defer to a general rule about cleanliness. Hence it
may be said that his opposition is directed against the nurse, as
propounding a particular command, and one which at the moment

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 107

is excessively unpleasant. It is as yet not resistance to law as
such, but rather to one specific interference of another's will.

At the same time we may detect in some of this early resist-
ance to authority something of the true rebel nature — that is to
say, the love of lawlessness, and, what is worse perhaps, the obsti-
nate recklessness of the lawbreaker. The very behavior of a
child when another will crosses and blocks the line of his activity
is suggestive of this. The yelling and other disorderly proceed-
ings, do not they speak of the temper of the rioter, of the rowdy ?
And then, the fierce persistence in disobedience under rebuke, and
the wild, wicked determination to face everything rather than
obey, are not these marks of an almost Satanic fierceness of re-
volt ? The thoroughly naughty child sticks at nothing. Thus a
little offender of four, when he was reminded by his sister, two
years older, that he would be shut out from heaven, retorted
impiously, " I don't care," adding, " Uncle won't go ; Til stay with
him." *

The fierce and noisy utterance of the disobedient and law-
resisting temper is eminently impressive. Yet it is not the only
utterance. If we observe children who may be said to show, on
the whole, an outward submission to authority we shall discover
signs of secret dissatisfaction and antagonism. The conflict with
rule has not wholly ceased ; it has simply changed its manner of
proceeding, physical assault and riotous shouts of defiance being
now exchanged for dialectic attack.

A curious chapter in the psychology of the child which still
has to be written is the account of the various devices by which
the astute little novice called upon to wear the yoke of authority
seeks to smooth its chafing asperities. These devices may, per-
haps, be summed up under the head of " trying it on."

One of the simplest and most obvious of these contrivances is
the extempore invention of an excuse for not instantly obeying a
particular command. A child soon finds out that to say "I
won't," when he is bidden to do something, is indiscreet as well
as vulgar. He wants to have his own way without resorting to
a gross breach of good manners, so he replies insinuatingly, " I's
very sorry, but I's so busy," or in some such conciliatory words.
This field of invention offers a fine opportunity for the imagina-
tive child. A small boy of three years and nine months received
from his nurse the familiar order, " Come here ! " He at once
replied, " I can't, nurse ; I's looking for a flea," and he pretended
to be much engrossed in the momentous business of hunting for
this quarry in the blanket of his cot. The little trickster is such

* My correspondent, discreetly perhaps, does not explain why the uncle was selected as
fellow-outcast.

io8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a lover of fun that lie is pretty certain to betray his ruse in a case
like this, and our small flea-catcher, we are told, laughed mis-
chievously as he proffered his excuse. Such sly fabrications may
be just as naughty as the uninspired excuses of a stupidly sulky
child, but it is hard to be quite as much put out by them.

These excuses often show a fine range of inventive activity.
How manifold, for example, are the reasons, more or less ficti-
tious, which a boy, when told to make less noise, is able to urge
in favor of noncompliance ! Here, of course, all the great matters
of the play world, the need of getting his " gQQ-gQQ " on, of giving
his orders to his soldiers, and so forth, come in between the pro-
hibition and compliance. And disobedience in such cases has its
excuses ; for to the child his play- world, even though in a man-
ner modeled on the pattern of our common world, is apart and
sacred ; and the conventional restraints as to noise and such like,
borrowed from the every-day world, seem to him to be quite out
of place in this free and private domain of his own.

We all know the child's aptness in "easing" the pressure of
commands and prohibitions. If, for example, he is told to keep
perfectly quiet because mother or father wants to sleep, he will
prettily plead for the reservation of whispering ever so softly.
If he is bidden not to ask for things at the table, he will resort to
sly indirect reminders of what he wants, as when a boy of five
years and a half whispered audibly, " I hope somebody will offer
me some more soup," or when a girl of three years and a half,
with still greater childish tact, observed on seeing the elder folk
eating cake, " I not asking." This last may be compared with a
story told by Kousseau of a little girl of six years who, having
eaten of all the dishes but one, artfully indicated the fact by
pointing in turn to all the dishes, saying, " I have eaten that,"
but carefully passing by the untasted one.*

When more difficult duties come to be enforced and the neo-
phyte in the higher morality is bidden to be considerate for
others, and even to sacrifice his own comfort for theirs, he is apt
to manifest a good deal of skill in adjusting the counsel of per-
fection to young weakness. Here is an amusing example: A
little boy, Edgar by name, aged five years and three quarters, was
going out to take tea with some little girls. The mother, as is
usual on such occasions, primed him with special directions as
to behavior, saying, " Remember to give way to them, like father
does to me." To which Edgar, after thinking a brief instant
replied ; " Oh, but not all at once. You have to persuade him."

A like astuteness will show itself in meeting accusation. The

* !l&mile, livre v, quoted by Perez, L'Art et la Poesie chez I'Enfant, p. 127. Rousseau
uses this story in order to show that girls are more artful than boys.

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 109

various ways in which a child will seek to evade the point in snch
cases are truly marvelous, and show the childish intelligence at
its ablest.

Sometimes the dreary " talking to," with its well-known deep
accusatory tone, its familiar pleadings, " How can you be so
naughty?'' and the rest, is daringly ignored. After keeping up
an excellent appearance of listening, the small culprit proceeds in
the most artless way to talk about something more agreeable.
This is trying, but is not the worst. The deepest depth of mater-
nal humiliation is reached when a carefully prepared and solemnly
delivered homily is rewarded by a tu quoque in the shape of a cor-
rection of something in the delivery which offends the child's sense
of propriety. This befell one mother who, after talking seriously
to her little boy about some fault, was met with this remark :
*' Mamma, when you talk you don't move your upper jaw."

It is, of course, difficult to say how far a child's interruptions,
and what look like turnings of the conversation when receiving
rebuke, are the result of deliberate plotting. We know it is hard
to hold the young thoughts long on any subject, and the homily
makes a heavy demand in this respect, and its theme is apt to seem
dull to a child's lively brain. The thoughts will be sure to wander
then, and the rude interruptions and digression's may, after all, be
but the natural play of the young mind. I fear, however, that
design often has a hand here. The first digression to which the
weak disciplinarian succumbed may have been the result of a
spontaneous movement of child-thought ; but its success enables
the observant child to try it on a second time with artful aim.

In cases in which no attempt is made to ignore the accusation,
the small wits are busy discovering palliatives and exculpations.
Here we have the many ruses, often crude enough, by which the
little culprit tries to shake off moral responsibility, to deny the
authorship of the action found fault with. The blame is put on
anybody or anything. When he breaks something, say a cup,
and is scolded, he saves himself by saying it was because the cup
wasn't made strong enough, or because the maid put it too near
the edge of the table. There are clear indications of fatalistic
thought in these childish disclaimers. Things were so conditioned
that he could not help doing what he did. This fatalism betrays
itself in the childish ruses already referred to by which the ego
tries to screen itself shabbily by throwing responsibility on to the
bodily agents. This device is sometimes hit upon very early. A
wee child of two, when told not to cry, gasped out, " Elsie cry — not
Elsie cry — tears cry — naughty tears." This, it must be allowed, is

more plausible than C 's lame attempt to put off responsibility

on his hands ; for our tears are in a sense apart from us, and in
the first years are wholly beyond control.

no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The fatalistic form of exculpation meets us later on under the
familiar form, " God made me like that." A boy of three was
blamed for leaving his crusts, and his conduct contrasted with
that of his model papa. Whereupon he observed with a touch of
metaphysical precocity, " Yes, but papa you see God had made
you and me different."

These denials of authorship occur when a charge is brought
home and no clear justification of the action is forthcoming. In
many cases the shrewd intelligence of the child, which is never so
acute as in this art of moral self-defense, discovers justificatory
reasons. In such a case the attitude is a very different one. It is
no longer the helpless hand-lifted attitude of the irresponsible
one, but the bold, steady-eyed attitude of one who is prepared to
defend his action.

Sometimes these justifications are pitiful examples of quib-
bling. A boy has been rough with his baby brother. His mother
chides him, telling him he might hurt baby. He then asks his
mother, " Isn't he my own brother ? " and on his mother admitting
so incontestable a proposition, exclaims triumphantly, " Well, you
said I could do what I liked with my own things." The idea of
the precious baby being a boy's own to do what he likes with is
so remote from older people's conceptions that it is hard for us to
credit the boy with misunderstanding. We ought, perhaps, to set
him down as a depraved little sophist, and destined — But pre-
dictions happily lie outside our metier.

In some cases these justifications have a dreadful look of being
after-thoughts invented for the express purpose of self-protection
and knowingly put forward as fibs. Yet there is need of a wise
discrimination here. Take, for example, the following from the
Worcester Collection : A boy of three was told by his mother to
stay and mind his baby sister while she went downstairs. On
going up again some time after, she met him on the stairs. Being
asked why he had left the baby, he said there was a bumblebee
in the room, and he was afraid he would get stung if he stayed
there. His mother asked him if he wasn't afraid his little sister
would get stung. He said " Yes," but added that if he stayed in
the room the bee might sting them both, and then she would have
two to take care of. Now, with every wish to be charitable I can
not bring myself to think that this small boy had really gone
through that subtle process of disinterested calculation before
vacating the room in favor of the bumblebee — if indeed there was
a bumblebee. To be caught in the act and questioned is, I sus-
pect, a situation particularly productive of such specious fibbing.

One other illustration of this keen childish dialectic when face
to face with the accuser deserves to be touched on. The sharp
little wits have something of a lawyer's quickness in detecting a

JSTUBIUS OF CHILDHOOD. ill

flaw in the indictment. Any exaggeration into wliicli a feeling of
indignation happens to betray the accuser is instantly pounced
upon. If, for example, a child is scolded for pulling kitty^s ears
and making her cry, it is enough for the little stickler for accu-
racy to be able to say : " I wasn't pulling kitty's ears, I was only
pulling one of her ears." This ability to deny the charge in its
initial form gives the child a great advantage, and robs the accu-
sation in its amended form of much of its sting. Whence, by the
way, one may infer that wisdom in managing children shows it-
self in nothing more than in a scrupulous exactness in the use of
words.

While there are these isolated attacks on various points of the
daily discipline, we see now and again a bolder line of action in
the shape of a general protest against its severity. Children have
been known to urge that the punishments inflicted on them are
ineffectual ; and although their opinion on such a matter is hardly
disinterested, it is sometimes pertinent enough. An American boy,
aged five years and ten months, began to cry because he was for-
bidden to go into the yard to play, and was threatened by his
mother with a whipping. Whereupon he observed, " Well now,
mamma, that will only make me cry more.''

These childish protests are, as we know, wont to be met by the
commonplaces about the afi!ection which prompts the correction.
But the child finds it hard to swallow these subtleties. For him
love is caressing him and doing everything for his present en-
joyment; and here is the mother who says she loves him, and
often acts as if she did, transforming herself into an ogre to tor-
ment him and make him miserable. He may accept her assurance
that she scolds and chastises him because she is a good mother ;
only he is apt to wish that she were a shade less good. A boy of
four had one morning to remain in bed till ten o'clock as a punish-
ment for misbehavior. He proceeded to address his mother on this
wise : " If I had any little children I'd be a worse mother than you
— I'd be quite a bad mother. I'd let my children get up directly
I had done my breakfast, at any rate."

If, on the other hand, the mother puts forward her own com-
fort as the ground of the restraint, she may be met by this kind of
thing : " I wish you'd be a little more self-sacrificing and let me
make a noise."

Enough has been said to illustrate the ways in which the nat-
ural child kicks against the imposition of restraints on his free
activity. He begins by showing himself an open foe to authority.
For a long time after, while making a certain show of submission,
he harbors in his breast something of the rebel's spirit. He does
his best to avoid the most galling parts of the daily discipline, and
displays an admirable ingenuity in devising excuses for apparent

112 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

acts of insubordination. Where candor is permitted he is apt to
prove himself an exceedingly acute critic of the system which is
imposed on him.

All this, moreover, seems to show that a child objects not only
to the particular administration under which he happens to live,
but to all law, as implying restraints on free activity. Thus, from
the child's point of view, so far as we have yet examined it, pun-
ishment as such is a thing which ought not to be.

So strong and deep-reaching is this antagonism to law and its
restraints apt to be that the childish longing to be " big " is, I be-
lieve, grounded on the expectation of liberty. To be big means to
the child more than anything else to be rid of all this imposition
of commands, to be able to do what one likes without interference
from others. This longing may grow intense in the breast of a
quite small child. " Do you know," asked a little fellow of four
years, " what I shall do when I'm a big man ? I'll go to a shop and
buy a bun and pick out all the currants." This funny story is
characteristic of the movements of young desire. The small
prohibition not to pick out the currants is one that may chafe
to soreness a child's sensibility.

SKETCH OF ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE.

THE life which is to be sketched in the following pages con-
tributes support to the doctrine that what a man is to be, or,
rather, what he is capable of being, is mainly determined by what
his parents and ancestors have been. According to the doctrine
of heredity, it is not surprising that Bache, descended from illus-
trious progenitors on both sides of his family, should himself
achieve intellectual eminence. As he received an education that
was very appropriate for the work he was to perform, his career
does not give any help in answering the question whether heredity
is or is not stronger than training.

His most important work is instructive in another way. It
shows how effective efforts for the advancement of knowledge
made by the power and resources of a great government can be
when the right man is secured to direct them, just as other in-
stances have made plain how wasteful and demoralizing such
efforts may become when unwisely managed.

Alexander Dallas Bache was born in Philadelphia, July
19, 1806. His father, Richard Bache, was a grandson of Benjamin
Franklin, being one of the eight children of Richard Bache, Post-
master-General from 1776 to 1782, and Franklin's only daughter,
Sarah. His mother, Sophia Burret (Dallas), was a daughter of

ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE, 113

Alexander J. Dallas, who was Madison^s Secretary of the Treasury,
and sister of George M. Dallas, Vice-President of the United
States in Polk's administration.

Dallas Bache, as he was usually called by his intimates, was
placed in a classical school at an early age, and proved to be a
remarkably bright pupil. The year he was fifteen years old he
was appointed a cadet in the Military Academy at West Point.
He maintained a high stand in scholarship from the beginning to
the end of his course, and graduated in 1825 at the head of his
class, although its youngest member. This was no small achieve-
ment in a class from which four cadets were assigned to the engi-
neer corps, when only one or two members attained this honor in
most classes. Moreover, he went through the whole four years
without receiving a demerit mark — equally remarkable in view
of the rigid discipline of the academy, and the only instance on
record. Students are none too prone to admire one of their fel-
lows who is noted only for studious habits and correct deport-
ment, but young Bache had besides the personal qualities that win
esteem. Prof. Joseph Henry, in his memoir read before the Na-
tional Academy of Sciences, relates of cadet Bache that " his su-
periority in scholarship was freely acknowledged by every mem-
ber of his class, while his unassuming manner, friendly demeanor,
and fidelity to duty secured him the affection as well as the respect
of not only his fellow-pupils, but also of the officers of the insti-
tution. It is also remembered that his classmates, with instinc-
tive deference to his scrupulous sense of propriety, forbore to
solicit his participation in any amusement which in the slightest
degree conflicted with the rules of the academy. So far from
this, they commended his course, and took pride to themselves, as
members of his class, in his reputation for high standing and ex-
emplary conduct. His roommate — older by several years than he
was, and by no means noted for regularity or studious habits —
constituted himself, as it were, his guardian, and sedulously ex-
cluded all visitors or other interruptions to study during the pre-
scribed hours. For this self-imposed service, gravely rendered as
essential to the honor of the class, he was accustomed jocularly to
claim immunity for his own delinquencies or shortcomings."

All of young Bache's predispositions for good were stimulated
and sustained by the judicious care of his mother, not only while
he was a child at home, but also by means of a ready pen during
the whole of his residence at West Point. It should not be in-
ferred that the young man attained perfection in his conduct.
'* When a child he is said to have been quick-tempered, and at
later periods of his life, when suddenly provoked beyond his ha-
bitual power of endurance, he sometimes gave way to manifesta-
tions of temper which might have surprised those who only knew

VOL. XLTIII. — 8

114 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

him in Ms usual state of calm deportment. These ebullitions
were, however, of rare occurrence, and always of short duration."

On graduating. Lieutenant Bache was assigned to duty at the
academy as assistant professor. A year later he was transferred
at his own request to engineering service on the fortifications at
Newport, R. I., under Major (afterward General) J. G. Totten.
Here he remained two years. One of his recreations during this
period was making a collection of shells of mollusks.

In 1828, being then twenty-two years of age. Lieutenant Bache
resigned his commission in the army to accept a call to the chair
of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry at the University of Pennsyl-
vania. This change was welcome in more ways than one. He
was engaged to Miss Nancy Clarke Fowler, the daughter of an old
and highly respected citizen of Newport, but marriage was appar-
ently a remote prospect, for he had only the stinted pay of a lieu-
tenant of engineers, out of which he must contribute to the
support of his mother and her younger children. The salary of
his new position, however, justified him in hastening the happy
event.

His year's experience in teaching at West Point assisted Mr.
Bache in taking up his duties at the university. He was a very suc-
cessful instructor, and popular with his students. But he did not
rest content with imparting knowledge obtained by the labors of
others. He joined the Franklin Institute, then newly established,
and took a prominent part in its investigations for the promotion
of the mechanical arts.

For a full account of his labors in connection with this society
we must here be content with referring to the volumes of its
Journal from 1828 to 1835 inclusive. One of the most important
and fruitful of these was the investigation of the bursting of
steam boilers, of which he was the principal director. From in-
quiries and experiments, the latter not unattended with danger,
" the most frequent cause of explosion was found to be the grad-
ual heating of the boiler beyond its power of resistance; and,
next to this, the sudden generation of steam by allowing the
water to become too low, and its subsequent contact with the
overheated metal of the sides and other portions of the boiler.
The generation of gas from the decomposition of water as a cause
of explosion was disproved, as was also the dispersion of water in
the form of spray through superheated steam."

Early in 1829 Mr. Bache was elected to membership in the
American Philosophical Society, and at once entered upon va-
rious researches in pure science in co-operation with his fellow-
members. With the aid of his wife and of his former pupil, John
F. Fraser, he determined with accuracy, for the first time in this
country, the periods of the daily variations of the magnetic

ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE, 115

needle, and by another series of observations established the
connection between certain perturbations of the terrestrial mag-
netism and the aurora borealis. With Prof. Courtenay he inves-
tigated the magnetic dip at various places in the United States,
and with Mr. Espy made a minute survey of part of the track of
a tornado which visited New Jersey, June 19, 1835.

After Stephen Girard died, in 1832, Prof. Bache was elected
one of the trustees of the College for Orphans, founded by the
will of the childless merchant. Three years later the trustees
decided to select a president for the institution, in order that he
might go abroad and study European methods of education while
other preparations were being made. Prof. Bache, then only
thirty years of age, was selected for the position. Although re-
gretting the consequent interruption of his scientific researches,
in which he had become much absorbed, he accepted the appoint-
ment, and departed on his mission, September 30, 1836. Two years
were spent agreeably and profitably in Europe, and on his return
Prof. Bache made a report to the trustees embodying his observa-
tions on the schools of England, France, Prussia, Austria, Swit-
zerland, and Italy, with the many helpful conclusions and sugges-
tions that he had derived from these data. The document was
printed, making a large octavo volume.

As the preparations for opening the college were not yet com-
plete. Prof. Bache offered his services gratuitously to reorganize
the public schools of Philadelphia, and his offer was gladly accepted
by the municipal authorities. A year later, finding that the trus-
tees of the college were still unprepared to open the institution,
he relinquished the salary of his office and accepted from the
city a much smaller compensation for his time. His work on the
public schools was completed in 1842, and resulted in a system
that has been taken as a model by other cities in various parts of
the United States. So highly were his labors appreciated that
the Central High School was frequently called Bache Institute.

Girard College having made very little progress, he now re-
signed all connection with it, and accepted his former chair at
the University of Pennsylvania, with its welcome opportunities
for scientific research. The preceding six years had by no means
been a blank with respect to his favorite investigations. When
he went to Europe he took care to provide himself with a set of
portable instruments, with which, as a relief from the labors im-
posed by the special object of his mission, he made a connected
series of observations on the dip and intensity of terrestrial mag-
netism at important places on the Continent and in Great Britain.

After his return to Philadelphia he co-operated in the under-
taking of the British Association to determine by contempora-
neous observations at widely separated points the fluctuations of

ii6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the magnetic and meteorological elements of the globe. He also
made in his summer vacations a magnetic survey of Pennsyl-
vania. Mr. Cramp, afterward the famous shipbuilder, was then
a boy in the high school, and assisted Prof. Bache in his obser-
vations.

Valuable instruments and methods for performing scientific
observations were devised by Bache during this period. He in-
vented an ingenious instrument for determining the dew point,
which is especially valuable where readings must be made by per-
sons without special scientific training. Only much later did he
learn that the principle of the device had already been used by
Belli, of Milan. He also introduced a modification of Osier's ane-
mometer and invented a thermoscope of contact, both of which
avoided difficulties involved in the use of previous instruments.

The way in which a man conducts a controversy is always a
severe test of his character. Bache had one with Denison Olmsted
on the periodical recurrence of meteors. Prof. Gould, in his Amer-
ican Association memoir, thus describes the occurrence: "Mr.
Bache maintained that there was no recurrence in 1834; Prof.
Olmsted, on the other hand, maintained the reverse. Prof. Bache
instituted special inquiries at the military posts (where, of course,
sentinels were on duty) along all the frontiers of the United States,
also among the night police of various cities, and at the universi-
ties, and he found but one exception to the statement that no un-
usual number of meteors was seen. Of this controversy Bache
wrote, in 1846 :

" ' There is something yet to be found out on this subject which
may reconcile our opinions. Neither I nor any of those watching
with me, or for me, have seen an unusual number of meteors on
the night of the 12th of November in any year since the great
night at Philadelphia, and we have taken great pains to be sure.
Yet I can not doubt the testimony as given for some other places.
... I had a complimentary letter from the professor in regard to
my manner of conducting the controversy, which I valued more
highly than if I had gained the victory.' "

The year after Prof. Bache resumed his old position at the uni-
versity he was called to the superintendency of the United States
Coast Survey, left vacant by the death of Mr. Hassler. His ap-
pointment to this position was first suggested by members of the
American Philosophical Society, and the nomination was fully
concurred in by the other principal scientific and literary institu-
tions of the country.

Although the Coast Survey had been founded a quarter of a
century, the policy of Congress toward it had been changeable
and its appropriations limited. It had been suspended fifteen
years of that time, so that its work was but just begun. The At-

ALEXANDER DALLAS BAG HE. 117

lantic coast line had been surveyed only from Point Judith, on
the coast of Rhode Island, to Cape Henlopen, at the entrance of
Delaware Bay. " The new superintendent," says Prof. Henry in
his memoir, " saw the necessity of greatly enlarging the plan, so
as to embrace a much broader field of simultaneous labor than it
had previously included. He divided the whole coast line into
sections, and organized, under separate parties, the essential
operations of the survey simultaneously in each. He commenced
the exploration of the Gulf Stream, and at the same time pro-
jected a series of observations on the -tides, on the magnetism of
the earth, and the direction of the winds at different seasons of
the year. He also instituted a succession of researches in regard
to the bottom of the ocean within soundings, and the forms of
animal life which are found there, thus offering new and unex-
pected indications to the navigator. He pressed into service, for
the determination of longitude, the electric telegraph ; for the
ready reproduction of charts, photography ; and for multiplying
copperplate engravings, the new art of electrotyping. In plan-
ning and directing the execution of these varied improvements,
which exacted so much comprehensiveness in design and minute-
ness in detail. Prof. Bache was entirely successful. He was equally
fortunate, principally through the moral influence of its charac-
ter, in impressing upon the Government, and especially upon
Congress, a more just estimate of what such a survey required for
its maintenance and creditable prosecution. Not only was a
largely increased appropriation needed to carry out this more
comprehensive plan, but also to meet the expenses consequent
upon the extension of the shore line itself. Our seacoast, when
the survey commenced, already exceeded in length that of any
other civilized nation, but in 1845 it was still more extended by
the annexation of Texas, and again, in 1848, by our acquisitions
on the Pacific. Prof. Bache was in the habit of answering the
question often propounded to him by members of Congress,
' When will this survey be completed ? ' by asking, ' When will
you cease annexing territory ? ' "

Prof. Bache's policy of dividing the Atlantic and Gulf coast
(we had no Pacific coast in 1843) into sections, and carrying on
work in all the sections at the same time greatly allayed sectional
jealousies in States which the previous operations of the survey
had not reached and had great influence in winning public favor
for the survey. He had a wonderful faculty for enlisting the
efforts and talents of others in carrying out his plans. "As rapidly
as means allowed, the services of American scientists throughout
the land were enlisted in aid of the survey, and the whole intellec-
tual resources of the country thus made tributary to its usefulness
and success. Thus Walker, Peirce, Bailey, Agassiz, Barnard,

ii8 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Kendall, Mitchell, Bond, Alexander, and many others, were called
on to assist in the advancement of the undertaking; and this
large and wise policy prevailed during the whole period of his
superintendence." * Many of the ablest officers of the navy and
the army were brought into the Coast Survey service, and gained
experience of great value in the duties many of them were after-
ward called upon to perform in the civil war.

The efficiency of the survey was greatly increased by improved
instrumental equipment. Antiquated instruments were replaced
by those of the most improved type; an apparatus for the
measurement of base lines, invented by Prof. Bache, was in-
troduced, and secured a degree of accuracy before unknown.
The method of determining longitude by the exchange of star
signals was developed through the agency of Sears C. Walker.
Prof. Gould has stated that he had received accounts of this
important advance in geodetic practice from the lips of both
Bache and Walker, and that " their descriptions varied but in one
salient point, namely, that each ascribed the chief merit to the
other." The determination of latitudes with the zenith telescope,
by Talcott's method, first tested in 1845, was early adopted by the
survey. " Thus by the use of the zenith telescope, combined with
the determination of longitudes from the adopted meridian by
the exchange of star-signals, the geographical position of the
primary astronomical stations of the survey could claim, ten or
fifteen years ago, to be determined with more accuracy than that
of any European observatory."

Stations for tidal observation were established all along the At-
lantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts. The character of the Gulf Stream
and other currents along our coast were determined. Twice was
Agassiz sent to study the formation of the coral reefs of Florida,
and the causes that promote and restrict their growth. The mag-
netic constants were determined for every important point pos-
sible within reach of the survey.

Other duties were assigned to Prof. Bache by the Government
from time to time. He was made Superintendent of Weights and
Measures, and in the exercise of this function directed a series
of investigations relative to the collection of excise duties on
distilled spirits, and superintended the construction of a large
number of sets of standard weights and measures for distribu-
tion to the several States of the Union. He was appointed on
a commission created to examine the lighthouse system of the
United States, and was a member of the Lighthouse Board, into
which this commission was merged, from its organization till

* Address in commemoration of Alexander Dallas Bache, by Benjamin Apthorp Gould,
delivered before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, August 6, 1 868.

ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE. 119

his death. In this work he took a lively interest and rendered
important service.

As to the connection of Prof. Bache with the Smithsonian In-
stitution we can not have better testimony than that of him who
was identified with the institution for more than thirty years, its
first secretary. Prof. Henry says : " In 1846 he had been named
in the act of incorporation as one of the regents of the Smith-
sonian Institution, and by successive re-election was continued by
Congress in this ofiSce until his death, a period of nearly twenty
years. To say that he assisted in shaping the policy of the estab-
lishment would not be enough. It was almost exclusively through
his predominating influence that the policy which has given the
institution its present celebrity was, after much opposition, finally
adopted." * Not the least of Bache's services to the institution
was securing Henry for its secretary. The latter states, in the
place just quoted, that "it was entirely due to the persuasive
influence of the professor " that he was induced to take the posi-
tion.

Although not fond of physical exertion. Prof. Bache had been
accustomed to spend part of each summer in a tent at some station
of the survey on the top of a mountain, where he took part in
the measurement of angles and directed the movements of field
parties at other stations. The civil war brought added labors
upon him so that his constant presence in Washington was re-
quired, and his health no longer obtained the yearly recuperation
of this season of outdoor life. Being solicited by the Governor of
Pennsylvania to plan lines of defense for Philadelphia, he con-
sented, although overburdened with other public duties, and per-
sonally superintended the construction of some of the works.
Unaccustomed for many years to direct exposure to the sun, this
undertaking brought on the first indications of the malady that
ended his life. He had been subject to attacks of "sick head-
ache " — a tendency which he seems to have inherited — and now
various symptoms of softening of the brain came upon him in
succession. For several months he was very anxious about the
business of the Coast Survey, and with difficulty could be re-
strained from attempting to perform the duties of his office. As
the malady increased, however, his attention was gradually with-
drawn from the exterior world, with which he almost ceased to
hold active communication. A trip to Europe, covering a period
of eighteen months, produced no permanent benefit. He died a
short time after his return, at Newport, R. I., February 17, 1867.

The ability and worth of Dallas Bache brought him many and
high honors. There were few for our leading learned societies

* Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, i, 197, 198.

120 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that did not number him among their associates. He was Presi-
dent of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
in 1850 and 1851, of the American Philosophical Society in 1855
and 1856, and of the National Academy of Sciences from its estab-
lishment in 1863 until his death. He was a member also of the
Royal Society of London, the Imperial Academy of Sciences at
St. Petersburg, the Institute of France, the Royal Society of
Edinburgh, the Royal and Imperial Geographical Society of
Vienna, the Royal Academy of Turin, the Mathematical Society
of Hamburg, the Academy of Sciences in the Institute of Bologna,
the Royal Astronomical Society of London, and the Royal Irish
Academy of Dublin.

The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by the principal
American universities, and he received several medals from foreign
governments for his distinguished services to science in the course
of his labors on the Coast Survey and in other researches.

Mr. Bache was gifted with quick apprehension, and at the
same time with deep intelligence, which is not always allied to
the former quality. He had also great power of application.
When at the head of a body of workers those under him were
always nerved to do their best, because they saw that the master
did not spare himself. He was always ready to learn from others.
He would listen carefully to younger men if he saw that they had
ideas which might be developed to good purpose. After arguing
vehemently in opposition to the views of his brother on a matter
under consideration, he would often come out on the same side of
the question, and explain that his contention was designed to
draw out arguments.

In his home he dropped science, and was a genial companion
of old and young. Although not prepossessing in face, he was
charming in manner and disposition. He was a very lovable
man, and there was always plenty of company at his house in
Washington. His favorite relaxation was reading light novels.
He had a great appreciation of humor, but failed in trying to
contribute humorously to the entertainment of others.

As an evidence of his high appreciation of abstract science
derived from original investigation, he left his property in trust
to the National Academy of Sciences, the income to be devoted to
the prosecution of researches in physical and natural science, by
assisting experimenters and observers, and the publication of the
results of their investigations.

Appended to the memorial address by Dr. Benjamin A. Gould
already cited is a list of the published scientific papers of Prof.
Bache, embracing one hundred and twenty- three titles, besides
thirty-five annual reports, and twenty-one reports on harbors
made jointly with Messrs. Totten and Davis.

CORRESPONDENCE.

121

®0ri;jeBjx0.txjcljetxi:je*

ARE ANIMALS LEFT-HANDED?

Editor Popular Science MontJdy :

In The Popular Science Monthly for
March, 1894, page 615, Prof. J. Mark Bald-
win says, in a footnote : " I know only the
assertion of Yierordt that parrots grasp and
hold food with the left claw, that lions strike
with the left paw, and his quotation from
Livingstone — i. e., 'All animals are left-
handed.' (Vierordt, loc. cit., page 428.) Dr.
W. Ogle reports observations on parrots and
monkeys in Trans. Royal Med. and Chirur.
Society, 1871."

I have tried to verify these observations
on two parrots lately brought from Mexico.
I find that in grasping a finger offered as a
perch the parrots almost always put the left
foot forward. Usually the finger thus of-
fered is that of the right hand. But when
the left finger is offered to the parrots they
put forward the right foot. There is, how-
ever, apparently a small residuum of prefer-
ence for the left foot. This seems to be due
to the fact that men are usually right-handed
and offer the right hand to the parrot. The
left foot is the one naturally put forward by
the parrot in this case, and through repeti-
tion of this action a species of left-footed-
ness is induced. My general conclusion is
that there is no evidence that the parrot is
naturally left-footed. The appearance of
left-footedness is due entirely to the fact
that those who offer the finger or food to
parrots do so as a rule with the right hand.
Repetition of this process makes the parrot
more or less left-footed in time.

David S. Jordan.
Palo Axto, Cat., May 16, 1895.

IMITATIVE HABITS OF THE BLUE
JAY.

Editor Popular Science Monthly:

Sir: In reading Variation in the Hab-
its of Animals, I see the author is not in
line with The Study of Birds Out-of-doors,
or she would not have written, " The prac-
tice of mocking the hawk is, at present at
least, confined, so far as I know, to the in-
dividuals of such limited area — this one
town — that with Mr. Ridgway we must be-
lieve this peculiarity exhibited by the blue
jay to be scarcely the ' manifestation of a
regional impress.' "

My boyhood and early manhood were
spent in the country, in middle Tennessee,
where I had ample opportunity to observe
the habits and, I might say, peculiarities of

certain birds. The blue jay not only mocks
the hawk, which I have heard him do hun-
dreds of times, but mocks also many other
birds. The catbird possesses this faculty
in a remarkable degree, and so rapidly does
he " change his tune " that if he was not
visible we should be apt to say, What a lovely
mocking bird you have singing in your apple
tree ! Don't again mistake the jay for a
hawk, for wherever yoii hear the jay he
mocks the hawk, redbird, and many of his
other neighbours. Yours truly,

W. A. Howard, M. D.
Waco, Tbxas, September 7, 1895.

Editor Popular Science MontMy :

Dear Sir: I noticed in the September
Monthly, in the article. Variation in the Hab-
its of Animals, by G. C. Davenport, that the
writer speaks of the blue jay (Cyanuy^
crisiata, or more recently Cyanodtta cristata)
as acquiring and using the cry of the hawk
in order to assist in the fight with Eng-
lish sparrows, and she seemed to imply that
it was an accomplishment of the blue jay in
that region only. I have heard in the wood-
ed lands of southeastern Indiana the blue
jay give a fairly good imitation of the shrill,
piercing, drawn-out cry of the large chicken
hawk {Buteo borealis) at different times for
as much as twenty years. I think this cry
has not been developed in this region, at
least, in the fight with recent enemies, but
rather that the blue jay — robber and despoiler
that he is — has now and then used this cry
to terrify smaller birds for untold years.
Yours truly.

Prof. Glenn Culbertson.

Hanovbb College, Hanovkr, Ind.,

September 19, 1895.

ORIGIN OF THE TERM AGNOSTIC.

Editor Popular Science MontMy :

Sir: In the September Forum appears
an article on Prof. Huxley by Richard H.
Hutton, editor of The Spectator, in which,
on pages 27 and 28, he states that Prof.
Huxley " claimed to be in the strictest sense
an Agnostic," and further states that Prof.
Huxley borrowed that term from an " inci-
dent related in the Acts of the Apostles,"
where refei-ence is made to the fact that the
Athenians had erected an altar " Agnosto
Theo " — to the Unknown God. Is not Mr.
Hutton mistaken in regard to the origin of
this term ? In a letter written to Mr. J. A.
Skilton, December 10, 1889, and published in

122

TBE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the Popular Science Monthly for June, 1890,
Mr. Huxley expressly states that the term
" Agnostic " was not suggested by the pas-
sage to which Mr. Button refers, but came
into his mind " as a fit antithesis to ' Gnos-
tic ' — the ' Gnostics ' being those ancient
heretics who professed to know most about

those very things of which I am quite
sure I know nothing." As the use of the
term in theological discussion has become
universal, it is interesting to know how
Prof. Huxley came to introduce it

J. T. Gorman.
Opelika, Ala., September 14, 1895.

WAtax's SaWu.

THE PRESEiVT POSITION OF
ANTHROPOLOGY.

AMONG the scientific addresses
- of the present year we are dis-
posed to assign a high place in point
of interest and general merit to that
on The Aims of Anthropology, de-
livered at the August meeting of the
Alherican Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science hy the retir-
ing president, Prof. Brinton, and
reprinted in this number of the
Monthly. Like others who have ad-
vocated the claims of that science,
the professor almost overwhelms us
with the enumeration of all its tribu-
tary streams of knowledge ; but more
successfully than most, he enables us
to keep in view the unity of aim in
anthropological study. He makes
us feel that it is concerned not with
unrelated or but slightly related de-
tails in regard to man, but with man
himself, as a great organic fact, as
the crowning product of creation,
whom to know is for each of us
in the truest sense self-knowledge.
" Hearken unto me," said the prophet
of old, ''all ye that love righteous-
ness! Look unto the rock whence
ye are hewn, and the hole of the pit
whence ye are digged." It is in the
same spirit, we imagine, that Dr.
Brinton asks us to look into our ori-
gins, and into whatever else can
throw light upon what we really
are. As regards the origin of man,
science, he asserts, has now estab-

lished beyond cavil that, far from
having fallen from some original
high estate and forfeited a pristine
paradise, the earliest man was also
" the lowest, the most ignorant, the
most brutish, naked, homeless, half
speechless." Such as he was, how-
ever, he had within him that which
made possible for him a progress
denied to all other animal races, that
secured for him long since the mas-
tery of the planet, and that holds
out to him the prospect of a future
civilization far in advance of any-
thing he has heretofore enjoyed.

The most vitalizing discovery
that has been made within recent
years, in its bearings upon anthro-
pology, Dr. Brinton considers to be
that of the psychical unity of man-
kind, "the parallelism of his devel-
opment everywhere and in all times;
nay, more, the nigh absolute uni-
formity of his thoughts and actions
when in the same degree of develop-
ment, no matter where he is or in
what epoch living." Seeing that
savage tribes represent a stage of
human culture which has left traces
in ourselves, but the perfect mani-
festation of which will soon have
passed away forever, he calls ear-
nestly for a prolonged and profound
study of such savage races as still
exist, though none of them are in
his opinion quite low enough to rep-
resent fully primitive man. He
also strongly recommends the study

EDITOR'S TABLE.

123

of folklore, inasmucli as " the stories,
the superstitions, the beliefs, and
customs which prevail among- the
unlettered, the isolated, and the
young, are nothing else than sur-
vivals of the mythologies, the legal
usages, and the sacred rites of earlier
generations. ... It is surprising,"
he adds, " to observe how much of
the past we have been able to con-
struct from this humble and long-
neglected material."

The zeal of the learned doctor
seems almost to assume a slight
character of ferocity when he goes
on to declare: "The generations of
the past escape our personal inves-
tigation, but not our pursuit. We
rifle their graves, measure their
skulls, and analyze their bones; we
carry to our museums the utensils
and weapons, the gods and jewels,
which sad and loving hands laid be
side them; we dig up the founda-
tions of their houses, and cart off the
monuments which proud kings set
up. Nothing is sacred to us; and
yet nothing to us is vile or worth-
less." If the doctor had wished to
quote Horace, he might have said
very appositely ^^ omne sacrum ra-
piente dextrd'''; but we should be
loath to take him at his word that
to the anthropologist nothing is sa-
cred. We believe, on the contrary,
that to the true anthropologist the
cause of humanity is very sacred;
and that it is because an exhaustive
knowledge of what man has been
and is will, as he considers, greatly
advance human well-being, by plac-
ing our systems of instruction and
all our social arrangements on a
more scientific basis, that, in his con-
suming desire for knowledge, he is
prepared even for spoliation.

One of the most important branch-
es or subdivisions of anthropology is
ethnology. Its mission. Dr. Brinton
says, is "to define the universal in
humanity." It aims to define "the

influences which the geographical
and other environment exercises on
the individual, the social group, and
the race ; and conversely how much
in each remains unaltered by these
external forces. " Like political econ-
omy, according to its orthodox pro-
fessors at least, it has nothing to do
with what Ought to be ; its sole con-
cern is with what is. Ethnology,
the doctor asserts with some empha-
sis, lends no countenance to any
absolute doctrine of evolution. He
considers that, "taken at its real
value, as the provisional and partial
result of our observations," that doc-
trine is a useful guide, but that,
" swallowed with unquestioning faith
as a final law of the universe," it is
no better than the narrowest tradi-
tional dogma. At this point we may
venture to suggest that the learned
doctor is waxing wroth with an
imaginary foe, or, if not with an
imaginary one, at least with one
hardly worthy of his ire. Idle talk
about evolution can no more be pre-
vented than idle talk about any
other subject, say electricity for ex-
ample, which some persons believe
to be a device, invented probably by
Mr. Edison, for getting something
out of nothing. No one whose opin-
ion is worth discussing regards evo-
lution otherwise than as a name for
the process by which such advance-
ment as the world has hitherto made
has been won, and on which we may
reasonably depend for further prog-
ress in the future, Nature as yet hav-
ing given no sign that her powers
are exhausted or on the point of ex-
haustion. " The development of hu-
manity as a whole," says Dr. Brin-
ton, " has arisen from the differences
of its component parts, its races, na-
tions, tribes. Their specific peculiar-
ities have brought about the strug-
gles which, in the main, have result-
ed in an advance." Even so, we
may hope that in the future, in spite

24

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

of a growing equalization of general
conditions, those differences which,
as Dr. Tylor has well pointed out,
will more and more assert them-
selves in the higher regions of
thought and feeling, will lead to a
steady advance in human capacity
and character.

Anthropology, according to its
able advocate and professor, possesses
no little skill in dodging the most
difficult questions. Having investi-
gated penal laws until it finds their
common origin in a desire for venge-
ance, and having analyzed relig-
ions until it discovers that they all
spring from a dread of the unknown,
it will not follow up either inquiry
by attempting to ascertain why men
dread the unknown or whether there
is any more ultimate form or under-
lying explanation of the desire for
vengeance. In the same way, while
noting empirically what has made
for the improvement of mankind, it
will be careful about grappling with
the question as to what "improve-
ment" really means. Perhaps we
should not complain of these dis-
creetly imposed limitations, but it
seems to us that, as regards the ques-
tion of human improvement at least,
anthropology, with its very wide
outlook, ought, above all other sci-
ences, to be in a position to give us
its rationale.

We are glad to find Dr. Brinton,
in the conclusion of his valuable
address, declaring that "the teach-
ings of anthropology, whether theo-
retical or practical, lead us back to
the individual as the point of de-
parture and also the goal. The
state was made for him, not he for
the state ; any improvement in the
group must start by the improve-
ment of its individual members."
We hold that this is the teaching of
every true form of social science.
The doctrine of individualism is not
a doctrine of selfishness ; it simply

aims at arousing each individual to
a sense of his own value as a social
unit, and at making him feel that, if
he wishes to live in an improved
society, he should strive to improve
himself and his own immediate en-
vironment. The intelligent study of
sociology, we have no doubt, will
work in this direction, inasmuch as
it more and more tends to make all
classifications and class distinctions
appear unreal, and to bring the indi-
vidual man into prominence as the
one subject and center of its labors.
On this ground, if on no other, we
would wish it every success ; and as
there are so many different fields
that can be explored in its interest,
we would counsel those who have no
other scientific occupation to see if
they can not bring some offering,
however slight, to the great con-
struction which we may hope the
leaders of the science will one day
give to the world.

RELIGION FOE THE AGE.

Canon Samuel A. Barnett, of
England, is a man who has devoted
much time and labour to the study
of social problems in their widest
aspect, and whose writings on such
subjects are always marked by ac-
tive human sympathy allied with
strong common sense. We therefore
turned at once with interest to his
article in the September number of
the Contemporary Review to see
what he had to say on the subject
of The Church's Opportunity, and
were not at all surprised to find that
he had some very pertinent things
to say. In Canon Barnett's opinion
" the Church " might, if it could only
rise to the level of its duty and privi-
lege, lend most useful assistance to
the j)ractical solution of our present-
day social problems. How this might,
in his opinion at least, be done he
clearly indicates. The Church per-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

125

forms three main functions : it pro-
vides means of worship, it imparts
religious teaching, and it interests
itself in charitable work; and what
it has to do, according to Canon Bar-
nett, is simply, in each department
of its activity, to plant itself at the
modern standpoint so as to meet the
needs of the men and women of to-
day.

In the matter of worship this
writer observes that " the words and
forms remain the same as those
which helped the people of three
hundred years ago, although the fash-
ions, the thought, and the whole
organization of society have been
changed. " Cathedrals are little more
than "the hunting ground of anti-
quarians and the practising places
of choirs." The Church should "use
the art and knowledge of the time
as aids to worship." " It might," con-
tinues the writer, "by showing the
wonders of science, open the eyes of
the blind to see something of the
height and breadth of the universe " ;
and the result would be that readier
access would be found to men's minds
for those sentiments of justice, char-
ity, and mutual forbearance on which
the peace and welfare of society must
rest. Canon Barnett is quite right
when, speaking of the social strug-
glersof to-day, he says that "conceit,
pride in their own methods and aims,
restless vanity, selfish anxiety are
elements in the present confusion " ;
nor are we disposed to disagree with
him when he says further that "the
majority of people think much of
themselves, because they are not con-
scious of One before whom they are
as nothing, because, in a word, they
do not worship." Here is where the
true work of religion comes in, not in
opposing the conclusions of science.

" Let science grow trora more to more,"

as Tennyson has said,

"But more of reverence in us dwell."

The two are not incompatible, and
Canon Barnett seems to feel strongly
that it is through neglect of duty on
the part of the Church, especially the
duty of keeping in touch with the
times, that reverence is not more act-
ive and influential among men than
it is.

Turning to the subject of teach-
ing, this writer is very outspoken.
He says in effect that we must find
the teaching requii-ed by the times
in a study of the times. The follow-
ing quotation will illustrate his mean-
ing : " In the first century slavery
was common, and was accepted with-
out question both by Christ and by St.
Paul. . . . These teachers, however
(the antislavery leaders of the early
part of the century), found the spirit
behind the words — the Christ of the
nineteenth century behind the Christ
of the first century. In the name
of a contemporary Christ they con-
demned slavery and convinced their
hearers." The reverend gentleman
does not observe, as he might have
done, that those who appealed merely
to the text of Scripture were among
the strongest upholders of slavery.
The reformers were more or less ra-
tionalizers, not pinning their faith to
texts, but seeking a spirit and prin-
ciple of life. The following remarks
on religious teaching are much to the
point : " Teachers have been too often
stewards who bring out only the
old things from the treasury, words
spoken thousands of years ago, and
acts fitted to another age. They go
on using a phraseology which is not
understood, preaching sermons about
dead controversies, and condemning
heresies long forgotten. They teach,
but the people, tried and troubled by
thoughts of duty to the rich or duty
to the poor, find no help in their
teaching. . . . Bishops might with
advantage set candidates for orders
to read modern books, and in exami-
nation test their powers to observe

126

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the signs of the tiraes. The knowl-
edge of Paley and Pearson might be
supplemented, if not supplanted, by-
some knowledge of the movement of
scientific and economic thought dur-
ing-the last fifty years, and proof be
given that those offering themselves
as teachers ' perceive with their eyes
and hear with their ears and undei^
stand with their hearts.' "

The canon proceeds to discuss the
relation of the Church to charitable
work, but what we have already
quoted will suffice to show how ad-
vanced are his views as to the kind
of religious ministrations of which
society stands at present in need.
He believes, and we agree with him,
that the Church occupies a position
of exceptional advantage for holding
up to men the ideals toward which
they ought to strive. Ministers of
religion are allowed to preachy an
exercise in which other men must
indulge very sparingly, if at all, on
pain of being laughed at. They are
supposed to be occupied at all times
with the highest and most enduring
interests of mankind, and they can
adopt a tone of elevation and an ac-
cent of earnestness which in all oth-
ers might seem out of place. More-
over, there is something in human
nature which is prepared to respond
to their appeals. However conven-
tional or even sordid men may be in
their daily lives, however immersed
they may be in the all but universal
game of grab, they feel that some-
where in their natures is a chord
which might vibrate to higher im-
pulses. To put it otherwise, every
man knows that there is something
in him better than that which he
habitually shows to the world or to
himseK ; and it is for the religious
teacher above all to awaken that hid-
den, as Matthew Arnold says, " deep-
buried self " into life and activity, to
make it assert its authority and pow-
er. The rest of us deal with the aver-

age man and make our appeal in
general to average sentiments: the
clergyman, the minister of the gos-
pel, testifies by virtue of his office to
the existence of a divine element in
human nature, and to him therefore,
in dealing with men, all things are
or should be possible. What he
needs, however, as Canon Barnett so
clearly points out, is to be armed with
the kind of knowledge which will
place him at the modern point of
view and make him a true interpreter
of the times and of contemporary
human nature. Let him use the
words of his creeds as far as they
will go, and show the soul of truth
in antiquated forms and usages; but
let him not imagine that human
thought can ever be confined within
or fully expressed by, any formula
or set of formulas : the spirit of life is
a spirit of growth and of liberty.

In conclusion, we have only to
say that we welcome most cordially
such utterances as those of the An-
glican canon, not because we suppose
that he occupies precisely the point
of view that we do, but because we
feel that no essential claim of science
is antagonized by aught that he ad-
vances in the name of religion. He
may, for anything we know, hold
many special opinions which we do
not share ; but, if so, these to us are of
no consequence beside what we take
to be his main and most characteristic
belief — namely, that religion is not
a fetter for the human intellect, but
a garment of beauty for the whole
man, and that, without a due recog-
nition of science, no perfect or abid-
ing form of religion can be.

HON. DAVID A. WELLS'S ARTICLES ON
TAXATION.

The editor of the Popular Science
Monthly is gratified that he is now
able to announce to its readers and
the general public, the beginning in

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,

127

the present number, wliicli opens the
forty-eighth volume of the magazine,
of the long-promised and anticipated
series of articles by Hon. David A.
Wells, on the most important subject
of taxation.

For the execution of the task
which Mr. Wells has assigned to him-
self, it is acknowledged that he has
enjoyed extraordinary advantages ;
as Chairman of the United States
Revenue Commission, 1865-66 (an
instrumentality devised by President
Lincoln in anticipation of the close
of the war) ; United States Special
Commissioner of Revenue, 1866-70
(an office specially created by Con-
gress) ; chairman of a commission for
the revision of the tax laws of the
State of New York (specially created
by its Legislature, 1870-72, with a
view of obtaining Mr. Wells's serv-
ices) ; and subsequent membership of
important railroad receiverships ; of
the Arbitration Board of the associ-
ated railways of the United States,
1879-'81, and of the Board of Direc-
tion of some of the largest manu-
facturing and insurance companies
in the country. The assertion is
therefore warranted that to prob-
ably no one person, in either the

United States or Europe, has greater
opportunities been afforded for study
of taxation from the basis of practi-
cal experience and administration;
and while the prediction may not be
warranted, that Mr. Wells's conclu-
sions will be accepted finally as solv-
ing the vexed and intricate problems
involved in the subject, it is certain
that the results of his investigations
will prove most valuable and intense-
ly interesting contributions to gen-
eral economic science, and greatly
assist in formulating better systems
and rules for taxation, especially in
the United States, than are now gen-
erally accepted.

The editor also feels warranted in
saying that the course pursued by
Mr. Wells which made his book on
Economic Changes one of the most
popular and instructive of recent
economical publications, will also,
characterize the new field of inquiry
on which he now enters — namely, to
marshal in a clear manner and proper
order all the facts that seem capable
of explaining the situation of vexed
and disputed questions, and of thus
indicating where and how the truth
should be sought for, with the great-
est chances of finding it.

^t\tuX\t\t %\Xtx^\viXt.

SPECIAL BOOKS.

How many evil doers have escaped the just penalties for their acts and
what great sums of money have been lost or expended in litigation for lack
of an unfailing means of proving personal identity ! If the police know
that A. B. committed a certain crime and catch a man who they believe is
A. B., but who stoutly denies it, they must establish his identity beyond a
reasonable doubt in order to secure a conviction. The testimony of acquaint-
ances and even the photographs in the Rogues' Gallery frequently fail to
give certainty on this point. There is, however, a set of marks which, in
the words of Pudd'nhead Wilson, " every one carries with him from the
cradle to the grave" that seem to afford an infallible test. These are the
patterns formed by the little ridges on the tips of the fingei's. Mr. Francis

128 TBE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Galton, whose study of the subject has already extended over seven years,
calculates that there is only one chance in 64,000,000,000 of the pattern on
any human finger being identical with that on any other. If the patterns
of three or four fingers (or the prints from them in printer s ink) be com-
pared, all possibility of error is eliminated, while with a set of prints from
the whole ten fingers assurance is made doubly and trebly sure. Mr. Gal-
ton has published on various phases of this subject from time to time, and
in his latest book* deals with methods of handling large collections of
prints so that reference to them may be simple and rapid. It appears that,
with a few border-line exceptions, every print may be classified as a loop,
a whorl, or an arch. A loop on the forefinger may open toward the ulnar
(little finger) or radial (thumb) side of the hand. Loops on other fingers
almost always open toward the ulnar side. Where these particulars are
not sufficient, minor points, such as the number of ridges from the nucleus
to the outside of a loop, and breaks, junctions, or forks of the lines, etc.,
which an expert can point out to any intelligent person, will be found con-
clusive. Mr. Galton presents an abstract of- the report of a British depart-
mental committee which fully indorses his system, recommending, how-
ever, for registering and identifying habitual criminals that a part of the
French system of physical measurements be combined with it. The vol-
ume contains a specimen directory of three hundred sets of prints and
plates in which nearly two hundred impressions are shown. Mr. Galton
suggests that finger prints could be employed also for identifying deserters
from the army and detecting impersonators of deceased pensioners. This
by no means exhausts their possibilities. What an expensive and trouble-
some litigation could have been saved if a set of finger prints of the real
Tichborne heir had been on file when the "claimant " appeared! An im-
portant class of life-insurance frauds would be prevented if the companies
should require the taking of finger prints as a part of their physical exami-
nation, and the abortive attempt of the United States Government to pre-
vent the personation by Chinese immigrants of fellow-countrymen who had
been in the United States and gone home could be made effectual by the
same means. Mr, Galton has secured abundant official recognition of his
system, and the idea is being brought into wide popular cognizance by Mark
Twain's story, cited above, and its dramatization.

No happier choice of A writer to tell The Story of the Plants could have
been made than Grant Allen.i He knows what to tell in order to give his
readers a satisfactory bird's-eye view of the subject, he has a most attrac-
tive way of telling it, and, above all, he knows what to leave untold. His
story is not a string of definitions nor an annotated catalogue of genera
and species. It tells how plants obtain their food, how they grow, rest, and
perpetuate themselves, and what means they take to overcome obstacles
and protect themselves from dangers. Something is told also about the
way plants lived before there was any one to describe them, and how they
came to differ from one another so much as they now do. Although it is
thus seen that the physiology of plants is given cbief prominence, consid-
erable is told as to their anatomy. Thus, when showing that plants eat

* Finger-print Directories. By Francis Galton, P. R, S. London and New York : Macmillan &
Ck>. Pp. 123, 8vo. Price, $2 (5«.).

t The Story of the Plants. By Grant Allen. The Library of Useful Stories. Illustrated. New
York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 213, 16mo. Price, 40 cents. London : George Newnes, Ltd.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE, 129

"witli their leaves, the author describes the chief forms of leaves, but in such
a way as to indicate that each form results from an effort of the plant to
meet some particular need. Eoots are described in the same way. Under
the headings How Plants Marry and Various Marriage Customs, the inter-
esting subjects of fertilization and the production of seed are explained.
In the chapter What Plants Do for their Young the chief provisions for
the dissemination of seeds and the nutrition of the germs within them are
described. Some acquaintance with the characteristics of the chief kinds
of plants is given under the heading Some Plant Biographies, where whit-
low grass, the Mexican agave, the beech tree, the vetch, the coltsfoot, etc., are
described. Throughout the book the reasons of things and the adaptation
of means to ends are made prominent. The author states that he has
** freely admitted the main results of the latest investigations, accepting
throughout the evolutionary theory, and making the study of plants a first
introduction to the modem principles of heredity, variation, natural selec-
tion, and adaptation to the environment." He says further that he will be
disappointed if this little book does not lead the reader to pursue the sub-
ject in the fields and woods by the aid of a flora. We do not tliink he will
be disappointed.

Is there any limit to the operation of the evolutionary process within
the universe as known to us ? Is man an exception, and does the popular
phrase *' lord of creation " mark a real distinction ? Mr. Edinond Kelly * is
convinced that man is an exception now, although subject to evolution
during the earlier part of his career. Man has developed physically and
mentally as other animals have. In a struggle for existence he has shown
himself the fittest of all to survive. But now, says Mr. Kelly, this mode of
progress has stopped. Under the influence of religion man has developed
the faculty of choice and the power of self-restraint, and he is now repress-
ing some of the instincts by which he advanced during his evolutionary
period, thereby better fitting himself to live in the social relation. As a
member of society he has many grave problems before him, among which
Mr. Kelly calls especial attention to municipal misgovernment, pauperism,
socialism, and education. Religion is recommended as the guide to be fol-
lowed in solving them. It might be queried how religion is to remedy
the abuses in public affairs that have grown up when religion had a
stronger hold upon men than it has now. Mr. Kelly recognises that
abuses have grown up under and apparently in connection with religion,
but he affirms that theology and various clerical institutions were then
dominant rather than real religion. He would by no means bring back
the partnership of Church and State where it has been dissolved, but would
have religion govern individuals in their performance of social duties. It
might be supposed that it would be a matter of indifference to Mr. Kelly
whether religion or science were taken as the guide in social affairs, since
he takes pains to show that they reach the same goal. Perhaps he could
be brought to admit that, in a certain stage of their progress, men are less
fitted to follow the guidance of the former than that of the latter. At the
present time they are rapidly acquiring the capacity to govern their con-
duct on scientific principles, but they have so far had great trouble in keep-

* Evolution and Effort. By Edmond Kelly. New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 297, 12mo.
Price, $1.25.

VOL. XLVIII. — 9

130

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ing in touch with their guide when they have attempted to regulate their
conduct by religion. Perhaps they may be able to do so in the future,
but we think the evolutionary process which Mr. Kelly believes is ended
must go on some time longer before man can afford to dispense with the
aid which the scientific method gives him.

The bird-loving amateur need be at no loss for guidance. Three man-
uals adapted to his wants have come to us recently, the latest being a
charmingly attractive one entitled Birdcraft* Emerson's query, ''Hast
thou named all the birds without a gun ? " is its motto, and any one who
will identify half the si)ecies it describes, or verify half it tells about their
general appearance, habits, and song, will have occupation enough for sev-
eral seasons without paying attention to the matters that can be learn'ed
only from the dead bird. The sprightliness of the smaller birds makes
them delightful subjects of study, their elusiveness adds zest to their pur-
suit, while the various mental and moral traits indicated by the actions of
all kinds well deserve the attention of the psychologist. This instance of
the extreme politeness ascribed to the cedar waxwing was observed by the
author : " A stout green worm (for they eat animal as well as vegetable
food) was passed up and down a row of eight birds ; once, twice it went the
rounds, until halfway on its third trip it became a wreck and dropped to
the ground, so that no one enjoyed it— a commentary, in general, upon
useless ceremony." Much pains is taken to represent the songs of the
birds described ; thus the song of the red-eyed vireo is given in the words
of Wilson Flagg as " You see it ! you know it ! do you hear me ? do you
believe it ? " The bluebird seems to murmur, " Dear, dear, think of it, think
of it ! " The Carolina wren cries joyfully, *' Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweet ! "
while there are several versions of the bobolink's rippling song to choose
from, and any one may make another to suit his fancy. The song birds by
no means monopolize the volume ; birds of prey, game birds, shore birds,
and waterfowl are all represented by species to be seen in southern New
England. Fifteen double-page plates, each bearing from seven to twenty
figures of birds in their natural colours, greatly enhance the value of the
book.

GENERAL NOTICES.

In Dr. Kerner's Natural History of
Plants \ all the features of the growth,
stnicture, and metamorphoses of vegetation
are examined in their relations to one an-
other. Interest was ISrst excited in plants,
we are told, by the question of their uses.
Other avenues to botanical knowledge have
been man's sense of beauty andjthe impulse
to investigate structural differences even

• Blrdcraft. By Mahel Osgood Wright. Illus-
trated. New York and London : Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 317, Bmall 8vo. Price, $3 net.

t The Natural History of Plants. From the
German of Anton Kemer von Marilaun. By P.
W. Oliver. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Half
Volnmes I and n. Pp. 777. Price, $7.50. Lon-
don : Blackie & Son. Price, 25«. net.

down to their most minute characteristics.
This has brought the science to its present
condition. In addition to these steps, the
passion for collecting has been developed.
In the later stages of the growth of botany
observers have become convinced that every
plant undergoes a continuous transformation
which follows a definite course, and every
species is constructed on a plan fixed within
general limits and exhibiting variation in ex-
ternals only. The systematic arrangement
that has grown out of the application of
these principles starts with the idea that
rather than by similarity between adult
forms the relationships of different plants
are more correctly indicated by the fact of
their exhibiting the same laws of growth

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

131

and the same phenomena of reproduction.
As the beginning of the plants and of the
study of them we are told of the living prin-
ciple in them, represented by the protoplasts,
which are considered as the seat of life, and
of their movements, secretions, and construct-
ive activity, and their communication with one
another and with the outer world. The next
steps are the absorption of nutriment from
inorganic substances and organic and the
changes it produces in the soil; the con-
duction of food; and the formation of or-
ganic matter from the absorbed inorganic
food, with the functions of chlorophyll and
the green leaves. Metabolism and the trans-
port of materials are considered with refer-
ence to the organic compounds in plants, the
transport of substances in living plants, and
the propelling forces in the conversion and
distribution of materials. Under the head-
ing of the Growth and Construction of Plants
are included the Theory of Growth, Growth
and Heat, and the Ultimate Structure of
Plants. The last chapter of the present
volume relates to plant forms as completed
structures, and in it are discussed the pro-
gressive stages in complexity of structure
from unicellular plants to plant bodies and
the forms of leaf, stem, and root structures.
The volume concludes with the observation
that the just pride and satisfaction we may
have in what we have gained in the knowl-
edge of plants "must not blind us to the
recognition of the fact that most questions
concerning the life of plants are as yet only
at the commencement of their solution."
The work is illustrated by about one thou-
sand original wood-cuts and sixteen plates in
oil colors.

Menschutkin's Analytical Chemistry'^ is
a college manual embracing both qualita-
tive and quantitative analysis. Its most
distinctive feature is the care that the au-
thor has taken to make the student under-
stand the reasons for what he is doing. In
the qualitative determination of metals the
corresponding compounds of all the metals
of a group are studied, and the conditions
necessary for the separation of one group
from another are deduced (General Reac-

♦ Analytical Chemistry. By N. Menschutkin.
Translated by James Locke. London and New
York: MacmlUan & Co. Pp.512, 8vo. Price, $4
net.

tions), after which the behavior of the
compounds relied upon for detecting single
metals (Special Reactions) is considered. A
systematic course of analysis for the group
in hand follows. With the metalloids, on
the contrary, the special reactions of these
elements and their compounds are first con-
sidered, and the student then passes to the
complicated methods required for detecting
the elements when occurring together. In
the quantitative part the chief methods of
gravimetric and volumetric analysis and the
analysis of organic compounds are set forth.
Here the author has followed also, so far as
practicable, the procedure employed in the
qualitative part.

It is generally acoepted now that all life
originated in the sea, and very probably in
the littoral or coast region. The constantly
varying conditions here, due to the surf and
the tides, doubtless had a large share in de-
termining form and structure ; the violence
of the surf beating its inhabitants to death,
and the retreat of the tide exposing them to
the attacks of predatory birds and beasts
and to new atmospheric conditions. Hence
in all probability have originated the various
forms of adaptation which are calculated to
bring about the survival of the fittest. The
widespread effect of these factors in shaping
present forms lends a special interest to the
study of the littoral life of to-day. The general
plan of classification in the work before us *
is not that of any single authority. The au-
thors have adopted the views of the leading
specialists in the various groups. While
this has the advantage of placing before the
student the results of recent investigation,
it occasions a certain number of discrepan-
cies where the departments overlap, which
are likely to lead to confusion. Up to re-
cent times the mollusca have been regarded
as one of the four subdivisions of the great
family Malacozoa. The progress of investi-
gation, however, tends to the belief that the
mollusca are not so closely related to these
groups as such a classification implies. The
authors think that any attempt definitely to
relate them to one group or another is to go

* MoUusks and Recent and Fossil Brachiopode.
Vol. in of the Cambr.dge Natural History. By
A. H. Cooke, A. E. Shipley, aud P. R. C. Reed.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co, Pp.
585. Price, $2.C0.

132

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

further than the present state of our knowl-
edge warrants. The group Brachiopoda owes
its chief interest to the immense variety and
great antiquity of its fossil forms. There
are at the present time only about one hun-
dred and twenty extant species. The study
of the mollusca occupies 460 pages, the re-
mainder of the work being devoted to the
brachiopods. The book is intended appar-
ently as a student's manual The description
is clearly written and contains considerable
historical narrative and many good illustra-

HODS.

Mr. Clodd justifies his Primer of Evolii-
tion* an abridgment of his Story of Crea-
tion, by the reception which the larger work
received, and the necessity for putting the
material into a condensed and inexpensive
form in order to reach the general reader.
The first portion is descriptive : matter and
motion, from the philosophical standpoint ;
the distribution of matter and the solar sys-
tem; and finally two long chapters on the
past life history of the earth and present life
forms, compose Part I. Part II, the explana-
tory portion, has chapters on the becoming
and growth of the universe, the origin of
life and life forms, on the origin of species,
and social evolution. The book is written in
a popular style, and seems an improvement
on its more bulky predecessor.

The high disciplinary value of the study
of psychology, which gives a scientific basis
to education and lifts it out of empiricism, is
distinctly shown in the volume before us.f
The authors have pointed out, in a very in-
teresting manner, the application of psychol-
ogy to number. They say that the teacher
who knows how the mind works in the con-
struction of number is prepared to help the
child to think number. They take the posi-
tion that the normal activity of the mind in
constructing number is highly pleasurable.
This is confirmed by actual experience and
observation of facts in child-life. There are
few children who do not delight in counting,
and the fact should be taken advantage of

* A Primer of Evolution. By Edward Clodd.
London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co.
Pp. 186. Price, 75 cents.

t Psychology of Number. By Dr. J. A. Mc-
Clellan and Prof. John Dewey. International
Education Series. New York: D. Appleton &
Co. Pp. 309, 12mo. Price, ^1.50.

by instructors. A sympathetic and compe-
tent teacher can interest them so keenly that
apparently wonderful results may be ob-
tained with but little difficulty.

The authors speak of how an absolute dis-
taste for number is created by faulty meth-
ods of teaching, with arrested development as
a natural result. They say it is perhaps not
too much to affirm that nine tenths of those
who dislike arithmetic, or who at least feel
that they have no aptitude for mathematics,
owe this misfortune to wrong teaching at
first. The teacher can readily learn from an
intelligent study how to make the work of
the schoolroom consistent with the method
under which by Nature's teaching the child
has already secured some development of the
number activity. Beginning with a group,
countmg, parting, and wholing are all in har-
mony with Nature's method, which "promotes
the natural exercise of mental function and
leads gradually but with ease and certainty to
true ideas of number. It minimizes the diffi-
culty with which multiplication and division
have hitherto been attended, and helps the
child to recognize in the dreaded terra incog-
nita of fractions a pleasant and familiar land."

The authors' remarks concerning kinder-
garten work are sound and are based upon
results that are evident to all. There is a
sure and pleasurable way, along the line of
least resistance, that may be followed in the
kindergarten, with great improvement in the
method of preparation for a child's work
later. The authors say : " Surely something
is lacking, either in the kindergarten as a
preparation for the primary school or in the
primary school as a continuation of the kin-
dergarten, when a child after full training in
the kindergarten, together with three years'
work in the primary school, is considered
able to undertake nothing beyond the ' num-
ber twenty.' " They add that under rational
and pleasurable training of the number in-
stinct in the kindergarten the child ought to
be arithmetically strong enough to make
immediate acquaintance with the number
twenty, and rapidly acquire, if he has not
already acquired, a working conception of
much larger numbers.

In the easiest possible manner the authors
go on to explain every process of number,
and the presentation is such as to interest
any one impressed with the necessity of a

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,

33

sound basis for education, but more partic-
ularly those instructors to whom we look
for guidance — from kindergarten to college.
Mr. Frank Sargent RoffmanrCs book on
TJie Sphere of the State * is the substance,
chiefly, of lectures delivered before the senior
class of Union College in 1893, and is in-
tended to set forth clearly and concisely the
ethical principles involved in the rights and
action of the state, and to show how they
may be applied under present conditions
and principles. In the author's view the
state is the primal and universal unit of so-
ciety ; it is coextensive with the human
race, and is independent of the existence of
nations, and every man is born into it. It
is manifold, for many distinct divisions of
mankind called states may exist at any
given period. The supreme control of all
persons and commodities must be with it,
and there can never be an individual right
to anything in the state that is not subordi-
nate to its right. Dismissing such concep-
tions as base the organization and extent of
the state on geography, race, famiiy rela-
tion, language, or religion, the author ac-
cepts that which founds it on brotherhood
and the needs thereof, and makes the chief
and ultimate end of the state, to which all
other ends must be subordinate, the perfec-
tion of the brotherhood ; and all this, the
state, the entity, is distinguished from the
government, which is only an instrument.
The state's first duty is to enlighten its
members respecting their ever-varying rela-
tions, and what they require — education.
While the true and distinctive ground of
proj>erty is labour, by which it is acquired,
and that is performed by individuals, the
natural right to property is ultimately re-
solved into a state right, and the individual's
right must in the end be controlled by the
needs of the state or the good of the whole
brotherhood ; and " only from the concep-
tion of property as ultimately owned and
controlled by the state can we come to a
true conception of the property right of
each citizen of the state." The principles
thus laid down are followed out in their ap-

* The Sphere of the State, or the People as a
Body Politic ; with Special Consideration of Cer-
tain Present Problems. By Frank Sargent Hoff-
mann. New York and London : G. P. Putnam's
Sons, pp. itt.

plication to the various functions and fea-
tures of civic and social life ; to the crea-
tion of corporations and the assigning them
their places in the state ; to the matter of
transportation and its relation to the state ;
to taxation, the right to impose which be-
longs only to the state as a whole and is
absolute there, but not to any individual »
to questions of money ; to the treatment of
criminals ; to relations with the poor ; to
the government of cities, the family, the
Church, and relations with other states.
The author's reasoning is profound and com-
prehensive, his tone is conservative, and the
book is full of thought.

Of all the leaders in the late war for the
preservation of the Union, General Sheridan *
probably comes nearest among the Unionist
commanders to fulfilling the popular ideal of
a hero. Brave, alert, often brilliant, and
nearly always successful, he acquired his full
measure of glory while in active service,
while nothing happened in his after-life to
dim his renown. His biographer was for-
tunate in his subject. "We may say that the
subject is as fortunate in its biographer.
General Davies served with distinction in the
cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac
under General Sheridan from September,
1863, till the end of the war, and his brigade
was present in all Sheridan's battles. It was
mainly for this reason that he was chosen by
the editor of this series to be Sheridan's bi-
ographer. He was an oflBcer of correct mili-
tary information and was, as his narrative
proves, a writer with clear perception of what
should go into a biography, and was able to
estimate correctly the value of each action
and to describe his hero justly and without
exaggeration or extravagance. He died one
month after he had completed this book.
He regards General Sheridan as having pos-
sessed to an eminent degree the most indis-
pensable qualities of a commander. "He
had the ability to think and act promptly
and energetically, and, if need were, independ-
ently of instructions, and to assume and sup-
port with ease whatever responsibilities his
situation might require; he had the power
to impress his will and personal influence

• Great Commanders : (Jeneral Sheridan. By
General Henry E. Davies. With Portrait and
Maps. New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 832.
Price, $1.50.

13+

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

upon all who were under his command." He
was not a martinet or a rigid disciplinarian,
but exacted implicit obedience from bis sub-
ordinates and a prompt and energetic per-
formance of duty. He also recognized the
reciprocal relations that should exist between
a commander and his troops. Great stress
has been laid by some writers upon his
" dash," but no estimate of his character
coald be more erroneous than that which
made him only a hard-riding, hard-fighting,
and reckless soldier, whose fame and success
were due to desperate personal courage and
impulsive combativeness, with exceptional
good fortune. He had energy and dash, and,
added to these, judgment, patience, industry,
and full knowledge of all the duties of a
commander and a soldier, and deserved all
the distinction he won.

The Annual Report of the New Yoi-k
State Board of Charities for 1894, a bulky
volume of 576 pages, is a valuable compila-
tion of statistics relating to the charitable
institutions and other charities of the State.
The total expenditure of the State charities
department for the year ending September
30, 1894, was $3,877,709.80 ; of county and
city institutions, $3,872,985.50 ; and of pri-
vate and incorporated societies and associa-
tions, $13,231,698.52. This was a total in-
crease over 1893 of $574,410.88.

TTie Teacher's Mentor (Bardeen, 50 cents)
is written to aid the inexperience and guide
the uncertainty regarding practical details of
the beginner who is without special training.
It is, the author says, based on what he now
sees would have been useful to him in his
early years of teaching. Among the topics
considered are, the outfit for teaching, in-
cluding knowledge of subjects to be taught
and general information desirable ; necessity
for understanding the children ; what educa-
tion is ; relations between teacher and trus-
tee; desirability of producing a good first
impression on the children ; and school rou-
tine in detail.

The studies on which Le Petrole^ VAs-
phalte, et le Bitumen (Petroleum, Asphalt, and
Bitumen), of the late Prof. A. Jaggard, of
Neufch4tel, is based, were begun in the Jura
and the asphalt bed of the Val-de-Travers,
and were stimulated by the discovery of min-
eral oil in the United States. Their purpose
was to investigate the origin of the natural

hydrocarbons. The various theories of pe-
troleum are criticised, the mode of its forma-
tion is discussed, the discoveries of beds of
it in the Old and New Worlds are described ;
and bitumen and asphalt are similarly treated.
The author concludes that no extraordinary
processes or forces are needed to account for
the production of these substances, but that
it is still going on in the usual course of
events, by a kind of natural, slow distillation
of organic matter. But in studying the beds
it is necessary to discriminate between the
original formation of the substances and the
displacements which they may have, under-
gone afterward, and which may havis had
much to do in bringing them into their pres-
ent position. The book is published by F^lix
Alcan, Paris, as a number of the French In-
ternational Scientific Series.

In a similar line, though the starting-
point is different, is Les Merveilles de la Flore
Primitive (Wonders of the Primitive Flora)
of M. A. Froment, which is published by
Georg & Co., at Geneva and at Paris. It be-
gins with a minute study of the carboniferous
vegetation, its structure and forms, and pro-
ceeds to the discussion of the way in which
the coal-forming plants may have been accu-
mulated and converted into coal. This is
done by gradual, unheated distillation, which,
under certain other conditions, produces the
hydrocarbons. A preponderant function is
ascribed to electricity in the production of
the coal plants. This well-reasoned essay is
followed by a remarkable speculation over
what may have happened if Australia fell
upon the earth as a meteoric mass.

In obedience to an act of Congress, the
Commissioner of Labor has made an investi-
gation and a report on The Slums of Balti-
more^ Chicago^ New York^ and Philadelphia.
The report embraces thirty-three tables, in
which are given under various classifications
the color or race, country of birth, citizen-
ship, illiteracy, occupations, weekly earnings,
number of children, bodily condition, etc.,
of the inhabitants of the districts examined,
also the school attendance of their children,
the number of families to a tenement, air
space to a person, rent paid, and sanitary
condition of the tenements. From an analy-
sis of the tables it appears that the slums, as
compared with other parts of the cities in
which they are, have a larger proportion of

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,

135

foreign-born denizens ; sickness does not pre-
vail in them to any greater extent, and most
of the bacteria found in the air of the tene-
ments are harmless ; the occupations of the
slum population are as varied as those fol-
lowed in other districts, and their earnings
are " quite up to the average earnings of the
people generally and at large." But few
tenements could be reported as in excellent
sanitary condition ; in Philadelphia and Bal-
timore those classed as good formed the
largest division, while in New York and Chi-
cago those reported as fair were the largest
class. Cases of overcrowding were numerous.
Part XXVII of the Proceedings of the
Society for Psychical Research opens with an
account of some experiments in thought
transference, by Henry G. Pawson, in which
drawings were reproduced and cards were
named correctly in a large proportion of
cases. The chief contribution in the num-
ber is a second installment of the experiences
of the late W. Stainton Moses, communicated
by F. W. H. Myers. These experiences are
what are commonly known as spiritual com-
munications. There is also a paper on the

Apparent Sources of Subliminal Messages,
and reviews of books on hypnotism, the ex-
posure of Mrae. Blavatsky, and other psy-
chical subjects.

In The Coming Revolution (Boston,
Arena Publishing Company) the position is
assumed by Henry L. Call that the prevail-
ing discontent among the " toiling masses "
is a sign that the present conditions of so-
ciety and the relations of the rich and the
wage workers are all wrong and a revulsion
is imminent. The author accordingly begins
his diagnosis with an examination into the
condition of society, and follows it up with
inquiries into the causes that have produced
that condition; the nature of these causes,
and whether they rightfully admit of a rem-
edy and its justification ; the application of
the remedy to each of the causes in turn ;
the effects of the remedy ; and the manner
in which it is to be achieved. The causes
of the trouble are abuses of privilege of a
political nature and origin. The remedy is
to enforce the law of freedom — of social
and industrial as well as political freedom ;
and it is to be secured by political means.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins.
North Dakota Weather and Crop Service. Au-
gust, 1895. Pp. 10.— Purdue University, Lafa-
yette, Ind. Field Experiments with Wheat ; Po-
tato Scab and its Prevention. Pp. 80.

American Forestry Association. Proceedings.
Part of Vol. X. Pp.42.

Baldwin, J ames. A Guide to Systematic Read-
ings in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. New York
and Chicago : The Werner Company. Pp. 316.
$2.

Beesey, Charles E., University of Nebraska,
Lincoln. Summer School of Botany in the Moun-
tains. Pp. 8.

Buck, Gertrude. Figures of Rhetoric : A Psy-
chological Study. University of Michigan : F.
Newton Scott. Pp. 27.

Cincinnati Souvenir. Cotton States and In-
ternational Exhibition, Atlanta, Ga. k p. 24.

Clarke, Agnes M. The Herschels and Mod-
ern Astronomy. New York and London : Mac-
millan«&Co. Pp.224. $1.25.

Cohen, Isabel E., Compiler. Readings and
Recitations for Jewish Homes and Schools. Phila-
delphia : The Jewish Publication Society of Amer-
ica. Pp.294.

Dav, William C. The Stone Industry in 1891.
Washington : United States Geological Survey.
Pp. 83.

Hoffman, Walter James. The Beginnings of
Wri.ing. New York : D. Appleton «fc Co. (The
Anthropological Series.) Pp. 209. $1.75.

Houston, Edwin J., and Kennelly, A. E. Al-
ternating Electric Currents. New York : TheW.
J. Johnstone Company. Pp. 225.

Lassar-Cohn, Dr. A Laboratory Manual of
Organic Chemistry. Translated by Alexander
Smith. Macmillan & Co. Pp.403. $2.25.

Locomotive, The. August, 1895. Hartford,
Conn. : Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance
Company. Pp. 16.

McLellan, James A., and Dewey, John. The
Psychology of Number, and its Application to
Methods of Teaching Arithmetic. New York : D.
Appleton & Co.

Macmillan, Conway, State Botanist. Minne-
sota Botanical Studies, No. 23. A Contribution to
the Bibliography of American Algae. By Jo-
sephine E. Tilden. Minneapolis. Pp. 124.

Niagara, State Reservation at. Eleventh An-
nual Report of the Commissioners, 1893-'94. Al-
bany, N. Y. Pp. 126.

Old South Leaflets, Nos. ."58 to 64. English
Puritanism and Commonwealth Series. Hooper's
Letters to Bullinger ; Sir John Eliot's Apology
for Socrates ; Ships Money Papers ; Pym's
Speech against Strafford ; Cromwell's Second
Speech ; Milton's Free Commonwealth ; Sir
Henry Vane's Defence. Pp. 8 to 24 each.

Reeve, C. H., Plymouth, Ind. Penal Legisla-
tion with a View to the Prevention of Crime and
Reformation of Offenders. Pp. 10.

Rolker. Charles M. The Production of Tin in
Various Parts of the World. Washington, D. C. :
Geological Survey. Pp. 88.

Shenstone, W. A. Justus von Liebig. his Life
and Work. New York and London : Macmillan
«&Co. Pp.219. $1.25.

Spanhoodf, A. W., Editor Germania Texts
(No. 1. Buyer's Leon; re. Pp. 32 ; No. 2. Qervinus's
Goethe und Schiller, Lessing und Herder. Pp. 22;
No. 3. Cholevius's Klopstock's Bedeutung fflr
sein Zeitalter. Pp. 28.) American Book Com-
pany. 10 cents each.

Spencer, J. W. The '" uration of Niagara Falls
and the History of the Great Lakes. Albany, N.
Y. : J. B. Lyon. Pp. 12t).

136

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Chart Corrections for August, 1895. Pp. 12.

United States Fish Commission. Bulletin. Vol.
XIV, 1894. Washington : Government Printing
Office. Pp.496.

United States Geological Survey. Monographs.
Vols. XXm and XXIV. Green Mountains in
Massachusetts. By Raphael Piimpelly, J. E.
Wolff, and T. N. Dale. Pp. 206. with Plates.
— Mollusca and Crustacea of the Miocene Forma-
tions of New Jersey. Bv Robert Parr Whitefleld.
Pp. 195, with Plates.— Bulletins: No. 118. A Geo-
graphic Dictionary of New Jersey. By Henry
Gannett. Pp. 131 ; No. 119. A Geological Re-
connoissance in Northwest Wyoming. By G. H.
Eldridge. Pp. 72 : No. 120. The Devonian Sys-
tem of Eastern Pennsylvania and New York. By
C. S. Prosser. Pp. 81 ; No. 121. A Bibliography
of North American Palaeontology, 1888-1892. By

C. R. Keyes. Pp. 251 ; No. 122. Results of
Primary Triangulatlon. By Henry Gannett. Pp.
412.

University of the State of New York Exami-
nation Bulletin, No. 3. Academic Syllabus. Pp.
100.— Extension Bulletin, No. 9. Summer Scho' Is.
Pp. 142.— Regents' Bulletin, No. 31. Proceedings
of the Tenth Annual Conference of Associated
Academic Principals, December, 1894. Pp. 132.

Ward. Lester F. The Place of Sociology
among the Sciences. Pp. 12. — Saporta and Wil-
liamson and their Work in Paleobotany. Pp. 18.
—Fossil Plants. Pp. 8.

Weir, James. Jr. The Effect of Female Suf-
frage on Posterity. Pp. 10.

Wiley, Harvey W. Principles and Practice
of Agricultural Analysis. Vol. II, Fertilizers.
Easton, Pa. : Chemical Publishing Company.
Pp.832.

^raflnxjetxts 0f ^j:ijetti:je*

Nature's Defenses against Disease. — It

is maintained by Dr. C. Theodore Williams,
of the Hospital for Consumptives, Brompton,
England, that in most of the specific modes
of treating consumption, particularly in the
antiseptic modes, the greatest factor of all —
the resisting power of the organism to dis-
ease— is ignored, and that it is to this that
the physician should lend his aid and sup-
port. For if his means are effectual he can
ward off disease, or if a patient has been
already attacked he can limit its inroads and
possibly arrest it altogether. The history of
the treatment of phthisis show^s that life in
the pure air, judicious exercise, light, nour-
ishing dietary, and such aids as cod-liver oil
and tonics have effected more than all the
bacillicide treatment put together. These all
act on the old principle of helping Nature to
help herself and reducing the vulnerability
of the patient to attack. The weapons of
resistance which Nature lends the human
body are the leucocytes or phagocytes, stud-
ied by Metchnikoff, which absorb the bacilli
and destroy their energy. Another destroyer
of bacilli is the serum of certain animals ;
and a third method of destruction is seen in
the process of fibrosis, which is largely pres-
ent in chronic consimiption. In a well-or-
ganized, well-developed, and therefore well-
protected person the bacilli are overwhelmed
by the irruption of phagocytes at the point
of entry, and immunity is the result. In one
of less protective power they may enter and

be carried along by the lymphatics to the
lymphatic glands, where they undergo diges-
tion and destruction. When, however, the
tubercle bacilli gain an entrance, and settle,
and destroy the tissues, as in the case of the
lung, the most that can be hoped for is that
the progress may be obstructed by fibrous
growth, or that, through developing and ex-
panding the healthy lung in the neighbor-
hood, pressure may be brought to bear on the
diseased portion, inducing a drying process
incompatible with the life of bacilli. This
process is encouraged by living at high alti-
tudes. The problem of treatment resolves
itself principally into means to increase the
number and activity of the phagocytes and
thus render more probable the destruction
of the tubercle bacilli. Moreover, whatever
improves the quality of the phagocytes would
also improve and enrich the blood and lymph
serum, of which they form a principal part.
To this quality the author attributes the
virtue of cod- liver oil — to which he has
found, he says, no substitute comparable.
Sunshine and pure air are the best bacilli-
cides. At Davos and St. Moritz phthisical
patients almost invariably sleep with open
windows throughout the winter, when the
thermometer not uncommonly registers —4°
F., or 36° below the freezing point, care, of
course, being taken to heat the room with
stoves, to provide plenty of blankets and
coverlets, and to see that the current of ex-
ternal air is not. directed on to the patient.

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

137

but always first ascends to the ceiling. The
universal testimony of medical men is to the
effect that no harm, and much good, results
from this practice. One effect is that pa-
tients accustom themselves to living at a
lower temperature without noticing it. At
Davos, Leysin, and Falkenstein there are
covered terraces or long, sheltered corridors,
open on one side to the air and protected
from wind, where a large number of phthisic-
al patients in various stages of disease re-
cline on couches for the greatest part of the
day in all weathers. In the winter there is
no heating apparatus, and warmth is kept
up by fur clothing and abundant covering.

Requisites of a Pablie Mnsenm. — '' If

public libraries, why not public museums ? "
asked Prof. E. S. Morse in the Atlantic
Monthly a year ago. Having discussed the
subject in a general way, he comes to the
application : " First and foremost, then, the
town museum should illustrate the natural
products of the immediate region. By natu-
ral products is meant, of course, the animals,
plants, rocks, and minerals found in the
county, or possibly in the State; for a
county collection would require but a few
extralimital forms to compass the State.
Second, a general collection of similar ma-
terial from elsewhere, to show the relation
of the county to the rest of the world.
Anatomical, physiological, and morphological
series should next find place in such a mu-
seum. The minor factors of natural selec-
tion, such as protective, alluring, and warn-
ing coloration, mimicry, etc., should be il-
lustrated, as far as possible, from collections
made in the immediate neighborhood. And,
finally, a series of forms to show the phy-
logenetic development of the animal king-
dom should in some way be given. Such a
series would require large floor space, and
the solution of many perplexing problems as
to form of cases and methods of display.
Yet a scheme of this sort must ultimately be
devised." Such an idea has been attained
in part by the Peabody Academy of Science
in Salem, the collections of which comprise,
first, a remarkable series of the animals and
plants, rocks, minerals, and archaeological
specimens collected in the county of Essex,
which are continually increasing as new
forms are added ; an epitome collection of

the animal kingdom, brought from all parts
of the world ; and an ethnological collection,
arranged by countries. These collections
are all fully and clearly labeled. At close
intervals throughout the entire collection
special colored labels are displayed, calling
attention by title and shelf number to books
in the public library referring to the immedi-
ate groups. Courses of lectures are given
in the Academy Hall every year, which are
practically free to the public.

Life in Balochistan. — An interesting lec-
ture on the northern Balochis, a hill tribe of
Balochistan on the northwestern frontier of
India, was recently read before the Indian
Section of the Society of Arts by Mr. Oswald
U. Yates, a gentleman who, while engaged
in Government work, spent seventeen years
in the neighborhood of these people and
gave much of his time to a study of their
language, history, and customs. The Balo-
chis are Mohammedans, but not very assidu-
ous votaries ; none have been converted to
Christianity, however. They are probably a
mixture of Kurd and Arab. Their language
is quite similar to Persian — so much so that
Pottinger, who visited Balochistan in 1 830,
and who was familiar with Persian, could
after a few weeks understand most of what
was said to him. In order to be a respected
citizen, a Balochi must have long, curly
black hair, the longer the better ; and a long
beard is also considered desirable. They
are very superstitious. On certain days they
believe it is bad luck to go in certain direc-
tions ; they are guided in this by a rhyme,
which translated is :
"On the 1st and 11th I will not go east.

On the 5th and 1 5th I will not go west.

On the 3d and 13th I will not go south.

On the 7th and 17th I will not go north."
They augur coming events from an ex-
amination of the lines on the shoulder blade
of a newly killed goat. Goats are also made
use of in discovering the sites of disused
wells, this, however, is not peculiar to the
Balochis. Their method of irrigating is
rather unique. " Before the commencement
of the rains, the fields are inclosed by lofty
embankments, varying in height from three
to ten feet, and inside these banks (called
lathandi) the water from the hill torrents is
admitted ; when one is full the next is filled.

138

TBE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The banks are made by bullocks; a board
about eighteen inches long and twelve inches
broad is attached to a pair of bullocks, who
drag it, along almost vertically until a heap
of earth is raised in front of it ; this board
is then thrown flat by means of a cord and
dragged on to the bank, with the earth on
top of it and there its load is deposited. As
soon as the water has sunk into the ground
plowing commences, and the seed is sown " ;
millet is the chief crop. They kill all male
colts as soon as they are born. " The reason
for killing them is that they can not be taken
on marauding expeditions owiug to their
neighing on seeing a mare." They use the
Persian saddle and are very good horsemen.
Adultery is punished by the death of both
man and woman. They firmly believe in the
ordeal by fire. One of the most trying of
their tests is the following: In a large
vessel filled with scalding hot water are
placed two stones of different colors; one
of these stones, unknown to the supposed
criminal, has been labeled the guilty-stone.
In order to establish his innocence he has
not only got to choose the other stone, but
also remove it from the boiling water by
using bis naked hand and arm.

The Care of Milk.— The compositioa of
milk admirably adapts it to the growth of all
kinds of bacteria; this growth causes in it
undesirable chemical changes. As secreted
in a healthy animal milk contains no micro-
organisms of a dangerous character ; but
during and subsequent to the process of
milking its contamination is inevitable. Va-
rious forms of disease — consumption, typhoid
and scarlet fevers, diphtheria, etc. — have
been in numerous instances traced to an in-
fected milk supply, and it is unquestionable
that much of the stomach and intestinal
trouble so fatal to young children during the
summer months is caused by unhygienic
milk. It is plain, therefore, that the elimi-
nation of living germs from milk is quite
essential to its safe use as a food, especially
for infants. The most scrupulous cleanliness
has been found inadequate ; hence some
artificial process becomes necessary. There
are two methods in common use, pasteuriza-
tion and sterilization. The former heats the
milk to about 160'' F., and the latter to over
212° F. The pasteurizing process, whUe not

quite so thorough, kills any growing bacteria
that may be present, and has the advantage
over sterilization, of leaving the physical
condition and flavor of the milk practically
unchanged. A method of pasteurization for
family use is as follows : "1. Use only fresh
milk (not more than twelve hours old) for
this purpose. 2. Place the milk in clean bot-
tles or fruit cans, filling to a uniform level.
(If pint and quart cans are used at the same
time, an inverted dish or piece of wood will
equalize the level.) Set these in a flat-bot-
tomed tin pail and fill with warm water to
same level as milk. An inverted pie tin
punched with holes will serve as a stand on
which to place the bottles during the heatmg
process. 3. Heat water in pail until the
temperature reaches 160° F. ; then remove
from fire, cover with a cloth or tin cover, and
allow the whole to stand for half an hour.
4. Remove bottles of milk and cool them as
rapidly as possible without danger to bottles,
and store in a refrigerator." The following
suggestions to buyers of commercially steril-
ized milk are worthy of note : " 1. Label on
bottle should show that the material was
pasteurized not more than one day previous
to delivery. 2. Shake the bottle thoroughly
before opening, so as to remix the contents
as much as possible. 3. The paper disk
should not be replaced after it is once re-
moved. Invert over neck of the bottle a
clean, dry tumbler or glass to prevent anything
from falling into the bottle. 4. Any unused
milk or cream that has been put in another
vessel should not be poured back into ori-
ginal bottle again. 5. Keep the original
bottle in the coldest part of the refrigera-
tor as much as possible. When so treated,
properly pasteurized cream or milk ought to
keep perfectly sweet for several (two to four)
days, even in the height of the summer sea-
son."

ImproTement of Crops. — In presenting a
new theory respecting the improvement of
crops, J. C. Arthur propounds as fundamental,
interacting principles, that a decrease in nu-
trition during the period of growth of an
organism favors the development of the re-
productive parts at the expense of the vegeta-
tive parts. The converse, that an increase
in nutrition favors the vegetative parts at
the expense of the reproductive parts, is also

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE,

139

equally true, and that as a general law large
seeds produce stronger plants with a greater
capacity for reproduction than small seeds
of the same kind. In the economy of Na-
ture, as the food supply is lessened, a greater
effort is made on behalf of the parent plants
to enhance the chances for perpetuity, but
at the same time the largest seeds, having
the greatest potentiality, stand the best
chance in the future struggle, and, although
the best, nourished plants produce the fewest
seeds, their greater size gives them decided
advantages over seeds from starved plants.
The two laws acting together, therefore, aid
in maintaining the perpetuity of the species
and its full measure of vigor. The two cate-
gories of methods for the improvement of
crops are the enrichment and cultivation of
the soil and the selection of seed, especially
of large seed. It is desirable to know that
intensive farming will give a better return in
all crops grown for fodder, or for the roots,
or other portions of the vegetative part of
plants, than in those grown for grain and
fruit. In either case, but more especially in
the latter, the highest vigor and best returns
can be obtained only by the use of the best
and heaviest seed. When this is done high
tillage will increase the yield and make pos-
sible the greater improvement of succeeding
crops.

Happiness of Animals. — "What makes
the happiness of wild animals ? " asks a
writer in the London Spectator. What the
happiness of wild creatures consists in, he
continues, "can perhaps be best judged by
their daily habits. Within certain limits
they are free to choose their life, and pre-
sumably they choose what pleases them best-
In nearly every case this is one of pure routine.
It consists in a daily repetition of a limited
series of actions, the greater number of
which seem to give them satisfaction rather
than pleasure, but make up in the aggregate
the sum of animal happiness. Unlike the
domestic dog, which welcomes any break in
the monotony of life, they never, except in
the courting season, seem to seek change, or
adventure, or excitement. It may be doubted
whether, if the food supply were plentiful and
constant, animals or birds would ever care to
move beyond the circle in which they can
find enough for their daily wants. The prob-

able whereabouts of deer at any time in
the twenty-four hours, and their occupation^
whether feeding, sleeping, or resting, are
known with the utmost certainty by those
whose business it is to watch the forest, and
could be predicted for any month in the year.
. . . The adventurous life, if it is found any-
where among wild creatures, belongs to the
carnivorous animals. Yet most of these only
wander just so far as is necessary to find their
prey, and then prefer to kill some creature that
will provide a meal for more than one day.
They are naturally indolent, and active only
from necessity." Even lack of space is not
a serious drawback to the happiness of most
animals at the London " Zoo," " The lions
and tigers feel the confinement of their inner
cages and often strike impatiently at the
doors which separate them in winter from
their summer palaces, and the wild cattle
would enjoy life far more if a roomy pad-
dock could be added to their pens. No
hawks or eagles can be happy in cages, be-
cause exercise in flight is essential to their
health. Parrots, on the other hand, dislike
exercise, and consequently live to the great-
est age of any creatures in the gardens.
Bears seem to share this dislike for unneces-
sary movements, and 'my lords the ele-
phants,' and all the camels, with true Ori-
ental indifference, would prefer to stand all
day doing nothing, if they were not com-
pelled to earn their living by carrying visitors.
All the reptiles lead the life of lotus-eaters,
and, so far as their brief day lasts, the trop-
ical butterflies in their cages seem equally
happy with those which flit among the flow-
ers that line the garden walks."

Picturesque Aretie Nature. — How small,
says Julius von Payer, is the matter for ar-
tistic reproduction in the old civilized world
compared with the rest of the globe ! " Has
the desert been depicted in such a manner
as it undoubtedly deserves to be ? Or the
Tundra, the primeval forest of the Dark Con-
tinent, the swampy shores of Lake Chad, the
bridle-path of the Cordilleras, the Tibetan
mountain lake, or the coral islands ? What
of the animal world, if we except our do-
mestic animals and some wild game: the
Indian beasts of prey; the African pachy-
derms ; the troops of monkeys or tortoises
of Brazil ? And then the scenes of human

140

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

activity : the negro battles ; the dreamy, still
life of the South Sea islanders ; the bufifalo
hunters ; Yakuts so hardened as to sleep al-
most naked in the snow ; India-rubber col-
lectors on the Amazons ; Patagonian giants ;
Niam Niam dwarfs, etc." The author espe-
cially commends the polar regions as artis-
tically attractive, where great effects are pro-
duced with little color by the varying charms
of light conferring life upon even the most mo-
notonous views. In the four years and a half
he spent there he was ever charmed by the
change in pictures of Nature. " What a magic
spell, for instance, is produced even by the
twilight, . . . the time without bright light,
almost without shade ; that of soft, dreamy
silhouettes, of the clear green sky, and the
pale, silvery tone of the mountains ! The
snow is now melted, and the blue sea-ice lies
bare, scarcely tinged with red by the setting
sun. Even the long winter night possesses
its artistic charm from the midday arch
of light, or the moon, which changes the
channels beneath into rivers of silver. The
arctic sky alone would enrapture the painter.
As the returning sun nears the horizon, every
color glows forth, a border of light dividing
the part of the atmosphere still in the shadow
of the earth from that already lighted up."
Then there are the infinitely varied phe-
nomena of refraction, with Faia Morgana^
giving the most curiously odd and unlike
appearances to various objects ; vapor ef-
fects; the ice blink; variations of snow
and bare ground; pastures with reindeer
and musk oxen ; and vegetation, for, " al-
though there is never the thick flora of
our meadows, yet one meets with limited
areas either yellow with Papava nudicaule
or ManunculuSy or carmine with Silene or
Saxi/raga, or blue with forget-me-not, or
white with CrasHum. East Greenland has
its huge Kaiser Franz Josef fiord, surpassing
the fiord of Norway, and the whole of Green-
land furnishes surpassing mountain land-
scapes ; Spitzbergen has a profile like a saw ;
and Novaya Zemlya is a table land, but-
tressed by mountain cones."

Forest Protection in the Tnited States.

— In a paper published in the Proceedings
of the American Forestry Association, Mr.
George H. Parsons, of Colorado Springs,
shows that measures for the protection of

forests were taken by some of the colonies
as early as in the seventeenth century.
These provisions were continued everywhere
after the formal organization of the Govern-
ment of the United States, and now each
State and Territory has some law, providing
more or less severe punishment to any per-
son setting fire to woodland or prairie. But
as it is very difficult to find the offender, or
to convict him afterward, laws of this class
are operative, if at all, by their threat rather
than by their execution, and with few excep-
tions have become dead letters. The only
States said to be comparatively free from
forest fires are Maine and Massachusetts, and
especially New York, whose forest commis-
sioner reports that they are now a thing of
the past. Laws encouraging the planting
and growing of timber and shade trees are
found on the statutes of twenty- two States
and Territories, having been adopted more
generally in the prairie States. They have
been the means of covering with trees thou-
sands of acres, and have driven the prairies
many miles westward. Kansas is credited
with the largest area planted with forest
trees, and Nebraska comes next. These
laws have done much good, but, after all,
tree-planting along roadsides, and in small,
isolated clumps, is not forestry, and legisla-
tion of this kind, though indirectly aiding
the cause in an educational way, does not
preserve or create forests. In the same
direction of education is the appointment of
Arbor Day, which has become a legal holi-
day in thirty States and Territories. Being
celebrated in the public schools, it is made a
most important factor in creating an interest
in trees and a knowledge of plant life among
people at their most impressionable age.
Regular forest commissioners or commissions
have been appointed in ten States. They
began work actively and enthusiastically,
but it is now a question whether they are
able to do much good. Politics is gnawing
their vitals out.

A Tolcanie Dnst Deposit in Kansas.— A

large deposit of volcanic dust is described in
Science by H. J. Harney as existing in cen-
tral Kansas, in McPherson County, north of
the watershed between the Smoky Hill and
Little Arkansas, and in the great depression
extending from Salina to the Little Arkansas.

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

141

The exposure is about fifteen miles long,
from two to four feet thick, from forty to
fifty feet high, rests on a bed of clay, and is
overlaid by a bed of yellow marl. At the
lowest point the dust is well assorted and
Stratified ; at the higher points it shows signs
of having been deposited in shallow water.
It is composed chiefly of silica, with small
proportions of ferric and alummum oxides,
protoxide of manganese, water, lime, and
traces of other substances. The microscope
shows it as consisting almost wholly of micro-
scopic, transparent, silicious flakes of various
irregular forms.

Geological Society of Ameriea.— The

seventh summer meeting of the Geological
Society of America was held at Springfield,
Mass., Prof. N. S. Shaler presiding. A paper
was read by C. H. Hitchcock on the Cham-
plain Glacial Epoch, which was regarded as
corresponding with Prof. James Geikie's
Mecklenbergian Epoch. In a paper on the
Glacial Genesee Lakes, H. L. Fairchild ex-
hibited the relations of the Genesee River
drainage basin to surrounding river systems,
and endeavoured to determine the glacial
history of the region. In his paper on the
Bearing of Physiography on Uniformitarian-
ism, W. M. Davis maintained that the suc-
cess in the interpretation of Nature by means
of the physiographic study of land forms
confirmed the correctness of the postulates
of uniformitarianism and brought to its sup-
port a series of facts not in the beginning
of the study supposed to bear upon it. J. C.
Branner described the decomposition of rocks
going on in Brazil as being more profound
there than in temperate regions. The chief
mechanical agency promoting it is the daily
change of temperature to which rocks exposed
to the sun are subject, which causes exfolia-
tion and the admission of a number of de-
structive agencies and reactions. Among
these agencies are rain, bringing down cor-
roding acids, insects, and plants. Many
papers of more special interest were read on
subjects of strati graphical, glacial, and eco-
nomical geology, and paleontology. A com-
mittee which had been appointed in 1893 to
secure the expropriation of the region about
Mount Rainier as a public park reported
that it had presented the case to a committee
of the United States Senate, but had failed

to have a bill recommended. The committee
was continued, to make another effort.

The French Scientific Association.— The

French Association for the Advancement of
Science met for 1895 in Bordeaux, where its
first meeting was held in 1872. The maire^
in welcoming the association, referred to the
changes which had taken place in the city
since then — all for good, and largely for the
diffusion of knowledge and the promotion
of public comfort. The number of primary
schools had been tripled ; the Lyceum, in
whose halls the sectional meetings were held,
had been built, and faculties of law, science,
letters, and medicine and pharmacy had been
established and an observatory erected; all
attracting an attendance of more than two
thousand students, and giving the place all
the privileges of a university except the
name. Museums also and art galleries had
been founded, and benevolent institutions
brought into existence. All these, the maire
intimated, were the results of the scientific
activity which began with the meeting of
1872. The president, M. Emile Tr61at, took
salubrity as the subject of his address, in
which he gave a felicitous description of the
ideal city of health. The work of the pre-
vious meeting of the association, which was
held at Caen, and the history of the associa-
tion during the year, were reviewed by the
secretary, M. Livon. The association lost
many of its distinguished members during
the year, among whom were Baron Adolphe
d'Eichthal, one of the founders, a benefactor,
and president in 1875 at Nantes; Vemeuii,
the eminent doctor, president in 1885 at
Grenoble; Gustave Cotteau, several times
president of the Geological Section ; AK
phonse Gu6rin, Ferdinand de Lesseps, Re-
cipen, and Armand Lalande, founders; Vic-
tor Duruy, and others ; and among the for-
eign associates the Russian mathematician
Tchebichef and Carl Vogt, who had attended
a number of the meetings. It appears from
the financial reports presented by M. ^mile
Galante, treasurer, that the year's receipts
of the association were 86,244 francs.

Infectiousness of Millt. — The Massachu-
setts Society for Promoting Agriculture has
issued a report of work done under its aus-
pices on the above subject. It being already

42

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

well established that there was much danger
of the milk being contaminated if the cow
from which it came had tuberculosis of the
udder, attention was restricted to the ques-
tion whether the milk was ever infected
when the disease was confined to other parts
of the animal. Bacilli were found in the
milk from twelve out of thirty-six tubercu-
lous cows. Milk from six out of fifteen in-
fected cows produced bacilli when inoculated
into guinea-pigs, and the milk of four out of
nineteen cows produced bacilli in rabbits.
Bacilli developed in two out of forty-eight
rabbits, five out of twelve pigs, and eight
out of twenty-one calves to which milk from
tuberculous cows was fed. It is interesting
to note that microscopic examination re-
vealed bacilli in only one out of thirty-three
samples of milk ordinarily supplied to con-
sumers in Boston, but bacilli appeared in
rabbits after inoculation with three of the
samples which gave negative results under
the microscope. A circular sent to eighteen
hundred physicians and veterinarians asking
" Have you ever seen a case of tuberculosis
which it seemed possible to you to trace to
a milk supply as a cause ? " brought replies
from one thousand and thirteen, eight of
whom reported cases where they believed
children had been infected by mother's milk,
and eleven reported cases in which children
had been infected by cow's milk, while six-
teen spoke of suspicious cases which they
had not been able to verify. Some results
of inquiries as to the prevalence of bovine
tuberculosis and as to tuberculosis among
Hebrews are also given.

Extermination of British Species.— In

the inaugural address of the president of
the Cheltenham, England, Natural History
Society, Dr. E. T. Wilson, on Man and the
Extinction of Species, are some historical
notes on the disappearance of certain species
in the British Islands. Within limited areas,
the author says, species were not unfrequent-
ly eradicated before the use of firearms, as
the beaver in England, which, though once
common, was in the twelfth century only to
be found in one river in Wales and one in
Scotland ; and wolves, which were practically
exterminated in four years after the demand
by Edgar for a tribute of five hundred heads
annually from his Welsh subjects. "But

even the introduction of firearms at first did
little beyond giving man an increased advan-
tage in his contest with the more formidable
of the lower animals. Far otherwise is it,
however, when man, the primitive hunter,
gives place to man the tiller of the soil, man
the cultivator, who fells forests, drains
marshes, plows prairies, and in a thousand
ways alters the face of Nature." To most of
the larger quadrupeds, and to many birds,
space is of vital importance, and space is
being rapidly curtailed. The bustard, de-
scribed by Bewick as common on the plains
of Wiltshire, Dorset, and Yorkshire, has dis-
appeared before advancing cultivation. The
egret and the crane, once common in Scot-
land, are now among the rarest of visitors.
Drainage in the broads and fens has led to
the banishment of many former inhabitants,
such as the grey lag goose, and in many
parts the bearded tit. Between 1825 and
1855 the avocet, the bustard, and the god-
wit ceased breeding in Norfolk. About the
same time the ruff became uncommon, and
the bittern left off breeding regularly in
1850. Eagles and large hawks, such as the
kite and the buzzard, and among mammals
the otter and even the harmless badger, are
becoming rarer year by year before the gun
or the trap of the gamekeeper; while the
trade collector, with his demand for whole
clutches of eggs, contributes to the destruc-
tion of some of the rarer species. In 1893
an Item was published that two sloops had
visited the island of Foula in the Shetlands,
the chief breeding station of the great skua,
and carried off several dozens of the eggs,
and there was reason to believe that not a
single young bird was reared on the island
during the breeding season of that year.

The Feigning of Death. — The probability
of this phenomenon being a pure reflex, in
most animals, is indicated by the following
experiment on a currant moth, whose powers
of " shamming " are so familiar, which is
described in a recent letter to Nature by a
Mr. Oswald H. Latter : •' The moth was first
seized by one wing, and it at once feigned
death ; thereupon its head was cut off with
a pair of scissors, and the animal continued
to feign death. I use the expression advised-
ly, for absolute immobility was maintained
for some seconds and then violent fluttering

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

H3

ensued, causing the animal to rush wildly
about the table, but failing to lift it into the
air. In this condition any impulse, such as
touching or pinching, induced a repetition of
' shamming.' After a strong impulse the
shamming was prolonged, and, indeed, a
direct connection was obvious between the
strength of stimulus and the length of period
of quiescence. This power of response to
stimulus was maintained for two days, and
then weak fluttering set in for some hours,
followed by death. We are forced, then, to
conclude that here, at any rate, death-feign-
ing is a purely reflex phenomenon, and that

the sensory stimulus received by the surface
of the body caused inhibitory impulses to
arise reflexly from the ganglia of the cen-
tral nerve cham, and prevented all movement
of the locomotor muscles. In confirmation
of this it may be mentioned that denuding
the wing of its scales over any area caused
a marked diminution of sensitiveness over
the area so treated. Since all stages be-
tween sensory hairs and ordinary scales oc-
cur in Lepidoptera^ it is not unreasonable to
assume that the scales still function as tac-
tile end organs in spite of their modification
subserving decorative purposes."

MINOR PARAGRAPHS.

Navigators and other writers of the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries speak of a
pretended art of controlling the winds which
was claimed by Finnish and Lapp wizards,
who sold wind in packages consisting of a
cord with three knots. "If the first knot
is untied," Grimm says, "the wind be-
comes favourable ; if the second, a still bet-
ter wind is secured ; but a tempest inevita-
bly follows the undoing of the third knot."
Speaking of Greenland, Nightingale says:
" The sailors of the north are so credulous
that they often buy these magical cords;
and they believe that, if they follow the in-
structions concerning the way of untying
them, they will get whatever sort of wind
they want." Like accounts are given by
Leems and Scheffer ; and the belief is re-
ferred to by Shakespeare in Macbeth.

A SUMMARY is published in the journal
Himmel und Erde of reports made to the
Bureau of Statistics in Berlin, which seem to
show that cases of damage from lightning
are regularly increasing. Thus while, accord-
ing to Prof, von Bezold, the average number
of accidents per year in Bavaria was thirty-
two from 1833 to 1843, it has gone up from
period to period till in 1880-83 it was one
hundred and thirty- two; and, while in 1855
one hundred and thirty-four persons were
struck by lightning and seventy-three of them
were killed, the number struck thirty years
later was one hundred and eighty-nine, of
whom one hundred and sixty-one were killed.
The increase is ascribed to a variety of causes,
among which are the use of electricity in in-
dustry; changes worked upon the earth's

surface by the cutting away of woods, drain-
age, etc. ; and the fouling of the air with
coal smoke.

As presented by General Greely in a pa-
per at the recent International Geographical
Congress, arctic exploration has passed
through three important phases. The first
was a commercial phase, when the discov-
eries of Chancellor gave rise to the Mus-
covy Company and the institution of trade
between Great Britain and Russia. The sec-
ond was the geographical phase, which culmi-
nated in the beginning of the present cen-
tury, and under which an unparalleled wealth
of geographical results has been harvested.
The third phase of scientific investigation
has been prominent in later years, and now
dominates, so that no expedition can com-
mand support unless its aim is scientific.
Altogether, it can be proved that arctic in-
dustries have contributed some $12,250,-
000,000 to the wealth of the world.

Herr S. a. Andree presented his plan for
a balloon expedition to the north pole before
the recent International Geographical Con-
gress. He advises that the balloon should
be capable of carrying three persons, neces-
sary instruments, and provisions for four
months; that it should be so impermeable
that it can be kept afloat thirty days ; that it
be filled somewhere in the arctic region, and
be to a certain extent steerable. The start
should be made in July, as early as the
weather would permit, on a clear day with a
brisk south wind blowing, so that it may go
north quickly. The central and most inac-
cessible part of the polar region should be

144

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

aimed for. Besides geographical work, ex-
tensive meteorological observations should
be carried on, all possible data collected, and
the topographical outfit should not be for-
gotten.

M. Charles Dufour has found, from ob-
servations of the variations of refraction on
the Lake of Geneva, that when the air is
colder than the water the refracted ray is
turned from the perpendicular, and that fine
mirages like those of the desert are present-
ed ; while, when the water is colder than the
air, the refraction is toward the perpendicu-
lar, and objects may be seen which are usu-
ally concealed by the roundness of the earth.
Hence the horizon is usually depressed be-
low the average in winter, and less so in
summer. The author suggests that such
variations may sometimes lead to errors in
observations made at sea.

NOTES.

At a ferry across the Yarkand River,
which was crossed by Captain H. Bower dur-
ing a trip to Turkestan, no rafts are kept ready,
but when wanted they are made by the
villagers from inflated skins and poplar poles.
This raft is tied by a rope to a horse's tail ;
the horse is then driven into the water and
guided by a man strapped to an inflated
skin who swims alongside. " How our things
got safely over," says Captain Bower, " has
been a puzzle to me ever since. The raft
was of the craziest description, and swayed
about in the current, threatening to capsize
every minute. All our things got wet, but
no disaster happened, and nothing was miss-
ing when an inspection of our baggage was
made in the evening."

A SATISFACTORY pavement has been made
at Chino, Cal., with the refuse molasses of a
sugar factoiy thei-e. The molasses is mixed
with sand to about the consistence of asphalt,
and is laid on like an asphalt pavement.
The composition dries quickly and becomes
permanently hard, the heat of the sun only
making it harder.

Having added to its collections during
the past year specimens of the eyra, yagu-
aruiidi, the fishing cat of India, and the Ben-
galese cat, the Zoological Society of Philadel-
phia has now thirteen species of the cat
family in its gardens.

Mr. James Constantine Pilling, bibli-
ographer of the Bureau of American Ethnol-
ogy, who died July 26th, made the study of
the languages and literature of the North
American Indians his life-work. Soon after
becoming connected with the Geological and
Geographical Surveys, under Major Powell,

in 1875, he made himself very useful in
collecting the vocabularies, myths, and le-
gends of the tribes, and in the study and de-
scriptions of their ceremonials. He retired
from the survey in 1891, on account of fail-
ing health, and devoted himself to the study
of the bibliography of American languages.
He had published, at the time of his death,
nine parts of his work on this subject, relating
to as many languages or families of languages
— a work which can not fail to be of great
value to future students.

Prof. Charles V. Riley, late chief of
the Bureau of Entomology, died in Washing-
ton, September 14th, from injuries received
while riding a bicycle. He was bora in Lon-
don in 1843, studied in France and Germany,
came to the United States in 1860, and set-
tled on a farm. He was afterward engaged
in editorial work ; served in the army during
the last year of the civil war ; and was ap-
pointed State Entomologist of Missouri in
1868. In 1877 he was made chief of the
United States Entomological Expedition sent
to investigate the Rocky Mountain locust.
Later he was placed in charge of the en-
tomological division of the Bureau of Agri-
culture. He was a prolific writer, chiefly of
entomological monographs. He received a
gold medal from the French Government for
his investigation of the phylloxera, and a
medal from the International Forestry Ex-
hibition at Edinburgh.

M. H. Baillon, the French botanist, who
died July 19th, was the author of a Botanical
Dictionary, and a History of Plants, which
have become standard works in their own
country. While he was not a member of
the Academy of Sciences, he had been elected
to the Royal Society.

One hundred and thirty-eight dollars
have been contributed at Princeton Uni-
versity, through Prof. J. Mark Baldwin, to-
ward the memorial to Prof. Helmholtz.

The death is announced of Dr. Hoppe
Seyler, for many years a professor in the
University of Tiibingen, and, since 1852,
Professor of Physiological and Pathological
Chemistry in the University of Strasburg.
He was born in 1825.

Prof. Louis Pasteur, the world-famous
investigator of germ diseases and on those
of the extended application of the system of
moculation as a remedy and preventive, died
at his home near St. Cloud, France, Septem-
ber 28th. He had been in a low condition
for some time as a result of the increasing
paralysis with which he had been afflicted,
but became suddenly worse on Friday even-
ing, the 27th, and suffered much from fre-
quent spasms until a few hours before his
death, when he became unconscious. A bio-
graphical sketch of M. Pasteur was given,
with a portrait, in The Popular Science
Monthly for March, 1882 (vol. xx, p. 883).

DAVID DALE OWEN.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MON^THLY.

DECEMBER, 1895.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION.

By DAVID A. WELLS, LL.D., D. C. L.,

0OBRE8PONDANT DB l'iNSTITUT DK TBANCE, ETC.

L— THE COMPARATIVELY RECENT TAX EXPERIENCES OF THE
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

BEFORE passing to the detailed consideration under proper
and consecutive subdivisions of the above subject, the writer
thinks it expedient to outline briefly the exceptional circumstances
under which his studies and investigations have been prosecuted ;
inasmuch, as apart from any expectation of consequent intelligent
criticism on his conclusions, a somewhat personal narration may
help to a better popular understanding of a great chapter in the
nation's fiscal experience, which, although without a parallel in all
history, has thus far received scant notice and little appreciation
on the part of economic writers and historians.

His first connection with economic and fiscal questions of pub-
lic import was through the publication, at the darkest financial
period of the war — 1864— of the results of an inquiry into the re-
sources and prospective debt-paying ability of the United States,
and bearing the title of Our Burden and Our Strength. This
essay, although first printed privately, was reprinted and circu-
lated by the Loyal Publication Society of New York, and, re-
ceiving the approbation of the Government, became one of the
current publications of the war period. Reprinted in different
sections of the country by loyal citizens, and also in repeated
instances in England, translated into French and German, it at-
tained a very large circulation ; in excess of two hundred thousand
copies. Coming also at a period when the nation was beginning
to be alarmed at the magnitude and prospective increase of its

VOL. XLTIII. — 10

146 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

public debt, and apprehensive of an impending crusbing burden
of taxation, its publication and circulation was instrumental in
restoring public confidence and maintaining the credit of the Gov-
ernment.

The attention of President Lincoln having been attracted to
this publication, he invited the author in early February, 1865, to
come to Washington and confer with him and Mr. Fessenden,
then Secretary of the Treasury, on the best methods of dealing,
after the termination of the war (then evidently near at hand),
with the enormous debt and burden of taxation that the war had
entailed upon the nation.* The result of this conference was, that
an amendment was added, at the last hours of the Thirty-eighth
Congress, to a bill " To provide Internal Revenue," and passed
March 3, 1865, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury " to ap-
point a commission of three persons to inquire and report at the
earliest practical moment on the subject of raising by taxation
such revenue as may be necessary to supply the wants of the
Government, having regard to and including the sources from
which such revenue should be drawn, and the best and most
effectual mode of raising the same." The commission was further
empowered " to inquire into the present and best methods of col-
lecting the revenue," and to take testimony. Of this commission
the writer was, unexpectedly to himself, appointed chairman by
the then Secretary of the Treasury — Hon. Hugh McCulloch —
after the assassination of the President, but in accordance with his
previously indicated wishes, f It was also deemed expedient that,
of the other members, one should be a representative of the agri-
cultural interests of the West, and the third a citizen of Pennsyl-
vania, the chairman being at the time a citizen of New York;
and in accordance with this view Mr. S. S. Hayes, who had distin-
guished himself as Comptroller of Chicago, and Mr. Stephen Col-
well, of Philadelphia, a gentleman of advanced age, and a success-
ful manufacturer of iron, who had written some years before the

* Mr. Lincoln opened the conference by remarking that, although the war was evidently
drawing to a close, he feared that great difiBculties were yet to be encountered through the
possible unwillingness or inability of the nation to pay the war debt, or the great increase
in taxation which the war had made necessary ; and followed this remark by asking if the
writer had anything to suggest on the subject. The offhand answer returned was, that the
best thing to be done was to have an examination made by competent persons of the re-
sources of the country and the best methods of making them available for meeting the ex-
penses of the Government through taxation. Turning to the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr.
Lincoln remarked : " That's a pretty good idea, Fessenden, isn't it ? We'll think about it " ;
and as the hour (evening) was becoming late, the conference substantially soon ended.

\ The appointment was tmsolicited and unexpected, and Mr. Fessenden some years
afterward stated that when the composition of the commission was under consideration Mr.
Lincoln remarked that " he thought we had better let the young man who had suggested
the idea of it be at the head of it."

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION 147

war an able book entitled Ways and Means of Payment, a Full
Analysis of the Credit System, were selected. A word of retro-
spection is bere essential to an understanding of the situation.

If it be an axiom in political and social as well as physical and
natural science, that the first requisite for progress consists in the
correct observation and recording of phenomena, whereby old laws
or principles may be verified or extended and new ones discovered,
it would be difficult to imagine a field more fruitful for investiga-
tion and more promising of reward than the financial and indus-
trial experiences of the United States immediately anterior and
subsequent to the outbreak of the civil war — experiences which
had truly the character of vast social and political experiments,
made on a scale of magnitude rarely if ever before equaled ; for the
most part emphatically tentative in character, and affecting in
their results not only the growth, the income, and the industrial
pursuits of the nation directly and immediately concerned, but also
in a greater or less degree the trade and commerce of the whole
world.

At the breaking out of the civil war in 1861, the United States
was in the a.nomalous position of a great nation practically unen-
cumbered with a national or public debt. Excise, stamp, income,
license, and direct or general property taxes under the Federal
Government were absolutely unknown ; the expenses of a simple
and economical administration being defrayed almost entirely by
indirect taxes, levied in the form of a tariff on the importation of
foreign products or merchandise. In fact, the only other notice-
able source of national revenue was from the sale of public lands,
which, at a maximum price fixed by law of one dollar and a quar-
ter per acre, returned to the Treasury an average income of from
one to three millions of dollars per annum ; rising in a few in-
stances, during periods of wild speculation to six, fourteen, and
in one exceptional year (1836) to even twenty-four millions of
dollars.

The average rate of duties imposed on the aggregate value of
foreign importations during the thirty years immediately preced-
ing 1860 was about twenty per cent ; but for a portion of the time
the annual rate was much less, and for a number of years — 1834,
to 1843 and 1858 to 1861 inclusive — it was not in excess of fifteen
per cent.

But notwithstanding these limitations on the sources and
amount of income, the requirements of the national Government
for all purposes were so moderate that the receipts of its Treasury
continually tended to exceed its disbursements ; and the difficulty
which most frequently presented itself to its financial administra-
tors, was not the customary one in all other countries, of how to
avoid an annual deficit, but rather how to manage to escape an

148 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

inconvenient but inevitable surplus. And it is a curious fact, and
one perhaps altogether unprecedented and almost unrecognized
in history, that from the years 1837 to 1857 there was rarely a sin-
gle fiscal year, in which the unexpended balance in the national
Treasury — derived from a few sources — at the end of the year,
was not in excess of one half of the total expenditure of the pre-
ceding year.*

To provide for the use, or rather to get rid of a continual sur-
plus, various plans were from time to time suggested. In one in-
stance the House of Representatives, on motion of Henry Clay (the
leading statesman of his day), seriously considered the question of
the expediency of the national Government becoming by purchase
and investment a partner in various stock corporations or enter-
prises; and pending any conclusion the surplus funds were de-
posited in the local or small State banks, with reiterated injunc-
tions " to loan liberally to merchants."

In 1836, the unexpended cash balance in the Treasury of the
United States reported as available for public purposes, being
$65,723,959— $46,001,467 of which was on deposit in ninety-one
different State banks — Congress (by act of June 23d of that year)
appropriated the sum of $37,468,859 for distribution among the
States ; of which $27,063,430 was officially certified in September,
1837, as having been actually paid. Most of the States applied the
amount apportioned to them for educational purposes. Others
used it differently and less wisely: Massachusetts, for example,
dividing her share proportionally among her towns and cities,
where it was expended at the discretion of the local authorities ;
in one instance, in a small fishing town, for the construction of
walks on the sands for the benefit of pedestrians ; and in others
for the purchase of houses and lands for the use and settlement
of the town's poor.

As might have been expected under such circumstances, fiscal
and economic subjects were during the period under considera-
tion, those that least of all attracted the attention of the Ameri-
can people. Few books or essays on such topics were either writ-
ten or read, while the continually increasing agitation and interest
respecting the existence or extension of negro slavery furnished

* During the decade from 1821 to 1831 the average ordinary annual expenditures of
the United States were $12,390,000, or at the rate of %\.0l per capita of its whole popu-
lation.

From 1831 to 1841, $24,740,000, or $1.61 joer capita.

From 1841 to 1851, $33,760,000, or $1.63 joer capita.

From 1861 to 1861, $57,870,000, or %'iM per capita.

For the year 1894 the total expenditures of the Federal Government, as officially re-
ported, were $442,605,758, or $6.08 per capita of the entire population of the country ; or
$4.50 less expenditure for pensions.

FEINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 149

the never-ending and predominant theme for discussion alike to
the press, the politicians, the pulpit. Congress, and the local legis-
latures. There had been, indeed, fierce discussions and political
divisions in 1836-'38 respecting the organization and manage-
ment of banks, and the establishment of a national bank ; and in
1840-'41 and 1846, respecting the construction and adjustment of
the tariff, and the principles of free trade and protection. But
during the decade from 1850 to 1860 all of these questions were
generally regarded as old-time issues, and by the generation that
then had control of the business and government of the country
were both substantially ignored and forgotten ; and it was dur-
ing the latter years of this period, or from 1851 to 1860, that the
comparative growth and progress attained by every department
of American trade, commerce, and industry was greater than for
any corresponding period either before or since, in the history of
the nation. During the same decade the increase in population
of the country was returned at 35*59 per cent, its increase in
wealth at 126*4 per cent, and the average of property to each in-
dividual at $510. In short, it would be difficult to find a more
happy illustration of the influence of the " noninterference " or
" nonobstructive " policy of a government with the trade, com-
merce, and industry of a highly civilized and active people, than
the condition of the United States at that time afforded.

That the country, viewed from a politico- economic standpoint,
was at this time in all respects what it should or might have
been, is not, however, asserted. The institution of slavery, deny-
ing to over four millions of human beings the freedom of the
person, the right to real property, and the blessings of education,
was tolerated and supported by law. The paper and ordinary cur-
rency of the country, neglected by the General Government, and
issued by local banks under almost as many different systems as
there were States in the Union, was as defective as could be well
imagined, and often necessitated a rate of exchange between
the different sections of the country which was equal to or in
excess of the current rates of interest at the principaL commer-
cial centers.

But notwithstanding these drawbacks the people in general
were highly prosperous. Pauperism, apart from the large cities,
was almost unknown; wealth was very equitably distributed;
while the opportunities for elementary education were free, and
in all the more densely populated portions of the country amply
provided. In short, the prosperity of the people was so great,
through the utilization of their natural resources, their activity,
and the continued influx of the population and capital of other
countries, that it constituted in itself an obstacle to reform ; and
the nation at large may be said to have actually preferred to en-

150 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

dure the various economic and social evils incident to their situa-
tion rather than devote time to their consideration and meet the
grave political issues consequent upon any change or reforma-
tion. What would have happened ? what would have been the
economic and social condition of the United States, had not the
people of its southern section appealed to the arbitrament of the
sword in the matter of slavery and consented to its peaceful
abolition,* constitutes a most curious and interesting theme for
speculation. Certainly it would have been something without
precedent in the world's former experience.

It was with such antecedents and under such conditions, that
the nation found itself in the early months of 1861 suddenly and
unexpectedly involved in a gigantic civil war, in which its very
existence was threatened by the uprising of at least a third of its
population against the legitimate and regularly constituted Gov-
ernment. The most urgent and important requirement of the
Federal Government at the outset was revenue. Men in excess of
any immediate necessity volunteered for service in the army, but
to equip and supply even such as were needed precipitated an
avalanche of expenditure upon the Treasury. To meet these finan-
cial requirements there was on the part of the Government neither
money, credit, nor any adequate system of raising revenue by
taxation ; the previous reliable supply of revenue from the cus-
toms having at the most critical period, through the diminution
of imports consequent upon the political disturbances, become
subject to a serious and ominous impairment ; while the money
returns from all sources, other than loans, for the year 1862 were
only $2,867,057. For this latter year the total ordinary receipts
of revenue of the Government were but $51,919,000, and its ex-
penditures $456,379,000.

At the outset it was assumed that the war would be short, and
that the expenditures of the Government could be met by the
agency of loans and an issue of paper money, the detailed history
of which, although not yet familiar to the American public, is not
directly pertinent to the subject under consideration, and would
require a separate essay for its presentation in any degree of full-
ness. All direct or internal taxation was accordingly for a time
avoided; there having been apparently an apprehension on the
part of Congress that inasmuch as the people had never been
accustomed to it, and as all machinery for assessment and collec-
tion was wholly wanting, its adoption would create popular dis-
content, and thereby interfere with a vigorous prosecution of
hostilities. Congress accordingly confined itself at first to the

* Subsequent events have made it clear that with the continuance of slavery the devel-
opment of the nation must have been greatly retarded.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 151

enactment of measures looking to an increase of revenue from
the increase of indirect taxes upon imports, and it was not until
four months after the actual outbreak of hostilities that a direct
tax of twenty million dollars was apportioned among the States,
and an income tax of three per cent on all incomes in excess of
eight hundred dollars was authorized, the first being made to take
effect practically eight and the second ten months after date of
enactment. Such laws, of course, became operative in the loyal
States only, and produced but comparatively little revenue ; and
although the sphere of taxation was soon extended, the aggregate
receipts from all sources by the Government for the third year
of the war — from excise, income, stamps, and all other internal
and direct taxes — was less than forty million dollars, and that too
at a time when the expenditures were in excess of sixty million
dollars per month, or at the rate of more than seven hundred
million dollars per annum. And as showing how novel was this
whole system of direct and internal taxation to the people, and
how completely the Government officials were lacking in all ex-
perience in respect to it, the following incident may be cited :
The Secretary of the Treasury in his report for 1863 stated that
with a view of determining his resources he had employed a very
competent person, with the aid of practical men, to estimate the
probable amount of revenue to be derived from each department
of internal taxation for the current year. The estimate arrived
at was eighty-five million dollars, but the actual receipts were
less than forty million— $37,640,787.

The people of the loyal States were, however, more determined
and earnest in respect to this matter of taxation and revenue than
were their rulers, and everywhere the one opinion expressed was,
that taxation in all its forms should immediately, and to the
largest extent, be made effective and imperative. And Congress,
spurred up by and rightfully relying on public sentiment to sus-
tain its action, at last resolutely took up the matter, and devised,
or rather drifted into, a system of internal taxation which for its
universality and peculiarities has no parallel in anything which
had theretofore been recorded in civil history, or is likely to be
thereafter.

The great necessity of the situation was revenue, and to obtain
it speedily and in large amounts through taxation was the only
principle recognized (if it can be called a principle), and was akin
to that recommended to the traditionary Irishman on his first
visit to Donnybrook Fair : " Wherever you see a head, hit it ! "
Wherever you find an article, a product, a trade, a profession, a
sale, or a source of income, tax it ! And so an edict went forth to
this effect, and the people cheerfully submitted. Incomes under
five thousand dollars were taxed five per cent, with an exemption

152 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

of five hundred dollars and house rent actually paid. Incomes
in excess of five thousand dollars and not in excess of ten thou-
sand dollars were taxed two and a half per cent in addition, and
incomes over ten thousand dollars, five per cent additional, with-
out any allowance or exemptions whatever. Nearly every indus-
trial product was taxed. Cotton was taxed at the rate of two
cents per pound; salt, six cents per hundred pounds; tobacco,
from fifteen to thirty-five cents per pound; cigars, from three
to forty dollars per thousand ; sugar, from two to three cents and
a half per pound. Distilled spirits were taxed progressively ; first
at twenty cents, and finally at two dollars per proof gallon.

But the most curious and complex taxes were those imposed
on the various products of what may be termed ordinary manu-
facturing industry — a tax, by intent or construction, being first
imposed on the raw material, and then on the total or increased
value, according to circumstances, of each successive stage of its
elaboration up to the finished product. And, as if this was not
enough, every manufacturer was compelled to take out an annual
license, while the goods produced, if sold by dealers or agents
independent of the manufacturers, were subject to an additional
tax of one tenth of one per cent, reckoned upon the amount of
sales. This tax upon manufactures and products, with the excep-
tion of a few articles, was at first fixed, in 1864, at an average of
five per cent ; but in 1865 the rate was increased twenty per cent,
making the tax for most articles six per cent.

Under the operation of this system the Government actually
levied and collected on many articles of finished industrial prod-
ucts a tax of six per cent, the effect of which may be thus illus-
trated : Many manufacturing establishments sold products an-
nually to three times the amount of their invested capital. If the
capital invested was one hundred thousand dollars and the sales
three hundred thousand, the tax on that business was eighteen
thousand dollars, or eighteen per cent on the cost of the establish-
ment.

The sales of its products by a manufacturing establishment are,
however, no indication of its profits. It may make and sell to the
amount of a million dollars without making a dollar of profit,
but that, under the law, was no reason for the nonassessment and
noncollection of a tax of sixty thousand dollars on the value of
the product represented by its sales.

Again, the effect of the tax on every stage of elaboration of a
manufactured product may be illustrated by a great variety of
actual examples. Thus, in the case of the manufacture of um-
brellas and parasols, it was shown that separate taxes were paid,
first, on the sticks or supporting rods ; then upon the handles, if
carved or turned separately, of bone, wood, or ivory ; then, in like

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 153

manner, upon the brass runners, the tips, the ribs, the cloth com-
posing the cover, the elastic band which fastened the cover when
closed, the rubber of which the band was composed,, the button to
which it was attached ; and finally upon the umbrella itself, when
the separate parts were aggregated, and thereby converted into a
finished product. And if any of the constituents of the umbrella
— as the ivory, the silk, or the metal — were of foreign production,
the same were subjected on coming into the country to an import
duty in addition.

In the case of books and pamphlets, it was proved by the New
York Publishers' Association that, including the license and in-
come taxes, the finished book and its constituent materials paid
from fifteen to twenty separate and distinct taxes before it
came to the reader — the paper and its constituents, the cloth, the
glue, the starch, the leather, the slaughtered animal whence the
hide furnishing the leather was obtained, the dyes with which
the cloth or leather was colored or stained, the thread, the gold
leaf, the type metal, the type, and the printing machinery ; and
then, when the whole was combined, the finished book paid an
additional tax of six per cent, which was levied not upon the cost
of manufacture but upon the price at which the book was sold.
In addition to all these taxes, the manufacturer or publisher paid
for the privilege of doing business an annual license tax, and an in-
come tax of from five to ten per cent on his profits, if he had any.

In short, it was as if a frontier line had been drawn about each
individual article or product in the nation, across which nothing
could pass without being submitted to an exaction.

Besides these taxes on manufactured products of the character
specified, a tax of from three to six per cent was imposed on re-
pairs when the value of the article repaired was increased by the
reason of the repairs to the extent of ten per cent ; and a further
tax of six per cent on what was termed " increased values," or the
additional value given to any article, which had either paid an
import or internal tax, by being "polished, painted, varnished,
waxed, gilded, oiled, electrotyped, galvanized, plated, framed,
ground, pressed, colored, dyed, trimmed, or ornamented."

The examples of difficult and nice adjudication experienced
in enforcing these two classes of taxes are so curious as to justify
somewhat more than a passing notice. Thus, if a worker in tin
or iron made a stove at one hour and in the next hour repaired a
stove to the extent of more than ten per cent of its value, he paid
on the product of his first hour's work a tax of six per cent, and
on his second three per cent. In like manner, a blacksmith making
a taxable article, and then repairing one exactly like it, was liable
to the payment of the two classes of taxes ; and the theory of the
law, furthermore, was that both the tinsmith and the blacksmith

VOL. XLVIIl. — 11

154 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

kept a separate and distinct account of their different transac-
tions. Again, if a worker in wood repaired a wheelbarrow worth
one dollar, and by so doing added ten cents to its value, the in-
creased value was taxable. But if, on the other hand, he repaired
a carriage or pianoforte worth five hundred dollars, no tax ac-
crued unless the value of the repairs exceeded ten per cent, or
fifty dollars. The following absurd case was presented for adju-
dication under these statutes :

A wheelwright repaired a carriage to the extent of eight per
cent. The owner then passed it successively to a blacksmith, a
painter, and an upholsterer, neither of whom added repairs to
the extent of ten per cent, or knew the value of previous repairs
or the value of the carriage before it was repaired. The question
then was, shall the repairs, however extensive, go untaxed, or
shall the owner be taxed ? The construction of the law was,
that the tax must be assessed on the manufacturer, or persons re-
ceiving pay for the work, and that the owner could not be the
manufacturer unless he furnished the materials, in whole or in
part, for making the repairs ; and then the further question arose,
whether the subject of repair in the shape of the old carriage fur-
nished by the owner was a material for making the repair, and
thus constituted the owner a manufacturer, and as such liable to
taxation.

In another case the question came up whether the publishers
residing in one assessment district and having their books printed
and bound by contract in another, were to be regarded as manu-
facturers of the books ; or whether the printers and binders who
executed the work were to be so regarded and taxed. And in two
instances, in two contiguous districts in the State of Massachu-
setts, the law was interpreted in both ways, or in one way in one
district and another way in another district ; and the parties in-
terested submitted rather than incur the trouble and expense of
contesting the matter before the courts.

In fact, it is safe to say that no more complicated and absurd
questions have ever seriously occupied the minds of educated
men since the discussions of the schoolmen in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries (as, for example, as to how many angels could
stand at once on the point of a fine needle), than were evolved
from the tax system of the United States during and for some
time after the war period.

We have said that the people of the United States submitted
to such a system. They did more. For such was the fervor of
patriotism and the determination to push the war to a successful
issue, that they rejoiced in it ; and during the continuance of hos-
tilities there was no movement or protest against the system which
found any notable response among the masses. The country was

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION.

5?

rich, and its accnmulated resources had not for two generations
been subjected by either the national or state governments to
extraordinary taxation. Wealth, moreover, was very uniformly
distributed, and the people pointed with pride to the annually
increasing receipts of revenue under the new system ; which, start-
ing with $41,000,000 of internal revenue in 1863, rose rapidly to
$117,000,000 in 1864, $211,000,000 in 1865, and culminated in 1866
with the large sum of $310,000,000, making the total revenue for
that year, drawn from all sources by so-called taxation, $559,000,-
000, the largest sum previously contributed in any one year for
the support of any Government by the free consent of its people.
So long, moreover, as the war lasted, the attempts to evade
taxation by illicit methods were exceptional and in amount incon-
siderable. The demand for most manufactured and agricultural
products, owing to the enormous consumption of the armies and
the withdrawal of labor from its accustomed vocations by en-
listments, was fully equal to or in excess of supply. Prices rose
rapidly with every increasing taxation or additional issues of
paper money,* and under such circumstances the fiscal require-
ments of the war were not regarded by the majority of producers
as oppressive. But, on the contrary, counting the taxes as elements
of cost and reckoning profit as a percentage of the whole cost, it
was generally the case that the aggregate profits of the producer
were actually enhanced by reason of the taxes, to an extent con-
siderably greater than they would have been had no taxes what-
ever been collected. Indeed, it was not infrequently the case that
the manufacturers themselves were the most strenuous advo-
cates for continued and rapidly increasing taxation, with a view
of realizing thereby, through an advance in prices, large additional
profits on products, or constituents of products, previously assessed
or imported at lower rates of (customs) duties, and to bring about
such advances influence and money were used without scruple.

* Among the absurd theories put forth in justification of an extravagant issue of (irre-
deemable) paper money was a favorite one, that such a policy was a matter of necessity to
make money easy, in order that the securities (bonds) representing Government loans
should be easily floated ; the one uppermost idea in the heads of the Government oflScials
having been, apparently, that in the floating thus contrived, the bonds alone would possess
the property of buoyancy. But in this they were mistaken. The bonds indeed floated, but
everything else floated with them ; or, to borrow the language of a writer of the period (who
criticised this experience from the humorous point of view), " the bonds were floated, but
by just about the same operation as that by which things are floated in the suburbs of a
town or city submerged in a heavy freshet — hencoops floated, cellars floated, streets floated,
barge houses and outhouses floated, stray children and first floors floated, all creation floated
and floated together." The market for five-twenties was made easy, the market for flour,
beef, cotton, and military stores, of which the Government was compelled to purchase im-
mense quantities, was made particularly easy. The whole country was put under water and
remained so for a considerable period after the war terminated.

156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Tlius, in the case of distilled spirits, the taxation was advanced
in successive years from twenty cents per gallon to sixty cents, next
to a dollar and fifty cents, and finally to two dollars per gallon, and
in each of these instances, and particularly after the imposition of
the first two and lowest rates, the distillers and speculators reck-
oned, with a great degree of certainty, that a further large ad-
vance would be enacted, and that the new law would not be made
retroactive or applicable to spirits distilled and assessed pre-
viously and at lower rates. In this they were not disappointed,
for Congress, under the influences to which it was subjected, did
virtually legislate in each instance in the manner expected, and
thus gave occasion for the realization of profits in strict conformity
with law by the holders of stocks made in anticipation of the sev-
eral advances, which can not be estimated at a less aggregate than
one hundred millions of dollars. Thus, the evidence before the
United States Revenue Commission in 1865-'66 showed that there
was on the 1st of January, 1864, a stock of tax-paid distilled
spirits, made in anticipation of an increased tax, sufficient to meet
all the requirements of the country for a period of six months,
and on each gallon of this quantity, a profit or revenue, which did
not accrue to the Government, of from sixty cents to a dollar and
forty cents per gallon was realized. And yet, with this lesson of
costly experience before it, the Fifty- third Congress, in advancing
the tax on distilled spirits from ninety cents to a dollar and ten
cents per gallon, afforded again such facilities to distillers and
speculators, for anticipating such advance, as to legislate into
their pockets at least ten millions of dollars.

In the case of cotton, which advanced mainly by reason of
conditions affecting its production or distribution, it was shown
by actual calculation, in respect to one manufacturing corpora-
tion in New England, that if they had at the commencement of
the war burned their mills, lost their insurance, and sunk their
capital other than was invested in cotton, and had subsequently
sold their cotton at the highest price obtainable in place of manu-
facturing it, the result would have afforded to the stockholders
an annuity of at least twelve per cent on their original invest-
ments.

How much the cost of the war and its expression in the form
of debt, were unnecessarily increased by this state of affairs, has
not until very recently been taken into account by writers on the
fiscal history of this period, and probably can not be accurately
estimated. But the following data throw great light on the sub-
ject : Thus, assuming the general average of prices in the loyal
States of the Union before the war, or, more precisely, in 1860, at
100, the average from 1860 to 1865 was 18671. But for the last
year of the war, or in 1865, it was 216*81, and it was during this

NEW EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 157

latter period of greatest increase in prices tliat tlie heaviest pur-
chases were made by the Government on account of munitions
and supplies. The increased cost of the war by reason of this in-
crease in the price of commodities, which in turn may be in a
great degree attributed to the use of irredeemable paper money
invested with legal-tender quality, has been estimated * at over a
thousand millions of dollars, and the interest on this increased
cost, another equal sum. By so much, furthermore, as these sup-
plies and other necessaries of life were increased in price through
the depreciation of the currency, those who rendered personal
service in the army and navy were deprived of what ought to
have been the purchasing power of the payments made to them
by the Government for such service.

NEW EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO.

By Prof. G. FREDERICK WRIGHT.

THE doubt which lingers in the minds of many concerning
the sufficiency of the evidence for the existence of man in
America during the Glacial period is so great, and has been so in-
dustriously fomented in certain quarters, that special interest has
been manifested in a fresh discovery recently brought to light in
Ohio. The discovery consists of a chipped chert implement, one
inch and three quarters long and three quarters of an inch wide
in its broadest part, with a projecting shoulder upon one edge,
giving to it the character of what, in aboriginal usage, would be
called a knife. The implement was found a mile and a half be-
low Brilliant Station on the Ohio River, six miles from Steu-
benville, Ohio. In view of recent doubts upon the subject, it is
necessary to give special attention to the evidence in three par-
ticulars : 1. The competence and character of the discoverer.
2. The facilities for noting the undisturbed condition of the
gravel in which the implement lay. 3. The evidence that the
gravel is of glacial age.

1. The Competence and Character of the Discoverer. — Mr. Sam
Huston, the discoverer, is a graduate of the Scientific Department
of Washington and Jefferson College, and has for twenty years or
more been the county surveyor of Jefferson County, Ohio, resid-
ing at Steubenville. Having charge of the public improvements
of the county, especially of the construction of the turnpikes, his
familiarity with the topography, and especially with the gravel
deposits along the river terraces, extensively resorted to for road-

* Edward Atkinson.

158

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

building and ballast for railroads, is as intimate as it is possible
for any one's to be. But in connection with the engrossing occupa-

Fio. 1. — Talcs rbmoved, so as to show the <>ki(un-al «'()ni)iti'>n of thk \'\\ .\ I'kw Feet

BACK FROM THE PlACE WHERE THE IMPLEMENT WAS FOUND, WHICH IS MARKED BY A *.

tions of his public business, Mr. Huston has maintained his love
for pure science, and his valuable aid has been solicited by numer-
ous scientific men engaged in making paleontological collections.
It was Mr. Huston who discovered for Prof. Samuel H. Scudder
the fossil insects of the coal measures which attracted so much
attention two or three years ago. Prof. Cope has likewise been
greatly indebted to Mr. Huston for fossils collected by him in the
neighborhood of Steubenville. The evidence, therefore, is not that
of either an unknown or an inexperienced observer.

2. The Discovery. — This I will give in Mr. Huston's own lan-
guage, written out for me at my request.

" Prof. G. F. Wright. " Steubenville, Ohio, August 13, 1895.

" My Dear Sir : Below Brilliant, Jefferson County, Ohio, is a
very fine remnant of high-level river terrace. Its length is two
miles and maximum width over a quarter of a mile. On the West
Virginia side of the Ohio River at that point the bluffs rise to a

NEW EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 159

height of over three hundred feet, directly from the water at
ordinary level. On the Ohio side there is a flood-plain from fifty
to one hundred yards wide and from twenty -to thirty feet above
low water. Along the west side of this flood-plain is located the
river division of the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad, along the
foot of the high-level terrace. This terrace ranges from sixty-five
to eighty feet above low water. Excavations in this terrace to a
depth of forty-three feet show it to consist of interstratified sand,
fine gravel, and clay in small quantities, all with rare exceptions
cross-bedded. Coarse gravel is found at the top of the terrace ;
but, except for two or three feet on top, only rare pieces of gravel
occur of more than one half cubic inch in size. Two small ravines
cut through the terrace at Brilliant. A mile below these, Block
House Run, and a mile and a half below, Riddle^s Run cut through
the terrace down to the flood-plain of the river. Otherwise the
surface of the terrace is a plain. A half mile of turnpike was
built on it, in which the original surface varied less than two feet.

Fig. 2. — Gknkkal View of the Abandoned Gravel Pit.

Indian mounds and intrusive burials occur at numerous places on
the terrace, but the stratification and cross-bedding of the sands
and gravels of it are such that intrusive burials or excavations
can not be made without leaving evidence so distinct as to be

i6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

readily seen, and at the face of an excavation a slip or talus is
easily detected.

" Over three yea»rs ago a sandpit was worked in this terrace
at its southern extremity, below Riddle's Run. While the exca-
vation was being made, and at a noon hour, I found a plainly
marked but rude flint implement imbedded in the freshly exposed
face of the stratified sand and gravel, under about eight feet of
undisturbed cross-bedded stratification, onlj the point of the im-
plement showing on the perpendicular face of the excavation.
The condition of .the stratification in all of the superincumbent
eight feet, which was closely examined by me, was such as to
convince me that the implement was not intrusive, but had been
deposited with the remainder of the material of the terrace. The
condition of the face of the excavation above the find is fairly,
but not as clearly as would be desired, shown by the photograph
taken by Mr. Doyle of the now abandoned sandpit where the find
was made, where slips and talus cover the face.

"Sam Huston."

.3. Glacial Age of the Oravel. — In company with Mr. Huston,
Mr. Joseph B. Doyle, and Mr. Frederick C MacClave (to whom
I am indebted for the photographs and many other favors) I
visited the abandoned pit where the implement was found, and
studied carefully the situation, and can add my testimony to the
correctness of the above description so far as it goes. But a gen-
eral discussion of the questions relating to these gravel terraces
is essential for the information of the general reader.

As shown in the accompanying illustration, the Ohio River
occupies a narrow valley which might almost be called a gorge,
which it has eroded in the nearly parallel strata of the coal
measures to an average depth of about three hundred feet. This
gorge is continuous from Louisville, in Kentucky, to the head-
waters of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, a distance of
more than twelve hundred miles. All the tributaries of the river
occupy gorges of similar depth. This erosion has evidently taken
place with considerable rapidity consequent upon an elevation of
the continent at the close of the Tertiary period, giving a steep
gradient to streams which, during the most of the Tertiary period,
had been very sluggish. The evidence of this is seen in ther nar-
rowness of the gorge and in the gentleness of the slope above the
three-hundred-foot line.

Along the three-hundred-foot level there is a line of rock
shelves which contain a shallow deposit of loam and pebbles.
This is very conspicuous on the Alleghany River and for some
distance below Pittsburg, but rather less so as far down as Steu-
benville. Still, those high-level deposits are clearly marked there

NEW EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 161

on both sides of the river. The most significant thing about these
high-level terrace deposits is that they contain granitic pebbles,
which are a sure indication that the deposit is postglacial ; for
none of the tributaries of the Ohio River have access to granite
rock, except as fragments have been brought over from Canada
by the glacial movement and deposited within their reach.

A sharp discussion concerning the age of the gravel upon
these high rock shelves is in progress. On the one hand, Prof. T.
C. Chamberlin contends that there have been two glacial periods ;
that the first period came on before the elevation of land which
led to the erosion of the rock gorge, and that therefore this ero-
sion is wholly interglacial, and is evidence of the lapse of an
extremely long time between the two periods. On the contrary,
I have maintained that the evidence of two distinct glacial
periods was insufiicient, and have regarded the erosion of this

Fig. 3. — Section of the Trough of the Ohio at Brilliant.
Location of the implement shown by a *.

inner rock gorge as preglacial — that is, as having been effected
during the progress of that long period of late Tertiary elevation
which culminated in the Glacial period. On this view of the
case, the deposits of glacial gravel upon the three-hundred-foot
rock shelf have been produced partly by an extensive filling up
of the Alleghany gorge as far as Pittsburg and somewhat below,
and lower down by the effect of the Cincinnati ice-dam, which set
back the water up to this level, and is sufiicient to account for
many of the facts. Under this view these high-level deposits
would coincide approximately with what Dana calls the " Cham-
plain epoch," during which there was considerable depression of
land at the north, the influence of which may have been felt as
far south as the latitude of Pittsburg.

But whatever may be the difference of opinion about the age
of these high-level gravels, there is no disagreement about the
glacial character and relatively late age of the lower terraces
along the Ohio River such as occur at Steubenville and Brilliant.
The rock gorge extends on the average a hundred feet below the
present bottom of the river, having been filled up originally by
gravel not only to that extent, but to the level of the terrace in
which the implement was found. That this extensive deposition

l62

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of gravel in the old rock gorge is connected with the Glacial
period is clearly shown by the fact that these lower terraces can
be followed up the banks of every stream which comes out of the
glaciated region to the old ice border, where they emerge into the
moraines which were deposited directly by the ice. This is shown
in our map, on which a small portion of the glaciated area ap-
pears with Big Beaver and Little Beaver Creeks flowing out from
it. The gravel terraces at Brilliant and Steuben ville are shown

40 30

Fig. 4. — Map of Middle Ohio River Region.
Glaciated area, shaded. Terraces shown by dots.

on this, together with other remnants of this terrace farther up
the river.

Only those streams which rise in the glaciated area have such
terraces. The contrast between the Monongahela and the Alle-
ghany in this respect is very marked. The Alleghany River
throughout its course was gorged with this glacial gravel, but
the Monongahela River neither had the gravel within reach nor
the floods of water coming from the melting ice to distribute it if
it had been within reach, therefore the gravel terraces are absent.

NEW EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 163

The nortlierii tributaries of the Ohio had hoth these advantages
(or disadvantages), and therefore they have the terraces. On the
Ohio these are always larger and higher where a tributary conies
in from the glaciated region to the north, as, for example, at the
mouth of Big Beaver Creek, where the terrace is a hundred and
thirty feet above low- water mark. But down the river the sup-
ply of gravel diminished, and the terrace becomes correspondingly
lower, being at Steuben ville and Brilliant only seventy or eighty
feet above low water.

I have personally examined every stream emerging from the
glaciated area from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River,
and can testify that everywhere substantially the same system of
gravel terraces marks them as that which characterizes the Ohio
and its tributaries. Without doubt they were formed during the
closing stage of the period, when both great torrents of water and
vast deposits of glacial debris were periodically released by the
melting ice sheet.

So far as direct evidence is concerned in estimating the age of
implements in these terraces, it relates to the question whether or
not they have been found in undisturbed strata of the original
terrace. If they are so found they are as old as the deposition of
the gravel which took place in glacial times ; for since that period
of deposition the action of the present river has been confined to
eroding an inner channel, such as is shown in Fig. 3, and to work-
ing over the gravel within the limits of its own flood-plain. No
disturbances by present floods could affect the gravel of the
eighty-foot terrace. That has remained constant from the time
of its original deposition.

The direct evidence, therefore, regarding this implement would
seem to be as clear and positive as it is possible to be. Relying
upon the strength of this, I took the implement to the meeting of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science at
Springfield, Mass., in August last with great confidence. Nor was
this misplaced. On being submitted, at a joint meeting of the
Geological and Anthropological Sections, to Prof. F. W. Putnam,
Mr. F. H. Gushing, Miss Alice Fletcher, and others, the corrobo-
rative indications of its antiquity were readily and emphatically
recognized.

Prof. Putnam remarked upon the distinctness with which it
retained the patina indicative of the conditions in which it is said
to have been found, and said without hesitation that the imple-
ment in itself bore evidence of being a relic of great antiquity.

Mr. Gushing remarked that there could be no question that it
was a finished implement, and not a " reject " ; and that not only
had it been finished by careful chipping all along the edge, but
it had been finished twice, having been at least once resharpened

64

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

upon its cutting edge ; and, what is of special significance, that it
had been sharpened not by the more modern processes, described
by the speaker in a previous paper, in which the chips were
broken from the edge by pressing against it with a piece of bone,
but by the older process of striking against the edge with another
stone. The type of the implement also was pronounced by Mr.
Gushing to be the earliest known, although from the convenience
of the form it has always continued in use. It was one, however,
which appeared at the very dawn of human development.

Thus the circumstantial evidence connected with the imple-
ment itself confirms in a remarkable degree the direct evidence
respecting it. And it deserves to be placed, as it doubtless will

Fig. 5. — Face View
OF THK Implement.

Fig. 6.— Face View.

Fig. 7. — Diagonal View
OF Shakpened Edge.

be, among the most important discoveries heretofore made con-
necting man with the Glacial period.

In closing, I can not refrain from a few remarks concerning
the conditions of life at that period, especially since the prolonged
visits which I have made to the retreating ice front in Alaska
and in Greenland have rendered it so much easier for me to believe
in glacial man than it would have been without those experi-
ences. The neighborhood of the ice border during the Glacial
period was probably not an uncomfortable place In which to live.
Even in Greenland, where there is no timber, the Eskimos manage
to live in a great degree of comfort, and that too with no imple-
ments but those of stone and bone which they have made with
their own hands. The importation of firearms and of iron imple-
ments has been of doubtful advantage to the Eskimos. From all
accounts, they flourished better before their contact with Euro-
peans than they have since.

Substantially the same may be said of the tribes in Alaska.
There the conditions are in one respect even more closely similar
to those which existed on the Delaware and Ohio Rivers where
the remains of glacial man have been found in America. Like

NEW EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 165

southeastern Alaska, the Delaware and Ohio Valleys were densely
covered with forests. Of this we have abundant evidence in the
numerous trunks of trees which were overwhelmed by the ad-
vancing ice and buried in its debris all along the^ margin of the
glaciated area in Ohio. It was, therefore, easily within the reach
of men as intelligent as the Eskimos to maintain a comfortable
existence in the valley of the Ohio when the continental glacier
had expanded to its farthest extent. He did not need to resort to
caverns for shelter, since the forests furnished him with the readi-
est means for protection.

When we reflect, also, upon the completeness with which the
habitations of the modern Indian have disappeared, we need not
be surprised at the total disappearance of the habitations of gla-
cial men. Nor is it strange that well-accredited discoveries of his
implements have so rarely been made in the undisturbed gravel
which gives us the surest evidence of his great antiquity. Natu-
rally, the cautious inhabitant of that time would have been some-
what careful about venturing down into the river valleys, whose
terrific and periodical floods were depositing the terrace gravel,
and, even though the imbedded implements were much more nu-
merous than they are, they would be relatively so few in propor-
tion to the great mass of material that the chances of finding one
in place would be extremely small. I have looked in vain for
implements in the extensive gravel pits on the Chelles and the
Somme in France, and so have the majority of archaeologists who
have visited those famous localities. M. Reinach, the Curator of
the Museum de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, has well said that one
can hope personally to make discoveries of implements in place,
as he would like to do, only by transforming himself into a hermit
and settling down for a series of years to observe the face of the
terraces where public excavations are in progress.

Meanwhile the chance discoveries by competent observers who
are on the ground should be accorded their full value. Such
discoveries in this country, made by Dr. C. L. Metz at Madison-
ville, W. C. Mills at Newcomerstown, Mr. Huston at Brilliant
—all of which are well attested in Ohio— and by Dr. C. C. Ab-
bott and Profs. Putnam, Carr, and Whitney in the glacial terrace
at Trenton, N. J., form a cumulative mass of evidence which can
not well be resisted. So considered, the clear testimony of the
ancient chipped knife discovered by Mr. Huston at Brilliant, Ohio,
must go far to close the question of man^s antiquity on the west-
ern continent, and to dispel the doubts upon the subject which,
for one reason or another, have heretofore existed.

i66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD.

XIIL— UNDER LAW.

By JAMES SULLY, M.A.,LL.D.,

GKOTK PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND LOGIC AT THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,

LONDON.

(6) ON THE SIDE OF LAW.

IN the previous chapters we studied the child as the antagonist
of law. It is evident, however, that his ^relation to law pre-
sents another aspect. Thus a good deal of the early criticism of
parental government, so far from implying rejection of all rule,
plainly implies its acceptance. Some of the earliest and bitterest
protests against interference are directed against what looks to
the child exceptional or irregular. He is allowed, for example,
for some time to use a pair of scissors as a plaything, and is then
suddenly deprived of it, his mother having now first discovered
the unsuitability of the plaything. In such a case the passionate
outburst, the long, bitter protest, attest the sense of injustice, the
violation of custom and unwritten law. Again, the keen, resent-
ful opposition of the child to the look of anything like unfairness
and partiality in parental government shows that he has a jealous
feeling of regard for the universality and the inviolateness of
law. Much, too, of the criticism dealt with above reveals a funda-
mental acknowledgment of law — at least for the purposes of the
argument. Thus the very attempt to establish an excuse, a justi-
fication, may be said to be a tacit admission that if the action had
been done as alleged it would have been naughty and deserving
of punishment. In truth, the small person's challengings of the
modus operandi of his mother's rule just because they are often
in a true sense ethical, clearly start from the assumption of rules,
and of the distinction of right and wrong.

This of itself shows that there are compliant as well as non-
compliant tendencies in the child toward law and toward authority
so far as this is lawful. We may now pass to other parts of a
child's behavior which help to make more clear the existence of
such law-abiding impulses.

And here we may set out with those reactions of something like
remorse which often follow disobedience and punishment in the
first tender years. These may at the outset be little more than
physical reactions due to the exhaustion of the passionate out-
burst. But they soon begin to show traces of other feelings. A
child in disgrace, before he has a clear moral feeling of shame,
suffers through a sense of estrangement, of loneliness, of self-re-
striction. If the habitual relation between mother and child is a

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 167

loving and happy one, the situation becomes exceedingly painful.
The pride and obstinacy notwithstanding, the culprit feels that
he is cut off from more than one half of his life, that his beautiful
world is laid in ruins. The same little boy who said, " I'd be a
worser mother,'' when four years and nine months old remarked
to his mother that if he could say what he liked to God 'twould
be, " Love me when I'm naughty." I think one can hardly con-
ceive of a more eloquent testimony to the suffering of the child in
the lonesome, loveless state of punishment.

Is there any analogue of our sense of remorse in this early suf-
fering ? The question of an instinctive moral sense in children
is a perplexing one, and I do not propose to discuss it now. I
would only venture to suggest that in these poignant griefs of
child-life there seem to be signs of a consciousness of violated
instincts. This is, no doubt, in part the smarting of a loving
heart on remembering its unloving action. But there may be
more than this. A child of four or five is, I conceive, quite capa-
ble of reflecting at such a time that in his fit of naughtiness he
has broken with his normal orderly self, that he has set at defi-
ance that which he customarily honors and obeys.

What, it may be asked, are these instincts ? In their earliest
discernible form they seem to me to be respect for rule, for a
regular manner of proceeding as opposed to an irregular. A
child, so I understand the little sphinx, is at once the subject of
ever-changing caprices — whence the delight in playful defiance of
all rule and order — and the reverer of custom, precedent, rule.
And, as I conceive, this reverence for precedent and rule is the
deeper and stronger, holding full sway in his serious moments.

If this view is correct, the suffering of naughty children is
not, as has been said by some, wholly the result of the externals
of discipline, punishment, and the loss of the agreeable things
which follow good behavior, though this is commonly an ele-
ment ; nor is it merely the sense of loneliness and lovelessness
though that is probably a large slice of it; but it contains the
germ of something nearer a true remorse, viz., a sense of normal
feelings and dispositions set at naught and contradicted.

And now we may ask what evidence there is for the existence
of this respect for order and regularity other than that afforded
by the childish protests against apparent inconsistencies in the
administration of discipline.

Mr. Walter Bagehot tells us that the great initial difficulty in
the formation of communities was the fixing of custom. How-
ever this be in the case of primitive communities, it seems to me
indisputable that in the case of a child brought up in normal sur-
roundings there is a clearly observable instinct to fall in with a
common mode of behavior.

i68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

This respect for custom is related to the imitative instincts of
the child. He does what he sees others do, and so tends to fall in
with their manner of life. We all know that these small people
take their cue from their elders as to what is allowable. Hence,
one difficulty of moral training. A little boy when two years and
one month old had happened to see his mother tear a piece of
calico. The next day he was discovered to have taken the sheet
from the bed and made a rent in it. When scolded, he replied
in his childish German, " Mamma mach 'put " — i. e., macht cajjut
(breaks the calico). It is well when the misleading effect of " ex-
ample " is so little serious as it was in this case.

In addition to this effect of others' doings in making things
allowable in the child's eyes, there is the binding influence of a
repeated regular manner of proceeding. This is the might of
" custom " in the full sense of the term, the force which underlies
all a child's conceptions of " right." In spite of the difficulties of
moral training, of drilling children into orderly habits — and I do
not lose sight of these — it may confidently be said that a child
has an inbred respect for what is customary and has the appear-
ance of a rule of life. Nor is this, I believe, altogether a reflec-
tion, by imitation, of others' orderly ways and of the system of
rules which are imposed on him by others. I am quite ready to
admit that the institution of social life, the regular procession of
the daily doings of the house, aided by the system of parental
discipline, has much to do with fixing the idea of orderliness or
regularity in the child's mind. Yet I believe the facts point to
something more, to an innate disposition to follow precedent and
rule which precedes education, and is one of the forces to which
education can appeal. This disposition has its roots in habit,
which is apparently a law of all life ; but it is more than the
blind impulse of habit, since it is reflective and rational and im-
plies a recognition of the universal.

The first crude manifestations of this disposition to make rules
to rationalize life by subjecting it to a general method, is seen in
those actions which seem little more than the working of habit,
the insistence on the customary lines of procedure at meals and
such like. A mother writes that her boy, when five years old, was
quite a stickler for punctilious order in these matters. His cup
and spoon had to be put in precisely the right place ; the sequences
of the day, as the lesson before the walk, the walk before bed,
had to be rigorously observed. Any breach of the customary
was apt to be resented as a sort of impiety. This may be an ex-
treme instance, but my observation leads me to say that such
punctiliousness is not uncommon. What is more, I have seen it
developing itself where the system of parental government was
by no means characterized by severe insistence on such minutiae

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD, 169

of order. And this would seem to show that it can not wholly
be set down to the influence of such government. It seems rather
to be a spontaneous extension of the realm of rule or law.

This impulse to extend rule appears more plainly in many of
the little ceremonial observances of the child. Very charmingly
is this respect for rule exhibited in relation to his animals, dolls,
and other pets. Not only are they required to do things in a
proper orderly manner, but people have to treat them with due
deference.

" Every night," writes a mother of her boy, aged two years
and seven months, " after I have kissed and shaken hands with
him, I have to kiss his * boy,^ that is his doll, who sleeps with him,
and to shake its two hands ; also to shake the four hoofs of a tiny
horse which lies at the foot of his cot. When all this has been
gone through he stands up and entreats 'more tata please, more
tata ' — i. e., * kiss me again and say more good nights.' These cus-
toms of his with regard to kissing are peculiar to himself : he kisses
his 'boy' (doll), also pictures of horses, dogs, cocks, and hens, and
he puts his head against us to he hissed; but he will only shake
hands and will not kiss people himself; he reserves his kisses
for what he seems to feel inferior things. We kiss our boy, he
kisses his ; but he insists upon being shaken hands with for his
part. If other children come to play, he gives them toys, watches
them with delight, tries to give them rides on his ' go-go's,' t)ut
does not kiss them; though he will stroke their hair, he does not
return their kisses. It seems to me that he regards it as an action
to be reserved for an inferior thing."

I have quoted at length this careful bit of maternal observa-
tion because it seems to indicate so clearly a spontaneous exten-
sion of a custom. The practice of the mother and father in kiss-
ing him was generalized into a rule of ceremony in the treatment
of all inferiors.

This subject of childish ceremonial is a curious one and de-
serves a more careful study. It is hardly less interesting than
the origin and survival of ceremonial as elucidated by Mr. Her-
bert Spencer and others. The respect for orderly procedure on
all serious occasions, and especially at church, is as exacting as
that of any savage tribe. Punch illustrated this some years ago
by a picture of a little girl asking her mamma if Mr. So-and-so
was not a very wicked man because he didn't " smell his hat "
when he came into his pew.

This jealous regard for ceremony and the proprieties of be-
havior is seen in the enforcement of rules of politeness by chil-
dren, who will extend them far beyong the scope intended by the
parent. A delightful instance of this fell under my own obser-
vation as I was walking on Hampstead Heath. It was a spring
TOL xLviii. — 12

170 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

day and the fat buds of the chestnut were bursting into magnifi-
cent green plumes. Two well-dressed " misses," aged, I should
say, about nine and eleven, were taking their correct morning
walk. The elder called the attention of the younger to one of the
trees, pointing to it. The younger exclaimed in a highly shocked
tone, " O Maud (or was it ' Mabel ' ?), you know you shouldn't
point ! " The notion of perpetrating a rudeness on the chestnut
tree was funny enough. But the incident is iustructive as illus-
trating the childish tendency to stretch and generalize rules to
the utmost.

The domain of prayer well illustrates the same tendency. The
child envisages God as a very, very grand person, and naturally
therefore extends to him all the courtesies he knows of. Thus he
must be addressed politely with the due forms, " Please,'^ " If you
please," and so forth. The German child shrinks from using the
familiar form " Du" in his prayers. As one maiden of seven
well put it in reply to a question why she used " Sie " in her
prayers : " Ich werde dock den lieben Gott nicht Du nennen : ich
kenne ihn ja gar nicht" Again, a child feels that he must not
worry or bore God (children generally find out that some people
look on them as bores), or treat him with any kind of disrespect.

C objected to his sister's remaining so long at her prayers,

apparently on the ground that, as God knew what she had to say,
her much talking would be likely to bore him. An American
boy of four on one occasion refused to say his prayers, explain-
ing : " Why, they^re old. God has heard them so many times that
they are old to him too. Why, he knows them as well as I do
myself." On the other hand, God must not be kept waiting.
" O mamma," said a little boy of three years and eight months
(the same that was so insistent about the kissing and hand-shak-
ing), " how long you have kept me awake for you ! God has been
wondering so whenever I was going to say my prayers." All the
words must be nicely said to him. A little boy aged four years
and nine months once stopped in the middle of a prayer and
asked his mother, " Oh, how do you spell that word ? " The
question is curious as suggesting that the child may have envis-
aged his silent communications to the far-off King as a letter. In
any case it showed painstaking and the wish not to offend by
slovenliness of address.

Not only do children of themselves extend the scope and em-
pire of rule ; they show a disposition to make rules for themselves.
If a child that is told to do a thing on a single occasion only is
found repeating the action on other occasions, this seems to show
the germ of a law-making impulse. A little boy of two years and
one month was once told to give a lot of old toys to the children
of the gardener. Some time after, on receiving some new toys,

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 171

he put away his old ones as before for the less fortunate children.
Every careful observer of children knows that they are apt to
proceed this way, to erect particular actions and suggestions into
precedents. This tendency gives something of the amusing prig-
gishness to the ways of childhood.

There is little doubt, I think, that this respect for proper or-
derly behavior, for precedent and general rule, forms a vital ele-
ment in the child's submission to parental law. In fixing our
attention on occasional acts of disobedience and lawlessness we
are apt to overlook the ease, the absence of friction with which
normal children, if only decently trained, fall in with the larger
part of our observances and ordinances.

That the instinct for order does assist moral discipline may be
seen in the fact that children are apt to pay enormous deference
to our rules. Nothing is more suggestive here than the talk of
children among themselves, the emphasis they are wont to lay on
the "must" and "must not." The truth is that children have a
tremendous belief in law : a rule is apt to present itself to their
imagination as a thing sup>remely sacred and awful before which
it prostrates itself.

This recognition of the absolute imperativeness of a rule prop-
erly laid down by the recognized authority is seen in children's
jealous insistence on the observance of the rule in their own case
and in that of others. As has been observed by Preyer, a child of
two years and eight months will follow out the prohibitions of
the mother when he falls into other hands, sternly protesting, for
example, against the nurse giving him the forbidden knife at
table. Very proper children rather like to instruct their aunts
and other ignorant persons as to the right way of dealing with
them, and will rejoice in the opportunity of setting them right
even when it means a deprivation for themselves. The self-
denying ordinance, " Mamma doesn't let me have many sweets,"
is by no means beyond the powers of such a child. One can see
here, no doubt, traces of a childish sense of self-importance, a
feeling of the much-waited-on little sovereign for what befits his
supreme worth. Yet, allowing for such elements, there seems
to me to be in this behavior a residue of genuine respect for pa-
rental law.

These carryings out of the parental behest when intrusted to
other hands are instructive as suggesting that the child feels the
constraining force of the command when its author is no longer
present to enforce it. Perhaps a clearer evidence of respect for
the law as such, apart from its particular enforcement by the
parent, is supplied by children's way of extending the rules laid
down for their own behavior to that of others. This point has
already been illustrated in the tendency to universalize the observ-

172 THE POPULAIi SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ances of courtesy and tlie like. No trait is better marked in fhe
normal child than the impulse to subject others to his own disci-
plinary system. In truth, children are for the most part particu-
larly alert disciplinarians. With what amusing severity are they
wont to lay down the law to their dolls, and their animal play-
mates, subjecting them to precisely the same prohibitions and
punishments as those to which they themselves are subject ! Nor
do they stop here. They enforce the duties jast as courageously
on their human elders. A mite of eighteen months went up to
her elder sister who was crying, and with perfect mimicry of the
nurse's corrective manner said, " Hush, hush ! papa ! " pointing
at the same time to the door. The little girl M , when twenty-
two months old, was disappointed because a certain Mr. G — - did

not call. In the evening she said, " Mr. D not did tum — was

very naughty. Mr. D have to be whipped." So natural and

inevitable to the intelligence of a child does it seem that the sys-
tem of restraints, rebukes, punishments under which he lives
should have universal validity.

This judicial bent of the child is a curious one, and often de-
velops a priggish fondness for setting others morally straight.
Small boys have to endure much in this way from the hands of
slightly older sisters proficient in matters of law and delighting
to enforce the moralities. But sometimes the sisters lapse into
naughtiness and then the small boys have their chance. They
too can on such occasions be priggish if not downright hypocriti-
cal. A little boy had been quarreling with his sister, named
Muriel, just before going to bed. When he was undressed he
knelt down to say his prayers, Muriel sitting near and listening.
He prayed (audibly) in this wise : " Please, God, make Muriel a
good girl," then looked up and said in an angry voice, " Do you
hear that, Muriel ? " and after this digression resumed his petition.
I believe fathers, on reading family prayers, have been known to
apply portions of Scripture in this personal manner to particular
members of the family ; and it is even possible that extempore
prayers have been invented, as by this little prig of a boy, for the
purpose of administering a sort of back-handed moral blow to an
erring neighbor.

This mania for correction shows itself too in relation to the
authorities themselves. A collection of rebukes and expositions
of moral precept supplied by children to their erring parents
would be amusing and suggestive. As was illustrated above, a
child is especially keen to spy fault in his governors when they
are themselves administering authority. Here is another exam-
ple : A boy of two — the moral instruction of parents by the child
begins betimes — would not go to sleep when bidden to do so by
his father and mother. At length the father, losing patience, ad-

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 173

dressed him with a man's fierce emphasis. This mode of admo-
nition, so far from cowing the child, simply offended his sense of
propriety, for he rejoined, "Yon souldn't souldn't Assum" (i.e.,
" Arthnr," the father's name), "you sonld speak nicely.''

The lengths to which a child with the impulse of moral cor-
rection strong in him will sometimes go are quite appalling. One
evening a little girl of six had been repeating the Lord's prayer.
When she had finished she looked up and said, " I don't like that
prayer, you ought not to ask for bread, and all that greediness,
you ought only to ask for goodness ! " There is probably in this
an imitative reproduction of something the child had had said to
herself by her mother or had overheard. Yet allowing for this,
one can not but recognize a quite alarming degree of precocious
moral priggishness.

We may now turn to what my readers will probably regard
as still clearer evidence of a law-fearing instinct in children, viz.,
their voluntary submission to its commands. We are apt to think
of these little ones as doing right only under external compulsion.
But although a child of four may be far from attaining to the
state of " autonomy of will," or self-legislation spoken of by the
philosopher, he may show a germ of such free adoption of law.
It is possible that we see the first faint traces of this in a small
child's way of giving orders to, rebuking, and praising himself.

The little girl M , when twenty months old, would, when left

by her mother alone in a room, say to herself, " Tay dar " (stay
there). About the same time, after being naughty and squealing
" like a railway whistle," she would after each squeal say in a
deep voice, " Be dood, Babba" (her name). At the age of twenty-
two months she had been in the garden and misbehaving by
treading on the box border, so that she had to be carried away by
her mother. She had to confess her fault, wanted to go into the
garden again, and promised, " Baba will not be naughty adain."
When she was out she looked at the box, saying, " If 00 (you) do
dat I shall have to take 00 in, Babba." Here, no doubt, we see
quaint mimicries of the external control ; but they seem to me to
indicate a movement in the direction of self-control.

Very instructive here is the way in which children will volun-
tarily come and submit themselves to our discipline. The little

girl M , when less than two years old, would go to her mother,

confess some piece of naughtiness, and suggest the punishment.
A little boy, aged two years and four months, was deprived of a
pencil from Thursday to Sunday for scribbling on the wall paper.
His punishment was, however, tempered by permission to draw
when taken downstairs. On Saturday he had finished a picture
downstairs which pleased him. When his nurse fetched him, she
wanted to look at the drawing, but the boy strongly objected.

174 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

saying, " No Nana (name for nurse) look at it till Sunday ."And
sure enough, when Sunday came and the pencil was restored to
him, he promptly showed nurse his picture. This is an excellent
observation full of suggestion as to the way in which a child's
mind works. Among other things it seems to show pretty plainly
that the little fellow looked on the nursery and all its belongings,
including the nurse, during these three days as a place of disgrace,
into which the privileges of the artist were not to enter. He was
allowed the indulgence of drawing downstairs, but he had no
right to exhibit his workmanship to the nurse, who was insepara-
bly associated in his mind with the forbidden nursery drawing.
Thus a process of genuine child-thought led to a self-instituted
extension of the punishment.

A month later this child "pulled down a picture in the
nursery " — the nursery walls seem to have had a fell attraction
for him — by standing on a sofa and tugging till the wire broke.
He was alone at the time and very much frightened, though not
hurt. He was soothed and told to leave the picture alone in fu-
ture, but was not in any way rebuked. He seemed, however, to
think that some punishment was necessary, for he presently asked
whether he was going to have a certain favorite frock on that
afternoon. He was told " No " (the reason being that the day
was wet or something similar), and he said immediately, " 'Cause
Neil pulled picture down ? " Here, I think, we have unmistak-
able evidence of an expectation of punishment as the fit and
proper sequel in a case which, although it did not exactly resem-
ble those already branded by punishment, was felt in a vague way
to be disorderly and naughty.

Such stories of expectation of punishment are capped by in-
stances of punishment actually inflicted by the child on himself.
I believe it is not uncommon for a child, when possessed by a sense
of having been naughty, to object to having nice things at table,
on the ground that previously on a like occasion he was deprived
of them. But the most curious instance of this moral rigor to-
ward self which I have met with is the following : A girl of nine
had been naughty, and was very sorry for her misbehavior. She
was noticed coming to her lesson limping, and remarked that she
felt very uncomfortable. Being asked by her governess what
was the matter with her, she said, " It was very naughty of me
to disobey you, so I put my right shoe on to my left foot and my
left shoe on to my right foot."

The facts here briefly illustrated seem to me to show that
there is in the child from the first a rudiment of true law-abid-
ingness. And this is a force of the greatest consequence to the
disciplinarian. It is something which takes side in the child's
breast with the reasonable governor and the laws which he or

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD, 175

she administers. It secures ready compliance with a large part
of the discipline enforced. When the impulse urging toward
license has been too strong, and disobedience ensues, this same
instinct comes to the aid of order and good conduct by inflicting
pains which are the beginning of what we call remorse.

By and by other forces will assist. The affectionate child will
reflect on the misery his disobedience causes his mother. A boy
of four years and nine months must, one supposes, have woke up
to this fact when he remarked to his mother : " Did you choose to
be a mother ? I think it must be rather tiresome.'' The day
when the child first becomes capable of thus putting himself into
his mother's place and realizing, if only for an instant, the trouble
he has brought on her, is an all-important one in his moral de-
velopment.

As our illustrations have suggested, and as every thoughtful
parent knows well enough, the problem of moral training in the
first years is full of difficulty. Yet our study surely suggests
that it is not so hopeless a problem as we are sometimes weakly
disposed to think. Perhaps a word or two on this may not inap-
propriately close this essay.

I will readily concede that the difficulty of inculcating in
children a sweet and cheerful obedience arises partly from the
nature of the child. There are trying children, just as there are
trying dogs that howl and make themselves disagreeable for no
discoverable reason but their inherent " cussedness." There are,
I doubt not, conscientious, -painstaking mothers, who have been
baffled by having to manage what appears to be the utterly un-
manageable.

Yet I think that we ought to be very slow to pronounce any
child unmanageable. I know full well that in the case of these
small growing things there are all kinds of hidden physical com-
motions which breed caprices, ruffle the temper, and make them
the opposite of docile. The peevish child who will do nothing, will
listen to no suggestion, is assuredly a difficult thing to deal with.
But such moodiness and cross-grainedness springing from bodily
disturbances will be allowed for by the discerning mother, who
will be too wise to bring the severer measures of discipline to bear
on a child when subject to its malign influence. Waiving these
disturbing factors, however, I should say that a good part, cer-
tainly more than one half, of the difficulty of training children is
due to our clumsy, bungling modes of going to work.

Sensible persons know that there is a good and a bad way of
approaching a child. The wrong ways of trying to constrain
children are, alas ! numerous. I am not writing an " advice to
parents," and am not called on therefore to deal with the much-
disputed question of the Tightness and the wrongness of corporal

176 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

punishments. Slaps may be needful in the early stages, even
though they do lead to little tussles ; a mother assures me that
these battles with her several children have all fallen between
the ages of sixteen months and two years. It is, however, con-
ceivable that such fights might be avoided altogether ; yet a man
should be chary of dogmatizing on this delicate matter.

What is beyond doubt is that the slovenly discipline— if in-
deed discipline it is to be called — which consists in alternations of
gushing fondness with almost savage severity, or fits of govern-
ment and restraint interpolated between long periods of neglect
and laisser faire, is precisely what develops the rebellious and
law-resisting propensities. But discipline can be bad without
being a stupid pretense. Everything in the shape of inconsist-
ency, saying one thing at one time, another thing at another, or
treating one child in one fashion, another in another, tends to
undermine the pillars of authority. Young eyes are quick to note
these little contradictions, and they sorely resent them. It is
astonishing how careless disciplinarians can show themselves be-
fore these astute little critics. It is the commonest thing to tell
a child to behave like his elders, forgetting that this, if indeed a
rule at all, can only be one of very limited application. Here is a
suggestive example of the effect of this sort of teaching sent me
by a mother : " At three years and six months, when some visitors
were present, she was told not to talk at dinner time. * Why me
no talk ? Papa talks.' ' Yes, but papa is grown up and you are
only a little girl ; you can't do just like grown-up people.' She
was silent for some time, but when I told her ten minutes later to
sit nicely with her hands on her lap like her cousins, she replied,
with a very humorous smile, ' Me tan't (can't) sit like grown-up
people, me is only a little girl.'"

We can fail and make children disloyal instead of loyal sub-
jects by unduly magnifying our office, by insisting too much on
our authority. Children who are over-ruled, who have no taste
of being left unmolested and free to do what they like, can hardly
be expected to submit graciously. Another way of carrying
parental control to excess is by exacting displays of virtue which
are beyond the moral capabilities of the child. A lady sends me
this reminiscence of her childhood : She had been promised six-
pence when she could play her scales without fault, and succeeded
in the exploit on her sixth birthday. The sixpence was given to
her, but soon after her mother suggested that she should spend
the sixpence in fruit to give to her (the mother's) invalid friend.
This was offending the sense of justice, for if the child, is jealous
of anything as her very own, it is surely the reward she has
earned ; and was, moreover, a foolish attempt to call forth gen-
erosity where generosity was wholly out of place. An even

ST (ID IE S OF CHILDHOOD. 177

worse example is that recorded by Ruskin : When a child, he was
expected to come down to dessert and crack nuts for the grand
older folk while peremptorily forbidden to eat any. Such refined
cruelties of government deserve to be defeated in their objects.
Much of our ill success in governing children would probably
turn out to be attributable to unwisdom in assigning tasks, and
more particularly in making exactions which wound that sensi-
tive fiber of a child^s heart, the sense of justice.

Parents are, I fear, apt to forget that generosity and the other
liberal virtues owe their worth to their spontaneity. They may
be suggested and encouraged but can not be exacted. On the
other hand, a parent can not be more foolish than to discourage a
spontaneous out-going of good impulse, as if nothing were good
but what emanated from a spirit of obedience. In a pretty and
touching little American work, Beckonings from Little Hands, the
writer describes the remorse of a father who after his chidd's
death recalled the little fellow's first crude endeavor to help him
by bringing fuel, an endeavor which, alas ! he had met with some-
thing like a rebuff.

The right method of training which develops and strengthens
by bracing exercise the instinct of obedience can not easily be
summarized, for it is the outcome of the highest wisdom. I
may, however, be permitted to indicate one or two of its main
features.

Informed at the outset by a fine moral feeling and a practical
tact as to what ought to be expected, the wise mother is concerned
before everything to make her laws appear as much a matter of
course as the daily sequences of the home life, as unquestionable
axioms of behavior; and this not by a foolish vehemence of
inculcation, but by a quiet, skillful inweaving of them into the
order of the child's world. To expect the right thing, as though
the wrong thing were an impossibility, rather than to be always
pointing out the wrong thing and threatening consequences ; to
make all her words and all her own actions support this view of
the inevitableness of law ; to meet any indications of a disobedient
spirit first with misunderstanding and later with amazement —
this is surely the first and fundamental matter.

The efl^ectiveness of this discipline depends on the simple
psychological principle that difficult actions tend to realize them-
selves in the measure in which the ideas of them become clear
and persistent. Get a child steadily to follow out in thought an
act to which he is disinclined and you have more than half
mastered the disinclination. The quiet daily insistence of the
wise rule of the nursery proceeds by setting up and maintaining
the ideas of dutiful actions, and so excluding the thought of dis-
obedient actions.

VOL. XLVIII. — 13 \

178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

It has recently been pointed out that in this moral control of
the child through suggestion of right actions we have something
closely analogous to the action of suggestion upon the hypnotized
subject. The mother — the right sort of mother — has on the
child's mind something of the subduing influence of the Nancy
doctor : she induces ideas of particular actions, gives them
force and persistence, so that the young mind is possessed by
them, and they work themselves out into fulfillment as occasion
arises.

In order that this effect of " obsession,^' of a full occupation of
consciousness with the right idea may result, certain precautions
are necessary. As every parent knows, a child may be led by a
prohibition to do the very thing he is bidden not to do. We have
seen how readily a child's mind moves from an affirmation to a
corresponding negation, and conversely. The contradictoriness
of a child, his passion for saying the opposite of what you say,
shows the same odd manner of working of the young mind.
Wanting to do what he is told not to do is another effect of this
" contrary suggestion," as it has been called, aided, of course, by
the child's dislike of all constraint.* If we want to avoid this
effect we must first of all acquire the difficult secret of personal
influence, of the masterfulness which does not repel ; and secondly,
reduce our prohibitions with their contrary suggestions to a
minimum.

The action in moral training of this influence of a quasi-
hypnotic suggestion becomes more clearly marked when diffi-
culties occur ; when some outbreak of willful resistance has to be
recognized and met, or some new and relatively arduous feat of
obedience has to be initiated. Here I find that intelligent
mothers have found their way to methods closely resembling

those of the hypnotist. " When R is naughty and in a passion "

(writes a lady friend of her child, aged three years and three
months), " I need only suggest to him that he is some one else, say
a friend of his, and he will take it up at once ; he will pretend to
be the other child, and at last go and call himself, now a good
boy, back again." This mode of suggestion, by helping the
higher self to detach itself from and control the lower, might, one
suspects, be much more widely employed in the moral training of
children. Suggestion may work through the emotions. Merely
to say, " Mother would like you to do this," is to set up an idea in
the child's consciousness by help of the sustaining force of his af-
fection. " If [writes a lady] there was anything L particularly

wished not to do, his mother had only to say, ' Dobbin [a sort of

* On the nature of this contrary suggestion, see Mark Baldwin, Mental Development in
the Child and the Race, p. 145.

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 179

canonized toy horse already referred to] would like you to do
this/ and it was done without a murmur."

We have another analogue to hypnotic suggestion when a
mother prepares her child some time beforehand for a difficult
duty, telling him that she expects him to perform it. A mother
writes that her boy, when about the age of two years and three
months more particularly, was inclined to burst into loud but
short fits of crying. "I have found [she says] they are often
checked by telling him beforehand what would be expected of
him, and exacting a promise that he would do the thing cheer-
fully. I have seen his face flush up ready to cry when he remem-
bered his promise and controlled himself." This reminds one
forcibly of the commands suggested by the hypnotizer to be
carried into effect when the subject wakes.

Much more, perhaps, might be done in this direction by choos-
ing the right moment for setting up the persistent ideas in the
child^s consciousness. I know a lady who got into the way of
giving moral exhortation to her somewhat headstrong girl at
night before the child fell asleep, and found this very effectual.
It is possible that we may be able to apply this idea of prepara-
tory and premonitory suggestion in new and surprising ways to
difficult and refractory children.*

One other way in which the wise mother will win the child
over to duty is by developing his consciousness of freedom and
power. A mother, who was herself a well-known writer for
children, has recorded in some notes on her children that when
one of her little girls was disinclined to accede to her wish she
used to say to her, " Oh, yes, I think when you have remembered
how pleasant it is to oblige others you will do it." "I will think
about it, mamma," the child would reply, laughing, and then go
and hide her head behind a sofa pillow, which she called her
"thinking corner," In half a minute she would come out and
say, " Oh, yes, mamma, I have thought about it and I will do it."
This strikes me as an admirable combination of regulative sug-
gestion with exercise of the young will in moral decision. It
gave the child the consciousness of using her own will, and yet
maintained the needed measure of guidance and control.

As the moral consciousness develops and new problems arise,
new openings for such suggestive guidance occur. How valuable,
for example, is the mother^s encouragement of the weakly child
shrinking from a difficult self-repressive action when she says
with inspiring voice, " You can do it if you try." Thus, pilotlike.

* The bearings of (hypnotic) suggestion on moral education have been discussed by
Guyau, Education and Heredity (English translation), chap. i. Compare also Preyer, op.
cif., D. 26'7 f., and Corapayre, op. cit., p. 262.

i8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

she conducts the little navigator out into the open main of duty
where he will have to steer himself.

I have tried to show that the moral training of children is not
beyond human powers. It has its strong supports in child-
nature, and these, where there are wisdom and method on the
ruler's side, will secure success. I have not said that the mother's
task is easy. So far from thinking this, I hold that a mother who
bravely faces the problem, neither abandoning the wayward will
to its own devices nor, hardly less weakly, handing over the task
of disciplining it to a paid substitute, and who by well-considered
and steadfast effort succeeds in approaching the perfection I
have hinted at, combining the wise ruler with the tender and
compassionate parent, is among the few members of our species
who are entitled to its reverence.

THE ANATOMY OF SPEED SKATING.

By R. TAIT McKENZIE.

SPEED skating as a distinct branch of athletics is of recent
date, but as an art it is one of the oldest cultivated by the
vigorous nations of the temperate and frigid zones.

Fitz Stephen, the historian of London, speaks of the sport as
taking place in the twelfth century, but the first mention in his-
tory occurs eighteen hundred years ago, in the Edda, where the
god Uller is represented as distinguished by beauty, arrows, and
skates. In 1662, Pepys enters this item in his diary under date
December 1st : ** So to my Lord Sandwich's, to Mr. Moore, and
then over the Parke (where I first in my life, it being a great
frost, did see people sliding with their skeates, which is a very
pretty art)."

When we consider the improvements that modern ingenuity
has added to skates and race tracks, and the modern methods of
training, we would expect marked reductions in the time taken to
cover the various distances. We have no means of comparing
speeds for distances under a mile, but if we can trust the time
taken by the watches of 1821 we may accept the fact that in Eng-
land a Lincolnshire man won one hundred guineas by skating a
mile within two seconds of three minutes. The present record is
only four or five seconds better (2 56, Johnson, January 7, 1894).

At the beginning of the century (1801) two young women
skated thirty miles in two hours at Groningen ; and if we go into
the dangerous ground of "hearsay" we will find an account
of a father who crossed forty leagues one day to rescue his son
from danger, and of another who bet that he could cover three

THE ANATOMY OF SPEED SKATING.

81

leagues on ice while his friend went one and a half on the best
horse.

It has had among its devotees no less a man than Goethe, the
great German poet, who sought by this means to drive away his
persistent sleeplessness and bring back his youthful vigor. One
clear, cold morning in December he is said to have jumped from
his bed, strapped on his skates, and to have sallied out, reciting
the following like one inspired : " Penetrated with the gayety that

Fig. 1. — J. K. McCuLLOcH in Skating Position.

gives the feeling of health, I go to scour afar the glistening crys-
tal. . . . How brilliant is the ice that night has spread on the
waters ! "

It is also said of him that when he and Klopstock the poet met
for the first time — one in his prime and the other in the decline
of life — the subject of conversation was not poetry, literature, or
aesthetics, as we would suppose, but was entirely devoted to
skating.

l82

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

The prominence of athletic sports has directed much attention
to the various problems that are intimately connected with their
practice in their various forms, and naturally the question of the
anatomical characteristics required for success in any branch of
athletics is one of the first to be investigated in the light of mod-
ern physiology and anatomy.

One of the teachings of modern physiology is that function
makes structure; that if horses are raced generation after gen-

FiG. 2.— Adolph Norsino in Skatikg Position.

eration we get the slender, nervous race horse, while if they pull
heavy loads we have developed the Clydesdale type. Again, if a
man has to use his right hand and arm only, continuously in his
work we get it large and brawny, while the rest of his muscular
system may be but poorly developed. It is this specialism that
gives such a law a chance of showing its workings, so that one
can often pick out a man's trade by peculiarities in his physique.
In athletics, which include the severest forms of physical labor,.

THE ANATOMY OF SPEED SKATING. 183

we would look for examples of the operation of this law, for
nowhere has specialism been carried further than in athletic
sports.

Such contests as the Penthalon, a revival of the Greek idea of
all-around development, which includes a test in running and
jumping and weight-putting, are too rare in our modern athletic
meets.

Men systematically train for bicycle racing until the particu-
lar set of muscles used in that particular exercise — those of legs
and thighs — are in a perfect state of development, while the arms
remain poor and the chest flat.

The " bicycle stoop " is now a well-recognized deformity, and
few men who have devoted much time or attention to racing are
entirely free from it, while in many racers the marked dorsal
curvature forward (kyphosis) is permanent, unsightly, and inju-
rious to the health.

Heavy gymnastics were the cause of many round shoulders
till a reaction took place in the world of physical education, and
now body-building is done by the almost exclusive use of light
work. This reaction has extended to the more intelligent ath-
letic trainers, who have given up the old drastic methods and
have adopted more rational means of obtaining strength and en-
durance to their proteges.

Our present method of testing athletic prowess thus encour-
ages the exclusive development of certain groups of muscles and
the neglect of others — sometimes, as we will see, to the permanent
deformity of its too zealous votaries.

Other instances of anatomical changes brought about by
special feats could be cited, such as the flat foot of the broad-
jumper or the broad back and flat chest of the oarsman ; but one
of the best examples of this effect of function on structure is seen
in " speed skating," which the international contests of the last
few years have done so much to popularize.

Speed skating differs from ordinary skating in several marked
particulars. The skate itself — about eighteen inches long — has a
flat blade, almost as thin as a knife, set into a light tube support-
ing two uprights, circular but hollow. These short upright tubes
fasten it to the boot by means of a plate, the whole purpose being
to combine the greatest strength and lightness. The boot laces
tightly, giving firm support to the ankle.

This form has evolved from the original skate, made of the
lower jawbones of horses and cattle carved to the proper shape
and polished. In the British Museum the visitor can still see a
pair of these primitive instruments, and the workmen occasionally
disinter them about Moorfields and Finsbury.

Let us take up the strengths and weaknesses of the modern

184

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

speed skaters, who, like the Homeric gods, " stride with winged
feet over the sea transmuted into solid ground."

The racing x>osture of all the best skaters is practically the
same. The back is kept straight and horizontal, the arms folded
across the back except when spurting ; then they are swung from
side to side, keeping time to the stroke. Thighs are flexed to a
right angle, while the knees are kept in half flexion or almost
straight (Figs. 1 and 2). In a recent championship race five of
the best amateurs in the world were strung out in line, and their
rhythmical swing and stride were as if one brain was moving the
whole combination. The crouching position, while it does not

interfere with respira-
tion, diminishes resist-
ance to the wind — an im-
portant advantage — and
also gives the best posi-
tion for using the pow-
erful muscles of the loins
and back.

The stroke of all the
best men is practically
the same, and differs
from that of ordinary
skating both in its direc-
tion and in the way it is
taken. Its direction is
more forward and back-
ward than one from the
ordinary short skate, and
with the long, flat blade
the stroke is given by
the whole of the foot flat.
Any lifting of the heel
in striking out is impos-
sible on account of the
length of skate - blade.
This has an important
bearing on muscular development, as will be seen later.

The muscles most used in speed skating will be seen by the
accompanying diagram, in which muscles are represented by the
heavy black lines. A stroke is made by extending the knee and
hip joints, and the erector spinse muscles (S) are brought into
strong action in straightening the back on the pelvis, which is
thereby made firm enough to resist the action of the muscles of
the lower limb. The powerful gluteal muscles (G), which in
standing keep the body in the upright position, contract strongly.

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186 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

drawing the thigh bone back and out. The hamstring muscles
(H) have a similar action, with addition of flexing or bending the
knee joint. As the stroke consists in a straightening of this joint,
the skater uses the powerful extensors (E) to counteract this latter
action of the hamstrings (H).

The extensor muscles (E) are tremendously powerful, and from
their double origin on the pelvis and along the front of the thigh
bone (femur) they are inserted into the knee-cap (patella), which
changes the direction of their pull to a right angle by carrying
them over the knee joint to their final insertion on the tibia, just
as the wire of a door-bell is carried round the corners on its way
to the kitchen. As the only function of the calf muscles (C) is to
raise the heel and bend the knee, they will hardly be used at all
in skating with long, flat racing skates.

In a speed skater we would look for a strong back and broad
neck, due to his attitude while at work. His arms, which are
kept idly folded on his back, would be small and weak, as would
be his chest muscles. His abdominal muscles would get some
work from the constant swaying, and he would have powerful,
vigorous gluteal and extensor muscles, with sinewy hamstrings
but undersized calves.

An examination of the measurements of some of our most
noted skaters will show this special development even better than
their photographs.

In the accompanying charts each measurement is compared
with those of nearly three thousand Yale students, whose average,
or more correctly whose '* mean," measurements are inclosed in
the two heavy lines, and may be said to fairly represent the pro-
portions of the average young man. The variation from this
average, or mean, is marked in percentages in the extreme left-
hand column of the chart.

John S. Johnson, of Minneapolis, has had a somewhat meteoric
athletic career. Although he has been wheeling and skating for
nine years, he has been heard of only about three years, when his
phenomenal time was at first scarcely credited. His decisive de-
feat of the hitherto invincible Joe Donahue in Montreal, February
3, 1894, in all distances up to five miles, brought him up to the top
of the tree, where he has remained perched on its topmost branch
till the present hour, unquestionably the best man up to five miles
on ice. He holds nearly all the records in speed skating.

His trainer never allows him to tire himself, but starts him
with short spurts and an easy pace ; so that, although he had been
eighteen months in training when I examined him (February 5,
1894), he had in that time gained twenty-six pounds. He was then
twenty-two years of age, and weighed one hundred and forty-four
pounds. While in his sitting height he is surpassed by forty-

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five per cent of those measured (see Chart A, No. 1), his length of
legs rises to the hundred-per-cent class. The girth of the neck is
small, but the low chest measurement is due to its rounded shape.

Fig. 4. — Johnson.

Its expansive power of seven inches is extraordinary in a chest of
that shape. The muscle girths of his arms are exceeded by eighty
per cent of young men, while the elbows and wrists show rather
heavy bones. The rather small thigh girths will be due partly
to their great length. The size of his calves shows about average
development — to be attributed to bicycling largely — but the in-
steps are very large, and his photos show a flat foot. The neck
and chest are broad, as would be the shoulders if he had better
arm muscles. The " bicycle stoop," amounting almost to deform-
ity in his case, brings the depth of chest up to the one-hundred-
per-cent class. His lung capacity is very good, but he can not
pull himself up by his arms more than two and a half times, and
one dip on the parallels is the extent of his ability. His pulse is

THE ANATOMY OF SPEED SKATING. 189

only fifty-four to the minute — remarkably slow and strong, and
not easily quickened by exercise. The long thighs and " bicycle
stoop " are well shown in Fig. 4. Notice particularly the deep
chest.

Adolph Norsing has skated since childhood on the rivers and
fiords of Norway. For the last five years he has met the cham-
pions in this sport both at home and throughout Europe, and has
visited America twice. He is a worthy representative of the land
of the Vikings, and he now holds the Canadian record for half
mile (1"24). His training methods are peculiar : two hours daily,
finishing with about three miles at top speed, is his quota of work
till the day of the race ; his diet is principally oatmeal, eggs, and
meat. He allows himself one glass of ale daily at dinner, but
otherwise does not use alcohol and has never used tobacco. He is

Fig. 5. — Norsing.

a typical skater ; his occupation, that of a carriage painter, is sed-
entary, and we find in him typical development.

Although not above the forty-five-per-cent class in height, and
with his sitting height surpassed by over seventy per cent of

190 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

young men, Ms length of lower limb is up to the one-hundred-
per-cent class, as in the case of Johnson (see Chart A, No. 2).
His other bone lengths are low, except his feet, which are
long. The hip and elbow girths show heavy bones. An old
fracture of the left femur, with shortening, invalidates the thigh
measures somewhat, but the calves are away below the knee
girths, while the insteps show a condition of flat foot in this
man also.

Great breadth and depth show splendid lung power in a chest
round, capacious, and barrel-shaped, but not very mobile, for he
has small expansion. His pulse is rather fast (eighty-four), and
his strength tests, much above his muscle measurements, would
give the impression that if determination and will power can do
it he will always be a winner.

In his case, as in that of all the men whose measurements are
here shown, the left thigh is the larger, probably from having
to bear the body weight in turning the corners of a rink. Fig. 5
shows well the rounded shape of the chest in expansion, also the
type of figure shown in the chart.

J. K. McCulloch, of Winnipeg, is certainly the best representa-
tive that Canada has produced lately in speed skating, and he
takes front rank both in this sport and in bicycling. We would
hardly expect the typical development of a skater, however, in
this man, who excels as a gymnast and all-round athlete as well.
At eleven years of age he was winning boys' races, and his sum-
mer evenings are taken up by rowing, canoeing and lacrosse.
For the last three years bicycling has been his main form of ath-
letic exercise during the five summer months. In winter he is
the mainstay of the Winnipeg Hockey Team, and his special
'penchant for the parallel bars in the gymnasium shows in the
well-developed arms and chest. His measurements, plotted on
Chart B, show a few of the characteristics of the skater. With
height in the thirty-per-cent class we find comparatively short
legs and long thighs. His arms are also short. A glance at Fig.
6 well shows the shortness of his leg. His muscle girths are in
the eighty to ninety per cent class, while his knee-bone measure-
ments are down to twenty per cent ; his narrow hips give origin
to very powerful muscles, whose girth make up for these bony
deficiencies to speed skating (see Fig. 6). His calves are large,
but he tells me since he stopped wheeling, four months ago, they
have decreased nearly an inch and a half in girth.

His chest is deep and his strength tests show well- developed
arms and back. Fig. 6 shows where his extraordinary speed is
obtained : the driving power lies in the very long and muscular
thighs. This young man is a natural athlete, and, although not
built for a skater, excels in that sport as he would in almost any

THE ANATOMY OF SPEED SKATING,

191

he took up. He would make a splendid high or broad jumper,
and would be a success as a gymnast.

Fig. 7 shows a typical speed skater — 01 af Nortwedt, a profes-
sional, aged twenty- four, who has been on skates almost since he
could walk. He has taken no other form of exercise, and his best
distances are under three miles. This photo, taken on the eve of a
race, shows the fine condition of his skating muscles. Here again
the body is short — the length of the leg and thigh in the one-

FlG. 6. — McCuLLOCH.

hundred-per-cent class (Chart A, 3), while the arms are not long
in proportion. The feet are long and flat, and as a rule his other
bone girths and lengths are large, with small muscle girths. The
rather small thigh girths are due to their great length in conjunc-
tion with very narrow hips ; his chest is deep and round, although
not mobile. His strength tests show weak, poorly developed
arms, but the breadth of neck in him, as in Johnson and Norsing
shows good development in the upper muscles of the back. His

192 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

occupation, that of clerk, is light, so that the natural development
of a skater has not been interfered with by other causes, as in the
case of McCulloch. The plotting of the measurements of these
three great skaters, Johnson, Norsing, and Nortwedt, on Chart A,
shows the remarkable similarity of their build. All are about
the same height and weight, and we find in all certain character-
istics. The typical speed skater has a short body, capacious, round
chest, with well- developed back ; his thighs are strong and very

B
Fig. 7. — Olaf Nortwedt.

long, as are also his legs. His feet are large and flat. His weak
points are his calves, due to the long, flat skate to which his flat-
tened foot is so closely bound. The large muscles of his chest are
not exercised, and his arms, held lying idly along his back, are un-
used except in an occasional spurt, when they are brought down
and swung straight from the shoulder. They say that they catch
less wind held that way, and that the position is restful to the tense
extensors of the back. This is, no doubt, true, but the result is

SUGGESTIBILITY AND KINDRED PHENOMENA, 193

disastrous to symmetrical development. This type of figure is
seen at its best in such skaters as the Donahues, McCormick, the
old-time professional, who still skates a fast race although now
forty years of age, and in Wilson Breen, a professional, who has
been a winner of much gold and glory by means of his long legs
and powerful thighs.

The conclusion that speed skating alone is not a good exercise
to develop a well-built, symmetrical man will be patent to any
one who reviews the facts. If indulged in, it should be, as done
by McCulloch, in conjunction with other forms of athletics
which bring into action the muscles of the arm, calf, shoulders,
and chest.

SUGGESTIBILITY, AUTOMATISM, AND KINDRED
PHENOMENA.*

By W. EOMAINE NEWBOLD, Ph. D.,
a8si8takt pboreseob of puilosopht in the cniveksitt of pknnstlvaioa.

I. MENTAL CO-ORDINATION AND ORGANIZATION.

THE thoroughgoing parallelism of mind and brain may be
regarded as an accepted principle of current psychology.
There remain, it is true, a few psychologists who dispute it, and
many of those who accept it as a working principle refuse to re-
gard it as final. It is conceivable, say they, that when our knowl-
edge is more complete we shall discover that the relation of mind
and brain is very different from what we now suppose it to be.
Yet we may be sure that the facts upon which the doctrine of
parallelism rests will never be set aside by any new discoveries,
and will find their place in that final theory toward which we are
slowly moving.

It is somewhat surprising that few, even of those who accept
this theory as a working hypothesis, have endeavored to carry it
out into all its logical implications and to see how far they will
fit the actual facts. It is my own belief that the more thoroughly
this is done the more probable does it appear that every mental
state has its accompanying physical process, and the more rigor-
ously we apply the dynamic conceptions suggested by our scanty
knowledge of these physical processes to their accompanying

* I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the recent French and English writers on
these topics, especially to Pierre Janet, with whose theory as developed in his work,
L'Automatisrae Psychologique, the above doctrines are essentially identical. It should be
noted, however, that Janet expressly repudiates any attempt to bring his psychological
theory into connection with our psycho-physiological speculations.

TOL. XLYIII. — 14

194 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mental states, the more intelligible does our inner life become to
Tis. Especially is this true of certain curious phenomena to which
our current psychology pays little attention — those of automa-
tism, suggestibility, and double consciousness as seen in hypnosis,
spirit-writing, trance speech, et id genus omne, Not that we are
yet in position to explain these phenomena in detail. There is
much that defies analysis at our present stage of knowledge, but
I have no hesitation in saying that in these dynamic conceptions
we have found the key which will in time solve these and many
other psychological riddles.

We know little or nothing of what happens in the brain while
we live and move and have our being. In the early days of ex-
perimental psychology the physical bases of mental states were
crudely conceived as gross movements, either of the nerves them-
selves or of some j9.uid supposed to flow along the nerves and
veins to the brain and heart. Nowadays these simpler concep-
tions are displaced by theories of chemical activities or molecular
vibrations of some kind. For my own part, I am sometimes in-
clined to suspect that the true physical basis is none of these, but
a disturbance of the same medium that transmits light and heat
— the ether — and to regard the cellular and fibrous structures of
the nervous system as a mechanism for producing and transmit-
ting these disturbances, much as the battery and wires of an elec-
tric circuit produce and transmit that mode of ethereal disturb-
ance which we call electricity. However this may be, it is quite
certain that the processes which take place in the nervous system
are all of one order and are analogous to— nay, a part of — the phys-
ical transformations of energy which we see in the outer world.
Their proximate source is the stored-up molecular energy of the
food we eat; they are disengaged by the operation of external
and internal stimuli ; they can re-enforce or destroy one another ;
they can produce extensive muscular, secretory, and nutritive
changes in the body.

Although all of these processes are of essentially the same
order in that all taken together form one system of forces, the
constitution of every part of which depends for its character upon
the constitution of all the coexisting parts, it is probable that con-
sciousness is not connected with every part of the system, but
only with those processes that take place in the cortex — that is,
the outer layer of gray matter that covers the surface of the
brain. At every moment of conscious life the cortex is the scene
of activities so delicate and complex that we can never hope to
frame an adequate conception of them. The masses of cells are
forever disengaging pulse after pulse of molecular or ethereal
disturbance, probably of a vibratory character ; by the countless
systems of interlacing fibers these pulses are transmitted from

SUGGESTIBILITY AND KINDRED PHENOMENA,

9^

one cortical area to another ; meeting, they re-enforce or destroy
one another; impinging upon a cell system which was in com-
parative quiet, they rouse it to activity, and are themselves modi-
fied by the pulses which it gives forth. At every second this
mass of activities is receiving from the myriads of nerves that
reach out to the eye, ear, skin, and other sensitive portions of the
body countless other pulses of the same character, but initiated
by the physical stimuli of the external world or by the chemical
changes of the body. These pulses are not accompanied by con-
sciousness, but when they reach the cortex they merge into the
complex mass there existing and contribute their share toward
the character of the total conscious state. And in the last place,
the activities disengaged within the cortex are ever discharging
downward through the outgoing channels into the co-ordinating
mechanism at the base of the brain. This controls the sys-
tems of muscular contractions needed for the performance of our
bodily movements much as the " combination stops " of an organ
control the systems of pipes needed to produce any given timbre
effect.

Thus the consciousness that you and I at any moment experi-
ence depends for its character upon the constitution of a system
of activities as definite and determinate as any known to the
physicist, although so complex that we can never hope to unravel
it. To compare the complex with the simple, we have all seen
the play of color upon the surface of a soap bubble. These colors
depend for their character upon the constitution of a system of
forces far more simple than that which underlies the human con-
sciousness. They are due to the interference of waves of ether
reflected from the inner and outer surfaces of the film ; they de-
pend, therefore, upon the angle of incidence and the thickness of
the film. These two conditions again depend upon the tenacity
of the film, the difference between the pressure within and that
without the bubble, the action of air currents, the muscular tremor
of the hand that holds the pipe, the action of gravity, etc. If any
one of these conditions be in any way altered, some change will
be made in the tint. This throws light upon one of the reasons
why psychology lags so far behind the other sciences. Suppose
the physicist should select that one square inch on the surface of
the bubble where the colors were brightest, and should endeavor
to formulate for each, in terms of the others, the laws of existence
and sequence, ignoring the while the system of forces upon which
those colors depend : however painstaking his efforts, they would
meet with little success, and this has been the fate of the psycholo-
gist. Too often he has confined his attention to that portion of
consciousness which was brightest, or for some other reason the
most interesting, while if he had but looked into the marginal or

196 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

subconscious he would have found traces there of the activities
which were all the while affecting the area of greatest vividness.

Not only is consciousness as a whole thus correlated to a system
of physical forces, but we find that its several elements are also re-
lated to certain subordinate systems of forces which, while form-
ing part of that total, have a certain degree of independence. It is
known, for example, that the activities which take place in the
occipital or hinder portion of the cortex are accompanied by sen-
sations and ideas of color ; those that take place in the temporal
region, in the neighborhood of the ear, have to do with sensations
and ideas of sound ; those of the Rolandic region, which forms an
archlike band passing over the brain from a point a little in front
of the ear, are probably the basis of sensations and ideas of move-
ments as felt. Since the awakening of these latter tends to pro-
duce or sustain the movement in question, and since volition is
but another name for the initiation of a movement through an
idea representing it or something with which it is associated, this
is also a region essential to the performance of voluntary move-
ments. And it is probable that all the definite qualities of sensa-
tion and the corresponding ideas are related to more or less well
defined portions of the cortex. But we know that even our very
simple ideas — as those of a rose, or a book, or a man — involve
elements drawn from many of these sources. We must then
suppose that the idea of a rose depends upon a co-ordination of
processes which, although situated in different portions of the
brain, act together in the production of this idea. As my
thought flits from the color to the fragrance, to the touch, to
the plucking of the rose, so do the pulses of energy pass along the
conducting fibers from the region of vision to that of smell, to
that of touch, to that of movement. Further, as the rose is to me
a relatively stable thing, we must suppose that these physical
processes are not merely co-ordinated for the time being, but are
organized into a quite permanent system which retains its co-
herence and existence as a system as long as the idea of a rose
remains to me one and the same idea, although consisting of un-
like mental elements.

I can not undertake to work out in detail many of the more
complex organizations or systems which we can detect in mind.
To do that would be to write a treatise on psychology, and my
only object at present is to make clear the conceptions of co-
ordination and organization. Yet to two of these more complex
forms — and they are unfortunately the most complex of all — I
must make some reference, since a comprehension of them is pre-
supposed in the application of this theory to the curious phe-
nomena which we wish to explain.

I have shown that the state of consciousness at any given mo-

SUGGESTIBILITY AND KINDRED PHENOMENA. 197

ment involves a very complex co-ordination of the forces that
underlie it. And I have also shown that the permanent existence
of any element of consciousness, if at all complex, involves not
merely a co-ordination, which might be temporary, but a perma-
nent organization of certain of those forces into enduring sys-
tems. Not enduring in the sense that they are always actively
operating, but in the sense that when any one element is active it
calls into activity the other elements as well. The same is true of
consciousness as a whole. We may discern this in two quite dif-
ferent forms. The first is what we may call the permanent form
of consciousness. We observe that at any given time conscious-
ness has a certain form of organization which is so constant that
we are tempted to think it can not exist in any other form. Some
one element or organized group of elements tends to be more clear
and distinct than the others. This one is called the center of at-
tention or focus of consciousness ; the others constitute the mar-
gin. From moment to moment the focus shifts; new elements
rise into dominance, and the old fade away. Yet there is always a
dominant element, and this it is to which we attend. Usually the
focus and margin are inversely related to one another ; that is to
say, when any given group tends to become more clear and dis-
tinct the other elements tend to lose with respect to clearness and
distinctness. This is what we mean when we say that we can not
attend to two things at once. But it is not always true. There
are states in which the heightening of one element tends to
heighten all the others as well. In imminent danger, for in-
stance, there is frequently an intense exaltation of the total con-
tent of consciousness, and the same phenomenon is occasionally
found as a precursor of an epileptic attack. Now, this constant
form into which consciousness tends to fall, and which is, by the
way, the basis of our notion that the mind is a single entity of
some sort, is very suggestive. We know that all physical forces,
if they can in any way act upon one another, tend to coalesce into
one common resultant, and I think it probable that in the law of
attention we see the mental manifestation of some form of coa-
lescence between the physical forces which form its basis.

Again, the consciousness of each of us forms a permanent
entity which we severally call " myself." Into all the problems
connected with this word of many meanings I can not enter, but
of one thing we may be quite certain — whatever the consciousness
of self may be, it is largely dependent upon the continuity and
uniformity of our memories. Any great change in a man's life
which introduces into his present a mass of experiences quite out
of keeping with his past is apt to introduce into his consciousness
of personal identity a strange sense of unreality and uncertainty.
He rubs his eyes and says : *' Who am I ? Am I really John

198 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Smith ? Am I the man who did this and that ? or is it merely a
dream ?" And when we go further, and totally destroy a man's
memories, as not infrequently happens in cases of disease or acci-
dent, we find that the consciousness of personal identity is also
gone. The man may know that he is somebody, or at least that
he ought to be somebody, but he can not tell who he is. If the
injury be greater still, even this consciousness that he ought to
be somebody is lost, and the patient sinks into a condition of de-
mentia, which we can not well understand because it is so utterly
unlike anything that we have experienced.

Now, evidently, this is very like the case of the simple idea.
I have shown that the permanence and identity of any such idea,
as that of a rose, which is the standard illustration in psycholgy,
depends upon the organization of a permanent system of physical
forces of some kind, and I think we have reason to believe that
the man remains the same for much the same reason, although
the elements entering into that system are a thousandfold more
numerous and more complexly interlaced.

PROFESSOR FORBES ON "HARNESSING NIAGARA."

By ERNEST A. LE SUEUE, So. B.

THE past few months have seen the successful completion of
a gigantic work, of epoch-making extent and significance —
the Niagara Falls electrical power transmission plant. An article
appeared in these pages in September, 1894, describing something
of the difficulties which had been met and overcome by the engi-
neers in charge of the water power and generator installation of
the Cataract Construction Company, as the corporation which
had the contracts for erecting the plant was named.

Prof. George Forbes, who held the position of consulting elec-
trical engineer to that company, is to be heartily congratulated
upon the success that has crowned his efforts. It becomes per-
tinent at present to insist, however, that Prof. Forbes should be
content to limit his claims to glory to the considerable work that
he has undoubtedly accomplished, for, unfortunately, he appears
not overanxious to define that limit when discoursing to the
public about his achievements.

There has been some bickering between Prof. Forbes and
Prof. Rowland, of Johns Hopkins, as to which of the two was the
originator of certain of the novel points in the Niagara Falls
Power Company's generators. The atmosphere is very murky in
consequence, but some facts would seem to have filtered through,
and we shall take occasion to refer to them later. What seems

PROF, FORBES ON ''HARNESSING NIAGARA:' 199

to call for notice at this moment is a paper by Prof. Forbes,
which appeared in the September Blackwood's, entitled Har-
nessing Niagara.

It is doubtful if any American magazine would have pub-
lished that article, even had it contained fewer references to the
shortcomings of the United States. It seems to us, however, that
it would have been much better for it to have appeared in this
country than in Great Britain, because of the freer criticism it
would here have had, and because America's faults would then
have been told where it might be hoped that, coming from so
authoritative a source, certain valuable reforms would result.

A large portion of the article is devoted to a description of
Forbes's own unusual endowments and capabilities, natural and
acquired, which, it would appear, fitted him for the position of
consulting electrical engineer to the Cataract Construction Com-
pany, not less than for the suppression of the American railway
conductor.* A perusal of the article brings to one's mind the
couplet by a famous English librettist :

*' He was the bravest man in France ;
He said so, and he ought to know."

Having noted the title of the paper, we are astonished at the
space that is devoted to placing the demerits of this country in
relief against the author's excellences, especially in so short an
article. To quote certain instances, he says: "There are two
great mistakes commonly made as to Americans: one is, that
they are original inventors ; the other is, that they are humor-
ous. Neither of these propositions is true." The chief argument
he advances against our possession of humor is that "their
periodical literature is filled with so-called wit, but it smells
strongly of the midnight oil." This is most sadly true, but, if
one on this side of the water may judge, how much more so is it
with British publications of alleged humorousness ! The pro-
fesssor admits, however, that in the matter of humor there are
some most brilliant exceptions in America. May we not ask
whether Great Britain, for instance, can produce exceptions in
this line to vie with the United States ?

In support of his theory that the inventive faculty is lacking
in the New World, he states that Americans are competent
merely to design, not invent, and, by implication, informs us that
his own talents in the inventive line are the real article, and that

* He informs us that on a New York Central train he created disorder in the ranks of
six (?) conductors ("the most insolent class of men in the country"), who filled the
smoking room to the exclusion of himself. The subsequent verdict of one of the con-
ductors is stated to have been that there were no flies (sic) on Prof. Forbes.

zoo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

no American was competent to undertake what he has success-
fully accomplished ; and, later, dwells at length upon his improve-
ments in dynamo construction in the matter of revolving fields.
The importance of the device of rotating the fields instead of the
armature in the situation he was dealing with was great, but, as
that was the form of the first alternating dynamo ever constructed
(in 1833), the novelty of the mere principle, which is what he
refers to, is not greatly in evidence, nor, we may add, is the in-
ventive faculty.

In leaving the non-inventive-humorous proposition he says :
"Invention and humor require a gift of imagination, the same
gift that shows itself in poetry and letters, in music, painting,
and sculpture; and in no one of these directions has this gift
of imagination been found to predominate among Americans."
Letting the last sentence pass, we may observe that it would be
as pertinent to deny to the ancient Greeks the possession of any
one of the qualities last named because (what will probably be
admitted) the inventive talent did not predominate among them.

" They like giving big names to things in America," says our
scientist. " A pond is a lake, and a hill is a mountain ; they never
speak of the sea, it must be called the ocean ; a meeting is a con-
vention, a dictionary is a ' speller and a definer,' a town is a city,
a chairman is a president, and so on." If I am not mistaken. Max
O'Rell has told us much the same thing, and we ought therefore
to take it to heart. O'Rell has wonderful insight and an unfail-
ing impartiality, which Prof. Forbes lacks. Take, for instance,
the cases the latter cites in support of his proposition. How false
some of them are, and how purely local most of the rest ! Then,
to take one of his instances, it would seem as though Americans
were not exceeding their rights in using the word " city " in the
nationally defined technical sense of a place of over such and
such a population. The method possesses indisputable advan-
tages over the British plan, by which, we understand, no place
without a cathedral can be called a city. The latter system of
nomenclature has much to recommend it on the ground of medise-
val simplicity, but results in the omission of several places of
great size and importance from the list of English cities.

We are informed that in this coimtry "the average man is not
a good specimen. He is apt to be a most awful ' bounder,' has no
taste, and does not know the meaning of the word ' repose.' " We
must waive comment on the first accusation on the ground of in-
sufficient information as to what a bounder is. As to the rest, we
might suggest to Prof. Forbes that one may possess all the repose
that ever marked the caste of Vere de Vere, when experimenting
with hons mots on railway conductors, and yet be sadly wanting,
both in that quality and in the good taste he refers to, in his liter-

PROF. FORBES ON ''HARNESSING NIAGARAS 201

ary efforts. One singular example of lack of dignity in tlie paper
under discussion is an attack on Lord Kelvin, describing a line of
action of his as hitherto unknown among professional men, in
which he attempts to take the edge off that statement by men-
tioning that distinguished man as his most esteemed and oldest
scientific friend.

A remarkable thing is that Prof. Forbes admits that there are
exceptions to his somewhat sweeping condemnation of this coun-
try, for, after miaking the uncompromising generalization about
the average American, he says that it is not necessary to meet
the specimen except in hotels and trains, and thereafter follows a
list of no less than fifteen names in one paragraph of fashionable
friends of his who were, of course, delightful, the bearing of
which on the title matter of the paper is obscure. At the begin-
ning of his article also he makes disparaging reference to our
experts, and, at the end, "wishes to bear tribute to the kindly
friendship which I almost universally experienced at the hands
of American engineers." We have one fine sentiment to record :
" An Englishman in America should always try to retain his Eng-
lishness.'* This should apply to any one who is proud of his
country ; but, unfortunately, the reasons the professor urges for
holding that aim in view constitute only another fling at Ameri-
cans.

Turning now to such portions of the paper as do actually bear
upon the Niagara work, we have, as above mentioned, the pro-
fessor's remarkable claim to originality in the matter of the
revolving fields. Again, in describing the steps leading to his
choice of apparatus, he says : " I soon realized the fact that not
only could the latter (alternating) current be more easily obtained
at high pressures, but that it could more easily, and without
moving machinery, be transformed to any required pressure at
any spot when it was wanted." This statement, it is to be re-
gretted, is nothing short of dishonest. Forbes is here speaking
of the year 1890, at which date the fact that he refers to as hav-
ing worked out for himself was literally the A B C of electrical
work, and part of the common knowledge of thousands of " line "
laborers throughout the world.

With regard to the two points so far mentioned the distin-
guished engineer has not sought to belittle the work of others,
but only to magnify his own ; he has not, however, confined him-
self to this more moderate course, and we find him stating that
" the highest scientific authority in America had taken up the
same position as Lord Kelvin," referring to the latter's alleged
strenuous opposition to the use of the alternating current. The
eminent authority referred to would seem to be Prof. Rowland, of
Baltimore. This gentleman, who ought to know what it was he

202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

advised, states positively that he did not strennoTisly oppose the
use of the alternating current ; that he did not oppose it at all ;
and that, moreover, his opinion was given in 1889, not 1 890 ; that
what he did advise at that early date, in view of the untried state
of either direct or alternating current transmission, was merely
caution in adopting plans, which advice, we may add, was most
carefully followed, as will he seen from the fact that the main
plans, not to speak of the details, were not decided upon until
three years later, during which interval some most remarkable de-
velopments had taken place both in the design of machinery for
use with alternating current and in the practical transmission of
the latter over an immense distance in Europe.

Our writer says : " Until I went to America the manufacturers
of electrical machinery never had a consulting engineer to reckon
with, but dealt directly with the financiers, who knew nothing
about cost or efficiency of machinery," and reference is later
made to his being the first to get guarantees of performance from
manufacturers of such machinery. The present writer speaks
from personal experience in declaring this to be incorrect. The
way in which a company, larger and even more representative
than the chief one with which Prof. Forbes did business, filled an
eleven-hundred-horse-power contract under guarantee, and later
supplied an auxiliary generator to make the guarantee good,
would perhaps have impressed that gentleman. The particular
occurrence referred to is immediately within the writer's knowl-
edge, and the extremely exacting specifications for the said ma-
chinery were written and insisted upon by consulting engineers
and not by the financiers. It should, however, be unnecessary to
say that, of course, the method of requiring guarantees and of
employing engineers to write specifications was common in the
electrical business, as well as in all others, long before the advent
of Forbes.

There are other points in the professor's paper besides those
already referred to which require contradiction, and still others,
covered by the matter in controversy between himself and Prof.
Rowland, which there is every reason to believe might be im-
proved in the matter of accuracy, but which, since directly oppo-
site statements are put forth by the two men, we must be content
to let stand in default of other sources of information regarding
them.

An opinion of Prof. Forbes that surprises us is set forth in the
sentence, " I had always wished to put the dynamos at the bot-
tom of the pit close to the turbines, and I still believe that this
arrangement would have served us better.'' It is the opinion
of the writer that it is an unusually good thing for the Niagara
Falls Power Company that the above was not done. In his ex-

PROF, FORBES ON ''HARNESSING NIAGARA:' 203

perience it is a practical impossibility to keep penstocks under
great head from leaking, and the moisture thereby communicated
to the atmosphere, as well as that due to the location of the
dynamo room at the bottom of a narrow pit one hundred and
fifty feet deep, with a torrent carrying a hundred million gallons
per hour raging immediately beneath, could not well fail to im-
pair the machines' insulation. Since the latter must carry a vast
electrical pressure of alternating current, any impairment would
be fatal to the maintenance of the plant. An instance occurs to
mind in which a generator plant was located on a level with the
wheel cases, and this not at the bottom of the pit by any means,
but at the top of a draught tube some feet above the level of the
surrounding ground, and in which, owing to the moisture unavoid-
ably present, the generators had subsequently to be removed.

It is impossible, without quoting most of the article in ques-
tion, to convey an adequate impression of the egotism that per-
vades it. A few phrases may, however, be of assistance to an
understanding of this.

" The electrical work which I have carried out has been done
at a cost that seems incredible to many."

" I did not care to go much into society.'*

" On such occasions I would write to my millionaires and tell
them that if they did not do what I told them,'' etc.

" I had a lovely house in parklike grounds.''

" I had a nigger servant."

" I had thus become well acquainted with the system which
Nicola Tesla, a young Montenegrin, was experimenting on," etc.

We fancy that most people know the name and fame of " the
young Montenegrin" a good deal better than they do those of
Forbes.

In fact, the whole article is quite alliterative from the continu-
ous repetitions of the first personal pronoun singular.

In an opening paragraph Prof. Forbes speaks of the produc-
tion of the paper under discussion as the result of an attempt to
curb a natural tendency to reticence, and, later, in describing the
Falls of Niagara, he says, " The most impressive points of view
are those that make you feel the smallest." It is not apparent
whether the professor himself experienced the sensation, but, if
he did, the depression must have been evanescent, for near the end
he says that, while his company ascribes his " splendid results "
mainly to engineering skill, " I am inclined to believe that they
were fully as much the result of an exercise of tact, judgment,
and forbearance, combined with firmness — qualities which I do
not hesitate to say that both the officers of the company and my-
self recognized in each other." All of which, while possibly true,
is scarcely the utterance of a man hampered by a temperament in

204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

whicli reticence and a feeling of insignificance are struggling
with, each other for supremacy.

Americans have faults and are not more sensitive to having
them pointed out than other people, but the tendency among de-
scendants of Anglo-Saxon stock to resent the imputation of the
possession of visual motes by ill-tempered owners of larger ocular
imperfections is deeply rooted. We have not for many a long day
seen an article in a prominent English journal so well designed,
by its gratuitous disparagements of America, to keep alive the
fast-expiring dislike to the mother country that it is to the
interest of all of us to see buried.

HEALTH EXPERIMENTS IN THE FRENCH ARMY.

By STODDARD DEWEY.

THE report made to the French Parliament in April of this
year by General Zurlinden, Minister of War, discloses a new
aspect of that life in barracks to which the armed peace of Eu-
rope condemns all her young men for a period of their best years.
It is nothing less than an experimenting on a giant scale with the
health and resistance to epidemic disease of French youth under
military regimen.

The first and most fatal enemy has always been typhoid fever.

In 1887 the annual number of cases reached eight thousand,
with a death-rate of about eight hundred, for much less than five
hundred thousand men. This gave an average of deaths from
this single disease very nearly equivalent to two out of every
thousand men, while the total mortality of the army was only
8*43 per thousand. In the mortality of French civil life, which
remains at eleven per thousand, the destructiveness of typhoid
fever is still greater, at least in a large number of towns and
cities.

Doctors have long known the cause of the prevalence of this
disease ; but it is not easy to persuade the ordinary citizen of the
necessity of precaution in the use of so common a thing as water.
Jules Simon tells a story, good by way of illustration, of the
alarming typhoid epidemic in Paris a few years ago. Both doc-
tors and Government had warned the people that the germs of
the disease were contained in the water of the Seine, and that
only filtered and boiled water could be used safely. One day a
cafe waiter was discovered replenishing the drinking decanter of
his customers from the common spigot giving forth the river
water in its unadulterated impurity. When reproached with his
deed, he answered indignantly :

HEALTH EXPERIMENTS IK THE FRENCH ARMY. 205

" My father and my grandfather drank this water, and they
lived to be old men. I have no time to bother w^th doctors'
notions."

During the last month of March there was a sudden outburst
of a strange and fatal disease among the old men in the city poor-
house at Nanterre. It was accompanied by tetanoid symptoms
(lockjaw), and was attributed by the physician in charge to the
ergot of which he discovered traces in the very bad rye bread
furnished to the inmates. The director, when asked about the
reason assigned, is reported to have answered comfortably, " Doc-
tors* humbug ! "

It is the good luck of the army that an intelligent service of
hygiene can be enforced whenever the authorities wish. The will
began with M. de Freycinet, who was Minister of War through
so many changing administrations. He set about substituting
spring water or filtered water in place of the water from wells or
rivers, which had previously been used by garrisons. By 1890,
in comparison with 1887, the number of typhoid cases had dimin-
ished in the proportion of thirty-six per cent. By 1891 the de-
crease was forty-nine per cent. In the single military jurisdic-
tion of Paris it reached seventy-five per cent. This astonishing
and satisfactory change followed immediately upon the change
of the water supply.

The record of the last three years only confirms this brilliant
demonstration of the real work which can be accomplished by
rational hygiene. There were five hundred and forty fewer cases
of typhoid fever in the army posts in 1894 than in 1891, though
the percentage of deaths to cases was slightly higher. But the
most striking facts are found in the statistics of particular places
like Paris, which has always had the reputation of being a center
of this special disease.

Among the soldiers under the military government of the city
there were eight hundred and twenty-four typhoid cases in 1888.
The following year the number increased to eleven hundred and
seventy-nine. At that time the water of the Vanne was substi-
tuted for the contaminated Seine water. The cases of the next
four years numbered, respectively, only two hundred and ninety-
nine, two hundred and seventy-six, two hundred and ninety-three,
and two hundred and fifty-eight. Last year the Vanne itself be-
came contaminated through an accident, the history of which has
been traced conclusively. The result was an increase of typhoid
cases in the Paris garrison to four hundred and thirty- six, of
which three hundred and ten occurred in the three months of
February, March, and April. During January and February of
the present year (1895) there were only eight cases in all.

The fact that typhoid fever comes and goes with impure drink-

2o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

iug water could hardly receive a more striking demonstration.
Yet the possibility has been realized in the experience of Melun,
a garrison town of about twelve thousand inhabitants, situated on
the Seine, twenty-eight miles above Paris. Here, in 1889, there
were one hundred and twenty-two cases of typhoid fever among
the soldiers. The Chamberland filters (Pasteur system) were
then introduced, and the cases of the following years numbered,
respectively, fifteen, six, two, seven, and seven again for 1894.
Suddenly, during the severe weather of February of this year,
twenty-eight dragoons, one after the other, came down with the
fever. The infantry battalion, living in the same barracks, had
not a single case. The secret was soon out. The filters had been
allowed to freeze and the soldiers were ordered to drink only the
weak infusion of tea furnished them, in which, of course, the
water was boiled. The dragoons had simply not obeyed, but had
helped themselves to the Seine water from the hydrants.

At Lorient, as in other districts of the coast of Brittany, ty-
phoid fever has long been endemic and still remains so among
the civil population. In the garrison, until 1889, there was an
average number of one hundred and seventy cases yearly. In
1890 filters were set up, with the result of a decrease in the cases
to fifty-eight for that year, while the three following years num-
bered only two, one, and one, respectively. In 1894 water was
brought into the barracks from a spring supposed to be pure. In
a short time eleven cases of typhoid fever declared themselves.
On examination it was discovered that the spring was contami-
nated, and the garrison ceased using it for a water supply. The
disease has now all but disappeared again.

Similar facts in connection with typhoid fever have been
verified in more than twenty widely separated garrison towns.
Of the cases which still appear where filtered water is used, the
cause has invariably been found, when investigation was possible,
to be some accidental use of contaminated water. Thus at Nantes,
in Brittany, endemic typhoid fever was reduced by the use of
filters to isolated cases. In 1893 there were seventeen, and in
1894 there were thirty cases needing explanation. It was soon
remarked that nearly all were among orderlies, who have the
habit of taking their meals in certain restaurants of the town.
In each of these places it was discovered that the water used was
polluted by infiltrations from privies. In four other garrison
towns the same fact was reported.

A final instance, which is also one of the most remarkable, is
that of Auxerre. Here one hundred and twenty-nine soldiers
were down with typhoid fever in 1892. Filters were set up, and
there was one single case in each of the two following years.

Only one objection has been urged against this triumph of the

HEALTH EXPERIMENTS IN THE FRENCH ARMY. 207

theory that pure water is a preservative against typhoid fever.
It is probably raore apparent than real. It concerns the attend-
ants on the sick in the military hospitals. These men can hardly
be exposed to the danger of drinking contaminated water, and
yet many of their number fall victims to each typhoid epidemic.
In their case the disease seems to have a real contagion. But it
should be remembered that the permanence of their service with
the sick undermines their strength until the system no longer
resists the action of the morbid germs, to which, moreover, they
are exposed in a thousand ways. Their case is no exception to
the rule that, under ordinary conditions of life, typhoid fever is
propagated only by impure drinking water.

With dysentery — that other enemy of the soldier, both in gar-
rison and during campaign — French military hygiene has not
proved itself so successful. Until 1892 there was even a steady
, increase of cases, though not of deaths. Since that time there
has been a diminution of cases and, in a measure, of deaths. So
far, the only amelioration seems to result from a constant super-
vision of the daily disinfecting of privies, and from a provision
of conveniences which spare the soldier the necessity of suddenly
exposing himself to the chill of night in crossing an open yard.

With cholera, on the other hand, the most encouraging prog-
ress has been made. The epidemic of 1893 cruelly tried the civil
population of Lorient. The garrison had but a single case. This
was a soldier who contracted the disease in Vannes, where he had
been in attendance on his mother, who died of it. The same
experience was repeated at Brest, where the civil population
suffered for months together. In the garrison only two cases
declared themselves from first to last. In Marseilles, out of nine-
teen cases there were only three deaths.

For measles and scarlatina the French army has found neither
remedy nor preventive. These diseases come to the barracks
from the civil population, among which they exist permanently.
Both have gone on increasing in the garrisons since 1887 — measles
with spasmodic intermittences, scarlatina steadily.

The most disquieting progress has been made by that strange
malady — la grippe. This alone, from the first months of the
present year, will give a high rate of mortality to 1895 among the
military as well as the civil population. Only one conclusion can
so far be drawn from the experience of the army. This is the
simple fact that the disease is a permanent danger which military
physicians have henceforth to foresee as they do cholera, cerebro-
spinal meningitis, and diphtheria.

The latter disease, formerly so rare among adults, has also
made alarming progress since 1888 among soldiers. It is now
hoped that the antitoxine (serum) of Dr. Roux will be as success-

2o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ful in dealing with the dangerous microbe in garrisons as it has
been in children's hospitals.

Vaccination continues to give satisfactory results against
smallpox. Certain attendant dangers, which are often alleged
against it, are avoided by the establishment of what are called
centres vaccinogenes, where military physicians supervise the
preparation of suitable vaccine. This, in the form of a glycerin-
ated pulp, has been distributed to the Madagascar expedition in
quantities sufficient for the revaccination of all the men during
the voyage out, and of all the porters and coolies that may be
needed after the arrival on the island.

In typhus, the lesson of the barracks confirms what has long
been thought to be the only safeguard against its spread. This is
the total isolation of cases. The disease, which is so peculiarly
contagious, seemed to have abandoned France (excepting certain
remote parts of Brittany) after the wars of the first Napoleon.
Two years ago it broke out among tramps in the workhouse of
Amiens, and soon appeared in Paris. It afterward spread among
the same class of the population, in and out of prison, through
different parts of the country. In the following year, 1894, it
broke out again, to the despair of the medical profession. It
seemed to have come back to stay, though the present prospect is
more favorable. During both these years there were only six
cases in the army. Of these, two occurred among military in-
firmarians who had volunteered their services for the civil hos-
pitals, and one was that of a gendarme whose duties brought
him in close contact with tramps already attacked by the disease.

Certain lessons of hygiene, which have been learned from
harsh experience by the army, are not yet appreciated by the
general public. One of these is the necessity of keeping in hos-
pitals those who are undoubtedly convalescent from epidemic or
contagious diseases. This is sorely against the will of families,
and often of the patients themselves, who demand permission to
complete the cure at home. Formerly, when this was granted, a
frequent consequence was a relapse, and, oftener still, a communi-
cation of the disease to a new circle of the population. This has
been especially observed of typhoid and eruptive fevers, dysen-
tery, and the grippe.

The French army also profits by all the recent discoveries in
destroying the germs of disease. Disinfecting apparatus has been
indulged in to such an extent that the health service is ready even
for an unusual epidemic. What the French oddly call " coal-
tarisation" is applied constantly to the woodwork of barracks.
Methods of permanent ventilation have also been adopted. Each
garrison is now being provided with a suitable hospital, and the
separate barracks have infirmaries well fitted up.

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS. 209

The final result of all this solicitude for the health of the sol-
diers, who are the choice youth of the entire nation, is twofold :

First, the steady lowering of the mortality among them is of
itself an increase of strength to the army and the country. Thus,
during the last five years, on the score of typhoid fever alone,
hygiene has saved to France the lives of twelve hundred and
sixty-five soldiers. In the seven years from 1880 to 1886 the an-
nual death-rate was 8*43 per thousand. In the seven following
years it sank to 6*63, and in 1894 to 6*20 per thousand. Meanwhile,
the mortality among people who have not the advantage of living
under enforced hygiene remains at eleven per thousand.

Secondly, the compulsory military service, with all its disad-
vantages, gives the younger generation a strong training in prac-
tical hygiene. All able-bodied Frenchmen now learn, during a
term of years, the practice of bodily cleanliness and what consti-
tutes the health of habitation. These acquired habits they bring
back to civil life.

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS.

By JOHN DENISON CHAMPLIN.

HOMER, in his famous catalogue of the Greek and Trojan
forces in the second book of the Iliad, enumerates more
than twenty towns around Lake Copais which contributed col-
lectively to the Greek fleet eighty ships, in each of which

"Were six score youths, Boeotia's noblest flower."

The district comprising the Copaic basin was at the time of
the Trojan war, and probably long anterior even to that, one of
the richest and most populous parts of Greece. Its wealth of
myth would prove this, even if historic record were wanting. A
circle with a radius of twelve or fifteen miles drawn around Co-
pais will include more sites famous in romance and in history
than almost any other place of like extent on earth. The Boeo-
tian plain is nearly shut in by mountains the bare mention of
whose names calls up a vast panorama of heroic figures, with a
shadowy background of demigods and of gods reaching back
into cloudland. Prominent above all is double-headed, snow-
crowned Parnassus, with Delphi at its feet, its flanks scarred with
caves and glens down which still leap the waters of Castaly.
South of it, hiding the Corinthian gulf, stretches the range of
Helicon, with its lovely valleys and ravines, home of Apollo and
the Muses. Still farther south is Cithseron, whose groves echoed
the revels of Bacchus and his train, and witnessed the punish-
ment meted to Acteon by the virgin goddess. Under its shadow

VOL. XLVIII. 15

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS. 2

11

lies Platsea, its soil enriched with the blood of Mardonius and his
Persians ; and not far away Leuctra, fatal to Sparta's power, and
Cadmean Thebes, home of QEdipus and of Antigone, birthplace
of Heracles and of Dionysus, where Amphion sang and the Epig-
oni fought.

The Copaic basin itself and its surrounding hills are dotted
with ruined cities. On the west shore of the lake Minyean Or-
chomenus, from whose colony of lolcus sailed Jason and the
Argonauts, still dominates the plain with its acropolis, its walls
two miles in circuit. Its temple of the Graces, with its musical
festivals, drew thither poets and singers from all the Hellenic
world. Homer compares its wealth with that of the Egyptian
Thebes, and so powerful was it that it held subject all the sur-
rounding region until Heracles slew its king and made it vassal
to Thebes. A little west of it is fatal Chseronea, where Philip of
Macedon rang the deathknell of Greece, and where, two and a
half centuries later, Sulla overthrew Mithridates. Between it and
Helicon lies Lebadea, where Croesus and Mardonius sought their
fate ftom the oracle of Zeus Trophonius ; and hard by is Coronea,
famous for its temple of the Itonian Artemis and the Pamboeotian
festival. Near the lake is Tilphusium, with its fountain of Til-
phusa, where blind Tiresias drank and died ; Alalcomense, which
claimed to be the birthplace of Athene; Haliartus, under whose
walls Lysander fell; Onchestus, founded by Poseidon's son, meet-
ing-place of the Amphictyonic Council ; Acrsephise, noted for its
oracle of Apollo ; and Medeon, Copse, Holmones, Hyettus, Hyle,
Peteon, and Ocalea, each famous in ancient story, and most of
which sent ships and troops to Troy.

With all these evidences of pre-Homeric prosperity, one is
tempted to ask, What has changed the conditions in this once
favored and still fertile land, which to-day supports but a few
thousand souls in scattered villages and hamlets ? We find the
answer in Strabo, who says : " The spot which the present Lake
Copais occupies was formerly, it is said, dry ground, and was cul-
tivated in various ways by the Orchomenians, who lived near it."
This traditional account, about the only record of the prehistoric
condition of the Copaic basin we possess, would seem to imply that
it was kept dry artificially, and we find a partial explanation in
other passages in which he describes certain subterraneous cav-
erns and fissures through which the waters were carried off. " If
the subterranean passages are stopped up, the waters of the lake
increase so as to inundate and cover cities and whole districts,
which become uncovered if the same or other passages are again
opened." The memory of such a catastrophe, caused by the stop-
page of the natural conduits, the result of seismic disturbances, as
Strabo intimates, or from want of care in consequence of political

212

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

disturbances, is embalmed doubtless in the tradition of the Ogy-
gean Deluge, Ogygea being the original name of Boeotia. A simi-
lar trouble must have occurred about the time of Alexander the
Great, who appears to have contemplated the reclaiming of the

.,..r-.--;.r4%'';':-*^- .•■.'-

Sustaining Wall of Masonry.

basin. Strabo says : " When the outlets were again obstructed.
Crates, the miner, a man of Chalcis, began to clear away the
obstructions, but desisted in consequence of the Boeotians being in
a state of insurrection, although, as he himself says in the letter
to Alexander, many places had been already drained/'

These statements of Strabo would lead to the inference that
the drainage of the basin by the ancients consisted only in keep-
ing free from obstruction certain subterraneous passages through
which the waters flowed to the sea ; and this would probably have
been the conclusion to-day but for the recent efforts of the Greek
government to reclaim the submerged lands. These efforts, under
the supervision of experienced engineers, have resulted in nearly
draining the basin, and have led to the discovery of a complete
ancient system of hydraulic works dating from so remote a period
that all record or tradition of their construction has been lost.
This system, so vast and comprehensive as to excite the wonder
of modern engineers, taking into consideration the primitive
appliances of the ancients, served to convert this now miasmatic
basin into a fruitful plain, the home, a thousand years before
our era, of a thriving and numerous population.

To give a clear conception of these ancient works and of the
problems which the prehistoric engineers had to solve, it will be
necessary to take a brief topographical survey of the region.

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS. 213

Lake Copais is the receptacle of the drainage of the valley of the
Cephissus and of the plain of Chseronea, which is watered by the
Hyrcinus, Permessus, Olmeus, Lophis, and other streams that
descend from Helicon. All these streams flow in on the sonth
and west sides, where the shores of the lake are simply a continu-
ation of the adjacent plains ; but on the north, east, and southwest,
where the waters would naturally find an outlet to the sea, the
banks form steep, rocky shores.

At the southeast extremity the lake ends in the Bay of Car-
ditza, which is inclosed in a fold of Mount Sphingium, an off-
shoot of Helicon, and at the northeast in the Bay of Topolias or
Kephalari, inclosed in Mount Ptoum. A depression in the flank
of Sphingium is called the Hill of Carditza, and behind this, be-
tween it and Mount Ptoum, is a smaller lake, Hylice or Hylicus
(Likeri). Further east, near the seacoast, lies Mount Messapium,
with another small lake, called Paralimni, between it and Mount
Ptoum. A similar depression in Mount Ptoum, east of the Bay of
Kephalari, is called the Hill of Kephalari. The Copaic basin is

^

-^- 2

Plan of the Wells.

thus a natural cul-de-sac, with no apparent outlet ; but the pent-
up waters have worn fissures through the limestone rocks under-
lying the hills and formed for themselves, perhaps with some
volcanic aid, as Strabo suggests, subterraneous outlets into the
Euripus or channel of the sea between Boeotia and Euboea.
There are twenty- three of these subterraneous passages, locally
called Icatahothra, but many of them unite underground and
only four reach the surface on the east side of the hills. Of

2 14 T'HE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

these four outlets, one passes southward under Mount Sphingium
into Lake Hylice or Likeri, from which there is probably a sub-
terraneous communication with Lake Paralimni and beyond it
with the sea. The three others pass eastward under Mount Ptoum
and its offshoots. The principal one, called the Katabothra of
Bynia, with two openings on the lake side, passes under the Hill
of Kephalari in a general direction from southwest to northeast,
and opens on the east side of the hill in a large grotto about forty-
five metres lower than its source, whence its waters flow through
the deep ravine of the Valley of Larymna into the sea.

