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H. CHAELTON BASTIAN.

THE

POPULAR SCIE^TCE

MONTHLY.

CON DUCTED BY E. L. YOUMAXS

VOL. VIII.

NOVEMBER, 1875, TO APRIL, 1876.

NEW YORK :
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

349 & 551 BROADWAY.

1876.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876,

By D. APPLETON & CO.,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

/o^^i

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

NOVEMBER, 1875.
THE RELATIONS OF WOME:^ TO CRIME.

By ELY VAN DE WAEKEE, M. D.
1.

THE first traditional crime, the fratricide of Abel, was a natural
outgrowth from the conditions of society, which, compared to
the present relations of civilized men, existed germ-like around him.
These conditions alone gave motive and direction to the deed. To
all the after-centuries of human crime this jmmal offense has existed
as a type. Both in cause and effect it is reduced to its simplest pro-
portions. The criminal represents the retrograde tendency of society;
the savagism which exists in every community. Order and progress
are preserved by an irrepressible conflict waged on the border-land,
as it were, of civilization. Many of these crimes grow out of the
artificial wants of society. Others are but relative and belong to
particular conditions, or orders of men, and at other times and places
are without meaning and void of offense. Thus society is ever eager
for the warfare, and, at the time it creates the crime, prepares the
weapons for its punishment.

The propensity to crime is a fixed element in human nature. Que-
telet, whom I have frequently referred to in the course of these papers,
has with singular sagacity and perseverance reduced the social rela-
tions of man nearly to an exact science. The dark and tortuous
by-ways in life, which so many seem perforce to follow, arrange them-
selves with the regularity of geometrical lines under the clear illumi-
nation of his analysis. Yet these are surface-lines only. There are
profound depths of human misery and crime, over which a veil seems
drawn by a merciful hand, and in which we have but a suspicion of
the force of law. But, in these depths, in which the terminal fibres
of human relations find soil and sustenance, can be found the origin
of the ordinances under which these surface-lines are grouped. If
this he so, it follows that crime must be studied as a natural phenora-

VOL. Tin. — 1

2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

enon rather than as an accident. Those efforts which society has
made to stamp out and confine this tendency to evil must, to an equal
extent, spring from higher law; just as a breakwater is reared to pro-
tect an exposed harbor from the encroacliments of storm and wave.

We have of late years come to look upon criminals as a special
class of the community. We have come to complacently call them
the "criminal class," just as we do the mercantile class or any other
reputable order of men. This is so far true as to be capable of proof
more by the exceptions than the rule. We have come to look upon
crime as we do the typhus fever or the cholera, as prevailing mainly
amid dirt and ignorance. I believe this to be true only so far as igno-
rance permits those good qualities in men to be undeveloped wliich
require culture for their development ; and the existence of such quali-
ties has not aayet been demonstrated. It must be understood that
while the word " ignorance " does not express a positive quantity, it
yet expresses a positive quality which is true of the mass of people.
This word with perfect fairness may be applied to the vast numbers
which swell the aggregate of a census-table, without any qualification.
I believe it can be shown that it is simply from excess in numbers that
the ignorant classes furnish the recruits to the ranks of crime, and not
from any tendency to crime dependent upon the negative quality of
ignorance. A careful analysis of facts in this field induces Mr. Buckle
to say that " the existence of crime, according to a fixed and uniform
scheme, is a fact more clearly attested than any other in the moral
history of man." * Another high authority may be quoted in evidence
to prove that this scheme is exempt from those laws which govern
intellectual development: "It is one of the plainest facts that neither
the individuals nor the ages that have been most distinguished for
intellectual achievements have been most distinguished for moral ex-
cellence, and that a high intellectual and material civilization has
often coexisted with much depravity." "^

All this seems to show us that there is a rhythm in human actions
that forms a minor chord in the forever unwritten music which those
who love Nature know as existing profoundly in all her works.

Since we are dealing with an element in human character which
preserves a fixed value, it is evident that we may study the relation
of any class in any community to these constantly-recurring phenom-
ena, provided we can isolate this class from all others. In the study
before us, this has already been done by the division of mankind into
the sexes. I need draw no other line.* Women stand out so clearly as
a class, and, in relation to any series of acts wdiich preserve a more or
less constant periodicity, are so sharply defined from man, that they are
easily contrasted with him in relation to any condition common to
both.

* "History of Civilization in England," vol. i., pp. 22, 23.

-* "History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne," vol. i., p. 157.

TEE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO CRIME. 3

I have already called attention to the fact that intellectual devel-
opment obeys other laws than those which relate to crime. This re-
quires to be brought out more clearly in relation to women. In this
age women are receiving more chivalric attention, more material
respect, than in any other known to history. In this century they are
accorded the full right, and are given the aid of some of the best intel-
lects among the other sex, to adjust those wrongs under which they
have labored for ages. They are identified with every scheme of love
and purity which demands good motives and a sympathy that never
slumbers. It is for this reason, then, that, when we associate women with
the idea of crime, it is difficult to believe that they are not influenced
by other laws than those which aifect men. There is nothing in a
brawny hand and coarse muscle which tends to evil. The hand which
executes may be white and begemmed. The mind which plans may
be cultivated and refined.

In the study before us, we shall be obliged to resort to other facts
than those simply contained in tabulated statements of crime. Sta-
tistics has done much in social studv, and in this instance it has
pointed out the existence of law in human action in the aggregate ;
but it has gone no deeper. We can establish by its means a probable
difference in the degree to which the sexes are affected by crime ; we
can so group these numerical statements that they will be a mutual
check upon each other, but if we are to learn any thing of the under
stratum of human life, of its curves and faults, of which we see only
here and there an upheaval upon the surface of society, we must
study sexual and general character, w^e must observe the mutual rela-
tion and dependence of the sexes and classes upon each other, and
give due credit to the cerebral and physical differences which go to
make up the sum of sex — all of which are beyond the province of
figures to express. In the course of these papers, therefore, I shall
♦esort to statistics only to the extent I have mentioned. The popular
character which I have endeavored to give them also forbids the re-
sort to statistical detail, except to the extent which is inseparable
from the nature of the study.

As in hygiene so in crime, there is not one law for woman and
another for man. The emotions which impel to crime are few, and to
the operation of which the sexes are both exposed. But, it does not
follow that these causes react in the production of crime to an equal
degree. The propensity to crime, as defined by its actual commis-
sion, is four times as great in men as in women.' Here at the outset
we are confronted by a remarkable contrast. But, allowed to stand
as here stated, it involves a vital error. A jDropensity to crime is its
existence latent in the possibilities of the individual. Justin Mc-
Carthy, in one of his novels, in describing a character defines her
virtue as purely anatomical while mentally most unchaste. Here the

' Quetelel, "A Treatise on Man," p. 70.

4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

propensity was one thing and its physical expression another. It
therefore follows that if we are to reach the degree of woman's pro-
pensity to crime it must be by other means than a simple expression
of the difference in the actual perpetration of total crime. The pro-
pensity can be approximately measured by the degree of the offense.
Quality and degree are in lasv the measures of the punishment in-
flicted on the offender. This is called justice, and it is indeed tem-
pered with meicy when we compare it with the operations of law less
than a century ago, when it dealt with crime simply as a quality with-
out reference to degree. In its treatment of criminals, society took
its first scientific stand-point when it measured the propensity to evil
bv the degree of evil actually committed. It seems safe to assume
that in a certain limited range, as the degree of crime defines its pen-
alty, so also it expresses the extent of the propensity. Another fact
maybe approximately established from the same data. The causes of
crime, those deeply-hidden undercurrents existing in society, the ebb
and flow of which seem to register themselves in undeviating curves
of human conduct, must vary in intensity to the degree of crime
which is their natural outgrowth. Thus, a man who commits a crim-
inal act with the full knowledge that his life is jeopardized thereby
must surely be exposed to an influence far greater than one who,
under all circumstances, would shrink from the greater crime through
a sense of punishment, but would not hesitate to commit a lesser
offense. If this is not so, then society has been acting upon a false
theory in its repression of crime by the fear of punishment. But I
believe legislation for this purpose has been based upon a correct
knowledge of human nature, and that the average man with criminal
tendencies is, to a certain degree, deterred from criminal conduct by
a fear of punishment. There is strong confirmation of this in the
condition of society existing in the border States and raining regions,
in which there is a low estimate of the value of human life, not from
the fact that life is individually less precious there than elsewhere,
but that the tendency to this form of crime exists in greater force as
a natural outcome of the conditions under which human life is there
grouped. I believe it is just, therefore, to partly form an estimate of
the tendency to crime by the method I have adopted, aided by a sim-
ple comparison of the prevalence of crime in general in the sexes.

The apparent great excess in the prevalence of crime among men
forms one of the most interesting facts of sex in crime. At the outset
we ought to reach, if possible, the cause. In this connection all ideas of
the innate morality of women over men must be abandoned. Modern
literature is full of a false and even morbid idea upon this subject.
M. Michelet has written a romance called "Woman," ' and it is a fair
sample of what may be termed the sentimental estimate of the. sex.
But the frail creature portrayed in the florid sentences of Michelet

» " Woman," from the French of M. Michelet, by J, W. Palmer. New York, 18'?4.

THE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO CBIME. 5

is not the woman of France. One glance at the tables of Quetelet
proves this.

We must take a practical view of woman's character. She must
be regarded as one in whom the passions burn with as intense heat
as in the other sex. The limits of her morality are the same as man's.
She attains purity in the same manner; and she meets sexual disaster
through the same means. Her worldly view is bounded by the same
horizon. She upholds for herself the same standard of success or
failure. Temptations run in the same channel and are resisted by the
same psychical traits. The forces of heredity play the some role in
her mental and bodily life. Beyond these, she belongs to a different
mental type from man, the effects of which in our present knowledge,
and in the relations we are now studying the sex, reach limits im-
possible to fix. I can see no other way of viewing the sex, and reach-
ing any thing like approximate truth in her relations to crime.

In crimes against persons in which personal strength forms an
element, there is a physical factor for the difference. The ratio of
strength between the sexes is as sixteen to twenty-six, and this is found
to correspond to the difference in which women and men participate
in crimes against persons and jJi'operty.^ Such a coincidence as this,
constantly recurring, renders, in this broad classification of crimes in
general, such an explanation probable. But, in a closer analysis of
crime in particular, this physical basis loses its value as a probable
cause. While we must allow that sexual difference in strength finds
a reflex result in consciousness, and thus places a limit to the acts of
either sex, yet in crimes against persons we find the sexes approaching
to and receding from a common ratio. It is this fact which leads me
to the conclusion that all argument regarding the innate excess of
moral qualities in the female sex over the male, is based upon a fallacy.
It is strongly confirmatory of this, that a simple numerical comparison
of the prevalence of crime in the sexes leads to error, unless we credit
women with the fewer temptations, the less opportunity, and those
forms of sexual cerebration which find their expression in a want of
belligerence which characterize women. Thus it would be obviously
wrong to assert that, because twelve women to one hundred men are
convicted of assassination, women represent more than eight times
the morality of men in relation to this one offense. This crime is
just the one to call into play all those conditions which constitute
the moral atmosphere and conditions of sex. Woman's want of op-
portunity, the nature of her occupations, and the absence of the same
degree of temptation, must all be taken into consideration in forming
an opinion of the moral equivalent of women in connection with the
crime. If it were possible to give to each one of these modifying con-
ditions a numerical expression, this moral equivalent could be given a
mathematical value. But this is impossible, and each possesses in itself

' Quetelet, loc. cit., p. 91.

6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

an imaginary yet appreciable value. Again, let us group all those
crimes against persons which involve the taking of human life, and
observe the extent to which the sexes are engaged. For all crimes
against persons, Quetelet places the ratio at sixteen to one hundred ;
but in the class of crimes I have selected, involving infanticide, poi-
soning, parricide, assassination, and murder, we find this ratio nearly
doubled, being thirty to one hundred. It is evident that woman's
tendency to crime must be measured by some other standard than
innate morality. If we apply to these figures the theory that the
degree of crime is in a measure the test of propensity, we obtain some
startling results. Take the felonies named above in the aggregate,
and while the marked difference of sex in the commission of total
crime is evident, we see that in the perpetration of these grave offenses
she exceeds her ratio of crimes against property. I think this shows
the probability that those emotions or passions which serve as the
incentives to crime, approach in intensity the same mental conditions
in the other sex. When we consider the strong emotional nature of
women, and that many of these emotions are of an organic or sex-
ual origin, and their social relations, and the habit of dependence,
which they have inherited, upon these relations, we must admit that
the moral elements of crime are so strengthened as to modify mate-
rially their deficiencies of strength and want of opportunity.

Many of woman's social relations are well calculated to clear and
make easy the way to crime. It is another confirmation of the fact
that society prepares the crime, and the criminal executes it. Com-
pensation is found for her in the fact that society also places obstacles
in her way by removing many temptations and opportunities for
offense. But, in those crimes which are the natural outgrowth of her
sexual and social relations, we find woman standing upon man's own
level as a criminal. Thus, in infanticide and in poisoning, both of
which, from the degree of offense involved, show a strong action of
the exciting cause, all sexual difference in numbers disappears, and it
is evident that the tendencies to those two crimes are equivalent in
the sexes.

As the preceding shadows forth the interesting fact that woman,
as a criminal, is under forces of both restraint and non-restraint other
than sexual differences of mind or body, compared to man, it will
be necessary to refer briefly to the nature and extent of these modify-
ing circumstances, in order to appreciate the true bearings of the
question. These conditions spring mainly from her social relations.
This leaves us another important class of modifying conditions which
may be traced to sexual relations. Two classes can therefore be
made: {A) social conditions, and {B) sexual conditions, modifying
woman's relation to crime.

T[ie first {A) which exist sufficiently near to the subject to call
for analysis are : (1) occupation, (2) opportunity, and (3) marriage;

THE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO CRIME. 7

and each of which must have a marked influence on sporadic cases of
crime, and especially upon the creation of the criminal habit. But,
much as these modifying circumstances have to do with the question
before us, yet returns involving these particulars are so imperfect that
we are able to get but a hint of the extent to which each acts.

(1.) Occupation, as it places woman above temptation to the minor
degrees of crime, or as it brings her more closely in contact with con-
stantly-recurring temptations, becomes an important factor. It is evi-
dent that these conditions must exist iu the lives of both sexes, and
have their influence on the frequency of crime and the nature of the
ofiense. Thus in an official return ' quoted by Quetelet, in which the
offenders are classified by occupation, the accused of the eighth class
who all exercised liberal professions, or enjoyed a fortune, are those
who have committed the greatest number of crimes against persons ;
while eighty-seven hundredths of the accused of the ninth class, com-
posed of people without character, as beggars and prostitutes, have
attacked scarcely any thing but property. When the accused arc-
divided into two classes, one of the liberal professions, and the other
composed of joui'neymen, laborers, and servants, this difference is ren-
dered still more conspicuous." This is sufficient to render the broad
inference probable that want or necessity induces but the minor
degrees of crime against property, w^hile the more serious phases of
crime belong to the opposite conditions of society, or have their main-
spring in other motives. In the Compte General de F Administration
de la Justice, the occupation of the accused is given by sex, and under
the article Domestiques we find one hundred and forty-nine men and
one hundred and seventy-five women employed as personal servants,
nearly all of whom were accused of the minor degrees of crimes against
property. These proportions for this occupation hold about the same
relations from year to year. As persons so engaged are maintained
generally by their employers, want could not have existed as a mo-
tive for these offenses. Cupidity, or the desire to appear well, with
the facility of its gratification, afforded by occupation, is the probable
motive, and, making allowance for the slight excess of women so em-
ployed, exists in almost equal intensity in both sexes.

From what we know of the inadequate pay attending many of the
employments in which women are engaged, it is safe to say that irre-
sistible temptation is often the result. In the larger cities there are
thousands of women, reaching from youth to advanced life, who are
but just able to provide themselves with the necessities of life by
labor extending over more than half of the hours in the day. Many
of these have others dependent upon them, which must add very much
to the tendency to the minor forms of crime. But the tendency to
crime arising from inadequate pay is twofold. It may not be sufficient
to meet necessary bodily wants, or barely sufficient, or, as is too gen-
» " R.ipport au Roi," 1829. » Loc. cit., p. 85.

8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

erally the case, it is insufficient to supply those matters of personal
adornment and comforts of surrounding, small as many of them are,
which are so necessary to contentment. This tendency to adornmen-t
either in person or surroundings must be looked at seriously as a sex-
ual mental trait in women. They need but to reach the rudimentary
stage of education to have developed in them {esthetic tendencies, and
which in many seem to exist innately. This feeling is also closely allied
to that personal pride which is such a safeguard against the encroach-
ments of vice. This pride of person is to many a struggling woman
what a moral atmosphere is to others. To the one it is an instinct
which keeps her from the degradation, and that conduct which leads to
it; to the other it is the moral foi'ce which surrounds her and lifts her
above the opportunities for evil. Viewed in this light, personal pride,
as expressed in the adornment of person and home, may replace the
purely moral sense to a certain extent. But pushed beyond the point
at which it contributes to correct conduct, and allowed to exist solely
as a sexual trait, it may become a strong incentive to crime. There
is no reason to doubt but it is mainly the cause which makes crimes
against property so nearly equal in the sexes among French domestics
just alluded to. A mere desire for luxury would not be liable to de-
velop in one never at any time of life exposed to its enervating influ-
ence, as the mass of working-women spring from parents who are
also toilers, so that we may safely conclude that want, or a personal
pride to appear better than others in the same station, is the most
active cause of crime among underpaid women who have inherited
no criminal taint.

The massing of large numbers of women at manufacturing centres
is a circumstance from which spring many conditions which render
the minor degrees of crime easy of commission. It is a singular fact
that a great preponderance of numbers in one sex over the other, un-
restrained by ties of family, and without the natural dependence of
the different occupations and stations of life upon each other, almost
invariably defines a locality in which the various forms of crime exist
to excess. This has long been remarked of places in which the num-
ber of men greatly exceeds the number of women, but little attention
has been called to the same condition as resulting from the preponder-
ance in numbers of the other sex. Any one who has inquired into
the causes of the social evil must have been struck by the numbers
who admitted they had taken the first steps of their career in the pop-
ulous manufacturing towns where an excessive number of their own
sex was employed. There is this marked diflTerence : an excess in the
number of men leads to an increase of crimes against persons, while
an excess of women increases crimes against property, in both cases
relatively as to sex. I see no way, in our present knowledge of the
subject, of explaining this, other than that a healthy tone of society
demands an even balance of the different occupations and stations,

THE RELATION'S OF WOMEN TO CRIME. g

and the presence of those ties of kinship which act so powerfully as
restraints. Aside from these conditions I know of no facts which
show that an even proportion in numbers of the sexes has a mutually
conservative effect upon morals.

Generally, those in whom there is no inherited criminal taint, or
no development of the criminal habit, would not seek nor create an
opportunity for offense. But this can hold true only as to crimes
against property, for in the other class of offenses, revenge, jealousy,
avarice, and other emotions, may act suddenly as the exciting cause.

It is evident that woman's opportunities for crime are restricted
by her relations to society, except, as we have already seen, certain
facilities are afforded by her occupation. The moral influence of
woman upon society is powerful ; but it is negative rather than posi-
tive. Woman wields a sort of moral inhibitory power. Except as
she may directly incite the other sex to crime, relationship to woman
restrains and tones down the more salient points of the male charac-
ter. Her lessened opportunity for crime results naturally from her
sexual relations. Oppoi'tunity springs from the free mingling of large
numbers in the heat and action of life. It is the antagonism between
interests and objects, the friction, as it were, between the rapidly-mov-
ing actors, which brings out the intensity of emotion which I'esults in
the open or secret warfare of society. The vast majority of women
are, to a certain extent, removed by the restraints not by any means
artificial, but those which naturally result from their sexual relations,
from the opportunity for crime. But I would limit even those re-
straints to crimes against property, rather than against persons.
Although the ratio is sixteen and thirty -two to one hundred for
each of these classes resj^ectively, yet I believe it can be shown that
the diminished ratio for crimes against persons depends upon other
and more specific causes than her sexual attitude to society. Domes-
ticity in this relation shows its potency as a conservator of morals ;
but, standing alone and unaided by mutual dependence and interest,
its power is limited to placing each subject beyond the more closely-
besetting opportunities to which men are exposed. It is but neces-
sary to call attention to the fact that it is from among female domes-
tics and operatives that the ranks of prostitution are recruited, in
order to show that domesticity, which is the condition of seven-
eighths of the female population, must be accompanied by other
relations in order to act as a more or less complete restraint to
crime. I use the word here in its broadest possible sense, as defining
the position of the majority of the sex. Great as the influence of the
domestic relation is, it is limited by the fact that it is not permanent.
It is constantly exposed to those accidents to which all human i-ela-
tions are liable. The passions and discordant interests find in this
relation a field for their utmost activity. The sexual relation, which
is founded in the passions common to us all, finds in them the ele-

lo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ments of its strength and permanency, as well as its weakness. It
is created and made lasting as life, or as brief as a summer's day,
by one and the same organic emotion. Otherwise marriage, which
we may assume as tbe type of domesticity, would not seem of itself
to exist as a factor in crime. As we study marriage in relation to
crime in another part of this paper, we shall perceive some very sin-
gular facts in which its bearings upon society are not so healthy as
might be expected. It cannot be charged, however, to marriage,
which is the most perfect of all human relations, but to its underlying
weakness, the changing sexual conditions upon which it is based. It
is safe in a broad grouping of crime to say that the emotions and pas-
sions define ofienses against persons, while those against property are
characterized by processes of mental calculation and deliberation.
The last needs opportunity and temptation; the first exists every-
where. The domestic relation afibrds a refuge to the one, and con-
tains within itself the element of the other. For these reasons I be-
lieve that the restraint afibrded by domesticity must be mainly limited
to crime against property.

In connection with this division of our subject we are brought
face to face with the fact that women are as capable of crime as men.
"It is not the degree of crime which keeps a woman back," says Que-
telet .... " Since parricides and wounding of parents are more
numerous than assassinations, which again are more frequent than
murder, and wounds and blows generally, it is not simply weakness,
for then the ratio for parricide and wounding of parents should be
the same as for murder and w^ounding of strangers." '

With opportunities equal to man's, with the w^ay to crime made
easy, instead of being hedged in by the limits of her occupations,
woman may equal him in the tendency to crime. Infanticide, in
view of tlie strength of woman's maternal emotions, of the acute-
ness of her sympathies, and the general attributes of her char-
acter, stands alone as a crime in its relations to the sex. Consider-
ing the violence done to emotions which are a part of her organic
psychical life, it has no equivalent in degree in the range of crime. If
we apply to it the theory that the degi*ee of oifense, to a certain ex-
tent, affords a measure of the tendency to crime in the individual,
this crime would reveal in women such a tendency greatly in excess
of the other sex. But we must bear in mind that this crime, more
than any other, wliich tends to make woman appear unduly promi-
nent as a criminal, is a natural outgrowth of social surroundings. It
is a marked instance of the fact that society contains within itself,
even in its normal conditions, the moral agencies that create crime.
Society has raised for itself a gauge of conduct, by which the alter-
native may be presented to any woman, of either crime or disgrace.
At the same time society has so organized itself that the chief aim

^ Loc. cit., p. 01.

THE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO CRIME. n

of every woman has been to establish a permanent relation to some
man based upon involuntary sexual emotions. So long has this been
in existence, so much power has it acquired by the increment of the
forces of heredity, that it has become an organic law of society. This
is a factor which enters into every woman's existence ; by it her sex-
ual life is made to exceed in intensity the intellectual. Ceaseless
indwelling upon what every woman is taught to regard as both a
necessity and an honor has tended to give undue force to every thing
that relates both mentally and physically to her sexual existence.
This is the manner in which society has made the way easy for
woman's sexual error. Reflecting upon this, I confess to admiration
for a sex which in the face of these difficulties has ever maintained
such a well-deserved reputation for jjurity, and shown us that man-
kind turns instinctively to good rather than evil. Punishment is part
of the crime, with society. To women for a sexual offense it measures
out a punishment relentless and life-long. They are banished and
hang on the outermost skirts of the inexorable law-giver as " Scarlet-
Letter" ones, for whom, in all their lives, there is no further hope.

Prepared in this fashion for infanticide, can it be wondered at
that the ratio for this crime is 1,320 women to 100 men ? * It is clearly
an alternative of either social banishment and a total defeat of her
selected destiny, or an attempt to conceal her error by crime. "With
an obliteration of one set of moral feelings there must be necessarily
a weakening of the general moral character. She is therefore pre-
pared to violate all the emotions and consciousness which have their
origin in the very condition, through the undue development of which
she met disaster. Infanticide appeal's to the woman's consciousness
less formidable and repellent than her certain punishment by society.
Her training has prepared her to place this lessened value upon the
crime. Quetelet gives prominence to shame as an impelling motive
to the crime. I can give it no such value. That sense of shame or
modesty which exists as a phase of sexual cerebration in every men-
tally healthy woman, and that induces her to guard so jealously the
casket after the jewel has been stolen or rather bestowed, is the part
of her mental life to which the most violence has been done by her
social error. What the French philosopher ought to refer to, is not
the sexual quality of shame, but a sense of degradation which is com-
mon in an equal degree to both sexes. It is the sense that the good
opinion of those we know, and whose esteem we value, has been for-
feited. When we connect this sense of forfeiture with the fact that
the interests in life which women are educated to hold most sacred,
await but detection to be lost forever, I think we have found suffi-
cient reason why this crime, which so antagonizes all womanly quali-
ties, should exist to such a degree as to alter nearly one-half the ratio
of the sexes in relation to crimes which involve human life. In ana

' Quetelet, loc. cit.

12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lyzing the circumstances which bear upon infanticide, we are studying
the darkest page of woman's criminal history. It proves that under
a sufficient motive, and with every opportunity which her peculiar
relation to that offense gives, she demonstrates her capacity to equal
man in both the degree and number of her criminal acts. It is, how-
ever, an offense so characteristically entwined with her sexual life,
and with her relations to society, that we must have a due regard for
circumstances in contrasting it with any crime or series of crime in
men. As already perceived, I am disposed in this inquiry to assign
it but one value : her disposition to entertain the criminal idea, and
under favorable opportunity to give that idea expression. In other
respects the crime stands alone, and can be used only in contrasting
woman against woman. There are certain abnormal states of sexual
cerebration connected with this offense which will more readily pre-
sent themselves when we study the crime against society — the social
evil.

In considering the effect of married or celibate life upon women in
relation to crime, we are beset by many difficulties in regard to data.
The officials upon whom devolve the duty of collecting criminal statis-
tics, have yet to learn that they deprive their labor of much of its sci-
entific usefulness by their errors of omission. The information has
but little value that so many male or female criminals are married or
unmarried. A proper study of the subject requires that this informa-
tion be given in its relation to crime as it affects persons or property,
the age at which the criminal career began in the two classes re-
spectively, and crime among the widowed or divorced. Nearly all
these facts are wanting. We can, however, collect sufficient data to
enable us to shadow forth the probable truth in regard to this im-
portant matter. We may safely term marriage the unit of force in
our present civilization. I have briefly called attention to its innate
strength and weakness, which are inseparable from human mutability.
It is easy to perceive the manner in which marriage may act as a con-
servator of morals, and its operation as a promoter of crime is equally
evident ; but the extent of its operation in either direction is difficult
if not impossible to measure. In the examination of the returns of
crime for the years 1867, 1871, and 1873, in New York City,' and
which show great uniformity in the social condition of the sexes, we
are met with the strange fact that the percentages of the married of
both sexes correspond, being thirty-nine per centum ; while for males
the percentage of the unmarried is fifty-five, and for females in the
same social condition it is forty-two. Regarding marriage as a con-
servator of morals in its affirmative rather than its negative relation,
this statement places man on a level with woman ; but observing fur-
ther that the excess of male criminals is furnished from the unmarried,

» Table " B," 23d and 2'7th, and Table " A," 29th, " Annual Reports of the Prison As-
sociation, State of New York."

THE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO GRIME. 13

and that the single and married female criminals exist in nearly equal
proportions, we can reach but one conclusion, that marriage exists as
a restraining influence against crime more strongly among men than
women. I think this result is opposed to the preconceived opinion of
the majority, of the effect of marriage upon women. Marriage for
women has ever been regarded as a preliminary condition to reform.
This is the result of the sentimentalism which has entered into the
solution of many social problems. Marriage is not unmixed good.
Lecky says of it, that " beautiful affections which had before been
latent are evoked in some particular forms of union, while other
forms of union are particularly fitted to deaden the affections, and
pervert the character." ' Woman's keenly emotional nature is well
disposed to be exalted or depraved by marriage. It seems hardly
possible to reach the true causes of the nearly negative results of mar-
riage upon the morality of women by a study of the character of this
sex alone. In women, rather than men, are mirrored the lights and
shadows of society. Mentally she is the plastic material which takes
its form from the protean phases of life around her. She is spiritually
the resultant of her moral atmosphere. I believe these influences are
more potent in forming her character than man's, from the nature of
her dependent circumstances. With man's opportunity for objective
life, he can remove himself, partly at least, from the moral surround-
ings ; and by identifying himself both bodily and mentally with labor,
which has for its object, usually, something to be attained in the
future, he has loop-holes to escape from impressions received from
others, which with a more subjective life would result in introspec-
tion, by which the mind is familiarized with the criminal idea.

From the same source we may gain additional facts as to the- nega-
tive effect of marriage upon the morality of women. In the tables re-
ferred to, involving in the aggregate an excess of males over females
of about two to one, we find the number of widowed females over
males in the same social state to be nearly double. It is impossible
to state specifically the nature of the crimes involved in this excess ;
but it probably represents, in a great measure, offenses against prop-
erty. The social condition of widowhood in the average woman is
not conducive of morality ; and yet we have already shown that act-
ual mari'iage is attended with nearly negative results. From this we
may gain an idea of the extent to which women are the victims of cir-
cumstances at the beginning of their criminal career. The figures we
have been analyzing represent crime in a great city. Under this con-
dition, the excess in the number of widows represents probably cases
of complete destitution. The fact that this excess of widows had no
means of coping with this difficulty, except by a resort to crime against
property, renders the conclusion safe that not only marriage had not
developed in them a condition favorable to morality, but had actually

• Loc. cit.^ vol. ii., p. 369.

14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

so lowered the moral tone as to render them unfit, as a class, to con-
tend with the difficulties of life, and exiiihit the same degree of moral-
ity as the unmarried woman. Much of this result must depend upon
the unavoidable social position of the married woman — one not at all
calculated to test either her morality or self-reliance. The duties of
maternity and domesticity inseparable from her position, do not fortify
her against evil in her changed relation to society. On the contrary,
with the burden of children upon her, in the time of need, she looks
upon crime less as a positive than as a comparative evil. With the
true woman, there is no chance for hesitation in the choice between
crime in its minor forms and her maternal feelings. But the marriage
relation has other influences in forming woman's character as a crimi-
nal. The intimacy of the wife with a bad husband, who, if not a
criminal, at least may be capable of infusing lax moral notions in the
wife, would, if she were left a widow, surely bear fruit. We need a
more intimate knowledge of many facts in order to fully understand
this question of widowhood in its relation to crime. It is doubtful if
returns of crime from less densely populated places than New York
City would furnish results at all parallel to those in relation to widows.
The most plausible explanation I can give is, that these figures repre-
sent cases of absolute destitution.

There are many other relations that marriage bears to woman's
career as a criminal, but which are beyond the scope of a magazine-
article. •, All that relates to infanticide, and the prevalence of the
crime of the period, among the single and married, ought, I believe, in
writings of a popular character, to be omitted, except possibly the
grave words of warning. Upon this subject I have written all that I
thought prudent several years ago, and to whicli I refer the reader.'
The well-known lines of Pope upon the effect of familiarity with vice,
are certainly very true to-day. It is by a too familiar view of even
the shadow of crime, that in certain minds the criminal idea may be
developed. We need but abolish the mental barriers to crime to step
from the criminal idea to the criminal act.

Instinctive recoil from the criminal idea without any mental res-
ervation is the characteristic of moral health. It is upon the morally
healthy minds that unfavorable social conditions may have most de-
plorable effect. One in whom the tendency to crime exists as a latent
mental quality, requires no social conditions for its development.
Whatever his or her occupation or social condition may be, this latent
quality is liable to assume active existence, and shape the destiny of
the individual. There is one quality that the criminal exhibits which
defines him as a class, and is the only trait by the existence of which
he becomes the member of a class. This is the liability, after the first
outbreak, to commit repeated offenses. I find no term which expresses

' " The Detection of Criiriinal Abortion, and a Study of Foeticidal Drugs." James
Campbell, Boston, 1872.

THE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO CRIME. 15

this so well as that of the criminal habit. Mentally and physically
we are the victims of custom. Existence, like running streams, has a
tendency to find for itself fixed channels. Life as it exj^ands seems to
seek points of least resistance for its outlets, and in following which
it encounters less friction to retard its flow. In relation to crime, tliis
exists as strongly as the opium or alcohol habit. The habit may find
its factor in perverted moral feeling, whether hereditary or acquired,
but its physical expression becomes the rule of life. Take such an in-
stance as that of Ruloff, to whom Nature had given the crude mate-
rial of a magnificent mind. In spite of the terrible potency of his
criminal ideas, a longing for a nobler and higher life existed within
him in sufficient force to give direction to considerable self-culture.
He stole, and would kill without remorse any one who stood between
him and his object, simply to gain money to enable him to follow his
studies. His life took the direction of the least resistance. That
which existed in the normal man as a sense of right or wrong, and
offered itself as an obstacle to wrong-doing, had no place in this man's
mental life. The outgoings of his life in the direction of least resist-
ance, simply and naturally led him to crime. Cerebral and bodily ac-
tivities, among the good and bad alike, follow the channels in which
they encounter the least friction, either objectively or subjectively.
It is thus we have the parson and the thief. By inherited traits, early
training, occupation or social condition, weak points may be created
in the barriers which surround the activities of life, and when maturity
is reached the individual's existence is defined by ineiFaceable lines.
At this stage of life, efforts, made either from within or without, to
give a new direction to these channels, come too late. Habit has been
established which confirms the direction life has taken. These two
forces united seem irresistible. I was, several years ago, brought in

contact with an instance which proves this. Lena S was of German

descent, and about fifty years old. She was of more than average in-
telligence, and of spare, nervous temperament. Lena was an instance
of sporadic crime, in the sense that she did not belong to a criminal
family. She followed the specialty of shoplifting, one that requires
great coolness and cunning. Caught in the act and arrested, her his-
tory was brought out. She was married, and her husband was serv-
ing out a term of imprisonment, but with whom she had not lived for
many years. She wandered from city to city, following her business;
she had been repeatedly arrested, and more than once punished, and
every time her whereabouts was brought to the knowledge of her
family by her arrest, attempts were made to reclaim her, but in vain.
Sentenced to several years of imprisonment, she quickly began to
droop. She passed sleepless nights, with quick, irritable pulse, and
loss of appetite. She constantly brooded, and laid more than one plot
to escape, one of which was nearly successful. Out of about a year
and a half of confinement, not more than a month of light labor was

i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

exacted of her. Her health became so broken that, at the earnest
solicitation of her relatives, the prison authorities took the case up,
and secured her a pardon on condition that she left the State, and
her relatives provided for her. But the transition from prison-life to
the comforts of a home, and a life of ease, offered no attractions to the
unfortunate woman. I believe she remained under the care of her
relative — a devoted sister — but a few months, when she resumed, out
of choice, her old mode of life, and is now serving out another sen-
tence.

This case shows how irresistibly the deliberate acts of life flow in
the channel which habit and mental traits mark out for them. The bar-
riers which society, and fear of punishment, and love, place in the way

of a career like this of Lena S , are swept away, as it were, before

a flood. This is the destiny of the fatalist, and the force of habit, an
expression of the theory of least resistance, and the effects of heredity
of the sociologist. Let us analyze the last case further, to illustrate
the theory of least resistance, as modified by occupation and social
condition. It presents a seeming contradiction. She moved on in
her career of crime late in life, with her moral atmosphere charged
with resistance to her progress. Contrasted with this was her criminal
pupilage in early life. Her husband united pauperism and crime, and
if originally her moral perceptions were clear — which I doubt — she
thus found the best school to obscure these, and familiarize her with
the criminal idea. With these faculties blunted and weakened, which
serve to hedge in the impulses to evil, she proceeded to supply her
wants by the method most familiar and easy. The thief looks vipon
the pi'operty of others in a peculiar way, and one that constitutes the
essence of the crime. He believes in a sort of ownership which is
mutual, and depends upon possession. This belief may become a
fixed habit of mind. Originally it may have been easier to steal than
to work, later it may become more impossible to work than to steal.
Then came attempts at reform, made by others, with the life of ease
and comfort, but the criminal grew wretched and drooped. There
was but one life before her which met the demands of her nature —
that was to wander from place to place and steal. This woman an-
swered in no sense to the legal definition of the insane ; she was not
irresponsible for her acts, she knew their nature and the punishment
which follov\^ed detection ; but she simply did that which the most of
U.S desire to do, follow the easier and pleasanter life. It has become
the fashion of late to speak of criminals of this class as insane, but
this theory cannot explain their irreclaimable condition. The real
state, as it appears to me, is, that thoughts and acts move in the
direction of least resistance. What began in this way, may be con-
firmed by habit, so that life may wear for itself channels from which
it is impossible that its current may be driven.

HYDRO IDS.

17

HYDEOIDS.

By Mrs. S. B. HEERICK,

s

OME of the most exquisite forms of organic Nature are to be
found in that shadowy border-land which unites rather than
divides the animal and vegetable worlds. It is hard to believe, even
when looking with careful scrutiny at certain forms of animal life, at

Fig. 1.— Plumularia paxcata. (Natural Size.)

the corals, for instance, the sponges, and the hydroids, that an exist-
ence which so closely resembles vegetation should be essentially ani-

VOL. VIII. 2

l8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mal. Each of these families of the great invertebrate kingdom has
been bandied back and forth from the botanist to the zoologist, and
each has finally found its place in the animal world.

No purely empirical knowledge is sufficient to determine, among
the lower forms of life, to which kingdom they should be referred. It
is only by studying facts in their relations, by patiently observing the
life-history, and by ascertaining the modes of nutrition and reproduc-
tion of each form, that its true place in the organic world has been
determined.

Pig. 2.— Diageam op a Section of Htdroid.

It was, for many years, thought that, beyond the depth of 300
fathoms, organic life ceased to exist in the ocean. Forbes reached this
zero of life in the .^Egean Sea, and the fact ascertained for the Medi-
terranean was inferred for all other seas. The transmutation of inor-
ganic into organic matter is only performed by vegetables, and then
only under the controlling power of light. The distinction made by
naturalists between the lowest forms of animal and vegetable life lies
just here : vegetables convert the inorganic elements of earth, air,
and water, into organized matter; animals rearrange this organized
matter into animal tissue. It is well known, as no light penetrates

HYDROinS.

19

the profounder oceanic depths, that 110 vegetation can exist there ; an
absence of animal life was therefore inferred. Certain exceptions to
this definition of vegetable life, as being exhaustive, are found in the
Fungi, which germinate and grow in darkness, and it is believed are
nourished in great measure by organic matter, as well as in the curious
carnivorous plants, which have of late attracted so much attention.
This, however, does not invalidate the truth that all nutriment, in
order to be fit for the maintenance of animal life, must pass, at least
once, through the transmutation effected only by vegetation.

The non-existence of life below 300 fathoms, in all the oceans of
our globe, was strongly supported by Forbes's investigations m the
Mediterranean. The abyssal depths of the sea were thus determined
by logic to be the universal empire over which reigned darkness, des-

FiG. 3.— Nutritive Bud of Tubularia indivisa. (From Male Colony.)

olation, and death. No investigations were made as to the facts of
the case. Logic and a hasty generalization from inadequate knowl-
edge were made, once again in the history of science, to do duty for
the more laborious method of patient observation. Commerce at last
gave the impulse to deep-sea exploration, which had before been lack-
ing. The corartiercial world demanded a more speedy mode of com-
munication from continent to continent, and the response came in the
form of the submarine telegraph. Thousands of soundings were
made to determine the best position in the ocean's bed for its success-
ful laying, and thousands, again, to secure the broken end after the

20

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

first failure. These soundings and grapplings bi'ought from the sea-
depths unmistakable proof that life in many varied and exquisite
forms existed there, far away from light and vegetation, under an
enormous pressure of superincumbent waters ; and logic retired dis-
comfited.

The fact that the JEgean Sea is empty of life in its greatest depths
is due to local causes. The humblest life, in the farthest recesses of
the ocean's bed, is, in some of its essential features, but a sluggish
copy of the higher types on land. Food and air are alike necessaiy

Fig. 4.— Genebativb Bcds of Tubularia indivisa. (From Female Colony.)

to both. The circulation of currents throughout the open seas bears
nutriment and oxygen to the lowly forms of animal life which lie far
below the level penetrated by light, or capable of supporting vegeta-
tion. In the Mediterranean such currents are obstructed by the high
rocky wall which runs under the straits of Gibraltar, from Spain to
Africa. The lowest point in this wall is 10,000 feet above some por-
tions of the bed of the Mediterranean. The currents in this sea are
therefore superficial, as well as the life sustained by them.

Chemical analysis proves that the water of the open seas contains

HYDROTDS. 21

both organic matter in solution and oxygen ; and that this same water,
after having passed through the bodies of these lower forms of animal
life, is deprived of both its organic elements and its oxygen. The
theoretic difficulty which had determined the problem of life in the
depths of the sea was thus removed; for, given this lowest form of
animal existence, the higher are always possible.

The same awful cycle of life, death, decomposition, and life again,
which is again and again repeated among the higher organisms, is
found working itself out as inexorably in the oceanic depths. The
elements which are appropriated from the mighty reservoir of the
ocean for the maintenance of the life, are restored to it again by the
death, of each organic being.

The bed of the ocean, from the tiny lakelets left by the retiring
tide to the greatest depths ever reached by trawl and dredge, is found
to be teeming with exquisite forms of life. Delicate plant-like forms
are found clinging to rocks and shells, or spreading themselves over
the broad fronds of the algae. Every peculiarity of vegetation is
mimicked ; graceful stems rising from tangled roots send out branches
which bear raceme-like clusters of buds, and delicate bells whose
beauty no words can describe.

Fig. 5.— Roving Medusa of Tubdlaria indivisa. (Magnifled.)

A hundred and fifty years ago nothing was known of these beauti-
ful hydroids. The first investigation deserving the name was made
by Abraham Trembley. This man was born in Geneva in the year
1700. While residing at the Hague, as tutor to the sons of Count de
Bentinck, he made a series of remarkable observations upon the fresh-
water hydra. The results of his observations were published first by-
Reaumur in 1742, and two years later by himself. In 1727 Peysonnel
had paved the way for Trembley by proving the animality of the
corals. Jussieu visited the coasts of Normandy to investigate the
coral question, after Peysonnel's publication of his views, and there
conclusively demonstrated the animality of Tuhularla indivisa, one

22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the loveliest of the hydroid family. The hydroids are among the
coral-makers. The vast beds of millepores found about the Pacific
islands and the West Indies are the work of an animal allied to
coryne, one of the Tubularians. The chitinous investment of the
Sertularians also forms membranous coral of considerable size and
great beauty. It was some time, however, after the discoveries of
Peysonnel, Jussieu, and Trembley, before the great authorities of
the day, Reaumur and Linnaeus, gave in their adhesion to the animal
theory, and stamped it as correct. Since that day some of the world's
greatest naturalists have made the study of the MydroidcB their life-
work, and have not felt it an unworthy occupation to be the annalists
of this humble family.

The nomenclature of the hydroids is still so unsettled that we will
avoid as much as possible the use of scientific terms in describing the
different portions of the colonies and their respective functions, for it
is here that naturalists differ, not in the names of the varieties.

The hydroids measure from a few lines in height to several feet.
Dana mentions an East Indian species which grows to the height of
three feet ; while Semper descx-ibes a gigantic Plumularian, which
forms submarine forests extending over great areas of sea-bottom,
and growing as high as six feet. The stems, he says, sometimes
measure an inch in diameter at the base. Tubularia indivisa grows
to the height of about ten inches.

The Hydroidoe are divided into four families: Tuhularinm (Figs. 3,
4, 5, 6), Campanularince (Fig. 10), Sertularinm (Figs. 1, 7, 8, 9), and
Hydrince (Fig. 12).

Every hydroid, however greatly the species may differ in external
form, has a certain structural plan to which it adheres in all its modi-
fications. The general type (Fig. 2.) may be simply described as an
animal sac whose walls are composed of an inner and outer membrane.
The outer wall corresponds to the skin, the inner to the lining of the
stomach, in higher organisms. The simple elongated sac is not only
the simplest form of hydroid, but is generally the earliest phase in
the development of the more complicated forms.

The sac (Fig. 2) sends off branching processes, e e, and coecal
protuberances, d, throughout the extent of which the inner and outer
membrane is continuous. Sometimes large numbers of these stems
proceed from a basal net-work, the connection between every part of
the animal colony being kept open through this basal reticulation, and
the continuity of the two membranes being maintained intact. The
basal portion, with the stems, branches, and the flower-and-fruit-like
clusters, of this curious organism form the hydrasoma, as it is called
by both Huxley and Allman.

The simple, sac-like form of the hydroid is the lowest term in a
series which consists of an almost infinite number of terms. We find
in this family the same orderly sequence which marks organic Nature

HYDROIDS.

23

everywhere. While the ideal type is adhered to, and a morphological
unity may be proved, yet there is an orderly and beautiful gradation,
in which each form becomes more complicated than the form which
precedes it.

The clusters of buds (Fig. 4), and closed or open flowers (Fig. 3),
are really individual zooids, bound into an organic unity by a basal
reticulation. With a single exception, every hydroid, at some period
of its existence, lives this social life, being united with a number of
other individuals into a plant-like group, and is really only one of an
assemblage of zooids possessing a common circulatory and nutritive
system, the individuals of which are in organic union with each other.

Fig. 6.— Medusa of Titbularia indiyisa. (After it has permanently fixed itself.)

The zooids springing from one common base are of two kinds,
and perform for the community two special offices. The grape-like
clusters contain the generative elements, both ova and spermatozoa,
while the flowers provide for the nutrition of the whole colony.
These zooids, which each investigator names according to his peculiar
theory of scientific nomenclature, we will call nutritive and genera-
tive buds ; the nutritive buds being destined for the preservation of
the colony, the generative for the perpetuation of the species. The
attached extremity of the animal in the fixed, or its equivalent in the
free, species is called the proximal end, and the opposite extremity,
which bears the two forms of buds, the distal end of the hydroid.
The terms upper and lower cannot be used, because some varieties
grow erect, while others grow in an inverted position.

The nutritive buds consist of an open digestive sac (Fig. 2) ;

24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

around the mouth is a series or several series of tubular offsets, ranged
radially about the stem. The shape of these blossom-like zooids
varies in the different species. In some varieties they are unprotected,
while in others the tentacles may be withdrawn into a horny, cup-
shaped sheath. The number of tentacles varies witli the different
species. The plates of Tubularia indivisa and Hydra vulgaris show
the tentacles expanded. The other plates give, in the magnified por-
tions, only the chitinous sheath, into which the polyp has withdrawn
itself.

In the Plumularians, a branch of the Sertularian group, curious
little cups of the horny sheath are developed. Unlike the cups which
contain the living flower, these extensions are filled with the sarcode,
or soft, gelatinous flesh of the animal. This sarcode, or protoplasmic
flesh, acts like the flesh of the . rhizopods and amoibge ; long filamen
tary processes are extended, just as the rhizopods improvise legs or
arms when they need them, till sometimes the horny sheath is invested
in this living gossamer. The function of these cups is not known.
Allman considers them as special zooids, whose morphological differ-
entiation from the other zooids is carried to an extreme. Hincks be-
lieves them to be a lower form of life, in organic union with the higher
zooids of the hydroid colony.

The horny sheath, which is described by earlier writers as an excre-
tion, is by Allman considered to be rather the result of metamorphosis
of tissue. In many varieties the stem and branches of the creature
are slender, horny, and pipe-shaped, and the chitinous sheath is jointed
at regular intervals, the joint being a mere break in the continuity of
the chitine, not a movable hinge ; while the living pulp within forms
a continuous body, and is invested by its sheath as the pith of a
plant is invested by its stalk.

The generative buds are caecal offshoots from the body, the repro-
ductive elements always developing between the inner and outer
membrane {see Fig. 2, d). They sometimes, after developmentj free
themselves from the parent stem, and lead a roving life as medusae.
In some cases the nutritive bud has its alimentary function suppressed,
and, though not itself sexual, it is henceforth destined to produce
sexual buds, either directly or through the medium of a non-sexual bud.

There is, it may almost be said, no differentiation of organs among
the hydroids. In the adult form they possess no organs of sense, and
have no circulatory, respiratory, nor nervous systems. All the func-
tions of life are performed without the intervention of special organs.
Voluntary motion takes place without muscles, sensibility is present
without nerves, respiration is performed without lungs, and digestion
goes on without a true stomach. The sea-water which flows within
and about the creature bears to it the oxygen necessary to the main-
tenance of vital combustion, as well as the small living creatures
and comminuted organic matter which form its food. Like the sea-

HYDRO IDS.

25

anemones, the hydroids reject such
portions of their food as they do not
assimilate tlirough the month. In the
fresh-water hydra an oritice has been
observed at the lower extremity of
the stomach. This, however, does not
correspond to the alimentary canal of
higher organisms ; it is the analogue,
in the simple hydra, of the rami-
fying cavity wliich permits a free
circulation throughout the compound
group.

A circulation has been observed
in the varieties which possess a horny
sheath, which is, however, very dilFer-
ent in some respects from the circula-
tion of the blood in higher organisms.
The somatic fluid, as it is called, is
loaded with granules which, upon mi-
croscopic examination, prove to be
composed of disintegrated elements
of food, of solid colored matter se-
creted by the walls of the somatic
cavity, of cells detached from the liv-
ing tissue of the animal, and of parti-
cles of effete matter. The fluid seems
to be more nearly akin to cliyme, or
chyle, than it is to blood. There is
perpetual motion in the somatic fluid ;
the flow will sometimes be steady for
a while, and then a sudden reversal
will take place in the direction of the
current, before it has reached an ex-
tremity. The gastric cavity is trav-
ersed by the stream, as well as all
portions of the hydrasoma. In some
species the cause of the flow has re-
vealed itself under the microscope.
The cavities through which the cur-
rent moves are seen to be clothed with
cilia — tiny lashes whose rhythmic mo-
tion forever propels the fluid ; this cil-
iary action is no doubt greatly aided
by the contractility of the walls. In
many species the cilia, if there be any,
are too minute for detection ; but it is
a fair provisional inference that where ^"^' ^

-Sbrtiilarina cupressina.
ural Size)

(Nat-

26

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the somatic flow is observed the like cause may account for the like
eifect.

The exquisite colors of the hydroids, which rival the tints of our
loveliest flowers, are due to the colored granules secreted by the ani-
mal and discharged into the somatic fluid. A charm is added to these
flowers of the sea l)y the flashing opalescent gleams of color which
shine out from their crystalline walls. Even the exquisite representa-
tions of Allman, in his monograph on " The Tubularian Hydroids," fail
to give an idea of the beauty of form and color to be found in the real
object. The Hydra viricUs is so called from its brilliant green color.
This green is said by Allman to be of the nature of chlorophyll, and
to possess the power, like the chlorophyll of plants, of decomposing
carbonic acid, assimilating the carbon, and yielding up the oxygen.
If this be true (and there is no reason to doubt it, Allman being one
of the highest authorities), it only furnishes, in this form of animal life,
one more curious resemblance to vegetation, and denies one more
tradition of its animality.

Fig. 8.— Sertularina cupressina. (Magnified.)

The most singular facts in connection with hydroid life lie in the
vai-iety of its modes of reproduction. It would almost seem as though
every form of reproduction known in Nature had been mutely proph-
esied in the primeval world when the fossil hydroid and trilobite lived
side by side in the Silurian seas.

They are generated, like plants, by buds and by artificial sections ;
like plants, they are able, from a small fragment, to produce the whole
organism. They, however, go farther than most plants in this power
of reproducing lost parts ; for a small fi-agment taken from any por-

HYDRO IDS. 27

tion will suffice for the production of a new individual ; a single ten-
tacle will produce a flower and stem, and finally a whole colony. A
transverse section of the stem will produce a flower at the distal end,
and a continuation of the stem, with the process by which it attaches
itself, at the proximal end of the section. Just so far it shows orien-
tation— that the stem has a distal and proximal end. There is no
sign of bilaterality in most species, and in others the indication is so
slight that it is hardly worthy of the name. This development of the
flower always at the distal, and of the stem always at the proximal,
extremity of the section, shows conclusively that the stem grows
both ways, and that in every segment there exists a neutral plane
midway between both ends.

Besides these plant-like modes of reproduction, hydroids are gen-
erated, like the actiniae, by spontaneous fission, a development of one
individual into two or more by a natural vertical cleavage.

They multiply by ova, by ovules, by independent ciliated embryos,
like the lower invertebrates, the reptiles, and birds. Some varieties
possess a sort of marsupial pouch, in which the undeveloped young

■

^'

„^l

I^H

°^

^^

I^HJ

K^l

Y^

0^^

>. '^

Mil c

vwW

^

s^J^

mi

W^ 0

^,s_^

l^^pi

^ Mi\

0:::

^^^B^S%V

SI

^^^■wi w^/^^^^^^^H

-^>

w °.

w.

i^^^lH

-

m

F .

-^

cr

i

1^

Fig. 9. — Plumularia falcata. (Magnified.)

are retained till they attain maturity ; and, like the mammals, in some
cases, the individual quits the parent after attaining perfect develop-
ment. Added to all these modes of reproduction, in which the analo-
gy must not be pressed too closely to those of higher organisms, they
possess two very curious modes of their own ; one given by Allman
in his monograph, the other by Carpenter in the latest edition of
" The Microscope, and its Revelations." The Tuhularian and Cam-
panularian hydroids, Allman tells us, develop upon their stems bell-
shaped medusa? (Figs. 4, 5, 11), which free themselves and swim the
adjacent waters. All free-swimming medusae have not yet been traced
to hydroid stems ; but, as all which have been carefully studied through
their life-history are found to originate there, it is supposed to be true
of the others.

28

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The most remarkable fact in regard to these medusae is, that the
immature form shows a higher type, a greater differentiation of organs,
than the parent hydroid. The medusa possesses, in common with the
parent, a digestive cavity and cnidse ; and, in addition to these, an
organ at the base of each tentacle, which, if it does not unite within
itself the senses of sight and hearing, at least is akin to those organs
in the lower invertebrates. They certainly possess distinct bundles
of muscles and nerve-ganglia, which are not found in the parent form.
When the roving medusa has sown its wild-oats, and comes to settle
down into a respectable family hydroid, it loses all these advantages
belonging to its wandering life, and becomes in its later form identical
with the parent ; it returns to the privileges and traditions of its
fathers.

Fig. 10.— Campantjlabia dumosa. (Natural Size, and magnified.)

The huge Mhizostoma, and the beautiful Chrysaora, common to the
English coast, Carpenter tells us, ai*e oceanic medusae developed from
a small hydroid stem. The embryo emerges in the form of a ciliated
ovule, resembling some of the infusoria. One end contracts, forms a
foot and attaches itself, the other sends out four tubular offshoots, as
tentacles, and " the central cells melt down to form the cavity of the
stomach." This hydra-like form multiplies in the ordinary way by
budding, for an indefinite length of time. After a while, however, a
change takes place, the stem shows constrictions, beginning near the
distal end, till the whole stem looks like a rouleau of coins ; the con-
strictions deepen, making the stem look like a pile of saucer-shaped
bodies; the disks become serrated, and finally the tentacles which
belonged to the original medusae disappear, and new tentacles are
formed upon the uppermost disk of the pile. Soon this disk begins to
show a sort of convulsive strusrfifle which results in its freeing itself,
and swimming away as a medusa; each disk develops in the same
way, and in turn separates itself from the parent stem. The original

HYDROIDS. 29

zooid often returns to its hydra-life and reproduces itself by budding
in the old fashion, and finally becomes " the progenitor of a new
colony, every member of which may in its turn l)ud off a pile of
medusa-disks."

The bodies thus detached have all the characteristics of the fully-
developed medusae. Each consists of an umbrella-shaped disk divided
along its margin into lobes, generally eight in number, and of a stomach
terminating in a probosciform mouth. As the creature grows, the
spaces between the marginal lobes fill up ; from its border long ten-
tacles are developed, and a fringe of tendril-like filaments sprout
forth from the margin. The young medusa eats voraciously, and
grows proportionately large ; the Chrysaora, which we have been de-
scribing, attaining a diameter of fifteen inches, and the Rhizostoma
sometimes reacliing to three feet. These raedusse are familiarly known
as sea-nettles. When they have reached full development the genera-
tive organs appear in four chambers arranged round the stomach, and
are contained in curious fluted membranous ribbons which hold the
sperm-cells in the male, and ova in the female. The fertilized embryos
repeat the same wonderful cycle just described, developing into a
hydroid from which medusa-disks are budded off.

The relation which late investigations have established between
the stationary hydroids, and the medusae, forms one of the most inter-
esting cases, yet known, of the curious phenomenon called alternate
generation. In the majority of cases we find a non-sexual, plant-like
form interposed between the ovum and the directly or indirectly
sexual form of medusa, though this is not always the case, as direct
development has been observed from ovum to medusa.

The nearest approach, in the adult form, to special organs are the
digestive cavity, and the cnidae. The stomach, however, possesses no
true parietal walls, and in one form — the fresh-water hydra — the stom-
ach will do duty for the skin, and the skin for the stomach, if necessary ;
they seem to be able to live very comfortably, and digest their food
without difficulty when turned wrong-side outward.

The cnidiB are barbed filaments inclosed in tiny sacs, which they
can shoot out at will, for their own protection, or for the capture of
their prey, as the case may be. In tlie hydra the sac is ejected, and
a central dart is projected into the body attacked. There must be a
minute poison-sac in communication with the darts, as it is found that
any soft-bodied victim, released from the clasp of the tentacles, is in
variably dead, no matter how short the time of its imprisonment may
have been. The effects of the cnidae in the medusae are very well
known, and have gained for them their popular name of sea-nettles.
Many an unlucky swimmer has found himself wrapped in the long
thread-like filaments of these transparent, floating bells, and been
almost maddened as he found himself inextricably inclosed in what

30

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

seemed an invisible sheet of living fire. A tentacle of the hydroid,
when carefully pressed between two glass slides, or in a compressorium,
may be seen, under the microscope, to dart out thousands of these lit-
tle barbed arrows.

Fig. 11.— Medusa of Coromorpha nutans. (Magnifled.)

Chronologically, the Hydrm (Fig. 12) come first in the group
Sydroidce^ for they were first carefully studied and truly classified by
Trembley. His observations, though made in the earlier half of the
eighteenth century, were so accurate, and his delineations so correct.

HYDROIDS.

3»

that he is still quoted in the latest works as authority. The hydra is
found generally in fresh water, though some few species have been
discovered, in this country, in that which is somewhat brackish. It
loves still or slowly-running water, and attaches itself generally to
the under-side of the leaves or to the stalks of aquatic plants. Its
body is extremely contractile, and consists, like the oceanic hydroids,

Fig. 12.— Hydra vulgaris. (Natural Size.)

in its earliest stage of development, of a simple elongated sac, with
an opening which answers the purpose of a mouth. Around the
mouth are a series of hollow filaments which it can entirely withdraw,
and it then looks like a minute tubercle. The tentacles are roughened
by the clusters of thread-cells, or cnida, already described. The
threads have been observed in some instances to be, when extended,
as much as eight inches long, and are shot out, it is thought, by the
propulsive power of a liquid injected into the central cavity. It
grows erect, horizontal, or inverted, as the case may be, and lives
only upon animal food. The little creatures are extremely voracious
and not over-nice. Trembley observed two hydras attack, at the

32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

same time,, the opposite extremities of a worm. Each having swal-
lowed its respective half of the worm, he watched to see the result.
Tlie worm would not yield to the force of circumstances; and break,
and the problem looked a difficult one of solution. The larger hydra,
however, proved itself superior to circumstances, it quietly swallowed
worm, antagonist, and all ; and, after having sucked out the worm,
disgorged his dinnerless foe !

Trembley tried the experiment, already alluded to, of turning one
inside out, and fastening it in that position. The domestic economy
did not appear to be at all disturbed ; the little creature eating with
as much relish, and digesting with as much ease, to all appearance, as
in its normal position. He inserted one hydra within the cavity of
another, and fastened them with a bristle which was run through both.
Returning after a short absence he found them strung, side by side,
upon the bristle. He repeated the experiment and watched the
manoeuvres of the two. The hydra inside managed to work its way
through the small apei-ture made in the side of its neighbor by the
bristle, and soon occupied the position he had before observed, side
by side with its companion on the bristle. He then turned one of
them inside out, inserted it in that position, and fastened them se-
curely together. Soon the pair, finding that there was no help for it,
philosophically yielded, and united their fortunes ; the inner one of
the couple providing nourishment for them both. They seemed to
live quite comfortably, on these veiy close terms of intimacy, for
some time.

Hydras generate in summer by buds, which grow to maturity and
are then sloughed off. These young buds often produce others before
they separate from the parent stem, and they others again ; so that
there are sometimes twenty generations produced in a month's time.
In autumn oviform gemmules are extruded, lie quiescent till spring,
and are then developed. Any number of artificial sections may be
made, and from each a perfect animal will be developed. Wherever
a wound or cut has been made, buds sprout more quickly than
from tlie sound tissue, and the hydras generated by artificial sec
tions are more prolific than those generated in the ordinary way.
The sprouting, as may be seen in the plate (Fig. 12), takes place
from any portion of the body. The leaves, flowers, and stems, of
this specimen of Hydra vulgaris, together form the hydrasoma.
This specimen was selected more to illustrate the ]>lant-like character
of the organism than for its intrinsic beauty.

The geographical distribution of the Hydroidm has not yet been
determined ; but, like other low forms of life, we find them spreading
over vast areas of space, and extending back through uncounted ages
of time. We have already spoken of their distribution in depth. A
well-defined specimen was taken up in the deepest cast recorded by
Wyville Tliomson, in his "Depths of the Sea" — that made in the Bay

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERING. 33

of Biscay, and to a depth of nearly three miles. But, though their
existence is proved at these enormous depths, they love best the rock-
bound pools left by the retiring tide and the shallow water which
fringes our islands and continents ; and there they probably attain
their greatest beauty and most perfect development.

Their distribution in time reaches back to the earliest dawnings
of life upon our globe. The Graptolites of the Lower and Upper
Silurian, the Hydroid Medusoe of the Jurassic, the Hydractinea of the
Cretaceous, Miocene, and Pliocene, the Serturella of the Pleistocene,
and the numberless forms of the present day, are the representatives
of this family in geologic and historic time.

Like other humble forms of life, it shows a marvelous persistency.
It has lived, almost unchanged, while great dynasties of higher or-
ganisms have one after the other risen, develoj)ed, and perished, or
left only a few meagre representatives among the fauna of the pres-
ent day. The fragility of their chitinous envelope and the perishable
nature of their protoplasmic flesh would, of course, render it impos-
sible that any full record of their existence should ever be found in
the rocks of the primeval would, but the fragments which have, here
and there, left their impress on the various geologic strata, show
them to have been the contemporaries of the oldest forms of life
which inhabited the Silurian seas, and to have quietly existed in the
depths of those ancient waters over which the great fish and saurian
dynasties lorded it through so many centuries.

4»»

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERING.

By Sie JOHN HAWKSHAW, F. E. S.

)

TO those on whom the British Association confers the honor of
presiding over its meetings the choice of a subject presents some
difficulty. The presidents of sections give accounts of what is new in
their departments ; and essays on science in general, though desirable
in the earlier years of the Association, would be less appropriate to-
day. Past presidents have discoursed on many subjects, on the mind
and on things beyond the reach of mind, and I have arrived at the
conclusion that humbler themes will not be out of place on this occa-
sion. I propose to say something of a profession to which my life has
been devoted — a theme which cannot stand as high in your estimation
as in my own, but which I have chosen because I ought to understand
it better than any other. I propose to say something on its origin,
its work, and kindred topics.

' Times's summary of Inaugural Address at the Bristol Meeting of the British Asso-
ciation.

VOL. Tin. — 3

34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. ^

Rapid as has been ihe growth of the art of the engineer during the
last century, we must, if we would trace its origin, seek among the
earliest evidences of civilization. When settled communities were
few and isolated, oj)portunities for the interchange of knowledge were
scanty or wanting. The slowly accumulated results of the experience
of a community were lost on its downfall. Inventions were lost and
found again. The art of casting bronze over iron was known to the
Assyrians, though it has only lately been introduced into modern
metallurgy ; and patents were granted in 1609 for processes connected
with the manufacture of glass, which had been practised centuries be-
fore. An inventor in the reign of Tiberius devised a method of pro-
ducing flexible glass, but the manufactory of the artist was totally
destroyed in order to prevent the manufacture of coj^per, silver, and
gold, from becoming depreciated.

In the long discussion which was held as to the practicability of
making the Suez Canal, an early objection was brought against it
that there was a difference of thirty-two and one-half feet between the
level of the Red Sea and that of the Mediterranean. Laplace declared
that such could not be the case, for the mean level of the sea was the
same on all parts of the globe. Centuries before the time of Laplace
the same objection had been raised against a project for joining the
waters of these two seas. According to the old Greek and Roman
historians, it was a fear of flooding Egypt with the waters of the Red
Sea that made Darius, and in later times again Ptolemy, hesitate to
open the canal between Suez and the Nile. Yet this canal w^as made
and was in use some centuries before the time of Darius. Strabo tells
us that the same objection, that the adjoining seas were of difierent
levels, was made by his engineers to Demetrius, who wished to cut a
canal through the Isthmus of Corinth some two thousand years ago.
But Strabo dismisses at once this idea of a difierence of level, agree-
ing with Archimedes that the force of gravity spreads the sea equally
over the earth.

When knowledge in its higher branches was confined to a few,
those who posses.sed it were called upon to perform various services
for the communities to which they belonged ; and we find mathemati-
cians, and astronomers, painters, sculptors, and priests, called upon to
perform the duties which now pertain to the profession of the archi-
tect and the engineer. As soon as civilization had advanced so far as
to admit of the accumulation of wealth and power, then kings and
rulers sought to add to their glory while living by the erection of
magnificent dwelling-places, and to provide for their aggrandizement
after death by the construction of costly tombs and temples.

The earliest buildings of stone to which we can assign a date, with
any approach to accuracy, are the pyramids of Ghizeh. The genius for
dealing with large masses in building did not pass away with the
pyramid-builders in Egypt, but their descendants continued to gain in

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERING. 35

mechanical knowledge. The Romans, though they did not com-
monly use such large stones in their own constructions^ carried oft" the
largest obelisks from Egypt and erected them at Rome, where more
are now to be found than remain in Egypt.

It has sometimes been questioned whether the Egyptians had a
knowledge of steel. It seems unreasonable to deny them this knowl-
edge. Iron was known at the earliest times of which we have any
record. It is often mentioned in the Bible, and in Homer; it is
shown in the early paintings on the walls of the tombs at Thebes ; it
has been found in quantity in the ruined palaces of Assyria; and in
the inscriptions of that country fetters are spoken of as having been
made of iron, which is also so mentioned in connection with other
metals as to lead to the supposition that it was regarded as a base
and common metal. The quality of iron which is now made by the
native races of Africa and India is that which is known as wrought-
iron. Dr. Percy says the extraction of good malleable iron, directly
from the ore, " requires a degree of skill very far inferior to that
which is implied in the manufacture of bronze." The supply of iron
in India as early as the fourth and fifth centuries seems to have been
unlimited. In the temples of Orissa iron was used in large masses as
beams or girders in roof-work in the thirteenth century, and India
well repaid any advantage which she may have derived from the
early civilized communities of the West if she were the first to sup-
ply them with iron and steel. If we look still farther to the East,
China had probably knowledge of the use of metals as soon as India,
and, moreover, had a boundless store of iron and coal. A great
future is undoubtedly in store for that country ; but can the race who
now dwell there develop its resources, or must they await the aid of
an Aryan race? The art of extracting metals from the ore was prac-
tised at a very early date in this country. The Romans worked iron
extensively in the Weald of Kent, as we assume from the large heaps
of slag containing Roman coins which still remain there. Coal, which
was used for ordinary purposes in England as early as the ninth
century, does not appear to have been largely used for iron-smelting
until the eighteenth century, though a 23atent was granted for smelt-
ing iron with coal in the year 1611. The use of charcoal for that pur-
pose was not given up until the beginning of this century, since which
period an enormous increase in the mining and metallurgical indus-
tries has taken place ; the quantity of coal raised in the United King-
dom in 1873 having amounted to 127,000,000 tons, and the quantity
of pig-iron to upward of 6,500,000 tons.

The early building energy of the world was chiefly spent on the
erection of tombs, temples, and palaces. While in Egypt, as we have
seen, the art of building in stone had 5,000 years ago reached the
greatest perfection, so in Mesopotamia the art of building with brick,
the only available material in that country, was in an equally ad-

36 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

vanced state some ten centuries later. The practice of building great
pyramidal temples seems to liave passed eastward to India and Bur-
mah, where it appears in buildings of a later date, in Buddhist topes
and pagodas ; marvels of skill in masonry, and far surpassing the old
brick mounds of Chaldea in richness of design and in workmanship.
Egypt was probably far better irrigated in the days of the Pharaohs
than it is now ; and Lake Moeris, of which the remains have been ex-
plored by M. Linant, was a reservoir made by one of the Pharaohs,
and supj)lied by the flood-waters of the Nile. It was 150 square
miles in extent, and was retained by a bank or dam GO yards wide
and 10 high, which can be traced for a distance of 13 miles. This
reservoir was capable of irrigating 1,200 square miles of country. No
work of this class has been undertaken on so vast a scale since, even
in these days of great works. The springs of knowledge which had
flowed so long in Babylonia and Assyria were dried up at an early
period; but Egypt remained the fountain-head whence knowledge
flowed to Greece and Rome. The early constructive works of Greece,
till about the seventh century b. c, form a strong contrast to those of
its more prosperous days. Commonly called Pelasgian, they are more
remarkable as engineering works than admirable as those which
followed them were for architectural beauty. Walls of huge un-
shapely stones — admirably fitted together, however — tunnels, and
bridges characterize this period. In Greece, during the few and glo-
rious centuries which followed, the one aim in all construction was to
please the eye, to gratify the sense of beauty; and in no age was that
aim more thoroughly and satisfactorily attained.

In these days, when sanitary questions attract each year more
attention, we may call to mind that twenty-three centuries ago the city
of Agrigentum possessed a system of sewers, which on account of
their large size was thoiight worthy of mention by Diodorus. This is
not, however, the first record of towns being drained. The well-known
Cloaca Maxima, which formed part of the drainage system of Rome,
was built some two centuries earlier, and great A'aiilted drains passed
beneath the palace-mounds of unburnt brick at Nimroud and Baby-
lon, and possibly we owe the preservation of many of the interesting
remains found in the brick-mounds of Chaldea to the very elaborate
system of pipe drainage discovered in them and described by Loftus.
While Pelasgian art was being superseded in Greece, the city of
Rome was founded, in the eighth century before our era; and Etrus-
can art in Italy, like the Pelasgian art in Greece, was slowly merged
in that of an Aryan race.

It would be impossible for me to do justice to even a small part of
the engineering works which remain to this day as monuments of the
skill, the energy, and ability, of the great Roman people. War, with
all its attendant evils, has often indirectly benefited mankind. In the
sieges which took place during the wars of Greece and Rome, the in-

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERING. 37

ventive power of man was taxed to the utmost to provide macliines
for attack and defense. The ablest mathematicians and philosophers
were pressed into the service, and helped to turn the scale in favor of
their employers. The world has to regret the loss of more than one
who, like Archimedes, fell slain by the soldiery while applying the
best scientific knowledge of the day to devising means of defense
during the siege. The necessity for roads and bridges for military
purposes has led to their being made where the stimulus from other
causes was wanting ; and means of communication and the inter-
change of commodities, so essential to the prosperity of any commu-
nity, have thus been provided. Such was the case under the Roman
Empire. So, too, in later times, the ambition of Napoleon covered
France and the countries subject to her with an admirable system of
military roads. So, again, in this country, it was the rebellion of
1745, and the want felt of roads for military purposes, w^iich first led
to the construction of a system of roads in it unequaled since the
time of the Roman occupation. And lastly, in India, in Germany,
and in Russia, more than one example could be pointed out where in-
dustry will be benefited by railways which have originated in mili-
tary precautions rather than in commercial requirements.

But to return to Rome. Roads followed the tracks of her legions
into the most distant provinces of the empire. Thi-ee hundred and
seventy-two great roads are enumerated, together more than 48,000
miles in length, according to the itinerary of Antoninus. The water-
supply of Rome during the first century of our era would suffice for a
population of 7,000,000, supplied at the rate at which the present pop-
ulation of London is supplied. This water was conveyed to Rome by
nine aqueducts; and in later years the supply Avas increased by the
construction of five more aqueducts. Three of the old aqueducts have
sufliced to siipply the wants of the city in modern times. These aque-
ducts of Rome are to be numbered among her grandest engineering
works. Time will not admit of my saying any thing about her harbor
works and bridges, her basilicas and baths, and numerous other works
In Europe, in Asia, and in Africa.

In the fourth and succeeding centuries the barbarian hordes of
Western Asia, people who felt no want of roads and bridges, swept
over Europe to plunder and destroy. With the seventh century began
the rise of the Mohammedan power, and a partial return to conditions
apparently more favorable to the progress of industrial art, when wide-
spread lands were again united under the sway of powerful rulers.
Still, few useful works remain to mark the supremacy of the Moham-
medan power at all comparable to those of the age which preceded its
rise.

A great building-age began in 'Europe in the tenth century, and
lasted through the thirteenth. While the building of cathedrals pro-
gressed on all sides in Europe, works of a utilitarian character, which

38 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

concern the engineer, did not receive such encouragement, excepting
perhaps in Italy. In India, under the Moguls, irrigation works, for
which they had a natural aptitude, were carried on during these cen-
turies with vigor, and more than one emperor is noted for the numer-
ous great works of this nature which he carried out.

It is frequently easier to lead water where it is wanted than to check
its irruption into places where its presence is an evil, often a disaster.
For centuries the existence of a large part of Holland has been depend-
ent on the skill of man. How soon he began in that country to con-
test with the sea the possession of the land we do not know, but early
in the twelfth century dikes were constructed to keep back the ocean.
To the practical knowledge acquired by the Dutch, whose method of
carrying out hydraulic works is original and of native growth, much
of the knowledge of the present day in embanking, and draining, and
canal-making, is due. While the Dutch were acquiring practical
knowledge in dealing with water, and we in Britain, among others,
were benefiting by their experience, the disastrous results which en-
sued from the inundations caused by the Italian rivers of the Alps
gave a new importance to the science of hydraulics. Some of the
greatest philosophers of the seventeenth century — among them Torri-
celli, a pupil of Galileo — were called upon to advise and to superintend
engineering works ; nor did they confine themselves to the construc-
tion of preventive works, but thoroughly investigated the condition
pertaining to fluids at rest or in motion, and gave to the world a valu-
able series of works on hydraulics and hydraulic engineering, which
form the basis of our knowledge of these subjects at the present day.

The impulse given to road-making in the early part of the last cen-
tury soon extended to canals, and means for facilitating locomotion
and transport generally. Tramways were used in connection with
mines at least as early as the middle of the seventeenth century, but
the rails were, in those days, of wood. The first iron rails are said to
have been laid in this country as early as 1738, after which time their
use was gradually extended, until it became general in mining districts.
By the beginning of this century the great ports of England were con-
nected by a system of canals ; and new harbor-works became neces-
sary, and were provided to accommodate the increase of commerce
and trade, which improved means of internal transport had rendered
possible. But it was not until the steam-engine, improved and almost
created by the illustrious Watt, became such a potent instrument, that
engineering works to the extent they have since been carried out be-
came possible or necessary. But, while W^att had gained a world-wide,
well-earned fame, the names of those men who have provided the
machines to utilize the energies of the steam-engine are too often for-
gotten. Of their inventions the majority of mankind know little.
They worked silently at home, in the mill, or in the factory, observed
by few. Indeed, in most cases these silent workers had no wish to

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERING. 39

expose their work to public gaze. How long in the silent night the
inventors of these machines sat and pondered ; how often they had to
cast aside some long-sought mecliauical movement and seek another
and better arrangement of parts, none but themselves could ever
know. They were unseen workers, who succeeded by rare genius,
long patience, and indomitable perseverance.

More ingenuity and creative mechanical genius is perhaps dis-
played in machines used for the manufacture. of textile fabrics than
by those used in any other industry. It was not until late in histori-
cal times that the manufacture of such fabrics became established on
a large scale in Europe. Linen was worn by the old Egyptians, and
some of their linen mummy-cloths surpass in tineness any linen fabrics
made in later days. The Babylonians wore linen also and wool, and
obtained a wide-spread fame for skill in workmanship and beauty in
design. In this counti-y wool long formed the staple for clothing.
Silk was the first rival, but its costliness placed it beyond the reach
of the many. To introduce a new material or imjjroved machine into
this or other countries a century or more ago was no light undertaking.
Inventors and would-be benefactors alike ran the risk of loss of life.
Loud was the outcry made in the early part of the eighteenth century
ao-aiust the introduction of Indian cottons and Dutch calicoes. Until
1738, in which year the improvements in spinning-machinery were
beo-un, each thread of worsted or cotton-wool had been spun between
the fingers, in this and all other countries, Wyatt, in 1738, invented
spinning by rollei's instead of fingers, and his invention w^as further
improved by Arkwright. In 1770 Hargreaves invented the spinning-
jenny, and Crompton the mule in 1775, a machine which combined the
advantages of the frames of both Hargreaves and Arkwright. In less
than a century after the first invention by Wyatt, double mules were
working in Manchester with over 2,000 spindles. Improvements in
machines for weaving were begun at an earlier date. In 1579 a
ribbon-loom is said to have been invented at Dantzic, by which from
four to six pieces could be woven at one time, but the machine was
destroyed and the inventor lost his life. In 1800 Jacquard's most
ingenious invention was brought into use, which, by a simple mechani-
cal operation, determines the movements of the threads which form
the pattern in weaving. But the greatest improvement in the art of
weaving was wrought by Cartwright's discovery of the power-loom,
which led eventually to the substitution of steam for manual labor,
and enabled a boy with a steam-loom to do fifteen times the work of
a man with a hand-loom. For complex ingenuity few machines will
corapai-e with those used in the manufacture of lace and bobbin net.
Hammond, in 1768, attempted to adapt the stocking-frame to this
manufacture, which had hitherto been conducted by hand. It re-
mained for John Heathcoat to complete the adaptation in 1809, and to
revolutionize this branch of industry, reducing the cost of its produce

40 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to one-fortietb of what the cost had been before Heathcoat's improve-
ments were effected. Time would fail me if I were to attempt to
enumerate one tithe of these rare combinations of mechanical skill ;
and, indeed, no one will ever appreciate the labor and supreme mental
effort required for their construction who has not himself seen them
and their wondrous achievements.

Steamboats, the electric telegraph, and railways, are more within
the cognizance of the world at large, and the progress that has been
made in them in little more than one generation is better known and
appreciated. It is not more than forty years since one of our scientific
men, and an able one too, declared at a meeting of this Association
tliat no steamboat would ever cross the Atlantic; founding his state-
ment on the impracticability, in his view, of a steamboat carrying
sufficient coal, profitably, I presume, for the voyage. Like most impor-
tant inventions, that of the steamboat was a long time in assuming a
form capable of being profitably utilized, and, even when it had as-
sumed such a form, the objections of commercial and scientific men
had still to be overcome. The increase in the number of steamboats
since the time when the Sirius first crossed the Atlantic has been very
great. Whereas in 1814 the United Kingdom only possessed two
steam-vessels, of together 456 tons burden, in 18'72 there were on the
register of the United Kingdom 3,662 steam-vessels, of which the
registered tonnage amounted to over a million and a half of tons, or
to nearly half the whole steam tonnage of the world, which did not at
that time greatly exceed three million tons. As the number of steam-
boats has largely increased, so also gradually had their size increased
until it culminated in the hands of Brunei in the Great Eastern. A
triumph of engineering skill in ship-building, the Great Eastern has
not been commercially so successful. In this, as in many other engi-
neering problems, the question is not how large a thing can be made,
but how large, having regard to other circumstances, it is proper at
the time to make it.

A distinguished member of this Association, Mr. Froude, has now
for some years devoted himself to investigations carried on with a
view to ascertain the form of vessel which will offer the least resist-
ance to the water through which it must pass. So many of us in
these days are called upon to make journeys by sea as well as by land
that we can well appreciate the value of Mr. Fronde's labors, so far as
they tend to curtail the time which we must spend on our ocean-jour-
neys ; and we should all feel grateful to him if from another branch of
his investigations, which relates to the rolling of ships, it would result
that the movement in passenger-vessels could be reduced.

There is no more remarkable instance of the rapid utilization of
what was at first regarded as a mere scientific idea than the adoption
and extension of the electric telegraph. Those who read Odier's letter
written in 1773, in which he made known his idea of a telegraph which

ORIGIX AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERING. 41

would enable the inhabitants of Europe to converse with the Great
Moo-ul little thought that in less than a century a conversation be-
tween persons at points so far distant would be possible. Still less
did those, who saw in the following year messages sent from one room
to another by Lesage in the presence of Frederick of Prussia, realize
that they had before them the germ of one of the most extraordinary
inventions among the many that will render this century famous. I
should weary you were I to follow the slow steps by which the electric
telegraph of to-day was brought to its present state of efficiency ; but
yet within how short a period of time has all the wonderful progress
been achieved ! How incredulous the world a few yexirs ago would
have been if then told of the marvels which in so short a space of time
were to be accomplished by its agency! It is not long ago— 1823 —
that Mr. (now Sir Francis) Ronald, one of the early pioneers in this field
of science, published a description of an electric telegraph. He com-
municated his views to Lord Melville, and that nobleman was obliging
enough to reply that the subject should be inquired into; but before
the nature of Sir Francis Ronald's suggestions could be known, except
to a few, that gentleman received a reply from Mr. Barrow that " tele-
graphs of any kind were then wholly unnecessary, and that no other
than the one then in use would be adopted;" the one then in use
being the old semaphore, which, crowning the tops of hills between
London and Portsmouth, seemed perfection to the Admiralty of that
day. The telegraphic system of the world comprises almost a com-
plete girdle round the earth ; and it is probable that the missing link
will be supplied by a cable between San Francisco, in California, and
Yokohama, in Japan. How resolute and courageous those who en-
gaged in submarine telegraphy have been will appear from the fact
that, though we have now 50,000 miles of cable in use, to get at this
result nearly 70,000 miles were constructed and laid.

Of railways the progress has been enormous ; but I do not know
that in a scientific point of view a railway is so marvelous in its
character as the electric telegraph. The results, however, of the con-
struction and use of railways are more extensive and wide spread, and
their utility and convenience brought home to a larger portion of man-
kind. The British Association is peripatetic, and without railways its
meetings, if held at all, would, 1 fear, be greatly reduced in numbers.
Moreover, you have all an interest in them ; you all demand to be car-
ried safely, and you insist on being carried fast. I shall not enter on
a history of the struggles which preceded the opening of the first rail-
way. They were brought to a successful- issue by the determination
of a few able and far-seeing men. The names of Thomas Gray and
Joseph Sandars, of William James and Edward Pease, should always
be remembered in connection with the early history of railways, for
it was they who first made the nation familiar with the idea. There
is no fear that the name of Stephenson will be forgotten, whose prac-

42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tical genius made the realization of the idea possible. Railways add
enormously to the national wealtli. More than twenty-five years ago
it was proved, to the satisfaction of a committee of the House of Com-
mons, that the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway efiected a saving to
the public using the railway of more than the whole amount of the
dividend which was received by the proprietors. These calculations
were based solely on the amount of traffic carried by the railway and
on the difference between the railway rate of charge and the charges
by the modes of conveyance anterior to railways. No credit what-
ever was taken for the saving of time, though in England preemi-
nently time is money. Considering that railway charges on many
items have been considerably reduced since that day, it may be safely
assumed that the railways in the British Islands now produce, or
rather save to the nation, a much larger sum annually than the gross
amount of all the dividends payable to the proprietors, without at all
taking into account the benefit arising from the saving in time. The
benefits under that head defy calculation, and cannot with any ac-
curacy be put into money ; but it would not be at all over-estimating
this question to say that in time and money the nation gains at least
what is equivalent to ten per cent, on all the capital expended on rail-
ways. It follows that, whenever a railway can be made at a cost to
yield the ordinary interest of money, it is in the national interest that
it should be made. Further, that, though its cost might be such as to
leave a smaller dividend than that to its proprietors, the loss of wealth
to so small a section of the community will be more than supplemented
by the national gain, and therefore there may be cases where a gov-
ernment may wisely contribute in some form to undertakings which,
without such aid, would fail to obtain the necessary support. And
so some countries — Russia, for instance — to which improved means of
transport are of vital importance, have wisely, in my opinion, caused
lines to be made which, having I'egard to their own expenditure and
receipts, woixld be unprofitable works, but in a national point of view
are or speedily will be highly advantageous.

A question more important probably in the eyes of many — safety
of railway-traveling — may not be inappropriate. At all events, it is
well that the elements on which it depends should be clearly under-
stood. It will be thought that longer experience in the management
of railways should go to insure greater safety, but there are other ele-
ments of the question which go to counteract this in some degree.
The safety of railway-traveling depends on the perfection of the ma-
chine in all its parts, including the whole railway, with its movable
plant, in that term; it depends also on the nature and quantity of
traffic ; and, lastly, on human care and attention. With regard to
what is human, it may be said that so many of these accidents as arise
from the fallibility of men will never be eliminated until the race be
improved. The liability to accident will also increase v.'ith the speed,

0 RIG IX AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERING. 43

and miglit be reduced by slackening that speed. It increases with
the extent and variety of the traffic on the same line. The public, I
fear, will rather run the risk than consent to be carried at a slower
rate. The increase in extent and variety of traffic is not likely to re-
ceive any diminution ; on the contrary, it is certain to augment. I
s])Ould be sorry to say that human care may not do something, and I
am not among those who object to appeals through the press and
otherwise to railway companies, though sometimes perhaps they may
appear in an unreasonable form. I see no harm in men being urged
in every way to do their utmost in a matter so vital to many. It is
practicable, by certain corrections of the official returns, to make some
sort of comparison between the accidents in the earlier days of our
own railways and. the accidents occurring at a later date. I have
endeavored to make these corrections, and I believe the results arrived
at may be taken as fairly accurate. From the figures it appears that
the passenger mileage has doubled between 1861 and 1873 ; and at
the rate of increase between 1870 and 1873 it would become double
what it was in 1873 in twelve years from that time — namely, in 1885.
The number of passengers has doubled between 1864 and 1873, and at
the rate of increase between 1870 and 1873 it would become double
what it was in 1873 in eleven and a half years, or in 1 885. Supposing
no improvement had been effected in the working of railway-traffic,
the increase of accidents shauld have borne some proportion to the
passenger mileage, multiplied by the proportion between the train
mileage and the length of line open, as the number of trains passing
over the same line of rails would tend to multiply accidents in an in-
creasing proportion, especially where the trains run at different speeds.
The number of accidents varies considerably from year to year, but,
taking two averages of ten years each, it appears that the proportion
of deaths of passengers from causes beyond their control to passenger
miles traveled in the ten years ending December 31, 1873, was only
two-thirds of the same proportion in the ten years ending December
31, 1861. The limit of improvements will probably be reached before
long, and the increase of accidents will depend on the increase of
traffic, together with the increased frequency of trains. Up to the
present time the improvements appear to have kept pace with the in-
crease of traffic and of speed, as the slight increase in the proportion
of railway accidents to passenger miles is probably chiefly due to a
larger number of trifling bruises being reported now than formerly.
I believe it was a former president of the Board of Trade Avho said to
an alarmed deputation, who waited upon him on the subject of railway
traveling, that he thought he was safer in a railway-carriage than
anywhere else. If he gave any such opinion, he was not far wrong, as
is sufficiently evident when it can be said that there is only one pas-
senger injured in every four million miles traveled, or that, on an
average, a person may travel 100,000 miles each year for forty years,

44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and the chances be slightly in his favor of his not receiving the slight-
est injury.

A pressing subject of the present time is the economy of fuel.
Members of the British Association have not neglected this momentous
question. Many cases of waste arise from the existence of old and ob-
solete machines, of bad forms of furnaces, of wasteful grates, existing
in most dwelling-houses ; and these are not to be remedied at once, for
not every one can afford, however dfesirable it might be, to cast away
the old and adopt the new. In looking uneasily to the future supply
and cost of fuel, it is, however, something to know what may be done
even with the application of our present knowledge ; and, could we ap-
ply it universally to-day, all that is necessary for trade and comfort
could probably be as well provided for by one-half the present con-
sumption of fuel ; and it behooves those who are beginning to build
new mills, new furnaces, new steamboats, or new houses, to act as
though the price of coal which obtained two years ago had been the
normal and not the abnormal price.

There was in early years a battle of the gauges, and there is now
a contest about guns ; but your time will not permit me to say much
on their manufacture. Here, again, the progress made in a few years
has been enormous, and in contributing to it, two men — Sir William
Armstrong and Sir Joseph Whitworth, both civil engineers — in this
country, at all events, deservedly stand foremost. Docks and harbors
I have no time to mention, for it is time this long and, I fear, tedious
address should close.

" Whence and whither " is the aphorism which leads us away from
present and plainer objects to those which are more distant and ob-
scure ; whether we look backward or forward our vision is speedily
arrested by an impenetrable veil. On the subject I have chosen you
will probably think 1 have traveled backward far enough. I have
dealt to some extent with the j^resent. The retrospect, however, may
be useful to show what great works were done in former ages. Some
things have been better done than in those earlier times, but not all.
In what we choose to call the ideal we do not surpass the ancients.
Poets and painters and sculptors were as great in former times as now ;
so, probably, were the mathematicians. In what depends on the ac-
cumulation of experience we ought to excel our forerunners. Engi-
neering depends largely on experience ; nevertheless, in future times
whenever difficulties shall arise, 'or works have to be accomplished for
which there is no precedent, he who has to perform the duty may step
forth from any of the walks of life, as engineers have not unfrequently
hitherto done. The marvelous progress of the last two generations
should make every one cautious of predicting the future. Of engineer-
ing works it may be said that their practicability or impracticability is
often determined by other elements than the inherent difficulty in the
works themselves. Greater works than any yet achieved remain to be

INSECTIVOROUS PI AXIS. 45

accomplished — not, perhaps, yet awhile. Society may not yet require
them ; the world could not at present afford to pay for them. The pro-
gress of engineering works, if we consider it, and the expenditure upon
them, has already in our time been prodigious. One hundred and sixty
thousand miles of railway alone, put into figures at £20,000 a mile,
amounts to £3,200,000,000 sterling ; add 400,000 miles of telegraph at
£100 a mile, and £100,000,000 more for sea-canals, docks, harbors,
water and sanitary works constructed in the same period, and we get
the enormous sum of £3,340,000,000 sterling expended in one genera-
tion and a half on what may undoubtedly be called useful works. The
wealth of nations may be impaired by expenditure on luxuries and
war; it cannot be diminished by expenditure on works like these.

As to the future, we know we cannot create a force ; we can, and
no doubt shall, greatly improve the application of those with which
we are acquainted. What we called inventions can do no more than
this, yet how much every day is being done by new machines and in-
struments ! The telescope extended our vision to distant worlds.
The spectroscope has far outstripped that instrument, by extending
our powers of analysis to regions as remote. Postal deliveries were
and are great and able organizations, but what are they to the tele-
graph ? Need we try to extend our vision into futurity farther ? Our
present knowledge, compared with what is unknown even in physics,
is infinitesimal. We may never discover a new force — yet, who can
tell?

^«»

INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS.

Br E. E. LELAND.

MOST amateur botanists have in the course of their walks come
upon the peculiar leaves of the common sundew {Drosera ro-
tuncUfolia), with the clear drops which the leaves bear glistening in
the morning sun, and, on referring to their manuals, have noted the
relationship which it bears to Venus's fly-trap (Dioncea muscipula),
whose famous irritability is always a matter for mention.

In collecting the showy side-saddle-flower (Sarrace?iia purpurea),
they have, of course, observed that its curious, trumpet-shaped leaves
are usually half-filled with water and drowned insects.

In fishing from the stagnant pools, the inconspicuous, yellow blos-
soms, and rootless capillary leaves of the bladderwort ( Utricularia
vulgaris)^ they have doubtless noticed how they swarmed with insects
and small crustaceans ; and have accepted, with that unhesitating faith
which our whole system of education begets and fosters, the statement
that the little bladders are filled with air, and that their function is to
float the plant at the time of flowering.

46 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Possibly they may have noticed that the sticky leaves of the but-
terwort [Phiguicula vulgaris) are sometimes strongly incurved.

If, observing these matters, they have given them but a passing
thought ; have failed to see the relation, or apprehend the motives of
the phenomena ; and are surprised some day by learning that they
point to one of the most wonderful discoveries of modern biology —
they need reproach themselves with no excejDtional heedlessness or ob-
tuseness, for they have the illustrious company of most of the famous
botanists from Linnseus down to those of the present generation.

Some attention has recently been called to the carnivorous habits
of what Dr. Hooker calls " our brother-organisms — plants," by the
aj)pearance in different scientific periodicals of some brief note, or
paper, by occasional observers ; and more generally by Prof. Gray's
papers which appeared in the Nation, April, 1874, pp. 216, 232, in
which he announced some of the facts that had been communicated
by Mr. Darwin and others. Some of these statements must, it should
be said, be modified in the light of later observations.

It has turned out, as so often it does, that some of the more obvious
observations and conclusions were made and drawn long ago, and
recorded only to be overlooked and forgotten. The subject has a his-
tory running back a century or more. It is of more than common in-
terest, and has been well told by Dr. Joseph Hooker, in his address to
the department of Zoology and Botany, British Association, Belfast,
August, 1874. Much condensed, it is as follows :

Dioncjea, — About 1768, Ellis, a well-known English naturalist,
sent to Linnteus a drawing of a plant, to which he gave the poetical
name of Dioncea. " The plant," wrote Ellis, " shows that Nature may
have some views toward its nourishment in forming the upper joint
of its leaf like a machine to catch food; upon the middle of this lies
the bait for the unhappy insect that becomes its prey. Many minute
red glands that cover its surface tempt the animal to taste them ; and,
the instant these tender parts are irritated by its feet, the two lobes
rise up, grasp it fast, lock the rows of spines together, and squeeze it
to death. And further, lest the strong efforts for life in the creature,
just taken, should serve to disengage it, three small spines are fixed
near the middle of each lobe, among the glands, that effectually put
an end to its struggles. Nor do the lobes ever open again while the
dead animal continues there. It is nevertheless certain that the plant
cannot distinguish an animal from a vegetable or mineral substance ;
for, if we introduce a straw or pin between the lobes, it will grasp it
fully as fast as if it were an insect."

This account, substantially correct, but erroneous in some particu-
lars, led Linnaeus to declare that, though he had seen and examined
no small number of plants, he had never met with so wonderful a
phenomenon. He was, however, too sagacious to accept Ellis's accoimt
of the coup-de-grace which the insects received from the three stiff

INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 47

hairs in the centre of each lobe of the leaf. He was also unable to
bring himself to believe that Nature intended the plant " to receive
some nourishment from the animals it seizes," and he accordingly de-
clared that, as soon as the insects ceased to struggle, the leaf opened
and let them go. He only saw in these wonderful actions an extreme
case of sensitiveness in the leaves ; and he consequently regarded the
capture of the disturbing insects as merely accidental, and of no im-
portance to the plant.

Linnteus's authority caused his statements to be faith fully copied
from book to book.

Sixty years after Linnteus wrote, an able botanist, the Rev. Dr. M.
A, Curtis (who died in 1872), lived at Wilmington, North Carolina,
the headquarters of this very local plant. In 1834 he published an
account of it in the Boston Journal of Natural History, which is a
model of accurate scientific observation. He said : "Each half of the
leaf is a little concave on the inner side, where there are placed three
delicate, hair-like organs, in such order that an insect can hardly
traverse it without interfering with one of them, when (he two sides
suddenly collapse, and inclose the prey, with a force surpassing an
insect's efforts to escape. The fringes of hairs on the opposite sides
of a leaf interlace like the fingers of two hands clasped together. The
sensitiveness resides only in these hair-like processes on the inside, as
the leaf may be touched or pressed in another part without sensible
effects. The little prisoner is not crushed and suddenly destroyed, for
I have often liberated captive flies and spiders which sped away as
fast as fear or joy could carry them. At other times, I have found
them enveloped in a fluid of mucilaginous consistence which seems to
act as a solvent, the insects being more or less consumed in it. This
circumstance has suggested the possibility of their being made sub-
sei'vient to the nourishment of the plant through an apparatus of ab-
sorbent vessels in the leaves."

To Ellis belongs the credit of divining the purpose of the capture
of insects hj t\\Q Dionoea. But Curtis made out the details of mechan-
ism by ascertaining the seat of the sensitiveness of the leaves ; and he
also pointed out that the secretion was not a lure exuded before the
capture, but a true digestive fluid poured out like our own gastric
juice after the ingestion of food. (Prof. Gray quotes Dr. Curtis's
observations on the Dioncea in his " Genera of the Plants of the United
States," vol. i., p. 196, 1849, without comment; and his plate of the
plant does not show any of the important sensitive spines.)

The investigation of this curious question again rested until 1868,
when it was taken up by Mr. Canby, who was then staying in the
Dioncea district. He found that the leaf had the power of dissolving
animal matter, and that small pieces of beef that were fed to it were
completely dissolved and absorbed; the leaf opening again with a dry
surface and ready for another meal, though with an appetite somewhat

48 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY.

jaded. It not only could be surfeited, but it suffered from indigestion;
and a meal of cheese disagreed with the leaves so seriously as finally
to kill them.

Finally, Dr. Burdon-Sanderson has made an imjiortant contribution
to this investigation, by demonstrating the correspondence between
the electrical phenomena which accompany muscular action and those
which are associated with the closing of the Dionaea-leaf He has
shown that, not alone in the electrical but in structural changes w^hich
ensue, the resemblance is complete between the contraction of muscle
and that of the leaf; and, the further the inquiry is pursued, the more
striking does the resemblance appear.

Drosera. — Unlike the preceding genus, which is confined to a sin-
gle district, the sundews are widely distributed. The fact that they
are closely related to the Dioncea was little known when the curious
habits, which are now attracting so much attention, were first dis-
covered.

Mr. Gardom, a Derbyshire botanist, gives an account of what his
friend Mr. Whateley, an eminent London surgeon, made out in 1780:
" On inspecting some of the contracted leaves we observed a small
insect very closely imprisoned therein, which occasioned some aston-
ishment as to how it happened to get into so confined a situation.
Afterward, on Mr. Whateley 's centrically pressing with a pin other
leaves yet in their natiiral and unexpanded form, we observed a
remarkably sudden and elastic spring of the leaves, so as to become
inverted upward, and, as it were, encircling the pin, which evidently
showed the method by which the fly came into its embarrassing
situation."

This account, which is erroneous in representing the movement of
the hairs as much more rapid than it really is, must have been written
from memory.

In July of the preceding year (though the account was not pub-
lished till two years afterward). Roth, in Germany, had remarked, in
Drosera rotuncUfolia and longifolia, that " many leaves were folded
together from the point toward the base, and that all the hairs were
bent like a bow." Upon opening these leaves, he says : " I foimd in
each a dead insect ; hence I imagined that this plant, which has some
resemblance to the Dlonma muscipula,va\ ght also have a similar mov-
ing power. . . . With a pair of pliers I placed an ant upon the middle
of the leaf of D. rotundifoUa. The ant endeavored to escape, but
was held fast by the clammy juice at the points of tl)e hairs, which
was drawn out by its feet into fine threads. In some minutes, the
short hairs on the disk of the leaf began to bend, and in some hours
the end of the leaf was so bent inward as to touch the base. The
ant died in fifteen minutes, which was before all the hairs had bent
themselves."

These facts, established nearly a century ago, by the testimony

INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 49

of independent observers, have up to the present time been almost

ignored.

More recently, however, they have been repeatedly verified : in
Germany, by Nilschke, in 1860 ; in this country by L. A. Millington,
a correspondent of the American Naturalist^ April, 1868; by Mrs.
Treat, of New 3 ev^Qj, American Journal of Science, November, 1871,
and American Naturalist, December, 1873 ; by Mr. A. W. Bennett, at
the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science,
1873.

It is noticeable that all of these observers unite in reporting one
erroneous conclusion, namely, that the movements do not result when
inorganic substances are placed upon the leaves. Darwin's experi-
ments show that although the effect is not so great and the substances
are not so long detained, yet such bodies as bits of cinder do possess
the power of irritation.

Mrs. Treat also reported that, when a living fly was pinned at a
distance of half an inch from the leaves of the D. Jiliformis, the leaves
bent toward it and reached it in an hour and twenty minutes. Mr.
Darwin was not only unable to obtain any similar results, but, to
admit that this motion was any thing other than an accident, would
compel him to adopt some other theory than the one he now holds to
account for the transmission of the impulse to motion.

Reference may here be made to a remarkable statement in a note
of M. Ziegler to the Paris Academy of Sciences, in 1872. He says:
"In studying these remarkable plants, I noticed that all the albumi-
noid animal substances, if held for a moment between the fingers,
acquired the property of making the hairs of the Drosera contract. I
also observed that such substances, when they had not been in contact
with a living animal, had no visible action on the hairs. This shows
that the simple contact of the fingers communicates to inert animal
substances a property which they did not possess before." Re-
peated experiments, in whicli every precaution was taken by Mr.
Darwin, seem effectually to negative this extraordinary belief of M.
Ziegler.

This, then, is a brief review of the subject up to the recent publi-
cation of Mr. Darwin's book upon it. It has for some time been known,
to all who have followed the question, that he was engaged in re-
searches that would one day be published, and they have been waiting
for them with eager interest. With characteristic patience and cau-
tion, it is only after fifteen years of careful investigation that he puts
forth the results of the long series of observations. As one reads the
book, the most vivid impression made is by the wonderful amount of
painstaking labor that the record of the experiments shows. Like the
artist of Kouroo, he seems to have said to liimself : " Time is an ingre-
dient that enters into no perfect work ; and my work shall be perfect
in all respects, though I should do nothing else in my life." And, lo !
voi,. VIII. — 4

5°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

while the task which he set to himself was to answer the question,
" Why the Drosera caught such numbers of insects," the result has
"been the most valuable contribution to botanical literature which this
age has seen. Competent critics pronounce it more important than
his works on the "Fertilization of Orchids," and the "Movements
and Habits of Climbing Plants ; " and in scientific research there is, for
Mr. Darwin, no higher standard of comparison than to compare him
with himself.

The greater part of the book is given to the record of observa-
tions on the phenomena shown by Drosera rotundifolia. This well-
known plant bears from two or three to five or six leaves, generally
extended more or less horizontally, but sometimes extending vertically
upward. The shape and general appearance are shown, as seen from
above, in Fig. 1 :

Fio. 1.— Dkoseea botunbifolia.— Leaf viewed from above ; enlarged four times.

The leaves are commonly a little broader than long ; the whole
upper surface being covered with gland-bearing filaments, or tenta-
cles, as Mr. Darwin calls them, from their manner of acting.

A tentacle consists of a thin, straight, hair-like pedicel, carrying
a gland on the summit. Each gland is surrounded by a large drop
of extremely viscid secretion ; they average about two hundred on
each leaf, and as they glitter in the morning sun have given to the
plant its poetical name. The tentacles on the central part of the
leaf are short and stand upright, and their pedicels are green. Tow-
ard the margin they become longer and longer and more inclined
outward, with their pedicels of a purple color. Those on the extreme

INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 51

margin project in the same plane with the leaf, or more commonly
{see Fig. 2) are considerably reflexed.

If a small object be placed on the glands in the centre of the leaf,
a motor impulse is transmitted tQ the marginal tentacles. The nearer
ones are first affected, and then those farther off, until at last all are
slowly but unerringly inflected, and close over the object. This takes
place in from one to five or more hours ; the difference in time de-

FiG. 2.— Drosera eotundepolia.— Old leaf viewed laterally ; enlarged aboat five times.

pending on several circumstances, as the size of the object and its
nature; on the vigor and age of the leaf; w^hether it has lately been
in action ; and the temperature.

The tentacles in the centre do not become inflected when directly
e:jcited, though they are capable of inflection if excited by a motor
impulse from other glands ; but through and from them the motor
impulse spreads gradually on all sides. Such is not the case with the
marginal tentacles. If a bit of meat be placed on one of these it
quickly transmits an impulse to its own bending portion, but never
to those adjoining {see Fig. 5), for these are never affected until the
meat has been carried to the central glands, which then radiate their
conjoined impulse on all sides.

The sensitiveness of the leaves is located in the glands together
with the immediately underlying cells of the tentacles. Though it is
necessary that the glands should be touched, it is wonderful how
slight a pressure will sufiice. A bit of human hair -^^ of an inch in
length and weighing only ■, g ^ 4 ^ of a grain will induce motion, trans-
mit a motor impulse through the whole length of a marginal ten-
tacle, and cause it to sweep through an angle of 180° or more. This
minute morsel, it must be borne in mind, rests upon and is supported
by the dense, viscid fluid which surrounds the gland, and the pressure
is thus rendered inconceivably slight. Mr. Darwin conjectures that
it may be less than the millionth of a grain. While the pressure
may be extremely slight, it needs must be steady. A shai-p, sudden
brush of the tentacles does not induce inflection, nor do drops of
water falling upon the glands from any height. This specialized na-
ture of the sensitiveness may readily be seen to be of gi'eat use to the
plant, effecting an economy of time and energy, for the process of
inflection is slow and that of reexpansion still slower, often occupy-

52

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

ing many hours, and even days. It should be mentioned that, when
excited by soluble matter of the proper kind, not only the tentacles,
but the disks, are inflected and close in about the object. There is
thus formed out of the leaf a stomach ; a comparison that Mr. Dar-
win has proved to be no fanciful one. Space will not permit giving
even examples of his exhaustive experiments ; to the book itself must
be referred those who may doubt their thoroughness, or question the
conclusions drawn from them.

Fig. 3.— Dro?ft3 i rotundifolia.— Leaf (en-
larged) wuu uu the teutacles closely in-
flected.

Fig. 4.— Drosera rotusdipolia.— Leaf (en-
larged) with the tentacles on one side in-
flected over a bit of meat.

It is proved that the leaves are capable of true digestion, and that
the glands absorb the digested matter. The correspondence between
the secretion of the Drosera and the gastric juice of animals is shown
in that which it fails to digest as well as that which it succeeds in
digesting. As is well known, the gastric juice contains an acid and
a ferment, both of which are requisite for digestion ; so it is with
the secretion of Drosera. When the stomach of an animal is mechan-
ically irritated, it secretes an acid ; when bits of glass are put on the
glands of Drosera^ the secretion and that of the surrounding glands
are increased in quantity and become acid. The stomach of an animal,
however, does not secrete its proper ferment, pepsin, until certain
substances called peptogenes are absorbed ; matter must be absorbed
by the glands of Drosera before they secrete their proper ferment.
Like gastric juice, the secretion of Drosera has antiseptic properties.
Meat is dissolved by each in the same manner and by the same stages.
It promptly dissolves cartilage, a substance so little aflTected by water.
It dissolves bone, and even the enamel of teeth. In short, there is no
doubt that the ferment in both cases is closely similar if not identi-
cally the same, a fact in physiology which may well be called won-
derful !

INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 53

When it is considered where the plant grows — generally on ex-
tremely poor, peaty soil — it is evident that the supply of nitrogen
would be quite deficient unless the plant had the power of obtaining
this important element from captured insects, and w^e can thus under-
stand how its roots are so poorly developed. These usually consist
of only two or three slightly divided branches from half to one inch
in length, furnished with absorbent hairs : it appears that they serve
only to imbibe water, though, of course, they will absorb nitrogenous
matter when supplied.

Confirmation of these statements is furnished by some experi-
ments, concluded since the publication of Mr. Darwin's book, by Mr.
Lawson Tait, an account of which he sends to Nature, July 29, 18'75,
p. 251. Only the results can be stated, and those briefly : "It is cer-
tain that the sundew not only absorbs nutriment by its leaves, but
that it can actually live and thrive by their aid alone (that is, without
the aid of roots) ; that nitrogenous matter is more readily absorbed
by the leaves than by the roots, for over-feeding kills the plant sooner
by the leaves alone than by the roots alone."

Mr. Tait also announces that from the secretion of Drosera dichio-
toma he has been able to separate a substance closely resembling
pepsin.

If a tentacle receives an impulse fi*om its own glands the move-
ment is always toward the centre of the leaf (Fig. 5).

FiQ. 5. — Drosera rotundifolia.— Diagram showing one of the exterior tentacles closely in-
flected ; the two adjoining ones in their ordinary pcaiiion.

On the other hand, when the motor impulse comes from one side
of the disk, the surrounding tentacles, including the shoi't central
ones, all bend with precision toward the point of excitement, wherever
this may be seated. This is in every way a remarkable phenomenon ;
for the leaf falsely appears as if endowed with the senses of an ani-
mal {see Fig. 4).

In every case the impulse from a gland has to travel for at least
a short distance to the basal part of the tentacle, the gland being car-
ried solely by the inflection of the lower part. When the central

54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

glands are stimulated, and the extreme' marginal tentacles become
inflected, tlie motor impulse is transmitted across half the diameter
of the disk. It passes not along the vascular system, but through
the cellular tissue, traveling more rapidly and easily in a longitudinal
than in a transverse line, probably for the reason that the cells are
elongated longitudinally, and some obstruction is encountered at
each cell-wall through which the motor impulse must pass.

A molecular change of the protoplasm within the cells, to which
Mr. Darwin has given the name of aggregation, precedes and accom-
panies all motion. When a leaf which has not been excited or in-
flected is examined, the cells forming the pedicels are seen to be filled
with an homogeneous purple fluid. If the tentacle be examined some
hours after having been excited, the purple matter is found to be
aggregated into masses of various shapes suspended in a colorless
fluid. The change begins within the glands and travels downward,
being arrested for a short time at each cell-wall ; the aggregated
masses perpetually changing form, separating and uniting. After
the cause of the excitement has been removed, and the tentacles
have reexpanded, the colored masses of protoj^lasm are redissolved,
and tlie purple fluid again becomes homogeneous and transparent.
TJjis process of aggregation is not dependent upon the inflection of
the tentacles or increased secretion of the glands — a most remark-
able feature of the phenomenon being that in the tentacles which are
inflected by an indii'ect irritation, conveyed by motor impulse from
other glands, some influence is sent up to the glands, as their secre-
tion is increased and becomes acid ; then the glands tljus excited
send back some other action, causing the protoplasm to aggregate in
cell beneath cell. There can actually be seen a molecular change pro-
ceeding, which may be somewhat similar to the molecular change
which is supposed to be sent from one end of a nerve to another when
sensation is felt. "We have here a reflex action, and the only known
case thereof in the vegetable kingdom. The rate at which the motor
impulse is transmitted is much slower than in animals. This fact, as
well as that of the motor impulse not being specially directed to cer-
tain points, are both, no doubt, due to the absence of nerves. Never-
theless, we perhaps see the prefigurement of the formation of nerves
in animals in the transmission of the motor imjjulse being much more
rapid down the confined space within the tentacles than elsewhere,
and somewhat more rapid in a longitudinal than in a transverse direc-
tion across the disk.

Of course, there is not in this, or in the reflex action, any thing
comparable with the nervous systems of animals, and, as Mr. Darwin
says, " the greatest inferiority of all is the absence of a central
organ, able to receive impressions from all points, to transmit their
effects in any definite direction, to store them up and reproduce
them." That is to say, Drosera seems to be without even the pre-

INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 55

figurement of a brain, and we can almost fancy that we detect a trace
of disappointment or regret in this admission.

A wide range of experiment shows that probably all the species
of Drosera are adapted for catching and digesting insects by nearly
the same means, though not with equal development or completeness.

Dionma micsoijmla. — The form of the bilobed leaf which is the
most wonderful feature of this wonderful plant, already described,
may be seen from the accompanying sketch.

Fig. 6. — Dionma muscipula.— Leaf viewed laterally in its expanded state.

In the Dionma the locality of sensitiveness is the three filaments
which appear on each half of the upper surface of the leaf. It is un-
like Drosera in that the filaments are sensitive to sudden impact, the
transmission of the impulse is more rapid and the consequent move-
ment instantaneous. Another point of unlikeness consists in the
power of secretion of the glands, those of Dioncea being only excited
by the absorption of nitrogenous matter. When any substance comes
in contact with the filaments, the lobes of the disk close instantly
upon it, confining it in a concave chamber ; if the imprisoned matter
be nitrogenous the lobes are gradually pressed closer together, the
glands secrete freely and reexpansion takes place only after from
nine to twenty-four days, when nearly all trace of the substance will
have disappeared, and sensitiveness is lost, only to reappear after
some time has elapsed, if at all. If, however, the closing is the result
of sudden impact or of the contact of a non-nitrogenous substance, the
leaf shortly opens again and is at once sensitive,, the glands showing
no signs of secretion. The constitution and action of the secretion are
identical with those of Drosera, as is probably the manner of transmis-
sion of the motor impulse. But want of space again excludes many
interesting details.

Aldrovanda, Drosophyllum, Roridula, and Di/blis, four other gen-
era of the same order, all are provided with secreting glands and seem
to have similar powers, though in a lesser degree.

Mr. Darwin was also led to investigate the habits of Fingrdcula

56

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

vvlgaris, the result being to establish beyond question the predatory
practices of the bladderwort, a plant which had hitherto enjoyed a
good name.

It is not provided with any irritable filaments, the sensitiveness
residing in the surface of the leaf, which is set with two kinds of gland-
ular hairs secreting an extremely viscid fluid which seems to be the
only agent for entrapping the insects. When once caught they are
detained by the slowly-inflecting leaf. Here, too, contact with nitro-
genous bodies changes the nature of the secretion, so that it becomes

Fig. 7.— Pinguicttla vulgaris. — Outline of
leaf with left margin inflected over a
row of small flies.

FiQ. 8. — PiNGUicuxA VULGARIS. — Outline of
leaf, with right margin inflected aguinet
two square bits of meat.

capable of dissolving and digesting insects and other nutritious sub-
stances, when the secretion and the digested matter are reabsorbed
by the glands. When the objects are too large to be inclosed by the
inflected leaf, they are by its incurving pushed along over the sur-
face, constantly coming in contact with fresh and hungry glands,
subserving the needs of the plants as well as by the other method
{see Fig. 8).

Utricularia neglecta and TJ. vulgaris {common Bladderwort'). — It
will be a new revelation to most readers to be told that the bladders
of this plant are not, as the manuals have always stated, filled with
air and intended to float the plant, but that their real use is to cap-
ture small aquatic animals, which they do on a large scale.

The general appearance of a bladder is shown in the figure (10)
given below. The lower side is straight, the other surface convex
and terminating in two long prolongations bearing six or seven long
pointed bristles. The prolongations are called antennae, for, as ]\lr.
Darwin says, " the whole bladder curiously resembles the entomo-
stracean Crustacea " upon which they prey so freely.

Under these antennas, where the bladder is slightly truncated, is
situated the most curious and important part of the whole structure,
namely, the entrance and valve.

IN SECT I VOROUS PLANTS.

57

The valve is attached on all sides to the bladder, excepting by its
posterior margin, which is very thin, and rests on a collar or rim,
which dips deeply into the bladder. The valve can only open in-

FiQ. 9.— Utriculaeia neglecta.— Branch with the dfvided leaves bearing bladders; about

twice enlarged.

ward; there are on its surface numerous glands, which have the
power of absorption, but are not known to secrete.

The whole inner sui'face of the bladder is covered with a serried
mass of processes, consisting each of four divergent arms, whence they

Fig. 10.— UtbiculariA neqleota.— Bladder, much enlarged.

are called quadrifid processes. Each arm generally contains a minute,
faintly-brown particle, either rounded or elongated, which shows in-
cessant Brownian movements.

Whenever found in stagnant water the bladders swarm with in-

58

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sects, crustaceans, larvae, and fresh-water worms, in various stages of
decay. The animals enter the bladder by bending in the free edge of
the valve, which shuts again instantly. How it is that such weak and
minute animals get into the bladders is not yet understood, but they
do succeed in entering as do inanimate objects, if laid upon the valve.
The locality of the irritability, if indeed there be any, is not deter-
mined.

Fig. 11.— Uteicuxaeia keglecta.— Valve of bladder, greatly enlarged.

Notwithstanding the elaborate mechanism for the capture of ani-
mal food, there seems to be no power of digesting it, nor for hasten-
ing its decay; although, when decomposition sets in, its products are
slowly absorbed by the quadrifid processes ; at least, these processes
from bladders containing decayed animals generally show masses of
spontaneously-moving protoplasm which do not appear in those taken
from clean bladders.

Fio. 12.— Utricuiakia neglecta.— Small
portion of inside of bladder, much en-
larged, showing quadrifid processes.

Fig. 13.— TJtricularia neglecta.— One of
the quadrifid processes greatly enlarged.

Investigations were extended to many other species of Uiricularia,
with results showing, in all cases, an adaptation for capturing small
animals and power to absorb the products of their decay.

To be classed with this genus, as being insectivorous to a similar
extent, are Sarracenia and JDarlingtonia. Upon these Mr. Darwin
records no observations.

INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. 59

Sarracenia varlolaris has, however, had its powers carefully inves-
tigated by Dr. Mellichamp, of Bluffton, South Carolina. This species
ditfers from the common Northern one {S. purpurea) chiefly in having
a lid which closes over the mouth of the trumpet-shaped leaves, so that
rain can not readily enter. The leaves are usually half-filled with a fluid
which Dr. Mellichamp is satisfied is secreted at the bottom of the tubes.
He describes it as mucilaginous, and leaving in the mouth a peculiar
astringency. In it meat decomposes more rapidly than in water, and
he concludes that as the leaves when stuffed with insects become most
disgusting in odor, we have to do with an accelerated decomposition,
though not with digestion. He attributes anaesthetic effects to the
fluid. The lure which brings the insects to the mouth of the pitcher
is a honey-baited pathway running from the ground along the broad
wing of the pitcher to its mouth, up which the insects are lured to their
fate. Nothing of this kind is observed in S. purpurea, and its exposed
mouth is so placed that rain must fall into it. It is not probable, as
Dr. Hooker says, that pitchers presenting such differences should act
similarly, and he adds : " The fact that insects normally decompose
in the fluid of all would suggest the probability that all feed on the
products of decomposition ; but as yet we are ignorant whether the
glands within the pitchers are secretive or absorptive, or both ; if secre-
tive, whether they secrete water or a solvent ; if absorptive, whether
they absorb animal matter or the products of decomposition."

Prof. C. Y. Riley (American Association for the Advancement of
Science, 1874) is of opinion that the only benefit to the plant is from
the liquid manure.

But this fascinating subject cannot be pursued further.

Sentimental flower-worshipers, fond of quoting the pi'etty meta-
phor of their buds and blossoms being " truly the language of angels,"
will doubtless be pained to learn that they are not all ethereal
creatures subsisting on such lovely foods as dew and sunlight, but
that they are at times given to dining off the more substantial fricas-
sees which their alert tentacles know so well how to prepare. And
although they may consign the sanguinary Droseras and Dionoeas to
the limbo of the unclean, and turn with renewed admiration to their
own floral pets, still the matter does not end here. Mr. Darwin
throws out some dark hints as to the private lives of the immaculate
Primula, the brilliant Pelargoniwn and other greenhouse favorites,
that must lead the thoughtful mind to conclude that that they will at
least bear watching.

Seriously, these revelations afford abundant food for thought.
There are three remarkable powers connected with the phenomenon :
the movement of the leaves when excited ; the secreting of a diges-
tive fluid ; the absorption of digested matter. The species possessing
them all hold them in different degree ; some possess two and others
but one of them. What light can natural selection throw upon the

6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

steps by which these wonderful powers were gradually acquired ? is
one of the problems presented to the evolutionist.

Mr. Darwin submits his work wonderfully advanced when com-
pared with the state in which he found it, but there remains much to
be done.

INDUCED DISEASE FEOM THE INFLUENCE OF THE

PASSIONS.'

By B. W. KICHAEDSON, M. D., F. E. S.

MANY of the forms of disease previously detailed may be induced
by other causes than worry or mental strain. They may be the
effects of the unrestrained influence of certain of the passions. I say
certain of the passions, because all do not seem to act with the same
intensity. Some of them act with a sharpness of intensity that is
peculiar, while others apparently excite no physical injury.

The passions which act most severely on the physical life are anger,
fear, hatred, and grief. The other passions are comparatively innoc-
uous. What is called the passion of love is not injurious until it
lapses int(J grief and anxiety; on the contrary, it sustains the physical
power. What is called ambition is of itself harmless ; for ambition,
when it exists purely, is a nobility lifting its owner entirely, from
himself into the exalted service of mankind. It injures when it is
debased by its meaner ally, pride ; or when, stimuUiting a man to too
strenuous efforts after some great object, it leads him to the perform-
ance of excessive mental or physical labor and to the consequences
that follow such effort.

The passion called avarice, according to my experience, tends
rather to the preservation of the body than to its deterioration. The
avaricious man, who seems to the luxurious world to be debarring
himself of all the pleasures of the world, and even to be exposing
himself to tlie fangs of poverty, is generally placing himself in the
precise conditions favorable to a long and healthy existence. By his
economy, he is saving himself from all the worry incident to penury ;
by his caution he is screening himself from all the risks incident to
speculation or the attempt to amass wealth by hazardous means ; by
his regularity of hours and perfect appropriation of the sunlight, in
pi'efereuce to artificial illumination, he rests and works in periods
that precisely accord with the periodicity of Nature ; by his abstemi-
ousness in living he takes just enough to live, which is precisely the
right thing to do according to the rigid natural law. Thus, in almost

' From advance sheets of a new work in press of D. Appleton & Co., entitled "The
Diseases of Modern Life."

INDUCED DISEASE, ETC. 61

every particular, he goes on his way freer than other men from the
external causes of all the induced diseases, and better protected than
most men from the worst consequences of those diseases which spring
from causes that are uncontrollable.

I do not hold up this picture as an encouragement to avarice, for
an avaricious world would truly be a sad one. " But there is a soul
of goodness in things evil, would men observingly distill it out," aud,
certainly, much goodness might be observed even in the perverted
passion of avarice, if reckless and over-generous men would conde-
scend to the distillation.

Some of the most extreme instances, at all events, nay, the most
typical instances, of longevity with perfect jihysical health that I
have met with, have been in those who are tinctured practically with
the passion under consideration. It is true some have not been
happy, and none eminently useful ; but to the physiological mind
they present a remarkable picture of the endurance of health and
life under Avhat are nearest to the natural conditions necessary for
both. They suggest that if with this physical standard a higher and
nobler mental development could be attained, with art and science
and benevolent labors as the pleasures added to the life, the approach
to perfection of existence would be closely realized, and the age, not
of the man only but of the world of life to which he belongs, would
be more thoughtfully conserved.

Of the passions I have enumerated as most detrimental to life,
anger stands first. He is a man very rich indeed in physical power
who can afford to be angry. The richest cannot afford it many times
without insuring the penalty, a penalty that is always severe. What
is still worse of this passion is, that the very disease it engenders
feeds it, so that if the impulse go many times unchecked it becomes
the master of the man.

The effects of passion are brought out entirely through disturb-
ance in the organic nervous chain. We say a man was "red "with
rage, or we say he was " white " with rage, by which terms, as by
degrees of comparison, we express the extent of his fury. Physio-
logically we are then speaking of the nervous condition of the minute
circulation of his blood : that " red " rage means partial paralysis of
minute blood-vessels: that "white" rage means temporary suspension
of the action of the prime mover of the circulation itself. But such
disturbances cannot often be produced without the occurrence of per-
manent organic evils of the vital organs, especially of the heart and
of the brain.

The effect of rage xipon the heart is to induce a permanently per-
verted motion, and particularly that perverted motion called intermit-
tency. One striking example, among others of this kind which I could
name, was afforded me in the case of a member of my own profession.
This gentleman told me that an original irritability of temper was

62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

permitted, by "want of due coutrol, to pass into a disposition of almost
persistent or chronic anger, so that every trifle in his way was a cause
of unwarrantable irritation. Sometimes his anger was so vehement
that all about him were alarmed for him even more than for them-
selves, and when the attack was over there were hours of sorrow and
regret, in private, which were as exhausting as the previous rage. In
the midst of one of these outbreaks of short, severe madness, he sud-
denly felt, to use his own expi'ession, as if his " heart were lost." He
reeled under the impression, was nauseated and faint : then, recover-
ing, he put his hand to his wrist, and discovered an intermittent action
of his heart as the cause of his faintness. He never comjjletely
rallied from that shock, and to the day of his death, ten years later,
he was never free from the intermittency. As a rule he was not con-
scious of the intermittency unless he took an observation on his own
pulse, as though he were apart from himself: but occasionally after
severe fatigue he would be subjectively conscious of it, and was much
distressed and depressed. " I am broken-hearted," he would say,
" physically broken-hearted." And so he was : but the knowledge of
the broken heart tempered, marvelously, his passion, and saved him
many years of a really useful life. He died ultimately from an acute
febrile disorder.

The eifect of anger upon the brain is to produce first a paralysis,
and afterward, during reaction, a congestion of the vessels of that
organ ; for, if life continues, reactive congestion follows paralysis as
certainly as day follows night. Thus, in men who give way to violent
rage there comes on, during the acute period, what to them is merely
a faintness, which, after a time of apparent recovery, is followed by
a slight confusion, a giddiness, a weight in the head, a sense of op-
pression, and a return to equilibrium. They are happy who, continu-
ing their course, sufier no more severely. Many die in one or other
of the two stages I have named. They die in the moment of white
rage, when the cerebral vessels and heart are paralyzed. Then we
say they die of faintness, after excitement. Or, they die more slowly
when the rage has passed and the congestion of reaction has led to
engorgement of the vessels of the brain. Then the engorgement has
caused stoppage of the circulation there; or a vessel has given way;
or serous fluid has exuded, producing pressure, and we report that
the death was from apoplexy, following upon some temporary excite-
ment.

Hati'ed, when it is greatly intensified, acts much like anger in the
efiects it produces. The phenomena difler in that they are less sud-
denly developed and more closely concealed; they very rarely, in
fact, come under the cognizance of the physician unmixed with other
phenomena. They are made up of the symptoms of suppressed anger
with morose determination, and they keep the sufferer from rest. He
is led to neglect the necessities of his own existence ; he is rendered

INDUCED DISEASE, ETC. 6^

feverish and feeble ; and at last he either sinks into chronic despond-
ency and irritability, or rushes hastily to the performance of some
act which indicates disordei-ed mind.

The effects of fear are all but indentical with those of rage, and
like rage grow in force with repetition. The phenomena are so easily
developed in the majority of persons, they may actually be acquired
by imitation, and may be intensified and perhaps induced by listening
to the mere narratives of events which act as causes of fear. I am
daily more and more convinced that not half the evils resulting from
what may be called the promptings of fear in the young and the
feeble are duly appreciated, and that fear is the worst weapon of phys-
ical torture the thoughtless coward wields. The organs upon which
fear exerts its injurious influence are, again, the organic nervous chain,
the heart, and the brain.

Permanent intermittency of the heart is one of the leading phe-
nomena incident to sudden and extreme terror. One example, sufii-
ciently characteristic, will illustrate this fact:

A gentleman of middle age was returning home from a long voyage
in the most perfect health and spirits, when the vessel in which he was
sailing was struck from a collision, and, hopelessly injured, began to
sink. With the sensation of the sinking of the ship and the obvious
imminence of death — five minutes was the longest expected period of
remaining life — this gentleman felt his heart, previously acting ve-
hemently, stop in its beat. He remembered then a confused period
of noise and cries and rush, and a return to comparative quiet, during
which he discovered himself being conveyed, almost unconsciously,
out of the sinking vessel on to the deck of another vessel that had
rendered assistance. When he had gained sufficient calmness he
found that periods of intermittent action of his heart could be counted.
They occun-ed four and five times in the minute for several days, and
interfered with his going to sleep for many nights. On reaching land
the intermittency decreased, and when the patient came to me, soon
afterward, there were not more than two intermittent strokes in the
minute, all the intervening strokes being entirely natui-al and the
action of the heart and the sounds of it being simply perfect. In this
gentleman the intermittent pulse became a fixed condition, but so
modified in character that it was endurable. At his last visit to me he
was not conscious of the symptom except he took it objectively from
himself, by feeling his own pulse or listening to his own heart.

The effect of fear on the brain may be to the extent of that which
is produced by extremity of rage, so that even sudden death, from
syncope, may ensue. I have known two such instances as these, but
the more common effect is an intense irritability, followed by doubt,
suspicion, and distrust, leading toward or to insanity. From a sud-
den terror deeply felt the young mind rarely recovers, never, I believe,
if hereditary tendency to insanity be a part of its nature. A man,

64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

who is now the inmate of an asylum, owing to fixed delusions that
all his best friends are conspiring to injure and kill him, explained to
me, before his delusion was established, from what it started. When
he was a boy he had a nervous dread of water, and his father, for
that very reason, and with the best of intentions, determined that he
should be taught to swim. He was taken by his tutor, in whom he
had every confidence, to the side of a river, and when he was un-
dressed he suddenly found himself cast by his instructor, without any
warning, into the stream. No actual danger of drowning was implied,
for the tutor himself was at once in the water to hold him up or to bring
him to land ; but the immediate effect, beginning with the faintness
of fear, was followed by vomiting, by a long train of other nervous
symptoms, by constant dread that some one was in some way about
to repeat the infliction, by frequent dreaming of the event by night,
by thinking upon it in the day. At last all the phenomena culminated
in that breach between the instinctive and the reasoning powers which
we, for want of a better term, call dangerous and insane delusion.

The effect of grief varies somewhat according to the suddenness
or slowness with which it is expressed. Sudden grief tells chiefly
upon the heart, leading to irregular action, and to various changes in
the extreme parts of the circulation incidental to such irregularity.
Under sudden impulse of grief I have known singular local manifes-
tations of disease, as for instance the development of a goitre ; an
haemoptysis or loss of blood from the lungs ; a local paralysis of the
lip and tongue ; a failure of sight.

When the grief is less sudden and more prolonged, want of power
and intermittency of the circulation are again the most common phe-
nomena. They are most easily developed in women, but I have seen
them occur even in men of strong habit but sensitive feeling. Thus a
gentleman whom I know well, and who suffers in the wfty I describe,
tells me that he first became conscious of the intermittency in the
action of his heart, upon the anxiety he felt from the loss of one of
his brothers, to whom he was deeply attached and for whose superior
talents he had, as indeed many others had, a profound admiration.
The attacks at first were so severe that they created in his mind some
alarm; but in course of time he became accustomed to them, and the
sense of fear passed away. The intermittency in this instance alter-
nated with periods in which there was very slight interruption of
natural action. During the more natural periods there was, however,
an occasional absence of stroke once in two or three hundred beats,
but the fact was not evident to the subject himself. When the ex-
treme attacks were present the intermittency of pulse occurred six or
even seven times in the minute, and the fact, which was subjectively
felt, was very painful. The stomach at the same time was uneasy,
there were flatulency and a sensation of sinking and exhaustion. In
the worst attacks there was also some difficulty in respiration, and a

INDUCED DISEASE^ ETC. 65

desire for more capacity for air, but unattended by spasm or acute
pain. A severe attack was induced readily by any cause of disturb-
ance, such as broken rest or mental excitement ; on the other hand,
rest and freedom from care seemed to him curative, for a time.

In this gentleman another symptom was presented for one or two
years, which is somewhat novel, and exceedingly striking. The symp-
tom was this : When the intermittent action of the heart was at its
worst, there came on in the fingers of one or other hand a sensation
of coldness and -numbness, followed instantly by quick blanching of
the skin, precisely the same appearance, in fact, as is produced when
the surface of the body is frozen. The numbness and temporary death
of the parts would often remain for a full hour, during which time
the superficial sensibility was altogether lost. When recovery com-
menced in the fingers it was very rapid, and after recovery no bad
results were ever noticeable. I have since seen one similar illustration
in another individual, occurring under nearly similar circumstances.

From the irregularity of the circulation of the blood induced by
prolonged grief, varied central phenomena in the nervous matter fol-
low, and in persons who have passed middle life these phenomena are
usually permanent if not progressive. They consist of organic feeble-
ness extending to all the active organs of the body, and affecting
specially the mental organism, A constant desire for rest, for avoid-
ance of cares, for seclusion, mark this stage of disease, if so it may be
called. It is not necessarily a stage leading to rapid failure of further
physical or mental power, for the mind and body are subdued so
equally that there is no galling irritability, no wearing depression from
the influence of other passions. The worst that happens ultimately in
those instances is the gradual but premature encroachment of dementia
previous to death, if the life be prolonged to its natural term.

Under some circumstances the passions, excited in turn, injure by
the combined influence of their action. In games of chance where
money is at stake we see the play of the worst i^assions in all its r^is-
chievous intensity. Fear and anger, hate and grief, hope and exulta-
tion, stand forth, one after tlie other, keeping the trepitant heart in
constant excitement and under tremulous strain, until at lensth its
natural steadiness of motion is transformed into unnatural irregularity
which, if it do not remain permanent, is called up by the slightest
irritation. Tlie act of playing at whist for high stakes is a frequent
source of disease from this cause. I know that professed or habitual
card-players declare that, however much may be played for, the losses
and winnings of games are equalized by turn, and that after a year's
play the player has, practically, neither won nor lost. I may accept
that what is declared on this point is true ; but the fact, if it be one,
does not alter the physical evil that results, one iota. The man who,
after being engaged in business all day, sits down regularly at night
to play his rubbers on rubbers, to stake heavily on his games, to bet

VOL. VIII. — 5

66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

on his odd tricks, never, I believe, escapes the effects of organic
nervous shock. Some of the worst forms of such shock I have seen
have sprung from this cause.

Political excitements call forth readily the reel of the passions
with dangerous energy. A few specially constructed men, who have
no passions, pass through active political excitement and, maybe,
take part in it without suffering injury ; but the majority are injured.
As they pour forth their eloquent or rude sj^eeches, as they extol or
condemn, as they cheer or hiss, as they threaten or cajole, they are
taking out of themselves force they will never regain.