Strabo says that Lake Copais is three hundred and eighty
stadia (about forty-seven miles) in circuit, but it differs greatly
at different seasons, sometimes threatening to inundate the whole
valley and sometimes forming only a series of fens overgrown
with reeds — the auletic or flute reeds of the ancients, from which
Pan's ^ pipes were made. Its bottom, which is ninety-five metres
above the sea, is a nearly level plain with a slight incline toward
the east and a little elevation in the center. Modern travelers,
from the time of Sir George Wheler upward, have noted on both
its north and its south shores the remains of ancient dykes, in some
parts re-enforced with masonry. These dykes, in several places
still used as roads, have generally been considered as ancient
causeways, means of communication in times of flood between the
towns on the banks ; but they are now shown to be parts of a sys-
tem of drainage canals by means of which the superfluous waters
of the basin were led to the katabothra under the hills.

The recession of the waters through the efforts of the present
engineers has shown that there were three main canals through
the entire length of the lake, branching at their western ends into
subsidiary canals or feeders for collecting the various tributary
waters. These main channels, which for convenience' sake we
will call the north, middle, and south canals, are constructed
partly of excavations and partly of a series of dykes or cause-
ways, strengthened where necessary by . walls of cyclopean ma-
sonry. The north canal, the most carefully and solidly con-
structed of the three, receives the waters of the Cephissus and
conducts them into a common channel with those of the Melas,
a stream which, rising near Orchomenus, is navigable almost
from its source. After their junction the waters flow through a
bed, formed on the north by the rocky shore of the lake and on
the south by a massive embankment re-enforced by masonry, be-
hind the island of Topolias, the site of ancient Copse. Thence the
canal leaves the shore and, embanked on both sides, crosses the
Bay of Kephalari and conducts its waters into the natural fissures
under the mountain. This double embankment, though partly
ruinous, is still plainly traceable.

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS. 215

The middle canal, constructed to receive the waters of the
Hyrcinus, traverses the center of the lake and connects near the
east end with the south canal. Unlike the north canal it is made
wholly by excavation, the earth thrown out forming its banks,
and it is nowhere strengthened by masonry. The alluvial depos-
its from the stream have nearly obliterated it in parts, but its
course is easily traceable and in some places, especially near the
western end, the works exhibit formidable dimensions, showing
in cross-section an excavation of more than a hundred metres to
the lineal metre.

The south canal, for the reception of the waters of the Per-
messus, Olmeus, and other small streams from Helicon, starts
from the southwest end of the lake, and, following the south bank

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past Tilphusium and Haliartus, rounds the cliffs of Mount
Sphingium, a little distance from the shore, and unites probably
with the middle canal in the bay of Carditza. The two thus
united finally join the north canal in the Bay of Kephalari, and
the waters of all three are then conducted in a single channel
across the bay and into the several katabothra at its foot. Al-
though most of the first part of this canal is gone, parallel em-
bankments, more than fifty metres apart, inclosing an excavation,
are to be seen in places, occasionally strengthened with stone
work. At the junction of the several canals especially, the work
has been executed with great care, the dykes being sustained by
Cyclopean walls as solid and probably as ancient as those at
Myceene and Tiryns. Although the main waters of the south
canal were poured into the middle and finally into the north
canal, all along its course part of their volume was deflected

2i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

through branch canals into the several katabothra along the
east shore. Indeed, the details of the system are much more com-
plicated than are indicated by this brief description, and com-
prise, in addition to the main canals, many smaller subsidiary
ones both for feeding and for draining them. When we take into
consideration the difficulties attending excavation in so marshy a
soil, and of transporting across it the heavy stones for the em-
bankments, and note the immensity of the plan and the thorough-
ness and solidity of its execution, we are moved to admiration for
the engineers who conceived and built the great works which
rendered this part of Boeotia habitable before the dawn of history.

The system involved, too, the clearing and the keeping open of
the katabothra, which were liable to become obstructed and some-
times to be entirely closed by the caving of the soil and rocks,
and there are many evidences of ancient efforts to enlarge and
deepen them. That these efforts were not always successful is
proved by the traditions of early inundations, referred to before,
caused probably by earthquakes, but which were attributed to
the efforts of Hercules when he espoused the cause of his native
Thebes against Orchomenus. To guard against the recurrence of
a similar catastrophe, the ancient engineers planned several cut-
tings and tunnels through the hills, which, if they had been car-
ried to completion, would have rounded out the original design
and accomplished what the Greek Government is to-day trying
to effect— the thorough reclamation of the basin and its protec-
tion from any contingency of flood. On the southeast shore of
the lake are vestiges of an immense cutting, thirty metres deep,
through the Hill of Carditza toward Lake Hylicus, and beyond
that traces of works to connect Hylicus with Paralimni, and the
latter with the sea. Across the Hill of Carditza, too, are a series
of excavated shafts marking the line of a tunnel through the hill
constructed with an object similar to that of the cutting — to con-
vey the waters to the sea through the smaller lakes ; but the shafts
are now filled up and there are no indications that the work was
ever completed.

This route is the one adopted by the modern engineers, who,
by a tunnel through the Hill of Carditza, not far from the line of
the ancient tunnel, seek to carry the waters into Lake Hylicus,
thence into Paralimni, and finally through another tunnel into
the sea. There is also a plan to deflect a portion of the waters for
use in irrigating the plain of Thebes.

A still more ambitious undertaking of the ancient engineers
was an attempt to penetrate the Hill of Kephalari at the north-
east end of the lake by a tunnel more than a mile and a quarter
long. This hill, a depression on the flank of Mount Ptoum, has a
maximum height of one hundred and forty-seven metres above

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS. 217

the sea and fifty-two metres above the bottom of Lake Copais.
Across this depression, from near the openings of the Katabothra
of Bynia in the Bay of Kephalari, runs a line of ancient wells or
shafts in a general direction from southwest to northeast, not in
a straight line, but following the contour of the hill, ending on
the east side not far from where the katabothra opens into the
Valley of Larymna. There are sixteen of these wells, cut through
the hard, gray limestone of which the mountain is composed, and
carefully squared, with an average horizontal section of three to
four metres. The first shaft, on the west side, is five hundred
metres from the lake ; the sixteenth, on the east side, two hundred
and twenty-five metres from the opening. The wells are at an
average distance from each other of about one hundred and sixty
metres, and the whole distance from opening to opening is about
twenty-four hundred metres.

These shafts are not mentioned by any ancient writer, but
have been frequently described by modern travelers, notably
by Forchhammer, who has given the most complete description

8S.53

LONGITIDIXAL SECTION BETWEEN WeLLS 15 AND 16.

of them. The general conclusion in regard to their object was
that they were designed to facilitate the clearing of the kata-
bothra when, from caving or other causes, it had become clogged ;
but in 1846, M. Sauvage, who examined the shafts critically and
cleared several of them, came to the conclusion that they were
part of a tunnel scheme, and were sunk with the purpose of giv-
ing many points of attack to the workmen engaged in excavating
the tunnel instead of a single one at each end. To the ancients,
ignorant of the use of explosives, this was of great importance,
for the cutting with hammer and chisel was arduous and slow.
Even with these numerous shafts, which must themselves have
been a difiicult undertaking, the excavation of so long a tunnel
would have cost the labor of many years. In 1882 several more
were cleared and thoroughly examined — the first and the second on
the west slope toward the lake and the thirteenth, fourteenth,
fifteenth, and sixteenth on the east slope of the hill. The first

2l8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

and the sixteenth wells are each eighteen metres deep, while the
sixth, at the summit of the hill, is sixty-six metres deep.

Sauvage concluded that the tunnel had been left unfinished,
which later examinations have fully proved. The fact that the
first and second wells contain water indicates that it had been
completed on the lake side for at least five hundred metres. The
exploration in 1882 of the thirteenth well, whose orifice is at an
elevation of 107'G8 metres, discovered, at a depth of 28'35 metres,
a horizontal gallery, 1'60 metre wide and 1*65 metre in the axis.

^^-t^*

Odtlet of Katabothra of Bynia.

cut in each direction about six metres. At 2' 15 metres below this
was found a second gallery of the same section, cut in the same
direction, and the shaft was excavated 270 metres farther down,
probably for use as a drainage well, ending in a level bottom, its
total depth being 36"50 metres. The fourteenth, fifteenth, and six-
teenth wells, at decreasing altitudes, show a similar interior dispo-
sition, save that in the fourteenth the gallery has been but slightly
advanced and there is no drainage well. In the fifteenth shaft,
which has a total depth of 78*93 metres, the upper gallery is cut
to a depth of five metres on the west and two metres on the east,
and the lower one 10*30 metres on the west and 10*70 on the east,
while the well is 4*70 metres deep. In the sixteenth well the up-

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERING AT LAKE COPAIS. 219

per gallery is cut only two metres on the west and none on the
east, the lower one seven metres on the west and 730 on the east,
with a well of 4'20 metres in depth. In the last shaft the two
galleries are three metres apart, and in the fifteenth only 2*15 me-
tres, thus showing a tendency to diverge. This would seem to
prove that there was no intention of ultimately uniting the two
galleries by cutting away the rock between. It is more probable
that the upper galleries were begun first, and that some consid-
eration induced the engineers to change the grade and give a
greater fall to the tunnel. The mean section of the lower gallery is
about two metres, the fall from Copais to its mouth is O'Oll metre
to the lineal metre, and its total length completed would have
been about twenty-four hundred metres. The cutting of so long
a tunnel through so hard a rock with the primitive means at the
disposal of the ancients shows not only an audacity of plan and
a persistent obstinacy in execution, but also a skill in the art of
the engineer and the miner that would be no discredit even to the
present age.

Who were the authors of these great works concerning which
history is silent and which are themselves their only witnesses ?
Perhaps this question will never be satisfactorily answered.
Leake and others attribute all, the wells of Kephalari as well as
the canals, to the Minyans, while some believe that Crates of
Chalcis was responsible for the parts exhibiting the most engi-
neering skill, and others ascribe them to some of the earlier Ro-
man emperors. Curtius, in his Die Deichbauten der Minyer, a
paper read before the Berlin Academy in 1892, carefully distin-
guishes two distinct works and methods of work: (1) the utiliza-
tion of the natural exutories toward which the waters were led by
means of dykes and canals, and (2) the formation of an artificial
emissary to draw off either all the water or the excess of water
from the lake. The first, grand and simple in design, he attrib-
utes to the primitive or Homeric age ; the last, marked by careful
calculation and executed with the skill of the practiced engineer,
he ascribes to the age of Alexander, and presumably to Crates,
the only name mentioned in connection with it. Unless the
future shall bring to light some inscribed stone or other monu-
ment which shall give us definite information concerning the
promoter who planned or the engineer who executed these vast
works, we shall have to accept the judgment of Curtius and give
the credit of them to Crates, the miner of Chalcis.*

* I am indebted for much of the material in this article to two articles, by Michel L.
Kambanis, in the Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique, published in 1892 and 1893, enti-
tled Le Dessechement du Lac Copais par les Anciens ; and to an article by Dr. Alfred
Philippson, in the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1894, entitled Der
Kopais-See in Griechenland und seine Umgebung.

220 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK AND THE RELIGION OF
SAVAGES.

By The Vkry Rev. JAMES CARMICHAEL,

PEAK OF MONTREAL.

THE question as to whether there are races or tribes on the
earth entirely without a religion is one that demands on its
threshold a definition of the word " religion." That it can not
fairly be tied down to advanced forms of belief seems apparent,
and hence the necessity of falling back on the original meaning
of the word — i. e., that of binding fast the human mind to a sense
of the obligation which it owes to supernatural powers. Civiliza-
tion, education, may make this obligation clearer, and a professed
revelation may bring before the mind the attributes of the powers
to whom the obligation is felt to be due ; but, as long as the obli-
gation is mentally present and the force of the obligation fashions
to any important extent not only personal but tribal conduct, so
long in fairness we seem bound to acknowledge the religiousness
of such persons or tribes, even though such religiousness may
never create a theology, or a cut-and-dried system of doctrinal
truths.

If this definition of religion be accepted, then it may boldly be
asserted that, as far as is known, there is not a tribe on the face of
the earth without a religion ; indeed, it may be said that, of all
human ideas that in any form influence the mind and conduct of
man, there is no idea so widespread and influential as the re-
ligious idea. To us, living as we think in the light of reason or
revelation, such religious ideas may appear unworthy of the
name, but when we consider that the most indefinite belief may
— and indeed, as a rule, does — lead a savage to fashion his con-
duct in accordance with what he believes to be the will of higher
powers, as far as personal actions are concerned, he stands on ex-
actly the same platform as the most devoted believer in natural
or revealed religion.

In such cases, as far as the use of the word religion is con-
cerned, it matters little what the mental idea of the higher power
or powers believed in may be. That idea may center itself in a
supreme God, or a Trinity of gods, or a multitude of gods, or in
good and evil spirits, or in gods dwelling temporarily in com-
mon things, or in the spirits of dead ancestors or friends, but as
long as any one of such powers demands and receives obedience,
and as such obedience fashions life, the most indefinite spirit is
practically as powerful as the most clearly defined god. And the
same may be said with reference to forms or methods of worship.
If the worship, whatever form it takes, is regarded as a necessity.

THE RELIGION OF SAVAGES. 221

or a privilege, or a charm, or a preservative against evil, or an
engine of evil against others, it matters little as to whether it be
rendered to God, or spirit, or goblin, or devil, because, whatever
the worship is rendered to, the worshiper honestly feels he is in
the presence of one whose power is needed to aid him in his life
or work, and without whose help he can not be successful.

The chief contestant of universal religiousness has been, and
is. Sir John Lubbock, although the force of circumstances has
driven him of late to change his mode of presenting his contest.
In the earlier editions of his Prehistoric Times he claims that
" almost all the most savage races " are " entirely without a re-
ligion," " without idea of deity," and that the " almost universal
testimony of travelers " supports this assertion. In his fifth edi-
tion (1890) he still claims that " almost all the savage races " are
" entirely without a religion, without idea of deity," but he pro-
ceeds to define what religion is not. It is not " a mere fear of the
unknown," it is not " a more or less vague belief in witchcraft,"
it is something " higher " than all this ; and if this " higher esti-
mate " of religion be adopted then his original assertion remains
true, that " many, if not all, of the most savage races " are " entire-
ly without a religion, without any idea of a deity." The object of
this definition of the word religion is plain. Between the years
1869 and 1890 evidence as to the religiousness of savage tribes
kept pouring in from all quarters of the world ; the list of un-
believing savages made public by Sir John Lubbock in 1869
was seriously interfered with, and the position taken by Waitz,
that " the religious element, so far from being absent from uncul-
tured peoples, influences their whole conception of Nature," was
powerfully substantiated. Then Sir John Lubbock repairs his
damaged argument, working with the implements of the most
bigoted member of an old-fashioned missionary society. He de-
fines religion as something spiritually " higher " than the belief
of a Hottentot or Eskimo, and then repeats his assertion of 1869
that " all of the most savage races are entirely without " such " a
religion."

Sir John Lubbock's method (pursued consistently through all
editions) of adducing evidence in favor of his assertion as to the
non-religiousness of savage tribes is palpably unreliable, as far
as he professes to give the full intention of the authors quoted.
Bates, Caillie, Ross, and others certainly say all that Sir John
Lubbock quotes, but they say much more ; and what is left un-
quoted often throws a totally different light on each quotation.
He quotes Caillie as follows: "I tried to discover whether the
Foulahs (of Wassoula, in central Africa) had any religion of
their own ; whether they worshiped fetiches, or the sun, moon,
or stars; but I could never perceive any religious ceremony

222 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

among them." * Here Sir John Lubbock plainly means to teach,
on the authority of Caillie, that the Foulahs were not even fetich-
worshipers; that they were positively without any religion of
their own. But if he had read Caillie more carefully — read the
context as well as the text — he would have discovered that the
Foulahs and kindred tribes were idolaters ; for that well-known
explorer goes on to say : " Wassoula is a country inhabited by
idolatrous Foulahs ; they carry on little traffic, and never travel ;
their idolatry would indeed expose them to the most dreadful
slavery if they did. . . . They have each several wives, like all
other idolaters." It is plain that Caillie here makes a distinction
between higher forms of worship and the grosser worship of
images. He sought for the higher form of worship, and found
no trace of it, but he evidently found the grosser form, or evi-
dence of it. And it was this grosser form of idolatry that made
it dangerous for the Foulahs to travel outside of their limits ; for,
if they had done so, they would have come into contact with
Mohammedanism, pledged to the extirpation of idolatry, and in
many countries to the enslavement of persistent idolaters.

The same lack of thoroughness in quotation is noticeable in
Lubbock's treatment of the testimony of Bates as to the Brazilian
Indians. He says, " According to Bates, ' none of the tribes on
the upper Amazons have an idea of a Supreme Being, and conse-
quently have no word to express it in their language.'" This
quotation is perfectly correct, but it does not imply what Sir
John Lubbock is seeking to prove — namely, that " almost all the
savage tribes are entirely without a religion." It simply affirms
that Brazilian Indians do not believe in a Supreme Being — an
affirmation that might fairly be made with reference to many
tribes whose beliefs are very apparent. But in no sense can
Bates be quoted as a witness to the absence of religious belief
among Brazilian Indians; his testimony runs in the opposite
direction. "The mind of the Indian," he writes, "is in a very
primitive condition. He has no idea of a Supreme Being, but at
the same time he is free from revolting superstitions, his re-
ligious notions going no further than belief in an evil spirit, re-
garded merely as a kind of hobgoblin who is at the bottom of all
his failures in fishing, hunting, and so forth." \ In this testimony
the word "hobgoblin" depreciates in our minds the character of
this supernatural being, but few if any savages have such a word
in their mental vocabulary. Few if any evil spirits worshiped
by savages unite in them the clumsiness and trickery of a hob-
goblin ; their evil, awful spirits are terrors, entering into all as-

* Travels to Timbuctoo, vol. i, p. 303.

f Bates's Life in the Amazons, vol. ii, p. 137.

THE RELIGION OF SAVAGES. 223

pects of life, filled with malignant purposes, and demanding con-
stant worship to propitiate them. Thus the Indians of Caracas,
in Venezuela, north of Brazil, while believing in good spirits,
render all their worship and offer all their sacrifices to a great
evil spirit, and do so because they feel that the good spirits are
naturally friendly and do not require to be lured on to perform
beneficent actions.

Sir John Lubbock's quotation from Ross as to the Eskimo is
equally lacking in thoroughness. Here is his quotation in full :
"Speaking of the Eskimo, Ross says: ' Ervick, being the senior
of the first party that came on board, was judged to be the most
proper person to question on the subject of religion. I directed
Sacheuse to ask him if he had any knowledge of a Supreme
Being ; but, after trying every word used in his language to ex-
press it, he could not make him understand what he meant. It
was distinctly ascertained that he did not worship the sun, moon,
stars, or any image or living creature. When asked what the
sun or moon was for, he said, to give light. He had no knowl-
edge or idea how he came into being, or of a future state ; but
said that when he died he would be put into the ground. Having
fully ascertained that he had no idea of a beneficent Supreme
Being, I proceeded, through Sacheuse, to inquire if he believed in
an evil spirit ; but he could not be made to understand what it
meant." ..." He was positive that in this incantation he did not
receive assistance from anything ; nor could he be made to under-
stand what a good or evil spirit meant.' "

This quotation, standing as it does alone, is unintentionally
unfair to Ross, for Sir John Lubbock either did not notice, or has
forgotten to quote, words used by Ross elsewhere with reference
to the Eskimo, although such words are very important. He
says: "Although there is no proof whatever that this people have
any idea of a Supreme Being, or of a spirit, good or bad, the cir-
cumstance of their having conjurers, and of their going to the
moon after death, are of a nature to prevent any conclusion from
being drawn to that effect ; especially as it must be evident that
our knowledge of their language was too imperfect to obtain the
whole of their ideas on the subject."*

It scarcely required these honest words of Ross, written, no
doubt, to prevent mistakes being made, because in the quotation
as given by Sir John Lubbock nothing can be clearer than the
fact that Ervick did not understand the questions put to him.
"I directed Sacheuse to ask him if had any knowledge of a Su-
preme Being, but after trying every word used in his own lan-
guage to express it, he could not make him understand what he

* Ross, Voyage of Discovery.

224 THE POPULAB SCIEI^CE MONTHLY.

meant" " I proceeded, through Sacheuse, to inquire if he believed
in an evil spirit ; but he could not be made to understand tvhat it
meant. He coidd 7\ot he made to understand what a good or evil
spirit meant." The probable fact of the matter was that Sacheuse
could not speak the Eskimo dialect of those he was catechising.
If he did not speak to them in " an unknown tongue," he certainly
did in an unfamiliar tongue, the result being a general misunder-
standing all round. If Sacheuse had been able to ask his listeners,
" Do you believe in a benevolent Creator called * Torngarsuk ' or
' Anguta ' ? " it is most likely he would have received his answer in
the shape of a definite affirmative.

" On Damood Island, between Australia and New Guinea,"
writes Sir John Lubbock, " Jukes could find no traces of any re-
ligious belief or observance." * This certainly is not to be won-
dered at, as he only spent part of a day there (March 21, 1845),
and the effort at interchange of views was singularly weak, as
the natives knew only a few words of English, and the English
visitors knew nothing of the native language. The portion of the
day spent on the island was taken up with bartering with the
natives on the seashore, and during part of this time Captain
Blackwood and Mr. Jukes struck " off for a walk across the island,"
in company with one of the natives. During this walk Jukes
noticed a superior kind of house which he thought might have
been a temple or a place for depositing the dead, or a chiefs house,
but " they could not make out which," for the simple reason that
they could not communicate with their guide.

The case of the Aru Islanders is a striking instance of Sir
John's method of quotation. Here are his words : " Mr. Wallace,
who had excellent opportunities for judging, and whose merits as
an observer no one can question, tells us that in the Aru Islands
he could find no trace of a religion ; adding, however, that he was
but a short time among them." \ Mr. Wallace, however, does not
agree with Sir John Lubbock as to his " excellent opportunities
for judging," for he says, " I could not get much real knowledge of
the customs of the Aru people during the short time I was among
them." The natives, he tells us, when in contact with foreign races
were reserved and taciturn ; and that as he could not speak the Aru
language, and the natives had " an imperfect knowledge of Malay,"
he could not " make out very clearly " what at times they said. " I
saw no signs of any religion " may mean that, in his rambles as a
naturalist through the country about Wanumbai, he never came
across anything like a temple or altar. Indeed, no one can read
Mr. Wallace's singularly interesting book without noticing that he

* Jukes, Voyage of the Fly, vol. i, p. 164.
f Wallace, Malayan Archipelago.

THE RELIGION OF SAVAGES. 225

apparently made no well- sustained effort at religious investiga-
tion at Aru or anywhere else.

The following gives evidence of further carelessness in quot-
ing : In writing of certain tribes in the country of Karaque in
Africa, Sir John says, "Captain Grant could find no distinct
form of religion in some of the comparatively civilized tribes
visited by him." * What Captain Grant says is this : " We could
not trace any distinct form of religion among this interesting race,
but there were certain indications or traces of Jewish worship."
Then Captain Grant tells us that the king had "many super-
stitions " ; that he " combined in himself the offices of prophet,
priest, and king " ; that on the feast of the new moon he " assumed
the priestly garb " ; and that a younger brother of his " consulted
daily with the gods," and was considered a greater prophet and
priest than his royal brother.

"According to Burchell," writes Sir John, "the Bachapins
(Kaffirs) had no form of worship or religion. They had no belief
in a good deity, but some vague idea of an evil being."! One
would glean from this quotation that the only approach to reli-
gious thought among the Bachapins consisted of a vague belief
in an evil spirit, whereas Burchell distinctly states that they
possessed a religion, although he believed they had no " form of
worship " or " religion." What he says is this : " Their religion
may be characterized as an inconsistent jumble of superstition
and ignorance, among which no signs were to be discovered of its
having ever been derived from any purer source, or that it was
aught else than the offspring of barbarous and uncultivated
minds." He then further states : " The superstition of the Bacha-
pins— for it can not be called a religion (although he himself had
called it so) — is of the weakest and most absurd kind. These
people have no outward worship, nor, if one may judge from
their never alluding to them, any private devotions; neither
could it be discovered that they possessed any very defined or ex-
alted notion of a supreme and beneficent deity, or of a great and
first creator. Although they do not worship a good deity, they
fear a bad one, whom they name Mooleemo, a word which my in-
terpreter translated by the Dutch word for devil. They also
believe in amulets as preservatives against evil, in lucky and un-
lucky omens, in witchcraft and sorcery."

Now, if language -means anything, BurchelPs testimony may
be summed up thus : " The Bachapin Kaffirs possess a religion
scarce worthy of the name, consisting of witchcraft and sorcery
and the recognition of an evil spirit called Mooleemo. Their no-

* A Walk across Africa, p. 145,

t Travels in South Africa, vol. ii, p. 550.

TOL. XLYIII.— 16

226 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tions with regard to a supreme and beneficent deity, or of a great
and first creator, are indefinite and degraded ; they have no out-
ward worship, and they never alluded to their offering private
devotions." All this, however, implies a great deal more than
Sir John's bare statement, "According to Burchell, the Bachapins
(Kaffirs) had no form of religion and worship," etc.

" Some of the Australian tribes," writes Sir John, " are said to
have no religion," and he gives as his authority for this state-
ment a reference to Collins.* Sir John does not quote literally
from Collins ; he sums up his testimony, but his mode of doing
so is scarcely satisfactory. For Collins, while stating that the
Australians worshiped neither sun, moon, nor stars, or any object,
admits that those he came in contact with had " some idea of a
future life " ; that the greater number of them believed that after
death they " went to the clouds." Conversing with Ben-nil-long
as to where the black men came from, his answer was, " They came
from the clouds, and when they died they returned to the clouds —
Boo-row-e," and he endeavored to make Collins understand that
when the black men died " they ascended as little children." Col-
lins further states that these Australians have ideas of the distinc-
tion between good and bad, and of right and wrong, but their
knowledge of the difference between right and wrong never ex-
tended beyond their existence in this world, and their ideas about
the future state had no influence on their lives and actions — an
assertion that might, unfortunately, be truthfully made in con-
nection with the religious views of many professing Christians.

In dealing with the lake tribes of Central Africa Sir John
gives Burton as his authority for stating that some of them " ad-
mit neither God, nor angel, nor devil." His words are : " Burton
also states that some of the tribes in the lake districts of Central
Africa ' admit neither God, nor angel, nor devil.' " t This quota-
tion is very meager, and its meagerness is scarcely just toward
Burton. Burton is describing f etichism, which he says " admits
neither God, nor angel, nor devil " — a statement certainly open to
argument — and then he proceeds as follows: "Fetichism," he
writes, " is the adoration, or rather the propitiation, of natural
objects, animate or inanimate — to which certain mysterious in-
fluences are attributed. Though instinctively conscious of a
Being beyond them, of a first cause to every effect subject to
their senses, the Africans have as yet failed to grasp the idea, in
their feeble minds it is an embryo rather than an object, at the
best a vague god, without personality, attributes, or providence.
They call that being Mulungu — the Ahlunga of the Kaffirs, and

* English Colony in New South Wales, p. 354.

f Transactions of the Ethnological Society, New Series, vol. i, p. 323.

THE RELIGION OF SAVAGES. 227

tlie Utita of the Hottentots. The term, however, may mean a
ghost, the firmament, or the sun/'

Sir John's method of quotation sometimes implies total unbe-
lief without asserting it, as in his quotation from Father Dobritz-
hoffer with regard to the Abipones. The words quoted are, " The
whole language of these savages does not contain a single word
which expresses God or a divinity/' * These words taken alone
imply atheism, or something akin to it, but in common fairness
they should not be taken alone, for Dobritzhoffer tells us that the
Abipones hold a somewhat defined faith. They believe in an evil
spirit called Groaperikie — i. e.. Grandfather — who is represented in
the heavens by the Pleiades. In the month of May, on the reap-
pearance of the constellation, they welcome their Grandfather
back with joyful shouts, as if he had recovered from sickness,
and with the hymn, " What thanks do we owe thee ! And art
thou returned at last ? Ah ! thou hast happily recovered."
Next day they go out to seek honey to make mead, and as soon
as that is prepared they assemble in one place at the setting of
the sun to make public demonstration of gladness. Dobritzhoffer
further tells us that the Abipones, and indeed all the nations in
Paraguay, believe in a system of conjuring, the conjurers being
invested with great powers by the evil spirit Grandfather.
" From their custom of calling up the shades of the dead, we may
deduce that they believe in the immortality of the soul, as may
also be collected from their rites and conversation. The other
people of Paraguay hold the same opinion as to the immortality
of the soul. The jugglers perform the office of priests."

Colden's testimony as to the " Five Nation " Indians of Canada
is presented by Sir John Lubbock in such a way as to imply far
more than Golden intended. Sir John says, " Golden, who had
ample means of judging, assures us that the celebrated 'Five
Nations' of Ganada had no public worship or any name for
God." t Golden certainly does tell us that " they have no kind of
public worship," but he plainly never meant to imply that they
had no idea of God because they could not express that idea in
one word. What he says is this : " I am told they have no radi-
cal word to express God, but use a compound word, signifying
the Preserver, Sustainer, or Master of the universe."

When one considers the influence that Sir John Lubbock's
Prehistoric Times has had on the reading public, and the shock
that his statements as to the utter irreligiousness of certain tribes
gave many of his readers, one feels inclined to question his au-
thority as a teacher, when his quotations are submitted to the
simple test of verification. One wonders how such a man as Sir

* Account of Abipones, vol. ii, p. 57. f The Five Nations of Canada.

2 28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

John Lubbock could gather into the compass of a few concluding
pages of a really great work such a tissue of misguiding infor-
mation. His character testifies that he could not do so inten-
tionally, and it is not likely that his religious views are of such a
nature as to lead him to rule outside of the pale of religious be-
lief all who do not use a systematic form of worship, or do not
acknowledge in creedlike fashion the person of the Divine Being.
The only feasible explanation seems to be found in that peculiar
blindness which all students know is apt to fall on the eyes of
those who are striving to gather material to support a pet theory.
In such cases, as the eye runs down page after page of close print,
seeking for a scrap of information here or there, it naturally selects
the sentence favorable to the theory, and passes over or does not see
unfavorable sentences that may contain much more valuable in-
formation. Where such a method of investigation is pursued as
a basis for quotation, a singularly strong case can commonly be
presented on behalf of the theory ; above all, where the works re-
lied on have, on account of their age, passed out of general cir-
culation. But such a method is palpably unscientific, being cal-
culated to give a partial view of the point at issue, whatever that
may be. If Sir John Lubbock, in the hurry of a busy life, has
not fallen under this common temptation, then one knows not
how to explain the extraordinary fact that one of the keenest
minds in the English scientific world has so persistently left
undone what he ought to have done, and done what he ought not
to have done, as he gave to the public quotations from other
writers.

Another strange fact is apparent. Prehistoric Times has gone
through five editions, the first being published in 1859, the sec-
ond in 1869, and the fifth in 1890. During this period of time in-
vestigations into the habits, customs, and religions of isolated and
barbarous tribes have been very widespread, and the harvest of
information reaped has been very large. But greater light has
made no change in Sir John's authorities. Jukes, Collins, Bur-
chell, Caillie, Dobritzhoff er, and Catlin maintain their time-honored
position, and the harvest of modern investigation might never
have been reaped, as far as Sir John is concerned. It is not the.
object of this article to enter into this harvest field, though the
subject is in every way interesting and the facts close to hand.
But a noble work lies before Sir John Lubbock, namely, that of
reviewing his original statements in the light of modern investi-
gation, and proceeding to prove the position that there is not a
well-authenticated case of a single tribe on the face of the earth
wholly destitute of the religious idea.

AMONG THE CANNIBAL ISLANDS. zzg

AMONG THE CANNIBAL ISLANDS.

By LAENAS GIFFOED WELD.

SPREAD out before you a chart of the South Pacific — one
upon which are set down the many details useful to the
navigator of this strangely interesting region. Besides the in-
tricate labyrinth of islands, reefs, rocks, and shoals which are
scattered over its surface, there are recorded the variations of the
compass, the directions of the ocean currents, and the results
of countless soundings. Running your pencil through all the
points on this map for which the indicated depth is fifteen hun-
dred fathoms or thereabouts, you will be able to trace out an
irregular and more or less interrupted band, extending from the
East Indian seas nearly to the coast of South America. Within
the area thus marked out the sea is comparatively shallow ; so
that, were its bed to be elevated some thousands of feet, we
should see emerging from its surface a vast continental area,
bordered on the north and south by open seas.

We are told that such a continent once really existed, but
that for thousands of years it has been slowly subsiding. The
coral polyp has all this time been building up the countless reefs
and atolls of this region, keeping their summits flush with the
surface of the sea as the subsidence has gone on ; so that here,
instead of the dull monotony of an ocean desert, we have one of the
most striking physical features of the globe. There are volcanic
masses among these coral islands which, rising some few thou-
sand feet above the level of the great barrier reefs that surround
them, may be looked upon as remnants of this vanishing conti-
nent of the Pacific. Among these ancient landmarks none are of
more interest than the great Fiji group of islands.

Until within quite recent years the word Fiji was regarded as
a synonym for all that is barbaric ; and if that epithet, " King
of the Cannibal Islands," ever had any real claimant, it must have
been in the person of Thakombau, the native potentate who
played so important a part in the history of Fiji from the time
of its first settlement by Europeans till it was formally annexed
by Great Britain.

This regenerate old cannibal had spent the first forty years of
his life in wars with his neighboring chiefs and in the practice of
the most horrible barbarities. The strangling of his own mother
and of his father's four other wives was only a part of the usual
ceremony attending the assumption of the title of Tui Viti, or
King of Fiji. Thakombau was, however, not hostile to the
Wesleyan missionaries who had established themselves within
his domain ; but, while he listened respectfully to their remon-

230 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

strances, lie remained a determined heathen. This continued so
long as he was prosperous ; but when, in 1854, tribe after tribe had
successfully rebelled against him, he began to listen more favor-
ably to the counsels of the Christians. On the 30th of April of
that year he gave orders that the great drums at his capital,
which had been used till then to summon his people to cannibal
feasts, should be beaten to call them together at the mission
house to worship the true God. Two years later, having remained
true to his new faith, he was united in Christian marriage to his
favorite wife, and they were together baptized.

It was the same king who, at a later period, finding himself
a mere puppet in the hands of foreigners, who had formed them-
selves into a government, of which he was the nominal head,
brought about a general appeal from the most powerful chiefs to
England's Queen for protection — an appeal which was, in 1874,
listened to with favor. Upon this occasion Thakombau sent to
Queen Victoria his favorite war club, which he himself styled
" the former, and until recently the only known, law of Fiji."

The territory thus acquired by the British Empire comprises
over two hundred islands of various sizes, some seventy-five of
which are inhabited. The largest, Viti Levu, is oval in form, and
has an area nearly equal to that of the State of Connecticut.
Vanua Levu, lying to the northeast of Viti Levu, rather exceeds
Delaware in size. Between these two islands, which are by far
the largest in the group, is a channel some thirty miles in width ;
but the sea here, as well as over an immense area to the north, is
so full of coral patches that navigation is exceedingly dangerous.
The southern shores of the islands are more accessible, and afford
many excellent harbors, of which that of Suva, the English capi-
tal, on the southeast coast of Viti Levu, is the best.

The study of the difference in the character of the northern
and southern aspects of the larger islands affords an interesting
lesson in physical geography. Thrust upward into the currents
of the southeast trade winds to a height of over four thousand feet,
the mountain ranges act as huge condensers, precipitating in
torrents of rain the moisture which these currents have absorbed
from the open sea. This condensation takes place principally as
the winds blow up the southern mountain slopes, so that com-
paratively little rain falls upon the north side of the islands.
The largest streams, therefore, flow back down the southern
slopes to the sea, where they discharge immense volumes of fresh
water. As fresh water is fatal to most species of coral polyps, we
find here, along the southern coast, comparatively few of those
dangerous reefs that fringe the islands on the north.

The fertility of the soil, which in the valleys and on all the
southern slopes is thoroughly saturated with moisture, is quite

AMONG THE CANNIBAL ISLANDS. 231

equal to that of other similar regions. In the dense tropical
forests, which cover large areas, tree ferns, screw pines, and a
multitude of other strange forms contend with one another for
the light of day, while affording nourishment to an immense
variety of epiphytic mosses, lianas, and ferns, which connect the
larger stems and branches with an almost impenetrable network
of green.

There are few really indigenous species of animals ; rats and
flying foxes being the only mammals. As to the others now
found here, the names by which they are known point to their
European origin; thus we have seepi (sheep), goti (goat), collie
(dog), pussi (cat), etc. Even the hogs and fowls which run wild
in the jungles came originally from the Friendly Islands, where
they were introduced by the early navigators.

Living in such a little world as this, the Fijians were of neces-
sity much in advance of the races inhabiting the neighboring
Pacific islands. The struggle for securing and holding this fair
domain must of itself have led to its possession by a superior
race. We find evidences of this superiority not only in the splen-
did physical development of the Fijians, but also in their rela-
tively advanced religious notions and in their rather elaborate
system of mythology. One traveler has likened this people, in
some respects, to the primitive Greeks. If we compare the petty
maritime enterprises celebrated in Fijian song and story with
those recorded by the early Greek poets, we may imagine the dif-
ference to be in some measure due to the difference in character
of the two archipelagoes which were their respective scenes of
action. Upon taking the trouble to translate certain books of
Homer into Fijian it was found that their recital was listened to
by a company of these untutored savages with the most appreci-
ative attention. This fact certainly speaks well for the mental
quality of the race. The one foul blot upon the character of the
Fijians was their cannibalism ; but, in view of the readiness with
which they have abandoned this practice, now that animal food
can be easily obtained, we must hold Nature responsible, not only
for this curse, but also for the many other barbarities attend-
ing it.

The national character of Fiji finds its best expression in the
songs once common among the natives, but now, under Christian
influences, almost obsolete. These songs or mekkes, as they are
called, generally recount the story of some ancient hero, of some
military campaign or naval expedition, or perhaps of a peaceful
fishing excursion. They are generally sung of evenings by the
men only, who assemble for the purpose in one of their long, low
huts. Here they sit in solemn state on mats laid upon the ground,
the only light being that of a smoky fire in one end. According

232 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

to Major Abercrombie, an eyewitness of the ceremony, one man
begins the chant alone ; a second soon joins him, then a few more,
till finally all present have taken it up, accompanying the wild
music by much pantomime and earnest gesticulation. The time
is beaten upon a wooden drum by one of their number, and is
occasionally accentuated by a general clapping of the hands.
After a certain climax has been reached, the music stops quite
abruptly with one loud clap.

Yangona, the national beverage, is then served. This liquor
is brewed with much formality, accompanied by low chanting.
The great wooden bowl having been brought into the center of
the room, the operator in charge sits down cross-legged before it.
The yangona root is grated (it was formerly chewed by young
men selected for the purpose) and deposited in the bowl, the in-
side of which has, from long use, become covered with a beautiful
j)urple enamel. The requisite number of cocoanut shells of water
are measured out and poured over the grated root, the whole
being stirred to the music of a solemn chant. The floating par-
ticles of the grated root are collected and removed by means of a
net of hibiscus fibers skillfully handled by the person in charge of
the brew. The liquor thus prepared is handed round in cups of
cocoanut shell, the chief being the first to drink. Taking the
cup between his two palms, he slowly swallows its contents with-
out removing it from his lips, while the onlookers join in a meas-
ured clapping of the hands. When the cup is finally thrown
down with a spinning motion, to show that it is empty, all unite
in the chorus, ".4 matha, a matha" — it is finished. The others
now drink in a certain order of precedence. The liquor is of a
dirty yellow color and has a bitter, aromatic taste, not altogether
disagreeable. Used in moderation, it acts as a stimulant, but if
indulged in too freely a temporary paralysis of the lower extrem-
ities follows, and the victim, while perfectly rational, reels and
staggers as if drunk.

It is at these meetings around the yangona bowl that the nu-
merous legends and fables of which the Fijians were passionately
fond have been handed down in song from generation to genera-
tion. As a specimen of these mythical tales we give one which
has been rescued from oblivion by the Rev. Thomas Williams
and recorded by Mrs. C. F. Gordon Gumming in her At Home in
Fiji. It tells of a gigantic bird called " Duck of the Rock." This
monster carried off Tutu Wathi Wathi, the beautiful wife of the
god Okovo and sister of Rokoua. The two gods gave chase in a
large canoe, and as they voyaged came to an island inhabited by
beautiful goddesses. Here the brother wished to remain, but, the
husband protesting, they sailed on to the Yasawas, the most west-
erly isles of the group. Here was the cavern in which dwelt the

AMONG THE CANNIBAL ISLANDS. 233

great bird, but it was empty, and they found only one little finger
of the hapless Tutu Wathi Wathi. The angry gods now swore to
avenge her death, when presently they saw the monster approach-
ing, his great wings darkening the sea like the shadow of a storm
cloud. In his beak he carried five large turtles and in his talons
ten porpoises. These he deposited upon the rocks and proceeded
to devour, while Okovo prayed the other gods to help him by
sending a storm of wind. The prayer was answered, and a sudden
gust ruffled the feathers of the monster, so that Rokoua was able
to force a spear through an unprotected spot into his vitals. Hav-
ing thus accomplished their just revenge, they took one of the
smallest feathers for a new sail, and then cast the dead body into the
sea, causing such a surge as to " flood the foundations of the sky."

It is to be regretted that these legends have not been more
carefully collected by the earlier settlers in Fiji. Even the few of
them which have been preserved exhibit a truly interesting na-
tional character. But this national character has been lost since
the advent of the European. The Fijian of to-day does not like
to be reminded in any way of the old days when cannibalism was
in vogue. He is exceedingly sensitive to the sneer of the white
man. While the race has been partially rescued from barbarism,
it has lost its old vigor and spirit. The native population has of
late years been decreasing at an alarming rate. An epidemic of
measles, heedlessly introduced in 1875, carried off fifty thousand
souls, about one third of the whole population of the islands.
Fiji is but the vestige of a former continent, which has gone down
beneath the steadily encroaching sea. The Fijians are fast be-
coming, before the resistless encroachments of the European, only
the vestige of a former race.

We have here now a well-ordered British colony. Sugar, cot-
ton, wool, tobacco, bananas, cocoanuts, and other agricultural
products are exported in great quantities. The extensive planta-
tions are worked largely by laborers introduced from India and
the neighboring Pacific islands. But as a colony Fiji does not
prosper. Better times are looked for when the Nicaragua Canal
shall have become a reality, as these islands lie upon the great
commercial route which will then be established between Eng-
land and Australia.

Enumerating the applications that have been or may be made of
zoology to the arts and industries, Dr. William A. Hardman showed, in the
British Association, that biological principles dominate medicine and sur-
gery ; bacteriology and brewing depend on the study of microscopic organ-
isms; economic entomology is of value in agriculture; and zoology has a
practical application to the fishing industry.

234 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

MIRACLES m FRENCH CANADA.

By EDWAED FAREER.

THE village of Beauprd, on the north shore of the St. Law-
rence, twenty-one miles east of Quebec, is famous as the
chief seat in America of the cult of Saint Anne, mother of the
Virgin Mary. About 1620 a Breton crew, struck by a tempest
off the lower end of the Isle of Orleans, vowed a sanctuary to her
if she would rescue them, and on being driven ashore at Beaupr^,
then known as Petit Cap, built her a log chapel. A large wooden
church was afterward put up, and in it Laval, first Bishop of New
France, whose spiritual empire was so vast that it has since been
divided into seventy dioceses, deposited a piece of a finger bone
of Saint Anne.* In 1686 a stone church was erected and remains
to this day. A much more splendid edifice was completed in 1889,
at a cost of half a million dollars. In 1876 Pius IX " was pleased,"
writes one of the Redemptorist Fathers in charge, " to declare
Saint Anne patroness of the Province of Quebec, without preju-
dice to the title of Saint Joseph, the patron of all Canada." The
present Pope has bestowed honors and privileges upon the new
church, which has received more relics of the saint, including a
fragment of rock from her house in Jerusalem, " from the room,
indeed, wherein took place the mysteries of the Immaculate Con-
ception."

In the grandeur of its buildings and decorations, and in the
elaborate machinery employed to fire devotion and attract pil-
grims, the shrine is now second to none, except perhaps those of
Lourdes and La Salette. A railroad has been built from Quebec,
and steamboats make connection with the Intercolonial, Quebec
Central, Grand Trunk, and Canadian Pacific. Huge boarding
houses and hotels offer accommodation to visitors, who can also
obtain rooms in the convent of the Gray Nuns. A miracle-work-
ing spring has been discovered, and the water is sold in bottles at
a depository in the church. The Redemptorists issue a monthly

* The Manual issued by the Redemptorists says Samt Anne was buried near Jerusalem,
but her body was subsequently laid in the Church of the Sepulchre of Our Lady, in the
Valley of Jehoshaphat, " One day a mysterious bark was seen to approach the shores of
France. It had neither sail nor rudder, but God was its pilot. Never had the ocean borne
a greater treasure. In this bark were Saint Lazarus with his two pious sisters, Saint Mary
Magdalen and Saint Martha, together with several other saintly women. They were fleeing
from Palestine with a number of priceless relics, the most precious among which was the
hallowed body of Saint Anne. This treasure was placed in the hands of Saint Auspicius,
the first Bishop of Apt." It was buried " to protect it from sacrilegious hands, and the
place where it had been secreted was wholly forgotten " till, Charlemagne being at Apt one
Easter day, " a miracle led to the discovery of the place."

MIRACLES IJSr FRENCH CANADA, 235

publication to make known tlie cures. The bandages, sticks, and
crutches piled in rows speak for themselves, as also the ex voto
paintings, one or two by Lebrun, representing the saint in the act
of delivering clients from perils by sea and land ; American flags,
bracelets, wax flowers, guns, knives, tobacco pouches, etc., are
gifts from poorer clients who have experienced her kindness. Per-
sons unable to visit the shrine, owing to bodily infirmity or any
other restraining cause, may be represented by substitutes or may
forward letters containing their requests to the saint ; these are
deposited beneath the statue in front of the main altar and
prayers are said for a favorable answer through her intercession.
The number of pilgrims exceeds one hundred thousand a year.

Nature has furnished an admirable setting for the shrine.
The St. Lawrence at this point is four miles wide. Directly oppo-
site Beauprd is the Isle of Orleans ; behind it, the Saint Anne Moun-
tain and the Laurentian Hills clad with pine, maple, and balm of
Gilead. Cap Tourmente lies to the eastward ; there the river be-
gins to widen till at Tadousac, where the Saguenay joins it, it is
thirty- five miles from shore to shore. To the west are the farm-
houses and uplands of Chateau Richer, the Falls of Montmorency,
from their bellowing and white foam called the Vache, Beauport
and the valley of the St. Charles, Quebec and the historic rock.
On summer evenings the old Breton hymn peals over the waters :

" O sainte Anne, 6 M^re cherie !

Garde au cceur des Bretons la foi des anciens jours;
Entends du haut du ciel le cri de la patrie —
Catholique et Breton toujours ! "

Even in winter, when the snow lies level with the fences and the
St. Lawrence is gorged with ice, Beauprd attracts an occasional
devotee. The height of the pilgrim season is from June to the
middle of September.

Miracles are wrought for the most part in the new church,
though the old one is still favored. Some find no immediate
relief, but are cured on reaching home. At the ordinary services
the ofliciating priest marches down from the high altar to some
unhappy creature gasping at the rails, and, after a few prelimina-
ries, applies one of the relics, incased in crystal with gold bands,
to the part affected, reciting meanwhile the litany of Saint Anne :
" Grandmother of our Saviour, Mother of Mary, Ark of Noah,
Root of Jesse, Light of the Blind, Tongue of the Dumb." The
other sufferers struggle to their feet and watch the process with
breathless interest. The dying consumptive bares his breast that
the relic may be placed directly over his lungs, then sinks to his
knees at the foot of the statue ; having finished the litany, the
priest turns to the Gospel of Saint Anne ; the thurif ers surround

236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the patient and swing the incense, the relic is elevated, a bell
rings, and the congregation kneels. This is the supreme moment.
No time is lost, however, on a busy day, and when it is seen that
a miracle is not forthcoming, the poor fellow is bundled into one
of the sixteen lateral chapels, where other saints are venerated ;
his place is taken by another far-gone pilgrim, or perhaps a batch
not so grievously afflicted are beckoned to the rails and the relic
passed from lip to lip amid the prayers and sobs of five thousand
onlookers. No one asks, with the skeptic in the temple of the sea-
god, Where be the offerings of them that have perished ? if only
a single miracle be announced during the week or recorded in the
monthly Annales,

The golden age of miracles in French Canada dates from
the arrival of the Recollets and Jesuits, 1615-^25, and may
be said to have terminated about 1860. The Church possesses
many relics besides those of Saint Anne, some among the most
precious in Christendom,* and has had local martyrs and con-
fessors whose ashes repose here. Nevertheless, the stream of
miracles outside Beauprd has gradually dwindled and dried up,
and those of Beauprd are losing their old characteristics.

In the early days Saint Anne cured all manner of ailments
with an untiring hand. The Relations des J^suites for 1667 contain
an account of the chief miracles wrought down to that time — the
cure of Elie Godin of dropsy ; Marguerite Bire, of fracture of the
leg, Jean Adam, blind of both eyes ; Pradere, a French soldier, of
paralysis and une apostume dans Vestomac, and other wonders to
which Laval bore witness. Saint Anne never raised the dead to
life, at least not in Canada, nor gave a limb to a one-legged client
as Saint Anthony of Padua did, but over and over again she cured
heart disease, cancer, apoplexy, and consumption. She interfered
to save pious persons from death in the forest, when they had
been pinned under a falling tree, by inspiring neighbors to go to
their aid or a faithful dog to carry a piece of blood-stained bark
to the nearest settlement, and snatched many from ice jams,
bush fires, and Dutch men-of-war, in the last case resorting to the

* At the celebration in 1874 of the second centenary of the erection of the Diocese of
Quebec over five hundred relics were exposed. The list is given in Le Deuxi^me Centenaire,
an official account, bearing the imprimatur of Cardinal Taschereau. Among them were relics
of the vetement depourpre de Jems Christy creche de Jesics Christ, colonne de la flagellation
de Jesus Christ, sainie epine de Jesus Christ, table de la dernihe sc^ne, terre ozi Jesus pria,
pierre sur laquelle Notre Seigneur s'oMit et mangea avec ses apotres, vraie croix de Jesus
Christ, etc. Also, apparel of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, fragment of the rock
struck by Moses, lock of hair of Saint Mary Magdalen, portion of the cloth of the head of
Saint John the Baptist, fragment of a wooden altar served by Saint Peter, and of the block
on which Saint Paul was beheaded, bones of the Holy Innocents, of the chief disciples, of
Saint Stephen the first martyr, etc.

MIRACLES IN FRENCH CANADA, 237

expedient of causing a fog to liide the vessel of her friends. She
rendered barren women fruitful, and once or twice cured the
dumb ; by her efforts attempts to plant Jansenism in the colony-
were frustrated ; she also brought to naught the designs of stray
Huguenots. At the siege of Quebec Wolfe dispatched an expe-
dition to harry the river parishes. "Wherever resistance was
offered," says Parkman, " farmhouses and villages were laid in
ashes, though churches were generally spared." The church at
Beaupr^ was not spared by the troops; it was set on fire three
times, but each time Saint Anne extinguished the flames, and
some of the Highlanders confessed the miracle. When the north
shore down to Cap Tourmente was blazing, nearly all the farm-
houses in which she was specially venerated escaped.

But since 1860 or 1865, when the rush of population to the
New England factories set in and French Canada began to receive
at second hand the new ideas absorbed by the emigrants, the saint
has been comparatively listless. She cures headache and dys-
pepsia, converts Protestants with Catholic wives, finds employ-
ment for clients, protects them while traveling, restores lost ob-
jects, procures young women admission to convents, and endows
those who come to her in a proper spirit with grace and strength
to quit evil practices. Now and then we hear of a hysterical girl
being cured on the spot, or of an epileptic finding relief, but as a
matter of fact the character of the miracles has deteriorated
since faith in them has been shaken by New England influences.
Hence the rather bitter remark, attributed to Mgr. B^gin, that if
the French Canadians are supplanting the Puritan stock, Puri-
tanism is having its revenge in French Canada.

Formerly images of Saint Anne were carried in procession
through a parish to bring on rain or to stop rain, a ceremony that
reminded one of the old Roman religion and the transportation of
Bacchus, Ceres, and Dea Dia through the fields and vineyards by
white-clad youths, followed by the lustral water and the full in-
cense box. The practice is falling into desuetude ; the habitant,
like the rest of us, is beginning to be satisfied with the weather
as it comes, and to have confidence in the predictions of the
meteorological office. A bad crop is still attributed to the
backsliding of the farmers or to the nonpayment of tithes. In
French Canada the tithe, collectable by law and a first lien on the
soil, is every twenty-sixth bushel of cereals. Of late, since the
opening of the western prairies, the habitants have dropped cereal
growing and taken to raising hay for the United States market.
In this manner the cures have been cheated out of tithes, and some
in whom the sense of reverence must have been dim pointed to the
McKinley bill, which levied a duty of four dollars per ton, as an
expression of the divine wrath.

238 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The Normans and Bretons wtio colonized New France were
governed to the end of their nails, as they used to say, from the
mother country. The local self-government of the American
colonies, the town meeting and its ramifications, were unknown ;
they were not allowed to hold meetings nor even to tax themselves
for improvements without the royal permission. There were no
common schools; the EecoUets, or begging friars, taught the
A B C as they wandered from parish to parish, but only where
they found lodging for the night. As late as 1835 an act of the
legislature was passed permitting school trustees to sign their
reports with a mark. The feu-follet, or Will o' the wisp, was either
an unshriven soul or Satan himself ; sorciers were witches and
imps who held their sabbaths on the Isle of Orleans ; the cliasse-
galerie, a huntsman with a pack of dogs, appeared on the eve of a
storm ; but the most formidable apparition was the were- wolf, or
loup-garou, which was seen as late as 1767 in the county of
Kamouraska, seeking whom it might devour. None of these
ugly visitors could cross a stream which bore a saint's name. If
encountered in the woods, the feu follet could generally be dodged
by sticking a needle in the earth or holding out a half -open knife
after first making the sign of the cross ; but the only safeguards
against the others short of making a race for the St. Lawrence or
the St. Something-else was for the traveler to carry a bottle of
holy water, Le Formulaire, a prayer-book originally got up for
the Ursuline nuns, or the petit Albert, which contained the forms
for exorcising evil spirits.

The Jesuits have described the Arcadian simplicity of life and
manners and the extraordinary piety of the early settlers, kept
fervid both by their ministrations and by the constant Indian at-
tacks. Every church had its own saint and relic, not necessarily
of that particular saint, and its own miracles. Laval's successor
presented the parish of Saint Paul in the Isle of Orleans with an
arm bone of the great apostle of the Gentiles. A few years after-
ward the parish changed its name to Saint Laurent, and the ad-
joining parish of Saint Peter thereupon called itself Saint Peter
and Saint Paul. The cures agreed to exchange relics, but the
Saint Laurent people refused to be bound by that arrangement,
and one night entered the church of Saint Pierre, carried off their
old relic, and left the other, which they deemed an inferior one.
Miracles beyond number were reported and passed into popular
belief without being vouched for by ecclesiastical authority, such
as missionaries using their cloaks as rafts to cross lakes and rivers,
checking bush fires by drawing a line on the ground, being di-
rected when they had lost their way and providentially supplied
with food.

The Acadians had miracles in plenty. In the introduction

MIRACLES IN FRENCH CANADA, 239

to A Legend of Montrose, Sir Walter Scott speaks of the por-
tents which announced the Highland clearings — the notes of
the night wind howling down the pass of Balachra modeled to
the tune of We Return no More, the song with which High-
landers usually bade farewell to their native land ; " the uncouth
cries of the Southland shepherds and the barking of their dogs in
the midst of the hills long before their actual arrival/^ I have
been told at St. Pierre-Miquelon that the Acadians who fled to
those French islands from the country of Evangeline were quite
sure they had been forewarned of what was in store by the ap-
pearance of British armies in the sky, by dirgelike sounds from
the ocean, and the wailing of souls in purgatory heard during
Mass for a year before the calamity. In 1811-^12 Bishop Plessis
visited Prince Edward Island, and in the account of his journey,
published long afterward,* we are told that mysterious voices
were heard in the Acadian churches, but not in the churches fre-
quented by the Roman Catholics of Highland Scotch extraction.
There was a groaning or sighing voice like that of a person in dis-
tress, and a singing voice like that of a woman or a child. On the
mainland of New Brunswick these voices followed the Acadians
to the lumber shanties, and were heard on Sundays when they
gathered for prayer. In the churches the voices were loudest
during the recitation of the litany of the Holy Name of Jesus.
The good bishop asks : " What are these voices ? Whence come
they, and for what reason do they make themselves heard ? " He
comes to the philosophical conclusion that " as they have done no
one any harm it matters little whether they cease or keep on."
At the grand derangement, as they call their deportation, the
Acadians received at least one mark of favor from the Virgin
Mary. Abbd Ferland tells the story in his La Gaspesie. Two
hundred and fifty of them on board a vessel bound from Port
Royal to the Carolinas overpowered the crew during a storm,
fastened a scapular to the rudder, and invited the Virgin to take
charge ; she did so, and in a few hours they made land at Riviere
Saint- Jean. The Virgin helped the French at the battle of Ticon-
deroga, appearing in white on the breastworks as the enemy came
up for each fresh attack. She did not appear on the Plains of
Abraham, nor during Montgomery's invasion ; in the latter cam-
paign, indeed, the mass of the French Canadians would probably
have been glad if she had helped the Bostonnais.

There were legends among the French Canadians of revela-
tions from heaven having been vouchsafed to the Indians. Mgr.
de S. Valier traveled through the Gulf region in 1685-87 in the
capacity of grand-vicaire to Laval, and published a report at

* Le Foyer Canadien, 1865.

240 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Paris in 1688, reprinted at Quebec in 1857. He speaks of the Crn-
ciantaux Indians, wlio " have a particular respect for the cross,"
which they wore on their persons, planted over their graves, and
attached to their canoes. An Indian " one hundred or one hun-
dred and twenty years old" related that he had witnessed the
arrival of the first ship that came from Europe to that part of the
country. But the use of the cross among the Indians antedated
that event and had not been introduced by outsiders. Once upon
a time, during a famine, when the spirits had been appealed to in
vain by the medicine men, an old savage saw in a dream a yonng
man who promised the band an early deliverance by virtue of the
cross, and showed him three crosses — one to protect them from
visitations, another to serve them in their councils, the third to
guard them in their journeys. When the old man woke he whit-
tled three crosses just like them, and this is how the cult began.
The incantations and jongleries of medicine men were sometimes
blamed by the early white settlers for causing a failure of the
crops. In these modern days the blasphemy of the habitant is
blamed, though as a rule he seldom blasphemes except when
plowing with fractious oxen. In a book (Une Mine, etc.) pub-
lished in 1880 a worthy Oblat father asks, "Why these bush
fires, droughts, wet seasons, frosts, hailstorms, worms, and flies
that ruin your crops ? " and goes on to ascribe them to the " tor-
rent of bad language that deluges your fields."

When Father Labrosse, a famous Gulf missionary, died at
Tadousac, the bells of all the churches were tolled hy angels. The
orucifix outrage is among the relics of the Hotel-Dieu ; it was used
by a soldier in divinations by which he undertook to find lost
money. A fete was established by way of public atonement, and
miracles have since been performed with it. Here, as elsewhere,
the corruption of names has given rise to legends of the miracu-
lous and the uncanny. Thus Cap d'Espoir, Cape of Hope, has
been twisted by English sailors into Cape Despair ; the French
have accepted the corruption and made it Cap Ddsespoir. Then
to account for the name, tradition says one of the vessels of Sir
Hovenden Walker's expedition against Quebec was cast away at
the spot, and the remains of a wreck are still shown and known
as the naufrage anglais. Till a few years ago the fishermen at
Cap Ddsespoir used to be warned of storms by the apparition of
this English frigate, with her terror-stricken officers and men
gazing landward and the captain apparently upbraiding the pilot.
The fishermen of the Gulf of St. Lawrence are as superstitious as
fishermen elsewhere. They hear the lamentations of lost souls
like the hraiUard off Riviere de la Madeleine and see supernatural
lights like the feu des Boussis at Paspebiac. The haddock, le
poisson de Saini- Pierre, was the first fish caught at the miracu-

MIRACLES IJSr FRENCH CANADA, 241

loTis drauglit in Lake Gennesaret, and the finger marks of tlie apos-
tle are on its back. Nevertlieless it is not a lucky fish., possibly
because " their net brake " and they " filled both the ships so that
they began to sink/' The French-Canadian fisherman and the
fisherman from old France work side by side on the Banks of
Newfoundland. There is a marked difference in their accent and
intonation as well as in their physical appearance, three hundred
years of existence in the New World having made the French
Canadian swarthier and leaner than the man from Saint Malo.
On the rocks of Cap h> I'Aigle at St. Pierre-Miquelon there is a
white statue of the Virgin, and as his vessel passes it the French
Canadian is careful to salute the *' old mother," but the fisherman
from France ignores her. While the latter sings modern songs
from the cafes of Paris, the former sticks to the songs his ances-
tors brought from France — Malbrough, Dans les prisons de Nantes,
Sur le pont d' Avignon, Par derri^r' chez ma tante. En roulant ma
boule, etc. Both believe that a sorcier can find the best fishing
ground on the Banks, that a dog on board brings good luck, that
it is bad luck to whistle, and so on. At home the French-Cana-
dian fisherman occasionally sees the Wandering Jew striding
along the beach in the direction of Labrador, which, by the way,
was the heritage of Cain. To meet him face to face brings good
luck if you happen to be returning from vespers, but not other-
wise. There is an old baHad about him in which, ''near the town
of Bruxell's in Brabant," he accompanies two honest fellows into
a tavern and over a pot de hidre fratche describes the events at
Jerusalem that led to his being banished *' to everywhere and no-
where without end " :

•
** Sur le mont du Calvaire

Jesus portait sa croix ;

II me dit, debonnaire,

Passant devant chez moi:

Veux-toi bien, mon ami,

Que je repose ici ? "'

But the Wandering Jew — Isaac Laquedemme by name, and by
trade a shoemaker — was in bad humor that day, and replied sans
raison :

" 6tes-toi, criminelle,
De devant ma maison;
Avance et marche done
Car tu me f ais affront I "

Then came the terrible sentence :

" Jesus, la bonte meme,
Me dit en soupirant:

TOL. XLTIIl. — 17

242 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

* Tu marcheras toi-meme
Pendant plus de mille ans;
Le dernier jugeraeut
Finira ton tourment ! ' "

He tas been tramping ever since, wearing his shoemaker's
apron, and always with five sous, never more or less, in his pocket,
glad to drink a glass of wine with any honest bourgeois he meets,
but much tormented in soul when he halts for that purpose. The
ballad, as sung in French Canada, is given in full in Ernest
Gagnon's collection.

Among the miracles recorded by ecclesiastics, the most strik-
ing was the defeat of the English expedition against Quebec in
1690 by the Virgin Mary, to whom a church, still standing in
Lower Town — Notre Dame des Victoires — was forthwith dedicated.
Miraculous cures were wrought by the relics of the Jesuit Brebeuf,
murdered in the country of the Hurons near Penetanguishene,
and through invoking the Jesuit Le Jeune. These are about the
only miracles officially credited to the Jesuits ; they bear no com-
parison with those ascribed to the Jesuit Anchieta in Brazil ; still
less with those of St, Francis Xavier and the missionary thauma-
turgists of his day. The performance of miracles by the Cana-
dian Jesuits may possibly have been hindered by the presence of
heretic traders from the neighboring English and Dutch colo-
nies; it was cynically suggested at the time that unless they
could banish the smallpox, always raging among the Indians
and frequently attacking the settlements, it was useless to work
minor wonders as a means of impressing either red men or white.

The nuns were more successful. Marie de rincarnation and
the M^re de Saint- Augustin possessed the spiritual charismata of
the Christian women of whom Tertullian wrote : " There is at this
day among us a sister who has the gift of revelations, which she
receives in church amid the solemnities of the Lord's day by
ecstasy of the spirit; she converses with angels and sometimes
also with the Lord, and she both hears and sees mysteries." The
astounding visions of these two Quebec nuns are described at
length by a recent biographer, Abbd Casgrain. Both were fore-
warned of the earthquake of 1663, when, as the Relations say,
rivers and lakes changed their beds, mountains were swallowed,
and forests hurled in the air, the trees falling on end with the
roots upward ; the warning was conveyed by the appearance of
demons, which gathered over Quebec and were restrained for a
time, but only for a time, by a majestic youth of whom they
stood in awe. The statue of Notre Dame de Toute-Grace, at
the Hotel-Dieu Convent, was wonderfully gifted. The M^re du
Saint-Esprit, of that house, foretold its destruction by fire. In
1810 a Protestant woman visited it at Christmas and prayed

MIRACLES IN FRENCH CANADA, 243

"before tlie manger. She bore a child, wliicli was the image
of VEnfant Jesus, and became a nun of extraordinary piety,
on whom the Virgin lavished favors. Marguerite Bourgeois,
founder of the Congregation of Our Lady at Montreal, is now
undergoing the process of canonization ; numerous miracles were
worked by her before and after her death. Probably, in modern
opinion, the most splendid miracle of all was the courage dis-
played by these well-born women in crossing the ocean and
spending their lives amid the rigors of a semiarctic climate,
Indian alarms, sieges, pestilence, and all the privations and hard-
ships of a new colony for the glory of God.

When the Island of Montreal was wanted by the Sulpicians,
a lay agent, apparently under Jesuit influence, had a vision in
which the owner was guaranteed heaven without purgatory.
The property, which has made the Sulpicians one of the richest
orders in America, was immediately transferred. This, I believe,
is the only instance of note in which the supernatural was in-
voked for a doubtful purpose. All the other visions and miracles
can be accounted for without the hypothesis of conscious deceit.
It was essentially a time when, as Dean Milman wrote of another
age, " the Christian lived in a supernatural world ; the notion of
the divine power — the perpetual interference of the Deity, the
agency of the countless invisible beings which hovered over
mankind — was so strongly impressed upon the belief that every
extraordinary and almost every ordinary incident became a mir-
acle ; . . . a mythic period was thus gradually formed in which
reality melted into fable, and invention unconsciously trespassed
on the province of history." This is kinder than Gibbon's ver-
dict : " If the eyes of the spectators have sometimes been deceived
by fraud, the understanding of the readers has much more fre-
quently been insulted by fiction."

The seigniorial tenure, a mitigated feudalism based upon the
Custom of Paris (1510), was abolished by the Canadian Parliament
in 1854. It was then, a scoffing Parisian said, that the habitant of
French Canada discovered that Louis XVI was dead. When he
began to migrate to New England he learned other things that are
slowly undermining his cradle beliefs, and we may say without a
scoff that it will not be long till Good Saint Anne is dead.

REMARKma on some of the results achieved by the Challenger Expedi-
tion in the antarctic seas, Dr. Murray says that the amount of animal life
found in the antarctic region south of 40** is very much more abundant
than in any other part of the world. One of the great secrets of oceanic
circulation may possibly be found by investigation of those regions. Cer-
tainly one of the greatest pieces of scientific and oceanographic work yet to
be done on the surface of the globe awaits efforts in these regions.

244 ^^^^' POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION?

By SYDNEY G. FISHER.

THE immigration which, formed the basis of our colonial pop-
ulation was very slight. The men who fought the Revolution
and created the United States were almost exclusively native.
The population of New England, as is well known, was produced
out of an immigration of not much over 20,000, all of whom ar-
rived before the year 1640. From 1640 until about 1820, a period
of nearly two hundred years, the growth of New England was by
the childbearing of the original and native stock. There was no
immigration worth mentioning ; but, on the contrary, an overflow
into neighboring colonies. New York and the West. Franklin,
writing in 1751, when the population of all the colonies was about
a million, said that the immigration which had produced this
number was generally believed to have been less than 80,000.*

Modern immigration set in some time in the beginning of the
present century, and had grown to noticeable proportions about
1820, when the national Government decided to take statistics of
it. By 1830 all observers agree that the foreigners had begun to
have a decided influence and effect, and that a change could be
distinctly seen. By 1840 the Native American or Know-Nothing
movement had begun ; in 1850 it had become a distinct political
party ; and in 1856 had a candidate for the presidency.

One of the strongest arguments used against the Know- Noth-
ings was that immigration would greatly increase the population,
and in that way the wealth and strength of the country. The rate
of increase by births among the colonists had been remarkably
rapid and had astonished the people of Europe. Franklin was
among the first to call the attention of learned men to this phe-
nomenon. In some parts of the country the people, without the
aid of immigration, doubled themselves in twenty-five or twenty-
seven years ; and there were traditions of particular localities in
which the doubling had taken place within less than twenty
years. No record of a like increase over such an extended terri-
tory could be found in the history of the civilized world.

For the fifty years that followed the Revolution, when immi-
gration was at a minimum, this natural increase was greater than
ever. The whole population in that time doubled itself about
. every twenty-three years. It was therefore very natural for the
people who believed in the immigration experiment to suppose
that if to this increase in every decade were added a couple of mil-
lion immigrants, who would presumably have children in the same

* Franklin's Works (Sparks's edition), vol ii, p. 319.

HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION? 2+5

rapid manner as the natives, tlie population, wealth, and strength,
of the United States would be forced forward in a manner that
would produce results of inconceivable grandeur. It certainly
did look like an enormous boom, irresistibly attractive both for
its possibilities and for its uncertainties. The difficulty with it
was that, like the rest of the experiment, it was all based upon
"presume'^ and "suppose."

If the calculations had turned out as expected, we should
undoubtedly now have a population of at least a hundred millions.
Jefferson, writing in the year 1815, prophesied eighty millions for
the year 1875, which would give considerably over a hundred mil-
lions for the year 1893. But, curiously enough, when the alien ele-
ment had reached a certain point, about the year 1830, the native
population began to fall off in births, and the more the aliens
increased in numbers the fewer became the births of the natives.
The foreigners themselves were not as prolific as the old native
stock had been ; and the consequence is that we have now to-day
not as many people as we would have had if the immigrants had
never come near us and the native stock had continued their old
rate of increase.

The statistics which show this were very ably discussed many
years ago by Mr. Edward Jar vis, and recently General Francis
"Walker has again called attention to them. The calculation is a
simple one. We have the population at the close of each decade
and also the number of foreigners in the country. Confining our-
selves to the white population, if we subtract from the total
whites at the close of a decade the number of foreigners at the
close of the decade and find the difference between that result and
the native whites at the end of the previous decade, we have the
natural increase of the native population, and can easily find the
percentage.

Let us therefore construct in this way a table which will show
the growth of the native white population by decades from 1750
to 1890. Previous to 1750 the numbers by even decades are not
obtainable. For the population previous to 1790 we shall take
Bancroft's estimates, which are now generally accepted, and for
the time after 1790 we shall rely on the revised figures of the
national census. For the time previous to 1800 the number of
foreign born living in the country has never been estimated, but
they were very few and would not materially alter the results.

To find the number of natives it will be necessary to deduct
from the total number of whites not only the European foreign
born but also the people who came to us by a stroke of the pen
when we acquired the Louisiana territory, Florida, Texas, New
Mexico, and California. Louisiana was purchased in 1803, and
her people considerably swelled the census of 1810. How much

246

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

they increased it is liard to say, for between 1803 and the time the
census was taken in 1810 a large number of our people moved into
the new territory, so that the population of the new territory for
1810 gives more than the number we ought to deduct. It is cer-
tain we ought to deduct something, and equally certain that we
shall never know the exact amount. The best authorities, how-
ever, seem to indicate 20,000 as about the proper number. For
Florida it is about 12,000, and for Texas, New Mexico, and Cali-
fornia, which came to us by the Mexican War, it is about 90,000,
to be deducted from the total whites as given by the census of
1850. We shall also have to make a deduction from the whites in
the census of 1860, because part of the returns for California in
the census of 1850 were burned, and the natives of that Common-
wealth were not all given in the census of 1850, but appeared in
the census of 1860. A deduction of about 70,000 will probably
account for all of them.

Dkcadvs.

Total whites.

ForeigD
whites.

By new ter-
ritory.

Per cent of
native in-
crease.

Corrections

for census

of 1870.

1750

1,040,000

1760

1,386,000

33-17

1770

1,860,000

83-57

1780

2,383,000

28-81

Revolution.

1790

3,177,257

33-33

1800

4,306,446

44,282

34-14

1810

5,862,073

96,725

20,000

34-79

1820

7,862,166

176,826

33-76

1830

10,537,378

315,830

12,000

32-83

1840

14,195,806

869,202

30-64

1860

19,563,068

2,244,602

90,000

29-10

1860

26,922,537

4,138,697

70,000

31-91

1870

33,589,377

5,507,229

23-37

25-37

Civil war.

1880

43,402,970

6,679,943

31-06

29-05

1890

64,983,890

9,249,547

24-53

The census of 1870 is now generally believed to have been an
underestimate, owing principally to the difficulty of obtaining
returns from the South so soon after the war. The rate of in-
crease for that decade ought therefore to be a little more than
23*37, probably about 25'37 ; and this would lower the percentage
of the next decade to about 29*05, instead of 31*05.

Following down the column of native increase, we find that
from 1750 the rate remains at a little over 33 per cent for twenty
years, until reduced by the Revolution to 28*81. But after the
Revolution it returns again to 33*33 in the next decade, then rises
to 34*14, and then to 34*79. In the next decade, 1810 to 1820, it
fails suddenly about one per cent, ^nd in the next falls one per
cent again ; and in the next, which is 1830 to 1840, falls more than
two per cent to 30*64, which is much lower than it had been at
any time in the previous eighty years, except during the decade

HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION? 247

whicli contained the Revolution. The falling continues, with, one
or two slight revivals, as we follow the column, until in the decade
1880 to 1890 it has reached the very low figure of 24*53 per cent —
more than four per cent lower than during the Revolution.

It is to be observed that the first serious fall begins after the
year 1830, the point which all observers have fixed upon as the
time when the effects of immigration began to be palpably felt.

If we look at the number of foreigners for the year 1830, we
find them to have been 315,830 — almost as many as there had been
in the three previous decades. In the next decade they more than
double, and in the next they almost treble, with the rate of native
increase steadily declining.

It is also rather significant that the first break and decline of
the native rate occurs after the year 1820, when immigration had
begun to attract so much attention that the Government decided
to take statistics of it.

These coincidences of the decline of the native increase with
the increase of immigration are so exact that they can hardly
have been accidental. There is, to say the least, a strong suspicion
of cause and effect. And if it should be asked what is the exact
nature of that relation of cause and effect, the question may be
concisely answered in the words of General Francis Walker,
superintendent of the tenth census and now President of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology :

" The access of foreigners, at the time and under the circum-
stances, constituted a shock to the principle of population among
the native element. That principle is always acutely sensitive
alike to sentimental and to economic conditions. And it is to be
noted, in passing, that not only did the decline in the native ele-
ment, as a whole, take place in singular correspondence with the
excess of foreign arrivals, but it occurred chiefly in just those
regions to which the newcomers most freely resorted."

That the arrival of the foreigners was a shock to the natives is
very clearly shown in the formation of the Native American or
Know- Nothing party, and the riots and violence which followed
for a period of twenty years. The foreigners came to work for
lower wages than the native and drove the native from his place.
For a hundred years the native had been accustomed to a standard
of living which was remarkably high. This was particularly true
of the New England and Middle States, where all classes had every
incentive in their surroundings to produce large families. They
felt that they owned their country, and were proud of it. They
were the creators of their own destinies and the architects of their
own fortunes. They built up homes and families. They were
sure there would always be enough for all, and that their children
would have to enjoy as good, if not better, conditions.

248 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" Theu came the foreigner, making his way into the little vil-
lage, bringing, small blame to him, not only a vastly lower stand-
ard of living, but too often an actual present incapacity even to
understand the refinements of life and thought in the community
in which he sought a home. Our people had to look upon houses
that were mere shells for human habitations, the gate unhung,
the shutters flapping or falling, green pools in the yard, babes
and young children rolling about half naked or worse — neglected,
dirty, unkempt. Was there not in this sentimental reason some-
thing strong enough to give a shock to the principle of popula-
tion?''

The native of that time was utterly unable to compete in dirt
and degradation with the low Irish and European peasantry. He
lost heart and interest ; in many cases he sank to the level of his
competitor ; and even when he did not actually sink in his per-
sonal habits, he had not the same high incentives as before.

It is a remarkable fact and should be remembered that in New
England, which received scarcely any immigration between 1640
and 1820, the greatest growth of population ever known in Amer-
ica took place. The New-Englanders overflowed their borders,
and settled a large part of western New York, the Western Re-
serve of Ohio, the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania, and hun-
dreds of towns and counties in the far West. Some years ago the
number of people of New England origin was estimated at a third
of the whole population. The place of strongest nativism was the
place of the most rapid growth.

Washington was much impressed in 1796 with the overflow of
the New-Englanders. " Their numbers are not augmented by
foreign emigrants ; yet from their circumscribed limits, compact
situation, and natural population, they are filling the western
parts of the State of New York and the country on the Ohio with
their own surplusage." (Works, vol. xii, p. 323.)

Madison was in favor of immigration, but in 1820 he could not
help noticing the wonderful increase of New England without
the aid of the foreigner. ''It is worth remarking that New
England, which has sent out such a continued swarm to other
parts of the Union for a number of years, has continued at
the same time, as the census shows, to increase in popula-
tion, although it is well known that she has received but com-
paratively few immigrants from any quarter." (Works, vol. iii,
p. 213.)

It has been suggested that the correspondence in time between
the increase of immigration and the decrease of the rate of growth
does not necessarily imply a relation of cause and effect, because it
can be accounted for by the fact that advanced civilization always
lessens the rate of childbearing and the rate of increase of popu-

HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION? 249

lation. France is pointed out as an instance where the rate of
growth has become very low because of the fashion the French
have acquired, even in the middle classes, of restricting the size
of their families.

The illustration, however, is not altogether fortunate for those
who use it. The French annual rate of increase, it is true, sank
very low during the four or five years previous to the Prussian
War, being only seven per thousand inhabitants in 1870. But
since then it has steadily risen, and in 1890 was thirty-seven per
thousand.* In fact, France is an excellent illustration to show
how mere ideas and opinions affect the growth of population, and
how the rate of increase may be depressed by discontent or disas-
ter, or raised by the desire to conquer an old enemy or by the suc-
cess of a new form of government.

But is it true as a general proposition that advanced civiliza-
tion decreases the rate of population ? There is a feeling among
many people, who have not thought much on the subject, that the
more animal- like we become, the more we multiply, and that the
lower types of civilization necessarily increase more rapidly than
the higher. But this is very far from the truth.

Savages and uncivilized races are not, as a rule, of very rapid
increase. They often recede and whole tribes of them become
extinct. If we look at the whole world, it is the uncivilized popu-
lations that are disappearing. Before the coming of the English
to the United States the red men had held the country with all its
natural fertility and resources for hundreds of years, and yet had
not been able to increase themselves to a million. During the
middle ages, from the year 500 to 1500, a period of a thousand
years, we find the population of Europe in all stages of barbarism
and low civilization, and yet the increase of population was very
slow. In the year 500 Europe was supposed to have something
over 40,000,000 people. In the year 1500 the highest estimate is
70,000,000. Thus in a thousand years the population had not
doubled. But after the year 1500, under the influence of the Refor-
mation and modern civilization, the population doubled in three
hundred years, f

Another excellent illustration to show the effect of modern
civilization is the growth of the English people.

1480 3,700,000

1580 4,600,000

1680 5,532,000

1780 9,561,000

1880 35,004,000

* Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics (1892), article Population, p. 442.
+ Seaman's Progress of Nations (First Series), p. 550. See also Worcester's Problem of
Religious Progress, passim, and Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics.

250 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The English, it will be observed, never succeeded in doubling
themselves in any hundred years until 1780 to 1880, when they
almost quadrupled.

Civilization, then, does not appear to be a very serious hin-
drance to rapidity of growth ; and the reason is evident. As com-
pared with barbarism, it produces a larger food supply, greater
variety of it, better houses, better sanitary arrangements, better
health, longer life, and stronger reasons for wanting to live and
wanting to enable others to live. The people of the middle ages
lacked skill in producing the comforts and necessaries of life, their
sanitary arrangements were shocking and their lives despondent.
They were visited with plagues and epidemics which have not
now been known for four hundred years. Their minds were
clouded with dreadful delusions, superstitions, and terrors which
produced the "dance of death'* and the continual slaughter of
witches. A large proportion of their children died, and even
adult life was short.

Long living and many who live long is as important an ele-
ment in the increase of population as numerous births. All the
children bom in the United States in the year 1891, who die before
they are eight years old, will not increase the population either in
numbers or effective strength so much as one man born in that
year who lives to be thirty. The man, independently of his greater
usefulness, will be counted as an inhabitant in three censuses ;
the children will be counted in none.

Paupers, savages, and other people of low life are often sup-
posed to multiply very fast because they seem to be so reckless in
the number of children that are born to them. But the same
shif tlessness which brings the children into the world surrounds
them with conditions that destroy them. Negroes are supposed
to be very prolific; but the death-rate among them in cities is
almost double the death-rate among whites ; and the death-rate
among negro children is more than double the death-rate among
white children. The woman of the slums, who was recently re-
ported to have said that she ought to know something about the
nurture of children because she had buried fourteen of her own,
was doubtless a person of excellent intentions ; but she has not
done so well for the republic as some less boastful mother who
has raised one son to maturity.

It is often thoughtlessly asserted that modern city life de-
creases population. But, as compared with ancient city life, it
very much increases it. Previous to the year 1790, in all large
cities, the death-rate always exceeded the birth-rate. In London
the death-rate was often double the birth-rate. Immigration from
the rural districts and not their own power of reproduction kept
these cities from decay. Our modern cities contain certain dis-

HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION? 251

tricts that are called slums. But tlie old cities were all slums.
The great increase of modern city life is due not to the degeneracy
of the race, as is often foolishly supposed, but to improved sanitary
conditions and improved health. The modern city grows by its
own productive force as well as by immigration and has ceased to
be a death trap for the people.

Rapid increase of population is due to cleanliness, thrift, intel-
ligence, prosperity, contentment, and happiness, because these
things preserve and lengthen life. As a rule, civilized people are
apt to be blessed in these particulars even when their birth-rate
is somewhat low. But it is not true, as is often supposed, that the
more civilized have necessarily a low birth-rate. Ireland and
Greece are countries of an inferior order of civilization, and their
birth-rates are respectively 277 and 24 per thousand inhabit-
ants ; while the birth-rate of England is 33 '3 per thousand, and of
Holland 34*8.

But we must not rest the question on mere generalizations.
Civilization includes many things and is a broad term. Increase
of population is accomplished by different causes, and not in every
instance by the same cause. Each instance should be considered
in all its surroundings before any general principles are applied.
Mere sentiment, opinions, and ideas often affect the growth of
population as much as the price of corn and meat. The failure of
the French to increase rapidly is generally believed to be caused
by an almost morbid desire on the part of French parents to
start their sons in life with a fortune and give their daughters a
dowry on their marriage. The size of these portions becomes a
matter of pride, and great importance is attached to them even
among the middle classes. The fewer the children the larger the
portions. This condition is generally believed by modern French
statesmen to have been brought about by the law of 1793 which
restricted the freedom of leaving property by will and compelled
parents to divide their estates evenly among their children.
On the other hand, the English feeling is just the reverse of this.
The Saxon race has always been remarkable for its love of facing
life single-handed, and battling with the chances of the world.
English parents of all classes have seldom any hesitation, and
often a pride, in bringing up more children than their fortune will
enable to live with ease. The thought that the eldest child will
have all their money and the rest have to begin life anew, or
that all will have to make their own way in the colonies, which
would fill a French family with horror, is rather pleasant to Eng-
lish parents.

Any one who will read the history of the Know-!N'othing move-
ment in pamphlets, speeches, and deeds of that time can hardly
fail to be convinced that hundreds of thousands of native Amer-

252 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

icans were rendered despondent, hopeless, and desperate by wliat
they saw around them. Men do not fight in mobs and destroy
churches and houses and form themselves into complicated secret
orders for nothing. Whatever we may think of their mistakes
of policy and rashness, there is no question that the native Amer-
icans received a severe shock, not only to their sentiments and
feelings, but to their opinions and principles. The nation that
they supposed was their own seemed to be given over to others.
Their high patriotism, their pride and interest in their country
were wounded and hurt. Nor was the wound any the less severe
because the majority of those who received it were of the class in
life that is not trained to express its feelings in writing.

What else was there in the general condition of affairs in
the United States between the years 1830 and 1860 which would
cause the rate of native growth to decrease ? It could not possibly
have been the growth of luxurious habits of living. There were
none at that time. Any we possess have been acquired within
the last twenty years, and most of them within the last ten years.
The country at that period, so far as concerned room for develop-
ment, was as new as it had been in 1750. Our people still lived in
a fringe along the Atlantic seaboard. The buffaloes were ranging
the prairies east of the Mississippi. The whole valley of that
river was practically unsettled. The West was a great unknown.
There was no crowding; and as for opportunities, they were
greater than ever before. The arts of life and the comfort and
health of living were all improving. Manufacturing industries
were springing up. Commerce was increasing, new inventions
were being perfected, occupations were becoming more numerous
and varied, the people were happy, prosperous, jubilant in their
successful nationality, and in 1830 railroads began. All things
which enable population to increase were present, and population
had been increasing rapidly until suddenly, coincident with the
great increase in immigration, the rate fell, and has been falling
ever since.

From that period down to the present hour all the facilities
of business have improved, new occupations have been created,
the medical and surgical sciences have improved, their improve-
ment is more generally distributed, sanitary conditions are better,
and as a consequence the average human life has been lengthened
by two years.

After the civil war came to an end in 1865 the same condition
existed. The West was still unsettled. The Union Pacific Rail-
road was not finished until 1869. The next ten years, with increas-
ing facilities for reaching all parts of the country, gave the grand-
est opportunity for rapid growth that was ever known. Yet not
only the rate of the native whites kept falling, but the rate of the

HAS IMMIGRATION- INCREASED POPULATION? 253

whole population, with, the greatest immigration added, kept
steadily falling.

What shall be said of the last decade, 1880-'90, when the increase
of the whole population, with a still greater immigration added,
has fallen to a rate which is four per cent lower than the rate of
the native whites during the Revolution ? Is this a crowded coun-
try ? We have sixty-five millions in a territory which every one
admits can easily support four hundred millions. Is this a
luxurious, worn-out, jaded country ? Where, how, and by what ?
Possibly among a fraction of the population in a few great cities.
But they do not constitute the country. Look at the small towns,
the great country districts, the masses of the people, and where
are the signs of the luxury that enervates ? Fashionable society
has grown in recent years ; but even admitting that it has grown
to the fullest possible extent, and that it is guilty of all the folly
with which it is charged, it has not yet become one fortieth part
of the population.

Spain is said to be an old, worn-out nation, but during the ten
years from 1880 to 1890 she increased the annual rate of her
growth from 35 per thousand to 54 per thousand. Even France,
though her rate had fallen very low in 1870, has steadily increased
it in the last twenty years, and raised it from 7 per thousand in-
habitants in 1870 to 37 per thousand in 1890. England has stead-
ily increased her rate in the last twenty years. So has Russia,
whose rate is very high, being 105 per thousand in 1870, 130 in
1880, and 140 in 1890. Holland, a very old and closely settled
country, has increased her rate in almost the same proportions, 80
per thousand in 1870, 118 in 1880, and 135 in 1890. Belgium's rate
is not far behind.*

Of all these countries none are superior to the United States
in natural fertility and resources. Most of them are much infe-
rior, and have a larger proportion of people to the square mile.
The United States has only 21*31 to the square mile ; f but Russia
has 42, Spain 86, Great Britain 184, France 320, Holland 350, and
Belgium 530.

If we are right in believing that the lowering of the rate of
native growth was due to the increase of foreigners, then immi-
gration has not materially increased, but, on the contrary, has
somewhat decreased the American population. If the native
population had kept up an increase per decade of only 34 per
cent, which was less than it had in the twenty years 1790 to
1810, and immigration had ceased, the white population would

♦ Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics, article Population, p. 442.

f The average of 21-31 per square mile for the United States is calculated on the total
land area, exclusive of Alaska and Indian Territory.

2 54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

now be more numerous than it has become with the assistance
of immigration.

If we take the native white population of 5,745,348 in the year
1810 and give it an increase each succeeding decade of 34 per cent,
with 28 per cent for the decade that included the civil war, we
have for the year 1890 57,048,753, which is 3,064,863 in excess of the
54,983,890 total whites as given by the census of that year. In
other words, the natives multiplying at less than their old rate
would outnumber the present native and foreign white population
by over three millions.

The rate of 28 per cent for the decade that included, the civil
war is lower than the rate of native increase during the Revolu-
tion, and the Revolution lasted seven years, while the civil war
lasted only four. The rate of 34 per cent for the other decades is
also quite conservative. For twenty years, when immigration was
at a minimum, the natives had exceeded this rate, and as their rate
was steadily rising there is every probability that they would soon
have exceeded 35 per cent, and reached 36 or more before 1890.
An average rate of 35 per cent, with 28 for the civil war, would
have given 60,098,117 whites in 1890, which is 5,114,227 in excess
of the total whites as reported by the census, and lacks only about
two millions of equaling the whole aggregate population of black,
white, Chinese, Japanese, and civilized Indians.

The estimates of Jefferson and others by which they prophe-
sied a great increase for the future were based on rates much
higher than this. The country was new, with ample room for de-
velopment, and growing more and more prosperous. European
countries with dense populations and inferior natural resources
have increased their rate within that time, and why should not the
United States ?

Some of these old countries increase their rate in spite of the
fact that thousands of emigrants are leaving them every year.
We have a new country, not half developed, with immigrants pour-
ing into us, and yet our rate has been steadily falling for sixty
years. Since 1830 the rate of increase of the whole aggregate pop-
ulation, black, white, Chinese, Japanese, and civilized Indians, to-
gether with all the immigrants that have been poured upon us and
the accessions from the new territories, Louisiana, Florida, Texas,
New Mexico, and California, has seldom been appreciably higher,
and is in most cases considerably lower, than the old rate of in-
crease of the native whites from 1750 to 1830, when immigration
was at a minimum. All the immigrants and all their increase can
not make up for the loss of the old rate of increase of the natives.

The following table shows that in only two decades, 1840 to 1850
and 1850 to 1860, was the rate of increase of the whole population
higher than it had been among the nativ^es alone before 1830. In

HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION? 255

the first of those decades, 1840 i6 1850, the rate was abnormal be-
cause the Mexican War brought us a sudden large accession of
black and white population from the conquered provinces of Texas,
New Mexico, and California. The rate in the second decade, 1850
to 1860, was also abnormal. The people who were not counted in
California in the census of 1850, owing to the burning of part of
the returns, were counted in 1860, and increased the rate for that
decade :

Aggregate popu-
lation.

Per cent of in-
crease.

Correction for
census of 1870.

1830

12,866,020
17,069,453
23,191,876
31,443,321
38,558,371
50,155,783
62,622,250

33-55
32-67
35-86
35-57
22-62
30-07
24-85

1840

1850

1860

1870

24-62

1880

28-07

1890

During the last twenty years immigration has reached enor-
mous proportions. For the decade 1870 to 1880 the arrivals at ports,
without counting those that came in over the Canadian and Mexi-
can borders, were 2,834,040, and for 1880 to 1890 the same sort of
arrivals were 5,246,613.* Added together they make for the twenty
years 8,080,653, which is more than half of the total immigration
since 1820. Yet with this enormous influx the rate of increase of
the whole population has sunk lower and lower ; and the twenty
years which saw this huge immigration saw the lowest rate of
increase since 1750.

From the year 1750 to 1830 the native population without the
assistance of immigration never increased less than 33*17 per cent
each decade except during the Revolution, when it went down to
2881 per cent. But now, with a larger immigration than was ever
known, the increase of our aggregate population is only 24*85 —
almost 4 per cent lower than the rate of increase of the native
whites during the Revolution.

The mopane tree of eastern Mashonaland, Africa, is described by W. A.
Eckersley, of the railroad surveying party, as rarely attaining a height of
more than twenty-five feet. " When first its leaves make their appearance
they are bright red ; this soon changes to a rich autumnal brown ; passing
through some further shades of that color, they finally assume a green of
equal brilliance to the spring leaves of some of our English trees. Masses
of these trees in the various stages of change form a remarkably picturesque
effect; the strong contrast in which the brilliant reds and greens stand out
against the background of the blue-gray granite is particularly striking."

* Report of Superintendent of Immigration (1892), pp. 13, 30.

256 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

INSECTS' EGGS.

By M. V. BRANDICOURT.

JOHANNES SWAMMERDAM, a Dutch naturalist, who was
the first to examine insects with a microscope, and whose
investigations were published in 1757, gave some curious details
concerning the eggs of insects.* " Some are oblong," he said,
"others ovoid or round. There are also angular, pyramidal,
striated, and granular eggs, etc. They are no less various as to
colors, and we find them white, yellow, red, blue, green, and pied
with different colors so singularly combined that it is almost im-
possible to describe them exactly. In consistence, some are soft,
others hard ; some membranous, others covered with a coat like
parchment or with a real eggshell ; some are covered with a kind
of froth, others with hairs."

Swammerdam described with many details the eggs of the
Nepa cendrea, a little fresh-water hemipter, which he called the
water scorpion (Fig. 10). They are yellow and nearly of the same
shape as the seed of the blessed thistle, slightly elongated, and
rounded at the lower end. On the upper part they are provided
with seven or eight slender branches, or hard threads, of which
the point is red and the middle whitish. These appendages or
threads, arranged in a circle around the circumference of the sum-
mit of each egg, form a kind of open egg cup, which receives the
end of the next egg in its cavity. Thus these appendages of the
first egg hold the lower end of the second, and so on.

The eggs of the Lepidoptera have considerable resemblance
to the seeds of plants (Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4). "Those of the larger
and smaller cabbage butterflies have the shape of a pyramid, of a
height three or four times the diameter of the base, and the base
is stuck to a leaf. The eggs are usually formed by eight rounded
ribs, separated by flutings running from the summit to the larger
end. On each of these sides may be seen an infinite number of
flutings parallel to the base. The eggs of the great tortoise but-
terfly are nearly spherical, and are smaller in diameter at the base,
or the part by which they are attached to the plant, than at the
summit, whence eight equally distant crests descend along the
body of the egg, forming ribs which diminish imperceptibly in
height and disappear before reaching the end." f

These eggs resemble those of a night moth which attaches its

* Histoire naturelle des Inscctes (Natural History of Insects). Translated from the Bihlia
KaturcB of Johannes Swammerdam. Paris, 1758.

f Histoire naturelle des Insectes (Natural History of Insects). By De Tigny. Paris,
1816.

INSECTS' EGGS,

257

eggs to the branches of trees. They hold there with such strength
that they leave a scar on the bark, and even interfere with the
nutrition of the branch. They are remarkable for being shaped
like the stones that are cut for the construction of arches, and,
" being larger at the summit than at the base, so that they join
exactly, they arrange themselves in an arcade.^'

Some butterflies have eggs of very elegant shape, resembling a
kind of little knob, fluted and girt with a small purple circular
band.

The eggs of the dragon fly are elongated ; at the upper end
are a kind of flowerets like those of the louse nit. The gnat's

Figs. 1 and 2, e^gs of the lai^ and of the small cabbage Pieris ; Fig. 8, Qg^ of the Tristan
butterfly {Papillo hyperantus) ; Fig. 4, ef^g of the admiral ( Vanessa atalanta) ; Figs. 5 and
6, eggs of Polyommatus ; Figs. 7 and 8, eggs of Dicranura vinula^ profile and front
views ; Fig. 9, egg of Pygaera tricephala ; Fig. 10, ^gg of water scorpion (after Swammer-
dam); Fig. 11, ^gg of gnat; Fig. 12. nit of the louse (after Swammerdam, greatly
magnified).

Q^g is like a skittle, the larger end of which is rounded, while the
other end terminates in a short neck, like those of some liquor
flasks (Fig. 11). The eggs of the ephemera can be observed only
under the microscope, on black or blue paper. They are plano-
convex and oblong. The membrane that envelops them has a
nebulous appearance under the microscope. The eggs are white,
like the inner coating of thin shell.

The Euryanthus horribilis of New Guinea, on the other hand,
an orthopter of the singular tribe of the phasmids, which is twelve

VOL. ILTUI. — 18

258 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

or fifteen centimetres in length, lays eggs, it is said, as large as
those of a humming bird.

The blowfly has an oblong, angular egg, with lozenge-shaped
compartments forming a kind of network. They are very white
and composed of two distinct envelopes, of which the outer one is
a real shell like that of a hen's Qgg, and breaks as easily.

The egg of the ant is uniform, smooth, tight and bright, with-
out any division. When the larva has come from it, only a very
thin membrane is left, which rolls up and is reduced to an imper-
ceptible point ; and even if the Qgg does not hatch, it is still so
small ais to escape the eyes. This is why these eggs are so little
known, for what is commonly and improperly called the egg is
really the larva, and is endowed with life and motion. These eggs,
or rather these larvsB, of ants are very much sought after by barn-
yard fowl. An old woman of Paris gained a very comfortable in-
come by selling them at the Jardin d'Acclimatation to feed the
pheasants. She collected them in the woods of the suburbs, indif-
ferent to the bites she received from the old ants. Her trade ex-
tended from June till the end of September. Ants' eggs are con-
sidered a choice dish in some countries. They are spread upon a
slice of bread and butter, and sauces considered excellent are
made with them. They are esteemed as a costly food in Siam,
within the reach only of well-to-do people. They are the object
of an important trade in some countries of northern Europe,
where they are cooked in boiling water, and yield a kind of vine-
gar or formic acid.

The eggs of certain aquatic insects resembling noctonectse
(Corixo femorale and Corixo mannaria,GeoETOj, and Nodonecta
Americana) are eaten in Mexico. They are usually found deposited
on the reeds and rushes of the lakes, especially of Lake Tezcuco.
The egg-laden reeds and rushes are cut, dried, and beaten over
cloths, to detach the myriads of eggs which are fastened on them.
The eggs are very carefully cleansed, and are, after that opera-
tion, winnowed, put up in sacks like flour, and sold as material
for cakes. This novel aliment, which is called hantle, and is
really water-flea bread, is the object of considerable trade in the
markets of Mexico. It has a pronounced fishy flavor, and was
used by the natives prior to the conquest. The eggs of another
species {Corixa esculenta), which resemble manna, are eaten in
Egypt, and form an element of very choice dishes.

The eggs of insects resist considerable variations of tempera-
ture. The most rigorous cold of our winters is fatal to the eggs
only of the most delicate species ; and the eggs can likewise resist
the most intense tropical heats. — Translated for the Popular Sci-
ence Monthly from La Nature.

SKETCH OF DAVID DALE OWEN^ 259

SKETCH OF DAVID DALE OWEN.

DAVID DALE OWEN was born at Braxfield House, near
New Lanark, Scotland, June 24, 1807. He was the fourth
8on and sixth child in a family of eight children. All but the
first born, a son, lived to adult age. His father, Robert Owen,
the celebrated philanthropist, was a native of North Wales.

Robert Owen, after working in the drapery business in Lon-
don and elsewhere, entered into partnership with a mechanic, at
eighteen years of age, in the manufacture of cotton-spinning ma-
chines. A year later he took a position as superintendent of a
mill employing five hundred hands, and at twenty- two years of
age he became a partner in an old-established spinning concern
of Manchester. Having become attached to Miss Anne Caroline,
the eldest daughter of David Dale, proprietor of large mills at New
Lanark, near Glasgow, he arranged with his partners to buy the
works of the father, and soon after obtained for himself the hand
of the daughter. They were married in 1797. Undertaking the
management of the works ("government" he called it), he steadily
improved the condition of the factory hands, which had been
there as elsewhere bad to a degree now almost incredible. Some
of his measures were opposed by his partners, and led to several
dissolutions of partnership through which he retained the man-
agement, but he was forced to retire in 1829 when fifty-eight years
of age. In spite of what he spent for the workers, Owen always
made the business pay well. For several years beginning with
1815, he worked for the passage of Acts of Parliament beneficial
to factory operatives. Becoming convinced that social reform
could be best secured through communism, he bought from the
Harmony Society a tract of thirty thousand acres, and the build-
ings of their settlement at New Harmony, Ind. The Harmony
Society was prosperous but wished to change its location. Com-
ing to America in the spring of 1825, he organized a community of
about nine hundred persons on a provisional plan. He returned to
Scotland to look after his business, leaving his two oldest sons
at New Harmony.

William Maclure, of Philadelphia, a man of means and de-
voted to philanthropy and the advancement of science, took part
in founding the community. He heard of Owen's scheme on re-
turning to the United States after an attempt to found an agri-
cultural labor school in Spain, and believed that it would afford
favorable conditions for carrying out his cherished idea of an
educational institute founded on rational principles. He accord-
ingly bought a large tract of land in New Harmony and vicinity,
and removed thither his library and collection of minerals, which

26o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

were extensive, and his valuable scientific apparatus. He induced
Gerard Troost, C. A. Lesueur, and Thomas Say, also Joseph Neef ,
the Pestalozzian, to come into the community with him, to act as in-
structors in the institution proposed. When the society was divided
into a manufacturing and educational, and an agricultural branch,
Maclure became the leading spirit in the educational division.

Owen visited New Harmony a second time in the winter of
1825-'26. His third visit was made in the spring of 1828, and by
that time so many troubles had arisen that the community was dis-
banded. The failure of the undertaking was due to the one great
cause that makes all communistic enterprises impracticable in the
present age — the imperfections of human nature. In the same
year Mr. Owen went to Mexico, on the invitation of the Govern-
ment, to put his ideas into practice there, but effected nothing be-
cause the Government insisted that the state religion of the pro-
posed community should be Roman Catholic. Some experiments
were afterward tried by him in Great Britain, and he continued
to advocate his views with voice and pen until his death, in 1858.
His followers received the name of " Owenites." He published a
considerable number of writings, including an autobiography.

David Dale Owen's early education, which was received from
a private tutor, included the English branches, the rudiments of
Latin, and a course in architectural drawing. He was also trained
in the use of carpenter's tools in the mechanical department con-
nected with his father's mills. He was for a time a pupil in the
grammar school, or academy, at New Lanark. His father, while
traveling on the continent of Europe, had visited the celebrated
educational institution of Emanuel von Fellenberg, at Hofwyl,
Switzerland, and was so much pleased with the system pursued in
it — neither moral, physical, nor intellectual development being
neglected — that he sent there first his two oldest sons — Robert
Dale and William — for a three years' course, and after their return
sent David and his younger brother Richard, in 1824, also for
three years. The studies of the more advanced classes were partly
elective, and David Dale and his brother chose chemistry, draw-
ing, and modern languages in addition to the prescribed mathe-
matical and literary course.

David Dale and Richard returned to Scotland in September,
1826, the former being then nineteen years old. They entered the
classes in physics and chemistry conducted by Dr. Andrew Ure,
author of the Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, at
Glasgow, where their mother then resided. Their father was
absent at New Harmony. For that place the two younger sons
set out in November, 1827, going by a ship from Liverpool to New
Orleans, thence up the Mississippi by steamer, reaching the settle-
ment on the Wabash early in January, 1828.

SKETCH OF DAVID DALE OWEN. 261

During the next three years they kept np and increased their
knowledge of chemistry by repeating the experiments of Dr. Ure's
course. Desiring to extend his knowledge of chemistry and geol-
ogy, David Dale Owen in 1831 returned to Great Britain. He
had as a companion Henry D. Rogers, and they both lived at the
house of Owen's father in London while attending the lectures of
Dr. Turner at the London University.

After about a year abroad Owen came back to the United
States. Soon after his return he was stricken with Asiatic chol-
era, which was epidemic in this country in the summer and fall of
1832, but was fortunate enough to survive the attack. Wishing
to increase his knowledge of anatomy and physiology as an aid in
the study of paleontology, he entered the Ohio Medical College,
in Cincinnati, and was graduated in the spring of 1836. He de-
voted the summer following his graduation to gaining practical
experience in field geology. To this end he accompanied at his
own expense Dr. Gerard Troost, who was then engaged on the
State Survey of Tennessee.

Dr. Owen married, March 23, 1837, Caroline C. Neef, the third
daughter of that pioneer of Pestalozzian education in America,
Joseph Neef.

Dr. Owen had been appointed State Geologist of Indiana and
immediately after his marriage he entered upon the duties of this
position. He made a preliminary reconnoissance in 1837 and 1838,
his report upon which was published immediately after its com-
pletion and reissued in 1859. Geological science being little un-
derstood in the West when this document first appeared, a brief
introductory exposition of the leading formations was given in it,
after which the rich deposits of coal, iron, and building stones
within the limits of the State were described.

The Hon. James Whitcomb, then Governor of Indiana, was
soon afterward appointed Commissioner of the General Land Ofiice,
and Congress having ordered a survey of the Dubuque and Mineral
Point districts under the direction of his bureau, he selected Dr.
Owen, with whose ability he was well acquainted, to conduct this
examination. These districts comprised eleven thousand square
miles of the Northwest Territory, now included in the States of
Wisconsin and Iowa, and the object of the examination was to
enable the commissioner to reserve from sale those sections found
to contain mineral wealth. But a short time was allowed for the
work, hence it became necessary to organize a large force. The
difficulties involved in such a rapid prosecution of the survey are
indicated in the report presented by Dr. Owen to the commis-
sioner, April 2, 1840. " In one month from the day I received my
commission and instructions," he says, "(to wit, on September
17th), I had reached the mouth of Rock River ; engaged one hun-

262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

dred and thirty-nine snbagents and assistants; instructed my
subagents in such, elementary principles of geology as were neces-
sary to the performance of the duties required of them ; supplied
them with simple mineralogical tests, with the application of
which they were made acquainted ; organized twenty-four work-
ing corps, furnished each with skeleton maps of the townships
assigned to them for examination, and placed the whole at the
points where their labors commenced, all along the line of the
western half of the territory to be examined. Thence the expedi-
tion proceeded northward, each corps required, on the average, to
overrun and examine thirty quarter sections daily, and to report
to myself on fixed days at regularly appointed stations : to receive
which reports and to examine the country in person, I crossed the
district under examination, in an oblique direction, eleven times
in the course of the survey."

It was in the spring of 1840 that William Maclure died. As
administrator of his estate, his brother Alexander engaged Dr.
Owen to assort the very extensive collection of minerals and
fossils which Mr. Maclure had made in the course of his geological
exploration of the United States and his travels in this country,
Europe, and the West Indies. Specific suites were to be distrib-
uted to certain schools and colleges, and the remainder was to be
retained by Dr. Owen as the nucleus of a museum. These direc-
tions were duly carried out. With regard to the portion remain-
ing in Dr. Owen's hands The American Geologist * states : " To
this latter Dr. Owen subsequently added largely, by purchase
from Dr. Krantz, of Germany, illustrative fossils of every period ;
among others an ichthyosaurus, from the Lias of Wiirtemberg,
larger than the one in the British Museum. Another interesting
and valuable specimen was a nearly complete skeleton of a gigan-
tic megatheroid animal (the Megalonyx) which he exhumed near
Henderson, Ky. The entire collection some years after Dr. Owen's
death was purchased by the Indiana University, and unfortunately
nearly all consumed by fire, when the new university building,
including the museum, laboratory, and library, was destroyed."

Dr. Owen was again called into the service of the Government
in 1847, being appointed United States Geologist and directed to
make a survey of the Chippewa land district. His Preliminary
Report, made in the following year to the Hon. R. M. Young, then
Commissioner of the Land Office, was a document of one hundred
and thirty- four octavo pages, and was accompanied by three hun-
dred and twenty-three lithographs from his own sketches, and
numerous maps, diagrams, etc.

* Sketch of the Life of David Dale Owen, M. D., August, 1889, to which source acknowl-
edgment is due for the greater portion of the material entering into the present article.

SKETCH OF DAVID DALE OWEN, 263

The scope of his examination was then enlarged so as to em-
brace a fuller survey of portions of the Northwest Territory,
lying mainly within the present States of Wisconsin, Iowa, and
Minnesota. This task required five years of field work and a final
year of laboratory and office work, ending with the year 1852. A
large appropriation was made by Congress for illustrating and
printing Owen's report, all the details of publication being com-
mitted to him. The result was a finely illustrated quarto volume
of six hundred and thirty- eight pages, many of the illustrations
being from the original drawings of Dr. Owen, who had great
facility in sketching. In this volume he applied for the first time
the medal-ruling style of engraving to cuts of fossils.

In an article on Geological Surveys in Missouri Mr. Arthur
Winslow says of Owen's reports up to this time : ** These reports
supplied the guiding lines along which later stratigraphic work
in the Mississippi Valley was done. Without attempting here to
present the history of this work, its bearing upon the future work
in Missouri calls for brief mention. In the Indiana reports Owen
makes a separation of the rocks, in harmony with the English
classification, into — 1. Bituminous coal formations. 2. Mountain
limestone. 3. Grauwacke. 4. Crystalline and inferior stratified
rocks. In the succeeding reports, as the results of wider observa-
tion and more thorough study, the classification was changed and
differentiated until, in the final report, we find a classification
which, not only in its general features, but in many of its details,
is still adhered to in Missouri."

From 1854 to 1859 Dr. Owen was occupied with the geological
survey of Kentucky, having been appointed State Geologist by
Governor Powell. The results of his explorations were published
as the work progressed, and compose four large octavo volumes.
Dr. Robert Peter, of Lexington, Ky., performed the chemical
work of the survey and made a special report upon it.

Toward the close of his labors in Kentucky, in October, 1857,
Dr. Owen was commissioned to conduct a geological survey of the
State of Arkansas. His principal assistant in the Kentucky sur-
vey, Mr. E. T. Cox, filled the same position in the new work. The
chemical assistant on the latter survey was Dr. Elderhorst, author
of a work on the blowpipe. Various incidents in his several sur-
veys prove Dr. Owen to have been a man of indomitable perse-
verance. Once, while on the Red River of the North with a
Canadian voyageur, the fowling-piece used by the latter for pro-
curing game was discharged in such a way as to lodge a number
of shot in Dr. Owen's shoulder. But he did not permit the acci-
dent to delay him an hour. Again, the summer occupied with the
field work of the Arkansas survey, a considerable part of which
was necessarily spent in the rich and malarious bottom lands.

264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

proved very detrimental to his health, bringing him home in the
autumn with a hue denoting serious derangement of the liver.
Yet he not only persevered in his explorations, but occupied him-
self in winter with laboratory work, usually until midnight. He
did not desist even when suffering acutely from his last illness,
but dictated the closing portions of his report until within forty-
eight hours of his death. Between Dr. Owen and Governor Con-
way, who had given him the Arkansas appointment, there always
existed the most cordial good feeling, and the latter provided
every facility for the prosecution of the survey. Toward the end
of 1860 postal communication between the North and South was
considerably interrupted, for the breach which culminated in
civil war was already opening. Yet the Governor, at consider-
able pains, succeeded in sending safely to New Harmony several
thousand dollars due from the appropriation, and required for
the publication of the second volume of the report. Dr. Owen
had died, and the issuing of this volume, for which he had left
full instructions, fell to his brother and administrator. Prof.
Richard Owen. The latter also executed a second survey of
Indiana, for which his brother had been appointed in 1859, with
the understanding that Richard should do as much of the work
as might be necessary.

The labors above outlined resulted in undermining the origi-
nally good constitution with which David Dale Owen had been
endowed. Malarial fever, complicated with rheumatic attacks
which threatened the heart, terminated his career of usefulness
November 13, 1860. He left a widow, two sons, and two daughters.
Dr. Owen's character was marked by integrity and amiable sim-
plicity ; his kindness and liberality were well known, and his sci-
entific work was always conscientiously performed. His fondness
for chemistry led him to build at a cost of ten thousand dollars a
laboratory fully equipped, which served as a material evidence of
his good taste in architecture. His architectural taste was further
evinced in the artistic design which he submitted for the Smith-
sonian Institution building. He also tested many varieties of
building stone before the selection of material for that structure
was determined.

His artistic skill enabled him, besides richly illustrating his
reports, as above noted, to leave good portraits in oil of members
of his family. He transmitted to London views of the fossil
SigiUaria found erect in situ twelve miles from New Harmony,
with a description, which were presented to the British Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science by Sir Roderick Murchison.
He subsequently conducted Sir Charles Lyell to the locality while
the latter was his guest at New Harmony in his second visit to
the United States.

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 265*

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

Vm.— TEACHER.
By HERBERT SPENCER.

rpE ACHING implies knowledge of things to be taught; and as,
-L for various reasons, the priest comes to be distinguished by
his possession of knowledge, from him more especially is it to be
obtained. Moreover, being released from life-sustaining activities,
he has more time than others for giving information and enforcing
discipline.

A deeper reason for this primitive identity of priest and teacher
may be recognized. Though during early years each youth gath-
ers, in miscellaneous ways, much which is properly to be called
knowledge, and which serves him for guidance in ordinary life,
yet there is a kind of knowledge, or supposed knowledge, particu-
larly precious, which does not come to him through the irregular
channels of daily experience. Equally in savage tribes and among
early civilized peoples, ghosts and gods are believed to be every-
where, and always influencing men^s lives for good or evil ; and
hence of chief importance is information concerning the ways in
which conduct may be so regulated as to obtain their favors and
avoid their vengeance. Evidently the man who knows most about
these supernatural beings, the priest, is the man from whom this
information of highest value is to be obtained. It results that the
primitive conception of the teacher is the conception of one who
gives instruction in sacred matters.

Of course the knowledge thus communicated is first of all com-
municated by the elder priests to the younger, or rather by the
actual priests to those who are to become priests. In many cases,
and for a long time, this is the sole teaching. Only in the course
of evolution along with the rise of a secular cultured class, does
the teacher as we now conceive him come into existence.

Necessarily in early stages of all evolving aggregates the lines
of organization are indefinite. In groups of the uncivilized we
can not expect the function of educator to have become distinctly
marked off. Still we soon detect that inculcation of secret and
sacred things which, as above indicated, constitutes the earliest
kind of teaching : the " mystery men " being the instructors. Says
Bernau concerning the Arawaks : —

" The son of a conjurer, as soon as he enters his twentieth year, or even
sooner, is made acquainted by his father with the art of conjuration, and
enjoined the greatest secrecy concerning it."

And whether the neophyte be a descendant or not, there is always
this injunction of silence respecting the communicated informa-

VOL. XLVIII. — 18*

266* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion, whicli invariably has reference to dealings with supernatural
beings ; so that, from the very first, there is shown the rise of an
esoteric cult such as the priesthoods of early historic peoples
show us.

But in groups of savages we may trace an extension of this sa-
cred teaching, or rather part of it, to all young men on their arrival
at the fit age. The Australians, for example, have everywhere
an initiation ceremony during which the youth, circumcised after
a fashion, or in other cases having a tooth knocked out, is thereby
dedicated to a supernatural being supposed to be present, as in the
case of Daramultin, who is doubtless the hero of the tribe : the
dedications being obviously akin in spirit to those of more civi-
lized peoples. On these occasions the medicine-men are the oper-
ators and instructors.

The more advanced of the uncivilized, whose medicine-men
have gained in some measure the character of priests, furnish
better evidence. We have the case of the New Zealanders, among
whom, according to Thomson, one of the duties of the priests is
to instruct children in the songs and traditions of the people — to
instruct them, that is, in the sacred lore of the tribe. Then in
Africa, where the social organization is more developed, we meet
with a more definite form of priestly tuition. Bastian tells us that
in Congo the fetich-priest yearly collects the boys who have
arrived at puberty, and leads them into the forest, where they
remain six months, forming a sort of colony under the control of
the priest. During this time they undergo circumcision. Then
in Abyssinia and in Madagascar we find the teaching function of
the priest shared in by a non-priestly class — a step in differen-
tiation.

Peoples, past and present, in sundry parts of the world, who
have reached higher stages of civilization, yield fragments of
evidence which I string together in as orderly a way as is practi-
cable. Writing of the Mexicans, Torquemada says that the whole
education was in connection with the temples. Very many boys
were sent there to be educated from the fourth year of their age
until their marriage. Clavigero tells us the same thing. Of the
priests of Yucatan we read : —

" They instructed the sons of other priests, and also the younger sons of the
lords, who were given to them from childhood when they appeared to be in-
clined to that office. The sciences which they taught were the computation
of years, months, and days, festivals and ceremonies, the administration of
their sacraments, etc., etc."

Of existing peoples the Japanese may be first named as supply-
ing us with a relevant fact.

" The secular teacher's vocation can scarcely be said to have existed prior
to the days of the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty. . . . The bonzes

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 267*

[priests] of Japan are to be credited with being mainly instrumental in
spreading a knowledge of the rudiments of education throughout the length
and breadth of the Empire."
In his Embassy to Ava Syme writes : —

" All kioums or monasteries are seminaries, in which boys are taught
their letters and instructed in moral and religious duties."
To like effect, from a work entitled The Burman, by Shway Yeo,
we learn that —

" When a boy has reached the age of eight or nine years he goes as a mat-
ter of course to the Pohngyee Kyoung [Monastic School]. It is open to all
alike — to the poor fisherman's son as well as to the scion of princely
blood."

And the Catholic missionary Sangermano testifies similarly : im-
plying, also, that this education given by the priests is nominally
in preparation for the priesthood, since the students all put on
" the habit of a Talapoin " during the period of their education.
The JMahometans, too, yield evidence. At the present time in
Cairo the university is in a mosque.

Illustrative facts taken from the accounts of extinct and de-
cayed civilizations in the Old World, may be next grouped to-
gether— some of them mere hints and others sufficiently full.

Concerning ancient India, Dutt states that education consisted
of learning the Vedas, and that in the later as in the earlier peri-
ods it was under the priests. He also says : —

" There were Parishads or Brahmanic settlements for the cultivation of
learning . . . andyoungmen went to these Parishads to acquire learning."
To this there must be added the significant fact that in the Epic
Period (ca, b. c. 1400 to 1000)—

"Besides these Parishads, individual teachers established what would be
called private schools in Europe, and often collected round themselves
students from various parts of the country. . . . Learned Brahmans who
had retired to forests in their old age often collected such students round
them, and much of the boldest speculations in the Epic Period has pro-
ceeded from these sylvan and retired seats of sanctity and learning."

Taken in conjunction with the preceding statements this last
statement shows us how teaching was in the beginning exclusively
concerned with religious doctrines and rites, and how there event-
ually began to arise a teaching which, in some measure detached
from the religious institutions, at the same time entered upon
other subjects than the religious.

A kindred, if less elaborated, system existed in ancient Persia.

" It is pretty clear that the special training of boys for future callings
went hand in hand with their religious education, and that it was chiefly
regulated according to the profession of the father. ... It was evidently
also no uncommon practice to commit children to the care of a priest for
training and instruction in the same manner as the Indian Brahmins wei«
wont to do."

268* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Respecting Babylonia and Assyria Professor Sayce, describing
the social life there, says : —

" The libraries were established in the temples, and the schools in which
the work of education was carried on were doubtless attached to them."

" The ' house of males ' into which the young men were introduced,
seems to have been a sort of monastic establishment attached to the great
temples of Babylonia."

Of educational arrangements in Egypt the like is said by vari-
ous authorities — Brugsch, Erman, and Duncker.

" Schools were established in the principal towns of the country ; and
human and divine wisdom was taught in the assemblages of the holy serv-
ants of the gods."

"The high priest of Amon, Bekenkhonsu, tells us, that from his fifth to
his seventeenth year he was ' chief of the royal stable of instruction,' and
thence entered the temple of Amon as an under-priest. "

''The colleges at these temples [Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis] were
the most important centers of priestly life and doctrine."

That absence of a priestly hierarchy in Greece which, as before
pointed out, interfered with the normal developments of other
professions, interfered also with the normal development of the
tutorial profession. The temples and their surroundings were in-
deed places for special culture of one or other kind, mostly having
some relation to religious observances. But this form of priestly
teaching did not grow into any general system taking in the lay
members of the community. Referring, by contrast, to education
in the gymnasia, Mahaffy writes : —

" The older fashion had been to bring up boys very much as we bring
up girls, keeping them constantly under the eye of a special attendant or
teacher . . . teaching them the received religion and a little of the standard
literature, inculcating obedience to the gods and to parents."
As happened in Persia during its phase of militant activity, phys-
ical culture and culture of the mental powers useful in war took
precedence of other culture.

" The old system of advanced education, which ordained that from the
age of eighteen to twenty Athenian youths . . . should remain under State
supervision, and do the duty of patrols round the outlying parts and fron-
tier forts of Attica, receiving at the same time drill in military exercises, as
well as some gymnastic and literary training," became in time modified
to one in which " most of the gymnastics and military training was left
out."

But intellectual culture as it increased fell into the hands not of
the priests but of secular teachers. " Those philosophers who did
not, like the Stoics, despise teaching youths, ... set up their
schools close beside these gymnasia.''

Still more in Rome, where the course of evolution was so much

modified by the intrusion of foreign elements and influences, was

, the normal genesis of the teacher interfered with. Always when

militancy is extremely predominant, mental acquisition, regarded

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 269*

with, no respect, is not provided for : instance the fact that in
Japan, "during many centuries previous to ly^yasii's time, the
very numerous warrior-class like the Knights of Mediaeval Eu-
rope, despised a knowledge of letters as beneath the dignity of a
soldier, and worthy only of the bard and priest." And it was thus
in Rome.

" The economic arrangements of the Romans placed the work of element-
ary instruction in the mother-tongue — like every other work held in little
estimation, and performed for hire — chiefly in the hands of slaves, freed-
men, or foreigners, or in other words chiefly in the hands of Greeks or half-
Greeks."

This condition of things will be comprehended when we remem-
ber firstly that the normal genesis of teachers from priests is due
to the fact that in early stages priests are distinguished by their
superior knowledge ; secondly that the priests in Rome were not
thus distinguished, since the subjugated Greeks were more learned
than they ; and thirdly that all attributes of conquered men are
liable to fall into contempt.

On passing northward to the peoples of pre-Christian days and
to those of early Christian days, we are again shown the primi-
tive identity of priest and teacher and the eventual separation of
the two. Elsewhere saying of the Celts that their training, wholly
military, aimed to produce endurance, agility, and other bodily
capacities, Pelloutier writes : —

'* Pour entretenir les peuples dans la dependance, et pour etre tou jours
consultez comme des Oracles, les Ecclesiastiques vouloient etre les seuls
Savans; et de I'autre, les Celtes, qui regardoient tout travail, tant du corps
que de Tesprit (Procop. Gotth. L. I., cap. 2, p. 311) comme une chose ser-
vile, abandonnoient de bon coeur toutes les Sciences a leurs Druides, qu'ils
consideroient non seulement comme des Savans, mais encore comme de veri-
tables Magiciens. Les etudes des Nations Celtiques se reduisoient done
uniquement a apprendre par cceur certains Hymnes qui renfermoient leurs
Loix, leur Religion, leur Histoire, et en general tout ce qu'on vouloit bien
que le peuple siit.", (To keep the people dependent upon them, and in order
that they might always be consulted as oracles, the Ecclesiastics wished to
be the only men of knowledge ; and, on the other hand, the Celts, who re-
garded all labor, whether of body or mind (Procop. Gotth. L. I., chap. 2,
p. 311), as servile, readily left all the sciences to their Druids, whom they
held to be real magicians as well as men of knowledge. The studies of the
Celtic nations were therefore reduced simply to learning by heart certain
hymns in which were embodied their law, their religion, their history^
and, in general, all that it was desirable the people should know.)
And congruous with this is the statement of Pliny concerning the
British : — The druids " taught their pupils, and harangued to them
concerning their doctrines ; they made public speeches to the peo-
ple, and instructed them in morality."

Almost extinguished during early centuries of our era, such

270* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

CTiltnre as survived was to be found only in ecclesiastical institu-
tions, and out of them grew up afresh. As Hallam says : —

" The praise of having originally established schools belongs to some
bishops and abbots of the sixth century. They came in place of the
Imperial schools overthrown by the barbarians. . . . The cathedral and
conventual schools, created or restored by Charlemagne, became the
means of preserving that small portion of learning which continued to
exist."

Mosheim, describing the Church of the sixth century, further tells
US that in the cathedral schools the clerical teacher " instructed
the youth in the seven liberal arts, as a preparation for the study
of the sacred books ; " and that in the monasteries " the abbot or
some one of the monks instructed the children and youth that
were devoted to a monastic life." These last facts verify the state-
ment, made at the outset, that primarily instruction, whether given
to lay or clerical youth, concerned itself directly or indirectly with
religious propitiation : the avowed purpose, as expressed by the
Council of Vaison, being to make the young " attach themselves
to holy books and to know the law of God."

Subsequent centuries of wars and social derangements wit-
nessed a decay of these ecclesiastical teaching institutions, notwith-
standing efforts from time to time made by popes and bishops to
reinvigorate them. But, as was to be expected, when there began
to arise lay teachers, there arose clerical resistance. Then, as al-
ways, the priestly class disliked to see the instruction of the
young falling into other hands. In France, for example, the
Chancellor of Ste. Genevieve, who granted licenses to teach at the
Paris University, used his power sometimes to exclude able men,
sometimes to extort money, and had repeatedly to be restrained
by papal injunctions. So, too, was it in Germany.

" All the professorial posts in the Universities were in the hands of the
clergy, until the end of the fifteenth, and even into the sixteenth, century."

In Heidelberg, 1482, " a layman was for the first time, after a severe
struggle, allowed to become a professor of medicine."

*' The general admission of lay professors to clerical ofiices did not take
place until 1553."

Our own country presents like evidences. In old English
days " parish churches were often nsed as schools," says Pearson.
And, according to Sharon Turner, —

" The clergy were the preceptors of those who sought to learn ... to
them the moral and intellectual education of the age was intrusted. . . .
Thus the Irish monk Maildurf, who settled at Malmesbury . . . took schol-
ars to earn subsistence."

So it was, too, in subsequent days. "We read in the same two au-
thors that after the Conquest —

" The numerous clergy scattered up and down through England had a

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 271*

direct interest in promoting education. They eked out their scanty sti-
pends as tutors and schoolmasters."

" One of the first fruits of the revival of literature in England, was the
universal establishment of schools. To every cathedral, and almost to
every monastery, a school was appended. . . . Few persons of any note
appear to us among the clergy, during the century after the conquest, who
did not during some part of their lives occupy themselves in instructing
others."

In exemplification may be named, as distinguished teachers belong-
ing to the priesthood during the Anglo-Saxon period, Bede, Al-
cuin, Scotus Erigena, and Dunstan. And after the Conquest, as
teachers sufficiently conspicuous to be specified, come Athelard
of Bath, John of Salisbury, Alexander Neckam, Koger of Hove-
den, Duns Scotus.

But here as elsewhere the secularization of teaching slowly
went on in sundry ways. Early in the fifteenth century laymen
here and there left money for the founding of schools. Warton,
writing of the early part of the sixteenth century, says : — " The
practice of educating our youth in the monasteries growing into
disuse, near twenty new grammar schools were established within
this period." At the same time there was initiated a slow change
in the character of our universities. Beginning as clusters of
theological students gathered round clerical teachers of wide
reputation, they, while growing, long continued to be places for
clerical education only, and afterward simulated it. Almost
down to the present day acceptance of the legally-established
creed has been in them a condition to the reception of students
and the conferring of distinctions ; and they have all along pre-
served a teaching and discipline conspicuously priestly. We
have residence in colleges under a regime suggestive of the mo-
nastic ; we have daily attendance at prayers, also monastic in its
associations ; and we have the wearing of a semi-priestly dress.
But gradually the clerical character of the education has been
modified by the introduction of more and more non-religious sub-
jects of instruction, and by the relaxation of tests which a domi-
nant ecclesiasticism once imposed. So that now the greater part
of those who " go to college," do so without any intention of en-
tering the Church : university teaching has been in a large meas-
ure secularized.

Meanwhile the multiplied minor teaching institutions of all
grades, though they have in the majority of cases passed into the
hands of laymen, still, in considerable measure, and especially
throughout their higher grades, retain a clerical character. The
public schools in general are governed by ecclesiastics ; and most
of the masters are, if not in orders, preparing to take orders.
Moreover, a large proportion of the private schools throughout
the kingdom to which the wealthier classes send their sons, are

272* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

carried on by clergymen ; and clergymen in mnltitndinons cases
take private pupils. Thus tlie differentiation of the teaching class
from the priestly class is even now incomplete.

As significantly bearing on the evolution of the teacher, let us
further note that at the present moment there is going on a strug-
gle to reacquire that clerical control which a secularized system
of public education had in chief measure thrown off. Even when
established a quarter of a century ago, this public education was
not completely secularized, since certain biblical lessons were
given ; and now a strenuous endeavor is being made to add to
these biblical lessons certain dogmas of the Christian creed estab-
lished by law, and so to make the teachers of Board Schools to a
certain extent clerical teachers. Nor is this all. Clerics have
striven and are still striving, to make the public help them to
teach Church dogmas in Church Schools. At the present time
(June, 1895), the Primate and clergy at large are fathering an Act
which shall give them State- funds without State- control. With
an arrogance common to Priesthoods in all times and places, no
matter what the creed they say to the State — " We will say what
shall be taught and you shall pay for it.''

No more here than elsewhere do we meet with an exception to
the segregation and consolidation which accompany differentia-
tion ; though, partly because of the more recent separation of the
teaching class from the clerical class, this change has not been so
conspicuous.

The tendency towards integration of the teaching class, and
marking off of them from other classes, was first shown among
theological teachers. At the University of Paris —
'' half-learned persons, who had scarcely any knowledge of the elements of
theology, took upon themselves the ofiice of public teachers. The conse-
quence was, that the theological teachers of better reputation united them-
selves, and formed a regular society ; and they had sufficient influence to
establish the rule, that no one should be allowed to teach without their
approbation and permission. This of course led to an examination of the
candidates, and to a public trial of their ability, and to a formal ceremony
for their admission to the dignity of teachers or doctors^
In our own universities the like has happened. Knowledge, first
of established Christian doctrine, and then of other things held
proper for teachers of Christian doctrine to know, and then ex-
aminations testing acquisition of such kinds of knowledge, have
served to create a mass of those qualified, and to exclude those
not qualified: so forming a coherent and limited aggregate.
Though dissenting sects have insisted less on qualifications, yet
among them, too, have arisen institutions facilitating the needful
culture and giving the needful clerical authorizations.

Only of late have secular teachers tended to unite. Beyond

WBY THE SEA IS SALT. 273*

the various training colleges wliicli instruct and examine and au-
thorize, there are now sundry professional associations. Of a
general kind come the Teachers' Guild and the Scottish Educa-
tional Institute. Then of more special kinds come the Head Mas-
ters [of Public Schools] Conference; the Association of Head
Masters of Intermediate Secondary Schools; the Association of
Head Mistresses; the College of Preceptors; the Association of
Assistant Masters ; the National Union of Teachers.

So, too, with the appliances for maintaining a general organi-
zation of all concerned in education — schoolmasters, assistants,
colleges, and the various unions above named. This professorial
class, like other professorial classes, has journals weekly and
monthly, some general and some special, representing its inter-
ests, serving for communication among its members, and helping
to consolidate it.

WHY THE SEA IS SALT.

By G. W. LITTLEHALES.

FROM the first chapter of the first book of Moses, called Gene-
sis, we learn that, as between water and land, the ocean had
the first place in terrestrial existence, for it is there stated that
on the third day in the calendar of the creation the waters under
the heavens were gathered together and the dry land appeared.
Both from a chemical and a geological standpoint it appears that
the waters of the ocean were salt from the beginning. Dr. T. S.
Hunt, one of the ablest writers on the physical history of the
globe, in his chemical and geological essays, referring to that pe-
riod when the earth was in a molten state and surrounded by an
envelope of gases and of vapor of water, states : " There would
be the conversion of all the carbonates, chlorides, and sulphates
into silicates, and the separation of carbon, chlorine, and sulphur
in the form of acid gases which, with nitrogen, vapor of water,
and a probable excess of oxygen, could form the dense primeval
atmosphere. The resulting fused mass would contain all the
bases as silicates, and must have resembled certain furnace slags
or volcanic glasses. The atmosphere, charged with acid gases
which surrounded this primitive rock, must have been of great
density. Under the pressure of a high barometric column con-
densation could take place at a temperature much above the pres-
ent boiling point of water, and the depressed portions of the half-
cooled crust would be flooded with a highly heated solution of
hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, whose action in decomposing
the silicates can easily be understood. The formation of the
chlorides and sulphates of the various bases, and the separation of

2 74* ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

silica, would go on until the affinities of the acids were satisfied,
and there would be a separation of silica taking the form of
quartz, and the production of sea- water holding in solution, be-
sides the chlorides and the sulphates of sodium, calcium, and
magnesium, salts of ammonium and other metallic bases. The
atmosphere, being thus deprived of its volatile chlorine and sul-
phur compounds, would gradually approximate to that of our
own time, but would differ in the greater amount of carbonic- acid
gas."

And the meteorologist Abbe, in the course of remarks made
before the Philosophical Society of Washington in 1889, express-
ing the propriety of wholly rejecting the idea that the earth was
once a molten globe, stated : " The study of geological climate
during and since the formation of Azoic metamorphic strata has
led me to adopt the conclusion that surface geology, like volcanic,
does not demand excessive temperatures ; it seems to me most
reasonable to assume that the surface was never much warmer
than 250° F., but to allow that this temperature may have pre-
vailed at the close of the Archaic epoch.

" At this temperature all the water of the ocean would exist
only as vapor and clouds in the atmosphere. The steady, hot rain
from the atmosphere would rapidly disintegrate the surface rocks.
Small seas and lakes of water saturated with alkalies and salts
would at once begin to form the rocks that we know as metamor-
phic and archsean. The covering thus formed would contribute to
diminish the rate of cooling of the interior mass, thus allowing
the atmosphere to cool down to its present condition and deposit
the most of its moisture."

In the rocks formed earliest after Archaean time, to which geo-
logical age only crystalline rocks devoid of fossils belong, there
are found aquatic relics of organisms with calcareous skeletons
which when living bore a close generic relation to organic forms
which are confined to oceanic waters at the present time. Among
these early inhabitants of the sea were corals, crinoids, sea urchins,
and starfishes, and many others there doubtless were which, al-
though they require the saline constituents of the sea to live upon,
had no calcareous skeletons, and consequently have not been pre-
served in a fossil state. The remains are found deposited in the
lower Silurian as well as the Devonian, Carboniferous, Jurassic,
and Cretaceous formations.

But apart from these deductions concerning the saltness of the
primeval ocean there is direct evidence that the waters of the sea
in the early part of Paleozoic time were highly saline, for there
were deposited from the waters of the Silurian sea saliferous
strata which constitute the Onondaga salt group and the Trenton
and Chazy limestone series, in which the relics of marine organ-

WHY THE SEA IS SALT.

275*

isms largely abound, to prove that they result from the sediment
deposited by the ocean in that age.

Throughout all geological time the sea has also received salt
from the continents, for the rain, falling upon the land, filters
through the layers of salif erous soil and, springing to the surface

276* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

througli some natural duct, finds its way to tlie sea with its bur-
den of salt. But when the waters of the ocean are evaporated to
form clouds and rain, the salt is left behind, so that ever more and
more salt is being transferred from the land ; and this ceaseless
transfer has been going on since the first brooks and rills gath-
ered together to form the rivers of the primeval lands. This pro-
cess of salinification, which is identical with that which takes
place in every lake and inland sea, like Great Salt Lake and
the Dead Sea, into which streams flow but from which none
emerge, has often been looked upon as a sufficient cause for the
existing saltness of oceanic waters, for the ocean occupies a great
closed basin into which many thousands of rivers flow, but from
which none take their source. It must not be overlooked, how-
ever, that there is direct evidence to show that in early geo-
logical ages, when the continents were small and before the rivers
were numerous or large, the waters of the vast ocean of those
times were salt.

The salts of the sea have fed, throughout all time, countless
living things which have thronged its water and whose remains
now form the rocks of continents or lie spread in beds of unknown
thickness over 66,000,000 square miles of the 143,000,000 square
miles of the ocean's floor ; they have lent the substance to build
the fringing reefs of the land and all the coral islands of the sea,
and there are at present, on the basis of an average salinity of
three and a half per cent, in the 290,700,000 cubic miles of water
which make up the oceans, 90,000,000,000,000,000 tons, or 10,173,000
cubic miles, of salt. This is sufficient to cover the areas of all the
lands of the earth with a uniform layer of salt to a depth of one
thousand feet.

It seems that the sea was made salt in the beginning as a part
of the grand design of the Creator to provide for the system of
evolution which has been going on since the creation. Many dis-
tinct species of living organisms exist in the sea as a result of its
salinity, and their remains have largely contributed to the growth
of continents. The three great factors in accounting for the sys-
tem of currents in the ocean, by which it becomes the great heat
distributer of the globe, are changes of temperature, the winds,
and salinity. The last mentioned becomes an important factor
through the immediate and essential differences of specific grav-
ity and consequent differences of level that it produces in dif-
ferent parts of the ocean through the action of evaporation and
rainfall.

If, through the fall of rain upon a portion of the ocean or through
the action of evaporation in the surrounding parts, the waters of
that portion become lighter than the rest down to a certain dis-
tance below the surface, two different kinds of motion will imme-

WHY THE SEA IS SALT, 277*

diately occur. The lighter water will be lifted by the surround-
ing heavier waters till there is no difference in pressure between
its lower boundary and the surrounding waters at the same
depth ; but, as its pressure at all levels above this lower boundary
will now have become greater than that of the surrounding heav-
ier waters, it will instantly begin to displace and overflow them.
This movement of the lighter water will require considerably
more time than the movement of the heavier water by which it
was lifted and continues to be lifted as its level sinks by lateral
diffusion, because the sum of the differences of pressure which
caused the lifting of the lighter water was, in the first place,
greater than the sum of the differences that caused its lateral
diffusion. Secondly, the differences of pressure that caused the
first movement must extend all the way to the bottom, whereas
those which cause the latter extend no deeper than the lighter
stratum itself, and, even within the extent of that, have their chief
effect confined to the superficial strata.

On the other hand, when the equilibrium of a mass of water is
disturbed by causes that do not diminish the specific grayity, the
disturbance must extend down to the bottom, and the differences
of pressure at all levels beneath the surface must be equal. The
equilibrium is then restored by a general movement of the whole
mass, which movement is sensible in inverse proportion to the
mass that is set in motion. This is the essential cause for the dif-
ference in strength between the currents observed in salt and fresh
waters, for, of all the current-producing causes which act in fresh
waters, only the one resulting from variations of temperature can
sensibly affect the specific gravity, while the specific gravity of
sea water, besides being much more affected by variation of tem-
perature, is still further influenced by the fresh water which rains
upon the surface of the ocean. If the whole basin of the ocean
were filled with fresh water and exposed to the most extreme
meteorological influences, the currents produced would not be near-
ly equal either in size or strength to those now observed in the
waters of the ocean.

So the saltness of the sea is involved in all the great subjects
into which the ocean currents enter. Having contributed to the
growth of the continents, it has in a like degree peopled them by
influencing human migrations through the streams of the ocean
upon which the race of man was spread to the distant archipelagoes
at a time when there were only rudimentary means for struggling
against the forces of Nature. Besides its influences in geology and
anthropology, it is concerned to a marked extent in the climate of
the earth and of the sea, and in their botany and zoology.

278* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A NATURAL PAPER MILL.

By VIRGIL G. EATON.

DIGGING out here in my back pasture lot, so I may find
water for my cows when next summer's drought comes on,
I have discovered one of the oldest paper mills in the world — a
mill that was in good working order when Alexander went east
for other nations to subdue, and one which had whole quires and
reams in stock when men lived in caves and the human families
exchanged calls with the monkeys. The land here is drift clay,
which, mixed with sand and duly baked, makes fine building
brick, and which raises such fine timothy hay that the new tariff
does not bother me a mite. It is blue clay clear down for twenty
feet, when it strikes an old sea brush of dark gravel plentifully
filled in with clam, quahog, and scallop shells. Below this are
coarser gravel and bowlders, and then comes the ledge, a heat-
scorched, flinty clay slate that is almost crystallized in many
places. For several miles the land is as level as a house floor,
and here the rainfall hesitates so long about choosing a direction
in which to run that the larger part stays where it falls until the
warm sun licks it up to form more clouds to make more rain.
Then such portions of the land as are not covered with sward or
some form of vegetation crack open, and the millions of innocent
tadpoles perish from thirst before they know what fun it is to
wear legs and breathe atmosphere. Draining this land is out of
the question, because in order to do it I should have to dig a ditch
four miles across my neighbor's property before the water could
escape ; and while this might be a very praiseworthy act, it would
most surely take all the money I have, and my fellow- farmers
would reap the reward equally with myself. Wells are also im-
possible here, because the frost throws out the walls in two years ;
and as cattle can not drink out of an artesian- well pipe, I am
digging a small pond to hold the rainfall.

The place I have selected is a gentle depression in the generally
level land. It is about ten rods in diameter and is walled around
by a natural clay embankment varying in height from two to five
feet. An opening in the wall lets the water in from one side,
while a miniature canon allows it to escape in the opposite di-
rection. Rushes, flags, and sedges stand knee deep in the waters
close to the shore, and a few lilies, with leaves like arrowheads,
dot the pool, which is otherwise given over to frogs, newts, and
aquatic insects. Into the bowels of this wizard's caldron I am
digging and scraping in hopes I may keep enough of the surface
water in store so that the suns of August shall not leave my pas-
ture dry. Working here, daubed with the muck and the clay

A NATURAL PAPER MILL, 279*

from whicli tlie race is made, I have found the aged paper mill
about which I started to tell.

This particular paper mill — for there are dozens of them on
my land and thousands of them on the tract— is in the bed of
the rill which feeds the reservoir I am making. The rivulet
soaks down across the pasture at a cripple's gait, going out of its
way to extemporize shallow ponds here and there, and finally,
after swelling up a little to surmount the ring of clay wall, top-
ples over into the pool, which, from its size and conformation, I
think is a scar or dent that still remains from some stranded ice-
berg that grounded here millenniums ago, and dissolving, left
the hole in my field which I am trying to enlarge. The land is
very dry at present, and looking in the bed of the extinct feeding
mill I see it is carpeted with a grayish-brown matting that has a
sheen like gossamer silk, and which crackles like stiff paper when
struck with my spade. It stretches up the channel for rods and
follows the windings very closely. I tear off some from the dead
grass stalks, and when I hold it up to the light I find it is very
good paper, thin, fairly strong, and in places semitranspar-
ent. Under this coat is another, and still another, so when I put
my spade down the full length of its blade I find I can not reach
through it all. A hand glass shows it is full of zigzag and irregu-
lar ribs, like the wings of a fly. These are the coarser portions of
the paper, but the whole fabric is made of the same material,
which is simply the shredded and digested woody fiber of the
coarse grasses and rushes growing by the brookside. For cen-
turies past these have flourished in the summer time until killed
by the frost. The snow came, beating down the dead herbage,
and before spring the whole was bedded in ice. Gradually the
rill gnawed its way through the ice cap and the water began to
sweep past the dead grass, now lying horizontally in the current.
Slowly, atom by atom, the pith, gum, starch, and silex in the
grasses were washed away, leaving only a fine and complexly
mingled meshing of woody fiber where once were rushes, foul
meadow, and blue joint. Then the brooklet receded before the
warmer rays of a gaining sun, and a green scum, composed of in-
fusoria and numberless low-grade microscopic plants, formed
above the slackened water, filling all the spaces in the pulp net-
work already in place. This settled with the water until stopped
by the stumps of the broken grass, and then for a few weeks the
stream ran under the canopy until it dried up altogether, and
spiders hunted their prey concealed by a shade of natural paper.
Again the grasses came up and grew and died. The snow of the
next winter, which beat them down, pressed the underlying paper
flat into the bed of the brook, and again the paper mill was mak-
ing ready for a new output. Year by year this went on, no

28 o* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

matter wlio was President or wliat London bankers charged for
excliange. Shredded by ice and frost all winter, washed from
impurities during the spring, and dried in sunlight in the
early summer, the paper was completed and ready to store away
when the grasses were high enough to shade the ground.

Thus the work went on all the year and all years until the
present large supply is on hand. Before now I have been told,
and indeed I have read in cyclopaedias, that the wasps were the
earliest paper makers, and that wasp nests were the first paper
the world ever saw. This is evidently an erroneous idea. Grasses
and rushes came on this planet long before wasps or bees, and
coarse grasses with water and sunlight have perhaps been in part-
nership in the paper business since long before the coal age in
America. Out here on my farm I can trace the history of this
mill back to a time long before Adam walked in his garden, and
I have every reason to believe there were other and similar mills
in operation eons or cycles previous to the time mine began its
work.

It is an interesting study to take up this latest issue of the
great serial record and glance over the events which it noted right
here during last summer. Of course a full story of the field's do-
ings is not told, but I find enough to keep me busy and cause me
to search for more. The tale is not twisted or distorted by re-
porters' imagination in order to make it read well, neither is it
marred by typographical errors, causing the reader to guess at
what was the writer's intention. The matrix was good and the
impression was perfect all over the sheet. Writers of the realistic
school, like Zola and Howells, can take lessons from this author,
for here are the remains of the conflicts and tragedies narrated
pressed flat upon the paper and terribly in evidence to vouch for
every detail. Modern newspapers, with all their boasted push
and enterprise, can never hope to equal this aged annual which
dates its first number back to two thousand years before Methu-
selah began to grow whiskers.

Records of the whole season are found on this paper, telling
the story of what has been going on in the animal world as
plainly as if it were printed with life photographs and for sale on
the street. Here are a half dozen "wiggler boats" that once
served as skins for mosquito larvae. When the wigglers grew
large and were ready to quit the waters these cases cracked open
along the back, and out stepped the mosquitoes, armed and
equipped to prey upon the summer visitors. Near by are two
legs and portions of the wing cases of a big locust. It is hard to
tell whether he died a natural death or perished from violence.
On looking at the fragments more closely, however, faint threads
may be seen here and there, showing that he succumbed to some

A NATURAL PAPER MILL. 281*

artful spider. The web proper is gone, the spider can not be
found, but there is the story all told inside of half an inch's space.
Farther on are the feathers of a bird, evidently a sparrow, which
were probably torn out by a ravenous hawk. Yes, here is a spat-
ter of blood on the paper that the rains have failed to erase and
will never wash out, though that paper is buried for years.
Across the middle of the sheet is where an earthworm has trav-
eled, and near at hand is the track of a mole, its mortal enemy.
The mole followed the worm, and the footprints mar the straight
channel made by the annelid all the way. A broad wavy line in
one corner shows where a snake has been along, seeking for stray
bugs, and over all the slimy tracks of the slow but industrious
snails shine like mica. In addition to these, I find the fragments
of a cabbage butterfly's wing with the powder still clinging in
places; a few hairs of a muskrat, loosened, perhaps, by a preda-
tory mink ; several dead dragonflies, as stiff as mummies ; the
head of a dead ant, with his big eyes staring at me as if in re-
proach ; the cases of two caddice worms ; and bits of severed twigs
and grass and leaves and bark innumerable. I have found all
these sitting here and looking at the paper I have torn up and
which has not surface enough to cover the top of my desk ; but
the tale it tells is the history of the whole summer with its loves
and hates and mirth and music — simply the story of one sum-
mer printed in pictures on paper, and issued by Nature to file
away in her great library of past events.

Below the top pages are the other books of this valuable col-
lection. Every sheet represents a year. Possibly, in seasons
where two dry spells with an intervening period of continued
rainfall occur, there may be two sheets of paper issued in a year ;
but then, again, there have been very wet years when no paper at
all could be made, so it is safe to count on one sheet a' year. Tak-
ing this as the basis of my calculations, I dig out a bit of the
record on the point of my spade about midway to the bottom and
count up how many sheets I cut through in going down an inch.
The sheets are very fine and closely pressed, so I find trouble in
counting, but after several trials I feel sure the average is fully
three hundred sheets to an inch, which would make thirty-six
hundred sheets to every foot in depth. Now, my spade blade is
a foot long, and below this is as much more, and that takes me
away back of any historical record now extant. So here I have a
paper factory that is more than seven thousand years old, and
the same blue clay and sand and shells were under it then that
are there now. Yet my paper mill was started in modern times
when the glacier works were on the surrounding hills no plainer
than they are to-day.

Beyond doubt this little handful of crumbling, grass-im-

VOL. XLVIII. — 19*

282* THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

bedded, peaty pulp I now hold in my hand was made and filed
away at a time when the mastodon came along here for food and
the big American elephant shook the earth with his heavy steps.
If I had time and patience, what a story this old library of primi-
tive paper could tell me ! It would be the tale of the world, who
lived on it, how they lived and how they died, the story of storm
and freshet and tornado, of drought and fire and famine, and the
family record of every insect, mammal, and bird which has vis-
ited this field for the past seven thousand years. The proofs of
the photographer fade and go out to nothing, the images of the
spectroscope die with the light which created them, and the
dormant words in the phonograph lisp and stutter with age and
much using ; but Nature's record book, which is always open and
always getting new additions, holds fast to every fact, no matter
how trivial it may seem, and will keep them all there in evidence
until the senile earth wrinkles up, like a sun-dried lemon, and
floats through space a cold and shriveled husk. This paper mill,
I have found, old as it is, measures but one beat of the pendulum
on the great clock of geologic time, a clock that was wound up
millions of years before man came on earth, and will continue to
run for millions of years after the last human being has gone.

A heavy rainfall came on before I had finished my digging,
and when I visit my paper mill again it is flooded with water.
Both work and study are useless here at present, and I pass an
hour watching the pool, and noting how the added water has
increased the activity of the aquatic animals that make it their
home. All the wigglers in wigglerdom are out zigzagging them-
selves to the top of the water to stick their star- shaped noses up
for a bit of air, and then falling to the bottom again to feed on
the decaying muck. The pond seems alive with them, and the
frogs are having a feast, eating wigglers by the dozen at every
swallow. My ducks come waddling up from the house, and enter
the pond for a swim ; but, catching sight of the frogs, they con-
clude to abandon their bath and have a frog dinner. For the
next ten minutes the water is a splashing, boiling sea, lashed into
waves by fleeing frogs and pursuing ducks.

The report of the British Association's Committee on the Teaching of
Science in Elementary Schools represents that while much improvement
has heen made in the character of the teaching, difiiculty still exists in
getting it done by experiments and in a truly educational way, rather than
as a series of useful but isolated facts. School teachers are generally
enthusiastic in their endeavor to obtain a knowledge of science when
classes are organized for their benefit. Progress is making in the number
of subjects taught in elementary schools and the number of pupils receiv-
ing instruction.

CORRESP ONBENCE,

265

i£jtsxxtsi^t:^xi&txitt.

THE VALUE OF VEGETABLE FOODS.

Editor Popular Science Monthly :

0 IR: I hare just read Dr. Benjafield's leo-
10 ture, in the September number, on Fruit
as a Food and Medicine. I have read the Popu-
lar Science Monthly for twenty-five years, or
rather from the very first number, and have
always found it filled with very valuable and
intensely interesting matter ; but the above
article I consider, from a hygienic standpoint,
rather superior to anything I have read any-
where for a long time.

I am well aware of the great value of
fruits as food and medicine. I prefer a ripe
Baldwin apple to any other fruit grown or
sold in this coimtry. A deep-red Baldwin
is the finest. Its color indicates that it is
grown in the sunlight, which makes it chem-
ically superior to one grown in the shade,
which is more apt to be of green color. As
the doctor says, lemon juice is of gieat value.
My spring medicine for many years has been
the juice of one lemon in as much, or a little
more, water — no sugar — taken every morn-
ing for a week or ten days. I usually take
it fifteen or twenty minutes before breakfast.
It corrects biliary tendencies, and acts as a
fine tonic and appetizer.

I have found apples to have a fine tonic
effect on the stomach ; one good apple will
usually give me a fine appetite in ten min-
utes. I usually eat two or three good- sized
apples at every meal ; they constitute a larffe
part of the meal, not an embellishment at the
end of it.

I have found, since using apples largely,
that the physical power of endurance imder
labor, either mental or physical, is very
much increased ; also a gain in flesh. This

1 attribute largely to the fact that apples
assist the digestion and assimilation of food
of other kinds. Chemists record that ap-
ples contain a larger percentage of nitrates
and phosphates (food for brain and muscle)
than any other fruit.

Care should be taken in the selection of
the fruit to be used. Most of the fruits sold
in the market in the early fall are not well
ripened. Apples, peaches, pears, and other
fruits grown in southern latitudes are gathered
before they are ripe and shipped north, where
they bring a high price before the northern
crop is ripe. This green fruit is ripened
on the cars and boats, and in cellars,
warehouses, and stores, where it is shut out
from the sunlight, and where the air often-
times is not of the purest. Fruit ripened in
such places is very inferior to that ripened
on the tree where it grew. Fruit grown in
northern sections is often gathered quite un-

VOL. XLVIII. — 19

ripe, and, marketed early in the season, it
brings a high price. This green fruit has
not been chemically elaborated in the sun-
light and fresh air on the parent stem, the
only way it can obtain the proper elements
in proper combination.

Of course, this green fruit is better than
none, but fruit can not be perfect unless
ripened as Nature intends it should be.

I was lately reading the reports of apples
exported from this country to England and
other countries. If my memory is not at
fault, 1 think the number of barrels exported
in 1894 and 1896 was in the vicinity of half
a million. We ought not to export a barrel ;
the people of this country are suffering be-
cause they have not consumed them all.

There is another article of food of which
we do not consume enough — namely, baked
beans. Many people complain that they can
not eat them. Well, cooked as they are in
many families, they can not and ought not.
Our physiological text-books have for a good
many years taught that persons of sedentary
habits do not require a diet that feeds and
strengthens the muscles so much as those
who perform muscular work. Well, per-
haps not quite as much, but a great fault
with the majority of people in this country
is, that they do not consume enough food
which feeds the muscles, brain, and nerves
— i. e., nitrates and phosphates. In the first
place, food can not be well chewed without
muscular action ; secondly, the stomach is
required to exercise muscular activity as a
part of the digestive process ; thirdly, the
peristaltic action of the bowels is indispen-
sable ; fourthly, the heart is one of the most
if not the most powerful muscle in the hu-
man body ; it never ceases working from the
moment life begins until it ends. How can
we expect this most important organ to go
on year after year performing hard muscular
work without being nourished by such food
as muscles require ? In my opinion, the many
cases we hear of nowadays of heart failure
are simply cases of heart starvation. We
consume too much fat forming food, and the
result is a shrinking and weakening of the
muscles of the heart and other important
organs. The muscles of the heart shrink
away and fat is substituted in place (fatty
degeneration). Whatever a person's occu-
pation may be, a good supply of muscle-mak-
ing, brain and nerve-making food should be
daily eaten. Baked beans — properly baked
— contain over twenty-five per cent of ni-
trates for muscles, and fully four per cent of
food for brain and bones ; but they must be
thoroughly cooked. I would not care to
eat them cooked less than twelve hours.

266

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Beans should not be eaten unless one is
really hungry — the appetite sharp.

Of course, there ai*e many other articles
of food which are good muscle, brain, and
nerve feeders, and as a people we ought to
consume more of them. I do not say that
all people can eat baked beans as I do, they
act as a tonic and strengthen the digestive
powers in my case. I think most people can
eat more of them than they do, and if prop-
erly cooked would soon find them almost in-
di.-pensable. Baked peas stand next in
value as a muscle and nerve food.

Before closing I wish to allude to apples
again. I like them raw, but sauce is delicious
made in the following way, by which method
the apple loses less of its valuable qualities
than in any other method of cooking them :

First, pare thin and quarter the apples,
place in a stewpan over a hot fire, put in a
few spoonfuls of water, just to keep from
burning on the bottom — more than that in-
jures the flavor ; cook as qmckly as possible ;
cover over when cooking, so that steam will
cook the top. I have found that with a hot
fire from eight to twelve minutes will cook
them. Add a quantity of sugar before quite
done and eat warm. When done ; the apple
will remain in quarters, and hardly have
changed color. A fine red Baldwin apple
cooked in this way and eaten before cold is
delicious and very healthy. C. A. Hoppin.
W0BCE8TBB, Mass., September 2, 1895.

INDIVIDUALITY IN THE NESTS OF
THE ENGLISH SPARROW.

Editor Popular Science Monthly ;

Sir: One of the great factors in natu-
ral selection is individual variation. The
English sparrow in its struggle for existence
has to contend with cats, boys with blow-
guns, and the hostility of a large class of

people who believe it to be a nuisance. The
strength and stability of a nest in which the
young are to be reared are important fea-
tures in the life of the brood, and it is inter-
esting to note the variations in the form,
style, and material of the nests, in this con-
nection. Mr. John Robmson, of Salem, has
communicated to me the following observa-
tions he has made concerning this subject :

" In June, 1893, a sparrow's nest was re-
moved from the vine [Ampelopsis virginicd)
growing on the southern end of East India
Marine Hall, Salem, composed exclusively of
the twigs of Tamariz chinensis, a tree of
which species was growing in the yard below
the nest. The twigs were about five inches
long, and, being young and tender, were
easily bitten off by the birds. Over three
hundred shoots were thus used in this one
nest. A little hay was used as a foundation
in this nest and in each of the others to be
described.

" In May, 1894, all the nests in the vine,
of which there were perhaps twenty, were
taken down about the 1st of the month.
About the 15th of the month four nests, all
made after the cleaning at the 1st of the
month, were taken down. Each had a slight
foundation of hay. One was composed of
feathers, no doubt collected in a neighboring
yard where hens were kept. About a quart
of these feathers were in the nest. A sec-
ond was composed entirely of twine, picked
up in the streets and yards near by. A third
was made exclusively of strippings of fine
bark from cedar posts, and very likely ob-
tained from the lumber dealer's storage yards
on Derby Street, not far away, or perhaps
from some newly set fence nearer at hand.
Another nest was filled with fluify cotton
wool, such as is used in bed puffs. In each
case there was nothing else used except the
hay foundation and the materials named."
Edward S. Morsb.
Salxh, Mass., October 26, 1895.

"g^&itox^s SaMje.

TEE BORDERLAND OF NONSENSE.

THAT mental stimulation may
produce marked physical re-
sults is a proposition which few
would be found to deny or even to
question ; but it is an unfortunate
thing when this simple and limited
truth is converted into a pretext for
virtually denying the laws of phys-

ical causation, where human beings
are concerned. Yet, if there is one
gospel which a large class of persons
hear more gladly than another, it is
that the laws of matter are illusory
and those of mind or spirit alone sub-
stantial and valid. Hence the nu-
merous schools which, under vari-
ous names, and with more or less pe-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

267

cuniary success, are attempting to
make faith, emotion, hallucination
do work which, so far as it is within
the range of possibility, belongs to a
well- devised system of physical, or
combined physical and mental, treat-
ment. It looks sometimes as if, ac-
cording to the well-known Latin
adage, the people really did wish to
be deceived ; and the upholders of
sound doctrine and sane methods are
doubtless tempted at times to be dis-
couraged. The thing to do in such
a case is to look away from the causes
of discouragement and renew the
battle against delusion and imposture
with more energy than before, know-
ing that some good must come of
every manifestation of the true na-
ture of things.

We have no quarrel, as may
already have been gathered, with
those who maintain that some use
may be made of a wise direction of
thought and a healthy stimulation
of mental interest in combating va-
rious forms of physical ailment.
Every competent physician does
what he can to "keep up the spir-
its " of his patient ; and the common
wisdom of mankind has recognized
that mental conditions have in many
cases much to do with questions
of health and disease. A '■'■mens
Sana'"' is, we have not the least
doubt, a powerful aid toward the
maintenance of a " corpus sanum " ;
but, when this has been to the full-
est extent admitted, it remains none
the less true that the body is subject
to the laws of matter, and that a
given affection of our bodily organi-
zation will modify in the most im-
portant manner the action of our
mind. In this respect man has no
superiority over the brute : the phys-
ical causes which affect the latter
affect man equally, and sometimes
in greater measure, the equilibrium
of the human constitution being
perhaps, on the whole, less stable

than that of the lower creatures.
We may say of man and the lower
animals what Shylock says of Jew
and Christian that they are " fed with
the same food, hurt with the same
weapons, subject to the same diseases,
healed by the same means, warmed
and cooled by the same winter and
summer." That man has the higher
mentality does not in the slightest
degree exempt him from the opera-
tion of physical laws, though it does
enable him to surround his life with
safeguards, and in a general way
pursue and secure his well-being by
methods which no other species can
understand or imitate.

All this may seem to most of our
readers very commonplace and ob-
vious, but nevertheless there is need
to repeat even such truths as these
when we find some pages of a scien-
tific periodical* devoted to the advo-
cacy of contrary doctrines. " Man,"
we read, "is a soul which, through
an inherent tendency toward articu-
late manifestation, has picked up a
little plastic material and erected it
into an animated statue. This same
dust has been, and will be, used over
and over again to express other and
different grades and qualities of life ;
and therefore it can have no distinct-
ive character or identity of its own."
It seems a great pity that man being
" a soul " should require the help of
a little characterless " dust " in order
to arrive at "articulate manifesta-
tion." How is it, we feel inclined
to ask, that so poor a quality of dust
should be able to render so mighty a
service to a soul ? It is also a ques-
tion what kind of existence a soul
enjoys, when, for want of what the
dust can supply, '■' pulveris exiqui
munera,'' as Horace hath it, it as yet
possesses no power of "articulate
manifestation." But perhaps, before
we trouble ourselves with such ques-

* See New Science Review, July, 19"5.

268

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

tions as these, it mig-ht be well to ask
who stands sponsor for tlie theory
that man is a soul with a power of
"picking up plastic material," and
by what series of observations it is
claimed that the theory has been
proved. To such an inquiry we
hardly think any very satisfactory
answer could be returned. The the-
ory is certainly not entertained by
another writer who contributes an
article on The Brain in the Light of
Science to the same magazine in
which we find the article now com-
mented on, and who pointedly re-
jects the idea that there is '' some-
thing called 'intelligence' inhabit-
ing the brain, but apart and entirely
distinct from its structure."

That such views are fmught with
practical danger is evident on further
examination. The writer to whom
we are referring will not allow that
a draught can cause one to take cold.
It can only be the occasion of taking
cold ; the real cause is the individu-
al's " susceptibility." Continuing, he
says : " A dozen persons are equally
exposed to a contagion or malaria.
Only half of them take it. Subjec-
tive conditions made the wide dif-
ference between opposite results."
Again we are disposed to ask for the
authority for such a statement. It is
very positively made, but that it ad-
mits of any kind of proof we doubt.
What we do know is that physical
conditions affect the result in such a
case. The various forms of inocula-
tion that are constantly being prac-
ticed afford proof that, independently
of all subjective conditions, diseases
can, with a large measure of certain-
ty, be either communicated to, or
warded off from, a given individual
by the infusion of some suitable prep-
aration into the blood. That subjec-
tive conditions have no more to do
with the case than " the flowers that
bloom in the spring " is shown by the
fact that the most precise results can

be obtained from operations on infe-
rior animals such as rabbits and mice.
Diphtheria is being controlled in the
most remarkable manner by the an-
titoxine treatment ; and it has lately
been shown that a transfusion of
serum from an individual w^ho has
shown a lack of susceptibility to a
given disease will tend to produce
immunity to that disease in another.
The writer we have quoted states in
an offhand manner that susceptibil-
ity is a matter of " subjective condi-
tions," but these experiments prove
that it is a matter of physical consti-
tution ; for it will hardly be contend-
ed that '' subjective conditions " are
transferred from one individual to
another with a little serum.

The writer, it is true, does not ad-
vise people to sit in a draught and ' ' re-
solve not to take cold." He says that
" temporary surface thinking, though
good, if in the right direction, can
hardly transform one to a x>ercepti-
ble degree; that radical invigoration
can only come from a sustained and
focalized attitude of mind, which is
attained through the firm holding of
positive ideals." Then, if we firmly
hold positive ideals, and so get a sus-
tained and focalized attitude of mind,
we can sit in as many draughts as we
choose with perfect impunity. This
or nothing is the teaching of these
sentences. But how are we to know
whether our mental attitude is sufii-
ciently sustained and focalized to jus-
tify us in sitting in draughts ? Is there
not danger lest experiments should
be prematurely made ? An old
Scotchman in the last century, when
hard drinking was the rule, said that
he had never known of any man dy-
ing of drink, but that he had known
a good many who had died in train-
ing for it. So it might be in this
matter of training for sitting in
draughts. The supreme adepts might
be immune, but those whose minds
were not yet adequately focalized

EDITOR'S TABLE.

269

might succumb. And then, after all,
why go to all this trouble of focaliza-
tion, etc., when it is just as easy, gener-
ally speaking, not to sit in a draught ?
It seems to us that in point of sim-
plicity materialistic teaching has, in
this matter at least, a decided superi-
ority over the spiritualistic. The be-
liever in the laws of matter says : " If
you sit in a draught, particularly
when you are heated and perspiring,
you will be in danger of catching cold,
which may take the form of pneu-
monia, pleurisy, lumbago, or some-
thing else both dangerous and pain-
ful ; therefore don't sit in a draught if
you can possibly help it." The spir-
itual philosopher says : " Don't sit in
a draught unless you are sure of your
subjective conditions. Draughts do
not cause illness ; it is your suscepti-
bility does that, and it should be your
aim to get rid of such susceptibility by
pursuing ideals and getting your at-
titude of mind properly focalized."
A poet already quoted, who gives us
many a shrewd hint, tells of a philos-
opher who, while gazing at the stars,
walked into a well ; and we should
be inclined to dread some not alto-
gether dissimilar catastrophe for the
devotee of this exalted doctrine.

It is a great mistake, we are told,
to say, "J am cold," "J am ill," "J
have hurt myself." The proper
phrases to use are not given, but it
is implied that, if we would express
the truth, we should say, " The plas-
tic material which I, a soul, have
picked up is cold, ill, etc." The body
is the wicked partner that gets into
these scrapes, and we should remind
ourselves continually that the soul
has no complicity in such misdoings.
A man " may mentally say to him-
self— even mechanically at first until
the habit is formed — I, the real ego^
am well, I am strong, I am pure, I
am perfect, disregarding adverse
physical sensations." Ordinary com-
mon sense tells us that "adverse

physical sensations" ought not to
be disregarded, but on the contrary
ought to be taken as warnings that
we have violated in some way the
laws of our physical nature. If we
have an acute indigestion caused by
taking food excessive in quantity or
unsuitable in quality, we should,
according to the above teaching,
meet the emergency by eulogizing
our soul for its strength, its purity,
and its perfection, for its oneness
"with the divine spirit of whole-
ness." Not occupying so exalted a
plane as the advocate of mental
healing, we should be disposed to
consider the occasion a very unsuit-
able one for eulogizing the soul. If
the soul does not direct or control
the voluntary actions of the body, it
is hard to see what good it is ; and if
our soul has allowed us to make a
beast of ourselves, it would be better,
it seems to us, to tell it some home
truths. It is really almost too ridicu-
lous to say that if a man gets drunk
he is to " disregard adverse physical
sensations," and sing a paean, how-
ever huskily, to his ego\ yet, where
is the line to be drawn ?

But again, what degree of tri-
umph over physical phenomena may
we expect to achieve ? It was prom-
ised to the early believers in Chris-
tianity that they should be able to
take up serpents with impunity, and
that if they drank any deadly thing
it should not hurt them. Is some-
thing like this the goal of the system
we are discussing ? Once take the
position that the material is the un-
substantial, and all the foundations
of our everyday life give way. The
"plastic material" which the soul
appropriated in order to acquire
"articulate manifestation" loses all
definite properties ; and how that
would answer the purposes of the
soul is a very obscure question. As
we have hinted in our headline, the
whole theory under discussion lies

270

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

on the borderland of nonsense except
when it crosses the line. The only
saving truth it contains — and that is
by no means its property — is that
man is a rational creature, that his
mental life is very closely connected
with his physical life, and that the
proper ordering of his thoughts and
aims is, therefore, a matter of prime
importance for his happiness. All
the same, he requires a stable world
to live in — one the laws of which will
not permit him to be wayward or
reckless, but which, while making
ample return for worthy effort, will
visit with penalties not to be averted,
" adverse sensations " not to be con-
jured away by any tricks of self-hyp-
notization, every departure from the
path of knowledge and self-control.

TEE ANTHROPOLOGICAL VIEW OF
CIVILIZATION.

We commented in our last num-
ber upon the interesting address de-
livered by the President of the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement
of Science, and we have now before
us an address of equal interest and
perhaps of greater practical impor-
tance from the president. Dr. Flinders
Petrie, of the Anthropological Sec-
tion of the British Association. Dr.
Petrie is widely known as one of the
most learned Egyptologists of the
present day, and as professor of that
study at University College, Lon-
don. He has spent many years in
actual research in Egypt, and has
thus been brought into close and
varied contact with different sec-
tions of the Egyptian people. Dur-
ing the period of his stay in that
country systematic efforts were be-
ing put forth to civilize the people
according to European ideas, and, as
a commencement, to teach them how
to read and write; and he has been
able to study the process in its prac-
tical results. In addition to his spe-

cial accomplishments, Dr Petrie is a
man of wide culture and of a vigor-
ous habit of mind, and one therefore
whose views are deserving of careful
and respectful attention.

He discusses for us, in his address,
the meanings which, from the stand-
point of anthropology, should be as-
signed to those often vaguely used
words "race" and "civilization."
We must pass over his remarks on
the first of these terms, though they
are both interesting and original.
In regard to the latter the position he
takes is that wherever there was a
human society there civilization is
to be found. " Civilization," he ob-
serves, " really means simply the art
of livmg in a community, the checks
and counter-checks, the division of
labor, and the conveniences that
arise from common action when a
group of men live in close relation
to each other." In other words, the
term has a relative, not an absolute
meaning; and the practical question
which confronts the so-called higher
races in certain cases is whether it
is desirable to replace, or attempt to
replace, the relative civilization of
a given lower race — or one which
they regard as such — by their own
more advanced modes of life.

This brings us to the most impor-
tant part of Prof. Petrie's discourse.
"Every civilization," he says, "is
the growing product of a very com-
plex set of conditions depending on
race and character, on climate, on
trade, and every minutia of the cir-
cumstances. To attempt to alter
such a system, apart from its condi-
tions, is to attempt the impossible.
No change is legitimate or beneficial
to the real character of a people, ex-
cept what flows from conviction and
the natural growth of the mind."
Such conviction and such mental
growth are not to be had if we pre-
sent unassimilable ideas and ideals.
Our intentions may be excellent, but

EDITOR'S TABLE,

271

the results will be none the less de-
plorable, if we ignore the limits
which Nature and history have
set to our efforts. " We talk
complacently," says the professor,
" about the mysterious decay of sav-
ages before white men." There is
nothing mysterious about it ; we
change their environment, we sub-
ject them to new laws, force them to
adopt new habits, give an unwonted
direction and exercise to their men-
tal faculties, subject them in a hun-
dred ways to a psychological strain
which they are unable to stand, and
the result is that they wither just as
we should do if we were similarly
treated. Of all systems, that which
the Anglo-Saxon race seeks to im-
pose upon the weaker peoples with
which it comes into contact is the
most oppressive. "Scarcely a single
race," the professor emphatically de-
clares, " can bear the contact and the
burden." In regard to the Egyp-
tians, he gives his own experience.
"Some of the peasantry are taught
to read and write, and the result is
that they become fools. I can not
say this too plainly : an Egyptian
who has had reading and writing
thrust upon him is, in every case
that 1 have met with, half-witted,
silly, or incapable of taking care of
himself. His intellect and his health
have been undermined and crippled
by the forcing of education."

Is it impossible, then, for the more
advanced races to lend any real as-
sistance to the less advanced ? It is,
if the only idea of assisting them is
to Europeanize them ; but not, if the
more rational idea is adopted of a
gradual education along wholly nat-
ural lines, with due regard to condi-
tions both present and antecedent.
'* Our bigoted belief," says Prof. Pe-
trie, "in reading and writing is not
in the least justified when we look at
the mass of mankind. The exquisite
art and noble architecture of Myke-

nae, the undying song of Homer, the
extensive trade of the bronze age, all
belonged to people who neither read
nor wrote. The great essentials of a
valuable character — moderation, jus-
tice, sympathy, politeness and con-
sideration, quick observation, shrewd-
ness, ability to plan and prearrange,
a keen sense of the uses and prop-
erties of things — ^all these are the
qualities on which I value my Egyp-
tian friends, and such qualities are
what should be evolved by any edu-
cation worth the name." The most
valuable educative influence is ex-
ample, if only it be of the right kind ;
and if the higher races could, in their
dealings with the lower, show that
they were steadily actuated by a
purer and higher morality, they
would insensibly modify for the bet-
ter the institutions and customs of
the latter.

The words in which Prof. Petrie
describes the characteristic results of
education in the best sense, and also
his remarks on the effect of forcing
education on minds unfitted for it,
may well afford matter for reflec-
tion, not only in connection with
the treatment of lower races, but
with the working out of problems
nearer home. In answer to the
question, " What can be the harm of
raising the intellect in some cases if
we can not do it in all ? " the pro-
fessor says, "The harm is that you
manufacture idiots. ' ' No w, seriously,
are we quite sure that our own edu-
cational methods does not in some,
nay in many, cases tend to the manu-
facture of idiots ? Does every young
man, or every second, or even every
third, young man who goes through
college come out of it intellectually —
to say nothing of morally — stronger
than he went in ? When we read
of the reckless and riotous insubor-
dination that sometimes marks " com-
mencement" days, we can not help
wondering whether the right kind

272

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of material has been gathered within
the college walls, or whether, if the
material is all ri<?ht, the course of
instruction and discipline has been
what it should have been. But, this
consideration apart, has the public
learned to recognize in the average
college graduate a very intelligent,
helpful, and self -helping young man?
Or does just a suspicion of greater
or less silliness and incapacity attach
to the type ? That many bright
young men emerge from college it
would be foolish, even on the general
doctrine of probabilities, to doubt,
seeing that a young man, if he pos-
sesses any brightness, has so good a
chance in this country of being sent
to college ; but what, we ask, is the
effect on those who have no bent
toward learning, but who go to sat-
isfy a social exigency or to fill up
a certain number of vacant years ?
We fear that Prof. Petrie might in
his haste pronounce some of them
manufactured idiots not unlike the
Egyptians he had seen spoiled by
overmuch reading and writing.

But, taking a wider view, are we
sure that even the public-school edu-
cation which we force on all chil-
dren alike is always an aid to true
intelligence and civilization ? Such
as it is, it enfeebles, we greatly fear,
rather than strengthens the brains of
some who are subjected to it, and
who are not intellectually fit for the
abstractions with which it largely
deals. The whole subject requires
to be carefully studied apart from all
prepossession, prejudice, and senti-
ment. We have been forcing edu-
cation for a long time with all the
power of the state, but whether the
average intelligence of the commu-
nity has risen in response to our
efforts is a question which it would
not be safe to answer offhand. We
do not hesitate to say that to us it
appears as if our methods of educa-
tion were being insensibly adapted

to a lower and lower grade of gen-
eral intelligence. In the matter of
arithmetic, particularly, it seems to
be assumed that something like idio-
cy is not only the starting point in
the pupil's mind but a condition of
considerable duration. Forty years
ago no such elaborate means were
resorted to as seem necessary to-day
to get a few elementary principles of
numerical logic into a child's mind;
and it is a grave question whether in
the attempt to devise a system of
teaching adapted to the most de-
graded type of mind we are not run-
ning some risk of impairing the de-
velopment of minds of a higher
order. Exceeding bitter, we know,
has been the cry of many a parent
at the tedious drill and senseless
repetitions imposed upon his chil-
dren and the consequent needless
lengthening by two or three years
at least of the period of school edu-
cation. The philosophy of the whole
thing is apparent in the light of
Prof. Petrie's remarks. The state is,
to a not inconsiderable extent, en-
gaged in the manufacture of idiots.

The discussion which followed
the president's address was remark-
able in one respect, and that was that
among the speakers — all men of dis-
tinction— not one laid any stress, as
would certainly have been done a
generation ago, on the importance of
Christianizing the lower races. It
seemed to be assumed that Christian-
ity, as a doctrine and to some extent
as a moral system, involved too radi-
cal a change of ideas to be profitably
adopted by heathen tribes, unless in
a very gradual manner. The presi-
dent himself pointed out that the
apostle Paul had not seen it neces-
sary to prohibit slavery, polygamy,
or even gladiatorial shows. And yet
the preaching of Paul prepared the
way for " the greatest readjustment
of the moral sense that the world
has ever seen." We should learn

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,

273

from tMs to have patience with the
imperfect usages of the heathen of
our day, and not insist on their ris-
ing at once to the full height of an
advanced Christian morality. It is
impossible to douht that the address
of Prof. Petrie will have a powerful
effect in promoting rational views
on the important questions with
which he dealt. It was not the ut-

terance of a partisan, a zealot, or a
narrow specialist, but of a man who
spoke from well-matured conviction
and a broad basis of knowledge.
Had the meeting of the British As-
sociation given us nothing more
than this, it would have made
no slight contribution to the cause
of enlightenment and true civiliza-
tion.

M^titntiiit %ittxvitnxt.

SPECIAL BOOKS.

Man has ever been curious about the origins of things. In the child-
hood of the race he wondered where the wind came from and the water in
the streams, how the sun and moon were made, what caused the thunder
and the lightning, and how the first plants, the first animals, and the first
human beings came to be. Later the origin of arts and customs, the rise
of tribes and peoples, the production of material substances, and a host of
similar problems engrossed his attention. Two ways of answering these
questions have been relied upon by him at different times. The first was
by speculation, and produced beautiful myths, fantastic cosmogonies,
quaint folklore, or pseudo-sciences, according as the genius of one people
differed from that of another. The second way depends upon research,
and has reached its highest development in the investigations of modern
science. Its inquiry into the past has given iis a wealth of archaeological
lore such as is embodied in two volumes now before us. In one of these
Prof. Mason * has set forth the results of a study of industry among prim-
itive peoples, revealing the manner in which the tools, devices, and
processes used in the arts must have originated. The arrow and spear
heads, knives, hammers, and axes of primitive man are the precursors of a
host of striking and cutting implements. Several kinds of drills have been
found in use by savage tribes. The screw, the pulley, and the wheel and
axle are known to savages only in a rudimentary way, but the lever and the
wedge are largely used by them. Modes of kindling and caring for fire
make an interesting chapter, a notable feature in which is the evolution of
the bellows. The use of stone is commonly thought of as characterizing
primitive arts, and this idea is embodied in the name " Stone age." This
is a misconception, for, as Prof. Mason points out, where one tool of stone
was used there were many constructed of the more easily worked materials,
wood, bone, shell, horn, and hide. We do not find them in ancient graves
and mounds, simply because their materials are much more perishable than
stone. Hence, while stone-working furnished wide scope for invention in

* The Origins of Invention. By Otis T. Mason, Curator of the Department of Ethnology in the
United States National Museum. Pp. 419, crown 8vo. London : Walter Scott, Ltd., 3«. 6rf. New
York : Imported by Charles Scribner's Sons. Price, $1.25.
VOL. XLVIII. — 20

274 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

primitive times, the working of wood did no less. The potter's art origi-
nated early, and the forms of primitive pottery are an ever-pleasing sur-
prise to the archaeologist and the technographer. The same is true of the
textile industry. In producing implements of war and the chase invention
made imi)6rtant advances in primitive times, and material is not lacking to
show how facilities for travel and transportation, both by land and sea
arose. Coming to the end of the volume, we are impelled to query why the
author made his index so scanty, and why he divided it in the inconvenient
German fashion.

The other of the two books referred to above is concerned with the art
of writing.* The important aid which this art gives to man's progress by
preserving the experience of each generation to guide all that follow
makes it well worthy of separate treatment. The art of transmitting in-
telligence proceeds from objects serving as reminders through picture
writing to phonetic writing with an alphabet. The author has presented
this course of development especially as it is shown among the native races
of North America, from the Innuit in the north to the Mayas and ancient
Mexicans in the south, among whom all stages are represented. Illustra
tions are frequently drawn also from the Egyptian and other Oriental
peoples. It is easy to see how objects can be represented by pictures, and
savage races have shown themselves very clever in representing action by
the same means. Thus in many of the Ojibwa records going, or running,
is represented by drawing either the sole of the foot or the lower part of
the legs. In the Mexican codices a distinction between running and walk-
ing is denoted by placing the legs in the correct position in each case. The
sign for eating or food among several peoples consists of a human figure
with the hand placed to the mouth. Lines proceeding from the mouth of
either a human or animal figure denote the use of the voice. Adding the
figure of the heart within the outline of the human body makes the voice
lines mean singing. Similarly wavy lines from the ears denote hearing.
To distinguish an object used as a proper name, a human figure or the
head alone is placed below it with a line from the mouth to the name
object. Such signs gradually become conventionalized and reduced to
simpler forms. When the name or sound suggested by one object comes
to be joined with another such sound to denote a word having only a
phonetic relation to the names of these two objects, then the ideograms
become phonograms. Further progress in this direction converts the
phonograms into alphabetic characters. At the discovery of America the
writing of the Mexicans and Mayas was rapidly approaching the syllabic
stage. The only phonetic alphabet actually devised by aboriginal Ameri-
cans is that of the Cherokee, Sequoya, but this uses the forms of the Eoman
letters variously modified, and hence is not an independent creation. Dr.
Hoffman's volume contains four plates and over a hundred smaller figures,
and is adequately indexed.

The world is beginning to realize that " Peace hath her victories no less
renowned than war," and in consequence its appetite for butchery seems to
be abating. A set of books called the Century Science Series, that has been

<r

* The Beginnings of Writing. By Walter James Hoffman, M. D. Anthropological Series. Pp.
209, 12mo. New York : D. Appleton & Co. Price, $1.75.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE, 275

undertaken under the able editorship of Sir Henry E. Eoscoe, will contrib-
ute to this result by showing that the laboratory and the explorer's camp
have their heroes as well as the battlefield. Sir Henry contributes the
opening volume to the series, taking as his subject his eminent British pred-
ecessor in the field of chemistry, John Dalton* Dal ton's great contribu-
tion to chemistry is the atomic theory, and it may be fairly ranked as the
comer stone of the science. He also established important laws concerning
the behavior of gases and made valuable meteorological researches. In
depicting the scientist, Sir Henry does not let us lose sight of the man. He
shows us Dalton as the Cumbrian Quaker lad, with his northern dialect and
mild though unpolished manners ; then as the young schoolmaster and the
tutor, careful of his scanty resources and no less so of his time ; afterward
as the plain and unpretending man of science, ever ready for a pipe and a
chat with the friends of old times, but with no faculty for being agreeable
to persons who did not interest him. Having, when a young man, bought
a pair of silk stockings as a present for his mother, supposing them to be of
orthodox drab, he was greatly astonished to hear them pronounced " Varra
fine stuff, but uncommon scarlety." It was in this way that his eyes were
opened to the defect of his vision, and he at once proceeded to make the
first scientific study of color-blindness. Dalton had the frame of a north-
em yeoman, high but not extraordinary mental powers, and — persever-
ance. To this last quality rather than to genius he ascribed whatever of
value he accomplished, and in this respect he seems to have judged correctly.

Is the story of the Herschels t especially dramatic, or is it Miss Clerhe's
talent as a narrator that makes her contribution to the Century Series a
remarkably fascinating volume ? William Herschel's laying down the
baton of a musical director to become an astronomer is dramatic enough,
and so is his sister's dutiful abandonment of a career as a vocalist to serve
as his assistant. William had been trained in music by his father, who
was bandmaster in a Hanoverian regiment ; he had proved a bright boy at
school, and when he went to England at nineteen years of age was a young
man of pleasant address, " who spoke English perfectly, played like a virtu-
oso, and possessed a curious stock of varied knowledge." Miss Clerke has
made a continuous story of his life, intertwining the thread of his musical
and that of his scientific vocation, where these are contemporaneous, with
that of his personal history. A chapter devoted to Caroline tells of her
early years as a family drudge and her quarter century of retirement after
her brother's death, supplying also some additional details of her co-opera-
tion in his labors. The sketch of Sir John Herschel is given in much the
same style as that of his father. While mainly occupied with his observa-
tions in the southern hemisphere and other astronomical labors, it tells also
of his work in physics and mathematics, and his writings— not omitting
his verse. The volume contains a portrait of each of its subjects.

To those who imagine that the name J. von Liehig X stands merely for
a manufacturer of meat extracts, who may still be conducting his works

♦ John Dalton and the Rise of Modem Chemistry. By Sir Henry E. Roscoe. Pp. 216, 12mo. New
York : Macmillan & Co. Price, $1.25. London : Cassell & Co. Price, 3*. Qd.

t The Herschels and Modern Astronomy. By Agnes M. Clerke. Pp. 224, 12mo. New York :
Macmillan & Co. Price, $1.25. London : Cassell & Co. Price, 35. 6^.

X Justus von Liebig : his Life and Work. By W. A. Shenstone. Pp. 219, 12mo. New York :
Macmillan & Co. Price, $1.25. London : Cassell & Co. Price, 'ds. 6d.

276 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

somewhere in Germany, Mr. Shenstone has a message. He wishes them
to know who Liehig was, what he did, and why all chemists and all those
who are versed in the history of science admire and esteem him so greatly.
To this end our author has taken especial pains to set forth Liebig's
applications of chemistry to the arts, even at the expense, as he concedes, of
doing "something less than justice'' to the great German's labors in pure
science. Liebig was the son of a color-maker, w^ho was able to give him a
university education, but this was of little benefit to him in becoming a
chemist. His private studies, supplemented by admission to Gay-Lussac's
private laboratory, prepared him for his profession. Mr. Shenstone enu-
merates four great departures in which Liebig took the lead. First, he
devised the process now followed in analyzing organic compounds^ and
with this as an implement he determined the composition and discovered
cheaper and safer ways of making many substances important to science
and industry. Second, he showed that plants derive their nourishment not
so much from the humus as from the inorganic salts in the soil and the
carbon dioxide of the air, and went on to formulate rules for the making
and application of fertilizers and for the practical conduct of other agri-
cultural operations. His third great work was closely connected with this.
It related to physiological chemistry, taking up the office of the food of ani-
mals in producing tissue, maintaining the animal heat, etc. Liebig's fourth
great departure was introducing the laboratory method of teaching chemis-
try. This alone would have won him high fame. Mr. Shenstone does not
dwell upon Liebig's private life, but gives an insight into his combative
but generous character when telling of his collaboration with Wohler and
with Dumas, also in the chapter on his later years. Accounts of the
work of Faraday, Maxwell, Lyell, Davy, Pasteur, Darwin, and Helmholtz
are announced as in preparation, and if they are executed as acceptably
as the earlier volumes, this series will be a notably attractive and in-
structive one.

The multiplication of untechnical, familiar books about flowers, whether
of the garden, field, or forest, is a good sign. It shows that more and more
people are growing interested in the subject, and that those who have not
had opportunity to take a course in botany, or whose time, or eyes, or pa-
tience are not sufficient to enable them to plod through the mass of minute
details involved in the technical identifications of the manuals, want to
know what they are and what their relationships. Mr. Mathews^ author
of Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden* enjoys a point of observa-
tion farther north than do most of the others who have given us books of
this kind, writing from Campton, N. H., on the edge of the Franconia
Mountains. There he has a garden in which most of the western and
southwestern wild flowers are cultivated, while the wild flowers of New
Englsind grow in the fields and woods around. With these he spends much
time ; and in this book he attempts to introduce them to the reader by name
and familiar description and picture, and to supplement the introduction
by a little friendly gossip based on personal experience. These flowers are
treated according to the seasons and months in which they appear; while

• Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden, described and illustrated by F. Schuyler Mathews.
Pp 308, 12mo. New York : D- Appleton & Ca Price, $1.75. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trflbner
A Co.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

277

the illustrations — simple portraits, generally reduced as befits the size of
the page— are from drawings made on the spot. The author seems to hesi-
tate when he differs from Dr. Asa Gray, but he need not. If he has seen
the Atamasco lily in bloom in May, while Gray had not the opportunity so
to see it; if he finds a certain aster, supposed to be peculiar to southern New
England, common in New Hampshire; if he finds colors and shadings
which Gray knew not, or has a clearer vision of their distinctions ; or if he
knows other facts or has seen other qualities in flowers which Gray did
not, he is able to add to knowledge, it is his duty to tell of it, and he de-
serves thanks. An alphabetical index at the end of the book gives the
names, colors, and localities of familiar flowers of the United States, with a
floral calendar.

GENERAL NOTICES.

The Haandbog i den Systemaiiske Botanik
of Dr. E. Warming has long been recognized
as an original and important contribution
to the literature of the subject The pres-
ent translation, by Prof. Potter,* from the
third Danish edition and from Dr. Knob-
lauch's German edition, has been enriched by
numerous additional notes kindly furnished by
the author. Besides Dr. Knoblauch's revision
of the fungi, the bacteria have been revised
by Dr. Migula, the Florideae rearranged after
Schmitz, and the Taphrinaceae after Lade-
beck. Instead of rearranging the orders of
the Angiospcrms according to the systems
more familiar to English readers, the se-
quence in the Danish original is retained.
One of the principles of this arrangement is
thus defined by the author : " Each form
which on comparative morphological consid-
erations is clearly less simple or can be shown
to have arisen by reduction or through abor-
tion of another type having the same funda-
mental structure, or in which a further dif-
ferentiation and division of labor is found,
will be regarded as younger, and as far as
possible, and so far as other considerations
will admit, will be reviewed later than the
simpler, more complete, or richer forms."
In an appendix are given an outline of some
of the earlier systems of classification and
a more complete account of that of Hooker
and Bentham. A full index is provided.

• A Handbook of Systematic Botany. By Dr.
E. Wanning, Willi a Eevision of the Fungi. By
Dr. E. Knoblauch. Translated and edited by M.
C. Potter, M. A., F. L. S. With 610 Illustrations.
Pp. 620, 8vo. London : Swan, Sonnenechein &
Co. Price, 15«. New York : Macmillan & Co.
Price, $3.75.

The plan and general character of Prof
Viries's Studenfs Text-book of Botany were ex-
plained in our notice of the first half volume
in the Popular Science Monthly for July,
1894. This work is completed in the second
half volume,* now before us. The subject
of classification is continued, beginning with
Group rV, Phanerogamia (or Spermophytd) —
the preceding groups including the TJiaL
loj>hyta^ Bryophyta^ and Fteridophyta — and
completed, and the physiology of plants is
considered. The province of physiology is
defined by the author as being " the study of
those phenomena which, taken together, con-
stitute the life of the plant ; in other words,
while morphology is concerned with what
plants are, and histology with their struc-
ture, physiology deals with what they do."
The performance of their functions by the
organs of the plant being materially affected
by various external conditions, " the object
of physiology is not only to distinguish and
study the various functions and to determine
the relation between them and their internal
structure and the external forms of the or-
gans performing them, but also to determine
what are the external conditions by which
the performance of the external functions is
affected, and the modes in which these con-
ditions exert their influence." A very com-
plete index is given in two parts, " Classifi-
cation and Nomenclature," and " Morphology,
Anatomy, and Physiology."

* Student's Text-book of Botany. By Sydney
H. Vines, M. A., D. So., F. R. S. With 469 Illus-
trations Pp. xvi + 431-821, 8vo. London : Swan,
Sonnenschein & Co. Price, 7«. %d. New York :
Macmillan & Co. Price, $2.

2/8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The chief features of our strange south
western region — its pueblos and cliff-dwell-
ings, its Zuiii, Navajo, and other native in-
habitants, its plateaus, buttes, and canyons,
and foremost of its natural features the Great
Canyon of the Colorado River — have been
made familiar of late by the reports of many
explorers. To Major J. W. Powell * belongs
the credit of making the first extended ex-
ploration of the Great Canyon and the region
through which it passes. This he did in the
years 1869 to 18Y2. His report of the sci-
entific results then obtained and a brief pop-
ular account of the exploration have been
published. He has now prepared a full his-
tory of the expedition, with descriptions of
the scenery, of the Indians and their cus-
toms, of the ruins and relics, and other sub-
jects of interest in the region traversed. The
volume is fully illustrated, its list of illustra-
tions occupying more than five pages, and it
is printed on heavy paper with wide margins.

Prof. W. 0. Crosby's Tables for the De-
termination of Common Minerals, which ap-
peared in IBSY, has now reached a third and
enlarged edition. In the new issue provision
has been made for the more ready and accu-
rate testing of streak, hardness, and specific
gravity. Twenty-five additional species have
been included with the two hundred in the
original tables, supplementary tables compris-
ing one hundred of the less common minerals
have been added, and a synopsis of the classifi-
cation of minerals has been inserted. These
additions, the author believes, will reduce to
a minimum the necessity of reference to
comprehensive works.

It appears from the Sixth Annual Report
of the Missouri Botanical Garden that the
course of instruction in gardening was com-
pleted by one student in 1894, and another
left before the end of his course to take a
position at the Pennsylvania State College.
In response to many applications it was de-
cided to admit paying pupils in addition to
the six on scholarships. The Shaw School
of Botany and other branches of the garden's
work were carried on as usual. Appended
to the report are five papers on botanical
subjects, illustrated with fifty-six plates, and

♦ Canyons of the Colorado. By J. W. Powell.
Meadville, Pa. : Flood & Vincent. Pp. 400, quar-
to. Price, $10.

the volume contains also several views of at-
tractive spots in the grounds.

The Second Annual Report of the Iowa
Geological Survey embraces an account of
the work done in 1893 by the survey and
is accompanied by several special papers.
Among the subjects specifically treated are
the cretaceous and certain other deposits with-
in the State, glacial scorings, and buried river
channels. The Composition and Origin of
Iowa Chalk is discussed by Samuel Calvin, the
State Geologist. The geology of two coun-
ties is described by the assistant geologist,
Charles R. Keyes, who has also written sev-
eral of the other papers.

The Cause of Warm and Frigid Periods
is discussed by C. A. M. Taber in a little
book of eighty pages (Ellis, Boston). From
an experience of twenty years spent in whal-
ing voyages in early life the author has been
brought to ascribe great influence to winds
and the surface currents of the sea in modi-
fying climate. He has carefully examined
the extant theories concerning the glacial
period, and gives his reasons for not finding
any of them entirely satisfactory.

A Brief Descriptive Geography of the
Empire State, by C. W. Bardeen, consists of
a systematic and concise but attractive de-
scription of the natural and political features
of the State of New York, sadly marred by a
great lot of cheap, smudgy pictures. Teach-
ers who have any regard for the artistic
sense or the eyesight of their pupils will let
this book severely alone. (Bardeen, 75 cents.)

To the series of English classics edited
by A. J. George and published by D. C.
Heath & Co. have been added Webster''s First
Bunker HiU Oration (20 cents) and Burke's
Speech on Conciliation toith America (30
cents). Mr. George is of the opmion that
the annotating of English literature for stu-
dents has often been injudiciously done.
Accordingly, instead of placing a surfeit of
biographical, historical, and critical material
imder the eyes of the pupils, he has shown
where this matter may be found, thus giving
them valuable intellectual exercise in getting
it and preventing mental dyspepsia from bolt-
ing unmasticated facts.

M. Stanislas Meunier, of the Jardin des
Flanies, Paris, has been for many years en-
gaged in the study of what he calls Compara-
tive Geology, which he defines as having the

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

279

same relation to the geology of the earth as
comparative anatomy to the anatomy of man.
His special application of it is to the geology
of the planets compared with that of the earth.
The fruits of his studies are now embodied in
a book bearing that title, which is published
by Felix Alcan, Paris, in the French Interna-
tional Scientific Series. Though the materials
for such a study may at first sight seem lack-
ing, M. Meunier has found enough, in the re-
sults of telescopic and spectroscopic and other
observations, particularly of the moon and
Mars and the examination of meteorites, to
make possible a fairly distinct outline, and
to prompt further inquiry into this field.

In the Report of the Commissioner of
Education for 1891-92 most of the statis-
tics are relegated to the second volume, while
the first volume is devoted mainly to essays
on special subjects. Among the more ex-
tended of these are an account of the modes
of training teachers employed in Germany,
Austria, and Switzerland, by the able educa-
tional writer Dr. L. R. Klemm ; also a de-
scription of German universities translated
from a book prepared for the German
educational exhibit at the Chicago Exposi-
tion, and a suggestive paper on preparation
for the civil service in France and Prussia,
by W. F. and W. W. Willoughby. James
C. Boykin contributes an essay of nearly a
hundred and fifty pages on Physical Train-
ing, half of which consists of a history of
the subject from the siege of Troy to Dio
Lewis, while the rest is of greater practical
value, consisting of descriptions of various
modes of training in present use, with il-
lustrations and statistics. Coeducation is
treated by A. Tolman Smith, who supple-
ments his discussion with a large number of
opinions of educators and a bibliography.
The summer schools have now become so
important that a history of them comes in
very appropriately here. It was prepared by
W. W. Willoughby.

The treatise on Rocks and Soils^ by
Horace Edward Stockhridge^ has come to a
second edition (Wiley). The author, who
held a professorship in the Imperial College
of Agriculture at Sapporo, Japan, when the
first edition appeared, is now President of
the Agricultural College of North Dakota.
Numerous changes and additions have been
made in the new edition, which may be

found by a comparison with the former
edition.

Home Geography for primary grades, by
C. C. Long (American Book Company, 25
cents), is a thoughtfully arranged introduc-
tion to the study of this science. The aim
is to give the child object lessons by the use
of the surrounding landscape ; by directing
his attention to some neighboring hill, im-
press the idea mountain upon him; some
small level space indicates a plain ; a brook
represents a river, a pond or lake the ocean,
etc. The idea is a good one, and is well
carried out.

How the Republic is Governed, by ITbah
Brooks (Scribners, 76 cents), consists of a
brief consideration in small compass of the
fundamental principles which direct our
actions as a nation. Among the special
topics are The Federal Constitution; The
Government of the United States in its Three
Departments — Legislative, Executive, and
Judicial ; National and State Rights ; the In-
dians; Patents and Copyrights; Pensions;
Declaration of Independence, and the Con-
stitution.

Another attempt to solve the problem of
gravitation is made by Mr. Robert Stevenson
in his paper, A New Potential Principle in
Nature — EUisticity a Mode of Motion. His
principle comprises kinetic energy in the
line of motion of a body, and kinetic stabil-
ity tending to prevent displacement trans-
verse to that line. The latter acts partly as
a force of restitution to the original direc-
tion, with the resultant of causing a curvi-
linear motion. The author conceived his
idea while he was a student of Sir William
Thomson.

Notes on the Geology of Hie Island of
Cvha is based upon a reconnoissance made
by the author, Mr. Robert T. Hill, for Alex-
ander Agassiz. Mr. Hill spent about a
month on the island, accompanied by some
American engineers who were familiar with
the country, and who, by reason of their
knowledge, were of great assistance to him.
Going into the interior to Villa Clara, to ac-
quaint himself with that region, he exam-
ined the features of the older nucleal area of
Cuba ; then made a thorough study of the
cut of the Yumuri River at Matanzas, and of
the limestone formations of the vicinity ; in-
vestigated the geology of Havana ; and

28o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

made a north and south section across the
island from Havana to Batabanos. Going
to Baracoa, he examined the country west
of Yunque Mountain and east to Cape Maysi.
Having completed his work of an original
examination of the phenomena, iminfluenced
by preconceived hypotheses, he read what
others had written of Cuba, and was pleased
to find a general agreement between their
views and his. The notes are published by
the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zo-
ology.

Sdf Culture is the name of a monthly
magazine devoted to the interests of the
Home University League, edited by Edward
C. Towixe and published by the Werner Com-
pany, Chicago and New York. Among the
subjects of articles in Vol. I, No. 2, are : Eli

Whitney, a Shakespeare of Invention ; The
Supposed Electrical Character of Vitality;
The Principle of Evolution in Nature ; Primi-
tive Man ; The Story of the Plague in History ;
The Genius of Shakespeare ; Diphtheria and
the Schools ; and Athletic Exercises in Uni-
versities. (Price, 30 cents ; $3 a year.)

Under the title The Ensential Man, an
argument in support of the belief in immor-
tality is presented by George Croswell Cres-
set/ (Ellis, 75 cents). Among the circum-
stances which he deems indicative of a
future life are the great difference between
the mind of man and the material forces,
the fact that no force is ever destroyed, the
eventual cessation of all physical life on the
earth, and the general diffusion of the doc-
trine in one form or another.

PUBLICATIONS EECEIYED.

Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins
and Reports. Delaware College. Tests of Sor-
ghum Varieties. By C. L. Penny. Pp. 24. — Iowa :
Agricultural College. No. 28. Nine articles. Pp.
8. — Nebraska ; The Conservation of Soil Moisture
by Means of Subsoil Plowing. By T. L. Lyon.
Pp. 8, with Plates.— North Dakota : Weather and
Crop Report for September, 1894. Pp. 17.— New
York : Rules concerning Gratuitous Chemical
Analysis. Pp. 3. — Strawberries, Raspberries, etc.
Pp. 20.— Ohio : Report for 1894. Pp. 12 + xlii.

Becker, George F. Reconnoissance of the
Gold Fields of the Southern Appalachians. Wash-
ington : Geological Survey. Pp. 85.

Bolton, H. W., Editor. The Pulpit Herald. A
Monthly Magazine. Vol. I, No. 1, October,
1894. Chicago: F. W. Clement & Co. Pp. 40.
20 cents ; $2 a year.

Baker, Frank Collins. The Naturalist in Mex-
ico. Chicago : David Oliphant. Pp. 145.

Columbia College School of Mines. General
Information, 1895-'96. Pp. 28.

Cornish, Vauphan. Practical Proofs of Chem-
ical Laws. London and New York : Longmans,
Green & Co. Pp. 92. 75 cents.

Correspondence School of Technology, Cleve-
land, O. Announcement for 1895-'96. Pp. 59.

Cramer, Frank. On the Cranial Characters of
the Genus Sebastodes (Rock Fish). Leland Stan-
ford, Jr., University, Palo Alto, Cal. Pp. 38. 35
cents.

Crawford, F. Marion. Constantinople. Tlus-
trated by E. L. Weeks. New York : Charles
Scribner's Sons. Pp. 79. $1.50.

Defender, The. Tariff Facts for Speakers and
Students. New York : American Protective Tar-
iff League. Pp. 158. 10 cents.

Diller, J. S. Mount Shasta a Typical Volcano.
American Bcok Company. Pp. 32. 20 cents.

Dreher, Julius D. Education in the South.
Some Difficulties and Encouragements. Pp. 35.

Eccles, A. Seymour. The Practice of Massage.
Its Physiological Effects and Therapeutic Uses.
London and New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp.
877.

Ethnologisches Notizblatt (Ethnological No-
tices). Published under the Direction of the Royal
Museum ftlr VOlkerkunde of Berlin. No. 2.
lUuBtrated. Pp. 160, with Plates.

Godard, Harlow. An Outline Study of United
States History Syracuse, N. Y.: C. W. Bardeen.
Pp. 146. 50 cents.

Green, Mary E., M. D. Food Products of the
World. Chicago: The Hotel World. Pp. 260.
$1..50.

Guerber, H. A. Myths of Northern Lands-
American Book Company. Pp. 319. $1.50.

Grimes, J. Stanley. Chicago. The Radiate
Theory of the Cause of Gravitation. Pp 9.

Hale, E. M., M. D. Hydrostatic Heart Thera-
peutics. Chicago. Pp. 16.

Holbrook, Dr. M. L. Physical, Intellectual,
and Moral Advantages of Chastity. New York :
M. L. Holbrook & Co. London : L. N. Fowler
&Co. Pp.120. $1.

Iowa Geological Survey. Lemuel Calvin, State
Geologist. Third Annual Report, with accompa-
nying Papers. Dc 8 Moines. Pp. 467, with Maps.

Jordan, David Starr, and others. The Fishes
of Sinaloa. Palo Alto, Cal.: Leland Stanford, Jr.,
University. Pp. 48, with Plates.

Lloyd, John Uri. Etidorhpa, or the End of
Earth. Cincinnati : John Uri Lloyd. Pp. 376.
$4.

Loudon, W. J., and McLennan, J. C. A. Labo-
ratory Course in Experimental Physics. New
York and London : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 302.
$1.90.

MacDowall, Alex. B. Weather and Disease.
London : The Graphotone Company. Pp. 83.

McClatchie, A. C. Flora of Pasadena and Vi-
cinity. Pp. 44. 25 cents.

Morley, Edward W. On the Densities of Oxy-
gen and Hydrogen, and on the Ratio of their
Atomic Weights. Smithsonian Institution. Pp.
117.

New York Academy of Sciences. Transactions,
Vol. XrV, 1894-'95. J. F. Kemp, Recording Sec-
retary; and Catalogue of Exhibits, March 13, 1895.
Pp. 281, with 49 Plates + 54.

Ostwald. Wilhelm. The Scientific Founda-
tions of Analytical Chemistry. Translated by
George McGowan. London and New York :
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 207. $1.60.

Progress in School Reform. New York: Good
Government Club "E," 145 East Eighth Street.
Pp. 53, with Tables.

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

281

Progrees of the World. Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1,
October, 1895. New York : Progress of the World
Company, 156 Fifth Avenue. Pp. 156. 10 cents ;
%1 a year.

Richards, Frank. Compressed Air. New
York : John Wiley & Sons. London : Chapman
&HaU. Pp.203.

Pisteen, A. D. Molecules and the Molecular
Theory of Matter. Boston and London : Ginn &
Co. Pp.223. %2.

Romanes, George John. Darwin and after
Darwin. II. Post-Darwinian Questions ; Hered-
ity and Utility. Chicago : Open Court Publish-
ing Company. Pp. 344. $1.50.

Salazar, A. E., and Newman, Q. Estudios
Ijieniquos del Aire (Hygienical Studies of the Air).
Santiago, ChUe. Pp. 20, with Plates.

Scott, E. G. Reconstruction during the Civil
War in the United States of America. Boston
and New York : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp.
482. $2.

Sizer, Nelson. How to Study Strangers, by
Temperament, Face, and Head. New York :
Fowler & Wells Company. Pp. 367. $1.50.

Smithsonian Institution. An Account of its
Origin, History, Objects, and Achievements. Pp.

about 20, with Plates.— The Exhibit of the In-
stitution at th3 Cotton States Expo&iiion, Atlanta,
1895. Pp. about 80.

Stevens, W. Le Conte. Recent Progress in
Optics. Salem, Mass. : The Salem Press. Pp. 22.

Stoddard, Charles Augustus. Cruising among
the Caribbees. New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons. Pp. 198. $1.50.

Stuver, E. Asexualization for the Limitation
of Disease, and the Prevention and Punishment of
Crime. Rawlins, Wyoming. I»p. 16.

United States Life-Saving Service, Annual
Report of Operations, 1894. Washington : Gov-
ernment Printing Office. Pp. 470.

Whiteley, R. Lloyd. Organic Chemistry. The
Fatty Compounds. New York and London :
Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 285.

Winterburn, Florence Hull. Nursery Ethics.
New York : The Merriam Company. Pp. 241.

Wright, Carroll D., United States Commis-
sioner of Labor, and Gould, E. R. L. The Hous-
ing of the Working People. (Eighth Special Re-
p rtof the Commissioner of Labor.) Washington ;
Government Printing Office. Pp. 461.

"^xviQmtXiis xrf ^titutt.

Constitnents of Ocean Bottoms.— In his

summary of the results of the Challenger
Expedition, Dr. Murray classifies marine de-
posits as littoral, shallow water, and deep
sea. Such deposits are, in origin, either
land-derived or pelagic — that is, of the
ocean. The land-derived deposits edge the
shores, for the finest river mud is rarely met
with as far as three hundred miles from the
coast, and particles so large as to be called
sand remain close to it. Regarded in this
light, the whole ocean beyond the three-hun-
dred-mile belt of " territorial waters " pos-
sesses a distinct individuality, invaded by no
material of land origin except the mud and
boulders carried by drifting ice, the dust
which settles out of the air, and scraps of
floating pumice from volcanic eruptions. In
a few patches less than seventeen hundred
fathoms deep, far from land, the remains of
relatively large and delicate shells which
lived on the surface abound at the bottom,
mixed with innumerable shells of dense,
nearly microscopic foraminifera and a little
clayey matter, the whole receiving the general
name of pteropod ooze, from the characteris-
tic shells of pteropods which occur in it. In
deeper waters no pteropod or other delicate
shells are found, and the calcareous meal of

forammifera, closely resembling softened
chalk, is called globigerina ooze, from the
particular genus of surface-living organ-
ism which occurs in largest proportion. At
greater depths globigerina ooze is found in
which the microscopic shells appear much
corroded ; and finally, in the deeps or areas
more than three thousand fathoms below the
surface, the deposit is almost free from car-
bonate of lime, and forms a stiff red clay
composed of decomposed volcanic or atmos-
pheric dust and those constituents of shells
that are not readily dissolved by sea water.
The process of formation has been clearly
shown. Over the whole surface the same
shell-bearing creatures die in myriads ; their
bodies fall continuously as a gentle calcare-
ous snow shower through the water, which
slowly dissolves them. The large thin shells
vanish first, and only reach the bottom in
shallow water ; the dense spheres of the pin-
head and smaller foraminifera resist longest,
and only the insoluble residue reaches the
greatest depth. Thus the excess of carbon-
ate of lime dissolved in the deepest layers
of the ocean is readily explained. The red
clay forms so slowly that particles of metal-
lic dust from exploded meteorites, which are
covered up by the surface accumulations

282

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

everywhere else, form an appreciable pro-
portion of its substance. In places where
Bilicious organisms like sponges and radio-
larias are numerous on the surface, their
glassy spicules form a considerable ingredi-
ent in the red clay, which, when the propor-
tion reaches a considerable value, is called
radiolarian ooze. Again, in the cool and less
saline water of the southern ocean, and in
other cases where the water is freshened,
the microscopic, silica-sheathed, self-moving
plants known as diatoms swarm in such vast
numbers that the deposit consists in very
large degree of their shells. When the pro-
portion reaches one half it is described as
diatom ooze. The red clay covers about
fifty-one million square miles of the ocean
floor ; globigerina ooze is spread over about
fifty million square miles ; and diatomooze
occupies a belt encircling the globe in the
southern ocean, with a total area of about
ten million square miles. These three kinds
of deposits are thus believed to spread over
a surface twice as extensive as all the land
of the earth. The terrigenous or land-
derived deposits occupy about nineteen mil-
lion square miles, and one of the strongest
arguments for the existence of an antarctic
continent is the fact that they border the
belt of diatom ooze on the southward wher-
ever it has been passed.

Tenacity of Old Rltnals.— While explor-
ing an ancient cemetery near Cuzco, Peru,
Mr. George A. Dorsey observed a curious
ceremony performed by the Quichua Indi-
ans which illustrated to him the tenacity
with which the old rites are held, and the
manner in which recognition of living spirits
of the dead and sacrifice to them still pre-
vaiL The men had been unwilling to assist
him in disturbing the tombs of the dead,
because they contained the remains of their
ancestors, to remove which would be sacri-
lege, but were drafted into his service by a
peremptory order from the prefect. On ap-
proaching the tombs the men knelt and pro-
nounced in unison an invocation which be-
gan with a recital to the spirits of the chiefs
as sons of the great Pachacamac of the doc-
trine of the Trinity and continued with the
address : " Chiefs, sons of the sun, we have
not come to disturb your tranquil sleep in
this your abode. We have come because

we have been compelled by our superiors ;
toward them may you direct your vengeance
and your curses ! " Then they made offer-
ings of coca, aguardiente, and chicha, and
called on a lofty, snow-capped mountain,
Sancahuara, to witness the truth of their
invocation.

A New Beart — A new bear is mentioned
by William H. Dall, in Science, as having
been observed frequenting the vicinity of
the glaciers of the St. Elias Alpine region.
It is regarded by the Indians and hunters as
distinct from both the black and the brown
bears of Alaska. It is not large, no skin
being more than six feet long, is shy, and
not so fierce as the other bears. Its general
color resembles that of the silver fox. The
fur is not very long, but is remarkably soft ;
and it has a rich bluish-black under fur,
while the longer hairs are often white, at
least in the distal half. The dorsal line, the
back of the ears, and the outer faces of the
limbs are jet-black. The sides, neck, and
rump are black and silver. The under sur-
face of the belly and the sinuses behind the
limbs are grayish white or pure white. The
bright tan color of the sides of the muzzle
and the lower fore part of the cheeks is in-
variable, and has not been seen by Mr. Dall
in any other American bear. The structure
of the claws is adapted to the climbing of
trees. Mr. Dall believes that it is at least
a well-defined local race, and proposes for it
the racial name of Emmonsii. The Sitka
fur dealers call it the glacial or blue bear.
The Indians speak of another animal, un-
known to naturalists, as inhabiting the higher
mountains of the mainland. It is described
as resembling the mountain goat, with horns
nearly as long, but almost straight.

Agrienltnre on City Lots. — A satisfactory
report upon the working of the experiment
tried in Detroit in 1894, of engaging the poor
and unemployed of the city in the cultivation
of vacant lands and lots, is published by the
Sterling Publishing Company, New York.
About four hundred and fifty acres, or seven
thousand city lots, were divided into quarter-
and half-acre tracts, and about three times
as many applications for allotments were re-
ceived as could be granted. The crops were
planted, cultivated, and harvested by the

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

283

people themselves, under the supervision of
the committee ; about nine tenths of the
pieces were well taken care of. The com-
mittee estimate that the potato crop aver-
aged about fifteen bushels per lot, giving
fourteen thousand one hundred and seventy-
five bushels in all ; and large quantities of
beans, turnips, and other vegetables were
raised and daily consumed, of which no rec-
ord was made. The estimated value of the
crops produced was from twelve to fourteen
thousand dollars, to say nothing of the pota-
toes that were eaten before they had attained
any considerable size. The entire cost to
the committee was thirty-six hundred dollars,
a sum that was made up by subscriptions.
" Should the experiment be continued, it is
best to get tracts of as many in a piece as
possible, and, if poor land, to collect the
sweepings of the streets to be put upon the
land in the spring or carry it upon the land
from time to time as collected to enrich the
soil. ... It is believed that with the expe-
rience gained this year, the plan could in
many respects be improved and the cost
greatly reduced by beginning it in time. The
committee finds that about one third of an
acre is sufficient land for a family to raise
enough potatoes to last them through the
winter and furnish vegetables through the
summer." It should be recollected that the
experiment was tried under many disadvan-
tages. It was a step in the dark ; vacant
city lots are in appearance the most unpro-
ductive soil imaginable; the planting was
not begun till late in June, and the season
was one of the worst for garden crops which
the country had had for many years. Yet
the success was great. A like success is
claimed for a similar experiment tried in
Buffalo, N. Y., in 1895. Many problems of
economy, morals, and good taste would be
solved if the system should become general
and permanent.

Onyx Marble. — The stone called onyx
marble, which is much used now in ornamen-
tal articles of furniture, is really a calcare-
ous or lime rock, which has been deposited
as a travertine or tufa from water in which
it was held in solution. Water, while it can
not alone dissolve lime rock, can take up
considerable quantities of it when it holds
carbonic acid in solution, but must drop it

again when the carbonic acid has escaped.
Both these processes are of common occur-
rence, and hence, in the springs where they
are going ©n, tufas or travertines are formed.
We know this much of what takes place, but
we do not know, says Mr, George P. Merrill,
in his paper on this subject, just what are
the conditions governing the compactness
and condition of crystallization of the de-
posit— why in some cases it should be sus-
ceptible of an enamel-like polish, and in
others should be light and tufaceous. Onyx
marble is also found in caves as a constitu-
ent of the stalagmites and stalactites which
grow there, and much in the same way as in
the springs. Water charged with carbonic
acid percolating through the roof of the cave
brings down dissolved limestone, hangs in
drops to the roof, is evaporated or loses its
carbonic acid, and leaves a calcareous deposit
to be enlarged by continuous accretions. It
rarely happens that all the water evapo-
rates from the ceiling of the cave. Some
of it usually falls to the floor, whence it is
in its turn evaporated and leaves there a
continually growing deposit — a stalagmite.
As the water in percolating through the roof
dissolved only the pure lime carbonate, or
took up only a trace of impurity, these sta-
lactitic and stalagmitic deposits are of purer
lime, refined and recrystallized under new
conditions. It follows almost from necessity
from their mode of origin that the beds of
onyx marbles, both spring and cave deposits,
are as a rule far less extensive and regular
in their arrangement than are the ordinary
stratified and imbedded marbles. Spring
action is more or less intermittent, and the
place of discharge, as well as the character of
the deposit, is variable. The deposit usually
takes the form of a comparatively thin crust,
conforming to the contours of the surfaces
on which it lies. The various layers thicken
and thin out irregularly, and are often len-
ticular in cross-section. Sound and homo-
geneous layers of more than twenty inches in
thickness are not common. A marked and
beautiful feature of the onyx marbles in gen-
eral, and particularly of those which originate
as spring deposits, is the fine, undulating par-
allel bands of growth or lines of accretion
shown on a cross-section, which are due to
its mode of origin through successive depo-
sitions upon the surface. The stone owes

284

THJt: POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

its chief value for decorative purposes to
its translucency, fine venation, and color.
Sometimes the original hues have become
enhanced by oxidation and through the de-
velopment of reticulating veins of smal^
size, into which percolating waters have in-
troduced new coloring substances or locally
oxidized the protoxide carbonates which
seem to form the chief colouring constituent.
The finer grades of stone of this type are
obtained from few and scattered localities,
and, except those that are of cave origin,
generally, so far as the author has observed,
the most eminently desirable for ornamental
purposes are from hot and arid countries and
regions not far distant from recent volcanic
activity.

Giant Monntain Plants. — Two Swiss bot-
anists, MM. Sommier and Sevier, who have
recently explored the Caucasus, tell of the
discovery of a mountain flora of giant her-
baceous plants, of which little was known
before, and which they designate as macro-
flora. At the altitude of about fifty-eight
himdred feet some plants reach a size
which they never attain in the valleys. A
campanula, which does not exceed about two
feet below, grows to about six feet at that
height, with an unpliable stem. The large,
kidney-shaped leaves of a valerian are borne
at the end of petioles so rigid that they can
be carried as parasols. These fields resem-
ble the pampas, and the rocks are hidden in
a growth of large plants of different kinds.
The luxuriance of this vegetation is ascribed
by the authors partly to the extraordinary
fertility of the soil, from which the accu-
mulated mold of ages has never been re-
moved ; while, as a second way of accounting
for them, they are regarded as survivals of
the grand flora of some former geological age.

A New Raee of Ancient Egyptians.— The

continued explorations of Mr. W. Flinders
Petrie on the west side of the Nile below
Thebes have resulted in the discovery of
what he regards as a hitherto unknown race
of men, who probably lived in Egypt about
five thousand years ago. In the near neigh-
borhood of sites yielding potteries of the
best known Egyptian dynasties he found
the remains of a town, with cemeteries of
which about two thousand graves were ex-

cavated, in which there was not a single
Egyptian object or the trace of the observ-
ance of any Egyptian custom. The bodies,
instead of being mummified or buried at full
length, were contracted, with heads to the
south and faces to the west. They were of
fine physiognomy, without prognathism ; of
remarkable stature — some being more than
six feet high — and of development of legs
indicating a hill race ; with brown and wavy
but not crisp hair, aquiline nose, and long,
pointed head. No hieroglyphics or char-
acters suggesting writing were found, be-
yond a few scratches on vases. Their ves-
sels were perfect in form — all hand-made —
yet their art was of the rudest. A picture
in monochrome on one of the vases repre-
sents a boat with two cabins, rowed with
oars, bearing the ensign of five hills, with
ranges of hills on either side, and t>striche8
striding along. A game of ninepins was
found, in which the pieces are formed of
stone, with balls of syenite about the size of
peas. The people used green paint made
from malachite for marking their eyes, and
many of the slate palettes on which this
was ground were found. Their funeral rites
appear to have included a kind of ceremonial
cannibalism. They are supposed to have
lived about the time from th6 seventh to
the ninth dynasties. In the same region, in
a spot exactly resembling the river gravels
of England and France, large quantities of
similar palaeolithic remains were found.

Signs of the Times, — In an article under
the above title, by Edward Atkinson, in the
August number of the Engineering Magazine,
is the following comment on the recent cele-
bration of the opening of the ship canal at
Kiel : " There is something rather grotesque
in the picture which the nations have made
at the opening of the ship canal at Kiel.
The object of that canal is mainly to pro-
mote commerce, to facilitate exchange, to
bring to the occupants of a rather poor soil
in middle Europe a necessary supply of food
and fibres from other parts of the world, and
also a necessary supply of the crude products
of the non-machine-using nations for conver-
sion into finished goods for home use and ex-
port. In order to celebrate the opening of
this peaceful way for commerce, there gath-
ered a collection of naval bulldogs, each for

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

285

the time muzzled, but in many instances with
growl barely suppressed. In a rough-and-
ready way one may estimate the cost of this
fleet of one hundred great armor-clad ships
of war, with twenty-five lesser vessels, at ap-
proximately $200,000,000, which is probably
four or five times the cost of the peaceful
water-way, the opening of which they were
called together to celebrate. The United
States was represented by one battle ship
and, I believe, by one of our two ' commerce-
destroyers,' BO called. The two armored
ships so named cost nearly $7,000,000 — a
sum nearly equal to the entire endowment of
Harvard University — while the annual ex-
pense of keeping the two in commission is
nearly aa great as the pay roll of the same
university. The only commerce of any im-
portance upon which these destructive ships
of war could exert their force would be that
of Great Britain and Germany, our two largest
foreign customers for the excess of our farm
products, which would rot upon our fields
if we could not sell them for export. Any
commentary upon these grotesque conditions
would perhaps be superfluous. As time goes
on this waste of preparation for war will be
stopped in more than one way. First, be-
cause no ship can carry armor which will de-
fend it from the latest type of guns. Next,
because no land force can stand in the face
of guns discharging over six hundred shots
per minute, warranted to kill at more than a
mile. But lastly, as to European states, be-
cause the limit of taxation has been reached.
New taxes can not be invented and new
sources of revenue can not be discovered
which will warrant even the maintenance of
existing armies and navies."

Two Wild Vegetables of Merit.— T. W.

Card, of the experiment station at Lincohi,
Nebraska, calls attention, in Garden and
Forest^ to two wild vegetables which he
thinks merit the attention of cultivators.

One of these, which is already gathered
from the fields and used to a considerable
extent in the West, is the wild lettuce ; there
are two species common on the plains, Lac-
tuca canadensis and L. Ludovidana, They
are chiefly used for greens, and fill an im-
portant place for this purpose, as they come
in advance of spinach, and when no other
greens are offered in the market The other

plant is the ground plum or buffalo pea of
the plains {Astragalus crassicarpics). This is
found abundantly in the draws or low
grounds of the unbroken prairie. The
plant is a perennial, apparently perfectly
hardy, and very productive. The fruit re-
sembles gooseberries in size and general
appearance. It is borne in numerous clus-
ters, very early in the season. When cooked
like string beans the fruit forms a very ac-
ceptable dish. The chief point which recom-
mends the plant for cultivation is the time
at which the fruits are ready for use, some
of them ripening as early as May 7th.

Proteetlng Iron and Steel against Rnst.

— Gesner's method, described in La Revue
Scientijique, consists in forming on the sur-
face of the metal a double carbide of hydro-
gen and iron. A bar thus coated can be
bent through an angle of forty-five degrees
without disturbing the layer. The process
is as follows: The surface to be coated is
first thoroughly cleaned from rust. A couple
of gas retorts are placed alongside each other
and raised to a temperature of from 600°
to 700° C. The articles to be treated are
then placed in these retorts for about twenty
minutes, after which a current of hydrogen
is passed through the retorts for forty-five
minutes. A small quantity of naphtha is
then introduced, the supply being main-
tained for ten minutes. It is then stopped,
the current of hydrogen being kept up fif-
teen minutes longer, when it is stopped and
the retorts are allowed to cool to 400° C,
and when this temperature is reached the
doors can be opened and the finished prod-
uct removed. The coating thus given has a
bluish color.

The Microscope in Metallnrgy. — Micro-
metallography — the examination of samples
of iron and steel by looking at etched or
polished sections through a microscope — ^is
rapidly taking its place in the routine work
of metallurgical laboratories. It has been
developed from petrography. Dr. Sorby, an
Englishman, who in 1864 submitted some
photographs of opaque sections of various
kinds of iron and steel to the British Asso-
ciation, seems to have been among the first
workers in this field. The process of pre-
paring the specimens is complicated and

286

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

somewhat tedious, but the results fully repay
the worker. By means of these methods
steel has been found to contain five main
constituents : Pure iron, ferrite ; carbide of
iron, cementife; sorbite, of uncertain compo-
sition ; marterisite and froostite ; the latter
marks the transition of soft iron into hard-
ened steel. Sorbite, froostite, and martensite
appear to be solidified solutions of various
forms of carbon in divers forms of iron, for
it seems clear that metallographic work on
steel brings into prominence the existence
of allotropic forms of iron. An exhaustive
monograph on the progress of micro-metal-
lography during the past ten years, by M. F.
Osmond, may be found in the Bulletin de la
Societe (T Encouragement^ vol. x, p. 480, 1895.

Audibility of Fog-horn Signals.— Some
time ago there appeared a description of
some experiments which went to prove that
around each siren there is a zone, about one
and a half nautical miles broad, within which
fog signals can not be heard, although they
are distinctly heard outside that zone. These
statements have been recently confirmed by
a series of experiments which are noted in
Nature. In one of these the vessel steamed
with the wind straight toward the lightship
from a distance of four and a half nautical
miles. At a distance of two miles and three
quarters the sound became faintly audible,
and suddenly increased in loudness at two
miles and a half, retaining the same inten-
sity up to two miles distance. From one and
three quarters to one and a half mile the note
was scarcely audible, but then it immediately
increased to such an extent that it appeared
to originate in the immediate neighborhood
of the vessel. The steamer at this point re-
versed its course, and the fluctuation over this
part of the course was found to be the same,
except that it was even more strongly marked.
The vessel was again reversed, and at half a
mile the sovmd disappeared entirely, to reap-
pear at a quarter of a mile from the light-
ship ; after which it gradually and steadily
increased in intensity until the latter was
reached.

The Ideals of Modern Medicine.— We

take the following from President Sir T.
Russell Reynolds's address before the recent
meeting of the British Medical Association

in London : " The outcome of what I have
been saying is this : that the scattered frag-
ments of knowledge and guesses at truth of
many years have been gathered into a focus
during the past twenty -five years ; that the
vegetable life extracting from the mineral
world the materials it needs for growth and
production of powerful agencies for good in
the form of food and medicines, and for evil
in the form of poisons, has given itself up
to the growth of animal life, with its much
more complex organs, and for cure of ills
once thought beyond the reach of human
aid ; but that, thanks to man's scientific ar-
dor and industry, it has again shown itself
to be our servant, our helper, and our pro-
tector. These are not dreams of the study,
they are facts of the laboratory and of daily
life ; and in using that word ' life ' again, I
must endeavor to emphasize still more forci-
bly upon you my urgent belief that it is to
living agencies and their employment that
we must look for help in the care of infancy,
the conduct of education — moral, mental,
and physical — the training up of character,
as well as of limbs ; that it is the guidance
of living functions, in the choice of living
occupations, be they either of hard work or
of amusement. It is to these we must ap-
peal if we would see the mens sana in co-rpore
sano ; and then it will be to these that we
may confidently look for help, when the in-
roads of age or of disease are at hand, often
to cure us of our trouble ; or if not, to give
us rest and peace."

City GoTernment.— The corporation of the
city of London is one of the most ancient
bodies in England, and its record shows a
constant succession of capable men and a
uniform policy. It was in existence before
Parliament, and it has seen the downfall of
more than one royal house. The secret of
its success has lain in the fact that muni-
cipal dignity has always been confided to the
hands of men of business, who had shown
their capacity to manage private affairs of
great msignitude before they were intrusted
with those of their neighbors. Their training
had been such as to remove them as far from
the hide-bound conservatism of the official
as from the destructive reforming energy
of the professional politician. As an in-
I stance of the methods employed may be

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE,

287

cited the fact that perfect and exact records,
with the exception of three years, of every
penny spent on London Bridge since 1831
are in existence and in splendid preserva-
tion. These facts, which we take from En-
gineering, differ so extremely from those
brought to light by the recent reform investi-
gations in American cities as to seem worthy
of notice.

Pithecanthropns Erectns. — At the recent
meeting of the zoologists at Leyden, an in-
teresting discussion occurred over some bone
fragments (a femur, the upper part of a
skull, and two teeth) upon which Dr. E. Du-
bois, the naturalist, bases his new species

Pithecanthropus eredus, an intermediate stage
between the anthropoid apes and man.
Prof. Virchow contended that the four frag-
ments did not belong to the same animal.
Prof. 0. C. Marsh was inclined to support
many of Dr. Dubois's conclusions. Prof.
Rosenberg thought that the peculiarities by
which Dr. Dubois made his new species oc-
curred in human bones, and in some few
cases all of them combined. Prof. Rosen-
berg acknowledged, however, the great value
of the discoveries, because, even if the bones
were human, they proved that Tertiary man
existed in Java ; the origin of man being
thus pushed further back toward the earlier
Tertiary period.

MINOR PARAGRAPHS.

Tub work of the President White School
of History and Political Science, which was
instituted at Cornell University in 1887 on
the gift of his historical library by ex-Presi-
dent A. D. White, naturally falls into the
two great divisions suggested by its name.
The instruction in history further divides
itself into the subdepartmeats of ancient
and mediaeval, modem European, and Amer-
ican history; and that in political science
into politics, social science and statistics, and
political economy and finance. The teach-
ing corps consists of four professors, an as-
sociate professor, an assistant professor, an
instructor, and an examiner. Five fellow-
ships have been instituted, and degrees are
conferred of Master of Arts, of Philosophy,
of Letters, or of Science.

The system of tests for the detection of
color-blindness described by Dr. William
Thomson in The Popular Science Monthly for
February, 1885, is used on railroads control-
ling 38,786 miles of track, and other systems
are used on roads controlling 15,579 miles —
making 51,798 miles protected. After con-
siderable experience Dr. Thomson proposes
some improvements to be used in connection
with his color-stick or as a substitute for it.
The new test consists of a large green and a
large rose test skein, and forty small skeins,
each marked with a concealed number. The
stick is dispensed with, because it gives a too
fixed arrangement and not enough confusion.
One of the test skeins being laid out, the

candidate is directed to select, from the
twenty skeins of similar color exposed with
it, those having the shades nearest to it ; and
the accuracy of his vision is determined by
the exactness of his selection and his avoid-
ance of the confusion skeins. The red test
skein and its confusion colors are omitted.

The Russian thistle, the latest imported
agricultural pest, is described in a bulletin
of the University of Illinois Agricultural Ex-
periment Station as not a thistle nor looking
like one, but as a tumbleweed. When ma-
ture, its stems are more woody than those
of ordinary tumbleweeds, and the spines or
little thorns are hard. Sometimes the plants
are compact, nearly round ; sometimes, when
growing close together, they fail to have the
rounded form. They may be one, two, or
three feet high, and from eighteen inches to
six feet across. The leaves, flowers, and
seeds are very small. In the later summer
the stems have a purple or rose color. The
seeds mature after the first of September.
The plants and seeds should be destroyed by
burning. A bulletin of the Ohio Agricul-
tural Experiment Station on this subject con-
tains some useful remarks on weeds in gen-
eral.

The Massachusetts Agricultural College
at Amherst had in 1894 the largest number
of students and the largest graduating class
in its history. Gratifying results followed
the introduction of the elective system in the
studies of the senior year, which were shown

288

TBE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in increased interest in study that was com-
municated also to the other classes. Courses
of lectures were delivered by Sir Henry Gil-
bert, Dr. B. E. Femow, and Major Henry E.
Alvord. The museum has been arranged so
as to present a systematic view of the en-
tire animal kingdom, with especial regard to
the fauna of Massachusetts. Models of the
horse, cow, sheep, pig, and dog, and their
organs, have been supplied in the veterinary
department, and pathological specimens. It
is proposed to devote a part of the grounds
of the college to the growth of the trees and
plants of Massachusetts.

A SUMMARY of the lectures announced for
the last summer semester at the German
universities is interpreted by Charles N.
Judd, in Science, as indicating that logic and
the theory of knowledge are absorbing much
more attention than any form of speculative
metaphysics. Sixteen courses in the nine-
teen universities are devoted to these sub-
jects. Work is also being done in many
places in laboratories and seminaries. Five
courses, besides the seminary work, are given
on Kant's system. The historical work
covers all periods, beginning with Prof.
Deussen's investigations in old Sanskrit and
Greek philosophy, and extending to the phi-
losophy of to-day.

NOTES.

The sudden disappearance of streams in
limestone countries, sometimes to reappear at
the surface farther on, is not uncommon. In
Yorkshire, England, there are many such
streams. The points where they disappear
are called "pots." One of the largest of
these pots, " Gaping Ghyll," was recently ex-
plored by M. Martel of Paris. The stream
being temporarily diverted, M. Martel de-
scended by means of a series of rope ladders.
He took with him a telephone and a supply
of candles. He reached bottom at three hun-
dred and thirty feet, and found a vast chamber
about four hundred and fifty feet in length,
one himdred and twenty feet in breadth, and
ninety to one hundred feet in height.

A MEETING of the friends and admirers of
Mr. Huxley, under the chairmansbip of Lord
Kelvin, was recently held at the rooms of the
Royal Society to consider a national memo-
rial. It was decided to call a general public
meeting in the fall. Sir John Lubbock (15
Lombard Street) will act as treasurer. At a
recent meeting held at the Charing Cross
Hospital Medical School, from which Mr.
Huxley received his M. D., the following reso- '

lution was passed : That there be a memorial
in the form of a Huxley scholarship and
medal to be awarded annually at the Charing
Cross Hospital Medical School, and that, if
funds permit, an annual public lecture dealing
with recent advances in science and their
bearing upon medicine shall be instituted.

A SHORT time ago, in the theater of King's
College Hospital, London, Sir Joseph Lister
was presented with a three-quarter length
portrait of himself, painted by Mr. Lorimer,
A. R. S. A., and also an illuminated and illus-
trated album containing the names of the
subscribers. Dr. W. S. Playfair, who pre-
sided, said that the testimonial was simply an
offering from his old friends, colleagues, and
pupils, as a token of the affection and esteem
which they entertained for him.

Dr. E. H. Wilson, bacteriologist of the
Brooklyn City Board of Health, recently made
some investigations relative to the bacterial
content of graveyard soils. He states that
the soil of cemeteries contains no more bac-
teria than the soil of other places ; that he
found no pathogenic bacteria in the examined
soil ; and that those which he did find were
such as engage in the destructive decomposi-
tion of the body, and were hence beneficent
instead of harmful.

Mr. Joseph Thomson, the African trav-
eler, who died in London early in August,
though not yet forty years old, was one of
the most successful and most famous of the
explorers of the dark continent. He first
went out on the Keith Johnson expedition
to the Great Lakes, and on the death of its
leader took charge and accomplished its ob-
jects. He next had charge of an expedition
to Masailand in 1883 and 1884, where he
showed admirable tact in dealing with the
savage natives and made important discov-
eries. He afterward negotiated treaties in
Sokoto, explored the Atlas Mountains in Mo-
rocco, and in 1891 explored the region be-
tween Lake Nyassa and Lake Bangweolo.
All these things he accomplished without
bloodshed. He was the author of three
books describing his explorations, of a Life
of Mungo Park, and of Ulu, a romance illus-
trative of life in East Africa.

Dr. Joseph Granville Norwood, who
died in Columbia, Mo., May 5th, was engaged
in the Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa,
and Minnesota, under D. D. Owen, from 1847
to 1851, exploring chiefly the region about
Lake Superior ; was afterward State Geologist
of Illinois, and Assistant Geologist of Mis-
souri, and was from 1860 to 1880 a pro-
fessor in the University of Missouri. He
retired in 1880 as professor emeritus, on ac-
count of ill health. In 1847 he described
and figured the MacropetalicMhys rapheido-
labis of the Devonian of Indiana — the first
fossil fish described in the United States.
He was author of some geological reports and
several monographs.

EBENEZER EMMONS.

APPLETONS'

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

JANUARY, 1896.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
ITS ORIGIN. GROWTH, AND ACTIVITIES.

By Prof. HENRY CARRINGTON BOLTON, Ph. D.

PART I. — ORIGIN OF THE INSTITUTION.

TT7"HEN the packet Mediator, commanded by Captain Chris-
VV topher H. Champlin, sailed into New York harbor on the
28th day of August, 1838, after a stormy voyage of forty-three
days from London, it brought in its hold a legacy from an Eng-
lishman to the United States of America, which was intended and
destined to benefit all mankind. This precious freight consisted of
eleven boxes, containing one hundred and five bags, each bag con-
taining one thousand gold sovereigns. The boxes were carefully
landed and stored for safe keeping in the Bank of America ; a few
days later the gold was sent to the United States Mint at Phila-
delphia, where it was immediately recoined into American money,
yielding $508,318.46. This magnificent sum was the bequest of
James Smithson, Esq., F. R. S., to the United States of America.

We propose in these articles to consider the purpose of this be-
quest, the manner in which the United States administers it, and
the benefits to mankind accruing therefrom.

James Smithson was born in France, in the year 1765, of dis-
tinguished English parentage; as he himself wrote: "The best
blood of England flows in my veins ; on my father's side I am a
Northumberlander, on my mother's I am related to kings."

Of Smithson's early life little is known. At Pembroke Col-
lege, Oxford, the young man was an earnest student and showed
a liking for scientific pursuits; he was especially proficient in
chemistry, and spent his vacations in collecting ores and minerals

VOL. XLVIII. — 21

290

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

for analysis. He was graduated on the 26th of May, 1786 ; and the
impulse for scientific research gained at the university influenced
all his succeeding years. The highest ambition of an English man
of science is to append to his name the honorable initials F. R. S.,
and to enjoy the privileges accorded to Fellows of the Eoyal
Society. Recommended by Richard Kirwan, the Irish chemist.

James Smithson as an Oxford Student, 1786.

Charles Blagden, the Secretary of the Society, Henry Cavendish,
the wealthy and eccentric physicist, and others, Smithson was
elected a Fellow exactly eleven months after leaving the university.
During his residence in London he cultivated the society of
authors, artists, and men of science. " His mind was filled with a
craving for intellectual development, and for the advancement of
human knowledge. To enlarge the domain of thought, to dis-
cover new truths, and to make practical application of these for
the promotion of civilization, were the great ends he had con-
stantly in view.^' Smithson possessed large means ; he never mar-

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 291

ried, and for family reasons preferred to live on the Continent,
spending most of his time in France, Italy, and Germany ; in his
constant journeys he made observations on the climate, physical
features, geology, and industries of the regions visited. He formed
collections of minerals, and, for convenience of analyzing them,
traveled with a portable chemical laboratory.

Living on the Continent, he acquired a cosmopolitan character,
and formed acquaintance with the leading savants of the time ;
among his friends and corrrespondents were Gay-Lussac, the
chemist ; Hatiy, the mineralogist ; Arago, the astronomer ; Biot,
the physicist, of France ; Berzelius, the chemist, of Sweden ; and
Davy, Black, Wollaston, Cavendish, Thomson, Smithson Tennant,
chemical philosophers, of England. If it is " by a man's position
among his contemporaries and competitors that his work may
most ] ustly be appraised," Smithson's scientific attainments must
be rated very highly.

Between the years 1791 and 1825 Smithson published twenty-
seven scientific papers, of which eight appeared in the Philosoph-
ical Transactions of the Royal Society and nineteen in Thomson's
Annals of Philosophy. These memoirs embrace a wide range of
research : the first deals with the curious deposit in bamboo called
tahasheer, which he proved to be " siliceous earth " ; the second
was a " Chemical Analysis of Some Calamines," in which he estab-
lished a new mineral species, afterward named smithsonite by
Beudant (1832). The larger number of his papers deal with
chemistry applied to mineral analysis, but he also discussed the
nature of vegetables and insects, the origin of the earth, the crystal-
line form of ice, and an improved method of making coffee. An
examination of these contributions to knowledge shows that he was
no mere dilettante in science, and that he carried on his researches
in a philosophic spirit for the sake of truth ; all his writings ex-
hibit keen perception, concise language, and accurate expression.

Of Smithson's personal traits and social character very little is
known ; his dislike of publicity, his natural reserve, as well as
his residence in foreign countries, separated him from friends
who might have given us particulars. It is said that he fre-
quently narrated an anecdote of himself which illustrated his re-
markable skill in analyzing minute quantities of substances, an
ability which rivaled that of Dr. Wollaston. Happening to ob-
serve a tear gliding down a lady's cheek, he endeavored to catch
it on a crystal vessel; one half the tear-drop escaped, but he sub-
jected the other half to reagents, and detected what was then
called microcosmic salt, muriate of soda, and some other saline
constituents held in solution.

James Smithson died at the age of sixty-four years, on the 27th
of June, 1829, at Genoa, Italy, and was buried in the Protestant

292

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

cemetery near that city. His death occurred in the same year with
that of Davy, Wollaston, and Young, a fact mentioned by the
President of the Royal Society in announcing the loss of members.
About three years before his death, Smithson made a holo-
graphic will containing provisions of immense importance to

James Smithson. (From a painting by Johnes, 1816.)

American science. After providing for an annuity to one faithful
old servant, and a benefaction to another, his will directed that
the whole of the income arising from his property of every kind
should be paid by his executors to his nephew, Henry James
Hungerford ; and should his nephew have children the whole of
his property was bequeathed to them or their heirs after the
death of their father. In case, however, the nephew should die
without issue, Smithson provided as follows :

" I bequeath the whole of my property to the United States of
America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith-

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 295

sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion
of knowledge among men/^

The motives which prompted James Smithson to bequeath his
fortune to the young republic across the seas are not certainly
known. In the year 1818 (or 1819) he had some misunderstanding
with the Royal Society, owing to their refusal to print one of his
papers, and from that date he published exclusively in Thomson's
Annals of Philosophy ; it is said that prior to this difficulty he
had intended to make the Royal Society his legatee. Having,
however, abandoned that plan, he seems to have perceived with a
prophetic eye the " germs of rising grandeur " in the free Amer-
ican nation, and to have felt a desire to promote the increase and
diffusion of knowledge in the New World.

Whether he was more friendly to republicanism than to mon-
archy, as some have claimed, is not certain ; at all events, by select-
ing the United States of America as the depository of his trust
" he paid the highest compliment to its intelligence and integrity,
and testified his confidence in republican institutions and his faith
in their perpetuity."

In attempting to fathom the thoughts which directed Smith-
son's attention to the United States we are met by the surprising
fact that he had not a single correspondent or scientific friend in
America, nor did he write a line in any of his papers indicating
appreciation of the republic.

Mr. Hungerford survived his uncle only six years, during
which he received the benefits of the will ; he led an aimless, rov-
ing life on the Continent, and died at Pisa, Italy, June 5, 1835,
under the name of Eunice de la Batut, this being the surname of
his stepfather, a- Frenchman whom Hungerford's mother had
married. By this death the United States became entitled to the
estate. The first intimation received by the Government to this
effect arrived in a communication dated July 28, 1835, from the
charge d'affaires of the United States at London to the Secretary
of State, transmitting a letter from the firm of attorneys who rep-
resented the bankers holding the estate in trust. The estate was
estimated at £100,000. In December, President Andrew Jackson
sent to Congress a message setting forth the facts in the case and
asking for authority to accept the trust ; in July, Congress passed
an act authorizing the President to appoint an agent to prosecute
in the Court of Chancery the right of the United States to the
legacy. This simple measure was not, however, secured without
great difficulty, being opposed by several active Congressmen.
Mr. W. C. Preston, of South Carolina, thought the donation had
been made partly with a view to immortalize the donor, and it
was " too cheap a way of conferring immortality " ; and Mr. John
C. Calhoun, of the same State, was of the opinion that it was be-

294

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

neath the dignity of the United States to receive presents of this
kind from any one. The bill was, however, supported by the
Committee of the Judiciary, to which the matter had been re-
ferred, and advocated by Mr. James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania,
Mr. Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, and Mr. John Davis, of
Massachusetts.

Under this act President Jackson appointed the Hon. Richard
Rush, of Pennsylvania, agent to prosecute the claims of the United
States. The selection of Mr. Rush was a very happy one : he had
been Comptroller of the Treasury, Attorney-General, minister

to England, and minister to
'"^ France. He displayed integ-

rity and ability, and a per-
sistence which accomplished
the end in view with unex-
ampled dispatch. Beyond the
usual delays incident to court
procedure, Mr. Rush met with
no difficulties save one. Ma-
dame Thdodore de la Batut,
the mother of Mr. Hunger-
ford, presented a claim for a
life interest in the estate of
Smithson ; and to expedite
matters Mr. Rush agreed to a
compromise, granting an an-
nuity, which she enjoyed un-
til her death in 1861.* As
soon as the securities were
transferred to Mr. Rush, he
converted them into gold and
shipped it to New York on
the Mediator ; accompanying the treasure were three boxes con-
taining the personal effects of the testator, including his collection
of minerals, library, etc. The money arising from the Smithson
bequest was at first invested in State stocks, and on December 10,
1838, President Martin Van Buren announced to Congress the
receipt and disposition of the legacy of James Smithson. In 1841,
Arkansas having failed to pay interest, through the efforts of
Hon. J. Q. Adams the funds were transferred to the Treasury of
the United States, to bear interest at six per cent per annum.

Three years had been consumed in securing the legacy, and
seven and a half years more were destined to pass before Congress

Joseph Henry.

* The principal retained in England to meet this annuity was paid over to the Smith-
sonian Institution in 1864. This residuary legacy amounted to $26,210 (gold).

296 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

carried out the wishes of the testator by creating the Smithsonian
Institution. To analyze the legislation during this period, to de-
scribe the many extraordinary schemes proposed, to merely name
the Congressmen who were active in the prolonged discussion,
would occupy more space than can be given to this entire article.
Presidents Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, and Polk came and went,
each urging Congress to action, but the legislators suffered from
the " embarrassment of riches " in a new sense. Among the plans
prominently brought forward and considered at length were the
following : Senator John Quincy Adams advocated an astronom-
ical observatory ; Senator Asher Robbins, of Rhode Island, fa-
vored the establishment of a National University ; Senator Ben-
jamin Tappan, of Ohio, proposed a botanical garden and an agri-
cultural farm ; Senator Rufus Choate, of Massachusetts, urged a
grand library ; Robert Dale Owen, of Indiana, preferred a normal
school with lectureships on scientific subjects ; Mr. Isaac H.
Morse, of Louisiana, wanted the prizes awarded for the best writ-
ten essay on ten subjects ; and some legislators, wise in their own
conceit, opposed every plan suggested. Mr. George W. Jones, of
Tennessee, proposed that the whole fund be returned to any heirs
at law or next of kin of James Smithson ; and a similar disposi-
tion of the fund was advocated by Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee,
and Mr. A. D. Sims, of South Carolina. It is interesting, in the
light of later national events, to note the names of some of those
who took part in these discussions : we find side by side the names
of Jefferson Davis and Hannibal Hamlin, Andrew Johnson and
Alexander H. Stephens, Howell Cobb and Stephen A. Douglas.

Meanwhile memorials from persons and institutions outside
of Congress poured in, urging expedition, advocating particular
bills and suggesting new plans. At least two societies of citizens
sought to gain control of the magnificent fund which Congress
was so slow in appropriating ; the Agricultural Society of the
United States, formed in the District of Columbia, memorialized
Congress to apply the Smithsonian fund to its objects ; and the
National Institution for the Promotion of Science, organized in
1840 by representative men in Washington, sought union with or
control of the embryonic establishment bearing Smithson^s name.
Dr. G. Brown Goode, in his Genesis of the United States National
Museum (Report of the United States National Museum, 1891),
points out that the President of this National Institution, Joel R.
Poinsett, of South Carolina (Secretary of the Navy in 1840), de-
serves credit for introducing the feature of a national museum
into the scheme for the Smithsonian Institution. Indeed, the or-
ganization of the Smithsonian Institution finally adopted bears
marked resemblance to that of the National Institution both as
regards the cast of officers and the objects of the establishment.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. zg-j

But all attempts to merge the interests of the two bodies failed,
partly owing to objections to placing the management of the new
institution in the hands of a private corporation ; meanwhile the
National Institution changed its name to National Institute, but
after a flourishing existence of five years it lost its power.

Although much deprecated at the time, the slowness with
which Congress acted in disposing of Smithson's legacy had its
advantages : weak schemes were exposed, public opinion was edu-
cated, and the judgment of Congress itself was elevated by the
prolonged discussions. The broad provisions of the will, open to
the charge of vagueness, gave scope to the variety of views we
have named and furnished ground for the delay. It is interesting
to note that the act creating the Smithsonian Institution, adopted
August 10, 1846, embodies nearly all the best features of the nu-
merous schemes proposed during the ten years which had elapsed.

The act of incorporation was the work of many minds and to
some extent a compromise ; no one person should receive credit
for its provisions, but mention should be made of Senator Benja-
min Tappan, Robert Dale Owen, and William J. Hough, who
drew up the bill eventually agreed upon. Stripped of legal ver-
biage and condensed, the bill is as follows :

Title. — A bill to establish the " Smithsonian Institution " for
the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.

Preamble : Rehearses the facts as to Smithson's bequest and
the acceptance by the United States, and directs that the Presi-
dent and Vice-President of the United States, the Secretary of
State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the
Secretary of the Navy, the Postmaster-General, the Attorney-
General, the Chief Justice, and the Commissioner of the Patent
QjSice of the United States, and the Mayor of the city of Wash-
ington, during the time for which they shall hold their respect-
ive offices, and such other persons as they may elect honorary
members, be constituted an " establishment " by the name of the
Smithsonian Institution.

Section 2 provides for investment of the Smithson fund and
payment of the interest thereon ; also appropriates a sum for erec-
tion of a suitable building.

Section S provides that the business of said institution shall be
conducted at the city of Washington by a Board of Regents to be
composed of the Vice-President of the United States, the Chief
Justice, and the Mayor of the city of Washington, together with
three members of the Senate and three members of the House of
Representatives, and six other persons, two of whom shall be
members of the National Institute. The act then provides for
the manner of appointment, the time of service, the filling of va-
cancies, the election of a Chancellor and Secretary by the Board of

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 299

Regents and of an executive committee, as well as for the pay-
ment of money needed for conducting the institution; also, an
annual report to be submitted to Congress.

Section Jf provides for the selection of a suitable site for a
building.

Section 5 provides for the erection of a building of plain and
durable materials, of suJBBcient size for rooms to contain objects
of natural history, including a geological and mineralogical cabi-
net, a chemical laboratory, a library, a gallery of art, and the neces-
sary lecture rooms ; also provides for the expense of this building.

Section 6 enacts that in proportion as suitable arrangements
can be made for their reception all objects of art and of foreign
and curious research, and all objects of natural history, plants,
geological and mineralogical specimens, belonging or hereafter to
belong to the United States which may be in the city of Wash-
ington shall be arranged as best to facilitate their examination
and study in the building to be erected ; also new specimens to
be so arranged ; also minerals, books, and other property of James
Smithson to be preserved in the institution.

Section 7 enacts that the Secretary of the Board of Regents
shall take charge of the building and contents, shall discharge the
duties of librarian and of keeper of the museum, and may employ
assistants, and provides for their compensation.

Section 8 provides for meetings at which the President or Vice-
President of the United States shall preside, and appropriates a
sum not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars annually for the
formation of a library.

Section 9 enacts that moneys accrued as interest upon the fund,
not herein appropriated, may be disposed of by the Board of Re-
gents as they direct.

Section 10 enacts that one copy of all copyrighted books, en-
gravings, maps, etc., shall be sent to the Librarian of the Smith-
sonian Institution, and one to the Librarian of Congress.

Section 11 gives to Congress the right to amend any of the
provisions of this act.

This act was signed by President James K. Polk, August 10,
1846. It embodies the features of a national museum, a library,
with provisions for copyrighted books, an art gallery, and lecture
rooms, presumably for scientific courses though no special provi-
sion for them is made. It places the executive work in the hands
of a Secretary, and the general oversight with care of finances in
the power of a Board of Regents, which board includes the highest
officials in the Government of the United States.

The opponents of this bill, though defeated, still endeavored to
change its character. Eighteen months after its passage, Andrew
Johnson, of Tennessee, introduced a bill to change the Smith-

300

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Spekckk F. Baikd.

sonian Institution to " Washington University, for the Benefit of
Indigent Children of the District of Columbia," and spoke in

favor of remodeling the en-
tire plan so as to convert the
institution into a university
to include the manual-labor
feature, mechanic arts, and
agriculture. Mr. Embree
wanted at the same time to
graft upon the institution a
department for collecting
and arranging information
on agriculture, common-
school education, political
economy, and the useful arts
and sciences, which infor-
mation shall be published
and circulated gratuitously
among the people.

These attempts to tinker
with the act of incorpora-
tion received their quietus
on August 8, 1848, when the
House of Representatives adopted a resolution to the effect that
it is inexpedient to change and modify the act in the manner pro-
posed. In 1878, and again in 1894, the act of incorporation was
revised and somewhat simplified ; the two Regents were no longer
to be chosen from members of the National Institute, which
meanwhile had died, and other slight changes were made.

Congress having appointed Regents, they organized by electing
a Chancellor and temporary secretary. The act of incorporation
placed great responsibilities in the secretary's office, and the
Regents felt that the advancement of the proper interests of the
trust made it essential that the Secretary of the Smithsonian In-
stitution should be a man possessing weight of character and a
high grade of talent ; that he also possess eminent scientific and
general acquirements ; that he be capable of advancing science and
promoting letters by original search and effort, and well qualified
to act as a respected channel of communication between the insti-
tution and scientific and literary individuals in this and foreign
countries. To this important position the Regents invited Prof.
Joseph Henry, of the College of New Jersey, widely known in
both hemispheres by his splendid discoveries in electro-magnet-
ism and universally respected as a man by all who knew him.
His acceptance of the secretaryship was a most fortunate event
for the institution, insuring its high scientific standard, its wise

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

301

and economical administration, and its superior reputation at
home and abroad. Henry's Programme of Organization, presented
to the Board of Regents December 8, 1847, is a model of skillful
analytical statement, proposing plans for the increase of knowl-
edge and its diffusion among men ; in it he laid down broad lines
of action and established the foundations on which the existing
edifice stands. Henry devoted the rest of his life, thirty-three
years, to the development of this programme, and the institution
owes to him an everlasting debt of gratitude for his enlightened,
pure, and able administration of the trust.

After the plans of Mr. James Renwick, Jr., for a Norman
building, had been accepted, its erection in the Mall was con-
ducted slowly, being completed in 1855, at an expense of about
three hundred and fourteen thousand dollars. Meanwhile pru-
dent economy in expenditures enabled Henry to add one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars of accrued interest to the original fund.
A library was begun by ex-
change and purchase, and
materials for a museum col-
lected and housed. Besides
these interests, the institu-
tion adopted the plan of pro-
moting original research by
assisting men of science in
their labors ; at the same
time series of investigation
were instituted, explorations
conducted, and the results of
all these endeavors were pub-
lished and distributed to all
the learned societies and im-
portant libraries throughout
the world.

Whenever a man was
found capable of adding to
the sum of human knowl-
edge, the institution assisted
him by supplying books not
otherwise attainable, instru-
ments of research, specimens of materials, and objects under in-
vestigation, and in some instances special grants of money were
made for personal expenses. The specimens in all branches of
natural history were not confined to the glass cases of the museum,
but freely loaned to men engaged in special lines of research ; and
if the specimens required were not on hand, the institution under-
took to obtain and to supply them, the only return asked for being

S. p. Langley.

302 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that full credit be given to the name of Smithson. This liberal
policy has never been discontinued.

The institution established systematic meteorological observa-
tions, it instituted the first telegraphic weather service, published
meteorological tables and charts, and became, in fact, the parent
of the present Weather Bureau.

The institution early adopted a policy of doing nothing which
could be accomplished as well by other means, and of relinquish-
ing undertakings causing a draft upon its finances so soon as other
bodies, or the Government, should agree to take them in charge.
In pursuance of this wise plan the Secretary and the Regents in-
duced Congress from time to time to make separate appropria-
tions from the public Treasury in support of the National Mu-
seum, and of certain branches of work directly ordered by the
Government itself. The library soon outgrew its limited quar-
ters, and in 1866 was deposited in the Library of Congress, at a
great saving of expense. The meteorological service was likewise
transferred in 1874 to the Signal Corps of the United States Army.

For many years the institution conducted explorations in re-
gard to the ethnology of the Indians of North America, and this
has developed into an important Bureau of Ethnology, supported
by Government appropriations, yet controlled by the Smithso-
nian.

The botanical collection was transferred to the Department of
Agriculture, and the osteological specimens were placed in the
Army Medical Museum.

The Smithsonian has been exceedingly fortunate in its execu-
tive officers. After the death of Henry, in 1878, Prof. Spencer F.
Baird, the eminent naturalist, was called to the secretaryship.
He had been United States Commissioner of Fishes for seven
years and Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian for twenty-eight
years, and thus brought to the post wide experience as well as ad-
ministrative ability. Under his care the National Museum was
especially augmented, and the publications were issued uniformly
on the lines laid down by his predecessor. Of his distinguished
services to science we can not here take note ; we merely quote
two paragraphs from the resolutions adopted by the Board of
Regents, November 18, 1887, on the occasion of his death :

" Resolved^ That the cultivators of science both in this country
and abroad have to deplore the loss of a veteran and distinguished
naturalist, who was from early years a sedulous and successful
investigator, whose native gifts and whose experience in sys-
tematic biologic work served in no small degree to adapt him to
the administrative duties which filled the later years of his life,
but whose knowledge and whose interest in science widened and
deepened as the opportunities for investigation lessened, and who

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 303

accordingly used his best endeavors to promote the researches of
his fellow-naturalists in every part of the world.

" Resolved, That his kindly disposition, equable temper, single-
ness of aim, and unsullied purity of motive, along with his facile
mastery of affairs, greatly endeared him to his subordinates, se-
cured to him the confidence and trust of those whose influence he
sought for the advancement of the interests he had at heart, and won
the high regard and warm affection of those who, like the members
of this board, were officially and intimately associated with him."

Prof. Baird was succeeded in the office of Secretary by the
present incumbent. Prof. Samuel P. Langley, LL. D., known to
the scientific world by his masterly researches in solar physics.
Under his administration the Smithsonian continues its pros-
perity with undiminished vigor.

In a second article we shall consider the present status and
many activities of this noble institution.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION.

By DAVID A. WELLS, LL.D., D. C. L.,

CORRESPONDANT UE l'iNSTITDT DE FRANCE, ETC.

I. — THE COMPARATIVELY RECENT TAX EXPERIENCES OF THE
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. PART II.

WITH the close of the war a marked change speedily occurred,
in the nature of discontent, in the temper of the people in
respect to taxation. But this discontent at the outset was restrict-
ed almost exclusively to the so-called " internal revenue taxes,"
and extended in little or no degree to the war taxes imposed on
imports ; which last, so long as the internal revenue taxes contin-
ued to be levied upon every manufactured product, and also upon
the separate constituents of such product, were not only wholly
justifiable, but absolutely necessary, if the fiscal burdens of the
war between the domestic producers and their foreign competitors
were to be equalized. In some instances, through oversight or
neglect, the tariff taxation was made actually less upon the im-
ported article than was the internal taxation on the domestic
product manufactured from it; one illustration of which was,
that the charges imposed on the import of Manilla rope were
fifty-six dollars per ton, while the internal taxes on the rope manu-
factured in the United States from the Manilla fiber ranged from
forty-eight to seventy-three dollars per ton.

It soon became evident that the country could not endure for
any great length of time the war system of taxation, and, further-
more, would not, when a return of peace had made its continu-

304 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ance unnecessary.* And, pending its modification for the pur-
pose of reduction, a desire to evade the payment of taxes every-
where manifested itself, until it seemed at one time as if the
whole country and the Government itself were becoming cor-
rupted and demoralized. For example, the revenue receipts
from the income tax, without any change in the law, declined
from $72,982,000 in 1866 to $66,014,000 in 1867; and those from a
uniform tax on distilled spirits, from about $29,000,000 in 1867 to
a little in excess of $14,000,000 in 1868.

It was under such circumstances that the Revenue Commis-
sion entered upon its prescribed duties. The work of investiga-
tion devolved mainly on its chairman, the second member being
debarred by age and feeble health from any active exertion ; while
the third assumed from the outset that the best and most feasible
way of meeting the financial difficulties of the situation was to
abandon the " whole system" (of existing taxation) "in the short-
est time consistent with the general interests of the country," and,
by an amendment to the Federal Constitution, authorize and re-
quire the Federal Government to levy " a duty, payable in lawful
money, of one per centum per annum " on the income of all inter-
est-bearing indebtedness issued by the United States and payable
in lawful money ; and " a duty, payable in specie, of seven tenths
of one per centum on the principal of all indebtedness of the United
States, which shall belong to any person or corporation, and the
interest on which may be payable in specie." He was also of the
opinion that such taxes on the income or principal of the indebted-
ness of the United States, should be " in addition to any ordinary
duty or tax equally imposed upon all incomes, or directly upon
all personal and real property within the United States subject to
taxation."

A subsequent report to this effect was not received with any
marked disfavor by the general public, and had the indorsement of
not a few leading American bankers and capitalists. As the aver-
age annual rate of interest accruing on the market price of the
gold bonds issued by the United States from January, 1862, to Janu-
ary, 1866, was 8'82 per cent, and on investments in the debt of the
United States payable in lawful money, from 1863 to 1866, was
10*68 per cent, the proposition to levy a tax of one per cent on the

* The imperative necessity of a speedy abatement of the internal revenue taxes after
the termination of the war finds striking illustration in the following examples of actual
experience. Thus the tax of six per cent, levied and collected during the fiscal year 1864-
'65, on the value of the products of the woolen industry in Massachusetts alone ($48,430,-
671) was equivalent to nearly twenty per cent on the whole capital ($14,735,671) in-
vested in this business ; while the tax on the value of boots and shoes manufactured in the
same State during the same year ($52,915,243) was equal to thirty per cent on the whole
capital employed ($10,067,474).

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 305

income or principal of the same did not appear unreasonable, espe-
cially in the case where no exemption from taxation was stipu-
lated in the contract for these issues. But neither the author of the
report nor its indorsers could have anticipated that within little
more than five years after it was submitted to Congress, the Fed-
eral Government could have borrowed $185,000,000 at four and a
half per cent interest ; and that twenty-five years afterward would
be able to renew a debt of $25,364,500 at two per cent per annum,
or at a rate fifty per cent less than loans on the best corporate or
private securities would have at the same time commanded.

The method of prosecuting the work contemplated by Con-
gress of the Commission was at the outset a matter of no little
embarrassment. There was practically no material or basis to
work on, except the bare statutes authorizing war taxes, and no
official collection of these was published by the Government
until two years after the commencement of the war. There was
no bureau of statistics in the Treasury, and in this department of
the Government the officials to whom was assigned the duty of
collecting and publishing reliable data relative to the trade and
commerce of the country were untrained. No full and reliable
statistics concerning any branch of trade or industry in the
United States, with possibly a very few exceptions, were then, or
ever had been, available. The Treasury received returns of the
aggregate of revenue collected and the sources whence it was
derived ; but these returns were rarely, if ever, accompanied by
any suggestions, derived from administrative experience, of any
value. The commercial returns from the customs were hardly
worth the paper on which they were written. Thus, for exam-
ple, when the duty on the importation of coffee came up for con-
sideration as a source of revenue, the value of the coffee imported
during the fiscal year 1864-'65 was officially returned at ten and a
half cents per pound, while its average invoice price, according to
the trade of New York for the same period, was not less than
thirteen cents. Again, according to the Treasury statement, the
aggregate imports of coffee for the same year, were 104,316,581
pounds. Of this amount 82,353,000 pounds, which were retained
for domestic consumption, had a returned value of only six and
four tenths cents per pound, while the value of 21,962,000 pounds
of the same imports which were exported during the same year,
had the extraordinary value of nearly twenty-five cents per pound.
For the year 1863 the Treasury reported an aggregate import of
spirits distilled from grain of 1,064,576 gallons, but of this quan-
tity only 45,393 gallons were entered at the ports of Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and San Francisco, leaving an
inferential import of 1,019,183 gallons at other ports of the loyal
States that practically had no foreign commerce.

TOL. XLTIII. — 22

3o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

In the Bureau of Internal Revenue a better system prevailed ;
but this department of the Treasury being always overburdened
with work, and its service largely rendered by assessors and col-
lectors who were destitute of business training, contributed but
little in the way of deductions from experience. It had, more-
over, at one time as its head an official who subsequently in a
higher position refused to allow data to be collected in respect to
certain taxes, on the ground that the less the people knew about
such matters the better it was for the Treasury.

Another great source of difficulty experienced by the Commis-
sion in conducting investigations with a view of arriving at any
correct estimates of the prospective revenue of the country was
the abnormal condition of every branch of trade and industry
after 1861, due primarily to the war disturbances, and next to the
frequent alterations in the rates of taxation. Every advance
made in tariff, or internal revenue taxes, was anticipated to
such an extent by importers, manufacturers, dealers, and specula-
tors that the Government could not fairly test the capacity of any
one of its great and legitimate sources of revenue. Thus, for ex-
ample, the almost incredible profits made by reason of anticipa-
tion of the large and repeated advances in the taxes on distilled
spirits have already been pointed out. Of cigars, in like manner,
it was estimated that above eighty millions had been made and
stored at one time in the city of New York alone, in anticipation
of a higher tax ; and in the case of the comparatively insignificant
article of matches, on which the tax was only one cent per bunch,
the stock accumulated in anticipation of an advance of tax was
so large that it was not entirely exhausted for a subsequent period
of three years.

In the absence of any specific instructions, either from Con-
gress or the Secretary of the Treasury, it was difficult for the
commission to form an opinion as to the best method of entering
upon the comprehension and reform of a scheme of taxation which
embraced almost every form of tax that the ingenuity of man
could devise, and with an incidence on almost every form of prop-
erty, business, profession, or occupation that was capable of yield-
ing to the state a revenue. The conclusion arrived at, after no
little consideration, involved a complete abandonment of any idea
of endeavoring to enter upon and comprehend the whole field of
inquiry at the outset ; and in its place, and in accordance with
the maxim attributed to Emerson, that the eye sees only what it
brings to itself to see, it was determined to take up and study spe-
cifically the sources of public revenue in the order of their impor-
tance ; and give no attention to any other subject, or attempt to
theorize, until everything that domestic experience or the expe-
rience of other countries could teach concerning them had been

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 307

made familiar. In practically carrying ont this idea, tlie chair-
man of the commission put himself in direct and frequent com-
munication with revenue officials and representative business men
from every section of the country ; and availing himself of the
power to take testimony, under oath, he often came into the pos-
session of important facts which in daily life had been screened
from the eye of the public. The result was that the commission
presented to Congress, in January, 1866, a report which gave for
the first time a full, clear, and exact statement of the curious and
complex scheme of internal and customs revenue that had been
evolved, as it were, out of the financial necessities contingent on.
the prosecution of a gigantic war : which involved the raising by
taxation during the war period (and exclusive of loans) of an ag-
gregate of over $2,000,000,000, and a not infrequent daily disburse-
ment (expenditure) of over two millions of dollars ; and in addi-
tion to this feature the report contained special and elaborate ex-
hibits on distilled spirits, fermented liquors, petroleum, cotton,
tea, coffee, sugar, spices, proprietary articles, and patent medicines
as sources of Government income, with estimates of the amount
of revenue which the Treasury might annually expect if taxation
at various rates on the same was to be continued ; the whole being
really the first practical attempt in the United States to gather
and use national statistics for great national purposes.

On the termination by statute of the Revenue Commission, in
January, 1866, its chairman was appointed to an office specially
created by Congress, for a period of four years, with the title of
"Special Commissioner of the Revenue" of the United States;
and the duties of which were thus defined by statute :

''He shall from time to time report through the Secretary of the
Treasury to Congress, either in the form of hill or otherwise, such
modifications of the rates of taxation, or of the methods of collect-
ing the revenues, and such other facts pertaining to the trade, in-
dustry, commerce, or taxation of the country as he may find hy
actual observation of the law to be conducive to public interest."

In this office, and invested with large powers, its incumbent en-
tered upon the work of co-operating with the appropriate commit-
tees of Congress — " Ways and Means " of the House and " Finance "
of the Senate — in reconstructing the then existing and extraordi-
nary system of the United States internal revenue ; and under his
initiation and supervision were originated almost all the reforms in
this department of the Government that were considered or en-
acted by Congress between the close of the war and the year 1870 ;
namely, the redrafting of nearly the whole body of complicated
and often conflicting statutes ; the reduction and final abolition
of the taxes on crude products — especially cotton, salt, lumber, pe-
troleum, and the metals — and most of the taxes on manufactures ;

3o8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the creation of supervisory districts and the appointment of
supervisors ; the origination of the use of stamps for the collec-
tion of taxes on distilled spirits, fermented liquors, tobacco, and
the sales of stockbrokers (the last in place of a general tax of one
twentieth of one per cent on sales) ; and the creation and organi-
zation of the Bureau of Statistics as a branch of the national
Treasury. These modifications brought the internal revenue du-
ties within a reasonable compass, introduced systems where the
want of it was working mischief, and by their ready application
in administration reconciled the people to a maintenance of im-
portant sources of revenue and a continuance of taxes, which have
by their stability and steady increase enabled the Government
to meet financial exigencies otherwise awkward and dangerous.
The service thus rendered met with recognition at the time both
in and out of Congress, and was strongly indorsed by those most
interested — the head of the Treasury and the industries taxed.*

The work of taking down the vast and complicated structure
of internal taxation, which had been built up during the war,
having been once seriously entered upon by Congress (in 1866),
it was prosecuted so vigorously that in the comparatively short
space of three years the aggregate annual receipts from such
taxes were reduced from $310,906,000 in 1866 to $160,039,000 in
1869— a reduction of $150,865,000— and to $102,644,000 in 1872, a
further reduction of $57,395,000; while the sources of revenue,
the annual receipts from each one of which were specifically
reported, were reduced from about two hundred and seventy-
five in 1866 to nominally sixty- six in 1872; but practically to
three — distilled spirits, fermented liquors, and tobacco — the re-
ceipts from which alone in 1893 were $150,865,000 as compared
with $91,464,000 in 1872. It should, however, be noted that this
remarkable increase of revenue, coincident with a large reduction
in the number of taxed articles, was due mainly to an increase of
consumption consequent upon an increase of population during
the period under consideration (26,230,000) rather than to any

* " I do not believe that any man appointed by the Government in the civil war has
done for his country more work, and more valuable work, than David A. Wells. Into the
financial chaos resulting from the war he threw the whole weight of a strong, clear mind,
guided by an honest heart, and he has done more, in my judgment, to bring order out of
chaos than any one man in the United States." — (Speech of General James A. Garfield,
Member of Congress, United States House of Representatives, July 13, 1868)

" There are few of my official acts that I look upon with more satisfaction than the ap-
pointment of David A. Wells to be Revenue Commissioner. All the reports that were made
by him exhibited the most careful, painstaking, and intelligent investigation. In clearness
and accuracy of statement, and in logical force, they have not been surpassed on either side
of the Atlantic. Their ability was admitted, even by those who disagreed with the writer
in his conclusions.^^ — [Men and Measures of Half a Century, by Hugh McCulloch, Secretary of
the Treasury during the Administrations of Presidents Lincoln, Johnson, and Arthur.)

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 309

increase in the rate of taxes imposed upon the remaining sources
after 1872.

Of many other curious and instructive economic experiences,
consequent upon the rapid and radical changes in the fiscal policy
of the United States during the period under consideration, the
following seem especially worthy of notice : The first abatement or
repeal of internal taxation on various articles after the war — to the
extent of about fifty millions in 1866 — was not attended with any
general and immediate reduction in the prices of the articles re-
lieved, corresponding to the reduction of taxation, but with rather
an increase of prices. The explanation of this circumstance was,
that the continuance of the heavy war taxation, for a period after
the extensive war demands of the Government for various com-
modities had ceased, had diminished their production to a point
below what would have been the normal consumption of the
country ; and that, therefore, prices increased concurrently with
the abatement of taxes and a renewal of demand. Such a result
was, however, but temporary, and the condition of affairs was
soon reversed. The supply of manufactured products quickly be-
came equal to or exceeded demand. The price of products fell
faster than the price of either labor or capital, and taxation, which
formerly had been paid wholly from profit, now fell mainly upon
capital. The general result was a year (1867) of great industrial
and commercial depression.

The enlarged use of stamps as machinery for the collection of
taxes, and their novel application to fermented liquors and dis-
tilled spirits, were attended with very striking results. In the
case of fermented liquors (beer), it was established almost beyond
doubt by the Revenue Commission that previous to 1866 the Gov-
ernment was defrauded of its legitimate revenue to an extent of
forty per cent, involving an absolute annual loss of about $6,400,000.
The adoption, with no little hesitation by Congress in 1866, of the
principle, that the payment of the tax on this commodity should be
effected by the purchase and affixing a stamp to each barrel sold
and removed from the place of manufacture, with the additional
requirement that the stamp should be canceled by the retailer or
consumer at once, increased the revenue from $3,657,000 in 1865 to
$5,115,000 in 1866— the year of first application— and to $5,819,000
in 1867 ; and ever since has proved most effective and satisfactory.

A recommendation to make use of stamps for the collection of
taxes on tobacco was acceded to by Congress in respect to smoking
tobacco and snuff, but was refused in respect to chewing tobacco,
cigarettes, and cigars ; in the latter case on the assumption that
it was impracticable to affix an adhesive paper stamp on the body
of a cigar, while the " trade,'' not long afterward, and at its own
volition, demonstrated its entire feasibility. Had the recommen-

310 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

dation in this particular found favor, it would liave resulted in
an accretion of many millions to the national Treasury, a relief
from espionage and other frictions to the trade, and a larger
diminution of administrative expenditures both to the trade and
the Government.

The experience of the Federal Government in its taxation of
distilled spirits is extraordinary, and so replete with instruction
to economists, moralists, and social reformers as to merit a more
extended notice.

The product of distilled spirits in the United States for the
year 1860, as returned by the census, was about 90,000,000 gallons.
It would be an error to assume that all of this immense pro-
duction of spirits was used for intoxicating purposes, or in the
way of stimulants, inasmuch as the extreme cheapness of spirits
or alcohol in the United States during the period under consid-
eration occasioned their employment in large quantities for vari-
ous industrial purposes ; which uses were subsequently in a great
degree discontinued when the price of spirits was enhanced from
one hundred to one thousand per cent and upward by Federal
taxation. For 1860-'61, the year preceding the war, the average
price of proof spirits in Cincinnati was 14*40 cents per gallon.

From 1823 to 1862 distilled spirits, in common with all other
domestic industrial products, were exempt from Federal taxation.
In the latter year, under the necessity for revenue occasioned by
the war. Congress imposed a tax of twenty cents per proof gallon
on all distilled spirits of domestic production. This tax went into
effect on the 1st of September, 1862, and continued in force until
March, 1864. The total revenue derived from this source, includ-
ing the receipts from licenses for rectifying, vending, and the
like, for the fiscal year 1863, was $5,176,530. Tlje receipts from the
direct tax on the spirit itself was $3,229,990, indicating a domestic
production of only 16,149,954 gallons as compared with a produc-
tion of 90,000,000 gallons returned under the census of 1860, three
years previous. The explanation of this result is to be found in
the fact that a large amount of whisky was manufactured in
anticipation of this low tax, and that there were doubtless some
evasions of the tax after it was enacted — conditions that were re-
peated, as will be presently shown, in a greater degree on every
occasion when an advance in the tax was enacted.

The tax of twenty cents continued in force until March 7, 1864,
when the rate was advanced to sixty cents per gallon. The reve-
nue accruing under these two rates for the year ending June 30,
1864, was $28,431,797, and the number of gallons returned as hav-
ing been assessed was 85,295,393. The striking discrepancy be-
tween the number of gallons taxed in 1864 at twenty and sixty
cents and the number taxed the previous year (1863) at twenty

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 311

cents again finds explanation in the fact that when it became evi-
dent to the distillers that the fiscal necessities of the Government
would soon compel an advance in the tax upon their product, and
that such increase would not be made applicable to stocks on hand
on which the lower rates had been assessed and paid, they pushed
their production to the uttermost in order that they might take
advantage of the great increase in the market price of all spirits
after the advanced rates had taken effect ; all which anticipations
were fully realized. Thus, of the 85,295,393 gallons on which the
Internal Revenue Bureau assessed and collected the spirit tax for
1864 — 69,000,000 in excess of the product of the preceding year — at
least 70,000,000 gallons were manufactured prior to the 7th of March
and were released from Government control by the payment of
the twenty-cent tax only ; and as after the 7th of March, 1864, the
market price of the greater part of this increased product, which
had not been allowed to pass into consumption, was advanced in
accordance with the advance in the tax — i. e., forty cents per gal-
Ion — it is clear that $28,000,000 at least were thus at once legislated
into the pockets of the distillers and speculators concerned.

Again, immediately after the imposition of the sixty- cent rate
in March, 1864, nearly all the distilleries once more suspended
operation ; the country was acknowledged to be overstocked with
tax-paid whisky, and the Government almost ceased to collect
taxes upon its manufacture. In May, however, the project for a
further increase in the rates began to be again agitated in Con-
gress, and as soon as its realization became probable, all the dis-
tilleries speedily resumed operations. How great at that time
was the capacity of the loyal States for production may be in-
ferred from the circumstance that the number of distilleries in
the country, which according to the census of 1860 was 1,138, had
increased in 1864 to 2,415.

On the 1st of July, 1864, the tax was again advanced from sixty
cents to a dollar and a half per gallon ; and during that month the
entire product of the country of which the revenue officials could
take cognizance was only 697,099 gallons. How great a " stock on
hand," the result of manufacturing under the twenty and sixty
cent rates of tax, was carried over the 1st of July and experienced
the advance of ninety cents per gallon in market price in conse-
quence of the advance in the tax from sixty cents to a dollar and
a half, can not be accurately known ; but 60,000,000 gallons would
certainly be a low estimate ; and on this amount the profit that
accrued to private interests was at least $50,000,000.

On the 1st of January, 1865 (the succeeding year), the tax was
further advanced to two dollars per proof gallon, when all the
operations above described were repeated, with all the benefits to
private or speculative interests derived from former experiences.

312 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and a consequent very large extension of the sphere of partici-
pants in the resulting profits.

In short, all the available evidence indicates that the profits
realized by distillers, dealers, and speculators, through Congres-
sional legislation having reference to the taxation of distilled
spirits from July 1, 1862, to January 1, 1865 — a period of two and
a half years — and exclusive of any gains accruing from evasions
of taxes, and with every allowance for overestimates, must have
approximated $100,000,000.

After the establishment of the two-dollar rate on the 1st of
January, 1865, there was again a period of inactivity on the part
of those interested in the manufacture of distilled spirits. The
stocks on hand, manufactured in anticipation of the advances in
rates, were very large, and, the markets being over-supplied, there
was little legitimate inducement for activity on the part of dis-
tillers. The profits realized or made prospectively certain had
been, moreover, enormous, and no further advance in the rate of
tax could be anticipated. Under such circumstances there was an
apparent disposition on the part of manufacturers and speculators
to wait and see what developments in legislation and business
would follow the termination of the war in favor of the Union,
which was then everywhere recognized as approximately certain.
These developments were not long in manifesting themselves.

The tax of two dollars per proof gallon (amounting to more
than 1,500 per cent on the average cost of production) and the
enormous profits contingent upon the evasion of the law, coupled
with the abundant opportunity which the law through its imper-
fections, and the vast territorial area of the country, offered for
evasion, created a temptation which it was impossible for human
nature as ordinarily constituted to resist. This view was taken
by the Revenue Commission in a report to Congress through the
Secretary of the Treasury in February, 1866 ; and the chairman of
the commission, after a thorough investigation of the subject and
the collection and presentation of a large amount of evidence, ex-
pressed the opinion that the attempt to collect a two-dollar tax
was utterly impracticable, and that the longer it was retained the
less would be the revenue and the greater the corruption. He also
coupled this opinion with a recommendation that a tax of fifty
cents per proof gallon, with a judicious license system for recti-
fiers and dealers, be substituted as likely to be most productive of
revenue and most efficient for the prevention of illicit distilling
and other revenue evasions.

This report, although attracting much attention by reason of
the singular revenue experiences of the preceding four years
which it detailed (and which the public, with its thought concen-
trated on the results of the war, had in a great degree overlooked).

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 313

found little favor in respect to its recommendation of tax abate-
ment ; and the general sentiment both, in and out of Congress was
expressed by a leading member of the House of Eepresentatives,
who publicly declared that " he was not ready to admit that the
nation which had put down such a great rebellion at the cost of
so much blood and treasure could not collect a tax of two dollars
a gallon on whisky." * The two- dollar tax therefore was allowed
to remain in force, and the tax experiences of the United States
from 1865 to 1869 inclusive, in respect to spirits, viewed from the
standpoint of finance, economics, and morals, constitute one of the
most interesting, instructive, and disgraceful chapters in its his-
tory. Under the strong temptations of large and almost certain
gains, men rushed into schemes for defrauding the revenue with
the zeal of enthusiasts for new gold fields ; and the ingenuity of
the American people has never had more striking illustrations
than was offered in their devices for evading the tax and provid-
ing for security against detection and punishment in so doing.
The parties concerned in these transactions also showed through-
out more ability than Congress and more shrewdness than the
revenue department of the national Treasury; and at a later
period a Secretary of the Treasury was obliged to resort to the
use of a cipher for his telegraphic and written correspondence, in
order to prevent the frustration of his plans for the enforcement
of the laws by Treasury officials who were specially charged with
their administration. The evidence in part confirmatory of these
statements is as follows :

The revenue directly collected during the fiscal year 1866 (the
first full year under the two-dollar tax) from spirits distilled from
other materials than fruits \ was $29,198,000, and in 1867 $28,296,000,
indicating an annual product respectively of 14,599,000 and 14,148,-
000 gallons. But during the succeeding year, 1868, with no ap-
parent reason for any diminution in the national production and
consumption of spirits, and with no increase, but rather a diminu-
tion, in the volume of imported spirits, the total direct revenue
from the same source was but $13,419,092, indicating a production
of only 6,709,546 gallons.

As the consumption of distilled spirits in this latter year was
probably not less than 50,000,000 gallons, and as out of this the
Government collected a tax upon less than 7,000,000, the sale of
the difference at the current market rates of the year, less the

, * Of the then leading members of Congress, only two — the late President Garfield and
Hon, W. B. Allison, both members of the House of Representatives — indorsed the recom-
mendation of the commissioner at the outset.

f The revenue derived from the taxation of spirits distilled from fruite has always been
comparatively small: $283,499 in 1866 ; $868,145 in 1867.

314 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

average cost of production (even if estimated as liigli as fhirty
cents in currency), must have returned to the credit of corruption
a sum approximating $80,000,000.

Another curious feature developed was, that the number of
distilleries in the country increased just in proportion as the tax
on spirits was augmented ; the inducement of the great profit to
be obtained from a high rate of tax — the two-dollar rate especially
— undoubtedly tempting many to engage in illicit manufacturing
who would be unwilling to do so with a certainty of realizing a
much smaller rate of profit. Of many curious examples of evidence
to this effect, the following reference is particularly interesting :
In the eighth collection district of the State of New York there
was, before the internal revenue law went into operation in 1862,
but one distillery. When the first tax of twenty cents per gallon
was imposed, six additional distilleries were started. Under the
sixty-cent rate about one dozen were in operation. But this
number, under the two-dollar tax, increased to about forty. Fur-
thermore, the tax collected at one distillery in the same district
in one month in 1864, under the sixty-cent tax, was one third
more than was paid in the aggregate by thirty distilleries in the
district in the eight months succeeding November, 1865, when the
tax was two dollars ; or, to state it differently, one distillery in
one month, in 1864, paid $58,819, at sixty cents per gallon, while
thirty distilleries in eight months in 1866 paid, at two dollars per
gallon, only $33,664. For the entire country the number of
licensed distilleries, which in 1864 was 2,415, was returned in 1868
at 4,721 — an increase of double in the short space of four years.

Thus confronted with positive evidence of astounding frauds
which the Government that put down a great rebellion virtually
confessed that it could not prevent, and a steadily diminishing
revenue from what ought to have been a steadily increasing source.
Congress finally became thoroughly alarmed, and, acceding to
the recommendation of the Special Commissioner of the Revenue,
reduced (in July, 1868) the direct tax on distilled spirits from two
dollars to fifty cents per proof gallon.*

* The statement that the tax on distilled spirits was reduced from two dollars to fifty
cents per gallon in 1868 has been criticised (see letter of United States Commissioner of Inter-
nal Revenue, embraced in report of the Secretary of the Treasury for 1893) as not in ac-
cordance with the statement that the tax imposed in the above-mentioned year was not
fifty but seventy cents per gallon. The only warrant for such criticism to be found in the
circumstance that the statute of 1868, which fixed the direct tax on spirits at fifty cents per
gallon, and none other, also contained separate and independent provisions imposing
licenses, taxes on capacity of stills, and on the sales of dealers, with some modification of
the fees of gaugers and storekeepers ; and that these additional assessments brought up
the tax from fifty to seventy cents per gallon. But this reasoning overlooked two essential
features of the act, namely, that the direct tax on every proof gallon must be paid by the
distiller, owner, or other person having possession thereof, before removal from the distil-

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 315

The results of STich. legislation were immediate and most re-
markable. Illicit distillation practically ceased the very hour
the new law came into operation. Industry and the arts experi-
enced a large measure of benefit from the reduction in the cost of
spirits ; while the Government collected during the second year
of the continuance of the new rate and system, with compara-
tively little friction, three dollars for every one that was obtained
during the last year of the two-dollar tax. Assuming, as is war-
ranted, that with a continuance of the two-dollar tax there would
have been no increase in the revenue from distilled spirits beyond
what accrued in 1868 — the last year of its existence — the gain in
revenue to the Government in the succeeding two years from the
adoption of the fifty-cent rate was at least sixty millions of dol-
lars. Furthermore, but for the injudicious but popular speech
(to which reference has been made) at an opportune moment in
committee by a statesman who had bestowed but little attention
to the subject, the reduction of the tax from two dollars to fifty
cents per proof gallon would undoubtedly have been anticipated
by a year, and attended with like gainful results. The cost of
this speech, therefore, to the national Treasury may be rightfully
estimated as at least ten millions of dollars. The record of this
chapter of the tax experience of the United States also forcibly
illustrates the impolicy and disaster of embodying any fiscal
policy in statute enactments without a previous study and full
comprehension of all the elements involved.

For the first but incomplete fiscal year (1869) under the fifty-
cent tax the revenue increased to the extent of nearly $20,000,000,
or from $14,290,000 in 1868 to $33,735,000 in 1869 ; or, including all
taxes on the manufacture and sale of distilled spirits, licenses, etc.,
from $18,655,000 in 1868 to $45,071,000 in 1869. During the next
fiscal year (1870) there was a further increase in the total revenue
of $10,534,864, or from $45,071,000 in 1869 to $55,606,094 in 1870.

lery or warehouse ; and next, that none of the indirect and supplementary taxes could be
assessed or collected until after the direct tax (of fifty cents) had been paid ; the license
taxes, for example, varying according to the product of the distillery, and payable in block,
at different specified times. A great and novel object here sought for, namely, of dimin-
ishing the inducements to fraud, by directing the collection of the direct and supplementary
taxes on spirits as respects persons, places, and times, was fully achieved ; for, although the
aggregate of the direct and indirect tax on spirits undoubtedly increased their cost to their
final consumers, the largest possible gain to the distiller from the evasion of the separate
and comparatively small indirect taxes which contributed to this increase, even apart from
the risks of punishment involved, were too small to be worthy of his attention. The effort,
therefore, to attempt to minimize by sophistical reasoning the remarkable effect of the
reduction in 1868 of the tax on distilled spirits to fifty cents has no rightful claim for
consideration, and unquestionably was prompted by a very general but unwise public
sentiment, that it is desirable always to subject the manufacture and sale of spirituous and
fermented liquors to exceptionally high rates of taxation.

3i6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

The specific tax on distilled spirits of fifty cents per proof gal-
lon remained in force from July, 1868, to August, 1872, a period
of a little more tlian four years. During this period the tax was
assessed and collected on an average production of 67,175,822 proof
gallons per annum, yielding an average annual revenue of about
$34,000,000, and indicating an average annual consumption for all
purposes of the country of about 1*65 proof gallons jper capita.
For the period of four years immediately preceding the fiscal year
1869, under a tax of two dollars per proof gallon for three years,
and a dollar and a half and two dollars for one year (1865), the
tax was assessed and collected on an average annual produc-
tion of only about 13,300,000 proof gallons per annum, yielding
an average annual revenue of about $21,727,000, and indicating
an average annual consumption of only about 0'38 proof gallon
per capita.

But, notwithstanding these satisfactory results, the law au-
thorizing the reduction of the tax from two dollars to fifty cents
per proof gallon had hardly become operative when agitation
commenced for its repeal or modification. Speculators had the
idea that the old scheme of increasing the tax after a little lapse
of time, without making the increase applicable to stocks on hand,
was, with its gainful prospects, again within the range of possi-
bilities ; while very many extreme advocates of temperance, un-
taught by and caring nothing for the record of recent experience,
were inclined to regard the new and comparatively low tax as im-
politic and in the light of the removal of a barrier against the
spread of intemperance. These and other arguments proved suf-
ficiently potent, and in June, 1872, Congress, by an act which took
effect in the following August, increased the gallon tax to seventy
cents, and subsequently, in March, 1875, raised the rate to ninety
cents per gallon, and in August, 1894, further increased it to a
dollar and ten cents, the present rate.

It is not necessary to recall that the experiences which were
attendant upon every advance of the tax on spirits from its first
imposition in 1862 to 1868 were repeated subsequently in 1872 and
in 1875, when the increased rates of seventy and ninety cents were
respectively enacted ; those of the latter date being remarkable from
the circumstance that the frauds upon the revenue, which were
enormous, were more directly brought home to high officials of
the Government than at any former period, and constitute a chap-
ter in the history of government by the people which the people
may well wish forgotten.

The above review of the experiences of the United States prior
to 1869, in attempting to enforce the collection of an excessively
high tax on the production and consumption of distilled spirits, is
mainly valuable in this connection from the economic and moral

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 317

lessons deducible from it, which may in brief be summarized as
follows :

Whenever a government imposes a tax on any product of in-
dustry so high as to sufiSciently indemnify and reward an illicit or
illegal production of the same, then such product will be illicitly
or illegally manufactured ; and when that point is reached, the
losses and penalties consequent upon detection and conviction —
no matter how great may be the one or how severe the other — will
be counted in by the offenders as a part of the necessary expenses
of their business ; and the business, if forcibly suppressed in one
locality, will inevitably be renewed and continued in some other.
It is therefore matter of the first importance for every govern-
ment in framing laws for the assessment and collection of taxes to
endeavor to determine, not only for fiscal but also for moral pur-
poses, when the maximum revenue point in the case of each tax is
reached, and to recognize that in going beyond that point the gov-
ernment " overreaches " or cheats itself.

Obviously those who in the past have shaped the policy of the
United States in respect to the taxation of distilled spirits for the
purpose of revenue have, for the most part, never studied this as-
pect of the case or cared to encourage any one to do so ; but, on
the contrary, as has been somewhat humorously expressed, " they
have held out to the citizen, on the one hand, a temptation to vio-
late the law too great for human nature as ordinarily constituted
to resist, and in the other writs for personal arrest and seizure of
property, and, thus equipped, have announced themselves ready
for business."

The data officially collected and reported by the Internal Rev-
enue Department of the United States Treasury furnish the only
reliable basis for obtaining approximately correct answers to the
following questions : 1. To what extent, through a well-considered
system of taxation, can the manufacture and sale of distilled
spirits be made available as sources of national revenue ? 2. What
has been and is the probable per capita and aggregate annual con-
sumption of this class of spirituous liquors by the people of the
United States ? The first of these questions is eminently perti-
nent to the legislator ; the second, to the student and advocate of
social reform.

The experience derived from the taxation of distilled spirits
previous to 1869 by the Federal authorities was so unnatural and, as
it were, spasmodic as to debar its use for the determination of any
general or average conclusions, and limits inquiry to the results
which followed in subsequent years (1870-1894), under lower and
more rational rates of taxation, and a more efficient and intelligent
fiscal administration. And for the purpose of making a clear ex-
hibit of these, attention is asked to the following table (prepared

318

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

from official data), showing (1) the population of the country for
each successive fiscal year from 1870 to 1894, inclusive ; (2) the
quantity of gallons of spirits annually taxed ; (3) the average per
capita consumption for each successive year ; (4) the amount of
revenue annually collected ; (5) the average annual revenue, or
tax per capita ; (6) the annual tax per gallon ; (7) the average tax
per gallon.

Tear ending
June 30.

1870
1871
1872

1873

1874

1876

1876

1877

1878

1879

1880
1881

1882

1883
1884

1885

1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893

1894

Population.

38,558,371
39,555,000
40,596,000

41,677,000

42,796,000

43,951,000

45,137,000

46,353,000

47,598,000

48,866,000

50,155,783
51,316,000

52,495,000

53,693,000
54,911,000

56,148,000

57,404,000
58,680,000
59,974,000
61,289,000
62,622,250
63,975,000
65,520,000
66,826,000

68,000,000

Quantity
taxed.

Quanti-
ty per
capita.

Gallons.

78,490,198
62,314,628

Gallons.

2-03
1-58

66,235,578

1-63

65,911,141

1-68

62,581,562

1-46

64,425,911

1-47

58,512,693

1-30

58,043,889

1-26

50,704,189

1-07

53,026,175

1-09

62,132,416

1-23

69,127,206

1-34

71,976,398

1-37

76,762,063
79,616,901

1-43
1-45

69,158,025

1-23

70,851,355
67,380,391
71,565,486
77,163,529
85,043,336

1-23
1-15
1-19
1-25
1-35

88,473,487
95,045,787
99,145,889

1-38
1-45
1-48

88,777,387

1-33

Revenue.

DoUari.

39,245,099
31,157,314
33,117,788

43,131,064

43,807,093

46,877,938

61,390,490

62,671,291

46,626,533

47,709,464

65,919,119
62,214,127

64,778,756

69,085,856
71,655,211

62,242,221

63,766,219
60,642,351
64,408,937
69,447,175
76,539,002
79,626,093
85,541,209
89,231,300

79,862,647

Rev'nue

per
capita.

Dollars.

1.02
.79

.82

1.03
1.02
1.07

1.14

1.14

.08

1.11
1.24

1.23

1.22
1.30

1.23

1.11
1.03
1.07
1.13
1.22
1.24
1.31
1.34

1.74

Tax per
gallon.

Cents.

.50
.50
.50
.50
.70
.70
.70
.90
.70
.90
.70
.90
.70
.90
.50
.70
.90
.70
.90
.70
.90
.70
.90
.90
.90
.70
.90
.90
.90
.90
.90
.90
.90
.90
.90
.90
1.10

Average
tax per
gallon.

CenU.
50

50
50

65-14

70
72-76

88-58

89-97

89-99

89-98

90
90

90

90
90

90

90
90
90
90
90
90
90
90

The first point of interest which an examination of the above
table reveals is, that the average per capita consumption of tax-
paid distilled spirits by the people of the United States during the
years 1870, 1871, 1872, and 1873, under the tax of fifty cents per
gallon, was greater than it has been at any subsequent period

* Population for 1870, 1880, and 1890 from census; other years calculated by the
actuary of the Treasury Department.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 319

under a seventy and ninety cent rate. Such, a result is undoubt-
edly referable in the main to the economic law that a reduction
in the price of a commodity encourages its consumption (in this
instance for industrial as well as stimulant purposes), and in a
degree to the fact that a fifty- cent tax, with its accompaniment
of stringent penalties, greatly diminished the incentive for illicit
production. A wonderfully striking illustration of the strength
of temptation for the evasion of the revenue created by the pre-
vious high taxation, which had little other reason than mere sen-
timent for its imposition, is also afforded by the fact that while
the Government in 1872, under a tax of fifty cents per proof gal-
lon, took cognizance of an average annual tax-paid consumption
on the part of the people of the United States of 1*63 gallons per
capita, it was only able to recognize in 1868, under a two- dollar
tax, a similar average annual consumption of about 0*38 proof gal-
lon per capita.

The second point of interest in connection with the foregoing
tabular exhibit is the demonstration it affords of the very curious
variations which occurred in the successive years from 1870 to
1894, inclusive, in the quantity of spirits that annually paid taxes
to the Government, and which may be regarded as constituting
an approximately accurate measure of the average annual per
capita consumption of this commodity by the entire population
of the country. The explanation of such changes is not difficult.
They are in general unquestionably referable to immediately
antecedent or contemporary changes in the business condition of
the country, which in turn are determinative in a high degree of
the popular ability to consume an article — ^like distilled spirits —
of comparatively high cost and largely a luxury, popular tastes
and habits and restrictive moral influences remaining constant.
Thus, passing by the year 1870, in which there was a great in-
crease (from altogether abnormal causes) in the number of gal-
lons produced and made subject to taxation, the increase in the
tax-paid product and in the average per capita consumption dur-
ing the succeeding fiscal years 1872 and 1873, when the business
of the country was fairly prosperous, was regular and not incon-
siderable. The commencement of the next fiscal year (1874) was
signalized by one of the most memorable financial panics in
American history and a general prostration of business, from
which last there was no decided recovery until 1879.

During all this period the domestic production of distilled
spirits of which the Government took cognizance continued to
decline, and the average per capita of consumption touched the
exceedingly low proportions of 1*07 and 1*09 gallons in the fiscal
years of 1878 and 1879 respectively. With a renewal of active
and profitable business throughout the country in 1880, the

320 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

animal taxed production of spirits went np from 50,704,189 gallons
in 1878 to 79,616,901 gallons in 1884, and the per capita consump-
tion from 1*07 gallons to 1*45 gallons in the corresponding years.
During the period from 1871 to 1880 there was a decrease both in
the quantity of spirits on which the Government was able to col-
lect a tax and in the apparent per capita consumption of the
people, and this, too, notwithstanding an increase during this
same period of thirty per cent in the population of the country ;
1871 showing a tax on sixty-two and one third millions (1'58 gal-
lons yer capita) ^ while in 1879 the tax was collected on only fifty-
three million gallons (1"09 gallons per capita).

The decade from 1870 to 1879 was further characterized by two
periods of disturbance — which ought to be instructive in view of
future legislation — occasioned by an advance in 1873 of the gallon
tax from fifty to seventy cents, and again in 1875 from seventy to
ninety cents. In both cases these advances in rates were followed
by large annual reductions in the quantity of the spirits taxed
and in an apparent per capita consumption, which in turn indi-
cated extensive revivals of illicit practices which the reduction of
the tax to fifty cents in 1868 had nearly extinguished, and which
indications were also made certainties by abundant direct evi-
dence.

The decade of 1880 to 1889 showed, on the other hand, an in-
crease in the aggregate amount paying taxes from sixty-two and
one eighth million gallons in 1880 (1*23 gallons per capita) to sev-
enty-seven and one eighth million gallons in 1889 (1*25 gallons
per capita), an aggregate increase approximating a concurrent in-
crease of twenty- two per cent in the population of the country.

During the fiscal years from 1888 to 1893, inclusive, under a
uniform and prospectively stable rate of tax, an apparently good
and efficient administration of the law, and a fairly prosperous
condition of the country, the results in this department of our
national revenues were very exceptional and interesting. The
continuous increase in production, in per capita consumption, and
in revenue was remarkable, the average increase in spirits paying
taxes having been nearly 4,600,000 gallons per annum, or in a
ratio greater than any concurrent increase in the population of
the country ; in average per capita consumption, nearly one third
of a gallon; in average increase in revenue of nearly $5,000,000
($4,910,000) per annum, the whole culminating for the fiscal year
(1893) in a product of 99,000,000 gallons, an annual revenue of
$89,000,000, and a per capita consumption of 1*48 gallons. During
the same period the per capita consumption of all spirits, domestic
and foreign, in Great Britain was about 1*063 gallons.

The financial troubles and business depressions in Europe and
other countries during the years 1892 and 1893 do not appear to

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION,

321

have exerted the slightest influence on the production and con-
sumption of distilled spirits in the United States. But the ad-
vent in 1894 of a similar state of affairs in the latter country
speedily manifested itself, reducing the current 'per capita con-
sumption from 1*48 gallons in 1893 to 1*33 gallons; the direct
revenue from $89,231,000 in 1893 to $79,899,000 ; the current per
capita consumption from 1*48 to 1*33 gallons, and the total annual
revenue to the extent of $9,461,008.

The normal consumption of distilled spirits in the United
States in 1894, as indicated by withdrawals from distilleries and
warehouses, was about 8,000,000 gallons a month. The extent to
which the increase in the direct tax on spirits by the act of
August 28, 1894, from ninety cents to one dollar and ten cents per
gallon, was anticipated by speculators is strikingly illustrated by
the fact that an average monthly revenue from the lesser tax
of about $8,000,000 per month during the first six months of 1894
increased during the month of July and the first twenty-seven
days of August to $19,064,000 and $21,470,000 respectively, and
declined in the succeeding month of September to $510,696.

Any review of the comparatively recent tax experiences of the
United States would be incomplete that failed to notice its taxa-
tion (concurrent with that on distilled spirits) of domestic fer-
mented liquors (beer, etc.). The internal revenue tax on this
commodity has been practically uniform since its first authoriza-
tion in 1863, namely, one dollar per barrel, holding theoretically
thirty-one gallons. The tax was originally assessed and collected
on the returns of the brewers, and was largely evaded. After
July, 1866, it was successfully enforced through th^ employment
of stamps, one of which, " denoting the amount of the tax,*' is re-
quired to be affixed upon the spigot hole or tap (of which there
shall be but one) in such a way that the stamp shall be destroyed
upon the withdrawal of the liquor from the barrel or other re-
ceptacle. The following table exhibits in detail the experience
which has characterized each fiscal year since the inception of this
source of revenue in 1863 down to and including 1894 :

Population.

BKEB.

YXABB.

Quantity taxed.

Quantity

per

capita.

Revenue col-
lected from
barrel tax.

Revenue

per
capita.

Tax per
barrel of
31 gallons.

1863

33,365,000

34,046,000

34,748,000
35,469,000
36,211,000
36,973,000

GnlloDt.

62,205,375

97,382,811

113,372,611
158,569,340
192,429,462
190,546,553

G«llon«.

1-86

2-86

3-26
4-47
5-31
5-15

Dollars.

1,558,083

2,223,719

,3,657,181
6,115,140
6,819,346
6,686,663

Dollars.

.05

.07

.11
.14
.16
.16

DoUars.
j 1.00

1864

\ .60
j .60

1865

1 1.00
1 00

1866

1.00

1867

1.00

1868

1.00

TOL. XL VIII. — 23

322

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Population.

BEER.

YSABS.

Quantity taxed.

Quantity

per
capita.

Revenue col-
lected from
barrel tax.

Revenue

per
capita.

Tax per
barrel of
81 gallons.

1869

37,756,000
38,558,371
39,555,000
40,596,000
41,677,000
42,796,000
43,951,000
45,137,000
46,363,000
47,698,000
48,866,000
60,155,783
51,316,000
52,495,000
58,693,000
64,911,000
56,148,000
67,404,000
68,680,000
59,974,000
61,289,000
62,622,250
63,975,000
65,520,000
66,826,000
68,000,000

Galloni.

196,603,705
203,813,127
239,948,060
268,442,237
298,633,018
297,627,807
293,033,607
306,972,912
804,111,860
317,486,601
844,195,604
418,760.441
443.641,868
525,514,636
650,494,652
588,957,189
594,764,543
642,038,923
716,767,306
765,086,789
778,715,443
854,420,264
944,823.952
986,352,916
1,071,183,827
938,873,944

G*ll0D8.

5-21

5-29

6-06

6-61

7-16

6-95

6-66

6-80

6-56

6-67

7-04

8-25

8 66

10-01

10-26

10-73

10-69

11-18

12-21

12-77

12-71

13-64

14-77

15-06

16-03

14-90

Dollars.

5,866,400

6,081,520

7,159,740

8,009,969

8,910,823

8,880,829

8,743,744

9,159,675

9,074,355

9,473,360

10,270,352

12,346,077

13,237,700

15,680.678

16,426,050

17,573,722

17,747,006

19,157,612

21,887,411

22,829,202

23,235,863

25,494,798

28,192,327

29,431,498

31,962,743

30,843,764

Dollan.
.16

.16
.18
.20
.21
.21
.20
.23
.20
.20
.21
.25
.26
.30
.31
.32
.32
.33
.36
.38
.38
.41
.44
.45
.48
.44

Dollars.

1.00

1870

1 00

1871

1.00

1872

1.00

1878

1.00

1874

1.00

1875

1.00

1876

1.00

1877

1.00

1878

1.00

1879

1.00

1880

1.00

1881

1.00

1882

1.00

1888

1.00

1884

1.00

1886

1.00

1886

1.00

1887

1.00

1888

1.00

1889

1.00

1890..

1.00

1891

1.00

1892

1.00

1893

1.00

1894

1.00

The points of interest made apparent in the foregoing tabu-
lar exhibit, and to which attention is especially asked, are as
follows :

(1) The regular and great increase in the quantity of fer-
mented liquors annually made subject to internal revenue taxa-
tion—i. e., from 62,205,375 gallons in 1863 to 1,071,183,827 gallons in
1893, and an increase in per capita consumption very far in excess
of the rate of increase in population — i. e., from 1*86 gallons in
1863 to over sixteen gallons in 1893.

(2) The concurrent regular increase in revenue from this
source— i. e., from $1,558,000 in 1863 to nearly $32,000,000 in 1893.

(3) The variations in the product of fermented liquors which
the Government has been able annually to subject to taxation
since 1863 have been inconsiderable and in remarkable contrast to
those occurring in the case of distilled spirits. Business depres-
sion from 1874 to 1879 and for the year 1884 appears to have been
influential in checking per capita consumption, though in a small
degree, and to have exerted little or no influence in the subsequent
years, that are subject to analysis, down to 1894, when financial
and industrial depression was again operative in the country, re-
sults indicating that similar larger and contemporaneous decre-
ments in consumption and revenue in the case of distilled spirits

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 323

were due to fraudulent practices, rather than to an impairment
of ability to consume on the part of the masses.

(4) The average annual increase in the receipt of internal
revenue from fermented liquors for the ten years from 1883 to
1892 was $1,306,05^, and for the four years ending with the fiscal
year 1893 about $1,617,000. That this latter ratio of annual in-
crease under the present rate of tax is likely to indefinitely con-
tinue is almost demonstrated by the fact that the popularity of
fermented or malt liquors as beverage among the American
people is unquestionably increasing ; and also that large, seem-
ingly, as is their present average per capita consumption — namely,
sixteen gallons — the present per capita consumption of the people
of several other nationalities is much greater ; that of the United
Kingdom being estimated at thirty gallons ; of England and
Wales, thirty-six ; of Belgium, forty ; and of Germany, forty-five.
An important fact pertinent to the prospective consumption of
beer and its permanent value as a source of national revenue
is, that the cost of the materials used in its manufacture has
decreased in comparatively recent years, in the United States,
Great Britain, and probably other countries characterized by its
large consumption, to the extent of at least forty per cent ; and the
advantage from this change which has accrued to British brew-
ers was stated by the British Chancellor of Exchequer, in May,
1895, to have been upward of £2,000,000 ($10,000,000) per annum.
Another point of interest in this connection which is especially
worthy of attention is, that if moral influences have ever materi-
ally affected the general consumption of distilled spirits or fer-
mented liquors in the United States, the tabulated tax experi-
ences of its Government, which constitute the only reliable basis
for forming an opinion, do not afford any indication of it.

Having reformed and radically reduced the war taxes in the
Department of Internal Revenue, it was next in order for Con-
gress to consider the readjustment of the customs system of taxa-
tion, which had also been evolved, as it were, out of the war's fis-
cal exigencies ; and it accordingly in 1867 instructed the Secretary
of the Treasury to present at its next session the draft of a tariff
embodying reductions of war rates. The responsibility of prepar-
ing such a draft having been next intrusted by the Secretary to
the Special Commissioner of the Revenue, the latter, with a view
of qualifying himself for the trust, visited Europe under a Gov-
ernment commission, and investigated under almost unprece-
dented advantages nearly every form of industry then competi-
tive with the United States in Great Britain and on the Conti-
nent. The results of this visit and investigation effected an
enlightenment on his part in respect to two salient and funda-
mental points :

324 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

First, that no country, with, the exception of the United States,
which had adopted in a greater or less degree the policy of protec-
tion through duties or restrictions on imports, had ever regarded
the taxation of the imports of "raw,"* or crude, or partly manu-
factured materials, to be subsequently used for larger manufac-
turing, as an element of protection in its largest sense to its domes-
tic industry, but rather as antagonistic to, and destructive of,
such industry ; and that, while such taxation in the United States
had undoubtedly built up some industries and enriched their
owners, it had been a great restraint on the development of a
much larger and higher class of industries, employing a greater
number of workmen, and paying much higher average wages.
Second, that the countries of Europe in which the average rates
of wages were lowest were the most clamorous for protective du-
ties on imports ; and that high wages in any country, conjoined
with the extensive and skillful use of machinery, instead of being
evidence of industrial weakness, were evidence of great indus-
trial strength ; inasmuch as no employer can continuously pay
high wages unless his product is large, his labor most effective,
and his cost of product, measured on the terms of labor, compara-
tively low.

The announcement of these views, and especially their publica-
tion in a report in 1869, created much antagonism among the ad-
vocates of the policy of extreme protection in the country ; and
Horace Greeley and others publicly charged that the commis-
sioner had been induced to change his views through the corrupt-
ing agency of British gold. Notwithstanding this, a draft for
a complete revision of the tariff of the United States, prepared
under his almost sole supervision, and accompanied with a report
on the existing revenue resources and industrial and financial
condition of the country, was submitted to the Forty-first Con-
gress by Secretary McCulloch, with his indorsement, in Decem-
ber, 1887. This draft, subsequently embodied in the form of a
bill, with slight modifications by the Finance Committee of the
Senate, came very near enactment into law, the Senate passing it
by a vote of twenty-seven to ten. In the House of Representa-
tives it failed in the closing hours of the second session by a
very few votes, and not by a direct vote, but on a motion to sus-

* The definition, or rather determination, of what constituted a " crude " or " raw " ma-
terial for manufacturing purposes has always been a matter of embarrassment to legislators
and economic writers, inasmuch as a confessedly manufactured and often elaborate product
may be relatively a raw or crude material for successively higher grades or processes of
manufacture. A proposition recently proposed by Mr. Lindley Vinton, of New York, to
restrict the application of the above terms in law, commerce, and economics, to the state or
condition in which any product first enters into trade or commerce, would seem to be
BO free from any ambiguity of meaning as to be worthy of consideration.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 325

pend tlie rules, take tlie bill from tlie Committee of the Whole,
and put it upon its passage. This motion, which required a two-
thirds vote, was defeated — one hundred and six in the affirma-
tive to sixty-four in the negative. It was thus made evident
that, could the bill as it came from the Senate have been brought
directly before the House, it would have passed by a large ma-
jority, and probably have quieted for years all difficult and dis-
turbing legislation on this subject.

When the office of Special Commissioner expired by limitation
in 1870, the appointment as chairman of a State commission, spe-
cially created for investigating the subject and laws relating to
local taxation, was tendered to its late incumbent by the Governor
(Hon. John T. Hoffman) of the State of New York, and accepted.
This new position afforded an almost unprecedented opportunity
and facilities for becoming acquainted with a practically new
department of taxation ; the taxes levied by the Federal Govern-
ment being mainly of an indirect character, and subject to con-
stitutional limitations ; while those of the States are mainly di-
rect, and practically subject to no limitations as to object, except
as respects imports, exports, and the property and instrumentali-
ties of the United States. The results of this new field of explora-
tion were laid before the Legislature of the State of New York in
the form of two reports (in 1871 and 1872), with an accompanying
draft of a code of laws. The facts developed on this line of in-
vestigation, and which will be restated with much additional evi-
dence in the following chapters, are generally regarded as antago-
nistic to the theory of taxation as accepted and taught by most
economists, and incorporated into statutes by lawmakers. The
Legislature to which these reports were submitted paid no fur-
ther attention to them than to order their printing. They were,
however, contrary to almost all precedent, reprinted in the United
States and in Europe.

Note. — The writer would take this occasion to acknowledge his great
indebtedness to the late Isaac Sherman, of New York, whose innate mod-
esty and desire to avoid publicity alone prevented a general recognition by
his countrymen of his great intellectual ability ; and that this characteriza-
tion is not unwarranted is proved by the fact that it was fully admitted by
such men of his time as Samuel J. Tilden, Charles O'Conor, and Rev. Dr.
Bellows ; and also by the circumstance that he was the one man of all
others that President Lincoln selected as his adviser in the most critical
periods of the war, and to whom he repeatedly tendered the highest civil
offices in his gift. Mr. Sherman took a deep interest in the work of the
New York State Tax Commission ; participated in its investigations ; con
tributed to its councUs a very thorough knowledge of the views of Eng-
lish, French, and German writers on taxation, and of the cognate opin-
ions and decisions of American and European courts and jurists ; and is
entitled to equal credit for whatever of merit may pertain to its conclu-

326 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

sions. If these conclusions, arrived at and expressed in the following
chapters, do not meet the full concurrence of economists, the writer has
the satisfaction of knowing that they received, in the main, the full indorse-
ment of one so pre-eminently qualified to pass judgment upon them.

A STUDENT'S RECOLLECTIONS OF HUXLEY.

By Pbof. ANGELO HEILPRIN.

IT was my pleasant fortune, a few years back, to have my
name enrolled with a limited few in the registry book of the
Royal School of Mines in London, destined for work at one of the
ten or twelve tables which covered the greater part of the ground
space of Prof. Huxley's laboratory. The building was a compara-
tively new one, having been erected as an adjunct to the new
South Kensington Museum on Exhibition Road, and from the
top floor looked out the various rooms in which we were to re-
ceive our tutorage from the great naturalist. A climbing flight
of stone steps, with landings, wound round to this summit, to
which at times of irregular journey also conducted a box " lift."
On one of my daily upward saunterings I chanced to stumble
upon my master, who, always a rapid walker, overtook me on the
grand "round," and cordially greeted me as a fellow- traveler.
Possibly I allowed myself a little to be overtaken, for, though I
had already been in the workshop aod lecture theater a number
of days, and had answered questions on Torula, Paramcecium, and
other low grades of organisms, and had even swallowed a good-
natured rebuke for attempting to use a compound binocular in
place of the simple, and confessedly clumsy, microscopes which
were furnished gratuitously to the students, the opportunity to
meet the man as man and not as teacher had not yet presented
itself. Prof. Huxley's private rooms almost adjoined the labora-
tory, and frequently on passing the door the temptation grew
strong upon me to knock and allow myself the honor of an inter-
view, but each time a certain Tootsian timidity overcame me, and
directed my course either to the right or to the left. The meet-
ing on the landing was thus a deliverance, and Huxley allowed
me to make the most of it by himself opening the conversation.
It began with a reference to the deficiencies in modern building
construction, particularly applied to the South Kensington annex,
and evoked by the absence of proper mounting appliances. " Our
lifts are not like the grand elevators in your country," remarked
the professor — a thought in which it was not difficult to concur.

This first bit of extra- class conversation impressed itself forci-
bly upon my mind, both for the pleasure that it gave me and the

A STUDENT'S RECOLLECTIONS OF HUXLEY. 327

surprise it occasioned in the knowledge that I was from American
soil. No reference to foreign studentship had heretofore been
made, and I was a little puzzled to know what kind of informa-
tion had led to the betrayal of my personality. Considerably
later I learned that a close friend of my father's, the late Prof.
Youmans — himself a friend equally to science and to the scientific
student — had addressed a personal note to Prof. Huxley, advising
him of my presence and commending me in the usual way to a
kind consideration and to an equally considerate esteem. It was
characteristic of the justness and fairness of the master that this
letter, while it may have paved the way to a more informal ac-
quaintance outside of the class room, in no way influenced favor-
itism within, or saved me from sound criticism of my work when
it merited it. This was not exactly at long intervals, and particu-
larly do I recall the painful awaiting of judgment on a mangled
dissection of the nerves of the frog. "Your blue papers are
where the red should be, and the sympathetic is gone " — a piece
of information, the basis of a portion of which had already only
too keenly been realized.

At no time was criticism given in a way to hurt, and more
commonly encouragement and commendation took the place of
criticism. But a thing had to be really well done to call out
praise, and an exuberance of it rarely broke an echo from the
laboratory walls. On one occasion I was startled by the inquiry
if my drawing — a drawing of the division lines in the cells of a
certain water plant — was made from the object or from imagina-
tion, an inquiry which threw doubt in my mind as to whether I
was receiving praise or condemnation. The representation was
considered unusually true to Nature, but I was forced to admit
that it was a combined product of the visual and mental eye, and
not a mere transcript of Nature. This explanation was in no way
a satisfaction to Prof. Huxley, who took the opportunity to ad-
monish the class that drawings, however true they may appear
to Nature, are only true when they strictly copy the objects which
they are intended to portray.

Huxley himself was an excellent draughtsman, and it was
frequently remarked of him, as it was also of our own Dr. Leidy,
that had he devoted himself to painting, instead of to science, he
would have forced himself to a position not less prominent as
an artist than that which he occupied as a naturalist. He was
always precise in his drawings on the blackboard, and if he could
not, perhaps, like Prof. Weisbach, of Freiberg, jump to a circle
and punch its middle point with a stub of chalk, he could, appar-
ently without any hesitancy, draw the most complex anatomical
constructions, and in such a way as to make every point clearly
intelligible to the student. It was probably from the father's

328 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

side that Mrs. Thomas Collier, nSe Huxley, who had well earned
her several premiums from the fine-art institutions of London,
inherited her tendencies and capabilities in the direction of paint-
ing. Inspired in a measure, probably, through his love for art,
and with an inborn feeling for mechanical constructions. Prof.
Huxley always held a kindly sympathy for all that pertained
to the science of engineering; and he frequently expressed the
thought, which will doubtless seem strange to many, that he had
missed his vocation, and that the true field of his activities should
have been the field of an engineer. Yet it is singular that with
this proclivity for a branch of study which requires for its suc-
cessful accomplishment a generous supply of mathematical stimu-
lus, the fact that he was in no way a mathematician did not ter-
rify Huxley. He frequently admitted that he had neither a liking
nor an aptitude for figures, and it was a timely forethought in
lecturing, when a condition required a mathematical calculation
for its elucidation, to have the answer written in advance at one
corner of the board. This, as was naively explained by the lec-
turer, was to avoid the easy possibility of an error creeping into
an offhand calculation or problem in sums.

In lecturing to his classes Huxley adhered strictly to business,
and it was rarely that a matter of levity was introduced to give
merriment to his listeners. I recall, in a course of some seventy
lectures, only a single instance of this kind, when, for some rea-
son (no longer in my memory), a reference was made to Chamis-
so's Peter Schlemiel — a book which Prof. Huxley frankly admit-
ted gave him more genuine pleasure than any other in nonscien-
tific literature. Whether it was the refreshing frankness of this
admission, or the fact in itself that was quoted, which on this
occasion brought forth an unbounded merriment from his stu-
dents, was perhaps not fully decided for all of us, but there was
no questioning the spontaneousness of the applause which fol-
lowed the utterance. And this, as I now recall it, was the only
instance of applause greeting the lecturer in the middle of the
lecture during the entire course of my studentship. Huxley, like
Tyndall, was always careful to have his lectures fully prepared.
A few notes jotted down on a fly-sheet of paper or in small note-
books were the only guide for the full hour, which to most of the
students passed very rapidly. There was no display of eloquence,
no attempt to clothe description or explanation in floral verse, but
everything was stated in terse and succinct language, although
with due emphasis on important points, and this it was that made
it easy to follow. These class lectures were naturally very dif-
ferent from public addresses, in which Huxley always maintained
that wonderful dignity of expression and choice rhetoric which
have been the despair of his combatants, scientific no less than

A STUDENT'S RECOLLECTIONS OF HUXLEY. 329

clerical, and have for all time rendered classical that which he
has chosen to put in print.

Contrary to what is generally supposed, Huxley was not a
ready speaker, or perhaps it would be more true to say that his
deliverances were not unaccompanied by stage fright, or a nervous
uneasiness which frequently required for its subjugation a strong
mental effort. It was this that told heavily on his health, and
more than once the quiet resolve had been made to forever aban-
don the public platform. I was present on one occasion at a rather
extensive gathering where, following a few after-dinner remarks
by Sir Joseph Hooker, Prof. Tyndall, and Sir Wyville Thomson,
Huxley, contrary to previous agreement, was also called upon for
a few words, and with the pleasing introduction (as nearly as I
can now recall the passage), " There is one among us who, by rea-
son of his witty tongue and ever-readiness, it is a pleasure to call
upon.'^

Following the applause which greeted his name — the mention
of which was unmistakably a disagreeable surprise to the one
more particularly concerned, Huxley took occasion to explain in
emphatic language that were it only generally known how much
of an effort it cost him to speak, his friends would willingly allow
him more peace, and save the lingering wreck of his bodily frame.
This admission — which was followed by a short but most happy
ex-tempore utterance — appeared to me so strange that I was deter-
mined on the first proper occasion to obtain at first hand its true
meaning. The opportunity presented itself a few days later, im-
mediately after the conclusion of a stirring public address (read
from manuscript) on " Sunday Opening," if by this name we may
designate the liberty of displaying and using on the Sabbath-day
collections of books and paintings, museum and other treasures,
and of listening to scientific discourses. Dean Stanley and one or
two other speakers had preceded him, but manifestly the audience
was waiting for the speaker of the occasion. A more brilliant
and incisive arraignment of those who by legal process attempted
to forever remove from the workingman his one day of self-im-
provement could hardly have been formulated, and the speaker
was greeted with vociferous applause. Meeting him on the way
homeward from the lecture hall, I asked for a significance of the
explanation made a few evenings before at the dinner table, for it
did not seem possible to me that one gifted with such fluent powers
of speech, and backed by an almost unfathomable fund of knowl-
edge, could feel any fear or hesitancy in speaking, no matter what
the occasion. In his answer. Prof. Huxley repeated in substance
what he had before said, only more clearly emphasizing the nerv-
ous fear with which he mounted the platform. He then assured
me that he might have saved himself an African journey, under-

VOL. XLVIII.— 24

33© POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

taken for liealtli recuperation, liad he abstained from public de-
liverances.

It has been frequently assumed that Huxley cared for little
beyond science, and especially for that side of it which was com-
bative either with the Church or with the State, but nothing
could be further from the truth than the belief that this was in
fact the case. It is perfectly true that Huxley used all the vigor
of speech of which he was capable to emphasize what he consid-
ered to be the proper position of science in any education, and per-
haps he even considered the acquisition of scientific knowledge to
be of more importance than any other form of learning, but he
was always careful to emphasize that education was only such
when it was broad and comprehensive, when it comprised not only
science, but in addition a goodly share of the world's history and
literature. His own resource in th^ fields of literature (English,
French, German, and Italian) and history was prodigious, and he
rarely was at a loss to instantly take advantage of a citation from
some early scholar to demolish at first or second hand an adver-
sary at arms. When I was in London he was reading, with the
assistance of a friend, Russian, and mainly for the purpose of fully
familiarizing himself with the work of the great anatomist, A.
Kovalewski, whose writings he was seemingly the first to bring
to the critical notice of English-speaking naturalists. It was this
thorough familiarity with what one is almost tempted to call uni-
versal knowledge that made Prof. Huxley such a dreaded foe to
his enemies, and it has well been remarked, " Woe be to him who
attempts to measure arms with such an antagonist ! "

Huxley was a firm believer in thorough knowledge, and he took
no stock in brain-stufifing ; to have known a thing once, and to be
able to put your hand upon it when you again want it, was his
maxim. The opening address delivered by him before the Johns
Hopkins University, in 1876, gives the keynote to his position in
the matter of special training. " Know a thing directly," he often
remarked, " and do not assume that you know more of it by know-
ing around it." He had no patience with those who spoke with a
pseudo-authority begotten of chance, and was bitter in his denun-
ciation of officialism as affording a pretext for either defending or
attacking scientific dogma. An interesting anecdote, which Prof.
Huxley himself related to me, shows the occasional happy frame
of mind in which our savant found himself when he, in turn, was
receiving blows. A prominent bishop of the English Church,
whose name it is not here necessary to mention, had been for some
time endeavoring to smash the Darwinian hypothesis through
some actual researches in zoology which he claimed to have under-
taken. Toward the accomplishment of this laudable effort he
used many pages of the current magazines and equally many

A STUDENT'S RECOLLECTIONS OF HUXLEY. 331

columns of the daily press, in eacli of which the " nndernurse of
Darwinism " came in for an uncommonly large share of ridicule.
Finding that none of these papers brought forth any comment
from Prof. Huxley, their author in a personal letter called his at-
tention to them, at the same time asking to be advised as to what
particular course of reading would most readily enable him to
grapple with the various scientific questions which at that time
agitated the world. Prof. Huxley's full and laconic answer was,
" Take a cockroach and dissect it." No further inquiry came
from that source.

I once found Prof. Huxley much depressed over a small para-
graph which also touched, and in a very depreciatory manner,
the evolutionary hypothesis, which had been contributed to the
daily press by his friend Carlyle. He greatly deplored the reck-
lessness of the utterances contained in the squib, and especially
painful to him was a markedly undignified reference to the one
man for whom Huxley had a greater reverence than for any
other — Charles Darwin. To my interrogatory as to whether he
considered it necessary to reply to the paragraph, he promptly
and emphatically answered, " No ! "

Remorseless -as Huxley occasionally was in the cold exposition
of the blunders of his colaborers in science, he was usually very
lenient to those who pointed out his own mistakes. I remember
one occasion when a post-graduate student of the Royal School of
Mines, Patrick (now Professor) Geddes, intimated to the professor
that his interpretation of the mechanism of the radula in the
common garden snail, as was set forth in the Anatomy of Inverte-
brated Animals, was not supported by the newer laboratory dis-
sections. Prof. Huxley's response was a request of Mr. Geddes to
try a new dissection ; it was done, and it was found that the pupil
was right and the master wrong. Only once do I recall when a
correction was received with a regret almost akin to displeasure —
the case of the Bathyhius, the all-pervading protoplasm of the
oceanic deep. When Sir Wy ville Thomson separated this sub-
stance as a mineral precipitate, it smashed a thought that had
already become pregnant with English and German naturalists,
and which threatened to become of genuine usefulness in explain-
ing the origin and development of the organic life forms of the
earth.

Among his many eminent scientific contemporaries there were
few for whom Huxley had greater admiration than the German
morphologist, Gegenbaur, and Karl Yogt ; the latter he regarded
as a tower of strength and in a certain sense a genius. When,
nearly two years after leaving London, I returned to my alma
mater and informed my past master that I had in the mean-
time been enrolled as a student, although in the class of paleon-

332 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tology instead of zoology, under Vogt, he appeared to be really
pleased, and expressed himself freely on the advantage of being
guided by so eminent an authority and so liberal a thinker as
was the self-imposed exile of the University of Geneva. And in
truth it must be admitted that there was much in Vogt that
reminded me of Huxley. Like the latter, he was fearlessly out-
spoken in his utterances. Witness his tirade against the late
Emperor William of Germany, delivered as a protest against the
expenditure of the state's money on bronze and iron cannon when
it could have been more humanely and profitably used in the
purchase of the then recently discovered second specimen of
AarchcBopteryx — that strange fossil hybrid connecting bird and
reptile which has since found its way to the Berlin Museum.
Like his English prototype, Vogt was also an admirable lecturer,
fluent in diction and facile with the crayon, but it can hardly be
claimed that either the quality or the tone of his lectures was
fully representative of the scholarship of their author.

Vogt never allowed the opportunity of a pun to escape him,
and his hons mots were at times hardly more elegant than they
were appropriate; but, for all that, he was very popular, and
equally so with the few women students of his class as with the
men. He spoke in French with a decided German intonation, fre-
quently relieving himself of a sigh brought about by an uncom-
fortably asthmatic condition. His powerful bodily frame, dispro-
portionably shortened through a generous development of tissue
about the equatorial region, was in marked contrast to the tall
and nearly upright carriage of Prof. Huxley, whose slightly stoop-
ing head and shoulders reduced somewhat what might otherwise
have been considered a more than average height. Huxley never
entered the class lecture room except in a dress in which he was
immediately prepared to go to the street ; Vogt rarely appeared
without a coat which did not in one or more places show visible
signs of underlying shirt sleeves. The presence of women in no
way affected his Wohlgefilhl, and in truth it must be said that this
class of students was to him in a measure a blank, as he invari-
ably addressed the class only as " Messieurs."

Among the many warm friends and admirers that Huxley
numbered within the ranks of the scientific fraternity there was
none who was more enthusiastic in his admiration of the great
man than the distinguished comparative anatomist of the Royal
College of Surgeons, the late Prof. Kitchen Parker. An after-
noon and evening spent at the home of this most genial and all-
overflowing host serves my memory as the record of one of the
pleasantest incidents of my student life in London. Huxley and
Parker had not many years before announced their new classi-
fication of birds — worked out conjointly on characters founded

A STUDENT'S RECOLLECTIONS OF HUXLEY. 333

principally on the position and construction of the bones of the
palate and beak — and the stir which that radical departure in
classification brought out had not yet subsided. Prof. Parker
was still largely engaged in proving his case, and was naturally,
to use an expression that is less elegant than determining, full of
it. The overjoy ful manner in which he pointed out a confirma-
tory character here and there, or an exception to the rule else-
where, kindled a glowing enthusiasm within the listener to follow
in the line of the master, and a desire to make immediate friends
with basi-sphenoid and pterygoid bones. Drawer after drawer of
neatly prepared bird skulls, colored in correspondence so that
identical or homologous parts could be immediately detected,
were pulled out and hastily scanned over ; but the explanations
that were given, whatever they might have been, were liberally
sprinkled with admiration for the genius of Huxley — who first
broke into the method which Parker so successfully elaborated —
a second to whom was not to be found in all Britain. I shall not
easily forget the ocular gleam of pleasure, perhaps even delight,
with which Prof. Parker announced dissent on certain anatomical
points from the opinions of his friend and colaborer. The fol-
lowing very graceful tribute to the clearness of Prof. Huxley's
expositions appears in this author's article on Birds, contributed
to the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (page 717) :
"The writer will often use the very words of Prof. Huxley,
despairing as he does of coming near that excellent writer either
in condensation or order."

Huxley, as is well known, was a master hand in the construc-
tion of the English language. For elegance and force of diction
he had no superior — perhaps not even an equal — among the writers
of his day, and there are few purely literary men whose produc-
tions maintain so uniformly a high quality of excellence. In
borrowing from the decorative side of language, he never allowed
the embellishment of phrases to interfere with the clear statement
of what he had to convey either by word of mouth or of pen, or to
in any way cloud his meaning. Friends and foes thus knew his
position precisely, and he was always taken on his own recog-
nizance. A strict adherence to the sequence of truth, fact, and a
logical deduction from facts, was his maxim, and it was this that
assured his ground for battle, and carried him triumphantly
through nearly all his combats. As has before been remarked,
Huxley took little stock in brain- stuflSng, yet it can in no way be
complained of that his own brain was " of the empty kind." The
range of topics that his conversation touched was almost bewilder-
ing, yet so discreetly was his knowledge dispensed that oftentimes
one assumed that he was making an inquiry, when, in fact, he was
giving the answer to it. Well do I recall a meeting on Brompton

334 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Road when the conversation almost immediately turned upon
American racing and race horses, a topic on which I was obliged
to confess myself an absolute ignoramus by the side of my inter-
locutor.

A few parting words. In 1893 I had the pleasure of being
constituted one of a committee of five on the award of the Hayden
Memorial Medal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel-
phia— a medal (and accompanying fund) awarded for meritorious
work in the domain of geology and paleontology. The award was
made unanimously, and almost without discussion, to Prof. Hux-
ley, and his name thus appears in association with the names of
James Hall, Cope, Suess (of Vienna), and Daubrde (of Paris), other
recipients and masters in a field with which the labors of Prof.
Huxley are not very generally associated. The following charac-
teristic reply, acknowledging the receipt of the award, was ad-
dressed to the Academy.

HoDESLEA, Stately Road, Eastbourne, January 4, 1894..

Gentlemen : The Hayden Memorial Medal, with your draft
(which will incorporate itself into an ornament for my wife's
drawing room), reached me the first of the month, a New- Year's
gift of a value quite unexampled in my experience. I am very
sensible of the great honor which the Academy of Natural Sciences
of Philadelphia has conferred upon me — a retired veteran who has
much reason to suspect that he has already received quite as much
promotion as he has deserved.

But increasing years, if they bring a diminution of variety (I
am not sure they do), leave the desire for the esteem of those who
have a right to judge us intact, perhaps intensify it ; and I beg
leave to assure you and your colleagues — fellow- workers of Hay-
den and of Leidy — that the kindly and sympathetic terms of your
award have given me very great pleasure.

With all respect, I have the honor to be, gentlemen.
Your obedient servant and colleague,

Thomas Henry Huxley.

It is not for the student to sum up either the quality or the
quantity of the labors of his teacher and master, but for those who
still doubt — and there are some such — the justice of the position
which has by almost common consent been given to Huxley in the
realm of science, it may be recommended as a healthy exercise to
carefully read the titles of the hundreds of papers with which this
indefatigable writer, for the better part of half a century, has
crowded the pages of scientific journals and popular magazines ;
and after that, with equal care, the inquirer into fame will take
an advantageous turn in mastering the papers to which these titles

BOTANICAL GARDEN OF BUITENZORG. 335

relate. Huxley was great not because he correctly deciphered the
history of a fossil bone, not because he probed deep into the
anatomical or physiological mysteries of the living world, nor yet
for the reason that he was well-nigh the first — one might say,
indeed, the first — to pound the truths and consequences of evolu-
tion into the material world, but because in addition to these
accomplishments, and much more, he molded the tendencies of
modern thought, and to a greater extent than any scientist of his
generation with the exception of Charles Darwin. Well could
this great philosopher observe that, had it not been for Huxley,
the acceptance of the evolutionary hypothesis would have been
removed from us by probably at least a generation.

THE BOTANICAL GARDEN OF BUITENZORG, JAVA.

By M. ALBERT TISSANDIER.

THE importance of establishing botanical gardens — the utility
of which is incontestable — in suitable spots, and particularly
in its colonies, has been perceived by nearly every nation. The
English, as early as 1786, planted a very fine garden at' Calcutta,
under the direction of Colonel Robert Hyde ; and in 1821 they
created the Garden of Peradeniya, near Kandy, in Ceylon. The
French Government has laid out interesting botanical gardens at
Saigon, in Cochin China, and on the island of Reunion.

The Dutch established in 1817 the Garden of Buitenzorg, on
the island of Java, and have made it the finest in the world. It is
situated on one of the long ridges that descend on the north from
the Salak Mountain to two hundred and eighty metres above the
level of the sea. In 1857 the garden was arranged by M. Hasskari,
botanist at the time, and at the suggestion of M. Diard, director
of a French Natural History Society, into sections, in which the
plants of the same family were grouped together. As a result of
this scientific organization, which then existed only incompletely in
other gardens, the establishment took the first rank. It possesses
other considerable advantages growing out of the exceptional im-
portance of its collections of all tropical species, and the generous
hospitality with which it receives all foreign naturalists who resort
to it for study. The present director. Dr. Treub, an accomplished
botanist, has labored constantly for the improvement of the plan-
tations. The garden has been much enlarged within recent years.

The Dutch Government has comprehended from the very foun-
dation of this establishment that a single botanical garden would
not be enough, and has supplemented it with annexes. The gar-
dens supported by the state are divided into three parts: the

33^

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

botanical garden of Buitenzorg, the most celebrated, the surface
of which covers one hundred and forty-eight acres and a quarter,
situated in the city next to the residence of the governor; the
agricultural garden of Tjikeumenh, of one hundred and seventy-

Fm. 1. — Entrance to the Museum ok Herbaria, Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg,
Java. (From a photograph.)

three acres ; and the garden of forestry, with a reserve in the
virgin forest, which together occupy seven hundred and forty-one
acres.

The climate of Buitenzorg and its vicinity is especially favor-
able to the development of plants. It is at the same time very
warm, the mean temperature being 82° or 83° F., while during the
dry monsoon the thermometer may rise to nearly 90° F. The con-
stant moisture, afforded by a rainfall that amounts to more than
twelve feet of water a year, gives the culmination of these condi-
tions. In Holland, where it rains a great deal, the annual mean
is only about twenty-six inches.

A number of the trees in the garden have grown extraordina-
rily. Some palm trees of the genus Oreodaxa, planted when very
young along the borders of an alley, grew in five years to a height
of more than thirty- two feet ; while plants of Alhizzia Moluccanna
grew in the same time to about sixty-five feet. The section of
palms, the ferns, climbing plants, and gigantic lianas surpasses in
interest all that can be found in any other botanical gardens.

As a result of the perfect scientific arrangement of the garden,
the stranger, with a plan in his hand, which is furnished gratui-
tously to all who wish to work there, can find his way at once to
whatever section he is most interested in. Numbers, referred to
the catalogue, are marked on each species of the several families.
When foreign students arrive, they are received immediately by

BOTANICAL GARDEN OF BUITENZORG.

337

the director, and assigned a place in the grand laboratory where
they can study as they will, free of charge. A small library of
the books most in demand and all the materials needed for experi-
ments are kept conveniently at hand in the great room. A photo-
graphic laboratory is very near ; next is the great laboratory
containing the old botanical books and a complete collection of
modern periodical publications of all countries. These journals
represent all subjects related to botany, agricultural chemistry,
and pharmacy. This library is situated in the pavilion contain-
ing the collection of herbaria, and behind this is the laboratory
where poisonous plants are studied. In buildings by the side
of these are collections representing all the forest plants of the
country.

The agricultural garden of Tjikeumenh is twenty minutes'
carriage ride away. The road is a charming one, bordered by
villas with luxuriant flower gardens and fine trees. Strangers
can also work in this garden, as at Buitenzorg, and are given sep-
arate laboratories, arranged somewhat like those in the museum
at Paris. To the garden of forestry is a ride of five hours. The

Fig. 2. —Laboratory of the Botanical Garden at Buitenzorg. (From a photograph.)

excursion is one for which supplies have to be taken, but the
country is a very fine and picturesque one, and the time passes
without our thinking that we have been long on the road. The
pavilion of Tjibodas, where visitors are received, is situated at an
altitude of about fifteen hundred metres, and contains every de-
sirable comfort. Foreign students have the privilege of a saloon

338

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

furnished with a library and a large room for work. A dining
room and a few bedrooms are provided, for there is no hotel.
The garden of forestry, situated about halfway up the old vol-
cano of Gedd, is planted chiefly with Australian and Japanese trees
and shrubs. Of these, perhaps the most remarkable are the curi-
ous specimens of the Australian Xantoroa actinis in front of the
mountain pavilion. The forest of Tjibodas, in which the garden
is placed, is a remarkable one. Paths have been traced which
lead by numerous windings to interesting spots, up to the height
of about two thousand metres. Outside of these paths one could
not go three steps on account of the impenetrable thickness of the
woods. The ground is carpeted with a world of mosses and finely

Fig. 3.-

-Reception Pavilion for Foreign Students in the Forest Garden of Tjibodas.
Java. (From a photograph.)

cut ferns, of the most surprising and various forms. In the trees
of from one hundred to one hundred and twenty feet high are
masses of orchids, ferns, and lianas to make one dream, away up
to the topmost branches. The lianas in some places form com-
plete stalagmites of verdure, so thickly covered are their supple
stems with mosses and broad-leaved parasites. They form an
inextricable but transparent network, through which the rays of
tlie sun pass to lighten up the minutest details of these rare beauty
spots.

The vegetation varies constantly as we ascend the slope of the
Gedd, and seems to grow more and more interesting. — Translated
for the Popular Science Monthly from La Nature.

HELIUM. 339

HELIUM, ITS IDENTIFICATION AND PROPERTIES.

By Pbof. C. a. young.

THE famous " T>J' so called because it is very near the D lines
of sodium, is a bright yellow line in the spectrum of the
solar chromosphere, in which it is more conspicuous than any-
thing except the G and F lines of hydrogen. Unlike them, how-
ever, it has no corresponding dark line in the ordinary solar spec-
trum, a rather perplexing fact which has caused much discussion,
and has not even yet found an explanation in which all authori-
ties agree.

It was discovered in 1868, when the spectroscope was for the
first time directed upon a solar eclipse. Most of the observers
supposed it to be the sodium line, but Janssen noted its non-coin-
cidence ; and very soon, when Lockyer and Frankland took up
the study of the chromosphere spectrum, they found that the line
could not be ascribed to hydrogen or to any other known terres-
trial element. As a matter of convenient reference Frankland
proposed for the unknown substance the provisional name of
*^ helium " (from the Greek " helios," the sun), and this ultimately,
though rather slowly, gained universal acceptance.

Within a year, two other lines (A 7,065 and A. 4,472) were dis-
covered in the chromosphere spectrum by Rayet and Respighi
respectively, which like D, are always present in the prominences,
but have no corresponding dark lines. It was of course early
suggested, but without proof, that these lines might also be due
to helium. Since then some eight or ten other lines have been
found, frequently, but not always, presenting themselves in the
chromosphere spectrum, and, like the first three, also without
dark analogues. Moreover, still more recently, Dg and its con-
geners have been detected in the stellar spectra — dark in the
spectra of the " Orion stars,'*' bright in the spectra of certain
variables and of the so-called Wolf-Rayet stars ; and hoth bright
and dark in p Lyrse and the " new star " of Auriga which
appeared in 1892.

Naturally there has been much earnest searching after the
hypothetical element, but until very recently wholly without suc-
cess; though it should be mentioned that in 1881, Palmieri, the
director of the earthquake observatory upon Vesuvius, announced
that he had found Dj in the spectrum of one of the lava minerals
with which he was dealing. But he did not follow up the an-
nouncement with any evidence, nor has it ever received any con-
firmation, and from what we now know as to the conditions 4ieces-
sary to bring out the helium spectrum, there is every reason to
suppose that he was mistaken.

340 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The matter remained a mystery until April, 1895, when Dr.
Ramsay, who was Lord Rayleigh's chemical collaborator in the
discovery of argon, in examining the gas liberated by heating a
specimen of Norwegian cl^veite, found in its spectrum the Dg line,
conspicuous and indubitable. The mineral was obtained from
Dr. Hillebrand, one of our American chemists, who had previously
studied it, and ascertained that it could be made to give off a gas
which he identified with nitrogen. It really was nitrogen in part,
but Ramsay suspected that he should also find argon, as he did —
and helium besides, which was unexpected.

Cl^veite is a species of uraninite or pitchblende, and it soon
appeared that helium could be obtained from nearly all the ura-
nium minerals, and from many others ; from many, mingled with
argon ; from others, nearly pure. In fact, it turns out to be
very widely distributed, though only in extremely small quan-
tities, and generally " occluded," or else in combination — sel-
dom, if ever, free. It has been detected in meteoric iron, in the
waters of certain mineral springs in the Black Forest and Pyr-
enees, and Kayser even reports traces of it in the atmosphere
at Bonn.

It is generally obtained by heating the substance that contains
it in a close vessel connected with an air pump of some kind by
which the liberated gases are drawn off and collected. They are
then laboriously treated to remove as far as possible all the for-
eign elements (nitrogen, etc.), since the presence of no more than
five or ten per cent of other gases prevents the new elements from
giving any spectroscopic evidence of their presence ; they are too
shy and modest to obtrude themselves. In many cases, as has
been said, argon and helium come off together, and certain lines
in their spectrum are nearly coincident, so that for a time there
was supposed to be some close bond of connection between them.
The latest observations, however, make it certain that this is not
so : as Mr. Lockyer puts it, " argon is of the earth, earthy, but
helium is distinctly celestial."

Its spectrum has been thoroughly studied by Crookes, Lockyer,
and Range, who agree as to all its leading characteristics.

Runge, whose work is the most complete and authoritative,
finds that its lines have a remarkably regular arrangement, fall-
ing into two distinct "sets," each set consisting of a principal
series and two subordinate ones, the lines in each series corre-
sponding very accurately to a formula quite similar to that dis-
covered by Balmer as governing the hydrogen spectrum.

In the whole spectrum he finds (by photography mainly,
though two of the most important were detected by the bolom-
eter) sixty-seven lines, twenty of which only are in the visible
part of the spectrum. Of the sixty -seven, twenty-nine belong to

HELIUM. 341

the first "set" and thirty-eight to the second. Of the twenty
" visual " lines, thirteen have been observed in the spectrum of
the chromosphere ; the missing lines all belong to the second sub-
ordinate series of the first " set," and are so faint in the artificial
spectrum of the gas that their failure to be found in the chromo-
sphere needs no explanation.

The fact that the lines thus divide into two mathematically
independent " sets " has led Runge to believe that the helium ob-
tained from the minerals is really a mixture of two distinct gases,
and he has found it possible to partially separate the two by a
process of diffusion. The true helium, the element that gives D3
and the other lines that are always present in the chromosphere
spectrum, he considers to be the denser of the two ; the spectrum
of the other contains most of the lines that appear only occasion-
ally in prominences. The lighter component has as yet received
no name. Lockyer calls it simply X.

The lines of the series to which D3 belongs are all double, hav-
ing a very faint companion on the lower (i. e., red- ward) side, ex-
tremely close to the principal line. When Runge announced this
discovery early in June it at first produced something like con-
sternation among spectroscopists, for at that time there still re-
mained more or less doubt as to the validity of Ramsay's identifi-
cation, and the solar D3 had never been observed to have such a
companion. Very soon, however. Hale, Huggins, Lockyer, Reed
of Princeton, and other observers who had sufficiently powerful
instruments, detected the little attendant of D3 in the spectrum of
prominences, so that the momentary distrust was replaced by ab-
solute confidence.

As to the physical and chemical properties of the new gas, our
knowledge is still limited and our conclusions are embarrassed by
the uncertainty whether we are dealing with a single element or
a mixture — whether Dr. Ramsay has introduced to the world one
infant or a pair of twins.

The gas liberated from cl^veite, and purified as far as possible,
shows a density just a little more than double that of hydrogen,
and is therefore much lighter than any other known gas except
hydrogen itself. If it is a mixture, the lighter gas must have a
density less than two, and may even prove to be lighter than
hydrogen; while the true D3 helium may have a density any-
where between two and four, depending on the proportions of the
mixture and the density of the lighter compound. In any case
both the true helium and X are lighter than anything else but
hydrogen.

It would be very fine, we may remark in passing, if the lighter
component could have been identified with " coronium," but this
seems impossible since the characteristic 1,474 line (A 5,316) does

342 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

not appear at all in the spectrum of terrestrial " helium " derived
from any source whatever.

Ramsay's acoustic experiments tend to show that helium, like
argon, is monatomic, but can hardly be considered conclusive. If
he is right, the atomic weight of helium regarded as a single ele-
ment would be not far from four ; but thus far all attempts to
make it enter into chemical combination have failed, though it
seems rather probable that in the uraninite minerals it is held by
stronger bonds than those of mere occlusion.

Olszewski has tried his best to liquefy the gas, but thus far
unsuccessfully ; the methods that have conquered every other
gas, hydrogen itself included, have failed with helium — a circum-
stance very remarkable, since generally a denser gas liquefies
more easily than a lighter one, and hitherto hydrogen has stood
pre-eminent in its refractoriness. The fact that the gas is proba-
bly a mixture may explain his failure: air is more difficult to
liquefy than either oxygen or nitrogen.

Probably the question has . suggested itself to every reader
how it happens that helium, so conspicuous in the atmosphere of
the sun and many stars, should be so nearly absent from our own
atmosphere and so scantily present in any form upon the earth.
The answer seems to depend upon two facts — the chemical inert-
ness of the substance and its low density.

According to Johnstone Stoney's deductions from the accepted
theory of gases, no free gas of low density can remain perma-
nently upon a heavenly body of small mass and habitable tempera-
ture, but the molecules will fly off into space. A particle leaving the
earth with a velocity of about seven miles a second would never
return to it, this "limiting velocity" depending upon the mass
of the earth and its diameter. Now, according to the dynamic
theory of gases, the molecules of our atmosphere are flying swiftly
about with velocities (at ordinary temperatures) of from fifteen
hundred to fifteen thousand feet per second; the heavier mole-
cules, like those of oxygen and nitrogen, move comparatively
slowly, but if any lighter gas, like free hydrogen or helium, is
present, its molecules take up velocities several times more swift,
and any that may happen to be near the upper limits of the at-
mosphere would be likely to be thrown off into space. In the case
of the moon even the oxygen and the nitrogen would go, since she
is so small that a velocity not much exceeding a mile a second
would carry them off. If this is correct, it is easy to see why we
now have no appreciable quantity of free hydrogen or other light
gas in our atmosphere.

But while we have no atmospheric hydrogen to speak of, hy-
drogen m combination is extremely abundant; one eighth part by
weight of all the water in the sea is hydrogen; and hydrogen

SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE. 343

combines freely with many other elements besides oxygen, so that
we continually liberate it in all sorts of chemical decompositions.
Helium, on the other hand, enters into combination most spar-
ingly, is therefore scarce, and even when present is, as we have
said before, not easy to detect.

SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE.

By DAVID STARR JORDAN.

AMONG the exhibits at the Columbian Exposition of 1893 was
- a map illustrating the progress of " scientific temperance "
in the United States. On this map those States of the Union in
which scientific temperance was a compulsory study in the schools
were shown in white. Those States which had not yet reached
this condition were shaded in black. The Northern States gener-
ally were white in color, while dark shades covered much of the
region south of the Ohio and Potomac. From this dark area,
however, one long black tongue stretched itself to the northward
from the Ohio River to Lake Michigan, separating the whiteness
of Ohio and the Northeast from that of Illinois and the Northwest.
Indiana alone in the North was a stumbling-block in the tri-
umphal march of the cause, the only district in which " science '*
and " temperance " were not hand in hand.

This map leads one to consider for a moment the educational
history of Indiana, and especially the conditions under which in-
struction in human physiology becomes changed into " scientific
temperance.^'

With a view to lessening the cost of school books, the Legisla-
ture of Indiana in 1889 passed an act directifig the State Board of
Education to contract with competing publishers for a uniform
series of text-books for the State. By the terms of this law the
standards were made high and the prices low, the low prices to be
made possible by the large sales of the books chosen. In putting
this law into action, the State Board of Education, of which the
present writer was a member, made a good deal of interesting his-
tory, most of which need not be discussed here.

In the subject of human physiology the series of text-books
chosen as the best was one written for this competition at the in-
stance of a local publishing house. The author of this series is a
teacher of biology, familiar with methods and results of scientific
research, and who has also a large interest in the teaching of chil-
dren. In the judgment of the Board of Education, one of the
points of superiority in this Indiana series over other works of-
fered in competition was the scientific way in which the difficult

34+ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

question of temperance was treated. In other words, the reasons
for temperate living were stated as truths of science in the proper
relation to other truths. But, as events have proved, this state-
ment did not contain the essence of *' scientific temperance." It
is as sign of condemnation of the series adopted by us that the
State of Indiana appears in black on the white charts of the " Na-
tional Woman's Christian Temperance Union."

Let us, therefore, examine the teachings which are thus placed
under ban. On pages 289, 290, and 291 (Advanced Lessons in
Human Physiology : Indiana State Series), we read :

" Alcoholic Drinks. — The most serious and widespread de-
rangement of the natural tastes is that caused by alcoholic drinks.
Alcohol has been demonstrated to be a poison. Its continued use,
even in what are called moderate quantities, will pave the way for
many diseases, some of which are sure to overtake those who have
the habit of using drinks with alcohol in them.

" Examples of the effects of the excessive use of alcoholic
drinks are numerous and revolting enough in most communities
to make the strongest of appeals against their use.

" When it is seen that by the means of alcohol an intelligent
man may act without reason ; that a kind-hearted man may be-
come brutal to his most loved friends ; that it may cause an hon-
orable man to become a dishonorable one ; that it may make a
noble nature become one with the most depraved of tastes ; when
its use has over and over again been the cause of bitter disap-
pointments, of intense suffering, and of crime, it would seem that
vastly stronger reasons existed against its use than that of the
mere fact that some slight changes in the tissues occur which
might possibly be demonstrated. It is to avoid these most serious
results that the use of alcohol is to be shunned, and not simply to
avoid a differently shaped liver.

" The physiological effects of poison are generally much greater
than the visible changes which they produce in the tissues would
lead us to expect. Indeed, such effects can seldom be detected by
the changes seen in the tissue cells.

" Strychnine produces powerful spasms, which end in death.
It acts, it is said, on the spinal cord, but it would be hard to show
any changes that it produces in the cells. And a knowledge of
the changes it produces in the cells could not make us fear the
poison any more than we do who know that it results in suffering
and death.

" The Moderate Use of Alcoholic Drinks. — The most seri-
ous results so well known are, of course, from the effects of excess-
ive use. But in the moderate use of these drinks there is con-
stant danger, as has been demonstrated a countless number of
times, that the ' moderate ' may grow into the immoderate use.

SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE, 345

" Even the continued moderate use of alcoholic drinks is, as
has been said, almost certain to lead to some of the many forms
of disease which are ready to invade some portion of the body
that has had its processes of nutrition for a long time thus dis-
turbed. If we now add to this the constant imminent danger of
the growth of an already abnormal appetite for such drinks until
it leads to excess in their use, which is so revolting in its every
aspect, is there not enough to deter one from even a moderate
cultivation of this dangerous appetite ?

" Narcotics. — There are a number of other poisons whose use
the body at first endures, though with considerable protest, but
which finally have the effect to cultivate a demand for the poison
that generally ends seriously or fatally.

" Among the Dciost dangerous of these is morphia, which ap-
pears in many forms of medicine. The morphine habit is fully
as dangerous as the alcohol habit.

" The tobacco habit, while it does not compare with those just
discussed in the seriousness of its results, is of no benefit, is of
great and useless expense, and is often the direct cause of a de-
rangement of the healthy actions of the body. Its use has been
demonstrated to be very dangerous to the young. It is a habit
easily avoided, and one that no one who has formed it would
advise you to form."

As soon as this book with its associate (Primary Lessons in
Human Physiology) came into use, agitation was begun against
it, not because of any defect in its science, not because its stand
was not strongly against the use of stimulants and narcotics, not
because of any lack of fitness in its methods, but because it was
not a book of " scientific temperance."

At last, after some four years of agitation, an act was passed
in Indiana by which " scientific temperance " must be forced into
those books, or the books themselves taken out of the schools.

I have not the text of the Indiana law at hand, but I under-
stand that it is based on a law lately enacted under like influ-
ences in the State of New York. The full text of the New York
law is as follows :

" To amend the consolidated school law providing for the study
of the nature and effects of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics
in connection with physiology and hygiene in the public schools.

" The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate
and Assembly, do enact as follows :

" Section 1. Sections 19 and 20 of Article XV of the consoli-
dated law are amended to read as follows :

"19. The nature of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics and
their effects on the human system shall be taught in connection
with the various divisions of physiology and hygiene as thor-

VOL. XLVIII. — 25

346 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

oughly as are other brandies for noi/less than four lessons a week
for ten or more weeks in each year in all grades below the second
year of the high school in all schools under the State control or
supported wholly or in part by public money, and also in all
schools connected with reformatory institutions. All pupils must
continue such study till they have passed satisfactorily the re-
quired primary, intermediate, or high school test in the same,
according to their respective grades. All regents' examinations
in physiology and hygiene shall include a due proportion of ques-
tions on the nature of alcoholic drinks, tobacco, and other nar-
cotics, and their effects on the human system. The local school
authorities shall provide facilities and definite time and place for
this branch of the regular course of study. All pupils who can
read shall study this subject from suitable text-books, but pupils
unable to read shall be instructed in it orally by teachers using
text-books adapted for such instruction as a guide and standard,
and these text-books shall be graded to the capacities of primary,
intermediate, and high school pupils. For students below high-
school grade they shall give at least one fifth their space, and for
students of high- school grade shall give not less than twenty
pages to the nature and effects of alcoholic drinks and other nar-
cotics, but pages on this subject in a separate chapter at the end
of the book shall not be counted in meeting the minimum. No
text-book on physiology not conforming to this act shall be used
in the public schools except so long as may be necessary to
fulfill the conditions of any contract existing on the passage of
this act.

" 20. In all normal schools, teachers' training classes, and teach-
ers' institutes adequate time and attention shall be given to in-
struction in the best methods of teaching this branch, and no
teacher shall be licensed who has not passed a satisfactory exami-
nation in the subject and the best methods of teaching it. No
State school money shall be paid for the benefit of any district,
city, normal, or other school herein mentioned until the officer or
board having jurisdiction and supervision of such school has filed
with the officer whose duty it is in each case to disburse the State
school money for such school an affidavit made by such officer, or
by the president or secretary of such board, that he has made
thorough investigation as to the facts, and that to the best of his
knowledge, information, and belief all the provisions of this act
have been faithfully complied with during the preceding year.

" Sec. 2. This act shall take effect August first, eighteen hun-
dred and ninety-five."

Thus it comes to pass that Indiana is at last in line with her
sister States, and her children shall no longer be ignorant of " sci-
entific temperance," if text-books can give them knowledge. And

SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE. 347

it seems that text-books mu^t do so, for nowhere else in the world
can this kind of knowledge be obtained.

What is " scientific temperance " ? What it is not we know
from the above quotation from the ill-fated Indiana physiology.
A strong statement of the reasons for abstinence from the use of
stimulants and narcotics evidently does not suffice. Whatever of
science or temperance may be in the Indiana series, it is clearly
not "scientific temperance," else these years of agitation have
been in vain.

To decide what " scientific temperance " is we must do as the
children do. We must turn the leaves of our text-books till we
find the answer ; for " scientific temperance," like " Christian sci-
ence " or " manly art," is not an expression which defines itself.
To find a definition we must go to the source of information.
Let us, then, select a series of physiologies approved by the leaders
in the movement for "scientific temperance" — books in undis-
turbed use in States more fortunate than Indiana.

Our Bodies and How we Live is one of the best written books
of the class in question. We learn from its preface that " the
author and publishers are under deep obligations to Mrs. Mary
H. Hunt, the Superintendent of the Department of Scientific In-
struction of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union,
who has carefully revised the book." There is therefore no ques-
tion that we have the right book for comparison with the Indiana
series.

That which first impresses us is the strange new censorship
which is imposed on scientific teaching. We find, to quote from
the unpublished letter of a friend, that —

" A small group of people who have no scientific education or
training in general, and not the slightest training in the specific
science of physiology, one of the most complex and difficult of
sciences, manages to become the dictators of both the matter and
methods of teaching of this science in almost all the States of the
Union. They do not profess to control this teaching for the sake
of advancing the science of physiology or of the intellectual ad-
vancement of the student, but for the promulgation of a specific
reform. This reform is no more naturally connected with physi-
ology than it is with history. The effects of alcoholic drinks on
the history of the country could be traced with more clearness
and more reason than its effects on the bones. How is it that his-
tory has escaped ? "

In this case physiology is used as the name under which at-
tacks on the use of alcohol are brought into the schools. There
is a science of physiology, a science which treats of the life action
of cells and organs, but this science has scarcely found its way
into our system of education. It has been obscured by the igno-

348 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ranee of text-book makers who have never heard of its laws and
principles. It is obscured by the popular demand for its associa-
tion with hygiene. The knowledge of rules of health is most
valuable, but it is not physiology. The real bases on which such
practical generalizations rest are never simple, and in most cases
they are beyond the reach of elementary text-books. The rules
of health ordinarily given are not deduced from physiological
laws. They are rather the expression of the experience of the
race. Their introduction intp books on physiology is perhaps jus-
tified by their utility. But their presence interferes with the de-
velopment of the science. In an ideal educational arrangement
hygiene will have a place to itself, and will not crowd out physi-
ology any more than it will chemistry or physics. The anti-alco-
holic material demanded in " scientific temperance," in all its va-
rious grades, takes all form of scientific impartiality away from
the discussion of hygiene, while physiology being mere science is
crowded out altogether. In the book in hand all proportion of
parts is lost sight of, while the effort to teach physiology as sci-
ence is virtually abandoned.

If physiology is not wanted in the schools, let us give it up.
But if hygiene is to be substituted, let us have it from pure
sources. The rules of health should come from those who have
made them a life study, using " the methods and tests of science.
If temperance is the sole important part of hygiene, let us again
demand the words of the highest authorities. Let us incite to
sobriety by the words of soberness, not by the battle-cries of the
Crusaders.

By casting aside the orderly development of the science of
physiology we may find place anywhere in our text-books for dis-
cussions of alcohol and its effects. In Our Bodies and How we
Live we find sixty-seven pages devoted to it out of a total of
four hundred and twelve. The corresponding book of the In-
diana Series has but two pages in three hundred and one. And
in the former work this matter is not gathered together in one
place, where it might be disposed of in one lesson, or even omitted
by the evil-minded teacher, but it is diffused throughout the book,
so that no topic or discussion is free from allusions to it. In no
part of the volume can we escape from the contemplation of the
ravages of alcohol.

For example, we have in the description of the bony frame-
work (page 40) a discussion of " the effect of alcohol and tobacco
on the bones," as follows :

" Since the bones constitute the framework of the body, a per-
son's form depends upon the size and shape of his bones. The
bones grow during childhood and youth; whatever growth one
loses during that time can not be afterward made up. It is the

SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE. 349

testimony of sagacious physicians that alcoholic drinks and to-
bacco tend to check the growth bi the bones.

" The smoking of cigarettes is especially hurtful to growing
boys, because such a habit tends, besides other harmful things, to
dwarf the growth of the bones. A well-developed form is some-
thing to be prized. No wise boy or girl will risk attaining it by
indulging in filthy or injurious habits while young.''

Under Physical Exercise (page 68) we have :

"The Effect of Alcoholic Liquors and Tobacco on
Physical Exercise. — The main object of physical exercise is to
get our bodies into such a condition, and to keep them in that con-
dition, whereby the average amount of working power can be
utilized at any time without harm to the bodily health. To keep
up this amount of physical power and endurance we must be
obedient to certain great laws of health.

" One of these laws, which never can be violated with impunity,
is that which forbids the use of alcoholic liquors and tobacco.
Strong drink and tobacco will put to naught the most elaborate
system of physical training.

"Those who train athletes, baseball and football players,
oarsmen, and all others who take part in severe physical contests
understand this, and rigidly forbid their men to touch a drop of
alcoholic drink, or even to smoke or chew tobacco. Experience
has proved beyond all doubt that strong drink is a positive in-
jury, either when men are in training for or undergoing contests
demanding long- continued physical endurance.

" The same law holds good in the ordinary physical exercises
of everyday life. Alcohol and tobacco act as poison to the nerve
force which controls the muscles, and thus lessen the amount of
muscular power and endurance.

" The demands of modern life call for a sound body rather than
a strong body. Neither is possible to those who indulge in alco-
holic drinks or tobacco."

In like manner, at the end of every chapter, the effect of alco-
hol and tobacco, like the refrain of a song, comes in to recall the
real motive of the whole. There is a long and essentially ac-
curate account of the origin and formation of alcohol. Another
chapter gives experiments to be performed with this fluid. At
the end of the book, in an appendix, are twenty pages of notes,
collected from all sorts of authorities — some good, some doubtful,
some worthless — " concerning the nature and effects of alcoholic
drinks and other narcotics." A strong case is there made against
these evil agencies, and no testimony in mitigation is allowed or
even hinted at. For easy reference the following table of the
chapters on alcohol is given (pages 329, 330), which shows the
thorough saturation of the work with the alcohol idea :

350

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

1. The Bones (chap, ii, p.

13).

2. The Muscles (chap, iii,

p. 42).

3. Physical Exercise (chap.

iv, p. 56).

4. Food and Drink (chap.

V, p. 70).

5. Origin and Nature of

Fermented Drinks

(chap, vi, p. 81).

6. Digestion (chap, vii, p.

7. The Blood and its Cir-
culation (chap, viii, p.
122).

8. Breathing (chap, ix, p.

142).

9. How the Body is Cov-
ered (chap. X, p. 161),

10. The Nervous System
(chap, xi, p. 177).

11. The Special Senses

(chap, xii, p. 210).

12. Excretion (chap, xiii, p.
235).

13. Throat and Voice (chap.

xiv, p. 243).

14. Simple Matters of Every-

day Health (chap, xv, p.
249).

Effect of alcohol and tobacco on the bones (35).

1. Effect of alcohol on the muscles (44).

2. Effect of alcohol on strength (45).

3. Effect of tobacco on the muscles (46).

Effect of alcohol and tobacco on physical exercise (58).

Effect of drinking tea and coffee (72).

1. Change produced by fermentation (74).

2. Ferments and what they do (75).

3. Alcohol a poison (76).

4. Narcotic poisons (76).

5. The alcoholic appetite (77).

6. The evils of overdrinking (78).

7. Wine, and why it should be avoided (79).

8. Beer : Its origin. Relation to drunkenness (80).

9. Distilled liquors (81).

10. The cost of the alcoholic vice (note, p. 89).

1. Effect of alcohol on the stomach digestion (99).

2. Effect of alcohol on the liver (100).

3. Effect of tobacco on digestion (101).

1. How alcohol gets into the blood (117).

2. Effect of alcohol on the circulation (116).

3. Effect of alcohol on the heart (119).

4. Effect of tobacco on the heart (120).

1. Effect of alcohol and tobacco upon the lungs (132).

2. Alcohol and the bodily heat (133).

3. Alcohol in hardship (note, p. 160).

Effect of alcohol and tobacco upon the skin (145).

1. Narcotics (162).

2. General effect of alcohol on the nervous system (163).

3. Effect of alcohol on the brain tissue (164).

4. Final result of alcoholic poisoning (165).
6. Inherited craving for alcohol (166).

6. Tobacco and its use (167).

7. Evil effect of tobacco (note, p. 203).

8. Effect of tobacco upon young people (168).

9. Tobacco from a moral point of view (169).

10. Opium (170).

11. Practical hints about opium (171).

12. Chloral and other poisons (172).

Effect of alcohol and tobacco on the special senses (196).

Effect of alcohol on the kidneys (202).

Effect of alcohol and tobacco on the throat and voice

(207).
Pernicious use of alcohoUc liquors in accidents and

emergencies (225).

This, then, is " scientific temperance " — a work on human physi-
ology transformed into a pamphlet or argument on the evils of
stimulants and narcotics, with such incidental science as will
strengthen this argument or secure for it a place in the schools.
It is not enough that the case against these agencies be put briefly
and strongly, it must be reiterated until it becomes the central
object for physiological study. This makes a necessity for space-
writing such as that above quoted. In the two pages of the
Indiana Series I find twenty-one distinct ideas as to the evils of
alcohol and tobacco. These it is the work of the teacher to illus-

SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE, 351

trate or to dwell upon as lie sees fit. No additional strength
comes from dilution or repetition. Still less do the gigantic rea-
sons why men should lead sober lives gain from association with
arguments based on doubtful observations or spurious interpre-
tations. In the sixty-seven pages of the other book I find about
sixty different ideas, many of these not relevant to the subject in
hand, the space being filled by repetition, quotation, and padding.
Apparently this was not the author^s original plan. It was forced
upon him by the demands of the trade. A single collective para-
graph, for example, would have covered the known effects of alco-
hol on most of the tissues ; for alcohol does not affect the bones
in one way, the muscles in another, and the stomach in a third.
It confuses the nerves and poisons the blood, and these influences
show themselves variously. The effects that concern us most are
not the changes of tissue, but the changes of life.

Such a treatise as the New York law contemplates can not be
written by a scientific man. The inclusion of " scientific temper-
ance '' in the course of study means the disappearance of scientific
physiology. " It is insisted,^^ says the writer from whom I have
already quoted, " that in it shall be taught certain effects of alco-
hol on certain tissues and organs, when it is not known that such
effects occur, and when some of them are known not to thus occur.
Extravagant statements are demanded when only the most mod-
erate ones can be made. If alcohol and its effects are mentioned
at all, the true scientific spirit would demand that the whole truth
and that only be told. This can not be done to meet the approval
of the committee of censorship. These people demand this most
monstrous thing, that there shall be a law compelling a scientific
author in treating his subject to devote a certain prescribed
amount of his space in such and such a way. They demand a
large introduction of matter into the treatment of a subject that
is wholly irrelevant to it. Indeed, they have the effrontery to
demand of a scientific author in treating a certain scientific sub-
ject in the school courses that he shall introduce only so much of
the subject as shall bear on a certain reform that they are advo-
cating. Can even earnestness of purpose or the importance of
the reform be a shadow of an excuse for such a course ? "

The primary purpose of science teaching is to give not virtue
but strength. The strong mind forms its own precepts of right
action. The weak mind fails, whatever its memorized precepts.
The methods favored by the advocates of scientific temperance
must always fail of their purpose. No impulse to virtue is less
effective than memorized statements of the evils of vice. Infor-
mation learned by heart is never vital, least of all that which is
given on doubtful authority, by methods not sanctioned by peda-
gogic experience. If such educational methods really led tp tern-

352 POPULAR SGIENCJ^: MONTHLY

perance we might overlook their less desirable results. But the
youth can not be made virtuous by sentimental gush nor by sci-
entific bug-a-boos. Just in proportion to his ignorance of the
subject will be the teacher's willingness to undertake the teaching
proposed by the New York law. Hence arise the penalties laid on
teachers and trustees, a thing unheard of in relation to any study
that justifies itself.

As already stated, it is evident that the value of the study of
physiology is weakened or destroyed by neglecting its scientific
aspects and by throwing its conclusions out of perspective. We
might as well ask that our histories of the United States should
devote a fifth of each chapter to the effect of the spoils system
on the events described. The spoils system is to our politics
what alcohol is to our bodies, and a wonderful field would be
open to reformers if their doctrines could be forced into all his-
torical text-books. And if one class of reformers is admitted,
there would be room for many others. It will not be long before
we hear from the Baking Powder people, while the manu-
facturers of oleomargarine will claim the ear of the schools for
their product, which is free from the microbes of tuberculosis
that infest the dairies. In so far as science yields the basis for
any class of reforms, let the facts be known. But these demands
should stand in clear relation to the facts on which they depend.
Injunctions to temperance may be derived from scientific knowl-
edge ; but science should not be distorted for purposes of argu-
ment. Confusion and verbiage add nothing, and the teaching of
positive untruths works constant injury to the cause of education.

The success of " scientific temperance " legislation, in spite of
the combined protest of all intelligent teachers, is really not sur-
prising. It is pressed mainly by committees of women, and by
women who are very much in earliest. Politicians are always
glad to humor women when a sop like this will serve to do so.
So long as nothing substantial is asked for they are wonderfully
complaisant. The mercantile interests have no objection to laws
of this sort, which can in no way harm the liquor traffic either
present or future. If the temperance movement spent itself in
such ways only, it could count on the help of its enemies. The
opposition to "scientific temperance" comes mainly from theo-
rists who regard meddling of this kind as outside the province of
good government, and from teachers who know by experience
that text-book virtue enforced by penalties works only mischief
in the schools. The more stringent the penalties on teachers and
school officers, the more certainly do such influences fail as agents
for good.

The whole matter has been thus strongly stated by Dr. J. G.
Schurman, President of Cornell University, referring to the New

SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE, 353

York law : " We find that all wlio are in any way engaged with
the practical work of education have a protest constantly against
the multitude of subjects which would-be * reformers/ ' cranks/
and ' faddists ' would require our boys and girls to study in the
schools. If they get their way, the mental energy of our children
would be dissipated and education become a sheer impossibility.
The most fundamental of all reforms at the present time is the
limitation of the number of subjects taught to any one student,
with distinction between what is fundamental and what is sub-
sidiary, in order that the short time which the young people of
the country can devote to study can be put upon the most impor-
tant and fruitful subjects. You hear people say every day, ' Is
it not a shame that children should grow up in ignorance of this,
that, and the other subject ! ' whereas the truth of the matter is,
that it is in most cases an advantage that pupils have heard
nothing of the matter.

" When I pass from the general principle of this law to scru-
tinize its details, it shows itself absurd on the very face of it. If
there is any one thing which scientific teachers require at the
present time, it is that students of science shall not be taught
from text-books. In the programme of many of our best schools
(I do not mean colleges or universities) the use of the text-book
in science is absolutely forbidden. The ' reformers ' who desire
the legislation under consideration prescribe a text-book ; and
not only so, they tell the teachers how many pages are to be stud-
ied in order that students may understand ' the nature and effects
of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics.' It would be a great re-
flection on the educational wisdom of those who are responsible
for making our laws if a conception of scientific teaching so wood-
en, so utterly mechanical, were ever to find a place in our statute
books. The scientific teachers of the country, whether in the
public schools or in the colleges and universities, would justly
hold us up to ridicule."

In the same vein Dr. William R. Huntington, rector of Grace
Church, says : " As a member of the Committee of Sixty, charged
with the investigation, from a scientific and impartial standpoint,
of the whole question of the relation of alcoholic stimulants to
the animal economy, I have been in the way of hearing the edu-
cational phase of the subject very fully discussed, and I am con-
vinced that the attempt to indoctrinate the minds of the youth of
the country in the premises, though well meant, has been over-
done. Let the children be taught the perils of drinking and the
horrors of drunkenness as emphatically as you please, but let us
not palm off on their innocent minds pseudo-chemistry and inac-
curate physiology as necessary truth.''

Every institution tends to magnify itself, and the need of a

354 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

reason for existence leads it to try to show results. Hence the
unwillingness of the advocates of " scientific temperance " to let
well enough alone. From two pages out of three hundred they
have come to insist upon sixty pages out of four l^undred. But
this will not satisfy. Sooner or later the whole must be con-
quered. With every additional page taken from science for tem-
perance, they have the basis for a show of results.

"The natural result of the dictatorship of unscientific peo-
ple over a scientific subject is that they require all sorts of
the most absurd things. Their success with legislatures has
made them arrogant and oppressive in the extreme. These
women certainly must be in earnest to be willing to assume to
control for the whole country the teaching in the schools of a sub-
ject in which they do not profess to be trained ; to assume to dic-
tate to those who have made a certain science their life work what
they shall and shall not say on this subject ; to be willing to see,
indeed to put in motion the machinery which brings about, a form
of legislation which further developed would turn the public
schools into an instrument which the smartest politicians who
could capture them might use to further on any true or false
reform or visionary scheme."

The only remedy for such meddling lies in allowing that sci-
ence shall be free to teach its own lessons, and that the public
schools shall not be used by advocates of any kind of social or
political reform, no matter how meritorious the cause may be in
itself.

The whole " scientific temperance " movement is opposed to the
movement for good schools through the choice of good teachers.
It has been judged thus far mainly by its motives, which are
good. It will come to be judged by its results, and these are bad.

In his estimate of the age of Niagara Falls, Mr. J. W. Spencer assumes that
the authors of the later computations have failed to take sufficient account of the
factors that have caused the rate of recession of the cataract to vary, and of the
consequent variation. He has newly examined the channels of the river and the
geological evidences they offer, and has incorporated the results in his estimate.
He finds that at the nativity of the Niagara River there was no fall. Then the
waters sank to the level of Iroquois Beach, and the falls were very much like the
modern American cataract in height and volume. This afterward increased in
volume and went through a number of changes that are detailed in the author's
paper. His computations result in the conclusion that the falls are thirty-one
thousand years old, and the river is of thirty-two thousand years' duration. It
is further roughly estimated that the lake epoch began fifty or sixty thousand
years ago. If the rate of terrestrial deformation continues as it appears to have
done, then in about five thousand years, Mr. Spencer thinks, the life of Niagara
Falls will cease by the turning of the waters into the Mississippi.

THE GEOLOGICAL WORK OF THE AIR.

355

THE GEOLOGICAL WORK OF THE AIR.

By M. STANISLAS MEUNIEK.

SOME specimens recently received at the geological laboratory
of the National History Museum in Paris suggest a study of
the action of the wind in geology and of the importance, long
overlooked, of wind deposits. The specimens are lavas from the
volcano Mauna Loa, which the wind, lashing them before harden-
ing, has reduced to fibers of extraordinary fineness. They might
be called bunches of oakum. The mechanism of the formation of
these — or Pdl^'s hairs, or bald men's locks, as they are poetically
called — is similar to that by which similar formations are pro-
duced in furnaces when the blast is directed against the melted
slags. It has been proposed to employ the product thus prepared
as a textile material ; but it is not well adapted to such use, be-

FlG. 1.-

-Pelbj's Hairs: Volcanic Lavas spun by the Wind and resembling Tow:
THE Volcano Mauna Loa, Sandwich Islands. Natural size.

cause of frequent abrupt changes in the diameter of the vitreous
threads. This peculiarity is shown in Fig. 1, where the little
black tears mixed in with the brownish fibrous material are really
the knots by which the filaments may at any time be interrupted.
If we examine these bald men's locks with a microscope, we shall
find the evidences of their wind origin more abundant. Fig. 2
represents them magnified fifteen diameters, and Fig. 3 one hun-
dred diameters. We see in the former of these figures that, not-
withstanding their coarse appearance, the filaments are anything
but homogeneous in all their parts. The axial region of each of

356

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

them is usually marked by a sort of thread, either continuous or
discontinuous, which sometimes suggests a cylindrical cavity, but
is more usually in the condition of scattered granulations. The
nature of these included bodies can often be determined with pre-
cision ; and to select one of the clearest cases, they may not in-
frequently be perceived acting energetically upon polarized light
as if they were true crystals, while they show geometrical forms
on larger or smaller parts of their contour. On closer examina-
tion it is possible to refer them to grains of pyroxene. In some
of the filaments the axial inclusions are of a different character ;
their perceptibly spherical form and other features identify them
with the gaseous bubbles frequently observed in rocks. The

Fig. 2. — Pele's Hairs seen through the
Microscope. Magnified fifteen diam-

Fio. 8. — Pele's Hairs seen through the
Microscope. Magnified one hundred
diameters.

matter which fills the cylindrical cavity, often as long as the fila-
ments themselves, is also gaseous ; and so likewise are the bubbles
that may sometimes be seen by thousands in the vitreous scales,
such as are abundantly represented in an angular plate near the
edge of Fig. 2. Another point to be noticed is the way the fila-
ments terminate that we are sure have not been broken after con-
solidation. They are very rarely drawn out to a fine point with-
out bending, but usually they suffer a more or less abrupt curve
or are done up into a knot or a loop, of which Fig. 3 indicates
some common forms.

If we lightly shake these locks above a sheet of white paper, a
fine dust will fall upon it in which the microscope detects among
the finest filaments myriads of brownish, translucent, and some-
times transparent, vitreous pellets. Most frequently they are per-
fectly homogeneous, but they also often contain inclusions similar
to those in the filaments. The perfection of their spherical form
is not strictly in proportion to their diameter, as might be sup-

THE GEOLOGICAL WORK OF THE AIR. 357

posed ; but some of the larger ones are very regular, and some of
the smaller ones are more or less pyriform. Many of these are
traversed by fine perlitic cracks. Together with the pellets are
numbers of the vitreous scales which we have just mentioned.
Some are perfectly smooth and uniformly transparent; while
others contain bubbles and blisters, and have a rough surface.
Sometimes innumerable little vitreous pellets are massed upon
them, similar to those which form bunches like bunches of grapes
on some of the finer hairs.

I do not think that the mixture of pellets with the slag
threads spun accidentally near the nozzles of blowers in factories
has been insisted upon. These little balls result from a spe-
cial action of a gaseous medium ; and it is important to remark
that we can by their presence recognize the wind origin of the
deposits that contain them. They have~ a bearing upon some
observations of M. Gaston Tissandier, who has found similar
globules in atmospheric sediments in very different localities.*
These spherules have evidently originated from the action of the
air upon the fluid matter developed upon the surface of meteorites
during their passage through the atmosphere. They should be
formed in considerable numbers at every fall of meteors, and their
small volume is favorable to their remaining suspended in the air
for a long time, and to their being carried by the wind to consid-
erable distances. This explains the quantities of them found in
the ocean bottoms. All marine sediments that have been care-
fully examined yield globules of this kind ; and, as is shown by
the common researches of M. Tissandier and myself, they were
equally abundant in the ancient geological seas. Thus, to cite an
example that has struck us very forcibly, the green sand extracted
from the artesian well of Passy, at five hundred and sixty-nine
metres below the surface, and which is of the Albian (lower Cre-
taceous, Potomac group), is full of spherules as perfect as those
which are extracted from the dust that has accumulated in the
towers of the Cathedral of Paris.

The mechanism of the production of these globules is rendered
very evident by their abundance in certain industrial residues,
especially in the iron oxide produced by hammering, and in the
product of the combustion of iron in oxygen. Evidently the
melted oxide spread into laminas by mechanical projection goes
through the same capillary action as gives their form to soap-
bubbles. We can study all the details of the phenomenon with
greater facility if we have recourse to substances much easier to
melt than oxide of iron. I have had occasion to do this with
the experimental products which M. Daubrde has asked me to

♦Lea Poussi^res de I'Air. By Gaston Tissandier. Paris, ISV'Z.

358 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

examine, and whicli have been formed in his investigations of
the perforation of rocks by gaseous explosions. In these experi-
ments, channels were opened through the granite by the gases of
nitroglycerin, showing on their vitrified surfaces all the stages,
from the drawing out of a thin pellicle of melted glass to the for-
mation of a perfect spherule. Grains of two different categories
may be distinguished with the microscope in the dusts produced
in the trituration of rocks by the violent passage of gaseous ex-
plosions. Some can not be distinguished from those produced by
simple mechanical pulverization. But, besides these materials —
angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and mica — we find abundance
of perfect, or nearly perfect, spheres, opaque and black or slightly
translucent and brownish, with shining surface and often the
characteristic little neck. Identical elements are found in the
dust derived from different rocks that have been submitted to ex-
periment, but with features that vary in each of them.

Dust obtained from the lava of Vesuvius exhibits the globuli-
form character in the highest degree. Nearly all the matter is in
the condition of black globules of various dimensions, but always
very light, and sometimes having a tubulure. The abundance of
these globules is manifestly associated with the relatively easy
fusibility of the rock, which is also represented in the constitution
of the general glaze with which all the parts that have been in
contact with the incandescent gases are covered. The identity of
these globules with those that exist so abundantly in the atmos-
pheric dusts- and marine sediments can not be contested. Till
now, says M. Daubrde,* the general opinion, and the only one pos-
sible, has been to connect the origin of these globules with the ar-
rival of cosmic masses in the atmosphere ; and we may add now to
the arguments already presented in support of this thesis, the re-
sults afforded by the gaseous trituration of meteoric rocks. The
dust furnished by a stone cylinder that fell from the sky in 1888,
at Pultusk, was marked by innumerable globules, associated with
fragments of peridote and entastite, and with metallic granules
which had preserved their ramified form and their adherence to
lithoid minerals. What we have said shows also that terrestrial
rocks, as well as meteorites, may engender these globules. Hence
the arrival of meteorites into the atmosphere incontestably con-
tributes greatly to the production of the brilliant globules so
abundant in aerian and aqueous sediments. It seems also to be
established that the openings of diatremes f have an active part in

* Lea Regions invisibles du Globe et des Espaces celestes (The Invisible Regions of the
Globe and of Celestial Space). Paris, 1892.

\ Cylindroid vertical apertures traversing the crust of the earth, of which the diamond-
bearing 7?arw of the Cape and volcanic chimneys furnish well-known types.

NEW OUTLOOKS IN MEDICINE. 359

tlie matter. Tlie spherules concomitant with the gaseous erosion
of granites and other rocks, thrown up into the atmosphere to the
great height reached by fine volcanic ejections, may be sustained
in the air for a very long time, and fall to the earth at great dis-
tances. In support of this opinion it will be recollected that in the
basins of seas, the corpuscles of which we are speaking, to which
MM. R^nard and Murray do not hesitate to ascribe an extra-
terrestrial origin, are generally associated with clearly volcanic
products.

In order to elucidate completely the origin of the globuliform
matters, I have placed melted wax in a pipette with a capillary
end, and blown the jet into a vessel of cold water. The product
had all the characteristics of the globules of which we are trying
to explain the origin, some hollow and having little necks like the
meteoric spherules, others full and joined together like the asso-
ciated spherules in the bald men's locks in the crater of Mauna Loa.

The geological importance of atmospheric sediments is marked
in these days in many ways. The facts with which we have been
occupied will contribute to illustrate it still more. — Translated for
the Popular Science Monthly from La Nature.

NEW OUTLOOKS IN THE SCIENCE AND ART OF

MEDICINE.*

By T. MITCHELL PRUDDEN, M. D.

I WANDERED last summer over that marvelous land of sun-
shine in our great Southwest where still fast dwindling groups
of the real Americans cherish quaint customs, and linger among
the superstitions of vanished centuries. And Fortune made me
for a time a guest in a small tribe of these Indians, as yet almost
untouched by the blighting finger of what to us is civilization.

I was drawn to them in this way : There came to our camp
upon the plains, one evening, a woebegone dark fellow of this
tribe, who with his squaw had wandered away from his comrades,
seeking a quiet place to die. He was wan and feeble. A demon,
he told us, had long since gained entrance to his body and had
tortured him with pain and cold and fire. All the art of his
tribal medicine men had failed to free him from the intruder,
and a little while before, some spirit had begun to whisper to him
in his sleep, he said, that he must go into the dark. All this was
gathered from lip and gesture and pantomime as he lingered with

* An address before the graduating class of the Yale Medical School at Commence-
ment, on June 25, 1895.

«

360 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

US, loath to relinquish at the last the scant comfort of human com-
panionship.

In the light of the lore which had been imparted to me many
years ago by my medical teachers here at Yale, I reckoned him
the victim of malaria; and shortly, in fact, quinine had cured
him. The demon was exorcised, the spirit ceased to whisper, the
sun was again his friend, and the winds began anew to breathe
to him their wonted biddings to the chase. The grateful soul,
now eager to be away, was urgent that I should visit his people,
for he was fain to celebrate the facility of the white medicine
man who could banish evil spirits without rattle, dance, or chant.
And so I went. Eighty miles across the desert from any settle-
ment, down at the bottom of a rock- walled chasm which leads
into the Grand Canon of the Colorado, and whose sides tower
sheer half a mile, these brown- painted folks have lived alone and
almost forgotten since long before the Spanish pioneers came
hither for God and gold some centuries ago.

At the time of my visit several persons in the tribe were ill,
and a celebrated medicine man had been summoned from afar in
council over the stricken ones. After long and repeated confer-
ences, my dark medical brothers consented to lay aside cherished
forms of professional etiquette, and permitted me to take a place
in the grave circle which at midnight crouched about a small
fire built in the open, near which lay, half naked, the group of
patients. One of these was clearly the prey of consumption ; one
was shivering with malarial poisoning ; one was a croupy child ;
one I judged to have partaken unwisely and too much of spoiled
jerked meat ; and one was the victim of old age. I have not time
to picture for you, as I Should like to do, the weird scene which
was enacted there from midnight until dawn, night after night.
A low rhythmic chant rising and falling to the time of a rattled
gourd ; slow passes of the hands over the prostrate bodies, which
now and again were blown upon from the pursed lips of the
painted ^sculapius, who now crouched crooning beside his
charges, now danced furiously about them, while at frequent
intervals wild yells from the attending circle woke hideous
echoes from the cliffs. I will not dwell upon the sequels of this
adventure, but remind you only that the conceptions of disease
which these people foster, and the practices which they adopt to
free the body from what is to them a definite possession by some
evil thing, are essentially those which were prevalent ages ago,
and whose significance we glean so toilsomely to-day out of the
misty and broken records of the past.

I have lingered in story on the threshold of this address, be-
cause I wish to emphasize the fact that in this country and to-day
— in all countries of the world, for that matter — a large propor-

NEW OUTLOOKS IN MEDICINE, 361

tion of mankind, consciously or -anconsciously, personify disease
or think of it as something foreign to the body, some definite or
mysterious thing intrusive. From the painted red man of the
plains, who associated his bodily ailments with demons, spirits of
the dead, witchcraft, magic, evil possession, and angry gods, and
hopes to banish these with shrieks and songs, it is indeed a far
cry to the clean, clad, business or professional white man of the
town, who more or less sheepishly confesses that he carries a
horse-chestnut or a potato in his pocket to ward off rheumatism.
But between the charm of the horse-chestnut and the chant of
the savage lies a great body of ignorance and superstition, upon
which quacks flourish mightily, and which can not be altogether
ignored in any wide outlook to-day over the field of medical sci-
ence and medical art.

In fact, the superstitious red man is much more reasonable
and logical in his procedures for the cure of disease, considering
the scope and character of his conceptions of its nature and the
phase of civilization which he represents, than are large numbers
of considerably evolved white folks who, in the midst of highly
civilized and cultured communities, bow still at the altars of
sanitary savagery, cherish a devotion to drugs almost pathetic,
and utterly fail to grasp the significance of the new conceptions
of disease which at last have made of medicine an exact science.

That which has especially contributed to the establishment of
medicine on a firm and rational basis is the gradual centering
of our thought and experiment upon definite and tangible struc-
tural features of the body, and the conviction that the phys-
ical nature of man is closely interlinked with that of lower
forms of life.

In its primitive phases, medicine brought gods and men into
close relationship and led constantly to religious conceptions. It
was, in fact, not a science, but a religion. The early priests were
physicians, the primal gods were gods of healing, and their temples
were hospitals. As time passed, absorbing speculations, fantastic
often, frequently grotesque, about the structure of the body and
the nature of disease, won general belief and disappeared. The-
ories, systems, and schools came and went. Now mysticism and
magic, now humol-s and philosophy, held sway. Quackeries and
frauds flourished for their little hour, and vanished, as they
always must. Finally, the body itself became the object of direct
study, and the mysteries began to clear.

But it was a long time after it became reputable and legal to
study the anatomy of the human body before the old physicians
acquired a definite conception of it as an admirably grouped as-
semblage of tissues and organs. It took much longer for the
development of accurate notions as to the functions and uses of

VOL. XLVIII. — 26

362 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the separate parts of the human frame. And it was not until
the early decades of the present century that science was able to
declare the ultimate element out of which all these varied parts are
built to be a tiny particle of living matter which was called a cell.

Somebody has said of Turner that he was a man who thought
in paint. The modern devotee to medicine, if he seriously thinks
at all, must think in cells. Physicians used to think in symptoms,
and it took them a great many years to learn that they must think
also in cells and organs — that is, with clear morphological concep-
tions— if they would crystallize for use the knowledge which ex-
perience brought them.

Through the long processes of evolution, these cells have
acquired peculiar forms, and adapted themselves to the perform-
ance of special functions. The great cell groups — we call them
liver, lung, brain, muscle, bone — each doing its particular work,
all act in harmony for the maintenance of the life and perform-
ance of the body as an independent being.

We do not yet understand, nor shall we soon, what that mar-
velous vivifying influence is which sets this self-built cellular
mechanism at work, and keeps it going, as a rule, under favor-
able conditions until the shadows of threescore years and ten
begin to deepen about the worn machine. Nor has all our
gathered life lore led us far among the mysteries which cluster
about the vague region in which the spiritual and the material
meet and interfuse. But this we know, that all the things the
body does, from its high borderland achievements in thought and
memory down through the homely processes of nutrition and re-
pair, are accomplished by these small life units in accordance
with physical laws as definite and unvarying as are those which
we trace in plant and earth and star.

Under a variety of adverse conditions the human body can
still hold its own and secure for a time a certain degree of health,
thanks to the adaptability to circumstances of its component
cells. Thus, by the nice control of its ceaseless chemical pro-
cesses, the body can maintain a nearly uniform degree of heat, no
matter what the latitude or season. Starve the body, and its cells
can feed for a while upon the stores which they have in times of
plenty laid aside. They struggle long and faithfully against the
manifold excesses which may be forced upon them. They fight
with fashion, in one sex at least, for space within this none too
roomy tabernacle, with business and with pleasure for a time to
rest, with drugs and blighting drinks and unwholesome foods for
release from poisons which it is not usually thought criminal to
administer to one's self. They work as best they can without the
wholesome air so frequently denied them. They resist with what
force they can muster inherited weaknesses or taints.

NEW OUTLOOKS IN MEDICINE. 363

But after a time, wlien the conditions under whicli the cells
live and work are definitely unfavorable, they may fail to main-
tain the standard. Their performances become faulty or feeble,
or, with their structure, may largely change. If carried be-
yond a certain limit, these weakened or perverted functions and
their attendant physical changes constitute the condition called
disease.

In fact, science does not now permit us to forget that " the liv-
ing body is a mechanism, the proper working of which we term
health ; its disturbance, disease ; its stoppage, death." The happy
condition known as health does not commonly draw attention to
itself, and so has escaped personification ; while the other condi-
tions— disease and death, strictly its analogues — from the earliest
times have been invested with such mysteries as among all people
have led to misconception and to figurative speech.

I wish especially to emphasize the simplicity of the modern
scientific conception of disease as a disturbed condition of a com-
plex cellular mechanism, because it is largely due to a failure to
comprehend this that the shadows of the middle ages actually
still lie dark over certain of the popular conceptions of medicine,
and seriously retard the speedy fruition of many of its new dis-
coveries.

The practical ends which have been of necessity held in view
by the devotees to medicine, the bald empiricism through which
most of the therapeutic resources of our art were won, and the
stubborn persistence of old and misty conceptions of disease have
greatly hindered the realization of the fact that medicine is, after
all, only one phase of the great science of life which we call biol-
ogy, and that its varied themes must be pursued by the same
methods and under the same strict safeguards against error in
observation and in inference as are current among those who
study science in its simpler aspects. It may make some practical
difference that the particular animal to which the medical man
devotes his time is highly complex, fosters a soul, has a future,
and pays in cash (sometimes) the expert who can relieve it from
discomfort or pain and prolong for a little now and then the cel-
lular confederation. But if we do not constantly draw light from
the common sources, we shall wander hopelessly in empiricism
and fail at last. In truth, to strive for wide comprehension of the
human frame without the constant aid of sister sciences and fre-
quent reference to simpler forms and functions is but to build
upon the surfaces.

Permit me now in a somewhat desultory fashion to glance
with you at two or three phases of recent development in medi-
cine. I have not wished to frame an exhaustive inventory of our
gains, but rather to note such features as can be led to wider be-

364 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

neficence througli forces which we may ourselves administer as
we go about our usual tasks.

When we group diseases according to causation, we find that
many are due to excesses— excesses in food, in drink, in drugs,
in exercise, in indolence, in work, in rest, in play. Sometimes the
body labors under adverse influences which we do not understand.
Sometimes the organism is handicapped from the start by inher-
ited defects. Sometimes subtle poisons which the body itself
forms are not properly disposed of, and the organism suffers.

In spite of the vast stores of experience with the human body
in disease, clear down to the early part of the last decade, the na-
ture and cause of some of the most common and fatal human
maladies were practically unknown. I speak of the diseases
which we call infectious. These were so widespread and so mys-
terious as to foster superstition, and lead to the perpetuation of
the earlier notions about angry gods, offended Providence, judg-
ments, warnings, witchcraft, and so forth, long after the legiti-
mate presence of such developmental phases in human thought
had passed away. Man had gone on making up inventories of
his visible life neighbors in the world, had traced their pedigrees
and relationships, had found how closely their evolution was
bound to his own, and had got the systems pretty well completed,
when his surprised attention was called to an inconceivably popu-
lous world of beings lying far beyond the reach of the unaided
vision and closely woven into the chain of life. And shortly the
so-called "germ theory'' of disease had ripened into a well-
grounded body of positive knowledge, so far-reaching and signifi-
cant that more than anything else it has seemed to dominate
medical science for more than a decade, and has led to most
beneficent practical results in the prevention and the cure of
disease.

For a good while after attention had been called to the exist-
ence of microbes, most people thought of them — many still do —
almost exclusively as inciters of disease. But this is a most nar-
row conception. The amount of material on the earth available
for the temporary uses of living things is limited, and it is largely
through the intervention of these lowly but active organisms that
when once the material, which for a little while has come under
the sway of the life forces, has fallen into death, it is rescued and
worked over into available life stuff again. And so, chained over
to the materia], the cycle of life on the earth is maintained only
through these swarming hordes which serve all animate things in
serving their own necessities.

We can to-day trace their presence through geologic ages,
sharing in the life of earlier times. We are but just beginning to
realize their vast economic importance in agriculture, in the vine-

NEW OUTLOOKS IN MEDICINE. 365

yard, the dairy, and the kitchen, in certain of the arts, in the
normal processes of digestion, and in the maintenance in many
ways of the salubrity of the earth and air and water.

The sooner we realize that the exercise of their disease-produc-
ing powers by the microbes as a class is only an incident in their
largely beneficent careers, the sooner shall we arrive at a just
comprehension of our newly discovered earth neighbors, upon
whose ministrations we are dependent for the creation and the
maintenance of conditions which make possible our being here
at all.

The variety and complexity of the chemical transformations
which microbes effect in the soil and in the water are but just be-
coming evident. But we already know that through the vast
reaches of time which their life history covers the delicate work
which they have to do has been intricately apportioned among
them, and a most elaborate physiological division of labor ad-
justed. The struggle for existence among these lowly forms of
life is so keen that they are almost always confined to their legiti-
mate haunts and to their beneficent offices.

I need not refer in detail to the story of the discovery, one
after another, of the bacteria which have been shown to cause
fatal maladies. Tuberculosis, cholera, pneumonia, diphtheria,
tetanus, anthrax, and more of the sinister brood have now yield-
ed the secret of their causation.

At first the relationship of bacteria to the diseases which they
were found to cause seemed quite simple. But as research went
on it became clear that we were still only scanning the surface.
It was shown that these intruding germs do not act chiefly by
their mere presence as foreign bodies, but more usually or more
fatef ully by the elaboration of subtle poisons which permeate the
body and destroy the cells or disturb their nice adjustment.

So the study of the products formed and set free in the life
processes of these germs opened a new line of intricate and
delicate chemical procedure. Think of the complexity of the
processes which are induced in the body by the presence and ac-
tion of these living organisms ! We have, on the one hand, the
body cells, each one, small as it is, a chemical factory, setting free
unnumbered complex substances, some of which are to be used
by the body as a whole, some to be resolved into other forms,
some to be eliminated, since they are powerful poisons. To these
multiform cell units of the body enter the germs, cells too, mostly
plants, equally complex in their processes, also poison factories
sometimes of most appalling energy and grown hardy through
ages of strenuous battle for existence.

Great progress has been made in research upon the agencies
which the body can bring into play to protect itself against these

366 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sinister intruders, and did time permit I should like to call your
attention somewhat in detail to the mimic warfare which is main-
tained, often in extreme hazard, under conditions which belong
especially to modern life.

There are still several tissues and organs about whose uses we
are, in the main, ignorant ; but there is much reason for the be-
lief that several of tbese unknown mechanisms are largely useful
in disposing of or rendering harmless numerous poisonous sub-
stances which in their complex metabolisms the varied body cells
set free; and the recent revelations in the relationship which
microbes bear to disease have made it seem probable that the
agencies which the body has developed for its own protection
against itself are the same agencies which it employs to protect
itself against these small invaders.

We have learned of late that not infrequently more than one
germ species may be at work in producing the cell disturbance
which we call disease, and that an individual whose inherent
protective mechanism promises a favorable outcome to the fight
when one enemy alone is within the citadel, may speedily suc-
cumb upon the entrance of its allies.

It has been shown that the same germ, under varying condi-
tions, can induce maladies hitherto thought to be different; so
that the number of our unseen enemies in this silent realm may,
as our outlook becomes more commanding, prove to be smaller
than we have been led to think.

Several of the most fateful germs are constantly with us, espe-
cially in towns, but doing no harm, unless through spme breach
in the complex and curious line of the body's defenses they enter
the sanctuary. Even then they are often harmless, as we have
seen, except in an organism whose defensive mechanism is already
weakened by excesses or disease.

The extreme rapidity with which these organisms multiply has
made it possible to study experimentally, in the countless genera-
tions which come and pass within the range of a single experi-
ment, the effect of environment upon their morphological and
biological characters, and the existence of races and varieties
within the limits of what we are pleased to call bacterial species
has been well established.

It has been possible by changes of environment to so alter the
metabolism of disease- producing germs that, though apparently
growing as vigorously as ever, the poisons by which their evil
effects on man are caused have lost their power. In fact, we now
know several germs quite similar to those which are of most
sinister import to man which, apparently, under what we call
natural influences, have lost their power to harm. These are
some of the lines of study with which bacteriology to-day is busy.

NEW OUTLOOKS IN MEDICINE. ^67

But the greatest immediate practical benefit derived from the
new knowledge of micro-organisms is the certainty with which
some large groups of infectious disease can be controlled by pri-
vate and public measures of sanitation.

Of course, in sanitation, as in other phases of morals, it is not
as easy to do as to know what 'twere well to do. But it is safe to
say that if we were ready in this country to follow such dictates
of science in sanitary measures as are of known efficiency, we
could secure their birthright of long life and health to a large
proportion of that forty per cent of all the people who, as sta-
tistics show, are now destined to perish from preventable infec-
tious maladies.

The means by which individuals and health boards may real-
ize the possibilities for human weal so clearly indicated in the
newly won lore of preventive medicine I need not here recount.
They are easily enough learned as soon as the conviction of their
importance has grown to a fixed purpose of action.

The scope of this address does not permit me to dwell upon
the really wonderful degree of accuracy with which the educated
and experienced physician of to-day can detect abnormal condi-
tions in the varied cellular structures of the living body, nor
upon the clear conception which he may acquire of morbid states
and processes in situations physically inaccessible. He can rec-
ognize what groups of hidden cells are faltering in their work,
are struggling under burdens, or in what way the co-ordinating
mechanisms are failing in their tasks ; and now in one way, now
in another, and not most often with drugs, as so many think, can
he tide the halting mechanism OYet its hour of stress. The cause
of the disturbance may be removed, rest secured, pain assuaged,
perverted function set right, and even for a time the aged, worn-
out mechanism encouraged to prolong its task. And if the physi-
cian can not so frequently as we would wish guide to the happiest
issue the healing forces over which the human frame has gained
control, it is certain that, other things being equal, his success is
assured just in proportion to his accurate practical knowledge of
the delicate mechanism which he is seeking to repair, and his
comprehension of the nature of the life forces which he must in
the right way and at the right moment aid, and with which he
must as certainly not unwisely interfere.

In these hurried glimpses of only a limited phase of medicine,
it is most significant that there is no talk of humors and auras
and vital spirits, nor of illusive and intangible fancies such as for
centuries held sway in fields once ruled by demons and angry
gods, but of definite things which we can see and handle and
measure. Herein, to my thinking, lies the heart of our achieve-
ment and the brightest promise for the future.

368 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But while our science and our art are now steadily growing
in precision and usefulness, our practical accomplishments are
greatly limited, because general enlightenment regarding the
things of the body has not kept pace with the acquisitions of
science.

Our new outlooks in preventive medicine have made it plain,
as I have said, that a very wide curtailment of suffering and a
large saving of human life are possible if only the people can have
an elementary knowledge of the human body and of such simple
principles of hygiene and sanitation that under the increasingly
complex conditions of modern life they may be able to guard
against common forms of infection and against unwholesome
modes of life, which not only invite infection, but many other
forms of ill.

It seems to me that here the schools and the colleges have
high responsibilities, and of these I wish briefly to speak.

The conviction has for some time been current that the chil-
dren should be taught something about the structure and work-
ing of the human frame, and in this way already much has been
achieved. Of the importance of this sort of knowledge no spe-
cial demonstration is needed to-day. But in many of the public
schools in this land the instruction in physiology and hygiene
has been of late largely subordinated, if not actually falsified, to
the interests of what some are pleased to call temperance ; mean-
ing thereby the avoidance of alcohol and tobacco, lest horrible
and frequently impossible things should happen to the liver or
the brain.

But I think that the distortion of truth is not liable to lead at
last, no matter how worthy the motive, to the ends for which the
anti-alcoholic a;id anti-nicotinal physiologies and hygienes of our
schools have been devised. It seems to me certain that a great
deal of the future physical and mental well-being of our people
depends upon the acquirement early in life of absolutely accurate,
though it be rudimentary, knowledge of this complex and sensi-
tive bodily mechanism ; and that the self-control and self-respect
which such knowledge fosters will in the long run do more than
vague fear of bodily ill to promote a temperance much more com-
prehensive and beneficent than that which centers itself in the
avoidance of alcohol and tobacco, bad as the misuse of these may
be. It is to be hoped that mistaken zeal in this direction may
not long prevail to the physical and moral detriment of the
children.

Many of our institutions for higher education now recognize
the value of a knowledge of the body, and of the physical condi-
tions under which man can best secure the highest usefulness and
enjoyment. But I do not think that as yet this subject has re-

NEW OUTLOOKS IN MEDICINE, 369

ceived attention at all commensurate witli its vital bearing upon
the well-being — spiritual as well as physical — of those whom the
universities equip. So long as a knowledge of the human frame
was looked at from the standpoint of the dispenser of mysterious
drugs to a mysterious organism for the purpose of expelling mys-
terious foes ; so long as the body was regarded chiefly as a more
or less disreputable tabernacle for the temporary uses of the soul ;
so long as its harmonious and significant relationship to other
forms of being lay largely beyond our ken ; so long, I say, as all
these conditions prevailed, accurate knowledge of the body and
the factors necessary to its physical well-being did not command
attention in the higher educational outlooks.

The equipment which I urge is in no sense medical, nor is it
such as encourages the fancy to linger upon trivial ailments or
inspires the dread of disease. For it should be remembered that
the fundamental facts of anatomy, physiology, hygiene, and sani-
tation do not belong particularly to medicine, as is too often
hastily assumed. This knowledge is indeed especially useful to
the physician, and upon it he builds up into the domain of medi-
cine. But it is a part of the common stock of world lore. And I
do not think that there are any forms of provisional knowledge
among those which candidates for admission to the colleges are
required to possess more important than this.

Nor can I regard any schedule for the higher education, no
matter what the calling to which it is initiatory, as adequately
comprehensive which does not embrace definite and well-balanced
instruction in the more advanced knowledge of the human body,
its relationship to other forms of being, and the means through
which it best can serve those larger purposes of life which the
university inspires. One often marvels at the pitiful ignorance of
the body and of the simplest principles of healthy living common
among learned and cultured men and women to-day. Ashamed
not to know the origin of a word, or to fail in the comprehension
of a literary allusion, masters in theology, wise in the law, keen
in business, versatile and brilliant in society, they are prone to
court disaster in senseless modes of life, and fall easy victims
to charlatans and unscrupulous drug venders — an association
which they share with the illiterate and uncultured in a fashion
highly democratic, and which suggests the survival of traits less
incongruous and much more picturesque in the North American
Indian.

Our new outlooks in medicine have not been won without toil
and sacrifice on the part of its devotees, and these will still be
necessary. But it is evident that in the medical colleges there
must now be fuller endowment of research and more adequate
provision for instruction, not only in the traditional themes of

370 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

undergraduate study, so largely expanded, but also in recently
developed disciplines.

The clear appreciation of the close relationship of medicine to
other phases of biology; the newly recognized importance of
practical familiarity with things themselves, rather than with
the impressions which another has gathered and more or less
lucidly imparts ; the patient training of the hand and eye and ear
to catch minutest variations in surface and color and shape and
sound — all these requirements of modern medical instruction
involve pecuniary support far beyond that which was formerly
sufficient.

As was to be expected, the necessity for improvement in the
medical curriculum and the urgency of the requirements of
research have been recognized at this university in the revision
and expansion of its medical course. And it is to be hoped that
the appeal for endowment of the medical school here at Yale,
made in the President's last report, may not go unheeded by those
who are now for a little while the custodians of wealth, and in
whose power it is to bring into play facilities for instruction and
capacities for research so full in the promise of immediate prac-
tical utility.

What, now, is the attitude of the physician, in the light of the
broader and more exact science which is to-day at his disposal ?
It may be at once conceded that his physical presence has mainly
lost its old-time picturesqueness.

It is inevitable that as soon as he laid aside the mysteries and
fictions and superstitions with which erstwhile he was wont to
invest his calling, was obliged to abandon charms and auguries
and secret remedies, and could no longer safely summon to his aid
the occult forces with which outgrown fantasies invested plant
and mineral and pregnant aspects of the stars, and was forced to
confess that in dealing with his charges he was even, as other
devotees to other sciences are, simply a student of common things
with the simple resources of actual knowledge and common sense
— it was under these conditions, I say, inevitable that his claims
to confidence must more definitely rest upon his sound learning,
his obvious skill, his actual experience.

A large part of the late surviving professional mannerism
and dictatorial assumption has also passed away, and the doctor
of to-day is a man of the world, the friend as well as the expert.

It is a very wide-eyed generation which is coming on the scene,
and not prone to invest with unnecessary ceremonial or mystery
the dealings of its professional advisers with its ailments. Many
laymen know as well as we do that the administration of drugs in
their hour of stress is but an adjunct to the often more needful
and more potent guidance in diet, in regimen, and in the varied

NEW OUTLOOKS IN MEDICINE. 371

general measure by wliicli the stricken organism may be nnrsed
back to health.

And if we mumble and shift as we face legitimate inquiry as
to the nature of disease and of remedial measures, and strive to
foster the old conception of the body's hidden mechanisms as of a
" strange internal kingdom of which we are the hapless and help-
less monarchs/' we surely can not justly protest if the baflled
inquirer turn to the charlatan.

While in many cases the patient is so ignorant, so heedless, so
indifferent, so little in control of his mental outfit, that the simple
dictum of the doctor may convey all that is wise, it is still, I think,
true that usually a clear and simple explanation of his condition
and an enlistment of his intelligence, or that of his friends, in the
nature of his malady and the measures proposed for its removal,
not only often contribute to success, but also, on the part of the
physician, are more dignified and more humane.

But, beyond this phase of helpfulness, the physician has the
largest opportunity in his intimate dealings with his charges to
so counsel and instruct that, especially in the routine of household
life, the fundamental principles of healthy living may be under-
stood and followed.

I am aware that to many physicians this is now the accus-
tomed way ; but it might, I think, wisely be the way more often
trod.

Again, the practitioner of medicine has facilities for fruitful
research to-day, however simple or obscure the field of his activ-
ity, such as no earlier time has realized — because our problems
are more precise, our methods more exact, and opportunity for
interchange of thought abundant.

There is, indeed, no better example of the scientific method of
research than the performances, physical and mental, of the well-
equipped physician as he stands in the presence of this delicate
mechanism faltering in its tasks. He summons his facts — by
story, by test, by observation ; frames from them, in the light of
all the lore which he can muster, a clear conception, or a theory
if you will, of the cause and nature of the disturbance ; and then,
by all the varied agencies at his command, assumes the role of
Nature's helper in the promotion of recovery.

There is nothing which the worker in the laboratory can do
with his tubes and balances more strictly scientific than the work
which engages the practitioner in his daily rounds. For it is the
method, not the tools or place or subject of our tasks, which
makes them scientific or unscientific. It is just as easy to be
unscientific in the laboratory as at the bedside, and in either
place it is easy to lose sight of science in the detail of mechanical
routine.

372 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

But beyond all that which the physician can accomplish as the
friend and expert adviser of the sick in whom, first of all, his
allegiance centers, as the student of all things which promise help
in his fight against disease, as the friendly teacher ever mindful
that prevention is better than cure, and as one who toils for Sci-
ence for her sake alone — beyond all these high offices there is yet
another upon whose duties he must now more seriously enter, if
he would hope to realize all that which our new outlooks promise.
I speak of the duties of citizenship.

Municipal and State health organizations have accomplished
much of late in the protection of the people against disease. But
the humiliating confession must be made that in many measures
of public sanitation in this country we are far behind the require-
ments of science. This is not, as a rule, because our health officers
do not know what to do or how to do. It is not usually because
they are indifferent or negligent. But in many cases the pitiful
sacrifice of life and the inexpressible suffering and loss which pre-
ventable disease involves are due to legislative indifference or
folly.

I am aware that there are many exceptions, but I think that I
am not mistaken when I say that among the measures vital to the
public welfare over which our legislators. State and Federal alike,
wrangle and bicker and deal — when these are not treated with
indifference and contempt, as not contributory to the profit or to
the disgraceful notoriety of the hour — there are none which more
often fail of intelligent consideration than those which concern
the public health.

But laymen in public office can not be regarded alone at fault
if they be not wisely directed ; and physicians are not, I think, as
keenly alive in this way as they should be to their responsibili-
ties as citizens. They know what ought to be done in the larger
public way to render the new knowledge in sanitation and the
control of disease available, and yet do not individually or as a
guild bring their expert knowledge strongly to bear as the intelli-
gent citizen always can, if he be right and enough in earnest.

There is little doubt that almost any legislative measure which
the medical profession unites and persists in urging as essential
to the maintenance of the public health can be speedily secured.

I know that there is a general feeling among physicians of the
better sort that conspicuous interest in public affairs may be mis-
construed and looked upon as in some sort a means of professional
advertisement. And one can not choose but appreciate and ad-
mire the sensitiveness and high sense of honor of which this senti-
ment is born. But, after all, there are greater misfortunes in life
than being misunderstood, and I think that the fine feeling which
leads the physician so often to waive the privileges of social and

NEW OUTLOOKS IN MEDICINE, 373

public life in the interest of what he conceives to be professional
ethics is capable of a richer fruitage yet, in the defiance of mis-
construction, when impelled to whatever performance of public
duty he can justify to himself.

While the penalties of ignorance in things sanitary and hy-
gienic are growing more severe as our communal life becomes
more complex and crowded, there are, as we have seen, a good
many ways in which the lessons of modern sanitation can be
learned. Some of these lessons may wisely, as I think, be woven
into the educational equipment of the young. They may be
acquired in later life from books. Many may be assimilated
under the kindly offices of the physician. Much is taught by such
public measures as health boards may enforce. But, learned
these lessons must be sooner or later, and learned they are too
often now at the bedside and the grave.

Physicians know well enough that a stringent system of dairy
inspection should be at once and widely enforced, and it is really
for them more than for any other class of citizens to say how
many more object lessons will be necessary like those recently en-
forced at Mont cl air, at Waterbury, and at Stamford, before all
such caterers shall be compelled to conform to the rules of sani-
tary decency. The prevention of pollution of water supplies, the
compelling of reasonable cleanliness in public vehicles for human
transportation by land and by sea, the enforcement of precautions
against the spread of disease in public hostelries and places of as-
sembly, the organization of a national health bureau — these are all
tasks which must speedily be undertaken, and they may be led to
rich accomplishment if the physician will but hold more clearly
in his consciousness his primal duty as a citizen.

In all that which I have urged about the more precise physical
and, I might almost say, mechanical nature of the professional
duties which in the new light the physician is called upon to as-
sume, I have purposely left largely out of sight his more intimate
personal relationships to those to whom he ministers. And yet,
lest one should fear that in our eager search for light we overlook
the man in the machine, I should like to assure the timid that all
that which always has and ever will dignify, and ennoble his call-
ing, as one who is strong serving the weak, remains unchanged in
the physician, and is potent or feeble, not in ratio to his scientific
knowledge, but as he is more or less honest, keen of insight, high
of purpose, sympathetic ; and finds its highest fruition joined to
good judgment and self-reliance, and to whatever confidence- win-
ning and hope-inspiring qualities he can command.

It is not easy to estimate accurately the scope and value of
contemporary achievement. But as I look over the field of medi-
cine, with all its varying lights and shades, it seems to me that

374 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the things which are most deeply significant in these closing years
of the century are not the newly gained skill in diagnosis, not the
marvelous strides which surgery has made, beneficent as these*
may be, not the more exact and purposeful and moderate use of
drugs, not the insight which has been gained regarding the com-
plex nature of the nervous system, nor even in the high achieve-
ments, too numerous and varied to be even mentioned here, which
the new science of bacteriology has made possible.

Beyond all these accomplishments, notable enough though
they be for any age, the things which more than all else, it seems
to me, will signalize this time, are that we have now definitely
freed medicine, in all its borders, from the thralldom of mystery
and superstition, have finally and clearly recognized that its
problems are the problems of biology, and are to be solved only
by such patient research and guarded inference as all science has
learned to trust ; that the doctor is in command of no mysterious
forces, and that the only chance for the full and speedy fruition
of our hope in the prevention of disease lies in general education,
and in the enlistment of the interests of the people, of whom the
medical profession should be the teacher and the guide.

Of course, the shadows here and there will linger on ; of course,
one and another for some time to come will still invest his calling
with the puerile mysteries which were fostered in ignorance, and
which should have been put aside with the scarlet cloak and the
wig and the ponderous walking stick. Of course, so long as the
people are largely ignorant of elementary facts regarding the hu-
man frame, quacks will flourish and more or less well-meaning
advocates will be found of water, of electricity, of faith, of exor-
cism, of infinitesimal dosage, and of every sort of named and un-
named folly, as panaceas and as substitutes for science. But, after
all, when medicine is once placed where it belongs, close to its sister
disciplines, from which it gathers light and in its turn inspires,
the shadows are certain soon to fade and the truth to prevail.

You will observe, ladies and gentlemen, that the current of my
thought has led again and again to the outlooks which command
the field of preventive medicine. This is not only because here
the new light shines brightest, and gives clearest glimpses of
definite achievement, but also because upon this field success is
possible only if we can secure general and earnest co-operation in
the spread of the new ideals of cleanliness.

In truth, the exactions of our modern sanitary codes, so far as
they affect the performances of the individual and the routine of
the household, are neither complex nor burdensome ; and a very
moderate amount of care, if happily joined to informed intelli-
gence, will suffice, under almost all conditions, for the maintenance
of a safe regime.

SUGGESTIBILITY AND KINDRED PHENOMENA, 375

You will, I hope, forgive me for casting the shadow of disease
over the festival spirit of this hour. But, after all, our lasting
enjoyment is most frequently secured by such physical well-being
as these new outlooks in medicine promise to cherish.

And so, gentlemen of the graduating class, at last, to the life-
long study of this science which looks out upon so many path-
ways toward the light, and to the practice of our art, whose aims
are ever closely linked to the high realities of life, it is now my
privilege, on behalf of our guild, and in the name of the Faculty
of this ancient and honored college of medicine, to bid you a cor-
dial welcome.

SUGGESTIBILITY, AUTOMATISM, AND KINDKED
PHENOMENA.

By Peof. WILLIAM EOMAINE NEWBOLD.

II. THE PROPERTIES OF MENTAL STATES.— THE CONCEPTION OF
THE SUBCONSCIOUS.

THERE is another deduction from the doctrine of parallelism
which has been much disputed but which seems to me legiti-
mate. I know that when I glance up from my paper, see a pen,
reach out and take it, ether waves which fell upon the retina of
my eye produced there chemical changes which irritated the optic
nerve ; the irritation was transmitted to the visual centers of the
brain, thence propagated to the motor centers, and from the motor
centers went an impulse which contracted the muscles of my arm.
Bat I am not directly conscious of all this. It seems to me that
the conscious state which I call the perception of the pen caused
the thought of the movement and the movement itself at almost
the same time. Now, if we believe that every conscious state which
we know has its physical concomitant of which we know nothing
save by inference, I see no reason why we may not, for the time
at least, ascribe directly to the mental states the properties which
we believe belong in all strictness to their physical bases only.
Thus, I think it correct to say that the perception of the pen
awakened the thought of taking it and that that in turn produced
the movement. Yet in using this form of speech we must guard
against certain erroneous inferences which are frequently drawn
from it. The first is that the perception of the pen was the only
cause of the thought of taking it, and so on. "We now know that
the whole sequence which I have described depends for its exist-
ence and development upon the constitution of the total system of
processes. This we are apt to forget, when we deal with the men-
tal only, for the law of attention prevents any but a small portion

376 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

of those processes obtaining clear recognition in consciousness at
any one time : the remainder affect the clearest portion more or
less, hut exist themselves only dimly in the marginal region to
which I am not attending. Again, we must not suppose that in
ascribing to the mental state active properties we mean to imply
that the mental states could exist or manifest those properties
apart from the physical processes which form their basis, or that
they can act upon them in any way from outside, as the older
psychology supposed. I do not think, as most psychologists do,
that this notion is inconsistent with the doctrine of parallelism,
but it certainly can not be derived from it, or from the facts upon
which it rests. Guarding against these two errors, then, we may
justly regard the mental state as an active, dynamic thing, subject
to laws and possessed of properties into which it is the business of
the psychologist to inquire.

We all know the difference between red as seen and red as we
think it, although the difference is hard to describe. In most per-
sons the sensation red is peculiarly intense and vivid, while the
idea is lacking in some indescribable way in both these traits.
Now, we have reason to believe that both mental states are of the
same general kind, and that the idea is capable of passing into a
state indistinguishable from the sensation. Such a transition is
known as development. In some persons certain ideas are nor-
mally already developed, so to speak, to their maximum degree.
A friend of mine tells me that, so far as vividness and intensity
go, it makes little difference to him whether his eyes are open or
shut — what he sees is about the same in either case. But more
commonly the idea must be much heightened before it reaches
sensational intensity. Another friend of mine by thinking in-
tently of a friend's appearance can see that friend slowly taking
shape, at first as a shadowy outline, then gaining in clearness and
solidity until the shadowy outline has become the perfect form of a
real person. Now, if we regard the dimmest idea as zero and the
clear sensation as the maximum, we may say that any mental state
may conceivably run through all the intervening grades, and we
have reason to believe that every mental state tends to run through
some grades. This I would express by saying that every mental
state tends to develop within limits which we can not at present
assign. The first property of the mental state, then, is that of
development. It is of importance in explaining the phenomena
of dreams and hallucinations.

The second group of properties which I shall mention depend
upon the transmissibility of the physical impulse. I have already
shown in my first paper how mental elements become agglutinated
into systems in which any one tends to awaken the others. It is
also true of the relation of any one system to another ; they tend

SUGGESTIBILITY AND KINDRED PHENOMENA. 377

to awaken one another. This is what is commonly described as
association of ideas. The reverse is also true, although not as well
known; many states tend to prevent the appearance of other
states. Agreeable states, for example, tend to force out the disa-
greeable, and vice versa. This, then, may be generalized in the
statement of the second property of mental states : every mental
state tends to produce, or prevent the production of, other states.
We may suppose that these phenomena are due to the interplay of
systems of activities within the cortex with one another.

But these activities within the cortex which underlie our ordi-
nary life of sensation and thought tend also to discharge down-
ward through the Rolandic region into the motor mechanism,
producing contractions of the muscles. Thus the third property
of the mental state is the ability to produce or prevent muscular
contraction. Not all mental states have this property in the same
degree. It is most evidently true of the/eeZmgr of movement. I
once asked a class of sixteen girls to think intently what it would
feel like to lift the right hand and touch the left shoulder. After
a few minutes had elapsed nine of them confessed having felt a
desire to do it. I then dropped the subject and spoke of some-
thing else : in a few moments six actually did it. Most .persons
when concentrating attention upon the thought of what a given
movement would feel like, find themselves becoming possessed
of a desire to do it, and this desire marks the tendency of the
thought to produce the movement. But as we not only feel but
also see our movements, we find that the thought of what a move-
ment looks like has also motor value and tends to produce it.
This is also true of touches and ideas of touch — indeed, all or
nearly all mental states product some motor changes in the body,
but the motor effects of sensations and ideas of sound, taste, and
smell are relatively slight.

Again, mental states tend to help or hinder the processes of
secretion and nutrition. We all know that the secretions of the
salivary glands, of the kidneys, of the mammary, and other glands
are readily affected by many mental states, but their effect upon the
processes of nutrition is more disputed. It is quite certain that
in a general way the impulses sent out by the central nervous
system are necessary to the proper nutrition of the body, but it is
not as generally accepted that individual mental states can pro-
duce definite changes, as, for example, when it is reported that a
hypnotized patient, by thinking of a burn, has actually produced
the burn. Yet even for this there is good evidence.

One may justly ask how it is, if mental states really have defi-
nite consequences, that we fail to note in our mental life the
orderly sequence of cause and effect with which we are familiar
in the physical world ? If there be any truth in the theory above

VOL. XLVIII. — 27

378 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

outlined, this inability to observe it is precisely what one should
expect. It is not possible to analyze the total content of conscious-
ness into any definite number of " states." The total state of con-
sciousness at any given moment depends upon the condition and
character of a system of physical activities, and its few distinguish-
able elements are related to some rather than to other elements of
that system. But no portion of the system could be what it is if
the other portions were not just what they are, and in the succes-
sion of the clearer states of consciousness we see not merely the
effect of the one clear state upon the next clear state, but the effect
of one whole system upon the next whole system ; and often the
active factor in determining the character of the next clear state
is not what was clearest in the preceding, but one of those which
were dimly existent in the margin, or even one of those that were
subconscious. To determine the true properties of any state it
would be necessary to isolate it by breaking up this co-ordination,
and that, as I shall show later, we can to some extent do.

Before taking up these more complex forms of disorganiza-
tion, or, better, disordination, I must make plain the meaning of
the word subconscious, which I have had occasion once or twice
to use.

I am sitting in a chair and reading an interesting story ; the
clock strikes and I do not hear it. Why ? There are only four
possible theories. We must suppose that the air vibrations strike
the ear drum and are propagated through the ear bones and
lymph to the auditory nerve. Then either (1) the physical pro-
cess is blocked at some point between the terminal filaments of
the auditory nerve in the inner ear and its origin in the cortex ;
or (2) the irritation reaches the cortex, but fails to awaken any
cortical process ; or (3) it awakens a cortical process which is un-
accompanied by any mental state ; or (4) it awakens both a corti-
cal process and a mental state. For the first of these alternatives
there is no evidence. On the contrary, since I hear the clock
strike if I am expecting it, and since all theories require us to
regard expectation as dependent upon cortical processes, if any
mental phenomena are, we must look to the cortex for the expla-
nation and not to the peripheral machinery. The second alterna-
tive is conceivable, but there is no direct evidence for it and there
is some against it. It is frequently possible, for example, to
awaken by hypnotic suggestion a memory of the event which
was not consciously experienced, and, as memory depends upon
the traces left by earlier experiences in the cortex, it would seem
to follow that there must have been a cortical disturbance. The
third alternative is more probable. There is reason for believing
that any cortical process must attain a certain degree of intensity
before its mental concomitant comes into being at all, and per-

SUGGESTIBILITY AND KINDRED PHENOMENA. 379

haps the existence of other active processes prevents its attaining
that degree of intensity. Again, if we revert to the old soul
theory, now almost wholly abandoned by psychologists, but still,
I think, worthy of consideration, we may suppose that the corti-
cal process alone can not produce consciousness, but requires the
co-operation of some other factor. The pros and cons in these
last two suppositions are too intricate for present discussion, and,
indeed, my purpose is, not to prove a theory, but to state the
fourth supposition and to analyze some of its logical implica-
tions.

The parallel theory would raise the presumption that any
cortical process is accompanied by mental phenomena of some
kind. We would then assume, in the case under consideration,
that the cortical process in the auditory center generated a sound.
But how is this to be reconciled to the testimony of consciousness
that I heard no sound ?

Well, it may be that I did hear it, but instantly forgot it, so
that my present memory of that period contains no trace of it.
That this frequently happens there can be no doubt, but there are
many curious phenomena which require a further assumption,
and that further assumption may be thus stated : The sound may
have existed simply as a solitary sound, all alone, not in my con-
sciousness or in the consciousness of any one, but as a bare mental
event, related to my consciousness much as a sound in your con-
sciousness is related to mine. It is not an easy conception to
grasp, for our mental life always consists of many elements, and
it would seem that this multiplicity is essentially involved in bur
notion of consciousness. Yet occasionally we have experiences
which help us in forming the conception of a mental state exist-
ing outside a personal consciousness. I remember a trifling opera-
tion upon the eye which I once underwent. For a few seconds my
consciousness seemed reduced to one element — a flood of frightful
pain, which was not in my eye but seemed to pervade my whole
being, to the almost complete exclusion of all else. Again, under
nitrous oxide, my consciousness seemed reduced to something so
rudimentary as to be wholly indescribable. I have heard of
many similar experiences.

Without pronouncing upon the relative merits of the last two
hypotheses I shall develop some of the logical implications of the
latter. A state such as I have described, supposed to exist within
my head, so to speak, but outside my consciousness, may be de-
scribed as subconscious. There are, then, two conceivable ways in
which a mental state may vanish from the upper consciousness.
The cortical process upon which it depends may die away ; it then
perishes absolutely; or the cortical process may be dissociated
from the system underlying the total consciousness and yet re-

38o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

main active, thus giving rise to a subconscious state. This sup-
position, that a cortical process may exist without coalescing at
all with the general system, is a somewhat novel assumption, and
it is in my opinion the weakest point of the theory. It would
require the further assumption that a cortical system, once co-
ordinated, tends to resist the introduction of a new element into
it, and for this there is some introspective evidence.

For consistency's sake the dynamic conceptions which I would
apply to mental states in consciousness must be applied also to
these mental states existing subconsciously. Subconscious ideas
and sensations must be capable of development in intensity and
in perfection of finish, so to speak ; must be able to awaken asso-
ciated ideas, to produce bodily movements, to affect secretion and
other metabolic processes. It would appear possible that the dis-
sociated processes underlying them may suddenly effect union
with the upper system, thus intruding the subconscious state into
the upper consciousness. When it does not a^ctually effect union
it is conceivable that some of its results, such as its associated
ideas or emotional consequents, may appear in the upper con-
sciousness. It is also conceivable that its mere existence may
disturb the normal tension of the cortical activities, what has
been termed the psychos tatic equilibrium of the cortex, and thus
affect the upper consciousness. A mental state supposed to be
thus growing and working subconsciously has been happily
termed by Pierre Janet a mental parasite or neoplasm. For all
these inferences, which I have stated as deductions from the
hypothesis that there exist mental states dissociated from the
normal consciousness, there is a great deal of direct evidence,
and it is upon an inductive study of that evidence that the hy-
pothesis is based ; but the limitations of space prevent my giving
concrete illustrations.

At a recent meeting of the English Folklore Society, a presentation
was made to Mr. G. Laurence Gomme, late president of the society, after
which Mr, Gomme spoke of his connection with the society — as honorary
secretary, director, president, and now vice-president — since seventeen
years ago, when he was one of four who started it in the dining room of
the late Mr. Thoms, founder and editor of Notes and Queries. The society
had taken its position now, he was sure, as representative of the psycho-
logical side of the history of man. With Mr. Brabrook, President of the
Anthropological Society, and Prof. Haddon working with them, they
hoped as soon as possible to obtain their proper position at the British
Association, and, with their scientific standing officially recognized, proceed
to accomplish some of the great work he believed they had before them.
They were not a dilettanti society, playing with antiquities, but they were
taking part in unraveling some of the great mysteries of man's nature.

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD, 381

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD.

XIV.— THE CHILD AS ARTIST.

By JAMES SULLY, M.A.,LL.D.,

OBOTE PROFESSOR OE THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND LOGIC AT THE UlflVERSITY COLLEOB,

LONDON.

ONE of the most interesting, perhaps also one of the most
instructive, phases of child-life is the beginnings of art
activity. This has been recognized by one of the best-known
workers in the field of child-psychology, M. Bernard Perez, who
has treated the subject in an interesting monograph.* This de-
partment of our subject will, like that of language, be found to
have interesting points of contact with the phenomena of primi-
tive race culture.

The art impulse of children lends itself particularly well to
observation. No doubt, as we shall see, there are difficulties for
the observer here. It may sometimes be a fine point to determine
whether a childish action properly falls under the head of genu-
ine art production, though I do not think that this is a serious
difficulty. On the other hand, the art impulse, where it exists,
manifests itself directly and for the most part in so characteristic
an objective form that we are able to study its features with
special facility.

In its narrow sense as a specialized instinct prompting its pos-
sessor to follow a definite line of production, as drawing of the
artistic sort, or simple musical composition, the art impulse is a
particularly variable phenomenon of childhood. Some children
who afterward take seriously to a branch of art culture, manifest
an innate bent by a precocious devotion to this line of activity.
Many others, I have reason to believe, have a passing fondness
for a particular form of art activity. On the other hand, there
are many children who display almost a complete lack, not only
of the productive impulse, but of the aesthetic sense of the artist.
So uncertain, so sporadic, are these appearances of a rudimentary
art among children, that one might be easily led to think that
art activity ought not to be reckoned among their common char-
acteristics.

To judge so, however, would be to judge erroneously, by ap-
plying grown-up standards. It is commonly recognized that art
and play are closely connected. It is probable that the first crude
art of the race, or at least certain directions of it, sprang out of
playlike activities, and, however this be, the likenesses of the
two are indisputable. I shall hope to bring these out in the pres-

* L'Art et la Po68ie chez rEnfant, 1888.

382 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ent study. This being so, we are, I conceive, justified in speaking
of art impulses as a common characteristic of childhood.

Although we shall find many interesting points of analogy
between crude child-art and primitive race-art, we must not, as
pointed out above, expect a perfect parallelism. In some direc-
tions, as drawing, concerted dancing, the superior experience,
strength, and skill of the adult will reveal themselves, placing
child-art at a considerable disadvantage in the comparison. Con-
trariwise, the intervention of the educator's hand tends seriously
to modify the course of development of the child's aesthetic apti-
tudes. His tastes get acted upon from the first and biased in the
direction of adult tastes.

This modifying influence of education shows itself more es-
pecially in one particular. There is reason to think that in the
development of the race the growth of a feeling for what is beau-
tiful was a concomitant of the growth of the art impulse, the
impulse to adorn the person, to collect feathers and other pretty
things. Not so in the case of the child. Here we note a certain
growth of the liking for pretty things before the spontaneous art
impulse has had time to manifest itself. Most children who have
a cultivated mother or other guardian acquire a rudimentary ap-
preciation of what their elders think beautiful before they do
much in the way of art production. We provide them with toys,
pictures, we sing to them, and perhaps we even take them to the
theater, and so do our best to inoculate them with our ideas as to
what is pretty. Hence the difficulty — probably the chief diffi-
culty— of finding out what the child-mind, left to itself, does pre-
fer. At the same time the early date at which such aesthetic
preferences begin to manifest themselves makes it desirable to
study them before we go on to consider the active side of child-
art. We will try as well as we can to extricate the first mani-
festations of genuine childish taste.

At the very beginning, before the educational influence has
had time to work, we can catch some of the characteristics of this
childish quasi-sesthetic feeling. The directions of a child's obser-
vation, and of the movements of his grasping arms, tell us pretty
clearly what sort of things attract and please him.

In the home scene it is bright objects, such as the fire flame,
the lamp, the play of the sunlight on a bit of glass or a gilded
frame ; out of doors, glistening water, a meadow whitened by
daisies, the fresh snow mantle, later the moon and the stars,
which seem to impart to the dawning consciousness the first hint
of the world's beauty. Luminosity, brightness in its higher in-
tensities, whether the bright rays reach the eye directly or are
reflected from a lustrous surface, this makes the first gladness of
the eye, as it remains a chief source of the gladness of life.

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 383

The feeling for color as such comes distinctly later. The first
delight in colored objects is hardly distinguishable from the
primordial delight in brightness. This applies pretty manifestly
to the brightly illumined, rose-red curtain which Preyer's boy
greeted with signs of satisfaction at the age of twenty-three days,
and it applies to later manifestations. Thus Preyer found, on ex-
perimenting with his boy toward the end of the second year as to
his color discrimination, that a decided preference was shown for
the bright or luminous colors, red and yellow.* Much the same
thing was observed by Miss Shinn in her interesting account of
the early development of her niece's color sense, f Thus in the
twenty-eighth month she showed a special fondness for the daffo-
dils, the bright tints of which allured another and older maiden,
and, alas! to the place whence all brightness was banished.
About the same time the child conceived a fondness for a yellow
gown of her aunt, strongly objecting to the substitution for it of
a brown dress. Among the other colored objects which capti-
vated the eye of this little girl were a patch of white cherry blos-
som and a red sunset sky. Such observations might easily be
multiplied. Whiteness, it is to be noted, comes, as we might ex-
pect, with bright partial colors, among the first favorites. J

At what age a child begins to appreciate the value of color
as color, to like blue or red, for its own sake and apart from its
brightness, it is hard to say. The experiments of Preyer, Binet,
Baldwin, and others, as to the discrimination of color, are hardly
conclusive as to special likings, though Baldwin's plan of getting
the child to reach out for colors throws a certain light on this
point. According to Baldwin, blue is one of the first colors to be
singled out ; but he does not tell us how the colors he used (which
did not, unfortunately, include yellow — the child's favorite accord-
ing to other observers) were related in point of luminosity.*

No doubt a child of three or four is apt to conceive a special
liking for a particular color, which favorite he is wont to appro-
priate as " my color." A collection of such perfectly spontaneous
preferences is a desideratum in the study of the first manifesta-
tions of a feeling for color. Care must be taken in observing
these selections to eliminate the effects of association, and the un-
intentional influence of example and authority, as when a child
takes to a particular color because it is " mamma's color " — that is,
the one she appears to affect in her dress and otherwise.

* Op. cit, p. 7 and p. 11 f.

f Notes on the Development of a Child, p. 91 ff.

X Cf. Perez, L'Art et la Po6sie chez I'Enfant, p. 41 ff.

* See Baldwin's two articles on A New Method of Child Study, in Science, April, 1893,
and his volume, Mental Development in the Child and the Eace.

384 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The values of the several colors probably disclose themselves
in close connection with that of color contrast. Many of the lik-
ings of a child of three in the matter of flowers, birds, dresses,
and so on, are clearly traceable to a growing pleasure in color
contrast. Here again we must distinguish between a true chro-
matic and a merely luminous effect. The dark-blue sky showing
itself in a break in the white clouds, one of the colored spectacles
which delighted Miss Shinn's niece, may have owed much of its
attractiveness to the contrast of light and dark. It would be in-
teresting to experiment with children of three with a view to
determine whether and how far chromatic contrast pleases when
it stands alone, and is not supported by that of chiaroscuro.

I have reason to believe that children, like the less cultivated
adults, prefer juxtapositions of colors which lie far from one an-
other in the color circle, as blue and red or blue and yellow. It is
sometimes said that the practice and the history of painting show
blue and red to be a more pleasing combination than that of the
complementary colors, blue and yellow. It would be well to test
children's feeling on this matter. It would be necessary in this
inquiry to see that the child did not select for combination a par-
ticular color as blue or yellow for its own sake, and independently
of its relation to its companion — a point not very easy to deter-
mine. Care would have to be taken to eliminate further the in-
fluence of authority as operating, not only by instructing the
child what combinations are best, but by setting models of com-
bination, in the habitual arrangements of dress and so forth.
This, too, would probably prove to be a condition not easy to
satisfy.*

I have dwelt at some length on the first germs of color appre-
ciation, because this is the one feature of the child's aesthetic sense
which has so far lent itself to definite experimental investigation.
It is very different when we turn to the first appreciation of form.
That little children have their likings in the matter of form is,
I think, indisputable, but they are not those of the cultivated
adult. A quite small child will admire the arch of a rainbow and
the roundness of a kitten's form, though in these instances the
delight in form is far from pure. More clearly marked is the ap-
preciation of pretty, graceful movements, as a kitten's boundings.
Perhaps the first waking up to the graces of form takes place in
connection with this delight in the forms of motion, a delight
which at first is a mixed feeling, involving the interest in all mo-
tion as suggestive of life, to which reference has already been
made. Do not all of us, indeed, tend to translate our impressions

* The influence of such authority is especially evident in the selection of harmonious
shades of color for dress, etc. Cf. Miss Shinn, op. cit, p. 95.

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD, 385

of still forms back into these first impressions of the forms of
motion ?

One noticeable feature in the child's first response to the at-
tractions of form is the preference given to " tiny " things. The
Liking for small natural forms, birds, insects, shells, and so forth,
and the prominence of such epithets as " wee," " tiny " or " teeny,"
" dear little," in the child's vocabulary alike illustrate this early
direction of taste. This feeling again is a mixed one; for the
child's interest in very small fragile- looking things has in it an
element of caressing tenderness which again contains a touch of
fellow-feeling. This is but one illustration of the general rule of
aesthetic development in the case of the individual and of the race
alike that a pure contemplative delight in the aspect of things
only gradually detaches itself from a mixed feeling.

If now we turn to the higher aspects of form, regularity of
outline, symmetry, proportion, we encounter a difficulty. Many
children acquire while quite young and before any formal educa-
tion commences a certain feeling for regularity and symmetry.
But is this the result of a mere observation of natural or other
forms ? Here the circumstances of the child become important.
He lives among those who insist on these features in the daily
activities of the home. In' laying the cloth of the dinner table,
for example, a child sees the regular division of space enforced as
a law. Every time he is dressed, or sees his mother dress, he has
an object lesson in symmetrical arrangement. And so these fea-
tures take on a kind of ethical rightness before they are judged
as elements of aesthetic value. As to a sense of proportion be-
tween the dimensions or parts of a form, the reflection that this
involves a degree of intellectuality above the reach of many an
adult might suggest that it is not to be expected from a small
child ; and this conjecture will be borne out when we come to
examine children's first essays in drawing.

These elementary pleasures of light, color, and certain simple
aspects of form may be said to be the basis of a crude perception
of beauty in natural objects and in the products of human work-
manship. A quite small child is capable of acquiring a real ad-
miration for a beautiful lady, in the appreciation of which bright-
ness, color, grace of movement, the splendor of dress, all have
their part, while the charm for the eye is often re-enforced by a
sweet and winsome quality of voice. Such an admiration is not
perfectly aesthetic : awe, an inkling of the social dignity of dress,*
perhaps a longing to be embraced by the charmer, may all enter
into it ; yet a genuine admiration of look for its own sake is the
core of the feeling. In other childish admirations, as the girl's

* On the nature of the early feeling for dress, see Perez, L'Art et la Po6sie chez I'Enfant.

386 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

entliusiastic worsliip of the newly arrived baby, we see a true
sestbetic sentiment mingled witb and struggling, so to speak, to
extricate itself from sucb " interested " feelings as sense of per-
sonal enrichment by the new possession and of family pride. In
the likings for animals, again, which often take what seem to ns
capricious and quaint directions, we may see rudiments of aesthetic
perceptions half hidden under a lively sense of absolute lordship
tempered with affection.

Perhaps the nearest approach to a pure aesthetic enjoyment in
these first experiences is the love of flowers. The wee round won-
ders with their mystery of velvety color are well fitted to take
captive the young eye. I believe most children who live among
flowers and have access to them acquire something of this senti-
ment, a sentiment of admiration for beautiful things with which
a sort of dumb childish sympathy commonly blends. No doubt
there are marked differences among children here. There are
some who care only, or mainly, for their scent, and the strong
sensibilities of the olfactory organ appear to have a good deal to
do with early preferences and prejudices in the matter of flowers.*
Others again care for them mainly as a means of personal adorn-
ment, though I am disposed to think that this partially interested
fondness is less common with children than with many adults.
It is sometimes said that the love of flowers is, in the main, a
characteristic of girls. I think, however, that if one takes chil-
dren early enough, before a consciousness of sex and of its pro-
prieties has been allowed to develop under education, the difference
will be but slight. Little boys of four or thereabouts very often
show a very lively sentiment of admiration for these gems of the
plant world.

In much of this first crude utterance of the aesthetic sense of
the child we have points of contact with the first manifestations
of taste in the race. Delight in bright, glistening things, in gay
tints, in strong contrasts of color, as well as in certain forms of
movement, as that of feathers — the favorite personal adornment —
this is known to be characteristic of the savage and gives to his
taste in the eyes of civilized man the look of childishness. On
the other hand, it is doubtful whether the savage attains to the
sentiment of the child for the beauty of flowers. Our civilized
surroundings, meadows, and gardens, as well as the constant
action of the educative forces of example, soon carry the child
beyond the savage in this particular.

How far can children be said to have the germ of a feeling for
Kature, or, to use the more comprehensive modern term, cosmic
emotion ? It is a matter of common observation that they have

* See Perez, L'Art et la Po6sie chez I'Enfant, p. 90 1

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD, 387

not the power to embrace a multitude of things in a single act of
contemplation. Hence they have no feeling for landscape as a
harmonious complex of picturesquely varied parts. When they
are taken to see a " view," their eye, instead of trying to embrace
the whole, as a fond parent desires, provokingly pounces on some
single feature of interest, and often one of but little aesthetic value.
People make a great mistake in taking children to " points of
view " under the supposition that they will share in grown people's
impressions. Perez relates that some children taken to the Pic du
Midi found their chief pleasure in scrambling up the peak and
saying that they were on donkeys.* Mere magnitude or vastness
of spectacle does not appeal to the child, for a sense of the sub-
lime grows out of a complex imaginative process which is beyond
his young powers. So far as immensity affects him at all, as
in the case of the sea, it seems to excite a measure of dread in
face of the unknown ; and this feeling, though having a certain
kinship with the emotion of sublimity, is distinct from this last.
It has nothing of the joyous consciousness of expansion which
enters into the later feeling. It is only to certain limited objects
and features of Nature that the child is aesthetically responsive.
He knows the loveliness of the gilded spring meadow, the fascina-
tion of the sunlit stream, the awful mystery of the wood, and
something too, perhaps, of the calming beauty of the broad blue
sky. That is to say, he has a number of small rootlets which
when they grow together will develop into a feeling for Nature.

Here, too, the analogy between the child and the uncultured
Nature-man is evident. The savage has no aesthetic sentiment for
Nature as a whole, though he may feel the charm of some of her
single features, a stream, a mountain, the star-spangled sky, and
may even be affected by some of the awful aspects of her changing
physiognomy. Are we not told, indeed, that a true aesthetic ap-
preciation of the picturesque variety of Nature's scenes, of the
weird charm of wild places, and of the sublime fascinations of the
awful and repellent mountain, are quite late attainments in the
history of our race ? \

We may now look at the child's attitude toward those objects
and processes of human art which from the first form part of his
environment and make an educative appeal to his senses ; and
here we may begin with those simple musical effects which follow
up certain impressions derived from the natural world.

It has been pointed out that sounds form a chief source of the

* Op. dt., p. 103.

f An excellent sketch of the growth of our feeling for the romantic and sublime beauty
of mountains is given by Mr. Leslie Stephen in one of the most delightful of his works,
The Playground of Europe.

388 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

little child-heart's first trepidations. Yet this prolific cause of
disquietude, when once the first alarming effect of strangeness
has passed, becomes a main source of interest and delight. Some
of Nature's sounds, as those of running water and of the wind,
early catch the ear, and excite wonder and curiosity. Miss Shinn
illustrates fully in the case of her niece how the interest in sounds
developed itself in the first years.* This pleasure in listening to
sounds and in tracing them to their origin forms a chief pastime
of babyhood.

Esthetic pleasure in sound begins to be differentiated out of
this general interest as soon as there arises a comparison of quali-
ties and a development of preferences. Thus the sound of metal
(when struck) is preferred to that of wood or stone. A nascent
feeling for musical quality thus emerges which probably has its
part in many of the first likings for persons ; certain pitches, as
those of the female voice, and possibly timbres being preferred to
others.

Quite as soon, at least, as this feeling for quality of sound or
tone, there manifests itself a crude liking for rhythmic sequence.
It is commonly recognized that our pleasure in regularly recur-
ring sounds is instinctive, being the result of our whole nervous
organization. We can better adapt successive acts of listening
when sounds follow at regular intervals, and the movements
which sounds evoke can be much better carried out in a regular
sequence. The infant shows us this in his well-known liking for
well-marked rhythms in tunes which he accompanies with suit-
able movements of the arms, head, etc.

The first likings for musical composition are based on this
instinctive feeling for rhythm. It is the simple tunes, with well-
marked, easily recognizable time divisions, which first take the
child's fancy, and he knows the quieting and the exciting qual-
ities of different rhythms and times. Where rhythm is less
marked, or grows highly complex, the motor responses being con-
fused, the pleasurable interest declines. It is the same with the
rhythmic qualities of verses. The jingling rhythms which their
souls love are of simple structure, with short feet well marked off,
as in the favorite " Jack and Gill."

Coming now to art as representative, we find that a child's
aesthetic appreciation waits on the growth of intelligence, on the
understanding of artistic representation as contrasted with a
direct presentation of reality.

The development of an understanding of visual representation
or the imaging of things has already been touched upon. As
Perez points out, the first lesson in this branch of knowledge is

* Op. cit., p. 115 ff.

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 389

supplied by tlie reflections of the mirror, which, as we have seen,
the infant begins to take for realities, though he soon comes to
understand that they are not tangible realities. The looking
glass is the best means of elucidating the representative function
of the image or " Bild" just because it presents this image in
close proximity to the reality, and so invites direct comparison
with this.

In the case of pictures where this direct comparison is ex-
cluded we might expect a less rapid recognition of the representa-
tive function. Yet children show very early that picture sem-
blances are understood in the sense that they call forth reactions
similar to those called forth by realities. A little boy was ob-
served to talk to pictures at the end of the eighth month. This
perhaps hardly amounted to recognition. Pollock says that the
significance of pictures " was in a general way understood " by
his little girl at the age of thirteen months.* Miss Shinn tells us
that her niece, at the age of forty-two weeks, showed the same
excitement at the sight of a life-size painting of a cat as at that
of real cats.f Ten months is also given me by a lady as the date
at which her little boy recognized pictures of animals by naming
them " bow-wow,^' etc., without being prompted.

This early recognition of pictures is certainly remarkable,
even when we remember that animals have the germ of it. The
stories of recognition by birds of paintings of birds, and by dogs
of portraits of persons, have to do with fairly large and finished
paintings. X A child, however, will " recognize " a small and
roughly executed drawing. He seems in this respect to surpass
the powers of savages, some of whom, at least, are said to be slow
in recognizing pictorial semblances. This power, which includes
a delicate observation of form and an acute sense of likeness, is
seen most strikingly in the recognition of individual portraits.
Miss Shinn's niece in her fourteenth month picked out her father's
face in a group of nine, the face being scarcely more than a quar-
ter of an inch in diameter.* I noticed the same fineness of recog-
nition in my own children.

One point in this early observation of pictures is curious
enough to call for especial remark. A friend of mine, a psychol-
ogist, writes to me that his little girl, aged three and a half, " does
not mind whether she looks at a picture the right way up or the
wrong ; she points out what you ask for, eyes, feet, hands, tail,
etc., about equally well whichever way up the picture is, and
never asks to have it put right that she may see it better.'' The

* Mind, iii, p. 393. f Notes on the Development of a Child, i, p. 71 f.

J See Romanes, Animal Intelligence, pp. 311 and 453 ff. The only exception ia a photo-
graph which is said to have been *' large," p. 453. * Op. cit.^ i, p. 74.

390 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

same thing was noticed in the other children of the family, and
the mother tells me that her mother observed it in her children.
I have found a further illustration of this indifference to the
position of a picture in the two children of another friend of
mine. Prof. Petrie tells me that he once watched an Arab boy
looking at a picture-book. One, a drawing of horses and chariot,
happened to have a different position from the rest, so that the
book being held as before, the horses seemed to be going upward ;
but the boy was not in the least incommoded, and without attempt-
ing to turn the book round easily made it out. These facts are
curious as illustrating the skill of the young eye in deciphering.
They may possibly have a further significance as showing how
what we call position — the arrangement of a form in relation to a
vertical line — is a comparatively artificial view of which a child
as yet takes little if any account. He may be able to concentrate
his attention so well on form proper that he is indifferent to the
point how the form is placed. Yet this matter is one which well
deserves further investigation.*

A further question arises as to whether this " recognition " of
pictures by children toward the end of the first year necessarily
implies a grasp of the idea of a picture — that is, of a representa-
tion or copy of something. The first reactions of a child, smiling,
etc., on seeing mirror images and pictures, do not seem to show
this, but merely that he is affected much as he would be by the
presence of the real object, or, at most, that he recognizes the pic-
ture as a kind of thing. The same is, I think, true of the so-called
recognition of pictures by animals.

That children do not, at first, seize the pictorial or representa-
tive function is seen in the familiar fact that they will touch pic-
tures us they touch shadows and otherwise treat them as if they
were tangible realities. Thus Pollock's little girl attempted to
smell at the trees in a picture and " pretended " to feed some pic-
torial dogs.

When the first clear apprehension of the pictorial function is
reached it is difficult to say. Miss Shinn thought that her niece
" understood the purport of a picture quite well " at the age of
forty-five weeks. She draws this conclusion from the fact that at
this date the child, in answer to the question, " Where are the
flowers ? " leaned over and touched the painted flowers on her
aunt's gown, and then looked out to the garden with a cry of
desire. t But this inference seems to me very risky. All that the
child's behavior proves is that she "classed" real and painted

* Prof. Petrie reminds me that a like absence of the perception of position shows itself
in the way in which letters are drawn in early Greek and Phoenician writings,
f Op. cU., i, p. 12.

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD, 391

flowers together, while she recognized the superiority of the for-
mer as the tangible and probably the odorous ones. The strong-
est evidence of recognition of pictorial function by children is, I
think, their ability to recognize the portrait of an individual.
But even this is not quite satisfactory. It is conceivable, at least,
that a child may look on a photograph of his father as a kind of
" double." The boy C took his projected photograph very seri-
ously as a kind of doubling of himself. The story of the dog, a
Dandy Dinmont terrier, that trembled and barked at a portrait
of his dead mistress,* seems to me to bear this out. It would
surely be rather absurd to say that the demonstrations of this
animal, whatever they may have meant, prove that he took the
portrait to be a memento likeness of his dead mistress.

We are apt to forget how difficult and abstract a conception is
that of pictorial representation, how hard it is to look at a thing
as pure semblance having no value in itself, but only as standing
for something else. A like slowness on the part of the child to
grasp a sign, as such, shows itself here as in the case of verbal
symbols. Children will, quite late, especially when feeling is
aroused and imagination specially active, show a disposition to
transform the semblance into the thing. Miss Shinn herself
points out that her niece, who seems to have been decidedly
quick, was as late as the twenty-fifth month touched with pity by
a picture of a lamb caught in a thicket, and tried to lift the
painted branch that lay across the lamb. In her thirty- fifth
month, again, when looking at a picture of a chamois defending
her little one from an eagle, " she asked anxiously if the mamma
would drive the eagle away, and presently quite simply and un-
consciously placed her little hand edgewise on the picture so as
to make a fence between the eagle and the chamois." f Such
ready confusion of pictures with realities shows itself in the
fourth year and later. A boy nearly five was observed to strike
at the figures in a picture and to exclaim, '' I can't break them."
The Worcester collection of observations illustrates the first con-
fused idea of a picture. " One day F , a boy of four, called on

a friend, Mrs. C , who had just received a picture, representing

a scene in winter, in which people were going to church, some on

foot and others in sleighs. F was told whither they were going.

The next day he came and noticed the picture, and looking at Mrs.

C and then at the picture, said, ' Why, Mrs. C , them people

haven't got there yet, have they ? ' "

All this points, I think, to a slow and gradual emergence of the
idea of representation or likeness. If a child is capable in mo-
ments of intense imagination of confusing his battered doll with

* Romanes, op. cit.^ p. 453. f (^. cit., ii, p. 104.

39* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

a living reality, >]ie may be expected to act similarly with respect
to the fuller likeness of a picture. Vividness of imagination tends
in the child as in the savage, and indeed in all of us, to invest a
semblance with something of reality. We are able to control the
illusory tendency and to keep it within the limits of an aesthetic
semi-illusion ; not so the child. Is it too fanciful to suppose that
the belief of the savage in the occasional visits of the real spirit-
god to his idol has for its psychological motive the impulse which
prompts the child ever and again to identify his toys and even his
pictures With the realities which they represent ?

As might be expected, this impulse to confuse representation
and represented reality shows itself very distinctly in the first
reception of dramatic spectacle. If you dress up as Father Christ-
mas, your child, even though he is told that you are his father,
will hardly be able to resist the illusion that your disguise so pow-
erfully induces. Cuvier relates that a boy of ten, on watching a
stage scene in which troops were drawn up for action, broke out
in loud protestations to the actor who was taking the part of the
general, telling him that the artillery was wrongly placed, and so
forth.* This reminds one of the story of the sailors who on a visit
to a theater happened to see a representation of a mutiny on board
ship, and were so excited that they rushed on the stage and took
sides with the authorities in quelling the movement.

I believe that this same tendency to take art representations
for realities reappears in children's mental attitude toward stories.
A story by its narrative form seems to tell of real events, and chil-
dren, as we all know, are wont to believe tenaciously that their
stories are true. I think I have observed a disposition in imagi-
native children to go beyond this, and to give present actuality to
the scenes and events described. And this is little to be wondered
at when one remembers that even grown people, familiar with the
devices of art imitation, tend now and again to fall into this con-
fusion. Only a few days ago, as I was reading an account by a
friend of mine of a perilous passage in an Alpine ascent, accom-
plished years ago, I suddenly caught myself in the attitude of pro-
posing to shout out to stop him from venturing farther. A vivid
imaginative realization of the situation had made it for the mo-
ment a present actuality.

Careful observations of the first attitudes of the child-mind
toward representative art are greatly needed. We should proba-
bly find considerable diversity of behavior. The presence of a
true art feeling would be indicated by a special quickness in the
apprehension of art semblance as such.

In these first reactions of the young mind to the stimulus of

* Quoted by Perez, op. cit., p. 216.

STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD, 393

art presentation we may study other aspects of the aesthetic apti-
tude. Very quaint and interesting is the exacting realism of these
first appreciations. A child is apt to insist on a perfect detailed
reproduction of the familiar reality. And here one may often
trace the fine observation of these early years. Listen, for exam-
ple, to the talk of the little critic before a drawing of a horse or a
railway train, and you will be surprised to find how closely and
minutely he has studied the forms of things. It is the same with
other modes of art representation. Perez gives an amusing in-
stance of a boy, aged four, who when taken to a play was shocked
at the anomaly of a chambermaid touching glasses with her mas-
ter on 2^ fete day. " In our home,^' exclaimed the stickler for regu-
larities, to the great amusement of the neighbors, " we don^t let
the nurse drink like that.-" * It is the same with story. Children
are liable to be morally hurt if anything is described greatly at
variance with the daily custom. Esthetic rightness is as yet con-
fused with moral rightness or social propriety, which, as we have
seen, has its instinctive support in the child's mind in respect for
custom.

Careful observation will disclose in these first frankly ex-
pressd impressions the special directions of childish taste. The
preferences of a boy of four in the matter of picture-books tell us
where his special interests lie, what things he finds pretty, and
how much of a genuine aesthetic faculty he is likely to develop
later on. Here, again, there is ample room for more careful stud-
ies directed to the detection of the first manifestations of a pure
delight in things as beautiful, as charming at once the senses and
the imagination.

The first appearances of that complex interest in life and per-
sonality which fills so large a place in our aesthetic pleasures can
be best noted in the behavior of the child's mind toward dramatic
spectacle and story. The awful ecstatic delight with which a
child is apt to greet any moving semblance carrying with it the
look of life and action is something which some of us, like Goethe,
can recall among our oldest memories. The old-fashioned moving
" ScJiaiten-hilder" for which the gaudy but rigid pictures of the
magic lantern are but a poor substitute, the puppet-show, with
what a delicious wonder have these filled the childish heart ! And
as to the entrancing, enthralling delight of the story — well have
Thackeray and others tried to describe this for us.

Of very special interest in these early manifestations of a feel-
ing for art is the appearance of a crude form of the two emotions
to which all representations of life and character make appeal —
the feeling for the comic and for the tragic side of things. What

* Op, cit,, pp. 215, 216.
VOL. XLvni.— 28

394 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

we may call the adult's fallacy, the tendency to judge children by
grown-Tip standards, frequently shows itself in an expectation
that their laughter will follow the directions of our own. I re-
member having made the mistake of putting those delightful
books, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, into the hands of a
small boy with a considerable sense of fun, and having been hu-
miliated at discovering that there was no response. Children's
fun is of a very elemental character. They are mostly tickled, I
suspect, by the spectacle of some upsetting of the proprieties,
some confusion of the established distinctions of rank. Dress, as
we have seen, has an enormous symbolic value for the child's
mind, and any confusion here is apt to be specially laughter-pro-
voking. One child between three and four was convulsed at the
sight of his baby bib fastened round the neck of his bearded sire.
There is, too, a considerable element of rowdiness in children's
sense of the comical, as may be seen by the enduring popularity
of the spectacle of Punch's successful misdemeanors and bravings
of the legal authority.

Since children are apt to take spectacles with an exacting seri-
ousness, it becomes interesting to note how the two moods, realis-
tic stickling for correctness, and rollicking hilarity at the sight
of the disorderly, behave in relation one to another. More facts
are needed on this point. It is probable that we have here to do
in part with a permanent difference of temperament. There are
serious, matter-of-fact little minds which are shocked by a kind
of spectacle or narrative that would give boundless delight to a
more elastic, fun-loving spirit. But discarding these permanent
differences of disposition, I think that in general the sense of fun,
the delight in the topsy-turviness of things, is apt to develop later
than the serious realistic attitude already referred to. Here, too,
it is probable that the evolution of the individual follows that of
the race : the solemnities of custom and ritual weigh so heavily
at first on the savage mind that there is no chance for sprightly
Laughter to show himself. However this be, most young chil-
dren appear to be unable to appreciate true comedy where the in-
congruous coexists with and takes on one half of its charm from
serious surroundings. Their laughter is best called forth by a
broadly farcical show in which all serious rules are set at naught.

Of no less interest in this attitude of the child-mind toward
the representations by art of human character and action are the
first rude manifestations of the feeling for the tragic side of life.
A child of four or six is far from realizing the divine necessity
which controls our mortal lives. Yet he will display a certain
crude feeling for thrilling situation, exciting adventure, and
something, too, of a sympathetic interest in the woes of mortals,
quadrupeds as well as bipeds. The action, the situation, may

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 395

easily grow too painful for an imaginative child disposed to take
all representative spectacle as reality ; yet tlie absorbing interest
of the action where the sadness is bearable attests the early de-
velopment of that universal feeling for the sorrowful fatefulness
of things which runs through all imaginative writings from the
" penny dreadful " upward.

THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS.

By SAMUEL J. BAKROWS,

SEOBETABY TO THE AMERICAN DELEGATION TO THE CONGEESS.

IN no country ought the results of the International Prison Con-
gress, held last summer at Paris, to be received with more in-
terest than in America, for it was an American pioneer in prison
reform, the late Dr. E. C. Wines, who took the lead in organizing
this series of international prison congresses. The way had been
prepared by the formation of local associations in Europe and in
this country. Dr. Wines's plan to have a grand international con-
ference was fostered by correspondence with Count Sollohub, of
Russia. The American Government backed up the enterprise by
appointing Dr. Wines a commissioner to go to Europe a year in
advance and secure the co-operation of other governments. The
result was the holding of an international congress in London in
1872, and its organization upon a permanent basis, with Dr. Wines
as president of the permanent commission. The second congress
was held in Stockholm in 1878, the third in Rome in 1885, the
fourth in St. Petersburg in 1890, and the fifth in Paris in 1895.

These conferences have steadily grown in interest and influ-
ence. The title of the congress hardly gives a full idea of its
scope. This international gathering is not merely an assemblage
of prison wardens to discuss the subject of prison management,
though that alone would be well worth doing ; it is as well a gath-
ering of distinguished jurists, legislators, doctors, sociologists,
magistrates, the heads of prison administration, and writers and
experts on related branches of applied philanthropy. In the
Paris congress there were two hundred foreign delegates from
twenty-five different nations. In addition to these, the number of
French adherents and delegates officially enrolled and personally
or formally identified with the congress numbered five hundred
and thirty-seven, and included many of the most distinguished
names in France. The scope of these congresses has gradually
been growing broader. Every subject in any way related to crimi-
nology now comes within their field. One of the things which
distinguished the Paris congress from its predecessors was the

396 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

greater empliasis laid upon preventive work and the estabrisli-
nient of a special department for the discussion of all questions
relating to children and minors.

An important feature of these conferences is the large amount
of preliminary work that is done in preparation for the quinquen-
nial gathering. The permanent international commission, con-
sisting of eight of the most prominent penologists of Europe, with
Dr. Guillaume, of Switzerland, as its efficient secretary, is the or-
ganic bridge which unites one congress with the next and gives
continuity,' unity, and development to the work. This commis-
sion has to prepare a programme more than a year in advance.
Specialists in all parts of the world are invited to write papers on
questions chosen for discussion. The reports for the present con-
gress represented the opinions and experience of two hundred and
forty writers, and amounted to twenty-five hundred pages in print.
They were all printed in French three months before the opening
of the congress, and were sent in advance to the official delegates.
Thus every delegate knew beforehand not only the subjects on
the programme, but the line of argument which would be ad-
vanced and the evidence for and against certain conclusions. In-
stead of being overloaded by a great mass of papers, the decks
were kept clear for discussion. This gave warmth and vivacity
to debate. In addition to these reports, the commission secured
monographs from many different countries giving facts and sta-
tistics in regard to their prison systems. The questions carefully
prepared by the commission on which these monographs were
framed were uniform throughout, so that the penological student
has an opportunity for comparative study not easily secured else-
where. I am inclined to think that this large amount of prelimi-
nary material will prove to be quite as valuable as the proceed-
ings of the congress itself.

Next to the work of the permanent commission, the success of
the congress was largely due to the strong official backing and
the lavish hospitality of the French Government. The Minister
of the Interior, M. Leygues, was the official host. For a year or
two in advance M. J. Duflos, the chief director of prison adminis-
tration in France, aided by his secretaries, had devoted himself
to completing arrangements for the congress. This unremitting
labor was cordially recognized in the choice of M. Duflos as presi-
dent. Everything possible was done by the Government to give
character and interest to the meeting. The President of the Ee-
public honored the opening occasion by his presence. The Minis-
ter of the Interior welcomed it in an admirable address. The
College of France was opened for the sessions of' the different sec-
tions, and the general assembly was held in the amphitheatre of
the Sorbonne. Excursions to prison establishments were made.

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 397

brilliant receptions were extended by the President of the Repub-
lic, the Minister of the Interior, and the city of Paris, and a series
of complimentary banquets tested the digestive capacity of the
delegates to the utmost.

The session of the congress extended over ten days. It was
divided into four sections. The first related to penal legislation,
the second to prison administration, the third to preventive means,
and the fourth to juvenile offenders. Separate sessions of each
section were held every morning. In the afternoon there was a
general assembly of the whole congress and reports from the work
of each section were heard, discussed, and voted upon.

The first section, dealing with questions of penal legislation,
drew together a fine array of legal talent. Nice questions of the-
ory came up for discussion, but they were generally obliged to
yield to practical considerations. The great plague of penolo-
gists as well as of society is the recidivist, or the " repeater," or
" rounder," as he is more familiarly called in this country. He is
the man or woman who has been in prison half a dozen, or it may
be fifty or a hundred, times. The sentiment of the congress was
in favor of a gradual accumulation of penalties and of long sen-
tences for professional criminals. The laws of different countries
differ in the classification of these recidivists. But the congress
wisely decided that the dangerous attitude of the criminal toward
society was the main thing to consider. It did not present a
scheme of penalties, it did not decide in favor of definite or in-
definite sentences; it left much to the discretion of the judge,
though the feeling was expressed that judges are often more in-
fluenced by the gravity of the special act or by the circumstances
of the crime than by facts which may clearly reveal the danger-
ous character of the criminal.

A hot debate, continued through several sessions, occurred on
transportation. Though we have long since settled this question
in England and America, it is a practical question with France
and Russia. In Russia transportation has existed for three hun-
dred years, but it has not tended to reduce crime. None are better
aware of this than many prominent Russian jurists and penolo-
gists, and an interesting phase of the discussion was the presence
of a distinguished representative from Russia, Prof. Ivan Foinit-
ski. Professor of Law in the University of St. Petersburg and
general advocate of the Court of Cassation,, who led the battle
against transportation. Prof. Foinitski has written an important
work on the subject, which has just been made available in French
through a translation by M. G. Bonet-Maury. In this volume,
after an elaborate description of transportation in England and
Russia, he shows that it has nothing but negative results to offer,
and rejects entirely the arguments advanced for it. In France

398 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

transportation was adopted abont forty years ago, and still exists
in the penal colonies of Guiana and New Caledonia. The French
system has strong advocates, and found one of its warmest
defenders in Prof. Leveilld, of the faculty of law of Paris.

The subject of compensation or restitution for injured parties
has been commended at previous congresses. It has long been
felt that modern laws do not sujQBciently indemnify the victim of
crime. The diflSculty is to show practically how this may be
done. It might be possible to apply a portion of the prisoner's
earnings to the relief of his victim, but the amount thus gained
would not be large. It is suggested that by combining condi-
tional liberation with the idea of reparation much more might be
effected. In some respects the laws are harder upon the victim
than upon the offender. Thus in France, while in a case sub-
mitted to a jury costs are not assessed upon the complainant if
the complaint is sustained, in all other cases the complainant is
obliged to defray the costs of the process whether for or against
him. The congress passed resolutions looking for a change in
such laws, and decided to take into serious consideration at its
next session, in 1900, various propositions for the relief of the
injured party.

Imprisonment is not the only means of checking crime ; and
no question more important came before the congress than the
subject of probation for first offenders. On this subject America
has some experience to offer, and Mr. Charlton T. Lewis, of New
York, and the writer had the honor of presenting to the congress
brief expositions of the method and results of the probation sys-
tem in Massachusetts. That State now has a probation officer
attached to each criminal court in every city and county, and
there are seven in the city of Boston. In the year 1893-^94 47,249
cases passed under their examination before going into court, and
5,317 were placed on probation. This probation system deserves
wider attention. One of its most important features is not only
the examination by the officer before trial, which induces the
judge to place the accused on probation, but the visitation and
surveillance exercised by the officers during the probation period.

In the whole matter of prison administration the congress had
the advantage of the presence of a large number of practical and
experienced prison directors. Politicians on this side of the water
are fond of tampering with the subject of prison labor. But labor
in prison was recognized by this, as indeed by every prison con-
gress, as an essential element in discipline and reformation. To
deprive prisoners of labor is simply inhuman, and in the end
results in transferring the criminal from a prison to an insane
asylum. The need of special prisons for women with women
directors was affirmed, and while the right of a prisoner to wage

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONGRESS. 399

was not conceded, it was agreed tliat it was for the interest of the
state to give him gratuities. As a matter of fact, the system of
allowing the prisoner a portion of his earnings obtains all over
the Continent. Half of the amount thus earned may be expended
by him, under supervision of a director, or may be applied to the
relief of his family. The other half is retained until the time of
his discharge.

In Europe the cellular or separate system of imprisonment
prevails much more extensively than in this country. Indeed,
our only example of such a prison is that of the Eastern Peniten-
tiary of Philadelphia. The reformatory system as developed in
this country and illustrated by such institutions as those of El-
mira. Concord, and Pontiac was ably presented to the congress by
General R. Brinkerhoff, President of the National Prison Asso-
ciation of the United States, and by Mr. R. W. McClaughry, who,
having had experience as chief of police of Chicago and as the
head of several prison institutions, is one of the highest authori-
ties in this country on the treatment of criminals.

Discussion on the treatment of the criminally insane brought
out different points of usage in different countries. A large
amount of information was gathered. Some questions were
formulated for the next congress, among them the followiog:
What rule should be adopted to insure the possibility of a per-
manent medical control over the mental state of prisoners ? How
should asylums or quarters for insane criminals be organized so
that the necessities for treatment may be combined with the idea
of repression ? In the case of irresponsible delinquents and those
who commit crimes under temporary aberration, the congress ex-
pressed the view that special asylums or quarters should be pro-
vided for them, that they should be committed by judicial au-
thority, and only released upon the concurrence of a threefold
authority — namely, the authority of the court, that of the admin-
istration of the institution, and of its medical council.

Under the head of " Preventive Means " were considered those
influences not only which would keep men out of prison, but
those which would tend to prevent them from becoming habitual
criminals. The whole treatment of the subject of discharged
convicts received serious consideration. It is somewhat sur-
prising that Europe is far better organized than the United
States for the care of the discharged convict. There are but four
or five really active societies of this kind in the United States.
There are ninety in England alone, and fifty in France. They
abound in Holland and Denmark, and are being developed in
Germany, Austria, Russia, and Italy. In Spain, work of this
kind scarcely exists ; in Switzerland, it is seen at its highest de-
gree of efficiency. In a country but half the size of the State of

400 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Ohio there are fourteen societies for discharged convicts, and
some of these societies are organized with committees in every
district of the canton in which they are established. But the
most valuable and distinctive feature of the Swiss system is
the appointment of a person, called a patron, who makes the
acquaintance of a prisoner before he is discharged, and who be-
comes his guardian after his liberation. This system of personal
and friendly supervision is infinitely better than almsgiving, and
its value has been shown in the great reduction of recommit-
ments to prison in the districts where it is best established.
These foreign societies are supported by government aid as well
as by private subscriptions, and a part of their work consists in
guarding the earnings which the prisoner has accumulated dur-
ing his detention against wasteful expenditure.

The value of prison libraries was recognized, and the desira-
bility of a weekly publication in prisons under the special control
of the administration. In this country good examples of such
publications are furnished by The Summary, of Elmira, N. Y.,
and Our Paper, of Concord, Mass.

Alcoholism was regarded as a growing danger, especially with
reference to its influence on criminology. Reports from inebriate
asylums in Europe show that habitual drunkenness may be
treated with success if the victim can be retained sufficiently
long. With a view of reducing intemperance in Russia, the
Government has already begun to acquire the entire monopoly
of the liquor traffic. Among preventive measures, the congress
commended the regulation and the limitation of saloons, the
multiplication of temperance cafes , the establishment of inebriate
asylums, and the association of public authority with private
agitation in the temperance cause.

No discussions were more earnest than those which related
to juvenile offenders. The presence of women of experience in
this and every other section of the congress was warmly encour-
aged, and they were gallantly welcomed by M. Pols, vice-presi-
dent of the commission, who frankly said that the solution of
these questions could not advance without the co-operation of
women. The multiplied aspects of vagabondage and mendicity,
the subject of prostitution and the measures to be taken to break
up the systematic trade carried on between various countries
through the decoy of young girls, the establishment and regula-
tion of houses of correction, the need of appropriate physical as
well as mental education, the relation of parental responsibility
aDd the question of farm school and agricultural colonies, the
placing out of children in families, and the supervision of chil-
dren thus placed were discussed as important phases of child-
saving work.

BOTH SIDES OF PROFIT-SHARING. 401

It is not a criticism of the congress of 1895 to say that it
opened more questions than it decided. Penology, like every
other science, must advance by interrogations even more than by
aflfirmations. With the growth of knowledge problems multiply
and become more complex. But we are better prepared to grap-
ple with difficult conditions when we know what they are ; and
one of the most hopeful elements in dealing with the subject of
criminology in all its varied and elusive relations is the existence
of an organized international corps of men and women who ap-
proach the matter in a calm, judicial, scientific, and humane spirit.

BOTH SIDES OF PROFIT-SHARING.

By FREDEEIC G. MATHEE.

THERE seems to be no immediate prospect of ending the con-
test between capital and labor. No matter how strikes or
lockouts are settled, they leave a bad feeling behind them that
will be shown as soon as another opportunity offers. Mutual dis-
trust and jealousy mark the situation to-day as they have marked
it for many years past. The capitalist votes one way, and the
employees vote another, so that they may not oblige him. lu
every dealing between the two sides the opposition is carried so
far that a good understanding seems more remote than ever. Nor
does there appear any hope for improvement till each party is
ready to make concessions.

The old system of apprenticeship drew more closely the bonds
of common interest between the employer and the employee, and
with benefit to both. It was comparatively easy for apprentices
to become employers. But labor-saving machinery has made the
workman an attendant upon the machine, and it has destroyed
that sympathy between him and his employer which was the
strength of the apprentice system. The blame for this rests upon
neither side exclusively. The system may have been too slow to
satisfy modern conditions, but the departure of it has made the
situation worse. No longer do workmen, as a rule, educate them-
selves in schools of technology and by the reading of books. There
is no inducement for doing better things while the doctrine holds
that one man's work is as good as another's, and while labor or-
ganizations restrict the number of youth who shall learn trades,
thereby keeping all on the same level and giving none an incentive
to rise.

The establishment of boards of arbitration will not meet the
present difficulties. Those who adopt the idea, on the strength of
declarations made by both sides, of a desire for a reasonable settle-

402 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ment of disputes should reflect that the same definition is not given
to the words " reasonable " and " equitable " by either the labor
unions or the employers. Each side has its own definition, and
until that is known everything is uncertain. Neither side would
consent to have a course dictated by any form of official authority,
because everybody knows his own business best. No rational man
can believe that any large business can be conducted upon lines
laid down by outsiders. Much less can he believe that workmen
can be forced to respect the decision of an official board when they
do not cordially accept that decision. *

The fatal defect in treating the labor problem thus far has
been the stress laid upon the change of method, when the needful
thing is a change of spirit in both parties to the controversy. The
friction has a moral cause that is common to both, and it will con-
tinue as long as mere gain is held to be the measure of success.
It can not be stopped by any mechanical contrivance of system or
method. But when success and use are made synonymous, the
friction will yield, because the moral and sympathetic forces have
begun to work upon a higher plane. This idea was well expressed
about fifty years ago in Boston, when the Kev. Dr. Channing de-
livered a course of lectures on The Elevation of the Working
Classes. In one of them he said : " There is but one elevation for
a laborer and for all other men. There are not different kinds of
dignity for different orders of men, but one and the same for all.
The only elevation of a human being consists in the exercise,
growth, and energy of the higher principles and powers of his
soul. A bird may be shot upward to the skies by a foreign power ;
but it rises, in the true sense of the word, only when it spreads its
own wings and soars by its own living power. So a man may be
thrust upward into a conspicuous place by outward accidents, but
he rises only in so far as he exerts himself and expands his best
faculties ; and he ascends by a free effort to a nobler region of
thought and action. Such is the elevation I desire for the laborer,
and I desire no other."

There seems to be but one practicable method of reaching this
elevation, and even that method is practicable only within certain
limits. Profit-sharing or wage-sharing may be that method, if the
respective shares due to employer and employee can be adjusted
equitably. The method has been tried with success in several
branches of productive industry.

In 1844 the Paris and Orleans Railway Company adopted the
principle. Between 1844 and 1882 about twelve million dollars
were distributed as profit dividends among the employees, while
the wages paid to them were equal to those paid by roads that gave
their employees no share in the profits; and, at the same time,
the dividends to the stockholders were as large as they would

BOTH SIDES OF PROFIT-SHARING. 403

have been had there been no profit-sharing. Students of political
economy are familiar with the Ateliers Socialistes of Paris. Many
of the smaller enterprises in the same city have also applied the
system of profit-sharing with remarkable success, one of the most
conspicuous being the Atelier de Broderies of M. Nayrolles. In
this establishment the system is carried out among a personnel
composed exclusively of women, and with astonishing results
both with the quality of the work and the increased wages of the
workers.

A notable scheme, recently tried in England, is that of the South
Metropolitan Gas Company of London, as a sequence to the suc-
cessful campaign of the dock laborers. The company proposes to
pay an annual bonus, based upon a sliding scale and regulated by
the price paid for gas by the public. At the present price the
bonus would amount to five per cent on the wages of the twelve
months ending on the 30th of June. In addition, to give the sys-
tem a start, and in order that the workmen shall derive a sub-
stantial benefit at once, the bonuses are to be calculated for three
years back. The men who have been in the regular employ of the
company for the past three years will thus have sums varying
from twenty-five to thirty dollars placed to their credit at once.
It is stated that if all the workmen take advantage of this offer it
will cost the company fully sixty thousand dollars a year, all of
which is a clear gain to the men over and above their regular rate
of pay. Another late example comes from a factory of wood pulp
in Norway, where nearly sixty men are employed. The gross profit
of the first year amounted to about seventy thousand dollars, from
which three thousand dollars was taken out for interest on the
capital, and fifteen thousand dollars for working expenses. The
remainder has been distributed to the men, giving them about
one hundred and fifty dollars each. Nearly all of them have used
the money in making payments on houses for themselves, thus
leading to contentment and industry.

Within the past four years a prominent firm of clothiers in
New York city has declared dividends of three and five per cent
on the wages of its employees ; and a leading merchant of Phila-
delphia divided $109,439 and $104,345 among his employees in two
successive years. After several experiments in other lines, a pub-
lishing house in Chicago adopted profit-sharing about fifteen years
ago. The house has increased its capital stock more than once ;
and many of its men, who were ordinary workmen under the old
system, now own their homes and are worth from five thousand
to fifty thousand dollars each. In another establishment, also in
Chicago, those who had been in the employ of the company for
one year or more were informed that if the amount of their sales
for six months should exceed the total for the same period of time

404 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in the previous year, they would be allowed a commission on the
excess. The commission averaged two and a half per cent. The
employees at once increased their efforts to sell; and when the
first distribution was made, last July, it was found that several
of the girls had drawn nearly one hundred dollars as their share
of the profits for six months.

The Bodwell Granite Quarry, in Maine, adopted the profit-
sharing system in the year 1885. As a result, the output of the
works has increased, and the employees are sober, contented,
and industrious. The arrangement is this : Ten per cent of the
profits is laid aside every year. The remaining profits are divided
equally between the employer, the men, and a contingent fund.
When the latter reaches more than one per cent of the loss in any
one year, the surplus of the fund is divided equally between the
employers and the men. It is not probable that there could be
losses larger than the contingent fund, unless the business were
very poorly managed, or unless a financial crisis came over the
whole country.

The largest manufacturer of felt shoes in the United States,
after experiment with several forms of profit-sharing, has recently
formulated rules and regulations for the just distribution of the
net earnings among his employees. There are to be three classes
for this distribution : first, pension ; second, life insurance ; third,
endowment. The share of the net earnings to be set aside every
year shall be calculated upon the positive results of the records of
the actual work done by the employees. Against this distribution
account the amounts paid for life insurance, under the provisions
of the insurance law, and the amount necessary to maintain the
pension fund are to be considered fixed charges. As soon as the
workman is made a partner in the business, so that a loss to his
employer is a loss to him, it will make him more careful of his
time. He will see that his fellow- workman performs his duty, and
that there is no waste by any one. Such an arrangement is profit-
able to the employer in the end, because every man in his employ
will have some incentive to work. The employer thus guarantees
extra pay to the employed.

But can any one guarantee to the employer that every year will
be a profitable one ? And if there are losses, who shall make them
up ? Shall the employers make them up by themselves, or shall
the men, having once been taken into a partnership upon the
profits, still continue that partnership by making up their share
of the losses ? There are many employed men who are the own-
ers, or the partial owners, of their homes. They would gladly
enter into an arrangement for the division of the profits, but they
would hesitate to mortgage their homes as security for their pro-
portion of the losses in a bad year. Other employees could offer

BOTH SIDES OF PROFIT-SHARING, 405

no security whatever in such a case ; therefore, the losses must
come upon the employers in the end. It is this fact, more than
any other, that hurts the prospects of profit-sharing. Such an ar-
rangement can not be in the nature of a true partnership, because,
as noted above, there is a partaership so far as the gains are con-
cerned, but the partnership ceases when there are losses. Hence,
as at present tried, the system of profit-sharing is really a gratu-
ity on the part of the employers, most of them having taken the
ground that they must average their good years with their poor
years in order to keep their men employed uniformly.

The machinery of profit-sharing is not complete without some
provision for a contingent fund to tide the employer over his bad
years ; and even then it is a question whether the profits should
not be disposed of on a basis of piecework instead of time. In a
bad year the capitalist should accept a smaller percentage on his
investment; and the workman, a smaller compensation for his
labor. It may be hard for the employer to send his children to
cheaper schools, but it is no harder than it is for the employee to
go without butter and other necessaries of life.

Even with the instances of profit-sharing that have been tried
there has been little gain in bringing about a true sympathy be-
tween the employers and their men. Without such sympathy, it
is impossible for capital and labor , properly to understand each
other, or to work in harmony. A careful study of the instances
in which profit-sharing has been a success shows that the em-
ployers who have succeeded were the small employers of a genera-
tion ago, before the advent of the great corporations. There could
be no greater enemy to the cause of the workingmen than the
prevailing idea of to-day to combine everything in the shape of
trusts. Edward Bellamy and other writers carry more truth in
their predictions than will be admitted by those who have made
no study of the facts. Some day there may be a revulsion of feel-
ing against such combinations that may lead to the more simple
and direct methods of employment in practice two generations
ago, when strikes were almost unknown. The present tendency
toward trusts is wholly away from any form of profit-sharing,
and this is one of the worst signs of the times.

We are led irresistibly to the conclusion that neither profit-
sharing nor any other device will improve the present situation,
so long as there is a lack of sympathy in either side toward the
other. The employers and the holders of great wealth should re-
gard themselves not as mere irresponsible giants of finance, but
as sacredly responsible to society for the large interests that have
been intrusted to them. The too frequent want of such a broad
idea of his functions has led the public to believe that the capi-
talist is a man who absorbs all the toil of the laboring man, leav-

4o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ing to the latter a very uncertain subsistence. Nor does tlie cap-
italist have credit for the fact that, without him, labor would not
be so productive, and for the further fact that his share is taken
from a product that was created largely through his direction,
his enterprise, and his resources. It makes a vast difference
whether an army has a skillful general at the head, or only an
ordinary leader.

On the other hand, the employee should remember that, as
things are now constituted, there is no employment without the
use of capital. He must not consider the capitalist as his enemy,
but rather as his friend. Nor should he close his organizations
against all who do not work with their hands. His own day of
labor measures eight or ten hours. There are other laborers in
the field to whom a day's work means from twelve to sixteen
hours. They are none the less laborers because they work with
their heads, and it is a narrow definition of the " workingman "
that rules them out.

When De Tocqueville studied the institutions of the United
States, in 1835, he gave a broad view of labor as he wrote, " Every
honest occupation in the United States is honorable." The same
view must be taken by both the capitalist and the workingman
before true sympathy between them can be assured. Until that
day comes, neither profit-sharing nor any other form of effort will
be able to bridge the chasm.

SKETCH OF EBENEZER EMMONS.

A UTHORITIES differ as to the year in which Ebenezer Em-
-^tjL- MONS was born. The first General Catalogue of Williams
College, published in 1880, puts " C2t 65," after the year of his
death. In Durfee's Williams Biographical Annals the year of his
birth is given as 1799, while, according to Prof. Jules Marcou, in
Science, Prof. Emmons always stated to his children that he was
born in 1800. His sister has informed the writer that 1799 is the
correct year. The month and day were May 16th, and the place
was Middlefield, Mass. He was an only son, but had two sisters
older and two younger than he. Prof. Emmons's father, who also
bore the name of Ebenezer, was a farmer. His mother's maiden
name was Mary Mack. The Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Emmons, who
was quite a noted preacher in his day, was an uncle. The first
ancestor in America of this branch of the family came from Eng-
land, and settled at East Haddam on the Connecticut River. A
brother who came with him settled in Boston.

Young E ben's interest in Nature appeared at an early age.
The doors in his room were covered with bugs and butterflies

SKETCH OF EBENEZER EMMONS. 407

pinned on when lie was a small boy. His mother often used to
say: "Eb, why do you always have your pockets filled with
stones ? I have to mend them every week." His birthplace and
the adjoining town of Chester were noted for rare minerals. When
ie came home for a vacation from school or college he generally
brought some fellow-student with him. He and his friend would
set off for the mineral localities and be gone all day, coming back
tired and hungry, but were always ready to go again the next
morning.

He was fitted for college under the instruction of the Rev.
Moses Halleck, of Plainfield, Mass., a well-known educator of his
time, and was graduated from Williams College in due course.
Prof. Marcou gives 1820 as the year of his graduation, but the
General Catalogue has him in the class of 1818, which seems to be
conclusive. As a college student his interest in the sciences was
quickened by the instruction of Prof. Amos Eaton and Prof.
Chester Dewey, and he subsequently had a large share in intro-
ducing the study of these subjects among the young men of the
country. After completing his college course Mr. Emmons con-
tinued his favorite studies at the Rensselaer School, graduating
there with the class of 1826. In the same year he published his
Manual of Mineralogy and Geology for the use of the students
of that institution. He also studied medicine at the Berkshire
Medical School, and established himself as a practicing physician
in Chester, Mass.

In 1818, at the age of nineteen, Mr. Emmons married Miss
Maria Cone, of Williamstown, and at the age of thirty-seven be-
came a grandfather by the birth of a son to his eldest daughter.

In 1828 Dr. Emmons removed to Williamstown, where he con-
tinued to practice medicine, and in the same year was appointed
lecturer on chemistry in Williams College. A cabinet of minera-
logical and geological specimens which he began to collect here
was presented by him to the college after it had received the valu-
able accretions of twenty years. He resided in Williamstown
until 1838, becoming the most eminent practitioner in Berkshire
County. In 1830 he was appointed junior professor in the Rens-
selaer School and held the position till 1839. He was also a lec-
turer in the Medical School of Castleton in the days of its re-
nown. His chair in Williams College was enlarged in 1833 * to a
professorship of Natural History, which he held till 1859, when
the department was divided, he retaining the mineralogy and
geology till his death.

Having been appointed upon the Geological Survey of New

* The History of Williams College, another book by the Rev. Calvin Durfee, D. D.,
above quoted, gives 1848 as the year of his election to the professorship of Natural History.

4o8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

York in 1836 and Professor of Chemistry in tlie Albany Medical
College in 1 838, Dr. Emmons removed in the latter year to Al-
bany. He was afterward transferred to the professorship of Ob-
stetrics, and remained on the faculty of the Medical College till
1852. During this period he used to go to Williamstown each
year to deliver the course of lectures belonging to his professor-
ship there. His position on the New York survey enabled him
to make the valuable present of a suite of the minerals of that
State to his alma mater in 1842. One of his Williams College
students — now himself a venerable though young-hearted profess-
or— well remembers the strong face and beetling brows of Dr.
Emmons, and his manner of giving instruction. His disposition
was kindly. Being a non-resident, not much was seen of him by
the students ; he would appear at the lecture room, give his lec-
ture, and disappear. There was not much of the pedagogue about
him. Students who had a special liking and capacity for his sub-
ject profited much from his instruction ; but his enthusiasm in
telling the wonders of the rocks carried him along at a rate which
left the indifferent student far behind. If only a fraction of his
class appeared at the lecture, or if he projected a question at
Brown and a response came from Jones or Robertson, he seemed
not to notice the difference. Williamstown is in the heart of the
Berkshire Hills. One of the summits of East Mountain, a neigh-
boring eminence, is the only place in that region where gneiss
crops out, and here Prof. Emmons used to bring his students to
display to them as best he could the relations of his much-dis-
puted Taconic System to the other and then better known geo-
logical formations. Very likely only a couple of the class would
reach the summit with him, yet he would discourse just as ear-
nestly to these as to the whole party that set out with him. This
height, says Prof. Arthur L. Perry, in his Origins in Williams-
town, "has been justly designated Mount Emmons, by one who
was once a pupil and later a colleague and always an admirer of
the distinguished Professor of Natural History in the college,
Ebenezer Emmons.^'

It is related of Prof. Emmons, as illustrating his enthusiasm,
that once when on a journey with President Hopkins, of Wil-
liams, and the president's brother, he asked his friends to turn
aside with him to visit a certain cave. They consented to the
delay, although the brother was on his way to be married, and
waited just within the entrance of the cavern while Emmons
penetrated to its inmost depths. After a time they heard the ex-
cited cry, " I've got it ! I've got it ! " and out rushed the geologist,
bearing triumphantly a muddy fragment of rock. He had secured
a piece of evidence in support of his Taconic System.