It has been observed since the time of Pinel, that when to political
excitement there is added the excitement of war, especially of civil
war, the effects on the physical life of the people is at once marked by
the disturbance of nervous balance. This fact was forcibly illustrated
during and after the last great civil war in America, and it formed the
subject of several most able reports by the physicians of that country.
One report, by Dr. Stokes, of the Mount Hope Institution of Baltimore,
was, I remember, a masterly history which, when the time comes that
war shall be no more, will be read with as much wonder as we now
read of the witch or dancing mania of the middle ages. One victim
of the war mania is cursed with fear until he fails to sleep; another
believes all his estates are confiscated ; a third imagines himself taking
part in some bloody fray ; a fourth, the subject of aural delusions, no
sooner sleeps than he wakes up, roused by what he considers to be
awful sounds afar off, but approaching nearer. These are the more
visible evidences of the injuries of war beyond those inflicted on the
fighting-men. They represent much, but they represent little if they
be compared with the minor but still formidable physical injuries to
the heart and brain which stop short of real insanity, but which reduce
life, and which pass in line from the generation that receives them
primarily to the generations that have to come.

The reel of the passions as a cause of diseases of modern life rests
not with the excitements of gaming, of political strife, of war. It is
stirred up by some fanatical manifestations for the regeneration of the
world, which are well meant, but which, missing the mark, plant de-
generation instead.

In a sentence, whenever, from undue excitement of any kind, the
passions are permitted to overrule the reason, the result is disease:
the heart empties itself into the brain ; the brain is stricken, the heart
is prostrate, and both are lost.

THE PROPERTIES OF PROTOPLASM. 67

THE PROPEETIES OF PROTOPLASM.'

Bt eenst haeckel,

PBOFESSOE OF ZOOLOGY IN THE UNIVEESITT OF JENA. .

THE terra protoplasm, from Gr. irpCiTot;^ first, and TrXdafia, form, is
applied to the supposed original substance from wliich all living
beings are developed, and which is the universal concomitant of every
phenomenon of life. All that is comprehended for brevity under the
terra life, whether the growth of plants, the flight of birds, or a train
of human thought, is thus supposed to be caused by corporeal organs
which either themselves consist of protoplasm, or have been developed
out of it. Wlierever nutrition and propagation, motion and sensa-
tion exist, there is as their material basis this substance designated in
a general sense as protoplasm. The proof of it is held to be furnished
by the protozoans called moners, the whole completely developed
body of which consists solely of protoplasra. They are not only the
simplest organisms with which we are acquainted, but also the simplest
living beings we can conceive of as capable of existing; and though
their entire body is but a single, foi'mless, small lurap of protoplasm,
and (each molecule of it being like the other) without any combina-
tion of parts, yet they perform all the functions which in their entirety
constitute in the most highly-organized animals and plants what is
comprehended in the idea of life, namely, sensation and motion, nutri-
tion and propagation. By examining these moners we shall gain a
clear conception of the nature of protoplasm, and understand the im-
poi'tant biological questions connected with the theory.

Some moners live in fresh water, and others in the sea. They are
as a rule invisible to the naked eye, but some are as large as the head
of a pin, and may be distinguished without the aid of a microscope.
When corapletely at rest a moner commonly assumes the shape of a
simple sphere. Either the surface of the body is quite smooth, or
numerous exceedingly delicate thi*eads radiate from it in all directions.
These threads are not permanent and constant organs of the slime-
like body, but perishable continuations of it, which alternately appear
and disappear, and may vary every moment in number, size, and forra.
For this I'eason they are called false feet or pseudopodia, Neverthe-
less, by means of tliese pseudopodia the monex's perform all the func-
tions of the higher aniraals, moving them like real feet either to creep,
climb, or swim. By raeans of these sticky threads they adhere to
foreign bodies as with arms, and by shortening or elongating them
they drag their own bodies after them. Each thread, like the whole
body, is capable of being contracted, and every portion of it is as
sensitive and excitable as the entire form. When any point on the

' From the forthcoming volume of Appletons' " American Cyclopaedia."

68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

surface of the body is touched with the point of a pin, or with another
body producing a chemical alteration, as for examj)le a small drop of
acid, or when a current of electricity is passed through it, the threads
are drawn in, and the entire body contracts into the form of a spheri-
cal lump. The same threads perform also the function of providing
alimentation.

When a small infusorium or any other nutritive particle comes acci-
dentally in contact with the extended pseudopodia, these run quickly
over it like a fluid, wind around it with their numerous little branches,
fuse into one, and press it into tlie interior of the body, where all the
nutritive portions are rapidly absorbed and immediately assimilated,
while all that is useless is quickly ejected.

The variations among the diiferent moners, of which so far sixteen
kinds have been described (Haeckel's "Monographic cler Moneren),"
consist partly in the various forms of the pseudopodia, but especially in
the diflerent kinds of propagation. Some of them merely divide into
halves on reaching a certain size ; others put forth little buds which
gradually separate from them ; and others experience a sudden divi-
sion of the mass into numerous small spherical bodies, each of which
instantly begins a separate existence and gradually reaches the size
of the ancestral organism.

The chemical examination of the homogeneous protoplasmic body
shows that it consists throughout of an albuminous or slime-like mass,
hence of that azotic carbonate of the character of the highly-com-
pounded connective group called proteine, albuminoids, or plasson
bodies. Like other chemical compounds of this group, protojjlasm
exhibits several reactions which distinguish it from all others. It is
easy to detect it under the microscope, on account of the facility with
which it combines with certain coloring matters, as carmine and ani-
line ; it is colored dark yellow or yellowish brown by iodine and nitric
acid; and it is coagulated by alcohol and mineral acids, as well as by
heat. The quantitative composition of protoj^lasm, though in some
cases greatly varying, resembles as a whole tliat of other albuminoids,
and hence consists of trom fifty to fifty-five per cent, of carbon, jjrob-
ably six to eight of hydrogen, fifteen to seventeen of nitrogen, twenty
to twenty-two of oxygen, and one to two of sulphur. Protoplasm pos-
sesses the quality of absorbing water in various quantities, which
renders it sometimes extremely soft and nearly liquid, and sometimes
hard and firm like leather; but it is usually of a medium degree of
density. Its more prominent physical qualities are excitability and
contractility, which Kiihne and others have made a special subject of
investigation.

On examining with t'lie microscope the numerous substances con-
stituting the various organs of the higher animals, it appears that they
all consist of a large number of minute elements, known since Schlei-
den and Schwann (1838) by the name of cells ; and in these cells pro-

THE PROPERTIES OF PROTOPLASM. 69

toplasm is the oldest, most primordial, and most important constituent.
In every real cell there is, besides protoplasm, and while still alive and
independent, a second important constituent, the cellular germ, so
called (nucleus or cytoblast) ; but even this germ consists of an albu-
minous chemical compound which is closely related to protoplasm,
and was orginally produced from it by an exceedingly slight chemi-
cal alteration. The germ is usually a smaller and firmer formation
within the protoplasm of the cell.

Inasmuch as the idea of an organic cell, as now adopted by liistol-
ogists, rests on the presence of two different essential parts in this
elementary organism, the internal cell and the external protoplasm,
we must distinguish also two diiferent kinds of elementary organisms :
germless cytods, as moners for example, and the real germ-inclosing
cells, which originate from the former by secreting in the interior of
the small mass of protoplasm a true germ or nucleus. Cells of the
simplest kind consist only of protoplasm with a nucleus, while in
general the cells of animal or vegetable bodies have also other con-
stituents, particularly and frequently an inclosing skin or capsule (the
cellular membrane), also crystals, grains of fat, pigments, and the like,
within the protoplasm. But all of these parts came into being only
secondarily through the chemical action of protoplasm ; they are but
the internal and external products of pi'otoj^lasm. (Haeckel's " Gene-
relle Morphologie," vol. i., p. 279). The single cell of the simplest
kind is able to exist as an independent organism. Many of the lowest
plants and animals, and also many neutral protista (which are neither
animals nor plants), retain for life the character of a simple cell. Such
unicellular organisms of the simplest kinds are the amcebce, found in
large numbers as well in fresh as in salt water. Amoebae are simple
naked cells of various and varying forms. The whole difference
between them, especially ^:>ro<am«56e, and certain moners, is that they
have a germ. It is probable that tliis germ of the amoebae (as may
be supposed to be the case with many and perhaps all other cells) is
only an organ of propagation, and hence of heredity; while all the
other functions, alimentation, motion, and sensation, are performed
by the protoplasm. This seems to indicate that at the reproduction
of the cells, which is usually effected by segmentation, it is the germ
which first divides in two, and that the protoplasm afterward gathers
around each of the two sister germs till it also falls in two. It is
impossible to distinguish from the common amoebae the cellular ovules
of many of the inferior animals, as for example the sponges, medusae,
and other plant-like animals. With these the eggs are simple naked
cells, which, with the sponges especially, sometimes crawl about inde-
pendently in the body of the animal, giving rise to the idea that they
were a class of parasitic amoebae. But with other animals also, and
with most plants, the eggs of which generally obtain subsequently
special and often very complicated encasements and other additions,

70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

every ^^^ is originally a simple cell. The seminal elements of the
male are also only simple cells, and the entire mysterious process of
fructification is after all nothing but the fusion or concrescence of two
different cells, the one a female egg-cell, and the other a male semen-
cell. In consequence of this fusion the germs of the two combined
cells dissolve, and therewith tltlj young, newly-generated individual
begins his existence as a simple cytod, or a small germless ball of
protoplasm. But inside of this cytod soon arises a new germ, which
turns it again into a cell, and this simple cell forms by oft-repeat-ed
segmentation an accumulation of cells. Out of this heap are produced
by secretion certain germinal layers or "germ-leaves," and out of
these proceed all the other organs of the complete being. Each of these
organs again originally consists only of cells, and in all of these cells
the essential constituent parts are only the germ and protoplasm: the
germ as the elementary organ of j^ropagation and heredity, protoplasm
as the elementary organ of all the other functions, sensation, motion,
alimentation, and adaptation. Cells and cytods, therefore, are true ele-
mentary organisms, independent minute forms of life, which either in
the lowest existences continue to live independently, or in the higher
organisms combine in numbers to form a community. Cells and cytods
are the veritable "formers" of life, or plastids. The most ancient
and primordial forms of plastids are cytods, the whole body of which
consists of protoplasm, in which the germs are internally produced, and
from which therefore the cells proceed.

As a matter of course, to the infinite varieties presented by the
organic forms and vital phenomena in the vegetable and animal king-
dom, corresponds an equally infinite variety of chemical composition
in the protoplasm. The most minute homogeneous constituents of this
" life-substance," the protoplasm molecules, or plastidules, as they are
called by Elsberg, must in their chemical composition present an infi-
nite number of extremely delicate gradations and variations. The
atoms of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulphur, which
compose each of the plastidules, must enter into an infinite number of
diverse stratifications and combinations. The chemistry of to-day,
with its imperfect methods of investigation, is totally powerless before
these intricate organic compounds, and it is possible only to surmise,
from the infinitely varied physiological qualities of the numberless
kinds of plastids, the infinite variety of plastidules out of which they
are composed.

According to the plastid theory recently advanced, the great
variety of vital phenomena is the consequence of the infinitely deli-
cate chemical difference in the composition of protoplasm, and it con-
siders protoplasm to be the sole active life-substance. This theory
puts force and matter in living organisms into the same causal con-
nection which has long been accepted for force and matter in inor-
ganic bodies. This conception has been rapidly matured, especially in

i

THE PROPERTIES OF PROTOPLASM. 71

the past twenty years, through the more exact information obtained
in regard to the lowest kinds of organisms. Yet the idea had been
grasjjed more tlian half a eentury ago ; for the " primordial slime "
which Lorenz Oken proclaimed in 1809 to be the original source
of life, and the material basis of all living bodies, possessed in all
essentials the same qualities and the same importance now ascribed
to protoplasm; and the sarcode so called, which in 1835 was pointed
out by the French zoologist Felix Dujardin as the only living sub-
stance in the body of rhizopods and other inferior primitive animals,
is identical with protoplasm. But when Schleiden and Schwann, in
1838, developed their cell theory, they were not acquainted with the
fundamental significance of protoplasm. Even Hugo Mohl, who in
1846 was the first to apply the name protoplasm to the peculiar serous
and mobile substance in the interior of vegetable cells, and who per-
ceived its high importance, was very far from understanding its sig-
nificance in relation to all organisms. Not until Ferdinand Cohn
(1850), and more fully Franz XJnger (1855), had established the iden^
tity of the animate and contractile protoplasm in vegetable cells and
the sarcode of the lower animals, could Max Schultze in 1858-61
elaborate this protoplasm theory of the sarcode, so as to proclaim
protoplasm to be the most essential and important constituent of all
organic cells, and to show that the bag or husk of the cell, the cellu-
lar membrane, and the intercellular substances, are but secondary
parts of the cell, and are frequently wanting. In a similar manner
Lionel Beale (1862) distinguished such primary forming and second-
ary formed substances in all organic tissues, and gave to protoplasm,
including the cellular germ, the name of " germinal matter," and tp
all the other substances entering into the composition of tissues, being
secondary and produced, the name of " formed matter."

The protoplasm theory received a wide and thorough illustration
from the study of rhizopods which Ernst Haeckel published in 1862
in his " Monographic der Radiolarien," and its complete application in
the " Gencrelle Morphologic der Organismen" by the same naturalist.
Ilaeckel distinguishes in these works, for the first time, between
gerraless protoplasm, consisting only of plastids called cytods by him,
and the germ-containing real ceils, the elementary organism of which
consists already of two difierent essential parts, germ and protoplasm.
He conceived the cytods and cells as two different gradations of plas-
tids, of organic elementary individuals, or as " individuals of the
first order," and adopted entirely, in regard to the individual inde-
pendence of the plastids, the ideas which had been set forth by Ru-
dolf Yirchow and Ernst Brilcke.

Virchow, w^hose " Cellular-Pathologie " contains the most complete'
application of the cell theory to pathology, called the cells and the
*' cell territories " belonging to them the individual hearth or source of
life ; Brilcke designated them as " elementary organisms." The plas-

72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tids or individuals of the first order, identical with them, were de-
termined by Haeckel phylogenetically, to the effect that cytods and
cells must be distinguished as two essentially different orders of for-
mation ; i, e., that cells were phylogenetically produced in a second-
ary manner from homogeneous cytods by means of the secretion of a
germ by the protoi>lasm. This distinction is important for the reason
that many of the lowest orders of organisms have no germ in the
protoplasm ; such is the case especially with the moners. These sim-
plest of organisms were first discovered by Haeckel in 1864, and de-
scribed by him in 1868 in his " Monographic der Moneren." Cienkow-
ski and Huxley also made valuable investigations of various moners.
The latter discovered in 1868 the famous bathybius, a very remark-
able kind of moner, which at immense depths covers the bottom of
the sea in immeasurable numbers, and which consists of formless and
variable protoplasm tissues of different sizes.

Among the moners investigated by Cienkowski, the most interest-
ing are the vamj>ire-cells, which are formless little bodies of proto-
plasm that bore into vegetable cells by means of their pointed pseu-
dopodia, kill them, and absorb tlie protoplasm tliey find in them. On
the basis of tliese discoveries Haeckel elaborated his plastid theory
and carbon theory, which give the extreraest philosophical conse-
quences of the protoplasm theory.

In England the monistic philosophy of jjrotoplasm has received
the most weighty support from Huxley, whose "Protoplasm, or the
Physical Basis of Life" (1868), put it in its true light, and called
forth numerous writings for and against it. One of the most recent
treatises in favor of it is that of James Ross "On Protoplasm*' (1874).
Probably the name of plasson will be given to the primordial, per-
fectly structureless, and homogeneous protoplasm of the moners and
other cytods, in contradis.tinction to the protoplasm of germ-contain-
ing cells, which are produced only subsequently, by the differentiation
of an internal nucleus and external protoplasm by the plasson bodies
of moners. Edouai-d van Beneden especially calls for this distinction
in his "Recherches sur revolution des gregarines;" and Haeckel has
adduced new facts in favor of it in his "Monograpphie der Kalk-
schwiirame." For the theory of " primordial generation," the spontane-
ous generation of the first vitality on earth, the distinction is of special
importance, as the first organisms thus produced could have been only
structureless specks of plasson, like the bathybius and other moners.
The great theoretical difficulties formerly in the way of the theory of
primordial or spontaneous generation have been removed by the dis-
covery of the moners and the establishment of the plastid theory. As
the protoplasm of the bathybius is not yet as much as individualized,
while in the case of other moners there are individual lumps of constant
sizes, it follows that the moners are to be regarded as the natural
bodies which effect the transition from inorganic to organic Nature.

A CURIOUS INDIAN RELIC.

73

A CUEIOUS INDIAN EELIC.

By CHAELES 0. ABBOTT, M. D.

AMONG the several thousands of Indian relics gathered by the
writer, in the immediate vicinity of Trenton, New Jersey, there
has occurred one wholly different from all the others, and which bears
some resemblance to the Avell-known Indian bark-letters, as figured
by Schoolcraft and Catlin ; but this inscribed stone is far more primi-
tive than these. The specimen (as shown in the following diagram)
is a slab of impure mica or micaceous slate, about an inch in thick-
ness, seven inches in length, and four and three-fourths inches in

greatest width. The edges have been rudely beveled, and the speci-
men chipped into its present shape previous to the inscribing of the
peculiar markings which characterize the relic.

These consist of a series of well-defined lines, one extending the
entire length of the specimen, and dividing it into two nearly equal
parts or surfaces. There are also three well-defined lines crossing

74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

the central one at right angles, and a fourth short one, with " split "
ends, on the left-hand side, below tlie centre of the slab.

The wide, shallow groove crossing obliquely from left to riglit is,
I think, a subsequent marking, possibly from a ploughshare passing
lightly over the stone. It has the appearance of having been done
quite recently. Perhaps the most noticeable featui'e of the inscribed
side of the stone is the well-defined arrow, extending obliquely
across the specimen fi-om right to left. This certainly helps one, at
least, to imagine some plausible explanation of the meaning of the
various markings.

The relic was found in a dense swamp, which until very lately has
in no way been disturbed, otherwise than by cutting off the matured
timber. Just where found it probably had been lying since the dis-
tant day when, for some purpose, it was placed in position by the
aborigines.

That the specimen is really an Indian relic I am positive, having
examined the spot where it was found ; and from the fact that the
lad that found it brought it to me with considerable doubt in his
own mind as to its being really " Indian " work. In the immediate
neighborhood were found quite a number of stone axes, spears, and
arrow-points, all of them of the rudest workmanship.

As the specimen exhibits no attempt on the part of its primeval
owner at ornamentation, not even polishing, it can scarcely be
doubted that the markings upon it were placed there to express some
fact to others who might find it ; that it is a " bark-letter " written
upon stone — a very primitive attempt at " picture-writing."

Admitting, then, that the specimen has been engraved, as we now
find it, by an aborigine, I suggest the following as an explanation or
interpretation of the various markings : The slab has been engraved
and then placed in the trail which the Indian or party of them were
following, with the long central line pointing due north or else in the
direction of the trail. The crossing lines would indicate three days'
journeys up to the time of " locating " the stone, or, more probably,
that three streams of water had been crossed ; and the direction oi
the arrow indicated the direction the party had taken from the point
where the stone M^as j^laced, on leaving the trail they had been fol-
lowing.

That the specimen was intended to convey some such meaning, I
have myself no doubt ; but, looked at in any light, it is certainly a
very remarkable form of " relic," and being (as yet) unique, in the
enormous "find" from this neighborhood, I think goes to show it is
really a "record" or "letter," as such "picture-writings" would nat-
urally be made at rare intervals and under unusual circumstances.

The specimen is preserved in the Museum of the Peabody Acad-
emy of Science, at Salem, Massachusetts.

METEOROLOGY OF THE SUN AND EARTH. 75
METEOROLOGY OF THE SUN AND EAETH.'

By Peof. BALFOUK STEWART, F. E. S.

SINCE the last meeting of the British Association, Science has had
to mourn the loss of one of its pioneers, in the death of the vet-
eran astronomer, Schwabe, of Dessau, at a good old age, not before he
had faithfully and honorably finished his work. In truth, this work
was of such a nature that the worker could not be expected long to
survive its completion.

It is now nearly fifty years since he first began to produce daily
sketches of the spots that appeared upon the sun's surface. Every
day on which the sun was visible (and such days are more frequent in
Germany than in this country), with hardly any intermission for
forty years, this laborious and venerable observer made his sketch of
the solar disk. At length this unexampled perseverance met with its
reward in the discovery of the periodicity of sun-spots, a phenomenon
which very speedily attracted the attention of the scientific world.

It is not easy to overrate the importance of the step gained when
a periodicity was found to rule tliese solar outbreaks. A priori we
should not have expected such a phenomenon. If the old astronomers
were perplexed by the discovery of sun-spots, their successors must
have been equally perplexed when they ascertained their periodicity.
For wliile all are ready to acknowledge periodicity as one of the natural
conditions of terrestrial phenomena, yet every one is inclined to ask
what there can be to cause it in the behavior of the sun himself. Mani-
festly it can only have two possible causes. It must either be the
outcome of some strangely hidden jDcriodical cause residing in the sun
himself, or must be produced by external bodies, siich as planets, act-
ing somehow in their varied positions on the atmosphei'e of the sun.
But whether the cause be an internal or external one, in either case
we are completely ignorant of its nature.

We can easily enough imagine a cause operating from the sun him-
self and his relations with a surrounding medium to jjroduce great
disturbances on his surface, but we cannot easily imagine why dis-
turbances so caused should have a periodicity. On the other hand we
can easily enough attach periodicity to any efiect caused by the plan-
ets, but we cannot well see why bodies comparatively so insignificant
should contribute to such very violent outbreaks as we now know sun-
spots to be.

If we look within we are at a loss to account for the periodicity of
solar disturbances, and if we look without we are equally at a loss to
account for their magnitude. But, since that within the sun is hidden

' Opening Address in Section A, at the Bristol Meeting of the British Association.

76 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

from our view, it cannot surely be considered blameworthy if astrono-
mers have directed their attention to that without and have endeav-
ored to connect the behavior of sun-spots with the positions of the
various planets. Stimulated no doubt by the success which had at-
tended the labors of Schwabe, an English astronomer was the next to
enter the field of solar research.

The aim of Mr. Carrington was, however, rather to obtain very
accurate records of the positions, the sizes, and the shapes of the
various sun-spots than to make a very extensive and long-continued
series of observations. He was aware that a series at once very ac-
curate and very extended is beyond the power of a private individual,
and can only be undertaken by an established institution. Neverthe-
less, each sun-spot that made its appearance during the seven years
extending from the beginning of 1854 to the end of 1860 was sketched
by Mr. Carrington with the greatest possible accuracy, and had also
its heliographic position, that is to say its solar latitude and longitude,
accurately determined.

One of the most prominent results of Mr. Carrington's labors was
the discovery of the fact that sun-spots appear to have a proper mo-
tion of their own — those nearer the solar equator moving faster than
those more remote. Another was the discovery of changes, apparently
periodical, affecting the disposition of spots in solar latitude. It was
already known that sun-spots confined themselves to the sun's equa-
torial regions, but Mr. Carrington showed that the region afiected was
liable to periodical elongations and contractions, although his ob-
servations were not sufiieiently extended to determine the exact length
of this period.

Before Mr. Carrington had completed his seven years' labors, celes-
tial photography had been introduced by Mr. Warren De la Rue.
Commencing with his private observatory, he next persuaded the Kew
Committee of the British Association to allow the systematic photog-
raphy of the sun to be carried on at their observatory under his
superintendence, and in the year 1862 the first of a ten years' series
of solar photographs was begun. Before this date, however, Mr. De la
Rue had ascertained, by means of his photolieliograph, on the occasion
of the total eclipse of 1860, that the red prominences surrounding the
eclipsed sun belong, without doubt, to our luminary himself.

The Kew observations are not yet finally reduced, but already sev-
eral important conclusions have been obtained from them by Mr. De
la Rue and the other Kew observers. In the first place the Kew
photographs contirm the theory of Wilson that sun-spots are phenom-
ena, the dark portions of wliich exist at a level considerably beneath
the general surface of the sun ; in other words, they are hollows, or
pits, the interior of which is of course filled up Avith the solar atmos-
phere. The Kew observers were likewise led to associate the low
temperature of the bottom of sun-spots with the downward carriage

METEOROLOGY OF THE SUN AND EARTH. 77

of colder matter from the atmosphere of the sun, while the upward
rush of heated matter was supposed to accouut for the facula^ or bright
patches which almost invariably accompany spots. In the next place
the Kew observers, making use not only of the Kew series but of those
of Schwabe and Carrington, which were generously placed at their dis-
posal, have discovered traces of the influence of tlie nearer planets
upon the behavior of sun-spots. This influence appears to be of such
a nature that spots attain their maximum size when carried by rota-
tion into positions as far as possible remote from the influencing planet
— that is to say, into positions where the body of the sun is between
them and the planet. There is also evidence of an excess of solar ac-
tion when two influential planets come near together. But, although
considerable light has thus been thrown on the periodicity of sun-
spots, it ought to be borne in mind that the cause of the remarkable
period of eleven years and a quarter, originally discovered by Schwabe,
has not yet been properly explained. The Kew observers have like-
wise discovered traces of a peculiar oscillation of spots between the
two hemispheres of the sun, and finally their researches will place at
the command of the observers the data for ascertaining whether cen-
tres of greater and lesser solar activity are connected with certain
heliocentric positions.

While the sun's surface was thus being examined both telescopi-
cally and photographically, the spectroscope came to be employed as
an instrument of research. It had already been surmised by Prof.
Stokes, that the vapor of sodium at a comparatively low temperature
forms one of the constituents of the solar atmosphere, inasmuch as the
dark line D in the spectrum of the sun coincides in position with the
bright line given out by incandescent sodium-vapor.

This method of research was greatly extended by Kirchhoflf, who
soon found that many of the dark lines in the solar spectrum were co-
incident with the bright lines of sundry incandescent metallic vapors,
and a good beginning was thus made toward ascertaining the chemi-
cal constitution of the sun.

The new method soon brought forth further fruit when applied in
the hands of Huggins, Miller, Secchi, and others, to the more distant
heavenly bodies. It was speedily found that the fixed stars had con-
stitutions very similar to that of the sun. But a peculiar and unex-
pected success was attained when some of the nebula? were examined
spectroscopically. To-day it seems (so rapidly has knowledge pro-
gressed) very much like recalling an old superstition to remind you
that until the advent of the spectroscope the irresolvable nebulae were
considered to be gigantic and remote clusters of stars, the individual
members of which were too distant to be separated from each other
even with a telescope like that of Lord Rossc. But Mr. Huggins, by
means of the spectroscope, soon found that this was not the case, and
that most of the nebulae which had defied the telescope gave indica-

78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tions of incandescent hydrogen gas. It was also found by this ob-
server that the proper motions of some of the fixed stars in a direction
to or from the earth might be detected by means of the displacement
of their spectral lines, a method of research which was first enunciated
by Fizeau. Hitherto, in such applications of the spectroscope, the
body to be examined was viewed as a whole. It had not yet been at-
tempted to localize the use of this insti'ument so as to examine par-
ticular districts of the sun, as for instance a sun-spot, or the red flames
already proved by De la Rue to belong to our luminary. This appli-
cation was first made by Mr. Lockyer, who in the year 1865 examined
a sun-spot spectroscopically, and remarked tlie greater thickness of the
lines in the spectrum of the darker portion of the spot.

Dr. Frankland had previously found that thick spectral lines cor-
respond to great jiressure, and hence the inference from the greater
thickness of lines in the umbra of a spot is that this umbra or dark
portion is subject to a greater pressure ; that is to say, it exists below
a greater depth of the solar atmosphere than the general surface of the
sun. Thus the results derived from the Kew i:»hotoheliograph and
those derived from the spectroscope were found to confirm each other.
Mr. Lockyer next caused a powerful instrument to be constrixcted for
the purpose of viewing spectroscopically the red flames round the sun's
border, in the hope that if tliey consisted of ignited gas the spectro-
scope would disperse, and thus dilute and destroy the glare which pre-
vents them from being seen on ordinary occasions.

Before this instrument was quite ready these flames had been an-
alyzed spectroscopically by Captain Herschel, M. Janssen, and others,
on the occasion of a total eclipse occurring in India, and they were
found to consist of incandescent gas, most probably hydrogen. But
the latter of these observers (M. Janssen) made the important obser-
vation that the bright lines in the spectrum of these flames remained
visible even after the sun had reappeared, from which he argued that
a solar ecli})se is not necessary for the examination of this region.

Before information of the discovery made by Janssen had reached
this country, the instrument of Mr, Lockyer had been completed, and
he also found that by its means he was able to analyze at leisure the
composition of the red flames without the necessity of a total eclipse.
An atmosphere of incandescent hydrogen was found to surround oiir
luminarj', into whicli, during the greater solar storms, sundry metallic
vapors were injected — sodium, magnesium, and iron, forming the three
that most frequently made their appearance.

Here we come to an interesting chemical question.

It had been remarked by Maxwell and by Pierce as the result of
the molecular theory of gases that the final distribution of any num-
ber of kinds of gas in a vertical direction under gravity is such that
the density of each gas at a given height is the same as if all the other
gases had been removed, leaving it alone. In our own atmosphere

METEOROLOGY OF THE SXJN AND EARTH. 79

the continual disturbances prevent this arrangement from taking place,
but in the sun's enormously extended atmosphere (if, indeed, our lumi-
nary be not nearly all gaseous) it appears to hold, inasmuch as the
upper portion of this atmosphere, dealing with known elements, ap-
parently consists entirely of hydrogen. Various other vapors are,
however, as we have seen, injected from below the photosphere into
the solar atmosphere on the occasion of great disturbances, and Mr.
Lockyer has asked the question, whether we have not here a true in-
dication of the relative densities of these various vapors derived from
the relative heights to which they are injected on such occasions.

This question has been asked, but it has not yet received a definite
solution, for chemists tell us that the vapor densities of some of the
gases injected into the sun's atmosphere on the occasion of disturb-
ances are, as far as they know from terrestrial observations, difierent
from those which would be indicated by taking the relative heights
attained in tlie atmosphere of the sun. Mr. Lockyer has attempted to
bring this question a step nearer to its solution by showing that the
vapors at the temperatures at which their vapor densities have been
experimentally determined are not of similar molecular constitution,
whereas in the sun we get an indication, from the fact that all the ele-
ments give us line spectra, that they are in similar molecular states.

Without, however, attempting to settle this question, I may remark
that we have here an interesting example of how two branches of
science — physics and chemistry — meet together in solar research.

It had already been observed by KirchholF that sometimes one or
more of the spectral lines of an elementary vapor appeared to be re-
versed in the solar spectrum, while the other lines did not experience
reversal. Mr. Lockyer succeeded in obtaining an explanation of this
phenomenon. This explanation was found by means of the method of
localization already mentioned.

Hitherto, when taking the spectrum of the electric spark between
the two metallic poles of a coil, the arrangements were such as to give
an average spectrum of the metal of these poles ; but it was found that,
when the method of localization was employed, difierent portions of
the spark gave a different number of lines, the regions near the ter-
minals being rich in lines, while the midway regions give compara-
tively few.

If we imagine that in the midway regions the metallic vapor given
off by the spark is in a rarer state than that near the poles, we are
thus led to regard the short lines which cling to the poles as those
which require a greater density or nearness of the vapor-particles be-
fore they make their appearance ; while, on the other hand, those which
extend all the way between the two poles come to be regarded as
those which will continue to make their appearance in vapor of great
tenuity.

Now, it was remarked that these long lines were the very lines

8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which were reversed in the atmosphere of the sun. Hence, when we
observe a single coincidence between a dark solar line and the bright
line oi" any metal, we are further led to inquire whether this bright
line is one of the long lines which will continue to exist all the way
between two terminals of that metal when the spark passes.

If this be the case, then we may argue with much probability that
the metal in question really occurs in the solar atmosphere ; but if, on
the other hand, the coincidence is merely between a solar dark line
and a short bright one, then we are led to imagine that it is not a true
coincidence, but something which will probably disappear on further
examination. This method has already aftbrded us a means of deter-
mining the relative amount of the various metallic vapors in the sun's
atmosphere. Thus, in some instances all lines are reversed, whereas
in others the reversal extends only to a few of the longer lines.

Several new metals have thus been added to the list of those pre-
viously detected in the solar atmosphere, and it is now certain that
the vapors of hydrogen, potassium, sodium, rubidium, barium, stron-
tium, calcium, magnesium, aluminium, iron, manganese, chromium,
cobalt, nickel, titanium, lead, copper, cadmium, zinc, uranium, cerium,
vanadium, and palladium, occur in our luminary.

I have spoken hitherto only of telescopic spectroscopy ; but pho-
tography has been found capable of performing the same good service
toward the compound instrument consisting of the telescope and its
attached spectroscope, which it had previously been known to perform
toward the telescope alone. It is of no less importance to secure a
permanent record of spectral peculiarities than it is to secure a perma-
nent record of telescopic appearances. This application of photogra-
phy to spectrum observations was first commenced on a sufficient scale
by Mr. Rutherford, of New York, and already promises to be one of
the most valuable aids in solar inquiry.

In connection with the spectroscope I ought here to mention the
names of Respighi and Secchi, who have dotie much in the examina-
tion of the solar surface from day to day. It is of great importance
to the advancement of our knowledge, that two such competent ob-
servers are stationed in a country where the climate is so favorable to
continued observation.

The examination of the sun's surface by the spectroscope suggests
many interesting questions connected with other branches of science.
One of these has already been alluded to. I may mention two others
put by Mr, Lockyer, premising, however, that at present we are hardly
in a position to reply to them. It has been asked whether the very
high temperatures of the sun and of some of the stars may not be suffi-
cient to produce the disassociation of those molecular structures which
cannot be disassociated by any terrestrial means ; in other words, the
question has been raised, whether our so-called elements are really
elementary bodies.

METEOROLOGY OF THE SUN AND EARTH. 8i

A third question is of geological interest. It has been asked whether
a study of the solar atraospliere may not throw some light upon the
peculiar constitution of the upper strata of the earth's surface, which
are known to be of less density than the average interior of our planet.

If we have learned to be independent of total eclipses as far as the
lower portions of the solar atmosphere are concerned, it must be con-
fessed that as yet the upper portions — the outworks of the sun — can
only be successfully approached on these rare and precious occasions.
Thanks to the various government expeditions dispatched by Great
Britain, by the United States, and by several Continental nations —
thanks, also, to the exertions of Lord Lindsay and other astronomers
— we are in the possession of definite information regarding the solar
corona.

In the first place, we are now absolutely certain that a large part
of this appendage unmistakably belongs to our luminary, and in the
next place, we know that it consists, in part at least, of an ignited gas
giving a peculiar spectrum, which we have not yet been able to iden-
tify with that of any known element. The temptation is great to as-
sociate this spectrum with the presence of something lighter than
hydrogen, of the nature of which we are yet totally ignorant.

A peculiar physical structure of the corona has likewise been sus-
pected. On the whole, we may say that this is the least known, while
it is perhaps the most interesting, region of solar research ; most as-
suredly it is well worthy of further investigation.

If we now turn our attention to matters nearer home, we find that
there is a difficulty in grasping the facts of terrestrial meteorology no
less formidable than that which assails us when we investigate solar
outbreaks. The latter perplex us because the sun is so far away, and
because also his conditions are so dilFerent from those with which we
are here familiar; while, on the other hand, the former perplex us be-
cause we are so intimately mixed up with them in our daily lives and
actions ; because, in fact, the scale is so large and we ai'e so near.
The result has been that until quite recently our meteorological opera-
tions have been conducted by a band of isolated volunteers individu-
ally capable and skillful, but from their very isolation incapable of
combining together with advantage to prosecute a scientific campaign.
Of late, however, we haA'e begun to perceive that, if we are to make
any advance in this very interesting and practical subject, a difierent
method must be pursued, and we have already reaped the first fruits
of a more enlightened policy ; already we have gained some knowledge
of the constitution and habits of our atmosphere.

The researches of Wells and Tyndall have thrown much light on
the cause of dew. Humboldt, Dove, Buys Ballot, Jelinek, Quetelet,
Hansteen, Kupfier, Forbes, Welsh, Glaisher, and others, have done
much to give us an accurate knowledge of the distribution of terrestrial
temperature. Great attention has likewise been given to the rainfall

VOL. Till. — 6

82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of Great Britain and Ireland, chiefly through the exertions of one in-
dividual, Mr. G. J. Symons.

To Dove we are indebted for the law of rotation of the wind, to
Redfield for the spiral theory of cyclones, to Francis Galton for the
theory of anti-cyclones, to Buchan for an investigation into the dispo-
sition of atmospheric pressure which precedes peculiar types of weather,
to Stevenson for the conception of barometric gradients, to Scott and
Meldrum for an acquaintance with the disposition of winds which fre-
quently precedes violent outbreaks ; and, to come to the practical ap-
plication of laws, we are much indebted to the late Admiral Fitzroy
and the system which he greatly helped to establish for our telegraphic
warn'ngs of coming storms.

Again, the meteorology of the ocean has not been forgotten. The
well-known name of Maury w ill occur to every one as that of a pioneer
in this branch of inquiry. Fitzroy, Leverrier, Meldrum, Toynbee, and
others, have likewise done much ; and it is understood that the mete-
orological ofiices of this and other maritime countries are now busily
engaged upon this important and practical subject. Finally, the
movements of the ocean and the temperatures of the oceanic depths
have recently been examined with very great success in vessels dis-
patched by her Majesty's government ; and Dr. Carpenter has by
this means been able to throw great light upon the convection-cur-
rents exhibited by that vast body of water which girdles our globe.

It would be out of place to enter here more minutely into this large
subject, and already it maybe asked what connection has all this with
that part of the address that went before it.

There are, however, strong grounds for supposing that the meteor-
ology of the sun and that of the earth are intimately connected to-
gether. Mr. Broun has shown the existence of a meteorological period
connected apparently with the sun's rotation ; five successive years'
observations of the barometer at Singapore all giving the period 25.74
days. Mr. Baxendell, of Manchester, was, I believe, the first to show
that the convection-currents of the earth appear to be connected some-
how with the state of the sun's surface as regards spots ; and still
more recently, Mr. Meldrum, of the Mauritius Observatory, has shown
by a laborious compilation of ships' logs, and by utilizing the meteoro-
logical records of the island, that the cyclones in the Indian Ocean
are most frequent in years when there are most sun-spots. He likewise
affords us grounds for supposing that the rainfall, at least in the trop-
ics, is greatest in years of maximum solar disturbance.

M. Poey has found a similar connection in the case of the West
Indian hurricanes ; and, finally, Piazzi Smyth, Stone, Koppen, and still
more recently, Blanford, have been able to bring to light a cycle of
terrestrial temperature having apparent reference to the condition of
the sun.

Thus, we have strong matter-of-fact grounds for presuming a con-

METEOROLOGY OF THE SUN AND EARTH, 83

nection between the meteorology of our luminary and that of our
planet, even although we are in complete ignorance as to the exact
nature of this bond.

If "we now turn to terrestrial magnetism, the same connection be-
comes apparent.

Sir Edward Sabine was the first to show that the disturbances of
the magnetism of the earth are most violent during years of maximum
sun-spots. Mr. Broun has shown that there is likewise a reference in
magnetic phenomena to the period of the sun's rotation about his axis,
an observation recently confirmed by Hornstein ; and still more re-
cently, Mr. Broun has shown that the moon has an action upon the
earth's magnetism which is not altogether of a tidal nature, but de-
pends, in part, at least, upon the relative position of the sun and
moon.

I must trust to your forbearance if I now venture to bring forward
considerations of a somewhat speculative nature.

We are all familiar with the generalization of Hadley,that is to
say, we know there are under-currents sweeping along the surface of
the earth from the poles to the equator, and upper-currents sweeping
back from the equator to the poles. "VVe are likewise aware that these
currents are caused by the unequal temperature of the earth ; they
are in truth convection-currents, and their course is determined by the
positions of the hottest and coldest parts of the earth's surface. We
may expect them, therefore, to have a reference not so much to the
geographical equator and poles as to the hottest and coldest regions.
In fact, we know that the equatorial regions, into which the trade-
winds rush and from which the anti-trades take their origin, have a
certain annual oscillation depending upon the position of the sun, or,
in other words, upon the season of the year. We may likewise ima-
gine that the region into which the upper-currents pour themselves is
not the geographical pole, but the pole of greatest cold.

In the next place we may imagine that these currents, as far as
regards a particular jilace, have a daily oscillation. This has, I believe,
been proved as regards the lower-currents or trade-winds, which are
more powerful during the day than during the night, and we may
therefore expect it to hold good with regard to the upper-currents or
anti-trades ; in fact, we cannot go wrong in supposing that they also,
as regards any particular place, exhibit a daily variation in the inten-
sity with which they blow.

Again, we are aware that the earth is a magnet. Let us not now
concern ourselves about the origin of its magnetism, but rather let us
take it as it is. We must next bear in mind that rarefied air is a good
conductor of electricity ; indeed, according to recent experiments, an
extremely good conductor. The return-trades that pass above from
the hotter equatorial regions to the poles of cold, consisting of moist
rarefied air, are therefore to be regarded in the light of good conduct-

84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ors crossing lines of magnetic force ; we may therefore expect them
to be the vehicle of electric currents. Such electric currents will of
course react on the magnetism of the earth. Now, since the velocity
of these upper-currents has a daily variation, their influence, as exhib-
ited at any place upon the magnetism of the earth, may be expected
to have a daily variation also.

The question thus arises. Have we possibly here a cause which may
account for the well-known daily magnetic variation ? Are the pecu-
liarities of this variation such as to correspond to those which might
be expected to belong to such electric currents ? I think it may be
said that, as far as we can judge, there is a likeness of this kind between
the peculiarities of these two things, but a more pi'olonged scrutiny
will of course be essential before we can be absolutely certain that
such currents ai'e fitted to produce the daily variation of the earth's
magnetism.

Besides the daily and yearly periodic changes in these upper con-
vection-cul*rents we should also expect occasional and abrupt changes
forming the counterparts of those disturbances in the lower strata
with which we are familiar. And these may be expected in like man-
ner to produce non-periodic occasional disturbances of the magnetism
of the earth. Now, it is well known that such disturbances do occur;
and, further, that they are most frequent in those years when cyclones
are most frequent ; that is to say, in years of maximum sun-spots. In
one word, it appears to be a tenable hypothesis to attribute at least
the most prominent magnetic changes to atmospheric motions taking
place in the upper regions of the atmosphere where each moving stra-
tum of air becomes a conductor moving across lines of magnetic force ;
and it was Sir William Thomson, I believe, who first suggested that
the motion of conductors across the lines of the earth's magnetic force
must be taken into account in any attempted explanation of terrestrial
magnetism.

It thus seems possible tliat the excessive magnetic disturbances
which take place in years of maximum sun-spots may not be directly
caused by any solar action, but may rather be due to the excessive
meteorological disturbances which are likewise characteristic of such
years. On the other hand, that magnetic and meteorological influence
which Mr. Broun has found to be connected with the sun's rotation
points to some unknown direct efiect produced by our luminary, even
if we imagine that the magnetic part of it is caused by the meteoro-
logical. Mr. Broun is of opinion that this efi'ect of the sun does not
depend upon the amount of spots on his surface.

In the next place, that influence of the sun, in virtue of which we
have most cyclones and greater meteorological disturbance in the
years of maximum spots, cannot, I think (as far as we know at pres-
ent), be attributed to a change in the heating power of the sun. We
have, no doubt, traces of a temperature effect which appears to depend

METEOROLOGY OF TEE SJJN AND EARTH. 85

upon the sun-period, but its amount is very small, whereas the varia-
tion in cyclonic disturbance is very great. We are thus tempted to
associate this cyclone-producing iufluence of the sun with something
different from his light and heat. As far, therefore, as we can judge,
our luminary would appear to produce three distinct effects upon our
globe. In the first place, a magnetic and meteorological effect, de-
pending somehow upon his rotation ; secondly, a cyclonic effect, de-
pending somehow upon the disturbed state of- his surface ; and, lastly,
the well-known light and heat effect with which we all are familiar.

If we now turn to the sun, we find that there are three distinct
forms of motion which animate his surface-particles. In the first
place, each particle is carried round by the rotation of our luminary.
Secondly, each particle is influenced by the gigantic meteorological
disturbances of the surface, in virtue of-which it may acquire a veloci-
ty ranging as high as one hundred and thirty or one hundred and
forty miles a second ; and lastly, each particle, on account of its high
temperature, is vibrating with extreme rapidity, and the energy of
these vibrations communicated to us by means of the ethereal medium
produces the well-known light and heat effect of the sun.

Now, is it philosophical to suppose that it is only the last of these
three motions that influences our earth, while the other two produce
absolutely no effect ? On the contrary, we are, I think, compelled, by
considerations connected with the theory of energy, to attribute an
influence, whether great or small, to the first two as well as to the
last.

We are thus led' to suppose that the sun must influence the earth
in three ways, one depending on his rotation, another on his meteoro-
logical disturbance, and a third by means of the vibrations of his
surface-particles.

But we have already seen that, as a matter of fact, the sun does
appear to influence the earth in three distinct ways — one magnetically
and meteorologically, depending apparently on his period of rotation ;
a second cyclonically, depending apparently on the meteorological
conditions of his surface ; and a third, by means of his light and heat.

Is this merely a coincidence, or has it a meaning of its own ? We
cannot tell, but I may venture to think that, in the pursuit of this
problem, we ought to be prepared at least to admit the possibility of
a threefold influence of the sun.

Even from this very meagre sketch of one of the most interesting
and important of physical problems, it cannot fail to appear that while
a good deal has already been done, its progress in the future will very
greatly depend on the completeness of the method and continuity of
the observations by which it is pursued. We have here a field which
is of importance not merely to one, or even to two, but almost to every
conceivable branch of research.

Why should we not erect in it a sort of science-exchange, into

86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which the physicist, the chemist, and the geologist, may each carry
the fruits of his research, receiving back in return some suggestion,
some principle, or some other scientific commodity that will aid him
in his own field ? But to establish such a mart must be a national un-
dertaking, and already several nations have acknowledged their obli-
gations in this respect.

Already the German Government have established a Sonnenwarte,
the mere building and equipment of which is to cost a large sum.
With an appreciation of what the spectroscope has done for this
inquiry, the first directorship was offered to Kirchhoff, and, on his
declining it, Herr Vogel has been placed in charge. In France, also, a
physical observatory is to be erected at Fontenay, on an equal, if not
greater scale, of which Janssen has already accepted the directorship;
while in Italy there are at least three observatories exclusively de-
voted to this branch of research. Nor must we forget that in this
country the new observatory at Oxford has been so arranged that it
can be employed in such inquiries. But what has England as a na-
tion done ?

Some years since, at the Norwich meeting of this Association, a

movement was set on foot by Colonel Strange, which resulted in the

appointment of a royal commission on the advancement of science,

with the Duke of Devonshire as chairman. This commission have

quite recently reported on the steps that ought in their opinion to be

taken for the advancement of scientific researcli.

One of their recommendations is expressed in the following words :

I

"Important classes of phenomena relating to physical meteorology and to
terrestrial and astronomical physics require observations of such a character
that they cannot be advantageously carried on otherwise than under the direc-
tion of Government. Institutions for the study of such phenomena should be
maintained by the Government ; and, in particular, an observatory should be
founded specially devoted to astronomical physics."

If the men of science of this country who procured the appointment
of this commission, and who subsequently gave evidence before it, w^ill
now come forward to support its recommendations, it can hardly be
doubted that these will be speedily carried into effect.

But other things besides observations are necessary, if we are to
pursue with advantage this great physical problem.

One of these is the removal of the intolerable burden that has
hitherto been laid upon private meteorologists and magneticians.
Expected to furnish their tale of bricks, they have been left to find
their own straw. Nothing more wretched can be imagined than the
position of an amateur — that is to say, a man who pursues science for
the love of it, and is unconnected with any establishment — who has
set himself to promote observational inquiries, whether in meteorology
or magnetism.

METEOROLOGY OF THE SUN AND EARTH. 87

He has first to obtain with great expenditure of time or money, or
both, copies of the individual observations taken at some recognized
institution. He has next to reduce these in the way that suits his
inquiry ; an operation again consuming time and demanding means.
Let us suppose all this to be successfully accomplished, and a valuable
result obtained. It is doubtless embodied in the transactions of some
society, but it excites little enthusiasm, for it consists of something
which cannot be repeated by every one for himself like a new and in-
teresting experiment. Yet the position of such men has recently been
improved. Several observatories and other institutions now publish
their individual observations ; this is done by our Meteorological
Office, while Dr. Bergsma, Dr. Neumayer, and Mr. Broun, are recent
examples of magneticians who have adopted this plan. The publica-
tion of the work of the latter is due to the enlightened patronage of
the Rajah of Travancore, w^ho has thus placed himself in front of the
princes of India, and given. them an example which it is to be hoped
they will follow. But this is only one step in the right direction ;
another must consist in subsidizing private meteorologists and mag-
neticians in order to enable them to obtain the aid of computers in
reducing the observations with which they have been furnished. The
man of science would thus be able to devote his knowledge, derived
from long study, to the methods by which results and the laws regu-
lating them are to be obtained ; he could be the architect and builder
of a scientific structure without being forced to waste his energies on
the work of a hodman.

Another hindrance consists in our deficient knowledge as to what
observations of value in magnetism and meteorology have already
been made. We ought to have an exhaustive catalogue of all that
has been done in this respect in our globe, and of the conditions under
which the various observations will be accessible to outside inquirers.
A catalogue of this kind has been framed by a committee of this Asso-
ciation, but it is confined to the dominions of England, and requires
to be supplemented by a list of that which has been done abroad.

A third drawback is the insufficient nature of the present facilities
for the invention and improvement of instruments, and for their veri-
fication.

We have, no doubt, advanced greatly in the construction of instru-
ments, especially in those which are self-recording. The names of
Brooke, Robinson, Welsh, Osier, and Beckley, will occur to us all as
improvers of our instruments of observation. Sir W. Thomson has
likewise adapted his electrometer to the wants of meteorology. Dr.
Roscoe has given us a self-recording actinometer, but a good instru-
ment for observing the sun's heat is still a desideratum. It ought
likewise to be borne in mind that the standard mercurial thermometer
is by no means a perfect instrument.

In conclusion, it cannot be doubted that a great generalization is

88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

looming in the distance — a mighty law we cannot yet tell what, that
will reach us, we cannot yet say when. It will involve facts hitherto
inexplicable, facts that ai'e scarcely received as such because they ap-
pear opposed to our present knowledge of their causes. It is not pos-
sible perhaps to hasten the arrival of this generalization beyond a cer-
tain point ; but we ought not to forget that we can hasten it, and that
it is our duty to do so. It depends much on ourselves, our resolution,
our earnestness ; on the scientific policy we adopt, as well as on the
power we may have to devote ourselves to special investigations,
whether such an advent shall be realized in our day and generation,
or whether it shall be indefinitely postponed. If governments would
understand the ultimate material advantages of every step forward in
science, however inapplicable each may appear for the moment to the
wants or pleasures of ordinary life, they would find reasons patent to
the meanest capacities for bringing the wealth of mind, now lost on
the drudgery of common labors, to bear on the search for those won-
drous laws which govern every movement, not only of the mighty
masses of our system, but of every atom distributed througliout
space. — Nature.

-♦-•-♦-

SUICIDE IN LAEGE CITIES.

Bt ALLAN MoLANE HAMILTON, M. D.

THE increased importance attached to the study of the relations
of mind and body (the impetus to siich study we have to thank
Mr. Maudsley for) enables us to pursue our examination of certain
psychical states to greater advantage than in former years. The in-
vestigation of suicide is now made much more clear as regards both
the motive, behavior, and characteristics of the individual who takes
his own life, and by the antecedents of his previous health, and other
physical influences.

The object of this paper is to discuss the prevalence of this crime
in large cities, its causes both moral and physical, and certain sanitary
conditions wliich afiect them. My observations have been made for
the most part in New York, the largest city of the continent, and, as
the most cosmopolitan, it offers an interesting field for researcli. I
have made comparisons between the statistics of London and Paris,
and, although it is impossible to obtain the most recent records of
these two cities, I think a few hints may be gained that will be oF
value in preventing its increase. Statistics do not give us definite in-
formation upon tlie questions of heredity, cerebral injuries, neuroses,
or other valuable aid in drawing conclusions, so tliat many important
links are left out of the chain.

In all large cities the number of suicides is governed, to a great

SUICIDE IN LARGE CITIES. 89

extent, by the habits, tastes, and moral culture of the people, and, back
of this, by the national characteristics. For example, the French, no-
torious for their indiiference to life, their general volatility, frequent
political troubles, and exaggerated morbid sentimentality, are cele-
brated for the propensity to end life by their own Ijands.

Paris has been, and always will be, celebrated for the prevalence
of this crime. The late Forbes Winslow, in his " Anatomy of Suicide,"
called particular attention to this national failing of the French. They
pursue it as an agreeable mode of getting relief from their troubles,
and, from the statesman, who blows his brains out to escape political
disgrace, to the grisette of former days, who shut herself up with her
little pan of cliarcoal, to seek oblivion from her ruin, the crime is a
general one, Montesquieu, on the other hand, asserted that the Eng-
lish are notably a suicidal race, and that London, with its fogs and
cheerlessness, is more of a city for suicides than Paris. Forbes Win-
slow denied this, and demonstrated that fogs had no influence what-
ever upon suicides ; or, at least, that there were fewer suicides in
foggy months than in more pleasant ones. Our own statistics sub-
stantiate this, as will be shown further on, and the months of April,
May, June, July, and August, really the most pleasant of the year as
regard sunshine, are those in which more people kill themselves.

The gravity and stolidity of the English people would rather show
in their favor as regards this crime. In the year 1810 the number of
suicides in London amounted to 188. Comparison with French statis-
tics of the same year proved that five times as many Parisians as
Londoners took this means for ending their days. French statistics
show the excessive mortality from this cause. In the year 1806, GO
suicides were reported in Rouen, an extremely small city; in 1793,
1,300 in Versailles. Paris, from 1827 to 1830, furnished 6,900 suicides,
an average of nearly 1.8 per year. In recent years, we have better
statistical returns to work upon.

In the year 1858 the population of Loudon was 2,720,607, and the
number of suicides 283. The youngest of these was ten years, and
the oldest eighty-five. In Paris, in 1853, the population was 1,053,262.
There were 463 suicides, an immense number in excess of London sev-
eral years later. In Turin, from 1855 to 1859, there were 108 suicides,
making an average of 21 a year. In Rome, in 1871, there were only
15 suicides, showing that self-murder is very uncommon among the
Italians. In the city of New York, between the years 1866 and 1872,
there were 678 suicides, being an increase of 100 in the last year over
the first ; 511 males, 167 females. For the three years, 1870, 1871, and
1872, there were 359 suicides, 132 being Germans, a very large per-
centage. As regards matrimonial condition during these years, I find
there were 17 married persons, 118 single, 43 widows and widowers,
and 27 whose condition was not stated; 275 were males and 84 were
females ; the age of the oldest was eighty-six, and that of the young-
est ten.

90 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The cause for the suicide of the latter was remarkable. She was
detected iu a theft of fifty cents, by her mother, and, to seek escape
from her shame, took Paris-green. The months in which suicide was
most prevalent were those of summer. In August, 1870, there were
15 suicides, while in December only 7. In June, the following year,
there were 14, and July of 1872 shows 20, and December only 4.

In regard to occupation, clerks commit suicide the most frequent-
ly, about 34 in 1870, 1871, and 1872, and but 10 laborers in the same
time. The percentage of laborers abroad is greater than any other.
The mode of suicide most often employed in the city of New York is
that of poisoning — 212 out of nearly 600 persons have died from some
form of poisoning. The preference seems to be for arsenic; usually
its commonest form — Paris-green. In 1S72, of 50 poisoning cases, 22
took Paris-green ; the others chose either opium, carbolic acid, or
other irritants. In 1871, 14 took Paris-green. Nearly all of the sui-
cides chose violent and painful poisons, there being but few excep-
tions. One individual ended his days by hydrate of chloral ; the
other, a druggist, with prussic acid. Three took chloroform. Shoot-
ing ended the lives of 147 persons; 135 hung themselves. In only
one or two instances was any ingenuity shown in tlie suicides : one of
these individuals first shot himself, and then jumped out of the win-
dow ; the other threw himself in front of an advancing locomotive.
In London, hanging seems to have been the method most in vogue,
for, in the year 1858, 56 persons perished in this way.

A. Brierre de Boismont, iu his "Rccherches Medico-Legale sur
Suicide," Paris, 1859, collected 4,595 cases, carbonic-acid gas and
drowning being the favorite modes for self-murder with men, and
strangulation with women. Of 463 suicides occurring in the year
1853, 92 men perished by carbonic-acid gas, 93 by drowning, and 131
women died by strangulation. The more ancient statistics show that
voluntary starvation was a common form of suicide in the beginning
of this century. The motive for suicide in the reported cases was
extremely difficult to discover. Of the 463 cases in Paris in 1853,
insanity produced the suicide of 53 men, 37 women ; drunkenness, 48
men, 14 women; misery and grief, 20 men, 8 women ; disappointed
love, 28 men, 20 women ; shame, 18 men, 9 women ; domestic trouble,
18 men, 15 women ; weariness of life, 20 men, 7 women; disease, 27
men, 19 women ; fear of the law, 16 men, 2 women ; ill-luck, 23 men,
14 women ; trouble with parents, 5 men, 5 women ; loss of situation,
8 men ; loss of parents, 1 woman. By this table, it will be seen that
insanity causes the largest number of suicides, both of men and
women ; drunkenness comes next, and disease third.

In regard to the form of suicide with fire-arms, Boismont shows,
by a cai'efully-arranged table, that the greatest number shoot them-
selves in the mouth, seventy-five per cent, choosing this means.

Out of 368 cases, 234 shot themselves in the mouth, 71 in the ab-

SUICIDE IN LARGE CITIES. 91

domen and thorax, 26 in the temple, and but 1 in the ear, thus show-
ing a knowledge of the vital parts of the body. In illustration of the
coolness and resolution of these suicides, he found that 85 left wills.
The chirography of letters and various communications written before
death was steady and natural, not betraying any signs of weakness,
trembling, or irresolution on the part of the writers. Parisian statis-
tics prove that of 3,518 cases, 2,094 occurred in the daytime, 766 in
the evening, and 658 at night, proving that daylight is most agreeable
for this kind of work. The ages at which suicide seems to be most
often resorted to are between forty and fifty among the men, and
forty-five and fifty-five among the women.

The greatest number of suicides in the city of New York, as I have
said, are by poison, and this mode of self-destruction being the favorite
one, we are naturally led to inquire why it should be so. When we
take into consideration the looseness of our present laws regarding
the sale of poisonous drugs, and the comparative ease by which sui-
cides can procure the agents for their destruction, we have very little
cause for wonderment. The number of cases of accidental death
which have occurred through the criminal carelessness of certain drug-
gists, who deal the most deadly drugs to persons unknown to them, is
worthy of serious comment. There appears to be no difSculty for the
would-be suicide to buy just what poison he desires. A large propor-
tion of the inhabitants of great cities are confirmed in certain perni-
cious habits. Among them are opium-eating and chloroform-taking,
which they pursue to what extent they choose, as these articles are
always to be had.

It is needless to say that the opium-habit, like alcoholism, fre-
quently leads to self-destruction.

In this country, upon several occasions, certain individuals have
taken their own lives after insuring them, that the policy might be
paid to the family of the suicide. This is an example of a very inter-
esting psychical condition. Alcohol and its secondary effects have
swelled the number of suicides, and the victims who have died by
their own hands have been equally of the higher and the lower classes
in this country. I think a great increase in the returns of mortality
of this especial variety of suicide would be observed if the reporting
physicians would conscientiously state the cause of death. The shame
attached to the procedure, particularly among people of position, has
prompted the return to be made of " meningitis," " cerebral conges-
tion," or other diseases. Within the last two years, I can call to my
mind the suicide of six people of high social position, caused by drink.
This vice is perhaps not entirely characteristic of large towns, but the
facility for indulgence of the habit, and the numerous ways of drink-
ing in private, are more perfect in the cities.

In smaller places, there is a certain amount of contact with one's
fellows, which makes him the cynosure of all eyes, should he indulge

92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

too freely. As I have before said, the busy life men lead in the
metropolis, and the necessity for brain-stimulus, accelerate the facilis
descensus. Tlie disgrace of men in high position, impending ruin and
other facts, will often prompt suicide as a mode of relief.

A form of suicide which figures largely in American statistics is,
jumping from an elevation. This may be chosen by the individual
as an effectual method, if he hesitates to select one, or may be the re-
sult of a momentary state of delirium produced by the surroundings.
This latter is a common form in some European cities that contain
high churches, monuments, or towers. I have myself experienced a
moi'bid desire of this character, after an ascent of the Mountain Cor-
covado, in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. When looking over a steep
precipice upon this bay, two thousand or more feet below, I felt a
strange restlessness and distention of the blood-vessels, with an irre-
sistible desire to leap out into the clear air. This disappeared when I
looked upon some object near by. A medical friend relates a case in
his own experience. He went with an acquaintance up into a very
high, unfinislied public building. There was no evidence of insanity
in his acquaintance. When my friend's back was turned, his compan-
ion jumped far out into the air, and fell mangled to the sidewalk. In
France this form of suicide is a very common one, 45 individuals in
the year 1820 having precipitated themselves from heights. In the
year 1852, 16 men and 19 women chose this means of self-murder. So
prevalent were those suicides, that the authorities i-efused admission
to the Column Vendome. As I have before said, this method is not
an unusual one. In New York, between the years 1866 and 1872,
there were 21 victims.

Dr. C. P. Russell, of New York, has informed me of a friend who
is to such an extent the subject of the impulse to throw himself from
heights, that he will never sleep upon the third or fourth floor of any
dwelling.

The impulse to commit suicide with sharp-cutting instruments has
been more common in the European cities than those of this country,
and, in the majority of instances, suicide by these weapons has been
resorted to by insane subjects.

A most important study in connection with this subject is the in-
fluence of the mode of life of the poorer classes. I allude more par-
ticularly to the tenement-house system — to tlie colonization of many
thousand people in a limited space, much too small for them. They
are brought together so, that every vice becomes, to a great degree,
contagious. Bad examples are followed by the younger generation,
and it is much easier for a seed of sin to take root here than one of
virtue. Families of several nationalities 'are closely packed together
in front and rear houses. Ground and labor are so expensive, in the
larger cities particularly, that this mode of living is unavoidable.

Despite the earnest efforts of an efficient health board in the city

SUICIDE IN LARGE CITIES. 93

of New York, many radical defects exist, and ventilation, light, and
drainage, are defective in the extreme. Diseases of the nervous sys-
tem, principally of the trophic character, exist to a great extent, as
results of imperfect lighting and ventilating.

In the five years preceding 1872 the deaths from nervous diseases
in New York averaged 3,155.8, and for the years 18*71 and 1872 were
over 6,000, an unusually large proportion, the number of deaths from
all causes being 59,623. The vices attending the colonization of the
working-class (a great many do not work) are contagious, the moral
contact of the vicious with the pure is certain to occur, the ruin of
young girls, and depression of tone, are powerful inducers of suicide.

The American people partake of the characteristics of their trans-
atlantic brethren. They are impulsive, energetic, enterprising, emo-
tional, liable to excessive mental depression or exaltation. We have
all the different bloods of Europe in our veins. We lead, however,
an individual life of our own, a life as original and striking as other
startling peculiarities of our country. We live too fast ; we make
and lose fortunes in a day ; we acquire professioual educations in a
few years which take ordinary individuals as many more to get the
rudiments of in Europe. It is any thing but festina le7ite here. The
seeds of every national soil are sown, and take root before we can
employ measures to suppress them. Every thing that can excite the
emotions, make tense the mental faculties, and suddenly relax them,
is among us. Speculations and stupendous schemes, which in older
countries take several heads instead of one to mature, crush down the
nervous system of men who work themselves to death, hardly taking
time to eat, meanwhile living upon stimulants to enable them to stand
the strain.

There is another class — I allude to the poor. The newspaper ac-
counts of the miserable suicide in his upper attic tell this story every
day. These subjects are chiefly foreigners, deluded to this country
by unfounded expectations of fortunes to be made.

Only a few days ago I read in one of the daily papers that it was
not an uncommon occurrence for immigrants to ask of the officials at
Castle Garden, in perfect good faith, positions as insurance officers,
bank officers, and other unattainable positions.

Many thousand Italians were sent here by rascally agents in their
own country several years ago. They were promised work by these
individuals, but on their arrival found none. They reached New York
in mid-winter, and many of them found their way into the workshops
and almshouses. Misery and suffering were prevalent. Among im-
migrants, particularly the Germans, there is a great disposition to
suicide, and physical suffering doubtless awakens any hereditary ten-
dency that may lie dormant. A great percentage remain at the sea-
port, looking for work. New York is particularly affected in this way.
Immigrants come here, probably in most instances from occupations

94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

much more steady and remunerative in comparison to any found here ;
tradespeople, skilled workmen, and mechanics, often commit suicide,
who find it difficult to obtain employment, and finally hunger and
disappointment drive them to this step.

The prevalence of strikes, and trades-unions, with their dangerous
restrictions and foolish oaths of allegiance, are fruitful causes of sui-
cide. Men are afraid to work in opposition to the threats of their
fellow trades-unionists, and, as poverty stares them in the face and
they become desperate, they commit suicide.

A necessary attendant upon increase in population is immorality,
engendered by vice attendant upon civilization. The more depraved
forms of theatrical amusement found at the low theatre halls, two or
three of which now exist in New York, wipe out all of the original
purity from the nature of the weak-minded spectators. The low songs
at some of these places, abounding in double entendr^s and suggestive
gestui-es, inflame the dormant instincts of lust in the minds of the
deeply-interested audience.

Prostitution is a very easy way leading to suicide. The attendant
vices of this class very soon destroy the mind. Opium-eating, ine-
briety, and snuff-chewing, are habits which nearly all prostitutes
follow after a time. The classification of these causes of suicide and
their victims is very incomplete, and prostitution is placed on the
records in only one instance in 1871, 18V2, and 1873, as the calling of
the individual.

The prevalence of seduction in lai'ge cities is perhaps greater
among the lower classes — the workers in factories and shops. Indeed,
the chance for this crime among the many thousand young girls and
men who are herded together indiscriminately in the large tobacco,
hoop-skirt, paper-box, and other factories of great cities, is often
made use of. Suicide follows ruin, though not in as many cases as it
would in France. I do not doubt but that the large rivers, upon
which most American cities are built, give up a great many bodies of
unfortunates who end their moral ruin by suicide. In fact, the num-
ber of cases reported as " found drowned" may be assumed in gen-
eral to be suicidal.

In our own cities, as I have before shown, clerks seem to be the
class that most often take their own lives. This seems reasonable
when we consider the peculiar careers of a great many of them — the
temptations of vice, the struggles for situation and support, and the
pitfalls of a large city.

How shall we prevent the increase of this crime which advances
at the rate of 300 per cent, in seven years ? What sanitary measures
can be taken to defeat its moral and physical causes ?

It is a stupendous undertaking. To reduce its statistics would re-
quire an attack upon our whole social system.

I have pointed out the rapidity of our way of living, the excessive

A HOMU-MABJE MICROSCOPE, 95

and unnatural strain upon the brains of business and professional
men. To diminish this would be an almost impossible task. I can
only suggest a diminution of working hours, the necessity for regular
meals and habits, and means to prevent large cities from being over-
stocked by the agricultural classes, who imagine themselves in these
days particularly fitted for business and professional pursuits. We
should abolish immoral entertainments, advertising quacks, so-called
anatomical museums, and obscene and sensational literature, as far as
possible.

Legislation should strictly regulate the sale of poisonous drugs, and
the police should enforce the laws. Friends and relatives of excitable
and nervous persons should be alive to the necessity of keeping from
their reach razors, cutting instruments, and poisons. They should also
endeavor, as far as possible, to prevent the formation of the opium-
habit, self-administration of chloroform, and alcoholic indulgence.

Careful watch should be kept on all persons who go uj) into high
public buildings, church-spires, and other eminences. Physicians
should employ caution lest their patients should habitually indulge in
some narcotic drug originally prescribed. The boards of health of
the diiferent cities cannot be over-zealous in suggesting means for the
improvement of the dwellings of the poor. Air, light, and ventila-
tion, should be provided, if possible, for these are absolutely necessary
for nervous development and healthy cerebration. I have always
considered the system of small dwellings, that has succeeded so well
in Philadelphia and other cities, an inestimable boon to the working-
classes. A healthier moral and physical tone is engendered, both by
elevating the self-reliance of heads of families, and the abolition of
moral contamination so prevalent in tenement-house life.

The establishment of bureaus and other agencies for procuring
work for immigrants, freeing the cities from the surplus of these peo-
ple, would prevent much desperation, misery, and self-destruction.

A HOAIE-MADE MICEOSCOPE.

By JOHN MICHELS.

THE progress of science in recent times is in a great degree due
to the employment of instrumental aids to observation ; and
whoever wishes to keep up with this advance, or indeed to gain an
adequate notion of its extent and interest, can only do so by the
use of similar means. In the study of chemistry, experiments and
actual observation of the behavior of substances under various
conditions, are indispensable ; in physics, multifarious appliances for
the illustration of principles are constantly required ; in astronomy.

96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the telescope is absolutely essential ; and, in biology, vast depai't-
ments can be brought witliin our reach only by the aid of the micro-
scope. This latter instrument, especially, has a wide range of appli-
cation. The investigations of the anatomist and physiologist cannot
go on without it ; the educated physician has it in daily use ; the
tradesman finds it an important aid in testing the purity of commodi-
ties ; and the student in many departments of physical science is
obliged to use it in his work. When to all these considerations we
add that the manipulation of the microscope, for the purpose of ordi-
nary observation, may be acquired without much difficulty, and that
the instrument itself may be procured at a moderate cost, we have
said enough to justify the assertion that every educated person ought
to possess a microscope, even as he possesses a collection of books.

Fig. 1.— Complete Instrument.

To derive advantage from the use of the microscope, it is not ne-
cessary that one should master all the technicalities of the instrument,
or be possessed of all the improved appliances for extremely minute
observations. Professional microscopists have recognized the error
of directing all one's efforts on such tasks as the resolution of test-
plates, so long as really urgent work remains undone. Thus, the
President of the " Quekett Microscopical Society" remarked:

" Our opticians have gone ahead of the observers, they have placed in our
hands powerful means of research. I fear the account of the talent committed
to our charge will not be one of which we may be proud. I fear we are too
apt to pride ourselves as being the possessors of superior instruments; each man
pits his instrument in rivalry against his neighbor's, and rejoices that he can
beat him in the resolution of Robert's test-plate."

A HOME-MADE MICROSCOPE.

97

Mr. Le Neeve Forster, in the above remarks, doubtless strikes at
the root of an evil that is fast becoming a nuisance, to the utter detri-
ment of useful and sound work ; the test-slide and diatom fever has
spx-ead like an infection among all classes of microscopists, and has
resulted in an extravagant system of expenditure foreign to true sci-
entific research. I find that |1,650 is now asked for a first-class in-
strument and fittings, and as much as |40 apiece for diatom-slides.

These eccentricities of leading microscopists appear to have re-
ceived protests from various quarters, for the President of the Royal
Microscopical Society, in his last address, states :

" It Las been cast at us, as Fellows of this Society, that we do nothing but
improve our tools, or measure the markings on the frustules of a diatom." '

One reason for the confessed poverty of microscopical results may
be ascribed to the want of sufficient workers to cover so vast a field
of research. It is to be regretted that many professional men, whose
occupation would seem to demand the daily use of the microscope,
deny themselves the facilities it offers. I apprehend that the explana-
tion of this apparent neglect will be found in the high price asked for
first-class instruments, and the absence in the market of a good stand-
ard instrument that combines the advantages of being of the best
workmanship, full-sized, portable in form, and moderate in price.

Messrs. Baker, Crouch, Collins, and especially Swift, all of London,
produce such microscopes, but, as their importation doubles the cost,
their chief merit of cheapness is lost. In our own country, opticians
have proved that they can produce work that cannot be surpassed,
provided that their patrons entertain the same views as Sir Charles
Surface respecting the expense; but those of more moderate means,
who wish to purchase a good working microscope at a moderate cost,
are offered a pretentious display of foreign and domestic forms, total-
ly unfit for professional or scientific use. If makers of microscopes
would take a lesson from the best telescope-makers, and, instead of
multiplying the number of their models, combine their energy in the
production of a good standard instrument, filling the conditions that
I have already stated, they would promote the cause of science and
concentrate their business.

Fig. 2. — Instrument folded for Carriage.

Those who have read the biographical and obituary sketches of
eminent microscopists have probably noticed that it was a favorite
pursuit with many of them to make their own instruments. In the

1 Fcbiuary 3, 1875.

VOL. Till. 7

98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Monthly Microscopical Journal, for March last, will be found such a
notice included in the address of the President of the Royal Micro-
scopical Society, referring to the death of a Fellow, Mr. John Williams,
who was also Assistant Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society.
He said :

" He constructed more than one microscope out of odds and ends, which be
put together with much skill and ingenuity. His most elaborate microscope
was made with cardboard tubes and brass-screw adjustments. This instrument,
when supplied with objectives by Eoss and others, contrasted favorably, in point
of utility, with constructions of a more costly character."

The perusal of this notice, followed by a communication to the
effect that in some of the London scientific schools the students are
required (when practicable) to make all the apparatus they use, has
prompted me to describe a microscope made by myself about six
years ago, and which is now but little the worse for wear.

So far as the stand is concerned, it can be easily made at home, at
a trifling cost. The materials are of a humble character, but the opti-
cal arrangements are full-sized, and of the highest quality. Within
the limits of its use this instrument will exhibit objects with much
perfection. By a reference to the cuts, it will be observed that many
of the parts are cylindrical, and may be turned on any ordinary lathe
in a few minutes.

To make a microscope such as I shall now describe, requires little
mechanical skill. If my directions are followed, and strict attention
given to the drawings, no difiiculty will be encountered, but neatness
and precision are of course essentiah First provide a wood rod about
J5 inches long, and of the circumference of Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Fig. 4,

Then take some paper of firm texture, and wind it around the rod
three or four times according to its thickness, applying mucilage all
the time ; immediately withdraw the paper casing, and place on one
side to dry. This should form a perfectly true and firm tube. When
dry, replace it on the rod, and with a sharp knife cut off from each
end sufficient to leave the remainder 1\ inches long.

The other parts are of wood. I suggest mahogany as the most ap-
propriate, and susceptible of the best finish ; but any well-seasoned,
Jiard wood will do.

A HOME-MADE MICROSCOPE.

99

To proceed, make a rod, like an ordinary ruler, \Z\ inches long,
and of the diameter of Fig. 4. Now turn, or get turned, a tube, A^
inches long, the walls of which shall be ^ of an inch thick ; Fig. 5 will
give the diameter.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

A part which I call the cradle can now be made; the form is
shown in section, at Fig. 6 ; its length must be 3f inches.

The support for the stage requires no special explanation ; a full-
sized drawing is given at Fig. 7.

The stage itself can be made of wood, but gutta-percha is better.

Fig. 7.

and, if j^laced in hot water, it can afterward be easily moulded to the
pattern given at Fig. 9.

Smooth the surface while still warm with glass plates, and steady
the back with two strips of wood. The shaded part at the lower edge
shows a piece of wood fixed thereon to support a zoophite trough or
glass slides. Fig. 10 represents the upper and lower parts of a leg,
two of which are required, 9f inches long, and the size shown in cut.
On the upper portion the brass hinged attachment is fixed.

The appearance of the paper tube, with eye-piece and object-glass
in position, can be seen at Fig. 11.

lOO

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The parts which have been already described being completed,
proceed to fix them together with glue. Their correct position can
be seen at a glance by reference to Fig. 12.

Fig 8.

Pig. 9.

First fix the cradle, 6, upon the rod, 4 — within three-quarters of
an inch of the end — next the tube, 5, upon the cradle, as shown. The
stage and support can next be fastened, but first insert tlie paper
tube, Fig. 11, in wooden tube, 5, and measure the most convenient

Fig. 10.

place to fix the stage, so that the object-glass can approach the object
without bringing the tube too low down. A trial will at once fix the
proper spot.

The legs are attached by screws to the cradle, as seen in Figs.
1 and 2. The whole being now in form, clean and French-polish.

Fig. 11.

Also paint the inside of the paper tube a dull black, using drop-black,
turpentine, and a little Japan varnish to fix color, and the outside
with a mixture of Indian and common inks. Finally, line tube,
5, with a piece of fine cloth. If this is neatly done, the paper tube,

A HOME-MADE MICROSCOPE.

101

Fig. 11, will pass and repass as smoothly as the motion of a telescope,
which is controlled in a similar manner.

There is no reason why the optical parts should not be made by
the student, but necessary instructions would require a series of arti-
cles. Assuming, therefore, that such portions will be purchased, a
few words on that head may be necessary.

Fig. 12.

If only one eye-piece is required, select letter B. Next take tube.
Fig. 11, to an optician, and ask him to fit a Royal Microscopical Soci-
ety screw, Fig. 8, in the centre of a wood block. This block and
screw must be fastened into one end of the paper tube, and will carry
the object-glass.

The last fitting will be the mirror, a reduced drawing of which
is shown at Fig. 13.

The mirror should be at least two inches in diameter, and the ring
which passes over the rod. Fig. 4, should be split, and about half an
inch in bi'eadth, and, being made somewhat too small, will grip the
rod, and be free from unsteady movement.

Fig. 13.

To hold the slide upon the stage in position, pass two moderate-
sized India-rubber bands upon e?ich side, and a third crosswise near the
bottom ; a very delicate movement can be given to a slide thus held.

In regard to object-glasses I have little to add. Such as I should
have specially recommended are not to be obtained in this country ;

102 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

but, to commence operations with, purchase the best 1-inch and ^inch
your means will permit. I much regret that the objectives made by
Gundlach, of Berlin, are not introduced. It would be a boon to those
who cannot afford to purchase the best glasses. I have seen them
tested at the Royal Microscopical Society with the most costly ob-
jectives, where their performance has elicited the highest praise.
When I state that an immersion -^^ costs in London but £3 10s.,
the price of the low powers can be calculated.

These ^V^^^ have wonderful definition, and can be used upon all
slides, having the ordinary thin glass cover, a great advantage. Such
a glass could be sold here for thirty dollars, and the 1-inch and ^-inch
for about ten dollars apiece. Except for special work, these objec-
tives answer every purpose. The sketch at Fig. 1 is a correct draw-
ing of the complete instrument, in position for use ; and at Fig. 2, the
same folded, showing its convenience and portability. The whole
weighs about a pound, and can be carried, with eye-piece and object-
glass ready for use, either in a bag or a light box 14 x 3^ X 3 inches.

Those who possess very large instruments will find this model a
most useful addition for occasional use when traveling or demonstrat-
ing subjects away from home.

This form of microscope is offered as convenient for beginners,
who, unable to purchase a complete instrument, still wish to make a
beginning and start upon a right principle. Although a complete
microscope can be purchased for about the same amount that the
optical portions of this will cost, it will be wanting in the chief es-
sentials of a good working instrument. Diminutive size, smallness of
field, poor light, shortness of tube, absence of Society's screw, and
other evils, will soon cause it to be cast aside, resulting in the loss
of the original outlay ; whereas the parts purchased under the above
directions are portions of a first-class instrument, obtained in advance,
which will never become obsolete.

The immense field of inquiry within the grasp of the microsco-
pist is apt to disconcert and confuse the student. His course, how-
ever, should be well defined. First let him familiarize himself with
what has been done by others, and then confine his attention strictly
to those subjects which have reference to his profession or pursuit. If
he has no special occupation, I would advise him to select a particular
line of study, and let that be the thread on which to string his sub-
sidiary matter, mounting his own objects, and carefully registering his
observations. He will thus slowly but surely accumulate knowledge
that will benefit the cause of science.

IS ALCOHOL A FOOD? 103

IS ALCOHOL A FOOD?

CORN and wine were deemed indispensable to man from the re-
motest antiquity, just as beef and beer are so considered by the
Briton ; and scarcely a people has existed who did not possess a fer-
mented liquor of some kind — all ascribing to it exalted virtue, such as
befits the gift of the gods, as all believed it to be — not only from the
bodily comfort and invigoration which it imparted, but also from its
mysterious effects in the transient madness which it is capable of pro-
ducing. Among all nations, consequently, wine, or alcoholic drinks of
some sort, has always had its poets or its minstrels ; and, had the an-
cients been acquainted with alcohol, or the essential product of fermen-
tation as we know it, doubtless they would have made it the symbol of
the soul, for which nothing could be more appropriate ; for it is an invis-
ible poicery hidden in a grosser body, which it influences in every part,
and from which it finally escapes into the " heaven above " — gone for-
ever ! Nor is that all. The analogy may be extended to the qualities
of that image of the soul, which are good and bad united, as in other
mystic unions. Had the ancients possessed this knowledge of the
distinct yet intimately combining principle, it might have given more
significance to their devotion when they poured libations to their
gods — but how much greater would have been their sense of awe and
wonder, had they known what the physiologist knows at the present
day ! Let us glance at this truly mysterious agent in action.

Alcohol is ever ready to enter the animal system. It can be intro-
duced under the skin or into a vein. Exalted by heat into the form
of vapor, it may be inhaled by man or other animal, when it will pen-
etrate into the lungs, will difl'use itself through the bronchial tubes,
will pass into the minute ftir-vesicles of the lungs, will travel through
the minute circulation with the blood that is going over the air-vesi-
cles ta the heart, will condense in that blood, will go direct to the left
side of the heart, thence into the arterial canals, and so throughout
the entire body.

Again, when taken in by the more ordinary channel, the stomach,
it finds its way by two routes into the circulation. A certain portion
of it — the greater portion of it — is absorbed direct by the veins of
the alimentary surface, finds its way straight into the larger veins,
which lead up to the heart, and onward with the course of the blood..
Another portion is picked up by small structures proceeding from
below the mucous surface of the stomach, and from which originate a
series of fine tubes that reach at last the lower portion of a common
tube, termed the thoracic duct — a tube which ascends in front of the
spinal column, and terminates at the junction of two large veins on
the left side of the body, at a point where the venous blood, returning.

104 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

from the left arm, joins with the retiiruing blood from the left side
of the head on its way to the heart. It is so greedy for water that it
will pick it up from all the watery textures of the body, and deprive
them of it, until, by its saturation, it can take up no more, its power
of reception being exhausted ; after which it diffuses itself into the
current of circulating fluid. When we dilute alcohol with water be-
fore drinking it, we quicken its absorption ; and, if we do not dilute it
sufficiently, it is diluted in the stomach by the transudation of water in
the stomach, until the required reduction for its absorption is effected.

Now, after an investigation of a very elaborate character, Dr.
Anstie and Drs, Thudichum and Dupre have satisfactorily proved
that only a very small portion of the spirit which is taken into a liv-
ing body is expelled out of that body as alcohol, in the secretions, and
that there must be some other means by which the spirit is disposed
of in the system. ^In one very remarkable and memorable experiment.
Dr. Anstie gave a dog, weighing ten pounds, the liberal dose of two
thousand grains of alcohol in ten days, and, on the last day of the ten,
he administered ninety-five grains of the spirit as a final dose, and
then two hours afterward killed the dog, and immediately subjected
the whole body — blood, secretion, flesh, membranes, brain and bone —
to rigorous analysis, and he found in the whole texture of the body
only about T6\ grains of spirit. The other 1,976 grains had clearly,
therefore, been turned into something else, within the living system.

These experiments directlv refer to our query — the settlement ot
the food-power of alcohol as a doctrine of physiological science.

Before reasoning out this j^roj^osition, we must state certain facts
which it seems impossible to reconcile Avith any other theory than
that alcohol is a food. Dr. Anstie relates the case of an old soldier
who was under his care at the Westminster Hospital in 1861, who
had lived for twenty years upon a diet composed of a bottle of un-
sweetened gin and " one small finger-length of toasted bread " per day
and who maintained the structures of his body for this long period
upon that very remarkable regimen. Similarly an old Roman soldier
admired by the Emperor Augustus, when asked how be managed to
keep up such a sj^lendid development, replied — Intils vino, extiis oleo
— " With wine within, and oil without."

Dr. Robert D'Lalor tells us that some thirty years ago, in foreign
climes and in unhealthy districts, he lived for two years upon wine and
brandy, with very little solid food ; and at the end of the period was
neither perceptibly poisoned, starved, nor emaciated. Laborers, nav-
vies, coal-heavers, and others, who take no beer, eat nearly as much
again as those who take a moderate allowance of beer. Dr. D'Lalor
declares that he knows many vigorous and healthy men in London,
not only waiters, potmen, publicans, and the like, but tradesmen and
merchants, who eat but little solid iood, but have plenty of wine,
porter, gin, etc.

IS ALCOHOL A FOOD? 105

Liebig stated tliat, in temperance families where beer was witliheld
and money given in compensation, it was soon found that the monthly-
consumption of bread was so strikingly increased that the beer was
twice paid for — once in money, and a second time in bread. Pie also
reported the experience of the landlord of the Hotel de Russie, at
Frankfort, during the Peace Congress ; the members of the Congress
wei-e mostly teetotalers, and a regular deficiency was observed every
day in certain dishes, especially in farinaceous dishes, pudding, etc.
So unheard of a deficiency, in an establishment where for years the
amount of dishes for a given number of persons had so well been
' known, excited the landlord's astonishment. It was found that the
men made up in pudding what they neglected in wine. Finally, every
one knows how little the drunkard eats.

Again, in cases of disease, there are numerous instances wliicl) it
is difficult to refer to any thing but the food- property of alcohol. Dr.
Anstie refers to one very instructive case of the kind, which also
came under his care in 1861, and which obviously left a great impres-
sion upon his mind. A young man, only eighteen years of age, was
so reduced by a severe attack of acute rheumatism, that he was un-
able to retain food of any kind upon his stomach. He was sustained
for several days upon an allowance of twelve ounces of water and
twelve ounces (f pint) of gin per day. His recovery under this treat-
ment was very rapid and complete, and almost without any trace of
the emaciation and wasting that ordinarily follow upon such a dis-
ease. The lad, pi-evious to this illness, was of a strictly sober and
temperate habit, and, during the use of gin, the abnormal frequency
of the pulse and of the breathing came gradually down to the proper
standard of ordinary health ; and there was never at any time the
slightest tendency to intoxication — which is a very notable point in
such cases.

Dr. D'Lalor, before quoted, also mentions the case of a child only
fourteen months old, suffering from inflammation of the lungs, and
whose stomach could retain nothing but port wnne. For twelve days
it subsisted entirely upon wine ; it was rapidly cured, with no wasting
of any account ; nor, although it drank large quantities of alcohol,
was it ever intoxicated.

These cases are very impoi-tant on account of their exceptional
character ; but they are quite in accordance with the well-established
power of brandy and wine to sustain the life of sinking men in the
critical periods of exhausting fevers ; and they afford ground for the
familiar and popular belief that there is support in wine and spirit-
uous drink — as held of old and exemplified in the well-known recom-
mendation of St. Paul to his ailing disciple.

Dr. Anstie's conclusion from such evidence, and from a very large
hospital experience, is that, beyond all possibility of doubt, pure al-
cohol, with the addition of only a small quantity of water, will pro-

io6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

long life greatly beyond the period at which it would cease if no
nourishment is given ; that, during the progress of acute diseases, it
very commonly supports not only life, but also the bulk of the body,
during many days of abstinence from common foods ; and that, al-
though the physician and physiologist fail to explain chemically how
it is that the result is brought about, it may, nevertheless, be safely
affirmed that the influence exerted over the body by alcohol is, essen-
tially, of a food-character,

" It may be well," observes a writer in the Edhiburgh Review^
" for even advanced and accomplished physiologists to bear in mind
that there may be 'more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt
of in their philosophy.' There would at least be nothing more star-
tling in the discovery that the physiological dogma which affirms that
the products of the reduction of comf)lex organic substances (such as
alcohol) cannot be employed as the food of animal life had to be
reconsidered, and in some particulars reversed, or revised, than there
has been in the recent reversal of the Liebig dogma, that nitrfigenous
principles alone can be used for constructive purposes, and the simpler
hydrocarbons alone for the production of animal warmth."

And, in this point of view, Dr. Anstie argues that many sub-
stances which are ranked as even " poisonous " to the system must
not be taken to be absolutely " foreign " to the organism, except in a
relative sense, when even such agents as mercury and arsenic, given
in small doses for long periods, produce what is termed a tonic influ-
ence, improving the quality of the blood and the tissues, and do this
in such a way that it is scarcely possible to maintain that they con-
tract no organic combination.

Dr. Anstie fi-equently dwells on the notable fact that in all cases
of disease where alcohol is used successfully as a medicinal support —
as in the case of exhaustive fevers — its presence as an alcoholic ema-
nation, whether in the breath or in other secretions, is absent alto-
gether, as if, in those cases, the whole force of the agent was absorbed
in its beneficent operation. He also declares that in such instances
its exciting and intoxicating powers appear to be in abeyance, and
that the recovery from acute disease where this medicine has been
successfully employed is invariably more rapid and complete than it is
in altogether similar cases which have been treated without alcohol.

If alcohol be oyily a heat-producing food, it may be remarked that
nowadays Liebig's well-known theory is no longer absolute, since it
is established that great labor may be performed for a short period
without the use of a nitrogenous diet — that is, with one exclusively
carbonaceous. Hence, perhaps, the claim of alcohol to constitute a
food. Although forming none of the constituents of blood, alcohol
limits the combination of those constituents, and in this way it is
equivalent to so much blood. As Moleschott says : " He who has little
can give but little, if he wish to retain as much as one who is prodi-

IS ALCOHOL A FOOD? 107

gal of his wealth. Alcohol is the savmgs-banJc of the tissues. lie
who eats little, and drinks alcohol in moderation, retains as much
in his blood and tissues as he who eats more, and drinks no alcohol."

But, while we thus know that alcohol supplies the place of a cer-
tain quantity of food, we do not know how it does so. It is said to
be " burnt " in the body, and to make its exit as carbonic acid and
water ; but no proof has yet been offered of this assertion. Some of
it escapes in the breath, and in certain of the secretions ; but how
much escapes in this way, and what becomes of what remains — in the
very large proportion, in the case of the dog previously mentioned —
is at present a mystery.

In Steinmetz's " History of Tobacco," p. 97, occurs the following
surmise, published nearly twenty years ago, but now established as a
matter of fact. He says : "I feel compelled to believe, in advance of
Liebig, that alcohol is absolutely generated in the digestive process of
all animals. Startling as the theory may seem, the consideration of
corroborating facts may, perhaps, indu(!e the reader to think it prob-
able, if not certain. It is well known that all the vegetables we eat
contain starch ; all the fruits contain sugar. Now, starch can easily
be converted into sugar ; the process of malting is a familiar in-
stance. , . . The natural heat of the body is precisely adapted, in the
healthy state, to effect a fermentation after having changed the starch
into sugar, which last is constantly found in the blood. That alcohol
has not been found seems to result simply from the fact that it must
be sought in arterial blood, or blood which has not lost a portion of
its carbon in transitu, through the lungs in the respiratory process."

Now, it happens that Dr. Dupre, in the course of his investigations,
discovered that alcohol is found in small quantity in the excretions
even of persons who do not touch fermented beverage in any form —
that is, the healthy system of the teetotaller brews, so to speak, a little
drop for itself. But, if this be the case, it woi;ld seem that we have
enough already in the system, and therefore there can be no need of
having recourse to the bottle or the tap for more, unless the system be
a prey to disease. And this applies especially to those who live most-
ly on vegetable or farinaceous food, who, it may be remarked, are
naturally less inclined to alcoholic drinks than those who use animal
food — when it becomes particularly dangerous. So that, if the Alli-
ance and the supporters of the Permissive Bill would succeed in their
aim, they should convert us all into vegetarians. To drunkards who
are anxious to reform, this is a most important consideration.

In conclusion, the most reliable opinion respecting alcoholic drinks
appears to be, that the relation of their actions to food is such that,
when they are required by the system, they cause a necessity for in-
creased food ; but, when not required, they lessen the necessity for
food. Now, as Dr. Edward Smith emphatically remarks, the tendency
of all food, but particularly of animal food, is precisely in the same

io8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

direction ; so that tlie skin is drier after than before dinner, other
things being equal. In like manner, the hands and feet, and the skin
generally, become hot and dry after taking alcoholic drinks, and an
intoxicated man in a state of perspiration would be an imheard-of
phenomenon.

The direct tendency of alcohol is to diminish muscular power in a
state of health, but indirectly it may have the contrary etfect by im-
proving the tone of the system through the appetite and digestion of
food. In the state of body in which alcohol has reduced muscular
contractibility, all the vital actions temporarily languish ; and so far
the action of alcohol is opposed to foods, and it is not a food.

While the food-action of beer and wine may be accounted for by
their known nutritive ingredients, other than alcohol, which they con-
tain, much difference of opinion exists as to the true action of alcoliol
itself, and the problem to be solved is, whether it acts physically or
chemicall}^ The known actions of alcohol in man are physical in their
character, and so they are upon food immersed in alcohol, or alcohol-
and-water, when it is hardened, and the j^rocess of digestion retarded.

If it has been shown that alcohol is capable of supporting a few
persons, it is certain that it kills in its own way ten thousand persons
a year in Russia, and fifty thoiTsand in England ; but its method of
killing is slow, indirect, and by painful disease.

Finally, two things must always be borne in mind. First, we use
alcohol not on account of its importance as a nutriment, but on ac-
count of its effects as a stimulant or relish ; and secondly, the border-
line between its use and abuse is so hard to be defined that it becomes
a dangerous instrument even in the hands of the strong and wise, a
murderous instrument in the hands of the foolish and weak. — Food
and Fuel Reformer.

-♦♦♦-

SKETCH OF DR. H. C. BASTIAK

PROMINENT among the contemporaneous explorers of biological
and physiological science, the investigation of which is so active
in the present age, is the subject of this notice, who, though still
a young man, has achieved an undoubted eminence in the depart-
ments of study to which he has devoted himself. Dr. Bastian has
done a good deal of excellent scientific work in the medical field, and
has gained the wide respect of the profession ; but he is more gener-
ally known by his researches into the origin of life ; and is the author
of perhaps the ablest work that has yet appeared on the question of
the generation of the lowest animate forms. The careful readers of
The Popular Science Monthly are quite aware that the subject of
so-called " spontaneous generation " has latterly not only occupied the

SKETCH OF DR. H. C. BASTIAN. 109

increasing attention of scientific men, but has been puslied forward
by an unprecedented refinement of experimental investigation. The
researches recently carried out may have settled it, or they may not,
as further determinations and verifications will show; but, whatever
may be the fact on this point, the inquiry has certainly been remark-
ably narrowed, and the whole subject placed in a new attitude, which
gives better promise of a decisive solution. Dr. Bastian, as is well
understood, is a leading representative of the doctrine of the spon-
taneous origin of the lowest living forms. He has made an extensive
series of delicate and ingenious experiments which, he holds, establish
the principle, and which are freely admitted to give the problem a
new aspect ; and in his elaborate two-volumed work on the " Begin-
nings of Life," and his subsequent volume on " Evolution and the
Origin of Life," he has given us the most comprehensive exposition
we have of tlie philosophy and jDresent position of this highly interest-
ing and important question.

Henry Charltok Bastian was born at Truro, in Cornwall, April
26, 1837. His father, a merchant, died while the son was quite young.
He was educated at a private school in Falmouth ; and, when about
eighteen years of age, began the study of medicine with an uncle, who
was a leading medical man of the town of Falmouth.

Younor Bastian had already begun to acquire strong tastes for
natural-history studies, principally in the direction of botany and
marine zoology ; these tastes having been much stimulated and en-
couraged by a retired London surgeon, Mr. "VY. P. Cocks, who had for
some years energetically devoted himself to the fauna and flora of
Falmouth and its neighborhood. Dr. Bastian recognizes a profound
indebtedness to this gentleman for his influence in urging him to in-
dependent inquiry, inciting him to accept nothing on mere authority.
During the three years of young Bastian's apprenticeship to his un-
cle, besides preparing for the matriculation examination of the Uni-
versity of London, he made a special study of botany, and in 185G
published "A Flora of Falmouth and Surrounding Parishes." His
educational career was brilliant, and among the numerous university
honors which he received may be mentioned the gold medal in
botany ; the gold medal in comparative anatomy ; the gold medal in
anatomy and physiology ; the gold medal in pathological anatomy;
and the gold medal in medical jurisprudence. He took his degree of
M. D. in 1866, and became Fellow of the Royal Society in 1868. In
1860, Dr. Bastian became Assistant Curator of the Museum of Anat-
omy and Pathology under Prof. Sharpey. This oflice was retained
for three years. In 1863, principally on account of his liking for
cerebral physiology and philosophical subjects generally, he decided
to devote himself to the study of insanity, with the view of becoming
a consultant in London in this department of medicine. At the end
of 1863 he went as assistant medical officer to the newly-opened State

no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Asylum for Criminal Lunatics at Broadmoor ; and here for two years
he carried on his investigations concerning the nematoids, which led
to a monograph, in which one hundred new species were described.
During this time and afterward, Dr. Bastian conducted an interesting
and important series of investigations on the specific gravity of the
brain. In 1866 he left Broadmoor, came to London, married, became
lecturer on pathology and curator of the museum at St. Mary's Hos-
pital Medical School. He now took up the study of the diseases of
the nervous system as a whole, rather than the section of it met with
in asylums. He was elected Assistant Physician to St. Mary's Hos-
pital, and then shortly left it to accept the professorship of Pathologi-
cal Anatomy and the position of Assistant Physician to the Hospital
of University College. The same year he was also appointed Assist-
ant Physician to the National Hospital for the Paralyzed and Epilep-
tic. He has thus been in the midst of active and pressing professional
studies, but Dr. Bastian has still found time for those laborious and
purely scientific inquiries for which he is most extensively known.
The following is, a list of his chief memoirs and works, in the order of
their publication :

" On the Structure and Nature of the Dracunculus or Guinea-Worm." " Trans,
of Linn. See," vol. xxiv.

" Monograph on the Anguillulidoe, or Free Nematoids, Marine, Land, and Fresh-
water; with Descriptions of 100 New Species." "Trans, of Linn. Sec,"

vol. XXV.

" On the Anatomy and Physiology of the Nematoids, Parasitic and Free ; with

Observations on their Zoological Position and Affinities to the Echinoderms."

" Philosophical Transactions," 1866.
" On the Mode of Origin of Secondary Cancerous Growths." Medical Mirror^

vol. i., No. X.
" On the Specific Gravity of the Difi"erent Parts of the Human Brain." Journal

of Mental Science^ January, 1866.
"On the so-called Pacchionian Bodies." "Trans, of the Microsc. Soc," July,

1866.
" On tli'e Pathology of Tubercular Meningitis." Edinburgh Journal of Medical

Science, April, 1867.
" On a Case of Concussion-Lesion of the Spinal Cord, with Extensive Ascending

and Descending Secondary Degenerations." "Trans, of Medico-Chir. Soc,"

1867.
" On Cirrhosis of the Lungs." " Reynolds's System of Medicine," vol. iii.

Also the sections on "Pathology and Morbid Anatomy" of the following joint
articles (by Dr. Reynolds and Dr. Bastian) appeared in " System of Medi-
cine," vol. ii. : " Cerebritis ; " " Non-Inflammatory Softening of the Brain ; "
" Congestion of the Brain ; " " Hypertrophy of the Brain ; " " Adventitious
Products in the Brain."

"Modes of Origin of Lowest Organisms." Maemillan, May, 1871.

" The Beginnings of Life," 2 vols., Appletons, 1872.

"Evolution and the Origin of Life," Maemillan, 1874.

" On Paralysis from Brain-Disease in its Common Forms," Appletons, 1875.

COBRESP ONDENGE.

Ill

CORRESPONDENCE.

A COREECTION.
To the Editor of The Popular Science MontUy.

SIR: Please allow me to correct some
errors in the notice (on page 760 of
this journal for October) of the paper on
"American Ganoids," read at the Detroit
meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.

The very young gar-pike (Leptdosteits),
less than an inch long, has only one tail ; a
symmetrical organ like that of existing
Amphioxus and Polypterus, and the fossil
Glyptolcemus.

While from one to ten inches long, the
growing gar manifests a lower lobe of the
caudal. In this state it resembles the ex-
isting sturgeons and sharks, and many fos-
sil Ganoids.

The filamentary original tail gradually
decreases and filially disappears, while the
lower lobe increases and becomes the
functional tail of the adult Lepidosteus
and Amia. In this respect, therefore,
these forms are modern types of an an-
cient group.

In describing the peculiar vibratory
movement of the caudal filament of the
young gar, I compared it to the rapid vi-
bration of the tail in many if not all ser-
pents, and notably in the rattlesnake, and
suggested that, in view of the ball-and-
socket articulations of the vertebrae of Lep-
idosteus and some other reptilian features,
the resemblance between the motions of
Lepidosteus and Crotalus may have a deeper
origin and significance than mere functional
similarity ; that they may have had a com-
mon ancestry not very remote. But I had
no idea that " the ancestor of the gar was
a reptile."

This correction seems to me the more
desirable, since the other paper noticed by
you (on the Sirenia) was chiefly to show
that a retrograde metamorphosis had taken
place with that group.

Burt G. Wilder.
Ithaca, N. T., September 27, 1875.

yOEESTS AND RAINFALL.

To the Editor of 'the Popular Science Monthly.

While recently traveling among the
mountains of this State, the threatening
approach of a storm obliged me to find a
shelter, whence my attention busied itself
in watching the clouds gathering upon the
slopes that reached at least two thousand
feet above the valleys.

Some portions of them, I observed, be-
came quickly covered ; others more slowly.
In due time the storm broke away, and, re-
lieved partially of their watery burdens, the
clouds commenced to lift and move off, but
some more tardily than others. Moreover,
I remarked that, where they had first col-
lected, there they remained the longest, and
that those parts of the acclivities concealed
the last were the first to become visible.

Such a singular coincidence led me on
further to the consideration of its cause. I
think it may be extracted from the follow-
ing facts : 1. The day had been very warm,
as had also been the weather for a week
before. 2. Of those portions of the slopes
that had become hidden, the timbered lands
were the first and, as mentioned above, the
last to be seen again ; the contrary happen-
ing to the rock-exposures. 3. The valley
in which I was is formed by mountains over
four thousand feet above sea-level, their
opposing acclivities being very near to each
other. It is therefore narrow, and it was
shielded from the cooling influences of winds
outside. 4. The radiation of heat from the
bare sides and precipices.

Generalizing the conclusions that may be
drawn from these, it may be said that some-
times clouds passing over barren surfaces,
like some of those I had been viewing,
will become lightened as the cohesion of
their particles is weakened by the warmer
ascending currents of air ; they may be
dispersed, and, even if they settle down,
will be more likely to rise again before
those covering forests.

With the latter it will be otherwise.
Every leaf, like a miniature sun-shade, pro-

112

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tects a part, small though it be, of the soil
from the direct warmth of the sun. For-
ests thus are lilce great canopies sheltering
from the sun's rays those sections upon
which they grow. Lands so covered possess
a capacity for holding much moisture. Con-
tained in the leaves and trunks of trees,
and more particularly in the spongy moss
and numerous streams, it is saved from
rapid evaporation, and consequently lowers
the temperature of the atmosphere over it.
Vapors, then, attracted toward moun-
tains by gravity, or carried thither by winds,
will at times collect first over those sections
which are wooded, and will have a tendency
to remain there, be condensed, and deposit
rain.

It may not be out of place to notice here
another fact coming under my observation.
Winds sweeping across a country, when they
encounter mountains, are crowded against
them, and, by the pressure from behind,
are forced up along their sides and over their
crests. Clouds that are in their paths, and
which are borne onward to the slopes of
such mountains, are sometimes carried up
to and over their tops. Slopes which are
destitute of timber present very few ob-
stacles to such a result. Forests, on the
other hand, break or lessen the mechani-
cal strength of wind, and so increase the
probability of their augmenting the volume
of rainfall. P. F. Schofield.

New Toek, September, 1875.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

WHICH UNIVERSE SHALL WE STUDY f

A CERTAIN class of astronomers
have aimed to persuade ns that
there are "more worlds than one;"
and those ingenious speculators Stew-
art and Tait have recently argued for
two universes: the present universe,
open to the sense, and an " unseen uni-
verse " beyond the range of direct sci-
entific investigation but open to intrepid
scientific faith. From another point of
view this idea of two universes comes
out in a much more definite and prac-
tical way ; and that is when considered
with reference to the two great orders
of knowledge that are now making ri-
val claims on the attention of mankind
as means of education. This conception
of two universes as objects of thought
was very instructively set forth by the
able author of the articles we have pub-
lished under the title of " The Deeper
Harmonies of Science and Religion,"
in his third paper, and the passage de-
fining the distinction is so well drawn
that it will bear repetition. The writer
says:

" There is something which sets it-
self up as a just reflection of the uni-
verse, and which it is possible to study

as if it were the universe itself; that is,
the multitude of traditional unscientific
opinions about the universe. These
opinions are, in one sense, part of the
universe ; to study them from the his-
toric point of view is to study the uni-
verse ; but when they are assumed as
an accurate reflection of it so as to di-
vert attention from the original, as they
are by all the votaries of authority or
tradition, then they may be regarded as
a spurious universe outside and apart
from the real one, and such students of
opinion may be said to study, and yet
not to study the universe.

" This spurious universe is almost
as great as the genuine one. There are
many profoundly learned men whose
whole learning relates to it and has no
concern whatever with reality. The
simplest peasaut, who, from living much
in the open air, has found for himself,
unconsciously, some rules to guide him
in divining the weather, knows some-
thing about the real universe ; but an
indefatigable student, who has stored
a prodigious memory with what the
schoolmen have thought, what the phi-
losophers have thought, what the fa-
tliers have thought, may yet have no

EDITOR'S TABLE.

113

real knowledge; lie may have been
busy only with the reflected universe.
Not tliat the thoughts of dead thinkers
stored up in books are not part of the
universe as well as wind and rain ; not
that they may not repay study quite as
well; they are deposits of the human
mind, and by studying them much may
be discovered about the human mind,
the ways of its operation, the stages
of its development. Nor yet that the
thoughts of the dead may not be of the
greatest help to one who is studying the
universe : he may get from them sugges-
tions, theories, which he may put to the
test, and thus convert, in some cases,
into real knowledge. But there is a
third way in which he may treat them
which makes books the very antithesis
to reality, and the knowledge of books
the knowledge of a spurious universe.
This is when he contents himself with
storing their contents in his mind, and
does not attempt to put them to any
test, whether from superstitious rever-
ence or from an excessive pleasure in
mere language. He may show wonder-
ful ability in thus assimilating books,
wonderful retentiveness, wonderliil ac-
curacy, wonderful acuteness; nay, if
he clearly understands that he is only
dealing w-ith opinions, he may do good
service in that department, for opinions
need collecting and classifying as much
as botanical specimens. But one often
sees such collectors mistaking opinions
for truths, and depending for their views
of the universe entirely upon these
opinions, which they accept implicitly
without testing them. Such men may
be said to study, but not to study the
universe."

This discrimination is both true and
highly significant. Old opinions, old
languages, and antiquated learning, are
fit subjects of study as a part of archae-
ology, like old buildings, old costunjes,
old coins, ear-rings, pictures, etc., which
are not without a certain historic inter-
est. But from this point of view they
are parts of the universe to be explored

VOL. VIII. — 8

and explained, like all the rest of it, by
scientific methods. This, however, is
a widely difterent thing from setting
up old knowledges and thoughts of the
dead as systematic and exclusive ob-
jects of study, and the sufficient means
of mental cultivation. Yet the advo-
cates of education by traditional, unsci-
entific studies habitually slur over this
distinction, and, declaring that old lan-
guages and old traditional ideas are as
much parts of the universe as the rocks
and stars, proceed to install them into a
separate world in which the great mul-
titude of students are made to pass
their whole intellectual lives. It is no
exaggeration or mere figure of speech
to characterize this realm of antiquated
thought and dead language as a spuri-
ous universe. No one will deny that
the broad and distinctive object of sci-
entific study is the real and present
universe of phenomena, fact, and law,
which is open to the direct, immediate
action of the human mind. The study
of it in all its phases, by observation, ex-
periment, analysis, synthesis, and clas-
sification, has given rise to a vast body
of truths and principles known as sci-
entific knowledge, or modern scien^fic
thought, and by which and through
which the actual living universe is to
be interpreted and known. Obviously
the keys to tlie knowledge of the real
universe are held by science, and it is
inevitable that, if scientific knowledge
be left out of any educational scheme,
the genuine universe is omitted from
that scheme. And when this subtrac-
tion has been accomplished what re-
mains ? An unreal sham, an illusive, dis-
cordant representation of things which
may now be justly termed a "spurious
universe." We say it may now be justly
so termed, although, before the true uni-
verse was discovered, there could have
been no knowledge of its counterfeit.
The mass of pre-scientific opinion con-
cerning the world and its contents, the
course of Nature, man, life, and society,
when taken in relation to what is now

114

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

known of these subjects, and when re-
garded as a body of thought to be em-
ployed for purposes of culture, must be
held as representing not the universe
of reality, but only a distorted and spu-
rious semblance of it.

The question of scientific education,
then, undoubtedly the greatest question
of our time, is simply this : " Shall we
study the genuine or the spurious uni-
verse? Shall the minds of students
be developed and moulded by direct
exercise upon the phenomena and prob-
lems of Nature and present human ex-
perience, or shall they be cut oif from the
living world and trained in the acquisi-
tion of old knowledges, just as if science
had never arisen ? " This question may
seem to many a futile one, as they will
say that in this age the influence of sci-
ence cannot be escaped. Nevertheless
it is an urgent and a practical ques-
tion. For, although the influence of sci-
ence cannot be escaped by society, it can
be and it is extensively evaded and es-
caped in education. In this our schools
and colleges do not represent the age ;
they are out of harmony with it ; they
are far behind it. The genuine universe
is not the supreme object of study ; it
is only partially recognized or not rec-
ognized at all. The spurious universe
is still in the saddle. It has not been
displaced ; it has hardly been disturbed.
Science.is still begging of our colleges for
a few crumbs ; and, when snubb6d, is
trying here and there to or^ganize schools
of its own, which are generally looked
upon as mere technological shops where
needy youths are apprenticed to bread-
and-butter occupations a grade or two
above the workshops of artisans and
mechanics. The dignity of being lib-
erally educated, the honors of scholar-
ship, and the prestige of culture, are
resei'ved for those who, passing by all
the gi-and results of modern science,
give themselves to the study of the spu-
rious universe.

The latest illustration that comes to
us of the extent to which this state-
ment is true, is furnished by the con-

dition of the great public or preparatory
schools of England. An ofiicial report
has been made upon this subject, which
represents the state of things after a
quarter of a century of vehement agita-
tion for some reformatory change that
shall bring the popular culture of that
country into greater harmony with the
present state of knowledge. The case
is thus forcibly presented by the Lon-
don Spectator^ a journal that will not
be suspected of extreme views upon
the subject:

"During the past three hundred
years, the spread of scientific knowl-
edge has revolutionized European
modes of thought, has fundamentally
altered the European idea of the uni-
verse, of the earth's place in the grand
whole, and of man's place on the earth,
and has profoundly modified European
social life and political institutions ; but,
to our great schools, science has been
as if it had made no progress. To those
who have regulated the studies of those
places of learning, it has not appeared
at all important that English gentlemen
should be able to. follow with intelli-
gence the fruitful researches to which
the pioneers of modern thought were
devoting themselves, should be capable
of appreciating the discoveries which
were abridging space, approximating
classes, and calling into existence in-
dustries, activities, and relations, that
are gradually transforming the ancient
order of things — in a word, that they
should be in sympathy with the modern
spirit. ... Of course, such a state of
things has not been allowed to con-
tinue without protest and controversy,
and some little has been done to make
room for science-teaching in our schools.
It has, however, been very little. The
sixth report of the Royal Oomraission
on scientific instruction now lies before
us. It is confined exclusively to an ex-
amination into the provision made in
the various secondary schools through-
out the country for the teaching of sci-
ence, and this is what appears: Re-
turns, moi'e or less complete, were re-

LITERARY NOTICES.

115

ceived from one hundred and twenty-
eight endowed schools in all, and, out
of this total, 'science is taught in only
sixty-three, and of these only thirteen
have a laboratory, and only eighteen
apparatus, often very scanty.' Even
these figures, however, give but a very
imperfect notion of the neglect with
which science is treated. It will hard-
ly be believed that there are no more
than eighteen of these schools which
devote as much as four hours in the
week to scientific instruction, that six-
teen actually aflFord no longer time than
two hours a week, and seven think an
hour suflicient. These, however, are
the good examples. There are thirty
schools in which no definite time what-
ever is allotted to scientific study.
Again, out of the one hundred and
twenty -eight schools, only thirteen
give any place at all to science in their
examinations, and ' only two attach a
weight to science in the examinations
equal to that of classics or mathe-
matics.'

" If, now, we attempt to account
for this extraordinary neglect of sci-
ence, in a country whose greatness, if
not its very independence, depends
upon the skill of its population in using
the forces of Nature as their servants,
we find the blame to rest in a very
great measure on the universities. The
older universities were founded and at-
tained celebrity at a time when natu-
ral science did not exist, and they
have never admitted science to an
equality with classics and mathematics.
The feeling of Oxford and Cambridge
has naturally guided the public schools.
The masters are, almost without excep-
tion, even to-day, Oxford and Cam-
bridge men, and are penetrated with
the Oxford and Cambridge spirit.
Moreover, the parents of the boys,
and the boys themselves, necessarily
attach importance to the studies which
will win honors and distinction at the
universities, while they disregard stud-
ies that will in no way help them in 1

their careers. Lastly, the neglect of
science at the universities causes the
schools to suffer from a want of com-
petent teachers. Most of the head-
masters in their evidence refer to this
difficulty, but, at the same time, they
are unwilling to look elsewhere for
the kind of men they want. Thus the
head-master of Eugby says: 'I would
here observe that a mere chemist,
geologist, or naturalist, however emi-
nent in his own special department,
would hardly be able to take his place
in a body of masters composed of uni-
versity men, without some injurious
effect upon the position which science
ought to occupy in the school. ... In
preferring the two older universities,
I do so only by reason of their stronger
general sympathies with public-school
teaching. I am aware that if I merely
wanted a highly-scientific man in any
branch, I might find him equally in
Dublin, London, or at a Scotch univer-
sity,' In plain language, trades-union-
ism forbids an ugly competition."

It thus appears that the policy of
one hundred and twenty-eight of the
leading schools of England, in regard
to the admission of scientific studies,
is powerfully influenced, if not con-
trolled, by the universities, so that, in
the foremost nation in the world, there
is a vast, compactly-organized educa-
tional system which ignores the uni-
verse, as disclosed by modern science,
and employs as its means of mental
cultivation a spurious universe of dead
traditions, languages, methods, and
opinions.

LITERARY NOTICES.

First Book of Zoology. By Edward S.
Morse, Ph. D., late Professor of Com-
parative Anatomy and Zoology in Bow-
doiii College. New York : D. Appleton
& Co. Pp. 188. Price, $1.25.

The genius for good school-book making
is incontestably American. Our best school-
books exemplify art in two directions: in
that which goes to the getting up of the

ii6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

book, materially, and that which concerns
its intellectual self; that is, its way of put-
ting things — such a handling of teaching
processes as recognizes that good teaching
is an art, and the true teacher an artist. As
good tools for teacher and learner, American
school geographies, arithmetics, readers,
and lately grammars, are not excelled abroad.
It is noteworthy, however, that hitherto
so much could not be said of American
efforts in the matter of elementary school-
books on science. Herein has England set
us an example. The " Science Primers," re-
printed by the Appletons, are very remark-
able books as showing how a high knowl-
edge in these departments may be set before
a little child. However, in this matter of
American science-teaching of the little ones,
the tide is setting in. It must be admitted
that in every thing pertaining to books, and
elementary teaching of animated Nature,
we are far behind England. Dr. Hooker's
"Child's Book of Nature" is the best of
its class, though sadly needing rewriting.
But when we come to zoology proper, a
history of our efforts at elementary book-
making is more interesting than creditable.
The earliest serious effort is that of Daniel
Haskel — " The Juvenile Class-Book of Nat-
ural History," 1841. It is for children, and
the author boasts in the following style
over its systematic arrangement: "The
classification, which forms an important
feature of the work, is founded on external
resemblance and visible habits. . . . This
classification is much more simple, and bet-
ter adapted to the young mind, than that of
Linnajus, which is founded on occult resem-
blances, and ranks the cow and the whale,
animals which inhabit different elements,
and are otherwise very unlike, in the same
general class, Mammalia.'''' As to man, he
says, " Buffon divides mankind into six
classes," and he does likewise. But the
word " class," though often used, has no
certain sense in this little book. Leaving
man, the work rs divided into Quadrupeds,
Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, and Insects. The
quadrupeds are divided into thirteen classes,
as first class, second class, etc. Then come
the " Unclassed Animals," viz., " the ele-
phant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, tapir,
camel, Arabian camel, llama, camelopard,
bear, badger, raccoon, kangaroo, opossum.

ant-eater, sloth, jerboa." He says these
" are animals which cannot be classed, but
each of which by itself forms a distinct
species." The birds are given in like man-
ner in six classes, with " unclassed birds,
the ostrich, cassowary, dodo." The fishes
are in four classes. The first class em-
braces the cachelot, grampus, porpoise, dol-
phin, whale." As for the sword-fish, he is
left out in the cold. The "fourth class"
of fishes embraces the lobster, crab, tor-
toise, oysters, snails, and such.

The next attempt at a natural history for
schools was (we speak from memory) by
Abram Ackerman. It was a mere compila-
tion, with not a particle of science behind it
or in it. It had the credit, however, oJ' not
being the injurious book that Haskel's was.
In 1849 appeared "Class-Book of Zoolofiy:
designed to afford to Pupils in Common
Schools and Academies a Knowledge of the
Animal Kingdom. By Prof. B. Jaeger."
The educational plane was not then up to
this little book, which, as a classification,
or systematic exhibit of the animal king-
dom, had not its equal ; and, besides this,
much of it was really American, but zool-
ogy proper it utterly failed to teach. Prof.
Wortliington Hooker's "Natural History,
for the Use of Schools and Families," ap-
peared in 1860. It is a good book, and
holds its own in the market because of its
pleasant and readable style. As a classifi-
cation it is too meagre, and of zoology it
contains but little. We must not pass un-
mentioned the Ruschenberger series of
"First Books in Natural History," begun
in 1842. These were little else than trans-
lations from the text of Milne Edwards and
Achille Comte. Very excellent little man-
uals they were, but extending, as they did,
to eight volumes, they lost all claim to be
called a " Primer of Natural History." " Prin-
ciples of Zoology, by Agassiz and Gould,"
1848, is a high text-book; and of a like
nature must be regarded "A Manual of
Zoology," by Sanborn Tenney, 1865, with
its smaller companion by the same author;
both good books so far as systematizing
goes.

It is evident, then, that a good, true
American book, worthy of being called a
"Prhner of Zoology," had not appeared.
In the fullness of belief, we avow our con-

LITERARY NOTICES.

117

viction that it has come at last. We do not
allude to Mrs. Stevenson's "Biology for
Boys and Girls ; " it occupies a widely-dif-
ferent field. " First Book of Zoology," by
Prof. Morse, is the little work which we
wish to consider. It has some points on
which we would for a moment dwell. First,
it really teaches zoology. It deals with
the morphology and actual structure of
familiar things. It advises you to get
snails or insects, and shows how to get
them. Now, every one should know that
this is just what a child wants to do. Every
child is naturally a collector. Then comes
the study of form. Here are simple out-
line drawings. The external parts are laid
out, and each part is shown to the pupil,
and its name as a part is given. Now the
child must draw these parts on his slate,
and then name them for himself; and every
child with a little patient help can do all
this. But, when this is done, the morphology
of a shell, or whatever else, is well learned,
albeit the little pupil has never heard the
big word used above. And what an eye-
opener, and mind-expander, and tongue-
loosener, half an hour of such work with a
child is 1 The little child becomes at once
a naturalist, intent upon his snail, he sees
things, and thinks things, and asks things,
that are all new to him. This little book
utterly eschews technicalities, and even
classification. An intelligent boy will make
a collection, and then will attempt to sort it
into groups or sets of real or fancied simili-
tudes. This is instinctive classification.
But it is plain that the collection must
come first ; that is, that intelligent classifi-
cation must stand related to things more
than words. A blind man could not clas-
sify the stars. Here, then, is the blun-
der which our author shuns : of begin-
ning to teach systematic classification with
no knowledge or sight of the objects.
The author's method is that of Nature. It
is the word-method in reading instead
of the old ABC plan. Get your object,
then learn its parts, and, thus trained, clas-
sification will be sought for, and can then
be entered upon; and even its systematic
names will be learned with delight, because
they have a real significance ; that, of
course, will be the work of a "Second
Book." The first is just such as any

teacher can handle, and that too with pleas-
ure, for it unfolds the objects of Nature
precisely in Nature's own way. A real ex-
cellence in a primer is, that it is small.
This little book reminds us of the pinhole
in the card to which the eye is applied ; it
takes in a very little bit of Nature, but that
bit is wonderfully amplified with good, clear,
achromatic light. In this wise it is that
one who has done a long service in teach-
ing natural history to children hails Dr.
Morse's little book. S. L.

Money, and the Mechanism of Exchange.
By W. Stanley Jevons, F. R. S., Pro-
fessor of Logic and Political Economy
in the Owens College, Manchester. No.
XVII. " International Scientific Series."
New York: D. Appletou & Co. 350
pages. Price, $1.60.

There is, beyond question, a most impor-
tant scientific side to the complex subject
of money. It has its observable phenomena,
its analyzable relations, and its deducible
laws ; and, as it pertains to the operations
of human society, it is a legitimate branch
of social science. For this reason it was
entirely proper that the subject should be
treated in an independent monograph in the
"International Scientific Series." One of
the ablest and clearest logical heads in
Europe, author of a masterly treatise on the
philosophy of science, and a special and
thorough student of political economy, was
chosen to execute the work. Again there
were permanent, general, and what we may
term cosmopolitaln reasons for taking up
the subject with a view simply to the expo-
sition, improvement, and extension of valu-
able knowledge.

But for us the subject has also quite
another aspect. There were urgent Amer-
ican reasons why it should be treated.
We believe in the glorious leadership of
our country ; we are in advance, and bound
to be in advance, of civilization, and in this
case the American people furnish ample
evidence that they are quite ahead of the
world in their ignorance of every thing hke
principles or laws relating to money. The
American voter, with his hands full of green-
backs, has about as much understanding
of the science which treats of them as the
Indian of the science of wampum. That
they can buy things with them, and that

ii8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

they are therefore desirable to be got, ex-
haust the knowledge of both. With all
our vaunted enlightenment, we have a cur-
rency bedeviled by politicians in the interest
of selfish greed and rampant speculation,
and maintained by a demagoguism as un-
scrupulous and vicious as the world has
ever seen. With so much gross ignorance
and stupid superstition among the people
in regard to the nature of money, and
the laws of its use and influence, that the
present state 8f things is openly defended
and its continuance demanded, it becomes
in the highest degree desirable that sounder
views should be disseminated as rapidly and
as widely as possible. We want a knowl-
edge of money as a branch of natural his-
tory. We want to know how its use has
grown up ; what wants it answers to in
human societies ; what laws it is subject to
that spring from the very nature of things ;
what are its imperfections, and how they
may be supplemented ; what are its dan-
gers, and what the delusions and impost-
ures of which it is made the means by cal-
culating men and unprincipled governments.
Prof. Jevons's work deals with the subject
very much from this point of view. He
offers us what a clear-sighted, cool-headed,
scientific student has to say on tlie nature,
properties, and natural laws of money, with-
out regard to local interests or national
bias. His work is popularly written, and
every page is replete with solid instruction
of. a kind that is just now lamentably needed
by multitudes of our people who are vic-
timized by the grossest fallacies.

Religion and Science in their Relation to
Philosophy. By Charles W. Shields,
D. D. New York : Scribner, Armstrong
& Co. Pp. 69. Price, $1.00.

This essay consists of two parts, in the
first of which are stated the scientific hy-
potheses and the religious dogmas that have
been offered for the solution of such prob-
lems as the origin of the universe, the for-
mation of geological strata, the origin of
mar, the nature of mind and of matter. The
case for both sides is stated fairly enough.
In the second part the author endeavors to
show that these problems are neither exclu-
sively scientific nor exclusively religious,
but philosophical. " It is not too much to
say that they can never be decided by any

merely scientific process. . . . And it is safe
to say that by no purely religious method
can they ever be settled." The author re-
gards these problems as "partly scientific
and partly religious," but " strictly philo-
sophical." Hence philosophy is the um-
pire when religion and science are in con--
flict. " Paramount as religion must be in
her own sphere with her inspired Bible and
her illumined Church," she cannot judge the
theories of science; but no more will re-
ligious men accept from mere scientists a
judgment upon their doctrines. The author
thinks that in the ''broad plain of philos-
ophy" the religionist should accept scien-
tific truth resting upon " foundations of
proof that cannot be shaken ; " and that
the scientist should no longer ignore " that
vast body of truths, doctrines, dogmas,
backed by evidences which have been accu-
mulating for eighteen centuries under the
most searching criticism." There appears
to be no reason why men of science should
reject the arbitration of philosophy.

Proceedings of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences ; from May, 1874, to
May, 1875. Selected from the Records.
Boston : John Wilson & Son, 1875.

This is the second octavo volume of
" Proceedings " of the " New Series," and the
tenth of the " Whole Series " published by
the American Academy ; Volume I. having
been published in 1848. Besides the octavo
Proceedings, the Academy has long pub-
lished quarto volumes of Memoirs which are
of the highest value. T^is volume contains
535 pages, of which 462 are devoted to
scientific papers, 13 to brief notes of the
several stated meetinos, 41 to the Report of
the Council (into whicli are incorporated
the obituaries of deceased members or as-
sociates), six pages to the list of the mem-
bers, etc., and the rest of the volume to a
very copious index.

We learn that the Academy contains
195 Fellows, 91 Associate Fellows, and 70
Foreign Honorary Members. The losses by
death during 1874 have been painfully large,
and many of them will not be felt by Mas-
sachusetts alone, but by the world at large.
Short biographical notices are given of the
following deceased members: B. R. Curtis,
ex-Judge Supreme Court; George Derby, M.
D., Professor, Harvard College ; F. C. Lowell ;

LITERARY NOTICES.

119

Charles G. Putnam, M. D. ; Nathaniel B.
Shurtleif ; James Walker, ex-President Har-
vard College ; Jeffries Wyman, Professor,
Harvard College ; F. W. A. Argelander, Pro-
fessor, University of Bonn ; Elie de Beau-
'mont, Secretary Paris Academy of Sciences;
Sir William Fairbairn, F. R. S., etc. ; F. P.
G. Guizot ; Sir Charles Lyell.

Of the scientific papers given, ten are
devoted to Chemistry and Physics, four to
Botany, four to Astronomy and Astronomical
Physics, two to pure Mathematics, etc. But
such an enumeration does not convey any
adequate idea of the amount of original
research represented by this volume, which
is in every way creditable to American sci-
ence, and fully equal to similar publications
in Europe. It is not possible within the
limits of our space to attempt any analysis
of individual papers, for a knowledge of
which reference must be made to the vol-
ume itself; but it is impossible to avoid a
renewed notice of the remarkable freshness
of the volume as a whole. It bears the
evidence of being the systematized results
of faithful woT-k in the laboratory, the field,
and the study, and it has in this and in
other respects an advantage not common
to all American publications of the same
kind.

American State Universities. With a
Particular Account of the Rise and
Development of the University of Mich-
igan. By Andrew Ten Brook. 418
pages. Price, $3.50. Cincinnati : R.
Clarke & Co.

The author of this work, in his first
chapter, presents a sketch of the early
progress of academic education in the At-
lantic States. Next he describes the state
of culture in the West at the beginning of
the congressional land - grant policy and
subsequently. The history of congres-
sional land-grants for universities is given
in the third chapter. The remainder of the
book is more specially devoted to the sub-
ject of education in Michigan, and the
matters treated in the successive chapters
are : Michigan's early condition as to cult-
ure and education ; early organization for
higher education in that Territory ; grant
of the present university fund, and its ad-
ministration by the board of trustees ; or-
ganization of the school system and admin-
istration of the endowment fund ; rise of

I union schools ; opening of the Ann Arbor
University; review of the period from 1844
to 1852; the administiation of President
Tappan ; administration of President Haven
and his successors. Finally, the author
essays to forecast the future of American
universities. He is in favor of retaining
the study of ancient languages as the dom-
inant feature, the very backbone of the
university system. " The long - agitated
question," he says, "of the place which the
Latin and Greek languages should hold in
education, the University of Michigan set-
tled originally by giving them the same
prominence which they had in the old col-
leges of this country, .and the State univer-
sities generally have inclined to this course.
This action needs no comment or defense
beyond a statement of the reasons which
have been supposed to justify it. The re-
lation of the study of these languages to
that of other subjects has been greatly
changed by the introduction of new branch-
es of study, but not by any special change
of views in regard to the value of languages
themselves." Science, according to Mr.
Ten Brook, is of little or no importance
except for specialists. " Language is of
all studies the most practical. The useful
and sublime sciences, such as chemistry,
botany, geology, and astronomy, are of
little immediate use even to the learned.
Their main facts and generalizations are
indeed well employed in literature, in phi-
losophy, and in social life ; bid beyovd
these they are only to be pursued by the
special student^ Again, he says : " It was
the ancient classics, and the Hebrew and
Greek Scriptures in their originals, which
awakened Europe from the sleep of the
middle ages. They are adapted to just
that kind of work, and they will probably
hold their place for ages to come, as for
centuries past, in the course of higher edu-
cation." Our own views on this question
are fully stated in the leading editorial of
the present number.

Annital Report of the Directors of the
St. Louis Public Schools. Pp. 398.
Besides the usual statistics, the various
annual reports contained in this volume
convey a large amount of valuable informa-
tion on school management in general. The
idea of having attached to the Normal School

120

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

a " School for Observation " appears to be
original to the St. Louis system. This school
for observation differs from the " Model
School " in that the Normal scholars here
simply observe the process of managing a
school as conducted by highly-competent
teachers, while in the Model School they
make experiments in teaching. The school
selected for observation is one of the district
schools of the city. The members of the
senior and middle classes of the Normal
School are sent regularly to the "School
for Observation " in order to acquire a more
thorough knowledge of their future profes-
sion.

The experiment begun two years ago, of
establishing a Kindergarten in connection
with one of the public schools, has, accord-
ing to the Report, proved a decided success.
Like every effort toward new and improved
methods in education, the project, at the
outset, met with strong opposition. It was
urged that children enough would not attend
to justify the expense. The younger chil-
dren of three and four could not be suffi-
ciently interested ; small children would not
attend regularly ; the training would unfit for
ordinary primary work; the physical exer-
cises would be injurious to health ; and so
on, to the end of the string of imaginary
difficulties that objectors are forever ready
to throw in the way. The result was that,
when the school opened, the room was
quickly filled. At the beginning of the sec-
ond year nearly all the children of the pre-
vious year reentered, and a second room of
equal capacity was found necessary, and
this also was filled. The average attend-
ance was ninety-five per cent., exceeding
that in tlie primary rooms. The children
advanced to the primary department made
rapid progress in its studies, excelling rather
than falling behind their fellows. The phys-
ical exercise produced a marked improve-
ment in the health and general appearance
of the pupils; and, finally, it has been de-
termined to establish Kindergartens in two
more of the public schools.

This and other parts of the Report show
what preceding reports from the same
source had previously shown, that the au-
thorities in St. Louis are alive to the neces-
sity for improvement in our methods of
primary instruction, and it would be well

if school-ofiicers in Eastern towns could be
charged with a similar spirit. The streets
of New York, for example, are swarming
with children from three to six years old,
receiving at the most impressible period of
their lives the lessons that only the streets
can teach. If, in place of these abominable
associations, they were gathered into Kinder-
gartens, the formation of habits that later
become actual obstacles in education would
be in great part prevented, while a positive
advantage would be gained in the training
which such schools afford.

PUBLICATIONS EECEIVED.

Reference and Dose Book. By C. Henri
Leonard. 16mo, 80 pages. Price, 75 cents ;
and Vest Pocket Anatomist. By same.
16mo. Price, 50 cents. Detroit, 1875.
Pp. 56.

The Origin of the Sun's Heat and the
Chemical Constitution of the Matter of his
System. By William Contie. Troy, 1875.
Pp. 23.

Tinnitus Aurium. A Consideration of
the Causes upon which it depends, and an
Attempt to explain its Production in Accord-
ance with Physical Principles. By Samuel
Theobald, M. D. Baltimore: Innes & Co.,
Printers. 1875. Pp. 13.

Circulars of Information of the Bureau
of Education. No. 6. Washington : Gov-
ernment Printing-office, 1875. Pp. 208.

On the Flexure of Continuous Girders.
By Mansfield Merriman, C. E. 1875. Pp. 12.

Printing for the Blind. Reply to the
Report of a Committee of the American
Social Science Association. By the Trus-
tees of the American Prin ting-House for the
Blind. Louisville, Ky., 1875. Pp. 16.

Have we Two Brains ? Soul and Instinct,
Spirit and Intellect. Address by Rector of
St. Mary's Church, Station 0, N. Y. 1875.
Pp. 12. Price, 10 cents.

Alimentation of Infants and Young Chil-
dren. By B. F. Dawson, M. D. New York:
William Wood & Co. 1875. Pp. 22.

Catalogue of the Iowa State University
for 1874-'75.

MISCELLANY.

121

A Graphic Method for solving certain
Algebraic Problems. By George L. Vose.
^evv York: D. Van Nostrand. ISTS. Pp.
62. Price, 60 cents.

Manual for the Use of the Globes. By
Joseph Schedler. New York : E. Steiger.
IS'75. Pp. 34. Price, 25 cents.

Consciousness in Evolution. A Lecture
delivered before the Franklin Institute, Phil-
adelphia. By E. D. Cope, 1875. Pp. 16.

Our Teeth and their Preservation. By
L. P. Meredith. Cincinnati, 18*75. Pp. 43.

History of the Philadelphia School of
Anatomy. By William W. Keen, M. D.
Philadelphia : Lippincott & Co., 1875. Pp.
32.

Anatomical, Pathological, and Surgical
Uses of Chloral. By same. 1875. Pp.11.

Experiments on the Laryngeal Nerves
and Muscles of Respiration in a Criminal ex-
ecuted by Hanging. By W. ^Y. Keen, M. D.
1875. Pp. 8.