In 1836 a law was passed providing for a geological survey of

SKETCH OF EBENEZER EMMONS. 409

the State of New York, and in the organization of the staff for
carrying on that work Dr. Emmons was appointed by Governor
Marcy to the charge of the second district, which included the
northeastern counties of the State. This district was chosen by
Dr. Emmons as a field more especially interesting to him on
account of its mineral localities and minerals, and giving him a
field more congenial to his tastes and experience. He made the
public acquainted with the Adirondack region and named its
principal mountains. In 1837 he named, described, and classified
the celebrated Potsdam sandstone. Among the other rocks and
divisions to which he gave a name or a place in geology are the
Chazy limestone, black marble of Isle la Motte, Lorrain shales,
Champlain group, Ontario group, Helderberg series, and Erie
group. During the progress of this survey, also, he made the
important discovery that is most closely associated with his name.
In 1842 he pointed out a great system of stratified rocks under the
Potsdam, which he called the Taconic System. This announce-
ment brought upon him a storm of contradiction and ridicule,
and for a time he was scientifically ostracized. Subsequent dis-
coveries by the Canada Survey, and by Barrande, in Bohemia,
however, as well as the investigations of later eminent geologists,
have completely sustained him. In propounding the term Ta-
conic * System Prof. Emmons was following the instruction and
views of his teacher. Prof. Amos Eaton, who promulgated his
opinions regarding the age of these rocks in his lectures at Wil-
liams College from 1817 onward ; and subsequently in his lectures
at the Rensselaer School to the end of his life, although never
having published any satisfactory account of the relations of these
rocks to the formations above or below them.

Two years later Dr. Emmons described the primordial fauna,
thus preceding the celebrated discoveries of Barrande, who rec-
ognized the priority of Emmons in the following courteous lan-
guage :

" In comparing these dates it is clear that Dr. Emmons was
the first to announce the existence of a fauna anterior to that
which had been established in the Silurian System as characteriz-
ing the Lower Silurian Division, and which I have named the
Second Fauna. It is, then, just to recognize the priority, and I
think it all the more fitting to state it at this time, that it has not
hitherto been claimed.'^

Prof. Emmons's Report on the Second District of the New York
Geological Survey was published in 1842. In the autumn of that
year his colleagues presented his name to Governor Seward as a
proper person to act as custodian of the collections of the geologi-

* From the Taghkanic Mountains.
TOL. XIVIII. — 28*

410 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cal survey, then arranged, and in progress of arrangement, in the
old State Hall on State Street, which building had been assigned
for that purpose by the Legislature of 1840. He was appointed to
this position by Governor Seward and assumed charge of the col-
lections in the latter part of 1842. On the same occasion on which
this recommendation was made it was also recommended by the
staff that the work in agriculture and paleontology which had
been left unfinished should be assigned to Dr. Emmons and Prof.
Hall.

In the spring of 1843 Governor Bouck directed Dr. Emmons to
investigate the agricultural resources of the State ; and the pale-
ontology was placed under the charge of Prof. Hall, while Dr.
Emmons still retained his position as custodian of the collections
of the survey until 1845. The five volumes of his report on the
Agriculture of New York appeared in 1846, 1849, 1851, and 1854.
The first was devoted to a " topographical sketch of the State,
climate and temperature, agricultural geology, the Taconic Sys-
tem, and the soils of New York " ; the second to analyses of grains
and other vegetable products ; the third and fourth, one consist-
ing of text, the other of plates, to cultivated fruits ; and the fifth
to injurious insects. This fifth volume has been severely criti-
cised, but it should be remembered that the writer to whom its
preparation was intrusted, not being versed in entomology, could
only compile from the best sources at his command, at a time
when the science was in its infancy, and comparatively little was
known of the insects of the State. The many illustrations, which
are well colored in the larger portion of the edition, were mainly
drawn from Nature, and in some of the orders, as in Coleoptera
and Hemiptera, have a degree of excellence which is rarely sur-
passed even at the present day.

About the time the third volume came from the press he was
appointed State Geologist of North Carolina. In his new field he
made further important contributions to the advance of Ameri-
can geology. In the coal measures of the Deep and Dan Rivers
he discovered a grand Triassic flora, and a fauna that included
among many ancient vertebrates the Dromatherium sylvestre, the
oldest mammal yet found anywhere in the world. His descrip-
tion of the new red sandstone flora of North Carolina proved so
valuable that twenty years after his death the United States
Geological Survey reproduced all the plates and descriptions
given by him in the sixth part of his American Geology. Three
volumes of North Carolina reports were published by him. One
on the Geology of the Midland Counties was issued in 1856; a
volume devoted to the Agriculture of the Eastern Counties, with
descriptions of the fossils of the marl beds, in 1858; and a second
part of his report on the agriculture of the State, " containing a

SKETCH OF EBENEZER EMMONS. 411

statement of the principles of the science upon which, the prac-
tices of agriculture as an art are founded," appeared in 1860. The
civil war interrupted his labors. The anxieties and separation
from friends occasioned by it probably hastened his death, which
took place at his residence in Brunswick County, N. C, October 1,
1863. His wife, a son, and two daughters survived him.

Besides the works already mentioned. Prof. Emmons published
an account of the Taconic System (Albany, 1844). Having been
commissioned by Governor Edward Everett to report upon the
Zoology of Massachusetts, he prepared a volume, devoted to the
quadrupeds, which was printed at Cambridge in 1840. His Ameri-
can Geology, which appeared in 1855, was supplemented by a
Manual of Geology in 1859.

A clear-sighted and energetic worker, Dr. Emmons was a liv-
ing force for the advancement of his chosen science. The Rev.
Mark Hopkins, President of Williams College from 1836 to 1872,
said of him : " Emmons was a man of remarkable power and great
accuracy of observation. He seemed to have an intuitive percep-
tion of the differences in natural objects. He possessed an intense
enthusiasm in his work, but in his manner was remarkably quiet.
I have never seen the two things combined to the same extent.
His perseverance knew no limit. It ought to be added that, in
connection with his science, he was deeply religious. Williams
College is greatly indebted to him for its collections in natural
history."

Several instances of the European survival of practices that probably
originated in cannibalism were cited in a discussion on that subject at the
meeting of the British Association. Mr. El worthy said that in one part of ^
France the last of the harvest corn is baked into a loaf shaped like a human
figure. This is supposed to represent the spirit of the corn — the spirit of
vegetation, reproduction, fertility — and is broken up, distributed among the
villagers, and eaten. Mr. E. S. Hartland said that not long ago, in upper
Bavaria, when a man died and had been laid out, a cake was made of ordi-
nary flour. The corpse was placed before the fire, and this cake, called the
corpse cake, was put upon his breast to rise. The dough, in rising, was
believed to absorb all the virtues of the deceased, and the cake was after-
ward eaten by his nearest relatives. In the Balkan Peninsula an edible
image of the dead was carried in the funeral procession. When the body
was buried the mourners ate this image above the grave, saying, " God rest
him ! " In Wales the function of the " sin-eater " has only ceased within
the memory of men still living. It was the custom for the nearest relative,
usually a woman, to hand across the bier, or place upon the breast of the
corpse, bread, cheese, and beer, which were eaten by the sin-eater, who
pronounced everlasting rest to the departed. It was believed that the
sin-eater thus appropriated to himself all the sins which the deceased had
committed.

412* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

IX.— ARCHITECT.
By HERBERT SPENCER.

BUILDING of the kind dignified by the name architecture,
can not exist during early stages of social development.
Before the production of such building there must be an advance
in mechanical arts greater than savages of low type have made —
greater than we find among the slightly civilized.

It is true that constructions of unhewn stones arranged upon
the surface into some order, as well as rude underground stone
chambers, have been left by prehistoric peoples, and that incipient
architecture is exhibited in them. If we extend the conception to
take in these, however, we may remark as significant, that the art
was first used either for preservation of the dead or as ancillary
to ceremonies in honor of the apotheosized dead. In either case
the implication is that architecture in these simple beginnings
fulfilled the ideas of the primitive medicine-men or priests. Some
director there must have been; and we can scarcely help con-
cluding that he was at once the specially skillful man and the
man who was supposed to be in communication with the departed
spirits to be honored.

But now, saying nothing more of this vague evidence, let us
pass to evidence furnished by those semi-civilized and civilized
peoples who have left remains and records.

We are at once met by the broad fact, parallel to the fact im-
plied above, that the earliest architecture bequeathed by ancient
nations was an outcome of ancestor- worship. Its first phases were
exhibited in either tombs or temples, which, as we have long ago
seen, are the less developed and more developed forms of the same
thing. Hence, as being both appliances for worship, now simple
and now elaborate, both came under the control of the priest-
hood ; and the inference to be drawn is that the first architects
were priests.

An illustration which may be put first is yielded by Ancient
India. Says Manning: — "Architecture was ^treated as a sacred
science by learned Hindus." Again we read in Hunter —

" Indian architecture, although also ranked as an upa-veda or supple-
mentary part of inspired learning, derived its development from Buddhist
rather than from Brahmanical impulses."

In Tennent's Ceylon there are passages variously exhibiting the
relations between architecture and religion and its ministers. By
many peoples the cave was made the primitive tomb- temple ; and

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 413*

in the East it became in some cases largely developed. A stage
of the development in Ceylon is described as follows : —

" In the Rajavali Devenipiatissa is said to have ' caused caverns to be
cut in the solid rock at the sacred place of Mihintala ' ; and these are the
earliest residences for the higher orders of the priesthood in Ceylon, of
which a record has been preserved,"

"The temples of Buddha were at first as unpretending as the residences
of the priesthood. No mention is made of them during the infancy of
Buddhism in Ceylon, and at which period caves and natural grottoes were
the only places of devotion."

Referring to later stages, during which there arose " stupendous
ecclesiastical structures," Tennent adds : —

"The historical annals of the island record with pious gratitude the
series of dagobas, wiharas, and temples erected by" Devenipiatissa "and
his successors."

A dagoba " is a monument raised to preserve one of the relics of Go-
tama . . . and it is candidly admitted in the Mahawanso tbat the inten-
tion in erecting them was to provide ' objects to which offerings could be
made.' "

Here though we do not get evidence that the architects were the
priests, yet other passages show that Buddhist temples were the
works of converted kings acting under direction of the priests.
Moreover, the original development of architecture for religious
purposes, and the consequent sacredness of it, is curiously implied
by the fact that the priesthood " forbade the people to construct
their dwellings of any other material than sun-baked earth."

This last extract recalls the general contrast which existed in
ancient historic kingdoms between the dwellings of the people
and the buildings devoted to gods and kings. The vast mounds
from which Layard exhumed the remains of Babylonian and
Assyrian temples are composed of the debris of sun-dried bricks,
mingled, doubtless, with some decomposed wood otherwise used
for constructing ordinary houses. Layers upon layers of this
debris were accumulated until the temples were buried, as some
temples are even now being buried in Egypt. Whether it was
because of the costliness of stone, or because of the interdict
on use of stone for other than sacred purposes, or whether
these causes co-operated, the general implication is the same —
architecture began in subservience to religion (comprehending
under this name ancestor- worship, simple and developed) ; and
was, by implication, under the control of the priesthood. Such
further evidence as Ancient Babylonia yields, though indirect, is
tolerably strong. Saying of the temple and palace " solemn
rites inaugurated its construction and recommended its welfare
to the gods," and implying that its plan was governed by estab-
lished tradition (of which the priests were by implication the
depositaries) Perrot and Chipiez write : —

414* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

" Whether they belonged to the sacerdotal cast, we do not know. We
are inclined to the latter supposition in some degree by the profoundly
religious character of the ceremonies that accompanied the inception of a
building, and by the accounts left by the ancients of those priests whom
they called the Chaldceansy

And since " when it [architecture] is carried so far as it was in
Chaldsea it demands a certain amount of science," the priests who
alone possessed this science must have been the architects.

Sufficient proofs of the alleged relation among the Egyptians
are supplied by ancient records. Rawlinson says : —

" Although their eai'ly architecture is almost entirely of a sepulchral
character, yet we have a certain amount of evidence that, even from the
first, the Temple had a place in the regards of the Egyptians, though a
place very much inferior to that occupied by the Tomb."
Summing up the general evidence Duncker writes : —

" In the achievement won by Egyptian art the priests took a leading
part. The buildings of the temples and the tombs of the kings could only
be erected after their designs ; for in these essentially sacred things, sacred
measures and numbers, were concerned."

Some special illustrative facts may be added. Of Mentuhotep it
is recorded that —

" As chief architect of the king he promoted the worship of the gods,
and instructed the inhabitants of the country according to the best of his
knowledge, 'as God orders to be done.' "

Here are passages relating to the 19th and 21st dynasties respect-
ively. Bekenkhonsu, on his statue is made to say : —

" ' I was a great architect in the town of Am on.' * I was a holy father
of Amon for twelve years.' *The skilled in art, and the first prophet of
Amon.' "

" Hir hor, first of a succession of priest-kings, calls himself, when repre-
sented by the side of the king: — ' Chief architect of the king, chief general
of the army.' "

And that the priest, if he did not always design, always directed,
may be safely inferred ; for as Rawlinson says, " it is . . . toler-
ably certain that there existed in ancient Egypt a religious cen-
sorship of Art."

Of evidence furnished by Greek literature, the first comes to
us from the Iliad. The priest Chryse, crying for vengeance, and
invoking Apollo's aid, says : —

'' O Smintheus ! If ever I built a temple gracious in thine eyes, or if
ever I burnt to thee fat flesh of thighs of bulls or goats, fulfill thou this my
desire; let the Danaans pay by thine arrows for my tears."
By which we see that the priestly function of sacrificer is joined
with the function of architect, also, by implication, priestly.
Later indications are suggestive if not conclusive. Here is a
sentence from Curtius : —

"But the immediate connection between the system of sacred archi-
tecture and the Apolline religion is clear from Apollo being himself desig-

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 415*

nated as the divine architect in the legends concerning the foundation of

his sanctuaries."

And further on he writes —

Thus " schools of poets came to form themselves, which were no less in-
timately connected with the sanctuary than were the art of sacred archi-
tecture and hieratic sculpture."

But, as we have before seen, the lack of a priestly organization in
Greece obscured the development of the professions in general, and
that of architects among others.

That much of the Roman cult was not indigenous, and that
importation of knowledge and skill from abroad confused the de-
velopment of the professions, we have seen in other cases. The
influence of the Etruscans was marked, and it appears that of the
religious appliances derived from them, architecture was one.
Duruy writes : —

" Etruria also furnished the architects who built the Roma quadrata of
the palatine, and constructed the first temples; she provided even the flute-
players necessary for the performance of certain rites."
But the identity eventually established between the chief priest
and the chief architect, in the person of the Pontifex maximus,
while it illustrates the alleged connection, also reminds us of one
of the original causes for the priestly origin of the professions —
the possession of learning and ability by priests. Among primi-
tive peoples, special skill is associated with the idea of supernatu-
ral power. Even the blacksmith is, in some African tribes, re-
garded as a magician. Naturally, therefore, the Roman who
either first devised the arch, or who first conspicuously displayed
skill in constructing an arch, was supposed to be inspired by the
gods. For though the arch is now so familiar that it does not
excite wonder, it must, when first used, have appeared an incom-
prehensible achievement. Hence a not unlikely cause, or at any
rate an ancillary cause, for the union of priest and bridge-builder.

After the fall of the Roman Empire the social disorganization
which arrested mental activities and their products, arrested
architecture among them. Its re-commencement, when it took
place, was seen in the raising of ecclesiastical edifices of one or
other kind under the superintendence of the priestly class. Re-
ferring to the state of things after the time of Charlemagne,
Lacroix writes : —

" It was there that were formed the able architects and ecclesiastical
engineers who erected so many magnificent edifices throughout Europe,
and most of whom, dedicating their lives to a work of faith and pious de-
votion, have, through humility, condemned their names to oblivion."
Speaking of France, and saying that up to the tenth century
the names of but few architects are recorded, the same author
writes : —

4i6* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

"Among them, however, are Tutilon, a monk of Saint Gall, . .
Hugues, Abbot of Montier-en-Der ; Austee, Abbot of St. Arnulph, . . .
Morard, who, with the co-operation of. King Eobert, rebuilt, toward the
end of the tenth century, the old church of St. Germain-des-Pres, at Paris ;
lastly, Guillaume, Abbot of St. Benignus, at Dijon, who . . . became chief
of a school of art."
And he further says : —

" In the diocese of Metz Gontran and Adelard, celebrated Abbots of St.
Trudon, covered Hasbaye with new buildings. * Adelard ' says a chroni-
cler ' superintended the construction of fourteen churches.'"
This association of functions continued long after. According to
Viollet-le-Duc, the religious houses, and especially the abbey of
Cluny, during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, furnished most
of the architects of Western Europe, who executed not only re-
ligious but also civil and perhaps military buildings.

The differentiation of the architect from the priest is implied
in the following further quotation from Lacroix : —

" It was, moreover, at this period [of transition from Norman to Gothic]
that architecture, like all the other arts, left the monasteries to pass into
the hands of lay architects organized into confraternities."
Similar is the statement of Viollet-le-Duc, who, observing that in
the thirteenth century the architect appears as an individual, and
as a layman, says that about the beginning of it " we see a bishop
of Amiens . . . charging a lay architect, Robert le Luzarches, with
the building of a great cathedral." A curious evidence of the
transition may be added.

" Raphael, in one of his letters, states that the Pope (Leo X) had ap-
pointed an aged friar to assist him in conducting the building of St.
Peter's ; and intimates that he expected to learn some ' secrets ' in architec-
ture from his experienced colleague."

Passing to our own country we find Kemble, in The Saxons in
England, remarking of the monks that —

. . . "painting, sculpture, and architecture were made famihar through
their efforts, and the best examples of these civilizing arts were furnished
by their churches and monasteries."
In harmony with this statement is that of Eccleston.

"To Wilfrid of York and Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth in
the seventh century, the introduction of an improved style of architecture
is due ; and under their direction several churches and monasteries were
built with unusual splendor."

And afterward, speaking of the buildings of the Normans and of
their designers, he says of the latter —

"Among the foremost appeared the bishops and other ecclesiastics,
whose architectural skill was generally not less effective than their well-
bestowed riches."

How the transition from the clerical to the lay architect took
place is not shown ; but it is probable that, eventually, the cleri-
cal architect limited himself to the general character of the edi-

THE ELECTRIC FURNACE IN CHEMISTRY. 417*

fice, leaving tlie constructive part to the master-builder, from
whom has descended the professional architect.

Chiefly for form's sake reference must be made to the gath-
ering together and consolidation which, in our times, has been
set up in the architect's profession. There is little to remark
further than that the members of it, having been but few dur-
ing earlier periods, when the amount of architectural building
was relatively small, segregation and association of them could
scarcely occur. Recently, however, there has been formed an
Institute of Architects, and the body of men devoted to the art
is tending more and more to make itself definite by imposing
tests of qualification.

At the same time cultivation of the art and maintenance of
the interests of those pursuing it are achieved by sundry special
periodicals.

THE ELECTRIC FURNACE IN" CHEMISTRY.

Br M. H. MOISSAN.

THE reverberatory electrical furnace with movable electrodes,
which we devised in 1892, and in which we have made many
improvements, is very simple in construction, has been of great
service, and has permitted us to deal with problems which have
been hitherto insoluble. By means of this apparatus we have
been permitted, by obtaining a sufficient temperature, to produce
the diamond, to crystallize metallic oxides, to reduce those which
have hitherto been refractory, to melt metals heretofore infusible,
to distil lime, silica, zirconia, and carbon, and to cause an abun-
dant volatilization of such metals as platinum, copper, gold, iron,
manganese^ aluminum, and uranium. Some bodies that could
not be brought to a condition of fusion, like magnesia, uranium,
tungsten, and molybdenum, could be made to assume the gaseous
state in the electric furnace. In our studies we have frequently
dealt with the vapor of lime and silica.

When using the currents of machines of from one hundred
to three hundred horse power, we have in the midst of the fur-
nace the temperature produced by the electric arc ; a few centi-
. metres beneath, the crucible containing the matter to be experi-
mented upon; and at the bottom, a mass of quick-lime in full
ebullition. The imperfect conducting power of this substance is
a fortunate quality for us. It isolates the heat which the electric
arc can furnish into the smallest possible cavity.

This new apparatus permits us to approach the study of a
whole series of simple bodies which have been till now mere

VOL. XLVTII. — 29

4i8* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

laboratory curiosities, because of the want of adequate means of
obtaining them.

It is easy, with the aid of the electric furnace, to produce abun-
dant meltings of chromium by reducing the sesquioxide. This
melting, refined, yields chromium, an unoxidizable metal very
different from the specimens which have been hitherto obtained.
It can be filed like iron, and takes a fine polish. Chromium,
then, more infusible than carbon, can now be used in preparing
alloys without the need of the intervention of ferro-chromium,
which has the disadvantage of containing up to ten per cent of
carbon.

This preparation opens the way for the effective study of the
alloys of chromium. In combination with aluminum or copper,
it gives interesting results. Pure copper, alloyed with 0*5 per
cent of chromium, assumes a double resistance and suffers less
change than copper in contact with moist air.

Molybdenum, previously unfused, can also be obtained in
notable quantities. By heating, in a continuous electric furnace,
a mixture of oxide of molybdenum and charcoal, a melting of the
metal is obtained which flows readily and can be easily molded.
It furnishes a definite carburet, very well crystallized. It is re-
fined by a new heating in the electric furnace, with an excess of
oxide of molybdenum. The melted metal thus obtained has a
fine grain and a brilliant surface. It can be filed, and forged, at
a red heat, upon the anvil ; and with iron it furnishes a steel that
can be tempered. These are all new properties.

Tungsten has been heretofore known to chemists only as a
powder. Under the action of the electric arc, the oxide of tung-
sten is reduced by means of carbon, and gives in a few minutes a
well-melted bottom, covered with a fine layer of the blue oxide of
tungsten. This metal, which is still more infusible than chro-
mium and molybdenum, can be liquefied with great facility. It
does not seem to have a strong affinity for carbon, and is obtained
without special precautions as one of the purest metals we have
prepared.

The different oxides of uranium can not be reduced by carbon
at the ordinary temperatures of our furnaces ; but when a mix-
ture of the sesquioxide of uranium and carbon is subjected to the
high temperature of the electric furnace, the reduction takes place
in a few instants. After cooling, an ingot may be drawn from the
crucible possessing a brilliant fracture and great hardness. When
this uranium is slightly carbureted, it presents the property of
striking fire in contact with flint. The particles thrown off burn
with an intensity and an energy far superior to those exhibited
by a piece of iron.

All these simple bodies melt at more or less high temperatures.

THE ELECTRIC FURNACE IN CHEMISTRY. 419*

By the side of them we may place other metals the minerals of
which are rare — such as zirconium and vanadium.

Vanadium, on which Prof. Roscoe has made some interesting
studies, was not known, except as a gray powder including hydro-
gen, oxygen, and a little of some alkali metal as impurities ; but
Prof. Roscoe has had the pleasure of seeing in my little laboratory
at the Ecole de Pharmacie several hundred grains of it, under the
form of cast metal pieces, having a crystalline and brilliant frac-
ture. This simple body, the mineral of which occurs more exten-
sively than is generally supposed, is very difficult to melt, it hardly
liquefying in the current produced in the Edison dynamo by an
engine of forty horse power.

In our studies of titanium, a mixture of charcoal and titanic
acid gave, with a machine of four horse power, protoxide of tita-
nium ; with a machine of forty-five horse power we obtained only
nitride of titanium ; under the action of currents of from one hun-
dred to three hundred horse power we prepared by kilogrammes
a crystallized carbide, and then real titanium, the properties of
which are wholly different from those formerly attributed to the
gray powders that bore that name. This substance takes fire in
fluorine; decomposes water only at a bright-red heat; and pos-
sesses the curious property of burning in nitrogen at a high
temperature, yielding the nitride of titanium studied by Friedel
and Gudrin. It readily combines with carbon and silicon, but
does not unite with argon. Its melting, point is very high, it
resembling carbon in that respect". It differs from carbon, how-
ever, in the fact that while carbon under the ordinary pressure
and at a great elevation of temperature passes from a solid to a
gas without becoming liquid, titanium can, in the electric fur-
nace, be liquefied and then volatilized.

Most of the simple bodies furnish, with carbon, well-defined
combinations, crystallized and stable, at a high temperature, which
are destined to furnish a new chapter to mineral chemistry.

All these simple bodies which we have obtained by kilo-
grammes in the electric furnace form also borides and silicides
finely crystallized and so hard that some of them easily cut the
diamond. What part they are to have in the manufacture of steel,
and whether they are destined, like chromium, to give new prop-
erties to iron, are questions for the future to answer. But a new
chemistry of high temperatures is forming, from which industry
will most likely draw numerous applications.

It is recognized on all sides that some of our industries are
about to suffer important modifications through the use of elec-
trical forces. We ask of the forces of Nature all they can yield ;
and they are capable of easy use when transformed into electricity.
— Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from La Nature,

412

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

^t:ixxtsxf0u&tntt.

THE DRIFT OF POPULATION IN
FRANCE.

Editor J'ioptOar Science Monthly :

Sir: My article entitled Has Immigra-
tion increased Population ? having been sent
to you two years ago, contains some observa-
tions the force of which has been greatly
modified by time, and would .have been omit-
ted or expressed very differently if I had
been writing now. I had corrected them on
the proofs, but the corrections unfortunately
failed to reach you before you were obliged
to go to press. Waiving consideration of
the lesser errors which have thus arisen, I
write you this letter as my only means of
correcting the one of greatest importance.
In speaking of France, I said that it could
not be used as an example to show that ad-
vanced civilization lessens the rate of in-
crease of population, because, although " the
French annual rate of increase sank very
low during the four or five years previous to
the Prussian War, being only seven per thou-
sand inhabitants in 1870, it has since then
steadily risen and in 1890 was thirty-seven
per thousand."

At the time I was writing, the statistics
obtainable in this country seemed to bear me
out in the above assertion. But since then
we have the French statistics down through
1893, which show that the population has
again declined. It is rather strange, by the
way, that some of these statistics should be
80 tmcertain. For example, some authorities
tell us that in 1890 the French population in-
creased 38,446, and others tell us that in
that year it diminished by that same figure.
But, nevertheless, the statistics taken as a
whole seem to show a decided falling off

since 1890. This, however, does not alter
my main argument, and if my corrections
had been in time the passage above quoted,
and the paragi'aph in which it occurs, would
have been replaced by the following :

" But civilization is a broad term and has
different meanings in different countries.
While it may be true that the form of civili-
zation which prevails in France, or certain
ideas and habits of the French people, may
cause a decrease in population, it does not
necessarily follow that civilization in other
countries has that effect ; and as a matter of
fact it does not."

I should also have inserted this :
"More than one hundred years ago
Franklin noticed that countries many of
whose people migrate are not thereby de-
populated, but on the contrary often increase
their population much more rapidly than
would be expected. His observation has
been confirmed by later experience (Mayo-
Smith's Statistics and Sociology, pp. 319, 336).
The emigration merely makes room for a
greater number of births, so that population
increases as fast as it otherwise would, if not
faster. It is the country to which the emi-
grant goes that is more likely to suffer. Im-
migrants take the place which would other-
wise be filled by the natural increase of the
natives. The pressure of the immigration
decreases the size of the native families ; and
in the case of the United States, although
the foreigner may, under many circumstances,
have a higher birth-rate, yet the mortality
among his children is so much greater than
among the children of the natives that there
is no gain in population."

Yours truly, Sydney G. Fisher.
December 1, 1895.

%&itav's SaMc.

PAUSE, PERHAPS, NOT REACTION.

IT is freely alleged in various quar-
ters, occasionally with regret but
more frequently with more or less ex-
ultation, that the present is a period
of intellectual reaction. Science, it
is said by some, has been moving too
fast and has not made good its more

advanced positions. It has attacked
questions that were beyond its grasp,
and has had to retire in discomfiture.
It has made promises to mankind
which it has not fulfilled, and which
evidently it is not going to fulfill. Its
watchwords have lost their power —
so we are assured— and the comfort-

EDITOR'S TABLE,

413

able doctrines of the past are in a fair
way to recover their former prestige
and influence. It is needless to say
that we do not accept this view of the
situation. In cosmic and in human
affairs there is certainly a law of
rhythm, as Mr. Spencer has so copi-
ously proved in a celebrated chapter ;
but rhythm is one thing and reversal
of a main movement is another.
There will come times when men will
in a measure tire of speculation, and
seek rather to rest in a partial conclu-
sion than to pursue further voyages
of discovery into the unicnown ; and
such a time may be expected after a
period of active and rapid theoretical
advance. At such a moment of lull
it is not surprising if the Philistines
of the intellectual world, who had
been more or less in hiding while the
forward movement was at its greatest
intensity, should venture from their
fastnesses and indulge in a few songs
of triumph ; but this need not dis-
turb the serenity of the army of prog-
ress. In due time the order to
march will be given, and then the
Philistines — will keep out of the way.
Such, we think, is the situation at
the present time. The third quarter of
the century was a period of almost if
not of quite unparalleled scientific ac-
tivity. It gave birth to the most im-
portant work of Spencer, Darwin, and
the rest of the evolutionist school.
It brought important discoveries in
chemistry and biology, and rendered
a great deal of so-called orthodox
opinion in many departments of
knowledge forever obsolete. The im-
petus of this great movement last-
ed undiminished for several years
longer, and, if it has now slackened
in any degree, it is that the specific
need of the present day is rather a
careful survey and classification of
the results already obtained than a
further development of theory. We
want to know just where we are be-
fore we start again. To say that no

opinions which were held with a good
deal of confidence ten or twenty
years ago have undergone any modi-
fication would be foolish. That is
not the way in which science ad-
vances ; it advances through constant
rectification of its observations and
adjustments of its point of view. A
change of opinion may involve loss,
perhaps fatal loss, to a system of
thought founded on authority, but
it means no loss to science, whose
vitality can never be impaired by ad-
ditional knowledge. As Mr. Spen-
cer has lately found occasion to say,
there may be much difference of
opinion as to how species originate,
but this does not in the least invali-
date the great law of evolution,
which finds illustrations on every
page of the book of Nature. The
heritage of Darwin may be divided,
but at least no part of it is in posses-
sion of an antiscientific or antinatu-
ralistic school. All who to-day grap-
ple with the question of the origin
of species do so on a basis of purely
scientific observation and reasoning ;
and even if the problem had to be
given up as too obscure — and it is
quite possible that we do not even
yet know how obscure it is— it would
still remain a problem of science,
not a problem of theology or meta-
physics.

One most important characteristic
of science is that it can never really
be idle. If it is not doing one thing,
it is doing another; and its humbler
work— or what seems so — may be
not less useful, may indeed be more
useful, than its more ambitious ef-
forts. There is no department of
natural knowledge that is not day
by day receiving accretions which
all go to better in some way the
position of man upon the earth. It
will do no harm if for a time there
is less vague talk in regard to the
theoretical conquests of science: but
there need be no abatement of the

414

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

confidence with which we hold that
science is the power which trans-
forms impressions of sense into
conclusions of reason, which alone
throws light on the constitution of
the world in which we live, and
which confers upon all human effort
its highest possible eflBciency. Know-
ing this, we know that the so-called
" bankruptcy of science " is a contra-
diction in terms, the flippant inven-
tion of those with whom the wish is
father to the thought. In a word, all
is well ; for whether the time be seed-
time or harvest, whether the field, as
we see it, be lying fallow or carrying
a bounteous crop, science, the one
abiding power and principle of fer-
tility, is present with mankind, and
its promise will not fail.

THE PROBLEM OF LIFE.

In the October number of the In-
ternational Journal of Ethics Prof.
William James, of Harvard, comes
forward with his contribution to the
much-discussed question, " Is Life
Worth Living ? " The conclusion, a
sufficiently simple one, at which
Prof. James arrives, is that life may
be made worth living ; but he only
arrives at this very true conclusion
after a considerable amount of labo-
rious and, in our opinion, not wholly
sound argumentation. It may be
worth while, therefore, to go over
the ground — so far as it can be done
within our narrow limits— and see
what view can reasonably be taken
of the whole subject.

We are told by the writer men-
tioned that there are two recogniza-
ble sources of pessimism — or, in other
words, of the feeling that life is not
worth living — sensualism and over-
study, particularly of an abstract
kind. It seems to us that a statement
of this kind irresistibly suggests the
corollary that pessimism, with its
sickening doubts as to the value of

life, may be avoided by avoiding its
causes. Then, if so, why discuss it
as if it were a substantive system of
philosophy ? It either is or is not a
pathological condition : if it is, let
us seek to remove it ; if it is not, then
it is all right. '' It is a remarkable
fact," says Prof. James at a later
point in his article, "that sufferings
and hardships do not, as a rule, abate
the love of life ; they seem, on the
contrary, usually to give it a keener
zest. The sovereign source of melan-
choly is reple tion . ' ' Very true agai n ;
but what is the lesson ? Simply that
we should not abandon ourselves to
repletion, and that in the interest of
our children we should not satiate
them with enjoyments. But else-
where (page 7) the professor tells us
that "pessimism is essentially a reli-
gious disease," consisting, in the form
at least in which it attacks over-re-
flective minds, " in nothing but a re-
ligious demand to which there comes
no normal religious reply." This, of
course, sounds very philosophical ;
but it does not seem to be quite in
agreement with the proposition so
distinctly laid down, that pessimism
may spring either from sensualism
or from overstudy — "grubbing," as
the writer expresses it, "in the ab-
stract root of things." Supposing he
who has been so "grubbing" stops
doing it, or stops doing it in excess,
and, by proper attention to hygiene,
gets himself into capital physical and
mental condition, what then becomes
of the religious disease ? Will it not
vanish with its cause ?

We fail to see, however, why pes-
simism should be considered as a re-
ligious disease in the case of the over-
studious man and not in that of the
over-sensual ? By different routes
both have arrived at the same goal —
exhaustion ; and it is hard to see why
the pessimism of the one should have
a more religious character than that
of the other. Each has been brought

EDITOR'S TABLE.

415

througli his own injudicious courses
into the same morbid condition of
mind ; each, consequently, on the
strength of his own feelings asserts
that life is not worth living ; and
each says what is not true. Each in
his own way has disturbed, if not de-
stroyed, the natural balance of his
faculties and functions, so placing
himself in a wrong and painful rela-
tion to the world in which he lives ;
and the true remedy would therefore
seem to lie in undoing, if it be at all
possible, the mischief that has been
done. To trace pessimism, as Prof.
James does, to certain specific causes,
and then to propose to cure it by the
application of a religious theory, is
a little too much like trying to stay
a pestilence by pi-ayer instead of by
sanitary measures. Supposing that
a pestilence due to natural causes
could be stayed by prayer, it would
require a perpetual miracle to keep
it from breaking out again so long
as those causes were not removed.
Therefore, before we can follow Prof.
James in seeking a religious remedy
for pessimism, we must unlearn the
lesson he has himself taught us, that
its origin may be found in such
avoidable errors as undue self-indul-
gence (repletion), sensualism, and
overstudy. A dyspeptic takes very
gloomy views of human affairs, but
what is the use of arguing with him ?
What he wants is new life in his
digestive organs. Pessimism, as a
creed, will only deserve to be argued
with when it can be shown that it
claims its victims, not less among
those who have wisely husbanded
their powers and in every way re-
spected the laws of life, than among
those who have wasted their sub-
stance and set the laws of life at de-
fiance.

It is evident that Prof. James has
been so far affected by the pessimism
of studious souls as to have conceived
a very unfavorable opinion of the

apparent order of the universe. He
does not, however, give us as clear-
ly to understand as we could wish
wherein this somewhat extensive in-
stitution fails to meet his private
views — what he would like it to be
that it is not, or not to be that it is.
He quotes with evident sympathy
some appalling verses by the author
of The City of Dreadful Night-
verses which would have almost sent
a shudder through the rebellious soul
of Omar Khayam himself; and he
tells us that he fairly rejoices over
the downfall of tlmt form of natural
religion — fit only for backward and
barbaric peoples — which consists in
" the worship of the God of Nature,
simply taken as such." "There were
times," he says, "when Leibnitzes,
with their heads buried in monstrous
wigs, could compose Theodicies, and
when stall-fed officials of an estab-
lished church could prove by the
valves of the heart and the round
ligament of the hip joiut the exist-
ence of a 'Moral and Intelligent
Contriver of the World.' But those
times are past, and we of the nine-
teenth century, with our evolution-
ary theories and our mechanical phi-
losophies, already know Nature too
impartially and too well to worship
unreservedly any god of whose char-
acter she can be an adequate expres-
sion. ... To such a harlot " (as Na-
ture) " we owe no moral allegiance.
... If there be a divine spirit of the
universe. Nature, such as we know
her, can not possibly be its ultimate
word to man." This, on the whole,
does not seem to us very convincing
writing for a Harvard professor. The
" monstrous wig " of Leibnitz did not
so stifle his brains as to prevent his
discovery of an admirable form of
the calculus; and, among the "stall-
fed officials of an established church,"
the first that occurs to mind — cer-
tainly the most illustrious— was pre-
cisely he who pointed out (Samuel

4i6

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Butler was his name) the many dif-
ficulties and perplexities which con-
front us in our study of the order of
Nature. What special advantage
flows from calling Nature a "har-
lot " we are at a loss to imagine ; but
we do not find it hard to imagine
what evil may ensue therefrom. If
that Ultimate Power into commun-
ion with which the professor is so
anxious to bring us has really given
us a harlot world in which to pass
our probation — well, it would really
seem as if, to put it mildly, our edu-
cation has not been well provided
for. Human parents do not choose
such associations for their sons and
daughters. And yet, in spite of its
harlotry, "this world of Nature," we
are told, "is a sign of something
more spiritual and eternal than it-
self." It is also spoken of as *'a
mere sign or vision of a many-
storied universe in which spiritual
forces have the last word," and this
in spite of the assertion made in the
same sentence, that "circumstances
on the natural plane" create the
strongest presumption that life is
not worth living. Verily, " too much
grubbing in the abstract root of
things" does produce a somewhat
tangled condition of the understand-
ing, as well as an ugly bent toward
pessimism.

If we once settle it in our minds
that pessimism, or, as Prof. James
otherwise describes it, the suicidal
tendency, is a disease, there is only
one question worth discussing in
connection with it, and that is how
to prevent it. It seems to us that
the way is indicated with great clear-
ness and simplicity by the philoso-
pher who, anticipating the Harvard
professor by over two thousand
years, briefly announced that " much
study is a weariness of the flesh."
What does that philosopher fm-ther
teach ? He teaches the lesson that
has never yet sunk deeply enough

into the general mind, that youth is
the time when the character should
be fortified against the trials and dis-
appointments of later life. His sim-
ple but expressive language may
perhaps be not improperly recalled :
" Remember now thy Creator in the
days of thy youths while the evil
days come not, nor the years draw
nigh when thou shalt say, I have no
pleasure in them." Will any one
say that the doctrine of evolution
has rendered such advice as this ob-
solete ? It would be a shallow per-
son, in our opinion, who would raise
such an objection. What the preach-
er saw and felt was that youth was a
period which, if rightly used, would
establish the whole life on sure foun-
dations. The remembering of one's
Creator means little if it does not
mean acquiring a knowledge of and
reverence for the laws which ought
to govern human life, the formation
of sound physical and intellectual
habits, and of pure and wholesome
associations. It means, if it means
anything, the discerning of a triie
ideal of life, and the earnest and
loyal adoption of that ideal as some-
thing to be sacredly guarded to life's
end. Youth is the one period of life
that is fully capable of this, and
therefore it is in youth and only in
youth that our nature can be ren-
dered, as it wfere, immune against
pessimism. Prof. James may say
that this is taking a religious view
of life, and that so far we agree with
him. We claim that if our view is
religious it is also scientific, inas-
much as it takes, or aims at taking,
full account of all the conditions of
the problem. The difference between
us, however, is, as we think, real and
important. He prescribes religion
somewhat as a doctor would a drug,
as a tonic for exhausted minds. We
postulate a certain view and govern-
ment of life, not as a remedy for ex-
isting disease, but as the condition

EDITOR'S TABLE.

417

and gnarantee of mental, moral, and
physical health. And — what we
think is not unimportant — our point
of view exempts us from all tempta-
tion to malign the world, which is
the theater of our efforts, or to per-
form a war dance over the downfall
of natural theology. We believe
Prof. James could preach a much
better and more useful sermon from
the verse above quoted than he has
done in the essay that has been the
subject of our remarks. Or, if he
wants a classical authority, let him
take the words of Sophocles, who
says that, " of those whose lives are
kept in the right course, the major-
ity are saved through obedience."
Here we have the true counter-blast
to pessimism in a simple declaration
of the law of life : whoso heeds it is
wise ; whoso heeds it not will not be
won to happiness by argument.

SCIENCE AND TEMPERANCE.

We commend to the attention
of our readers an article in this
number of the Monthly, by Presi-
dent Jordan, of Stanford University,
on the subject of "Scientific Tem-
perance." An organization noted
more, perhaps, for its emotional
than for its rational impulses has, it
seems, taken into its own hands the
direction of what shall be taught in
the schools of the country regarding
the effects of alcohol on the human
system. If such teachings were char-
acterized by that avoidance of excess
which is so desirable where the ap-
petite for drink is concerned, there
would be little occasion to complain.
Indeed, we believe an honest zeal in
the cause of temperance is entitled
to the highest respect and to a whole-
hearted support. There is no deny-
ing that much the greater part of the
crime and misery with which society
is afflicted is caused by the use of al-
cohol in one form or another, and it
VOL. XLvin. — 30

has always been the practice of this
magazine to aid in the enlightenment
of the public on this class of ques-
tions whenever the facts warranted
such a course. But, on the other
hand, we are equally ready to con-
demn a kind of teaching that tends
to dwarf the truth, or to dress it up
in a fictitious garb, no matter how
good in itself the object may be that
it is sought to promote.

In the present case, with the de-
sire apparently to make the instruc-
tion concerning the effects of stimu-
lants and narcotics more potent for
good, altogether erroneous ideas are
conveyed to the pupil regarding the
science of the subject. What is ta-
citly represented as the established
results of scientific research is em-
bodied in so-called scientific text-
books as a part of the truths of phys-
iology, but this so much exceeds
the facts that the pupil, if not actu-
ally misled, is likely to carry away
distorted impressions, or wholly lose
sight of the modicum of truth which
science has been able to work out of
the problem. If it were the science
of the matter pure and simple that
our reformers were after, the two
pages of the Indiana text-book that
President Jordan quotes would am-
ply cover the ground, and leave
space for a few facts that bear the
other way, which as a part of the
results of research deserve to be im-
partially presented. Such a treat-
ment might fitly be labeled "scien-
tific," and escape the charge of false
pretense. On the contrary, to give
the subject sixty pages out of four
hundred, with its moral and social
aspects lugged in, and to call that
"human physiology," is a lesson in
deceit that should be denied a place
in our public schools. No compe-
tent physiologist would make such
a book, and no conscientious teacher
of science, if permitted the right of
choice, would place it in the hands of

418

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

his pupils, yet either is certainly better
fitted to judge what shall be taught
as physiology than the indifPerent
legislator or the reckless reformer.

From the jmint of view of the
temperance cause itself the case seems
little better. The false notions of
physiology that this kind of instruc-
tion is calculated to foster are sure
sooner or later to react. The child
learns the pseudo facts. They are so
striking and so frequently reiterated
that he remembers them. But at a
later period he discovers that some
of them are doubtful, that others
were greatly exaggerated, and that
not a few were wholly erroneous.
Further study will only confirm this
conclusion, when it is not unlikely
that he will go to the other extreme
and reject all he has learned on the

subject as unworthy of respect — a
state of mind the very opposite of
the one intended. But this is not the
worst of it. The discredit into wh ich
it tends to bring the study of physi-
ology itself is still more unfortunate.
The widespread ignorance of this
subject is responsible for a vast
amount of suffering and disease,
much of which might be avoided
and some perhaps removed were a
knowledge of physiology more gen-
erally diffused. To convey such
knowledge uncolored and without
exaggeration is a worthy object; but
to falsify it, calling the falsification
science, and compel its acceptance as
such by authority qf law, is very
much like causing the state to join
hands with the counterfeiter, and is
scarcely entitled to more respect.

S^titntitic %iUxvduxt.

SPECIAL BOOKS.

In three consecutive volumes of the International Education Series an
abundant supply of material is furnished to the kindergartner or the
mother who would use kindergarten methods.* The first consists of fif-
teen of Froebel's essays which, in the original tongue, were collected into
a volume by Dr. Wichard Lange. From these essays may be learned
Froebel's own ideas of the significance of the first five "gifts '* of the kin-
dergarten. The ball, he says, gives the child a welcome opportunity to
contemplate, to grasp, and to possess a whole ; it develops the muscular
sense and the control of the muscles of the hand and arm ; and the vari-
ous plays with the ball in which the mother may lead the child tend to
awakening and fostering the powers of its mind to compare, to conclude, to
judge, and to think. The contrast between the sphere and the cube is
highly instructive: the one having each part of its surface of the same
form as every other part, standing on a point, and easily movable, thef other
with sharp edges and corners, resting on a broad base, and requiring some
force to move it. From the cube, variously divided, the child learns the
ideas of parts making up a whole, of one form appearing in different sizes,

♦ Priedrich Froebel'B Pedagogics of the Kindergarten. Translated by Josephine Jarvis. Pp.
337, 18mo.

The Mottoes and Commentaries of Frledrich Froebel's Mother Play, Translated by Henrietta R.
Eliot and Susan E. Blow. With an Introduction, Pp. 316, 12mo.

The Songs and Music of Friedrich Froebers Mother Play. Prepared and arranged by Susan E.
Blow. Pp. 272, 12mo. New York : D. Appleton & Co. Price, $1.50 each.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE, 419

of a form bounded by unequal faces, etc. The various modes of using the
gifts, which are depicted in illustrations, suggest many movement plays,
and these Froebel describes, giving also the words of songs to accompany
them. He also describes a pleasant way of learning to write and read.
Froebel was a pioneer in child study, and in his description of kindergarten
plays he is constantly calling attention to the development of the child's
faculties which the attentive kindergartner may observe.

In the other two volumes we have Froebel's Mutterspiel and Eoselieder
reproduced in English. Froebel indicated how each of the mother-plays
should be played by means of a group of pictures surmounted by a
" motto '' consisting of eight or ten lines of verse. These quaint pictures
and the mottoes in the original language are reproduced in each volume.
The first, which may be called the mother's volume, contains also free ren-
derings of the mottoes in English verse, by Mrs. H. R. Eliot, together with
prose translations, by Miss Blow, of the commentaries that accompanied
the plays. Miss Blow has also furnished an introductory essay on the phi-
losophy of Froebel, and, that nothing of the master's thought may be lost
through rendering his homely lines into English verse, she has given prose
translations of the mottoes in an appendix. The companion or children's
book contains the same pictures with short pieces of verse on their subjects
by Emily H. Miller, Emilie Poulsson, Laura E. Eichards, and other writ-
ers. Following these is music for them and for some others to the num-
ber of eighty-three in all. In this volume many of the pictures in the
groups are repeated on a larger scale, so as to bring out their details more
clearly. Many of the melodies originally used in the mother-play having
been pronounced unsuitable by competent judges, other music is here sup-
plied from sources of recognized merit. In every part of these two vol-
umes the directing hand of that able kindergartner. Miss Susan E. Blow,
is apparent. Kindergarten teaching can be conducted by those who have
a genius for it without such helps as these books afi'ord, but it is hard to
imagine that a teacher who had once used them would be willing to give
them up.

In his work on Money and Banking * the editor of the New York Even-
ing Post gives connected form to the principles of finance which he has
studied and discussed for many years past. His method is that of the his-
torian who accounts for an event by circumstance, pressure, ignorance —
occasionally by knowledge fortunately joined to courage. His book is a
mine of sifted fact, with clear and convincing deductions wherever these
are warranted, with a judicial presentation of both sides of a case where a
decision is as yet to be found.

Stripped of its entanglements the money question is simple enough.
Mankind has chosen precious metals among commodities as means of ex-
changing all the rest and as standards of value. Real money, then, is
metallic coin, authenticated by the stamp of a mint as to quantity and fine-
ness. For generations down to 1873, both gold and silver circulated to-
gether in civilized countries at a ratio of about one to fifteen, the fluctua-
tions from that ratio being too inconsiderable to cause serious difficulty.
With the discovery in 1873, and since, of new and rich deposits of silver,

* Money and Banking illustrated by American History. By Horace White. Pp. 488, 12mo. Bos-
ton and London : Ginn & Co. Price, $1.50.

420 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

with constant improvement in processes for separating the metal from its
ores, silver in twenty years fell one half in value as compared with gold.
The difficulty inherent in trying to keep two commodities at a fixed rela-
tion to each other — that is to say, the attempt to maintain an unchanged
price for silver in terms of gold— plainly had passed heyond the utmost
power of legislation. Nevertheless, at the instance of mine owners legisla-
tion in 1878 and 1890 was invoked against facts geological and chemical,
with the result that the Federal Treasury bought a mass of silver today
worth $234,000,000 less than it cost. The new plentifulness of silver has
strengthened the preference for gold as the sole standard of value — a prefer-
ence alvvays felt by the richer among the nations from the great value
which the yellow metal possesses in small bulk. And what if silver should
become cheaper still ? It is the fear that something short of 23*22 grains
of gold will be paid by the borrower of a dollar that has tightened the
purse-strings of capital just at the time when good faith toward creditors
would have bred a confidence indispensable for an assured revival of busi-
ness. Of equal moment with the agitation for the free coinage of silver as
a source of financial misgiving, Mr. White stigmatizes the Legal-Tender
Act. This Act has led the American people to believe that the Federal
Grovernment has only to set a printing press in motion to create money, as
by Heavenly fiat. But the paper representatives of money inspire no con-
fidence unless they stand for a commodity, gold, in the full measure to
which at a time of panic that commodity will be demanded. What makes
this matter of sound money of supreme importance is that on money as on
a pivot turns so much more than itself — the whole fabric of manufacture,
tra^e, and commerce. To tamper with the standard of value, to debase it,
to lay undue burdens upon it, is as mad as the act of an engineer who
skimps substance for his fly-wheel, scamps its workmanship, and who,
defying the laws of poise and strain, brings a vast network of machinery
to ruin.

Mr. White outlines the salient features of American banking, with its
dreary record of overreaching, ignorance, and recklessness, relieved here
and there by examples of sound principle and careful practice as in New
York, Massachusetts, and Louisiana. He gives reasons for regarding Scotch
banking as the best in the world, and points to Canada as successfully copy-
ing many of its methods. A great bank with many branches, on the Scotch
plan, is a chain of lakes, each borrowing or lending with mutual benefit;
the American method of isolation exposes every bank to alternate drought
and flood. That it is no proper function of government to be a banker
Mr. White abundantly proves. As the bonds upon which the existing
national bank notes are based are disappearing, it is imperative that a new
basis for this note issue be found. Mr. White presents the ''Baltimore
plan" and Secretary Carlisle's proposal, leaving the decision with those
who must arrive at it.

Any one who wishes to know what can be said for the single-tax idea
clearly and soberly, with the aid of statistics, and quite apart from any
demagogic appeals to class prejudice, would do well to read Mr. Shear-
man''s book in the Questions of the Day Series.* The author starts with

• Natural Taxation. By Thomas G. Shearman. Pp. 289, 12mo. New York and London : G. P.
Patoam'ii Sons. Price, $1.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 421

the proposition, which many economists deny, that taxation can be based
on scientific principles; in other words, that money for the needs of gov-
ernment can be so raised as to take advantage of the natural laws that
operate in society instead of running counter to them. The principle of
plucking the greatest quanitity of feathers with the least squawking is cer-
tainly antiquated and unworthy of a mature and intelligent people. Our
taxation should be scientific, and if the scheme advocated by Mr. Shear-
man really has that character, he has brought the right article to market.
Many persons who are not prepared to accept the single tax as a remedy
will admit most of wbat he says in regard to the evils of indirect taxation.
He afiirms that direct taxation is practicable, but of the three forms now
in use — the income, succession, and general property tax — he deems the sec-
ond useful only as an adjunct, while the other two, because of the pre-
mium they put on fraud and other objections, should never be used. A
tax on land he calls the natural tax, because it can not be evaded, and be-
cause its proper distribution is automatically determined very much as
ground rent is regulated by the market. In reply to the objection that
such a tax would be shifted upon tenants, he cites "not only the entire
school of Ricardo and Mill, but also nine tenths or more of other economic
writers," as denying the possibility of such a transfer. In this respect he
notes a difference between a tax on land and one on buildings. It is ob-
vious that the landless class would be greatly benefited by exemption from
all direct or indirect taxation. Mr. Shearman also maintains that the
landowners, taken as an entire class, would also bear a smaller burden
than now, because they would be exempt from taxes on personal property,
indirect taxes, and the cost of collection and other burdens incidental to
these modes of taxation. Some of the landowners would have a heavier
burden than now. Mr. Shearman estimates that this would fall on fifty
thousand of the six million families in the United States who own land.
These fifty thousand own thirty per cent in value of all the land in the
country, and also get almost all the benefits arising from the monopolies
fostered by the present mode of taxation. He takes especial pains to show
that the farmers need have no alarm at the land-tax proposition, and
affirms that this plan, in addition to its other benefits, " would bring about
a just distribution of wealth, would give a perpetual stimulus to industry
and production, would greatly increase wages, would increase the profits
of capital, would give a security to property now unknown, would encour-
age manufactures, commerce, and agriculture, and would incidentally
solve many social problems which under present conditions seem almost
insoluble." Mr. Shearman has not made his programme attractive enough,
or, rather, he has not given it the right kind of attractions. The masses do
not want a just division of wealth any more than the classes. Every moth-
er's son of them is perfectly willing that a few shall have big prizes at the
expense of the many, if only he can be one of the few; and in a democratic
country, where it is possible for a poor boy to become president of a rail-
road, he is constantly hoping that next week or next year will bring hira
some undeserved advantage over his fellows. Even if a majority of the
voters in the United States were convinced that any economic reform
would benefit them all, they would need to have the lottery spirit educated
out of them before they would adopt it.

422

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

GENERAL NOTICES.

Since the establishment of the cell theory
by Sehieden and Schwann in 1838-40, it
has been recognized that a clear understand-
ing of the processes which go on in the
body, both physiological and pathological,
and of their relations to parent and offspring,
can only be obtained through a study of the
cell. This study has thrown new light on
many obscure points in heredity, and has
revolutionized our theories of the " vital
process." Such books as the one before us *
are the cause as well as the result of such
investigations — through their attractiveness
stimulating the student to renewed effort.
This one is a series of micro-photographs
taken from sections of the .eggs of the sea
urchin and so arranged as to illustrate the
principal phenomena in the fertilization and
early development of the animal egg. The
photographic reproductions are accompanied
by a critical description and drawings illus-
trating every stage, and are preceded by a
simple introductory account of the recent
history and growth of the science. The re-
fined histological technique and the manual
skill necessary for original work of this qual-
ity are rarely at the command of the stu-
dent. He has to get his knowledge from
text-books, hence an accurate reproduction
of the various specimens is quite essential.
The photographs in this work were taken
with especial care, not retouched, and repro-
duced in the prints as closely as possible.
The book is unique in containing the first
satisfactory series of photographic representa-
tions of the early history of the ovum. Prof.
Wilson is to be congratulated both as to his
own work and in having so skillful a col-
laborator as Dr. Learning.

The author of this book,f who is the in-
structor in physics in the English High
School of Boston, has been before the public
as an author of text-books on phvsics for

* Atlas of the Fertilization and Karyokinesis
of the Ovum, By Edmund B. Wilson, Ph. D.,
with the co-operation of Edward Leaminj?, M. D.
Pp. 32, quarto. New York. and London: Mac-
millan & Co. Price, $4 ; 17*.

t The Principles of Physics. By Alfred P.
Gage. Pp. 634, 13mo. Boston, U. S. A., and
London : Ginn & Co. Price, $1.55.

the past thirteen years. His latest produc-
tion is characterized by a fullness which he
intends to be a protest against " smaller
books," *' cheaper books," and " primers of
science." " Education in physics," he affirms,
" implies the presentation of the great truths
of that science in their unmutilated form,
the indication of their relations to one another,
and the furnishing the student an oppor-
tunity of observing and exercising the logical
processes that have led to the discovery of
those truths. Any text-book that aims to
introduce the student to a study of such im-
portance and such inexhaustible possibiUties
should not lose sight of this truth and en-
courage mere dileitanicismy Accordingly,
he supplements his statement of physical
laws by a store of concrete applications and
other illustrative matter. The book contains
a " high-school " course and an " advanced "
course, the latter comprising the former and
additional matter distinguished by indenting.
Some illustrative experiments are given, but
the work is not intended to serve as a labo-
ratory manual. A considerable number of
problems and exercises have been inserted, a
key to which is furnished to instructors.
There are nearly five hundred illustrations,
and a colored chart showing spectra and
combinations of colors.

An experimental laboratory has, with the
growth of modem methods of teaching, be-
come almost a necessity in the study of bot-
any. The book before us * is designed to aid
and direct experimental study. As to the
scope of his book the author says : " With
the rapid advance of investigation it is
next to impossible that an elementary lab-
oratory manual should include the latest
results, especially when the essential points
of many of them may yet be in contro-
versy, and need the critical treatment which
is certainly not within the province of a
work of this character. In the hands of
an instructor in touch with current botanical
thought such deficiencies are easily supplied.
The present work consists of a series of ex-

* Experimental Plant Physiology. By D. T.
Macdoupal. Pp. 8."), 8vo. Ne.v York: Henry
Holt «fc Co. Teachers' price, $1.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,

423

periments selected to illustrate the habits
and life history of plants," The author was
the translator of Oel's Pjlamenphysiologische
Versuche^ and his book is the outcome of
comments and suggestions from laboratories
in which this translation has been in use.
The general form of OePs manual is fol-
lowed; many cuts and a few paragraphs
from the translation are used; but it has
been modified and reduced in size to con-
form more nearly to the needs of American
primary students. The text is admirably
clear and the experiments instructive and
easily performed.

Prof. i. H. Bailey has compressed a won-
derful amount of information between the
covers of his Rtde-book* While of most
value to the fruit-grower, truck-gardener, or
florist, many of its directions, recipes, and
tables are needed by every person who has a
garden plot or a lawn. It contains direc-
tions for making and applying insecticides
and fungicides, for preventing the depreda-
tions of small animals and birds, and for
making and taking care of paths and lawns ;
redpes for grafting waxes, cements, paints,
and glues, tables of wdghts of seeds, quanti-
ties required for an acre, time for planting,
time of germinating and maturing, directions
for keeping fruits And vegetables, for pre-
dicting the weather, for — but we have not
space to give a full table of contents. This
is a third edition of the book, revised and
extended, and apparently well-nigh perfected.
We have not seen a better seventy-five cents'
vrorth of handy literature in many moons.

Educational methods are being so much
discussed to-day that any publication dealing
with this subject is of special interest
Prof. Munroe^* book f is a history of the
changes which have come about in the peda-
gogist's point of view since the Renaissance.
He sketches the revolt against mediaevalism,
with Rabelais as the moving force. Francis
Bacon does the same duty in the movement
against classicisra. The author says that
Descartes was the greater thinker, but be-
Ueves that he was less of a power at the time

• The Horticulturisfs Rule-book. By L. H.
Bailey. Pp, 802, 16mo. London and New York :
M acmillan &Co. Price, 75 cents.

+ The Educational Ideal. By Jam.^s Phinney
Munroe. Pp. 263, 12mo. Boston : D C. Heath
& Co. Price, %1.

than Bacon. In the fourth chapter he nar-
rates the downfall of feudalism and the part
which Gomenius played in it. In Chapter V,
The Child has Senses to be Trained, the effect
of the teachings of Montaigne and Locke are
reviewed. The Jansenists and F^nelon, Rous-
seau, Pestalozzi and Froebel, and Women in
Education each have a chapter. The au-
thor's views may be seen in the following
passages taken from the last page of the
book: "The new conception of the school-
master's task makes the educational problem
simpler. . . , Comenius's * mother- school,'
' that should exist in every house,' is be-
comifig possible ; upon the fundamental plan
of such a mother-school all education must
be shaped. It is no longer a simple question
of the intellectual value of this study and
of that ; it is no longer to be decided what
manner and quantity of information shall
be given; it is a question now of determin-
ing those subjects and those methods which
shall best supplement and carry forward the
training of character, the real education to
true manhood and true womanhood that is
or ought to be given in the home under the
parents' guidance."

Biology is attracting increasing attention
from students of science. In its study now
lies the chief hope of solving the questions
of heredity and organic evolution. The book
before us * is the third publication from a
series of biological lectures which are deliv-
ered every summer at the Woods Holl Ma-
rine Laboratory. The first volume was re-
ceived so favorably in 1890 that the authors
were encouraged to continue their publica-
tion. This number contains thirteen lectures.
Among them are Life from a Physical Stand-
point, by A. E. Dolbear; A Dynamical Hy-
pothesis of Inheritance, by J. A. Ryder ;
On the Limits of Divisibility of Living Mat-
ter, by J. Loeb ; Cell Division and Develop-
ment, by J. P. McMurrich; The Problems,
Methods, and Scope of Developmental Me-
chanics, by W. Roux; ana Evolution and
Epigenesis, by 0. 0. Whitman. The book
is in no sense a popular one, and must find
its readers among special students of biology
and the related sciences.

* Biological Lectures delivered at the Marine
Biological Laboratory of Woods Holl, 1894. Pp.
287, 8vo, Boston : Ginn & Co. Price, $2.65.

424

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Prof. A. MilnesMarehaWsmonogvaiih on
The Proff, intended as an introduction to
anatomy, histology, and embryology, was
written to guide and direct the student
through the practical part of this work,
and met a want the whole ground of which
was not covered by any manual existing at
the time of the original publication. It gives,
in the introduction, practical instruction in
the methods employed in biological investi-
gation ; followed by the application of these
methods to the anatomical and histological
examination of the animal; the frog being
selected because it is easy to get and con-
venient to dissect, and is a fairly typical ex-
ample of the group of vertebrates. The
preparation of the present, the fifth, edition
was Prof. Marshall's last professional act,
and was completed only a week before his
death. (Manchester and London : Smith,
Elder & Co. New York: Putnams, $1.40.)

An Elementary Textbook of Mechanics,
by R. T. Glazebrook, is the latest of the Cam-
bridge Natural Science Manuals to reach us.
The most satisfactory method of teaching
the natural sciences is by means of experi-
ments which can be performed by the
learners themselves. This book consists of
a series of such experiments which have
been used by the author in teaching his
classes ; the experiments are followed by an
explanation and an account of the deductions
to be drawn from them. (Macmillan, $1.25.)

Imagination in Dreams, by Frederick
Greenwood (Macmillan & Co., $1.75), treats
of a subject with which most of us are fa-
miliar through personal experience. Two
essays, previously published in English peri-
odicals, form the foundation for the work,
which as a whole is a rather unscientific dis-
cussion of curious psychic phenomena, which
are in many cases closely allied, and depend-
ent on morbid and diseased conditions of
body and mi^id, and very probably have little
value in determining the normal working of
the brain. A number of queer dreams are
detailed, many of them the author's own
products. He thinks that the limits general-
ly set for the imagination are at times over-
leaped in sleep and that " some dream visions
are creations of the mind."

Volume XXXII, Part I, of the Annals
of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard
College contains an interesting statement of

the methods in astronomical photography
followed at the Harvard Observatory. There
are also two chapters giving the results of
researches by Prof. William H. Pickering on
the Great Nebula in Orion and on the lunar
surface. The former was conducted exclu-
sively by photography while the latter em-
braced both visual and photographic obser-
vations.

Part I of Volume III of the final report
on the Geology of Minnesota is devoted to
paleontology, and is made up of contributions
by Leo Lesquereux, Anthony Woodward,
Benjamin W. Thomas, Charles Schuchert,
Edward 0. Ulrich, and Newton H. Winchell.
Prefixed to the special monographs which it
contains is a historical sketch of investiga-
tion of the Lower Silurian in the upper Mis-
sissippi Valley. The report is printed in
large quarto form, and the present part is
illustrated with about forty plates, besides
figures in the text.

Prof. N. Story-Maskelyne describes his
Crystallography as a treatise on the mor-
phology of crystals (London: Frowde, 12*.
6d ; New York : Macmillan, $3.50). In ad-
dition to giving full descriptions of the sev-
eral systems of crystallization, he discusses
the properties of zones and the varieties of
symmetry possible in a crystalloid system of
planes. He also describes modes of repre-
senting crystals and of measuring and calcu-
lating angles. While the author has deemed
it necessary to treat some parts of his subject
in the simplest form compatible with strict
geometrical methods, he hopes that his book
will not be found lacking in demonstrations
that will satisfy students with high mathe-
matical training.

In an easily readable little book Uriel H.
Crocker essays to point out The Cause of
Hard Times (Little, Brown & Co., 50 cents).
He ascribes the recent business depression
and that of ISYS-'VB to overproduction, and
in supporting this view he comes into con-
flict with Mill and other authorities of the
past and present. One reason that he gives
why production outruns demand is that
owners of factories frequently prefer to sus-
tain a loss that may not continue so long as
to be serious rather than the certainly large
loss involved in shuttmg down their works.

The Brush Arc Light Dynamo, by H C.
Reagan, Jr., is a handbook for electrical en-

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,

425

gineers and students. The author gives sim-
ple descriptions of the very latest Brush
dynamos and a list of instructions for use in
emergencies. A novel feature is a revolva-
ble celluloid chart. This chart represents a
Brush dynamo with a revolvable armature.
It shows the manner of cutting the lines of

force, the directions of the flow of current
induced in the armature coils, the method
of "commuting the current, and the flow of
current to the external circuit and return to
the negative brush. The book has been ap-
proved by the Brush company. (N. W. Hen-
ley & Co., N. Y.)

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Adickes, Dr. Erich. Kant Studien. Kiel und
Leipzig : Lipeius & Tischer. Pp. 185.

Advance in Education, The. (Bimonthly Pe-
riodical, Los Angeles, Cal ) Vol. I, No. 1. Edited
by P. W. Search. Pp. 28. $2 a year.

4Agricultural Experiment Stations. Cornell
Station : Announcement, 1895-'96.— Delaware Col-
lege Station: Strawberries. Pp. 16.— Iowa Col-
lege Station : Bovine Tuberculosis ; To Prevent
Spot Diseases on Currants and Strawberries ;
Squirrel-tail Grass, or Wild Barley. Pp. 80.—
Michigan State College Station : Dairy Records ;
Fattening Lambs.— New York Station : Com-
parative Field Tept of Commercial Fertilizers
used in raising Potatoes ; Analysis of Commercial
Fertilizers collected during the Spring of 1895.—
Ohio Station : Experiments in Feeding for Beef ;
Subirrigation in the Greenhouse.— United States
Department : Forestry for Farmers.- Maryland
Sttite Weather Service : Argon, by Ira Remsen ;
Atmospheric Temperatures during the Month of
July, 1895, by W. F. R. Phillips; The Chesa-
peake Peninsula, by A. E. Acworth.— Bulletin of
North Dakota Weather and Crop Service.— Uni-
versity of Wiser. nsin Station : Pasteurization of
Milk and Cream for Direct Consumption.

Ashhurst, John, Jr. The International Ency-
clopaedia of Surgery. Vol. VII— Supplement. New
York : William Wood & Co. Pp. 1082.

Benjamin, Park. The Intellectual Rise in
Electricity. New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp.
611. $4.

Bonner, T. G. Charles Lyell and Modem
Geology. New York and London: Macmillan &
Co. Pp.224. $1.25.

Bulletins, Catalogues. Reports, Reprints, etc.
Agriculture, The Beginnings of. By W J McGee.
From American Anthropologist. October, 1895.—
Boston Society of Natural History, Proceedings.
November, 1894, to May, 1895.— Chemistry, Short
List of Books on. By H. Carrington Bolton.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 1033.
— Chicago Drainage Canal, Contractors' Methods
employed on. Pp. 72.— Cities and Towns, The
Laying out of. By William Paul Gerhard. Lec-
ture before the Franklin Institute, February 1.5,
1895.— Colgate University. Annual Catalogue.
1895-'96.— Cyanide Pr cess. The. By George G.
Turri. Echo Publishing Company, Victoria.—
Diatoms, The Growth or, in Surface Water. By
G. C. Whipple. From Technology Quarterly,
Boston. Vol VII, No. 3.— Epileptics, State Pro-
vision for. By William F. Drewry. From Trans-
actions of the Medical Society of Virginia, 1895.
—Human Voice. The Limits of Pitch of. By W.
Le Conte Stevens. From Physical Review, Vol.
m, No. 15.— International Deep Waterways Asso-
ciation. First Annual Convention. Cleveland,
September 24, 1895.— Japan Imperial UnivcTsity,
Calendar of. —Jewish Training School, Chicago.
Annual Report and Some Information regarding
it.— Labor, Bulletin of Department of. No. 1.
November, 1895. Washington, D. C— Meriden
Scientific Association, Transactions, 1895.— Natu-
ral Storage of Energy. By Lester F. Ward.
Washington, D. C— Philadelphia Academy of
Natural Sciences, Proceedings of. April-Sep-
tember, 1895.— Princeton Contributions to Psy-
ch logy. Vol. I. No. 2.— Studies from the Psy-
chological Laboratory ; and Sensory Stimulation

by Attention. By J. G. Hibben,— Reaction Time
according to Race. By R. Meade Bache. From
the Psychological Review, September, 1895. —
Relations of the Industries to the Advancement
of Chemical Science. By William McMurtrie.
Address before the Chemical Section of the Amer-
ican Association. Springfield Meeting. — Roches-
ter Academy of Science, Proceedings of. F*p.
289- 348. 18S5.— Roy al Institution of Great Britain.
The Physical Work of Von Helmholtz. By A.
W. Rucker; The Structure and Function of the
Horse's Foot. By Captain F. Smith; and The
Radiant Heat from the Moon, during the Progress
of an Eclipse. By the Earl of Rosse.— Social Phi-
losophy, Contributions to Sociology and Cosmol-
ogy- By Lester F. Ward. From the American
Journal of Sociology, September, 1895.— Statist-
ical Association of America, Quarterly Publica-
tion of. Boston December, 1894-March, 1895.—
Tennessee State Board of Health Bulletins, Octo-
ber and November, 1895.— United States Com-
mission of Fish and Fisheries. Report for Year
ending June 30, 1893.

Campbell, Douglas Houghton, Ph. D. The
Structure and Development of the Mosses and
Ferns. Illustrated. London and New York ;
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 544. $4.50.

Crawford, F. Marion. Constantinople. lUus
trated. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons
Pp.79. $1.50.

Davis, William Morris. The Physical Geogra
phy of Southern New England. New York, Cin
cinnati, Chicago : American Book Company. No
9, Vol. I, of National Geographic Monographs.
20 cents.

Dialect Notes. Part VIII. Published by the
American Dialect Society. Pp. 357-402.

Grinnell, G B. The Story of the In ian.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 270. $1.50.

Griswold, W. M. A Descriptive List of Books
for the Young. Cambridge, Mass. : Published by
the author. Pp. 175.

Hering, Prof. Ewald. On Memory and the
Specific Energies of the Nervous System. Chi-
cago : Open Court Publishing Company. Pp. 50.

Kemer von Marilaun, Anton. Translated by
F. W. Oliver, with the Assistance of Marian
Busk and Mary F. Ewart. The Natural History
of Plants. Half Volumes HI and IV. New
York : Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 496.

Maryland, Climatology and Physical Features
of. First Biennial Report of the Maryland State
Weather Service for the Years 1892-'93. Pp. 140.

Mills, Wesley. The Psychic Development of
Young Animals and its Physical Correlation.
Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada.
Pp. 62.

New Jersey Geological Survey. Annual Re-
port for 1894. Pp. 308.

Remsen, Ira, and Randall, Wyatt. Chemical
Experiments. New York : Henry Holt & Co.
Pp. 156.

Sadtler, Samuel P. A Handbook of Industrial
Organic Chemistry. Philadelphia and London :
J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp. 537. $5.

Sedgwick, William T., and Wilson, Edmund
B. An Introduction to General Biology. New
York : Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 281.

426

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Seeley, H. G. The Story of the Earth. New
York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 186. 40 cents.

Shaler, Nathaniel Soiithgate. Domesticated
Animals. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons,
Pp. 267. ^.m.

Simson, James. Discussions on the Gypsies,
and Do Snakes Swallow their Youn^ ? Pp. 123.
And The Social Emancipation of tne Gypsies.
Pp. 24. New York : Printed by E. O. Jenkins.

Snyder, Charles Porter. The New Cosmology.
I*ublished by the author. Pp. 16.

Stanley, William Ford. Notes on the Nebular
The(;ry. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Trub-
ner & Co. Pp. 257. 9*.

Stedman, Thomas L. Twentieth Century
Practice. An International Encyclopsedia of Mod-
em Medical Science in Twenty Volumes. New
York : William Wood & Co. Vol. IV. Pp. 841.

Tarr, Ralph S. Elpmentary Physical Geogra-
phy. New York and London : Macmillan & Co.
Pp.488. S1.40.

Vult^, H. T., and Neustadt, George M. S.
Laboratory Manual of Inorganic Preparations.
New York : George Gottsberger Peck. Pp. 180.
$2.

Weekly Review, The. (Educational Periodi-
cal.) Ann Arbor, Mich. : Published by the Co-
operative Educational Association. Vol. I, No. 1.
Pp. 24. S2 a year; 5 cents a copy.

^ragmjcttts xrE ^tijcujcje.

A DeTiee for Geological Teaching.— It is

now six years since there wa^ issued a small
edition of an educational appliance invented
by James T. B. Ives, F. G. S., and appropri-
ately named by him the Strata Map. Since
that time the inventor has made various im-
provements, and is now bringing out his map
in a more completely satisfactory form than
heretofore. Hanging on the wall it appears
as a geological map of the United States, east
of Denver, in the ten colors recommended
by the International Congress of Geologists
for the coloration of geological maps. On
touching the fastening at the upper edge of
the frame, the glazed front may be let down.
It is then found that the map consists of ten
cards, each of one color, all the cards being
cut away so that part of each is exposed to
view. The uppermost card represents the
Quaternary, and all is cut away except so
much as correctly represents the Quaternary
beds on the surface of the region. The next
card below it exhibits the Neocene areas in
the same manner, cropping out from under-
neath, and extending beyond, the Quaternary.
Then follows the Eocene, succeeded by the
Cretaceous, which again is underlaid by the
Jurasso-Triassic, and so forth. Finally, the
foundation represents the Archaean systems
collectively, and is seen exposed where the
well-known Archaean areas occur. The fact
of superposition of the formations is brought
home to the student by this device, while
denudation is illustrated by the cutting away
of parts of the several cards. Such resultant
phenomena as inliers and outliers are seen,

also escarpments, the edge of each card form-
ing one in miniature ; while by tilting or
bending the cards, dip and strike with syn-
clinal and anticlinal folding may be illus-
trated as well as conformability of stratifi-
cation. One important advance which the
inventor has made since the earlier output of
his work is the embossing of the Archaean
foundation and all the superposed strata so
as to bring the whole to a plane surface.

More recently Mr, Ives has been occupied
with the problem of constructing relief maps
combining strength and lightness with mod-
erate cost, printed maps being used to fur-
nish the geographical details in which relief
maps are often so deficient. One novel fea-
ture is the combination of distinctive colors,
to represent successive levels, with actual re-
lief. Regions that are less than one hundred
feet above sea level are colored buff ; from
one hundred to five hundred, light green, and
so on ; there being eight stages in all, repre-
sented by eight well-contrasted colors.

These maps are made of specially pre-
pared paper, and the means by which the in-
ventor contrives to emboss them while still
retaining the register — that is to say, making
the printing on the map exactly correspond
to the mountain peaks and river courses of
the embossed foundation — is a secret not yet
divulged.

The structural and artistic finish of these
maps exhibits the painstaking of one who
himself appreciates the value of his work.
They received a diploma and medal at the
Columbian Exposition, both in the Liberal

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE,

427

Arts department and also in that of Mines
and Mining, and have been heartily com-
mended by many prominent geologists and
educators, including the late Profs. James D.
Dana, Alexander Winchell, and John S. New-
berry, Profs. James Hall, E. D. Cope, and
N. S. Shaler, and President D. C. Gilman.

The Davenport icademy of Seienees. —

The Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences
has just received a legacy of ten thousand
dollars from Mrs. Mary Putnam Bull, of Tar-
rytown. N. Y. It is given as a memorial to
her brother, Charles E. Putnam^ and his son,
J. D. Putnam, who were, during their life-
time, among the chief promoters of the
academy. Wisely the gift is made a Per-
manent Publication Fund. The academy has
already published five volumes of Proceedings,
and a sixth volume is in progress. Among
many valuable papers in these volumes the
entomological studies of Mr. J. D. Putnam
and the archaeological discussions of Dr. Far-
quharson are notable. Through exchange of
its Proceedings the academy has acquired a
valuable library comprising some forty thou-
sand books and pamphlets. The last paper
published by the academy was a seventy-two-
page Summary of the Archaeology of Iowa,
by Prof. Frederick Starr. The academy is
now organizing a comprehensive archajologi-
cal survey of that State, which if fully car-
ried out will be one of the most important
archjEological enterprises ever undertaken in
this country. The academy is now working
for a permanent fund of fifty thousand dol-
lars, for the better equipment of its work.
With its creditable past and its worthy pres-
ept it may well hope for success in securing
the funds necessary to insure a brilliant fu-
ture.

The Growth of Preyentlve Medicine*—

There came a time in the medical ranks,
fifty odd years or so ago, says Dr. Cameron
in a recent article in the Lancet, when the
classification of disease threatened to become
a mere cataloguing of the phenomena imme-
diately preceding death. Indeed, a certain
hopelessness, begotten of this mistake, threat-
ened to sap the energies of the physicians.
When Sydenham had, two centuries ago, in-
troduced a rational and hygienic element into
treatment, he had also, as it were, pointed in

the direction to which, when the hopeless-
ness referred to came upon us, we might
look for the prevention of disease itself. A
belief, therefore, in the value of cleanliness,
fresh air, and reasonable diet, along with a
certain not altogether unhealthy skepticism
as to the need in every case of drugs, was not
the least important weapon in the armament
of the young physician of thirty years ago.
And although new drugs always find new
votaries, and many of them have great value,
the absolute usefulness of all mere remedial
measures is at the present time looked upon
as very slight compared with the shielding
influence which the physician exercises in
placing his patient under the most favorable
circumstances for Nature to effect her cure.
And it is largely this belief in conquering
Nature by obeying her, lighted up by a cer-
tain afterglow of the hopelessness already
spoken of, which has caused so much of the
energy of the medical profession and the
sanitary authorities to be thrown into the
preventive service. While, therefore, the
ancient physician was strong chiefly in his
acquaintance with and prophecy as to the
probable results of the diseases which he was
called upon to treat, the modem hygeist at-
tempts to grapple with the remoter causes of
those processes themselves, not in the indi-
vidual alone, but also in the community.

Color Nomenelatnre. — In music and form
we have specific and generally accepted
terms for describing definite sense percep-
tions, but in the case of color nothing that
can be called even a system exists. The
terms vermilion and ulti-amarine, which have
been used by many of our best authorities,
for want of Etnything better, are nevertheless
used for very variable concepts. The differ-
ence between a Chinese and a German ver-
milion in pigments is very noticeable. A
Winsor & Newton chrome yellow and a Ger-
man chrome yellow differ by more than twen-
ty-five per cent of yellow. Among several
samples of blue pigments a still greater va-
riation is generally foimd ; while such terms
as olive, citrine, russet, crushed strawberry,
baby blue, ashes of roses, peacock blue, and
a host of others, have practically no exact
significance whatever. This uncertainty and
lack of a standard have caused naturalists
much inconvenience in botanical, entomo*

428

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

logical, ornithological, and zoological de-
scriptions. In applied science, in the arts,
and in chemistry the inconvenience has, if
possible, been even greater, and the rapid
advance in the art of dyeing alone makes
some system of color nomenclature absolute-
ly necessary. Mr. J. H. Pilsbury, who has
been working for some years to perfect a
practical system, contributed an article on
the subject to a recent copy of Nature.
He says : " In order that any fixed scheme
of color nomenclature may be of some prac-
tical value, it must of course be readily un-
derstood by people of ordinary intelligence,
and must be complete enough to meet the
ordinary wants of everyday life. There
must be something that is so completely
fixed as to be perfectly trustworthy for pres-
ent and future needs. In the solar spec-
trum we have an invariable source from
which to derive our spectrum standards, and
upon these the whole scheme is to be based.
Since the six spectrum standard (red, 6,587 ;
orange, 6,085 ; yellow, 6,793 ; green, 6,164;
blue, 4,695; violet, 4,210— the numbers in-
dicate the wave-lengths in ten millionths of a
millimetre) do not give a very extensive reper-
toire for common use, to say nothing of the
needs of the more artistic, it was proposed
to introduce between each two spectrum
standards two intermediate hues to be
formed by the union of two spectrum stand-
ards in definite proportions. Thus be-
tween orange and red would be introduced
an orange- red and a red-orange. ... It is
also very desirable that the standards be pro-
duced in some material form in order that it
be of any practical value. The task of re-
producing the brilliant hues of the solar
spectrum in pigmentary material or in glass
is much more difficult than one not ac-
quainted with the matter would suspect. In
order to accomplish this, it has been found
necessary to use the somewhat fugitive ani-
line colors." The colors thus produced, with
the addition of black and white, give a fairly
satisfactory system. In a later number of
the same journal Herbert Spencer has a let-
ter in which he suggests a scheme for color-
naming, composed of terms patterned after
those used in the compass for denoting
direction ; giving a form : Red, red by
blue, red red blue, red blue by red, red blue,
red blue by blue, blue red blue, blue by red,

blue. He says : *' Of course, these names
would be names of pure colors only, the pri-
maries and their mixtures with one another ;
but the method might be expanded by the
use of numbers to each, 1, 2, 3, signifying
proportions of added neutral tint subduing
the color, so as to produce gradations of im-
purity."

Kindergartening in a New Role. — There
is to be opened in Boston this fall a kinder-
garten settlement, to be known as the Eliza-
beth Peabody House. It is designed as a
memorial to Elizabeth Peabody, who did so
much, in the early days of kindergartening,
to help the cause. The plan is to take a
house in some poor and crowded quarter, and
officer it with a group of eight or ten kin-
dergarteners, normal students, and teach-
ers. They will conduct a kindergarten, and
through acquaintance with the children enter
into friendly and helpful relations with the
people of the neighborhood. Interesting plans
are under consideration for a cooking school,
a training class for nursery maids, and for
mothers' clubs and classes, where helpful
hints may be given as to the care of chil-
dren and of the home.

Fish-bait Farms. — Fine openings for new
industries are discovered by Dr. W. A. Herd-
man, President of the Zoological Section of
the British Association, in the cultivation of
supplies for fishermen. The Scotch long-line
fishermen alone, he says, use nearly a hun-
dred millions of mussels every time all the
lines are set, and many tons of them have to
be imported every year. If squid could be
obtained reasonably and in sufficient quantity,
it would probably prove more valuable even
than mussels. A fishing firm in Aberdeen last
winter paid more than two himdred pounds
for squid bait for a single boat's lines from
October to December, and there are fifty such
boats north of the Tyne. " Here is a nice
little industry for any one who can capture
or cultivate the common squid in quantity."
Innumerable young mussels perish around
the coasts every year for want of suitable
objects to attach to. The erection of proper
stakes or plain houchots would serve a use-
ful purpose, at any rate in the collection of
seed. Dr. Herdman further pointed out the
opportunity that exists for opulent land-

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

429

owners to erect sea fish hatcheries on the
shores of their estates, and for rich mer-
chants to establish agriculture in neighbor-
ing estuaries, and so instruct the fishing popu-
lations, resuscitate declining industries, and
cultivate the barren shores, in all reasonable
probability to their own ultimate profit.

The Sage School of Philosophy.— The

Sage School of Philosophy in Cornell Uni-
versity is devoted " to the free and unham-
pered quest and propagation of truth" in
regard to all those questions of human in-
quiry which are embraced by logic, psychol-
ogy, ethics, pedagogics, metaphysics, and the
history and philosophy of religion. Its aim
is to secure comprehensiveness and thorough-
ness. It is founded on an endowment by the
Hon. Henry W. Sage, the proceeds of which are
supplemented, when necessary, with appro-
priations from the general funds of the uni-
versity. Six scholarships and three fellow-
ships are open to graduates of Cornell and
other universities; four progressive courses
of study are given, corresponding with the
four years of the college course, and also
seminary courses in experimental psychol-
ogy, ancient and mediaeval philosophy, mod-
em philosophy, ethics, pedagogics, and the
history of religion. The students are further
free to select any of the courses given in the
university. A psychological laboratory is
attached to the institution; a philosophical
club has been formed; and a periodical —
the Philosophical Review — is published under
the editorial direction of two of the professors,
assisted by their associates.

Faee-Reading. — In the acquisition of the
art of speech-reading by sight, the eye of the
deaf pupil becomes accustomed to certain
positions of the organs of articulation, and
he thus learns to understand the spoken
words of others, although he does not hear
them. In teaching this art, Li Hie Eginton
Warren has found that the forty odd sounds
of the English language are revealed in six-
teen outward manifestations or pictures, and
practice in following them as they rapidly
appear in a face enables us to understand
what is said. Some faces differ from others
in strength of expression, and thus many
show less action in the lower part. Never-
theless, there is in all persons a general ap-

proach to a certain definite movement of
muscles, particularly when in animated con-
versation, and the trained eye notices what the
inexperienced one fails to discover. After at-
taining a degree of proficiency in this art of
expression-reading, persons seem to feel that
they hear instead of see the words spoken.
Reading our language in this way may be
said to be mastery of a new alphabet, the
rapidly moving letters or characters of which
are to be found upon the page of the human
countenance.

A Dream of Railroad Deyelopment. —

Forecasting, in the Engineering Magazine,
the future of American railroading, Mr. H.
D. Gordon assumes that the lines on which
our inventors will have to do their work
hereafter seem to be far more clearly defined
than ever before. There is no engineering
reason why a speed of one hundred miles an
hour should not be maintained on fast trains ;
the objections are commercial rather than
technical. The chief obstacle lies in the
ponderous and wasteful mechanism needed
to generate the requisite amount of steam
under even the best methods. The remedy
may be found when electric energy can be
generated in a simpler and less expensive
manner than hitherto. In passenger trains
too many horse powers are needed to carry
each ticket-holder to his destination, and too
many hundredweight of dead material have
to be dragged along with him. Within the
carriage he is entitled to better ventilation
and better light than he is apt to get, and
electricity is looked to to provide him with
both. Some benefit has been derived, and
much more may be reasonably expected,
from the experiments made in introducing
steel frames into cars, and otherwise improv-
ing their structural resistance to abnormal
shock or accident. Outside of the train, in
signaling, a considerable advance has al-
ready been made toward having the sema-
phore raised and lowered by directly applied
electric force; and the author anticipates
that it will not be many years before a train
may be seen through its successive blocks
by the glare of electric lights, leaving each
block in darkness as it enters and lights the
next. What has already been done in rail-
road invention in the United States is but an
earnest of what the future holds in reserve.

430

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

The Ball Nozzle. — Mr. Arthur Kitson, in
an address on the ball nozzle, published in
the Journal of the Franklin Institute, gives
the following explanation of its apparent
contradiction of natural laws : The problem
connected with this invention may be put
thus: Why does the ball adhere to the
nozzle when there is behind it a force ag-
gregating as high as hundreds of pounds
pressure ? The explanation usually given is
that the atmospheric pressure holds the ball
in its place and prevents it from falling or
leaving the mouth of the nozzle. To this
others answer that the pressure behind the
ball far exceeds the atmospheric pressure ;
for instance, there is an exhibition given
daily in New York with one of these nozzles
where the water pressure equals a hundred
pounds per square inch, and as the atmos-
pheric pressure is only about fifteen pounds,
it would at first sight seem that the excess of
pressure on the under side of the ball was
eighty-five pounds, and ought, therefore, to
expel the ball. The error, however, in this
argument arises from failure to distinguish
between the pressure of the water when con-
fined in the pipes and when issuing around
the ball. It is very certain that if a hundred
pounds pressure were acting directly upon
the ball, it would be blown out of the nozzle,
but it does not appear to me to act in this
way. When the ball is confined to the
mouth of the nozzle and pressed against it,
it is undoubtedly subjected to the pressure
of the water, but the moment it is raised
slightly from the mouth, it is no longer sub-
jected to this pressure, since the water is
escaping all around it. In this respect it
resembles the lid of a teakettle when the
water is boiling. By plugging the spout, the
lid will be raised by the steam pressure suf-
ficiently to allow the steam to escape at the
sides. The explanation that seems to me to
be the correct one is as follows : The ball is
acted upon by three forces : first, gravity ;
second, atmospheric pressure ; and, third, the
force of the issuing stream. At first, the at-
mospheric pressure is the same at all points,
and hence gravity has free play ; but as soon
as the stream passes through the nozzle, the
atmospheric pressure from the under side is
counteracted by the momentum of the issu-
ing water, and the ball rising to a point
where the water can pass freely around the

sides, without pressing materially upon the
ball, we have the full pressure of the atmos-
phere on the under half-side of the ball re-
sisting the force of gravity. The ball, there-
fore, simply serves as a deflector to divert
the current of water or to spread it out, and
the resistance of the atmosphere against the
ball suffices not only to perform this opera-
tion but also to sustain its weight.

It is possible that the density of the air
may also be somewhat increased under the
ball by the action of the spray. With a
heavy pressure, the ball is farther removed
from the nozzle than with a light pressure.
The same holds good respecting a heavy ball
and a light ball.

Native Snlphnr in flllehigaii. — Beds of
native sulphur are described by W. H. Scher-
zar in the American Journal of Science as
having been discovered during the past year
in the upper lielderberg limestone of Mon-
roe County, Mich. They lie from sixteen to
eighteen feet below the surface, between a
compact, dolomitic limestone and a calcare-
ous sand rock. They consist of a yellowish-
brown, impure limestone, containing fossils,
and giving here and there a strong, oily odor,
which, wherever exposed to view, appears to
be cavernous in structure, having pockets of
from a fraction of an inch up to three feet in
size. These pockets contain scalenohedrons
of calcite or tabular crystals of celestite, or
both together; while the sulphur generally
occurs in bright, lustrous masses toward the
center of the cavity, intermatted frequently
with the lime minerals. Fragments as large
as one's fist are readily removed. Some of
the smaller cavities contain nothing but pure
sulphur. Nearly one hundred barrels of pure
sulphur have been obtained from about an
acre of this bed.

Antirabic Semm.— In the light of some
of the recent experimental work of Tizzoni
and Centanni, published in the Lancet, there
seems little doubt that a great advance has
been made in the treatment of rabies. In-
stead of manufacturing the antitoxic mate-
rial in the body of the patient, by a process
of vaccination as in the Pasteur method,
Tizzoni and Centanni prepare this substance
in an animal, from which it is conveyed to
the individual to be treated, in the blood

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

431

serum as a vehicle. In place of using Pas-
teur's method of protective vaccination for
the animals from which the serum is ob-
tained, they, by a process of peptic digestion,
attenuate the virus to be used. It is pos-
sible by drying to prepare a permanent form
of this serum which will, if kept from air
and light, remain active for a long period.
It is very portable, is readily dissolved, and
may be used by any one who is capable of
sterilizing a hypodermic needle and syringe.
The treatment, therefore, can be commenced
almost as soon as the patient has received
the bite, and it is not necessary that he
should leave his home or his own medical
attendant.

The Meaning of Race. — Attempting to
frame a definition of race, Mr. W. M. Flin-
ders Petrie remarked in the British Associa-
tion that when only a few thousand years

had to be dealt with, nothing seemed easier
or more satisfactory than to map out races
on the supposition that so many million peo-
ple were descended from one ancestor and
so many from another. Mixed races were
glibly separated from pure races, and all
humanity was partitioned off into well-de-
fined divisions. But when the long ages of
man's history, and the incessant mixtures that
have taken place during the brief end of it
that is recorded, come to be realized, the
meaning of " race " must be wholly revised.
The only meaning that a " race " can have is
that of a group of persons whose type has
become unified by their rate of assimilation
and of their subjection by their conditions
exceeding the rate of change produced by
foreign elements. If the rate of mixture
exceeds that of assimilation, then the peo-
ple are a mixed race, or a mere agglomera-
tion.

MINOR PABAGRAPHS.

The Belgian Astronomical Society, found-
ed a year ago, for the advancement and pop-
ularization of that science and of meteorol-
ogy, has recently become much extended.
At the meetings in May, June, and July,
1895, papers were read on the history of
astronomy at the time of the Renascence,
by M. Doiteau; on the observation of the
scintillation of the stars, by M. Vincent ; on
the application of the spectroscope to the study
of the constitution of Saturn's rings, by M.
Stroobant; on the theories of atmospheric
circulation, by M. Marchal ; and on other
subjects. A co-operative system of observa-
tions of shooting stars, clouds, etc., was de-
cided upon. An annual volume of the year's
results is to be published in November, and
a periodical bulletin has been arranged for.

A French journal, the Chasseur illustr^,
tells of a Russian "gentleman who, wishing
to ascertain where the birds go in winter,
caught a number and attached to their tails
a tube containing his address and a request
in four languages that whoever might find
the bird again would write him concerning
the place and time of the finding. He wait-
ed long for an answer, but only recently re-
ceived a letter from a European prisoner
captured by the Mahdi at the taking of
Khartoum, relating that a follower of the

Mahdi in Dongola had killed one of the birds
in November, 1892, and, not being able to
read the paper, had brought it to him. The
prisoner, in his glad surprise at receiving a
letter from Europe in so strange a way, em-
braced the first opportunity on regaining his
liberty to answer it.

The influence that the bearing of one'
man or nation may exert upon another is ex-
emplified by what Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie
said in the British Association concerning
the condition in the East, where an inter-
minable system of reprisals in defrauding
and exacting prevails. " The Egyptians are
notorious for their avarice, and are usually
accredited with being interminable money-
grabbers ; yet no sooner do they find that
this system of reprisals is abandoned and
strict justice maintained than they at once
respond to it; and when confidence has
been gained, it is almost as common to find
a man dispute an account against his own
interest as for himself, and scarcely ever is
any attempt made at false statements or
impositions. Such is the healthy response
to straightforward dealing with them."

The purpose of the new division of agros-
tology in the United States Department of
Agriculture is investigation and experiment
upon grasses and other forage plants, in

432

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

order to determine their adaptability to cul-
tivation and use in this country ; to inform
the people concerning them ; and to intro-
duce those which promise well — whether
native or foreign — into cultivation. A small
plot has been furnished on the grounds of
the Department of Agriculture on which
four hundred varieties of grasses and forage
plants are growing for the testing of their
qualities, and a larger garden has been es-
tablished in one of the Southern States.
The division has in preparation a popular
book on the grass and forage plants of the
country, also a larger illustrated handbook
on the grasses of North America.

A CURIOUS system of water cure is prac-
ticed by Sebastian Kneipp at Woerishofen,
Bavaria. Its mdst striking feature is the
importamce it attributes to the action of
water on the lower extremities. Patients
are caused to walk in running water or on
the dewy turf, or on flagstones freshly wa-
tered; and baths are prescribed without
after-use of the towel or rubbing, the bather
being instructed to dress himself as quickly
as he can, and let the reaction take place in
his damp shirt. The system is mentioned
by M. E. Bottey in his theoretical and prac-
tical treatise on the water cure (Paris, 1893)
as possibly affording the hygiene and regime
which some diseases require, but as danger-
ous in most cases.

NOTES.

CoNsroERABLE attention has lately been
given in London to the question of the spread
of infectious diseases among horses through
the public watering troughs. There seems
good reason to believe that this is a common
source of mfection, especially for glanders.
One parish has gone so far as to abolish the
ordinary troughs and replace them by a stop-
cock and a pail.

In speaking of Prof. Ludwig, one of the
most persistent of vivisectors, Dr. Mosso
says : " Ludwig, the greatest of vivisectors,
was president of the Leipsic Society for the
Protection of Animals, and remained to the
last one of its most active members. Ger-
many owes to him that her horses and beasts
of burden are now humanely treated. To
him is due the awakening of the true hu-
manitarian spirit toward the brute creation
that culminated in the 'Union of German
Societies for the Protection of Animals.' "

Prof. Charles S. Minot, of the Harvard
Medical School, has arranged a course in em-

bryology for students wishing to make a
special study of this branch. The course is
open to registered students of the graduate
department of the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences, and will be offered hereafter also as
a special course to graduate students of the
medical school. The course extends through
a year of two terms, and will consist of lec-
tures and laboratory work. Students taking
the course will be expected to devote to it
not less than eighteen hours a week. For
persons having medical degrees the fee for
one term is seventy-five dollars ; for the whole ;
year, one hundred and twenty-five dollars.
Others must enter the university as graduate
students under the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences.

At a recent meeting of the Berlin Phar-
maceutical Society, Dr. Seidler read a paper
on the bacteria in mineral waters. He had
made an elaborate series of experiments and
found bacteria in all the bottled mineral
waters, artificial as well as natural. The
waters, as a general thing, were practically
germ-free as they emerged from the earth,
but bacteria developed rapidly, through care-
lessness in washing the bottles, corks, etc.

The mineral statistics of the United King-
dom of Great Britain for 1 894 have been
issued as a blue book. The total production
of coal for the year was 23,126,983 tons;
the approximate price at the pits about $1.75
per ton.

The seventh session of the Australasian
Association for the Advancement of Science
will be held in Sydney, from the 3d to the
10th of January, 1897, under the presidency
of A. Liversidge, Professor of Chemistry,
University of Sydney. Communications and
papers for the meeting, or inquiries, may be
addressed to the permanent honorary secre-
tary. The Chemical Laboratory, The Univer-
sity of Sydney, N. S. W.

Dr. Albert E. Foote, of Philadelphia, a
distinguished mineralogist, died at Atlanta,
Ga., where he had gone in charge of the
Pennsylvania mineral exhibit, October 10th.
He had been in feeble health for some time.
He was born in Hamilton, N. Y., in 1846 ;
was graduated in medicine from the Univer-
sity of Michigan in 1867 ; taught at Ann Ar-
bor ; and was for five years Professor of Chem-
istry and Mineralogy in Iowa State College.
In 1876 he removed to Philadelphia and be-
came a professional mineralogist and a dealer
in minerals and scientific books.

Prof. H. Hellriegel, an active and effi-
cient investigator in agricultural chemistry,
died at Bemburg, Anhalt, Germany, Septem-
ber 24, 1895. He was best known for the re-
searches into the fixation of nitrogen by legu-
minous plants, in which the joint agency of
microbes and nodules on the roots of the
plants was determined.

ANDREW DICKSON WHITE.

APPLETONS'

POPULAR SCIENCE

MO]:^THLY.

FEBRUARY, 1896,

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION.

By DAVID A. WELLS, LL.D., D. C. L.,

COBEB8PONDANT DE l'iNSTITUT DJi FRANCE, ETC.

II.— THE PLACE OF TAXATION IN LITERATURE AND HISTORY.

ONE of the great historians of the present century has ex-
pressed disappointment at what he terms the " emptiness "
of historical study, and accordingly inclines to the opinion that
guidance in respect to human affairs in the future is to be sought
for in present rather than in past experiences. Nevertheless,
it would seem to stand to reason, that when any department of
knowledge, especially one characterized ]by controverted ques-
tions, is to be comprehensively examined, with the prime object
of determining the best methods for human action, it would not
be expedient to attempt to discover or discuss any abstract prin-
ciples which ought to govern such action, until at least a sum-
mary of facts derived from experience and essential to correct
conclusions had been presented and made familiar, and, acting
on this assumption, it is proposed next to ask attention— ^irs^, to
the place of taxation, considered as a department of knowledge,
in general literature; and, second, to some points of historical
interest, growing out of the appropriation of states or rulers of
the property of their citizens or subjects for real or assumed
public purposes. It is believed that in this way the discussion
at a later period of the principles growing out of the exercise
by governments of this great prerogative may be facilitated and
rendered more attractive.*

* " No man can learn what he has not preparation for learning, however near to his eyes
is the object. Our eyes are holden that we can not see things that stare us in the face, until

VOL. ZLYIII. — 31

434 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Position of Taxation in General Literature.— All gen-
eral treatises on political economy devote more or less space to
the consideration of taxation ; and there have been many publi-
cations in the nature of official reports, compendiums of tax laws,
and their interpretation by legal tribunals, and special essays on
particular forms of taxes. But, at the same time, notwithstand-
ing the vastness and importance of the subject, its symbolism and
exemplification of sovereignty, its influence for weal or woe on
every citizen and on every industry, according as the power in-
volved is properly or improperly exercised, and the part it has
played in history, its position in economic literature is so com-
paratively insignificant that there is not a single publication at
present in the English language which is entitled to be considered
as a full and complete treatise ; certainly none such as are readily
at the command of every person desirous of becoming reasonably
proficient in any of the other leading branches of learning. Prof.
Cossa, of the University of Pavia, Italy, in a bibliography of tax-
ation incorporated in a brief treatise on the Science of Finance,
published in 1882, and brought up to the times by an American
translation in 1888,* does not mention even one title of this char-
acter. And, althcugh there are works on taxation more or less
general in their scope in other languages — especially in French
and German — and to some of which high merit is accorded, there
are none which any considerable number of economists are will-
ing to accept as standard or authoritative in all departments ; the
chapter on taxation in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations consti-
tuting the only treatise which can possibly be regarded as an
exception.! For such a result it is not easy to account. Possibly,
owing to the want of accord among writers on economic and
financial subjects, an opinion has come to prevail that no consist-
ent treatment of the subject, as a whole, is possible ; that the
financial and industrial condition of nations or states differs so
widely that no uniform rules of practice for the raising of revenue
can be established ; and, finally, if such a code of rules were uni-
versally accepted, the varying necessities of nations would com-

the hour arrives when the mind is ripened ; then we behold them." — Emerson, ^ritual
Laws, First Series of Essays, p. 139.

* Taxation, its Principles and Methods. Translated from the Scienza delle Finanze of
Dr. Luigi Cossa, Professor of the University of Pavia, Italy ; with an Introduction and
Notes by Horace White. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1 888.

f " It is well known that during the period from Adam Smith to the close of John
Stuart Mill's activity — that is, for fully one hundred years — English political economy treated
the science of finance " (embracing the raising of revenue) " as nothing better than a scanty
appendage. It is a significant fact that no work worth mentioning on the science of
finance has yet (1889) been published in the English language, though some considerable
contributions have been made to financial history." — CohiVs Science of Finance.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 435

pel its violation, or comj)lete abandonment, in periods of great
emergency.

In the case of the United States the condition of the country-
previous to the civil war, as already pointed out, was very curi-
ously such as to create great indifference to this, in common with
almost every other economic or financial topic. The nation and
the several States composing it were at the period referred to com-
paratively free from debt. All taxation was light. Direct taxa-
tion by the Federal Government had become a matter of history,
no taxes of this character having been imposed for nearly half a
century. Pauperism was mainly restricted to persons of foreign
nativity, while to all who were willing to practice industry and
economy, the ability to command a good subsistence, if not an
ultimate competence, seemed comparatively easy. Why should
a nation under such circumstances trouble itself about difficult
and intricate problems in finance or political economy ? And
taking counsel of the proverb, "Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof," the nation did not. But, with the advent of war
in 1861, the creation of an enormous national debt, and a gigan-
tic, unsystematic, and complex system of taxation, a resort to
irredeemable paper money and the suspension of specie payments,
the condition of things as above stated rapidly changed; and the
questions and problems which in popular estimation were before
insignificant have rapidly become so important, as to constitute
not only the theme of never-ending popular discussion, but also
the issues which mainly divide the national political parties of
the country. And as illustrating in some degree the nature and
strength of what may be termed the motor or impelling influences
which have forced these changes in public opinion, what can be
more pertinent than the fact that the State of New York alone
now annually raises by taxation to meet the expenditures of State
and local governments a sum (891,232,012 in 1890) more than one
half in excess of the net ordinary expenditures of the Federal Gov-
ernment in 1860 ($60,086,754). In this latter year the cost to the
people of the United States for the maintenance of their national.
State, and local governments was probably less than three dollars
per capita. For the year 1890, an approximately correct estimate
for like expenditures was $13.65 per capita.

These questions and problems have not, however, come up
simultaneously for consideration, but have been gradually evolved,
as it were, from the changing condition of affairs, and somewhat
in the following order: First, the national debt and its transition
from a miscellaneous to a consolidated character; second, the
readjustment of the war system of internal taxation ; third, the
question of currency, specie redemption, and legal tender — on
which topics alone more than three hundred separate publications.

436 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

books and pamphlets, exclusive of congressional speeches and
newspaper articles, have been issued from the American press;
fourth, the " Free Trade " and " Protection " question ; fifth, the
monetary metallic standard question ; sixth, the relations of the
State to common carriers, and the methods of internal intercom-
munication ; seventh, the subject of local or State as contradis-
tinguished from national or Federal taxation ; on which latter
topic, although it relates to methods by which the people of the
United States at present annually contribute to local or State
governments a sum nearly equal to the present total annual reve-
nue of Great Britain from all imperial taxes, there had not been
up to 1870, a single publication in the United States apart from
official reports that pretended intelligently to discuss it. Since
this date, however, a much greater interest has been manifested
on this subject. Several publications of great merit, exhibiting
the situation in its legal aspects, and the theories, controversies,
and experiences of the past, have appeared;* and this interest
has been especially intensified and popularized by the scheme
of the so-called " single tax,'* which, if not originated by
Mr. George, has been so ably advocated by him as to have at-
tracted, previous to the development of the silver problem, more
of popular attention on both sides of the Atlantic than any other
economic topic brought forward during the present century.

Some better acquaintance with the literature of taxation than
has hitherto been acquired by most educated men would seem to be
essential to a full understanding of many of the great events in
the world's history, inasmuch as nearly all great political revolu-
tions have been primarily occasioned by the exercise of arbitrary
power in compelling contributions of property from the masses
by those in authority. Thus, going back to ancient history, the
disruption of the Jewish monarchy and the secession of the ten

* Of Buch publications the following are specially worthy of notice : A Treatise on the
Law of Taxation, including the Law of Local Assessment, by Thomas M. Cooley, one of the
justices of the Supreme Court of Michigan, 18*76; A Treatise on the Law of Taxation, as
exercised by the Government of the United States, by W. M. Burroughs, 1877; The Law
of Taxation, by Francis Hillard, 1875 (three publications in which questions of political
economy, as not necessarily involved in discussion of legal points, have received little con-
sideration); The Shifting and Incidence of Taxation, 1892, Progressive Taxation in The.
cry and Practice, 1894, Essays on Taxation, 1895, by Prof. Edwin R. A. Seligman, of
Columbia College, N. Y., three publications characterized by great historical research, and
a repertory of information not otherwise readily accessible. Cohn, Science of Finance, a
recent work of sufficient merit to warrant its translation from the German under the
auspices of the University of Chicago, is nevertheless of such a character that it will never
be generally read, or have the slightest influence on the mass of the people of a country
like the United States, who select the legislators who determine what shall be the policy
of their Government in respect not only of taxation but of all other fiscal or economic
subjects.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 437

tribes were due to the refusal of the successor of Solomon to
accede to the demands of their representatives that he should
abate the (tax) exactions of the preceding reign ; and to his threat
in response that he woiild make his yoke even heavier in this
particular than his father's. And the first significant act recorded
of the revolt that followed was the stoning to death of the man
Adoram, who " was over the tribute," or the chief of the tax col-
lectors.

After the Persian war, the states of Greece, united under what
was termed the confederation of Delos, agreed to make contribu-
tions— i. e., pay taxes— to Athens, to be used by her for the com-
mon defense; and these contributions, assessed in the first in-
stance by Aristides, whose reputation for justice commanded the
confidence of all, occasioned no complaint. But finally Athens,
having assumed the direction of the confederacy, not only in-
creased the contributions beyond the assessments of Aristides, but
also assumed the right to use them arbitrarily, notably for forti-
fying and beautifying the city. The result was a revolt, followed
by the Peloponnesian war, and from that date and occurrence the
decline of Athens, and indeed of all th& states of Greece, is trace-
able.

Oppressive taxation prompted the so-called massacre of the
" Sicilian Vespers " in 1282, resulting in the slaughter or expulsion
of all the French from the island of Sicily.

The assumption and exercise of authority on the part of Pope
Leo X in 1517, to enforce contributions for the rebuilding of the
cathedral of St. Peter's at Rome was, as is well known, the pri-
mary cause of the disruption of the Roman Catholic Church, the
Protestant secession led by Luther, and the almost innumerable
wars and social disturbances that followed in consequence.

The history of the struggle of the people of England against
arbitrary taxation is the history of the English Constitution.
Thus, the attempt to arbitrarily collect an unjust poll tax was
the primary cause of the rebellion of Wat Tyler in England in
1378, in the reign of Richard II ; as was the " misuse of taxes "
the occasion of the rising of the commons of England in the next
century (1450) against the government of Henry YI, and under
the leadership of Jack Cade.*

Shakespeare, who apparently analyzed and comprehended the
subtle philosophy of all human motives and tendencies, seems
also in the play of Henry VIII to ascribe the fall of his great
minister, Wolsey, to abuse of the power of taxation ; and whether

* Recent historical investigations favor the idea that the leader of this rebellion was
not an illiterate rascal and buffoon — one of " the filth and scum of Kent," as portrayed by
Shakespeare in Henry VI — but rather a gentleman of gentle and possibly of noble birth.

438 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in this lie was historically correct or not, his utterances respecting
the effect of such abuse are as pertinent to-day as ever, and in
some respects remarkably applicable to the depression that in
recent years has come to one great department of the domestic
industries of the United States through injudicious taxation of
the crude material — wool — that constitutes its foundation :

" The subject's grief
Comes through commissions, which compel from each
The sixth part of his substance, to be levied
Without delay ; . . . this makes bold mouths :
Tongues spit their duties out; and it's come to pass, '.

This tractable obedience is a slave
To each incensed will.''
" For, upon these taxations,
The clothiers all, not able to maintain
The many to them 'longing, have put off
The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, v/ho.
Unfit for other life, compelled by hunger,
And lack of other means, in desperate manner
Dai'ing the event to the teeth, are all in an uproar,
And Danger serves among them."

The great revolution in England (1642-1659), by which the con-
stitutional rights of her people were finally established, wherein
Charles I lost both his crown and his head, was caused by a
question of taxation. And subsequently the attempt of Great
Britain to tax her American colonies without their consent was
also the primary cause of the American Revolution ; * while later
the demonstrated inability of maintaining a harmonious and effi-
cient government under the Articles of Confederation, which per-

* Recent historical investigations (by Prof. Tyler) have shown that the demand "no taxa-
tion without representation," which has been popularly regarded as one of the prime causes
that contributed to the revolt of the British American colonies in 1775 and their subsequent
independence, " did not mean that the colonies could not be lawfully taxed by Parliament
when they had no representatives in Parliament. It was a demand applicable to the three
orders of the English body politic — king, lords, and commons — and meant that the com-
mons could not be taxed when they were not represented. But the commons represented
the cities of Leeds, Halifax, Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool in Parliament, al-
though none of them had any vote or personal representation in it at the time of the Ameri-
can revolt or for a long time afterward. Indeed, only one tenth of the people of the
United Kingdom had then any vote. The commons represented Massachusetts in the same
way that they represented Manchester. That this was an unsatisfactory kind of representa-
tion will be admitted without argument, but it was not in contravention of the maxim
quoted, which has come down to us as a legal justification for the war. It would have
been strange indeed if the English Constitution had contained within itself a justification
for breaking up the British Empire." The separation of the colonies from the mother
country was therefore not a legal step, but an act of revolution, and suggests a remark
attributed to Mr. Lincoln at the outbreak of our civil war, that " it was a constitutional
procedure for overthrowing the Constitution."

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 439

mitted tlie several States that were parties thereto to interfere
with their mutual trade and commerce by multiple and conflict-
ing systems of taxation, was one of the principal factors that led
to the formation and adoption of the Federal Constitution.

It is also now generally admitted that to the cruel and extraor-
dinary abuse of the power of taxation, more than to any other
one agency, is attributable not only the French Revolution, but the
extraordinary ferocity with which it was conducted.

No text in the New Testament has been so little understood for
want of any recognition of its connection with the subject of taxa-
tion, as that one which declares that " it is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of God." By many theologians and secular advocates of
social reform — the Russian Tolstoi being a recent notable exam-
ple of the latter — it has been regarded as a disapproval of the at-
tainment or accumulation of wealth, and has doubtless served as
the basis for innumerable sermons on the " sin of riches ; " when a
little reflection and acquaintance with social economy would have
led to the conclusion, as Buckle has clearly expressed it, " that of
all the results which are produced among a people by their cli-
mate, food, and soil the accumulation of wealth is the most impor-
tant. For, although the progress of knowledge eventually accel-
erates the increase of wealth, it is nevertheless certain that in the
first formation of society, wealth must accumulate before knowl-
edge can begin, because without wealth there can be no taste or
leisure for that acquisition of knowledge on which the progress
of civilization depends." And surely a disapproval of this almost
self-evident truth could not have been the intent of an inspired
teacher. To understand the true meaning of this text it is neces-
sary to go back and consider the time and circumstances under
which the declaration it embodies was made. Judea at this period
was a subjugated Roman province, and what the wisest and best
men of Rome thought of the people of such provinces and of the
right of Rome to grind down the nations that it had subjugated,
is clearly shown by the following extract from the oration of
Cicero against Verres, who was prosecuted for extortion when
governor of the province of Sicily: "If," he said, "we have
esteemed the revenues of the provinces as the nerves of the
republic, we shall not hesitate to say that the order which raises
them is the mainstay of the other orders. The provinces " and
countries subject to tribute are the lands of the Roman people.
If Verres is guilty, it is not because of his rapacious exactions,
but because he diverted them to his own use rather than to that of
the republic." And as for the sufferings of the tributary people,
he alludes to them for the necessities of his cause, but he regards
them of so little importance that in his oration for Fonteius he

440 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

exclaims : " Who are his accusers ? Barbarians ! Men who wear
breeches and smocks ! Can the most reputable of the Gauls be
placed on a par with the least and most wretched of Roman citi-
zens ? " The Romans, in fact, regarded their provinces as valuable
only to the extent that they could make them available for extort-
ing tribute (taxes), and the most effective instrumentalities they
could employ for this purpose were unpatriotic or renegade citi-
zens of the provinces who understood the habits, pursuits, and
amount and distribution of the property of their fellow-country-
men. These in the case of Judea were Romanized or apostate
Jews, who, in accordance with the Roman custom, were invested
with a power, which they undoubtedly exercised, to administer
torture in case it was found necessary to enforce payments from
unwilling or impoverished subjects.

Again, as there was little industry at the time save agriculture,
and markets were limited, there was little opportunity for a Jew
to become rich, except by favor of the Romans and plunder of his
people; and with these latter the publican or tax-gatherer and
the rich man, who must have been often one and the same, be-
came so abhorrent, that they naturally classified and placed them
upon the same plane with notorious sinners and the most despised
and degraded members of society — the harlots* — for whom an
entrance into the kingdom of heaven was regarded as an impos-
sibility.

And in this connection it is pertinent to recall that Jesus visited
the house of " a man named Zaccheus, which was the chief among
the publicans, and he was rich.'' . . . "And when they" (the
people) " saw it they all murmured, saying that he was gone to be
guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zaccheus stood and said
unto the Lord : Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor ;
and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation,
I restore him fourfold.'' And evidently in consequence of this
declaration, " Jesus said unto him. This day is salvation come to
this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham " (and not
a foreigner). " For the Son of man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost" (i. e., the publicans).

In ancient Greece also there was a familiar proverb that used
the term " publican " as synonymous with that of " robber " ; and
Tacitus, the Roman historian, in his description of the German
people, regards them as fortunate in having no publicans to im-
poverish (atterit) them.

* " Verily, I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of
God before you." — S. Ma:ihew, xxi, 31.

" For John came unto you and ye believed him not ; but the publicans and the harlots
believed him." — 8. Matthew^ xxi, 32.

PRINCIPLES OF taxation; 441

On the other hand, in the case of the Romans, who had little
sensitiveness as to the manner in which public revenue or pri-
vate wealth was attained, the publicans who collected the cus-
toms were held in high honor, and were characterized as the
flower of the nobility {" flos equitum Bomanor.um").

Another point of interest in connection with this immediate
subject, and one which has been generally overlooked, is that the
answer which Jesus gave to the Jews, who put to him the ques-
tion, "Is it lawful to give tribute to Csesar ?" — namely, "Render
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar^s " — expresses a fundamental
principle in political economy, in that it enjoins payment on the
part of citizens or subjects of such tribute (taxes) as the govern-
ment (typified by Caesar) under which they live, may lawfully be
entitled to demand for its support ; and at the same time with-
holds sanction from, and so by implication denies, the right of a
government to take that to which it is not entitled (or which is
not Caesar's), which it does when it exacts tribute or taxes for
any other purpose than its legitimate support, or, what is the same
thing, for the benefit of individual or private interests. In other
words, the answer recognizes a broad line of distinction between
the rights of Caesar, or the government, and other rights in re-
spect to property ; and indicates that Caesar, or a government, can
find no justification, in virtue of power to compel the payment of
tribute or taxes, to appropriate property (of the people) under cir-
cumstances in which similar action on the part of a private citi-
zen would be considered robbery.

The casual observer would hardly imagine that there was any
relation between anthropology (the science of man) and taxation ;
and yet writers on the laws of nations from an early period, and
economists of a later day,* have called attention to the circum-
stance that different races seem to possess different moral apti-
tudes for different forms of taxation. Thus it is claimed that in
countries inhabited by the pure Germanic race, or its leading
branches — in Germany, Scandinavia, Great Britain, and the
United States— the desire and ability for self-government, and
the disposition to place authority near to the individual or in his
town or locality, favors voluntary taxation and a great endurance
of burden in view of the attainment of a right result ; whereas
among the Latin races the tendency is to concentrate all author-
ity, and generally in a military form, in the state, and require
passive submission to the exercise of it on the part of the people.
Hence, general taxes on property and income, which require for
their successful application a certain degree of loyalty, of pa-

* Macchiavelli and other Italian publicists in the seventeenth century, and M. de Pa-
rieu, a French economist, in 1855.

442 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tience, and even of voluntary co-operation on the part of tax-
payers, and which, find favor among the former races, hardly ex-
ist among the latter. It is interesting also to note, in connection
with this subject, that the restitution to the government of what
is termed "conscience money," which is of constant occurrence
in Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, is said to be
very inconsiderable or wholly lacking in the States of the Latin
races.

The comparatively insignificant position which the subject of
taxation holds in economic literature has already been pointed
out. Its relation to general literature is similar, and perhaps even
more remarkable. Since sin came into the world, there has prob-
ably been no one purely human agency more prolific of crime
and human suffering and of temptation to do wrong than the
multitude of arbitrary, impolitic, and absurd laws which have
been enacted to unjustly exact from the people contributions of
their labor and property under the name of taxation, and yet
the utilization of these experiences by novelists and dramatic
authors has been almost entirely restricted to the comparatively
petty transactions of smugglers and the illicit producers of dis-
tilled spirits. Even the terrible tax incidents which preceded and
in fact occasioned the great French Revolution, have not entered
largely as an element into more than one or two works of fiction
of acknowledged merit in the English language.* As a field of
morals also, this subject has been almost entirely ignored, and
rarely entered upon by theologians ; and yet under the tax laws of
the United States, to say nothing of other countries, the practice
of perjury is encouraged and tolerated to a degree that is utterly
inconsistent with the existence of any high standard of public
morality, or any rational religious belief, f And so also in the de-
partment of history. How few of those who consider themselves
well read and well informed, recognize that the terrible decadence

* The only work of fiction of this character known to the writer is Gabrielle Andre,
by S. Baring-Gould (D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1871), in which the conditions of taxa-
tion existing in France, prior to the Revolution of l'788-'89 are instructively used as the
basis of a historical story.

f On this topic a leading American clergyman writes as follows : " It is probably a good
thing that clergymen have not preached numerous sermons on taxation, even on its moral
and religious aspects. That they have hitherto been ignorant on the subject is not so much
their fault as their misfortune, and being ignorant on the details of this matter they have
not taken it as the theme of set discourses. But, judging by my own experience, they
have preached on the application of moral principles to every department of life, and on the
obligation of a man to be honest in his dealings with government no less than with indi-
viduals. That taxation has moral relations and qualities they have perceived and stated,
and that probably was as far as their qualifications authorized them to proceed. Whether
the present encyclopedic education will give us the more serviceable clergymen remains to
be seen."

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 443

of Spain up to 1808 is attributable more to the influence of a tax
on sales than to any other one cause ; and that, on the other hand,
the great wealth and prosperity of Holland in the sixteenth, seven-
teenth, and eighteenth centuries, and the control of a commerce
that made its ships the chief carriers and their ports the chief
depots of the products of the world, were due mainly to a system
of taxation that imposed the minimum of restriction on ex-
changes, domestic or foreign, and entailed the least friction upon
its own people ; while in all other and competitive countries the
direct reverse of such a fiscal policy found favor and existed.

The Place of Taxation in History. — A clear and exhaust-
ive statement of the world's experience in respect to what is called
taxation would be almost equivalent to a universal history ; and
in default of this, a review of the most prominent features of such
experience is the only alternative, and is capable of being made
in the highest degree interesting and instructive.

While the farthest reach of history touches no period when gov-
ernment or the state has not appropriated for its maintenance or
pleasure the property or services of its subjects or citizens, the
present ideas respecting taxation are so essentially modern that
little or no recognition of them can be found in either ancient or
mediaeval history. In fact, no taxes, in the present ordinary sense
of the term, were needed in ancient times to carry on govern-
ment or public institutions. The monarch, king, chief, lord, or
other sovereign of any particular district or country was gener-
ally the owner of all the landed property within his empire or
domain; and the people who cultivated it were his villeins, serfs,
or tenants. " The theory of English (and also of Chinese) land
tenures to-day is, that the original title is in the king or emperor,
and that everybody who has an interest in land is a tenant.
There is no such thing known to this day in England as an
allodial title — that is, one which is absolute as to the ownership
of the soil, and which is mainly the one recognized in the United
States. As a consequence, all land in England is held mediately or
immediately of the king, and there is no allodial tenure." *

A sovereign who owned all the land of a country, and could
at his will take any portion of the labor products of the people
who cultivated or occupied it, obviously was exempt from the
necessity of resorting to any other form of levy upon persons or
property for the support of the state or for his pleasure ; and this

* Miller, on the Constitution of the United States. " Out of this fact come many
of the difficulties American students find in regard to the doctrines pertaining to es-
tates and tenancies. Our laws have been freed from a large part of these intricacies and
traditional requirements, which were the outgrowth of centuries of development among our
English ancestors regarding the holdmg of land, but their influence still embarrasses our
judicial system" (ibid., pp. 231, 232).

44+ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

mode of appropriating property by the governing power has pre-
vailed in almost every country of the Old World of which we have
any fiscal record, at some period of its history. At the same time
all history teaches that the actual administration of such govern-
ments has been very generally, and perhaps as a rule unneces-
sarily, oppressive by reason of the manner of collecting or exacting
the tribute or contributions from the people, or by the spoliations
of the officials to whom the business was intrusted. Throughout
the Eastern world the general practice under its native princes
has been, and even still is, for the tribute or tax collectors to pay
themselves by peculations, and to extort from the cultivator the
utmost farthing that could be taken without compelling him to
abandon his fields. Thus under the Sikh dynasty of India, which
was founded by a petty chieftain on the ruins of the Mogul Em-
pire at the close of the last century and continued until 1846, the
custom was to take from the peasant the equivalent of six shil-
lings out of every twelve shillings' value of his produce in the
name of rent ; but under the present British rule the government
takes from the descendants of these same peasants only one or
two shillings in the form of taxes. It is not necessary, however,
to go to Eastern experiences for illustrations of how the burden
of taxation can be made terribly oppressive by the method of
taking, inasmuch as in 1598 (according to Sully *), out of one
hundred and fifty millions extorted from the taxpayers of France
in that year, only thirty millions found their way into the public
treasury. It is stated as a not infrequent occurrence that prior to
the great Revolution of 1789, a duty was levied twenty-seven times
on a barrel of wine in the course of its transportation from the
place where it was grown to that where it was sold ; so that it
was said to be cheaper to send wine from China to France than
from one of the departments of France to Paris.

It is also to be noted that in ancient times war, both in East-
ern countries and in Europe, was almost the normal state of man-
kind, and victorious nations supported and enriched themselves
from the plunder and tribute of the vanquished. The land espe-
cially of subjected people became the property of the conquerors,
and payments in the nature of rents rather than taxes were ex-
acted from its occupants and cultivators.

Taxation in China. — A curious perpetuation in many re-
spects of these ancient methods is yet to be found in the present
system of raising funds for defraying the expenses of the Govern-
ment in China, and concerning which little has been definitely
known until within a very recent period. With the exception of
certain limited grants held by Manchu princes in consideration of

* Memoirs of Sully ; quoted by McCuUoch in Treatise on Taxation, p. 30.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 445

remote military services, all the land of the empire is regarded as
the property of the emperor, and all original titles to land are
held directly from him subject to three conditions : * First, the
payment of a land tax; second, the payment of fees when the
crown title-holder or his successors sell mortgages, or leases;
third, the supplying of certain labor service when demanded by
the authorities. The land tax, which is exacted from all arable
land, varies in amount according to the productiveness of the
land, and does not ordinarily exceed one twentieth of the gross
product. There is no tax on waste and uncultivated land, and
rights in common exist in respect to waste land adjoining villages.
The fees incident to the alienation of land are nominally about
three per cent of the purchase money, but usually, by extortion,
range from five to six per cent. The supplying of labor, when
demanded by the authorities, is not well defined, and is apparently
limited to furnishing the Government with transportation and
labor on the public works, especially the repairing of dikes and
canals. If these conditions are complied with, the state rarely
interferes with the possession, alienation, or rental of land by its
subjects. When land is rented the Government tax is paid by
the landlord, and not by the tenant. The district magistrate is
tax assessor, tax collector, judge, and administrator. A board of
revenue fixes the amount that each district shall return to the
state, and the district magistrate is liable for this sum whether
he collects it or not. Any surplus collected, on the other hand, in
excess of what is due the state is his private perquisite. Remis-
sion of land taxes is made when any great calamities occur, as
floods, famines, and fires, and in such cases the tenant has the
benefit of three tenths of the remission.

The other chief sources of imperial revenue in China are from
a monopoly of salt; from taxes on goods brought through the
gates of towns and cities, which appear to be analogous to the
European octroi taxes ; from taxes known as likin on the transit
of goods through the provinces ; from export and import duties,
which are of modern origin ; and from the sale of honors or titles. f
There appear to be no taxes on personal property in China ; but in
Pekin, and probably in other cities, small license fees are re-
quired from certain occupations and manufactures, ostensibly for
defraying municipal expenditures.

* It is even asserted that there is at the present time but one person in all China who
holds an absolute freehold title to any real estate, and he in virtue of being a lineal de-
scendant of the Ming dynasty which the Manchus supplanted.

f The customs revenue of China for the year 1893 was reported as £3,646,350 (or
$18,331,750), of which fully one third was derived from the duties on opium. The aver-
age rate of duties on other importations was about six per centum of their entered valua-
tion.

446 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The imperial revenue of China is believed to be about 85,000,-
000 taels, or $118,750,000, per annum, although the sum actu-
ally collected is probably much greater, the part that is unac-
counted for being absorbed in the taking by the prominent offi-
cials. Under any circumstances, however, the great mass of the
people of China are not heavily taxed ; and their system of ad-
ministration has few inquisitorial and annoying features ; and to
the absence of these the permanency of the Chinese Government
for so long a period, and the tranquillity and contentment of the
Chinese people may, in a great degree, be attributed. As the
chief source of revenue to the state or Imperial Government,
furthermore, is the direct and indirect land tax, the existing sys-
tem of China may be regarded as a living, practical example of
the single- tax system.

Taxation in Japan. — Another example of an ancient sys-
tem of taxation, which until a recent period has been subjected
to very little change, is to be found in the case of Japan. In
this country, as in China, the system of taxation is now, as it
always has been, essentially a land tax, but greatly modified in
recent years to conform to modern conditions. During the feudal
period in Japan, taxes were for the most part paid in kind by the
cultivators of the soil, and were in fact a form of rent due to the
lord of the soil. Under the oldest regime, when the emperor was
the real as well as the nominal head of the government, the land
was divided into nine squares, the central one of which was culti-
vated by the holders of the other eight, for the use of the em-
peror, who thus received one ninth part of the total product of
the soil. During the fifteenth century, when the military chief-
tains— the Daimios or Shoguns — had gradually usurped the real
power of the emperor, a much larger proportion of the produce of
the land was exacted ; seldom less than four tenths of the total
crop, and sometimes as much as two thirds. The staple food of
the country being rice, the taxes were almost invariably collected
in that commodity. The amount paid, however, was not fixed by
any national measure, but varied from province to province, de-
pending on local customs, the humor of the Daimio, or other cir-
cumstances. Moreover, as the established policy of the ancient
feudal government was to preserve and fix the status of all classes
and conditions of men, it laid down a multitude of vexatious and
arbitrary rules regulating every kind of production, which in
turn prevented everything in the way of independent action and
progress on the part of the producers. Thus, the Japanese farmer
without government permission could neither increase nor de-
crease the amount of his cultivated land ; nor could he change
from the cultivation of rice requiring a wet or marshy soil to
some other agricultural product requiring a drier soil. In short.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 447

all the conditions of land cultivation were so carefully prescribed
that the farmer had nothing to do but follow a routine that devi-
ated little from generation to generation. Under such a condi-
tion of things, especially under such a system of land tenure and
taxation, population obviously could not, and in fact did not,
increase either in wealth or numbers; and taken in connection
with the circumstance that each of the many daimios or feudal
lords maintained great retinues of wholly unproductive retainers,
we find an explanation of the fact that Japan continued a poor
country with a very slowly increasing population even in times
of profound peace. During the century and a quarter from 1721
to 1846, the increase is reported by Japanese authorities to have
not been in excess of five per cent.*

After the restoration in 1873 of the authority of the emperor,
and the abrogation of the daimio system or lordship, a radical
change was made in Japan, not only in the general status of the
farmer, but in the conditions, under which he cultivated the soil
and paid his taxes. All the previous iron rules imposed upon him
were abolished ; he was given perfect liberty to buy and sell land
or adopt new modes of cultivation. The system of payment in
kind to each provincial lord was replaced by a national land tax
paid in money. The value of every piece of cultivated land was
appraised according to a complex and somewhat arbitrary method
of valuation, and on this capitalized value three per cent was
imposed, in addition to a Government tax of one per cent for local
purposes. In 1876 a decree was issued reducing the general tax
to two and a half per cent, and the local tax to one half of one
per cent. At the same time, with a view to supplement this
reduction of local taxation and increase the national revenues,
taxes were imposed on spirits and tobacco, on sales (at varying
rates), on contracts, receipts, land transfers, petitions (through
the agency of stamps), on some professions and mechanical

* According to a paper read by Prof. Droppers before the Asiatic Society in Tokio, June,
1894, this period was a time of only measurably suppressed anarchy and lawlessness. It waa
two hundred and fifty years of armed truce. It was one large dance to death. Famines were
frequent and dreadful. Having no railroads or steamships, and having, in their eagerness
to shut out foreigners and keep in their own people, destroyed all sea-going ships, they had
no means of water transportation except by means of wretched junks. Millions upon
millions died of hunger. To this day, around the cremation houses of certain inland cities
there are acres of heaps of human bones mixed with ashes, the awful witnesses to the
might of famine, when hundreds of bodies were burned daily to prevent pestilence. Child
murder and exposure were in some provinces so common that the question which neighbors
would ask of a father, whether he intended to raise the newborn baby or not, was as proper
as it was common. It is estimated by medical men that fifty per cent of the people died of
smallpox. Syphilis was almost a national disease. Disease, immorality only partly sup-
pressed, anarchy, famine, social and economical antagonisms, cramped Japan as in bands
of iron.

4+8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

pursuits, and on the ownership and use of ships, boats, and ve-
hicles. The land taxes, however, contribute the largest amount of
revenue to the national treasury, furnishing about seventy per
cent of its receipts, exclusive of the local land taxes ; and in many
districts of Japan the total amount yielded by the farmer to the
Government, national and local, was estimated in 1891 at even
more than fifty per cent of his crop.*

Very curiously, the responsibility for the existence and con-
tinuance of this extraordinary system of land taxation in Japan,
which finds no parallel in any other country, and the incidence of
which constitutes such a burden on the mass of its population,
has until a very recent period rested with foreign nations rather
than the Japanese Government, and in this wise : When treaties
were first made by foreign nations with Japan, after the open-
ing of its ports and the abandonment of its old-time system of
non-intercourse with the rest of the world, it was assumed on
the part of the former that the Government and people of
Japan were in a semi-barbarous condition, and ought to be
treated as such in all political and commercial negotiations ; and
that in respect to trade and commerce the greatest advantage
should be taken of the weaker nation that circumstances would
permit. The leading nations of Europe and the United States
accordingly stipulated, in their treaties with Japan, that it should

* " This statement, however, gives no indication of the true condition of the Japanese
farmer. In this country, where the Government performs so many functions which in
America are left to the individual, a high rate of taxation is not necessarily an indication of
poverty or of a low standard of living. With a sufficiency of land and a variety of crops,
even the Japanese farmer can live comfortably, especially if a good fraction of his land is
dry field {hata\ on which he generally raises two crops a year. Very few of the farmers
of Japan, however, are in this condition of tolerable comfort. The amount of the culti-
vated land of the empire is so small (less than twelve per cent of the whole area) and the
population so large (over forty millions) that the land belonging to each family is absurdly
insufficient. The average holding is less than two acres, subdivided into smaller parcels,
which vary in size in different provinces, but average nearly one eighth of an acre each.
Thus, to picture a typical Japanese farm, one must imagine a piece of land less than two
acres, cut up into about fourteen pieces, or bits, each separated from the other by a raised
path of earth. Even then the picture is incomplete, since the bits belonging to one farmer
are not necessarily adjacent to each other, but frequently many a rood apart. Such a beg-
garly amount of land, even under the most perfect system of cultivation, can not of course
yield sufficient to bring up a family accordmg to Western standards of comfort. The idea
of wages, or remuneration for labor, scarcely enters the Japanese farmer's mind ; he is con-
tent if, after paying his taxes, he can in some rough fashion merely make both ends meet.
At any fair rate of wages, farming is carried on at a loss in Japan. The farmer seldom
eats the rice he grows, generally using barley or millet as a cheaper means of subsistence.
His expenditures are on an infinitesimal scale ; the clothes of the family are often heir-
looms handed down from generation to generation ; and as for saving anything from year
to year, the practice is so little known in this country as hardly to be considered a virtue." —
Correspondence New York Nation^ 1891.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 449

not impose any duties on exports or imports in excess of five per
cent; and the receipts from customs being thus arbitrarily made
insignificant, and those from such other sources as spirits, tobacco,
licenses, and the like being normally inadequate, the Government
of Japan has been compelled to resort to the old feudal system of
taxation as the only practical way of obtaining revenue to defray
its necessary expenditures.*

But, notwithstanding this, the results that have followed the
fall of feudalism in Japan in 1868 are in the highest degree inter-
esting, and constitute an important contribution to the history of
civilization. Between 1871 and 1893 the population increased
eight millions, railways and steamers have annihilated famine,
old epidemics have become rare, the severity of old criminal law
has been greatly mitigated, while liberty has encouraged the
people to a wonderful activity and progress.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

PART II. ACTIVITIES OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

By Pkof. henry CARRINGTON BOLTON, Ph. D.

IN our first article we attempted to show the circumstances
which led to the founding of the Smithsonian Institution, to
trace its growth, and to sketch the peculiar field which it occu-
pies. The latter, however, can well be supplemented by a suc-
cinct statement of its condition at the present time, or rather in
1895, the date of the most recent Annual Report.

Members of the Institution.— Presiding officer {ex officio),
the President of the United States ; Chancellor, the Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court of the United States ; the Vice-President of
the United States ; the Secretary of State ; the Secretary of the
Treasury ; the Secretary of War ; the Secretary of the Navy ; the
Postmaster General ; the Attorney General ; the Secretary of the
laterior ; the Secretary of Agriculture; the Secretary of the insti-
tution.

Administration. — The business of the institution is managed
by a Board ot* Regents, composed of the Vice-President and the
Chief Justice of the United States, three senators, three members
of the House of Representatives, and six other eminent persons
nominated by a joint resolution of Congress. The Secretary of

* Recent treaties (1894) have in a degree abrogated the disabilities which foreign
nations imposed on Japan at the time of the abandonment of its policy of non-intercourse
with the rest of the world, but a denial of the right of Japan exclusively to regulate its
taxes (duties) on imports is still maintained.

VOL XLVIIl— 32

450 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the institution is also secretary of this board and the principal
executive officer.

Buildings. — The Smithsonian Institution is housed in two
buildings — the Norman, castlelike structure completed in 1855,
and the huge one- story museum, to be noted below. The former
is occupied as follows : The east wing contains the administration
offices, comprising the rooms for the regents, the secretary, the
editor, and other officers. A small library of reference books
(thirty thousand volumes) occupies a part of the ground floor.
The main central hall is filled with valuable collections in or-
nithology and conchology, including the Isaac Lea cabinet of
shells. Above this, another large hall is devoted to prehistoric
anthropology. The west wing contains ichthyological specimens,
and a very beautiful collection of Crustacea, batrachia, and
ophidia. In the south porch is a small group of instruments of
research.

Correspondence. — The official and casual correspondence of
the Smithsonian Institution is no insignificant part of its daily
life. Letters are addressed to the Secretary by the most learned
scholars of Europe as well as by the humblest seeker after truth
living in the wilds of North America, and all receive considera-
tion and respectful answers. Tens of thousands of letters are an-
nually received and acknowledged. If inquiries are made which
the Secretary and his aids can not immediately answer, the letters
are referred to eminent specialists outside of the institution.

The official list of correspondents, embracing learned societies
and men of science throughout the world, numbers twenty-four
thousand (1894). For a great many years the responsibility of the
official correspondence devolved on the chief clerk, Mr. William
J. Rhees, who is now keeper of the archives of the institution.

The International Exchange Service. — The Board of Re-
gents in 1851 established a system of international exchanges of
the transactions of learned societies and of certain other classes
of scientific works. The exchange extends also to specimens in
natural history. In 1867 Congress imposed upon the institution
the duty of exchanging official documents printed by order of
either House, or by the United States Government bureaus, for
similar works published by foreign governments.

This international exchange is of the greatest service to
learned societies on both sides of the ocean, and to individual men
of science who avail themselves of its privileges ; it involves a
prodigious amount of well-directed labor, as shown by the fact
that in the twelve months 1892 to 1893 over one hundred tons
of books were handled ; these comprised 29,500 packages and 31,-
850 Government documents sent out, besides 101,000 packages and
5,196 Government publications received.

452 POPULAR SCIEI^CE MOMTHLY.

Publications. — There are three distinct sets of publications
issued as serials, directed by the Smithsonian Institution :

1. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, a quarto series
begun in 1848, and comprising thirty-two volumes to date. In
these volumes are placed the monographs, articles, and papers
offering positive additions to human knowledge, either under-
taken by agents of the Smithsonian Institution or by persons
encouraged by its assistance. These contributions correspond to
the more elaborate memoirs of learned societies, and comprise
treatises on anthropology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, elec-
tricity, ethnology, geology, mathematics, meteorology, natural
history, palaeontology, physics, and zoology, in all their ramifi-
cations.

2. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, begun in 1862,
thirty-five volumes, octavo. These contain bibliographies, tables,,
proceedings of Washington societies, and papers on scientific
topics of value to scholars, yet not forming, as a rule, positive
additions to the sum of human knowledge. These papers vary in
size from a leaflet of four pages to a stout volume of twelve hun-
dred pages. The individual articles are first issued independ-
ently, each receiving a number in course, and afterward they are
bound up in volumes of suitable size, which themselves also bear
numbers. This plan of publication also applies to the Contribu-
tions. The editorial work of this and the preceding series was-
long under the care of the late Mr. William B. Taylor, whose
great erudition and skill in book-making proved invaluable to
the institution.

3. Annual Reports of the Board of Regents — forty-nine vol-
umes, octavo. These are submitted to Congress, in accordance
with a clause in the act of incorporation. They contain the Jour-
nal of the Proceedings of the Board of Regents, the Report of
the Executive Committee, the reports of the Secretary and of the
directors, curators, or managers of the important departments^
controlled by the institution. In these reports are exhibited the
financial affairs of the institution, its condition, its operations,,
and statistics of every kind connected with the same. Following
the official part is a General Appendix containing a selection of
memoirs of interest to collaborators and correspondents of the-
institution, teachers, and others engaged in the promotion of
knowledge. These essays are generally reprints from divers-
sources, but they also include original translations and occasion-
ally contributed articles. From 1880 to 1889 this General Ap-
pendix was chiefly devoted to an Annual Record of Scientific
Progress prepared by specialists.

Library. — By exchanging the publications of the institution
for transactions of learned societies, and for productions of for-

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 453

eign scholars, as well as by purchase, a library has been gathered
of enormous value, now numbering over three hundred thousand
titles. As already stated, it is merged in the Library of Congress,
with the exception of a small collection for the use of the officers,
partly housed in the Norman building and partly in the Museum.
In the magnificent library building now approaching completion
on Capitol Hill, the Smithsonian will have a separate hall for its
deposit.

The National Museum at first occupied the larger halls in
the Norman building, and since 1858 special appropriations have
been made by Congress for its maintenance ; but, outgrowing its
quarters, an independent building was erected by Congressional
aid in 1881. This building has an available floor space of one
hundred thousand square feet, but has been greatly overcrowded
for many years. The director of the museum, who is also Assist-
ant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, G. Brown Goode,
LL. D., is assisted by thirty -tnree curators in charge of as many
departments. These are : arts and industries, embracing twelve
sections ; materia medica, animal products, naval architecture,
fisheries, foods, historical collections, coins and medals, transpor-
tation and engineering. Oriental antiquities, graphic arts, forestry,
physical apparatus, helminthology, ethnology, American prehis-
toric pottery, prehistoric anthropology, mammals, birds, birds'
eggs, reptiles and batrachians, fishes, vertebrate fossils, moll.usks,
insects, marine invertebrates, comparative anatomy, invertebrate
fossils — paleozoic, mesozoic, and cenozoic — fossil plants, botany,
minerals, geology. This mere catalogue of departments shows
the prodigious range of subjects, the total number of specimens
being more than three and a half millions. Nearly a quarter
million of specimens were added in the twelve months ending
1892. The growth of the museum is due to many sources ; these
comprise the results of exchanges both abroad and at home, ex-
plorations by different departments of Government and by the
Smithsonian Institution, collections secured through gift of for-
eign governments, and, most important of all, the collections ob-
tained from several local and international exhibitions, in which
the museum has always taken an active part.

An important activity of the museum is its generous distri-
bution of duplicate specimens in natural history to scientific
societies, colleges, and other educational institutions throughout
the United States. Between 1871 and 1890, two hundred and
seventy-eight thousand specimens were so distributed.

The museum is a favorite place of resort on the part of resi-
dents in, and visitors to, the Capital. In the year ending June
30, 1893, over three hundred thousand persons availed them-
selves of its privileges. Their examination of the objects is much

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 455

hampered by the overcrowded state of the building, but it is
assisted by the invariable courtesy of those in charge of the sec-
tions, and by books of educational value placed in the several
departments. It rests with Congress to make an appropriation
for erecting another building twice the size of the existing one,
and only then will it be possible to di^lay the treasures now
stored in dark corners or still resting in unpacked cases.

The publications of the National Museum comprise two series :
Proceedings of the National Museum, consisting of short essays
giving accounts of recent accessions or newly ascertained facts in
natural history, and promptly issued to secure the earliest diffu-
sion of the information. These proceedings were begun in 1878,
and are now comprised in seventeen volumes, octavo.

Bulletins of the National Museum, consisting of more elabo-
rate memoirs relative to the collections, such as biological mono-
graphs, taxonomic lists, etc., varying in size from a few pages to
many hundred pages. The bulletins were begun in 1875 and com-
prise fifty numbers to date.

The Bureau of American Ethnology was established in
1879, to conduct ethnological researches among North American
Indians, and is supported by annual appropriations of Congress.
The work is under the immediate direction of Major J. W. Powell,
who was also a long time at the head of the United States Geo-
logical Survey, assisted by eminent specialists. The bureau con-
ducts mound explorations, studies in ethnology, archaeology, pic-
tography, and linguistics of North America. Through its medium
a wealth of information concerning the aborigines of North
America is being treasured and made available to present schol-
ars and to posterity.

The Bureau publishes four series of works :

1. Annual Reports, begun in 1879, now comprise twelve vol-
umes, royal quarto. This series is handsomely printed and illus-
trated, and is both creditable to the Government and well adapted
to attract public attention.

2. Contributions to North American Ethnology, begun in
1877 ; nine volumes, quarto.

3. Introductions to the study of various topics ; begun in
1877 ; four volumes, quarto.

4. Bulletins ; begun in 1877 ; twenty-six volumes, quarto.

The National Zoological Park. — From a desire to pre-
serve certain American wild animals rapidly becoming extinct,
living animals were exhibited in temporary quarters near the
National Museum for several years. In 1889 the preliminary steps
for the establishment of a Zoological Park were taken by the ap-
propriation by Congress of two hundred thousand dollars for the
purchase of land, and the park was actually founded by an act

456

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

dated April 30, 1890, providing for the " organization, improve-
ment, and maintenance " of a National Zoological Park. This act
places the park under the direction of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, and orders that it be administered for the advancement of
science and the instruction and recreation of the people.

As soon as surveys could be completed, about one hundred
and seventy acres of ground most picturesquely situated on Rock

Creek, near Washington City,
were secured and prepara-
tions begun for the reception
of animals. This undertaking
is so recent that little more
has been accomplished than
constructing roads, building
animal houses, fences, etc.,
but there are already more
than five hundred animals in
the embryo Zoo. The natu-
ral features of the region,
with its watercourses, ra-
vines, rocky cliffs, forest
trees, open glades, and sunny
southern slopes, are superior
to any site occupied in this
way abroad or at home, and
its extent is ten to fifty times
greater than that of most of
the gardens of Europe. Un-
der the management of Dr.
Frank Baker, the future of
the National Zoological Park is very great ; he plans to place the
animals on ground appropriate to their natural habits and in-
stincts, so that they can live under conditions similar to those en-
joyed in freedom — a scheme only possible in a park of such great
extent and variety of natural features.

Astro-physical Observatory. — Prof. Baird had begun prep-
arations for the establishment of an observatory for the study of
the physical condition of celestial bodies, and when Mr. Langley
succeeded to the secretaryship this eminent authority on solar
physics soon secured its endowment by Congress. The late Dr. J.
H. Kidder bequeathed five thousand dollars for prosecuting phys-
ical researches, and Dr. Alexander Graham Bell presented the like
sum to the Secretary for the same purpose. In 1889-^90 a tempo-
rary wooden building was erected in the Mall south of the Norman
building, and, though not entirely suitable for delicate research,
much excellent work has been accomplished. In it are placed a

G. Bkown Gooue.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

457

Grubb siderostat, a spectro-bolometer constructed by Grunow &
Son, and a galvanometer. These instruments, in the hands of
Prof. Langley, are producing remarkable results, considering the
inferior building and unsatisfactory site. It is to be hoped that
these conditions will speedily be improved through Congressional
appropriations.

HoDGKiNS Fund and Prizes. — Previous to the year 1891 the
Smithsonian Fund had received only two small additions by gifts
or bequests : one thousand dollars from Mr. James Hamilton in
1875, and five hundred dollars from Mr. Simeon Habel in 1880.
In the year 1891, however, Mr. Thomas G. Hodgkins, of Setauket,
N. Y., made the handsome donation of two hundred thousand
dollars to the general fund, with certain conditions. In the for-
mal statement of Mr. Hodgkins, dated September 22, 1891, he
used these words : " This fund, to be called the Hodgkins Fund,
and all premiums, prizes, grants, or publications made at its cost,
are to be designated by this name ; the interest of one hundred
thousand dollars of this fund to be permanently devoted to the
increase and diffusion of more exact knowledge in regard to the
nature and properties of atmospheric air, in connection with the
welfare of man in his daily
life, and in his relations to
his Creator, the same to be
effected by the offering of
prizes, for which competi-
tion shall be open to the
world, for essays in which
important truths regarding
the phenomena on which life,
health, and human happi-
ness depend shall be em-
bodied, or by such other
means as in years to come
may appear to the Regents
of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion calculated to produce
the most beneficent results."

To carry out the wishes
of the donor, the following
provisions for prizes, essays,
and the Hodgkins medal
were adopted by the insti-
tution, and announced in a circular issued in March, 1892:

1. A prize of ten thousand dollars for a treatise embodying
some new and important discovery in regard to the nature or
properties of atmospheric air.

J. W. Powell.

458

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

2. A prize of two thousand dollars for the most satisfactory-
essay upon (a) the known properties of atmospheric air, consid-
ered in their relationships to research in every department of
natural science, and the importance of a study of the atmosphere,
considered in view of these relationships ; (6) the proper direction
of future research, in connection with the imperfections of our
knowledge of atmospheric air, and of the connections of that
knowledge with other sciences.

3. A prize of one thousand dollars for the best popular treatise
upon atmospheric air, its properties and relationships (including

those to hygiene, physical
and mental). This essay
need not exceed twenty
thousand words in length ;
it should be written in sim-
ple language, and be suit-
able for publication for
popular instruction.

4. The Hodgkins medal
of the Smithsonian Insti-
tution will be awarded an-
nually, or biennially, for
important contributions to
our knowledge of the na-
ture and properties of at-
mospheric air, or for prac-
tical applications of our ex-
isting knowledge of them
to the welfare of mankind.
The medal will be of gold,
with a duplicate in silver
or bronze.

The treatises may be
written in English, French,
German, or Italian, and
should be sent to the Secre-
tary of the Smithsonian
Institution before July 1,
1894 ; except those in competition for the first prize, which may
be delayed until December 31, 1894. The time was subsequently
extended to December 31, 1894, for all prizes.

Provision was made in the circular for a committee of award,
for extending the dates above named, and for modifying the con-
ditions prescribed. The circular also stated that special grants of
money will probably be made to specialists engaged in original
investigation upon atmospheric air and its properties.

:zoou>«iCAL50Cicrr.

COMPABATIVB ArEAS OF ZOOLOGICAL PaBKS.

46o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In a supplementary circular, issued in April, 1893, it was stated
that any branch of natural science may furnish subjects of dis-
cussion for the Hodgkins prizes, provided the subjects are related
to the study of the atmosphere in connection with the welfare of
men : " Thus, the anthropologist may consider the history of man
as affected by climate through the atmosphere ; the geologist may
study in this special connection the crust of the earth, whose con-
stituents and whose form are largely modified by atmospheric in-
fluences ; the botanist, the atmospheric relations of the life of the
plant ; the electrician, atmospheric electricity ; the mathematician
and physicist, problems of aerodynamics in their utilitarian appli-
cation ; and so on through the circle of the natural sciences, both
biological and physical, of which there is perhaps not one which
is necessarily excluded.

" In explanation of the donor's wishes, which the institution
desires scrupulously to observe, it may be added that Mr. Hodg-
kins illustrated the catholicity of his plan by citing the experi-
ments of Franklin in atmospheric electricity and the work of the
late Paul Bert upon the relations of the atmosphere to life as
subjects of research which, in his own view, might be properly
considered in this relationship."

Eight thousand copies of these circulars were sent to institu-
tions and investigators throughout the world, and applications
for grants soon reached the Secretary of the Smithsonian.

In 1893 two grants were made : one of five hundred dollars to
Dr. O. Lummer and Dr. E. Pringsheim, of the Physical Institute,
Berlin University, for researches on the determination of an
exact measure of the cooling of gases while expanding; and a
second grant of one thousand dollars to Dr. J. S. Billings, United
States Army, and Dr. Weir Mitchell, of Philadelphia, for investi-
gations into the nature of the peculiar substances of organic origin
contained in the air expired by human beings, with specific ref-
erence to the ventilation of inhabited rooms.

Mr. Thomas George Hodgkins died November 25, 1892, at the
advanced age of nearly ninety years; being, next to Smithson,
the most generous benefactor of the institution. A brief sketch
of his life is appropriate. He was born in England in 1803, of
highly respectable ancestry; his early education was in France,
where he acquired language, habits, and manners influencing all
his later life. At the age of seventeen, led by a youth's love
of adventure, and seeking relief from domestic unhappiness, he
shipped before the mast on a trading vessel bound for Calcutta.
The vessel was wrecked near the mouth of the Hoogly and the
young man found himself penniless, friendless, and ill in a hos-
pital in Calcutta. While in this sad plight, he made up his mind,
so he said, to acquire a fortune and to devote it to philanthropic

462

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ends. After recovering he returned to England, then visited
Spain, and after marrying in England he came to the United
States in 1830. He immediately engaged in business and after
thirty years of successful ventures he retired on a handsome
fortune. The fifteen years following this he spent in traveling
over Europe and America, and in 1875 settled on " Brambletye
Farm " at Setauket, Long Island, where he led a quiet, retired life.
For more than thirty years Mr. Hodgkins made a special study
of the atmosphere in its relation to the well-being of humanity.

He believed that this study
was important, not only with
reference to man's physical
health, but even in relation
to his mdral and spiritual
nature, and he hoped that the
concentration of thought up-
on the atmosphere and its
study from every point of
view would in time lead to
results which would justify
his almost devout interest in
the subject.

Mr. Hodgkins had no fam-
ily and no known blood rela-
tions, and, recognizing the
difiBculties which often arise
over the settlement of large
estates, he chose to be his
own executor; he therefore
gave away his entire wealth
to various public institu-
tions ; these gifts included large sums to the American Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and the similarly named
society for protecting animals; and one hundred thousand dol-
lars to the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

Since writing the foregoing pages, the Committee of Award
for the Hodgkins Prizes has completed its examination of the
papers submitted in competition. These papers were two hun-
dred and eighteen in number, and were sent from almost every
quarter of the globe. The committee consisted of Prof. S. P.
Langley, ex officio, Prof. G. Brown Goode, Dr. John S. Billings,
Prof. M. W. Harrington, together with a foreign Advisory Com-
mittee, composed of the late Prof. T. H. Huxley, M. J. Jansen,
and Prof. Wilhelm von Bezold.

On August 6, 1895, the committee announced the following
awards :

Thomas George Hodgkins.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 463

First Prize, of ten thousand dollars, for a treatise embodying
some new and important discoveries in regard to the nature and
properties of atmospheric air, to Lord Rayleigh, of London, and
Prof. William Ramsay, of the University College, London, for
the discovery of argon.

Second Prize, of two thousand dollars, not awarded, owing to
the failure of any contestant to comply strictly with the terms of
the offer.

Third Prize, of one thousand dollars, to Dr. Henry de Varigny,
of Paris, for the best popular treatise upon atmospheric air, its
properties and relationships. Dr. de Varigny's essay is entitled
L^Air et la Vie.

Besides these capital prizes, three silver medals and six bronze
medals, coupled with honorable mention, were awarded to gentle-
men for essays of great merit. To name all those awarded honor-
able mention would occupy more space than at our command.

On November 7th, Lord Rayleigh and Prof. William Ramsay
called at the United States embassy, London, and received from
the Secretary a check for ten thousand dollars, communicated by
the Smithsonian Institution. It was a fortunate circumstance
that the Smithsonian had the opportunity of awarding the first
prize for so momentous a discovery as that of argon.

Finances. — The Annual Report of the Executive Committee
of the Board of Regents for the year ending June 30, 1895, gives
the following as the financial status of the institution :

Total Funds in 1895.

Bequest of Smithson, 1846 $515,169

Residuary legacy of Smithson, 1867 26,210

Savings from income, 1867 108,620

Bequest of James Hamilton, 1875 1,000

Accumulated interest of the James Hamilton fund, 1895 1,000

Bequest of Simeon Habel, 1880 500

Sale of bonds, 1881 51,000

Gift of Thomas G. Hodgkins, 1891 200,000

Residuary legacy of T. G. Hodgkins, 1894 8,000

$911,499

Receipts in 1894-95.

Interest on fund, one year $54,473

si

p o

International exchanges 17,000

Bureau of Ethnology 40,000

National Museum 166,500

Astro-physical Observatory 9,000

National Zoological Park 50,000

$336,973

In addition to the above funds the Smithsonian Institution
will soon receive the proceeds of a bequest made by the late

464 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Robert Stanton Avery, of Washington City, who died in 1894.
The property bequeathed is estimated to be worth about seventy-
five thousand dollars, and the income is to be devoted to special
investigations in magnetism and electricity.

Finally, the position of the Smithsonian Institution is that
of a "ward of the Government, having property of its own for
which that Government acts as trustee, leaving its administration
wholly with regents." Its most important function is to pro-
mote original research, reflecting thus the sentiment which occurs
in the writings of James Smithson : " Every man is a valuable
member of society who by his observations, researches, and ex-
periments procures knowledge for men." The advancement of
utilitarian interests commonly finds capital, for it appeals to the
avarice of man ; but the advancement of knowledge in its highest
and widest sense secures little encouragement from wealthy
men, and it is exactly this phase which the institution makes
its own. Its next function is to make known to the world
knowledge thus secured, for the benefit of mankind, and this it
seeks to accomplish through its publications and their wide
distribution.

' The influence of the institution in local education is well
shown by the following circumstance: Some years ago I was
standing on the porch of the Norman building as two stout Afri-
can " ladies" passed by. One of these remarked, " Let us go in
there," pointing to the entrance. " Oh, no," replied the lady
addressed, " there is nothing in there but * Prehistoric Anthro-
pology,' " pronouncing the words glibly and accurately. I lis-
tened with amazement, and pondered.

The changes in form which the bookcases underwent in monastic
libraries were described by Mr. J. WiUis CJark at the recent meeting of the
British Royal Archasological Institute. The first form was an elongated
lectum placed at right angles to the wall between the windows, so that
readers might have plenty of light to read the books that were chained to
it. Splendid isolated examples remain at Lincoln, and a whole library of
them at Zutphen. Owing to the large space they occupied, these lecturns
were replaced by open bookcases with two shelves on each side. Of this
style were the bookcases at Merton College, made in 1365, which served as
the model for collegiate libraries in Oxford generally ; and it is clear from
contemporary documents that like bookcases were in use at Citeaux, Clair-
vaux, and Canterbui-3\ The modern system of placing shelves against a
wall was first adopted at the Escurial in 1584, and was introduced by Wren
at Lincoln in 1675. At Trinity College, Cambridge, Wren ingeniously
combined the ancient and modern methods by dividing the library into
what he termed "cells," or places of study, formed of bookcases against the
walls, and others at right angles to them.

EFFECT OF DROUGHT UPON ANIMAL LIFE. 465

THE EFFECT OF PROLONGED DROUGHT UPON
ANIMAL LIFE.*

By Dk. CHAELES C. ABBOTT.

FROM July 6 to October 31, 1895, both inclusive, a period of
one hundred and eighteen days, there were but seven days
when brief showers occurred, no one exceeding one tenth of an
inch of rain ; and there were four days when prolonged, heavy
showers occurred, no one exceeding seven tenths of an inch of
rain ; and three days, or parts of twenty-four hours, when the
fog condensed and for a brief time a drizzle or " Scotch mist ''
prevailed.

The more prolonged rains occurring September 26th and Octo-
ber 13th caused little brooks, that had been dry for several weeks,
to " run " for forty-eight hours, but there was no freshening of the
weeds or grass on either upland or meadow. About our door-
yards and along the headlands, even where shaded by rank weed
growths and the fences, the ordinary grass was brittle, brown, and
resting flat upon the earth. Before the beginning of September
the landscape had a scorched appearance, this applying also to the
foliage of several species of deciduous trees. By this time, too,
the last trace of surface moisture had disappeared from the ordi-
narily wet or " mucky " meadows.

During this time, even at its close, I did not notice any appreci-
able diminution of the volume of water flowing from the hillside
and meadow-surface springs, although I learned that many wells
had partly or wholly failed. But, in all cases save one that I
examined, the water did not pass over its usual course and join
ordinarily permanent brooks, and through them reach the river.
The extremely dry ground immediately about the springs absorbed
the entire outflow at greater or less distances from their sources.
Of course, near the springs there was the usual luxuriance of
aquatic and semi-aquatic vegetation, and, what is of interest to
the zoologist, an abnormal abundance or overcrowding of animal
life in these oasitic areas.

The continued presence of animal life depends upon the food
supply. It is equally evident that no form of animal life can sur-
vive for any protracted period an absence of moisture. During
the prevalence of the drought heavy dews doubtless afforded a
sufficiently copious morning draught to slake the thirst for a
period of twenty-four hours, and so met the needs of small mam-

* This article treats of an area of about two thousand acres of upland and meadow in
the Delaware River Valley, lying between Trenton and Bordentown, Mercer County, New
Jersey.

VOL. XLVIII.— 33

466 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mals, as mice and shrews, and birds, like sparrows, but ordi-
narily these same creatures drink much, oftener than once a day.
But this briefly moist condition of the dawn and early niorn-
ing hours was not of itself sufficient to keep the wide range of
animal life in health or comfort, and the result was a migratory
movement from the drier uplands to the moister meadows ; a
noticeable depletion of the fields and overcrowding of the marshes.
This was not suddenly brought about, but rather gradual, and
would not probably have been noticed except by one daily upon
the scene. The parched vegetation had, of course, its effect upon
seed-eating birds, but probably a more marked one upon insect
life. Certainly the insect-eating birds left their old haunts to a
great extent and were found in unusual abundance along the two
creeks that divide the meadows into three great tracts ; and it was
noticeable during the evening that bats and night hawks were
more abundant over the meadows than the fields. Mice and hares
certainly were unusually scarce in the uplands. Here, it should
be remembered, no observations were practicable that gave posi-
tive results. No census could be taken of the life in the two locali-
ties, and every statement is one of general impressions gained by
almost daily visits to the more important points. One unques-
tionable fact was ascertained : there was an unusual abundance
of life of every kind in the lowlands, and a quiet, desolate condi-
tion of the fields above, wholly different from what obtains in
ordinary summers. As the weeks rolled by, the smaller meadow
streams failed entirely, and hundreds of acres of land, usually more
or less wet the year through, became as dry, parched, and desert-
like as the sandiest field in the higher ground. Aquatic and semi-
aquatic plants withered and died. The rose mallow failed to bloom,
arrow-leaf wilted, and the pickerel weeds were soon as brown
as sedges. This condition necessitated a second migratory move-
ment of many forms of life, but was fatal to others. Such crea-
tures as took refuge in pools found when too late their means of
escape cut off and perished. Small minnows, young salamanders,
and even aquatic insects gradually succumbed, and their dried re-
mains were found resting upon the parched mud which became
quite hard, sustaining an ordinary foot-press without retaining
any mark thereof. Lifting the mummified remains from their
resting place, there were found impressions of each, distinct in al-
most every feature. It was instructive as showing how fossils are
formed, and further so, in indicating how animals not associated
in life become accumulated in small areas. In one such dried-up
pool I found a mouse, a star-nosed mole, and remains of many
earthworms, as well as fish, batrachians, and insects. Just why
the mouse and mole should have remained there and died can
only be surmised. But, to return to the uplands : a more striking

EFFECT OF DROUGHT UPON ANIMAL LIFE. 467

instance of the effects of the drought was to be seen in a small
stream known as Pond Run. This is fed by scattered springs ; is
a stream of perhaps an average depth of six inches and a width
of two or three feet. Sudden dashes of rain swell the volume of
waters, but this accession is as rapidly run off. In ordinary
summers the volume is reduced to considerably below the esti-
mated average measurements, but the stream has not before been
known to be absolutely dry throughout its course. For a period
of five weeks the water from the springs along its valley were in-
sufficient to give it running water, and in many cases there was no
perceptible moisture at the fountain heads. As the water gradu-
ally disappeared, that portion of the stream's fauna dependent
wholly upon moisture, as fish, turtles, and batrachians, collected
in the pools, particularly those beneath bridges, and there by over-
crowding soon poisoned the water to which no fresh supply was
being added. It might be asked why these animals, except the
fish, did not seek other and healthier localities, but the reason is
plain. Everywhere about them was an arid region exposed to a
tropical temperature into which they did not dare to venture.
Again, while lingering in the pest holes into which they had
gathered, they had gradually undermined their strength and were
too weak to travel when, if ever, it occurred to them to do so.

And now back to the meadows. The last general migratory
movement was to the tide-water flats, and here, of course, the
moisture and vegetation were unaffected, and I have never seen
so crowded a condition as that in which were many of the streams
that were never quite dry at even the lowest stage of the tide.
The carnivorous fishes waxed fat, for there was an available
minnow ever in front of every pike, perch, and bass; and the
grasshoppers driven to the creek banks, where alone there was
green herbage, were continually leaping into the stream, and
were snapped up before they could reach the opposite shore.
There was here, however, not such an accession of batrachian life,
frogs in particular, as might have been expected, and I failed to
notice any undue number of the mud minnow {Umbra limi).
This fact led me to make a few examinations of the parched or
semi-desiccated areas. I found in two locations, that I had never
before known to become dry, that frogs, of three species, and the
mud minnow had buried themselves where there still remained
moisture, but with a crust of dry earth above it. These frogs and
fish were like hibernating animals when exhumed — i. e., soundly
asleep, rather than dead, and all slowly revived when placed in
clear, cool water. I estimated that they had been in their cramped
quarters for at least three weeks. Two weeks later, I hunted for
others but failed to find them ; but the day after the first pro-
longed rain I found the mud minnows in their usual abundance

468 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in this same brook, which now had about one half its ordinary-
flow of water, and the frogs were dozing on the banks and leap-
ing into the stream as unconcernedly as if nothing unusual had
occurred.

Possibly the above simple narration of certain facts may seem
to be of no special interest or importance, .but there were two
features of it that do not appear to have been treated of in general
natural histories : the self-inhumation of the fish and frogs, and
the wonderful promptness of the return of life to the temporarily
depopulated areas. It does not seem unreasonable to suggest that
as long as these inhumed animals could retain their moisture
they could preserve their lives. Both the frogs and this one fish
can withstand prolonged deprivation of food. I have tried the
cruel experiment in one instance, and a mud minnow had no food
for seven weeks, and had only lost two fifths of its weight when
it died. As this is a period longer than the duration of any
drought on record, when fish-sustaining streams were actually
dry, it goes to show that this species is better prepared than any
other to accommodate itself to certain geological changes when
they come about. Curiously enough, the mud minnow looks more
like a fossil than an ordinary brook minnow, is the sole repre-
sentative of its genus, and is the only species of fresh- water fish
found in both Europe and America.

While the drought destroyed much life, it more largely de-
ported it, and I have, in many years of wandering about my home,
seen nothing more positively wonderful than the promptness with
which every nook and corner was repopulated when the autumn
rains came. Vegetal as well as animal life responded at once.
The fish were promptly in the brooks, the aquatic salamanders
under the flat stones, and the frogs in their places, and on many
an afternoon of sunny October days I heard their croaking, as if
thankful for the return of the old-time conditions.

To a circular of the Royal Society asking for co-operation and sugges-
tions in making a subject catalogue of scientific papers, the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia has responded that such a catalogue is
desirable, and that international co-operation should be engaged in its
preparation ; that in order to secure uniformity in all parts of such a cata-
logue a central bureau appears to be necessary, rather than that separate
portions should be prepared by various institutions, such central bureau to
be under the direction of the Royal Society; that such a catalogue should
be classified, and should be issued at least once a year, each volume to be
provided with an alphabetical index; that the scope of such a classified
catalogue should embrace the various yearly bibliographies of special sci-
ences now issued ; and that, whenever translations or summaries are be-
lieved to be desirable, English should be made the basis of the catalogue.

GATHERING NAVAL STORES. 469

GATHERING NAVAL STORES.

By lee J. VANCE.

THAT portion of the Southern States known as the long-leaf
pine belt produces the bulk of all the naval stores used in
the world. There is an immense stretch of pine forest beginning
in North Carolina near the Virginia border, and it follows along
the Atlantic coast to Florida, and along the Gulf coast as far as
Texas. This belt of long-leaf pine varies in width from five to
one hundred miles, crosses six states — namely, the two Carolinas,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana — and covers an
area of about one hundred and thirty thousand square miles.

All over this great forest territory the trees are tapped, or
** bled,^' for their sap, which furnishes what are known as naval
stores. The work on a " turpentine farm," as a division of the
forest is called, begins in winter with the cutting of the " boxes."
A broad gash about seven inches deep and fourteen inches long is
out just above the base of the tree, making a kind of box. The
•cut is V-shaped, slanting from the outside, and thus forms a
reservoir, which will hold about three pints of sap.

Meanwhile, the ground around the trees is raked clean, and
the pine straw needles are gathered in heaps and usually burned.
This is done to protect the boxes from fires, and also to give the
^' chipper " a firm stand when engaged in his work ; but, owing
to negligence, small fires are allowed to spread, and often they
become disastrous conflagrations, which run over thousands of
acres of valuable timber before they are finally checked.

The turpentine season does not really open till early spring,
when the sap starts to flow in the trees, and " chipping " begins.
The chipper first removes strips about two inches wide, beginning
at the corners of the box and extending to a height of about ten
inches. Then the surface between the two strips is laid bare to a
depth of about one inch beneath the bark.

After a short time the " chip " ceases to " bleed," and then from
time to time fresh cuts are made. This is called " hacking," and
is done with a peculiar tool called the " hacker." There are two
kinds of hackers — the open and the closed hacker. Both are
quite similar in shape and size, except that one has an open,
strong knife with curved edge, and the other a closed knife blade,
fastened to a long iron handle. A heavy weight is attached at
the end in order to give momentum to the blows, and it is said to
make the work of the chipper easier.

Once a week from March till October the trees are either
chipped or hacked. The size of the chip grows at the rate of
about two inches a month ; so that, by the end of the first season

470

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a surface perhaps fourteen by twenty-four inches is laid bare, and
in the fourth and last year the chip has reached a height of six or
eight feet.

When the crude turpentine, or resin, begins to harden, it is
scraped from the chip and the boxes with a special tool, called the
" scraper/' The product thus obtained is " scrape," or " hard tur-

Chipper.

Open
Hacker.

Pusher,
Tools used in the Turpentike Industry

Closed
Hacker.

Scraper.

pentine." It is of inferior quality, containing only about one half
of the volatile oil obtained from "dip," or soft turpentine. In
the first year the tree yields four times as much dip as scrape, but
in the fourth year the amounts are about equal.

The flow of turpentine is influenced by the state of the weather,
especially the temperature. A long spell of heat or a long spell
of cold decreases the yield. The flow is greatest during the hot
summer months, July and August; after that it becomes less
and less till October or November, when it ceases. Last year
(1895) the turpentine crop was a poor one, on account of the cold
spring.

The resin which accumulates in the boxes is removed by a
trowel- shaped dipper. The operation is known as " dipping."
In the first year from six to eight dippings are made. The dip
is put in barrels and taken to the " still," where it is transformed
into spirits of turpentine, resin or rosin, and pitch. Tar is made
by burning the dead wood or limbs in kilns.

The crude turpentine in its natural state as it flows from the
tree during the first year is distinguished by its fine white color.
During the latter part of the season it shows a faint straw tint.
The product dipped in the first part of the season is " virgin dip,"

GATHERING NAVAL STORES.

471

and the other is " second virgin dip/' It is from these virgin
dippings that the best and highest-priced grades of resin are ob-
tained.

In the following years the turpentine is known as "yellow
dip/' and it becomes darker colored, less transparent, and less
liquid every year. In the fourth and last year the turpentine is
very dark in color, and yields resin or rosin of the lowest grades,
ranging from a deep brown to almost black and opaque.

If you look at the market reports, under the heading of Naval
Stores, you will find certain technical terms and mysterious let-
ters. The letters designate the different grades of rosin, as fol-
lows : W G, window glass ; W W, water white, the lightest grade ;
N, extra pale ; M, pale ; K, low pale ; I, good No. 1 ; H, No. 1 ; F,
good No. 2 ; E, No. 2 ; D, good strain ; C, strain ; B, common strain ;
A, black.

Besides you will find a number of terms peculiar to the turpen-
tine industry. Down South you hear the natives speak of the

Beginning the Work ix a Virgin Forest: Boxing.

great pine forests as " turpentine farms," although some people
refer to them as " turpentine orchards.'' The word " crop " has
a special meaning. When a turpentine farmer speaks of his crop
he means ten thousand boxes. This will be about five thousand
trees, as from two to four boxes are cut in full-grown trees.

472 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

There will be about that number of trees on an area of two hun-
dred acres.

Most of the turpentine farms are worked by operators on a
large scale. Small landowners can not afford to work their trees,
and so they rent or lease their forests for four years at the rate
of fifty dollars per crop of ten thousand boxes. The total expense
of working one crop is about six hundred dollars per year, or
twenty-four hundred dollars for four years. Few operators
work less than ten crops, which would make their expenditures
twenty- four thousand dollars during the four years. To this
should be added the cost of a plant (about four thousand dollars)
for working ten or twenty crops, establishing a still, building
houses and sheds, and buying tools, mules, and horses.

The amount of product gathered from a crop of two hundred
acres in the first year is about two hundred and eighty barrels
of dip and seventy barrels of scrape. This yields at the still
about two thousand gallons of spirits of turpentine and two hun-
dred and sixty barrels of rosin. In the fourth and last year the
yield of the crop falls to about one thousand gallons of spirits
and one hundred and ten barrels of rosin.

In speaking of the profits of the turpentine industry a veteran
operator said: "There is no money in the business nowadays.
Prices are too low. With the spirits at twenty-seven cents per
gallon and resin at a dollar and twenty cents, it takes a right
smart man to make much more than one dollar per acre."

The prices of all kinds of naval stores reached their highest
point during the late war, when spirits of turpentine sold for a
dollar and fifty cents and a dollar and seventy-five cents per
gallon, and inferior grades of rosin sold for four dollars a barrel.
This gave a " boom " to the turpentine industry of France, as pro-
duction in the South was practically checked for several years.

Next to the work in the pine forest, the operations at the still
are interesting. Here, by the process of distillation, are obtained
the different resinous products of trade, which go under the name
of " naval stores.'' The term seems to be a misnomer just now
when ships are built of iron and steel. About nine tenths of all
the naval stores are used in industries other than shipbuilding.*

If you go into a turpentine still when it is in operation you will
see how much care is taken to obtain the naval stores. You will
inhale the health-giving properties of the pine-tree sap. Your
nostrils are tickled by the pungent odor of the boiling turpentine ;
there is something strong and stimulating about the smell. Your
lungs seem to swell to twice their normal size, and, as one person

* Oddly enough, the term "naval stores" is not defined in AVebster, Worcester, or the
Century dictionaries.

GATHERING NAVAL STORES. 473

said to me after a visit to a still, " I feel braced up/' There is no
better sanitarium than the pineries of the South, and the turpen-
tine workers are as strong and healthy a set of fellows as you can
find anywhere.

The manner in which naval stores are obtained may be briefly
described as follows: The dip, or crude turpentine, is emptied
into a big copper still and boiled. The steam is passed through
a " worm " — a coil of pipe similar to that used in a liquor distillery

Scraping and Dipping in a Turpentine Orchard.
Tree to the right shows scarified surface.

— and on reaching a certain point the condensation drops into a
tank, and is the spirits of turpentine of commerce.

The residuum left after the spirit of turpentine has distilled
over is the rosin of trade. This is drawn off by a tap at the bot-
tom of the still, and strained first through a wire cloth and then
through a coarse cotton cloth, and run into a trough, from which
it is ladled into barrels.

In the several turpentine States, so called, there are laws regu-
lating the inspection of turpentine, defining its grades, the size
and kind of barrel, and the manner of branding. The chief
points of these regulations, which are more or less the same in
the several Southern States, are : turpentine must be branded " S,"'
or " H," for soft or hard ; the soft turpentine barrels to weigh two

474 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

hundred and eighty pounds, the hard turpentine two hundred
and forty pounds, and pitch, thirty-two gallons to the barrel. All
spirits of turpentine are gauged by the inspectors of naval stores.
Tar and turpentine barrels are marked and certified, and usually
show the initials of the maker's name.

Very few people have any correct notion of the number of
uses to which the products of turpentine have been put. Let us
mention some of the different ways spirits of turpentine enters
into the arts and manufactures. Many who read this article by
gaslight will remember when they read their newspapers by the
smoky light furnished by "camphene." This was before the
introduction and use of petroleum. Camphene is prepared by
mixing the rectified oil of turpentine with alcohol. Although
kerosene is now so cheap, the rectified spirits of turpentine is still
used for illuminating purposes in some backwood sections of the
South.

Perhaps the most common uses of the spirits of turpentine are
those in the arts, where it enters into the preparation of paints
and varnishes, and especially in the manufacture of India-rubber
goods. The paint and varnish industries take about five million
gallons annually, while the rubber industry requires about three
and a half million gallons a year.

But spirits of turpentine has other uses not so well known to
most readers. How many would enjoy their salad oils and other
vegetable oils, if they knew that they were adulterated with tur-
pentine oil ? How many invalids know that their medicines
contain spirits of turpentine, or that the liniment or ointment
which relieves their aches and pains is largely composed of tur-
pentine ?

Quite as varied and valuable are the products of rosin in the
arts and manufactures. Do you know that the finest grades of
rosin are used in the manufacture of paper ? How many persons
who look at the printer's ink on this paper would say that it con-
tains rosin ? How many, washing their face and hands, ever sus-
pect that there is rosin in the scented soap ? There is rosin in
all these products, as there is in sealing wax, putty and sizing,
and in varnishes.

Two kinds of rosin oil are obtained from rosin by the process
of dry distillation. The light rosin oil is used principally in the
fine varnishes. The heavy oil enters into the manufacture of
axle grease, and machine and lubricating oils. It is one of the best
and cheapest lubricants for metal bearings in machinery, the
petroleum oils not excepted. The heavy rosin oils are largely
used in the preparation of cheap paints, such as are used to cover
metal, roofs, and so forth.

The product called " pitch " is the residue from the dry distil-

GATHERING NAVAL STORES. 475

lation of rosin. It is used for the calking of ships, shoemaker's
pitch, and black dyes or pigments. There is a special kind of
pitch used by brewers for pitching beer kegs and barrels. The
process of distillation requires experience and care in order to ob-
tain the right quantity of oil of turpentine ; if too little oil, the
pitch is brittle and does not adhere to the barrel ; if too much,
it gives a sharp, disagreeable taste to the beer.

North Carolina for years produced nearly all the tar used
at home and abroad, and from this fact its people were called
" tar-heels." Wilmington, N. C, is the headquarters for tar and
crude turpentine, but Savannah, Ga., is the largest market in the
world for naval stores. The process of making tar is simple, and
may be briefly described as follows : The dead limbs and wood
are put in a heap in a hole in the ground and covered with dirt
and sod. A fire is started at the bottom and allowed to smolder
for eight or ten days, when the tar begins to flow. It is then
dipped into barrels, which contain three hundred and twenty
pounds net. About forty gallons of tar are obtained from one
cord of wood.

The best grades of charcoal are now made from the pine-tree
wood and bark. The sawdust carries a heavy percentage of
wood alcohol and creosote. The product known as oil of tar is
obtained by dry distillation of the tar, and is used by farmers and
fruit-growers as an insecticide, and by doctors and veterinary
surgeons for external applications.

Such, then, are some of the important ways in which turpen-
tine enters into the industries, supplying man's needs and wants.
The Chinese used to say that the cocoanut palm had as many
good uses as there are days in the month. The same and even
more can be said of the long-leaf pine. This wonderful tree is
almost like cotton in the variety and value of its products.

It is perhaps not generally known that matting and excelsior
are made from the pine trees. There is a factory about fifteen
miles from Wilmington that uses the pine straw as material for
bagging to cover the cotton bales. When the duties on jute and
jute bagging were increased, this material was in large demand.

In addition to its other uses, the long-leaf pine belt furnishes
annually an immense quantity of timber to the markets. Georgia
" yellow pine," as it is called, is known the world over. It is one
of the most durable and ornamental of woods. It is light and
easily worked, and yet it is tougher than many woods twice its
specific gravity. It holds paint and varnish better than most
woods, owing to its resinous qualities, and, having a finely marked
grain, it shows off well when highly polished. It is thus taking
the place of hard woods for use in the building of railway cars, in
furnishings for offices, and for interior work in houses. It stands

GATHERING NAVAL STORES. 477

the weather, rain and sun and storm, and wears as well outdoors
as inside.

Here is the place to state that, until recently, architects,
builders, and engineers had a prejudice against using pine timber
that had been bled of its sap for turpentine. They claimed that
the bleeding process weakened the tensile strength of the timber.
This was disputed, of course, in the South. In order to settle this
important question, as the yellow pine lumber industry had
grown to enormous proportions, the National Bureau of For-
estry undertook a series of careful tests three or four years ago.
It was shown by experiments that the sap comes from the sap-
wood, leaving the heartwood unaffected, and hence the prejudice
against bled timber is not founded in fact or reason ; in other
words, after the pine wood has been tapped, its tensile strength,
according to these tests, remains equal to that of virgin growth.

The value of the naval stores produced in the United States is
about ten million dollars per annum. Nine tenths of all the
naval stores used in the world come from the pineries of the
Southern States. The other one tenth is furnished principally by
the forests of France and Austria.

The most careful figures of the total production of naval stores
in the United States are those gathered by the special agent of
the Division of Forestry for the year 1890. They show the total
production of these stores to be three hundred and forty thou-
sand casks, or seventeen million gallons of spirits of turpentine,
and one million four hundred and ninety thousand barrels of resin
of different grades.

In order to produce this amount of naval stores it is estimated
that about two million three hundred thousand acres are being
worked, and that about eight hundred thousand acres of virgin
forest are invaded every year to supply the turpentine stills. At
this rate it will not be many years before the effects of reckless
cutting, sapping of timber, and fires will be felt in the long-leaf
pine belt. As a matter of fact, there has been a steady decline
in the production of naval stores during the past ten years in
every Southern State except Georgia, and there the increase has
been due to the opening of new tracts of timber made accessible
to shipping points and markets by railroads.

There is no doubt that the American process of bleeding the
pine trees is crude and wasteful, and that the turpentine workers,
like the lumbermen, conduct their operations on what has been
bluntly termed " the robbing system." What else is it but rob-
bing, when the turpentine operators strip the land of its forest
resources, and leave only desolate wastes ? It is now time that
our turpentine workers introduced better methods and necessary
changes in their business.

478 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Thus, it is interesting to note the care and economy with
which turpentine farming is carried on in France. There, trees
are known to have been boxed and bled for a full century, where-
as in the Southern States trees are seldom worked for more than
five or six years. The differences between French and American
practices may be briefly stated, as follows :

The French turpentine workman does not cut a big, deep,
broad box into the tree. Instead, he makes a small chip about
three inches wide, an inch and a half high, and only two
fifths of an inch deep, near the foot of the tree. This chip is
enlarged from time to time, and at the end of the first season it
reaches a height of about six feet. During the next four seasons
the chipping increases at the rate of about two feet and a half
each season, so that at the end of the fifth year the chip reaches
a height of twelve or thirteen feet. Only one chip is made on a
tree at a time. A tree that has been worked for five seasons is
given a rest of several years, and then a new chip is started some
six or eight inches from the old one. And so, by alternating
periods of bleeding and of rest, trees fifty years old and more will
be completely encircled by long scars or chips, and when the trees
■cease to yield a profitable supply of turpentine they are bled " to
death" and cut into lumber.*

The French method of collecting the sap is better and more
-economical than ours. Instead of having the resin or crude tur-
pentine run into a deep box at the base of the tree, as in this
country, the French gather the crude turpentine in a pot or pail,
which is nailed just above the old chip. As the sap flows only
a short distance, there is not much loss from evaporation, and,
besides, the product is cleaner. The chip is covered with a board,
and this simple device assures a good yield and a clean product.
It is claimed that by the French or Hugues system the yield of
turpentine is one fourth larger than by the American method,
and the trouble of securing comparatively pure sap is more than
repaid by the increased price.

In brief, the French methods of collecting turpentine should
be an " object lesson " to our Southern orchardists, who carry on
their business in a most wasteful and extravagant manner. The
result is, if the same care and economy which are observed in the
pineries of France were taken of the pine forests of the Southern
States, they would yield an annual revenue second only to that
of the cotton crop. If to the naval stores be added the amount

* The method of boxing trees during their productive period is known as gemmage d
vie — i. e., " bleeding alive " ; the " bleeding to death," gemmage d morte^ is commenced when
the turpentine orchard needs regenerating. By this method of forest management the
trees are kept imiform, strong, and in good shape or condition.

"^"-^^-V --y^^— _^^_-^<^--__J^. ~r^^^b^^^:^i^^-**<. 'Z^^^^.^-^i^^^- ,.
The French Method of Bleeding the Tbeks.

48o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of lumber that can be taken from the pine belt, we have a reve-
nue even larger than that of the cotton crop. All this could be
done without reducing the forests of the South to any serious
extent. It simply requires good husbandry and common sense in
forest management.*

Perhaps the greatest loss and damage are caused by fires,
which sweep through the forests and destroy millions of feet of
valuable timber every year. It is estimated that the total loss
from this source alone is not less than a million dollars annually.

The greater part of this loss of valuable timber is wholly un-
necessary. Our people take extra precautions against allowing
fires to burn their houses and buildings, but they view with com-
parative indifference the destruction of millions of feet of timber.
The districts invaded by the turpentine workers are left desolate
wastes, and few people who have not been in the long-leaf pine
belt can realize the great injury that has been done to the pros-
perity of the South by an industry which is rapidly changing the
face of Nature and even the climate of the country.

THE STUDY OF INHERITANCE.

A Review of the Writings of Francvi GaUon.

By W. K. brooks, LL. D.

first paper.

IT is much more easy to talk about inheritance than to study it.
Of the books and essays which meet us at every turn, few
have much basis in research, but those of Francis Galton are
among the most notable exceptions. These books, which have
appeared at intervals during the last twenty-five years, are not
speculations but studies. They describe long exhaustive investi-
gations, carried out by rigorous methods, along lines laid down on
a plan which has been matured with great care and forethought.

The simplicity of their language is as notable as their subject.
Dealing with conceptions which are both new and abstruse, the
author finds our mother tongue rich enough for his purpose, and,
while the reasoning often taxes all our powers, there is never any
doubt as to the meaning of the words.

"When in rare cases a technical term is inevitable, some famil-

* Three years ago the Geological Survey of North Carolina investigated the methods of
the turpentine industry and suggested a number of radical changes or improvements.
The recommendations have been adopted by many turpentine workers, who have modified
their old, destructive methods. Prof. J. A. Holmes, of the Survey, informs me that as a
result of these improvements the production of naval stores in North Carolina has been
increased by one hundred and fifty thousand dollars within the past two years.

TEE STUDY OF INHERITANCE, 481

iar word is chosen with so much aptness that it does its duty and
presents the new conception better than a compound from two or
three dead languages. The terms "mid-parent'' or "mid," " fra-
ternity," " nurture," and " Q " can not mislead or convey any idea
except the right one.

The reviewer's debt to Galton is very great, and it is acknowl-
edged with gratitude. Such acquaintance with the statistical
method as he possesses he owes to the study of these books ; espe-
cially the ones on Hereditary Genius (1869), on Natural Inherit-
ance (1889), and on Finger Prints (1892).

The attempt to question Galton's generalizations may there-
fore seem ungracious and presumptuous, but the uncertainties of
vital statistics are proverbial ; and it is not impossible that Gal-
ton's data may fail to cover all the ground needed to prove his
general conclusions.

One of these generalizations is so far-reaching that, if it is
well founded, it must lead to profound and fundamental changes
in our view of the origin of species.

According to Darwin and Wallace, specific identity in living
things is the outcome of the extermination, in the struggle for
existence, of the individuals which depart too widely from that
" type " which is on the whole best adapted to existing conditions.
As these conditions change, the "type" is also slowly modified
through a change in the character of this process of extermina-
tion. According to this view, the " type " is the outcome of the
statistical " law of error," or the deviation from the mean, which
holds good in the environment ; and while the " events " are prop-
erties of the organism, the type is fixed by the external world,
and not by anything in the organism itself.

Galton holds that specific identity is not due to the process of
extermination, but to " organic stability." As I understand him,
he holds that this fills up the gaps made by extermination, and
thus keeps the type intact.

This "principle of stability," which is held to result in the
permanency of types, is said to be quite independent of selection.
"Genera and species may be formed without the slightest aid
from either natural or sexual selection." "Organic stability is
the primary factor by which the distinctions between genera are
maintained."

Galton holds, furthermore, not only that specific stability is
independent of selection, but that selection is " scarcely compe-
tent" to effect a change of type " by favoring mere varieties " —
that is, by the extermination of the ordinary slight differences be-
tween individuals; and that it is only when a "sport" has made
its appearance, only when the type has actually changed, that
selection can exert any influence. According to this view, the

TOL. xLvm. — 34

482 POPVLAB SCIENCE MONTHLY.

agencies which cause " sports " are the real causes of the muta-
bility of species, and natural selection can do nothing more than
to exterminate disadvantageous sports, and thus favor advanta-
geous ones.

The "organic stability" to which so much is attributed is
held to be due to the fact that the child inherits in part from its
parents, in part from more remote ancestors ; and since the sum
of its ancestry, or its " mid-parentage,'' is on the average nearer
than any exceptional parents to the mean of the race, the children
of selected parents are on the average more mediocre than their
parents.

It is quite possible that Gal ton's data may be valuable "and
trustworthy, and that they may yet fail to prove this generali-
zation ; and I shall try to show that this is the case, although I
am not sure that I fully grasp his point of view.

I assume that he regards a zoological type or species as some-
thing; something which is due to a "principle of stability,"
which is not the result of selection. This is assuredly the cur-
rent interpretation of his statements, and it is from this stand-
point that I shall examine his writings.

If this is not his opinion; if he really believes that this "prin-
ciple" owes its existence to past selection; if he only deduces
from his data the generalization that the results of past selection
may persist after it has ceased to act ; I see no ground for criti-
cism, for his data assuredly prove this much, although I can not
reconcile his statement that " the principle of stability is inde-
pendent of selection " with the belief that it is the result of past
selection.

Before entering upon the discussion of the subject it may be
well to ask what evidence there is that the child does inherit from
any ancestor except its parents, for descent from a long line of an-
cestors is not necessarily equivalent to inheritance from them,
and it is quite possible that the conception of a " mid-parent "
may be nothing but a logical abstraction.

Most of its support is derived from the phenomena of reversion
or atavism ; from the appearance in children of ancestral features
which were not exhibited by the parents. While these phenome-
na are familiar and real, we may well doubt whether any of them
are reversions in Galton's sense.

In some cases we can prove that a so-called reversion is
simply the manifestation of a feature which is latent in the
structure of all the normal individuals of the species. The
occurrence of a distinct premaxillary bone in man is an exam-
ple of this sort of reversion. It is the outcome of the arrest of
normal development, and this arrest might have happened to
any member of the species. We do not know what causes the

THE STUDY OF INHERITANCE, 483

arrest, "but tlie view that it is due to some adverse circnm-
stance which has kept the individual from completing its devel-
opment is much more simple and probable than the view that
the child inherits its distinct premaxilla from any ancestor
except its parents.

When the son of a beardless boy grows up and acquires a
beard, we may be permitted to say that he has inherited his
grandfather's beard ; but this is only a figure of speech, and he ac-
tually inherits the beard which his father might have acquired
had he lived ; nor would the case of a child descended from a series
of ten or a hundred beardless boys and beardless women be any
different. If we were to propagate a plant by cuttings, for ten or
a hundred generations, under conditions which did not permit it
to flower, and were finally to put the last of the series where it did
flower, we should not be justified in saying that it did not inherit
its flower from the preceding cutting ; nor would the case be any
different if, for some reason, this preceding cutting could not be
made to bloom.

The phenomena of polymorphism in insects and in hydroids
present illustrations of the normal inheritance of latent charac-
ters, but we find in them no ground for the assertion that the
ancestral characteristics of the medusa are not inherited from
the hydroid which produces it.

The sum of the visible features of the parent, plus the sum of
its latent potencies, may be called a " mid-parent " for statistical
purposes, if we see fit, but there is no evidence that this mid-
parent is anything else than the actual parent.

With this introductory note, we may now enter upon the
study of Galton's works, the central point of which is as
follows :

If we select any one characteristic of a natural group of ani-
mals— such a characteristic as the weight of the individuals, or
the ratio between the lengths of their arms and legs, or anything
else which admits of exact numerical statement — it will be found
that while no two members of the group are exactly alike, they
nevertheless conform to a type, and show the existence of a stand-
ard, the mean or average, to which the majority adhere pretty
closely, while other members of the group are more abnormal,
and show marked deviation from the mean.

If the cases tabulated are numerous enough, the individ-
uals will conform, so far as this quality is concerned, to what
is known in statistical science as the law of frequency of error.
This agreement will be so close, when great numbers of in-
stances are examined, that the number of individuals which
depart from the mean to any specified degree may be computed
mathematically.

484

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Inches.

Measured.

Computed.

33

5

7

34

31

29

35

141

110

36

322

323

3Y

732

732

88

1,305

1,333

39

1,867

1,838

40

1,882

1,987

41

1,628

1,675

42

1,148

1,096

43

645

560

44

160

221

45

87

69

46

38

16

4Y

7

3

48

2

1

For example, tlie cliest measurements of 6,738 soldiers gave tlie
following results :

If the number of events had
been five hundred thousand or
five million instead of five thou-
sand, the agreement between the
computed and observed frequency
of each degree of departure from
the mean would have been very
much closer. When the number
of cases is unlimited, the agree-
ment is perfect.

Galton gives the following il-
lustration of the significance of a
type :

Suppose a large island inhab-
ited by a single race, who inter-
marry freely, and who have lived for many generations under
constant conditions, then the average height of the adult male of
that population will undoubtedly be the same year after year.
Also — still arguing from the experience of modern statistics,
which are found to give constant results in far less carefully
guarded examples — we should undoubtedly find year after year
the same proportion maintained between the number of men of
different heights. I mean if the average stature was found to be
sixty- six inches, and if it was also found in any one year that one
hundred per million exceeded seventy-eight inches, the same pro-
portion of one hundred per million would be closely maintained
in all other years.

An equal constancy of proportion would be maintained be-
tween any other limits of height we please to specify, as between
seventy-one and seventy-two inches, between seventy-two and
seventy-three, and so on. Now, at this point the law of deviation
from an average steps in. It shows that the number per million,
whose heights range between seventy-one and seventy-two inches,
or between any other limits we please to name, could be predicted
from the previous datum of the average, and of any other one
fact, such as that of one hundred per million exceeding seventy-
eight inches. '

Suppose a million of the men to stand in turns with their
backs against a vertical board of sufiicient height, and their
heights to be dotted off upon it. The line of average height is
that which divides the dots into two equal parts, and stands, in
the case we have assumed, at the height of sixty-six inches. The
dots will be found to be ranged so symmetrically on either side of
the line of average that the lower half of the board will be almost

THE STUDY OF INHERITANCE. 485

a precise reflection of the upper. Next, let a hundred dots be
counted from above downward, and let a line be drawn below
them. According to the conditions, this line will stand at the
height of seventy-eight inches. Using the data afforded by these
two lines, it is possible by the help of the law of deviation from
an average to reproduce with extraordinary closeness the entire
system of dots on the board.

This law of deviation from an average is not restricted to vital
phenomena, but holds true of all events which are the resultants
of variable conditions, which remain the same through all the
events recorded. If the marks on the board had been made by
bullets fired at a horizontal line stretched in front of a target,
they would have been distributed according to the same law,
their average value would be constant, and the deviations of the
several events from the average would be governed by the same
law, which is identical with that which governs runs of luck at a
gaming table.

Galton has described an apparatus which mimics in a very
pretty way the conditions on which deviations from a mean de-
pend. It is a long, shallow box set on end and glazed in front,
leaving a depth of about a quarter of an inch behind the glass.
Strips are placed in the upper part to act as a funnel. Below the
outlet of the funnel stand a succession of rows of pins stuck
squarely into the backboard, and below these again are a series
of vertical compartments. A charge of small shot is inclosed.
When the frame is held topsy-turvy, all the shot runs to the
upper end ; then when it is turned back into its working position
the desired action commences.

The shot passes through the funnel and, issuing from, its nar-
row end, scampers deviously down through the pins in a curious
and interesting way : each one of them darting a step to the right
or left, as the case may be, every time it strikes a pin. The pins
are so placed that every descending shot strikes a pin in each
successive row. The cascade issuing from the funnel broadens as
it descends, and at length every shot finds itself caught in a com-
partment immediately after freeing itself from the last row of
pins. The outline of the columns of shot that accumulate in the
successive compartments approximates to the mathematical law
of frequency, and is closely of the same shape, however often the
experiment is repeated.

The outlines of the columns would become more nearly identi-
cal with the normal law of frequency if the rows of pins were
much more numerous, the shot smaller, and the compartments
narrower ; also, if a larger quantity of shot were used.

The principle on which the action of the apparatus depends is
that a number of small and independent accidents befall each

486 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

shot in its career. In rare cases a long run of luck continues to
favor the course of a particular shot toward either outside place,
but in the large majority of instances the number of accidents
that cause deviation to the right balance in a greater or less
degree those that cause deviation to the left. Therefore most of
the shot finds its way into the compartments that are situated
near to a perpendicular line drawn from the outlet of the funnel,
and the frequency with which shots stray to different distances
to the right and left of that line diminishes in a much faster ratio
than these distances increase.

Types which are based upon vital statistics have peculiar in-
terest, since they persist from generation to generation, according
to what is known as the law of specific stability, while they also
undergo slow changes according to the principle of the mutability
of species.

Individuals come and go, but the type persists, and its slow
changes may be pictured as quite independent of and more sub-
stantial than the procession of individuals which files past only
to vanish from the world.

The statistical comparison of vital types affords a means for
studying the phenomena of inheritance by the exact methods of
mathematics, and it is capable of yielding definite and valuable
results, so far as the vital phenomena which are studied can be
treated as if they stood alone, but the attempt to generalize from
vital statistics and to deduce general laws of inheritance from
them is attended by peculiar difiBculties, due in great part to the
fact that the data which are studied are not separable from the
organism wjiich exhibits them. Stature or size or weight may
be treated abstractly for statistical purposes, but the stature of
an organism is not an abstraction, for the organism is not only a
bundle of properties, but a unit as well, and its stature is only one
among many features which are all beautifully co-ordinated with
each other in such a way as to promote the welfare of the species.
A generalization which ignores this fact and treats stature as an
abstraction may, while proved by statistics, be untrustworthy as
a contribution to our knowledge of inheritance.

In popular language, specific stability may be said to be due to
inheritance, and specific mutability to variation ; but in this con-
nection these words have only a loose meaning. In so far as they
convey the impression that the stability of species and the muta-
bility of species are antagonistic to each other, or are due to two
distinct and opposing influences, these terms are unfortunate, for
we have good ground for holding that they are due to the same
influence — the extermination of certain individual peculiarities,
and the preservation of others by natural selection.

The older naturalists held that adherence to type is due to

THE STUDY OF INHERITANCE. 487

some innate principle of specific stability which is an essential
and immutable attribute of each species of living things ; but the
accumulation of conclusive evidence of the mutability of species
has driven this conception out of the field. Most naturalists now
regard the type as nothing but that normal which is most per-
fectly fitted to the environment, and they hold that it is kept true
through the extinction of aberrant individuals by selection.

According to this view, which seems to be supported by ample
evidence, the stability of species is due to survival — to the same
mechanism which brings about the mutability of species.

Galton is led by his statistical studies of vital characters to a
view which bears an odd resemblance to that of the older natural-
ists ; for, according to him, the principle of stability which results
in the permanency of types is quite independent of selection.

He shows, for example, by the statistical study of stature,
that the type of human stature is very constant from generation
to generation, although the statistics of marriage show that there
is no controlling tendency for persons of like stature to marry.
He also shows that the children of parents who are both tall or
both short do not on the average have the stature of their parents,
but are nearer than they to the mean for the race. These facts,
and others like them, are held to prove the existence of a principle
of stability independent of selection.

In his more recent work on the patterns at , the tips of human
fingers, he says that — since it has been shown (chapter xii) that
the character of the finger prints is practically identical in Eng-
lishmen, Welshmen, Jews, negroes, and Basques, the same familiar
patterns appearing in all of them with much the same degree of
frequency, and that persons belonging to different classes, such as
studentg in science and students in art, farm laborers, men of cul-
ture, and the lowest idiots in the London district, show no decided
difference in their finger prints, it seems to be proved that no
sensible amount of correlation exists between any of the patterns
on the one hand and any of the bodily faculties or characteristics
on the other. It seems absurd, therefore, to hold that, in the
struggle for existence, a person with, say, a loop on his right
middle finger has a better chance of survival or a better chance
of early marriage than one with an arch. Consequently, genera
and species are here seen to be formed without the slightest aid
from either natural or sexual selection, and these finger patterns
are apparently the only peculiarity in which panmyxia, or the
effect of promiscuous marriage, admits of being studied on a
large scale.

He says that results of panmyxia in finger-markings cor-
roborate his arguments in Natural Inheritance and elsewhere
to show that " organic stability " is the primary factor by which

488 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the distinctions between genera are maintained. Consequently,
the progress of evolution is not a smooth and uniform progression,
but one that proceeds by jerks, through successive " sports " (as
they are called), some of them implying considerable organic
changes, and each in its turn being favored by natural selection.

Galton's explanation of this specific stability is as follows:
The child inherits in part from the parents, in part from more
remote ancestors ; and since the sum of its ancestry, or, as Galton
terms it, the mid-parentage, is on the average nearer than the ex-
ceptional parents to the mean of the race, the children of selected
parents are on the average more mediocre than their parents.

I have tried to show that, while the child is descended from a
long line of ancestors, it inherits from none but the two parents,
and that it can only be said in a figurative sense to inherit from
more remote ancestors. I shall soon refer to proofs that the per-
sistency of inherited types is due to natural selection, and not to
any principle of organic stability independent of selection.

If this is true, if the stability of specific types is due to the
survival of the fittest, why do we have a type and not a fixed
standard ? If speed and strength and courage are good things,
why is not every individual as swift as the swiftest, as brave as
the bravest, and as strong as the strongest ? Why does not every
individual have every useful quality developed to the highest
excellence to which it may attain in any individual of the spe-
cies ? Why should we find that diversity among individuals
which usually passes under the name of " variation " ?

We can measure strength and can treat it abstractly, and we
can artificially select and breed from the strongest members of a
stock, neglecting all other features; but this is not what takes
place in Nature.

Here the most favored individuals are not the strongest, but
the ones in which all the qualities of the species are most per-
fectly co-ordinated with each other in relation to the external
world. Excessive strength may involve deficiency in some other
essential, and the mean or average strength of the species is that
degree of strength which is most in harmony with the mean de-
gree of development of all the other characteristics of the species ;
and the individuals who depart too widely from this mean, either
through excess of strength or deficient strength, are the ones
which are exterminated.

Galton has himself given such a clear statement of the way a
type is established by selection that it can not be improved upon,
and I quote it in his own words :

"Suppose,'' he says, "that we are considering the stature of
some animal that is liable to be hunted by certain beasts of prey
in a particular country. So far as he is big of his kind, he would

THE STUDY OF INHERITANCE, 489

be better able than the mediocres to crush through the thick
grass and foliage whenever he was scampering for his life, to
jump over obstacles, and possibly to run somewhat faster than
they. So far as he is small of his kind, he would be better able
to run through narrow openings, to make quick turns, and to
hide himself, tinder the general circumstances it would be
found that animals of some particular stature had on the whole a
better chance of escape than any other ; and if their race is close-
ly adapted to these circumstances in respect to stature, the most
favored stature would be identical with the mean of the race.
Though the impediments to flight are less unfavorable to this
(stature) than to any other, they will differ in different experi-
ences. The course of an animal might chance to pass through
denser foliage than usual, or the obstacles in his way may be
higher. In that case an animal whose stature exceeded the mean
would have an advantage over mediocrities. Conversely the cir-
cumstances might be more favorable to a small animal. Each
particular line of escape might be most favorable to some par-
ticular stature, and, whatever this might be, it might in some
cases be more favored than any other. But the accidents of foli-
age and soil in a country are characteristic and persistent, and
may fairly be considered as approximating to a typical kind.
Therefore those which most favor the animals of the mean stat-
ure will be more frequently met with than those which favor
any other stature, and the frequency of the latter occurrence will
diminish rapidly as the stature departs from the mean.

" It might well be that natural selection would favor the indefi-
nite increase of numerous separate faculties if their improvement
could be effected without detriment to the rest : then mediocrity
in that faculty would not be the safest condition. Thus an in-
crease of fleetness would be a clear gain to an animal liable to be
hunted by beasts of prey, if no other useful faculty was thereby
diminished.

" But a too free use of this ' if would show a jaunty disregard
of a real difficulty. Organisms are so knit together that change
in one direction involves change in many others; these may not
attract attention, but they are none the less existent. Organisms
are like ships of war, constructed for a particular purpose in
warfare as cruisers, line-of-battle-ships, etc., on the principle of
obtaining the utmost efficiency for their special purpose. The
result is a compromise between a variety of conflicting deside-
rata, such as cost, speed, accommodation, stability, weight of guns,
thickness of armor, quick steering power, and so on. It is hardly
possible in a ship of any established type to make an improve-
ment in any one of these respects without a sacrifice in other
directions. If the fleetness is increased, the engines must be

490 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

larger, and more space must be given up to coal, and tliis dimin-
islies the remaining accommodation.

" Evolution may produce an altogether new type of vessel that
shall be more efiSicient than the old one, but when a particular
type has become adapted to its functions, through long experience,
it is not possible to produce a mere variety of its type that shall
have increased efficiency in some one particular without detri-
ment to the rest. So it is with animals."

This quotation from Galton shows how a type may be estab-
lished by selection, and it also shows why it is not possible to
make any great and permanent change in the type of one charac-
teristic of an organism unless changes at the same time occur in
the type of other characters of the same organism. It also fol-
lows that a breeder of domesticated animals or cultivated plants
who devotes his attention to one characteristic exclusively must
soon reach a point where no further improvement in this quality
is practicable unless the spceies is at the same time modified in
other respects. This fact does not prove that specific stability is
due to anything else than selection. It only proves that no great
change is possible without the co-ordinated modification of corre-
lated features, and this is just what we should expect as the effect
of long ages of selection.

The passage I have quoted from Galton seems to indicate that,
after all, he may believe that the specific types of zoology and
botany are nothing more than the persistent effects of past selec-
tion, and that his statement that " organic stability is independ-
ent of selection " may refer to present selection only.

These statements are clear and explicit, however, and they
have been interpreted by most readers as a flat contradiction of
the view that the mechanism which leads to the formation of new
types is identical, on its vital side, with that which preserves estab-
lished types ; the view that the differences between the two are
differences in the external world.

He says (Nature, September 4, 1885) : " It is some years since I
made an extensive series of experiments in the produce of seeds of
different sizes, but of the same species. ... It appears from these
experiments that the offspring did not tend to resemble their par-
ent seeds in size, but to be always more mediocre than they ; to
be smaller than they if the parents were large ; to be larger than
the parents if the parents were very small,'^ and that the analysis
of the family records of heights of 205 human parents and 930
children fully confirms and goes far beyond the conclusions ob-
tained from seeds, as it gives with great precision and unexpected
coherence the numerical value of the regression toward medi-
ocrity. He says that this regression is a necessary result of the
fact that " the child inherits partly from his parents, partly from

THE STUDY OF INHERITANCE. 491

his ancestors. Speaking generally, the further his genealogy goes
back, the more numerous and varied will his ancestors become,
until they cease to differ from any equally numerous sample
taken at haphazard f I'om the race at large. Their mean stature
will then be the same as that of the race ; in other words, it will
be mediocre." He illustrates this by comparing the result of the
combination in the child of the mean stature of the race with the
peculiarities of its parents to the result of pouring a uniform pro-
portion of pure water into a vessel of wine. It dilutes the wine
to a certain fraction of its original strength, whatever that
strength may have been.

He then goes on to the deduction that the law of regression to the
type of the race " tells heavily against the full hereditary trans-
mission of any rare and valuable gift, as only a few of the many
children would resemble the parents. The more exceptional the
gift the more exceptional will be the good fortune of a parent
who has a son who equals, and still more if he has a son who sur-
passes, him. The law is even-handed ; it levies the same heavy
succession tax on the transmission of badness as well as good-
ness. If it discourages the extravagant expectations of gifted
parents that their children will inherit all their powers, it no
less discountenances extravagant fears that they will inherit
all their weaknesses and diseases. . . . Let it not for a moment
be supposed that the figures invalidate the general doctrine
that the children of a gifted pair are much more likely to be
gifted than the children of a mediocre pair; what it asserts is
that the ablest of the children of one gifted pair is not likely
to be as gifted as the ablest of all the children of many medi-
ocre pairs."

In his recent work on Finger Prints he says: "It is impos-
sible not to recognize the fact so clearly illustrated by these pat-
terns in the thumbs that natural selection has no monopoly of in-
fluence in the construction of genera, but that it could be wholly
dispensed with, the internal conditions acting by themselves being
sufficient. Not only is it impossible to substantiate a claim for
natural selection that it is the sole agent in forming genera, but
it seems, from the experience of artificial selection, that it is
scarcely competent to do so by favoring mere varieties in the sense
in which I understand the term. Mere varieties from a common
typical center blend freely in the offspring, and the offspring of
every race where statistical characters are constant necessarily
tend, as I have shown, to regress toward their common typical
center. A mere variety can never establish a sticking point in
the forward course of evolution." He therefore holds that, while
specific stability is due to inheritance from a long series of ances-
tors, the transmutation of species is due to the sudden appearance

492 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

of '' sports/' wMch, if useful, are seized upon and perpetuated by
selection.

He says that a sport is a substantial change of type effected
by a number of small changes of typical center, each more or
less stable, and each being in its turn favored and established by
natural selection to the exclusion of its competitors.

" The distinction between a mere variety and a sport is real
and fundamental.^'

This generalization, based upon definite numerical data, is so
fundamental and far-reaching that a critical discussion of the
evidence is most important.

IMITATION AMONG ATOMS AND ORGANISMS.

By EDMUND NOBLE.

DURING the past dozen years scientific writers, American
as well as European, have given a certain amount of
attention to the part played in human life by imitation, with
especial reference to the conditions under which children acquire
from parents and associates the salient characters of individual
and social habit. But the examples drawn upon for illustration
have been narrow in their range, while the analogous process of
assimilation among the lower animals and in the realm of the
inorganic has received but scant recognition. It is proposed in
the present article to connect the three classes of phenomena by
formulating a general law which may serve, provisionally at any
rate, to cover them all, and then to group the phenomena in their
various natural divisions.

Without taking note of its unimportant and obvious qualifica-
tions, the statement may be made that all things free to move,
capable of becoming closely associated, and impelled to move-
ment by the system to which they belong, tend to come together
when they are likes, and to be separated when they are unlikes.
If we regard this tendency from the point of view of the move-
ment, we shall say that likeness of things involves association of
them in the degree of their likeness, and that unlikeness of them
involves dissociation of them in the degree of their unlikeness ;
while, if we regard the tendency from the point of view of the
things themselves, we shall say that association of things in-
volves likeness of them in the degree of the association, while
dissociation of things involves or implies unlikeness of them in
the degree of the dissociation. These truths may be expressed in
a more general way by saying that in systems the association of
likes involves the least degree of resistance among them, while

IMITATION AMONG ATOMS AND ORGANISMS. 493

the association of Tinlikes involves the utmost degree of resist-
ance. It follows that where unlikes are associated, the resistance
offered to their union will tend (1), where they are forcibly held
in association, to make them likes ; and (2) where they are free
to move, to dissociate them. This law of assimilation, as we may
briefly call it, finds illustration over so vast a field that it may
fairly be described as a universal character.

If we begin, then, with the most complex of all the phenom-
ena known to us, our first illustrations will be drawn from the
realm of mind. The fact that cognition is a process of the associ-
ation of like and the dissociation of unlike impressions, and the
further fact that all the activities of thought, from reasoning of
the lowest to reasoning of the highest kind, involve the association
of like and dissociation of unlike elements — these are psycho-
logical truths of the utmost certainty. At the outset of all know-
ing is the indispensable condition that unless we can connect the
thing perceived with some other things already known, and thus
recognize our object as a like of those things, we can not know it
at all, and it can not become a part of our store of mental experi-
ences ; while the very act by which we know it involves dissoci-
ation of it as an impression from all the impressions which it
does not resemble. From this, the simplest form of knowing, to
the most elaborate process of the reasoning faculty; from the
recognition of single objects as like others to the recognition of
classes of objects as like other classes ; from the discovery of a
causal relation between one set of objects or changes that is like
the causal relation between another set of objects or changes to
the discovery of the causal likeness connecting great groups of
objects and activities, and finally all objects and changes whatso-
ever, there is throughout the same process at work — the process
of the association of likes and the dissociation of unlikes — that
conditions the mode of all our mental operations. So-called
thought or reflection, for example, is simply the recovery into
consciousness, for the purposes of knowledge, of cognitions more
or less simple, more or less complex ; cognitions recoverable as
images, symbols, or terms from the classes in which they have
been first associated by the mind ; and the sense of pleasure felt
by a thinker in discovering analogies can spring only from satis-
faction of the demand, even in mental processes, that likes shall
be brought together and unlikes separated. Classification in all
its forms, whether in the ordinary business of life, as a means to
scientific investigation, or for the ends of philosophic thought,
illustrates the same necessity : at first unlikes and likes are
mingled indiscriminately, and at first the mind regards them, if
roughly, as being alike ; but a sense of unrest leads to further
examination of the aggregated elements until, by a more con-

494 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

scious and complete - knowledge of them, they are found to be
likes and unlikes, and are associated and dissociated accordingly.

The elements of coherent systems, whether of thought or
language, always have their relations facilitated by likeness and
impeded by unlikeness ; hence we find in such systems that it is
resemblance which is the bond of their union. Just as views in
science or philosophy, schools in Jiterature or art, are related to
each other by varying degrees of likeness, the whole forming a
group through which each of the parts thereof is rendered intel-
ligible, so concepts and the words representing them are inter-
related by degrees of resemblance, and so every term we can use
is really intelligible to us only through its connection — a connec-
tion of likeness more or less proximate, more or less remote —
with all other terms whatsoever. This is true, moreover, not
only of all words as they exist at a particular moment, and are
in use for particular concepts, but also for all the forms through
which particular words have passed in their structural develop-
ment. We bring new words into existence by connecting them,
through likeness either of sound or of form, with words already
familiar to us ; and such new words, when we meet with them,
become intelligible to us largely because of the likeness which
connects them with known and intelligible elements of speech.
When, moreover, a word is unfamiliar, the mental system rejects
it as long as it remains a stranger and an unlike ; but as soon as
the mind, insisting on assimilation, obtains the satisfaction it
seeks by change of form, the modified term, no longer meeting
with resistance, becomes one of the system of likes. It is the
same kind of assimilation as that seen in the use of Shotover for
Chdteau Vert which leads races to spell any foreign word they
adopt in accordance with the analogy of their own tongue, and
children to construct such grotesque plural forms as "foots,''
" mouses," " goodest," and " bringed." That in nearly all lan-
guages the vowels within a word tend to be assimilated to one
another is a phenomenon encountered very early in the study of
linguistics. The use of metaphor, again, which is largely the
mental assimilation of a thing more or less unknown to some-
thing much better known, is universal.

Passing from the allied realms of cognition and speech to the
sphere of human relationships, we shall find that here also likes
tend to be associated and unlikes dissociated ; that the resistance
is greatest where the association is of unlikes, and least where the
association is of likes. At the outset we must understand that
likeness or unlikeness between human beings is a likeness or un-
likeness not merely in structure but also in manner of acting ;
not only in structure and acting, as these are popularly under-
stood, but also in thinking, in belief — not only, that is to say, in

IMITATION AMONG ATOMS AND ORGANISMS. 495

body, but also in mind — not only in permanent and fundamental
characters, but also in temporary and superficial characters. If
men were exactly alike in every respect, we should find the great-
est ease of association between men and men generally, as dis-
tinguished from association of beings human and beings not
human. Yet upon the fundamental characters in which all men
are alike there are superposed by advancing social and industrial
complexity those superficial characters in which, for such char-
acters, the members of particular groups come to be, on the one
hand, more alike one another than, for the same characters, they
can be alike men in general; and on the other, more unlike each
other than, for the same characters, they can be alike men in
general. Hence, even among human beings fundamentally alike
we shall find abundant scope for movements both of association
and dissociation.

First note the superior ease, even pleasure, which character-
izes the relations of likes temporarily or permanently associated,
and observe how, in the very facility of such relations, we are
entitled to see a satisfaction of the demand that likes shall be
brought together. The illustrations naturally take a wide range.
Men of the same vocation, for example, find intercourse with
each other, for the scope and ends of such vocations, much
easier than with those engaged in other vocations. It is from
likeness within industrial groups that the camaraderie of the
trades and professions draws its spirit. The pleasure, again,
with which artists, musicians, scientific and literary men come
together manifestly has its origin in likeness of common pursuits,
tastes, and aspirations. That facility of association is at its high-
est between men of like politics, men of like faith, men of like
aims in any field of activity, has long been proverbial. Societies
and clubs of every kind constitute so many classes of likes within
which the elements of resistance are at a minimum, and this not
because each individual is always or even often wholly like his
fellow- member, but because there is a resemblance between them,
on some one or more sides which, being permanent, at least for
the time, and valid for the ends of the association, facilitates the
intercourse of all who during that time and for those ends come
into contact with each other. Even when men gather for only
temporary and general purposes — such as for those of social en-
joyment— we often hear of religion or politics being tabooed, and
this is done obviously as a means of avoiding the resistances of
unlikeness — of bringing forward only those sides of human na-
ture on which the associated individuals are for the time being
alike. Intercourse is also much easier within than without the
limits of class; the poor find among the poor the greatest fa-
cility of relation with their fellow-beings; so the possessors of

496 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

wealth are usually most at their ease in intercourse with the
well-to-do. Who has not witnessed how quickly two abnormally
stout men enter into confiding relations with one another; or
how easily, between persons afflicted with a like disease or de-
formity, friendship is set up ? Caste, group, and race preju-
dices of every kind, together with such distinctions as those
implied in the names of aristocrat, commoner, bourgeois, official,
proletariat, all imply and involve the coming together of likes
and the separation of unlikes. In most countries there is still
a strong though diminishing prejudice against alliances with
foreigners; even among natives, marrying "below one's station"
or " out of one's religion " meets with a certain amount of social
as well as with much family resistance. Most people usually fall
in love with those about their own age. Deaf-mutes almost
invariably marry deaf-mutes.

Highly temporary likenesses are equally potent in promoting
association. Their influence is seen in the pleasure we feel at
the discovery in others of some character like to our own, even
if that character be no more than a gleam of intelligence in the
lower animals. We note it constantly in the unifying effect
which the wearing of a common badge or uniform has upon
large bodies of men brought together for special ends. So in
moments of exaltation or depression, as in the excitement of con-
flict or intoxication ; under the influence of music or during re-
ligious worship ; the ordinary differences belonging to more per-
manent states lose their separative power, and men come into
unwonted facility, even pleasure of relation with each other. It
is supposed that even between deadly enemies chancing to meet
at the dinner table there passes a flash of momentary reconcili-
ation. It is certain that shipwrecked men do not quarrel over
politics ; that the starviDg are usually free from religious bigot-
ry ; and that in the presence of a general bereavement, the clam-
ors of faction and the prejudices of class are silent. The power
of a war and of the comradeship of battle to annihilate distinc-
tions usually recognized in time of peace is notorious. In all
these cases, and in all the cases which they represent, we see
great importance suddenly given to one side of men's natures — to
some all-absorbing feeling or experience in the presence of which
the ease of association with likes becomes extended for the mo-
ment to each of the human beings by whom the same experience
is shared, whether they be few or many ; in other words, the un-
likenesses which normally separate men into more or less narrow
classes lose their importance in proportion as some suddenly de-
veloped feeling gives prominence to resemblances either wider in
character or more strongly felt.

Observe next how unlikes tend to be separated from the hu-

IMITATION AMONG ATOMS AND ORGANISMS. 497

man systems in which, they appear, and to be associated, in the
act of separation, according as they are likes to each other.
From whatever causes the unlikenesses which differentiate men
from each other take their rise, it is manifest that even in the
most minute of them the law of likes and unlikes finds illustration.
Perhaps the most common and familiar example of this simulta-
neous association and dissociation is afforded by the breaking up
of a social gathering into minor groups of likes that do not easily
coalesce. In all such cases the individuals who so naturally fall
into pairs or groups move from associations that involve the
greatest resistance into associations that involve the least resist-
ance, while the movement itself (given the need of association)
is manifestly the product of the stress of the greater resistance.

In what multifarious ways this stress is exerted may be easily
shown. As a small group of men surrounded in battle by a larger
force naturally come together and are compacted for defense by
the stress of those who attack, so the individual members of
classes or races despised, hated, or feared, when persecuted by the
community in which they live, are in like manner thrust and
welded together by the stress which they encounter. Individuals,
again, who differ from their fellows to the extent of being unable
or unwilling to work — to take part in those co-operative activities
that are necessary for individual as well as social maintenance —
meet with the resistances which failure in self -maintenance in-
volves, and are by them, though nominally by society, thrust into
hospitals or poor-houses; while men whose actions are unlike
those of others beyond the amount of difference permitted by law
are dissociated, either by exile or imprisonment, from the com-
munities which they injure. When expulsion of the unlikes is
not practicable, there is association of them as prisoners within
the system. Savages, again, often abandon or destroy individu-
als deformed at birth or incapacitated from social duties by age ;
even a comparatively advanced people like the Spartans exposed
their weaklings to death by starvation. That there is still a
tendency to offer undue resistance to the unlikenesses of physical
and mental deformity is shown by the treatment of lunatics and
criminals even in the most civilized countries ; not many years
ago positively cruel, it is still in many cases culpably careless
and inadequate. The treatment ordinarily given by human be-
ings to the lower animals ; offenses against the helplessness of
children and women ; the oppression of individuals by autocrats,
by governments, by official tyrants abusing power intrusted to
them by the people, and by capitalists taking unfair advantage of
the economic condition of those whom they employ — these are all
cases of stress directed against unlikes. So shortcomings of men
of every kind — veritable unlikenesses — are in numberless ways

VOL. XLVIII. — 35

498 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

made tlie goal of individual or social stress; even ridicule and
slander are forms of aggression, based on the real or fancied dis-
covery of fault, and therefore unlikeness in the person assailed.
But the action here illustrated, so far as human beings are con-
cerned, is not necessarily moral and not necessarily immoral.
Men may be in advance of as well as behind their age — may be
larger as well as smaller than their fellows ; yet the social system
offers the same resistance to the individual too greatly contem-
plating the good of his kind as to him who wantonly plots its
harm.

We thus come to note how the social group or system tends
constantly to the production of conditions of least resistance
within itself — how, that is to say, its resistance to unlikeness acts
as a stress compelling likeness among its units. The fact that
profound differences between individuals are not to be eradicated
by the social stress after their appearance is quite consistent with
the power of that stress to assimilate human beings to each other
in their more superficial and temporary characters. The tend-
ency to do as others do is universally felt, no matter to what
extent, in individual cases, it may or can be resisted. It appears
both as imitation of the particular acts of particular persons and
of the acts in which a number of persons are generically alike ;
as imitation not only by the one of the many, but also by the
many of the one. It usually begins — for wholly voluntary actions,
at any rate — in that interesting process by which people are
assimilated to each other in their views and beliefs.

Submission of opinion, whether accompanied by imitative ac-
tion or not, is clearly a path of least resistance — a way in which
men avoid the difficulties of differing from the community in
which they live. And when action is involved, as it usually is,
the process shows us the enormous assimilative influence which it
brings to bear upon human development. It may be said, indeed,
that civilized human beings acquire their normal activities as
such largely through the molding influence which the social
community exerts upon them from their earliest years.

This stress impelling individuals to imitate society is well
seen in industrial organization, and is thus obvious in the lowest
as well as the highest stages of human development. The civil-
ized human being who enters a savage community will be com-
pelled to go half naked through very lack of any means of pro-
ducing clothes to which he has been accustomed; he will be
forced to hunt or fish for a living for the reason that there is yet
no system of co-operative supply in existence ; in the absence of
those functionaries, he must become his own farmer, his own sol-
dier, his own tailor and shoemaker, his own doctor, even his own
priest. So a savage entering civilized society will be forced to

IMITATION AMONG ATOMS AND ORGANISMS. 499

wear clothes, partly by social intolerance for human nudity in
public, and partly because of the facilities for obtaining clothes,
with all which that implies ; there will now be no game to pur-
sue and no need to pursue it, since the man's food supplies will
come from the agents of the industrial system ; he will soon lose
his primitive, many-sided industrial capacity, for he will have an
army of stock-raisers, farmers, tailors, shoemakers, house-build-
ers, and doctors at his service ; while in time society will impose,
in place of the powers which it abstracts, new functions and ac-
tivities, assimilating him industrially to the units of which it is
already composed. In both these cases, moreover, likeness will
be enforced by the resistance offered to unlikeness, and not by
any inherent superiority of one system or any inherent inferi-
ority of another ; for savages who have not yet learned to co-
operate are as much held to their rude industrial methods by the
stresses that impel to likeness as civilized men are held by such
stresses to the vastly more complex and highly organized activi-
ties of the modern society.

The same is true of nonindustrial forms of social organiza-
tion. As a community imposes its industrial methods upon its own
and upon intruding members, whether it represent a high or a
low stage of human society, so does a community, quite irrespect-
ive of the degree of its development, insist upon a certain like-
ness of habits and customs in the units of which it is composed.
A civilized man forced to live among savages will find it impos-
sible to avoid barbarous methods of living, just as a savage com-
pelled to sojourn in a civilized community will inevitably adopt
the manners of the race among whom his lot is cast. In all com-
munities whatsoever, and under ordinary circumstances valid for
the majority of men, it is vastly easier to imitate others in general
characters than to differ from them in those characters, while the
difiiculty of differing becomes almost insuperable when the stresses
tending to assimilate the individual to the sum of individuals are
exerted directly by the group or community as a whole. All acts
of race assimilation in history — many of them already accom-
plished, some of them still going on — all so-called civilizing pro-
cesses, whether carried out by individuals or by peoples, and all
proselytizing movements, by whomsoever conducted, are but so
many illustrations of the general process. Such modifications,
moreover, as have been wrought in the native races of India, and
in the negro of the United States, by dominant populations in
those countries, are going on within each nation, each city, and
every social group, however large or small its dimensions may be.
For if the traveler, when living in strange countries, finds it
expedient, if only temporarily, to conform to the customs of the
people he meets — such customs being imposed upon him by the

500 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

very resistances wMcli divergence from them entails — ^he none
the less, on his return home, finds his actions in social intercourse
determined by the same need of conforming to some larger or
smaller group of which he may happen for the time to be a mem-
ber. It is because of this " doing at Rome as Rome does " that
social gatherings are said to succeed best and to be most enjoy-
able when the guests are all alike each other on certain social
sides of human nature, or are willing to appear to be thus alike
during the period of their association. The fact that the social
code, as it is sometimes called, frowns upon the guest who would
take more than his share of the attention or time of the condpany,
and encourages the host to an equal distribution of his favors to
all of them alike — this shows how thoroughly, even in the social
circle, imitation of the group is the direction of greatest ease, and
how it is the stress of the resistances offered to unlikeness by the
group as a whole which impels the members of it to those acts
of imitation by which they are more or less temporarily assimi-
lated.

The very description, again, of costumes as de rigueur for cer-
tain special occasions contains a suggestion of the resistance which
the social group opposes to unlikenesses in dress. The attacks
sometimes made upon strangely attired persons in so highly con-
servative a country as China have had their parallels even in the
highly progressive countries of Europe and America. A similar
antagonism is manifested to nonconformity in social manners ;
and all formulae of such manners — the etiquette at baptisms, wed-
dings, and funerals ; established methods of paying and receiving
visits ; prescriptions of what to do and what not to do at the din-
ner table — are simply means, among those who attach importance
to these minutiae, of avoiding the resistances that would inevi-
tably be encountered were there many ways, instead of a gener-
ically common manner, of behaving on social occasions.

The resistance offered to unlikenesses among associated indi-
viduals is also announced in that universal human character, the
passion for equality among men — the tendency, however vaguely
or vividly it may be felt, to insist upon it that those with whom
we come into contact shall, in as many respects as possible, be
likes of ourselves. Jealousy of special privilege, with its spirit
embodied in such phrases as " fair play," " start equal/' " share
and share alike," *' a fair field and no favor," begins to manifest
itself very early in the life of the individual : mere children, when
associated, insist in multifarious ways on likeness of treatment ;
anything like favoritism in the distribution of gifts or the be-
stowal of attention, as well as all unfair advantage in games,
they resent with surprising promptness and vigor, often also
with indignation. In adults this jealousy of unequalness finds

IMITATION AMONG ATOMS AND ORGANISMS. 501

expression over a much, wider field, and finally gives character to
the whole social system. All rules governing the activities of
large or small bodies of men, such as regulations in factories,
hospitals and prisons, by-laws in cities, and general laws framed
for communities and nations, are manifestly means of providing
against unequal acting of individuals — of securing, that is to say,
the like acting, under particular and specified circumstances, of
all the individuals associated. The sense, early developed, in the
individuals of a community that they ought to be equal before
the law, with the restiveness which they manifest under all in-
equalities of its operation ; the claim that men shall be politically
as well as legally equal ; and the demand always made, if not
always satisfied, for universal suffrage, first for men, and then for
women — at first with limitations of race, property, or sex, and
finally without such limitations — all these explain the progress
which the world has been making during the last fifty years
toward an ideal democracy — toward a condition of ideal political
equality between the units that make up a human society as the
very condition and means of least resistance between those units.

But men do not remain satisfied with likenesses set up by
statute law, with resemblances imposed by a governing body.
They aim, more or less consciously, more or less outspokenly, at
a common degree of social well-being for all the individuals of
a community, and, rightly or wrongly, regard inequalities of
wealth, even inequalities of industrial power, as imperfect stages
of human development that are to be outgrown. Hence it is that
men denounce monopolies, and declare abnormally large accumu-
lations of wealth in private hands to be iniquitous, because inequi-
tous ; hence, too, it is that, in the common jealousy of privilege*
there is to be found every form of hostility to exceptional social
power and rank, from the dislike in which it is merely envied to
the anger by which it is openly attacked. Socialistic schemes
of reform are really schemes for diminishing those inequalities
which still offer resistance to the association of men — schemes*
that is to say, for making men in social, political, and legal rela-
tions, in powers, privileges, and responsibilities — more than ever
before likes to each other. Even religions illustrate the progress
from a belief and acquiescence in special privileges held out to a
favored few to an expectation and demand for the salvation of
all ; for if the pagan had to content himself with the satisfaction
of knowing death as the universal leveler, asking with Cicero
(Tusculan Disputations) "Can what is necessary for all be a
source of misery to one ? " the Christian, who claims the equality
of all men before God, looks forward to a life hereafter in which
all earthly unlikenesses are to be removed.

We shall next note that when unlikes are forced to remain

502 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

associated, such unlikes being kept together for longer or shorter
periods, the resistances which arise operate as a power tending to
assimilate them. This process of assimilation is manifested in all
degrees of our intercourse with others. Men rarely come into
contact with each other, even for special and temporary ends,
without feeling the molding influence of more or less unlike
habits, manners, opinions, and speech. Unless our ways of think-
ing, acting, and speaking are so firmly established as to be
unchangeable, we can not long remain in the society of others
without feeling that the differences which separate us from them
are gradually being worn down, if not disappearing altogether :
strenuous as our determination may be. Nature herself seeks to
lessen resistance, and thus guides us insensibly into the path
which offers the least. Thus it is (in indifferent things, at any
rate) that we gain our opinions and beliefs from those about us,
that we unconsciously acquire the gestures and mannerisms of
relatives and friends — that, in a word, we come at last to be pro-
foundly modified by the more permanent characters of our human
surrounding. In speech alone the change wrought is often con-
siderable. Few succeed in avoiding the use of colloquialisms
constantly heard, and fewer still escape the insidious influence of
phrases and idioms peculiar to districts and countries: new-
comers may at first regard them as strange, even barbarous, yet
in the end they employ the novel forms as frequently and as un-
consciously as the native. The very features of human be-
ings living in close association with each other are known to
undergo assimilation. The fact, again, that jockeys, hostlers, and
cowherds sometimes betray more or less distant resemblances to
the animals with which they habitually associate is well known ;
and although animals do not in feature grow to be like human
beings by contact with them, it is certain that in the character of
intelligence, as in the case of the dog and the cat, as well as in
tameness generally, as in the case of cattle and poultry, a real and
profound assimilation of them to men has undoubtedly taken
place.

Fashion in all its forms illustrates the same assimilative pro-
cess. The first fashions are seen under the domestic roof : there,
children imitate their parents not only in speech, gesture, and
action, but also sometimes in opinion and bent of mind, and (for
the sons, at any rate) occasionally also in vocation. Men imitate
individuals as well as communities ; they borrow from each other
mannerisms of dress, of conduct, of opinion, and even of literary
style, whenever attention is strongly called to any of these ; even
maladies have been known to become fashionable. A remarkable
exploit in athletics usually sends a fever of emulation through
the sympathetic members of a social group, just as a fashion set

IMITATION AMONG ATOMS AND ORGANISMS. 503

in literature, science, art, or philosophy inspires a thousand imi-
tators. All composition, whether of prose or poetry, is in the
ground of it imitative — a fact sufiBciently suggested by the
grotesquely moral turn ordinarily given to college and school
essays, by the accession of literary power which always follows
much reading, and by the imitation of any particular author or
style to which great liking for one or- the other inevitably leads.
What has been called the contagiousness of example is really the
power of a strong impression, and therefore practically of stress,
to produce likeness. This may be noticed at public meetings,
where people applaud or cheer gregariously, and do other acts,
such as those of sitting or standing, with obvious reference to
what others are doing. The ease with which a stammerer com-
municates his defect to another is a matter of common observa-
tion. Movements or actions of persons sitting together, such as
yawning, coughing, and the like, tend to be propagated more or
less through the whole of them by unconscious imitation. To the
same process is due the spread of more or less hysterical ailments
among a company of persons, such as the often-recorded mania
for mewing among nuns, or the propagation of convulsions among
girls in factories. Simple movements, like the shifting of a chair,
the rustling of a paper, audible change in the position of the body^
often follow involuntarily in others after they have occurred in
one of the persons associated. If in a thoroughfare a man be
encountered staring intently and conspicuously at some portion
of the sky, most of those who see him will at once direct their
gaze in the same direction. A man watching an athletic feat, or
a stroke at billiards, in which he is deeply interested, will often
at a critical moment imitate the attitudes or action of the per-
former.

The law is further abundantly illustrated by facts relating to
the lower animals. These find the greatest ease of association as
likes, and come together everywhere in Nature on the ground of
likeness. The general evidence of this is familiar, and mention
need be made here only of a representative example. In the
Falkland Islands, for instance, where the cattle have run wild,
and where they are of several different colors, each color keeps in
a separate herd, often restricted to one part of the island ; among
the wild horses of Paraguay, those of the same color and size
associate with each other ; in Circassia three races of horses exist
which, when living in freedom, always refuse to mingle and cross ;
on the Faroe Islands the half -wild, native black sheep resist at-
tempts to breed them with imported white sheep ; in the Forest
of Dean and the New Forest the dark and pale colored herds of
fallow deer have never been known to mingle ; the merino and
heath sheep of Scotland, if the two flocks are mixed together, will

504 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

each breed witli its own variety ; Ancon sheep have been observed
to keep together, separating themselves from the rest of the flock
when put into inclosures with other sheep ; " the female of the
dog" (according to Prof. Low, an authority on domesticated ani-
mals), " when not under restraint, makes selection of her mate, the
mastiff selecting the mastiff, the terrier the terrier, and so on " ;
pigeons pair, when choice is free, with their own kind ; flocks of
white and Chinese geese, even when associated by the breeder,
keep themselves distinct. The fact that organisms prefer to asso-
ciate and breed with their likes is also widely shown by the habits
of birds. Describing a molluscan fauna in the Sandwich Islands,
Mr. Gulick says: "We frequently find a genus represented in
several successive valleys by allied species, sometimes feeding on
the same, sometimes on different plants. In every such case the
valleys that are nearest to each other furnish the most nearly
allied forms ; and a full set of the varieties of each species presents
a minute gradation of forms between the more divergent types
found in the more widely separated localities."

The recognition marks of insects, birds, and other animals
imply and involve the association of likes and the separation of
unlikes. The mimicry of one set of organisms by another, whether
the imitation be of color, shape, or both, is manifestly a means of
acquiring the superior ease of living which assimilation offers to
the imitating kind : the mimickers always occupy the same re-
gion as the species mimicked, and the resemblance wrought is
sometimes (Darwinism, page 256) advantageous to both. All asso-
ciation of organisms involves likeness between them, and when,
by unequal conditions, unlikeness is set up in sufficient degree,
that unlikeness involves dissociation of the unlike members of the
group, accompanied by the resistance which sterility offers to the
intercrossing of those members. The like individuals, moreover,
are only held together by the constant operation of assimilative
processes : one of these is the free intercrossing of all the associ-
ated members, whereby the individual is maintained true to the
average ; the other is the resultant tendency of the organism to
transmit and perpetuate only those characters due to influences
and conditions that are the common experiences of all the mem-
bers of a kind, as opposed to characters arising out of special
individual experiences.

The group of animals, like the group of men, expels unlikes
that appear in its midst. Thus ants eject intruding members of
alien kinds ; geese and hens drive away strange birds of their own
species ; crows and rooks expel wrongdoers from their midst ;
domestic pigeons attack and badly wound sick, young, or fallen
birds; beavers dissociate idle members from their colony; a
wounded herbivorous animal returning to its companions is

IMITATION AMONG ATOMS AND ORGANISMS. 505

usually attacked and gored to death; elephants not only expel
a "rogue" from the herd, but have been known to refuse refuge
to one of their number who had escaped into the jungles with the
bandages of the capturer still on its legs.

It should be added that the organism itself, and the organic
structure, everywhere illustrates the principle of the association
of likes and the dissociation of unlikes. All tissue systems in the
organism are systems whose units are likes to each other, and the
likeness which those units exhibit is a likeness maintained by the
assimilative force of the organism acting a whole. So all food
material taken into the organic system — which is really a com-
munity of cells — must undergo assimilation as the very condition
of its admission to association, while all material that can not be
associated is expelled, either by dissociation without or by disso-
ciation within the system.

In the inorganic world the same law holds good. Its most
general evidence is afforded by the fact that matter is always
associated with matter, and that where free to move it always
constitutes a system of which the parts of like density are asso-
ciated and the parts of unlike density dissociated. In a general
way the bodies which constitute the solar system occupy posi-
tions in that system according to the degree of their density, the
denser planets lying nearer to, those less dense farther away from,
the sun. The ring system of Saturn shows a like collocation, due
to differences and likenesses of density. In the earth itself (omit-
ting complications of gravitation produced by internal heat) the
denser solids always tend to move nearer to the earth's center
than the liquids; the liquids thus displaced take precedence in
position over the atmosphere ; while even the air shows a gradu-
ally dinainishing density in a direction away from the earth.
That which, moreover, is observable in our own solar system may
reasonably be predicated of stellar aggregations generally : most
of the planetary nebulae and star clusters display a gradually in-
creasing density from circumference to center ; comets, densest at
their nucleus, visibly diminish in mass as their fanlike streamers
recede from the sun ; in meteor orbits the densest bodies travel
first, the remainder, roughly speaking, following in the order of
their density. In the star system itself, there are signs of the
same kind of segregation, one region of the Milky Way being as
remarkable for the multiplicity of its suns and its almost com-
plete absence of nebulae as are the other regions of the heavens
for the fewness of their stars and the large number of incipient
systems which they contain.

What is true of matter in the varying degrees of its density is
also true of the different types of matter ; for whether the atom
constitutes the molecule, as in the case of a few of the elements,

VOL. XLVIII. — 36

5o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

or the molecule be made up of two or more atoms, as in the case
of most of the elements, it is undisputed, not only that the uniting
parts are likes to each other, but that the molecules which they
form are also likes to each other. That which, moreover, is espe-
cially obvious in the case of the elements, where the molecule is
always made up of the same kind of atoms, is none the less true
of compounds ; for, however superficially unlike the atoms or
molecules may be that enter into combination to form such com-
pounds, and whether the matter formed be what we know as in-
organic or what we know as organic — whether it be extremely
simple, as in the case of water, or highly complex, as in the case
of albumin — the resultant system is in every instance a system
whose unit parts all possess the same general character.

The power of material systems to dissociate unlikes is best
seen when the dissociating stress is exerted by matter in the liquid
or gaseous state — in a form, that is to say, in which the power to
dissociate is at its maximum and the resistance to dissociation at
a minimum. If we thrust a ball of wood into a volume of water,
the entering mass is immediately expelled to the surface, and it
is thus expelled for the reason that it possesses less density than
water, and is therefore an unlike : the act of dissociation, more-
over, is manifestly an act of the water system ; for, if we remove
the water, our wooden ball will descend freely through the space
previously occupied by the fluid. So a balloon ascends through
air because, being less dense than air, it appears in the air sys-
tem as an unlike, and is by that system expelled to those regions
of the atmosphere which resemble it in density : in this case, as
well, the act of dissociation is an act of the air system, for, if the
air could be removed, the balloon would not rise at all.

Unlikes, sufficiently free to move, often repel one another when
forced into association. Zinc and lead, or zinc and bismuth, may
be melted together, but they separate more or less completely
during the process. Chloroform and water may be mechanically
mixed, but when they are no longer shaken the two fluids part
into distinct layers. If, upon oil placed in a receptacle, water be
poured, the water will displace the oil; while, if mercury be
added, it will displace both oil and water ; the final result of the
experiment — three layers occupying positions in the order of their
density — being reached by acts involving both association and
dissociation — association of the like parts of each layer, and dis-
sociation of the unlike layers.

How likes are associated and unlikes dissociated may also be
shown in most of the phenomena of cohesion, and especially in
those wherein particles of matter assume the spherical or globular
form. Where the medium is not apparent, as in the case of the
sun, moon, and planets, the association of likes is alone displayed ;

IMITATION AMONG ATOMS AND ORGANISMS. 507

where the medmm is more accessible to us, there is more or less
suggestion of an act of dissociation by the system in which the
parts become associated. Thus an atmosphere overcharged with
moisture literally expels water from itself, first into fine vesicles,
and later, by cumulative aggregation of these, into the drops
which constitute rain ; so when the vapor of water issues from
the spout of a kettle, the air which it traverses condenses it into
the droplets visible as steam. Water thrown upon a dusty sur-
face ; molten lead let fall from a tower in the process of shot-
making; melted glass dropped into water — all these assume a
more or less spherical shape under circumstances which suggest,
not only cohesion of the parts, but also repulsion by the medium.
The spherical shape assumed by oil dropped on water is not
wholly due to cohesion of the parts of oil, but is also due in very
large measure to the repulsive action of the water system itself.
A still more striking illustration of these acts of simultaneous
association and dissociation is yielded by mixing small quantities
of water with large quantities of oil : here the water, in descend-
ing, breaks up into spherelike globules, each of which exemplifies
at once cohesion of the intruding parts and repulsion by the re-
ceiving system. There is also to be added the evidence of smoke
and vapor rings, the forms of which are largely determined by the
action of the atmospheric system in which they are produced.

That assimilative action takes place within material systems
is also to be noted. Such action is of several kinds, and includes
(1) assimilation of movement, (2) assimilation of substance by
diffusion, and (3) assimilation of mass or structure, the latter
being divisible into (a) assimilation by change of form in the case
of gross aggregates rudely associated, and (&) assimilation by
changes of arrangement in the case of minute parts closely asso-
ciated. The simplest form of assimilation is seen when volumes
of two different gases are brought together within a closed recep-
tacle ; for, though the molecules of the two gases may originally
possess different " kinetic " energy, they undergo in association a
change by which the molecules of both gases come to have a like
degree of the energy of movement. What is true of gases is true
also of matter in each of its states : heat communicated to an ag-
gregate is more or less rapidly distributed through it until all the
parts possess, roughly speaking, like degrees or amounts of move-
ment; a mass of metal heated in a furnace becomes gradually
assimilated to the character of its surroundings ; by a precisely
similar process, the overheated earth radiates energy into the
atmosphere. There is also the assimilative distribution of heat
through liquids by means of convection currents : as the surface
of the sea becomes cooled in winter, the cooler layers, grown
heavier, sink, and are constantly being replaced by warmer water

5o8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

from below. Vertical exchanges of temperature also take place
between higher and lower layers of the atmosphere, while the dif-
ference of temperature between the polar regions and the equa-
torial zone results in the assimilative movements of the general
atmospheric circulation. As ocean currents, like the Gulf Stream
of the Atlantic and the Kuro Siwo of the Pacific, carry heat from
the warmer to the colder regions of the earth, so air currents arise
out of those differences of heat and of barometrical pressure which
it is obviously their function, as far as possible, to remove. All
atmospheric movements, in fact, however local or general their
character may be, are either movements of direct assimilation by
which the atmosphere is seeking, so to speak, to bring all its areas
into like temperature and pressure with each other, or are dis-
turbances involved and arising indirectly out of such acts of as-
similation. It is only because the work done by these movements
is being constantly" undone through the agency of influences, per-
manent and temporary, that differentiate areas of the atmosphere
in every part of the globe — setting up, for example, unlikenesses
of temperature and pressure between the equatorial and polar
regions, between continents or islands and the surrounding oceans,
or between any area of the earth's surface abnormally heated or
cooled and the surrounding parts of that surface, as well as be-
tween seasonal variations in such inequalities — that we have cy-
clones and anticyclones, tornadoes, blizzards, land and sea breezes,
mountain and valley winds, sand spouts and dust whirlwinds, as
well as various periodical and more or less local disturbances all
over the world. It should be added that meteorological phenom-
ena do but illustrate the wider interchanges that take place in
the ether system, since the constant distribution, as electro-mag-
netic disturbances, of movement differentially accumulated in
material aggregates — whether such disturbances take place within
purely local limits, as in circuits artificially set up, or on a uni-
versal scale, as by diffusion from solar bodies — are all cases of the
distribution of movement, and therefore cases of assimilation.

The diffusion of molecules through each other is also a com-
mon form of assimilation. Gases, if brought together, permeate
each other until a tolerably like constitution for every larger or
smaller area of the total volume has been reached ; gas distrib-
utes itself equably through liquids, as in the case of effervescing
drinks; solutions of salts brought into contact gradually inter-
mingle. A soluble solid, when introduced into a liquid, usually
assumes the liquid state to the extent of the capacity of the fluid
for taking it up, as in the familiar case of sugar in tea or alum
in water, while the liquid itself undergoes modification by the
equable distribution of the particles absorbed. The uniform
hardness of "hard" water, due to the presence of bicarbonate

IMITATION AMONG ATOMS AND ORGANISMS. 509

of lime, and the uniform tenacity of solutions of soap in water,
as shown in experiments with soap bubbles, both illustrate how
equably substances held in solution are diffused. The evapora-
tion of fluids into air, like the dissolution of solids in water, is in
its results, at any rate, a case of assimilation to the character of
the surrounding or adjacent medium ; so that, the more we heat
a bar of iron, the more progress does it make toward that vapor-
ous condition in which it can easily be diffused through its en-
vironment. The mixing of metals also illustrates diffusion ; for,
whether it results in amalgams or alloys, whether the mixture
be a merely mechanical association of the parts brought together
or a chemical combination of those parts, the fact remains that
for given areas, which may be large or small, the average degree
of diffusion is the same. This is shown with especial clearness
in those compounds of carbon and manganese with iron needed
for a variety of industrial purposes, since such compounds
would have none of their present commercial value were it not
for the uniform diffusion through the iron of the substance em-
ployed to modify it.

Here, then, our treatment of the subject must draw to a close.
While necessarily brief, it has been complete enough to reveal
a process far reaching in its scope and of cosmical significance.
We have seen how like units everywhere tend to be associated
and unlikes dissociated ; how unlikes, held in forcible association,
tend to be more or less profoundly assimilated to one another ;
and how disturbances of prevailing uniformity tend to be equa-
bly distributed through the several media in which they occur.
But we have also noted that the power impelling to these multi-
farious acts of assimilation, to these movements of association
and dissociation, is not the power of the units themselves, but
the power of the system to which they immediately belong ; and
we are thus warned of the important bearing which our law has
upon two problems of the utmost generality in physics — namely,
the problems of chemical affinity and gravitation. It is true that
we have as yet no formula for explaining these manifestations of
power by a single principle ; that we do not yet know the real
structure of ether ; and that there is still needed a definite account
of gravitation as an intelligible mechanical process. Nevertheless,
the causal connection of both gravitative and chemical actions
with the ether system is already obvious to physicists. That the
power which accomplishes these actions does not reside in matter
alone, but resides also in the ether system — is, in fact, a function
of that system regarded as including both ether and matter —
seems to be increasingly pointed to by the trend of recent phys-
ical research. Basing our final conjecture, therefore, on general-
ization from a wide array of facts, it may not be premature to

510 POPULAR SCIENCE MONT JILT,

look to the ether system, not only for an illustration on the
widest scale of the law of assimilation, but also for the ultimate
source of all the phenomena in which the operation of that law
can be traced. For whether the ether be continuous or granular,
it clearly satisfies, by its very nature and uniformity, the de-
mand that likes shall be associated, the while that, by the actions
known as chemical and gravitative, it also fulfills the require-
ment that there shall be dissociation of unlikes. Lacking, as we
do, all explanation of the -actual mechanism of gravitation, we
may none the less find its form suggested to us when we describe
it as an act of dissociation by the ether system. And if this view
be tenable, we should be justified in regarding the ether as pri-
marily embodying the power manifested in the multifarious
changes which we call evolution.

NATURAL FEATURES OF VENEZUELA.

By FREDERIK A. FERNALD.

THE first part of the American mainland seen by Columbus
was Venezuela. On his third voyage, in 1498, he bore farther
to the south than before, and had become convinced that he
should not meet with any land on that course when his look-
out descried three hilltops in the southwest. The island from
which these peaks arose Columbus appropriately named Trinidad
(the Trinity). Sailing on, he entered the chief mouth of the
Orinoco and then skirted the island-fringed coast on his way to
Haiti. The country is said to owe its name to Ojedo, who, on
entering Lake Maracaibo the following year, noticed one of the
Indian villages of pile dwellings on its shore. " Why, here," he
said, "is a little Venice" (Venezuela), and this name became the
designation of the whole region round about.

The great curve of the Orinoco divides the area of Venezuela
into two unequal parts, the larger of which, lying to the north
and west of the river, contains the more populous districts.
Seven of the eight States of the republic lie wholly in this part,
while most of the region south of the river and along its up-
per course is divided into Territories. The surface of the coun-
try is much diversified. In the extreme northwest, around the
gulf and lake of Maracaibo, it is level and well watered. East of
this tract a branch of the Andes crosses the country diagonally.
Five of its peaks extend above the snow line, the highest. Con-
cha, rising to fifteen thousand four hundred feet above the sea —
between the height of Mount Whitney, in California, and that of
Mont Blanc. From this peak descends a small glacier which

mM^imm

512 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

supplies the neighboring city of Merida with ice. Low chains
also stretch along the coast as far as the delta of the Orinoco.
These mountains for the most part run in parallel ranges, between
which lie elevated valleys. In these valleys are most of the culti-
vated lands of the country. Here also are the chief cities, al-
though many of the seaports are of considerable size. Card-cas,
the capital, is nine miles back from the coast, at an elevation of
three thousand feet, but the railroad which runs to it from La
Guaira is obliged to take a tortuous way of twenty-three miles,
passing through many cuts and tunnels. There are no stations
along the route, and the country is not cultivated except near the
termini. In many places the track winds around a mountain on
the verge of a sheer descent of hundreds of feet. Card,cas lies in
one of the mountain valleys, which slopes toward the south and is
• traversed by the G.uaire River. Its temperature is equable ; the
mean of its coldest month, January, being 68° F., and of its hot-
test month. May, being 93°. Rain falls abundantly in April,
May, and June, though not so constantly as in other tropical
regions. The rest of the year is rather dry.

Between the mountains and the Orinoco stretch the broad
llanos or grassy and partly tree-covered plains which form the
basin of the great river on the northwestern side. The extensive,
thinly populated territory south and east of the Orinoco is made
up of alternating hills and valleys, and is heavily wooded. This
region has some mountains of moderate elevation, among which
is Roraima, of much interest to explorers, standing on (or near)
the boundary of British Guiana. Its tablelike upper portion, a
mass of pink sandstone rising sheer sixteen hundred feet, was first
ascended in 1884 by Im Thurn and Perkins after many unsuccess-
ful attempts had been made. " Obviously Roraima was formerly,"
says Reclus, " part of an elevated table land, which has been grad-
ually isolated by a process of cleavage and erosive action. It sur-
vives to present times as a superb witness to former geological
conditions. Streams have their rise on the upper platform, over
the edge of which they fall in cascades, draping the pink escarp-
ments as with lace veils of their silvery spray. ' O Roraima, red
mountain, wrapped in clouds, fruitful mother of streams ! ' sing
the Arecuna Indians encamped in the surrounding valleys."

Venezuela has no volcanoes, but traces of ancient eruptions
are to be found among the highlands. Certain flames often seen
hovering over the ground were formerly thought to be connected
with subterranean fires, but this idea has been dispelled by ad-
vancing knowledge. " This curious phenomenon," says Reclus in
his description of it, " has been noticed on the slopes of Duida, on
Mount Cuchivano, in the province of Cumand,, and in the marshy
valley of the Catatumbo and of other streams flowing to Lake

NATURAL FEATURES OF VENEZUELA,

513

Maracaibo, where it is known as the ' lighthouse ' or ' lantern/
because it indicates to mariners the position of the land. Flames

Scene on the Railway from La Guaira to Caracas.
(From Around and About South Aiuerica, by Frank Vincent.)

are also frequently seen flitting about amid the grasses of the
llanos without burning them. These are ' the fire of the tyrant

514 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Aguirre/ say the natives, who, after more than three hundred
years, are still haunted by the legends associated with this six-
teenth-century corsair. The vapors rising from certain asphalt
lakes similar to that of Trinidad are also said at times to be sub-
ject to spontaneous combustion." It might have been well if
there had been a few active volcanoes in the country during
recent times. Venezuela has suffered some terrible earthquakes,
and on the theory that these disturbances are due to pent-up
underground forces, the existence of natural vents would have
prevented them. In 1550 an earthquake occurred, accompanied
by a tidal wave, which swept away the settlement of Cumand,,
and the same place suffered severely in 1766, after which the
ground continued to tremble for fifteen months. One of the most
destructive shocks, by which Caracas was laid in ruins with a
loss of twelve thousand lives, occurred in 1812, during the war
for independence. " The indirect consequences of this disaster,"
says Reclus, " were even more deplorable than the catastrophe
itself. It certainly prolonged the ruinous war probably for years,
and greatly intensified its horrors. The event having taken place
on Holy Thursday, the anniversary of the declaration of inde-
pendence, the priests, nearly all of whom belonged to the Spanish
party, declared that the hand of God had wrought the ruin in
order to crush the revolution." Thousands of superstitious revo-
lutionists, including Miranda, the general in chief, laid down their
arms, and the Spaniards secured fortified places and other advan-
tages that were recovered only at great cost.

In a country so much upheaved a variety of minerals will
naturally be found accessible. There are rich deposits of gold in
the region east of the Orinoco bordering on British Guiana, which
accounts for the ownership of part of that territory having been in
dispute for half a century. The famous mine El Callao has yielded
over three million dollars a year. Its upper levels have been pretty
well worked out, so that its present output is secured by deep min-
ing operations. As an export, gold ranks next after coffee and
cacao. Considerable copper ore is exported, mainly the product
of the Aroa mines in the Maritime Alps, near the northern coast.
Lead and tin are also found. If Venezuela owned all the islands
that lie off its coast it would have an important source of mineral
wealth in the famous asphalt lake. La Brea, on Trinidad. But
Trinidad and Tobago had been taken from Spain by Great Britain,
while Curagoa, Buen Aire, and Oruba had been appropriated by
the Dutch, before Venezuela secured its independence. The main-
land, however, is by no means devoid of bituminous deposits — as-
phalt, petroleum, jet, and bituminous coal being obtained in vari-
ous localities. Other useful minerals found are sulphur, kaolin,
and phosphate rock. Margarita, the largest of the islands belong-

NATURAL FEATURES OF VENEZUELA. 515

ing to Venezuela, is the seat of a pearl industry that was once
important but has seriously declined. Its fisheries are flourishing,
but these, together with the scant agricultural resources of the
island, do not sufiice to support the native population, which in-
creases rapidly. Consequently, large numbers of the men emi-
grate to the mainland. The climate of the island is salubrious
and attracts consumptive patients from great distances. An ex-
cellent quality of salt is produced on all these islands and along
the coast of the mainland. From a lichen growing on the rocks
of Orchilla is extracted the violet dye of that name.

While in the United States the Indians are an almost unre-
garded remnant, the aborigines of Venezuela form a large element
of the less than two and a half million population. The pure
whites, mainly of Spanish origin, but including immigrants from
the chief trading countries, are less than two per cent of the
whole. The pure aborigines are estimated at about one seventh,
and there are some negroes, as African slavery existed here up to
1854. Parts of these races have intermingled in various ways,
producing mestizoes, mulattoes, zambos, and mixtures of other de-
grees. Four fifths of the full-blooded Indians are classed as civil-
ized, and are engaged in agriculture, or as laborers in the other
occupations carried on by the whites.

The climate of different parts of Venezuela varies greatly with
elevation, aspect, and soil. The highlands are in the main tem-
perate and salubrious, while the low parts of the coast, the lands
about Lake Maracaibo, the delta of the Orinoco, and parts of the
plains are among the hottest regions in South America. During
the rainy season, from April to October, many of these low lands
are flooded, giving rise to swamp fevers and dysentery. The coun-
try does not suffer so much from yellow fever as might be expected.

The downpour of the rainy season is drained away by over a
thousand rivers, many of which become dry or dwindle to chains
of lagoons in the dry months. The Orinoco is the great artery of
the country and is destined to become of vast importance as a
channel of traffic when the region through which it flows is more
thickly settled. Steamers enter it from the sea by seven of its
fifty mouths, and run to Bolivar, three hundred and sixty miles
up the river. Smaller steamboats can ascend as far as the Atures
rapids, nearly a thousand miles. Its chief branch, the Apure,
gives access to a region far west of the main stream, and, as some
four hundred of its other affluents are said to be navigable, it will
be seen that a vast extent of country is reached by the Orinoco
system. In this respect, which is the true measure of a river's
importance, the Orinoco ranks fifth on the American continent,
or fourth, if we disregard the artificial helps with which the St.
Lawrence has been provided. Just below the great bend of the

516

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

river, two hundred and fifty miles above Bolivar, is the smaller
town of Caicara, which is also an important trading station.
Here manufactured goods are exchanged for the products of the
forests and plains. Mr. Frank Vincent thus picturesquely de-
scribes the voyage up the great river :

"On leaving Port-of-Spain we headed at once toward the
southwest and the Serpent's Mouth, out of which we safely
passed and entered that branch, or rather that one of the many
great mouths of the Orinoco styled the Macareo River, which was
at first about half a mile in width, its shores densely covered with
aquatic plants and forests. Running nearly parallel to this river

NATURAL FEATURES OF VENEZUELA. 517

is another called the Casquina. Both are navigable -for steamers
drawing less than ten feet; those requiring deeper water than
this must use the southern and main branch of the Orinoco.
This one is naturally always preferred by ships. The water of
the river is a thick yellow, and the current is as swift as four or
five miles an hour. As we went on all day, the Macareo narrowed
to about one hundred feet, but was very deep. The banks ap-
peared quite uninhabited until we reached the Orinoco proper.
First we passed two very small Indian villages. The houses con-
sisted merely of grass roofs and wooden pillars, being quite open
on all sides, and disclosing numbers of hammocks each containing
a nearly nude Indian. Near by were fields of mandioc and bana-
nas. On the beach small pirogues were drawn up. At one place
some of the boys paddled out to us, and in wanton sport threw
on board many sticks of sugar cane. These Indians had stout,
strong bodies and broad and good-natured physiognomies, with
their hair 'banged' across the forehead and left long at the sides.

" In its vast size, and large and numerous islands, the Orinoco
is not unlike the Amazon, but the banks differ from the Amazon's
chiefly in their greater profusion of lianas, the forests being not
only decked but half covered with them. After the Indian villages,
we passed, upon the Macareo, long lines of widely separated mud
huts, belonging to negroes and low-class Creoles. All these people
wore clothes, had a variety of cooking utensils, and better dwell-
ings than the pure Indians. Near where the Macareo enters the
main branch of the Orinoco is a small town called Barrancas —
simply two short streets of dilapidated mud huts. We stopped
only ten minutes to send our boat ashore with the mail, and to
bring on board two or three passengers. Some very large islands
invite the view hereabout, and the distant ranges of the Imataca
Mountains, ridge behind ridge, look blue and picturesque. The
current of the Orinoco does not carry down the great number of
grassy islands and tree trunks that one sees always on the Ama-
zon. ... A fine spectacle at night were the many great prairie
fires, the whole sky being aglow with them. A certain fire would
suddenly appear, tearing along at a terrific rate, with a blinding
glare and long trail of smoke, recalling a night express train a
thousand times magnified. The Venezuelans are accustomed to
burn their savannas once a year. We had already left the regions
of the pristine wilderness, and were now among the great savan-
nas, or natural meadows of the central plains of Venezuela. The
delta is the only thickly wooded part of the Orinoco, the upper
portion of the river being bounded by the llanos, or great grassy
and almost treeless plains."

Near the head waters of the Orinoco is its junction with the
Cassiquiare, by which it has a navigable connection with a branch

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the Amazon. The stream forming this curious bond between
two great river systems lies in a valley which is prolonged south-

ward by that of another river. About one third of the water that
it sends down to the Amazon is obtained from the Orinoco.

NATURAL FEATURES OF VENEZUELA. 519

The chief wealth of Venezuela consists in products of the
soil, natural and cultivated. There are many coffee and cacao
plantations in the mountain valleys near the coast, and coffee to
the value of fourteen million dollars is exported yearly, which is
double the value of all other exports. Among the other culti-
vated articles are manioc, sugar, cocoanuts, maize (Indian corn),
tobacco, wheat, cotton, indigo, sweet potatoes, and melons. Canoes
which ascend the upper Orinoco and its branches to the forested
region of the southeast bring down rubber, vanilla and tonka
beans, fruits, gums, and drugs. The forests are also rich in cabi-
net and dye woods, useful fibers, from which cordage and ham-
mocks are made, and a variety of other products. The deadly
arrow poison called urari by the natives is made in the district
south of the Orinoco.

The central plains of the republic form a vast grazing range
which supports millions of horned cattle, horses, and asses. These
herds are subject to great vicissitudes ; they were reduced to a
small fraction of their normal size by the war for independence,
and again by the civil wars ending in 1863, while vast numbers of
horses and asses were destroyed by a murrain which broke out in
1843. Their numbers have, however, been restored, and the stock
has been improved recently. Sheep and goats are bred in the
mountainous district of the northwest, whence goatskins (known
as Curagoa kid) are largely exported.

The animal life of the forest is varied and abundant. The
howling ape makes his presence known morning and evening to
all within earshot, and fifteen other simians are met with. The
representatives of the cat tribe include the jaguar, puma, and
ocelot. There are also harmless bears living on fish and honey,
the ant-eater, the cavy, the cuchi-cuchi, the tapir, various species
of deer, and the slothful sloth, which, as Reclus says, " after de-
vouring the foliage of a cecropia, utters long, plaintive cries at
having to climb another." Myriads of birds of brilliant plumage
vie with the tropical flowers to enliven the somberness of the
forest. The waterfowl are no less numerous; it is said that a
regiment, encamped near the confluence of the Apure River with
the Orinoco, lived for a week on wild duck without appreciably
reducing their numbers. One of the curiosities of Venezuelan
bird life is the guacharo, a night-flying fruit-eater which inhabits
caves in certain of the coast districts. Its fat yields a much-prized
table oil.

Both the salt and fresh waters of the country abound in fish.
Sixty-pound turtles are abundant in the large rivers, but will not
long continue so unless the taking of their eggs is limited. Three
species of alligators are found in the rivers and lakes, while the
manatee and porpoise enter the Orinoco from the ocean. The

520 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

electric eel also inhabits Venezuelan waters. Certain streams of
the Apure district are carefully avoided by bathers, less through
fear of the alligators than of these eels and other electric crea-
tures, and of the ferocious fishes called caribs, after the once-
dreaded tribe of cannibals. The last so abound that some creeks
are said to contain " more caribs than water."

Noxious creatures are not wanting on land. Many snakes
glide through the herbage, especially on the plains, among them
being the anaconda^ the boa constrictor, and the striped rattle-
snake. The swampy islands of the Orinoco delta swarm with
mosquitoes, and at the Maipures rapids, where " the wind never
blows," the air sometimes seems to be full of them. Locusts are
often a great plague to the peasants.

Venezuela is a country of great resources, with some obstacles
in the way of utilizing them. Not all of its known useful min-
erals have been mentioned here, and a thorough geological sur-
vey, which the country has never had, would doubtless largely
extend the list. Nor are its forest products by any means com-
pletely known. The future prosperity of the land requires self-
control and energy on the part of its citizens, with regulations to
induce the foreigners who go there to become Venezuelans instead
of withdrawing a portion of its wealth to be enjoyed after return-
ing whence they came.

SUGGESTIBILITY, AUTOMATISM, AND KINDRED
PHENOMENA.

Br Prof. WILLIAM ROMAINE NEW BOLD.
III. DISORDINATION AND INCOORDINATION.

IN my two former papers I have sketched the conception of any
state of consciousness as a coordination of mental elements
which might conceivably exist independently, and have en-
deavored to bring it into relation with our conception of the
physical basis of consciousness as a similarly coordinated sys-
tem of forces to certain elements of which the various discern-
ible elements of consciousness in some sense correspond ; and I
have drawn from this fundamental conception two inferences;
(1) That we must think and reason about the mental thing as we
would about its physical basis ; we must therefore ascribe to it
dynamic properties which will in the long run be found cor-
respondent to the laws of brain-functioning. (2) It is con-
ceivable that a cortical process might exist without coalescing
with any such system as underlies a personal consciousness, and
that a mental state might exist in connection with the process out-

SUGGESTIBILITY AND KINDRED PHENOMENA, 521

side any consciousness whatever. We can not, however, logic-
ally stop at this point. If a single cortical process and its con-
comitant mental state may be dissociated from others, there
appears no a priori reason why many may not be simultane-
ously dissociated, nor yet why the entire system may not be
dissolved and reduced to a chaotic mass of physical processes
and concomitant mental states. For such a supposititious con-
dition I would propose the term disordinatioriy the etymological
opposite of coordination. We may well believe that if a dis-
ordinated state occurred it would not be remembered. Memory
depends, from the psychological point of view, upon the law of
association, and from the physiological upon the fact that be-
tween the cortical processes underlying the present state of con-
sciousness and the traces left in the cortex by those accompany-
ing the state remembered, there is a continuous system of traces,
representing actual processes that discharged successively into
one another. In a disordinated state there is no such continuous
system and consequently no memory. But it is also conceivable
that, from a present state succeeding a state of disordination, a
single devious thread of traces, so to speak, might lead us back a
little way into the maze of confusion which lies behind. As I
shall later show, our memory of a dream depends upon such a
line of continuous discharge.

In a disordinated state the dissociated elements would not of
course be what they would be in a well coordinated state. In the
latter the characteristics of each element are largely determined by
the relation which it bears to other elements of the system with
which it is interwoven. Freed from the restrictions and incite-
ments of the others, each process would tend to work out its own
proper results in a very different wky f rom that which it would
otherwise have been compelled to follow.

Furthermore, it is conceivable that co-ordination might be
defective without being absolutely lacking. I would term this
incoordination. It might occur in either of two forms, or in both
at once. The coordinated system underlying the upper con-
sciousness might consist of relatively few elements as compared
with those of other persons, there being a larger subconscious
field. The upper consciousness would then habitually be narrow ;
the individual would be unable to grasp many considerations at
once and would be easily abstracted. Or, the elements actually
coordinated might be defectively coordinated. The conscious-
ness would tend to be confused, the individual would see dimly
things which would persistently refuse to get clear, and would be
in general what we call " muddle-headed." And, as I have sug-
gested, many are both muddle-headed and narrow-minded.

It is evident that the distinction between disordination and

VOL. XL VIII. — 37

522 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

incoordination, is merely a question of degree, and it will frequent-
ly be difficult to assign any given concrete case to either the one
class or the other.

So much for the logical analysis of the hypothesis we are con-
sidering and its implications. If we turn now to the facts and
try to apply these principles to them we shall find, I think, that
many phenomena for which our current psychology can not give
any explanation, become, if not entirely intelligible, at least more
comprehensible than they were.

A familiar form of disordination is found in states of which
sleep may be regarded as the type. Perfect sleep is not a disor-
dinated state. In perfect sleep we must suppose that all mental
life is absolutely quenched ; not even isolated states remain. But
most sleep is not perfect, and it is probable that some cortical
activity persists throughout. When we would go to sleep we
withdraw ourselves as much as possible from the storm of stimuli
that is always assailing our sense-organs, thus cutting off all vivid
sensations with their complex and far-reaching associations. Lit-
tle by little the activities that remain — i. e., those that lie at the
foundation of our ideational life — become quiescent. Then the
laggards among them, freed from their usual restraints, assume
distorted forms. Isolated scenes, dislocated scraps of seniences,
vague thoughts, flit through the mind's rapidly emptying cham-
bers, coalescing and combining with one another in fashions gro-
tesque and unpredictable ; from moment to moment they become
fewer, and then — oblivion. Sometimes on awaking we remem-
ber strange experiences had in sleep — what we term dreams.
What are they but dislocated systems of mental elements, some-
times springing out of elements which have persisted through the
period of disruption, as when we dream of things with which our
thoughts have been busied through the day, sometimes springing
out of sensations occasioned by stimuli falling upon our sense-
organs. Yet in every case dreams are developed under associa-
tive laws analogous to those of waking life, although very differ-
ent in the details of their operation. Take the case M. Maury
reports. He got a friend to tickle his face with a feather while
he was asleep, and dreamed that he was being tortured by hav-
ing a mask of pitch applied to his face and then torn forcibly
away, taking with it the skin and flesh. Had he been awake, the
stimulus would have caused a sensation of tickling ; by associ-
ative reasoning be would have instantly divined its cause, and
would have thought of the movements suitable to stop it. In
sleep the sensation developed far more than it would have done
in waking life, and was therefore magnified into an intense tear-
ing sensation, and for this magnified state by similar associative
reasoning a suitable cause was found. Had he been awake, even if

SUGGESTIBILITY AND KINDRED PHENOMENA. 523

the sensation had succeeded in developing, the least suggestion of
torture as an explanation would have been quenched by a mass of
inconsistent ideas. In sleep the grotesque notion finds no obstacle
to its acceptance. Who has not dreamed of himself as being in
some public place and then suddenly become aware that he is
naked and exposed to the gaze of the crowd ? What is this but
the coalescence of the sensations arising from his actual state as
he lies in bed with the thought systems representing his imagi-
nary experiences ?

If one puts a man asleep and all the while keeps talking to
him, touching him and otherwise keeping him aware -of one's
presence, one gets in many cases a peculiar type of sleep known
as a hypnotic state. We may suppose that all the elements com-
posing the man's normal consciousness are disordinated and for
the most part extinguished, but the one group which he calls the
consciousness of the presence of his friend Smith who is hypnotiz-
ing him still remains. That has no chance to go to sleep, as it
were, and consequently in his disordinated brain all processes
originated by that one still active group tend to work out their
normal results with a precision and certainty unknown in wak-
ing life. He is either totally dead to all other stimuli, or can be
made aware of them only with difficulty. Frequently the attempt ,
to force such a stimulus upon him is followed by great nervous
excitement, somewhat like that which usually follows a great
shock or surprise. This is, I think, the true character of the
suggestibility found in hypnotic states and of the so-called phe-
nomenon of rapport

Another common form of disordination is that which accom-
panies a " nerve storm.'* We know that if a mass of heated and
moisture-laden air begins to escape into the upper and colder
regions of the atmosphere at any point, the upgoing current, no
matter how slender at the outset, may increase in volume and
velocity until it develops into a vast storm center hundreds of
miles in extent. So also does it appear that a relatively small and
localized nerve explosion is capable, under conditions which we
do not at all understand, of propagating itself irregularly through
the nervous system, ignoring the usual association paths, until
the entire nervous mechanism is exhausted. Such a progressive,
periodic disturbance is said to be epileptiform. The causes of the
various forms of epilepsy are often unknown. Some, however,
are due to mechanical irritation of the cortex, as by a depression
of the skull, an extravasation of blood, disease of the membranes,
or the growth of a tumor on the cortex. Others are produced
by some continuous and intense peripheral irritation, as that
springing from an unhealed wound, an ingrown nail, etc. Others
still are due to the memory of some great shock or fright, and

524 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

we may suppose that the subconscious memory of that experi-
ence is capable of becoming from time to time strong enough to
disturb the coordination of the upper consciousness. Indeed,
most of these causes may produce chronic incoordination without
going so far as to destroy coordination altogether. Now, all these
cases may be generalized under one conception. In my first
article I compared the system of activities underlying conscious-
ness to the system of forces upon which the existence of the soap
bubble depends. We all know that the introduction of any new
and intense factor into that system, as when one pricks the bub-
ble with a dry pin, instantly destroys it. It would appear that
much the same is true of the system of cortical activities.

The precise effect of the nerve storm upon consciousness, how-
ever, varies with the region upon which its force is chiefly spent.
In the so-called masked epilepsies or periodic insanities con-
sciousness is directly affected, and with greater or less severity,
but the complex disturbances so produced can not be reduced to
definite classes. New elements are introduced, old elements are
destroyed, or weakened or intensified, as the case may be, and the
character temporarily modified. Whenever the disturbance is
very great, however, memory is more or less impaired, as our
theory would lead us to expect. In the true epilepsies the vio-
lence of the storm is expended upon the motor region, producing
movements, sometimes of a purposive character and sometimes
not. Whenever the storm is at all severe, consciousness is disor-
dinated and no memory remains. After the storm is over the
patient sinks into a state of true unconsciousness, and often he
recovers from it but slowly, passing through stages of automatism
as the elements of consciousness slowly find one another and are
built up into a system. If you question him after his recovery,
he says he was unconscious the whole time. But we have rea-
son for believing that during the period of convulsion mental
states — such as muscular sensations, sensations of pain, and prob-
ably horrible dreams and nightmares — really existed, while in
the comatose state there was nothing of the kind. The first was a
state of disordination ; the second, of true unconsciousness.

The symptoms of incoordination are, as one would expect,
of infinite variety and incapable of classification. It is known
in medicine as hysteria, and I can say but little of it here.

In its simpler forms there seems to be a general inability to
think of much at once. Consequently, what is in consciousness is
very much there, to use a colloquial phrase, and tends to work out
its own results. The patient is easily abstracted, fails to notice
things, is narrow and prejudiced. In practical matters he has
bad judgment, for good judgment implies the ability to weigh
many considerations at once. It is difficult to convince him of a

SUGGESTIBILITY AND KINDRED PHENOMENA. 525

new point, but, once convinced, there is no length to which he will
not go in its application. At any given time he is a man of one
idea, given to a fad, and very apt to be zealous in reform move-
ments of all kinds. He can rarely discriminate the probable from
the possible, and consequently can never think of a disaster with-
out fearing it will come to pass. This is especially true of his
own health. If he reads a medical book or a patent-medicine
advertisement, he discovers in himself the symptoms of most of
the diseases of which he has been reading. In a person of this
temperament any great shock is apt to bring on a state of disor-
dination with concomitant derangement of the motor coordina-
tion— what we vulgarly call a " fit of hysterics.''

In more serious cases the indisposition to notice things goes
further and often culminates in absolute inability to perceive
what a normal person would. Entire systems of sensations may
be wholly or partly lost. Touch is the sensation most frequently
lost in this way, although sight and hearing sometimes go too.
Yery frequently sensation is lost on one side of the body only.
The control exerted by the idea trains over the movements of the
body is also partially or wholly lost and the patient is paralyzed.
Hysterical losses of this kind are often cured by suggestion, or by
any means in which the patient has faith. In the most extreme
cases the patient passes hours, days, months, or even years in a
state of apparent lethargy, which is probably a chronic disordi-
nation.

With the retrenchment of the field of consciousness goes hand
in hand a corresponding increase in the subconscious field, and
the elements dissociated from the upper consciousness frequently
appear to become coordinated with one another, forming sub-
conscious systems analogous to the upper system. They are then
sometimes manifested to the patient himself by being obtruded
upon the upper consciousness in the form of inner voices, hallu-
cinations of sight or hearing, etc., or to other persons by means
of movements. Occasionally they go so far as to produce writing
in which the upper consciousness of the patient has no part.
Hence arises for outsiders the appearance of two minds existing
in one body, while to the patient his body seems to be running
like a machine, without his cooperation. All such phenomena
may be termed automatic, and upon them the popular belief in
" spirit control " and " demoniacal possession " undoubtedly large-
ly depends. When automatic phenomena are numerous and com-
plex, the upper consciousness of the patient is usually profoundly
affected. He sinks into a dreamy state, and often loses "con-
sciousness"— i. e., memory — altogether. "Mediumistic trance"
may then be regarded as a form of disordination analogous to
that of the hysterical crisis.

526 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

In some of these unfortunates the upper consciousness is not
only of very narrow range and liable to frequent disordination,
but is of such, unstable composition that, after being disordinated,
it is reconstructed out of a quite different set of elements. Mr.
F. W. H. Myers has proposed to call this phenomenon an " allo-
tropic crystallization " of the elements of mind, which seems to
me a highly appropriate simile. The patient can then scarcely
be said to have any permanent self at all. He is, as it were,
broken to pieces and rebuilt out of different memories, desires,
and aptitudes at every hysterical crisis. It seems as if his ,body
were successively possessed by totally different persons. But we
have no reason for believing that the different persons all coexist.
Probably the emergence of one is only made possible by the de-
struction of another. In some of the extreme forms of hysteria
it is possible to take advantage of this principle to reconstruct
the lost normal individual. Pierre Janet has taken a hysterical
woman who had lost many of her memories and sensations, and
to some degree her power of movement ; disordinating the upper
consciousness by hypnotizing her, he has grasped, as it were, by
suggestion the lost mental elements, restored them to the upper
consciousness, and made her for the time being quite normal.
But, unfortunately, the enlarged upper consciousness seems of very
unstable composition, and the patient soon sinks into trance and
awakens in her former state.

I have briefly outlined this conception of consciousness as a
system of elements capable of disintegration and of various
novel recombinations. And let me repeat what I have already
said, that although I have preferred, for the sake of brevity, to
develop it deductively from certain fundamental hypotheses, it
has been attained by the opposite process from a study of facts.
Confessedly it is as yet only a theory, and will doubtless be essen-
tially modified before being accepted as the foundation of the
science of psychology. In its present form I can not myself
regard it as more than a good working hypothesis. But it is
something to have even a good working hypothesis in a field
in which the constructive conceptions of current psychology
prove absolutely useless.

A GREAT nebula has been discovered by Prof. Barnard in the constella-
tion Scorpio, including Antares and a region extending two or three degrees
southward. It is described as vast and magnificent, intricate in shape, and
gathered in cloudlike forms. Prof. Barnard pronounces it one of the
finest nebulae in the sky, and says that, as it involves so many of the bright
stars of the region, it would imply that they are essentially at the same
distance from us.

THE STAMPING OUT OF CRIME. 527

THE STAMPING OUT OF CRIME.

By Dr. NATHAN OPPENHEIM.

IT is only a sliort time since civilized nations abolished slavery,
and already we look back with wonder at our own and other
countries, and are barely able to realize that the world could have
borne such an unspeakable institution — that it could have steadily
progressed while weighted with the breaking load of such a bur-
den. Nevertheless, for thousands of years, and even at times bf
exquisite culture, men thought that slavery was inevitable, or
even necessary, or at any rate that it could never be done away
with. Now there is an equal steadfastness of opinion in the
opposite direction. We regard with horror the social condition
which justified bondage; we are astounded that we could have
lived in such an atmosphere.

There are other similar examples in the history of civilization.
Until the present century drunkenness was almost universal, and
the gentleman who did not drink himself under the table was
thought at best to be a poor sort of man. Our present attitude in
the matter is just as great a revolution as our change in regard to
slavery. Likewise is there an equally great difference so far as
the interests of society are concerned. Again, until the middle of
this century there was a constant succession of wars among the
principal nations ; but within a few years conditions have so
changed that the man who dared to precipitate a war would be
utterly overwhelmed with universal abhorrence.

If we look into the future, we may see as great a change,
which is beginning to assert itself in regard to the necessity of
crime. Indeed, the above analogies are well carried out, from the
fact that so many people at present think crime is inevitable —
that because society has always sweated under this burden it fol-
lows that the burden must ever be carried. On the contrary, be-
cause society has always been oppressed with crime there is good
reason to suppose that changed conditions must alter the present
facts, and that we may look for a season when crime as a constant
and unvarying social element will have ceased to exist ; when it
will show itself in minor and individual cases, as drunkenness is
beginning to do, as plagues and epidemics are beginning to do.

One of the best indications for hope is the growing effort to
study crime accurately ; not merely to regard it as an excuse for
confining lawbreakers in self-infecting herds, where they may
undisturbed pollute one another, but, on the other hand, to seek
for the causes of crime, to ascertain all its concomitant condi-
tions, to recognize and classify the criminal in sociological, psy-
chological ways — in the ways of anatomy and physiology. The

528 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

recent congresses for this object in Paris, Rome, and Brussels
have opened a new world of information, have shown how misty-
have been our ideas on the subject, how primitive our methods
have been and are, and what little hope for the future lies in a
continuance of them.

This much, at least, we have learned : that the criminal forms
a class by himself, no matter whether he is born so or grows into
vice ; that not only in his acts but likewise in mind and body does
he vary from the healthy normal. For his tendency, as that of
all organic life, is to reproduce his kind. This fact should be
regarded as a rule that is as widely applicable and as unvarying
as any law of biology. It can not be otherwise, for every child
is a summing up and a manifestation of the traits of his ances-
tors. And so, in spite of our present efforts, each confirmed law-
breaker becomes an ever-fruitful fountain for wrong — a moral
plague spot — the limits to whose contagion are bounded only
by the amount of material that can be contaminated. The
most superficial glance will show how true this is, for if it
were otherwise one would rightly suppose that the vast efforts
for social amelioration throughout society must surely result in
an increase of the better and a decrease of the worse elements.
But as a matter of fact this is not the case. We spend tremen-
dous amounts of time and money and effort in the attempt to
eliminate the need of crime ; we strive to the last extent to do
away with destitution, unsanitary conditions, ignorance, and de-
pressing moral influences, and undoubtedly these efforts have
accomplished much good. But in spite of all this, in spite of aid
societies for discharged convicts, in spite of educational possibili-
ties that are as free as air, in spite of college settlements, protect-
ing associations for children, reformatories, and lavish charities
of all kinds — in a word, in spite of vastly improved social sur-
roundings— the criminal remains as he has always been. Crime
does not lessen, but on the contrary increases with the growth of
our cities, or even increases beyond the proportion which we
should naturally ascribe to it.

The strange thing about all this is that the development in
crime does not necessarily depend for its beginning and growth
upon the elements which are popularly held responsible. Many
people believe that with the wider diffusion of knowledge wrong-
doing must necessarily shrink away — that mental enlightenment
and moral darkness are incompatible. But this is merely a sup-
position, for the most part based on our admiration for education.
And, as a matter of fact, concrete examples constantly remind us
that the educated person, if wrongly minded, does not as the
result of his mental training become a law-abiding citizen, but
rather becomes a dangerous and capable criminal. Moreover, this

THE STAMPING OUT OF CRIME, 529

is true not only of individuals, but also of masses as well. We
have to prove it the statistics of Dr. Ogle, in regard to the Eng-
lish population at a time of a steady increase of crime : " Eighty-
five per cent of the population were able to read and write in the
years 1881-84, and as this represents an increase of ten per cent,
since the passing of the Elementary Education Act, it is probably
not far from the mark to say that at the present time almost
ninety per cent of the English population can read and write.
In other words, only ten per cent of the population is wholly
ignorant.^' In spite of this general diffusion of knowledge, in
spite of compulsory education in the most critical and formative
years of childhood, there was no decrease, but on the contrary an
increase of crime.

Again, it has been conclusively proved that destitution, that
specter which frightens the hearts of men, which covers and ob-
scures with its sodden wings every wrongdoing in human life, is
not in any way the real cause of crime ; it is true that often it is
the excuse. But it is only the excuse, and even in that capacity
it serves for the want of something better. However, relying
upon this excuse, one would naturally think that men with the
greatest burdens would be the most liable to lawbreaking, and
that times of profound destitution would be those most deeply
marked with crime. As a matter of fact, both of these supposi-
tions are false, so that we find criminals, as a rule, to be those
persons having almost no responsible burdens, and, strangest of
all, the times of prosperity show the greatest flourishing of crime.
Therefore, Morrison, a reliable writer, says : " It is a melancholy
fact that the moment wages begin to rise, the statistics of crime
almost immediately follow suit, and at no period are there more
offenses of all kinds against the person than when prosperity is
at its height.^' Again : " It is found that the stress of economic
conditions has very little to do with making these unhappy beings
what they are ; on the contrary, it is in periods of prosperity that
they sink to the lowest depths."

In like manner it can be fully and plainly proved that the
other fortuitous and external conditions which are usually blamed
for the w.rongdoing in the world are either quite innocent or
merely accidental. Thus, climate is said by some to be a guilty
factor ; but we all know how easy it is to show that there is no
part of the world untainted. Seasons are responsible, say others.
Here, again, a strange fact confronts us : for it is in the pleasant-
est seasons of the year, when people have least in Nature to con-
tend with, when they are most abroad and mingling together,
that crime is commonest. Some well-intentioned men say that
certain foods, especially " strong " and animal foods, so inflame
the tendency to viciousness that evil instincts flare up, and as a

VOL XLvni. — 38

530 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

result we have the criminal. It is quite unnecessary to spend
time in exposing this fallacy in physiology ; we need only refer
to the Italians, whose food is very largely vegetable, and whose
percentage of crime is among the greatest. The native inhabit-
ants in India are another case in point ; for their diet is likewise
almost entirely a vegetable one, and yet, if it were not for the in-
terference of the carnivorous English, they would even now be
addicted to the almost universal practice of infanticide. So also
is it that social rank, while setting metes and bounds in every
other direction, fades away in the domain of evil. The criminal
may be high or low, he still is the criminal ; and, reasoned
about broadly, there are as many offenses among the socially
exalted as the socially debased.

Thus from every side we are driven away from the fortuitous,
the occasional, the accidental as the controlling cause. We are
forced, as a necessary resort, to something more reasonable, more
stable, something which we can work on and understand. And as
soon as we look on the matter with such eyes, it becomes plainer,
more tangible, holding out hopes for amelioration if not entire
cure.

In a problem like this, which has so many ramifications, we
should seek for constant factors of divergence from the normal ;
or, better still, let us decide what is the healthiest development,
so that we may be better able to understand the abnormal, the
deficient in human character. " The perfection of man," says
M. de Laveleye, "consists in the full development of all his
forces, physical as well as intellectual, and of all his sentiments ;
in the feeling of affection for the family and humanity; in a
feeling for the beautiful in Nature and art." Now we have
something really definite. We have a clear idea of what is
essential to the highest growth of human worth, and immedi-
ately we recognize that in the criminal we have a being more or
less utterly removed from this standard, and thus representing
what is abnormal, twisted, or diseased. What is more, this di-
vergence is a constant one, which reproduces itself over and over
again in successive generations of wrongdoers. It is rarely
necessary for a man to commit crime at the present time, even
though he be laboring under adverse circumstances ; and it is
never necessary for him to continue such a career. Therefore,
when he does, it is a matter of choice or of temperament. Very
often the amount of ingenuity and talent exhibited would be suf-
ficient, if rightly applied, to bring him comfort if not greater
rewards in the regular lines of effort.

The majority of us exhibit a strange lack of logic in thinking
about hereditary transmissions. We recognize the necessity of
breeding and the duty of selection in regard to animals ; we are

THE STAMPING OUT OF CRIME. 531

perfectly willing to follow well-known ideas on the need of weed-
ing out undesirable traits in cattle ; moreover, the world has for a
time shown its belief in the existence of hereditary genius, other-
wise Galton's painstaking work on the subject could never have
reached its present popularity, nor should we now possess our
admiration for " good blood." But when we speak of the more
unfavorable traits and the deadly certainty of their reproduction
in descendants, our lips falter, we quickly hide the unpleasant sight
with a capacious covering of charitable forbearance. We con-
stantly meet with startling examples of transmitted crime, such
as the famous or infamous Cook gang and Jukes family ; every
day in the more unfortunate phases of metropolitan life we see
children following in the wake of parents and grandparents in
the wide sea of vice ; even do we see the same manner of crime
reproduced in straight family lines, and yet we dare not look the
plain truth full in the face ; under the mask of a specious system
of, correction we hide our fear of facts and our incapacity to act
for the criminal individual as well as the noncriminal public.

It is time for us to see that punishment will not abolish crime,
any more than a whipping will change a lunatic into a sane man.
Until the citizens of a community are really healthy in mind,
body, and soul, crime will and must continue in its concomitant
ratio. For crime is merely the expression of the action of ordi-
nary social conditions upon distorted and diseased organisms.
The symptoms of this pathological state when occurring singly
may, as in the common sicknesses, mean but little. But when they
come together in recognized groups they point to definite degrees
of degeneration. For this reason anthropologists have been try-
ing to classify criminals, to put in their proper places symptoms
of weakened will and industry, overweening egoism, a failing
respect for consequences, deficient domesticity, insensibility to the
higher impulses, as well as the merely physical traits of facial and
cranial asymmetry, misshapen heads, epilepsy, idiocy, and the ten-
dency to disfigurement, as in tattooing. It is on the permanency
of such traits that Bertillon's system of measurement is founded,
as well as Galton's theory of finger markings. The main idea
which these facts should impress upon us is the absolute stability
of these peculiarities and the inevitable surety of the results
which flow from them. The criminal is not necessarily without
good impulses ; on the contrary, he may have them more or less
constantly, but he is unable to act them out. Where the will is
thinned out almost to the vanishing point, or where the faculty of
concentration has been progressively weakened, it is practically
impossible to make up for them, and the unhaj>py offender is
quite at the mercy of circumstances which bring him time and
again before the criminal courts. In this connection it is inter-

532 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

esting to read from Sir John Strachey's quotation of an official
report from India : " When a man tells you that he is a Bodhak,
or a Kanjar, or a Sonoria, he tells you what few Europeans ever
thoroughly realize — that he, an offender against the law, has been
so from the beginning and will be so to the end ; that reform is
impossible, for it is his trade, his caste — I may almost say his re-
ligion— to commit crime/'

The belief in the inevitable steadfastness of these personal and
family traits will finally clear our moral atmosphere, for we shall
and must see that the safety of society lies in right methods of
development based upon normal marriages and normal breeding.
As population increases and the complexities of life increase, the
burdens put upon us become heavier in proportion. We need
more mental and moral backbone than we have ; we are becoming
progressively unable to stand the strain, it has become absolutely
necessary to raise men to a higher level. For our present stand-
ard in character even more than in brains is a pitiably low one.
Just as it is practicable to improve a breed of animals, so is it
possible to increase our own worth. It is in this belief that
Francis Galton said : " I argue that, as a new race can be obtained
in animals and plants, and can be raised to so great a degree of
purity that it will maintain itself, with moderate care in prevent-
ing the more faulty members from breeding, so a race of gifted
men might be obtained, under exactly similar circumstances.''

Here we have the gist of the matter. There is a consensus of
opinion in the competent that crime is not fortuitous ; likewise
that there is one sure method for betterment : " in preventing the
more faulty members from breeding."

Scientists have known this for a long time ; but the mere fact
that the opinion was a scientific one kept it from the active appre-
ciation *of the many people who go to make up the intelligent
class. Now it is time for us to understand the full bearing of the
matter, as we certainly must do if we follow to their logical con-
clusion the teachings of great minds like Darwin and Wallace,
like Wilson, Prof. Oscar Schmidt, Dr. Maudsley, and Jonathan
Hutchinson ; if we would rightly follow the meaning of the bril-
liant Weismann when he says that heredity is " that property of
an organism by which its peculiar nature is transmitted to its
descendants. And not only are the characteristics of the species
transmitted to the following generation, but even the individual
peculiarities." Besides all this, we have the evidence of men of
authority, specialists in criminal anthropology, whose conclusions
point in exactly the same direction, men like Cesare Lombroso,
Ottolenghi, Rossi, Zucarelli, Virgilio Morselli, Marro ; to these let
us add the names of the eminent Lacassagne, of Kocher, Raux,
Boumet. And even then we shall have only a part. The teach-

THE YOUXG DRAUGHTSMAN, 533

ing of science all over the world echoes again and again the words
of Gal ton, that the way to better a race lies "in preventing the
more faulty members from breeding."

The proper method has been used often enough, but crudely,
by such rulers as Ezzelin da Romano, Henry I, and many others.

We need this reform more than any other that has been pro-
posed in our present time. We should look forward to it as we
do to the noblest and best aspirations which crown our lives with
light, yea, as we look with uplifted eyes for the hope of our best
salvation in this world. The earth is reeking with the sweat of
evil, injustice, and moral sickness ; the means for relief are easily
within our reach ; they will bring injustice to no one, they will
put a stop to millions of wrongs, they will guarantee to our pos-
terity the possibility of a higher career in every way, without the
burdensome disadvantages which crowd us to low planes of life.
There is no room with us for the confirmed criminal ; there is less
room for his offspring, for they pollute the place whereon they
stand.

THE YOUNG DRAUGHTSMAN.*

Br JAMES SULLY, M. A., LL. D.,

OBOTE PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND LOGIC AT THE UNIVEBSITT OOLLEOB,

LONDON.

A CHILD'S first attempts at drawing are pre-artistic and a
-^^^ kind of play, an outcome of the instinctive love of finding
and producing semblances of things. Sitting at the table and
covering a sheet of paper with line-scribble, he is wholly self-
centered, " amusing himself," as we say, and caring nothing about
the production of " objective values."

Yet even in the early stages of infantile drawing the social
element of art is suggested in the impulse of the small draughts-
man to make his lines indicative of something to others' eyes, as
when he bids his mother look at the " man," " gee-gee," or what
else he fancies that he has delineated, f And this, though crude
enough and apt to shock the sesthetic sense of the matured artist
by its unsightliness, is closely related to art, forming, indeed, in
a manner a preliminary stage of pictorial design.

We shall therefore study children's drawings as a kind of rude

* From advance sheets of Studies of Childhood, by James Sully, M. A., LL. D., m press
of D. Appleton & Co.

f This indicative or communicative function of drawing has, we know, played a great
part in the early stages of human history. Modern savages employ drawings in sand as a
means of imparting information to others— e. g., of the presence of fish in a lake. See den
Steinen, TJnter den Naturvolkern Braziliens, Kap. x, S. 243 f.

534 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

embryonic art. In doing this onr special aim will be to describe
and explain childish, characteristics. This, again, will compel us
to go to some extent into the early forms of observation and im-
agination. It will be found, I think, that the first crude drawings
are valuable as throwing light on the workings of children's minds
Perhaps, indeed, it may turn out that these spontaneous efforts of
the childish hand to figure objects are for the psychologist a
medium of expression of the whole of child-nature hardly less
instructive than that of early speech.

In carrying out our investigation of children's drawings
we shall need to make a somewhat full reference to the re-
lated phenomena, the drawings of modern savages and those
of early art. While important points of difference will dis-
close themselves, the resemblances are important enough to
make a comparison not only profitable but almost indispens-
able.

I have thought it best to narrow the range of the inquiry by
keeping to delineations of the human figure and of animals, espe-
cially the horse. These are the favorite topics of the child's
pencil, and examples of them are easily obtainable.

As far as possible I have sought spontaneous drawings of quite
young children — viz., from between two and three to about six.*
In a strict sense, of course, no child's drawing is absolutely spon-
taneous and independent of external stimulus and guidance.
The first attempts to manage the pencil are commonly aided by
the mother, who, moreover, is wont to present a model drawing,
and, what is even more important at this early stage, to supply
model movements of the arm and hand. In most cases, too, there
is some slight amount of critical inspection, as when she asks,
" Where is papa's nose ? " " Where is doggie's tail ? " Yet per-
fect spent aniety, even if obtainable, is not necessary here. The
drawings of men and quadrupeds of a child of five and later dis-
close plainly enough the childish fashion, even though there has
been some slight amount of elementary instruction. Hence I
have not hesitated to make use of drawings sent me by kinder-
garten teachers. I may add that I have used by preference
the drawings executed by children in elementary schools, as
these appear to illustrate the childish manner with less of
parental interference than is wont to be present in a cultured
home.

A child's drawing begins with a free, aimless swing of the
pencil to and fro, which movements produce a chaos of slightly
curved lines. These movements are purely spontaneous, or, if
imitative, are so only in the sense that they follow at a consider-

* Only a few drawings of older children above seven have been included.

THE YOUNG DRAUGHTSMAN, 535

able distance the movements of the mother's pencil.* They may
be made expressive or significant in two ways. In the first place, a
child may by varying the swinging movements accidentally pro-
duce an effect which suggests an idea through a remote resem-
blance. A little boy, when two years and two months, was one day
playing in this wise with the pencil, and happening to make a
sort of curling line, shouted with excited glee, " Puff, puff ! "— i. e.,
smoke. He then drew more curls with a rudimentary intention
to show what he meant. In like manner, when a child happens
to bend his line into something like a closed circle or ellipse, he
will catch the faint resemblance to the rounded human head and
exclaim, " Mamma ! " or " Dada ! "

But intentional drawing or designing does not always arise in
this way. A child may set himself to draw, and make believe
that he is drawing something when he is scribbling. This is
largely an imitative play- action following the directions of the
movements of another's hand. Preyer speaks of a little boy who
in his second year was asked when scribbling with a pencil what
he was doing and answered, " Writing houses.''
He was apparently making believe that his
jumble of lines represented houses. f

The same play of imagination is notice-
able in the child's first endeavors to draw an
object from memory when he is asked to do
so. Thus a little girl in her fourth year, re-
ferred to by Mr. E. Cooke, when asked to
draw a cat, produced a longish, irregularly
curved line crossed by a number of shorter fiq. 1.

lines, which strange production she proceeded
quite complacently to dignify by the name of " cat," naming the
whiskers, legs, and tail (Fig. 1, a) ; compare the slightly fuller
design in Fig. 1, h.

Here it is evident we have a phase of childish drawing which
is closely analogous to the symbolism of language. The repre-
sentation is arbitrarily chosen as a symbol and not as a like-
ness. This element of a nonimitative or symbolic mode of repre-
sentation will be found to run through the whole of childish
drawing.

Even this chaotic scribble shows almost from the beginning
germs of formative elements, not merely in the fundamental line
elements, but also in the loops, and in the more abrupt changes
of direction or angles. A tendency to draw a looplike rudimen-

* E. Cooke gives illustrations of these in his thoughtful and interesting articles on Art_
teaching and Child-nature, published in the Journal of Education, December, 1885, and
January, 1886. | Preyer, op. cii., p. 47.

536 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

tary contour soon emerges, and thus we get the transition to a
possible outlining of objects. With practice the child acquires
by the second or third year the usual stock in trade of the juve-
nile draughtsman, and can draw a sort of straight line, curved
lines, a roughish kind of circle or oval, as well as dots, and even
fit lines together at angles.* When this stage is reached we
begin to see attempts at real though rude likenesses of men,
horses, and so forth. These early essays are among the most
curious products of the child-mind. They follow standards and
methods of their own ; they are apt to get hardened into 9, fixed
conventional manner which may reappear even in mature years.
They exhibit with a certain range of individual difference a cu-
rious uniformity, and they have their parallels in what we know
of the first crude designs of the untutored savage.

It has been wittily observed by an Italian writer on children's
art that they reverse the order of natural creation in beginning
instead of ending with man. It may be added that they start
with the most dignified part of this crown of creation, viz., the
human head. A child's first attempt to represent a man proceeds,
so far as I have observed, by drawing the front view of his head.
This he effects by means of a clumsy sort of circle with a dot
or two thrown in by way of indicating features in general. A
couple of lines may be inserted as a kind of support, which do
duty for both trunk and legs. The circular or ovoid form is, I
think, by far the most common. The square head in my collec-
tion appears only very occasionally and in children at school, who
presumably have had some training in draw-
ing horizontal and vertical lines. The accom-
panying example (Fig. 2) is the work of a
Jamaica girl of five, kindly sent me by her
teacher.

This first attempt to outline the human
form is, no doubt, characterized by a high
degree of arbitrary symbolism. The use of
a rude form of circle to set forth the human
head reminds one of the employment by liv-
ing savage tribes of the same form as the
symbol of a house (hut ?), a wreath, and so

Fig. 2. forth. Yet there is a measure of resemblance

■ 4

* I am much indebted to Mr. Cooke for the sight of a series of early scribbles of his
little girl. Cf. Baldwin, Mental Development, chapter v, where some good examples of
early line-tracing are given. According to Baldwin, angles or zigzag come early, and are
probably due to the cramped, jerky mode of movement at this early stage. Preyer seems
to me wrong in saying that children can not manage a circular line before the end of the
third year {op. cit, p. 47). Most children who draw at all manage a loop or closed curved
line before this date.

THE YOUNG DRAUGHTSMAN. S37

even in this abstract symbolism : the circle does roughly resemble

the contour of the head : as, indeed, the square or rectangle may

be said less obviously to do when hair and .

whiskers and the horizontal line of the hat break *- ^

o o
the curved line. O O

But it is not the mere contour which repre- ^^^

sents the face : it is a circle picked out with f ea- ^

tures. These, however vaguely indicated, are an JLI ■■>

integral part of the facial scheme. This is illus- / I

trated in the fact that among the drawings by ^ *»

savages and others collected by General Pitt- j \

Rivers, one, executed by an adult negro of I T

Uganda, actually omits the contour, the human
head being represented merely by an arrange-
ment of dark patches and circles for eyes, ears, ^^^- s-
etc. (Fig. 3).*

Coming now to the mode of representing the features, we find
at an early stage of this schematic delineation an attempt to dif-
ferentiate and individualize features, not only by giving definite
position but by a rough imitation of form. Thus we get the
vertical line as indicating the direction of the nose, the hori-
zontal line that of the mouth, and either a rounded dot or a cir-
cular line as representative of the curved outline of the eye —
whether that of the ifis, of the visible part of the eyeball, or of
the orbital cavity. A precisely similar scheme appears in the
drawings of savages, f

At first the child is grandly indifferent to completeness in the
enumeration of features. Even "the two eyes, a nose, and a
mouth " are often imperfectly represented. Thus, when dots are
used, we may have one or more specks, ranging, according to M.
Perez, up to five. J The use of a single dot for facial feature
in general has its parallel in the art of savage tribes.* It is,
however, I think, most common to introduce three dots in a tri-
angular arrangement, presumably for eyes and mouth — a device,
again, which reappears in the art of uncivilized races. || Even
when the young draughtsman has reached the stage of distin-
guishing the features he may be quite careless about number
and completeness. Thus a feature may be omitted altogether.
This funnily enough happens most frequently in the case of that

* These drawings, of the highest interest to the student of child- art as well as to the
anthropologist, are to be seen in the general's museum at Farnham (Dorset) (seventh room).

f Schoolcraft has a good example of this facial scheme in the drawing of a man shoot-
ing (The Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. i, plate 48).
X L'Art et la Po6sie chez I'Enfant, p. 186.

* For an illustration see Andree, Eth. Parallelen und Vergleiche, plate 8, Fig. 19.
I See, for an example, Schoolcraft, vol. iv, plate 28.

538

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

one whicli seems to us " grown-ups " most self-assertive and most
resentful of indignity, viz., tlie nose. These moon-faces with two
eyes and a mouth are very common among the first drawings of
children. The mouth, on the other hand, is much less frequently
omitted. The same thing seems to hold good of the drawings of
savages.* The eyes are rarely omitted. The single dot may per-
haps be said to stand for " eye.'' Some drawings of savages have
the two eyes and no other feature, as in the accompanying
example from Andree (Fig. 4, a). On the other hand, a child

Fig. 4.— c. Mustache

horizontal lino above curve of cap.

will, as we have seen, sometimes content himself with one eye.
This holds good not only where the dot is used but after some-
thing like an eye-circle is introduced, as in the accompanying
drawing by a Jamaica girl of seven (Fig. 4, 6).

In these first attempts to sketch out a face we miss a sense of
relative position and of proportion. It is astonishing what a
child on first attempting to draw a human or animal form can
"do in the way of dislocation or putting things into the wrong
place. The little girl mentioned by E. Cooke on trying, about
the same age, to draw a cat from a model ; actually put the circle
representing the eye outside that of the head. With this may
be compared the drawings of den Steinen and other Europeans
made by his Brazil Indian companions, in which what was dis-
tinctly said by the draughtsman to be the mustache was in more
than one instance set above the eyes (Fig. 4, c). When dots
are inserted in the linear scheme they are apt at first to be
thrown in anyhow. The two eyes, I find, when these only are

* According to Stanley Hall, the nose comes after the mouth. This may be an approxi-
mate generalization, but there are evidently exceptions to it. On the practice of savage
draughtsmen see the illustrations of Australian cave drawings in Andree, op. cit, p. 159.
Cf. the drawings of Brazilian tribes, plate iii, 15. In some cases there seems a preference
for the nose, certain of the Brazilian drawings representing facial features merely by a
vertical stroke.

THE YOUNG DRAVGHTSMAN. 539

given, may be put one above tbe other as well as one by the side
of tlie other, and both arrangements occur in the drawings of
the same child. And much later, when greater attention to posi-
tion is observable, there is a general tendency to put the group
of features too high up — i. e., to make the forehead or brain region
too small in proportion to the chin region (see Fig. 2).*

The want of proportion is still more plainly seen in the treat-
ment of the several features. The eye, as already remarked, is
apt to be absurdly large. In the drawing of Mr. Cooke's little
girl, mentioned above, it is actually larger than the head outside
which it lies. This enlargement continues to appear frequently
in later drawings, more particularly when one eye only is intro-
duced, as in the accompanying drawing by a boy in his seventh
year (Fig. 5 a, and Fig. 4, &). The mouth is apt to be even more
disproportionate, the child appearing to delight in making this
appalling feature supreme, as in the following examples, both by

Fig. 5.

boys of j&ve (Fig. 5, & and c). The ear, when it is added, is apt
to be enormous, and generally the introduction of new details, as
ears, hair, hands, is wont to be emphasized by an exaggeration of
their magnitude.

Very interesting is the gradual artistic evolution of the fea-
tures. Here, as in organic evolution, there is a process of special-
ization, the primordial indefinite form taking on more of charac-
teristic complexity. In the case of the eye, for example, we may
often trace a gradual development, the dot being displaced by a
small circle or ovoid, this last supplemented by a second circle
outside the first,f or by one or by two arches, the former placed
above, the latter above and below the circle.

* M. Passy calls attention to this in his interesting note on children's drawings, Revue
Philosophique, 1891, pp. 614 ff. I find, however, that though the error is a common one, it
is not constant.

f In one case I find the curious device of two dots or small circles, one above the other
within a larger circle, and this form repeated in the eye of animals.

540

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The evolution of tlie mouth is particularly interesting. It is
wont to begin with a horizontal line (or what seems intended for
such) which is frequently drawn right across the facial circle.
But a transition soon takes place to a more.distinctive representa-
tion. This is naturally enough carried out by the introduction of
the characteristic and interesting detail, the teeth. This may be
done, according to M. Perez, by keeping to the linear representa-
tion, the teeth being indicated by dots placed upon the horizontal
line. In all the cases observed by me the teeth are introduced in
a more realistic fashion in connection with a contour to suggest the
parted lips. The contour — especially the circular or ovoid— occa-
sionally appears by itself without teeth, but the teeth seem to be
soon added. The commonest forms of tooth cavity I have met
with are a narrow rectangular and a curved spindle-shaped slit
with teeth appearing as vertical lines (see the two drawings by

Fig. 6.

boys of six and five (Figs. 6, a and h). These two forms are im-
proved upon and more likeness is introduced by making the den-
tal lines shorter, as in Fig. 5, c. With this may be compared a
drawing by a boy of five (Fig. 6, c), where, however, we see a
movement from realism in the direction of a freer decorative
treatment.

A somewhat similar process of evolution is noticeable in the
case of the nose, though here the movement is soon brought to a
standstill. Thus the vertical line gives place to an angle, which
may point to the side, as in the drawing of a country boy between
three and four (Fig. 7, a), but more frequently, I think, points up-
ward, as in the drawing of a boy of six (Fig. 7, 6). This in its
turn leads to an isosceles triangle with an acute angle at the apex,
as in the drawing of a boy of six (Fig. 7, c). In a few cases a long
spindle-shaped or rectangular form' similar to that of the mouth
is employed, as in a drawing of a nervous child of six (Fig. 7, d).
Refinements are introduced now and again by an attempt at the

THE YOUNG DRAUGHTSMAN.

541

nostrils, as in the accompanying cnrions drawing by a seven-year-
old Jamaica girl (Fig. 7, e).*

Fio. 7.

The introduction of other features, more especially ears and
hair, must, according to my observations, be looked on as occa-
sional only, and as a mark of an advance to a more naturalistic
treatment. Differences of treatment occur here too. Thus the ears,
which are apt to be absurdly large, are now inserted inside the
head circle, now outside it. The

hair appears now as a dark cap
of horizontal strokes, now as a
kind of stunted fringe, now as
a bundle or wisp on one side,
which may either fall or stand
on end (see Fig. 7, d, and the
accompanying drawing by a
girl of nearly four. Fig. 8, a).
These methods of representa-
tion are occasionally varied by
a more elaborate line device, as
a curly looped line similar to

,<LG>

Fio. 8.

* It is possible that in this drawing the two short lines added to the mouth are aa
original attempt to give the teeth.

542

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

that employed for smoke, as in the annexed drawing by a girl of
seven (Fig. 8, h).

As implied in this account of the facial features, a good deal
of conventionlike agreement of method is enlivened by a measure
of diversity of treatment. Perhaps one of the most striking in-
stances of daring originality is seen in the attempt by a girl of
four — who was subjected to a great deal of instruction — to give

separate form to the chin (Fig. 9).
^' '^ This may be compared with the at-

f J ^^^ tempt of the Uganda negro to indi-

\^ y |*l/ ^^^® symbolically the cheeks (see

7(5) H Fig. 3).

V-/ J L As I have remarked, to the child

Fio. 9. YiQ. 10. bent on representing *'man" the

head or face is at first the principal
thing, some early drawings contenting themselves with this. But
in general the head receives some support. The simplest device
here is the abstract mode of representation by two supporting
lines, which do duty for legs and body. These are for the most
part parallel (Fig. 2), though occasionally they are united at the
top, making a kind of target figure. This same arrangement, fix-
ing the head on two upright lines, meets us also in the rude
designs of savages, as may be seen in the accompanying rock
inscription from Schoolcraft (Fig. 10).

The comparative indifference of the child to the body or trunk
is seen in the obstinate persistence of this simple scheme of head
and legs, to which two arms attached to the sides of the head are
often added. A child will complete the drawing of the head by

Fio. 11.

'^^ U

Fig. 12.

inserting hair or a cap, and will even add feet and hands, before
he troubles to bring in the trunk (see Fig. 2 and Fig. 7, d, also the
accompanying drawing by a boy of six. Fig. 11, a). With this
neglect of the trunk by children may be compared the omission

THE YOUNG DRAUGHT SM AN,

543

of it — as if it were a forbidden thing— in one of General Pitt-
Rivers's drawings, executed by a Zulu woman (Fig. 11, h).

From tbis common way of spiking the bead on two forked or
uprigbt legs tbere is one important deviation. Tbe contour of
tbe bead may be left incomplete, and tbe upper occipital part of
tbe curve be run on into tbe leg lines, as in tbe accompanying ex-
ample by a Jamaica girl of seven (Fig. 12). I bave met witb no
example of tbis among Englisb cbildren.

Tbe drawing of tbe trunk may commence in one of two ways.
Witb Englisb cbildren it appears often to emerge as an expan-
sion or prolongation of tbe bead contour, as in tbe accompanying
drawings of tbe front and side view (Figs. 13, a and &).* Or, in
tbe second place, tbe leg scbeme may be modified, eitber by draw-

Fio. 13.

ing a horizontal line across tbem and so making a rectangle, as in
tbe accompanying drawing by a boy of six, or by shading in the
upper part of the space, as in the other figure by a girl of five
(Fig. 13, c and d). A curious and interesting variant of this sec-
ond mode of introducing the trunk is to be found in the draw-
ings of den Steinen's Brazilians, where the leg lines are either
kept parallel for a while and then made to diverge, or are pinched
in below what may be called tbe pelvis, though not completely
joined (Fig. 13, e and /).

When the trunk is distinctly marked off, it is apt to remain
small in proportion to the head, as in the following two drawings

* A drawing given by Andree, op. cit, plate ii, 11, seems to me to illustrate a somewhat
similar attempt to develop the trmik out of the head.

5+4

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

by boys of about five (Fig. 14, a and h). As to its sbape, it is
most commonly circular or ovoid like the bead. But the square
or rectangular form is also found, and in the case of certain chil^

Fio. 14.

dren it is expressly stated that this came later. A triangular
capelike form also appears now and again, as in the accompany-
ing drawing by a boy of six (Fig. 14, c).* The treatment of the
form of trunk often varies in the drawings of the same child.

At this stage there is no attempt to show the joining on of the
head to the trunk by means of the neck. The oval of the head
is either laid on the top of that of the trunk, or more commonly
cuts off the upper end of the latter. The neck, when first added,
is apt to take the exaggerated look of caricature. It may be rep-
resented by a single line, by a couple of parallel lines, or by a

small oval or circle, as in the ac-
companying drawings by a girl
of six and a boy of five respec-
tively (Fig. 15, a and h ; also Fig.
7, 6).

It is noticeable that there is
sometimes a double body, two
oval contours being laid one
upon the other. In certain cases
this looks very like an expansion
of the neck, as in the follow-
ing drawing by the same boy
that drew the round neck above
(Fig. 16, a). In other cases the arrangement plainly does not aim
at differentiating the neck, since this part is separately dealt with
(Fig. 16, 6). Here it may possibly mean a crude attempt to indi-
cate the division of the trunk at the waist, as brought out espe-

Fio. 15.

* The opposite arrangement of a triangle on its apex occurs among savage drawings.

THE YOUNG DRAUGHTSMAN,

545

cially by female attire, as may be seen in the accompanying draw-
ing, where the dots for buttons on each oval seem to show that
the body is signified (Fig. 16, c; c/. Fig. 7, c).* This, along with
the triangular cape-shape of the trunk, is one of the few illus-
trations of the effect of dress on the first childish treatment of
the figure. As a rule, this primitive art is a study of Nature
in so far as the artificial adjuncts of dress are ignored, and the
rounded forms of the body are, though crudely enough, no doubt,
hinted at.

Coming now to the arms, we find that their introduction is
very uncertain. To the child, as also to the savage, the arms are
what the Germans call a iVe&en^acTie— side matter (i. e., figura-
tively as well as literally)— and are omitted in rather more than

Fio. 16.

Fio. 17.

one case out of two. After all, the divine portion, the head, can
be supported very well without their help.

The arms, as well as the legs, being the thin, lanky members,
are commonly represented by lines. The same thing is noticeable
in the drawings of savages, f The arms appear in the front view
of the figure as stretched out horizontally, or at least reaching
out from the sides ; and their appearance always gives a certain
liveliness to the figure, an air of joyous self -proclamation, as if
they said in their gesture language, " Here I am ! " (see Fig. 5, a,
and the accompanying drawing of a boy of six. Fig. 17).

In respect of shape and structure a process of evolution may
be observed. In certain cases the abstract linear representation
gives place to contour, the arm being drawn of a certain thick-
ness. But I find that the linear represenation of the arm often

* On the other hand, I find the button dots sometimes omitted in the lower oval,
f For examples, see Andree, op. cit, plate 3. Cf. the drawings of den Steinen*8
Brazilians.

VOL. XLVIII. — 39

546 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

persists after the legs have received contour, this being probably
another illustration of the comparative neglect of the arm ; as in
the accompanying drawing by a boy of five (Fig. 18, a). The
primal rigid straightness yields later on to the freedom of an

A miner.

organ. Thus an attempt is made to represent by means of a
curve the look of the bent arm, as in the accompanying drawings
by boys of five (Fig. 18, h and c). In other cases the angle of
the elbow is indicated. This last comes comparatively late in
children's drawings, which here, too, lag behind the crudest out-
line sketches of savages.

SKETCH OF ANDREW DICKSON WHITE.

By Pbof. GEOEGE L. BURE.

A LMOST in the exact geographical center of the State of New
-^^ York there suns itself in the upper valley of a tributary of
the Susquehanna a tidy village on which the impoverished fancy
of an official map-maker has set the ancient name of Homer.
Ancient, indeed, for its region is the village itself. The settlers
from Massachusetts and from Connecticut who pushed westward
along the valleys of the Mohawk and the Susquehanna, reaching
these uplands in the last decade of the eighteenth century, settled
here more thickly than elsewhere, and for half a century — till its
neighbor settlement of Cortland, once its suburb but soon its
rival, crowded it from the pre-eminence — it was, not only in the
number of its citizens, but in their thrift, their piety, and their
public spirit, the recognized metropolis of the district.

It was here, in the midst of all that is conservative in Ameri-
can life, that on the 7th of November, 1832, was born a man
destined in much to be a leader of the fresher thought — Andrew

SKETCH OF ANDREW DICKSON WHITE. 547

Dickson White. His grandfather, Asa White, a migrant from
southern Massachusetts in 1798, was long the well-to-do miller of
the little community, but in 1815 a conflagration brought him in
a day to poverty ; and his eldest son Horace, the father of Andrew,
was forced, though but a lad of thirteen, to turn from the educa-
tion of the schools to that of business. So well he learned its
lessons that before the age of thirty he had not only won a repu-
tation for unusual mercantile sagacity and enterprise, but had
already amassed a moderate fortune when in 1831 he married
Clara Dickson, only daughter of a village magnate. Her father,
the Hon. Andrew Dickson, like the Whites of Massachusetts
birth, had come a young man to Homer and was, in the year of
his grandson's advent, the representative of his county in the
Legislature of the State.

The fortunes of Horace White still prospered, and in 1839 he
took advantage of the new banking law of the State to establish
himself as one of the earliest bankers at Syracuse, the rising
metropolis of central New York, then a town of some five thou-
sand people. There his energy found a worthier field ; identified
with all the interests of his city, he rapidly amassed wealth, and
all the advantages his own youth had missed he could well afford
his son.

The earliest tastes of the boy were, however, not bookish ;
all his love was for machinery and for the wonders of out of
doors ; and, though he early picked up the power to read, it was
not until after the removal to Syracuse that he was first put into
school. Of his education he has himself told the story :

" After much time lost in various poor schools, I was sent to
the preparatory department of the Syracuse Academy, and there,
by good luck, found Joseph A. Allen, the best teacher of English
branches I have ever known. . . . He seemed to divine the char-
acter and enter into the purpose of every boy.'' There young
White perfected himself in spelling, in arithmetic, in geometry,
the only mathematical study he ever loved, in grammar, of which
he thinks there was too much ; there he gained the rudiments of
natural science and even of music, becoming " proficient enough
to play the organ occasionally in church." There, too, literature
was first opened to him. " Great attention was given to reading
aloud from a book made up of selections from the best authors,
and to recitals from these. Thus I stored up not only some of
the best things in the older English writers, bat inspiring poems
of Whittier, Longfellow, and other moderns," and the treasures
thus gained were nev^r lost. " As to the moral side, Mr. Allen
influenced many of us strongly by liberalizing and broadening
our horizon. He was a disciple at that time of Channing, and an
abolitionist; but he . . . never made the slightest attempt to

548 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

proselyte any of his students. Yet the very atmosphere of the
school made sectarian bigotry and narrowness impossible."

But the boy was destined for college, and was now sent to a
classical school, where Stoddard, the story writer, was among his
fellow-pupils, and where, though the methods in classical teaching
were imperfect, " the want in grammatical drill was more than
made up by the love of manliness and the dislike of meanness
which was in those days our very atmosphere."

Outside the school his imagination had been stimulated by
desultory reading and by pictures of travel, and he had stumbled
upon the novels of Scott, to which above all was due the birth
of his interest in historical studies. The public meetings of the
time, especially those of the antislavery party, took also a deep
hold upon his mind.

He had dreamed of entering one of the great New England
universities ; but the zealous young churchman into whose hands
he was put for his final training persuaded his father to send him
instead to the young and struggling Episcopal college at the neigh-
boring town of Geneva. There he matriculated in the fall of 1849.
With all his loyalty to his father's church and to his father's
wish, the college could not content him. Dependent on the wealthy
patrons whose sons it sought to educate, its discipline was lax
and its means too feeble for the work it undertook. " Only about
half a dozen of our number studied at all ; the rest, by transla-
tions, promptings, and evasions of various sorts, escaped without
labor."

A year of this was all that he could stand, and when, at the
opening of another, his protest was still unheeded, he took French
leave of his reluctant alma mater and went into hiding at the
home of an old instructor until his father at last gave consent to
his transfer to Yale College. There he was admitted in January,
1851, to what has since become " the famous class of '53." But,
even among such classmates as Billings and Davies and Gibson
and Lewis and MacVeagh and Robinson and Shiras and Smalley
and Stedman, he soon won for himself a high place — not so much
by his work in the classroom, though that was good, as by the
breadth of his information and of his sympathies, and by his
facility with pen and voice. He became an editor of the college
magazine. The Lit., and before his graduation won the first Clark,
the Yale Literary, and the De Forest prizes, the last for an essay
on The History of Modern Diplomacy. Nor were physical and
social claims neglected. He belonged to the earliest Yale crew,
and he became a member of Psi Upsilon and of the mystic Skull
and Bones, as well as of the more literary Linonia. His room-
mate and bosom friend was his classmate Davies, to-day Bishop
of Michigan. Of his college work, perhaps that which left the

SKETCH OF ANDREW DICKSON WHITE. 549

deepest impression upon him was his study of Guizot's Civiliza-
tion in Europe, under Dr. Woolsey.

In December, 1853, lie went abroad for further study, having
as fellow-traveler his college mate (now the well-known President
of Johns Hopkins, and at this moment his colleague on the Vene-
zuelan Commission). After a few weeks in England and several
months in France, spent in studying French, reading the French
historians (Thierry, Mignet, Thiers, Chateaubriand), listening to
lecturers like Laboulaye at the Sorbonne and the College of
France, chatting with the old soldiers of the Revolution at the
Invalides, making historical pilgrimages throughout the northern
and central provinces, everywhere reveling in architecture and
music and haunting the old book shops, he was invited by the
American minister to Russia, ex-Governor Seymour, of Connecti-
cut, to join that legation as an attache.

Accordingly, in October of 1854 he made his way, via Brus-
sels, Cologne, and Berlin, to St. Petersburg. It was the stirring
time of the Crimean War, and the young diplomat found his
attach^ship no sinecure. His knowledge of French made him
valuable as an interpreter ; he became the companion of the min-
ister in his interviews at court and at the foreign office, and took
a most interested part in the ceremonial attending the death of
the Czar Nicholas and the accession of Alexander 11. Yet he
found much time for study. Huge scrap-books were filled with
clippings on the progress of the war ; the book-stalls afforded rich
store for his rapidly growing collection on Russia and Poland ;
and the archives of the legation even gave him material for re-
search in American history. He there, under the inspiration of
Mr. Seymour, became interested in the character and policy of
Jefferson, and drew up the nucleus of the study later published in
the Atlantic Monthly on Jefferson and Slavery.

But he tired of the restraints of official life, and in June, 1855,
resumed the career of a student, first wandering in Germany and
Switzerland, then matriculating at the University of Berlin. There
he heard Boeckh, Lepsius, Friedrich von Raumer, Karl Ritter,
and tried in vain to follow the lectures of Ranke. With the Easter
vacation he was off for Austria and Italy, and lingered till late
spring beyond the Alps, in the company of his fellow- student and
close friend Frieze, the Latinist. Crossing then the Alps, and
lingering but a little among the Roman ruins of southern France,
he turned his footsteps homeward, reaching America in time to
share the commencement festivities of his alma mater and to
receive at her hands his Mastership of Arts.

It was then, with his future profession all undecided, that he
chanced to stray within sound of the voice of President Francis
Wayland, who was delivering at Yale one of the addresses of the

55© POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

commencement season; and the orator's plea for the new and
growing West as the field for the young scholar sank deep into
his mind. The next year he spent in graduate study at Yale, and
before its end, declining all other offers, he had accepted the chair
of History and English Literature at the University of Michigan.

He was but five and twenty, and looked a boy, but the vigor
of his thought and the finish of his style soon dispelled all doubt
as to his maturity. " He came to Ann Arbor," says one who then
listened to him, " fresh from European studies, and he entered
upon his labor with that peculiar enthusiasm which is instantly
caught by students, and is perhaps the most successful element of
all good teaching. His instruction in history was a genuine reve-
lation to those who had been accustomed to perfunctory text-book
work and the hearing of dry and colorless lectures. The excep-
tional excellence of his instruction consisted largely of the spirit
which he infused into his students. He had in a remarkable de-
gree the rare gift of seizing upon the most important principles
and causes and presenting them in such a manner as to illuminate
the whole course of events with which they were connected. He
not only instructed, but, what was even more important, he in-
spired. While he remained in his chair perhaps no study in the
university was pursued with so much enthusiasm by the mass of
students as was that of history.'*

In the general development of the university he was like his
old friend Frieze, whom, to his joy, he found a fellow-member of
the Michigan faculty, a loyal supporter and adviser of President
Tappan. And there was work to do outside the institution. The
university, in order to keep its hold on the State, from which it
drew its support, loved to send out its faculty as lecturers into
the towns and villages of Michigan, and into this task, too, the
young Professor of History went with zest and success.

On the eve of his going to Michigan he had married, at Syra-
cuse, Mary Cutwater, a neighbor's daughter, whom he had known
and admired since her childhood. He was fond of entertaining
his colleagues and students ; and Mrs. White united in her char-
acter a sweetness and a dignity which made her the most charm-
ing of hostesses. Their home soon became at Ann Arbor, as after-
ward at Cornell, the very heart of the university's social life.
There, in his growing library, amid the influences of art and
music so dear to him. Prof. White ministered a hospitality which
could have meant hardly less to the culture of those who shared
it than did the work of his classroom.

The death of his father, in 1860, brought upon him the cares
of fortune ; his health, never strong, flagged under the accumu-
lated burden. In 1862 he found it wise to ask a leave of absence,
and sailed with his family, now numbering a daughter and a son

SKETCH OF ANDREW DICKSON WRITE. 551

besides Ms wife, for Europe. The civil war then raging in
America had stirred him deeply, and his had been no slight share
in sending to the field the young manhood of the North. Now,
arrived in Europe, a new task confronted him. In answer to the
pro- Southern correspondents of the London press, who were mis-
leading the English public as to the resources and the character
of the North, and bade fair to win for the Confederacy the recog-
nition, if not the intervention, of Great Britain, he dashed off his
A Word from the Northwest, perhaps the most telling defense of
the Unionist cause ; and this he followed up with effective letters
in the journals of England and the Continent. Returning in 1863
to the financial cares which demanded his presence in Syracuse,
he found in domestic politics a fresh field for his powers as a
writer and orator, and in the autumn of that year was sent by his
native county of Onondaga to the Senate of New York.

Of this body, in which he sat till 1867, he was, though its
youngest member, from the first a man of influence. Against the
peace sympathies of Governor Seymour he was an eloquent and
effective advocate of the aggressive prosecution of the war.
Though a director of the New York Central Railroad and a resi-
dent of the city most dependent on the Erie Canal, he did loyal
service as an opponent of the dictation both of railway and of
canal ring. His intelligent interest in civic affairs earned him a
place on the legislative Committee on Municipal Reform, where
he was especially concerned in the organization on its present
basis of the Health Department of New York city. But it was as
chairman of the educational committee, or Committee on Litera-
ture, as it was called, that there opened to him the largest oppor-
tunities. He was able to carry through a great extension of the
normal school system for the training of teachers. What was
more, the beneficence of the national Government seemed to put
within reach what had long been the dearest dream of his pub-
lic life.

Even while a boy at the Geneva College, as he paced rebel-
liously the shore of Seneca Lake, he had begun to frame in his
thought the great university, worthy of the greatest State of the
Union, by which New York should some day make needless all
petty sectarian institutions. When Gerrit Smith had later talked
of endowing a university in central New York, he had offered the
half of his own fortune for such an object. The dream ripened
during his years at Michigan. " It is now just about ten years
ago," said George William Curtis in 1868, " since I was in the
city of Ann Arbor, the seat of the University of Michigan, . . .
and I sat at night talking with my friend, a New York scholar,
Professor of History in that institution. . . . There, in the warmth
and confidence of his friendship, he unfolded to me his idea of the

552 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

great work that should be done in the great State of New York.
Surely, he said, in the greatest State there should be the greatest
of universities ; in central New York there should arise a univer-
sity which, by the amplitude of its endowment and by the whole
scope of its intended sphere, by the character of the studies in the
whole scope of the curriculum, should satisfy the wants of the
hour. More than that, said he, it should begin at the beginning.
It should take hold of the chief interest of this country, which is
agriculture ; then it should rise — step by step, grade by grade —
until it fulfilled the highest ideal of what a university could be.
. . . Until the hour was late this young scholar dreamed aloud to
me these dreams."

Now, in the year 1862 an act had passed Congress for the en-
dowment of the higher education throughout the country, from
the great landed domain of the nation. Every State was to re-
ceive for each of its representatives in Congress thirty thousand
acres of the public land with which each should endow " at least
one college," where, " without excluding other scientific and clas-
sical studies," such branches as are related to agriculture and the
mechanic arts should forever be taught. To New York, as the
most populous State, came thus nearly a million of acres. This
superb fund, provisionally bestowed by the State on a small exist-
ing institution, seemed likely in 1864 to fall back into its hands
through a failure to comply with the conditions of the gift. Mr.
White strenuously opposed all suggestions for the division of the
fund, urging as the only worthy policy for the higher education
the concentration of resources. It was in the struggle over this
question that he was brought into close relations with his col-
league from Tompkins County, Ezra Cornell — a stern, shrewd old
man, of Quaker birth and breeding, who had migrated in his
youth, a roving mechanic, into western New York, where, after
making one for tune, in milling and losing it in farming, he had
built up a vaster one through his connection with the spread of
the electric telegraph, and now, in his declining years, was casting
about for a worthy public use for his wealth. The two men were
strangely unlike, and as to the division of the land grant they
had been sharply opposed; but each had learned to prize the
other, and it was to his young fellow-Senator that the old Quaker
now turned for advice. The result was the offer, by Ezra Cornell
to the State of New York, of five hundred thousand dollars for
the further endowment of a great university, if the State would
transfer to it the public lands and would locate it in his own
town of Ithaca.

It is needless here to recount further the tangled story of the
establishment of Cornell University, or to describe the happy
policy by which the nation's gift, frittered away for a song by

SKETCH OF ANDREW DICKSON' WHITE. 553

most of tlie States, became in time for the New York university
the source of millions. Large as was Mr. White's share in secur-
ing for it the charter and the land grant, what was peculiarly his
own was the educational shaping of the new institution. He was
its spiritual founder not less than Mr. Cornell its material — a fact
too much obscured, perhaps, by the name which he, against Mr.
Cornell's protest, gave to the university. It was he who wrote all
but the financial clauses of its charter ; he who drew its plan of
organization; he who took all steps looking to the selection of
its equipment and the choice of its faculty. It is not straDge
that when, in 1866, a head was to be found for it, Mr. Cornell in-
sisted that Mr. White must accept its presidency.

It was to turn his back on political ambitions to which he had
earned a right. It was to sever his connections with Michigan,
where, in the hope that he might yet return, the chair of History
was still his. Just now, too, there had come from Yale an invita-
tion to take up his home in the " City of Elms " as director of
its School of Fine Arts ; and this, if he must leave his political
career, was the life most tempting to a man of his tastes and
means, and was especially attractive to his family. But his
choice was soon made, and was made once for all. Entering at
once upon his executive duties, he remained President of Cornell
for nearly twenty years, until ill health compelled his retirement
in 1885.

The features in which the new university, as planned by him,
differed most notably from others of its sort were : (1) Its democ-
racy of organization, uniting the humanities, the sciences, and
the technical arts in a single faculty and in common classrooms
under precisely like conditions, and this so effectively that their
parity at Cornell has never been questioned ; (2) its freedom from
all sectarian control — " at no time shall a majority of [its trus-
tees] be of one religious sect, or of no religious sect," and " per-
sons of every religious denomination, or of no religious denomina-
tion, shall be equally eligible to all offices and appointments " ;
(3) its parallel courses and its large individual freedom of choice
among studies — in this, too, it was a pioneer in American educa-
tion ; (4) its vital connection with the public schools of its State
through the establishment of free scholarships, to be awarded by
competition in each Assembly district ; (5) its large recognition of
the worth of the modern languages and literatures, both as prac-
tical and as disciplinary studies; (6) its system of nonresident
professorships, by which it sought to bring both its students and
its faculty in touch with eminent scholars whose permanent serv-
ices it could not hope to win ; (7) its assumption that its students
are not children, but grown and earnest men, and its attitude
toward them as such.

554 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

MucIl that was planned at the outset conld not, for lack of
means, be then or for long afterward carried out. In fact,
throughout nearly the whole administration of Mr. White the
institution was " land poor" — its vast estates an expense instead of
an income.

Throughout his presidency Mr. White filled also the professor-
ship of History, and with the same inspiring influence upon his-
torical studies as at the University of Michigan. Though his
other duties compelled his restriction to a single course through-
out the year, no element of the university's work left a deeper
mark upon the whole student body.

And his benefactions took often a more tangible form. From
his own means he built and furnished upon the university's
grounds the home which he gave to be used, when he should be
through with it, by his successors in the presidency. Of his lesser
gifts it would be idle to attempt enumeration. No department but
felt again and again the help of his ready pocket. The library
especially was continually his debtor, and after his retirement he
bestowed upon it in 1887 his own noble historical collection, per-
haps the richest private library in America. His gifts must
aggregate a couple of hundred thousand dollars. In proportion
to his income he has perhaps been the university's most liberal
donor.

But during these years of his presidency he was not wholly
divorced from outside activities. His fertile mind and restless
temperament could not brook such slavery. He was always in
touch with the republic of letters and with the larger interests
of State and nation. His open letters and occasional addresses
amount to volumes. In 1870 he was appointed by President
Grant a member of the commission created by Congress for the
investigation of the condition and resources of Santo Domingo,
and into his hands fell the scientific direction of the expedition.
Though its youngest member, he proved the conservative element
of the commission, and it was in deference to his protests that no
recommendation as to annexation was made by it. In the fall of
1871 he presided at the State convention of his party at Syracuse.
The next year saw him a delegate at large to the national con-
vention at Philadelphia which renominated President Grant, and
a little later the head of New York's delegation in the electoral
college. In 1876 he was again a delegate at large to the Repub-
lican National Convention, but was hindered from attendance by
other official duties in connection with the Centennial Exhibition
at Philadelphia, where he had been made chairman of the Jury
of Public Instruction. Soon after this ill health drove him
abroad, and before his return in 1878 he served the United States
as its Honorary Commissioner to the Paris Exposition, and was

SKETCH OF ANDREW DICKSON WHITE, 555

there given a place upon the Jury of Appeals. In the spring of
1879, by appointment of President Hayes, he became American
minister to the German Empire, and in that post he remained till
1881.

After his resignation, in 1885, of the presidency of Cornell, he
again crossed the Atlantic, and tarried in Europe till the spring
of 1887. Returning, with renewed vigor, he had not yet entered
on any serious work when the heaviest blow of his life, the un-
foreseen and almost instantaneous death of Mrs. White, threw all
his plans into confusion. His married life had been singularly
happy, and Mrs. White his almost constant companion. On the
expedition to Santo Domingo he had been forced to leave her
behind, and after the false rumor of the loss of the commissioners
at sea, and the publication of their obituaries in the metropolitan
journals, he had come back in safety to find her hair turned to
snowy white. Now it was his turn to suffer, and the friends who
saw him breaking beneath his grief persuaded him again to go
abroad. There he lingered till the late summer of 1889; then,
returning, he again took up his home in Ithaca, where — though
he had declined the honorary presidency and the deanship of the
School of History, which had in turn been tendered him by the
university — he was still bound to Cornell by his duties as a
trustee. And now, in 1892, there came to preside in his home a
second wife. Miss Helen Magill, a daughter of President Magill,
of Swarthmore — herself well known as scholar and as educator. In
1892 he was made, by President Harrison, minister of the United
States at St. Petersburg, and, retained in that post by Mr. Cleve-
land, spent at the Russian capital the next two years. It was a
pleasing visit, after forty years, to the scene of his earliest diplo-
matic experiences. His return to this country in 1895, and his
appointment in January, 1896, to a place upon the important
Commission of Inquiry into the Venezuelan boundary are fresh
in the memory of all American readers.

In this busy life, so filled with the cares of the teacher, the
politician, the man of affairs, there has been little leisure for the
research that goes to the making of books ; and few of the liter-
ary plans with which he began his career have been realized. His
biography of Jefferson was never written. Of his long-dreamed-
of history of the French Revolution, for which he collected a ma-
terial unequaled on this side of the Atlantic, only his admirable
little monograph on Paper Money Inflation in France, and his
stimulating Bibliography of the Revolution, in the book of Judge
Morris, are the visible results. Of his inspiring academic lectures
on the general history of modern Europe, but two or three have
seen the light as magazine articles ; though their topical outlines,
printed for his students and by them scattered abroad, have sug-

556 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gested more than one book to younger scholars — as, for example,
the excellent study of Mr. Lewis Rosenthal on America and^
France. The Manual of Historical Literature which Mr. White
had proposed as a joint task to his pupil and successor. Prof.
Charles Kendall Adams, had finally to be worked out alone by
the latter. It is, indeed, as an inspirer of books that his activity
has been greatest. Yet he has remained himself a wide reader
and a tireless student ; and not alone the addresses and magazine
articles in which he has brought to bear so tellingly upon a host
of present-day problems the fruits of a ripe historical scholar-
ship, but at least one book of serious proportions will attest the
quality of his work.

This book, so many of whose chapters are familiar to the
readers of the Popular Science Monthly, is his Warfare of Science,
or, to give it its full title, his History of the Warfare of Science
with Theology in Christendom. It was in the troublous early
days of Cornell, when the nonsectarian character of the uni-
versity was bringing it from its rivals on every side the charge of
godlessness, and when Mr. Cornell and Mr. White himself were
rewarded for their labors by such epithets as infidel and atheist
and by the suspicion of good Christian people everywhere, that it
first occurred to him to find comfort and assurance in the study
of this stage in the history of all the great intellectual movements
through which civilization has been won. From its earliest form,
as a mere lecture in 1875, it has grown through twenty years to
the two stately volumes now about to be published. In the
gathering of its materials, scattered over almost the whole terri-
tory of human knowledge, Mr. White has known how to use the
aid from time to time of sundry helpers ; but even in this pre-
liminary labor his own immediate share has far outweighed all
others, and in the digestion and interpretation of his materials no
other hand was ever given a part. Clear as is his statement of
its thesis, few books have suffered such misjudgment from care-
less or unkindly critics. What interested him was never the
opinions, normal or abnormal, of forgotten theologians ; but their
interferences, in the mistaken interest of religion, with that free-
dom of thought and research out of which alone science can
grow. Nor was he actuated by any hostility to religion. A man
of profoundly religious nature, impatient of irreverence of any
kind, and deeply attached to the Christian communion in which
he was reared, he seeks only to lift the timid faith which dares
not trust the God of the universe to deal truly with the human
mind he has made to the loftier conviction that — in his own noble
words — " there is a God in this universe wise enough to make all
truth-seeking safe, and good enough to make all truth-telling
useful."

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. SS7*

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

X.— SCULPTOR.
By HEEBERT SPENCER.

THE association between architecture, sculpture, and painting
is so close that the description of their origins, considered as
distinct from one another, is not easy ; and those who judge only
from the relations under which they are found in the remains of
early civilizations are apt to be misled. Thus Rawlinson remarks
that —

" Sculpture in Egypt was almost entirely ' architectonic,' and was in-
tended simply, or at any rate mainly, for architectural embellishment. . . .
The statues of the gods had their proper place in shrines prepared for
them. . . . Even the private statues of individuals were intended for orna-
ments of tombs."

Here the implication appears to be that as, in historic Egypt,
sculpture existed in subordination to architecture, it thus existed
from the beginning. This is a mistake. There is abundant rea-
son to conclude that everywhere sculpture, under the form of
carving in wood, preceded architecture, and that the tomb and
the temple were subsequent to the image.

In the first volume of this work (§§ 154-158) * evidence of vari-
ous kinds, supplied by various peoples, was given proving that in
its initial form an idol is a representation of a dead man, con-
ceived as constantly or occasionally inhabited by his ghost, to
whom are made offerings, prayers for aid, and propitiatory cere-
monies. Confusion arising in the uncritical mind of the savage
between the qualities of the original and the like qualities sup-
posed to accompany a likeness of the original, long survived. Its
survival was shown among the Egyptians by their seemingly
strange practice of placing, in a compartment of the tomb, a
wooden figure (or more than one) intended as an alternative body
for the spirit of the departed on his return, in case his mummied
body should have been destroyed. Still more strange is the fact
referred to in the sections named above, that among ourselves and
other Europeans but a few centuries ago, the effigies of kings and
princes, gorgeously appareled, were duly presented with meals
for some time after death : such effigies being, some of them, still
preserved in Westminster Abbey. Merely recognizing this long
persistence of the primitive idea, it here concerns us only to note
that the making of a carved or modeled figure of a dead man be-
gins in low stages of culture, along with other elements of primi-
tive religion ; and that thus sculpture has its root in ghost- worship,

* Principles of Sociology, vol. i.

558* POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY,

while the sculptor, in his primitive form, is one of the agents of
this worship.

The tomb and the temple are, as is shown in § 137,* developed
out of the shelter for the grave — rude and transitory at first, but
eventually becoming refined and permanent; while the statue,
which is the nucleus of the temple, is an elaborated and finished
form of the original effigy placed on the grave. The implication
is that, as with the temple so with the statue, the priest, when not
himself the executant, as he is among savages, remains always the
director of the executant — the man whose injunctions the sculptor
carries out. '

Of evidence to be set down in support of this general proposi-
tion we may begin with that, relatively small in amount, which is
furnished by existing uncivilized races.

Concerning the Gold Coast Negroes, Bosman tells us that they
" generally build a small cottage or hut ... on the grave," and
also that in some parts " they place several earthen images on the
graves." Bastian, writing of the Coast Negroes, says clay figures
of departed chiefs with their families are placed in groups under
the village tree. Nothing is added about the makers of these clay
images ; but in another case we find evidence of priestly origin.
According to Tuckey, a certain fetich-rock on the Congo " is con-
sidered as the peculiar residence of Seembi, the spirit which pre-
sides over the river ; " that on some of the rocks " are a number of
raised figures," made of some composition which appears " like
stone sculptured in low relief" — rude representations of men,
beasts,.ships, etc. : " they were said to be the work of a learned priest
of Nokki who taught the art to all those who chose to pay him."

The Polynesian races yield some evidence : relevant facts are
narrated of the Sandwich Islanders by Cook and Ellis. The one
describes the burying places as containing many wooden images
representing their deities, some in huts, others not ; and the other
tells us that "each celebrated tii [spirit] was honored with an
image." That these celebrated spirits were originally the ghosts
of deceased chiefs, is implied by the account given of an allied
Polynesian race, the New Zealanders. Among these, according
to Thomson, the bodies of chiefs, in some cases " interred within
the houses where they died," where they were bewailed by rela-
tives for weeks [a rude temple and a rude worship], had "rude
human images, twenty or forty feet high," erected as monuments
to them. Though in neither of these cases are we told by whom
such images of deceased men were made, yet since of New Zea-
land artists the best are found among the priests, as asserted by

* Principles of Sociology, vol. L

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 559*

Thomson, while Angas tells us that the priest is generally the
operator in the ceremony of tattooing, he being supposed to excel
in all sorts of carving, the implication is that he is the maker of
these effigies — in the cases of chiefs, if not in other cases. For
while it is alleged that the house-posts, rudely representing de-
ceased members of an ordinary family, are made by members of
the family, we have, in the special characters of the efiSgies made
of chiefs, evidence that priests have been the executants. Dr.
Ferdinand von Hochstetter says : —

" The carved Maori-figures, which are met with on the road, are the
memorials of chiefs who, while journeying to the restorative baths of
Rotorua, succumbed to their ills on the road. Some of the figures are
decked out with pieces of clothing or kerchiefs ; and the most remarkable
feature in them is the close imitation of the tattooing of the deceased, by
which the Maoris are able to recognize for whom the monument has been
erected. Certain lines are peculiar to the tribe, others to the family, and
again others to the individual."

As the priests are the professional tattooers, probably being also
the authorities concerning tribal and family marks, it is a fair
inference that they are the makers of these images of chiefs, in
which the tribal, family, and individual marks are represented.

Certain usages have been found among the Australians which,
if not directly relevant, are indirectly relevant. At an initiation
ceremony in the Murring tribe, according to Howitt —

'' A similar rude outline of a man in the attitude of the magic dance,
being also Daramiilun, is cut by the old men (wizards) at the ceremonies,
upon the bark of a tree at the spot where one of them knocks out the tooth
of the novice. . . .

" At a subsequent stage of the proceedings a similar figure is molded
on the ground in clay, and is surrounded by the native weapons which
Daramiilun is said to have invented."

Here the obvious implication is that the traditional hero, Dara-
multin, is represented by the figures which the wizards (medicine-
men or priests) make ; while the initiation ceremony is the dedi-
cation of the novice to him, considered as present in the figure :
to which figure, indeed, a road is marked out on the tree, down
which Daramuliin is supposed to descend to the image.

By the above-named house-posts which, among the New Zea-
landers, are erected as memorials of members of the family, we
are introduced to the further set of illustrations furnished by
household gods. These the accounts of various races in various
parts of the world make familiar.

Concerning the Kalmucks and Mongols, who have such domes-
tic idols, Pallas tells us that the priests are the painters, as well
as the makers, of images of copper and clay.

According to Ellis the idol-worship of lie Malagasy '' appears
to have sprung up in comparatively modern times, and long sub-

560* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sequently to the prevalence of the worship of household gods."
But who were the makers of either does not appear.

How it would naturally happen that while, in the first stages,
the priest was the actual carver of images, he became, in later
stages, the director of those who carved them, will be easily
understood on remembering that a kindred relation between the
artist and his subordinate exists now among ourselves^ The
modern sculptor does not undertake the entire labor of executing
his work, but gives the rough idea to a skilled assistant who,
from time to time instructed in the needful alterations, produces
a clay model to which his master gives the finished form: the
reproduction of the model in marble by another subordinate
being similarly dealt with by the sculptor. Evidently it was in
something like this sense that priests throughout the East were
sculptors in early days, as some are in our own days. Writing of
the Singhalese, Tennent says : —

" Like the priesthood of Egypt, those of Ceylon regulated the mode of
delineating the eflBgies of their divine teacher, by a rigid formulary, with
which they combined corresponding directions for the drawing of the
human figure in connection with sacred subjects."

From Egypt, here referred to, may be brought not only evidence
that the sculptured forms of those to be worshiped were pre-
scribed by the priests in conformity with the traditions they pre-
served, but also evidence that in some cases they were the actual
executants. Mentu-hotep, a priest of the 12th dynasty, yields an
example.

" Very skilled in artistic work, with his own hand he carried out his
designs as they ought to be carried out." He "besides was invested with
religious functions" and "was the alter ego of the king." His inscrip-
tion says : — " I it was who arranged the work for the building of the
temple."

An inscription of the 18th dynasty refers to one Bek, architect
of Amenhotep IV, who being described as " the follower of the
divine benefactor " was apparently a priest, and who was both
an executant and a supervisor of other's work. He is referred
to as —

" overseer of the works at the red mountain, an artist and teacher of the
king himself, an overseer of the sculptors from life at the grand monu-
ments of the king for the temple of the sun's disk."
A further fact is given. Bek says of himself— "My lord pro-
moted me to be chief architect. I immortalized the name of the
king ... [I caused] to be made two portrait-statues of noble
hard stone in this his great building. It is like heaven. . . .
Thus I executed these works of art, his statues."

What evidence Greek records yield, though not extensive, is
to the point. Curtius, who, referring to actions of the singers

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 561*

and composers of hymns as well as to those of the plastic artists,
says that "the service of the temple comprehends the whole
variety of these efforts," also says that "the earliest sculptors
were persons of a sacerdotal character." On another page he
adds, concerning sculpture —

"... in this domain of artistic activity, all things were bound by the
decrees of the priests and by close relations with religion. . . . They
[artists] were regarded as persons in the service of the divine religion."
The extent to which sculpture subserved religious purposes may
be judged from the statement of Mahaffy that —

"The greatest sculptors, painters, and architects had lavished labor
and design upon the buildings [of the oracle at Delphi]. Though Nero
had carried off 500 bronze statues, the traveler estimated the remaining
works of art at 3,000, and yet these seem to have been almost all statues.".
As showing the course of professional development it may be
remarked that though, in archaic Greek sculpture, the modes of
representing the various deities were, as in Egypt and India, so
completely fixed in respect of attitudes, clothing, and appurte-
nances that change was sacrilege, the art of the sculptor, thus
prevented from growing while his semi-priestly function was
under priestly control, simultaneously began to acquire freedom
and to lose its sacred character when in such, places as the pedi-
ments of temples, figures other than divine, and subjects other
than those of worship, came to be represented. Apparently
through transitions of this kind it was that sculpture became
secularized. Men engaged in chiseling out statues and reliefs
in fulfillment of priestly dictates were regarded simply as a
superior class of artisans, and did not receive credit as artists.
But when, no longer thus entirely controlled, they executed works
independently, they gained applause by their artistic skill and
" became prominent celebrities, whose studios were frequented by
kings.

To the reasons, already more than once suggested, why in
Rome the normal development of the professions was broken or
obscured, may be added, in respect of the profession of sculptor,
a special reason. Says IMommsen : —

" The original Roman worship had qo images of the gods or houses set
apart for them ; and although the god was at an early period worshiped
in Latium, probably in imitation of the Greeks, by means of an image, and
had a little chapel (aedicula) built for him, such a figurative representation
was reckoned contrary to the laws of Numa."

The appended remark that the representation of the gods was
" generally regarded as an impure and foreign innovation " ap-
pears to be in harmony with the statement of Duruy.

" Even after the Tarquins, the images of the gods, the work of Etruscan
artists, were still made only in wood or clay, like that of Jupiter in the
Capitol, and like the quadriga placed on the top of the temple."

VOL. XLVIII. — 40*

562* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The contempt felt by the Komans for every other occupation
than the military, and the consequent contempt for art and
artists imported from conquered peoples, resulted in the fact that
in the time of the Caesars sculptors and painters " were generally
either slaves or freedmen." Probably the only concern the
priests had with sculpture was when prescribing the mode in
which this or that god should be represented.

Such records as have come down to us from early Christian
times illustrate the general law of evolution in the respect that
they show how little the arts of design were at first specialized.
It has been often remarked that in days comparatively modern,
separation of the various kinds of mental activity was much less
marked than it has since become : instance the fact that Leonardo
da Vinci was man of science as well as artist ; instance the fact
that Michael Angelo was at once poet, architect, sculptor and
painter. This union of functions seems to have been still more
the rule in preceding ages. Evidence about the sculptors' art is
mingled with evidence about kindred arts. Says Emeric-David —
" The same masters were goldsmiths, architects, painters, sculp-
tors, and sometimes poets, as well as being abbots or even
bishops.'' We are told by Challamel that the industrial art by
pre-eminence was gold -working. The great artists in it were
monks or at least clerics. The great schools of it were mon-
asteries. And it was for the use of churches — ecclesiastical vest-
ments and decorations, funeral monuments, etc.

In the last part of this statement we see the implication that
the sculpturing of figures on monuments was a priestly occupa-
tion. This is also implied by the statement of Emeric-David that
in the 10th cent. Hugues, monk of Monstier-en-Der, was painter
and statuary. Further proof that miscellaneous art-works were
carried on by the clerical class is given by Lacroix and Serd, who
say that early in the 11th cent, a monk, named Odoram, executed
shrines and crucifixes in gold and silver and precious stones. In
the middle of the century another monk, Theophilus, was at once
painter of manuscripts, glass- stainer, and enameling goldsmith.

Concerning these relationships in England during early days,
I find no evidence. The first relevant statements refer to times
in which the plastic arts, which no doubt were all along shared
in by those lay-assistants who did the rough work under clerical
direction — such as chiseling out monuments in the rough accord-
ing to order — had lapsed entirely into the hands of these lay-
assistants. Having been in the preceding times nothing but
skillful artisans, their work, when it came to be monopolized by
them, was for a long time regarded as artisan- work. Hence the
statement that —

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 563*

"Previously to the reign of Charles I the sculptor seems hardly to have
heen considered an artist." "Nicholas Stone was the sculptor most in
vogue. He was master-mason to the king."

I may add that in early days, monks — St. Dunstan being an ex-
ample— occupied themselves in executing the details of ecclesias-
tical buildings — the foliations of windows, screens, and the like.
It is said that when sculpturing the heads used for gargoyles,
they sometimes amused themselves by caricaturing one another.

Recent stages in the development of sculpture are not easy to
trace. But there seems to have occurred in modern times a pro-
cess parallel to that which we saw occurred in Greece. During
the first stages in the secularization of his business the carver of
marble carried with him the character previously established —
he was a superior artisan. Only in course of time, as his skill
was employed for other than sacred purposes, did he become inde-
pendent and begin to gain reputation as an artist. And his posi-
tion has risen along with the devotion of his efforts more and
more to subjects unconnected with religion.

Let it be observed, however, that even still sculpture retains in
considerable measure its primitive character as an ancillary to
ancestor- worship. A carved marble effigy in a Christian church
differs but little in meaning from a carved wooden figure of a
dead man placed on his grave in savage and semi-civilized socie-
ties. In either case the having an image made, and the subse-
quent conduct in presence of it, imply the same prompting senti-
ment : there is always more or less of awe or respect. Moreover,
sculpture continues to be largely employed for the expression of
this sentiment, not in churches only, but in houses. The preser-
vation of a bust by descendants commonly implies recognition of
worth in the original, and is thus in a faint way an act of worth-
ship.

Hence only that kind of sculpture which is not devoted to the
representation of deceased persons, in either public or in private
edifices, or in open places, can be considered as absolutely secular-
ized. One who takes his subjects from ancient myth, or history,
or from the life around, may be considered as alone the sculptor
who has lost all trace of the original priestly character.

With recognition of the completed process of differentiation
there is nothing here to join respecting the process of integration.
Sculptors have not yet become sufficiently numerous to form
entirely independent unions. Such combination as has arisen
among them we shall have to recognize in the next chapter, in
association with the combinations of painters.

564* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

LORD SALISBURY ON EVOLUTION.*

By HEEBERT SPENCER.

ENTHUSIASTIC adherents have compared the principle of
natural selection with the principle of gravitation. The
comparison is not warranted. In the first place the one is far from
having a like cardinal value with the other as a scientific truth ;
and in the second place it is not the sole cause of the phenomena
to be explained, as Mr. Darwin himself admitted when recogniz-
ing the inherited effects of use and disuse. Nevertheless, after
miaking these reservations, I will for a moment adopt the compar-
ison ; because, by its aid, I shall be enabled clearly to show the
nature of a widely prevalent misconception.

Let us suppose that our days were the days when Newton had
lately propounded his theory, and that the newspaper reader (or
as there were few such in those days, let us say " the man in the
street ") had been told about it. Suppose it had been explained to
him that, according to Newton, bodies attract one another directly
as their masses and inversely as the squares of their distances,
and that the phenomena presented by the Solar System had been
accounted for by him as conforming to this law. Suppose that
presently the man, thus far instructed, learned that there were
skeptics : Clairaut, for instance, having found that certain of the
Moon's motions could not be explained as results of gravitation,
and that consequently Newton's interpretation of planetary mo-
tions was untenable. Now suppose the man inferred that along
with the theory of gravitation the theory of the Solar System
must be abandoned; and that certain views of Copernicus, of
which he had heard, and certain other views of Kepler, had been
disproved. What, in such case, should we say ? Evidently that
the man made a profound mistake in identifying the theory of
gravitation with the theory of the Solar System. We should say
that there were independent reasons for accepting the Copernican
system and the laws of Kepler ; and that though, were the law of
gravitation disproved, the pre-existing theory of the Solar System
would lack that rational interpretation which the law of gravita-
tion gave to it, yet it would remain standing on conclusive evi-
dence.

Mr. Darwin's doctrine of natural selection and the doctrine of
organic evolution are, by most people, unhesitatingly supposed to
be one and the same thing. Yet between them there is a differ-
ence analogous to that between the theory of gravitation and the
theory of the Solar System ; and just as the theory of the Solar

* Inaugural Address to the British Association, 1894.

LORD SALISBURY ON EVOLUTION. 565*

System, held up to the time of Newton, would have continued
outstanding had Newton^s generalization been disproved, so, were
the theory of natural selection disproved, the theory of organic
evolution would remain. Whether it were shown that natural
selection is inoperative, or whether it were shown that though a
partial cause it is inadequate to explain all the facts (the inherit-
ance of functionally-wrought modifications being a co-operative
cause) ; or whether it were shown that no cause hitherto alleged
is adequate ; the general doctrine that organisms of all kinds have
arisen by the continual superposing of modifications upon modifi-
cations would maintain its place, though it would not be fortified
so strongly. Lord Salisbury, however, in common with the im-
mense majority of men, assumes that the hypothesis of organic
evolution must stand or fall with its alleged causal agencies.
Though in one paragraph he distinguishes between natural selec-
tion as an alleged agent, and the facts regarded as implying evo-
lution which are said to be explained by it, yet, at the close of his
address, he assumes the two to be so indissolubly connected that,
if natural selection goes, evolution must go with it — that the facts
are not naturally explicable at all, but must be regarded as super-
natural. He says, referring to Prof. Weismann : — " I quite accept
the Professor's dictum that if natural selection is rejected we
have no resource but to fall back on the mediate or immediate
agency of a principle of design." And thus he indorses the popu-
lar notion that Darwinism and Evolution are equivalent terms.

Though, speaking on behalf of biologists, who are conscious of
the difference, Prof. Huxley, in seconding the vote of thanks, de-
murred to this identification, yet the above-quoted sentence reap-
pears in the revised and republished form of Lord Salisbury's
address.

Absence of direct proof of natural selection is duly emphasized
by Lord Salisbury. He says: — "No man or succession of men
have ever observed the whole process in any single case, and cer-
tainly no man has recorded the observation." And, as direct
proof of the hypothesis is not forthcoming, it is tacitly assumed
that we must accept the alternative hypothesis, which is equally
without direct proof. Here I may be excused if, a propos of this
position, I reproduce some passages from an essay published in
pre- Darwinian days, when the development hypothesis, as it was
then called, was universally ridiculed. The first part of the essay
runs as follows : —

In a debate upon the development hypothesis, lately narrated to me by
a friend, one of the disputants was described as arguing that as, in all our
experience, we know no such phenomenon as transmutation of species, it is
unphilosophical to assume that transmutation of species ever takes place.

566* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Had I been present I think that, passing over his assertion, which is open
to criticism, I should have replied that, as in all our experience we have
never known a species created^ it was, by his own showing, unphilosophical
to assume that any species ever had been created.

Those who cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution as not being ade-
quately supported by facts, seem to forget that their own theory is sup-
ported by no facts at all. Like the majority of men who are born to a
given belief, they demand the most rigorous proof of any adverse belief,
but assume that their own needs none. Here we find, scattered over the
globe, vegetable and animal organisms numbering, of the one kind (accord-
ing to Humboldt), some 320,000 species, and of the other, some 2,000,000
species (see Carpenter) ; and if to these we add the numbers of animal and
vegetable species which have become extinct, we may safely estimate the
number of species that have existed, and are existing, on the Earth, at not
less than ten millions. Well, which is the most rational theory about these
ten millions of species? Is it most likely that there have been ten millions
of special creations [each implying a conscious design and acts in pursu-
ance of it] ? or is it most likely that, by continual modifications due to
change of circumstances, ten millions of varieties [i. e. kinds] have been
produced ? . . .

Doubtless many will reply that they can more easily conceive ten
millions of special creations to have taken place, than they can conceive
that ten millions of varieties have arisen by successive modifications. All
such, however, will find, on inquiry, that they are under an illusion. . . .
Careful introspection will show them that they have never yet realized to
themselves the creation of even one species. If they have formed a definite
conception of the process, let them tell us how a new species is constructed,
and how it makes its appearance. Is it thrown down from the clouds ? or
must we hold to the notion that it struggles up out of the ground ? Do its
limbs and viscera rush together from all the points of the compass ? or
must we receive the old Hebrew idea, that Grod takes clay and molds a new
creature ? . . .

Should the believers in special creations consider it unfair thus to call
upon them to describe how special creations take place, I reply that this is
far less than they demand from the supporters of the development hypothe-
sis. They are merely asked to point out a conceivable mode. On the other
hand, they ask, not simply for a conceivable mode, but for the actual
mode. They do not say — Show us how this may take place ; but they say
— Show us how this does take place. So far from its being unreasonable
to put the above question, it would be reasonable to ask not only for a
possible mode of special creation, but for an ascertained mode ; seeing that
this is no greater a demand than they make upon their opponents.

It is true that the contrast of evidences here emphasized refers
not to the theory of the origin of species through natural selec-
tion, which at that time (1852) had not been propounded, but
refers to the theory of organic evolution considered apart from
any assigned causes, or rather, as due to the general cause — adap-
tation to conditions. The contrast remains equally strong, how-
ever, if, instead of the general doctrine the special doctrine is in
question ; and the demand for facts in support of this special doc-

LORD SALISBURY ON EVOLUTION. 567*

trine may similarly be met by tbe counter-demand for facts in
support of the doctrine opposed to it. Perhaps Lord Salisbury
will meet this demand by quoting the statements contained in the
book of Genesis. But even if, ignoring the skepticism of pro-
fessed biblical critics, such as the Kev. Prof, Cheyne, he puts ab-
solute faith in these statements current among nomadic groups
of shepherds three thousand years ago, he is obliged to admit that
these alleged facts are not of the class he refers to when he asks
for proof of the hypothesis of natural selection : they are not
facts of direct observation.

Thus, supposing the two hypotheses — special creation and evo-
lution by natural selection — are to be tested by the directly
observed facts assigned in their support, then, if the hypothesis
of evolution by natural selection is to be rejected because there
are no directly observed facts which prove it, the hypothesis of
special creation must be rejected for the same reason. Nobody
has seen a species evolved and nobody has seen a species created.

But now from the question of direct evidence let us pass to the
question of indirect evidence. Let us ask if there are any positive
facts of observation which tend to justify the one, and whether
there are any positive facts of observation which tend to justify
the other. Here a comparison leads to widely different results*
Familiar though some of the facts are, I must be excused for
specifying them, since Lord Salisbury ignores them.

Though, because most of the geological record ha»s been de-
stroyed while the remnant has been dislocated or blurred, and
because so small a part — an infinitesimal part — of this remnant
has been examined, paleontology furnishes but broken evidence,
yet the more the Earth's strata are examined the more they tes-
tify that organic forms have arisen by modifications upon modifi-
cations. Recent discoveries, especially those which show by inter-
mediate forms that the bird-type is derived from the reptile-type,
and those which show that, beginning with the four- toed Orohip-
pus of the Eocene strata, we ascend in later strata, through Meso-
hippus, Miohippus, Protohippus, and Pliohippus, up to the mod-
ern horse, have given strong support to the hypothesis of evolu-
tion : support so strong that Prof. Huxley, who had up to the
time he saw Prof. Marsh's fossils made reservations in his accept-
ance of the hypothesis, thereafter accepted it without reserve.
Not only do fossils furnish in this and other cases the lines of
linear ascent to existing forms, but they simultaneously disclose
a general fact of great significance — the fact that early types of
creatures in any class display the commonest or most general
traits of structure, and that later types of the same class are more
specialized in this or that direction : relationships which are neces-

568* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sarily implied by the evolutionary process of divergence and redi-
vergence witli accompanying modifications.

The truths of classification, again, have a kindred meaning.
Ordinary people, and even naturalists of the old school, pass by as
of no significance the remarkable relations which, in both plant
and animal kingdoms, exist among their divisions, subdivisions,
and sub-subdivisions — their classes, subclasses, cohorts, orders,
genera, species, varieties. The fact that these fall into groups
within groups, successively decreasing in size, consists perfectly
with the supposition of common origin. Suppose an arm of a large
tree to have been buried in such wise as to leave only the tips of
its twigs visible ; and suppose a man from the Faroe Isles, igno-
rant of trees, taking one of these protruding tips for a separate
plant, attempted to uproot it. He would find that below the sur-
face the twig he uncovered joined with others like itself to form
a small branch; and explorations all around would prove that
everywhere the local clusters of twigs thus converged. Further
excavations would show that the adjacent branchlets, composed
of clusters of twigs, themselves united a little deeper down, and
were subdivisions of a medium-sized branch. Again digging he
would discover that several such branches formed parts of a still
larger branch; and so on continually, until complete clearance
made it manifest that all these great branches, small branches,
branchlets, and twigs, in their respective groups, had diverged
from the one original arm of the tree, which itself had diverged
from the stem ; and that they formed groups within groups dimin-
ishing in size as they became more remote from their common
parent. And now observe that while there are thus symbolized
the relationships of species, genera, orders, etc., as they now exist,
there are also symbolized the relationships which, so far as we
know them, exist among remains contained in the Earth's crust :
the two sets of phenomena correspond.

The lesson taught by the facts of distribution in Time, is also
taught by the facts of distribution in Space. In various regions
there are alliances between the present fauna and the past fauna
found fossil : though different, they are near akin. It was " this
wonderful relationship in the same continent between the dead
and the living " which especially forced on Mr. Darwin the belief
in descent and modification : this relationship having been demon-
strated by Prof. Owen between the existing South American forms
and the buried forms of extinct species. The fact that in Aus-
tralia, long cut off from the other continents, all the indigenous
mammals are of the implacental type, and that the fossil mam-
mals found there are also exclusively implacental, illustrates
these connections very clearly. And these likenesses of nature
between present faunas and past faunas in the same localities are

LORD SALISBURY ON EVOLUTION. 569*

implications agreeing exactly with, tlie implications pointed out
above.

Once more there are the facts of embryology. In various ways
these tell us with endless repetition the same story.

Von Baer "found that in its earliest stage, every organism has the
greatest number of characters in common with all other organisms in their
earliest stages; that at a stage somewhat later, its structure is like the
structures displayed at corresponding phases by a less extensive multitude
of organisms; that at each subsequent stage, traits are acquired which suc-
cessively distinguish the developing embryo from groups of embryos that
it previously resembled— thus step by step diminishing the class of embryos
which it still resembles ; and that thus the class of similar forms is finally
narrowed to the species of which it is a member."

Obviously these groups, dividing and subdividing into smaller
ones as they diverge and re-diverge, correspond completely to the
groups within groups which the classifications of animals and
plants show us, and with the groups within groups of the buried
branch, which symbolize both their relations and the relations of
fossil forms, so far as we know them. That is to say, what we
may call the embryological tree corresponds with the class ifica-
tory tree, and with those more modern parts of the paleontologi-
cal tree which we have been able imperfectly to trace. Moreover,
if we accept the hypothesis of evolution, the strange transforma-
tions undergone by a developing embryo become intelligible,
though otherwise unintelligible. Every superior animal com-
mences as a nucleated cell, a form common to the smallest and
simplest creatures, the Protozoa, While, among the Protozoa,
this nucleated cell, by undergoing fission gives rise to others
which part company (which derived cells again divide and part
company), the trait common to the Metazoa is that, instead of
parting company, the cells formed by successive fissions remain
together and constitute a cluster. The members of this cluster
divide into two layers, between which, in higher types, there
arises a third ; and from these all the external and internal organs
are formed. In each great class of Metazoa, further development
of each higher type is accompanied by a " recapitulation " of traits
distinctive of lower types. In the Vertehrata, for instance, the
embryo of a bird or a rabbit has, at one time, traits resembling
those of the fish-embryo — structures roughly representing gill-
clefts being one. And in the case of the human embryo, it is only
after exhibiting successive kinships of organization to lower
mammals, that it at last assumes the form proper to man. Mar-
velous as is this repetition of traits belonging to lower types,
rudely indicated, it is quite congruous with the hypothesis of evo-
lution— implies a kind of transcendental heredity. On the other
hand, the hypothesis of design furnishes no explanation, but pre-
sents an insurmountable difficulty. For if the development of the

570* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

embryo had been divinely arranged, it would surely have gone
along lines of direct growth from the germ to the finished form :
would not have displayed various metamorphoses having no
relations either to passing needs or to ultimate structure and
mode of life. With which evidence may be joined the evidence
furnished by rudimentary organs, which are full of meaning on
the evolution hypothesis, but worse than meaningless in the spe-
cial-creation hypothesis.

But these four great groups of facts, suggesting in different
ways the same history, stand thus far without assigned cause.
How come these progressive modifications to have taken place ?
and why are the modified forms connected with one another in
the ways shown alike by paleontology, by classification, by dis-
tribution, and by embryology ? The reply is that we need only
look around to see everywhere at work a general cause which, if
it has been at work throughout all time, yields an explanation.
Take any plant or animal and expose it to a new set of circum-
stances (circumstances not so unlike its previous ones as to prove
fatal), and it begins to change ; and the change is one which
eventually adapts it to the new conditions. By what special
causes the adaptive modifications are effected does not at present
concern us. Here the argument requires us only to recognize the
truth that in some way the organization is molded to the new
conditions. Though — to illustrations furnished by cultivated
plants and domesticated animals — it may be objected that arti-
ficial selection has been at work, yet, since artificial selection im-
plies variations, it implies that the selected plants and animals
have been modified by external influences, and that the modifica-
tions have been inherited and accumulated. And then, if there
needs a case in which artificial selection has not come into play,
we have a sufficiently striking one in the human race itself.
Unless there be adopted the hypothesis (excluded by Lord Salis-
bury's implied belief) that varieties of men have been independ-
ently created, the conclusion is irresistible that their differences
have been caused by unlikenesses in their lives carried on in un-
like environments. Either their differences are uncaused, which
is absurd, or they are differences which have t^nfitted each varie-
ty for its conditions, which is also absurd, or they are differences
which have fitted each variety for its conditions ; and, if so, they
have resulted from the response of the constitution to the condi-
tions themselves : the only supposition which is not absurd. And
that this is the necessary interpretation is shown by cases in
which — either by the killing off of unfit individuals, or by the
effects of habit, or by both — extraordinary adaptations have been
produced. There are, as examples, the Fuegians, who in their
wretched islands go about naked while the falling snow melts on

LORD SALISBURY ON EVOLUTION. 571*

their bodies ; there are the Yakutes— the " iron men," as they are
called — who, in their rigorous climate, sleep in the open air and
wake covered with hoar-frost ; there are the Hindus, constitu-
tionally adjusted to the tropics in such way that they can sleep
in the burning sunshine ; and, again, there are Indian hill-tribes
living comfortably in malarious localities which are fatal not
only to Europeans but to Hindus. Moreover, while we thus get
proof that organisms fit themselves to their environments, we
also get proof that there simultaneously result divergences and
re- divergences of races and varieties. Men have spread from
some original locality into other localities in all directions ; and
there have resulted sundry widely unlike families appropriate to
their respective habitats, and less unlike breeds diverging within
them, such as the Aryan peoples of Europe. This process which
the human species shows us is, and always has been, the process
with every kind of organism. While we are shown a general
cause which has been superposing modifications upon modifica-
tions from the beginning, we are also shown how there has arisen
a concomitant formation of class within class. The cause we find
in operation is a cause of the kind needed to explain the remark-
able relations above described.

Thus we have four great groups of observed facts (or five if
we include those concerning rudimentary organs) all suggesting
the same history, all converging to the same conclusion: their
joint significance being immense in comparison with the signifi-
cance of each group taken by itself. And in the adaptation of
organisms to their conditions, directly or indirectly brought
about, we have a cause which makes these aggregates of phe-
nomena intelligible. On these mutually-verifying sets of evi-
dences the hypothesis of evolution stands by itself, quite apart
from any conclusions respecting its special causes. Hence the
meaning of the assertion made above, that even were all theories
about the special causes disproved, the doctrine of evolution
would remain standing.

And now, having contemplated the observed facts which indi-
rectly support the hypothesis of evolution, let us ask for the ob-
served facts which indirectly support the alternative hypothesis.
There are none. Neither in the air, nor on the earth, nor in the
water do we find anything implying special creation. Nay, in-
deed, not only do we see no facts favoring the supposition, but we
see a world of facts conflicting with it. From hour to hour inci-
dents showing the uniformity of law and the constant relations
of causes and effects generate in us convictions so incongruous
with it as to produce instant disbelief of an alleged special crea-
tion now occurring. Should any one say that having taken into
his room a bowl containing nothing but clear water, he saw a fish

572* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

suddenly appear in it; or should lie say tliat lie had seen near
the ground a mass of cloud which, contracting and getting more
dense, assumed the form of an unknown animal, what comment
should we make ? Simply that he was either deluding himself or
trying to delude us. We should show by our ridicule that the
idea of a special creation, when brought distinctly before us by
alleged cases, is too absurd to be entertained.

See, then, the antithesis. While the hypothesis of organic
evolution is indirectly supported by great masses of observed
facts, the hypothesis of special creation is not only without indi-
rect support from observed facts, but is indirectly contraindicated
by the enormous accumulation of observed facts constituting our
daily experience.

Striking as this antithesis is, it becomes still more striking
when we contemplate the two hypotheses under another aspect.
Lord Salisbury implies that in the absence of observed facts di-
rectly proving the formation of a species by natural selection, the
hypothesis of natural selection can not be sustained. He says : —
" I think Prof. Weismann is justified in saying that we can not,
either with more or less ease, imagine the process of natural selec-
tion " ; and he presently implies that in the absence of positive
proof the hypothesis of natural selection is "mere conjecture."
Let me in the first place point out that Prof. Weismann's mean-
ing is here seriously misrepresented. In the passage Lord Salis-
bury refers to, Prof. Weismann says of natural selection : — " We
accept it — not because we are able to demonstrate the process in
detail ; not even because we can with more or less ease imagine it
[in detail], but simply because ive must, etc." And that this is
his meaning is proved by the fact that a previous passage to
which he refers by the words " as already indicated," runs as fol-
lows : — " For it is really very difficult to imagine this process of
natural selection in its details" Surely there is an immense dif-
ference between the meaning intended and the meaning ascribed.
It is perfectly easy to imagine that a flying cannon-ball will pres-
ently fall and do damage, while it may be " very difficult to im-
agine," " in its details," the damage it will do. But, passing over
this, let us now consider whether, in the absence of observed facts
proving the production of a species by natural selection, we have
warrant for the theory of natural selection.

I have always regretted that Mr. Darwin chose this phrase to
describe his hypothesis. The word "selection" connotes a con-
scious process, and so involves a tacit personalization of Nature.
By tacitly personalizing that aggregate of surrounding agencies
which we call Nature, it introduces vaguely the idea that Nature
may select as a human breeder selects — can select and increase a

LORD SALISBURY OJST EVOLUTION, 573*

particular quality — which is true only under certain conditions.
Further, it raises the thought of choice— suggests the notion that
Nature may or may not operate in the alleged way.

It was partly the consciousness that wrong ideas are called up
in these ways which led me, when writing The Principles of
Biology, to substitute the phrase " survival of the fittest " — partly,
I say, because, as is shown in § 164 of that work, the phrase natu-
rally emerges when we contemplate, from a purely physical point
of view, the phenomena of life and death in connection with sur-
rounding actions. My belief is that had Mr. Darwin used this
phrase, many misunderstandings of his theory would never have
arisen, and many objections to his inferences would have been
excluded. Among other excluded objections would have been
that raised by Lord Salisbury, who thinks that, lacking a basis of
observed facts, the hypothesis of natural selection has no basis.
For if we substitute the phrase "survival of the fittest," it be-
comes manifest that the process is a necessary one. To see this
it needs but to affirm the opposite and say that the law is sur-
vival of the unfittest — that those creatures which were fit to live
have died, and those have lived which were unfit to live. These
statements embody a contradiction. Hence survival of the fittest
is inevitable — is just as certain a truth as a mathematical axiom,
which we accept because the negation of it is inconceivable.

Heredity, otherwise manifest, being clearly proved by the ex-
perience of breeders, survival of the fittest necessarily implies
that those individuals which have structures best adapted to
their environments, will, on the average, have better adapted pos-
terity than the rest ; and that so the fitness to the environment
will be maintained. A further unavoidable corollary is that if
the habitat changes in character, or if there occurs a migration to
another habitat, the most unfitted will disappear in a greater pro-
portion than the least unfitted ; and that from destruction of the
most unfitted in successive generations, there will result a con-
tinually-diminished unfitness to the new habitat, until there is
reached a fitness for it. These are inferences which it is impos-
sible to escape.

Whether by this process a particular variation will be perpetu-
ated and increased, is quite another question. The answer de-
pends on the answer to another question — in what degree, all
things considered, does the particular variation conduce to main-
tenance of life ? But while the survival and multiplication of
individuals having some advantageous modification of structure,
is not a necessary result, the survival and multiplication of indi-
viduals having natures, or aggregates of characters, which best fit
them to the requirements of their lives, is a necessary result; and
it is a necessary truth that this involves the establishment of a

574* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

varied structure where this in a predominant degree aids them in
fulfilling the vital requirements of their lives.

Mark, now, how the strong contrast set forth in the preceding
section is thus strengthened. We saw that the evolution-hypoth-
esis is indirectly supported by five great classes of observed facts ;
and that the perpetual adaptation and re-adaptation of constitu-
tion to conditions is a general cause of the kind required to ac-
count for these facts. Here we see that, of the special causes
which effect adaptation, the chief one, survival of the fittest, is
not only one the operation of which we can clearly conceive, bat
one which it is impossible to conceive as not operating. On the
other hand, we saw that there are absolutely no observed facts
which yield indirect support to the hypothesis of special creation ;
but that, contrariwise, all the observed facts of daily experience,
proving a constant order among phenomena, negative the hy-
pothesis. And we also saw that while the process of special crea-
tion can not be rationally conceived, the negation of it is perfectly
conceivable. Thus, bringing the contrast to a focus, it appears
that the one is credited both a posteriori and a priori, and the
other is discredited both a posteriori and a priori. No stronger
contrast in credibility can well be imagined.

Authoritative expositions of the process of natural selection
afford no basis for that burlesque of it with which Lord Salisbury
amused the public. The Origin of Species does not assume, as a
requisite, the chance meeting of similarly varied individuals ; and
in Chapters III. and VI. of Mr. Wallace's Darwinism, where are
assigned evidences which have accumulated since Mr. Darwin
wrote, there are described processes quite other than that which
Lord Salisbury describes. After referring to artificial selection,
and implying that the success of breeders in producing a desired
variety depends on their skill " in bringing the right mates to-
gether," he goes on to ask : —

"But in natural selection who is to supply the breeder's place? . . .
What is to secure that the two iudividuals of opposite sexes in the primeval
forest, who have been both accidentally blessed with the same advanta-
geous variation, shall meet, and transmit by inheritance that variation to
their successors ? "

Even in the absence of the expositions above referred to,
knowledge of familiar facts should have excluded this represen-
tation of the requirements. The contents of stud-books and herd-
books might have been expected to suffice. It needs but to re-
member the care with which is specified a descent from some
noted sire which lived several generations ago, to recognize the
prevailing belief that a variation existing in a particular animal
is transmitted in a greater or less degree to posterity, quite apart

LORD SALISBURY ON EVOLUTION. 575

from tlie possession of the same variation by tlie animal with,
which it is mated ; and this belief is held by men who, as breed-
ers, stake large profits on its truth. How, then, can it be said
that without the union of two similarly varied individuals, " the
new breed would never even begin, let alone the question of its
perpetuation after it had begun/' And here, to show still more
clearly how experience negatives Lord Salisbury's assumption, let
me give some evidence furnished not by domestic animals, but by
human beings. Referring to a controversy which I have recently
been carrying on with Prof. Weismann, Dr. Lindsay Johnson,
F. R. C. S., who practices as an ophthalmic surgeon, and who tells
me that the experience of other oculists verifies his own, testifies
to the transmission of acquired myopia through several genera-
tions. He says (I quote with his permission) : —

" I have seen a very large number of myopic patients who have had
loDg-sighted parents and grandparents, but who have, during their studies
or occupations, acquired a considerable degree of short sight and astigma-
tism, and then having had children from a normal or long-sighted wife
(with normal-sighted parents and grandparents) il has been found that
several of these children have grown up myopic and perpetuated it to their
offspring again."

And he sends me a genealogical tree showing that in a family of
six children descending from long-sighted ancestry on both sides,
four remained normal-sighted, but two, who were miniature paint-
ers, became myoj)ic. Of these one, marrying a normal-sighted
wife, had two children, of whom one was myopic ; and the other,
marrying also a normal-sighted wife, had three children, all my-
opic. Two of these three married normal-sighted wives, and
among their children there was in each case one who had become
myopic, while the rest are as yet too young to display the defect,
for it never occurs until after eight years old. That the inherited
trait is in this case one caused by use, and not one arising spon-
taneously, does not affect the issue. There is proof that a modifi-
cation of structure existing in one parent may descend to children
when no similar modification is possessed by the other parent;
and, further, that this modification may be re-transmitted, also
without the aid of the second parent : facts which negative Lord
Salisbury's assumption.

Let us now consider what is the corollary as respects modifica-
tion of varieties and formation of species. Travelers tell us that
the Bushmen are so long-sighted that they can see as far with
the naked eye as a European can with a telescope. Allowing for
some exaggeration, it is safely to be inferred that they have marvel-
ous powers of discerning objects at great distances. How has this
trait arisen ? Small men as they are, wandering about in single
families, Bushmen have to guard against enemies, brute and hu-

576* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

man, and must be ever on the alert to kill or snare animals serving
for food. To identify distant moving objects as such or such, is
therefore essential to the preservation of life. Here is one who,
perhaps from some advantageous variation in the forms of the
lenses, or in the adjusting muscles, or in the retinal elements, has
vision so keen that he recognizes a man, or a lion, or a springbok,
when its distance is half a mile greater than that at which other
Bushmen can recognize it. What happens ? He is enabled the
sooner to take measures for his safety, or to make preparations
for a hunt ; and in either case has an increased chance of preserv-
ing life. By his wife, who has but the ordinary keenness of vision,
he has children, some of whom, if not all of whom, inherit this
peculiarity ; and for the same reasons as before, these have, other
things equal, better chances of surviving than the rest*. If among
their descendants some have the peculiarity in an increased degree,
if some inherit it in the same degree, and others in smaller degrees
in consequence of intercrossing, there will be a tendency, in virtue
of the more frequent survival of individuals who are wholly in-
heritors or partially inheritors, to increase the distance- vision of
the tribe : the stirp will spread more than other stirps. So that
even were there no other way of establishing a variation save
inheritance from a single varying individual, we may see how it
will, if of life-saving efficiency, become established.

But there is another way in which variations become estab-
lished. Creatures inhabiting the same region as the Bushmen
furnish an illustration. The general structure of the giraffe is
inter pretable only as resulting from the co-operation of both
factors in the production of species: the selection of variations
and the inheritance of acquired characters. But there is one trait
of structure attributable to natural selection alone. The giraffe
has a prehensile tongue, almost snakelike in form. This it curls
round the small branches of trees and pulls them into its mouth.
So that, other things equal, a giraffe with an unusually long
tongue is able to obtain twigs and clusters of leaves that are be-
yond the reach of those not similarly endowed ; and, when food is
scarce, has an advantage. As with the long-sighted Bushman so
with the long-tongued giraffe, descendants wholly or partially
inheriting the variation will form a prosperous and increasing
stirp. But now observe that besides extraordinary variations
there are the ordinary variations — variations such as those occur-
ring in the sizes of the hands among ourselves. Let us suppose
the average length of the giraffe's tongue to be one foot, and that
there are all degrees of greater lengths up to thirteen inches, and
all degrees of smaller lengths down to eleven inches : the num-
bers above and below the average being assumed equal. In the
prehension of the highest branchlets a number of the shorter-

LORD SALISBURY ON EVOLUTION, 577*

tongued will fail where a number of the longer-tongued succeed.
As every creature multiplies up to the limits set by the means of
subsistence, herds of giraffes must be from time to time under-
fed. At such times the short-tongued ones must be more under-
fed than the long-tongued ones. The difference of feeding may
not be such as to produce in a direct way greater mortality in the
one class than in the other, but it may readily tell indirectly.
Especially will there be more deaths of the weaker adults, and
the less vigorous young they have produced, when the herd is
chased by carnivores. Those which are a yard or two behind the
rest lose their lives ; and a very small defect in the constitutional
state of the adults, or the strength of the young, may entail the
slight differjBnce in speed implied. So that, other things equal,
more of the short-tongued and their offspring will die than of the
long-tongued and their offspring. Hence, without any special
choice of mates, it will result that in the next generation the aver-
age of length of tongue will be greater. Through subsequent
generations the same process will go on increasing this advan-
tageous variation, until some limit is reached at which disadvan-
tages check it, or at which the life- sustaining advantages from
some other variation become greater.

So that in the absence of any such improbable events as those
Lord Salisbury supposes to be necessary, there are two co-operat-
ing ways in which survival of the fittest establishes in a species a
useful modification of structure.

The great length of time required for the production of species
by the evolutionary process, is supposed by Lord Salisbury to
furnish a reason for disbelief. In support of his argument he
cites Lord Kelvin's conclusion that life can not have existed on
the Earth more than a hundred millions of years. Respecting
Lord Kelvin's estimate it may be remarked that the truth of a
conclusion depends primarily on the character of the premises ;
that mathematical processes do not furnish much aid in the
choice of premises ; that no mathematical genius, however trans-
cendent, can evolve true conclusions out of premises that are
either incorrect or incomplete ; and that while putting absolute
faith in Lord's Kelvin's reasonings, it is possible to doubt the
data with which he sets out. Suppressing criticism, however, let
us accept in full the hundred million years, and see what comes
of it. Lord Salisbury argues : —

*' If we think of that vast distance over which Darwin conducts us, from
the jelly-fish lying on the primeval beach to man as we know him now ;
if we reflect that the prodigious change requisite to transform one into the
other is made up of a chain of generations, each advancing by a minute
variation from the form of its predecessor, and if we further reflect that

TOL. XLVIII.— 41*

578* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

these successive changes are so minute that in the course of our historical
period— say three thousand years — this progressive variation has not ad-
vanced by a single step perceptible to our eyes, in respect to man or the
animals and plants with which man is familiar, we shall admit that for a
chain of change so vast, of which the smallest link is longer than our
recorded history, the biologists are making no extravagant claim when
they demand at least many hundred million years for the accomplishment
of the stupendous process."

I will not stop to criticise the assumption that the jelly-fish is
a remote ancestor of man ; but, accepting all his data, will simply
inquire how far Lord Salisbury's conclusion is warranted by them.
As introductory to the criticism, I can not do better than quote
another passage from the early essay named at the outset : merely
remarking that the physiologist referred to as adverse in 1852,
would not be thus referred to now. After remarking that those
who know nothing of the science of life may naturally " think the
hypothesis that all races of beings, man inclusive, may in process
of time have been evolved from the simplest monad, a ludicrous
one," the passage continues : —

" But for the physiologist, who knows that every individual being is so
evolved — who knows, further, that in their earliest condition the germs of
all plants and animals whatever are so similar, " that there is no appreci-
able distinction amongst them, which would enable it to be determined
whether a particular molecule is the germ of a Conferva or of an Oak, of a
Zoophyte or of a Man " ; * — for him to make a difl&culty of the matter is
inexcusable. Surely if a single cell may, when subjected to certain influ -
ences, become a man in the space of twenty years ; there is nothing absurd
in the hypothesis that under certain other influences, a cell may, in the
course of millions of years, give origin to the human race."

Suppose we pursue the comparison indicated in the last sen-
tence. Lord Salisbury invites us to reflect on "the prodigious
change " required to transform his hypothetical jelly-fish into a
man. He appears never to have reflected upon " the prodigious
change " which in a few months transforms the human ovum into
an infant. The contrast in structure may not be absolutely as
great, since, in the course of the change from infancy to maturity,
there is not only increase of size but some increase of structural
development. In their essentials, however, the two organizations
are alike : differences of proportion and finish chiefly distinguish-
ing them. Let us, then, compare the embryological changes with
the evolutionary changes, in their amounts and in the times taken
by them. The nine months of human gestation, more exactly
stated, is 280 days, that is 6,720 hours or 403,200 minutes. Thus,
then, the total change from the nucleated cell constituting the
human ovum to the developed structure of the infant just born, is

* Carpenter, Principles of Comparative Physiology, p. 474;

LORD SALISBURY ON EVOLUTION. 579*

divisible into 403,200 changes eacli occupying a minute. No one
of these changes is appreciable by the naked eye, or even by a
micrometer. Turn now to the other member of the comparison.
Let us suppose the total change between the primitive Protozoan,
or nucleated cell, and the human being proceeding from it, to be
divided into increments of change, equal in their number to those
gone through by the foetus. To compare the two sets of changes
we divide 100,000,000 years by 403,200. What is the result ? We
get nearly 250 years as the interval available for an amount of
change equal to that which the foetus undergoes in a minute.
Another way of presenting the facts yields results still more
striking. Many creatures of superior types take more than a year
to reach the reproductive age, and even among insects there are
some which retain their larval forms for a longer period. But,
bearing in mind that even among the Vertehraia the immense
majority of species reach the reproductive age in a year, while
some of them, as the inferior Rodents, reproduce in a shorter
term, and remembering that throughout the lower divisions of
the undetermined phylogenetic series preceding the vertebrates,
consisting of relatively small and simple creatures, the succession
of generations was probably more rapid, we may fitly, contem-
plating the whole series, take a year as the equivalent for a gen-
eration. If so, it follows that to achieve the transformation of
the Protozoon into Man, it requires only that in the space of 250
generations the change shall be as great as that which the human
foetus undergoes in a minute ; or, otherwise stating the fact, it
requires that each generation shall differ from the last by as
much as the foetus differs from itself after an interval of a fourth
of a second.

Should it be urged that the successive stages of the transfor-
mation gone through by the infant do not represent fully the
stages of transformation gone through in progressing from the
primitive nucleated cell to the human being, but that there have
been periods of excursive modification on various sides of the
direct line, and periods in which there was no advance, or in
which there was even some retrogression, it would still result that
if, in one generation, there occurred as much change of form as
the foetus undergoes in a minute, the remaining 240 odd genera-
tions might be set aside for non-progressive changes : a sufficiently
wide margin.

One more misconception embodied in Lord Salisbury's address
remains to be noted — not a misconception peculiar to himself, but
one which men at large entertain. Speaking of the groups of
chemical elements, he says : —

"The discovery of these co-ordinate families dimly points to some idea-

58o* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

tical origin, without suggesting the method of their genesis or the nature
of their common parentage. If they were organic beings all our difficul-
ties would be solved by muttering the comfortable word * evolution ' — one
of those indefinite words from time to time vouchsafed to humanity, which
have the gift of alleviating so many perplexities and masking so many
gaps in our knowledge. But the families of elementary atoms do not
breed ; and we can not therefore ascribe their ordered difference to acci-
dental variations perpetuated by heredity under the influence of natural
selection."

This passage obliges us to infer that Lord Salisbury supposes
the theory of evolution to be concerned only with things that
" breed." If the molecules of matter were " organic beings/' he
says, " the comfortable word ' evolution ' " might be thought to
suggest a solution ; but since they are not organic beings, evolu-
tion has no place. Apparently, then. Lord Salisbury thinks evo-
lution is concerned only with animals and plants. It is difficult
to believe that, well acquainted as he is with the science of the
day, he really means that which his words imply. We seem al-
most bound to assume an inadvertence of expression or a lapse of
thought. Still as his statement and his apparent belief have
been put before a million or two of readers, it seems needful to
do something toward dissipating the misapprehension caused,
by briefly indicating what is meant by evolution as rightly
understood.

The Cosmos as a whole and in all its parts has reached its
present state either supernaturally or naturally ; and if naturally
then not living things only but all other things have come natu-
rally to be what they are. A doctrine which alleges evolution
for the animate world and assumes creation of the inanimate
world is absurd. Evolution, if alleged at all, must be alleged as
coextensive with all existence — save that which is undergoing
the reverse process of dissolution.

One who sees that our interpretations must leave us for ever
ignorant concerning the data of the process — the space and the
time, the matter and the motion, as well as the ultimate energy
manifested through them — may yet rationally seek a proximate
interpretation. If things of all kinds, inorganic, organic, and
superorganic, have become what they are, not supernaturally but
naturally, the implication is that their present state is the out-
come of preceding states ; and that the genesis of changes through-
out the past has been of like nature with the genesis of changes
at present. What, then, is the most dominant trait common to
successions of changes ?

A thing ever being modified and re-modified diverges more
and more from its original condition : accumulated changes pro-
duce transformation. What is the general nature of that pro-
gressive transformation which constitutes evolution ? The first

LORD SALISBURY ON EVOLUTION, 581*

answer to this question was suggested on observing the changes
passed through by every unfolding plant and animal. Immeas-
urably as do the multitudinous kinds of organisms differ from
one another, yet the unfoldings of them proceed in similar ways.
The detailed changes gone through are infinitely varied, but the
general change is the same for all. It has since become apparent
that the abstract formula expressing this transformation in all
living things, also expresses the transformation which is, and has
been, in progress everywhere. The Solar System, in passing from
its primitive state to its present state, has exemplified it ; and, if
we accept Lord Kelvin's conclusion respecting the dissipation of
its energy and consequent ultimate fate, it will continue to exem-
plify it. The transformation of the Earth from those early stages
in which its surface began to solidify, down to its present stage,
has likewise conformed to the general law. Among living things
it is conformed to not only in the unfolding of every organism,
but also, if we draw the conclusion pointed to above, by the
organic world in general, considered as an aggregate of species.
The phenomena of mind, in rising from its lowest forms in infe-
rior creatures up to its form in Man, and again in rising from the
lowest human form to the highest, illustrate it. It is again illus-
trated by the successive stages of social progress, beginning with
groups of savages and ending with civilized nations. And we see
it no less displayed in all the products of social life — in language,
in the industrial arts, in the development of literature, in the
genesis of science.

Is this inductive generalization capable of deductive verifica-
tion ? Does this uniformity of process result from uniformity of
cause ? The answer is — Yes. As the changes universally in
progress now and through all past time have resulted in trans-
formations having certain common traits, so also, in the actions
everywhere producing them, there are certain common traits.
However vast or however minute, every aggregate is like every
other aggregate in being subject to the actions of outer things
and in having parts that act on one another. Be it the Solar
System, which by its motion through space shows that the Stellar
Universe around infl^uences it, and which shows that its compo-
nent bodies influence one another, or be it an infusorium exposed
to currents and to living things in the surrounding water, and
made up of interdependent organs, we are equally shown that ex-
ternal incident forces affect everything, and that everything is
affected by the mutual actions of its parts. But if there is a fun-
damental unity in the relations of aggregates to their environ-
ments and of their components to one another, there must also
be a fundamental unity in the processes of change set up in all
cases. Hence, then, a certain community of character in the

582* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

transformations gradually produced. The empirical generaliza-
tion indicated above as reached by contemplation of phenomena
of various orders, becomes a rational generalization on finding
that throughout these various orders of phenomena a like co-
operation of causes inevitably works out similar observed effects.
It is not by accident but by necessity that these transformations
of all kinds have common traits.

This is not the place in which to explain and illustrate this
universal law of transformation and these universal causes of
transformation. Here I am concerned merely to indicate their
scope, and to say that the 'Doctrine of Evolution, rightly con-
ceived, has for its subject-matter not the changes exhibited by
the organic world only, but also the changes which went on dur-
ing an enormous period before life began, and the changes which
have gone on since life rose to its highest form, and Man, passing
into the associated state, gave origin to the endlessly varied prod-
ucts of social life. It has for its subject-matter the entire cosmic
process, from nebular condensation down to the development of
picture-records into written language, or the formation of local
dialects; and its general result is to show that all the minor
transformations in their infinite varieties are parts of the one
vast transformation, and display throughout the same law and
cause — that the Infinite and Eternal Energy has manifested itself
everywhere and always in modes ever unlike in results but ever
like in principle.

How utterly different the popular conception of evolution is
from evolution as rightly conceived will now be manifest. The
prevailing belief is doubly erroneous — contains an error within
an error. The theory of natural selection is wrongly supposed to
be identical with the theory of organic evolution ; and the theory
of organic evolution is wrongly supposed to be identical with the
theory of evolution at large. In current thought the entire trans-
formation is included in one part of it, and that part of it is in-
cluded in one of its factors. From his place of vantage Lord
Salisbury might have done much to dissipate these delusions ;
but, unhappily, both his language and his arguments have
tended to do the reverse. — Nineteenth Century,

Sir Joseph Lister has been chosen president for the Liverpool meeting
of the British Association, to be held in 1896, beginning September 16th.
The meeting for 1897 was appointed to be held in Toronto.

Prof. Weismann proposes germinal selection as the name of a hypoth-
esis supplementary to that of natural selection, by which he explains an
apparent protection of useful variations from their first appearance, so that
when wanted for natural selection they are always at hand.

EXPIRED AIR AND VENTILATION, 583'

EXPIRED AIR AND PROBLEMS OF VENTILATION.

THE following are substantially the conclusions reached by
Drs. J. S. Billings, S. Weir Mitchell, and D. H. Bergey re-
garding the composition of expired air and its effects upon animal
life, which are published in the Smithsonian Contributions.
These contradictions of certain accepted views are important and
likely to give rise to discussion.

There is no peculiar organic matter which is poisonous to
animals (excluding man) in the air expired by healthy mice, spar-
rows, rabbits, guinea-pigs, or men. The injurious effects of such
air appeared to be due entirely to the diminution of oxygen or the
increase of carbonic acid, or to a combination of these two fac-
tors. It is very improbable that the minute quantity of organic
matter contained in the air expired from human lungs has any
deleterious influence upon men who inhale it in ordinary rooms.
In ordinary quiet respiration no bacteria are contained in the
expired air. In the act of coughing or sneezing such organisms
may be thrown out. The minute quantity of ammonia, or of com-
bined nitrogen, or other oxidizable matters found in the condensed
moisture of human breath appears to be largely due to products
of the decomposition of organic matter which is constantly going
on in the mouth and pharynx. The air in an inhabited room,
such as a hospital ward, in which experiments were made, is con-
taminated from many sources besides the expired air of the occu-
pants, and the most important of these contaminations are in the
form of minute particles or dusts. The experiments on the air of
the hospital ward showed that in this dust there were micro-or-
ganisms, including some of the bacteria which produce inflamma-
tion and suppuration, and it is probable that these were the only
really dangerous elements in this air. The results of experi-
ments, in which animals were compelled to breathe air vitiated
by the products of either their own respiration or by those of
other animals, make it improbable that there is any peculiar vol-
atile poisonous matter in the air expired by healthy men and ani-
mals other than carbonic acid. The effects of reduction of oxygen
and increase of carbonic acid, to a certain degree, appear to
be the same in artificial mixtures of these gases as in air in
which the change in their proportions has been produced
by respiration. An excessively high or low temperature has a
decided effect upon the production of asphyxia by diminution of
oxygen and increase of carbonic acid. At high temperatures the
respiratory centers are affected, where evaporation from the
skin and mucous surfaces is checked by the air being saturated
with moisture ; at low temperatures the consumption of oxygen

584* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

increases and tlie demand for it becomes more urgent. The pro-
portion of increase of carbonic acid and of diminution of oxygen
which has been found to exist in badly ventilated churches,
schools, theaters, or barracks is not sufficiently great to account
for the discomfort which such conditions produce in many per-
sons, and there is no evidence to show that such an amount of
change in the normal proportion of these gases has any influence
upon the increase of death-rates which statistical evidence has
shown to exist among persons living in crowded and unventilated
rooms. It has been well established by observation and statistics
that tuberculosis and pneumonia are the diseases most prevalent
among persons living and working in unventilated rooms. But
consumption and pneumonia are caused by specific bacteria, which
for the most part gain access to the air passages by adhering to
particles of dust which are inhaled, and it is probable that the
greater liability to these diseases of persons living in crowded and
unventilated rooms is to a large extent due to the special liability
of such rooms to become infected with the germs of these diseases.

The discomfort produced by crowded, ill- ventilated rooms in
persons not accustomed to them is not due to the excess of car-
bonic acid, nor to bacteria, nor in most cases to dusts of any
kind. The two great causes of such discomfort, though not the
only ones, are excessive temperature and unpleasant odors. The
cause of the unpleasant, musty odor which is perceptible to most
persons on passing from the outer air into a crowded, unven-
tilated room is unknown; it may, in part, be due to volatile
products of decomposition contained in the expired air of per-
sons having decayed teeth, foul mouths, or certain disorders of
the digestive apparatus, and it is due in part to volatile fatty
acids given off with, or produced from, the excretions of the skin.
The results of this investigation, taken in connection with the re-
sults of other recent researches, indicate that some of the theories
upon which modern systems of ventilation are based are either
without foundation or doubtful, and that the problem of securing
comfort and health in inhabited rooms requires the consideration
of the best methods of preventing or disposing of dusts of various
kinds, of properly regulating temperature and moisture, and of
preventing the entrance of poisonous gases, like carbonic oxide
derived from heating and lighting apparatus, rather than upon
simply diluting the air to a certain standard of proportion of car-
bonic acid present.

It would be unwise, however, to conclude from the facts given
in this report that the standards of air supply for the ventilation
of inhabited rooms, which are based on the results of Pettenkofer's
work, are too large.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

557

%&xtox'B SaM^-

THE ECCLESIASTICAL VIEW OF
EDUCATION.

OUR attention has been drawn to
an article by an excellent con-
tributor of our own, Dean Car-
michael, of Montreal, which ap-
peared a few months ago in the
Canada Educational Monthly, on
the subject of " Religion and Edu-
cation." The writer is candid, able,
and eminently well-meaning, but we
find it impossible, nevertheless, to
agree with the views he puts forth,
or at least with his main contention.
The dean is much impressed with
the rapid progress which education
has been making in the modern
world, and he prophesies that, if the
same rate of progress is maintained
for seventy-five or a hundred years
longer, it will be impossible in any
civilized country to gather together
so ignorant a crowd as that which
tore down the Bastile in 1789. Does
that mean that society will then
be safe from such convulsions as
marked the French Revolution ? By
no means: crowds may again gather
for deadly work, but they will be
educated crowds, each man able to
write his name and read his paper
and proceed with the business of de-
struction "as an intelligent being,
instead of being whirled to it as an
atom in a vortex." The dean sees
signs of great disturbance in the
present day, and he thinks that edu-
cation, as it is now being imparted
to the masses, is rendering society
not more but less stable. " The mil-
lions," he says, " that in times past
were only used to dig and delve, to
fill up giant armies, to crowd pauper
workhouses, to tenant penal settle-
ments," are being reached by the
light of education and are "fast

growing into mental as well as
physical power." One would be
disposed to think that this was not
a very lamentable prospect, but it
fills Dean Carmichael's mind with
the gravest apprehensions. Why ?
Because he does not see how the
minority are going to hold this vast
educated majority in check. That
the majority must be held in check,
unless society is to go to smash, he
seems to consider axiomatic. The
specific complaint he makes against
modern education is that it is vir-
tually divorced from religion. " The
whole tide," he says, "of modern
civilization, as set going and lauded
by the middle and higher classes of
society, desires either to sweep dis-
tinctive religious teaching clean out
of the world's curriculum, or to put
it into a corner with a fool's cap on
its head. ... No greater anom-
aly, I think, has ever existed than
that of institutions based upon the
open principle that the Bible is the
foundation of all education, practi-
cally joining hands with unbelievers
the world over to make the Bible
the least prominent volume of in-
struction in public education."

These quotations at once indicate
the writer's standpoint and suggest
our reply. The "anomaly" which
appears so striking and inexplicable
in his eyes loses much of its extraor-
dinary character on close examina-
tion. The question is this : Why
are Christian parents so generally
willing, where they are not actually
desirous, that the Bible should not
be made an authoritative text-book
in the public schools ? Many rea-
sons may be assigned. In the first
place, they know that the Bible as it
stands, in its entirety, is not adapted

558

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

to be a school-book. A scbool-book,
as the term is now and has always
been understood, is one specially pre-
pared for the uses and needs of the
school, and containing nothing that
is not required for purposes of in-
struction. This is not the case with
the Bible, which was not written or
put together with any such view, and
much the larger part of which is quite
unsuited to school use. In the second
place, parents know that the Bible is
not a book which the first comer can
interpret ; certainly they are not pre-
pared that the first comer should
interpret it to their children. In
large part it is a repertory of mys-
teries which the ordinary certificated
teacher has no recognized fitness for
handling. If we take even those
teachings of the sacred volume which
might be considered of the greatest
practical importance for purposes of
moral instruction, we find that they
are far from being viewed in the
same light by all professedly Chris-
tian parents. Take, for example, the
subject of future punishment : the
views which one parent might think
salutary another would exceedingly
object to having placed before his
child. We know of a case in which
a clergyman of Dean Carmichael's
communion was called in to visit a
dying man who had previously been
visited by a Methodist minister. He
found the man's mind greatly dis-
turbed by what the Methodist had
told him of the nature of sin and
the necessity of conversion, and had
much diflBculty in relieving him from
the excessive fears — excessive from
Ms point of view — which this teach-
ing had awakened. Fiaally, he told
the man that what the Methodist had
said was all stuff, and that, if he was
sorry for his sins, that was enough ;
he need have no anxiety. We men-
tion this to illustrate the radically
different views which different sects
hold, not on minor but on major

and most practical questions of bib-
lical doctrine. If on these there are
divergent views, what anomaly is
there in the general disposition of
Christian parents to acquiesce in the
disuse of the Bible as a public-school
text-book, and to look for its proper
interpretation and application to their
own chosen and specially-trained
spiritual pastors ?

But these are not the only rea-
sons. The fact can not be ignored
that there is much in the Bible
which, from a scientific and histor-
ical point of view, does not harmo-
nize with the general character of
modern education. Take the several
branches of so-called " secular educa-
tion," and we find that each bears in
the strongest manner the impress of
the " positive " spirit. If there is any
idea that is excluded more rigorously
than any other from the whole com-
pass of ordinary scholastic studies it
is the idea of the supernatural. No
secular history would be read in our
schools to-day, or in the schools
of any enlightened community, in
which the fortunes of nations were
represented as controlled by special
divine intervention. The time has
passed when plagues, earthquakes,
and famines could be historically
interpreted as expressions of divine
displeasure ; and the time has almost
passed for any useful introduction of
the doctrine of design in connection
with the study of Nature. The spirit
of the inductive philosophy has pen-
etrated everywhere: we should not
seek in vain for its signs even in the
kindergarten. How, then, we are
compelled to ask, can the Bible,
which deals in miracle from the first
page to the last, be employed as a
regular text-book in the schools
without either suffering in its influ-
ence from the prevalent tone of the
other school studies, or marring more
or less the effect of those studies
by its constant championship of the

EDITOR'S TABLE.

559

supernatural idea? It may be said
that so long as the Bible is read and
expounded and treated as authorita-
tive in the churches, the same con-
flict between naturalism outside the
Church and supematuralism within
it will exist; but to tbis may be an-
swered that on the clergy rests the
responsibility for finding a modus
Vivendi between the two, and that,
with their special learning and the
special interest they have in the
matter, much may be possible to
them that is wholly beyond the
scope of the lay teacher in a public
school. There are clergymen who
tell us to-day that it is in no wise
necessary to believe in the biblical
story of creation as a record of facts,
and some are almost prepared to dis-
pense with all belief in the miracu-
lous ; but could the school teacher in
whose hands the Bible was placed
as an authoritative text-book be al-
lowed or expected to indulge in such
critical exercitations ? The idea is
ridiculous : a text-book is a text-
book, and its meaning must lie on
the surface; its words must be sus-
ceptible of being taken at their face
value ; and no special gifts or graces
must be required for its satisfactory
use as a text-book.

That the Bible as a whole is a
most impressive book ; that it bears
a noble stamp of earnestness and
moral elevation ; that it contains
moral teaching of inestimable value
— these are propositions which we
should be the last to deny ; but, ad-
mitting them to the full, we still
consider that it is a wise and true in-
stinct which reconciles the majority
even of those who place the high-
est estimate on the Bible to dispens-
mg with its use in the public schools.

But how about those masses who,
according to Dean Carmichael, are
becoming educated, and owing to that
very fact more dangerous than the
mob that stormed the Bastile ? That

all the signs of the times are favor-
able we by no means think ; but as
regards the influence of popular edu-
cation, what we dread is not the
awakening of the intellect of the mul-
titude so much as the stifling of it
and the enslaving of it to false ideas.
So far as popular education has an
awakening effect, its influence, we
doubt not, will be good. A man does
not become dangerous because he
has learned to sign his name ; but he
becomes dangerous both to himself
and to others if he has been taught
to dissociate cause and effect ; if he
has got it into his head that benefits
may be obtained without labor ; if
his brain has been muddled with the
notion that others are responsible for
making him happy and prosperous.
We dread an education which in any
way withdraws a youth from the
salutary influence of natural reac-
tions and tends to give him an arti-
ficial conception of the world he lives
in. We dread an education which
favors the formation of indolent hab-
its, or which confuses and enfeebles
the mind by calling upon it to pur-
sue abstract trains of thought when
it should be occupied with the con-
crete. We dread an education which
at once excites ambition and disin-
clines for toil ; which gives a smat-
tering of many things, but no true
sense of power or competence in re-
gard to anything ; which represses
individuality and so robs character
of a main element of strength. And
all these unfavorable results, we fear,
are wrought by much hi the educa-
tion that is imparted to-day. But to
try to conquer our evils or avert our
perils by driving back the masses into
ecclesiastical penfolds is as chimeri-
cal an idea as could well be conceived.
The world is willing, and more than
willing, to listen to those who can
shed a glory upon human life bor-
rowed from regions of faith and hope
that lie above our ordinary range of

560

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

thought ; but it is not willing, and
never henceforth will be willing, to
substitute any form of theological
prescription for the authority which
it has learned to. attach to verified
truth. If we have battles to fight we
must fight them, and perhaps, when
it comes to that, we may learn a wis-
dom which in times of comparative
ease and prosperity we were inca-
pable of learning. Certain it is that
in this world everything has its spe-
cific cause, which means that every
evil has its specific remedy. Trouble,
it was long ago observed, does not
spring out of the ground ; it is for us
to find out where it does spring
from ; and when the trouble be-
comes acute, our intellectual opera-
tions are wont to be greatly stimu-
lated.

The dean would have us restore
the Bible to the schools and place the
latter in effect under the control of
the clergy. Our idea is to study
out the problem of education in the
widest sense until we have, in a
really effectual manner, correlated it
with the whole life of society. The
former is the ecclesiastical remedy
for social ills; the latter is the sci-
entific, and we believe it to be that
which the future is destined to jus-
tify.

THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVEBSART OF
THE FRENCH INSTITUTE.

The Institut de France, popular-
ly known as the French Academy,
and which is undoubtedly the oldest
and the most famous of the world's
learned societies, celebrated with
great ceremony and with the active
participation of the Government of
France, on October 23d-26th last, the
hundredth anniversary of its exist-
ence ; one of the most noted and
pleasant features of which was the
hearty welcome extended to its for-
eign associates and corresponding

members. As it is generally under-
stood that these two titles are the
highest honors which France can
award in testimony of intellectual
work actually done by foreigners —
the cross of the Legion of Honor
being often conferred for merely po-
litical reasons— it is a matter of in-
terest to know what citizens of the
United States have been the recipi-
ents of these honors. Preliminary,
however, to their specification, it is
desirable to explain the organization
of the institute. It consists of five
departments or divisions, each of
which is designated as an academy
—namely, the Academie Fran^aise,
Academic des Inscriptions et Belles-
Lettres, Academie des Sciences,
Academie des Beaux- Arts, Academie
des Sciences Morales et Politique.
Each academy, except the Academic
Fran^aise, which comprises a general
reunion of all the other academies, is
divided into sections for the con-
sideration of special subjects, and is
made up of members of the institute
who are regarded as specialists, or
acknowledged authorities in differ-
ent departments of learning. Thus,
the domain of the "Academie des In-
scriptions et Belles-Lettres " embraces
the learned languages, antiquities,
monuments. Oriental literature, and
history ; that of " Sciences," astrono-
my, geography, navigation, general
physics, chemistry, zoology, botany,
medicine, and surgery ; that of
" Beaux- Arts," painting, sculpture,
architecture, engraving, and music ;
and that of " Sciences Morales et Poli-
tique," morals, philosophy, jurispru-
dence, political economy, finance, and
philosophical history. Each of the
academies holds weekly meetings,
and once a year the five academies as
a rule hold a public meeting in com-
mon ; and occasionally other general
meetings for the reception of new
members and the distribution of
prizes. In virtue of endowments, be-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

56.

quests, and the like, the institute is in
receipt of annual revenue of at least
five million francs ($100,000), which
it distributes annually in the form of
prizes for merit in respect to literary-
work, invenfions, scientific discover-
ies or researches, and also for ex-
amples of what are termed "impe-
cunious " virtue.

The institute, comprising the
above five academies, is primarily
composed of forty members, who by
rule or custom are always and ex-
clusively natives of France, and who,
on the assumption that their achieve-
ments in the various departments of
learning have assured to them per-
manent reputation, are popularly
designated as the Immortels. Each
one of these receives an annual life
salary from the state of twelve hun-
dred francs, and a small additional
sum contingent on personal attend-
ance at the regular meetings of the
academies and Institute.

Besides the primary or permanent
members, the institute is made up
of two other classes of members —
namely, Associes Etrangers (for-
eign associates) and Correspondants.
The number of the former is lim-
ited to thirty-two persons of for-
eign birth and residence, and com-
prises such names as Gladstone,
Alma Tadema, Sir Frederick Leigh-
ton, President of the British Eoyal
Academy, Max Muller, Sir William
Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Sir John
Millais, and Verdi, the Italian com-
poser. Of the names of members of
this class deceased within a compar-
atively recent period may be men-
tioned those of Agassiz, Helmholtz,
De Candolle, Richard Owen, Curtius,
the German historian, and Bunsen
and Wohler, the celebrated German
chemists. As yet the name of no
citizen of the United States has been
inscribed on the roll of the foreign
associates of the institute, although
it is understood that in a recent elec-
voL. XLvni.— 40

tion to fill the vacancy occasioned by
the death of a member, the name of
Prof. Simon Newcomb, of Washing-
ton, lacked but a few votes of receiv-
ing this honor.

Next in order in the organization
of the institute is the class of corre-
sponding members, an election to
which, irrespective of nationality, is
regarded as a very high honor,
though not as great as a membership
among the thirty-two foreign asso-
ciates. The number of correspond-
ents reported in the Annuaire of
the institute for 1893 was two hun-
dred and fifty-six, about one third of
whom were French citizens. The
following list exhibits the names and
the date of the election of the corre-
spondents, including those recently
deceased, who have been elected from
the United States :

Prof. James D. Dana, zoologist,
New Haven, Conn., 1873, deceased;
David A. Wells, economist, Norwich,
Conn., 1874, elected to fill the va-
cancy occasioned by the death of
John Stuart Mill ; Prof. Simon New-
comb, astronomer, Washington, D.
C, 1874 ; Prof. William Whitney,
linguist, New Haven, 1877, deceased;
George Bancroft, historian, 1877,
deceased ; Asaph Hall, astronomer,
Washington, D. C, 1879; Benjamin
Apthorpe Gould, astronomer, Cam-
bridge, Mass., 1881; Richard Morris
Hunt, artist, 1883, deceased ; James
Hall, geologist, Albany, N. Y., 1884;
Alexander Agassiz, naturalist, Cam-
bridge, Mass., 1887; Prof. Samuel
Langley, Superintendent Smithso-
nian Institution, astronomer, 1888 —
seven living members, none of whom
were present at the centennial cele-
bration. Among some of the present
or recent correspondents from coun-
tries other than France and the
United States may be mentioned the
names of Momsen, the distinguished
German historian ; Struve, the Rus-
sian astronomer; Lockyer, Huggins,

562

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Huxley, Burne-Jones, Bryce, Fitz-
james Stephen, Goschen, Sir John
Hooker, England ; Nordenskiold,
Sweden ; Vogt, Switzerland; Vir-
chow, Roscher, Germany; Lanciani,
Rome; Jacoby, Austria, etc.

The Institute of France is not as
important an organization as it was
fifty years ago, but it is still influen-
tial through its elections, which aire
regai'ded as acknowledgment of sci-
entific merit, and the prizes it annu-
ally awards for original research, dis-
coveries, and inventions. It main-
tains its authority not upon its pres-
tige in the past, but upon the fact that
it always enrolls among its members

the most distinguished scientists and
writers of France, and such citizens
of other countries as have in its
judgment done great and original
work in any department of human
knowledge. In the opinion of one
of its most distinguished living mem-
bers, M. Berthelot, the noted French
chemist, and present (1895) French
Minister of Foreign Affairs, the
Academy of Sciences, " if it no longer
has the initiative of discoveries, it
at least constitutes a dike against
charlatanism, and aids in giving
the widest publicity to the achieve-
ments of French and foreign sa-
vants/''

SPECIAL BOOKS.

The world is always conscious of an addition to its intellectual wealth
when a leader in original scientific work writes a book. Men like to hear
from the masters, especially when they speak, as Prof. Young does, a lan-
guage that inspires while it instructs.* When the first edition of this
uniquely intei*esting book was put forth in 1881 a warm welcome awaited
it, not only from astronomers who were eager to learn what one of the
foremost investigators of solar phenomena had to say about the sun, but
from all readers who take pleasure in seeing the literary powers of our
mother tongue turned to useful account in the presentation of the facts of
science. And the welcome grew as the circle of the book's readers rapidly
widened. No volume of the International Scientific Series has proved more
continuously popular.

But the fourteen years that have elapsed since the first appearance of
Prof. Young's book have witnessed remarkable advances in astronomy,
and particularly with regard to our knowledge of the sun. For a time it
was possible to keep the book up to date by notes and appendices to its suc-
cessive editions. At length this method of revision no longer sufficed, and
the author undertook a thorough rehandling of the work, involving the re-
writing of considerable portions, and the addition in the text of much that
was needed " to make the book fairly representative of the solar science of
to-day." That in its revised form it now answers the above definition,
quoted from the author's new preface, no one who knows Prof. Young's
habitual caution and precision of statement will doubt.

No authoritative utterance concerning a progressive branch of science

♦ The Sun. By Charles A. Young, Ph. D., LL, D., ProfeBSor of Astronomy in Princeton University.
New and revised edition. Pp. 363, 12mo. New York : D. Appleton & Co. Price, $2.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 563

ever came more opportunely than this new edition of The Sun. Within the
past few years discovery has followed discovery, and th*feory has obscured
theory in solar physics so rapidly that the general reader, desirous to keep
on safe ground, has found himself in a more or less uncomfortable position.
One authority, of great weight, has been telling him that the " faculae" and
the "prominences" are identical phenomena; another authority, of per-
haps equal weight, has assured him that this is not so. Likewise, in regard
to the most interesting question of the connection of sun spots with terres-
trial magnetism: on the one hand stand positive assertions of an intimate
relationship of that kind, and on the other hand stands Lord Kelvin
with his dictum— and the dicta of Kelvin in science have frequently been
deemed of equal weight to those of Lord Coke in law— asserting that " we
may be forced to conclude that the supposed connection between magnetic
storms and sun spots is unreal, and that the seeming agreement between
the periods has been a mere coincidence."

Then there have been new theories of sun-spots, new determinations of
the solar parallax, new identifications of elements in the sun, the wonderful
work of Langley on the infra-red portion of the spectrum, the questions
raised by Lockyer's theory of the "dissociation" of elements in the sun,
the question of the existence of oxygen in the solar atmosphere, the ques-
tion whether the sun-spots are really depressions, and many other new and
puzzling things, the most surprising of all being, perhaps, the discovery in
a Norwegian mineral of " helium," an element which had been found in
the sun as long ago as 1868, but the presence of which on the earth had
never been detected.

Amid such a confusion the unprofessional wayfarer in science needs a
guiding hand, and that is what Prof. Young now most seasonably ofPers.
There is a fairness, a power of discrimination, and a judicial balance in our
author's treatment of vexed questions that must create in the reader's mind
both confidence and admiration. His brief, shrewd reply to the remark of
Lord Kelvin, quoted above, concerning sun-spots and magnetic storms, will
find many highly interested readers, and it is made all the more attractive
by the vista of possible future discovery which it opens with the suggestion
that " it is not perhaps outside- the limits of possibility that both the solar
and terrestrial disturbance have a common origin in some invasion of
power or matter from outer space — that the solar tumult is the brother, and
not the father, of our own aurora."

Prof. Young's discussion of Helium, its Identification and Properties,
is, of course, luminous and informing in the highest degree. Nothing can
be more pleasing than to note the manner in which an unexpected dis-
covery, full of momentous consequences for the work with which he is
identified, is received, assimilated, and irradiated by the mind of a leader
in science.

Among the new matters treated, one of the most interesting, because it
relates to hoped-for advances in the future, is the effort to render the
corona visible when the sun is not eclipsed. It is certainly encouraging to
know that to Prof. Young " the case appears by no means absolutely hope-
less." When we remember the advance in our knowledge of the promi-
nences following Janssen's and Lockyer's discovery in 1868, that those
phenomena could be rendered visible with the spectroscope in ordinary
daylight, and consider the ignorance that probably would have prevailed

564 POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY,

concerning them if they had remained unseen except during eclipses, we
can echo our author's opinion that success in revealing the mysterious
corona in a similar manner " is certainly devoutly to be desired."

Prof. Young has so long been a conspicuous and brilliant figure in the
field of spectroscopic investigation that one naturally turns to his revised
chapter on The Spectroscope and the Solar Spectrum with pleasing antici-
pations which are not disappointed. The results of the immense work
accomplished in the last decade are here ranged in order with an expert
hand, and the remaining gaps in the line of acquired knowledge are made
clearly apparent. The list of elements known to exist in the sun has been
largely extended in the past few years, but still many that go to constitute
a great portion of the crust of the earth have not been recognized in the
solar spectrum. Why are they absent ? Is it simply a failure to show
themselves, or do they not exist there at all ? Prof. Young indicates his
preference for the view that the missing elements are not really absent
from the sun, but only nonapparent, although he points out that the answer
to the question is not easy. And then he goes on to marshal some most
interesting facts and considerations relative to this subject, and discusses
briefly but luminously such topics as the multiple spectra of certain ele-
ments, Locl?yer's revival of the old " pantogen " speculation and his theory
of " basic lines " common to the spectra of different substances, the later
work on the question of solar oxygen, etc.

While this book is a record of facts and achievements rather than of
theories and attempts at the interpretation of mysteries, yet the great
questions still remaining to be answered are, of course, discussed, and in a
masterly manner. A fine instance of the author's method of dealing with
such subjects is shown in the chapter on The Sun's Light and Heat, where
he succinctly reviews questions like these: ''How is the sun's heat main-
tained?" "How long has it lasted already ?" ''How long will it con-
tinue ? " " Are there any signs of either increase or diminution ? " It is
undoubtedly true, as Prof. Young remarks, that to such questions, '' in the
present state of science, only somewhat vague and unsatisfactory replies
are possible," yet they are questions the replies to which, however incom-
plete, will always command deep interest. And if the facts and specula-
tions accumulated since 1881 have not thrown much light upon these
subjects, something has been gained in a clearer comprehension of both
the strength and the weakness of prevailing theories. Those are pregnant
sentences, for instance, in which, after pointing out the objections to the
late Dr. Siemens's theory of the sun, he remarks: "And yet one almost
regrets that the theory can not be accepted, for it would remove very
serious difficulties that now embarrass the problem of the evolution of our
planetary system. The accepted contraction theory of Helmholtz certainly
appears to allow too little time for the sun's lifetime of radiant activity to
be consistent with a reasonable explanation of the process by which the
present state of things has come about."

In briefly summarizing the principal additions noted in the new edition
the following may be particularly mentioned : The latest work on the solar
parallax, including Newcomb's results and the observations on the minor
planets Victoria and Sappho ; accounts of all recent advances and discov-
eries in solar spectroscopy and spectro-photography, including the work of
Hale, Deslandres, Duner, etc. ; a statement of the latest accredited theories

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 565

concerning sun spots, sucli as Schaeberle's and Oppolzer's, and an account
of Duner's and the author's work on sun-spot spectra; a summary of recent
progress in prominence photography, etc. ; facts and conclusions concern-
ing the corona, based on recent eclipses; an account of Langley's infra-red
spectrum investigation, and of the work of De Chatelier, Wilson, Gray, and
Scheiner on solar radiation and temperature; and, finally, a most interest-
ing supplementary note, already mentioned, on Helium. The size of the
volume has been increased by nearly thirty pages, and the number of illus-
trations has been raised from eighty -two to one hundred.

The Sun, in its new form, certainly deserves, and will unquestionably
obtain, an even greater circulation than that which it has hitherto enjoyed.

"Live" natural history is what Prof. Miall* would lead the young
naturalist to. While he has no disparagement for systematic zoology, he
wishes to revive an interest in the writings of Swammerdam, Reaumur,
Lyonnet, and De Geer, and to promote that observation of the structure and
habits of living animals which those authors pursued with most profitable
results. In so doing, he is only restoring a balance that has been dis-
turbed of late years. It is certainly an attractive field into which our au-
thor invites the amateur. Who does not love to follow a stream through its
alternations of still deeps and rippling shallows, or to stroll along the shore
of the ever-moving sea ? Whether one be occupied with sport or science,
the movement of the water and the succession of traces of its action upon
the land yield no small enhancement of pleasure. Aquatic insects do not
form a distinct class. Representatives of eleven orders are described in
this book, so that the spice of variety is not wanting in their study. Under
the guidance of Prof. Miall one may watch at leisure the swiftly darting
whirligig beetle or examine the fine case of instruments of the female gnat
(there are no mosquitoes, our author says, in zoology). Other insects classed
as aquatic, because they pass their larval and pupal stages in water, are
drone flies (the oxen-born bees of the ancients), dragon flies, pond-skaters,
tube-making caddis-worms, etc. ; all are air-breathers in the adult form. A
phenomenon which profoundly affects the lives of these creatures is the
surface film of water. By curious adaptations they take advantage of its
tension, while on the other hand some minute creatures find it a death-trap.
The reader must not look for a severely logical arrangement in this book.
There is an introduction in which the invasion of the waters by insects,
the surface film, live natural history, and other topics are discussed philo-
sophically. Directions for capturing specimens will be found not among
the preliminary matter, but on page 114, and there are biographical notes
about the old naturalists where the first extended citations from their re-
spective writings occur. In the illustrations sufficient magnifying power
has been used to make the organs of the insects readily distinguishable,
with the result of giving some of the little creatures a truly formidable ap-
pearance.

* The Natural History of Aquatic Insects. By L, C. Miall, F. R. S. Pp. 395, 12mo. London and
New York : Macmillan & Co. Price, Qs. ; $1.75.

566

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

GENERAL NOTICES.

We can hardly conceive a more fascinat-
ing subject than the one treated of in this
book.* Birds, by their song, their marvelous
flight, their mysterious migrations, the inde-
pendent intelligences among them, which
have led in past times to many species be-
coming the associates of man, offer a most
delightful subject for study. It is interest-
ing to recall the fact that Cuvier and his
contemporaries regarded the birds as a closed
type, a group that seemed completely isolated
from the other classes of vertebrates, and
now they are known to be closely related to
the reptiles. Mr. Headley has devoted con-
siderable space in his book to these reptilian
affinities. In his chapter on the embryo bird
he might have added other reptilian charac-
ters, such as the claws which are seen on the
fingers on the embryo sea-pigeon ; particu-
larly he might have described more fully the
tarsal bones, showing that the ascending
process of the astragalus had an independ-
ent center of ossification, and represented
in the embryo the intermedium wedged in
between the distal end of the tibia and
fibula as shown in the salamanders. Birds
may be cited for almost every point defined
by Darwin in his theory of natural selection,
not only in their reptilian affinities, as shown
in their embryological and paleontological
history, but in the very remarkable exam-
ples of variation in habits, color markings,
albinism, molting, sexual selection, protective
coloration, etc. The author's ideas of ho-
mology and analogy are somewhat obscure.
Having correctly defined analogy by the
common example of a bird's wing and an
insect's wing as being alike in function, but
different in origin of structure, and hence
analogous and not homologous, he proceeds
to say that there is no homolog)' between
the wing of a bird and the wing of a bat ;
whereas there is the strictest homology in
origin, structure, and function. In the next
sentence he says that the tails of all verte-
brates are homologous, which is correct. Yet
here we have a few vertebrae in one tail and
over fifty in another. We have the broad fin

• The Structure and Life of Birds. By F. W.
Headley, M. A. Pp. 417, with Illustrations. New
York : Macmillan & Co. Price, ^2.

of a fish, the trowel of the beaver, and the
climbing appendage of the monkey, and all
are indeed homologous. In the same way
limbs of the vertebrates are homologous;
whether it be the pectoral fin of a fish, the
leg of a turtle, the wing of a pterodactyl,
of a bird or a bat, or the arm of man, a
strict homology runs through them all. Mr.
Headley has managed his material admi-
rably, and one gets in a condensed form
many facts about birds which have been
brought to light within recent years. The
clearness of the illustrations gives an added
value to the book.

A difficult problem can be solved only by
attacking it from one side after another.
Prof. Donaldson has made his contribution
to ascertaining the nature and action of the
mind by setting forth the mode of growth
of the chief portion of the nervous system.*
He introduces his specific subject by three
chapters discussing the general phenomena
of growth and the rate of increase of the
whole body. Then taking up the brain and
spinal cord, he presents statistics showing at
what rates these organs increase in weight
and what weights they attain. He finds
that the facts now available "contribute
mainly to a healthy skepticism concerning
the current interpretations of brain- weight."
The author next traces the growth of the
nerve elements and describes the architec-
ture of the nervous system, calling attention
to the changes of structure that are due to
the growth of the organism. The process of
dissolution in old age is also traced. Chap-
ters on localization of function, physiological
rhythms, and fatigue furnish additional data
for the author's discussion of the subject
of education, which concludes the volume.
From these data he finds that "education
must fail to produce any fundamental changes
in the nervous organization, but to some ex-
tent it can strengthen formed structures by
exercise, and in part waken into activity the
unorganized remnant of the dormant cells.
... On neurological grounds, therefore,

* The Growth of the Brain. By Henry Her-
bert Donaldson. The Contemporary Science
Series. Pp. 374, 12mo. London : Walter Scott,
Ltd. Price, 3*. 6d. New York : Charles Scrib-
ner's Sons. Price, $1.25.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

567

nurture is to be considered of much less
importance than Nature, and in that sense
the capacities that we most admire in per-
sons worthy of remark are certainly inborn
rather than made." From his point of view,
therefore, "the formation of habit and re-
duction of mental friction, by means of con-
centration, must ever remain the chief ob-
jects of a formal training."

Dr. Parkes's book,* dealing, in small
compass, and in simple language, with the
important subject of hygiene, is well suited
for use in either the school or the house-
hold. The opening chapter, entitled Water,
treats of such questions as the proper
sources of drinking water, dangers from
wells and cisterns, and the filter problem.
In the second chapter, on domestic refuse,
the sanitary disposal of garbage, dust, etc.,
is discussed, considerable space being given
to sanitary methods of plumbing. Air and
ventilation are next taken up, the compo-
sition of air, its fouling by respiration, com-
bustion, and organic refuse, cubic space and
floor space, introduction of fresh air into
rooms, and the practical examination of the
ventilation of rooms being some of the im-
portant topics. The various methods of
heating and lighting are compared in the
next two chapters. The open fireplace and
the incandescent electric light are selected
as the methods which most nearly approach
hygienic requirements. When considering
the Welsbach lamp the author makes a
curious mistake. In speaking of the incan-
descent mantle, which is composed of the
oxide of some of the rarer refractory earths,
he calls it the " asbestos gauze mantle." How
to construct a healthy house — floors, walls,
ceilings, cellars, etc. — and the proper site
for building occupy Chapters VI and VII.
Classification and composition of foods,
vegetarianism, cooking, meal times, appe-
tite, infant feeding, condiments, alcohol, tea,
coffee, cocoa, and mineral waters are some
of the special topics considered in a long
chapter devoted to Food. Physical Exer-
cise, Clothing, and The Care of the Skin,
Teeth, and Bowels form the last three chap-
ters of the book. The intention has appar-

•The Elements of Health. By Louis C.
Parkes, M. D. Pp 246, 12mo. Philadelphia : P.
Blakieton, Son «& Co. Price, $1.25.

ently been to make a practical guide for the
average householder, and this result has
been well attained.

Animal life is coextensive with the earth.
The sea swarms with it, the air teems with
it. The extreme cold of the arctic regions
and the torrid heat of the equator have each
their own special forms. The most elemen-
tary knowledge of zoology is suflBcient to
show us that, while much of the difference
between the faunas of separated islands and
continents and even of approximately con-
tiguous regions is due to the differing flora
and climatic conditions, these two factors do
not in all cases explain the phenomena of
distribution. Mr. Bedd.ard''s book * is a study
of animal life in its relation to latitude and
longitude. In Chapter I the author treats of
the general facts of the distribution of ani-
mals. The special regions which have been
arranged for the study of zoological geogra-
phy by various authors are dealt with in
Chapter IT, and Mr. Sclater's chosen as the
ones most convenient. In the third chapter
the causes which influence the distribution
of animals — temperature, means of dispersal,
capacity for migration, human interference,
large bodies of water, etc. — occupy fifty of
the most interesting pages of the book. The
fauna of islands and some theoretical con-
siderations, the latter comprising a discus-
sion of the bearing of distribution on origin,
the place of origin of the marsupials, and the
theory of the polar origin of life, make up
the two closing chapters. The book con-
tains five maps, which graphically show the
distribution of special forms of animal life.

In order to make the Werner edition of
the Encyclopaedia more serviceable to its
users, A Guide to Systematic Readings in the
Encyclopoedia Britannica^ prepared by James
Baldwin., has been published (Werner Co.,
$2). The Guide is designed to enable a per-
son to read up a subject thoroughly by di-
recting him to all articles or parts of articles
bearing upon it which the Encyclopaedia con-
tains. A great cyclopajdia is more than a
work to be referred to for detached facts.
It is a biographical dictionary and a gazet-

* A Text-book of Zoogeography. By Frank E.
Beddajd. Pp. 246, 12mo. London : C. J. Clay
& Sons. New York : Macmillan & Co. Price,
$1.60.

568

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

teer; it contains a history of the world, a
treatise on each of the arts, sciences, and
professions, a history of every literature, and
many other treatises which are frequently
issued as separate volumes. Fifty-two text-
books now used in colleges consist of articles
prepared by their authors for the Britannica.
There are three divisions of the Guide. For
boys and girls it has home readings in his-
tory, biography, science, and on sports and
games. For the student it has courses of
reading in history, language, literature, the
sciences from astronomy to zoology, the Bi-
ble, etc. In another division it has lists of ar-
ticles of interest to the merchant, the builder,
the electrician, the gardener, the physician,
the journalist, the miner, the home-maker,
and many others. Many of the references
are to the American Additions and Revisions,
which the Werner Company has inserted in
its edition of the Britannica.

The History of English Literature, by
Prof. W. M. Kevin, is based on the concep-
tion that literature, like history in general,
is an organic process or growth. It springs
up out of a nation's life and is its proper ex-
pression, always modified by its racial tend-
encies, its degree of civilization, its climate
and soil, and its relations with surrounding
nations. The book is designed to furnish
interesting and useful information to readers
generally, as well as to students in particular.
It was arranged to meet the needs of the au-
thor in lecturing to his classes, and hence
ought to be of practical value to the teacher
as well as the student. (Intelligencer Print-
ing Office, Lancaster, Pa.)

The financial essays by AUen Ripley
Foote, collected in the book entitled A Sound
Currency and Banking System (New York,
G. P. Putnam's Sons), were written with the
conviction that business panics are ultimate-
ly the result of incorrect monetary educa-
tion finding its expression in imsound legis-
lation. Believing that the immediate return
and continued maintenance of a high degree
of prosperity for all the people are not pre-
vented by any natural economical condition,
the author seeks the appointment of a
monetary conamission, which, he assumes,
acting discreetly, can devise a sound cur-
rency and banking system that will remove
the cause of financial panics ; and the pur-
pose of his essays is to assist in securing

the appointment of such a commission and
help to a right understanding of the impor-
tance, aim, and direction of the work it
should do.

While studying the Salishan languages of
Washington and Oregon, Dr. Franz Boas
learned that the dialects of the lower Chinook
were on the verge of disappearing, and that
some of them were remembered by only a
few individuals. This fact determined him
to make an effort to collect what little re-
mained of them. With considerable diffi-
culty he found a person who understood the
Chinook, was acquainted with its stories, and
intelligent enough to communicate them to
him. The results of his labors are embodied
in a paper on Chinook Texts, which is pub-
lished with the originals and interlineal and
current translations of the mythological and
other stories, by the United States Bureau of
Ethnology.

In the Spirit of the Papacy, J. S. Hitiell
examines the papacy in its political, intel-
lectual, and ethical, as distinct from its theo-
logical, aspects. He undertakes to show by
what devices it has tried to enslave the hu-
man race, and to prove that it is now dwarf-
ing the intellects of those Catholics who sub-
mit to its control. He says that there are at
present two great classes of Catholics — those
including the high clergy, who resist every-
thing in the shape of an innovation or ad-
vance ; and a larger class, who have drawn
near to the Protestants, and who plead for
greater friendliness between the adherents
of the two great branches of the Christian
Church. (The author, San Francisco.)

The two great sources of difficulty to the
beginner in geometry are the comparative
novelty of the subject-matter and the unac-
customed clearness of conception and ex-
actness of expression required in this new
study. In Elements of Geometry, by John
Macnie, edited by E. E. White (American
Book Co., $1.25), the author says that the
second source of difficulty is most easily
diminished by reducing the first to a mini-
mum. He has tried to present the subject
of geometry with a " logical strictness ap-
proaching that of Euclid, while taking ad-
vantage of such improvements in arrange-
ment and notation as are suggested by
modem experience. . . . The function of a
geometry is only secondarily the presenta-

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

569

tion of a system of useful knowledge, its
greatest value lying in afifording the only
course in strict reasoning with which the ma-
jority of students will become acquainted."
With these two beliefs as guides, the author
has made an attractive and useful little text-
book.

Magnetism : its Potency and Action, is the
title of a volume in which George W. Holley
has recorded some of his observations, ex-
periments, and speculations on the magnetic
force (Arena Publishing Company, $1.25).

Among the topics that he discusses are the
influence of magnetism on animal and vege-
table life, the experiments of M. Hertz,
" electric girls," spiritual phenomena, thought
transference, hypnotism, and the action of
the planchette. He sees magnetism mani-
fested in the action of the brain and the
heart, in the homing faculty of animals, the
transformation of grubs, and various other
phenomena. In this volume also the author
outlines a new cosmography, which he illus-
trates by a diagram.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Ackman, C. M. Milk, its Nature and Compo-
eition. New York : Macmillan & Co. London :
Adam & Charles Black. Pp. 180. $1.25.

Agricultural Experiment Stations. Cornell
University Station : General Observations en the
Care of Fruit Trees, with some Reflections upon
Weeds; Notions about the Spraying of Trees, with
Remarks on the Canker Worm ; Soil Depletion in
Respect to the Care of Fruit Trees.— Iowa Agricul-
tural College : Experiments with New Orchard
Fruits, Trees, and Shrubs. — New York Station :
Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers collected dur-
ing the Spring of 1895 ; Comparative Field Test
of Commercial Fertilizers used in Raising Pota-
toes ; The Composition and Use of Fertilizers ;
Science applied to Feeding Plants.— United States
Department : Bulletin of the North Dakota
Weather and Crop Service for November, 1895.

Alien. A Daughter of the King. Chicago and
New York : F. T. Neely. Pp. 277.

Allman, Alphonse. Statesman and Demagog.
San Francisco : Hicks, Judd & Co. Pp. 198.

Bennett Lectures for 1895. Light on Current
Topics. Boston : Massachusetts New-Church
Union. Pp. S>05. $1.

Bulletins, Catalogues, Reports, Reprints, etc.
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
Proceedings. Pp. 435-514.— Gravitation and what
it is, and No Ice Ages. By William An rew. Pp.
15. 5 cents.- Iowa Health Bulletin. Vol. IX, No.
6.— Missouri Botan cal Garden. Seventh An-
nouncement concerning Garden Pupils —Note on
a Photographic Method of determining the Com-
plete Motion of a Gun during Recoil. By Dr. A. C.
Crehore and Dr. G. O. Squier. From Journal of
United States Artillery, Vol. IV, No. 4.— North-
Central Association of Colleges and Secondary
Schools. Preliminary Meeting for Organization.
—On the Correlation of New York Moraines with
Raised Beaches on Lake Erie. By Frank Leverett.
From American Journal of Science, July, 1895.—
Pre-Glacial Valleys of the Mississippi and Tribu-
taries. By Frank Leverett. From Journal of
Geology, Vol. Ill, No. 7.— On the Affinities and
Classification of the Dinosaurian Reptiles. By
O. C. Marsh. From American Journal of Science,
December, 1895.— Restoration of some European
Dinosaurs, etc. By O. C. Marsh. From Ameri-
can Journal of Science.— Soils of Illinois. By
Frank Leverett. From Final Report of Illinois
Board of World's Fair Commissioners.— When
the Moon Runs Highest and Runs Lowest. By
Rose O'Halloran. From Publications of Pacific
Astronomical Society.

Biu-net, Margaretta. ZoOlogy for High Schools
and Academies. New York, Cincinnati, and Chi-
cago : American Book Company. Pp. 216. 75
cents.

California Academy of Sciences, Proceedings
of. Second Series. Vol. V, Part I. Pp. 781

Cheiro. If We Only Knew, and Other Poems.
Chicago : F. T. Neely. London : Chatto & Win-
dus. Pp. 39.

Coal Report. Thirteenth Annnal Report of the
Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics. George A.
Schilling, Secretary. Pp. 220.

Cochrane, Charles Henry. The Wonders of
Modem Mechanism. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippin-
cott Company. Pp. 402. $2.

Columbian Historical Exposition, Madrid, 1892.
Report of United States Commission. Pp. 397.

Cock, Lady (Tennessee C. Claflin). Essays.
London Uuiversal Publishing Company. Pp.
126. 65.

Corrigan. Severinus J. The Constitution and
Function of Gases. St. Paul Picneer-Press Com-
pany. Pp. 173.

Coy, E. W. Latin Lessons. New York, Cin-
cinnati, and Chicago : American Book Company.
Pp. 320. $1.

Eggleston, Edward. (Eclectic School Read-
ings.) Stories of American Life and Adventure.
Third Reader Grade. Pp. 214. 50 cents. And
Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans.
Second Reader Grade. Pp. 159. 40 cents. New
York, Cincinnati, and Chicago : American Book
Company.

Evans, Arthur J. Cretan Pictographs and Pre-
Phoenician Script. New York : G P. Putnam's
Sons. London : Bernard Quaritch. Pp. 146.

Farrington, Oliver C. (Publication III of Field
Columbian Museum, Chicago.) Geological Series,
Vol. I. No. 1. Handbook and Catalogue of the
Meteorite Collection. Pp. 66.

Gleason, C. W., and Atherton, C. S. The First
Greek Book. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago:
American Book Company. Pp. 285. $1.

Goldsmith, Oliver. The Vicar of Wakefield.
New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago : American
Book Company. Pp. 207. 35 cents.

Grinnell, George Bird. (The Story of the West
Series.) The Story of the Indian. New York :
D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 270. $1.50.

Grove, Charles Edward, and Thorpe, William.
Chemical Technology. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston,
Son & Company. Pp. 398. $4.

Hay, O. P. (Publication V of Field Columbian
Museum, Chicago.) Zoological Seiies, Vol. I,
No. 1. On the Structure and Development of the
Vertebral Column of Amla. Pp. 54.

Hayes, C. Willard. (National Geographic
Monographs, Vol. I, No. 10 ) The Southern Ap-
palachians. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago :
American Book Company, tp 305-336.

Kel^, I. Bllder aus der deutschen Litteratnr.
New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago: American
Book Company. Pp. ^J5. 75 cents.

570

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Knapp, Charles. Stories from Aulas Gellius.
New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago : American
Book Company. Pp. 93. 80 cents.

Knobel, E. The Night Moths of New England.
Boston : Bradlee Whidden. Pp. 63. 50 cents.

Leander, Richard von Volkmann. TrSumereien
an franzosischen Kaminen. New York, Cincin-
nati, and Chicago : American Book Company. Pp.
163. 35 cents.

Lindsay, Thomas B. The Lives of Cornelius
Nepos. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago :
American Book Company. Pp. 863. $1.10.

Lowell, Percival. Mars. Boston and New
York : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 228. $2.50.

Mercer, Henry C. The Hill Caves of Yucatan.
Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp.
183. $2.

Millspaugh, C. P. (Publication rv of Field
Columbian Museum. Chicago.) Botanical Series.
Vol. I, No. 1. Contribution to the Flora of Yuca-
tan. Pp. 56.

Minnesota Botanical Studies. Geological and
Natural History Survey of Minnesota. Conway
Macmillau, State Botanist. Minneapolis : Harri-
son & Smith, Printers. Pp. 424-482.

Moses, Bernard. The Railway Revolution in
Mexico. San Francisco: The Berkeley Preea.
Pp.90.

Needham, James Q. Elementary Lessons in
Zoology. New York, Cincinnati, and Cliicago :
American Book Company. Pp. 802. 90 cents.

Newman. Q. Notas Sueltas sobre la Pena de
Muerte. Santiago de Chile : Imprenta i Enqua-
demazion Barzelona. Pp. 228.

Page, Charles E., M. D. Catching Cold. New
York : The Health Culture Company. Pp. 83. 10
cents.

Philadelphia Record Almanac, The (for 1896).
Pp.122.

Railways, Statistics of. Seventh Annual Re-
port of Interstate Commerce Commission. Wash-
ington : Government Printing Office. Pp. 677.

Rushy, H. H., M. D., and JellifEe, S. E., M. D.
Essentials of Vegetable Pharmacognosy. New
York : D. O. Haynes & Co. Pp. 149.

Secret of Mankind, The. New York and Lon-
don : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 417.

Sedgwick, Adam. (The Cambridge Natural
History, Vol. V.) Peripatus. In same volume,
Myriapods, by F. G. Sinclair ; and Insects, bv
David Sharp. New York and London : Macmil-
lan&Co. Pp.584. $4.

Seidel, Heinrich. Herr Omnia. Edited by J.
Matthewman. New York, Cincinnati, and Chi-
cago : American Book Company. Pp. 85. 25
cents.

Shakespeare, WDliam. (Eclectic English Clas-
sics.) The Comedy of As You Like it. New York,
Cincinnati, ana Chicago: American Book Com-
pany. Pp. 102. 20 cents.

Taxation. Eighth Biennial Report of the Bu-
reau of Labor Statistics of Illinois. Springfield,
111. : Edward F. Hartman, Printer. Pp. 541.

The Monthly Illustrator, and Home and Coun-
try, December, 1895. Vol. XI. No. 5. New York :
The Monthly Illustrator Publishing Company. 20
cents. $2 a year.

Williams, H. S. Geological Biology. New
York : Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 395.

Wurtz, C. A. Elements of Modem Chemistry.
Revised and enlarged by W. H. Greene and Harry
T, Kellar. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Com-
pany. Pp. 808. $1.80.

Young, C. A. The Sun. International Scien-
tific Series. New and revised edition. New York:
D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 368. $2.

^raflmjewtB xrf ^cljetxjcje^

The AnniTersary Meeting of the Royal
Society. — The anniversary meeting of the
Royal Society was held in its apartments at
Burlington House, London, on St Andrew's
Day, Saturday, November 30, 1895. After
the delivery of the presidential address by
Lord Kelvin, the medals were presented as
follows ; The Copley medal to Prof. Karl
Weierstrass, for Mem. R. S. (received on his
behalf by the Foreign Secretary), for his in-
vestigations in pure mathematics ; a Royal
medal to Prof. James Alford Ewing, for his
investigations on magnetic induction in iron
and other metals ; a Royal medal to Dr. John
Murray, for his services to biological science
and oceanography, in connection with the
Challenger reports, and for his original
contributions to the same ; and the Davy
medal to Prof. William Ramsay, for his
share in the discovery of argon, and for his

discoveries regarding gaseous constituents of
terrestrial minerals. The oflBcers elected for
the ensuing year are as follows : President,
Sir Joseph Lister, Bart. ; Treasurer, Sir John
Evans ; Secretaries, Prof. Michael Foster and
Lord Rayleigh ; Foreign Secretary, Mr. Ed-
ward Frankland. Lord Kelvin closed his
address with the following remarks : " I
thank you all, my colleagues of the Royal
Society, for electing me five times to be your
president, for forgiving me all my short-
comings, and for the inestimable benefit
which you have conferred on me by giving
me your friendship." In the evening the
anniversary dinner was held at the H5tel
M6tropole, when the newly elected president,
Sir Joseph Lister, occupied the chair. The
retiring president, in his anniversary address,
and several of the speakers at the dinner,
dwelt at some length on the great loss which

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE,

571

science and humanity had sustained through
the deaths of Huxley and Pasteur.

Pasteur's Snccessor, — We take the fol-
lowing note from the Practitioner: M. Emile
Duclaux, who has just been appointed Di-
rector of the Pasteur Institute, in succession
to M. Pasteur, was his former chief's oldest
collaborator, and had held the post of sub-
director under him since the foundation of the
institute. He was bom at Aurillac in 1840, and
was Pasteur's assistant in the Ecole Normale
from 1862 to 1865. After teaching for a
time in the Tours Lycee in 1865-'66, he was
appointed Professor of Chemistry at Cler-
mont in 1866, and afterward of Physics in
the Lyons Faculty of Sciences in 1873. In
IBYS he came back to Paris as Professor of
Physics and Meteorology in the Institute
Agronomique, and in 1888 he was appointed
Professor of Biological Chemistry in the
Faculty of Science. M. Duclaux took the
degree of Doctor of Science in 1862 ; but,
like Pasteur himself, he is not a member of
the medical profession, although in 1894 he
was elected a member of the Academy of
Medicine. He is the editor of the Annales
de I'Institut Pasteur. Apart from his con-
tributions to chemistry, silkworm culture,
the phylloxera, etc., he has done valuable
work on ferments and their relation to dis-
ease, digestion, milk, and microbiology.

The Feeding of Infants.— The time when
a bottle-fed baby was a rare thing is within
the memory of all of the older physicians ;
but now it is the exception rather than the
rule for a mother to suckle her child. Many
a mother who really wants to nurse her baby,
but because of her small supply of milk is
prevented, might, by a little judicious advice
as to diet and proper habits, be rendered
perfectly competent. Instead of this, that
convenient bottle is adopted, which is thus
graphically described by Dr. Mary A. Wil-
lard: '' When the poor, pinched, blue, weaz-
ened little creatures were brought to me in
the dispensary in New York, where they used
to come by the dozen, I would call for their
nursing-bottles, take a whiff of their sour,
putrid contents, swarming with bacteria, pull
off the rubber nipple and the ivory guard,
rip up the long tube with my penknife, and
scrape off the green, poisonous matter, tyro-

toxicon, and spread it out on my palm before
the astonished mother." Combine with such
a state of affairs in the bottle some one of
the dry milk foods, or a diluted condensed
milk, and the babies' chances are pretty
slim. The dry milk powders, including malt-
ed milk, are, from their nature, deficient in
fats and contain a large excess of sugar,
which is harmful because of the readiness
with which it undergoes fermentation. As
for the condensed milks, during a recent ex-
amination of the milk supply of London,
seventeen brands were examined ; fourteen
of these were found to have been prepared
entirely from skimmed milk, and showed
an average of only 0*72 per cent of fat.
Genuine full-cream brands of condensed milk
contain from ten to twelve per cent of fat.
Considering the far-reaching and deplorable
effects which reliance upon such foods must
lead to, it is of the utmost importance that
physicians and parents should understand
the dangers of prepared-milk feeding.

Examinations. — From a recent address
delivered by Jonathan Hutchinson, and pub-
lished in the Lancet, we quote the follow-
ing very pertinent passages : " Examinations
should be made as little distasteful as possi-
ble. The candidate ought to feel throughout
his studies that in presenting himself to an
examiner he does that which is equivalent to
placing himself on a weighing machine, and
that the verdict recorded will be in exact re-
lation to his deserts. . . . The personal ele-
ment, that of the examiner, should be elimi-
nated as far as possible. To this end viva-
voce examinations should, as far as prac-
ticable, be avoided. I have heard a self-
confident examiner allege that he could tell
better what was in a man in five minutes'
conversation than by reading any number of
his written papers, and I did not doubt that
he thought so. This judgment of men, as
it were, by personal inspection is often most
fallacious, and should be permitted only with
the utmost circumspection. It by no means
follows that the disuse of the viva voce
would throw us back wholly on set verbal
questions. There remains the extensive field
of objective examination. . . . This kind of
examination it is which conduces most of all
to sound matter-of-fact objective teaching.
It is perhaps the most important of all modes,

572

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and is one which in the future is destined to
receive more and more attention. We come
next to the consideration of papers and of
paper-setting. It is the fashion to hold that
any one who knows his subject can examine
in it, but in truth it is not so, and the art of
examining is one which, like other arts, needs
to be learned. It is impossible to deny that
many examination papers are ill expressed,
and some wholly unsuitable. It is no legiti-
mate part of an examination to take the
candidate by surprise, ur confound him with
the unexpected. Nor should half of the time
allowed be taken up in the effort to under-
stand what the terms of the question are in-
tended to mean. . . . Modern education, in
its zeal to avoid the charge of being super-
ficial, incurs, as it seems to me,, that of being
merely fragmentary. It aims at thorough-
ness, but is obliged at once to admit that it
can attain it only in certain subjects which,
compared with the sum of human knowledge,
are but few and small. . . . Excepting a
very few of us, we are all mere smatterers
as regards almost all that we think we know.
It is not possible to be otherwise, excepting
at the cost of being wholly ignorant in many
directions ; and as regards fitness for the af-
fairs of Ufe, better by far a general acquaint-
ance with all that is around us, though it be
not very deep, than slices of profoimd knowl-
edge placed sandwich wise between thick lay-
ers of utter ignorance."

Hygiene of Oysters. — ^Prof . Herdman and
Prof. Bryce have found, from experiments
on the effect upon oysters of various condi-
tions— with especial reference to the typhoid
germ — that beneficial results are derived
from aeration, and therefore that it is salu-
tary to lay the moUusks do\vn where there is
a good change of water. Of foods given to
oysters, sugar caused them to lose weight
and die ; oatmeal and flour had like effects.
Stagnation was deleterious, causing the ac-
cumulation of excretory products, and encour-
aging the growth of micro-organisms and the
formation of scums on the surface of the
water ; yet the oysters were tolerant of sew-
age, and could, up to a certain point, render
water clear that was contaminated with it,
and they could live a long time in water
rendered opaque by fecal matter. The fecal
matter from typhoid subjects was more in-

imical than that obtained from healthy ones.
The oysters were found very prone to infec-
tion by micro-organisms, but the typhoid
bacillus will not flourish in clean sea- water ;
and the experiments seem to show that this
organism decreases in numbers in passing
through the alimentary canal of the oyster.
It seems possible, therefore, that by methods
similar to those employed in the clearing
basins of the French ostreoculturists oysters
previously contaminated with sewage can be
freed from pathogenic organisms or their
products without being spoiled for the mar-
ket.

Bibliography of Zoology. — The Interna-
tional Bibliographical Bureau for Zoology,
the organization of which was begun about
three years ago, will be located, Mr. H. H.
Field announces, at Zurich, Switzerland. It
will publish a fortnightly bibliographical Bul-
letin, with an edition printed on thin paper
and on only one side of the sheet, so that it
may be cut up ; and a complete card cata-
logue of all zoological literature published
after 1 895 ; besides which the Zoologische
JahresbericM will be federated with the un-
dertaking, so as to afford an annual list of
titles, arranged alphabetically, by authors.
The bureau will be aided in various parts
of the world by national committees, corre-
spondents, and sub-bureaus.

Engineering as an Exact Science. — So

far as it is based on mathematics, said Mr.
L. F. Vernon Harcourt in the British Asso-
ciation, engineering is an exact science, and
the strains due to given loads on a structure
can be accurately determined ; but the
strength of the materials employed has to
be ascertained before any structure can be
properly designed. Accordingly, the resist-
ance of materials to tension, compression,
and flexure has to be tested and their limit
of elasticity and breaking weight to be de-
termined. Numberless experiments have
been made on the flow of water in open
channels, over weirs, through orifices, and
along pipes, and the influences of the nature
of the bed, the slope, depth, and size of the
channel have been investigated. Electrical
engineering is especially adapted for experi-
mental investigation, but every branch of
engineering science is more or less capable

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

S73

of being advanced in the same way; and
when it is borne in mind that the force of
waves, the ebb and flow of tides in rivers,
the influence of training works in estuaries,
and the motion of ships at sea have been
subjected to experimental research, it ap-
pears impossible to assign a limit to the
range of experiments as a means of extend-
ing engineering knowledge. The correct
calculations of strains, the exact strength of
materials, and a strict appreciation of the
physical laws affecting designs are of the
utmost importance, and the failure of many
bridges might be explained by a neglect of
these considerations. Occasionally failures
of works might be attributed to exceptional
causes or peculiarly unfavorable conditions,
but in most cases they are the result of er-
rors or deficiencies in design which might
have been avoided by a more correct appre-
ciation of the physical conditions involved.

Eleetrieal EflTects of Spray. — A corre-
spondent, writing to us concerning the effect
of various atmospheric conditions on health
and bodily vigor, cites his own experience in
a fire brigade as having led him to believe
that deficiency of ozone and other unfavor-
able conditions and the effect of atmospheric
impurities may be alleviated by inhalation
through a spray of cold water, A method
of ventilation of railroad cars which was
very comfortable to passengers riding in
cars so treated, but has been disused, de-
pended upon the application of this princi-
ple. Its value is further confirmed by what
Prince Kropotkin has said in one of his re-
cent articles on current science concerning
the theory of the development of electricity
by spattering water. A few years ago Herr
Lenard undertook a series of observations in
Switzerland on the electrical effect of water-
falls. It appeared that even small cataracts,
only a few feet high, send into the air con-
siderable charges of electricity, provided
they bring down a large amoimt of rapidly
dashing water. The smallest jets of water
that drip on the rock sides, and even roar-
ing streamlets, have the same effect. He
suggested that the chief cause of electrifica-
tion is the tearing asunder of the drops of
water as they fall on the wet surfaces at the
bottom of the waterfall. The experiments
on which thes« views are founded accord

with the demonstration by Lord Kelvin and
Messrs. Maclean and Goto that air, even ab-
solutely dust free, can be electrified by a jet
of water. This source of electrification is
further shown to be by no means insignifi-
cant, and the amount of electricity sent into
the air in this way is immense. The impor-
tance of these facts in the economy of Na-
ture, says Prince Kropotkin, is self-evident.
" The supply of electricity in the air is con-
tinually renewed. The waterfalls in the val-
leys, the splashing of the waves on the shores
of lakes and rivers, and the splash of drops
of rain on the ground send masses of nega-
tive electricity into the air ; even the watering
of our streets and of our plants in the or-
chards has the same effect on a limited
scale. On the other side, the waves of the
sea, as they break against the rocks and fall
back in millions of droplets upon the beach,
supply the air with masses of positive elec-
tricity the amount of which rapidly increases
after each storm. And when we stand on a
sea beach we not only inhale pure ozonified
or iodized air ; we are, so to say, surrounded
by an electx'ified atmosphere, which, as al-
ready remarked by Humboldt and often con-
firmed since, must have a stimulating effect
upon our nervous activity as well as upon
the circulation of sap in plants."

Tbe Seienees Auxiliary to Engineering.

— Among the branches of science necessary
for the engineer, Mr. L. F. Vernon Har-
court, in his address at the British Associa-
tion meeting, named mathematics and phys-
ics as of the highest importance, and as
those upon which the profession mainly de-
pends. Other sciences of considerable
though comparatively minor importance are
those of chemistry, meteorology, and geol-
ogy. All branches of applied mathematics
have to be used by engineers, or, as in the
case of several general principles and tidal
calculations, by mathematicians, for their
benefit; but graphic statics will probably
gradually supersede analytical methods for
the calculation of stresses, as more rapid
and less liable to errors, which are also
more easily detected in graphic diagrams
Pure mathematics, in its higher branches,
appears to have a less direct connection with
engineering ; but applied mathematics is so
largely dependent upon pure mathematics

574

POPULAR SCIEyCE MONTHLY,

that this, including the calculus and differ-
ential equations, can not be safely neglected
by the engineer — though some of the more
abstruse portions of the subject might be
dispensed with. Physics is of great impor-
tance, for there are few problems in engi-
neering in which no part is borne by phys-
ical considerations. The surveyor avails him-
self of physics when heights are measured
by the barometer, or by the temperature at
which water boils. Evaporation, condensa-
tion, and latent heat bear upon the efficiency
of steam engines, and the expansive force
of gases, the retention of the heat devel-
oped, and the diminution of friction on the
economical working of heat engines. Con-
siderations of temperature limit the height
to which railways can be carried without
danger of blocking by snow, and the depth
at which tunnels can be driven. Compressed
air is largely used by engineers. Electric
engineering, too, is intimately connected with
physics. Chemistry is of importance in the
manufacture of iron, steel, and other metals,
and the formation of alloys, and in its relation
to explosives. A knowledge of geology is
indispensable in directing a search for coal,
iron ore, and the metals, and in the execu-
tion of all works going below the surface.
Meteorology is useful to the engineer in that
it enables him to know the force of the wind
and the direction, duration, and periods of
occurrence of severe gales — very important
matters in the construction of bridges and
harbor works.

1 Valley of White Limestone. — A re-
markable formation is described by Mr.
Theodore Bent as observed by him while ex-
ploring the frankincense country of Arabia,
near the presumed site of the Abyssapolis
of Ptolemy. The valley leading down to the
Red Sea has been filled in the course of
ages by a calcareous deposit, which is col-
lected on either side of an isolated hill in
the middle of the hollow, about one thousand
feet in height. This deposit has taken the
form of a straight and precipitous wall five
hundred and fifty feet high and three quar-
ters of a mile long on the eastern side of the
hill, and about a quarter of a mile long and
three hundred feet high on the western side.
Over these walls feathery waterfalls pre-
cipitate themselves, adding perpetually to

the chalky accretions of which the cliffs are
constructed. The general appearance of the
walls is white and whitish gray, with long,
white stalactites hanging down in tumbled
confusion. They are streaked here and
there, where the water perpetually falls,
with patches of green. Beneath plateaus
twenty feet high enormous ricinuses, da-
turas, and other plants flourish ; and the
Bedouins have utilized the stream before it
has lost itself in the rocky channel to make
small gardens. The rocky channel below is
also very curious, presenting a flat surface
alj^out fifty yards across of white calcareous
rocks, while just below the wall where the
water comes down is an enormous amount
of white calcareous deposit, soft and spongy
to walk upon. Mr. Bent pronounces this
one of the most stupendous natural phe-
nomena he has ever seen, characterizes the
valley as "a stupendous abyss," and com-
pares the whole with the pink and white ter-
races of New Zealand and the calcareous
deposits of Yellowstone Park.

Geology and Paleontology at Union
Uniyersity. — The department of Geology
and Paleontology of Union University offers
the ordinary course of the college and spe-
cial courses for such students as are inter-
ested in the science from a philosophical or
professional point of view. The courses in-
clude mineralogy and Uthology, general geol-
ogy (with excursions), economic geology, in
which are considered in the second half the
occurrence and distribution of the mineral
deposits and building stones of the United
States ; systematic and structural geology
and paleontology, with especial considera-
tion of the formations occurring in New
York and adjacent States and their char-
acteristic fossils ; field and laboratory study
of the geological formations readily acces-
sible from Schenectady ; the methods of
preparing geological maps and reports ; and
advanced field work and independent re-
search, in which the student selects some
region for original work to which he can de-
vote considerable time, and conducts his in-
vestigation in a professional manner. He is
expected in this to demonstrate his ability
to conduct original work, and to prepare a
report containing a summary of the previous
knowledge of the geology of the region, with

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

575

a detailed account of his investigations — the
whole to constitute a contribution to knowl-
edge. In studying paleontology the student
receives careful training in systematic clas-
sification. Candidates for honors must pre-
pare theses of sufficient merit to warrant the
publication of at least an abstract in some
scientific journal. As aids, students have
access to the library and museum of Union
College, and to the State Library and Mu-
seum at Albany.

Antiquity of the Qnielmas. — Dr. George
A. Dorsey expresses his belief, in a paper on
The Character and Antiquity of Peruvian
Civilization, that the Quichuas came into Peru

from the north, and that the time of their
arrival must have been a great while ago,
" perhaps several thousand years. The fact
that they had thoroughly domesticated the
llama as well as other smaller animals is in
itself proof of great antiquity. The same
holds true in regard to the high state of
cultivation in which we find the cotton plant,
several varieties of maize, and other cereals
and food products. In the province of
Huarochiri, Avila states that the origin of
the great acequias and irrigating canals was
only accounted for by a myth, their con-
struction dating back to so remote a period
that they were no longer ascribed to human
agency."

MINOR PARAGRAPHS.

Through the co-operation of some private
persons interested in the preservation of spe-
cies and the Linnaean and other societies of
New York, protection has been afforded to
the terns on Great Gull Island, Long Island
Sound. A sum of money was contributed to
employ a gamekeeper, and the lighthouse
keeper on Little Gull Island was authorized
to act in that capacity. From three to four
thousand birds were found on the island in
1886. They had been since diminishing
year by year in numbers under the attacks
of sportsmen and egg-hunters, till attention
was called to the fact and a watch was
placed over them. Under the care of the
gamekeeper the numbers of the colony in-
creased at least one half during 1894, and
terns are now seen where they had not been
observed for many years before.

Were Indians of the Sioux stock ever set-
tled in the East ? is asked by James Mooney,
who finds evidences in languages that such
tribes once lived in a particular territory in
Virginia and the Carolinas. Traditions are
cited in his paper on the subject, which are
said to exist among some of the Sioux tribes,
of a former residence on the Ohio, and of a
migration prompted by the density of the
population, which had become too numerous
for the hunting grounds. The emigration was
probably prehistoric, as the Sioux tribes were
established in the West as early as three
hundred and fifty years ago, and was caused,
Mr. Mooney thinks, not by the disappearance
of game — for the buffalo did not become

extinct in the Ohio Valley till late in the last
century — but by the pressure of hostile tribes
from the north and south — Algonkins and
Muskogees.

The encouraging fact is brought out in
the reports of examinations published by the
Regents of the University of the State of
New York that a rapid and healthy increase
is going on in the standard of proficiency of
the candidates in all the grades. Even
more significant than this is the evidence
that desultory courses of study are giving
way to longer and reasonably balanced
courses. A very beneficent influence is ex-
erted it is alleged by the new laws and regu-
lations requiring candidates for admission to
practice in law, medicine, and dentistry to
submit evidence of a general preliminary
education equivalent to a full high-school
course.

From certain manuscripts left by Dalton,
to which attention is called by Sir Henry
Roscoe and Dr. A. Harden, it is made clear
that his application of the atomic theory to
chemistry was not the result of his own
analysis of certain compounds of carbon, as
has hitherto been supposed, but that his
mind was saturated with Newton's notions on
atoms, and he worked out the theory from
physical conditions as to the constitution of
gases. Somewhat later he quoted numerical
results, not of his own, but of other chem-
ists' analyses, in support of the theory, and
seems to have worked out the law of chem-
ical combination in multiple proportions as

576

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the only conceivable mode of combination
between atoms.

The results of the experiments of 1894
at the New York Agricultural Experiment
Station on spraying indicate that the dihite
Bordeaux mixture when thoroughly applied
is a practical preventive of pear scab. The
treatment has been equally effectual in pre-
venting apple scab and codlin moth. Some
roughness, regarded as injury, appeared on
the sprayed fruit, but it has not been deter-
mined whether this was caused by the Bor-
deaux mixture, by substances mixed with
it, by the weather, or by some other cause.
Some of the trees sprayed in 1893 overbore,
and consequently did not produce as full
crops in 1894 ; the only inference deducible
from which is that spraying will not prevent
the reaction that follows an excessive crop.

NOTES.

Meerschaum is extracted in much the
same way as coal Near Eski-Shehir, an im-
portant station on the Anatolian Railway,
where rich deposits of meerschaum are
found, pits from twenty-five to one hundred
and twenty feet deep are dug, and as soon as
the vein is struck horizontal galleries, some-
times of considerable length, are made. The
stone as extracted is called ham-tash (rough
block), and is soft enough to be easily cut
with a knife. It is white, with a yellowish
tint, and is covered with a red, clayey soiL
The manipulation required before it is ready
for export is long and costly.

The average annual production of wine
in Spain, inclnding the Balearic Isles and the
Canaries, is estimated at 770,000,000 gallons.
The principal wine-growing districts are in
Valencia, Catalonia, Old Castile, Aragon,
Riojana, Navarre, Leon, Andalusia, Estra-
madura, and the largest production is fur-
nished by the provinces of Alicante and Va-
lencia-Catalonia. Andalusia produces the
famous sherry and Malaga wines which com-
pete very favorably in the foreign markets
with the Italian products of Marsala and
Syracuse. The amount of sherry alone
which is shipped from Spain each year rep-
resents a value of over $12,000,000.

Animals in Mediaeval Architecture, pro-
fusely illustrated, and The Criminal Prosecu-
tion of Animals in the Middle Ages, also illus-
trated, are the titles of two interesting vol-
umes by Prof. E. P. Evans soon to be pub-
lished by Henry Holt & Co., New York, and
"William Heinemann, London.

The following sentence from one of
Pasteur's speeches seems worthy of wide-
spread circulation: "I hold the invincible

belief that science and peace will be victori-
ous over ignorance and war ; that the nations
will agree not to destroy, but to build up ;
and that the future will belong to those who
shall have done most for suffering human-
ity."

The part which ants play in the menage
of an orchid seems to be essential to its
healthy growth. Mr. J. H. Hart, dealing with
this question in a recent bulletin of the
Royal Botanic Gardens, says that while there
are several theories as to the part which the
ants play, probably the correct one is that
they supply the roots of the orchid with the
mycelium of a fungus, which fungus enables
them to take up food which would be other-
wise imattainable.

The third International Congress of Psy-
chology will meet in Munich next August
The opening will take place in the great hall
of the university on the morning of the 4th.
Prof. Stumpf is the president of the congress.
Information may be obtained from the general
secretary, Freiherr von Schrenck-Notzing, or
from Prof. Sully, East Heath Road, Hamp-
stead, London, England.

It is stated that a biography of Prof.
Huxley is being prepared by his son, Mr.
Leonard Huxley, who will be greatly obliged
if those who possess letters or other docu-
ments of interest will forward them to him
at Charterhouse, Godalming. They will be
carefully returned after being copied.

Dr. Robert Brown, who died in
Streatham, England, October 26, 1895, in his
fifty fourth year, was a man of much versa-
tility in science. He studied at the Universi-
ties of Edinburgh, Leyden, Copenhagen, and
Rostock. Visiting Spitzbergen, Greenland,
and Baffin Bay in 1861, he made some,
notable discoveries. During the next -five
years he traveled through some of the un-
explored districts of America, vivsiting the
West Indies, Venezuela, Alaska, Bering Se^
and places between, and the Pacific islands.
He was botanist to the British Columbia ex-
pedition and commander of the Vancouver
Island expedition. In these enterprises he
introduced several new plants into Europe.
He charted the interior of Vancouver Island,
then unknown. With Mr. Whymper he'
made the first attempt of Englishmen in
1867 to penetrate the inland ice of Green-
land. He afterward/ traveled extensively
through the Barbary states ; then • settled
down in Scotland, where he lectured to vari-
ous institutions on geology, botany, and zo-
ology ; and later engaged in newspaper work
in England. His name has been given to
several new species of plants and animals,
and to at least five geographical points in
Vancouver Island, Spitzbergen, and Nova
Zembla. He was the author of several sci-
entific and other books, and an honorary or
ordinary member of many learned societies.

WILLIAM STARLING SULLIVANT.

APPLETONS'

POPULAR SCIENCE

MON"THLY.

MAEGH, 1896

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION.

Bt DAVID A. "WELLS, LL.D., D. C. L.,

OOEBESPONDANT DB l'iNSTITXJT DE TBANCK, KTO.

II. — THE PLACE OF TAXATION IN LITERATURE AND HISTORY.

PART II.

TAXATION IN Ancient Greece.— In Athens, according to
Boeckh, the revenues of the state were derived from receipts
from the public domains, including mines, partly from taxes
analogous to our " customs '' and " excise," and some taxes upon
industry and persons which only extended to aliens and slaves ;
from fines and justice fees, from the proceeds of confiscated prop-
erty, and from tribute from allied or subject states. All exports
and imports into Athens, at one period, were subject to a small
duty of two per cent ; and in addition to this, foreign ships lying
in the harbor paid a small fee, as did also aliens for the privilege
of selling commodities, arriving by sea, in certain designated
market places. "A special tax was also levied upon the pro-
prietors or occupants of houses, the doors or windows of which
opened outward on the public footway. And, as throwing further
light on the social system of ancient Greece, we have the state-
ment on good authority that the Greeks, having no pockets, used
to leave valuable articles in sealed packets, trusting to the laws
which punished the violation of a seal. Direct taxes,*' according
to Boeckh, " imposed upon the soil, upon industry, or upon persons,
excepting in cases of emergency, were looked upon in Greece as
despotic and arbitrary ; it being considered as a necessary element
of freedom that the property of a citizen, as well as his occupation,
should be exempt from all taxation, except when a free community
taxed itself, which, however, is obviously an essential part of lib-

VOL. XLTIII. — 41

578 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

erty.'' Poll taxes were exacted by the Athenian state, but as such
taxes were considered ignominious and as implying subjugation,
they were only assessed upon slaves or subjugated foreigners ; and
failure to pay was regarded in the light of a capital offense.

The income of Athens from fines appears to have been con-
siderable, and to have constituted a singular and permanent
feature of the fiscal policy of the state. Its method of assessment
may be best illustrated by examples. Thus, if duly authorized
officials did not hold certain assemblages, according to rule, or
properly conduct the appointed business, they had each to pay
a thousand drachmas ($200). If an orator conducted himself
indecorously in a public assembly, he could be fined fifty drach-
mas (ten dollars) for each offense, which might be raised to a
higher sum at the pleasure of the people. A woman conduct-
ing herself improperly in the streets paid a similar penalty. If a
woman went to Eleusis in a carriage, she subjected herself to a
fine of a talent (61,180). In the case of wealthy or notable per-
sons, fines for omissions or commissions in respect to conduct
were made much greater, and so more productive of revenue;
and there were very few notable or wealthy citizens of Athens
who under th^ rule of demagogues, and through specious accusa-
tions of offenses against the state or the gods, escaped the pay-
ment of heavy fines ; the experiences of Miltiades, Themistocles,
Aristides, Demosthenes, Pericles, Cleon, and Timotheus being cases
in point.* Every person who failed to pay a fine owing to the
state was reckoned as a public debtor, and was subject to im-
prisonment and a practical denial of citizenship ; Miltiades, the
victor at Marathon, for example, having been cast into prison
(where he afterward died) through an inability to pay a fine
assessed against him of fifty talents, f

* It was probably the contemplation of this state of things that led her great philosopher
Aristotle to the conclusion, expressed in his essay on Politics, that " the rule of an irrespon-
sible majority can be just as despotic as that of a single tyrant." He defines this extreme
democracy as that " in which the majority, and not the law, is supreme " — in other words,
" when decrees of the people, and not the law, govern." By " law " is meant a fixed code of
statutes, which can not be changed or repealed by the ordinary legislative power. The
latter can pass only decrees in conformity to the fixed code, which thus corresponds to our
written constitutions. Such absolute power, he says, makes the people a monarch, and
finally a despot refusing to be subject to law ; and " such a democracy is analogous to
tyranny." Both have the same character, for " both exercise a slaveholder's rule over the
better citizens." In one we have decrees, in the other edicts ; in one demagogues are in
authority, in the other flatterers. When a dispute arises, the cry always is, *' The people
must iettle it," and everything is determined by the momentary will of the supreme multi-
tude. From this state of things the wisdom of our fathers has saved us, and the Supreme
Court of the United States, as a rule, decides questions of constitutional law with far more
wisdom and dignity than its predecessor, the popular court of Athens.

f Boeckh's Public Economy of Athena.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 579

Another curious feature of the fiscal policy of Athens was an
indirect augmentation of the public revenues, by diminishing the
public expenditures by an institution which was essentially one
of differential exaction (miscalled taxation), and was known as
" liturgies/' They consisted in the conf erriug upon ambitious and
wealthy citizens certain honorary public offices to which noth-
ing of salary or compensation was attached, but which entailed
large expenditures for the entertainment of the people or defense
of the country. The acceptance of these offices was compulsory ;
parsimony in expenditure on the part of the holder exposed him
to public censure ; and the institution undoubtedly found favor
with the masses as a method of dividing the property or con-
suming the incomes of the wealthy. The system of liturgies was
not, however, peculiar or restricted to the Athenian state. It
existed in the Greek cities of Asia Minor, and also to a certain
extent in Rome, where the persons accepting the office of sedile,
whose business it was to take care of public edifices and superin-
tend public festivals, were expected to appropriate large sums
from their private resources for the convenience and amusement
of the people. The office of sedile in Rome, which was one of
great honor, was thus only made accessible to the very wealthy.
But as the office was, however, in the direct line of preferment to
some lucrative office in the provinces, the expenditures of its occu-
pant were probably regarded in the light of an investment, from
which more than complete remuneration was to be expected in
the future. The principle involved in the liturgies would also
seem to find recognition and exemplification in modern times, and
under a different civilization, but in accordance with the same hu-
man nature ; as, for example, in Great Britain, which by requiring
members of Parliament to serve gratuitously, virtually restricts
membership in that body to wealthy citizens; and also in the
United States, which, by paying her judges and most of her other
great officers of state inconsiderable and inadequate salaries, prac-
tically reduces the cost of her Government, and virtually makes
merchandise of her honors by entailing a part of the proper ex-
penses of such offices upon every first-class incumbent of them.*

The comparatively small expenditures of the Athenian state
should also to be considered in connection with their revenue re-
quirements. Thus, Mr. Grote estimates the annual expenditure
of Athens, in the time of Pericles, at one thousand talents, or

* It will not probably be disputed that the talent and experience which ought to be pre-
requisite to the holding and proper discharge of the duties of many of the important offices
of the Government of the United States — judges, cabinet ministers, foreign ministers,
consuls, etc. — will command in private life a much higher compensation or salary than is
paid by the state.

58o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

$1,180,000; and, according to Mr. Boeckh, the revenues of the
city never exceeded two thousand talents, or $2,360,000. The
annual tax paid on the property of Demosthenes by his guardi-
ans amounted to only one fifth of one per cent of its valuation ;
and as, before the Peloponnesian war, the receipts from the
silver mines owned by the state were so abundant that the sur-
plus revenue was divided among the citizens of Athens, it is evi-
dent that for a time there was no necessity for taxation.

Taxation in Rome. — Up to the time of Servius Tullius taxa-
tion in Rome consisted of a capitation assessment, arbitrarily
fixed, without regard to the means of the individual.* After the
termination of the last Punic war, and down to nearly the epoch
of the Empire — a period of at least one hundred and twenty-five
years — the people of Rome were exempt from all direct taxation.
This was due to the circumstance that Rome had accumulated
great wealth, and was in receipt of an annual revenue from her
conquered provinces fully adequate to defray all the expenses of
the government, including the military establishment of the state.
A large revenue for a considerable period was also derived from
the imperial silver mines in Spain. Cicero, who lived before the
empire, in one of his epistles to Atticus, laments the possibility
of a resort to taxation by the state at some time in the future as
something ominous of evil.

One of the first acts, however, of Augustus, after assuming the
reins of government, was the gradual institution of an extensive
system of taxation. He organized a land tax for the whole
empire ; and followed it up with what Gibbon terms " an artful
assessment" on the real and personal property of the Roman
citizens, who, as before shown, had been long exempted from any
contributions for the support of the state. A tax of five per cent,
or one twentieth, was also imposed on all legacies and successions,
which did not apply to objects inherited of less than a specified
value (" probably," says Gibbon, " of fifty or a hundred pieces of
gold ") ; nor was it exacted from the nearest of kin on the father's
side, t

This tax which appears to have been most productive, was one
of the most permanent taxes of the empire, and its amount was
increased by the successors of Augustus.

Gibbon seems to have been in doubt as to the motive which

* Ortolan, History of Roman Jurisprudence, English edition, p. 257.

\ " Such a tax was most happily sviited to the situation of the Romans, who could frame
their arbitrary wills according to the dictates of reason or caprice, without any restraint
from the modem fetters of entails and settlements. From various causes, the partiality of
parental affection also often lost its influence over the dissolute nobles of the empire ; and
if the father bequeathed to his son a fourth part of his estate, he removed all grounds of
legal complaint." — (G%6on, vol. i, p. 192.)

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 581

prompted Augustus to incorporate these new features of taxation
in the Roman governmental policy, and suggests a desire to re-
lieve the provinces from their burden of tribute, or to effect the
impoverishment of the senate or the "equestrian" (knights)
order. A more modern and probably a more correct view is, that
Augustus recognized that, as Rome possessed all the known
world that she considered worth possessing, the profitable results
of further conquests, and the drain of accumulated wealth from
subjugated nations, had practically come to an end ; that her
army henceforth existed mainly for maintaining the integrity of
the empire, or for defense ; and that for its support, in default
of opportunities to plunder, an extensive and rigorous system of
taxation had become necessary.

Under the system of taxation established by Augustus and ex-
tended by his successors, most of the taxes known to modern
times were anticipated by the Romans. Apart from the ta?:es on
land, they had export and import taxes ; tolls for passage over
bridges ; a tax upon salt ; a tax in kind upon corn (wheat),
barley, wine, oil, meat, and wood ; a tax upon the value of manu-
mitted slaves ; on sales ; and a capitation or poll tax. Of other
notable and peculiar Roman taxes was one on the wages of pros-
titutes ; and apart from his wars with the Jews and the building
of the Colosseum, the Roman Emperor Vespasian is best known
in history as the originator of a tax on urinals.

Excepting possibly the land tax, there does not appear to have
been any general and uniform system of taxation for the whole
empire. The taxes on imports and exports were not uniforni,
and there were separate customs districts, each with a tariff of its
own, and some with special immunities. Under the reign of
Augustus and his successors, duties varying from an eighth to
the fortieth part of the value of the commodity were imposed at
Rome on every kind of merchandise, " which through a thousand
channels flowed to the great center of opulence and luxury ; and
in whatsoever manner the law was expressed, it was the Roman
purchaser and not the provincial merchant that paid the tax." *

A general tax (characterized by Gibbon as an excise), and
seldom exceeding one per cent was also exacted at Rome on
whatever " was sold in the market place, or by public auction,
from the most considerable purchase of land and houses to those
minute objects which can only derive a value from their infinite
multitude and daily consumption." As exports were subject to
Roman taxation as well as imports, and as the average rates im-
posed in both cases were probably low, these forms of taxation
appear to have been in the nature of a payment for the privilege

Gibbon, vol. i, p. 190, who in turn cites Tacitus, Annals, vol. xiii, p. 31, as authority.

582 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of conducting commerce; imposed for the purpose of revenue
only, and without the slightest reference to any contingent in-
fluences on trade or industry. In fact, the idea of promoting (pro-
tecting) industry through taxes on exchanges appears to have
found no place in Roman or any other ancient economic history
or experience.

In accordance with a practice on the part of the ancient Ro-
mans of deifying abstractions — as war, love, navigation, thievery,
and the like — we find mention of the Genius of the Custom House,
or of Indirect Taxes (genius portorii publici), a divinity that
seems to have survived to our own times ; inasmuch as many of
the curious phenomena that have occurred in connection with
modern efforts to prevent free exchanges through the agencies
of customs taxation, seem only capable of explanation on the as-
sumption that some occult power has been more potential in
shaping economic events in this department of government than
any proper exercise of man's reasoning faculties ; and that it is
the part of wisdom that large sacrifices should be made by the
people in order to propitiate this deity.

Throughout the whole course of their history the principal
taxes levied by the Romans appear to have been collected through
the instrumentality of a class of officials known as " publicans"
who paid the government for the privilege of so doing ; and who,
intrusted with extraordinary powers, were allowed, by way of
compensation for their services, to collect and retain as much of
additional revenue as they could force or extort from the tax-
payers for their individual and private benefit. Such an admin-
istration of the publicans necessarily involved and required the
employment of a large number of subcontractors and deputies,
who, stationed at seaports, on public highways, at the gates of
cities, and the market places, examined all goods exported, im-
ported, or offered for sale, estimated their value, and collected the
taxes to which they were legally liable, and as much more as they
could extort with impunity, for the benefit of their masters or
themselves — which last, in disorderly times and under the bad em-
perors, had a very wide latitude. This wretched system of " farm-
ing " or discounting the rey;enues of the state, which appears to
have been a permanent feature of the government of Rome at all
periods — under its kings, under the republic, and under the em-
pire— has, moreover, a feature of general interest, as it clearly
illustrates the exceeding limitation and narrowness of the general
Roman policy in the sphere of civil administration.

Another fact pertinent to the general philosophy of taxation,
which the historical study of Roman polity has developed, is also
especially worthy of notice in this connection. As has been pre-
viously stated, the Romans, for a period of at least one hundred

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 583

and twenty-five years before the establisliment of tlie empire
■under Csesar, were enabled, througli the great spoils of war ob-
tained from subjugated nations, to relieve themselves from taxa-
tion for the support of their government ; and, in so doing, it ap-
pears that they first threw off their direct taxes, and at a later
period those taxes that were indirect. But when under Caesar it
became necessary to reimpose taxes, they established them in a
reverse order — that is, the indirect taxes were renewed first and
in preference to those which were direct ; thus recognizing and
affirming in practice the idea that characterizes the fiscal policy
of most modern governments — namely, that it is expedient to con-
ceal as far as possible the burden of taxes from the people who
are to pay them.

The gross amount of annual revenue which the empire of
Rome collected in its best day is estimated by Gibbon to have
been about twenty million pounds sterling ($100,000,000) ; later
authorities place it at a much higher figure, or $200,000,000. In
default, however, of exact information as to the purchasing power
of money at the time, it is obvious that neither of these esti-
mates can give us any true idea of the real amount of the
Roman revenue; but, taking the probable price of wheat in
Rome at the close of the republic as an indication of the price of
other commodities, the purchasing power of Gibbon's twenty
million pounds sterling ($100,000,000) must have represented a
much greater sum, or at least $150,000,000. If the largest of these
estimates of the revenue of imperial Rome should seem inade-
quate for the support of a government that extended over the
greater part of the then known surface of the earth, that included
a population of at least 150,000,000, and maintained a military and
naval establishment of 450,000 men, it should be remembered
that^ apart from the greater increased purchasing power of money
than now prevails, the expenditure by the state for the support
of its military forces was comparatively small (" the ratio of mili-
tary draft upon society before the inception of Rome's decadence
being but little more than one third as great as that of the seven
principal states of present Ear ope " *) ; that the present com-
plexity and magnitude of expenditure in the form of taxes did
not exist ; and that a Roman national debt, with its burden of con-
stantly accruing interest— the one thing most grievous to modern
states — was entirely unknown.

The taxes, or rather exactions, on the people of the conquered
provinces of Rome were always more numerous, discriminating,
and onerous than those levied upon the population of the im-
perial city and its adjoining districts ; and from the time of the

* Baker. The Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans. D. Appleton & Co., 1894.

584 POPULAR SCIENCJH MONTHLY.

Emperor Diocletian they became more and more destructive of
industry, and fell with special weight upon agriculture. Accord-
ing to Sir James Stephen, the land tax in Gaul rose to " the almost
incredible amount of one third of the net produce of the land " ;
but what is more singular and incredible, the present tax on the
peasant agriculturist of Italy is equivalent to the value of an
even larger share of his product.

The provincial taxes which gave rise, however, to the greatest
discontent were the poll tax and a tax upon funerals. These
were easy to collect, and consequently in favor with the Roman
tax-gatherers ; but being levied at fixed and undiscriminating rates,
pressed with great and unequal severity upon the poor. The last-
mentioned tax — i. e., upon funerals, which required payment be-
fore the burial of the dead — was said to have formed one of the
principal causes of the revolt of the Iceni (Britons), under their
famous warrior. Queen Boadicea. The decree mentioned in St.
Luke's Gospel, of Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be
taxed, and in pursuance of which " every one went into his own
city," unquestionably referred to a poll-tax assessment, and to its
required payment in person by every adult at the Roman tax-col-
lector's office nearest to an established center of Roman authority.

In the province of Gaul the annual tribute exacted from every
head under the reign of Constantino was reported to have been
twenty-five pieces of gold. But the possibility of the payment of
such a high capitation tax has been explained by the circum-
stance that in all the provinces of the Roman world the ma-
jority of the people were slaves, or peasants whose condition was
little different from slavery; and that the rolls of tribute em-
braced only the names of citizens who possessed the means of an
honorable or at least of a decent subsistence.

The whole record of Roman experience in respect to revenue
collection or taxation before the decadence of the empire, alike in
the city of Rome and in her provinces, is, however, of no value,
save from an historical point of view. It does not appear, as
before noted, to have been based upon any well-devised and
harmonious fiscal system, or to have had any influence whatever
in originating or developing one ; for, unlike other Roman cus-
toms and institutions, it everywhere fell into disuse when the
authority of Rome was withdrawn. In one feature alone was
Rome consistent in her views and harmonious in her practice in
respect to taxation : she always levied taxes for the purpose of
getting money into the public treasury and for no ulterior reason.
The nearest approach on the part of the Romans to a recognition
of the policy of stimulating a branch of industry through the in-
strumentality of bounties or subsidies seems to have occurred
in connection with the distribution of wheat gratuitously, or at

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 585

artificially low prices, among the poor and idle masses of tlie im-
perial city ; wliicli practice, originally adopted under the repub-
lic, with a view of obviating popular discontent, and continued,
with additions of oil and meat under the empire, finally became
a cause of great anxiety to the emperors lest anything should
interfere with the movement of grain, which was mainly by sea
from Africa and Sicily. To insure regularity and efficient service,
the state at first farmed out the right to transport the crops to
certain wealthy individuals; and this inducement to enterprise
proving insufficient, the Emperor Claudius gave a bounty for each
successful trip of the grain fleet. The construction of ships was
also encouraged by subsidies, and in this way there grew up a
class of wealthy shipowners, whose profits and incentive to busi-
ness were obtained from the state, and who by organization into
an association (analogous to the modern trust) under the name of
"Naviculari" with branches in every city or town in the prov-
inces, and with wealthy and influential senators among its stock-
holders or patrons, attained to great prominence and influence in
the third and fourth centuries.