Matter and the Laws of Matter; and
The Self-Existence of Matter inconsistent
with the Existence of God. By AVilliara
fl. WilllauiS. Each ten pages.

Iowa Weather Beview, September, 1875,
Edited and published by Dr. Gustavus Hin-
richs, Iowa City, Iowa.

A Study of the Normal Movements of
the Unimpregnated Uterus. By Ely Van
De Warker, M. D. New York : D. Apple-
ton & Co., 1875. Pp. 26.

On the Transcendental Curves whose
Equation is, sin y sin my = a sin a: sin nx + b.
By H. A. Newton and A. W. Phillips. Re-
printed from Tiansactions of Connecticut
Academy.

A New Basis for Uterine Pathology.
By A. r. A. King, M. D. New York : Wil-
liam Wood & Co., 1875. Pp. 20.

The Uranian and Neptunian Systems in-
vestigated with the 26-Inch Equatorial of
the United States Naval Observatory. By
Simon Newcomb. Washington, 1875. Pp.74.

The Relation of the Patent Laws to
American Agriculture, Arts, and Industries.
Address by James A. Whitney before the
New York Society of Practical Engineering.
New York, 1875. Pp. 37.

Annual Report of the Superintendent of
Public Instruction, on the Public Schools of
New Hampshire. Concord, 1875.

Nature and Culture. By Harvey Rice.
Boston : Lee & Shcpard, 1875. Pp. 202.
Price, $1.50.

A Manual of Metallurgy. By William
H. Greenwood, F. C. S. New York : G. P.
Putnam's Sons. Pp. 370. Price, $1.50.

Cholera Epidemic of 1873 in the United
States. Pub. Doc. Washington, 1875. 1025
pages.

Vision : Its Optical Defects and the
Adaptation of Spectacles. By C. S. Fenner,
M. D. Philadelphia : Lindsay &. Blakiston,
1875. Pp. 300. Price, $3.50.

Scripture Speculations. By H. R. Ste-
vens. Newburg, N. Y., 1875. Pp. 415.
Price, $2.00.

MISCELLANY.

We present below brief abstracts of
some of the more interesting papers i ead at
the last meeting of the British Association
lor the Advancevncnt of Science. Others
will follow in succeeding numbers.

Ice-.U'tion. — The subject of ice-action
was considered in a paper read by D. Mack-
intosh, F. G. S. He first discussed the ques-
tion whether the so-called continental ice
of Greenland was a true ice-sheet formed
independently of mountains, or merely the
result of a confluent system of glaciers. He
then considered the state of the surface of
the Greenland ice-sheet, and believed that
the amount of moraine matter was locally
limited and of small extent. He defended
the idea of the internal purity of existing
ice-sheets, and gave reasons for doubting
whether glaciers are capable of persistently
pushing forward the large stones they may
find in their beds, though he admitted that
the base of glaciers is charged with finer
debris, by means of which they grind and
striate rock-surfaces. He mentioned that in
the lake district of England he had never
seen a sharply-bordered groove on a glaci-
ated rock-surface which might not have
been produced by a stone smaller than a
walnut.

He saw no reason for doubting that re-

122

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

volving icebergs were capable of scooping
out hollows in the rocky bottom of the sea,
and thought that lake-basins on the rocky
summits of hills or on water-sheds might
have been produced in this way. He then
gave reasons for supposing that the drift-
knolls called eskers, where their forms were
very abrupt, might have been partly formed
by eddying currents with waves generated
or intensified by ice-movements, which some-
times would set the sea in motion as much
as sixteen miles off.

According to Mr. Mackintosh, floating
coast-ice is the principal transporter and
glaciator of stones, and the uniformly stri-
ated stones found in the bowlder-clay were
both glaciated and transported by coast-ice.
He entered minutely into a consideration of
how stones, previously more or less rounded,
became flattened and uniformly grooved on
one, two, or more sides, the grooves on the
various sides differing in their directions.
He believed that many of the stones found
in the bowlder-clay of Cheshire must have
been frequently dropped and again picked
up by coast-ice during the passage from
their original positions.

Ancestors of tlic British. — Another pa-
per by the same author was devoted to the
discussion of certain ethnological questions
connected with the history of the people
of Britain. He believed that the inhabit-
ants of different parts of England and Wales
differed so much in their physical and men-
tal characteristics that many tribes must
have retained their peculiarities since their
colonization of the country, by remaining in
certain localities with little mutual inter-
blending,* or through the process of amalga-
mation failing to obliterate the more hard-
ened characteristics. The first type noticed
was the Gaelic. In Caesar's time, probably
the great mass of the people of Gaul were
comparatively dark in complexion and
small in stature ; and the race characterized
by Caesar as of tall stature, reddish hair,
and blue eyes, were most likely German col-
onists of Gaul. There still exists in Eng-
land, Wales, and Ireland, a distinct race,
possessed of some of the mental character-
istics anciently attributed to the Gaels. In
mental character the Gaels are excitable,
and alternately lively and melancholy. The

Gael is alao by temperament an excellent
soldier, but he needs to be commanded by
a race possessed of moral determination,
tempered by judgment and foresight. An-
other characteristic of the Gaelic race is
sociability.

In North Wales there are several dis-
tinct ethnological types, but by far the most
prevalent is the type to which the term
Cymrian may be applied. The Cymri ap-
pear to have entered Wales from the north.
They are an industrious race, living on
scanty fare without murmuring. Mr. Mack-
intosh gave a minute description of the
physical and mental peculiarities of Sax-
ons, and showed the difference between
Saxons and Danes. W^ith Worsaae, he be-
lieves that the Danes have impressed their
character on the inhabitants of the north-
eastern half of England. He endeavored
to show that between the northeast and
southwest the difference in the character of
the people is so great as to give a semi-na-
tionality to each division. Restless activ-
ity, ambition, and commercial speculation,
predominate in the northeast ; contentment
and leisure of reflection in the southwest.
He concluded by a reference to the deriva-
tion of the settlers of New England from
the southwest, mentioning the fact that,
while a large proportion of New England
surnames are still found in Devon and Dor-
set, there is a small village, called Boston,
near Totnes, and in its immediate neigh-
borhood a place caUed Bunker Hill.

Changes in the Courses of Rivers. —

Major Herbert Wood spoke on the cause
of the change of direction in the lower
course of the river Oxus, by which its
mouth had been diverted from the Caspian
to the Aral. In the opinion of Major Wood
this change is to be attributed to the ab-
straction of the water of the river for the
purposes of irrigation, which has been prac-
tised from time immemorial. The quantity
of water thus diverted has never been cal-
culated, but, from data obtained by Major
Wood during the Russian Expedition, he
concludes that, between June 23 and Sep-
tember 10, 1874, an average of 62,350 cubic
feet per second was absorbed by the irri-
gation canals of Khiva, an amount equal to
nearly one-half the total volume of the

MISCELLANY.

123

Oxus. At the time when the river emptied
itself into the Caspian the conditions of its
rer/hne were such that the volume and ve-
locity of its summer or flood water were
sufficient to clear away annually from its
bed the deposits of mud resulting from the
smaller volume of its winter course. From
certain data it is concluded that the dlfter-
ence of the delivery of water between win-
ter and summer is as one to three: thus the
bed would not undergo any deteiioration,
its course would remain unchanged, and the
river vould continue to discharge itself into
the Caspian. But, as soon as the volume
and velocity of its summer waters were di-
minished by the action of irrigation canals,
those compensatory arrangements of Nature
would be upset, and a proportion of the
muddy deposits of winter would escape the
annual scouring. In course of time bars
would form in the bed of the river, and in
the end prevent it extending its course to
the Caspian. That the Oxus has changed
its lower course is proved by numerous his-
torical documents.

Antiquity of the Divining-Rod. — A paper
on "Rabdomancy" (or the use of the "di-
vining-rod ") and " Belomancy " (or divina-
tion by means of arrows) was read by Miss
A. W. Buckland. According to the au-
thor, the staff as a sceptre was probably a
later form of the horn which was thus used
in prehistoric times, and in that character
adorned the heads of gods. From this use
of rods or horns arose a veneration for
them as possessing the power of healing.
Hence their use by magicians, whose chief
instruments have always been a ring and a
staff. These symbols conjoined are found
in Egyptian, Assyrian, and Peruvian sculpt-
ures, and may be traced in some of the
stone circles of Britain and in the shape
of ancient Irish brooches. Belomancy, or
divination by marked arrows, said to be of
Scythian origin, was practised in Babylon,
Judea, and Arabia, and traces of it may
still be found in the popular tales of Russia
and Siberia. " That the arts of magic and
divination are a remnant of pre-Aryan re-
ligion is proved," said the author, " by their
present existence among aboriginal non-
Aryan races ; and they might even be used
as a test of race, so that those who in the

counties of Somerset and Cornwall claim
the power of divination by the rod might
possibly have some remote affinity with the
aboriginal inhabitants of Britain."

The Clinical Thernioscope. — Dr. Seguin,
of this city, has devised an ingenious little
instrument, called the clinical thernioscope,
to be used as an aid in diagnosis. It is em-
ployed for detecting the vari-
ations of temperature on the
surface of the body, and es-
timating the rate of radiation
going on therefrom. In the
words of the inventor, it is
" intended as a quicker and
more delicate test of differ-
ential temperatures than the
thermometer ; and less to give
the degree of heat than the
velocity of its radiation."
We present a cut of the in-
strument half the actual size.
It consists of a glass tube
seven inches long, with a mi-
nute bore open at one end,
and terminating at the other
in a bulb. An adjustable scale
is attached to the outside of
the tube. To prepare it for
use, immerse the bulb in hot
water, which rarefies the air
inside. The open end is then
phmged into cold water and
quickly withdrawn, when a
drop or two will be foimd to
have entered the tube. This
forms a " water-index," which
should become stationary
within an inch or two of the
bulb. If it falls into the bulb, or does not
approach it sufficiently, too much or too
little heat was applied in the first instance,
and it will be necessary to jar the water
from the tube and try again. When the
index is provided, adjust the scale, bring-
ing its lowest figure on a level with the top
of the column of water in the tube, and it
is then ready for use. It may be applied to
any part of the surface, where disturbance
of temperature is suspected, but its habit-
ual place in the hands of Dr. Seguin is, not
the axilla, but the shut hand. The claims

124

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for it are, that it gives by contact indica-
tions of the volume of heat escaping by ra-
diation, and the velocity of loss ; also, that
by blowing on the bulb the degree of combus-
tion that takes place in the lungs is shown.
It is likewise serviceable as a means of de-
tecting the exact position of deep-seated
local trouble, giving valuable indications
where the thermometer fails.

A New Fossil Crastacean. — A new crus-
tacean species, allied to Eurypterus and
Pleroffotus, has been described by A. R.
Grote and W. H. Pitt, under the name of
Eusarcus scorpionis. The specimen was
fouTid in the water-lime group at Buffalo,
N. Y. Its length is 250 millimetres, and its
greatest width 110 millimetres. The ceph-
alo-thoracic portion appears to be sepa-
rate from the body ; the legs are in the
same number as in Eurypterus ; the swim-
ming-feet appear to differ by the straighter,
less rounded outer margins ; the spines of
the anterior feet appear to be long, curved,
and to have an anterior direction. The ab-
sence of chelate appendages to the posterior
margin of the feet is particularly notice-
able. The first seven broad segments of
the abdomen form a large ellipse. There
is an evident and remarkable narrowing of
the succeeding caudal segments. The in-
terest which attaches to this remarkable
crustacean arises from the discovery of a
form which may be allowed to be higher
tliau Eurypterus and Pterogotus.

Reptilian Affiuities of Birds. — Prof. E.
S. Morse has for a long time made a study
of the bones of embryo birds. At this
year's meeting of the American Association
he recalled briefly the evidence he had
shown last year regarding the existence of
the intermedium in birds, by citing the
embryo tern, in which he had distinctly
found it. This year he had made a visit to
Grand Menan, expressly to study the em-
bryology of the lower birds, and was fortu-
nate in finding the occurrence of this bone
in the petrel, sea-pigeon, and eider-duck.
This additional evidence showed beyond
question the existence of four tarsal bones
in birds as well as four carpal ones. In
these investigations he had also discov-
ered embryo claws on two of the fingers

of the wing — the index and middle finger.
Heretofore in the adult bird a single claw
only had occurred in a few species, such as
the Syrian blackbird, spur-winged goose,
knob-winged dove, jacana, mound-bird, and
a few others ; and in these cases it occurred
either on the index or middle finger, or on
the radial side of the metacarpus. All these
facts lent additional proofs of the reptilian
affinities of birds.

American Pedigree of the Camel. —

Though the evolutional pedigree of the
horse may be distinctly traced in the suc-
cession of equine genera whose remains are
found in the Tertiary strata of our Western
Territories, nevertheless, the horse, as he
at present exists, is not indigenous to this
continent, but has been imported from Eu-
rope. The pedigree of the camel may also
be constructed from materials supplied by
American paleontology. Prof. Cope has re-
cently unearthed a number of genera which
must be regarded as the ancestors of the
camel. And it is worthy of note that, al-
though the more prominent genera of the
series which resulted in the horse, for in-
stance Anthitkermrn and Hippotherium, have
been found in European formations, no well-
determined form of the ancestral series of
the camel has up to the present time been
found in any formation of the Palgearctic
region. " Until such are discovered," says
Prof. Cope, " there will be much ground for
supposing that the camels of the Old World
were derived from American ancestors."

Arctic Meteoroloary. — During Weyprecht
and Payer's expedition to the north-polar
regions the air in winter seemed always to
contain particles of ice. This was seen not
only by parhelia and paraselene when the
sky was clear, but also in astronomical ob-
servations. The images of celestial objects
were hardly ever as clear and well defined
as at lower latitudes, although the actual
moisture in the atmosphere was far less
than is usual in temperate climes. It hap-
pened very often that, with a perfectly clear
sky, needles of ice were deposited in great
quantities upon all objects. It was impos-
sible to determine the quantity of atmos-
pheric deposits, as during the snow-storma
no distinction could be made between the

MISCELLANY.

125

snow actually falling and that raised from
the ground by the storm. It was remark-
able, however, that during tlie first winter
the quantity of snow was small compared
with that of the second winter, when the
snow almost completely buried the ship.
The same proportion was repeated in the
quantity of rain during the first and second
summer ; in the first only a little rain fell and
that late in the year, while in July, 1874, it
rained in torrents for days.

Life in Elevated Areas. — The general
belief in the invigorating effect of mountain-
air is not absolutely justified by facts: at
least there are some elevated regions the
inhabitahts of which show none of the vigor
and elan which we should expect to fiqd,
were the common opinion correct. Dr. Jour-
danet, of Paris, writes of the inhabitants of
the table-land of Anahuac, Mexico, that they
appear quite languid, with pale complexion,
ill-developed muscles, and feeble circulation.
The mortality of infants is 30 per cent, in
the first year after birth. Dr. Jourdanet is
satisfied that, while the proportion of red
corpuscles in the blood is normal, there is a
diminution of oxygen, the result of insuffi-
cient condensation of that gas under the
slight pressure of the air. For this condi-
tion of the blood he proposes the name of
arwzi/hcemia. In Mexico, at the height of
about 2,300 metres (7,500 feet) above the
sea, the debilitating effects of the rarefied
air are manifest. This is noticeable in brutes
as well as in men. Again, the annual grovvth
of population is scarcely ever more than three
per 1,000 on the uplands, while nearer the
sea-level it is six or seven. Dr. Jourdanet
asserts his belief that, in countries where
cold is not of itself an obstacle to life, rare-
faction of the air will prevent the founding
of durable states at a level higher than
4,000 metres.

Chinese Wheelbarrows. — In commenting
on an improved style of wheelbarrow, a cor-
respondent of the Gardener's Chronicle
praises the Chinese for the ingenuity they
display in diminishing to the last degree
the labor of the man who propels the bar-
row. The Chinese barrow has but one
wheel, but it is large, and placed in the cen-
tre of the bed of the vehicle ; the entire

load rests on this central wheel. In Shang-
hai, thousands of tliese vehicles ply for hire
in the streets, the usual load being two per-
sons, who sit on a wooden platform on each
side of the wheel, resting one arm on a
framework which rises above the top of the
wheel, and planting one foot in a stirrup
made of rope. "It is by no means uncom-
mon, however," he adds, "to see as many
as four persons conveyed without any par-
ticular effort (the ground being level) by a
stalwart coolie ; " garden and farm produce
is transported in the same way, and even
live-stock : the Chinese farmer being too
sensible to attempt to drive his pigs to
market, the barrow is often seen laden with
a live fat hog on each side of the wheel.

€aTe-3abitations in Kentucky. — That
some of the great caves of Kentucky were,
temporarily at least, used as places of human
habitation, is conclusively shown by Prof.
Putnam's exploration of Salt Cave. This
cave, says Prof. Putnam, approaches the
Mammoth Cave in the size of its avenues
and chambers. Throughout one of the
principal avenues, for several miles, were
to be traced the ancient fireplaces both for
hearths and lights. Bundles of fagots were
found in several places in the cave. But
the most important discovery was made in
a small chamber, about three miles from
] the entrance. On the dry soil of the floor
were to be seen the imprints of the sandaled
feet of the former race who had inhabited
the cave, while a large number of cast-off"
sandals were found, neatly made of finely-
braided and twisted rushes.

The Tse of Bushy Tails.— It is easy to
see the usefulness to the opossum, monkey,
and other animals, of their prehensile tails.
So, too, we can recognize the value to the
horse and the ox of the switches by means
of which these animals repel the attacks of
insects. But there are other forms of the
tail the uses of which are less evident, for
instance, the bushy tail seen in the fox, dog,
wolf, cat, etc. Mr. Lawson Tait holds that
the use of this bushy appendage is com-
pletely analogous to that of the respirator
worn by persons troubled with lung-com-
plaints, the object being to abstract from
the expired air, by means of fur in the one

126

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

case, and wire gauze in the other, the heat
which is being taken out with it ; so that the
cold air inspired shall be raised in tempera-
ture before it reaches the lungs, and there-
by conduce to a conservation of the bodily
heat. Some interesting considerations bear
on this. Animals provided with bushy tails
seem to be so as a matter of correlation of
growth, their bodies being always provided
with thiclily-set and more or less soft fur.
" I cannot," says Mr. Tait, " find an animal
with a bushy tail which cannot, and does
not, lie curled up when asleep. I went
round the Zoological Gardens at Dublin on
a very cold morning in February, and found
the civet cat, and some other bushy-tailed
animals, coiled up with their noses buried
in the fur of their tails.

" In the squirrel this use of the tail is
very marked, and in birds the same object
is accomplished by their burying their heads
in the down of the shoulders. Animals pro-
vided with bushy tails are all solitary in
their method of living, so far as I can find ;
and, therefore, an essential for their sur-
vival is some method by which variations
of temperature shall be resisted. The use
of the tail for this purpose is, I think, best
of all illustrated in the great ant-eater {Myr-
mecophaga juhata), in which the hairs of the
tail reach a very great size, and cover up
the animal when reposing, so that he looks
like a bundle of dried grass. It may also
serve as a protection by mimicry in this
case. Mr. Wallace states also that this ani-
mal uses its tail as an umbrella in a showe^,
and that the Indians divert its attention from
themselves by rustling the leaves in imita-
tion of a falling shower, and while he is
putting up his umbrella they kill him. Of
the quadrumana, the marmosets afford a
strikiug instance of a bushy tail as a prob-
able provision for protecting these delicate
creatures from depressions of the tempera-
ture."

Remedy for Boiler Incrnstations. — " Ap-

paratine " is the name given to a substance
said to be effectual in preventing incrusta-
tion in boilers, and also useful wherever
gelatine and gelatine-like substances are re-
quired, as in sizing textile fabrics. It is a
colorless, transparent material, obtained by
treating any amylaceous substance with a
caustic alkali. It is best made, however,

with potato-starch, treated with a lye of
caustic potash or soda. The best method
of preparing the apparatine is as follows :
16 parts of potato-starch are put into 76
parts of water, and kept in a state of sus-
pension by stirring ; then 8 parts of potash
or soda-lye at 25"" Baume are added, and
the whole thoroughly mixed. In a few sec-
onds the mixture suddenly clears, forming a
thick jelly, which must be beaten up vigor-
ously. It is now a colorless, transparent
substance, slightly alkaline in taste, but
odorless^ and of a stringy, glue-like consist-
ency. Exposed to the air, it dries slowly,
but without decomposing; and even when
heated to dryness, although it thickens and
swells, it continues unchanged, as when air-
dried.

To prevent incrustation, the apparatine
may be placed in the boiler or added to the
feed-water in the tank ; but the best results
have been obtained by placing it directly in
the boiler. Applied to silk, woolen, and cot-
ton goods, it gives them a smoothness hith-
erto unattainable. When once, applied to
the goods, and become dry, it appears to be
virtually insoluble. Diaphanous or coarsely-
woven fabrics, when dressed with appara-
tine, are rendered stiff and rigid. It may be
used as a thickening in calico-printing

NOTES.

A CORRESPONDENT of the Scientific Amer-
ican states that in Minneapolis a supply of
water for extinguishing fires is obtained in
localities beyond the reach of the city wa-
ter-works by sinking four drive-wells at dis-
tances thirty feet apart, or fifteen feet from
a centre. The pipes (2^ inches) of the
four wells are brought together at the top,
where the suction-hose of the fire-engine is
attached. On trial an engine threw a con-
tinuous stream from a l^inch nozzle for
one hour. The water in the tubes was then
at the same height as at the beginning.

The chaparral-hen is described by a
sportsman in Texas as a very pretty bird.
The female lays one egg, and then com-
mences sitting. While sitting she lays four
more, the first being the largest and the
fifth the smallest. The birds, when grown,
seem to be of the same size. By the time
the fifth egg is hatched the first is nearly
a full-fledged bird. The first egg is about
the size of a pheasant's ; the others range
in size between the pheasant's and the
quail's egg.

NOTES.

127

A MASS of native copper, in weight
6,000 pounds, and taken from an ancient
mine on Isle Royal, Lake Superior, is now
on exhibition in St. Louis. The mass had
evidently been detached from its bed by
the ancient miners.

From calculations made by Dr. J. T.
Luck, of St. Louis, it appears that the death-
rate, among officers of the United States
Navy is astonishingly high, being last year
25.45 per thousand. Assuming the aver-
age age of naval officers to be thirty, the
death-i-ate is three times as high as that of
civilians.

The growing appreciation of American
scientific work in France is evidenced by
the action of the Minister of Public Works
authorizing an exchange of the Annates des
Mines with sundry American journals and
publications of scientific bodies.

To encourage local collectors and ama-
teurs of science in the work of determining
the ichthyology of Indiana, Prof. D. S. Jor-
dan, of the State Geological Survey, has
published a preliminary list of the fishes
which he has himself found, and adds a list
of those likely to occur in Indiana waters.

At the initial meeting of the Khedival
Society of Geography, held June 2d, the
Khedive was represented by his second son,
Hussein Pasha, and there were present most
of the prominent representatives of the for-
eign colony in Cairo. The president. Dr.
Schweinfurth, addressed the meeting in
French. "Science," said he, "which had
been carried from Egypt into Greece and
Italy, and thence into Central Europe, was
now returning to its birthplace. By the
munificence of the Khedive, a society had
now been established whose object it would
be to advance the oldest, the most univer-
sal, and the most popular of the sciences.
Unlike its sister associations in Europe and
America, which have their field of research
in distant lands, the Khedival Society had
all its work to do at home, so to speak."

In a lecture at Edinburgh on carnivorous
plants, Dr. Balfour stated that voting plants
of JJionoea muscipula under bell-glasses do
not thrive so well as those left free, and that
while a piece of beef wrapped in another
leaf becomes putrid, a piece inclosed by the
Dionoea remains perfectly inodorous, but
soon loses its red color, and is gradually
disintegrated more and more till it is re-
duced to a pulp.

Palladium, when coated with palladi-
um-black, becomes saturated with hydro-
gen much more rapidly than the clean met-
al. If, when thus saturated, it be wrapped
in gun-cotton, an explosion ensues after a
few seconds, and the platinum plate burns
for a short time with a feeble flame.

I Experiments made by Pfaff show ice to
be by no means a bad conductor of heat.
Taking the conductivity of gold as 1,0U0,
platinum is 981, silver 973, iron 374, ice
314, and tin 803. Dr. Pfaff suggests that
his results will modify our views of the
physical condition of the interior of a mass
of ice.

From the observations of Ebermeyer it
appears that, in a given species of tree, the
size of the leaves differs in proportion to
the elevation. With equal strength of soil,

the leaves decrease with height.

Agum,

the entire amount of ash in the leaves de-
creases with the height ; and the proportion
of phosphoric acid in the ash is much less
in high positions than on low ground.

Statuettes and other artistic forms in
plaster are made very closely to resemble
silver in appearance by being covered with
a thin coat of powdered mica. This pow-
der is mixed with collodion and then ap-
plied to the objects in plaster with a brush,
after the manner of paint. The mica can
be easily tinted in various colors. It can
be washed in water, and, unlike silver, is
not liable to become tarnished by sulphu-
retted gases.

In Great Britain and Ireland, the excise
duties on liquors for the year ending March,
1875, amounted to £31,917,849, being an
increase of £600,000 over the previous finan-
cial year.

" So popular are Mr. Darwin's books,"
says the English Mechanic, " and so widely
read, that a countryman with a basket of
round-leaved sundews {Drosera rotundi-
folia) has stationed himself near the Royal
Exchange in London, and there daily drives
a very good trade."

The excellent Abbe Moigno, editor of
Les Mondes, and general manager of the
Catholic enterprise for diffusing a knowl-
edge of science among the laboring-classes
in France, has issued a work entitled " Ex-
plosions of Freethinking in August and
September, 1874," containing the discourses
of Tyndall, Du Bois-Reymond, R. Owen,
Huxley, Hooker, and Sir John Lubbock.
The abbe appends annotations of his own.
This is as it should be : poison and antidote !

It is asserted by E. Heckel, as the result
of experiments made upon certain rodents
and marsupials, that these animals, when
fed on the leaves of poisonous solanaceou?
plants, are not subject to any injuriouf,
effects.

A committee appointed for the purpose
of investigating the working of the govern-
ment telegraph system in England reports
that the present rate, one shilling per mes-
sage, is too low, and recommends that it be

128

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

increased fifty per cent. The Exaininer, on
the contrary, asserts that only by a reduc-
tion of fifty per cent, can the telegraph ser-
vice be made self-sustaining. Such reduc-
tion, it is claimed, would have the same re-
sult as cheap postal rates.

From experiments made on a large num-
ber of animals belonging to different orders,
Rudolph Pott concludes that, of all animals,
birds exhale the greatest amount, propor-
tionately, of carbonic acid ; after birds rank
the mammalia, and then insects. Worms,
amphibia, fishes, and snails, exhale much
less carbonic acid than birds, mammals, or
insects. The influence of age on carbonic-
acid excretion is very marked : thus, for '
example, an old mouse exhaled in a given !
time 3.8*73 grammes, a young one 4.349. !
But with insects the case is different, old
individuals exhaling more carbonic acid
than young.

In Turkey, Russia, and Peru, the number
of pupils receiving primary instruction in
schools forms from 4 to j per cent, of the
population ; in Spain, 1 per cent. ; in Italy,
6 ; in Hungary, Y^ ; in Austria, 9 ; in Eng-
land and in Norway, 12; in France, 13; in
Prussia, 15; in the United States,- 17.

On subjecting fishes to a pressure often
atmospheres, Moreau found that the opera-
tion produced no injurious effects whatever.
He then suddenly withdrew the pressure,
and the fishes succumbed quickly from
haemorrhage, the blood having a frothy ap-
pearance. This phenomenon is due to the
disengagement of the gases which, under
the high pressure, had been taken up by
the blood in great quantities.

It is stated in Iron that De la Bastie's
glass loses its molecular cohesion under a
repetition of blows, and then breaks like
common glass. Tempered glass, submitted
to hammering, presents an appearance on
fracture similar to that oi fatigue steel, a
molecular disintegration having taken place.
It is feared that this alteration of structure
and loss of temper niay not only follow fi'om
shock, but may happen spontaneously from
interior change in the lapse of time.

A RECENT examination of the hull of
the steamship Great Eastern showed a com-
parative absence of barnacles, though the
stern-post, rudder, and screw were covered
with them. The rest of that portion of the
hull, which as a rule is below water, was
clad with an enormous number of mussels,
a surface of 52,000 feet being coated in
parts to a depth of six inches. The total
weight of the mussels is estiujated at about
300 tons.

The income of the French Association
last year was 37,126 francs, and its capital

fund now amounts to 174,731 francs. The
Association gained 500 new members at its
last meeting. Though the strictest economy
must needs have been practised to accumu-
late so considerable a fund as 175,000 francs,
nevertheless the material encouragement of
scientific investigators is not neglected. Last
year 12,350 francs were distributed for pur-
poses of research.

Hitherto batrachians of existing types
have been regarded as of recent geological
date — not earlier than the Tertiary epoch.
Recently, however, batrachian remains were
discovered in palaeozoic rocks at Igornay
(Saone-et-Loire), France. These remains
have been described by A. Gaudry, who dis-
covers in them affinities with the salaman-
ders. Though tlie specimens appear to be
adult, they are very small — a little over one
inch in length. They occur in bituminous
schists of the Permian age.

As a substitute for the dredge in remov-
ing sand-banks and other deposits from riv-
ers, a French engineer proposes to employ
metal pipes pierced with holes ; these pipes
are inserted into the mass of the sand-bank
and water driven through them at consid-
erable pressu'-e. In this way the sand and
mud would be raised and agitated, and car-
ried away by the current of the river or by
the ebb-tide, if the operation were con-
ducted at the ebb.

According to Boillot, a French chemist,
the bleaching cftects usually attributed to
chlorine are in reality due to ozone. Ozone
employed directly acts as an oxidizing
agent, laying hold of the hydrogen of the
substance with which it is in contact,
■whence results bleaching if the body is col-
ored. On allowing chlorine to act upon any
animal or vegetable matter, it deconjposes a
certain cjuantity of water and seizes its
hydrogen, forming hydrochloric acid. The
oxygen set free by this reaction is trans-
formed into ozone, which in its turn lays
hold of hydrogen present in organic mat-
ter.

Actual experiment in England has de-
monstrated the great advantages of the
hammock system of conveying invalids by
railway. The invalid sufi'ers neither jar nor
jolt. It is proposed to extend the benefits
of the hammock system to the general trav-
eling public, thus reducing the discomfort
of railway-travel to the minimum.

The cultivation of tea is making rapid
progress in Ceylon, and extensive clearings
of forest-land were made during the past
year for forming new plantations. The seed
is generally imported from India, though
the Assam hybrid and China teas are also
cultivated extensively.

Principal J. W. DAWSON.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

DECEMBER, 1875.
MAEXmEAU AND MATERIALISM.'

By JOHN TYNDALL, F. E.S., LL.D.

PRESENTED in the order of their publication, these Fragments
will, I think, make it plain that, within the last two years, I have
added no material iniquity to the list previously recorded against me.
I have gone carefully over them all this year in Switzerland, bestow-
ing special attention upon the one which has given most offense. To
the judgment of thoughtful men I now commit them : the unthought-
ful and the unfair will not read them, though they will continue to
abuse them.

I have no desire to repay in kind the hard words already thrown
at them and me ; but a simple comparison will make clear to my
more noisy and unreasonable assailants how I regai'd their position.
To the nobler Bereans of the press and pulpit, who have honored me
with their attention, I do not now refer. Webster defines a squatter
as one who settles on new land without a title. This, in regard to
anthropology and cosmogony, I hold to have been the position of the
older theologians ; and what their heated successors of to-day de-
nounce as " a raid upon theology," is, in my opinion, a perfectly legal
and equitable attempt to remove them from ground which they have
no right to hold.

If the title exist, let it be produced. It is not the revision of the
text of Genesis by accomplished scholars that the public so much
need, as to be informed and convinced how far the text, polished or
unpolished, has a claim upon the belief of intelligent persons. It is,
I fear, a growing conviction that our ministers of religion, for the
sake of peace, more or less sacrifice their sincerity in dealing with the
cosmogony of the Old Testament. I notice this in conversation, and
it is also appearing in print. Before me, for example, is a little bro-
chure, in which a layman presses a clerical friend with a series of

' Preface to the forthcoming edition of " Fragments of Science."

VOL. VIII, 9

130 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

questions regarding creation — the six-day period of divine activity,
the destruction of the world by a flood, the building of an ark, the
placing of ci'eatures in it by pairs, and the descent from this ancestry
of all living things^ " men and women, birds and beasts." He asks
his friend, " Do you, without any mental reservation^ believe these
things ? " " If you <:?o," he continues, " then I can only say that the
accumulated and accepted knowledge of mankind, including the en-
tire sciences of astronomy, geology, philology, and history, are [as
far as you are concerned] naught and mistaken. If you do not be-
lieve tliose events to have so happened, or do so with some mental
reservation, which destroys the whole sense and meaning of the narra-
tive, why do you not say so from your pulpits ? "

The friend merely parries and evades the question. According to
Mr. Martineau, the clergy speak very differently indeed from their
pulpits. After showing how the Mosaic picture of the genetic order
of things has been not only altered but inverted by scientific research,
be says : " Notwithstanding the deplorable condition to w^hich the
picture has been reduced, it is exhibited fresh every week to millions
taught to believe it as divine." It cannot be said that error here
does no practical harm, or that it does not act to the detriment of
honest men. It was for openly avowing doubts which, it is said,
others discreetly entertain, that the Bishop of Natal suffered persecu-
tion ; it was for his public fidelity to scientific truth, as far as his
lights extended, that he was branded, even during his recent visit to
this counti-y, as an " excommunicated heretic." The courage of Dean
Stanley and of the Master of Balliol, in reference to this question,
disarmed indignation, and caused the public to overlook a wrong
which might not otherwise have been endured.

The liberal and intelligent portion of Cliristendom must, I take it,
differentiate itself more and more, in word and act, from the fanatical,
foolish, and more purely sacerdotal portion. Enlightened Roman
Catholics are more specially bound to take action hei-e; for the trav-
esty of heaven and earth is grosser, and the attempt to impose it on
the world is more serious, in their community than elsewhere. That
they are more or less aliA^e to this state of things, and that they show
an increasing courage and independence in their demands for educa-
tion, will be plain to the reader of the '' Aj^ology for the Belfast
Address." The " Memorial " there referred to was the impatient pro-
test of barristers, physicians, surgeons, solicitors, and scholars, among
the Catholics themselves. They must not relax their pressure nor
relinquish their demands. For their spiritual giiides live so exclu-
sively in the prescientific past, that even the really strong intellects
among them are reduced to atrophy as regards scientific truth. Eyes
they have, and see not ; ears they have, and hear not ; for both eyes
and ears are taken possession of by the sights and sounds of another
age. In relation to science, the ultramontane brain, through lack of

MARTIN EAU AND MATERIALISM. 131

exercise, is virtually the undeveloped brain of the child. And thus
it is that as children in scientific knowledge, but as potent wielders
of spiritual power among the ignorant, they countenance and enforce
practices sufficient to bring the blush of shame to the cheeks of the
more intelligent among themselves.

Such is the force of early education, when maintained and per-
petuated by the habits of subsequent life ; such the ground of peril
in allowing the schools of a nation to fall into ultramontane hands.
Let any able Catholic student, fairly educated, and not yet cramped
by sacerdotalism, get a real scientific grasp of the magnitude and
organization of this universe. Let him sit under the immeasurable
heavens, watch the stars in their courses, scan the mysterious nebulae,
and try to realize what it all is and means. Let him bring the
thoughts and conceptions which thus enter his mind face to face with
the notions of the genesis and rule of things which pervade the wi'it-
ings of the princes of his Church, and he will see and feel what driv-
elers even men of strenuous intellect may become, through exclu-
sively dwelling and dealing with theological chimeras.

But, quitting the more grotesque forms of the theological, I
already see, or think I see, emerging from recent discussions, that
wonderful plasticity of the theistic idea, which enables it to maintain,
through many changes, its hold upon superior minds ; and which, if
it is to last, will eventually enable it to shape itself in accordance
with scientific conditions. I notice this, for instance, in the philo-
sophic sermon of Dr. Quarry, and more markedly still in that of Dr.
Ryder. " There pervades," says the Rector of Donnybrook, " these
atoms and that illimitable universe, that ' choir of heaven and furni-
ture of earth,' which of such atoms is built up, a certain /orce, known
in its most familiar form by the name of ' life,' which may he regarded
as the ultimate essence of inatter^ And, speaking of the awful search
of the intellect for the infinite Creator, and of the grave difficulties
which encompass the subject, the same writer says : "We know from
our senses finite existences only. Now we cannot logically infer the ex-
istence of an infinite God from the greatest conceivable number of finite
existences. There must always obviously be more in the conclusion
than in the premises." Such language is new to the pulpit, but it
will become less and less rare. It is not the poets and philosophers
among our theologians — and in our day the philosopher who wanders
beyond the strict boundary of Science is more or less merged in the
poet — it is not these, who feel the life of religion, but the mechanics,
who cling to its scaffolding, that are most anxious to tie the world
down to the untenable conceptions of an uncultivated past.

Before me is another printed sermon of a different character from
those just referred to. It is entitled " The Necessary Limits of Chris-
tian Evidences." Its author. Dr. Reichel, has been frequently referred
to as an authority, particularly on personal subjects, during recent

132 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

discussions. The sermon was first preached in Belfast, and afterward,
in an amplified and amended form, in the Exhibition Building in Dub-
' lin. In passing, I would make a single remark upon its opening para-
graph. This contains an argument regarding Christ which I have
frequently heard used in substance by good men, though never before
with the grating emphasis here employed. " The resurrection of our
Saviour," says Dr. Reichel, " is the central fact of Christianity.
Without his resurrection, his birth and his death would have been
alike unavailing : nay more, if he did not rise from the dead, his
birth was the birth of a bastard, and his death the death of an impos-
tor." This may be " orthodoxy ; " but entertaining the notions that I
do of Christ, and of his incomjiarable life upon the earth, if the mo-
mentary use of the term " blasphemy " were granted to me by my
Christian brethren, I should feel inclined to employ it here.

Better instructed than he had been at Belfast, the orator in Dublin
gave prominence to a personal argument which I have already noticed
elsewhere. He has been followed in this particular by the Bishop of
Meath and other estimable persons. This is to be regretted, because
in dealing with these high themes the mind ought to be the seat of
dignity — if possible of chivalry — but certainly not the seat of little-
ness. " I propose," says the preacher, "making some remarks on the
doctrine thus propounded" [in Belfast]. "And, first, lest any of you
should be unduly impressed by the mere authority of its propounder,
as well as by the fluent grace with which he sets it forth, it is right
that I should tell you, that these conclusions, though given out on an
occasion which apparently stamped them with the general approba-
tion of the scientific world, do not possess that approbation. The
mind that arrived at them, and displayed them with so much compla-
cency, is a mind trained in the school of mere experiment, not in the
study, but in the laboratory. Accordingly, the highest mathematical
intellects of the Association disclaim and repudiate the theories of its
president. In the mathematical laws to which all material phenomena
and substances are each year more distinctly perceived to be subordi-
nated, they see another side of Nature, which has not impressed itself
upon the mere experimentalist." *

In view of the new virtue here thrust upon the mathematician,
D'Alembert and Laplace present a difliculty, and we are left without
a clew to the peculiar orthodoxy of Prof. Clifibrd and other distin-
guished men. As regards my own mental training, inasmuch as my
censors think it not beneath them to dwell upon a point so small, I
may say that the foregoing statement is incorrect. The separation,
moreover, of the "study "from the " laboratory " is not admissible,

' " Es ist ihre Taktik, die Gegner, gegen welche sie nichts sonst auszurichten vermogen,
veriichtlich zu behandeln, und allmahlich in der Achtung des Publikums herabzusetzen."
This was written of the Jesuits in reference to their treatment of Dr. Dollinger. It is
true of others.

MARTINEAU AND MATERIALISM. 133

because the laboratory is a " study " in which symbols give place to
natural facts. The word Mesopotamia is said to have a sacred unction
for many minds, and possibly the title of my " Inaugural Dissertation "
at Marburg may have an effect of this kind on my right reverend and
reverend critics of the new mathematical school. Here accordingly it
is : " Die Schraubenfliiche mit geneigter Erzeugungslinie, und die Bedin-
gungen des Gleichewichts auf solcheu Schrauben." A little tender-
ness may, perhaps, flow toward me, after these words have made it
known that I began my narrow scientific life less as an experimentalist
than as a mathematician.

If, as asserted, " the highest mathematical intellects of the Associa-
tion disclaim and repudiate the theories of its president," it would be
their bounden duty to not rest content with this mere second-hand
utterance. They ought to permit the light of life to stream upon us
directly from themselves, instead of sending it through the polemo-
scope * of Dr. Reichel. But the point of importance to be impressed
upon him, and upon those who may be tempted to follow him in his
adventurous theories, is, that out of mathematics no salvation for the-
ology can possibly come.

By such reflections I am brought face to face with an essay to
which my attention has been directed by several estimable, and in-
deed eminent persons, as demanding serious consideration at my
hands. I refer with pleasure to the complete accord subsisting be-
tween the Rev. James Martineau and myself on certain points of bib-
lical cosmogony. " In so far," says Mr. Martineau, " as church belief
is still committed to a given cosmogony and natural history of man,
it lies open to scientific refutation." And again: "It turns out that
with the sun and moon and stars, and in and on the eai'th, before and
after the appearance of our race, quite other things have happened
than those which the sacred cosmogony recites." Once more: "The
whole history of the genesis of things Religion must surrender to the
Sciences." Finally, still more emphatically : " In the investigation of
the genetic order of things, Theology is an intruder, and must stand
aside." This expresses, only in words of fuller pith, the views which I
ventured to enunciate in Belfast. "The impregnable position of
Science," I tliere say, " may be stated in a few words. We claim, and
we shall wrest from Theology, the entire domain of cosmological the-
ory." Thus Theology, so far as it is represented by Mr. Martineau,
and Science, so far as I understand it, are in absolute harmony here.

But Mr. Martineau would have just reason to complain of me, if,
by partial citation, I left my readers under the impression that the
agreement between us is complete. At the opening of the eighty-ninth
session of the Manchester New College, London, on October 6, 1874,
Mr. Martineau delivered the Address from which I have quoted. It

' "An oblique perspective glass, for seeing objects not directly before the eyes." — Webster.

134 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

bears the title " Religion as affected by Modern Materialism ; " and its
references and general tone make evident the depth of its author's
discontent with my previous deliverance at Belfast. I find it difficult
to grapple with the exact grounds of this discontent. Indeed, logi-
cally considered, the imjjression left ujjon my mind by an essay of
great sesthetic merit, containing many passages of exceeding beauty,
and many sentiments which none but the pure in heart could utter as
they are uttered here, is vague and unsatisfactory — the author ap-
pears at times so brave and liberal, at times so timid and captious, and
at times so imperfectly informed regarding the position he assails.

At the outset of his address, Mr. Martineau states with some dis-
tinctness his " sources of religious faith." They are two — " the scru-
tiny of Nature " and " the interpretation of sacred books." It would
have been a theme worthy of his intelligence to have deduced from
these two sources his religion as it stands. But not another word is
said about the " sacred books." Having swept with the besom of
Science various " books " contemptuously away, he does not define the
sacred residue ; much less give u^s the reasons why he deems them
sacred. His references to " Nature," on the other hand, are magnifi-
cent tirades against Nature, intended, apparently, to show the wholly
abominable character of man's antecedents if the theory of evolution
be true. Here, also, his mood lacks steadiness. While joyfully
accepting, at one place, " the widening space, the deepening vistas of
time, the detected marvels of physiological structure, and the rapid
filling-in of the missing links in the chain of organic life," he falls, at
another, into lamentation and mourning over the very theory which
renders " organic life " a " chain." He claims the largest liberality
for his sect, and avows its contempt for the dangers of possible dis-
covery. But immediately afterward he damages the claim, and ruins
all confidence in the avowal. He professes sympathy with modern
science, and almost in the same breath he treats, or certainly will be
understood to treat, the atomic theory, and the doctrine of the con-
servation of energy, as if they were a kind of scientific thimble-riggery.

His ardor, moreover, renders him inaccurate ; causing him to see
discord between scientific men, where nothing but harmony reigns.
In his celebrated address to the Congress of German Naturforscher,
delivered at Leipsic, three years ago, Du Bois-Reymond speaks thus :
" What conceivable connection subsists between definite movements
of definite atoms in my brain, on the one hand, and on the other hand
such primordial, indefinable, undeniable facts as these : I feel pain or
pleasure ; I experience a sweet taste, or smell a rose, or hear an
organ, or see something red ? ... It is absolutely and forever in-
conceivable that a number of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxy-
gen atoms, should be otherwise than indifferent as to their own posi-
tion and motion, past, present, or future. It is utterly inconceivable
how consciousness should result from their joint action."

MARTIN EAU AND MATERIALISM. 135

This language, which was spoken in 1872, Mr. Martineau "freely"
translates, and quotes against me. The act is due to a misapprehen-
sion of his own. Evidence is at hand to prove that I employed the
same language twenty years ago. It is to be found in the Saturday
Review for 1860; but a sufficient illustration of the agreement be-
tween my friend Du Bois-Reymond and myself is furnished by the
discourse on " Scientific Materialism," delivered in 1868, then widely
circulated, and reprinted here. With a little attention, Mr. Martineau
would have seen that, in the very address his essay criticises, precisely
the same position is maintained. " You cannot," I there say, " satisfy
the human understanding in its demand for logical continuity be-
tween molecular processes and the phenomena of consciousness. This
is a rock on which materialism must inevitably split whenever it pre-
tends to be a complete philosophy of the human mind."

" The affluence of illustration," writes an able and sympathetic re-
viewer of this essay, in the New York Tribune, " in which Mr. Mar-
tineau delights often impairs the distinctness of his statements by
diverting the attention of the reader from the essential points of his
discussion to the beauty of his imagery, and thus diminishes their
power of conviction." To the beauties here referred to I bear willing
testimony ; but the excesses touched upon reach far beyond the
reader, to their primal seat and source in Mr. Martineau's own mind ;
mixing together there things that ought to be kept apart ; producing
vagueness where precision is the one thing needful ; poetic fervor
where we require judicial calm ; and practical unfairness Avhere the
strictest justice ought to be, and I willingly believe is meant to be,
observed.

lu one of his nobler passages, Mr. Martineau tells us how the pu-
pils of his college have been educated hitherto : " They have been
trained under the assumptions — 1. That the universe which includes
us and folds us round is the life-dwelling of an Eternal Mind ; 2.
That the world of our abode is the scene of a moral government, in-
cipient but not complete ; and, 3. That the upper zones of human
affection, above the clouds of self and passion, take us into the
sphere of a Divine communion. Into this overarching scene it is
that growing thought and enthusiasm have expanded to catch their
light" and fire."

Alpine summits must kindle above the mountaineer who reads
these stirring words ; I see their beauty and feel their life. Nay, in
my own feeble way, at the close of one of the essays here printed, I
thus affirm the " communion " which Mr. Martineau calls " Divine : "
" ' Two things,' said Immanuel Kant, ' fill me with awe — the starry
heavens, and the sense of moral responsibility in man.' And in his
hours of health and strength and sanity,* when the stroke of action

» In the first preface to the Belfast Address I referred to " hours of clearness and
vigor " as four years previously I had referred to hours of " health and strength and

136 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

has ceased, and the pause of reflection has set in, the scientific inves-
tigator finds himself overshadowed by the same awe. Breaking con-
tact with the hampering details of earth, it associates him wuth a
power which gives fullness and tone to his existence, but which he
can neither analyze nor comprehend."

Though " knowledge " is here disavowed, the " feelings " of Mr.
Martineau and myself are, I think, very much alike. But, notwith-
standing this mutual independence of religious feeling and objective
knowledge thus demonstrated, he censures me — almost denounces me
— for referring religion to the region of emotion. Surely he is incon-
sistent here. The foregoing words refer to an inward hue or tempera-
ture, rather than to an external object of thought. "When I attempt
to give the power which I see manifested in the universe an objective
form, personal or otherwise, it slips away from me, declining all intel-
lectual manipulation, I dare not, save poetically, use the pronoun
" he " regarding it ; I dare not call it a " mind ; " I refuse to call it
even " a cause." Its mystery overshadows me ; but it remains a mys-
tery, while the objective frames which my neighbors try to make it
fit, simply distort and desecrate it.

It is otherwise with Mr. Martineau, and hence his discontent. He
professes to know where I only claim to feel. He could make his
contention good against me if he would ti'ansform, by a process of
verification, the foregoing three assumptions into " objective knowl-
edge." But he makes no attempt to do so. They remain assump-
tions from the beginning of his address to its end. And yet he fre-
quently uses the word " unverified," as if it were fatal to the position
on which its incidence falls. " The scrutiny of Nature " is one of his
sources of " religious faith : " what logical foothold does that scrutiny
furnish on which any one of the foregoing three assumptions could
be planted ? Nature, according to his picturing, is base and cruel :
what is the inference to be drawn regarding its aiithor ? If Nature
be " red in tooth and claw," who is responsible ? On a mindless Na-
ture, Mr. Martineau pours the full torrent of his gorgeous invective ;
but could the " assumption " of " an Eternal Mind " — even of a benefi-
cent Eternal Mind — render the world objectively a whit less mean
and ugly than it is? Not an iota. It is man's feelings, and not ex-
ternal plienomena, that are influenced by the assumption. It adds not
a ray of light nor a strain of music to the objective sum of things.
It docs not touch the phenomena of physical Nature — storm, flood, or
fire — nor diminish by a pang the bloody combats of the animal
world. But it does add the glow of religious emotion to the human

sanity ; " and brought down upon myself, in consequence, a considerable amount of ridi-
cule. Why I know not. For I am still bound in honesty to confess that it is not when
sleepy after a gluttonous meal, or suffering from dyspepsia, or even possessed by a
physical problem demanding concentrated thought, that I care most for the "starry
heavens, or the sense of responsibility in man."

MARTI NEAU AND MATERIALISM. i^j

soul, as represented by Mr. Martineau. Beyond this I defy him to
go ; and yet he rashly — it might be said petulantly — kicks away the
only philosophic-foundation ou which it is possible for him to build
his religion.

He twits incidentally the modern scientific interpretation of Nature
because of its want of cheerfulness. " Let the new futui-e," he says,
" preach its own gospel and devise, if it can, the means of making the
tidings glacV This is a common argument : " If you only knew the
comfort of belief! " My reply to it is that I choose the nobler part
of Emerson, when, after various disenchantments, he exclaimed, "I
covet truth!'''' The gladness of true heroism visits the heart of him
who is really competent to say this. Besides, "gladness" is an emo-
tion, and Mr. Martineau theoretically scorns the emotional. I am not,
however, acquainted with a writer who draws more largely upon this
soui'ce, while mistaking it for something objective. "To reach the
cause," he says, " there is no need to go into the past, as though being
missed here he could be found there. But when once he has been
apprehended by the proper organs of divine apprehension, the whole
life of humanity is recognized as the scene of his agency." That
Mr. Martineau should have lived so long, thought so much, and failed
to recognize the entirely subjective character of this creed, is highly
instructive. His " proper organs of divine apprehension " — denied, I
may say, to some of the greatest intellects and noblest men in this
and other ages — lie at the very core of his emotions.

In fact, it is when Mr. Martineau is most purely emotional that he
scorns the emotions ; and it is when he is most purely subjective, that
he rejects subjectivity. He pays a just and liberal tribute to the
character of John Stuai't Mill. But in the light of Mill's philosophy,
benevolence, honor, purity, having "shrunk into mere unaccredited
subjective susceptibilities, have lost all support from Omniscient ap-
proval, and all presumable accordance with the reality of things."
If Mr. Martineau had given them any inkling of the process by which
he renders the "subjective susceptibilities" objective; or how be
arrives at an objective ground of " Omniscient approval," gratitude
from his pupils would have been his just meed. But as it is, he leaves
them lost in an iridescent cloud of words, after exciting a desire
whiofc he is incompetent to appease.

" We are," he says, in another place, " forever shaping our repre-
sentations of invisible things into forms of definite opinion, and throw-
ing them to the front, as if they were the photographic equivalent of
our real faith. It is a delusion which affects us alL Yet somehow
the essence of our religion never finds its way into these frames of
theory: as we put them together it slips away, and, if we turn to
pursue it, still retreats behind ; ever ready to work with the will, to
unbind and sweeten the affections, and bathe the life with reverence,
but refusing to be seen, or to pass from a divine hue of thinking into

138 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a human pattern of thought." This is very beautiful, and mainly so
because the man who utters it obviously brings it all out of the treas-
ury of his own heart. But the " hue " and " j)attern " here so finely
spoken of are neither more nor less than that "emotion" and that
"objective knowledge" which have drawn this suicidal fire from JMr.
Martineau's battery.

I now come to one of the most serious portions of Mr. Martineau's
pamphlet — serious far less on account of its "personal errors," than
of its intrinsic gravity, though its author has thought fit to give it a
witty and sarcastic tone. He analyzes and criticises "the materialist
doctrine, which, in our time, is proclaimed with so much pomp, and
resisted with so much passion. 'Matter is all I want,' says the
physicist ; ' give me its atoms alone, and I will explain the universe.' "
It is thouglit, even by Mr. Martineau's intimate friends, that in this
pamphlet he is answering me. I must therefore ask the reader to con-
trast the foregoing travesty with what I really do say regarding
atoms: "I do not think that he (the materialist) is entitled to say
that his molecular groupings and motions explain every thing. In
reality, tliey explain nothing. The utmost he can affirm is the asso-
ciation of two classes of phenomena, of whose real bond of union he
is in absolute ignorance." This is very different from saying, " Give
me its atoms alone, and I will explain the universe." Mr. Martineau
continues his dialogue with the physicist: "'Good,' he says; 'take
as many atoms as you please. See that they have all that is requisite
to Body' [a metaphysical B], 'being homogeneous extended solids.'
' That is not enough,' he replies ; ' it might do for Democritus and
the mathematicians, but I must have something more. The atoms
must not only be in motion, and of various shapes, but also of as
many kinds as there are cliemical elements; for how could I ever get
water if I had only hydrogen elements to work with ? ' 'So be it,'
Mr. Martineau consents to rej^ly, 'only this is a considerable enlarge-
ment of your specified datum ' [where, and by whom specified?] — 'in
fact, a conversion of it into severiil ; yet, even at the cost of its mon-
ism' [put into it by Mr. Martineau] ' your scheme seems hardly to gain
its end; for by what^manipulation of your resources will you, for ex-
ample, educe consciousness ? ' "

This reads like pleasantry, but it deals with serious things. « For
the last seven years the question proposed by Mr. Martineau and my
answer to it have been accessible to all. Here, briefly, is the ques-
tion : " A man can say ' I feel, I think, I love,' but hoAV does con-
sciousness infuse itself into the problem ? " And here is the answer :
" The passage from the physics of the brain to the corresponding
facts of consciousness is unthinkable. Granted that a definite thought
and a definite molecular action in the brain occur simultaneously ; we
do not possess the intellectual organ, nor apparently any rudiment of
the organ, which would enable us to pass, by a process of reasoning,

MARTINEAU AND MATERIALISM. 139

from one to the other. They appear together, but we do luot know
why. Were our minds and senses so expanded, strengthened, and
illuminated, as to enable us to see and feel the very molecules of the
brain ; were we capable of following all their motions, all their group-
ings, all their electric discharges, if such there be ; and were we inti-
mately acquainted with the corresponding states of thought and feel-
ing, we should be as far as ever from the solution of the problem,
' How are these physical processes connected with the facts of con-
sciousness ? ' The chasm between the two classes of phenomena
would still remain intellectually impassable." '

Compare this with the answer which Mr. Marti neau puts into the
mouth of Ms physicist, and with which I am generally credited by
Mr. Martineau's readers : " ' It (the problem of consciousness) does
not daunt me at all. Of course you understand that all along my
atoms have been affected by gravitation and polarity ; and now I
have only to insist with Fechner on a difference among molecules ;
there are the inorganic^ which can change only their j^/ace, like the
particles in an undulation ; and there are the organic^ which can
change their order, as in a globule that turns itself inside out. With
an adequate number of these, our problem will be manageable.'
'Likely enough,' we may say ['entirely unlikely,' say I], 'seeing
how careful you are to provide for all emergencies ; and if any hitch
should occur in the next step, where you will have to pass from
mere sentiency to thought and will, you can again look in upon your
atoms, and fling among them a handful of Leibnitz's monads, to serve
as souls in little, and be ready, in a latent form, with that Vorstellupgs-
fahigkeit which our picturesque interpreters of Nature so hiuch
prize.' "

" But surely," continues Mr. Martineau, " you must observe that
this ' matter ' of yours alters its style with every change of service :
starting as a beggar, with scarce a rag of ' property ' to cover its
bones, it turns up as a prince when large undei'takings are wanted.
'We must radically change our notions of matter,' says Prof. Tyn-
dall ; and then, he ventures to believe, it will answer all demands,
carrying 'the promise and potency of all terrestrial life.' If the
measure of the required 'change in our notions' had been specified,
the proposition would have had a real meaning, and been susceptible
of a test. It is easy traveling through the stages of such an hypothe-
sis ; you deposit at your bank a round sum ere you start, and, draw-
ing on it piecemeal at every pause, complete your grand tour without
a debt."

The last paragraph of this argument is forcibly and ably stated.
On it I am willing to try conclusions with Mr. Martineau. I may
say, in passing, that I share his contempt for the picturesque inter-

* Bishop Butler's reply to the Lucretian in the Belfast Address is all in the same
strain.

140 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pretation of Nature, if accuracy of vision be thereby impaired. But
the term Vorstellungs-fiihigkeit, as used by me, means the power of
definite mental presentation, of attaching to words the corresponding
objects of thought, and of seeing these in their proper relations, with-
out the interior haze and soft penumbral borders, which the theologian
loves. To this mode of " interpreting Nature" I shall to the best of
my ability now adhere.

Neither of us, I trust, will be afraid or ashamed to begin at the
alphabet of this question. Our first eftbrt must be to understand each
other, and this mutual understanding can only be insured by begin-
ning low down. Physically speaking, however, we need not go below
the sea-level. Let us, then, travel in company to the Caribbean Sea,
and halt upon the heated water. What is that sea, and what is the
sun which heats it ? Answering for myself, I say that they are both
matter. I fill a glass with the sea-water and expose it on the deck of
the vessel ; after some time the liquid has all disappeared, and left a
solid residue of salts in the glass behind. We have mobility, invisi-
bility— apparent annihilation. In virtue of

" The glad and secret aid

The sun unto the ocean paid,"

the water has taken to itself wings and flown off" as vapor. From the
whole surface of the Caribbean Sea such vapor is rising ; and now we
must follow it — not upon our legs, however, nor in a ship, nor even in
a balloon, but by the mind's eye — in other words, by that power of
Vorstellung which Mr. Martineau knows so well, and which he so
justly scorns when it indulges in loose practices.

Compounding, then, the northward motion of the vapor with the
earth's axial rotation, we track our fugitive through the higher atmos-
pheric regions, obliquely across the Atlantic Ocean to Western Eu-
rope, and on to our familiar Alps. Here another wonderful metamor-
phosis occurs. Floating on the cold, calm air, and in presence of the
cold firmament, the vapor condenses, not only to particles of water,
but to particles of crystalline water. These coalesce to stars of snow,
and afterward fall upon the mountains In forms so exquisite that,
when first seen, they never fail to excite rapture. As to beauty, in-
deed, they put the work of the laj)idary to shame, while as to accuracy
they render concrete the abstractions of the geometer. Are these
crystals " matter ? " Without presuming to dogmatize, I answer for
myself in the aflirmative.

Still, a formative power has obviously here come into play which
did not manifest itself in either the liquid or the vapor. The question
now is. Was not the power " potential " in both of them, requiring
only the proper conditions of temperature to bring it into action ?
Again I answer for myself in the aflirmative. I am, however, quite
willing to discuss with Mr. Martineau the alternative hypothesis, that

MABTINEAU AND MATERIALISM, 141

an imponderable formative soul unites itself with the substance after
its escape from the liquid. If he should espouse this hypothesis, then
I should demand of him an immediate exercise of that Vorstellungs-
fuhigkeit, with which, in my efforts to think clearly, I can nev^er dis-
pense. I should ask, At what moment did the soul come in ? Did it
enter at once or by degrees ; perfect from the first, or growing and
perfecting itself contemporaneously with its own handiwork ? I
should also ask whether it was localized or diffused ? Does it move
about as a lonely builder, putting the bits of solid water in their places
as soon as the proper temperature has set in ? or is it distributed
through the entire mass of the crystal ? If the latter, then the soul has
the shape of the crystal ; but if the former, then I should inquire after
its shape. Has it legs or arms ? If not, I would ask it to be made clear
to me how a thing without these appliances can act so perfectly the
part of a builder ? (I insist on definition, and ask unusual questions,
if haply I might thereby abolish unmeaning words.) What were the
condition and residence of the soul before it joined the crystal?
What becomes of it when the crystal is dissolved ? Why should a
particular temperature be needed before it can exercise its vocation ?
Finally, is the problem before us in anyway simplified by the assump-
tion of its existence ? I think it probable that, after a full discussion
of the question, Mr. Martineau would agree with me in ascribing the
building power displayed in the crystal to the bits of water themselves.
At all events, I should count upon his sympathy so far as to believe
that he would consider any man unmannerly who would denounce me
for rejecting this notion of a sepai*ate soul, and for holding tlie snow-
crystal to be " matter."

But then what an astonishing addition is here made to the powers
of matter ! Who woiild have dreamed, without actually seeing its
work, that such a power was locked up in a drop of water ? All that
we needed to make the action of the liquid intelligible was the as-
sumption of Mr. Martineau's " homogeneous extended atomic solids,"
smoothly gliding over one another. But had we supposed the water
to be nothing more than this, we should have ignorantly defi-auded it
of an intrinsic architectural power, which the art of man, even when
pushed to its utmost degree of refinement, is incompetent to imitate.
I would invite Mr. Martineau to consider how inappropriate his figure
of a fictitious bank-deposit becomes under these circumstances. The
" account current " of matter receives nothing at my hands which
could be honestly kept back from it. If, then, " Democritus and the
mathematicians " so defined matter as to exclude the powers here
proved to belong to it, they were clearly wrong, and Mr. Martineau,
instead of twitting me with my departure from them, ought rather to
applaud me for correcting them.

The reader of my small contributions to the literature which deals
with the overlapping margins of science and theology will have

142 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

noticed how frequently I quote Mr. Emerson. I do so mainly be-
cause in him we have a poet and a profoundly religious man, who is
really and entii-ely undaunted by the discoveries of science, past,
present, or prospective. In his case Poetry, with the joy of a bac-
chanal, takes her graver brother Science by the hand, and cheers him
with immortal laughter. By Emerson scientific conceptions are con-
tinually transmuted into the finer forms and warmer hues of an ideal
world. Our present theme is touched ujion in the lines —

"The journeying atoms, primordial wholes
Firmly draw, firmly drive by their animate poles."

As regards veracity and insight these few words outweigh, in my
estimation, all the formal learning expended l)y Mr. Martineau in
these disquisitions on force, in which he treats the physicist as a con-
jurer, and spealvS so wittily of atomic polarity. In fact, without this
notion of polarity — this "drawing" and "driving" — this attraction
and rejiulsion, we stand as stupidly dumb before the phenomena of
crystallization as a Bushman before the phenomena of the solar sys-
tem. The genesis and growth of the notion I have endeavored to
Inake clear in my third lecture on " Light," and in the article " Crystals
and Molecular Force," published in this volume.

Our future course is here foreshadowed. A Sunday or two ago I
stood under an oak planted by Sir John Moore, the hero of Corunna.
On the ground near the tree little oaklets were successfully fighting
for life with the surrounding vegetation. The acorns had dropped
into the friendly soil, and this Avas the result of their interaction.
What is the acorn ? what the earth ? and what the sun, without
whose heat and light the tree could not become a tree, however rich
the soil, and however healthj'^ the seed ? I answer for myself as be-
fore— all " matter." And the heat and light which here play so potent
a part are acknowledged to be motions of matter. By taking some-
thing much lower down in the vegetable kingdom than the oak, we
might approach mvich more nearly to the case of crystallization already
discussed, but this is not now necessary.

If, instead of conceding the sufficiency of matter here, Mr. Mar-
tineau should fly to the hypothesis of a vegetative soul, all the ques-
tions before asked in relation to the snow-star become pertinent. I
would invite him to go over them one by one, and consider what re-
plies he will make to them. He may retort by asking me " Who
infused the principle of life into the tree ? " I say in answer that our
present question is not this, but another — not who made the tree, but
what is it ? Is there any thing besides matter in the tree ? If so,
what, and where ? Mr. Martineau may have begun by this time to
discern that it is not " picturesqueness," but cold precision, that my
Vorstellungs-iahigkeit demands. How, I would ask, is this vegeta-
tive soul to be presented to the mind ; where did it flourish before

MARTINEAU AND MATERIALISM. 143

the tree grew, and what will becorae of it when the tree is sawn into
planks, or consumed in fii'e ?

Possibly Mr, Martineau may consider the assumption of this soul
to be as untenable and as useless as I do. But, then, if the power to
build a tree be conceded to pure matter, what an amazing expansion
of our notions of the "potency of matter" is implied in the conces-
sion ! Think of the acorn, of the earth, and of the solar light and
heat — was ever such necromancy dreamed of as the production of that
massive trunk, those swaying boughs and whispering leaves, from the
interaction of these three factors? In this interaction, moreover,
consists what we call life. It will be seen that I am not in the least
insensible to the wonder of the tree ; nay, I should not be surprised
if, in the presence of this wonder, I feel more perplexed and over-
whelmed than Mr. Martineau himself.

Consider it for a moment. There is an experiment, first made by
Wheatstone, where the music of a piano is transferred from its sound-
board, through a thin wooden rod, across several silent rooms in suc-
cession, and poured out at a distance from the instrument. The strings
of the piano vibrate, not singly, but ten at a time. Every string sub-
divides, yielding not one note, but a dozen. All these vibrations and
subvibrations are crowded together into a bit of deal not more than a
quarter of a square inch in section. Yet no note is lost. Each vibra-
tion asserts its individual rights ; and all are, at last, shaken forth
into the air by a second sound-board, against which the distant end
of the rod presses. Thought ends in amazement when it seeks to
realize the motions of that rod as the music flows through it. I turn
to my tree and observe its roots, its trunk, its branches, and its leaves.
As the rod conveys the music, and yields it up to the distant air, so
does the trunk convey the matter and the motion — the shocks and
pulses and other vital actions — which eventually emerge in the um-
brageous foliage of the tree. I went some time ago through the
greenhouse of a friend. He had ferns from Ceylon, the branches of
which were in some cases not much thicker than an ordinary pin —
hard, smooth, and cylindrical — often leafless for a foot or more. But
at the end of every one of them the unsightly twig unlocked the exu-
berant beauty hidden within it, and broke forth into a mass of fronds,
almost large enough to fill the arms. We stand here upon a higher
level of the wonderful : we are conscious of a music subtiler than that
of the piano, passing unheard through these tiny boughs, and issuing
in what Mr. Martineau would opulently call the " clustered magnifi-
cence " of the leaves. Does it lessen my amazement to know that
every cluster, and every leaf — their form and texture — lie, like the
music in the rod, in the molecular structure of these apparently insig-
nificant stems ? Not so. Mr. Martineau weeps for " the beauty of
the flower fading into a necessity." I care not whether it comes to
me through necessity or through freedom, my delight in it is all tlie

144 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

same. I see what he sees with a wonder superadded. To me as to
him — nay, to me more than to him — not even Solomon in all his glory
was arrayed like one of these.

I have spoken above as if the assumption of a soul would save Mr.
Martineau from the inconsistency of crediting pure matter with the
astonishing building power displayed in crystals and trees. This,
however, would not be the necessary result; for it wovild remain to
be proved that the soul assumed is not itself matter. When a boy, 1
learned from Dr. Watts that the souls of conscious brutes are mere
matter. And tlie man who would claim for matter the human soul
itself, would find himself in very orthodox company. " All that is
created," says Fauste, a famous French bishop of the fourth century,
" is matter. The soul occupies a place ; it is inclosed in a body ; it
quits the body at death, and returns to it at the resurrection, as in
the case of Lazarus ; the distinction between hell and heaven, be-
tween eternal pleasures and eternal pains, jiroves that, even after
death, souls occupy a place and are corporeal. God only is incor-
poreal." Tertullian, moreover, was quite a physicist in the definite-
ness of his conceptions regarding the soul. "The materiality of the
soul," he says, " is evident from the evangelists. A human soul is
there expressly pictured as suffering in hell ; it is placed in the middle
of a flame, its tongue feels a cruel agony, and it implores a drop of
water at the hands of a happier soul. Wanting materiality,'''' adds
Tertullian, " all this would he xoithout meaning.'''' One wonders what
would have happened to this great Christian father amid the roaring
lions of Belfast. Could its excellent press have shielded him from its
angry pulpits, as it sheltered me ? *

I have glanced at inorganic Nature — at the sea, and the sun, and
the vaj^or, and the snow-flake — and at organic Nature as represented
by the fern and the oak. That same sun which warmed the water
and liberated the vapor, exerts a subtiler power on the nutriment of
the tree. It takes hold of matter wholly unfit for the purposes of nu-
trition, separates its nutritive from its non-nutritive portions, gives
the former to the vegetable, and carries the others away. Planted in
the earth, bathed by the air, and tended by the sun, the tree is trav-
ersed by its sap, the cells are formed, the woody fibre is spun, and the
whole is woven to a texture wonderful even to. the naked eye, but
a million-fold more so to microscopic vision. Does consciousness mix
in any way with these processes ? No man can tell. Our only ground

' The foregoing extracts, which M. Alglave recently brought to light for the benefit
of the Bishop of Orleans, are taken from the sixth lecture of the " Cours d'Histoire Mo-
derne " of that most orthodox of statesmen, M. Guizot. " I could multiply," continues M.
Guizot, " these citations to infinity, and they prove that in the first centuries of our era
the materiality of the soul was an opinion not only permitted, but dominant." Dr.
Moriarty, and the synod which he recently addressed, obviously forget their own ante-
cedents. Their boasted succession from the early Church renders them the direct off-
spring of a " materialism " more " brutal " than any ever enunciated by me.

MARTINEAU AND MATERIALISM. 145

for a ncofative conclusion is the absence of those outward manifesta-
tions from which feeling is usually inferred. But even these are not
entirely absent. In the greenhouses of Kew we may see that a leaf
can close, in response to a proper stimulus, as promptly as the human
fingers themselves ; and while there Dr. Hooker will tell us of the won-
drous fly-catching and fly-devouring power of the Dionsea. No man
can say that the feelings of the animal are not represented by a drow-
sier consciousness in the vegetable world. At all events, no line has
ever been drawn between the conscious and the unconscious ; for the
vegetable shades into the animal by such fine gradations, that it is
impossible to say wliere the one ends and the otH^r begins.

In all such inquiries we are necessarily limited by our own powers :
we observe what our senses, ai*med with the aids furnished by science,
enable us to observe ; nothing more. The evidences as to conscious-
ness in the vegetable world depend wholly upon our capacity to observe
and weigh them. Alter the capacity, and the evidence would alter
too. Would that which to us is a total absence of any manifestation
of consciousness be the same to a being with our capacities indefinitely
multiplied ? To such a being I can imagine not only the vegetable,
but the mineral world, responsive to the proper irritants ; the response
•difiering only in degree from those exaggerated manifestations which,
in virtue of their grossness, aj^peal to our weak powers of observation.

Our conclusions, however, must be based, not on powers that we
can imagine, but upon those that we possess. What do tliey reveal?
As the earth and atmosphere ofier themselves as the nutriment of the
vegetable world, so does the latter, which contains no constituent not
found in inorganic nature, ofier itself to the animal world. Mixed
with certain inorganic substances — water, for example — the vegetable
constitutes, in the long-run, the sole sustenance of the animal. Ani-
mals may be divided into two classes, the first of which can utilize
the vegetable world immediately, having chemical forces strong
enough to cope with its most refractory parts ; the second class use
the vegetable world mediately ; that is to say, after its finer por-
tions have been extracted and stored up by the first. But in neither
class have we an atom newly created. The animal world is, so to say,
a distillation through the vegetable world from inorganic nature.

From this point of A^iew all three worlds would constitute a unity,
in which I picture life as immanent everywhere. Nor am I anxious
to shut out the idea that the life here spoken of may be but a subor-
dinate part and function of a higher life, as the living, moving blood
is subordinate to the livino; man. I resist no such idea as lono- as it
is not dogmatically imposed. Left for the human mind freely to op-
erate upon, the idea has ethical vitality ; but, stiffened into a dogma,
tlie inner force disappears, and the outward yoke of a usurping hier-
archy takes its place.

The problem before us is, at all events, capable of definite state-

TOL. Yin. — 10

146 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ment. We have on the one hand strong grounds for conchiding that
the earth was once a molten mass. We now lind it not only swathed
by an atmosphere, and covered by a sea, but also crowded with living
things. The question is, How were they introduced ? Certainty may
be as unattainable here as Bishop Butler held it to be in matters of
religion; but in the contemplation of probabilities the thoughtful
mind is forced to take a side. The conclusion of Science, which rec-
ognizes unbroken causal connection between the past and the present,,
would undoubtedly be that the molten earth contained within it ele-
ments of life, which gi'ouped themselves into their present forms as
the planet cooled. The difficulty and reluctance encountered by thi&
conception arise solely from the fact that the theologic conception
obtained a prior footing in the human mind. Did the latter depend
upon reasoning alone, it could not hold its ground for an hour against
its rival. But it is warmed into life and strength by the emotions —
by associated hopes, fears, and expectations — and not only by these,
which are more or less mean, but by that loftiness of thought and
feeling Avhich lifts its possessor above the atmosphere of self, and
which the theologic idea, in its nobler forms, has tlirough ages engen-
dered in noble minds.

Were not man's origin implicated, we should acce23t without a
murmur the derivation of animal and vegetable life from what we call
inorganic nature. The conclusion of pure intellect points this way
and no other. But this purity is troubled by our interests in this life,,
and by our hopes and fears regarding the life to come. Reason is
traversed by the emotions, anger rising in the weaker heads to the
height of ^uggesting that the conapendious shooting of the inquirer
would be an act agreeable to God and serviceable to man. But this
foolishness is more than neutralized by the sympathy of the wise ; and
in England at least, so long as the courtesy which befits an earnest
theme is adhered to, such sympathy is ever ready for an honest man.
None of us here need shrink from saying all that he has a right to say.
We ought, however, to remember that it is not only a band of Jesuits,,
weaving their schemes of intellectual slavery, under the innocent
guise of " education," that we are opposing. Our foes are to some
extent they of our own household, inchxding not only the ignorant
and the passionate, but a minority of minds of high calibre and cult-
ure, lovers of freedom, moreover, who, though its objective pull be
riddled by logic, still find the ethic life of their religion unimpaired.
But while such considerations ought to influence the form of our ar-
gument, and prevent it from ever slipping out of the region of cour-
tesy into that of scorn or abuse, its substance, I think, ought to be
maintained and presented in unmitigated strength.

In the year 1855 the chair of Philosophy in the University of
Munich happened to be filled by a Catholic priest of great critical
penetration, great learning, and great courage, who bore the brunt of

MARTINEAU AND MATERIALISM. 147

battle long before Dollinger. His Jesuit colleagues, lie knew, incul-
cated the belief that every human soul is sent into the world from
God by a separate and supernatural act of creation. In a work en-
titled "The Origin of the Human Soul," Prof. Froschammer, the
philosopher here alluded to, was hardy enough to question this doc-
trine, and to affirm that man, body and soul, comes from his parents,
the act of ci-eation being, therefore, mediate and secondary only. The
Jesuits keep a sharp lookout on all temerities of this kind, and their
organ, the Civiltd Gqttolica, immediately pounced upon Froscham-
mer. His book was branded as " pestilent," placed in the Index, and
stamped with the condemnation of the Church.'

It will be seen in the " Apology for the Belfast Address " how
simply and beautifully the great Jesuit Perrone causes the Almighty
to play with the sun and planets, desiring this one to stop, and an-
other to move, according to his pleasure. To Perrone's Vorstellung
God is obviously a large Individual who holds the leading-strings of
the universe, and orders its steps from a position outside it all. Nor
does the notion now under consideration err on the score of indefinite-
ness. According to it, the Power whom Goethe does not dare to
name, and whom Gassendi and Clerk Maxwell present to us under the
guise of a " Manufacturer " of atoms, turns out annually, for England
and Wales alone, a quarter of a million of new souls. Taken in connec-
tion with the dictum of Mr, Carlyle, that this annual increment to
our population are " mostly fools," but little profit to the human heart
seems derivable from this mode of regarding the Divine operations.

But if the Jesuit notion be rejected, what are we to accept ?
Physiologists say that every human being comes from an egg^ not
more than y l^th of an inch in diameter. Is this egg matter ? I hold
it to be so, as much as the seed of a fern or of an oak. Nine months
go to the making of it into a man. Are the additions made during
this period of gestation drawn from matter ? I think so undoubtedly.
If there be anv thing besides matter in the egg, or in the infant sub-
sequently slumbering in the womb, what is it ? The questions already
asked with reference to the stars of snow may be here repeated, Mr.
Martineau will complain that I am disenchanting the babe of its
wonder; but is this the case? I figure it growing in the womb,
woven by a sometiiing not itself, without conscious participation on
the part of either father or mother, and appearing in due time, a living
miracle, with all its organs and all their implications. Consider the
work accomplished during these nine months in forming the eye alone

' King Maximilian II. brought Liebig to Munich ; he helped Ilelmholtz in his re-
searches, and loved to liberate and foster science. But he did far more damage to the
intellectual freedom of his coimtry through his concession of power to the Jesuits in the
schools, than his superstitious predecessor Ludwig I. Priding himself on being a German
prince, Ludwig would not tolerate the interference of the Roman party with the political
affairs of Bavaria.

148 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

— ^witli its lens, and its humors, and its miraculous retina behind.
Consider the ear with its tympanum, cochlea, and Corti's organ — an
instrument of three thousand strings, built adjacent to tlie brain, and
emjjloyed by it to sift, separate, and interpret, antecedent to all cun-
sciousness, the sonorous tremors of the external world. All this has
been accomplished not only without man's contrivance, but without
his knowledge, the secret of his own organization having been with-
held from him since his birth in the immeasurable past, until the
other day. Matter I define as that mysterious thing by which all
this is accomplished. How it came to have this power is a question
on which I never ventured an opinion. If, then. Matter starts as " a
beggar," it is, in my view, because the Jacobs of theology have de-
prived it of its birthright. Mr. Martineau need fear no disenchantment.
Theories of evolution go but a short way toward the explanation of
this mystery; while, in its presence, the notion of an atomic Manufact-
urer and Artificer of souls raises the doubt whether those who enter-
tain it were ever really penetrated by the solemnity of the problem
for which they offer such a solution.

There are men, and they include among them some of the best of
the race of men, upon whose minds this mystery falls without pro-
ducino; either warmth or color. The *'drv light" of the intellect
sufiices'for them, and they live their noble lives untouched by a de-
sire to give the mystery shape or expression. There are, on the
other hand, men whose minds are warmed and colored by its pres-
ence, and who, under its stimulus, attain to moral heights which have
never been overtopped. Different spiritual climates are necessary
for the healthy existence of these two classes of men; and different
climates must be accorded them. The history of humanity, liow-
ever, proves the experience of the second class to illustrate the most
pervading need. The world will liave religion of some kind, even
though it should fly for it to the intellectual whoredom of " spiritual-
ism." What is really wanted is the lifting power of an ideal ele-
ment in human life. But the free play of this power must be pre-
ceded by its release from the torn swaddling-bands of the past, and
from the practical materialism of the present. It is now in danger
of being strangled by the one, or stupefied by the other. I look,
however, forward to a time when the strength, insight, and elevation,
which now visit us in mere hints and glimpses during moments " of
clearness and vigor," shall be the stable and permanent possession of
purer and mightier minds than ours — j^urer and mightier, partly be-
cause of their deeper knowledge of matter and their more faithful con-
formity to its laws.

OPOSSUMS AND THEIR YOUNG.

149

OPOSSUMS AND TIIEIR YOUNG.

By Prof. W. S. BARNAKD.

IN the "Perfect Description of Virginia," 1649, the opossum was
noticed as " a beast that hath a bagge under her belly, into which
she takes her young ones, if at any time affrighted, and carries them
away." Lawson says : " She is the wonder of all animals. The fe-
male doubtless breeds her young at her teals, for I have seen them
stick fast thereto, when they have been no bigger than a small rasp-
berry, and seemingly inanimate. She has a pouch or false belly wherein
she carries her young, after they are from those teats, till they can shift
for themselves. ... If a cat has nine lives, this creature surely has
nineteen; for if you break every bone in their skin, and mash their
skull, leaving them for dead, you may come an hour after, and they
will be gone quite away. . . . Their fur is not esteemed nor used, save
that the Indians spin it into girdles and garters." Aside from its cu-
rious appearance and habits, the opossum (Fig. 1) possesses an unusual
interest from being our typical, and the only North American repre-
sentative of that large order of peculiar mammals known as marsupi-
als. Its mode of reproduction long remained a mystery, and even at

Fig. 1.— Common Virginia Opossum (.Didelphys Vlrginiana).

this day almost nothing is known of its develojjment, which, when
thoroughly understood, must explain the origin of the pouch and other
parts characterizing marsupials, and their relationship to allied groups.
Having had some experience with these animals, and examined seven
sets of young ones,' at important stages of development, I think it
may be worth while to record some of the observations made.

With the general pi-oportions of (but a longer nose than) the com-
mon rat, almost the size of a domestic cat, it presents a rather disa-
greeable appeai-ance and odor. A dense coat of light-gray wool, with
scattered long hairs interspersed, covers frhe body, while the short ears,

' Tlie writer is indebted to Prof. Wilder, of Cornell University, and to Mr. Alexander
Agassiz, Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Cambridge, Massachusetts,
for specimens kindly loaned him for examination.

ICO THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

3

the eyes, the long pointed nose, the feet and tail, are colored quite
dark. The strong, round, slender tail is destitute of hair, but covered,
like the beaver's, with scales. But the most peculiar featui-e of this
animal is the mammary pocket, or marsupium, formed by a folding-in
of the skin on the abdomen. Its character is marked by wonderful
cunning and stupidity combined. The daytime it spends in slothful
idleness, but prowls about nocturnally seeking for food. Walking or
slowly ambling at an awkward gait, it proceeds from j^lace to place,
usually following the borders of streams and ponds, often wading
where the water is shallow. But its limbs seem best adapted to climb-
ing ; the plantigrade, hand-like feet, with thumbs ' opposable to the
fingers, and the long, prehensile tail, strongly indicate scansorial habits
and arboreal life. Among the trees it manifests astonishing agility,
climbing or swinging from branch to branch with perfect safety, and
may be seen hanging by one or more of its feet, or by its tail alone,
while busily engaged gathering and eating the wild-grapes, or haw,
or persimmon, of which it is peculiarly fond, or robbing birds'-nests of
their eggs or young. A varied diet suits its omnivorous appetite, and
it fares promiscuously on fruits, vegetables, eggs, insects, worms, rep-
tiles, small quadrupeds, and birds, often stealing domestic fowls. It
commonly hides among vines and branches, in hollow trees or logs,
or in holes in the ground. In these places also its nests of grass
and leaves are found. In autumn, the opossums become excessively
fat, and are then prized for food in the Southern States, especially by
the negroes, whose fondness for hunting them and eating their flesh
has already exterminated them from many localities where they
abounded plentifully before. Their flesh, when cooked, resembles
roast-pig. The animal is usually sullen, stupid, and slow, but if at-
tacked assumes a terribly fierce attitude, snarls, utters a kind of hiss
and low growl, and will often bite ferociously, though at the first blow
wall usually feign death, and no amount of torture will make it revive
or show a sign of sufiering, but when beaten and left for dead it will

' In the October "Miscellany " (p. 758) of this Journal, some of the facts concerning
my contributions to the myology of the apes and man appeared incorrectly reported.
Since the opossum's foot was wrongly referred to as being typical and unlike the hand
of man, the mistake may be corrected here. The comparison of man's foot with the
opossum's was unfortunate ; the right idea was expressed, but a wrong illustration chosen.
The fact is, the opossum is pedhnanons, having an opposable thumb, as was stated in a
paper presented at the same time with the above. It has a rather highly-diiferentiated
foot, whereas the contrary was supposed.

Few, if any, animals outside the groups of the quadrumana and the opossum family
have the parts of their muscles so specialized that one toe can be used without moving all
the others.

Instead of " one communis muscle," there are several in every typical foot. My pa-
pers show that the so-called "proprius" muscles, such as the special extensors of the
index, thumb, little finger, etc., which characterize the hands of man and some of the
apes, are but parts differentiated off from one or another of the " communis " muscles,
and are found as parts of those muscles in lower animals with more typical feet

OPOSSUMS AND THEIR YOUNG.

151

often crawl away as soon as its enemy is gone. Its g-reat endurance
is also shown by the fact that when fat it can live for three or four
weeks without food or water.

The female is vety fond of her young, enjoying with them that
domestic felicity portrayed by Florian in his happy table, " La Sarigue

Fig. 2.— Merian's Opossum (Didelphys Dorsigera) with Young.

et ses petits," and she will offer every resistance, and sufler greatly, to
.prevent any one looking into her pouch to examine her offspring.

In Europe, Asia, and Africa, not a single marsupial exists. Our
only species, Didelphys Yirginiana^ the opossum, is found from the
Great Lakes to the Gulf, and from ocean to ocean; but it has several
relatives in South America, where about twenty species exist, such as
the sarigue, shupati, and carigueya, of Brazil. In some of these the
pouch is rudimentary, affording little protection to the young, which
liang fast to the nipples until able to jump about, and then are carried
on the back of the female, where they cling to her w*ool and gain ad-
ditional support by coiling their tails around hers. Perhaps the most
cunning of this sort is the so-called Merian's oppossum {Didelphys dor-
sigera), of Surinam, represented in Fig. 2. Also, the yopock ( Cheiro-
nectes palmatus) is peculiarly interesting on account of its aquatic hab-
its and webbed feet, adapted to swimming. Its foot also has a long-
tubercle, which has been mistaken for a sixth toe, and the mouth is
furnished with large cheek-pouches. It inhabits holes along the
streams of Brazil, and lives on small aquatic animals, spawn of fish,
etc. Its mode of life reminds one of the ornithorhynchus and the
otter. A specimen of this species was caught alive near Para, in a
fish-trap similar to the kind of basket with a funnel-shaped opening
used for catching eels. Although marsupial animals are so exceed-

152 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ingly rare in other parts of the world, the kangaroos and almost all
of the great variety of animals of Australia belong to this group.
Thus it appears they are mostly tropical.

The earliest fossil mammals known appear to be marsupials allied
to the opossum. In the bone-caverns of Brazil quantities of bones of
opossums, such as live in that country now or similar, are found. One
species of Dklelphys was found fossil in the Paris Basin, of Eocene
formation. Other relatives of the opossum have been found in a fos-
sil state, associated with the palaeotherium, anoplotherium, and. other
extinct pachydermous quadrupeds ; but the most remarkable are found
in Jurassic rocks, as the earliest fossil mammals known. Their dis-
covery in this ancient reptilian age in the limestone of Stonesfield was
so extraordinary that attempts were made, ou the one hand, to prove
that their remains were reptilian ; on the other, to prove that the rocks
were of Tertiary origin ; but it has been established, beyond all doubt,
that these animals originated in this early reptilian age, and, proba-
bly, by descent, either directly or indirectly, from not very remote
reptilian ancestry. This relationship is indicated, not only by the
fossil remains of marsupials, but also by the anatomical and embry-
onic characters of marsupials and monotremes, so far as known. The
organization of marsupials seems to be a kind of reptilian and mam-
malian combination, as has been shown by the valuable investigations
of Prof. Owen, Dr. Coues, and others.

The monotremes present the lowest grade of mammalian organi-
zation, in many respects approaching closely to the oviparous classes
of birds and reptiles. It is probably through these that the marsu-
pials have gained some reptilian characters. The opossum, for exam-
ple, has " a genuine reptilian skull," as Dr. Coues has remarked in his
estimable memoir on the anatomy of this animal.

The main difficulty in tracing out the genealogy of marsupials is
that our knowledge of them is confined chiefly to the living forms,
while these must be but a small remnant of the whole group as it ex-
isted in ancient times, when its members inhabited every land on the
face of our globe. Even in the imagination we cannot resurrect the
manifold varieties of the past. But, in all probability. Prof. Haeckel
is right in believing tliat this group affords a series of forms connect-
ing the lower apes or lemuroids above them with the monotremes be-
low. This would bring some of the marsupials within the lineage of
human ancestry, and, before all others, the opossums seem most closely
allied to the lemuroid apes. Indeed, they have already been grouped
with man and the apes, although their structure hardly warrants such
a classification. Storr congregated into one group all mammals with
an opposable thumb. Also, Ogilby adopted the name chciropeds for
the same group, and subdivided it into Bimana (men), Quadruinuiia
(monkeys), and Pedimana (Semiadse and opossums).

The characters of groups ai-e generally arranged into categories

OPOSSUMS AND THEIR YOUNG. 153

intended to show how groups are distinct from each other ; but, if it
is equally fair to arrange those characters in such a way as to show
the athnities of groups with each other, and what they have in com-
mon, we may say briefly that the placental mammals are connected
with the marsupials by having — 1. Nipples; 2, Free clavicles; 3. An
embryonal cloaca, and by these characters both groups are distin-
guished from the monotremes below them ; the ijiarsupials and mono-
tremes are united by having in common — 1. Marsupial bones; 2. Un-
developed bigeminal bodies; 3. No placenta, and by these characters

Fig. 3.— Young Opossum. Natural Size.

are distinguished from the placental mammals above ; while the mono-
tremes join with the reptiles in possessing — 1. United clavicles ; 2. A
permanent cloaca ; 3. No nipples, and by these characters are distin-
guished from the marsupials above. A great many more characters
and facts from the comparative anatomy, embryology, and palseology,
could have been used in this comparison ; but those given are enough
to show how characters usually regarded as distinctive only may also
at the same time be viewed as connective.

The order of living marsupials presents remarkable diversity of
structure and habits, containing herbivorous, insectivorous, and car-
nivorous species ; yet we find all these traits combined in one and
the same species, the opossum. It is probable that, by adaptation to
similar modes of life, the marsupials have developed groups parallel
to those of the placental mammals. However, it is certain the Quad-
rumana seem represented by the Phalangers, the Carnivora by the
Dasyuri, Insectivora by the Phascogales, Ruminantia by the kanga-
roos, and Edentata by the Monotremes. Rodents and bats are nu-
merous in Australia, but only one of the former is marsupial, and none
of the latter. The subdivisions of the order are indicated by the
modifications of the extremities and digestive system. A gradual
transition is found passing from the Phalangers through the Parame-
lidae to the kangaroos. All arboreal species have an opposable thumb.
This thumb is rudimentary or wanting in the terrestrial species, but
in botli the carnivorous and herbivorous groups we find a gradual
transition to the species possessing a well-developed thumb; thus the

154

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Didelphidae (opossums) have a well-developed thumb ; in some of the
Dasyuridie it becomes very small, while a tolerably distinct thumb
characterizes the Phascogales ; a rudimentary thumb in Dasyurus ;
no external thumb in _Z>. Mavjei, but its metatarsal exists, while in
Thylacinus even its metatarsal is gone.

Fig. 4. — A, Young Female Oi>ossum {DMelphyn Virginiana). Natural Size. B, Marsupium,
clitoris, and vent of the same, enlarged ; C, Marsupium, penis, and vent of a male ol' the
same litter, enlarged.

Below the marsujiials stands the group of Monotremes, including
the remarkable Australian Ornithorhynehus and Echidna. In the
former the openings of the milk-glands on the abdomen are not marked
by any elevation or depression ; but in Echidna we find a similar pair
of glands, the opening of each becoming depressed at maturity, so as
to form a small pit, into which the nose of the young is inserted and
attached, where it remains pendant and nourished while its develop-
ment advances. This pair of little pits may be regarded as the be-
ginning of the bilateral pocket so largely developed in some marsu-
pials. If we can imagine that these depressions have become so deep
as to envelop not only the nose of the young, but also its whole body,
we can understand the evolution of a marsupial from something lower.
At the same time we should notice that these depressions are just the
opposite of what we find in the higher mammalia, where the mamma-
ry glands form larger or smaller abdominal or pectoral prominences.
The milk-glands of Ornithorhynehus seem j^rimitive, while the de-
pressed glands of Echidna and the marsupials, and the elevated glands
of higher mammals, may be viewed as differentiations of the same.

The opossum is the animal on which the first observations of mar-
supial repi'oduction were made. At first the young, found in an im-
perfect condition Avithin the pouch, were not examined closely enough
to disclose their real nature. They were regai'ded as formless and
inanimate. Even in the " Natural History of New York," Part I,,
the young is spoken of as " a small gelatinous body, not weighing-
more than a grain." But these ideas of the early observers still exist
in the popular mind, and are as imperfect as their explanations as to
how the young originated. The peculiar character of the young led
to the belief that they must have developed from the parents' teats,
by a kind of metamorphosis or budding process. This gemmiparous

OPOSSUMS AND THEIR YOUNG. 155

theory existed already in Tyson's time, and was discussed by him.
But to-day we have a more correct knowledge of their mode of I'epro-
duction, which so long- remained clouded with mystery.

An animal born so premature as the little opossum must neces-
sarily perish from exposure, were it not for the curious provision for
its protection and the constant supply of milk afforded in the pouch
of the female. The internal cavity of the adult female marsupium
seems to be formed by an infolding of the external skin. From its
opening on tlie median line of the abdomen the pouch extends back-
ward and laterally, forming a kind of bilateral pocket. From the
posterior wall of this about thirteen teats project. To these the
young are attached after birth. The two so-called marsupial bones
are found in both the male and female Virginian opossums, as well
as in some of the South American oj^ossums, Avhich have only a rudi-
mentary pouch, and the monotremes, Avhich have no pouch at all.
The investigations of Prof. Owen have shown that these bones are no
essential part of the marsupium, although formerly regarded as such ;
they attach to the anterior border of the pelvis and lie against the
mammary glands, where the cremaster muscle winds around them,
and makes them act to compress the glands and force out the milk
into the throats of the young, which at first seem too feeble to suck.

The young opossums are born as almost helpless little bodies, with
mouth and fore-limbs well developed. The transfer of the embi-yo
from the uterus to the pouch has not been observed, but this must be
done as with the kangaroo, where it is believed that the mother takes
each new-born embryo between her lips and places it upon one of the
nipples, which it grasps firmW Avith its mouth and the claws of its
fore-feet. Immediately after birth, the young opossums are found
hanging upon the mammary glands fixed in the above manner, each
with the hind part of its body free and pendant. At first, the mouth
is a transverse, gaping fissure ; but, Avhen attached to the nipple, its
corners soon grow up, leaving only a small, round pore surrounding
the neck of the teat, which enlarges, so that the suckling cannot let go
nor fall off, but hangs on without any exertion. Each of the largest
fcEtal specimens (Fig. 3) I have examined was covered with scattered
hairs. The nose was large and blunt, unlike that of the adult. These
measured, from the tip of the nose to the ear, 17 millimetres; from
the ear to the base of the tail, 39 millimetres ; length of the tail, 20
millimetres. Those of the second size (Fig. 4, A) were much smaller,
and, in general appearance, looked more like opossums than the next
larger size. Perhaps they were of a different species. These were,
from the tip of the nose to the ear, 8 millimetres ; from the ear to the
base of the tail, 27 millimetres; length of the tail, 10 millimetres.
The other specimens formed a very good series down to those of the
smallest size, which were taken from the uterus. Tiiese smallest
specimens (Figs. 5, 6) measured, from the tip of the nose to the ear.

156

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

3.1 millimetres; from the ear to the tail, 8.0 millimetres ; the tail, 3.2
millimetres. Thus the total lenojth of the smallest was 14.3 milli-

metres, or about one-half an inch.
These smaller ones resemble the hip-
popotamus more than the opossum.
Although found within the parent,
they were, apparently, nearly ready
to be born. A set of sixteen of these
was taken from the uterus by Prof.
Wilder. As the mother had but
thirteen nipples, it is evident that
improvidence would allow three em-
bryos to perish. Sometimes as many
as eighteen are brought forth, and
often only twelve nipples exist. No
attachment of the embryos to the
uterine walls has been discovered,
hence no true placenta is known.
Still a kind of umbilicus is formed,

Figs. 5, 6. — Front and Side Views op Smallest Embryo Opossum (D. Virginiana). Enlarged ;
entire length when straightened out, one-half inch.

and its cicatrix marks the embryo as it did in Prof. Owen's kangaroo,
where it wi'ongly led to the supposition that a placenta might have
been attached. At birth, the hind-limbs appear as short stumps, with
their flattened ends presenting slight marginal elevations, the begin-
nings of toes. These toes and legs gradually elongate. Soon each toe
has one joint, and the inner toe becomes set off from the rest. Later,
the two longer fingers show two joints, and, finally, the inner toe be-
comes a thumb with two joints, while each finger has three ; and now
the hind-foot closely resembles the hand of the higher quadrumana
and man, while its fore-feet, much earlier developed, remain more
animal-like, the great-toe being set off not so far from the others, but
the fingers quite long. The hind-limbs are primarily much shorter
than the front, but, developing faster, soon equal and afterward out-
grow the others. The same is true of the young kangaroo, where the
hind-limbs, shortest at first, finally become many times longer than
those in front. Thus we see that what is smallest in the embryo

OPOSSUMS AND THEIR YOUNG. i

5/

may become largest in the adult. At birth, tbe nostrils are large,
with a high rim ; but the eyes are covered beneath the skin, and
the ears are rej^resented by small elevations on the sides of the
head, while the lips have a remarkable development and peculiar
covering, which reminds us of the first embryonic traces of the duck-
like bill of ornithorhynchus. The tongue has a peculiar papillated
groove above, to fit the nipple, and tliree very large papillae on its
base. The larynx and epiglottis project so high into the broad
pharynx that the milk swallowed passes in two currents, one on
either side. A very large three-lobed thymus gland lies above the
heart. Only a rudiment of this exists in the adult. The heart is
large, and situated on the median line. Its position changes some-
what as it grows older. The lungs are equal in size. Curiously, the
cesophagus enters the stomach near" its pyloric end. A very large
gland lies on the cardiac end of the stomach. Prof. Owen, speaking
of the character of the stomach in marsupials, says : " The stomach
is simple in the genera Didelphys, Myrmecobius, and Parameles,
and likewise simple in Dasyurus and Phalangista ; also in the kaola
and wombat, but in these two animals it is provided with a glandu-
lar apparatus situated to the left of the cardiac orifice." This is
so large in the young Didelphys, that it is curious it does not exist
when the animal is fully developed. In the possession of this organ,
the young opossum agrees with the old kaola and wombat, but the
old opossum has developed a stage further, so that the organ becomes
rudimentary, or disappears. The csecum is relatively twice as large
as in the adult. The optic lobes of the brain were relatively larger,
and the cerebral lobes somewhat smaller than when full grown.
When first born, the male and female are, externally, exactly alike ;
clitoris and penis are large external organs, just in front of the vent,
and so much alike, that it is impossible to distinguish the female from
the male by these parts, so markedly diflerent at maturity. Even in
the oldest specimens studied, the same similarity of size and form of
these parts exists, but the female organ stands nearer to the margin
of the vent. Some time after birth, the testes descend into a large
scrotnm, which has a peculiar position, being at some distance in
front of the penis. This is the first external sexual diflerence, for,
although the marsupium begins to appear about the same time, it is
remarkable that the male at first has as good a pouch as the female.
This is first seen as a cluster of very low papillae on the abdomen,
nearly surrounded by a slight ridge. Slowly this ridge rises higher,
and the depression extends itself deeper and more laterally, while tlie
outer edge becomes a fold of skin growing inward toward the median
line, until, finally, only a narrow opening is left. The marsupium of
the male never becomes fully developed, but gradually diminishes in
size ; still it was well marked in the largest specimens studied.

To the embryologist every one of these curious facts has great

158 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

significance. We have seen how organs exactly alike in the begin-
ning may diiferentiate before onr eyes into parts altogether dissimilar,
just as individual animals of a like kind may have their progeny
gradually modified from generation to generation, until, finally, dif-
ferent races are produced from a common ancestry. The adult opos-
sum has rather slender and delicate limbs and fingers, and a long,
slender, pointed nose ; hence it may naturally be wondered that her
offs]>riug, even at such an eai'ly period of development, should have
the parts of the body of an opposite character, they being, as is shown
in Fig. 3, wonderfully bulky and clumsy, more like those of the hip-
popotamus than any thing else. But, if we look to its possible ances-
try, and find something similar, we can discover a tolerably satisfac-
tory reason for this by regarding it as inherited. Going back to the
Diluvial formation, we find the remains of huge fossil marsupials
with similar coarse, bulky proportions. Such were the Diprotodon
and Nototherium of New Holland. The skull of the former is three
feet long, really surpassing that of the hippopotamus in clumsiness,
while its body and limbs were built in the same bulky style, and it is
probable that numerous smaller marsupials of the same pattern ex-
isted in those remote ages. The embryo opossums show resemblance
to lower animals in the general shape of the body, in the early form of
the brain, the peculiarities of the lips, the thymus gland, the glandular
apparatus of the stomach, the early conditions of the reproductive
and urinary organs, and the primitive condition of the mammary
glands. Peculiar embryonic resemblances are found in the young
of every animal of which the embryology is known, and these facts
have no meaning at all to us unless they mean inheritance and
descent.

■♦*»

IDOL-WORSHIP AND FETICH-WORSHIP.'

By HEKBERT SPENCER.

FACTS already named show how sacrifices to the man recently
dead pass into sacrifices to his preserved body. We have seen
that to the corpse of a Tahitian chief daily ofterings were made on
an altar by a priest ; and the ancient Central Americans performed
kindred rites before bodies dried by artificial heat. That, along with
a developed system of embalming, this grew into mummy-worship,
Peruvians and Egyptians have furnished proof. Here the thing to
be observed is that, while believing the ghost of the dead man to
have gone away, these peoples had confused notions, either tliat it

' From advance-sheets of the " Prinoiples of Sociology."

IDOL-WORSHIP AND FETICH-WORSHIP. 159

was present in the mummy, or that the mummy was itself conscious.
Among the Egyptians, this was clearly implied by the practice of
sometimes placing their embalmed dead at table. The Peruvians,
v,'ho by a parallel custom betrayed a like belief, also betrayed it in
other ways. By some of them the dried corpse of a parent was car-
ried round the fields that he might see the state of the crops. How
the ancestor, thus recognized as present, was also recognized as exer-
cising authority, we see in this story given by Santa Cruz. When
his second sister refused to marry him, " Huayna Capac went with
.presents and oflierings to the body of his father, praying him to give
her for his wife, but the dead body gave no answer, while fearful signs
appeared in the heavens."

The primitive idea that any property characterizing an aggregate
inheres in all parts of it, implies a corollary from this l)elief. The
soul, present in the body of the dead man preserved entire, is also
present in preserved j^arts of his body. Hence tiie faith in relics.
Ellis tells us that, in the Sandwich Islands, bones of the legs, arms,
and sometimes the skulls, of kings and principal chiefs, are carried
about by their descendants, under the belief that the spirits exercise
guardianship over them. The Crees carry bones and hair of dead
pei'sons about for three years. The Caribs, and several Guiana
tribes, have their cleaned bones " distributed among the relatives
after death." The Tasmanians show " anxiety to possess themselves
of a bone from the skull or the arms of their deceased relatives." The
Andamanese " widows may be seen with the skulls of their deceased
partners suspended from their necks."

This belief in the power of relics leads in some cases to direct
worship of them. Erskine tells us that the natives of Lifu, Loyalty
Islands, who " invoked the spirits of their departed chiefs," also '' pre-
serve relics of their dead, such as a finger-nail, a tooth, a tuft of hair,
. . . and pay divine homage to it." Of the New Caledonians Turner
says : " In cases of sickness, and other calamities, they present oft'cr-
ings of food to the skulls of the departed." Moreover, we have the
evidence furnished by conversation with the relic. Lander says :
" In the private fetich-hut of the King Adolee, at Badagry, the skull
of that monarch's father is preserved in a clay vessel placed in the
earth." He " gently rebukes it if his success does not happen to
answer his expectations." Similarly, Catlin describes the Mandans
as placing the skulls of their dead in a circle. Each wife knows the
skull of her former husband or child —

" and there seldom passes a day tbat she does not visit it, with a dish of the
best-cooked food. . . . There is scarcely an hour in a pleasant day, but more or
less of these women may be seen sitting or lying by the skull of their cliild or
husband — talking to it in the most pleasant and endearing language tliat they
can use (as they were wont to do in former days), and seemingly getting an
answer back."

i6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Thus propitiation of the man just dead leads to propitiation of his
preserved body or a preserved part of it ; and the ghost is supposed
to be present in the part as in the whole.

Any one asked to imagine a transition from worship of the pre-
served body, or a preserved part of it, to idol-worshij), would prob-
bly fail ; but transitions, such as imagination does not suggest, actually
occur.

The object worshiped is sometimes a figure of the deceased, made
partly of his remains and partly of other substances. Landa says the
Yucatanese

*' cut off the heads of the ancient lords of Oocom, when they died, and, as if to
cook them, cleared them from flesh ; they then sawed off half of the top of the
head, leaving the anterior part with the jawbones and teeth, and to these half-
skulls they joined what they wanted in flesh with a certain cement, and made
them as like as possible to those to whom they belonged ; and they kept them
along with the statues and the ashes. All were kept in the oratories of their
houses beside their idols, and were greatly reverenced and assiduously cared
for. On all their festivals they offered them food." ... In other cases they
"made for their fathers wooden statues," left "the occiput hoUow," put in
ashes of the burnt body, and attached "the skin of the occiput off the corpse."

The Mexicans had a different method of joining some of the de-
ceased's substance with an effigy of him. When a dead lord had
been burned, says Camargo, " they carefully collected the ashes, and,
after having kneaded them with human blood, they made of them
an image of the deceased, which was kept in memory of him." And
from Camargo we also learn that images of the dead were wor-
shiped.

A transitional combination partially unlike in kind occurs : some-
times the ashes are contained in a man-shaped receptacle of clay. Of
the Yucatanese the writer above quoted states that —

" The bodies of lords and people of high position were burned. The ashes
were put in large urns and temples erected over them. ... In the case of great
lords the ashes were placed in hollow clay statues.."

And in yet other cases there is worship of the relics joined with the
representative figure, not by inclusion but only by proximity. Thus
the Mexicans, according to Gomara —

" closed the box [in which some hair and the teeth of the deceased king were
present] and placed above it a wooden flgure shaped and adorned like the de-
ceased." Then they "made great offerings, and placed them where he was
burnt, and before the box and figure."

Lastly may be named the practice of the Egyptians, who, as their
frescoes show, often worshij^ed the mummy, not as exposed to view,
but as inclosed in a case shaped and painted to represent the dead man.

IDOL-WORSHIP AND FETICH-WORSHIP. i6i

From these examjiles of transition we may turn to those in which
the funeral propitiations are made to a substituted image.

The Mexicans practised cremation : and, when men killed in battle
were missing, they made figures of them, and after honoring these
burned them and bui'ied the ashes. Here are extracts from Clavigero
and Torquemada :

" When any of the merchants died on their journey, ... his relations . . ,
formed an imperfect statue of wood to represent the deceased, to which they
paid all the funeral honors which they would have done to the real dead body."

" When some one died drowned or in any other way which excluded con-
cremation and required burial, they made a likeness of liim and put it on the
altar of idols, together with a large offering of wine and bread."

In Africa kindred observances occur. While a deceased King of
Congo is being embalmed, says Bastian, a wooden figure is set up in
the palace to represent liim, and is daily furnished with food and
drink, Parkyns tells us that among the Abyssinians mourning takes
place on the third day ; and, the deceased having been buried on the
day of his death, a representation of the corpse does duty instead.
Of some Papuan-Islanders Earl states that, when the grave is filled
with earth, they collect round an idol and offer provisions to it. Con-
cerning certain Javans we learn from Raffles that after a death a feast
is held, in which a man-shaped figure, supported round the body by
the clothes of the deceased, plays an important part.

These practices look strange to us ; but a stranger thing is that we
have so soon forgotten the like practices of civilized nations. In
Monstrelet's " Chronicles," book i., the burial of Charles VI. of France
is described thus :

"Over the cofBn was an image of the late king, bearing a I'icli crown of gold
and diamonds, and holding two shields, one of gold, the other of silver ; the
hands had white gloves on, and the fingers were adorned with very precious
rings. This image was dressed with cloth of gold," etc. ... "In this state was
he solemnly carried to the church of N^otre-Dame."

This usage was observed in the case of princes also. Speaking of the
father of the great Conde, Madame de Motteville says, " The effigy of
this prince was attended (servit) for three days, as was customary : "
forty days having been the original time during which food was sup-
plied to such an effigy at the usual hours. Monstrelet describes a like
figure used at the burial of Henry V. of England ; and the effigies of
many English monarchs, thus honored at their funerals, are said to
have been preserved in Westminster Abbey till they decayed.

With these reminders befoi*e us, we ought to have no difficulty in
understanding the primitive ideas respecting such representations.
When we read that the Coast negroes in some districts " place certain
earthen images on the graves ; " that the Araucanians fixed over a
tomb an upright log, " rudely carved to represent the human frame ; "

VOL. Tin. — 11

i62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that, after the deatlis of New Zealand chiefs, wooden images, twenty
to forty feet high, were erected as monuments — we cannot shut our
eyes to the fact that the figure of the dead man is an incipient idol.
Could we doubt, our doubt would end on finding the figure persist-
ently worshiped. J. d'Acosta tells us of the Peruvians that —

"each king had, while living, ... a stone figure representing himself, called
Guanqui [huanque] — i. e., brother. This figure was to be worshiped like the
Ynca himself, during his life as well as after his death."

So, too, according to Andagoya —

" When a chief died, his house and wives and servants remained as in his life-
time, and a statue of gold was made in the likeness of the chief, which was
served as if it had been alive, and certain villages were set apart to provide it
with clothing, and all other necessaries."

And, similarly, Cogolludo testifies that the Yucatanese " worshiped
the idol of one who is said to have been one of their great captains."

That we may understand better the feelings with which a savage
looks at a representative figure, let us recall the kindred feelings pro-
duced by representations among ourselves.

When a lover kisses the miniature of his mistress, he is obviously
influenced by an association between the appearance and the reality.
Even more strongly do such associations sometimes act. A young
lady known to me confesses that she cannot bear to sleep in a room
having portraits on the walls ; and this repugnance is not unparalleled.
In such cases, the knowledge that portraits consist of paint and can-
vas only, fails to expel the suggestion of something more. The vivid
representation so strongly arouses the thought of a living personality,
that this cannot be kept out of consciousness.

Now, suppose culture absent — suppose there exist no ideas of attri-
butes, law, cause — no distinctions between natural and unnatui-al,
possible and impossible. This associated consciousness of a living
presence will then persist. No conflict with established knowledge
arising, the unresisted suggestion will become a belief.

Beliefs thus produced in savages have been incidentally referred
to. Here are some further examples of them. Kane states that the
Chinooks think portraits supernatural, and look at them with the same
ceremony as at a dead person. According to Bancroft, the Okanagans
"have the same aversion that has been noted on the coast " to hav-
ing their portraits taken. We learn from Catlin that the Mandans
thought the life put into a picture was so much life taken from tho
original. He also says :

" They pronounced me the greatest medicine-man in the world ; for they said I
had made living beings — they said they could see their chiefs alive in two places
— those that I had made were a little alive — they could see their eyes move."

Nor do more advanced races fail to supply kindred facts. Concerning

IDOL-WORSHIP AND FETICH-WORSHIP. 163

the Malagasy, Ellis testifies that friends of the prince, on seeing a
photograph of him, took off their hats to it and verbally saluted it.

That which holds of a pictorial representation holds of a carved or
sculptured one — holds even more naturally; since the carved repre-
sentation, being solid, approaches closer to the reality. Where the
image is painted and has eyes inserted, this notion of participation in
the vitality of the person imitated becomes, in the uncritical mind of
the savage, very strong. Any one who remembers the horror a child
shows on seeing an adult put on an ugly mask, even when the mask
has been previously shown to it, may conceive the awe which a rude
effigy excites in the primitive mind. The sculptured figure of the
dead man arouses the thought of the actiial dead man, which passes
into a conviction that he is present.

And why should it not ? If the other-self can leave the living
body and reenter it ; if the ghost can come back and animate afresh
the dead body ; if the embalmed Peruvian, presently to be resuscitated
by his wandering double, was then to need his carefully-preserved
hair and nails ; if the soul of the Egyptian, after its transmigrations,
occupying some thousands of years, was expected to infuse itself once
more into his mummy — why should not a spirit go into an image ? A
living body differs more from a mummy in texture than a mummy
does from wood.

That a savage does think an eftigy is inhabited we have abundant
proofs. Lander, describing the Yorubans, says a mother carries for
some time a wooden figure of her lost child, and, when she eats, puts
part of her food to its lips. The Samoiedes, according to Bastian,
" feed the wooden images of the dead." The relatives of an Ostyak

" make a rude wooden image, representing, and in honor of, the deceased, which
is set up in the yurt, and receives divine honors for a greater or less time, as the
priest directs. ... At every meal they set an ofiering of food before the image ;
and, should this represent a deceased husband, the widow embraces it from time
to time. . . . This kind of worship of the dead lasts about three years, at the
end of which time the image is buried."

Erman, who states this, adds the significant fact that the descend-
ants of deceased priests preserve the images of their ancestors from
generation to generation —

*' and, by well-contrived oracles and other arts, they manage to procure offer-
ings for these their family penates, as abundant as those laid on the altars of the
universally-acknowledged gods. But that these latter also have an historical
origin, that they were originally monuments of distinguished men, to wliich pre-
scription and the interests of the Shamans gave by degrees an arbitrary meaning
and importance, seems to me not liable to doubt."

These Ostyaks, indeed, show us unmistakably how worship of the
dead man's effigy passes into worship of the divine idol ; for the two
are identical. At each meal, placing the dishes before the household

i64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

god, they wait (i. Q.,fast) till "the idol, who eats invisibly, has had
enough." Moreover, we are told by Bastian, that when a Samoiede
goes on a journey, "his reLitives direct the idol toward the place to
which he has gone, in order that it may look after him." How among
the more advanced peoples of these regions there persists the idea
that the idol of the god, developed, as we have seen, from the effigy
of the dead man, is the residence of a conscious being, is implied
by the following statement of Erman respecting the Russians of
Irkutsk :

" Whatever familiarities may be permitted between the sexes, the only scru-
ple by which the young women are infallibly controlled is a superstitious dread
of being alone with their lovers in the presence of the holy images. Conscien-
tious difficulties of this kind, however, are frequently obviated by putting these
witnesses behind a curtain."

Like beliefs are displayed by other races wholly unallied. Of the
Sandwich-Islanders, Ellis tells us that, after a death in the family, the
survivors worship " an image with w^hich they imagine the spirit is in
some way connected ; " and also that " Oro, the great national idol,
was generally supposed to give the responses to the priests." Con-
cerning the Yucatanese, Fancourt, quoting Cogolludo, says that
" when the Itzaex performed any feat of valor, their idols, whom they
consulted, were wont to make a reply to them;" and, quoting Villa-
gutierre, he describes the beating of an idol said to have predicted
the arrival of the Spaniards, but who had deceived them respecting
the result. Even more strikingly shown is this implication in the
Quiche legend. Here is an extract from Bancroft :

"And they worshiped the gods that had become stone — Tohil, Avihx, and
Hacavitz ; and they offered them the blood of beasts, and of birds, and pierced
their own ears and shoulders iu honor of these gods, and collected the blood
with a sponge, and pressed it out into a cup before them. . . . And these three
gods, petrified, as we have told, could nevertheless resume a movable shape
when they pleased ; which, indeed, they often did."

Nor is it among inferior races only that conceptions of this kind
are found. In his " Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne," Dozy, de-
scribing the ideas and practices of the idolatrous Arabians, says :

" When Amrolcais set out to revenge the death of his father on the Beni-
Asad, he stopped at the temple of the idol Dhou-'l Kholosa to make a consulta-
tion by means of the three arrows called command, prohibition, expectation.
Having drawn prohibition, he recommenced drawing. But three times he drew
prohibition. Thereupon he broke the arrows, and, throwing them into the idol's
face, he shouted, ' Wretch, if the killed man had been thy father, thou wouldst
not forbid revenging him !' "

ON A PIECE OF LIMESTONE. 16;

O^ A PIECE OF LIMESTONE.'

By WILLIAM B. CAKPENTEK, LL.D., F.E.S.

IN selecting a subject lor the lecture which, at the request of the
council of the British Association, I undertook to give you during
its present meeting, I have been guided by the desire to tell you
something that would be new to you in regard to matters with which
you are already familiar, and to connect this with the results of my
own deep-sea researches, in which I might hope that my own local
connection with Bristol would lead you to feel somewhat of a personal
interest.

In the rocks that border the Avon on either side, the Bristolian
has one of the most characteristic examples of limestone that can be
anywhere found ; and he has only to go as far as the deep gorge of
Cheddar, in the Mendip hills, to find limestone cliffs yet more imposing
in height than St. Vincent's rocks ; or as far as Chepstow, to see, along
the Wye to Tintern Abbey, a still more varied and picturesque dis-
play of tfie same great rock-formation. Its material is sometimes dis-
tinguished as the mountain limestone, on account of the rugged char-
acter it imparts to the districts in which it prevails ; while it is now
more commonly known as the carboniferous (coal-bearing), because it
forms the basins or troughs in which the " coal-measures" lie. Now,
if you look at a geological map of England, you will trace this lime-
stone as a band lying obliquely northeast and southwest; beginning
in Northumberland, passing through Durham and Yorkshire, through
Derbyshire (where it forms the romantic scenery about Matlock), then
through the midland counties (where, however, it is generally covered
up by later formations), and then into Gloucestershire and South
Wales, where its relation to the coal-basins is most distinctly marked.
Speaking generally, this oblique band divides England into two great
areas : one to the nortliwest, in which the strata that have been brought
to the surface, by the crumpling action that has disturbed the crust of
the earth during its cooling, are older than the carboniferous lime-
stone ; the other to the southeast, in which the strata are newer. You
have not to go far from Bristol to see examples of both. As you pass
down the Avon, you observe a succession of limestone-strata lying
obliquely one beneath another ; and at last you come to an end of
these, and find that the next underlying rock is that Old Red Sand-
stone, of which the massive pier on the Somersetshire side of the sus-
pension bridge is built. And Dundry Hill, which is everywhere so
conspicuous, is formed at its lower part of Lias, and at its upper part
of Oolite, two later formations which were not deposited until after the
» A Lecture given to the workingmen of Bristol, at the meeting of the British Asso-.
elation, August 28, 1875.

]66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

carboniferous limestone had been uplifted to sometliing near its pres-
ent position. B}' measuring the whole length of the succession of
limestone-strata that presents itself along the gorge of the Avon, and
making the requisite allowance for their slope, the geologist has no
difficulty in determining their thickness ; and he can say with cer-
tainty that, if these successive beds of limestone were piled horizon-
tally upon one another, in the same manner as when they were first
formed, their total thickness would exceed 2,000 feet.

Further, you must think of these strata, not only as they present
themselves at the surface, but as underlying all our coal-fields, and as
probably extending very far beneath the newer strata to the southeast
of the dividing band I have just spoken of. Thus, if you look again
at the geological map, and notice how the gi-eat South Wales coal-
field is surrounded by the blue band that indicates the carboniferous
limestone, you must think of this limestone as really continuous over
the whole of the included area, since it is met with at all points in
which the coal-pits are sunk deep enough to reach it. And so in the
midland counties, where the map indicates New Red Sandstone and
later formations as the surface-strata, these, on being bored through,
are found to have coal beneath them ; and if we continue the boring
downward through the coal-measures, we everywhere come to the
limestone-base of this great and important carboniferous series. How
far this series extends beneath the newer deposits which form the land
of the southeastern portion of England, no geologist can at present
say with certainty. If it really underlies them, it must be at an enor-
mous depth, as the results of the Sub-Wealden boring have clearly
proved.

Although we are accustomed to speak of the coal-basins of Nor-
thumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Staifordshire, Gloucestershire, Som-
ersetshire, and South Wales, as distinct and separate, it is important
to bear in mind that they were probably continuous w^ien the coal-
measures were first formed, the "basins" not having then taken shape.
This shape was given them by the great disturbance of the older crust
of the earth which marked the close of the Palaeozoic period, and
which brought up the carboniferous limestone into the ridges that now
constitute the borders of the basins.

It is this upheaval which has given us access to a vast storehouse
of a material of the greatest value to man. Every Bristolian knows
the use of this limestone, alike for building and for the making of
roads ; and the demand for it in tlie midland counties, to which the
Severn affords an easy water-carriage, hastens the already too rapid
demolition of his beautiful cliffs. When " burned," i. e., reduced by
heat to the condition of " quicklime," it becomes — in virtue of its
peculiar power of combining with water — the basis of all mortars and
cements. It is as indispensable to the iron-smelter as the coal by which
his furnaces are heated, since without its presence he could not reduce

ON A PIECE OF LIMESTONE. 167

the metal from its ores. It is of no less importance in our great clicm-
ical manufactures ; such, for example, as that of alkali and bleaching-
l^owder. And the agriculturist makes large use of lime in increasing
the productiveness of many soils which would be otherwise compara-
tively barren.

Now, let us inquire by what agency, and under what circumstances,
these vast limestone formations were produced.

You all know that, in particular beds of your Avonside rocks„fos-
sils are met with in great abundance, so that any one who looks for
them may find stones that seem almost made up of shells, corals, etc. ;
but in other beds, some of them of great thickness, scarcely any traces
of fossils are found, the whole rock having a uniform sub-crystalline
texture. Now, in regard to the first, it is easy to show that the fos-
sils are not merely imbedded in the rock, as they are in a sandstone or
a clay, but that the rock is really made up of them ; for, when we cut
thin slices of such specimens, and examine them with the microscope,
we find that the " matrix," or uniting material by which the fossils
are held togetlier, is itself composed of minute fragments of the same
organic forms, mingled, it may be, with entire si:)ecimens of minuter
forms. But what are we to say of the massive beds of sub-crystalline
stone, in which no trace of fossils is to be found ? This question we
shall be better able to answer, when we have taken a glance at the
other limestones which present themselves in different parts of the
great geological succession.

The oldest stratified rocks of which we have any knowledge are
those which make up the great Laurentian formation, first investi-
gated by the late Sir William Logan, the distinguished geologist who
was employed by the Government of Canada to examine the geologi-
cal structure of that country. This formation chiefly consists of
quartz, hornblende, felspar, and other mineral constituents, without
any admixture of lime ; but near its base is a very remarkable stratum
of " serpentine limestone," extending over hundreds of square miles,
whicli has a distinctly organic structure. It is composed of a series
of layers, usually very thin, of carbonate of lime alternating with
serpentine (magnesian silicate) ; and the microscopic examination of
the calcareous layers first made by Principal Dawson, of Montreal,
and afterward extended by myself, has satisfied us that the calcareous
layers form a composite fabric of shelly substance, having a regular
chambered arrangement, and that the serj^entine takes the place of
the original animal which occupied these chambers and formed the
shell. The animal resembled, in its extreme simplicity of structure,
the minute "jelly-specks" by which the Globigerina-shells that cover
the Atlantic sea-bed are even now being formed ; and differed from it
only as the animal of a large composite coral mass differs from that
of a simple coral, in extending itself indefinitely by budding ; so tliat
a large continuous zoophytic growth was produced, bearing a strong

i68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

resemblance to a coral-reef, instead of the aggregate of minute and
separate shells which formed the old Chalk, and which is even now
continuing the like formation. I do not know anj' more remarkable
result of microscopic inquiry, than the very distinct evidence it has
afforded, in well-preserved specimens of this Eozoon Canadense, of a
minutely tubular structure, which my own researches into the struct-
ure of the Foraminifera enable me to identify with certainty as be-
longing to that type. For we are thus carried back in geological
time to a period so extremely remote, that (as Sir William Logan re-
marked) the oldest fossils previously known are modern in compari-
son. The investigations of Sir Koderick Murchison have shown that
the equivalent of the Laurentian in this country is the " fundamental
gneiss " of Scotland, which (as I was shown a few days ago by my
friend Mr. Symonds, of Pendock) crops up in the Malvern Hills. Now,
in Central Europe this fundamental gneiss has a thickness of 90,000
feet ; and near its base Prof. Giimbel has recognized the equivalent
of the Canadian Eozoon^ which must have thus preceded the life of
what has been called the " primordial zone," corresponding to our
Cambrian rocks, by an interval of time so great that no geologist
would venture to assign a limit to it.

The Cambrian series, consisting of the grits, sandstones, and slates,
that form the mountains of North Wales, scarcely contain any lime-
stone ; and we may pass from this to the /Silurian^ or Mid- Wales,
series in which we have the well-known Dudley limestone, as well as
other less important seams. A slab of Dudley limestone usually
shows an extraordinary variety of fossils, among which the most con-
spicuous are generally the beaded stems of Encrinites ; the joints of
these stems, when separated by the weathering of the rock, being
known in the north as " St. Cuthbert's beads." The whole of this
limestone is obviously made up of the corals, shells, crinoids, etc.,
which we, find imbedded in it, and of a matrix formed by comminuted
fragments of the like types. A much greater development of these
calcareous beds presents itself in North America, the Trenton lime-
stone occurring in the lower Silurians, and the Niagara limestone iu
the upper; and these rocks have obviously been formed by the same
agency as the Dudley limestone.

Passing on now to the Devonian series, we find beds of limestone
interposed among the sandstones, shales, and' conglomerates, of which
it is chiefly composed ; and these, like the Silurian limestones, are
made up of the fossilized remains of corals, shells, crinoids, etc., more
or less resembling those of earlier age. It is on the Old Red Sandstone,
which is here the uppermost member of the Devonian formation, that,
as I have already pointed out, our Carboniferous series immediately
rests ; its lower beds being distinguished as " limestone shales," on ac-
count of the interposition of seams of shale (formed of a mixture of
sand and clay) between the layers of limestone.

ON A PIECE OF LIMESTONE. 169

Postponing for the present the more detailed inquiry into the
origin of our own Limestone, of which this general survey is the pre-
lude, I pass on to the Permian formation, which rests upon the Car-
boniferous, and has been upheaved with it, having been deposited pre-
viously to the general disturbance that closed the Palseozoic (ancient
life) period. Of this Permian formation there are few traces in our
part of England ; but it has a much greater development in the north,
and to it belongs that remarkable bed of Magnesian limestone which
comes to the surface in Northumberland and Durham. It is of this
stone (selected on account of the durability it has shown in York Min-
ster and other old buildings) that the Houses of Parliament are built.
Now, although very few fossils are found in this rock, yet I believe
that most geologists would agree that it was originally formed, like
limestones generally, by the growth of corals, shells, etc., which sepa-
rated the carbonate of lime from the sea-water they inhabited ; its
subsequent conversion into magnesian limestone having been proba-
bly effected by the infiltration of water in which magnesia was dis-
solved. In the Eozoic limestone of Canada, I have myself frequently
met with veins of dolomite (magnesian limestone), w^hich retain the
general arrangement characteristic of the original shell, although its
minute structure has been obliterated by this metamorphic action.

Passing on now to the Secondary or Mesozoic (middle life) series,
we find that although the Trias, which is the oldest member of it, is
represented in England by sandstones alone, there is an important
bed of limestone in Germany called the Muschelkalk (shell-limestone),
which is interposed between the lower and the upper New Red Sand-
stones. This bed derives its name from the fact that it is obviously
formed by an aggregation of shells, mingled with other fossils, among
which the beautiful Lily Encrinite is one of the most abundant. In
the Lias, which overlies the New Red Sandstone, a considerable por-
tion of lime is generally mingled with the clay deposits of which this
formation is principally composed ; and some of its beds, especially
on the northeast of Yorkshire, are almost entirely calcareous. If you
walk along the shore between Saltburn and Whitby, and examine the
blocks wiiich have fallen from the lias cliffs above, you wnll find them
to be almost entirely made up of fossils ; among which Belemnites —
conical chambered shells, with solid calcareous " guards," which be-
longed to animals resembling cuttle-fishes — are specially abundant.
And here, as elsewhere, the calcareous matrix in which the fossils are
imbedded, though sub-crystalline in some parts, is obviously made up
in others of fragments of shell, etc., ground down by the action of the
sea in which the deposit was formed. The Lias abounds in the neigh-
borhood of Bristol, and is exposed in many railway-cuttings. These,
when in progress some forty years ago, yielded many valuable fossils,
especially skeletons of the great Fish-Lizards, which you will see in
the Museum of the Bristol Institution. In this neighborhood, also,

170 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

you have a splendid illustration of the great Oolitic formation, which
is almost entirely made up of calcareous deposits that can be clearly
traced to an animal origin, although their condition is now very dif-
ferent. The Coral Rag of Oxfordshire is an old coral-reef that has
undergone very little change, consisting of fossil corals, and of the
shells, crinoids, etc., that lived on the reef. And the " freestones "
of Bath and Portland are mainly composed of the fine sand which
was formed by the wearing-down of similar reefs, of which the re-
mains are found here and there. The name " oolite " or roe-stone, is
given to the whole formation, on account of the resemblance in texture
borne by some of its characteristic members to the roe of a fish ; but
this " oolitic " structure is not peculiar to the Oolitic formation, being
found in other limestones, as I shall presently point out to you. A
very curious example of the " metamorphic " action by which the
texture of a calcareous rock may be so completely altered as to con-
ceal its origin is aflibrded, by the fact that the beautiful Carrara marble,
which is used for statuary, belongs to the Oolitic formation. If this
metamorphisra, the nature of which I shall presently explain, proceeds
further, it will produce large crystals of calc-spar ; and I remember
that Mr. Baily, the sculptor of the beautiful statue of " Eve at the
Fountain," which is in your Fine Arts Gallery, was greatly embar-
rassed by a vein of calc-spar that ran through the block from which
he cut it, and had to let a patch of marble into Eve's back. The next
great calcareous formation above the Oolite is the Chalk, the material
of which is exactly the same as that of limestone, although its texture
is so different. Our deep-sea researches have entirely confirmed the
opinion which had been previously formed on the basis of microscopic
research, that the whole of the enormous mass of Chalk now raised
up into the cliffs and downs of the southern portion of England was
formed on the bed of the ocean, by the agency of animals — chiefly the
minute Foraminifera, which separate carbonate of lime from the sea-
water as the material of their shells ; just as successive generations
of fresh- water mussels living in a lake form a bed of calcareous marl
on its bottom by the decay of their shells, which sets free in a solid
form the lime they have taken from the water that poured it into the
lake in solution. We have brought up by the hundred-weight, from
depths of three miles in the Atlantic, a white mud, which, when
dried, exactly resembles chalk ; and this, when examined with the
microscope, is found to consist partly of perfect shells of minute
Globigerince, of which many hundreds would only weigh a grain,
and partly of what we call Globigerina ooze, which is obviously the
product of the decay of former generations of similar shells.

In the Tertiary or Neozic (modern life) series, we find many lime-
stone deposits of considerable importance, but none so vast as those
to which I have previously drawn your attention. The most extensive
is the " nummulitic limestone," which is one of the oldest members

ON A PIECE OF LIMESTONE. 171

of the Eocene formation, the eai-liest of the tertiaries. We find this
limestone forming a heel of considerable thickness on the flanks of the
Pyrenees, and extending from tlie sliores of the Atlantic along the
south of France to the Al^js, in some parts of which it shows a thick-
ness of fifteen hundred feet, thence across to Asia Minor, Northern
India, and probably to the Pacific shore ; while another division of it
ranges along Northern Africa, and is especially noteworthy in Egypt,
where it rises into the hills that border the Nile for a loner distance
above Cairo, and furnishes the stone of which the Pyramids are built,
and out of which the Sphinx is carved. This stone not merely con-
tained numniuUtes, which are Foraminiferal shells much larger than
Globigeringe (sometimes attaining the size of a half-crown), but is en-
tirely made up of them, and of the fragments of those which have
been ground down by the action of the waves, as well as of other
shells inhabiting the same sea ; all cemented into a solid mass by the
process I shall presently describe. Another limestone of more limited
extent, belonging to the Eocene age, is found in the neighborhood of
Paris, and has furnished the material of which that beautiful city is
built. This is entirely made up of the minute Foraminiferal shells
termed 3Iiliolce, from their resemblance in size to grains of millet, and
is known as " miliolite limestone." So in Malta and in the neighbor-
hood of Vienna, there are limestones entirely composed of shells,
corals, and Foraminifera, which were formed in the Miocene or Middle
Tertiary period. And we have on the coast of Sufiblk the calcareous
bed known as the " coralline crag," to which equivalents are found in
various parts of Europe, that belongs to the Pliocene or Later Tei"
tiary period. The material of this bed is chiefly contributed by the
calcareous skeletons of composite animals that formerly ranked as
zo5phytes, but are now distinguished as Polyzoa. Although individu-
ally extremely minute, in fact microscopic, they have a very compli-
cated structure, allied to that of the lower Mollusks ; and they extend
themselves like trees by continuous budding, so that the fabrics they
form often have a stony solidity. They abound in our own seas, and,
as we shall presently find, they extend very far back in geological
time.

Tlius, then, we see that, in the case of the Secondary and Tertiary
limestones, there can be no question of their production by the agency
of animals, which separated carbonate of lime from its solution in
sea-water, and formed it into corals, shells, etc., just as similar animals
are doing at the present time. And we have in these calcareous de-
posits many instances of local " metamorphism," which show that the
existence of a sub-crystalline, or even of a complete crystalline, ar-
rangement in the particles of carbonate of lime is no proof that the
materials of these deposits were not originally drawn from their solu-
tion by the agency which formed those whose organic origin is obvious.
Thus in the neighborhood of the Giant's Causeway, where volcanic

172 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

rocks have "burst up through the chalk which forms a long succession
of fine cliffs on the Antrim coast, this chalk has been so altered in text-
ure as almost to resemble marble, all trace of its original nature be-
ing obliterated. Knowing, as we do, how much more extensive and
potent must have been the agencies which were at work in metamor-
phosing the Palaeozoic rocks, we have no difficulty in accounting for
the fact that vast beds of our Carboniferous Limestone now show lit-
tle or no trace of the organic texture which we believe them to have
originally possessed. That you may better understand the nature of
this metamorphosis, I shall now show you some of the chemical prop-
erties of carbonate of lime, which is the material of all calcareous
rocks alike, whether showing the perfect crystalline form of calc-spar,
the close minutely-crystalline arrangement of marble, the sub-crystal-
line texture of limestone, the " roe-stone " aggregation of oolite, or
the fine powdery condition of chalk.