Taxation, in at least one notable instance, was also employed
by the Romans as an instrumentality for the correction of a social
evil — namely, a disinclination on the part of wealthy citizens, in
the latter days of the republic and throughout the whole period
of the empire, to contract marriages, with a view of avoiding the
cares and burdens of a family. To counteract this tendency, a
tax (" (Bs uxorium ") was imposed on bachelors, with a limitation
(" lex Julia et Papia Poppcea ") on the transmission of property
by will or gift by the unmarried and the childless.*

The statesmen and administrators of Rome seem never to have
given a thought to the desirability of encouraging industry, trade,
or commerce among their own people, much less among the people
they had subjugated. There was, throughout all their literature
and laws, the contempt which brigands and barbarians entertain
for honest industry, at least when that industry is not agricul-

* In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was well-nigh universal legislation
of this kind, the most thoroughgoing specimens being a Spanish edict of 1623 and one of
Louis XIY in 1666, which not only granted exemption from taxation, but positive subsidies
in cash, as an inducement to early marriages. That the idea involved in such legislation
has also found favor at the present time is shown by the fact that Prof. Kichet, a German
economist of repute, has recently proposed that in all systems of taxation the fathers of
large families be favored, and that corresponding burdens be laid on those who contuma-
ciously refrain from marrying ; ignoring the fact that old Rome adopted and carried out this
policy by measures much more drastic than the spirit of the present times would tolerate,
and that the result is generally believed to have been a failure. It is also worthy of note,
that at the present time, in the Canadian Province of Quebec, the fathers of the largest
families receive bounties of public lands ; the motive of which policy is unquestionably to
bring the French Canadian element into the control of the Dominion Government.

586 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tural. To create wealtli appeared to tliem sordid ; to take it was
admirable, or, as M. Blanqui has put it, the economic policy
of the Roman state may be expressed in the following single
sentence, "ies romains voulaient avant tout consommer sans
produire " *

The genius of the Roman government was military, not com-
mercial. The Romans prohibited commerce to persons of rank
and fortune ; and no senator was allowed to own a vessel larger
than a boat sufficient to carry his own food (grain) and fruit.
They encouraged corn merchants to import provisions from
Sicily, Africa, and Spain, because the cultivators of the soil of
Italy, mainly slaves, did not produce a sufficient supply of food
for the city of Rome. They seem, moreover, never to have had any
conception of the impolicy of levying taxes in such a way as to dry
up the channels of trade and enterprise ; or of the fact, abundantly
substantiated by all experience, that when government takes from
its people more than a fair share of the savings of capital and
labor, then accumulation will cease and capital be destroyed ; and
against social disorders thus engendered Rome was powerless.
That the seeds of decay were thus planted in her governmental
system, and that the fall of her empire was hence only a question
of time and inevitable, is a point that historians seem very gen-
erally to have overlooked.

During the years of the later empire, although its resources
and population had greatly decreased, its expenditures enor-
mously increased ; and the sequence of this was a system of grind-
ing exactions, to which, more than any other one immediate cause,
the utter decay and final complete downfall of the empire may be
attributed. During the period intervening between the reign of
Marcus Aurelius and Diocletian it has been estimated that a ma-
jority of the population of the empire, from Persia to Gaul, had
died of the plague ; and what the plague had been to the popula-
tion, the "fiscus " or financial policy of the government was to
industry. Under Constantius, a. d. 337, taxes were imposed on all
trades and industries, and such was the comprehension and severity
of the law, that Gibbon tells us, that " the honorable merchant,
the usurer who derived from the interest of money a silent and
ignominious profit, the ingenious manufacturer, the diligent me-
chanic, and even the obscure retailer of a sequestered village, and
the public prostitutes,'' were all alike obliged to admit the offi-
cers of the revenue to a participation of their gains. Such, more-
over, was the imperfect state of agriculture and of manufacturing
processes that the net product of the individual was necessarily

* See Blanqui. Histoire de PEconomie Politique en Europe. American translation by
Emily J. Leonard, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1880.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION, 587

very small — so much, so that it has been estimated that the labor of
several individuals was required to supply even the necessary
food of one inactive person. But as the people became exhausted,
the demands of the government, contingent on the maintenance
of an extravagant court and a large standing army of soldiers and
officials, became greater, the severity in the methods of exaction
increased, and in no two provinces was the authority of the gov-
ernment (sovereign) exercised in the same manner.* With ma-
lignant ingenuity, and with a view of perfecting the control of
the state over the individual, and doubtless more especially for
facilitating the operation of the officials charged with the duty of
collecting taxes, every man's position was fixed for him by the
conditions of his birth. The son of a cultivator of the soil was
chained, as it were, to the lands tilled by his father. The work-
men in all other departments of industry were bound to their po-
sition for life, and when they died their places were taken by their
sons. " If any one of them deserted his work, he was sought out,
even to the remotest provinces, and ruthlessly dragged back to
his posf t If ^6 failed to produce a prescribed result, the state
intervened and forced its accomplishment. In making assess-
ments for taxation, visible tangible property was enrolled with
great minuteness by officers who corresponded to our modern as-
sessors. The lands were measured by surveyors ; their nature —
whether arable or pasture, vineyards or woods — was distinctly
reported; and an estimate was made of their value from their
average produce for five years. Every new purchaser of land
contracted all the obligations of former proprietors. Slaves and
cattle were counted separately, and carefully reported for assess-
ment ; and by the Theodosian Code, which for the time was an
almost universal law, death and confiscation of estate was the
punishment to which every farming proprietor was liable who
should attempt to evade taxation.

In respect to the assessment and collection of taxes on personal
property, the accounts that have come down to us are most inter-
esting, and ought to be full of instruction to legislators of the
present day who believe in patterning tax administration after
old and vicious experiences, so far as the changed conditions and
ideas of civilization in the nineteenth century will admit. The
proprietor of such property was, in the first instance, questioned
under oath ; and every attempt to prevaricate or elude the inten-

* Alfred Rambaud. L'Empire Grec au Dixi^me Si^cle.

f By a law of the Emperor Theodosius, in 438 a. d., it was provided that the fabricm-
ses (meaning thereby the workmen engaged in the fabrication of arms) "shall be so
closely bound to their appropriate duties that, worn out at last by their toil, they shall die
in the profession to which they were born — both they and their children after them." — {Co-
dex Tlieod., ii, 9, 4.)

588 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

tions of the legislator was punishable as a capital crime, and was
held to include the double guilt of treason and sacrilege. If the
results of personal interrogation under oath were not satisfactory
to the tax officials, they were empowered to administer torture ;
and when personal stoicism or absolute incapacity failed to effect
the desired results, resort was had to other, most abhorrent, and
unnatural methods for procuring the sum at which their property
was assessed — "the faithful slave being tortured for evidence
against his master, the wife to depose against her husband, and
the son against his sire. Neither age nor sickness exempted from
liability and personal inquisition. In taking ages, they added to
the years of children and subtracted from those of the elderly.
When the number of cattle fell off and the people died, the sur-
vivors were obliged to pay the assessments on the dead." Zosi-
mus, a historian who wrote in the early part of the fifth century,
says that the approach of the fatal period when the general tax
upon industry was to be collected " was announced by the tears
and terrors of the citizens."

That the result, so far as the execution of the law was con-
cerned, was a success, can not be doubted; nor that by the
methods employed large amounts of revenue were collected that
otherwise could not have been obtained. But what were the final
results ? First, a demonstration of an economic truth, which in
subsequent years has over and over again been repeated, that
the productiveness of a tax is not its first consideration; and
that a blight contingent on the method of assessing and collecting
a tax may ruin a harvest which it can not gather. Under the state
of things, as described, that prevailed under the latter days of the
Roman Empire, the agriculture of its provinces was gradually
ruined. Long before the footsteps of the barbarians had been
seen in Italy, a large part of what had been its most fertile por-
tion and the seat of " the delicious retirement of the citizens of
Rome," had become uncultivated and a desert. " The desire and
possibility of accumulation languished, and men produced only
what would suffice for their immediate needs ; for the govern-
ment laid in wait for all savings. Capital vanished, the souls of
men were palsied ; population fled from what was called civiliza-
tion, and sought concealment and relief in barbarism and with
barbarians. Men cried for social death, and invited the coming
of savages ; and in the form of Goths and Vandals, Huns and
Herulii, Franks and Lombards, they came, and the empire of
Rome and its degraded civilization went down in almost universal
turmoil, bloodshed, robbery, and woe." There is also good reason
for believing that the Turks were greatly indebted for their suc-
cess in overthrowing the subsequent Byzantine or Greek Empire
to their simple methods and policy in respect to taxation; and

TEE FAILURE OF SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM, 589

that the subjects of the empire were glad to change their
masters, because instead of multiplied, intricate, and vexatious
taxes, the legacy of old Rome, they found themselves subject
to a simple tribute, easily collected and easily paid.*

THE FAILURE OF SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM, f

By WILHELM OSTWALD,
pbofegsor or chemistry ln the university of lbip8i0.

THE complaint has gone up in all ages that so little agreement
prevails respecting the most important and most funda-
mental questions of humanity. Only within our own days has the
cry with respect to one of the greatest of these questions been
silenced ; and although many contradictions are still current, it
may yet be said that rarely at any time has a so relatively great
unanimity existed concerning the theory of the world of outward
phenomena as prevails just now in our scientific century. From
the mathematician to the practicing physician, every scientifically
thinking man, in answer to the question how he supposes the
world is intrinsically constituted, would sum up his view, by say-
ing that the universe is composed of atoms in motion, and that
these atoms and the forces operating between them are the ulti-
mate realities of which individual phenomena consist. The
phrase can be heard and read in hundredfold repetitions, that no
other explanation of the physical world can be found than one
that rests upon the " mechanics of atoms " ; matter and motion
seem to be the ultimate concepts to which the diversity of natural
phenomena must be referred. This conception may be called
scientific materialism.

I purpose to express my conviction that this so generally ac-
cepted conception is untenable ; that this mechanical view of the
world does not answer the purpose for which it has been formed,
and that it is contradictory of indubitable and generally known

* The most available source of information on this subject is the historian Gibbon (De-
cline and Fall of the Roman Empire, edition with notes by Milman, Gfiizot, and Smith ;
New York, Harper's), who in turn specially cites as the authority for his statements
the two collections of ancient laws designated by the names of the two Byzantine Em-
perors under whom they were made, as the Codex Theodosianus and Codex Justinianus,
and the writings of Zosimus, a Greek historian, who lived in the early part of the fifth
century a. d,, and whose history of the Roman Empire is still extant. For an exceedingly
graphic account of Roman experiences in attempting to tax personal property (from which
quotations have here been made) see Roman Imperialism, by J. R. Seeley, London, 1870.

f An address delivered before the third general session of the meeting of the Society of
German Naturalists and Physicians, at Lubeck, on September 20, 1895.

590 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and recognized truths. There can be no doubt of the conclusion
to be drawn from this proposition : this scientifically untenable
conception must be given up, and replaced, if possible, by another
and better one. I believe that I can answer the question that
would naturally be asked here, whether another better view ex-
ists, in the affirmative. What I have to say on the subject will
therefore be legitimately divided into two parts — the destructive
and the constructive. It is easier in this case, as in others, to
destroy than to build up, and the insufficiency of the usual
mechanical view will be easier to demonstrate than the su^ciency
of the new one, which I shall call the energistic view. But if I
declare at once that this new theory has already had opportunity
to show its quality in the field of experimental science, so favor-
able to calm examination and impartial testing, it will then be
able, even if it can not secure conviction of its correctness, to
demand recognition of its claim to consideration.

It may not be superfluous for me to announce in the beginning
that I contemplate an exclusively scientific discussion. I put
away absolutely and unconditionally all conclusions which might
be drawn from the result for other, ethical and religious, pur-
poses. I do this, not because I undervalue the importance of such
considerations, but because my result has been obtained independ-
ently of them, purely on the ground of exact science. Even for
the tilling of this ground the word holds good that he who puts
hand to the plow and looks back is not made for the kingdom.
The naturalist is pledged to declare what he has found, whomso-
ever it may hurt or help, and we may surely trust that earnest
seeking, though it may lead us astray for a little while, will never
do it permanently. I do not forget that my attempt places me in
contradiction with the opinions of men who have achieved much
in science, and to whom we all look up in admiration. I hope
you will not impute conceit to me because I differ from them on
so important a subject. It is not conceit when the sailor whose
post is in the " crow's nest " causes the course of the great ship
on which he is only a servant to be turned by the cry of " Break-
ers ahead!" It is his duty to tell what he sees, and he would
fail in this duty if he neglected to do so. In the same sense I
have a duty to discharge. Yet none of you is obliged to change
his scientific course merely on my call of "Breakers ahead!''
Each of you may test whether a reality stands before my eyes, or
I am deceived by a vision. But since I believe that the special
kind of scientific work which is my calling permits me for the
moment to discern certain phenomena more clearly than they
appear from other points of view, I should consider it wrong if
I failed for reasons outside of it to speak of what I have seen.

In order to set ourselves right in the infinity of the world of

THE FAILURE OF SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM. 591

phenomena, we piirsne always and everywhere the same scientific
method. We put like by the side of like, and seek what is com-
mon in diversity. In this way is the gradual mastery of the infin-
ity of our phenomenal world achieved, and more effective means
for compassing the purpose arise in successive development.
From bare comparison we pass to system, from this to laws of
Nature, and the most comprehensive form of these is compressed
into the general principle. We perceive that the phenomena of
the actual world, unlimited as is their diversity, still represent
only quite definite and well-marked instances of formally conceiv-
able possibilities. The significance of the laws of Nature consists
in the determination of the real cases out of the possible, and the
form to which they may all be traced back is the ascertaining of
an invariant, a something which remains unalterable, even when
all other criterions within the possible bounds defined by the law
change. Thus we see that the historical development of scientific
views is always associated with the discovery and elaboration of
such invariants ; in them are revealed the milestones of the high-
way of knowledge which mankind has trodden.

One such invariant of universal bearing is found in the idea
of mass. This not only gives the constants of astronomical laws,
but is not less invariably illustrated in the most incisive changes
to which we can subject the objects of the outer world — chemical
processes. For that reason this idea, as being highly adapted to
the position, has been made the center of scientific legitimacy.
It was, however, in itself too poor in substance to serve for the
representation of the manifold phenomena, and had to be corre-
spondingly extended. This was done by associating with that
simple mechanical idea the series of properties, in their propor-
tion, which are experimentally connected with the property of
mass. Thus originated the idea of matter, in which was grouped
all that was sensibly connected with mass, and continued with it,
such as weight, volume, chemical properties, etc., and the physical
law of the conservation of mass passed into the metaphysical axiom
of the conservation of matter.

It is important to understand that with this extension a multi-
tude of hypothetical elements were introduced into a conception
that was in the beginning wholly free from hypotheses. Chem-
ical processes, in particular, must be interpreted in the light of
this view against the seeming, not as implying a disappearance
of the matter affected by the change and its replacement by new
matter with new properties. The theory rather became accepted
that even when all the sensible properties of, for example, iron
and oxygen disappear in iron oxide, iron and oxygen are never-
theless present in the resultant substance, and have only taken on
other properties. We have now become so accustomed to this view

592 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

that it is very hard for us to perceive the strangeness, yes, the
absurdity of it. When we reflect that all we know of any par-
ticular substance is of its properties, we see that the thought
that it is still present, but has no longer any of its properties,
is not far removed from pure nonsense. In fact, this purely
formal conception only serves to help us harmonize the general
facts of chemical processes, particularly the stoichiometrical laws
of mass, with the arbitrary conception of a matter unchangeable
in itself.

But even with this extended conception of matter and the ne-
cessary corollaries besides, we can not comprehend the mass of phe-
nomena— not once in inorganic Nature. Matter is thought of as
something at rest, unchangeable; in order to reconcile this
thought with the view of the constantly changing world, we have
to complement it with another, independent of it, which shall
bring changeableness to pass. Such a supplementary idea was set
forth by Galileo, the creator of scientific physics, in the concep-
tion of force, as the constant cause of motion. Galileo had discov-
ered a highly important invariant for the variable phenomena of
free and induced falling. By the application of a self-existing
gravity, the effects of which continuously accumulate, he made the
complete explanation of these processes possible. The pregnancy
of this conception was demonstrated by Newton, who, with his
thought that the same force was operative as a function of the dis^-
tance between the heavenly bodies, conquered the whole visible stel-
lar world for science. This advance it was, chiefly, which aroused
the conviction that all other physical phenomena could be ac-
counted for in the same way as those of astronomy by the same
auxiliary. Then when it resulted, further, at the beginning of
our century, through the labors of a number of eminent astrono-
mers, principally French, not only that Newton's law of gravita-
tion could account for the motions of the heavenly bodies in their
larger features, but that it sustained the closer and far more
thorough second test of accounting for the deviations from the
typical forms of motion, the perturbations, the confidence in
the fruitfulness of this conception was increased in an extraordi-
nary measure. What could be more readily suggested than
the supposition that the theory which had been competent to
account so completely for the motions of the great world was also
the right and only means of reducing the processes in the smaller
world of atoms to scientific control ? Thus arose the mechanical
view of Nature, according to which all phenomena, especially in
inanimate Nature, were traced back ultimately to the motions of
atoms under the same laws as were recognized for the heavenly
bodies. It was a necessary consequence that this conception of
the realm of inorganic Nature should be applied to animate Nature

THE FAILURE OF SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM, 593

as soon as it was perceived tliat the same laws wMcb. prevailed
there could also claim their inviolable right here. This view of
the world found its classical expression in Laplace's idea of a
" world formula," by means of which every past and future event
could be brought about in a strictly analytical way according to
mechanical laws. For such a work, a mind was required which
was far superior to the human mind, but was still essentially like
it and not fundamentally different from it.

We do not ordinarily remark in how extremely high a measure
this generally current view is hypothetical, even metaphysical >
but are accustomed, on the other hand, to regard it as the maxi-
mum of exact formulation of actual facts. In contradiction to
this it should be declared that a confirmation of the consequence
that should flow out of this theory — that all the non-mechanical
processes, like heat, light, electricity, magnetism, and chemism,
are really mechanical — can not be reached in any single case. It
has never been possible in any one of these instances so to account
for the actual conditions by a corresponding mechanical system
that there should be no remainder.

Mechanical interpretations, it is true, have been given with
more or less considerable success to individual phenomena ; but
when the attempt has been made to account for all the facts in
any given field by means of a mechanical conception, it has
always and without exception come to pass that an irreconcilable
contradiction appeared at some point, between the actual state of
the phenomena and that which the mechanical conception would
lead us to expect. Such contradictions might remain hidden for a
long time ; but the history of science teaches us that they will
inevitably sooner or later come to light ; and that all that we
can say with full certainty of such mechanical conceptions or
analogies as are usually called mechanical theories of the phe-
nomena in question is that they will at any rate fill the gap for
the present.

The history of optical theories affords a conspicuous example
of these conditions. So long as ^11 optics included nothing more
than the phenomena of reflection and refraction, an interpretation
was possible under the mechanical scheme proposed by Newton,
according to which light consists of small particles which, thrown
oat straightwise by shining bodies, behaved according to the laws
of moving and perfectly elastic masses. That another mechan-
ical view, the undulatory theory proposed by Huygens and Euler,
accomplished quite as much, might make the exclusive validity
of the former theory doubtful, but could not deprive it of its pre-
dominance. But when the phenomena of polarization and inter-
ference were discovered, Newton's mechanical conception was
found wholly inadequate, and the other, the undulatory theory,

VOL. XLTIII. — 42

594 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

was received as proved, because the essential facts at least of tlie
new departments were deducible from its premises.

The life of the undulatory theory as a mechanical hypothesis
has, however, been a limited one, for it has been borne to the grave
in our own time without display, and been replaced by the electro-
magnetic theory. The cause of its death is shown very plainly
when we dissect the corpse. It was carried down by its mechan-
ical constituents. The hypothetical ether, on which the task of
undulating was imposed, had to do this under peculiarly hard
conditions, for the phenomena of polarization demanded per-
emptorily that the undulations should be transversal ; but such
undulations presuppose a rigid body, and Lord Kelvin's calcula-
tions have shown, as a final result, that a medium with such prop-
erties as this ether must have is not stable ; whence the con-
clusion is inevitable that it can have no physical existence. In
order to spare the now accepted electro-magnetic theory of light
from such a fate, the lamented Hertz, to whom this theory owes
so much, expressly denied that he saw anything else in it than
a system of six differential equations. This termination of the
evolution speaks more impressively than I ever can against
the permanent usefulness of the formerly current mechanical
theorizing.

But I hear it said. Those theories have been so fertile. Yes,
they have been so through the sum of correct constituents in
them, as they have been damaging through their false ones.^
What were the correct and what the false had to be determined
by long and costly experiments. The result of our discussion so
far is first a pure negative. We have learned how not to do it,
and it seems to be of little use to follow out such negative results.
Yet we can point out a gain here, which will not appear worthless
to many of you. We find it possible, as we go, to refute critically
a view which had no small credit in its time, and caused great
concern to many of those interested in the discussion. I refer to
the widely known propositions which the eminent physiologist of
the University of Berlin, Emil Du Bois-Reymond, made, first
twenty-three years ago, on the occasion of the meeting of natu-
ralists at Leipsic, and afterward in some more widely read writ-
ings, relative to the prospects of our future knowledge of nature,
and which culminated in the famous expression ignorahimus. In
the long controversy which followed this address, Du Bois-Rey-
mond, so far as I can see, remained essentially the victor against
all attacks, for all his antagonists proceeded from the same prin-
ciple from which he inferred his ignorabimus, and his conclusions
stood as firmly as that principle. This principle, which in the
meanwhile had never been brought in question by any one, was
the mechanical theory of the world — the supposition that the sola-

THE FAILURE OF SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM. 595

tion of the phenomena in a system of moving mass-points is the
end which the theory of Nature is trying to reach. If this princi-
ple falls, and we have seen that it must fall, the ignorahimus falls
with it, and science again has free course.

I do not believe that you will accept this result with surprise,
for, if I can judge from my own experience, hardly a naturalist
has seriously believed in the ignorahimus unless he has failed to
make clear to himself in what point that in it which is untenable
lies. But the gain to the negative criticism of the mechanical
theory of the world accruing from the formal laying of that
menacing specter may be of some value to many thinkers who
have nothing to oppose to the inevitable logic of Du Bois-Rey-
mond's demonstration.

What is here laid down for the sake of clearness, in respect to
these particular discussions, has, however, a considerably wider
bearing. The refutation of the mechanical construction of the
universe touches the basis of the whole materialistic theory of the
world, the terms being taken in the scientific sense. It appears a
vain undertaking, with ultimate failure decreed to every earnest
effort, to interpret known physical phenomena mechanically ;
hence the conclusion is unavoidable that the attempt can still
less succeed with the vastly more complicated phenomena of
organic life. The same contradiction of principle forces itself
upon us here, and the supposition that all natural phenomena
can be traced back primarily to mechanical factors can not even
be designated an available working hypothesis. It is a mere
error.

The following fact bears most plainly against this error : Me-
chanical equations all have the property of permitting the ex-
change of the sign of time — that is, the theoretically perfected
mechanical processes can as well go backward as forward. In a
purely mechanical world there are therefore no earlier and later
in the sense of our world : the tree might be changed into a twig
or a seed, the butterfly to a caterpillar, and the old man to a child.
The mechanical theory has no explanation of the fact that this
does not take place, and, on account of the property of mechan-
ical equations which we have mentioned, can have none. The
actual irreversibility of real phenomena also demonstrates the
existence of processes that are not representable by mechanical
equations ; and with this the condemnation of scientific material-
ism is pronounced.

It thus appears to result certainly from these considerations
that we shall have finally to renounce the hope of explaining the
physical world intuitively by tracing its phenomena back to a
mechanics of the atoms. But, I hear it said, if the conception of
moving atoms is taken away from us, what means is left of form-

596 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing a picture of the reality ? To such a question I might reply,
" Thou shalt not make unto thee any image or any likeness ! "
Our object is not to see the world in a more or less darkened or
distorted glass, but as immediately as the constitution of our
mind will permit. To set realities, demonstrable and measurable
magnitudes, in definite relations with one another, so that when
one is given the others will follow — that is the purpose of science,
and it can not be fulfilled by the substitution of any hypothetical
figure, but only by the demonstration of the mutual dependencies
of measurable magnitudes.

This road is undoubtedly long aiid toilsome, but it is the only
permissible one. We do not have to go upon it, however, de-
spairing of ourselves seeing the end of it, and merely hoping that
it may lead our children to the desired heights. No, we our-
selves are the happy ones, and the most hopeful scientific gift
which the departing century can offer the dawning one is the
replacement of the mechanical theory by the energistic.

I lay at this point great weight on the declaration which I
make that we are not dealing with some fresh novelty, first given
in our time. No, we have been in possession of the truth for half
a century without knowing it. If there ever was a place for the
expression "mysteriously evident," it is here; we can read it
every day, and do not understand it.

When fifty-three years ago Julius Robert Mayer first dis-
covered the equivalence of the different natural forces, or, as we
should say now, of the various forms of energy, he made a great
advance toward an ultimate solution of the problem. But, ac-
cording to a constantly recurring law in universal thought, a new
fact is never accepted in its primary clearness and simplicity.
The receiver, who has not inwardly felt the advance, but has
taken it in from without, strives first of all things to connect the
new as well as he can with what is already existing. Hence the
new thought is obscured, and, although not exactly falsified, is
robbed of the best of its force. So strong is this peculiarity of
thought that it does not even leave the discoverer free ; as even
the powerful mind of Copernicus was competent to let the sun and
earth change places in their motions, but not to comprehend the
simple motions of the other planets ; to account for these he ad-
hered to the received theory of epicycles. So it was with Mayer.
Hence, as it nearly always is, the work of the next generation
consists, not in harvesting the results of the new knowledge, but
rather in removing again, piece by piece, the involuntary additions
that do not belong to the subject, till at last the fundamental
thought can come out in its whole plain identity.

A similar development can be perceived, even in our case.
After J. R. Mayer had defined the law of equivalence, his theory

THE FAILURE OF SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM. 597

of tlie equivalent transformability of the different forms of
energy was too paradoxical in its simplicity to be immediately ac-
cepted. Katlier have the three physicists to whom we are most
indebted for the continued study of the law— Helmholtz, Clausius,
and Lord Kelvin— believed that it must be interpreted as imply-
ing that all the different forms of energy are fundamentally the
same — mechanical energy. In this way, what was regarded as
most pressing — close connection with the prevailing mechanical
conception of Nature — was reached ; but a decisive side of the
new thought was lost.

It required a half century for the idea to mature that this
hypothetical addition to the law of energy did not give depth to
the theory, but detracted from it on its most significant side —
its freedom from all arbitrary hypothesis. And not even the
recognition of this methodical circumstance, but the ultimate
failure of all attempts satisfactorily to explain all the other forms
of energy mechanically, has been, so far as our advance has as yet
proceeded, the decisive reason for giving up the mechanical ex-
planation.

You are impatient to learn how it is possible to form, by
means of so abstract an idea as energy, a theory of the world
that can compare in clearness and intuitiveness with the me-
chanical theory. I do not find the answer hard. What do we
know of the physical world ? Evidently only what our organs of
sense permit to reach us from it. But what are the conditions
under which these organs act ? Turn things as we will, we find
nothing common but that the sense organs react upon differences
of energy between them and the surroundings. In a world the
temperature of which is everywhere that of our body, we would
know nothing of heat, just as we have no idea of the constant
atmospheric pressure under which we live, and as we never gain
knowledge of it till we establish a different pressure.

You will admit this, but you will not therefore give up mat-
ter, because energy must have a bearer. But I ask you, why ?
When all that we learn of the outer world are conditions of its
energy, what ground have we for presuming anything in this
same outer world of which we have never learned anything ?
Yes, I may be answered, energy is only something thought of, an
abstraction, while matter is real. I reply : The contrary ! Matter
is a thing of thought, which we have constructed for ourselves,
rather imperfectly, to represent what is permanent in the change
of phenomena. Now that we begin to comprehend that the effec-
tive thing — that is, that which affects us — is only energy, we have
to determine in what relations the two stand ; and the result is in-
dubitable that the predicate of reality can be ascribed only to
energy.

598 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This decisive side of the new theory will come more plainly
into view if I present the concept in a brief historical sketch.
We have already seen that the progress of science is marked by
the discovery of more and more general invariants ; and I have
shown how the first of these unchangeable entities, mass, has ex-
panded into matter — that is, mass endowed with volume, weight,
and chemical properties. Yet this idea was obviously insuffi-
cient from the beginning to cover the incessant variability of
phenomena ; and since Galileo's time, that of force has been added
as a means of accounting for it. Yet force was destitute of the
property of unchangeableness ; and after functions were found in
mechanics, in living force, and work which manifested themselves
as partial invariants, Mayer discovered in energy the most uni-
versal invariant, dominating over the whole domain of the physi-
cal forces.

Conformably to this historical development, matter and energy
continued existing together, and all that we could say of their
mutual relations was that they mostly appeared with one another,
or that matter was the bearer or the vessel of energy.

Are matter and energy, then, really different from one another
like, for instance, body and soul ? Or is not rather what we know
and express of matter already comprised in the idea of energy, so
that we can represent all phenomena with this one entity ? In
my opinion the answer can not be doubtful. What is included in
the idea of matter is, first, mass — that is, the capacity for momen-
tum ; next, volume, or space-filling energy ; then gravity, or the
peculiar kind of static energy which is manifested in general
weight; and, lastly, chemical properties, or chemical energy.
We still have only energy ; and if we think on about these vari-
ous kinds of matter, there is nothing else left us, not even the
space it occupies, for this, too, is knowable only by the application
of energy, which is required to compress matter within it. Hence
matter is nothing but a spatially contiguous group of different
energies, and all that we can predicate of it we predicate only of
these energies.

What I am at pains to assert here is so important that you
will pardon me if I try to approach the subject more closely from
another side. Permit me, therefore, to take the most drastic ex-
ample I can find. Imagine that you are struck with a stick.
What do you feel, the stick or its energy ? The only possible an-
swer is the energy, for the stick is the most harmless thing in the
world, so long as it is not made to strike. But we can also run
against a stick at rest. Very true ; and what we feel then is, as I
have already declared, the difference in the conditions of energy
as opposed to our sense organs ; and it is therefore all the same
whether the stick is struck against us or we are pushed against

I

THE FAILURE OF SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM. 599

the stick. If both have the same velocity, and that in the same
direction, then the stick exists no more for our feeling, for
it can not come in contact with us and effect an exchange of
energies.

These premises show, I hope, that all that it has hitherto been
possible to represent with the aid of the ideas of matter and force
can be represented, and much better, by means of the idea of en-
ergy ; all that is required is a transference of the properties and
laws which have been ascribed to the former to the latter. We
further gain the very great advantage of avoiding the contradic-
tions which were attached to the former mode of conception, and
which I have exposed in the former part of my thesis. While we
make no other supposition concerning the connection of the
different kinds of energy with one another than that given
through the law of the conservation of forces, we gain liberty to
study objectively the various properties appertaining to these
several kinds of energy, and can thus, by the rational considera-
tion and arrangement of these properties, set up a system of sorts
of energy which will reveal to us exactly the similarities as well
as the differences between them, and will therefore carry us scien-
tifically much further than can be done by the obliteration of
these differences by the hypothetical assumption of their intrinsic
identity. We find a good exemplification of this position in the
kinetic theory of gases, which is now almost universally accepted,
according to which the pressure of a gas arises from the collisions
among its moving particles. Now, pressure possesses no special
direction : a gas presses equally in all directions, but a collision
is dependent on a moving object, and the motion has a definite
direction. Consequently, there can be no turning back of one of
the bodies immediately upon the others. The kinetic hypothesis
deals with this difficulty by artificially neutralizing the proper-
ties of direction appertaining to the collisions through the assump-
tion that the collisions take place equally in all directions with-
out distinction. In this case the artificial adaptation of the prop-
erties of the different energies may be successful, but in other
cases it is not quite possible. Thus, for example, the factors of
electric energy — tension and quantity — are magnitudes which
I might propose to call polar ; that is, they are not only desig-
nated by a numerical value, but they also possess a sign of such
form that two equal magnitudes of opposite signs add up as noth-
ing, and not as of double value. Such purely polar magnitudes
are not known in mechanics. This is the reason why it will
never be possible to find even a barely passable mechanical hy-
pothesis for electrical phenomena. If such a mechanical entity
with properties of polarity could be constructed— which is per-
haps not impossible, and is at any rate worth a thorough investi-

6oo POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

gation — then we should have the material for illustrating at least
one side of electricity mechanically. It may, indeed, be said
here with certainty that only one side is considered, and that
here also the defectiveness, without exception, of all mechanical
hypotheses is demonstrated, and the full completion of the figure
prevented.

When we have really traced the laws of natural phenomena
back to the laws of corresponding kinds of energy, what advan-
tage have we gained ? First, the very important point that a sci-
ence free from hypothesis is possible. "We inquire no longer for
forces which we can not exhibit, acting between atoms which we
can not observe, but we ask, when we would judge respecting a
process, concerning the kind and number of the energies going
into it and issuing from it. We can measure them, and all that it
is necessary to know can be expressed in that form. How enor-
mous a methodical advantage that is will be clear to everybody
whose scientific conscience has suffered from the unceasing amal-
gamation of fact and hypothesis which the physics and chemistry
of the present offer as rational science. The energistic is the way
in which Kirchhoff's variously misunderstood demand for replac-
ing what is called the theory of Nature by the description of phe-
nomena can be fulfilled in its right sense. With this freedom from
hypothesis of energistic science is at the same time associated a
simplicity which, it can be said without hesitation, has not been
reached before. I have already pointed to the philosophical sig-
nificance of this simple principle in the comprehension of natural
phenomena. It lies in the nature of the matter, but might also
well be declared on other considerations, that an immense advan-
tage will result to the teaching and comprehension of science by
means of this philosophical simplification. To cite only one ex-
ample, we might assert that all equations, without exception,
which relate two or more different kinds of phenomena to one
another, must be equations between magnitudes of energy,' else
they are not possible. This is a consequence of the fact that
besides the conceptions space and time, energy is the only entity
that is common to the different fields, and in fact to all, with-
out exception; comparisons can not be made between different
fields otherwise than by the portions of energy that come into
question.

I shall have to refrain from showing here how an immense
number of relations, a part of which were already known and a
part are new, can be immediately written down by means of this
view, while formerly they had to be deduced by more or less de-
tailed calculations. I can not either set before you in comparison
the new sides which other already, if not so perfectly known
propositions of thermodynamics, the most extended part of ener-

THE FAILURE OF SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM. 601

gistics, have exhibited in the light of the general theory of energy.
All these things must indeed be so, if what I have said to you of
the significance of the new theory is well founded. I need not re-
vert to this again.

But I can not forbear proposing a final question. When we
have succeeded in grasping a significant and fruit-bearing truth
in its entire, even magnitude, we are only too easily inclined to
regard all as likewise concluded in its circle which comes within
the field in question. We see this fault perpetrated every day in
science, and the opinion which I have devoted half of the time
allotted to me in contesting has grown out of just such an error.
We shall therefore have to ask ourselves at once. Is the energy
which is so necessary and useful for the understanding of Nature
also sufi&cient for that object ? Or are there phenomena which
can not be wholly accounted for by the laws of energy as they are
yet known ?

I believe that the responsibility which I have assumed toward
you through my thesis can not be better discharged than by my
declaring that these questions must be answered with a denial of
the universal competency of energy. Immense as are the advan-
tages which the energistic theory of the world has over the me-
chanical or the naturalistic, there can still, it seems to me, some
points be indicated which are not covered by the acknowledged
principles of energistics, and which, therefore, point to the exist-
ence of principles transcending these. Energistics will exist by
the side of these new principles. Only it is not, as we must
already perceive, to be the future most comprehensive principle
for the mastering of natural phenomena, but will be manifest,
presumably, as a particular instance of still more general condi-
tions, of the form of which we at this time can certainly have
hardly a foreboding.

I do not apprehend that what I have said has depreciated the
mental advance for which so much has been claimed ; I have my-
self extolled that advance. For it has more than once occurred
to us that science can never and nowhere recognize any limits to
its progress, and even in the midst of the contest for a new pos-
session the eye should not be blind to the fact that beyond the
ground we have succeeded in winning extend other stretches that
must be acquired later on. In the former time we could put up
with the dust and smoke of the conflict preventing our looking
into the narrow limits of the battlefield. To- day this is no longer
permissible ; to-day we shoot with smokeless powder — or, at least,
ought to— and have, therefore, with the possibility, also the duty,
of not falling into the errors of earlier epochs.

6o2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

STEPPES, DESERTS, AND ALKALI LANDS.

By Pbof. E. W. HILGAED.

THE average reader feels but a moderate interest in the sub-
ject of steppes, which he usually associates with roving herds
and Tartar or Indian tribes, whose periodic raids have in the past
been a standing source of disquiet to civilization, whether in the
Occident or Orient. The predatory habits of these people seemed
to be proof sufficient of the fact that the countries occupied by
them are not able to support permanently a population devoted to
agricultural and industrial pursuits, and that their inhabitants
are under more or less natural stress toward levying forced con-
tributions upon their neighbors in order to eke out their existence
in a satisfactory way, as in the case of the tribes of the deserts
properly so called.

As to alkali lands, so far as they are known and considered at
all, they are regarded only as obstacles to the settlement and cul-
tivation of the otherwise desirable lands whose continuity they
mar, aside from the discomfort their pungent dust and saline
water causes to the overland traveler; while their Old World
equivalents, the " salt steppes " of southeastern Russia, central
Asia, and northern Africa, are among the most disconsolate
images conjured up by the imagination of those who traverse or
read about them. Moreover, it is currently supposed that these
regions owe their saline soil to the evaporation of former salt
lakes or seas, and that an indefinite amount of similar salts lurks
below the surface, ready to replace whatever may be removed in
any attempt to reclaim the lands for cultivation.

From this point of view it is hard to understand why the peo-
ple foremost in ancient civilizations should have chosen for their
abodes, and should have developed their civilization rather pre-
dominantly, in regions either adjacent to deserts, or having, dur-
ing a considerable portion of the year, the aspect and character of
the ill- reputed steppe. Egypt is the example nearest to Europe,
but Asia Minor, Syria (including Palestine, the " land where milk
and honey flows"), Persia, Arabia, and (crossing the Indus) north-
ern India, the classic ground of the Vedas and Mahabharata, are
more or less tainted with " the breath of the desert,'^ as well as
with its actual presence to a greater or less degree. Looking
westward, we again find the old Carthaginian and later Moorish
civilization on the borders of the desert. Crossing the Atlantic,
we find the empire of the Incas on the steep, bare, uninviting
western slope of the Andes, when just across the divide there lay
the rich countries now forming the Colombian republics and
typically exuberant Brazil. In North America, likewise, the civ-

8T:EPPES, deserts, and alkali lands. 603

ilization of the Aztecs and Toltecs was developed not in the won-
derfully prolific tierra caliente, but on the arid plateaus of Old
and New Mexico ; persisting while the builders of Palenque and
Copan had already passed into oblivion. It seems as though a
strange infatuation had possessed these ancient nations in the
preference given to bare, sun-scorched plains and mountains, as
against the cool shades of the forest-clad countries, which in later
times have almost monopolized the abodes of advanced civili-
zation.

It may be said, of course, that forests offer the inconvenience
of affording concealment to a lurking enemy; a serious considera-
tion during the ages when a state of war was the normal condi-
tion of mankind. Again, it is said that the necessity of clearing
away the forest before cultivation was possible offered an obvious
inducement toward the utilization, first, of the treeless regions.

The former consideration doubtless weighed strongly in the
first beginnings of settlement. And yet our Saxon forefathers,
both in the old and new continents, have managed remarkably
well in their forested countries, in the face of lurking enemies
both animal and human. As regards the difficulty of clearing the
forest lands for cultivation, it is amply offset by the necessity,
almost universally existing in treeless countries, of providing
irrigation if cultivation is to be anything more than a lottery.
For forests are limited by a certain minimum of rainfall, below
which regularity of crops is dependent upon artificial irrigation.

In other words, the countries which have harbored most of the
ancient civilizations are regions of deficient rainfall and compul-
sory irrigation. And as irrigation means heavy investments of
capital or labor, hence the co-operation of many and the construc-
tion of permanent works : it necessarily implies the correlative
existence of a stable social organization, with protection for prop-
erty rights, and (in view of the complexity of the problem of
proper and equitable distribution of water) a rather advanced
appreciation of the need and advantages of co-operative organi-
zation.

If, then, the general practice of irrigation is conditioned upon a
not inconsiderable degree of advancement in social organization,
shall we attribute the development of the ancient civilizations
referred to only to its conservative influence, or are there other
factors that have contributed toward the preference and long-
continued permanence of these polities or populations ?

The high cost of irrigation is usually found to be compensated
by the high and regular production of the lands irrigated ; it is
almost a maxim that irrigated lands can support a much denser
population than those of countries in which rainfall is relied
upon for the production of crops, and where therefore frequent

6o4

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

partial, or entire crop failures are to be looked for. The regular-
ity of production, of course, results from command of the water
supply as such ; the high production has usually been ascribed

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largely to the plant food brought to the land by the stream
waters used in irrigation, whether in the form of suspended mud
or in actual solution. Especially has the never-failing fertility

STEPPES, DESERTS, AND ALKALI LANDS, 605

of Egypt been ascribed to the mud carried down by the flood
waters of the Blue Nile from the uplands of Abyssinia during
the season when torrential rains prevail there.

Without denying a certain efficiency of this cause, a closer ex-
amination easily proves it to be inadequate to account for the
millennially undiminished fertility of the Nile Delta. The average
annual mud deposit of the Nile floods amounts to less than the
thickness of a common pasteboard.* Were this the best of stable
manure well worked in, it could not produce the effect claimed.
But examination proves it to be simply a rich soil, such as thou-
sands of farmers could haul and spread upon their lands if it could
produce the effect ascribed to this Nile sediment. Besides, per-
petual fertility belongs equally to the lands of the neighboring
Fay 00m, which, being irrigated only with the clear water of
Lake Moeris, do not receive the benefit of any sediment. But the
analysis of that water, or of the clear Nile water itself, does not
show it to contain any unusual amount of fertilizing matter in
solution.

There are other examples, too, of lands perpetually productive
for thousands of years without fertilization. One is the " regur "
lands region of the Deccan, forming part of the plateau of south
central India ; another is the " loess " region of China, drained by
the head waters of the Yellow River, and for ages the granary of
that empire. In both these cases no alluvial fertilizing deposits
come into play, and there is little or no irrigation. But in both
cases we have a semiarid climate, the rainfall being close to the
limit of actual deficiency ; in the case of Egypt the deficiency is
extreme during nine months out of the twelve.

What, then, is the effect of a deficient rainfall upon the nature
of soils formed under its influence ? And can these effects serve
to explain, in any measurable degree, the choice of the ancient
civilizations ?

In the course of his investigations of the soils of the United
States, the writer has had occasion to make extensive compari-
sons of the soils of the Atlantic humid region with those of the
arid and semiarid West. A summary of the results of these com-
parisons was given in Bulletin No. 3 of the United States Weather
Bureau in 1892. They led to important conclusions of a general
nature, some of which could have been readily foreseen on gen-
eral principles. Continued investigations made since have given
additional confirmation, and have developed new facts having
important bearings upon the possible utilization and productive

* Taking this at one twenty-fifth of an inch, it would amount to about five tons per acre,
or about two good two-horse loads. Three times that amount of stable manure is about the
usual dressing for an acre.

6o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

value of vast land areas tlius far considered either irreclaimable
or adapted only to scanty pasturage.

Without going into technical details or figures, the case may
be stated thus : Soils are formed from rocks by the physical and
chemical agencies commonly comprehended in the term weather-
ing, which includes both their pulverization and chemical decom-
position by atmospheric action. Both actions, but more espe-
cially the chemical one, continue in the soil itself ; the last named
in an accelerated measure, so as to give rise to the farmers' prac-
tice of "fallowing" — that is, leaving the land exposed to the
action of the air in a well-tilled but unplanted condition, with a
view to increasing the succeeding year's crop by the additional
amount of plant food rendered available, during the fallow, from
the soil itself.

This weathering process is accompanied by the formation of
new compounds out of the minerals originally composing the
rock. Some of these, such as zeolites and clay, are insoluble in
water, and therefore remain in the soil, forming a "reserve" of
plant food that may be drawn upon gradually by plants ; while
another portion, containing especially the compounds of the al-
kalies, potash and soda, are easily soluble in water. Where the
rainfall is abundant, these soluble substances are currently car-
ried into the country drainage, and through the rivers into the
ocean ; which shows in its saline portion (about three and a half
per cent) the average composition of the matters permanently
leached out of the land. Most of this is common salt — chloride
of sodium — but a large portion, if not all, of the other elements
known are represented in sea water in a greater or less propor-
tion. Among these, potash, lime, magnesia, sulphuric and a trifle
of phosphoric acids require mention here.

Where, on the contrary, the rainfall is insufficient to carry
the soluble compounds formed in the weathering of the soil
mass into the country drainage, those compounds must of neces-
sity remain and accumulate in the soil. They then constitute
what in the western United States is now universally known as
"alkalir

" Alkali " is not, then, as is popularly supposed, something for-
eign to the soil, imposed as a special affliction upon the dwellers
in the arid or irrigation regions. It is the normal product of soil-
formation and soil- weathering everywhere; but in the humid
regions it appears only in the bottom and stream waters, and is
not perceived in the soil itself.

Nor does it in either climatic region consist only of salts inju-
rious or useless to vegetation. Its origin, as well as the chemical
nature of sea water, proves that it should contain the useful or
plant- food ingredients as well ; and direct analysis amply confirms

STEPPES, DESERTS, AND ALKALI LANDS, 607

this induction. But it also shows that while there are great vari-
ations in the composition of the alkali salts in different regions

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6o8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and even in contiguous localities, as a rule the useless . ingTQ-
dients are present in larger proportions than is the case in the
original material from which the soil was formed, or in the latter
itself.

The question as to what has become of the useful mineral
plant food representing this difference is categorically answered
by the analysis of the soils themselves. If we analyze, by iden-
tical methods, series of the soils of the arid and humid regions
respectively, we find constant differences in their composition,
that are manifestly due to the conditions under which they have
been formed. They show in those of the arid regions, on the
average, a markedly greater proportion of certain elements of
plant food than in the soils that, under the influence of copious
rainfall throughout the year, have been currently leached of
whatever soluble matters were set free by weathering.

The explanation is, that when these soluble matters are re-
tained in the soil for a length of time, they are given the oppor-
tunity of entering into the insoluble combinations already men-
tioned as repositories of " reserve " plant food — i. e., such as may
be gradually drawn upon by plants, either by the direct solvent
action of their acid root-sap, or by being again rendered water-
soluble by a repetition of the weathering process.

Thus the soils of the arid region, whether containing a natural
surplus of water-soluble salts in the objectionable guise of alkali
or not, are found to be greatly superior, in the native stock of cer-
tain ingredients of plant food, to the average soils of the regions
of abundant rainfall ; their average being, in fact, equal to the
most highly productive (usually alluvial) soils of the humid region.

The chief substances of which the arid soils thus retain consid-
erable amounts that run to waste in the countries of abundant
rainfall, are potash, lime, and magnesia. The average ratios of
these as found in the United States, for the region east of the
Mississippi, when compared with that west of the Kocky Moun-
tains (or of the hundredth meridian), by the comparison of over a
thousand analyses, are as one to three, one to fourteen, and one to
six respectively.

But these numerical ratios do not adequately express some of
the chief advantages enjoyed by the soils of arid regions. While
the large amount of potash they contain relieves the farmer for
a long time from supplying to his fields the potash fertilizers
that prove so effectual and necessary in the East and in Europe,
yet the almost universal presence of a surplus of lime (in the form
of carbonate) is perhaps of even higher importance. To under-
stand this it is only necessary to remind the reader of the com-
mon saying that " a limestone country is a rich country " — abun-
dantly illustrated in the Atlantic States by the blue-grass region

STEPPES, DESERTS, AND ALKALI LANDS. 609

of Kentucky, the black prairies and " bluff "-lands of the Missis-
sippi Valley, and hundreds of local examples. The common and
beneficial practice of "marling" noncalcareous lands illustrates
the same axiom. It logically follows that, inasmuch as actual
examination shows practically all arid soils to be calcareous, " arid
countries are rich countries " whenever irrigated ; and the actual
and concordant experience of mankind corroborates the con-
clusion.

In other words, the ancient civilizations have, consciously or
unconsciously, chosen countries having naturally rich and durable
soils, capable of supporting for a long time a denser population
than the forested regions, without resort to artificial fertilization
beyond irrigation. This seems to be the simple and rational ex-
planation of their marked preference for arid countries; and
unquestionably Egypt owes its perennially undiminished produc-
tiveness at least as much to its arid climate as to the alluvial de-
posits brought down by the Nile, as is shown in the oases of the
Libyan Desert, as well as in India and China.

But if these things are true, then the steppes and alkali lands
deserve the most earnest attention, both of agriculturists and of
students of natural economy ; for in them lie possibilities for the
abundant sustenance and prosperity of the human race that have
thus far been almost left out of account. While it is true that
irrigation water may not be practically available for the whole of
the arid regions of the globe, so much remains to be done in the
study of the most economical use of water, of appropriate crops
and methods of culture, that even an approximate estimate of
actual possibilities in this direction can not yet be made. At
all events, it is of the highest interest to study the problem
of the reclamation of these intrinsically rich lands in all its
phases.

Foremost in this problem is the question of the manner of
dealing with the " alkali " salts, which, as experience proves, exist
not only on the spots where they naturally show on the surface,
for as soon as irrigation is practiced they appear at numerous
points where no symptoms of alkali were noted before. Some-
times, indeed, the entire area of large farms may in the course of
years become thus afflicted, so that orchards and vineyards that
have been in bearing for a number of years become stunted, and
in spots even perish.

Examination of the manner in which such injury comes about
shows that it is rarely due to direct action of the salts on the
roots. Almost always the injured part is at or near the root-
crown, or base of stem or trunk; proving that it is the result of
accumulation of the salts at the surface (so often obvious to the
eyes), in consequence of evaporation.

VOL. XLVIII. — 43

6io

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

It follows thai the prevention of surface evaporation, to the
utmost extent possible, is of the first importance.

Now, the simplest, cheapest, and most universally practicable
mode of diminishing evaporation from a bare land surface is to

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soil and climate. In humid climates four inches has been found

STEPPES, DESERTS, AND ALKALI LANDS. 611

sufl&cient. In the hot summers of arid countries even more than
twice that depth may be necessary. In that case the alkali salts
left behind by evaporation will be diffused through so large a
mass of soil that no injury can ordinarily result.

But experience proves that some alkali soils are, in their natu-
ral state, incapable of being reduced to a proper condition of
tilth ; and this, as well as the tendency of the obnoxious salts to
come to the surface more and more when land is irrigated, has
been made the subject of extensive investigations by the Califor-
nia Experiment Station, in order to determine the proper methods
for the permanent repression of these obstacles to cultivation.

These investigations proved, as far back as 1880, that the cause
of difficult tillage in alkali lands is carbonate of soda (sal soda), the
presence of which is recognized by the blackish spots and rings
left on the soil when rain or irrigation water evaporates ; hence
the popular designation of " black " alkali, known to be specially
injurious and corrosive. It was also shown that the peculiar ill
effects of such alkali can be overcome by the use of sufficient
dressings of gypsum or land plaster, which — acting in conjunction
with water — transforms the corrosive sal soda into bland and rela-
tively innocuous sulphate, or Glauber's salt. The latter, with more
or less of common salt, forms the bulk of the salts in the cases of
mild or " white " alkali, of which a much larger proportion is tol-
erated by all plants. Gypsum also has the effect of rendering in-
soluble the humus and phosphoric acid that had been dissolved
by the salsoda.

But the rise of the alkali brought about by irrigation seemed
to indicate that an indefinite amount of these salts might lurk in
the depths of the soil ; and that as irrigation wets the land more
deeply than would the scanty natural rainfall, and correspond-
ingly increases the surface evaporation, permanent reclamation
of alkali lands seems difficult if not hopeless.

To decide this question, at first examinations of the natural
bottom waters of such lands were made, which showed in most
cases saline contents not greater than those of many waters long
successfully used for irrigation. It then became important to
determine just to what depth the impregnation of salts actually
reaches.

For this purpose borings were made at the Culture Experiment
Station near Tulare, Cal., samples being taken by means of a post-
hole auger of each successive three inches of soil, down to the
depth of two or four feet, as might be required. Each of these
(twelve to sixteen) samples was then separately leached and ana-
lyzed, determining both the total amounts of salts present and the
proportions of the three to five principal compounds. The results
of this work in four typical cases are embodied in the curve dia-

6i2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

grams below, which show the facts more plainly than would fig-
ures ; the vertical line to the left representing the soil depth (in
feet and inches), while on the horizontal lines the percentages of
salts in the soil are entered at intervals representing two, or four
one-hundredths of one per cent each. The area within the curve
generated by connecting the points of actual observation repre-
sents, of course, the total of each ingredient indicated.

Diagram No. 1 represents the natural condition, the soil being
at the time covered with the native spring growth of bright flow-
ers. No alkali salts are seen on the surface at this point at any
season.

It will be noted that the alkali salts are almost wholly accumu-
lated between the depths of twenty and forty inches. Both above
and below these limits impregnation is not strong enough to inter-
fere with vegetable growth of any kind ; within them, the sub-
soil is hardened into a sheet of hardpan, which not only prevents
the passage of roots by its resistance, but would corrode them by
contact with a mixture of salts containing up to ninety-four per
cent of carbonate of soda. But as the native vegetation is mostly
shallow-rooted and annual, this does not interfere with its welfare.
The moisture imparted to the land by the scanty rainfall (about
seven inches) evaporates through the roots and leaves of this
vegetation during its growing period ; when it dies off it leaves
the ground completely dry, so that no rise of the salts to the sur-
face by evaporation can take place during the season, and the
seeds dropped can germinate when the rainy season comes, with-
out injury from alkali.

Diagram No. 3 shows, on the other hand, what happens when
irrigation is practiced on this land (or when the water rises from
below by seepage from leaky ditches), and the ground is left hare.
The abundant water then dissolves the alkali salts in the subsoil
hardpan ; and evaporation continuing through the whole year,
the entire salts are in the course of a few seasons carried upward
nearer to the surface. Diagram 3 shows the state of things under
these conditions at the same date as Diagram 1 (May 3, 1895) ;
No. 4, a and h, shows the condition existing near the surface at the
end of the dry season, in September or October. It will be seen
that at that time the salts have accumulated so near the surface
that by taking the soil away to the depth of six inches, from five
sixths to seven eighths of the total mass of salts would be re-
moved, leaving the land with no more than almost any crop can
easily resist.

Diagram 2, a and 6, shows the state of the irrigated land when
sown to barley, it being understood that these samples were taken
within ten feet of No. 3. A glance reveals that we have here a
case intermediate between Nos. 1 and 3. The upward movement of

STEPPMS, DESERTS, AND ALKALI LANDS. 613

the alkali salts has been partially checked by the evaporation
through the roots and leaves of the crop ; whose thin foliage,
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by the dense growth of the native herbage on No. 1. Some evap-
oration from the soil surface itself continued, although it did not
suffice to injure the crop by the rise of the salts : and as at har-

6t4 popular science MONTHLY.

vest time most of the soil moisture was exhausted, only a moder-
ate efflorescence of alkali was seen on this land even late in the
season.

It is thus obvious that when by any means a good " stand " of
a leafy perennial crop with deep roots, like alfalfa, can be obtained
on alkali land, the rise of the salts resulting from irrigation is
measurably checked, and may remain wholly innocuous so long
as that crop occupies the soil. Experience amply confirms this
conclusion ; but the difficulty of obtaining such a stand is often
very great, especially on " black " alkali land, which " rots " the
seed as often as sown. It is then that the use of gypsum to neu-
tralize the carbonate of soda often becomes the saving clause,
enormous crops being then grown on land formerly considered
worthless. Diagram No. 5 may illustrate this in the case of
wheat, which was grown in 1892 at the Tulare Station on ground
that, prior to the reclamation work, would hardly grow even
" alkali weeds," but then yielded grain at the rate of forty-five
bushels per acre.

The diagrams, however, convey unanimously the fundamen-
tally important lesson that the amount of alkali salts in these soils
is limited^ and lies within such easy reach of the surface that ordi-
nary underdrainage at the depth of from three to four feet will
relieve these rich soils of their noxious surplus, once for all. Also
that toward the end of the dry season the removal of a few
inches of surface soil will go far toward relieving the land of
the same.

A few words should be said in regard to the kind of the salts
as well as their quantities. As regards the main ingredients,
which may be considered as useless or harmful to vegetation,
inspection of the diagrams shows that in no case is the noxious
carbonate of soda as abundant near the surface as in the case of
the subsoil hardpan in Diagram No. 1. Investigation has shown
this to be due to the aeration which occurs near the surface ;
while, on the contrary, in a water-logged soil, the " black " alkali
is constantly in progress of formation from the "white" or
neutral salts. Hence we find the worst of the " black " cases in
low or badly drained ground, and in close soils. Here, again,
underdrainage affords radical relief.

But underdrainage and washing-out of the salts would in
many cases be like " throwing out the child with the bath." For,
as has been stated at first, not only the useless but also the useful
or plant- food ingredients, which the farmer purchases in the form
of fertilizers, are present in them. They not unusually contain as
much as twenty per cent of salts of potash, ten to twenty per cent
of saltpeter, and several per cent of soluble phosphates. In one
notable case the equivalent of one ton of Chile saltpeter (worth

»

6i6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

about four cents a pound) per acre of ground to tlie depth of
one foot, was found to be present.

It would clearly be folly to wash out such quantities of fertil-
izing material unnecessarily ; and this consideration emphasizes
the importance of the less radical means of reclamation already
referred to, viz., deep and thorough tillage to minimize evapora-
tion, and in the case of " black " alkali the use of gypsum. In
California the opening of numerous gypsum mines has already
followed the latter recommendation.

When once the high productive value of alkali lands is gen-
erally realized, enormous areas will be added to the producing
lands, not only in the arid region of the United States but in the
Old World as well. The Russian investigators in central Asia are
rapidly coming to this conclusion, and notably Von Middendorff
reports that the inhabitants of Ferghana say that " the salt is the
life of their soil " provided there is not too much of it ; and that
they actually sometimes carry the alkali efflorescences to the poor
spots. In India, on the Ganges and Jumna, the typically rich
lands of that anciently civilized region have had alkali salts made
to rise to the surface in consequence of the establishment of high-
lying irrigation canals by the English. Similar reports of high
productiveness come from the alkali lands of the border and
oases of the Libyan and Sahara Deserts, and from the pampas of
Argentina.

But it must not be forgotten that the reclamation of these
fertile lands requires the command of some pecuniary resources ;
and that the farmer or settler who depends on an annual crop for
his subsistence should not undertake their cultivation at first.
As in the case of mines, the wealth that lies within them is not
yielded to mere scratching or prospecting, but requires the use of
some capital and trained intelligence to become available.

The currency of romantic but incorrect translations of Indian names is
illustrated by Gerard Fowke in his paper on the Archaeology of the James
and Potomac Rivers. Shenandoah, which is popularly interpreted as
meaning "sparkling daughter of the shining stars," is a corruption, accord-
ing to the author, of the Iroquoian word Tyonondoa, which means, liter-
ally, "there it has a large (high) mountain," or, "in that place there is a
high range of mountains." On some old maps the name. "The Endless
Mountains," is given to some of the ranges of Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt is cited as pronouncing the definition "dark and
bloody ground," of the name Kentucky, to be false, and as giving its true
derivation from an Iroquoian word conveying the idea " a place where the
grazing is good, ' almost identical in sound with Kentucky, "while there is
no Indian word with anything like the popular meaning that bears the
slightest resemblance to it." It will be observed that both the amended
definitions are correctly descriptive.

THE STUDY OF INHERITANCE, 617

THE STUDY OF INHERITANCE.

A Beview of the Writings of Francis OdUon,

Bt W. K. BKOOKS, LL. D.

second paper.

IT may be well to remind those who are not familiar with
statistical reasoning that a type may exhibit the influence of
inheritance and yet be of no value as a basis for generalization on
inheritance.

The bullet type shows the influence of aim, but if we use it to
test the accuracy of aim or the excellence of the rifle we may
be led astray if some other influence, such as the weight of the
bullet, act oti all or on a majority of the shots and escape detec-
tion. In this case the type may seem to prove that the rifle is
inaccurate or improperly sighted when it is not, and we can not
assume that because a type shows the influence of aim it is a
test of aim.

So a characteristic or a group of characteristics of living things
may conform to the mathematical law of deviation from a mean,
and may thus form a type, and this type may show the influence
of inheritance, without being a safe basis for generalization re-
garding inheritance.

This may be illustrated by an example. If we were to tabu-
late the prices of all the horses sold within a given period, we
should undoubtedly find that they would conform to a type : that
there is a mean or average price ; that the horses which fetch
more than this price are equal in number to those which fetch
less, and that the prices group themselves about the mean accord-
ing to the law of error. If the term be long enough to include
several generations, we shall find that inheritance or "blood'* has
a marked influence on price, and that the children of high or
moderate or low priced parents are much more likely than horses
selected at random to bring the same price. This type will ex-
hibit the influence of inheritance, but it will be of no value in
studying inheritance unless we can in some way separate the in-
fluence of blood from the influence of supply and demand which
has far more to do with the average price and with the type.

That the price of horses is, on the whole, determined like that
of other commodities is obvious, and it is also obvious that the
type may be changed by events which have no relation to inher-
itance, such as the application of electricity to street cars.

A change of this sort, such as took place when steam replaced
stage coaches, is a " sport " or sudden and fundamental change of
type, but this may also be changed by slight and gradual modifi-

TOL. XI.VIII. — 44

6i8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

cation with tlie slow growth of a complicated civilization and an
increased demand for horses.

As inheritance has an influence on the price of horses, what
will be the result if we destroy the children of all horses
which fetch less than +2 of Galton's scheme, and breed only from
that fourth of the whole which sell for more than 75° of his
centesimal scale ?

We may at first get fancy prices for our expensive stock, but if
selection cease with this first step, and we supply as many colts as
before, while the demand remains unchanged, the price will "re-
vert " to the type, and the mean will become the same as it was.

Does this prove that those qualities in horses for which money
is paid have "retrograded to mediocrity" in these descendants of
high-priced parents ? It proves nothing of the sort, for the quali-
ties which command a price are one thing and the price another.
Even if the horses have much more of these qualities than the
old stock, the price will still be fixed by the ratio between demand
and supply, and while blood will tell in use it will not tell in price.

It is clear, then, that characteristics of living things which are
influenced by inheritance may conform to a type which exhibits
"specific stability," "regression to mediocrity," an occasional
" sport," and all the other properties of the types which Galton has
studied, without furnishing proof that " inherited " qualities be-
have in the same way. To prove this we must cancel, or neutral-
ize, or make allowance for all the factors which have an influence
upon the type, except "inheritance."

Galton's generalizations upon the laws of inheritance from the
statistical study of finger prints rests upon the belief that the pat-
terns are inherited. If they are not, they can teach nothing of
inheritance. He proves by statistics that they are, to some de-
gree, dependent either directly or indirectly upon inheritance, just
as the price of horses is, but this is not enough. To warrant his
deductions he must prove that inheritance is the controlling factor
in determining the type ; that, in the long run, all the other factors
will balance ; and this, it seems to me, he fails to prove. He has
•studied in one hundred and fifty fraternal couples or children of
the same parents the frequency with which the same pattern oc-
curs on the same digit of both, and he finds that when marked on
a scale in which 0 indicates no resemblance and 100° the greatest
possible relationship, they show 10° of relationship. This num-
ber is great enough to prove the influence of inheritance, but it is
too small to show that the patterns are themselves directly in-
herited, and it seems to indicate that they are indirectly influenced
by some other inherited characteristic, such perhaps as the ratio
between the growth in the embryo of the ball of the finger and
that of the nail.

THE STUDY OF INHERITANCE, 619

Inheritance is unfortunately a word which is not always used
with scientific precision. Most of the qualities which give a horse
its value, as compared with other horses, are due to hr ceding, but
this word has many meanings. Orlando says : " His horses are
hred better ; for besides that they are fair with their feeding, they
are taught their manage, and to that end riders dearly hired.'*
The "breeding jennet, lusty, young, and proud,'* seems to be a
wild mare, with no breeding in the first sense, and the horse which
did not lack what a horse should have, "round-hoofed, short-
jointed, fetlocks shag and long. Broad breast, full eye, small
head, and nostrils wide. High crest, short ears, straight legs, and
passing strong. Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttocks, tender
hide," is a thoroughbred.

Recent speculations have enforced attention to the difference
between these meanings of the word. In the last sense breeding
is the influence of ancestry, and it may practically be treated as
synonymous with the word ancestry.

In the first sense breeding, broadly used, is that influence of
the ontogenetic environment for which that most objectionable
term " acquired characters " has been thoughtlessly adopted.

In his earlier writings Galton, borrowing, I suppose, from the
Tempest, uses the word " nurture " to designate it, and this term
is so apt and expressive that it should not pass out of use, for it
may be given a definite technical meaning without violence to its
ordinary use.

Using nurture instead of acquired characters for the influence
of the environment of the individual, we may speak of the two
elements of breeding as ancestry and nurture.

At the present day it is obvious that our studies of inheritance
can have little value unless we distinguish between these two
factors, for many naturalists hold that there is good ground for
questioning whether the effects of nurture are ever inherited, and
most naturalists admit the possibility that the value of these two
factors may be very different.

If breeding is to be studied by the statistical method for the
purpose of exhibiting the laws of inheritance, we must employ
types in which we can separate the effects of ancestry from the
effects of nurture ; for if we make use of types which do not admit
of this analysis, our results may tell us no more of inheritance
than the scheme of prices tells us of the value of blood in horses.

If, as many teach, inheritance is equivalent to ancestry, and
nurture is not inherited, no type in which these two factors are
combined can tell us anything about inheritance.

It seems probable from Galton's data regarding the resem-
blance between the finger marks of fraternal couples that this is
due to nurture in the broad sense of the word, and not to inherit-

620 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ance, and there is ample evidence that the value in breeding of a
given parental characteristic does depend upon its origin, and that
one due to nurture has a very different value from one which is
itself inherited.

Of the 3,459 deaf pupils of the American Asylum, nearly six
hundred have married and have become the parents of over eight
hundred children, of whom 104, or more than twelve per cent,
were born deaf — a ratio which is great enough to prove that in-
heritance has some influence. Analysis of the records shows
clearly, however, that these deaf children are not uniformly dis-
tributed among the married pupils of the asylum, but that the
result is influenced by the character of the parental deafness.
From 283 of the 590 marriages no children are reported, while
from three other families no report is made except that all the
children hear, so that the 811 child en which are reported are from
only 304 families, and in many of them only one parent was deaf.
Of the 101 children of forty of these marriages none are reported
as deaf, and all but eleven are reported as hearing, and the 710
children are from the remaining 264 marriages. In fifty-two of
the marriages both father and mother were congenitally deaf, and
these are the parents of forty-eight out of the 104 congenitally deaf
children, but they are the parents of only 151 of the total number
of 811 children, and nearly thirty-two per cent of all the children
of these congenitally deaf parents are congenitally deaf.

In two of the groups in which the marriages may be classified
the number of marriages and the number of children are about
equal, but there is a most remarkable difference in the number of
deaf children.

In fifty-five marriages, with 139 children, both parents are re-
ported as adventitiously deaf, while in fifty-two marriages, with
151 children, both were congenitally deaf. In the latter group
fifty-two children, or 31'78 per cent, are congenitally deaf, only
eighty-eight are stated to hear, and no facts are given about the
hearing of fifteen of them. In the first group only four of the 139
children, or 3'87 per cent, are reported as congenitally deaf, 129
are reported as hearing, and six are not reported.

I have divided all the marriages into four groups: In one all
the children hear ; in the second from five to six per cent are
deaf ; in the third from twelve to eighteen per cent are deaf ; and
in the fourth 3178 per cent are deaf. In the first group, in which
all the children hear, five of the marriages, with eighteen chil-
dren, are between a hearing husband and a wife who is adventi-
tiously deaf ; one marriage with four children between a hearing
man and a woman the source of whose deafness is unknown ; six
marriages, with thirteen children, where the wife hears and the
husband is adventitiously deaf; twenty- three marriages, with

THE STUDY OF INHERITANCE, 621

fifty-one children, where husband is adventitiously deaf and wife
deaf from unknown causes; two marriages, with six children,
where both were deaf from unknown causes ; one marriage, with
four children, where husband is deaf from unknown causes and
wife hears; and two marriages, with five children, where wife
is congenitally deaf and husband deaf from unknown causes.
None of the 101 children of these forty marriages are reported
as deaf.

In the second group, where from five to six per cent of the
children are deaf, eighty-seven are the children of thirty-seven
marriages where the husband was congenitally and the wife ad-
ventitiously deaf; and 139 are the children of fifty-five marriages
where both husband and wife were adventitiously deaf.

In the third class, where from twelve to eighteen per cent of
the children are congenitally deaf, 124 are children of fifty-one
marriages where husband was adventitiously and wife congeni-
tally deaf ; sixty-six were children of sixteen marriages of hear-
ing husband and congenitally deaf wife ; seventy-two were chil-
dren of twenty-six marriages where wife hears and husband is
congenitally deaf; and seventy-one of twenty-nine marriages of
congenitally deaf husband with deaf wife of unknown origin. In
all the families of this group one parent was congenitally deaf.

In the fourth class, where 3178 per cent of the children are
congenitally deaf, all the parents in the fifty-two marriages with
one hundred and fifty-one children are congenitally deaf.

While too few to give quantitative results, these statistics
prove that it is the congenital and not the adventitious deafness
which is transmitted.

Of the fifty- two families in which both parents are congeni-
tally deaf, twenty-three have congenitally deaf children.

Of the thirty-seven families in which the husbands are con-
genitally deaf and the wives adventitiously deaf, two have deaf
children — four in one family and one in the other.

Of the fifty-one families in which the fathers were adventi-
tiously deaf and the mothers congenitally deaf, seven produced
deaf children, and nine of the congenitally deaf children came
from two families.

There are fifty-five families in which both parents are adven-
titiously deaf, and from these have sprung four congenitally deaf
children — one in each of four families.

Four of the sixteen families in which the husbands hear and
the wives are congenitally deaf have deaf children.

In five families out of the twenty-six in which the husbands
are congenitally deaf and the wives hear, there are children
born deaf.

Six of the twenty-seven families in which the husbands were

622 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

congenitally deaf and the state of the hearing of the wives is un-
known produced congenitally deaf children.

Of the twenty-six families in which both parents are deaf and
have congenitally deaf children, there are five families in which
one of the parents has one deaf parent, seventeen families in
which both parents have deaf relatives of the same generation,
four in which one parent has deaf relatives of the same genera-
tion, and five in which neither parent has deaf relatives of the
same generation.

Of the twenty-six families in which both parents are congeni-
tally deaf and have hearing children only, there is none in which
either parent has a deaf parent, so far as reported, twelve families
in which both parents have deaf relatives of the same generation,
eleven families in which one parent has deaf relatives of the same
generation, and three families in which neither parent has deaf
relatives of the same generation.

This illustration proves that the origin of an individual pecul-
iarity has much to do with the question of its inheritance, and
that we can not be sure that statistical data illustrate inheritance
unless we can separate phenomena of ancestry from those of
nurture.

Furthermore, in order to prove that children always revert to
the mean or type of the race, and are on the average more medi-
ocre than their parents, we must prove that this is the case when
both parents have the same inherited peculiarity.

Galton shows that this is true of the stature of children both
whose parents were tall or both short, but he has not shown that
it is true when the peculiarity in the stature of both parents is
the same inherited peculiarity. He points out that stature may
be affected by diversity in the thickness of more than one hundred
bodily parts, and it is plain that if the extra height of a tall
father is due to a long femur for example, the chances are a hun-
dred to one that the femur of the tall mother is normal and that
her extra height is due to some other peculiarity — thick interver-
tebral bodies, for example.

There is statistical evidence from other sources to prove that
if both parents have long femurs and have brothers and sisters
with long femurs, the children, instead of reverting to mediocrity,
may on the average be expected to have femurs very much above
the mean, and that some of them may have them longer than
either parent.

Many facts in our stock of information regarding domestic
animals and cultivated plants show that hereditary peculiarities
are often very persistent independently of selection, and the ex-
perience of all breeders shows that this tendency is greatly inten-
sified when both parents have the same inherited peculiarity.

THE STUDY OF INHERITANCE,

623

Not only is this the case, but it may be proved by many ob-
servations that the normal or type to which the average children
of exceptional parents tend to revert may itself be rapidly
modified.

In proof of this I refer to the following experiments in selec-
tion by Fritz Mtiller (Ein Zuchtungs-versuch an Mais. Kosmos,
1886, 2, i, p. 22) :

Yellow corn is very variable in many respects. The number
of rows of kernels on the cob is usually from eight to sixteen ;
cobs with ten or twelve rows being the most common, while one
with eighteen or twenty rows is very seldom found. After
searching through several hundred cobs Fr. Miiller found one ear
with eighteen rows, but none with more.

In 1867 he sowed, at different times, and in such a way as to
prevent crossing, (1) seed from the cob with eighteen rows ; (2)
the seed from the finest sixteen-rowed ear ; and (3) the seed from
the finest fourteen-rowed ear. In 1868 he sowed (1) seed from a
sixteen-rowed ear which had grown from seed from a sixteen-
rowed ear; (2) seed from an eigh teen-rowed ear from sixteen-
rowed seed ; and (3) seed from an eigh teen- rowed ear from eight-
een-rowed seed. In 1869 he sowed (1) seed from an eighteen-
rowed ear with eighteen-rowed parents and grandparents ; (2)
seed from a twenty-rowed ear with eighteen-rowed parents and
grandparents ; and (3) seed from a twenty-two-rowed ear from
seed from an eighteen-rowed ear produced from seed from a six-
teen-rowed ear. The results are given in the accompanying
table :

1867.

1868.

1869.

Number of rows on

16
16

16
18

18
18

18

18

16

cob from which

14

16

18

18

18

18

seed were taken.

18

20

22

Total number of cobs
produced.

658

385

205

1,789

262

460

2,486

740

373

Per c't.

Per c't.

Per c't.

Per c't.

Per c't.

Per c't.

Per c't.

Per c't.

Per c't.

8-rowed cobs

0-3

0-6

0-1

....

10- rowed cobs

14-4

30

1-0

1-4

0-8

6-2

0-1

12-rowed cobs

48-0

22-8

13-0

22-6

14-5

7-8

6-1

6-1

2-7

14 rowed cobs

35-6

48-6

37-8

48-6

46-7

35-4

37-3

28-5

25-3

16-rowed cobs

3-2

18-7

34-5

22-2

23-7

33-8

33-6

41-6

41-8

1 8-rowed cobs

0-6

6-8

12-6

4-9

12-3

18-2

18-6

20-2

24-1

20-rowed cobs

0-1

0-3

0-3

1-2

4-4

3-9

2-8

4-8

22-rowed cobs

0-3

0-8

0-2

0-6

0-8

1-0

26-rowed cobs

0-5

Average

12-61

14-08

14-9

14-15

14-39

16-62

15-57

15-70

16-16

It will be seen from this table that the number of ears with
few rows decreases very rapidly in plants grown from seed taken

624

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

from ears with many rows, and tliat tlie greater tlie number of
rows on the ear from which the seed is taken the smaller is the
number of ears produced with a small number of rows. It is
also plain that, as the number of rows on the ear from which the
seed was taken increases, the number of ears produced with a
large number of rows increases, and that we have in each case a
very considerable number of ears which equal their parents and
a few which excel them, even when the parent seeds are far be-
yond the maximum for all ordinary corn. Fritz Miiller says he
has never, under ordinary conditions, except in three instances,
found an ear with more than eighteen rows, and Darwin puts the
maximum at twenty rows ; yet we have among the children of
seed from a twenty-two-rowed ear no less than 4*8 per cent, or
eighteen ears out of 373 with twenty rows, and one ear out of 373
with twenty-six rows, and it will also be seen that the number
of children which equal their parents increases in each case in
each successive generation.

Thus the seed planted in 1867 from an eighteen-rowed ear
produced 12*6 per cent of eighteen-rowed children. The eighteen-
rowed ear planted in 1868 from an eighteen-rowed parent pro-
duced 18*2 per cent of eighteen-rowed children, and the eighteen-
rowed seed planted in 1869 from eighteen-rowed parents and
grandparents produced 18'6 per cent of eighteen-rowed children.
The series is 12*6 per cent, 18*2 per cent, and 18*6 per cent.

The rapid change which took place in the " type " after only
three years of selection is well shown by the following table,
which gives the dominant number of rows at each sowing, and
also the percentage of ears which had this number :

1867, 12 rows 48 per cent.

1867, 14 " 48-6 "

1868, 14 " 48-5 "

1867, 14 " 37-8 "

1868, 14 rows 35-4 per cent.

1869, 14 " 37-3 "

1869, 16 " 41-6 "

1869, 16 " 41-8 "

The minimum for the third generation is equal to the mean
for the first ; the mean for the third generation, sixteen rows, is
very near the maximum for ordinary corn, and the maximum for
the third generation is far beyond the maximum for the grand-
parents, and much beyond the maximum for the parents.

No one can dispute the well-known fact that this sort of pedi-
gree selection for a single point quickly grows less and less
effective, and soon reaches a maximum ; but this is no proof of
any " principle of organic stability," or anything else except the
truth that long ages of natural selection have made the organism
such a unit or co-ordinated whole that no great and continuous
change in one feature is possible, unless it is accompanied by
general or constitutional change.

THE STUDY OF INHERITANCE, 625

We must not forget, in addition, that, in a state of Nature, se-
lection is neither for one feature, nor is it pedigree selection, or
breeding from the fittest.

It is the extermination of the unfit, and unfitness may come
from the imperfect co-ordination of the whole, or from defect in
any quality whatever.

It is undoubtedly true that many of our domesticated races
can be proved to have arisen as " sports,'' and that no great change
of type can be effected, &^ the Tnethods of the breeder, without
sports ; but there seem to be both evidence and theoretical ground
for holding that, in this particular, artificial selection furnishes
no measure of natural selection.

It seems to me that, notwithstanding the great value of Gal-
ton's data, they fail to prove that the " principle of organic sta-
bility " owes its existence to anything except past selection ; that
regression to mediocrity occurs when ancestry is studied uncom-
plicated by nurture ; that the " mid-parent " is anything else than
the actual parent ; that " sports " are fundamentally different
from the ordinary differences between individuals ; or that nat-
ural selection is restricted to the preservation of sports.

Our tendency to believe that a type is something more real
and substantial than the transitory phenomena which exhibit it
is deeply rooted in our minds.

As the very nature of this belief renders disproof of it impos-
sible, we can feel little surprise at its appearance and reappearance
time after time in the history of thought, although science is
based upon the well- warranted opinion that, whether types are
real or unreal, we know them only as generalizations or abstrac-
tions constructed by our minds out of our experience of the
orderly sequence of phenomena.

In zoology and botany the conception of species is unquestion-
ably valid and justifiable, and as its most obvious characteristic
is its persistency, as contrasted with the fleeting procession of
evanescent individuals, we can not wonder at the vitality of the
belief that specific types of life are more real than the individual
animals, although Darwin's work has done away with whatever
evidence may at one time have seemed to support this belief.

To the further question, whether specific types are inherent
in living matter or external and objective to it, Darwin answers
that they are both ; that they are inherent, insomuch as all their
data, or "events," are properties of the physical basis of life;
but that they are external, inasmuch as the agreement of the
** events " with the " law of frequency of error " is the effect of
the environment.

Biology is not a closed science, and Darwin's view of the
matter is not proved; possibly it is not provable; but its great

626 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

value is in the proof that there is no shadow of evidence for any-
other view.

When embryologists talk about the doctrine of evolution in
embryology as antagonistic to the doctrine of epigenesis ; when
biologists seek for the origin of species in " laws of variation "
which are not the outcome of selection ; when they talk about a
" principle of organic stability " which does not owe its origin to
the same agency — it seems to me that they fail to grasp the sig-
nificance of Darwin's work, and that they are wandering from the
only path in which we can have any well-grounded hope for
progress — the path which takes its departure from that concep-
tion of specific types which leads us to seek for the origin of the
" events " which exhibit the type in the physical properties of liv-
ing matter, and to seek in the order of Nature external to the
organism for the origin of the " law of error,'' which forms a type
out of these events.

EXERCISE AS A REMEDY.*

By henry ling TAYLOR, M. D.

EXERCISE is not a remedy which in some mysterious way
may prove beneficial in disordered conditions of the system,
still less a specific in any given disease, but it may be made the
means of producing gentle or powerful eifects of a definite kind,
which vary with its form, intensity, duration, time of application,
method of administration, and the condition of the patient. The
problem presented to the physician in a given case is not merely
the prescription of exercise, but rather such proportioning and
contrasting of the muscular activity to periods of rest that the
total result shall be beneficial ; here, as always, the patient is to
be treated rather than the disease. Exercise employed systemat-
ically and with discrimination is of the highest value in the pre-
vention of debility and disease, and also in he treatment of certain
chronic affections. In many acute and some chronic diseases ex-
ercise is positively and actively injurious, and it is always liable
to prove so when employed without due regard to its physiological
effects. Though most of the useful effects of exercise can be ob-
tained under skilled supervision with little or no apparatus, its
practical importance is ignored in hospitals, but little recognized
in asylums and imperfectly appreciated in private practice. The
neglect of exercise as a therapeutic resource is traceable to fail-
ure to appreciate the indications for its employment, and perhaps

* From advance sheets of Handbook of Therapeutics, edited by Frank P. Foster, M. D.,
in press of D. App]eton & Co.

EXERCISE AS A REMEDY. 627

still more to lack of precision in its application. While its proper
prescription is undoubtedly more difficult than that of drugs, no
drug is capable of producing effects at all comparable, and the
care and attention devoted to its intelligent application by physi-
cian and patient are well repaid. It is a practical point of the first
importance that individuals differ enormously — according to con-
stitution, temperament, training, and previous habits — as to the
amount of exercise that will be required to produce a given result.
While those who have been trained may require severe or labo-
rious exercise to produce physiological effects, the writer has met
with individuals free from disease in whom the gentlest passive
movements, lasting the fraction of a minute, would produce de-
cided subsequent stiffness and constitutional disturbance. As it
is just these sensitive and undisciplined people who may be most
benefited by properly adapted exercise, it is evident that the
kind and amount required must not be gauged by any absolute
standard but by the reactive powers of the individual. Like
some drugs, exercise may produce different and even opposite
effects, according to the dosage and consequent intensity of ac-
tion. Slow rhythmical passive movements are decidedly calming,
while moderately active movements are stimulating to mental ac-
tion. A careful distinction should be made between primary and
remote effects. Exercise has also its synergists, antagonists, and
incompatibles, its acute and chronic toxic effects, and their anti-
dotes. The synergists of exercise are fresh air, a nourishing diet,
sufficient rest, an unstrained and cheerful mind, and temperate
and regular habits; moderate cold and possibly certain tonic
drugs are a help to exercise. Exercise is antagonized by the
opposite of the above-mentioned, and by toxic substances in the
blood. Some interesting facts have recently been observed as to
the ett'ect of the use of tobacco in checking growth and the de-
veloping effect of exercise. From measurements of the one hun-
dred and eighty-seven men of the class of 1891, Yale, Dr. J. W.
Seaver found that the non-users of tobacco gained in weight during
the college course 10*4 per cent more than the regular users, and.
6*6 per cent more than the occasional users of tobacco. In height
the non-users increased twenty- four per cent more than the regu-
lar users and twelve per cent more than the occasional users. In
increase of chest girth the non-users had an advantage of 267 per
cent and twenty-two per cent, and an increase of lung capacity of
77'5 per cent and forty-nine per cent respectively. These facts in
regard to the dwarfing effects of tobacco are corroborated by
observations on the class of 1891, Amherst, made by Dr. Edward
Hitchcock. He found that in weight the non-smokers increased
during their course twenty- four per cent more than the smokers ;
in increase in height they surpassed them thirty-seven per cent;

628 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in gain of chest girth, forty-two per cent ; and in gain of lung
capacity, seventy- five per cent. It is probable that alcohol and
other poisons have similar effects.

Exercise of the skeletal muscles is contraindicated in hsemor-
rhage, fever, inflammation, certain toxaemias, and serious injuries.
Pain is an uncertain indication ; if it result from iuflammation or
local injury, exercise is contraindicated, otherwise not necessarily.
In acute local inflammation exercise is very injurious, since it
increases the local congestion. Severe or sudden exertion should
not be permitted in cases of aneurism, atheromatous arteries,
cardiac vegetations or extreme cardiac weakness, but systematic
training may be beneficial in the latter condition. Severe exer-
tion should also be avoided soon after eating and in states of
great physical and mental fatigue. Nothing will break down the
system more quickly than the combination of mental worry or
strain with physical prostration, though gentle exercises are often
of value in resting the brain by bringing new centers into play,
and thus effecting a better distribution of cerebral activity. It is
futile to add to the burden of individuals already overworked,
and the proper remedy in such cases is the reduction or proper
proportioning of their total work, better hygiene, and provision
for adequate periods of rest, repose, and recreation, which are
the efficient antidotes for the toxic effects of excessive exercise.
Well-chosen exercise may often be made to minister to mental
poise, and thus to restful effects. It has been pointed out that the
individual patient usually needs not exercise or rest exclusively,
but exercise and rest in the proper proportions and in the proper
order. The beneficial effects of treatment may often be enhanced
by placing the two in sharp contrast. Exercise produces a better
impression on a background of rest, and rest on a background
of exercise ; and particular attention should be paid to securing
variety of action by contrasting one set of exercises with others
involving different groups of muscles, or the same groups in a
different manner. The level road may be the harder to travel in
•the long run. Neither its specific effect in any named disease,
still less the piling up of enormous masses of muscle, is the thera-
peutic object of exercise, but the production of definite local or
general physiological effects. Increased muscular power is usual-
ly an incidental result, but marked remedial effects are often pro-
duced with very moderate muscular development. The too domi-
nant idea of " gymnastics " should not make us lose sight of the
vast therapeutic importance of the nervous reactions associated
with muscular movements, and of the systematic culture and
training of the involuntary neuromuscular apparatus, which cei-
tainly depends in large degree on the activity of the skeletal
muscles, but is often best elicited by massage, passive move-

EXERCISE AS A REMEDY. 629

ments, hydrotherapy, and hygiene ; all these involve exercise in
a fundamental sense, and are of great therapeutic utility, even in
febrile states, where exercise of the skeletal muscles is absolutely
contraindicated.

The professional and domestic occupations, recreations, and
sports have been noticed in their relation to the hygiene of exer-
cise, and it is desirable that these means, which are within the
reach of such large numbers of people, should be more often util-
ized therapeutically. For this purpose it should be remembered
that many exercises have a preponderating effect on certain organs.

"Rowing tells on the breathing organs; the work of dumb-
bells, and of other exercises where muscles are moved without
progression of the body, tells most on the muscles themselves ;
and long pedestrian feats, with climbing, tell on the nervous sys-
tem. In cycling, as in running, it is the heart and circulation
that first give demonstrative evidence of important change of
action" (Richardson).

Housework, chores, gardening, walking, climbing, cycling, run-
ning, swimming, and many other sports give just the kind of
exercise that is indicated in certain conditions, due regard being
had to the physiological effects of varying dosage. Oertel has
shown how the simple exercise of walking may be adapted to
sufferers from cardiac debility by prescribing the distance and
speed, and the number and length of the rests, on definite paths
graduated according to their slope. His interesting and original
work has not only given a new direction to the treatment of cer-
tain cardiac affections, but is destined to have an important in-
fluence in establishing accuracy in the prescription of exercise.
Whoever has studied the map of the environs of Reichenhall, Ba-
varia, prepared by Oertel for the application of his method, will
acquire a vivid idea of what precision of dosing in exercise means.
Iq this map the different paths suitable for the work are marked
in four different colors, to indicate those that are nearly level,
those slightly sloping, moderately sloping, and steep, and figures
are placed along each route to show the space that should be
traversed in each quarter hour. The locality itself is prepared
for its remedial use by placing benches for resting at suitable dis-
tances, and by marking on certain trees near the path circles, col-
ored to correspond with the map, to indicate the difiiculty of that
particular section. By systematic practice on the easier paths the
heart and system are progressively trained and strengthened. In-
telligent analysis may do the same work for cycling, horseback
riding, and many other familiar exercises. In this way the dosage
is practically reduced to a definite number of kilogram metres in a
given time, and a step has been taken in placing the prescription
of exercise upon a scientific basis.

630 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Recreations and sports have the inestimable advantage of
being taken in the open air and being interesting to those who
take them — two factors whose absence in any form of therapeutic
exercise is with difficulty atoned for. Athletics, though sharing
in these advantages, are not well adapted to most therapeutic pur-
poses, on account of their excesses, indefinite dosage, and lack of
variety, each contestant being a specialist in one or a few forms of
exercise. There remain for consideration the formal exercises of
drill of various kinds, gymnastics, Swedish exercises, including
passive and mechanical movements, and massage, which is else-
where treated of in this work.

As the primary purpose of military, fire, and other drills is
not therapeutic, they are not well suited to the treatment of dis-
ease, though they share in the beneficial effects of systematic ex-
ercise. The manual of arms is not adapted to young children,
being too formal and too strenuous ; the writer has seen cases of
lateral curvature, knock-knees, nervousness, and debility in young
boys which had apparently been aggravated if not produced by
military drill.

Modern gymnastics has been largely shaped with reference to
military purposes, and, while gymnastic exercises, if well selected
and proportioned, do promote muscular development and physical
grace and vigor, they are easily carried to an extreme, and in-
stances are not rare where they have broken down the constitu-
tion, instead of building it up. Feats of skill train the nerve cen-
ters more than the muscles, and once the trick is acquired, their
value as exercise is slight. Feats of strength often put an inju-
rious strain upon the organism, with no corresponding benefit.
The arm appears to be the object of all the exercises of modern
gymnastics (Legraage) ; breasting and other movements which
throw the suspension or support of the body upon the arms and
shoulders give them unsuitable work, and result in disproportion-
ate development of the muscles of the shoulder girdle, often asso-
ciated with a rounded back, and little or no increased power of
ventilation, since all such feats are performed with a chest fixed
and constricted by muscular effort. The gymnastics of the mod-
ern gymnasium are in marked contrast with the athletic exercises
of the Greeks, with whom the striving for physical perfection
amounted to a passion. Their exercises were running, wrestling,
boxing, fencing, and throwing the discus, taken in the open air,
without apparatus, and exercising the body throughout, and espe-
cially in the fundamental associated movements of the trunk and
limbs. The defects of ordinary gymnastics have been felt by
those interested in physical culture, and have been partly obviated
by the introduction of free movements, like running, jumping, and
wrestling, and partly by the use of resistance machines, usually

EXERCISE AS A REMEDY, 631

constructions of levers, pulleys, and weights, designed to exercise
special groups of muscles, as in the Sargent system of apparatus.
These reward effort, however, with depressing monotony, are
devoid of most of the beneficial general effects of exercise, and
appear to the writer to lack the elements of a coherent system.

The old gymnastic idea, in the endeavor to accomplish certain
feats and to pile up large masses of muscle, ignored the intimate
co-operation between muscle and nerve, and the delicate balance
between co-operating and modifying muscular groups necessary
to build up a clear-sighted, well-balanced mind, in perfect and
harmonious but largely unconscious mastery of the bodily move-
ments. The wise teacher and physician have small interest in
gymnastic feats, but direct muscular activity into those channels
best suited to promote harmonious mental and bodily develop-
ment and adjustment.

With the Swedish system of exercises, devised by Ling and
elaborated by his pupils, totally different ground is reached. Peter
Henrik Ling was a fencing master, who became interested in ex-
ercise as a stimulus to development and as a remedy from observ-
ing its beneficial effects on his own health. He never took a med-
ical degree, but developed remedial exercises into a system, which
remains to-day as the basis of the most valuable procedures in
therapeutic kinesiology. He also devised systems of educational,
military, and aesthetic exercises. These exercises are based on the
physiological actions of the different muscle groups and their
relations to each other, and consist in free voluntary movements
executed by the patient in different positions and in a determined
order. The remedial movements include, in addition, passive
movements executed by a manipulator, and assistive and resistive
movements, in which the operator opposes resistance to the move-
ments of the patient, or vice versa. To these are added the vari-
ous manipulations of massage.

The Swedish therapeutic exercises emphasize strongly the
local effect of movements, and hence have been called localized
movements, and are largely used for specific local purposes. They
proceed from the simple to the complex, aiming to establish cor-
rect fundamental attitudes and relations, and to invigorate and
develop deficient parts through exercises adapted to the particular
condition and situation. The value of gentle and passive exercise
in conditions of debility, and of the systematic progressive adap-
tation of the exercise to the strength of the patient, is recognized
and practiced.

The Swedish system avoids the abnormal development of spe-
cial parts and the gratuitous feats of ordinary gymnastics, and
produces normally acting viscera, a graceful carriage, and good
muscular and mental control. One school of the Swedes, led by

6j2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Zander, has in the last thirty years developed a system of mechan-
ical movements, both active and passive, given by means of appa-
ratus. In these the resistance and amount of motion can be grad-
uated to the patient's needs, and the personal element of the
operator is eliminated. Each system fulfills certain indications,
and neither can wholly supplant the other. If the Swedish school
had given us nothing more than passive movements in therapeu-
tics, our debt would have been great. The extraordinary promi-
nence in recent years of massage as a remedial agent, in so far as
it is justified by results, rests largely on the employment with it
of passive movements. These enable the patient to obtain many
of the benefits of exercise without effort and without undue
fatigue, and can be employed in thousands of cases when active
exercises are contraindicated or impracticable. Through passive
exercises may be obtained the local effects of exercise on the cir-
culation, easing of cardiac action or its gentle stimulation, mental
discipline, or mental sedation, as in the soothing effects of rocking
or swaying movements on infants ; in a word, the more harmoni-
ous distribution of nervous and vascular activity.

It is well to remember Ling's adage that every movement
properly performed is a respiratory exercise, and it is probable
that respiratory development may be best attained through
climbing, running, and similar exercises by those who are strong
enough and energetic enough to take them. Those who most
need them, however, are neither strong nor energetic, and it is
often impossible to get patients to practice the purely respiratory
exercises with sufficient care and persistence. In such cases,
where more thorough pulmonary ventilation and respiratory
power are required, passive respiratory movements, manually or
mechanically given, often serve a useful purpose.

There is no more promising field for the therapeutic applica-
tion of exercise than in the treatment of the insane and mentally
unbalanced and defective. The elder Seguin has shown that the
idiotic brain could be most effectively reached and developed
through neuromuscular training, especially of the hand, and the
value of manual employments, industrial training, and social life
has been to some extent recognized in provision for the epileptic,
idiotic, insane, and criminal. The striking and oft-quoted results
obtained by Dr. Wey in the physical training of vicious and
stupid criminals at the Elmira Reformatory by means of im-
proved diet and systematic bathing* massage, drill, and gymnas-
tics, mark an era in the treatment of the defective classes. A
large proportion of previously incorrigibly dull and vicious in-
dividuals submitted to a few months of this treatment improved
remarkably in physical and mental condition. It is safe to say
that better provision will be made in future in our public institu-

EXERCISE AS A REMEDY. 633

tions for the proper application of exercise in its various forms of
manual training, sports, drill, gymnastics, and special exercises.

As exercise is a fundamental factor in the development and
culture of the mind, it can be used to modify mental states, and
has most important general and special applications in many
nervous diseases. The repetition of rather gentle monotonous
movements, especially of the automatic or passive kind, tends to
allay mental excitement and nervous irritability. If the excite-
ment is of the active insistent type, more vigorous exercise of
duration to the point of fatigue may be beneficial, but should be
semi-automatic, like walking, cycling, or rowing. These prin-
ciples find a useful application in the treatment of insomnia. If
the patient is dull and apathetic, with sluggish circulation and
nutrition, exercises involving quickness and skill — that is, a
more lively mental co-operation, like fencing, tennis, or boxing —
should be used. In other cases the brain may need to be pro-
gressively trained through manual employments. The finer and
more delicately adjusted the movements the less their value as
muscular exercise, and the more the nerve centers are called into
play. Writing, sewing knitting, playing on instruments, and in
general the use of the hands mainly are valuable as mental train-
ing, but lack the beneficial general effects of vigorous exercise
of the more fundamental groups. From its action as a cerebral
sedative or tonic, exercise may be used as a means of influencing
certain definite areas in the centers, in order to soothe, to stimu-
late, or to distribute and proportion mental action ; and certain
exercises may be abstained from to deprive certain areas of stim-
ulation. We know no drug that acts mainly on the arm centers
or mainly on the leg centers, but we can with certainty bring
either of these centers into action by prescribing indicated exer-
cises. In an important group of neuroses due to the excessive
repetition of certain fine movements, usually of the accessory
kind, involving accurate co-ordination, such as writer's, teleg-
rapher's, and piano-player's cramp, and similar troubles, char-
acterized by local pain and inco-ordination, usually associated
with extreme mental anxiety, the hurtful practice should be
stopped and massage and more general exercises involving more
fundamental groups substituted. In another class of cases — the
bedfast neurasthenics — the nutrition must first be built up by
seclusion and systematic feeding, and the neuromuscular system,
both voluntary and involuntary, aroused and strengthened by
bathing, massage, and passive movements. Patients that would
be injured at first by attempts at active movements will thrive
on gentle passive movements of the arms and legs, and will soon
be actively co-operating. When sufficiently advanced they can
be taught to walk, and before they can do much at this they can

VOL. XLVIII. — 45

634 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

take with great benefit some forms of passive mechanical move-
ments, given after the Swedish system with power machinery,
and which cause them to execute walking movements, respira-
tory movements, and trunk flexions while reclining, and with a
minimum of effort and fatigue. Neurasthenics less severely
affected can take such movements from the start, and they are
indicated where the effects of exercise in equalizing the circula-
tion and nervous activity, developing respiratory capacity and
the supply of oxygen, increasing peristaltic and hepatic action,
and nutrition, are desired for patients who are physically too
delicate or who have too little energy or persistence to be able
to get much benefit from exercise where vigorous volitional co-
operation is involved. When the latter can be successfully pre-
scribed the patient is well on the way to recovery.

Exercises of endurance, like cycling, rowing, and running,
pushed to the point of considerable fatigue, are the most effective
aids to continence, since the procreative impulse is the expression
of a surplus of energy, and is abated if enough energy is regu-
larly used up through muscular work.

As the larger number of functional disorders of the digestive
system, such as dyspepsia and constipation, are the result either
of the habitual neglect of muscular exercise or else of exercise
taken under conditions of hurry, nervous tension, or fatigue, it is
clear that the regulation of exercise and habits of life must be
urgently indicated. In conditions of atony the patient must be
trained to a variety of exercises, especially those involving the
waist, abdomen, and trunk, among which the more active ones
may be gradually introduced. In the cases due to debility from
nerve tire, exercises requiring much skill should not be chosen,
since these involve increased demands on the higher nerve
centers. As there is usually sluggishness of the abdominal circu-
lation, those exercises should be selected which will act on the
abdominal organs through the muscles of the waist and trunk
and upon respiration. Among the best of these is riding, which,
moreover, affords just enough variety of scene and interest in the
control of the horse to turn the current of an incessantly active
brain into new and more restful channels. Riding may be as
accurately dosed as walking, and may range from very gentle to
exceedingly severe exercise, according to the gait, training, and
disposition of the horse, the muscular development, tempera-
ment, and expertness of the rider, and the character of the ride.
Changing from one mount to another also gives more variety of
exercise than always riding the same horse. Abdominal massage
is sometimes useful in constipation, as are also the arm, leg, and
trunk movements of the Swedes or of the gymnasium, and walk-
ing, running, leaping, tennis, and other sports have their uses.

EXERCISE AS A REMEDY. 635

Whatever form of exercise is used, absolute regularity in attend-
ing to the calls of Nature must be observed.

Disorders of nutrition are powerfully affected by exercise,
through the voluntary and involuntary muscles as well as
through the nerve centers. Respiratory exercises and the exer-
cises stimulating respiration and circulation are beneficial in
anaemia, as are also the scientific application of massage and cold
water to promote tissue interchange. By quickening oxygena-
tion, the circulation, and the nutritive processes, moderate system-
atic exercise causes thin and poorly nourished people to gain in
weight as well as in vigor.

In most wasting and febrile diseases, toxaemias and inflamma-
tions, the strength of the patient is needed to combat the circulat-
ing poison, heal the local lesions, and keep the vital processes
going, and for these reasons, as well as on account of cardiac
debility, muscular exercise is contraindicated, in some instances
even during convalescence. Heart failure after diphtheria from
changing from the recumbent to the sitting posture, and serious
and even fatal relapse following too early sitting up after typhoid
fever, are notable instances in point. Exercise of the unstriped
muscles by friction and bathing may, notwithstanding, be ex-
tremely useful. It is noteworthy that under the supporting treat-
ment afforded by cold bathing with friction much greater liberty
is allowable. Not only do the patients bear well the lifting into
and out of the tub, but some eminent physicians do not hesitate
to let their typhoid patients sit up to adjust compresses to the
body, to step into the tub, and even to walk to it with some
assistance.

Exercise in the open air is of the greatest utility in the
prophylaxis of phthisis. After the disease is developed exercise
must be used with more caution, and in such a way as not to put
great demands upon the vital powers of the patient. Moderate
exercise out of doors and gentle respiratory exercises may be
made beneficial, especially if directed to their gentle tonic effect
and toward the better aeration of the pulmonary tissue.

There is a large class, especially among women, who habitu-
ally neglect exercise and lay up large amounts of reserve material
in the shape of fat, which becomes burdensome by its bulk, and
injurious by impeding the action of the organs in whose sub-
stance or vicinity it has been deposited. These people are not
always large eaters, but having accumulated a physiological
surplus, they have never been able to oxidize it. Exercise of
endurance and respiratory exercises are well adapted to aid in
burning up this surplus and to improve the health. It may,
in addition, be necessary to reduce the ingestive fluids and fat-
forming foods.

636 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

For those who habitually ingest too much rich and nitroge-
nous food and take too little exercise, whether suffering from typ-
ical gout or not, the systematic use of the muscles, together with a
less hearty diet, is of the greatest value. It should be remembered,
however, that when gout is developed, severe or unaccustomed
exercise may precipitate an attack ; systematically and judicious-
ly employed in the intervals, exercise will tend to ameliorate the
condition and prevent the recurrence of attacks. In diabetes,
another disorder of imperfect metabolism, it has not been suffi-
ciently appreciated that the surplus of sugar may be largely oxi-
dized through carefully prescribed exercise. Walking is the
most convenient form, and the amount should be graduated ac-
cording to the patient's capacity and training. The aversion of
the diabetic to exertion may be overcome by allowing limited
amounts of bread as a reward for each mile walked. Those who
have tried this plan find a decided advantage over a stricter diet
and insufficient exercise.

The relation of exercise to the treatment of cardiac and circu-
latory affections has entered on a new phase since Oertel's original
work. The dominant idea had been hitherto to relieve a weak
or damaged heart of strain by avoiding exercise. Oertel teaches
that the work of the staggering or flagging heart may be cut
down by reducing the amount of ingested fluids, and the heart
trained and strengthened by graduated daily exercise in walking
on level and sloping paths. The results reported confirm the
value of the method, and it is hardly too much to say that by
accurately dosing and systematically applying this common ex-
ercise to meet the need of individual patients he has not only
given the profession a valuable remedy, but a new point of view
in the treatment of these serious affections. Oertel's cases are
largely those of cardiac debility from imperfect nutrition of the
heart and system, evidenced by fatty deposits in or about the
heart, and not rarely elsewhere. This condition is usually the
result of a too inactive muscular life, and in Germany is often
associated with the ingestion of large quantities of beer, so that
the ill-nourished heart has an increased amount of fluid to pump.
In such cases a large reduction of ingested fluids is a necessity
while attempting to invigorate the heart by graduated and
divided doses, at first small, of walking and climbing exercise.
Where valvular disease, with or without dilatation, presents
similar indications, a similar course may be followed, but such
prescriptions must be made with accurate discrimination and
analysis of the actual state and needs of the economy.

THE STORY OF A MONKEX. 637

THE STORY OF A MONKEY.

By M. J. DYBOWSKl.

WE were on the third hour of our inarch, one morning ; it was
nearly nine o'clock, and the sun was already getting burn-
ing hot, when, turning one of the green capes which the forest
sends out in the sea that washes its base, we perceived the gay
tricolor flapping near a hut. It was the port of Nyanga (in the
Congo country). We had completed a hard day's work on the
previous evening. The great forest, composed of spiny palms and
interlacing lianas, drove us continually to the edge of the raging
sea ; a leaden sun darted its burning rays upon us, and the reflec-
tion from the fine sand threw a blinding light into our faces,
which we could only endure by half closing our eyes. We were
broken up as much by this toilsome march as by the all-envelop-
ing heat, which in spite of all the precautions we could take, with
helmet and dress of light linen, produced at last that kind of in-
solation which is shown by the fever that reigns normally in this
country, and which a trifle will arouse. A thing that rendered
this march still more difficult was that the sea washing into the
lagoons that stretched along the shore made their water brackish,
so that we could only get a little fresh water in the evening by
stretching out our India-rubber coats to catch the drops from a
shower that came up.

The sight of the French flag refreshed our strength, and we
walked more rapidly to reach it the sooner, and take a little rest
that we greatly needed. The port of Nyanga was held by a
brigadier of customs, M. Lambert, who gave us the privilege of
his house with a sincere cordiality. It was decided that we
should remain there two or three days and make some excursions
in the neighborhood.

Not far from the house was a little straw hut used as a kitchen,
to which our host went to give his orders. I followed him, and
saw in it, in one corner, tied to one of the posts, a pretty monkey,
which as we came nearer to it uttered low cries and stretched its
hands toward us. I was struck with the beauty of the creature
and asked why it was there. I was told that it had been three
years at the post, and that it usually lived at large ; but that it
was sometimes necessary to tie it, on account of the mischief it
would not fail to commit when it was allowed to run where it
would.

As I took so much interest in it, it was tied to the veranda.
We soon became the best of friends. It was very pleasant and
familiar. It allowed itself to be caressed, and responded to the
advances that were made to it with cries of satisfaction. It played

638 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

like a cat, getting on our back and climbing up our legs and arms
to our shoulder.

The animal charmed me by the gentleness of its manners
from the beginning, but I was still more attracted to it by-
curiosity as to the species to which it belonged. Having no
manual of descriptions by which to identify it, I was not able,
at first, to refer it to any common type. But I considered that I
was concerned with a rare, if not new, species of Cercopithecus.

The chief officer at Nyanga thought much of the gentle
monkey, which he had had for some time, and which entertained
him in his idle moments in the extreme solitude in which he lived.
Yet, with the kindness I usually receive from the officers of the
countries in which I travel, he offered to give it to me; and I
confess that the animal was so scientifically interesting that I
did not allow him to repeat the offer. When we left the port,
two days afterward, I carried the interesting creature with me,
and in recollection of the place where it had lived so long, I
named it Nyanga.

From this time on, Nyanga formed part of our caravan. She
was tied, of course, with a cord fixed to a little harness which
was put upon her. By day the foreman of the caravan carried
her on his shoulders, and at night she was tied to one of the
posts of the tent. The best of care was taken of her.

Every one brought her a part of his meal, or some of the
fruit found in the bush. In a few days she became perfectly at
home with us. She allowed herself to be handled and caressed,
and accompanied her graceful motions with low guttural cries
expressive of her enjoyment.

When we afterward arrived at Lettd Cama, our menagerie
had been increased by several other monkeys ; but these less
familiar ones were confined in cages. Nyanga alone continued
to enjoy a half-liberty. We shortly gave her a companion, a
young monkey of the same species. Nyanga adopted it, hugging
it closely during the night as they slept on a box in the tent.

One day when I was hunting in the forest around our camp
some monkeys I had heard howling in the branches, one of my
men met me and called to me to stop hunting, for Nyanga had
escaped, and I might shoot her. I returned hastily to the camp
and learned there that our pet, doubtless tired of being always
captive, had gnawed her cord in two and fled into the woods.
Baba, the Senegalian charged with the care of the menagerie,
had gone on the track of Nyanga, who had not got very far away,
but had climbed to the top of one of the great trees.

She was called to in vain ; she had no thought of coming back,
and seemed wild with joy at being able to leap freely from branch
to branch, to run to the ends of the limbs and make them bend.

TRE STORY OF A MONKEY.

639

and to pick the wild fruits, or catch some insect which she could
crush for her amusement. To our appeals Nyanga answered
only by cries of joy, as if to let us know she was doing very
well where she was. My Senegalian sergeant had gone to a
neighboring village to engage some pirogues with which we
might cross the lagoon in continuance of our journey. He might

M. Dybowski's Little Congo Monkey.
(From a photograph by M. J. Ducoiu, taken in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris.)

return at any moment, and it would be impossible for us to wait
indefinitely till our monkey should be willing to be caught. It
would probably return at night to the camp, but it woiild be a
whole day lost, and a complication added to our march to wait for
that. I was perplexed which alternative to choose — whether to
abandon the monkey or lose our time, perhaps for no good — for

640 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

there was no certainty that Nyanga might not meet some com-
panion and follow him without thinking any more of us. From
time to time we heard her calls, which the natives knew so well.
They call this species the king of monkeys, for they believe that
when its voice is heard all the monkeys in the wood keep silent.

But Baba, the Senegalian, provoked that one of the monkeys
given him to take care of should have escaped, made every effort
to catch the runaway. He had climbed an enormous tree with a
trunk so large that it could not be scaled except by gymnastic
efforts of which the blacks alone, who are almost as agile as the
monkeys, are capable. He was away at the top, close against a
branch, motionless, and hardly distinguishable from it. He had
taken with him a light pole at the end of which was fixed a cord
with a slip knot, and he hoped that he could get near enough to
the monkey to take it in his snare. With a patience of which we
whites would be incapable, he waited for the favorable moment.
He had been there nearly three hours without nioving, when all
at once we heard him crying out from the branches, " Nyanga is
caught ! " It was true. Baba had waited till the monkey in her
gambols had got upon a large branch that hung directly over the
lake, had urged her gradually to the slender extremities of the
bough; and there the animal had been forced to let herself be
approached, for her only means of escape was to jump from a
height of forty or fifty metres into the lake on the bank of which
we were encamped. This adventure cost Nyanga the loss of all
her liberty. In order to prevent her escaping again she was shut
up like any common monkey in a cage, and was not let out from
it except when we were camped at a post.

After this long lapse of about a month, which was required for
the return from these distant regions, Nyanga, with twenty com-
panions of various species which we had picked up on the way,
took the express to Paris, and entered the Museum of Natural
History, where she became the object of special attentions.

M. Milne-Edwards, on examining the animal, recognized in it
a species still very rare, of which the British Museum has three
skins from the island of Fernando Po. Bennett made a new
species of it, which he describes as Cercopithecus pogonias. The
specimen we brought is therefore the first that has come to
Europe alive. Fortunately, I killed an adult male of this species
in my African hunts, so that the French galleries also possess a
stuffed specimen of it.

The Cercopithecus pogonias is a type reaching the full dimen-
sions of the genus — that is, adult individuals measure from about
forty-five to fifty centimetres in height. Their tail is very long,
reaching eighty centimetres. The skin is gray — almost black —
upon the back, passes with a lighter tint on the flanks, and is

NORMAL AND HEIGHTENED SUGGESTIBILITY. 641

changed into a bright red on the chest, abdomen, and inside of
the limbs. The face is furnished with full, light gray whiskers
on the cheeks, and a very peculiar aspect is given to it by two
broad white rays that extend from the superciliary arches to the
top of the head, and unite with the tuft of black hairs to form a
forelock on top of the forehead. Two bands of the same dark color
occupy the sides of the face. Captivity did not take away her
charming manners from Nyanga. She came to us joyously and
let us caress her, and we could let her out of the cage then with-
out danger of her running away. But the amiable animal had
just escaped the greatest danger.

Her skin is so beautiful, she takes care of it with such pains
that she is in as fine condition as if she were living free in the
forests of the Congo ; so that a person, whom I will not be so un-
kind as to name, found her so well kept that he proposed nothing
less than to kill her, in order to put her stuffed skin in the cases.
Fortunately, this idea was not carried out ; and it is not likely
that the learned director of the museum would ever consent to
listen to it. — Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from La
Nature,

NORMAL AND HEIGHTENED SUGGESTIBILITY.

By Pbof. WILLIAM ROMAINE NEW BOLD.

THERE is perhaps no question so perplexing to a worker in a
relatively new field as that which arises with reference to
his terminology. Not only must he be influenced by consider-
ations of euphony and etymological correctness, but he must also
be on his guard against using words the connotations of which
would tend to lead both himself and his reader astray in their
practical inferences. It is, for example, true that a quart of alco-
hol acts as a poison, but it does not follow that we should use an
ounce of alcohol as we would an ounce of strychnine. It may be
eminently proper to apply a bad name to a dog under certain
conditions, but it does not follow that the dog should be forthwith
hanged.

"Suggestion" and "suggestibility" are words which usage
compels us to employ, and, as their connotations are apt to mis-
lead us, I shall find it necessary to preface my account with a
brief analysis of their various meanings.

In dealing with any mental state, we have to consider (1) its
character, (2) its conditions and causes, (3) its effects. The word
" suggestion " properly denotes either an agency which produces
a mental state, or the state so produced, and in the latter use it
connotes the notion of the agency. Its most common meaning,

VOL. XLVIII, — 46

642 POPULAR SCIENCJE MONTHLY.

however, is still narrower, and is limited to mental states spring-
ing directly or indirectly from physical stimuli, especially from
words.

The effects of mental states, to which I called attention in my
second article, were long ignored in psychology. The first to
obtain clear recognition was the property of producing ideas, and
this has become famous as " the law of association." The motor
effects of mental states have been more recently noted, and the
study of such effects is now rapidly becoming the fashion in cur-
rent psychology, much as the study of association came into vogue
in England a century ago or thereabouts. Now, the study of
association has been prosecuted for the most part by the psycholo-
gist's watching the flow of his own ideas, but the effects of men-
tal states upon movements — what Prof. Baldwin calls dyna-
mogeny — has hitherto been studied chiefly by noting the motor
effects of ideas and sensations suggested from without by words
or physical stimuli of other kinds. Hence the word "sugges-
tion " has come to include among its connotations not only the
notion of the cause but also that of the effect — especially the mo-
tor effect — of the suggested state, and in the derivative "suggesti-
bility " the original meaning is almost lost ; it does not mean " a
condition in which mental states may be more readily initiated
by suitable causes," but, "a condition in which mental states,
however initiated, tend to work out their proper results more
readily than usual." From this usage, which is nowadays the
most common, is derived a still broader one which I shall not
scruple to employ. By an individual's suggestibility we denote
the fact that in him every mental state tends to work out definite
results of its own. In this sense we are all suggestible. The
word corresponds to dynamogeny, save that the latter term has
reference to the motor tendencies only of the state, while sug-
gestibility includes its tendency to development, its associative
and metabolic tendencies as well. The condition • commonly
known as suggestibility, in which the results of the individual
state are more easily traced than usual, I would strictly term
" heightened suggestibility," but for the sake of brevity it may be
allowable to call it also simply suggestibility ; the context will
usually show what degree of suggestibility we are talking of.

Suggestions may be subdivided with reference to their origin
into suggestions from without, due to impressions received
through the senses, and suggestions from within, arising from
some pre-existing thought. These are usually termed auto-sug-
gestions and hetero-suggestions. Both words are barbarous
hybrids, but the former at least is too deeply fixed in usage to be
displaced. The distinction is sometimes of importance, since
many patients who are very suggestible from within are not at

NORMAL AND HEIGHTENED SUGGESTIBILITY. 643

all so from "withoTit, and vice versa. Yet it is difficult to draw
any sharp line of demarcation between the two classes, and in
the account which I shall give of suggestion I shall confine myself
to the latter. I may have occasion to recur to suggestions from
within in a later paper. I shall also limit myself to the discus-
sion of the tendency to development and the associative and motor
tendencies of mental states, omitting for the present their effects
upon the metabolic processes. Thus the chief phenomena which
I shall pass in review are, (1) the development of a suggested idea
into a " sensory " hallucination, (2) the expansion of a suggested
idea into a complete dream by evocation of associated ideas, (3)
the production of bodily movements by means of suggested sensa-
tions or ideas.

As I have already said, it is not easy to observe that one is
one's self suggestible. One's present consciousness contains at all
times such a mass of subnascent, nascent, and vivid states that it
is impossible to trace the effects of any one group, yet occasionally
one can catch a state on the wing, as it were, and note its effects.
Some years ago, I came home about ten o'clock one sunny morning,
deeply absorbed in thought ; of the latter part of my walk I had
no clear memories, but I came to myself to find myself standing in
the sunlight, holding a lighted match aloft in my right hand,
apparently looking for a gasjet. I always carried in a certain
pocket my keys and a matchbox; the sight of the door had
prompted me to thrust my hand into my pocket, but I had no
clear thought of the latchkey of which I was in search. Had I
had, the mere fact that my hand happened to come in contact
with the matchbox would have produced no result. As it was,
the feeling of the matchbox found no obstacle to its working out
its own results — my hand closed on the box, withdrew and opened
it, took out a match and struck it, and this organized motor series
was wrecked merely by the physical impossibility of lighting a
gasburner where there was none to light, and not by the interfer-
ence of inconsistent mental elements. Such phenomena are famil-
iar to us all, but we rarely take pains to analyze them in detail,
otherwise the precisely similar phenomena of hypnotic sugges-
tion would not excite so much astonishment.

A large proportion of our acts are thus suggested by sense-
impressions. Another large proportion is under the direct con-
trol of thoughts almost as simple, but the guiding thought is
often so faint and phantomlike that it escapes attention. I was
sitting once in a railway train on my way to Philadelphia ; in the
corner in front of me was an umbrella. I lifted my right hand,
extended it, then let it fall. When I say that *' I '' did this I am
not speaking with precision. " I " was at the time occupied with
an entirely different train of thought, and the lifting and drop-

644 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ping of my hand struck " me " as something so strange that I fell
to looking about in the dark nooks and crannies of my mind to
find the culprit thought. Fortunately, I was in time. I had been
looking out of the window, and the lowering clouds had suggested
rain, walking the streets, getting wet ; my hand reached out for
the umbrella with some dim notion of taking off its cover and
making ready for the rain. Then arose a vague, unformed
thought which, if it had become articulate, would have taken
some such form as, " Two hours yet before I get there " : the hand
was arrested half extended, and fell. The whole of this little
comedy was enacted in an out-of-the-way corner of my mind,
while " 1" the thinking self, was absorbed in a train of abstract
thought, and probably both the actors would have escaped notice
and been straightway forgotten had it not been for the inconsist-
ency of their motor results.

Every object of perception and thought is a center of innumer-
able diverging suggestions. Not all of these are of equal strength,
and the manner in which any given object will affect a given indi-
vidual will vary with his education, his habits, and his present
mood. Many physical objects have, besides the lines of motor
suggestion which they share with others, certain special lines
peculiar to themselves. Of these perhaps the most important is
the use of the object. Thus, of all the things which I could
possibly do with a dagger, stabbing is to me by far the most
attractive, and I find it very attractive indeed. I can not handle
a dagger without feeling a marked propensity to strike the point
into anything that comes handy. Many other objects are simi-
larly suggestive. A gentleman, while visiting a friend of mine,
was asked to examine a fine rifle which his friend had recent-
ly acquired. He loaded it, poised it, lifted it to his shoulder,
took aim, remarking in a joking tone, " Suppose I fire ? " " T>o"
said his friend — and he did. Happily, the ball contented itself
with plowing its way through a cherry bookcase and four or
five books, and no lives were lost. When asked why he did such
a reckless thing, he could only say that he did not know — he did
not intend to do it. To my mind there is nothing surprising
about it. The rifle, to a man fond of shooting but without much
experience, is instinct with dangerous suggestions. Ordinarily
the immensely preponderating mass of inhibiting ideas keeps
even the most reckless well within the danger line. But when
the rifle was loaded, cocked, and aimed, and the finger on the
trigger, a great mass of ideal and sensational suggestions were
excited to the highest pitch and all converged upon the delicate
muscles of the forefinger. Still, the inhibitory suggestions of
time and place would, under most circumstances, have been suffi-
cient to counteract all these ; probably the command, " Do/' re- en-

NORMAL AND HEIGHTENED SUGGESTIBILITY, 645

forced the latter at the very moment that it distracted attention
from the former, and the slight advantage thus given to the
weaker of the two systems of forces was sufficient to contract the
finger and bring about the catastrophe.

The spontaneous phenomena which the Germans call Massen-
psychosen — a word denoting a state of mind shared by a mass
of people at once — are nothing more than Nature's experiments
in suggestibility conducted on a large scale for our benefit, The
panic is a familiar illustration. The terrifying suggestion which
each man could easily brave alone becomes so intensified in being
reflected upon him from a thousand frightened faces that he
gives way and becomes for the time being an unreasoning, strug-
gling animal. During every great strike such phenomena are
common. A crowd gathers, the spirit of disorder is abroad, and
the soberest of citizens feels his fingers fairly itching for mis-
chief. A stone is thrown, another, and then another, and in a few
moments every man is vying with his neighbor to see how much
damage he can do. In these cases the frequently repeated sug-
gestions given by the words, and still more by the deeds, of others
overcome the results of years of training in orderly habits, and
when the excitement has subsided many a participant in the late
riot may fall to wondering " what in the world possessed him."
The colloquial phrase, like many another, enshrines a truth. He
was indeed possessed — not by any evil spirit, to be sure, but
by myriads of delicate physical impulses, which, streaming in
through eye and ear, prompted him with almost irresistible force
to violence.

The so-called " contagion of crime " is somewhat analogous.
There are at all times in the community "weak brethren" who,
while not criminals, are drawn like moths to the flame by the
fascination of a great crime. The Whitechapel murders and the
assassination of Mr. Harrison, late Mayor of Chicago, are illustra-
tions fresh in our minds. In each case a crop of dangerous
"cranks" was brought to light, who, without the suggestion,
might never have fallen into the hands of the police.

Turning now from these illustrations of suggestibility in gen-
eral to the conditions under which it is heightened, the first
phenomena to arrest attention are those of childhood. The con-
sciousness of a newborn baby must be very unlike anything that
we can picture. It contains perhaps sensations of pain and touch
something like those with which we are familiar, but differing
from them in lacking all localization and reference to an outer
world. It is only by slow degrees that sight and hearing are
developed, and we can never hope to know the various stages
through which the raw material delivered to consciousness by
the developing organs of sense must pass before it becomes any-

646 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

thing like what we call sense-experience. Yet, however dim, con-
fused, and rudimentary the baby's consciousness may be, the in-
going nerve currents produce more or less definite movements,
and, as consciousness becomes more highly evolved, not merely
do the impressions of sense produce movements, but the ideas
also, or copies of those impressions, acquire control over the body.
The later history of volition merely records the steps by which
the inner control, through its gradually increasing complexity,
comes to supersede the outer. In the earlier years of life the
child may almost be said to be a slave to his environment. His
conduct is controlled for the most part either by what he actually
sees and hears or by his most recent memories and immediate
anticipations. The remote past and the distant future affect him
but little : he is a creature of the present. Consequently, one can
see the motor effects of sensations and ideas more directly in
children than in the adult. At first definite responses are limited
to a few reflexes. Sucking, winking, crying, swallowing, clutch-
ing, and one or two more, constitute the capital with which the
child begins life. Besides these we find a mass of random move-
ments out of which all later forms are evolved. At a somewhat
later period the child enters upon the imitative stage, to which
so much attention has been attracted of late; no sooner does be
see an act performed than he attempts to do it himself. Of the
mental and physiological conditions which lie at the basis of imi-
tation we know very little. It probably marks a period in which
the visible appearances of the grosser bodily movements are enter-
ing into associative union with those thoughts of how the move-
ments feel when performed which are the immediate psychical
antecedents of the movements which they represent. " Naughti-
ness,*' in children passing through this stage, is frequently noth-
ing more than sheer inability to overcome the imperative sug-
gestions of the environment by the relatively feeble thoughts
which its parents' commands suggest. For children, example is
indeed better than precept.

As the child grows older and his mind becomes more richly
stored with memories, as his hereditary instincts come to view,
and his increasing power of imagination enables him to picture
the future more distinctly, he is little by little emancipated from
his slavery to the present. Yet in many children marked suggest-
ibility persists to a quite late period. In the normal adult the
store of memories has become so rich and the power of anticipat-
ing the future so great that the primitive suggestibility seems
almost to have disappeared. The man's conduct is no longer
mainly controlled by this or by that suggestion of his environ-
ment, but springs naturally from the steady stream of thoughts
and purposes that fill his mind. No suggestion can enter his

NORMAL AND HEIGHTENED SUGGESTIBILITY, 647

mind without running the risk of encountering a mass of ideas
which either are antagonistic to it or overcome it by sheer weight
of numbers. Furthermore, most persons who closely watch their
mental life can detect in it that at present mysterious activity of
the " self " to which I alluded in my first article. We must con-
ceive it as in some way originated by and dependent upon our
past experience, and in it we see, as I have elsewhere expressed it,
the present conscious representative of the net resultant of our
past experience, brought to bear upon the nascent mental state.
Its function in our life may be compared to that of the rudder on
the ship : it serves to hold us steadily to the course already laid
out, and makes our present and our future symmetrical with our
past.

It is evident, then, that, if we would restore primitive suggest-
ibility in an adult, we must either break up the consciousness of
self, or weaken its power of control. If we can do that, we have
removed from the path of the suggested state the most formi-
dable possible impediment to its free progress and development.
But to give it full liberty we must abolish or enfeeble all other
sensations and ideas as well. These would be, from the psycho-
logical point of view, the conditions of heightened suggestibility.

In many cases it is, unfortunately, impossible to get any evi-
dence as to the mental condition of the patient, but such evidence
as we have goes to support this ^hypothesis. The hypnotized
patient, if asked what he is thinking about usually says, " Noth-
ing." Sometimes you find that he is dreaming and will tell his
dreams, but, like other dreams, they are readily guided or dissi-
pated by the least sensory suggestion. In the few cases in which
the patient remembers his experiences upon awaking, he says he
felt drowsy, dull, or weak. One of my patients told me that it
seemed to him as if the motor suggestions I gave him were exe-
cuted by his body, mechanically, without his own concurrence.
He did not feel disposed to resist, but, when he did, he either
found himself helpless, or could overcome the suggestion by the
most strenuous resistance only.

But the suggestibility thus produced differs widely from that
observed in children. The consciousness of the child is so rudi-
mentary in character that complex thoughts can not be awakened
in it by any means ; its suggestibility, therefore, is limited to the
performance of relatively simple acts. But in the complex brain
of the adult, with its myriad ramifications, the range of suggesti-
bility, when once it is established, is far greater and its phenom-
ena more striking. In language we possess an instrument which,
although intangible, is as much physical as an axe, a saw, or a
knife, and with it, as with an adjustable stamp, we can impress
upon the still sensitive brain what modifications we will. Once

648 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

started, they work out their proper results with almost fatal pre-
cision.

Turning now from the theory underlying these phenomena to
the actual facts, we may say that heightened suggestibility is
found under three chief groups of circumstances. First, it is
found in sleep occasionally, and more frequently in the states
akin to sleep termed hypnotic. Second, it is sometimes found as
one of the symptoms produced by certain drugs. As we suppose
these symptoms to be due to poisons circulating in the blood, the
type is termed toxsemic suggestibility, from two Greek words
meaning blood poison. In the last place, heightened suggestibil-
ity is found as a spontaneous phenomenon for which no reason
can be given. This is called idiopathic suggestibility.

Of these three forms, hypnotic suggestibility is the best known
and for many reasons the most interesting. Dreams, as I have
already pointed out (February number), are largely due to sug-
gestions given in sleep. A higher degree of suggestibility is
sometimes found in normal sleep. A friend of mine told me that,
when a boy, he had a schoolmate who became highly suggestible
whenever he was slightly disturbed in sleep. Without awaking,
he would become partly conscious and would do everything, no
matter how preposterous, which the mischievous ingenuity of the
boys could suggest. In hypnotic states suggestibility is so con-
stantly found that some propose to regard it as an essential char-
acteristic. Let me give a few illustrations of its varying forms.
T B is a laborer, twenty-three years of age, neurotic, in-
temperate, easily hypnotized. His muscles are entirely at my com-
mand. I can stiffen a finger or an arm by a word so that he can
not bend it. I can even contract one set of muscles while leaving
the opposite set under his control. I bring his hands together,
place the tips of his fingers in contact, and tell him he can not sepa-
rate them. The systems of muscles necessary to hold them together
are strongly innervated, while those that pull them apart are left
under his control; he struggles in vain to part them, and his
struggles are such as could not be easily imitated voluntarily.
I can control his sensations in the same way. I can abolish his
sensations of pain, of touch, of sight, and of hearing. I tell him
he will feel in his right hand what I do to his left ; I then put a
lighted match to his left hand and it remains at rest, while the
right jerks violently about in its efforts to escape from the fire.
I tell him he is blind, and he is — deaf, and he can hear nothing.
I tell him he can not see or hear such a man, and he acts as if he
were unconscious of his presence. I can create hallucinations of
all the senses also.

The limitations of suggestibility are even more interesting.
R is a college graduate and is now a student of divinity.

NORMAL AND HEIGHTENED SUGGESTIBILITY. 649

When hypnotized, he passes into a light sleep, remains vaguely
conscious of his surroundings, and remembers all that happens.
The smaller muscles, as those of the eyelids, lips, and fingers, are
entirely under my control, but the larger groups only in part. I
can affect all his senses to some degree except that of hearing.
The sense of sight is also refractory, and, although I can obliterate
it, it is only for a few moments. I lean over him, look him in the
eyes, and say, " I am getting dim — you can not see me clearly — now
I am fading out altogether — I am gone — you are blind." " No," he
says, " I see you still." He tells me afterward that I did grow
faint and for a moment vanished, but almost instantly reappeared
in brighter colors than before. I put a chair before him and say :

" There is Mr. S . You see him clearly — he is looking at you."

" No," is the reply, " I do not see him ; he is not there." I repeat
it over and over again, but without effect. I try again. We are

in Prof. F 's lecture room, and R is sitting in the large chair

on the platform. " There," I say, " in front of you, is Prof. F ."

R denies it, denies it several times, and then suddenly admits it.

When I press him to tell me exactly what he sees, I find that he
fancies himself sittiug in the body of the room where he usually

sits during lectures, and sees Prof. F standing on the platform

in an attitude he frequently adopts. In other words, R is

dreaming with his eyes open, and his dream is determined by my

command, he himself supplying for the dream of Prof. F a

suitable associative setting. At another time I told R to re-
flect upon the name " Henry Jones," and put in his hand a pencil.
After some time the hand fell to twitching and then swiftly wrote
"Henry." "What are you doing?" I ask. "Thinking of that
name." " What is your hand doing ? " " Nothing." " What did
it do a moment ago?" "It moved." " Did you move it ? " "No."
" What did it move for ? " "I don't know." No questioning on
my part could elicit any consciousness of the writing. In other
words, the touch suggestion given by contact with the pencil had
re- enforced the motor tendencies of the thought, and the thought
had literally written itself.

I have not myself seen any cases of toxsemic suggestibility,
but many are reported in the literature of the subject. For
example. Dr. Janet describes a patient suffering from alcoholic
delirium who was suggestible in the highest degree. Dr. Carpen-
ter quotes from Dr. Moreau a description of the effects of hash-
eesh, than which nothing could better describe the augmentation
in the developmental and associative tendencies of the suggested
states. "We become the sport of impressions of the most oppo-
site kind; the continuity of our ideas may be broken by the
slightest cause. We are turned, to use a common expression, by
every wind. By a word or gesture our thoughts may be success-

650 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ively directed to a multitude of different objects, with a rapidity
and a lucidity whicli are truly marvelous. Fear becomes terror ;
courage is developed into rashness which nothing checks ; the
most unfounded doubt or suspicion becomes a certainty. The
mind has a tendency to exaggerate everything/' So, also, De
Quincey, of the effects of opium : " Whatsoever I happened to call
up and trace by a voluntary act upon the darkness, was very apt
to transfer itself to my dreams. Whatsoever things I did but
think of in the darkness, immediately shaped themselves into
phantoms of the eye ; and, by a process apparently no less inevi-
table, when once thus traced in faint and visionary colors, like
writings in sympathetic ink, they were drawn out, by the fierce
chemistry of my dreams, into insufferable splendor that fretted
my heart." In the delirium of fever and in the coma of ether
and nitrous oxide suggestibility is sometimes noted, but it is not
a common phenomenon, and more information is much needed.

Idiopathic suggestibility has been reported by many observers,
but I shall limit myself to the description of one case which has
fallen within my own ken. Florrie is a little girl aged twelve.
Her father is a blacksmith in good health but not robust. Her
mother is a work-worn woman, slow of speech and slower of wit,
and is easily hypnotized. Florrie is a quiet child, has suffered
from frequent and violent headaches, and is very forgetful. In
all other respects she is quite normal. She was hypnotized some
time ago by a traveling showman. Of her condition before that
time there is no record, but since then she has been markedly sug-
gestible. A command forcibly uttered, once, twice, or thrice, is
sufficient to displace her upper consciousness and throw her into
a dreamlike state in which she executes nearly all suggestions.
A typical experience with her will serve as an illustration. I had
been lecturing in an amphitheater crowded with students, and she
had been waiting outside. The patients I had already shown
aroused a great deal of laughter, and when I went for her I found
her panic-stricken, sobbing bitterly : she would not go, no, she
would not go before all those men — she was afraid. I said to her
in a low tone : " Florrie, of whom are you afraid ? Are you afraid
of me ?" " No." " Of your mother ? " " No." " Well, there is
no one else here." After much persuasion I got her to look out.
" There," said I, triumphantly, pointing to a crowd of physicians
and nurses, " don't you see that bare wall ? There is no one here
but us three." Her tears were dried at once. I led her into the
amphitheater and said, pointing to the rows upon rows of men,
" Don't you see, Florrie, there is nothing here but empty benches
and ourselves ? " She saw nothing save what I told her to see,
was perfectly cheerful and happy, entirely at her ease, and abso-
lutely subject to my commands. She seemed to be quite normal.

NORMAL AND HEIGHTENED SUGGESTIBILITY, 651

and she acted out the dreams I suggested to her with a grace that
any actress might envy. I told her there was a plate of strawber-
ries on the table. " Oh," said she, " what beautiful berries ! May
I have one ? " She began eating them, and took the stem off each
imaginary berry with a precision that almost made an observer
believe that his own eyes were at fault, and that the berries were
really there. "Are they sweet?'' said I. "Oh, yes." "Rather
odd, in February, isn't it ? '' said I. " I would have thought they
would be sour." As she ate the next berry she made a wry face.
" Dear me ! " she said, " it is as sour as sour can be." At another
time I told her I had two bouquets for her, and wished her to
choose the one she liked best. I gave her with my right hand a
real bouquet — with my left, nothing. She took both, smelled each
in turn, exclaimed over their beauty, and finally returned to me
the real bouquet, saying the other was much the prettier.

I might cover pages with such illustrations, but one is as
instructive as a thousand could be. This child was not " hypno-
tized," yet she was in a " secondary state " or dream. I was never
able to determine precisely how much of the real, visible, tangible
world entered into her dreams apart from what I deliberately sug-
gested to her to see, but my impression was she saw and felt as
the rest of us do unless my suggestions were inconsistent with the
testimony of her senses— in that case the suggestion triumphed.
The suggested dreams were remarkably permanent. If she were
told there was a parrot or cat in the room, she would continue to
see it until it was abolished in the same way. Once or twice she
refused suggestions that I gave her. For example, when I told
her she was a princess, she acted the part very well ; but when I
told her she was a horse and was pulling a cart, she said she was
not, and no amount of insistence on my part could make her see
that cart. Once I tried to "hypnotize" her — i. e., I told her I
would put her to sleep — and she went to sleep so soundly that I
had great ado to get her awake again. So also after suggesting
dreams to her, it was not possible to restore her at once to her
normal condition, although if left to herself she slowly returned
to it. I always took pains to abolish all the hallucinations I had
given her, and she would then seem quite normal, but upon ques-
tioning her afterward I always found that her memory did not
begin until perhaps a half hour after she had left me, and the
attempt to elicit recollections of the forgotten period by leading
questions always resulted in throwing her into a similar second-
ary state. Yet there was no connection between her secondary
states ; in one she never recollected what had happened in another,
and no suggestion could make her remember. Nor was I ever
able to produce posthypnotic suggestions, although I frequently
tried to do so. I wished very much to relieve her headaches in

652 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

this way, but could produce no effect upon them whatever. In
other words, she failed to present many of the most characteristic
phenomena of hypnosis. I think, perhaps, I should say that my
attention was called to this little girl's case by her physician, and
although in all the experiments that we made upon her we kept a
sharp lookout for any indication of evil results, we were never
able to detect any. Her waking dreams did not seem to be more
injurious than other dreams.

One may justly ask how one can guard against simulation in
such cases. I do not think the possibility can be altogether ex-
cluded, and in this case I was at first very suspicious. But after a
good deal of careful observation one forms a pretty clear opinion,
based upon many slight indications. My chief reason for thinking
that the phenomena in her case were genuine was that taken as a
whole they differed widely from the type of hypnosis she had
seen in the public shows she had attended, which would naturally
have given the model for her to imitate, and agreed very closely
with rare cases reported by other observers.

THE COMING OF THE RAINS IN GUIANA.

By JAMES RODWAY.

WE are n earing the end of November, and the rains have
come. For three months no more than one or two pass-
ing showers have fallen, and every tree and shrub in our gar-
dens has done its best to accommodate itself to the changed con-
ditions. During the rains of May, June, and July they grew
rampant, the climbers extending themselves in every direction
for long distances. Then came a severe check. The burning sun
poured down on the parched earth at the beginning of September
and caused most of the trees to flag and hang limp. Some of the
more delicate plants in the garden had their leaves burned at the
edges and for a time they looked unsightly. Some commenced
to drop their leaves preparatory to a partial rest, but these were
few ; the majority braced up, as it were, and soon adapted them-
selves to the altered situation. The change was characterized at
first by a wealth of flowers, but these quickly disappeared, until
hardly a blossom could be seen. As the foliage grew less dense,
the young fruit became conspicuous, and very soon guavas began
to ripen and mangoes to set. Now also the mammee apple, which
matures its fruit oaly once a year, felt the influence of the sun
and came to perfection.

As month after month passed, the leaves fell until the canopy
was almost bare, and in one or two cases toward the end of the

THE COMING OF THE RAINS IN GUIANA, 653

dry weather the trees became denuded for a few days, or, in the
case of the fiddlewood and silk cotton tree, several weeks. Those
trees which never become quite bare dropped leaf after leaf until
when the proper time came the young foliage pushed off the few
leaves that remained and took their place.

Now comes the rain. The heat has been more oppressive than
usual, and the sun is often obscured by thick clouds. Distant
thunder is heard, and to the west and south the black clouds are
lowering. Now and again great splashes of rain fall suddenly
and as suddenly cease. Walking along a straight road, you see a
mist apparently rising half a mile away, and when you come to
the spot find that the rain has well soaked the road for a short
distance. Then you may see a similar mist over a cane field, and
notice that it is rolling steadily toward you. Listening, you hear
a clattering, as if a regiment of cavalry was galloping along the
road, and in a few seconds look for shelter against the big drops.
It comes, wets you to the skin, and passes on up or down the road,
leaving you very uncomfortable, but brightening up the vegeta-
tion and rousing the birds from their siesta.

These are the preliminary skirmishes, as it were. The rains
have not yet come — only their vanguard. Presently they will be
down in force to soak the parched earth and make every tree and
shrub rejoice and blossom.

During the drought, animal life has been almost quiescent.
Butterflies, moths, and beetles have been dormant as chrysalids.
The foliage has hardened and lost its luscious taste ; it would be
therefore undesirable that larvae should be hatched at such a time.
Ants hfcive been busy as usual, however ; their nests may be seen
in the dry ground everywhere. Frogs hide themselves in cracks
of the earth or crawl into the mud at the bottom of the almost
dry canals. Spiders, centipeds, scorpions, and cockroaches go
outside the house only to come back when the ground is sodden.
A few flowers come up on the roadsides as the dense thicket of
sour grass becomes less rampant, but toward the end of the
season the parapets look almost bare.

Yesterday a heavy downpour closed the cracks in the dry
ground and flooded some of the ants' nests in the garden. To-
day a regiment of great black ants is marching up the sides of
the open gallery, and here and there one is running over the floor.
Three quarters of an inch long, these creatures look rather
formidable, but they are not vicious, nor is their nip painful.
Out in the garden, however, a swarm of red fire ants is moving
house, and if you happen to tread on the procession the mistake
is very soon brought to your notice by sundry pricks and instil-
lations of venom on your lower extremities. Then there are the
tree ants, who make little nests the size of walnuts and keep

654 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

flocks and herds of scale insects on the under surfaces of the
leaves. For months their live stock has consisted mainly of hard
scale insects ; now they are busy fostering the young of these and
bringing forward species of a softer nature. Some of these stock-
breeders build their small nests about the roots of plants and thus
escape the flood, while those who nest in the bushes seem to have
gone a step further in their development.

At this time also the small black ants are everywhere. They
come into the rooms and get upon our dining table, even though
its legs are placed in pans of kerosene oil. A chair will provide
a suitable gangway, or they will even run over your clothes as
you sit at dinner. They even get into our beds, and we wake up
at night to find hundreds of these tiny creatures crawling over
us and giving vicious bites here and there. Then the baby cries
in the next room, and its nurse wakes up to find the little pests
running over its face and sucking the moisture from its eyelids.
The child wakes up and rubs the part with his fist, to be rewarded
with sundry bites on his delicate skin. Or perhaps one of them
has got into his ear, and the child screams with all his might ;
then the mother or nurse has much ado with a syringe and oil
before silence is again restored.

Now come the cockroaches. Not that they have ever been
entirely wanting, but as long as the weather was dry they could
hide under heaps of dead leaves or about the roots of trees in the
garden. Routed from these snug quarters, they appear in great
numbers, flying into the open sitting rooms, and perhaps making
a lady scream out with disgust as one of them sprawls on her
dress. Their object is to hide themselves as soon as possible, no
matter where, and female drapery is very convenient. Like the
ants, these stinking creatures invade our bedrooms, and a new-
comer is warned not to sleep with his mouth open, for he might
wake to find one exploring the cavity. Those who have lived in
the tropics for any length of time can hardly escape tasting the
cockroach. Now and then they run over our dishes and leave
their taste and smell behind, while occasionally one gets into the
flour barrel and spoils your cake or pudding. We have seen bits
of their carcasses in our bread, and have had to reject a roll alto-
gether from such a cause.

Now that the ground is well soaked, the wood ants or termites
begin to swarm. They fly for a little while, but quickly get rid
of their wings, to crawl into the chinks and crannies of the floor,
between the covers of books, and in fact everywhere. They litter
the tables with their cast-off wings, and if not looked after will
do serious damage in a few days. Furniture is bored with holes,
books are excavated to provide nests, and the very house itself
becomes ultimately little more than a home for wood ants. The

THE COMING OF THE RAINS IN QUI AN A, 655

boards appear to be uninjured, but you can almost put your
finger through them on account of the numerous channels and
excavations of these apparently helpless little creatures.

The hardback— a black, chaferlike beetle — is very conspicu-
ous after the rains have drenched the ground. They pass their
larval stage in the earth and are driven forth in myriads. Not so
disgusting as the cockroaches, they are yet very troublesome.
They fly to the lights in your sitting room and drop upon your
book as you are reading, or inside your collar. As for the ladies,
they seem to be peculiarly open to such crawlers, as they have so
much drapery, but the Creoles take hardbacks almost as a matter
of course. We remember, however, one occasion at an evening
entertainment when these beetles spoiled half the pleasure of the
female part of the audience. They came in literally by thou-
sands, and, flying in their blundering way at the gaslights, fell
upon the people below. Evening dress was worn by the ladies,
and this made the matter so much the worse. Some shuddered
as they felt them crawling over their bare necks, and there was
a continual movement of the hands to pick them off. When we
state that the beetles were swept up next morning by pailfuls,
some idea can be formed of their number.

Moths also appear in great numbers at this time. The flowers
open, and those that are nocturnal perfume the air, bringing the
insects to your garden. The white flowers shine in the darkness,
but not so brightly as your gaslights, and it follows that many a
sphinx comes in and commits suicide. Smaller insects also appear,
so that what with one and another a table under the lamp is lit-
tered with hundreds of the dead and dying before you go to bed.

As these come indoors, some of their enemies follow. Centi-
peds, scorpions, and spiders leave the garden and look for the
luscious cockroach in his new quarters. Web-making spiders are
not very conspicuous, but those which hunt — veritable beasts of
prey — lurk in every corner. To see one of them spring upon a
cockroach is as interesting, perhaps, as the attack of a tiger upon
an ox. And, when the spider has taken all he wants, the ants
come and carry off the remainder. There they go, marching up
the wall, a hundred tiny creatures carrying between them the
monster corpse, probably weighing more than a thousand of its
bearers. We have often wondered at such a sight, and thought
of the difficulty of carrying a heavy weight under such circum-
stances.

Under the ground floor our cat had kittened, but we did not
know of the fact until the first great downpour of the season.
Waiting under cover until the rain abated, we saw puss come out
bearing a little, half-drowned creature in her mouth, which she
carried to a dry place. A torrent came pouring down the gutter

656 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

immediately above the entrance to her lair, but the anxious
mother passed through this to bring a second and then a third
kitten, until all her family were rescued from the flood.

Not only are nocturnal insects roused by the rains, but the
butterflies also come forth from their chrysalids. We have an
Aristolochia pida climbing up the gallery which has been seri-
ously checked by the continual attacks of one particular species.
It is a handsome creature, with black wings edged with yellow.
As the rains fall, the plant puts out new shoots, and almost imme-
diately the leaves and stems are dotted with yellow eggs. The
butterflies come into the open gallery sometimes three or four at
a time, and refuse to be driven off until they have done their
work. In two or three days the caterpillars are at work, and
with all our attention the plant is often quite denuded.

The frogs come forth from their hiding places as the canals
become filled, with their rejoicing croak and hubble-bubble.
Toward evening another species chirps and makes up to some
extent for the absence of singing birds : in fact, it has been called
the Demerara nightingale. After nightfall fireflies swarm over
the marshy places, twinkling like myriads of stars, and they sail
here and there in search of prey ; for, of course, the gnats and
midges and mosquitoes are at hand in such places. They also
come into the house occasionally, but not in great numbers.

We have read of fireflies glancing through myrtle boughs
and lighting up the dark arches of the forest, but rarely indeed
do we see them among bushes, and never in the virgin forest.
Their prey can not be found in such places. Over a marshy
spot, however, they dart by thousands, each for an instant shin-
ing forth and as quickly hiding its light. Here, also, mosquitoes
swarm, to pounce upon the unlucky wanderer who goes " moon-
ing " about after dark.

In our garden the ferns are suddenly infested with caterpil-
lars. The young and succulent fronds are delicate morsels, and
as the rain brings them forth their enemies come to the front.
Yonder pretty specimen of Adiantum farleyense was pushing
out three delicate croziers yesterday ; now they are nothing but
bare stalks, while the fat green larva which has done the mis-
chief hides behind one of them. Snails also appear from you
know not where, to get a share of the succulent young shoots, and
grasshoppers follow to almost denude a plant of leaves during
the night.

Under the arc lights on the street are scattered hundreds of
beetles, and round them hover great batlike sphinges, impatient
to destroy themselves. Prevented from getting inside the globes,
they dash themselves against the barrier, to fall or go off at a
tangent. As you stroll along in the moonlight, the odors of a

THE COMING OF THE RAINS IN GUIANA. 657

thousand flowers are wafted from the neighboring gardens, and
the buzz and hum of insect life show that other living things are
attracted by the efforts of the flowers. Yonder is a white con-
volvulus, its flowers showing up against the dark foliage like
little moons. It does not emit any perfume, for its size and color
alone make it conspicuous. Here is an avenue of fiddlewood
trees, the flowers of which can not be seen, but the almost over-
powering odor they emit is quite as effectual as the color of the
convolvulus.

You would like to classify these odors. Some are very grate-
ful, others cloying. There is the jasmin type, which, when ex-
cessively strong, is sickly. Then comes the West Indian mignon-
ette, which is not unpleasant at a distance, but which is almost
nasty in a room. The most grateful to our sense of smell appears
to be an odor in which there is something spicy — this never cloys.
On a damp evening all these come at intervals, now as light
zephyrs and anon in overpowering bursts of perfume. Then
there are odors too delicate for appreciation by our gross organs,
which nevertheless attract insects from long distances. As the
flowers open, the visitors appear, to linger round for an hour or
two perhaps in the morning and then vanish until the same time
next day.

Why do particular species of butterflies and moths confine
themselves to one plant ? Oar plague, the butterfly above men-
tioned, comes to lay its eggs on or near the Aristolochia, but on
no other plant. A day or two ago we found its larvae on some
seedlings about two inches high, and there is one plant which
vainly attempts to push out new shoots, for as soon as a green
leaf appears it is eaten. But the insect does not always lay its
eggs on the leaves or stalks of the plant, but rather chooses a rail-
ing of the gallery or a portion of the latticework, always, how-
ever, in the immediate neighborhood of the food plant. Is not
this the act of a reasoning being rather than hereditary instinct ?

The effect of the rainfall on our magnificent vegetation is
wonderful. What immense quantities of water are stored in the
great herbaceous plants of the tropics — the banana, maranta,
and the treelike papaw ! All these are softer- wooded than many
of the delicate plants of other climes which grow only to a few
inches above the ground. With such a wealth of light and moist-
ure, everything rises toward the sun. Daisies and primroses would
be smothered ; there is no room for them except up in the trees
among the epiphytes. Your gardens, fields, and even woods are
but miniature representatives of ours — only comparable to the
contents of a box of Dntch toys. Grasses often rise above our
heads, and the cousins of your Composites become tall shrubs.
There are no RanunculacecB, Primulacece, or Umbelliferce, and the

VOL. XLVIII. i1

658

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

violets are almost trees. Nothing but rampant grasses and sedges
in the meadows, a few coarse, weedy flowers on the roadside, a
wealth of vegetation in the canals, and everything else bushes
and trees. No delicate plant hugs the ground for warmth, but
all shoot upward, only requiring the heavy rains to enable them
to rise higher and higher.

THE ANCIENT ISLANDERS OF CALIFORNIA.

By Prof. C. F. HOLDER.

DURING the past summer several attempts were made to
thoroughly investigate the shell heaps, kitchen middens,
and graves of the islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente, off
the coast of southern California. One of these parties, organized
by Mr. J. Neale Plumb, of New York, in the short time at their
command made some interesting finds.

The two islands are respectively twenty-two and forty miles off
shore, each about twenty-two miles in length. Santa Catalina is

#

Fig. 1. — Gigantic Natural Sandpit at San Clemente Island.

a mountain range, with peaks twenty-five hundred or three thou-
sand feet in height, with a climate that makes it a most desirable
spot the year round, as the summer is delightful and in winter
the island is a garden in the sea. San Clemente rises to a height
of one thousand or twelve hundred feet at places, but is flat on
top, as though swept by the winds.

THE ANCIENT ISLANDERS OF CALIFORNIA. 659

Both islands were inhabited when discovered by Cabrillo in
1542, and undoubtedly for ages supported a large and vigorous
population of savage seafarers who were skilled in all the rude
arts of the fisherman and the sea.

How long these islands have been occupied, and who were the
original settlers, are questions difiicult to answer ; but on Santa

-^-^-JTro^-

Fia. 2. — Skeleton found at San Clementk Island, California.

Catalina the writer has identified a number of residence sites, shell
mounds, caves, and tumuli, all of which show evidence of ancient
occupation.

On the island of San Clemente we began work on the north end,
at what is known as the Isthmus. Here for several hundred acres
the sand has covered the soil and is gradually flowing up over the
island, driven by the wind. For some reason this appears to have
been a favorite location for the aborigines, as in every direction
traces of previous occupation were found ; but as the sand has been
blowing for centuries, a greater portion of the material has been
covered by it. The evidence was in the shape of shell mounds —
piles of abalones, brought from the ocean, half a mile distant ;
heaps of the bones of fishes, seals, and various animals, among
which were found stone implements, well-molded scraping stones,
grinders and broken mortars.

A day was spent in digging in these sand dunes with poor suc-
cess, but the following morning, on the west shore of the island,
another sand stretch was discovered which had evidently been
occupied for years. In one place we found human bones uncovered
by the sand, in such numbers that the impression was given that
here was an old battlefield where bodies had been left as they
fell. As far as the eye could see down the coast the sand dunes

66o

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

extended, and everywhere were the telltale fragments of shell
and abalone.

In the space of the present article it is impossible to more than
call attention to a few of the finds made, illustrating the everyday-
history of these unknown people. The sand in places was littered
with fragments of stone vessels which had been broken probably
by some vandal. Some of these jars weighed nearly twenty
pounds, others more, and were of all sizes, from small vessels, in-
tended as paint or color jars, to vessels which would hold several
quarts of water. Here were discoid al stones exactly like those
taken from the kitchen middens of Europe, flint arrow and spear
heads, beads of shell and bone, scrapers and awls of bone, and rings
and other ornaments cut from the pearly abalone.

The most interesting find was made in the center of the dune,
where, in sinking a trench, a skeleton was found in so peculiar a

Fig. 3. — Musical lNSTBLMENTt», Doubi-e and Single, Inlaid with Pearl taken from
Sands of San Clemente, by C. F. Holder, August, 1895.

position that the entire party gathered about and aided in the ex-
cavation. It was lying on its face, the head to the east, the arms
raised over the head as though the man had fallen on his knees, or
had been buried in a bent position. The bones were of a deep tan
color, and about them was not the slightest vestige of clothing.
The sand was carefully worked out, and after an hour's labor the
skeleton was seen in perfect relief against it. Then began the de-
tachment of the bones, each one being taken out separately and
carefully laid aside to dry ; in this way the perfect skeleton was
secured.

Of many skeletons discovered by the writer on these islands,
this was the first with which some of the possessions of the native
had not been buried ; as a rule, mortars and pestles, beads, weap-
ons, and other property of the deceased were buried with him.

When the skeleton was almost exposed, an interesting find
was made about five feet behind it. When first found it was
supposed to be another skeleton, but careful digging with a

THE ANCIENT ISLANDERS OF CALIFORNIA. 661

Fig.

4. — Peakl Ob-

NAMBNTS.

Near by a

knife in the soft sand soon resulted in the uncovering of three
musical instruments, or flutes, showing that evidently the musi-
cian of the tribe had been discovered. They were the leg bones
of the deer, found on the mainland forty miles away, and weie
evidently highly treasured by the owner, as they were ornamented
with pearly iridescent plates cut from the haliotis.
The flutes, which are now in Mr. Plumb's collec-
tion at Islip, Long Island, were about eight inches
in length, perforated with four or five finger
holes, while the largest end was covered with
asphaltum, into which was set the square or ob-
long piece of pearl, evidently selected for its
beauty and luster.

These quaint instruments had been placed at
the feet of the body evidently, as they were just
on a level with it. It is not impossible that some
stone vessels had been buried over the skeleton,
as numbers of broken fragments were found here,
large shell was discovered at the surface filled with shell beads,
and a short distance away a skeleton partly burned, the bones
mixed up among charred wood, fish bones, etc. Beneath it were
several discoidal stones, and a curious object resembling a bell-
clapper, probably a polishing implement of some kind.

The entire region was undoubtedly either a vast burying
ground or had been a village site covered in the intervening
years by the drifting sand that was ever creeping up the
canons.

As to the age of these remains, no estimate could be made, but
everything pointed to an early period in the history of the island.

San Clemente is subjected to winds, has
a poor water supply, and does not pre-
sent the attractive features found at
Santa Catalina, now a famous watering
place. The latter island evidently had
a larger population. During the past
ten years the writer has located at least
twenty ancient town sites or camps on
Santa Catalina, and found stone imple-
ments on many of them, ranging from
mortars and pestles to discoidal stones,
and various objects of stone, wood, shell,
and bone. One location is of especial
interest, being an ancient olla manufac-
tory, where the natives from time immemorial made soapstone
vessels and objects of various kinds. Here are the old olla
marks, showing where the mortars had been broken off; and

Fig. 5.

-Stone Jar from the
Sand Beds.

662 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

where the site was originally located the remains of the vessels
were found.

These two islands are virtual archaeological treasure houses
which, when thoroughly examined, will undoubtedly produce
many interesting finds.

ACCLIMATIZATION.

By WILLIAM Z. RIPLEY,

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND ECONOMICS IN THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF

TECHNOLOGY.

THERE is no question of greater significance for European
civilization than the one which concerns the possibility of its
extension over that major part of the earth which is yet the
home of barbarism or savagery. The rapid increase of the Aryan
populations is more and more forcing it to the forefront as a
great economic problem. No longer is it merely a scientific and
abstract problem of secondary importance as contributory to the
theories of the unity or plurality of the human race.* It has to-
day become a matter of peculiar significance for the present gen-
eration of men, and the old abstractions, which did so much to
confuse its students, are laid aside, f The substantial unity of the
species having become an accepted fact along with the doctrine
of evolution, the migration and consequent acclimatization of the
various branches of the parent stock follow as a matter of course.
The modern problem plainly stated is this : First, can a single
generation of European emigrants live ? and, secondly, living, can
they perpetuate their kind in the equatorial regions of the earth ?
Finally, if the Aryan race is able permanently so to sustain itself,
will it still be able to preserve its peculiar civilization in these
lands ; or must it revert to the barbarian stage of modern slav-
ery— of a servile native population, which alone in those climates
can work and live ? An area of fertile lands six times as great
as that cultivated by the people of Europe to-day stands waiting
to absorb its surplus population. X But its point of saturation

* Revue mensuelle de I'ficole d'Anthropologie, i, p. 129 ; Virchow, in Verhandlungen der
Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, Ethnologic und Urgeschichte, 1885, p. 202.

f The French distinction between " acclimatement " and " acclimatation " is practically
an illustration of these two phases of the question. Vide Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthro-
pologie, Paris, V, p. 78 1. Our National Department of Agriculture has become so im-
pressed with the importance of this matter that special investigations are being prosecuted,
and a climatological journal is promised.

\ In Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, January, 1891, p. 27, are maps, re-
produced from a paper by Mr. Ravenstein before the British Association for the Advance-
paent of Science at Leeds, of lands open for settlement. Vide also map in Transactions of
the Seventh International Congiess of Demography and Hygiene, x, opp. p. 163, of lands im-

ACCLIMATIZATION, 663

will obviously soon be reached if traders and superintendents of
native labor are the only colonists who can live there. Moreover,
the problem of acclimatization has a great political importance ;
for if any one of these European nations be possessed of a special
physiological immunity in face of the perils of tropical coloniza-
tion, the balance of power may be seriously disturbed. Or a great
menace to the feeble attempts of Europeans to colonize the tropics
may exist in the surpassing aptitude of the great Mongol horde,
which is perhaps the most gifted race of all in its power of ac-
commodation to new climatic conditions.* Africa, Polynesia, and
all parts of the earth have now been divided among the na-
tions of Europe. What will they be able to do with them, now
that the explorer has finished his work ? f Because the problem
pertains to the sciences of physiology and of anthropology, in no
wise lessens its concrete importance for the economist and the
statesman.

Before we are in a position to measure even approximately the
influence of a change of climate upon the human body and its
functions, a number of subordinate confusing factors must be
eliminated. Neglect to observe this rule vitiates much of the tes-
timony of observers in the field. In the first place, a change of
residence in itself always tends to upset the regular habits of the
soldier or the colonist. The temperate youth in England becomes
a heavy drinker in the barracks of India; and the Portuguese
and Spanish races, predisposed to the use of light wines — ready
even to give up the habit if need be — suffer from the disorders in-
cident to alcoholism far less than the English. J Inflammation of
the liver is indigenous to the tropics ; and yet the of ttimes six-
fold deadliness of hepatitis among English soldiers in India, com-
pared with the mortality among the native troops from the same
disease, is probably due more to the consumption of alcoholic
drinks than to the influence of the climate.* To this fact is also

possible of colonization by the Teutonic people. In Petermann's Mittheilungen, xxxviii, 1,
p. 8, and Ausland, 1891, p. 481, the present extension of the "plantation" stage of culture
is shown by maps.

* This theme is ably discussed by Prof. Ratzel in Kolonization, Breslau, 18*76. It forms
the groundwork of the pessimistic plaint in Pearson's National Life and Character. Vide
also Dilke, Problems of Greater Britain.

f This was the great question before the International Geographical Congress at London
in August, 1895.

\ Dr. Montano, pp. 428 and 437, and St. Vel, p. 41, insist upon the necessity of abstemi-
ousness, yide also C. Stolz, Das Leben des Europaers in den Tropenlandern, in Mitthei-
lungen der ost-schweizerischen geographischen-commerziellen Gesellschaft in St. Gallen,
1888. The abuses of this habit are sympathetically portrayed by Kipling in the Mulvaney
stories.

* Davidson, op. cit.^ i, p. 455.

664 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

due a certain immunity of the wives and children of soldiers in
this regard. A moderate amount of alcoholic stimulant undoubt-
edly has a beneficent action.* Dr. Clarke even asserts that light
wine is an indispensable part of a hygienic diet ; \ but the abuse
of the drinking habit is a factor in the comparative immunities
of all races in the tropics not to be neglected.

Alcoholism and sexual immorality go hand in hand. Newly
acquired vicious habits, unknown amid the restraints of home
life, would speedily cause physical prostration in any climate.
An engineer in Algeria testifies that " a Sunday will put more
men in the hospital than three days in the hot sun.'' J One of
the most subtle physiological effects of a tropical climate is a
surexcitation of the sexual organs,* which in the presence of a
native servile and morally undeveloped population often leads to
excesses even at a tender age. || The elimination of this factor be-
comes especially important in dealing with the crossing of races
and the effects of climate upon fecundity. It is invariably true
that the mulatto — a social as well as an ethnic hybrid — suffers
from a loss of caste which exposes this class to many temptations.
The effect of this upon morbidity can not but be very great in
face of the peculiarly weakened physical resistance.^ Among the
imported and liberated negroes in the West Indies, indeed, im-
morality rises to a climax almost sufficient to outweigh every
other consideration. ^

The influence of national habits in the choice of food is a third
element to be eliminated. One of the immediate effects of a trop-
ical climate is a stimulation of the appetite, J which too often
leads to overindulgence. On the other hand, it seems to be
rather the kind than the quality of food which is the decisive fac-
tor. Dr. Felkin advises an increase in the daily allowance, pro-
vided it be of the right sort. % In this regard the Teutonic nations
are especially handicapped in competition with the Mediterranean
peoples. The English and Germans insist upon their usual allow-
ance of meat, where the Spaniards or Italians are content with

* Science, 1891, p. 3. f Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, xix, p. 75.

X De Quatrefages, The Human Species, p. 236. * Vide Jousset, op. cit., p. 229.

\ Vide interesting letters from Dutch physicians in the East Indies in Verhandlungen
der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, 1886, p. 90.

^ Revue d' Anthropologic, second series, v, p. 47.

^ Publications of the American Statistical Association, June, 1895, p. 195 seq,

I Jousset, op. cit, p. 211 ; St. Vel., p. 29.

^ The physiological effects of diet are discussed in Proceedings of the British Association
for the Advancement of Science, 1889, p. 787. Vide also Archiv fiir Anthropologic, xxiii,
p. 467. Foster (Elements of Physiology, p. 843) agrees with Dr. Felkin. The caution of the
best authorities in making positive assertions is in sharp contrast with the statements of
Buckle and earlier writers.

A CCLIMA TIZATION. 665

cereals or lighter food. The Chinese are especially favored in ac-
commodation to a new tropical climate by reason of their simple
diet of rice.

More important even than food, as a correction to be applied,
is the effect of daily habits of life and of profession upon the
physiological processes.*

An indolent life always and everywhere tends to superinduce
a multitude of disorders. De Quatrefages has pointed out that in
the West Indies the wealthy and idle Creoles, and not the " petit
blancs," swell the death-rate of the white population above the
average. t Gentle and regular exercise, then, must be accounted
one of the most important hygienic precautions to be observed.
Worse than lack of exercise, however, is overexertion, especially
if it be coupled with exposure to the hot sun or to miasmatic
exhalations. Statistics for the Jewish race, confining all its ac-
tivities to shops in the towns, must be corrected, therefore, for
this circumstance, before they are compared with statistics for
the Germans, who as colonists take up the ever-deadly cultiva-
tion of the soil. The Boers, who thrive as herders, would un-
doubtedly suffer were they to stir up the soil as husbandmen. %
Most favored of all is that nationality which is seafaring by na-
ture. The apparently high vitality of the Italians and Maltese
in Algeria is in part because they are mainly sailors and fisher-
men.* In consonance with this principle is the relative immunity,
already cited, of the wives and children of soldiers in India. ||
Slavery also always produces a terrific death-rate which vitiates
all comparison between the statistics for the white and the negro."^
It should be noted, moreover, that such an institution exercises a
selective choice upon the negro ; for the survivors of such severe
treatment will generally be a picked lot, which ought to exhibit
vitality to a marked degree, all the weaklings having been re-
moved. ^ Racial comparisons are also invalidated by the fact that
hygiene and sanitation are generally confined to the European
populations, so that, other things being equal, a higher death-rate
among the natives would be most natural.

In any Scientific discussion of the effect of climate upon the
human body the racial element must always be considered ; and

* Archiv fUr Anthropologie, xxiii, p. 46*7. f Op. cit., p. 236.
J Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, 1885, p. 258.

* Jousset, op. cit, p. 291.

I Vide also Verhandlungen dor Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, 1886, p. 90.
In some cases the mortality of adult women is higher, as in the island of St. Louis. Revue
d' Anthropologie, new series, v, p. 30 et seq. ^ De Quatrefages, op. cit , p. 234.

^ The bearing of this in Algeria is discussed in Revue d' Anthropologie, second series, v,
pp. 47, 54.

666 POPULAR SCJBJVC^ MONTHLY,

correction must be made for ethnic peculiarities before any defi-
nite conclusions become possible.*

Three diseases are peculiar to the white race and to civiliza-
tion— namely, consumption, syphilis, and alcoholism,! there being
marked differences in the predisposition of each of the barbarous
races for them, which often vary inversely with the degree of
civilization they have attained ; so that their widely varying lia-
bility to contract these diseases becomes an important considera-
tion in the ingrafting of any degree of culture or of artificial life
upon the native inhabitants of a colonial possession.

The Aryan race in its liability to consumption stands midway
between the Mongol and the negro, climatic conditions being
equal. The immunity of the Ural-Altaic stock in this respect is
very remarkable. The Kirghis of the steppes, exposed to the
severest climatic changes, are rarely affected with it, X and the
pure Turanian stock is almost exempt from its ravages.* This
may be one reason why the Chinese are able to colonize in many
places even in the tropics where the negro can not live, since it is
well known that a tropical climate is fatal to all persons with a
consumptive tendency. || The Chinese succeed in Guiana, where
the white can not live ; ^ and they thrive from Mamiatchin, where
the mean temperature is below freezing, to Singapore on the equa-
tor. 0 That their immunity from phthisis is due in large measure
to race, and not to climatic circumstances, seems to be indicated
by the results of ethnic intermixture. The Japanese apparently
derive a liability to it from their Malay blood, which not even
their Turanian descent can counteract. J The Malays, a mixed
race, seem to lack vitality in many other respects as well, in all

* Dr. Bordier, of the ^cole d'Anthropologie at Paris, is perhaps the best authority upon
this subject. A fine outline will be found in Revue d'Anthropologie, i, p. 76 ; ii, p. 135 ;
iv, p. 236 ; and v, p. 30. Vide also Dr. Montano in Bulletin de la Soci^te de Geographic,
Paris, 1878, p. 444 ; and Bulletin de la Society d'Anthropologie, 1881, p. 733. In Germany
Dr. Buchner has discussed it in Correspondenzblatt der deutschen Gesellschaft fiir Anthro-
pologic, xviii, p. 17; and more popularly in Sammlung gemeinverstandlicher wisscnschaft-
lichen Vortrage, 1886, No. 42. Dr. Ashmead, in Science for 1892, has raised some inter-
esting points.

f Whether nervous affections belong to this category is a matter of present controversy.
Firfe Science, December 16 and 30, 1892. Suicide as an ethnic disease is ably discussed
by Morsclli in his treatise on Suicide,

X Revue d'Anthropologie, third series, i, p. 77.

^ Ibid., new series, iv, p. 236.

\ Jousset, op. cit., p. 300. .

^ Bordier, Colonisation Scientifique, p. 472.

^ Pcschel, Races of Man, p. 77. The mortality table given in Quatrefages op. cit, p.
235, seems to contradict this. Cf. Revue d'Anthropologie, new series, i, p. 76 et seg., where
tables of mortality arc given.

^ Revue d'Anthropologie, new series, iv, p. 237 ; and in Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthro-
pologie, 1881, p. 733.

A CCLIMA TIZA TION. 667

of which the Japanese share to some extent. Their liability to
consumption seems to be akin to that ^penchant for alcoholism,
which is lacking among the Chinese because of the national
opium habit.

The negro even in the tropics is especially subject to all affec-
tions of the lungs, a fact which constitutes a serious bar to his
wide extension over what has been designated by Dr. Fuchs the
catarrhal zone, in contradistinction to the dysenteric zone of the
tropics.* The black races have in general less fully developed
chests t and less respiratory power % than the European race.
They perspire less freely,* and their skin is thicker, or at least
more dense, so that oxygenation by the lungs alone is more neces-
sary. They are consequently exceedingly sensitive to atmospheric
changes, and are severely handicapped in any migration for this
reason. || Almost invariably, where the European succumbs to
bilious or intestinal disorders, the negro falls a victim to diseases
of the lungs even in the tropics. An interesting case is instanced ^
of a caravan in Senegal, composed of ninety-five negroes and
ninety Europeans, in which the average mortality for each of the
two contingents was exactly equal for two years. Yet only one
of the whites was affected with disease of the lungs, while five of
the eleven negroes who died succumbed to diseases of this class.
Similar to the effect of change of climate upon the negro in in-
ducing respiratory derangement is the influence exerted by alti-
tude, which will be discussed in another place.

Dr. Ashmead has suggested an interesting reason for the pre-
disposition of the negro for consumption — namely, that the broad,
open nostril of the race is unfitted to perform the necessary service
of warming the air before its entrance into the lungs. ^ Leptor-
rhinism, he asserts, is due to natural selection, which has fixed
upon that form of nose as most suitable to the temperate zone ; and
the negro, deprived of this advantage, suffers from disease of the

* Dr. Rey, op. cit., has fully discussed this,
f Jousset, p. 85.

X Ibid., p. 88. The same point is startlingly proved by the statistics of the civil war
in the reports of the Sanitary Commission and of the Provost Marshal General, and in the
recent reports of the Surgeon General of the Army as for 1895.

# Ibid., p. 111.

II Dr. Buchner, in Correspondenzblatt der deutschen Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic,
xviii, p. IV, distinguishes ektogenen (from the environment, such as malaria) from endogenen
diseases (from within, such as tuberculosis). The white race, he avers, is most liable to the
former, the negro to the latter. Certain facts seem to lend slight color to this generaliza-
tion, as, for example, the immunity of the negro from septicaemia. ( Vide example on p.
669 infra.) Spencer notes this peculiarity of primitive peoples in Principles of Sociology,
i, p. 49.

^ Revue d' Anthropologic, v, p. 95. Other examples might be multiplied indefinitely.

0 Science, March 31, 1893.

668 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

lungs at once he is transferred to that part of the earth. It is not
inconceivable that this may indeed serve as a partial explanation,
but how, then, can we account for the equally open nostril of the
Turanian stock so immune from consumption ? Or how can this
theory be made to square with the predisposition of the Polyne-
sian for the same class of diseases, especially when the leptor-
rhinism of this latter race is taken into account ? * At all events,
this element of race must be reckoned with in every comparison
of the statistics of different localities.

In the geographical distribution of diseases there is no more
uncertain factor than the ethnic peculiarities of syphilis. It can
therefore never be neglected in any project for acclimatization by
crossing with the natives, since its relation to fertility is so impor-
tant. Probably brought by the Aryan race to America \ and to
New Guinea, | and by it disseminated in Polynesia, this disease
seems to be as yet unknown in Central Africa to any extent.* In
fact, it dies out naturally in the interior of that continent even
when introduced, while it kills the American aborigines at sight. ||
From this dread disease the Chinese are especially exempt ; for if
contracted, it speedily becomes benign, in marked contrast to the
Japanese, who betray their Malay blood in this respect."^ Every-
where syphilis follows the Malay stock even in crossing with
other races, like the negroid, which by nature is immune, as has
been said. In Madagascar, where five sixths of a certain popula-
tion was infected, Hirsch declares that the Malagasy (negroid)
element is quite free from it, the Hovas (Malay cross) having it
in the severest form. 0

It will at once appear that these ethnic peculiarities of syphi-
lis are of the greatest importance, therefore, since this disease is
likely to prevail among exactly those classes in a colonial popu-
lation where ethnic crossing would be most likely to occur.
Intermixture as a remedy for acclimatization would consequently
be much more difficult of application in the East Indies or in
South America than in Cochin China or the Congo Valley ; for

* The extermination of this race by diseases of this character is suggested by De Quatre-
fages. Vide also Revue d'Anthropologie, new series, i, p. '76 et seq.

f Revue d'Anthropologie, i, p. 76 ; and Hirsch, op. cit, ii, pp. 67 and 74 ; although
denied by Boudin.

:|: Revue d'Anthropologie, second series, vi, p. 497.

* Lombard, op. cit.^ iv, p. 485 ; and Hirsch, ii, p. 77. This immunity has not persisted
in America, however, so that syphilis is frightfully prevalent ; shown, for instance, in med-
ical officers' reports of the Freedman's Bureau, etc.

Q Livingstone, Travels, p. 128 ; and Hirsch, ii, p. 82.

^ Revue d'Anthropologie, new series, iv, p. 236 et seq. ; Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthro-
pologie, 1867, p. 543; and 1881, p. 733.

^ Op. cit., ii, p. 77 ; Revue d'Anthropologie, second series, v, pp. 54 et seq.

ACCLIMATIZATION. 669

where this malady strikes down the first cross — the mulatto or
the half-breed — all further assimilation of the races is at an end.

The list of ethnic diseases might be greatly extended, but
enough has perhaps been said to indicate the importance of elimi-
nating it before entering upon the discussion of acclimatization
per se. The predisposition of the negro for elephantiasis * and
tetanus, t his sole liability to the sleeping sickness, so severe that
in some localities the black is utterly useless as a soldier, I his im-
munity from cancer * and his liability to skin diseases in general, ||
together with his immunity from yellow fever and bilious disor-
ders, are well-recognized facts in anthropology. The Mongolian
type appears to be likewise free from inflammatory diseases,"^ and
oftentimes from cholera to some extent ; ^ as well as from beri-
beri, which is so peculiar to the Malay stock that it may be traced
in the Japanese kak ke. J The Polynesians are immune from scar-
let fever, J and it is said that the Japanese can not even be inocu-
lated with it. J This again is an illustration of the same persist-
ence of pathological predispositions, since the partial affinity of
the Japanese to the Polynesian race is well established. Modern
investigation is bringing out similar examples of the constancy of
racial diseases among the modern peoples of Europe. Dr. Chibret
affirms that the Celtic type is immune from " trachoma," or epi-
demic granular conjunctivitis, which has often seriously ravaged
the rest of Europe.** Spreading in the Belgian army, it passed
over the Walloons ; and in the central plateau of France attack-
ing strangers alone ; it passed over southern Bavaria, even when
contracted by a Celt, speedily becoming benign. The only excep-
tion to this racial immunity is that of the Piedmontese, otherwise
it never extends above the two hundred metre Celtic boundary, ft

* De Quatrefages, p. 426. Instanced by all writers.

\ Revue d'Anthropologie, new series, iv, p. 236.

X Hirsch, iii, p. 595 ; Bulletin de la Soci^te de G6ographie, Paris, 1878, p. 444.

» Not universal, however. Bulletin de la Societ6 d' Anthropologic, 1879, p. 390. The
frequency of tumors among negroes in the United States is a peculiar fact.

II Clarke, op. c?7., p. 67.

^ Revue d^Anthropologie, new series, iv, p. 236.

^ Cf. tables in ibid., new series, i, pp. 76 et seq. Contrast with table in De Quatrefages,
p. 235.

^ Ibid., third series, iv, p. 206. Dr. Ashmead has tried to prove it is a result of unsani-
tary environment (Science, November 8, 1892).

^ Ibid., second series, v, p. 30.

I Science, April 21, 1892, p. 343.

** Comptes rendus du deuxieme Congres international des Sciences ra^dicales, Berlin,
1891. Curiously, however, Dr. H. H. Haskell, of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary,
informs me that the disease is especially common in America among the poorer classes of
Irish extraction. It is generally ascribed to unhealthy conditions of life.

{•f The geographical distribution of caries also indicates an ethnic predisposition. Vide
Map, Bulletin de la Societe d' Anthropologic, Paris, 1867, p. 100; also 1868, p. 138; and

670 POPULAR ISCIENCE MONTHLY.

Always, in accounting for such a phenomenon, two factors are to
be considered — race and environment. Hence, in onr study of cli-
matic circumstances the first must be carefully eliminated before
proceeding to study the second.

Finally, the effects of ethnic intermarriage or crossing must
in every case be taken into account. It is present as a complica-
tion in almost all colonial populations, and is by far the most
subtle and difficult of all eliminations to be made. Notwithstand-
ing the objection that accommodation to climate by intermarriage
is in reality not acclimatization at all, but the formation of an
entirely new type, the two are continually confused ; and crossing
with native stocks is persistently brought forward as a mode and
policy of action. As an element in colonization, and a devious
means of avoiding the necessity of acclimatization, it arises to
complicate the situation. Intermarriage is said to be the secret
of Spanish and Portuguese success ; * in Mexico this has appar-
ently been the case,t as well as in the Philippines. X Dr. Bordier
states that the Spanish and southern French are more prolific
than others in marriage with negroes ; * and concludes that the
only hope for the future of French colonization in Cochin China
lies in such crossing with the natives. || The efficacy of this
remedy is to-day accepted quite generally by anthropologists.
Topinard agrees with Ten Kate that half-breeds resist climatic
changes better than pure whites,-^ and other authorities concede
the same. 0 Desmartis has even proposed to inoculate the British
troops in India with Hindu blood as a preventive of tropical dis-
orders. X

Memoirs de TAcademie de Medecine, Paris, xxix, 1878. It formed the basis of an inter-
esting discussion at the meeting of the Association fran9aise pour I'Avancement des Sci-
ences. Vide Bulletin for 1878, p. 803. Sormani, Chervin, and Lagneau have also treated
of it in their respective publications.

* Revue d' Anthropologic, N. S., ill, p. 265. Dr. Felkin finds the success of south
Europeans in their element of Semitic blood (Scottish Geographical Magazine, ii, p. 652).

t Ibid., V, p. 318.

\ Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 1883, No. 2.

* Colonisation Scientifique, p. 285. An example is also given in Revue d' Anthropologic,
second series, viii, p. 190.

\ Ibid., p. 397. ,

^ Elements d' Anthropologic, p. 204. The Hudson Bay Company refused for many
years to employ trappers with white wives, partly because they desired to increase the
supply of half-breeds (Political Science Quarterly, ii, p. 139).

^ Proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, xxix, p. 178.
"Bertillon's principle" is accepted by Landowsky in the Bulletin of the French Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science, 1878, p. 817. In Revue d'Anthropologie, second
series, viii, p. 190, is a statistical account of crossing in Algeria on a meager basis, seeking
to prove that French crosses with natives are more prolific than those with Germans.

% Proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1861, p. 143.

ACCLIMATIZATION, 671

On the other hand, a cross between races is too often apt to
be a weakling, sharing in the pathological predispositions of each
of its parent stocks, while enjoying but imperfectly their several
immunities, as we have seen.

Mulattoes in any climate are liable to lack vitality, and espe-
cially, unless a continual supply of white blood is kept up, they
tend to degenerate.* Dr. Gould notices this lack of vitality
among mulattoes as very marked in the Union army. \ For this
reason intermixture is by many regarded as a doubtful remedy. %
Neither the Malay nor the Japanese mixed races have the vitality
of the Chinese.* Jousset affirms that in many cases crossing in-
creases the liability to attacks of fever. || In Guiana the negroes
thrive, but the mulattoes suffer from the climate."^ Berenger-
Ferand states that the mulatto in Senegal so far degenerates as
to become infertile after three generations ; 0 and Westermarck,
while acknowledging that many statements of this kind are exag-
gerated, inclines to the view that crossing may be unfavorable to
fertility. { Be this as 'it may, it is certain that mulattoes kre
pathologically intermediate between the white and the negro;
they rarely have yellow fever, and are less liable to malaria
(paludism) than the Europeans ; and they are not predisposed to
bilious disorders. But they have all the diseases to which the
negro is alone liable — namely, elephantiasis leprosy, phthisis, and
even the dreaded sleeping sickness {mal de sommeil).^ Finally,
it may be added that many of the most successful examples of
acclimatization have occurred where there has been a complete

* Dr. S. B, Hunt showed by measurements during the civil war that the brain weight
of the mulatto, with less than half white blood, is below that of the pure negro (Quarterly
Journal of Psychological Medicine, New York, 1867).

f Military and Anthropological Statistics of American Soldiers, 1869, p. 319.

J Dr. Ricoux, in Annales de Demographic, vi, p. 5, says it can never be a permanent
remedy in Algeria. Vide also Revue d'Anthropologie, second series, v, pp. 54, 79. Ibid.,
pp. 86 et seq., contains full details on the relation of the sexes in South America,

Walther (Revue d'Anthropologie, new series, i, p. 76) gives, for example, the following
rates of mortality from cholera in Guadaloupe in 1865 : Chinese, 2-7 per cent ; negro, 3'44;
Hindu, 387 ; European, 4-31 ; mulatto, 6*32. The particularly high vitality of the Chinese
is as marked as the weakness of the half-breed ; Dr. Brinton (Races and Peoples, p. 284)
corroborates this fully.

* Revue d'Anthropologie, new series, iv, p. 236. Vide also remarks on racial pathology
infra.

II Op. cit.^ p. 150. Its effects are discussed on pp. 154 et seq.

^ Revue d'Anthropologie, ibid.

^ Parturition is held by Pruner Bey to be peculiarly difficult among hybrids (Etudes sur
le Bassin, p. 13, Paris, 1855). Vide also Revue d'Anthropologie, second series, ii, p. 577,
and Posche, Die Arier, p, 10.

% History of Human Marriage, pp. 284, 287.

^ Bordier, Colonisation Scientifique, p. 285, and Berenger-Ferand, op. cit. ; also Revue
d'Anthropologie, new series, v, p. 30.

672 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

absence of crossing, as among the Jews * in the Bourbon Islands, \
with the Boers in South Africa, % and in many parts of South
America.*

The physical elements of climate, ranged in the order of their
importance, are humidity, heat, and lack of variety.

Heat by itself, when unaccompanied by excessive humidity,
does not seriously affect human health except when unduly ex-
tended. II The ranges of temperature to which the human body
may become accustomed are very broad, so that the limitations
to the dispersion of the race seem to be set by the food supply
rather than the degree of heat or cold."^ All authorities agree,
therefore, that the regions where acclimatization is most difficult
are to be found in the areas of excessive humidity, or, roughly,
where there is the maximum rainfall. 0 For this reason the suc-
cessful examples adduced in favor of the view that acclimatiza-
tion in the tropics is possible, should always be examined in the
light of this consideration.

A traveler in northern Africa has noted this in his observa-
tion, that " where there is water and something can grow, there
the climate is murderous ; where the climate is healthy, there is
no water and nothing can grow.'^J In this sense, the boasted
acclimatization of the French in Algeria is merely accommoda-
tion to one element of climate, after all. With this limitation it
will be generally conceded that the success of the French in their
African possessions along the Mediterranean is assured. J The
mortality of soldiers and sailors in Algeria was seventy-seven

* The Jews prosper in South America (Montano, p. 445) and in Egypt (Verhandlungen
der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, 1885, p. 258), and elsewhere (Jousset, p. 292);
while even in the uttermost parts of Russia they increase faster than the natives (Wallace,
op. cit.). Their cosmopolitan character, first pointed out by Boudin, is generally accepted
by anthropologists (Revue d' Anthropologie, new series, i, p. 76). Dr. Felkm suggests that
Semitic blood always helps in acclimatization (Scottish Geographical Magazine, vi, p. 652).

f Quatrefages, p 236.

:f Wallace, op. cit.

« Ibid.

[ Jousset, p. 37 ; Ratzel, Anthropo- geographic, i, p. 308 ; Virchow in Verhandlungen
der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, 1885, p. 208.

•^ Ratzel, op. cit., p. 300, traces out the climatic limits of human life in detail. Vide
also Science, January 27, 1893.

^ A comparison of Hahn's map of the extension of the plantation system in Petermann,
Geographische Mittheilungen, xxxviii, No. 1, p. 8, with a map of the distribution of rain-
fall m Berghaus's Physicalischer Hand Atlas will illustrate this relation.

J Quoted from a scathing article by Max Nordau, Rabies Africana, in Asiatic Quar-
terly Review, second series, ii, p. 76.

^ General references are Berthelon, " De la Vitalite des Races du Nord dans les Pays
chauds," and the statistics given by M. Bertherand (Paris, 1882). Vide also Landowsky
in Bulletin de 1' Association fran9aise pour I'Avancement des Sciences, Paris, 1878, p. 817.

ACCLIMATIZATION. 67$

pro miUe from 1837 to 1848, so that Boudin, Bertillon, and Knox
doubted \i the French could ever colonize there. At the present
time the birth-rate even exceeds that in France itself ; * and the
death-rate is but little above the normal, f In Tunis also the
birth-rate was 35*6 pro mille in 1890-'92, greatly exceeding the
ruling death-rate of 257 per thousand. J In America it is in the
uplands of Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia, or along the arid coast of
the Pacific, and not in the real tropical climate of Brazil, where
the Spaniards have succeeded most fully. They have also done
well in Cuba, to be sure, but the cases are entirely dissimilar.
And to reason, from the French success in Algeria, that the same
would ensue in the Congo basin, in Madagascar, or in Cochin China
is totally to misconceive the real limitations of a tropical climate.*
The relative diflB.culties to be encountered in these several cases
may be roughly indicated by the mortality of soldiers. In Cochin
China it is almost exactly double that in Tunis ; || and this is,
roughly speaking, a measure of the difference between a mere
torrid climate as distinguished from one which is very humid as
well as hot, for humidity means that malaria is superadded to all
the other difi&culties inherent in climate alone.

The heat in a tropical climate becomes important but indi-
rectly, because it is the cause of humidity and generally accom-
panies it. In the temperate regions humidity goes with cool
weather except in the dog days, while within the tropics heat
prevails just when radiation through perspiration is most retard-
ed by moisture in the atmosphere. This, in combination with the
enforced lack of exercise and its attendant excretion, forms the
double cause of physiologic disturbances. The blood is not prop-
erly purified and anaemia ensues, if the more immediate effects do
not manifest themselves in intestinal disorders.

Everything which conduces to give a variety to the climate of
the tropics affords relief. The alternating sea and land breezes
of islands make them more amenable to European civilization.-^
Especially when these islands are volcanic or mountainous is the
strength of these tempering elements increased. This, in fact, is

* Levasseur, La Population fran9aise, iii, p. 43 ; and De Quatrefages, p. 229.
f Revue d' Anthropologic, third series, iv, p. 346.

\ fitude statistique sur la Golonie de Tunisie, Tunis, 1894; reviewed in L' Anthropologic,
T,p.731.

* Vide Ravenstein in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, January, 1891, pp.
SO et seq. Dr. Felkin has not always been clear on this (Scottish Geographical Magazine, ii,
p. 649). Refrigeration may do something as a palliative, but it deals with the leaser
factor. Vide address by President Galton before the Anthropological Institute, London,
1887.

II Revue d'Anthropologie, third series, iv, p. 346.
^ Vide Jousset, p. 50. .
VOL XLvni. — 48

674 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the only alleviating circumstance in Jamaica, where the fierce
sea breezes by day, reversing at night, have made life for the
English possible. Singapore owes its prosperity to the fact that
it is the only place in the East Indies where malaria is com-
pletely unknown. Similarly, wherever there are alternating sea-
sons of heat and cold, the chance of acclimatization becomes
greater.* Hence one advantage of the climate of plateaus in the
tropics, since both daily and seasonal variations are very great.
Even in the major part of the African plateau, however, the ele-
vation can not overset the monotony of the tropical climate, the
seasonal variations ranging much lower than ours, while the
mean temperature is fifty per cent higher, f

Altitude, while giving at least temporary relief to the white
race, X seems to exert a peculiarly baneful effect upon the negro
and the Indian. Dr. Spruce gives an interesting example* of
great economic distress produced by it in South America. Coffee
grows in the zone from four thousand to six thousand feet, and
the demand for native labor is very great. Indians coming from
above die of dysentery, while if they come from the coast they
succumb to respiratory diseases, so that the planters are severely
hampered. It is said in our Southern States that the negro can
not go from the hill country to the plains without great physio-
logic disturbance. || Jousset declares that the elevation of three
thousand to forty-five hundred feet proves fatal to the negro in
Africa."^ This, of course, is due in part to the greater sensitiveness
of all primitive peoples to climatic changes, and partly due to lack
of hygiene. But that the negro by nature really lacks a power of
accommodation, even in the tropics, in this respect is conceded by
most observers ; ^ for by change of habitat he loses the immuni-

* Jousset, p. 62. An interesting table to illustrate this in Cuba is given from Ramon de la
Segra in Revue d'Anthropologie, new series, i, p. 76 (although the relief in- winter to the
white, becomes correspondingly fatal to the negro). Lombard's Atlas, Maps 2 and 3, shows
the effect of seasons in Europe.

f This was fully discussed in the Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of
Demography and Hygiene, p. 155, in London. Drs. Felkin and Markham took a hopeful
view of the Central African region. Ravenstein declared Matabeleland alone to satisfy
the conditions (Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, January, 1891, p. SI).
Jousset, p. 341, asserts that an elevation of three thousand to forty-five hundred feet will
make acclimatization everywhere possible in the tropics.

\ Jousset, p. 57, as well as p. 434. Vide also Dr. Montano, p. 434. Topinard, Anthro-
pologic, p. 392, analyzes Bertillon's views in this regard.

** Wallace, op. cit.

\ An interesting letter in the Nation, October 12, 1893. Vide also Revue d'Anthro-
pologie, new series, v, p. 30.

^ Op. cit., p. 341.

^ Vide discussion in the Bulletin de la Society d'Anthropologie, i, p. 528 ; Hunt, op. cit.,
p. 131 ; Jousset, p. 148 ; Ratzel, i, p. 304. Cf. the case of Apaches in Alabama given in the
Publications of the American Statistical Society, September, 1893.

EDUCATION IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 675

ties lie once enjoyed, and does not thereby gain any new ones.*
A project to import twenty thousand negroes from Alabama and
Mississippi into the State of Durango in Mexico has been defi-
nitely abandoned, after the payment of over one hundred thou-
sand dollars for freight charges alone. The land companies will
introduce Chinamen instead, and the outlook is correspondingly
brighter. Every experiment but demonstrates more clearly that
the negro is useless as a colonist, even for reintroduction into the
tropics, t

EDUCATIONAL VALUES IN THE ELEMENTARY

SCHOOL.

By Pbof. M. V. O'SHEA.

IT is perhaps safe to say, without attempting to enter into the
question in detail, that there has scarcely ever been a time
when intelligent people have not been concerned about what their
children should be taught in the schools. Leaving the attitude of
bygone ages out of view, it is apparent to a careful observer that
in our own time and country there is marked interest manifested
in the question. What materials of instruction are of greatest
value to be employed in elementary education ? The last quarter
century has witnessed many and important changes in the cur-
ricula of the elementary school ; new subjects have been intro-
duced and old ones dropped, or less time and emphasis put upon
them. The recent appearance of two of the most important edu-
cational documents of modern times,]: both considering in the
main the relative worth of branches of instruction; and the rapid
growth of book and periodical literature dealing with the same
problem, are indications of the importance which is being at-
tached to this matter by all educators. Our educational gather-
ings, too, in every part of the country are largely given over to
the discussion of this old but yet very new question ; and not
only teachers, but parents and statesmen take sides in the de-
bates, some maintaining that the classic three R's furnish su-
perior material for the scholastic training of childhood, while
others believe that the many new subjects of history, literature,
science, music, and art are better adapted to prepare our youth for
the circumstances they will encounter when they leave the school-

* Jousset, p. 279. Waitz and others agree that the negro returning to Africa from
America becomes liable to fevers from which his predecessors were immune.

f Vide letter in Boston Transcript, dated Mexico, August 11, 1895.

X The Report of the Committee of Ten, 1893 ; and the Report of the Committee of Fif-
teen, 1895.

676 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

room. So there are taking place in the educational arena warm
contests between the champions of conservatism and those of
radicalism ; between those who cling to the things of the past as
adequate for the exigencies of the present, and those who feel that
the complexity of our modern life demands somewhat different
training in the schools, and who realize that contributions from
recent scientific investigation along various lines have given us
many valuable ways and means for improving and extending the
work of the schoolroom that could not have been known or ap-
preciated a century ago. Perhaps in no matter of public interest,
all things considered, is there such ferment of ideas as in elemen-
tary education ; and one potent cause of this disturbance is our
changing standards of educational values.

Whatever things are contributing to alter the opinions of peo-
ple as to the comparative values of various materials of instruc-
tion, there are at least two or three agencies whose influence may
be clearly and easily traced. In the first place, modern psycho-
logical inquiry is leading toward a very different view of the mind
and the mode of its development from that which has been held
in previous times. This is not so much to be wondered at,
though, for psychology, while a very old subject is a very new
science, at least in its applications to the choosing of educational
materials and the determination of educational processes ; and
some of the theories advocated a hundred years ago by eminent
teachers show that the knowledge of mental activities in those
days was extremely meager and formal, as perhaps those who fol-
low us a century hence will be able to say of our present notions.
One view commonly held at that time, and which seems to have
determined school work ever since, maintained that the mind is
composed of parts, each of which may accumulate general power
by exercise in any special direction, in some such manner as we
believe the muscles of the body grow and develop for future use
in all sorts of ways by being disciplined in the gymnasium in
youth. Now, it seems evident that, referring to physical things,
the employment of the muscular system upon any kind of work
develops a capacity which may be of service, at least in a meas-
ure, in all kinds of work. A young man, for example, who has
passed his youth upon a farm engaged in manual labor is gener-
ally a more promising candidate for the football eleven or the
crew when he enters college than is an individual whose early life
has been spent in intellectual pursuits, or amid the idlenesses
and luxuries of the city. A crew in preparation for a race, to
illustrate further, spend a portion of the training period in run-
ning, believing that the strength and endurance accumulated in
this way may be advantageously used in the final great effort,
which will require activity of a different kind from that necessi-

EDUCATION IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. e-j-j

tated by the training. But it is not needful to multiply ex-
amples ; the proposition will be granted to be true, in a general
way at any rate, although it has been pointed out by many * that
it does not hold absolutely, in the sense that the power developed
by one special line of work can be used as well to perform other
kinds as the particular kind by which the power is accumulated.
That is, to illustrate, a blacksmith can not use his strength so
advantageously in farming or carpentry as in making horseshoes,
or performing other kinds of labor common to the forge and
anvil.

This reference to physical things is important for us here only
in illustration of certain theories that have been, and are still per-
haps, extensively held concerning the development of the mind,
and that have been largely influential in determining the material
and method of elementary education. Reasoning from analogy,
which seems to have been the principal method followed by early
psychologists, it would appear that exercising any part or faculty
of the mind in a given direction would create a power in the part
exercised that could be employed with equal advantage in all di-
rections. Thus if memory were employed in recalling and retain-
ing any kind of facts — whether in language, in science, in mathe-
matics, or in history — there would result a general power which
in later life could be profitably used to remember anything and
everything that was desired. It would follow, then, that if a
pupil should master the vocabulary of a language so that it could
be recalled readily, he would because of the power thus generated
more easily remember legal matters after he left the school if he
became a lawyer, medical matters if he became a physician, com-
mercial matters if he became a merchant, or theological matters
if he became a minister of the gospel. In the same way, and per-
haps in a more serious sense even, if a pupil should pass some
time in reasoning upon any kind of material in the schoolroom,
he would thereby be prepared to reason accurately and readily
upon all sorts of things after he left the school, just to the degree
that he reasoned accurately and keenly upon the special thing in
the school. The conclusion rushes upon us that if you wish men
and women to be reflective beings, judging wisely upon all mat-
ters with which they may be concerned in daily life, you should
require boys and girls to reason much in school ; and that kind of
material of instruction should be chosen that gives the greatest
opportunity for the exercise of the ratiocinative faculty. Until
recently — perhaps we ought to include our own time — this mate-
rial was supposed to have been most largely comprised in mathe-
matics ; and as reason has been regarded as the highest faculty

* For example, by Prof. Hinsdale, in the Educational Review for September, 1894.

678 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

of the mind, the ability to exercise which keenly and readily was
the thing most to be coveted in life, it was a natural result that
mathematics should have formed the backbone of school studies.
And since we are still in that period when reasoning is regarded
by most people as the highest attribute of paan, we of necessity
must have arithmetic as the most important subject in the ele-
mentary school curriculum.

It will not be possible within the limits imposed upon us here
to examine in detail the theories of this " faculty " psychology : it
will suffice to say, although perhaps in a dogmatic manner, that
in our own day students of the mind are breaking away from
these old notions, and establishing what seems to be a much. more
rational and simple system of psychology; and following upon
this there must come a different appraisal of educational materi-
als, and a consequent change in the subjects taught in our schools.
To be very brief, one important general conception of modern
educational psychology is that the mind is a unit, and develops as
a unity. As an inference from this it can be seen that the material
of instruction in the school must be chosen with a view to train
the whole individual — his perceiving, remembering, imagining,
judging, and reasoning faculties, so called, and not any one of
them singled out from all the others. And not only must this
material train one intellectually as a unity, but it must affect him
emotionally and volitionally as well — that is, it must develop
character. We have had in the past, as every one knows, a kind
of educational philosophy which declared that there should be
one subject to train one faculty, another subject another faculty,
and so on throughout the list of faculties and subjects ; and there
should also and particularly be special material to cultivate the
emotions and furnish proper incentives to the will. The error of
this sort of thing must be plainly apparent to any one who will
study the problem concretely, by observing and interpreting the
activities of his own mind, and looking into the various types of
mind in his environment. If one will become introspective for a
little time he will see that his perceptions are not divorced from
his memory and reason along the lines that he is perceiving ; and
he will also discover that what he perceives, remembers, or re-
flects upon has its effect upon his emotions and will in leading
him to some sort of action, immediate or in the future. One
never sees a physician who is keen and ready in his perceptions
of things relating to the practice of medicine who can not and
does not remember, reason, and imagine equally well in regard to
those matters ; nor is his character, his personality free from the
shaping influences of his system of thought. The same may, of
course, be said of the lawyer, the merchant, or any other type of
individual. The truthful view of the case seems to be that per-

EDUCATION IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 679

ception, memory, imagination, and reasoning are phases of one
process, and they can not be separated from each other except
by logical procedure ; nor can the intellect be considered apart
from the emotions and will. There is no virtue either in this
separation except for the mere purpose of analysis, for in daily
life these faculties are never divorced in their activities from
each other ; and in training the individual in school, educational
psychology declares it to be a serious mistake to try to separate
one faculty from the others and train it by the use of some special
material.

The workings of this old analytic and analogical psychology
are especially apparent in its teaching that the exercise of the
mind in any direction generates a capacity which may be used
equally well in all directions. The very statement of this doctrine
would seem to show its falsity, but yet belief in it has practically
determined the subjects taught in our schools for the last three
centuries. No one, upon reflection, would maintain that an ex-
tended study of mathematics would prepare a man for the practice
of medicine so well as would the special study of physiology and
the effect of medicinal agencies upon the human system. Nor
would such mathematical discipline be the very best thing to pre-
pare for the profession of law, or theology, or any other business
which does not directly call into play a large body of mathemat-
ical knowledge. Common-sense philosophy long ago concluded,
and thoroughly believes now, that one who is to be engaged in
the practice of some art should wisely acquire all the knowledge
possible relating thereto ; and it esteems this of far greater ac-
count than to be concerned in getting some foreign matter for the
sake of whatever discipline this will give. Thus one who is to
become an architect could spend his time to greater advantage in
familiarizing himself with those things that relate to the success-
ful conduct of his business, than he could to study profoundly
into chemistry, botany, or theology in the belief that the general
power gained by such mental gymnastics would make him more
expert in architectural matters ; and the illustration may be mul-
tiplied at pleasure.

To carry our point a step further, it must be obvious to any
one who has thought about the matter that what an individual
studies, and what he thereby gets to know, determines almost en-
tirely what he can get to know in the future ; not along general
lines either, but in special directions. The mathematician, for
example, is enabled by the abundance of his learning in geometry
and calculus to appreciate and interpret further mathematical
facts ; but he is by no means empowered, by virtue of his mathe-
matics merely, to be a competent or appreciative judge of histor-
ical, legal, psychological, or linguistic matters. It has become a

68o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

truism in the public mind that a mere specialist grows more nar-
row every day of his life, and there seems to be plenty of evidence
in one's environment to give rise to such speculation. The argu-
ment in favor of liberal culture before a man takes up his spe-
cialty is based upon a recognition of the fact that knowledge of
one kind only predetermines a man to be able to appreciate and
interpret things of a similar nature, and these merely. There are
two reasons for this, as one can readily see from a little study of
humanity around him. In the first place, what a man knows
determines what he is interested in ; and common- sense philosophy
has often declared that people are essentially selfish, because they
are interested only in their own kinds of business, their own pur-
suits, their own specialties, and they lack that many-sided interest
which is necessary for any title to unselfishness. The lawyer feels
little interest in what the medical fraternity are doing, and per-
haps will never be seen at a medical lecture ; the scholar, pure
and simple, troubles himself little about questions of government,
and is a very insignificant warrior indeed in the political camp.
The mechanic reads theology or listens to a theological sermon
with the greatest difficulty. But each of these types has the deep-
est interest for readings, lectures, and everything else that relate
to his own specialty, or to the thing he is most familiar with. It
sometimes happens, it is true, that a poet may be interested in
psychology or theology, but this is the case only when he is
already well versed upon these subjects ; and other apparent
exceptions to the general rule may probably be explained in the
same way.

The second point in proof of this law, that what one knows
determines what he can get to know, is that, psychologically
speaking, ideas create the ability to appreciate and interpret other
ideas of a similar nature. This also may be abundantly illus-
trated by the circumstances of daily life. A man very widely
read in history may be unable to understand a lecture upon
biology, mechanics, or any subject unrelated to history. The
general power which he has accumulated in his historical re-
searches can not be applied to the ready and easy mastery of all
sorts of things, as the old psychology stoutly maintained. Again,
one who has pursued mathematical studies to great length is
not thereby qualified to become a statesman ; the power which
may be generated by the study of mathematics is not transferable
immediately to the solution of social problems. Educational
psychology, then, may be said to declare in a very broad way
that ideas create capacity for the reception of ideas of similar
kind, but that there is practically no such thing as the acquisition
of general power by the mastery of special subject-matter. In
explanation of this practically, it should be said that any kind of

EDUCATION IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 681

intellectual activity, no matter what it be, tends to create habits
that may be carried into all kinds of study or business. One who
has patiently, day after day and year after year, solved arith-
metical or algebraic problems in the school, has by such exercise
acquired habits of careful reflection and weighing of evidence
that will lead him to dwell with somewhat the same care upon all
matters that are brought to his attention ; but unless he has suffi-
cient data upon these new matters his reflections, of course, will
come to but little. The practical conclusion is, and the one of im-
portance in education, that study along any line limits excellence
in perceiving, remembering, imagining, or reasoning to matters
along this same line.

Applying this principle to the work of the schoolroom, we see
that no subject should be studied merely for the discipline it may
be supposed to give. The old theory that the school should culti-
vate the senses, the memory, and the reasoning powers of pupils,
means nothing as a matter of pure discipline; in the light of
modern psychology we must understand that the only way to •
secure this cultivation is in special directions determined by the
peculiar nature of the material upon which the mind is exercised.
Assuming, then (for it will not be deemed necessary to argue the
matter here), that one ideal of our civilization is to have an indi-
vidual understand himself in relation to his natural environment,
so that he may be able to adapt himself to natural laws and turn
them to the promotion of his own happiness and welfare, it follows
that the study of natural law, the method of adapting one's self to
it, and the industries that are based upon an adequate comprehen-
sion of it, should form an important part of school work ; and it
is some such argument that has introduced Nature-study into
many elementary schools, giving it a prominent place there. In
like manner, if it is desirable for one to be able to adjust himself
in the best way possible to his social environment, he should study
the organization of society, and the ethical and material conditions
upon which his own and others' welfare and advancement depend.
These considerations have been at the bottom of changes in the
school curriculum, and are now at work in the endeavor to intro-
duce still further improvements, as many educators think.

At all events, the old idea of formal discipline is gradually
losing the breath of life, and we can think no better of it than
that the sooner it releases its hold upon those who make school
curricula, the sooner will the material of instruction be more
nearly adapted to prepare the individual for his needs in after
life. Whatever may be said in favor of the study of any branch
for its disciplinary value, because of the good habits which are
formed in its pursuit, may be said with equal force of those sub-
jects which have direct worth in giving the pupil knowledge that

682 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

will be of service to him outside the schoolroom, for these also
will create habits of attention, reflection, and industry equally-
well. Thus, in the study of history, literature, or science, habits
of careful observation and reflection may be formed with as great
readiness and surety as in the study of algebra, English grammar,
Latin, or Greek. And, moreover, the conditions for accurate ob-
servation and reasoning in science or in the conduct of society
are somewhat different, as every one will admit, from what they
are in Greek, Latin, or arithmetic ; and if the purpose is to lead
the pupil ultimately to observe keenly and accurately and inter-
pret readily and serviceably facts of Nature or the phenomena of
social intercourse, then the more he has to do of this in the school
the more will he become familiar with right methods for future
activity. On the other hand, if the object is to make the pupil
keen in the appreciation of linguistic matters, then, pf course, he
must study language ; and we might speak in a similar way of
any special subject.

We have, therefore, this broad conception, that study along
special lines does not create general but only special power.
There follows a second principle of equal importance in deter-
mining the relative value of materials of instruction ; but this,
like the one just considered, has not yet received universal recog-
nition among teachers. It has been maintained from aforetime
that arithmetic, grammar, spelling, and the mechanical side of
reading, writing, and the art subjects should receive particular
attention because of the paramount necessity that the pupil
should be master of these things before he leaves the school, in
order to be able to make any progress in his learning thereafter ;
and there has always accompanied this first argument another,
close of kin, that these branches afford opportunity for excellent
discipline of the mind. Enough has already been said perhaps to
indicate that the idea of pure discipline (or, as Prof. Hinsdale
calls it, "the dogma of formal discipline"*) is not founded upon
good philosophy ; it remains to examine briefly this second posi-
tion which many teachers, with their faces always turned toward
the setting sun, declare with fervor to be impregnable. A survey
of the subjects in the elementary school curriculum will show
that they fall naturally into three great classes, usually styled
(1) the real or content subjects, including history, literature, ge-
ography, and Nature-study or science ; (2) the form or symbolic
subjects, including language, grammar, arithmetic, and the me-
chanical side of reading, writing, music, and art ; (3) the indus-
trial or "psycho-manual" subjects, including manual training,
sewing, and cookery. It has been held hitherto that the elemen-

* Educational Review, September, 1894.

EDUCATION IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 683

tary school should be concerned very little if at all with the real
or content subjects, because these could not be studied with profit
until a considerable body of symbols had been acquired, by the
ready use of which a pupil would be enabled to talk, read, write,
spell, draw, and cipher in the expression of what he gained from
his investigations ; and, moreover, is it not impossible for one to
study history, literature, or science until he has mastered a vocab-
ulary that will enable him to intelligently comprehend what he is
trying to study about ? That is to say, must he not first study
words so that through them as symbols he may finally get to know
about the realities symbolized ? It is doubtless familiar to every
one who has looked into the matter that there has been a revers-
ing of this doctrine in many places of late years, and the aim is
now to acquire familiarity with symbols through the things which
they represent. It has become a truism of modern educational
psychology that a symbol is learned with great difficulty and with
little serviceableness unless it be connected with the thing or
thought it is to symbolize ; it is learned only after great effort,
because, in the first place, it possesses no characteristic in itself
but that of form, and in the case of words and figures very
simple forms at that, which increases the difficulty of mastery.
A mature person looking at the end of a pencil in the endeavor
to fix it in the mind so that it may be identified in the future
from similar pencils, would find the task well-nigh impossible,
although it appears so entirely simple; but if the same effort
be made in remembering a horse, or large and complex object
of any kind, the problem is very much easier, because there are
more evident characteristics to fix the thing in the mind, and by
which it may be identified when it appears there again. Now, in
the case of learning the symbolic subjects in the schoolroom, the
ease of mastery depends upon every word and figure learned being
connected with the thought or thing it symbolizes ; the thought
being previously aroused in the mind, and the symbol fused with
it, as it were. Hence the maxim now frequently heard : First the
thought, then the symbol. Psychological observation has shown
also that the use of a symbol can become automatic in acquiring
or expressing thought (which is the sole ultimate object in the
teaching of the form subjects) only when that symbol has been
connected a great many times in one act of thought with the
thing it represents; and then whenev^er the symbol appears in
the mind the thing symbolized will be automatically suggested.
It is illustrated every day of our lives that when two or more
things are perceived or experienced as connected with each other
in time or space, one being thought of or experienced again, the
other invariably accompanies it in the manner of the original
appearance. Psychology has long recognized that contiguity is

684 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the essential principle of memory; and it is particularly applica-
ble to the automatic memory, upon which, as already said in sub-
stance, the teaching of the symbolic subjects must depend. The
object is to have thought spontaneously suggested by symbols,
with no conscious attention upon the symbols themselves ; and,
of course, there is the co-ordinate purpose to acquire power to
use the means of expression automatically to convey thought.
Neither of these objects may be secured if the learning of forms
is divorced from their constant use in the ready acquisition and
clear conveyance of thought ; which, when applied to the work of
the schoolroom, means that the study of arithmetic, language,
grammar, or the mechanics of reading, writing, and drawing,
apart from their natural connections with the pursuit of the con-
tent subjects, history, literature, science, and geography is a mis-
take. Common sense maintains, in everyday life at least, that
the mechanism necessary to the performance of any art may be
most advantageously acquired through actual practice of the art ;
and one never learns the mechanics of bicycle-riding, baseball-
playing, typewriting, and similar arts before he begins to ride the
bicycle, play ball, or use the typewriter ; but he acquires skill in
doing these things by applying himself to their execution at the
outset. A child at its mother's knee learns to talk by talking,
and to walk by walking, rather than in either case to acquire
beforehand the theory and mechanics of each in the hope to ap-
ply them some time later in life. But common sense, which has
always been slow in carrying its philosophy of the activities of
daily life into the work of the schoolroom, is just now beginning
it seems to appreciate in a way that what is true concerning the
mastery of the mechanics of doing things in daily life applies also
to the formal subjects of education, in the sense that they may be
most serviceably acquired in an incidental manner, while using
them continually to acquire and express thought aroused by the
study of real things. It is, no doubt, necessary to have much
drill upon these formal things to make their use automatic ; but
this drill must follow and depend upon the use of the symbolic
subjects in the study of the real subjects at any time rather than
to aim at mastering a body of forms which may be applied at
some future period.

From the foregoing (and there are other arguments, such as
the greater interest which the pupil will have in the study of the
formal subjects when they are thus connected with the real sub-
jects, which can not be entered into here) it may be concluded
that the formal branches of instruction acquire a value from
their connection with the study of content subject-matter; and
taught by themselves they are, comparatively speaking, empty
and valueless. What has been said of the symbolic studies may

EDUCATION IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, 685

be said also, without repeating arguments here, of the psycho-
manual or industrial subjects : they, too, must be concerned with
the expression, and hence with the deepening and intensifying of
thought gained from the pursuit of history, literature, and sci-
ence. Thus when the pupil studies about the industries in his
environment and gains an impression of the activities of the me-
chanic, farmer, seamstress, and so on, he makes his ideas effective
and lasting by imitating these activities himself. But to require
him to learn the rules and mechanism of these industries before
having an opportunity to perform them is to create an indiffer-
ence or distaste for them all because of the formality and empti-
ness of such work. In drawing, too, the object should be to have
the pupil express what has been gained from the study of some
real object, or to illustrate some scene from history or literature ;
and when the mere grammar of drawing is learned before put-
ting it to any use, not only interest but effectiveness in the work
is lost.

Other matters should be considered in a complete and thorough
analysis of educational values in elementary education ; but from
what it has been possible to say here it may be concluded that in
the arrangement of the elementary school curriculum the central
place should be given to the real or content studies — literature,
history, geography, and science — and all other subjects must fol-
low and depend upon them in the acquisition and expression of
thought gained from their pursuit. As to whether the literary or
the scientific subjects should receive greater emphasis there
seems not to be so great agreement among psychologists and edu-
cators ; although the ideal of the development of moral character
in our schools, so frequently spoken of nowadays by teachers,
would seem to argue the superiority of those studies that have
a moral content — that is, those that deal with moral matters.
Educational psychology points out a danger people are liable
to fall into in thinking that because the material of instruc-
tion used treats of moral questions the result upon the char-
acter of the pupil must of necessity be moral. If this were true
it would follow that the learning of moral subject-matter, as
literature and history, would constitute adequate means for the
training of exemplary men and women. In somewhat the same
way it was once thought by religious teachers, and may be yet in
some places, that the study of the catechism would cause an indi-
vidual to become religious. But a little observation of types in
one's environment will show that these theories do not hold abso-
lutely, at any rate. If it necessarily follows that the study of his-
tory produces an estimable moral character, then we should find
historians to be exemplary above all other men, and statesmen to
be infinitely more than politicians. Taking things literally, we.

686 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

should expect all those individuals whose calling leads them to
study history more or less, as the lawyer, the politician, historical
teachers, and others to be distinguished for their ndorality above
the scientist, the mathematician, or any one else in the commu-
nity ; but if this be so, it has not yet impressed itself upon the
public mind. The more just view to take of this question is (to
be dogmatic for the sake of brevity) that those activities which
tend to become habitual are the ones that determine character ;
and an individual may study profoundly about charity, for
instance, without ever exercising that quality himself ; while, on
the other hand, one may be little familiar with the literature of
benevolence, but an exemplary person in its practice. Although
it seems eminently true that our thoughts tend to get worked out
into appropriate activities, yet we make a serious mistake when
we conclude that those ideas which we get from books are upper-
most in our minds when we are inspired to action ; rather those
impressions that have already become deepened and fixed through
previous expressions are the ones that get mastery when we are
about to act. This does not imply that literature and history
have not great moral culture value when rightly used to furnish
incentives and models for moral activities that become actually
realized in the pupil's life — in the child immediately under the
guidance of the teacher, in the older person at a more remote
period perhaps. But at the same time it should be understood
that character in a true sense includes the whole of personality,
and a defect in any part is essentially a moral defect ; so that
what one can and does do, in a material sense, is as important to
be looked after in elementary education as how he may think or
feel in a bookish sense. These considerations alone (and there
are other important arguments that might be advanced) indicate
that, so far as values are concerned, the study of science, and of
the various industries that may be understood and improved upon
only by a comprehension of its laws, should hold a place in the
elementary school co-ordinate with that of literature and history.
One may not dogmatize here, though, considering the present
state of our knowledge upon the most eJffective means for training
moral character ; and it is to be sincerely hoped that we may ere
long be in possession of further contributions along this line from
psychologists and educators.

CUTTINQ telegraph wires is, according to Mr. P. V. Luke, of the British-
Indian Chitral Expedition, a favorite amusement with frontier tribes.
They find the wire useful. Sometimes, too, they convert the hollow iron
posts of which the telegraph poles are made into guns, by lapping them
round with wire ; and they cut the wire up for bullets.

THE VELOCITY OF ELECTRICITY.

687

THE VELOCITY OF ELECTRICITY.

By GIFFOED LE CLEAR.

THE determination of tlie velocity of electricity has been the
ambition of many physicists ; yet at present it is generally
conceded that the velocity may be anywhere from the fraction of
an inch per hour to millions of miles per second.

By the popular use of the words " current of electricity " we
have grown to think of a fluid flowing through a wire, yet we do
not know that there is any such fluid, and consequently we can
hardly say that it has a velocity. However, the attempt was
made, some years ago, to find the velocity of electricity, consider-
ing it as a fluid, by finding the time taken for a signal sent from
the Harvard Observatory, Cambridge, to reach St. Louis. The
distance between the two places was known, and the gentlemen
who conducted the experiment easily found what they supposed
was the velocity of electricity by dividing the distance by the
time. To understand why this velocity is not really the velocity
of electricity, as well as to understand the direction in which
physical research is now directed, we must consider what we really
do know about electricity.

When the two poles of a battery are connected by a wire we
say a current of electricity is flowing through the wire. The
evidences of the so-called
current are two : in the
first place, the wire is
heated ; and in the sec-
ond, a magnetic force is
set up in the neighbor-
hood of the wire. It is
this magnetic force that
interests us, and we must
get as clear an idea of it
as possible. We find by
experiment that in the
neighborhood of the wire
a compass needle is
turned from its custom-
ary north-and-south posi-
tion. The force which so turns the needle we call the magnetic
force, and the direction in which the north end of the needle is
pulled we call the direction of the magnetic force.

The adjacent figure is from a photograph of iron filings spread
over a plate through which a wire is thrust, perpendicular to the
plate. A current is passing through the wire whose cross-section

688 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

we see at A. The filings arrange themselves in the direction of
the magnetic force, which we see to be in concentric circles around
the wire. According to theory, this magnetic force extends to an
indefinite distance. Near the wire the force is very strong, but
grows weaker, losing strength with distance until it finally be-
comes imperceptible. Before we connected the wire to our battery
this force did not exist. Where did it come into existence first —
near the wire or far from the wire — or did it come suddenly
everywhere at once ? The late Dr. Hertz performed some won-
derful experiments in this connection, in which he showed that
the magnetic force comes into existence first near the wire and
then makes its appearance a little farther off, and so on till all
the surrounding space is filled with the force. Dr. Hertz's experi-
ments seem to indicate, moreover, that the rate at which this
magnetic force travels out from the wire is perfectly definite ; in
a word, that it travels with the velocity of light. You can picture
this to yourself by imagining the wire suddenly to emit light
just as we connect it to the battery ; then the light and the mag-
netic force will both reach any point at which you may place
your eye at exactly the same time.

This is the theory, and a very interesting one it is, but it does
not stop here, for not only does this magnetic force travel with
the velocity of light, but it has been proved by experiment that
it dan be reflected, refracted, and brought to a focus.

Many observers are now engaged in reproducing and extend-
ing Dr. Hertz's experiments, and many brilliant results are to be
expected.

Now, to see why the velocity determined between Cambridge
and St. Louis was not the velocity of electricity, we must go back
to some fundamental principles which at first sight seem to have
no connection with the question.

Just as a current of electricity produces magnetic force around
the wire carrying the current, so does magnetic force around a
wire produce a current of electricity, no matter how the magnetic
force may be produced ; but, whereas the current produces a mag-
netic force that lasts as long as the current flows, th^ magnetic
force produces a current only while the force is growing, so to
speak — while it is being made. If, now, we have a wire, a, so ar-
ranged that a current of electricity may be sent through it from
a battery by pressing a key, and another wire, 6, parallel to a,
connected with an instrument for detecting a current of elec-
tricity, when we press the key we shall get magnetic force around
a, extending as it grows to h. While this magnetic force is grow-
ing, we find there is a current through h in the opposite direction
to the current through a. Now let us move h up closer to a. We
get, of course, the same effect, only the current in h is stronger

THE VELOCITY OF ELECTRICITY. 689

than before, because the magnetic force is stronger the nearer we
get to a. Finally, let h touch a. We have then really only one
wire, since the wires touch and form one conductor. Of course,
now the magnetic force can not send a current through our wire,
as it did through 6, in the opposite direction to the current from
the battery; but it tries to do so, opposing the current from the
battery. Consequently, the current that the battery gives is very
weak for a short time, but only for a short time, because this
opposing current lasts only while this magnetic force is growing.
This phenomenon evidently holds for every wire through which
we try to start a current.

The instruments used in the experiments between Cambridge
and St. Louis could not work unless the current from the battery
had reached its full strength, so that the time the experimenters
found between the sending of the signal and its receipt was not
the time it took for electricity to pass from Cambridge to St.
Louis, but was the time it took for the current they used to groiv
to its full strength.

We know that the strength of the magnetic force around a
wire depends upon the size and form of the figures into which
the wire is bent, and the time it takes for a current through the
wire to reach its full strength depends upon the strength of the
magnetic force. Therefore we should expect that, by using dif-
ferent instruments on which wire is wound in different forms and
sizes, we ought to find that it takes different times to send a sig-
nal from one place to another. This has been tried and found
true. In fact, it was in this way that it was first proved that the
velocity found between Cambridge and St. Louis was not really
the velocity of electricity.

It would seem, then, that in our search for connecting links
between electricity and light we had better turn our attention to
what goes on in the space around a wire carrying a " current ^'
rather than to confine ourselves to what takes place in the wire.

The Davenport Academy of Sciences is endeavoring to organize a sys-
tematic and thorough field work in archaeology through the State of Iowa,
with the expectation of ultimately publishing a final report on the subject.
For that purpose it asks the co-operation of workers everywhere in the
State in collecting the material necessary, hoping to accomplish the task in
not less than five years. That the work may be intelligently done, it has
sent out a "circular of suggestion," giving details of instruction as tx)
methods of proceeding in examining mounds, earthworks, shell heaps, vil-
lage sites, rock shelters, aboriginal workshops, cliff carvings and paint-
ings. A combined summary of what has already been done in this work
has been prepared by Prof. Frederick Starr, and is sent out by the
academy.

VOL. XLVIII. — 49

690 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

SKETCH OF WILLIAM STARLING SULLIYANT.

" "FN him we lose tlie most accomplislied bryologist which thig
-L country has produced, and it can hardly be said that he
leaves behind anywhere a superior/^ This is high praise, and its
value is enhanced by its coming from Prof. Asa Gray, who cer-
tainly knew whereof he spoke.

William Starling Sullivant was born January 15, 1803, at
the little village of Franklinton, then a frontier settlement in the
midst of primitive forest, near the site of the present city of Co-
lumbus. He was the eldest of the four children of Lucas Sulli-
vant, a Virginian, and Sarah (Starling), his wife. His father had
been commissioned by the Government to survey a district in the
Northwestern Territory lying in the center of what is now the
State of Ohio, where he early purchased a large tract of land,
bordering on the Scioto River, and near by, if not including, the
site afterward chosen for the capital of the State.

The early life of William Sullivant was therefore that of the
frontier, with its mixture of hardships and opportunities. At a .
time when the hominy mortar and the hand grater served to fur-
nish coarse meal for bread, and grist mills were few and far apart,
young William, mounted astride of a bag of wheat on one horse
and leading another on which also was strapped a well-filled bag,
was often sent on a journey along the blazed bridle-path through
the forest to procure flour for the family. These expeditions fre-
quently occupied two or three days' waiting for the grist, and ne-
cessitated sleeping in the mill wrapped in a blanket, where he was
fortunate who had a pile of corn or wheat for his couch instead
of the hard floor. But all this, together with the athletic sports
of the frontier settlement, served to give him the fine physical
development which was often remarked in his adult years. He
was also one of the party on some of his iather's shorter survey-
ing expeditions, thus gaining knowledge that he was soon destined
to put in practice.

He was sent to a private school in Kentucky, and, entering the
Ohio University when that institution opened, received there the
rudiments of a collegiate education. He was then transferred to
Yale College, from which he was graduated in 1833. His father
dying in the same year, he was obliged to give up the idea of
studying a profession in order to take charge of the large family
estate. The property consisted of lands, mills, etc., and demanded
much and varied attention. The care of it required him to become
a surveyor and a practical engineer, and to be much engaged in
business for the greater part of his life. He became a member of
the Ohio Stage Company, whose operations covered a wide field.

SKETCH OF WILLIAM STARLING SULLIVANT, 691

and before the introduction of railroads afforded the best accom-
modations and facilities to the traveling public. He was one of
the original stockholders and directors of the Clinton Bank, and
for a time its president.

Mr. Sullivant was not one of those whose predilection for
science appeared at an early age. He was nearly thirty years
old, and his youngest brother, Joseph, was already somewhat
proficient in botany, conchology, and ornithology, before his
interest in natural history was aroused. He had married Miss
Jane, daughter of Alexander K. Marshall, of Kentucky, and niece
of Chief-Justice Marshall, and was living in his suburban resi-
dence in a rich floral district. His wife had died within a year
after marriage, leaving him an infant daughter.

His first scientific observations were upon the birds. When
his attention was directed to botany, by his brother Joseph, he
took up the subject with the determination to acquire a thorough
knowledge of it. " He collected and carefully studied," says Prof.
Gray in the memoir already quoted from,* " the 'plants of the
central part of Ohio, made neat sketches of the minuter parts of
many of them, especially of the grasses and sedges, entered into
communication with the leading botanists of the country, and in
1840 he published A Catalogue of Plants, Native or Naturalized,
in the Vicinity of Columbus, Ohio (63 pages), to which he added
a few pages of valuable notes. His only other direct publication
in phanerogamous botany is a short article upon three new plants
which he had discovered in that district, contributed to the
American Journal of Science and Arts in the year 1842. The
observations which he continued to make were communicated to
his correspondents and friends, the authors of the Flora of North
America, then in progress.

" As soon as the flowering plants of his district had ceased to
afford him novelty, he turned to the mosses, in which he found
abundant scientific occupation, of a kind well suited to his bent
for patient and close observation, scrupulous accuracy, and nice
discrimination. His first publication in his chosen department,
the Musci Alleghanienses, was accompanied by the specimens
themselves of mosses and hepaticce, collected in a botanical ex-
pedition through the Alleghany Mountains from Maryland to
Georgia, in the summer of 1843, the writer of this notice being
his companion. The specimens were not only critically deter-
mined, but exquisitely prepared and mounted, and with letter-
press of great perfection ; the whole forming two quarto volumes,
which well deserve the encomium bestowed by Pritzel in his The-
saurus, It was not put on sale, but fifty copies were distributed

* Read before the National Academy of Sciences, April 22, ISYS.

692 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

with a free hand among bryologists and others who would appre-
ciate it.

"In 1846 Mr. Sullivant communicated to the American Acad-
emy the first part, and in 1849 the second part, of his Contribu-
tions to the Bryology and Hepaticology of North America, which
appeared one in the third, the other in the fourth volume (new
series) of the academy's Memoirs, each with five plates from the
author's own admirable drawings. These plates were engraved
at his own expense, and were generously given to the academy.

" When the second edition of Gray's Manual of the Botany of
the Northern United States was in preparation, Mr. Sullivant was
asked to contribute to it a compendious account of the musci and
hepaticcB of the region, which he did, in the space of about one hun-
dred pages, generously adding, at his sole charge, eight copper-
plates crowded with illustrations of the details of the genera;
thus enhancing vastly the value of his friend's work, and laying
a foundation for the general study of bryology in the United
States, which then and thus began. So excellent are these illus-
trations, both in plan and execution, that Schimper, then the
leading bryologist of the Old World, and a most competent judge,
since he has published hundreds of figures in his Bryologia Euro-
pcea, not only adopted the same plan in his Synopsis of the Euro-
pean Mosses, but also the very figures themselves (a few of which
were, however, originally his own), whenever they would serve
his purpose, as was the case with most of them.

" A separate edition was published of this portion of the Man-
ual under the title of The Musci and Hepaticse of the United States
East of the Mississippi River (New York, 1856, imperial octavo),
upon thick paper, and with proof impressions directly from the
copperplates. This exquisite volume was placed on sale at far less
than its cost, and copies are now of great rarity and value. It
was with regret that the author of the Manual omitted this cryp-
togamic portion from the ensuing editions, and only with the
understanding that a separate Species Muscorum, or Manual for
the Mosses of the whole United States, should replace it." This
work Mr. Sullivant was about to prepare at the time of his death.

Mr. Sullivant married Miss Eliza G. Wheeler, of New York, a
lady of rare accomplishments, who became a zealous and acute
bryologist, and ably assisted her husband in his scientific work
until her death, of cholera, in 1850 or 1851. Her botanical services
were commemorated by Schimper in the name of the Ohio moss,
Hypnum SullivanticB. Two daughters and a son were the fruit of
this marriage.

In 1848 Mr. Sullivant secured the co-operation of the accom-
plished botanist Leo Lesquereux, by whose labors his undertak-
ings were substantially promoted. A characteristic feature of his

SKETCH OF WILLIAM STARLING SULLIVANT, 693

scientific work was the issuing of sets of specimens, mounted on
leaves with printed labels, and bound into a volume having a
title-page, index, etc. Specimens had accompanied Mr. SuUivant's
text in the Musci Alleghanienses, and now, from the ample stores
collected by him and Lesquereux, or otherwise acquired, fifty-six
sets of about three hundred and sixty species each were made up,
and all, except a few copies for gratuitous distribution, were
placed on sale at less than cost, for the benefit of his esteemed
associate. The title of the volume was Musci Boreali Americani
quorum specimina exsiccati ediderunt W. S. Sullivant et L. Les-
quereux ; 1856. The value of the work insured the speedy sale of
the edition. A similar but larger collection, containing between
five and six hundred species, many of them recently gathered
in California by Dr. Bolander, was issued in 1865. The sets were
disposed of with the same unequaled liberality as before dis-
played. Still later, Mr. Sullivant aided his friend Mr. Austin
both in the study of his material and in the publication of his
Musci Appalachiani.

In his Musci Cuhenses, which appeared in 1861, Mr. Sullivant
named the species of Charles Wright's earlier acquisitions in Cuba
and described the new ones. These mosses were also distributed
in sets by the collector. His researches upon later and more ex-
tensive collections by Mr. Wright, in which many new species
were indicated, were left in the form of notes and pencil sketches
at his death. The same is true of an earlier collection, made by
Fendler in Venezuela.

Mr. Sullivant was several times called upon to work up the
mosses gathered by Government exploring expeditions. Thus
the Bryology of Rodgers's United States North Pacific Exploring
Expedition was early prepared for publication by him in the
most elaborate manner. But, from causes over which he had no
control, it has never been published, although brief characters of
the principal new species have seen the light. The fact that
Sullivant's exquisite drawings of these species were not promptly
engraved and given to the scientific world is especially to be
regretted.

In the case of the South Pacific Exploring Expedition, under
Commodore Wilkes, the volume on the mosses was not published
in his lifetime, but Mr. Sullivant issued a separate edition of his
portion of it in 1859. It forms a sumptuous imperial folio, the
letterpress having been made up into large pages, and printed on
paper matching that used for the twenty-six plates. The fourth
volume of the Pacific Railroad Reports contains Sullivant's de-
scriptions of the mosses collected in Whipple's Exploration, occu-
pying about a dozen pages, and accompanied by ten admirable
plates of new species.

694 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

The Icones Muscorum, "however, is Mr. Sullivant's crowning
work. It was issued in 1864, and consists of " Figures and De-
scriptions of most of those Mosses peculiar to Eastern North
America which have not been heretofore figured," forming an
imperial octavo volume with one hundred and twenty-nine cop-
perplates. "The letterpress and the plates," says Prof. Gray,
"(upon which last alone several thousand dollars and immense
pains were expended) are simply exquisite and wholly unrivaled ;
and the scientific character is acknowledged to be worthy of the
setting." Most of the time which Mr. Sullivant could devote to
science in the last few years of his life was given to the prepara-
tion of a second or supplementary volume of the Icones. The
plates were finished, the descriptions partly written out, and it
was to have been printed in the spring in which he died.

Mr. Sullivant was attacked with pneumonia in January, 1873,
about the time of his seventieth birthday, and, although making
a partial recovery, died from the effects of the disease on April
30th. He had married Caroline E. Sutton, who survived him.
Four sons and two daughters were born to them.

He bequeathed all his bryological books and his exceedingly
rich and important collections and preparations of mosses to the
Gray Herbarium at Harvard University. The rest of his botan-
ical library, his choice microscopes, and other collections, were
left to the State Scientific and Agricultural College, then re-
cently established at Columbus, and to the Starling Medical
College, founded by his uncle, of which he was himself the senior
trustee.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected Mr. Sul-
livant to membership in 1845 ; he was also an associate of the
other chief scientific societies of this country and of several in
Europe. The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred
upon him by Gambler College, while Torrey and Gray honored
him early by bestowing the name Sullivantia Ohionis upon a
rare and modest plant discovered by him in his native State, and
belonging to the same order (saxifrages) with the currant, syringa,
and hydrangea.

For nearly forty years Sullivant corresponded with Asa Gray,
also collecting with him and co-operating in research whenever
practicable. He is often mentioned in Gray's Letters. When
Lesquereux, who had been Gray's curator at Cambridge, left him
to go and assist the Western bryologist. Gray wrote in a letter to
Torrey : " They will do up bryology at a great rate. Lesquereux
says that the collection and library of Sullivant in muscology are
* magnifique, superbe, the best he ever saw.' " Under date of De-
cember 6, 1857, Gray writes to W. J. Hooker : " Your first letter
is now gone to Sullivant, because you speak of him so hand-

SKETCH OF WILLIAM STARLING SULLIVANT. 695

somely, and say that Mitten is instructed to prepare a set of mosses
for him. A noble fellow is Sullivant, and deserves all you say of
him and his works. The more you get to know of him the better
you will like him." And when, in 1877, he gave to Mr. Burgess,
since famous as a designer of yachts, a note of introduction to
Charles Darwin, Gray wrote : " He has just married the daughter
of my dear old friend the late Mr. Sullivant, who did for mus-
cology in this country more than one man is likely ever to do
again."

Prof. Gray said of him in the memoir already quoted, and
which has supplied the facts for a large part of this article : " In
personal appearance and carriage, no less than in all the traits of
an unselfish and well-balanced character, Mr. Sullivant was a fine
specimen of a man. He had excellent business talents, and was
an exemplary citizen ; he had a refined and sure taste, and was an
accomplished draughtsman. But after having illustrated his
earlier productions with his own pencil, he found that valuable
time was to be gained by employing a trained artist. He discov-
ered in Mr. A. Schrader a hopeful draughtsman, and he educated
him to the work, with what excellent results the plates of the
Icones and of his other works abundantly show. As an investi-
gator he worked deliberately, slowly indeed and not continuously,
but perseveringly. Having chosen his particular department, he
gave himself undeviatingly to its advancement. His works have
laid such a broad and complete foundation for the study of bry-
ology in this country, and are of such recognized importance
everywhere, that they must always be of classical authority ; in
fact, they are likely to remain for a long time unrivaled. Wher-
ever mosses are studied his name will be honorably remembered ;
in this country it should long be remembered with peculiar grati-
tude."

The following extract from a letter written immediately after
Sullivant's death to Mr. Joseph Sullivant by Leo Lesquereux will
be interesting :

" In everything, as well you know, W. S. S. was most accu-
rate. He was superficial in nothing. He worked his mosses
slowly, coming again and again to a doubtful species, comparing
authorities, repeating the most difficult anatomical preparations,
till fully satisfied that his conclusions were warranted as far as
botanical science could warrant them. The numerous spe3ies to
which he has given his authority have therefore been admitted
and recognized by the most eminent botanists of our time —
Schimper, Miiller, Lindberg, etc. More than ten years ago a very
honorable account of his works as a bryologist was published in
the Boianische Zeitung of Leipsic, which, for botany, is the high-
est European authority.

696 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" Another remarkable trait of the character of your lamented
brother was his perhaps too liberal disposition to work in science
for the benefit of others, without credit for himself. Not only did
he give his time to the determination of an immense number of
specimens which were sent to him by students, or by so-called
authors, etc., but often, without claiming his right of authority,
he determined the species, prepared descriptions of the new ones,
when he well knew that they would be published under the names
of his applicants. He has thus fixed a far larger number than
those which were published in his name. Even lately he exam-
ined a large collection of mosses in which his opinion was re-
quested, prepared descriptions of new species, remarks on inter-
esting ones, etc., and from this work a catalogue was made by the
same applicant, the notes copied as well as his remarks, and thus
the authorship was literally taken from him, and not even a word
of credit was given for his work. Such absence of scientific hon-
esty was not even resented by your brother, who merely alluded
to it. as a poor reward for hard work. A character as was his,
without trace of envious or jealous feeling, marked by true kind-
ness for everybody, by a ready disposition to acknowledge and
help every effort for the advancement of his science of predilec-
tion, to recognize errors and to correct them without the slightest
word of depreciation, could but excite admiration and love ; and,
indeed, your brother was truly and sincerely loved by the few
who knew him well ; for he was not open to everybody. A man
of few words, he never talked of himself or his doings, and thus
only those who had the privilege of being intimate with him
would recognize his noble nature.''

In a paper read at the recent International Geographical Congress, Mr.
H. Yule Oldham, of tbe University of Cambridge, attached great value in
the study of the history of geographical discovery to the mediaeval manu-
script maps or portolani. Usually made for practical purposes, by sailors,
they were, as a rule, free from personal and political bias. A careful study
of them gives valuable corroboration and often correction of information
derived from ordinary documents. It was long customary to ascribe the
discovery of the Madeiras and Azores to the fifteenth century, but they
were found on maps of the fourteenth century. Similarly at a later period
Cuba was shown to be an island at a time when, according to the ordinary
historical documents, it was believed to be continental ; and the Bermudas
and other islands were shown on maps of earlier dates than those to which
their discovery was ascribed. So often was cartographical information
found to be ahead of historical records pointing to the results of otherwise
unrecorded voyages, that additional interest and importance were lent to
those maps which seemed to indicate the possibility of a pre-Columbian
discovery of America.

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS,
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

XL— PAINTER.
By HERBERT SPENCER.

PICTORIAL representation in its rudest forms not only pre-
cedes civilization but may be traced back to prehistoric man.
The delineations of animals by incised lines on bones, discovered
in the Dordogne and elsewhere, prove this. And certain wall-
paintings found in caves variously distributed, show, in extant
savage races or ancestors of them, some ability to represent things
by lines and colors.

But if we pass over these stray facts, which lie out of relation
to the development of pictorial art during civilization, and if we
start with those beginnings of pictorial art which the uncivilized
transmitted to the early civilized, we see that sculpture and paint-
ing were coeval. For, excluding as not pictorial that painting of
the body by which savages try to make themselves feared or ad-
mired, we find painting first employed in completing the image of
the dead man to be placed on his grave — a painting of the carved
image such as served to make it a rude simulacrum. This was
the first step in the evolution of painted figures of apotheosized
chiefs and kings — painted statues of heroes and gods.

We shall the better appreciate this truth on remembering that
the complete differentiation of sculpture from painting which now
exists did not exist among early peoples. In ancient times all
statues were colored : the aim being to produce something as like
as possible to the being commemorated.

The already named images of dead New Zealand chiefs tattooed
in imitation of their originals, illustrate primitive attempts to
finish the representations of departed persons by surface-markings
and colors ; and the idols preserved in our museums — not painted
only but with imitation eyes and teeth inserted — make clear this
original union of the two arts.

Of evidence that the priests painted as well as carved these
eflSgies, little is furnished by travelers. Bourke writes of the
Apaches : — " All charms, idols, talismans, medicine hats, and other
sacred regalia should be made, or at least blessed, by the medi-
cine-men." But while the agency of the primitive priest in idol-
painting must remain but partially proved, we get clear proof of
priestly agency in the production of other colored representa-
tions of religious kinds. Describing certain pictographs in sand,
Mr. Gushing says : —

" When, during my first sojourn with the Zuni, I found this art practice
in vogue among the tribal priest-magicians and members of cult societies, I

VOL. XLVIII.— -49*

698* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

named it dry or powder painting." The pictures produced "are supposed
to be spiritually shadowed, so to say, or breathed upon by the gods or god-
animals they represent, during the appealing incantations or calls of the
rites. . . . Further light is thrown on this practice of the Zuni in making
use of these suppositively vivified paintings by their kindred practice of
painting not only fetiches of stone, etc., and sometimes of larger idols, then
of washing the paint off for use as above described, but also of powder
painting in relief; that is, of modeling effigies in sand, sometimes huge in
size, of hero or animal gods, sacramental mountains, etc., powder paiuting
them in common with the rest of the pictures, and afterward removing the
paint for medicinal or further ceremonial use."

Bat the clearest evidence is yielded by the Navajo Indians. Dr.
Washington Matthews in a contribution on "The Mountain
Chant, a Navajo Ceremony," says : —

" The men who do the greater part of the actual work of painting, under
the guidance of the chanter, have been initiated [four times], but need not
be skilled medicine men or even aspirants to the craft of the shaman. . . .
The pictures are drawn according to an exact system. The shaman is
frequently seen correcting the workmen and making them erase and revise
their work. In certain well-defined instances the artist is allowed to
indulge his individual fancy. This is the case with the gaudy embroidered
pouches which the gods carry at the waist. Within reasonable bounds the
artist may give his god just as handsome a pouch as he wishes. Some parts
of the figures, on the other hand, are measured by palms and spans, and
not a line of the sacred design can be varied." *

Unquestionably then pictorial art in its first stages was occu-
pied with sacred subjects, and the priest, when not himself the
executant, was the director of the executants.

The remains and records of early historic peoples yield evi-
dences having like implications.

As shown already, there existed in America curious transitions
between worshiping the actual dead man and worshiping an effigy

* Both great surprise and great satisfaction were given to me by these last sentences.
When setting forth evidence furnished by the Egyptians, I was about to include a remem-
bered statement (though unable to give the authority), that there are wall-paintings — I
think in the tombs of the kings — where a superior is represented as correcting the drawings
of subordinates, and was about to suggest that, judging from the intimate relation between
the priesthood and the plastic arts, already iillustrated, this superior was probably a priest.
And here I suddenly came upon a verifying fact supplied by a still earlier stage of culture :
the priest is the director of pictorial representations when he is not the executant. Another
important verification is yielded by these sentences. The essential parts of the representa-
tion are sacred in matter, and rigidly fixed in manner ; but in certain non-essential, decora-
tive parts the working artist is allowed play for his imagination. This tends to confirm the
conclusion already drawn respecting Greek art. For while in a Greek temple the mode of
representing the god was so fixed that change was sacrilege, the artist was allowed some
scope in designing and executing the peripheral parts of the structure. He could exercise
his imagination and skill on the sculptured figures of the pediment and metopes ; and here
his artistic genius developed.

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 699*

of him — cases in wliicli a figure was formed of portions of his
body joined with artificial portions. The Nile Valley furnished
other transitions. Concerning the Macrobrian Ethiopians, Herod-
otus tells the strange story that —

" When they have dried the body, either as the Egyptians do, or in some
other way, they plaster it all over with gypsum, and paint it, making it as
much as possible resemble real life ; they then put round it a hollow col-
umn made of crystal."

And to this plastered, painted, and inclosed mummy they made
offerings. The Egyptian usage diverged from this simply in the
casing of the mummy and in the painting: the one being opaque
and the other consequently external. For the carved and painted
representation of a human figure on the outer mummy-case, was
doubtless a conventionally-stereotyped representation of the occu-
pant. And since, in all such cases, the ancestor- worship, now of
private persons, now of major and minor potentates, was a religion,
painting as thus employed was a religious art.

The leading subjects of Egyptian wall-paintings are worshiping
and killing: the last being, indeed, but a form of the first; since
pictures of victorious fights are either glorifications of the com-
memorated commanders or of the gods by whose aid they con-
quered, or both. In early societies sacrifice of enemies is religious
sacrifice, as shown among the Hebrews by the behavior of Sam-
uel to Agag. Hence the painting in these Egyptian frescoes is
used for sacred purposes.

That in Ancient Egypt the priest was the primitive sculptor
we have already seen ; and the association of painting with sculp-
ture was so close as to imply that he was also the primitive
painter — either immediately or by proxy. For, seeing that, as
Brugsch remarks, Egyptian art " is bound by fetters which the
artist dared not loosen for fear of clashing with traditional direc-
tions and ancient usage," it results that the priests, being deposi-
taries of the traditions, guided the hands of those who made
painted representations when they did not themselves make them.
But there is direct proof. Erman says : — " Under the Old Empire
the high priest of Memphis was regarded as their chief, in fact he
bore the title of ' chief leader of the artists,' and really exercised
this office." In another passage describing the administration of
the great temple of Amon he tells us that the Theban god had his
own painters and his own sculptors ; both being under the super-
vision of the second prophet. It may be that, as in the case of the
Indians above named, these working painters had passed through
some religious initiation and were semi-priestly.

In connection with this use of painting for sacred purposes in
Egypt, I may add evidence furnished by an existing religion.
Says Tennent concerning the Buddhists of Ceylon : —

700* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. .