If we treat a piece of any one of these substances with dilute nitric
or muriatic acid, an effervescence is immediately produced by the lib-
eration of carbonic acid, while the lime is dissolved ; and this gives a
ready way of distinguishing a calcareous from any other rock. In
" burning " limestone, on the other hand, the union of the carbonic
acid and the lime is dissolved by heat ; the carbonic acid is driven off,
and the lime remains behind in the condition of " quicklime." This is
very greedy (so to speak) of carbonic acid, and is always trying to get
it back again. We can dissolve a small quantity of quicklime in
water ; and if we leave this with a large surface exposed to the air,
it gradually recombines with the carbonic acid which it draws from
the air ; and, as the carbonate is nearly insoluble in water, it falls as
a fine white powder, making the water turbid. We may do the same
iji a moment, by blowing through a pipe into a glass of lime-water,
our breath containing a considerable quantity of carbonic acid ; and
we may then clear the liquid again, by a drop or two of nitric or mu-
riatic acid. But, though insoluble in pure water, carbonate of lime is
slightly soluble in water which is already charged with carbonic acid ;
and, as all rain-water brings down carbonic acid from the air, it is ca-
pable of taking up carbonate of lime from the soils and rocks through
which it filters ; and it thus happens that all springs and rivers, that
rise in localities in which thei-e is any kind of calcareous rock, become
more or less charged with carbonate of lime kept in solution by an
excess of carbonic acid. This is what gives the peculiar character lo
water which is known as " hardness ; " and a water hard enough to
curdle soap may be convert*! into a very *' soft " water (as the late
Prof Clark, of Aberdeen, showed) by the simple addition of lime-
water, which, by combining with the excess of carbonic acid, causes
the precipitation of all the lime in solution in the form of insoluble
carbonate, which gradually settles to the bottom, leaving the water
clear. It is this solvent power of water charged with carbonic acid.

ON A PIECE OF LIMESTONE. 17^

which has been the great agent in the metamorphism of many calca-
reous rocks, whereby their texture has been entirely changed, while
their composition remains unaltered ; and it acts with augmented po-
tency where heat and pressure concur to increase it. Of this we have
an example in the action of hot springs highly charged with carbonic
acid, such as we often find in volcanic localities ; it is to such that the
formation of the "travertine" limestone of Italy is due, the carbonate
of lime being slowly deposited almost in the condition of marble, when
the excess of carbonic acid is disengaged, and the water is dispersed
in vapor, by free exposure to air. We have familiar examples of this,
on a more limited scale, in the formation of the " stalactites " which
hang from the roofs of caves in limestone rocks (as at Cheddar), and
in the " stalagmitic " crust formed by their droppings on the floors.

Those who have had opportunities of observing the changes which
have taken place in the condition of recent corals that have been up-
heaved by volcanic action above the level of the sea, in the " area of
elevation " to which Mr. Darwin drew attention forty years ago, assure
us that their texture is often so changed, that detached pieces of them
could not be distinguished from pieces of sub-crystalline limestone.
I well remember having first learned this from Mr. S. Stutchbury, who
was the curator of the museum here when I was a youth, and who was
the first to observe the ring of upraised coral which encircles the cone
of the great volcano of Tahiti, and which belongs to the same type as
that now forming reefs around the coast of that island. He told me
that some specimens of it, which he had collected and brought home,
were treated by his brother, a professed mineralogist, as specimens of
carboniferous limestone. The formation of oolites, again, may be
studied at the present time. When a bed of calcareous sand, formed
by the wearing down of shells or corals, is raised above the sea-level,
and is penetrated by rain-water charged with carbonic acid, this, dis-
solving the carbonate of lime of the surface-layer, deposits it again
around the grains of the deeper layers, which it invests with con-
centric coats. Such oolites present themselves in various geological
epochs, indicating the similarity of the past and present conditions.
There are oolitic beds, for example, in the Clifton rocks ; and we thus
know that these must have been shore formations ; while other beds
seem to have been deep-sea deposits, resembling the Globigerina mud
of the present Atlantic sea-bottom. For there is in Russia a very
extensive bed of limestone belonging to the carboniferous series, which
is as completely composed of FusuUnce (an extinct type of foraminiferji
about the size of a sugar-plum) as the nuramulitic limestone is of num
mulites. In the clay-seams, again, which we sometimes find inter
posed between beds of pure limestone, numerous Foraminifera are
found well preserved, of which some belong to types still living ; and
my friend Mr. H. B. Brady, of Newcastle, who has been lately making
a microscopic study of the Carboniferous Foraminifera, has found their

174 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

remains abundant in specimens of this limestone which do not show
any indications of organic structure that are obvious to the naked eye.
If the Globigerina-mud were to be subjected to the pressure of an
enormous weight of rock deposited above it, and then to the heat and
pressure which we know must have accompanied the great crumpling
of the earth's crust that made the marked separation between the
Paleozoic and the Secondary epochs, we may well believe that it
would have been metamorphosed into a limestone closely resembling
the least fossiliferous of the Avonside rocks ; and we have no difficulty
in accounting for the vast thickness of these beds, if we regard them
as having been progressively formed on the bottom of a very deep
ocean, through a long succession of ages.

That certain beds of the Avonside rocks are ancient Coral-Reefs,
cannot be a matter of question ; for we find them to be entirely made
up of fossil corals, together with the fossilized shells and crinoids
which such reefs would have supported. This was especially the
case with what used to be called the " black rock " under the sea-
wall, which has been nearly all quarried away since, when a boy, I
brought home a piece of it as large as I could carry, wondering at
such an accumulation of fossils, but without any such understanding
of their import as that which I am endeavoring to give you. Every
one has heard of the coral reefs and islands, which are popularly
said to be " built up " in tropical seas by the agency of " insects," as
bees build their waxen combs. ' And I suppose that every one of you
is familiar with specimens of some kind of coral brought home by a
seafaring friend, or has seen such in your musgum. Now, the fact is,
that all these corals are the production of animals resembling in es-
sential points the common sea-anemone, but differing from it in de-
positing a stony skeleton in the fleshy substance which forms its base,
and also in the radiating partitions which surround its stomach. We
have on our own shores a small type of the coral-forming polyps, in
the little Garyophyllla, which, when the animal is expanded, you
would take to be a small sea-anemone, but which, when contracted,
shrinks down into its stony cup. The Fangia of tropical seas is a
much larger solitary polyp of the same kind ; and you will often
meet with its stony disk, four or five inches in diameter, with beauti-
ful thin vertical plates radiating from the centre to the circumference,
very much like the " gills " of the under-side of a mushroom (fungus),
whence its name is derived. But all the more massive corals are the
skeletons of composite animals ; that is, of polyps which bud like
plants, and thus grow to large dimensions. In some cases they form
tree-like structures, in which you will find a multitude of polyp-cells,
sometimes very small, each having its characteristic arrangement of
radiating plates. But in the reef-building corals, the polyp-cells are
packed closely together ; and the older portion becomes so complete-
ly solidified by calcareous deposit that, when broken across, it looks

ON A PIECE OF LIMESTONE. 175

like a stone. This is especially the case with the Meandnna, or brain-
stone coral, so named from the resemblance which its furrowed sur-
face bears to the convoluted surface of the brain ; hemispherical mass-
es of this coral are not unfrequently to be seen in museums having a
diameter of from two to three feet ; and in the upraised coral-cliffs
of Bermuda they are reported to be five or six feet in diameter. The
polyps lie in rows along the furrowed surface, and the active life of
the composite mass does not extend far down ; its stony interior being
the product of its earlier life, as the heart-wood of a tree is the prod-
uct of previous successions of leaf-buds. But it is no more correct to
say that the polyps have built up the stony mass, than it would be to
say that the leaves of a tree build up its woody stem, or that our own
soft parts build up our bony skeleton. The hard parts are formed in
each case by a process of groicth ; soft tissue being first produced as
a "part of the animal body, and this being subsequently solidified by
mineral deposit, the material for vrhich is absorbed by the animal from
the sea-water in which it lives.

The admirable researches of Mr. Darwin have shown us that,
although the reef-building corals seem unable to live and grow at
depths greater than twenty fathoms (one hundred and twenty feet),
yet that if their base gradually subsides, at a rate not greater than
that of coral-growth, the reef or island will be kept up to the surface
by such growth ; so that,*if we could bore down into it, we might
find the coral-structui'e to have a depth of many hundreds or even
thousands of feet. The recent soundings of the Challenger around
the Bermuda islands, which are entirely composed of coral, indicate
that they form the summit of a pillar rising from a depth of twelve
thousand feet ; and as we have no instance of a mountain having such
a shape, it seems probable that the upper part of this pillar, at any
rate, must have been formed of coral, which kept growing upward, in
the manner indicated by Mr. Darwin, while the bottom was slowly
subsiding. It is commonly supposed by geologists that the lime-
stone beds of which I have been speaking are the result of the meta-
morjjhosis of ancient coral formations, which attained their great
thickness by continuous growth at their living surface, as their base
gradually subsided. But it appears to me that all we know of exist-
ing coral formations renders it unlikely that there should have been
such a continuity of area in ancient coral formations, as would be re-
quired to account for the continuity in the area of our great beds of
carboniferous limestone ; and that this continuity is far better account-
ed for by supposing them to have been formed in the manner I pre-
viously indicated — by the foraminiferal life which recent researches
have shown to be even now forming a calcareous deposit over vast
areas of the ocean-bottom.

Thus, then, we should regard the beds which show distinct coral-
structure as representing reefs or islands of limited extent in the

176 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Palteozoic ocean ; while the formation of those beds of vast area, in
which few or no traces of animal life are found, may be fairly referred
to the agency of minute forms, essentially similar to those of the
Old Chalk and of its existing representative (Globigerina-mud), whose
habitation is the deep sea.

No inconsiderable proportion of the calcareous material of some
of the local beds seems to have been furnished by the stems and
bodies of the Crinoids (lily-like animals), which abounded in the
Palaeozoic seas, and of which the representatives at the present time
have been proved by recent deep-sea exploration to be much more
numerous and widely diffused than was previously supposed. I re-
member to have seen these very conspicuous in polished sections of
the old " black rock ; " and certain beds in tlie limestone of Derby-
shire, which are worked for marble chimney-pieces, seem almost en-
tirely composed of their remains. The stems of the Crinoids of the
Carboniferous period were not beaded like those of the Dudley (Silu-
rian) limestone, but were cylindrical in form ; they had, however, the
same jointed structure and central canal ; and you will thus readily
recognize them when cut either longitudinally, transversely, or ob-
liquely.

It has been further recently shown that Polyzoa essentially re-
sembling those of our modern " coralline crag" existed at this epoch,
and had a share in the formation of certain beds of the carboniferous
limestone. There is a particular bed in St. Vincent's rocks, which has
been found by Mr. Stoddart to be composed of fragments of their
delicate calcareous fabrics, with Foraminifera, and other small forms
of animal life ; and he has appropriately named it the microzoic bed.
And Prof. Young, of Glasgow, has been fortunate enough to find, in a
clay-seam of the carboniferous limestone in his neighborhood, a col-
lection of these fabrics preserved entire in the fullest perfection.

Thus we seem justified in the conclusion that the vast strata of
carboniferous limestone, which in England alone must cover tens of
thousands of square miles, and has a thickness of more than two
thousand feet, had their sole origin in the continuous life of innumer
able generations of humble animals, which, in times long past, did
the work that is still being performed in the dej^ths of our own seas
by animals of similar types, which we may believe to be their lineal
descendants. I have shown you how we are indebted to their agency
for the abundant supplies they have provided of a material most
useful — I may say indispensable — to us. Let us take care that, with
our larger capacities and higher aims, we strive to promote the wel-
fare of those who come after us, by doing well, each in his station,
that which our powers and opportunities best fit us to accomplish. —
Author's advance-sheets.

STRANGE MENTAL FACULTIES IN DISEASE. 177
STIIANGE MENTAL FACULTIES IN DISEASE.

By IIEZEKIAII BUTTERWORTH.

THERE are certain mental mysteries associated with peculiar
states of disease, and especially with low, nervous diseases,
Avhich discover unexpected powers of mind, and which illustrate some
•of the conditions on which human life depends, and the laws that
govern its continuance. Among these are certain enlargements of
the perceptive faculties, and a singular power which the mind seems
to possess of acting independently of its organs.

Our attention was recently called to the subject by the mental con-
dition of a near relative, suiFering from extreme nervous debility.
" I am in constant fear of insanity," she said to me one day, " and I
wish I could be moved to some retreat for the insane. I understand
my condition perfectly: my reason does not seem to be impaired, but
I can think of tico things at the same time. This is an indication of
mental unsoundness, and is a terror to me. I do not seem to have
slept at all for the last six weeks. If I sleep, it must be in a suc-
cession of vivid dreams that destroy all impression of somnolence.
Since I have been in this condition, I seem to have very vivid impres-
sions of Avhat happens to my children who are away from home, and
I am often startled to learn that these impressions are correct. I
«eem to have also a certain power of anticipating what one is about
to say, and to read the motives of others. I take no jileasure in this
strange increase of mental power; it is all unnatural; I cannot live
in this state long, and I often wish that I were dead."

The faculty of memory is one of the tirst to be obviously aflected
by disease. When disease for a time seems to suspend the action of
this faculty, or visibly to diminish it, the result is not looked upon as
phenomenal, for it is common and expected. But when disease in-
creases the power of this faculty, a thing not uncommon, the patient
is not unfrequently regarded as possessing more than human wisdom,
and the case usually excites comment as one of great mystery. Dr.
Steinbech mentions the case of a clergyman who, being summoned to
Jidminister the sacrament to an illiterate peasant, found the patient
praying aloud in Greek and Hebrew. The case was deemed wellnigh
miraculous. After the peasant's death, it was found that he was ac-
customed in youth to hear the parish minister pray in those languages,
and it was inferred that he must have been repeating remembered
words without understanding their meaning. Dr. Abercrombie relates
the circumstances of a more remarkable case. A poor shepherd-girl
was for a time accustomed to sleep in a room adjoining that occupied
by an itinerant musician. The man was an artist by education, a lover

VOL. VIII. 12

178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of his profession, and often spent a large portion of the night in practis-
ing difficult compositions. The violin was his favorite instrument.
At last the shepherd-girl fell ill, and was removed to a charitable insti-
tution. Here the attendants were amazed at hearing the most ex-
quisite music in the night, in which were recognized finely-rendered
passages from the best works of the old masters. The sounds were
•traced to the shepherd-girl's room, where the patient was found play-
ing the violin in her sleep. Awake, she knew nothing of these things,
and exhibited no capacity for music.

A late number of the London Medico- Chirurg leal Remeio^ in an
article on apoplexy, speaks of vivid dreams as a common warning in
the first and often unrecognized stages of insanity, heart-disease, and
phthisis, and one that it would be well to better understand and heed.
Vivid dreaming, which in some cases seems to be a mental illumina-
tion, and in others a prophecy of impending ill, precedes many dis-
eases long before the victim is aware of his condition. These dreams
sometimes take the forms of waking fancies, double consciousness,
and what is called mystic memory. In February, 1829, when Sir
Walter Scott was breaking himself down by severe and protracted
literary labor, and was suffering the first invasion of ill health which
ultimately ended in death, he wrote in his diary on the 17th, that, on
the preceding day, at dinner, although in company with two or three
old friends, he was strongly haunted by a "sense of preexistence," a
confused idea that nothing that passed was said for the first time ;
that the same topics had been discussed, and that the same persons
had expressed the same opinions before. " There was," he writes, " a
vile sense of a want of reality in all that I did or said." Goethe re-
lates that, as he was once in 'an uneasy and unhealthy state of mind,
riding along a foot-path toward Drusenheim, he saw himself on horse-
back coming toward himself; and similar stories are told of other
highly-imaginative persons whose mental balance has been disturbed
by over-anxiety or incipient illness.

The states of physical prostration known as coma soinnolentum.
and coma vigil exhibit, in their largest extent, the poetic capacities
of the mind. The impressions, dreams, and illusions, in these condi-
tions, are such as no healthy miud could possibly conceive. The jja-
tient seems to live in a charmed world, amid spectral beings and airy
people, changing lights, luminous heights, and appalling shadows ; in
short, no glowing epic or work of the painter's art seems so much as
to touch upon such richness of imagery. Mrs. Hemans on lier death-
bed said that no pen could describe or imagination conceive the
visions that passed before her mind, and made her waking hours more
delightful than those spent in repose.

Rev. William Tennent, of Freehold, New Jersey, was an overworked
student, and was supposed to be far gone in consumption. In a pro-
tracted illness he apparently died, and the preparations were made

STRANGE MENTAL FACULTIES IN DISEASE. 179

for his funeral. Not only were his friends deceived in his case, which
was one of coma, but he himself was doubly illusioned, for he both
thought that he was dead and that his spirit had entered paradise.
His soul, as he thought, was borne aloft, to celestial altitudes, and
was enraptured with visions of the Deity and angelic hosts. He
seemed to dwell in an enchanted region of limitless light and incon-
ceivable splendor. At last an angel came to him and told him that
he- must go back. Darkness, like an overawing shadow, shut out
the celestial glories, and, full of sudden horror, he uttered a deep
groan. This dismal utterance was heard by those around him, and
prevented him from being buried alive, after all the preparations had
been made for the removal of the body.

In certain forms of physical prostration, the mind seems to the
patient to be capable of unusual freedom; to be in and out of the
body at the same time, to be able to make impressions at a distance,
and to have a knowledge of itself and of events transpiring around
it quite beyond the usual range of the faculties. In analyzing these
seeming powers, it is impossible to separate the imaginary from
what may be real, and to determine the exact limit of mental action.
Plutarch relates that a certain profligate and profane man, named
Thespesius, fell from a great height and was taken up apparently
dead. He remained in a state of seeming insensibility for three days,
but on the day appointed for the funeral unexpectedly revived, and
from this time a remarkable change was observed in his moral con-
duct and character. On inquiry being made as to the cause of the
sudden reformation, he said that, in his state of apparent insensi-
bility, he had been made so clearly to see the relation of mind to
matter as to be convinced of the future existence of the soul. After
his injury he had supposed himself to be dead, and his spirit to be
separated from the body. He had seemed to float in an abysm of
light, and to be surrounded by spirits transcendently bright and glo-
rious. One of the latter at last announced to him that he must return
to the flesh again, when he suddenly seemed to reappear on earth, as
a being from another world. In 1733, Johann Schwerzeger, after a
long illness, fell into a comatose state, from which he recovered. He
said that he had seen as in a vision his whole life pass before him, even
events which, before his sickness, he seemed to have quite forgotten.
He further stated that he thought he was about to enter a state of
rest and happiness, when he was recalled to the world; that he was
sorry to have come back, but that he should remain here but two days.
His death fulfilled the prediction.

But perhaps the most remarkable of all phenomena of this nature
is a certain power a few patients have seemed to possess of " with-
drawing from sensation," of becoming at will insensible to pain, and
of producing a resemblance of death. Colonel Townsend, an English-
man, who died at the end of the last century, had in his last sickness the

i8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

extraordinary power of apparently dying and returning to life again.
"I found his pulse sink gradually," wrote Dr. Cheyne, his medical at-
tendant, " so that I could not feel it by the most exact or nice touch.
Dr. Raymond could not detect tiie least motion of the heart, nor Dr.
Skrine the least soil of the breath upon the bright mirror held to his
mouth. We began to fear that he was actually dead. lie then began
to breathe softly." The colonel tried this experiment a number of times
during his illness, and was able to render himself insensible at will.

Dr. Brown-Sequard, in a course of lectures before the Boston-
Lowell Institute, last winter, illustrated many like remarkable powers
of mind in mental and physical disease, by cases which had come
under his own observ^ation. From such cases it would seem that the
mind is largely dependent on physical conditions for the exercise of
its faculties, and that its strength and most remarkable powers, as
well as its apparent weakness, are often most clearly shown and rec-
ognized by some inequality of action in periods of disturbed and
greatly-impaired liealth.

-•<♦-

PEOGRESSION AND RETROGRESSION.

By Tkof. W. D. gunning.

WE walk along a rocky beacli when the tide is out. Twice every
twenty-four hours this narrow zone is sea and twice it is land.
Its tenants are, as itself, a sort of dividing zone between land and
sea. The Alga3 in the tide-pools will remind you of Conferva? in the
ponds. The littorinje on the rocks will remind you of snails. The
shapeless, gelatinous clumps adhering to rocks oi- whai'f-posts will re-
mind you of garden slugs, or naked snails. We wdll give our atten-
tion first to tliese soft and shapeless chimps.

They will call up no image in the mind until the sea returns, or
until you detach one of them, and drop it into a glass of sea-water.
You have a Dendronotus, or a Doris, or an Eolis, or an Aplysia.

Out of the shapeless chmip comes a form like that of the sing ;
but the slug in our captive is soon disguised, for along its back, from
end to end, rises a fringe of pinkish papilla?. We have an Eolis.
What does Eolis do with these papillae V The last generation of
natui-alists said, " He breathes with them."

The last generation was too sparing of the knife. We cut through
Eolis's back till we reach the stomach, which we find to be a mere ex-
pansion of the intestinal tube. This tiibe extends lengthwise througl)
the body and lies near the dorsal, not the ventral side. It branches,
and the branches branch again, and run up into the pa])illa? which
stand out like quills on an angry porcupine. The j^apilla? are supple*-
mentary stomachs.

PR 0 GRESSION . I ND RETR 0 GRESSI ON.

l8l

Eolis has no liver. With so much stomach it can carry on the
process of digestion -without the aid of that organ, so troublesome to
man and beast. A row of hei)atic cells extending part way along the
intestine represents the rudiment of a liver, or its vestige.

Where ai-e the lungs ? Nowhere — or, rather, everywhere. No
part is specialized and set apart for aerating the blood. In the vital
economy of this sea-slug, there is but little division of labor. The
surface is soft tissue, covered with vibrating cilia, and currents of wa-
ter, set in motion by the cilia, How around the tissue and yield oxygen
to its blood.

Perhaps the gelatinous knob you detached was not an Eolis, If
your knife reaches a stomach which is not arborescent, you may have
a Doris. The dorsal papilhie of Doris are genuine lungs, but they
breathe for only part of the body. They aerate only the blood which
goes to the liver, an organ which appears now, not as a row of bile-
cells, but as a well-defined gland. The foot shares the labor of the
lungs, they breathing for the liver, it for the rest of the body.

FUi. 1.— DOIUS LACINA.

In Eolis the quill-like diverticula of the stomach are placed in rows;
in Doris the leaf-like, moss-like, or flower-like branchiae are gathered
into clusters (Fig, 1). Our first woodcut represents a Doris {Doris
lacina), with two horn-like antenna^ on the head ; and on the back, at
the other extremity, a tuft of crimson leaves finely reticulated and
deeply lobed. The second cut represents a Doris (Doris plumMlata),
with frond-like antemiiB and a luntj resemblins; tufts of delicate sea-
weed wrought into an eight-rayed star. Another Doris wears its lung
like a brilliant flower, another like a begemmed tiara, Doris can
draw his lungs into his body or throw them out at pleasure (Fig. 2),

Dendronotus may be known, as its name implies, by its branching,
tree-like gills. If we leave the rocks and wharf-posts, and examine the
laminaria (oar-weed), or ulva (sea-lettuce), we may find another mem-
ber of this family. Aplysia is known to fishermen under the name
of "sea-hare." A hump on its back calls up the image of a camel
rather than that of a hare. If you make a dissection you will find
that an idea has been borrowed from the camel's stomach as well as

i82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Inimp. Aplysia has a toig of stomaclis, and, what is strange, the teeth
are not inserted in the mouth, but in one of the stomachs. In Aplysia,
the liver is better defined than in Doris, and the leaf-like gills aerate
blood for the whole body.

The classification of these naked mollusks will be as obvioiis now
to the reader as to the observer.

In Eolis no liver, but a few bile-cells representing its rudiment, or
vestige; no lung, every part of the surface respiring for itself; no
well-diflerentiated stomach, but an arborescent intestinal tube.

Fig. 2. — Doris plumulata.

In Doris (sea-leraon), a liver; respiratory organs in the guise of
crown, or star, or leaf, or tufts of sea-weed, organs which serve the
liver only ; a stomach.

In Aplysia (sea-hare), a better liver, respiratory organs in the form
of leaves, organs which serve the whole body ; many stomachs.

Eolis stands lowest, Aplysia highest. The series is suggestive of
the history of organs, if not of species. It invites special attention to
the lung.

In all marine animals except Cetacea, either the entire outer sur-
face absorbs oxygen and exhales carbonic acid, or part of this surface
has been diflTerentiated for the function of respiration. In all mammals,
and birds, and mature reptiles, part of an inner tissue has been difler-
entiated and set apart for the function of. respiration. External re-
spiratory organs rise from the skin. Internal respiratory organs rise
from the skin of the throat. Internal respiratory organs exist in the
fish as a rudiment. External respiratory organs apj^ear in embryotic
mammals as vestiges.

The inner lung begins as a little hollow bud on the throat. This
bud pushes out another and another, and so on till by continuous bud-
ding it becomes a tree-like growth, interlaced with blood-vessels.
Let such a bud start from the outer surface, on the back. It will be-
come, according to the mode of secondary budding, a little tree, or
leaf, or flower of blood-vessels and vascular tissue — such a lung as
adorns the back of Doris.

PROGRESSION AND RETROGRESSION. 183

The history of the inner king is indicated by fishes and amphibians.
The history of the outer king is indicated in these naked moUusks.

EoHs, which shows us the beginning of a Uver, or perhaps tlie
last stage of its reduction, seems to be prehistoric as to tlie gill.
One part of the surface absorbs oxygen as well as another. If we
leave the beach and the Eolids for mid-ocean and the Pteropods, we
shall find the first shadowing forth of a gill. In the Pteropod one
part of the skin is a little more vascular than the rest, and on this part
the blood is more freely oxidized. Now " respiratory activity," as
Spencer has shown, "aids in the development of respiratory append-
iiges." A larger and larger surface is exposed to the water, and this
larger surface, developed partly by Natural Selection, and partly by
respiratory activity itself, is attained in multitudinous branchings of
the mimic tree, and deep sinuosities of the mimic leaf.

But in Doris, which represents a great advance in gill development
over a Pteropod, the gill is still imperfect, and as a respiratory organ
it is supplemented by the creeping disk. In Aplysia the gill is car-
ried up to perfection and aerates all the blood.

In the evolution of an organ we have hints as to the evolution of a
species.

.No interest can attach to such low forms of life as the Eolids un-
less they teach something of the methods of Nature in originating
species. Readers of The Popular Science Monthxy will not give
their attention to mere description or anecdote. Facts they know do
not pass into science until fertilized by ideas. We shall return to
Eolis and its family through a study of forms which the eye, not
aided by the knife, would report as far removed from them.

A raollusk is a soft, fleshy, sac-like body, with a mantle (paUium)
extending from the back in two folds, right and left, around the sides.
In the Bryozoan (moss-animal), whose reticulated coral incrusts many
shells and sea-weeds, the molluscan type reaches down almost to the
polyp. The Bryozoan has a cylindrical body with a tentacular crown.
Structurally it is a mollusk, morphologically a polyp. It would seem
to be a case in the organic world analogous to that in the inorganic,
in which a small portion of a mineral, in crystallizing, forces a large
portion of a foreign mineral into its own crystalline form and masks
the structure under the shape.

The mantle performs important functions, and it will guide us
along a series of transformations. Suppose that the two folds cohere
along their edges. The mantle would then become a kind of sac, in-
closing the body. If we call it a tunic, v/e might say that the animal
is wrapped in its tunic, and this cohei'ing of the tunic-folds would
bring us to the order of Tunicata.

If we put the dredge down fathoms deep into the sea, it may bring
from the bottom a Clavelina, most beautiful of Tunicates. In shape it
is a pitcher without handle, an inch high, tapering down to a slender

i84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

base, which springs from a creeping gelatinous thread. The mantle
is transparent as crystal, and through it you may see, as if suspended
in the cavity of the body, what seems the frilled edge of a ribbon of
snow-white lace. This is Clavelina's lung. A little sac, seen through
the transparent mantle and body walls, contracting and expanding
with a slow and measured beat, is Clavelina's heart.

Another cloaked mollusk is Cynthia. It adheres to rocks or peb-
bles under a few fathoms of ocean, and has something of the form and
color of a blood-peach. It is known to Avatermen under the name of
*' sea-peach." Its mantle is tough and leathery.*

Another and a more interesting member of the cloaked family is
the Salpa. In the structui'e of the heart it marks' an advance on Clave-
lina. Instead of a single pulsating sac, we find an auricle and a ven-
tricle, veins and arteries. But, Nature having advanced from a single
to a double heart, it would seem that she did not vet know how to vise
the improvement. In the Salpa we find the heart incessantly chang-
ing its auricle into a ventricle, its ventricle into an auricle, veins into
arteries, arteries into veins.

The Salpai swim freely in the open sea and occur singly, or united
in long chains or rings. They are phosphorescent, and a chain of
united Salpae appears like a writhing, fiery serpent gliding over the
•waves. The Pyi-osomes, which are free Salpae, congregate in vast
shoals, and in their phosphorescence glare like pillars of fire, green,
tmearthly, elfish.

Let the edges of the mantle unite along part of their surface, but
remain open at the ends. The animal now will not be comjjletely tu-
nicated. It will be inclosed in a kind of funnel. If, now, such a man-
tle be drawn out into a siphon to conduct a current of water to the
gills, it would be of use to the animal in aiding respiration. The
edges of the mantle having united in this way, a siphon-bearing mol-
lusk, like the cockle or solen, would be simply a question of time.
Natural Selection would bring it about.

Let the edges of the mantle not unite at all, we shall have a mol-
lusk something like the oyster.

Remove the shell, and an oyster lies before you in irregular, rag-
ged outline. An opening at the sharper end, which lies near the beak
of the shell, is the mouth. Around the mouth are four leaf-like bodies,
which hang in pairs. The heart is an advance on that of Salpa, n-ot
in structure but in behavior. It has settled down into regular work,
the auricle always an auricle, and the ventricle always a ventricle.
The liver is a decided advance on that of Eolis, although not yet a
well-defined gland. The mantle is a fringed, veil-like membrane,

' It is known that the mantle of many tunicate moUusks is non-azotized matter. Azote
is another name for nitrogen, and in various proportions it is found in animal tissues.
This is a distinguishing feature between animal (azotized) and vegetal (non-azotized),
matter. Chemically the plant meets the animal on the back of a tunicate mollusk.

PROGRESSIOX AND RETROGRESSION. 185

whose folds are not united along their edges. Near the mouth, on the
ventral side, is a portion of the surface a little tougher than the rest.
This toughened surface on the oyster we shall find as significant as
we found the softened vascular patch on the surface of the Pteropod.

The leaf-like bodies which surround the mouth appear as silent
members. In some form or other they are present in all mollusks,
and in the order of Cephalopods tliey reach the maximum of develop-
ment, and appear as long, flexible limbs. In this order — represented
by the Octopus — the moUuscan type reaches the highest expression.
Early in the history of life, the type had unfolded and found expres-
sion in Cephalopods of great bulk and of many species. The Cepha-
lopods have long been a waning dynasty (Fio;. 3).

Fig. 3. — Octopus fulvus.

As we have met the palpi — rudimental in the oyster — in other
guise in oyster's distant relatives, so we will find that toughened por-
tion, so faintly pronounced in the oyster, expressed with greater dis-
tinctness in oysters' nearer relatives. In the mussel this toughened
surface supports a bundle of fibres, which protrudes from the shell
and adheres to a rock or wharf-post. In the cockle we find this same
portion prolonged into a finger-like organ, which performs the office
of locomotion. It is called a foot. In the teredo this "foot" has
reached the maximum of development, as the palpi in Octopus. But
for the rudimental palpi, Ave might look on the oyster as a degraded

i86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

cockle or mussel. But for the toughened surface representing the
cockle's foot, we might regard tlie oyster as a lapsed form of some
ancient Cephalopod.

The mantle secretes the shell, and in all bivalves it lies through its
whole extent against the shell. Now, in all moUusks, the axis of the
body is at first straight, and the body is bisymmetrical. If growth
were arrested at an early stage, all mollusks would look alike, and, if
the embryotic mantle were to secrete a shell, all these arrested growths
would appear as miniature bivalves. They would be symmetrical.
But circumstances determine shapes. The mollusk which, in maturity
as well as infancy, lives in the open sea, will be exposed to like condi-
tions on either side, and Avill retain its bilateral symmetry, A mollusk
which lies on the sea-bottom will be exposed to unlike conditions, one
side being buried in mud and the other bathed in water. As a shrub
which grows against a wall loses its symmetry and becomes one-sided,
so a young oyster, as soon as it leaves off its roving ways, and fixes
its abode on the sea-mud, must begin to develop unsymmetrically.
One side and one valve of the shell outgrow the other side and valve.
In the Gryphgea, an ancient sjjecies of oyster, this over-development of
one side is carried further, and, while the right valve is small and flat,
the left is deep and partially rolled up. In the Gasteropods, except
Chiton, this one-sidedness is cai*ried still further. One side outgrows
the other so much that the body takes a spiral form, and one valve,
secreted by one fold of the mantle, appears as a spiral shell, while the
other valve, secreted by the aborted fold of the mantle, appears as an
operculum — a little shelly disk known under the name of "eye-stone,"
In the snail this one-sided development is carried to the highest pitch
of asymmetry. Overgrowth of the right side forces it into a spiral,
and the right valve twists around with the body it incloses, while the
left valve, which, in the marine Gasteropod, we had found reduced to
an operculum, is here completely eliminated.

From the cloaked clavelina to the oyster, we were led, stej) by
step, along successive modifications of the mantle. From the oyster
to the snail we have passed, step by step, along successive stages of
one-sided over-development. The facts have shown that a bivalve mol-
lusk could not have descended from a univalve. As all mollusks in
early lifQ have the axis of the body straight, and the parts symmetri-
cally arranged on either side, we may infer that bilateral symmetry
characterized the remote ancestors of the molluscan type. Now,
while a mollusk is bisymmetrical or nearly so, if the mantle secretes a
shell it must be in in two parts, or, as in Chiton, in many parts. The
snail is the last term of our series, and its successive stages of growth
should indicate the path along which Nature has moved in the evolu-
tion of the unsymmetrical Gasteropod from a symmetrical, oyster-
like bivalve (Fig. 4),

Lereboullet has made out the embryology of Linmeus, a fresh-

PROGRESSION ANJJ RETROGRESSION.

187

water snaiJ. We need not follow liim into details. It will be enougli
for our purpose to note that from a " mulberry mass " — the egg after
segmentation of the yelk — there comes a sort of hemispherical cup.
The mouth of the cup changes from a circle to a long slit, and the
edges of the slit unite except at one point. The embryo has now
taken on the moUuscan type. The aperture along the line of the slit
is the opening to the sac, the mouth to the coming snail. The line
along Avhich the approximated sides of the cup have united is in the
trend of a plane which divides the body into right and left sides, equal

r \ }n

1 /

ma

'I

c'

Fig. 4.— Symmetry. Embryotic Snail : m, mouth ; 7na, mantle ; c, creeping disk ; ?«, intestine ;
7i, heart (.auricle and ventricle in line with the intestinal tube) ; r, remnants of yolk-cell.

and similar. The mantle has begun to form, and as a sort of cap it
covers the part of the body opposite the mouth. The intestine begins
in a little depression under the mantle and in line with the mouth and
stomach. This depression is elongated, becomes a tube, and opens
into the stomach. A few days later, traces of a heart appear as two
pulsating, globular sacs, placed end to end (Fig. 5).

If development were arrested at this stage, our snail would be bi-
symmetrical, and, if it had a shell, the shell would be in two equal
valves, right and left. But development goes on, and now every step
is a departure from right and left symmetry. First, the intestine gets
a, twist. Other organs are quick to follow. Even the heart moves
askance. The two chambers which, a while before, were placed end
to end in line with the axis of the body, begin to change position.
The receiving chamber moves obliquely to the right and downward,
the distributing chamber to the left and upward. The right fold of
the mantle spreads rapidly ; the left, not at all. The right side of the
body grows rapidly ; the left remains almost stationary. The right
valve of the shell grows rapidly, and twists over with the inclosed
body ; the left is completely aborted. Now, it is a very significant
fact that the only parts which do not share this one-sided overgrowth
are the head and creeping disk ; and these are the parts Avhich, not
being covered by the mantle, do not become incased in the shell. Ex-
posed to the water or the air equally on botli sides, they retain their
bilateral symmetry.

i88

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

From a sac-like body, moving freely through the water, and thus
exposed equally on both sides to the same environment, and therefore
bisymmetrical, we may suppose that all mollusks have been derived.
If such a free-moving body became fixed, unless as a stemmed Ascid-
ian, its parts would be diiFerently conditioned as to environment,
and the side more favored would outgrow the other. As the first part
of the snail's body to bend out of line with the axis is the intestinal
canal, we infer that this bend occurred far back in the snail's ancestry.
It occurs in the oyster. As the last organ to share the general twist
resulting from unequal growth of the sides is the heart, we infer that
displacement of this organ occmTed later down in the history of the
type. It does not occur in the oyster.

Fig. 5.— Asymmetry. Adult Snail: op, optic tentacle; oe, (ssophagus ; en, cephalic ganglion;
g, gizzard ; ,«, htomach : I, liver ; L intestine (bent out of line with the axis of the body) ; h,
heart (auricle and ventricle not in line with axis or intestinal tube); v, vent.

The first step toward a spiral-shelled gasteropod was taken in the
fii'St molhisk whose environment on one side was mud or rock, and on
the other water. Diftbrence of environment was the first factor in this
series of evolutions. Only this would induce one-sidedness, and act-
ing through long periods it might induce excessive one-sidedness. It
might carr}^ an oyster as far along in asymmetrical growth as the
partially rolled-up oyster called Gry])ha?a. When asymmetry came to
be of advantage to the animal. Natural Selection began and carried
it to greater excess, with the aid of other factors — for Nature is too

PROGRESSION AND RETROGRESSION. 189

rich to be limited to one or two efficient causes — carried it to tlie order
of Gasteropods.

In this order we find Eolis, and Doris, and Aplysia, From them
our studies have ranged over kindred, near and remote. From their
kindred we return, prepared by wliat we have found to interpret them.
In form, these animals do not depart from bilateral symmetry, as from
.their habits they should not. Each side is exposed in the same way
to the same environing element. But the alimentary canal is bent out
of line with tlie axis of the body. The reproductive system is still
more askance. It is altogether one-sided. Very suggestive facts.
We find one-sided growth witliout the conditions whicli induce it.
These conditions must Jiave i)ertained to an ancestor. The bend in the
alimentary canal and the displacement of the reproductive organs
have been inherited from an ancestor so conditioned in the environ-
ment as to produce overgrowth of one side. But the alimentary canal
does not bend out of line so much as in the shell-bearing Gasteropods ;
and in Eolis — in which the last vestige of a shell has disappeared —
the canal has bL^come straight. Anotlier suggestive fact. AYe find in
these naked mollusks heredity and abbreviated heredity.' Aplysia
and Doris inherit the ancestral twist. In Eolis the heritage is cut off.

From symmetry to asymmetry, from a bivalve to a univalve, Na-
ture has moved, closing a cycle of evolution in the snail ; from asym-
metry back to symmetry, from a shell-bearer to a non-shell-bearer,
she is moving in the sea-slugs. In this retrogression, Aplysia has
shared the least. It retains the largest shell-vestige ; it has the most
perfect liver; its gills cover the mantle. Eolis has been carried back
the farthest. In this retrogressive movement wc may find the rationale
of Aj)lysia's many stomachs, and Eolis's branching stomach and he-
patic cells. In the snail, perhaps in all Gasteropods, the alimentary

' To accuuut for the facts of heredity, Darwiu has formulated a theory called Pan-
ffenexis. To account for the facts of heredity and abbreviated heredity Dr. Elsberg has
proposed a theory which he calls " the Conservation of the Organic Molectile." The
biologist must be allowed as much " scientific use of the imagination" as the physicist.
If the one must have his atoms and molecules, the other must have his physio-
logical units, his plastic molecules, his ^^ plastichiles." Let us imagine the first pair of
any race, say the human race. A child of the Adam and Eve would be derived wholly
Irom its parents, and, if the plastidules which passed into the embryo were derived
equally from each parent, one-half of the Adam would be represented in the child. Now,
if some of these organic molecules were to remain latent in the body of the offspring, and
pass unchanged into the offspring of the next generation, a smaller portion of the Adam
would be repeated in ths grandchild. We are to supp6se that each plastidule carries so
much of the parent, potentially, into the child. At each successive generation less and
less of the Adamic plastidules would appear, and less and less of the Adam. "We should
have a fractional series with unity for numerator, and an ever-increasing number for
denominator. At last we should reach a term whose denominator would be infinitely
large. It would express the complete elimination of the Adamic plastidules. Now, so
long as any plastidules of an ancestor of any degree of remoteness remain, so long will
the man or the animal inherit something from that ancestor ; so long will atavism occur.
When all plastidules of such ancestor are cut oif, we have abbreviated heredity.

190 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

canal develops isolately, a section here and another there. Now, a
stonaach is simply an expanded portion of the canal. Let the tract
of the canal he laid in isolated openings, let these openings he elon-
gated, each, into a tube, and let the original openings be marked as
pouches along this continuous tube, and we have Aplysia's row of
stomachs. It is after the pattern of the digestive tube of an embry-
otic Gasteropod.

In Eolis the branching alimentary canal lies along the dorsal side,
not the ventral. In getting itself straight, it seems to have got itself
as near the dorsal papilla? as possible. Now, these papillae, for a long
time mistaken for lungs, for a long time, perhaj^s, were lungs. AV e
have found that in Doris the gills are connected only with the diges-
tive system, and we may suppose that in some ancestral form of Eolis
pajjilliform gills were connected with this system in the same way,
that is, through the liver. Only a slight departure from the normal
development Avould transfer the connection of a gill-bud from one part
of the digestive system to another, from the liver to the stomach. If,
then, it would be for the advantage of the animal to have more stom-
ach, we can see how, by Natural Selection, all the gill-buds or papillae
would, in the end, cease to respire for the liver and become diverticula
of the stomach. What would become of the liver? Losing its lung,
it would sufter degradation. It would abort, lapse into a few hepatic
cells, and become a mere vestige.

The naked Tunicates are intelligible as initial terms of a molluscan
series. The naked Gasteropods are intelligible as final terms of a de-
scending series, as impoverished heirs of an ancient house.

We have chosen for our study these slugs of the sea to develop a
phase of evolution not generally understood. Evolution does not
imply an unbroken course of progression. It does not imply a ten-
dency in every thing to become something else and better. It is de-
termined by many factors, inner and outer, and, as Spencer has shown,
*' the cooperation of inner and outer factors works changes until an
equilibrium is reached between tlie organism and its environment."

On the deep-sea bottom the environing actions remain constant
age after age, and we find that in the abyssal world a number of spe-
cies have remained constant since the Cretaceous epoch. On the sur-
face of the sea and on the beach, the conditions of life have not been
constant, and surface and littoral species have been moi-e subject
to change. The air is more fickle than the sea. It is now warm
and now cold ; now moist and now dry ; now in motion and now
at rest: and the aerial fauna must oppose to these outer factors a
corresponding adjustment of inner factors. The fauna of this ele-
ment we should find the most unstable, and so we do. The only
insect known to have come down to our times from times so remote
as the Cretaceous, unchanged or changed but little, is the tiger-
beetle of our sea and lake shores, and tlie uplands of Colorado. More-

PROGRESSION AND RETROGRESSION.

191

over, an insect at rest is not conditioned as an insect in the air. Let
it forsake little by little its aerial life, and rest longer and longer on
other bodies. In time it becomes a parasite. The structnre it had
acquired while in the air becomes useless. The environment being-
more stable, the opposing actions within are reduced, and the organ-
ism lapses into a simpler form. In the insect world we should find
the largest number of retrograded species, and so we do. Fleas,
bugs, the dream of which sends a shudder through our sleep, creep-
ers in the hair, burrowers in the flesh, form a descending, series, each
order carrying with it, in the form of vestiges, reminiscences of a
higher state when, as winged insects, its ancestors lived in the
open air.

Retrogression of this kind has aflected higher orders. An am-
phibious mammal, taking less to the land and more to the water,
would lapse in time into a simpler form. The studies of Prof. Wilder
on the embryotic dugong seem to show that dugongs and manatees
have descended by retrogression from some ancient hippopotamoid
mammal.

Retrogression, whose rationale is not found in our studies on the
Eolids, has affected still higher orders. If the elephants of our day
are descendants of the mastodons and mammoths which, in Pleisto-
cene days, possessed North America and Europe, as the investiga-
tions of Gaudry wellnigh demonstrate ; if the living tigers and lions
have descended from species whose remains abound in ancient caves,
as is probable; if the "grizzly" of the Rocky Mountains is a modified
form of the great cave-bear, once so common in Europe, as naturalists
believe ; if the anthropoid apes of Africa and tropical Asia are sur-
vivals from a race which spread beyond the tropics and ranked some-
what nearer to man, as the Mesopithecus of Greece and Dryopithecus
of France testify out of Miocene strata, the proboscidians, carnivores,
and primates have all sufiered retrogression, and, at the advent of
man, life having reached its zenith, animal life began a downward
curve. If, in the main, the higher has followed the loAver, within
this cycle of progression the struggle for life would involve another
cycle of retrogression. As the savage in pi'esence of civilization
often sinks to lower savagery, so a species, outstripped in the race of
life, and left hopelessly behind, degenerates, and finally dies.

And as the two cycles, progression and retrogression, are involved
in the life-history of the earth, so the two movements may go on simul-
taneously in the same species. Man himself is such a species. His
brain, and its servant, the hand, have attained the utmost develop-
ment. His digestive system and his foot have been modified but
little from a primitive type. Progression above in that Avhich is most
distinctively human may involve retrogression below in that which is
distinctively animal.

192 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

GEOGRAPHY AXD EVOLUTION.'

By Lieutenant-General E. STKACHEY, F. K. S.

IN" accordance with the practice followed for some years past by
tlie presidents of the sections of the British Association, I pro-
pose, before proceeding with our ordinai'y business, to oiFer for your
consideration some observations rehative to the branch of knowledge
with which this section is more specially concerned.

My predecessors in this chair have, in their opening addresses,
viewed geography in many various lights. Some have drawn atten-
tion to recent geographical discoveries of interest, or to the gradual
progress of geographical knowledge over the earth generally, or in
particular regions. Others have spoken of the value of geographical
knowledge in the ordinary affiiirs of men, or in some of the special
branches of those affairs, and of the means of extending such knowl-
edge. Other addresses, again, have dwelt on the jDractical influence
produced by the geographical features and conditions of the various
parts of the earth on the past history and present state of the several
sections of the human race, the formation of kingdoms, the growth of
industry and commerce, and the spread of civilization.

The judicious character of that part of our organization which
leads to yearly clianges among those who preside over our meetings,
and does not attempt authoritatively to prescribe the direction of our
discussions, will no doubt be generally recognized. It lias the obvious
advantage, among others, of insuring that none of the multifarious
claims to attention of the several branches of science shall be made
undub/ prominent, and of giving opportunity for viewing the subjects
which from time to time come before the Association in fresh aspects
by various minds.

Following, then, a somewhat different path from those who have
gone before me in treating of geography, I propose to speak of the
physical causes which have impressed on our planet the present out-
lines and forms of its surface, have brought about its present condi-
tions of climate, and have led to the development and distribution of
the living beings found upon it.

In selecting this subject for my opening remarks, I have been not
a little influenced by a consideration of the present state of geographi-
cal knowledge, and of the probable future of geographical investiga-
tion. It is plain that the field for mere topographical exploration is
already greatly limited, and that it is continually becoming more
restricted. Although no doubt much remains to be done in obtain-
ing detailed maps of large tracts of the earth's surface, yet there is

' Address of the President of Section E, at the Bristol Meeting of the British As-
sociation.

GEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION.

193

but comparatively a very small area with the essential features of
which we are not now fairly well acquainted. Day by day our maps
become more complete, and with our greatly-improved means of com-
munication the knowledge of distant countries is constantly enlarged
and more widely diifused. Somewhat in the same proportion the de-
mands for more exact information become more pressing. The neces-
sary consequence is an increased tendency to give to geographical in-
vestigations a more strictly scientific direction. In proof of this I
may instance the fact that the two British naval expeditions now
being carried on, that of the Challenger and that of the arctic seas,
have been organized almost entirely for general scientific research,
and comparatively little for topographical discovery. Narratives of
travels, which not many years ago might have been accepted as valu-
able contributions to our then less perfect knowledge, would now per-
haps be regarded as superficial and insufficient. In short, the stand-
ard of knowledge of travelers and writers on geography must be raised
to meet the increased requirements of the time.

Other influences are at work tending to the same result. The
great advance made in all branches of natural science limits more and
more closely the facilities for original research, and drawls the ob-
server of Nature into more and more special studies, while it renders
the acquisition by any individual of the highest standard of knowledge
in more than one or two special subjects comparatively difficult and
rare. At the same time the mutual interdependence of all natural
phenomena daily becomes more apparent ; and it is of ever-increasing
importance that there shall be some among the cultivators of natural
knowledge who specially direct their attention to the general relations
existing among all the forces and phenomena of Nature. In some im-
portant branches of such subjects, it is only through study of the local
physical conditions of various parts of the earth's surface and the com-
plicated phenomena to which they give rise that sound conclusions
can be established ; and this study constitutes physical or scientific
geography. It is very necessary to bear in mind that a large portion
of the phenomena dealt with by the sciences of observation relates to
the earth as a whole in contradistinction to the substances of which it
is formed, and can only be correctly appreciated in connection with
the terrestrial or geographical conditions of the place where they
occur. On the one hand, therefore, while the proper prosecution of
the study of physical geography requires a sound knowledge of the
researches and conclusions of students in the special branches of sci-
ence, on the other, success is not attainable in the special branches
without suitable apprehension of geographical facts. For these rea-
sons it appears to me that the general progress of science will involve
the study of geography in a more scientific spirit, and with a clearer
conception of its true function, which is that of obtaining accurate
notions of the manner in Avhich the forces of Nature have brought

VOL. VIII. — 13

194 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

about the varied conditions characterizing the surface of the planet
which we inhabit.

In its broadest sense science is organized knowledge, and its
methods consist of the observation and classification of the phenom-
ena of which we become conscious through our senses, and the inves-
tigation of the causes of which these are the effects. The first step
in geography, as in all other sciences, is the observation and descrip-
tion of the phenomena with which it is concerned; the next is to clas-
sify and compare this empirical collection of facts, and to investigate
their antecedent causes. It is in the first branch of the study that
most progress has been made, and to it indeed the notion of geogra-
phy is still popularly limited. The other branch is commonly spoken
of as phj^sical geography, but it is more correctly the science of
geography.

Tiie progress of geography has thus advanced from first rough
ideas of relative distance between neighboring places, to correct views
of the earth's form, precise determinations of position, and accurate
delineations of the surface. The first impressions of the differences
observed between distant countries were at length corrected by the
perception of similarities no less real. The characteristics of the
great regions of polar cold and equatorial heat, of the sea and land,
of the mountains and plains, were appreciated ; and the local varia-
tions of season and climate, of wind and rain, were more or less fully
ascertained. Later, the distribution of plants and animals, their oc-
currence in groups of peculiar structure in various regions, and the
circumstances under w^hich such groups vary from place to place, gave
rise to fresh conceptions. Along with these facts were observed the
peculiarities of the races of men — their physical form, languages, cus-
toms, and history — exhibiting on the one hand striking differences in
different countries, but on the other often connected by a strong
stamp of similarity over large areas.

By the gradual accumulation and classification of such knowledge
the scientific conception of geographical unity and continuity was at
length formed, and the conclusion established that while each differ-
ent part of the earth's surface has its special characteristics, all ani-
mate and inanimate Nature constitutes one general system, and that
the particular featui-es of each region are due to the operation of uni-
versal laws acting under varying local conditions. It is upon such a
conception that is now brought to bear the doctrine, very generally
accepted by the naturalists of our own country, that each successive
phase of the earth's history, for an indefinite period of time, has been
derived from that which preceded it, under the operation of the forces
of Nature as we now find them ; and that, so far as observation justi-
fies the adoption of any conclusions on such subjects, no change has
ever taken place in those forces, or in the properties of matter. This
doctrine is commonly spoken of as the (doctrine of evolution, and

GEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION. 195

it is to its application to geography that I wish to direct your at-
tention.

I desire here to remark that, in wliat I am about to say, I altogether
leave on one side all questions relating to the origin of matter, and of
the so-called forces of Nature which give rise to the properties of mat-
ter. In the present state of knowledge such subjects are, I conceive,
beyond the legitimate field of physical science, which is limited to dis-
cussions directly arising on facts within the reach of observation, or
on reasonings based on such facts. It is a necessary condition of the
progress of knowledge that the line between what properly is or is
not within the reach of human intelligence is ill defined, and that
opinions will vary as to where it should be drawn : for it is the
avowed and successful aim of science to keep this line constantly
shifting by pushing it forward ; many of the efforts made to do this
are no doubt founded in error, but all are deserving of respect that
are undertaken honestly.

The conception of evolution is essentially that of a passage to the
state of things which observation shows us to exist now, from some
preceding state of things. Applied to geography, that is to say to
the present condition of the earth as a whole, it leads up to the con-
clusion that the existing outlines of sea and land have been caused
by modifications of j^reexisting oceans and continents, brought about
by the operation of forces which are still in action, and which have
acted from the most remote past of which we can conceive ; tliat all
the successive forms of the surface — the depressions occupied by the
waters, and the elevations constituting mountain-chains — are due to
these same forces ; tliat these have been set up, first, by the secular
loss of heat which accompanied the original cooling of the globe; and
second, by the annual and daily gain or loss of heat received from the
sun acting on the matter of which the earth and its atmosphere are
composed ; that all variations of climate are dependent on differences
in the condition of the surface; that the distribution of life on the
earth, and the vast varieties of its forms, are consequences of contem-
poraneous or antecedent changes of the forms of the surface and cli-
mate ; and thus that our planet as we now find it is the result of
modifications gradually brought about in its successive stages, by the
necessary action of the matter out of Avhich it has been formed, under
the influence of the matter which is external to it.

I shall state briefly the grounds on which these conclusions are
based.

So far as concerns the inorganic fabric of the earth, that view of
its past history which is based on the principle of the persistence of
all the forces of Nature may be said to be now universally adopted.
This teaches that the almost infinite variety of natural phenomena
arises from new combinations of old forms of matter, under the action
of new combinations of old forms of force. Its recofrnition has, how-

196 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ever, been comparatively recent,. and is in a great measure due to the
teachings of that eminent geologist, the late Sir Charles Lyell, whom
we have lost during the past year.

When we look back by the help of geological science to the more
remote past, through the epochs immediately preceding our own, we
find evidence of marine animals — which lived, were reproduced, and
died — possessed of organs proving that they were under the influence
of the heat and light of the sun ; of seas whose waves rose before the
winds, breaking down clifis, and forming beaches of bowlders and
pebbles ; of tides and currents spreading out banks of sand and mud,
on which are left the impress of the ripple of the water, of drops of
rain, and of the tracks of animals ; and all these appearances are pre-
cisely similar to those we observe at the present day as the result of
forces which we see actually in operation. Every successive stage,
as we recede in the past history of the earth, teaches the same lesson.
The forces which are now at work, whether in degrading the surface
by the action of seas, rivers, or frosts, and in transporting its frag-
ments into the sea, or in reconstituting the land by raising beds laid
out in the depth of the ocean, are traced by similar effects as having
continued in action from the earliest times.

Thus pushing back our inquiries we at last reach the point where
the apparent cessation of terrestrial conditions such as now exist re-
quires us to consider the relation in which our planet stands to other
bodies in celestial space ; and, vast though the gulf be that separates
us from these, science has been able to bridge it. By means of spec-
troscopic analysis it has been established that the constituent elements
of the sun and other heavenly bodies are substantially the same as
those of the earth. The examination of the meteorites which have
fallen on the earth from the interplanetary spaces shows that they
also contain nothing foreign to the constituents of the earth. The
inference seems legitimate, corroborated as it is by the manifest phys-
ical connection between the sun and the planetary bodies circulating
around it, that the whole solar system is formed of the same desci'ip-
tions of matter, and subject to the same general physical laws. These
conclusions further support the supposition that the earth and other
planets have been formed by the aggregation of matter once diffused
in space around the sun ; that the first consequence of this aggrega-
tion was to develop intense heat in the consolidating masses ; that
the heat thus generated in the terrestrial sphere was subsequently
lost by radiation; and that the surface cooled and became a solid
crust, leaving a central nucleus of much higher temperature within.
The eartli's surface appears now to have reached a temperature which
is virtually fixed, and on which the gain of heat from the sun is, on
the whole, just compensated by the loss by radiation into surround-
ing space.

Such a conception of the earliest stage of the earth's existence is

GEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION. 197

commonly accepted, as in accordance with observed facts. It leads
to the conclusion that the hollows on the surface of the globe occu-
pied by the ocean, and the great areas of dry land, were original
irregularities of form caused by unequal contraction ; and that the
mountains were corrugations, often accompanied by ruptures, caused
by the strains developed in the external crust by the force of central
attraction exerted during cooling, and were not due to forces directly
acting upward generated in the interior by gases or otherwise. It
has recently been very ably argued by Mr. Mallet that the phenomena
of volcanic heat are likewise consequences of extreme pressures in the
external crust, set up in a similar manner, and are not derived from
the central heated nucleus.

There may be some difficulty in conceiving how forces can have
been thus developed sufficient to have j^roduced the gigantic changes
which have occurred in the distribution of land and water over im-
mense areas, and in the elevation of the bottoms of former seas so
that they now form the summits of the highest mountains, and to
have effected such changes within the very latest geological epoch.
These difficulties in great measure arise from not employing correct
standards of space and time in relation to the phenomena. Vast
though the greatest heights of our mountains and depths of our seas
may be, and enormous though the masses which have been put into
motion, when viewed according to a human standard, they are insig-
nificant in relation to the globe as a whole. Such heights and depths
(about six miles) on a sphere of ten feet in diameter ^vould-be repre-
sented on a true scale by elevations and depressions of less than the
tenth part of an inch, and the average elevation of the whole of the
dry land (about one thousand feet) above the main level of the surface
would hardly amoxxnt to the thickness of an ordinary sheet of paper.
The forces developed by the changes of the temperature of the earth
as a whole must be proportionate to its dimensions ; and the results
of their action on the surface in causing elevations, contortions, or dis-
ruptions of the strata, cannot be commensurable with those produced
by forces having the intensities, or by strains in bodies of the dimen-
sions, with which our ordinary experience is conversant.

The difficulty in respect to the vast extent of past time is perhaps
less great, the conception being one with which most persons are now
more or less familiar. But I would remind you that, great though
the changes in human affairs have been since the most remote epochs
of which we have records in monuments or history, there is nothing
to indicate that within this period has occurred any appreciable modi-
fication of the main outlines of land and sea, or of the condition of
climate, or of the general characters of living creatures ; and that the
distance that separates us from those days is as nothing when com-
pared with the remoteness of past geological ages. No useful ap-
proach has yet beeu made to a numerical estimate of the duration

198 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

even of that portion of geological time which is nearest to us ; and
we can say little more than that the earth's past history extends over
hundreds of thousands or millions of years.

The solid nucleus of the earth with its atmosphere, as we now find
them, may thus be regarded as exhibiting the residual phenomena
which have resulted on its attaining a condition of practical equi-
librium, the more active process of aggregation having ceased, and
the combination of its elements into the various solid, liquid, or gas-
eous matters found on or near the surface having been completed.
During its passage to its present state many wonderful changes must
have taken place, including the condensation of the ocean, which must
have long continued in a state of ebullition, or bordering on it, sur-
rounded by an atmosphere densely charged with watery vapor. Apart
from the movements in its solid crust caused by the general cooling
and contraction of the earth, the higher temperature due to its earlier
condition hardly enters directly into any of the considerations that
arise in connection with its present climate, or with the changes dur-
ing past time which are of most interest to us ; for the conditions of
climate and temperature at present, as well as in the period during
which the existence of life is indicated by the presence of fossil re-
mains, and which have affected the production and distribution of
organized beings, are dependent on other causes, to a consideration
of which I now proceed.

The natural phenomena relating to the atmosphere are often ex-
tremely complicated and difficult of explanation ; and meteorology is
the least advanced of the branches of physical science. But sufficient
is known to indicate, without possible doubt, that the primary causes
of the great series of phenomena, included under the general term
climate, are the action and reaction of the mechanical and chemical
forces set -in operation by the sun's heat, "\aried from time to time and
from place to place, by the influence of the position of the earth in
its orbit, of its revolution on its axis, of geographical position, eleva-
tion above the sea-level, and condition of the surface, and by the
great mobility of the atmosphere and the ocean.

The intimate connection between climate and local geographical
conditions is everywhere apparent ; nothing is more striking than the
great differences between neighboring places where the effective local
conditions are not alike, which often far surpass the contrasts attend-
ing the widest separation possible on the globe. Three or four miles
of vertical height produce effects almost equal to those of transfer
from the equator to the poles. The distribution of the great seas and
continents gives rise to periodical winds — the trades and monsoons —
which maintain their general characteristics over wide areas, but pre-
sent almost infinite local modifications, whether of season, direction,
or force. The direction of the coasts and their greater or less conti-
nuity greatly influence the flow of the currents of the ocean ; and

GEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION. 199

these, with the periodical winds, tend ou the one hand to equalize the
temperature of the whole surface of the earth, and on the other to
cause surprising variations within a limited area. Ranges of moun-
tains, and their position in relation to the periodical or rain-bearing
winds, are of primary importance in controlling the movements of
the lower strata of the atmosphere, in which, owing to the laws of
elastic gases, the great mass of the air and watery vapor are concen-
trated. By their presence they may either constitute a barrier across
which no rain can pass, or determine the fall of torrents of rain around
them. Their absence or their unfavorable position, by removing the
causes of condensation, may lead to the neighboring tracts becoming
rainless deserts.

The difficulties that arise, in accounting for the phenomena of cli-
mate on the earth as it now is, are naturally increased when the
attempt is made to explain what is shown by geological evidence to
have happened in past ages. The disposition has not been wanting to
get over these last difficulties by invoking supposed changes in the
sources of ten-estrial heat, or in the conditions under which heat has
been received by the earth, for which there is no justification in fact,
in a manner similar to that in which violent departures from the ob-
served course of Natui-e have been assumed to account for some of
the analogous mechanical difiiculties.

Among the most perplexing of such climatal problems are those
involved in the former extension of glacial action of various sorts
over areas which could hardly have been subject to it under existing
terrestrial and solar conditions ; and in the discovery, conversely, of
indications of far higher temperatures at certain places than seems
compatible with their high latitudes ; and in the alternations of such
extreme conditions. The true solution of these questions has appar-
ently been found in the recognition of the disturbing efiects of the
varying eccentricity of the earth's orbit, which, though inappreciable
in the comparatively few years to which the affairs of men are limited,
become of great importance in the vastly increased period brought
into consideration when dealing with the history of the earth. The
changes of eccentricity of the orbit are not of a nature to cause ap-
preciable differences in the mean temperature either of the earth gen-
erally or of the two hemispheres ; but they may, when combined with
changes of tlie direction of the earth's axis caused by the precession
of the equinoxes and nutation, lead to exaggeration of the extremes
of heat and cold, or to their diminution ; and this would appear to
supply the means of explaining the observed facts, though doubtless
the detailed application of the conception will long continue to give
rise to discussions. Mr. Croll, in his book entitled " Climate and
Time," has recently brought together with much research all that can
now be said on this subject ; and the general correctness of that part
of his conclusions which refers to the periodical occurrence of epochs

200 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of greatly-increased winter cold and summer beat in one hemisphere,
combined with a more equable climate in the other, aj^pears to me to
be fully established.

These are the considerations which are held to prove that the in-
organic structure of the globe through all its successive stages — the
earth beneath our feet, with its varied surface of land and sea, moun-
tain and plain, and with its atmosphere which distributes heat and
moisture over that surface — has been evolved as the necessary re-
sult of the original aggregation of matter at some extremely remote
period, and of the subsequent modification of that matter in condi-
tion and form under the exclusive operation of invariable physical
forces.

From these investigations we carry on the inquiry to the living
creatures -found upon the earth : what are their relations one to an-
other, and what to the inorganic world with which they are associ-
ated ?

This inquiry, first directed to the present time, and thence carried
backward as far as possible into the past, proves that there is one gen-
eral system of life, vegetable and animal, which is coextensive with
the earth as it now is, and as it has been in all the successive stages
of which we obtain a knowledge by geological research. The phe-
nomena of life, as thus ascertained, are included in the organization
of living creatures, and their distribution in time and place. The
common bond that subsists between all vegetables and animals is tes-
tified by the identity of the ultimate elements of which they are com-
posed. These elements are carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen,
with a few others in comparatively small quantities ; the whole of
the matex'ials of all living things being found among those that com-
pose the inorganic portion of the earth.

The close relation existing between the least specialized animals
and plants, and between these and organic matter not having life,
and even with inorganic matter, is indicated by the difliculty that
arises in determining the nature of the distinctions between them.
Among the more highly-developed members of the two great branch-
es of living creatures, the well-knowu similarities of structure ob-
served in the various groups indicate a connection between proximate
forms which was long seen to be akin to that derived through descent
from a common ancestor by ordinary generation.

The facts of distribution show that certain forms are associated
in certain areas, and that as we pass from one such area to another
the forms of life change also. The general assemblages of living
creatures in neighboring countries easily accessible to one another,
and having similar climates, resemble one another ; and much in the
same way, as the distance between areas increases, or their mutual
accessibility diminishes, or the conditions of climate differ, the like-
ness of the forms within them becomes continually less apparent.

GEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION: 201

The plants and animals existing at any time in any locality tend con-
stantly to ditiuse themselves around that local centre, this tendency
being controlled by the conditions of climate, etc., of the suri'ounding
area, so that under certain unfavorable conditions diffusion ceases.

The possibilities of life are further seen to be everywhere directly
influenced by all external conditions, such as those of climate, includ-
ing temperature, humidity, and wind ; of the length of the seasons
and days and nights ; of the character of the surface, whether it be
land or water ; and whether it be covered by vegetation or otherwise ;
of the nature of the soil ; of the presence of other living creatures,
and many more. The abundance of forms of life in difterent areas
(as distinguished from number of individuals) is also found to vary
greatly, and to be related to the accessibility of such areas to immi-
gration from without ; to the existence, within or near the areas, of
localities offering considerable variations of the conditions that chiefly
afiect life ; and to the local climate and conditions being compatible
with such immigjration.

For the exjjlanation of these and other phenomena of organization
and distribution, the only direct evidence that observation can supply
is that derived from the mode of propagation of creatures now liv-
ing ; and no other mode is known than that which takes place by
ordinary generation, through descent from parent to offspring.

It was left for the genius of Darwin to point out how the course
of Nature, as it now acts in the reproduction of living creatures, is
sufficient for the interpretation of what had previously been incom-
prehensible in these matters. He showed how propagation by descent
operates subject to the occurrence of certain small variations in the
offspring, and that the preservation of some of these varieties to the
exclusion of others follows as a necessary consequence when the exter-
nal conditions are more suitable to the preserved forms than to those
lost. The operation of these causes he called Natural Selection. Pro-
longed over a great extent of time, it supplies the long-sought key to
the complex system of forms either now living on the earth, or the
remains of which are found in the fossil state, and explains the rela-
tions among them, and the manner in which their distribution has
taken place in time and space.

Thus we are brought to the conclusion that the directing forces
which have been efficient in developing the existing forms of life from
those which went before them are those same successive external con-
ditions including both the forms of land and sea., and the character
of the climate, which have already been shown to arise from the
gradual riiodificaiion of the material fabric of the globe as it slowly
attained to its present state. In each succeeding epoch, and in each
separate locality, the forms preserved and handed on to the future
were determined by the general conditions of surface at the time and
place; and the aggi-egate of successive sets of conditions over the

202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

whole earth's surface has determined the entire series of forms which
have existed in the past, and have survived till now.

As we recede from the present into the past, it necessarily follows,
as a consequence of the ultimate failure of all evidence as to the con-
ditions of the past, that positive testimony of the conformity of the
facts with the principle of evolution gradually diminishes, and at
length ceases. In the same way positive evidence of the continuity
of action of all the physical forces of Nature eventually fails. But
inasmuch as the evidence, so far as it can be procured, sui3ports the
belief in this continuity of action, and as we have no experience of
the contrary being possible, the only justifiable conclusion is, that
the production of life must have been going on as we now know it,
without any intermission, from the time of its first appearance on the
earth.

These considerations manifestly afibrd no sort of clew to the origin
of life. They only serve to take us back to a very remote ej^och,
when the living creatures differed greatly in detail from those of the
present time, but had such resemblances to them as to justify the con-
clusion that the essence of life then was the same as now; and through
that epoch into an unknown anterior period, during which the possi-
bility of life, as we understand it, began, and from which has emerged,
in a way that we cannot comprehend, matter with its properties,
bound together by what we call the elementary physical forces.
There seems to be no foundation in any observed fact for suggesting
that the wonderful property which we call life appertains to the com-
binations of elementary substances in association with which it is
exclusively found, otherwise than as all other properties appertain to
the particular forms or combinations of matter with which they are
associated. It is no more possible to say how originated or operates
the tendency of some sorts of matter to take the form of vapors, or
fluids, or solid bodies, in all their various shapes, or for the various
sorts of matter to attract one another or combine, than it is to explain
the origin in cei'tain forms of matter of the property we call life, or
the mode of its action. For the present, at least, we must be content
to accept such facts as the foundation of positive knowledge, and from
them to rise to the apprehension of the means by which Nature has
reached its present state, and is advancing into an unknown future.

These conceptions of the relations of animal and vegetable forms
to the earth in its successive stages lead to views of the significance
of type (i. e., the general system of structure running through various
groups of organized beings) very different from those under which it
was held to be an indication of some occult power directing the suc-
cessive appearance of living creatures on the earth. In the light of
evolution, type is nothing more than the direction given to the actual
development of life by the forces that controlled the course of the
successive generations leading from the past to the present. There

GEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION. 203

is no indication of any adherent or prearranged disposition toward
the development of life in any particidar direction. It would rather
appear that the actual face of Nature is the result of a succession of
apparently trivial incidents, which by some very slight alteration of
local circumstances might often, it would seem, have been turned in
a different direction. Some otherwise unimportant difference in the
constitution or sequence of the substrata at any locality might have
determined the elevation of mountains where a hollow filled by the
sea was actually formed, and thereby the whole of the climatal and
other conditions of a large area would have been changed, and an
entirely different impulse given to the development of life locally,
which might have impressed a new character on the whole face of
Nature.

But further, all that we see or know to have existed upon the earth
has been controlled to its most minute details by the original consti-
tution of the matter which was drawn together to form our planet.
The actual character of all inorganic substances, as of all living creat-
ures, is only consistent with the actual constitution and proportions
of the various substances of which the earth is composed. Other pro-
portions than the actual ones in the constituents of the atmosphere
would have required an entirely different organization in all air-
breathing animals, and probably in all plants. With any consider-
able diffei-ence in the quantity of water either in the sea or distributed
as vapor, vast changes in the constitution of living creatures must
have been involved. Without oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, or car-
bon, what we term life would have been impossible. But such specu-
lations need not be extended.

The substances of which the earth is now composed are identical
with those of which it has always been made up ; so far as is known
it has lost nothing and has gained nothing, except what has been
added in extremely minute quantities by the fall of meteorites. All
that is or ever has been upon the earth is part of the earth, has sprung
from the earth, is sustained by the earth, and returns to the earth ;
taking back thither what it withdrew, making good the materials on
which life depends, without which it would cease, and which are des-
tined again to enter into new forms, and contribute to the ever-onward
flow of the great current of existence.

The progress of knowledge has removed all doubt as to the rela-
tion in which the human race stands to this great stream of life. It is
now established that man existed on the earth at a period vastly an-
terior to any of which we have records in history or otherwise. He
was the contemporary of many extinct mammalia at a time when the
outlines of land and sea, and the conditions of climate over large
parts of the earth, were wholly different from what they nov^^ are, and
our race has been advancing toward its present condition during a
series of ages for the extent of which ordinary conceptions of time

204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

afford no suitable measui*e. These facts have, iu recent years, given a
different direction to opinion as to the manner in which the great
groups of mankind have become distributed over the areas where they
are now found ; and difficulties once considered insuperable become
soluble when regarded in connection with those great alterations of
the outlines of land and sea which are shown to have been goings on
up to the very latest geographical periods. The ancient monuments
of Egypt, which take us back perhaps seven thousand years from the
present time, indicate that when they were erected the neighboring
countries were in a condition of civilization not very greatly different
from that which existed when they fell under the dominion of the
Romans or Mohammedans hardly fifteen hundred years ago ; and the
progress of the population toward that condition can hardly be ac-
counted for otherwise than by prolonged gradual transformations,
going back to times so far distant as to require a geological rather
than an historical standard of reckoning.

Man, in short, takes his place with the rest of the animate world,
in the advancing front of which he occupies so conspicuous a position.
Yet for this position he is indebted not to any exclusive powers of his
own, but to the wonderful compelling forces of Nature which have
lifted him, entirely without his knowledge, and almost without his
participation, so far above the animals of whom he is still one, though
the only one able to see or consider what he is.

For the social habits essential to his progress, which he possessed
even in his most primitive state, man is without question dependent
on his ancestors, as he is for his form and other physical peculiarities.
In his advance to civilization he was insensibly forced, by the pressure
of external circumstances, through the more savage condition, in
which his life was that of the hunter, first to pastoral and then to
agricultural occupations. The requirements of a population gradu-
ally increasing in numbers could only be met by a supply of food
more regular and more abundant than could be provided by the chase.
But the possibility of the change from the hunter to the shepherd or
herdsman rested on the antecedent existence of animals suited to
supply man with food, having gregarious habits, and fitted for domes-
tication, such as sheep, goats, and horned cattle ; for their support the
social grasses were a necessary preliminary, and for the growth of
these in sufficient abimdance and naturally suitable for pasture was
required. A further evasion of man's growing difficulty in obtaining
suffici«»nt food was secured by aid of the cereal grasses, wliich supplied
the means by which agriculture, the outcome of pastoral life, became
the chief occupation of more civilized generations. Lastly, when these
increased facilities for providing food were in turn overtaken by the
growth of the population, new power to cope with the recurring diffi-
culty was gained through the cultivation of mechanical arts and of
thought, for which the needful leisure was for the first time obtained

GEOGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION. 205

when the earliest steps of civilization had removed the necessity for
unremitting search after the means of supporting existence. Then
was broken down the chief harrier in the way of progress, and man
was carried forward to the condition in which he now is.

It is impossible not to recognize that the growth of civilization,
by aid of its instruments, pastoral and agricultural industry, was the
result of the unconscious adoption of defenses supplied by what was
exterior to man, rather than of any truly intelligent steps taken with
forethought to attain it ; and in these respects man, in his struggle
for existence, has not differed from the humbler animals or from plants.
Neither can the marvelous ultimate growth of his knowledge, and his
acquisition of the power of applying to his use all that lies without
him, be viewed as differing in any thing but form or degree from the
earlier steps in his advance. The needful protection against the foes
of his constantly-increasing race — the legions of hunger and disease,
infinite in number, ever changing their mode of attack or springing
up in new shapes — could only be attained by some fresh adaptation
of his organization to his wants, and this has taken the form of that
development of intellect which has placed all other creatures at his
feet and all the powers of Nature in his hand.

The picture that I have thus attempted to draw presents to us our
earth carrying with it, or receiving from the sun or other external
bodies, as it travels through celestial space, all the materials and all
the forces by help of which are fashioned whatever we see upon it.
We may liken it to a great complex living organism, having an inert
substratum of inorganic matter on which are formed many separate
organized centres of life, but all bound up together by a common
law of existence, each individual part depending on those around it,
and on the past condition of the whole. Science is the study of
the relations of the several parts of this organism one to another,
and of the parts to the whole. It is the task of the geographer
to bring together from all places on the earth's surface the materials
from which shall be deduced the scientific conception of Nature.
Geography supplies the rough blocks wherewith to build up that
grand structure toward the completion of which science is striving.
The traveler, who is the journeyman of science, collects from all quar-
ters of the earth observations of fact, to be submitted to the research
of the student, and to provide the necessary means of verifying the
inductions obtained by study or the hypotheses suggested by it. If,
therefore, travelers are to fulfill the duties put upon them by the divi-
sion of scientific labor, they must maintain their knowledge of the
several branches of science at such a standard as will enable them
thoroughly to apprehend what ai-e the present requirements of sci-
ence, and the classes of fact on which fresh observation must be
brought to bear to secure its advance. Nor does this involve any
impracticable course of study. Such knowledge as will fit a traveler

2o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for usefully iiarticipating in the progress of science is now placed
within the reach of every one. The lustre of that energy and self-
devotion which characterize the better class of explorers will not be
dimmed by joining to it an amount of scientific training which will
enable them to bring away from distant regions enlarged conceptions
of other matters besides mere distance and direction. How great is
the value to science of the observations of travelers endoAved with a
share of scientific insti-uction is testiHed by the labors of many living
naturalists. In our days this is especially true ; and I appeal to all
who desire to promote the progress of geographical science as explor-
ers, to prepare themselves for doing so efiiciently, while they yet pos-
sess the vigor and physical powers that so much conduce to success
in such pursuits.

DIAMOND-CUTTING.^

By De. a. C. HAMLIN.

THE process of diamond-cutting is a very simple matter to those
acquainted with the nature of the gem. To cut the facets, two
stones are cemented on two sticks, and rubbed against each other
until a facet is cut ; then the position of one of the stones is changed,
and another flat surface is cut. The process is thus continued until
the gem is faceted all over. After the facets are cut, and a definite
form given to the stone, the diamond is placed in the hands of the
polisher, who fastens it in solder, and then holds it against a small
steel disk revolving horizontally with a speed of 1,500 to 3,000 times
a minute. This disk is moistened with oil mixed with diamond-pow-
der, and one facet is polished at a time. Diamond-cutting proj^er is a
rapid operation, but the polishing is slow and tedious. One cutter
can generally furnish sufficient work for four or five polishers.

There are a number of forms adopted by the lapidaries for these
gems, but the two principal ones are the brilliant and the rose. The
former pattern, first pi'actised in Europe in the seventeenth century,
is by far the best adapted for calling forth the powers of the gem.
The other form is of unknown antiquity, and has long been in use
among the Hindoos. It affords the largest beams of light for the
weight, but it lacks greatly in colored reflections when compared
with the brilliant.

For the perfection of the rainbow-play of hues, it is essential that
the facets of the superior and inferior parts of the stone should corre-
spond in exact proportions, and stand at fixed distances, so as to mul-
tiply the reflections and refractions, and produce the colors of the

^ From a work on " The Diamond," in the press of D. Appleton & Co.

DIAMOND-CUTTING.

207

prismatic spectrum. All limpid and wliite gems must be cut accord-
ing to this rule, but with colored stones the case is different, for here
perfection of color is to be attained, and brilliancy is a secondary con-
sideration. Hence, a fine ruby or sapphire may be decidedly thin, and
yet be a gem of great beauty and value.

Fig. 1.— Stewart Diamond. Rough South
African Crystal, weight, 288>^ carats.

Fig. 2.— Star of the South. Rough
weight, 254;^ carats.

The process of rifting diamonds by splitting them in their cleavage-
planes was known long ago to the Hindoos, but was forgotten to
modern lapidaries till revived by Wollaston not many years ago. By
this means masses of the crystal may be removed to escape a flaw or
remove a spot. Some diamonds of the spheroidal form are deficient

Fig. 3.— Mattam Diamond, Borneo.
Rough weight, 367 carats.

Fig. 4. — The Koh-i-noor before Recutting.

in cleavage-planes, and are quite impracticable for cutting; others
have a concentric arrangement of the planes of cleavage, as though
crystallization radiated from the centre, and it is very difficult to
polish them. The Hindoos avail themselves of the natural cleavage

2o8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the gem, and form table diamonds by adroitly striking along one
of the planes with a shai'p-edged tool, thereby separating the layers,
as slate is rifted by the miner. This oj^eration, which apj^ears so
simple, really requires considerable skill, and much of that acquired
instinct or tact which is best exhibited by our Western Indians, who
chip, with marvelous rapidity and certainty, a glass-bottle into sym-
metrical arrow-heads.

The workman at a glance ascertains the direction of the laminae,
and with another diamond cuts a notch at the point where he would
begin operations. In this notch he places the edge of his blunt steel
knife, and, by tapping the back of it with a light iron rod, he splits
the diamond with perfect ease. In reducing the natural diamond to
a regular form, much of its substance is lost, and sometimes as much
as one-half the weight of the stone. The amount of loss, however, de-

FiG. 5.-

-The Koh-i-noor after Eecxjtting.
Weight, 102^ carats.

Fig. 6.— The Regent.
carats.

Weight, 136

pends greatly on the natural form of the crystal. Perfect octahe-
drons lose but one-fifth of their weight when fashioned into brilliants,
but rhombohedrons lose over one-third on taking the same form. The
following figures will give some notion of the loss :

The Mogul weighed in the rough VSOJ carats.

Reduced in cutting to 279VV "

The Regent weighed 410 carats ; reduced to 136|f "

The Koh-i-noor weighed 186 J carats; reduced to 102i "

The Star of the South weighed 254i carats ; reduced to . . 124^\ "

The process of cutting diamonds of large size is always attended
with risk, and is necessarily a costly operation. The Regent cost for
cutting $25,000, and occupied two yeai-s' time. The Star of the South
occupied only ninety days, and the Koh-i-noor only thirty-eight work-
ing-days. This great feat in diamond-cutting was performed by the

DIAMOND-CUTTING. 209

ablest of the Dutch lapidaries, with the aid of steam-power. The
cost of cutting is said to have been 840,000 — reduced, however, to
some extent by the sale of the fragments.

The process of diamond-cutting has within a few years been estab-
lished in the United States. Mr. Henry D. Morse, a jeweler of Bos-
ton, conceived the idea of constructing a machine for cutting and
polishing the gem. While engaged in perfecting his appliances,

Fig. 7.— Proper Size op Brilliant Diamond, Fig. 8.— Foem op the Beilliant-

100 CARATS, ACCORDING TO JeFPEIES'S CuT.

Scale.

chance threw in his way an itinerant vender of porcelain, who had
once been employed as a workman in the diamond ateliers of Amster-
dam. The sight of the rough gems and the apparatus recalled to
the mind' of the Jew the scenes of his youth, and awakened a desire
to resume his former occupation, and he offered to do the work of a
diamond-cutter. But, as the process was carefully considered, it was
discovered that the Jew could only cut the facets of the diamond, and
the art of the subsequent polishing he did not understand. It seemed
strange that an artisan who possessed the rare ability to tell at a
glance how large a gem the stone would cut, how to avoid internal
imperfections, and how to take advantage of the cleavage-planes,
could not i^olish the facets after he had cut them. But such was the
fact, for the two processes of cutting and polishing are widely differ-
ent, and require separate instruction. However, the deficiency was
soon supplied by an acquaintance who was induced to leave Holland
and act as polisher in the American diamond adventure. The estab-
lishment was now complete, but the business was at first confined to
recutting and repolishing gems that had been damaged by long use
or accident. The inventive genius of Mr. Morse made several impor-
tant changes in the machinery required by the lapidary, and displaced
the rude and cumbersome apparatus of the old system. At first but
two or three men were employed, but, after the discovery of the South
African diamond-mines, the rough gems soon furnished abundant ma-
terial, and now several men and boys are constantly employed, with
the aid of steam-power.

In consequence of the success of the South African diamonds, and
tlie abundant supply of the stones, another a^e^/er has been established
in New York, under the direction of Mr. J. Hermann. A large amount

VOL. Till, — \i

210

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of capital is said to be invested in this adventure, and employment is
given to forty or more workmen, all Israelites, with the aid of steam-
power. The establisliment already boasts of having cut a fine crystal
from South Africa, weighing eighty carats.

\ /

Fig. 9.— Form of the Rose-Cut.

Fig. 10.— Form of the Table-Cct.

The process of cutting the diamond is divided by the Jews into
several distinct branches, and workmen are educated to perform one
part but not another. Thus the cleaving, the cutting, and the polish-
ing, have special operators, who become expert in performing well
the parts assigned to them, without attempting the others. This
course has undoubtedly produced skillful workmen, but w^e see no
reason w^liy all the parts may not be perfectly acquired by an intelli-
gent mechanic. The art of cleavage, however, requires iact, and
ought to include some knowledge of mineralogy. For the particulars
of the art of diamond-cutting, we will refer our readers to the inter-
esting works of Jeffries, Mawe, and Barbot ; still we briefly mention
here some of the forms adopted for the diamond, and how they are
produced.

Fig. 11.— The Star of the South.
Weight, 1243^ carats.

Fig. 12.— The Great Mogul. Weight,
279i»o carats.

The table and the rose patterns were the first regular forms adopt-
ed by the lapidaries. The first was simply the top of the stone ground
flat, with a corresponding flat bottom of less area, with its foui- upper
and lower sides parallel to each other. As the light passed througli
the stone without much refraction, the beauty of the mineral was not
developed by this pattern. It has been stated that the rose-shape was

DIAMOND- C UTTING. 2 1 1

invented in Paris, under the auspices of Cardinal Mazarin ; but Taver-
nier describes the diamonds of Aurungzebe as being of the rose-cut.
Therefore, we must give a more ancient date to the pattern than
Mazarin's day. The form of the rose-cut is simply tliat of a hemis-
phere, covered with small facets. Its flattened base is therefore ad-
mirably adapted for incrustation-work, and the foil on which it is
usually set serves as a reflector for the entering rays of light. The
rose-pattern has several names, indicating the number of facets. If it
has but twelve or less facets, it is called an AntwerjD rose ; if but
eighteen or twenty, it is a semi-Holland ; and a Holland rose, if it
bears twenty-four facets. At the present time these gems are not in
much demand, unless for incrustation-work, for which they are supe-
rior, both in eflect and in adaptability to the surface of the object to
be ornamented.

The form which appears to exhibit the splendors of the gem to the
best advantage, is that known as the brilliant, and is rightly named
from its effects. It was discovered in Italy, in the latter part of the
seventeenth century, by Peruzzi, of Venice, which city was then one
of the chief gem-marts of the world. The conclusions which led to
the adoption of tliis shape were derived from experiments upon col-
ored stones. This form of the brilliant is that of the ancient deep

Fig. 13.— The Nassack. Weight, 78% carats.

table modified by receiving thirty-two facets above and twenty-four
below its girdle. The great relative depth of the gem, aided by the
numerous facets of the sides, appears to increase the natural refractive
power of the stone by confining, as it were, the rays of light inside of it.
Another pattern, called the brilUolette, shows the beautiful quali-
ties of the gem to great advantage. It is formed like two rose-dia-
monds joined together at the base ; or may be flattened and elongated
like an almond, and faceted all over with small facets. This is the
form of the Sancy, and should have been given to the Koh-i-noor
and the Star of the South. The Austrian yellow diamond is of this
pattern, and was probably cut in India. And it is thought that the
famous twelve Mazarin diamonds were also cut after this pattern.
The star-pattern, which was invented by Cane, is but little used at
the present time.

212 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

KEADING AS AN INTELLECTUAL PEOCESS.

By E. 0. VAILE.

LANGUAGE possesses a double imperfection. It is incomplete as
an expression, as a product, as a symbol ; it is imperfect, also,
as a cause, as an excitant. It is inadequate both to perfect expression
and to perfect impression. It fails to receive fully all that the mind
would put upon it, neither does it faithfully deliver all which it fairly
received. The soul, struggle as it will, cannot embody itself in form.
Expression cannot equal conception. Language suffers this imper-
fection in common with every plastic art. To the great master how
feeble must have seemed his glorious " Ninth Symphony " as an ex-
pression of that heavenly harmony which must have filled his soul !
What forms and colors, beyond the powers of matter to present, must
have possessed the spirit which produced " The Last Judgment ! "
So with the great masters of literature. To how little of what
they must have felt and thought have they been able to give a " local
habitation and a name ! " And then, even at our best, what a feeble
hold do we lay upon what they have bequeathed !

Now, this full interpretation and appreciation of an author, the
pei-fect work of the apparatus which should take the impression, con-
stitute reading of the highest order. In such reading perception be-
comes intuition, divination. It is not bafiledby the inherent weakness
of language, but feels that "more is meant than meets the ear."

Of course, reading of this kind assumes, to a large extent, equality
of mental stature in author and reader. Indeed, it is quite true that,
from a book, as from any work of ax't, we receive that only which is a
reflex of ourselves, the counterpart of what we are. Words and sen-
tences do not receive their interpretation from the writer alone. The
reader himself becomes an unconscious author, loading the vehicle
according to his own calibre and character. It is even a question to
what extent great authors " have built better than they knew," so in-
genious and profound have been their commentators. Lowell says;
"Goethe wrote his 'Faust' in its earliest form without a thought of the
deeper meaning which the exposition of an age of criticism was to find
in it ; without foremeaning it he had impersonated in Mephistopheles
the genius of his century." Some one has said : " No man is the wiser
for his books until he is above them." Milton expresses the same in
"Paradise Regained," b. iv., line 322 :

"... Who reads
Incessantly, and to his reading brings not
A spirit and judgment equal or superior,
(And what he brings what need he elsewhere seek?)
Uncertain and unsettled still remains,

BEADING AS AN INTELLECTUAL PROCESS. 213

Deep versed in books, and shallow in himself,
Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys,
And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge ;
As children gathering pebbles on the shore."

Notwithstanding their seeming inconsistency, these sentiments cer-
tainly contain a large portion of truth. It would be interesting to
have the great poet's answer to his own parenthetical question. His
devotion to books and his acquaintance with all literature and learn-
ing are a striking comment upon his query. Every reader must real-
ize that the neai'er his own intellectual grasp and sympathy coincide
with his author's, the more nutriment he receives. Carlyle says, " We
are all poets when we read a poem well."

In this reading well there is another element of very great impor-
tance, and exceedingly rare among ordinary people, not to speak of
children. It is closely allied to the preceding. It is expressed in
the phrase, " Reading between the lines." It is the perception of what
is implied, as well as what is explicitly stated. It is the discovery, not
of meanings purposely or carelessly hidden, but of thoughts which, in
the highest symmetry and completeness, must have accompanied the
one expressed. This power is needed in the proper reading of all
good authors ; but it is called forth most largely by our twin philoso-
phers. Bacon and Shakespeare.

But there are elements more fundamental than these ; so fundamen-
tal, in fact, that the thought seems seldom to occur to us that there
can be any weakness in regard to them. The first of these, probably,
is the knowledge of the meaning of words. How we obtain this knowl-
edge is not so simple a question as it may seem.

We have a complete understanding of a term, when in our mind
the association is so perfect between the arbitrary sign and the thing
signified that the sign spontaneously suggests the thing. It is un-
doubtedly true that the first words addressed to a child are inter-
preted to him, and the idea fixed in his mind by the language of ac-
tion and of circumstance which accompanies them. It is precisely the
process by which a dog or a monkey is taught to perform its antics.
The idea is associated directly with the phrase which strikes the ear,
without a suspicion that there are any components, any words. The
child's attention is engaged with complete propositions, and not with
individual words; he grasps the whole, not realizing that there are
parts. He hears you say, " Take care," " Come to mamma ; " your
actions and the circumstances associate the full thought with the
proposition.

A process quite similar to this is employed by us largely through
life. We get, and can get, the meaning of words to a great extent
from their connections only. " Words are living things," says Presi-
dent Porter, " only when they are parts of the sentence. They cannot
be fully understood except as seen in their connection." The power

214 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

to aj^preciate these connections, to feel their force, is a valuable acqui-
sition, and one in which our youth are sadly deficient. It is a power,
for want of which no amount of use of the dictionary will compen-
sate ; it is most requisite where the dictionary is not thought of, and
should not be, in cases where common words are used with modified
or figurative meanings. The intellect is not so robust under our mod-
ern methods, as when every boy ciphered for himself, and overcame
his difficulties as best he could. The power to grasp another's thought
seems to have deteriorated with the other faculties. Now every thing
has to be explained. The ability to see through good English with-
out the aid of commentary, tone and inflection, seems to be a lost art
in our schools. Recently a large class in one of the best high-schools
in the country showed itself to be entirely unable to comprehend such
sentences as these : " Words are the counters of wise men ; the coin of
fools." " Worth makes the man ; the want of it the fellow." In sucli
cases nothing will avail but the perfect appreciation of the words from
their connections. I would not encourage the habit of "jumping at
the idea," but I would encourage the habit of digging it out by main
strength. There is such a thing as wrestling with a thought until it
seems to unfold itself to our comprehension : and he is not worth much
as a reader who does not know by experience what it is to grapple
with a passage, and to hold on to it until light breaks from within it.
Our education tends to shield us entirely from such contests. We are
taught to hasten to the quarto oracle. When it fails to respond, we
give up in despair. We do not learn the use of native strength ; too
much assistance has shorn us of our locks.

Although there is this important duty to be performed quite inde-
pendent of the dictionary, it by no means lessens the value of that
book. Because it is the custom to dilute thoughts until their vigor is
gone, and to explain text-books until no thought is required to com-
prehend them, it does not follow that explanation is never of use.
The old adage is simply to be recalled : " A place for every thing, and
every thing in its place." There is a place for explanations and for
definitions ; but there is a larger place for active thought, for strong,
unaided wrestling with the printed page, for a keen appreciation of
the connections of words.

There is no guarantee of thorough scholarship and character so
sure as the proper use and appreciation of the dictionary. It is an
infallible omen as to the future of any boy or girl. The right habit
is acquired only painfully and slowly. It represents a most high
and valuable degree of self-discipline, as well as of intellectual activ-
ity. Much more can be, and should be, done for it in our upper schools
than is accomplished. Any course of training is defective from which
pupils pass without that appreciation for the dictionary and that in-
terest in it which they feel for a worthy teacher, full of knowledge,
always accessible, and ever in the best humor.

READING AS AN INTELLECTUAL PROCESS. 215

Asking questions is not necessarily a good thing. There must be
reflection and an active use of the senses accompanying every inquiry
of any value to the querist. And so it is in looking for definitions.
To do this impulsively, and to be satisfied with synonyms, is not
effective work. The element of thought and of association is wanting.
Meanings thus acquired do not become a permanent acquisition :
whereas thorough eflbrt seldom allows the necessity of referring to a
definition a second time.

The power to read well is also in proportion to the development
of the power of association. This is a faculty in which we differ very
greatly, and yet it is largely a matter of education. To one person a
statement in physics will stand unsupported, until common lacts are
brought to his notice, while to another instances in support will flock
unbidden from the household or the wayside. To some minds, pas-
sages in one author will spontaneously suggest passages in another;
while other minds will fail to perceive the relation until accident or
design brings it directly to their notice. It is true that memory is a
large factor in this matter ; but, independent of this, there is a readi-
ness of association which m;iy be acquired, and which is very essen-
tial. It is a quickness to levy on our own observation and experience
when another's ideas are presented. Bacon advises, "Read to weigh
and consider." When we do this, association is the most jirominent
faculty at work. In fact, according to our strength in this faculty we
will weigh and consldei\ An author's sentiment will be flanked, as it
were, on both sides, by phenomena from our experience to support or
attack him. The degree of this faculty distinguishes the strong from
the weak ; the .teacher from the learner; culture from crudeness. It
means digestion, assimilation. It is in this faculty that genuine learn-
ing differs from mere memorizing ; thorough acquisition from cram-
ming. It vivifies knowledge; it is almost wisdom. This faculty is
quite subject to cultivation, and no acquisition will so well repay the
labor expended upon it. The attention is not given to it in our educa-
tion which should be. To childhood and youth the different subjects of
study stand as unrelated wholes. There is no interchange of thoughts
and associations between difterent branches. An idea occurring in
one subject does not bring up a closely-related idea in another subject.
Pupils are not taught nor led to connect their knowledges. It is so by
the force of circumstances. Every class-room has its own presiding
genius which fellowships with no other. Every specialist tends to
reproduce himself. Furthermore, there is a feeble association be-
tween what is learned from books and what is learned from practice.
Life in the school-room and life out of it are separate existences. In
the popular notion, book-learning is a sort of mystery, a peculiar power
quite distinct from the common-sense and common experience of every-
day life. The " connection of the physical sciences " has become a
familiar idea. When shall we realize that there is a connection be^

2i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tween all sciences and all knowledge, and that one truth really be-
comes ours only in proportion as it is surrounded and illuminated by
other truths already ours ? But, in spite of all untoward circum-
stances, the power of association in reading can be, and should be,
trained carefully.

The power to read well depends, likewise, upon our power of per-
ception, of mental perception ; upon the readiness with which we dis-
cover the relation between ideas. The degree of this faculty, more
than any other one thing, constitutes the diflerence between dull and
sharp minds. Also, it seems to be, more than any other faculty, a
native endowment. However, training will show here as plainly as
elsewhere. Persons blindfolded have described the contents of rooms,
the position of doors, windows, etc., with such accuracy that the cred-
ulous have attributed to them a superhuman power ; whereas, their
whole secret lay in the development of their perceptive faculties.
Circumstances unnoticed by others gave them information and the
power of inference. The same difference may be observed among
readers. One person at a single reading will grasp the thought pre-
cisely as it was expressed ; for another, even time and study are not
sufficient to impress all the modifications and the exact form of the
idea. Our Federal Constitution afibrds a good opportunity to test
this power of perception in reading. " No person except a natural-
born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adop-
tion ot this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President ;
neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have
attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resi-
dent within the United States." Upon once perusing tl^s, a fair reader
would instantly recognize the difference between the two classes of
citizens spoken of, and also consciously notice that in the last line it
is not " citizen," but " resident," and he will distinctly perceive the
difference in the meaning of these words. But this is just what a vast
number of those who ought to be good readers will not do. They
will not perceive these distinctions until study or comment brings
them to their attention. I say a good reader will consciously per-
ceive these differences; he will think of them as he goes along: for
many persons will retain in a physical chamber of the mind, as it were,
an echo of the words, and repeat them verbathn, but these distinct
ideas will not penetrate their consciousness. Submit to the average
readers of Byron this line upon the Gladiator :

"... His manly brow
Consents to death, but conquers agony,"

and judge of the quickness and clearness of their perception.

A large part of the function of this faculty consists in the percep'
tion of analogies. Such is its chief office for the student of literature
The feeling of likeness in one way or another is the foundation of all

BEADING AS AN INTELLECTUAL PROCESS. 217

similes and metaphors, which make up so large a part of language.
Here perception largely depends upon the power of reflection. Weak-
ness often conies from neglect, or inability to hold the mind steadily
to the thought. If you would be convinced of the general feebleness
of percej)tion of analogies and of their appreciation, experiment with
a simple and beautiful couplet like this from Goldsmith :

" To husband out life's taper at its close,
And keep the flame from wasting by repose."

Or, this most perfect metaphor from Grattan on the failure of the
Irish Government :

" I sat by its cradle, I followed its hearse."

It is true that this power depends very largely ujion maturity of mind
and amount of experience. But it is the vigorous exercise of observa-
tion and perception, and not length of days, which gives maturity and
experience.

Another faculty, and the foundation of all, upon which good read-
ing depends, is the power of attention. Upon it directly depend the
powers of association, of perception, and of memory. It is said that
Sir Isaac Newton attributed his discoveries entirely to his habit of com-
plete concentration of mind, and not to any superior quality of mind.

It is not a rare experience to most persons to find that they have
read a passage, and yet that they are entirely unconscious of its con-
tents. The physical man seems to have done its part perfectly; but
the mind was employed upon other errands. Years are wasted before
many of us discover that most of our ordinary reading is performed
with not more than one-half of the mind, without real mental activity.
There are persons who have been hard of hearing all their lives with-
out realizing it, simply because experience has not given them an idea
of a power more acute than their own. It is somewhat so in the mat-
ter of attention. It is rather a discovery to us when we first realize
what may be accomplished by concentration of force ; when we feel
that attention is not passivity, but energy. It is a fortunate day for
us when this awakening comes, and we begin the earnest endeavor to
hold our mind to its work as though it were a truant school-boy.

We are told that we must appeal to curiosity to arouse this atten-
tion ; that we must always read and study with interest. Good coun-
sel, so far as it goes. But mere curiosity is quite inadequate to. the
great work of education. It may lead through " Nicholas Nickleby,"
but it rarely carries us through algebra or geometry. Something
more reliable than a mere impulse is needed to make a strong mind.
Back of all must stand a strong will, with the ability and disposition
to use it. M. Marcel well says, " The gi-eat secret of education lies
in exciting and directing the will." In later mental acquirements we
realize the omnipotence of will. It is the want of this prime element

2i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which makes our attention so weak in the period of immaturity. In
childhood, attention is a direct product of curiosity. As we grow
older, curiosity is sated, and becomes weak as a motor. Nothing
takes its place until we discover that attention is under the control
of the will, and until, by perseverance, we acquire the power of thus
controlling it. It is only then that we make rapid conquests, and
that genuine mental discipline shows itself. There is no reason why
it should be so late in life before this force becomes a substitute, as it
were, for curiosity. From want of this mastery of the will over at-
tention, the great majority of our youth close their school-life without
realizing of what they are really capable.

Instead of aiding to impart this power, ordinary school-work does
positively the reverse. Humdrum repetition is made a substitute for
attention. By dint of drilling and memorizing, recitations are pre-
pared, but without concentration of thought. Our children simply
mark time ; they do not advance. They know of no means of acqui-
sition but " study," in the school-room sense. To them it is not
quality of effort, but quantity. They can appreciate exertion only
in the bulk. They know little of intensity of labor, or of its rewards.
To them simple reading means a very feeble, unsatisfactory hold upon
the matter read. With the mind only thus half awake, comprehen-
sion of the author is very feeble ; and, as a consequence, we find sub-
stantial, profitable reading a dull exercise to many who, by their
training, as we think, ought to find pleasure in it.

It is to be observed that just in proportion to the intensity of our
mental action in grappling the thought, just to that extent does the
language vanish from our view, and the thought only remain. The
mind is not conscious of having seen words, but only of having per-
ceived ideas. Any one must realize, upon reflection, that, when study-
ing with a purpose of verbal reproduction, there is a diversion of effort
from the thought. Ordinary memorizing, instead of aiding, is the
direct enemy of thought. As we are impressed by the peculiarities
of language, the vigor of the sentiment loses. The best reader, so far
as seeing the author's mind is concerned, is the poorest proof-reader
in regard to mere typographical errors — attention to the vehicle is
so much withdrawn from the content. Hence, that study or reading
is not entirely worthless which fails to give us the power to reproduce.
The power of expression generally lags behind the power of thought.
The slightest observation of a child will convince that he often thinks
and feels what he cannot declare. Unquestionably there may be
good ground for the remark, "I know, but cannot tell." He is to
be pitied who, even in mature years, never finds his soul pregnant
with a thought, while he feels that the words adequate to convey
it are wanting. There may be mental perception without the power
to reflect it. This is a dangerous fact with which to allow children
to become impressed, because of the universal proneness to find refuge

READING AS AN INTELLECTUAL PROCESS. 219

behind it from that wholesome effort at expression so essential to
growth, and the clear apprehension of thought. For, without doubt,
an idea is more firmly grasped and retained, and becomes negotiable
only, by its clear enunciation. Generally speaking, " what we know,
but cannot tell," is held by a very uncertain tenure. Thus, while the
pupil should be urged to make his title good by the clear expression
of his thought, he should realize that the most perfect reading fails to
perceive the language consciously, or to retain it, leaving the thought
disembodied, as it were, until the exigencies of communication require
us to clothe it.

In connection with this matter of attention, the primary school
affords abundant opportunity for remark. For instance, the habit of
miscalling words. From what does it arise ? Supposing the thought
and language to be easily within the child's comprehension, it arises
in this way : His attention has been exclusively occupied with indi-
vidual words, in his struggle to master them He has' failed to grasp
the thought, or so much of the thought as he might have grasped up
to the point of difficulty. Now, when circumstances bring the im-
pulse to articulate a certain word, he is entirely unable to perceive
whether or not the word coheres with what he has already uttered.
In fact, he does not think, and cannot think, in regard to the sentiment
of the sentence. His mind labors to recognize the words in their in-
dividual capacity only, and not at all in their connections. If he
actually grasped the thought, although he might announce a word
other than the one printed, still it would be impossible for him to an-
nounce a word which in the connection would be totally irrelevant or
absurd. Now, in such a case, what is the teacher to do ? To tell the
child the Avord ? To practically erase all the rest of the sentence, and
to impress that individual form upon his mind ? By no manner of
means. This, however, is the \iniversal practice ; and from this prac-
tice partly results the abominable failure of our schools to teach our
children to read fully and truly. It is the teacher's duty to get the
child's mind on to the thought ; to repeat the sentence, or to liave it
repeated, up to the point of difficulty, and to lead him by his own in-
tellect to suggest a word, or the word, which will harmonize with the
previous words. Indeed, he may not pronounce the word before his
eyes, but, with any proper training, he will be far from suggesting a
vocable which will present a solecism to his infantile perception. It
is impossible to conceive of learning to read without miscalling words ;
but it is possible to conceive of a child's learning to read without pro-
nouncing a word, among all his blunders, which his own powers are
able to see is entirely absurd in the connection. Could that much be
achieved, a great good would be done for us in after-life. One-half
of the want of perception and attention which we now exhibit would
be corrected. ,

Later in school-life teachers encounter this thing as a difficulty.

220 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In " easy reading," children do not call the words printed, but others
partly synonymous, or at least consistent. How is this* to be looked
at ? It is a very trifling fault, so far as the real intellectual part of
reading goes ; the part we need in life, and which of all things should
be taught. This fault, as it is called, is a good omen. You do not find
the sluggards and the blockheads guilty of it. They continue the in-
fantile fault first spoken of. This substitution of equivalent terms for
those printed is done, and can be done, only by the bright, the active,
the thoughtful. Observation will prove that this is invariably so.
This fault teachers can well afibrd not only to tolerate, but to encour-
age. It indicates the presence of the only thing that is wanted — the
clear grasping of the thought. It arises only because the pupil so
fully comprehends that he is able by anticipation to supply a word
for the author, if not the word. Such mistakes are worthy of remark,
and, for the purpose of actually learning to read, there cannot be a
better recitation than one made up entirely of such errors. Twenty
reading-lessons devoted to this paraphrasing, and kindred work, to
one of the ordinary kind of lessons, would work a wonderful change
in the mental status of our children.

It is true, in the abstract, that words are the signs of ideas ; but it
is not true that the utterance of words by children is a sign that they
possess the idea. "We are taught in childhood upon the assumption
that every sentence pronounced leaves its distinct and proper coun-
terpart in our mind. None can know so well as teachers how far this
is from being true ; and how much more reliable as an indication of
full mental perception, tone, inflection, emj^hasis, feature are, than the
recital of the words. There is no fact which so loudly calls for the
consideration of teachers as this — that the reading or reciting of words
is a very uncertain sign that the idea is lodged in the child's mind.
There is need for a new exercise and method in the teaching of read-
ing ; an exercise for teaching pure mental reading ; a means of in-
struction in which things more reliable than words shall be taken as
proof that the idea is grasped ; a test of the accuracy of mental per-
ception in which such unreliable evidence shall not be heard. There
are devices which partly answer this purpose, but they cannot be de-
scribed here.

If the real object to be aimed at in teaching reading were appre-
hended, there would be more use made of maxims, forms, riddles, etc.
Every philosophic teacher must perceive their utility. They are of
value only as a means of discipline ; but there is nothing which so
easily and strongly stimulates concentration of thought. They afibrd
an opportunity to judge infallibly whether or not the learner clearly
perceives. He is a rare child, indeed, who can read a pun, or any
joke, to himself, and whose countenance will not promptly reveal to
the slightest observation whether or not he " sees it." . This cannot be
said of ordinary sentences.

READING AS AN INTELLECTUAL PROCESS. 221

Furthermore, when wit does strike, it strikes with such effect, that
the child himself cannot fail to discover whether he is hit or not ; he
cannot help but feel that he does or does not comprehend the idea.
He may not be conscious that he does not clearly get an ordinary
thought ; but he can hardly remain so in regard to an epigram like
this, upon a conceited person. He will either " see it," or know that
he does not " see it : "

" The best speculation the market holds forth
To any enlightened lover of pelf,
Is to buy Tommy up at the price he is worth,
And sell him at that he puts on himself."

Or in regard to any of Lord Bacon's apothegms like this one. Dionys-
ius gave d.o ear to the earnest suit of the philosopher Aristippus until
the latter fell at the tyrant's feet. A by-stauder afterward said to
Aristippus, " You a philosopher, and to be so base as to throw your-
self at the tyrant's feet to get a suit?" Aristippus answered, " The
fault is not mine, but the fault is in Dionysius, who carries his ears in
his feet."

What will so bring thought to a focus, and so develop the com-
prehension of words from their connections as a riddle like this from
Dean Swift, and which Mr. Garvey, in his " Manual of Human Cult-
ure," mentions as an illustration upon this point :

" From heaven I fell, though from earth I begin ;
No lady alive can show such a skin.
I'm bright as an angel, and light as a feather,
But heavy and dai'k when you squeeze me together.
Though candor and truth in my aspect I bear.
Yet many poor creatures I help to ensnare.
Though so much of heaven appears in my make,
The foulest impressions I easily take.
My parent and I produce one another,
The mother the daughter, and the daughter the mother."

Of course, such material, of which the active teacher will find abun-
dance, must be used judiciously. The purpose must be to develop,
not simply to entertain. Such specimens must be carefully adapted
to the capacity of the class. Time must be given, and encouragement
to " weigh and consider." Every contrast, comparison, and lurking
sense, must be hunted out. No exercise in science or classics can
equal this as a sharpener of the wits (to say nothing of wit). The
child is made to realize what real comprehension is. He becomes
familiar with the sensation which accompanies a clear perception, and
is more sensitive to its absence when dealing with more ordinary
thoughts. It is in this way that the study of Shakespeare, now being
introduced into our high-schools, is going to do more for good com-
mon-sense in the comprehension and use of language, than all the

222 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

grammar taught in a century. It must be observed that a valuable
part of the study of Shakespeare is of the same nature as this of which
I have been treating. The study of the poet is largely a process of
simply unfreighting words ; an exercise in obtaining impressions from
language under unfavorable circumstances, but with every thing to
stimulate and reward the effort. We cannot find him lowered to the
comprehension of young minds, as we can this scattered wit and wis-
dom, or he would be a perfect substitute for it.

It is pertinent to ask how we know, how we become certain, that
we correctly conceive the idea of a word or a sentence. The only
answer which can be given is, that our judgment seems to rely upon
the general symmetry of the whole thought, a harmony of parts, a
connection throuoh and throuo-h which satisfies the mind that it is
right. The judgment may err here as well as elsewhere. The accu-
racy of this mental perception depends wholly upon the general power
and activity of the reader. The great thing is, that the reader should
obtain a clear, consistent, and reasonable idea, taking into considera-
tion all the circumstances and connections.

But there is a thing which education can invariably secure, and
that is a ready consciousness that w^e do or do not obtain a clear,
coherent idea from what we read. It would be unreasonable to de-
mand that education should give us the power to understand all that
we read ; but it is perfectly reasonable to demand that it should give
us the power to discriminate quickly between what we understand and
what we do not understand ; that it should develop that kind of at-
tention which notifies us at once when we fail to get or comprehend
clearly an author's thought. The failure here is one of the saddest
features connected with the subject of reading, and, indeed, with the
whole matter of common-school education. From the lowest grades
to the highest our children read, learn, and recite passages, without
comprehending them, and, what is far worse, without realizing their
want of comprehension. Any close observer and questioner can satisfy
himself of this by a short visit to the school of his own district. This
is an unpardonable weakness in the methods of instruction. It is a
shame, and there can be no defense for it. From every thing that he
reads or learns, the child can, and should get, not necessarily a correct
idea, but an idea intelligible and coherent according to his powers; or
else he should be. perfectly conscious that he gets no such idea.

It has become chronic with college presidents, professors, and ex-
aminers generally, to complain of the inability of our youth to sjjeak
and write the language. If these wise men were as wise as they ought
to be, they would discover that they have not yet reached the funda-
mental evil. They must probe deeper if they would reach the bottom.
The foundation of the trouble lies in the want of ability, or rather in
the want of the habit of understanding language fully.

In spite of all our systematic education, there is a fearful lack of

READING AS AN INTELLECTUAL PROCESS. 223

accurate comprehension of good English; and this ever underlies the
defect of expression. Of all the young men of whom the complaint is
so justly made, I do not believe there is one to be found who has the
faculties well developed which are necessary to a good reader. The
primary fault is not to be found in the instruction in composition, but
in the instruction in reading, and this last includes every subject in
which the pupil has a book to use. Show me a person who is a good
reader in the real sense of the terra, one who has a strong power of
attention, quick perception, active association, and other requisites to
a fair mental reader, and I will show you a person who will not come
far short of reasonable demands in his composition. The one follows
the other naturally and invariably. This statement will be fully sup-
ported by any class after six months of faithful study of the English
classics.

Of this want of comprehension there are several sources which are
unwittingly fostered :

1. While children, we are compelled to study and read over an<l
over again the same lessons. The mastery of words is made the end
and the only end, in the view of both teacher and pupil, instead of re-
maining to each as a means only, a subordinate matter. Curiosity, at
that age the natural governor of attention, is destroyed ; and nine-
tenths of our task-reading is performed with an indifference and weak-
ness of tliought which do not deserve the name of reading. This
will continue so until the reading-matter put into our schools is greatly
increased in variety and amount. Rarely, and only at long interA'als,
should a lesson be read more than once. The habit of seeming to read,
of performing the physical part, while the mental faculties lie as dead,
is easily formed. But it should be resisted. The problem before the
primary teacher is this: To keep firmly fixed in the child's mind that
the chief thing is the idea, while at the same time he is duly impressed
with forms and words. Not only must the tongue utter, but the spirit
must see what we read.

2. Also, in childhood we are allowed or required to read what we
do not understand. A common illustration of one form of this evil
occurred recently in the closing exercises of a first-class normal school.
The pupil-teacher was to exhibit her power by means of a lesson in
writing to a large class of bright boys about seven years of age. She
had placed upon the black-board, as her copy, those four familiar lines —

"Work while you work,
Play while you play," etc.

The writing was certainly most admirable ; but the inquiries of the
lady-principal revealed the fact that the children had not the least
conception of the first two lines. Most, indeed, seemed not to have
thought any thing about the meaning. This is a sample, taken, how-
ever, from normal training, of the vast number of ways in which as

224 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

children we are permitted or required to handle words without associ-
ating any meaning with them. The same may be seen in the thought-
less singing of our Sabbath-schools. Thus words become the only
things which we think of; and we lose the feelings which accompany
clear comprehension, or the want of comprehension. Accustomed to
a dull tool, we lose the consciousness that it is dull. But let us rarely
have a dull one in our hands, and how intolerable it seems to work
with it ! Blunt our keen perceptions upon things which we do not or
cannot penetrate, and we become insensible to the fact that our in-
strument is dull, and fails to perform its proper work. It is better,
by all means, that the child should attach wrong ideas to all he reads,
than that he should form the habit of readino; without attachin"-
any ideas. Let any friend of education look upon the stolidity of
the average product of our schools, which comes from this mechanical,
absolutely thoughtless reading, and he cannot but feel that we are
producing a large amount of artificial stupidity. I do not say that
pupils should never be required to read or learn what they do not com-
prehend ; but I do say that such should never be the requisition so
long as they are in danger of falling into the habit of which I speak,
nor until they have the habit of reading with the distinct realization
that they do comprehend or that they do not.

3. I have said that the power of expression is possible only after
a proper development of the capacity to receive impressions. The
power and the habit of conveying thought will follow as a conse-
quence of, and in proportion to, the power and the habit of receiving
thought. This plainly indicates the plan which should be adopted by
any rational system of primary instruction in reading. As a matter
of fact, however, the universal practice of teachers is in direct opposi-
tion to this principle. It is assumed on all hands that the practice of
reading can have no other object than to impart elocutionary skill; to
cultivate the power of oral expression. The great question which
governs the method in this branch is not. Do we understand others?
but, How to make others understand us. It is taken for granted that
distinctness of articulation, correctness of inflection, etc., surely indi-
cate the presence of the thought within. Pupils are drilled almost
daily in reading from the time they are six until they are sixteen, and
yet they cannot read. They pass over that which to them is intelli-
gible and that which is not intelligible alike, without the least discrimi-
nation. Words, words merely, are their only currency. Professors ot
elocution, and teachers, of reading, do not impart the power we need.
They teach us an accomplishment, but neglect our necessity. They
make oral reading a high and important end, while it is simply a means,
and should so be used. Our children ai"e taught as thous^h a large
portion of their existence were to be spent in reading aloud ; whereas,
probably not one-fiftieth of all the reading done by people in ordinary
circumstances is of that kind. For most of us, it is our intellectual busi-

HARMONIES OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 225

ness in life to understand, to receive, to unload, as it were, that which
others have put aboard. At least ability in this line is what we need
infinitely more than the mere art of conveying thought. The number
is comparatively small of those who are called upon to create, to body
forth the soul either as orators or writers. The truth is, within the
proper and legitimate sphere of school-reading, the cultivation of the
organs of speech should be strictly subordinate to the great end of ac-
quiring and retaining thoughts. The voice and ear have just that
kind of work to do, and no other, which is performed by the gauge
upon the steam-boiler, viz., to aiford a means of judging of the condi-
tion of things within — the one of the pressure of steam, the other of
the clearness and coherence of ideas. The paramount object in learn-
ing to read is to acquire the power of obtaining from the printed page,
and by means of the eye only, ideas clearly and quickly. This should
be the foremost thing with every teacher. Tone, emphasis, inflection,
and general expression are, or should be, only the test-marks to indi-
cate to the teacher whether or not the thought as presented by the
printed words is fairly lodged in the mind of the learner. This per-
fectly subsidiary character of oral reading and the actual comprehen-
sion of the thought are almost entirely lost sight of. The subject is
taught as a fine art, an art of expression only, the same as music,
instead of the art of soul-perceptions, the art of seeing and feeling
ideas and sentiments.

Such are some of the faculties which need attention in making
good readers, and some existing faults which need correction.

♦»♦•

THE DEEPER HARMONIES OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION.'

IV.

AT the outset I drew a distinction between theology and religion.
Theology I considered to be the intellectual or scientific knowl-
edge of God, religion the imaginative or sympathetic knowledge of him.
After examining, then, to what extent theology is modified by the
omission of the supernatural source of knowledge, after showing that
it is in no way destroyed, since it has always been of the essence of
theology to inquire what is the relation of the universe to human
ideals — and this inquiry remains legitimate, necessary, and all-impor-
tant, whether we appeal to natural or supernatural evidence — I j^ass
on to consider the modification prodviced by the same omission in
religion. With what feelings should we regard God contemplated
only in Nature ?

It will be evident, from what was said at the close of the last chap-
ter, that the common impressions about the worship of Nature are

' From a series of papers, in Ifacmillati's Magazine, on " Natural Religion."
VOL. Till. — 15

2 26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

quite mistaken. It is vaguely imagined that tlie worship of Nature
is neither more nor less than classical paganism, and that to adoj^t it
would be to revive the " golden years " Shelley sings of, to substitute
a Madre Natura for the Christian Church, and Pan or Apollo for Christ.
This is a misconception of precisely the same sort as that which re-
gards Nature as pitiless and inhuman. Let us always remember that
Nature, as we are using that most ambiguous of words, is opposed sim-
ply to the supernatural. Sometimes, as I pointed out, it is opposed
to man. When j^aganism is said to be a worship of Nature, the
word is used in a third sense, and one somewbat indeterminate. It
is opposed rather to civilization. Paganism did not confine itself to
the worship of inanimate Nature. It deified, to be sure, the sun and
moon, the sky, tlie morning and evening star, and all the principal
phenomena of inanimate Nature. But it worshiped also certain dei-
ties who were supposed to preside over human life, powers of birth,
raai-riage, and death, protectors of tribes and cities, powers of war
and commerce, powers of the human mind. When we call it Nature-
w^orship, therefore, we are not using the word Nature simply as op-
posed to man. But it so happened, we may say quite accidentally,
that in its worship of tlie phenomena of man paganism paused ab-
ruptly. The worshiping disposition in the ancient nations decayed as
society advanced ; they ceased to increase their Pantheon as human
phenomena became known to them. The consequence is, that the dei-
ties that have to do with human life in paganism concern only what
is most elementary and primitive in human life. To people in the
tribal stage paganism would have seemed to embrace the whole of
humanity as well as inanimate Nature. But when nations had left
that stage far behind them, when they had devised complicated poli-
tics, and invented arts and sciences, paganism still remained in its
old condition. It did not progress, and in the last ages of the ancient
world the traditional religions reflected the image of a much simpler
time. This in reality deprived them of all influence except with the
rural population, but at the same time it gave them a charm to all
those who were influenced by that reaction against civilization and
progress which is always going on. The same charm is felt by us
when we look back upon paganism. When we see statues of Pan or
Faunus, when we read Homer, we feel the fascination of naivete and
simplicity. And to express Avhat we feel we fall back upon the un-
fortunate and overworked word Nature. We say these old pagans
worshiped Nature, meaning apparently to say that their thoughts and
feelings had not been much modified by the influence of thinkers, in-
ventors, systematizers, that in fact their minds were in a childlike
state, and had the freshness and joyousness of childhood.

Evidently Nature here is not in any way opposed to the supernatu-
ral. The supernatural could not enter into any creed more than it
entered into the creeds of these so-called worshipers of Nature.

HARMONIES OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 227

And, If the supernatural were omitted from our present creeds, tlie
residuum would not be classical paganism. It would be something
like what paganism would have been if religious feeling had not been
weakened by the growing complication of human life. Had men's
minds continued as religious in the age of Aristotle as they were in
the days of Homer, it is not difficult to see how paganism would have
developed. The great product of civilization is the development in
men's minds of the feeling of justice, duty, and self-sacrifice. These
new feelings, then, would have embodied themselves in new deities,
or new conceptions of old ones. Paganism in develoj^ing would have
become moral, and so would have lost all the charm which the mod-
erns, tired, of morality, find in it. And in doing so it would not
necessarily have given more weight to the supernatural, and might
easily have given less. Notions of duty and morality have no neces-
sary connection with the supernatural. The worship of God in Na-
ture, therefore, the worship of the Being revealed to us by science,
would not be a religion without morality, because, however science
may repudiate the supernatural, it cannot repudiate the law of duty.
To human beings that have reached a certain social stage, duty is a
thing quite as real as the sun and stars, and exciting much deeper
feelings. In the sense in which we are using the word, duty is a part
of Nature. The worship of Nature, tlierefore, would be no pagan-
ism. It would not be mere animal happiness or aesthetic enjoyment
of beauty. It would be far more like Christianity. It would be
mainly concerned with questions of right and wrong ; it would be in
almost as much danger as Christianity of running into excesses of
introspection and asceticism.

But, now that we are on our guard against this misconcejstion, let
us go somewhat further back to inquire what the religion of God in
Natui'e will be. The word religion is commonly and conveniently
appropriated to the feelings with which we regard God. But those
feelings — love, awe, admiration, wliich together make up religion — are
felt in various combinations for human beings, aiid even for inanimate
objects. It is not exclusively but only ^x^r excellence that religion is
directed toward God. When feelings of admiration are very strong,
they find vent in some act ; w^hen they are strong and at the same
time serious and permanent, they express themselves in recurring
acts, and hence arise ritual and liturgy, and whatever the multitude
identifies with religion. But, without ritual, religion may exist in its
elementary state, and this elementary state of religion is what may
be described as habitual and permanent admiration.

Keligious feeling readily connects itself with the supernatural —
" Gern wohnt er unter Feen, Talismanen " ' — but, at the same time,
religious feeling can restrain itself, and sometimes even deliljcrately
chooses to restrain itself from all associations of the kind. Accord-

' Loves to dwell amid fairies and talismans.

228 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ingly, whatever the principal object of religious feeling in a particu-
lar case may be, of that object there springs up a natural religion
and also a supernatural religion. There have been two classes of
religions which have been conspicuous by their difference in the his-
tory of mankind. On the one hand, there have been the religions
which have found their objects of worship princij^ally in the sensible
world, in physical phenomena, and in man considered as a physical
phenomenon. On the other hand, there are the religions which con-
template more what is intellectual and moral. The best example of
the former class is classical paganism, which, as I pointed out, was
arrested in its development at the moment when it began to embrace
the moral world ; to the other class belong Judaism and Christianity.
Now, both these forms of religion may be found connected with the
supernatural and also unconnected with it. Classical paganism itself
was a supei'natural religion. The feelings excited in the Greek by
the siglit of a tree or a fountain did not end where they began, in
admiration, delight, and love ; they passed on into miracle. The natu-
ral phenomenon was transformed into a maiweloiis quasi-human be-
ing. But the same feelings aroused in the mind of Wordsworth pro-
duced a new religion of Nature not less real or intense than that of
the ancients, but unconnected with the supernatural. He worsliips
trees and fountains and flowers for themselves and as they are ; if his
imagination at times plays with them, he does not mistake the play
for earnest. The daisy, after all, is a floioer, and it is as a flower that
he likes best to worship it. " Let good men feel the soul of Nature
and see things as they are." In like manner moral religion has taken
two forms. Judaism and Christianity are to a certain extent sujjer-
natural religions, but rationalistic forms of both have sprung up in
which it has been attempted to preserve the religious principle which
is at the bottom of them, discarding the supernatural element with
which it is mixed. The worship of humanity, which has been spring-
ing up in Europe since the middle of the last century, is in a like man-
ner a religion of moral qualities divorced from the supernatural.

If religion really accepts the supernatural even when its object is
only isolated physical phenomena or human beings, how much more
so when its object is God, whether God be regarded as the Cause of
the universe or as the universe itself considered as a unity ! Our ex-
perience of a limited physical phenomenon may be some measure of
its powers ; the antecedent imj^robability of its transcending in a par-
ticular case the limit which our experience had led us to put upon our
conception of it may be very great. But who can place any limits to
Nature or to the universe ? We may indeed require rigid pi'oof of
whatever transcends our experience, but it is not only Orientals
who say that " with God all things are possible ; " the most scientific
men are the most willing to admit that our experience is no measure
of Nature, and that it is mere ignorance to pronounce a priori any

HARMONIES OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 229

thing to be impossible. Accordingly, those religions which have had
for their object the unity of the universe, or what we call, par excel-
lence, God, as distinguislied from gods many and lords many, have
generally been most lavish of miracle. They have delighted to be-
lieve in whatever is most improbable, because by doing so they seemed
to show how strongly they realized the greatness of their Divinity.
Credo quia impossibile is a paradox specially belonging to the religion
of God. But, on the other hand, there is nothing in this religion that
requires the miraculous. Tliose who realize the infinity and eternity
of Nature most, and who are most prepared to admit that nothing is
impossible, may quite well believe at the same time that the laws of
Nature are invariable, and may be as skeptical as the most narrow-
minded slaves of experience about particular stories of miracle that
come before them. Indeed, there is perceptible, both in Judaism and
Christianitv, along with the fullest and readiest belief in miracle, a
certain contemjDt for those who attach much importance to siich occa-
sional exceptions to general law. Prophets and apostles and Christ
himself believe one and all that God can and does, at his pleasure,
suspend ordinary laws ; they believe this as a matter of course, and
with a kind of wonder that any one can doubt it ; but they hold it
rather as a matter of course than as a matter of much importance —
though they may hold a particular suspension of law to be very im-
portant for the light it throws on the Divine will ; and it is evident
that the God of their worship is rather the God who habitually main-
tains his laws than the God who occasionally suspends them. As
therefore we found that the physical religion which in paganism ex-
isted along with a belief in the supernatural appeared elsewhere
divorced from it, and that the Christian religion of humanity reap-
peared in modern religions divorced from miracle, so Ave may expect
to find somewhere a purely natural religion of God.

I have before asserted that modern science, however contemptu-
ously it may reject the supernatural, has nevertheless both a theology
and a God. It has a God because it believes in an Infinite and Eter-
nal Being ; it has a theology because it believes in the urgent neces-
sity of obeying his laws and in the happiness that comes from doing
so. Is it not equally true that it has or may have a religion ? If re-
ligion be made of love, awe and admiration, is not Nature a proper
object of these as well as of scientific study ?

It will be said that the religion of God thus understood is intel-
ligible enough, but has no character of its own by which it may be
differenced from the physical and moral religions described above.
When we admire a fl.ower we are worshiping Nature, but this is
paganism stripped of the supernatural, or Wordsworthianism. When
we admire justice or self-sacrifice in any human being, we are again,
after the explanation given above, worshiping Nature, but this is
Christianity stripped of the supernatural, or the modern religion of

2 30 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

humanity. Now, what third kind of religion can there be unless we
introduce a third or supernatural order ol beings ? I answer that the
natural religion of God, though closely connected with both of these
religions, is nevertheless clearly distinct from them. Its material is
certainly the same ; it contemplates the same phenomena and no
others, but it contemplates them in a diiferent spirit and for a differ-
ent purpose. The object which excites its admiration may be, as in
tlie former case, a tree, a flowei*, the sky, or the sea, but the admira-
tion, when aroused, goes beyond tlie object which aroused it, and
fixes upon a great unity, more or less strongly realized, in which all
things cohere. It is thus that the view which the man of science
takes of any natural object ditters from that taken by an uneducated
man. The admiration of the latter is, as it were, pagan. It ends in
the particular form and color before it. It sees nothing in the object
but the object itself. But the eye of science passes entirely beyond
the object and sees the law that works in it ; instead of the individual
it sees the kind, and beyond the kind it sees higher unities in endless
scale. What it admires is also in a sense Nature, but it is not Nature
as a collective name for natural things, but Nature as the unity of
natural things, or, in other words, God. Similar, with feelings less
distinct but probably stronger, is the contemplation of Nature in
ancient Hebrew poetry, which, when it surveys the great phenomena
of the world, instead of considering each by itself in succession, in-
stinctively collects them under a transcendent unity. Instead of
saying, " How spacious the floor of ocean, how stately the march of
the clouds across heaven, how winged the flight of the wind ! " the
Hebrew poet says, " Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the
waters, who maketh the clouds his chariot, and walketh upon the
wings of the wind."

We see, then, that human admiration, when it organizes itself in
religion, may take three forms and not two only. Not only may it
fix itself almost exclusively upon sensible phenomena and become
paganism, or turn away from the sensible world to contemplate moral
qualities as in Christianity, but also it may fix itself not upon the phe-
nomena themselves, but upon a unity of them. The simplest form of
this religion of unity is, I suppose, Mohammedanism, which not only
contemplates a unity of the world, but takes scarcely any interest in
the phenomena themselves, tlie unity of which it contemplates. Lost
in the idea of the greatness of God, it loses its interest in the visible
evidences of his greatness ; but in most cases this religion of unity is
combined with one or both of the other religions. The unity wor-
shiped is not an abstract unity, but a unity either of the physical or
of the moral world, or of both. In paganism the physical world is
not worshiped simply for itself, but a feeble attempt is made to estab-
lish some unity among its phenomena by setting xip a supreme Jove
over the multitude of deities. In the moral religions the tendencv to

SKETCH OF DR. JOHN W. DAWSON. 231

unity is still stronger, so much so that it may seem wrong to class, as
we have done, Judaism and Christianity among religions of humanity
rather than religions of God. They are, in fact, both at once, and the
former at least is primarily a religion of God, and only secondarily a
religion of humanity. It is because the worship of humanity in them,
rather than the worship of Deity, determines their specific character,
because they conceive Deity itself as a transcendent humanity, or as
united with humanity ; it is not because Deity plays a less, but be-
cause humanity plays a more prominent part in them, tljat I have
chosen to name them rather from humanity than from Deity.

When, therefore, modern systematizers, in endeavoring to organize
a religion which should exclude the supernatural, have extracted out
of Christianity a religion of humanity, and have rejected as obsolete
whatever in it had relation to Deity, they have not been wrong in
taking what they have taken, though wrong in leaving w^hat they
have left. Deity is found in other religions besides Christianity, and
in some religions, e. g., in Islamism, is not a whit less prominent than
in Christianity ; what is characteristic of the Christian system is its
worship of humanity. How great a mistake, nevertheless, is made
when it is supposed that Deity ought to be removed out of our reli-
gious systems, or that the rejection of supernaturalism in any way
involves the dethronement of Deity or the transference to any other
object of the unique devotion due to him, I shall show immediately;
but what I have said about those inferior forms of religion which have
not God for their object suggests another observation before we pass
to consider the religion of God.

♦«»

SKETCH OF PRmCIPAL DAWSON.

JOHN WILLIAM DAWSON was born at Pictou, Nova Scotia, in
1820. He received his early academic training in the College of
Pictou. Here, in addition to the regular course of study, he investi-
gated with great success the natural history of his native province,
thus early manifesting a taste for original scientific inquiry.

Having finished his course at Pictou, he entered the University of
Edinburgh. After a winter's study he returned to Nova Scotia, and
devoted himself with ardor to geological research. He was the com-
panion of Sir Charles Lyell during his tour in Nova Scotia, in 1842.

In the autumn of 1846 he returned to the University of Edin-
burgh, his special objects of study being now practical chemistry and
other svtbjocts, of which he had found the necessity in the original
work in which he was engaged.

In 1850 he was appointed Superintendent of Education for Nova
Scotia. This oflice he held for three years, and rendered valuable ser-

232 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

vice to that province at a time of special interest in the history of its
schools and educational institutions. He also took an active part in
the establishment of a normal school in Nova Scotia, and in the regu-
lation of the affairs of the University of New Brunswick, as a member
of the commission appointed by Sir Edmund Head for the purpose.

In 1855 he was called to the position which he still holds, that of
Principal and Professor of Natural History in McGill College and
University, an institution which, situated in Montreal, the commercial
capital of Canada, draws its students from all parts of the Dominion.
The university has prospered under his wise and liberal management
beyond the most sanguine expectations of its friends and promoters.

The raising of McGill College to its present position would have
been work enough in itself for these years, but in addition to this Dr.
Dawson has had under his care the Protestant Normal School. From
his position there he has had a great deal to do with the moulding
and controlling of the school system of the coimtry. After many
years' faithful work, he withdrew (in 1870) from this office.

His special work in connection with the university and the normal
school took up much of that time which would have otherwise have
been devoted to orisfinal investigations in his favorite science.

A review of his more important scientific labors will show us how
much may be done even in the midst of engrossing educational occupa-
tions. As early as 1830 Dr. Dawson began to make collections of the fos-
sil plants of the Nova Scotia coal formation. In 1841 he contributed
to the "Werneriah Society of Edinburgh liis first scientific jjaper, on the
species of field-mice found in Nova Scotia. In 1843 he communicated
a paper on the rocks of Eastern Nova Scotia to the Geological Soci-
ety of London ; this was followed in 1844 by a paper on the newer
coal formation. In 1845, besides exploring and reporting on the iron-
mines of Londonderry, Nova Scotia, he published a paper on the coal
fossils of that province.

During the winter of 1846-47, while studying in Edinburgh, he
contributed to the Royal Society of that city papers on the " Forma-
tion of Gypsum," and on the " Bowlder Formation," and an article to
Jameson's Edinburgh Philosophical Journal^ on the " Renewal of
Forests destroyed by Fire." The facts embodied in the last were
subsequently employed by him in combating the exaggerated periods
of time assigned to such changes by European geologists.

From 1847 to 1849 we find him, with the same never-flagging zeal,
pursuing his geological researches, and giving the results to the world
infrequent papers. The most important of these are : 1. " On the
Triassic Red Sandstones of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island ; "
2. "On the Coloring Matters of Red Sandstones;" 3. "On Erect
Calamites found near Pictou;" 4. "On the Metamorphic Rocks
of Nova Scotia." He also published his " Handbook of the Geogra-
phy and Natural History of Nova Scotia," and delivered courses of

SKETCH OF DR. JOHN W. DAWSON. 233

lectures on natural history and geology in the Pictou Academy, and
in Dalhousie College, Halifax, and reported to the Nova Scotia Gov-
ernment on the coal-fields of Southern Cape Breton,

In 1852, in company with Sir Charles Lyell, he- made a reexami-
nation of the Joggins section, and visited the remarkable deposit of
Albertite at Hillsborough, New Brunswiclv. A paper soon appeared
on the Joggins section, giving a more fall exposition than any previ-
ous one of the structure and mode of formation of a coal-field. The
Albert Mine was also made the subject of a paper. In the further
study of the Joggins section, microscopic examinations were made of
coal from all its beds, as well as of coal from other sources, the results
being published in papers on the " Structures in Coal," and on the
" Mode of Accumulation of Coal."

It was during the visit to the Joggins, just referred to, that the
remains of Dendrerpeton Acaclianurri and Pupa vetusta were found.
With the exception of Haphetes planiceps^ which Dr. DaAvson had
discovered the year previous at Pictou, but not described, Dendrer-
peton Acadiannm was the first reptile found in the coal formation of
America, while Pupa vetusta was the first known Palaeozoic land-
snail. These discoveries were followed by the finding and describing
of several other reptiles, and of the first carboniferous millipede
[Xylohliis sigillarloe). About this time, also, a second report on the
Acadia mines was prepared, and an elaborate series of assays of coal
made for the General Mining Association.

In 1855 he published the first edition of his "Acadian Geology."
In 1856, though now trammeled by the arduous duties incumbent
upon the principal of a university, he still continued his geological
work in his native province, and prepared a description of the Silu-
rian and Devonian rocks. During the same summer he visited Lake
Superior, and wrote a paper and report on the copper-regions of Ma-
main se and Georgian Bay.

In the two following years he made a number of contributions to
the Canadian Naturalist and the Journal of the Geological Society^
and commenced the study of the Post-pliocene deposits of Canada.
In 1859 his " Archaia," or studies of creation in Genesis, appeared,
a work showing not only a thorough knowledge of natural history,
but also considerable familiarity with the Hebrew language.

In 1860 Dr. Dawson issued a supplementary chapter to his "Aca-
dian Geology." He also continued liis work in fossil botany, and in
the Post-pliocene, publishing several papers on these subjects, as well
as desultory researches on such subjects as the " Flora of Mount
Washington," " Indian Antiquities at Montreal," " Marine Animals
of the St. Lawrence," " Earthquakes in Canada," " Classification of
Animals," etc.

In 1863 he issued his " Air-Breathex'S of the Coal Formation," a
complete account of the fossil reptiles and other land animals of the

234 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

coal of Nova Scotia. This publication was followed, in 1864, by a
" Handbook of Scientific Agriculture." It was in 1864, moreover, that
Dr. Dawson made what may be considered as one of the most impor-
tant of his scientific discoveries — that of Eozoon Canadense. Previ-
ous to this the rocks of the Laurentian age were looked upon as de-
void of animal remains, and called " Azoic."

In 1865 Dr. Dawson, at the meeting of the British Association at
Birmingham, gave illustrations of his researches on the " Succession
of Palaeozoic Floras," the " Post-pliocene of Canada," and the " Struct-
ure of Eozoon."

While in England, in 1870, Dr. Dawson lectured at the Royal In-
stitution. He also read a paper on the " Afiinities of Coal Plants "
before the Geological Society, and one on the " Devonian Flora " be-
fore the Royal Society. The same year his " Handbook of Canadian
Zoology" appeared, being followed in 1871 by a "Report on the Si-
lurian and Devonian Flora of Canada," and a " Report on the Geo-
logical Structure of Prince Edward Island." His studies of the De-
vonian plants were begun as early as 1858, and Gaspe, St. John's, and
Perry in Maine, were twice visited in order to collect material to aid
in their pursuance.

His " Notes on the Post-pliocene of Canada " were published in
1873. From them we learn that the number of known species of Post-
pliocene fossils had been raised principally by his labors from about
thirty to over two hundred. We also find that Dr. Dawson is still
what he has always been, a stanch opponent to the theory of gen-
eral land glaciation. " The Story of the Earth and Man," issued last
yeai', was a republication of papers published in the Leisure Hour in
1871 and 1872. A report on the "Fossil Flora of the Lower Carbo-
niferous Coal Measures of Canada," and communications to the British
Geological Society on the probable Permian age of beds overlying
the coal-measures of Nova Scotia, and also occurring in Prince Ed-
ward Island, and on recent facts as to the mode of occurrence of
Eozoon in the Laurentian rocks, are still more recent labors. A
course of six lectures delivered in New York in the winter of 1874-'75
has been largely circulated both in America and England, under the
title "Science and the Bible;" and last fall there apjjeared in London
and New York a popular illustrated resume of the facts relating to
Eozoon and other ancient fossils, entitled " The Dawn of Life." At
the Detroit meeting of the American Association, Prof. Dawson, as
Vice-President of Section B, delivered an address in which he vigor-
ously combated the docti'ine of evolution.

Dr. Dawson was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of
London in 1854, and of the Royal Society in 1862. He is a Master of
Arts of Edinburgh, and Doctor of Laws of McGill ; and is an hon-
orary or corresponding member of many of the scientific societies on
both sides of the Atlantic.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

23s

EDITOR'S TABLE.

THE NATION ON ''GERMAN DAR-
WINISM:'

SOME months ago a correspondent
asked the Nation what were the
best books to read on the theory of
evolution. It replied, and seized the
occasion to draw a contrast unfavor-
able to Herbert Spencer, whose books
on that subject, it took pains to say,
it did not recommend. In a more
recent review of two books under
the title of " German Darwinism,"
the same writer came forward and re-
affirmed the positions of the former
article, amplified the discussion, and
continued to refer to Mr. Spencer in
terms of contemptuous disparagement.
More recently, in a eulogistic sketch of
the character of the late Chauncey
Wright, of Cambridge, the Nation rec-
ognizes him as the " great mind " of
the town, and informs xis that he was
the author of the article on " German
Darwinism." This was no news to
many. A few years ago it was quietly
given out from Cambridge that the pre-
tensions of Mr. Spencer were to be
once for all disposed of by Chauncey
Wright, who would do the work in the
North American Review. The on-
slaught was made, but, from divers in-
dications, both at home and abroad, it
seems to have failed of its intended ef-
fect. But Mr. Wright appears to have
regarded it as his permanent function
to put down this philosopher, and ac-
cordingly the last literary act of his
life was another attempt to demolish
him. It looks almost like a Cambridge
fashion for its great men to die in their
antipathies. The article on " German
Darwinism," from its misleading char-
acter and its appearance in tlie Nation,
was entitled to an answer ; but this is
still more necessary, now that its au-
thorship is announced in connection

with very high claims put forth for the
author. It is still further provocative
of reply, as, upon careful perusal, it
will be found to throw very little light
indeed upon "German Darwinism;"
that topic being used mainly as a con-
venient means of reviving and repoint-
ing the writer's old charges against
Spencer. We have no desire to pursue
this topic ; but, as long as such charges
are conspicuously and authoritatively
made, they must be answered.

Referring first to the most trivial, it
is insinuated that the system of Mr.
Spencer has a footing with " English-
thinking readers " only ; while in fact
various of his works are translated into
Italian, German, Hungarian, Dutch,
Russian, and French, and nearly all of
them into the latter languages. Sever-
al of the translations, moreover, have
been made by eminent philosophical
scholars, and it is fairly to be presumed
that their continued reproduction in
foreign countries is due to a demand
for them.

In noticing Schmidt's German work
on "Darwinism and Descent," the
writer makes a j^oint against Mr. Spen-
cer by stating that he is nowhere named
in it. Gegenbaur had done the same
thing in his great work on " Compara-
tive Anatomy," and he was reproaclied
by Prof. Rolleston in the Academy for
giving no account of Spencer's " Biol-
ogy," which made his work defective.
There are various reasons why the Gqv^>
mans have been slow to recognize Mr.
Spencer's ideas. They are embodied
in a " system of philosophy," and by
philosophy the Germans understand
only speculations like those of Kant,
Hegel, and Schelling. They have no
conception of a philosophy organized
out of science, and their biologists do
not dream of finding the development

236

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

of species scientifically dealt with in a
philosophical system. Understanding
philosophy as the Germans do, and be-
ing wedded to their a 2iriori system,
they have habitually sneered at "Eng-
lish philosophy," and therefore pay lit-
tle attention to its new books. Again,
they are greatly given to titles of all
orders, political, social, scientific. Ev-
ery man is jealous of his distinctions —
they glory in their "jewels five words
long," as they have been called. Hence
they think nothing of a man without
scientific titles, and it is beyond their
imagination that any one should refuse
them. Mr. Spencer was, therefore,
without due passports to German con-
sideration. But against the fact that
Schmidt has ignored him, we may put
the fact that the translation of "Eirst
Principles " into German was made at
the instigation of Darwin's chief Ger-
man disciple, Haeckel, and was made
by his assistant, Dr. Vetter.

Mr. Darwin is made out to be un-
theological by an exquisite bit of logic.
It is true that he appeals to supernatu-
ralism for the starting-point of his doc-
trine, and gives exactly the same ac-
count of it that theology has always
offered, speaking of " life with its sev-
eral powers having been originally
breathed by the Creator into a few
forms, or into one." But Mr. Darwin's
science is saved by the charitable im-
putation that he used these words in a
sort of Pickwickian or poetical sense,
and was willing to conciliate the theo-
logians by " a slight difference of style "
in referring to the origin of life. But
when to an extensive series of exposi-
tory works, treating of the course of
Nature by rigorous scientific method,
Mr. Spencer prefixes an essay of a
hundred and odd pages, to clear away
religious difliculties and protect him-
self from the imputation of material-
ism, which was sure to be made against
his scientific labors, there is neither
kindly feeling to see the propriety of
such a course, nor even a sense of jus-

tice to recognize the fact ; but the
whole system is declared to be theo-
logical in origin and character, because,
forsooth, the author put theology aside
at the outset of his undertaking.

We here touch upon the main source
of misunderstanding of Mr. Spencer's
system. The preliminary part which
treats of religion is necessarily meta-
physical. But Mr. Spencer does not
regard religion as an illusion, nor met-
aphysics as necessarily futile. He
holds that the order of the universe is
not without its cause, although the na-
ture of that cause is a mystery past
finding out, and from the very nature
of intelligence must forever transcend
the human understanding. The infi-
nite source of things is usually called
God, and there are many who hold
that man can have a knowledge of God
as of other things; Mr. Spencer de-
clines to use the current term ; and, to
mark his own sense of humility toward
that infinite cause or power of which
all phenomena are manifestations, he
prefers employing the term The Un-
knowable. What is represented by it
is not a negation or a nothing, but the
most exalted object of religious feel-
ing, though beyond the grasp and analy-
sis of intellect. Having defined his
ground in this preliminary dissertation,
and shown that science deals with the
phenomenal, while religion relates to
tliat which transcends the phenome-
nal, so that there can be no radical or
fundamental conflict between them, he
then proceeds to his great work of or-
ganizing the highest and most certain
knowledge attainable of the phenome-
nal universe into a system of philoso-
phy. That system must be judged in-
trinsically, or on its own merits, as a
coherent and consistent body of de-
monstrable and verifiable truth ; yet his
critics, from unscrupulous motives — re-
senting his assumption in undertaking
so immense a task, or from incapacity —
getting swamped among the factors of
a great discussion, have a habit of rep-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

237

resenting him as basing his philosophi-
cal system on metaphysical speculations
regarding the Unknowable, and as the
author of an unknowable philosophy.
The article on " German Darwinism "
rings many changes on this gross mis-
representation.

The writer says that evolution is
regarded by Darwin " as a theorem of
natural history," while Mr. Spencer
treats of evolution "as a philosophical
thesis deductively, and as a part of a
system of metaphysics ; " and further-
more, " a system like Mr. Spencer's is
obliged to stand on such positions,"
namely, " undemonstrated beliefs."
Again, he says, ''Evolution is, with Mr.
Spencer, not a theorem of inductive
science, but a necessary truth deduced
from axioms." These statements — is
it not almost needless to say it ? — are
altogether groundless. Mr. Spencer's
system never could have taken the hold
of the cultivated scientific mind of half
a dozen nations in the present age,
which it confessedly has, if the above
characterization of it were true. Speak-
ing of an important research of Mr.
Spencer, the President of the Koyal
Society of London, when addressing
the British Association, said: "I need
dwell no further on it here than to
quote it as an example of what may be
done by an acute observer and experi-
mentalist, versed in physics and chem-
istry, but above all thoroughly instruct-
ed in scientific methods." Testimony
like this, that Mr. Spencer, whatever
may be his shortcomings, is a master
of scientific methods, might be accu-
mulated to any extent. Is it probable
or conceivable that a man so thorough-
ly equipped for their use should repu-
diate the sound and solid methods of
science, and fly off into baseless specu-
lation when dealing with the most
comprehensive and important scientific
problem of our time ? The thing is
absurd unless it is proved, and the au-
thor of " German Darwinism " stops
with mere dogmatic assertion.

"We aver, on the other hand, that
the scope of Mr. Spencer's great argu-
ment for evolution is only equaled by
the fidelity and completeness of his ad-
herence throughout to the established
canons of scientific inquiry, and his
reputation as a master of true logical
method is beyond doubt mainly due to
his practical application of it in the
construction of his system. In " First
Principles" the law -of evolution is
placed upon the most comprehensive
inductive basis ; and, if we go back to
the earlier enunciation of his views, we
find the law propounded with no refer-
ence whatever to metaphysical specula-
tions. The original form of the concep-
tion and the order of its development
are seen in the essay on "Progress, its
Law and Cause." There is here not a
word of metaphysics, not a word imply-
ing the endeavor to derive the phenom-
ena from the persistence of force, not a
shadow of foundation for the alleged the-
ologico-metaphysical origin of the doc-
trine. The first part of the essay is
devoted entirely to establishing the in-
duction, from all orders of phenomena,
that every thing progresses in heteroge-
neity ; and then, the induction having
been established as universal, the sec-
ond part of the essay is an inquiry into
the dynamical law which determines it
in all cases. This second part sets out
thus : " And now from this uniformity
of procedure may we not infer some fun-
damental necessity whence it results?
May we not rationally seek for some
all-pervading process of things ? Does
not the universality of the laic imply a
universal cause ? " And then the course
of the argument is, first, to show that
the cause alleged, the multiplication of
effects, affords a deductive interpreta-
tion of the induction previously estab-
lished. Are we to be told tliat this is
an illegitimate scientific procedure ?

The author of " German Darwin-
ism" pronounces Spencer unscientific
and unbaconian, because he employs
the deductive or a priori method. But

238

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is not that the method in which science
iinds its completion? Did it weaken
the induction made by Mr. Spencer, to
show that tlie facts are deducible from
a general law in the redistributions of
matter and motion ? "VVas the induction
made by Kepler respecting the laws of
planetary motion weakened when New-
ton proved those laws to be deducible
from the law of gravitation ? If so,
then truths are scientific only so long as
they remain empirical generalizations,
and become unscientific when they are
reduced to the form of rational gener-
alizations. In pursuance of this view
we may say that, so long as the geomet-
rical truth, that the square of the hy-
pothenuse of a right-angled triangle is
equal to the squares of the other two
sides, is recognized as experimentally
true, it constitutes a part of real sci-
ence, but that it becomes metaphysical
and worthless when it is shown to fol-
low inevitably from necessary axioms
and postulates. The strictures of the
author of "German Darwinism," lev-
eled at Spencer as an a priori thinker,
thus spend their force against complete-
ness of scientific method. The reproach
cast upon him could have had no pos-
sible ground, if in elucidating the law
of evolution Mr. Spencer had left it in
the form of a generalization based upon
all orders of phenomena — astronomical,
geological, biological, psychological, and
sociological — that is, if he had left the
work half done. But when the law is
explained, or when the universal course
of transformation is shown to result
from certain universal laws of physical
action — laws which are themselves in-
ductively established before they are
deductively applied — then Mr. Spencer
is to be discredited as a mere speculat-
ing metaphysician. It is now admitted
as a principle — a universal principle —
that force can neither come out of
nothing nor disappear into nothing. It
is " conserved," say some physicists ;
it "persists," says Mr. Spencer, and its
persistence is an ultimate truth. The

laws of physical action which result in
evolution, undeniable as they severally
are, are shown by Mr. Spencer to be all
corollaries from this ultimate truth.
They are established by induction, they
are explained and verified by proving
that they are consequences of a univer-
sal principle ; therefore Mr. Spencer is
metaphysical and unscientific.

The Nation declares that " there is
nothing in Spencer's writing relating to
what is really honored by men of sci-
ence (namely, the scientific explanation
of the origin of species) that is not to
be credited either to Lamarck or Dar-
win." Lamarck is to be credited with
the sagacious perception, and the cou-
rageous avowal, in opposition to Cuvier
and the whole science of his time, of
the doctrine of the variability of species,
and the thinness of the partition be-
tween species and varieties. He saw
many facts that led him to deny the
Cuverian dogma of the fixity of species,
and he had a strong conviction that
their variation was in some way con-
nected with surrounding conditions.
That is, Lamarck has the great merit
of having perceived the nature of the
biological problem that was yet to be
solved, but he can hardly be said to
have entered upon its solution, Mr.
Darwin is to be credited with the sa-
gacious working out of one of the con-
ditions of that problem, namely, the
influence of natural selection in giving
rise to the diversities of species. But
the achievements of both Lamarck and
Darwin only bring us to the threshold
of the great general question of which
they form a part. If their positions
are held to be valid, they simply open
the door to a new and immense scien-
tific investigation which has for its ob-
ject to determine the conditions, pro-
cesses, and causes of evolution. That
natural selection is not evolution, but
only one of its elements, and that Mr.
Darwin has never engaged in the inves-
tigation of evolution in its general prin-
ciples as Science is bound to consider it,

EDITOR'S TABLE.

239

we have shown again and again in these
pages. Mr. Spencer, therefore, under-
took no illegitimate or superfluous task
in devoting many years to evolutionary
I'esearches. If the work of Darwin
and other biologists was not futile, the
larger inquiry was imminent and lay
straight in the path of progressive sci-
ence . Mr. Spencer undertook it, and the
language of the Nation implies that in
his contributions to it there is nothing
that is really honored by men of science.
To this dictum we give a flat contra-
diction, and, if space allowed, we could
weary our readers with the copious
evidence that eminent men of science
honor the work of Spencer by accept-
ing his results as guides to their own
investigations. Let one illustration suf-
fice : Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, one of
the independent discoverers of the prin-
ciple of natural selection, in his address
as President of the Anthropological So-
ciety of London, in 1872, referred to a
view propounded by Mr. Spencer on
biological evolution as " one of the most
ingenious and remarkable theories ever
put forth on a question of natural his-
tory." Nor did he stop with turning a
mere compliment. He went on to say:
"More than sis years ago Mr. Herbert
Spencer published, in his ' Principles of
Biology,' a view of the nature and ori-
gin of the Annulose type of animals,
which goes to the very root of the whole
question; and, if this view is a sound
one, it must so materially afi:ect the
interpretation of all embryological and
anatomical facts bearing on this great
subject, that those who work in igno-
rance of it can hardly hope to arrive
at true results. I propose, therefore, to
lay before you a brief sketch of Mr.
Spencer's theory, with the hope of call-
ing attention to it and inducing some
of you to take up what seems to me a
most promising line of research." Of
course there are plenty of scientific men
who do not honor what Mr. Spencer has
done and care little for what anybody
has done outside of his own narrow

specialties. Human nature works in
scientific men, it must be confessed,
much as it does in other people, and they
often exhibit petty jealousies toward
each other that are a scandal to the
scientific character. That from timid-
ity, prejudice, and lack of interest in
general ideas, many of them should de-
cline to honor a broad and independent
thinker like Spencer, is not surprising.
But all scientific men are not of this
class.

We again affirm that the task which
Mr. Spencer accepted, of investigating
the general principles of evolution, was
one that stood clearly in the pathway
of Science, and was not to be escaped.
He was the first to grasp the full breadth
of its implications, the first to analyze
it into its elements, the first to organize
its varied facts into a coherent system,
and make it the basis of a comprehen-
sive philosophy of Nature. His "First
Principles," containing the full exposi-
tion of the doctrine, has now been be-
fore the world thirteen years, and its
essential positions have not yet been
impugned. There has not been even
an attempt to invalidate his proofs that
the processes of universal change are
from the homogeneous to the hetero-
geneous. There has never been even
an attempt to invalidate his universal
principle of the " Instability of the Ho-
mogeneous." There has not been even
an attempt to invalidate the principle
of the " Multiplication of Eftects ; " nor
have his critics ever even tried to show
that these great principles are not essen-
tial and fundamental factors of evolu-
tion ; and until this is done they may as
well hold their peace in regard to his
claims as an original explorer in this
field.

Finally, in his zeal to upset Spencer,
the Natioii's writer throws Bacon at
his head, but he sadly misses his aim.
It is now well understood that Bacon's
attempt to lay down the rules of scien-
tific pursuit was a signal failure. He
tried his own rules in the investigation

240

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of heat, without discovering any thing
ahout it ; he was grossly inappreciative
of the science and scientific men of his
day, rejecting the Copernican system,
and neglecting the immortal researches
of Harvey. It will hardly be beheved
that the Nation'' s critic quotes against
Spencer one of the most unfortunate pas-
sages that Bacon ever wrote : that in
which he condemns the chemists of his
day for philosophizing "from a few ex-
periments of the furnace ; " and dispar-
ages the work of the celebrated founder
of the science of magnetism. Dr. Gilbert.
Mr. Spencer can very well afford to be
condemned with such company. What-
ever weight, indeed, Bacon has as a phi-
losopher must go into the other side of
the scale. If he failed as a scienti:;t, or
in laying down the special rules of re-
search, he did great service in calling
men away from scholastic verbalism,
and inciting them to the study of Na-
ture ; while there can be no doubt that
he had great insight for comprehen-
sive relations, and saw with the eye of
prophetic genius the coming day when
human knowledge would be so per-
fected and marshaled as to represent
the unity and continuity of Nature.
"When Bacon is appealed to against
Spencer, we say that if he had lived in
our day, with the ripened sciences at
command, it is not unlikely that he
might have written "First Principles."
At all events, if his eminent German in-
terpreter, Dr. Hans Fischer, is to be
trusted, his mind ran very much in the
same direction of thought. In his work,
"Francis Bacon of Verulam," Dr. Fis-
cher says : " What in Bacon's sense is
the proposed Fundamental Philosophy
{Philosophia Prima) ? The unity of all
the sciences. Bacon seeks this unity
by the method of analogy. Not on di-
alectical but on real grounds should the
universal predicates of things (such as
much and little, like and different, pos-
sible and imi)0ssible, essential and con-
tingent, etc.) be determined." Again :
"The very design of Bacon's analogies

shows that he sought more than can be
afforded by experienge. He sought by
this road what he could not discover
by that of induction alone, namely, the
unity of Nature as manifested in the
affinity of all things, or the harmony
of the universe."

LITERARY NOTICES.

Annual Report of the Board of Regents
OF THE Smithsonian Institution, show-
ing the Operations, Expenditures, and
Condition of the Institution for the Year
1874. Washington : Governraent Print-
ing-Office, 1875. Pp. 416.

We had occasion in the October number
of The Popular Science Monthly to notice
the last report of the Astronomer Royal of
England, and to remark upon tlie great
persistency with which " the fundamental
idea " of the Royal Observatory had been
followed out for forty years, and the great
success which had attended its work.

We have a no less remarkable instance
of the intelligent, careful, and devoted fol-
lowing out of a well-considered plan and
of great success, in the case of our own
Smithsonian Institution, under the direc-
tion of Prof. Henry and his most efficient
seconders and collaborators. The Smithso-
nian Institution was founded by James
Smithson of England, " for the increase
and diffusion of knowledge among men."
In the first annual report of the secretary
(Prof. Henry), for 1846, a definite " plan of
organization " was proposed, which has
been adequate to all the conditions which
then existed and which have since arisen.

It proposed in brief: "To increase
Knowledge : 1. To stimulate men of tal-
ent to make original researches, by offering
suitable rewards for memoirs containing
new truths ; and, 2. To appropriate an-
nually a portion of the income for particu-
lar researches, under the direction of suita-
ble persons. To diffuse Knowledge : 1.
To publish a series of periodical reports on
the progress of the different branches of
knowledge ; and, 2. To publish occasionally
separate treatises on subjects of general in-
terest." This plan has been devotedly
carried out, and we propose to extract from
Prof. Henry's report for 1874 enough to

LITERARY NOTICES.

241

show in part liow important and useful the
work of the institution is, and how large a
field it covers.

In direct compliance with the pro-
gramme above given, the institution publish-
es three classes of works : first, the " Contri-
butions to Knowledge " (quarto), which are
memoirs " containing some positive addi-
tion to science resting on original research,
and which are generally the result .of inves-
tigations to which the institution has, in
some way, rendered assistance ; " second,
the "Miscellaneous Collections" (octavo),
which consist of works " intended to facili-
tate the study of branches of natural his-
tory, meteorology, etc., and are designed
especially to induce individuals to engage
in these studies as specialties ; " ilm-cl, the
"Annual Reports " (octavo) contain, besides
the accounts of the operations, expendi-
tures, etc., " translations from works not
generally accessible to American students,
reports of lectures, abstracts of correspond-
ence, etc." These are liberally distributed
free of cost to public libraries, institutions,
colleges. States, and Territories, in such a
way, and under such conditions, as shall
secure them to be most generally accessible
and useful. No copyright has ever been
secured on any of the publications of the
Institution. They are left perfectly free to
be used by the compilers of books and
all other persons, on the express condition
that due credit is to be given, not only to
the author of the book, but to the Smith-
sonian Institution. This is eminently just,
because in most cases the researches have
been prosecuted with the aid of funds from
the Smithson bequest. The publications
for 1874 have been Volume XIX. of the
" Contributions to Knowledge," which con-
tains the results of three most important
researches : 1. On Problems of Eotary
Motion, by General J. G. Barnard, pp. '74.
2. On Fresh-water Algae, by Prof. H. C.
Wood, pp. 274, 21 colored plates. 3. Orbit
and Tables of Uranus, by Prof S. New-
comb, pp. 296.

Besides this, the eleventh and twelfth
volumes of the " Miscellaneous Collections "
have been issued, containing nine contribu-
tions : On the Families of Mammals and
Fishes, by Dr. Theodore Gill; On the
Diptera of North America, by H. Loew ;

VOL. vm. — 16

Directions for collecting and preserving
Insects, by Dr. Packard ; two papers on
Coleoptera, by Dr. John Le Conte ; Re-
view of American Birds, by Prof Baird ;
On the Constants of Nature, Part I.,
boiling-points, specific gravities, etc., by
Prof Clarke (noticed in The Popular Sci-
ence Monthly, August, 1874); and Rules
for the Telegraphic Announcement of As-
tronomical Discoveries, by Prof. Henry.
Several of the separate memoirs which will
make up Volume XX. of the " Contributions
to Knowledge " have already been printed
and distributed : 1. On the General In-
tegrals of Planetary Motion, by Prof. New-
comb ; 2. On the Haidah Indians of Queen
Charlotte Islands, by James G. Swan. At
the time of making the report, there were
in the press, and intended for the quarto
publications: 1. The Antiquities of Ten-
nessee, by Dr. Joseph Jones ; 2. The Har-
monies of the Solar System, by Prof S.
Alexander (noticed in The Popular Sci-
ence Monthly for September, 1875) ; 3.
The Winds of the Globe, by the late
Prof. J. H. Coffin; 4. The Temperature-
Tables of North America, by C. A. Schott.
There were also in the p7-ess a monograph
of American Wasps, by Prof, de Saussure,
of Geneva, and a botanical index to all
known American species of plants.

For many years the Smithsonian Insti-
tution had a large corps of volunteer me-
teorological observers distributed all over
the United States, who forwarded their re-
ports for discussion to Washington. These
observers have been transferred to the
United States Signal Bureau of the War
Department, to whom their reports are now
furnished. But an immense amount of
valuable meteorological material has accu-
mulated at the Smithsonian Institution,
which is to be discussed and published.
The first work of this series, on "Rainfall,"
has already been printed, the discussion of
the observations having been done by Prof.
Schott, of the Coast Survey. The second
volume, on the " Winds of the Globe," by
Prof. J. H. Coffin, and continued by his
son and by Dr. Woeikof, will be published'
in 1875. The next work of the series treats -
of the " Temperature of the United States,"
and will also be published during this year.
It deals with all available observations of

242

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

temperature in the United States from the
earliest times to the present : these have
been discussed by Prof. Schott, aided by
computers paid from the Smithson fund.
Still another work of this series is in prog-
ress on the " Geographical Distribution of
Thunder-Storms," and another work will
soon be commenced on the deductions from
barometrical observations in the United
States.

The Institution is also aiding in a re-
searcli on the orbit of the periodic comet
of Tuttle (time of revolution thirteen years),
prosecuted under the direction of Prof.
Stone. An investigation into the efficiency
of steam-heaters has been aided by the
Institution during the year.

" The diffmion of knowledge among
men " is powerfully aided by the Smith,
sonian system of exchanges. The Institu-
tion is in correspQndence with more than
two thousand institutions, whose publica-
tions, etc., it distributes in this country, and
to whom it forwards works relating to sci-
entific and literary advances in America.
As is said by the secretary in his report,
" the effect of this system on the diffusion
of knowledge cannot be too highly esti-
mated." The exchanges in books and
pamphlets alone amount to 5,546 in 1874,
and these are deposited in the Library of
Congress, where they are available for re-
search. The telegraphic announcements of
astronomical discoveries in Europe and
America have been in operation since 18Y3,
and are of the highest benefit to astronomi-
cal science. Six asteroids and six comets
were so announced in 1874.

Tlie National Museum is deposited in the
building of the Institution, and is under the
care of Prof. Baird, Assistant Secretary.
Constant additions are yearly made to it
from all parts of the world, and all sources
are laid under contribution. Mr. P. T.
Barnum gives to the institution all animals
which die in his menagerie, and Mr. Black-
ford, of Fulton Market, New York City,
selects, from the thousands of fish which
come weekly into his hands, all rare and
curious ones, which are at once sent in Ice
to the museum. There is, indeed, no part
of the globe from which contributions are
not received. All the War Department and
other surveys in the West, the Navy Depart-

ment surveys and exploring expeditions, the
State Department Boundary Survey, and
many other collectors, deposit the results of
their work here, where they are discussed
and elaborated. The museum furnishes also,
from its duplicates, specimens for study to
specialists who desire them. Its collections
of insects, etc., are deposited with the De-
partment of Agriculture, and exchanges are
constantly kept up with this and other in-
stitutions. The United States Fish Com-
mission may be almost considered as a part
of the Institution ; the valuable results
which have already accrued from its sci-
entific and energetic labors are too well
known to need more than a mention.

The secretary of the Institution has for
twenty years been a member of the Light-
house Board, and is now its chaiiman, and
to this connection Science owes the exten-
sive series of experiments on sound in its
relation to fog-signals, which are published
in the appendix to the light-house report
for 1874. The results from these experi-
ments will undoubtedly be a guide for all
governments in their choice of a method
of fog-signaling.

Besides the valuable report of the sec-
retary, of which the above is an abstract,
there are given : Eulogies on Laplace,
Quetelet, and De la Rive, by Arago, Mailly,
and Dumas ; a lecture on Tides and Tidal
Action in Harbors, by Prof. Ililgard ;
Observations of Atmospheric Electricity
and Aurora, by Lemstrom ; an essay on
a Dominant Language for Science, by De
Candolle ; Underground Temperature, by
Schott and Everett ; The North Carolina
Earthquakes, by Du Pre and Henry ;
Warming and Ventilation, by Morin ; and
several short communications on Ethnology.
All of these translations and memoirs are
interesting and valuable, and many of them
deserve a special review, but we must be
content to notice how carefully they are se-
lected to aid in the diffusion of information
not generally accessible.

Enough has been given to show that the
closing words of the secretary's report are
but a mere statement of present facts :
" The Institution is successfully prosecut-
ing the plan adopted for realizing the be-
nevolent intention of its founder, in the way
of increasing and difiusing knowledge

LITERARY NOTICES.

243

among men ; its funds are again in a pros-
perous condition, and its reputation and
usefulness are still on the increase."

The adoption of a wise and well-consid-
ered plan and a steady adherence to " the
fundamental idea " have resulted in this
instance, as they will result in all, in last-
ing and permanent good and in brilliant
success. Perhaps the most valuable lesson
to be derived from the present report is in
its unwritten precepts, which show how a
scientific trust may be administered so as
to produce the greatest return to the world,
and at the same time to preserve for sci-
ence the full benefit of the endowment.
There is no country where these lessons
deserve more careful study than in our own,
and we are fortunate in having in our midst
an example of good administration based
on wise prevision, and guided by high sci-
entific intelligence.

Bacteria and their Influence upon the
Origin and Development of Septic
Complications of Wounds. By L. A.
Stimson, M. D. Wood Priz^ Essay of
the Alumni Association of Bellevue
Hospital Medical College. 34 pages.
New York : D. Appleton & Co., 18Y5.

In the early pages of this pamphlet the
author explains what is meant by the terms
bacterium and vibrio, gives the various clas-
sifications that have been proposed for
them, and then goes into an account of
their natural history, including structure,
development, motions, nourishment, func-
tions, and distribution. Briefly summed up,
" Bacteria are microscopical vegetable or-
ganisms of two main varieties : 1. Round or
oval cells 0.0005 — 0.0010 mm. in diameter,
single or arranged in lines or groups. . . .
2. Cylindrical cells, 0.002—0.003 mm. long,
single or arranged in lines. . . . There is no
genetic relationship between them and or-
dinary mould and fungus. They are found
in the air, water, and most animal and vege-
table tissues. They are saprophytes, not
parasites, and are unable in themselves to
cause infectious diseases." The remainder
of the essay is on the second branch of the
subject, viz., what these organisms have
to do with the origin and development of
the putrid conditions of wounds, and on the
treatment to be adopted for the prevention
or relief of such conditions.

Fire-Burial among our Germanic Fore-
fathers. By Karl Blind. London :
Longmans, Green & Co. 24 pp.

The author shows that fire-burial was
once the ruling custom with the Germanic
races, and thinks it not strange that the
German people should so readily accept the
views of Sir Henry Thompson on cremation.
Their occasional torchlight processions at
night in honor of departed princes are lin-
gering relics of fire-burial.

The Saxons and Frisians of old were
terrified at the dark, narrow grave when the
change was made from burning to burial.
With the Northmen, cremation succeeded
mound - burial. In Gaul, Caesar observed
that the natives practised cremation, and
Tacitus mentions fire-burial as a Germanic
custom, special kinds of wood being set
apart for chieftains.

The dog of the Norse warrior was burnt
with him. Horses, too, were burned, and in
some countries the custom of leading his
horse after the cofiin of a chief still prevails.

" We burn the corpses of those we love,"
said a Norseman in the tenth century to au
Arab embassador, "but you bury in the
earth where vermin and worms devour."

The Northmen buried the ashes after
cremation, and planted flowers over the
tomb. These practices have Ibund expres-
sion in many poems and legends of the races
where they prevailed, and the author is ex-
ceedingly happy in pressing them into ser-
vice in his historical notice.

Report of the Curators of the Missouri
State University for the Year ending
June, 1875. Pp. 208. .

From this Report we learn that during
the past year the Curators purchased, as
a locale for the School of Mines, the public
school-building in the town of Rolla, at a
cost of $25,000. Since ISet the library has
grown from 2,000 volumes to 9,000 ; scien-
tific apparatus has been increased in a yet
greater ratio. The School of Mines num-
bered last year over 100 students. In addi-
tion to the School of Mines, the following
professional schools are now fully organized
in connection with the university, viz. : Nor-
mal School, Agricultural and Mechanical
College, College of Law, Medical College,
and Department of Analytical and Applied
Chemistry.

244

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Sixth Annual Report of the Geological
Survey of Indiana. By E. T. Cox. In-
dianapolis, 1875. Pp. 287.

In this volume we have the results of
the detailed survey of five counties, viz.,
Jefferson, Scott, Jackson, Brown, and Mor-
gan, as also of special researches in other
parts of the State. In a former number
of the Monthly we gave the result of
one of these special researches, viz., the
discovery of a considerable bed of white
porcelain clay, in Lawrence County. An-
other inquiry prosecuted by the State sur-
veyors during the year 1874 had reference
to the archaeology of Indiana : attention was
directed to collecting stone implements and
other relics of the mound-builders, and to
the mapping of tumuli and walled or for-
tified prehistoric village-sites. Only a small
portion of the State has been as yet ex-
amined, with a view to researches of this
kind, yet the results attained are highly
gratifying. The volume before us gives a
detailed description of some very remark-
able monuments of the mound-builders.
One of these, built on a high bluff which
overlooks the Ohio River, consists of two
circular piles of stone with neck-like pro-
longations lying in opposite directions ;
greatest diameter, twenty-two feet ; length,
forty feet. The mounds are built of stones
piled up regularly and lapped so as to break
joints, but without mortar. Another curious
monument is an earthwork, circular in shape,
six hundred yards in circumference, ten or
twelve feet wide, and at present fifteen to
twenty inches above the general surface.
There is a gap six to eight feet wide in the
northeast part of this circular wall. Four
or five other mounds are described in the
work.

In the chapters devoted to the several
counties, the economic geology of each re-
ceives due attention. The principal min-
erals of economic value found in Jackson
County are building-stone, brick-clay, and
ochre. In Brown County gold is found in
the bed or on the bars of all the brooks
that flow into Bean Blossom Creek from
Indian Creek Ridge. Fine dust and minute
scales may be found in the county wherever
black sand and small pebbles indicate for-
mer currents of ice-water. The metal is of
unusual purity, but the total product of

gold in the county has not exceeded ten
thousand dollars. There are numerous
quarries of valuable building-stone in the
county. The manganiferous iron-stone of
Scott County yields an excellent quality of
mill and foundery iron. There are as many
as thirteen distinct seams of the ore, rang-
ing from three inches to one foot or more in
thickness, in a vertical space of twenty feet.
Beyond brick-clay and building-stone, Jef-
ferson County possesses no minerals of any
considerable economic importance.

The volume contains a " Synopsis of the
Fishes of Indiana," by D. S. Jordan, M. D.,
and a " Partial List of the Flora of Jeffer-
son County," by John M. Coulter.

Scripture Speculations ; with an Introduc-
tion on the Creation, Stars, Earth, Primi-
tive Man, Judaism, etc. By Halsey R.
Stevens. Newburg : The Author. For
sale by C. P. Somerby, New York. Pp.
419. Price, $2.00.

This work may t)e called a running com-
mentary on the text of the Scriptures. The
author has no hesitation in expressing his
opinions, l)ut yet be does not transgress the
limits of just criticism. He has no preju-
dices against the " sacred books," but he is
unwilling that they should be reverenced
without discrimination. " Faith," says he,
" is excellent if founded on a noble life. . .
We have no intention of setting at naught
infinite wisdom or of treating eternal things
with irreverence. The manly course for all
writers is to say what they think just and
true, and leave the event to God. Keeping
back truth is a sin."

First Book IN Arithmetic. Pp.154. Price,
50 cents. Also, The Complete Arith-
metic, Oral and Written. Pp. 498.
Price, $1.40. By Daniel W. Fish, A. M.
New York : Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor
&Co.

Algebraic Problems. By Joseph Fick-
LIN, Ph. D. (same publishers). Pp. 184.
Price, $1.50.

These books belong to the series known
as " Robinson's Shorter Course." In paper,
print, and binding, they are very attractive.
The " First Book in Arithmetic " abounds
in pictures, which are employed not so much
for the purpose of embellishment, as in or-
der to make plain to the infant mind the
problems and operations set before it. " The

LITERARY NOTICES,

245

Complete Arithmetic " is designed to fill the
place usually occupied by three or more
graded text-books. " Algebraic Problems "
is intended for the use of teachers. It con-
tains a great variety of problems, by means
of which the student's knowledge of the
principles of algebra may be tested.

Half - Hours with Insects. By A. S.
Packard, Jr. Parts VI., VII., and VIII.
Price per Part, 25 cents. Boston : Estes
& Lauriat.

The numbers of this series cost but a trifle
each, and when completed they will make a
volume, not only of fascinating interest, but
full of valuable practical information. Of
the parts before us, VI. is on the "Popula-
tion of an Apple-Tree," VII. on " Insects
of the Field," and VIII. on " Insects of the
Forest." The illustrations are numerous
and well executed, and the descriptions are
admirably clear.

A Manual op Metallurgy. Vol. II. By
W. H. Greenwood. New York : Put-
nams. Pp. 371. Price, $1.50.

We have here a comprehensive account
of the usually accepted methods of extract-
ing the useful metals from their ores. The
scientific principles involved in each process
are clearly set forth, and the processes
themselves described with considerable de-
tail, though the author does not descend to
the ultimate technical minutiae. The metals
treated of in this volume are copper, lead,
zinc, mercury, silver, gold, nickel, cobalt,
aluminium. The subject of assaying, al-
though it forms an important branch of
metallurgy, is not touched upon, as being
too large for the compass of the work.
Numerous excellent woodcuts serve to illus-
trate the text.

Nature and Culture. By Harvev Rice.
Boston : Lee & Shepard. Pp. 202.
Price, $1.50.

This book is made up of six unconnected
essays, the first, " Nature and her Lessons,"
being an exposition of current scientific
theories of the origin of the universe, and
the history of the earth's changes. The
author's style is very attractive, and doubt-
less this essay will tend to suggest many a
novel line of thought to the reader previous-

ly unacquainted with the current of modera
scientific research and speculation. The
other subjects treated are : " Woman and
her Sphere ; " " Education and its Errors ; "
"America and her Future ;" "Life and its
Aspirations." The final chapter contains an
address delivered by the author on the occa-
sion of the dedication of a " Mission Monu-
ment " apparently on the grounds attached
to Williams College.

PUBLICATIONS EECEIVKD.

The Border-Lands of Insanity. By A.
Wynter, M. D. New York : Putnams. Pp.
321. Price, $2.00.

Weights, Measures, and Money, of All
Nations. By F. W. Clarke, S. B. New
York: Appletons. Pp.117. Price, $1.50.

The Mechanic's Friend. By W. E. A.
Axon. New York: Van Nostrand. Pp.
348. Price, $1.50.

Report on United States Marine Hos-
pital Service. Pp. 260.

Health Fragments. By G. H. Everett,
M. D. New York : Somerby. Pp. 312.
Price, $2.00.

Soul Problems. By Joseph E. Peck.
New York : Somerby. Pp. 63. Price, 70
cents.

Elements of Meteorology. Part II. By
John H. Tice. St. Louis : the Author. Pp.
216. Price, $2.50.

Politics as a Science. By Charles Ree-
melin. Cincinnati: Clarke & Co. Pp.186.

The Taxidermist's Manual. By Captain
Thomas Brown. New York : Putnams.
Pp. 163. Price, $1.25.

Daily Bulletin of the United States Sig-
nal Service. 4 vols.

The Mechanical Engineer. An Address
by R. H. Thurston. New York : Van Nos-
trand. Pp. 24.

Water and Water Supply. By W. H.
Corfield. New York : Van Nostrand. Pp.
145. Price, 50 cents.

Course to be pursued with an Eye lost
through Accident. By J. J. Chisolm, M. D.
Pp. 8.

246

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

MISCELLANY.

United States Board for testing Iron

and Steel. — We have already (in the July
number of the Monthly) called attention
to the researches proposed to be made by
the United States Board for testing Iron
and Steel, and recur to the subject in
order to stimulate those of our readers who
may be in possession of facts bearing on the
inquiry to communicate with the chairmen
of the various committees into which the
board has been divided. These commit-
tees are fifteen in number. The commit-
tee on abrasion and wear, chairman, R. H.
Thurston, has to examine and report upon
the abrasion and wear of railway wheels,
axles, rails, and other materials. Another
subject of investigation by this committee
is the wear of tools under the various con-
ditions of workshop practice. The com-
mittee on armor-plate, chairman, Lieuten-
ant-Colonel Q. A. Gillmore, U. S. A., will
make tests of armor-plate, and collect data
derived from experiments already made to
determine the characteristics of metal suit-
able for such use. A. L. Holley is chairman
of the committee on chemical research,
whose duty it is to plan and conduct inves-
tigations of the mutual relations of the
chemical and mechanical properties of
metals. The committee on chains and
wire-ropes, whose chairman is Commodore
L. A. Beardslee, U. S. N., is charged to de-
termine the character of iron best adapted
for chain-cables, the best form and propor-
tions of link, and the qualities of metal
used in the manufacture of iron and steel
wire-rope. The committee on corrosion of
metals, W. Sooy Smith, chairman, is to in-
vestigate the subject of corrosion of metals
under the conditions of actual use.

The committee on the effects of tem-
perature, chairman, R. A. Thurston, will
investigate the effects of variations of tem-
perature upon the strength and other quali-
ties of metals. That on girders and col-
umns will arrange and conduct experiments
to determine the laws of resistance of
beams, girders, and columns, to change of
form and to fracture. Two committees on
iron, wrought and cast, chairmen, Com-
mander Beaslee and Lieutenant - Colonel

Gillmore, will examine and report on the
mechanical and physical properties of
wrought and cast-iron. The committee on
metallic alloys, chairman, Prof. Thurston,
is to make experiments on the character-
istics of alloys and to investigate the laws
of combination. That on orthogonal simul-
taneous strains, chairman, W. Sooy Smith,
will experiment on such strains with a view
to the determination of laws. W. Sooy
Smith is also chairman of the committee of
physical phenomena, who will investigate
the physical phenomena accompanying the
distortion and rupture of materials. The
committee on reheating and rerolling, chair-
man. Commodore Beaslee, will observe and
experiment on the effects of reworking
metals ; of hammering as compared with
rolling, and of annealing metals. A com-
mittee on steels produced by modern pro-
cesses, A. L. Holley, chairman, will inves-
tigate the constitution and characteris-
tics of steels made by the Bessemer, open-
hearth, and other modern methods. Final-
ly, the committee on steels for tools, chair-
man, Chief-Engineer D. Smith, U. S. N., is
directed to determine the constitution and
characteristics and the special adaptations
of steels used for tools. Each of these com-
mittees has issued a circular, more particu-
larly defining the researches in which it is
engaged ; they can be obtained from the
secretary of the board, Prof. Thurston,
Stevens Technological Institute, Hoboken,
New Jersey, or from the respective chair-
men.

Stanley's Expedition, — Letters have beea
received by James Gordon Bennett, of this
city, from Henry M. Stanley, commander of
the expedition fitted out for the exploration
of the interior of Africa by the proprietors
of the New York Herald and the London
Telegraph. The letters were written at a
village called Kagehyi, on the extreme
southern shore of Victoria Niyanza. The
expedition reached that point on February
27, 1875, after an arduous march of 103
days from the sea-coast. There were in the
expedition, as soldiers and carriers, over
300 men, all native Africans except five, the
commander and four Englishmen. For the
first 175 miles Stanley followed Livingstone's
route nearly due west, but, having reached

MISCELLANY.

247

the western frontier of Ugogo, he quitted
the beateu path, and, for the remaining 550
miles, his line of march lay steadily in a
northwestern direction. A few days later,
the guides who had been hired in Ugogo
deserted, and the trail which the expedi-
tion had been following was lost in a laby-
rinth of elephant and rhinoceros tracks.
Still continuing his march to the north-
west, Mr. Stanley's men, with great diiS-
culty, forced and cut their way through a
dense jungle on the third day after the
guides bad deserted. The following two
days' march was very trying to the men,
who suffered from hunger and thirst, and a
halt was ordered until provisions could be
got from Suna, a place distant nearly thirty
miles. While waiting, the men had two
scanty meals of gruel, which was made in
a sheet-iron trunk. At a point 400 miles
from the sea, Edward Pocock, one of the
four Englishmen, died of typhoid fever.
Thirty of the blacks were on the sick list,
and six had died at Suna. The most stir-
ring incident of the entire march to Vic-
toria Niyanza was the three-days' battle
with the people of the Lewumbu Valley.
The savages were soundly whipped, and
many of their villages burned. The plun-
der of the villages supplied the force with
provisions for six days. Stanley lost twen-
ty-one men in this little war ; and when,
three days later, he numbered the expedi-
tion, it was found that there remained only
194 men, and the number was still further
reduced before he reached the shores of
Victoria Niyanza. On his arrival at Kage-
hyi, he had only 166 native soldiers and
carriers, and three white men.

The second letter gives an incomplete
account of a reconnoissance of the coast of
Victoria Niyanza. This reconnoissance was
made in a cedar boat, which had been car-
ried in sections from the sea-coast. Mr,
Stanley, in this boat, the Lady Alice, sur-
veyed all the coasts of the lake, sailing
over 1,000 miles in fifty-eight days. In the
letter which we call the second, Mr. Stanley
mentions a previous letter which he wrote
at Mtesa, on the north shore of the lake,
latitude 0° 20' north, longitude 33° east.
There he met Colonel Linaut de Bellefonds,
of Gordon's staff, and gave him a letter for
transmission to England. Strange to say.

this letter has not yet reached its destina-
tion, while two other letters, one of them
of later date, and which were sent via Un-
yanyembe to Zanzibar by caravan, have
been received. A map accompanies the
" second " letter. This map, being based
on actual survey, decides the question,
long discussed, whether Victoria Niyanza
is one lake or a multitude of lakes. It is
seen to be one vast sheet of water, with
length and breadth nearly equal, but with
its largest diameter lying from northeast
to southwest. Its extreme northern limit
is in latitude 0° 30' north, and its extreme
southern limit in latitude 2° south. East
and west it reaches longitude 34° 30' east,
and 31° 50' east, respectively. During
Stanley's absence from Kagehyi, Frederick
Barker, one of his English followers, died
there of fever. The newspapers in whose
service Mr. Stanley is engaged ought to
have attached to his staff a secretary pos-
sessed of some little literary tact. Mr.
Stanley's own communications are verbose
to the last degree : they give no clear
idea of the nature of the countries visited ;
their inhabitants ; how the expedition ob-
tained supplies, etc. The two letters al-
ready published purport to give the his-
tory of about six months, but they are in
volume equal to about one-fourth of Caesar's
famous memoirs of the Gallic War, which
extended over nine years.

Pntrefaction arrested by Pressure. — A

communication to the Paris Academy of
Sciences, by M. Paul Bert, on the " Influ-
ence of Air-Pressure on Fermentation," a
summary of which appears in the Academy,
states that a piece of meat placed in oxy-
gen, with a pressure of twenty-three atmos-
pheres, remained from July 26th to August
3d without putrescence or bad odor. It
consumed in that time 380 cubic centfme-
tres of the gas. A similar piece, suspended
in a bell-glass full of air at the ordinary
pressure, acquired a bad smell, consumed
all the oxygen, amounting to 1,185 centi-
metres, and was covered with mould.
Another trial was made with oxygen at a
pressure of forty-four atmospheres ; no
oxj-gen was absorbed between December
19th and January 8th, and no bad odor
was exhaled. M. Bert could eat cutlets

248

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

preserved iu this way for a month, and
found them only a little stale in flavor.
After being exposed to air at this pressure,
allowing an escape so that only normal
pressure remained, the meat suffered no
damage, provided the bottle was well
corked, so that no external germs could
enter. Thus it appears that the micro-
ferments which cause fermentation can be
killed, when they are moist, by a sufficient
tension of oxygen. Fermentations of milk
and wine are arrested by high pressure,
and fruits keep sound. Diastase continues
to act as a ferment, and bodies of this de-
scription preserve their properties indefi-
nitely if retained under pressure.

Meeting of the Frcufh Association for
the Advaucement of Science. — The Presi-
dent of the French Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science, M. d'Eichthal, deliv-
ered an address at the opening of the Nantes
meeting, on the connection between pure
science and tJie various methods employed
to satisfy the wants of humanity. The text
of this address has not yet come to hand,
but we give herewith the summary of it,
which is published in Natare. It would be
almost impossible, he said, to enumerate all
the branches of human activity which owe
their success to the researches of pure sci-
ence— hygiene, medicine, surgery, the fine
arts, mechanics, industry in all its branches,
mining, metallurgy, textile industries, light-
ing, warming, ventilation, water-supply, etc.
He then referred in detail to several exam-
ples of the influence which the results of
science have had upon progress in the arts,
with the motive forces of water, air, and
steam, mentioning a multitude of names of
men eminent in pure science, from Pascal
and Boyle down to Faraday and Sir William
Thomson, upon the results of whose re-
searches the great advances which have
been made in machinery'of all kinds have
depended. He then spoke of electricity in
connection with the names of Oerstedt, Am-
pere, Faraday, Becquerel, and Ruhmkorff;
passing on to speak, at some length, of the
steam-engine in its various forms, of the
progress which, by means of scientific re-
search, is being made in its construction
and its uses, and of the great services which
this powerful application of a scientific dis-

covery renders to man. M. d'Eichthal advo-
cated the establishment of local centres of
culture as the best counterpoise to that over-
centralization to which France owes so many
of its social misfortunes. " In our time,"
said he, "science, history, and literature,
have great wants. Libraries, lecture-halls,
laboratories, costly materials, instruments
numerous and expensive, are indispensable
to pupils for learning, and to teachers for
carrying on their researches ; it is by put-
ting, on a large scale, these resources at their
disposal, that we can attract and fix in our
midst men eminent in all branches of human
knowledge."

Thernio-diiTasion. — In the Physical Sec-
tion, M. Merget stated the results of his
researches on the thermo-diffiision of po-
rous and pulverulent bodies in the moist
state. A " thermo-dififuser " is any vessel
of porous material, filled with an inert
powder, into which is plunged a glass
or metal tube pierced with holes. On
heating this apparatus, after it has been
wetted, water-vapor is given off copiously,
passing through the porous substance, while
dry air passes through the apparatus in the
contrary direction, escaping through the
tube. If we stop the mouth of the tube,
there is produced a pressure amounting to
three atmospheres at the temperature of a
dull-red heat. If the pulverulent mass or
the porous body ceases to be moist, all pas-
sage of gas is stopped. These facts the au-
thor does not explain, but he shows that De
la Rive's explanation cannot be accepted.
M. Merget is satisfied that he has here to
do with a thermo-dynamic phenomenon.
Thermo-diffusion must play an important
part in the gaseous exchanges of vegetal
life, as the author showed by taking a leaf
of Nelumbium as a thermo-diifuser. M.
Merget also offered some observations on
the Respiration of Plants. He said : If un-
der the influence of light, however feeble, we
plunge into water containing carbonic acid,
an aerial, or, better, an aquatico-aerial leaf,
passing the extremity of the petiole into a
test-tube, where the pressure will be a little
less than that of the atmosphere, then there
will form around the stomata of the leaf an
atmosphere of carbonic acid, and oxygen will
be discharged from the end of the petiole.

MISCELLANY.

249

The more intense the light, the more rapid
the disengagement of oxygen, and under the
influence of solar light a single leaf of ^Vw;?/(ar
has yielded as much as five cubic centime-
tres of oxygen per minute — corresponding
to the fixation of one gramme of carbon in
ten hours. But, if we preserve all the other
conditions, abstracting only light, the bub-
bles of carbonic acid at the stomata disap-
pear, tlie cell fills with water, and ceases to
respire. Thus it is in the gaseous state that
carbonic acid is decomposed by the chloro-
phyll ; and, according to the author, chloro-
phyll possesses the property of directly
breaking up gaseous carbonic acid into its
elements, carbon and oxygen.

From all this it follows that the passage
of carbonic acid through the stomata is a
purely physical phenomenon, not vital — a
phenomenon of thermo-diffusion.

Religion of the Cauarians. — The super-
stitious practices in use among the primitive
Canarians was the subject of a paper read
by Seiior Chil y Naranjo. On Gran Canaria,
he says, the natives believed in an infinite
being, Alcorac or Alchoran. Him they wor-
shiped on the summits of mountains, as
also in little temples called almogaren.
Their priests were women, and were bound
by a vow of chastity. The sacred places
were also asylums for criminals. The Ca-
narians believed in the existence of an
evil spirit, Gabio. On TeneriS"e the Guan-
chos worshiped Achaman, and used to as-
semble in consecrated places for common
prayer. On Palma, the name given to the
Supreme Being was Abara. In all the islands
homage was rendered to the emblems of fe-
cundity and to the four elements. Their
sacrifices were such as would be esteemed
most precious by a pastoral people. They
attributed will to the sea; it was the sea
that gave them rain. In time of drought
they scourged the sea, and implored the
aid of Heaven with great ceremony.

Microcephaly. — Dr. Laennec exhibited a
microcephalous idiot, aged fourteen years,
of the male sex. This child is entirely uncon-
scious of his own actions, and his intellect-
ual operations are very few in number and
very.rudimentary. His language consists of
two syllables, oui and la, and he takes an

evident pleasure in pronouncing them. He
takes no heed in what direction he walks ;
he would step off a precipice or into a fire.
Dr. Laennec called attention to the idiot's
hands ; the thumbs are atrophied and can-
not be opposed to the other fingers. The
palms of the hands have the transverse
creases, but not the diagonal — the result
of the atrophy of the thumbs. Hence the
hand resembles that of the chimpanzee.
The dentition too is defective. Though
fourteen years of age, the child has only
twelve teeth.

The Booted Eagle. — M. Louis Bureau
stated the results of observations on va-
rieties of the booted eagle {Aquila pen-
nata\ the smallest European bird of the
eagle tribe. M. Bureau, having e^iamined
a number of broods of the booted eagle,
says that all the varieties of this species may
be reduced to two chief types, white and
black. In pairs, both of the sexes some-
times belong to one type, but they more usu-
ally are of different types. In fact M. Bu-
reau has found in the same forest, and at
but little distance from one another, two
pairs, in one of which the male was black,
and the female white, and, in the other, the
male white and the female black. As a
rule, the young birds are either all black or
all white. But in one nest, containing two
chicks, the one was white, the other black.
From this it follows that these variations oi
color are not correlated with the age of the
bird.

St. Louis Academy of Science. — At a re-
cent meeting of the St. Louis Academy of
Science, Prof. Riley read a paper on the
canker-worm, in which he says that two
sorts have hitherto been confounded under
this name, that are not only specifically,
but he thinks generically, distinct. They
present important structural diflerences in
the egg, the larva, the chrysalis, and the
moth states ; and also differ in the time of
their appearance : one species rising from
the ground mostly in early spring, the other
mostly in the fall. Both attack fruit and
shade trees, but, while the spring sort is
common and very injurious in the apple-
orchards of the Western States, the other
is rare there, and most common in the elms
of New England. To combat the former,

250

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

or spring species, fall ploughing under the
trees, which breaks up their fragile cocoons
that lie secreted in the soil, and in early
spring scraping the trunks of the trees
where their eggs are lodged in the crevices
of the bark, are recommended. These meas-
ures fail with the fall sort, and, in the ab-
stract of the paper now before us, nothing
is suggested to take their place.

At the same meeting Prof Riley also
presented a paper giving an account of some
recent experiments with the grape phyllox-
era, undertaken for the purpose of deter-
mining when the winged female deposits
her eggs. He built a tight gauze house six
feet high and four square over a Clinton
vine. The house was built so as not to per-
mit even so small an insect as the winged
phylloxera to get in or out, and the vine
was trimmed so that but few branches and
leaves remained to be examined. Into this
inclosure he brought an abundance of infest-
ed roots, and from these obtained a sup-
ply of the winged females, confined where he
could watch their ways. The result of these
observations is that, as has been surmised,
the eggs are often laid in crevices on the
surface of the ground, but still more often
on the leaves, attached generally by one
end amid the natural pubescence of the un-
der surface ; and, while heretofore all efforts
to artificially hatch the progeny from these
eggs have failed, Pi'of Riley has this year
succeeded in hatching them, and presented
a tube filled with living females.

Condensed Beer. — A process for condens-
ing beer, recently patented in England, is
described as follows in the English Mechan-
ic : Beer or stout is taken at any stage of
fermentation, though the process is better
applied when it is fit for drinking, and evapo-
rated in a vacuum-pan until it becomes a
thick, viscous fluid. The alcohol and water
of course pass off in vapor, which, in turn,
is condensed in a receiver, and the alcohol
recovered by redistilling the liquid. This
alcohol may be mixed again with the con-
densed beer. By this process of condensa-
tion, the beer is reduced to one-eighth or
one-twelfth of its original bulk, and, as the
fermentation is suspended by the heat em-
ployed, the condensed mixture will keep in
any climate for any length of time. The

process of reconverting the mixture into
beer is also a simple one, consisting merely
in adding the bulk of water originally ab-
stracted, and setting up fermentation again
by the use of a small quantity of yeast or
other ferment. Within forty-eight hours
the beer may be drawn from the tap for use,
or bottled in the ordinary way ; or, without
using any ferment, the beer may be bottled,
and charged with carbonic-acid gas

Is ConsnmptloD contagions ? — Some ex-
periments and observations recently made,
on the transmission of tuberculosis or
phthisis from one animal to another, are
worthy of note, as indicating one fruitful
source of pulmonary disease. Thus it has
been found that when an animal with tu-
berculated lungs is made the yoke-fellow of
a perfectly healthy animal, and the two are
housed and fed together, so as to inhale one
another's breath, the one which at first was
sound, before long exhibits the symptoms
of tuberculosis. Again, Krebs has produced
tuberculous by giving animals milk from
those which were diseased. In addition to
rabbits and Guinea-pigs (which animals are
very susceptible to the artificial production
of the malady), he accidentally induced the
disease in a dog by feeding it with the milk
of a cow in the last stage of phthisis. As a
result of his observations, he asserts that
tubercle virus is present in the milk of
phthisical cows, whether they are slightly
or gravely affected. On vigorous subjects
such milk may produce no injurious effects,
but the case is likely to be different with
children, and those of enfeebled constitu-
tion. Similar effects may result from eating
the flesh of animals affected with tubercle,
and by inoculation with the virus. Thor-
ough cooking of milk and flesh-meat neu-
trahzes their injurious action.

Continuity of the Gnano-Deposits. — Are

guano-deposits of recent formation, or do
they date from a geological epoch prior to
the present? The latter opinion has been
held by many eminent scientific men, among
them Humboldt. The observations of Bous-
singault, however, go to prove the recent
origin of these deposits. One fact, cited by
Boussingault in support of this theory, is the
existence in the guano of the bodies of birds

MISCELLANY.

251

with their soft parts preserved. These re-
mains have been attentively studied by Bar-
ral, who shows that they belong to existing
species. One of these birds was identified as
a species of cormorant, which is common
on the coast of Peru. Then there is a sort
of gannet, which frequents all parts of the
Pacific ; a species of petrel ; and finally the
penguin. There are also fragments of the
bones of mammals belonging to the eared
seal. All these species extend very much
farther south than the guano islands, and
if deposits of guano have not been found in
the colder islands of the Pacific Ocean, it is
probably because the rainfalls have removed
the birds' excrement, which in other locali-
ties has accumulated. -

Centeuuial Display of Mineral Products.

— It is the intention of the Department of
the Interior to have at the Centennial Ex-
hibition a collection of the mineral products
of the United States. The Smithsonian In-
stitution has been charged with the work
of making this collection, and accordingly
Prof. Joseph Henry has published a circular,
inviting the cooperation of mine-owners,
superintendents, engineers, geologists, and
all others who are able to contribute to the
attainment of the object in view. " Such a
collection," says the circular, "formed and
arranged with skill and discrimination, is
important, for the purpose of presenting a
general view of the extent and variety of
these productions at the Exhibition, and
will constitute a portion of the National
Museum, where it will be permanently ar-
ranged after the Exhibition." Letters of
inquiry, with regard to this collection of
minerals, should be addressed to Prof. ^Y.
P. Blake, New Haven, Conn.

Besnscitntion of the Drowned. — The

Massachusetts Humane Society has pub-
lished the following plain directions for sav-
ing the lives of persons rescued from drown-
ing after they have become insensible :

1. Lose no time. Carry out these direc-
tions on the spot. 2. Remove the froth and
mucus from the mouth and nostrils. 3.
Hold the body, for a few seconds only, with
the head hanging down, so that the water
may run out of the lungs and windpipe. 4.
Loosen all tight articles of clothing about

the neck and chest. 5. See that the tongue
is pulled forward if it falls back into the
throat. By taking hold of it with a hand-
kerchief, it will not slip. 6. If the breath-
ing has ceased, or nearly so, it must be
stimulated by pressure of the chest with the
hands, in imitation of the natural breathing,
forcibly expelling the air from the lungs, and
allowing it to reenter and expand them to
the full capacity of the chest. Remember
that this is the most important step of all.
To do it readily, lay the person on his back,
with a cushion, pillow, or some firm sub-
stance, under his shoulders ; then press with
the flat of the hands over the lower part of
the breastbone and the upper part of the
abdomen, keeping up a regular repetition
and relaxation of pressure twenty or thirty
times a minute. A pressure of thirty pounds
may be applied with safety to a grown per-
son. 7. Rub the limbs with the hands or
with dry cloths constantly, to aid the circu-
lation and keep the body warm. 8. As soon
as the person can swallow, give a table-
spoonful of spirits in hot water, or some
warm coffee or tea. 9. Work deliberately.
Do not give up too quickly. Success has
rewarded the efforts of hours.

Trout-Cnltnre. — In a communication to
Forest and Stream, Mr. M. Goldsmith, one
of the Fish Commissioners for Vermont,
states the results of an experiment in trout-
culture, which, if verified, cannot fail to have
a great influence on the development of ar-
tificial fish-breeding. Mr. Hale, of the town
of Rutland, has for some months fed the
trout in his ponds with bread made of Indian-
corn. He adds to the meal a little sugar or
molasses of the cheapest sort, and it is
stated that the trout eat the bread thus
prepared with as much avidity as they do
chopped liver or other animal food. The
fish are in good condition, though they do
not grow quite so rapidly, perhaps, as they
would on a flesh diet. Their flesh is firm
and has a fine flavor. This discovery, adds
Mr. Goldsmith, makes trout-culture not only
possible in localities where it would not oth-
erwise be practicable, but in all cases more
economical. Whether the vegetable diet
can be rigidly practised, is a matter for fur-
ther inquiry. Even if the result should
prove that a certain quantity of animal food

252

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

is necessary to the most perfect health of
the trout, it is still a fact of great value that
they can live, and grow, and fatten, on a

vegetable diet.

Changes in the Skin of Fur-bearing Ani-
mals.—The obvious difference between the
fur of animals in summer and in winter is
found by Donhoff to be associated with an
equally striking difference in the texture
and thickness of their skin. Thus, the av-
erage weight of an ox-hide in winter is sev-
enty pounds ; in summer, fifty-five pounds ;
the hair in winter weighs about tv/o pounds,
and in summer about one pound; leaving
fourteen pounds to be accounted for by the
proper substance of the skin. These differ-
ences are quite as decided in fcetal animals
as in adults. Calves born in winter have a
longer and thicker coat than those born in
summer ; moreover, there is a difference of
more than a pound in the weight of their
skins after the hair has been removed.
Similar facts may be observed in the case
of goats and sheep. That these differences
are not to be ascribed to any corresponding
change in the diet and regimen of the par-
ent animals, is proved by the fact that they
are equally manifest in the young of indi-
viduals kept under cover, and on the same
food all the year round.

Intensity of Solar Radiation.— In a let-
ter to Ste.-Claire Deville, Soret alludes inci-
dentally to some recent optical observations
which show the great intensity of solar ra-
diation. If we look at an ordinary flame
through plates of glass colored blue with
cobalt, we observe that with a certain thick-
ness of glass the flame presents a purple
color, as the glass transmits the extreme
i"ed rays, and the highly-refrangible blue
and violet rays, while it intercepts the rays
of intermediate refrangibility. If the source
of light have a high temperature, and there-
fore emit highly-refrangible rays, the flame
appears blue, and it requires a number of
superposed plates in order to develop the
purple tint. Thus it was found that, at
the temperature at which platinum fuses,
two plates would give a purple color ; at the
fusion of iridium three plates were required,
and on observing the sun the purple color
was not developed even with half a dozen
plates.

Extinction of Animals in Bodrignez. —

Alphonse Milne-Edwards, in a communica-
tion to the Paris Academy of Sciences,
shows from documentary evidence that the
solitaire and the other gigantic birds of the
Island of Rodriguee became extinct be-
tween 1730 and 1760. Reports addressed
to the Compagnie des Indes show that the
island was regarded as a sort of provision-
ing-store, not only for the Isle of Fiance
and the Island of Bourbon, but also for the
ships frequenting these parts. One object
of their visits was the collection of land-
tortoises, and efforts were made by the
compagnie to put some restrictions on this
business. The land-tortoise has long since
disappeared from the island. As for the
great birds of Rodriguez, owing to their un-
developed wings they were easily captured,
while the delicacy of their flesh caused
them to be much sought after.

Terrestrial Radiation. — Prof. Thiselton
Dyer, at a recent meeting of the British
Horticultural Society, made the following
communication upon the phenomena of ter-
restrial radiation and its effects on vegeta-
tion, basing his remarks upon the observa-
tions of Buchan. The effects of radiation,
he said, are at the maximum when the air
is calm and very dry, and its tempeiature
rather low. If, however, the cold air pro-
duced through the influence of terrestrial
radiation be allowed to accumulate close to
the ground, no small amount of damage may
be done by a comparatively light frost. On
sloping ground such accumulation of cold
air cannot go on, because, cold air being
heavier than air which is warmer, as soon
as the air in immediate contact with sloping
ground is cooled it flows down to a lower
level, just as water would do, and its place
is taken by the warmer current of air im-
mediately above. In this way a higher
night temperature is maintained in situa-
tions where the ground slopes down to
lower levels, and accordingly such situations
should be chosen for those plants which,
at any stage of their growth, are peculiarly
liable to be injured by frost. If the air be
not calm, but a wind — even a slight wind —
be blowing, the different layers of air are
thereby mixed ; and thus the air cooled by
contact with the cold ground is not suffered
to rest thereon, but is mixed with the air

MISCELLANY.

253

above it, and the temperature is thus pre-
vented from falling as low as it otherwise
would.

Trapping Wild-Tarkeys.— There is a

touch of cynic humor in a peculiar mode of
trapping wiid-turlieys in Virginia, as de-
scribed by a writer in Forest and Stream.
Having discovered one of the familiar haunts
of the birds, the trapper digs a trench
eighteen inches deep and about as wide, and
four or five feet long, with a slope from the
outer end deepening to the middle. A pen
of fence-rails is now built, the first rail being
laid across the middle of the trench ; this
is the width of the pen, and it has the length
of two rails. It is built to the height of
eight or ten rails and covered over with the
same. Some grain is now scattered around
and in the trench, and a large quantity with-
in the pen. The turkeys get on the train
of bait leading into the pen, and with heads
down, eagerly picking up the grain, they go
under tlie sill-rail in quest of food. Half a
dozen or so will perhaps enter in thus, and
then they find themselves imprisoned. They
go round and round to find an exit, but it
never occurs to them to look down, a,nA thus
they never find the passage through which
they entered.

Rationale of the Welding of lion.— The

welding of iron and the regelation of water
are very ingeniously traced to the same
cause by Mr. M. Jordan. Faraday was the
first to observe the phenomenon afterward
called " regelation." By this term we im-
ply that when two pieces of ice are pressed
even very gently together, the temperature
being just below zero, they at once become
welded to each other. Of this Thompson
offers the following explanation : For all
bodies which, like water, have the property
of diminishing in volume as they liquefy,
pressure, which tends to bring the mole-
cules closer together, lowers the tempera-
ture of fusion. Consequently, when two
pieces of ice are rubbed against each other,
fusion takes place between the surfaces in
contact, at a temperature below zero. But
as soon as the pressure ceases solidification
is again produced, and the pieces are welded
together. With iron, observes Mr. Jordan,
the case is the same. The two pieces to
be welded together are brought to a white

heat, i. e., more or less near to the fusing-
point. The repeated blows of the ham-
mer, or the pressure of the rolls, lowers
the point of fusion, causing a superficial
liquefaction of the parts in contact, and
thus welding the masses together; and this
because, like water, iron dilates in passing
from the liquid to the solid state. " The
careful comparative study of these two
bodies," adds Mr. Jordan, "even though at
first sight apparently so dissimilar, cannot
fail to furnish results of great interest to
the metallurgist. The work of the puddler
is also based upon the same phenomenon
as that of welding. When the puddler
forms his ball in the furnace, it is done by
rolling together or aggregating the crystals
of iron as they form in the mass of melted
iron and slag. In other words, the semi-
fused crystals are welded or regelated to-
gether by the mechanical action of the pud-
dler."

Propagation of Waves in Liquids.— At a

late meeting of the Paris Physical Society,
M. Marey exhibited certain apparatus which
he has employed in studying the propaga-
tion of waves in liquids. His method con-
sists in producing, at a given point in an
India-rubber tube filled with water, a sudden
compression or dilatation, either by press-
ing on the walls of the tube, or by means
of a piston. Small clips arranged along the
tube at equal distances from each other
signal the passage of the wave of compres-
sion or dilatation to a registering appara-
tus. In this way M. Marey has found that
the velocity of the waves decreases with
the size and increases with the elasticity of
the walls. The density of the liquid has
also some effect, but this is not of sufficient
importance to be taken into account in ap-
plying this method of observation to physi-
ology.

Restoration of Faded Writings. — Very

often paper and parchment documents are
illegible owing to the ink with which they
were written having faded. The Revue In-
ditstrklle gives a very simple method of re-
storing to the ink its color. It is as follows :
First, wet the paper and then pass over it
a brush dipped in a solution of ammonia
sulpho-hydrate. The writing quickly re-
appears, the characters being of a very deep

254

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

black color. In parchment this color is
permanent, but in paper it is only tempo-
rary. Old paichment chronicles in the
Nuremberg Museum which have been treat-
ed in this way are now as legible as when
first they were written, though before the
application of the process all color had
faded out of the ink. The rationale of the
process is, that by the action of the ammo*
nia sulpho-hydrate, the iron of the ink is
changed into a black sulphuret.

An Optical lUnsion. — St. Simon, in his
famous " Memoires," describing the person-
al appearance of the twelfth Duke of Albu-
querque, characterizes his hair as " coarse
and greeny The question here arises, Was
the duke's hair really of this color, or was
St. Simon the victim of an optical illusion ?
That the latter was in all probability the
fact, is shown in a communication made to
the Paris Academy of Sciences by the ven-
erable M. Chevreul, " the oldest student in
France." On the day when the Duke de St.
Simon saw Albuquerque, the latter wore a
bullock' s-blood coat of coarse cloth, with but-
tons of the same, and his hair hung down
on his shoulders. " Now," says Chevreul, " if
we take hairs of a certain color, and arrange
them on a red ground in parallel lines, mak-
ing a small ribbon of them, and place beside
them exactly similar hairs on a white ground,
the former relatively to the latter will appear
green. If for white we substitute orange,
the hairs on the red ground will assume a
bluish tint ; if violet, a yellow tint ; if
green, a ruddy tint ; if blue, an orange tint ;
if violet, a greenish yellow ; and, finally, if
we substitute black for the white ground,
the hairs on the red ground will become
whitened. In short, if we look at a broad
surface of one simple color, we see it and
appreciate it absolutely. If we see it in
Juxtaposition with another color, or, still
better, at the centre of a broad surface of
another color, we see it relatively, and the
sensation produced by it will be quite
different."

A Rat in the Telegfaph Service.— A tele-
graph-inspector in England recently pressed
into his service a rat under the following pe-
culiar circumstances: It was necessary to
overhaul a cable of wires inclosed in iron

tubes. A certain length of the cable had
to be taken out of the tube, and the men
commenced hauling at one end without
having taken the precaution to attach to
the other a wire by which it might be
drawn back into the tube after inspection
and repairs. The question arose, how the
cable was to be restored to its proper place ;
and here the ingenuity of the inspector was
manifested. He invoked the aid of a rat-
catcher, and, provided with a large rat, a
ferret, and a ball of string wound on a
Morse paper drum, he repaired to the open-
ing in the tube. The " flush-boxes " were
opened, and the rat, with one end of the
string attached to his body, was put into
the pipe. He scampered away at a racing
pace, dragging the twine with him until he
reached the middle of the length of pipe,
and there stopped. The ferret was then
put in, and off went the rat again until he
sprang clear out of the next flush-box. One
length of the cable was thus safe, and the
same operation was commenced with the
other ; but the rat stopped short a few
yards in the pipe and boldly awaited the
approach of the ferret. A sharp combat
here commenced, and it was feared that one
or both of the animals would die in the
pipe. But, after sundry violent jerks had
been given to the string, the combatants
separated ; the ferret returned to his mas-
ter, and the rat, making for the other ex-
tremity of the pipe, carried the string right
through, and so relieved the inspector from
his anxiety.

Behavior of Metals with Hydrogen. —

From researches carried on conjointly by
Messrs. Troost and Hautefeuille, and re-
ported to the French Academy of Sciences,
it appears that potassium, sodium, and pal-
ladium, combine with hydrogen, while a
considerable number of other metals merely
dissolve this gas. Iron, nickel, and manga-
nese, oifer striking analogies in their be-
havior with hydrogen at different tempera-
tures. The facility with which they absorb
or give olF hydrogen gas depends greatly
on their physical condition. An ingot of
pure nickel gave out in a vacuum, at a red
heat, one-sixth of its volume of hydrogen.
Pulverulent nickel gave out 100 times its
volume, and remahied pyrophoric after the

NOTES.

255

escape of the hydrogen. Au ingot of co-
balt gave out one-tenth of its volume, elec-
trolytic laminae of cobalt 85 times their vol-
ume, and pyrophoric cobalt powder 100
times. It also remained pyrophoric after
the loss of the hydrogen. Soft iron in in-
gots gave off one-sixth of its volume, and
gray cast-iron more than half. Electrolytic
laminae of iron gave off 260 volumes.

Disproportion of tbe Scses in Germany.

— The proportion of males to females in the
population of the German Empire appears
to be steadily declining. In 1855 the excess
of females over males in what is now the
German Empire was 348,631, which declined
in the following nine years of peace to
313,383 in 1864. At the end of 1866, that
is, after the Schleswig-Holstein and Austrian
"Wars, the excess was 471,885. In December,
1871, the effects of the war with France was
shown in au ascertained surplus female
population of 755,875. Thus in the seven
years, from 1864 to 1871, the excess of fe-
males over males in the German population
had increased by no less than 14 per cent.
Although no inconsiderable portion of this
loss to the German male population is due
to actual slaughter on the battle-field, it is
undoubtedly caused principally by emigra-
tion. Even if emigration could now be
checked, it would take more than one gen-
eration to restore the proportion between
the two sexes in Germany to what it was
ten years ago.

Redaction of Obesity. — As a means of
counteracting a tendency to obesity, and
for reducing that habit after it has been es-
tablished, Philbert recommends a mode of
treatment somewhat different from that pro-
posed by Banting. He interdicts the use
of carbonaceous food as far as possible, and
would augment the amount of oxygen.
Hence the food must be nitrogenous, varied
with a few vegetables containing no starch,
and some raw fruit. The temperament, how-
ever, must be taken account of; the lym-
phatic should have a "red" diet — beef,
mutton, venison, pheasant, etc. ; the san-
guine a "white" diet — veal, fowl, oysters,
etc. Vegetables not sweet or farinaceous
may be taken. Coffee without cream, and
tea with little sugar, may be used. Sugar,
butter, cheese, potatoes, beans, etc., are for-

bidden. In addition to these dietetic pre-
cepts, Philbert recommends favoring the
action of the skin, supporting the walls of
the abdomen by the use of a tight roller,
and taking exercise freely. As a purgative,
intended to promote the success of the
treatment, the author reccommends waters
containing sulphate of soda.

NOTES.

Sir Charles Wheatstone died at Paris,
October 21st, at the age of seventy-three. In
England, he is reputed to have been the in-
ventor of the electric telegraph, but in this
country his claim is disputed, the credit of
that momentous invention being assigned
to Morse and Henry. By general consent,
he is esteemed one of the most eminent of
electricians. He also gained distinction by
scientific researches in various other direc-
tions, especially in acoustics and optics. At
the time of his death. Prof. Wheatstone
was Vice-President of the London Royal
Society, corresponding member of the Aca-
demie des Sciences, Knight of the Legion
of Honor, etc.

In the article entitled " A Home-made
Microscope," published last month, regret
was expressed that the objectives of Gund-
lach, of Berlin, had not been introduced
into this country. Since the appearance of
the article, we have received a note from
Mr. James Colegrove, of Kendallville, Ind., *
stating that Gundlach, of Berlin, has for the
past two years resided in Jersey City, where
he continues the manufacture of his ob-
jectives

Died, in Jersey City, September 4th,
Prof. Samuel D. Tillman, for many years
Corresponding Secretary of the American
Institute, and editor of its annual " Transac-
tions." He was anativeofUtica ; graduated
from Union College at the age of twenty ;
studied law, and for some time was engaged
in legal practice at Seneca Falls. About
twenty years ago he quitted the legal pro-
fession and devoted himself to the study of
science. He was an active and prominent
member of the American Association. He
was familiar with almost every department
of science, and, in addition, possessed a
great fund of general knowledge. He was
the author of a treatise on the theory of
music, originated a very ingenious chemical
nomenclature, and proposed a new theory
of atoms. At the time of his death he was
in his sixty-third year.

In an ancient mound recently opened
near Detroit there were found a number of
human skulls, unaccompanied by any other
bones. Dr. Dalrymple, who described this

256

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

find at the Maryland Academy of Sciences,
says that each of the skulls was pierced
at its vertex with a hole about an inch in
diameter ; tliis was apparently done some
time after death.

Dr. Guillaume-Benjamin Duchesne, re-
cently deceased, was born at Boulogne-sur-
Mer, in 180(5 ; graduated M. D., at Paris, in
1831. He practised medicine for a while
in his native town, and in 1842 came to re-
side in Paris. He was one of the founders
of electrotherapy. He studied with eminent
success the play of the facial muscles in the
expression of the passions, and his observa-
tions and experiments were of great service
to Mr. Darwin in the composition of his
work on the " Expression of the Emotions."
Not to mention his numerous contributions
to medical journals, he was the author of
several published works, among them a
" Treatise on Localized Electrization ; "
" Researches on the Muscles of the Feet ; "
" Mechanism of Human Physiology ; "
" Anatomy of the Nervous System ; "
" Physiology of Movemsni," etc.

On comparing the statistics of the Ger-
man universities for the summer semes-
ter of 1874 with those of the same semes-
ter of 1875, the AUgemeine Zeitung finds a
decrease in the number of medical stu-
dents; it has fallen from 6,190 to 6,039.
One of the causes of this is the fact that
now Jewish students devote themselves, in
great numbers, to the study of jurispru-
dence. Until lately, the legal career could
hardly be said to "be open to Jews in Ger-
many, and hence a great number of them
studied medicine.

The California Peat Company are man-
ufacturing peat-fuel at Roberts's Landing,
San Joaquin County, at the rate of from
fifty to one hundred tons per day. A re-
cent trial of the product in the furnace of a
steam-boiler is said, by the Scientific and
Mininff Press, to have been thoroughly sat-
isfactory in its results.

The authorities of Tufts College have
lengthened their philosophical course to
four years, at the same time giving the
student greater freedom in the choice of
studies.

According to the American Railway
Times, the first suspension-bridge was con-
structed by James Finley over Jacob's
Creek, on the turnpike between Uniontown
and Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in 1796.

The first shipments of tin from Tasmania
have arrived in England. This tin is pro-
nounced by the Mining Journal to be of ex-
cellent quality, soft and of very good color.
It is free from even a trace of wolfram, so
often found in combination with tin.

The two-hundredth anniversary of An-
tony van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of infu-
soria was celebrated on September 8th at
Delft, his birthplace. All the natural his-
tory associations of Holland were repre-
sented on the occasion, and a fund was es-
tablished for a Leeuweuhoek gold-medal,
worth six hundred marks, to be awarded to
distinguished microscopists. The first re-
cipient of this medal was Prof. Ehrenberg,
of Berlin, the oldest microscopist of Eu-
rope, aud Leeuwenhoek's legitimate suc-
cessor.

A TRIAL-TRIP was recently made on a
Scotch railway with a Scott-Moncrieff tram-
way-car, worked by compressed air. The
vehicle resembles a common railway-car,
but is a little higher, the reservoir of air
being on the roof The initial pressure
was two hundred pounds, and the speed at-
tained ten miles per hour. The car was
fully under control ; the speed could be in-
creased or reduced at pleasure, and the
operations of starting, stopping, and re-
versing, were readily performed. The esti-
mated cost of the power is three half-pence
per mile, as against seven pence per mile
for horse-power.

The cells in a large mushroom, weigh-
ing four and a half pounds, were found by
Worthington G. Smith to number 106,596,-
000,000,000. Each of these is furnished
with a coat or cell-wall, and contains within
itself protoplasm, water, and other materi-
als. These cells are so extremely light
that in one species of fungus it takes
1,624,320,000,000 to weigh an ounce troy.

The British Association this year makes
grants of money amounting to nearly £1,500
in aid of scientific research. For the pros-
ecution of researches on " British Rain-
fall," the Association voted £100, and a
like sum respectively for the exploration of
Settle Cave and Kent's Cavern, for a record
of the progress of zoology, and an exami-
nation of the physical characters of the in-
habitants of the British Isles. The sum of
£75 was voted in support of Dr. Dohrn's
zoological station at Naples, and £200 for
compteting and setting up in London Sir
W. Thomson's tide-calculating machine.
The number of beneficiaries is in all twen-
ty-seven.

It is proposed to hold, in 1877, at the
Palais de I'lndustrie, Paris, an exposition
of all the applications of electricity to art,
science, and household use. The enterprise
is zealously patronized by men of high dis-
tinction in the world of science and of in-
dustry. The necessary funds have been
guaranteed. The committee in charge have
their temporary headquarters at No. 86 Rue
de la Victoire, Paris.

SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JANUARY, 1876.

THE COMPAEATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OF MAN.'

By HERBERT SPENCER.

WHHjE discussing with two members of the Anthropological In-
stitute the work to be iintlertaken by its psychological section,
I made certain suggestions which they requested me to put in writing.
When reminded, some months after, of the promise I had made to do
this. I failed to recall the particular suggestions referred to ; but, in the
endeavor to remember them, I was led to glance over the whole sub-
ject of comparative human psychology. Hence resulted the follow-
ing paper :

That making a general survey is useful as a preliminary to delib-
erate study, either of a whole or of any part, scarcely needs showing.
Vagueness of thought accompanies the wandering about in a region
without known bounds or landmarks. Attention devoted to some
portion of a subject, in ignorance of its connection with the rest, leads
to untrue conceptions. The whole cannot be rightly conceived with-
out some knowledge of the parts ; and no part can be rightly con-
ceived out of relation to the whole.

To map out the comparative psychology of man must also conduce
to the more methodic carrying on of inquiries. In this, as in other
things, division of labor will facilitate progress ; and, that there may
be division of labor, tlie work itself must be systematically divided.

We may conveniently separate the entire subject into three main
divisions, arranged in the order of increasing specialty.

The first division will treat of the degrees of mental evolution of
different human types, generally considered : taking account of both
the mass of mental manifestation and the complexity of mental mani-
festation. This division will include the relations of these characters
to physical characters — the bodily mass and structure, and the cere

^ Read before the London Anthropological Institute.
TOL. Tin. — 17

2<;8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

bral mass and structure. It will also include inquiries concerning the
time taken in completing mental evolution, and the time during which
adult mental power lasts ; as well as certain most general traits of
mental action, such as the greater or less pei'sistence of emotions and
of intellectual processes. The connection between the general mental
type and the general social type should also be here dealt with.

In the second division may be conveniently placed apart, inquiries
concerning the relative mental natures of the sexes in each race.
Under it Avill come such questions as these : What differences of
mental mass and mental complexity, if any, existing between males
and females, are common to all races ? Do such differences vary in
degree, or in kind, or in both? Are there reasons for thinking that
they are liable to change by increase or decrease ? What relations
do they bear in each case to the habits of life, the domestic arrange-
ments, and the social arrangements ? This division should also in-
clude in its scope the sentiments of the sexes toward one another,
considered as varying quantitatively and qualitatively ; as well as
their respective sentiments toward offspring, similarly varying.

For the third division of inquiries may be reserved the more spe-
cial mental traits distinguishing different types of men. One class of
such specialties results from differences of proportion among faculties
possessed in common ; and another class results from the presence in
some races of faculties that are almost or quite absent from others.
Each difference in each of these groups, when established by compari-
son, has to be studied in connection with the stage of mental evolu-
tion reached, and has to be studied in connection with the habits of
life and the social development, regarding it as related to these both
as cause and consequence.

Such being the outlines of these several divisions, let us now con-
sider in detail the subdivisions contained within each.

I. — Under the head of genei'al mental evolution we may begin
with the trait of —

1. Mental Mass. — Daily experiences show us that human beings
differ in volume of mental manifestation. Some there are whose in-
telligence, high though it may be, produces little impression on those
around ; while there are some who, when uttering even commonplaces,
do it so as to affect listeners in a disproportionate degree. Comj^ari-
son of two such makes it manifest that, generally, the difference is
due to the natural language of the emotions. Behind the intellectual
quickness of the one there is not felt any power of character; while
the other betrays a momentum capable of bearing down opposition —
a potentiality of emotion that has something formidable about it.
Obviously the varieties of mankind differ much in respect of this trait.
Apart from kind of feeling, they are unlike in amount of feeling. The
dominant races overrun the inferior races mainly in virtue of the

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OF MA^. 259

greater quantity of energy in which this greater mental mass shows
itself. Hence a series of inquiries, of which these are some : (a.)
What is the relation between mental mass and bodily mass ? Mani-
festly, the small races are deficient in it. But it also appears that
races much upon a par in size — as, for instance, an Englishman and a
Damara — diti^er considerably in mental mass, {h.) What is its relation
to mass of brain? and, bearing in mind the general law that, in the
same species, size of brain increases with size of body (though not in
the same proportion), how far can we connect the extra mental mass
of the higher races with an extra mass of brain beyond that wliich
is proper to their greater bodily mass ? (e.) What relation, if any, is
there between mental mass and the physiological state expressed in
vigor of circulation and richness of blood, as severally determined by
mode of life and general nutrition? {d.) What are tlie relations of
this trait to the social state, as predatory or industrial, nomadic or
agricultural ?

2. Mental Complexity. — How races differ in respect of the more or
less involved structures of their minds will best be understood, on re-
calling that unlikeness between the juvenile mind and the adult mind
among ourselves which so well typifies the unlikeness between the
minds of savage and civilized. In the child we see absorption in sj^e-
cial facts. Generalities even of a low order are scarcely recognized ;
and there is no recognition of high generalities. We see interest in
individuals, in personal adventures, in domestic affairs; but no in-
terest in political or social matters. We see vanity about clothes and
small achievements ; but little sense of justice : witness the forcible
appropriation of one another's toys. While there have come into play
many of the simpler mental powers, there has not yet been reached
that complication of mind which results from the addition of powers
evolved out of these simpler ones. Kindred differences of complexity
exist between the minds of lower and higher races ; and comparisons
should be made to ascertain their kinds and amounts. Here, too, there
may be a subdivision of the inquiries : («.) What is the relation be-
tween mental complexity and mental mass ? Do not the two habitu-
ally vary together ? {h.) What is the relation to the social state, as
more or less complex ? — that is to say. Do not mental complexity and
social complexity act and react on each other ?

3. Rate of Mental Development. — In conformity with the biologi-
cal law, that the higher the organisms the longer they take to evolve^
members of the inferior human races may be expected to complete
their mental evolution sooner than members of the superior races ;
and we have evidence that they do this. Travelers from all regions
comment, now on the great precocity of children among savage and
semi-civilized peoples, and now on the early arrest of their mental
progress. Though we scarcely need more proofs that this general
contrast exists, there remains to be asked the question, whether it is

26o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

consistently maintained tliroughout all orders of races, from the lowest
to the highest — whether, say, the Australian differs in this respect
from the Hindoo, as much as the Hindoo does from the European. Of
secondary inquiries coming under this sub-head may be named several :
(a.) Is this more rapid evolution and earlier arrest always unequally
shown by the two sexes ; or, in other words, are there in lower types
proportional differences in rate and degree of development, such as
higher types show us ? (i.) Is there in many cases, as there appears
to be in some cases, a traceable relation between the period of arrest
and the period of puberty ? (c.) Is mental decay earlier in proportion
as mental evolution is rapid ? (d.) Can we in other respects assert
that, where the type is low, the entire cycle of mental changes be-
tween birth and death — ascending, uniform, descending — comes within
a shorter interval '?

4. Relative Plasticity. — Is there any relation between the degree
of mental modifiability which remains in adult life, and the character
of the mental evolution in respect of mass, complexity, and rapidity?
The animal kingdom at large yields us reasons for associating an in-
ferior and more rapidly-completed mental type with a relatively auto-
matic nature. Lowly-organized creatures, guided almost entirely by
reflex actions, are in but small degrees changeable by individual ex-
periences. As the nervous structure complicates, its actions become
less rigorously confined within preestablished limits ; and, as we ap-
proach the highest creatures, individual experiences take larger and
larger shares in moulding the conduct : there is an increasing ability
to take in new impressions and to profit by the acquisitions. Inferior
and superior human races are contrasted in this respect. Many trav-
elers comment on the unchangeable habits of savages. The semi-
civilized nations of the East, past and present, were, or are, charac-
terized by a greater rigidity of custom than characterizes the more
civilized nations of the West. The histories of the most civilized
nations show us that in their earlier times the modifiability of ideas
and habits was less than it is at present. And, if w^e contrast classes
or individuals around us, we see that the most developed in mind are
the most plastic. To inquiries respecting this trait of comparative
plasticity, in its relations to precocity and early completion of men-
tal development, may be fitly added inquiries respecting its relations
to the social state, which it helps to determine, and which reacts
upon it.

5. Variahility. — To say of a mental nature that its actions are ex-
tremely inconstant, and at the same time to say that it is a relatively
unchangeable nature, apparently implies a contradiction. When,
however, the inconstancy is understood as referring to the manifesta-
tions which follow one another from minute to minute, and the un-
changeableness to the average manifestations, extending over long
periods, the apparent contradiction disappears ; and it becomes com-

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OF MAN. 261

preliensible that the two traits may, and ordinarily do, coexist. An
infant, quickly weary with each kind of perception, wanting ever a
new object, which it soon abandons for something else, and alternat-
ing a score times a day between smiles and tears, shows us a very
small persistence in each kind of mental action : all its states, intel-
lectual and emotional, are transient. Yet, at the same time, its mind
cannot be easily changed in character. True, it changes spontane-
ously in due course ; but it long remains incapable of receiving ideas
or emotions beyond those of simple orders. The child exhibits less
rapid variations, intellectual and emotional, while its educability is
greater. Inferior human rac6s show us this combination, great rigid-
ity of general character, with great irregularity in its passing mani-
festations. Speaking broadly, while they resist permanent modifica-
tion they lack intellectual persistence, and they lack emotional per-
sistence. Of various low types we read that they cannot keep the
attention fixed beyond a few minutes on any thing requiring thought
even of a simple kind. Similarly with their feelings : these are less
enduring than those of civilized men. There are, however, qualifica-
tions to be made in this statement ; and comparisons are needed to
ascertain how far these qualifications go. The savage shows great
persistence in the action of the lower intellectual faculties. He is
untiring in minute observation. He is untiring, also, in that kind of
perceptive activity which accompanies the making of his weapons and
ornaments : often persevering for immense periods in carving stones,
etc. Emotionally, too, he shows persistence not only in the motives
prompting these small industries, but also in certain of his passions —
especially in that of revenge. Hence, in studying the degrees of men-
tal variability shown us in the daily lives of the different races, we
must ask how far variability characterizes the whole mind, and how
far it holds only of parts of the mind.

6. Impulsiveness. — This trait is closely allied with the last : unen-
during emotions are emotions which sway the conduct now this way
and now that, without any consistency. The trait of impulsiveness
may, however, be fitly dealt with separately, because it has other im-
plications than mere lack of persistence. Comparisons of the lower
human races with the higher appear generally to show that, along
with brevity of the passions, there goes violence. The sudden gusts
of feeling which men of inferior types display are excessive in degree
as they are short in duration ; and there is probably a connection be-
tween these two traits : intensity sooner producing exhaustion. Ob-
serving that the passions of childhood illustrate this connection, let us
turn to certain interesting questions concerning the decrease of im-
pulsiveness which accompanies advance in evolution. The nervous
processes of an impulsive being are less remote from reflex actions
than are those of an unimpulsive being. In reflex actions we see a
simple stimulus passing suddenly into movement : little or no control

262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

being exercised by other parts of the nervous system. As we ascend
to higher actions, guided by more and more complicated combinations
of stimuli, there is not the same instantaneous discharge in simple
motions ; but there is a comparatively deliberate and more variable
adjustment of compound motions, duly restrained and proportioned.
It is thus with the passions and sentiments in the less developed
natures and in the more developed natures. Where there is but little
emotional complexity, an emotion, when excited by some occurrence,
explodes in action before the other emotions have been called into
play ; and each of these, from time to time, does the like. But the
more complex emotional structure is one in which these simpler emo-
tions are so coordinated that they do not act independently. Before
excitement of any one has had time to cause action, some excitement
has been communicated to others — often antagonistic ones — and the
conduct becomes modified in adjustment to the combined dictates.
Hence i-esults a decreased impulsiveness, and also a greater persist-
ence. The conduct pursued, being prompted by several emotions
cooperating in degrees which do not exhaust them, acquires a greater
continuity ; and while spasmodic force becomes less conspicuous, there
is an increase in the total energy.

Examining the facts from this point of view, there are sundry
questions of interest to be put respecting the difl'erent races of men :
(a.) To what other traits than degree of mental evolution is impul-
siveness related? Apart from difference in elevation of type, the
New- World races seem to be less impulsive than the Old-Woi'ld races.
Is this due to constitutional apathy? Can there be traced (other
things equal) a relation between physical vivacity and mental impul-
siveness ? (Z».) What connection is there between this trait and the
social state? Clearly a very exj^losive nature — such as that of the
Bushman — is unfit for social vmion ; and, commonly, social union,
when by any means established, checks impulsiveness. (c.) What
respective shares in checking impulsiveness are taken by the feelings
which the social state fosters — such as the fear of surrounding indi-
viduals, the instinct of sociality, the desire to accumulate property,
the sympathetic feelings, the sentiment of justice ? These, which
require a social environment for their development, all of them in-
volve imaginations of consequences more or less distant ; and thus
imply checks upon the promptings of the simpler passions. Hence
arise the questions — In what order, in what degrees, and in what com-
binations do they come into play ?

7. One further general inquiry of a different kind may be added:
What effect is produced on mental nature by mixture of races ? There
is reason for believing that, throughout the animal kingdom, the union
of varieties that have become widely divergent is physically injuri-
ous ; while the union of slightly-divergent varieties is physically bene-
ficial. Does the like hold with the mental nature ? Some facts seem

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OF MAN. 263

to show that mixture of human races extremely unlike produces a
worthless type of mind — a mind fitted neither for the kind of life led
by the higher of the two races, nor for that led by the lower — a mind
out of adjustment to all conditions of life. Contrariwise, we find that
peoples of the same stock, slightly diflerentiated by lives carried ou
in unlike circumstances for many generations, produce by mixture a
mental type having certain superiorities. In his work on " The Hu-
guenots," Mr. Smiles points out how. large a number of distinguished
men among us have descended from Flemish and French refugees ;
and M. Alphonse de CandoUe, in his " Histoire des Sciences et des
Savants depuis deux Siecles," shows that the descendants of French
refugees in Switzerland have produced an unusually great proportion
of scientific men. Though, in part, this result may be ascribed to
the original natures of such refugees, who must have had that inde-
pendence which is a chief factor in originality, yet it is probably in
part due to mixture of races. For thinking this, we have evidence
which is not open to two interpretations. Prof. Morley draws atten-
tion to the fact that, during seven hundred years of our early history,
" the best genius of England sprang up on the line of country in
which Celts and Anglo-Saxons came together." In like manner, Mr.
Galton, in his " English Men of Science," shows that in recent days
these have mostly come from an inland region, running generally from
north to south, which we may reasonably presume contains more
mixed blood than do the regions east and west of it. Such a result
seems probable a priori. Two natures respectively adapted to slight-
ly unlike sets of social conditions may be expected by their union to
produce a nature somewhat more plastic than either — a nature more
impressible by the new circumstances of advancing social life, and
therefore more likely to ox-iginate new ideas and display modified sen-
timents. The comparative psychology of man may, then, fitly include
the mental efiects of mixture ; and among derivative inquiries we may
ask. How far the conquest of race by race has been instrumental in
advancing civilization by aiding mixture, as well as in other ways ?

II. — The second of the three leading divisions named at the out-
set is less extensive. Still, concerning the relative mental natures of
the sexes in each race, questions of much interest and importance
may be raised :

1. Degree of Difference hetween the Sexes. — It is an established
fact that, physically considered, the contrast between males and fe-
males is not equally great in all types of mankind. The bearded
races, for instance, show us a gi'eater unlikeness between the two than
do the beardless races. Among South American tribes, men and
women have a gi'eater general resemblance in form, etc., than is usual
elsewhere. The question, then, suggests itself, Do the mental natures
of the sexes difier in a constant or in a variable degree ? The differ-

264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY .

ence is unlikely to be a constant one ; and, looking for variation,
we may ask Avhat is its amount, and under what conditions does it
occur ?

2. Difference in Mass and in Complexity. — The comparisons be-
tween the sexes, of course, admit of subdivisions parallel to those
made in comparisons between the races. Relative mental mass and
relative mental complexity have chiefly to be observed. Assuming
that the great inequality in the cost of reproduction to the two sexes
is the cause of unlikeness in mental mass, as in physical mass, this
diiference may be studied in connection with reproductive difierences
presented by the various races, in respect of the ages at which repro-
duction commences, and the period over which it lasts. An allied in-
quiry may be joined with this ; namely, how far the mental develop-
ments of the two sexes are affected by their relative habits in respect
to food and physical exertion? In many of the lower races, the
women, treated with great brutality, are physically very inferior to
the men ; excess of labor and defect of nutrition being apparently
the combined causes. Is any arrest of mental development simulta-
neously caused ?

3. Variatioii of the Differences. — If the unlikeness, physical and
mental, of the sexes is not constant, then, supposing all races have
diverged from one original stock, it follows that there must have been
transmission of accumulated differences to those of the same sex in
posterity. If, for instance, the prehistoric type of man was beardless,
then the production of a bearded variety implies that within that va-
riety the males continued to transmit an increasing amount of beard
to descendants of the same sex. This limitation of heredity by sex,
shown us in multitudinous ways throughout the animal kingdom,
probably applies to the cerebral structures as much as to other struct-
ures. Hence the question, Do not the mental natures of the sexes in
alien types of man diverge in unlike ways and degrees ?

4. Causes of the Dfferences. — Is any relation to be traced between
this variable difference and the variable parts the sexes play in the
business of life ? Assuming the cumulative effects of habit on func-
tion and structure, as well as the limitation of heredity by sex, it is to
be expected that, if in any society the activities of one sex, generation
after generation, differ from those of the other, there will arise sexixal
adaptations of mind. Some instances in illustration may be named.
Among the Africans of Loango and other districts, as also among
some of the Indian Hill-tribes, the men and women are strongly con-
trasted as respectively inert and energetic : the industry of the women
having apparently become so natural to them that no coercion is
needed. Of course, such facts suggest an extensive series of ques-
tions. Limitation of heredity by sex may account both for those
sexual differences of mind which distinguish men and women in all
races and for those which distinguish them in each race, or each so-

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OF MAN. 265

ciety. An intei'esting subordinate inquiry may be, hou' far such men-
tal ditferences are inverted in cases where there is inversion of social
and domestic relations ; as among tliose Khasi Hill-tribes whose wom-
en have so far the upper hand that they turn oif their husbands in a
summary way if they displease them.

5. Mental 3IodiJiab Hit 1/ lit, the Two Sexes. — Along with comparisons
of races in respect to mental plasticity may go parallel comparisons of
the sexes in each race. Is it true always, as it appears to be generally
true, that women are less modifiable than men ? The relative con-
servatism of women — their greater adhesion to established ideas and.
practices — is manifest in many civilized and semi-civilized societies.
Is it so among the uncivilized? A curious instance of greater adhe-
sion to custom by women than by men is given by Dalton, as occur-
ring among the Juangs, one of the lowest wild tribes of Bengal. Un-
til recently the only dress of both sexes was something less than that
which the Hebrew legend gives to Adam and Eve. Years ago the
men were led to adopt a cloth bandage round the loins, in place of
the bunch of leaves ; but the women adhere to the aboriginal habit :
a conservatism shown where it might have been least expected.

6. The Sexual Sentiment. — Results of value may be looked for from
comparisons of races made to determine the amounts and characters
of the higher feelings to which the relation of the sexes gives rise.
The lowest varieties of mankind have but small endowments of these
feelings. Among varieties of higher types, such as the Malayo-Poly-
nesians, these feelings seem considerably developed : the Dyaks, for
instance, sometimes display them in great strength. Speaking gen-
erally, they appear to become stronger with the advance of civiliza-
tion. Several subordinate inquiries may be named : («.) How far is
development of the sexual sentiment dependent upon intellectual ad-

.vance — upon growth of imaginative power? {b.) How far is it related
to emotional advance ; and especially to evolution of those emotions
which originate from sympathy ? What are its relations to polyandry
and polygyny? (c.) Does it not tend toward, and is it not fostered,
by, monogamy? {cl.) What connection has it with maintenance of
the family bond, and the consequent better rearing of children ?

III. — Under the third head, to which we may now pass, come the
more special traits of the different races :

1. Imitativeness. — One of the characteristics in which the lower
types of men show us a smaller departure from reflex action than do
the higher types is, their strong tendency to mimic the motions and
sounds made by otiiers — an almost involuntary habit which travelers
find it difficult to check. This meaningless repetition, which seems to
imply that the idea of an observed action cannot be framed in the
mind of the observer without tending forthwith to discharo;e itself in
the action conceived (and every ideal action is a nascent form of the

266 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

consciousness accompanying performance of such action), evidently
diverges but little from the automatic; and decrease of it is to be ex-
pected along with increase of self-regulating power. This trait of
automatic mimicry is evidently allied with that less automatic mimicry
which shows itself in greater persistence of customs. For customs
adopted by eacli generation from the last, without thought or inquiry,
imply a tendency to imitate which overmasters critical and skeptical
tendencies : so maintaining habits for which no reason can be given.
The decrease of this irrational mimicry, strongest in the lowest sav-
age and feeblest in the highest of the civilized, should be studied
along with the successively higher stages of social life, as being at
once an aid and a hindrance to civilization; an aid in so far as it gives
that fixity to the social organization without w^hich a society cannot
survive ; a hindrance in so far as it offers resistance to changes of
social organization that have become desirable.

2. Incuriosity. — Projecting our own natures into the circumstances
of the savage, we imagine ourselves as marveling greatly on first
seeing the products and appliances of civilized life. But we err in
supposing that the savage has feelings such as we should have in
his place. Want of rational curiosity respecting these incomprehen-
sible novelties is a trait remarked of the lowest races wherever found ;
and the partially-civilized races are distinguished from them as ex-
hibiting rational curiosity. The relation of this trait to the intel-
lectual nature, to the emotional nature, and to the social state, should
be studied.

3. Quality of Thought. — Under this vague head may be placed
many sets of inquiries, each of them extensive : (a.) The degree of
generality of the ideas ; {b.) The degree of abstractness of the ideas ;
(c.) The degree of definiteness of the ideas ; {d.) The degree of coherence
of the ideas ; {e.) The extent to which there have been developed such
notions as those of class, of cause, of uniformity, of law, of truth.
Many conceptions, which have become so familiar to us that we as-
sume them to be the common property of all minds, are no more pos-
sessed by the lowest savages than they are by our own children; and
comparisons of types should be so made as to elucidate the processes
by which such conceptions are reached. The development uiider each
head has to be observed : (a.) Independently in its successive stages ;
(6.) In connection with the cooperative intellectual conceptions; (c.) In
connection with the progress of language, of the arts, and of social
organization. Already linguistic phenomena have been used in aid
of such inquiries ; and more systematic use of them should be made.
Not only the number of general words, and the, number of abstract
words, in a people's vocabulary should be taken as evidence, but also
their degrees of generality and abstractness ; for there are generalities
of tlie first, second, third, etc., orders and abstractions similarly as-
cending in degree. Blue is an abstraction referring to one class of

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OF MAN. 267

impressions dcn-ivcd from visible objects ; color is a higher abstraction,
referring to many sucii classes of visual impressions ; property is a
still higher abstraction, referring to classes of impressions received not
through the eyes alone, but through other sense-organs. If generali-
ties and abstractions were arranged in the order of their extensive-
uess and in their grades, tests would be obtained which, applied to
the vocabularies of the uncivilized, would yield definite evidence of
the intellectual stages reached.

4. Peculiar Aptitudes. — To such specialties of intelligence as mark
different degrees of evolution have to be added the minor ones related
to modes of life : the kinds and degrees of faculty which have become
organized in adaptation to daily habits — skill in the use of weapons,
powers of tracking, quick discrimination of individual objects. And
under this head may fitly come inquiries concerning some race-pecu-
liarities of the jESthetic class, not at present explicable. While the re-
mains from the Dordogne caves show us that their inhabitants, low as
we must sujDpose them to have been, could represent animals, both by
drawing and carving, with some degree of fidelity, there are existing
races, probably higher in other respects, who seem scarcely capable
of recognizing pictorial representations. Similarly with the musical
faculty. Almost or quite wanting in some inferior races, we find it in
other races, not of high grade, developed to an unexpected degree .
instance the negroes, some of whom are so innately musical that, as
I have been told by a missionary among them, the children in native
schools, when taught European psalm-tunes, spontaneously sing sec-
onds to them. Whether any causes can be discovered for race-pecu-
liarities of this kind is a question of interest.

5. Specialties of Emotional Nature. — These are worthy of careful
study, as being intimately related to social phenomena — to the possi-
bility of social progress, and to the nature of the social structure. Of
those to be chiefly noted there are — («.) Gregariousness or sociality —
a trait in the strength of which races differ widely : some, as the Man-
tras, being almost indifferent to social intercourse ; others being un-
able to dispense with it. Obviously the degree of the desire for the
presence of fellow-men affects greatly the formation of social groups,
and consequently underlies social progress. (5.) Intolerance of re-
straint. Men of some inferior types, as the Mapuche, are ungovern-
able ; while those of other types, no higher in grade, not only submit
to restraint, but admire the pei'sons exercising it. These contrasted
traits have to be observed in connection with social evolution ; to the
early stages of which they are respectively antagonistic and favorable,
(c.) The desire for praise is a trait which, common to all races, high
and low, varies considerably in degree. There are quite inferior races,
as some of those in the Pacific States, whose members sacrifice with-
out stint to gain the applause which lavish generosity brings ; while,
elsewhere, applause is sought with less eagerness. Notice should be

268 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

taken of the connection between this love of approbation and the
social restraints, since it plays an important part in the maintenance
of them, {d.) The acquisitive propensity. This, too, is a trait the
various degrees of which, and the relations of which to the social
state, have to be especially noted. The desire for property grows
along with the possibility of gratifying it ; and this, extremely small
among the lowest men, increases as social developement goes on.
With the advance from tribal property to family property and indi-
vidual property, the notion of private right of possession gains defi-
niteness, and the love of acquisition strengthens. Each step toward
an orderly social state makes larger accumulations possible, and the
pleasures achievable by them more sure; while the resulting encour-
agement to accumulate leads to increase of capital and further prog-
ress. This action and reaction of the sentiment and the social state,
should be in every case observed.

6. The Altruistic Sentiments. — Coming last, these are also highest.
The evolution of them in the course of civilization shows us very
clearly the reciprocal influences of the social unit and the social
organism. On the one hand, there can be no sympathy, nor any of the
sentiments which sympathy generates, unless there are fellow-beings
around. On the other hand, maintenance of union with fellow-beings
depends in part on the presence of sympathy, and the resulting
restraints on conduct. Gregariousness or sociality favors the growth
of sympathy ; increased sympathy conduces to closer sociality and a
more stable social state; and so, continuously, each increment of the
one makes possible a further increment of the other. Comparisons of
the altruistic sentiments resulting from sympathy, as exhibited in dif-
ferent types of men and diiferent social states, may be conveniently
arranged under three heads : («.) Pity, which should be observed as
displayed toward offspring, toward the sick and aged, and toward
enemies, {b.) Generosity (duly discriminated from the love of display)
as shown in giving ; as shown in the relinquishment of pleasures for
the sake of others; as shown by active efforts on others' behalf. The
manifestations of this sentiment, too, are to be noted in respect of
their range— whether they are limited to relatives ; whether they ex-
tend only to those of the same society ; whether they extend to those
of other societies ; and they are also to be noted in connection with
the degree of providence— whether they result from sudden impulses
obeyed without counting the cost, or go along with a clear foresight of
the future sacrifices entailed, {c.) Justice. This most abstract of the
altruistic sentiments is to be considered under aspects like those just
named, as vv^ell as under many other aspects— how far it is shown in
regard to the lives of others ; how far in regard to their property, and
how far in regard to their various minor claims. And the compari-
sons of men in respect of this highest sentiment should, beyond all
others, be carried on along with observations on the accompanying

THE HORSESHOE NEBULA IN SAGITTARIUS. 269

social state, which it largely determines — the form and actions of
government ; the character of the laws ; the relations of classes.

Such, stated as briefly as consists with clearness, are the leading
divisions and subdivisions under which the Comparative Psychology
of Man may be arranged. In going rapidly over so wide a field, I
have doubtless overlooked much that should be included. Doubtless,
too, various of the inquiries named will branch out into subordinate
inquiries well worth pursuing. Even as it is, however, the pro-
gramme is extensive enough to occupy numerous investigators who
may with advantage take separate divisions.

Though, after occupying themselves with primitive arts and prod-
ucts, anthropologists have devoted their attention mainly to the phys-
ical characters of the human races, it must, I think, be admitted that
the study of these yields in importance to the study of their psychical
characters. The general conclusions to which the first set of inqui-
ries may lead cannot so much aftect our views respecting the highest
classes of phenomena as can the general conclusions to which the second
set may lead. A true theory of the human mind vitally concerns us ;
and systematic comparisons of human minds, difiering in their kinds
and grades, will help us in forming a true theory. Knowledge of the
reciprocal relations between the cliaracters of men and the characters
of the societies they form must influence profoundly our ideas of polit-
ical arrangements. When the interdependence of individual nature
and social structure is understood, our conceptions of the changes now
taking place, and hereafter to take place, will be rectified. A compre-
hension of mental development as a process of adaptation to social con-
ditions, which are continually remoulding the mind, and are again
remoulded by it, will conduce to a salutary consciousness of the remoter
efiects produced by institutions upon character, and will check tlie
grave mischiefs which ignorant legislation now causes. Lastly, a right
theory of mental evolution as exhibited by humanity at large, giving
a key, as it does, to the evolution of the individual mind, must help to
rationalize our perverse methods of education, and so to raise intellect-
ual power and moral nature.

-♦•♦-

THE HOESESIIOE NEBULA IN SAGITTARIUS.

By EDWARD S. IIOLDEN,

PROFESSOR IN THE UNITED STATES NAVAL OBSERVATOEY, WASHINGTON.

IN the number of The Popular Science Monthly for July, 1874,
I gave a brief account of the successive observations of the great
nebula of Orion, from 1656 to 1874, and I pointed out how instructive
such an historical review was in its bearing upon the improvement of

2-jo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

our means of observation and as an example of how the standai-d of
such work has been gradually raised. It will be interesting to trace
in the same way the history of the Horseshoe Nebula in Sagittarius,
which, next to the great nebulosities of Orion and Andromeda, is the
most curious of these objects, and which perhaps as much as any
other deserves careful study.

Its discovery dates back about a hundred years to the time of
Messier, the assiduous astronomer of the Observatoire de la Marine
at Paris ; it is No. 17 of his list, which comprises most of the brighter
and more remarkable nebula? of the northern sky. It was at this time
that Sir William Herschel, the famous astronomer of England, with in-
struments far superior in power to those of Messier, was forming his
great catalogues of the nebulge discovered in his " sweeps." Messier
wisely used his smaller instrument in the endeavor to obtain accurate
positions for those found by him, and he has left us monographic
studies of the Orion and the Andromeda nebula (" Memoires de
I'Academie des Sciences," IVZI and 1807), which are almost the first
trustworthy works of the kind, and which are the beginnings from
which sprang the elaborate drawings of Lassell, Rosse, Struve and

Bond.

s

N
Fig. 1.— J. Herschel, 1833.

From the time of Messier to 1826, when Sir John Herschel pub-
lished his first figure of the Orion nebula, almost nothing was done
in this line of research ; but in 1833 a study of the Horseshoe Nebula
was published by Sir John Hei-schel, together with many other similar
drawings, in the "Philosophical Transactions" [see Fig. 1). This was
the first considerable and systematic attempt to accurately figure the
nebulae, and it doubtless turned the attention of astronomers generally
to this branch, the importance of which was manifest. If so many of
the fixed stars changed in brilliancy and in position, why should not

THE HORSESHOE NEBULA IN SAGITTARIUS. 271

the same thing occur among the nebula? ? And if such changes were
once established, would not an important increase of our knowledge
accrue, concerning these objects of which almost nothing was known ?
It was one of the avowed objects of Sir John Herschel's celebrated
journey to the Cape of Good Hope to figure the nebulae of the southern
sky, and, while there, the drawing given in Fig. 2 was made, although
it was not published until 1847.

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As we have said, Herschel's paper of 1833 created a wide-spread
interest among astronomers, and about 1836 two monographic studies
of the Horseshoe Nebula were begun, under circumstances so different
as to deserve our attention, Lamont, the accomplished director of
the Observatory of Munich, and Mason, an undergraduate of Yale
College, commenced observations at about the same time : one being
supplied with all the appliances which were known to astronomers.

272 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and devoting all his energies to his chosen science in a city which was
then the most famous in the world for its astronomical instruments ;
and the other, a mere hoy, oppressed hy narrow circumstances, work-
ing in the intervals of his college duties with a telescope which he had
himself constructed, with a fellow-student (Mr. Hamilton L. Smith) as
his only assistant.

The work of both astronomers (for it is impossible to deny to Mason
that title) is of great excellence, but it will not be claiming too much
to assert that Mason's was by far the most valuable monographic study
of a nebula which had appeared, and indeed, in its thorough appre-
ciation of the problems to be solved and in its most skillful adapta-
tion of the existing means toward that end, it deserves to rank with
the greatest works of this class, with Bond's, Lassell's, liosse's and
Struve's. It is not only in the observations themselves nor in the ex-
quisite and accurate drawings which accompany tlie memoir that we
feel this excellence, but in the philosophical grasp of the whole sub-
ject and the masterly appreciation of the fundamental ideas of the
problem. His memoir contains so much that bears on this general
aspect, that we quote from it largely, as it is too little known among
those not professional astronomers :

" Although a period of nearly fifty years has now elapsed since the researches
of the elder Herschel exposed to us the wide distribution of nebulous matter
through the universe, we are still almost as ignorant as ever of its nature and
intention. The same lapse of time that, among his extensive lists of double
stars, has revealed to us the revolution of sun around sun, and given us a partial
insight into the internal economy of those remote sidereal systems, has been ap-
parently insufficient to discover any changes of a definite character in the nebula),
and thereby to inform us at all of their past history, the form of their original
creation, or their future destiny. At the same time, the detection of such
changes is '\\\ the highest degree desirable, since no other sources of evidence
can be safejy relied upon in these inquiries. That the efforts of astronomers
have thus far ended, at least, in vague and contradictory conjectures, is princi-
pally attributable to the great difficulty of originally observing, and of describing
to future observers, bodies so shapeless and indeterminate in their forms, with
tlie requisite precision. For we cannot doubt, authorized as we are to extend
the laws of gravitation far into the recesses of space, that tliese masses of dif-
fused matter are actually undergoing vast revolutions in form and constitution.
The main object of this paper is to inquire how far that minute accuracy which
has achieved such signal discoveries in the allied department of the double stars
may be introduced into the observation of nebuhiB, by modes of examination and
descrip/tion more peculiarly adapted to this end tlian such as can be employed
in general reviews of the heavens. ... It will conduce to a clearer under-
standing of our object to point out, generally and rapidly, the distinctions be-
tween our own theory of observation and that commonly adopted. It consists
not in an extensive review, but in confining the attention to a few individuals;
upon these exercising a long and minute scrutiny, during a succession of evenings;
rendering even the slightest particulars of each nebula as precise as repeated ob-
servation and comparison with varied precautions can make them, and confirm-
ing each more doubtful and less legible of its features by a repetition of suspi-

THE HORSESHOE NEBULA IN SAGITTARIUS. 273

cions, which are of weight in in-oi)orti(jn as they accumulate ; and, lastly, when
practicahle, correcting by comparison of the judgments of ditferent persons at
the same time.

" The assistance which is rendered to the faithful description of tliese remark-
able objects by thus laying a gruundwork of stars, may be well illustrated by
the familiar expedient of artists, who divide any complicated engraving which
they would copy, into a great number of squares, their intended sketch occu-
pying a similar number. The stars, which are apparently interwoven through-
out the whole extent of the nebula, furnish a set of thickly-distributed natural
points of reference, which, truly transferred to the paper, are as available as the
cross-lines of the artist in limiting and fixing the appearance of the future
drawing.

"In nebuke of great extent, however correctly estimated may be the stars
immediately around the standard of reference, those in the distant parts of the
nebula a*e liable to suffer from an accumulation of errors of nearly the same
kind as that arising in an extended trigonometrical survey. But if the places of
the larger stars are well settled by tixod instruments, there will be far less room
for error in estimations which spread, as from so many centres, over the remain-
ing intervals.

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Fi(i. 3— Mason, 1839.

" I Vv^ill here speak of a method that 1 hit upon for the exact representation of

nebulae, which has essentially contributed to the accuracy of the accompanying

delineations. It was first suggested by the method usually adopted for the

representation of heights above the sea-level on geographical nu^ps, by drawing

VOL. viii. — IS

274 ^HE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

curves which represent horizontal sections of hill and valley at successive eleva-
tions above the level of the sea — that is, by lines of equal height — and it is the
same in its principle. It is obvious that, if lines be imagined in the field of
view, winding around through all those portions of a nebula which have exactly
equal brightness, these lines, transferred to our chart of stars, will give a faith-
ful representation of the nebula and of its minutiae, and of the suddenness as
well as of the amount of transition from one degree of shade to another.

" By far the greatest obstacles to the successful comparison of modern obser-
vations on nebulge with those which own, at least, a brief antiquity, exist in the
want of precision with which the labors of former observers have been con-
ducted, and hence all attempts to trace the slow progress of their changes end
in uncertain conjectures and conflicting probabilities. I shall not, therefore,
incur the charge of unnecessary minuteness in endeavoring to render, by every
means, our knowledge of the present form and state of at least these few nebu-
IjB, as far as possible, standard ; and, although laden with the necessar^^ imper-
fections of original observations, yet fi'ee from adventitious and unnecessary
vagueness in the communication of them. In order to supply, to any future
observer, those slight particulars which a chart canuot easily urge upon the
notice of any but the original compiler, and further, to indicate the degree of
certainty with which difl:erent features of the nebulis were recognized, it is
thought proper to bring under this head the enumeration of various facts not
expressed in the journal of observations. These are divided into '■things cer-
tain^'' '■nearly certain^'' '■strongly suspected,^ and '■slightly suspected.'' Thus
much for observation — for rendering the idea of the object as perfect as may be
in the mind of the observer. For the most unimpaired communication of this
idea or perception, the theory of the process adopted is briefly — 1. To form an
accurate chart of all stars capable of micrometrical measurement in and around
the nebula. 2. From these, as the greater landmarks, to fill in with all the
lesser stars, down to the minimum visibile by estimation, which, with care, need
not fall far short of ordinary measurement. 3. On this, as a foundation, to lay
down the nebula.

" The first intention was to intrust entirely to careful estimation the copying
of the stars which were to form the groundwork of the nebula, since no means
of measurement were then at hand. The following is a sketch of the course of
])rocedure adopted in pursuance of this plan : The limits of the nebula were
traced as far as long and close examination could discern them, and a rough
chart was made of the principal stars within it. This preparation was indispen-
sable, because, in the consequent mapping down of all the visible stars in the
nebula, it was necessary to use a light out-of-doors, and the object, of course,
became invisible. The distance between any two conspicuous stars favorably
situated in the nebula was then chosen as a standard of reference ; and, from
this as a base, a kind of triangulation was carried out by the eye to all the stars
in the neighborhood, and these were successively marked on a sheet of paper at
the time ; their magnitudes were also affixed to each according to a fictitious
scale, for which a few stars, conveniently situated, furnished standards of i-efer-
ence as to size. A lamp was close at hand, whose light could be cut off at
pleasure ; and almost direct comparison was thus instituted between the stars
in the field of view and those on the paper, and corrections made where any
distortions in the latter were observable. As tlie work advanced from night to
night, the reference to the lamp was necessarily less and less direct, since a
longer exclusion of light was necessary to see the fainter stars. Finally, the
nebula itself was drawn upon the map by the guidance of the stars already

THE HORSESHOE NEBULA IN SAGITTARIUS. 275

cojjied ; and although only an occasional and nnfrequent reference could be
made to a lamp, the stars within it had become so familiar by their constant re-
currence, that the memory could as easily as before retain its estimates of dis-
tance and direction, until mutual comparison could be made between the map
and the heavens."

It will be seen what a great advance had been made in the concep-
^tion of the application of the topographical method of contour lines
to the delineation of degrees of brightness, although this method has
practical limitations not spoken of by Mason, and we must consider
the careful separation of the various results into classes ranged accord-
ing to their degrees of certainty, as scarcely less important. In all
former memoirs the chart included all the results reached, and there
was no searching division of these in such a way as to give absolute
data to the future investigator.

Throughout the entire memoir (which relates also to other nebulae
than the one now in question) the whole endeavor is to reach a per-
fect definiteness of conception ; and Mason evidently held the idea
that, in the existing state of astronomy, it was eminently "better to
do one thing well than many things indifferently."

Fig. 4.— Lamont, 1837.

Lamont tells us in Annalen der K. Sternxcarte bei Mimchen, Band
xvii. (1868), that his early researches on this and other nebula? were
prosecuted in the hope that something might be determined as to their

276 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

real nature, and he expresses his opmion that all nebulae consist essen-
tially of clusters of stars, more or less remote. His original researches
were published in 1837, accompanied by figures, and they are of high
authority on this subject. We give Lamont's figure above. These
two drawings having been executed by diiferent observers with dif-
ferent telescopes (Lamont's refractor of nine inches ajjerture, and
Mason's reflector of twelve inches) will afford in the cases in whicli
they agree indubitable evidence as to the existence of any feature
shown in them. The non-existence of any feature not shown in either
is probable, although not certain.

• Sir John Herschel's " Results of Astronomical Observations at the
Cape of Good Hope" was published in 1847, and his drawing (our
Fig. 2), in the order of publication, belongs after Fig. 4,
In his first paper he describes Fig. 1 as follows :

" The figure of this nebula is nearly that of a Greek capital omega, n, some-
what distorted, and very unequally bright. It is remarkable that this is the
form usually attributed to the great nebula in Orion, though in that nebula 1
confess I can discern no resemblance whatever to the Greek letter. Messier
perceived only the bright eastern branch of the nebula now in question, with-
out any of the attached convolutions which were first noticed by my father.
The chief peculiarities which I have observed in it are — 1. The resolvable knot
in the eastern portion of the bright branch, which is, in a considerable degree,
insulated from the surrounding nebula ; strongly suggesting the idea of an ab-
sorption of the nebulous matter ; and, 2. Tlie much feebler and smaller knot at
the northwestern end of the same branch, where the nebula makes a sudden
bend at an acute angle. With a view to a more exact representation of this
curious nebula, I have at difterent times taken micrometrical measures of the
relative places of the stars in and near it, by which, when laid down as in a
chart, its limits may be traced and identified, as I hope soon to have better
opportunity to do than its low situation in this latitude will permit."

This oppox'tunity was afforded him at his southern station, and his
Fig. 2 is accordingly much more detailed. He says of it in tlie work
last cited that his Fig. 1 is far from an accurate expression of its
shape :

" In particular the large horseshoe-shaped arc ... is there represented as
too much elongated in a vertical direction and as bearing altogether too large
a proportion to [the eastern] streak and to the total magnitude of the object.
The nebulous diflFusion, too, at the [western] end of that arc, forming the [west-
ern] angle and base-line of the capital Greek omega (n), to which the general
figure of the nebula has been likened, is now so little conspicuous as to induce
a suspicion that some real change may have taken place in the relative bright-
ness of this portion compared with the rest of the nebula ; seeing that a figure
of it made on June 25, 1837, expresses no such ditfusion, but represents the arc
as breaking off before it even attains fully to the group of small stars at the
[western] angle of the Omega. . . . Under these circumstances the arguments
for a real change in the nebula might seem to have considerable weight. ' Nev-
ertheless, they are weakened or destroyed by a contrary testimony entitled to
much reliance. Mr. Mason, a young and ardent astronomer, .... whose pre-

THE HORSESHOE NEBULA IN SAGITTARIUS. 277

mature death is the more to be regretted, as he was, so far as I am aware, the
only other recent observer who has given himself with the assiduity which the
subject requires to the exact delineation of nebulae, and whose figures I find at
all satisfactory, expressly states that both the nebulous knots were well seen
by himself and his coadjutor Mr. Smith on August 1, 1839, i. e., two years subse-
quent to the date of my last drawing. Neither Mr. Mason, however, nor any ■
other observer, appears to have had the least suspicion of the existence of the
fainter horseshoe arc attached to the [eastern] extremity of Messier's streak.
Dr. Lamont has given a figure of this nebula, accompanied by a description. In
this figure [our Fig. 4], the nebulous diffusion at the [western] angle and along
the [western] base-line of the Omega is represented as very conspicuous ; indeed,
much more so than I can persuade myself it was his intention it should appear."

When Lassell mounted liis great four-foot reflector at Malta, lie
devoted much of his time to a systematic review of those nebula;
which had previously been figured either by himself or by Rosse and

Fig. 5.— Lassell, 1862.

others, and, as was expected from the excellence of the climate, the
superiority of the great telescope and the skill of the observer, this
series of drawings at once took its place among the acknowledged
classics on this subject. Too much praise can hardly be given to
Lassell for confining his attention principally to objects previously
figured, and for resisting the temptation to roam in those fields which

278 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

his own telescope had opened with its list of six Imndred nem nebulae.
And it may he remarked in passing that it is just this intelligent
devotion to a definite aim and object which, in this case as in all, has
led to brilliant results. We give Lassell's figure above, remarking
that it was constructed, as indeed all the preceding ones had been, by
first measuring the relative position of the brighter stars, then insert-
ing by careful eye estimates the fainter ones, and finally by drawing
among these stars, guided by their configurations, the details of the
nebula itself.

Another, and a very rapid method of di-awing nebula?, is the fol-
lowing. It yields to the first in the accuracy of the positions of the
stars, but it is probably even superior to it in facilities for the correct
representation of the nebula and stars considered as one mass. A
piece of glass is ruled carefully into squares (see Figs. 6 and 7) and
this is placed in the focus of the telescope so as to be plainly visible ;
the telescope is then directed upon the nebula, and a clock-work mo-
tion is applied to the telescope so that it follows the apparent motion
of the nebula from east to west accurately. Some one of the brighter
stars is chosen, and it is kept by means of the clock-work accurately
in the corner of one of the squares. A piece of i)aper ruled into
squares similar to those of the glass reticle is provided, and on it the
observer dots down the various stars in and about the nebula. This
may take two, three, or four nights according to circumstances, but in
all cases it requires much less time than the mici'omctric measurements
of the brighter stars and the troublesome allineatious required to fix
the positions of the smaller stars, and it has the great advantage that
the work can be done in a perfectly dark field of view, whereas the
micrometric measures demand the use of illuminated wires at least.
After the stars are inserted, the principal lines are put in, not only by
the star-groups, but also by the squares themselves. For my own use
I have had constructed two reticles : one luled in squares like those
seen in Figs. 6 and 7, and another in which the heavy-lined large
squares (each containing nine small squares, see Fig. 6) are still pres-
ent, but are subdivided into small squares by lines parallel to their
own diagonals. After making all the use possible of the first reticle,
the second is put in, and an entirely new set of reference-lines is ob-
tained, making an angle of 45° with the old set. This, of course,
could be equally obtained by revolving the first reticle through an
angle of 45°, but it is not quite so convenient.

After the stars and the principal lines of the nebula are inserted a
new and higher power eye-piece is used, and the drawing is concluded
by means of this. Fig. 6 is an example of a drawing of the Horse-
shoe Nebula made in this way by M. Trouvelot, of Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts, the artist to whom we owe the exquisite plates of astro-
nomical engravings published by Harvard College Observatory, under
the superintendence of its late director. Prof Winlock.