" The labors of the sculptor and painter were combined in producing
these images of Buddha, which are always colored in imitation of life, each
tint of his complexion and hair being in religious conforoiity with divine
authority, and the ceremony of ' painting of the eyes,' is always observed by
devout Buddhists as a solemn festival."

It is interesting to remark that in its mural representations,
Egypt shows ns transitions from sculpture to painting, or, more
strictly, from painted sculpture to painting proper. In the most
sculpturesque kind the painted figures stood out from the general
field and formed a bas-relief. In the intermediate kind, relief-en-
creux, the surfaces of the painted figures did not rise above the
general field, but their outlines were incised and their surfaces
rendered convex. And then, finally, the incising and rounding
being omitted, they became paintings.

By the Greeks also, painting was employed in making finished
representations of the greater or smaller personages worshiped —
now the statues in temples and now the figures on stelcE used to
commemorate deceased relatives, which, cut out in relief, were,
we may fairly infer, colored in common with other sculptured fig-
ures, just as were those on Etruscan sarcophagi. Of this inference
there has recently been furnished a justification by the discovery
of certain remains which, while they show the use of color in
these memorials, show also the transition from raised colored fig-
ures to colored figures not raised. Explorations carried on in
Cyprus by Mr. Arthur Smith, of the British Museum, have dis-
closed—

"a series of limestone stelae or tombstones, on which is painted the figure
of the person commemorated. The surface of the limestone is prepared
with a white ground, on which the figure is painted in colors and in a man-
ner which strongly recalls the frescoes of Pompeii."
The painting being here used in aid of ancestor- worship, is in that
sense, religious. Very little evidence seems forthcoming concern-
ing other early uses of painting among the Greeks. We read that
before the Persian war, the application of painting " was almost
limited to the decoration of sacred edifices, and a few other relig-
ious purposes, as coloring or imitating bas-reliefs, and in repre-
sentations of religious rites on vases or otherwise.'^ In harmony
with this statement is the following from Winckelmann : —

" The reason of the slower growth of painting lies partly in the art itself,
and partly in its use and application. Sculpture promoted the worship of
the gods, and was in its turn promoted by it. But painting had no such
advantage. It was, indeed, consecrated to the gods and temples; and some
few of the latter, as that of Juno at Samos, were Pinacothecae, or picture
galleries ; at Rome, likewise, paintings by the best masters were hung up
in the temple of Peace, that is, in the upper rooms or arches. But paint-
ings do not appear to have been, among the Greeks, an object of holy,
undoubting reverence and adoration."

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 701*

This relatively slow development of painting was due to its origi-
nal subordination to sculpture. Independent development of
it had scope only when by such steps as those above indicated it
became separate; and, employed at first in temple-decoration,
it gained this scope as sculpture did, in the ancillary and less
sacred parts.

Partly because the Greek nature, and the relatively incoherent
structure of the Greek nation, prevented the growth of an ecclesi-
astical hierarchy, with the normal developments arising from it,
and partly — perhaps chiefly — because Greek civilization was in so
large a measure influenced by the earlier civilizations adjacent to
it, the further course of evolution in the art and practice of paint-
ing is broken. We can only say that the secularization became
marked in the later stages of Grecian life. Though before the
time of Zeuxis various painters had occupied themselves with
such semi-secular subjects as battles and with other subjects com-
pletely secular, yet, generally executed as these were for the
ancillary parts of temples, and being tinctured by that sentiment
implied in the representation of great deeds achieved by ances-
tors, they still preserved traces of religious origin. This is, in-
deed, implied by the remark which Mr. Poynter quotes from
Lucian, that Zeuxis cared not " to repeat the representations of
gods, heroes, and battles, which were already hackneyed and
familiar."

The first stages in the history of painting, and of those who
practiced it, after the rise of Christianity, are confused by the in-
fluences of the pagan art at that time existing. It was only after
this earliest Italian art, religious like other early art in nearly all
its subjects, had been practically extinguished by barbarian in-
vaders, that characteristic Christian art was initiated by intro-
duction of the methods and usages which had been preserved and
developed in Constantinople ; and the art thus recommended, en-
tirely devoted to sacred purposes, was entirely priestly in its ex-
ecutants. " From the monasteries of Constantinople, Thessalonica,
and Mount Athos," says Mr. Poynter, " Greek artists and teachers
passed into all the provinces of Southern Europe ; " and there-
after, for a long period, the formal Byzantine style prevailed
everywhere.

Of the scanty facts illustrating the subsequent relations be-
tween priest and painter in early Christian Europe, one is fur-
nished by the ninth century.

Bogoris, the first Christian king of the Bulgarians, solicited the emperor
Michael " for the services of a painter competent to decorate his palace,"
and the "emperor dispatched [the monk] Methodius to the Bulgarian
Court."

702* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

The continuance of this connection is shown by the following
passage from Eastlake's History :

"In the practice of the arts of desigo, as in the few refined pursuits
which were cultivated or allowed during the darker ages, the monks were
long independent of secular assistance. Not only the pictures, but the
stained glass, the gold and silver chalices, the reliquaries, all that belonged
to the decoration and service of the church, were designed, and sometimes
entirely executed by them ; and it was not till the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, when the knowledge of the monastery began to be shared by the
world at large, that painting in some degree emerged from this fostering
though rigid tuition."

Along with the practice of painting went knowledge of the
ancillary art, the preparation of colors. In a later passage East-
lake says : —

" Cennini, speaking of the mode of preparing a certain color, says that
the receipt could easily be obtained, 'especially from the friars.'"
In another passage there is implied an early step in seculari-
zation.

"Colors and other materials, when not furnished by monks who re-
tained the ancient habits of the cloister, were provided by the apothecary."
And further steps in the divergence of lay painters from clerical
painters are implied by the statement of Laborde, quoted by
Levasseur, to the effect that the illuminators of the thirteenth
century had for the most part been monks, but that in the four-
teenth and fifteenth laymen competed with them. Various paint-
ers in miniature and oil are mentioned. Painters continued to be
illuminators as well ; they also painted portraits and treated some
sacred subjects.

Throughout early Christian art, devoted exclusively to sacred
subjects, there was rigid adherence to authorized modes of repre-
sentation, as in ancient pagan art — Egyptian or Greek. Over
ecclesiastical paintings this control continued into the last cen-
tury ; as in Spain, where, under the title of Pictor Christianus,
there was promulgated a sacro-pictorial law prescribing the com-
position of pictures in detail. Nay, such regulation continues
still. M. Didron, who visited the churches and monasteries of
Greece in 1839, says : —

" Ni le temps ni le lieu ne font rien a Tart grec ; au XVIIP siecle, le
peintre moreote continue et caique le peintre venitien du X', le peintre
athonite du V' ou VP. Le costume des personnages est partout et en tout
temps le meme, non-seulement pour la forme, mais pour la couleur, mais
pour le dessin, mais jusque pour le nombre et I'epaisseur des plis. On ne
saurait pousser plus loin I'exactitude tradition nelle, I'esclavage du passe."
And Sir Emerson Tennent, ct propos of the parallelism between
the rigid code conformed to by the monkish artists of the East
and the code, equally rigid, conformed to by the Buddhists of
Ceylon, quotes an illustrative incident concerning these priest-

PROFi:SSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 703*

painters of Mount Athos, who manufacture pictures to pattern
with " almost the rapidity of machinery/' M. Didron wished to
have a copy of the code of instructions "drawn up under eccle-
siastical authority," but " the artist, when solicited by M. Didron
to sell 'cette bible de son art/ naively refused, on the simple
ground that ' en perdant son Guide, il perdait son art ; il perdait
ses yeux et ses mains.' "

Concerning later stages in the rise of the lay painter, it must
suffice to say that from the time of Cimabue, who began to depart
from the rigidly formal style of the priestly Byzantine artists, the
lay element predominated. Amid a number of apparently non-
clerical painters, only a few clerics are named ; as Don Lorenzo,
Fra Giovanni, Fra Philippo Lippi, Fra Bartolommeo. But mean-
while it is to be observed that these secular painters, probably at
first, like the secular sculptors, assistants to the priests in their
work, were occupied mainly and often exclusively with sacred
subjects.

Along with this differentiation of the lay painter from the cler-
ical painter there began a differentiation of lay painters from one
another; and the facts show us a gradual beginning where
imagination would have suggested only an abrupt beginning. As
I learn from an academician, the first form of portrait (omit-
ting some painted under a surviving classic influence in those
earliest days before art was extinguished by the barbarians) was
that of the donor of a sacred picture to a church or other eccle-
siastical edifice, who was allowed to have himself represented
in a corner of the picture on his knees with hands joined in sup-
plication.

Something similar happened with another form of art. Land-
scapes made their first appearance as small and modest back-
grounds to representations of sacred personages and incidents —
backgrounds the composition of which displays an artificiality
congruous with that of the figure-composition. In course of time
this background assumed a greater importance, but still it long
remained quite subordinate. After it had ceased to be a mere
accompaniment, landscape-painting in its secularized form was but
partially emancipated from figure-painting. When it grew into a
recognized branch of art, the title " Landscape with figures," was
still generally applicable ; and down to our own day it has been
thought needful to put in some living creatures. Only of late has
landscape pure and simple, absolutely divorced from human life,
become common.

Of course various classes and sub-classes of artists, broadly
if not definitely marked off, are implied by these and other
specialized kinds of paintings : some determined by the natures

704* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the subjects treated and others by the natures of the mate-
rials used.

For form's sake it is requisite to say that here as always those
units of a society who make themselves distinct by performing
functions of a certain kind, presently, along with separation from
the rest, begin to unite with one another. The specialized individ-
uals form a specialized aggregate.

When in the Middle Ages the artists employed as assistants to
priests for ecclesiastical decoration became a class, they grew into
something like guilds. Levasseur, quoting Laborde, says they
were hardly distinguished from artisans : like them they formed
corporations under the name of paintres, tailleurs d'ymaiges et
voirriers. In Italy during the fourteenth century a Brotherhood
of Painters arose, which, taking for its patron St. Luke the Evan-
gelist, had for its purpose, partly mutual instruction and partly
mutual assistance and protection.

That in modern times the tendency to integration has been
illustrated all know. It needs only further to remark that the
growth of the chief art corporations has been followed by the
growth of minor art corporations, some of them specialized by the
kinds of art practiced ; and also that embodiment of the profession
is now aided by art periodicals, and especially by one. The Artist,
devoted to professional culture and interests.

Mention is made in Prof. Frederick Starr's Comparative Religion Notes,
in the Bibhcal World, of the important place in the ceremonials of the
Indian tribes of the Southwest occupied by curious pictures or mosaics
made of sand. Different colored sands are procured by pounding up the
various kinds of rocks. The designs are made by qualified persons, accord-
ing to a prescribed method, after preparatory purification. Colors and
designs are symbolical. In making them the sand taken in the hand is
allowed to run out between the thumb and forefinger along the lines to be
produced. The practice is found among various pueblo peoples and among
the Navajos ; and notice is made of similar observances among the Hindus
and Parsees ; and sand pictures are made as a street amusement in Japan.

The London Spectator gathers from a number of letters it has received
that "a great many cultivated people ZzAre their small superstitions. . . .
Some dislike ti'usting their reason wholly, because, they think, that way
agnosticism may lie ; some feel in their superstitious beliefs an antiquarian
charm, or relation to their forebears ; while others appear to have the feel-
ing that, if they cleared the superstitions wholly out, their mental scenery-
would be rendered base and marred by sameness. . . . They do not all put
the question, but all we think are inclined to ask us, as one rather clever
old lady has done, what harm the petty superstitions do ? Why not throw
salt over your shoulder if you spill it ?"

CORRESP ONDENCE,

697

®0t:icjesp^0t(jcljetix:je*

ALCOHOL AND CRIME.

Editor Papular Science Monthly:

SIR: Writing of Scientific Temperance
and President Jordan's thoughtful ar-
ticle in your January issue, you say, *' There
is no denying that much the greater part of
the crime and misery with which society is
afflicted is caused by the use of alcohol in
one form or another." May I be pardoned if I
say that the proposition may well be denied ;
and may, even without much trouble or skill,
be proved totally fallacious? And to pre-
vent misunderstanding, permit me to say that
I do not in this communication either advo-
cate or condemn the use of alcoholic drinks :
the question may well be left for a separate
discussion.

Consider that, if much the greater part of
crime and misery ... is caused by the use
of alcohol, it must follow as a corollary that,
where alcohol is most used, there we shall
find most crime and misery. Bid experience
teaches that this is not true. Here in Cali-
fornia, at least, and, I think, perhaps through-
out the United States and elsewhere, the rep-
resentative business and professional men, as
a rule, use alcoholic beverages regularly, and
in much greater quantity than can possibly
be obtained by the poor — those most ac-
quainted with misery and crime. 1 keep
well within the bounds of truth in saying
that a majority of merchants, lawyers, judges,
and men of affairs, " politicians," legislators,
and perhaps physicians, drink daily from two
to four glasses of spirits; that many, and
these not the least reputable and prosperous,
drink double this quantity ; and not a few,
three or four times as much. Beer, in sum-
mer time especially, is drunk by great num-
bers of the active, efficient, well-behaved, and
prosperous business and professional men,
both American and German, from two to
twenty and even more times a day; and
these do not seem on an average to be dis-
posed to crime, or to suffer what is called
misery. Brewers, as a class of workingmen,
are not more disposed to commit misdemean-
ors, not to say crimes, than others : and they
appear to be far enough from misery ; yet I
am informed by credible people, who know
whereof they affirm, that many, indeed most,
of them drink daily from twenty to thirty
and forty glasses of beer. I have not much
personal acquaintance with Wall Street spec-
ulators and millionaires, or with their ways ;
but I conclude, from information and such
glimpses into their lives as one occasionally
catches, that few of them are abstainers
from wine or the stuff called champagne, or
from brandy, whisky, etc. If these as a class
VOL. XLVIII. — 50

are criminals (and I for one do not say nay),
at least theirs is not the crime, nor is such
misery as they may perhaps suffer, the crime
and misery of which you speak. I know
personally some workingmen, reputable, even
respectable, who drink at home from two to
four gallons of whisky per month ; of course,
they are not brilliant members of society.

It is true, doubtless, that the money spent
by such well-to-do people as I have mentioned
does not bear so large a ratio to their incomes
as does that spent by many mechanics and
clerks and laborers ; and therefore it does not
impoverish the former as much as it does the
latter. But the same is true of other ex-
penses of " living," viz., those for dwellings,
butcher meat, bread, clothing, and amuse-
ments ; yet none of these things are con-
sidered to be causes of crime and misery.
If it be true that the use of alcohol has any
genetic connection with crime, then those who
have served terms in the penitentiary, where
alcohol is excluded from their diet, should
after liberation be less disposed to crime
than before; but experience traverses this
conclusion.

The truth appears to be that, excluding
from consideration people having organic
proclivities crimeward, as Sir Thomas More
hath it, there is no " punishment so horrible
that it can keep them from stealing, which
have no other craft [or opportunity] whereby
to get their living " ; and further, as he saith,
" great and horriblepunishments be appointed
for thieves ; whereas, much rather provision
should have been made of some means where-
by they might get their living, so that no man
should be driven to this extreme necessity to
steal ; . . . for they that be thus destitute of
service [opportunity to work] either starve
for hunger or manfully {sic) play the thieves.
For what would you have them to do V . . .
what can they do but steal, ... or else go
about begging ? " Evidently the author of
Utopia saw no reason for blaming any par-
ticular article of diet or pleasure with the
making of thieves or the causing of misery !
It is a good rule, in scientific investigations,
when you have discovered a sufficient cause
for a particular phenomenon, there to rest
your case. George Pyburn.

Sacramento, Cal., January 21, 1896.

[Not having space for the whole of our
correspondent's letter, we print only that
part of it which bears more or less directly
on the point in dispute.

His contention, if we rightly interpret it,
seems to come to this : Since a great many
people drink who are neither criminals nor

698

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

criminally inclined, and who can not fairly be
included in the category of the miserable, it
is not true that crime and misery are to any
great extent chargeable to the use of alco-
hol. We said nothing about the number
who drink, nor did we refer to the quantity
of spirits or beer which may be taken with
impunity by the individual or that may be
distributed and consumed by the community
at large, these considerations being in our
opinion quite beside the question. The fact
should be sufficiently obvious that the prin-
cipal evil connected with the use of alcoholic
liquors lies in that excess which is commonly
known as drunkenness, the marked tendency
toward which is one of the most character-
istic features of the drinking habit.

Concerning the aggregate of crime and
distress that is plainly traceable to this form
of indulgence, there is in the absence of full
statistics abimdant room for a wide differ-

ence of opinion, ranging from an almost
total disbelief in the vicious effects of alco-
hol, to an equally undiacriminating claim
that it is at the bottom of most human ills.
For ourselves, we are not in sympathy with
either extreme. But when we see the papers,
particularly of our large cities, containing
daily numerous accounts of crimes of vio-
lence of all grades from simple assault to
murder, committed in the frenzy of intoxica-
tion, it is useless to shut our eyes to the fact
that alcohol is a most potent inciter to this
form of crime. Add to this its acknowledged
action in the causation of disease even among
moderate drinkers, its debauching influence
on the lower classes, the poverty that sooner
or later is sure to overtake the victims of
its immoderate use, and there can be little
question that it is also a most important
factor in the production of human misery. —
Editor.]

%&itox^s SaMje.

THE NATUBE OF LIBERTY.

TIME was when John Stuart
Mill's little book on the subject
of Liberty was thought rather ad-
vanced reading. It advocated indi^
vidualism — the right of every man to
think his own thoughts, utter his own
views, and live his own life without
unnecessary control or intimidation
by law or public opinion. It was an
attack on every form of bigotry and
an earnest appeal to all that is best
and most generous in human nature
to assert itself and make the world
richer and better by doing so. That
idea of liberty, however, is to-day to
many of our social reformers an
outworn mode of tliought, quite in-
adequate, they declare, to the needs
of the present time. An eminent
writer, Mr. W. D. Howells, has un-
dertaken to enlighten us on the sub-
ject in a recent number of The
Forum. Part of his article is very
much on the lines of certain chap-
ters in Mr. Spencer's Justice, but the
rest strikes out from those lines at
a wide angle.

Mr. Howells tells us that he was
in Venice '' during the last years of
Austrian oppression," and was a
witness of the earnest longings of
the people for the liberty which
they anticipated from union with
Italy. With these longings he
strongly sympathized, though his
I position being an official one, that of
consul, he could not venture to ex-
press his sympathy openly. He
says he had a suspicion that the peo-
ple were expecting more from "• lib-
erty" than they were likely to get
out of it ; but he assumed that '' by
and by, when they had been free
long enough," they would take the
American view of the matter and be
satisfied. "They would be able to
vote for this one and against that
one; to make their own laws or
choose legislators to make them ; to
speak or to print anything they
liked ; to go and come without ask-
ing for a passport; and this would be
sufficient, though it was not all they
had expected of liberty. It did not,"
Mr. Howells goes on to confess,

EDITOR'S TABLE.

699

"then occur to me that the Vene-
tians had a right to expect from a
free state what they unconsciously
and yet really expected — security
from want and from the fear of
want." Had such a notion been
suggested to him, he adds, he would
have laughed it to scorn.

Mr. Howells has lived to recog-
nize that citizenship in a free coun-
try does not always make a man
free. It is here that he agrees with
Mr. Spencer. Political liberty, he
says, "appears something final, abso-
lute, a good in itself ; but it is never
a good in itself, and is never final ;
it is a means to something good."
According to Mr. Spencer (Justice,
Chapter XXII), the man's real rights
are the right to live, or, as he more
comprehensively expresses it, to
" physical integrity," the right to free-
dom of movement, the right to receive
and enjoy what he has earned, the
right of free exchange, free contract
and free industry, and, finally, the
right of free belief, free worship, and
free speech. Apart from these, any
claims a man may have must, Mr.
Spencer says, be of a different kind
and "can not be classed as rights."
As regards the franchise, all we can
properly say of it is that it "gives
the citizens in general powers of
checking trespasses upon their
rights " — powers, he adds, " which
they may or may not use to good
purpose." That they are not always
used to good purpose is evidenced by
the fact that, in more than one
country where universal suffrage
exists, real rights are trampled on.
Our own country, we regret to say,
is used by the author of the Syn-
thetic Philosophy as an example.
"Universal suffrage," he observes,
" does not prevent the corruptions
of municipal governments, which
impose heavy taxes and do very
inefficient work ; does not prevent
citizens from being coerced in their

private lives by dictating what they
shall not drink ; does not prevent an
enormous majority of consumers
from being heavily taxed by a pro-
tective tariff for the benefit of a
small minority of manufacturers
and artisans ; nay, does not even
effectually preserve men from vio-
lent deaths, but in sundry States
allows of frequent murders, checked
only by law officei's who are them-
selves liable to be shot in the per-
formance of their duties."

When Mr. Howells, therefore,
made the discovery that political lib-
erty might not mean liberty in any
very wide sense, he discovered a truth,
and one of serious import ; but when
he went on and attached to the idea
of liberty certain advantages which
individual success in the carrying on
of life alone can give, he went, in our
opinion, very far astray, and formu-
lated a doctrine essentially danger-
ous to the well-being of society. We
really wonder how so broad and seri-
ous a thinker can bring himself to
write as he does in the article to
which we have referred. He says :
" If the Venetians had agreed with
Italy when they were united to it
that thenceforward all should be
guaranteed the means of livelihood,
they would really have all freed
themselves. If the French Revolu-
tion had established these conditions,
the first republic would still be one
and indivisible." The nature of lib-
erty, then, according to Mr. Howells,
is not alike for all men : to some it
means the right to claim a livelihood
from others, and to those others it
means the obligation to provide the
first with a livelihood. It would be
interesting to see a document drawn
up which should establish liberty in
this sense of the word ; and after it
was drawn up it would be interest-
ing to witness its execution. The
visages of the guaranteed parties
would, no doubt, betoken a consider-

yoo

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

able degree of relief and satisfaction
at having life's problem so comfort-
ably settled for them ; but the guar-
antors might be pardoned if they
were not in an equally jovial mood.
Where liberty comes in for the lat-
ter is a question we are not prepared
to answer. If it be explained that
under such an agreement everybody
would guarantee everybody, the an-
swer, which every one must feel to
be true and sufficient, is, briefly, that
that is nonsense.

A man is a freeman, Mr. Howells
says, '' if he has the means of liveli-
hood and is assured in their posses-
sion ; if he is independent of others.''
Other similar observations are : " Lib-
erty and poverty are incompatible."
**If (a man) has not the means of
livelihood in his hands, he can not
come and go when he will ; he can
not command his time, etc." "Lib-
erty is for those who have the means
of livelihood." Now, with the ut-
most respect for the motives of this
very able writer, we are compelled to
say that, in our opinion, he has here
written some very mischievous stufi'.
By identifying liberty with the ad-
vantages which flow from a more or
less successful conduct of life he vir-
tually authorizes, so far as his words
cany weight, those who have failed
to secure such advantages, or who
are not satisfied with the share they
have gained, to lay violent hands on
the possessions of others. It is deep-
ly ingrained in the general con-
sciousness that liberty is something
which communities and individuals
may vindicate for themselves — that
liberty is not a thing to sue for, but
to seize the moment you feel strong
enough. Mr. Howells comes for-
ward and says : " In wealth consists
liberty. You have not wealth, and
therefore you have not liberty ; you
are not free men. The only free
men in this nation are the men
of means, the men whose livelihood

is secure." Surely this is warrant
enough for those who accept it as
true for taking, without more ado,
the means of liberty ; in other words,
for overthrowing violently the pres-
ent organization of society. Mr.
Howells may say that he does not
think much of the present order of
society ; but does he see his way clear
beyond the chaos which would ensue
if his hint were taken ?

This is an old story ; still, as the
attacks on the true principle of lib-
erty are unceasing, we do not see
how the believers in that principle
can do aught else than continually
come forward in its defense. The
important distinction to be observed
is this: liberty is one thing; what a
man can accomplish with his liberty
is another. Some men can accom-
plish, and do accomplish, much ; oth-
ers, whether they can or not, do,
in point of fact, accomplish little or
nothing. It might not unreasonably
be said that such men are not fit for
liberty, and some of them prove it
by getting themselves incarcerated
for criminal practices. That, how
ever, is another matter. Mr. Howells
and others refuse to make this dis-
tinction ; they say that liberty is not
liberty unless you add thereto the
fruits of a successful conduct of life,
and that the community ought to
guarantee these fruits to every man.
We thus get the question into a nut-
shell. Mr. Howells and those who
think with him must hold that the
community could give such a guar-
antee and render it effectual ; we hold
that it could not, and there the argu-
ment must rest for to-day.

THE NEW NATURAL HISTOBT.

Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan, of
Bristol University, during January
gave a course of public lectures in
New York, under the auspices of
Columbia College. The main ques-

EDITOR'S TABLE,

701

tion considered was, How far is it
likely that the individual experiences
of parents are transmitted to off-
spring ? In discussing this ques-
tion Prof. Morgan gave the results
of some recent experiments hy him-
self and his students. A chick of a
common fowl, hatched in an incu-
bator, was secluded from parental
care, and found to be destitute of
knowledge that water is good to
drink. The little creature would
wade in water, and only when it
pecked its toes, and so incidentally
thrust its bill in the water, did it fill
its mouth and turn up its head in
the familiar thirst-quenching atti-
tude. Prof. Morgan inferred that it
is only by imitating its mother or in
imitating another chick that drink-
ing is usually learned. Hence, as a
chick is not left to its own ignorance
in the matter, natural selection has
never had a chance to eliminate
birds through their not knowing
how to drink. From the fact that
the instinct to drink is not trans-
mitted in perfection, Prof. Morgan
argues that it is not the inheri-
tance of experience acquired dur-
ing the individual life, but the
natural selection of favorable va-
riations, that determines survival.
However, in the case of the mega-
pode of the Philippine Islands, which
is hatched in a mound of vegetable
matter without parental care, it must
be that the chick is born with per-
fect instinct as to drinking.

Prof. Morgan found his chicks
born with an instinct to peck — at no
matter what — beads, pinheads were
as enticing as grain. One experi-
ment or two at most with a nauseous
caterpillar proved enough for care-
ful avoidance thereafter. Young
bullfinches left to themselves were
observed to pull primroses to pieces
in an utterly random fashion; but
some thirty trials taught them their
work perfectly, so that they came as

expertly as adult birds at the drop of
sweet dew within the flower. Their
intelligence did not create a new
activity, but selected from a number
of indeterminate acts the one act
which was both useful and pleasant,
the impulse, and the impulse only,
being instinctive.

A London bird fancier, in a large
way of business, was quoted by
Prof. Morgan as finding that young
linnets and thrushes brought up
among various other birds, never-
theless sang true; young bullfinches,
in the same circumstances, imitated
their neighbors. A student of Prof.
Morgan's secluded a young bullfinch
from all opportunity of observing
nests : its first nest was true in form,
but not true in material, although
the usual material could have been
chosen by it; its second nest was
true in both form and material. A
cat taught by Prof. Morgan to re-
trieve did not transmit the talent to
its family. There are on record
three cases of dogs and one of a
cat which did transmit to their off-
spring the capacity to " beg."

Prof. Morgan is to continue ex-
periments the prime interest of which
is in denoting that natural history
has entered upon a new stage. In-
stead of merely repeating old obser-
vations of birds and beasts, instead
of gathering their nests, eggs, and
skins as thousands have done before,
the naturalist, young or old, can
easily carry forward experiments in-
tended to throw light on unsettled
questions of profound interest. He
can observe how a bird varies its
song or the building of its nest un-
der circumstances which exclude
the possibility of imitation. He can
note the degree of domestication,
very great in the case of the quail,
possible with easily secured speci-
mens of wild birds. He can ascer-
tain whether " begging " or pointing
taught a dog, and unknown before

702

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in its race, is transmitted to its pup-
pies when these are secluded from all
chance of instruction or imitation.
The students who make natural se-
lection the be-all and the end-all of
evolution assume that it seizes upon
favoring variations, even the slight-
est, as they appear. Whether these
variations are indebted to parental
experience du*ectlj transmitted is a

question which only careful experi-
ment can decide. The significance
of the work when interpreted, the
charm of coming upon results wholly
new, must do much to extend interest
in natural history. Often that in-
terest comes early to a weary end
in the dust of common-place and
meaningless adding of shell to shell
and butterfl.y to butterfly.

SPECIAL BOOKS.

In these days when many wonders are being accomplished through
electricity, and greater ones are constantly expected, it is interesting to
glance backward into the times when the lodestone and the sulj^hur globe
stood for all that was known about this mysterious form of energy. Such
a glance is afforded us by Mr. Park Benjamiri's * popular history of the
advance of knowledge in this subject. Our author has ranged far and wide
to gather his material. He has laid under contribution the works of those
early philosophers who took all knowledge for their province, the Greek
and Roman classics, the results of modern investigation into the old civ-
ilization of Phoenicia, Egypt, and even of people of prehistoric epochs, the
Norse histories, the ancient writings of the Chinese and Arabs, the treatises
of the fathers of the Church, the works of mediaeval monks, magicians,
cosmographers, and navigators, etc. The significance of the title he has
chosen lies in the fact that he has aimed not so much to chronicle the
laying of fact upon fact in the building of the present science of electricity
as to show how the progress of the human intellect is indicated by the way
in which it has grappled with and overcome the problems in this field that
have successively presented themselves. He shows how mythology, which
was the world's resource for explaining strange phenomena when the lode-
stone became known, gave way to philosophy, and how philosophy in turn
yieJded its sway to science. Who first discovered that a freely suspended
magnet will point north and south our author does not undertake to say,
but from a careful examination of the allusions to the use of the compass
in Chinese writings, and a consideration of the Chinese character, he is
convinced that it was not the Chinese. For several centuries the deveJop-
ment of the compass was the only advance in the field of magnetism made
by Arabs or Northmen or the peoples of western Europe. Roger Bacon
made some interesting observations on the compass, but it appears that the
French engineer, Peter Perigrinus, of whom Bacon speaks in glowing
terms, made an experimental study of this instrument, which was far more
fruitful than any earlier efforts. Among other things he revealed the law

* The Intellectnal Rise in Electricity. By Park Benjamin.
ton & Co. Price, ^4.

Pp. 611, 8vo. New York : D. Apple-

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE, 703

that unlike magnetic poles mutually attract, he invented several forms of
compass, including the first which could be constantly used to steer by as
the modern mariner's compass is used, and he proposed the first magnetic
(electric) motor. Columbus figures in Mr. Benjamin's history as discover-
ing the line of no variation of the compass needle. After him comes Hart-
mann, who discovered the dip of the needle, then Sarpi, whom Galileo
addresses as " my father and my master," Porta. Cardano, and other learned
Italian physicians of the sixteenth century. These men prepared the way
for the important advances made by Queen Elizabeth's physician William
Gilbert, who is rightly regarded as the founder of the science of electricity,
even if Francis Bacon could never appreciate his talents. The young
science was fostered by Galileo and Descartes and von Guericke and the
Abbe Nollet on the Continent, by Newton and Boyle and Hauksbee in
England. Other men, also, less known to fame, were at work upon electrical
problems during the same period. Gilbert's discoveries did not fail to raise
up a swarm of charlatans, among whom Van Helmont and Kenelm Digby
stand forth prominently. The history stops with Franklin's demonstration
that lightning and electricity are identical. This, says Mr. Benjamin,
"brings to culmination the long series of events whereby the single incom-
prehensible effect observed in the lodestone and the amber gradually grew
into recognition as a world force, subject to universal law and pervading
all Nature." The volume is tasteful as to its mechanical features, and is
embellished by reproductions of many of the portraits and quaint engrav-
ings in the early books from which its material has been drawn.

Those who are desirous of improving the environment of the poor may
obtain valuable guidance from the eighth special report of the United
States Commissioner of Labor.* As would be expected, the greater part of
the report is devoted to model dwellings, other matters receiving some con-
sideration in the fore part of the volume. Dr. Gould tells what is being
done to secure better housing for the poor in New York, the chief cities of
Great Britain, and more briefly in western Europe, through building and
sanitary laws, and municipal condemnation of insanitary houses. Sanitary
aid societies have greatly furthered this end by co-operating with or spurring
on the public authorities in their work. A form of private effort that has
done much good is the rent-collecting agency of Miss Octavia Hill, in Lon-
don. The method pursued by her and the assistants whom she has trained
is both businesslike and philanthropic. She buys tenement houses with
capital furnished by those interested in her work, and undertakes the col-
lection of rents or the whole management of buildings for others, at fixed
rates. She rewards prompt payments and proper use of the premises by
making repairs and improvements in the buildings. The incorrigible are
turned out, but by the use of tact the number of these is kept very small.
The moral influence of her system has been to admit women to a greater
extent into the management of housing companies. In his account of
model buildings Dr. Gould takes up successively " block buildings " or flats,
small houses, and lodging houses. He describes model block buildings in
Brooklyn, New York, and Boston, and in large cities of Great Britain,

* The Housing of the Working People. Prepared under the Direction of Carroll D. Wright, Com-
missioner of Labor, by E. R. L. Gould, Ph. D. Pp. 4G1, 8vo. Washington.

704 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

France, Germany, Holland, and Sweden. Views and plans of many of
these buildings are given, which show that in securing convenient interiors
neat and attractive exteriors have not been sacrificed. Nearly all of the
groups of small houses described have been erected by large commercial
corporations for their workpeople. Judging from the number of examples
given here, France and Germany seem to lead in this sort of dwellings. In
the United States examples are taken from Maine, Massachusetts, Con-
necticut, and Illinois. The model lodging houses described are confined to
Baltimore and five British cities. The author of this report has given
prominence to the financial returns from model houses, being convinced
that there can be no permanent solution of the housing problem unless im-
proved housing can be shown to pay. Moreover, for the sake of tile self-
respect in the persons benefited, which a wise philanthropy seeks to build
up, Buch operations should be self-supporting. Model housing has a view
to the morals as well as the health of the tenants, aiming to correct the
abuse of adults and children of both sexes huddling into the same sleeping
rooms. In cities rapid transit has an important influence on the housing
problem. For the workingman's purposes space is measured by time, not
by distance. Taking into consideration all the agencies that are now oper-
ating against unwholesome congestion, the outlook is decidedly hopeful.

There is much food for thought in the relation between man and the
animals that he has trained to his service. The most obvious result of their
association with him has been to promote most efficiently his ascendency
over the actively hostile or inertly resistant features of his environment.
This association, also, has greatly modified the numbers, distribution, and
development of the domesticated animals, while the necessity of controlling
and caring for his dependents has had its influence upon the intellectual
growth of man himself. These considerations and others are suggested in
the attractive volume on the Domesticated Animals * recently issued from
the press of the Scribners. It is no dry and formal treatise that Prof.
Shaler here presents, nor yet a string of more or less authentic ''stories
about animals." He has pursued a happy mean by giving facts not only in-
teresting in themselves but having a bearing also upon those problems of
the origin, evolution, and intelligence of animals with which science has
long been engaged. The first place in the volume is given to the dog — the
first of the lower animals to be domesticated. Prof. Shaler discusses the
ancestry of domesticated dogs, the variations induced by civilization, the
evils of specialized breeding, and the future development of the species. He
describes the peculiarities of character exhibited in the principal breeds,
and gives considerable attention to canine intelligence, especially with ref-
erence to the expression of emotions. The intelligence of dogs is also com-
pared with that of other animals, and it is only in this comparison that cats
figure in the book. The horse is described in much the same way as the
dog. Briefer consideration is given to the beasts for burden, food, and rai-
ment, among which camels, elephants, and pigs are included with the com-
moner kinds. There is an interesting chapter on barnyard and water
fowl, pigeons, song birds, and falcons ; the few useful insects are also duly

• Domesticated Animals. By Nathaniel Southgate Shaler. Pp. 267, 8vo. New York : Charles
Scribner's Sons. Price, ^2,50.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

70s

considered. Prof. Slialer takes up the question, which has appeared only
in recent times, as to how far it is justifiable to inflict pain upon animals
for the benefit of man, and seeks to reconcile the opposing views on this
subject now current. He has something to say, also, on the general condi-
tions of domestication, which indicate the possible future of the art. The
volume is handsomely printed, and is bound and generously illustrated in
the style of the day.

GENERAL NOTICES.

The lack of a trustworthy and complete
work on dietetics * has long been felt among
medical men in this country. The dietary
of a patient is of no small importance in his
treatment, and Dr. Thompson, appreciating
this fact, seems to have adequately supplied
the want referred to. Of the seventy odd
chemical elements, thirteen regularly enter
into the composition of the body, and ten
more are occasionally found. Although
these are comparatively few in number, their
molecular arrangement is very complex. In
Part I, after a study of these elements as
they occur in food, the different foods and
food preparations are taken up individually
and studied from the various standpoints of
the dietician : How much force can be ob-
tained from them, how much heat, are they
stimulating or depressing, are they difficult
or easy to digest? etc. In Part II, the
chemical composition of the common stim-
ulants, beverages, and condiments is given,
and then their effects upon body and mind
are considered when used in moderation
and in excess. The ultimate dangers which
their habitual ingestion may lead to in
the shape of permanent tissue change, and
the special diatheses which absolutely con-
traindicate their use, are dwelt upon at
some length. Cooking, the preservation of
food, and the quantity of food required, are
the topics dealt with in Part III. The
changes which cooking and the various
methods of preservation — salting, smoking,
canning, etc. — produce in the chemical com-
position and digestibility of the food stuffs
are studied carefully. This is one of the
most important departments of dietetics, and
yet one which is usually given little atten-
tion. Part IV deals with special dietaries

• Practical Dietetics, with Special Keference
to Diet in Disease. By Gilman Tliompson, M. D.
Pp. 802, 8vo. New York : D. Appleton & Co.
Price, cloth, $5 ; sheep, $8.

VOL. XLvni. — 61

for infancy, old age, diet and heredity, cli-
mate and season and food, body weight and
food, etc. The physiology of digestion, and
the conditions which specially affect it, are
next considered. The chapter on the gen-
eral relation of food to special diseases, and
the diseases which are caused by dietetic
errors, will prove of great value to the lay-
man as well as the physician. Administra-
tion of Food to the Sick, Part VII, is also full
of practical data for the nonmedical. Part
VIII, which consists of about three hundred
pages, and which forms the main portion of
the book, is devoted to diet in special dis-
eases. Each disease is first described in a
general way, and then the appropriate diet
for it worked out. This chapter is prefaced
by some general remarks regarding the care
of the sick-room and the patient. Many of
the suggestions seem matters of little impor-
tance, but it is these small details that are
most frequently disregarded, and that are
oftentimes the deciding features in the case.
Rations and dietaries are discussed in
Part IX, army and navy diets, diet in pris-
ons, in athletic training, the various diet
" cures," diet and occupation, artificial in-
fant foods, and sleep and food, being some
of the special topics. An appendix con-
taining receipts for the preparation of in-
valid foods and beverages, and the list of
illustrations, finish up the eight hundred and
two pages. Dr. Thompson's book should be
on every physician's table, and as a part of
the general household library it would not
be out of place. A large portion of it bear-
ing on hygienic questions, its possession
might oftentimes prevent the necessity for
calling a doctor, through the prevention of
unhygienic feeding and the long train of
ills which follow in its wake.

We have already noticed the first two
half volumes of the noble work of the Pro-

7o6

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

f essor of Botany in the University of Vienna,*
and have endeavored to speak of it as its
merits deserve. The examination of the
concluding volume only enhances our appre-
ciation of its value, and, we might add, of
its interest, for it has real interest, such that
the unscientific or even the casual reader may
find that it has a story to tell him. The in-
troduction to the new parts comprises a brief
review of the sources of a history of plants,
showing how the description of the external
characters of plants as given by Theophras-
tus and Pliny and the earlier modern writers
gradually expanded into the study of the
conditions of their growth, reproduction, and
dissemination. Then came the discovery of
fossil plants, leading to the extension of
botany to the study of the ancestral history
of existing flora and the derivation and de-
velopment of species. This sketch outlines
the order of presentation in these two half
volumes, which follows the stages of devel-
opment of the science. " A history of the en-
tire plant world considered as a single great
community must be preceded by a history of
species. But each species is the sum of num-
berless individuals, which are alike in consti-
tution and have the same external charac-
teristics, and a history of species therefore
presupposes a knowledge of the history of the
individual. Accordingly, our first business is
to describe rejuvenescence, multiplication,
and distribution of individuals, and to show
by what means a plant, considered as a sep-
arate organism, maintains itself, takes pos-
session of its habitat and is enabled to keep
its hold on that habitat, up to the moment
when it is replaced by descendants endowed
with a vitality of their own." The discussion
of the Genesis of Plant Offspring relates to
asexual reproduction by spores and thallidia,
and by buds or roots, stems, and leaves ; to
reproduction by means of fruits, under
which the process from the beginning and
the office of the pollen, its protection, the
means of its dispersion by wind and by ani-
mals, the agencies that attract animals, the
crossing of flowers, and autogamy are de-
scribed ; and to changes in reproductive

* The Natural History of Plants. By Dr. An-
ton Kemer von Marilaun. Half volumeB HI and
IV. Pp. 983, large 8vo. New York : Henry Holt
& Co. Price, $7.50. London : Blackie & Son.
Price, 25«. net.

methods, including the replacement of fruits
by offshoots, parthenogenesis, and hetero-
morphism and alternation of generations.
The History of Species follows, comprising
the nature, alteration in the form, origin,
distribution, and extinction of species. The
work is completed by a glossary of fourteen
pages, and an index of fifty-nine closely
printed pages.

Nursery Ethics* is an attempt, and a
very successful one, to deal with the big
people of the nursery, fend to outline the
moral relations which ought to exist in this
little kingdom between the governing pow-
ers and the governed. It is a word well and
wisely spoken to mothers and to fathers. It
is not formal enough to be called a system
of morals. It might even be said to lack
what Matthew Arnold is said to have lacked
— " a philosophy with coherent, interdepend-
ent, subordinate, and derivative principles " —
but we find it on this account more effective.
Back of the running comment on nursery
affairs there lie a consistency and thorough-
ness which indicate that Mrs. Winterbum
has kept her fundamental ethical axioms
well in mind, if not in type, and has done no
violence to them. In this respect the little
book is eminently philosophic. Its one aim
is to secure justice for the little people. It
is a modem and improved form of Mrs, Do-
asyouwouldbedoneby. Those whose sense of
humor has been touched by Anstey and Frank
Flockton, or whose sense of justice has been
aroused by that too frequent sight, the abuse
of parental authority, will readily admit that
no rights are so sacred and inviolable as
the rights of little children, because none are
so absolutely defenseless. Such a crusade
might easily tempt one to rhetorical ex-
tremes, but Mrs. Winterbum has shown the
same self-restraint in dealing with her liter-
ary child that she so strongly recommends
to other parents in dealing with their chil-
dren of flesh and blood. The treatment is
full of feeling: it is enriched with deep,
womanly sentiment, but it is also calm and
clear, and its suggestions have a definite-
ness which gives them practical value.

In considering the attitude of parents

* Nursery Ethics. By Florence Hull Winter-
bum. New York : The Merriam Company. Pp.
841, 12mo. Price, $1.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,

7^7

and the nature of their authority, Nursery
Ethics shows very clearly what few parents
evidently realize — that the only foundation
for parental authority is the furtherance of
childish welfare. This is the strict limit.
Any further usurpation of authority is sim-
ple tyranny. Obedience to persons is also
shown to be without moral sanction. But
obedience to conditions imposed by events
is a large part of the discipline of life. This
is the sort of obedience we should teach our
children, and with what graciousness we can
teach it if we ourselves yield the same obe-
dience ! Above all, there should be no con-
flict of authority. No one detects this sooner
than a child, or sooner takes advantage of
it. The deepest moral lesson of the nursery
comes, as elsewhere, from a recognition of
the law of cause and effect. By associating
natural results with action, and by adjusting
punishments on the same ground, parents
may early begin that judicious abdication
of authority which is finally to lead to self-
government and the evolution of truly moral
beings. It is a pomt of profound wisdom to
let this abdication keep always a step in
advance of the child's demand for freedom.
The chapters on special problems in nursery
management deserve no less careful reading.
Mrs. Winterbum's book contains much
to commend. We believe that every word
of it is true. In style and outward dress it
is also attractive. If the ethical principles
which it so clearly develops could but find
an application in the nurseries of America,
the chief work of education would be accom-
plished at home, and the subsequent prob-
lems of school and college would be infinitely
easier than they are at present. We wish
the little book a most successful mission.

Since the general adoption of embryology
and histology as a part of the regular medi-
cal curriculum, there has been a large acces-
sion of works on this subject to our litera-
ture— more, it almost seems, than the demand
justifies. Many of them are translations,
and a very large proportion are not at all
suited to the elementary student. A certain
amount of confusion is inevitable, because
of the unsettled state of the subject, but the
chief difficulty has been the lack of an im-
partial treatment— -each author being inter-
ested in upholdmg one of the many theories,

and subordinating everything else to this
end. Dr. Hertwig's book* is fairly free
from this fault, and seems to have been
carefully arranged with reference to the
student's needs. As the title indicates, it
deals with cell physiology as well as anat-
omy. The book consists of nine chapters,
with numerous subdivisions under each.
Chapter I gives a general historical review
of the cell theory, the protoplasmic theory,
and the literature of the subject. The
Chemico-physical and Morphological Prop-
erties of the Cell is the title of Chapter II.
In the third, fourth, and fifth chapters the
vital properties of the cell are discussed.
These are followed by two chapters on The
Vital Phenomena of the Cell. The title of
Chapter VIII is Metabolic Changes occurring
between Protoplasm, Nucleus, and Cell Prod-
ucts, and Chapter IX closes the book with
a discussion of the cell as the elementary
germ of an organism, embracing theories of
heredity. The translation is well done de-
spite the difficulties, which must have been
considerable, as the editor says, in finding
English equivalents for many of the German
words. A good feature is the bibliography
which is given after each chapter, thus
enabling the student to readily follow out
more in detail any special point which he
may be curious about. The book is fairly
well illustrated.

The last ten years have been marked, in
botanical study, by numerous investigations
upon the Archegoniates^ as the ferns and
mosses are collectively called from the pe-
culiar character and resemblance of the or-
gan in them corresponding with the pistil,
and by the extension of our knowledge to
many forms which were hitherto but very
imperfectly known. But while the collected
results of the earlier investigations prompted
by Hofmeister's work have appeared for the
most part only in text-books, where limita-
tions of space prevented full justice bemg
done to them, those of the later researches
have only begun to find their way into the
text-books. The author, who is Professor

* The Cell : OutliUv^s of General Anatomy and
Physiology. By Dr. Oscar Hertv\ig. Pp. 868,
12mo. London : Swan, Sonnenschein & Co.
Price, 2\8. New York : Macmillan & Co.
Price, $3.

7o8

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of Botany in Leiand Stanford Junior Uni-
versity, has therefore undertaken the present
work * mainly for the purpose of presenting,
in somewhat detailed form, a summary of
the substance of the great mass of literature
upon the subject that has accumulated,
much of which is out of reach of the botan-
ical workers who have not access to the
great libraries. Papers published by him
from time to time have served as the basis
of the work, and these have been supple-
mented by somewhat extended series of ob-
servations, the results of which are pub.
lished now for the first time. The illustra-
tions were, as a rule, made by the author
from his own preparations, and most of
them expressly for this work. A bibliog-
raphy of fourteen pages and a full index
make the work complete as a book.

Limited as is the district to which this
volume of the work f is devoted, the south-
ern tier of counties and the coast from the
North Foreland to the Land's End, it presents
an extraordinary variety of outline, soil, and
climatic influences, and is hence of great in-
terest to the climatologist and health-seeker.
Each county is taken up separately. The
general geological features and the surface
configuration are first considered ; then the
climate, mortality statistics, and other facts
bearing on the healthfulness of the more im-
portant towns ; and finally a summing up of
the diseases which are aggravated by and
those benefited by a sojourn in this climate.
For instance, " rheumatism prevails gener-
ally in Cornwall, which therefore is to be
avoided by persons of rheumatic tendencies.
The county as a whole presents influences,
probably in the water, which are preventive
of urinary stone and gravel." Devonshire,
Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire, and the south-
eastern coanties are dealt with in detail, and
valuable conclusions drawn from their phys-
ical and climatic peculiarities. The portion
of the work on medicinal springs occupies

• The Structure and Development of MoBees
imd Ferns { Archegoniatae). By Douglas Houghton
Campbell. Pp- 544, 8vo. London and New York :
Macmillan & Co. Price, $4.50 ; Us.

t The Climates and Baths of Great Britain,
being the Report of a Committee of the Royal
Medical and Chirurgical Society of London. Vol.
I. Pp. 640, 8vo. New York and London : Mac-
miilan & Co. Pnce^ $6.50 ; 21«.

the last hundred pages, and consists of a
consideration of the chemical composition of
each water and its probable effect on the
body, especially with reference to diseased
conditions. The book contains a great deal
of interesting information, much of which
was before inaccessible to the general reader
and practitioner, and with the companion
volume promised will imdoubtedly take rank
as a standard treatise.

The rapid advances which have occurred
during the past decade in all the sciences
have been nowhere more marked than in the
department of surgery. They have made
necessary the publication of a book of 1082
octavo pages* as a supplement to a work of
six volumes which seven years ago was a
complete and exhaustive treatise on surgery.
Id. this volume the aim has been to obtain a
digest of accepted and valuable facts ; mere
novelty and possible future value not being
considered sufiBcient warrant for serious con-
sideration. In carrying out the intention to
make the volume a supplement to its prede-
cessors, the authors of the several articles
have so far as possible avoided repeating the
contents of the previous work. Some topics
were originally so elaborately treated as to
now require but little discussion, while others
— such, for instance, as brain surgery — which
may almost be said to have come into ex-
istence during the past seven years, have
called for more space than did the article in
the main portion of the work.

Diseases of the Vascular System and
Thyroid Gland \ is Part IV of a very
thorough and extensive treatise on modern
medical practice. While the subjects treated
in this volume are few in number, they are
of great importance to the general practi-
tioner. The first article, to which more than
half the volume is devoted, is on the diseases
of the heart and pericardium, and was written
by Dr. James T. Whittaker, of Cincinnati.
An interesting section of the paper is devoted

* The International Text-Book of Surgery.
Vol. VII. Edited by John Ashhurst. New York :
William Wood & Co.

t Twentieth Century Practice and Interna-
tional Encyclopaedia of Modem Medical Science.
In twenty volumes. Edited by Thomas L. Sted-
man, M. D. Vol. IV, Diseases of the Vascular
System and Thyroid Gland. Pp. 841, 8vo. New
York: William Wood & Co.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

709

to the neuroses of the heart, and the portion
on valvular affections also deserves special
mention. The next two articles, Diseases of
the Blood-vessels, by Dr, A. Ernest Sansom,
of London, and Diseases of the Lymphatic
Vessels, by Dr. Bertrand Dawson, also of
London, seem to be complete, and to bring
the subject up to date. The closing article
is one of especial interest, by Dr. George
Murray on diseases of the thyroid gland, in-
cluding myxoedema, cretinism, exophthalmic
goitre, and goitre, as well as inflammation and
neoplasms.

A Revision of the Deltoid Moths, by John
B. Smith, forms Bulletin No. 48 of a series of
Smithsonian publications which are intended
to illustrate the collection constituting the
National Museum. Under the general term
deltoids there are usually grouped in lists,
catalogues, and collections the moths of a
series of species and genera which have a
somewhat distinctive appearance and habitus,
but for which we have as yet no exclusive
characters. The home of the group is in
that region extending from Maine through
Canada, west to the Great Lakes, southward
along the Mississippi, and eastward through
Ohio along the southern boundary of Penn-
sylvania to the Atlantic coast. All the
species fly at night and are readily attracted
to light and sugar. The book is well made,
but will only be of interest to the specialist.
It is illustrated with fourteen plates.

The third edition of Mr. Alfred DanieVs
Text-book of the P rinciples of Physics {Mac-
millan & Co., $4) has recently come to us.
It maintains the characteristics of the pre-
vious editions, of clear statement and sim-
ple arrangement, and improves upon them
in the correction of some minor errors which
recent researches have brought to light, and
in the adoption of a uniform notation, which
will prove a great help to the student. Every
equation is considered from the point of view
of its dimensions, and this has necessitated
the modification of some of the original text
accordingly. The book is intended either
as a preparation for the more valuable
laboratory work of experimental physics or
for those who have no access to a laboratory,
and who must derive their physics entirely
from book reading. Any one having a fair
knowledge of mathematics ought to have

no diflBculty in following the text, which is
illustrated wherever clearness is gained.

A valuable little text- book on Alternat-
ing Currents, by JE. J. Houston and A. E,
Kennelly, is the latest volume of the Electro-
Technical Series to reach us. This subject
of alternating currents is probably the most
important and most difficult portion of mod-
em electrical science. It is the department
in which most of the advanced experimenters
are working, and from which new and valu-
able results may at any time be expected. A
very clear and simple explanation of the two
forms of currents is first given, their differ-
ences explained and accounted for, and the
means by which one may be transformed
into the other described. The more im-
portant commercial applications of the alter-
nating current in electric lamps and motors
are then described in detail. Chapter XVII,
which closes the book, discusses multiphase
motors. (W. J. Johnston Co., N. Y.)

The Fourteenth Annual Report of the
United States Geological Survey, for the
years 1892-1893, consists of two volumes,
the first of which contains the general reports
of the director and heads of divisions. The
second consists of a series of monographs
on geology and related subjects. The first
paper, by W J McGee, discusses the potable
waters of the eastern United States. He
first points out the large part which water
takes in our dietaries, and the dangers which
arise through its contamination; and then
gives a general history of the methods which
have been employed for storing and purify-
ing it. In the next article A. C. Peale deals
with the natural mineral waters of the United
States. The different varieties are named
and classified, and the paper is closed by an
extended index of the mineral springs, ar-
ranged according to States. The Results of
Stream Measurements is the title of the
third paper, by F. H. Newell. The methods
and special instruments by which the meas-
urements are made are first described, and
then the data resulting from their employ-
ment on various rivers are given. Besides
these there are articles on the Laccolitic
mountain groups of Colorado, Utah, and
Arizona ; The Gold-Silver Veins of Ophir,
California ; Geology of the Catoctin Belt ;
Tertiary Revolution in the Topography of

710

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the Pacific Coast ; The Rocks of the Sierra
Nevada; Pre-Cambrian Igneous Rocks of
the Unkar Terrane, with Dotes on the pe-
trographic character of the lavas ; on the
Structure of the Ridge between the Taconic
and Green Mountain ranges in Vermont ; The
Structure of Monument Mountain in Great
Barrington, Mass. ; and The Potomac and
Roaring Greek Coal Fields in West Virginia.

Whitens Outline Studies in the History of
the United States (American Book Co., 30
cents) is an exercise book in which are
printed questions which the pupil is to an-
swer by writing or drawing in the blanks left
for the purpose, or by marking localities on
outline maps.

A volume of Short Studies in Nature
Knowledge has been prepared by William
Gee as an introduction to the science of
physiography (Macmillan, 3«. 6<f., $1.10).
The chief geographical topics are taken up
in successive chapters, beginning with the
Great Globe itself and following with Moun-
tains, Valleys, and Great Plains, The Sea,
Rivers and their Work, The Winds of Heav-
en, The Force and the Filigree of Frost, etc.
In style and language the book is adapted to
pupils of an advanced grade. It is purely
descriptive, and while containmg a great
number of facts the text is always readable
and is frequently adorned with poetical quo-
tations. Over a hundred illustrations, a glos-
sary, and an index add to the value of the
book.

Dr. Boffer S. Tracy has put the chief
rules of sanitation into a compact and handy
form in his Handbook of Sanitary InfoiTna-
tion for Householders (Appletons, 50 cents).
Taking as the object of sanitary science to
secure good air, good food, and good water,
he tells first how proper ventilation is to be
provided. His longest chapter is that on
house drainage, which contains the rules of
the Board of Health of New York city.
Thei-e is a chapter on disinfection, supple-
mented by a list of the common disinfect-
ants, with a brief description of each, and
the average price at retail. With regard to
foods he tells what adulterations are found
in the chief articles of consumption and how
they may be detected. Means of testing
water and guarding against impurities in it
are also given. An appendix contains a list

of the materials needed for fitthig up water-
closets, with prices.

A second edition has appeared of The
Theory of Light ^ by Thomas Preston (Mac-
millan & Co., 15s., $5), which was noticed in
this magazine in 1891. In the new edition
the text has been revised and has been aug-
mented by more than a hundred pages of
new matter, in conjunction with which sev-
eral new diagrams have been introduced.
The changes occur chiefly in those portions
which relate to the rectilinear propagation of
light, wave reflection and refraction, and the
application of graphic methods to the solu-
tion of diffraction problems. More detail
has been introduced in some places, especial-
ly in the chapter on the velocity of light,
where the experiments of Prof. Newcomb
have been described.

The Report of the Department of Health
of the City of Chicago for 1894 is notable as
covering the latter and more serious half of
an epidemic of smallpox Lasting from the
middle of 1893 to the middle of 1894. By
vigorous preventive and remedial measures—
over a million free vaccinations being per-
formed— the deaths were kept down to a
total of 1,033. This gave a rate of 5*58 to
each 10,000 of population against 16-'74 in
1864, l'7-80 in 1872, and 23-07 in 1882,
which were epidemic years. The experience
of the health officers in many difficult cases
that they had to deal with are given. The
report includes a description of the water
supply of Chicago by the Commissioner of
Health, Arthur R. Reynolds, M. D., the vital
statistics of the city, and special reports on
the municipal laboratory, on sanitary and
meat inspection, on smoke nuisances, and free
public baths.

The American Book Company has issued
several simple German texts in board covers
at 25 cents each. Three of them now before
us are by Seidel and Stifter^ two writers of
the present century characterized by their
naturalness of style. Each book contains
about fifty pages of text and a twenty-page
vocabulary. They are printed in the Schwa-
bacher type, which is more open and hence
more grateful to the eyes than the ordinary
German print. In cheaper form and smaller
are the Gerraania Texts, edited by A. W.
Spanhoofd (10 cents each). They are de-

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,

711

signed to supply to advanced classes speci-
mens of the less familiar German authors
which have been accessible only in expensive
volumes. Among the authors already or
soon to be represented are Cholevius, Gervi-
nus, Biirger, Kurz, Goethe, and Khull. The
selections are printed in Roman type.

A system of abbreviations has been pub-
lished by its inventor, Rev. Z>. A. Quinn,
under the title Stenotypy (the author, 125
Governor Street, Providence ; paper, $ I ;
cloth, $1.50). It is designed as a substitute
for shorthand, to be used on the typewriter,
but there is nothing to prevent its being
written with the pen or printed from type.
The inventor claims that a hundred and
twenty words a minute can be written in this
system by an ordinary and three hundred
words a minute by an expert typewriter
operator, and that only a few hours are
needed for learning it in place of the many
weeks or months required for learning short-
hand. He recommends it especially for use
with the telegraph and for persons who read
addresses from manuscript, as well as for all
mercantile and newspaper work. The first
line of Hamlet's soliloquy appears as follows
in stenotypy : 2 B R nt 2 B T Z ' qst 6.

The lAst of Books for Girls and Women
prepared by Augusta If. LeypolcU and George
lies (Library Bureau ; cloth, $1 ; paper, 60
cents) brings helpfully together inquirers
and authorities in the literature of art, sci-
ence, and recreation. Its twenty-one hun-
dred works have been chosen by specialists
of mark, who add descriptive and critical
notes of refreshing independence. Although
the list is designed for girls and women,
nine tenths of its titles and fully half its
hints for clubs would serve boys and men
very gainfully. The editors state that this
list will probably be followed by others more
detailed, the aim being to pass brief, compe-
tent judgments on the whole working litera-
ture of our time.

The Sexuality of Nature, by L. H. Grin-
don (Boston, Mass. : New-Church Union, 75
cents), attempts to prove that "Nature is a
system of nuptials. Everything in creation
partakes either of masculine or feminine
qualities. Animals and plants, earth, air,
water, color, heat, light, music, thought,
speech, the sense of the beautiful, the adap-

tation of the soul for heaven — all exist as
the offspring or products of a kind of mar-
riage." Under the consideration of inorganic
substances we find: "And again, by the mar-
riage of oxygen and nitrogen, two gases in-
visible and innocuous, nitric acid, a yellow,
ferocious liquid, is produced." The book is
a novel one, and may interest the psychol-
ogist. Its science, however, seems rather
uncertain, as the formation of a " ferocious
liquid," nitric acid, by the "marriage" of
oxygen and nitrogen, is something that has
not as yet been successfully accomplished in
the laboratory.

Pan- Gnosticism, by Noel Winter (Trans-
atlantic Publishing Co.), is described on its
title-page aa " the outlines for a methodized
course of thought, in which is submitted a
proposition transfiguring the present ulti-
mate conclusions of philosophy : and to the
effect that inscrutability is a delusion ; or, in
other words, that the conditions necessary to
absolute mystery involve an absurdity."

A volume of short passages in prose and
verse — from two to five to a page — all relat-
ing to Patriotic Citizenship, has been pre-
pared by Thomas J. Morgan (American Book
Co., $1). The matter is carefully arranged
on a plan intended to stimulate an intelligent
patriotism. A large number of authors and
speakers, mostly American, has been drawn
upon, ranging in time from Edmund Burke
and Patrick Henry to persons now promi-
nent in literature and affairs. An appro-
priate illustration stands at the head of each
chapter.

A collection of Readings and Recitations
for Jewish Homes and Schools, made by Isa-
bel E. Cohen, has been issued by The Jewish
Publication Society of America, Philadelphia.
The selections are mostly poems dealing
with episodes in Hebrew history and legend,
and are drawn from the works of the best
English and American writers. Among the
names oftenest appearing are Byron, Dis-
raeli, Emma Lazarus, Longfellow, Charles
Reade, and Whittier.

Results of Primary Triangulation, by H.
Gannett, is the title of Bulletin No. 122 of
the United States Geological Survey. The
triangulation of the survey is executed solely
for the primary control of topographic work
upon scales not exceeding 1 : 62,600. The

712

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

extreme of accuracy is not therefore sought,
but only such a degree as to insure that the
maximum accumulated error will be imper-
ceptible upon the maps. The results are ar-
ranged in chapters by geographical groups,
and as an introduction to each chapter there
is given a description of the work, outlining
the methods employed and instruments used.
The groups into which the work is divided
are roughly as follows : New England, the
Middle Atlantic States, the Southern Appa-
lachian Region, some of the North Middle
States, the Black Hills of South Dakota,
Aspen, Colorado, and portions of California,
the plateau region of New Mexico and Ari-
zona, Texas, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and
Kansas. There are a number of triangula-
tion maps which illustrate the work done in
the various groups.

The second volume of Prof. Wiley's Prin-
ciples and Practice of Agricultural Analysis
(Chemical Publishing Company, Easton, Pa.,
$2) is devoted to fertilizers. In the first
three divisions the determination of phos-
phoric acid, nitrogen, and potash is de-
scribed, the official methods and a number
of other processes being given in each case.
The fourth and concluding part is devoted to
the examination of miscellaneous fertilizers,
some of mineral and others of organic origin.
The general principles of fertilizer manufac-
ture and application have been presented, in
so far as they seemed to the author to throw
light on the rational method of examination
and analysis. A list of authorities cited is
given at the end of each division of the vol-
ume, and there are seventeen figures of ap-
paratus.

PUBLICATIONS EECEIVED.

Agricultural Experiment Stations. Michijjan
State Apr cultural Collece : Farmers' luhtitutes,
Winter, 1894-'95.— New Hampshire College: Agri-
culture and the Mechanic Arts : Agricultural
College Extension; An Agricultural College at
Home. — New York Station: Currants.— Ohio Sta-
tion: The Grape-root Worm.— Purdue University
Station: The Improvement of Unproductive Black
Soils.— United States Department: North Ameri-
can Fauna, No. 10 ; Weather and Crop Ser\'ice,
Vol. V, No. 12.

Bailey, L. H. Plant Breeding. London and
New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 293. $1.

Brittain, John. Teacher's Manual of Nature
Lessons. St. John, N B. : J. and A. McMillan.
Pp. 115.

Bulletins, Catalogues, Reports, Reprints, etc.
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
Publications. Pp. 515-5.S0. — American Chemical
Society. Programme of Twelfth General Meet-
ing, 1895.— Boas, Herr Franz. Zur Anthropologic
der Nordamerikanischen Indianer, aus den Ver-
handlungen der Berliner anthropologischen Ge-
eellschaft.— Bruen. A. J. Our Charities, etc.—
Call, R E. The Unionidae of the Ohio River and
The Strepomatidae of the Falls of the Ohio. From
Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science,
No. 4, 18M. — Chicago Academy of Natural Sci-
ences. Bulletin, Vol. II, No. 2. Outline of New
Classification of the Muricidse ; also Thirty-eighth
Annual Report, 1895.— Fewkes, J. W. A Contri-
bution t ) Ethnobotany. From American Anthro-
pologist, January, 18^6.- Field Columbian Mu-
seum. Publication 7, Vol. I, No. 2. On Certain
Portions of the Skeleton ot Protostega Gigas —
Forbes. E. H. Epidote from Huntington, Mass.,
and The Optical Properties of Epidote. From
American Journal of Science, Vol. f, 1896. - Geo-
logical Society of America. Bulletin, Vol. VII,
pp. 31-94. Glacial Deposits of the Southwestern
Alberta in the Vicinity of the Rocky Mountains,
and Geographical Evolution of Cuba — Guiteras,
John, M. D. The United States and Cuba. Re-
view of Documents relating to Intervention of the
United States m Affairs of Spanish -American
Colonies. Pp. 17.— Harvard College Astronomical
Observatory. Rieport for Year ending September
30, 1895.— Hinsdale, Guv, M. D. Recent Measures
for the Prevention and Treatment of Tuberculo-
sis. From Transactions, American Clim' tological
Association, for 1893.— Light Cars. Sheffield Car

Company. Pp. 96.— Pybum, Dr. George. The
Responsibility of Men of Science in Relation to
Social Problems.- Railways, Income Account of.
Interstate Commerce Commission, Publication of.
— RotJ?ell, W. E. Birds of Narburth, Pa., and
Vicinity.— Seaman, William H. Relations of
Chemistry to Education. Address of Retiring
President of Chemical Society of Washington. —
Simonds, Frederic W. Floating Sand. From
American Geologist, Vol. XVII, January, 1896.—
Smithsonian Institution. Proceedings of the
United States National Museum, Vol. XVII, 1894.
— Talmage, J. E. University of Utah. Notes
concerning a Peculiarly Marked Sedimentary
Rock from Vicinity of Glen Canyon, Arizona.—
University of the State of New York. Report of
Extension Department, 1894.— Ward, Lester F.
Plutocracy and Paternalism. From Forum, No-
vember, 1895; and Sociology and Biology. From
American Journal of Sociology, November, 1895.

Chavez, Ezeguiel A. Geografia Elemental.
Paris and Mexico: Ch. Bouret. Pp. 79.

Chittenden, Hiram Martin. The Yellowstone
National Park Illustrated. Cincinnati: The Rob-
ert Clarke Co. Pp. 397.

Columbian, The. Monthly, Illustrated. Pp.
90. 10 cents.

Cooke, M. C. Introduction to the Stu'y of
Fungi. London: Adam and Charles Black. New
York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 360. $3.50.

Curry, J. L. M. Difficulties connected with
the Education of the Negro. Pp. 23. 25 cents.

Dall, William Healey. Alaska as it was and
is. Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of
Washington.

Douglas. James. Cantor Lectures on Recent
American Methods and Appliances employed in
ihe Metallurgy of Copper, Lead, Gold, and Silver.
London: William Trounch. Pp. 41, Is.

Drown, Thomas Messinger, Lehigh University.
The Educational Value of Engineering Studies.
Pp. 30.

Education, Report of Commissioner of, for the
Year l892-'[;3. Washington: Government Print-
ing Office. Pp. 1224.

Glazebrook, R. T Mechanics, an Elementary
Text-book, Theoretical and Practical. New
York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 208, $2.25.

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

713

Harvard College Astronomical Observatory
Annals. A Catalogue of 7,922 Southern Stars ob-
served with the Meridian Photometer during the
Years 1889-'91, by S. I. Bailey ; Observations
made at the Blue Hills Meteorological Observa-
tory in the Year 1894 ; Observations of the New
England Weather Service in the Year 1894,

Hioms, Arthur H. Principles of Metallurgy.
New York and London: Macmillan & Co. Pp.
388. $1.60.

Holman, Silas W. Computation Rules for
Logarithms. New York and London : Macmillan
& Co. Pp text 4.5, tables 73. $1.

Hudson, W. H. British Birds, with a Chapter
on Structure and Classification by Frank E. Bed-
dard. Illustrated. New York and London: Long-
mans, Green & Co. Pp. 363. $3.50.

Jameson, Charles D., State University of Iowa.
Portland Cement. A Monograph. Pp. 192.

Jordan, David Starr, and Starks, E. C. The
Fishes of Puget Sound. Pp. text 69, plates 30.
Leland Stanford, Jr., University Publications.

Marey, E. J. Movement. New York: D. Ap-

?ileton «fe Co. International Scientific Series, No.
3. Pp. 323. $1.75.

Roth, Filibert, Timber. Pp. 88. United
States Department of Agriculture. Bulletin No. 10.

Schultz, F. W. Politics and Patriotism. Bos-
ton: Arena Publishing Co. Pp. 496.

Smith, George H. The Theorj of the State.
Pp. 160. Proceedings of the American Philosoph-
ical Society, Vol. XXXIV, No. 14P.

Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 989.
The Composition of Expired Air and its Effects
upon Animal Life. Pp. 81.

Society for Psychical Research, Proceedings
of. Part 29, Vol. II. Pp. 303. London: Kegan
Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.

Technical Journal, The. Monthly. New York.
Pp. 16. 50 cents a year, 10 cents a copy.

Terrestrial Magnetism. An International Qnar-
terly. The University of Chicago Press. $2 a
year, 50 cents a copy.

Thompson, C. J. S. The Chemisfs Compen-
dium. New York and London: Whittaker & Co.
Pp. 239. $1.

Turpin, G. S. Practical Inorganic Chemistry.
New York and London: Macmillan & Co. Pp.
158. CO cents.

Williams, R. P. Chemical Experiments, Gen-
eral and Analytical. Boston and London: Ginn
& Co. Pp. ICG.

'^XUQXtitUtS 0t ^titutt.

Three Blind Deaf-mntes. — Three blind
deaf-mutes whose faculties have been devel-
oped from a completely latent condition
are subjects of special notice in the report
of the Perkins Institution for the Blind,
Boston. Edith Thomas is described as fur-
nishing convincing testimony to the effi-
cacy of the system which is pursued in
training such children. She has a good
share of common sense, but is a little averse
to intellectual exertion. Yet she is improv-
ing fast, gaining knowledge regularly and
systematically, and is " steadily becoming
more skillful, attentive, thoughtful, logical,
and earnest, and the stream of her thoughts
grows broader, deeper, and richer." She is
fond of letter-writing, and does it with in-
creasing facility of expression ; while her
letters show that she appreciates the pleas-
ures of life, and despite her privations en-
joys them highly. She likes reading and be-
ing read to, but wants her books true to life,
and will not listen to fairy or highly imagi-
native stories. She is able to appreciate the
rhythm of poetry, and Whittier and Tenny-
son are among her favorites. She dislikes
arithmetic and is backward in it, but is pro-
ficient in geography. She has learned to mold

maps in clay, and is able to repeat accurately
the details of the surface of the regions she
has studied. At the school commencement
of 1894 she modeled the map of Massachu-
setts, divided it into counties in the presence
of the audience, and pointed out the natural
features and the towns with her left hand,
while with her right hand she spelled the
names into the hand of a blind classmate,
who announced them. She has become a
skillful dolls' dressmaker without the aid of
patterns, and in teaching the use of the
Braille typewriter to her companions she
has exhibited the qualities of a strict disci-
plinarian. Willie Elizabeth Robin, now ten
years old, came to the institution four years
ago, totally blind and deaf, and ignorant of
language. She has become proficient in
reading, writing, elementary zoology, articu-
lation, and knitting and sewing by the Sloyd
method. She has even learned to use her
tongue rather than talk with her fingers.
She is specially interested in studying ani-
mal forms, and searches out the minute de-
tails of their structure. She is expected to
tell all she can discover of each specimen
given her ; to represent it in clay ; and after-
ward to write down what she has learned.

7H

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Of a crayfish studied thus, she reported : " It
has eight arms and two legs and a tail and
two eyes, it has an body, it lives in the wa-
ter. The body is hard and the arms and
the legs are not strong, they are soft."
Tommy Stringer came to the kindergarten
department feeble, inert, exhibiting few
signs of intelligence, and seemingly devoid
of most of the impulses of children. He is
now full of eager curiosity concerning the
world about him, enjoys life, and is bright,
affectionate, and extremely fond of fun. He
is at the head of his class in some of his
studies. He is remarkably interested in mat-
ters of housekeeping and domestic economy.
He has a strong bent toward zoological study.
In a talk about fish his attention was drawn
to the backbone. He felt it carefully from
end to end, and then passed his fingers up
and down his own backbone to show the
correspondence. " On discovering the eyes,
mouth, nostrils, etc., of the frog, he pointed
to similar features of his own ; and when he
found joints in the frog's hind legs, he im-
mediately began looking for the joints of
his own body and found nearly all." No
seeing boy's portrait is more animated in ex-
pression than his.

Glaclation in High Latitudes.— In his

Glacial Studies of Greenland, Mr. T. C.
Chamberlin regards the effect of latitude on
glaciution merely in the light of such results
as may be attributed to the constancy of
the sun above or below the horizon, the low
angle of incidence of its rays, their impact
from all points of the compass, and similar
features. A partial means of determining
what these are is found by comparison be-
tween the glaciers of Disco Island, only a
httle within the Arctic Circle, and those of
Inglefield Gulf, eight and a half degrees
farther north. The Disco glaciers seem to
have all the familiar characteristics of gla-
ciers south of the Arctic Circle, while the
Inglefield glaciers take on habits significant
of their high latitude. The feature which is
likely first to impress the observer on reach-
ing the glaciers of the north is the vertical-
ity of their walls. Southern glaciers termi-
nate in curving slopes, and the Disco glaciers
have the same habit ; but the margins of the
Inglefield glaciers rise abruptly like an es-
carpment of rock, a hundred or a hundred

and fifty feet or more. The layers of ice
are cut sharp across, exposing their edges.
This, however, is not quite universal, as slop-
ing forms occur here and there. Occasion-
ally a glacier presents both aspects. These
abrupt terminal walls turn toward all points
of the compass. Next to verticality, the
most impressive feature is the pronounced
stratification of the ice, which is vastly more
evident than in ordinary glaciers. The ice
is almost as distmctly bedded and laminated
as are sedimentary rocks. The movement of
these glaciers is in most cases exceedingly
slow, and many of the ordinary signs of
movement are absent ; but a few glaciers at
the head of the gulf which produce large
icebergs are notable exceptions to the rule.
Several of the glaciers observed show evi-
dence of retreat. One was seen overriding
its terminal moraine in one portion and re-
treating within it at another, a fact indicat-
ing that it had been stationary for a consid-
erable period. The combination of various
evidences leads the author to regard the in-
ference as imavoidable that the ice in Green-
land, on its western slope at least, has never
in recent geological times advanced very
greatly beyond its present border. " This,"
Mr. Chamberlin adds, " carries with it the
dismissal of the hypothesis that the gla-
clation of our mainland had its source in
Greenland."

Indians of Piedmont Virginia. — The

earliest accounts of the Indians of the Pied-
mont region of the South Atlantic States are
given by Lederer, who explored the country in
1670, and Beverley. According to Beverley,
as quoted by Mr. James Mooney in his paper on
the Siouan Tribes of the East, each Virginian
tribe had a particular tribal mark — such as
one, two, or three arrows arranged to point
upward, downward, or sidewise — painted on
the shoulders, by which its members could
be distinguished when away from home.
The Virginia Assembly found these marks
useful in the recognition of friends, and had
badges made and distributed among the
tribes, without which no Indian was allowed
to come to the settlement. For counting,
these Indians used pebbles or bundles of
short reeds or straws. Heaps of stones in-
dicated the number of persons killed on a
battle ground or of emigrants to some dis-

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE,

7^5

tant region. Time was measured and a rude
chronology was arranged by means of strings
of leather with knots of various colors, very
much as in Peru. This system proved so
convenient in dealing with the Indians that
it was adopted for the purpose by a governor
of South Carolina. At certain ceremonies
reeds or straws were arranged in a particu-
lar order, and left thus in place after the
ceremony, as a record of the character of the
performance there enacted. They were never
disturbed, as it was deemed a sacrilege to
interfere with them. Their pictograph sys-
tem is described as having been capable of
symbolizing mental qualities as well as spir-
itual things. The English were symbolized
under the figure of a swan, on account of
their white complexion and their power of
flight across the sea. Their traditional his-
tory was delivered in the form of long narra-
tives from the fathers to the children, who
were obliged to learn them by heart. Among
the Saponies fire was made by rubbing to-
gether two dry sticks of prepared wood, a
process that required about ten minutes. On
the occasion of any religious ceremony a new
fire was made from two sticks which had
never been used before. A strong thread
was made from the fiber of a kind of " silk
grass," with which baskets were woven and
the aprons that formed the chief part of a
woman's dress. Spoons were made of buf-
falo horn, and the Indians believed that
these spoons would split and fall to pieces if
poison was put into them. It was believed
that venison and turkey must never be cooked
together, under penalty of provoking the
anger of the hunting gods.

Systematic Archeeologle Work in Iowa.

— A definite plan of research upon the
archoDology of Iowa was formulated several
years ago by Prof. Frederick Starr. It em-
braced the preparation of a bibliography and
of a summary, from which those interested
may learn what has been done, the organiza-
tion of exploration in every part of the State,
publication of a report on such exploration
and of a map showing the places where
relics, etc., have been found, and finally the
preparation of sets of illustrations and
models of specimens, mounds, etc., to be dis-
tributed to schools, colleges, and scientific
and historical societies within the State.

The Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences
has published the bibliography and the sum-
mary, both prepared by Prof. Starr. The
latter is a brief description of the finds that
have been made from time to time, arranged
alphabetically by counties, and accompanied
by a number of small maps and other cuts.
By a wide distribution of this publication
through the State of Iowa it is hoped that a
body of helpers and coworkers may be
raised up to work under direction toward
definite ends.

M. Tronve's Acetylene Lamp.— Through
the accidental discovery, in the electric
furnace, of carbide of calcium, there has ap-
peared a new lighting gas, acetylene. Up to
this time the gas (CaHa) had been simply a
laboratory product, discovered by Davy in
1836. It was found, however, that when
calcium carbide, a peculiar spongy material,
was plunged into water, acetylene was given
off in abundance. It burns with a steady
snow-white flame of great brilliancy and high
candle power. M. Trouv6, says La Nature,
has recently invented a practical lamp for
generating and burning acetylene. The
reservoir of the lamp is of glass and contains
a metallic box in which is placed the calcium
carbide. This box is connected with a stop-
cock, leading to a small gas burner which
projects from the top of the reservoir, and is
so arranged that as the water in the reservoir
is allowed to enter and act on the calcium
carbide, acetylene is generated and passes
out to the burner where it may be ignited.
The admission of water to the calcium car-
bide has to be carefully regulated, so as not
to cause a too rapid evolution of the gas.
The lamp resembles an ordinary drop light
in appearance, and may be made in a variety
of forms, lending itself readily to decorative
purposes.

Ice Saws for Opening Navigation. — It is

stated in the Journal of the Society of Arts,
on the authority of the United States consul
at Ghent, that a successful ice-sawing ap-
paratus, by which bodies of fresh water may
be kept open for navigation in the winter, is
in use on the river Scheldt at Antwerp. It
consists of a strongly built boat with rounded
sides, carrying a small portable steam engine.
At the bow a movable framework which may

7i6

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be raised or lowered at will carries the axes
of two circular saws ; these latter are operated
by power from the portable engine. The
boat itself is moved by means of a rope vxxn
over a windlass, the loose end of the rope
being attached to an anchor fixed in the ice
at a distance in front of the boat, and in the
direction to be taken. The framework con-
taining the saws is placed at a suitable height,
according to the thickness of the ice, and
the saws are set in motion. Being separated
from each other by a distance of about five
yards, they cut out a band of ice which the
boat breaks into fragments by its forward
movement. By reason of its form it causes
these fragments to scatter before it — that is
to say, to disappear on the right and on
the left under the ice remaining in place.
Through ice two inches thick this machine
forced a passage at the rate of twenty feet
per minute. In eight-inch ice the advance
was about one third of a mile per day.

The Cost of an Epidemic. — In a recent
number of the British Medical Journal, Dr.
Munro gives the following interesting statis-
tics : In the course of an epidemic of enteric
fever in 1893 there occurred eight hundred
and fifty-nine cases, and seventy-four people
lost their lives. The loss in wages was $16,-
455 ; the cost of treatment was $21,4'75 ; fu-
neral expenses, $1,850. Adopting Farr's esti-
mate of the average value of an individual as
a wage-earner, $795, we have for the seventy-
four deaths the large sum of $58,830. So
that the pecuniary loss to the community,
arising in connection with the epidemic,
amoimted to a total of $98,610. A con-
sideration of these figures, says Dr. Munro,
might well suggest the reflection whether any
investment was calculated to yield a better
pecuniary return than the expenditure in-
volved in the operations of the Public Health
Department, which has for its main object
the prevention of epidemics.

In the Frankincense Country. — Near
Cape Risut, on the coast of Arabia, Mr.
Theodore Bent, in his exploration of the
frankincense country, found the trees cover-
ing a large tract. They have bright green
leaves like those of the ash, small green
flowers, and insignificant fruit. Frankincense
was the old staple of trade in this district,

and it is still gathered in three places in the
Gara Mountains, and is classified in three
qualities. It is only collected in hot weather,
before the rains begin, in March, April, and
May, for during the rains the trails in the
Gara Mountains are impassable. The col-
lectors cut the stem, and after seven days
return to collect the gum which has exuded.
This they do three or four times a month.
In the cool weather, as the gum comes down
slowly, they leave the trees alone. The trees
belong to the various families of the Gara
tribe, each of them being marked and known
to its owner. The product is sold wholesale
to traders who come after it. This odorifer-
ous gum was much more prized for temple
worship and household consumption than it
is now, and so precious was it that the
old Sabaaan merchants invented marvelous
stories of genii and dragons guarding the
trees and of the woods exhaling deadly odors,
in order to protect them from too curious
and enterprising trespassers.

Seebohm the Ornithologist.— The science
of ornithology has sustained a severe loss in
the death of Mr. Henry Seebohm, which took
place at his home in London, November 26,
1895. From a brief biographical sketch in the
London Spectator we take the following : Com-
ing of an old Quaker family, and from child-
hood an enthusiastic observer and collector,
when he later in life became a large steel man-
ufacturer at Sheffield, he still found time to
make numerous excursions to foreign lands,
in order to see for himself the English migra-
tory birds in their temporary homes. His His-
tory of British Birds and their Eggs is one of
the best works of its class. Among the many
trips which he took to clear up some question
of migration or habitat, the one which led to
his discovery of the north coast tundras as
the great breeding ground for a large class
of European birds is one of the most inter-
esting. In looking for the breeding place of
several English birds which regularly disap-
peared every spring, no one knew whither, he
was led to visit the Fetch ora River, which
flows from the Ural Mountains northward
and falls into the Arctic Ocean opposite No-
vaya Zembla. On the upper river is the
great Siberian forest, while lower down on
either bank below the limit of trees is the
tundra, which fringes the whole length of the

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE,

717

northern coast. It is called the region of
treeless swamp, is uninhabited, and for eight
months out of the twelve is covered with
snow. Yet he found this to be the unknown
land which drains the Old World of half its
bird population every spring. At the begin-
ning of April Mr, Seebohm reached Ust Zyl-
ma, three hundred miles from the mouth of
the Petchora. The surface of the river was
frozen as far as the eye could reach, and the
frozen forest was as bare of life as the Des-
ert of Sahara. Suddenly summer came, and
with it the birds arrived. The ice on the
river split and disappeared, the banks steamed
in the sun, and innumerable birds of all sizes
and colors appeared within forty-eight hours
after the first warmth. The tundra was found
to be a moor, with here and there a large,
flat bog and numerous lakes. It was covered
with moss, lichens, heathlike plants, dwarf
birch, and millions of acres of cloudberries,
cranberries, and crowberries. Forced by the
perpetual sunshine of the arctic summer,
these latter bear enormous crops of fruit.
But the crop is not ripe until the middle or
end of the arctic summer, and if the fruit-
eating birds had to wait until it was ripe they
would starve. But each year the snow de-
scends on this immense crop of ripe fruit be-
fore the birds have time to gather it. It is
perfectly preserved by this natural system of
cold storage until the next spring, when the
melting of the snow discloses the bushes with
the unconsumed last year's crop hanging on
them or lying ready to be eaten on the
ground. It never decays, and is accessible
the moment the snow melts. The same heats
which free the fruits bring into being the
most prolific insect life in the world. No
European can live there without a veil after
the snow melts. Thus the insect-eating birds
are provided for. The trip to the Petchora
was but one of many similar expeditions
which Mr. Seebohm undertook from a pure
love of and interest in his science.

The Negro Problem.— Mr. J. L. M. Curry,
Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the John
F. Slater Fund, has written an interesting
pamphlet on The Negro Problem in the South,
in which, among other things, he discusses the
influence of education on the negro since the
war. He says in substance: More than a
generation has passed since slavery ceased in

the United States. Despite some formidable
obstacles, the negroes have been favored be-
yond any other race known in the history
of mankind. Freedom, citizenship, suffrage,
civil and political rights, educational oppor-
tunities and religious privileges, every method
and function of civilization have been secured
and fostered by Federal and State govern-
ments, ecclesiastical organizations, munifi-
cent individual benefactions, and yet the re-
sults have not been on the whole such as to
inspire most sanguine expectations or justify
conclusions of rapid development or of racial
equality. Much of the aid lavished upon the
negro has been misapplied charity, and, like
much other almsgiving, hurtful to the recip-
ient. Schools which were established with-
out any serious need of them have been
helped ; public-school systems, upon which
the great mass of children, white and colored,
must rely for their education, have been un-
derrated and injured, and schools of real
merit and doing good work, which deserve
confidence and contributions, have had as-
sistance legitimately their due diverted into
improper channels. A very promising sign,
however, is the long-wished- for industrial de-
velopment which seems to be dawning on the
South. Whatever may be our speculative
opinions as to the progress and development
of which the negro may be ultimately capa-
ble, there can hardly be a well-grounded op-
position to the opinion that the hope for the
race in the South is to be found not so much
in the high courses of university instruc-
tion or in schools of technology as in handi-
craft instruction. This instruction, by what-
ever name called, encourages us in its results
to continued and Uberal effort. What such
schools as Hampton, the Spelman, Claflin,
Tuskegee, Tongaloo, and others have done is
the demonstration of the feasibility and the
value of industrial and manual training. The
general instruction heretofore given in the
schools, it is feared, has been too exclusively
intellectual, too little of that kind which pro-
duces intelligent and skilled workmen, and
therefore not thoroughly adapted to racial
development nor to fitting for the practical
duties of life. That the two diverse races
now in the South can ever permanently har-
monize while occupying the same territory,
no one competent to form an opinion be-
lieves. That the presence in the same coun-

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

try of two distinctly marked races having the
same rights and privileges, of unequal ca-
pacities of development — one long habituated
to servitude, deprived of all power of initia-
tive, of all high ideal, without patriotism
beyond a mere weak attachment — is to be
regarded as a blessing, is too absurd a propo-
sition for serious consideration.

Resplrability of Yitlated Air.— The
breathing of air in which a candle flame
will not bum is generally considered dan-
gerous. In a paper by Mr. Frank Cloues,
read before the British Association, at the
Ipswich meeting, the results of some inter-
esting experiments were given. It was found
that the flames of ordinary candles and
lamps were extinguished by mixtures which
contained, on an average, about 165 per
cent of oxygen and 83-6 per cent of the
extinctive gases. A flame of coal-gas, how-
ever, required for its extinction a mixture
still poorer in oxygen and containing 11-8
per cent of oxygen and 887 per cent of
the extinctive gases. These results have
since been confirmed by a different method,
which consisted in allowing a flame to bum
in air inclosed over mercury imtil it was
extinguished ; the remaining extinctive at-
mosphere was then subjected to analysis,
when its composition was foimd to be prac-
tically identical with that previously ob-
tained from the artificial mixtures. An
analysis of air expired from the lungs
proved that it was also of the same compo-
sition as that which extinguished the flame
of an ordinary candle or lamp. The average
composition of expired air and of air which
extinguishes a candle flame is as follows:
Oxygen, 159; nitrogen, 80*4; carbon diox-
ide, 3 7. Now, an atmosphere of this com-
position is undoubtedly respirable. Physi-
ologists state that air may be breathed until
its oxygen is reduced to ten per cent. The
maximum amount of carbon dioxide which
may be present is open to question, but it is
imdoubtedly considerably higher than three
per cent. Dr. Haldane maintains that the
above atmosphere is not only respirable, but
would be breathed by a healthy person with-
out inconvenience of any kind; he further
states that no permanent injury would result
from breathing such an atmosphere for some
time. The conclusion to be drawn from

these facts is that an atmosphere must not
be considered dangerous and irrespirable
because the flame of an ordinary candle or
oil lamp is extinguished by it. The popular
notion about such an atmosphere might
often deter one from doing duty of a hu-
mane or necessary character.

Death of Hoppe-Seyler. — Ernest Felix
Immanuel Hoppe-Seyler (his name was
Hoppe; he changed it to Hoppe-Seyler in
1862) was born in Freiburg, on the Umstrut,
Saxony, on December 26, 1825. At eleven
he had lost both father and mother. He
was taken in charge and educated by the
governing body of an endowed institution in
Halle. Beginning the study of natural sci-
ence in 1 846, he received the degree of Doctor
of Medicine in 1 850, and began practicing in
Berlin. In 1 856 he was appointed prosector
in the University of Greifswald, and in 1858
was called to Berlin to act as Virchow's as-
sistant; three years later he was called to
the chair of applied chemistry in the Uni-
versity of Tiibingen, and in 18*72 was ap-
pointed to the only ordinary professorship
of physiological chemistry in the German
Empire, at the Kaiser Wilhelm Universitat
at Strasburg. Here he worked until the
very eve of his death. He died on the fore-
noon of August 10, 1895. In 185*7, while at
Berlin, he published the first paper in a long
series of valuable contributions to the physi-
ological chemistry of the blood. In 1858
appeared the first edition of his Handbook
of Physiologico-Chemical and Pathologico-
Chemical Analysis. In 1862 he published
one of his most valuable papers, On the
Behavior of the Blood-coloring Matter in
the Spectrum of Sunlight. The researches
which followed on the chemistry of the
blood-coloring matter probably constitute
his highest claim to distinction. In 187Y-'78
he founded the Zeitschrift f iir physiologische
Chemie. Profs. Baumann and Kossel are, it
is understood, to be the future editors of this
journal. Although he did much to advance
both physiology and pathology, Hoppe-Seyler
is said to have been more of a chemist than
a biologist.

A Colony for Epileptics.— The Craig Col-
ony for Epileptics, named from the late Oscar
Craig, of Rochester, is located on a tract of

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE,

719

nearly nineteen hundred acres in the Genesee
Valley. Its post office and railway station is
called Sonyea, an Indian word signifying
sunny place. The land is extremely fertile
and the district a very beautiful one. There
have already been erected some thirty or
forty buildings. The colony will be a coun-
try village, only differing from others in
being composed entirely of epileptics. The
butcher, the baker, the grocer, the shoe-
maker, the mason, all will be sufferers from
this curious disease. About thirty years
ago a somewhat similar attempt was made
in northern Germany ; it has now developed
into one of the most important labor colonies
in Europe. The origin and history of this
colony, which is called *' Bethel," are given
in detail in a previous issue of the Monthly.
There are one hundred and twenty thousand
epileptics in the United States ; these unfor-
tunates— perfectly well able to work, and
many of them very competent — are debarred
from almost every occupation, because of

their liability to "fits." Tbey are not ad-
mitted to the public schools, and are hence
much handicapped in getting an education.
In fact, about the only places where they are
received are insane asylums and poorhouses.
There are over a thousand epileptics in alms-
houses in New York State. The first work
of the Craig Institution will be to remove
these from the care of the State ; after they
are provided for, then outsiders will be ad-
mitted. There are no restrictions as to the
age of patients, but necessarily no insane epi-
leptics will be received. As the patients are
received they will be set to work or at study
in various ways. They will take care of the
farms, gardens, and orchards ; they will plan
and build new houses ; in fact, every sort of
employment, every sort of recreation, every-
thing, in short, that goes to make up the life
of a country village will be found in this
colony. The resources of the land are such,
it is thought, that by judicious management
the community can be made self-sustaining.

MINOR PARAGRAPHS.

Among the singular native customs pre-
vailing in the western division of British
New Guinea, the official report mentions that
of the woman making the proposal of mar-
riage and sending for the man to visit her ;
while the sister-in-law of the bride is often
given in marriage in exchange, without re-
gard to her wishes. The skeletons of dead
relatives are sometimes kept in the villages ;
the skulls of enemies are preserved as tro-
phies ; and occasionally the body of an enemy
is cooked and partly eaten.

Besides the considerable collections of
the minerals and fossils of the region in the
University Museum and the Deseret Museum,
the University of Utah enjoys the advan-
tage, in the Deseret Museum, which has
been placed in its building, of an extensive
series of specimens illustrating the persons
and habits of the cliff dwellers and other
aboriginal tribes of the region. Besides
numerous perfect and fragmentary speci-
mens of desiccated remains, this collec-
tion comprises many examples of weapons,
tools, and domestic workmanship of these
early people, which as a whole afford a valu-
able record of this phase of American ar-

chaeology. The specimens are arranged with
special reference to the requirements of
study and teaching.

The conclusion results from an archeeo-
logical exploration of the James River and
Potomac River Valleys by Mr. Gerard Fowke
that the aboriginal remains between tide-
water and the Alleghanies, from Pennsyl-
vania to eouthwestem Virginia, pertain to
the tribes who lived or hunted within the
territory at the beginning of the seventeenth
century. Nothing indicating a more ancient
or another race was found ; while the occur-
rence of objects which could have been ob-
tained only from white traders fixes approxi-
mately the date of some burial places, and
resemblances in various points necessitate the
classification of others as not far removed
in time or origin from these.

From a review of the results of a trans-
continental series of gravity measurements
by George R. Putnam, Mr. G. K. Gilbert con-
cludes that they appear more harmonious
when the method of reduction postulates isos-
tasy (or hydrostatic equilibrium) than when
it postulates high rigidity. Nearly all the
local peculiarities of gravity admit of simple

720

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and rational explanation on the theory that
the continent as a whole is approximately,
and the interior plain is almost perfectly,
isostatic. Most of the deviations from the
normal arise from excess of matter and are
associated with uplift. The Appalachian
and Rocky Mountains, and the Wasatch Pla-
teau, all appear to be of the nature of added
loads, the whole mass above the neighboring
plains being rigidly upheld. The Colorado
Plateau Province seems to have an excess of
matter, and the Desert Range Province may
also be overloaded.

NOTES.

In the article on The Collecting of Naval
Stores, in the February Monthly, we inad-
vertently omitted to give credit for the cut
on page 479, illustrating the French method
of tapping or " bleeding " pine trees for their
turpentine. The block was kindly placed at
our disposal by the Forestry Department at
Washington, to which we owe our acknowl-
edgment.

From a note in the Revue Scienti6que we
gather that M. L. Roncorini, of Turin, a pupil
of M. Lombroso, has recently made some
interesting microscopical researches on the
brsms of epileptics, criminals, and idiots.
He found alterations in structure which were
fairly constant, and which in most cases
were marked enough to differentiate them
from the normal brain. If his work is con-
firmed by future observations it will justify
M. Lombroso's theory that criminals and epi-
leptics are closely related,

A NEW application of the phonograph is
described in a recent issue of Industries and
Iron. The Knowles Steam Pump Company
has a large pumping station on the Elk
River in California. Something went wrong
with the big pump, and the manager of the
station, in order to save the expense of hav-
. ing an expert come on from New York,
conceived the mgenious notion of using a
phonograph. He first spoke into the receiver,
giving a general account of the matter, and
then placed the receiver so that the working
of the pump was recorded on the wax roll.
When the cylinder was put into the ma-
chine in New York, the voice of the man-
ager of the pumping station was heard
giving the symptoms, and then asking the
listeners to pay attention to the pump's ac-
tion. By this means the difficulty was made
out and the proper remedy forwarded.

In a letter on the poison ivy, in Garden
and Forest, W. H. Harrison says : " The poi-
son of the ivy, though always present, proba-
bly, like all sap, varies slightly in activity with
the season, though perhaps not more than

does man's power of resisting it, for the
warm, perspiring skin of summer with its
open pores takes in and throws out juices
much more readily and is more easily irri-
tated than the dry, firm skin and contracted
pores of the exposed parts in winter. Aside
from the sand form, all parts of the poison
ivy are poisonous at all seasons, the root
being by far the most virulent of all. I
have seen a robust physician in the prime of
health poisoned almost fatally and rendered
nearly helpless for many days simply by pull-
ing the roots. The poisoning, which is of an
erysipelatous nature, usually appears in light
cases at the point where the ivy juice comes
in contact with the skin, but severe cases are
apt to centralize at some point where the
skin is tender. The remedies for this poison
are unsatisfactory. The best way to effect
a cure is to let the irritated area severely
alone, notwithstanding the itching."

At the August meeting of the German
Society of Anthropology, Dr. Waldeyer de-
livered an address on the somatic differences
of the two sexes. He argued that since a
wide collation of measurements and statistics
proves that woman has a smaller brain, has
less physical strength, preserves more traits
of infancy and childhood in adult life, and
has practically in all times and places held
a position inferior to man, in our schemes
of social improvement these undeniable facts
should be respected, and he quoted with ap-
proval the opinion of Bartels, that the edu-
cation, physical and mental, of woman, how-
ever high it may be, should be always aimed
to fit her for the duties of the family circle
only.

The Argentine Medical Club of Buenos
Ayres offers three prizes, the first of three
hundred dollars, for researches in bacteri-
ology, to be presented before May 31, 189*7.
The prizes are offered to honor the memory
of Pasteur.

Messrs. Macmillan & Co. announce in
preparation An Atlas of Nerve Cells, by M.
Allen Starr, M. D. Its object is to present
to students and teachers of histology a se-
ries of photographs showing the appearance
of the cells which form the central nerroxis
system, as seen under the microscope.

As the result of a trial carried on for a
year the New York Agricultural Experiment
Station has found that a lot of Leghorn hens,
having ground and moistened grain as thirty-
seven per cent of their food for the year, cost
less to feed, both as regards live weight and
the eggs produced, than a similar lot having
their grain food dry and whole. With two
pens of Cochins the same result was obtained
as regards live weight, but the opposite in
regard to the production of eggs. As to the
comparative profits from large and small
breeds, this experiment turned out rather
favorably to the large ones.

BENJAMIN SMITH BAKTON.

APPLETONS'

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

APRIL, 1896.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION.

By DAVID A. WELLS, LL.D., D.C.L.,

CORRESPONDANT DE l'iNSTITTJT DE FRANCE, ETC.

IL — THE PLACE OF TAXATION IN LITERATURE AND HISTORY.

PART III.

TAXATION IN THE Medieval Period. — With the termina-
tion of the Roman Empire of the West, which is regarded as
having taken place A. D. 476, when Odoacer, chief of the Germanic
tribe Heruli, captured the city and assumed the title of King of
Italy, a new and great element was introduced into European life,
through the intermingling of the northern barbarians with the
civilized. Christianized, and degraded Romans of the south. The
following period, for at least five hundred years, was character-
ized, to an extent never before surpassed in the world's history,
by bloodshed, license, licentiousness, turmoil, robbery, and woe.
Franks, Burgundians, Visigoths, Saxons, Slavs, Huns, Danes, and
Normans crowded upon and warred with each other. From such
a period, when neither the agriculturist nor the artificer could
control to any great extent the fruits of his labor, and when
the merchant " stole along the hedges, shrank from the eye of the
passer, and stepped into rivers cautiously, seeking a ford, lest the
man at the bridge should rob him,'' but little in the way of
economic or fiscal principle could be deduced. In short, a new
society, the foundation and precursor of what, now exists, was in
the process of evolution ; but in order that evolution might com-
mence, it would seem to have been necessary that all the ele-
ments of the old should have been completely dissolved, in order
that its atoms might move freely — a condition like that to which
the chemist is compelled to bring earthy mineral substances in
order to effect their purification and crystallization.

TOL. XLVIII. — 52

72 2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

The period when the moleciiles of society seem to have begun
to combine anew, is generally assigned by historians to the eleventh
century, when feudalism had become systematized into something
analogous to general government, and the power of the Church
was especially manifesting itself ; and was recognized to such an
extent that it was able to establish throughout nearly all Europe
a period known as " God's Truce," when warfare, plunder, and
bloodshed were forbidden from sunset on Wednesday to sunrise
on Monday ; and " during the Christmas holy days and Lent no
new defenses were to be erected, nor old ones repaired. B,ut this
was not all. The provisions made for the protection of the
laborer and for the produce of labor were far more characteristic
of the dawning of a new era. Peasants in hostile territories were
not to be injured or confined ; the tools of agriculture, the hay
and the grain stacks and the cattle, were all taken under the
protection of the Church ; and if seized, it must be for use and
not for destruction. He that violated this truce was placed under
censure of ecclesiastical power." From this period, therefore, it
is only practicable to take up anew the thread of history, and
attempt to resume the relation of some of the most instructive
incidents that have since characterized the attempts of govern-
ments to defray their expenditures by levies upon the persons
and property of their subjects or citizens. Preliminary, how-
ever, to so doing, the following historical facts may properly find
a place.

How THE Druids collected Revenue.— An annual payment
in the nature of a tax was exacted by the ancient Druids from
every family for the benefit of the priests of the temple in the
district in which the family lived. The families were obliged,
under penalty of an ecclesiastical curse, to extinguish their fires
on the last evening of October, and attend at the temple with a
prescribed annual payment. This being made, they were entitled
to receive, on the first day of November, some of the sacred fire
from the altar, to rekindle the fires of their houses; and their
neighbors were also forbidden, under a similar penalty, in any
way to assist them. The result was, that delinquent taxpayers
found themselves not only interdicted from the society of their
fellow-men and from justice, the usual sequence of ecclesiastical
excommunication, but also from the use of fire during the ap-
proaching winter. This expedient for collecting a revenue was
referred to by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a
speech in Parliament in 1871, in connection with a proposal to
tax matches; and the motto. Ex luce lucellum, was proposed to
be inscribed on match boxes in case the tax was enacted.*

* Toland's History of the Druids, quoted by Dowell, in History of Taxation in England.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 723

Medieval System of Land Tenure. — Among the nations
that succeeded to the sovereignty of Rome, the title and owner-
ship of land was regarded, as it is to-day in China, and in Eng-
land and other European countries, as inhering primarily to the
sovereign or chief of the state ; and when partitioned among his
nobles or chiefs, was held by them as it was termed on " tenure ; "
that is, on condition of performing certain services — mainly
military, or the payment of a tribute — in the nature of rent.
These conditions were ratified by oath ; and the chiefs could only
sublet, to their serfs or inferiors, on terms consistent with their
own tenure.

Large domains were also set apart for the exclusive use of the
sovereign* — both in his public and private capacity — the state
and the sovereign being one and the same ; and from the revenues
thus accruing, and various fees and feudal incidents, the monarch,
or feudal lord, was expected to defray all the expenses of the
state, both public and private. Thus, the annual revenue of
William the Conqueror is estimated to have been £400,000 ; which,
taking into consideration that the pound at that time contained
three times the weight of silver that it now does, and that silver
had a comparatively great purchasing power, must have been
equivalent to at least four or five millions of present money;
and of the public expenditures of these ages it is important to
note that there were very few that represented the bulk of the
expenditures of modern governments.

Thus, for example, education was mainly confined to the clergy
and the Church ; and was efficiently supported by the produce of
their own estates, or by tithes levied on the estates of others.
There were few roads, and the labor of the serfs or peasants for a
few days, before or after harvest, sufficed to keep in passable con-
dition such as were needed to meet the demands of a very limited
intercourse and commerce between different sections of the coun-
try. The administration of justice was held to be the perquisite
of the lords or chiefs holding their estates direct from the crown,
and, in place of being an expense, became through abuse and cor-
ruption a source of emolument. The standing army, which
more than any one agency has tended to the impoverishment of
modern Europe, could hardly be said to have then existed ; the
tenants in chief of the crown supporting the sovereign whenever

* The royal demesne (right of ownership) under the Norman kings was at one time of
vast extent, comprising, according to Domesday Book, no less than fourteen hundred and
twenty-two manors or lordships, besides farms and lands. It was divided into (1) forest ;
(2) land held by rural tenants; (3) royal cities, burghs, and towns. The first formed the
king's hunting ground, and afforded supplies of venison, etc., for the royal table ; the
second supplied the king's table in other respects ; the third was mainly the source of con-
tributions for the discharge of the king's debts.

724 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

he took the field with a body of retainers, armed and maintained
in a large degree at their own expense. The necessity of taxes in
the ordinary sense was, therefore, by these conditions entirely
superseded ; and if at any time there was a deficiency of revenue
from the crown estates and fees, other sources of revenue were
resorted to in preference to anything that could by any possibility
be regarded as taxes.

Numerous old-time writers of authority — Montesquieu among
the number — might be cited in support of what was then regarded
as an eminently sound principle, that governments ought to be
supported from revenues derived from the public domains, and
that taxation should be resorted to as rarely as possible ; because,
as one of them expressed it, " one enters into civil society to pro-
tect one's property, and not to have it taken away from him." It
is also interesting to note in this connection the tendency at the
present time to go back to this old doctrine, and for states and
municipalities to derive their revenues from other sources than
taxation — as from the granting of franchises for railways, tele-
graphs, telephones, gas supply, lotteries, etc., on condition of par-
ticipation in profits on gross receipts. Thus, the present net profit
on the German state railways is understood to pay the interest on
the public debt of Germany. Nearly all the Continental states of
Europe derive ^ considerable portion of their needed revenues
from the profits of their domains and forests — Prussia to the ex-
tent of about $11,000,000 per annum ; France, $5,500,000 ; Hungary,
$3,000,000, and the like. The city of Paris derives about twenty
per cent of its revenue from participation in the operation of
franchises and income from productive property. In Berlin
eighteen per cent, of all the municipal expenses are reported as
derived from the public gas supply. In Illinois the State expenses
are mainly defrayed from the State's share of the annual profits of
the Illinois Central Railroad ; and in Louisiana also, the State for-
merly and recently has participated in the profits of an authorized
State lottery. If the ideas of Mr. Henry George, of a single tax
on land, should prevail, and if such a tax does not diffuse itself,
then the entire land of the country would in the course of time
become the property of the state exclusively ; and the old prin-
ciple that a state should be supported from its own landed re-
sources and property would be reasserted and established.

The following were some of the sources of revenue, other than
what were assumed to be taxes, that were resorted to in mediae-
val times to make good any deficiency of income which the
crown, as representing the state, derived from its special proper-
ties and privileges ; and a reference to which is important, by
reason of the flood of light they shed upon the concurrent social
condition of the masses, and the utter disregard of their rulers

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 725

of anything akin to justice in their administration of govern-
ment. One of the most notable of these sources was the Jews,
who during the middle ages had no rights of citizenship in
Christianized Europe, and were held, in respect to their persons,
goods, wives and children, at the absolute disposal of the chief of
the state, to be taxed and despoiled by him at his pleasure. This
utilization of the Jews as sources of revenue was far more
thoroughly and systematically carried out in England than in
any other country. " They were, in fact, the private property of
the king ; living instruments of his revenue ; carefully protected
by his government, unless in cases where exceptional necessity on
his part or obstinacy on theirs made it expedient to bear upon
them with unusual weight ; * not serfs bound to the soil, but
slaves of the highest value, to whom to allow free action in the
acquisition of wealth was the needful condition of reaping the
fruit of their labor. There is a writ of Henry III in which, in
X)ayment of a debt to his brother Richard of Cornwall, he assigns
and makes over to him " all my Jews of England." f

William E-ufus (William II of England) actually forbade the
conversion of a Jew to the Christian faith. " It was a poor ex-
change," he said, " that would rid him of a valuable property and
give him only a subject."

Under Edward I of England the Jews were plundered and
amerced to such an extent that it is estimated that they paid
over one tenth of the entire revenue of the crown.

An explanation of the apparently anomalous circumstance that
the Jews, although deprived of all civil rights and debarred from
following most occupations, were able to be plundered to such an
extent, is found in the fact that they were the " royal usurers,"
and under the king's protection spoliated through extreme usuri-
ous interest the Norman barons, who were always in want of
money, and were not the men to readily tolerate " benevolences,"
or any other form of direct taxation for supplying the king with
money necessary for the support of the government. So that
when the king plundered the Jewish money lenders, he in reality
obtained indirectly the money he needed from his barons, with
far less odium and more profit than if he had proceeded against
them directly.

Very curiously, this mediseval idea of regarding the Jews as a

* Such a case of urgent necessity or inexcusable obstinacy must have been assumed
as existing by King John, of whom it is related, that on one occasion he demanded the
Hum of ten thousand marks (thirty thousand dollars) of a Jew at Bristol, and on his
refusal to pay, ordered one of his teeth to be drawn every day until he should comply.
The Jew, it is chronicled, lost seven teeth and then paid the sum required of him.

f Oxford Essays. By J. Bridges, Fellow of Oriel.

726 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

permanent, legitimate, and desirable source of revenue for the
state, continued to find favor in England as recently as the reign
of William and Mary, or in 1689 ; when, money being needed to
prosecute the war with France, it was seriously proposed to ex-
act, under the semblance of taxation, a hundred thousand pounds
from the Jews, and the proposition was at first favorably received
by the House of Commons. " The Jews, however, presented a
petition to Parliament in which they declared that they could not
afford to pay such a sum, and that they would rather leave the
kingdom than stay there and be ruined ; and after some discussion
the Jew tax was abandoned." For, as Macaulay expresses it,
" Enlightened politicians could not but perceive that special tax-
ation, laid on a small class which happens to be rich, unpopular,
and defenseless, is really confiscation, and must ultimately im-
poverish rather than enrich the state." *

It is hardly necessary to point out that ill treatment of the
Jews has not been confined to English rulers and people. In
every country or state of Christendom they have been subjected
to arbitrary, unequal, and unjust exactions, deprived of ordinary
political privileges, and driven as homeless wanderers from cities
which their presence and their purses had enriched. And that
this race antagonism continues to be perpetuated to the present
day, is demonstrated by their recent and virtual expulsion from
Russia ; and even in the United States (where it might least be
expected) by a vulgar and brutal denunciation by a member of
the Federal Senate of the chief executive oflScials of the country,
for the assumed reason that they had entered into a fiscal cor-
respondence with an Englishman of Jewish descent, whom Eng-
land had admitted to a seat in her Parliament, and whose whole
life had been characterized by strict integrity, courtesy to all,
and large benevolence.

Another extraordinary source of revenue to the crown in feu-
dal times, was the forfeiture of lands and estates for offenses ; and
of the immense sums thus obtained, some idea may be formed
from the circumstance, that up to the time of Elizabeth it has
been estimated that nearly all the land in England had at
some time fallen to the crown under the law of forfeitures.
Other devices for the raising of revenue which were very produc-
tive, were fines for the alienation (legal conveyance) of land,
which were exacted oftentimes to the extent of one third of their
yearly value, whenever the tenant found it necessary to make
over his land to another ; and from the sale of titles, which even
as late as 1626, under Charles I, afforded considerable revenues.
The right of marriage was subject (at least in the case of nobles

* Macaulay's History of England, vol iii, chap. xv.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 727

and gentry) to the consent of the crown; and in some instances
large sums were paid for the privilege ; Simon de Montf ort pay-
ing Henry III a sum, equivalent to five hundred thousand dol-
lars at present, for permission to control the marriage of the heir
of Gilbert d^Unfrankville. Mr. Dowell, in his History of Tax-
ation in England, quotes the following as among one of the
"fiscal curiosities'* to be found on the Rolls of the Exchequer
during the early Norman period : " Ralph Bardolph fines in five
marks for leave to rise from his infirmity. The Bishop of Win-
chester owes a tonnell of good wine for not reminding the king
(John) about a girdle for the Countess of Abunarle ; and Robert
de Vaux fines in five of the best palfreys that the same king
would hold his tongue about the wife of Henry Pinel."

Another branch of the ancient revenues of the English crown
worthy of special notice from its singular recognition within a
comparatively recent period, was the right to " royal fish," meaning
thereby the whale and the sturgeon, when the same were either
cast ashore or caught near the coast ; and which were originally
acquired by the crown on the assumption that the sovereign
guarded and protected the seas from pirates and robbers. This
perquisite had so long been in abeyance that its sanction by
law was hardly recognized in 1850, when the Duke of Wel-
lington, as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, claimed and ex-
acted the price — fifty pounds — of the carcass of a whale brought
ashore and sold by certain boatmen on the coast of Kent. A point
of contention was made by the boatmen, that since the law was
enacted, natural science had proved that the whale was not a
fish ; but the duke insisted upon his right under the letter of the
law of compact with his office of warden — i. e., to protect the
seas — as representative of the sovereign, and maintained it. He,
however, subsequently practically admitted the lack of any moral
foundation for his claim by dividing the price, after it had been
formally paid him, with the boatmen.

Taxation in England. — Previous to the reign of Henry II
of England (1154), the "tenure" or holding of lands from the
crown required the personal attendance, at his own expense, of
every tenant — knight or baron — with a certain number of re-
tainers, upon the king in arms, for a period of forty days in each
year ; and failure to attend, or render the quota of men required
by the tenure, would have involved a forfeiture of the tenant's
lands for nonperformance of duty. Such a military system,
however sufficient for home protection or border warfare, proved
ill adapted to foreign wars, which in the case of France were for
a long period almost continuous ; inasmuch as in those days of
slow traveling a forty days' service upon a distant expedition
would have been of little account. For what could be more incon-

728 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

venient for tlie leader of an army than to be under the necessity,
on the expiration of the forty days, either to cut short the cam-
paign, or purchase, by payments or promises, the continued ser-
vice of his best soldiers? To overcome this difficulty a new system
was arranged, it is said, by Thomas h, Becket, which marked an
important era in English taxation ; whereby the king, in lieu of
personal service by his barons and their retainers, agreed to sub-
stitute a tax called " scutage" or shield tax ; which, as levied at
the rate of ten marks (£1 65. 8d.) on every estate held by tenure,
of the annual value of twenty pounds, was a land tax, payable in
money, which before that period had not been definitely recog-
nized. And thus it was that the king practically disarmed the
feudal po^er by accepting money from the knights in place of
armed service ; and at the same time greatly strengthened his
own power. As with the money thus raised he created a per-
manent and subservient army of mercenaries — a process which
Michelet, the French historian, has characterized as a provision
by the nobles of a bit and bridle for their own restraint.*

Historians can find no evidence that the right of the English
kings to levy taxes was in any case made contingent on any for-
mal grant of any national council until toward the close of the
reign of Richard II (1190) ; f and we have a statement from the
historian Hallam that, previous to that time, the system of extor-
tion practiced by the Norman kings upon their English subjects
was " what we should expect to find among Eastern slaves.^'

Progressive civilization and the necessity for larger revenues

* The reign of this English king — Henry II — is also signalized by an organization of the
royal (state) revenue system which in some of its features has continued to the present
time. Under it the management and general superintendance of the royal revenues were
intrusted to certain oflBcers of the king's household, who constituted the " Court of the
Exchequer," so called from the checkered cloth laid upon the table upon which the tax
collectors or treasurers told out the king's money ; and the chief financial oflScer of the
British Government at the present time is designated by the title of " Chancellor of the
Exchequer." The payments when made were entered into an account book, and from this
transferred to a strip of parchment ; which last was sent through a pipelike opening into a
room specially provided, and called a " tally count," where a " tally " was made of it. This
tally was a piece of dry wood on which "the cutter of the tallies" had to cut notches cor-
responding to. the sum paid, while the " writer of the tally " wrote the sum down on both
sides of the wood in figures. According to the length of the incision, one notch denoted
£1,000; another £100; £20; 20s.; Is.; and so on. The chamberlain then split the
notched stick down the middle in such a manner that each half contained the written sums
and the incised notches. The two matching parts thus split asunder were called " tally "
and " counter tally," or " tally " and " foil " (folium). The one was retained by the cham-
berlain, the other was kept by the payer as a receipt and proof to be produced to the ac-
count department of the exchequer. This curious system of receipts was maintained in
force until 1783 ; and it was through the burning, with a view to getting rid of an accumu-
lation of these tally sticks, that the old House of Parliament in London was burned in 1834.

f Constitutional History of England, Stubbs, vol. i, p. 5 7 7.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 729

than the domains and perquisites of the crown could supply to
meet the expenditures of continued wars and the maintenance of
standing armies, gradually, however, broke down (as has been be-
fore pointed out) the feudal system for defraying the expenses of
the government ; and the sovereigns were compelled to petition
their tenants in chief, or the representatives of the great estates
of their realms, to meet in assembly and co-operate with the
crown in raising revenue by a more or less general system of
forced contributions upon the persons and property of the people.
And in this necessity is to be found the origin of the modem
parliaments or states general ; and also the inception of the mod-
ern system of taxation through the representatives of the people.
And the manner in which the great principle that representation
should accompany taxation began to find a place in English legal
or economic experience, through what was clearly a process of
evolution, was undoubtedly as follows :

Under the Saxon and, for a lengthened period, also under the
Norman kings, the revenues of the crown (as before shown) were
mainly derived from taxes on land, which were paid in kind
(produce), and what, as the holders of land were regarded as
tenants of the crown, were in the nature of rents.* But when, in
order to enlarge the basis of revenue, personal property, in the
form of movables or income, was brought under contribution,
the situation became different ; inasmuch as the titles of all such
property not being primarily derived from the king, the consent
of its owners to an official inquisition, necessary for proper valu-
ation and assessment, was implied, and naturally was not will-
ingly granted. And the great religious houses and orders, who
in the main were the principal owners at this time of such prop-
erty and were all-powerful, especially insisted that this consent
should be recognized as a prerequisite to assessment ; and, in at
least one instance, re-enforced their position by an interdict from
the Pope.

The successive steps, also, by which this great principle be-
came recognized and incorporated into general practice have
also been clearly worked out by historians. Thus, in 1181, under
the reign of Henry II, each freeman was required to equip himself
(for war) according to his means ; and to determine what his
means were, or his liability for taxation in respect to other than
landed property — namely, chattels and income — four or six lawful

* Rents (taxes) paid in kind continued in force in England after the Conquest, and cer-
tainly down to the reign of Henry I. Indeed, by reason of the scarcity of money, there was
practically no other method of payment. But at the same time the collectors of the king's
revenue, in the settlements of their accounts, were accustomed to reckon the value of prod-
uce in money at an established ratio : as, an ox at Is. ; a sheep at 4c?. ; so many measures of
com at 80 much, and the like.

/30 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

men of his parish were chosen to determine and declare under
oath the extent of his personal liability. In the next reign, that
of Richard I, this new principle of jury assessment was applied
in a general way to the assessment of lands as well as chattels ;
and from thence the representative priociple in taxation begins to
ascend through successive stages, until it becomes established and
recognized as the highest function of the British and all other
essentially free governments.*

The abandonment, furthermore, of the right on the part of the
sovereign to make arbitrary exactions in respect to personal prop-
erty, and the assumption by a class of privileged subordinates —
i. e., legislators — of the right to vote or deny supplies to the king
or state, and for the attainment of which results the English
clergy of the thirteenth century led the way, marks also the dawn
of constitutional or free government. All authorities are agreed,
that on the clause in the Magna Charta of 1215 respecting the
taxing power, is based all that has since been achieved in re-
spect to English liberty. By it the king (John) was allowed to
reserve for himself but three feudal aids, or rights, for extraordi-
nary money allowances from the state, which very curiously have
never been alienated from the English crown by any subsequent
legislative enactment. Namely, to ransom the king in the case
of his capture by an enemy ; to defray the expenses of the knight-
hood of his eldest son ; and third, on account of expenses incident
to the marriage of his eldest daughter. In all other respects the
charter provides that "no scutage" — by which is understood a
land tax in commutation for personal military service — " or aid
shall be imposed in our realm, save by the Common Council of
our realm " ; and this provision of the Great Charter was more

* It is, however, worthy of note that the only time when this subject appears to have
prominently attracted the attention of the British Parliament and occasioned debate, was in
connection with the imposition of taxes, without representation, on the British colonies in
North America, and which assumption of right on the part of the crown to thus act, subse-
quently led to the American Revolution. The question at issue before Parliament was, had
the state the right of taxing the colonies under existing circumstances, in default of repre-
sentation of the taxpayers ? The colonists did not deny the right of Great Britain to tax
them ; but they did hold that for the people of Great Britain to appropriate any part of the
property without their consent was neither reasonable nor consistent with the British Consti-
tution. And in the great debate in Parliament on this subject, in 1*764, Mr. Pitt sustained
the position of the colonists ; and Lord Camden, who followed, said that " taxation and rep-
resentation were inseparable," and that a blade of grass growing in the most obscure part
of the kingdom could not rightfully be taxed without the consent of its proprietor.

Recent historical investigations have, however, shown (as before pointed out, chapter ii)
that the grievance alleged and complained of by the American colonists was not peculiar
to them, but was shared by the people of the mother country to such an extent that at the
time of the colonial revolt not one tenth of them were allowed to participate by vote in the
election of members of Parliament.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 731

explicitly reaffirmed and embodied in the form of law by a Parlia-
ment in 1297, which, enacted that no tax should be levied by the
king without the consent of the knights, burgesses, and citizens
in Parliament assembled.

Again, in the earlier periods of English history, and probably
also in the history of the other states of Europe, when the reve-
nues from the property, fees, and perquisites of the crown, supple-
mented as they were from time to time by special parliamentary
grants, benevolences, and subsidies, and the plunder of special
classes — as the Jews — were found inconvenient and unreliable,
and were replaced by more regular systems of contribution, the
idea of taxation was, as centuries before in Rome, simply to ob-
tain the necessary revenue, without much regard to the incidence
of the tax or the interest of the producer, consumer, or trader.
The end was alone considered, and not the means ; and this policy,
pervading all schemes and experiences of taxation, was then, as it
ever has been, the most fertile source of bad taxes. The objects
from which contributions at the period under consideration could
be obtained were almost exclusively tangible and readily visible,
as lands, hearths (representing houses), cattle, slaves or serfs,
and the crudest of agricultural products. But as trade, or the
business of exchanging, increased, it soon came to be looked upon
as a proper subject for exaction. Customs, or taxes upon trade,
were accordingly very early established, and at first were prob-
ably confined to domestic or internal trade. But with the rise
and growth of foreign commerce the practice very naturally ex-
tended to foreign trade, and the terms " customs " and " duties,''
which had an antecedent origin and meaning, eventually became
restricted in their application to " taxes " or " exactions " on ex-
ports and imports. But yet so slowly did the customs in this
sense become an important source of English revenue, that the
entire amount collected in 1603 was but £127,000, or but little in
excess of $600,000. Such taxes at the outset were furthermore
held to be the king's private or personal dues, to be levied by him
independently of any statute, according to his discretion, or,
rather, according to his necessities; and it was not until the
reign of Edward I that Parliament undertook to interfere with
what had been considered an hereditary right of the crown, by
providing in 1275, that for the purpose of correcting irregular
seizures and exactions, a limitation should be established on the
amount of duty that the king might take on the exports of wool
and leather; and the duties thus regulated by statute on these
two articles are regarded as the first legal foundation of the Eng-
lish customs revenue. But before the close of the reign of
Edward III, or in 1353, the exclusive right of Parliament to au-
thorize or control every form of indirect taxation was fully estab-

732 POPULAR /SCIEJSrCU MONTHLY,

lished, and for the time fully exercised; and the right thus
achieved by the representatives of the people of participating in
the levy of indirect or customs taxation, also necessarily drew
with it the right to participate in general legislation, or upon all
subjects which Parliament might deem proper.

It is also interesting to recall in connection with this subject,
that when the old English kings began to levy tolls on ships
entering into harbors, in common with tolls on transportation by
roads and navigable streams, the tax was on the ship directly,
and not specifically upon its contents. And in early charters
instances occur of grants to individuals or monasteries of an
exemption from toll for one ship of burden ; and in the event of
the destruction of the particular ship, the privilege was extended
to another ship. But with such tolls or taxes once established,
the idea soon developed that like forms of exaction might be
made to serve a commercial purpose as well as produce revenue ;
and, as might have been expected, they therefore early became
instrumentalities for fiscal oppression ; and, with a view of ad-
vancing the interests of English merchants, or of protecting
native industries, they were especially directed against the com-
merce of foreigners. And while the crown, as early as 1275, was
deprived of much of its arbitrary power of levying customs for
revenue, its prerogative of restraining trade and imposing oner-
ous burdens on exchanges with foreigners remained not only un-
disturbed but undisputed. Foreign merchants, or trading com-
panies, frequently purchased immunity from such exactions ; but
yet, according to Mr. Hall, in his History of the English " Cus-
toms," " to the ' custos ' of the ports, to the riverside baron, to
the wayside outlaw and the town apprentice, the Lombard or
Flemish peddler or merchant appeared as fair game for violence
and extortion of every kind." And in the earlier records of Eng-
land's customs experience, their oppressive features are of higher
interest than their revenue or fiscal characteristics. English pro-
ducers and traders, furthermore, having secured immunity from
arbitrary taxation themselves, were quite willing to see this in-
strument of restraint and oppression turned against their foreign
competitors ; and, accordingly, during the whole of the sixteenth,
seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and the first quarter of the
nineteenth century, the whole commercial policy of England was
based on the theory of the so-called "mercantile system"; the
fundamental principle of which was that commerce could benefit
one country only to the extent that it injured another; and that
it was the part of wisdom always to secure a favorable balance of
trade by selling as much and buying as little as possible, and
receiving pay for what was sold, not in other useful products, but
in gold.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION,

733

But notwithstanding tlie early restrictions imposed by Parlia-
ment on the power of the crown to appropriate the property of
the people for its support, arbitrary exactions in the name of
taxation continued to characterize the rule of all the English
monarch s down to the time of Charles I, when the claim of the
king to a divine right to take taxes from subjects, with or with-
out their consent, was settled by the dethronement and execution
of the monarch and the establishment of the Commonwealth;
and ever since then the grants of an annual Parliament have been
a prerequisite to any lawful expenditure for the maintenance of
the English state.

To the necessities of the Long Parliament, during its contest
with the crown, and when the receipts of revenue from former
sources were interrupted, we owe the permanent incorporation of
the so-called excise taxes into the tax system of England. An-
other most novel contrivance of this period for the raising of
revenue was the so-called weekly impost of a single meal; every
citizen being required to retrench one meal per week and pay an
amount representing the saving, in the form of money, into the
public treasury ; a tax that yielded in six years £608,400, or more
than $3,000,000 ; an aggregate that represented a far larger
purchasing power than the same amount would at present.

During the nineteen years that elapsed from the beginning
of the English Revolution to the restoration of the monarchy
under Charles II, the average annual expenditures of the Com-
monwealth were about seven times greater than those of the
preceding royal Government ; and as unlawful taxation was the
prime cause of the establishment of the Commonwealth, so ex-
cessive taxation furnished the prime cause of popular rejoicing
when the Commonwealth was got rid of.

A circumstance of no little importance, but which historians
generally have overlooked, is, that the revolt of the American
colonies and their separation from Great Britain, were in the first
instance due to an effort on the part of the landholders of Great
Britain to transfer from themselves to the people an ever-increas-
ing portion of the expenses of the Government. But such was
the fact. In 1767 the British Parliament, which was mainly com-
posed of landholders, reduced the previously existing land tax to
the extent of about half a million pounds per annum ; and it was
for the purpose of making up a resulting deficiency of receipts
to the British treasury, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer
of George III resorted to the taxation of tea, glass, and other
articles imported into the American colonies, as well as the re-
quirement for the use of stamps on the paper instrumentalities
used by the Americans, and the payment for which the colonists
resisted.

734 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Finally, a feature of special importance in connection witli the
history of English tax experiences, one often overlooked in his-
torical essays and discussions, but which ought to command the
attention of all interested in the origin of the structure and diver-
sities of governments, is the demonstration it affords of the close
connection between taxation and popular liberty. Take up the
history of any people, state, or nation that has fought its way,
like England, out of despotism into liberty, and what are the
transactions that most significantly mark and constitute its
progress ? The story is substantially the same in every case.
First, a government of might supported by arbitrary exactions
from persons and property — tribute, tailUy scutage, gabelle, corvee,
escheats, octroi, vingtieme, customs duties, subsidies, benevolences,
and the like — levied at the will or caprice of an absolute and de-
spotic chief or monarch, and without any consultation with or
assent of the governed. Then, in some hour of royal adversity or
need, the monarch appeals for aid to the more powerful of his
subjects — lords and nobles — who, in turn, taking advantage of the
situation, vote or grant it, in consideration of the concession of
some " Magna Charta," limiting in a measure the sphere of ex-
actions on the part of the monarch, or at least securing to a few
of his privileged subordinates a voice in regulating and legalizing
the same. Later comes the struggle between the privileged few
and the unprivileged many, and sooner or later, by peaceful po-
litical progress, or by violence and revolution, the privileged class
ceases to be a separate potential element of the state, and thence
passes to the people the sole right to determine, through their
chosen representatives, what grants of supplies shall be made for
the support of the state, and how the burden of taxation which
they entail shall be distributed. And then, if further progress is
to be achieved, to the end that in exercising the great power
of appropriating private property for defraying the expenses
of government, no more be taken than is necessary; that none
shall be assessed unequally; that the greatest freedom may be
secured for production and distribution, and the greatest re-
strictions placed on monopolies, there must be, through study
and investigation, such an improvement and remodeling of all
existing systems of taxation as will completely eliminate from
them all practices that rest upon no better basis than old preju-
dices and narrow, selfish interests, and make them conformable
to principles and conditions which, when presented abstractly,
will command almost universal assent.

The discovery of a twilight band on Mars is announced by Mr. Percival
Lowell, on the authority of observations by Mr. Douglass and Prof. Pick-
eidnsr.

PRACTICAL RESULTS OF BACTERIOLOGY. 735

THE PRACTICAL RESULTS OF BACTERIOLOGICAL
RESEARCHES.*

By GEORGE M. STEENBEEG, M. D., LL. D.,

SURGEON GENEBAL, U. S. A.

Gi ENTLEMEN: In selecting a subject for my presidential
^ address I have thought it best to restrict myself to that
branch of biological science with which I am most familiar ;
and, as a technical paper might prove uninteresting to many of
those who constitute my present audience, I have chosen a title
for my address which will enable me to speak in a general way
of the development of our knowledge relating to the low vege-
table organisms known as bacteria, and the practical results
which have been the outcome of researches commenced in the
first instance solely on account of their scientific interest.

Attention was first prominently called to the bacteria by the
investigations relating to spontaneous generation. It was gen-
erally believed prior to the researches of Spallanzini, in 1776, that
the development of micro-organisms in boiled organic fluids ex-
posed to the air was by heterogenesis. Spallanzini showed by
experiment that in some instances putrescible liquids when boiled
and kept in hermetically sealed flasks could be preserved indefi-
nitely without undergoing change. But he was not always suc-
cessful in this experiment. Bastian, and other supporters of the
theory of heterogenesis, at a later date, repeated these experi-
ments with similar results, and maintained that when a develop-
ment of micro-organisms occurred in a boiled fluid contained in a
hermetically sealed flask it could only be by spontaneous genera-
tion. But Pasteur, in 1860, gave the true explanation of the ap-
pearance of living bacteria under such conditions. He proved
that when development occurs it is because the organic liquid has
not been completely sterilized, and that certain micro-organisms
(spores of bacilli) withstand the boiling temperature, especially
when they are suspended in a liquid having an alkaline reaction.
At the present day this question is regarded as definitely settled,
at least so far as known conditions are concerned ; and we have
an exact experimental knowledge of the thermal death-point of
many micro-organisms of this class.

The principal pathogenic bacteria are destroyed at tempera-
tures much below the boiling point of water. Thus, in experi-
ments made by the present speaker in 1885 it was ascertained that

* Address of the President of the Biological Society of Washington, delivered Decem-
ber 14, 1895, under the auspices of the Joint Commission of the Scientific Societies of
Washington,

736 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the cholera spirillum is destroyed by ten minutes* exposure to a
temperature of 52° C. ; the typhoid bacillus by 56° ; the micrococ-
cus of pneumonia by 52° ; the streptococcus of erysipelas {S. pyo-
genes) by 54° ; etc. According to Loeffler, the bacillus of glanders
is destroyed in ten minutes by a temperature of 55° C. ; the bacil-
lus of diphtheria by 00°. The experiments of Yersin show that
the tubercle bacillus does not survive exposure for ten minutes to
a temperature of 70° C. The practical value of such knowledge
is apparent. Articles of clothing infected with any of the patho-
genic bacteria mentioned would be speedily disinfected by immer-
sion in water heated to 70° C or above, and water or milk recently
heated to the same temperature would evidently be without dan-
ger so far as infection by these "disease germs" is concerned.
The recommendation of sanitarians that water or milk or food
suspected of being contaminated by pathogenic bacteria should
be exposed to a boiling temperature before it is used is based
upon the experimental data referred to ; and the knowledge that
organic liquids can be sterilized by heat constitutes the founda-
tion upon which the bacteriology of the present day has been
established. To obtain reliable information with reference to the
biological characters of any particular micro-organism it is neces-
sary to experiment with pure cultures, and this requires a sterile
culture medium.

It is hardly necessary to call attention to the fact that an im-
mense industry in the preservation of food products depends upon
the sterilization of these products by heat, and their preservation
in hermetically sealed receptacles.

When Pasteur demonstrated the fact that sterile organic
liquids, when protected by a sterilized cotton air- filter, can be
kept indefinitely without undergoing any putrefactive or fermen-
tative change, he also proved that such changes are due to the
presence of micro-organisms; and, extending his investigations,
he found that certain definite kinds of change are due to particu-
lar species of low organisms. Thus the alcoholic fermentation of
a saccharine liquid was found to be due to a torula (Torula cere-
visice), the acetic fermentation of an alcoholic liquid to a bac-
terial ferment (Pasteur's Mycoderma aceti), etc. Subsequent re-
searches show that alcoholic fermentation may be induced by
several species of torula, and even by certain bacteria ; while the
number of bacterial ferments now known to science is very con-
siderable and is constantly being added to. Among the most im-
portant of these we may mention the Bacillus acidi lactici, which
is the usual cause of the acid fermentation of milk ; the various
anaerobic bacilli which give rise to the formation of butyric acid
in solutions containing starch, dextrin, sugar, or salts of lactic
acid; the bacteria which cause the alkaline fermentation of

PRACTICAL RESULTS OF BACTERIOLOGY, t^-j

urine; those which produce marsh gas by the fermentation of
cellulose ; those which effect the decomposition of albumin, with
an evolution of hydrosulphuric acid ; those which give rise to the
putrefactive decomposition of organic material, the number of
which is very large ; the bacteria in the soil which reduce nitrates
with liberation of ammonia and free nitrogen, and those which
oxidize ammonia. The study of these bacterial ferments is still
being vigorously prosecuted, and practical results of importance
in agriculture and the arts have already been attained. In the
future we may look for numerous additions to these practical
applications of our knowledge. The use of pure cultures for pro-
ducing useful fermentations must give the best result with the
least liability to loss of material from the presence of undesirable
species. It is known that the flavor of butter and of different
kinds of cheese is due to various bacterial ferments, and there is
good reason to suppose that a better product and greater uni-
formity would be attained by the use of pure cultures of the
species upon which special flavors depend. I understand that in
this country quite a number of dairies are now using pure cul-
tures of a certain bacillus (Bacillus 41 of Conn) for giving flavor
to their product. It is probable that similar methods will soon
be introduced in the cheese-making industry. A recent Eng-
lish publication, which I have not yet seen, is entitled Bread,
Bakehouses, and Bacteria. It will, no doubt, be found to con-
tain information of practical value to those engaged in bread-
making.

Pasteur's studies relating to the micro-organisms causing ab-
normal and injurious fermentations in wine, the results of which
he published in 1866 (Etudes sur le Vin, ses Maladies, etc.), have
resulted in an enormous saving to the wine-making industry in
France and other countries where wine is produced upon a large
scale; and his investigations relating to the cause and preven-
tion of the infectious diseases of the silkworm, which threatened
to destroy the silk industry in France, have resulted in even
greater benefits to the material interests of his country and of the
world (published in 1870).

Agricultural chemists predict that in the near future cultures
of the nitrifying bacteria of the soil will be made on a large scale
for the use of farmers, who will add them to manures for the
purpose of fixing the ammonia^ or perhaps will distribute them
directly upon the soil. Should this prove to be a successful and
economic procedure, the extent of the interests involved will
make it a "practical result" of the first importance. Another
application of our recently acquired knowledge which has already
proved useful to farmers in certain parts of Europe relates to the
destruction of field mice by distributing in the grain fields bread

VOL. XLVIII. — 53

738 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

moistened with a culture of a bacillus which causes a fatal infec-
tious disease among these little animals.

In Greece, in Hungary, and in other parts of Europe the
quantity of grain consumed by field mice constitutes a very seri-
ous loss. Kecent experiments made with cultures of two dif-
ferent bacilli (Bacillus typhi murium of Loffler and the bacillus
of Lasar) show that it is practicable to destroy these pests, in the
fields where their depredations are committed, in the manner
indicated. Mice which consume the bread moistened with cul-
tures of one of the pathogenic bacilli referred to die within a
short time from general infection, and their bodies are consumed
by other mice, which also become infected. Thus a veritable
epidemic is induced by which their numbers are very materially
reduced.

This leads us to the subject of the prevention of infectious
diseases among domestic animals. We have now a precise
knowledge of the specific infectious agents (" germs '0 in the
diseases of this class which have caused the greatest losses. The
most important of these are anthrax, glanders, tuberculosis, in-
fectious pi euro-pneumonia, swine plague, hog cholera, hog ery-
sipelas, and fowl cholera. All of these have been proved to be
due to bacterial parasites, the morphological and biological char-
acters of which are now well known. The infectious agent and
usual mode of infection being known in any given disease, we have
a scientific basis for measures of prophylaxis. These naturally
include the destruction of the specific micro-organism to which the
disease is due wherever it may be found. An enormous amount
of experimental work has been done for the purpose of determin-
ing the comparative value of disinfecting agents and the prac-
tical advantages of each, having in view questions relating to
cost, stability, solubility, odor, toxic properties, etc., also to the
difference in resisting power of different pathogenic bacteria, the
presence or absence of spores, the character of the material with
which they are associated, etc. As a result of this extensive
laboratory work our knowledge with reference to the efficiency
and availability of agents of this class is very complete, and
enables those who are familiar with the experimental evidence to
formulate rules for the destruction of the various pathogenic
bacteria wherever they may be found. The infected animal is
itself a focus of infection which under certain circumstances had
better be destroyed in toto, the individual being sacrificed and the
body put out of the way of doing harm by means of cremation or
burial. Under other circumstances it may be sufficient to isolate
the infected animal and to disinfect all discharges containing the
pathogenic germ and all objects contaminated by such discharges.
By such measures the extension of epidemic diseases fatal to

PRACTICAL RESULTS OF BACTERIOLOGY. 739

domestic animals may usually be arrested. But it may happen
that the extent of the epidemic prevalence and the number of
animals already exposed to infection make these measures in-
adequate or difficult of execution. In this case we have, for cer-
tain diseases, another method of prophylaxis which has been
extensively employed with excellent results. I refer to the
method of protective inoculations, which we owe largely to the
genius and patient researches of the distinguished French chem-
ist Pasteur and his pupils.

Toussaint, a pioneer in researches relating to protective in-
oculations, has a short paper in the Comptes-Rendus of the
French Academy of Sciences of July 12, 1880, entitled Immunity
from Anthrax (charhon) acquired as a Result of Protective Inoc-
ulations.

In this paper he announces his discovery of the important fact
that the anthrax bacillus does not form spores in the tissues or
liquids of the body of an infected animal, but multiplies alone by
binary division: " Sa multiplication sefait toujours par une divi-
sion du mycelium.''

In the same communication he reports his success in con-
ferring immunity upon five sheep by means of protective in-
oculations, and also upon four young dogs. We must therefore
accord him the priority in the publication of experimental data
demonstrating the practicability of accomplishing this result.

In a communication made to the French Academy of Sciences,
September 27, 1880, Pasteur gave an account of an experiment
made July 14, 1879, upon two cows, which, in connection with a
subsequent experiment, made August 6, 1880, upon four cows, led
him to the conclusion that a single attack of anthrax protects
from subsequent attacks.

The next important steps in the line of experimental research
leading to protective inoculations in the disease under consid-
eration were reported by Pasteur in his communication to the
French Academy made at the seance of February 28, 1881 (with
the collaboration of Chamberland and Roux), entitled De I' At-
tenuation des Virus et de leur Retour a la Virulence. In this
connection Pasteur announces his discovery of the fact that
when cultivated at a temperature of 42° to 43° C. the anthrax
bacillus no longer forms spores and rapidly loses its virulence.

In a later communication (March 21, 1881) Pasteur says that
he has found by experiment that when attenuated varieties of the
anthrax bacillus form spores, these again reproduce the same
pathogenic variety, so that cultures of each degree of attenua-
tion can be maintained indefinitely.

On June 13, 1881, Pasteur communicated the results of his
famous experiment at Pouilly-le-Fort, near Melun. He says :

740 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

" On the 5tli of May, 1881, we inoculated, by means of a Pravaz
syringe, twenty-four sheep, one goat, and six cows, each, animal
with five drops of an attenuated culture of the anthrax bacillus.
On the 17th of May we reinoculated these animals with a second
virus, also attenuated, but more virulent than the first.

" On the 31st of May we proceeded to make a very virulent
inoculation in order to test the efficacy of the preventive inocula-
tions made on the 5th and 7th of May. For this experiment we
inoculated the thirty vaccinated animals, and also twenty-four
sheep, one goat, and four cows which had not received any pre-
vious treatment.

"The very virulent virus used on the 31st of May was ob-
tained from spores preserved in my laboratory since the 21st of
March, 1877.

" In order to make the experiments more comparable, we in-
oculated alternately a vaccinated and a non-vaccinated animal.
When the operation was finished, all those present were invited
to reassemble on June 2d — i. e., forty-eight hours after the viru-
lent inoculation was made.

"Upon the arrival of the visitors on June 2d, all were aston-
ished at the result. The twenty-four sheep, the goat, and the six
cows which had received the attenuated virus all presented the
appearance of health. On the contrary, twenty of the sheep and
the goat which had not been vaccinated were already dead of
anthrax ; two more of the non- vaccinated sheep died before the
eyes of the spectators, and the last of the series expired before
the end of the day. The non- vaccinated cows were not dead.
We had previously proved that cows are less subject than sheep
to die of anthrax. But all had an extensive oedema at the point
of inoculation, behind the shoulder. Certain of these oedematous
swellings increased during the following days to such dimensions
that they contained several litres of liquid, deforming the animal.
One of them even nearly touched the earth. The temperature of
these cows was elevated 3^ C. The vaccinated cows did not ex-
perience any elevation of temperature, or tumefaction, or the
slightest loss of appetite. The success, therefore, was as complete
for the cows as for the sheep.'^

Subsequent experience has fully established the value of pro-
tective inoculations in this disease, and the method of Pasteur
has been practiced on a large scale in France, Austria, Russia,
and Switzerland.

The results of anthrax inoculations made in France by Pas-
teur's method during twelve years were summarized by Cham-
berland in 1894. The veterinarians who made the inoculations
were each year called upon to answer the following questions : 1.
Number of animals inoculated. 2. Number of deaths from first

PRACTICAL RESULTS OF BACTERIOLOGY. 741

inoculation. 3. Number of animals dying within twelve days
after the second inoculation. 4. Number of animals dying of
anthrax within a year after protective inoculations. 5. The
yearly average loss before inoculations were practiced. The
total number of animals inoculated during the period to which
this report refers was 1,788,677 sheep and 200,962 cattle. The
average annual loss before these protective inoculations were
practiced is said to have been about ten per cent for sheep and
five per cent for cattle. The total mortality from this disease
among inoculated animals, including that resulting from the in-
oculations, was 0*94 per cent for sheep and 034 per cent for cattle.
Chamberland estimates that the total saving as a result of the
inoculations practiced has been five million francs for sheep and
two million francs for cattle.

Podmolinoff gives the following summary of results obtained
in 1892 and 1893 in the government of Kherson (Russia) : Num-
ber of sheep inoculated, 67,176 ; loss, 294 = 0'43 per cent. Number
of horses inoculated, 1,452 ; loss, 8. Number of cattle inoculated,
3,652 ; loss, 2. The conclusion is reached that Pasteur's method
of inoculation affords an immunity against infection with viru-
lent anthrax bacilli in greater amounts than could ever occur
under natural conditions.

Another disease in which inoculations have been practiced on
a large scale is erysipelas of swine (rouget of French authors),
which prevails extensively in France and other parts of Europe.

Pasteur's first studies relating to the aetiology of rouget were
made in collaboration with Chamberland, Roux, and Thuillier in
1882. Pasteur found that the virulence of his cultures was in-
creased by passing them through pigeons and diminished by
passing them through rabbits. By a series of inoculations in
rabbits he obtained an attenuated virus suitable for protective
inoculations in swine. In practice he recommended the use of a
mild virus first, and after an interval of twelve days of a stronger
virus. These inoculations have been extensively practiced in
France, and the fact that immunity may be established in this
way is well demonstrated.

In a paper published in 1894 Chamberland states that in the
preceding seven years, during which time protective inoculations
had been practiced in France on a large scale, the mortality from
rouget had been reduced to 1*45 per cent, whereas before these
inoculations were practiced the mortality from this disease was
about twenty per cent.

Hutyra has given the following statistics of inoculations made
in Hungary during the year 1889 with " vaccines " obtained from
the Pasteur laboratory in Vienna : 48,637 pigs were inoculated on
117 different farms. Of these, 143 (0*29 per cent) died between the

74a POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

first and second inoculations. After the second inoculation 59
animals died (O'l per cent). During the year following the inocu-
lations 1,082 inoculated pigs died of Bothlatif, Before the inocu-
lations the annual loss in the same localities is said to have been
from ten to thirty per cent.

In a communication (1894) to the Central Society of Veteri-
nary Medicine (of France), Arloing claims that he has demon-
strated the setiological relation of a bacillus first described by
him in 1889 (Pneumohacillus liquefaciens hovis) to the infec-
tious disease of cattle known as pleuro-pneumonia. The demon-
stration was not complete until recently, because of failure to
reproduce the disease by inoculation with a pure culture of the
bacillus.

Although this demonstration is of such recent date, protective
inoculations against this disease have long been successfully
practiced. For this purpose serum obtained from the lungs of an
animal recently dead has been employed, this having been proved
by experiment to be infectious material, although the exact nature
of the infectious agent present in it was not determined.

In the Bulletin of the Central Society of Veterinary Medicine
of May 24, 1894, M. Robcis reports the results of inoculations made
with cultures of Arloing's Pneumohacillus liquefaciens hovis, and
with injections of pulmonary serum. His statistics with refer-
ence to the last-mentioned " legal " inoculations he has obtained
from official documents relating to the Departmeut of the Seine.

The total number of infected localities in this department dur-
ing the years 1885 to 1891 was 1,253 ; total number of contami-
nated animals, 18,356 ; total number inoculated, 18,359 ; total num-
ber of deaths prior to inoculation, 1,753 ; total number of deaths
after inoculation, 2,741 ; total number of deaths due to the inocu-
lation, 94 ; total percentage of mortality, 22'8 per cent. After dis-
cussing these and other statistics Robcis arrives at the conclusion
that Arloing's method of preventive inoculations with cultures of
the Pneumohacillus liquefaciens hovis gives better results than
the legal method with serum from an infected animal, the total
loss among animals exposed to contagion not being over twelve
to fourteen per cent.

In the infectious disease of cattle known under the names of
" black leg," " quarter evil," or symptomatic anthrax, protective
inoculations have also been practiced with success. The disease
prevails during the summer months in various parts of Europe,
and to some extent in the United States. It is characterized by
the appearance of irregular, emphysematous swellings of the sub-
cutaneous tissues and muscles, especially over the quarters. The
muscles in the affected areas have a*^ dark color and contain a
bloody serum in which the bacillus is found to which the disease

PRACTICAL RESULTS OF BACTERIOLOGY, 743

is due. This is an anaerobic bacillus wbich. forms large oval
spores.

The aetiology of the disease was first clearly established by the
researches of Arloing, Cornevin, and Thomas (1880 to 1883).

Strebel, in 1885, published the results of protective inocula-
tions made in Switzerland in 1884. The inoculations were made
in the end of the tail with two " vaccines," with an interval be-
tween the two of from nine to fourteen days. The vaccines were
prepared by exposure to heat, as recommended by Arloing, Cor-
nevin, and Thomas. The most favorable season for inoculations
was found to be the spring, and the most favorable age of cattle
for inoculation from five months to two years.

In seven Swiss cantons 2,199 cattle were inoculated ; 1,810 in-
oculations were made among animals which were exposed in
dangerously infected pastures. Of these but two died, one two
months and the other four months after the protective inocula-
tions. Among 908 inoculated cattle, which were pastured with
1,650 others not inoculated, the mortality was 0'22 per cent, while
the loss among the latter was 6'1 per cent. The following year
(1885), according to Strebel, the number of inoculations, exclusive
of those made in the canton of Bern, was 35,000. The losses
among inoculated animals are reported as having been about five
times less than among those not protected in this way.

In the Bulletin of the Central Society of Veterinary Medicine
of France (1892) Guillod and Simon give the results of 3,500 inoc-
ulations made since 1884. The mortality among cattle in the re-
gion where these inoculations were practiced had been from ten
to twenty per cent, but fell to 0'5 per cent among the inoculated
animals.

The success of Pasteur's method of prophylaxis against hydro-
phobia is now well established, although the specific germ of this
disease has not yet been demonstrated.

Perdrix (1890), in an analysis of the results obtained at the
Pasteur Institute in Paris, calls attention to the fact that the mor-
tality among those treated has diminished each year, and ascribes
this to improvement in the method. He says :

" At the outset it was difiicult to know what formula to adopt
for the treatment of each particular case. Upon consulting the
accounts of the bites in persons who have died of hydrophobia,
notwithstanding the inoculations, we have arrived at a more pre-
cise determination as to the treatment suitable for each case,
according to the gravity of the lesions. In the cases with serious
wounds we inject larger quantities of the emulsion of cord and
repeat the inoculations with the most virulent material. For the
bites upon the head, which are especially dangerous, however
slight their apparent gravity may be, the treatment is more rapid.

744 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and, above all, more intensive — that is to say, tlie virulent cord is
injected several times."

The statistics arranged with reference to the location of the
bite are given by Perdrix as follows :

Bitten upon the head, 684 ; died, 12 = l-'/S per cent ;
Bitten upon the hands, 4,396 ; died, 9 = 0*2 per cent ;
Bitten upon the limbs, 2,839 ; died, 5 = O'lV per cent.

In the infections diseases of man, which have been proved to
be due to pathogenic bacteria, the most satisfactory evidence of
the value of protective inoculations has been obtained in cholera
and in diphtheria. In the first-mentioned disease protective in-
oculations were practiced on a large scale in Spain, during the
epidemic of 1884 and 1885, by the method of Ferran. This con-
sisted in the introduction of a small amount of a pure culture of
the cholera spirillum into the subcutaneous connective tissue, by
means of a hypodermic syringe. Shakespeare, who was sent by
our Government to investigate the merits qf this method of
prophylaxis, was disposed to think well of it. He says :

" There is still another result of the preventive inoculations of
Ferran apparently shown by these statistics. I refer to the ap-
parent marked shortening of the course of the epidemic after a
large percentage of the inhabitants have become inoculated. It
would seem, therefore, from analysis of the official statistics, that
the practice of the anticholeraic inoculation after the method of
Ferran, besides giving the subject inoculated a considerable im-
munity from attack and death by cholera, furnishes a means of
bringing an epidemic rapidly to an end."

More recently Haffkine has advanced evidence in favor of the
protective value of subcutaneous inoculations with cholera cul-
tures. His experiments in India have been made in Calcutta,
Gaya, Cawnpore, and Lucknow. Those exposed, during the epi-
demic prevalence of cholera, under the same conditions as to
locality, water supply, etc., are divided into two groups, the inoc-
ulated and the non-inoculated. In the first group, which includes
500 inoculated individuals, 21 cases occurred, of which 19 were
fatal, a mortality of 3*8 per cent. In the second group were 1,735
individuals ; the number of cases in this group was 174 ; number
of deaths, 113; percentage of mortality, 6'51.

Whether this method will be found to have any great practi-
cal value can only be determined by more extended experiments.
But in view of the fact that other measures of prophylaxis, well
known to sanitarians, are sufficient for the prevention of cholera
epidemics, and that nurses and others who necessarily come in
contact with cholera patients are not likely to contract the disease
if they use proper precautions with reference to their food and

PRACTICALTRESULTS OF BACTERIOLOGY. 745

drink, the disinfection of their hands, etc., we doubt whether pro-
tective inoculations will ever come into general use as a measure
of prophylaxis against this disease. Certainly they can not take
the place of those sanitary measures which have been proved to
be suflBcient for the prevention of epidemics — namely, exclusion
by a proper inspection service at ports of entry (" quarantine "),
isolation of the sick, disinfection of excreta, general sanitary
police of exposed towns and cities, boiling the water used for
drinking purposes, etc.

But it must be remembered that these measures of prophy*
laxis, which have undoubtedly resulted in the saving of thousands
of lives, are based upon exact knowledge obtained as a result of
bacteriological researches. Since the discovery of the cholera
spirillum by Koch in 1884, a very large number of skilled investi-
gators have devoted themselves to researches relating to it, and
especially to questions relating to its resistance to various de-
structive agencies. These researches show that it is quickly
destroyed by a comparatively low temperature (60° C), by desic-
cation, and by all known germicidal agents. It is especially sus-
ceptible to the action of acids, in comparatively dilute solutions.
Our measures of sanitary prophylaxis are therefore established
upon a sound experimental basis, and the extension of the disease
in civilized countries is the result of a failure to apply well-
known means of prevention. As a matter of fact, these measures
have been successful in excluding the disease from this country
during the last two widespread epidemics in Europe, and have
enabled sanitarians to greatly restrict the epidemic spread of the
disease in those countries into which it has recently been intro-
duced.

The prevalence of typhoid fever has also been greatly re-
stricted by measures based upon an exact knowledge of the bio-
logical characters of the typhoid bacillus, and if the recommenda-
tions of sanitarians were fully complied with there is reason to
believe that it would be practically banished from our cities and
towns.

The bacteriological examination of the water supply of towns
and cities is now generally recognized as an important matter, as
indicating the sanitary purity of the supply. The detection of
the dangerous pathogenic species should lead to the disuse of a
water for drinking purposes, or to the recommendation that it be
boiled before it is used. The presence of certain other bacteria
indicates sewage contamination and consequent danger to those
drinking the water without proper precautions as to filtration or
sterilization. In Berlin, where the water supply is taken from a
river known to be contd.minated by sewage, it is passed through
carefully constructed "filter beds," and expert bacteriologists

VOL. XLVIII. — 64

746 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

make frequent tests to ascertain how well tliese filter beds are
accomplisliing their purpose. In France the Pasteur-Chamberland
filter is largely used, and recent reports indicate that it has been
instrumental in effecting a great reduction in the rate of mor-
tality from typhoid fever, especially among the French soldiers in
certain parts of the country where this disease a few years since
caused a considerable mortality, and where the civil population,
not using the filters, still furnishes many victims to this disease.

The exact knowledge which we now possess with reference to
the micro-organisms which are the cause of erysipelas, puerperal
fever, septicaemia, wound infection, etc., has also led to the em-
ployment of intelligent measures of prophylaxis. The brilliant
success which has attended the carrying out of these modern
antiseptic and aseptic methods in surgical and obstetrical prac-
tice are too well known to call for extended remark. But some
statistics relating to this branch of our subject may serve to im-
press the matter upon the minds of those who have not fully
appreciated the saving of life which has resulted from the employ-
ment of methods based upon a knowledge of the usual modes of
wound infection and the micro-organisms to which such infection
is due. Lister, the distinguished pioneer in the employment of
antiseptics in surgical practice, reports that during the years 1864,
1865, and 1866, before he resorted to the use of antiseptics, the
mortality in his surgical cases exceeded forty-five per cent,
largely from septic complications. During the period from 1871
to 1876, in a total of 453 surgical cases treated by him with strict
antiseptic precautions, the mortality from such complications
was only 0'36 per cent.

The German surgeon Volkmann reports that prior to the intro-
duction of antiseptic methods the mortality from compound frac-
tures in his practice was forty per cent. After adopting Lister's
methods he had 135 successive cases of compound fracture with-
out a death from septic causes ; two deaths only occurred out of
the whole number of cases ; one of these was the result of de-
lirium tremens and the other of fatty embolism of the lungs.

Brignot, a French surgeon, reports that in French hospitals
the mortality from major surgical operations before the introduc-
tion of antiseptic methods was 52*5 per cent, and that since it has
been reduced to a little less than eleven per cent. In a series of
736 cases of compound fracture collected by Prof. William White,
of Philadelphia, all of which occurred before the introduction of
antiseptic methods, the mortality was forty per cent. In a second
series of similar cases in which these methods were employed the
mortality was only four per cent. Dennis, of New York, has
reported a series of 516 cases of compound fracture without a
single death from septic causes.

PRACTICAL RESULTS OF BACTERIOLOGY. 747

Thirty years ago the mortality from puerperal septicaemia in
lying-in hospitals was frequently something frightful. In the
Maison d'Accouchements in Paris the mortality rate at times
was as high as one out of every three patients delivered. Similar
conditions existed in Berlin and in other European cities. At the
present day the mortality from septic infection in similar cases is
even less than in private practice. In the Maternity Hospital of
New York, for example, in one thousand deliveries there were but
six deaths, and but one of these was due to puerperal septicaemia.

If we take a more general view of the results attained in pre-
ventive medicine by the application of modern methods based
upon our knowledge of the causes of infectious diseases, we shall
find that a very large saving of life has been accomplished, as
shown by diminished mortality rates in all parts of the civilized
world. This is well illustrated by the carefully kept English
statistics. The facts are very concisely stated by Sir Edwin
Arnold in an address recently delivered at St. Thomas's Hospital
upon Medicine, its Past and Future. He says :

" One of the high authorities already quoted has furnished a
calculation of the salvage of life effected, even during the early
years of the present reign, by the commencing improvements in
preventive and curative medicine. In the five years from 1 838 to
1842 London, with an average population of 1,840,865 persons, had
an average annual mortality of 2,557 in every 100,000. In the
five years from 1880 to 1884 the average metropolitan population
was 3,894,261, and the average annual death-rate 2,101 in each
100,000. A calculation will show that these figures represent a
saving or prolonging of lives during that lustrum to the number
of 96,640. The mean annual death-rate has now been reduced to
a point lower than shown in these. It was 22*16 per 1,000 for
England and Wales at the commencement of the reign, and it is
to-day better than 19*0 per thousand, while in her Majesty's army
and navy the diminution of mortality apart from deaths from
warfare has proved even more remarkable, and in India, where
we used to lose 69 per 1,000 yearly, this has been reduced to 16
per 1,000."

We can not claim that this reduction in the mortality rate is
due alone to the development of our knowledge relating to the
pathogenic bacteria, for much had been accomplished by practical
measures of sanitation before we had any exact knowledge of
disease germs. But this exact knowledge has added greatly to
our sanitary resources, and has doubtless been an important fac-
tor in the reduction in the mortality rate which has occurred
within the past twenty-five years. Sir Edwin Arnold, in the ad-
dress above referred to, says :

" A great authority has declared that ' a day will come when

748 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in London, in Berlin, in Paris, man will not die of diphtheria, of
typhoid, of scarlet fever, of cholera, or of tuberculosis, any more
than he dies in these cities to-day o^ the venom of snakes or of
the tooth of wolves/ "

But it is not alone in preventive medicine that important
practical results have been accomplished. Therapeutics has also
been greatly and favorably influenced by the discovery of the
specific germs of a considerable number of infectious diseases.
Naturally, the effort is to destroy these germs at the focus of
infection, or to render the conditions in the body of the infected
individual unfavorable for their development. When the focus
of infection is superficial or within comparatively easy reach,
as in erysipelas or diphtheria, local treatment with germicidal
agents is often attended with favorable results. But when the
deeper tissues and organs of the body are invaded, or the germ
multiplies abundantly in the blood, but little can be accomplished
by the use of agents of this class. Our bacteriological researches
have, however, recently resulted in the discovery of a method of
treatment which has been employed with remarkable success in
two of the infectious diseases of man, and which there is reason
to believe may eventually be found to have a more extended ap-
plication. I refer to the therapeutic use of antitoxins contained
in, or obtained from, the blood of animals rendered immune by
repeated inoculations with cultures of a specific disease germ.
The diseases in which the greatest success has been attained by
this mode of treatment are tetanus and diphtheria. As the last-
mentioned is by far the most important from a practical point of
view, I will confine my remarks to the results of treatment in this
disease. Fortunately, I have at hand a recent summary of the
clinical evidence in favor of this mode of treatment, made by a
very competent and conservative physician — Prof. William H.
Welch, of the Johns Hopkins University. Prof. Welch con-
cludes his paper as follows :

"The principal conclusion which I would draw from this
paper is that our study of the results of the treatment of over
seven thousand cases of diphtheria by antitoxin demonstrates
beyond all reasonable doubt that antidiphtheric serum is a spe-
cific curative agent for diphtheria, surpassing in its efiScacy all
other known methods of treatment for this disease. It is the
duty of the physician to use it."

A recent report on antitoxin treatment in Germany, obtained
by collective investigation, on a total of 10,312 cases occurring in
a period of six months from October 1, 1894, gives very striking
results. Of the whole number, 5,833 were treated with serum,
and 4,479 without it. The proportion of deaths in the former
group was 9*6 per cent, in contrast to 147 per cent in the latter.

PRACTICAL RESULTS OF BACTERIOLOGY. 749

In 401 cases of children under the age of two years, in which the
sernm treatment was used on the first and second day, the mor-
tality rate was 11*8, in contrast with 39*7 where under similar
conditions it was not used. Of 2,556 children between two and
ten years of age, the death-rate was 4 per cent after antitoxin
treatment, instead of 15*2 per cent in the other group.

Prof. Welch very truly and forcibly remarks : " The discovery
of the healing serum is entirely the result of laboratory work.
It is an outcome of the studies of immunity. In no sense was the
discovery an accidental one. Every step leading to it can be
traced, and every step was taken with a definite purpose and to
solve a definite problem."

The importance of prompt treatment in this very fatal malady
is shown by the following figures which we take from Prof.
Welch's paper. The cases referred to were reported by nineteen
different observers, and the total number treated was 1,489, with
a mortality of 14*2 per cent. Of these cases, 222 were treated with
the antitoxic serum on the first day of sickness, with a mortality
of 2*2 per cent ; 456 cases on the second day, with a mortality of
8*1 per cent; 311 on the third day, with a mortality of 13*5 per
cent; 168 on the fourth day, with a mortality of 19 per cent; 116
on the fifth day, with a mortality of 29*3 per cent ; 44 on the sixth
day, with a mortality of 34*1 per cent ; 104 after the sixth day,
with a mortality of 337 per cent ; 68 undetermined.

The time at my disposal will not permit me to dwell longer
upon the practical results already attained in preventive medi-
cine and in specific therapeutics as a result of bacteriological
investigations. But before closing I desire to call attention, as
briefly as possible, to the value of the recent additions to our
knowledge relating to the causes of disease, in the way of an exact
and early diagnosis. In certain infectious diseases such knowl-
edge is of great importance, not only in the interest of the pa-
tient, but of others liable to infection. This is especially true in
diphtheria and in tuberculosis of the lungs. In the first-men-
tioned disease an early differentiation of true diphtheria from
pseudo-diphtheria is often impossible without resort to methods
by which the bacteriologist is able to detect the presence of the
diphtheria bacillus. In pulmonary tuberculosis, also, the bacte-
riologist can usually detect the tubercle bacillus in the sputa be-
fore the clinical expert can recognize with certainty the physical
signs of the disease. Scientific physicians in all parts of the
world now resort to the use of the microscope and the staining
methods by which this bacillus is recognized for making an early
diagnosis in cases of this nature. Other diseases in which the
recognition of the specific germ establishes the diagnosis are re-
lapsing fever, typhoid fever, glanders, and anthrax — the two last

750 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mentioned being diseases of lower animals which, may be trans-
m.itted to man. And in tuberculosis and glanders affecting do-
mestic animals we have still another method of establishing the
diagnosis in suspected cases. This is by the subcutaneous injec-
tion of a proper dose of a filtered culture of the specific patho-
genic bacteria. These filtered cultures, containing the soluble
toxic products developed during the growth of the bacillus, are
known in the one case (tubercle bacillus) as tuberculin, and in
the other (glanders bacillus) as mallein. The effect is similar in
each case. When an animal infected with tuberculosis receives a
suitable dose of tuberculin a characteristic febrile reaction is pro-
duced. In the non-infected animal this reaction does not occur.
The same is true as regards animals infected with glanders which
receive a dose of mallein. This test of infection is now exten-
sively used both in this country and in Europe with very satis-
factory results. The importance of an early recognition of these
chronic infectious diseases is apparent. The danger from infected
animals is not limited to the extension of the disease to others of
the same species, but in tuberculosis those who consume the milk
are exposed to the danger of infection, especially in cases where
the udder of the animal is the seat of a tubercular infection.

I have by no means exhausted my subject, and an attempt to
do so would probably exhaust the patience of my audience. In
conclusion, I would say that the painstaking laboratory work
which has led to the important practical results referred to is
still being prosecuted with unabated vigor, and without doubt
we may look for further valuable additions to our knowledge.
These, together with a wider appreciation of the present status of
this department of scientific investigation, can not fail to add
largely to the practical results which will hereafter be achieved
in the field of preventive medicine and of specific therapeutics,
and in agriculture, in the dairy, etc., as heretofore indicated.

The Prince of Monaco recently reported to the French Academy of Sci-
ences on the results of his deep-sea dredging expedition of 1895, from Port-
ugal to the Azores and back to the English Channel. The dredgings were
carried to the depth of forty-two hundred metres, where weirs were depos-
ited ; and numerous soundings were made, some of them as far down as
five thousand metres, and specimens of the water drawn up. Fine captures
were made in the weirs from fifteen hundred metres, in which echinoderms,
mollusks, and fishes were plentiful. Thus, three hundred and fifty-five
animals were taken in twenty-four hours in the same net — three hundred
of them fishes, large red shrimps, and cephalopods. Besides the usual
fauna of such profundities, crayfishes eighty centimetres long and superb
holothurias of forty-six centimetres were drawn up from the depth of four
thousand metres.

TROPICAL FRUIT TREES. 751

TROPICAL FRUIT TREES.

Bv BEET HA F. HERRICK.

ALTHOUGH the fruits of the tropics seldom ripen in temper-
- ate climates, the trees are often cultivated merely for the
beauty of their foliage ; so that it may prove of interest to become
further acquainted with their general appearance and uses in
their far-off native habitats.

The beautiful date palm is indigenous to Africa and Asia,
though flourishing in all hot countries. There are said to be
nearly a thousand species, the most vigorous specimens reaching
the height of eighty feet and living for two hundred years. Each
tree yields from one hundred and sixty to two hundred pounds of
fruit in a single season, some of the clusters weighing nearly forty
pounds. It is propagated by suckers from the root, whence its
name of "Phoenix," and bears its first crop when about eight
years of age.

No less than three hundred and sixty uses are claimed for this
invaluable tree. The trunk furnishes timber for furniture and
house-building as well as fuel, cooking utensils, and bows and
arrows ; the roots are utilized for fencing and roofing, and the
fiber is woven into mats, fishnets, ropes, baskets, and articles of
clothing. Among the natives of the Orient the nutritious fruit is
the principal food for nearly the entire year, and, pounded into
solid cakes, is carried by Arabs journeying over the scorching
desert, the stones being used as fodder for the camels. Roasted
and ground, the kernels make a fair substitute for coffee, and are
also valued on account of their oil.

These trees are sometimes known as the " palms of victory,"
as the large, frondlike leaves are supposed to be identical with
those that were strewn before the Saviour on his entry into Jerusa-
lem, and that were borne with songs of rejoicing before ancient
conquerors returning from their triumphs on the battlefield;
while on Palm Sunday and at the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles
they are highly prized as church decorations. In some varieties
the flower- spathes yield a large quantity of sweet sap, which
upon evaporation becomes " date sugar," this being fermented
into an intoxicant called " arrack." The terminal bud or " cab-
bage " is considered a great delicacy, and is boiled and eaten like a
vegetable.

Another well-known fruit tree of the tropics is the graceful
Musa, or banana, a relative of the plantain. The rapidly growing
suckers are productive at any season of the year, in a period of
from nine to eighteen months, according to the altitude, the tree
dying after ripening several bunches, some of which weigh nearly

752

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

eighty pounds. Many of the large, handsome leaves — usually torn
to fringes by the trade winds — measure ten feet in length by two

Banana iiiEE.

feet in breadth, their uppermost crests waving twenty feet above
the ground.

From the fibrous petioles or leaf stalks is manufactured a fine,
white flax, which is woven into delicate muslins, or, when in a
half-finished state, is used for tinder or wadding ; while one vari-
ety in the Philippine Islands furnishes the well-known Manilla
hemp.

Green bananas are sometimes dried and ground into meal or

TROPICAL FRUIT TREES.

753

flour, which is baked or fried in cakes. So common is this fruit
in the tropics that a huge cluster may be purchased for the
trifling sum of twenty- five cents, and a generous bunch always
hangs in the hallway or on the veranda of the hospitable planter's
home.

Tradition claims that plantains flourished in the Garden of
Eden, together with the " tree of life " and " the tree of the knowl-
edge of good and evil." They are larger and more succulent than
bananas, and are used for almost the same purposes. Like the

Breadfruit Tree.

date-palm and the cocoanut tree, the " cabbage " of this plant is a
favorite article of diet.

The breadfruit, or Artocarpus, is a native of the Indian Archi-

754

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pelago and the islands of the Pacific. It attains an elevation of
about fifty feet, and grows wild in the forests. The leaves are
large, glossy, and deeply pinnated, like the fronds of a fern, and
the fruit resembles a muskmelon — the edible interior being of the

Lower Pakt of Mango Tree. Hawaiian Islands.

consistence of newly baked bread, and tasting like batter-pudding
or boiled milk and potatoes. It is sometimes fried in slices, and
served with meat as a side dish, or eaten with milk and sugar ;
but the usual mode of preparation is to bake the unripe quartered
portions in rude ovens of heated stones, arranged in layers with
earth and leaves, on the same principle as scalloped oysters. As
there are many varieties, ripening at different seasons of the year,
the supply is practically inexhaustible. Some kinds yield valu-
able timber, and from the inner bark of other species the natives
manufacture clothing.

The " Jack-fruit "—a South Sea representative — is long and
gourdlike, and weighs from twenty to sixty pounds. Although
most of the crop is borne on the boughs, in the usual manner,
some of the fruit grows directly on the bare trunk, a foot or two
from the ground, presenting a very singular appearance. It

TROPICAL FRUIT TREES.

7SS

ripens numerous seeds, whicli are considered very nutritious, and
are eaten like chestnuts.

An Indian tree of great beauty and interest is the tamarind,
with its thick, lofty trunk, wide-spreading branches, and clusters of
purplish or yellowish flowers. So fine and light is the foliage that
the Koran doomed lost souls in hell to have their thirst quenched
only once in a thousand years with as much water as could be
held in a single leaflet. The long, narrow pods contain citric and
tartaric acid, sugar, and potash, and are imported in large quan-
tities from the East and West Indies, to be utilized in various
economies.

The fruit of the curious papaya, sometimes called the papaw,
suggests a pumpkin in taste and general appearance, and a
score or more are attached in a mass to the naked stem, im-
mediately beneath the crest of leaves. As they contain a large
amount of pepsin, they
are widely used medi-
cinally ; and tough meat,
wrapped for a couple of
hours in one of the leaves,
becomes exceedingly ten-
der, and in time almost
rotten.

There are numerous
kinds of guavas, the best
being the red and the
white species, which are
famous for their jelly-
making possibilities. The
fruit is about the size of
a small apple, and is ob-
tainable at nearly every
season of the year.

The mango came origi-
nally from Hindostan,
and is a magnificent
shade tree, forty feet
high, with leaves some-
thing like those of a peach tree, and quantities of juicy yellow
plummets, suspended from the branches by very long, slender
stems. Some wild varieties have an unpleasant taste of turpen-
tine, but the better-flavored sorts are manufactured, when in an
unripe state, into preserves and pickles for exportation.

The shining emerald leaves and the pretty scarlet flowers of
the pomegranate (Punica granatum) are familiar to nearly every
one who owns a garden or frequents a city park. The fruit of this

Ohias, or Mountain Apples.

756

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

plant was mentioned by Moses as one of the attractions of the
Promised Land ; and he was commanded to make golden pome-
granates and their blossoms alternately on the hem of the
ephod; while four hundred specimens of these curious globes

Ohelo, or Hawaiian Huckleberry,

were wreathed around the capitals of the two brass pillars of
King Solomon^s temple.

Various parts of this shrub were used by the ancients for medi-
cine, and the bitter juice furnished a light but indelible blue stain.

TROPICAL FRUIT TREES.

7S7

The oMa, or Malay apple, is a common timber tree of the
Hawaiian Islands, though not peculiar to that locality. On the
Island of Maui is a mammoth orchard of wild ohias, extending
from the sea to the mountains, and measuring twenty miles
in length by from five to ten miles in width. The trees are from
forty to fifty feet in height, some of the largest yielding nearly

Avocado, or Alligator Pear.

fifty pounds of fruit, the total crop being said to be sufiicient to
fill a fleet of one hundred steamers. The beautiful crimson or white
apples, however, are unfit for transportation, as they last but a
short time in a good condition.

Near the Volcano House on the island of Hawaii are great
thickets of the ohelo, or Hawaiian huckleberry (Vaccinium

758 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

reticulatum), which the natives consider sacred to Pele, the
goddess who is supposed to preside over the famous crater of
Kilauea ; and which, together with white pigs and chickens, are
thrown by them into the boiling red lake during an eruption, to
appease the wrath of the aggressive dame, and thus cause the
rivers of lava to cease flowing on their destructive course.

These berries grow in clusters on low bushes right on the
very brink of the brimstone beds, and are so numerous that a
bushel may be easily gathered in half an hour. In appearance
they somewhat resemble a cranberry, and the flavor is pleasantly
suggestive of grapes.

Space forbids more than passing mention of many other fruit
trees of the tropics — such as the avocado, or alligator pear,
tasting like our ordinary salad; the curious pineapple, with
its cactuslike leaves; the mandarin orange, glowing brightly
against its deep-green foliage ; the c/ierimoya, or custard apple ;
the lime, the lemon, and the Japanese loquat — though they are
all of great beauty and extended usefulness.

WAR AND CIVILIZATION.

By W. D. LE SUEUR.

THE events of the last few months in the field of international
politics, though they have been of a sufficiently disquieting
character, have served at the same time to reveal the profound
antagonism between the idea of war and the developed moral con-
sciousness of the age. Rumors of war have filled the air, and,
in more than one highly civilized community, popular passions
have been roused to a dangerous pitch ; yet, in spite of the raging
of demagogues and the angry acclaims of the populace, war has
not broken out. The sky has been black with thunder clouds, but
the storm has not burst. To say that war between civilized na-
tions is henceforth impossible would be to speak with singular
rashness, in view of the vast and ever- increasing preparations for
war which the most civilized nations have, during the last ten or
twenty years, been engaged in making, and in view also of the
waves of warlike sentiment which have lately swept over com-
munities that might be supposed to be by instinct and principle
most inclined to peace. At the same time it is impossible for those
who abhor the thought of war not to derive hope and comfort
from the fact that it seems almost impossible even now to bring
the dread result about. Jingoes and other light-hearted and light-
headed persons may talk as they like ; the moral difficulties to-day
in the way of a war between any two very advanced countries are

WAE AND CIVILIZATION. 759

enormous. We do not say they can not be overcome, that the die-
lectric can not be ruptured by some sudden and enormous rise of
potential ; but we do say and rejoice to say that the strain will
have to be enormous, and the circumstances fateful to the last de-
gree, before such a result is reached.

We freely grant that, looking at the question theoretically, it
is very difficult to imagine the complete cessation of war or the
complete discontinuance of warlike preparations. De Quincey, in
his celebrated essay on War, took the ground first that war could
not be abolished, and secondly that it ought not to be abolished.
He regarded it, as he tells us, first as " a physical necessity, aris-
ing out of man's nature when combined with man's situation," and
in the second place as " a moral necessity connected with benefits
of compensation, such as continually lurk in evils acknowledged
to be such." War ougJit to exist, he further explains, " as a bal-
ance to opposite tendencies of a still more evil character, ... as
a counter venom to the taint of some more mortal poison." De
Quincey has developed and, as they say in French, " embroidered "
this thesis with his usual eloquence ; but we can not admit that
he has proved it, which after all is the principal thing. After dis-
missing the idea that wars have frequently had their rise in the
most trivial causes, such as quarrels of the boudoir or a king's ill-
humor vented in the first place on his foreign minister and by the
latter diverted to a neighboring nation, he states that the real
causes of war " lie in the system of national competitions ; in the
common political system to which all individual nations are un-
avoidably parties, with no internal principle for adjusting the
equilibrium of those forces, and no supreme Areopagus, or court
of appeal, for deciding disputes." He points out too, what is per-
fectly true, that war conducted by responsible powers according
to recognized rules is better than unregulated conflicts and re-
prisals along the frontiers of adjoining states ; but, unless we are
to assume that such unregulated conflicts could not be prevented
by the internal police of the respective countries, we can hardly
accept this as a valid argument for the necessity of war. In point
of fact such conflicts are prevented in this precise manner ; and
the frontiers of two neighboring civilized states enjoy in time of
peace just as much security and tranquillity as the rest of their
territories.

More serious is the argument that war necessarily results
from the natural rivalries of states. De Quincey speaks of it as
" an instinctive nisus for redressing the errors of equilibrium in
the relative position of nations. Civilities and high-bred cour-
tesies," he adds, " pass and ought to pass between nations ; that is
the graceful drapery which shrouds their natural, fierce, and
tigerlike relations to each other. But the glaring eyes, which

76o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

express this deep and inalienable ferocity, look out at intervals
from below these gorgeous draperies ; and sad it is to think that
at intervals the acts and the temper suitable to those glaring eyes
must come forward." That differences of national temperament,
differences of institutions, and commercial rivalries do breed ani-
mosities is, unfortunately, true ; but still the question presents
itself : How long will the civilized nations of the world persist in
a willingness to slaughter one another for these causes ? It is
acknowledged on all hands that the character of war has changed
greatly for the better in modern times. It still is a matter of
killing and of maiming in the endeavor to kill ; but, decade by
decade, it has to reckon more and more with the spirit of
humanity. In this age, when civilized nations fight, they fight
because they must or think they must, because overmastering
circumstances^ have driven them to it; but the spirit to do the
dreadful deeds which they set out to do is not what it was in past
times: they neither hate nor contemn their enemies sufficiently
to make war quite a satisfactory pastime. Our essayist talks of
the " glaring eyes." Doubtless there is always danger when the
eyes glare, for the next thing may be a spring ; but the eyes may
glare under momentary provocation, when there is no permanent
rancor in the heart ; and then what woe it would be if a moment's
madness should mean the wrapping of a kingdom or a continent
in the flames of war !

These are the thoughts which, we believe, are pressing them-
selves more and more upon the minds and hearts of men in the
present day. Our essayist himself tells us that war is "ever
amending its modes," and that, though it is a necessary final re-
sort, it is even in that character " constantly retiring farther into
the rear." This was written fifty years ago, when as yet arbitra-
tion between nations was scarcely known. The question which
we may reasonably ask is, how much further war will have to
retire into the background without falling into practical desue-
tude. War, moreover, tends continually to its own extinction,
inasmuch as it is continually bringing the principles of interna-
tional justice into clearer relief, and operating as " a bounty upon
the investigation and adjudication of disputed cases." In this
way "a comprehensive law of nations will finally be accumu-
lated " ; so that " it will become possible to erect a real Areopagus
or central congress for all Christendom; not" (the essayist is
careful to add, keeping in mind his thesis) " with any commission
to suppress wars, but with the purpose and effect of oftentimes
healing local or momentary animosities, and of taking away the
shadow of dishonor from the act of retiring from war." It is
encouraging to think that these words have more point to-day
than ever they had before ; that the progress of events and the

WAE AND CIVILIZATION. 761

development of Immanitarian feeling have within the last fifty
years very greatly increased the difficulties in the way of war,
and powerfully inclined nations to regulate their relations with
one another on principles of equity. Where is this process to
stop ? There is evidently a radical contradiction between the
appeal to reason and the appeal to force; and if the habit of
appealing to reason is gaining strength day by day, can we be-
lieve that the nations will go on indefinitely making prepara-
tions on the most enormous scale for the other mode of arbitra-
ment ? " One thing is clear," says De Quincey, " that when all the
causes of war involving manifest injustice are banished by the
force of opinion focally converged upon the subject the range of
war will be prodigiously circumscribed." It is a great satisfac-
tion to know that things are most distinctly moving in this di-
rection. As a much more recent author, M. Ernest Lavisse, in
his admirable little book, entitled A General View of the Polit-
ical History of Europe, observes: "The ambition of territorial
aggrandizement is tempered by a certain modesty. At the pres-
ent day no sovereign would dare to undertake annexations on
pretexts such as Louis XIV gave before attacking Spain in 1667,
or Frederick II in 1740 after invading Silesia. If Poland's exist-
ence, miserable as it was, had been prolonged a few decades, her
destruction would perhaps have been impossible."

That wars have directly or indirectly resulted in some advan-
tage to the world in past times, it would be vain to deny ; and
that their role of usefulness even between so-called civilized
nations is wholly and forever at an end, it would not be safe to
assert. This, however, may be said, that if war ensues between
two such nations, it is owing not to their civilization in any true
sense, but to some lack in the civilization of one or other or both
— some predominance of the spirit of greed, some inaccessibility
to the dictates of reason, some fault of domestic government by
which the crude passions and ignorant prejudices of the multi-
tude or possibly the interested and partial views of a governing
class, are allowed undue sway, some national overweeningness,
some aberration of public opinion. War in such a case teaches
sharp and much-needed lessons; but, unfortunately, it does not
invariably advance the cause of justice. It shows where power
resides, but does not always indicate the right. It may chasten
where chastening was less needed, and exalt the pride of those
who already were too insolent. Whatever evil it may destroy, it
leaves new-created evil in its path. All we can hope is that, upon
the whole, the education of the world may be advanced by the
dire experience. We need not, however, laud war on this account,
any more than we laud the epidemic which, taking its origin in
ni'glect of sanitary principles, attacks by preference the weakly

VOL. XL VIII. — 55

762 POPULAR SCIEI^^CE MONTHLY,

constitutions in the community, and, having passed, leaves the
average of constitutional vigor somewhat higher than before. If
we do not laud war, still less should we laud the dispositions that
lead to war. Yet this is precisely the fatal error into which many
fall : because some of the ulterior effects of war have in certain
cases been beneficial, they hold themselves justified in cultivating
and encouraging the war spirit. As well might we deliberately
heap up garbage for the purpose of breeding a second epidemic
because a preceding one had, from a sanitary point of view, pro-
duced some good results. The lesson to be learned from epidemics
is how to avoid them, not how to bring them on; and, so with
war, the question should ever be how to prevent it for the future,
how to destroy the nidus in which its seeds germinate.

As we have already hinted, the eloquent De Quincey is far, in
our opinion, from having proved his contention that war ought
to exist, even if we had power to abolish it. He is not the only
writer, however, who puts forward this view. " It is a question,"
says M. Lavisse, in the work to which we have already referred,
" whether universal peace is a desirable object, whether it would
not diminish the original energy of national genius, whether the
best way to serve humanity would be to create human banality,
whether new virtues would arise to replace the virtues of war. It
is also a question whether universal and perpetual peace is not
radically and naturally impossible." The doubts expressed by so
competent a writer, and one commanding so wide a survey of the
historical field, are certainly deserving of all consideration. What
strikes us, however, at the first glance is, that plausible as these
generalities may be, they have nothing whatever to do in deter-
mining the course of events, or in guiding the policy of a single
state. Even could it be proved, much more conclusively than has
ever been done yet, that war, with all its drawbacks, was favor-
able to the progress of the world, no nation would on that account
burden itself with a war budget. The sole reason why nations
tax themselves for the maintenance of armaments is because they
consider it necessary to their safety to do so. There is not a power
in Europe to-day that would not gladly disband its armies and
dismantle its fleets if it were fully persuaded that no prudential
reasons existed for keeping them in a condition of efficiency.
This, it seems to us, is the broad fact to look at : war may be a
school of virtue and may have a thousand other beautiful aspects,
but it is not for the promotion of virtue, or the alimentation of
poetry and romance, or for any general philanthropic purpose, that
the nations of the world arm themselves to the teeth. Their views
are of a more practical kind. They dread the injustice and greed
of one another ; each would feel its existence imperiled if it did
not provide in ample measure to resist foreign aggression. If war

WAR AND CIVILIZATION, -^6^

is the blessing and benefit that some pretend, the logical thing
would be to have war for war's sake, quite independently even of
so flimsy a pretext as the Venezuela boundary. Then, by a due
course of murder and rapine, we could train our youth to virtue,
our army contractors to public spirit and honesty, our newspaper
writers to modesty and truthfulness, our legislators to a lofty
patriotism, and everybody else to a correspondingly high moral
level.

War is the avenger of i\ie faults of civilization ; but, like other
avengers, it is too furious to be discriminating. It may sweep a
certain amount of " rubbish to the void," but none the less are
the brain and brawn and heart of noble manhood crushed under
its relentless feet. It may destroy some of " the cankers of a calm
world and a long peace," but it blights at the same time the
fairest promise of the age, and extinguishes its brightest hopes.
There are virtues developed in the battlefield and the bivouac ;
but how much of virtue perishes in the slaughter of the battle or
moans itself away within hospital walls ! It is easy to talk glibly
of the benefits of war ; but if we seriously consider the havoc it
makes in homes and hearts, and the horrible sufferings of every
kind that it entails, not to mention the check that it gives to
peaceful industry, and the burdens that it imposes on future gen-
erations, the benefits in question will appear very unsubstantial
in comparison.

Concrete- examples will, however, serve our purpose here better
than any amount of generalizing. Twenty-five years ago there
was a great and bloody war — of course the bloodier a war is the
more we may expect from it — between France and Germany.
We may, therefore, advantageously study the effect of the strug-
gle upon both nations, and as regards one of them, Germany, we
have the facts of the case ready to our hand in an article by A.
Eubule Evans in the February number of the Contemporary Re-
view. The first result which this writer, who is far from wanting
in sympathy with the German people, notices is that their na-
tional self- consciousness and susceptibility are greatly increased.
They wish now to exclude all foreign words from their language,
even from the language of commerce, in which it is a decided ad-
vantage to have as many words as possible of world-wide signifi-
cation. Before the war the French word " billet " was commonly
used for a railway ticket ; now it is banished in favor of " Fahr-
karte." Before the war there was a disposition to abandon the
crabbed German character, and use the open Roman print, com-
mon to the rest of Europe ; to-day that idea, we are informed, is
tabooed. " The old letters have become the symbol of patriotism,
and no one talks of discarding them." So German eyes must suffer,
and additional difficulty must be thrown in the way of the acquisi-

764 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion of the German language by foreigners, simply that Germans
may enjoy a greater sense of separation from — and doubtless of
superiority to — the rest of the world. To the natural abruptness
of German manners there has been added, we are told, a decided
flavor of aggressiveness which was not characteristic of them be-
fore the war. National self-assertiveness has become, the writer
states, "a positive cult. It is encouraged," he adds, " by the au-
thorities ; it is fostered in the schools ; perhaps some day it will
form a subject for examination."

The most serious injury, however, has been done to the spirit
of liberty. Prosecutions for lese majesty are the order of the
day, and the charges on which such prosecutions are based are
often of the most trivial kind. Editors accused of this crime for
their criticism of the Government or the emperor are " treated
in many respects like ordinary felons." They are not allowed out
on bail before trial, but are kept in confinement, and at trial are
brought up in prison dress. " Any adverse criticism of the Kai-
ser's utterances is a penal offense. Praise or silence — these are
the alternatives." And yet, as Mr. Evans very truly observes,
there has never perhaps been a monarch whose speeches more
loudly challenged criticism. Such, however, is the price, or part
of the price, which the German nation is paying for success in a
great aggressive war. It is not only in political matters that the
utmost restriction of political liberty prevails. " It is the same
in everything. There is little possibility of independence in
speech or action. The police are always at your elbow ; and woe
to you if you do not carry out their injunctions to the letter ! " He
adds : " To live in Germany always seems to me like a return to
the nursery. ... In fine, generally speaking, the aspect of affairs
in modern Germany is by no means exhilarating. It seems to me
that it may be summed up in a few words : an enormous in-
crease of power and influence abroad, but at home less comfort,
less liberty, less happiness."

It did not fall within the scope of the article from which we
have been quoting to refer to any of the political events that
have marked the interval between the termination of the Franco-
German War and the present time ; but an instructive commen-
tary on the spirit which warfare, particularly successful warfare,
breeds is afforded by the fact that five years after the close of
the war the victorious and all-powerful German nation was only
prevented by the peremptory prohibition of the Czar of Russia
from falling again, without a shadow of justification, upon its
weakened adversary, with the avowed intention of so crushing
and maiming it, by further loss of population and territory, as to
reduce it definitively to the rank of a second-class power. We
have said " without a shadow of justification " ; but to the mili-

WAH AND CIVILIZATION. 765

tary mind, and to a people intoxicated with military glory, it was
justification enough that their defeated enemy was showing great
powers of recuperation. The moral sense of Europe was shocked
by this cynicism ; but if war is such a beautiful thing as some pre-
tend, and so useful an instrument of Divine Providence, how can
we be sure that any war is to be condemned ?

If we look at France, can we say that she has profited greatly
by the ordeal passed through ? An indirect result of the war was
a change in her form of government, and considering the funda-
mental instability of the Napoleonic regime this must be counted
a permanent advantage. The change had to come, and it was well
that it was hastened. If, however, we look for signs of moral or
intellectual improvement in the nation at large it is doubtful
whether we shall find them. The politics of the country has
been honeycombed by corruption ; so that more than once it has
seemed as if the people, sick of the misdeeds of their legislators
and full of contempt for the whole parliamentary system, were
on the point of sending the Third Kepublic packing after the first
two, and making another desperate experiment with some " sav-
ior of society." If we consult the literature of the day, we cer-
tainly see no signs of moral advance. If such up-to-date writers
as Paul Hervieu and " Gyp " may be trusted, the higher walks of
society could hardly be more abandoned than they are to greed,
luxury, and lust. Education has been leaking rapid progress, and
so has crime ; while the financial burdens of the state go on in-
creasing at a portentous rate. The nation has doubtless learned
from its calamities some lessons of self-restraint ; and, as we have
said, it has escaped from an essentially bad form of government,
but it is difficult to assign any other beneficial results to the ter-
rible scourging it received in the war with Germany. Comparing
it, however, with the latter country, it seems to have suffered
almost less from its defeats than the latter from its victories.

Crossing the Channel, we see a country which, though not un-
affected by the increase of the military spirit which has marked
the last quarter of a century, illustrates in a broad way the ad-
vantages as regards individual liberty and civilization in general
which flow from at least a relative aversion to war. For forty
years the British nation has waged no war in Europe, nor any war
abroad that has at all seriously taxed its strength ; and the meth-
ods of the government and the habits of the people are conse-
quently more in harmony with a regime of peace and industry
than is the case in any of the continental nations. Interferences
with individual liberty which on the Continent would be taken as
a matter of course would in England be resented as acts of tyr-
anny. One of the chief marks of the industrial, as opposed to the
military, regim^e, according to Herbert Spencer, is that under it

766 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the civil authority is chiefly known to the individual citizen as
the protector of his rights, not as the director of his actions. This
is the case in Great Britain to a remarkable extent. Authority
there puts on no airs ; it has duties to perform, and demands re-
spect for itself in the performance of them ; but it does not pretend
to occupy a position of superiority over the people at large. What
it does it does in their interest and by their warrant, and the only
feeling, therefore, which a magistrate or other officer of the law
has in that country is that he is co-operating with others for the
general weal. In the courts lawyers may sometimes try to brow-
beat witnesses; but lawyers are not invested with authority, and
the appeal of the witness in that case lies to the judge, who, as a
rule, will not allow that kind of thing to go too far. In Victor
Hugo's Misdrables there is an interview between a young man of
good social position (Marius) and a subordinate police officer,
whose assistance the former has been obliged to invoke against a
band of criminals. The petty potentate questions the young man
very brusquely, and, finding him quite self-possessed and free from
fear, compliments him in the following terms : " You speak like a
brave and honest man. Courage does not fear crime, and honesty
does not dread authority.'' An Englishman would have felt like
knocking the fellow down for his impertinence and taking all
risks. The preposterous idea that a citizen seeking the assistance
of a functionary in a matter which the functionary is paid for at-
tending to, should stand in any dread of him ! But in countries
infected with the military spirit civil authority can hardly help
putting on the airs of absolute power.

The history of England may, however, be appealed to in sup-
port of the principle that individual liberty waxes and wanes ac-
cording to the greater or less predominance of militarism. Wars
conducted abroad, though they have an important reactive effect
at home, do not affect domestic administration as wars carried on
within the nation itself. The Norman conquest secured for Eng-
land, if we except the struggles which occurred after the death
of Henry I, a long period of comparative internal peace, toward
the close of which parliamentary institutions began to take form
and substance. Then followed the Wars of the Roses, which led
to a decided increase in monarchical absolutism. But again peace
came to the help of liberty ; and, in the words of Bagehot which
Mr. Spencer quotes, "the slavish Parliament of Henry VIII grew
into the murmuring Parliament of Queen Elizabeth, the mutinous
Parliament of James I, and the rebellious Parliament of Charles I."
For over a century after the Commonwealth, liberty and social
order continued to gain ground ; but again came a period of reac-
tion brought on by the incessant wars waged by England between
1775 and 1815. So severely were the resources of the nation

WAR AND CIVILIZATION, 767

strained that the military point of view dominated every other,
the Government regarding the people, as has been said, in no other
light than as " a taxable and soldier-yielding mass/' " While,''
as Mr. Spencer observes, " the militant part of the community had
greatly developed, the industrial part had approached toward the
condition of a permanent commissariat. By conscription and the
press gangs was carried to a relatively vast extent that sacrifice
of the citizen in life and liberty which war entails. . . . Irrespon-
sible agents of the executive were empowered to suppress public
meetings and seize their leaders, death being the punishment for
those who did not disperse when ordered. Libraries and news-
rooms could not be opened without license ; and it was penal to
lend books without permission. Booksellers dared not publish
books by obnoxious authors." * It was during this period that
the poets Coleridge and Wordsworth found themselves being
tracked by a detective in their walks through the country lanes
of Somersetshire, the meditative manner and earnest discourse of
the two bards doubtless impressing the intelligent minion of the
law with the idea that they must be hatching revolutionary
schemes. With the re-establishment of peace on a secure founda-
tion liberty revived ; and domestic legislation began to assume a
distinctly humane and beneficent character. The penal code was
greatly ameliorated, the long list of capital offenses being reduced
till there remained but one, and the pillory and imprisonment for
debt being abolished. Penalties and disabilities for religious dis-
sent were gradually removed ; the franchise was enlarged ; mimi-
cipal reform was inaugurated ; the corn laws were abolished ; free
trade was introduced, liberty of the press established, and the po-
lice system of the kingdom greatly improved. These are the works
and triumphs of civilization, and they flowed in almost unbroken
streams as soon as the nation had recovered from the effects of its
prodigious military efforts.

But, another change is now in progress, induced partly by the
extreme tension of the Continental situation, and partly by cir-
cumstances peculiar to the present time. The apostle James in
his day gave a very summary answer to the question, " Whence
come wars and fightings among you ?" " Come they not hence,"
he said, " even of your lusts that war in your members ? " A re-
cent article in the London Spectator, under the title of The New
Form of International Greed, might almost be taken for a com-
mentary on this text. What the journal in question points out is
that while in past times the greed of nations was for territory
without special regard to its wealth-producing properties, the
greed to-day is for actual wealth and for such territory as is ex-

* Principles of Sociology, vol. ii, p. 626.

768 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pected to yield wealtli. " As the root of socialism/' it says, " is
the thirst of the poor for more physical comfort, better food,
better lodging, and more leisure, so the root of international jeal-
ousy is the thirst for a larger national fortune. The peoples are
eagerly scanning the roads to wealth, and find them, not in in-
dustry and reduced taxation, but in tropical possessions, in foreign
trade, in the immense businesses based on ' concessions ' — that is,
in reality, upon mining rights, state contracts, and monopolies of
all descriptions. In particular the thirst for gold in its concrete
and tangible shape has broken out everywhere, almost as strongly
as it broke out in the sixteenth century among Spaniards, Portu-
guese, and Elizabethan Englishmen." It happens that most of
the gold-bearing territories are in English hands, and this, the
Spectator thinks, accounts for a great deal of the jealousy with
which England is regarded. Here we have, most unfortunately,
a special and somewhat ignoble cause for the intensifying of the
military spirit in the present day ; and how to find a remedy for
it is an extremely difficult question. The Spectator advises tha
English people " to remember that prosperity and success involve
certain duties, one of which is to suffer others to be prosperous
too, and another to abstain from boasting."

Here the baffling question arises. Can a whole people be ad-
vised ? Individuals may listen to counsel ; but, when it comes to
a whole people, one wonders whether anything but experience,
with a touch of natural selection thrown in, can teach. It cer-
tainly is the case that, if the nations would abate their greed and
boastf ulness, the danger of war would be much reduced, and the
terrible burdens which it imposes be greatly alleviated. Patriot-
ism is a good thing, but we fear that much evil is wrought in its
name. It is not patriotism to disparage rival nations, or to seek
to secure for one's own unjust advantages. Not unadvisedly did
old Dr. Johnson, in a phrase now sadly trite, but perhaps never
more apt than in the present day, describe patriotism as "the last
refuge of a scoundrel." The doctor had doubtless seen more than
one specimen of the loud-mouthed breed who shout for the flag
and execrate the foreigner, but who would cheat their country at
the first turn if they could get the chance. Patriotism, let us tell
our children, if we can not get wider audience, is not a matter
either of shouting or reviling, it is a matter of disinterestedly
serving the country in which our lot is cast, and in which we
enjoy the benefits of citizenship. That is the whole of it, but
that is much. It may mean laying down our life ; it may mean
sacrificing our property ; it may mean incurring unpopularity
through fighting against wickedness in high places or in low
places, and struggling for the good name of our country against
those who are bringing it into discredit ; at all times it means a

WAB AND CIVILIZATION, 769

faithful performance of the public duty that lies nearest at hand.
" The old flag and an appropriation ! " is the motto of a certain
well-known brand of patriot ; but the true patriot not only drops
the " appropriation/' but makes his reserves about the flag, which
may or may not be associated with a righteous cause. The motto
which commands his allegiance is, "My country's honor and
well-being ! " No less a cause than this is worthy of a good citi-
zen's devotion.

Much is being said at the present time about the importance
of cultivating patriotism in the public schools, and, not only so,
but of preparing the scholars — the boys at least — by military drill
for more quickly transforming themselves into soldiers at a future
day. In several States of the Union this system is already in
force, and there are ceremonial occasions when the flag is saluted,
and so forth. Whether all this is for the best may well be doubt-
ed. It is difficult to put a gun into a boy's hand and drill him
without creating in his mind a desire to kill somebody. Do we
or do we not wish to cultivate this spirit in the rising generation ?
There is no doubt that the ease or difficulty with which a country
is led into war depends very largely upon the dispositions of its
population. If their thoughts run on war; if they have been
accustomed by a semi-military training in the schools to make
little of the horrors of war, and perhaps less of its crimes ; if they
have taken in the idea which continually haunts the military
mind that might makes right, there can be no doubt that, in a
given contingency, when a spirit of moderation and justice would
smooth over an international difficulty, the voice of such a people
will be given for war. They will perhaps then learn a needed
lesson ; but how foolish for people to set to work with their eyes
open to produce the dispositions which lead to such a result ! Ad-
mitting that the nation which had sedulously cultivated bellicose
sentiments in its youth, and at great expense put itself in a con-
dition to back up any aggressive or offensive policy on which it
might enter, should conquer in an ensuing war, would that be a
thing to be proud of, if the war were unjust ? If the blood of
Abel " cried from the ground," what of the blood of a hundred
thousand, or two hundred thousand, or five hundred thousand
Abels needlessly slain — slain that a restless military class might
have the means of winning distinction in their chosen profession ;
slain that army and navy contractors should enrich themselves
by a nation's calamities; slain that vulgar and ignorant passions
might find vent in bloody action ?

There is no subject to-day on which public opinion needs more
to be enlightened than on the connection between peace and lib-
erty on the one hand, and between war and tyranny on the other.
Mr. Spencer's chapters on this subject, in the volume we have

VOL. XLVllI. — 50

770 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

referred to, well repay perusal and reperusal. It may truly be
said that we do not as yet know in the full sense what liberty is,
and it may be added that, if the military spirit resumes possession
of the world, as it is threatening to do, we are not likely to know.
In a well-written article on this subject by Mr. A. B. Ronne, in a
preceding number (June, 1895) of this magazine, it was pointed
out that, since the close of the war of secession, there have been
many manifestations of a more arbitrary spirit in the Government
of this country than the people had previously been accustomed
to, and that the idea of " regulation " was altogether too much in
the air. There is one thing to be said on this point, and that is,
that the misuse of liberty leads to regulation. Were there only
one nation in the world, that nation might fall under a tyranny
if its citizens could not use their liberties aright. If peace helps
liberty, liberty should take counsel of justice and moderation, so
that Peace be not ashamed of her work. We must learn to curb
in peace those lusts that lead to war." A nation whose own inter-
nal condition was wholly satisfactory could by no possibility be
dragged into a war of aggression, and would run extremely little
risk of having to wage a war of defense. In such a nation the
feelings that prompt to war would be wholly lacking.

We began this article by referring to the fact that very seri-
ous impediments, which we were glad to believe were largely of a
moral kind, seemed to stand in the way of war between civilized
nations in the present day ; and, even as we have been writing,
news comes that the principle of arbitration is more and more
commending itself to the common sense and common humanity
of mankind. There seems at the present moment every probabil-
ity that, as between England and the United States, that principle
will ere long be adopted as a fixed and, as it were, constitutional
mode of settling international differences ; and if once this step is
taken the effect on the world at large will be very marked. Gov-
ernments that have not advanced to the same point will seem to
occupy altogether an inferior position ; and it will not be long
before their subjects begin to inquire with no little urgency why
they can not enter into similar treaties and, by so doing, put an
end to the terrible tension and hideous waste of human labor
which the present situation involves. An article in the February
number of the new international magazine Cosmopolis — a happy
omen, we take it, of the better times to come — reviews in a very
interesting and encouraging manner the progress which the prin-
ciple of arbitration has made in the world. Since 1872, we learn —
that is, since the Alabama arbitration — " nearly forty cases have
been settled by arbitration ; the large majority of these refer to
differences between American republics, or of European states
with American republics. The United States referred ten dis-

THE X BAYS.

77^

putes to arbitration and England eight, and of these four were
between England and the United States." The writer, W. J.
Oennadius, quotes two very apposite declarations, one by General
Grant, and one by that experienced and sagacious statesman, the
late Earl Russell. Grant's words are, " Though I have been
trained as a soldier, and have participated in many battles, there
never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not have
been found to prevent the drawing of the sword." And Earl
Husseirs : " On looking at the wars which have been carried on
during the last century, and examining into the causes of them, I
do not see one in which, if there had been proper temper between
the parties, the questions in dispute might not have been settled
without recourse to arms." These declarations are worth reflect-
ing on. The proviso introduced by Earl Russell is particularly
significant : " If there had been proper temper between the parties."
That is what is wanted, " proper temper." It resolves itself thus
into a question of national righteousness. The cynic may laugh
at the conclusion ; but those who are not cynics will venture to
believe that the problem is not hopeless.

THE X RAYS.

By JOHN TKOWBKIDGE,

RUMTORD PROFE8SOR AND LECTURER ON THE APPLICATION OF SCIENCE TO THE USEFUL ARTS,

HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

SINCE the publication of Hertz's paper on the penetration of
thin sheets of metal, notably aluminum, by the cathode
rays, interest in the remarkable phenomena investigated first by
Prof. Crookes has been reawakened to a marked degree; and
most physicists during the past five years have regarded the sub-
ject of cathode rays as the most important one in electricity. In
1893 Lenard succeeded, by means of a Crookes tube provided
with a small aluminum window, in detecting the cathode rays
outside the tube in the air space of an ordinary room. He used
paper disks covered with a very fluorescent substance, which be-
came luminous when the cathode rays struck them ; and he also
succeeded in showing photographic effects of the rays. Now
Rontgen, by the use of ordinary dry plates and without the use
of an aluminum window, has taken photographs through wood
and through the human hand by means of what he terms the X
rays, which he supposes are excited either in the glass walls of
the Crookes tube or in the media outside the tube by means of
the cathode rays.

We see, therefore, that the literature of the subject must be

772 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

sought in the papers of Crookes, Hertz, Lenard, and Rontgen ;
and the interest in the mysterious manifestations of these invisi-
ble rays is twofold : first, in regard to the possible application of
the phenomena to surgery, since the rays show a specific absorp-
tion, passing more easily through the flesh than through bones or
glass or metallic particles ; and, secondly, in relation to the ques-
tions whether we are dealing here with radiant matter shot forth
from the negative pole or cathode or with longitudinal waves of
electricity.

Let us first examine the possibility of the practical application
of the cathode photography to surgery. The term cathode is ap-
plied to the zinc pole or negative pole of an ordinary battery. It
is that terminal of an electrical machine which glows least in the
dark when the machine is excited. It is the shortest carbon in
the ordinary street electric lamp. The positive carbon or anode
burns away twice as fast as the negative carbon or cathode. If
the electric light is formed in a high vacuum by means of a great
electro-motive force, we no longer have a voltaic arc or a spark ;
instead of this the exhausted vessel is filled with a feeble lumi-
nosity, and a beam of bluish rays is seen to stream from the nega-
tive terminal or cathode. When these rays strike the glass walls
of the vessel they excite a strong fluorescence. If the glass con-
tains an oxide of uranium this fluorescence is yellow ; if it contains
an oxide of copper it is green. Rontgen supposes that this fluo-
rescence excited by the cathode rays is connected in some way with
the formation of what he terms the X rays. Now, a photograph
of the bones in the hand, for instance, can be obtained by placing
a sensitive plate in an ordinary photographic plate-holder. Rest-
ing the hand on the undrawn slide in the daylight, with the palm
of the hand outward and toward the cathode, and about six inches
away from it, the bones of the hand are thus brought in the
nearest possible position to the sensitive plate. At the time of the
present writing, the breast and the abdomen of the human body
present too great thickness for successful photographs, and the
attempts to obtain representations of the cavity in which the brain
is situated have been failures, since the rays do not show any
marked difference in fleshy tissues. Nothing can be obtained in
these attempts to photograph, the brain but a contour of the cav-
ity in which it is situated, and possibly a shadowy representation
of a bullet which might be imbedded in the head. The method
of obtaining a successful photograph of the hand shows the pres-
ent limitations of the method. In order to obtain a fairly sharp
shadow of a bone or of a shot, it should not be more than an inch
away from the sensitive plate. The term shadow, however, is
somewhat misleading. The photograph of the hand by the X
rays is entirely different from one produced by resting the hand

THE X RAYS.

77$

in a similar position to that above described against an uncovered
sensitive plate in a dark room and then lighting a match. By the
last method we should obtain a true shadow of the hand, the flesh
would throw as dense a shadow as the bones, and the latter could

not be detected in the general blackness. In the cathode photo-
graph, on the other hand, a difference in absorptive power is
shown : the flesh looks like a hazy film around the skeleton, and
even the medulla cavities can be made out, and the varying thick-

774 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ness of the bones is more or less shown. This specific absorption
is of great scientific interest as well as of practical importance.

Now, these X rays will penetrate several inches of wood, with
varying amount of absorption, but they are almost entirely cut
off by glass as thick as a window pane. They pass through thin
layers of aluminum, even layers as thick as a silver ten-cent piece^
while the silver coin almost entirely intercepts them.

It therefore immediately occurs to one. Why not return to
Lenard's tube, provide a Crookes tube with an aluminum window^
and thus save the great absorption of the glass walls of the tube ?
There are certain practical difiiculties in the way. The aluminum
must be very thin. Lenard used a window which was about one
eight-thousandth of an inch thick, and it was necessarily very
small, in order to stand the atmospheric pressure. An aluminum
window one eighth of an inch thick, or as thick as a ten- cent piece,
would absorb nearly as much as the glass walls of the present
forms of Crookes tubes, which are not more than one sixtieth of
an inch thick. Glass vessels seem at present to be more practical
than any composite form, in which aluminum is glued to a glass-
supporting vessel : first, because it can be blown very thin, and in
a shape strong enough to withstand the atmospheric pressure \.
secondly, because the occluded air can be more effectively driven
off the inner walls of the vessels by heating it while it is being
exhausted than it can be expelled from a vessel of any other
material.

To obtain successful photographs, the exhaustion of the air
must be pushed to a high degree ; and this is also interesting
from the scientific point of view. Moreover, a high electro-mo-
tive force is necessary. Pictures can be taken in less than one
minute of the skeleton of the human hand by means of high
vacua tubes excited by high electro-motive force. Even in this
bare recital of the present limits of the application of the X rays
to photography, we perceive great possibilities in the application
of the method to the surgery of the human extremities. There is
no doubt that small foreign bodies, like shot and pieces of glass,
can be detected in the fleshy tissues of the hand. Certain acces-
sible regions of the body, like the mouth, can possibly be ex-
amined by placing a sensitive film inside the mouth and the
cathode outside of the cheek ; and it does not seem improbable
that a suitable cathode vessel can be inserted into certain ab-
dominal regions and a photograph be obtained by placing a sensi-
tive plate on the outside of the body. By employing two cathodes,
at the proper distance apart, stereoscopic representations of the
bones can be obtained, and an estimate formed of the position of
foreign bodies.

Let us now turn to some of the interesting scientific questions

776 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which have arisen in regard to this apparently new manifestation
of the cathode rays. In the first place, they are apparently not
refracted by paraffine, vulcanite, or wood, or by any substance
which is penetrated by them. To test this, I employed a double-
convex lens of wood and also a double-concave lens of the same
material. I placed two copper rings in the concavity of the
double- concave lens of wood, and also a similar copper ring out-
side the lens at the same height from the sensitive plate, as one of
the rings which rested on the wood of the lens. I also placed a
ring on the double-convex lens, and employed two cathodes to
obtain two shadows from different positions. The thickness of the
wooden lenses varied from half an inch to three quarters of an
inch. The images obtained through the wood of the lenses were
not distorted or changed in figure in any way by the wood, and
therefore no refraction could be observed by this method. On
account of the quick diffusibility of the rays, no accurate method
of determining a possible index of refraction seems possible. If the
photographic effect is due to longitudinal waves in the ether, and
if these waves travel with great velocity, no refraction would
probably be observed. Maxwell's electro-magnetic theory of light
supposes that only transverse waves are set up in the ether, and
no longitudinal waves exist. On the other hand, Helmholtz's
electro-magnetic theory of light postulates longitudinal waves as
well as transverse waves. The longitudinal waves travel with an
infinite velocity. Is it therefore possible that the X waves are the
longitudinal waves of Helmholtz's theory ? Our apparent ina-
bility to refract the rays lends color to this hypothesis. Rontgen,
in the preliminary account of his experiments, intimates that the
phenomena may be due to longitudinal waves, and in a late article
in the Annalen der Physik und Chemie, by Jaumann, entitled
Longitudinal Light, Maxwell's electro-magnetic equations are
modified so as to embrace the phenomenon of cathode rays ; and
the author shows that even MaxwelPs theory can, under certain
conditions, give a longitudinal wave.

The cathode rays can be deflected by a magnet, and it is said that
the X rays can not. It must be borne in mind, however, that when
the cathode rays are widely divergent it is dijBficult to deflect them
by a magnet ; the stream density, so to speak, is too feeble. The X
rays, therefore, may be only cathode rays modifled by passing
through the glass vessel ; and the stream of rays may be of too
feeble a character to be influenced by a magnet — that is, they
may be still cathode rays. The want of refractive power and the
want of magnetic action have not been fully established. Crookes
early showed that two cathode beams sent out from two cathodes
placed beside each other, repelled each other, as if they consisted
of streams of negatively electrified molecules. If the two beams

THE X RATS. 777

were of the nature of electrical currents, they ought, being of the
same sign, to attract each other. This experiment seems to point
to an electrostatic nature of the cathode rays. The electrostatic
lines of force go out from a charged conductor at right angles to
the surface of the conductor. I have had constructed a Crookes
tube with two parallel terminals of aluminum. The fluorescence
in the walls of the vessel, when it was exhausted, showed that
the cathode rays went out from every element of the cathode at
right angles to it. By bending it into an arc of a circle the cath-
ode beams traveled over the surface of the vessel, forming zones
of light the centers of which were in the bent wire. Is it not pos-
sible that by the electrostatic action the few molecules of air left
in the high vacua are shot off with great velocity and bombard
the walls of the vessel, thus giving rise to the fluorescent light,
and also giving rise to an agitation of the molecules of matter
outside the vessel ? This may be called the molecular view of the
phenomenon. I confess it is difficult to see why the molecular
agitation is stopped by a thin sheet of glass and not by an inch of
wood. It is certain that a few molecules must be left in the
high vacua, for the cathode rays can not be formed in a perfect
vacuum.

It is also true that it is useless to attempt to obtain photo-
graphs in any reasonable time from tubes which do not show a
strongly marked cathode beam, or from tubes which on revers-
ing the electric current through them do not show a marked dif-
ference between the light at the cathode and that at the anode.
In poorly exhausted tubes one can perceive a faint appearance
of a cathode beam, which is lost at a short distance from the
cathode, as if the molecules which are shot off meet with such a
crowd of more slowly moving ones that their energy is soon lost,
and the cathode beam is quickly diffused like a beam of sunlight
passing into milk and water. Thus the beam of cathode or X rays
emerging from the glass vessel into the air is soon no longer con-
ical in form. The sides of the cone of rays are no longer straight ;
they are curved, as if the generatrix of the cone were a curved
line instead of a straight line, and the beam is soon lost in a
turbid medium. One can imagine a stream of projectiles being
similarly dispersed in striving to pass into a region of sluggishly
moving shot. This molecular view of the phenomenon seems at
first sight to be a more tangible one than the longitudinal wave
theory. It is possible, too, that the impact of the molecules on the
aluminum window of Lenard, or on the glass sides of the vessel,
may serve to start ripples, so to speak, in the ether, which are
propagated with the velocity of light.

The Rontgen phenomenon seems to be -a manifestation of
cathode rays brought to light and endowed with great practical

n'^

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

interest by its application to dry-plate photography. When we re-
turn to the classical investigation of Lenard mentioned in the be-
ginning of this article, we are impressed by an apparently crucial

KONTGEN PlCTUliE OF A IIaND AFTER LENGTHENED EXPOSURE.

From The New York Medical Journal.

experiment which he describes in regard to the existence of an
ether. He caused the cathode beam to pass out of his high vacua
through an aluminum window into another tube about three feet

ACCLIMATIZATION. jjg

long, which had been exhausted to such a high degree that no
electrical discharge would pass through it. It seemed, therefore,
to have an infinite electrical resistance. No cathode beam could
be generated in it; nevertheless, by moving suitable disks of
fluorescent matter from point to point in the tube by means of an
outer magnet which attracted bits of iron on the disks, Lenard
showed that the cathode beam passed through the vacuum. En-
ergy passed into the vacuum and could be detected from point to
point. We can conceive of its passing through the ether in the
tube by a wave motion, but not by a molecular movement, for
there were no molecules to move. The molecular bombardment
must have stopped at the aluminum window, and the resulting
energy may have been propagated by ripples in the ether. This
experiment of Lenard seems to me the most interesting one in the
subject of cathode rays. The greatest mystery, however, which
envelops the subject is the action of the X rays on bodies charged
with electricity. When the rays fall on, for instance, a charged
pith ball, the charge disappears. A positive as well as a negative
charge is dispelled by the X rays. The energy of the medium
about the pith ball is changed to a marked degree, and in this
phenomenon we seem to be brought closer to a wave theory in a
medium than to a molecular theory of movement of matter.

ACCLIMATIZATION.

Bt WILLIAM Z. RIPLEY, Ph. D.,

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND ECONOMICS IN THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF
TECHNOLOGY ; LECTURER IN ANTHROPO-GEOGRAPHY IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK.

SECOND PAPER.

WHAT is the first effect of a tropical climate upon the
human body and its functions ? * The respiration becomes
more rapid for a time, although it soon tends toward the nor-
mal;! the pulse beats more quickly; J; the appetite is stimu-
lated ; * and a surexcitation of the kidneys || and the sexual
organs ensues ; ^ the individual as a rule becomes thinner ; 0 the
liver tends to increase in size, which is perhaps the cause of a
certain sallowness of skin ; J and in females menstruation is often

* This general subject is somewhat technically discussed in Revue d' Anthropologic, new
series, ii, p. 135.

f Jousset, op. cif., p. 160. Also Bulletin de la Societe de Geographic de Paris, 1878,
p. 427.

X Ibid., p. 197. # Ibid., pp. 208, 211. || Ibid., p. 221. ^ Ibid., 229.

^ Ibid., p. 139. Healthy Europeans in the tropics are lighter in weight than the same
class at home (Archiv fiir pathologische Anatomic, etc., cxix, p. 254).

I Hirsch, op. cit.^ iii, p. 388 ; cf. Peschel, Races of Man, p. 92.

78o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

disturbed, the age of puberty being sooner reached.* A very
important change, which has not perhaps been fully investigated
as yet, is a temporary rise of temperature, which often lasts for
some time after the individual leaves the tropics, f Sir Hum-
phry Davy was the first to note, on a voyage to Ceylon, that the
temperature of travelers tended to rise in this way, J; and Dr.
Guegnen confirms his conclusions, although he shows that the
rise is less than had been supposed.* Dr. Maurel concludes that
it varies from 0*3° to O'o°. || Observations on Europeans between
Khartoum and the equator showed that for those who had been
there less than two years the average was 99*5°, or nearly a degree
above the normal. Those who had been there longer than four
years exhibited a lower temperature of 99*1°, still a half degree
over the average in Europe."^

It is not impossible that these delicate variations of tempera-
ture may bear some relation to the racial pathological predisposi-
tions which we have noted, as well as to the liability of the new-
comer in the tropics to contract fevers and other zymotic diseases
from which the natives and the fully acclimated whites are im-
mune. ^ Darwin indirectly hinted at such a -solution many years
ago, and suggested at the same time a study of the relation of the
complexion to immunity from fevers. But no one appears to
have followed it up. % The recent development of the science of
hydrotherapeutics certainly points to this conclusion. Several
observers have already noted a permanent difference in the normal
mouth temperature of the different races. Glogner has shown that
the temperature of the Malay is slightly lower than that of Euro-
peans, X the brown skin radiating heat more freely. % The Mon-
golian race more nearly approaches the European than does the
negro, whose norm is* considerably lower.** Dr. Felkinft gives
observations to show that the average mouth temperature of six

* This well-known fact is clearly shown by statistics in Revue d' Anthropologic, second
series, v, p. 3*73.

f Jousset, op. cif., pp. 201, 207, 259, 391.

X Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, 1814. civ, 1825. Other references in
Bulletin de la Societe d' Anthropologic, Paris, 1884, p. 374.

* Archives de Medecine navale, January, 1878.

I Bulletin de la Societe d' Anthropologic, 1884, pp. 375 et seq.

^ Proceedings' of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1889, p. 787.

^ The true Creole, for example, is immune from yellow fever.

J Descent of Man, i, p. 233 et seq.

^ Archiv fiir pathologische Anatomic und Physiologic und fiir klinische Medicin, cxvi,
p. 540.

J Ibid., cxix, p. 256. Contains many tables of results.

** Bulletin de la Societe d' Anthropologic, Paris, 1884, p. 380. Jousset affirms the
game quite independently, op. cit., p. 383.

ff Proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1889, p. 787.

ACCLIMATIZATION. 781

hundred negroes between the equator and 10° north latitude was
97*8° F., the European normal being 98'6°. Higher than either
were the Soudanese, whose average was 99°. In the European
coming to the tropics, therefore, the temporary rise of body tem-
perature increases still more the difference between his own and
the indigenous normal in most cases. It has, indeed, been sug-
gested that this is the cause of malarial fever in the tropics, but
the matter has never been fully investigated, especially in its re-
lation to other zymotic diseases.

Among animals the connection between minute variations of
body temperature and the liability to contract diseases due to
micro-organisms is well established. A fowl, whose normal tem-
perature is considerably above that of the horse, the dog, or the
rabbit, is immune from splenic fever, to which these other animals
are liable ; and yet Pasteur, by reducing its blood heat to their
level, by immersing its legs in cold water, was able successfully to
inoculate it with the anthrax bacillus.* And other fowls were
cured of the fever so contracted by artificially raising their tem-
perature to a point at which the bacillus could no longer thrive.
For the same reason tuberculosis does not flourish in frogs or
other cold-blooded animals, unless their blood temperature is
sufficiently raised to permit of its germination. It is too early to
assert that the same law will apply to the " traumatic " diseases
of the tropics ; but one point is certain, that newcomers in those
regions are particularly liable to zymotic diseases during that
period when their temperature is most above the native normal ;
and that immunity from attack, or at least a more benign form
of the disorder, often comes with that fall in temperature which
is perhaps the surest sign of true acclimatization. Finally, it
will be noted that even when this temperature falls once more to
the European normal, it is still higher than that of the natives.
And if there were any truth in this theory, the perfect accommo-
dation to the environment which the natives of the tropics enjoy,
would be attained only when the normal temperature of the Euro-
pean had been reduced to their level. But the persistence of phys-
iological ethnic traits is a well-known fact; the Hindu to-day,
despite his long sojourn in the tropics, has a temperature merely
reduced to his own racial normal — to reduce it still further to the
level of the negro would require ages of time.f

Acclimatization in this physiological sense, of a gradual ap-
proach and approximation to the normal type of the natives,
must of necessity be an exceedingly slow process, involving many
generations of men. Yet in every respect except of temperature it

• * Sutton, Evolution and Disease. London, 1890, p, 253.

f Jousset, op. cit., p. 382.

782 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

appears that the first effects of a sojourn in the tropics is to induce
symptoms which point toward the peculiarities of the native type.
Thus the increase in the size of the liver indicates the operation of
those causes which have finally made the negro's liver normally
larger than that of the European.* The only present difficulty is
that an unusual strain is suddenly put upon the various organs in
this process of gradual adaptation which is often too severe ; as,
for example, the high mortality among Europeans from derange-
ment of the liver, such as hepatitis, bilious fever, abscesses, and
the like, which indicates that some physiological change has taken
place which has entailed an excessive demand upon the activities
of this organ. Similarly the extreme liability of the negro to dis-
ases of the lungs in the temperate zone may be due to his lack of
physiological accommodation to those circumstances which have
in hundreds of generations produced the European type. To ex-
pect that man can in a single generation compass the ends which
Nature takes an age to perform is the height of folly. The exact
nature of the physiological processes induced by the tropics is,
however, so imperfectly known that we must in general rely
upon concrete experience for our further conclusions.

Results of Hygiene. — Hygiene and sanitation have accom-
plished wonderful results in assisting the individual to withstand
those immediate effects of climatic change which, as we have
said, are so often fatal. f The yearly loss at one time in India was
eighty for each regiment of one thousand men. In 1856 it had
been reduced to sixty-nine ; from 1870 to 1879 it ranged about
sixty-two ; and in 1888 the annual loss was only fifty, including
deaths and invaliding. X The loss in Cochin- China per regiment

* This is suggested by Bastian in Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, Part I, 1869 ; vide also J.
R. Mayer, Die Mechanik der Warme, p. 97 (Stuttgart, ISB'Z), and Jousset, p. 108. The
physiological characteristics of the negro are well described by Jousset as follows: A
weakly developed chest (p. 85), less respiratory power and lung capacity (p. 88), more
rapid pulse (p. 95), diminished muscular tension (p. 100), lower temperature (p. 107), less
perspiration (p. Ill), and a tendency toward slimness (p. 139). The lessened vitality and
power of endurance is also to be noted (p. 144). Pruner Bey confirms these results in his
studies of the vascular system of the negro. Vide also Quatrefages, op. cit., p. 407. Drs.
Baxter and Gould, in their studies on our soldiers during the civil war, confirm this fully.
(Investigations in the Military and Anthropological Statistics of American Soldiers, Cam-
bridge, 1869 ; and Medical Statistics of the Provost-Marshal General's Bureau.)

f Discussed by Hunt, op, cit., p. 140, and by Dr. Montano, op. cit., p. 8 ei seq. ; by David-
son, op. cit., for India ; and by Dr. Farr, in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, xxiv,
p. 472. Vide also, for statistical information, ibid., iv, p. 1 ; viii, pp. 77, 193 ; ix, p. 157 ;
X, p. 100 ; xiv, p. 109 ; xv, p. 100. Tables of the comparative mortality of British troops
in various countries are conveniently given in Revue d'Anthropologie, new series, iv, p. 175.
Macculloch, Statistical Report on the Sickness and Mortality of Troops, London, 1840, gives
a vast amount of information.

if Scottish Geographical Magazine, vii, p. 647.

ACCLIMATIZATION. 783

was one hundred and fifteen in 1861 ; the actual deaths have now
been reduced to twenty -two, although a much higher figure would
be needed to include invaliding. The terrific annual loss of one
hundred and forty-eight per thousand in Senegal from 1832 to 1837
is now reduced to about seventy-three. In this last case, however,
one hundred and fifty per thousand are returned for sickness
every year.* A large proportion of these would undoubtedly die
if not removed immediately. One may indeed be hopeful from
such results that, with further advance in the science of preven-
tion, these figures may be yet further reduced. The system of
vacations,! of strict regulation of diet, the avoidance of excessive
fatigue and exposure, and especially of all forms of agricultural
labor, and the extension of the hill-station system, will do much
in this respect ; so that it is conceded by most candid observers
that, with few exceptions, such as Cochin -China and the coast of
Africa, robust individuals by great care stand a fair chance of
good health in the tropics. Nevertheless, this should never be
allowed to conceal the real fact that the English to-day are no
nearer true acclimatization in India than they were in 1840. To
tolerate a climate is one thing, to become independent of it is
quite a different matter. The securing of a permanent footing in
the tropics depends upon factors of a totally different nature.

Fertility. — Passing now from the consideration of the indi-
vidual to that of the race, the keynote of the matter rests in the
much- controverted question of the influence of change of climate
upon fertility. For, however well the individual may be enabled,
by artificial means or otherwise, to exist, the race will never ac-
commodate itself permanently unless the birth-rate exceeds the
death-rate. X Here we must first carefully eliminate the effects of
ethnic crosses with natives of the tropics ; for a fatal mistake of
many observers has been the neglect to distinguish the possible
sterility induced by intermixtures of race from that caused by a
change of climate and of life conditions; or statements of one
have been accepted by tyros as equivalent to the other. It has
been confidently asserted for so many years that sterility of the
white race ensues after three generations in the tropics that it has
become a household word in anthropology.*

* Revue d'Anthropologie, third series, iv, p. 346.

f In Cochin- China one year in three is the allowance. The improvement in Senegal is
largely due to the brief sojourn of the troops, who are relieved at short intervals. This
system now prevails also in India, in sharp contrast to the old practice of keeping the sol-
diers there for long terms, in the hope of forcing acclimatization in that way.

\ Vide remarks of Prof. Virchow on this point in Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesell-
schaft fiir Anthropologic, 1885, p. 202.

* Many examples of acceptance of this theory of infertility will be found in popular
works. Pearson (National Life and Character, p. 89) bases his whole argument upon it

784 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The result of comparative study of the lower forms of life is
suggestive in this connection.* With plants and animals a sud-
den change of habitat will often produce a temporary sterility,
which disappears only after a series of chance variations. The
chrysanthemum remained infertile for sixty years after its intro-
duction into France from China, so that continued importation of
the seed was necessary. Finally, in 1852 a few plants developed
seeds ; and from these others were raised, until to-day the species
is self-sustaining in Europe. A similar experience with corn at
Sierra Leone, with the goose at Bogota, and European poultry in
America, is instanced by De Quatrefages.f His rather optimistic
argument with regard to the future of acclimatization is based,
indeed, upon the study of animals and plants, rather than of man.
He reasons by analogy that if fertility becomes re-established by
spontaneous variation in this sphere, it may be likewise affirmed
to be true for man, thus giving countenance to the view that cli-
matic changes do indeed produce infertility.

Despite the authorities who hold on general principles that
sterility in man follows — or at least that it ought to follow — a sud-
den change of climate, direct proof for it is very hard to find. Broca
has indeed affirmed that the Mamelukes in Egypt became infer-
tile for that reason ; X but in his case, as in all others, no attempt is
made to eliminate a number of other factors. Jousset declares,
on the contrary, that no direct effect upon fecundity can be traced
to climate.* Dr. Fritsche concedes that, although sterility may
result, there is as yet no direct evidence to prove it. || The diffi-
culty, it will be observed, is to eliminate the effects of crossing
with the natives, or else of marriage with newly arrived immi-
grants. A physician of twenty-seven years' experience in the
Dutch Indies has never known a European family to keep its
blood unmixed in this way for the necessary period of three gen-
erations. Only one example of pure isolation is known, in the
island of Kisser, and sterility there is by no means certain.^ Ste-

Prof. Virchow even asserts it to be true in Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaf t f iir An-
thropologie, 1885, p. 213. It was at the bottom of the exploded theory of Knox and
Brace with respect to the decreasing birth-rate in America. Cf. Memoires de la Soci^te
d' Anthropologic, iii, p. 25.

* Discussed by Wallace in Encyclopaedia Britannica. Also for forest trees in Kirchhoff 's
Forschungen, iii, p. 28 e< seq,

f Op. cit., p. 225. Many other examples are given. Wallace (op, cit) gives the interest-
ing case of the acclimatization of wheat north of the Great Wall by the Emperor of China.

\ Human Hybridity. Cf. the case of the Creoles in the island of St. Louis, cited in
Revue d' Anthropologic, new series, v, p. 30 et seq.

* Op. cit., p. 231. The superior health of women, due to less exposure, has already
been noted.

H Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, 1885, p. 258.
^ Ibid., 1886, p. 89.

ACCLIMATIZATION. 785

rility from climate as a single cause in this part of the world,
then, can neither be affirmed nor denied, from utter lack of evi-
dence.*

On the contrary, a number of examples of continued fertility
might be given. Brace affirms the Jews to be fertile even in
Cochin-China, \ and Joest says that Europeans in Africa often
bear children.]: The Spanish women in Guayaquil, on the
authority of Dr. Spruce, in a climate where the temperature is sel-
dom below 83° F., and in the complete absence of intermarriage
with the natives, are the finest along the coast ; and the white
population is exceedingly prolific* The experience of Algeria,
so far at least as heat is concerned, seems to bear out the same
conclusion, the birth-rate being higher even than in France. || De
Quatrefages, despite his inference of a temporary infertility, cer-
tainly takes a hopeful view for the other French colonies."^ Some
remarkable examples of fecundity, indeed, are not lacking. Some
years ago, an English woman, never out of India, not even taking
a vacation in the hills, died at the age of ninety-seven, leaving
eighteen children. 0 Tilt, however, denies that the English in
general can ever become acclimated there. % Sterility, of course,
while most important, is not the only element in the acclimatiza-
tion of the race. Even if we could affirm that sterility did not
result, the perpetuation of a people in the tropics would not
necessarily follow ; for the mother may seldom survive child-
birth, as in the East Indies and on the Zambesi, % or the children
may seldom survive, J the age of six being often a critical period.**
But these facts have no connection with sterility or the reverse,
although they may produce the same negative result in the end.
The final word upon this subject awaits more carefully sifted
evidence than any we now possess.

Comparative Aptitudes of European Nations. — The
future political destiny of Africa is not unlikely to be dominated
by a remarkable fact — namely, the severe handicap against which
the Teutonic stock, and especially the Anglo-Saxon branch, strug-
gles in the attempt permanently to colonize the tropics. And

* Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, 1886, p. 92.
f Wallace, op. cit.

X Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, 1885, p. 473.

* Wallace, op. cit.

I Levasseur, La Population rran9ai8e, iii, p. 432,
^ Op. cit., p. 231.

^ Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellachaft fiir Anthropologic, 1885, p. 379.
^ Health in India for British Women.
^ Peschel, Wallace, Quatrefages.

I Jousset, op. cit, p. 314. Cf. Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropo-
logic, 1885, p. 258, on Egypt. ** Wallace, op. cit.

VOL. XL VIII.— 67

786 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

this is peculiarly unfortunate, since these are the very peoples
who find population pressing most severely upon the soil at
home.* The Latin nations, of course, are the ones who lay most
stress upon this comparative disability of their rivals; but in
justice to the French, it must be added that they have generally
recognized that the Spaniards and Italians possess as great an
advantage over them as they in turn do over the Germans, f The
experience of Algeria affords a good illustration of this point.
The year 1854 marks the first excess of births over deaths in this
colony ; and the following table shows the relative disabilities of
the Europeans for 1855-'56 : t

Births pro

miUe.

Deaths pro mille.

Spaniards

46
44
89
41
81

80

Maltese

80

Italians ^

28

French

43

Germans

66

Dr. Ricoux * gives the following death rates per thousand for
children under one year: Spaniards, 180; Maltese, 178; Italians,
194; French, 225*2; and Germans, 273. This disability of the
Germans is confessed by all their most able and candid authori-
ties. II All writers, even in France, acknowledge that the Medi-
terranean natives possess a peculiar aptitude in this respect."^

* Levasseur, La Population Fran^aise, iii, p. 432.

f Revue d'Anthropologie, second series, viii, p. 190.

X Bulletin de la Soci6t6 d'Anthropologie, 1886, p. 269; cf. L' Anthropologic, vi, p. 120.
The small number of Germans present weakens the force of the evidence somewhat.

* Annales de Demographic, vi, p. 14. Cf. Quatrefages, op. cit, p. 230, and Bordier,
Colonization, p. 184. The only north Europeans ever successful are the Dutch in South
Africa and in the East Indies.

I Ratzel, Anthropo-Geographie, i, p. 304 ; Virchow, Fritsche, and Joest in Verhandlun-
gen der Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, 1885, pp. 211, 474, etc. It will have been
noted that nearly all references in German fall within the years 1885-87. The ques-
tion drifted into politics — out of the hands of scientists into those of pamphleteers. Vide
Max Nordau, Rabies Africana, in Asiatic Quarterly Review, second series, ii, p. 76 ; and
G. A. Fischer, Mehr Licht im dunkeln Welttheil, Berlin, 1886. A blue-book on the
subject was promised (Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft, 1886, p. 87), but the
attention of the Colonial Society was for some reason diverted. Tropical hygiene was
fully discussed, but the broader scientific aspect of the matter was neglected (Verhand-
lungen, 1889, p. 732). As late as 1890 no definite government report had been issued
except Mahly's work. The Germans apparently do not dare to handle it without gloves,
and their views are unique in their optimism (Kohlstock in Science, 1891, p. 3; and
Finckelnburg in Handbuch der Staatswissenschaft).

^ Ratzel, loc. cit. ; Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 1883, No. 2 ; Jousset,
p. 292; Montano, pp. 444, 446; Felkin, in Scottish Geographical Magazine, ii, p. 62, and in
British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1886, p. 730 ; Levasseur, op. cit, ii, p.
431 ; and Bordier, Colonization, pp. 185, 493.

ACCLIMATIZATION. 787

Moreover, tlie Frencli nation is further divided against itself.
That the Provengals — the offshoots of the Mediterranean branch
of the Aryan stock — succeed better than the people of the Paris
basin in the tropics is generally conceded;* and the bulk of
French emigration to-day conies from the Rhone Valley, Corsica,
and Provence, t This makes the fact still more curious that these
same Provengals endured the hardships of Napoleon's Moscow
campaign far better than their comrades from Normandy and
Champagne. J Can it, indeed, be due to an admixture of Semitic
blood, as Wallace suggests ?

This disability of the Anglo-Saxon stock does not seem to
indicate any less vitality, but rather the reverse.* The Crimean
War apparently showed that the English possessed a peculiar ad-
vantage over the French in their ability to recover speedily from
severe wounds. || In fact, the mortality after capital operations
in English hospitals is only about half that among the French.^
We have already observed that primitive peoples, while showing
a relative immunity from septic disorders, still remain peculiarly
sensitive to all changes of climate. 0 And the case of the Anglo-
Saxon stock is analogous to it in this respect, having a higher
recuperative power conjoined to disability in becoming acclima-
tized. X This is undoubtedly in part due to national habits, but it
also appears to be rooted in race. In peopling the new lands of
the earth, therefore, we observe a curious complication ; for it is
precisely those people who need the colonies most, and who are
bending all their political energies to that end, who labor under
the severest disabilities. A popular opinion is abroad that Africa
is to be dominated by the English and German nations. % If there
be any virtue in prediction, it would rather appear that their
activities will be less successful as soon as the pioneering stage

* Quatrefages, op. cit, p. 230 ; Jousset, p. 192 ; Montano, p. 449 ; and Levasseur, ii,
p. 431.

f L'Anthropologie, v, p. 253.

:}: Bulletin de la Soci6t6 d'Anthropologie, i, p. 326 ; and Revue d'Anthropologie, new
series, i, p. 76.

* Dr. Beddoe, Races of Britain, p. 224, gives some exceedingly interesting observations
upon this point.

I Revue d'Anthropologie, new series, i, p. 76 et seq.

^ Topinard, Elements, p. 412.

^ The stupendous failure of the project of colonizing the State of Durango in Mexico
with negroes from the United States is a case in point. Vide letter in Boston Transcript,
dated Mexico, August 11, 1896. Dr. Brinton, in Races and Peoples, p. 40, gives some
valuable references upon this point.

;J; Dr. Montano, p. 447 ; Revue d'Anthropologie, second series, v, 74 : " The Anglo-Saxon
race is least apt of all in accommodating itself to warm climates." This fact is reluctantly
admitted by Dr. Felkin and other English authorities as well.

^ Vide typical editorial m Boston Herald, May 2, 1895.

788 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

gives way to the necessity for actual colonists, wlio with their
families are to live, labor, and propagate in the new lands.

Summarizing the views of authorities upon this subject, the
almost universal opinion seems to be that true colonization in the
tropics by the white race is impossible.* The only writers who
express themselves favorably are Crawford,t whose hopes for
India have certainly not been fulfilled ; Armand % and Kattray,*
Dr. Livingstone and Bishop Hannington, || and the physicians
assembled at the Medical Congress at Berlin in 1890,"^ with the
Society for the Advancement of Medical Science in the Dutch
Indian Settlements. 0 All these authorities may now be classed
as antiquated, except the last, and moreover the first one repre-
sents that nation which is notoriously unsuccessful in acclima-
tization. The opinion of the Dutch physicians who have been
fairly successful may be met by as good testimony from their own
number on the opposite side.

Authorities in favor of the view that complete acclimatization
of Europeans in the tropics is impossible might be multiplied
indefinitely. Among the earlier writers of this opinion are Knox, %
Prichard, J Dr. Hunt, J and Sir Ranald Martin.** The best Ger-
man authority concedes it, including Virchow, Fritsche, Joest,
Fischer, ft with Buchner H and Hirsch.** The French, who have
studied it more scientifically than any other nation, hold to this
opinion with no exception. 1 1| Jousset declares that recruiting
stations never effect a permanent recovery, the only remedy being
to leave the tropics altogether.-^^ This opinion is also shared by
many of the Dutch, who dissent from the favorable views of

* The most definite as well as the latest expression of expert opinion fully agrees with
this. Vide Proceedings of the International Geographical Congress at London, 1896.

I Transactions of the Ethnological Society, London, new series, i, p. 89.

X Traits de Climatologie, Paris, 1873. * Jousset, p. 426.

\ Scottish Geographical Magazine, vii, 647.

^ Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, January, 1891, p. 30.

^ Referred to in the Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Demography
and Hygiene, London, xi, p. 170.

X Quatrefages, p. 229. % Jousset, p. 426.

% Loc. cit, p. 135; other opinions of early writers are here given as well.

** Encyclopaedia Britannica, Acclimatization.

f f Scottish Geographical Magazine, vii, p. 647, and Yerhandlungen der Berliner Gesell-
schaft fiir Anthropologic, 1885, pp. 210, 257, 474. Prof. Virchow distinguishes between
malaria and climate, which is generally a distinction without a difference in the tropics.

XX Correspondcnzblatt, xviii, p. 17.

** Yerhandlungen, 1886, p. 164.

II Dr. Rey, op. cit. ; Boudin, Bulletin de la Soci6t6 d' Anthropologic, 1864, pp. 780 and
828; Legoyt, Jousset, p. 426; Bertillon, Bulletin de la Soci6t6 d' Anthropologic, 1864, pp.
519 and 578 ; Bordier, Colonization scientifique, pp. 184, 397, 472 ; and Revue d' Anthropo-
logic, third series, i, pp. 667, 672.

^^ Jousset, p. 434.

ACCLIMATIZATION, 789

their countrymen already quoted.* The English writers of this
opinion include Ravenstein,t Sir William Moore, X and Tilt.* Dr.
Felkin alone holds to a slightly more favorable view of coloniza-
tion in Africa, although he qualifies it by requiring an unlimited
amount of time ; and he finds comfort in the thought that Cen-
tral Africa is no worse than India. He finally concedes, how-
ever, that in this latter colony the hill districts are the only ones
where the English can remain in health. || For some years the
hopes for Africa as a field for colonization were based upon the
altitude of the inland plateau. But expert opinion on this seems
to show that, with the sole exception of Matabeleland, the coun-
try is impossible for European colonists."^ And even Mr. Stanley
declares that cautious pioneering is all that can be expected for
the future in the Congo basin — that colonization was never antici-
pated at all. ^ In the face of such testimony there can be but one
conclusion : to urge the emigration of women, children, or of any
save those in the most robust health to the tropics may not be
to murder in the first degree, but it should be classed, to put it
mildly, as incitement to it.

It must not be understood that by this is meant that the
white man can not live in the tropics. Hygienic precautions
and great care can often render a prolonged sojourn in these
regions perfectly harmless. But, as Mr. Wallace observes, the
Englishman wTio can spend a summer in Rome in safety only by
sleeping in a tower and by never venturing forth at night, can
not be truly said to be acclimated. A colony can never approxi-
mate even to the civilization of Europe until it can abolish or
assimilate the native servile population; and yet, one of the
many things which are expressly forbidden to all colonists in the
tropics is agricultural labor. It would be a waste of energy to
give citations to prove this, for every work on acclimatization
insists upon the necessity of this precaution. Let it be under-
stood, then, that a colonial policy in the tropics means a perma-

* Dr. Van der Burg in Transactions of the Seventh International Congress of Demog-
raphy and Hygiene, p. 1*70. After all precautions have been taken, "such a settlement
ought to be continually supported by new supplies from the European continent for many,
possibly for hundreds of years, in order to have a chance of healthy existence."

f Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, January, 1891, p. 31, and Proceeding
of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1894.
X Edinburgh Medical Journal, xxxi, part ii, p. 852.

* Transactions of the Seventh International Congress of Demography and Hygiene.

H Proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1886, p. Y29.

^ Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, January, 1891, p. 31, and Transac-
tions of the Seventh International Congress of Demography and Hygiene, p. 1*78.

^ Proceedings of the International Geographical Congress, London, 1895. Since this
was written new and important evidence to the same end is given in the Scottish Geographi-
cal Magazine, xi, p. 612.

790 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

nent servile native population, which, is manifestly inconsistent
with political independence, or with any approach to republican
institutions.

Such being our conclusions from a comparison of authorities,
what shall we say about the broader question of original racial
acclimatization ? And what policy, if any, should be modeled
upon the theories with regard to the way in which this undis-
puted operation once took place — for, as we have said, the sub-
stantial unity of the human race followed by extensive migra-
tions is an accepted fact. Even in the absence of direct proof, to
deny it would be to neglect all the evidence for the same phe-
nomenon among plants and animals so ably set forth by Wallace,
Agassiz, Drude, and other writers. Fortunately, however, the
researches of ethnologists to-day are continually bringing new
evidence to show that such widespread migration has indeed
taken place. Two radically different policies are advocated by
the adherents of one or the other of the two opposing factions
in biological theory. For accommodation to climatic conditions
may take place either by variation and natural selection or by
habitual adaptation transmitted by inheritance.* Weissmann, f
Wallace, Quatrefages, % and apparently Dr. Brinton,* rely upon
natural selection, which they assert, directly or by inference,
takes place in the following way : A large body of men (plants
or animals) is transported to the new habitat at once — the larger
the number the better — from which by elimination a few fortu-
nate variations survive. Thus, after a long time, and enormous
sacrifice of life, a new type, immune to some degree, becomes
established. All that the state need do, therefore, is to keep
up the supply of immigrants long enough, and leave the climate
to do the rest. ||

What state policy may we adopt if we hold to the biological
theory of adaptation and heredity ? This school includes Vir-
chow and Buchner,"^ who firmly defended it at the Natural Sci-
ence Congress at Strasburg, and by Jousset. ^ Their policy
would be to imitate the operations of natural ethnic migrations ;
they would rely upon the utilization of the natural aptitudes of
various nationalities, which we have mentioned — perhaps them-
selves the fruit of ages of sojourn in certain climates — until
finally a great drifting movement toward the equator would take

* Discussed by Wallace in Encyclopaedia Britannica.

f Correspondenzblatt der deutschen Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, xviii, 1887, p. 18.