THE HORSESHOE NEllilLA IS SAUlTTAlilUS. 279

During the last summer M. Trouvelot was invited by the superin-
tendent of the United States Naval Observatory to visit Washington
for the purpose of making drawings of nebiila?, etc., by means of the
twenty-six inch Clark refractor. ]>y the courtesy of Admiral Davis

I am able to give a drawing of the Horseshoe Nebula as delineated
by M. Trouvelot from observations made jointly by him and by
myself.

Pretty much the same method w^as adopted in this drawing as in
Fig. 6, but the vastly more complex structure of the nebula itself is
what might have been expected from an increase of eighteen times in
the light, over M. Trouvelot's six-inch telescope.

28o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

From careful comparisons of diiferent kinds, it has been found that
the power of the Washington telescoj^e is about the same as that of
LasselPs great four-foot reflector, and the two drawings. Figs, 5 and
7, are therefore nearly comparable, i. e., almost as if made with the

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same telescope at difterent times. It may be said of the last drawing
that nothing is there laid down about which the slightest doubt is
entertained ; and although, in some respects, it was made in greater
haste than is desirable, yet it is sufiiciently accurate to found an argu-

SCIENCE-TEACHING IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS. 281

ment on, for or against variation in the shape of any of tlie brighter
portions of the nebula.

It is hoped that enough has been said to show how much care,
skill, and patience, have been spent upon these drawings, and to sliow,
too, how important are the conclusions which may be drawn from
them. Their careful discussion involves considerations which might
be out of place here, but which are Avell worth general attention. A
full explanation of diiferent methods has been given in the hope that
some of the large telescopes in various parts of the United States
in the hands of private gentlemen may be devoted to work of this
class, in which it is easy for an amateur, with but a trifling expendi-
ture of time and labor, to produce valuable results. Provided only
that the work be done conscientiously and faithfully, it will be a
definite gain to astronomy ; without such care and fidelity, it will only
introduce new confusion.

SCIEXCE-TEACniXG IX ENGLISH SCHOOLS. '

By Kev. W. TUCKWELL.

THREE times within the last twelve years a royal commission has
reported on the science-teaching of our higher schools. In 1864
the Public Schools Commission announced that from the largest and
most famous schools of all it was practically excluded. In 1868 the
Endowed Schools Commission declared that the majority of school-
teachers had accepted it as part of their school-work. The Science
Commissioners of 1875, in their sixth report, on "Science-Teaching in
Schools," testing this statement by inquiry, state that of 128 endowed
schools examined by them not one-half has CA'en attempted to intro-
duce it, while of these only 13 possess a laborator}^, and only 10 give
to the subject as much as four hours a week. And this statement is
curiously illustrated by the statistics of the recent Oxford and Cam-
bridsce school examination, which show that out of 461 candidates for
certificates, from 40 first-class schools, while 438 boys took up Latin,
433 Greek, 455 elementary mathematics, 305 history, only 21 took
up mechanics, 28 chemistry, 6 botany, 15 physical geography.

In a volume whose research and condensation make it not only a
monument of conscientious toil, but an invaluable hand-book to all
who are laboring to work out practically the great problem of which
it treats, the commissioners investigate the obstacles which have
caused the endowed schools to defy the weighty recommendations
of former commissions, the unanimous verdict of educational autliori-
ties outside the scholastic profession, and the increasingly urgent
demands of English public opinion. They find the school-masters'
excuses to be threefold : absence of funds, want of time, and skepti-

282 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cism as to the educational value of science in comparisou with other
subjects. A large portion of the appendix is devoted to the consider-
ation of these difficulties ; to sifting the allegations on wliich they
rest, and to balancing against them the experience of those teachers
who have faced and successfully met them. Showing in detail the
comparatively trifling cost at which indispensable apjDaratus can be
obtained, the commissioners nevertheless admit the rarity, in the
present state of English culture, either of independent science-teachers
suited to the larger schools, or of men, such as poorer schools desid-
erate, combining literary with scientific knowledge. This, however,
is an evil of the past rather than of the future, since not the least
among the advantages expected from a reformed system of school-
teaching is the creation of a race of able teachers, general as well as
sjDecial. The relative value of science as an implement of mental
training is next discussed. Its peculiar excellence is briefly vindi-
cated, as cultivating, in a way attainable by no other means, the habits
of observation and experiment, of classification, arrangement, method,
judgment ; and its suitability to the capacities of the very youngest
boys is testified to by Faraday, Hooker, Rolleston, Carpenter, and Sir
W. Thomson. Lastly, it is shown that, if this be so, the argument
from want of time is no argument at all ; that the hours are already
wasted which condemn the half of a boy's faculties to stagnation, and
render education one-sided and incomplete; and that the claims of
different branches of instruction may be easily adjusted by economy
of time, improvement in methods, and excision of superfluous studies.

On a review of all these objections and of the answers ofi'ered to
them, and taking into account the dicta of former commissioners and
the practice of other countries, the report advises that literature,
mathematics, and science, should be the accepted subjects of education
up to the time at which boys leave school, and should all three be
made comjjulsoiy in any school-leaving-examination or university
matriculation ; but that after entering the university students should
be left to choose for themselves among these lines of study, and
need pass no subseqixcnt examination in subjects other than the one
which they select. As regards the teaching of science, they recom-
mend that it should commence with the beginning of the school
career ; that not less than six hours a week should be devoted to it,
and that in all school examinations as much as one-sixth of the marks
should be allotted to it.

These recommendations possess the two great excellences of au-
thoritativeness and clearness. They are supported by a host of expe-
rienced witnesses, as well as by the erniTient names whose signatures
follow them. Their ideal of school education is simplicity itself. The
supremacy of classics is to be dethroned ; the artifices of stratifica-
tion and bifurcation are to be discarded ; literature, mathematics, and
science are to share a boy's intellect between them from the very first,

SCIENCE-TEACHING IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS. 283

until ii leuviiig-examination which shows his progress to have been
satisfactory in all three sets him free to follow his inclination by pur-
suing exclusively the subject which suits him best; happy since emi-
nence in that one will not liave been })urchased by entire ignorance
of all the others. Unfortunately, though most necessarily — for this
report concerns schools only — the curtain drop^ upon this interesting
moment of transition, shutting out of view the influence which uni-
versity scholarships and exhibitions exercise upon school-work, and
thus ignoring an obstacle to the realization of the programme far
greater than want of money, want of time, or want of appreciation,
in the schools themselves.

What is the avowed object and purpose of the higher English
school education? Is it the even and progressive development of
young minds ? the strengthening in equal proportion of the faculties
of imagination, memory, reason, observation ? the opening doors of
knowledge in the plastic time of youth, which if not opened then will
be fast closed in later years by the pressure of active woi'k, or habit-
ual exclusiveness, or energies paralyzed through disuse ? Nothing of
the kind. It is constructed entirely with the aim of winning certain
prizes; for scholai-ships with which a costly university bribes men to
come to it for education ; for class-lists leading up to college fellow-
ships ; for the lucrative posts of military and civil service. In all
these, but most of all where the universities can determine the ordeal,
one principle of success has been established, and that principle is one-
sidedness. The candidate for India, for Woolwich, for Cooper's Hill,
must at an early age select certain subjects and throw overboard all
the rest. The childish aspirant to the entrance scholarships of a jDublic
school is placed in the hands of a crammer at eight years old, that at
thirteen he may turn out Latin verses as a Buddhist prayer-mill turns
out prayers, and may manifest, as a distinguished head-master has
lately said, to the eye of a teacher searching for intelligence, thought-
fulness, promise, intenseness, " a stupidity which is absolutely appall-
ing." His scholarship won, he is pledged to pursue a course whose
benefits are tangible and its evil consequences remote. The universi-
ties have stamped upon all the schools one deep certainty, that for a
boy to be " all around," as it is called, is the irremissible sin ; that
a school-master who teaches with reference to intellectual growth and
width of cultiire sacrifices thereby all hope of the distinctions which
make a school famous and increase its numbers. If a classical scholar-
ship is desired, science and mathematics are abandoned : uay, the
palm of literary excellence is conceded even to men ignorant of the
noblest literature in the world, their own birthright and inheritance,
and knowing less of the history and structure of the English language
than a fourth-form boy knows of Greek. If mathematical success is
aimed at, literature and science are ignored ; if the few science scholar-
ships existing tempt candidates from any of "the thirteen schools

284 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which possess a laboratory," mathematics in part and literature alto-
gether must be given \\^. It would be waste of words to point out
the fatal tendency of this separative process ; to show how mere lin-
guistic training needs the rationalizing aid of scientific study, or how
exclusive science hardens and materializes without the refining society
of literature ; yet sucl^ divorce is inevitably due not to the convictions
of school-masters, not to the influence of parents, not to the preposses-
sions of the public, but to the irresistible force of the university sys-
tem, which makes narrowness of intelligence and imperfect knowledge
the only avenues to distinction or to profit.

It is true that an attempt to alter this involves little short of a
revolution ; but by all accounts a revolution is at hand. It is not for
nothing that a parliamentary investigation into the expenditure of
college endowments should have been supported by members of the
colleges themselves, or that a proposal to distribute college scholar-
ships and exhibitions by a central authority in accordance with the
results of the leaving-examination should have emanated from emi-
nent university teachers. For it cannot be too strongly urged that
college scholarships stand on very different ground from university
prizes or degrees. It is easy for Parliament to lay down rules which
shall control the latter once for all ; it is not easy to bind the actions of
some forty different foundations, each electing its own scholars accord-
ing to its own idiosyncrasies, or in obedience to the changing wills of
bodies in a perpetual state of flux. It may still be audacious, but it
is no longer novel, to suggest that, supposing future legislation to re-
tain the college scholai'ships at all, they should be awarded by the
authority of government, in strict connection with leaving-examina-
tions which government shall conduct, and in reward not of special
but of general proficiency. For this the scheme of the commission-
ers virtually contends; into regions beyond this the report l)efore us
necessarily does not enter.

It will be seen that we accept, and recommend all teachers to ac-
cept, the scheme of the commissioners unreservedly as a working basis
of educational improvement. It may not be ideally jjerfect ; it may
invite opposition on points of detnil ; but it is the resultant of all the
intellectual forces which have hitherto been brought to bear upon the
subject ; and, while agreeing with all its witnesses on the principle
that wide general training should precede specialization of study, it
attains extreme simplicity of arrangement by allotting the first of
these to the schools and the last to the universities. Do not let us
forget that the cry which has arisen hitherto from all the head-masters
on the point of scientific teaching has been a cry for guidance ; for
commanding and intelligent leadership ; for authoritative enlighten-
ment as to the relative value and the judicious sequence of scientific
subjects ; for information as to text-books, apparatus, teachers. For
the first time this cry is met by an oracle whose authority no one will

MODERN BIOLOGICAL INQUIBY. 285

question, und whose completeness of delivery ail who study its utter-
ances will appreciate. Scliool-masters anxious to teach science, and
doubtful how to set about it, will meet all the facts which can enlighten
them in the appendices to the report. They will find lists of accred-
ited text-books, specimens of examination-papers, varieties of school
time-tables, priced catalogues of apparatus, syllabi of lectures and
experiments, botanical schedules and tables, plans and descriptions of
laboratories, workshops, museums, botanic gardens ; programmes and
reports of school, scientific, and natural history societies. They will
learn how costly a temple could be built to science at Rugby, and
how modestly it could be housed at Taunton. They will see how Mr.
Foster teaches physics, how Mr. Hale teaches geography, how Mr.
Wilson teaches Enlkimde. And they will accept all this as coming
from men who have a right to speak, and who wield an experience
such as has not been amassed before. On any legislative change
wliich impends over the system and the endowments of the higher
English education, the body of scientific opinion is strong enough, if
united, to impress its own convictions; disunion alone can paralyze it.
All who feel the discredit of past neglect, its injury to our national ,
intellect, and its danger to our national prosperity, will do well to
support by unqualified adhesion the first attempt that lias been made
to probe its causes, and the first consistent and well-considered scheme
that has been put forth for its removal. — Nature.

-♦♦♦-

MODERJS^ BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY.

By Dr. JOHN L. LE CONTE.

THE founders of science in America, and the other great students
of Nature, who have in previous years occupied the elevated
position in which I now stand, have addressed you upon many mo-
mentous subjects. In fulfilling the final duty assigned to your Presi-
dents by the laws of the Association, some have spoken to you in
solemn and wise words concerning the duties and privileges of men
of science, and the converse duties of the nation toward those earnest
and disinterested promoters of knowledge. Others, again, have given
you tlie history of the development of their respective branches of
study, and their present condition, and have, in eloquent diction, com-
mended to your gratitude those who have established on a firm
foundation the basis of our modern systems of investigation.

The recent changes in our constitution, by which you are led to

' Address of the retiring President delivered at tlie Detroit meeting of tlic Ameriear.
Association for tlie Advancement of Science.

286 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

expect from your two Vice-Presidents, and from the chairman of the
Chemical Subsection, addresses on the progress made during the past
year, restrain me from invading their peculiar fields of labor, by
alludinof to scientific work which has been accomplished since our last
meeting. While delicacy forbids me from so doing, I am equally
debarred from repeating to you the brief sketch I endeavored to give
at a former meeting,' of the history and present condition of entomol-
ogy in the United States,

But it has appeared to me that a few thoughts, which have im-
pressed themselves on my mind, touching the future results to be
obtained from certain classes of facts, not yet fully developed, on
account of the great labor required for their proper comparison, may
not be without value. Even if the facts be not new to you, I hope to
be able, with your kind attention, to present them in such way as to
be suggestive of the work yet to be done.

It has been perhaps said, or at least it has been often thought, that
the first mention of the doctrine of evolution, as now admitted to
a greater or less degree by every thinking man, is found in Ecclesi-
. astes i, 9 :

" The thing that hath been, is that which shall be : and that which is done, is
that which shall be done : and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there
iuiy thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old
time, which was before us."

Other references to evolutionary views in one form or another
occur in the writings of several philosophers of classic times, as you
have had recent cause to remember.

Whether these are to be considered as an expression of a perfect
truth in the very imperfect language which was alone intelligible to
the nation to whom this sacred book was immediately addressed on
the one hand, and the happy guesses of philosophers, who by deep
intuition had placed themselves in close sympathy with the material
universe, on the other hand, I shall not stop to inquire. The discus-
sion would be profitless, for modern science in no w^ay depends for its
magnificent triumphs of fact and thought upon any utterances of the
ancients. It is the creation of patient, intelligent labor of the last tw^o
centuries, and its results can be neither confuted nor confirmed by any
thing that was said, thought, or done, at an earlier period. I have
merely referred to these indications of doctrines of evolution to recall
to your minds that the two great schools of thought, which now
divide philosophers, have existed from very remote times. They are,
therefore, in their origin, probably independent of correct scientific
knowledge.

You have learned from the geologists, and mostly from those of

' Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Section
xxi. (Portland).

MODERN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY. 287

the present century, that the sti'ata of the earth have been successively
formed from fragments more or less comminuted by mechanical action,
more or less altered by chemical combination and molecular rear-
rangement. These fragments were derived from sti-ata previously
deposited, or from material brought up from below, or even thrown
down fi-om above, or from the debris of organic beings which ex-
tracted their mineral constituents from surrounding media. Nothing
new has been added, every thing is old ; only the arrangement of the
parts is new, but in this arrangement definite and recognizable un-
changed fragments of the old frequently remain. Geological observa-
tion is now so extended and accurate that an experienced student can
tell from what formation, and even from what particular locality, these
fragments have been derived.

I wish to show that this same process has taken place in the or-
ganic world, and that by proper methods we can discover in our fauna
and flora the remnants of the inhabitants of former geologic times,
which remain unchanged, and have escaped those influences of varia-
tion which are supposed to account for tlie difterences in the organic
beings of diflerent periods.

Should I succeed in this efibrt, we shall be hereafter enabled, in
groups of animals which are rarely preserved in fossil condition, to
reconstruct, in some measure, the otherwise extinct fauna^ and thus
to have a better idea of the sequence of generic forms in time. We
will also have confirmatory evidence of certain changes which have
taken place in the outline of the land and the sea. More important
still, we will have some indications of the time when greater changes
have occurred, the rock evidence of which is now buried at the bottom
of the ocean, or perhaps entirely destroyed by erosion or separations.
Of these changes, which involved connections of masses of land, no
surmise could be made, except through evidence to be gained in the
manner of which I am about to speak.

My illustrations will naturally be drawn from that branch of
zoology with which I am most familiar ; and it is indeed to your too
partial estimate of my studies in that science that I owe the privilege
of addressing you on the present occasion.

There are, as you know, a particular set of Coleoptera which affect
the sea-shore; they are not very numerous at any locality, but among
them ai*e genera which are represented in almost every country of the
globe. Such genera are called cosmopolitan, in distinction to those
which are found only in particular districts. Several of these genera
contain species which are very nearly allied, or sometimes in fact uii-
distinguishable and therefore identical along extended lines of coast.

Now, it happens that some of these species, though they never
stray from the ocean-shore inland, are capable of living upon similar
beaches on fresh-water lakes, and a few are found in localities which
are now quite inland.

288 THE POPULAR SCIUNCE MONTHLY.

To take an example, or rather several examples together, for the
force of the illustration will he therehy greatly increased.

Along the whole of the Atlantic, and the greater part of the Pa-
cific coast of the United States, is found in great abundance, on sand-
beaches, a species of tiger-beetle, Cicindela liirticolUs, an active,
winged, and highly-predaceous insect ; the same species occurs on the
sand-beaches of the Great Lakes, and, were it confined to these and
simihir localities, we would be justified in considering it as living there
in consequence solely of the resemblance in the conditions of existence.
But, it is also found, though in much less abundance, in the now ele-
vated region midway between the Mississippi and Rocky Mountains.
Now, this is the part of the continent which, after the division of the
great intercontinental gulf in Cretaceous times, finally emerged from
the bed of the sea, and was in the early and middle Tertiary converted
into a series of immense fresh-water lakes. As this insect does not
occur in the territory extending from the Atlantic to beyond the
western boundary of Missouri, nor in the interior of Oregon and Cali-
fornia, I think that we should infer that it is an unchanged surviA'or
of the species which lived on the shores of the Cretaceous ocean, when
the intercontinental gulf was still oj^en, and a passage existed, more-
over, toward the southwest, which connected with the Pacific.

The example I have given yoii of the geographical distribution of
Cicindela hirticolUs would be of small value, were it an isolated case ;
nor would I have tiiought it worthy of occupying your time, on an
occasion like tliis, which is justly regarded as one for the communica-
tion of important truth. This insect, which I have selected as a type
for illustrating the methods of investigation to whicli I invite your
attention, is, however, accompanied more or less closely by other
Coleoptera, which like itself are not particular as to the nature of their
food, so long as it be other living insects, and apparently are equally
indifferent to the presence of hxrge bodies of salt-water. First, there
is Cicindela lepida, first collected by my father, near Trenton, New-
Jersey, afterward found on Coney Island, near New York, and re-
ceived by me from Kansas and Wisconsin ; not, however, found west
of the Rocky Mountains. This species, thus occurring in isolated and
distant localities, is probably in process of extinction, and may or may
not be older than C. hirticolUs. I am disposed to believe, as no i-ep-
resentative species occurs on the Pacific coast, and from its peculiar
distribution, that it is older. Second, there is Dyschirius pallij^ennis,
a small Carabide, remarkable among other species of the genus by the
pale wing-covers, usually ornamented with a dark spot, Tiiis insect
is abundant on the Atlantic coast, from New York to Virginia, un-
changed in the interior parts of the Mississippi Valley, represented at
Atlantic City, New Jersey, by a larger and quite distinct specific
fornij C. sellatus, and on the Pacific coast by two or three species of
larger size and different shape, whicli in my less experienced youth I

I

MODERN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY. 289

was disposed to regard as a separate genus, Ake])horus. This form is,
therefore, in a condition of evolution — how, I know not — our descend-
ants may. The Atlantic species are winged ; the Pacific ones, like a
large number of insects of that region, are without wings.

Accompanying these are Coleoptera of other families, which liave
been less carefully studied, but I will not trespass upon your patience
by mentioning more than two. Bledius palUpennis {Staphyllnidm) is
found on salt marshes near New York, on the Southern sea-coast, and
in Kansas; Ammodonus fossor^ a wingless Tenebrionide, Trenton sea-
shore near New York, and valley of the Mississippi at St. Louis ; thus
nearly approximating Cicindela lepida in distribution.

We can thus obtain by a careful observation of the localities of
insects, especially such as aifect sea-shore or marsh, and those which,
being deprived of their favorite surroundings, have shown, if I may
so express myself, a patriotic clinging to their native soil, most valu-
able indications in regard to the time at which their unmodified ances-
tors first appeared upon the earth. For it is obvious that no tendency
to change in different directions by " numerous successive slight
modifications " * would produce a uniform result in such distant locali-
ties, and under such varied conditions of life. Properly studied, these
indications are quite as certain as though we found the well-preserved
remains of these ancestors in the mud and sand strata upon which
they flitted or dug in quest of food.

Other illustrations of survivals from indefinitely more remote times
I will also give you, from the Coleopterous fauna of our own country,
though passing time admonishes me to restrict their number.

To make my remarks intelligible, I must begin by saying that
there are three great divisions of Coleoptera, which I will name in the
order of their complication of structural plan: 1. Rhynchophora; 2.
Heteromera ; 3. Ordinary or normal Coleoptera ; the last two being
more nearly allied to each other than either is to the first. I have in
other places exjjosed the characters of these divisions, and will not
detain you by repeating them.

From paleontological evidence derived from other branches of
zoology, we have a right to suppose, if this classification be correct,
that these great types have been introduced upon the earth in the
order in which I have named them.

Now, it is precisely in the first and second series that the most
anomalous instances of geographical distribution occur ; that is to
say, the same or nearly identical genera are represented by species in
very widely-separated regions, without occurring in intermediate or
contiguous regions. Thus there is a genus Emeax, founded by Mr.
Pascoe, upon an Austi-alian species, which, when I saw it, I recognized
as belonging to JNi/ctoporis, a California genus, established many
years before; and, in fact, barely specifically distinct from N.gaUata.

> "Origia of Species," 1869, p. 227.
VOI-. VIII. — 19

290 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Two other exami^les are Othnlus and Eupleurida^ United States
genera, which are respectively equivalent to Elacatis and Ischalia^
found in Borneo. Our native genera Eurygenius and Toposcopus
are represented by scarcely different forms in Australia. All these
belong to the second series {Heteromera), and the number of exam-
ples might be greatly increased with less labor on my part than
patience on yours.

A single example from the Rhyncbophora, and I -will pass to an-
other subject.

On the sea-coast of California, extending to Alaska, is a very
anomalous insect, whose affinities are difficult to discern, called E'tn-
2)hyastes fucicola, from its occurrence under the sea-weed cast up by
the waves. It is represented in Australia by several species of a
nearly allied genus, A2)hela, found in similar situations.

In all entomological investigations relating to geographical distri-
bution, we are greatly embarrassed by the multitude of species, and by
the vague and opinionative genera founded upon characters of small
importance. The Coleoptera alone, thus far described, amount to
over 60,000 so-called species, and there are from 80,000 to 100,000 in
collections. Under these circumstances it is quite impossible for one
person to command either the time or the material to master the
whole subject, and, from the laudable zeal of collectors to make known
what they suppose to be new objects, an immense amount of synonymy
must result. Thus in the great " Catalogus Coleopterorum " of Gem-
minger and Harold, a permanent record of the untiring industry of
those two excellent entomologists, species of the genus Trechiciis,
founded by me upon a small North American insect, are mentioned
under live generic names, only one of which, is recognized as a syno-
nym of another. These generic headings appear in such remote paged
of the volume as 135, 146, and 289.

The two closely-allied genera of Rhynchojihora mentioned above
are separated by no less than 168 pages.

It is therefore plain that, before much progress can be made in
the line of research which I have proposed to you, whereby we may
recover important fragments of the past history of the earth, ento-
mology must be studied in a somewhat different manner from that
now adopted. The necessity is every day more apparent that de-
scriptions of heterogeneous material are rather obstructive than bene-
ficial to science, except in the case of extraordinary forms likely to
give information concerning geographical disti-ibution or classifica-
tion. Large typical collections affording abundant material for com-
parison, for the approximation of allied forms, and the elimination of
doubtful ones, must be accumulated, and, in the case of such perish-
able objects as those we are now dealing with, must be placed where
they can have the protecting influences both of climate and personal
care.

MODERN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY. 291

At the same time, for this investigation, the study of insects is
peculiarly suitable ; not only on account of the small size, ease of
collecting, and little cost of preserving the specimens, but because
from their varied mode of life in different stages of development, and
perhaps for other reasons, the species are less likely to be destroyed
in tlie progress of geological changes.* Cataclysms and sul)mer-
gences, which would annihilate the higher animals, would only float
the temporarily asphyxiated insect, or the tree-trunks containing the
larv£B and pupte, to other neighboring lands. However that may be,
I have given you some grounds for believing that many of the spe-
cies of insects now living existed in the same form before the appeai*-
ance of any living genera of mammals, and we may suppose that their
unchanged descendants will probably survive the present mammalian
fauna, including our own race.

I may add, moreover, that some groups, especially in the Rhyncho-
phora, which, as I have said above, I believe to be the earliest intro-
duced of the Coleoptera, exhibit with compact and definite limits, and
clearly-defined specific characters, so many generic modifications, that
I am compelled to think that we have in them an example of the long-
sought, unbroken series, extending in this instance from early meso-
zoic to the present time, and of which very few forms have become
extinct.

I have used the word species so often, that you will doubtless be
inclined to ask, What, then, is understood by a species ? Alas ! I can
tell you no more than has been told recently by many others. It is
an assemblage of individuals, which difier from each other by very
small or trifling and inconstant characters, of much less value than
those in which they difier from any other assemblage of individuals.
Who determines the value of these characters ? The experienced
student of that department to which the objects belong. Sjoecies are,
therefore, those groups of individuals representing organic forms
which are recognized as such by those who from natural power and
education are best qualified to judge.

You perceive, therefore, that we are here dealing with an entirely
ditierent kind of information from that which we gain from the phys-
ical sciences ; every thing there depends on accurate observation,
with strict logical consequences derived therefrom. Here the basis
of our knowledge depends equally on accurate and trained observa-
tion, but the logic is not formal but perceptive.

This has been already thoroughly recognized by Huxley "^ and

' For a fuller discussion of these causes, and of several other subjects which are
briefly mentioned in this address, the reader may consult an excellent memoir by my
learned friend Mr. Andrew Murray, " On the Geographical Relations of the Chief Co-
leopterous Faunae." — {Journal of Linncean Society, Zoology, vol. xi.)

* " A species is the smallest group to which distinctive and invariable characters can
be assigned." ("Principles and Methods of Paleontology," Smithsonian Report, 1869,
p. 378.)

292 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Helmholtz/ and others, but we may properly extend the inquiry into
the nature and powers of this aesthetic perception somewhat further.
For it is to this fundamental difference between biological and physical
sciences that I will especially invite your attention.

Sir John Lubbock,^ quoting from Oldfield,' mentions that certain
Australians " were quite unable to realize the most vivid artistic
representations. On being shown a picture of one of themselves, one
said it was a ship, another a kangaroo, not one in a dozen identifying
the portrait as having any connection with himself."

These human beings, therefore, with brains very similar to our own,
and, as is held by some persons, potentially capable of similar cultiva-
tion witli ourselves, were unable to recognize the outlines of even such
familiar objects as the features of their ow'n race. Was there any
fault in the drawing of the artist ? Probably not. Or in the eye of
the savage ? Certainly not, for that is an optical instrument of toler-
ably simple structure, which cannot fail to form on the retina an ac-
curate image of the object to which it is directed. Where, then, is the
error ? It is in the want of capacity of the brain of the individual (or
rather the race in this instance) to appreciate the resemblance between
the outline, the relief, the light and shade of the object pictured, and
the flat representation in color: in other words, a want of "artistic
tact " or aesthetic perception.

A higher example of a similar phenomenon I have myself seen :
many of you too have witnessed it, for it is of daily occurrence. It is
when travelers in Italy, having penetrated to the inmost chamber of
the Temple of Art, sven the hall of the Tribune at Florence, stand in
presence of the most perfect works of art which it has been given to
man to produce, and gaze upon them with the same indifference that
they would show to the conceptions of mediocre artists exhibited in
our shops.

Perhaps they would even wonder what one can find to admire in
the unrivaled collection which is there assembled.

There is surely wanting in the minds of such persons that high,
aesthetic sense, which enables others to enter into spiritual harmony
with the great artists whose creations are before them.

Creations I said, and I use the word intentionally. If there is one
power of the human soul which, more nearly than any other, ap-

' "I do not mean to deny that, in many branches of these sciences, an intuitive per-
ception of analogies and a certain artistic tact play a conspicuous part. In natural his-
tory .... it is left entirely to this tact, without a clearly definable rule, to determine
what characteristics of species are important or unimportant for purposes of classifica-
tion, and what divisions of the animal or vegetable kingdom are more natural than
others." (" Relation of the Physical Sciences to Science in General." Smithsonian Re-
port, 18Y1, p. 227.)

2 " Prehistoric Times," p. 440.

^ " On the Aborigines of Australia." Transactions of Ethnological Society, New
Series, vol. iii.

MODERX BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY. 293

proaclies the faculty of creation, it is that by which the almost in-
spired artist develops out of a rude block of stone, or out of such
mean materials as canvas and metallic pastes of various colors, figures
which surpass in beauty, and in power of exciting emotion, the objects
they pi'ofess to i-epresent.

Yet these untesthetic and non-appreciative persons are just as highly
educated, and in their respective positions as good and useful mem-
bers of the social organism, as any that may be found. I maintain
only, they would never make good students of biology.

In like manner, by way of illustrating the foregoing observations,
there are some who, in looking at the phenomena of the external uni-
verse, may recognize only chance, or the " fortuitous concourse of
atoms," producing certain resultant motions. Others, having studied
juore deeply the nature of things, will perceive the existence of laws,
binding and correlating the events they observe. Others, again, noi
superior to the latter in intelligence, nor in power of investigation,
may discern a deeper relation between these phenomena and the in-
dications of an intellectual or festhetic or moral plan, similar to that
which influences their own actions, when directed to the attaining of a
particular result.

These last will recognize in the operations of Nature the direction
of a human intelligence, greatly enlarged, capable of modifying at its
will influences beyond our control; or they will appreciate in them-
selves a resemblance to a superhuman intelligence which enables them
to be in sympathy with its actions.

Either may be true in individual instances of this class of minds ;
one or otlier must be true ; I care not which, for to me the propositions
are in this argument identical, though in speculative discussions
they may be regarded as at almost the opposite poles of religious be-
lief. All that I plead for is, that those who have not this perceptive
power, and who in the present condition of scientific discussion nre
numerically influential, will have tolerance for those who possess it ;
and that the ideas of the latter may not be entirely relegated to the
domain of superstition and enthusiasm.

In the case of the want of perception of the Australian, a very
simple test can be applied. It is only to photograph the object rep-
resented by the artist, and compare the outlines and shades of the
pliotograph with those of the picture. If they accord within reason-
able limits, the picture is correct to that extent ; at least, however bad
the artist, the human face could never be confounded with a ship or
a kangaroo.

Can we apply a similar test to the works of Nature ? I think we
can. Suppose that man — I purposely use the singular noun to indi-
cate that all human beings of similar intelligence and education work-
ing toward a definite end will work in a somewhat similar manner —
suppose, then, I say, that man, endeavoring to carry out some object

294 T^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of importance, devises a method of so doing, and creates for that pur-
pose a series of small objects, and we find that these small objects
naturally divide and distribute themselves in age and locality, in a
similar manner to that in which the species of a group of organisms
are divided in space, and distributed in time ; and that the results of
man's labor are thiis divided and distributed on account of the neces-
sary inherent qualities of his intelligence and methods of action — is
not the resemblance between human reason and the greater powers
which control the manifestations of organic Nature apparent ?

I now simply present to you this investigation. Time is wanting
for me to illustrate it by even a single example, but I feel sure that I
have in the minds of some of you already suggested several applica-
tions of it to the principle I wish to teach : the resemblance in the dis-
tribution of the works of Nature to that of human contrivances evolved
for definite purposes.

If this kind of reasoning commends itself to you, and you thus
perceive resemblances in the actions of the Ruler of the universe to
those of our own race, when prompted by the best and highest intel-
lectual motives, you will be willing to accept the declaration of the
ancient text, "He doetli not evil, and abideth not with the evil in-
clined. Whatever he hath done is good ; " * or that from our own
canon of Scripture: "With him is wisdom and strength, he hath
counsel and understanding," ^

The EBsthetic character of natural history, therefore, prevents the
results of its cultivation from being worked out with the precision of
a logical machine, such as, with correct data of observation and calcu-
lation, woxdd be quite sufficient to formulate the conclusions of physi-
cal investigation. According as the perception of the relations of
organic beings among themselves becomes more and more enlarged,
the interpretation of these relations will vary within limits ; but we
will be continually approximating higher mental or spiritual truth.

This kind of truth can never be revealed to us by the study of in-
organic aggregations of the universe. The molar, molecular, and
polar forces, by wliich they are formed, may be expressed, so far as
science has reduced them to order, by a small number of simply for-
mulated laws, indicative neither of purpose nor intelligence, when
confined within inorganic limits. In fact, taking also the organic
world into consideration, we as yet see no reason why the number of
chemical elements known to us should be as large as it is, and go ou
increasing almost yearly with more minute investigations. To all ap-
pearance, the mechanical and vital structure of the universe would re-
main unchanged, if half of them were struck out of existence.

Neither is thei'e any evidence of intelligence or design in the fact
that the side of the moon visible to us exhibits only a mass of volca-
noes.

>"Desatir,"p. 2. "Jobxii. 13

MODERN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY. 295

Yet upon the earth, without the volcano and the earthquake, and
the elevating forces of which they are the feeble indications, there
would be no permanent sepai-ation of land and water ; consequently
no progress in animal and vegetable life beyond what is possible in
the ocean. To us, then, as sentient beings, the volcano and the earth-
quake, viewed from a biological stand-i)oint, have a profound signiK-
cance.

It is indeed difficult to see in what manner the student of purely
physical science is brought to a knoAvledge of any evidences of intel-
ligence in the arrangement of the universe. The poet, inspired by
meditating on the immeasurable abyss of space and the transcendent
glories of the celestial orbs, has declared —

" The undevout astronomer is mad,"

and his saying had a certain amount of speciousness, on account of
the magnitude of the bodies and distances with which the student of
the stars is concerned. This favorite line is, however, only an exam-
ple of what an excellent writer has termed " the unconscious action
of volition upon credence," and it is properly in the correlations
of the inorganic with the organic world that we may hope to ex-
hibit, with clearness, the adaptations of plan prefigured and design
executed.

In the methods and results of investigation, the mathematician
differs from both the physicist and the biologist. Unconfined, like
the former, by the few simple relations by which movements in the
inorganic world are controlled, he may not only vary the fox-m of his
analysis, almost at pleasure, making it more or less transcendental in
many directions, but he may introduce factors or relations, apparently
inconceivable in real existences, and then intei'pret them into results
quite as real as those of the legitimate calculus with which he is work-
ing, but lying outside of its domain.

If biology can ever be developed in such manner that its results
may be expressed in mathematical formulse, it will be the pleasing
task of the future analyst to ascertain the nature of the inconceivable
(or imaginary as they are termed in mathematics) quantities which
must be introduced when changes of form or structure take place.
Such will be analytical morphology, in its proper sense ; but it is a
science of the future, and will require for its calculus a very complex
algebra.

In the observation of the habits of inferior animals, we recognize
many complications of action, which, though directed to the accom-
plishment of definite purposes, we do not entirely comprehend. They
are, in many instances, not the result of either the experience of the
individual, or the education of its parents, who in low forms of ani-
mals frequently die before the hatching of the offspring. These actions
have been grouped together, whether simple or complex, as directed

296 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

by what we are pleased to call instinct, as opj)osed to reason. Yet
tliere is every gradation between the two.

Among the various races of dogs, the companions of man for un-
numbered centuries, we observe not only reasoning jjowers of a rather
high order, but also distinct traces of moral sentiments, similar to
those possessed by our own race. I will give no examjjles, for many
may be found in books with which you are familiar. Actions evincing
the same mental attributes are also noticed in wild animals which
have been tamed. You will reply that these qualities have been de-
veloped by human education ; but not so : there must have been a
latent capacity in the brain to receive the education, and to manifest
the results by the modification of the habits. Now, it is because we
are vertebrates, and the animals of which I have spoken are verte-
brates, that we understand, though imperfectly, their mental pro-
cesses, and can develop tlie powers that are otherwise latent. Could
we comprehend them more fully we would find, and we do find from
time to time in the progress of our inquiries, that what was classed
with instinct is really intellection.

When we attempt to observe animals belonging to another sub-
kingdom — Articulata, for instance — such as bees, ants, termites, etc.,
which are built upon a totally difiereut plan of structure, having no
organ in common with ourselves, the difliculty of interpreting their
intellectual processes, if they perform any, is still greater. The pur-
poses of their actions we can only divine by their results. But any
thing more exact than their knowledge of the objects within their
scope, more ingenious than their methods for using those objects, more
complex, yet well devised, than their social and political systems, it is
impossible to conceive.

We are not warranted in assuming that these actions are instinc-
tive, whicli if performed by a vertebrate we would call rational. In-
stead of concealing; our io;norauce under a word which thus used comes
to mean nothino-, let us rather admit the existence here of a rational
power, not only inferior to ours, but also difierent.

Thus proceeding, from the highest forms in each type of animal
life to the lower, and even down to the lowest, we may be prepared
te advance the thesis that all animals are intelligent, in proportion to
the ability of their organization to manifest intelligence to us or to
each other ; that wherever there is voluntary motion, there is intelli-
gence : obscure it may be, not comprehended by us, but comprehended
by the companions of the same low grade of structure.

However this may be, I do not intend to discuss the subject at
present, but only wish in connection with this train of thouglit to ofier
two suggestions.

The first is, that by pursuing difl'erent courses of investigation in
biology, we may be led to opposite results. Commencing with the
simplest forms of animal life, or with the embryo of the higher ani-

MODERN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY. 297

mah, it may be very difficult to say at what point intelligence begins
to manifest itself; our attention is concentrated, therefore, upon those
functions which appear to be the result of purely mechanical arrange-
ments, acted upon by external stimuli. The animal becomes to our
pei-ception an automaton, and in fact, by excising some of the nervous
organs last developed in its growth, we can render an adult animal
an automaton, capable of performing only those habitual actions to
which its brain, when in perfect condition, had educated the muscles
of voluntary motion. On the other hand, commencing with the high-
est group in each type, and going downward, either in striictural com-
plication, or in age of individual, it is impossible to fix the limit at
which intelligence ceases to be apparent.

I have in this subject, as in that of tracing the past history of our
insects, in the first part of this address, preferred the latter mode of
investigation ; taking those things which are nearest to us in time or
structure as a basis for the study of those more remote.

The second consideration is, since it is so difficult for us to under-
stand the mental processes, whether rational or instinctive (I care
not by wliat name they are called), of beings more or less similar but
inferior to ourselves, we should exercise great caution when we have
occasion to speak of the designs of one who is infinitely greater. Let
us give no place to the crude speculations of would-be teleologists,
who are, indeed, in great part, refuted already by the progress of
science, which continually exhibits to us higher and more beautiful
relations between the phenomena of Nature " than it liath entered
into the mind of man to conceive." Let not our vanity lead us to be-
• lieve that, because God has deigned to guide our steps a few paces
on the road of truth, we are justified in speaking as if he had taken
us into intimate companionship, and informed us of all his counsels.

If I have exposed my views on these subjects to you in an accept-
able manner, you will perceive that, in minds capable of receiving such
impressions, biology can indicate the existence of a creative or direc-
tive power, possessing attributes some of which resemble our own,
and controlling operations which we may feebly comprehend. Thus
far natural theology, and no further.

What, then, is the strict relation of natural liistory or biology to
that great mass of learning and influence which is commonly called
theology ; and to that smaller mass of belief and action which is called
religion ?

Some express the relation very briefly, by saying that science and
religion are opposed to each other ; others, again, that they have
nothing in common. These expressions are true of certain classes of
minds ; but the greater number of thinking and educated persons see
that, though the ultimate truths taught by each are of quite distinct
nature, and can by no means come in conflict, inasmuch as they have
no point in common, yet so far as these truths are embodied in hu-

298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

man language, and manipulated hy human interest, they have a
common dominion over the soul of man. According to the method
of their government, they may then come into collision even as the
temporal and spiritual sovereigns of Japan occasionally did, before
the recent changes in that country.

In answering the query above proposed, it will be necessary to
separate the essential truths of religion from tlie accessories of tradi-
tion, usage, and, most of all, organizations and interpretatione which
have in the lapse of time gathered around the primitive or revealed
truth.

With the latter, the scientific man must deal exactly like other
men — he must take it or reject it, according to his spiritual gifts; but
he must not, whatever be his personal views, discuss it or assail it as
a man of science^ for within his domain of investigation it does not
belong.

With regard to the accessories of traditions, interpretations, etc.,
our answer may be clearer when we have briefly reviewed some re-
cent events in what has been written about as the conflict of religion
and science. Some centuries ago, great theological disgust was pro-
duced by the announcement that the sun and not the earth was the
centre of the planetary system. A few decades ago profound dissat-
isfaction was shown that the evidence of organic life on the planet
was very ancient. Recently some annoyance has been exliibited be-
cause human remains have been found in situations where they ought
not to have been, according to popularly received interpretations ;
and yet more recently much apprehension has been felt at the pos-
sible derivation of man from some inferior organism ; an liypothesis
framed simply because, in the present condition of intellectual advance-
ment, no other can be suggested.

Yet all these facts, but the last, which still is an opinion, have
been accepted, after more or less bitter controversy on both sides, and
the fountain of spiritual truth remains unclouded and undiminished.
New interpretations for the sacred texts supposed to be in conflict
with the scientific facts have been sought and found without diffi-
culty. These much-feared facts have, moreover, given some of the
strongest and most convincing illustrations to modern exhortation and
religious instruction.

Thus, then, we see that the influence of science upon religion has
been beneficial. Scholastic interpretations founded upon imperfect
knowledge, or no knowledge, but mere guess, have been replaced by
sound criticism of the texts, and their exegesis in accordance with the
times and circumstances for which they w^ere written.

It must be conceded by fair-minded men of botli sides that these
controversies were carried on at times with a rudeness of expression
and bitterness of feeling now abhorrent to our usages. The intellect-
ual wars of those days partook of the brutality of physical war, and

MODERN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY. 299

the horrors of the lattei*, as you know, liave been ameliorated only
within very few years.

I fear that the unhappy spirit of contention still survives, and that
there are yet a few who fight for victory rather than for truth. The
deceptive spirit of Voltaire still buds forth occasionally; he who, as
you remember, disputed the organic nature of fossil shells, because iu
those days of schoolmen their occurrence on mountains would be used
by others as a proof of a universal Noachian deluge. The power of
such spirits is fortunately gone for any potent influence for evil, gone
with the equally obstructive influence of the scholastics with whom
they formerly contended.

Since, then, there is no occasion for strict science and pure religion
to be in conflict, how shall the peace be kept between them ?

By toleration and patience — toleration toward those who believe
less than we do, in the hope that they, by cultivation or inheritance
of aesthetic perception, will be prepared to accept something more than
matter and enei'gy in the universe, and to believe that vitality is not
altogether undirected colloid chemistry.

Toleration also toward those who, on what we think misunderstood
or insufticient evidence, demand more than we are prepared to admit,
in the hope that they will revise additional texts which seem to
conflict, or may hereafter conflict, with facts deduced from actual
study of Nature, and thus prepare their minds for the reception of
such truths as may be discovered, without embittered discussions.

Patience, too, must be counseled. For much delay will ensue
before this desired result is arrived at; patience under attack, patience
under misrepresentation, but never controversy.

Thus will be hastened the time when the glorious, all-sufficient
spiritual light, which, though given through another race, we have
adopted as our own, shall shine with its pristine purity, freed from the
incrustations with which it has been obscured by the vanity of partial
knowledge, and the temporary contrivances of human polity.

So, too, by freely-extended scientific culture, may we hope that
the infinitely thicker and grosser superstitions and corruptions will be
removed which greater age and more despotic governments have
accumulated around the less brilliant though important religions of
our Asiatic Aryan relatives. These accretions being destroyed, the
principal difficulty to the reception by those nations of higher spiritual
truths will be obviated, and the intelligent Hindoo or Persian will not
be'tai'dy in recognizing, in the pure life and elevated doctrine of the
sincere Christian, an addition to and fuller expression of religious
precepts with which he is familiar. In this manner alone may be
realized the hope of the philosopher, the dream of the poet, and the
expectation of the theologian — a universal science and a universal
religion, cooperating harmoniously for the perfection of man and the
glory of his Creator.

300 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

THE SAND-BLAST.

*

By W. S. WAED.

PROF. WILLIAM P. BLAKE, in a communication "On the
Grooving and Polishing of Hard Rocks and Minerals by Dry-
Sand," which appeared in the American Journal of IScievice and Arts,
September, 1855, describes the phenomena observed by him in 1838,
in the Pass of San Bernardino, California, as follows : " On the eastern
declivities of the pass, the side turned toward the desert, tlie granite
and associate rocks which form the sharp peak San Gorgonio extend
down the valley of the pass in a succession of sharp ridges, which, be-
ing devoid of soil and of vegetation, stand out in bold and rugged out-
lines against the clear, unclouded sky of that desert-region. It was
on these projecting spurs of San Gorgonio that the phenomena of
grooving were seen ; the whole surface of the granite over broad
spaces was cut into long and perfectly paralleltgrooves and little
furrows, and every portion of it was beautifully smoothed, and,
though very uneven, had a fine polish." While contemplating these
curious effects, the solution of the problem was presented. The wind
was blowing very hard, and carried with it numerous little grains of
sand. A closer examination disclosed the fact that the whole of the
polished surface was enveloped in an atmosphere of moving sand, and
it was through the grinding and rubbing of these minute but number-
less quartz-atoms that the rough surfaces of these rocks had been
made smooth, and the natural grooves deepened and polished.
" Even quartz," he observed, " was cut away and polished ; garnets
and tourmaline were also cut and left with polished surfaces. . . .
Whenever a garnet or a lump of quartz was imbedded in compact
feldspar and favorably presented to the action of the sand, the feld-
spar was cut away around the hard mineral, which was thus left
standing in relief above the general surface."

The traveler whose good fortune it is to visit our Western wonder-
land, will note among the many fingers in his guide-book one pointing
in the direction of the now famous Monument Park. Entering a
narrow valley bordered by mountain-walls, he will find himself gazing
in wonderment at the rounded stone columns, rising about him in
groups or singly, to a height ranging from ten to forty feet, and in
many instances surmounted with grotesque cap-like coverings, that
rest balanced upon the frail pinnacles of the rock-columns. An in-
quiry as to the causes of their existence, standing as they do in isola-
tion on the surface of the valley low-lands, will elicit the reply that
they were made by the wearing ajvay of the surrounding rocks by
sand, which, whirling about in water or air eddies, acted like chisels
of the turner's lathe. Where the depressions were deepest there the

THE SAND-BLAST.

3^1

rocky strata were soft and yielding, and were the more readily cut
away; but where the opposing surface was hard, as in the case of tlie
black cap-pieces, the action was less rapid, and the reduction of the
rock less decided. Glancing off from these, the whole force of the
driving sand was projected against the strata immediately below,
thus reducing it in size till there seems hardly circumference enough
left to sustain the weight above.

Fig. 1.— Sand-cut Colttmns in Monument Pake.

So much for the observations of the geologist and explorer, maJe
nearly half a century ago, and placed on record as forming but one of
the many startling features of that Avonderful region, but suggesting
to the traveler little else than a reasonable theory by which to account
for a hitherto mystei'ious class of physical phenomena. From this,
the record of the student of Nature, we turn to a second record, more
]n*actical in character, and having a direct bearing u^ion the subject
under review.

Whether the author or inventor ot the modern sand-blast deserves
any less credit for having had his idea anticipated in the workshops

302 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of Xature, we will not say ; certain it is, however, that the former
work suggested the latter, though the prior claim does not seem to
have been considered by the American Commissioner of Patents.

"On the 18th of October, 1870," we read, "letters-patent of the
United States were granted to General B. C. Tilghman, of Philadel-
phia, for the cutting, grinding, etching, engraving, and drilling stone,
metal, wood, or any hard substance, by means of a jet or blast of
sand." We are also informed, from the same official source, that the
inventor of the sand-blast process obtained his first hints from Na-
ture, and, by means of a mechanism which is a marvel of simplicity,
has been able to utilize this same force so as to make it render most
efficient service in several departments of the applied arts.

It is the object of the present paper to describe and illustrate the
invention known as the Tilghman Sand-Blast, an invention which, in
simplicity of construction, and yet extent of application, has hardly
an equal in the annals of the American Patent-Office. We are aware
that this is a broad claim, when it is remembered that under the pro-
tection of the same authority the sewing-machine, reaper, and mower,
positive-action loom, and a score or more of great mechanical devices,
first saw the light. It is possible that there is that in the idea of the
sand-blast which adds to its charm, and secured for it the admiring
indorsement of Torrey, Tyndall, and other men of science ; and yet a
careful study of ils principle, and an observance of its practical op-
eration, seem to justify all and more than is claimed for it by the
inventor or his distinguished indorsers.

If the reader will refer to the simple " claim " as given above, he
will notice that it is proposed to accomplish the several results there
named " by means of Q.jet or blast of sand." The italics are our own,
and are now introduced since it is in this idea of njet of sand that the
first principle of the device rests; and, moreover, it was an attempt
made by others to adopt this falling jet of sand that compelled the
inventor to institute his first proceeding against infringement. With
the legal history of the sand-blast, however, we have nothing to do,
save as it concerns the general history of the invention and its prog-
ress. In order that the methods by which a simple falling column or
stream of sand is made to do service as an engraver of glass and
metal plates may be understood, attention is directed to Fig. 2, which
may be described as follows :

J. is a box, elevated as high above the engraver's table as the height
of the ceiling will permit. When designed for several workmen, this
box may be divided into com})artments, as indicated, each compart-
ment being filled with common quartz or sea-sand, of varying degrees
of fineness. From the'bottom of each division a metal tube, c, depends,
reaching to within a few inches of the table below. A slide, B, serves
to regulate or check the flow of the sand. Thus much for the simplest
form of sand-blast. A word as to the manner of its operation ; and

THE SAND-BLAST.

303

here, again, reference must be made to the original "claim," where it
will be found that the operation of the blast is limited to the cutting,
grinding, etc., of any hard substance. It may be well to note the sig-
nificance of this word hard^ since in it lies the secret of the whole pro-
cess. The substance upon which the sand acts must be a hard or brit-

FiG. 2. — Device for etching with Sand.

tie one, falling or being blown upon which, the angular sand-grains
chip away minute portions, till at length the whole surface is reduced
or scratched to any desired depth. Thus, if the plate which, as shown
in the figure, be a glass one, and the workman wishes to engrave on
it a flat design, he has only to protect the portions which are not to
be acted upon, by a stencil made from rubber, soft iron, leather, or
even paper, since, these substances uq^ being hard or brittle, will not
be affected by the descending blows of the sand-grains. This the
workman has done, and by this means he has been able to depolish
or grind the surface of the plate as indicated. Of the methods of
constructing and applying these stencils, their variety and several
uses, descriptions will be given as we advance.

From the use of a simple jet of falling sand, we pass on a step,
and in Fig. 3 present the Tilghman Sand-blast Machine, in its original
and complete form, all subsequent improvements having been made
only with a view to some special form of service. The feature of this
device, it will be observed, is the use of a blast of air or steam which
shall be made to accelerate the falling of the sand through the tube,
and thus cause each grain to act wnth additional force upon the op-
posing surface. If the reader will, by the aid of the illustration, ob-
serve closely the construction of this simple device, he will be able to
comprehend, once for all, not only the novelty of the invention, but
also its extreme simplicity.

304

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Connectecl with n wooden box, suiiported on a shelf, as here indi-
cated, is a flexible rubber tube, which in turn is attached at its lower
end to an iron tube, that rises through the floor of a miniature wagon.
This wagon rests on the roof of a box through which a slit is cut in the
direction shown. Through this slit the iron tube passes, projecting
into the box below. It is to the structure of this metal tube, or gun,
as it is called, that attention is specially directed. As shown in the

Fig. 3.— The Tilghman Sand-blast Machine.

section at the right, it consists of two tubes, the one leading down from
the box and conveying the sand being smaller, thus allowing of an
annular space between it and ^ae lower section. Into this lower sec-
tion, and at a right angle to it, the blast of air is admitted from a suit-
able reservoir. The sand falling down, as shown by the upper arrow,
enters the lower tube at a point below that at which the air is admit-
ted. Having passed below the limits of its conducting-tube, ij re-
ceives an extra impulse from the air-current that also is passing
doAvnward, and by it is projected with greater force npon the hard
substance below. In addition to the advantage gained by this new
impulse, it will also be seen that the blast serves another purpose in
blowing away the sand, so soon as its work is done, and thus leav-
ing the surface below clean and in a condition to be the more readily
acted upon by the succeeding blasts. The purpose of the wngon is
merely to admit of the tube being moved forward and backward along
the line of the plate to be engraved, the lateral movement of the plate
being effected by a suitable device not here shown. This plate is
inclosed in a box, for the reason that the falling grains of sand, while
they chip away the surface of the plate, are also broken up and pow-

THE SAND-BLAST.

505

derecL And it is that this dust may not interfere with the health and
comfort of tlie workmen that the w'hole is confined in a closed box.

Before describing the several methods by which, through the aid
of specially-prepared stencils, the surfaces to be treated are exposed
to the action of the blast, we will direct attention to certain of the
more recent forms of the machines, all embodying the same general
principles, but so modified as to adapt them to the special service for
which they are intended.

Foremost among these devices is the large machine, by the aid of
which flat plates are ground or engraved.

Fig. 4. — Machine for engeaving Flat Plates.

The distinctive feature of this machine is the substitution of a long,
narrow slit for the tube; through this the sand falls or is blown in a
thin sheet. Referring to Fig. 4, we fiml. the machine composed of a

VOL. Tin. — 20

3o6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

large supply-box, into which the sand is elevated by a scn-ics of hop-
pers attached to a moving belt. From this box the sand falls of its
own weight into a second receptacle, which serves also as a receiving-
chamber for the air-blast that enters at the right through the large
blast-pipe. From this receiver the sand is driven downward through
a second slit, and emerges from it with great force.

At right angles with this slit a series of leather straps cr moving
belts serves to convey the polished plate beneath the sheet of falling
sand, and it is during the passage of the plate under this sand-sheet
that its surface is depolished or ground. As these plates move at the
rate of from six to thirty inches a minute, an estimate can be made as to
the rapidity with which the work of grinding is effected. When it is
desired to merely roughen the whole surface, it is evident that no pre-
liminary processes are needed, the plates of glass being fed in at the
opening indicated on the right, and passing through to be receiv^ed and
delivered at once as ground glass.

Fig. 5.— Plates enrraved by Sand-Blast.

When it is desired, however, to engrave figures or designs upon
the plates, a special process precedes the grinding. This conbists in
the designing and attaching of the stencils, and may be described as
follows: The glass plate, which it is proposed to ornament with any
suitable device, is laid upon the designer's table and covered over its
whole surface with a thin sheet of tin-foil. Upon this bright metallic
surface the designer sketches his pattern, and then by the aid of a
sharp knife-point cuts through the foil along the lines of the pattern.
The foil, which indicates the design, is then carefully lifted and re-

THE SAND-BLAST.

307

moved, leaving the glass exposed, showing the exact form of the pat-
tern. The plate is then removed and placed upon a second table,
where it receives over its entire surface a thin layer of melted wax.
When this wax has become sufficiently hardened, a knife is introduced
beneath the portions of foil that .remain, and these are gently lifted
and removed with the wax immediately over them. What remains
now is the original pattern traced in wax and resting on the glass.
The plate thus prepared is then placed on the moving belts, or feeders,
of the large machine and by them is conveyed under the falling sand-
blast. Of course, this sheet of sand strikes with eqiial force on the
whole surface ; but where the wax layers intervene they act as shields,
receiving the sand but checking its progress, while the exposed por-
tions being glass, and therefore brittle, are roughened so as to present
the appearance of a ground surface. After each plate passes through,
it is again slightly heated, the wax removed, and the final appearance
is such as indicated in Fig. 5. These illustrations, it may be stated,
are from photographic imprints, taken from actual plates, and, as such,
indicate with j^erfect exactness the character of the work. In these
the light portions represent the ground or depolished surfaces, while
the dark lines are those which, having been protected by the stencil
shield of wax, were untouched.

Fig. 6.— Machine operated by Exhaust instead of Blast.

When the surfaces to be acted upon are curved, as in the case of
globes, tumblers, etc., a special device is needed. The feature of
this is an exhaust-chamber, by the aid of which the sand is drawn up
through a tube and projected upward, as shown in Fig. 6. Immedi-

3o8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ately above the orifice through Avhich the sand rises, the stencil-
covered globes are caused to revolve on spindles, and, when finished,
have the appearance indicated in Fig. 7.

If the reader has been able to follow this necessarily brief descrip-
tion, he will readily perceive how, by the use of duplicate stencils,
constructed of .any tough substance, the work of engraving, once an
art in itself, becomes merely a mechanical process. As the result of
experiments, now nearly completed, a form of rubber ink has been
devised which, when laid on paper, converts it into a stencil, suffi-
ciently tough to resist the action of the blast. Then, again, it may
be seen how designs, direct from Nature, may be transfen-ed to
glass or metal by merely attaching a leaf or, vine to the surface, and
exposing it to the action of the blast. Nor is glass the only substance
that can be ground and engraved. All metals, when hardened, are as

Ftg. 7.

readily cut. The zinc plates which are now being svibstituted for
lithographic stone have their surfaces depolished by the sand-blast.
As illustrative of the remarkable rapidity with which the sand-blast
accomplishes its work, the following facts, regai'ding the cutting of
inscriptions on the head-stones designed to mark the graves of soldiers
buried in the national cemeteries, may be cited. The contractor hav-
ing this work in charge at Rutland, Vermont, has three sand-blast
machines, of the form indicated in Fig. 8.

In addition to the one man employed to tend these machines, he
has a small force of boys, whose duty it is to attach and remove the

THE SAND-BLAST.

309

cast-iron letters which act as stencils. Thus equipped, the contractor
is able to turn out three hundred head-stones a day, upon eacli of
which is a handsomely-cut inscription averaging eighteen raised let-
ters. It is estimated that, to accomplish a like result by tlie old pro-
cess, a force of three hundred men would be needed. Another instance
of the rapidity with which these little sand-engines do their work is
shown in the engraving of glass globes, tumblers, etc., which can be
done at the astounding rate of one a minute.

Fig. 8.— Tilghman's Sand-blast Stone-machine.

Extended space might be devoted to a mere recital of the actual
present accomplishments of the sand-blast, and, were we to enter the
field of speculation as to its possibilities, the range of its adaptation
would tax the reader's credulity. We will therefore be content to
refer to the following extract from the report of the judges at the
fortieth exhibition of the American Institute, which, in awarding thfe
inventor the great medal of honor, describes and commends his inven-
tion as follows :

"The process is designed to execute ornaments, inscriptions in intaglio^ or
relief, or complete perforations, in any kind of stone, glass, or otlier hard and
brittle substance ; or to cut deep grooves in natural rocks, in order to facilitate
the process of quarrying; or to make circular incisions around 4;lie central mass
of rock in the process of tunneling ; or to remove slag, scale, and sand, from the
surfaces of metal castings ; or to clear the interior surfaces of boilers or boiler tubes
of incrustations ; or to cut ornaments or types from wood as Avell as from stone ;
or to depolish the surface of glass, producing by the aid of stencils or other par-
tial protections, as the bichromatized gelatine of photographic negatives, every
variety of beautiful figures, including copies of the finest lines, and the most
delicate line engravings ; or to prepare copper-plates in relief for printing, by
making gelatine photographic i;)ictures upon smooth surfaces of resin and pitch,
cutting them out by the blast, and afterward moulding from them, and electro-
typing the moulds.

31G THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" This process is without precedent. The use of sand in sawing marble, or
in grinding glass by common methods, hardly furnishes an analogy."

Here follows a description of the device, concluding with the state-
ment that "it is regarded by the judges as being one of the most re-
markable and valuable inventions which the age has produced."

When it is announced that the judges who thus emphatically in-
dorsed the claims of the sand-blast were Profs. Barnard, Mayer, and
Morton, our readers will demand of the writer no apology for or quali-
tication of his expressed opinion that the " Tilghman sand-blast is an
invention which, in simplicity of construction and extent of application,
has hardly an equal in the annals of American patents."

-♦♦♦-

mSTmCT AND ACQUISITION.^

Br D. A. SPALDING.

SO great was the influence of that school of psychology which main-
tained that we and all other animals had to acquire in the course
of our individual lives all the knowledge and skill necessary for our
preservation, that njany of the A^ery greatest authorities in science
refused to believe in those instinctive performances of young animals
about which the less learned multitude have never had any doubt.
For example, Helmholtz, than whom there is not, perhaps, any higher
scientific authority, says: "The young chicken very soon pecks at
grains of corn, but it pecked while it was still in the shell, and when it
hears the hen peck, it pecks again, at first seemingly at random. Then,
when it has by chance hit upon a grain, it may, no doubt, learn to
notice the field of vision which is at the moment presented to it."

At the meeting of this Association in 1872, I gave a pretty full ac-
count of the behavior of the chicken after its escape from the shell.
The facts observed were conclusive against the individual-experience
psychology. And they have, as far as I am aware, been received by
scientific men without question. I would now add that not only does
the chick not require to learn to peck at, to seize, and to swallow
small specks of food, but that it is not a fact, as asserted, and generally
supposed, that it pecks while still in the shell. The actual mode of
self-delivery is just the reverse of pecking. Instead of striking forward
and downward (a movement impossible on the part of a bird packed
in a shell with its head under its wing), it breaks its way out by vigor-
ously jerking its head upward, while it turns round within the shell,
which is cut in two — chipped right round in a perfect circle some dis-
tance from the great end.

' Read at the Bristol meetinor of the British Association,

INSTINCT AND ACQUISITION. 311

Though the instincts of animals appear and disappear in such sea-
sonable correspondence with their own wants and the wants of their
oifspring as to be a standing subject of wonder, they have by no
means the fixed and unalterable character by which some would dis-
tinguish them from the higher faculties of the human race. They vary
in the individuals as does their physical structure. Animals can learn
what they did not know by instinct and forget the instinctive knowl-
edge which they never learned, while their instincts will often ac-
commodate themselves to considerable changes in the order of exter-
nal events. Everybody knows it to be a common j^ractice to hatch
ducks'-eggs under the common hen, thou";h in such cases the hen has
to sit a week longer than on her own eggs. I tried an experiment to
ascertain how far the time of sitting could be interfered with in the
opposite direction. Two hens became broody on the same day, and I
set them on dummies. On the third day I put two chicks a day old
to one of the hens. She pecked at them once or twice; seemed rather
fidgety, then took to them, called them to her and entered on all the
cares of a mother. The other hen was similarly tried, but with a
very difierent result. She pecked at the chickens viciously, and both
that day and the next stubbornly refused to have any thing to do with
them.

The i3ig is an animal that has its wits about it quite as soon after
birth as the chicken. I therefore selected it as (i subject of observa-
tion. The following are some of my observations: That vigorous
young pigs get xip and search for the teat at once, or within one min-
ute after their entrance into the world. That if removed several feet
from their mother, when aged only a few minutes, they soon find their
way back to her, guided aj^parently by the grunting she makes in an-
swer to their squeaking. In the case I observed the old sow rose in less
than an hour and a half after pigging, and went out to eat ; the pigs
ran about, tried to eat various matters, followed their mother out, and
sucked while she stood eating. One pig I put in a bag the moment it
was born and kept it in the dark until it was seven hours old, when I
placed it outside the sty, a distance of ten feet from where the sow
lay concealed inside the house. The pig soon recognized the low
grunting of its mother, went along outside the sty struggling to get
under or over the lower bar. At the end of five minutes it succeeded
in forcing itself through under the bar at one of the few places where
that was possible. No sooner in than it went Avithout a pause into the
pig-house to its mother, and was at once like the others in its behavior.
Two little pigs I blindfolded at their birth. One of them I placed
with its mother at once: it soon found the teat and began to suck.
Six hours later I placed the other a little distance from the sow ; it
reached her in half a minute, after going about rather vaguely; in
half a minute more it found the teat. Next day I found that one of
the two left with the mother, blindfolded, had got the blinders ofi"; the

312 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

other was quite blind, walked about freely, knocking against things.
In the afternoon I uncovered its eyes, and it went round and round as
if it had liad sight, and had suddenly lost it. In ten minutes it was
scarcely distinguishable from one that had had sight all along. When
placed on a chair it knew the height to require considering, went
down on its knees and leaped down. When its eyes had been un-
veiled twenty minutes I placed it and another twenty feet from the
stv. The two reached the mother in five minutes and at the same
moment.

Different kinds of creatures, then, bring with them a good deal of
cleverness, and a very useful acquaintance with the established order
of Nature. At the same time all of them later in their lives do a great
many things of which they are quite incapable at birth. That these
are all matters of pure acquisition ajDpears to me an unwarranted
assumption. The human infant cannot masticate ; it can move its
limbs, but cannot walk, or direct its hands so as to grasp an object
held up before it. The kitten just born cannot catch mice. The
newly-hatched swallow or tomtit can neither walk, nor fly, nor feed
itself. They are as hel|)less as the human infant. Is it as the result
of painful learning that the child subsequently seizes an apple and
eats it? that the cat lies in wait for the mouse? that the bird finds its
proper food and wings its way through the air? We think not. With
the development of the physical parts, comes, according to our view,
the power to use them, in the ways that have preserved the race
through past ages. This is in harmony with all we know. Not so
the contrary view. So old is the feud between the cat and the dog,
that the kitten knows its enemy even before it is able to see him, and
when its fear can in no way serve it. One day last month, after fon-
dling my dog, I put my hand into a basket containing four blind kit-
tens, three days ol<l. The smell my hand had carried with it set them
puffing and spitting in a most comical fashion.

That the later developments to which I have referred are not ac-
quisitions can be in some instances demonstrated. Birds do not learn
to fly. Two years ago I shut up five unfledged swallows in a small
box not raiich larger than the nest from which they were taken. The
little box, which had a wire front, was hung on the wall near the nest,
and tlie young swallows were fed by their parents through the wires.
In this confinement, where they could not even extend their wings,
they were kept until after they were fully fledged. Lord and Lady
Amberley liberated the birds and communicated their observations to
me, I being in another part of the country at the time. On going to
set the prisoners free, one was found dead — they were all alive on the
previous day. The remaining four were allowed to escape one at a
time. Two of these were perceptibly wavering and unsteady in their
flght. One of them, after a flight of about ninety yards, disappeared
among some trees; the other, which flew more steadily, made a sweep-

INSTINCT AND ACQUISITION. 313

ing circuit in the air, after the inanner of its kind, and aliglited, or
attempted to aliglit, on a branchless stump of a beech ; at last it was
no more seen. No. 3 (which was seen on the wing for about lialf
a minute) flew near the ground, first round the Wellingtonia, over to
the otlier side of the kitchen-garden, past the bee-house, back to the
lawn, round again, and into a beech-tree. No. 4 flew well near the
ground, over a hedge twelve feet high to the kitchen-garden through
an opening into the beeches, and was last seen close to the ground.
The swallows never flew against any thing, nor Avas there, in their
avoiding objects, any appreciable difference between them and the
old birds. No. 3 swept round the Wellingtonia, and No. 4 rose over
the hedge just as we see the old swallows doing every hour of the day.
I have this summer verified these observations. Of two swallows I
had similarly confined, one, on being set free, flew a yard or two too
close to the ground, and rose in the direction of a beech-tree, which it
gracefully avoided ; it was seen for a considerable time sweeping-
round the beeches and performing magnificent evolutions in the air
high above them. The other, which was observed to beat the air
with its wings more than usual, was soon lost to sight behind some
trees. Titmice, tomtits, and wrens, I have made the subjects of a sim-
ilar experiment and with similar results.

Again, eveiy boy who has brought up nestlings with the hand must
have observed that, while for a time they but hold up their heads and
open their mouths to be fed, they by-and-by begin quite spontane-
ously to snap at the food. Here the development may be observed
as it proceeds. In the case of the swallow I am inclined to think that
they catch insects in the air perfectly well immediately on leaving the
nest.

With regard, now, to man, is there any reason to suppose tliat, un-
like all otlier creatures, his mental constitution has to be in the ease
of each individual built up from the foundation out of the primitive
elements of consciousness ? Reason seems to me to be all the other
way. The infant is helpless at birth for the same reason that the
kitten or swallow is helpless — because of its physical immaturity;
and I know of nothing to justify the contrary opinion, as held by
some of our distinguished psychologists. Why believe that the spar-
row can pick up crumbs by instinct, but that man must learn to inter-
pret his visual sensations and to chew his food ? Dr. Carpenter, in his
" Mental Physiology," has attempted to answer this argument in the
only way in which it could be answered. He has produced facts
which appear to him to prove that "the acquirement of the power of
visually guiding the muscular movements is experimental in the case
of the human infant." More than forty years ago Dr. Carpenter took
part in an operation performed on a boy three years old for congenital
cataract. The operation was successful. In a few days both pupils
were almost clear; but, though the boy "clearly recognized the direc-

314 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tlon of a candle or other bright object, he was as unable as an infant to
apprehend its distance; so that, when told to lay hold of a watch, he
groped at it just as a young child lying in its cradle." He gradually
began to use his eyes ; first in places with which he was not familiar,
but it was several months before he trusted to them for guidance as
other children of his age would do. No one will doubt the accuracy
of any of these statements ; but I cannot agree with Dr. Carpenter
that he had in the case of the boy any thing " exactly parallel " to my
experiment of hooding chickens at birth and giving them their sight
at the end of one or two days. This boy was couched when three
years old. Probably sight would have been at first rather puzzling
to ray chickens, had they not received it until they were six montlis
old. Dr, Carpenter seems to have forgotten for the moment that in-
stincts as well as acquisitions decay through desuetude, and that this
is especially true when the faculties in question have never once been
started into action and are of the kind which develop through exer-
cise. Another and vital difference between Dr. Carpenter's experi-
ments and mine is this, that, when at the end of two days I gave my
chickens sight, I did not do so by poking out or lacerating the crystal-
line lenses of their eyes with a needle.

The presumption, then, that the progress of the infant is but the
unfolding of inherited powers remains as strong as ever. With wings
there comes to the bird the power to use them ; and why should we
believe that, because the human infant is born without teeth, it should,
when they do make their appearance, have to discover their use by a
series of happy accidents ?

One word as to the origin of instincts. In common with other
evolutionists, I have argued that instinct in the present generation
may be regarded as the product of the accumulated experiences of
past generations. More peculiar to myself, and giving special mean-
ing to the word experience, is the view that the question of the origin
of the most mysterious instinct is not more difficult than, or different
from, but is the same with the problem of the origin of the physical
structures of the creatures. For, however they may have come by
their bodily organization, it, in my opinion, carries with it a corre-
sponding mental nature.

In opposition to this view, it has been urged that we have only to
consider almost any well-marked instinct to see that it could never
have been a product of evolution. We, it is said most frequently, can-
not conceive the experiences that might by inheritance have become
the instincts ; and we can see very clearly that many instincts are so
essential to the preservation of the creatures that without them they
could never have lived to acquire, them. The answer is easy. Grant-
ing our utter inability to go back in imagination through the infinite
multitude of forms, with their diversified mental characteristics, that
stand between the greyhound and the speck of living jelly to which,

PRINCE RUPERT'S DROPS.

315

according to the theory of evolution, it is related by an unbroken line
of descent — granting that we ai-e, if possible, still less able to picture
in imagination the process of cliange from any one form to another —
what then ? Not surely that the theory of evolution is false ! For
the same argument will prove that no man present can possibly be
tlie son of his father. Our ignorance is very great, but it is not a
very great argument.

The other objection, that the creatures could never have lived to
acquire their more important instincts, rests on a careless misunder-
standing of the theory of evolution. It assumes in the drollest possi-
ble way that evolutionists must believe that in the course of the evo-
lution of the existing races there must have from time to time ap-
peared whole generations of creatures that could not start on life from
the want of instincts that they had not got. There can be no need to
say more than that these unfortunate creatures are assumed to have
been singularly unlike their parents. The answer is, that it is not the
doctrine of evolution that the bodies are evolved first by one set of
causes and the minds are put in afterward by another. This notion is
but the still lingering shadow of the individual-experience psychology.
As evolutionists, whether we take the more common view and regard
the actions of animals as prompted by their feelings and guided by
their thoughts, or believe, as I do, that animals and men are conscious
automata, in either case we are under no necessity of assuming, in ex-
planation of the origin of the most mysterious instincts, any thing
beyond the operation of those laws that we see operating around us,
but concerning which we have yet to learn more, perhaps, than we
have learned. — Nature.

PRINCE RUPERT'S DROPS.

Br WILLIAM LEIGHTON, Jr., S. B.

WHEN" from fluidity glass is cooled to a solid structure in the
ordinary temperature of the atmosphere, it is found to be very
brittle or liable to fracture.

If the glass is so shaped as to be of unequal thickness in its difier-
ent parts, it can seldom be cooled without fracture, and, if unbroken
when cool, is liable to fracture with any subsequent change of temper-
ature or by a sudden jar. Often this fracture takes place, in articles
of considerable thickness, with an explosive force, perhaps breaking
the glass into a thousand pieces. AVhen glass breaks in this manner,
it is said to " fly."

In order to prevent such liability to " fly," glass-ware is annealed.

The process of annealing glass consists in reducing its temperature
more slowly than would occur in the air at ordinary temperatures.

3i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

An oven is so constructed that the heat of the glass is maintained
by a current of heated air in which articles to be annealed are placed,
and mechanism so contrived as very slowly to draw away the ware
into currents of lower temperature. Or the ware is annealed in kilns,
which are closed and scaled at a temperature a little less than that at
which glass becomes plastic, and heated air being thus confined the
kilns are many hours, often many days, in cooling. The more carefully
and slowly glass is annealed, the less liable it is to " ily."

By cooling glass more rapidly than could occur in ordinary atmos-
pheric temperatures, that is, by a process the reverse of annealing,
Prince Rupert's drops are made.

The ordinary way to make tliese scientific curiosities is to drop a
small quantity, usually less than half an ounce, of perfectly fluid glass
into water. In falling, the glass will assume the form of a tear, with
an elongated end extending into a thread.

Rupert drops are clear, bright, and hard, and may be struck with
much violence upon the larger end without fracture, but if the thin,
though tough and very elastic thread of the other extremity be broken
otF, the whole drop will explode into numberless fragments, much finer
than the sand of which the glass was originally composed.

Why does this happen? and why must glass-ware be annealed in
Older to be serviceable? There is evidently such similarity of phe-
nomena occurring in the drops and in unannealed glass that a satisfac-
tory theory for the one ought to lead to the explanation of the other.

In an article on "Tempered Glass" contributed by Perry F. Nur-
sey, C. E., to the Popular Science Review^ and published in the Sep-
tember number of The Popular Sciexce Monthly, the following the-
ory of the Prince Rupert's drops is given : " Glass and water, and — as
far as present knowledge goes — no other substances besides, expand
while passing from the fluid into the solid condition. The theory of the
Rupert drops is, that the glass being cooled suddenly, by being dropped
into cold water, expansion is checked by reason of a hard skin being
formed on the outer surface. This exterior coating prevents the in-
terior atoms from expanding and arranging themselves in such a way
as to give the glass a fibrous nature, as they would if the glass were
allowed to cool very gradually. An examination of the Rupert's drop
shows the inner substance to be fissured and divided into a number of
small particles. They exist in fact in a state of compression, with but
little mutual cohesion, and are only held together by the external
skin. So long as the skin remains intact, the tendency of the inner
particles to expand and fill their proper space is checked and resisted
by the superior compressive strain of the skin. Nor is the balance of
the opposing forces disturbed by blows on the thick end of the drop,
which vibrates as a whole, the vibrations not being transmitted from
the exterior to the interior. But, by breaking off" the tail of the drop,
a vibratory movement is communicated along the crystalline surface,

PRINCE RUPERT'S DROPS. 317

admitting of internal expansion, by which the coliesion of the particles
composing the external skin is overcome, and the glass is at once re-
duced to fragments."

In the "American Cyclopaedia" (revised edition), under the word
"annealing," are found the following enplanations : "When this"
(glass) "is melted and shaped into articles which ai"e allowed to cool
in the air, the glass becomes too brittle for any use. The exterior
cools first and forms a contracted crust, which shelters the interior
particles ; so that these continue longer in a semi-fluid state, and are
prevented from expanding, as glass does in cooling, and uniting with
the rest to form an homogeneous mass. The inner parts are thus con-
stantly tending to expand. If, on the contrary, the glass is placed
in a hot oven, and this is allowed to cool very slowly, the particles of
glass appear to assume a condition of perfect equilibrium of cohesive
force without tension, so that the mass becomes tough and elastic."
And, again, in the same article : " Dr. Ure explains this phenomenon "
(the explosive breaking of Prince Rupert's drops) "by referring it to
the tendency of a crack once formed in the glass to extend its rami-
fications in difterent directions throuo-hout thewliole mass."

In the " Encyclopoedia Britannica " (ninth edition), under the
word " annealing," is found as follows concerning the phenomena of
unannealed glass and Prince Rupert's droj^s: "The particles of the
glass have a cohesive polarity which dictates a certain regularity in
their arrangement, but which requires some time for its development.
When the vessels are suddenly cooled, the surface-molecules only can
have had time to dispose themselves duly, while those within are kept
by this propex'ly-formed skin in a highly-constrained situation ; and it
is only so long as the surface-film keeps sound that this constraint
can be resisted. In the Rupert's droj)S it is plainly visible that the
interior substance is cracked in every direction, and ready to fly to
pieces."

The practical glass-maker, desii'ous of thoroughly understanding
the true theory of annealing glass, that from such a comprehension
he may endeavor to accomplish more perfection in his process, refers
to the authorities quoted above, and finds himself bewildered by the
theories and explanations here given. He notices that the founda-
tion of the theory of the Rupert drop, and of the process of annealing,
in the article of The Popujlar Science Monthly, and in the " Ameri-
can Cyclopaedia," is based upon the assertion that in passing from a
fluid to a solid condition glass expands. Although well aware that
certain substances, as water,' bismuth,'' gray cast-iron,' and antimony,*
expand while solidifying, yet he is constantly reminded, by phenomena
occurring in the glass-house every moment under his eye, that the
reverse of this takes place in the substance of glass.

' Ganot's " Physics," edition of 1873, p. 261. = Miller's " Chemistry," vol. ii., p. 604.

* Bauerman's " Metallurgy of IroD," p. 233. * Miller's " Chemistry," vol. ii., p. 595.

3i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Upon the supposition that glass contracts in cooling, he bases the
construction and working of his moulds, in which glass-ware is
pressed, and the success of their operation assures him that he is
working upon a safe conclusion.

For further assurance, he replaces an article of glass-ware, when
cold, in the mould in which it was originally pressed, and finds that it
easily returns to its place, and fails to fill the mould. With his cali-
pers he measures carefully the glass and the mould, and finds the
shrinkage has been about one-fiftieth of the original bulk.

He remembers tliat he has on his book-shelf a work ' by Apsley
Pellatt, in wliich that careful and accurate observer states as follows :
" A piece of unannealed barometer-tube, forty inches long, measured
when just drawn, will become about one-fourth of an inch shorter if
annealed ; whereas, if quickly cooled without annealing, it wull only
contract about one-eighth of an inch." It must be borne in mind
that the barometer-tube, when just drawn, at the time when it is first
measured, has already considerably cooled from a fluid state of the
glass, and has effected a part of its shrinkage, although not yet solid
or rigid in its structure.

As the gray cast-iron before mentioned is said to expand at the
moment of solidifying, but afterward to contract with farther cooling,
he experiments with the view to ascertain if an analogous action
takes place in glass. He tests the cooling uf a crucible full of this
molten material, to note if at any time in the cooling process an ex-
pansion of its substance takes place. Even from the first moment,
when the crucible is taken from the extreme heat of the furnace, he
finds that the surface of the vitreous mass takes a concave form, this
concavity becoming more considerable as the cooling process goes on.

If there were expansion at the moment of solidifying, the mass
would then bulge upward, that is, the concave line of the surface
would be disturbed. But, as the concavity of this surface constantly
and uninterruptedly increases until the mass becomes cold, he finds
renewed proof of the shrinkage of solidifying glass.

His ordinary observation thus confirmed by careful tests and by
other authority, he feels that there is no possibility for him to be in
error in regard to this contraction of glass, which he sees constantly

goino: on.

When he reads, in the article of The Popular Science Month-
ly, that the exterior coating produced by the immediate chill of the
surface of the glass " prevents the interior atoms from expanding
and arranging themselves in such a way as to give the glass a fibrous
nature, as they would if the glass were allowed to cool very gradu-
ally," he tries to remember an instance, where, in some very perfectly-
annealed glass, there has been an indication of such fibrous nature,
but finds himself unable, in his own experience, or in that of his
' " Curiosities of Glass-making," by Apsley Pellatt, London, 1849, p. 63.

PRINCE RUPERT'S DROPS. 319

workmen, to recall such structure in any case. He finds the substance
of glass always presenting the same vitreous, amorphous appearance,
except in cases of devitrification, and, in the absence of any proof of
such condition, cannot bring himself to believe in glass of a fibrous
structure.

He finds in " a cohesive polarity, which dictates to the particles
of glass a certain regularity in their arrangement, but Avhich requires
some time for its development," as laid down in the " Brittanica," a
theory wliich is far from satisfying or giving him any useful aid, and
he requires some proof (which he cannot find) of such " polarity " be-
fore absolutely adopting this theory.

He looks in vain for the fissured character of the interior sub-
stance of the Rupert drop, mentioned in the article of The Popular
Science Monthly, and in the " Encyclopedia Britannica," but find-
ing, even under the microscope, that the substance of the interior, as
well as the exterior, of the drop is apparently solid and undisturbed,
gives up his attempt to understand the authorities, and even Dr.
TTre's explanation in the " American Cyclopedia," of the Rupert-drop
phenomena, fails to satisfy him.

He now feels that, to pursue this subject further, he must put to-
gether the facts in his possession, and ascertain if their combination
will not suggest a more satisfactory theory than those laid down in
the books.

He begins, of course, upon the foundation Avhich his twenty years'
experience in the glass-house has strongly impressed on him, viz., the
fact that in passing from a fluid to a solid state glass shrinks.

His next fact is that glass is a poor conductor of heat, as he
has often noticed in the manipulation of heated glass, during its pro-
cess of manufacture, tliat in the same piece of glass, and close to-
gether, are portions, the one solid and the other fluid.

To these facts he puts the third fact, that the surface of fluid or
semi-fluid glass chills very quickly upon exposure to the air, and very
quickly becomes solid.

Here are all the facts necessary by which to construct a theory
for the explanation of the phenomena of fracture in unannealed glass
and in the Rupert drops.

Watching a thick mass of glass cool, he notes the color : by an
oblique look, he perceives that the surface has a green tint ; while
tlirough this transparent tinted medium a direct look shows the cen-
tre still of a glowing red color. He knows by experience that the
green tint in cooling crystal glass indicates solidification, while the
red glow tells that such glass is yet soft. But, not depending upon his
experience of color, he tests the surface with an iron tool and finds it
absolutely rigid ; then with a hammer breaks this rigid surface, and
finds, as its color indicates, the centre still semi-fluid.

Here is proved, the condition of an outer skin or shell of rigid

^20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

glass, and an interior substance, still soft, plastic, and constantly
strained by a tendency to contract, to occupy smaller boundaries ;
but those boundaries cannot be moved without breaking. It is a
struggle of forces. If the thickness of the glass be considerable, the
constantly-increasing strain of contraction jjuUs so hard upon the
shell, that the force of cohesion is unable to withstand it, and the shell,
yielding with a shock, shivers the whole substance into fragments.

In the process of annealing, the heat of the oven keeps the sur-
faces of the glass articles from absolutely becoming rigid, so that
they yield sufficiently to the strain of the contracting interior por-
tions; and if the whole substance of each article cools exactly to-
gether, the eltterior and interior all the time at the same temperature,
there is no strain and the ware is perfectly annealed.

As it is practically impossible to accomplish a perfect equality of
temperature, a perfect equilibrium of the molecules cannot be ob-
tained ; but so near an approach to it is accomplished in a well-con-
structed annealing oven, that the cohesion of the glass is easily able
to withstand the trifling strain.

In this view the action of cooling glass is simple and easily under-
stood, surely more simple than to imagine a tendency toward a fibrous
constitution of substance, or the imperious " cohesive polarity " of
the " Britannica " article.

Test this theory upon the Rupert-drop phenomenon, and its expla-
nation will answer as well.

A small amount of fliuid glass, when dropped into water, will im-
mediately, by the action of its heat, envelop itself in a garment of
steam, which protects its surface from contact with the water, until
that surface is so cooled that such contact fails to crack it. To test
this assumption, try the exj^eriment with partially cooled or soft glass,
and the result will be that all the drops will break in the water, on
account of cracked surfaces. With fluid glass, many drops will be
lost, not from the same cause, if the drops be not too large, but from
excessive contraction ; perhaps, out of a dozen only one or two will
be saved.

The steam chills the surface of the glass much more rapidly than
the air does, consequently the inner and fluid glass in the Rupert
drop is inclosed in larger boundaries than if the drop had cooled in
the air. Hence contractive force is very strongly exerted to draw in
such excessive boundaries, but the curved form of the drop presents
arches of strength to aid the power of cohesion and resist destruction.

One drop bursts in the water, another does the same, but perhaps
the third is drawn forth entire, though curled and twisted, as if in the
agony of its strain. Two of Nature's forces struggle fiercely for the
mastery in this little drop, that gives no indication of the contest as
it lies quietly before us. But break off" the thread, and down goes the
first of the little arches, that are holding up the surface against con-

PRINCE RUPERT'S DROPS. 321

traction. One arch, falling, brings down another, and, once started,
they go in such rapid succession that the ear detects but one sound,
one explosive burst, in which the imp of contraction exults in the ruin
he has wrought.

The peculiarities of the Rupert drops are toughness, elasticity, and
the property of breaking into small fragments when any fractui-e,
however slight, is made ; their strength to resist such fracture is, how-
ever, greater than that of annealed or unannealed glass.

Wlien we consider that these same peculiarities are the character-
istics of the so-called "toughened glass" of M. de la Bastie, and that
the method of treating his "toughened " glass, in the cooling process,
is at least analogous to that of the Rupert drops, we are forced to be-
lieve in a certain relationship between them.

The Rupert drop falls into a water-bath ; M. de la Bastie's glass
into an oleaginous bath, the exact composition of which has not been
made public.

M. de la Bastie's glass is not malleable, is not unbreakable, but
simply tougher, harder to break than the ordinary annealed glass ; so
also is the Rupert drop.

As the characteristic distinction between annealed glass and the
Rupert drop is the excessive strain upon the molecules of the latter —
contraction versus cohesion — it is fair to infer that the superior
strength, toughness, and elasticity, of the drop are due to such strain.
As it is harder to displace the key-stone of a loaded arch than of
an unloaded one, the simile may hold good in this case, and the
strain of contraction upon the molecules of the glass of a Rupert's
drop may help resist any outside force tending to disturb cohesion.
If an outside force could be so exerted as to act exactly in the same
direction as the power of contraction acts, undoubtedly such force
would be aided by contraction to destroy cohesion ; but, acting in
any other direction, contraction would aid cohesion to resist it. As
the molecules of glass are exceedingly small, and as, in the cooling
process, they one after another individually become rigid, the lines of
their contractive strain become so complicated that it is very unlikely
any outside force can be exerted in such direction as to unite its im-
pulse wdth theirs against cohesion.

As the toughened glass of M. de la Bastie flies into many pieces
when fracture is effected, in a manner analogous to the breaking of
the Rupert drop, it is probable, at least, considering the process of
the oil-bath, that such flying into fragments is due to a strain of con-
traction exerted by the molecules of its substance. And if such a
strain exists, as the flying seems to prove, it is also reasonable to sup-
pose that, exactly as in the case of the Rupert drop, this strain of
contraction among the molecules of its mass produces the superior
toughness, strength, and elasticity, which are claimed for this newly-
invented glass.

VOL. Tin. — 21

322 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

THE OWXEKSHIP OF THE DEAD.'

By SAMUEL B, KUGGLES, LL. D.

IN resorting to England for light on this subject, we encounter a
body of law grown up under circumstances difi'ering widely from
our own. The jurisprudence of that country is peculiarly compound-
ed, embracing largely the ecclesiastical element, from which ours is
exempt ; and it has given birth to anomalies which we are hardly
required to adopt. This is strikingly manifest in the matter of the
dead, in which the partition of juridical authority between the Church
and the state, forming one composite system, has materially narrowed
the powers and the action of the courts of common law. It is believed
that an attentive examination of the history of this division of judicial
power will show that it is wholly peculiar to England, and that the
decisions and dicta of their courts and legal writers on this subject
ought not to exert any controlling influence over our legal tribunals.
In surveying the various changes in the organization and powers
of the British courts of justice, produced successively by the Itoman,
Saxon, and Norman conquests, it is diflicult to fix with precision the
period when tlie judicial authority began to be divided between the
state and the Church. Christianity had made some progress in Brit-
ain while yet remaining under the Roman power, but does not ap-
pear to have mingled itself materially with the governmental admin-
istration. The Saxon conqueroi'S, who succeeded the Roman in the
fifth centurj'-, brought in paganism for about one hundred and fifty
years ; but it was extirpated about the close of the sixth century by
the vigor of St. Augustin, under the pontificate of Gregory the Great.
It is quite apparent that the clear-sighted incumbents of the Holy
See by that time had perceived in the burial of the dead a very im-
portant and desirable element of spiritual dominion. It was the
sagacity, n.ot less than the piety, of that distinguished pontift", Avhich
led him to introduce the custom of burial in churches, to the end, as
he declared, that the relatives and friends of the dead might be in-
duced more frequently to pray for their repose. Occasional inter-
ments in places of worship, or their immediate vicinity, had indeed
been made by the early Christians, as far back as the reign of Con-
stantine ; but it was not until after the pontificate of Gregory, and
the rapid increase by his successors of the temporal power of the
Church, that burial-grounds were generally attached to places of wor-
ship, and subjected by formal consecration to ecclesiastical authoi'ity.

' Extract from a report on tlie " Law of Burial," made to the Supreme Court of the
State of New York in 1856, by Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles, referee, in respect to compensa-
tion to owners of vaults in cemeteries, and to relatives of individuals buried in graves
disturbed by legal proceedings. Reprinted in Providence, R. L, 1872. 46 pages

THE OWNERSHIP OF THE DEAD. 323

The judicial histoiy of tlie Romish Church in England, from the
sixth century to the thirteentli, exhibits its earnest efforts and its steady
and all but uninterrupted progress, not only in strengthening its proper
spiritual power, but in obtaining the exclusive temporal, judicial cog-
nizance of all matters touching the ecclesiastical edifices and their
appendages, and especially their places of burial. During that pe-
riod, tlie office of sepulture, originally only a secular duty, came to be
regarded as a spiritual function — so much so, that the secular courts,
in the cases as early as the 20th and 21st Edward I., cited in 2 Inst.,
363, in determining whether or not a building Avas a church, inquired
only whether it had sacraments and seindtiire.

It is generally stated that burial in church-yards was introduced
into England by Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the year
750. The form of their consecration is even yet preserved, in some
of its essential features, by the Established Church. The invocation,
as given by Burn, in his "Ecclesiastical Law," vol. i., p. 334, after de-
claring that the duty has been taught by God, " through his holy ser-
vants, in all ages, to assign places where the bodies of the saints may
rest in peace and be preserved from all indignities," asks the divine
acceptance " of the charitable work, in separating the portion of
ground to that good purpose."

The sagacious policy of the Romish ecclesiastics, in attaching the
place of interment to the church, was duly strengthened by the strin-
gent provision of the canon law, which prohibited heretics from
Christian burial. To repose in any but consecrated earth soon came
to be ignominious; and thus the church-yard became a vital portion
of the material machinery for enforcing spiritual obedience and theo-
logical conformity. Nor was the power neglected. It governed
Europe for several hundred years, and it was but shortly before the
Protestant Reformation in England that one Tracy, being publioly
accused in convocation of having expressed heretical sentiments in
his will, and being found guilty, a commission was issued to dig
up his body, which was done accox'dingly. — (1 Burn, " Eccl. Law,"
p. 266.)

During the early portion of the Anglo-Saxon period, the power
of the clergy over the dead was kept in check by uniting the lay
with the clerical oi'der in the ecclesiastical tribunals; but their juris-
dictions were separated soon after the Norman conquest, and the
effect upon the dead is plainly discernible. The exclusive power of
the ecclesiastics, denominated in legal phrase " ecclesiastical cogni-
zance," became not only executive, but judicial. It was executive,
in taking the body into their actual, corporeal possession, and practi-
cally guarding its repose in their consecrated grounds ; and it was
judicial, as well in deciding all controversies involving the possession
or the use of holy places, or the pecuniary emoluments which they
yielded, as in a broader field, in adjudicating who should be allowed

324 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to lie in consecrated earth, and, in fact, who should be allowed to be
interred at all.

The deplorable superstition that could induce people to intrust
such a power to any but its civil government and civil courts is
amazing, and yet we find the sturdy English nation, under the gov-
ernment of William of Normandy, stripping their cherished Anglo-
Saxon courts of all power to protect the dead, and yielding them
up blindfold to priestly cognizance. As Sir William Blackstone well
says, it was a " fatal encroachment " on the ancient liberties of Eng-
land. Eight centuries have not sufficed to repair the mischief. An-
selm and Becket, in modern garb, live even yet.

The deep-seated, fundamental idea of human burial lies in the
minojlincr our remains with the mother earth. The " dust to dust 1
earth to earth ! ashes to ashes ! " of the Church — echoing, in deeper
solemnity, the " ter pulvere " of Horace, and hallowing the dying wish
of Cyrus — finds a universal response in the holiest instincts of man in
every age. Here, then, was the tender spot for subtle power to touch.
Logically pursuing this idea, the ecclesiastical process of excommuni-
cation prohibited burial in the earth at all, whether consecrated or
not. The precise words oi the formula^ as used in the tenth century,
gave over the body of the contumacious offender for food to the fowls
of the air and beasts of the field : " Sint cadavera eorum, in escam
volatilibus coeli, et bestiis terree." In some instances the sentence
was more definite and specific, confining the corpse to the hollow
trunk of a tree, " in concavo trunco repositum." The essence of the
idea being to keep the body out of the earth and on the surface, it
was sometimes figuratively expressed, in monkish rhetoric, by " the
burial of an ass," or by a stronger and more characteristic image,
as " a dunghill : " " Sepultura asini sepeliantur, et in sterqidliniwin
super faciem terrae sint." The afilicted but sinful laity, to hide the
horror of the spectacle, were wont, at times, to cover the festering
dead with a pile of stones, thereby rearing a tumulus, or " hloc y " so
that the process came to be commonly known, in mediaeval Latin, as
" imhlocare corpus.'''' — (Du Cange, Glossary, " Imblocare.")

The same dominant idea of the unfitness of spiritual offenders to
pollute the earth can be distinctly traced throngh the judicial eccle-
siastical condemnations for several centuries. John Huss and Jerome
of Prague being at the stake for heresy, early in the fifteenth century,
under the ecclesiastical order of the Council of Constance, their ashes
were not allowed to mingle with the earth, but were cast into the
Rhine.

The legal process of scattering the ashes of the heretic was evi-
dently a very significant and cherished feature in the ecclesiastical
code of procedure, and it was executed in the different portions of
Christendom with all attainable uniformity and precision. Within its
comprehensive range it embraced not only the ashes of the heretic

THE OWNERSHIP OF THE DEAD. 325

freshly burnt, but the mouldering remains of any who had been suf-
fered, through mistake or inadvertency, to slip into their graves.
Wyclifie, tlie first English translator of the Scriptures, had ventured,
in life, to question certain points of dogmatic theology, but, dying in
his bed, in the year 1384, had been allowed to sleep for forty-one years
in a church-yard in Leicestershire. The assembled dignitaries in the
Council of Constance, after duly disposing of the ashes of Huss and
Jerome, judicially declared the heresy of WycliiFe, and his bones
were accordingly dug up and burnt, and the ashes thrown into the
river Avon, in the due exercise of the executive branch of ecclesiasti-
cal cognizance, in the year 1425 of the Christian era.

Nor was the ecclesiastical cognizance of the dead confined to
delinquents of low degree, or in the plainer walks of life. The Em-
peror of Germany, Henry IV., the victor of more than sixty battles,
dying under papal excommunication by Hildebrand, the seventh
Gregory, was compelled to lie for five years unbui'ied, in the very
sight of the majestic cathedral of Spires, which his father had com-
menced, and he had completed.

But the high and transcendent energy of ecclesiastical cognizance
was completely developed in England in the thirteenth century, w^hen
it reached its culminating point, with the whole kingdom as the de-
fendant. From the year 1207 to the year 1213, the interdict of In-
nocent III. kept out of their lawful graves all the dead, from the
Channel to the Tweed. No funeral-bell in the kingdom was permitted
to toll ; the corpses were thi'own into ditches, without prayer or hal-
lowed observance, and the last drop of priestly malice and vengeance
was exhausted, in compelling all, who wished to marry, to solemnize
the ceremony in the church-yard.

It was during this unbridled career of papal aggrandizement
through these dark and dismal ages, that the ancient civil courts of
England gradually lost their original legitimate authority over places
of interment, as private property, and their proper and necessary con-
trol over the repose of the dead. The clergy monopolizing the judicial
power over the subject, burial was committed solely to ecclesiastical
cognizance, while the secular courts, stripped of all authority over the
dead, were left to confine themselves to the protection of the monu-
ment, and other external emblems of grief, erected by the living. But
these they guarded with singular solicitude. The tombstone, the
armorial escutcheons, even the coat and pennons, and ensigns of honor, ,
whether attached to the church edifice or elsewhere, were raised as
" heirlooms " to the dignity of inheritable estates, and descended
from heir to heir, Avho could hold even the parson liable for taking
them down or defacing them.

The reverent regard of the common law for these memorials is cu-
riously manifested by Coke in the " Third Institute," page 203, where
he expatiates upon a monumental stone, in his time more than four

326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

hundred years old, inscribed with the name of a Jewish rabbi, and
inlaid in the ancient wall of London — as if to intimate that the law
would pi'otect from injury that venerable piece of antiquity.

But at this point the courts of the common law stopped, and held,
in humble deference to the ecclesiastical tribunals, that the heir could
maintain no civil action for indecently or even impiously disturbing
the remains of his buried ancestor, declaring the only remedy to be-
long to the parson, who, having the freehold of the soil, could main-
tain trespass against such as should dig or disturb it. The line of
legal demarkation established in this subject, between the ecclesi-
astical and the common-law courts, is thus defined by Coke: "If a
nobleman, knight, esquire, etc., be buried in a church, and have his
coat-armor and pennons, with his arms, and such other insigns of honor
as belong to his degree or order, set up in the church, or if a grave-
stone he laid or made for memory of him., albeit the freehold of the
church be in the parson, and that these be annexed to the freehold,
yet cannot the parson, or any, take or deface them, but he is subject
to an action to the heire and his heires, in the honor and memory of
whose ancestor they were set up" (1st Inst., 4, 18 h). In the "Third
Institute," page 203, he asserts the authority of the Church, as follows :
" It is to be observed," says he, " that in every sepidchre that hath a
monument, tw^o things are to be considered, viz. : the monument, and
the sepulture or buriall of the dead. The huriall of the cadaver, that
is caro data vermihus'''' (flesh given to worms), "is nullius in bonis,
and belongs to ecclesiastical cognizance ; but as to the monument,
action is given, as hath been said, at the common law for the defacing
thereof."

With all proper respect for the legal learning of this celebrated
judge, we may possibly question both the wisdom and the etymology
of this verbal conceit, this fantastic and imaginary gift, or outstanding
grant to the worms. In the English jurisprudence, a corpse was not
given or granted to the worms, but it was taken and appropriated by
the Church. In Latin, it was a '■'■cadaver'''' only because it was some
thing falleyi (a cadendo), even as the remains of fallen cities, in the
letter of Sulpicius to Cicero ("Lit. Fam,," 7), are denominated '"'' cada-
vera oppidorum.''''

The learned lexicographers and philologists Martinius and the
elder Vossius, botli of them contemporaries of Coke, wholly dissent
■from his whimsical derivation. Martinius derives "cadaver" from
'■'■cadendo, quia stare non potest,^'' "Lexicon Philologicum Martinii,"
1720; while Vossius unequivocally reproves the derivation in ques-
tion, as an act of pleasant but inflated trifling. " jSuaviter nugantur^''
says he, " qui cadaver conflatum aiunt, ex tribus vocibus, caro data
vermibus " (" Etymologicon Linguae LatiuiB," Amsterdam, 1 662). And
yet this inflated Latin trifle, the ofispring only of Coke's characteristic
and inordinate love of epigram, has come down through the last three

THE OWNERSHIP OF THE DEAD. 327

hundred years, copied and recopied, and repeated again and again by
judges and legal writers, until it has imparted its tincture to the laws
of the dead, throughout every portion of the earth which listens to the
English tongue.

But even the dictum itself, if closely examined, will not be found
to assert that no individual can have any legal interest in a corpse.
It does not at all assert that the corpse, but only that the " hurialV is
" nullius in bonis ; " and this assertion was legally true in England
where it was made, for the peculiar reason above stated, that the tem-
poral office of burial had been brought within the exclusive, legal
cognizance of the Church, who could and would enforce all necessary
rules for the proper sepulture and custody of the body, thus rendering
any individual action in that respect unnecessary. The power thus
exercised by the ecclesiastical tribunals was not spiritual in its nature,
but merely temporal and juridical. It was a legal secular authority,
which they had gradually abstracted from the ancient civil courts, to
which it had originally belonged; and that authority, from the very
necessity of the case, in the State of New York, must now be vested
in its secular courts of justice.

The necessity for the exercise of such authority, not only over the
burial, but over the corpse itself, by some competent legal tribunal,
will appear at once if we consider the consequences of its abandon-
ment. If no one has any legal interest in a corpse, no one can legally
determine the place of its interment, nor exclusively retain its cus-
tody. A son will have no legal right to retain the remains of his
father, nor a husband of his wife, one moment after death. A father
cannot legally protect his daughter's remains from exposvire or insult,
however indecent or outrageous, nor demand their reburial, if dragged
from the grave. The dead deprived of the legal guardianship, how-
ever partial, which the Church so long had thrown around them, and
left unprotected by the civil courts, will become, in law, nothing but
public nuisances, and their custody will belong only to the guardians
of the public health, to remove and destroy the offending matter,
with all practicable economy and dispatch. The criminal courts may
punish the body-snatcher who invades the grave, but will be j^ower-
less to restore its contents. The honored remains of Alexander Ham-
ilton, reposing in our oldest church-yard, wrapped in the very bosom
of the community, built up to greatness by his consummate genius,
will become " nullius in bonis,'''' and belong to that community no
longer. The sacred relics of Mount Vernon may be torn from their
" mansion of rest," and exhibited for hire in our very midst, and no
civil authoritv can remand them to the tomb.

Applied to the case now under examination, the doctrine will
deny to a daughter, whose filial love had followed her father to the
grave, and reared a monument to his memory, all right to ask that
his remains, uprooted by the city authorities and cast into the street,.

328 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

shall again be decently interred. In England, with judicial functions
divided between the state and the Church, the secular tribunals would
protect the monument, the winding-sheet, the grave-clothes, even
down to the ribbon (now extant) which tied the queue ; but the
Church would guard the skull and bones. Which of these relics best
deserves the legal protection of the Supreme Court of law and equity
of the State of New York ? Does not every dictate of common-
sense and common decency demand a common protection, for the
grave and all its contents and appendages ? Is a tribunal like this
under any legal necessity for measuring its judicial and remedial
action by the narrow rule and fettered movement of the common law
of England, crippled by ecclesiastical interference ? May it not put
forth its larger powers and nobler attributes, as a court of enlightened
equity and reason ?

The due protection of the dead engaged the earnest attention of
the great lawgivers of the polished nations of antiquity. The laws
of the Greeks carefully guarded the private rights of individuals in
their places of intei'ment ; and a similar spirit shines forth, in the
clear intelligence and high refinement of the Roman jurisprudence.
In the " Digest of the Civil Law," pi. 47, title 12, we find the benefi-
cent and salutary provision, which gave a civil remedy, by the " Se-
pulchri violatl actio,'''' to every one interested, for any wanton distur-
bance of a sepulchre, and where " Ulpian, prsetoi", ait ; Cujus dolo
malo sepulchrum violatum esse dicetur in eum in factum judicium
dabo ut ei ad quern pertineat, quanti ob earn rem aequum, videbatur
condamnetur. Si nemo erit ad quern pertineat, sive agere nolet ;
quicunque agere volet, ei centum aureorum, actionem dabo " — a sep-
ulchre being comprehensively defined, by another clause, to be, any
place in which the body or bones of a man were deposited : " Sepul-
chrum est, uhi corpus ossave hominas, condita sunt.'''' — ("Dig.," pi. 7,

§ 2.)

Nor does the dictum of Coke, now under consideration, assert —
for historically it would not be true — that no individual right to pi'o-
tect the repose of the dead had ever existed, under the common law
of England. So far from that, we see in the provision above extracted
from the "Digest," that the individual right did exist, during the
greater part of the four hundred years when England, then called
Britain, formed part of the Roman Empire. In the six centuries of
Saxon rule which succeeded, as is forcibly observed by Chancellor
Kent, "the Roman civilization, laws, usages, arts, and manners, must
have left a deep impression, and have become intermixed and incor-
porated with Saxon laws and usages, and constituted the body ' of the
ancient English common law.'''''' — (1 Kent's "Commentaries," p. 547.)

The provision in question had been introduced into the Roman
jurisprudence, long before its systematic codification by Justinian.
It bears on its face the name of Ulpian, the great Roman jurist, who

THE OWNERSHIP OF THE DEAD. 329

not only lived as early as the second century of the Christian era, but
actually assisted (as Selden states in his "Appendix to Fleta ") in the
judicial administration of Britain, He was the contemporary, and
doubtless the personal and professional friend, of the celebrated prae-
torian-prefect Papinian, himself the most distinguished lawyer of his
age, and chief administrator, in the year 210, of the Roman govern-
ment at York, Selden glowingly depicts the judicial illumination of
that early British age, as flourishing alike under the " Jus Ca?sareura,"
the imperial law, and its able administration by those two most ac-
complished and illustrious Romans, " viri peritissimi, illustrissimique
e Romanis. — (Selden's "Appendix to Fleta," p, 478,)

Nor is there any reason to believe that the Romanized British,
when released, in the fifth century, from their political allegiance
to the empire, abandoned the civilization, or abrogated the laws or
usages which they had so long enjoyed; still less that they would
seek or desire, in any way, to withdraw from their sepulchres and
graves the protection which those laws bad so fully secured. There
is not a shadow of historical evidence that, under the Saxon invaders,
who succeeded the Roman governors, any less respect was shown for
the buried dead. On the contrary, it is distinctly shown by the Scan-
dinavian historians, that these partially civilized Saxons had been
specially taught to reverence their places of burial by their great
leader Odin, the father of Scandinavian letters, distinguished for his
eloquence and persuasive power, and especially commemorated as
being the first to introduce the custom of erecting gravestones in
honor of the dead.

In the dim and flickering light by which we trace the laws of these
long-buried ages, the fact is significant and instructive that, of the
several founders of the seven little Saxon kingdoms constituting the
Heptarchy, nearly all deduced their descent, more or less remotely,
from Odin himself. Hengist, who led the Saxon forces into Britain,
and became first King of Kent, claimed with peculiar pride to be his
great-grandson— rendering it quite improbable that during the rule
of himself or his race, or that of his kindred sovereigns, which lasted
from three to four hundred years, Saxonized Britain learned to aban-
don its buried ancestors, or hold them, in law, " nullius in bonis,"

Nor do we find, in the occasional inroads of the Danes temporarily
disturbing the Saxon governments of England, any evidence that they
obliterated, in the slightest degree, the reverential usages in the mat-
ter of the dead, coming down from Odin, The early laws of that rude
people, carefully collected in the twelfth century by the learned anti-
quary Saxo Grammaticus, speak with abhorrence of those who insult
the ashes of the dead, not only denouncing death upon the " alieni
corruptor cineris," but condemning the body of the ofiender to lie for-
ever unburied and unhouored. — (" Law of Frotho," Saxo Grammati-
cus, lib. V.)

330 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The law of the Franks, near neighbors of the Saxons, cited by
Montesquieu (" Spirit of Laws," lib. 30, chap. 19), not only banished
from society him who dug up a dead body for plunder, but prohibited
any one from relieving his wants, until the relatives of the deceased
consented to his readmission — thus legally and distinctly recognizing
the peculiar and personal interest of the relatives in the remains.

We are, indeed, so surrounded by proof of the universal reverence
of the Gothic nations for their buried ancestors that we are justified
in assuming it to be historically certain that the barbarous idea of
leaving the dead without legal protection never originated with
them; that the enlightened provision of the Roman jurisprudence,
which jDrotected in Britain the individual right to their undisturbed
repose, not only remained unaffected by the Saxon invasion, but was
implanted by that event still more deeply in the ancient common law
of England ; and that it must have been vigorously enforced, as well
by the earliest secular courts of the Anglo-Saxons, as in that transi-
tion period of their judicial history, when the sheriff" and the bishop,
sitting side by side on the bench, united the lay and the ecclesiastical
authority in a single tribimal.

Nor was the right to protect the dead eradicated by the Norman
conquest. It is true that the swarm of Romish ecclesiastics which
poured into England with the Conqueror exerted themselves actively
and indefatigably to monopolize for the Church the temporal author-
ity over the dead ; but that by no means proves that they were left
unprotected. On the contrary, it was a concentration in the ecclesi-
astical body of every right which any individual had previously pos-
sessed, to secure their yepose. The individual right was not extin-
guished, it was only absorbed by the Church, and held in suspense,
until some political revolution or religious reformation shoi;ld over-
throw the ecclesiastical power which had thus secured its jDOssession.

The ecclesiastical element was not eradicated from the framework
of the English Government, either by the Reformation or the act of
Parliament establishing the Protestant succession, but in the portion
of the world which we inhabit the work has been more thoroughly
accomplished. The English emigration to America — the most mo-
mentous event in political history — commenced in the very age when
Chief-Justice Coke was proclaiming, as a legal dogma, the exclusive
authority of the Church over the dead. The liberty-loving. God-fear-
ing Englishmen who founded these American States had seen enoug;h
and felt enough of " ecclesiastical cognizance," and they crossed a
broad and stormy ocean to a new and untrodden continent, to escape
from it forever.

It may well be that some of the legislative enactments of these
weather-beaten men, in the early morning of their political life, while
yet unused to the meridian light of religious freedom, are disfigured
by the same intolerance they had left behind them. They may have

THE OWNERSHIP OF THE DEAD.

331

even mingled in their general scheme of civil policy an ecclesiastical
element sterner and more searching than that of the Church from
which they dissented. The curious historian may analyze, if he will, the
earnest puritanisni of early New England, or even the sturdy bigotry
of early New Netherland ; it is enough for the Commonwealth of New
York, " by the grace of God, free and independent," to know that its
first written constitution, born in 1777, in the very depths of the Revo-
lutionary struggle, extirpated from the body j^olitic every lingering
element of ecclesiastical cognizance or spiritual authority. On all its
features it bears the unextinguishable love of religious freedom,
brought to our shores by the refugees from ecclesiastical tyranny,
not onlv in Ensfland, but in Holland and France. Its ever-memorable
declaration of religious independence — oifspring of the lofty intellect
and noble heart of John Jay, and growing bright with his Huguenot
blood — proclaims to the world the fundamental resolve, " not only to
expel civil tyranny, but also to guard against that spiritual oppres-
sion and intolerance wherewith the bigotry and ambition of weak
and wicked priests and princes have scourged mankind."

Following up this fixed determination, and yet with wise regard
and unaifected reverence for the Christian Church in its purity, the
illustrious authors of this Magna Charta of our religious liberty, pro-
hibit any "minister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination,"
from holding any office, civil or military, within the State; inscribing
in the organic law, thus unmistakably, their settled purpose to de-
liver both dead and living from ecclesiastical cognizance, to emanci-
pate the courts of justice from every j^riestly and media3val fetter, and
to allow them to breathe, through all coming time, the invigorating
air of ancient, Anglo-Saxon freedom.

It is a striking jDroof of the inveterate attachment, even of the
most enlightened nations, to prescriptive authority, that the monk-
ish idea of the church-yard as an engine of spiritual power not
only lingers in England, but is boldly proclaimed in its Very metrop-
olis. Within the last two years, the Archdeacon of London, in an
official address to the clergy of the Established Church within his dis-
trict, openly complains of modern legislation in the British Parlia-
ment, in establishing extra-mural cemeteries around their crowded
cities; for, says he, "the chi;rch and the church-yard of the parish
have hitherto been one of the strongest ties, to hind the people at
large to the communion of the Church." And again, " Burial hound,
I say, the people, in the metropolis, to the Established Church."

It certainly is not for us to interfere with the ecclesiastical law of
England, nor needlessly to ci'iticise its claims to the respect of the
people whom it binds. We only ask to banish its maxims, doctrines,
and practices from our jurisprudence, and to prevent them from guid-
ing, in any way, our judicial action. The fungous excrescence which
required centuries for its growth may need an efflux of ages to re-

332 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

move. Burial in the British Islands may possibly remain, for many
generations, subject exclusively to "ecclesiastical cognizance;" but
in the new, transjolanted England of the Western Continent the dead
will find protection, if at all, in the secular tribunals, succeeding, by
fair inheritance, to the primeval authority of the ancient, uncorrupted
common law.

It is gratifying, however, to perceive that, even in the English
courts, traces are becoming discernible of a disposition to recognize
the ancient right of burial at common law. In the year 1820, a legal
claim was made by one Gilbert to bury, in a London churchyard, the
body of his wife in an iron coffin, but it was resisted by the church-
wardens. Buzzard and Boyer, on the ground that it would injuriously
prolong the period when the natural decay of the body and of a
wooden inclosure would make room in the grave for another occu-
pant. An application had been previously made in the same matter
to the King's Bench, for a mandamus (reported in 2 Barn, and Aid.,
p. 806), on which occasion the distinguished counsel, Mr. Scarlett and
Mr. Chitty, claimed that the right of interment existed at common
law. In refusing the application, Chief-Justice Abbott said : " It may
be admitted, for the purpose of the present question, that the right
of sepulture is a common-law right^ but I am of opinion that the m,ode
of bicrial is a subject of ecclesiastical cognizance." Mr. Justice Hol-
royd, after duly rejjroducing Coke's caro data vermibus, declared that
" burial is as much a matter of ecclesiastical cognizance as the prayers
that are to be used, or the ceremonies that are to be performed at the
funeral."

The matter, which had caused some public disturbance in London,
was thereupon carried into the Ecclesiastical Court, then adorned by
the learning and talents of Sir William Scott (since Lord Stowell).
In the very elaborate and eloquent opinion delivered by the accom-
plished judge on that occasion (reported in 3 Phillimore, p. 335), he
reviews the whole history of burial, from the remotest antiquity, pliilo-
sophically tracing the progress of interment through the heathen and
the Christian ages. DraAving a distinction between the coffined and
uncoffined funerals of early times, he admits that many authoritative
writers assert the right of a parishioner to be buried in his own parish
church-yard, but he denies that it necessarily includes the right to
bury a " trunk or chest " with the body. " The riglit^'' says he,
" strictly taken, is, to be returned to the parent earth for dissolution,
and to be carried there in a decent and inoffensive manner." The
honest sense and feeling of the judge were evidently struggling with
ecclesiastical law and usage, but he came to the conclusion that no
mode of burial could be permitted which would prolong the natural
decay of the body, or needlessly preserve its identity ; that the lapse
of a single generation is practically sufficient for mingling human re-
mains with the earth, and destroying their identity; that, the dead

THE OWNERSHIP OF THE DEAD. 333

having no legal right to crowd the living, each buried generation
must give way to its successor ; and that, therefore, an iron coffin,
which would unduly and unlawfully prolong the period for identify-
ing the remains, was ecclesiastically inadmissible, unless an extra fee
wei'e paid to the Church,

The court will perceive, by the proofs in the case now under ex-
amination, that the remains of the exhumed body are identified beyond
doubt or question. The skeleton of the " posthumous man " is now
legally " standing in coui-t," distinctly individualized ; with his daugh-
ter, next and nearest of kin, at his side, to ask that the tribunal whose
order for widening the street ejected him from the grave will also
direct his decent interment.

It was the pride of Diogenes, and his disciples of the ancient
school of cynics, to regard burial with contempt, and to hold it utterly
unimportant whether their bodies should be burned by fire or de-
voured by beasts, birds, or worms ; and a French philosopher of mod-
ern days, in a somewhat kindred spirit, descants upon tlie " glorious
nothingness" of the grave, and that " nameless thing" — a dead body.
The secular jurispriidence of France holds it in higher and better re-
gard. In the interesting case reported in " Merlin's Repertoire," title
" Sepulture," where a large tract of land near Marseilles had necessarily
been taken for the burial of several thousand bodies, after the great
plague of 1720, it was adjudicated, by the secular court, that the land
should not be profaned by culture even of its surface, until the buried
dead had mouldered into dust. The eloquent ^9?««t?02/er of the avocat-
general upon that occasion dwells with emphasis on the veneration
which all nations, in all ages, have shown for the grave — adding,
however, with some little tinge of national irreverence, " C'est une
veneration tovjours revocable ! et toujours subordonnee au bien
public."

In portions of Europe, during the semi-barbarous state of society in
the middle ages, the law permitted a creditor to seize the dead body
of his debtor ; and, in ancient Egypt, a son could borrow money by
hypothecating his father's corpse ; but no evidence appears to exist
in modern jurisprudence of a legal right to convert a dead body to
any purpose of pecuniary profit.

It will be seen that much of the apparent difficulty of this subject
arises from a false and needless assumption in holding that nothing
is property that has not a pecuniary value. The real question is not
of the disposable, marketable value of a corpse, or its remains, as an
article of traffic, but it is of the sacred and inherent right to its cus-
tody, in order decently to bury it and secure its undistiirbed repose.
The insolent dogma of the English ecclesiastical law, that a child has
no such claim, no such exclusive power, no peculiar interest in the dead
body of its parent, is so utterly inconsistent with every enlightened
perception of personal right, so inexpressibly repulsive to every proper

334 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

moral sense, that its adoption would be an eternal disgrace to Ameri-
can jurisprudence. The establisliment of a right so sacred and pre-
cious ought not to need any judicial precedent. Our courts of justice
should place it, at once, where it should fundamentally rest forever,
on the deepest and most unerring instincts of human nature, and hold
it to be a self-evident right of humanity, entitled to legal j^rotection,
by every consideration of feeling, decency, and Christian duty. The
world does not contain a tribunal that would {)unish a son who should
resist, even unto death, any attempt to mutilate his father's corpse, or
tear it iyom. the grave for sale or dissection ; but where would he find
tlie legal right to resist, except in his peculiar and exclusive interest
in the body ?

The right to the repose of the grave necessarily implies the right to
its exclusive possession. The doctrine of the legal right to open a
grave in a cemetery, after a certain lapse of time, to receive another
tenant, however it may be sanctioned by custom in the English
church-yards, or by Continental usage at Pere-la-Chaise and else-
where, will hardly become acceptable to the American mind, still less
the Italian practice of hastening the decomposition of the dead by cor-
rosive elements. The right to the individuality of a grave, if it exist
at all, evidently must continue, so long as the remains of the occupant
can be identified — and the means of identifying can only be secured
and preserved by separate burial. The due and decent preservation
of human remains by separate burial is preeminently due to Christian
civilization, which, bringing in the cofiin and sarcophagus, superseded
the heathen custom of burning, and " gave," in Lord Stoweli's vivid
phrase, " final extinction to the sepulchral bonfires."

THE EELATIOXS OF WOMEX TO CRIME.

By ELY VAN DE "WAEKEE, M. D.

II.

I SHALL, in this paper, consider briefly the sexual and other physi-
cal and mental conditions which modify woman's relations to
crime. These conditions {S) mainly depend upon — 1. Age; 2. Hered-
ity ; 3. Physical ; and 4. Mental sexual peculiarities. In a former paper
of this series,' I believe I proved, beyond a doubt, that there are types of
mind which are purely the outcome of sex, and which define the men-
tal condition of the sexes. In that paper, criminal statistics were
used to assist in establishing the fact of sexual mental dilFerences.
Here the method is reversed, and sexual mental traits are employed
to explain the known differences in the extent and degree of crime
' Popular Science Monthly, July, 1875.

THE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO CRIME. 335

existing among men and women. This will involve the use of some
of the facts already considered. While it is true that the social condi-
tions, which we have so briefly analyzed,* bear upon woman chiefly
because she is as she is, yet they bear also upon the other sex. Many
of the sexual conditions we shall study relate to women alone, and,
therefore, in their criminal career, exist as a defining force. If, in
tlie ordinary concerns of life, women exhibit mental traits which serve
amply to distinguish them, and place limits to their activity, not less
in the tabulated histories of crime are the same distinctions and limits
found.

1, Age materially influences the extent and degree of crime in
both sexes. In relation to physical and functional development, age
exists as a defining force. It appears to aflect the criminal careers of
the sexes in two wTtys : by permitting such a degi-ee of bodily jDOwer
to be reached as to render j)Ossible criminal acts in difierent degrees;
and, the bodily powers remaining the same, the varying mental condi-
tions produce changes in the force and direction of the criminal im-
pulse. Each period of life, therefore, is characterized by degrees and
qualities of crime which belong to it. In other words, certain phases
of crime are perpetrated at one period of life in excess of any other
period. These remarks do not apply to both sexes equally, for these
periods do not correspond either as to age, or in the nature of the
otifense, the excess of which distinguishes one period from another.

For the purpose of studying the influence of age upon the criminal
career of women, I shall analyze the figures of JMi*. F. G. P. Nelson.''
The materials embraced in the table of Mr. Neison are for five years,
from 1834 to 1839; foi*, strange to say, tne Home-Ofiice returns, since
the year last named, to the date of Mr. Nelson's publication, ceased
to give the age and sex with reference to classes of crime. In order
to simplify the comparison, I shall take the number of male criminals
corresponding in age to the female, as the standard of measurement
in reference to any given division of crime. Fractions are omitted in
reference to both sexes.

At twelve years of age and younger the proportion of females to
males is 1 to 6 for crimes against persons, and for crimes against prop-
erty without violence for the same age the proportion is again 1 to 6.
Bearing in mind what has been said in a former chapter,^ that the
ratios of the sexes as to crimes against persons and property are 16 to
to 100 for the former, and 26 to 100 for the latter, and Avhich also cor-
respond to the difference in strength between the sexes, we see that
the element of sexual inequality in strength does not present itself as
a factor. In other words, the correspondence in the proportion of the
sexes to the two classes of crime represents physical equality, while

'Popular Sciknce Monthly, November, IS^S.

^ " Contributions to Vital Statistics," table xxix., London, 1857.

^ Popular Science Monthly, November, 1875.

336 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the difference (1 to 6) is the result of mental sexual traits, which, even
at this early age, present themselves. During the next four years the
proportion in reference to crimes against persons is nearly double, being
1 to 11 ; while against property the proportion decreases, being 1 to 5.
The average physical strength of the sexes for the second period (twelve
to sixteen years) is about equal, so that this sudden proportional in-
crease in crimes against persons in the male sex is the result almost
entirely of those qualities which mentally characterize the male. This
conclusion is rendered nearly positive by the fact that the maximum
is attained by the males in the next five years, sixteen to twenty-one,
and is only 1 to 12, during which period it is that the greatest difference
in strength between the sexes is developed ; yet this difference is repre-
sented by an increase of only 1 in the proportion. This agrees with
what we know of men, that the development of the passions keeps just in
advance of the development of the physical strength, just as the strength
declines in advance of the passions. Studying for a moment longer
this second period of life (twelve to sixteen) we learn this important
fact: that in woman's criminal career it is, proportionally with man,
the best period in her life, for at this time also occurs the greatest dif-
ference in crimes against property, 1 to 5, the maximal difference in the
sexes, as to crimes against persons, being reached at twenty-one years.
For the periods following of ten years each, the proportion steadily
decreases in the following order, 1 to 9, 1 to 7, until at the decade,
between forty and fifty years, we reach again the proportion of child-
hood (1 to 6). Now, the inference is, not that men grow better and
women worse ; but that the period of greatest passional intensity has
been passed, while in both sexes the will has attained its greatest
force. In other words, the period of caution has been reached. This
accords with the law that the greatest mental vigor corresponds with
structural completion. That this explanation is plausible is shown by
the fact that the last decade mentioned is the period in which the pro-
portion between the sexes in crimes against property is more nearly
equal, being 1 to 2 and a fraction, and which for former decades stead-
ily held at 1 to 3. There is a further confirmation of this, in the fact
that for two periods, fifty to sixty, and sixty and upward, crimes against
persons increase among men ; the proportion being 1 to 9 and 1 to 10
respectively. That this is not the result of any increase of morality
in the other sex, the uniform ratio of the sexes for crimes against
property, during the ages last named, renders probable. From the
same source we may obtain information which tends to show the truth
of the remark made by M. Quetelet, that the proportion of women as
to men increases " according to the necessity of the greater publicity
before the crime can be perpetrated." ' In the division of crime called
offenses against the cui-rency, we have the conditions favorable to a
more even proportion of the sexes. In an offense of this kind the

' Loc. cit., p. 90.

THE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO CRIME. 337

physical equality is not involved. It becomes a question of secrecy,
cunning, and shrewdness. These are mental qualities which exist
with equal force in the sexes. Consequently in this division of crime
for all ages we find a mean proportion of 1 to 2. Expressed in detail
the proportion is equal in childhood, 1 to 2 at the next period, and 1
to 3 for the three following, until, at the decade between forty and
fifty years, it drops to 1 to 2, and is equal again for the two following
periods. The influences which cause equality in the proportions at
the two extremes of ages are probably those which produce the same,
or nearly the same, results in relation to the other orders of crime.

Tills analysis of Mr. Nelson's statistics reveals to us a very inter-
esting period in the lives of both sexes — that between forty and fifty
years. For all the classes of crime examined, we find the sexes at
this period proportionally approaching equality ; being in two classes
actually at that of childhood. These two classes of crime are those
which involve the greatest violence, crimes against persons; and the
least, crimes against the currency. For the first, I have already
oifered a reasonable explanation, that of the period of caution ; but, in
reference to the latter, we must search further, in order to get at a
probable cause. In the last-named offense, we have as a character-
izing mental trait the very condition which explains the decrease in
the proportion for crimes against persons, and yet at the terminal
periods of life we find it obeying the same law. There is one fact
which forces itself upon the attention in connection with this ; that
the first approach to equality in the proportions of the sexes begins
suddenly at the term of life between forty and fifty years. This
period, for men especially, is that in which the forces engaged in
structural repair and waste are in equilibrium. It is one of structural
rest, but of functional activity. At no other period in the life of man,
therefore, is he physically more competent to meet the demands of his
mental life. With women, it is also a period of structural rest, linked
to a state of functional completion, so far as the prime motive of
sexual life is concerned. It appears reasonable, in view of this, that
physical factors be excluded as a probable cause of the phenomenon.
But there exist valid reasons for exempting the male sex partly
from the operation of the laws affecting this equalization in the pro-
portion of the sexes. These reasons show presumptively that the
subtile and obscure laws of crime operate more actively upon the female
than the male sex ; that, in obedience to these laws, her relations to
crime are prolonged into periods of life when men are becoming, to a
certain extent, exempt from their operations.

My friend Mr. R. L. Dugdale, of New York, in his brilliant study
of the natural history of crime,* by an analysis of Tables I. and II. of
Mr. Nelson,^ arrives at important facts. In the tables referred to,

» " Thirtieth Annual Report of the Prison Association, State of New York," p. 1T9.

a Loc. ciL, pp. 303, 304.
VOL. Tin. — 22

338 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

crime is classified according to age, and percentages are calculated
based upon the total population for each age specified. The maximum
for male criminals is found in the period of twenty to twenty-five
years, with a percentage to the total population of that age of .7702.
Between fifty and sixty years tlie percentage drops to only ,1604.
The same law holds good for women, but with modified ratios. Com-
paring the two sexes, the following results are reached : the tendency
to crime, as exhibited in its actual commission, for males at all ages
until sixty, diminishes at the rate of 33,333 per centum. For females
under similar conditions of age, it diminishes at the rate of 25 per
centum. Keeping in view the liability to error in a search through
the obscure underlying forces which seem to regulate human conduct
in the aggregate, it nevertheless appears reasonable to expect an ex-
planation of this phenomenon to lie in the physical rather than the
mental conditions of the sexes at the terminal periods of life. In the
decade which was above distinguished as that of physical equilibrium,
the governing principles seemed to be the expression of mental forces ;
but, on reaching the sixtieth year of life, the conditions are reversed.
While in the former the conditions of waste and repair were equal, in
the latter the repair of the physical forces is exceeded by the waste.
This is a law which applies equally to both sexes, but with this dif-
ference in the result : the occupation and the crimes which belong in
such great excess to men are those which require more physical
strength than the occupations and crimes which are adapted to the
lesser strength of women. Let us take a familiar illustration : after
a man at sixty years of age has retired from the scenes of his labor in
the mine, or field, or woi-kshop, the wife of the same age, or older, is
yet profitably engaged in her lighter domestic duties. She is yet con-
tributing as materially to the comforts of her Jamily as during the
more active years of the husband's life. Now, while it is quite evident
that we must regard the cause of the sudden more near equality in
the proportion of the sexes which presents itself in the period of life
between forty and fifty years as due to psychical changes, the evi-
dence is yet stronger that the ratio of the more rapid decrease of
male criminals at the more advanced period of fifty to sixty years is
due to the cause I have named — the rapid impairment of jDhysical
energy peculiar to the period. Since men greatly preponderate in
those phases of crime whicli demand strength, belligerency, and pub-
licity in the perpetration, the conclusion is legitimate that Crime
would rapidly decrease at the time of life in which these qualities are
wanting, or are impaired. If we examine the relation of men to the
orders of crime, in the perpetration of which these qualities are not
necessary, and in which strength may be replaced by caution, and
belligerency by cunning, as in offenses against the currency, and in
the sixth division of Mr. Nelson called " other offenses," embracing
the lighter shades of criminal conduct, we shall see that the propor-

THE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO CRIME. 339

tions between the sexes characteristic of earlier ages liold on un-
chauged through this last period of life.

It will be interesting to return for a moment and examine what
are the real proportions of the sexes, during the criminally most ac-
tive period of life, between twenty-one and thirty years. While we
wovild not expect in this period to find the groundwork laid for
criminal conduct, yet it is the term of life, in both sexes, in which the
effects of heredity, of early training, assume activity, and give shape
and color to the destiny of the individual. What goes before may be
called the germ period, and this the period of fruition. The years
which precede the meridional term of life are under the influence of
structural and intellectual genesis. It is the result of an aggregation
of forces tending to a common end. Life has not reached the level
of the conflicting emotions, passions, and activities, which at the com-
pletion of structure exist so potently. Activity at this period is the
expression of simple laws, which lead to a uniform result. Mr. Nel-
son, reasoning purely from statistics, ax'rives at the same conclusion,
that " in the juvenile period of life the tendency to crime is under
the influence of more constant laws or elements, and therefore shows
less fluctuation than in mature life." * The same conclusions hold
good at the closing years of life. Youth and old age unite in the de-
gree and quality of crime. The aggregate of crime in general is com-
mitted at the earlier part of this intermediate period of both sexes.
The crime of this decade of life is more than quadruple that of any
other. During this period occur those difierences in the tendency to
crime between the sexes which afl'ect the total results. During this
period, sex powerfully asserts its influence. Sex is no longer existing
potentially in incomplete structure ; but it is partly the sum of com-
pleted sti'uctural effort. Psychically, it is emotion, passion, and un-
conscious cerebral activity. Physically, it is the difference in devel-
opment and mechanical power. Each of these is a factor in the dif-
ferences real and apparent in the tendency to crime existing between
men and women. There are many other causes, some of the more im-
portant of which have already been referred to, and are of social rather
than sexual origin. But social factors operate more strongly at this
period than at any other. Society in all its phases is made up of the
activities of this period of life. Those forces which in their totality
express all there is of society, seem to concentrate and coincide with
those forces which express all there is of sex, and tend to one period
of life common to both men and women.

2. In this connection it is proper to examine the bearings of
women to the hereditary tendency to crime. Recent study of the
relations of sex to crime has shown that the hereditary element in the
criminal tendency may assume sexual phases. This is exemplified by
the law of movement in the direction of the least resistance. The he-

' loc. cit.f p. 407.

340 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

reditary taint being a fixed factor, it assumes expression in acts wliicli
are most in accord with sexual j^eculiarities. This is nearly equiva-
lent to Dr. Carpenter's theory of special mental aptitudes as giving
direction to the force of habit ; * except that its operation is .extended
to the hereditary transmissions of mental or physical qualities. It
is only in the early middle period of life that, from the nature of
thino-s, we would expect to find the criminal tendency under the
complete sway of sexual life. The inherited criminal tendency in
childhood and early youth finds its outlet in a viciousness common
to both sexes, or in the milder forms of crimes against property. This
is asserted on general princi2:)les. Dr. Carpenter remarks that " this
diversity may be in a great part attributed to changes in the physical
constitution. Thus, the sexual feeling, which has a most powerful
influence on the direction of the thoughts in adolescence, adult age,
and middle life, has comparatively little effect at the earlier and later
periods." ' This also accords with Mr. Dugdale's theory of criminal
analogues. This theory, in his important work,' is mainly brought out
in relation to the entailment of crime, and its truth lies in the fact
that, in the same family of criminals, while the males are thieves, the
females are prostitutes — one the equivalent or analogue of the other.
The same family, in the two extremes of life, cliildhood and old age,
exhibits pauperism as either the reality or promise of a criminal ca-
reer. From the fact that pauperism exists as a parasite upon pro-
ductive society, and preys upon society to its permanent injury, and
makes no return, it will be regarded in this paper as an equivalent to
crime against property. When we consider that criminals by entail-
ment are exposed to environments possessing essential qualities in
common, it is reasonable to expect that in such crime would conform
in a more regular manner to those laws which seem to govern moral
conduct, than in those who drift into crime through impulse or mis-
fortune. This, in a general sense, holds true. M. Prosper Despine,
in his "Psychologic Naturelle," shows that incendiarism exists in the
young of both sexes with the inherited taint, as a characteristic. M.
Despine brings out with great force a mental condition of those who
inherit crime that gives an additional cause for the operation of the
laws of crime with almost undeviating regularity upon this class.
This is the total or nearly total absence of the moral sense —
moral idiocy — which isolates the offspring of criminal families from
the cliildren of untainted birth. By this moral blindness they are
distinguished throughout their lives. Thus there are wanting in this
class the moral elements which effect or impede the criminal tendency
in others. The sense of right or wrong, the sense of shame or dis-
grace, in no way interferes with the criminal tendency. This is the
very condition necessary for the unembarrassed operation of Mr. Dug-

J " Principles of Mental Physiology," p. 3Y4. ' Loc. cit., p. S65.