X Op. cit, * Op. cit, p. 283, seems to follow De Quatrefages.

I This would be the policy outlined by Dr. Van der Burg, quoted in note ante.

^ Correspondenzblatt, 1887, p. 18.

Op. cit., p. 246 — outlined in his general argument. Vide note ante.

ACCLIMATIZATION. 791

place.* In otlier words, tlie peoples of the Mediterranean basin,
learning of their aptitude for a southward migration, would per-
haps move to Algeria, displacing the people of the Soudan and
the Semitic stocks toward the equator. To fill the place thus left
vacant, the people of northern France slowly drift to the Rhone
Valley and Provence for a generation or two, and their place is
taken by Germans and Belgians.

That this is a tendency at the present time can not be doubted. f
Each generation adapting itself quietly would produce succeed-
ing ones with an inherited immunity. Unfortunately, this most
reasonable let-alone policy has two fatal objections : in the first
place, it requires a policy of noninterference; and, more potent
still, it absolutely neglects the political factor. To suppose that
France would quietly allow her people to be dispossessed by Ger-
mans, even though she aided her colonial policy thereby, or that
Germany would quietly leave Africa to her Gallic neighbor, is
not to be supposed for a moment. Nevertheless, it will be proba-
bly the only policy which will finally produce a new immune type
in the regions of the equator. Of course, England is by fate
condemned to follow the first policy we have outlined. France,
indeed, is the only one of the European states which extends over
the two contrasted European climates; a large measure of her
success is probably due to that fact ; while all the nations north
of the Alps must traverse her territory or that of Italy on the
way to these newly discovered lands. Great political results are
therefore not impossible, if the prognosis we have indicated prove
to be correct. At all events, enough has perhaps been said to
show that great problems for science remain to be solved before
the statesman can safely proceed to people those tropical regions
of the earth so lately apportioned among European states.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. %

Armand. Traite de Climatologie, Paris, 1873.

Bastian, a. Klima und Akklimatization, Berlin. Very diffuse.

* This view is expressed by Ravenstein (Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society,
1891, p. 35 et seq.) and by Dr. Felkin (British Association for the Advancement of Science,
1886, p. 730), who do not, however, seem to appreciate the biological analogies of their
mode of treatment.

•f" Map of foreigners in France in Bulletin de I'Institut international de statisque, iii
trois liv., 1888, p. 36 ; this fact is noticeably prominent. The destination of French emi-
grants is given in L'4.nthropologie, v, p. 253. Vide also Transactions of the International
Congress of Demography and Hygiene, p. 131 et seq.

X Other and more technical articles upon the subject have been referred to in foot-
notes, such as Archives de M6decine navale. Bulletin de la Soci6t6 de I'Acclimatement de
Paris, Archiv fiir pathologische Anatomic und Physiologic, etc. Maps of the distribution
of certain diseases will be found in Gerland's Atlas der Volkerkunde and in the works of
Drs. Chervin, Felkin, Lombard, and Sormani.

792 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Bertillon, Dr. Acclimatement and Colonization in the Dictionnaire en-
cyclopedique des Sciences medicales. Also in Bulletin de la Societe
d' Anthropologic de Paris, 1864, pp. 519, 578.

Berenger-Fkraud, Dr. Traite des Maladies Europeennes au Senegal, Paris,
1875.

BoRDiER, Dr. a. La Geographic medicsile. La Colonisation scientifique.
Bibliotheque des Sciences contemporaines, Paris, 1884.

BoTJDm, J. Ch. M. Traite de Geographic et de Statistique medicale, Paris,
1857.

Chervin, Dr. A. Geographic medicale de la France, in Annales de Demo-
graphic, iv, p. 10.

Clarke, Dr. R. In Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, London, xix,
p. 60.

Davidson, Dr. A. Geographical Pathology, Edinburgh and London, 1892.

Felkin, Dr. R. W. On the Geographical Distribution of Some Tropical
Diseases and their Relation to Physical Phenomena, London, 1889. — In
Scottish Geographical Magazine, ii, p. 647. — In Proceedings of the Brit-
ish Association for the Advancement of Science, 1886, p. 729.

FuCHS, Dr. C. Medicinische Geographic, 1853.

EtoscH, Dr. a. Handbuch der historisch-geographischen Pathologic, 2te
Auflage, 1881, translated. In Verhandlungen der Berliner GeseUschaft
fiir Anthropologic, etc., 1886, p. 155.

Hunt, Dr. J. Ethno-Climatology, in Proceedings of the British Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science, 1861, p. 129 ; or Transactions of
the Ethnological Society, London, ii, p. 50.

JOUSSET, Dr. a. Traite de TAcclimatement, Paris, 1884. One of the best.

Kelsch and Kiener. Traites des Maladies des Pays chauds, Paris, 1889.

Lombard, Dr. H. C. Traite de Climatologie medicale, 4 vols., Paris, 1877.

Macculloch. Statistical Rei)orts on the Sickness and Mortality among the
Troops, London, 1840.

Maehly. Ueber Akklimatization, Special Heft der Deutsche Kolonialzeit-
ung fiir medicinische Geographic, Klimatologie und Tropen Hygiene.
Berlin, 1886.

MoNTANO, Dr. J. In Bulletin de la Societe de Geographic de Paris, 1878,
p. 418.

Mtjhry. Geographische Verhaltnisse der Krankheiten, 1856.

Orgeas, Dr. J. La Pathologic des Races Humaiues, Paris, 1886.

Quatrefages, a. De. L'Espece Humaine, liv. vi, Paris. Translated 1890.

Rey, Dr. H. In Bulletin de la Societe de Geographic de Paris, 1878, pp.
38, 155, 229.

ROCHARD. Acclimatement, in Nouveau Dictionnaire de Medecine et de
Chirurgie pratique, Paris, 1879.

SoRMANi. La Geographic medicale de I'ltalie, and in Annales de Demo-
graphic, V, p. 184.

St. Vel. Dr. O. Hygiene des Europeens dans les Climates tropicaux, des
Creoles et des Races colorees dans les Pays temperes, Paris, 1872.

Stokvis. Ueber Vergleichende der Rassenpathologie. Verb, des X. inter,
med. Congress, in Berlin, 1890.

Sykes, Dr. In Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, London, ix, p. 157 ;
X, p. 100 ; xiv, p. 109 ; xv, p. 100.

Thevenot. Maladies des Pays chauds, Paris, 1870.

TEE SAVAGE ORIGIN OF TATTOOING, 793

Treille. In Proceedings of the International Congress of Demography

and Hygiene, Vienna, ix, 1887.
Van Overbeek de Meyer. Ueber den Einfluss der tropischen Klimas auf

Eingewanderte aus hoheren Breiten. Verh. des X. inter, med. Congress.

in Berlin, 1890.
ViRCHOW, R. In Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, Eth-

nologie und Urgeschichte, Berlin, 1885, p. 202 et seq.
Wallace, A. R. Acclimatization, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

THE SAVAGE ORIGIN OF TATTOOING.

By PBor. CESARE LOMBROSO.

I HAVE been told that the fasMon of tattooing the arm exists
among women of prominence in London society. The taste
for this style is not a good indication of the refinement and deli-
cacy of the English ladies : first, it indicates an inferior sensi-
tiveness, for one has to be obtuse to pain to submit to this wholly
savage operation without any other object than the gratification
of vanity ; and it is contrary to progress, for all exaggerations of
dress are atavistic. Simplicity in ornamentation and clothing and
uniformity are an advance gained during these last centuries by
the virile sex, by man, and constitute a superiority in him over
woman, who has to spend for dress an enormous amount of time
and money, without gaining any real advantage, even to her
beauty. But it is not desirable that so inordinate an accession to
ornamentation as tattooing would be should be adopted ; for an
observation I have made on more than 6,000 criminals has dem-
onstrated to me that this custom is held in too great honor
among them. Thus, while out of 2,739 soldiers I have found
tattoo marks only among 1*2 per cent, always limited to the arms
and the breast ; among 5,348 criminals, 667 were tattooed, or ten
per cent of the adults and 3*9 per cent of the minors. Baer re-
cently observed tattooing among two per cent of German crimi-
nals and 9'5 per cent of soldiers {Der Verbrecher, 1893).

Characteristics of Criminal Tattooing: Vengeance. —
The minute study of the various signs adopted by malefactors
shows us not only that they sometimes have a strange frequency,
but often also a special stamp. A criminal whom I studied had
on his breast between two poniards the fierce threat Je jure de
me venger (I swear to avenge myself). He was an old Piedmont-
ese sailor, who had killed and stolen for vengeance. A recidi-
vistic thief wore on his breast the inscription, Malheur a moi !
quelle sera ma fin ? (Woe to me ! what will be my end ?) — lugu-
brious words, reminding us of those which Filippe, strangler of
public women, had traced on his right arm, long before his con-

794 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

demnation, Ne sous une mauvaise etoile (Born under an evil
star).

Malassen, a ferocious assassin, who became in New Caledonia
an executioner of convicts (Meyer, Souvenirs d'un Deporte), was
covered from his feet to his head with grotesque and frightful
tattoo marks. On his breast he had drawn a red and black guil-
lotine, with the words in red letters : J'ai mal coniTnence, je finirai
mal. C'est la fin qui m' attend (I have begun evil, I shall end evil.
That is the end that awaits me). His right arm, which had in-
flicted death upon so many human beings, bore the terrible de-
vice, very appropriate to his hand, Mort h la chiourme (Death to
the convict).

The famous Neapolitan camorrist Salsano had himself repre-
sented in an attitude of bravado. H© held a stick in his hand,
and was defying a police guard. Under the figure was his sobri-
quet, Eventre tout le monde (disembowel everybody) ; then came
two hearts and keys connected with chains, in allusion to the
secrecy of the camorrists.

We see, then, by these few examples, that there is a kind of
hieroglyphic writing among criminals, that is not regulated or
fixed, but is determined from daily events, and from argot, very
much as would take place among primitive men. Very often, in
fact, the key in the designs signifies the silence of secrecy, and the
death's head vengeance. Sometimes the figures are replaced by
points, as when a judicial arrest is marked on the arm with sev-
enteen points, which means, according to the criminal, that he
intends to strike his enemy that number of times when he falls
into his hands.

Another characteristic of criminals, which is also common
to them with sailors and savages, is to trace the designs not only
on the arms and the breast (the most frequent usage), but on
nearly all the parts of the body. I have remarked one hundred
tatooed on the arms, breast, and abdomen, five on the hands, three
on the fingers, and three on the thigh.

A certain T , thirty-four years of age, who had passed many

years in prison, had not, except on his cheeks and loins, a surface
the size of a crown that was not tattooed. On his forehead could
be read Martyr de la Liberte (Martyr of Liberty) ; the words being
surmounted by a snake eleven centimetres long. On his nose he
had a cross, which he had tried to efl:ace with acetic acid.

A Venetian thief, who had served in the Austrian army, had
on his right arm a double-headed eagle, and near it the names
of his mother and his mistress Louise, with the strange epigraph
for a thief : Louise, ch^re amante, mon unique consolation (Louise,
dear loved one, my only consolation). Another thief wore on his
right arm a bird holding a heart, stars, and an anchor. On the

THE SAVAGE ORIGIN OF TATTOOING,

795

left arm of a prisoner Lacassagne found the words, Quand la

neige tomb era noire, B sortira de ma memoir e (When the

snow falls black, B will pass out of my memory).

The multiplicity of marks results from the strange liking
these curious heroes have of spreading on their body, just after

Fig. 1.

the fashion of the American Indians, the adventures of their lives.

For example, M C , twenty- seven years old (Fig. 1), who

had been condemned at least fifty times for rebellion and assaults

796 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

on men and horses, who had traveled, or rather wandered, a vaga-
bond, in Spain and Africa with women whom he left suddenly, wore
his whole history written on his skin. One design referred to the
ship L'Esp^rance (No. 1), which was wrecked on the coast of Ire-
land, and on which he had gone as a sailor. A horse's head (N"o.
2) represented an animal which he had killed with a knife, from
simple caprice, when twelve years old. A helmet (No. 7) indi-
cated a policeman he had tried to kill. A headless woman with a
heart on her neck indicated his mistress, who was frivolous (No.
8). The portrait of a brigand referred to a robber chief whom he
took for his model (No. 9). A lute (No. 3) recalled a friend, a
skillful player of the guitar, with whom he traveled over half of
Europe. The star, the evil influence under which he was born
(No. 4). The royal crown, "a political souvenir,'' he said, but
rather, we say, his new trade of a spy — that is, the destruction of
the kingdom (No. 5).

A French deserter who desired to avenge himself against his
chief drew a poniard on his breast (Fig. 2, No. 1), to signify venge-
ance, and also a serpent. He further drew the ship on which
he wished to escape, the epaulets which had been taken away
from him, a dancing girl who had been his mistress, and then
the sad inscriptions which were truly appropriate to his un-
happy life.

Dr. Spoto sent me a study of the tattooing of a criminal who
had been under his care. He wore all his sad adventures painted
on his arm (see Archivio di Psichiatria, June, 1889). He had one
hundred and five signs on his body, ten of which represented mis-
tresses, nine hearts, eight flowers or leaves, five animals, twenty-
eight names, surnames, or descriptions, and thirty- one poniards
or warriors (Fig. 3). On his arm he had a figure of a lady
winged and crowned ; winged, he said, " because I made her take
flight " (he had run away with her) ; crowned, because she had
substituted for the crown of virginity the royal crown in becom-
ing his mistress. She held in her hand a heart and an arrow,
signifying her parents, to whom her flight had caused great grief.
Beneath her were two branches, which signified that she kept her-
self always fresh. Two other of his loves explained their sad ad-
ventures by holding crumpled roses in their hands. In his hand
he had an eagle, representing the ship on which he sailed, and
beneath it a heart with three points, referring to the sufferings of
Christ, whose birthplace he had visited at Bethlehem. A heart
on his arm represented a mistress with whom he lived several
years. It was pierced with an arrow, because he had abandoned
the woman with two little children, who were represented by two
bleeding hearts. Two hearts pierced with swords, on his forearm,
represented two mistresses who would not yield to his desires

THE SAVAGE ORIGIN OF TATTOOING.

797

except when threatened with death. They were connected by a
chain with an anchor hanging from it, which signified that the
women belonged to a sailor family, and a Greek cross above them

Fio. 3.

indicated that they were Greek. On his breast was a dancing
girl carrying a bird, because she bounded like a bird. On his
sides were a cock and a lion, the cock corresponding to women
who wished to be paid : " When the cock sings, Spiritelli will

798 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pay." The lion meant that he felt as strong as a lion. A smaller
lion a few centimetres from this meant that even as among lions
the stronger gains the victory over the weaker, so he, the stronger,
had overcome those who would play the camorrist with him.

Never, I believe, have we had a more striking proof that tat-
tooing contains real ideographic hieroglyphs which take the place
of writing. They might be compared to the inscriptions of the
ancient Mexicans and Indians, which, like the tattooings we have
described, are the more animated history of individuals. Cer-
tainly these tattooings declare more than any official brief to
reveal to us the fierce and obscene hearts of these unfortunates.

This multiplicity of figures proves also that criminals, like
savages, are very little sensitive to pain. Another fact that char-
acterizes tattooing is precocity. According to Tardieu and Ber-
son, tattooing is never remarked in France before the age of six-
teen years (excepting, of course, the cases of ship-boys who have
borrowed the custom from sailors); yet we have found, even
among the general public, four cases in children of from seven to
nine years of age ; and of eighty-nine adult criminals, sixty- six
displayed tattooings which were made between nine and sixteen
years.

Some tattoo marks are used by societies as signals of recogni-
tion. In Bavaria and the south of Germany the highway robbers,
who are united into a real association, recognize one another by
the epigraphic tattoo marks T, und L., meaning Thai und Land
(valley and country), words which they exchange with one an-
other, each uttering half the phrase, when they meet. Without
that they would betray themselves to the police.*

What is the origin of this usage ? Religion, .which has so
much power over peoples and which proves so obstinate in pre-
serving ancient customs, has certainly contributed to maintain it
among the more .barbarous part of our populations; we see a
quasi-official proof of it at Lorette. Those who cultivate a devo-

* Lacassagne has given us a large number of inscriptions tattooed on French criminals,
which all contain criminal or obscene allusions. For example, we read :
Eight times : " Son of misfortune."
Nine times : "No chance."
Three times : " Friends of the contrary."
Four times : " Death to unfaithful women."
Five times : " Vengeance."
Twice : " Son of disgrace."
Twice : " Born under an evil star."
Three times : " Child of joy."
Three times : •" The past deceives me."
Once : " The m ... is worth more than all France."
Once : " Vive la France and fried potatoes ! Death to brutes."
Once : " The present torments me ; the future frightens me."

THE SAVAGE ORIGIN OF TATTOOING, 799

tion for a saint believe that by engraving his image on their
flesh they will give him a proof, a clear testimony, of their love.
We know that the Phoenicians marked the sign of their divinity
on their foreheads (Ewald, Juddischen Altertlium, iii) ; in the
Marshall Islands they have to ask the permission of the gods to
tattoo themselves ; and the priests alone in New Zealand perform
the office of tattooing (Scherzer). Lubbock adds to this that a
woman who does not wear a tattoo mark can not enjoy eternal
felicity. The women of Britain tattooed themselves in obedience
to religion (Pliny, 33).

The second cause is the spirit of imitation. A Lombard sol-
dier answered me laughingly one day when I rallied him on his
having spent a small sum to spoil his arm : " See, monsieur, we are
like sheep ; and when one of us does anything we all imitate him
at once, even if we risk doing ourselves harm."

Love of distinction also has its influence. A thief of the most
incorrigible sort, who had six brothers tattooed like himself, im-
plored me, although he was half covered with the oddest tattoo
marks, to find him a professional tattooer to complete what might
well be styled the embroidery of his skin. " When the tattooing
is very curious and spread all over the body," he told me, " it is
to us other thieves like the black coat of society with decorations ;
the more we are tattooed, the more we esteem one another ; the
more a person is tattooed, the more influence he has over his com-
panions. On the contrary, one who is not tattooed has no influ-
ence ; he is regarded simply as a good fellow, and is not esteemed
by the company."

There are also tattooings inspired by vengeance. Bastrenga,

the cruel assassin of T , had various tattoo marks on his arm (a

horse, an anchor, etc.). On the advice of his father, who remon-
strated with him that they would make him more easily recog-
nizable, he effaced them. But in 1868 he was arrested anew by
the police agents, and when he resisted actively one of them
struck him so violently on the head that his eye was permanently
hurt. Then, forgetting all prudence, he tattooed himself anew on
the right arm ; engraved there the fatal date of 1868, and a helmet
on the arm that was to strike. " I shall keep this mark many
years," he said, " till the time comes when I can satisfy my venge-
ance." This fact is curious, and illustrates one of the causes
that induce savages to tattoo themselves — for registration. It
shows, too, that with the born criminals the spirit of revenge
prevails over the most ordinary prudence, even when they have
been put on their guard. Indolence also counts for something.
It explains the number of cases of tattooing which we meet
among deserters, prisoners, shepherds, and sailors. Among eighty-
nine tattooed persons, I saw seventy-one who had been tattooed

8oo POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

in prison. Inaction is even harder to endure than pain. The
influence of vanity is still greater. Those even who have not
studied the insane know how powerful this passion is, which is
found in all grades of the social scale, and perhaps even in ani-
mals, and can lead to the strangest and most foolish actions, from
the chevalier who dotes on a little bit of ribbon to the idiot who
struts with a straw behind his ear. For this, savages who go
entirely naked wear figures on their breasts ; for this, our con-
temporaries who are clothed tattoo that part of the body which
is most exposed to sight, especially the forearm, and more fre-
quently the right than the left. An old soldier told me that in
1820 there was not a man in the army especially not a subordinate
officer who had not been tattooed to exhibit his courage in sup-
porting pain. The figures of the tattooing vary in New Zealand
as do the fashion styles with us.

The spirit of the organization and the spirit of sect contribute
to it. I have been led to this conclusion by the examination of
some initials which I studied upon incendiaries at Milan, and of
certain signs found on young police prisoners at Turin and Na-
ples. Figures of tarantulas and of frogs appear often. I suspect
that some groups of camorrists have adopted this new kind
of primitive ornamentation to distinguish their sect, as they
formerly adopted rings, pins, chains, and different cuts of the
beard.

Lastly, the stimulus of the noblest human passions has had
its part. It is very natural that the rites of the village, the image
of his patron, the recollections of infancy and of the heart's friend
should return to the mind of the poor soldier, and be rendered
more lively by the tattooed design, when he is struggling against
danger, suffering, and privations.

But the primary, chief cause that has spread this custom
among us is in my opinion atavism, or that other kind of his-
torical atavism that is called tradition. Tattooing is, in fact, one
of the essential characteristics of primitive man, and of men who
still live in the savage state.

Some of those pointed bones which are used by modern sav-
ages in tattooing themselves have been found in the prehistoric
grottoes of Avignac, and in the tombs of ancient Egypt. The
Assyrians, according to Lucian, and the Dacians, according to
Pliny, covered their whole bodies with figures. The Phoenicians
and the Jews traced lines which they called " signs of God " on
their foreheads and their hands (Ewald, Juddischen AUerthum, ii,
p. 7). This usage was so widespread among the Britons that their
name (from Brith, painting), like that of Pict and Pictons, seems
to have been derived from it. See Csesar. " These peoples," he
says, " trace, with iron, designs on the skin of the youngest chil-

THE SAVAGE ORIGIN OF TATTOOING, 8oi

dren, ahd color their warriors with Isatis tinctoria (woad) to ren-
der them more terrible on the field of battle/'

I do not believe there is a single savage people that does not
tattoo more or less. The Payaguns painted their faces in bine on
feast days, in triangles and arabesques. The various negro tribes
distinguished themselves from one another, especially the tribes
of Bambaras, by horizontal or vertical lines traced on the face,
the chest, and arms. Kafir warriors have the privilege of deco-
rating their legs with a long azure line, which they are able to
make indelible.

In Tahiti the women tattoo only the feet and hands or the ear,
tracing collars or bracelets ; the men, the whole body, on the hairy
skin, on the nose, and the gums ; and they often produce inflam-
mations and gangrene, especially on the fingers and the gums.
On the Marquesas Islands tattooing is a custom as well as a sacra-
ment. Beginning at the age of fifteen or sixteen years, they put a
girdle upon the young people and tattoo their fingers and legs, but
always in a sacred place. Women, even princesses, have no right
to tattoo anything but their hands and feet ; grand personages
cover their whole body ; and while the designs on the lower part
are delicate, those on the face lend it a grotesque and horrible
aspect, so that enemies may be struck with fear. At Nukahiva,
noble ladies are permitted to wear more numerous tattoo marks
than the women of the people.

In Samoa, widows, it seems, tattoo the tongue; men paint
the body from the girdle to the knees. The bald heads of old
men in the Marquesas Islands may be seen covered with tattoo
marks.

The fashionable ladies of Bagdad stained their temples and
lips with azure, drew circles and rays of the same color on their
legs, painted a blue girdle round their waists, and surrounded
each of their breasts with a crown of blue flowers.

Tattooing is practiced in Polynesia at the age of from eleven
to thirteen years ; and is to these natives what the toga pretexta
was to young Romans. In the Marquesas Islands it serves as a
kind of clothing to the men ; they might be mistakenly supposed
to be covered with armor. Their face is hidden under the
marks. The women here are generally but little tattooed, but
coquettes wear the marks on their feet, hands, arms, legs, and
forearms — designs so delicate that they might be taken for stock-
ings and gloves in the daytime.

In order to please the women and to be able to find a wife,
writes D^lisle, the Laotian should be tattooed from the navel to
below the calf, all round the thigh; while among the Dyacks
the women submit to the operation in order to get husbands.
Laotian tattooing is very animated, and represents fantastic ani-

TOL ZLYIII. — 58

8o2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mals, like those on the Buddhist monuments. Among the abo-
rigines of the Marquesas Islands the tattooing exhibits, on the
women, designs of every sort : boots, gloves, bows, suns, and lines
drawn with remarkable fineness and perfection; on the men,
animals — sharks, crabs, lizards, snakes— or plants, or geometrical
figures. Here tattooing constitutes real works of art.

Sometimes tattooing and mutilation are combined, as in the
famous chiefs' heads of New Zealand, which are overloaded with
curved lines, with deep incisions showing as hollows, and with dark
colors, with the intervals colored with dotted tattooing that gives
the skin a bluish tinge. These curved lines spare no part of the
face, and are closer and more numerous, according to the fame of
the bearer of them as a warrior, or the antiquity of the origin of
his chiefly dignity. The tattooing of the New Zealanders has
found an unanticipated use in their relations with Europeans.
Thus, the missionaries having bought a tract of land, the facial
tattoo patterns of the vendor were drawn at the bottom of the
deed, to serve as his signature.

The skins of all the grand chiefs of Guinea are in effect dam-
ascened. In New Zealand tattooing forms a sort of coat of arms.
The common people are not allowed to practice it ; and the chiefs
are not permitted to decorate themselves with certain marks till
they have accomplished some great enterprise. Toupes, an intel-
ligent New Zealander, who was brought to London a few years
ago, insisted upon a photographer taking pains to bring out his
tattoo marks well. "Europeans,*' he said, "write their names
with a pen; Toupes writes his this way. No matter," he said
also to Dumont d'Urville, "if the Chonqui are more powerful
than I, they can not wear the lines on their foreheads, for my
family is more illustrious than theirs." The ancient Thracians
and the Picts distinguished their chiefs by their special tattooing.
The Pagas of Sumatra add a new color every time they have
killed an enemy.

Tattooing is the true writing of savages, their first registry of
civil condition. Some tattoo marks indicate the obligation of the
debtor to serve his creditor for a certain time. The number and
nature of objects received are likewise indicated (Krausen, Ueber
die Tatouiren, 1873).

Nothing is more natural than to see a usage so widespread
among savages and prehistoric peoples reappear in classes which,
as the deep-sea bottoms retain the same temperature, have pre-
served the customs and superstitions, even to the hymns, of the
primitive peoples, and who have, like them, violent passions, a
blunted sensibility, a puerile vanity, long-standing habits of inac-
tion, and very often nudity. There, indeed, among savages, are
he principal models of this curious custom.

THE SAVAGE ORIGIN OF TATTOOING. 803

A last proof of our position is given by tlie hieroglyphics which
we have found to be so frequent among the tattoo marks of crimi-
nals, and upon certain inscriptions which undoubtedly go back to
an ancient age. A very interesting specimen of this kind is found
in a study of tattooing in Portugal by Dr. Peixotto {Tatouage en
Portugal, 1893), which I reproduce here :

Sator SATOR

Arepo ARE PO

Tenet T E N E T

Opera O P E R A

Rotas ROTA S

As the reader will see, it is the formula of a square, which re-
produces the same words, " Sator,'* " Arepo," " Tenet," " Opera,"
and " Rotas," on whichever of the four sides we read it, and in
whichever vertical or horizontal direction — one of those magical
formulas which, according to Kohler (Anthropological Society of
Berlin, 1891), were used to drive away fevers from the age of the
Romans, as far back probably, at least, as Cato's time.

The influences of atavism and tradition seem to me to be con-
firmed by the fact that we find the custom of tattooing diffused
among classes so tenacious of old traditions as shepherds and
peasants.

After this study, it appears to me to be proved that this
custom is a completely savage one, which is found only rarely
among some persons who have fallen from our honest classes,
and which does not prevail extensively except among criminals,
with whom it has had a truly strange, almost professional, diffu-
sion ; and, as they sometimes say, it performs the service among
them of uniforms among our soldiers. To us they serve a psy-
chological purpose, in enabling us to discern the obscurer sides
of the criminal's soul, his remarkable vanity, his thirst for ven-
geance, and his atavistic character, even in his writing.

Hence, when the attempt is made to introduce it into the re-
spectable world, we feel a genuine disgust, if not for those who
practice it, for those who suggest it, and who must have some-
thing atavistic and savage in their hearts. It is very much, in its
way, like returning to the trials by God of the middle ages, to
juridical duels — atavistic returns which we can not contemplate
without horror.

O Fashion ! You are very frivolous ; you have caused many
complaints against the most beautiful half of the human race !
But you have not come to this, and I believe you will not be per-
mitted to come to it.

■♦♦♦-

8o4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

HYPNOTIC STATES, TRANCE, AND ECSTASY.

By Prof. WILLIAM EOMAINE NEWBOLD.

I SHALL deal in this paper with abnormal states of several
types, all of which, in my opinion, may be grouped under the
one concept of disordination. The normal consciousness is in all
apparently destroyed or displaced, and very often memory of the
abnormal states is lacking. Hence we are often compelled to rely
upon ambiguous external indications for our knowledge of the
patient's condition during the abnormal state, and any attempt to
explain it from the psychological point of view is attended with
difficulty and open to attack.

In the first place, I must clear away a prolific source of con-
fusion. All the states which I now have occasion to examine are
akin to sleep, and many have in addition a superficial resemblance
to sleep : the eyes are closed, the countenance is placid, the breath-
ing regular. In others it is less marked : the eyes may be open,
fixed, and staring, the body may be rigid and contorted, the face
may express intense emotion, movements may occur, and so on.
This distinction is purely accidental, and is of no importance
from the theoretical point of view. Yet it has become set in our
nomenclature, and we can not well get rid of it. For the first
group I shall therefore use the generic word " hypnotic," which
means simply " sleeplike." The chief characteristics of hypnotic
states are: (1) the closed eyes, expressionless face, and relaxed
muscles — in general, absence of any spontaneous sign of mental
life; (2) the presence of heightened suggestibility. The chief
characteristics of the trance states are : (1) spontaneous evidences
of mental life, afforded in talking, writing, emotional expression,
movements of other kinds, or by memory after the state is over
(2) the absence of suggestibility. But it is needless to say that
many states are found which can not be put into either of these
classes.

There are many ways of inducing hypnotic states, but all
agree in involving an arrest of the flight of thought, concentration
of attention upon one element, restriction of the conscious field.
In some very susceptible patients any sudden arrest of attention,
such as that produced by an intense and unexpected stimulus,
may induce a hypnotic state or some other form of disordination.
A sudden flash of light, or the clang of a loud gong, has been
known to produce this effect. But generally the concentration of
attention must last some time, and it is usually necessary that the
patient should voluntarily co-operate with the hypnotizer. One
of the easiest methods of getting him to do this is to tell him to
go to sleep, for we all, in trying to go to sleep, do precisely what

HYPNOTIC STATES, TRANCE, AND ECSTASY. 805

we should do in order to be hypnotized. Often the attention is
riveted upon a bright spot, upon a sound, a sensation of touch, or
even upon a thought. As it is very difficult to hold attention
upon an absolutely unchanging thing, it is customary to help the
patient by providing some monotonous variation. This is the
chief function of the "mesmeric passes'' of which we hear so
much, of the revolving mirrors, oscillating pendulum, etc.

Whenever the normal flow of consciousness is thus interrupted,
there is a tendency for the patient to fall asleep. It would seem
as if the other elements — those which are prevented from getting
into the upper consciousness — lose their co-ordination and coher-
ence ; they no longer faithfully mirror the past or paint the
future, they become broken, dislocated, "dreamy," and finally
die away altogether. Then the element which has occupied at-
tention also dies away, and the patient has reached the deepest
stage of hypnotic lethargy. I asked one of my patients, while he
was apparently sunk in a deep lethargy, what he was thinking of.
He told me in a halting, broken way that he was in his own home,
it was about eight o'clock at night, he was playing cards with So-
and-so ; I was at a neighboring table, also playing cards, etc. In
what respect does this differ from the ordinary dream ? But more
often the mind seems like a slate erased, and the only thoughts
existing are those which the hypnotizer suggests.

It is often possible to trace the stages through which con-
sciousness passes in its progress toward complete disordination
and coma, and many have tried to discover some fixed relation
between these stages. There is, I think, none, but there are some
recurring sequences. Usually the control of movement by
thought is first impaired. The patient feels himself becoming
weak, his limbs grow heavy, the more delicately co-ordinated
muscle groups of the eyelids, lips, and fingers become paralyzed,
then the larger groups are affected. Sometimes one side of the
body yields before the other ; and sometimes, instead of paralysis,
rigidity supervenes. I remember one patient who, when com-
manded to shut his eyes, instantly "went off" like a spring
released, becoming as rigid as a log, and we had great ado to
" limber him up " again.

If the patient be left to himself he will either awake of him-
self or fall into a normal sleep, from which all signs of suggesti-
bility, catalepsy, etc., have disappeared. This is most easily in-
terpreted upon the supposition that hypnotic states are in fact
only imperfect forms of sleep, and therefore unstable, tending to
resolve themselves in either the one direction or the other. The
fact that hypnotic states may be produced not only by putting a
waking man partly asleep, but also by partly waking a sleeping
man, would point to the same conclusion.

8o6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The suggestibility whicli is so characteristic of hypnotic states
probably depends upon the persistence of that portion of the
patient's consciousness which represents the hypnotizer, while all
else has either disappeared, or become much weakened by disso-
ciation from its accustomed re-enforcing elements. The hypno-
tizer keeps talking to the patient, touching and stroking him.
and he has in consequence no opportunity to fall asleep to hiyn,

R told me that even when his consciousness of the position of

his own body was almost lost, and the sounds of the outer world
seemed dull and muffled, the tones of my voice and my lightest
touch remained as distinct as ever. The consciousness of the
hypnotizer is a center from which radiate new forces, and some-
times, when memory is preserved, the patient may be able to de-
scribe the first collisions between the enfeebled upper conscious-
ness and the foreign element. Take Dr. Cocke's account of his
own experiences :

"He then said to me, 'You can not open your eyes.' The
motor apparatus of my lids would not seemingly respond to my
will, yet I was conscious that while one part of my mind wanted
to open my eyes, another part did not want to, so I was in a para-
doxical state : I believed that I could open my eyes and yet could
not. The feeling of not wishing to open them was not based upon
any desire to please the operator. . . . He told me that I was
asleep, and placed my hand over my head, and stated that it was
rigid, and that I could not put it down. Again, a part of my con-
sciousness wanted to put it down and another part did not. He
stroked my arm and told me that it was growing numb, that it
was growing insensible. He told me that I had no feeling in it.
He said, ' You have no feeling in it, have you ? ' I said * No,' and
I knew that I said * No,' yet I knew that I had feeling in it, and
yet believed that I had no feeling in it. ... I was not conscious
of my body at all, but was painfully conscious of the two contra-
dictory elements within me. I knew that my body existed, but
could not prove it to myself. I knew that the statements made
by the operator were, in a measure, untrue. I obeyed them vol-
untarily and involuntarily."

As a brief outline of the salient features of typical hypnotic
states the above must suffice, but one must remember that many
anomalous states are found to perplex the student. Sometimes
one meets with profound lethargy with no suggestibility ; at
others, the patient becomes extremely suggestible without a sign
of sleep, and is afterward found to have no memory of the sug-
gestible stage. Occasionally the attempt to produce a hypnotic
state throws the patient into a trancelike nightmare, from which
it is very difficult to rescue him. Sometimes it is difficult to get
the patient entirely awake, or, even if awake and conscious, some

HYPNOTIC STATES, TRANCE, AND ECSTASY, 807

disordinated elements may persistently refuse to effect union with
the upper consciousness. A friend of mine, on awaking a patient,
found her unable to speak or swallow, and some anxious hours
slipped by before he succeeded in restoring her power over the
paralyzed muscles. Altogether hypnosis is decidedly a danger-
ous thing to meddle with.

Many typical trance states are brought about, it would seem,
by what may be described as the hypertrophy of some perception
or sensation or system of ideas. This abnormal growth may be
in either or both of two directions. In the first place, it may be
an actual increase in intensity and complexity. This is not un-
common in all forms of disordination ; thus. Dr. Cocke says that
when he tried to hypnotize himself, he first noticed a ringing in
the ears, then this " noise in my ears grew louder and louder. The
roar became deafening. It crackled like a mighty fire. ... I
heard above the roar reports which sounded like artillery or
musketry. Then, above the din or the noise, a musical chord.
I seemed to be absorbed in this chord. I knew nothing else.
The world existed for me only in the tones of this mighty chord."
But the development of the state may be not merely a develop-
ment in intensity and complexity, but also in its importance con-
sidered as an element of consciousness. I have shown in my
previous papers that consciousness tends to assume a certain form
in which some one group is more clear and distinct than the
others. This is what we call the " center of attention " or " focus "
of consciousness. I have also shown that when any one group
becomes focal all others become less clear and distinct, and may
even be driven out of consciousness altogether. Now, in trance
states this seems often to happen. In the hypnotic states the ele-
ment upon which attention is fixed itself disappears ; in trances,
it and its associated states take possession of the focus, drive out
all other states, and serve as the starting point for dreams, hal-
lucinations, and visions of the most complex kind. For the same
reason, suggestibility is seldom found in trance. There is no
awareness of the hypnotizer to serve as a center of activity and
the hypertrophied state usually proves strong enough to resist in-
terference from without.

The close relation between hypnosis and trance is well shown by
the case of M . He is about twenty-five years of age ; by pro-
fession a bookkeeper, he has proved himself capable and efficient,
and, although he has always been of somewhat delicate health, he
is quiet in his demeanor, and not in the least hysterical in 'the
vulgar sense of the word. Once, when a child, he was playing
with a toy locomotive; the alcohol used to generate steam was
spilled upon the floor and caught fire; in great terror he ran
away, seized the doorknob, and then became fixed and motionless.

8o8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

unable to cry for help or to run. At another time, when about
twelve years old, his grandfather died. He stole unobserved into
the room where the body lay and lifted the shroud. No sooner
had his eyes fallen upon the dead face than he lost all power of
thought and of movement and remained fixed, the shroud uplifted
in his hand and his eyes staring at the corpse, until some one came
in and drew him away. As soon as I heard this account it struck
me that he would probably prove to be a good hypnotic patient.
Although himself very skeptical, he allowed me to try, and in
three minutes I had him in a deep lethargy in which he was
almost absolutely suggestible. It did not occur to me at the time
to look for signs of incoordination, but two years later I found
that his visual field was much restricted — that is, he was blind to
its outlying portions — and also that his sensation of touch was
more or less impaired. I have no doubt that the facility with
which his upper consciousness was both accidentally and inten-
tionally displaced sprang from the same conditions of which
these symptoms of sensory incoordination gave evidence.

Hypertrophy of these two kinds may be the lot of any mental
state. When it is a percept that usurps the conscious field, we
speak of the patient as being " fascinated/' ; if the percept is
attended by great emotional disturbance, we use such phrases as
"spellbound with horror," "drunk with joy,'' etc. When the
hypertrophied states are chiefly ideas without marked emotional
accompaniments, we speak of the patient as being " in trance,"
" seeing a vision," or simply as " dreaming." If the visions are
accompanied by intensely pleasurable emotions the state is termed
" ecstasy." In the higher grades of ecstasy the concrete visions
disappear and clear consciousness is lost in a flood of emotions of
an intensely pleasurable character. The types of trance in which
the emotion is acutely disagreeable — grief, terror, remorse — are
usually classed as diseases, partly because they unfit the patient
to a greater degree for the duties of life, and partly because they
often spring from organic disease, especially of nutrition. The
disordered physiological processes give rise to floods of vague but
intensely disagreeable sensations, and these in turn generate the
horrible and terrifying visions. Many trance states are revealed
in the patient's movements, but for the present I shall speak only
of those which are remembered and described afterward.

The attainment of ecstasy has been the aim of many religious
sects in ancient and modern times, by whom it is conceived to be
a direct union with the Divine ; these form an important branch
of the group of religious mystics, all of whom believe that the
human soul is capable of direct union with God during this
present life. But our information as to the various possible
types of ecstasy is very defective. The essential element is the

HYPNOTIC STATES, TRANCE, AND ECSTASY, 809

flood of pleasure, but the sensory elements may be of any and
all kinds.

One form is characterized by the appearance of a beautiful
light, far more pure and brilliant than any commonly experi-
enced. It is probable that this light is due to the hypertrophy of
the vague visual sensations which we always experience in dark-
ness— what the Germans call the eye's Eigenlicht. Plotinus, the
Neo-Platonic philosopher (circa 204-269 a. d.), seems to have expe-
rienced this type of ecstasy, and has left us many descriptions of
it, and of his methods of attaining it, albeit couched in rather
obscure language. " Often," he says (Ennead IV, book viii, chap.
1), " I awake from the body to myself, I come to be outside all else
but within myself, I see a great and wonderful beauty. Then am
I most assured of the supreme happiness of my lot, for I have
entered into the best life and am become one with God. . . . After
thus abiding in the Divine, I descend from intuition to thought,
and while descending I can not tell how I descend, or how my
soul has got within my body." He thus describes his method
(Ennead VI, book ix, chap. 7) : " In your contemplation cast
not your thought without, for God is not in any one place, de-
priving other things of himself, but is present there to him that
can touch him, and to him that can not he is not present. As
in other cases one can not think anything while thinking and
attending to something else, but must add nothing to that which
is thought, that it alone may be that which is thought ; so also
here one must know that he can not, while he has the image
of anything else in mind, apprehend God, that other image being
active the while, nor can the soul, while possessed and controlled
by other things, receive the image of their opposite. . . . Every
soul must let go all without and turn within, must not be at-
tracted toward any outer thing, but must lose consciousness of all
such, first of her condition and then of her thoughts, and after
losing consciousness of herself also must be given over to the vis-
ion of God." In another passage (Ennead V, book v, chap. 7) he
draws a distinction between light proper and that which is illu-
mined by it ; usually we see the latter only, but we can become
conscious of the former also. For example, with closed eyes and
in total darkness we see a pure light which is generated by the
eye itself. " So also the mind, wrapping itself about from other
things, and withdrawing within, seeing nothing, will behold light,
not here and there, but pure light alone, of itself suddenly shining,
so that " (chap. 8) " it can not tell whence it shone, whether from
without or from within, nor can one say, after it has departed,
that it was within or not within. One should not ask whence, for
there is no whence ; it does not come, nor does it go anywhither,
but shines, and then ceases to shine. One should not therefore

8io POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

seek it, but quietly wait until it shines, first preparing one's self to
behold it, as the eye awaits the rising of the sun. The sun ap-
pearing above the horizon — out of the ocean, as the poets say —
presents itself to our eyesight. But this other light, of which the
8un is an imitation, whence is it to rise, and above what is it to
appear ? It rises above the contemplating mind, for the mind
fixes itself upon the contemplation." Again (Ennead YI, book ix,
chap. 9), " There the soul beholds God and herself in the only way
permitted, herself radiant, full of intelligible light, nay rather her-
self all pure light, weightless, buoyant {kov<j>ov), becoming God —
nay, already become God.'*

The sect known in the eleventh century as Hesychasts, and
later the Omphalopsychics of Mount Athos, claimed to have, and
doubtless did have, the same experience. Prof. Preyer, in a note
to his HypnoHsmus, has given an interesting account of them.
Their method was to drop the chin upon the breast, fix the eyes
upon the navel, and wait for the light to burst upon them. A
great ecclesiastical controversy arose over these practices. The
language which George Fox and the early Quakers use of the
"inner light" seems to point to the same thing. One of my
graduate students, while under ether, had a similar experience,
which makes an excellent commentary upon Plotinus's statement
that the soul is " pure light." " I took form, I was a body of light
in an abyss of ethereal gray ; in form I was, as memory repro-
duces size, eighteen inches by eight, a rounded disk : I was not
looking at myself, but I knew and saw myself." Such experiences
would seem, from my own inquiries, to be far from uncommon,
and I would be grateful to any of my readers who can give me
more cases.

Among the monks and nuns of the mediaeval Church ecstatic
states were common. The constant fasting and loss of sleep to
which many of these saints condemned themselves are known
upon independent evidence to be fruitful sources of hallucina-
tions, and prolonged meditation upon a given topic determined
the general form of the vision. The enforced celibacy of the
monastic life and the practice of self-torture were further con-
ditions of the greatest importance. Enforced celibacy frequently
gives rise to reflex neuroses, and self-torture is in many neurotic
individuals a direct stimulus to the very passions which the celi-
bate most desires to repress. It is not surprising, therefore, that
the religious ecstasies of the ascetic frequently assume a highly
erotic form, although expressed in the most chaste language, and
alternate with apparitions of the devil in the forms of incubi and
succubcB, Prof. Mantegazza has given interesting accounts of
some of these religious ecstatics and visionaries, and I shall abbre-
viate a few of them.

BY PN OTIC STATES, TRANCE, AND ECSTASY, 811

Margareta Maria Alacoque was possessed by a desire to emu-
late the sufferings of Jesus, and inflicted upon herself such hor-
rible tortures that her Mother Superior felt called upon to inter-
fere, although some were inflicted by the express command of
God. Is it surprising that she passed much of her time in a state
of delirious love for her " heavenly bridegroom,^' constantly see-
ing visions and receiving revelations ?

Anna Katharina Emmerich has described for us most vividly
a condition of ecstatic trance in which the consciousness of the
real world was not wholly lost. It is analogous to the above-
quoted experience of Dr. Cocke. " I see this not with my eyes,
but rather, as it seems to me, with my heart here in the midst of
my breast. This causes perspiration to break out on that spot.
At the same moment I see the persons and objects about me, but
do not trouble myself about them ; I do not even know who they
are— and even at this moment, as I speak, I see. . . . For some
days I have been continuously in a supernatural vision. I have
to use compulsion upon myself, for in the midst of my conversa-
tion with others I see entirely different pictures before me and
hear my own voice and the voices of others sounding dull and
muffled as from an empty vessel. . . . My reply to what is said to
me falls from my lips easily, and often with more vivacity than
usual, although afterward I do not know what I said, yet I speak
coherently and intelligibly. It is very hard for me to keep my-
self in this double state. With my eyes I see my surroundings
dimly, enshrouded in a veil, as one does when trying to fall asleep
and just beginning to dream. The inner vision desires to sweep
me away with violence, and is far more clear and brilliant than
the natural, but it makes no use of my eyes."

But St. Theresa has left us, perhaps, the best account of ecstasy
that we possess. One should note the complex hallucinations of
all the senses which served to bring about the true ecstasies.

" One day, after I had prayed and besought the good God that
he would help me to do his will in all things, I began the song of
praise, and as I invoked him there came to me an ecstasy that
almost put me beside myself. ... I heard these words : ' Hence-
forward it is my will that thou shalt speak no more with men
but with angels only.'" "These inner addresses of God to the
soul consist of quite clear and plain words, but are not heard with
the bodily ear. . . . One day, as I was praying, God vouchsafed
to show me his hands only ; their beauty was so great that I have
no words with which to describe them. A few days later I saw his
divine countenance also, and was, I think, entirely absorbed in it.
. . . While he spoke to me, I beheld that majestic beauty, and the
words which that beautiful, divine mouth spoke to me breathed
an infinite sweetness. In those happy moments I felt an intense

8i2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

desire to see the color and size of his eyes, that I might tell of
them afterward, but this favor I never won. All my efforts
only caused the vision to disappear." " As the clouds draw to
themselves the vapors of earth, so does he draw our souls to him-
self, ravishes them out of themselves, brings them upon the
clouds of his majesty to heaven with him, and begins to reveal to
them the mysteries of the kingdom which he has prepared for
them. ... In these ecstasies the soul seems to leave the body.
Hence the natural warmth diminishes, the limbs slowly grow
cold, although one feels the while most comfortable. In the
prayer of union, in which we find ourselves already in our native
country, we can almost always resist the divine attraction, though
it be with difficulty and with great effort, but not in ecstasy ; all
resistance is then usually impossible. Before one thinks there
comes a shock so sudden and mighty that one sees and feels as if
that cloud from heaven, or that divine eagle, had swept one away
and borne one off in flight." "This condition is a sleep of the
mental powers, in which they, without being wholly merged in
God, yet can not tell how they work. The pleasure, the bliss, is
incomparably greater than in the preceding state of prayer. The
soul is overflowed with the water of God's grace, which flows full
to the banks. She can not and will not go either forward or
backward, and only glows with the desire to enjoy such tran-
scendent majesty. . , . My state then seems to me an absolute
death to all worldly things and a ravishment in God. I know no
fit simile for what the soul then feels. She no longer knows
what she does, whether she talks, is silent, laughs, or weeps. It is
like a blissful delirium, a heavenly madness, in which one learns
true wisdom ; in short, it is a sort of most exquisite bliss."

With these few illustrations I must turn from the forms of
trance which appear to result from the hypertrophy of some
mental state to a very different type. From the theoretical point
of view we would expect to find the lines of cleavage — so to speak
— in disordination taking different directions in different people.
In the cases of which I have been speaking the mental co-ordina-
tion would seem to be pretty much dissolved or displaced. In
other cases, to which I shall return later— those of so-called sec-
ondary personality — we shall find the lines of cleavage relatively
few, and constant in their direction and location. But to the
trance states proper belong those forms of disordination in which
the inner life of thought is left intact while dissociated from
movement, from sensation, or from both. The chronic cases in
which some movements or some sensations only are lost . are
grouped under hysteria rather than under trance ; the more com-
plete and transitory forms properly belong to trance.

Of the second of these three conceivable cases, in which all

HYPNOTIC STATES, TRANCE, AND ECSTASY. 813

sensation is lost while the power of movement remains, I know of
no illustration. But the earlier experience of Ansel Bourne comes
very near it. He was walking down a road and felt slightly-
dizzy ; went and seated himself upon a stone. " In an instant, ... it
seemed as though some powerful hand drew something down over
his head, and then over his face, and finally over his whole body ;
depriving him of his sight, his hearing, and his speech, and ren-
dering him perfectly helpless. Yet he had as perfect power of
thought as at any time in his life.''* In his case all was gone ex-
cept touch and the power of voluntary movement with the excep-
tion of speech. The details of this classical case can be found in
Dr. Richard Hodgson^s article, in the Proceedings of the So-
ciety for Psychical Research, vol. vii, page 221.

The converse, loss of movement without loss of sensation, is
not uncommon ; indeed, is probably only too common. A case is
given by Alexander Crichton, M. D., in his work on Mental De-
rangement, vol. ii, page 87 : "A young lady, an attendant upon

the Princess of , after having been confined to her bed for a

great length of time with a violent nervous disorder, was at last,
to all appearance, deprived of life. Her lips were quite pale, her
countenance resembled the countenance of a dead person, and her
body grew cold. She was removed from the room in which she
died, was laid in a coffin, and the day of her funeral was fixed
upon. The day arrived, and, according to the custom of the
country, funeral songs and hymns were sung before the door.
Just as the people were about to nail on the lid of the coffin, a
kind of perspiration was observed to appear on the surface of her
body. It grew greater every moment, and at last a kind of con-
vulsive motion was observed in the hands and feet of the corpse.
A few minutes after, during which time fresh signs of returning
life appeared, she at once opened her eyes and uttered a most piti-
able shriek. Physicians were quickly procured, and in the course
of a few days she was considerably restored and is probably alive
at this day. The description which she herself gave of her situ-
ation is extremely remarkable, and forms a curious and authentic
addition to psychology. She said it seemed to her, as if in a
dream, that she was really dead ; yet she was perfectly conscious
of all that happened around her in this dreadful state. She dis-
tinctly heard her friends speaking and lamenting her death at the
side of her coffin. She felt them pull on the dead-clothes and lay
her in them. This feeling produced a mental anxiety which is
indescribable. She tried to cry, but her soul was without power,
and could not act upon her body. She had the contradictory feel-
ing as if she were in her own body and yet not in it, at one and the
same time. It was equally impossible for her to stretch out her
arm or to open her eyes as to cry, although she continually en-

8 14 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

deavored to do so. The internal anguisli of her mind was, hoTV-
ever, at its utmost height when the funeral hymns began to be
sung, and when the lid of the coffin began to be nailed on. The
thought that she was to be buried alive was the first one that
gave activity to her soul, and caused it to operate upon her cor-
poreal frame."

This account, being anonymous, is not as well authenticated
as one could wish, but to me it seems credible because I have not
only known several persons who have had analogous experiences,
but I have had one or two myself. My experiences belonged
however to the third type, in which both movement and sensation
are dissociated from thought. The first was in March of 1893.
I was staying at a pension in Florence. I had arrived the pre-
ceding evening and was in excellent health. I came to con-
sciousness after a dreamless sleep, to find myself paralyzed, I
think anaesthetic also, but am not sure of that, and I felt as if I
were struggling with an alien and hostile personality for the pos-
session of my own body. With a violent effort I regained control
of myself, turned over with the thought, "What a horrible
dream!" and tried to go to sleep. The same thing recurred.
Again I shook it off. This happened three or four times, and the
last time it was only with the greatest difficulty and after the
most desperate struggles that I expelled, as it seemed to me, my
enemy, got out of bed, and opened the shutters. I was somewhat
frightened, but knew enough of such phenomena to interpret it
much as I have here done. Four or five times in the next four
months I had similar experiences. The last was in July. I was
at a hotel in Liverpool, and awoke to find myself absolutely para-
lyzed and absolutely anaesthetic, but with no consciousness of the
alien personality. I was vividly conscious; a little alarmed, I
remembered the previous occurrences of the same state, remem-
bered writing to a friend about it, speculated about its cause,
tried frequently in vain to break it. Finally, as I thought, I suc-
ceeded. With a great effort I sat upright in bed, still in total
darkness, and at that moment the spell was broken. I was lying
flat on my back. It was a bright summer morning and the sun-
light was streaming in through the windows. Two of my friends
— one an artist and the other a professor of law in a well-known
university — have told me of the same experience, and both had
noted that the execution of the least movement, as of the little
finger, would break the spell.

We must conceive of such states as due to an imperfect
awakening. The normal co-ordination of waking life is not yet
fully restored. Very often in cases of this sort the patient's con-
sciousness seems to be separated from his body, sometimes ap-
pears to visit distant parts of the earth and at others to go into

THE NEW GEOGRAPHY. 815

the otlier life and liave commuiiioii with, angels and spirits, occa-
sionally it even sees God himself. In many such hallucinatory
experiences there is a curious constancy of type which, with our
scanty information, we can not at present explain, and I would
be glad to receive authentic accounts of any cases known to my
readers.

THE NEW GEOGKAPHY.

By ALBEET perry BRIGHAM.

THE doctrine that land forms have had a history chiefly dis-
tinguishes the new geography from the old. Geography,
indeed, takes account of sea as well as land, of the phenomena of
the atmosphere, the distribution of organisms, including man, of
economic products and political divisions. But the new phase of
geography, which is sometimes known as physiography, and later,
as geomorphology, is not an isolated and formal element of the sci-
ence ; it rather underlies the whole, modifying or, more truly, con-
trolling climate, organic distribution, and the history of man. The
new geography can not, therefore, be charged with infringing
upon the rights of the old, for it contributes vitality, unity, and
continuity to the whole range of geographic fact and theory ; it
rejects absolutely the category of the author of one of our text-
books in physical geography, that the air, the water, and the land
are " the three dead geographic forms."

Geography is sometimes defined as a description of the earth as
it is, without reference to its past. One author has called it the
science of distribution, but well adds that because it is a science it
can not rest in a mere record, but must have the causes. The new
movement has simply applied the evolutionary principle to ge-
ography, giving it the life and freedom which this doctrine has
imparted to all other sciences in our day. It has been seriously
asked whether the new notion of geography does not confuse it
with geology. Thus the minority report of the Conference on Ge-
ography to the Committee of Ten criticises the majority report as
bearing too plainly the marks of the geologist's hand. It may as
well be frankly admitted that geography and geology overlap.
All sciences transgress each other's boundaries, and all bounds in
Nature are largely matters of convenience. Geology never truly
interpreted terrestrial history until, with Hutton and Lyell, it
took to studying geography. Nor will the geographer understand
the earth which he sees until he takes account of geology. Land
forms can not be truly seen or faithfully described until seen and
described in the light of their origin. Such forms will hide them-
selves from the student who thinks they are dead. For him they

8i6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

might nearly as well be buried. The geologist who seeks, for ex-
ample, the causes of volcanism, will find help in his study of the
distribution and relative action of existing volcanoes — in other
words, he can not keep from geography. The geographer, in his
turn, needs the perspective of ancient volcanic history, if he would
appreciate his own facts. Because he has commonly had no such
vista, he has burdened generations of boys with the solemn
blunder that a volcano is a burning mountain. Thus we may
vindicate for each science its own center while granting a generous
measure of common facts. The difference is in the point of view,
the aim, and method of treatment ; the geologist seeks largely that
which has been, the geographer that which is, and each must be
known in the light of the other. It is precisely the case with two
biologists, one of whom studies living, the other fossil, forms.
The day is past when they can work apart ; yet none would deny
that their fields are reasonably differentiated.

The new geography is a recent growth. Its facts and principles
are little diffused and have not found their way into text-books.
Thus it came about that the Conference report on geography is
characterized as the most revolutionary of all those received by
the Committee of Ten on secondary- school studies. Even scientific
surveys of the several States do not yet show much impress of the
new doctrines. Prof. Davis, the geographer of Harvard Univer-
sity, affirms that his students search, with meager reward, for ac-
counts of physical features in the literature of the several States.
As the same writer has truthfully said, systematic study of
topography is largely American, and for the reason that the
broad object lessons of the Appalachians and of the West gave
our scholars the opportunity and the stimulus to lead in such
researches.

The central principle of the new geography established by
Powell, Button, Gilbert, Davis, and other American geographers
and geologists is the doctrine of a base level of erosion as the
goal of the destructive processes. Given an early "construc-
tional " land surface, such as a newly raised sea bottom, and it will
pass through what is called a cycle of development. Youth, with
extended uplands and steep, narrow valleys, is followed by a much
dissected, highly diversified topography marking the stage of
maturity, whence is a gradual passage to the low reliefs, slight
gradients, and quiet monotony of old age. During this cycle all
forms of scenery have place, and in untrammeled variety, depend-
ent upon climate and the constitution and structure of the mass
upon which this land sculpture is wrought. Thus the horizontal
beds of the Catskills give one type, the folded sediments of the
Appalachians another, and the crystalline masses of the Adiron-
dacks a third. Before such a cycle is completed in an actual base

THE NEW GEOGRAPHY. 817

level, a new cycle is often introduced, by massive uplifts or de-
pressions of the region concerned. All these princijjles are illus-
trated in infinite detail on our Atlantic seaboard from New Eng-
land to Georgia, and the new method is fast becoming a master
key for unlocking both the geological history and present mean-
ing of all continental areas. McGee goes so far as to say that
" nearly as much information concerning the geologic history of
the Atlantic slope has been obtained from the topographic con-
figuration of the region within two years (1887 and 1888) as was
gathered from the sediments of the coastal plain and their con-
tained fossils in two generations." Davis urges the co-operation
of State surveys in such advanced and rational geographic work,
and with a view to reports which shall be of immediate service to
the public and to the schools. A large element in this geographic
advance has been the emphasis laid upon geographic work by
Major Powell as Director of the United States Geological Survey,
a policy with which Mr. Walcott, the present director, appears to
be in fullest accord. A good map reveals more land history to a
trained geographer of the modern school than most others can
find out in the actual field. The geologists, teachers of geography,
and indeed all citizens of New York are losers by the failure of our
legislators to provide more liberally and promptly for the study
of our geography by new methods. A great commonwealth, which
Prof. Hall and his associates made classic geologic ground for all
time, finds the knowledge of its geography in a backward state
as compared with its neighbors, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

What place is the new geography to have in our system of
education ? This just now is the question of importance and the
center of much discussion. Geography in the lower schools has
served to impart a group of facts about the world, which respect-
ability and convenience require a youth to have. Cultural value
has not been enough considered, and from the higher schools the
subject has more often been absent. With the tendency of the
times, geography has of late been taught to the child more from
out-of-door and local facts, and so has come nearer the new geog-
raphy in its spirit. But the teaching yet lacks breadth and
strength, because the principles of the subject have not yet be-
come available to teachers, except in favored centers. That geog-
raphy of the new type lends itself to the training of the reason
there can be no question. The causes of geographic forms arouse
inquiry in nearly all persons. Minds of all grades become alert
when the origin of soils, rocks, fossils, valleys, terraces, lakes,
swamps, hills, waterfalls, mountains, and continents is explained
in common language. A discreet teacher, at home in the subject,
has no difficulty in bringing the main doctrines of geographic

VOL. XLVIIl,— 59

8i8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

development within the comprehension of children. It is not
hard to conceive a country of hills and valleys as a surface partly
worn toward a goal of lowland denudation, and then to find in
the forms visible from the schoolhouse window ever-varying
episodes in this history. It is not to be understood that this
larger conception will be put upon the pupil at the outset ; he will
rather proceed from the minor passages of the land history to its
main and grand movement. The brook, gravel bank, ravine, and
hillock will lead to a mental picture of the township, county.
State, and continent. And it is not to be forgotten that the ani-
mals and plants, clouds and storms, climate and productions,
highways, cities, and all other material of geography will have
their place in the teaching ; it is only held that they will gather
new meaning as they take their places in a comprehensive scheme
of geographic development. It is of small account that the new
teaching has what may be called a geologic aspect ; names mat-
ter little when the only rational knowledge of geography is con-
cerned.

Prof. W. B. Powell has given in the National Geographic
Magazine an elaborate outline of the progress in the public
schools of Washington toward such a rational understanding of
the geography of the United States, beginning with the particu-
lar and working toward the general, in the field and by labora-
tory methods, as with specimens, maps, drawing, and sand model-
ing. The fullest pedagogical statement of the meaning and needs
of the new geography for schools below college grade is contained
in the Conference report on geography, to which reference has
been made. The names appended to it stamp it as a representa-
tive utterance, and it is enough here to refer the interested reader
to the document itself, only citing the final paragraph of the dis-
cussion of it by President Eliot^s committee : " They (the Confer-
ence) recommend a study of physical geography, which would
embrace in its scope the elements of half a dozen natural sciences
and would bind together in one sheaf the various gleanings
which the pupils would have gathered from widely separated
fields. There can be no doubt that the study would be interest-
ing, informing, and developing, or that it would be difiicult and
in every way substantial."

Geography is winning its way to a place in the college and
the university. Objection has been raised for the reason tersely
stated by some one that the subject is "a graphy and not a logy."
But we have seen that the new geography is not only a descrip-
tive and distributive body of truth; it is historical and causal.
The older geography has allied itself, so far as it has had place in
the university, chiefly with history. The new geography offers a
yet larger contribution to history, but will ally itself more closely

THE NEW GEOGRAPHY. 819

with, the sciences of Nature, particularly geology. At the same
time it will gain in its philosophical aspects, bringing it into
harmony with Krapotkin's definition as " in its higher stages a
philosophical review of knowledge acquired by different branches
of science."

I have recently compared the catalogues of fifty of the better-
known American colleges and universities. Thirty-three of these
documents afford no reason to suppose that geography receives
systematic attention in their respective institutions. Of the re-
maining seventeen. Harvard University and the University of
Chicago give the fullest measure of instruction, and wholly, it
scarcely need be added, of the most progressive type. In both,
geography makes part of the department of geology. Harvard
has, as is well known, a thoroughly equipped geographic labora-
tory, and offers largely attended elementary and advanced courses
in meteorology and physical geography. Among the subjects of
research by advanced special students last year were : the topo-
graphical development of shore lines, the flood plain of the Missis-
sippi, the Great Plains of the West, the effect of local topography
on general winds, and the features of arctic climate. In Chicago
we find courses in physiography or genetic geography ; in geo-
graphic geology, treating the origin, development, and destruction
of geographic features and the significance of landscape contours,
or geophysiognomy. There are laboratory work in geographic ge-
ology, and a course in what is called dynamic geography, inclu-
sive of the agencies involved in geographic evolution. Yale
offers one course in physical geography, embracing the elements
of dynamic geology and natural history ; also one course of twelve
lectures on physical geography in relation to political history.
Princeton has two courses, physical geography proper, based on
GuyoVs text-book, and physical geography in relation to history.
Cornell has one course, with emphasis on development of topo-
graphic forms, and also a course in glacial geology. Michigan
does not offer the subject formally, but the development of topog-
raphy is taught under geology. Vassar, Hamilton, Rochester,
Wesleyan, and North Carolina give instruction in physiography.
Leland Stanford, Jr., has a course in topographic geology, and
Oberlin a course in quaternary geology. At Amherst the subject
is treated briefly with historical geology, and at Colgate semi-
nary and field courses are given in the history of topography and
in glacial geology.

In many of the above institutions, but not in all, the new geog-
raphy evidently has place, though the variety of nomenclature and
method shows how new the subject is to the higher schools. In
several cases its presence is directly traceable to the influence of
Harvard. As a whole it may be said that geography is not yet

820 POPULAB SCIENCE MONTHLY,

considered a necessary theme in American colleges. When pres-
ent, it is often due to the appreciation or special tastes of instruct-
ors in geology. In England, geography was recognized as a
university study by Oxford and Cambridge first in 1887 and 1888.
In Germany it fares better, as would be expected, though there
late in recognition as compared with other subjects. In 1893, as
stated by Prof. H. Wagner, there were twenty-eight professors
and teachers at eighteen of the twenty- one universities of Ger-
many, but without unanimity of conception, in some the relation
to history prevailing, while in others geology and biology were
the companion themes.

In America, the recently organized National Geographic So-
ciety, while most active in discovery, has done much to take geog-
raphy from the field of mere exploration and build it into a sci-
ence, and it has now provided, through one of the large publishing
houses, a series of monographs for teachers, in which certain
great geographic units in our own country are described by ac-
complished scholars. It is also a cheerful fact that a consider-
able body of pedagogical literature has grown up in this field dur-
ing the last five years.

It can scarcely be needful to urge the value of the new geo-
graphic study. The sources of intellectual satisfaction are greatly
multiplied, and ennobling means of recreation may be placed in
the way of every intelligent person, largely apart from the expend-
iture of money or the possession of special opportunity. Famil-
iar landscapes take on fresh interest, because they become vital
and are for the first time really observed. Travel becomes delight-
ful rather than, as to so many, irksome, and otherwise dreary
hours are made into a fascinating opportunity for true culture.
Every reader knows how much of Parkman^s charm is due to his
geographic sense and facile photography of locality. H. J. Mac-
kinder, of Oxford, has remarked that "John Richard Green's
Making of England is largely a deduction from geographical con-
ditions of what must have been the course of the history." Prof.
Powell suggests the ideal teaching, in saying of geography in the
schools of Washington, " North America is studied physically, in
which connection it is studied historically also, so that national
lines or divisions are seen to move back and forth and finally be-
come fixed by physical causes when such exist, as is the case fre-
quently." General A. W. Greely has recently quoted the amusing
remark, " It is fortunate that great rivers run by so many great
cities ! " Geographic study soon supplies the real logic of such
connections and of those less evident, and illumines historic and
economic research at every turn. The reconstruction of the geog-
raphies of geologic time must surely shed floods of light upon the
development and distribution of existing organisms, including

QUACKS AND THE REASON OF THEM. 821

man himself. Glacial geology also, with its vast contribution to
our knowledge of the earth, past and present, supplies one of the
best illustrations of the new geography in its fellowship with
geology. Glaciation is mainly a matter of climate and topography,
with perhaps a measure of cosmic influence ; in short, it is an af-
fair of geography. Of that keen scrutiny of surface forms carried
on by glacial science the new geography has largely been born.
Some will ask what economic value accrues with this vast devo-
tion to scientific geography which the next generation will see.
Surely no field of science will yield a larger intellectual harvest,
and the economic significance of pure science, though sometimes
out of sight, is never far away.

QUACKS AND THE REASON OF THEM.

By Dr. A. CARTAZ.

THE story is told in Joubert's Popular Errors concerning
Medicine, published at Bordeaux, France, in 1579, that one
Gonelle, a jester at the court of the Duke of Ferrara, insisted once
upon a time that the trade which had the most followers was that
of doctor. To prove his assertion, he left his home one morning
to go to the palace with his nightcap on and his jaws wrapped up.
The first person he met stopped him with the question, " What is
the matter with you, Gonelle ? " *' A terrible toothache." "Oh,
is that all ? I'll tell you what will cure it." And every person
he met had some advice to give him. When the jester reached
the duke's chamber, the same question and answer were repeated.
"Ah," said the prince, " I know of something that will take the
pain right away." Gonelle instantly threw up his kerchief,
saying : " And you too, monseigneur, are a doctor ; I have only
passed through one street in coming from my house to you, and
have counted more than two hundred of them. I believe I could
find ten thousand in the city." Whether the story is true or false,
it could be told again in our days, and Gonelle would win his
wager without dispute. Everybody has had opportunities to try
the experiment ; and there is probably no one who has not per-
mitted himself to give friendly counsel to an ailing person in
passing — good advice : " Such a person was cured by such a rem-
edy ; try it " ; and to jeer at the doctors, who know nothing about
the matter.

It is not strange, in view of this instinctive tendency to sym-
pathize in the sufferings of another and to assist as far as possible
in curing them, that false doctors, charlatans, should have had
their day, even if only briefly at a time, in all ages and in all

822 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

quarters of the world. We can find examples of them as far back
in the world's history as we have a mind to go ; but the typical
quacks date from the end of the sixteenth century. Beginning
with this period, reputations have been established ihe remem-
brance of which has been sent down to us. Charlatans have also
had their times of trouble, but the species has been preserved and
perpetuated from generation to generation, from century to cen-
tury, and still flourishes. Quacks still invest themselves with
embroidered cloaks, wigs, and indescribable hats, or something
like them, and with the help of the most astonishing blandness
sell their wares, which are warranted to cure all diseases. It is
not easy to learn to gain the ear of the throng, but some persons
are marvelously skillful at it. Some quacks engage exclusively in
special lines of practice, while others will offer a balm sovereign
against all diseases. I recollect that when I was a child one Zozo
passed regularly from one village to another at the time of the
rural festivals, selling a vermifuge, the praises of which he
sounded in a speech whose eloquent persuasiveness I have never
heard excelled. The tradition is preserved also in Paris of Dr.
Napolitano, who used to make his perorations in 1815, dressed in
a magnificent scarlet cloak trimmed with gimp and gilt; of Du-
chesne, who inclosed himself in a sack and pulled a tooth with
one hand and fired a pistol with the other ; of Lartaud, chiropo-
dist to the Emperor of Morocco, etc.

The type of the plumed charlatan, such as is represented in
Gerard Dow's picture in the Munich Museum and Du Jardin's in
the Louvre, is declining, and is now met less frequently in the
large cities. It is giving place to another type, more modest in
its bearing, and less noisy — the empiric, or quack doctor. He, too,
lived in the former centuries, as is shown in an eighteenth-century
picture of a wandering surgeon torturing a poor fellow for some
trouble in his shoulder (Fig. 1). Another picture (Fig. 2) repre-
sents Michel Schuppach, known as the mountain doctor, giving a
consultation in his rustic apothecary shop to a lady of the court
who has two lords attending her. The corpulent old fellow is
calmly looking at the flask containing the potion he is preparing,
while a servant is waiting to give him the flasks he will require
for completing the mysterious remedy.

Stories of these empirics of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries might be cited by hundreds. The memoirs of the time
are full of recitals of their prowess, and sometimes of their fail-
ures. Ducerf had an oil of guaiacum which, whether taken inter-
nally or rubbed on, would cause the disappearance of any disease ;
Caretto, an Italian who pretended to be a marquis, sold a wonder-
ful remedy for two louis d'or per drop. A doctor of Chaudrais,
near Mantes, a peasant of much good sense, who sold simples and

QUACKS AND THE REASON OF THEM.

8z3

roots, was extraordinarily popular for a few years, and then lost
his constituents one by one. Every region has had some great
man of this sort. The Zouave Jacob was all the fashion in Paris
under the empire, and his office was never without patients from
morning till evening. A Moorish doctor of Frais Vallen, Algeria,
was consulted with almost incredible faith by his countrymen
and by Europeans, and gave, with his limited list of remedies — a
few herbs, purgatives, and extract of cresses — some really philo-
sophical advice, and manifested fine qualities of intelligence. Not
long ago a practitioner of these arts took rooms in the best hotel
in Havre and adver-
tised by every chan-
nel the wonderful
merits of the dynam-
otherapeutic insti-
tute. All diseases
were cured by the
application of plates.
The innocents flocked
to him, but when
they found that they
were hoaxed the jok-
er had gone.

Besides these false
doctors and surgeons
without diplomas,
like the bone-setters,
there is a whole class
of amateur doctors,
such as met Gonelle,
ready to give advice,
some in pure philan-
thropy, others less
disinterested. The
members of the
French Academy of
Medicine have an

hour or two of fun every year at the reading of the report on
secret remedies. An ingenious schemer fancies he has some po-
tent remedy and sends the receipt to the academy ; or, perhaps, it
gets there indirectly. I will not venture to assert that the for-
mula may not be indorsed sometimes — recommendations are so
cheap. Among these authors of cures are illiterate persons, shep-
herds, furriers, country ministers, teachers, and nurses. Here,
for instance, is a previously unknown recipe taken from an old
notebook ; here is a remedy brought down from father to son, the

Fio. 1.— A Quack Surgeon ok the Eighteenth Century.
(From an engraving of the time.)

824

POPULAR SCIENCJi; MONTHLY,

composition of which has been kept in the family for generations.
This one will cure every disease ; that one, of more discreet pre-
tensions, is only good for some particular disorder, generally an
incurable one. A court bailiff prescribes an infallible remedy for
epilepsy, consisting of a cat's skin applied to the back, rubbing
the belly with ointment, and old brandy in the loins. All are
made out after a model like this, and can be judged from it. A
vast number of popular errors are built on the advice of these pre-
tended specialists. A whole inventory of medicines, each more
absurd than the others, may be found in books on madness. Do

Fio. 2. — Rustic Pharmacy. An exact representation of the room in which Michel Shappach,
known as Medeein de la Montagne (the mountain doctor), held his consultations. Drawn
from life by G. Locher in 1774. Engraved at Basle by Barthelemy Hubner in 1775.
(Reduced from an engraving in the collection of M. Gaston Tissandier.)

not dispute us, say the authors ; we have the facts to prove the
reliability of the doctor and the sureness of the remedy.

It is certain that, whatever we may say or do, the tendency to
these superstitions is not changed. The spread of instruction
and of the knowledge of hygiene is of little avail in the contest
against inveterate prejudices. Matters are much worse in the
field of medicine proper.

There is a story of a doctor who recognized an old servant in
a quack who was doing a large business, and asked him how he
accounted for his success. " How many of these fifty persons

QUACKS AND THE REASON OF THEM, 825

passing by/' the quack said, "do you suppose are sensible per-
sons ? " " Six or seven," said the doctor. " I will give you ten of
them for your clients, the rest are mine." This is not compli-
mentary to four fifths of the human race.

I believe that we can explain how even educated and intelli-
gent people can place credence in the virtue of strange remedies
and the knowledge of absolute ignoramuses. Medicine is not, as
is commonly said, the art of healing ; it is the art of usually miti-
gating and sometimes healing. There are too many incurable
diseases, or those which become so with age, by fatigues of all
sorts, or by excess, for a doctor to be able to pretend to do any-
thing but soothe and reduce the pains. A patient afflicted with
such troubles can not bring himself to believe that he is con-
demned without remedy ; and he will at any price try the possible
and the impossible in the hope of finding a cure. The im potency
of medicine as against his trouble induces the unhappy man to
cast himself in time into the hands of any quack who can insinu-
ate himself into his confidence. " My remedy is infallible," the
quack will tell him ; " try it." The spirit grows weak and gives
way under the suffering that tortures and yields not ; the animal,
we might say, resumes its rights ; and the patient abandons him-
self to one who will promise a wonderful cure without reserve.
Then there have been wonderful cures. At the time when little
was known or knowledge was imperfect about nervous affections,
so curious, various, and manifold in their manifestations, what
seemed like resurrections, almost miracles, sometimes took place.
Such facts are satisfactorily explained now, but they were for-
merly astonishing and surprising. The crowd hurrahed as over
a prodigy, and gave absolute confidence to it. It could not be
otherwise. Whatever may happen, there will always be credu-
lous people and always men disposed to deceive them. — Translated
for the Popular Science Monthly from La Nature.

A CLASS in botany, under the direction of Prof. Charles E. Bessey,
formed a part of the Colorado Summer School at Colorado Spriugs last
summer. The city is situated at the foot of Pike's Peak, and within easy
reach of the vegetation of the plains, the canons, the foothills, and the
strictly Alpine regions. The numerous brooks and mountain streams sup-
plied an abundance of aquatic forms, while the damp canons furnished all
kinds of fungous growths. Lichens, mosses, and ferns were plentiful, so
that every section of the vegetable kingdom was well represented. The
course included lessons on the structure, physiology, classification, and dis-
tribution of plants ; the lower water plants, the degenerated plants, the
mossworts, and the naked and covered seeded plants. The work was di-
vided into an elementary and an advanced course. The attendance, exceed-
ing one hundred, was mainly composed of teachers of maturer years, in all
departments of school work.

826 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

THE WAYS AND MEANS OF ANTS.

By NORMAN ROBINSON.

A FEW days since I witnessed an engineering feat on the part
of a company of ants that interested me greatly. A Florida
chameleon (Anol is principalis) had wandered into my laboratory
and taken refuge under a newspaper which was lying in a chair.
Some one had evidently occupied the chair without taking up the
paper, with the result, of course, of crushing out the life of the
unfortunate little anolis. Having occasion to use the chair, I
removed the paper, and discovered the flattened-out body of the
little lizard, around which a company of ants were evidently
holding a consultation as to the best method of utilizing the
game thus accidentally provided for them.

The particular species of emmet that was thus engaged I am
not able to identify. Our Florida ants have not been very care-
fully studied, and I think it quite possible that this is an unde-
scribed species. Popularly he is known here as the " racehorse "
ant, and the name is certainly appropriate. Of all the fast and
fussy little runabouts that his omnipresent family affords, he is
far and away the supreme. It would be hard to find even among
the marvels of the insect kingdom any such concentrated bundle
of nerves and muscles and brains. He is a little black mite of a
fellow, three millimetres (abont an eighth of an inch) in length,
and it takes one hundred and sixty-two of him to weigh one grain.
His ordinary walk is a fast trot, but when he really gets down to
business even that kangaroo among insects, the flea, can not beat
him in getting over the ground or being in a dozen places appar-
ently at the same moment. Naturally he is a terrible nuisance
to housekeepers ; borax, corrosive sublimate, Cayenne pepper, and
all the other warranted prophylactics against the plague of ants
simply amuse him. Not long since I tried all the devices I had
ever heard of, and which do often prove effective with other spe-
cies of ants, in a vain effort to keep this active little rogue out of
a new barrel of sugar. A strong solution of corrosive sublimate
was poured in a circle on the floor around the barrel. He simply
waited for the floor to get dry and calmly trotted over to the
alluring barrel of sweets. Three hours after trying this " poison
guard " I found a colony of a hundred or so comfortably regaling
themselves upon the coveted treasure. Caustic potash dissolved
and used in the same way served a little better purpose, but this
soon solidified into a carbonate, and its usefulness was at an end.
I next procured some freshly ground and pure Cayenne pepper,
which some "scientific" newspaper correspondent had recom-
mended as an infallible protection against these little pests.

THE WAYS AND MEANS OF ANTS. 827

** They can not possibly walk over \i" this sapient scientist de-
clared. I spread it in liberal measure around the barrel, but,
alas ! for newspaper science ; it is a positive fact that before I
had finished my circling wall of Cayenne pepper these little black
imps were racing over it by hundreds. I gave it up. There was
nothing to do but to build a low table, put the legs in cans of
kerosene oil, and keep on it the barrel of sugar and all other
provisions that I wished to protect against these cunning little
marauders. Since then I have had no further trouble with them,
save in one or two instances where the kerosene was allowed to
evaporate. So far as I know, this particular species of ant is
rarely found— at least, gives no trouble — here in the country. It
seems to be especially partial to " city life."

But to return to the ant conference over the dead body of the
anolis. When I first saw them, a hundred or so of these little
" racehorse " ants were scampering about in the most fussy and
excited way. Two little fellows would meet, cross antennae, and
start off at a lightning pace, to repeat the performance with the
next one they met. No doubt they had some plan and were really
talking over the matter ; but apparently it was just an indistin-
guishable jumble of black imps racing up and down without
rhyme or reason. After watching for a moment this curiously
involved but seemingly aimless dance, I left to attend to other
matters. Returning in the course of half an hour, I saw to my
surprise that the dead chameleon had apparently come to life,
and was crawling over the edge of the chair seat. A little closer
inspection, however, showed that the revival was only apparent,
and that these little Sandows were actually dragging off the dead
body of the anolis. This was so astonishing that I naturally gave
the matter a little closer attention. It was very much as though
a score of men should be caught picking up a big church and
walking off with it, or half a dozen fishermen should shoulder a
whale and carry it to market !

In order to estimate as nearly as possible what these ants were
really doing, I placed the body of the dead lizard on the scale pan
of a Becker analytical balance, and found that it weighed eight
hundred and ninety-six milligrammes. Ten of the ants weighed
exactly four milligrammes and a half. This, of course, gave a
weight of nine twentieths of a milligramme for each ant. Thus
it will be seen that these little insect Samsons were actually drag-
ing off an animal almost two thousand times as large as them-
selves (exactly nineteen hundred and ninety-one times) !

How did they do it ? To test the matter, I placed the dead
anolis back in the wooden chair seat where I first found him.
Watch in hand, I awaited events. Not an ant was in sight. One
minute passed, nearly two, when a solitary scout made his ap-

828 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pearance, and, by a series of little hesitating, jerky, zigzag trots,
made his way up within about an inch of the chameleon. Either
by sight or smell, or in some other way, this ant evidently rec-
ognized the lost treasure. Without a second's delay he turned
sharply about and ran down the chair leg and disappeared some-
where under the matting with which the floor was covered. In a
little less than a minute four ants made their appearance on the
scene and carefully reconnoitred the field ; this time two of them
came and felt the body of the anolis, executed a few little zigzag
trots, touched antennae, and started back again for the chair leg.
By this time a dozen or more had climbed on to the chair seat
and were running about the dead body. Any further attempt to
keep watch of individual ants was of course abandoned. Most of
them did not go near the object of their gathering, but simply
ran back and forth over the chair bottom in seemingly the most
aimless way. After ten minutes had passed, and probably a hun-
dred more or less of the little fellows were assembled and plenty
were coming, they began to gather around the body, first four or
five, then ten, twenty, thirty. There appeared to be no captain or
leader, and seemingly very little concert of action. Those that
came up would give a little tug, and then away possibly to some
other part of the body, or may be to scamper over the chair bot-
tom among the crowd of apparent idlers. I found it very difficult
to count those that were at any moment pulling or pushing —
both were evidently being done as they worked from either side —
but as near as I could count, forty ants were the most that at any
one time were tugging at this, to them, relatively enormous load.
After trying various points with very little success, they finally
gathered, about thirty of them, at the tail. This they readily
swung around. They had at last *'got the hang of it." Perhaps
I imagined it, but it seemed to me I could see the added enthu-
siasm with which they now tugged away at their burden. Then
the tail moved faster, then the head was pulled and pushed for-
ward ; and so, by swinging first one end and then the other, the,
to them, gigantic mass was moved steadily toward the edge of the
chair. I think here is a clear case of thought, afterthought, con-
trivance, the abandonment of one plan that proved a failure and
the adoption of another that proved a success. They tried at
first to move the whole weight, and found it too much for them ;
they then tried swinging it around one end at a time, and suc-
ceeded. What human engineering skill without tools could have
done better ?

One curious fact that I observed was that these ants do not
fancy steady work. Most of them would come up and give a
little push or pull and scamper off to join the crowd that was
racing about on all sides. Occasionally one would tug away for

THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF WEALTH. 829

two or three seconds. This seemed about the extreme limit of
their endurance. Possibly the muscular activity they exhibited
was too intense for prolonged exertion.

And now let us make a little calculation as to the amount of
force that each ant must have exerted. As before stated, here was
a company of them dragging over a wooden chair seat a weight
nineteen hundred and ninety-one times that of each individual
engaged in the task ! Supposing that forty ants were at one time
at work (which is the largest number that I could count), and
that the force exerted was evenly distributed (which in point of
fact could not have been the case), each ant must have done at
least one fortieth of the work. In other words, each of these tiny
workmen was dragging or pushing forward nearly fifty times his
own weight (exactly 4975). A man of medium build weighs, we
will say, one hundred and fifty pounds. Fifty times this is seven
thousand five hundred pounds, or three tons and three quarters.
So that even Sandow in relative strength is a long way inferior
to these curious little " racehorse " ants.

THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF WEALTH.

By M. PAUL LEROY BEAULIEU.

WEALTH — concentrated to a high degree in the hands of an
individual — has a mission, a social function, which is de-
rived from its very nature and which it alone can properly fulfill.
Wealth has the power of commanding production and labor, and
consequently of giving a direction to both ; indirectly, without
show, but very effectively, more intimately, and more familiarly,
a rich man, like a politician, is a leader of men. Fortune, which
is abundant wealth in the hands of an individual, constitutes a
power of administration. This power of administration, whether
acquired or inherited, can not be used while afiiairs dependent on
one's self are allowed to drift ; for the fortune will in that case
probably be dispersed and will escape the hands that are holding it.
One may try using it in a purely selfish interest ; he will be likely
to become richer and richer, accumulating capital and making
himself useful to society by new expenditures ; but he will not
fulfill the social function of fortune. One may, on the other hand,
place himself at a high general point of view in using this power
without excluding his personality.

The gospel precept, repeated in all Christian morals, that the
wealthy are the administrators of the goods of the poor, or the
economists of the poor, is a pious maxim not wholly practicable
from the human point of view ; but it embodies the principles of

830 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the matter, particularly in its second phrase. According to Mr.
Frederic Harrison's inquiry, in The Forum of 1894, into the
habits of wealthy men in a republic, the first duty of fortune, as
of capital in general, is to take care of itself. The prime error,
whether individual, or of the family, or social, is to let one's prop-
erty diminish in value ; that property being a fund, susceptible of
being perpetuated, useful for the production and development of
enterprises, destruction, waste, or depreciation of it, whether by
prodigality or by imprudent generosity, is a misdemeanor. In
the interest of society, as well as of the family and the person,
every one ought to respect and maintain his fortune.

Only income can be legitimately consumed. In using this, a
liberal mode of living is permissible, and involves nothing op-
posed to morals. It is, in fact, generally commendable, provided
the expenditure is within the receipt. Judicious luxury, the
artistic decoration of life, without vain ostentation and frivolous
arrogance, is also legitimate ; but it is better to let the expend-
iture bear upon objects that will endure ; that the generations
should leave lasting traces of the elegancies of their career is
legitimate. An economical obligation — and one he certainly owes
to his family, if not a moral one — lies upon the wealthy man to
maintain a reasonable increase of his fortune. He should con-
tinue to save a certain proportion and to create capital in order to
procure for society, as a whole, the means of applying new inven-
tions and discoveries, and to augment the productive fund with
which to assuage the troubles and increase the conveniences of
mankind. To save continues to be a duty in whatever situation
of fortune, if only to guard against the accidents that are always
possible. While the danger of such accidents has been proved to
be real by past experience, which has shown that few fortunes can
exist without depreciation for more than a few generations, the
amount to be laid up need not absorb all the surplus beyond that
sum needed to maintain a liberal and comfortable style of living.
The duty of making judicious investments imposes on the man of
wealth the necessity of exercising a degree of boldness without
going into rashness, and of giving much reflection and study to
his business. This furnishes an additional reason for prudence in
saving, in order to compensate for the mistakes that may be made
in investing.

The social function of wealth comes into play when the dis-
position is to be determined of the surplus that is left after a
comfortable style of living with judicious luxury is provided for,
and a proper amount has been put away.

Persons of great wealth have large opportunities for useful-
ness in associating themselves with and participating in efi^orts
which seem useful, but the results of which are uncertain. Many

THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF WEALTH. 831

discoveries and inventions have to pass througli a period of in-
cubation, as recently electric lighting and the transmission of
force by electricity, and now the division and dispersion of mo-
tive force into small shops, experiments in photography of colors,
etc. Numerous costly efforts are necessary in seeking advance
in such matters which we see to be possible and even near, but
which are still far from the practicable period. Outside of the
yjrofessional and technical ranks the persons who can make these
experiments are not of the class who are simply at ease. At most
they can only devote insignificant and insufficient sums to them.
Such persons may be set to their work and kept at it by the pri-
vate aid of the really wealthy, who are not asked to risk a frac-
tion of their capital, but only a small portion of their surplus
income, after all its other applications have been provided for.
Wealth is thus put in the way of fulfilling its social function of
assisting progress ; and much more is accomplished by it in this
way than the multitude think. A similar field of usefulness is
found in giving assistance to agricultural experimentation. The
great English lords, according to Thorold Kogers in his Econom-
ical Interpretation of History, achieved much in this direction in
the seventeenth century ; and Arthur Young has cited the cases
of numerous gentlemen and industrial proprietors in France who
improved their opportunities of thus doing good. A large estate
is a free school, a field of experiments in novelties from which the
neighboring small property derives a full share of benefit. The
trial of new cultivations, of selected seed, of improved implements,
of methods suggested by science, is the task of the opulent large
proprietor or of the rich manufacturer or merchant spending his
vacation or his leisure on his country estate. So these, large pro-
prietors have a mission to perform in the choice of good breeders
for reproduction or selection, and in the improvement of vege-
table species.

A second social function of wealth is found in enterprises
requiring patronage and remunerative philanthropy. The term
"remunerative philanthropy" may have an odd sound to some
persons. It is, however, true that rich men render great social
services by the performance of the kind of work which we have
designated thus. A portion of the revenue of the wealthy might
well be devoted to enterprises of general and public utility, which
would also, if well directed, produce a modest but respectable
remuneration. There are a number of kinds of businesses ca-
pable of returning a small profit, but in which the chances of
gain, though not absent, are too limited to attract private specu-
lators, careful only of their personal interest, which might be
undertaken by wealthy men satisfied to put out a part of their
revenues for low interest. An investigation made about fifteen

832 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

years ago by the Industrial Society of Upper Alsace brought to
light several enterprises of this character, inspired by a philan-
thropic feeling, and yet giving a modest indemnification for the
capital invested in them. Among them are societies of Popular
Credit, of which Schulze-Delitsch and Raiffeisen have described
admirable types, consumers' co-operative societies, workingmen's
insurance under a variety of forms, baths and lavatories for
workingmen or for the small middle class, workingmen's lodg-
ings, cheap dining houses, and other establishments of similar
character. All these organizations that concern the people are
usually despised by professional speculators and by capitalists.

Wealthy men might well apply a part of their disposable
revenues to enterprises of this sort, not as alms, but on the score
of general utility ; and there would be no impropriety in their
deriving a modest interest from them. Many organizations of
this kind have been formed during the past quarter of a century
in England, the United States, and France, and have demonstrated
the applicability of the method. Associations formed for such
objects should rigorously maintain the self-supporting principle,
or aim to pay their own way.

Besides the numerous examples furnished by Alsace since
1850, there are many others in demonstration of the practicability
of the plan we have sketched. Some, in the shape of dwelling
houses for men of small means, have been described by M.
Arthur Raffalovich, in his book, Le Logement du Pauvre (The
Housing of the Poor Man). Some very successful enterprises
which might have come under this head have been carried out in
the United States, England, and France. There are in England
2,372 building societies, the most of which are based on this prin-
ciple, which comprised 587,856 members at the end of 1892, and
had the disposal of £40,641,000, of which £24,729,000 were paid
in by shareholders and £14,911,000 by depositors. Their profits
amounted to £1,897,000, or five per cent of the capital devoted to
the construction of convenient dwelling houses for the poor. In
a very successful experiment made by a number of practical phi-
lanthropists at Lyons, France, ninety houses, containing a thousand
sitaple but convenient and healthful suites, returned a profit of
five and a half per cent, of which the investors received four per
cent, the statutory maximum, while the rest went to increase the
reserves. The objections which have been alleged against these
enterprises are not really of great importance. It does not follow
that because they are not of advantage to every one or to the
poorest class they are not useful to a very considerable class of
workmen and small clerks. And while there is danger that in
the course of time — say after fifty or seventy-five years — they will
deteriorate or become corrupt, we have no right to conclude that

THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF WEALTH. 833

they will not have rendered good service in the meantime. It
only proves that nothing is lasting, and that types and methods
will have to be modified, every half century, for example. These
establishments foster a taste for neatness and hygienic conditions
in the house, and provide models which private builders may
imitate. What has thus been done in reference to the house
may also be done with relation to food. In this, Lyons again has
given an instructive example, in the provision that has been made
there of popular restaurants with low-priced dishes, which yet
pay a very convenient interest of from three to four per cent. In
association with enterprises of this kind wealth performs its
social function without suffering depreciation.

A third social function of wealth lies in the gratuitous pat-
ronage of unremunerative works, a sympathetic way of giv-
ing help where it will be worthily bestowed and thankfully
received.

Next are great foundations of general interest, such as a few
millionaires, whose names are honored and perpetuated by their
deeds, have taken pleasure in making. The finest examples of
this kind of benevolence have been found among the Americans
and in the little states of ancient Greece ; museums, schools, ob-
servatories, public parks, churches, orphanages, hospitals — insti-
tutions with which every man possessing a fortune of the first
class might deem it a privilege to have his name associated.
No considerable curtailment of the amount to be transmitted to
heirs or gradual transformation after death of private fortunes
into collective fortunes need be contemplated in these founda-
tions. Such transformation would be of mischievous economical
effect ; for money, except in a few rare exceptions, is better ad-
ministered by individuals who possess it than by collective organi-
zations of any kind. Many fortunes, however, are large enough
to afford considerable sums for these foundations. There are
many other beneficent works that might tempt millionaires.
Among objects worthy of attention are African and Asian ex-
ploration, experiments in acclimatization of animals and plants,
subventions of scientific and medical investigation, and others.
Under the triple form we have pointed out, the social function
of wealth, as distinguished from its economical function, is to be
initiative and auxiliary. This function can not be imposed by
law, but must be promoted by tradition, conscience, and a taste
for useful and sympathetic activity. It would be well if it were
supported by a compliant public opinion, but the absence of that
condition affords no reason for ignoring it. — Translated for the
Popular Science Monthly from the Revue des Deux Mondes,

VOL. xLvm. — 60

834 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

SKETCH OF BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON.

OF the three professions formerly distinguished as " learned/'
that of medicine is the only one connected with natural sci-
ence. Hence it is not surprising that, in the times when scien-
tific research could seldom be pursued except as an avocation, it
was frequently joined to his vocation by the physician. The
history of medicine in the Old World is adorned with the names
of many profound students of Nature, and in America the name
of Dr. Barton stands at the head of a considerable list of eminent
investigators who either followed or at least entered upon the
medical profession.

Benjamin Smith Barton was one of the younger children of
the Rev. Thomas Barton, an Episcopal clergyman, and was born
at Lancaster, Pa., February 10, 1766. His mother was a sister
of David Rittenhouse, the astronomer. He received, therefore,
a double inheritance of intellectual ability, but the benefits of
parental care and training were lost to him at an early age.
His mother died when he was eight years old, and his father
when he was fourteen. Early in the fall of 1778 Mr. Thomas
Barton had left Pennsylvania, intending to go to Europe, but
was taken sick before he could conveniently set sail, and died
without returniDg to his home. May 25, 1780, at the age of fifty
years.

Before leaving Lancaster Mr. Barton had placed his younger
children in the care of a friend in the country near by, where
they remained until after their father's death. During this
period young Benjamin devoted much of his time to reading,
showing considerable fondness for the subject of civil history.
Being a studious boy, he naturally took less interest than boys
generally do in athletic sports. His predilection for natural his-
tory, especially for botany, appeared early, and very likely had
received some encouragement from his father, who is known to
have been a student of Nature. In a note to his Observations on
the Desiderata of Natural History Dr. Barton speaks of the
"fine collection of North American minerals, which was made
by my father near forty years ago, at a time when he paid more
attention to this part of natural history than, so far as I know,
any other person in the (then) colonies." It appears also that
the Rev. Thomas Barton was a member of the American Philo-
sophical Society, and corresponded with Linnaeus on botanical
subjects.

Young Benjamin early displayed a notable talent for drawing,
and afterward became also remarkably skillful in etching. His
artistic ability was of great service to him in sketching objects

SKETCH OF BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON, 835

of Nature and in criticising tlie illustrations prepared by others
for his books. He is said to have maintained that "no man
could become a nice, discriminating, and eminent botanist with-
out possessing that acumen in perception of proportion, color,
harmony of design, and obscure differences in the objects of the
vegetable world which alone belong to the eye of a painter."
He insisted on strict accuracy in details that even most careful
naturalists would disregard. To mention an extreme instance
of his exactness, he had every protuberance on the back, tail, and
legs of a horned lizard counted, and required the precise number
found to be represented in the drawing made for him.

In the spring of 1780 Benjamin, with one of his brothers,
was placed in an academy at York, Pa., where he remained
nearly two years, pursuing a course of classical study. When
he was sixteen years of age his elder brother, who was living in
Philadelphia, took him into his family, where he remained
about four years. During this period he attended for a time the
College of Philadelphia, and afterward, at the beginning of his
eighteenth year, took up the study of medicine under Dr. William
Shippen.

In the summer of 1785 he accompanied the commission, of
which his uncle, Mr. Rittenhouse, was a member, that was en-
gaged in running the western boundary line of Pennsylvania.
Young Barton was absent from Philadelphia five months, and it
was on this expedition that he gained his first acquaintance with
the Indians and began his researches into their medicines and
pathology, their general customs and history, which received a
share of his attention for the rest of his life.

In order to obtain a thorough medical training it was at that
time necessary to go abroad. Accordingly, young Barton re-
paired to Edinburgh in the autumn of 1786, where he studied for
two years, with the exception of a few months spent in London.
Having become a member of the Royal Medical Society at Edin-
burgh, he won the Harveian prize of that association for a disser-
tation on the Hyoscyamus niger of Linnseus (black henbane).
Barton's first book was issued while he was in London, in the
early part of 1787. It was a little pamphlet, entitled Observations
on some Parts of Natural History : to which is prefixed an Ac-
count of some Considerable Vestiges of an Ancient Date, which
have been discovered in Different Parts of North America. Con-
sidering his youth — he was only twenty-one years of age — and
the fact that he was afflicted with ill health when he wrote it,
this production is very creditable ; but it contained some ill-
founded theories and other crudities that he readily and candidly
acknowledged only a few months later. For a number of reasons
— among them the failure of two professors to show him courte-

836 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sies that lie had reason to expect — he left Edinburgh and took his
degree at Gottingen, returning to America toward the close of
the year 1789. He began to practice his profession in Philadel-
phia, where his knowledge of science soon caused him to be looked
upon as one of the rising young men of the day.

The trustees of the College of Philadelphia having instituted
a professorship of Natural History and Botany, appointed Dr.
Barton, then only twenty-four years of age, to the chair. This
appointment was confirmed in the following year, when the col-
lege united with the University of Pennsylvania, and was held
by him for the rest of his life. Dr. Barton thus became the first
instructor in natural history in Philadelphia, and probably was
the first in any American college. Five years later the professor-
ship of Materia Medica in the university became vacant, and this
chair also was assigned to Dr. Barton and was held by him until
he succeeded to that of Dr. Rush. On January 28, 1798, he re-
ceived an appointment as one of the physicians of the Pennsyl-
vania Hospital, which position he held for the rest of his life.
Dr. Barton was a man of high ambition, and being deeply im-
pressed by the well-deserved fame of Prof. Rush, spared no exer-
tions to equal it. When the latter died, he very naturally desired
to obtain his professorship, and his application was followed in a
few months by his appointment.

Dr. Barton had been from early life subject to haemorrhages
and to attacks of gout — his period of illness while a student at
Edinburgh was due to these causes — and he had further weakened
his health by too great application to his scientific and profes-
sional labors. He had sustained a severe haemorrhage just before
undertaking the labor of preparing for his new position. He had
delivered but two courses of lectures on the practice of medicine
when his increasing ill health decided him to try the effect of a
sea voyage. He accordingly sailed for France in the spring of
1815, and returned in November of that year, but without gain-
ing the benefit hoped for. Hydrothorax came on soon after he
landed in New York, and it was three weeks before he was able
to reach home. His condition became rapidly worse, and on the
morning of December 19, 1815, he was found dead in bed.

Only three days before his death he wrote a memoir on a
genus of plants which had been named in honor of him, and re-
quested his nephew, Dr. W. P. C. Barton, to make a drawing to
accompany it. The latter did so, and read the memoir at the next
meeting of the American Philosophical Society. Dr. Barton was
elected to this society January 16, 1789, before his return from his
medical studies abroad, and had been one of its vice-presidents
since January 1, 1802. The printed Transactions of the society
afford abundant evidence of his activity as a member and as a

SKETCH OF BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON. 837

man of science. For three years in succession, beginning with
1797, he was chosen to deliver the annual oration.

In his youth Dr. Barton had suffered the discomforts and
hindrances of poverty and the persecutions of those who bore
him ill will. But it was not many years before the income from
his lectures and his books had lifted him above the influence of
want.

Being prevented by his professional engagements from mak-
ing explorations in search of plants and other objects of natural
history, he employed others to collect for him, advancing his
favorite sciences by this means. Frederick Pursh, in his Flora
AmericcB Septentrionalis (London, 1814), describes an excursion
that he was enabled to take by the aid of Prof. Barton. Starting
in the beginning of 1805, he went along the mountain chain of
Virginia and the Carolinas, and returned through the coast lands,
reaching Philadelphia late in the autumn. Similar assistance
was extended to Thomas Kuttall, '' whose zeal and services," to
use the words of Dr. Barton, "have contributed essentially to
extend our knowledge of the northwestern and western flora of
North America, and to whom the work of Frederick Pursh is
under infinite obligations." Pursh himself gives due credit for
Nuttall's contributions. A genus of plants (resembling cactus),
first described by them, was named Bartonia, in honor of " their
mutual friend Dr. B. S. Barton." In a paper written by Dr.
Barton, a few days before his death, he says of Nuttall :

" I became acquainted with this young Englishman in Phila-
delphia several years ago ; and observing in him an ardent attach-
ment to and some knowledge of botany, I omitted no opportunity
of fostering his zeal, and of endeavoring to extend his knowledge.
He had constant access to my house, and the benefit of my botan-
ical books.

"In 1810 I proposed to Mr. Nuttall the undertaking of an
expedition entirely at my own expense and under my immediate
direction, to explore the botany, etc., of the northern and north-
western parts of the United States and the adjoining British ter-
ritories." Dr. Barton further relates that Nuttall set out on this
journey in April, 1810, but he deviated from the route which had
been pointed out to him, having been prevailed upon to ascend
the Missouri with other travelers, whose objects were principally
traffic. Returning, he reached St. Louis in the autumn of 1811.
" In the latter end of the year 1811, Mr. Nuttall returned to Eng-
land by the way of New Orleans. Previously to his departure he
transmitted to me a number of the dried specimens and seeds
which he had collected." It was on this trip that Nuttall found
two species of the genus that he named Bartonia, descriptions
and specimens of which he furnished to his patron.

838 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Among the early printed works of Dr. Barton was a Memoir
concerning the Fascinating Faculty which has been ascribed to
the Rattlesnake and other North American Serpents, published in
1796. He issued a supplement to this memoir four years later, and
a new edition in 1814. The original paper had been read before
the American Philosophical Society. He also undertook a work
on the materia medica of the United States, issuing an opening
part in 1798, a second part in 1804, and an edition of the two com-
bined in 1810. His most important publication was his Elements
of Botany, a work of 508 pages, octavo, illustrated with thirty
plates, which first appeared in two volumes in 1803. A second
edition of the first volume was issued in 1812, and of the second
volume in 1814, with forty plates. After the author's death. Dr.
William P. C. Barton published, in 1836, a revised edition in one
volume, condensed by omitting the quotations from Latin and
English poets, certain tabular views that had become antiquated,
and the index. To this edition is prefixed a biographical sketch,
prepared by Dr. W. P. C. Barton at the request of the Philadel-
phia Medical Society, of which Dr. B. S. Barton had been presi-
dent from February, 1809, till he died, and read before that society
February 24, 1816. The Elements of Botany was republished in
London, and was translated into Russian.

Another considerable work was his New Views of the Origin
of the Tribes and Nations of America, which appeared in 1798.
Other subjects on which he published more or less fully were the
natural history of Pennsylvania, the disease of goiter, the genera-
tion of the opossum, the principal desiderata in natural history
(read before the Philadelphia Linnsean Society), Siren lacertina,
the hellbender, the bite of the rattlesnake, the honeybee, the jer-
boa, and the stimulant effects of camphor upon vegetables. He
issued also the first part, sixty-four pages, of a work on paleontol-
ogy, entitled ArchcBologicB Americancz Telluris Collectanea et Speci-
mina. In the preface to this fragment he says, " I at one time,
indeed for some years together, flattered myself that I should
have found leisure to have devoted a considerable portion of my
life to the study of organic geology,*' but adds that his recent suc-
cession to the chair of Dr. Rush would prevent any extensive or
systematic attention to this subject. An ardent thirst for literary
fame, which was present in Prof. Barton throughout his life, made
him an indefatigable student and writer. Several ambitious un-
dertakings were left unfinished by him. The following three
papers that he had read before the American Philosophical Soci-
ety remained unpublished at his death : a eulogy on Dr. Priestley,
with whom Dr. Barton had been acquainted ; a geographical view
of the trees and shrubs of North America ; and a memoir (which
gained the Magellanic premium) concerning a considerable num-

SKETCH OF BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON, 839

ber of pernicious insects of tlie United States. Prof. E. A. W.
Zimmerman, of Brunswick, translated into German and published
the memoir on the fascinating faculty of serpents and that on the
bite of the rattlesnake.

In 1797 Dr. Barton married a daughter of Mr. Edward Pen-
nington, of Philadelphia, who, with their only children, a son
and a daughter, survived him. He named his son after Mr.
Thomas Pennant, an English naturalist and author of Arctic Zool-
ogy, with whom he became acquainted while a medical student.

Dr. Barton was extremely cautious about accepting human
testimony in matters of science, and in one of his publications
he declares that " credulity is the most injurious feature in the
character of the naturalist as well as that of the historian. Its
influence in one individual is often felt and propagated through
many ages. Unfortunately, too, it has been the vice of natural-
ists, or those who have touched on questions relative to natural
history."

In a general description of Prof. Barton his nephew says : " As
a medical teacher he was eloquent, instructive, and when occasion
called for it quite pathetic. His voice was good, though attenu-
ated, penetrating, and sometimes rather sharp — his enunciation
clear and distinct — his pronunciation constrained, and his empha-
sis, owing to his remarkable kind of punctuation, and a desire to
be perspicuously understood, was studied, forced, and often inap-
propriate. In his lectures his diction was cacophonous and un-
pleasant.

" As a writer he is ingenious, rich in facts, profound in re-
search, and always abounding in useful information. He wanted,
however, in a great degree, a talent for generalizing. Hence his
various works are characterized by an egregious want of method
or perspicuous arrangement. His style, it must be confessed, is
always diffuse, inelegant, and frequently tautological. As he
never corrected what he once wrote, or at least but rarely, these
defects in his composition were the natural consequences of his
vehemence in writing. His punctuation is truly remarkable, and,
for a man of his discernment and extensive reading, singularly
incorrect.

" As a physician, he discovered a mind quick in discriminating
disease, skillful in the application of appropriate remedies, though
he certainly was a very cautious if not timid practitioner. No
man read more extensively on the subject of diseases — in fact, he
was deeply versed in pathological knowledge derived from books.
As, however, his medical practice was never very extensive, his
practical observations delivered in his lectures were strikingly
marked with the evidences of overweening caution. Hence he
recommended to his pupils, and always employed himself, unu-

840 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

STially small doses of medicine. He was, however, in the main, an
observing and intelligent practitioner, and was remarkably assid-
uous in his attentions and soothing in his behavior to his patients.

" In figure he was tall and exceedingly well formed ; in middle
life he might be considered as having been handsome. His physi-
ognomy was strongly expressive of intelligence, and his eye was
remarkably fine and penetrating.

" In temperament he was irritable and even choleric. His
spirits were irregular, his manners consequently variable, impetu-
ous, vehement. These repeated vacillations between equanimity
and depression were generally owing to the sudden and repeated
attacks of his continual earthly companion — irregular gout.

"In familiar conversation he was often elegant, remarkably
facetious, but never witty.

" As a parent he was kind, tender, and indulgent to a fault.

" He possessed some high virtues ; among the most elevated of
them was his unaffected love of country. Indeed, his patriotic
feelings were not only strong, but frequently expressed with un-
reserved warmth."

A sketch of Barton, extracted from that by ^his nephew, was
published in The Portfolio for April, 1816 (Philadelphia), and in
an editorial note prefixed to it occurs this statement : " Our esti-
mate, too, of the character of the deceased is somewhat different
from that which has been formed by the author of this ' Sketch.'
Dr. Barton was a very industrious man in the pursuit of science,
and though we do not think that he has contributed much to en-
large its bounds, we are willing to believe that his collections will
facilitate the labors of the student, to whom he has left a laudable
example of active diligence and unwearied perseverance."

Dr. Barton was in correspondence with many prominent natu-
ralists and physicians both at home and abroad. He established
an enviable foreign reputation, as is attested by his membership
in the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow, the Linnsean
Society of London, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, the
Danish Royal Society of Sciences, and the Royal Danish Medical
Society. _^_^

Speakeng of travel as a means of learning, and of the great expansion
that has been given to it of late years, Dr. B. W. Richardson calls such a
mode one in which the surface of the earth becomes a living map, and the
spoken languages the living grammars— a mode that must extend day by
day as the mind yearns for more knowledge and the power that springs
from it. No end is visible to him of the line of travel now inaugurated,
and he has visions of university ships manned and supplied, instead of
'guns and fighting men, with professors, laboratories, observatories, and
libraries, and in which voyages of research shall be made by all classes
round the world.

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 841*

PROFESSIOISrAL IlSrSTITUTIONS.

Xn.— EVOLUTION OF THE PROFESSIONS.
By HERBERT SPENCER.

THE saying that we can not put old heads on yonng shoulders,
figuratively expresses, among other truths, the truth that
the beliefs which in youth result from small information joined
with undisciplined thought and feeling, can not, until after long
years, be replaced by the beliefs which wider knowledge and
better balanced mental powers produce. And while it is usually
impracticable to ante-date the results of mental development and
culture, it is also usually impracticable to arouse, during early
stages, any such distrust of convictions then formed, as should be
caused by the perception that there is much more to be learned.

This general remark, trite in substance though it is, I am
prompted to make a propos of the profound change which study
of many peoples in many places and times causes in those ideas
of social organization which are current — ideas entertained not
only by the young but also by the majority of the old, who> rela-
tively to the subject-matter to be investigated, are also young*
For patient inquiry and calm thought make it manifest that
sundry institutions regarded with strong prejudices have been
essential institutions; and that the development of society has
everywhere been determined by agencies — especially political
and ecclesiastical — of characters condemned by the higher senti-
ments and incongruous with an advanced social ideal.

One in whom aversion to autocratic rule is strong, does not
willingly recognize the truth that without autocratic rule the
evolution of society could not have commenced; and one to
whom the thought of priestly control is repugnant, can not, with-
out difficulty, bring himself to see that during early stages
priestly control was necessary. But contemplation of the evi-
dence, while proving these general facts, also makes it manifest
that in the nature of things groups of men out of which organ-
ized societies germinate, must, in passing from the homogeneous
to the heterogeneous, have first assumed the form in which one
individual predominates — a nucleus of the group serving as a
center of initiation for all subsequent steps in development.
Though, as fast as society advances, and especially as fast as the
militant type yields place to the industrial type, a centralized
and coercive control, political and ecclesiastical, becomes less
needful, and plays a continually decreasing part in social evolu-
tion ; yet the evidence compels us to admit that at first it was
indispensable.

VOL. XLVIII. — 49*

842* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This generalization, whicli we saw variously illustrated by-
political institutions and ecclesiastical institutions, we now see
again illustrated by professional institutions. As the foregoing
chapters have shown, all the professions originate by differen-
tiation from the agency which, beginning as political, becomes,
with the apotheosis of the dead ruler, politico-ecclesiastical, and
thereafter develops the professions chiefly from its ecclesiastical
element. Egypt, which, by its records and remains, exhibits so
well the early phases of social progress, shows us how at first
various governmental functions, including the professional, were
mingled in the king and in the cluster of those who surrounded
the king. Says Tiele : —

"A conflict between the authority of priest and king was hardly possible
in earlier times, for then the kings themselves, their sons, and their princi-
pal officers of state were the chief priests, and the priestly dignities were
not dissevered from nor held to be inconsistent with other and civil func-
tions."

And again —

" The priestly offices were state functions . . . which did not differ at all
in kind from that of commander of the troops, governor of a district,
architect, and cbamberlain. In fact, both kinds of office were, for the most
part, filled by the same persons."

And since, as Brugsch tells us, " Pharaoh's architects (the Mur-
ket) . . . were often of the number of the king's sons and grand-
sons," we see that in the governing group the political, ecclesias-
tical, and professional functions were united.

No group of institutions illustrates with greater clearness
the process of social evolution ; and none shows more undeniably
how social evolution conforms to the law of evolution at large.
The germs out of which the professional agencies arise, forming
at first a part of the regulative agency, differentiate from it at
the same time that they differentiate from one another; and,
while severally being Tendered more multiform by the rise of
subdivisions, severally become more coherent within themselves
and more definitely marked off. The process parallels com-
pletely that by which the parts of an individual organism pass
from their initial state of simplicity to their ultimate state of
complexity.

Originally one who was believed by himself and others to
have power over demons — the mystery-man or medicine-man —
using coercive methods to expel disease-producing spirits, stood
in the place of doctor ; and when his appliances, at first supposed
to act supernaturally, came to be understood as acting naturally
his office eventually lost its priestly character altogether: the
resulting physician class, originally uniform, eventually dividing

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 843*

into distingnisliable sub-classes while acquiring a definite em-
bodiment.

Less early, because implying more developed groups, arose
those -who as exhibitors of joy, now in the presence of the living
ruler and now in the supposed presence of the deceased ruler,
were at first simultaneously singers and dancers, and becoming
specialized from the people at large, presently became distinct
from one another : whence, in course of time, two groups of pro-
fessionals, whose official laudations, political or religious, extended
in their range and multiplied in their kinds. And then by like
steps were separated from one another vocal and instrumental
musicians, and eventually composers ; within which classes also
there arose subdivisions.

Ovations, now to the living king and now to the dead king,
while taking saltatory and musical forms, took also verbal forms,
originally spontaneous and irregular, but presently studied and
measured : whence, first, the unrhythmical speech of the orator,
which under higher emotional excitement grew into the rhyth-
mical speech of the priest-poet, chanting verses — verses that finally
became established hymns of praise. Meanwhile from accompany-
ing rude imitations of the hero's acts, performed now by one and
now by several, grew dramatic representations, which little by
little elaborated, fell under the regulation of a chief actor, who
prefigured the playwright. And out of these germs, all pertaining
to worship, came eventually the various professions of poets,
actors, dramatists, and the subdivisions of these.

The great deeds of the hero-god, recited, chanted or sung, and
mimetically rendered, naturally came to be supplemented by de-
tails, so growing into accounts of his life; and thus the priest-
poet gave origin to the biographer, whose narratives, being ex-
tended to less sacred personages, became secularized. Stories of
the apotheosized chief or king, joined with stories of his compan-
ions and amplified by narratives of accompanying transactions,
formed the first histories. And from these accounts of the doings
of particular men and groups of men, partly true but passing by
exaggeration into the mythical, came the wholly mythical, or
fiction ; which then and always preserved the biographico-histor-
ical character. Add to which that out of the criticisms and reflec-
tions scattered through this personal literature an impersonal
literature slowly emerged: the whole group of these products
having as their deepest root the eulogies of the priest-poet.

Prompted as were the medicine-men of savages and the priests
of early civilized peoples to increase their influence, they were
ever stimulated to acquire knowledge of natural actions and the
properties of things ; and, being in alleged communication with
supernatural beings, they were supposed to acquire such knowl-

844* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

edge from them. Hence, by implication, tlie priest became the
primitive man of science ; and, led by his special experiences to
speculate about the causes of things, thus entered* the sphere of
philosophy: both his science and his philosophy being pursued
in the service of his religion.

Not only his higher culture but his alleged intercourse with
the gods, whose mouthpiece he was, made him the authority in
cases of dispute ; and being also, as historian, the authority con-
cerning past transactions and traditional usages, or laws, he ac-
quired in both capacities the character of judge. Moreover, when
the growth of legal administration brought the advocate, he,
though usually of lay origin, was sometimes clerical.

Distinguished in early stages as the learned man of the tribe
or society, and especially distinguished as the possessor of that
knowledge which was thought of most value — knowledge of un-
seen things — the priest of necessity became the first teacher.
Transmitting traditional statements concerning ghosts and gods,
at first to neophytes of his class only but afterward to the cul-
tured classes, he presently, beyond instruction in supernatural
things, gave instruction in natural things ; and having been the
first secular teacher, has retained a large share in secular teach-
ing even down to our own days.

As making a sacrifice was the original priestly act, and as the
building of an altar for the sacrifice was by implication a priestly
act, it results that the making of a shelter over the altar, which
in its developed form became the temple, was also a priestly act.
When the priest, ceasing to be himself the executant, directed the
artificers, he continued to be the designer ; and when he ceased to
be the actual designer, the master-builder or architect thereafter
continued to fulfill his general directions. And then the temple
and the palace in sundry early societies, being at once the resi-
dence of the apotheosized ruler and the living ruler (even now a
palace usually contains a small temple) and being the first kinds
of developed architecture, eventually gave origin to secular archi-
tecture.

A rude carved or modeled image of a man placed on his
grave, gave origin to the sculptured representation of a god in-
closed in his temple. A product of priestly skill at the outset, it
continued in some cases to be such among early civilized peoples ;
and always thereafter, when executed by an artisan, conformed to
priestly direction. Extending presently to the representation of
other than divine and semi-divine personages, it eventually thus
passed into its secularized form.

So was it with painting. At first used to complete the carved
representation of the revered or worshiped personage, and being
otherwise in some tribes used by the priest and his aids for ex-

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 8+5*

Mbiting tlie tribal hero's deeds, it long remained subservient to
religion, either for the coloring of statues (as it does still in
Koman Catholic images of saints, etc.), or for the decoration of
temples, or for the portraiture of deceased persons on sarcophagi
and stelae; and when it gained independence it was long em-
ployed almost wholly for the rendering of sacred scenes: its
eventual secularization being accompanied by its subdivision into
a variety of kinds and of the executant artists into correlative
groups.

Thus the process of professional evolution betrays throughout
the same traits. In stages like that described by Hue as still
existing among the Tibetans, where " the Lama is not merely a
priest; he is the painter, poet, sculptor, architect, physician,"
there are joined in the same individual, or group of individuals,
the potentialities out of which gradually arise the specialized
groups we know as professions. While out of the one primitive
class there come by progressive divergences many classes, each of
these classes itself undergoes a kindred change : there are formed
in it subdivisions and even sub-subdivisions, which become gradu-
ally more marked ; so that, throughout, the advance is from an
indefinite homogeneity to a definite heterogeneity.

In presence of the fact that the immense majority of mankind
adhere pertinaciously to the creeds, political and religious, in
which they were brought up; and in presence of the further
fact that on behalf of their creeds, however acquired, there are
soon enlisted prejudices which practically shut out adverse evi-
dence ; it is not to be expected that the foregoing illustrations,
even joined with kindred illustrations previously given, will
make them see that society is a growth and not a manufacture,
and has its laws of evolution.

From prime ministers down to plow-boys there is either
ignorance or disregard of the truth that nations acquire their
vital structures by natural processes and not by artificial de-
vices. If the belief is not that social arrangements have been
divinely ordered thus or thus, then it is that they have been
made thus or thus by kings, or if not by kings then by parlia-
ments. That they have come about by small accumulated
changes not contemplated by rulers, is one of those open secrets
which only of late have been recognized by a few and are still
unperceived by the many — educated as well as uneducated.
Though the turning of the land into a food-producing surface,
cleared, fenced, drained, and covered with farming appliances,
has been achieved by men working for individual profit not by
legislative direction — though villages, towns, cities, have insen-
sibly grown up under the desires of men to satisfy their wants —

846* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

thoTigli by spontaneous co-operation of citizens have been formed
canals, railways, telegraphs, and other means of communication
and distribution ; the natural forces which have done all this are
ignored as of no account in political thinking. Our immense
manufacturing system with its multitudinous inventions, supply-
ing both home and foreign consumers, and the immense mercan-
tile marine by which its products are taken all over the globe and
other products brought back, have naturally and not artificially
originated. That transformation by which, in thousands of years,
men's occupations have been so specialized that each, aiding to
satisfy some small division of his fellow citizen's needs has his
own needs satisfied by the work of hundreds of others, has taken
place without design and unobserved. Knowledge developing
into science, which has become so vast in mass that no one can
grasp a tithe of it, and which now guides productive activities at
large, has resulted from the workings of individuals prompted not
by the ruling agency but by their own inclinations. So, too, has
been created the still vaster mass distinguished as literature, yield-
ing the gratifications filling so large a space in our lives. Nor
is it otherwise with the literature of the hour: That ubiquitous
journalism which provides satisfactions for men's more urgent
mental wants, has resulted from the activities of citizens sever-
ally pursuing private benefits. And supplementing these come
the innumerable companies, associations, unions, societies, clubs,
subserving enterprise, philanthropy, culture, art, amusement ; as
well as the multitudinous institutions annually receiving mil-
lions by endowments and subscriptions : all of them arising from
the unforced co-operations of citizens. And yet so hypnotized
are nearly all by fixedly contemplating the doings of ministers
and parliaments, that they have no eyes for this marvelous or-
ganization which has been growing for thousands of years with-
out governmental help — nay, indeed, in spite of governmental
hindrances. For in agriculture, manufactures, commerce, bank-
ing, journalism, immense injuries have been done by laws — in-
juries afterward healed by social forces which have thereupon
set up afresh the normal courses of growth. So unconscious are
men of the life of the social organism that though the spontane-
ous actions of its units, each seeking livelihood, generate streams
of food which touch at their doors every hour — though the water
for the morning bath, the lights for their rooms, the fires in their
grates, the bus or tram which takes them to the City, the busi-
ness they carry on (made possible by the distributing system
they share in), the evening " Special " they glance at, the theater
or concert to which they presently go, and the cab home, all re-
sult from the unprompted workings of this organized humanity,
they remain blind. Though by its vital activities capital is

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 847*

drafted to places where it is most wanted, supplies of commodi-
ties balanced in every locality and prices universally adjusted —
all without official supervision ; yet, being oblivious of the truth
that these processes are socially originated without design of any
one, they can not believe that society will be bettered by natural
agencies. And hence when they see an evil to be cured or a
good to be achieved, they ask for legal coercion as the only pos-
sible means.

More than this is true. If, as every parliamentary debate and
every political meeting shows, the demands for legislation pay no
attention to that beneficent social development which has done so
much and may be expected to increase in efficiency, still more do
they ignore the laws of that development — still less do they
recognize a natural order in the changes by which society passes
from its lower to its higher stages. Though, as we have seen, the
process of evolution exemplified in the genesis of the professions
is similar in character to the process exemplified in the genesis of
political and ecclesiastical institutions and everywhere else ; and
though the first inquiry rationally to be made respecting any
proposed measure should be whether or not it falls within the
lines of this evolution, and what must be the effects of running
counter to the normal course of things ; yet not only is no such
question ever entertained, but one who raised it would be
laughed down in any popular assemblage and smiled at as a
dreamer in the House of Commons : the only course thought wise
in either the cultured or the uncultured gathering being that of
trying to estimate immediate benefits and evils.

Nor will any argument or any accumulation of evidence
suffice to change this attitude until there has arisen a different
type of mind and a different quality of culture. The politician
will still spend his energies in rectifying some evils and making
more — in forming, reforming, and again reforming — in passing
acts to amend acts that were before amended; while social
schemers will continue to think that they have only to cut up
society and re- arrange it after their ideal pattern and its parts
will join together again and work as intended !

According to the account of one of their days given by Mr. S. E. J.
Clarke, the women of India lead as busy, useful, and responsible lives as
any of those of Anglo-Saxon lands. As soon as a woman awakes, this
author says, she recites her prayers, reverently salutes the pictures or
sacred images in the room, and then kisses, in honor of Lukhi, the gold
bangle on her wrist or the golden amulet on her arm, and, having done this,
is ready to leave her bed. Next, she anoints her body with oil specially
prepared for the purpose, and often delicately scented. The hair is then
dressed and treated with oil, which among respectable people is prepared

848* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

in the house hy the women themselves, and hy processes which they keep
to themselves. The lady is then ready for her bath, prior to which she uses
manjam, a dentifrice often prepared from betelnut and finely aromatic.
This also must he prepared at home ; and the iagredients and scents used
are never taken at haphazard, but are such as have a well-earned reputa-
tion for fitness for the uses to which they are applied. The bath having
been taken, the ladies dress themselves, according to the season, in silken
or woolen cloth ; sprinkle Ganges water, or water made holy by an admix-
ture of Ganges water, on their heads, and also on their beds. This part of
the morning's duty is concluded by an obeisance to the sun. The serious
part of the day's work begins after this. The cook room and household
room are visited and the appointed prayers recited in them ; the children
and sick members of the family, if there are any, are attended to ; the store
room is opened and the kitchen utensils and other articles needed are
issued to the servants ; the special dishes to be made for the family, the
sick, and the children are looked after; articles required from the bazaar
are sent for; the stock of provisions on hand is examined; and a close
watch is kept on all the operations of the household. A good housewife
will often prepare some special favorite dish for her husband with her own
hands ; and, although she does not eat with him, will attend to his meals to
see that he is well served. If they find any leisure after attending to their
religious exercises and their duties, they are at liberty to occupy themselves
according to their liking. Many of the elder women read in the Hindu
classics, and the younger ones engage in fancy work. There are now, as
there were in the olden times, women poets and writers whose work is of
high merit, but not recognized by us because it is in the native languages.
A fashion is setting in of spending some time at the piano or harmonium.
Much attention is paid to the toilet and to the changes of dress for the
various occasions of the day; and the day closes with evening worship and
readings.

In. the course of his experiments on the psychic development of a litter
of puppies. Prof. Wesley Mills remarked that these animals, as well as those
of several other kinds, even on their first day would not creep off from a
surface on which they were resting if it was elevated a little distance above
the ground. "When they approach the edge, they manifest hesitation,
grasp with their claws or otherwise attempt to prevent themselves falling,
and it may be cry out, giving evidence of some profound disturbance of
their nervous system.'' But a water tortoise he had had for some years
would at any time walk off from a surface on which it was placed. Prof.
Mills accounts for the difference by supposing that land animals, depending
on a firm substratum beneath them, have inherited " a sense of support " ;
while the amphibious tortoise is accustomed frequently to drop off from
logs into water, and has not, or but little, " sense of support." Then, again,
he finds the sense of support " well marked in birds that drop themselves
into 'thin air.'" Birds, however, need the "sense of support" when de-
pending on their feet quite as much as land animals.

The instruments used in the observations of the British Association's
committee on earth tremors are so delicate that an angle can be detected
corresponding with that subtended by a chord an inch long of a circle one
thousand miles in radius.

EDITOR'S TABLE,

841

gjflitor^B SaMje^

A MODEBN LIBERAL EDUCATION.

SUCH is the title of an exceeding-
ly interesting, well-considered,
and, in our opinion, weighty article
contributed by Prof. Ladd, of Yale, to
a late number of our excellent con-
temporary the Educational Review.
The writer well remarks at the outset
that the word ''liberal" applied to
education must imply some sort of dif-
ferentiation. That differentiation, he
sbows, is not quantitative but quali-
tative. A "liberal education" does
not mean a liberal supply of educa-
tion; it means a liberalizing educa-
tion, or, as he defines it, " that which
makes the free jnind, which furnishes
the liberalizing culture of the trained
gentleman." Prof. Ladd is quite
aware that such a definition may
strike not a few as invidious, but be
is not disposed upon that account to
alter the terms in which it is ex-

We think he is right. There is
an education which is imparted and
accepted with a main, if not exclu-
sive, view to its practical utility to
the individual in enabling him to
receive a better share than he other-
wise might of the goods' which so-
ciety has to divide. And thei^e is an
education which aims at expanding
his mental and moral powers, and
fitting him to profit by the best that
has been or is being thought and
imagined and expressed in the world.
The first, while imparting a measure
of efficiency for everyday purposes,
not infrequently instills an absolute
distaste and repulsion for all higher
uses of the intellect. The second
develops both capacity and desire
for intellectual and aesthetic pleas-
ures, raises the mind aboye vulgar
prejudices, and places the whole

VOL. XLVIII. — 61

life of the individual on a higher
level. The education that produces
the latter effect even partially is so
far a liberal education; and if the
word "gentleman" is to have a real
as opposed to a purely conventional
significance, we may apply it with
much propriety to one Vv'hose mind
has undergone this liberalizing influ-
ence, and whose tastes and sympa-
thies have thus been arrayed on the
side of whatever helps to elevate and
refine society. We fail to see that,
in the true sense, there is anything
antidemocratic in this; but if any
think otherwise they are, of course,
entitled to their opinion. Meantime,
we feel sure that the higher education
which we have thus imperfectly de-
scribed, but which Prof. Ladd maps
out for us in a very satisfactory and
instructive manner, is a matter of
vast imx)ortance for the progress of
national culture and the right direc-
tion of our national life.

" A truly liberal education," Prof.
Ladd observes, ** includes as essential
to it the prolonged and scholastic
pursuit of three subjects or groups
of subjects. These three are lan-
guage and literature, mathematics
and natural science, and the soul of
man, including the products of his
reflective thinking. Any culture,"
he continues, "which is markedly
defective on any one of these three
sides comes, so far, short of being
liberal; of being, that is to say, the
kind of culture which sets the mind
most truly free, and which is most
worthy of the cultivated gentleman
in the nobler meaning of the lat-
ter word." It is an extremely wide
scheme of education that is here laid
out; and we may say of it, as is said
of the strait gate and narrow way,

842

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

that " few there he that find it." We
fiilly agree, however, with the writer
that each of the groups of studies
which he mentions contributes im-
portant and strictly indispensable ele-
ments to a truly liberal and humane
education.

It seems hardly necessary to en-
force the claims of language and
literature as elements of culture. It
is one of the chief triumphs of the
human mind to have converted lan-
guage, which primarily, no doubt,
was merely a crude means for the
expression of material wants, into a
source — at least a possible source— of
intellectual and aesthetic pleasure;
and a great part of education may
properly be directed to awakening
the minds of the young to a sense of
this great fact. The ancients fabled,
and wisely, we think, that the Muses
were daughters of Memory ; in other
words, that literature only arises
when man has become able, through
language, to contemplate his own
thought, and live over again his past
experience. It should therefore be a
distinct aim in education to vindicate
the claim of language to be some-
thing more than the servant and
drudge of mankind, the minister to
his lower necessities, or at best a
buffoon for the amusement of his
hours of hilarity. We should be
taught to regard language as an
associate, a friend, an equal, from
whose intercourse we can gain re-
finement of thought, and almost
every other form of intellectual
benefit. We have sometimes thought
that a certain classification might be
made among people accordingly as
they treat language as a menial, or
as a friend and equal. With the
former, language takes on the de-
graded form that might be expected
from the rank to which it is rele-
gated ; and the work that it does is
of the crude and inferior kind which
might also be expected in such a case.

To this class of persons those distinc-
tions of thought which make up the
pleasure and interest of intellectual
life are nonexistent. In the most
ordinary matters it is often difficult
to get a definite statement from them,
simply because they do not know
what is definite and what is not;
they have never put language to any
sufficiently fine use to become con-
scious of the difference.

Prof. Ladd emphasizes the fact
that it is the study of language^ not
of languages^ which he holds to be es-
sential in any system of liberal edu-
cation . " It is undoubtedly, " he says,
"a very convenient thing in these
days to speak in several of the prin-
cipal forms of human speech; but it
is not an essential, it is not even a
very vital and impressive part, of a
truly liberal education. The empty-
headed hotel clerk, the boorish globe-
trotter, the frivolous boarding-school
miss, may have this accomplishment
and not have the first rudiments of
a liberal culture in language." Very
much to the same effect does Ruskin
express himself in his Sesame and
Lilies. " If," he says, " you read ten
pages of a good book, letter by letter
— that is to say, with real accuracy —
you are forever, in some measure,
an educated person. The entire dif-
ference between education and non-
education (as regards the merely in-
tellectual part of it) consists in this
accuracy. A well-educated gentle-
man may not know many languages,
may not be able to speak any but his
own, may have read very few books,
but, whatever language he knows,
he knows precisely. An uneducated
person may know, by memory, many
languages and talk them all, and
yet not truly know one word of any
— not even a word of his own."
This is strongly said, but we are
hardly disposed to dissent from it.

The principal value, in Prof.
Ladd's opinion, to be derived from

EDITOR'S TABLE.

843

the study of the classical languages,
especially Greek, is that it facilitates
and increases the enjoyment of all
good literature. This is moderately
stated and constitutes a more defen-
sible position than the extreme ad-
vocates of classical studies some-
times take up. It seems to us to be
greatly a question of time and op
portunity. If one can grapple with
a scheme of education including an
accurate knowledge of the Greek
language without being compelled
to omit lines of study more neces-
sary to place him — where every
modern man should be — at the mod-
ern standpoint, we should say by all
means let him study Greek and have
his sense of beauty quickened by liv-
ing intercourse with its wonderful
literature, and his logical and crit-
ical faculties strengthened by inves-
tigation of its linguistic elements
and grammatical forms. But we
think it must be recognized that, as
the claims of modern culture become
greater, the number of those who
will find time and opportunity for
this will become more and more re-
stricted.

On the subject of mathematics and
the physical and natural sciences,
the professor's views are eminently
reasonable. He does not claim too
much for mathematics as a training
in deductive reasoning; he consid-
ers that its educational value lies
rather in the alertness it bestows
in attacking and solving problems.
" For is not life," he asks, " one pro-
longed succession of problems that
demand to be solved ? To be sure,"
he adds, " most of the problems are
not of the mathematical order ; but
it is a thoroughly good thing for a
man not to be a coward or a sluggard
when he is brought face to face with
any hard problem." Before the lib-
eralizing power of mathematics can
be fully experienced, it is necessary
to have attained in the first place

" a certain amount of free and joy-
ful movement in the handling of
mathematical symbols and formu-
lae " ; and, in the second, " a certain
grasp upon the beautiful ideas and
the wonderful laws which these sym-
bols and formulae represent. " Mathe-
matics, however, deals only with ab-
stract truths : for that knowledge of
the laws of Nature which is an es-
sential and most important part of
modern liberal culture we must have
recourse to natural science. Here
Prof. Ladd makes a distinction simi-
lar to that which he made in speak-
ing of language. He postulates a
training in science rather than in
sciences. This training, he explains,
"implies such a course of study as
will impart a conception of what is
now understood by the term sci-
ence, and of the recognized method
of scientific investigation common to
all the natural sciences." A remark
which follows contains much truth :
"How often does one meet men of
fine literary culture who show no
little bigotry, and commit not a few
important mistakes, because they
simply do not know what science
really is ! " In answer to the ques-
tion how much of scientific knowl-
edge is necessary for a liberal edu-
cation, Prof. Ladd replies : " Enough
to give the student a firm grasp on
those fundamental physical prin-
ciples upon which the world of
things is built, and enough of the
pursuit of some form of descriptive
natural science to impart the train-
ing of the powers of observation and
the habit of properly connecting
newly observed natural objects with
groups of similar objects known be-
fore." We should be disposed to
add — though perhaps the professor
might claim that it is implied in
what he himself has said : Enough
to bring clearly and effectually
home to the mind what is under-
stood by scientific evidence, and to

844

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

produce a proper attitude of mind —
according to the evidence proffered —
toward every proposition or doctrine
presented for acceptance.

We can not follow Prof. Ladd
into the third division of his suhject,
namely, the claims of a scientific
X)sychology to be regarded as a neces-
sary part of a liberal education ; we
can only say that here too he seems
to us to be on solid ground. We
agree with him also when he says
that ''the condition of public educa-
tion in the United States is far from
satisfactory at the present time."
There are many useful thoughts in
his article on which we have not
touched; and if we leave it for to-
day it is " without prejudice " in case
we should wish to return to it on
some other occasion.

NECESSITY.

Among the ancient Greeks the
idea of necessity, or as they called it
anank4j assumed a certain religious
character. It might bring evil and
pain, but, in so far as it was an in-
tegral part of the order of things,
it claimed a pious submission. We
sometimes think that there is room
for a similar conception in modem
times. It is not uncommon to find
people railing at the world as evil,
because this or that is not arranged
according to ideas of what is right,
because necessity sets limits to human
action and happiness. What the
Greeks felt was that ananke could
not be got rid of, and that the best
thing we could do was to agree with
it, and in a manner reverence it.
The Greek was right : get rid of ne-
cessity in one form, and it imme-
diately reappears in another ; in
some form man must face it and
submit to it.

Socialist writers do not appear to
be at all of this way of thinking.
They have a noble zeal for remedy-
ing evils, but they do not seem to

allow anything for the conditions
which Nature itself imposes. Thus
Pin^f. Albion Small, of Chicago, finds
much to object to in the fact that
" if a weaver or switchnan loses his
job, no law compels another employer
to hire him." He adds that '"few
men outside the wage earniog class
have fairly taken in the meaning of
this familiar situation." What we
should like Prof. Small or some one
else to do is to figure out a situation
in which, a weaver or a switchman
having lost his job, somebody else
would be obliged to hire him. It
would really be interesting to have
this worked out ; our impression is
that Prof. Small, or whoever under-
took the task, would find himself
bumping up against old ""ananke " in
an altered phase. Everybody in that
case would want to be the man who
could get a situation — of course, a
satisfactory one — for the asking ;
nobody certainly would care to be
the provider of situations to his fel-
low-citizens. We are far from say-
ing that there is not a vast amount
of hardship in the world, and much
of it of a kind which in no way bene-
fits those who have to endure it, as of
course some hai'dship undoubtedly
does. But we want to see a way out
that will not cut the nerves of indus-
try and make self-reliance a forgot-
ten virtue. We want to see a way
out that will not lessen the sense of
individual responsibility or make a
man less a man. Show us such a
way, and we shall gladly lend every
effort in our power toward its reali-
zation.

Prof. Small seems to think that
the occupation of the land under
private tenure is largely responsible
for the helpless condition of a por-
tion of society ; but has he or has
any one else ever worked out in all
its details a different scheme ? Would
poverty always be alleviated by a
gift of land, especially if the land

EDITOR'S TABLE.

845

so bestowed could not be sold ? If
it was agricultural land it would
have to be either improved or unim-
proved : in either case capital, not
to mention industry, would be re-
quired to work it ; and in the second
case to give away the improvements
would be to give away the labor of
other men. Make land absolutely
unsalable, and the economic oper-
ations of the world would be impeded
in the most serious manner. The
more, for our own part, we look into
these questions, the more we are
driven back to the conviction that
the way out which is so much de-
sired lies in the improvement of in-
dividual character with consequent
increase of individual power and bet-
ter adaptation to surrounding condi-
tions. As it is, we find that the well-
developed individualities can take
care of themselves pretty well ; they
have the power of adapting them-
selves to their surroundings, and
taking so useful a part in the world's
work that, even under the much-
abused capitalistic system, they thrive
very well. The problem is to make
more sound individuals ; and that
problem does not seem to be in its
natm'e insoluble — therein differing
from some that are set by social re-
formers.

Then, is this your way, some one
may ask, for getting rid of ananke f
By no means : it is our way for mak-
ing the best of it. In every well-
balanced mind the thought of neces-
sity is habitually present, calling
forth efforts of self-restraint which
tend to conserve and consolidate the
individual's happiness and well-be-
ing. We contemplate, therefore, a
constant recognition of necessity, but
a recognition which enables a man
to meet it on ground more or less of
his own choosing, and not as the
Nemesis of error and weakness or
the ironic destroyer of futile schemes
and baseless visions.

RdNTOEN TO THE RESCUE! OR, A
NEW CHANCE FOR ABSURDITY.

Our thoughtful contemporary,
The Nation, is quick to point out the
abuse which absurd people of all
kinds will make of Prof. Eontgen's
discovery of the peculiar action of
the so-called X rays. " The stubborn
power," it says, "of ignorance to
wrest every new scientific scripture
to its own destruction is already be-
ginning to display itself in connec-
tion with the wonderful Eontgen dis-
covery. Quack doctors are quick to
say, ' Aha ! this shows that our elec-
tric rings and mesmeric belts and
psychic brushes and combs are just
what we claim them to be.' The
mysterious cathode rays, invisible but
powerful, will doubtless renew the
faith of many a despairing brother
who carries a potato in his pocket
for rheumatism. What the theologi-
cal apologists will argue from the
apparent need of readjusting the the-
ory of light, those of our readers who
are skilled in their methods of rea-
soning can guess. The Mosaic au-
thorship of the Pentateuch, the rea-
sonableness of prayer for rain, the
duty of instantly subscribing both to
the creed and for the religious weekly
of the able editor making the argu-
ment, will be among the very least
of the things conclusively proved by
the new photography."

Such is the penalty for every new
discovery of Science. By one of the
oddest perversions of the reasoning
faculty which it is possible to con-
ceive, the very advances made by
Science are converted into so many
reasons for disparaging her author-
ity, and drawing conclusions in favor
of notions for which there is no evi-
dence at all. Science did not know
this before : ergfo, Science is fallible ;
ergo^ this or that shaky doctrine is so
far confirmed. Such is the logical
process, and possibly there is some

846

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mysterious beDefit in it for a certain
class of minds. If it pleases them,
it does not do much harm to Science,

which, as The Nation says, has such
an army of workers at its disposal as
the world never saw before.

^ctjetxtifijc %ittx^tvixt.

SPECIAL BOOKS.

We often see allusions to the triumphs of the inventor, and descrip-
tions of single achievements are constantly being presented by the peri-
odical press, but it is a long time since a goodly number of them have been
brought together systematically as in the volume now before us.* The
author has undertaken to present in popular language the chief results
obtained within recent years by the arts of engineering and mechanics,
together with suggestions as to what the future may bring forth, these
suggestions being based upon the lines of research on which great minds
are known to be pushing forward. When one stops to enumerate the
notable inventions which the average city dweller makes use of in his
daily life, a feeling of wonder at their array can not be repressed. On his
breakfast table is sugar which has been extracted and purified by ma-
chinery ; if it is warm weather, perhaps some of his food has been kept
overnight by machine-made ice ; either during or after the meal he reads
a newspaper that may have been put in type and was certainly stereotyped
and printed by machinery ; he sees by a watch whose parts have been turned
out by delicate machines that it is time to take a car propelled by a ma-
chine in a power house several miles away or by a storage battery and ride
to the towering steel structure in which his office is. If he is a sub-
urban dweller, he may cross a bridge of imposing span, and wish for the
time when flying machines are practicable enough to shorten his journey.
He ascends by an electric elevator to the 'teenth or twentieth story of the
office building, which is perhaps partly lighted through glass containing
wire netting. His business involves the sending and receiving of many
telegrams which are printed by the receiving instruments. He goes home
in the afternoon early enough to take a spin on his stanch nineteen-pound
bicycle, or a trial ride with the agent of a motor carriage, or a sail in his
electric launch; for a submarine boat he does not yearn. In the evening
he reads his magazine, illustrated with photo-engravings, by light from
electricity, or from enriched coal gas in an improved burner, or possibly
from the product of the oil well. Other inventions, with which he does
not come into immediate contact, prepare articles for his use or aid in
transporting them to him. Among these may be mentioned mining, ore-
concentrating, and coal-handling machinery, the steel converter, the spec-
troscope, the testing machine, various machine tools, compressed-air mech-
anisms, the plant utilizing power from Niagara, tunnels, canals, and the
ocean steamer. All these and more are described in Mr. Cochrane's book,
and the author is quite resigned to the idea of a reader of some future gen-

♦ The Wonders of Modem Mechanism. By Charles Henry Cochrane. Pp. 402, 8vo. Philadel-
phia : J. B. Lippincott Company. Price, $2.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE, 847

eration smiling at the smallness of the achievements which he is able to
chronicle at the end of the nineteenth century. The volume is well illus-
trated and printed, but lacks an index.

As " down East " recedes before him who journeys toward the rising,
so does "out West" elude him who follows the setting sun. The district
long known as the West is east of the present geographical center of the
United States, and the name must now be applied to a region far beyond.
In order to preserve a knowledge of the real West a series of books under
the general title of The Story of the West has been planned by Mr. Eipley
Hitchcock, which will present the typical characters who made the life of
this wonderful region what it was. It is fairly safe now to locate the West,
for the Pacific Ocean forms a barrier which it can not pass. Eastward Mr.
Hitchcock places its limit at the Missouri Eiver. The fii-st book of the series
is devoted to the aboriginal inhabitant.* Its prime object is to show to the
reader the Indian's daily life. As the editor of the series truly says : " Mr.
Grinnell takes us directly to the camp fire and the council. He shows the
Indian as a man subject to like passions and infirmities with ourselves.
He shows us how the Indian wooed and fought, how he hunted and prayed,
how he ate and slept — in short, we are admitted to the real life of the red
man, and as we learn to know him we discard two familiar images : the red
man of the would-be philanthropic sentimentalist, and the raw-head-and-
bloody- bones figure that has whooped through so many pages of fiction."
Mr. Grinnell's style is far removed from that of the dry-as-dust piler-up of
facts. For vividness and movement his book is well termed a " stofy," but
it gives a much more realizing sense of the Indian's ways than half a dozen
tales of Indian adventure of equal length. Thus, in telling about the In-
dian's recreations, it describes the scene in and about a camp on a day when
no serious work is in hand, giving the amusements of the men, the women,
the boys, and the younger children, even down to the mischief of whacking
the sleeping dogs. In telling of his war customs. Left Hand or Four Bears
is followed upon the trail, and tales of battle told to the author by Indians
are freely used. The same method is followed in describing the red man's
home life, modes of subsistence, marriage customs, hunting, religion, etc.
There is also an interesting chapter showing how the Indians were im-
pressed by the coming of the white man, and in an appendix the distri-
bution of the Indian tribes of North America is set forth. It will thus be
seen that the book has no small anthropological value. The volume is
fully illustrated and is attractively printed and bound. Future volumes in
the same series may be expected to depict the life of the explorer, the
soldier, the miner, the trapper, the cowboy, and perhaps other character-
istic western types.

Mr. Percival Lowell, who once told us about An Unexplored Corner of
Japan, now has something to tell about a still less explored region. He
has been making a polar expedition and other explorations on Mars.i not
quite at the usual long range, for his observations were made during ten

* The Story of the Indian. By George Bird Grinnell. Pp. 270, 8vo. New York : D. Appleton
& Co. Price, $1.50,

t Mars. By Percival Lowell. Pp. 228, Bvo. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Price, $2.50.

848 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

months of 1894 and 1895, which included the time of the latest opposition
of the planet. These observations were made from the Lowell Observatory,
which was established at Flagstaff, Ariz., and Prof. W. H. Pickering and
Mr. A. E. Douglass were associated with Mr. Lowell in making them. In
this book Mr. Lowell gives first the general appearance of Mars, its size,
orbit, etc. From measurements made at Flagstaff, the diameter of the
planet was determined as 4,215 miles, and its polar flattening as ^w of its
equatorial diameter. The presence of an atmosphere is well established,
and good fortune enabled measurements of it to be obtained. It appears
that the atmosphere is thinner by half than the air upon the summit of the
Himalayas, and in constitution does not differ greatly from our own. The
ice cap about the south pole gradually dwindled away as the Martian
summer advanced, and finally disappeared altogether. This was the occur-
rence— the first on record — which enabled the planet's atmosphere to be
measured, and which gave additional information as to the presence and
distribution of water upon its surface. Mr. Lowell gives us a notably full
exposition of areography, or the geography of Mars, based upon a series of
twelve views made by him, and reproduced in the book, which together
represent the whole surface of the planet visible on the first of August.
He describes its continents and peninsulas, its seas and gulfs, and especially
its famous canals, which make Mars a very Holland of planets. These
straight or evenly curved lines he deems it very probable are irrigating
ditches, made to control the water from the annual melting of the polar ice
caps, for there seems to be no other way of distributing the planet's scanty
supply* of moisture. Various other features of the present and probable
future condition of Mars are set forth in this attractive volume. At the
end we have a map of its whole surface on the Mercator projection, followed
by a list of areographic names and a general index.

The second volume of Messrs. Groves and Thorp's Chemical Technol-
ogy"^ consists of chapters by various authors on the fats and oils used for
illuminating, and on the lamps in which these substances are burned. The
first section, in which the animal and vegetable illuminating substances
are described, and the modes of testing them are given, is by William Y.
Dent. The attitude of the uncultivated Britisher toward the United States
is unpleasantly evident in several of this writer's remarks about American
products. The methods and apparatus employed in the extraction of
stearin from various fats, and for distilling and pressing it, are described by
John Mc Arthur. His text is accompanied with figures of the autoclaves of
de Milly, Morane, and Droux, the apparatus of Tilghman, Hugues, and
Michel for the decomposition of fats by water, two forms for the distilla-
tion of fatty acids, a hydraulic press for cold pressing, and one for hot
pressing. L. Field and F. A. Field describe the making of candles from
the material thus prepared, giving many illustrations of the machines em-
ployed in the industry. The largest contribution to the volume is made
by Boverton Redwood, who furnishes the sections on petroleum and lamps,
and, in conjunction with D. A. Louis, that on miners' safety lamps. Mr.
Redwood gives brief accounts of the rise of the petroleum industry in the

• Chemical Technology. Edited by Charles Edward Groves and William Thorp. Volume n,
Lighting. Pp. 898, large 8vo. Philadelphia : P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Price, $4.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE,

849

United States, Russia, and other countries, and describes at some length the
methods of drilling and operating wells in the United States, with notes on
the practice followed elsewhere. The American and the Russian methods
of refining petroleum, the distilling of shale oil, which is an important
industry in Scotland, and the manufacture of paraffin, are then described.
All these accounts are fully illustrated by figures of apparatus, and many
tables of production, analyses, etc., are given. In this section there is an
interesting sketch of ozokerite mining in Galicia. Mr. Redwood's chapters
on lamps are of much popular as well as technical interest. His treatment
is largely historical, a few lamps of the ancients being included, and the
dates and numbers of the patents issued for the modern forms being given.
Sponge lamps, blast lamps, and lamps for railroad cars and ships are de-
scribed, as well as the more familiar forms. In this section something
about the making of oil gas and air gas is also told. The subject of miners'
safety lamps is treated in much the same way. These two sections contain
over two hundred of the three hundred and fifty-eight figures in the vol-
ume. Gas and electric lighting are left for the next volume of the series.

GENERAL NOTICES.

Under the editorial care of Prof. C.
Lloyd Morgan has appeared the second vol-
ume of the work upon which Prof. Romanes *
was engaged at the time of his death. The
present volume is mainly devoted to a con-
sideration of those post- Darwinian theories
which involve fundamental questions of
heredity or utility. The chapters dealing
with heredity are almost exclusively con-
cerned with Prof. Weisraann's views as to
the inheritance of acquired characters. Prof.
Romanes presents evidence both for and
against such inheritance, and while he agrees
with Galton in largely diminishing the po-
tency of the Lamarckian principles, he can
not go so far as to abolish it as Weismann
does. In the chapters grouped under the
head of utility he vigorously opposes the
doctrine that all species must necessarily be
due to natural selection, and therefore must
severally present at least one adaptive char-
acter as held by Huxley, and he finds still
less tenable the more extended form of the
same doctrine held by Wallace. Regarding
the question as purely one of reasoning, he
combats it by argument without appeal to
facts. In an appendix he discusses some
side issues connected with the principle of
panmixia, and in another he states more

♦ Darwin and after Darwin. By the late George
JohnEomanes. Vol. II. Pp. 344, 12mo. Chicago:
The Open Court Publishing Co. Price, $1.50.
VOL. XLVIII. — 62

fully than in the body of the book the opin-
ions of Darwin and Huxley on characters as
adaptive and specific. The volume contains
a portrait of the author as frontispiece and
several figures in the text.

Prof. Tarr^a new book on physical geog-
raphy* has the character of those recent
treatises which have appeared under the title
of physiography. It is not a description of
the topographical features, climate, animal
and vegetable productions, etc., of the sev-
eral regions of the earth in the familiar atlas
form, accompanied by large maps, but rather
a depiction of typical forms assumed by land
and water, with accounts of the processes
that have produced them. It is thus largely
devoted to the dynamic side of its field.
After a short description of the earth as a
planet, the author sets forth the usual and
the occasional phenomena of the atmosphere,
and shows how these conditions affect the
geographic distribution of animals and plants.
Three chapters are given to the form and
characteristics of the ocean, leaving about
half of the book to the land. In this last
part especial attention is given to such agen-
cies of change as weather, streams, glaciers,
waves, and the internal heat of the earth,

* Elementary Physical Geography. By Ealph
S. Tarr. Pp. 4S8, 12mo. New York and London :
Macmillan & Co. Price, $1.40.

850

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and to the various features of the land pro-
duced by them. There is also a chapter on
the reciprocal influences of man and Nature,
and one on economic products. Most of the
examples are drawn from the United States.
There are four appendixes devoted respect-
ively to meteorological methods, topographic
maps, suggestions to teachers, and questions
on the text. The volume is copiously illus-
Utited with photo-engravings of varying de-
grees of distinctness, maps and diagrams,
and a list of reference books is given at the
end of each chapter.

In his First Year in French^ designed for
young pupils (American Book Co., 50 cents),
L. C. Syma has aimed to unite the conversa-
tional and the translation methods of teach-
ing the language. Directions for the use of
the book are given, and French-English and
English-French vocabularies are appended.

The same publishers have issued the first
part of a series of simple French readings
under the title Conies et Legendes (60 cents),
by H. A. Guerber, author of Myths of Greece
and Rome, etc. With the exception of the
first one of the series these stories are not
likely to be known to American pupils.
There is a vocabulary.

The technique of the organic chemical
laboratory is a considerable and somewhat in-
tricate body of knowledge. Through oral in-
struction the student becomes acquainted
with those devices and forms of apparatus re-
quired for common operations, getting, where
there is a choice of processes, the one which
his instructor has had the best success with.
When he comes to practice his profession he
gathers others as he has occasion for them
from the various journals for the publication
of chemical researches, and sometimes fails
to find what he wants at the right time. In
order to make such knowledge conveniently
accessible, Dr. Lassar-Cohn^ of Konigsberg,
several years ago prepared a Laboratory
Manual of Organic Chemistry, from the sec-
ond edition of which Prof. Alexander Smith,
of Chicago, has made a translation (Macmil-
lan, 8«. 6d, $2.25). It groups processes gen-
erally applicable under such heads as crystal-
lization, distillation, extraction, determination
of melting points and of molecular weights,
sealed tubes, and sublimation. In this part
of the work a large number of pieces of ap-

paratus are described and some forty are fig-
ured. About three fourths of the volume is
devoted to special processes of condensation,
the preparation of esters, halogen compounds,
nitro-derivatives, and other substances, oxi-
dation, reduction, saponification, etc. There
is also a chapter on organic analysis. The
volume is indexed and has a table for finding
the year of any volume of the chief chemical
journals.

From the Department of the Interior we
have received Volumes XXIII and XXIV, con-
sisting of monographs from the United States
Geological Survey. The first of these deals
with the Geology of the Oreen Mountains in
Massachusetts. The general structure and
correlation is first considered, and then Hoosac
Mountain and Mount Grey lock are taken up
individually. There are many valuable plates
and maps to illustrate the text. Volume
XXIV is entitled Mollusca and Crustacea of
the Miocene Formations of New Jersey. The
work seems to have been done with care, and
the relation of the paleontology of New Jer-
sey to the structural conditions prevailing in
other parts of the United States makes it of
national interest. Unusually good illustra-
tions are numerous.

Volume XIV, for 1894, of The United
States Fuh Commission Bulletins, contains, as
these publications regularly do, the results of
a large number of careful observations on
the life history and habits of American fish
in all parts of the country. Among many
interesting papers we especially note the fol-
lowing : Notes on Two Hitherto Unrecognized
Species of American Whitefishes, by Hugh
M. Smith, M. D. ; On the Appliances for col-
lecting Pelagic Organisms, with special ref-
erence to those employed by the United
States Fish Commission, by Z. L, Tanner,
United States Navy ; Feeding and Rearing
Fishes, particularly Trout, under Domestica-
tion, by William F. Page ; and A Statistical
Report on the Fisheries of the Middle Atlan-
tic States, by Hugh M. Smith, M. D.

The Stark Munro Letters, by A. Conan
Doyle, is an attractive little volume of 385
pages (Appletons, $1.50). It is an ac-
count of the troubles and difficulties which a
young physician, Dr. Stark Munro, had to
overcome at the outset of his career. The
story is told in a series of letters from the

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

851

young doctor to one of his school-fellows
who has emigrated to America. The central
figure in the tale is a man named CuUing-
worth, who was a schoolmate of the two cor-
respondents, and whose career is followed to
the end of the book, at which point he is on
the eve of departing for South America with
a shipload of spectacles for the natives. His
strange, almost paradoxical character makes
a curious picture, and leads to some surpris-
ing performances, both in connection with his
private life and in his profession of medi-
cine, where he comes to be considered by his
associates a mere charlatan.

Under the title The Forces of Nature.,
brief popular accounts of the solar system,
the air, sound, light, heat, and electricity
have been brought together in a volume by
H. B. Harrop and Louis A. Wallis (the
authors, Columbus, 0., $1.25). It is not a
book for study, but is intended rather to give
an understanding of the chief laws and phe-
nomena of science to persons who have been
occupied with their respective callings to the
exclusion of scientific reading.

Something widely different from the or-
dinary text-book is the Working Manual of
American History, by William U. Mace (Bar-
deen). It consists, first, of a list of topics,
extending in time from the opening up of
America to Europe down to the reconstruc-
tion of the South, with references to stand-
ard historical works. This matter, which
occupies about one third of the volume, is
followed by extracts from documents cover-
ing about the same period, accompanied by
questions.

A text-book for normal schools, under the
title Psychology in Education., has been pre-
pared by Prof. Ruric N. RoarJc (American
Book Company, $1). The author arranges
the mental faculties in classes and sub-
classes, and bases his descriptions on this
classification. In accordance with the pur-
pose of the book he points out the impor-
tance of training each of the faculties, and
shows how knowledge of the operations of
the mind can be applied in education. Prof.
Roark is not one of those instructors who
leaves his students to balance conflicting
views, even in so young a science as psychol-
ogy. All his statements are definite and de-
cided. He does not hesitate even to set bounds

to the further progress of knowledge, nor to
state his view in certain controverted mat-
ters as if there were no other. Thus, in the
chapter which he gives to the " physical
basis " of mind he says : " All that is known
regarding the subject may be stated fully in
one paragraph : Mind, as we know it, rests
upon a physical basis, which acts upon mind,
and upon which mind acts. What the con-
nection is between mind and that physical
basis, or how this connection is made and
maintained, is not known, and most prob-
ably never will be known." Here and else-
where he shows that he expects little from
the " new school " of physiological psycholo-
gists. He has much more sympathy for
child-study, and points out methods of pur-
suing it. His views as to the comparative
worth of many of the usual school studies
are also freely expressed.

The recently published account of the
Myths of Greece and Rome, by ^. ^. Guer-
ber, has been followed by Myths of Northern
Lands, by the same author (American Book
Company, $1.50). The ancient tales which
are the common heritage of the English and
other branches of the Germanic stock are
here simply told, with the embellishment of
poetical quotations and of engravings from
paintings representing the personages and
scenes of the myths.

The several Webster's School Diction-
aries have been revised to conform to the
International. The largest of the four, Web-
ster^s Academic Dictionary (American Book
Company, $1.50), now contains ISQ pages,
being 150 more than in the last edition,
while the illustrations have been increased
from 850 to over 800. The body of the
book is now arranged in two columns, in-
stead of three, and the supplementary mat-
ter comprises a guide to pronunciation, rules
for spelling, lists of afiixes, abbreviations,
proper names, words and phrases from for-
eign languages, and arbitrary signs, a classifi-
cation of languages, and a brief mythological
dictionary.

The University of Chicago Press has un-
dertaken the issue of 77ie American Journal
of Sociology, a bimonthly magazine, to be
edited by Prof. Albion W. Small and his
associates in the department of sociology
in the University of Chicago. The journal

852

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

starts in a quiet and dignified way. There
was evidently no effort to go far afield for
conspicuous contributors to the first num-
ber, six of its seven articles being contrib-
uted by Chicago professors. It is announced,
however, that some of the most eminent soci-
ologists in the United States and Europe will
be advisory editors and contributors. We
are glad to see the lack of a journal for
America in this field supplied. The new
magazine can be productive of much good,
both to its readers and to its contributors —
to the latter, by forcing them to state their
ideas so as to be proof against the criticism
which never dares raise its head in the pro-
fessor's lecture- room.

Two pamphlets on American currency,
either of which may be taken as an antidote
to the other, have come to hand within the
same month. In one, The Financial Ques-
tion^ a large number of considerations ad-
verse to the free coinage of silver are pre-
sented by Charles S. Ashley in short, dis-
connected discussions or quotations (the au-
thor, Toledo, 0.). A feature of the pub-
lication is a series of diagrams, in which
many of the author's facts and estimates are
presented in a graphic way. Various con-
siderations on the opposite side of the ques-
tion are presented by Mason A. Green under
the title Are we Losing the West ? (C. E. Bro^vn,
Boston, 10 cents). If the Ohio man can be
taken as speaking for the West, the anxiety
of the Massachusetts man is misdirected.

Among the bulletins issued by the Uni.
versity of the State of New York in 1895
was a revision of the Academic Syllabus^ or
statement of the requirements for the ex-
aminations conducted by the university. It
contains the changes determined upon since
the last revision, in 1891, the most impor-
tant of which tend toward more thorough
work in English and history. Another bul-
letin is devoted to the Tenth Annual Con-
ference of Associated Academic Principals,
in which discussions on a number of sub-
jects interesting to teachers are reported.
Extension Bulletin No. 9 consists of brief
descriptions of the Summer Schools of the
United States and of a few abroad.

Guides to genuine science teaching are
steadily increasing in number. A little
manual which well embodies the spirit of

such instruction is Practical Proofs of Chem-
ical Laws, prepared by Vaughan Cornish, of
Owens College (Longmans, 2«,, 75 cents). It
is a course of some twenty experiments on
the combining proportions of the chemical
elements, with full working directions, and a
statement in each case of what the results
mean. The results of historic experiments
and of students' work are frequently cited
to show what approximation to accuracy
should be expected.

A Naturalist in Mexico, by Frank C.
Baker (David Oliphant, Chicago), is the ac-
count of a winter's trip to Cuba, northern
Yucatan, and Mexico. The expedition was
undertaken under the auspices of the Acad-
emy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,
its object being to collect data and speci-
mens illustrating the fauna, flora, and geol-
ogy of Yucatan and southern Mexico. The
text is a combination of narrative, science,
and history. Some of the descriptive writ-
ing is very well done, and while the book is
perhaps not exhaustive, the whole trip only
lasting a trifle over three months, it is ex-
tremely interesting. Illustrations from pho-
tographs, taken by the party, together with
sketches made by the author, are quite nu-
merous ; and there are also figured a num-
ber of new species of moUusks which were
discovered by the expedition.

A Laboratory Course in Experimental
Physid!, by W. T. Loudon and J. C. Jft-Zm-
wan (Macmillan, 8«. 6rf., $1.90), was prepared,
say the authors, to assist them in handling
large laboratory classes in which they had
found it very troublesome and slow to give the
necessary detailed explanation of the experi-
ments to each individual orally. The book
contains a series of elementary experiments
adapted for students who are not familiar
with higher mathematical methods, which
have been arranged as far as possible in
order of difficulty. There is also an ad-
vanced course of experimental work in
acoustics, heat, and electricity, which is in-
tended to follow the elementary course.

The Eleventh Annual Report of the Com-
missioners of the State Reservation at Niagara
contains, besides the detailed account of
the work of the commission for the year
1893-'94, an interesting paper on the Du-
ration of Niagara Falls and the History of

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

853

the Great Lakes, by J. W. Spencer. The
computation of the age of the river is made
by the measured rate of recession of the falls
during forty- eight years, and leads to the
conclusion that the falls are 31,000 and the
river 32,000 years old. At the estimated
rate of terrestrial elevation in the Niagara
district, it will require between 5,000 and
6,000 years for a sufficient rise to divert the
waters of Lake Erie through the divide at
Chicago, and thus end the falls. Mr. Spen-
cer's paper has been reprinted separately.
In the commissioners' report considerable
space is given to an account of the efforts
which they have made to protect the beauty
of the falls and its surroundings from de-
struction through commercial enterprise.
They have not as yet been able to influence
the State Legislature in any effective way,
and, while the water privileges on the Cana-
dian side are a source of revenue to Canada,
the American privileges are being legislated
away for nothing, and, what is far worse,
there seems great danger of serious injury
to the natural features of the falls and the
park.

A picturesque sketch of Constantinople^
has been written by F. Marion Crawford
and copiously illustrated by Edwin L. Weeks
(Scribners, $1.50). The author finds much
that is attractive in this unique city and its
environs while the Turk appears to him a
much better specimen of humanity than the
wily Greek or Armenian will admit.

The Outline Study of United States His-
tory, prepared by Harlow Godard (Bardeen,
50 cents), consists of a list of topics extend-
ing from the discovery of America to Cleve-
land's second administration, with directions
for studying, lists of reference books, and
reviews.

The Report of the United J^ates Life-sav-
ing Service for 1894 presents the usual
record of laborious and often heroic service.
The year was one of violent tempests and
many disasters, while timely warning signals
were given to over two hundred vessels, a
large portion of which undoubtedly would
have otherwise met with destruction. An ex-
amination of this record should convince any
one that the maximum pay of sixty-five dollars
a month ought not to be withheld from those
surfmen who are employed for more than

eight months in the year. The report con-
tains a list of life-saving medals awarded by
the Secretary of the Treasury since 1874.
Sever.il names of New York policemen ap-
pear in this list, but none of those of any
other city, which apparently gives support
to the claim that New York's force is " the
finest."

Reconstruction during the Civil War, by
E. G. Scott (Houghton, $2), is a political
history of the so-called period of reconstruc-
tion. The years during which the process
of renewal of the former Confederate States
was taking place are called in popular speech
the reconstruction period, and this name re-
fers somewhat indefinitely to the time occu-
pied by the single term of President Johnson
and the succeeding two terms of President
Grant. The author begins in Revolutionary
times and, roughly sketching the origin,
growth, and history of the various political
parties up to the time of the civil war, gives
the reader a clear notion of the causes, both
immediate and remote, which led up to this
event. Then he takes up the proposed
methods of reconstruction, and gives an ac-
count of the disagreement between Congress
and the President on this question. The
last five chapters contain accounts of recon-
struction as carried out in Tennessee, Ar-
kansas, and Louisiana, and a discussion of
what constitutes a State of the American
Union.

Dr. M. L. Holbrook has issued a volume
on the Physical, Intellectual, and Moral Ad-
vantages of Chas.tity (Holbrook & Co., New
York, $1), in which he exhorts his readers
to live a chaste life, and depicts the beauty
and nobleness of chastity with the aid of
many quotations from poets and essayists.
He also denies the reality of alleged disad-
vantages of chastity.

Weather and Disease^ by A.B. MacDowall
(The Graphotone Co., London, 2s. 6d.), is the
title of a book on the influence of weather on
health. This is a subject which has received
too little attention from physicians, and yet
every one knows how immediately a sudden
change in the weather affects even a healthy
person's spirits and bodily well-being ; how
much more susceptible must a broken-
down, or even an only temporarily weakened
system, be to such changes ! The primary

854

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

object of this book is to give an idea of the
way in which certain elements of our weather
and the mortality from some well-known dis-
eases have varied in recent years. The mode
of exposition adopted is that of graphic
curves. For instance, on page 57, a whooping-
cough table is given which covers the period
from 1837 to 1894. A curve is plotted from
a careful study of the mortality statistics,
thus giving a picture which accurately repre-
sents the variations of the death-rate in this
disease during practically the last fifty years ;
this table can then be compared with a
similarly constructed one, representing the
variations in temperature and rainfall for
the same period, and the relation between
the two series made out.

The sudden rise into prominence of mas-
sage as a therapeutic agent has already caused
the growth of a quite extensive literature
on the subject. The last volume to reach
us, TJie Practice of Massage^ by A. Symons
Secies (Macmillan, 7«. Sc?.), is in a general
way a treatise on the more recent as well as
the earlier contributions to our knowledge of
the effects, uses, and limitations of massage,
so far as they have appeared to be fairly well
established by actual results. The author
has besides, however, set down the record of
his own personal observation and practice.
The appropriate manipulations for the vari-
ous diseases are given in detail, and the book
is closed with a very good bibliography of
the subject.

With the beginning of the new year and
of its fourteenth volume, the Pharmaceutische
Rundschau became the Pharmaceutical Re-
view, and was removed to Milwaukee. It
will also henceforth be printed chiefly in the
English language, although articles from Ger-
man contributors that would suffer by trans-
lation will continue to appear in German, and
sometimes in both languages.

The embodiment of a vivid narrative and
the dress of a handsomely printed and illus-
trated volume have been provided by John
Uri Uoyd, of Cincinnati, for the philosoph-
ical reflections and scientific hypotheses that
a lifetime has matured in his mind. In a
preliminary statement Prof. Lloyd says that
his study of the material (he ranks high
among American pharmaceutical chemists)
has discredited materialism for him, and the

leading ideas of his book, to which he has
given the anagrammatic title Etidorhpa^ are
that " force and spirit are neither less real
than the other, and that matter is not more
substantial than either," while pure and
noble love is man's highest good, whether
here or hereafter. The story reminds one
strongly of Jules Verne. It describes a
journey underground in the care of an eye-
less guide, among colossal fungi, monstrous
cubical crystals, hideous reptiles, and beau-
tiful flowers, over crags and precipices and
across a crystal lake, until the ''end of
earth " is reached. At one point Etidorhpa,
with a train of other beautiful beings, comes
before the pilgrim and asserts her sovereignty.
The results of the author's reflections upon
gravitation, matter, force, life, volcanoes, in-
temperance, and future life are incidentally
introduced. The illustrations, by J. Augustus
Knapp, deserve high praise. Prof. Lloyd
has issued a limited edition of the book at a
subscription price of $4.

Except a few pages occupied by adminis-
trative reports the fourth volume of the lie-
port of the Iowa Geological Survey is devoted
to descriptions of the geology of six counties
— ^Allamakee, Linn, Van Buren, Keokuk, Ma-
haska, and Montgomery. The stratigraphy
and economic products of each county are
given with considerable fullness, and the
physiography more briefly. There are good
beds of coal in one or two of these counties
and more or less building stone, brick clay,
lime, etc , but so few deposits of metals as
to afford little inducement for prospecting.
The volume is handsomely printed and con-
tains illustrations and county maps.

We have received a copy of the second
edition of Prof. Sadtlerh Handbook of Indus-
trial Organic Chemistry (Lippincott, $5), the
first edition of which we noticed in our Janu-
ary issue for 1892. " The fact that a large
edition of the book has been exhausted in
about three years and a half, and that it has
been temporarily out of print, leads me to
think," says the author, " that the plan of
treatment adopted was an acceptable one,
and that such a book was needed." In the
present edition the bibliography has been re-
written and brought carefully up to date.
While the body of the text has not been al-
tered, numerous corrections have been made.

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

855

In the appendix two new tables are added,
giving the physical and chemical constants
of the oils, fats, and waxes classified for
reference and comparison. This work con-
tains so much valuable information of a char-
acter otherwise inaccessible to the general
reader, even if he possess a good cyclo-
paedia, that we have been much pleased at
the opportunity of noticing a second edition.

Compressed Air., by Frank Richards
(Wiley, $1.50), is a little treatise on air com-
pression, and the transmission and applica-

tion of compressed air. The main portion
of the book consists of a series of articles
which have appeared during the last few
years in the columns of the American Ma-
chinist. They treat of the various practical
details in the shape of machinery, methods
of distribution, etc., which have had to be
solved in the use of compressed air as a
means of power distribution and application.
There is an interesting chapter comparing
compressed air with electricity, and another
which discusses the numerous ways in which
the former may be utilized.

PUBLICATIONS EECEIVED,

ASronantical Animal, The. Edited by James
Means. Boston: W. B, Clarke & Co. $1 a year,

A. I. C. P. Notes. Bimonthly. 105 East Twen-
ty-second Street, New York city. 10 cents a copy,
50 cents a year.

Arrowsmith, Robert, and Knapp, Charles. Viri
Romse. New York: American Book Co. Pp.217.
75 cents.

Austin, L. W., and Thwing, C. B. Exercises
in Physical Measurement. Boston: AUyn & Ba-
con. Pp. 198. $1.50.

Baldwin, J. Mark. Princeton Contributions to
Psychology. Vol. I, No. 3, January, 1896.

Bryan, John. Fables and Essays. NewYwk:
The Arts and Letters Co. Pp. 244.

Bulletins, Catalogues, Reports, Reprints, etc.
Agricultural Experiment Stations. Cornell Uni-
versity Station: Bulletin 107. Wireworms and
the Bud Moth; Bulletin 108. The Pear Psylla and
the New York Plum Scale. —Delaware College Sta-
tion: Bulletin No. 29. Treatment of Peach Rot
and Apple Scab.— Ohio Station: Bulletin 63. Or-
chard Spraying. Notes on Varieties of Raspberries.
— Bolton, H. C. Fortune-Telling in America To-
day. Reprint from Journal of American Folklore.
— Conn, H.W. Bacteria in the Dairy. FromStorrs
AOTicultural Experiment Station Report for 1895.
—Bulletin of the Department of Labor. No. 2,
January, 1896.— Langley, S. P. Report of Secre-
tary of Smithsonian Institution for Year ending
June 30, 1895.— Lehigh University: School of Me-
chanical Engineering, Catalogue of.— Lubin, Da-
vid. Protection for Agricultural Staples by an
Export Bounty. Pp. 39.— Philadelphia Academy
of Natural Sciences, Proceedings of. Pp. 531 to
609.— Prosser, Charles S. The Classification of
the Upper Paleozoic Rocks of Central Kansas.
Reprint from Journal of Geology, Vol. Ill, No.
7. — Kies, Heinrich-Clay. Extract from Sixteenth
Annual Report of the Director of United States
Geological Survey.— Tennessee: State Board of
Health Bulletin. Vol. XI, No. 6.— Tenney, D. K.
The Earth not Created. Chicago : Published by the
Author. Pp. 34.— Treasury Department: Notice to
Mariners. Nos. 201 and 203.— Ward, Lester F.
Sociology and Anthropology. Reprint from Amer-
ican Journal of Sociology. Vol. I, No. 4.— Welch,
William H. The Revolution of Modem Scientific
Libraries. From Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulle-
tin, No. 58.

Chamberlain, Alexander Francis. The Child
and Childhood in Folk Thought. New York and
London: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 464. $3.

Chambers, G. F. The Story of the Solar Sys-
tem. (Library of Useful Stories.) New York:
D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 188. 40 cents.

Conant, L. L. The Number Concept. New
York and London: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 218.

Education, Report of Commissioner of, for
1892-^93. Vol. n Pp.2153.

Pent, Enrico. Criminal Sociology. (The Crim-
inology Series.) New York: D. Appleton «& Co.
Pp. 284. $1.50.

Foster, G. C, and Atkinson, E, Elementary
Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. New
York and London: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp.
552. $2.25.

Hamnel, William C. A. Observation Blanks
in Physics. New York: American Book Co. Pp.
42. 30 cents.

Heffley, N. P. A Complete Manual of the Pit-
man System of Phonography. New York: Amer-
ican Book Co. Pp. 127. $1.25.

Herrick, F. B. The American Lobster. From
Bulletin of United States Fish Commission for
1895. Pp. text, 252; plates, 108.

Holmes, W. H. Archaeological Studies among
the Ancient Cities of Mexico. Field Columbian
Museum. Publication 8. Anthropological Series.
Vol. I, No. 1.

Home Study, The. Monthly. Ann Arbor.
Home Study Association. Pp. 2a. Single copies,
15 cents; $1.25 a year.

Hornbrook, A. R. Concrete Geometry. New
York: American Book Co. Pp.201. 75 cents.

Hornby, J. Gas Manufacture. London: George
Bell «fc Sons. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp.
251. $1.50.

Japan, Journal of the Imperial University of.
Vol. VIII, Part II, and Vol. IX, Part I. TOkyO,
Japan.

Reiser, E. H. Laboratory Work in Chemistry.
N(W York: American Book Co. Pp. 119. 50
cents.

Kinsley, W. W. Old Faiths and New Facts.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 315. $1.50.

Lees, Prof. The Claims of Greek. Syracuse:
C. W. Bardeen. Pp 15.

Lodeman, E. G. The Spraying of Plants. New
York and London : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 399. $1.

Marcou, Jules. Letters and Works of Louis
Aeassiz. Two vols. New York and London:
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 620. $4.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An-
nual Catalogue, 1895-'ii6.

Microscopical Society of America, Transactions
of. January, 1896.

New York Agricultural Experiment Station.
Thirteenth Annual Report. Pp. 806.

Perkins Institution, Sixty -fomth Annual Re-
port of, for Year ending August 31, 1895.

Robb, Russell. Electric Wiring. New York
and London: Macmillan & Co. Pp.183. $2.50.

8s6

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Sally, James. Studies of Childhood. New
York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 527 $2.50.

Textor, Lucy E. Ofllcial Relations between
the United States and the Sioux Indians. (Leiand
Stanford University Publications. History and
Economics, 2.) Pp. 162.

Tyler, John M. The Whence and the Whither
of Man. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp.
308. 81.75.

Union College Practical Lectures. (Butterfleld
Course.) Vol. I. New York: F. Tennyson Neely.
Pp.429.

University of the State of New York. (State
Library Bulletin. Legislation, No. 6.) Legisla-
tion by States in 1895.

Wright, G. Frederick Greenland Icefields
and Life in the North Atlantic. New York: D.
Appleton* Co. Pp.407. $2.

^traamjents xrf ^cijetucje*

Seven Tears of Strikes. — ^Mr. Wright,
the Commissioner of Labor, gives some inter-
esting information in his last report During
the past seven years and a half the number of
persons thrown out of employment by strikes
was 2,391,203. His tabulation by States
shows that the majority of these disturbances
took place in five States — Illinois, Massachu-
setts, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
These States contained fifty-one per cent of
all the manufacturing establishments and em-
ployed fifty-six per cent of the capital invest-
ed in the mechanical industries of the coun-
try. Out of a total of 10,488 strikes for the
entire country, more than fifty-six per cent
occurred in twenty-six cities. The total wages
loss in these twenty-six cities, Mr. Wright
estimates, was in round numbers $35,000,-
000, and the loss to employers was some-
thing less than $29,000,000. Twenty-five
per cent of these strikes were for an increase
of wages, thirteen per cent were for reduc-
tion of hours, eight per cent were against re-
duction of wages, seven per cent were sym-
pathetic, six per cent were for increase of
wages and reduction of hours, four per cent
were against the employment of non imion
men, and three per cent for a recognition of
the union. A study of the great effort and
loss which these struggles present, says
Architecture and Building, will compel the
conclusion that some method of arbitration
should be adopted.

The Nose as a Germ Filter.— It would
seem, from the researches of St. Clair
Thompson and R. T. Hewlett (London Lan-
cet, January 11th), that the human nose is
a nearly perfect filter for micro-organisms.
These experimenters calculated that under

very favorable conditions the lowest number
of organisms contained in the inhaled air of
an hour was fifteen hundred, and that often-
times in the air of a great city there must
be as many as twelve or fourteen thousand
drawn into the nose during the same period
of time. The fate of the thousands of mi-
crobes which thus enter the human body is a
question of great pathological interest, and
this increases when it is remembered that the
expired air is practically free from germs.
The fact that inspired organisms do not, as
a rule, reach the air cells, was first pointed
out by Lister. Later, Tyndall showed by his
experiments with a ray of light in a dark
chamber that expired air— or, more exactly,
the last portion of an expiration — was optically
pure — i. e,, that respiration has freed it from
the particles of suspended matter with which
it was laden. Since then numerous experi-
ments have been made by bacteriologists,
which show expired air to be free from
germs. Grancher has made many experi-
ments with the expired air of phthisical pa-
tients, and has never found in it the tubercle
bacillus or its spores. " Now, as the air is
practically freed from all germs by the respir-
atory act, we have to consider where and
how the thousands of organisms are arrested
in the air passages. The experiments of
Hildebrandt would tend to prove that the
air is entirely freed from all germs before
reaching the trachea. In verifying this we
have examined the mucus from the trachea
of all animals recently killed in the labora-
tory, and up to the present have found the
mucus to be quite sterile. We therefore
commenced with the nasal fossae, and found
that the mucous membrane of the healthy
nose only exceptionally shows any micro- or-

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

857

ganisms whatsoever. The interior of the great
majority of normal nasal cavities is perfectly
aseptic. On the other hand, the vestibules
of the nares, the vibrissce lining them and all
crusts found there, are generally swarming
with bacteria. These two facts seem to
demonstrate that the vibrissce act as a filter,
and that a large number of microbes meet
their fate in the moist meshes of the hair
which fringes the vestibule. Germs which
have penetrated into the nose are rapidly
ejected by the action of the ciliated epi-
thelium." The nasal mucus is an unsuitable
soil for the growth of organisms, and hence
is an important factor in that it does not
further their multiplication. A pure culture
of the Bacillus prodigiosus was prepared,
and a sterilized loopful deposited at a dis-
tinct point on the nasal septum well within
the vestibule. Cultures were made from this
spot every few moments for two hours, with
the result of a continually diminishing growth
in the culture medium, the sample taken at
the end of two hours producing no growth
whatsoever. The foregoing facts emphasize
the importance of nose-breathing, and the
great danger which arises from the habit of
breathing through the mouth, and the result-
ant unfiltered stream of bacteria which is
drawn through the pharynx into the trachea
and bronchi.

])€teriorating Effects of Aleohol.— In the

Fifth International Congress against the
Abuse of Alcohol, held at Basel, Switzer-
land, in August, 1895, Prof Gauls, of Zurich,
and Drs. Smith, of Marbach, and Fiirer, of
Heidelberg, read papers on the influence of
alcohol on the cerebral substance and its de-
teriorating effects even in moderation on the
memory and reasoning faculties. Drs. Smith
and Fiirer contended that intellectual work
is always better during periods of abstinence
than when strong drink is even sparingly
indulged in. The reports presented by
directors of lunatic asylums pointed to the
conclusion that lunacy increases in direct
proportion to the abuse of alcohol. On this
point the preponderance of the sympathies
of the meeting was evidently in favor of
total abstinence. The influence of alcohol
in fostering crime was dwelt upon by MM.
Kohlinski, of Diisseldorf, and Marthaler, of
Berne, penitentiary chaplains, and was made

prominent by M. Denis, who endeavored by
elaborate statistical returns to show the
length to which European countries had
gone in combating this source of criminal-
ity. France and Belgium, where no serious
attempt has been made to restrain the
spread of alcoholism, have, he said, the
worst record in regard to crime. Switzer-
land and Holland, he contended, where the
restrictive movement had already begun,
had rendered crime " stationary," preluding
a reduction in its prevalence as the move-
ment became more energetic. Norway and
Sweden, as already indicated, could boast of
a distinct diminution in their criminal popu-
lation, thanks to tljeir control of alcoholism.

A Correction.—

Editor Popular Science Monthly :

Sir : On page 5*75 of your issue for Au-
gust, 1895, is the statement, "Prof. Simon
Newcomb has been elected by the French
Academy of Sciences an associate academi-
cian as successor to the late Prof. Helm-
holtz." As this fact is apparently ignored
in the article on page 561 of the February
issue (1896), where it says, "As yet the
name of no citizen of the United States has
been inscribed on the roll of the foreign
associates of the institute, although it is un-
derstood that in a recent election to fill the
vacancy occasioned by the death of a mem-
ber the name of Prof. Simon Newcomb, of
Washington, lacked but a few votes of re-
ceiving this honor," it is perhaps well to say
that the former item is the correct one, and
that Prof. Newcomb was elected a foreign
associate of the French Academy of Sciences
on June lY, 1895. Yery truly yours,

Marcus Benjamin.
Washington, D. C, February 25, 1896.

Prof. Rontgen's X Rays. — The recent
experiments of Prof. Rontgen on the so-
called cathode rays from a Crookes, Lenard,
or Hittorf vacuum tube, described by him in
the Sitzungsberichte der Wiirzburger phy-
sikalische-medicinische Gesellschaft, 1895,
and translated for Nature, are really only a
continuation of the work of Hertz and Le-
nard, who experimented with these rays sev-
eral years ago, and determined their curi-
ous property of passing through substances
opaque to the ordinary light rays, and the

858

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

latter of whom obtained photographic images
quite similar to those of Prof. Rontgen.
The rays with which the latter works, and
which he calls the X rays, are chiefly seated
at the place of most brilliant phosphores-
cence on the walls of the discharge tube ;
" that is, the X rays proceed from the front
where the cathode rays strike the glass. If
one deviates the cathode rays within the
tube by means of a magnet, it is seen that
the X rays proceed from a new point — i. e.,
again from the end of the cathode rays."
The X rays, Prof. Rontgen says, differ from
the cathode rays in two important particu-
lars. Air absorbs the X rays much less than
it does the cathode rays; and while the
cathode rays are sharply deflected by a
magnet, the X rays are apparently not at all
affected by a magnet. The X rays could
not be deflected by the use of ordinary
prisms, but with prisms of ebonite and alu-
minum images were obtained on a photo-
graphic plate which point to a possible
deviation. Lenses apparently have no effect
in concentrating the X rays. The transpar-
ency of a great number of substances to
these X rays, such as ebonite, glass, wood,
cardboard, platinum, and many others, was
tested, as also the effect of the thickness of
the substance, and led to the conclusion
that the density of the bodies is the property
whose variation mainly affects their per-
meability, but that this alone does not
determine the transparency. Increasing
thickness increases the hindrance offered to
the rays by all bodies. "The justification
for the term ' rays * applied to the phenom-
ena lies partly in the regular shadow pictures
produced by the interposition of a more or
less permeable body between the source and
a photographic plate or fluorescent screen,"
The rays have the property of producing
fluorescence in various substances, as barium
platino-cyanide, calcium sulphide, uranium
glass, Iceland spar, rock salt, etc., as well as
of acting on a dry plate. " The retina of
the eye is quite insensitive to these rays."
Prof. Rontgen says in reference to their re-
fraction : " Since I have found no evidence
of refraction at the surface of different
media, it seems probable that the X rays
move with the same velocity in all bodies,
and in a medium which penetrates every-
thing and in which the molecules of bodies

are imbedded. ... It is known that Le-
nard, in his investigations on cathode rays,
has shown that they belong to the ether, and
can pass through all bodies. Concerning
the X rays, the same may be said." Prof.
Rontgen closes his paper with the following
paragraphs: "A kind of relationship be-
tween the new rays and light rays appears
to exist ; at least, the formation of shadows,
fluorescence, and the production of chemical
action point in this direction. Now it has
been known for a long time that besides the
transverse vibrations which account for the
phenomena of light, it is possible that longi-
tudinal vibrations should exist in the ether,
and according to the view of some physicists
must exist. It is granted that their exist-
ence has not yet been made clear, and their
properties are not experimentally demon-
strated. Should not the new rays be ascribed
to longitudinal rays in the ether? I must
confess that I have in the course of this re-
search made myself more and more familiar
with this thought, and venture to put the
opinion forward, while I am quite conscious
that the hypothesis advanced still requires a
more solid foundation." The most striking
of the pictures accompanying the article are
the photograph of a compass card and needle
completely inclosed in a metal case, and a
cut of the human hand showing quite beau-
tifuUy the bones and joints.

The Incubator Bird (Slegapodins Tn-
mn1i)« — An account in the Geographical
Journal of a trip to the little island of
Niuafou, in the South Pacific, describes a
native bird called the malau, which is ap-
parently of the same order as the Megapodes ;
it makes no nests, but buries its eggs in the
soft, hot sand of this volcanic island. It is
about the size of a small domestic fowl.
Its eggs are large and of a dull reddish
color. The strange nesting habit and the
large size of its eggs recall that curious bird
the jungle fowl of Australia {Megapodius
tumulus). Great numbers of high and large
mounds exist in some parts of Australia,
which were for a long time thought to be
the tombs of departed natives ; the natives,
however, disclaimed the sepulchral character,
saying that they were artificial ovens in
which the eggs of the jungle fowl were laid,
and which, by the heat that is always disen-

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE,

859

gaged from decaying vegetable substances,
preserved sufficient warmth to hatch the
eggs. The size of some of these mounds is
quite marvelous. One which was measured
proved to be fifteen feet high and sixty feet
in circumference. The whole of this enor-
mous mass was made by the jungle fowl.
If the hand be inserted into the interior of
the heap it will always be found quite hot.
In almost every case the mound is placed
under the shelter of densely leaved trees.
This precaution is probably taken to prevent
the rays of the sun from evaporating the
moisture. The bird seems to deposit its
eggs by digging holes from the top of the
mound, laying the egg at the bottom, and
then making its way out again, throwing
back the earth it had scooped away. The
holes are not dug perpendicularly, so that
although they are six or seven feet in length
they may be only two or three feet from the
surface. The leipoa, or native pheasant of
Australia, like the preceding, lays its eggs in
a mound of earth and leaves, but the mound
is not nearly so large. Another bird having
this curious nesting habit is the brush turkey
of New South Wales. In the Guide to the
Gardens of the Zoological Society of London
an interesting account of the construction of
the mound by some captive birds is to be
found. " On being removed into an inclos-
ure with an abundance of vegetable mate-
rial within reach, the male begins to throw
it up into a heap behind him by a scratching
kind of motion of his powerful feet, which
projects each footful as he grasps it for a
considerable distance in the rear. As he
always begins to work at the outer margin
of the inclosure, the material is thrown in-
ward in concentric circles until sufficiently
near the spot selected for the mound to be
jerked upon it. As soon as the mound is
risen to a height of about four feet, both
birds work in reducing it to an even surface,
and then begin to excavate a depression in
the center. In this in due time the eggs
are deposited as they are laid and arranged
in a circle about fifteen inches below the
summit of the mound at regular intervals
with the smaller end of the egg pointing
downward. The male bird watches the tem-
perature of the mound very carefully ; the
eggs are generally covered, a cylindrical open-
ing being always maintained in the center of

the circle for the purpose of giving air to
them, and probably to prevent the danger of
a sudden increase of heat from the action of
the sun or accelerated fermentation in the
mound itself. In hot days the eggs are nearly
uncovered two or three times between morn-
ing and evening. On the young bird chip-
ping out of the egg it remains in the mound
for at least twelve hours without making any
effort to emerge from it, being at that time
almost as deeply covered up by the male as
the rest of the eggs. On the second day it
comes out. Early in the afternoon it retires
to the mound again and is partially covered
up for the night by the assiduous father.
On the third day the nestling is capable of
strong flight."

Indiana Academy of Science. — The

eleventh annual meeting of the Indiana
Academy of Science was held in the State
House at Indianapolis December 2'7th and
28th. The meeting was one of the best
ever held. Over forty ne«r members were
elected. The address by the retiring presi-
dent, Mr. A. W. Butler, on Indiana : A Cen-
tury of Changes in the Aspects of Nature, was
intensely interesting and very profitable. A
poem by Mr. W. W. Pfrimmer, the " Kanka-
kee poet," on The Naturalist, was a novel yet
a pleasing feature. Many of the papers were
worthy of special mention if space permitted.
The Recent Earthquakes East of the Rocky
Mountains, by A. H. Purdue, and Uncon-
scious Mental Cerebration, by C. E. Newlin,
were perhaps two of the most interesting.
The report of the Biological Survey on
Turkey Lake deservedly attracted much at-
tention. The spring meeting will probably
be held in joint session with the Ohio Acad-
emy near the State line. Officers for next
year are as follows: President, Stanley
Coulter, Purdue University ; Vice-President,
Thomas Gray-Rose, Polytechnic; Secretary,
John S. Wright, Indianapolis ; Assistant Sec-
retary, A. J. Bigney, Moore's Hill College;
Treasurer, W. P. Shannon, Greensburg.
A. J. Bigney,
Assistant Secretary.

Dirt-Eating.— The habit of dirt-eating
among children is the subject of an inter-
esting paper by Dr. John Thomson. He
finds that it occurs in two classes of chil-

86o

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

dren : (1) In cases of ill health from tuber-
culosis, etc., anaemia being almost always a
prominent symptom; and (2) in healthy
children, the habit being formed in infancy
and disappearing spontaneously when the
children are about three years old. Dr.
Thomson regards the habit in this latter
class as analogous to thumb-sucking, perpet-
ual rocking to and fro, or constant rolling in
bed, in which some children find delight and
which they lose when they pass out of in-
fancy. The materials selected are chiefly
wall plaster and cinders. One child varies
the latter by pushing the hearth brush into
the ashes and then licking the dust off as a
great delicacy. The habit, as is well known,
is common among imbeciles and idiots ; but
Dr. Thomson's cases were free from mental
disorder. Dirt-eating may lead to serious
consequences when the material eaten con-
tains harmful matter. The native Egyp-
tians, who, observing the marvelous fertiliz-
ing power of Nile mud, imagine it must be
equally nutritious for men, habitually eat it,
with the result of infecting themselves with
the ova of anchylostoma, bilharzia, and
other parasites.

Piano Tonch. — When a certain point of
perfection has been attained in piano-play-
ing it becomes very hard to distinguish in-
equality of touch ; yet, owing to the varying
strength of the fingers, it is only with much
practice that perfect equality is possible.
An account of an apparatus for graphically
registering these inequalities is given in a
recent issue of Nature. The instrument was
devised and used for experimental work by
MM. Binet and Courtier. It is said to be
simple in construction and very accurate.
The advantages claimed for the instrument
are threefold : (1) It is fovmd that the vol-
untary movements of the pianist can be ob-
served without putting him to any restraint
or embarrassment, for the resistance of the
keys is not affected nor is the exterior of the
piano altered ; (2) for teaching purposes the
device has been found of great use ; the rec-
ord made on a roll of paper shows the faults
80 precisely that, although they are scarcely
perceptible to the ear, there is no denying
their existence; (3) written music can not
show every slight change in time the com-
poser might desire, but by applying the

graphical method this difficulty is elimi-
nated and the time will be reproduced with
the smallest details.

The CIgar-Case Bearer.— A new fruit-
tree pest has. recently appeared in New York
State, and is described in a bulletin from the
Cornell Experiment Station. It is called the
cigar-case bearer. Owing to its small size
and peculiar habits, the insect in any stage
will be rarely noticed by a fruit-grower, and
yet the second one of the curious suits or
cases which the little caterpillar wears is
conspicuous enough to reveal its presence to
the casual observer. The first suit is manu-
factured in the fall, to be worn all winter;
but about the 15th of May the half -grown
caterpillar finds this too small, and proceeds
to make a summer suit which resembles a
miniature cigar in shape and color. The
first indication of the insect's presence oc-
curs on the swelling buds of apple, pear, or
plum trees. The work on the expanded
foliage is seen in skeletonized dead areas,
which have near their centers a clean-cut
round hole through one skin, usually on the
under side of the leaf. The caterpillars also
often attack the growing fruit. It is only
possible to fight the insect successfully in
the caterpillar stage, and even then it re-
quires very thorough work to destroy it.

A Contemplated Antaretie Expedition.—

A committee has been formed in London to
promote a mercantile and scientific antarc-
tic expedition, and has already published its
plan of operations. The scientific contin-
gent, which will be accompanied by Mr. C. E.
Borgrevink, will consist of twelve English-
men trained in science, equipped with the
necessary huts, dogs, sledges, etc., and will
be left at Cape Adare, with the expectation
of spending one year in South Victoria Land.
The investigations will include the work of a
land party toward the south magnetic pole,
there to make magnetic observations ; a sur-
vey of the coast line of the open bay, with
exploration and soundings of fiords and bays ;
the making of zoological, botanical, miner-
alogical, and geological collections; dredg-
ing ; and barometrical, thermometrical, mete-
orological, pendulum, air-current, and water-
current observations. While the scientific
men are thus exploring the land, the vessels

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.

861

will hunt whales, seals, etc., and expect to
make three trips with their cargoes between
the antarctic country and Melbourne. It is
contemplated now that the expedition shall
start about the 1st of September. Some
money has been subscribed for the cost, but
more is needed.

Mountain-climbing in Montana. — An

article describing a trip of exploration to
the Montana Rockies by L. W. Chaney, Jr.,
in a recent issue of Science, contains some
interesting facts. In July last the party en-
tered the mountams by the Great Northern
road, which crosses the range about forty
miles south of the international boundary,
following on the western side of the divide
the Middle Fork of the Flathead River.
Twenty miles from the summit, at Two-
Medicine Pass, is Belton Station. Here there
falls into the fork a large and rapid moun-
tain creek ; it comes from Macdonald Lake,
three miles away in the mountains to the
northward. This lake is already much re-
sorted to for fishing and camping purposes.
At the northern end of it a small settlement
exists, and from here the party started.
After some unproductive explorations in a
neighboring valley, they decided to try their
fortunes farther north, and set out for a
group of mines known as the International
Camp, where the range, after sweeping north-
ward from Lake Macdonald for thirty miles,
turns quite abruptly to the west. This camp
is sixty-five hundred feet above the sea. To
the east is a saddle of the main range some
two thousand feet above the camp. " To this
saddle we then directed our attention, and
the morning after our arrival we made the
ascent, finding it not difficult. Immediately
on stepping down from the rocks on the
eastern side of the range we found an im-
mense snowfield filling an amphitheater some
four miles in diameter. As we crossed the
snowfield to the east there appeared running
parallel with the curving wall of the amphi-
theater lines upon the surface, whose sig-
nificance we did not at first apprehend. Ob-
servations with the field glass soon indicated,
what closer examination afterward confirmed,
that these were long crevasses in the ice.
\Ve then knew that we stood upon the upper
snowfields of a glacier not of great size,
but in many respects very typical Passing

on to the eastern side of the amphitheater
we ascended the rocky ridge which formed
its boundary. Then suddenly there burst
upon us one of the most tremendous moun-
tain scenes any of the party had ever had the
good fortune to witness. Sheer down below
was a cliff which repeated experiments with
falling rocks showed to be more than six-
teen hundred feet of perpendicular precipice.
From the base of this cliff the talus sloped
down sharply to the bottom of the valley, no
less than three thousand feet below. Around
the northern end of the ridge on which we
stood swept the glacier narrowed into a true
ice river. As it broke over the cliff to plunge
into the valley it was fractured with numer-
ous crevasses. The largest was about twenty
feet across, and into it plunged one of the
surface streams which came down the gla-
cier. Below in the valley lay a succession
of lakes — the first of so deep and dark a
blue that without hesitation we called it
Emerald Lake. The moraine at the foot of
the glacier was evidently almost entirely
ground moraine. There were very few large
rocks lying in a mass of finely divided gray
detritus. Across this rushed the stream
which came f?om the glacier." Some crude
observations were made as to the rate of
movement of the glacier ; between two days
there seemed to be a movement at the cen-
ter of the mass of about two inches. Mr.
Chaney commends these regions to those
who wish to study mountain forms or glaciers
and glaciation. " There is an abundant and
very interesting fauna and flora, and on every
side the majesty and glory of one of the
noblest mountain ranges."

Commereial Liquid Air. — A method for
the commercial preparation of liquid air has
been devised by Herr Linde, and steps are
being taken to put it into practical operation.
The successive coolings to the critical tem-
perature, which the chemists effect by the
evaporation of other liquefied gases, are in
this process brought about by successive
compressions and expansions of gaseous air.
With an adaptation of piston mac'hinery a
volume of air is greatly compressed, and its
temperature, which has of course become
very high, is reduced by a cooling process.
The piston is then withdrawn and the cooled
compressed air allowed suddenly to expand.

862

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

when another and greater cooling takes place,
and is communicated by an ingenious adjust-
ment of the machinery to the air that is to
be liquefied. The process is repeated, a
lower temperature being reached at each
repetition, till liquefaction is accomplished,
and after this *' a continuous stream of liquid
air is merely a question of engine power."
Further than this, the air during the process
becomes steadily richer in oxygen, until that
gas forms about seventy per cent of the
product, pure enough for most of the pur-
poses for which oxygen is used; and we
have here a new source for the cheap supply
of it.

The Seientific Alliance.— The Scientific
Alliance of New York — which includes the
resident active members of the New York
Academy of Sciences, the Torrey Botanical
Club, the Linnaean Society of New York, the
New York Mineralogical Club, the American
Mathematical Society, the New York Section
of the American Chemical Society, and the
New York Entomological Society — has nine
hundred and thirty-nine members. An act
of incorporation, formally accepted by all
the societies, has been obtained from the
Legislature of New York. Bulletins are issued
about the Ist of each month from October to
May, and announce most of the stated papers
read before the societies. The list of the
last year's papers includes upward of one
hundred and eighty titles. A building com-
mittee has been appointed, but is at present
awaiting the action of the trustees of the Til-
den Trust upon a proposition made to them
in 1892. Verbal assurances have been re-
ceived from individual trustees that their
plan of building contemplates giving the so-
cieties ample and very satisfactory accommo-
dations in the building of the New York Pub-
lic Library.

A New Variable Star.— The period of
Wells's new variable star of the Algol type,
kuown as B. D. + 1*7° 436'7, has been ascer-
tained at Harvard College Observatory to
within a few seconds, and will probably be
known within one second as soon as the form
of light curve is determined. For nearly
two hours before and after the minimum it
is fainter than the twelfth magnitude. It

increases at first very rapidly and then more
slowly, and attains its full brightness, mag-
nitude 9*5, about five hours after the mini-
mum. Its variations may be explained by
assuming that the star revolves around a
comparatively dark body, and is totally
eclipsed by it for two or three hours, the
light at minimum, if any, being that of the
dark body — a condition resembling those of
U. Cephei. The variation in light of the
new star is greater than that of any other
star hitherto discovered.

A New Library Pest. — A comparatively
recent importation, which is described in
Insect Life, is the Nicobium (Anobium) hir-
tum III of the coleopterous family Piini-
dce. It is a native of southern Europe, but
has been occasionally found in American
libraries for a number of years. It seems
now, however, to have become quite abun-
dant, and is doing considerable damage in
some of the older libraries of the Southern
States. The larva of Nicobium hirtum does
not differ in general appearance from other
ptinid larvae — i. e., it closely resembles a
white grub in miniature, in shape and char-
acteristic curvature of the body. It is cov-
ered with sparse but rather long hairs, while
even a feeble magnifying glass will show
numerous short, brownish spines, with which
the larger portion of the dorsal surface is
furnished. Although the legs are well de-
veloped, the larvae are barely able to make
use of them, and if shaken from the books
they are unable to climb back to the shelves.
They attack especially old books with soft
paper and paper bindings. The beetle is of
elongate, oval, cylindrical form, 0-12 to 0*16
inch in length, its color rather light brown,
but rendered grayish by a dense, short, and
somewhat velvety pubescence. This pubes-
cence, however, does not uniformly cover
the elytra, but is here absent on two or three
transverse bands of which the anterior is
usually quite distinct, while the two posterior
ones are less clearly marked out and often
confluent or broken up into spots. This
peculiar arrangement of the pubescence, as
well as the strongly punctate elytral striae,
render this species at once distinguishable
from all other beetles which are liable to
occur in the rooms of a library.

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE,

863

MINOR PARAaRAPHS.

While illustrating glacier movements to
the British Association, Prof. W. J. Sollers
said that pitch and glacier ice strikingly re-
semble each other in behaving as solids or
liquids, according to circumstances. On the
sudden application of force they are very
brittle, but behave as fluids when subjected
to gradual pull and pressure. Hence it is
possible to employ pitch in the construction
of working models of glaciers, in order to
get an insight into those internal movements
of real glaciers which are beyond the reach
of actual observation. The study of glacial
deposits has shown that many erratic bowl-
ders are transported during the Glacial period
from lower to higher levels hundreds of feet
and left stranded on the rocky flanks of
mountains. This standing difficulty in the
way of physical theories of glacial move-
ment has been explained by the study of
pitch models, by means of which it is found
that the lower layers of material, in ap-
proaching an obstacle, are carried up in an
ascending current. The inference, which is
confirmed by natural facts, is that similar
movements would certainly take place in ac-
tual glaciers. Further, a glacier sometimes
overrides its terminal without disturbing it,
and in an experiment performed by the author
this was exemplified, for pitch flowed for
several months over a ridge of loose material
without carrying a particle of it away.

Bklieying that the longest-tongued bees
are the most profitable — they being able to
extract honey from the greatest depths within
the flowers yielding it — MM. Charton and
Legros have devised methods for measuring
bees' tongues. M, Charton's apparatus con-
sists of a box covered with metallic netting,
and having the bottom slightly inclined. On
this bottom is spread a sweetened liquid which
the bees can reach only by passing their
tongues through the meshes of the netting.
The hive whose bees can suck farthest down
the inclined bottom is preserved as a stock
for reproduction. M. Legros uses a receiver
closed by a sheet of perforated tin plate, from
which the sweetened liquid is fixed at care-
fully adjusted distances. M. Legros finds
that the tongues of common unselected bees
are 6*6 millimetres long, while the black

French bees can extract sirup at a maximum
distance of 9 '2 millimetres. The tongues of
the best American bees reach to S'YS milli-
metres.

The domestic weeds of ancient civiliza-
tion, the roadside weeds and the cornfield
weeds, says W. B. Hemsley, in a recent issue
of Knowledge, have accompanied man in his
most distant wanderings, and in many in-
stances have developed increased vigor, and
a power of colonization unsurpassed by man
himself. In some instances the reproduction
and spread of these weeds are so rapid as to
become a great scourge to agriculture, over-
running and destroying crops almost as ef-
fectually as swarms of locusts, and laws have
been framed making it compulsory on farm-
ers to keep their land free of these prolific
strangers. During the last three or four
years the so-called Russian thistle {Sahola
kali, var. tragus) has been occupying the seri-
ous attention of the farmers of the Eastern
and Central States of North America. Thou-
sands of square miles are infested, and the
loss resulting therefrom in 1892 was esti-
mated to exceed two million dollars.

Prof. John Miln's report of eight thou-
sand three hundred and thirty-one earth-
quake shocks recorded in Japan, in which
the position of the origin of each shock and
the extent of country disturbed by it are de-
scribed, deals further with the propagation
of earthquake disturbances on the surface of
the earth, and possibly through it. Elastic
gravitational waves travel in Japan, or thence
to Europe, as surface waves at a rate of
three thousand metres per second, increasing
in period as they proceed; these are the
earthquake disturbances proper. Preceding
them in Japan are minute vibrations, and
these apparently travel to Europe at a rate
of from about eight thousand to ten thousand
metres per second. It is suggested that they
may travel, not along the surface, but through
the mass of the earth, by some path, straight
or curved; and that with a speed greater
than would be expected if the globe were of
glass or steel. Dr. Rebeur Paschnitz is of
the opinion that if such be the case they
may throw light on the internal structure of
the globe.

864

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

NOTES.

At Bedford College (for women) in Eng-
land a very commendable addition to the
curriculum has recently been made in the
establishing of a special course in hygiene.
Students are required to devote themselves
for one session at least to physiology, bacte-
riology, chemistry, and physics, practically as
well as theoretically. It is ordinarily taught
in a disconnected, half-hearted way, and has
had to give way to subjects of much less
importance. It is to be hoped that institu-
tions in this country will take example from
Bedford College.

In an article in the Chemical News on
the places of argon and helium among the
elements, R. M. Deeley says : The discovery
of these two elements having small atomic
weights has undoubtedly had the effect of
greatly shaking the confidence of chemists
in the periodic classification of the elements.
Indeed, a disposition is often shown to place
the periodic law altogether in the back-
ground and put undue faith in physical evi-
dence, which is admitted to be inconclusive.
The facts are then reviewed from the stand-
point of the periodic law, and the diflBculties
of placing these new elements clearly shown.
He closed his paper with the following para-
graph : '* Under such circumstances would
it not be well to follow the indications of
the periodic law and refraction equivalents,
rather than a doubtful theory concerning the
dynamics of the molecule ? "

Three years ago M. Joseph F. Loubat,
of Paris, offered prizes of one thousand dol-
lars and four hundred dollars, to be awarded
every fifth year to authors of the best works
on the history, geography, archaeology, eth-
nology, philology, or numismatics of North
America within the period mentioned. A
committee composed of Prof. H. T. Peck, of
Columbia College ; Dr. D. G. Brinton, of the
University of Pennsylvania ; and Prof. Henry
C. Adams, the latter of whom was awarded
the prize in 1893, will adjudicate essays and
works for the next award in 1898.

The defect in ordinary photographing
imder which the colors fail to be rendered
in their proper proportions of black and
white is corrected in Mr. Bothamley's ortho-
chromatic photography, by the use of minute
quantities of certain dyes, which make the
plate more sensitive to orange, yellow, and
green rays. By this means colored objects of
all kinds, including landscapes, are rendered
in monochrome much more correctly.

Prof. Bailey, of the Harvard Observa-
tory station at Arequipa, Peru, has discov-
ered from an examination of the photographs
obtained by him of certain globular star-
clusters that they contain an extraordinary
number of variable stars. This does not ap-

', however, to be a general condition of
stellar clusters. In the cluster in Canes
Venatici, Messier 3, eighty-seven stars have
been proved to be variable. Sometimes the
variation amounts to two magnitudes or more,
and sometimes it does not appear to exceed
half a magnitude. Forty-six variables were
found in Messier 5. Some of these variables
have short periods, not more than a few
hours. All the cases included in these
counts were confirmed by the independent
examinations of the photographs by three
persons. Other instances of variation were
noticed, but are not included, because they
have not been sufficiently tested.

Michael S. Bebb, a specialist in the bot-
any of the willow, died in San Bernardino,
Cal., December 6th. He was a son of Gov-
ernor William Bebb, of Ohio, and was born
at Hamilton, in that State, in 1833. He be-
gan his botanical studies when a boy, led to
them probably by the flowers and shrubs in
his father's garden, and using Torrey's Re-
port upon the Flora of New York as his only
guide and text-book. His family afterward
removed to Illinois. Some years after the
close of the war he began the systematic
study of the willows, and made his first com-
munication on them to the American Natu-
ralist in 1874. He studied all the collections
of these plants made in North America ; de-
scribed the California species in Brewer
and Watson's Botany of California ; the
Southwestern species collected by Rothrock,
in Wheeler's Report; the Colorado species
in Coulter's Manual of the Botany of the
Rocky Mountain Region ; the species of the
Eastern States in the last edition of jGray's
Manual; determined the willows of British
America for the Geological Survey of Canada ;
and has contributed to botanical journals
many papers on American species of the
genus.

Prof. George Lawson, of the chair of
Chemistry in Dalhousie College, Halifax,
N. S., who died in that city November 10th,
was author of several papers on Canadian
plants, published mostly in the Transactions
of the Royal Society of Canada, and was an
authority on the botany of the Maritime
Provinces.

Dr. Francis Payne Poucher, a distin-
guished physician and botanist, died at
Charleston, S. C, where he was Professor
of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the
Medical College, November 19, 1895, aged
about seventy years. He was editor of the
Charleston Medical Journal and Review, and
author of books on the Southern Fields and
Forests ; a Medico-botanical Catalogue of the
Plants and Ferns of St. John's, Berkeley,
S. C. ; A Sketch of the Medical Botany of
South Carolina; and the Medicinal, Poison-
ous, and Dietetic Properties of the Crypto-
gamic Plants of the United States.

I jS' D EX.

ARTICLES MARKED WITH AN ASTERISK ARE ILLUSTRATED; THOSE MARKED WITH A DAGGER
ARE EXTRA ARTICLES WHICH APPEARED IN THE AMERICAN EDITION ONLY.

PAGB

Abbott, Charles C. The Effect of Prolonged Drought upon Animal

Life 465

Acclimatization. W. Z. Ripley 662, 779

Acetylene Lamp, M. Trouve's. (Frag.) 715

Agnostic, Origin of the Term. (Corr.) J. T. Gorman 121

Air, Commercial Liquid. (Frag.) . 861

" Expired, and Problems of Ventilation t 583*

" The Geological Work of the.* S. Meunier 355

*' Vitiated, Respirability of . (Frag.) 718

Alcohol, Deteriorating Effects of. (Frag.) , 857

Alkali Lands, Steppes, Deserts, and.* E. W. Hilgard 602

Ancient Egyptians, A New Race of. (Frag.) 284

" Islanders, The, of California.* C. F. Holder 658

Animal Life, The Effect of Prolonged Drought upon. C. C. Abbott. . 465

Animals, Happiness of. (Frag.) 139

Antarctic Expedition, A Contemplated. (Frag.) 860

Anthropological View, The, of Civilization. (Table) 270

Anthropology, The Aims of. D. G. Brinton 59

" The Present Position of. (Table) 122

Antiquity of the Quichuas. (Frag.) 675

Ants, The Ways and Means of. N. Robinson 826

Archaeologic Work, Systematic, in Iowa. (Frag.) 715

Arctic Nature, Picturesque. (Frag.) 139

Ashley, Charles S. The Past and Future of Gold 39

Bache, Alexander Dallas, Sketch of. (With Portrait) 112

Bacteriological Researches, The Practical Results of. G. M. Stern-
berg 735

Ball Nozzle, The. (Frag.) 430

Balochistan, Life in. (Frag.) 137

Barrows, Samuel J. The Fifth International Prison Congress 395

Barton, Benjamin Smith, Sketch of. (With Portrait) 834

Bear, A New. (Frag.) 282

Beaulieu, Paul Leroy. The Social Function of Wealth 829

Benedict, A. L., M. D. Consumption considered as a Contagious Dis-
ease 33

Blind Deaf-mutes, Three. (Frag.) , . 713

VOL. XLVIII. — 63

866

INDEX.

Bolton, Henry Carrington. The Smithsonian Institution. Part I.

Origin of the Institution * 289

Part II. Activities of the Smithsonian Institution * 449

Books noticed 127, 273, 418, 562, 702, 846

Allen, Grant. The Story of the Plants, 128.

American Jonmal of Sociology, 851.

Ashley, Charles S. The Financial Ques-
tion, 852.

Astronomical Observatory of Harvard Col-
lege. Annals, Vol. XXXII, Part I, 424.

Bailey, L. H. The Horticulturist's Bule-
book, 428.

Baker, Frank C. A Naturalist in Mexico,
852.

Bardeen, C. W. A Brief Descriptive Geog-
raphy of the Empire State, 278.

Beddard, Frank E. A Text-book of Zoo-
geography, 567.

Benjamin, Park. The Intellectual Rise in
Electricity, 702.

Biological Lectures delivered at the Marine
Biological Laboratory of Woods Holl,
1894, 423.

Boas, Franz. Chinook Texts, 568.

Brooks, Noah. How the Republic is gov-
erned, 279.

Burke, E. Speech on Conciliation witli
America, 278.

Call, Henry L. The Coming Revolution,
135.

Campbell, Douglas Houghton. The Struc-
ture and Development of Mosses and
Ferns, 707.

Chicago, Report of the Department of
Health for 1894, 710.

Gierke, Agnes M. The Herschels and Mod-
em Astronomy, 274.

Climates and Baths, The, of Great Britain.
Vol. I, 708.

Clodd, Edward. A Primer of Evolution,
132.

Cochrane, Charles Henry. The Wonders of
Modem Mechanism, 846.

Cohen, Isabel E. Readings and Recitations
for Jewish Homes and Schools, 711.

Cooke, A. H., A. E. Shipley, and P. R. C.
Reed. Mollusks and Recent and Fossil
Brachiopods, 131.

Cornish, Vaughan. Practical Proofs of
Chemical Laws, 852.

Crawford, F. Marion. Constantinople, 853.

Cressey, George Croswell. The Essential
Man, 280.

Crocker, Uriel H. The Cause of Hard
Times, 424.

Crosby, W. O. Tables for the Determina-
tion of Common Minerals, 278.

Daniel, Alfred. Text-book of the Princi-
ples of Physics, 709.

Davies, Henry E. General Sheridan, 133.

Donaldson, Henry Herbert. The Growth
of the Brain, 566.

Doyle, A. Conan. The Stark-Munro Let-
ters, 850.

Eccles, A. Symons. The Practice of Mas-
sage, 854.

Foot, Allen Ripley. A Sound Currency and
Banking System, 568.

Froebel, P. Mother Play : the Mottoes and
Commentaries, 418.

— Mother Play : the Songs and Music,
418.

— Pedagogics of the Kindergarten, 418.
Froment, A. Les Merveilles de la Flore

Primitive, 134.

Gage, Alfred P. The Principles of Physics,
422.

Galton, Francis. Finger-print Directories,
127.

Gannett, H. Results of Primary Triangnla-
tion, 711.

Gee, William. Short Studies in Nature
Knowledge, 710.

Glazebrook, R. T. An Elementary Text-
book of Mechanics, 424.

Godard, Harlow. Outline Study of United
States History, 853.

Green, Mason A. Are we Losing the West 1
852.

Greenwood, Frederick. Imagination in
Dreams, 424.

Grindon, L. H. Sexuality of Nature, 711.

Grinnell, George Bird. The Story of the
Indian, 847.

Groves and Thor^^editora. Chemical Tech-
nology, Vol. II,Xighting, 848.

Guerber, H. A. Contes et L6gendes, 850.

Myths of Northern Lands, 851.

Harrop. H. B., and Louis A. Wallis. The
Forces of Nature, 851.

Headley, F. W. The Structure and Life of
Birds, 566.

Hertwig, Oscar. The Cell, 707.

Hill, Robert T, Notes on the Geology of
the Island of Cuba, 2T9.

Hittell, J. S. Spirit of the Papacy, 568.

Hoffmann, Frank Sargent. The Sphere of
the State, 133.

Hoffman, Walter James. The Beginnings
of Writing, 274.

Holbrook, M. L. Physical, Intellectual,
and Moral Advantages of Chastity, 853.

HoUey, George W. Magnetism: Its Po-
tency and Action, 569.

Houston, E. J., and A.t E. Kennelly. Alter-
nating Currents, 709.

International Text-book of Surgery. Vol.
VII, 708.

Iowa Geological Survey. Second Annual
Report, 2'*8.

Third Annual Report, 854,

Jaggard, A. Le P^trole, I'Asphalte et le
Bitumen, 134.

Kelly, Edmund. Evolution and Effort, 129.

INDEX,

867

Books noticed :

Kemer von Marilann, Anton. The Natural
History of Plants, 130, 7C5.

Lassar-Cohn. Laboratory Manual of Or-
ganic Chemistry, 850.

Leypoldt, Augusta H., and George lies.
List of Books for Girls and Women,
711.

Lloyd, John Uri. Etidorhpa, 854.

Long, C. C. Home Geography, 279.

Loudon, W. T., and J. C. McLennan. A
Laboratory Course in Experimental Phys-
ics, 852.

Lowell, Percival. Mars, 847.

McClellan, J. A., and John Dewey. Psy-
chology of Number, 132.

Macdougal, D. T. Experimnntal Plant
Physiology, 422.

MacDowall, A. B. Weather and Disease,
853.

Mace, William H. Working Manual of
American Hi^ory, 851.

Macnie, John. Elements of Geometry, 568.

Marshall, A. Milnes. The Frog, 424.

Maskelyne, N. Story-. Crystallography,
424.

Mason, Otis T. The Origins of Invention,
273.

Mathews, F. Schuyler. Familiar Flowers
of Field and Garden, 276.

Menschutkin, N. Analytical Chemistry,
181.

Meunier, Stanislas. Comparative Geology,
278.

Miall, L. C. The Natural History of Aquat-
ic Insects, 5G5.

Minnesota Geological Survey. Final Re-
port, Vol. Ill, Part I, 424.

Missouri Botanical Garden. Sixth Annual
Report, 278.

Morgan, Thomas J. Patriotic Citizenship,
711.

Munroe, James Phinney. The Educational
Ideal, 423,

Nevin, W. M. The History of English Lit-
erature, 568.

New York Commissioners of the State Res-
ervation at Niagara, Eleventh Annual Re-
port, 852.

State Board of Charities. Annual Re-
port for 1894, 134.

Parkes, Louis C. The Elements of Health,
567.

Pharmaceutische Rundschau, 854.

Powell, J. W. Canyons of the Colorado,
278.

Preston, Thomas. The Theory of Light,
710.

Quinn, D. A. Stenotypy, 711.

Reagan, H. C, Jr. The Brush Arc Light
Dynamo, 424.

Richards, Frank. Compressed Air, 855.

Roark, Ruric N. Psychology in Education,
851.

Romanes, George John. Darwin and After
Darwin, Vol. II, 849.

Roscoe, Henry E. John Dalton and the
Rise of Modem Chemistry, 274.

Sadtler, S. P. Handbook of Industrial Or-
ganic Chemistry, 854.

Scott, E. G. Reconstruction during the
Civil War, 853.

Seidel. German Texts, 710.

Self Culture, 280.

Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate. Domesticated
Animals, 704.

Shearman, Thomas G. Natural Taxation,
420.

Shenstone, W. A. Justus von Liebig : his
Life and Work, 274.

Smith, John B. A Revision of the Deltoid
Moths, 709.

Society for Psychical Research. I»roceed-
ings. Part XXVH, 135.

Spanhoofd, A. W., editor. Germania Texts,
710.

Stevenson, Robert. A New Potential Prin-
ciple in Nature, 279.

Stifter. German Texts, 710.

Stockbridge, Horace Edward. Rocks and
Soils, 279.

Syms, L. C. First Year in French,
850.

Taber, C. A. M. The Cause of Warm and
Frigid Periods, 278.

Tarr, Ralph 8. Elementary Physical Geog-
raphy, 849.

Teacher's Mentor, The, 134.

Thompson, Gilman, M.D. Practical Die-
tetics, 705.

Tracy, Roger S. Handbook of Sanitary In-
formation, 710.

Twentieth Century Practice and Interna-
tional Encyclopaedia of Modern Medical
Science, Vol. IV. 708.

United States Commissioner of Education.
Report for 1891-'92, 279.

Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries,

Bulletin, Vol. XIV, 850.

Commiseioner of Labor. The Housing

of the Working People, 703.

Commissioner of Labor. The Slums

of Baltimore, Chicago, New York, and
Philadelphia, 134.

Geological Survey. Fourteenth An-
nual Report, 709.

Geology of the Green Mountains in

Massachusetts, 850.

Mollusca and Cnistacea of the Mio-
cene Formations of New Jersey, 850.

Life-Saving Service, Report for 1894,

853.

University of the State of New York, Aca- '
demic Syllabus, 852.

Tenth Annual Conference of Asso-
ciated Academic Principals, 852.

Summer Schools, 852.

Vines, Sydney H. Student's Text-book of
Botany, 277.

Warming, E. A Handbook of Systematic
Botany, 277.

868 INDEX,

«

Books noticed : paob

Webster, D. First Bunker Hill Oration, 278. Wilson, Edmund B. , and Edward Learning.
Webster's Academic Dictionary, 851. Atlas of the Fertilization and Karyo

White, Horace. Money and Banking, illns- kinesis of the Ovum, 422.

trated by American History, 419. Winter, Noel, Pan- Gnosticism, 711.

White's Outline Studies in the History of Winterburn, Mrs. Florence Hull. Nursery

the United States. 710. Ethics, 706.

Wiley, H. W. Principles and Practice of Wright, Mabel Osgood. Birdcraft, 130.

Agricultural Analysis, 712. Young, Charles A. The Sun, 562.

Borderland of Nonsense, The. (Table) 266

Botanical Garden, The, of Buitenzorg, Java.* A. Tissandier 335

Brandicourt. V. Insects' Eggs * 256

Brigham, Albert Perry. The New Geography 815

Brinton, Daniel G. The Aims of Anthropology 59

Brooks, W. K. The Study of Inheritance 480, 617

Burr, George L. Sketch of Andrew Dickson White. (With Por-
trait) 546

Cannibal Islands, Among the. L.G.Weld 229

Carmichael, James. Sir John Lubbock and the Religion of Savages. 220

Cartaz, A. Quacks and the Reason of them* 821

Champlin, John Denison. Prehistoric Engineering at Lake Copais *. 209

Childhood, Studies of. James Sully. XII. Under Law 105

XIII. Under Law {concluded) 166

XIV. The Child as Artist 381

Cigar-Case Bearer. (Frag.) 860

City Government. (Frag.) 286

'' Lots, Agriculture on. (Frag.) 282

Color Nomenclature. (Frag.) 427

(Consumption considered as a Contagious Disease. A. L. Benedict,

M. D 33

Copais, Lake, Prehistoric Engineering at.* J. D. Champlin 209

Correction, A. (Frag.) 857

Crime, Alcohol and. (Corr.) G. Pyburn 697

" The Stamping out of. M. Oppenheim 527

Crops, Improvement of. (Frag.) 138

Culbertson, Glenn. Imitative Habits of the Blue Jay. (Corr.) 121

Davenport Academy of Sciences. (Frag.) 427

Dewey, Stoddard. Health Experiments in the French Army 204

Dirt-eating. (Frag.) 859

Disease, Nature's Defenses against. (Frag.) 136

Dybowski, J. The Story of a Monkey * 637

Eaton, Virgil G. A Natural Paper Mill 278*

Education, The Ecclesiastical View of. (Table) 557

" A Modern Liberal. (Table) 841

Educational Values in the Elementary School. M. V. O'Shea 675

Electric Furnace, The, in Chemistry. f H. Moissan 417*

Electrical Effects of Spray. (Frag.) 573

Electricity, The Velocity of.* G. Le Clear 687

Ellis, A. B. Evolution in Folklore 93

INDEX, 869

PAGB

Emmons, Ebenezer, Sketch of. (With Portrait) 406

Engineering as an Exact Science. (Frag.) 572

" The Sciences Auxiliary to. (Frag.) 573

Epidemic, The Cost of an. (Frag.) 716

Epileptics, A Colony for. (Frag.) 718

Evans, E. P. Eecent Recrudescence of Superstition 73

Evolution, Lord Salisbury on.f H. Spencer 564*

Examinations. (Frag.) 571

Exercise as a Remedy. H. L. Taylor ^%<q

Fa«e-reading. (Frag.) 429

Farrer, Edward. Miracles in French Canada 234

Feigning, The, of Death. (Frag.) 142

Femald, Frederik A. Natural Features of Venezuela * 510

Fish-bait Farms. (Frag.) 428

Fisher, Sydney G. Has Immigration increased Population ? 244

" The Drift of Population in France. (Corr.) 412

Fog-horn Signals, Audibility of. (Frag.) 286

Folklore, Evolution in. A. B. Ellis 93

Foods, Vegetable, The Value of. (Corr.) C. A. Hoppin 265

Forest Protection in the United States. (Frag.) 140

Frankincense Country, In the. (Frag.) 716

French Institute, The Hundredth Anniversary of the. (Table) 560

Fruit Trees, Tropical.* B. F. Herrick 751

Geography, The New. A. P. Brigham 815

Geological Society in America. (Frag.) 141

" Teaching, A Device for. (Frag.) 426

Germ Filter, The Nose as a. (Frag.) 856

Glacial Man, New Evidence of, in Ohio.* G.* F. Wright 157

Glaciation in High Latitudes. (Frag.) 714

Gold, The Past and Future of. C. S. Ashley 39

Gorman, J. T. Origin of the Term Agnostic. (Corr.) 121

Guiana, The Coming of the Rains in. J. Rodway 652

Habits, Imitative, of the Blue Jay. (Corr.) W. A. Howard, M. D. . . 121

" " " G. Culbertson 121

Health Experiments in the French Army. S. Dewey. 204

Heilprin, Angelo. A Student's Recollections of Huxley 326

Helium, its Identification and Properties. C. A. Young 339

Herrick, Bertha F. Tropical Fi'uit Trees* 751

Hilgard, E. W. Steppes, Deserts, and Alkali Lands * 602

Holder, C. F. The Ancient Islanders of California * 658

Hoppe-Seyler, Death of. (Frag.) 718

Hopnin, C. A. The Value of Vegetable Foods. (Corr.) 265

Howard, W. A., M. D. Imitative Habits of the Blue Jay. (Corr.) ... 121

Huxley, A Student's Recollections of. A. Heilprin 326

Hypnotic States, Trance, and Ecstasy. W. R. Newbold 804

Ice Saws for Opening Navigation. (Frag.) 715

Imitation among Atoms and Organisms. E. Noble 492

870 INDEX,

PAGB

Incubator Bird, The (Megapodius Tumuli). (Frag.) 8S8

Indiana Academy of Science. (Frag.) 859

Indians of Piedmont, Virginia. (Frag.) 714

Infants, The Feeding of. (Frag.) 571

Inheritance, The Study of. W. K. Brooks 480, 617

Insects' Eggs.* V. Brandicourt 256

Iron and Steel, Protecting against Rust. (Frag.) 285

Jordan, David Starr. Are Animals Left-handed ? (Corr.) 121

" " " Scientific Temperance 343

Kindergarten ing in a New Role. (Frag.) 428

Le Clear, GifPord. The Velocity of Electricity * 687

Left-handed, Are Animals ? D. S. Jordan. (Corr.) 121

Le Sueur, Ernest A. Prof. Forbes on " Harnessing Niagara " 198

Le Sueur, W. D. War and Civilization 758

Liberty, The Nature of. (Table) 698

Library Pest, A New. (Fi-ag.) 862

Life, The Problem of. (Table) 414

Limestone, White, A Valley of. (Frag.) 574

Littlehales, G. W. Why the Sea is Salt* 273*

Lombroso, Cesare. The Savage Origin of Tattooing * 793

McKenzie, R. Tait. The Anatomy of Speed Skating * 180

Marriott, H. P. Fitzgerald. Primigenial Skeletons, the Flood, and the

Glacial Period* 14

Materialism, Scientific, The Failure of. W. Ostwald 589

Mather, Frederic G. Both Sides of Profit-sharing 401

Medicine, Modem, The Ideals of. (Frag.) 286

" New Outlooks in the Science and Art of. T. M. Prudden. . 359

" Preventive, The Growth of. (Frag.) 427

Metallurgy', The Microscope in. (Frag.) 285

Meunier, Stanislas. The Geological Work of the Air * 355

Milk, Infectiousness of. (Frag.) 141

" TheCareof. (Frag.) 138

Miracles in French Canada. E. Farrer 234

Moissan, H. The Electric Furnace in Chemistry t 417*

Monkey, The Story of a.* J. Dybowski 637

Morse, Edward S. Individuality in the Nests of the English Sparrow.

(Corr.) 266

Mountain-climbing in Montana. (Frag.) 861

Museum, Public, Requisites of a. (Frag.) 137

Natural History, The New. (Table) 700

Naval Stores, Gathering.* L. J. Vance 469

Necessity. (Table) 844

Negro Problem, The. (Frag.) 717

Newbold, William Romaine. Hypnotic States, Trance, and Ecstasy . . 804

" '* " Normal and Heightened Suggestibility. 641

INDEX. 871

FAGX

Newbold, William Romaioe. Suggestibility, Automatism, and Kin-
dred Phenomena. I. Mental Co-ordination and Organiza-
tion 193

II. The Properties of Mental States. The Conception of the Sub-
conscious 375

III. Disordination and Inco-ordination 520

Niagara, Harnessing, Prof. Forbes on. E. A. Le Sueur 198

Noble, Edmund. Imitation among Atoms and Organisms 492

Obituary Notes. James Constantine Pilling, Charles V. Riley, H.

Bail Ion, E. F. I. Hoppe-Seyler, Louis Pasteur 144

Joseph Thomson, Joseph Grranville Norwood 288

Albert E. Foote, H. Hellriegel 432

Robert Brown 576

Michael S. Bebb, George Lawson, Francis Payne Poucher 864

Ocean Bottoms, Constituents of. (Frag.) 281

Onyx Marble. (Frag.) 283

Oppenheim, Nathan. The Stamping out of Crime 527

O'Shea, M. V. Educational Values in the Elementary School. . . 675

Ostwald, Wilhelm. The Failure of Scientific Materialism 589

Owen, David Dale, Sketch of. (With Portrait) 259

Oysters, Hygiene of. (Frag.) 572

Paper Mill, A Natural.t V. G. Eaton 278*

Pasteur's Successor. (Frag.) 571

Pause, Perhaps, not Reaction. (Table) 412

Piano Touch. (Frag.) 860

Pithecanthropus Erectus. (Frag.) 287

Plants, Giant Mountain. (Frag.) 284

Population, Has Immigation increased ? S. G. Fisher 244

" The Drift of, in France. (Corr.) S. G. Fisher 412

Prison Congress, The Fifth International. S. J. Barrows 395

Professional Institutions.! H. Spencer 49, 265*, 412*, 557* 697*, 841*

Profit-sharing, Both Sides of. F. G. Mather 401

Prudden, T. Mitchell. New Outlooks in the Science and Art of Medi-
cine 359

Pyburn, George. Alcohol and Crime. (Corr.) 697

Quacks and the Reason of Them.* A. Cartaz 821

Race, The Meaning of. (Frag.) 431

Railroad Development, A Dream of. (Frag.) 429

Rays, The X.* J. Trowbridge 771

Religion for the Age. (Table) 124

" of Savages, Sir John Lubbock and the. J. Carmichael 220

Ripley, William Z. Acclimatization 662, 779

Rituals, Old, Tenacity of. (Frag.) 282

Robinson, Norman. The Ways and Means of Ants 826

Rodway, James. The Coming of the Rains in Guiana 652

Ronlgen's, Prof., X Rays. (Frag.) 857

872 INDEX,

PAGTS

Rontgen to the Rescue ! or, A New Chance for Absurdity. (Table). . 845
Royal Society, The Anniversary Meeting of the. (Frag.) 570

Sage School of Philosophy, The. (Frag.) 429

Scientific Alliance, The. (Frag.) 862

" Association, The French. (Frag.) 141

Sea, Why the, is Salt.* G. W. Littlehales 273*

Seebohm, the Ornithologist. (Frag.) 716

Serum, Antirabic. (Frag.) 430

Signs of the Times. (Frag.) 284

Skating, Speed, The Anatomy of.* R. T. McKenzie 180

Skeletons, Primigenial, the Flood, and the Glacial Period.* H. P. F.

Marriott 14

Smith, Mary Roberts. Recent Tendencies in the Education of

Women 27

Smithsonian Institution, The.* H. C. Bolton 289, 449

Sparrow, the English, Individuality in the Nests of. (Corr.) E. S.

Morse 266

Species, British, Extermination of. (Frag.) 142

Spencer, Herbert. Lord Salisbury on Evolution t 564*

" " Prof essional Institutions :

VII. Judge and Lawyer t 49

VIII. Teachert 265*

IX. Architectt 412*

X. Sculptort 557*

XI. Paintert 697*

XII. Evolution of the Professions t 841*

Star, A New Variable. (Frag.) 862

Sternberg, George M. The Practical Results of Bacteriological Re-
searches 735

Strikes, Seven Years of. (Frag.) 856

Suggestibility, Automatism, and Kindred Phenomena. W. R. New-
bold 193, 375, 520

Suggestibility, Normal and Heightened. W. R. Newbold 641

SuUivant, William Starling, Sketch of. (With Portrait) 690

Sully, James. Studies of Childhood :

XII. Under Law. The Struggle with Law 105

XIIL " " On the Side of Law 166

XIV. The Child as Artist 381

The Young Draughtsman * 533

Sulphur, Native, in Michigan. (Frag.) 430

Superstition, Recent Recrudescence of. E. P. Evans 73

Tattooing, The Savage Origin of.* C. Lombroso 793

Taxation, Hon. David A. Wells's Articles on. (Table) 126

Principles of. D. A. Wells 1, 145, 303, 433, 577, 721

Taylor, Henry Ling. Exercise as a Remedy 626

Temperance, Science and. (Table) 417

" Scientific. D. S. Jordan 343

Tissandier, Albert. The Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg, Java* 335

Trowbridge, John. The X Rays* 771

INDEX. 873

PAGB

Union University, Geology and Paleontology at. (Frag.) 574

Vance, Lee J. Gathering Naval Stores * 469

Vegetables, Two WDd, of Merit. (Frag.) 285

Venezuela, Natural Features of.* F. A. Fernald 510

Volcanic Dust Deposit, A, in Kansas. (Frag.) 140

War and Civilization. W. D. Le Sueur 758

Wealth, The Social Function of. P. L. Beaulieu 839

Weld, Laenas Gifford. Among the Cannibal Islands 229

Wells, David A. Principles of Taxation. Introduction 1

I. The Comparatively Recent Tax Experiences of the Federal

Government of the United States 145, 303

II. The Place of Taxation in Literature and History 433, 577, 721

White, Andrew Dickson, Sketch of. (With Portrait.) G. L. Burr. . . 546

Women, Recent Tendencies in the Education of. M. R. Smith 27

Wright, G. Frederick. New Evidence of Glacial Man in Ohio * 157

Young, C. A. Helium, its Identification and Properties 339

Young Draughtsman, The.* J. Sully 533

Zoology, Bibliography of. (Frag.) 572

THE END.

Vol. XLVm.] ESIAB^SIlBD B'Pl^^P^^^ITHANS. [No. 4.

APPLETONS'

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

FEBRUARY, 1896.
EDITED BY WILLIAM JAY YOUMAJfS.

CONTENTS. PA«

I. Principles of Taxation. 11. By David A. Wells, LL.D., D.C.L. 433
n. The Smithsonian Institution. 11. Activities of the Institution.

By Prof. H. Carrington Bolton, Ph. D. (Illustrated.) 449

in. The Effect of Prolonged Drought upon Animal Life. By Dr.

Charles C. Abbott 465

IV. Gathering Naval Stores. By Lee J. Vance. (Illustrated.) 469

V. The Study of Inheritance. I. By Prof. W. K. Brooks, LL. D. . . 480

VI. Imitation among Atoms and Organisms. By Edmund Noble 492

Vn. Natural Features of Venezuela. By Frederik A. Fernald. (Illus.). 510
Vni. Suggestibility, Automatism, and Kindred Phenomena. III. By

Prof. W. RoMAiNB Newbold 520

IX. The Stamping Out of Crime. By Dr. Nathan Oppenheim 527

X. The Young Draughtsman. By James Sully, M. A., LL. D. (Illus.). 533

XL Sketch of Andrew Dickson White. (With Portrait.) 546

XII. Professional Institutions. X. Sculptor. By Herbert Spencer . . 557*

XIII. Lord Salisbury on Evolution. By Herbert Spencer 564*

XIV. Expired Air and Problems of Ventilation 583*

XV. Editor's Table : The Ecclesiastical View of Education. — The Hundredth

Anniversary of the French Institute 557

XVI. Scientific Literature 562

XVII. Fragments of Science 570

NEW YORK:
B. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

73 FIFTH AVENUE.
SlNOLl NUXBKR, 50 CXMTS. TXARLT ST7BSCSIPTI0ir, $6.00.

COPTBIOHT, 1896, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANT.
Entered mt the Post Office at New York, and admitted for transmission through the mails at second-class rates.

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and G>nsumption thrive on

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diseases* Something near

the normal standard is this t

To lose weight is to lose flesh* To
lose and go on losing, or to lose a good
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truly a food as if you had never heard of it as a medicine* That is

the reason] why Scott*s Emulsion brings people up to

weight, when other foods and even plain cod-liver oil fail*

Scott's Emulsion has been indorsed by the medical profession
for twenty years. (Ask your doctor). This is because it is always
palatable — always uniform — always contains the purest Norwegian
Cod-liver Oil and Hypophosphites. Insist on Scott's Emulsion with
trade-mark of man and fish. Put up in 50 cent and $1.00 sizes.
The small size may be enough to cure your cough or help your
baby,

SCOTT & BOWNE

Manufacturing Chemists, ■ New York

WHEN

Overworked

from
any cause

VIN
iMARIANI

XHH mUAJL, irOTlIC

builds up
strength
Quickly

Mailed Free. ^

DMCriptive Book with Tertlmony and

Portraits

^ OP NOTED CELBBRITIBS.

Beneficial and Agreeable.

Every Teat Proves Reputation,
▲TOld SabitltatloB*. Isk for < Yin UarUmi.*
▲t Drnroists and Fancy Grocers.

MARIANI & CO.,

loMDOW : SSt Oxford Stmt. ** ^' ***** ■'' ""^ *"*

THIRTT-SECOND ANNUAIi STATEMENT OF THE

I r\AVELEr\S INSURANCE COMPANY.

JAMES G. BATTERSON, President.

Hartford, Conn.,

PAID-UP CAPITAL, - -
ASSETS.

RealEetate $1,726,718.

Cash on hand and in Bank. 1,498,281 .

Loans on bond and mortgage, real estate 5,030,290.

Interest accrued bat not due 190,872,

Loans on collateral security 1,428,932.

Deferred Life Premiums 279,301.

Premiums due and unreported on Life Policies 265,741.

State, county, and municipal bonds 3,317,597.

Railroad stocks and bonds 8,389,302.

Bank stocks 1,078,414.

Mlsoeilaneous stocks and bonds 1,227,718.

Total

.$10,425,220.36

January i. 1896.

- - $1,000,000.00.

LIABILITIES.

Reaerre, 4 per cent.. Life Department $14,481,110.00

Reserve for Re-insurance, Accident Depart-
ment I,841,6«.t4

Present value of Matured Installment Poli-
cies 880,890.00

Special Reserve for Contingent Liabilities., 406,844.88
Losees unadjusted and not due, and all other

LiabiliUes ..,,.., 864,0gr.Bt

Total Liabilities .$16,763,974.^0

Surplus to Policy-holders $2,661, 345.7g

STATISTICS TO DATE.

Life Department.

Number of Life Policies written 86,16.3

Life Insurance in force f>S7,35;!!,198.00

Gain during 1895 2,980,628.00

New Life Insurance written in 1895.., 13,422,712.00

lUi^urance issued under the Annuity Plan ie entered

at the commuted value thereof as required by Jaw.

Returned to Policy-holders in 1895.... S J, 002,300.78

Returned to Policy-holders since 18&4., 10,686,687.28

Accident Department.

Number of Accident Policies written.. 3,ai9t*#4

Number of Accident Claims paid in 1896 12,556

Whole number of Accident Claims paid 278,216

Returned to Policy-holders In 1896,...$ 1,242,287.54
Returned to Policy-holders since 1864. . 18,454,252.00

Returned to Policy-holders in 1895....$ 2,244,588.32
Returned to Policy-holders since 1864.. 29,140,939>28

JOHN E. MORRIS, Acting Secretary.
GEORGE ELLIS, Actuary, J. B. LEWIS, M. D., Surgeon and ADJU«TtR.

EDWARD V. PRESTON, Sup'T OF AGENCIES. S. C DUNHAM, Counsel.

POWDER

Absolutely Pure^

A cream of tartar baking powder. Highest of all
in leaveninn: strenrth.— Latbst Unitkd Statks
Government Food Repobt.

Royal Baking Powder Co., 1 06 Wall St., N. Y.

Ivory
Soap

99*^^ Pure

"A good complexion needs
no artificial toning or height-
ening." Use a pure soap
like the Ivory and leave
nature to do the rest.

The Procteh & Qamble Co.. Cin»ti.

- <^rtfia(£:5feii:55«e»r5«tt25l»'3

i

I.

f-W-DEVOE-S(s

CSTABaiSfTED 1552,

®FFiC£5:t>K.rurrON^WlLLlAn'3I3

ARTIST5
ATERTAliS.

SiSBSS

SKETCHINCi OUTFITS®

OP ALLKlNPi

TUBE CPLORS-VRTIP; C?L°RSCRm'oNS
DRAWlN(iPI\PEIlCftMM3H£-ii)K?nEDlUm
n/VTMEnATJCAIi INSTRUnENTS

- rtOU5E PAINTERS' COLORS
FRE5Co<S?l?RS'flNE VARNISHES

Corrc5j>on<Jence invitid-CitSlo^ues of our diffcrrTit
^eBArtments To rcsjjonsible |)iffiei.
C0PflNDEVOC8fC«-176R^NDdL?M-5KhlCMa

f'^Ytiiwmf?

U

Igor belongs to UM.

9 ¥

Health to well-fed bodies. It's easy to
feed some people, but proper nourish-
ment for the invalid, the convalescent,
and the dyspeptic is hard to obtain.

A Perfect Food,
Tonic and Restorative,

for the pale, thin, anaemic, dyspeptic, and
overworked, and those needing improved
nourishment ; strengthens and nourishes the
system; restores the appetite; increases the
weight.

SOMATOSE IS FOR SALE BY ALL DRUGGISTS,
IN 2-OZ., M, H, AND 1-LB. TINS.

A i.» i Somatose-Cocoa, Somatose-Bi5Cuit.
^'•"iSomatose-Ciiocolate. - - - - - -

Pamphlets regarding '■^ Somatose" mailed free,

Schieffelin & Co., New York, Sole Agents.

I.— No person shall be allowed more than one
volume at a time, except in the case of works of
fiction in several volumes, when three will be
allowed if taken and returned together.

2.— Two Weeks is the time allowed

for keeping books out, excepting those

marked " Seven Day Book," which

can be kept but one week; the fine

jn each case being two cents for

every day a book is kept beyond

the time. Persons owing fines

forfeit the use of the Library till

they are paid.

3- — All losses of books, or
injuries to them, must be made
good by the person liablei to
the satisfaction of the Library
Committee.
4. Books may be drawn for
use in the Reading Room. 10 be
returned after such use, and the
penalty for failure duly to return
them shall be the same as that pre
scribed in Rule 2d above, for the
keeping of a book one week over the
allotted time.
5. — Borrowers finding a book torn, marked^
or in any' way defaced, are required to report the
matter at once to the Librarian ; otherwise they
will be held responsible for the damage done,

Acme Library Card Pocket

Under Pat. Sept. 26, '76, " Ref. Index File.

Made by LIBRARY BUREAU

146 Franklin St., Boston

Keep Your Card In This Pocket

1