8 " Thirtieth Report," etc., p. 146.

THE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO CRIME. 341

dale's very probable law of criminal analogues or equivalents. Hence
we may say, with almost positive certainty, that the children of both
sexes, with the inherited taint, are paupers ; that adult life in the
male is distinguished by pauperism and crime ; that adult life in the
female is devoted to prostitution, and that old age brings both sexes
again to the state of pauperism. And here again we encounter the
phenomenon revealed by an analysis of Mr. Nelson's statistics : the
criminal equivalent existing between childhood and senility. It is
childhood and old age joining hands, as it were, over the fevered and
crime-laden middle life. But, while the moral faculties are absent,
the mental powers are perverted to an equal degree. Any one accus-
tomed to closely observe confirmed criminals must be cognizant
of the fact that they are not as othar men in their habits of mind.
What one observes may not be called insanity, in the full meaning of
the word, but it appears to be a departure from the standard one
forms from mingling with average men. I have noticed this especially
with regard to women. From an experience of two years with crim-
inal women undergoing punishment in the Onondaga Penitentiary, I
cannot recall an instance in which menta. traits were wanting to dis-
tinguish them from the average woman. In this class mental pecu-
liarities may be intensified into actual insanity, and the tendency to it
exist stronger than in any other class. M. Ribot' shows that heredi-
tary crime and insanity are closely connected, and refers to Drs. Fer-
rus and Lelut, who have established the great frequency of insanity
among criminals. Dr. Bruce Thompson, in a recent work,'' supports
this by figures, and proves that twelve per centum of insanity occurs
among prisoners, with fifty per centum of recommittals, revealing the
strength of the inherited tendency.

The two more important inherited criminal traits which reveal
sexual types in their development are pauperism and prostitution.
Pauperism appears to be as characteristic of the male sex as prostitu-
tion is of the female. The ratio of sexes receiving relief is twenty per
cent, of men to thirteen per cent, of women, in out-door, and thirteen
per cent, of men to 9.5 per cent, of women in almshouse relief. De
Marsangy fixes the ratio at seven times more vagabondage among
men than women.' As a rule, women receive relief — if single — while
child-bearing, and if married they follow the condition of the hus-
band ; while widows drift back into prostitution. " Thus we find,"
remarks Mr. Dugdale, " that although the rates of wages are lower
for women, charity is much more frequent among men." * The above
relates to those who are known to receive relief. The hereditary
strength of the last-named ofiense is shown by the Juke family, so

1 " Heredity," p. 29. ^ a The Hereditary Nature of Crime."

3 " Etude sur la Moralite comparee de la Femme et de rHomme," par M. Bonne-
ville de Marsangy.
* Loc. cit., p. 161.

342 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

carefully studied by Mr. Dugdale — 52.4 per cent, of the women fol-
lowing prostitution. If hereditary disease accompanies the entail-
ment of crime, paujierism is a matter of course ; the subject rarely
attaining the rank of a criminal, except in the most petty of the
offenses against jDroperty. Pauperism is a condition of effeteness. It
represents the dregs which drop downward through the several strata
of society. Moraliy, it is the most negative condition of humanity.
The pauper has sunk below the level of crime. He abstains from
crime, not by moral restraints, but by inertness. The woman with
the same taint has sunk below the level of the active phases of crime.
She drifts into harlotry because it is easier than to steal. If disabled,
she becomes a j^auper, and thus oscillates between the almshouse and
the brothel — a passionless, nerA^eless being, with all the normal ener-
gies crushed out under the burden of entailed defects.

3. It is a more difficult matter to trace through the complicated
net-work of passions, emotions, and motives, which underlies the de-
grees and varieties of crime, the purely sexual physical factor. The
main difficulty consists in discriminating this from 'the mental sexual
differences which may exist as a cause of differentiation in crime. It
is essential, if possible, to gain an approximate idea of the limits of
these differences. With the present data at command, this can be
accomplished only in the most superficial manner. There exists here
more than the suspicion of a great law, the operation of which, if
fully known, would clear up many of the doubts lingering around this
important subject. While the physical differences will serve to ex-
plain the varying relations of the sexes to crime in their broader and
more superficial aspects, the mental sexual traits will serve to define
the differences in motives, tendencies, and innate moral proclivities of
the sexes. Instead of being satisfied with the 'simple explanation,
that the extent of man's excess over woman as a criminal represents
the excess of woman over man as a moral being, this knowledcre
would show that this is not a question of comparative morality alone,
but one of intellectual equivalents. To study carefully the scope of
the moral equivalents of the sexes is to reach the relations of things in
their genesis. It is in this way that the relations of the sexes socially,
as well as in crime, will be taken out of the realm of sentimentalism
and placed upon a basis of fact. Sentimental views of the relation-
ship of women to crime exist so generally, that they act as a force in
the way of an unbiased investigation of the subject. Take, for in-
stance, such a writer as M. de Marsangy,* whose motive is the serious
one of the amelioration of the penal laws in their bearings upon wom-
en, who gravely concludes that man has a "nature less noble, less
delicate, less perfect than woman," and yet quotes approvingly that,
" Das Weib ist Engel ocler TeiifeV^ It is this personal bias which has
hitherto obscured this subject, and rendered the work of such writers

'Zoc. «7., p. 133.

THE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO CRIME. 343

as M. de JMarsangy useless for scientific purposes. Fortunately, this
style of scientific writing belongs to the French school of both senti-
ment and morals.

The mental reflex result of physical strength, as expressed in the
criminal act, is more clearly shown in crimes against property at-
tended with violence. Distinguishing it from the other orders of
crime — malicious ofienses against property, and oflTenses without vio-
lence— we have the motive in the first-mentioned class narrowed to
the desire of possession, but so associated with the consciousness of
personal strength that it is employed as an agent of the crime. Bel-
ligerency, revenge, and other emotions which tend to crime, are
absorbed in the order of malicious ofi'enses, and thus the field is left
clear, iu the class under analysis, for the full play of the physical
factor. Omitting ages under sixteen years, as being too nearly equal
physically in the sexes, and basing our proportion on the number of
criminals of both sexes from that age to twenty-one years, the pro-
portion is 1 woman to 18 men, while for the ten years following it is
1 to 20.' This is twice the proportion between the sexes for crimes
against persons, and seven times that for crimes against property
without violence, for corresponding ages. When we contrast this
with the fact that the mean proportion between the sexes for all
crimes against property is 1 to 4, and for crimes against the person
it is 1 to 6, we may form an idea of the enormous influence of physi-
cal strength as a restraint to woman's criminal tendencies. "We have,
however, to modify this somewhat, by giving more or less value to
woman's tendency to avoid those crimes which require publicity in
both the planning and perpetration, and which is implied in violent
crimes against property ; but even giving this ti'ait due weight, the
physical factor as exhibited in this order of crime is the one which,
more than any other, defines its character. While woman's deficient
physical strength, compared to man's, acts so powerfully as an obsta-
cle in the division of crime just considered, it is highly probable that
in other offenses it also acts in the same manner, varying in amount,
as this quality is necessary to the successful perpetration of the crime.
In those crimes in which this factor does not enter, we at once notice
that the ratios of the sexes approximate. In adultery, for instance,
the proportion of the sexes is about the same.'' In infanticide,
I have already remarked on the ease with which women enter upon
a criminal course, when this conforms to the direction of purely
sexual qualities ; and, undoubtedly, intensity is added by the absence
of physical strength as a requisite to the perpetration of the crime.
In crimes against the currency, the same near equality in the number
of the sexes involved may be noticed, and the fact that the propor-
tions for the most active period of adult life and for childhood and
old age are about the same renders it highly probable that this

' Neiaon, he. cit. * De Marsangy, loc. cil.

344 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

equality is accounted for by tlie physical strength required for its
perpetration being possessed equally by the sexes. In crimes against
persons, the influence of this factor can be traced, but not in so marked
a manner as in the crimes referred to. In poisoning, for instance, the
ratio between the sexes is 91 women to 100 men,' and while active
mental traits may in part exist as causes for this nearly equal ratio of
the sexes, yet the total absence of any need of physical strength must
be given due value. Poison is essentially a weajjon of weakness. It
figures largely in history as the agent of women and politicians. One
reason, which probably existed in mediaaval days, but which cannot be
regarded in modern times, was the difficulty of detection in cases of
death by poisoning. It was surrounded by an atmosphere of horrible
suspicion, which was never relieved by certainty. It Avas selected as
a political agent by reason of this secrecy, by both sexes, and thus at
this period had no sexual qualities. Modern advances in chemistry
have rendered poisoning one of the most surely detected of all crimes,
and its perpetration has become a characteristic of the weak and cow-
ardly. In some other offenses, as in incendiarism, in which physical
strength is as unessential as in poisoning, the ratio between the sexes
falls to 34 in 100. Although this is a crime well within the compass
of woman's physical abilities, yet it involves other elements, which
deter women from its perpetration. Motive, which is the exciting
cause of crime and enters largely into the intensity of tbe tendency,
cannot act so powerfully in the latter as the former crime. In order
to kill, a stronger motive is required than to burn. Incendiarism
requires considerable personal exposure, and danger of immediate
detection. Parricide with a ratio of 50 to 100, and wounding of par-
ents with a ratio of 22 to 100 (Quetelet), offer a remarkable contrast
to murder and the wounding of sti'angers, with a ratio taken together
of 9 to 100. The necessity of physical strength exists equally in the
perpetration of these crimes. The marked difference in ratio, there-
fore, must be explained by other means. Opportunity and domes-
ticity, already referred to in a former paper, exist largely as the cause
of the difference. M. Quetelet, speaking in general terms of the in-
fluence of opportunity and domestic habits upon woman's criminal
career, remarks: "They can only conceive and execute guilty projects
on individuals with whom they are in the greatest intimacy ; thus,
compared with man, her assassinations are more often in her family
than out of it." It would be difficult to present a stronger argument
of the influence of woman's social position as a restraint to crime.
As we observe in the crimes just referred to, it is not the enormity of
the offense which restrains, for we have in parricide twelve times the
frequency of murder; it is not weakness, for then parricide, murder,
and wounding, should agree in frequency. We are able to trace in
this no influence of morality, it is simply the result of the varying
degrees of opportunity, domestic life, and mental peculiarities.

' Quetelet, loc. cit., p. 91.

THE HISTORY OF. TWINS, ETC. 345

THE HISTOEY OF TWIjS^S, AS A CKITEKION OF THE
RELATIVE POWERS OF KATURE K^T> NURTURE.'

By FRANCIS GALTON, F. R. S

rriHE exceedingly close resemblance attributed to twins Las been
* JL the subject of many novels and inlays, and most persons have
felt a desire to know upon what basis of truth those works of fiction
may rest. But twins have many other claims to attention, one of
which will be discussed in the present memoir. It is, that their
history aifords means of distinguishing between the efiects of ten-
dencies received at birth and of those that were imposed by the
circumstances of their after-lives ; in other words, between the effects
of nature and of nurture. This is a subject of especial importance
in its bearings on investigations into mental heredity, and I, for my
part, have keenly felt the difiiculty of drawing the necessary dis-
tinction whenever I tried to estimate the degree in which mental
ability was, on the average, inherited. The objection to statistical
evidence in proof of its inheritance has always been : " The persons
whom you compare may have lived under similar social conditions
and have had similar advantages of education, but such prominent
conditions are only a small part of those that determine the future
of each man's life. It is to trifling accidental circumstances that the
bent of his disposition and his success are mainly due, and these you
leave wholly out of account — in fact, they do not admit of being
tabulated, and therefore your statistics, however plausible at first
sight, are really of very little use." No method of inquiry which I
have been able to carry out — and I have tried many methods — is
wholly free from this objection. I have therefore attacked the prob-
lem from the opposite side, seeking for some new method by which
it would be possible to weigh in just scales the respective effects of
nature and nui'ture, and to ascertain their several shares in framing
the disposition and intellectual ability of men. The life-history of
twins supplies what I wanted. We might begin by inquiring about '
twins who were closely alike in boyhood and youth, and who were
educated together for many years, and learn whether they subse-
quently grew unlike, and, if so, what the main causes were which, in
the opinion of the family, produced the dissimilarity. In this way
Ave may obtain much direct evidence of the kind we want ; but we
can also obtain yet more valuable evidence by a converse method.
We can inquire into the history of twins who were exceedingly unlike
in childhood, and learn how far they became assimilated under the

' In my "English Men of Science," 1874, p. 12, I treated this subject in a cursory
way. It subsequently occurred to me that it deserved a more elaborate inquiry, which
I made, and of which this paper is a result.

346 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

influence of their identical nurtures ; having the same home, the same
teachers, the same associates, and in every other respect the same
surroundings.

My materials were obtained by sending circulars of inquiry to
persons who were either twins themselves or the near relations of
twins. The printed questions were in thirteen groups; the last of
them asked for the addresses of other twins known to the recipient
who might be likely to respond if I wrote to them. This happily led
to a continually- widening circle of correspondence, which I pursued
imtil enouo;h material was accumulated for a general reconnaissance
of the subject.

There is a large literature relating to twins in their purely surgical
and physiological aspect. The reader interested in this should con-
sult "Die Lehre von den Zwillingen," von L. Kleinwiichter, Prague,
1871 ; it is full of references, but it is also disfigured by a number of
numerical mis^^rints, especially in page 26. I have not found any
book that treats of twins from my present point of view^

The reader will easily understand that the word "twins" is a
vague expression, which covers two very dissimilar events; the one
corresponding to the progeny of animals that have usually more than
one young one at a birth, and the other corresponding to those double-
yolked eggs that are due to two germinal spots in a single ovum.
The consequence of this is, that I find a curious discontinuity in my
results. One would have expected that twins would commonly be
found to possess a certain average likeness to one another; that a few
would greatly exceed that degree of likeness, and a few would greatly
fall short of it ; but this is not at all the case. Twins may be divided
into three groups, so distinct that there are not many intermediate
instances; namely, strongly alike, moderately alike, and extremely
dissimilar. When the twins are a boy and a girl, they are never
closely alike ; in fact, their origin never corresponds to that of the
above-mentioned double-yolked eggs.

I have received about eighty returns of cases of close similarity,
thirty-five of which entered into many instructive details. In a few
of these not a single point of difierence could be specified. In the re-
mainder, the color of the hair and eyes was almost always identical ;
the height, weight, and strength were generally very nearly so, but I
have a few cases of a notable difference in these, notwithstanding the
resemblance was otherwise very near. The manner and address of
the thirty-five pairs of twins are usually described as being very simi-
lar, though there often exists a difference of expression familiar to
near relatives but unperceived by strangers. The intonation of the
voice when speaking is commonly the same, but it frequently happens
that the twins sing in different keys. Most singularly, that one point
in which similarity is rare is the handwriting. I cannot account for
this, considering how strongly handwriting runs in families, but I am

THE HISTORY OF TWIXS, ETC. 347

sure of the fact. I have only one case in -wliicli noloody, not even the
twins themselves, could distinguish their own notes of lectures, etc. ;
barely two or three in which the handwriting was undistinguishable
by others, and only a few in which it was described as closely alike.
On the other hand, I have many in which it is stated to be unlike, and
some in which it is alluded to as the only point of diiference.

One of my inquiries was for anecdotes as regards the mistakes
made by near relatives, between the twins. They are numerous, but
not veiy varied in character. When the twins are children, they have
commonly to be distinguished by ribbons tied round their wrist or
neck ; nevertheless, the one is sometimes fed, physicked, and whipped
by mistake for the other, and the description of these little domestic
catastrophes is usually given to me by the mother, in a phraseology
that is somewhat touching by reason of its seriousness. I have one
case in which a doubt remains whether the children were not changed
in their bath, and the presumed A is not really B, and vice versa. In
another case an artist was engaged on the portraits of twins who were
between three and four years of age ; he had to lay aside his work for
three weeks, and, on resuming it, could not tell to which child the
respective likenesses he had in hand belonged. The mistakes are less
numerous on the part of the mother during the boyhood and girlhood
of the twins, but almost as frequent on the part of strangers. I have
many instances of tutors being unable to distinguish their twin puj^ils.
Thus, two girls used regularly to impose on their music-teacher when
one of them wanted a whole holiday ; they had their lessons at sepa-
rate hours, and the one girl sacrificed herself to receive two lessons on
the same day, while the other one enjoyed herself. Here is a brief
and. comjDrehensive account: "Exactly alike in all, their school-mas-
ters never could tell them apart ; at dancing-parties they constantly
changed partners without discovery; their close resemblance is
scarcely diminished by age." The following is a typical school-boy
anecdote: Two twins were fond of playing tricks, and complaints
were frequently made ; but the boys would never own which was the
guilty one, and the complainants were never certain which of the two
he was. One head-master used to say he would never flog the inno-
cent for the guilty, and another used to flog both.

No less than nine anecdotes have reached me of a twin seeing his or
her reflection in a looking-glass, and addressing it, in the belief that it
was the other twin in person. I have many anecdotes of mistakes
when the twins were nearly grown np. Thus : " Amusing scenes
occurred at college when one twin came to visit the other ; the porter
on one occasion refusing to let the visitor out of the college-gates, for,
though they stood side by side, he professed ignorance as to which he
ought to allow to depart."

Children are usually quick in distinguishing between their parent
and his or her twin ; but I have two cases to the contrary. Thus, the

348 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

daughter of a twin says : " Such was the marvelous similarity of their
features, voices, manner, etc., that I remember, as a child, being very
much puzzled, and I think, had my aunt lived much with us, I should
have ended by thinking I had two mothers," The other, a father of
twins, remarks : " We were extremely alike, and are so at this mo-
ment, so much so that our children up to five and six years old did
not know us apart."

I have four or five instances of doubt durinsi: an enea^ement of
marriage. Thus : " A married first, but both twins met the lady to-
gether for the first time, and fell in love with her there and then. A
managed to see her home and to gain her affection, though B Avent
sometimes courting in his place, and neither the lady nor her parents
could tell which was which." I have also a German letter, written in
quaint terms, about twin brothers who married sisters, but could not
easily be distinguished by them.* In the well-known novel by Mr.
Wilkie Collins of " Poor Miss Finch," the blind girl distinguishes the
twin she loves by the touch of his hand, which gives her a thrill that
the touch of the other brother does not. Philosophers have not, I
believe, as yet investigated the conditions of such thrills ; but I have
a case in which Miss Finch's test would have failed. Two persons,
both friends of a certain twin lady, told me that she had frequently
remarked to them that " kissing her twin sister was not like kissing
her other sisters, but like kissing herself — her own hand, for example."

It would be an interesting experiment, for twins who were closely
alike, to try how far dogs could distinguish between them by scent.

I have a few anecdotes of stransre mistakes made between twins in
adult life. Thus an ofiicer writes : " On one occasion when I returned
from foreign service, my father turned to me and said, ' I thought
you were in London,' thinking I was my brother — yet he had not
seen me for nearly four years — our resemblance was so great,"

The next and last anecdote I shall give is, perhaps, the most
remarkable of those that I have ; it was sent me by the brother of the
twins, who were in middle life at the time of its occurrence : " A was
again coming home from India, on leave ; the ship did not arrive for
some days after it was due ; the twin brother B had come up from
his quarters to receive A, and their old mother was very nervous.
One morning A rushed in, saying, 'O mothei', how are you?' Her
answer was, 'Xo, B, it's a bad joke ; you know how anxious I am ! '
and it was a little time before A could persuade her that he was the
real man."

Enough has been said to prove that an extremely close personal

' I take this opportunity of withdrawing an anecdote, happily of no great importance,
published in " Men of Science," p. 14, about a man personating his twin brother for a
joke at supper, and not being discovered by his wife. It was told me on good authority ;
but I have reason to doubt the fact, as the story is not known to the son of one of the
twins. However, the twins in question were extraordinarily alike, and I have many anec-
dotes about them sent me by the latter gentleman.

THE HISTORY OF TWIN'S, ETC. 3^9

resemblance frequeutly exists between twins of the same sex ; and
that, although the resemblance usually diminishes as they grow into
manhood and womanhood, some cases occur in which the resemblance
is lessened in a hardly perceptible degree. It must be borne in mind
that the divergence of development, when it occurs, need not be as-
cribed to the effect of different nurtures, but tliat it is quite possible
that it maybe due to the appearance of qualities inherited at birth,
tliough dormant, like gout, in early life. To this I shall recur.

There is a curious feature in the character of the resemblance be-
tween twins, which has been alluded to by a few correspondents ; it
is well illustrated by the following quotations. A mother of twins
says : " There seemed to be a sort of interchangeable likeness in
expression, that often gave to each the effect of being more like his
brother than himself." Again, two twin brothers, writing to me,
after analyzing their points of resemblance, which are close and nu-
merous, and pointing out certain shades of difference, add : "These
seemed to have marked us through life, though for a while, when we
were first separated, the one to go to business, and the other to col-
lege, our respective characters were inverted ; we both think that at
that time we each ran into the character of the other. The j)roof of
this consists in our own recollections, in our correspondence by letter,
and in the views which we then took of matters in which we were
interested." In explanation of this apparent interchangeableness, we
must recollect that no character is simple, and that in twins who
stx'ongly resemble each other, every expression in the one may be
matched by a corresponding expression in the other, but it, does not
follow that the same expression should be the dominant one in both
cases. Kow, it is by their dominant expressions that we should dis-
tinguish between the twins ; consequently, when one twin has tempo-
rarily the expression which is the dominant one in his brother, he is
apt to be mistaken for him. There are also cases where the develop-
ment of the two twins is not ^tncilj pari i^assu ; they reach the same
goal at the same time, but not by identical stages. Thus : A is born
the larger, then B overtakes and surpasses A, and is in his turn over-
taken by A, the end being that the twins become closely alike. This
process would aid in giving an interchangeable likeness at certain
periods of their growth, and is undoubtedly due to nature more fre-
quently than to nurture.

Among my tliirty-five detailed cases of close similarity, there are
no less than seven in which both twins suffered from some special
ailment or had some exceptional peculiarity. One twin writes that she
and her sister " have both the defect of not being able to come down-
stairs quickly, which, however, was not born with them, but came on
at the age of twenty." Another pair of twins have a slight congenital
ilexure of one of the joints of the little finger; it was inherited from
a grandmother, but neither parents, nor brothers, nor sisters, show the

350 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

least trace of it. In another case, one was born ruptared, and the
other became so at six months old. Two twins at the age of twenty-
thi*ee were attacked by toothache, and the same tooth had to be ex-
tracted in each case. There are curious and close corresj)ondences
mentioned in the falling off of the hair. Two cases are ilientioned of
death from the same disease ; one of which is very affecting. The
outline of the story was, that the twins were closely alike and singu-
larly attached, and had identical tastes ; they both obtained govern-
ment clerkships, and kept house together, when one sickened and died
of Bright's disease, and the other also sickened of the same disease
and died seven months later.

In no less than nine out of the thirty-five cases does it appear that
both twins are apt to sicken at the same time. This implies so inti-
mate a constitutional resemblance, that it is proper to give some quo-
tations in evidence. Thus, the father of two twins says : " Their
general health is closely alike ; whenever one of them has an illness,
the other invariably has the same within a day or two, and they
usually recover in the same order. Such has been the case with
whooping-cough, chicken-pox, and measles ; also with slight bilious
attacks, which they have successively. Latterly, they have had a fe-
verish attack at the same time." Another parent of twins says : " If
any thing ails one of them, identical symptoms nearly always appear
in the other; this has been singularly visible in two instances during
the last two months. Thus, when in London, one fell ill with a violent
attack of dysentery, and within twenty-four hours the other had pre-
cisely the same symptoms." A medical man writes of twins with
whom he is well acquainted : " While I knew them, for a period of
two years, there was not the slightest tendency toward a difference in
body or mind ; external influences seemed powei'less to jDroduce any
dissimilarity." The mother of two other twins, after describing how
they were ill simultaneously up to the age of fifteen, adds that they
shed their first milk-teeth within a few hours of each other.

Trousseau has a very remarkable case (in the chapter on asthma)
in his important work " Clinique Medicale." (In the edition of 1873,
it is in vol. ii., p. 473,) It was quoted at length in the original French,
in Mr. Darwin's " Variation under Domestication," vol, ii., p. 252. The
following is a translation :

" I attended twin brothers so extraordinarily alike, that it was im-
possible for me to tell which was which without seeing them side by
side. But their physical likeness extended still deeper, for they had,
so to speak, a yet more remarkable pathological resemblance. Thus,
one of them, whom I saw at the ISTeothermes at Paris, suffering from
rheumatic ophthalmia, said to me, 'At this instant my brother must
be having an ophthalmia like mine;' and, as I had exclaimed against
such an assertion, he showed me a few days afterward a letter just
received by him from his brother, who was at that time at Vienna,

TEE HISTORY OF TWINS, ETC. 351

and wlio expressed himself in these words : ' I have my ophthalmia ;
yon must be having yours.' However singular this story may appear,
the fact is none the less exact ; it has not been told to me by others,
but I have seen it myself; and I have seen other analogous cases in
ray practice. These twins were also asthmatic, and asthmatic to a
frightful degree. Though born in Marseilles, they were never able
to stay in that town, where their business affairs required them to go,
without having an attack. Still more strange, it was sufficient for
them to get away only as far as Toulon in order to be cured of the
attack caught at Marseilles. They traveled continually, and in all
countries, on business affairs, and they remarked that certain localities
were extremely liurtful to them, and that in others they were free
from all asthmatic symptoms,"

I do not like to pass over here a most dramatic tale in the " Psycho-
logic Morbide" of Dr. J, Moreau (de Tours), Medecin de I'llospice de
Bicetre, Paris, 1859, p, 172. lie speaks "of two twin brothers who
had been confined, on account of monomania, at Bicetre. . . . Physi-
cally the tAvo young men are so nearly alike that the one is easily
mistaken for the other. Morally, their resemblance is no less com-
i:)lete, and is most remarkable in its details. Thus, their dominant
ideas are absolutely the same. They both consider themselves subject
to imaginary persecutions ; the same enemies have sworn their de-
struction, and employ the same means to effect it. Both have hallu-
cinations of hearing. They are both of them melancholy and morose ;
they never address a word to anybody, and will hardly answer the
questions that others address to them. They always keep apart, and
never communicate with one another. An extremely curious fact
which has been frequently noted by the superintendents of their sec-
tion of the hospital, and by myself, is this : From time to time, at
very irregular intervals of two, three, and many months, without ap-
preciable cause, and by the purely spontaneous effect of their illness,
a very marked change takes place in the condition of the two broth-
ers. Both of them, at the same time, and often on the same day,
rouse themselves from their habitual stupor and prostration ; they
make the same complaints, and they come of their own accord to the
physician, with an urgent request to be liberated, I have seen this
strange thing occur, even when they were some miles apart, the one
beinof at Bicetre and the other living at Saint-Anne,"

Dr. Moreau ranked as a very considerable medical authority, but I
cannot wholly accept this strange story without fuller information.
Dr. Moreau writes it in too off-hand a way to carry the conviction that
he had investigated the circumstances with the skeptic spirit and scru-
pulous exactness which so strange a phenomenon would have required.
If full and precise notes of the case exist, they certainly ought to be
published at length. I sent a copy of this passage to the principal
authorities among the physicians to the insane in England, asking if

352 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

they had ever witnessed any similar case. In reply, I have received
three noteworthy instances, but none to be compared in their exact •
parallelism with that just given. The details of these three cases are
painful, and it is not necessary to my general purpose that I should
further allude to them.

There is anotlier curious French case of insanity in twins, which
was pointed out to me by Prof. Paget, described by Dr. Baume in the
"Annales Medico-Psychologiques," 4me serie, vol. i., 1863, p. 312, of
which the following is an abstract. The original contains a few more
details, but is too long to quote : Fran9ois and Martin, fifty years of
age, worked as railroad-contractors between Quimper and Chateaulin.
Martin had twice had slight attacks of insanity. On January 15th a
box in which the twins deposited their savings was robbed. On the
night of January 23d-24th both Frangois (who lodged at Quimper)
and Martin (who lived with his wife and children at St.-Lorette, two
leagues from Quimper) had the same dream at the same hour, 3
A. M., and both awoke with a violent start, calling out, " I have caught
the thief! I have caught the thief! they are doing mischief to my
brother ! " They were both of them extremely agitated, and gave
way to similar extravagances, dancing and leajjing. Martin sprang
on his grandchild, declaring that he was the thief, and would have
strangled him if he had not been prevented ; he then became steadily
worse, complained of violent jiains in his head, went out-of-doors on
some excuse, and tried to drown himself in the river Steir, but was
forcibly stopped by his son, who had watched and followed him. He
was then taken to an asylum by gendarmes, where he died in three
days. Frangois, on his part, calmed down on the morning of the 24th,
and employed the day in inquiring about the robbery. By a strange
chance, he crossed his brother's path at the moment when the latter
was struggling with the gendarmes; then he himself became mad-
dened, giving way to extravagant gestures and making incoherent
proposals (similar to those of his brother). He then asked to be bled,
which was done, and afterward, declaring himself to be better, w^ent
out on the pretext of executing some commission, but really to drown
himself in the river Steir, which he actually did, at the very spot
where Martin had attempted to do the same thing a few hours pre-
viously !

The next point which I shall mention, in illustration of the ex-
tremely close resemblance between certain twins, is the similarity in
the association of their ideas. No less than eleven out of the thirty-
five cases testify to this. They make the same remarks on the same
occasion, begin singing the same song at the same moment, and so on ;
or one would commence a sentence, and the other would finish it. An
observant friend graphically described to me the efiect produced on
her by two such twins whom she had met casually. She said:
"Their teeth grew alike, they spoke alike and together, and said the

THE HISTORY OF TWINS, ETC. 353

same things, and seemed just like one person," One of the most cu-
rious anecdotes that I have received concerning this similarity of
ideas was that one twin A, who happened to be at a town in Scot-
land, bought a set of champagne-glasses which caught his attention,
as a surprise for his brother B ; while, at the same time, B, being in
England, bought a similar set of precisely the same pattern as a sur-
prise for A. Other anecdptes of a like kind have reached me about
these twins.

The last point to which I shall allude regards the tastes and dis-
positions of the thirty-five pairs of twins. In sixteen cases — that is,
in nearly one-half of them — these were described as closely similar;
in the remaining nineteen they were much alike, but subject to cer-
tain named differences. These difierences belonged almost wholly to
such groups of qualities as these: The one was the more vigorous,
fearless, energetic ; the other was gentle, clinging, and timid ; or,
again, the one was more ardent, the other more calm and gentle ; or
again, the one was the more independent, original, and self-contained;
the other the more generous, hasty, and vivacious. In short, the
difierence was always that of intensity or energy in one or other of
its protean forms : it did not extend more deeply into the structure
of the characters. The more vivacious might be subdued by ill
health, until he assumed the character of the other ; or the latter
might be raised by excellent health to that of the former. The dif-
ference is in the key-note, not in the melody.

It follows, from what has been said concerning the similar dispo-
sitions of the twins, the similarity in*the associations of their ideas,
of their special ailments, and of their illness generally, that the re-
semblances are not superficial, but extremely intimate. I have only
two cases altogether of a strong bodily resemblance being accompa-
nied by mental diversity, and one case only of the converse kind. It
must be remembered that the conditions which govern extreme like-
ness between twins are not the same as those between ordinary broth-
ers and sisters (I may have hereafter to write further about this) ; and
that it would be wholly incorrect to generalize, from what has just
been said about the twins, that mental and bodily likeness are invari-
ably coordinate, such being by no means the case.

We are now in a position to understand that the phrase " close
similarity" is no exaggeration, and to realize the value of the evi-
dence about to be adduced. Here are thirty-five cases of twins who
were " closely alike " in body and mind when they were young, and
who have been reared exactly alike up to their early manhood and
womanhood. Since then the conditions of their lives have changed:
what change of conditions has produced the most variation?

It was with no little interest that I searched the records of the
thirty-five cases for an answer; and they gave an answer that was
not altogether direct, but it was very distinct, and not at all what L
VOL. Tin.— 23

354 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

had expected. They showed me that in some cases the resemblance
of body and mind had continued unaltered up to old age, notwith-
standing very different conditions of life ; and they showed in the
other cases that the parents ascribed such dissimilarity as there was,
wholly, or almost wholly, to some form of illness. In four cases it
was scarlet fever; in one case, typhus; in one, a slight effect was as-
cribed to a nervous fever : then I find effects from an Indian climate ;
from an illness (unnamed) of nine months' duration ; from varicose
veins ; from a bad fracture of the leg, which prevented all active ex-
ercise afterward ; and there were three other cases of ill health. It
will be sufficient to quote one of the returns; in this the father

writes :

"At birth they were exactly alike, except that one was born with
a bad varicose affection, the effect of which had been to prevent any
violent exercise, such as dancing or running, and, as she has grown
older, to make her more serious and thoughtful. Had it not been for
this infirmity, I think the two would have been as exactly alike as it
is possible for two women to be, both mentally and physically ; even
now they are constantly mistaken for one another."

In only a very few cases is there some allusion to the dissimilarity
being partly due to the combined action of many small influences, and
in no case is it largely, much less wholly, ascribed to that cause. In
not a single instance have I met with a word about the growing dis-
similarity being due to the action of the firm free-will of one or both
of the twins, which had triumphed over natural tendencies ; and yet
a large proportion of my cori;^spondents happen to be clergymen
whose bent of mind is opposed, as I feel assured from the tone of
their letters, to a necessitarian view of life.

It has been remarked that a growing diversity between twins may
be ascribed to the tardy development of naturally diverse qualities ;
but we have a right, upon the evidence I have received, to go further
than this. We have seen that a few twins retain their close resem-
blance through life ; in other words, instances do exist of thorough
similarity of nature, and in these external circumstances do not create
dissimilarity. Therefore, in those cases, where there is a growing di-
versity, and where no external cause can be assigned, either by the
twins themselves or by their family for it, we may feel sure that it
must be chiefly or altogether due to a want of thorough similarity in
their nature. Nay, further, in some cases it is distinctly affirmed that
the growing dissimilarity can be accounted for in no other way. We
may therefore broadly conclude that the only circumstance, within the
range of those by which persons of similar conditions of life are
affected, capable of producing a marked effect on the character of
adults, is illness or some accident which causes physical infirmity.
The twins who closely resembled each other in childhood and early
youth, and were reared under not very dissimilar conditions, either

THE HISTORY OF TWINS, ETC. 355

grow unlike through the development of natural characteristics which
had lain dormant at first, or else they continue their lives, keeping
time like two watches, hardly to be thrown out of accord except by
some physical jar. Nature is far stronger than nurture within the
limited range that I have been careful to assign to the latter.

The effect of illness, as shown by these replies, is great, and well
deserves further consideration. It appears that the constitution of
youth is not so elastic as we are apt to think, but that an attack, say
of scarlet fever, leaves a permanent mark, easily to be measured by
the present method of comparison. This recalls an impression made
strongly on my mind several years ago by the sight of a few curves
drawn by a mathematical friend. He took monthly measurements of
the circumference of his children's heads during the first few years
of their lives, and he laid down the successive measurements on the
successive lines of a piece of ruled paper, by taking the edge of the
paper as a base. He then joined the free ends of the lines, and so
obtained a curve of growth. These curves had, on the whole, that
regularity of sweej) that might have been expected, but each of them
showed occasional halts, like the landing-places on a long flight of
stairs. The development bad been arrested- by something, and was
not made up for by after-growth. Now, on the same piece of paper
my friend had also registered the various infantine illnesses of the
children,- and corresponding to each illness was one of these halts.
There remained no doubt in my mind that, if tliese illnesses had been
warded off, the development of the children would have been in-
creased by almost the precise amount lost in these halts. In other
words, the disease had drawn largely upon the capital, and not only
on the income, of their constitutions. I hope these remarks may in-
duce some men of science to repeat similar experiments on their chil-
dren of the future. They may compress two years of a child's his-
tory on one side of a ruled half-sheet of foolscap paper if they cause
each successive line to stand for a successive month, beginning from
the birth of the child ; and if they mark off the measurements by lay-
ing, not the 0-inch division of the tape against the edge of the pages,
but, say, the 10-inch division — in order to economize space.

The steady and pitiless march of the hidden weaknesses in our
constitutions, through illness to death, is painfully revealed by these
histories of twins. We are too apt to look upon illness and death as
capricious events, and there are some who ascribe them to the direct
effect of supernatural interference, whereas the fact of the maladies
of two twins being continually alike shows that illness and death are
necessary incidents in a regular sequence of constitutional changes,
beginning at birth, upon Avhich external circumstances have, on the
whole, very small effect. In cases where the maladies of the twins
are continually alike, the clock of life moves regularly on, governed
by internal mechanism. When the hand approaches the hour-mark,

356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

there is a sudden click, followed by a whirring of wheels ; the moment
that it touches it, the stroke falls. Necessitarians may derive new
aro:uments from the life-histories of twins.

We will now consider the converse side of our subject. Hitherto
we have investigated cases where the similarity at first was close, but
afterward became less ; now we will examine those in which there
was great dissimilarity at first, and will see how far an identity of
nurture in childhood and youth tended to assimilate them. As has
been already mentioned, there is a large proportion of cases of sharply-
contrasted characteristics, both of body and mind, among twins. I
have twenty such cases, given with much detail. It is a fact that
extreme dissimilarity, such as existed between Esau and Jacob, is a
no less marked peculiarity in twins of the same sex, than extreme
similarity. On this curious point, and on much else in the history
of twins, I have many remarks to make, but this is not the place to
make them.

The evidence given by the twenty cases above mentioned is abso-
lutely accordant, so that the character of the whole may be exactly
conveyed by two or three quotations. One parent says : "They have
had exactly the same nurture from their birth up to the present time ;
they are both perfectly healthy and strong, yet they are otherwise
as dissimilar as two boys could be, physically, mentally, and in their
emotional nature." Here is another case : " I can answer most de-
cidedly that the twins have been perfectly dissimilar in character,
habits, and likeness, from the moment of their birth to the present
time, though they were nursed by the same woman, went to school
together, and were never separated till the age of fifteen." Here
again is one more, in which the father remarks, " They were curious-
ly different in body and mind from their birth." The surviving twin
(a senior wrangler of Cambridge) adds : "A fact struck all our school
contemporaries, that my brother and I were complementary, so to
speak, in point of ability and disposition. He was contemplative,
poetical, and literary to a remarkable degree, showing great power
in that line. I was practical, mathematical, and linguistic. Between
us we should have made a very decent sort of a man." I could quote
others just as strong as these, while I have not a single case in which
my corresjjondents speak of originally dissimilar characters having
become assimilated through identity of nurture. The impression
that all this evidence leaves on the mind is one of some wonder
whether nurture can do any thing at all beyond giving instruction
and professional training. It emphatically corroborates and goes far
beyond the conclusions to which we had already been driven by the
cases of similarity. In these, the causes of divergence began to act
about the period of adult life, when the characters had become some-
what fixed ; but here the causes conducive to assimilation began to
act from the earliest moment of the existence of the twins, when the

THE FORMATION OF SAND-DUNFS. 357

disposition was most pliant, and they were continuous until the period
of adult life. There is no escape from the conclusion that nature
prevails enormously over nurture when 'the differences of nurture do
not exceed what is commonly to be found among persons of the same
rank of society and in the same country. My only fear is, that my
evidence seems to prove too much, and may be discredited on that
account, as it seems contrary to all experience that nurture should
go for so little. But experience is often fallacious in ascribing great
effects to trifling circumstances. Many a person has amused himself
with throwing bits of stick into a tiny brook and watching their
progress ; how they are arrested, first by one chance obstacle, then by
another ; and again, how their onward course is facilitated by a com-
bination of circumstances. He might ascribe much importance to
each of these events, and think how largely the destiny of the stick
had been governed by a series of trifling accidents. Nevertheless
all the sticks succeed in passing down the current, and they travel,
in the long-run, at nearly the same rate. So it is with life in respect
to the several accidents which seem to have had a great eflect upon
our careers. The one element, which varies in different individuals,
but is constant in each of them, is the natural tendency ; it corre^
sponds to the current in the stream, and inevitably asserts itself.
More might be added on this matter, and much might be said in
qualification of the broad conclusions at which we have arrived, as
to the points in which education appears to create the most perma-
nent effect : how far by training the intellect, and how far by subject-
ing the boy to a higher or lower tone of public opinion ; but this is
foreign to my immediate object. The latter has been to show broad-
ly, and, I trust, convincingly, that statistical estimation of natural
gifts by a comparison of successes in life is not open to the objection
stated at the beginning of this memoir. We have only to take
reasonable care in selecting our statistics, and then we may safely
ignore the many small differences in nurture which are sure to have
characterized each individual case — Frazer''& Magazine,

-♦♦♦-

THE FORMATION OF SAND-DUNES.

By E. lewis, Jb.

ON the south shore of Long Island there intervenes between the
uplands and the ocean a narrow beach on which the waves con-
tinually break. It is composed chiefly of clean, grayish-white, sili-
cious sand. Other matters present are mica, garnet, and magnetic-
iron sands, but, excepting a few localities, these are not in quantity
sufficient to alter the general character of the beach. The sand-grains

358 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

are small ; some of them exceedingly minute. We found, in spe-
cimens of drifted sand, 1,920 particles in the weight of a troy grain.
This will give, for a pound avoirdupois, more than 13,000,000, and
about 1,450,000,000 in a cubic foot of sand. The comparison of a
"great multitude" to the "sands of the sea-shore" is wonderfully
vivid and impressive. Examined by the aid of a microscope, these
delicate grains are seen to have lost the sharp, angular features of
broken quartz, and closely resemble pebbles, irregular in form, but
smooth and rounded. They are wave-worn bowlders on a small scale.

This beach, which is seldom more than one-third of a mile broad,
constitutes the coast-line from Coney Island at the entrance to New
York Harbor, to the Nepeague Hills, a distance of about one hundred
miles, but broken by occasional inlets through which the tides ebb
and flow. Throughout this distance, scarcely a pebble of any consid-
erable size occurs. Mather, in the " Geological Survey of the State
of New York," commenting on this magnificent beach-line, says, " In
Europe, there is no deposit of a similar character to compare with it
in extent."

Eastward from the Nepeague hills, which are of sand, along the
ocean-side of Montauk Point, high bluffs of bowlder-drift reach the
shore, strewing it with their falling debris. Here may be seen on a
grand scale the process by which rocks are transformed into the fine
sand of which the beach is composed. The waves throw their whole
force upon the shore, carrying forward with tremendous roar tons of
bowlders and pebbles which roll back as the waves recede. This pro-
cess is repeated with every wave. The stones thus rolled and tossed
lose something of their volume, and scarcely one can be found that
does not show signs of disintegration and decay. All of them are
penetrated by moisture, some are fractured by frost, and others, weak-
ened by chemical changes, are dashed in pieces. The sand-beach rep-
resents the silicious matters of these comminuted rocks. Its position
along the coast is determined by the set of the waters, but its contour
of sand-hills is determined by winds. These, in their endless play,
have carved it into every form possible to drifting sands. Mather
observed that " where the beach is above the reach of the surf, it is
covered by a labyrinth of hillocks of drifting sand, imitating almost
all the varieties of form which snow-drifts present after a storm."
These are sand-dunes, or dunes, as they are termed by Lyell, and their
surprising mobility, in the ever-changing direction and force of the
winds, is a subject of scientific and popular interest.

Everywhere on the beach, in a dry, windy day, the sand-grains on
the surface are in motion. They are not carried through the air like
dust, except to a limited extent, when the winds are violent, but roll
or bound along the surface. Their motion, therefore, represents to
the eye, although less perfectly than snow or dust, the motions of the
invisible air.

THE FORMATION OF SAND-DUNES.

359

The dunes are built up by slow accretions, and at the top the sand-
grains are smaller than at the bottom. The process by which they
are formed is a continual rolling of sand-grains up-hill by wind-force,
and it is obvious that the lightest ones will attain the greatest eleva-
tion. These, too, are the ones that, on reaching the top of the hil-
lock, roll- over on the protected side of the dune, and there form a
mass of fine sand. But the winds are not uniform in force, and a con-
sequence is, the dunes are laminated in their structure, coarse and
fine layers alternating. The winds change in direction too, changing
the position of the sands, and thus the dunes are not only laminated,
but irregularly bedded in their structure, closely resembling in this
respect that of beaches formed by the plunge and flow of waves.
Both structures simply represent wave-motions, one of the water, the
other of the air. Fig. 1 represents a section of a large sand-dune,
and Fig. 2 a similar but coarser formation hardened into sandstone.

Pig. 1.— Section op a Sand-Hill, the STHtrcTURE or which mat have been peoduced bt

THE Action of Waves ob Wind.

Fig. 2. — Section of Stkata of Sandstone.

The exterior form of a dune undergoes continual change in dry
weather from gravity. The grains of sand roll down its sides until
the fine traces of wind-sculpture are obliterated, and a somewhat
uniform outline is obtained. It is found that in case of dry sand the
angle the side of the dune will finally assume is about 32°. But the
winds rarely permit regularity in the form of dunes. A slight breeze
becomes a strong one when it rises to the top of an obstacle, or is

360 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

turned around it, and every dune, however small, becomes a means of
so distributing the air-waves that their force and eroding power are
increased. From these and similar causes, the contour of the mobile
sand-hills is scarcely more permanent than that of the waves in whose
spray they lie. But it is the dry sand only that is put in motion by
the winds ; only a few inches below the surface it is uniformly moist,
and on that account somewhat adhesive. This moisture above where
the sand is saturated is capillary water, that is, water held by the
attraction of the sand-grains, and is about thirty per cent, of the mass
by weight. It rises through the sand to the surface as evaporation
goes on, and thus in this climate of rainfall the dunes are rendered
more permanent than on rainless deserts.

The formation of a sand-dune seems a simple process, and it is
surprising how small an object may be the nucleus of one, and indi-
rectly of a series of them. A bush, or tuft of grass, or only a twig,
as we have seen, raised above a level surface, breaks the force of the
wind, and immediately the sand-grains, which are rolling along the
surface, are arrested, and form a minute hillock on the windward side
of the obstacle. This increases in size — the sand-grains, as before ob-
served, are driven up its slope, and fall on the sheltered side. The
mound thus formed produces currents and eddies in the moving air,
and the form and position of other hillocks are determined by the
new conditions. By the means indicated, dunes are formed on our
narrow beaches thirty feet high ; but there are dunes on our coast
much higher than that, as will presently be noticed. Their size de-
pends mainly on the abundance and condition of the material, and ex-
posure to winds. On the coast of France they attain a height of 225
feet, and on the Atlantic border of the Sahara Desert are more than
twice that elevation. But the desert sands are exceedingly fine and
dust-like from attrition, and move in greater volume than is possible
for the coarser sands of our coasts. They are whirled and tossed in
the gale like dense smoke, but nowhere do they roll on as do waves
of the ocean, as is sometimes stated. The transition of a sand-dune
is by transfer and deposition of the individual particles of which it is
composed.

A wonderfully vivid description of a sand-storm is given by Mr.
Southworth, in his " Four Thousand Miles of African Travel : " "I
was sitting at my table in the midst of the glorious sunshine of- Af-
rica. Slowly the southern horizon began to grow obscure. A huge
mountain of sand, growing grander and grander, advanced rapidly.
. . . The doom-palms and date-trees, frosted with clouds of white
birds, the spires and minarets slowly losing their outlines in the dense
obscurity. ... It came nearer and nearer. Its front was absolutely
perpendicular. To breathe was difficult and oppressive, and it was
darker than the darkest night I ever knew. Sand covered the ground
to the thickness of an inch."

THE FORMATION OF SAND-DUNES. 361

It is easy to see that this more accurately describes a dust-storm
than it does the movement of sand on our beaches. It is the fine
material only which is thus swept through the air. The coarser sands
are driven along the surface, and constitute the hills of the desert,
and they are built up as similar ones are of the still coarser sands of
our coast. Grain by grain they rise at the touch of the invisible
architect. This is true not only of the great dunes, but of the smaller
ones, or ripple- marks, which cover the surface of the sands. These
beautifully cut and wavy furrows represent the undulatory movement
of the air. With a full breeze, they are all seen to be in motion. The
g'-ains hop and bound along as the air passes, and the form shown in
Fig. 3 is the one which the sands continually assume. But, even Avhile

Fig. 3.

we watch, each little ridge or mound has been transferred to the space
which was a furrow only a few moments before.

These sand-ripples rise on the sandy floor, however level and
smooth they may be, as the wind in passing strikes it, in a series of
wave-like undulations.

Ripple-marks thus formed are, sometimes, as we have witnessed,
covered by drifting sand, and are retained with wonderful distinct-
ness, when the material is hardened into sandstone. All the vast
beds of this material existing in the crust of the globe are but the
compacted ruins of rock still older, and their furrowed tablets re-
peat to our eyes the rhythmic beat of winds and waters in ages long
past. Fig. 4 represents a slab of sandstone covered with ripple-marks,
evidently produced by water, but which differs in form only from
those produced by wind.

Sand-dunes are not only blown away piecemeal, but the winds
pour upon their flanks a ceaseless shower of sand, and, as the frail
masonry gives way, the falling grains are caught and carried on by
the gale. By this natural sand-blast rocks are sculptured on the
highlands of the Rocky Mountains, and the glass of windows on ex-
posed beaches is sometimes cut through.

On the north side of Long Island, upon the banks along the Sound,
are a great number of sand-hills from twenty to eighty feet high. The
banks are of glacial drift, with bowlders of immense size, and eastward
of Port Jefferson Harbor, for upward of forty miles, are crowned in
many places by these broken, desolate hills. In some places they ad-
vance slowly inland. A farm, near the village of Baiting Hollow, in
Suffolk County, has lost from this cause thirty acres in half a century.
Other farms have lost valuable land in a similar way, and we are in-
formed that, during the time mentioned, 100 acres of arable and tim-

362

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

ber land have been inundated, and are now deeply covered with
drifting sand in this immediate neighborhood. -At this point is the
great dune known on the Coast Survey charts as Friar's Head. Its
top is 150 feet above tide, but it stands on the bank which is half
that height, so that 75 feet of that elevation is drifting sand. It
was originally formed many yards inland, as others are continually

Fig. 4.— Slab op Eipple-maeked Sandstone.

forming, but, by the ceaseless wearing away of the bluffs, it is now
upon their brink. It is evidently of considerable age, as its wind-
ward slope is covered by a thick growth of beach-grass, bayberry and
other bushes, with stunted trees of beach and cedar quite at its top.

From this point the weird architecture of the sand-hills is singu-
larly impressive. There is formed, to the southeast of Friar's Head,
a great semicircle of sand, between which and the dune is a floor of
several acres in extent swept by the winds. This floor, the original
surface of the drift now laid bare, is rich in the remains of an old In-
dian settlement. Hundreds of specimens — including arrow-heads of
flint, jasper, and quartz, axes of various sizes, and other articles of
utility — have been picked up.

The sand blown from this spot and from the flanks of the dune
constitutes the semicircular wall spoken of. It is one-eighth of a mile
inland, and lies directly against a forest of oak and pine, burying
many of the trees to a height of thirty to forty feet, only their dead
and barkless tops being visible. On the surface of these sands beach-
grass of several kinds, and young pine-trees {Pinus rigida) maintain

SKETCH OF SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE. 363

a doubtful struggle for life. This dune does not materially differ
from a very large number which cover the banks on the north shore
of Loner Island. Their source is the debris of the banks reduced to
sand by the action of the waves. The lighter portions of this sand
are carried up the slope during fierce winds, and the process is now in
operation during every gale. The present forests may delay, but can-
not arrest, the final inundation of the land where the sand-hills crown
the coast. In Europe the maritime pine and other species of plants
whose habitat is the silicious sand have not only arrested the move-
ment of it, but have covered immense areas of waste land with valu-
able forest. Our native pitch-pine, the Pinus rigida above mentioned,
also flourishes on the most sandy soils. There is proof that it formerly
grew on portions of the south beach of Long Island, where its foliage
was moistened by the spray of the ocean, nor does the occasional
overflow of the tides soon destroy it. If these trees are planted
abundantly over the surface of these broken hills of sand, their move-
ment would be delayed if not permanently arrested. The sands lie
motionless where the force of the wind is broken.

♦»»

SKETCH OF SIR CHAELES WHEATSTOIN'E.

CHARLES WHEATSTONE was born in the city of Gloucester,
England, in 1802. In boyhood he attended a private school in his
native town, but, while still a lad, he quit school and devoted himself
to mechanical pursuits, adopting the trade of a maker of musical in-
struments. At about the age of twenty-oue years he went to London,
and there set up in business on his own account. Hei'e the young
tradesman evinced a strong liking for scientific research, endeavoring
to find out the principles involved in the various forms of musical
instruments. He was thus led to the study of acoustics, a branch of
science which he cultivated with rare success. His singular mechan-
ical ingenuity enabled him to repeat and extend the experimental
results of prior investigators, and the first fruits of his scientific re-
searches were communicated, in 1823, to the Annals of Philosophy^
in a paper entitled " New Experiments on Sound." Other essays on
the phenomena of sound were published by him from time to time ;
thus, in 1827, he contributed to the Quarterly Journal of Science two
papers, the one " Experiments on Audition," the other a " Description
of the Kaleidophone." In 1828 he published in the same journal a
paper entitled " Resonances of Columns of Air ; " in 1831, " Transmis-
sion of Sounds through Solid Linear Conductors " {Journal of the
Royal Institution) ; and the same year read at the meeting of the Brit-

364 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ish Association jjapers on " Purkinje's Figures," and on " Bernouilli's
Wind Instrument." These were followed by papers on '' Chladni's
Figures" (1833, "Philosophical Transactions"), and "Imitation of
Human Speech by Mechanism" ("British Association Report,"
1835).

The numerous analogies between the phenomena of sound and those
of light early led him to the study of the latter subject. Here, again,
his remarkable ingenuity as a mechanician came into play. He under-
took to measure the velocity of electricity, and for this purpose he
invented the method of revolving mirrors ; in this way it was shown
that the electric current travels at the rate of 288,000 miles per second.
These results were published in the " Philosophical Transactions " in
1834. While engaged in these researches he observed that the sparks
emitted from different metals under the influence of electricity differed
from one another in color, " thus shadowing forth," says M. Dumas,
"the discovery of the spectroscope." In the " British Association Re-
port " for 1835 is a paper by Wheatstone on " Prismatic Decomposition
of Electric Light," and in the Philosophical Magazine (1837) one on
the " Thermo-electric Spark." He had been appointed Professor of
Experimental Philosophy in King's College, London, in 1834, and in
June, 1836, in his lectures on the velocity of electricity, which were
illustrated by experiments with a circuit of copper wire nearly four miles
in length, he proposed to convert this apparatus into an electric tele-
graph. At this time Wheatstone was not aware that Prof. Joseph
Henry had five years previously transmitted signals by means of an
electro-magnet through a wire more than a mile long, causing a bell
to sound at the farther end of the wire. In May, 1837, Charles
Wheatstone and William Fothergill Cooke (afterward knighted) took
out a patent "for improvements in giving signals and sounding alarms
in distant places by means of electric currents transmitted through
metallic circuits." The first public line of telegraph was constructed
on the Blackwall Railway in the following year.

While investigating the laws of light, Wheatstone was very natu-
rally led to consider the phenomena of vision, and in 1838 he published
in the "Philosophical Transactions " two papers entitled "Physiology
of Vision " and " Binocular Vision." In the latter he explained the
principles of an instrument invented by himself, the stereoscope.
This invention was by no means the result of chance, but the fruit of
profound study of the physiology of vision. In this matter Wheat-
stone's merit is unquestioned. Other papers on the phenomena of
vision are, " Juxtaposition of Several Colors " (1844) ; a second com-
munication on "Physiology of Vision " (1852); "Binocular Micro-
scope" (1853) ; "Fessil's Gyroscope" (1854).

In the "Proceedings of the Royal Society " (1840) is an article by
Wheatstone, on an " Electro-magnetic Clock," in which he shows how a
number of clocks, situated at a distance from one another, may be act-

SKETCH OF SIR CHARLES WHEATSTONE. 365

uated by one central clock. In Comptes Bendus (1845), he explained
the principle of an electro-magnetic chronoscope. Subjects connected
with telegraphy and electricity are treated in papers entitled "Elec-
tro-magnetic Telegraph " (1 840) ; " Constants of Voltaic Circuit "
(1843); "Meteorological Registers" (1844); "Submarine Cable of
the Mediterranean " (1854-55) ; " Aluminium in Voltaic Series "
(1854-55); "Automatic Telegraphy" (1859). To complete the list
of his papers, we name a " Letter to Colonel Sabine on Meteorologi-
cal Instruments " (1842) ; " Determination of Solar Time by Polari-
zation " (1848) ; " Foucault's Rotation of the Earth " (1851) ; "Pow-
ers for Arithmetical Progression " (1854-'55) ; " Report on Captive
Balloons" (1863).

Wheatstone was chosen Fellow of the Royal Society of London
in 1836. He was a juror in the class for heat, light, and electricity in
the Paris Exposition Universelle, 1855, and was then appointed a
kniorht of the Legion of Honor. In 1868 he received the honor of
knighthood from Queen Victoria, and the same year was awarded the
Copley medal by the Royal Society for his researches in acoustics,
optics, electricity, and magnetism. He was made LL. D. by Edin-
burgh University in 1869. In 1873 he was elected a corresponding
member of the Paris Academic des Sciences, in the place of Baron
Liebio-, deceased. He was also a member of the chief scientific asso-
ciations and academies of Europe.

Prof Wheatstone was married in 1845, His death took place at
Paris, on the 19th of October, 1875. He left a numerous family.

In a brief memoir published in the Academy, Mr. C. Tomlin-
son, who was an intimate friend of Wheatstone, states that the latter
never obtained eminence either as a writer or as a lecturer : before a
large audience he was nervous and hesitating, but in familiar conver-
sation his ideas " would flow so pleasantly and so lucidly, that one
could not help reflecting that, if all this had been put into a lecture,
Wheatstone might have become a successful rival even of Faraday."
On such occasions he spoke unreservedly of the scientific work in
which he happened to be engaged, and in this way other men often
pilfered his ideas, and took the credit to themselves. On one occa-
sion at least, Wheatstone recognized his error, for he paid ten guineas
for a piece of apparatus for the purpose of stopping the inventor's
mouth, said " inventor " having derived the idea of it from Wheat-
stone himself.

366

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CORRESPONDENCE.

INFIRMITIES OF SPEECH.
To the Editor of the Popnlar Science Monthly :

THE article in the August number of the
Monthly upon "Infirmities of Speech "
was a stimulant to much curious reflection.
A true student of character will see, among
the men and women he meets in the parlor,
idiosyncrasies of speech and manner that
are common to quite a large class of people.
Dr. Trousseau's patient was but one of many.
The wife of a physician of this city, former-
ly an inspector of the Board of Health, cre-
ated much merriment among acquaintances
by the singularity of her answers to the
simplest questions. Nearly every expres-
sion was a comparative one. To a stran-
ger her conversation appeared of the qual-
ity of humorous extravagance. Upon one
occasion she was asked the condition of a
friend who had been a long time sick.
"-Oh, she's about like the lid of a stove,"
was the reply. This excited laughter, but
was unsatisfactory. " Was she feverish ? "
" No." " Was she in a chill ? " " No, she
was just like the lid of a stove, don't you
understand '? " Her husband explained the
expression by saying that the sick friend
was exceedingly nervous, and that his wife,
in making the comparison, alluded to the
dancing of a tea-kettle on a hot stove. From
early girlhood she had employed this ex-
pression, to the exclusion of the correct one.
In their reminiscences, Charles and Mary
Cowden Clarke mention a similarity in the
speech of George Dyer. With a question,
answer, or other observation, he would be-
gin intelligently ; after a few words, fill in
the space of several others with a series of
abd's, as if choking, and, in concluding,
would invariably use " Well, sir, but, how-
ever." A gentleman of rich culture and
high professional eminence has used " and
consequently" since he was a boy, when-
ever he exhausted breath in his rapid
speech, was unable to grasp the correct
word, or was interrupted. He was, and
still is, unconscious of this peculiarity. He
■will so designate a man, a woman, a piece

of furniture, or any object whose proper
name is for the time hidden. This habit,
as the untutored would denominate it, is so
apparent that a stranger would detect it in
five minutes.

The ability to always use the best words
to give force to an idea is possessed by so
few, that the promiscuous gathering of
words, if not too idiotic, is charitably
passed over without remark.

A young lady, whose company is much
solicited for the graces of her mind, under-
goes a most piteous embarrassment from
the effects of this infirmity. In the early
part of the evening her choice of words will
be faultless ; and she will render a criticism
or narrative with an enviable flow. But,
later, she becomes nervous, hesitates, stud-
ies her words, trips, and then stumbles on
to the climax with nouns, adjectives, ad-
verbs, and verbs that darken, instead of
illumine, the " point." It is but a few
evenings ago that, in speaking of the influ-
ence of Hans Christian Andersen's tales,
she said : " Now, how few writers are capa-
ble of so eSectively consolidating the con-
tradictory impulses that arise in a child's
mind ! No, I mean so effectively con —
con — well, mix up will oil." And, when
conciliate was mentioned, she said that was
the word she desired. If she ventured
upon a further observation the infirmity
increased, so far as to leave her sentence a
hopeless wreck.

Many will say this is a habit, and only
becomes an infirmity by being allowed too
free scope. Still, the best-educated people
are subject to it.

To carelessness is attributed another
peculiarity, not of speech, but of action.
The physician before alluded to was unable
to page his manuscript of stenographic re-
ports of lectures before the College of Phy-
sicians and Surgeons. The figure 8 was
always uppermost in his mind, and all but
the first page would have that numeral in
the upper left-hand corner. When arrang-
ing the pages for eyelets or tape, he was

EDITOR'S TABLE.

367

obliged to read over each one ; and he was
not assured of the sequence until the mass
had been examined by another.

Some writers fasten their best thoughts
when penning with the greatest haste.
Their manuscript, like that of mauy careful
authors, contains either neglected or erased
vfords — terminations that appear perfectly
inexcusable. Think of a scholar tracing
with a rush fixed, and then adding tion, or
satisfying himself with hermeticly ; and yet,
in overlooking thousands of pages of copy
prepared by authors who would have a de-
lirium if the slightest typographical error
appeared in the " revise," I have stricken
out countless terminations and intermediate
syllables and letters — not specimens of bad
spelling, so called — that looked like gram-
matical refugees, so far were they from their
proper place.

Again, in writing, the pen does appar-
ently just what the organs of speech do
when certain words are to be produced.
In the most delightful stage of composition,
when the brain and the pen jog on com-
fortably together, it will often be found, on
looking back a few lines, that a stranger
has turned up who the author is positive
has no right in such company. There it is,
winking at a clever trick that the subject
cannot explain.

Here the writer possesses the memory
of words and the memory of how to use
words. But, while the mind is being
tickled with the successful unfolding of a
pet theory, or the attractive draping of an
important idea, the pen surreptitiously lets
in an unblushing beggar.

In writing, the brain will order the pen
to inscribe a certain word, and, with volu-
minous authors, that nimble servant will
frequently transfix an unsuspected one be-
fore the outrage is detected. ,

Now, as in the case above, the author
possesses the knowledge of the exact word
that is desired ; but an incorrect one ap-
pears. Neither the memory is lost, nor the
ability of utilizing it. Think of the results,
when the proof-reader strides through the
idea, and buries a still more uncongenial
word in the prettiest passage.

Recognized carelessness causes omission
of words, curtailment of words, and often-
times incorrect spelling. It is only Ihe
carelessness that is not recognized that
takes a fancy to giving a word more letters
than it craves, changing favorite words at
birth, and placing before the eye a stone
when bread is wanted.

G. J. Hagar.

New Toek, August^ 1875.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

TEE CASE OF GUIBORD.

ALL over the world, in all times of
which we know any thing, and
among tribes of men of every grade, the
most intense and powerful feelings of
human nature have gathered around the
dead, the graves where they are buried,
and the rites of sepulture. Besides the
ties of affection that are sundered by
death, and which are often so deep and
strong that their rapture leaves life a
desolation, the imagination is also
brought into exalted activity, and reli-
gious hopes, fears, and anxieties, and
the terrors of superstition regarding a
future life, combine to heighten the sol-
emn interest of the occasion. As men

are ruled through their feelings, and as
the more powerful the feelings the more
complete is their subjection to those
who can skillfully work upon them, it
is not to be supposed that these potent
emotions concerning the dead would
remain unutilized by parties ambitious
of influence over the consciences and
conduct of men. It is an important
part of the polity of the Roman Cath-
olic Church to use the powerful senti-
ments that are associated with death,
the dead body, and the grave in wLich
it rests, for the promotion of the objects
of ecclesiastical ambition. That corpo-
ration assumes the prerogative of con-
secrating or cursing the ground to be

368

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

used for the burial of the dead, as apart
of its larger claim to control the destiny
of people in the future world. And,
for many centuries, this has been one of
the most potent means of its influence.
The case of Joseph Guibord, of Mont-
real, which has now perhaps reached
its close, affords an instructive illus-
tration both of the character of this
old churchly assumption, of the tenacity
with which it is still held, and of the
vigor with which it is maintained wher-
ever there is power to enforce it. The
circumstances have been widely pub-
lished, but it is desirable here briefly to
recall the leading facts :

A literary society in Montreal, known
as the " Canadian Institute," some years
ago introduced into its library a num-
ber of works that came under the ban
of the Roman Catholic Church. The
Bishop of Montreal disapproved them
and commanded their exclusion, which
being refused by the Institute, the bish-
op appealed to Eome, and a papal de-
cree was fulminated. The society re-
maining contumacious, the bishop pro-
nounced a ban upon its members ex-
communicating them and forbidding
them the last oflBces of the Church in
"the article of death." The conse-
quences of this decree first fell upon
Guibord, Who died in 1869. His estate
owned a burial-lot in the Catholic cem-
etery of Notre-Dame, and the widow
applied for ecclesiastical burial for her
husband. This was refused : he could
not be buried in his own lot, and the
only place permitted for the remains
was the unconsecrated part of the ceme-
tery devoted to excommunicants, male-
factors, suicides, and unbaptized infants.
The case was then taken to civil trial
and a long lawsuit followed ; the Cana-
dian Superior Court, the tribunal of last
resort, deciding ultimately against the
priest and trustees of the cemetery.
This decision not being respected by the
Catholic authorities, an appeal was ta-
ken to the Privy Council, and a royal
decree issued commanding the priest

and trustees of the cemetery to inter the
mortal remains of Guibord in conse-
crated ground. The priest replied that
he was forbidden to do this by the
bishop, and could not comply. An or-
der was then served on him under the
decree of the Privy Council, and the
funeral appointed for the 2d of Sep-
tember. The priest, however, refused
to be present. The members of the
" Canadian Institute " and their friends,
numbering about three hundred, ac-
companied Guibord's remains, from the
vault of the Protestant cemetery where
they had been placed, to the Catholic
cemetery, where they were met by a mob
of some five hundred French Canadians
who closed and barred the gates, and
refused entrance to the hearse, which
was attacked with stones by the mob
that had rapidly increased to about two
thousand. They drove back the pro-
cession with derisive shouts, filled up
the grave, and tore down the cross at
its head.

The burial was thus defeated, and
riotous demonstrations were continued
for two or three days. Preparations
were then made by the civil authorities
for enforcing the burial, the military
were called out to maintain order, and
on the 16th of November, after six
years of contention and delay, the body
of Guibord was placed in his lot, the
coffin being bedded in cement as a
protection against the violation of the
grave.

We do not refer to these facts mere-
ly as furnishing a new example of the
inevitable collision that arises between
the civil authority and the Roman Cath-
olic Church wherever that organization
feels able to assert its power — of which
so much has recently been said. But
the case impressively illustrates a single
and most interesting phase of this an-
cient conflict. In the attempt to get
the bones of an old man, long since
dead, into their final and chosen rest-
ing-place, a city is convulsed with riot,
a whole province thrown into excite-

i

EDITOR'S TABLE.

369

ment, a rancorous religious quarrel
aroused, expensive legal proceedings
entailed, and battalions of soldiers with
muskets and cannon, have at last to be
invoked to carry out the mandate of a
judicial tribunal. All this has resulted
from the action of an ecclesiastical body
which for centuries has pursued this
policy of using the graveyard and its as-
sociated superstitions as a means of spir-
itual domination and temporal profit.
Guibord was in favor of having certain
books in a library to read. His Church
declared that he should not have them
there. He adhered to his opinion, and
the Church then declared that he should
not have Christian burial. The appeal to
his superstitions was not strong enough
to move him, but it thrilled the com-
munity with a painful agitation, and for
many centuries such appeals and threats
have been powerful enough to intimi-
date and keep in subjection countless
millions of people. For more than a
thousand years the Catholic Church has
maintained its claim, against the civil
authority, to the ownership and custody
of the dead, and by attaching the place
of interment to the church, by prohib-
iting heretics from Christian burial and
making it ignominious to repose in any
but consecrated ea'rth, and by digging
up the bones of those who are alleged
to have entertained false opinions,
burning them and scattering the ashes
to the winds or casting them into the
floods, the Eoraish ecclesiastics have
not only made the church-yard a copi-
ous source of pecuniary emolument, but
" a vital portion of the material ma-
chinery for enforcing spiritual obedi-
ence and theological conformity."

The history of the antagonism be-
tween the ecclesiastical and civil au-
thorities, regarding the ownership and
control of the dead, is of great interest ;
and a very able sketch of this subject by
an eminent legal writer will be found
in the present number of The Monthly.
It is part of a report on the "Law of
Burial" made to the Supreme Court of

VOL. VIII. — 24

the State of New York, by Hon. Sam-
uel B. Ruggles. When Beekman Street
was widened several years ago, a slice
of land was taken from the " Brick
Church " property to be converted to
public use, and the ground thus appro-
priated embraced certain vaults long
ago constructed for the reception of
the dead. The question arose in regard
to the legal control and redisposition
of the bodies contained in these vaults,
and Mr. Ruggles was appointed as a
referee to take evidence and make a
report upon the subject. In this mas-
terly document, he touched upon the
historical aspects of the legal question,
showing that the old view, held by the
Roman and Saxon law, was that the
civil authority had jurisdiction in the
case, and that under the common law
the bodies of deceased persons are sub-
ject to the control of those next of kin.
The Church, early in the days of its
power, subverted this principle, and
under the title of " ecclesiastical cog-
nizance" established its exclusive au-
thority over the burial of the dead, and
even carried its assumptions so far as
to decree, not only who should be al-
lowed to lie in consecrated earth, but
who should be allowed to be interred
at all ! The part of Mr. Ruggles's re-
port which we reprint will be found
of general interest to readers, and in a
high degree instructive in connection
with the Guibord case.

SCIENCE IN GERMANY AND ENGLAND.

The influence of national character-
istics upon the pursuit of science is an
interesting subject of observation and
reflection. For while there is a broad
general agreement among scientific stu-
dents of all nationalities as to what
science is, and the mental methods or
processes involved in its extension, there
is a marked diversity among the peo-
ple of different countries in the organ-
ized arrangements for its promotion,
the feelings that impel its pursuit, and

370

THE POPULAR SCIEN'CE MONTHLY.

the relations of scientific bodies to what
may be called the outlying and adjoin-
ing departments of thought, culture,
and mental activity. The contrast, for
example, between the Germans and the
English in the policy and management
of their great popular scientific associ-
ations is, in various respects, striking
and instructive, and an intelligent cor-
respondent of Nature has lately drawn
attention to some of their peculiarities,
which are so suggestive as to deserve a
special notice.

The writer intimates that the "As-
sociation of German Natural Philoso-
phers and Physicians," which was
founded in 1822, is the original of the
British Association, which was estab-
lished some years later, and modeled in
various respects upon the German pat-
tern. Speaking of the late meeting
which was held in September at Gratz,
the chief town of Styria, in one of the
most beautiful valleys of the Austrian
Alps, after noting that the number of
those in attendance corresponds very
nearly with the average number of at-
tendants at the British Association, he
adds that, although this may be a merely
fortuitous resemblance, yet "both asso-
ciations are convened for the same num-
ber of days ; both hold the same number
of general and sectional meetings ; they
resemble each other in the nature of the
recreations offered to visitors — excur-
sions, dinners, and concerts, to which,
in Germany and Austria, are added
balls and theatrical performances, while
England has the private hospitality of
its nobles and rich manufacturers and
merchants to offer, which does not enter
into the German programme, or cer-
tainly does not appear in it to the same
extent. A festivity of a peculiar char-
acter, in addition to those named, was
offered by the municipality of Gratz :
an illumination by bonfires of the moun-
tains surrounding the town, a sight of
most impressive beauty."

The chief points of contrast in the
proceedings of the two bodies are stated

to be that, "generally speaking, there
are no evening meetings in Gei-many,
and, the festivals being of a public na-
ture (not depending upon private hos-
pitality), the connection between the
visitors is greater than it is at the Brit-
ish meetings. The peculiarity of the
German meetings is the absence of a
president ; two charges d'affaires being
nominated to conduct the business of
the Association — one a natural philoso-
pher and the other a physician. The sec-
tions nominate new presidents for each
of their daily meetings. A consequence
of this arrangement is a certain want
of formality. No retrospective intro-
ductions (presidential addresses) are of-
fered at the opening of the sectional
meetings, no criticisms of the work of
fellow-workers by more or less compe-
tent critics, no sweeping remarks on
the state of science in general. In two
respects the British Association has an
indisputable advantage over the Gei'-
man meetings. Those splendidly illus-
trated evening lectures addressed to the
general public, which form one of the
attractions of the meetings in the United
Kingdom, are not offered in Germany.
Again, the funds of the German Asso-
ciation are small; they are spent for
the purposes of each meeting, and no
money can be given in grants for scien-
tific purposes, as is done in Great Brit-
ain. On the other hand, the German
Association offers the advantage of a
speedy publication of its transactions.
Instead of publishing an annual volume
long after the close of the meetings, the
German Association offers a daily pa-
per, giving the proceedings in a more
or less condensed form, according to
the notes given by members to the gen-
eral or sectional secretaries. Gener-
ally, some supplementary numbers are
issued completing the report within one
month after the conclusion of the meet-
ing."

The German scientists are further-
more contrasted with those of England
by their more pronounced repudiation

EDITOR'S TABLE.

371

of utilitarian aims, English science has
flourished under the stimulus of a press-
ure from the practical arts which has
powerfully influenced the direction of
investigation; the problems being given
by art are accepted by science for so-
lution. The eminence of England in
commerce, navigation, manufactures,
and locomotion, has impressed itself
upon English science, which, while rec-
ognizing its true work to be the in-
crease of original knowledge and new
discoveries, will yet not lose sight of
the great practical results to be attained
through such discoveries, German sci-
ence, on the other hand, still influenced
by the spirit of its barren philosophies,
vehemently protests against this alli-
ance with the practical and the useful.
It is never done denouncing the sordid,
bread-and-butter philosophy of the Eng-
lish, In exemplification of this feeling,
a passage is given from an address of
Lieutenant Weyprecht on arctic explo-
rations, in which he says : " Originally
it was the wish for material gain in the
shape of fur and fish-oil that prompted
arctic exploration. Later on, this cause
was replaced by the ambition of geo-
graphical discoveries, such as are easily
understood by the general public. The
running after this sort of fame gradually
assumed such proportions that arctic
exploration became a sort of interna-
tional steeple-chase toward the north-
pole, a system opposed to true scientific
discoveries. Topographical geography
must be subordinated, in arctic regions,
to physical geography. Geographical
discovery derives its value only from
scientific discoveries connected with it.
The exploration of the great and un-
known latitudes near the poles of our
globe must be continued without regard
to the expenditure of money and of life
which it demands. But its ulterior aim
must be higher than the mere sketch-
ing, and christening in diffei-ent lan-
guages, of islands, bays, and promon-
tories buried in ice, and the mere
reaching of higher latitudes than those

reached by our predecessors. One rea-
son of the indiflferent results of previ-
ous expeditions is, that they have been
unconnected with each other. The
progress of meteorology consists in
comparison, and every success it has
obtained, such as the laws of storms,
the theory of winds, etc., is the result
of simultaneous observations. The aim
of future arctic explorers must be to
make simultaneous observations, ex-
tending over the period of a wliole year,
with identical instruments and accord-
ing to identical rules. In the first place,
they will have to consider natural phi-
losophy and meteorology, botany, zool-
ogy, and geology, and only in the sec-
ond place the discovery of geographical
details. I do not intend in what I said
to depreciate the merits of my arctic
predecessors, whose sacrifices few can
appreciate better than I do. In giving
utterance for the first time to these
opinions, which I have taken time in
forming, I complain against myself, and
I condemn the greater part of the re-
sults of my own arduous labors."

Germany is again contrasted with
England in the comi^leteness with which
science is separated from religion, a re-
sult we should hardly have expected
among a people so prone to philosophi-
cal speculation. Their scientists pursue
their investigations , with but very small
regard to the bearings they may have
upon theological beliefs. The writer
whom we have quoted gives an illustra-
tion of this in a lecture delivered at the
Gratz meeting by Prof. Benedict on the
history of Clime with regard to ethnol-
ogy and anthropology. " He touched
upon delicate ground, asserting that
every action is based less on liberty
than on compulsion ; that our acts aro
governed by natural laws, and not by
theological opinions; and that punish-
ment may act as a corrective of per-
verted human nature, but is chiefly the
outflow of the desire of society to avenge
wrongs inflicted upon it. The best pre-
vention of crime depends upon the in-

372

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

crease of our knowledge of those cir-
cumstances that necessarily engender it.
In England a speech like this would,
no doubt, have raised a storm of theo-
logical indignation. In Germany the
clergy is distinguished by its absence
from scientific meetings. The separa-
tion of natural science and orthodoxy is
complete, and no opposition was there-
fore ofiered to these remarks."

The tendency of English science to
occupy itself more or less with religious
questions has several causes. In the
first place, there is a large and cultivat-
ed clerical class whose professional du-
ties are nominal, and who devote them-
selves earnestly to scientific studies.
These mingle in the scientific societies
and associations, and bring with them
the bias of theological doctrine. Much
money has, moreover, been expended
in England, in the way of prizes, to be
given to writers for making scientific
books, for the advancement of theologi-
cal views ; and, as shown by the Bridge-
water treatises, some of the most emi-
nent and influential scientific men have
sanctioned this practice, which has been
much imitated by others of inferior
ability. Such a course could hardly
fail to arouse reaction and stimulate
controversy. But, besides these causes,
a cause still more efiicient has been in
operation there, in the rise of a school
of psychology, that has brought old and
fundamental theological doctrines and
dogmas into the arena of scientific scru-
tiny, so that scientific men, in the per-
formance of their duty as investigators,
find themselves brought into collision
with the " defenders of the faith."

But, while English science is much
complicated with theology, it is but
very little affected by politics. On the
other hand, the political perturbations
of German thought are deeply felt in
its scientific assemblages. "While Eng-
lish science is laboring to fr^e itself
from undue theological influence, Ger-
man science is struggling for freedom
of thought from undue political influ-

ences. This was the burden of the
opening addresses of the September
meeting. The Association was formed
upward of half a century ago, and the
writer in Nature says that politics en-
tered into the intentions of its founder
— the celebrated Oken, Professor of Zo-
ology at Jena — as well as of many of its
original members. " "When German uni-
ty was nothing but a treasonable aim
of persecuted patriots, every meeting
of Germans from diff'erent states served
to spread and to give fresh vigor to this
aim, and was in itself a protest against
the division into small states of the
common country, and against persecu-
tions such as Oken himself has had to
suff'er. Ay, and even now, when the
old wishes have been fulfilled, and no
division separates government and na-
tion, remains of the old political under-
current can still be traced in some of
these meetings."

The interest of German men of sci-
ence in political subjects is, therefore,
an incident of the disturbed condition
of the people, rather than any tendency
to the purely scientific study of political
and social problems.

"We have a great amount of decla-
mation on the dignity of mind, but we
shall have a rational appreciation of
that dignity just in proportion as we
understand the laws of mind : what we
need, therefore, is a broader and clearer
apprehension of mental science. The
attention of students of this subject is
called to the weighty and suggestive ar-
ticle which opens the present number of
The Monthly, on " The Comparative
Psychology of Man." It treats of a phase
of the subject of great moment, but
hitherto only slightly regarded. It will
be evident to all readers that the view
taken by the writer is one that must
be permanently recognized in future
if mental phenomena are to be inter-
preted on strict scientific principles.
But the article, moreover, remarkably

LITERARY NOTICES.

373

exemplifies the close interdependence
of the liigher and more complex sci-
ences. Those who have been slow to
comprehend the alleged important bear-
ing that psychology has upon sociology
will see that the two subjects are so in-
extricably involved — the mental organ-
ism and the social organism having
been developed together by intimate
interaction — that neither can be eluci-
dated in a really scientific way without
working out its relations to the other.
The article atFords an excellent illus-
tration of the fruitfulness of investiga-
tion from the genetic point of view.

LITERARY NOTICES.

CURRENCr AND BANKING. By BONAMT PrICE,

Professor of Political Economy in the

University of Oxford. Pp.176. Price,

$1.50. D. Appleton & Co.

The author of this book is not a stranger
to the American people. He made a tour
of the country a year or two since, and was
called upon at various points to express his
views on currency and finance, which he
did with a bluntness and pungency that
made a deep impression upon his hearers,
and upon all who read his well-reported ad-
dresses. It was felt by many that bis views
were sound and important, and that it
would be an advantage to the country if he
would give us a season of lecturing upon
the subject. But, as he could not remain,
he agreed to do the next best thing, which
was, to prepare a little volume, to be pub-
lished in this country, giving a condensed
exposition of his views. This volume is
now issued and will be widely read, as well
for its vivid and racy controversialism as
for its sound and instructive teachings upon
the topics discussed. Besides the Appen-
dix, it is divided into three parts: first,
" Metallic Currency ; " second, " Paper Cur-
rency;" and third, "What is a Bank?"
Prof Price insists that there is really very
little mystery about this subject that is gen-
erally regarded as so mysterious ; while he
admits that there is more error and absurd-
ity and stupid nonsense put forth regarding
it than upon almost any other subject of
current speculation. A main cause of this,
he states to be, the credulous confidence

with which the public listens to the outgiv-
ings of men whose authority comes not from
any intelligent or scientific understanding
of the subject, but from the circumstance
that they deal in money and have a great
deal of it, and much to do with it. But
practical familiarity with business opera-
tions, he maintains, is very far from con-
ferring insight into the philosophy of such
operations. A blockhead may make money,
and make a parade of all the technical terms
of finance, but know no more of the princi-
ples of the subject than the veriest beggar
who hardly sees a dollar from one year's end
to another. Yet the public pricks up its
long ears to listen to the oracular twaddle
of brokers, bankers, merchants, and treas-
ury officials, who only confuse and confound
the subject with their discordant utterances.
Such books as those of Price and Jevons
will do much to clear away the fog that has
gathered around monetary questions in this
country, and they should be widely circu-
lated and carefully read, especially by young
men who would prepare themselves to take
a useful part in public affairs.

Elements of Meteorology. Part II., Me-

TEOROLOGICAL CVCLSS. By JoHN H. TiCS.

St. Louis, 1875. Pp. 208. Price, $2:50,

We have in Mr. Tice's book another wild
and fruitless attempt to explain all phenom-
ena by electricity. As, in former times,
unexplained phenomena were ascribed to
magic or supernatural power, so in modern
days the unscientific look to electricity as
the efficient cause of all physical mysteries.
The author of this book admits no force but
electricity. Mechanics is a nightmare, cen-
trifugal force is electric repulsion, the per-
turbing force of a planet is only electric at-
traction, and all the phenomena of our at-
mosphere arise from electrical causes.

The volume before us is Part 11., and
from the preface we learn that Part I. has
never been published ; we are, however, not
left in doubt as to its contents. We are
told on the first page that in Part I. we can
learn " all about the nature and constitu-
tion of rain and snow storms ; all about
cold and hot, wet and dry, seasons; and all
about winds, gales, tornadoes, and hurri-
canes." If Mr. Tice has done half of what
he claims, he has done enough to secure
immortal fame. Nevertheless, after an ex-

374

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ainination of Part II., we are seized with
a violent longing to be spared from Part I.
Tiie special function of Part II. is to estab-
lish meteorological cycles and to promul-
gate the theory of planetary equinoxes, on
the strength of which Mr. Tice has made
predictions which have gained for him con-
siderable attention. It is unfortunate, how-
ever, for his reputation that he ever vent-
ured into print ; for no one can give his
book the most cursory examination with-
out detecting its unsoundness. Lack of
space forbids more than a brief outline of
Mr. Tice's theory. To point out all his
errors in mathematics, physics, and astron-
omy, his false assumptions and logical falla-
cies, would require several pages.

All phenomena are periodic. " The regu-
lar recurrence of identical physical phenom-
ena is an admitted fact." Were the cycle
known, we could tell just when the phe-
nomena of the past would be repeated.
Mr. Tice considers the discovery of a me-
teorological cycle " the most clamant desid-
tratum of the age." The discovery (?) of
the Great Cycle was Mr. Tice's first step in
the science of meteorology. It is exactly
11.86 years. He claims that this is estab-
lished by the periodic phenomena of sun-
spots, magnetic storms, cyclones, earth-
quakes, auroras, etc., but fails to give us
the process of reduction. This period is
identical with Jupiter's year, and the infer-
ence is that Jupiter is the cause of the
cycle, which henceforth is called the Jovial
Cycle. The idea of associating Jupiter
with the eleven-year periods is not new,
but we supposed it had been abandoned.

Mr. Tice's next stage is to prove that
the phenomena of sun-spots, cyclones, etc.,
reach their maxima when Jupiter is at his
equinoxes, and, of course, once every 5.93
years. This proof Mr. Tice gives in full
with immense satisfaction, quite uncon-
scious of its having not even a presump-
tion in its favor. Finding nothing in his
astronomy of Jupiter's equinoxes, he as-
sumed that his solstitial points coincided
with his points of greatest and least dis-
tance from the sun (aphelion and perihe-
lion), as is the case, approximately, with
the earth. The same groundless and false
assumption is afterward made for the other
planets, and such reasoning Mr. Tice calls
" deduction from general principles " arid

" telluric analogy." Again, at its equi-
noxes the earth is at its greatest distance
north and south of the plane of the sun's
equator : Mr. Tice infers that the same is
true of all other planets.

Mr. Tice calculates the equinoxes of the
planets from their aphelia and perihelia,
and accounts for the disturbing force of a
planetary equinox on the supposition that
the planet at its equinox is at its greatest
distance from the solar equator, and hence
exposed to only one pole of the sun. Thus,
when the earth is at its vernal equinox, the
north pole of the sun is invisible, and we
are exposed to the full influence of its south
magnetic pole. Terrific energy is then in-
terchanged, disturbing both the atmosphere
of the earth and that of the sun. The dis-
turbances in the latter are communicated
to the other members of the solar system.
Similar results are produced at the autum-
nal equinox by the sun's north magnetic
pole. When at their equinoxes the other
planets undergo a like experience, and in-
directly, through the sun, we share in the
resulta^it electrical excitement. Such is
the theory, and on such foundations does
it rest. Historical records and the reports
of the weather bureaus furnish endless con-
firmations, for every storm finds an equinox
to bear the responsibility. In order to in-
clude all actual phenomena, the duration of
an equinoctial period is put at one-fourth the
planet's year, so that each planet spends halt"
its time in creating disturbances throughout
the solar system.

Not the least curious feature of the book
is the adoption, into the family of planets,
of the mythical Yulcan, supposed to have
been discovered in 1859, and for a time
believed to be a real planet, lying very near
the sun. As nothing has been seen of it
for the last dozen years, this looks very
much like another assumption, of which,
indeed, there appears to be no lack througli-
out the book.

Proceedings of the Seventh Annttal Ses-
sion OF THE American Philological
Association, held at Newport, K. I., July,
18Y5. Hartford, 1875.

The meeting of the American Philologi-
cal Association, of which this pamphlet is
a record, was hold at Newport, R. I., from
July 13th to July 15th of this year. It

LITERARY NOTICES.

375

was opened by an eloquent and suggestive
address from the President, Dr. I. Hammond
Trumbull, who reminded the Association of
the urgent need of attentive study of the
structure of the languages of our American
Indians, a need all the more urgent as they
have no written language, and as year by
year they are passing away. The vexed
question as to a change in the present mode
of spelling in Enghsh was also considered,
and Dr. Trumbull avers that, while scholars
agree on the question of the desirability of
such a change, the main difficulty in the
way of reform is the want of agreement
among them as to the best -way of effecting
it. He says, " The objection that reform
would obscure etymology is not urged by
real etymologists ; " and the testimony of
Hadley and Max Mtiller is quoted, sustain-
ing this position.

Again, the objection that words " when
decently spelled would lose their ' historic in-
terest ' is equally unfounded. The modern or-
thography is superlatively unhistorical. . . .
The only history it can be trusted to teach
begins with the publication of Johnson's
Dictionary." The important recommendation
is made that a list of words be prepared,
" exhibiting side by side the present and the
reformed spelling," such that prominent
scholars in England and America would rec-
ognize either form as allowable.

This subject was referred to a com-
mittee of five eminent philologists, who will
report at the next annual meeting, and have
liberty in the mean time to prepare such a
list of words and cause them to be printed.
This action assumes an additional interest
from the fact that the State of Connecti-
cut has already in contemplation such a
>'bange of spelling in its official reports and
journals.

Important papers were read by Prof.
Albert Harkness, Mr. A. C. Merriam, Prof.
F. A. March, Prof. Franklin Carter, and
others.

Many of these are, of course, of quite a
special nature: among those of more gen-
eral interest may be mentioned Prof. March's
paper on " The Immaturity of Shakespeare
as shown in Hamlet." In the report of Prof.
March's paper in the "Proceedings," his
analysis of the play, from this point of view,
is brought into nine short propositions which
are comprised within the limits of an octavo

page. This brevity rather amusingly recalls
Goethe's prolix analysis of the same play
in " Wilhclm Meister ; " it is by no means
certain that Prof. March's summary will not
help the puzzled reader of Hamlet quite as
much as Goethe's chapters.

Another paper of interest was by Mr.
C. M. O'Keefe, of Brooklyn, " On the Proper
Names in the First Sentence of Caesar's
Commentaries."

Annual Report of the Supervising Sur-
geon OF THE Marine Hospital Service
of the United States, for the Fiscal
Year 1874. By John M. Wood worth,
M.D. Washington, 1 875. Pp. 2.56.

This report opens with a brief statement
of what the Marine Hospital Service of the
United States is; amount of collections and
expenditures during the year; number of
cases of disease and injury treated ; and a
comparison of the figures with those of pre-
vious years. Defects needing legislation ;
cost of the service to the government ; port
inspections and office dues ; government
hospitals ; and preventive medicine in the
service, are the subjects of succeeding sec-
tions. Then follow seventy pages of statis-
tics classified under two heads : first, finan-
cial and economic ; second, medical and
surgical. Eleven papers under the follow-
ing titles, and a copious index, occupy the
last one hundred and fifty pages of the book :
" The Hygiene of the Forecastle ; " " Ameri-
can Commerce and the Service ; " " Unsea-
wo"rthy Sailors ; " " Sailors and their Dis-
eases in Chelsea Hospital ; " " The Service
on Cape Cod ; " " The Freedman and the
Service on the Ohio ; " " Diseases of River
Men, their Causes and Prevention ; " " Pre-
ventable Diseases on the Great Lakes;"
" Syphilis : the Scourge of the Sailor and
the Public Health;" "Yellow Fever at
Pensacola in 1874;" "The Yellow Fever
Epidemic of 1873." These papers are by
different authors, and will be found of in-
terest by medical men.

The Mechanic's Friend. By W. E. A.
Axon. New York : Van Nostrand. Pp
339. Price, $1.50.

The articles contained in this volume
originally appeared in the English Mechanic,
a practical magazine of sterling merit. The
information may be relied on as trustworthy,

376

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

and the problems solved are precisely such
as arise for solution every day in the work-
shop of the mechanic or the amateur handi-
craftsman. We cannot better indicate the
character of the work than by naming a few
of the heads under which the matter it con-
tains is arranged. Thus we have the head-
ing " Miscellaneous Tools, Instruments, and
Processes," which includes hints on the
microscope, hydraulic press, drills, screw-
propeller, etc. ; " Cements, Glues, Varnish-
es," "Solders," "Metals," "Steam-En-
gine," "Fire-arms," "Clock-work," "Glass,"
" House and Garden," " Drawing and Mod-
eling," " Photography," " Musical Instru-
ments," "Electricity and Telegraphing."

The Mechanical Engineer : His Prepara-
tion AND his Work. By R. H. Thurs-
ton, C. E. Pp. 24. New York : Van
Nostrand.

This is an address to a graduating class
of the Stevens Institute of Technology, by
the Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
Prof. Thurston, in the first place, recalls to
the minds of the young engineers the rare
educational advantages they have enjoyed
at the Institute : very full instruction in
mathematics and physics ; in modern lan-
guages ; the English language and literature;
principles of engineering, and the practice of
the arts connected therewith. So far, the
students have been working at the founda-
tion ; the superstructure they must build by
their own efforts. The professor exhorts
them to be wide-awake, observant, conscien-
tious, true to their clients, progressive, radi-
cal in theory but conservative in practice,
and diligent in study.

Politics as a Science. By Chas. Reemelin.
Cincinnati : R. Clarke & Co., Printers.
Pp. 186.

In this work the author well sustains
the reputation he has long enjoyed of being
a profound thinker. It contains the results
of Mr. Reemelin's meditations during many
years — meditations reduced to writing from
time to time without any definite intention
of publishing— upon the laws and phenom-
ena of politics. As reading corrected his
views, these detached meditations were
amended, and gradually the purpose ripened
to gather them together and put them in
permanent form.

Melanosiderite : A New Mineral Species
from Mineral Hill, Delaware County,
Pennsylvania ; and on Two New Varie-
ties of Verniiculites, with a Revision of
other Members of this Group. By Jo-
siAH P. CooKE, Jr. From " Proceed-
ings of the American Academy of Sci-
ences." Pp. 12,

The first of these papers is a brief de-
scription of the physical and chemical char-
acters of a new mineral which, according
to the author, is closely related to the ses-
quihydrates of iron. It contains about
seventy-five per cent, of sesquioxide of iron,
seven per cent, of silica, and thirteen per
cent, of water, the remainder being alumina.

The second paper is a full account of
the physical properties and chemical con-
stitution of two new varieties of vermic-
uUte, a mineral having a granular, scaly
structure, and composed mainly of silica,
alumina, magnesia, iron, and water. Its
name is derived from the circumstance
that, when heated, its scales open out into
worm-like threads.

On a FffiTAL Manatee and Cetacean, with
Remarks upon the Aflinities and An-
cestry of the Sirenia. By Prof. Burt
G. Wilder. Reprinted from the Ameri-
can Journal of Science and Arts. Pp.
10. Illustrated.

This is a preliminary paper describing,
with measurements, the external parts of a
foetal manatee, a little less than three inches
long ; and a foetal cetacean but a trifle
longer, and supposed to be the embryo of
a porpoise or dolphin. Then follow some
remarks on the afiiuities of the sirenia, in
which the author, after referring to the
present state of opinion on the subject,
gives reasons for viewing them as near re-
lations of the ungulates.

Examination of Gases from the Meteor-
ite OF February 12, 18Y5, By A. W.
Wright. Pp. 6.

Prof. Wright analyzed some fragments
of the great Iowa meteorite of 1876, and
the results of his investigation are given in
the pamphlet before us. He finds the spec-
trum of the gases contained in the meteor-
ite to closely resemble that of several of
the comets. Other facts are cited to show
that a comet is simply a meteorite of con-
siderable magnitude, or a swarm of many
i of lesser size.

LITERARY NOTICES.

377

A Report on Trichinosis, as observed in
Dearborn County, Indiana, in 1874. By
George Sutton, M. D. Aurora, Indi-
ana. Pp. 23.

This is a remarkably clear and interest-
ing history of an outbreak of trichina dis-
ease that was clearly traced to the eating
of smoked but uncooked sausage. The
disease was fatal in several cases, but the
larger proportion of those attacked recov-
ered. The author describes the symptoms
of the disease, and the several modes of
treatment that were adopted. The occur-
rence led to an extended examination of
the pork produced in several counties in
Southern Indiana, when it was found that
from three to sixteen per cent, of the hogs
that came under observation contained tri-
chinae. Though full of important informa-
tion for the doctors and the public, this
paper is, for pork-eaters, any thing but
pleasant reading.

Preventive Medicine. By C. C. F. Gat,
M. D. Pp. 12.

The author of this address defends the
paradox that disease is the normal condi-
tion, while health is the abnormal condition
oF our race. If this is the case, then pro-
phylaxy and sanitation must be up-hill work
indeed. Still to this work Dr. Gay does not
hesitate to address himself, and his pam-
phlet contains many timely observations on
various insanitary conditions of modern life.

Health Fragments; or. Steps toward a
True Life. By George H. Everett,
M. D., and Susan Everett, M. D. New
York: Charles P. Somerby. Pp. 306.
Illustrated. Price, $2.

This book contains a few good things,
that have been said a hundred times before,
and that are here scattered through a large
amount of nonsense which might better have
been left unsaid.

Mineral Deposits in Essex County, Massa-
chusetts, especially in Newbury and
Newburyport ; with Map. By Chas. J.
Brockway. Newburyport, 1875. Price,
50 cents.

This is a pamphlet of sixty pages, con-
taining a popular account of the discovery,
opening, and mode of working, of the new
silver and lead mines in the locality named.

Aerial Locomotion ; Pettigrew vs. Ma-
rey. By Prof. Coughtrie. London,
1875. Pp. 20.

On the first page of this pamphlet the
author says his object is to show that, not-
withstanding certain apparent differences,
Pettigrew and Marey essentially agree in
their views on the subject of flight. But
the real object, as it appears from the re-
maining pages, is to prove by citations from
both authors that Pettigrew anticipated
Marey in most of his results, the latter, in-
deed, having claimed as original a great deal
for which he was clearly indebted to Dr.
Pettigrew. It is the old fight over again
concerning priority of discovery, and in this
case, according to our present lights, Petti-
grew appears to have the best of the battle.

Half-Hour Recreations in Popular Sci-
ence. Boston : Estes & Lauriat. Price
per number, 25 cents.

Number 13 of this series contains Tyn-
dall's paper on " The Transmission of Sound
by the Atmosphere," and an account of
"Gigantic Cuttle-Fishes," by W. Saville
Kent. In this paper the author recites the
records of early observations of these mon-
stars, the stories about which were consid-
ered doubtful until the recent discoveries
off the coast of Newfoundland. The bulk
of the article is a history of these later dis-
coveries.

Number 14 is on " The Glacial Epoch
of our Globe," by Alexander Brown. This
is an interesting popular statement of how
the theory of a glacial epoch arose, and of
the investigations and theories relating to
the constitution and movements of glaciers
of celebrated observers. The number is
illustrated.

Number 15 gives Balfour Stewart's ad-
dress on " The Sun and the Earth ; " a pa-
per on "Force electrically exhibited," by
J. W. Phelps ; and two short articles enti-
tled respectively " Weighing the Earth in
a Coal-Pit," and The "Influence of Violet
Light on the Growth of Animals and Plants."

Pseudomorphs of Chlorite, after Garnet.
By R. Pumpelly. Pp. 4.

Of interest to mineralogists exclusively.
The paper is republished from the AmerU
ican Journal of Science. It is accompanied
w ith two colored lithographs.

378

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Causes of Irregularities in the Devel-
opment OF THE Teeth. By N. W. Kings-
ley, D. D. S. Pp. 42.

This pamphlet contains a paper on the
above subject, read betbre the Odontologi-
cal Society of New York. Irregularity of
teeth is shown to arise from three causes :
1. During the life of the individual, from
cerebral disturbance while the teeth were
forming; 2. Or before the individual life
commenced, from like causes transmitted ;
or, 3. From mixing inharmonious types,
large teeth with small jaws.

On the Cotton-Worm of the Southern
States. By Aug. R. Groie. Pp. 6.

In this paper, reprinted from the pro-
ceedings of the Hartford meeting of the
American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, Prof. Grote summarizes
the results of five seasons' observation of
the cotton-worm in the States of Georgia
and Alabama. Where the moth first came
from, its powers of flight, breeding habits,
and the measures to be taken against its
ravages, are among the interesting ques-
tions discussed.

The American Engineer, published
monthly at Baltimore, begins its third vol-
ume in enlarged form. Though primarily
this journal addresses inventors and me-
chanics, it will be perused with interest by
the general reader, who will find in its pages
much useful scientific and industrial infor-
mation, $1.0U per annum.

PUBLICATIONS EECEIVED

Condition of Afi'airs in Alaska. By H. W.
Elliott. Washington : Government Print-
ing-Ofiice. Pp. 27'7.

Our Wasted Resources. By W. Har-
greaves, M. D. New York : National Tem-
perance Society. Pp. 201. Price, $1.25.

Dissertations and Discussions. Vol. V.
By J. Stuart Mill. New York : Holt & Co.
Pp. 294. Price, $2.50.

Soluble Glass. By Dr. L. Feuchtwan-
ger. Pp. 168.

Report of the Commissioners of Educa-
tion, 18*74. Pp. 936.

Graphical Statics. By A. J. Du Bois,
C. E. New York : Van Nostrand. Pp. 79.

Camp-Life in Florida. By Charles Hal-
lock. New York : Forest and Stream Co
Pp. 348.

Travel in Southwestern Africa. By C.
J. Anderson. New York : Putnams. Pp.
329. Price, $2.00.

Strength of Beams. By W. Allan.
New York : Van Nostrand. Pp. 1 14.
Price, 50 cents.

Report of Prison Association of New
York. 1874. Pp. 192.

State Medicine and Insanity. By Dr.
N. Allen. Pp. 31.

Sewerage. By W. H. Corfield. New
York: Van Nostrand. Pp. 128. Price,
50 cents.

Manufacture of Pottery among Savages.
By C. F. Hartt. Rio de Janeiro: South
American Mail print. Pp. 70.

Prospecter's Manual. By W. J. Scho-
field. Boston: Schofield & Co. Pp. 96.
Price, 50 cents.

American Journal of Microscopy. New
York : Handicraft Publishing Company.
Pp. 12. Price, 50 cents per annum.

Check-list of NoctuidfE. By A. R. Grote.
Buffalo : Reinecke & Zesch, printers. Pp.

28.

Difi'erence of Thermal Energy transmit-
ted from Different Parts of Solar Surface.
By J. Ericsson. Pp. 10.

Report of Directors of the New York
Meteorological Observatory, 1873. Pp. 34.

Currency. By G. B. Satterlee. Pp. 17.

Report of Directors of the California
Institution for Deaf and Dumb and the
Blind. Pp. 55.

Prohibition does prohibit. By J. N.
Stearns. Pp. 48.

Odontornithes; By 0. C. Marsh. Pp. 7.

Anaesthetics in Labor. By S. S. Todd,
M. D. Pp. 25.

The Great Salvation. By J. W. Chad-
wick. Pp. 23.

MISCELLANY.

379

MISCELLANY.

The Frailty of Modern Art.— The old
masters made their own colors. The mate-
rial which entered into their pigments came
to them unadulterated, and the excellence
of the paint depended on the brain mixed
in it. Hence, their paintings to-day, though
lacking somewhat freshness of color, have
a mellowness which age can only give to
pigments of the highest excellence. Mod-
ern pictures will not ripen, their colors
fade, and the mellowness of the old mas-
ters is unattainable. Holman Hunt, of
England, has called the attention of lovers
of the fine arts to this deplorable fiict. And
the reasons are given. The artist's colors
are no longer made by himself. Their
manufacture is a business from whose se-
crets he is shut out. Artist's colors are
subject to fearful adulteration. Even the
oils cannot be genuine, as things go. The
materials of which they are made go to the
maker in a sophisticated state. Linseed and
poppy-seed are adulterated before they
reach the oil-maker's hands. So too, is it
generally with the crude material for the
pigments. A high-priced vermilion from
an eminent dealer, upon analysis, yielded
twelve per cent, of red lead. So the artist,
who puts his whole life and soul into a
painting that should be " a joy forever," has
this immortality of art quenched by the
use of dishonest paint.

Oscillations of Lakes. — The " seiches" of
the lake of Geneva have for several years,
as we learn from Nature^ been under inves-
tigation by Forel, of Lausanne. The term
" seiche " is applied locally to certain oscil-
latory movements occasionally seen on the
surface of the lake. The phenomenon had
been investigated by previous observers,
among them Saussure and Yaucher, who
attributed it to variations in atmospheric
pressure ; in this, Forel agrees with them.
The same phenomenon occurs in other
Swiss lakes, and Forel believes it will be
found in all large bodies of water. He
recognizes in the " seiche " probably the
most considerable and the grandest oscil-
latory movement which can be studied on
the surface of the globe. His investiga-
tions have led him to the conclusion that

the " seiche " on the Swiss lakes is an os-
cillatory undulation, having a true rhythm,
and that the phenomenon is not occasional,
but constant, though varying in degree.
The duration of a " seiche " is a function
of the length and depth of the section of
the lake, along which it oscillates ; this
duration increases directly with the length,
and inversely with the depth of the lake.
The instrument he has devised for the in-
vestigation of the phenomenon he calls a
plemyrametre (" tide-measurer ").

Contents of a Riteben-HIidden. — Prof.
Cope lately exhibited to the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia a collec-
tion of animal remains, fragments of pot-
tery, flint arrow-heads, etc., taken from an In-
dian kitchen-midden in Charles County, Md.
The animal remains included the bones of
seventeen species of vertebrata and two of
shells. Of the vertebrates four were mam-
mals, two birds, four reptiles, and seven
fishes. The mammals were the Virginia
deer, raccoon, gray squirrel, and opossum.
Most of the deer-bones had been split into
pieces lengthwise for the purpose of extract-
ing the marrow. The birds were repre-
sented by a number of parts of the turkey,
and the tarsometa-tarsus of some natatorial
bird of the size of a widgeon. The reptiles
were all turtles, and included the snapper,
the box-tortoise, and two emydes. The
fishes represented were the sturgeon and
the gar, there were also numerous bones of
Siluroid fishes of at least two species. The
mollusks were Unio pwpurem and Mesodon
alholabris.

Habits of Blind Crawfish from Mammoth
Cave.— In November, 18*74, Prof F. W. Put-
nam collected a number of blind crawfish
(Cambarus pellucidus) in the Mammoth
Cave, which he kept alive for several months
afterward in Massachusetts. The habits of
these animals and the reproduction in them
of lost parts are the subject of a communi-
cation by Prof. Putnam, published in the
" Proceedings of the Boston Society of Nat-
ural History." The animals eat but very
little in captivity. When food is dropped
into the jar in which they are kept, they
dart backward, then extend the antennas,
and stand as if on the alert. The animal
continues in this attitude for several min-

38o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

utes, and then cautiously crawls about the
jar with antennae extended. On approach-
ing the piece of meat, and before touching
it, the animal gives a powerful backward
jump and remains quiet for a while. It
often repeats this three or four times before
touching the food, and when it does touch
it the result is another backward jump.
When it has become satisfied that there is
no danger, it takes the morsel in its claws
and conveys it to its mouth. " I have twice,"
says the author, " seen the meat dropped as
it was passed along the base of the antennae,
as if the sense of smell, or more delicate or-
gans of touch seated at that point, were
again the cause of alarming the animal.
When the jaws once begin to work, the
piece of meat, or bread, if very small, is
devoured, but if too large, only a few bites
are taken, and the food is dropped and not
touched again."

A detailed account is given ofoneof the
specimens, in order to show the mode of
reproduction of lost members. This speci-
men, a female, was captured November 13th,
being then perfect in all respects, except
the right, large claw, which was as yet ru-
dimentary. Total length of the animal from
tip of large claw to end of tail, not quite
two and a half inches. From November
14th to 24th, the crawfish lost in battle most
of her antennae, the third, fourth, and fifth
legs from the left side, the fifth from the
right side, and the two end-joints of the
third leg on the right side ; January 28th or
29th she cast her shell and came forth with
a soft white covering, which was nearly two
weeks in hardening. All the legs which were
perfect before were now of the same size, but
in addition the great claw of the right side
was developed to about one-half or two-
thirds the size of its fellow, and was appa-
rently of as much use. The two missing
joints of the third leg on the right side were
also developed, though not quite to their full
proportions. The fifth leg on the right side,
and the third, fourth, and fifth of the left
side, were reproduced, but in a very small
and rudimentary manner. The antennae
were about tv^o-thirds their full size. On
April 20th the shell was again cast ; the
crawfish had now all the legs and claws
nearly perfect. The great claw of the right
side was very nearly as large as that of the

left. The tip of the third leg of the same
side was perfect, and all the legs that be-
fore were rudimentary were now developed
apparently to their full proportionate size,
with the exception of the last on the right
side. Antenna about full length.

From these observations, it will be seen
that the parts are not reproduced in per-
fection on one shedding of the shell, but
that each time the shell is cast they are
more nearly perfect than before.

Sound and Fog Signals.— Among the pa-
pers read at the Philadelphia meeting of the
American Academy of Sciences, was one by
Prof. Henry on " Sound and Fog Signals,"
of which we present an abstract. The au-
thor stated the results of experiments made
last summer, under the direction of the
Lighthouse Board, at Block Island, and at
Little Jail Island, at the east end of Long
Island Sound. One set of experiments was
made to investigate the cause of an echo
apparently heard from the ocean : the re-
sults were not such as to solve the problem,
though they favored the hypothesis that the
echo was due rather to a reflection from the
waves than from the air. Another set of ex-
periments was directed to investigating the
effect of elevation on the hearing of sound ;
the result was to show that a sound travel-
ing against the wind is heard farther away
on an elevation than at the sea-level. In
five cases, sound was heaid five times far-
ther with the wind than against it, the wind's
velocity being about five miles per hour.
The effects of sound traveling with the wind,
against it, at right angles to it, etc , were
shown in diagrams representing curves of
audition. In still air these curves are near-
ly circular ; with wind uniform in velocity
throughout the whole space the curves are
approximately elliptical. The curves dif-
fered according to the different conditions.
It appeared to be demonstrated that sound
is heard farthest with a moderate wind, and
that with a strong wind it is heard a less
distance in every direction than in still air,
and perhaps to a less distance than with a
wind of moderate velocity. These experi-
ments will be resumed next summer.

Origin of the Jfnmerals. — Having never
met with any explanation of the origin of

MISCELLANY.

381

J^

}

z

— *

^

a

t^

5
6

%

1

i

%

the numerals, or rather of the figures sym-
bolizing them, perhaps I am right in sup-
posing that nothing satisfactory is known
of it. In that case the following may be
interesting to your readers : The first col-
umn contains the original figures, each con-

I

3

G
1

taining as many lines as the number which
It is intended to represent. The other col-
umns show the transitions likely to result
from quick writing. — W. Donisthorpe iti

Nature.

Location of Sensory Centres in tlie
BraiUf — At the recent meeting of the Brit-
ish Medical Association, Dr. Brunton read
a paper communicated by Dr. Ferrier, en-
titled " Abstract of Experiments on the
Brains of Monkeys, with special reference
to the Localization of Sensory Centres in
the Convolutions." The experiments, which
were conducted by trephining and the de-
struction of the sensory centres by means
of a red-hot wire, led to the following re-
sults, as stated by the Lancet : These cen-
tres are bilateral, so that when, for instance,
one of the centres of touch was destroyed,
there was loss of tactile sensibility in the cor-
responding half of the body. Stimulation of
the centre of hearing caused the animal to

prick up its ears as if it heard something,
while destruction of the whole of this cen-
tre rendered the creature totally deaf. De-
struction of the centre of vision correspond-
ing to one eye only, rendered the animal
temporarily blind in that eye, the function,
after twenty-four hours, being carried on
by the opposite centre. In the discussion
which followed. Dr. Nairne pointed out that
other observers had arrived at conclusions
different from those of Ferrier, and that the
brain of a monkey could not be taken as
exactly similar to that of a man ; but Dr.
Brunton thought the mistake made by Ger-
man and other investigators who differed
from Ferrier was, that they took the brains
of animals lower even than the monkey to
correspond with that of man. Dr. Dupuy
said that he had found, when the centres
of motion on one side of the brain were
removed, that paralysis followed for a short
time throughout the corresponding part of
the body, but that, when the centres were
removed from both sides of the brain, there
was no paralysis at all.

Health of Children in Ftah. — In a report
made by Surgeon E. P. Vollum to the Sur-
geon-General on " Some Diseases of Utah,"
it is stated that the adult population of that
Territory is as robust as any within the lim-
its of the United States. The children fur-
nish two-thirds of all the deaths, most of
which occur under five years of age. In
Salt Lake City, as appears from the register
kept by the undertakers, the male deaths
exceed the female in number about 50 per
cent., but Surgeon Yollum could not get the
relative proportion. The polygamous chil-
dren are as healthy as the monogamous, and
the proportion of deaths about the same,
the difference being rather in favor of the
former, who are generally, in the city espe-
cially, situated more comfortably as to resi-
dence, food, air, and clothing, their parents
being in easier circumstances than those in
monogamy. It is perhaps still too early to
form an opinion as to the influence of po-
lygamy on the health, or constitutional or
mental character of the Anglo-Saxon race in
Utah ; but Surgeon Vollum has been unable
to detect any difference in favor eiiher of
monogamy or polygamy. So far as he can
learn, polygamy in Utah furnishes no idiocy,

382

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

insanity, rickets, tubercles, struma, or de-
basing constitutional condition of any kind.

Tehicles of lufection. — A number of
cases of the transmission of contagious dis-
eases by means of clothing, articles of fur-
niture, and other objects that had been in
contact with persons stricken by such dis-
eases, are brought together by a writer in
Chambers's Journal, in order to show the
great importance of thoroughly disinfecting
such vehicles of infection, before making
use of them again. The author, Mr, Wil-
liam Chambers, in the first place quotes
Sir James Simpson's remedy for hospital-
infection, namely, building such establish-
ments of cast-iron, and casting them anew
when contaminated. A servant-girl in
Morayshire died of scarlet fever. Her
clothing was sent back to her parents, but
en route the box lay over for a few days at
a railway-station. On reaching its destina-
tion, the contents of the box were dispersed
among friends and neighbors. The chil-
dren of the station-master, who had played
around the box, and every recipient of the in-
fected clothing, were stricken with the fever.
Again, the clothing of a soldier who had
died of cholera was sent home to his friends.
While the garments were " in the wash," a
man was employed on the roof of the cot-
tage, repairing the thatch. He inhaled the
poisonous fumes of the washing, and died
of cholera. Scarlet fever cf a malignant
type appeared in a family at Carlisle, and
two of the children died. In this case, the
carrier of the infection was a retriever-pup,
which had been reared in a house where
scarlatina was present. It is stated in a
pamphlet by Dr. McCall Anderson, of Glas-
gow, that a peculiar disease was introduced
into a family in that town under the follow-
ing circumstances : Some mice, caught in a
trap, were seen to have on the head and
front legs crusts of a sombre yellow tint, of
circular form, and more or less elevated
above the level of the neighboring healthy
parts. A depression was noticed in the
centre of each crust, and the parts where
these had fallen off were ulcerated, and the
skin appeared to be destroyed througliout
the whole thickness. These mice were
given to a cat, which soon exhibited, above
the eye, a crust similar to those on the

mice. Later still, two young children of
the family who played with the cat were
successively affected with the same disease,
yellow crusts making their appearance on
several parts of the body, on the shoulder,
face, and thigh. Other instances are cited
by Dr. Anderson, where mice, affected in
the same way, had transmitted the disease
to the human subject, both indirectly
through cats, and directly through the mice
themselves having been handled by chil-
dren.

Practif.ll Edacation. — A correspondent
of the Moniteur Indusiriel Beige communi-
cates to that journal a description of a
school of practical instruction, situated in
one of the suburbs of Paris. The writer
exhibits to us a system of education in
which the future occupations of the pupils
are kept steadily in view, and where every
step of progress in study marks an advance
in real knowledge. A few instances will
best show the method of instruction. Sup-
pose a lesson in botany is to be given, and
that the special subject is some textile
plant. The pupil sees, in the botanic gar-
den attached to the school, a few stalks of
hemp growing. The botanic characters of
the plant are explained to him ; he is told
how it grows, and what are the conditions
favorable to its growth ; then he is shown
how it is treated in order to obtain the
fibre, how the latter is spun, woven, etc.
In giving instruction on minerals, a like
course is followed. For instance, the sub-
ject is iron-ore : various kinds of ore are
exhibited; the processes are explained,
by means of models and designs, of the
reduction of iron and its manufacture. So
in mechanics : models of machinery are
shown and explained ; better still, the pu-
pil is taken to the workshops where he sees
various kinds of machines in operation.
His understanding of things is tested by
questions, and by being required to draw
the objects he has been looking at, and to
explain their working. Topography and
geography are taught in the same common-
sense way, the pupil being led to map out
an ever-widening area. He begins with the
plan of the school, then gives its relative
position in the commune, in the canton, in
the arrondissement, and so on. The great

NOTES.

383

principle of instruction in this school is
" to make knowledge concrete, practical."

RoTiTals and Religions Insanity.— In a

paper by G. H. Savage, M.D., of the Bethlehem
Hospital for the Insane, London, on " Reli-
gious Insanity and Religious Revivals," the
lists of cases admitted to the hospital dur-
ing the four months April to August, in the
three years 1875, 1874, and 1873, are com-
pared. The result does not show any in-
crease of insanity traceable to the recent
religious excitement in England. Indeed,
the author sees no reason for regarding reli-
gious insanity as a peculiar, well-defined spe-
cies of mental disease. According to him,
it is simply an accident of education, tem-
perament, or sex, whether certain subjective
feelings develop themselves into a morbid
religious idea, or into an illusion of being
persecuted and annoyed by others. " Many
persons," he adds, " verging on insanity —
in fact, in the melancholy stage of the dis-
ease— seek religious consolation, and, not-
withstanding this, go mad ; they would
probably have gone mad in any case, and
the most that can be said against the ser-
vice is that it precipitated the attack." But
to return to the figures. In 1875, from
April to August, there were admitted to
Bethlehem 42 male patients, and of these 9
suffered from religious insanity. During the
same time 55 women were admitted, of
whom 8 had religious delusions. That was
21.4 per cent, of the men, and 14.5 percent,
of the women. During 1874, in the same
period, 30 male admissions gave 6 religious
cases, and 47 female cases gave 16 — that is,
16.6 and 34 per cent, respectively. In 1873,
28 male admissions gave 4 rehgious cases,
or 14.2 per cent. ; 28 female admissions
gave 8 religious cases, or 28.4 per cent.

NOTES.

We have received from Prof. W. S.
Barnard the following correction of a state-
ment in his article on " Opossums and
their Young," published in the December
Monthly : " In your December number I
stated that the delivery of young opossums
had never been witnessed. To the contrary
see observations of Mr. J. G. Shute, in the
' Proceedings of the Essex Institute,' vol.
iii., page 288, to which my attention has
just been called. The female curves her

body until the sexual orifice is opposite the
pouch, which opens by muscular contrac-
tion to receive the young, without any as-
sistance from the paws or lips."

The largest telescope ever yet attempted
is now in course of construction in Dublin
by Mr. Grubb. It is intended for the new
Observatory of Vienna. The object-glass
will have an aperture of over twenty-six
inches, and the focal length is to be about
thirty-two feet.

In the American Journal of Science and
Arts for November Prof. Marsh has a short
illustrated paper describing the remains of
several fossil birds obtained from the Creta-
ceous of Kansas, and possessing teeth.

We learn from the Scientific American
that the excavations at Hell-Gate were com-
pleted about the end of July. The work
now in progress consists in the boring of
holes for the charges of nitro-glycerine.
This was to have been completed before the
end of the year 1875, and then two or three
months more would be occupied in inserting
the charges.

A ccRiocs race of sheep, living on an
island in Englishman's Bay, coast of Maine,
are described in Forest and Stream. They
are nearly as wild as deer. Their principal
winter food is sea-weed, chiefly dulse ; they
also eat the branches of nearly all the trees
which grow on the island.

In very early times the pine appears to
have been the principal forest-tree of Den-
mark. At present the beech occupies this
position, and the pine is no longer indige-
nous in the countiy. Next after the beech
comes the birch, then the alder, the aspen,
the hazel, etc. An examination of the vege-
table debris of the bogs of Denmark shows
that the pine was followed immediately bv
the sessile-fruited variety of the oak, and
this in turn by the beech.

In illustration of the influence of nutri-
tion on the habits of plants, Mr. Meehan,
of Philadelphia, cites the case of two species
of Euphorbia, which, though usually pros-
trate, he found assuming an erect growth
when their nutrition was interfered with by
a small fungoid parasite. A similar fact
was observed in connection with the com-
mon purslane, one of the most prostrate of
all procumbent plants, which, under similar
conditions, also became erect.

Dr. Nicolas von Konkolt finds in the
train of meteors the spectrum-lines of so-
dium, magnesium, carbon, strontium, and
possibly lithium,while the nucleus invariably
gives a continuous spectrum, in which the
yellow, the green, or the red predominates,
according to the color, blue being very rare,
and violet never seen.

3^4

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

At the trial of the 81-ton gun, at Wool-
wich Arsenal, a 1,250-pound ball was fired
with a charge of 170 pounds of powder.
This shot penetrated 45 feet of sand, and
the recoil of the gun was 23^ feet. A sec-
ond shot was fired with a charge of 190
pounds. The penetration-distance was now
over 50 feet, and the recoil 32 feet. It is
intended gradually to increase the charge to
300 pounds.

A State Archaeological Association has
been formed in Ohio to promote investiga-
tion of the mounds and earthworks of the
State, to collect facts, descriptions, relics,
and other evidences of the prehistoric races,
and to awaken an interest in the general
subject of archeology. The library and
cabinet of the Association will be established
in the State-House, at Columbus, provided
the State furnish suitable accommodations
free of cost. The meetings will be held an-
nually in the various cities of Ohio, and a
yearly bulletin will be published. The first
annual meeting will be held at Newark,
Licking County, on Tuesday, September 5,
1876.

A QUARTER of a million of young salmon,
according to a writer in Forest and Stream,
have been placed in the Truckee River,
which flows into Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and
they are doing well.

A VEIN of nickel has been discovered in
New Caledonia, extending across the entire
island, from east to west. There are also
in New Caledonia copper-mines of great
richness. The gold-mines, of which much
was expected a few years ago, have so far
yielded insignificant results.

The death-rate of some English towns
is very high. Thus, while the death-rate
for England and Wales generally is 22.2 per
1,000, in Bristol it is 26.9, in Leeds, 28.7,
in Manchester, 32.1, and in Liverpool, 35.9.
Of children under five years of age, 39
per 1,000 die annually in country districts,
while in towns the ratio is 103 per 1,000.

A COMMISSION has been appointed by the
British Government, to investigate the sub-
ject of the spontaneous combustion of coal
on shipboafd. Persons having any facts on
the subject of the spontaneous combustion
of coal, under any circumstances, are re-
quested to communicate the same to H. S.
Poole, Charlottetown, Nova Scotia, Inspec-
tor of Mines.

Microscopic examination of the muscu-
lar tissue of a wild-boar lately shot in the
forests of Saxony showed it to be full of
trichinae. This is the first case in which
this parasite has been found in the wild-
boar, it having been the general belief that
only domesticated swine were affected.

By substituting atomized water or spray
for steam in sulphuric-acid manufacture,
Sprengel not only effects a saving of fuel,
but also saves 6^ per cent, of pyrites and
15 per cent, of nitre.

An adequate punishment for those hu-
man brutes who vent their despicable pas-
sions in murderous assaults on women and
children is suggested by the authors of
" The Unseen Universe." " It is probable,"
they write, " that, before many years have
passed, electricity will be called upon by
an enlightened legislature to produce abso-
lutely indescribable torture, thrilling through
every fibre of such miscreants."

A PROCESS for brightening iron is de-
scribed as follows in a German periodical :
The articles to be brightened are, when
taken from the forge, placed in dilute sul-
phuric acid (1 to 20), and then washed with
water and dried with sawdust. They are
then dipped for a second or so in nitrous
acid, washed carefully, and rubbed clean.
Iron thus treated acquires a bright surface,
having a white glance.

They are trying to introduce humble-
bees into New Zealand, for the purpose of
aiding in the fertilization of the common
clover. This ofiice the common bee is un-
able to discharge, its pioboscis being too
short to reach down to the pollen of the
flower.

A UNIVERSITY, to be founded at Tomsk,
Siberia, by the Russian Government, will at
first consist of only two Faculties, law and
medicine. Siberia at present is very ill
supplied with doctors, there being only 55
for a population of 6,000,000, inhabiting a
territory as large as all Europe.

Hofmann's process for preparing vanilla
from the wood of the pine has been pat-
ented, and will be generally applied in pa-
per-mills which use wood-pulp for the pur-
poses of their manufacture.

It is stated in the Lancet that female
medical missionaries are now laboring very
successfully in various parts of India. The
Maharajah of Vezianagram has engaged an
American lady to open a dispensary for
women at Benares, and Sir Salar Jung has
done the same thing in Hyderabad.

Bath bricks are made from the deposits
of the river Barrett, at Bridgewater, Som-
ersetshire. Nowhere else is a similar de-
posit found, so that Bridgewater supplies
the world. The annual import into the
United States is about 240,000 bricks.

The State of Minnesota produced last
year 28,000,000 bushels of wheat, 15,000,-
boo of oats, and 12,000,000 of Indian-corn.

//At=

THOMAS STEREY HUNT, LL.D., F. K. S.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

FEBRUARY, 1876.

THE WARFAEE OF SCIENCE.

By ANDEEW D. WHITE, LL. D.,

PEESIDENT OF CORNELL TJNIVEESITY.
I.

I PURPOSE to present an outline of the gveat, sacred struggle for
the liberty of science — a struggle which has lasted for so many
centuries, and which yet continues. A hard contest it has been ; a
war waged longer, with battles fiercer, with sieges more persistent,
with strategy more shrewd than in any of the comparatively petty
warfares of Caesar or Napoleon or Moltke.

I shall ask you to go with me through some of the most protract-
ed sieges, and over some of the hardest-fought battle-fields of this
war. We will look well at the combatants ; we will listen to the bat-
tle-cries ; we will note the strategy of leaders, the cut and thrust of
champions, the weight of missiles, the temper of weapons.

My thesis, which, by an historical study of this warfare, I expect
to develop, is the following : In all modern history, interference with
science in the supposed interest of religion, vo matter Jioio conscien-
tious such interference inay have been, has resulted in the direst evils
both to religion and to science, and invariably. And, on the other
hand, all untrammeled scieyitiflc investigation, no matter how dan-
gerous to religion some of its stages may have seemed, for the time,
to be, has invariably residted in the highest good of religion and of
science. I say " invariably." I mean exactly that. It is a rule to
which history shows not one exception

It would seem, logically, that this statement cannot be gainsaid.
God's truths must agree, whether discovered by looking within upon
the soul, or without upon the world. A truth written upon the hu-
man heart to-day, in its full play of emotions or passions, cannot be

' In its earlier form this address was given as a Phi Beta Kappa oration at Brown
University, and as a lecture at New York, Boston, New Haven, Ann Arbor, and else-
where.

VOL. VIII. — 25

386 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

at any real variance even with a truth written upon a fossil whose
poor life ebbed forth millions of years ago.

This being so, it would also seem a truth irrefragable, that the
search of each of these kinds of truth must be followed out on its
own lines, by its own methods, to its own results, without any inter-
ference from investigators on other lines, or by other methods. And
it would also seem logical to work on in absolute confidence that
whatever, at any moment, may seem to be the relative positions of
the two different bands of workers, they must at last come together,
for Truth is one.

But logic is not history. History is full of interferences which
have cost the earth dear. Strangest of all, some of the direst of them
have been made by the best of men, actuated by the purest motives,
and seeking the noblest results. These interferences, and the struggle
against them, make up the warfare of science.

One statement more, to clear the ground. You will not under-
stand me at all to say that religion has done nothing for science. It
has done much for it. The work of Christianity, despite the clamps
which men have riveted about it, has been mighty indeed. Through
these two thousand years, it has undermined servitude, mitigated
tyranny, given hope to the hopeless, comfort to the afflicted, light to
the blind, bread to the starving, joy to the dying, and this Avork con-
tinues. And its work for science, too, has been great. It has fos-
tered science often. Nay, it has nourished that feeling of self-sacrifice
for human good, which has nerved some of the bravest men for these
battles.

Unfortunately, some good men started centuries ago with the idea
that purely scientific investigation is unsafe-^that theology must in-
tervene. So began this great modern war.

The first typical battle-field to which I would refer is that of Ge-
ography— the simplest elementary doctrine of the earth's shape and
surface.

Among the legacies of thought left by the ancient world to the
modern, were certain ideas of the rotundity of the earth. These ideas
were vague; they were mixed wuth absurdities; but they Avere ^erw*
ideas, and, after the barbarian storm which ushered in the modern
world had begun to clear away, these germ ideas began to bud and
bloom in the minds of a few thinking men, and these men hazarded
the suggestion that the earth is round — is a globe.'

The greatest and most earnest men of the time took fright at once.
To them, the idea of the earth's rotundity seemed fraught with dan-

^ Most fruitful among these were those given by Plato in the " Timaeus." See, also,
Grote on Plato's doctrine of the rotundity of the earth. Also Sir G. C. Lewis's " Astron-
omy of the Ancients," London, 1862, chap, iii., sec. i. and note. Cicero's mention of
the antipodes and reference to the passage in the " Timaeus " are even more remarkable
than the original, in that they much more clearly foreshadow the modern doctrine. See
"Academic Questions," ii., xxix. Also, " Tusc. Quest.," i., xxviii., and v., xxiv.

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 387

gers to Scripture : by which, of course, they meant their interpretation
of Scripture.

Among the first who took up arms against the new thinkers was
Eusebius. He endeavored to turn off these ideas by bringing science
into contempt. He endeavored to make the innovators understand
that he and the fathers of the Church despised all such inquiries.
Speaking of the innovations in physical science, he said : " It is not
through ignorance of the things admired by them, but through con-
tempt of their useless labor, that we think little of these matters, turn-
incr our souls to better things." *

Lactantius asserted the ideas of those studying astronomy to be
" mad and senseless." '

But the attempt to " flank " the little phalanx of thinkers did not
succeed, of course. Even such men as Lactantius and Eusebius can-
not pooh-pooh down a new scientific idea. The little band of thinkers
went on, and the doctrine of the rotundity of the earth naturally led
to the consideration of the tenants of the earth's surface, and another
germ idea was ^ warmed into life— the idea of the existence of the an-
tipodes, the idea of the existence of countries and men on the hemi-
sphere opposite to ours.

At this the war spirit waxed hot. Those great and good men de-
termined to fight. To all of them such doctrines seemed dangerous;
to most of them they seemed damnable. St. Basil and St. Ambrose*
were tolerant enough to allow that a man might be saved who believed
the earth to be round, and inhabited on its opposite sides ; but the
great majority of the Fathers of the Church utterly denied the possi-
bility of salvation to such misbelievers.

Lactantius asks "... Is there any one so senseless as to believe
that there are men whose footsteps are higher than their heads ? — that
the crops and trees grow downward ? — that the rains and snow and

* See Eusebius, " Prfep. Ev.," xv., 61.

2 See Lactantius, " Inst.," 1., iii., chap. 3. Also, citations in Whewell, " Hist. Induct.
Sciences," Lond., 1857, vol. i., p. 194. To understand the embarrassment thus caused
to scientific men at a later period, see " Letter of Agricola to Joachimus Vadianus " in
1514. Agricola asks Vadianus to give his views regarding the antipodes, saying that he
himself does not know what to do, between the Fathers on one side and learned men of
modern times on the other. On the other hand, for the embarrassment caused to the
Church by this mistaken zeal of the Fathers, see Kepler's references and Fromund's re-
plies.; also De Morgan, " Paradoxes," p. 58. Kepler appears to have taken great delight
in throwing the views of Lactantius into the teeth of his adversaries.

3 " Another germ idea," etc. See Plato, " Timaeus," 62 C, Jowett's translation, N.
Y. ed. Also " Phsedo," pp. 449, et seq. Also Cicero, " Academic Quest.," and " Tusc.
Disput.," ubl supra. For citations and summaries, see Whewell, " Hist. Induct. Sciences,"
vol. i., p. 189, and St. Martin, "Hist, de la Geog.," Paris, ISTS, p. 96. Also Leopardi,
" Saggio sopra gli errori popolari degli antichi," Firenze, 1851, chap, xii., p. 184, et seq.

* For opinion of Basil, Ambrose and others, see Lecky, " Hist, of Rationahsm in Eu.
rope," New York, 1872, vol, i., p. 279, note. Also Letronne, in Revue des Deux Mondes,
March, 1834.

388 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

hail fall upward toward the earth ? . . . But if you inquire from
those who defend these marvelous fictions, why all things do not fall
into that lower part of the heaven, they reply that such is the nature
of things, that heavy bodies are borne toward the middle, like the
spokes of a wheel; while light bodies, such as clouds, smoke, and fire,
tend from the centre toward the heavens on all sides. Now, I am at
loss what to say of those who, when they have once erred, steadily
persevere in their folly, and defend one vain thing by another."

Augustine seems inclined to yield a little in regard to the rotun-
dity of the earth, but he fights the idea that men exist on the other
side of the earth, saying that " Scripture speaks of no such descendants
of Adam,"

But this did not avail to check the idea. What may be called the
flank movement, as represented by Eusebius, had failed. The direct
battle given by Lactantius, Augustine, and others, had failed. In the
sixth century, therefore, the opponents of the new ideas built a great
fortress and retired into that. It was well built and well braced. It
was nothing less than a complete theory of the world, based upon the
literal interpretation of texts of Scripture, and its author was Cosmas
Indicopleustes.*

According to Cosmas, the earth is a parallelogram, flat, and sur-
rounded by four great seas. At the outer edges of these seas rise
immense walls closing in the whole structure. These walls support
the vault of the heavens, whose edges are cemented to the walls ;
walls and vault shut in the earth and all the heavenly bodies. The
whole of this theologic, scientific fortress was built most carefully, and,
as was then thought, most scripturally.

Starting with the expression, To dyiov kooiilkov, applied in the
ninth chapter of Hebrews to the tabernacle in the desei-t, he insists,
with other interpreters of his time, that it gives a key to the whole
construction of the world. The universe is, therefore, made on the
plan of the Jewish Tabernacle — box-like and oblong.

Coming to details, he quotes those grand words of Isaiah,'' "It is
he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, . . . that stretcheth out
the heavens like a curtain, and spreadeth them out like a tent to dwell
in," and the passage in Job,' which speaks of the " pillars of heaven."
He turns all that splendid and precious poetry into a prosaic state-
ment, and gathers therefrom, as he thinks, treasures for science.

This vast box is then divided into two compartments, one above
the other. In the first of these, men live and stars move ; and it ex-

' For Lactantius, see " Instit.," iii., 24, translation in Ante-Nicene Library; also, cita-
tions in Whewell, i., 196, and in St. Martin, "Histoire de la Geographic," pp. 216, 217.
For St. Augustine's opinion, see the " Civ. D.," xvi., 9, where this great Father of the
Church shows that the existence of the antipodes " milla ratione credendiim est.'''' Also,
citations in Buckle's " Posthumous Works," vol. ii., p. 645.

» Isaiah xl. 22. ' Job xxvi. 11.

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 389

tends up to the first solid vault or firmament, where live the angels,
a main part of whose business it is to push and pull the sun and plan-
ets to and fro. Next he takes the text, " Let there be a firmament in
the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters,"
and other texts from Genesis.^ To tliese he adds the texts from the
Psalms, " Praise him ye heaven of heavens, and ye waters that be
above the heavens," * casts that outburst of poetry into his crucible
with the other texts, and, after subjecting them to sundry j^eculiar pro-
cesses, brings out the theory that over this first vault is a vast cistern
containing the w^aters. He then takes the expression in Genesis
reo-ardine: the "windows of heaven"^ and establishes a doctrine
regarding the regulation of the rain, which is afterward supplemented
by the doctrine that the angels not only push and pull the heavenly
bodies, to light the earth, but also open and close the windows of
heaven to water it.

To find the character of the surface of the earth, Cosmas studies
the table of shew-bread in the Tabernacle. The dimensions of that
table prove to him that the earth is flat and twice as long as broad.
The four corners of the table symbolize the four seasons.

To account for the movement of the sun, Cosmas suggests that at
the north of the earth is a great mountain, and that, at night, the sun is
carried behind this. But some of the commentators ventured to ex-
press a doubt here. They thought that the sun was pushed into a
great pit at night, and was pulled out in the morning.

Nothing can be more touching in its simplicity than Cosmas's
closing of his great argument. He bursts forth in raptures, declaring
that Moses, the prophets, evangelists, and apostles, agree to the truth
of his doctrine.*

Such was the foitress built against human science in the sixth cen-
tury, by Cosmas ; and it stood. The innovators attacked it in vain.
The greatest minds in the Church devoted themselves to buttressing
it with new texts, and throwing out new outworks of theologic rea-
soning. It stood firm for two hundred years, when a bishop — Vir-
gilius of Salzburg — asserts his belief in the existence of the antipodes.

It happened that thei-e then stood in Germany, in the first years
of the eighth century, one of the greatest and noblest of men — St.
Boniface. His learning was of the best then known ; in labors he was
a worthy successor to the apostles ; his genius for Christian work made

' Genesis i. 6. ^ Psalm cxlviii. 4. ^ Genesis vii. 11.

* See Montfivucon, "Collectio Nova Patruni," Paris, 1706, vol. ii., p. 188; also, pp.
298, 299. The text is illustrated with engravings showing walls and solid vault (firma-
ment), with the whole apparatus of " fountains of the great deep," " windows of heaven,"
angels, and the mountain behind which the sun is drawn. For an imperfect reduction
of one of them, see article " Maps," in Knight's " Dictionary of Mechanics," New York,
1875. For still another theory, very droll, and thought out on similar principles, see
Mungo Park, cited in De Morgan, " Paradoxes," 309. For Cosmas's joyful summing
up, see Montfaucon, " Collectio Nova Patrum," vol. ii., p. 255.

390 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

him, unwillingly, Primate of Germany ; his devotion afterward led
him, willingly, to martyrdom. There sat, too, at that time, on the
papal throne, a great Christian statesman — Poj^c Zachary. Boniface
immediately declai'es against the revival of such a terrible heresy as
the existence of the antipodes. He declares that it amounts to the
declaration that there are men on the earth beyond the reach of the
means of salvation ; he attacks Virgilius ; he calls on Zachary for
aid ; effective measures are taken, and we hear no more of Virgilius
or his doctrine.

Six hundred years pass away, and in the fourteenth century two
men jiublicly assert tlie doctrine. The first of these, Peter of Abano,
escapes punishment by natural death ; the second, known as Cecco
d'Ascoli, a man of seventy years, is burned alive. Nor was that all
the punishment : that great painter, Orcagna, whose terrible works
you may see on the walls of the Campo Santo at Pisa, immortalized
Cecco by representing him in the flames of hell.'

Still the idea lived and moved, and a hundred years later we find
the theologian Tostatus protesting against the doctrine of the an-
tipodes as " unsafe." He has invented a new missile — the following
syllogism: "The apostles were commanded to go into all the world,
and to preach the gospel to every creature. They did not go to any
such jDart of the world as the antipodes, they did not preach to any
creatures there : ergo^ no antipodes exist." This is just before the time
of Columbus.

Columbus is the next warrior. The world has heard of his bat-
tles : how the Bishop of Ceuta worsted him in Portugal ; how at the
Junta of Salamanca the theologians overwhelmed him with quota-
tions from the Psalms, from St. Paul, and from St. Augustine.''

But in 1519 Science gains a crushing victory. Magalhaens makes
his famous voyages. He has proved the earth to be round ; for his
great expedition has circumnavigated it. He proves the doctrine of
the antipodes, for he sees the men of the antipodes.^ But even this

^ Virgil of Salzburg. See Neander's " History of the Christian Church," Torrey's
translation, vol. iii., p. 63. Since Bayle, there has been much loose writing about Vir-
gil's case. See Whewell, p. 197; but for best choice of authorities and most careful
winnowing out of conclusions, see De Morgan, pp. 24-26. For very full notes as to pagan
and Christian advocates of doctrine of rotundity of the earth and of antipodes, and for
extract from Zachary's letter, see Migne, " Patrologia," vol. vi., p. 426, and vol. xli., p.
487. For Peter of Abano, or Apono, as he is often called, see Tiraboschi ; also Ginguenc,
vol. ii., p. 293. Also Naude, " Histoire des grands hommes accuses de Magie." For Cecco
d'Ascoli, see Montucla, "Histoire des Mathematiques," i., 528; also, Daunou, "Etudes
Historiques," vol. vi., p. 320. Concerning Orcagna's representation of Cecco in flames
of hell, see Renan, " Averroes et I'Averroisme," Paris, 1867, p. 328.

*For Columbus before the Junta of Salamanca, see Irving's "Columbus," Murray's,
edition, vol. ii., pp. 405-410. Figuier, " Savants du Moyen Age," etc., vol. ii., p. 394, el
seq. Also Humboldt, " Histoire de la Geographic du Nouveau Continent"

2 For eifect of Magalhaens's voyages, and the reluctance to yield to proof, see Henri
Martin, " Histoire de France," vol. xiv., p. 395 ; St. Martin's " Histoire de la Geog.,'-

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 391

does not end the war. Muny earnest and good men oppose the doc-
trine for two hundred years longer. Then the French astronomers
make their measurements of degrees in equatorial and polar regions
and add to other proofs that of the lengthened pendulum. When
this was done, when the deductions of science were seen to be estab-
lished by the simple test of measurement, beautifully, perfectly, then
and then only this war of twelve centuries ended.^

And now what was the result of this war ? The efforts of Eusebius
and Lactantius to deaden scientific thought ; the efforts of Augustine
to combat it ; the efforts of Cosmas to stop it by dogmatism ; the
efforts of Boniface, and Zachary, and others to stop it by force, con-
scientious as they all Avere, had resulted in what ? Simply in forcing
into many noble minds this most unfortunate conviction, that Science
and Religion are enemies ; simply in driving away from religion hosts
of the best men in all those centuries. The result was wholly bad.
No optimism can change that verdict.

On the other hand, what was gained by the warriors of science
for religion ? Simply, a far more ennobling conception of the world,
and a far truer conception of Him who made and who sustains it.

Which is the more consistent with a great, true religion — the
cosmography of Cosmas, or that of Isaac Newton ? Which presents
the nobler food foi' religious thought — the diatribes of Lactantius, or
the astronomical discourses of Thomas Chalmers ?

The next great battle was fought on a question relating to the
position of the earth among the heavenly bodies. On one side, the
great body of conscientious religious men planted themselves firmly
on the geocentric doctrine — the doctrine that the earth is the centre,
and that the sun and planets revolve about it. The doctrine was old,
and of the highest respectability.'^ The very name, Ptolemaic theory,
carried weight. It had been elaborated until it accounted well for
the phenomena. Exact textual interpreters of Scripture cherished it,
for it agreed with the letter of the sacred text.^

Still the germs of the heliocentric theory * had been planted long
before, and well planted ; it had seemed ready even to bloom forth

p. 369 ; Pesche!, " Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen," concluding chapters ;
and for an admirable summary, Draper, " Hist. Int. Dev. of Europe," pp. 451-453.

Tor general statement as to supplementary proof by measurement of degrees, and
by pendulum, see Somerville, " Phys. Geog.," chapter i., § 6, note. Also Humboldt,
"Cosmos," vol. ii., p. 736, aud v., pp. 16, 32. Also, Montucla, iv., 138.

* " Respectability of Geocentric Theory, Plato's Authority for it," etc., see Grote'a
"Plato," vol. iii., p. 25*7. Also, Sir G. C. Lewis, " Astronomy of the Ancients," chap, iii.,
sec. i., for a very thoughtful statement of Plato's view, and differing from ancient
statements. For plausible elaboration of it, see Fromundus, " Anti-Aristarchus," Ant-
werp, 1631. Also Melanchthon " Initia Doctrin;ie Physicfe."

^ For supposed agreement of Scripture with Ptolemaic theory, see Fromundus, passim,
Melanchthon, and a host of other writers.

^ For " Germs of Heliocentric Theory planted long before," etc., see Sir G. C. Lewis ;
also, Draper, "Intellectual Development of Europe," p. 512. For germs among thinkers

392 THE POPULAR SCIEN'CE MONTHLY.

from the mind of Cardinal de Cusa ; but the chill of dogmatism was
still over the earth, and up to the beginning of the sixteenth century-
there had come to this great truth neither bloom nor fruitage.^

Quietly, however, the soil was receiving enrichment, and the air
warmth. The processes of mathematics were constantly improved,
the heavenly bodies were steadily though silently observed, and at
length appeared, afar olF from the centres of thought, on the borders
of Poland, a plain, simple-minded scholar, who first fairly uttered to
the world the truth, now so commonplace, then so astounding, that
the sun and planets do not revolve about the earth, but that the
earth and planets revolve about the sun, and that man was Nicholas
Kopernik.''

Kopernik had been a professor at Rome, but, as this truth grew
within him, he seemed to feel that at Rome he was no longer safe.^

of India, see Whewell, vol. i., p. 277. Also, Whitney, "Oriental and Linguistic Studies,"
New Yorl£, 1874. "Essay on the Lunar Zodiac," p. 345.

^ For general statenoent of De Cusa's work, see Draper, " Intellectual Development of
Europe," p. 512. For skillful use of De Cusa's view in order to mitigate censure upon
the Church for its treatment of Copernicus's discovery, see an article in the Catholic
World, for January, 1869. For a very exact statement, in a spirit of judicial fairness,
see Whewell, " History of the Inductive Sciences," p. 275 and pp. 379, 380. In the lat-
ter, Whewell cites the exact words of De Cusa in the " De Docta Ignorantia," and sums
up in these words : " This train of thought might be a preparation for the reception of
the Copernican system ; but it is very different from the doctrine that the sun is the
centre of the planetary system." In the previous passage, Whewell says that De Cusa
" propounded the doctrine of the motion of the earth, more, however, as a paradox than
as a reality. We cannot consider this as any distinct anticipation of a profound and
consistent view of the truth."

^ For improvement of mathematical processes, see Draper, " Intellectual Development
of Europe," 513. In looking at this and other admirable summaries, one feels that Prof.
Tyndall was not altogether right in lamenting, in his farewell address at New York, that
Dr. Draper has devoted so much of his time to historical studies.

"^ Copernicus's danger at Rome. The Catholic World for January, 1869, cites a recent
speech of the Archbishop of Mechlin before the University of Louvain, to the effect that
Copernicus defended his theory, at Rome, in 1500, before two thousand scholars ; also,
that another professor taught the system in 1528, and was made Apostolic Notary by
Clement VIII. All this, even if the doctrines taught were identical with those of Coper-
nicus, as finally developed, which idea W^hewell seems utterly to disprove, avails nothing
against the overwhelming testimony that Copernicus felt himself in danger — testimony
which the after-history of the Copernican theory renders invincible. The very title of
Fromundus's book, already cited, published within a few miles of the archbishop's own
cathedral, and sanctioned expressly by the theological Faculty of that same I'niversity
of Louvain in 1630, utterly refutes the archbishop's idea that the Church was inclined
to treat Copernicus kindly. The title is as follows :

" Anti-Aristarchus | Sive ] Orbis-TerrEe | Immobilis | In quo decretum S. Congre-
gationis S. R. E. | Cardinalium | IqC. XVI adversus Pytha | gorico-Copernicanos editum
defenditur | Antwerpiaj MDCXXXL"

L'Epinois, " Galilee,'' Paris, 1867, lays stress, p. 14, on the broaching of the doc-
trine by De Cusa, in 1435, and by Widraanstadt, in 1533, and their kind treatment by
Eugenius IV. and Clement VIL, but this is absolutely worthless in denying the papal
policy afterward. Lange, " Geschichte des Materialismus," vol. i., pp. 217, 218, while

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 393

To publish this thought was dangerous indeed, and for more than
thirty years it hay shitnbering in the minds of Kopernik and the friends
to Avhom he had privately intrusted it.

At last he prepares his great work on the " Revolution of the Heav-
enly Bodies," and dedicates it to the pope himself. He next seeks a
place of publication. He dares not send it to Rome, for there are the
rulers of the older Church ready to seize it. He dares not send it to
Wittenberg, for there are the leaders of Protestantism no less hostile.
He therefore intrusts it to Osiander, of Nurembercr.*

But, at the last moment, the courage of Osiander failed him. He
dared not launch the new thought boldly. He writes a groveling
preface ; endeavors to excuse Kopernik for his novel idea. He inserts
the apologetic lie that Kopernik propounds the doctrine of the move-
ment of the earth, not as a fact, but as an hypothesis. He declares that
it is lawful for an astronomer to indulge his imagination, and that this
is what Kopernik has done.

Thus was the greatest and most ennobling, perhaps, of scientific
truths — a truth not less ennobling to religion than to science — forced,
in coming into the world, to sneak and crawl.^

On the 24th of May, 1543, the newly-printed book first arrived at
the house of Kopernik. It was put into his hands ; but he was on his
death-bed. A few hours later he was beyond the reach of those mis-
taken, conscientious men, whose consciences would have blotted his
reputation, and perhaps have destroyed his life.

Yet not wholly beyond their reach. Even death could not be
trusted to shield him. There seems to have been fear of vengeance
upon his corpse, for on his tombstone was placed no record of his
life-long labors, no mention of his great discovery. There were
graven upon it affecting words, which may be thus simply trans-
admitting that De Cusa and Widmanstadt sustained this idea and received honors from
their respective popes, shows that, when the Church gave it serious consideration, it was
condemned. There is nothing in this view unreasonable. It would be a parallel case to
that of Leo X., at first inclined toward Luther and the others, in their " squabbles with
the begging friars," and afterward forced to oppose them.

' For dangers at Wittenberg, see Lange, " Geschichte des Materialismus," vol. i.,
p. 217.

2 Osiander, in a letter to Copernicus, dated April 20, 1541, had endeavored to recon-
cile him to such a procedure, and ends by saying, " Sic enim placidiores reddideris peripa-
theticos et theologos quos contradicturos metuis." See Apologia Tychonis in " Kepleri
Opera Omnia," Frisch's edition, vol. i., p. 246. Kepler holds Osiander entirely respon-
sible for this preface. Bertrand, in his " Fondateurs de I'Astronomie Modei-ne," gives its
text, and thinks it possible that Copernicus may have yielded " in pure condescension
toward his disciple." But this idea is utterly at variance with expressions in Coperni-
cus's own dedicatory letter to the pope, which follows the preface. For a good sum-
mary of the argument, see Figuier, " Savants de la Renaissance," pp. 378, 379. See also,
citation from Gassendi's life of Copernicus, in Flammarion, "Vie de Copernic," p. 124.
Mr. John Fiske, accurate as he usually is, in his recent "Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy,"
appears to have fallen into the error of supposing that Copernicus, and not Osiander, is
responsible for the preface.

(s

394 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lated : " I ask not the grace accorded to Paul, not that given to
Peter; give rae only the favor which thou didst show to the thief on
the cross." Not till thirty years after did a friend dare write on his
tombstone a memorial of his discovery.*

The book was taken in hand at once by the proper authorities. It
was solemnly condemned : to read it was to risk damnation ; and the
world accepted the decree.^

Doubtless many will at once exclaim against the Roman Catholic
Church for this. Justice compels me to say that the founders of Prot-
estantism were no less zealous against the new scientific doctrine.
Said Martin Luther: "People gave ear to an upstart astrologer, who
strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firma-
ment, tlie sun and the moon. Whoever wishes to appear clever must
devise some new system which of all systems is, of course, the very
best. This fool wishes to revei'se the entire science of astronomy.
But Sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand
still, and not the earth."

Melanchthon, mild as he was, was not behind Luther in condemning
Kopernik. In his treatise, "Initia Doctrinae Physicse," he says:
" The eyes are witnesses that the heavens revolve in the space of
twenty-four hours. But certain men, either from the love of novelty,
or to make a display of ingenuity, have concluded that the earth
moves ; and they maintain that neither the eighth sphere nor the sun
revolves. . . . Now, it is a want of honesty and decency to assert
such notions publicly, and the example is pernicious. It is the part
of a good mind to accept the truth as revealed by God, and to acqui-
esce in it." Melanchthon then cites i^assages from the Psalms and
from Ecclesiastes which he declares assert positively and clearly that
the earth stands fast, and that the sun moves around it, and adds
eight other proofs of his proposition that " the earth can be nowhere,
if not in the centre of the universe." '

' Figuier, " Savants de la Renaissance," p. 380. Also, Flammarion, " Vie de Coper-
nic," p. 190.

* The " proper authorities " in this case were the " Congregation of the Index," or
cardinals having charge of the " Index Librorum Prohibitorum." Eecent desperate at-
tempts to fasten the responsibility on them as individuals seem ridiculous in view of the
simple fact that their work is sanctioned by the highest Church authority, and required
to be universally accepted by the Church. Three of four editions of the " Index " in my
own possession declare on their title-pages that they are issued by order of the poutitf of
the period, and each is prefaced by a special papal bull or letter. See specially Index
of 1664, issued under order of Alexander VII., and that of 1761, under Benedict XIV.
Oopernicus's work was prohibited in the Index " dmiec corrigatitry Kepler said that it
ought to be worded " donee explketur.'''' See Bertrand, " Fondateurs de I'Astrononiie
Moderne," p. 57. De Morgan, pp. 57-60, gives the corrections required by the Index
of 1620. Their main aim seems to be to reduce Copernicus to the groveling level of
Osiander, making of his discovery a mere hypothesis ; but occasionally they require a
virtual giving up of the whole Copernican doctrine, e. g., " correction" insisted upon for
cap. 8, p. 6.

3 See Luther's " Table Talk." Also, Melanchthon's " Initia Doctrinae Physica;." This

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 395

And Protestant people are not a whit behind Catholic in follow-
ing out these teachings. The people of Elbing made themselves
merry over a farce in whicli Kopernik was the main object of ridicule.
The people of Nuremberg, a great Protestant centre, caused a medal to
be struck, with inscriptions ridiculing the philosojiher and his theory.'

Then was tried one piece of strategy very common formerly in
battles between theologians themselves. It consists in loud shoutings
that the doctrine attacked is old, outworn, and already refuted — that
various distinguished gentlemen have proved it false — that it is not a
living truth, but a detected lie— that, if the world listens to it, that is
simply because the world is ignorant. This strategy was brought to
bear on Copernicus. It was shown that his doctrine was simply a re-
vival of the Pythagorean notion, which had been thoroughly exploded.
Fromundus, in his title-page and throughout his book, delights in re-,
ferring to the doctrine of the revolution of the planets around the
sun, as " that Pythagorean notion." This mode of warfare was imi-
tated by the lesser opponents, and produced, for some time, consider-
able effect.^

But the new truth could neither be laughed down nor forced down.
Many minds had received it ; only one tongue dared utter it. This
new warrior was that strange mortal, Giordano Bruno. He was
hunted from land to land, until, at last, he turns on his pursuers
with fearful invectives. For this he is imprisoned six years, then
burned alive and his ashes scattered to the winds. Still the new
truth lived on ; it could not be killed. Within ten years after the
martyrdom of Bruno,'' after a world of troubles and persecutions, the

treatise is cited by the Catholic World, September, 1870. The correct title is as given
above. It will be found in the " Corpus Refonnatorum," ed. Bretschneider : Halle,
1846. (For the above passage sec vol. xiii., pp. 216, 217.) Also, Lauge," Geschichte des
Materialismus," vol. i., p. 217. Also, Prowe, " Ueber die Abhangigkeit des Copernicus,"
Thorn, I860, p. 4. Also, note, pp. 5 and 6, where text is given in full.

^ For treatment of Copernican ideas by the people, see Catholic World, as above.
Fromundus, cited above, heads his sixth chapter as follows, "Scriptura Sacra Oppugnat
Copernicanos," and cites from the Psalms the passage speaking of the sun which " oometh
forth as a bridegroom from his chamber;" and also from Ecclesiastes, "Terra in Aeter-
num Stat." " Anti-Aristarchus," p. 29. Some of his titles also show his style in philo-
sophical argument, e. g., " The wind would constantly blow from the east ; we should, with
great difficulty, hear sounds against such a wind" (chapter xi.); "Buildings, and the
earth itself, would fly off with such a rapid motion" (chapter x.). For another of Fro-
mundus's arguments, showing, both from theology and mathematics (with suitably-mixed
theology), that the earth must be in the centre of the universe, see Quetelet, " Histoire
des Sciences Mathematiques et Physiques," p. 170, Bruxelles, 1864.

^ See title-page of Fromundus's work cited in note at bottom of p. 392 ; also, Me-
lanchthon, uhi supra.

2 See Bartholmes, "Vie de Jordano Bruno," Paris, 1846, vol. i., pp. 121 and pp. 212,
et seq. Also Beiti, " Vita di Giordano Bruno," Firenze, 1868, chapter xvi. Also Whe-
well, i., 294, 295. That Whewell is somewhat hasty in attributmg Bruno's punishment
entirely to the " Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante " will be evident, in spite of Monteula, to
any one who reads the account of the persecution iu Bartholmes or Bcrti; and, even if

396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

truth of the doctrine of Kopernik was estahlished by the telescope
of Galileo.'

Herein was fuliilled one of the most touching of prophecies.
Years before, the enemies of Kopernik had said to him, "If your doc-
trines were true, Venus would show phases like the moon." Koper-
nik answered: "You are right. I know not what to say ; but God is
good, and will in time find an answer to this objection." ^ The God-
given answer came when the rude telescope of Galileo showed the
phases of Venus.

On this new champion, Galileo, the attack was tremendous. Tlie
supporters of what was called "sound learning" declared his discov-
eries deceptions, and his announcements blasphemy. Semi-scientific
professors, endeavoring to curry favor with the Church, attacked him
with sham science ; earnest preachers attacked him with jjerverted
Sci*ipture ! ^

The principal weapons in the combat are worth examining. They
are very easily examined. You may pick them up on any of the bat-
tle-fields of science; but on that field they were used with more effect
than on almost any other. These weapons are two epithets : " Infi-
del " and " Atheist."

The battle-fields of science are thickly strewn with these. They
have been used against almost every man who has ever done any-
thing new for his fellow-men. The list of those who have been de-
nounced as infidel and atheist includes almost all great men of science
— general scholars, inventors, philanthropists. The deepest Christian
life, the most noble Christian character have not availed to shield com-
batants. Christians like Isaac Newton and Pascal and John Locke and
John Milton, and even Howard and Fenelon, have had these weapons
hurled against them. Of all proofs of the existence of a God, those
of Descartes have been wrought most thoroiighly into the minds of
modern men ; and yet the Protestant theologians of Holland sought
to bring him to torture and to death by the charge of atheism.*

Whewell be right, the " Spaccio " would never have been written, but for Bruno's indig-
nation at ecclesiastical oppression. See Tiraboschi, vol. xi., p. 435.

. ' Delambre, " flistoire de TAstronomie moderne," discours preliminaire, p. xiv.
Also Laplace, " Systeme du Monde," vol. i., p. 326, and, for more careful statement,
" Kepleri Opera Omnia," edit. Friscli, torn, ii., p, 464.

* Cantu, "Histoire Universelle," vol. xv., p 473.

^ A very curious example of this sham jrcience is seen in the argument, frequently
used at the time, that, if the earth really moved, a stone falling from a height would fall
back of the point immediately below its point of starting. This is used by Fromundus
with great efi'ect. It appears never to have occurred to him to test the matter by drop-
ping a stone from the topmast of a ship. But the most beautiful thing of all is that
Bcnzenburg has experimentally demonstrated just such an aberration in fiilling bodies as
is mathematically required by the diurnal motion of the earth. See Jevons, " Principles
of Science," vol. L, p. 453, and ii., pp. 310, 311.

^For curious exemplification of the way in which these weapons have been hurled,
see lists of persons charged with " infidelity " and " atheism," in " Le Dictionnaire des
Ath6e8." Paris, An. viii. Also Lecky, " History of Rationalism," vol. ii., p. 50.

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 2>97

These can hardly be classed with civilized weapons. They are
burning arrows. They set fire to great masses of popular prejudices ;
smoke rises to obscure the real questions, fire bursts forth at times to
destroy the attacked party. They are poisoned weapons. They go
to the hearts of loving women, they alienate dear children. They
injure the man after life is ended, for they leave poisoned wounds in
the hearts of those who loved him best — fears for his eternal happi-
ness— dread of the divine displeasure.

Of course, in these days, these weapons, though often effective in
disturbing good men, and in scaring good women, are somewhat
blunted. Indeed, they not unfrequently injure assailants more than
assailed ; so it was not in the days of Galileo. These weapons were
then in all their sharpness and venom.

The first champion who appears against him is Bellarmin, one of
the greatest of theologians, and one of the poorest of scientists. He
was earnest, sincere, learned, but made the fearful mistake for the
world, of applying to science, direct, literal interpretation of Scripture.'

The weapons which men of Bellarmin's stamp used were theologi-
cal. They held up before the world the dreadful consequences which
must result to Christian theology were the doctiine to prevail that
the heavenly bodies revolve about the sun, and not about the earth.
Their most tremendous theologic engine against Galileo was the idea
that his pretended discovery vitiated the whole Christian plan of sal-
vation. Father Le Gazree declared that it "cast suspicion on the
doctrine of the Incarnation." Others declared that it "upset the
whole basis of theology ; that if the earth is a planet, and one among
several planets, it cannot be that any such great things have been
done especially for it, as the Christian doctrine teaches. If there are
otlier planets, since God makes nothing in vain, they must be inhab-
ited ; but how can these inhabitants be descended from Adam ? How
can they trace back their origin to Noah's ark ? How can they have
been redeemed by the Saviour ? " '^

Nor was this argument confined to the theologians of the Roman
Church ; Melanchthon, Protestant as he was, had already used it in
his attacks upon the ideas of Copernicus and his school.*

In addition to this prodigious engine of war, there was kept up a
terrific fire of smaller artillery in the shape of texts and scriptural
extracts. Some samples of these weapons may be interesting.

When Galileo had discovered the four satellites of Jupiter,* the

^ For Bellarmin's view see Quinet, "Jesuits," vol. ii., p. 189. For other objectors and
objections, see Libri, " Histoire des Sciences Matliematiques en Italic," vol. iv., pp. 233,
23-t ; also, "Private Life of Galileo," compiled from his correspondence and that of his
eldest daughter, Boston, 18*70 (an excellent little book).

* See Trouessart, cited in Flammarion, "Mondes Imaginaires et Reels," sixieme Edi-
tion, pp. 315, 316.

3 "Initia Doctrinee Physicae," pp. 220, 221.

* See Delambre as to the discovery of the satellites of Jupiter being the turning-point

398 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

whole thing was denounced as impossible and impious. It was ar-
gued that the Bible clearly showed by all applicable types, that there
could be only seven planets ; that this was proved by the seven gold-
en candlesticks of the Apocalypse, by the seven-branched candlestick
of the Tabernacle, and by the seven churches of Asia/

In a letter to his friend Renieri, Galileo gives a sketch of the deal-
ings of the Inquisition with him. He says : " The Father Commissary,
Lancio, was zealous to have me make amends for the scandal I had
caused in sustaining the idea of the movement of the earth. To all
my mathematical and other reasons he responded nothing but the
words of Scripture, ' Terra autem in ceternuni stat.^ " ^

It was declared that the doctrine was proved false by the standing
still of the sun for Joshua ; by the declarations that " the foundations
of the earth are fixed so firm that they cannot be moved," and that
the sun " runneth about from one end of heaven to the other." ^

The Dominican fiither, Caccini, preached a sermon from the text,
"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?" and this
wretched pun was the first of a series of sharper weapons, for before
Caccini finishes he insists that "geometry is of the devil," and that
" mathematicians should be banished as the authors of all heresies." *

For the final assault, the park of heavy artillery was at last wheeled
into place. You see it on all the scientific battle-fields. It consists
of general denunciation, and Father Melchior Inchofcr, of the Jesuits,
brought his artillery to bear well on Galileo with this declaration :
that the opinion of the earth's motion is, of all heresies, the most
abominable, the most pernicious, the most scandalous ; that the immo-
bility of the earth is thrice sacred ; that argument against the immor-
tality of the soul, the Creator, the incarnation, etc., should be tolerated
sooner than an argument to prove that the earth moves. ^

In vain did Galileo try to prove the existence of satellites by show-
ing them to the doubters through his telescope. They either declared
it impious to look, or, if they did see them, denounced them as illu-
sions from the devil. Good Father Clavius declared that "to see
satellites of Jupiter, men had to make an instrument which would
create them." *

with the heliocentric doctrine. As to its effects on Bacon, see Jevons, "Principles of
Science," vol. ii., p. 298.

' For argument drawn from the candlestick and seven churches, see Delambre.

2 For Galileo's letter to Renieri, see Cantu, " Hist. Universelle," Paris, 1856, xv., p.
477, note.

^ Cantu, " Histoire Universelle," vol. xv., p. 478.

'' For Caccini's attack, see Delambre, " Hist, de I'Astron.," disc. preHm., p. xxii., also
Libri, " Hist, des Sciences Math.," vol. iv., p. 232.

5 See Inchofer's " Tractatus Syllepticus," cited in Galileo's letter to Deodati, July 28,
1634.

® Libri, vol. iv., p. 211. De Morgan, "Paradoxes," p. 26, for account of Father
Clavius. It is interesting to know that Clavius, in his last years, acknowledged that
" the whole system of the heavens is broken down, and must be mended."

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 399

la vain did Galileo try to protect himself by his famous letter to
the duchess, in which he insisted that theological reasoning should not
be applied to science. The rest of the story the world knows by
heart ; none of the recent attempts have succeeded in mystifying it.
The whole world will remember forever how Galileo was subjected
certainly to indignity and imprisonment equivalent to physical tor-
ture ; * how he was at last forced to pronounce publicly, and on his
knees, his recantation as follows : " I, Galileo, being in my seventieth
year, being a prisoner and on my knees, and before your eminences,
having before my eyes the Holy Gospel, which I touch with my hands,
abjure, curse, and detest, the error and heresy of the movement of
the earth." '

He was vanquished indeed, for he had been forced, in the face of
all coming ages, to perjure himself. His books were condemned, his
friends not allowed to erect a monument over his bones. To all ap-
peai'ance his work was overthrown.

Do not understand me here as casting blame on the Roman Church
as such. It must, in fairness, be said that some of its best men tried
to stop this great mistake ; even the pope himself would have been
glad to stop it ; but the current was too strong.^ The whole of the
civilized world was at fault, Protestant as well as Catholic, and not
any particular part of it. It was not the fault of religion, it was the
fault of the short-sighted views which narrow-minded, loud-voiced
men are ever prone to mix in with religion, and to insist is re-
ligion.*

Were there time, I would refer at length to some of the modern
mystifications of the history of Galileo. One of the latest seems to
Ijave for its groundwork the theory that Galileo was condemned for a
breacli of good taste and etiquette. But those who make this defense
make the matter infinitely worse for those who committed the great

' It is not probable that torture in the ordinary sense was administered to Galileo.
See Th. Martin, " Vie de Galilee," for a fair summing up of the case.

"For text of the abjuration, see "Private Life of Galileo," Appendix. As to the
time when the decree of condemnation was repealed, various authorities differ. Artaud,
p. 307, cited in an apologetic article in Dublin Review, September, 1865, says that Gali-
leo's famous dialogue was published in 1744, at Padua, entire, and with the usual appro-
bations. The same article also declares that in 1818 the ecclesiastical decrees were re-
pealed by Pius YII., in full Consistory. Whewell says that Galileo's writings, after some
opposition, were expunged from the "Index Expurgatorius," in 1818. Cantu, an au
thority rather favorable to the Church, says that Copernicus's work remained on the
"Index" as late as 1835. Cantu, " Histoire Universelle," vol., xv., p. 483.

^ For Baronius's remark see De Morgan, p. 26. Also Whewell, vol. i., p. 394.

■» For an exceedingly striking statement, by a Roman Catholic historian of genius, as
to popular demand for persecution, and the pressure of the lower strata, in ecclesiastical
organizations, for cruel measures, see Balmes, " Le Protestantisme compare au Catholi-
cisme," etc., 4th ed., Paris, 1855, vol. ii. Archbishop Spaulding has something of the
same sort in his Miscellanies. L'Epinois, " Galilee," p. 22, et seq., stretches this as far as
possible, to save the reputation of the Church in the Galileo matter.

400 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

wrong. They deprive it of its only palliation, mistaken conscienti-
ousness.*

Nor was this the worst loss to the earth.

There was then in Europe one of the greatest thinkers ever given
to mankind. Mistaken though many of his theories were, they were
fruitful in truths. The man was Rene Descartes. The scientific war-
riors had stirred new life in him, and he was working over and sum-
ming up in his mighty mind all the researches of his time. The re-
sult must make an epoch in the history of man. His aim was to com-
bine all knowledge and thought into a " Treatise on the World." His
earnestness he proved by the eleven years which he gave to the study
of anatomy alone. Petty persecution he had met often, but the fate
of Galileo robbed him of all hope, of all energy. The battle seemed
lost. He gave up his great plan forever.''

But champions pressed on. Campanella, full of vagaries as he
was, wrote his "Apologia pro Galileo," though for that and other
heresies, religious and political, he seven times underwent torture.^

And Kepler comes. He leads science on to greater victories. He
^ throws out the minor errors of Kopernik. He thinks and speaks as

' See Dublin Review, as above. Whewell, vol. i., 393. Citation from Marini : " Gali-
leo was punished for trifling with the authorities to which he refused to submit, and was
punished for obstinate contumacy, not heresy." The sufficient answer to all this is that
the words of the inflexible sentence designating the condemned books are : " Lihri omnes
qui affirmant ielluris niotumy See Bertrand, p. 59. It has also been urged that " Gali-
leo was punished not for his opinion, but for basing it on Scripture." The answer to this
may be found in the Roman Index of 1*704, in which are noted for condemnation '■'■ Libri
omnes docenies mobili/atem terree et inmcbilitaicni solis.'" For the way in which, when
it was found convenient in argument, Church apologists insisted that it was " the Su-
preme Chief of the Church, by a pontifical decree, and not certain cardinals," who con-
demned Galileo and his doctrine, see Father Gazree's letter to Gassendi in Flammarion,
" Pluralite des Mondes," p. 427. For the way in which, when necessary. Church apolo-
gists asserted the very contrary of this, declaring that " it was issued in a doctrinal decree
of the Congregation of the Index, and not as the Holy Father's teaching," see Dublin He-
view, September, 1865. And for the most astounding attempt of all, to take the blame off
the shoulders of both pope and cardinals, and place it upon the Almighty, see the following
words of the article above cited: "But it may well be doubted whether the Church did
retard the progress of scientific truth. What retarded it was the circumstance that God
has thought fit to express many texts of Scripture in words which have every appearance
of denying the earth's motion. But it is God who did this, not the Church; and, more-
over, since he thought fit so to act as to retard the progress of scientific truth, it would be
little to her discredit even if it were true that she had followed his example." — Dublin
Review, September, 1865, p. 419. For the best summary of the various attempts, and
for replies to them in a spirit of judicial fairness, see Th. Martin, " Vie de Galilee." This
is probably the best book ever -written on the Galileo question. The bibUography at the
close is very valuable.

* Humboldt, "Cosmos," London, 1851, vol. iii., p. 21. Also Lange, "Geschichte des
Materialismus," vol. i., p. 222, where the letters of Descartes are given, showing his de-
spair, and the giving up of his best thoughts and works to preserve peace with the Church.
Also Jolly, " Hist, du Mouvement Intellectuel au XVP Si^cle," vol. i., p. 390.

8 Libri, pp. 149, et seq.

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 401

one inspired. His battle is severe. He is sometimes abused, some-
times ridiculed, sometimes imprisoned. Protestants in Styria and at
Tubingen, Catholics at Rome press upon him,' but Newton, Huyghens
and the other great leaders follow, and to science remains the victory.

And yet the war did not wholly end. During the seventeenth cen-
tury, in all France, no one dared openly teach the Copernican theory,
and Cassini, the great astronomer, never declared it.^ In 1672, Father
Riccioli, a Jesuit, declared that there were precisely forty-nine argu-
ments for the Copernican theory and seventy-seven against it ; so that
there remained twenty-eight reasons for preferring the orthodox
theory.^ Toward the end of the seventeenth century also, even Bos-
suet, the " eagle of Meaux," among the loftiest of religious thinkers,
declared for the Ptolemaic theory as the Scriptural theory,* and in
1746 Boscovich, the great mathematician of the Jesuits, used these
words : " As for me, full of respect for the Holy Scriptures and the
decree of the Holy Inquisition, I regard the earth as immovable ;
nevertheless, for simplicity in explanation, I will argue as if the earth
moves, for it is proved that of the two hypotheses the appearances
favor that idea." ^

The Protestantism of England was no better. In 1772 sailed the
famous English expedition for scientific discovery under Cook. The
greatest by far of all the scientific authorities chosen to accompany it
was Dr. Priestley. Sir Joseph Banks had especially invited him ; but
the clergy of Oxford and. Cambridge intervened. Priestley was con-
sidered unsound in his views of the Trinity ; it was declared that this
would vitiate his astronomical observations ; he was rejected and the
expedition cripple d.°

iSJor has the opposition failed even in our own time. On the 5th
of May, 1826, a great multitude assembled at Thorn to celebrate the
three hundredth anniversary of Kopernik, and to unveil Thorwaldsen's
statue of him.

Kopernik had lived a pious. Christian life. He was well known

' Fromundus, speaking of Kepler's explanation, says: " Vix teneo ebullientem risum."
It is almost equal to the New York Church Journal, speaking of John Stuart Mill as
■" that small sciolist," and of the preface to Dr. Draper's recent work as " chippering."
How a journal generally so fair in its treatment of such subjects can condescend to use
such weapons is one of the wonders of modern journalism. For Protestant persecution of
Keplor, see vol. i., p. 392.

^ For Cassmi's position, see Henri Martin, " Hist, de France," vol. xiii., p. 175.

^ Daunou, " Etudes Historiques," vol. ii., p. 439.

* Bossuet, see Bertrand., p. 41.

* Boscovich. This was in 1746, but in 1785 Boscovich seemed to feel his position in
view of history, and apologized abjectly. Bertrand, pp. 60, 61. See also Whewell's
noticfe of Le Sueur and Jacquier's introduction to their edition of Newton's " Principia."
For the most recent proofs of the Copernican theory, by discoveries of Bunsen, Bischoff,
Benzenburg, and others, see Jevons, "Principles of Science."

« See Weld, " History of the Royal Society," vol. ii., p. 56, for the facts and the ad-
mirable letter of Priestley upon this rejection.
VOL. vni. — 26

402

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for unostentatious Christian charity. With his religious belief no
fault had ever been found. He was a canon of the church of Frauen-
berg, and over his grave had been written the most touching of Chris-
tian epitaphs.

Naturally, then, the people expected a religious service. All was
understood to be arranged for it. The procession marched, to the
church and waited. The hour passed, no priest appeared ; none could
be induced to appear. Kopernik, simple, charitable, pious, one of the
noblest gifts of God to the service of religion as well as science, was
still held to be a reprobate. Seven years after that, his book was still
standing on the " Index of Books prohibited to Christians." *

Nor has this warfare against dead cljampions of science been car-
ried on only by the older Church.

On the 10th of May, 1859, was buried Alexander von Humboldt.
His labors were among the greatest glories of the century, and his
funeral one of the most imposing that Berlin had ever seen : among
those who honored themselves by their presence was the prince re-
gent— the present emperor. But of the clergy it was observed that
none were present save the officiating clergyman and a few regarded
as unorthodox.''

Nor have attempts to renew the battle been wanting in these lat-
ter days. The attempt in the Church of England, in 1864, to fetter
Science — which was brought to ridicule by Herschel, Bowring, and
De Morgan; the Lutheran assemblage at Berlin, in 1868, to protest
against " science falsely so called," in the midst of which stood Pas-
tor Knak denouncing the Copernican theory ; the " Syllabus," the
greatest mistake of the Roman Church, are all examples of this.'

And now, what has been won by either party in this long and ter-
rible war? The party which would subordinate the methods and aims
of science to those of theology, though in general obedient to deep
convictions, had given to Christianity a series of the worst blows it
had ever received. They had made large numbers of the best men in
Europe hate it. Why did Ricetto and Bruno and Vanini, when the
crucifix was presented to them in their hours of martyrdom, turn from
that blessed image with loathing? * Simply because Christianity had
been made to them identical with the most horrible oppression of the
mind.

Worse than that, the well-meaning defenders of the faith had

' Bertrand, " Fondateurs de I'AstroD. Mod.," p. 61. FlammarioD, "Vie de Coper-
nic," chap. ix.

^ Brahns and Lassell, " Life of Humboldt," London, 1873, voL ii., p. 411,

^ For the very amusing details of the English attempt, and of the way in which it was
met, see De Morgan, " Paradoxes," p. 42. For Pastor Knak and his associates, see Re-
viie dcs Deux Mondes, 1868.

* For a striking account, gathered from eye-witnesses, of this frightful scene at the
execution of Bruno, see letter of Scioppius in appendix to vol. iv. of Libri, " Hist, des
Matheraatiques."

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 403

wrought into the very fibre of the European heart that most unfoi--
tunate of all ideas, the idea that there is a necessary antagonism be-
tween science and religion. Like the landsman who lashes himself to
the anchor of the sinking ship, they had attached the great funda-
mental doctrines of Christianity, by the strongest cords of logic which
they could spin, to these mistaken ideas in science, and the advance
of knowledge had wellnigh engulfed them.

On the other hand, what had science done for religion ? Simply
this : Kopernik, escaping persecution only by death ; Giordano Bruno,
burned alive as a monster of impiety ; Galileo, imprisoned and humili-
ated as the worst of misbelievers ; Kepler, hunted alike by Protestant
and Catholic, had given to religion great new foundations, great new,
ennobling conceptions, a great new revelation of the might of God.

Under the old system we have that princely astronomer, Alfonso
of Castile, seeing the poverty of the Ptolemaic system, yet knowing
no other, startling Europe with the blasphemy that if he had been
pi-esent at creation he could have suggested a better ordering of the
heavenly bodies. Under the new system you have Kepler, filled with
a religious spirit, exclaiming, " I do think the thoughts of God." *
The difference in religious spirit between these two men marks the
conquest made in this, even by science, for religion. But we cannot
leave the subject of astronomy without noticing the most recent war-
fare. Especially interesting is it because at one period the battle
seemed utterly lost, and then was won beautifully, thoroughly, by a
legitimate advance in scientific knowledge. I speak of the Nebular
Hypothesis.

The sacred writings of the Jews which we have inherited speak
clearly of the creation of the heavenlj'- bodies by direct intervention,
and for the convenience of the earth. This was the view of the
Fathers of the Church, and was transmitted through the great doctors
in theology.

More than that, it was crystallized in art. So have I seen, over
the portal of the Cathedral of Freiburg, a representation of the Al-
mighty making and placing numbers of wafer-like suns, moons, and
stars ; and at the centre of all, platter-like and largest of all, the
earth. '^ The lines on the Creator's face show that he is obliged to
contrive ; the lines of his muscles show that he is obliged to toil.
Naturally, then, did sculptors and painters of the mediaeval and early
modern period represent the Almighty as weary after labor, and en-
joying dignified repose.

These ideas, more or less gross in their accompaniments, passed
into the popular creed of the modern period.

' As a pendant to this ejaculation of Kepler may be cited those wondrous words of
Linnaeus : " Deum oranipotentem a tergo transeuntem vidi et obstupui."

'■' For papal bulls representing the earth as a flat disk, see Daunou, " Etudes Histo-
riques," vol. ii., p. 421.

404 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But about the close of the last century, Bruno having guessed the
fundamental tact of the nebular hypothesis, and Kant having reasoned
out its foundation idea, Laplace developed it, showing the reason for
supposing that our own solar system, in its sun, planets, satellites,
with their various motions, distances, and magnitudes, is a natural
result of the diminisliing heat of a nebulous mass — a result obeying
natural laws.

There was an outcry at once against the "atheism" of the scheme.
The war raged fiercely. Laplace claimed that there were in the heav-
ens many nebulous patches yet in the gaseous form, and pointed them
out. He showed by laws of physics and mathematical demonstration
that his hypothesis accounted in a most striking manner for the great
body of facts, and, despite clamor, was gaining ground, when the
improved telescopes resolved some of the patches of nebulous matter
into multitudes of stars.

The opponents of the nebular hypothesis were overjoyed. They
sang pseans to astronomy, because, as they said, it had proved the
truth of Scripture.

They had jumped to the conclusion that all nebulae must be alike —
that if some are made up of systems of stars all must be so made up ;
that none can be masses of attenuated gaseous matter, because some
are not.

Science, for a time, halted. The accepted doctrine became this —
that the only reason why all the nebulae are not resolved into distinct
stars is, because our telescopes are not sufficiently powerful.

But in time came that wonderful discovery of the spectroscope
and spectrum analysis, and this was supplemented by Fraunhofer's
discovery that the spectrum of an ignited gaseous body is discontinu-
ous, with interrupting lines ; and this, in 184(3, by Draper's discovery
that the spectrum of an ignited solid is continuous, with no interrupt-
ing lines. And now the spectroscope was turned upon the nebulae
and about one-third of them were found to be gaseous.

Again the nebular hypothesis comes forth stronger than ever. The
beautiful experiment of Plateau on the rotation of a fluid globe comes
in to strengthen if not to confirm it. But what was likely to be lost
in this ? Simply a poor conception of the universe. What to be
gained ? A far more worthy idea of that vast power which works in
the universe, in all things by law, and in none by caprice.'

' For Bruno's conjecture (in 1591), see Jevons, vol. ii., p. 299. For Kant's part in
the nebular hypothesis, sec Lange, " Gcschichte des Materialismus," vol. i., p. 266. For
value of Plateau's beautiful experiment very cautiously estimated, see W. Stanley Jevons,
" Principles of Science," London, 1874, vol. ii., p. 36. Also Elisee Reclus, "The Earth,"
translated by Woodward, vol. i., pp. 14-18, for an estimate still more careful. For a
general account of discoveries of nature of nebulaj by spectroscope, see Draper, •' Conflict
between Religion and Science." For a careful discussion regarding the spectra of solid,
liquid, and gaseous bodies, see Schellen, " Spectrum Analysis," pp. 100, et seq. For a very
thorough discussion of the bearings of discoveries made by spectrum analysis upon the

'THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 405

The great series of battles to which I next turn with you were
fought on those fields occupied by such sciences as chemistry and
natural philosophy.

Even before those sciences were out of their childhood, while yet
they were tottering mainly toward childish objects and by childish
steps, the champions of that same old mistaken conception of rigid
scriptural interpretation began the war. Tlie catalogue of chemists
and physicists pei'secuted or thwarted would fill volumes ; from them
I will select just three as representative men.

Fii-st of these I take Albert of Bollstadt, better known in the
middle ages as Albert the Great. In the thirteenth century he stands
forth as the greatest scholar in Germany. Fettered though he was
by the absurd methods of his time, led astray as he was by the scho-
lastic spirit, he has conceived ideas of better methods and aims. His
eye pierces the mists of scholasticism, he sees the light and draws
the world toward it. He stands among the great pioneers of modern
physical and natural science. He gives foundations to botany and
chemistry, and Humboldt finds in his works the germ of the compre-
hensive science of physical geography.^

The conscience of the time, acting as it supposed in defense of re-
ligion, brought out a missile which it hurled with deadly efiiect. You
see those medijBval scientific battle-fields strewn with svich : it was
the charge of sorcery, of unlawful compact with the devil.

This missile was effective. You find it used against every great
investigator of Nature in those times and for centuries after. The
list of great men charged with magic, as given by Naude, is astound-
ing. It includes every man of real mark, and the most thoughtful
of the popes, Sylvester II. (Gerbert), stands in the midst of them.
It seemed to be the received idea that, as soon as a man conceived a
love to study the works of God, his first step must be a league with
the devil.^

This missile was hurled against Albert. He was condemned by
the great founder of the Dominican order himself. But more terrible
weapons than this missile were added to it, to make it eflective.
Many an obscure chemist paid a terrible penalty for wishing to be
wiser than his time ; but I pass to the gi-eater martyrs.

I name, next, Roger Bacon, His life and work seem until recent-
nebular hypothesis, ibid., pp. 532-537. For a presentation of the difficulties yet unsolved,
see article by Pluinraer, in London Popular Science Review for January, 18*75. For excel-
lent short summary of recent observations and thought on this subject, see T. Sterry
Hunt, " Address at the Priestley Centennial," pp. 7, 8. For an interesting modification
of this hypothesis, see Proctor's recent writings.

' " II etait aussi tres-habile dans les arts raecaniqucs, ce que le fit soup9onner d'etre
sorcier." — Sprengel, " Histoire de la Medecine," vol. ii., p. 389.

"^ For the charge of magic against scholars and others, see Naudo, " Apologie pour les
grands homnies accuses de Magie," passim. Also, Maury, '• Hist, de la Magie," troisi^me
edit., pp. 214, 215. Also Cuvier, " Hist, des Sciences Naturelles," vol. i., p. 396.

4o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ly to have been generally misunderstood. He lias been ranked as a
superstitious alchemist who stumbled upon some inventions ; but
more recent investigation has revealed him to be one of the great
masters in human progress.

The advance of sound historical judgment seems likely to reverse
the positions of the two who bear the name of Bacou. Bacon of the
chancellorship and the " Novum Organon " seems to wane. Bacon of
the prison-cell and the " Opus Majus " seems to grow brighter.^

Roger Bacon's work, as it is now revealed to us, was wonderful.
He wrought with power in philosophy and in all sciences, and his
knowledge was sound and exact. By him, more than by any other
man of the middle ages, was the world put on the most fruitful paths
of science — the paths which have led to the most precious inventions.
Clocks, lenses, burning specula, telescopes, were given by him to the
world, directly or indirectly. In his writings are found formulas for
extracting phosphorus, manganese, and bismuth. It is even claimed
that he investigated the power of steam. He seems to have very
nearly reached also some of the principal doctrines of modern chemis-
try. His theory of investigation was even greater than these vast
results. In an age when metaphysical subtilizing was alone thought
to give the title of scholar, he insisted on real reasoning and the aid
of natural science by mathematics. In an age when experimenting
was sure to cost a man his reputation and Avas likely to cost him his
life, he insisted on experiment and braved all its risks. Few greater
men have lived. As we read the sketch given by Whewell of Bacon's
process of reasoning regarding the refraction of light, he seems fairly
inspired.

On this man came the brunt of the battle. The most conscientious
men of his time thought it their duty to fight him, and they did it too
well. It was not that he disbelieved in Christianity, tliat was never
charged against him. His orthodoxy was perfect. He was attacked
and condemned, in the words of his opponents, '•'•propter quasdam
novitates suspectasy

He was attacked, first of all, wnth that goodly old missile, which,
with the epithets "infidel" and "atheist," has decided the fate of
so many battles — the charge of magic and compact with Satan.

He defended himself with a most unfortunate Aveapon — a Avcapon
which exploded in his hands and injured him more than the enemy,
for he argued against the idea of compacts with Satan, and shoAved
that much Avhich is ascribed to demons results from natural means.
This added fuel to the flame. To limit the poAver of Satan was
deemed hardly less impious than to limit the poAver of God.

The most powerful protectors availed him little. His friend Guy

* For a very contemptuous statement of Lord Bacon's claim to his position as a phi-
losopher, see Lange, "Geschichte des Materialismus," J^eipsic, 1874, vol. i., p. 219. See
also Jevons, " Principles of Science," London, 1874, vol. ii., p. 298.

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 407

Foulkes having been made pope, Bacon was for a time shielded, but
the fury of the enemy was too strong. In an unpublished letter, Black-
stone declares that when, on one occasion. Bacon was about to per-
form a few experiments for some friends, all Oxford was in an uproar.
It was believed that Satan was let loose. Everywhere were priests,
fellows, and students rushing about, their garments streaming in the
wind, and everywhere resounded the cry, "Down with the conjurer!"
and this cry "Down with the conjurer" resounded from cell to cell
and hall to hall.'

But the attack took a shape far more terrible. The two great
religious orders, Franciscan and Dominican, vied with each other in
fighting the new thought in chemistry and philosophy. St. Domi-
nic, smcere as he was, solemnly condemned research by experiment
and observation. The general of the Fi-anciscan order took similar
grounds.

In 1243 the Dominicans solemnly interdicted every member of
their order from the study of medicine and natural jihilosophy; and,
in 1287, this interdiction was extended to the study of chemistry."

Another weapon began to be used upon the battle-fields of that
time with much efiect. The Arabs had made noble discoveries in
science. Averroes had, among many, divided the honors with St.
Thomas Aquinas. Tliese facts gave the new missile. It was the epi-
thet " Mahometan," This, too, was flung with eflect at Bacon.'

Bacon was at last conquered. He was imprisoned for fourteen
years. At the age of eighty years he was released from prison, but
death alone took him beyond the reach of his enemies. How deeply
the struggle had racked his mind may be gathered from that last
afflicting declaration of his : " Would that I had not given myself so
much trouble for the love of science ! "

Sad is it to think of what this great man might have given to the
world had the world not refused the gift. He held the key of treas-
ures which would have freed mankind from ages of error and misery.
With his discoveries as a basis, with his method as a guide, what
might not the world have gained ! Nor was the wrong done to that
age alone. It was done to this age also. The nineteenth century
was robbed at the same time with the thirteenth. But for that inter-

1 Whewell, vol. i., pp. 367, 368. Draper, p. 438. Saisset, " Descartes et ses Precur-
seurs," deuxieme edition, pp. 897, et seq. Nourrisson, " Progres de la pensee humaine," pp.
271, 272. Sprengel, " Histoire de la Medecine," Paris, 1865, vol. ii., p. 397. Cuvier, " His-
toire des Seieuces Naturelles," vol. i., p. 417. As to Bacou'.s orthodoxy, see Saisset, pp.
53, 55. For special examination of causes of Bacon's condemnation, see Waddington,
cited by Saisset, p. 14. On Bacon as a sorcerer, see Featherstonaugh's article in North
American Review. For a good example of the danger of denying full power of Satan,
even in much more recent times, and in a Protestant country, see account of treatment
of Bekker's " Monde Enchante " by the theologians of Holland, in Nisard, " Histoire
des Livres Populaires," vol. i., pp. 172, 173.

2 Henri Martin, " Hist, de France," vol. iv., p. 283.

3 On Bacon as a "Mahometan," see Saisset, p. 17

4o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ference with science, this nineteenth century would, without doubt,
be enjoying discoveries which will not be reached before the twenti-
eth century. Thousands of precious lives shall be lost in this cen-
tury, tens of thousands shall suffer discomfort, privation, sickness,
poverty, ignorance, for lack of discoveries and methods which, but
for this mistaken religious fight against Bacon and his compeers,
would now be blessing the earth.

In 1868 and 1869, sixty thousand children died in England and in
Wales of scarlet fever; probably nearly as many died in this coun-
try. Had not Bacon been hindered we should have had in our hands,
by this time, the means to save two-thirds of these victims, and the
same is true of typhoid, typhus, and that great class of diseases of
whose physical causes Science is just beginning to get an inkling.
Put together all the efforts of all the atheists who have ever lived, and
they have not done so much harm to Christianity and the world as
has been done by the narrow-minded, conscientious men who perse-
cuted Roger Bacon.'

Roger Bacon was vanquished. For ages the champions of science
were crippled ; but the " good fight " was carried on. The Church
itself furnishes heroes of science. Antonio de Dominis relinquishes
his archbishopric of Spalatro, investigates the phenomena of light,
and dies in the clutches of the Inquisition.^

Pierre de la Ramee stands up against Aristotelianism at Paris. A
royal edict, sought by the Church, stopped his teaching, and the mas-
sacre of St. Bartholomew ended his life.

Somewhat later, John Baptist Porta began his investigations.
Despite many absurdities, his work was most fruitful. His book on
meteorology was the first in which sound ideas were broached. His
researches in optics gave the world the camera obscura, and, possibly,
the telescope. He encountered the same old policy of conscientious
men. The society founded by him for physical research, " I Secreti,"
was broken up, and he was summoned to Rome and censured.'

In 1624, some young chemists of Paris having taught the experi-
mental method, and cut loose from Aristotle, the Faculty of Theology
besets the Parliament of Paris, and the Parliament prohibits this new
chemical teaching under penalty of death.*

The war went on in Italy. In 1657 occurred the first sitting of

' For proofs that the world is steadily working toward great discoveries as to the
cause and prevention of zymotic diseases and of tlieir propagation, sec Beale's " Disease
Germs," Baldwin Latham's " Sanitary Engineering," Michel Levy, " Traite d'Hygiene
Publique et Privee," Paris, 1869. And for very thorough summaries, we President Bar-
nard's paper read before Sanitary Congress in New York, 18'74, and Dr. J. C. Dalton's
"Anniversary Discourse, on the Origin and Propagation of Disease," New York, 18'74.

"Antonio de Dominis, see Montucla, "Hist, des Mathematiques," vol. i., p. 705.
Humboldt, "Cosmos." Libri, vol. iv., pp. 145, et seq.

3 Sprengel, " Hist, de la Medecine, iii., p. 239. Also Musset-Parthay.

* Henri Martin, "Histolre de France," vol. xii., pp. 14, 15.

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO. 409

thQ Accademia del Gimento^ at Florence, under the presidency of Prince
Leopold dei Medici. This Academy promised great things for science.
It was open to all talent. Its only fundamental law was " the repu-
diation of any favorite system or sect of philosophy, and the obliga-
tion to investigate Nature by the pure light of experiment,"

The new Academy entered into scientific investigations with
energy. Borelli in mathematics, Kedi in natural history, and many
others, pushed on the boundaries of knowledge. Heat, light, mag-
netism, electricity, projectiles, digestion, the incompressibility of
water, were studied by the right method and with results that en-
riched the world.

The Academy was a fortress of science, and siege was soon laid to
it. The votaries of scholastic learning denounced it as irreligious.
Quarrels were fomented. Leopold was bribed with a cardinal's hat
and drawn away to Rome; and, after ten years of beleaguering, the
fortress fell: Borelli was left a beggar; Oliva killed himself in de-
spair.^

From the dismissal of the scientific professors from the University
of Salamanca by Ferdinand VII. of Spain, in the beginning of this
century, down to sundry dealings with scientific men in our own land
and time, we see the same war continued.

Joseph de Maistre, uttering his hatred of physical sciences, declai'-
ing that man has paid too dearly for them, asserting that they must
be subjected to theology, likening them to fire — good when confined
but fearful when scattered about — this brilliant thinker has been the
centre of a great opposing camp in our own time — an army of good
men who cannot relinquish the idea that the Bible is a text-book of
science.

[To be continued. 1

■♦»»

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO.

By ST. GEORGE MIVART, F. R. S.

THE kangaroos have now become familiar objects to all who visit
our Zoological Gardens, or who are familiar with any consider-
able zoological museum.

Their general external form, when seen in the attitude they habitu-
ally assume when grazing (with their front limbs touching the ground),

^Napier, "Florentine History," vol. v., p. 485. Tiraboschi, "Storia della Litera-
tura." Henri Martin, "Histoire de France." Jevous, "Principles of Science," vol. ii.,
pp. 36-40. Libri, in his " Essai sur Galilee," p. 3Y, says that Oliva was summoned to
Rome and so tortured by the Inquisition that, to escape further cruelty, he ended his
life by throwing himself from a window. For closing, by church authority, of the Acad-
emy, " I Secreti," instituted for scientific investigation at an earlier period, wc reference
to Porta in this article. On Porta, sec Sprengel, " Histoire de la Medecine," vol. iii.,
T 239.

410

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

may have recalled to mind, more or less, the appearance presented by-
some hornless deer. Their chief mode of locomotion (that jnmping
action necessitated by the great length of the hind-limbs) must be
familiar to all who have observed them living, and also, very probably,
the singular mode in which the young are carried in a pouch of skin
in the front of the belly of the mother.

But " What is a kangaroo ?" The question will raise in the minds
of those who are not naturalists the imagre of some familiar circum-

Fig. 1.— Kangaroo {Macropus).

Stances like those just referred to. But such image will afford no real
ansAver to the question. To arrive at such an answer it is necessary
to estimate correctly in what relation the kangaroo stands to other

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO.

411

animals — its place iu the scale of animated beings — as also its relations
to space and time; that is, its distribution over the earth's surface to-
day, in connection with that of other animals more or less like it, and
its relation to the past life of this planet, in connection with similar
relations of animals also more or less like it. In other words, to un-
derstand what a kangaroo is, we must understand its zoological, geo-
graphical, and geological conditions. And my task in this j^aper is
to make these conditions as clear as I can, and so to enable the reader
to really answer the question, " What is a kangaroo ?"

But before proceeding to these matters, let us look at our kangaroo
a little closer, and learn something of its structui-e, habits, and history,
so as to have some clear conceptions of the kangaroo considered by
itself, before considering its relations with the universe (animate and
inanimate) about it.

The kangaroo (Fig. 1) is a quadruped, with very long hind-limbs
and a long and rather thick tail. Its head possesses rather a long
muzzle, somewhat like that of a deer, with a pair of rather long ears.
Each fore-paw has five toes, urnished with claws. Each hind-limb has
but two large and conspicuous toes, the inner one of which is much the
larger, and bears a very long and strong claw (Fig. 2). On the inner

Fig. 2.— Foot of Kangaroo.

side of this is what appears to be a very minute toe, furnished with
two small claws. An examination of the bones of the foot shows us,
however, that it really consists of two very slender toes united togeth-
er in a common fold of skin. These toes answer to the second and
third toes of our own foot, and there is no representative of our great-
toe — not even that part of it which is inclosed in the substance of our
foot, called the inner metatarsal bone. Two other points are specially
noteworthy in the skeleton. The first of these is that the pelvis (or
bony girdle to which the hind-limbs are articulated, and by which they
are connected with the back-bone) has two elongated bones extending
upward from its su])erior margin in front (Fig. 4, a). These are called
marsupial bones, and lie within the flesh of the front of the animal's
belly. The other point is that the lower, hinder portion of each side
of the lower jaw (which portion is technically called the '■'■ angle ''"') is
bent inward, or " inflected," and not continued directly backward in
the same })lane as the rest of the lower jaw.

A certain muscle, called the cremaster muscle, is attached to each

412 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

marsupial bone, and thence stretches itself over the inner or deep sur-
face of the adjacent mammary gland or " breast," which is situated
low down, and not in the breast at all.

The kangaroo's teeth consist of three on each side in the front of
the mouth, and one on each side below. These eight teeth are what
are called incisors. At the back of the mouth there are live grinding-
teeth on each side above and five below, and between the upper grind-
ers and incisors another pointed tooth, called a canine, may or may
not be interposed. Such a set of teeth is indicated by the following
formula, where I stands for incisors, C for canines, and M for grinding-
teeth or " molars." The number above each line indicates the teeth
of each denomination which exist on one side of the upper jaw, and
the lower number those of the lower jaw :

3 0 15 9 8

I _ C - or - M - = - or -

10 0 5 6 6

The total number of incisor teeth of both sides of each jaw may there-
fore be expressed thus : 1 1.

Such is the general structure of an adult kangaroo. At birth it is
strangely different from what it ultimately becomes.

It is customary to speak of the human infant as exceptionally
helpless at birth and after it, but it is at once capable of vigorous suck-
ing, and very early learns to seek the nipple. The great kangaroo,
standing some six feet high, is at birth scarcely more than an inch
long, with delicate naked skin, and looking like part of an earthworm.
But, in such feeble and imperfectly developed condition, the young-
kangaroo cannot actively suck. The mother therefore places it upon
one of her long and slender nipples (the end of which is somewhat
swollen), this nipple entering its mouth, and the little creature remain-
ing attached to it. The mother then, by means of the cremaster mus-
cle (before spoken of), squeezes her own milk gland, and so injects
milk into the young, which would thus be infallibly choked but for a
noticeable pecixliarity of its structure, admirably adapted to the cir-
cumstances of the case.

In almost all beasts, and in man also, the air-passage or w^indpipe
(which admits air to and from the lungs) opens into the floor of the
mouth, behind the tongue and in front of the ojDening of the gullet.
Each particle of food, then, as it passes to the gullet, passes over the
entrance to the windpipe, but is prevented from falling into it (and so
causing death by choking) by the action of a small cartilaginous shield
(the epiglottis). This shield, which ordinarily stands up in front of
the opening into the windpipe, bends back and comes over that open-
ing just when food is passing, and so, at the right moment, almost
always prevents food from " going the wrong way." But, in the young
kangaroo, the milk being introduced, not by any voluntary act of tho

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO. 413

young kangaroo itself, but by the injecting action of its mother, it is
evident that, did such a state of things obtain in it as has been just
described, the result would be sjDeedily fatal. Did no special provi-
sion exist, the young one must infallibly be choked by the intrusion
of milk into the windpipe. But there is a special provision for the
young kangaroo; tlie upper jDart of the windpipe (or larynx), instead
of lying as in us, and as in most beasts, Avidely separated from the
hinder 0})ening of the nostrils, is much raised (Fig. 3, a). It is in fact
so elongated in the young kangaroo that it rises right \x]) into the
hinder end of the nasal passage, which embraces it. lu this way
there is free entrance for air from the nostrils into the windpipe by a

Fig. 3.— 1. Dissected Head of Young KL4NGAR00. — «, Elongated Larjns ; h, Cavity of Mouth.

2. Nipple of Mother.

passage shut off from the cavity of the mouth. All the time the milk
can freely pass to the back of the mouth and gullet along each side
of this elongated larynx, and thus breathing and milk-injection can
go on simultaneously, without risk or inconvenience.

The kangaroo browses on the herbage and bushes of more or less
open country, and, when feeding, commonly applies its front-limbs to
the ground. It readily, however, raises itself on its hind-limbs and
strong tail (as on a tripod) when any sound, sight, or smell, alarms its
natural timidity (Fig. 1).

Mr. Gould tells us that the natives (where it is found) sometimes
hunt these animals by forming a great circle around them, gradually
converging upon them, and so frightening them by yells that they
become an easy prey to their clubs.

As to its civilized hunters, the same author tells us that kangaroos
are hunted by dogs which run entirely by sight, and partake of the
nature of the greyhound and deerhound, and, from their great strength
and fleetness, are so well adapted for the duties to which they are
trained, that the escape of the kangaroo, when it occurs, is owing to
peculiar and favorable circumstances ; as, for example, the oppressive
heat of the day, or the nature of the ground ; the former incapacitat-
ing the dogs for a severe chase, and the hard ridges, which the kan-
garoo invariably endeavors to gain, giving him great advantage over
his pursuers. On such ground the females in particular will frequently
outstrip the fleetest greyhound ; while, on the contrary, heavy old

414

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

males, on soft ground, are easily taken. Many of these fine kangaroo-
dogs are kept at the stock-stations of the interior, for the sole purpose
of running the kangaroo and the emu, the latter being killed solely for
the supply of oil which it yields, and the former for mere sport or for
food for the dogs. Although I have killed the largest males with a
single dog, it is not generally advisable to attempt this, as they possess
great power, and frequently rip up the dogs, and sometimes even cut

Fig. 4.— Skeleton of the Kangaroo.— a, Marsupial Bones.

them to the heart with a single stroke of the hind-leg. Three or four
dogs are more generally laid on; one of superior fleetness to "pull"
the kangaroo, while the others rush in upon it and kill it. It some-
times adopts a singular mode of defending itself, by clasping its short,
powerful fore-limbs around its antagonist, then hopping away with it
to the nearest water-hole, and there keeping it beneath the water until
drowned.

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO.

415

The kangaroo is said to be able to clear even more than fifteen
feet at one bound.

Rapidity of locomotion is especially necessary for a large animal
inhabiting a country subject to such severe and widely-extending
droughts as in Australia. The herbivorous animals which people the
plains of Southern Africa — the antelopes — are also capable of very
rapid locomotion. In the antelojjes, however, as in all hoofed beasts,
all the four limbs (front as well as hind) are exclusively used for loco-
motion. But in kangaroos we have animals i-equiring to use their
front pair of limbs for the purposes of more or less delicate manipula-
tion with respect to the economy of the "pouch." Accordingly, for
such creatures to be able to inhabit such a country, the hind pair of
limbs must by themselves be fitted alone to answer the jiurpose of
both tlie front and hind limbs of deer and antelopes. It would seem,
then, that the peculiar structure of the kangaroo's limbs is of the
greatest utility to it ; the front pair serving as prehensile manipulat-
ing organs, while the hind pair are, by themselves alone, able to carry
the animal great distances with rapidity, and so to traverse wide arid
plains in pursuit of rare and distant water. The harmony between
structure, habit, and climate, was long ago pointed out by Prof.
Owen.

Fig. 5.— Teeth op Kangaroo.

The kangaroo breeds freely in this country, producing one at a
birth. We have young ones every year in our Zoological Gardens. A
large number of them ai*e reared to maturity, and altogether our kan-
garoos thrive and do well. One born in our gardens was lately in the
habit of still entering the pouch of its mother, although itself bearing
a very young one within its own pouch. These animals have been
already more or less acclimatized in England. I have myself seen
them in grounds at Glastonbury Abbey. Some were so kept in the
open by Lord Hill, and some by the Duke of Marlborough. A very
fine herd is now at libei-ty in a park near Tours, in France.

It is a little more than one hundred and five years since the kan-
garoo was first distinctly seen by English observers. At the recom-
mendation and request of the Royal Society, Captain (then Lieiitenant)
Cook set sail in May, 1768, in the ship Endeavor, on a voyage of
exploration, and for the observation of the transit of Venus of the year
1769, which transit the travelers observed, from the Society Islands,
on June 3d of that year. In the spring of the following year the ship

41 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

started from New Zealand to the eastern coast of New Holland, visit-
ing, among other places, a spot which, on account of the number of
plants found there by Mr. (afterward Sir Joseph) Banks, received the
name of Botany Bay. Afterward, when detained in Endeavor River
(about 15° south latitude) by the need of repairing a hole made in the
vessel by a rock (part of which, fortunately, itself stuck in the hole it
made). Captain Cook tells us that on Friday, June 22, 1770, "some of
the people were sent on the other side of the water, to shoot pigeons for
the sick, who at their return reported that they had seen an animal,
as large as a greyhound, of a slender make, a mouse-color, and ex-
tremely swift." On the next day, he tells us : " This day almost
everybody had seen the animal which the pigeon-shooters had brought
an account of the day before ; and one of the seamen, who had been
rambling in the woods, told us on his return that he verily believed
he had seen the devil. We naturally inquired in what form he had
appeared, and his answer was, says John, ' As large as a one-gallon
keg, and very like it; he had horns and wings, yet he crept so slowly
through the grass that, if I had not been afeared, I might have
touched him.' This formidable apparition we afterward, however,
discovered to have been a bat (a Flying Fox). . . . Early the next
day," Captain Cook continues, " as I was walking in the morning, at a
little distance from the ship, I saw myself one of the animals which
had been described; it was of a light mouse-color, and in size and
shape very much resembling a greyhound; it had a long tail also,
which it carried like a greyhound; and I should have taken it for a
wild-dog if, instead of running, it had not leaped like a hare or deer."
Mr. Banks also had an imperfect view of this animal, and was of
opinion that its species was hitherto itnknown. The work exhibits an
excellent figure of the animal. Again, on Sunday, July 8th, being still
in Endeavor River, Captain Cook tells us that some of the crew " set
out, with the first dawn, in search of game, and in a walk of many
miles they saw four animals of the same kind, two of which Mr.
Banks's greyhound fairly chased ; but they threw him out at a great
distance, by leaping over the long, thick grass, which prevented his
running. This animal was observed not to run upon four legs, but to
bound or leap forward upon two, like the jerboa." Finally, on Satur-
day, July 14th, " Mr. Gore, who went out with his gun, had tlie good
fortune to kill one of these animals which had been so much the sub-
ject of our speculation ; " adding, " This animal is called by the natives
kanguroo. The next day (Sunday, July 15th) our kanguroo was
dressed for dinner, and proved most excellent meat."

Such is the earliest notice of this ci-eature's observation by Eng-
lishmen ; but Cornelius de Bruins, a Dutch traveler, saw,' as early as
1711, specimens of a species (now named after him, Macrojpus Brunii),

' See Cornells de Bruins, " Reizen over Moskorie, door Persie en Indie." Amster-
dam, 1714, p. 374, Fig. 213

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO. 417

which he called Filander, and wliich were kejst in captivity in a gar-
den at Batavia. A very fair representation of the animal is given —
one showing tlie aperture of the pouch. This species was, moreover,
described both by Pallas * and by Schreber.*

It is not improbable, however, that kangaroos were seen by the
earlier explorers of the western coast of Australia ; and it may be that
it is one of these animals which was referred to by Dampier, when he
tells us that on August 12, 1G99, "two or three of my seamen saw
creatures not unlike wolves, but so lean that they looked like mere
skeletons."

Having now learned something of the structure, habits, and history
of the kangaroo, we may proceed to consider its zoological, geograph-
ical, and geological relations, in order to arrive at the best answer we
may to our initial question, " What is a kangaroo ? "

First, as to its zoological relations : and here it is necessary to re-
call to mind certain leading facts of zoological classification, in .order
that we may be better able to see with what creatures the kangaroo
is, in various degrees, allied.

The whole animal population of the globe is spoken of under the
fanciful term, the " animal kingdom," in contrast with the world of
plants, or " vegetable kingdom."

The animal kingdom is divided into certain great groups, each of
which is called a sub-kingdom ; and one, the highest ot these sub-
kingdoms (that to w^hich we ourselves belong), bears the name verte-
brata, and it includes all beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes; and the
name refers to the series of bone called vertebrce, of which the back-
bone or spinal column (and all vertebrata have a spinal column) is
generally made up.

Each sub-kingdom is made up of subordinate groups, termed classes ;
and thus ihe vertebrate sub-kingdom is made up of the class of beasts
or Mammalia (so called because they suckle their young), the class
of birds, and other classes.

Each class is made up of subordinate groups, termed orders;
each order is further subdivided into families ; each family is made
up oi gcjiera ; while every genus comprises one, few, or many species.

In considering the zoological relations of the kangaroo, we have
then to consider the relations borne by its genera to the other genera
of its family, the relations borne by its family to the other families
of its order, and finally the relations borne by its order to the other
orders of its class (the Mammalia) — that class which includes within
it all other beasts w^hatever, and also man.

In the first place, it may be observed, there are many species of
kangaroos, arranged in some four genera ; but the true kangaroos
form a genus, JIacrojncs, which is very nearly allied to the three other

> Pallas, "Act. Acad. So. Petrop.," 1W7, part ii., p. 299, tab, 4, Figs. 4 and 5.
« Schreber, "Sangth.," iii., p. 551, pi. 153, 1778.
VOL. Tin. — 27

4i8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

wenera

2. Dorcojysis, with a very large first back tooth. 3. The tree
kangaroos {Dendrolagus), which frequent the more horizontal branches
of trees, have the fore-limbs but little shorter than the hind-limbs,
and inhabit New Guinea ; 4. The rat-kangaroos {HypsiprymniLs)^
which have the first upper grinding-tooth large, compressed, and with
vertical grooves.

Fig. 6.— Skdll of a Eat-Kaugaeoo (Ilypsiprymnus).

These four genera together constitute the kangaroo's family, the
3facropodkloB, the species of which all inhabit Australia and the
islands adjacent, but are found nowhere else in the world.

The species agree in having —

1. The second and third toes slender and united in a common fold
of skin.

2. The hind-limbs longer than the fore-limbs.

3. No inner metatarsal bone.

4. All the toes of each fore-foot provided with claws.

5. Total number of incisors only |.

These five characters are common to the group, and do not co-
exist in any other animals. They form, therefore, the distinguishing
CHAEACTEES of the kaugaroo's family. This family, Macro2:>odidce^ is
one of the six other families which, together with it, make up that
much larger group, the kangaroo's oedee. As was just said, to un-
derstand what a kangaroo is, we must know " what are the relations
borne hj h.\^ family to the other families of its order;" and accord-
ingly it is needful for our purpose to take at least a cursory view of
those other families.

There is a small animal, called a bandicoot (Fig. 7), which, in ex-
ternal appearance, differs very plainly from the kangaroo, but resem-
bles it in having the hind-limbs longer than the fore-limbs, and also
in the form of its hind-feet, which present a kangaroo structure, but
not carried out to such an extreme degree as in the kangaroo, and
therefore approximating more to the normal type of foot, there being
a rudimentary inner toe and a less preponderant fourth toe ; the sec-
ond and third toes, however, are still very small, and bound together
by skin down to the nails. In the fore-foot, on the contrary, there is
a deficiency, the outer toes being nailless or Avanting. The cutting-
teeth are more numerous, these being I -^.

This little creature is an example of others, forming tlie family

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO.

419

Peramelidce — a family made up of creatures none of which much ex-
ceed the hare in size, and which, instead of feeding on vegetable sub-
stances (as do the kangaroos), eat insects, for which food they' are
well adapted by the sharp points and ridges which may be seen on
their back teeth.

Fig. 7.— Losg-nosed Bandicoot {^Perameles).

One member of this family, Chcero^nis (Fig. 8), is very exceptional in
the structure of its hind-feet, which out-kangaroo the kangaroo in the

'K\lV,^teti^T;;

^^wmmm^-

Fig. S.— Ch^ropus.

minuteness of all the toes but the fourth, upon which alone the creature
walks, while its front-feet are each reduced to two functional digits.

420

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Xo other known beast besides walks upon a single toe in each
hind-foot, save the horse family (horses, asses, and zebras), and they
walk npon a different one, namely, that which answers to our middle-
toe, while Chair opus walks on the next outer one or fourth. No
known beast besides Chceropus walks upon two toes in each foot, save
hoofed creatures, such as the ruminants and their allies ; but in them
it is the third and fourth toes that are used, while in ChcBTOpus it is
the second and third toes.

Another animal, called a phalanger (of the genus Phalangistd)^ is
a type of a third family of the kangaroo's oi'der, the Phalangistidce,
a family made up of creatures which live in trees and are nocturnal in
their habits, feeding xapon fruits and leaves. Here we find the limbs
of nearly equal length. Once more we have I |, and we still have the
second and third toes united in a common fold of skin ; but the inner-
most toe (that answering to our great-toe) is not only largely devel-
oped, but is like that of the apes, directed outward, and capable of
being opposed to the other toes, as our thumb can be opposed to our
fingers.

FiQ. 9.— The Koala {Phascolarctus).

Some of these creatures have prehensile tails. Others have the skin
of the flanks enlarged so as to serve them as a parachute in tlieir leaps,
whence they are called " flying opossums," just as squirrels, similarly
provided, are called " flying " squirrels.

There are two veiy aberrant members of this family. One, the
koala. Fig- 9 (PAascoZarc^ws), called the native bear or native sloth, is
devoid of any tail.

The other, Tarsipes, but little bigger than a mouse, has a long and

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO. 421

f

pointed muzzle, and its teeth are reduced to minute pointed processes,

few in number, - — -, situated far apart in each jaw.
o — o

Fig. 10.— Cuscus Oeientaiis.

The genus Cuscus, closely allied to Phalangista, is found in New
Guinea and the adjacent islands to Timor (Fig. 10).

Fig. 11.— The Wombat {Phascolomys).

Another animal, the wombat, Fig. 11 (Fhascolomys), forms by
itself a distinct family, Phascolomyidoe. It is a burrowing nocturnal

422

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

animal, about the size of a badger, witli rudimentary tail and peculiar
feet and teeth.

We still find the second and third toes bound together, limbs of
equal length, and all the five toes of the fore-foot with claws (as in
the last family), but the great-toe is represented by a small tubercle,
while the cutting teeth are f , growing from persistent pulp through
life, as in rats, squirrels, and Guinea-pigs (Fig. 12).

•Fig. 12.— Teeth op the Wombat.

We may now pass to a very different family of animals belonging
to the kangaroo's order. We pass, namely, to the Dasyuridce, or
family of the native cat, wolf, and devil, so named from their preda-
tory or fierce nature. They have well-developed eye-teeth (or canines),
and back teeth with sharp cutting blades, or bristling with prickly
points. The second and third toes are no longer bound together; and
while there are five toes with claws to each fore-foot, the great-toe is
either absent altogether or small. The cutting teeth. Fig. 13, are f.

Fig. 18.— Teeth of Dasturus.

and the tail is long and clothed with hair throughout. Some of these
animals are elegantly colored and marked, and all live on animal
food. This form (belonging to the typical genus Dasyurus, which
gives its name to the family) may be taken as a type ; but two others
merit notice.

The first of these is Myrmecohius^ Fig. 14, from Westei'n Austra-

Q Q

lia, remarkable for its number of back teeth, , and for certain geo-
graphical and zoological relations, to be shortly referred to. With
respect to this creatui-e, Mr. Gilbert has told us :

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO.

423

Jrw^^'.V

" I have seen a good deal of tliis beautiful little animal. It appears
very much like a squirrel when running on the ground, which it does
in successive leaps, with its tail a little elevated, every now and then
raising its body, and resting on its hind-feet. When alarmed, it gen-
erally takes to a dead tree lying on the ground, and before entering

Fig. 14.— Mtrmecobius.

the hollow invariably raises itself on its hind-feet, to ascertain the
reality of appx'oaching danger. In this kind of retreat it is easily
captured, and when caught is so harmless and tame as scarcely to
make any resistance, and never attempts to bite. When it has no
chance of escaping from its place of refuge, it utters a sort of half-
smothered grunt, apparently j)roduced by a succession of hard breath-
ings."

Fig. 15.— Skull of Mtkmecobius.

The other member of the family Dasyitridce, to which I call the
reader's attention, is a very different animal from the Myrmecohhis.
I refer to the largest of the predatory members of the kangaroo's
order ; namely, to the Tasmanian wolf. It is about the size of the
animal after which it is named, and it is marked across the loins with
tiger-like, black bands (Fig. 16). It is only found in the island of
Tasmania, and will probably very soon become altogetlier extinct, on
account of its destructiveness to the sheep of the colonists. Its teeth
have considerable resemblance to those of the dog, and it differs from

424

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

all other members of the kangaroo's order, in that mere cartilages
represent those marsupial bones which every other memljcr of the
order unquestionably possesses.

Fig. 16.— Tasmanian Wolf {Thalacinus Cynoaphalus).

The last family of the kangaroo's order consists of the true opos-
sum, which (unlike all the animals we have as yet passed in review)
inhabits not the Australian region, but America only.

Tliese creatures vaiy in size from that of the cat to that of the rat.

They are called Dldelphidm, and agree with the DasynridcB in hav-
ing well-developed canine teeth and cutting back teeth (Fig. 17) ; in

Fig. 17.— Tebth of Opossum {Bidelphys).

having the second and third toes free, and five toes to the fore-foot.
But tliey differ in that —

1. Cutting-teeth y (more than in any other animal).

2. A large opposable great-toe.

3. A tail, naked (like that of the rat) and prehensile.

One of them is aquatic in its habits and web-footed. Such are the
very varied forms which compose the six families which together make
up the kangaroo's order, and such are the relations borne by the kan-
garoo's family to the other families of the kangaroo's order.

But, to obtain a clear conception of the kangaroo, we must not rest
content with a knowledge of its order considered by itself. But we
must endeavor to learn the relation of its order to the other orders of
that highest class of animals to which the kangaroo and we ourselves
both belong, namely, the class Mammalia^ which class, with the

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO. 425

other classes, birds, reptiles, and fishes together, makes up the back-
boned or vertebrate primary division of the Avhole animal kingdom,

AVhat, then, is the relation of the kangaroo's order — the Maesu-
piALiA — to the other orders of the class Mammalia ?

Now, these orders are :

1, The order which contains man and apes,

2, That of the bats.

3, That of the mole, shrew, hedgehog, and their allies — all insec-
tivorous.

4, That of the dog, cat, weasel, and bear — all carnivorous.

5, That of the gnawing animals, such as tlie rat, squirrel, jei*-
boa, and guinea-pig — all with cutting-teeth f, with jDermanent pulps.
They are called Rodents.

6, The order containino- the sloths,

7, That of the grazing, hoofed quadrupeds — deer, antelopes, and
their allies.

Besides tln-ee orders of aquatic beasts (seals, whales, and the
manatee order), with which we need not be now further concerned.

FiG. 18.— The Yapock (Chironedes).

Now, in tlie first place, very noticeable is the much greater diver-
sity of structure found in the kangaroo's order than in any other order
of mammals. While each of the latter is of one predominate type
of structure and habit, we have found in the marsupials the greatest
diversity in both.

Some marsupials are, we have seen, arboreal, some are burrowing,
some flit through the air, while others range over and graze upon
grassy plains. Some feed on vegetable food only, others are as exclu-

426 TTTJ^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sively insectivorous or carnivorous, and their teeth vary much in num-
ber and structure. Certain of my readers may wonder that such di-
verse forms should be thus grouped together, apart from the other
mammals. At first sight it might seem more natural to place togeth-
er flying opossums with flying squirrels y the ?iaHve sloth with the
true sloth ; tlie dog and cat-like ojjossiwis with the true dogs and cats j
and, lastly, the insectivorous marsupials with the other insectivora.

As to the kangaroos themselves, they might be considered as
approximating in one respect to the Ruminants, in another to the
Rodents.

We have seen that even in Captain Cook's time its resemblance to
the jerboa forced itself into notice. And, indeed, in this jerboa (and
its first cousin, the alactaga) we have the same or even a relatively
greater length of hind-limb and tail, and we have tlje same jumping
mode of progression.

Again, iji the little jumping insectivorous mammal, the shrew
(Ifaeroscelides), we meet with excessively long hind-limbs and a
jumping habit. More than this : if we examine its teeth, we find
both in the upper cutting teeth and in the back teeth great resem-
blance to those of the kangaroo. And yet there is no real afliuity be-
tween the kangaroo and such creatures, any more than thei'e is be-
tween a non-marsupial truly carnivorous beast and a marsupial car-
nivore. Indeed, both myself and ray readers are far more like the
jerboa or weasel than either of the latter is like to any marsupial
animal.

The fact is, that all these so varied marsupial forms of life possess
in common certain highly-important characters, by which they difi:er
from all other mammals. These characters, however, mainly relate
to the structure of their reproductive organs, and could not be here
detailed without a long preliminary anatomical explanation ; but, as
to the great importance of these characters, naturalists are agreed.

Among the characters which serve to distinguish the marsupials,
there are two to which I have already called attention in describing
the kangaroo ; namely, the marsupial bones and the inflected angle
of the lower jaw.

Every mammal which has marsupial bones has the angle of its
jaw inflected, or else has no angle to its jaw at all ; while every ani-
mal which has both marsupial bones and an inflected jaw-angle pos-
sesses also those special characters of the reproductive system which
distinguish the marsupials from all other mammals.

Thus it is clear we have at least two great groups of mammals.
One of them — the non-mai'supials — contains man; the apes; bats;
hedgehog -like beasts (shrews, moles, etc.); cats, dogs, bears, etc.;
hoofed beasts ; edentates ; rodents, and also the aquatic mammals.
And this great group, containing so many orders, is named Mono-

DELPHIA.

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO. 427

The other great groups consist of all the marsupials, and no others.
It consists, therefore, of the single order, Marsupialia^ and is called

DiDELPHIA.

Another grouj:) of maramals is made up of two genera only — the
duck-billed platypus, or OrnithorhyncJnis, and the Echidna., two most
interesting forms, but which cannot be further noticed here. They
form, by themselves, a theme amply sufficient for an article, or even
half a dozen articles.

As to its zoological relations, then, we may say that the kangaroo
is a jieculiarlif modified form of a most varied order of mammals {the
Marsupials), which differ from, all ordinary beasts (and at the same
time difler from man) by very imj^ortant anatomical and physiological
characters, the sign of the presence of which is the coexistence of mar-
supial bones xoith an infected angle of the lower jaw.

We may now proceed to the next subject of inquiry, and consider
the space relations (that is, the geographical distribution) of the
kangaroo, its family, and order. I have already incidentally men-
tioned some counti'ies where marsupials are found, but all of those
were more or less remote. To find living, in a state of nature, any
member of the kangaroo's order, we must at least cross the Atlantic.

When America was discovered by the Spaniards, among the ani-
mals found there, and afterward brought over to Europe, were op)OS-
sums, properly so called — mai'supials, of the family Didelj^hidce, which
extend over the American Continent, from the United States to the
far South. These creatures were the first to make known to Euro-
peans' that habit of sheltering the young in a poiich which exists in
the kangaroo, and wliich habit has given the name Marsvpialia to the
whole order. But, though this habit was duly noted, it is not strange
that (being the only pouched forms then known) the value of the pe-
culiarity should have been under-estimated. It is not strange that
they should have been regarded as merely a new kind of ordinary
flesh-eating beasts, since in the more obvious characters of teeth and
general form they largely resembled such beasts. Accordingly even
the gi-eat Cuvier, in the first edition of his " R^gne Animal," made
them a mere subdivision of his great order of flesh-eating mammals.

But, to find any other member of the kangaroo's order (besides
the Didelphidce), in a state of nature, we must go much farther than
merely across the Atlantic; namely, to Australia or the islands adja-
cent to it, including that enormous and unexjjlored island, Xew Guinea,
which has recently attracted public attention through the published
travels of a modern Baron Munchausen.

To return, however, to our subject. To find marsupials at all, we

* The following are some among the earlier notices of these animals : "Histoire d'un
Voyage fait en la Terre du Bresil," par Jean de Levy, Paris, 1578, p. 156, Hernande's
"Hist. Mer.," p. 330, 1626. "Histoire Naturelle des Antilles," Rotterdam, 1658.
"Anatomy of an Opossum," Tyson, Phil. Trans., 1698.

428 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY.

Lave, as we have seen, to go to the New World. To find neai-er allies
of the kangaroo, we must go to the 7iewest world, Australia ; neicest
because, if America merited the title of neio from its new natural pro-
ductions as well as its new discovery, Australia may well claim the
superlative epithet on both accounts. We have found an indication,
in the name Botany Bay, of the interest excited in the mind of Sir
Joseph Banks by the new plants as well as by the new animals of
Australia. And, indeed, its plants and animals do differ far more
from those of the New World (America) than do those of America
from those of the Old World.

Marsupials, in fact, are separated off from the rest of their class
— from the great bulk of mammals — the MonodelpMa — no less by
their geographical limits than by their peculiarities of anatomical
structure.

And these geographical limits are at the same time the limits of
many groups of animals and plants, so that we have an animal popu-
lation (or fauna) and a vegetable population (or flora) which are char-
acteristic of what is called tlie Australian region — the Australian
region^ because the Australian forms of life are spread not only over
Australia and Tasmania, but over New Guinea and the Moluccas, ex-
tending as far northwest as the island of LomhoTc, while marsupials
themselves extend to Timor.

In India, the Malay Peninsula, and the great islands of the Indian
Archipelago, we have another and a very different fauna and flora —
those, namely, of the Indian region, and Indian forms of life extend
downward southeast as far as the island of Bali. Now, Bali is sepa-
rated from Lombok by a strait of but fifteen miles in width. But that
little channel is the boundary-line between these two great regions —
the Australian and the Indian. The great Indian fauna advances to
its western margin, while the Australian fauna stops short at its
eastern margin.

The zoological line of demarkation which passes through these
straits is called " Wallace's line," because its discovery is due to the
labors of that illustrious naturalist, that courageous, persevering ex-
plorer, and most trustworthy observer, Alfred Wallace, a perusal of
whose works I cordially recommend to my readers, since the charm
of their style is as remarkable as is the sterling value of their contents.
Mr. Wallace pointed out that not only as regards beasts (with which
we are concerned to-day), but that also as z-egards birds, these regions
are sharply limited. "Australia has," he says, "no woodpeckers, no
pheasants — families which exist in every other part of the world ; but
instead of them it has the mound-making brush-turkeys, the honey-
suckers, the cockatoos, and the brush-tongued lories, which are found
nowhere else upon the globe."

All these striking peculiarities are found also in those islands
which form the Australian division of the archipelago, while in those

i

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE KANGAROO. 429

islands which belono- to its Indian division these Anstralian birds have
no place.

On passing from the island of Bali to that of Lombok, we cross
the division between the two. "In Bali," he tells us, "we have bar-
bets, fruit-thrushes, and woodpeckers, while in Lombok these are
seen no more ; but we have abundance of cockatoos, honeysuckeVs, and
brush-turkeys, which are equally unknown in Bali, or any island farther
west."

As to our second point, then — the geographical relations of the
kangaroo — we may say that the kangaroo is one of an order of ani-
mals confined to the Australian region and America^ the great hulk of
lohich order^ hicluding the kangaroo'^s own family, Macropodid^, is
strictly coyifined to the Australian region. We may further add that
in the Australian region ordinary beasts {JSIonodelphia) are entirely
absent, save some bats and a rat or two, and the wald-dog or dingo,
which was probably introduced there by man himself.

There only remains, then, for us to inquire, lastly, what relations
with past time may be found to exist on the part of the kangaroo's
order or of the kangaroo itself. Now, in fact, these relations are of
considerable interest. I have spoken of Australia as, what in one
sense it certainly is, the nexoest world, and yet tJie oldest world would,
in truth, be an apter title for the Austi-alian region.

In these days we hear much of " survivals," as the two buttons
behind our frock-coats are " survivals " of the extinct sword-belt they
once supported, and the " Oh, yes ! oh, yes ! oh, yes ! " of the town-
crier is a "survival" of the former legal and courtly predominance of
the French language among us. "Well, in Australia we have to-day a
magnificent case of zoological survival on the largest scale. There,
as has already been said, we find living tlie little Ifynnecobius, which
represents before our eyes a creature living in the flesh to-day, which
is like other creatures which once lived here in England, and which
have left their relics in the Stonesfield oolite, the deposition of which
is separated from our own age by an abyss of past time not to be
expressed by thousands of years, but only to be indicated in geological
language as the Mesozoic period — the middle of the secondary rocks.

But Australia presents us witli a yet more interesting case of
" survival." Certain fish-teeth had from time to time been found in
deposits of oolitic and triassic date, and the unknown creature to
Avhichthey once belonged had received the name of Ceratodus. Only
five years ago this animal, supposed to have been extinct for imtold
ages, was found still living in Queensland, where it goes by the name
of " flat-head." It is a fish of somewhat amphibious habits, as at night
it leaves the brackish streams it inhabits, and wanders among the reeds
and rushes of the adjacent flats. The anatomy of this animal has
been carefully described for us by Dr. Giinther.

We have, then, in Australia what may be termed a triassic land,

430 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

still showing us in life to-day the more or less naodified representations
of forms which elsewhere have long since passed away from among
us, leaving but rai-e and scattered fragments — relics " sealed within
the iron hills."

No member of the Australian families of the kangaroo's order
has left its relics in European strata more recent than the secondary
rocks. But the American family, Didelphklce, is represented in the
earliest Tertiary period by the remains of an American form (a true
opossum) having been found by Cuvier in the quarries of Montmartre.
He first discovered a lower jaw, and, from its intiected angle, concluded
that it belonged to a marsupial animal, and that therefore marsupial
bones w^ere hidden in the matrix. Accordingly he predicted that such
bones would be found; and, proceeding to remove the enveloping de-
posit with the greatest care, he laid bare before the admiring eyes of
the bystanders the proof of the correctness of his prediction. It is
noteworthy, however, that, had this fossil been that of an animal like
the Tasmanian wolf, he Avould have been disappointed, as, though
marsupial, it has, as has been already said, not marsupial bodies, but
cartilages.

But relics of creatures more closely allied to the kangaroo existed
in times ancient historically, though, geologically speaking, very re-
cent. Just as in the recent deposits of South America we find the
bones of huge beasts, first cousins to the sloths and armadilloes which
live there now, so in Australia there lived beasts having the more es-
sential structural characters of the kangaroo, yet of the bulk of the
rhinoceros. Their bones and teeth have been found in the tertiary
deposits of Australia, They have been described by Prof. Owen, and
are now to be seen preserved in the British Museum and that of the
Royal College of Surgeons. It may be that other fossil forms of the
middle mesozoic or even of triassic times may, so some believe, have
belonged to creatures of the kangaroo's family ; but at least there is
no doubt that such existed in times of post-tertiary date.

As to our third point — the geological relations of the kangaroo —
we may say, then, that " the kangaroo is one of an order of animals
ichich ranged over the Northern Hetnisphere in triassic and oolitic times,
one exceptional family lingering in Europe to the Eocene period, and
in America to the present day. That the kangaroo itself is a form
certainly become fossil in its oion region, where, in times geologically
recent, creatures allied to it, but of vastly greater bidk, frequented the
Australian j^lains.^^

"We may now, then, proceed to answer finally the question, " What
is a kangaroo f " We may do so because tlie meaning of the techni-
cal terms in which the answer must necessarily be expressed (if not of
undue length) has been now explained, as far as space has allowed.

We may say, then, that '■'•the kangaroo is a didel^yhovs {or marsu-
pial) mammal, of the family Macropodid^; an inhabitant of the

LIFE IN GREENLAND. 431

Aiisiralian region^ and connected^ as respects its order^ xoith triassic
times, and possihlij even as regards its family also, tliough certainly
[as regards the latter) loitk the time of the post-tertiary geological
dejyosits.''''

We have seen what are clidelphous and what are monadelphous
mammals; what are the respective values of the terms "order,"
" family," and " genus," and also in what respect the kangaroo differs
from the other families of the marsupial order. We have also become
acquainted with the distribution of organic life now and with the
inter-relations of different geological strata, as far as those phenomena
of space and of time concern our immediate subject.

By becoming acquainted with these matters, and by no other way,
is it possible to give an intelligent answer to the question, " What is
a kangaroo ? " — Popular Science Mevieio.

LIFE IX GEEENLAND.

THE Danish settlements in Greenland date from the year 1V21,
when a colony was established at Godthaab, in latitude 64°
north. The country had been visited and colonies settled there as
early as the tenth century by Icelanders ; but these Icelandic colonies
were utterly destroyed, probably by the pestilence known as the
" black-death " in the fourteenth century, or early in the fifteenth.
The present Danish settlements are all situated on the west coast,
and contain about 10,000 inhabitants, all Esquimaux with the excej^tion
of a few hundred, who are Danes. The region of Disco Bay may be
regarded as the type of the entire western coast of Greenland. The
aspects of Nature and the conditions of human life, as presented in
this region, are graphically portrayed by Dr. Robert Brown, F. R. G. S.,
in the Geographical Magazine, and in the following pages we purpose
to epitomize, for the benefit of our readers, the account given by this
very competent observer. Dr. Brown, we would add, is probably the
highest living authority on all scientific questions connected with
Greenland ; he has written a number of memoirs upon the geology,
meteorology, etc., of the country, which are held in the very highest
esteem by men of science.

Disco Bay is situated between the parallels of about 68° and T0°
north latitude. On the west lies Disco Island, and on the east Green-
land. Nowhere are the cliffs high, and the southern shore is in gen-
eral flat and uninteresting. About Christianshaab (latitude 69°), and
farther to the north, the shores are backed by bare rocky hills of
about 1,000 or 1,200 feet — rounded knolls of gneiss, ice-shaven and
worn. Between these higher grounds run birch and willow-covered

432 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mossy valleys, bright with running streams and waterfalls during the
brief arctic summer. Everywhere are indubitable signs that the ex-
tensive tner de glace, which is believed to cover the whole interior of
Greenland, once covered at least the greater part of 'vfhat is now the
uncovered or " fast-land " of the Danes. Tlie ice is again beginning
to encroach on the land, and everywhere in this vicinity there are
l^roofs of a gradual subsidence of the ground.

From the fossil remains of numerous land-plants and a few^ insects
found in the Miocene beds of Disco Island, it appears that in com-
paratively recent times a luxuriant vegetation, somewhat similar in
character to that of California or the Southern United States, flour-
ished in these arctic wastes. Luxuriant evergreen-oaks, magnolias,
and sequoias, grew where now is found only the dwarf-willow, creep-
ing along the ground with a stem not over half an inch in diameter.
Among the fossil trees of Greenland, Prof. Heer has discovered three
distinct species of sequoia, nine of oak, four of which were evergreen,
like the Italian oak, two beeches, a chestnut, two planes, and a wal-
nut. " Besides these," writes Prof. Heer, " American species, such as
the magnolias, sassafrasses, and liquidambars, were represented there ;
and the characters of the ebony-tree are to be distinguished in two
of the sj^ecies. The hazel, the sumach, the buckthorn, and the holly,
the guelder-rose, and the w^hite, probably formed the thickets at the
borders of the woods ; while the vine, the ivy, and the sarsaparilla,
climbed over the trees of the virgin forest, and adorned them with
garlands. In the shadow of the wood grew a profusion of fei-ns,
which covered the soil wath their elegant fronds. The insects which
gave animation to these solitudes are not all lost. The impressions
of these Avhich have reached us show that Chrysomelas and Castilldce
enjoyed themselves in the sun, and large Trogsitm pierced the bark of
the trees, while charming Glcadellce leaped about among the herbage."
In all, about 167 species of Miocene plants have been discovered in
Greenland.

The coal found on Disco Island is, like all tertiary lignites, of poor
quality, but yet, when mixed with English coal, it forms a good fuel
for household and even for steaming purposes. It is mined to a small
extent for the use of the settlements around the bay. Soapstone is found
in some places in the primitive rocks, on the southern shores of Disco
Bay ; it was at one time extensively employed by the Esquimaux for
making various domestic utensils, but is now much less used, owing
to the introduction of vessels of iron, copper, and tin. Tiiere is no
other economic mineral, cryolite being only found in one locality, Ar-
sut Fiord, in South Greenland.

In the winter the cold is extreme in the region of Disco Bay, and
the ground is generally thickly covered with snow from September
till May or early June. During this period the wdiole sea is covered
with ice, and the Danes and Esquimaux visit from settlement to settle-

LIFE IN GREENLAND. 433

ment in sledges drawn by dogs. During the summer, under the four
montlis of continual daylight, the snow soon melts over the lower
lands, and the heat is often extreme. Mosquitoes are troublesome,
and, there being no shelter from the rays of the sun reflected, from the
snow, ice, and bare rocks, traveling is frequently attended with great
discomfort. The day may be bright and sunny in the morning, and in
the evening snow, sleet, and all the concomitants of spring or winter.
During the short summer sieason vegetation springs up apace and soon
comes to maturity. In September the weather is uncertain and the
nights are very dark and cold.

The trade of Danish Greenland is a strict crown monopoly, and is
administered by government officials solely for the benefit of the
natives. The princij^le adopted is to buy the natives' blubber, skins,
ivory, etc., at a low price and to sell to them articles of European
manufacture which are necessary to their comfort at an equally low
figure ; coSee^ and other luxuries are sold at a good, profit. The sur-
plus is credited to each district, and expended for the public good,
by the little local parliaments (Partisoks) of the districts, the mem-
bers of which (partis^ts) are elected by universal suffrage. The set-
tlements are known as colonies, and each is presided over by a " colo-
nibestyrer " {best man in the colony). The other notables of the
colony are the colonibestyrer's assistant, the cooper, the carpenter,
and, if the settlement is large, the Lutheran parson, and the school-
master— the latter generally an educated native. The most exciting
event in the settlements is the arrival of the annual ship from Co-
penhagen. Pianos are not unknown in the houses of the Danish
officials, and the Tauchnitz edition of the best English authors is to
be found in the " governor's " house.

The Danish Government treat the natives with the most paternal
care. No spirits are allowed to be sold to them, schools are pro-
vided, and altogether the rule of the little northern kingdom is pro-
ductive of very good results. Theft is practically unknown in Danish
Greenland.

The vegetation around Disco Bay is, during the brief summer, rather
luxuriant ; the rocks are bright with mosses, and gayly-colored flowers
peep out from the crannies. In the Upernivik district the birch is
said to grow high enough in localities to cover the reindeer. Such
giant shrubs are looked upon with pride by the natives. They take
visitors to see them, and point to these extraordinary specimens of
vegetation with an air as of " See this and die ! "

Hunting and fishing form the sole occupation of those natives who
are not in the government service. The white bear is almost extinct
in this region ; farther north they are more numerous. The arctic
fox is common. The native dog is threatened with extermination by
a peculiar disease which first appeared in Greenland a few years ago.
The cat has become domesticated. The mouse and rat are regularly

VOL. Till. — 28

434 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

introduced every sximmer with tlie European ships, but rarely survive
the winter. The arctic hare is common. The reindeer is cow so rare
in the vicinity of Disco Bay that few natives care to go hunting it.
The seals are the main staple of the Esquimaux hunt. Large numbers
are killed, both in summer and winter, but chiefly on the ice-fields
during the latter season. The right-whale is now only a rare visitor.
The white whale and the narwhal are often killed.

All the more common arctic birds visit Disco Bay in the summer,
but, with the exception of the ptarmigan and some of the raptorial
birds, they migrate during the winter. There are no reptiles in Green-
land, but the salt-water fishes are numerous. Shark-fishing forms a
considerable branch of industry. The kalleraglek, or small halibut,
is caught in Disco Bay ; among the Danes it forms a favorite dish,
when sliced and dried. About six species of Salmo are found in Green-
land. Both the trout and the salmon are excellent, though they have
a thick layer of fat beneath the skin. The marine invertebrata are
numerous. Insect-life is poor ; a few butterflies are seen during the
summer months ; some Coleoptera^ a few Diptera^ Ilytnenoptera, etc.,
go to make up the limited insect fauna of the region of Disco Bay.

-♦♦♦-

SCIENCE AND EELIGION/

Br Ket. CHAELES F. DEEMS, D. D.

rr^HIS recent cry of the " Conflict of Religion and Science " is falla-
-L cious, and mischievous to the interests of both science and reli-
gion ; and would be most mournful if we did not believe that, in the
very nature of things, it must be ephemeral. Its genesis is to be
traced to the weak foolishness of some professors of religion, and to
the weak wickedness of some professors of science. No man of pow-
erful and healthy mind, who is devout, ever has the slightest appre-
hension that any advancement of science can shake the foundations
of that faith which is necessary to salvation. No man of powerful
and healthy mind, engaged in observing, recording, and classifying
facts, and in searching among them for those identities and differences
which point to principles and indicate laws, ever feels that he suffers
any embarrassment or limitations in his studies by the most reverent
love he can have for God as his Father, or the most tender sympathy
he can have for man as his brother, or that hatred for sin which pro-
duces penitence, or that constant leaning of his heart on God which

' Extract from the opening address at the inauguration of Vanderbilt University, by
Charles F. Deems, D. D., pastor of the Church of the Strangers, New York, October
4, 1875.

SCIENCi: AND RELIGION. 455

produces spiritual-mindedness, or that hope of a state of immortal
holiness which has been the ideal of humanity in all ages.

All this dust about " the conflict " has been flung up by men of
insufficient faith, who doubted the basis of their faith ; or by men of
insufficient science, who have mistaken theology or the Church for re-
ligion ; or by unreasonable and wicked men, Avho have sought to per-
vert the teachings of science so as to silence the voice of conscience
in themselves, or put God out of their thoughts, so that a sense of his
eternal recognition of the eternal difference between rijrht and wrong;
might not overawe their spirits in the indulgence of the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. It may be profitable
to discriminate these; and, if badges and flags have become mixed in
this fray, it may be well to readjust our ensigns, so that foes shall
strike at only foes.

It is, first of all, necessary to settle distinctly what science is, as
well as what it is not ; and also, what religion is, as well as what it
is not.

We can all afford to agree upon the definition rendered by the
only man who has been found in twenty-two centuries to add any-
thing important to the imperial science of logic. Sir William Hamil-
ton defines science as " a complement of cognitions, having in point
of form the character of logical perfection, and in point of matter the
chai-acter of real truth." Under the focal heat of a definition like
this, much that claims to be science will be consumed. It is tlie fash-
ion to intimate, if not to assert, that it is much more easy to become
scientific than to become religious ; that in one case a man is dealing
with the real, in the other with the ideal ; in the one case with the
comprehensible, in the other with the incorapreliensible; in the one
case with that which is certain and exact, and in the other case with
that which at best is only probable and indefinite.

There can be no doubt, among thoughtful men, of the great value
of both science and religion. A thinker who is worth listening to is
always misunderstood if it be supposed that he means to disparagie
either. An attempt to determine the limits of religion is no dispar-
agement thereof, because all the most religious men who are accus-
tomed to think are engaged in striving to settle those limits, in order
that they may have advantage of the whole territory of religion on
the one hand, and on the other may not take that as belonging to reli-
gion which belongs to something else.

Now, if Sir William Hamilton's definition is to be taken, we shall
perceive that he represents science in its quality, in its quantity, and
in its form. Cognition of something is necessary for science. Then,
(1) the knowledge of things known must be true ; (2) that knovvledge
must be full, and (3) it must be accurate ; it must be in such form as
to be most readily and successfully used by the logical understanding
for purposes of thought.

436 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This sets aside very much that has been called science, and, as it
seems, perhaps nearly all that which has been the material used by
those who have raised the most smoke over tliis " conflict " question.

"Guesses at truth" are valuable only as the pecking at a plas-
tered wall, to iind where a wooden beam runs, is useful ; but a guess
is not knowledge. A working hypothesis were not to be despised,
although the student of science might feel quite sure in advance
that when he had learned the truth in this department he would
throw the hypothesis away. A working hypothesis, like a scaffold, is
useful ; but a scaffold is not a wall. Art is not science. Art deals
with the appearances, science with the realities, of things. Art deals
with tlie external, science with the internal, of a thing ; art with the
phenomenon, science with the noumenon. It must be the " real truth "
which we know, and know truly.

Weak men on both sides have done much harm — the weak reli-
gionists by assuming, and the weak scientists by claiming, for guesses
and hypotheses, the high character and full value of real truth. The
guesses of both have collided in the air, and a real battle seemed im-
pending; but it was only " guesses " which exploded — bubbles, not
bombs ; and it is never to be forgotten that a professor of religion
has just as much right to guess as a professor of science, and the lat-
ter no more right than the former, although he may have more skill.

No man can abandon a real truth without degradation to his in-
tellectual and moral nature ; but Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, in their
studies from time to time, employed and discarded theory after the-
ory, until they reached that wbidi was capable of demonstration. It
was only that which took its place as science. In the case of Kepler,
it is known what great labor he spent in attempting to represent the
orbit of Mars by combinations of uniform circular motion. His
working hypothesis was the old doctrine of epicyclic curves. But his
great labor was not fruitless, as has been carelessly asserted. The
theory was false, and therefore not a part of real science ; but, work-
ing on it, he discovered that the orbit of Mars is an ellipse, and this
led him to the first of his three great laws of planetary motion, and
enabled him almost immediately to discover the second. Here was
a great intellect employing as a working hypothesis a theory which
has always been false, and now is demonstrably false. It was not
science.

Now if, while scientific men are employing working hypotheses
merely as such, men representing religion fly at them as if they were
holding those hypotheses as science, or if men representing science do
set forth these hypotheses as if they were real knowledge of truth,
and proceed to defend them as such, then much harm is done in all
directions.

In the first instance, the religious man shows an impatience which
is irreligious. " He that believeth doth not make haste." It is unfair

SCIENCJS AND RELIGION. 437

to criticise any man while he is doing. Let him do what he will do ;
then criticise the deed. The artist has laid one pigment on his palette,
and he is criticised before it is known what others he intends to mix
with it, to procure what shade, to produce what eifect. Wait until
all the paint is on the canvas, and the artist has washed his brushes
and drawn the curtain from his jjicture ; then criticise the picture.

This impatient and weak criticism on the part of religious men is
injurious to scientific progress, as well as to the progress of religion.
For the latter, it makes the reputation of unfairness ; for the former,
it does one of two bad things : it obstructs free discussion among stu-
dents of science, or pushes them into a foolish defiance of religion.
Men must co-work with those of their own sphere of intellectual
labors. They must publish guesses, conjectures, hypotheses, theories.
Whatever comes into any mind must be examined by many minds.
It may be true, it may be false ; there must be no prejudgment. Now
if, because our scientific men are discussing a new view, our religious
men fly among them and disturb them by crying " Heresy ! " " Infidel-
ity !" " Atheism ! " those students must take time to repel the charges,
and thus their work be hurt. If let alone, they may soon abandon
their false theory. Certainly, if a proposition in science be false, the
students of science are the men likeliest to detect the falsehood, how-
ever unlikely they may be to discover the truth that is in religion.
Nothing more quickly destroys an error than to attempt to establish
it scientifically.

The premature cries of the religious against the scientific have
also the effect of keeping a scientific error longer alive. Through
sheer obstinacy the assailed will often hold a bad position, which, if
not attacked, had been long ago abandoned. And we must have no-
ticed that Nature seems quite as able to make scientific men obstinate
as grace to do this same work for the saints.

No man should be charged with being an atheist who does not, in
distinct terms, announce himself to be such ; and in that case the
world will believe him to be too pitiful a person to be worth assailing
with hard words. But as you may drive a man away from you by
representing him as your enemy, so a scientific man may be driven
from the Christian faith, if convinced that the Christian faith stands
in the way of free investigation and free discussion ; or, he may hold
on to the faith because he has brains enough to see that one may be
most highly scientific and most humbly devout at the same time ; but
by persecution he may be compelled to withdraw from open commun-
ion with " those who profess and call themselves Christians." Tben
both parties lose — what neither can well afford to lose — the respect
and help which each could give the other. When the son of a reli-
gious teacher turns to the works of a man whom he has heard that
father denounce, and finds in any one page of those books more high
religious thought than in a hundred of his father's commonplace dis-

438 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

courses, a sad state of feeling is produced, and many mistakes are
likely to follow.

Sir William Hamilton's definition of science has for genus " a com-
plement of cognitions," and for differentia " logical perfection of
form," and " real truth of matter." The definition is a demand for a
certain fullness. We can only conjecture, in the case of any particu-
lar science, how much knowledge such a man as Sir William Hamil-
ton would regard as a " complement." But stiidents of science do
well to remind themselves that it is impossible to exceed, and very
difficult to succeed, and the easiest thing imaginable to fall short. In
other words, we have never been able to collect more material of
knowledge than the plan of any temple of science could work in, and
really did not demand for the completion of the structure, and that
very few temples of science have been finished, even in the outline,
while all the plain of thought is covered by ruins of buildings begun
by thinkers, but unfinished for want of more knowledge. Even where
there has been gathered a sufficient amount of knowledge to be
wrought by the logical understanding into the form of a science, so
that such a mind as Hamilton's would admit it as a science — i. e., a
sufficient complement of cognitions of truths put in logical form — an-
other age of labor, in other departments, would so shrink this science
that, in order to hold its rank, it would have to v:iork in the matter of
more knowledge, and, to preserve its symmetry, be compelled to re-
adjust its architectural outlines. In other words, what is science to
one age may not be science to its successor, because that successor
may perceive that, although its matter had the character of real truth,
and its form the character of logical perfection, as far as it xoent, nev-
ertheless, there were not enough cognitions ; not enough, just because
in the later age it was possible to obtain additional cognitions, which
could not have been obtained earlier.

And, in point of fact, has not this been the history of each of the
acknowledged sciences ? And can any significance be assigned to
Sir William Hamilton's definition without taking the word " comple-
ment " to mean all the cognitions possible at the time f Now, unless
at one time men have more cognitions of any subject than at another
time, one of two things must be true : either (1) no new phenomena
will appear in that department, or (2) no abler observer will arise.
But the history of the human mind in the past renders both supposi-
tions highly improbable. If no new phenomena appear, we shall have
observers abler than have existed, because, although it were granted
that no fresh accessions of intellectual power came to the race, each
new generation of observers would have increased ability, because
each would have the aid of the instruments and methods of all prede-
cessors. When we go back to consider the immense labor performed
by Kepler in his investigations which led to his brilliant discoveries,
we feel that if his nerves had given way under his labors, and domes-

SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 439

tic troubles, and financial cares, or his industry had been just a little
less tenacious, he would have failed in the prodigious calculations
which led him to his brilliant discoveries, and gave science such a
great propulsion. Just five years after the publication of Kepler's
" New Astronomy " the Laird of Merchison published, in Scotland,
his " JSIirifici Logarithmoruni Canonis Descriptio.'^'' If Kepler had
only had Napier's logarithms ! But succeeding students have enjoyed
this wonderful instrumental aid, and done great mental work Avith less
draufjht on their vital energies.

The very facts, then, which make us proud of modern science
should make scientific men very humble. It will be noticed that the
most arrogant cultivators of science are those who are most ready to
assail such religious men as are rigid, and hold that nothing can be
added to or taken away from theology ; and such scientific men make
this assault on the assumption that physical sciences are fixed, cer-
tain, and exact. How ridiculous they make themselves, a review of
the history of any science for the last fifty years would show. Is
there any department of physical science in which a text-book used a
quarter of a century ago would now be put into the hands of any stu-
dent ? The fact is that any man, who is careful of his reputation, has
some trepidation in issuing a volume on science, lest the day his pub-
lishers announce his book the morning papers announce, also, a dis-
covery which knocks the bottom out of all his arguments. This
shows the great intellectual activity of the age — a matter to rejoice
in, but it should also promote humility, and rejjress egotism in all
well-ordered minds. There is, probably, no one thing known in its
properties and accidents, in its relations to all abstract truths and
concrete existence. No one thing is exactly and thoroughly known
by any man, or by all men. Mr. Herbert Spencer well says : " Much
of what we call science is not exact, and some of it, as physiology,
can never become exact" ("Recent Discussions," p. 158). He might
have made the remark with greater width, and no less truth, since
every day accumulates proof that that department of our knowledge
which we call the exact sciences holds an increasingly small propor-
tion to the whole domain of science.

There is one important truth which seems often ignored, and which
should frequently be brought to our attention, viz., that the proposi-
tions which embody our science are statements not of absolute truths,
but of probabilities. Probabilities differ. There is that which is
merely probable, and that which is more probable, and that which is
still much more probable, and that which is so probable that our
faculties cannot distinguish between this probability and absolute cer-
tainty ; and so we act on it as if it were certain. But it is still only
a "probability," and not a " certainty." It seems as though it would
forever be impossible for us to determine how near a probability can
approach a certainty without becoming identical with that certainty.

44°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Is not all life a discipline of determining probabilities? It would
seem that God intends tliat generally the certainties shall be known
only to himself. He has probably shown us a very few certainties,
more for the purpose of furnishing the idea than for any practical pur-
pose, as absolute certainty is necessary for him, while probabilities
are sufficient for us. All science is purely a classification of proba-
bilities.

We do not hnow that the same result will follow the same act in
its several repetitions, but believe that it will ; and we believe it so
firmly that if a professor had performed a successful experiment be-
fore a class in chemistry, he would not hesitate to repeat the experi-
ment after a lapse of a quarter of a century. Scientific men are not
infidels. Of no men may it be more truly said that they " walk by
faith." They do not creep, they march. Their tread is on made
ground, on probabilities ; but they believe they shall be supported,
and according to their faith so is it done unto them.

And no men better know than truly scientific men that this prob-
ability can never become certainty. In the wildest dreams of fanati-
cism— and there are fanatics in the laboratory, as there are in the
sanctuary of God and in the temple of Mammon — it has never been
believed that there shall come a man who shall know all things that
are, all things that have been, all things that shall be, and all things
that can be, in their properties, their attributes, and their relations.
Until such a man shall arise, science must always be concerned with
the cognition of that which is the real truth as to probabilities, or
with probable cognitions of that which is not only real truth, but ab-
solute truth. A scientific writer, then, when he states that any prop-
osition has been " proved," or anything " shown," means that it has
been proved probable to some minds, or shown to some — perhaps to
all — intelligent persons as probable. If he have sense and modesty,
he can mean no more, although he does not cumber his pages or his
speech with the constant repetition of that which is to be presumed,
even as a Christian in making his appointments does not always say
Deo volente, because it is understood that a Christian is a man always
seeking to do what he thinks to be the will of God, in submission to
the providence of God.

A scientific man ridicules the idea of any religious man claiming
to be " orthodox." It must be admitted to be ridiculous, just as ridic-
ulous as would be the claim of a scientific man to absolute certainty
and unchangeableness for science. The more truly religious a man
is, the more humble he is ; the more he sees the deep things of God,
the more he sees the shallow things of himself. He claims nothing
positively. He certainly does not make that most arrogant of all
claims, the claim to the prerogative of infinite intelligence. There
can exist only one Being in the universe who is positively and abso-
lutely orthodox, and that is God. In religion, as in science, we walk

SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 441

by faith ; that is, we believe in the probabilities sufficiently to act
upon them.

So far from any conflict being bet\veen science and religion, their
bases are the same, their modes are similar, and their ends are identi-
cal, viz., wliat all life seems to be, that is, a discipline of faith.

It is not proper to despise knowledge, however gained : whether
from the exercise of the logical understanding, or from consciousness,
or from faith ; and these are the three sources of knowledge. That
which has been most undervalued is the chief of the three ; that is,
faith.

We believe before we acquire the habit of studying and analyzing
our consciousness. "We believe before we learu how to conduct the
processes of our logical understanding.

"We can liave much knowledge by our faith witliout notice of our
consciousness, and without exertion of our reasoning faculties ; but
we can have no knowledge without faith. We can learn nothing from
our examination of any consciousness without faith in some principle
of observation, comparison, and memory. We can acquire no knowl-
edge by our logical understanding without faith in the laws of mental
operations.

This last statement, if true, places all science on the same basis
with religion. Although so familiar to many minds, we may take
time to show that it is true.

For proof let us go to a science which is supposed to demonstrate
all its propositions, and examine a student in geometry. We will not
call him out on the immortal 4V : I of Euclid. We can learn all we
need from a bright boy who has been studying Euclid a week. The
following may represent our colloquy:

Q. Do you know how many right angles may be made by one
straight line upon one side of another straight line ?

A. Yes ; two, and only two. Innumerable angles may be made
by two straight lines so meeting, bvit the sum of all the possible an-
gles will be two right angles.

Q. You say you know that. How do you know that you know it ?

A. Because I can prove it. A man knows every proposition
which he can demonstrate.

Q. Please prove it to me.

The student draws the well-known diagrams. If lie follows Eu-
clid, he begins with an argument like this :

A. Tliere are obviously two angles made when a straight line
stands on another straight line.

Q. My eyes show me that.

In answer he gives us the well-known demonstration of Euclid,
to show that the sum of the two angles is equal to two right angles;
and, Avhen he has finished and reached the Q. E. D., he and his exam-
iners know that this proposition is true, because he has proved it.

442 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But when we examine his argument we find that he has made three
unproved assumptions — namely : 1. That a thing cannot at the same
time he and not he j 2. That if equals be added to equals, the wholes
are equal ; 3. That things which are equal to the same are equal to
one another. It so happens that each of these propositions which he
has assumed to be true is, if true, much more important than the
proposition which he has joroved. Let us point out these three as-
sumptions to our bright student, and then resume our catechism.

Q. Could you possibly prove this pro2)osition in geometry if any
one of those three assumed propositions were not granted ?

A. No.

Q. Then, if we deny these assumptions, can you prove them ?

A. No ; but can you deny them ?

No, we cannot deny them, and cannot prove them ; but we be-
lieve them, and therefore have granted them to you for argument,
and know your projDOsition of the two right angles to be true, because
you have proved it.

Now, here is the proposition which Euclid selected as the simplest
of all demonstrable theorems of geometry, in the demonstration of
which the logical understanding of a student cannot take the first step
without the aid of faith.

From the student let us go to the master. We go to such a teacher
as Euclid, and in the beginning he requires us to believe three propo-
sitions, without which there can be no geometry, but which have
never been proved, and, in the nature of things, it would seem never
could be proved — namely, that space is infinite in extent, that space
is infinitely divisible, and that space is infinitely continuous. And
we believe them, and use that faith as knowledge, and no more dis-
trust it than we do the results of our logical understandings, and are
obliged to admit that geometry lays its broad foundations on our
faith.

Now, geometry is the science which treats of forms in their rela-
tions in space. The value of such a science for intellectual culture
and practical life must be indescribably important, as might be shown
in a million of instances. No form can exist without boundaries, no
boundaries without lines, no line without points. The beginning of
geometric knowledge, then, lies in knowing what a " point " is, the
existence of forms depending, it is said, upon the motion of points.
The first utterance of geometry, therefore, must be a definition of a
point. And here it is : " A point is that which has no parts, or which
has no magnitude." At the threshold of this science we meet with a
mystery. "A point is" — then, it has existence — "is" what? In
fact, in form, in substance, it is nothing. A logical definition requires
that the genits and differentia shall be given. "What is the genus of a
" point ? " Position, of course. Its differentia is plainly seen. It is
distinguished from every thing else in this, that every thing else is

SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 443

something somewhere^ and a point is nothing somewhere y every tiling
HAS some characteristic, a point lias none. A point is visible or in-
visible. Is it visible ? Then we can see that which is without parts
or magnitude. What is it we see when we do not see any part, do
not see any magnitude ? Is it substantial or ideal? If substantial,
how do we detect its substantial existence ? If ideal, how can an idea
have motion, and by simple motion become a substantial existence ?
Ai*e we not reduced to this ? Ideals produce substantial, or invisible
substantials, upon motion, produce visible substantials ; or that which
is necessary to matter — namely, form — owes its existence to that
which is neither substantial nor ideal — to nothing, in fact. The entire
and sublime science of geometry, at one time the only instrument of
culture among the Greeks, and so esteemed by Plato that he is said to
have written over his door, " Let no one enter here who does not know
geometry," in all its conceptions, propositions, and demonstrations,
rests upon the conception of that whicli has no parts, no magnitude.
The old saw of the school-men was, '•''Ex nihilo nihil Jit.'''' If each
visible solid owes its form to superficies, and each superficies its form
to lines, and each line its form to a point — and a point has no form,
because it has no parts — then, who shall stone the man that cries out,
" Ex nihilo geometriafit? "

But lay the first three definitions of geometry side by side: 1. "A
point is that which has no parts, or which has no magnitude." 2. " A
line is leno;th without breadth." 3. " The extremities of a line are
points." Study these, and you will probably get the following re-
sults : That which has no parts produces all the parts of that which
occupies space without occupying space, and whicli, although it occu-
pies no space, has extremities, to the existence of which it owes its
own existence ; and those extremities determine the existence of that
which has parts made up of multiplications of its extremities which
have no parts. Now, you must know at least that much, or else stay
out of Plato's house.

This useful science, without which men could not measure their
little plantations, or construct their little roads on earth, much less
traverse and triangulate the ample fields of the skies, lays for its
necessary foundation thirty-five definitions, three postulates, and
twelve axioms, the last being propositions which no man has ever
proved ; and these fifty sentences contain as much that is incompre-
hensible, as much that must be granted without being proved, as much
that must be believed, although it cannot be proved, as can be found
in all the theological and religious writings from those of John Scotus
Erigina down to those of Richard Watson, of England, or Charles
Hodge, of Princeton.

Does any man charge that this is a mere logical juggle ? Then he
shall be called upon to point out wherein it differs from the methods
of those who strive to show that there is a real conflict between real

444 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

science and real religion. If any man shall charge me with being an
infidel as touching geometry, and try to turn me out of the church of
science, I shall become liotly indignant, because I know that Euclid
did not believe more in geometry than I do, and I believe as much in
the teachings of geometry as I do in the teachings of theology,
regarding them both, as Aristotle did, as mere human sciences, rank-
ing theology with psychology, geology, and botany. And, being by
profession a theologian, I certainly believe in theology.

And this brings us back to what was stated in the beginning, as
one of the causes of this cry of "conflict," It is the confounding of
theology with religion. Theology is not religion any more than psy-
chology is human life, or zoology is animal life, or botany is vege-
table life. Theology is objective ; religion is subjective. Theology is
the scientific classification of what is known of God ; religion is a
loving obedience to God's commandments. Every religious man
must have some theology, but it does not follow that every theologian
must have some relioion. We never knew a religious man without
some kind of a theology, nor can we conceive such a case. But we
do know some theologians who have little religion, and some that
seem to have none. There may be a conflict between theology and
some other sciences, and religious men may deplore that conflict, or
may not, according to their measure of faith. There are those whose
faith is so large and strong that they do not deplore such a con-
flict, because they know that if, for instance, a conflict should come
between geology and theology, and geology should be beaten, it will
be so much the better for religion ; and if geology should beat the-
ology, still so much the better for religion : according to the spirit of
the old Arabic adage. If the pitcher fall on the stofie, so much the
worse for the pitcher^' and if the stone fall on the pitcher so much the
worse for the pitcher. Geologists, psychologists, and theologists,
must all ultimately promote the cause of religion, because they must
confirm one another's truths, and explode one another's errors ; and a
religious man is a man whose soul longs for the truth, who loves
truth because he loves God, who knows if the soul be sanctified it
must be sanctified by the truth, even as the mind must be enlarged
and strengthened by the truth. He knows and feels that it would be
as irreligious in him to reject any truth found in Natui-e, as it would
be for another to reject any truth found in the Bible.

But there is no necessary conflict between even theology and any
other science. Theology has to deal with problems into which the
element of the infinite enters. It will therefore have concepts some
two of which will be irreconcilable, but not therefore contradictory.
For instance, to say that God is " an infinite person " is to state the
agreement of two concepts which the human mind is supposed never
to have reconciled, and never to be able to reconcile. But they are

SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 445

not contradictory. If one should say that there is in the universe a
circular triangle, we should deny it, not because the concept of a tri-
angle is irreconcilable with the concept of a circle, as consistent in the
same figure, which is quite true, but because they are contradictory.
What is irreconcilable to you may be reconcilable to another mind,
because "irreconcilable" indicates the relation of the concept to the
individual intellect ; but what is contradictory to the feeblest is con-
tradictory to tlie mightiest mind, because " contradictory" represents
the relation of the concepts to one another.

In the definition of a person there is nothing to exclude infinity,
and in the definition of infinite there is nothing to exclude personality.
There is no more exclusion between " person " and " infinite " than
between "line" and "infinite;" and yet we talk of infinite lines,
knowing the irreconcilability of the ideas, but never regarding them
as contradictory.

Writers of great ability sometimes fall into this indiscrimination.
For instance, a writer whom 1 greatly admire, Dr. Hill, former Presi-
dent of Harvard College, in one paragraph (on "The Uses of Mathesis,"
in JBiUiotheca Sacra)^ seems twice to employ " contradictory " in an
illogical sense, even when he is presenting an illustration which goes
to show most clearly that in other sciences, as well as in theology,
there are propositions which we cannot refuse to accept, because they
are not contradictory, although they are irreconcilable ; in other
M'ords, that there are irreconcilable concepts which are not contra-
dictory, for we always reject one or the other of two contradictory
concepts or propositions.

That is so striking an illustration of the mystery of the infinite
that I will reproduce it. On a plane imagine a fixed line, pointing
north and south. Intersect this at an angle of ninety degrees by
another line, pointing east and west. Let this latter rotate at the
point of intersection, and at the beginning be a foot long. At each
approach of the rotating line toward the stationary line let the former
double its length. Let each approach be made by bisecting the angle.
At the first movement the angle would be forty-five degrees, and the
line two feet in length ; at the second, the angle twenty-two and one-
half degrees, and the line four feet ; at the third, the angle eleven and
one-fourth degrees, and the line eight feet ; at the fourth, the angle
five and five-eighths degrees, and the line sixteen feet ; at the fifth, the
angle two and thirteen-sixteenths degrees, and the line thirty-two feet,
and so on. Now, as this bisecting of the angle can go on indefinitely
before the rotating line can touch the stationary line at all its points,
it follows that before such contact the rotating line will have a length
which cannot be stated in figures, and which defies all human compu-
tation. It can be mathematically demonstrated that a line so rotating,
and increasing its length in the inverse ratio of its angle with the me-
ridian, will have its end always receding from the meridian and ap-

446 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

preaching a line parallel to the meridian at a distance of 1.5 V08. We
can show that the rotating line can cross the stationary line by making
it do so as on a watch-dial, and yet we can demonstrate that if it be
extended indetinitely it can never touch the stationary line, nor come
at the end even as near as eighteen inches to it.

Here are two of the simplest human conceptions, "between which
we know that there is no contradiction, rendered absolutely irrecon-
cilable to the human intellect by "the introduction of the infinite.
There is no religion here. And yet there is no mystery in either
theology or religion moje mysterious than the mystery of the infinite,
which we may encounter whenever we attempt to set our watches to
the right time if they have run more than an hour wrong.

Another error has been the occasion of this cry of '' conflict." It
is the confounding of "the Church" with "religion." This confusion
has led many an honest soul astray, and is the fallacy wherewith
shrewd sophists have been able to overthrow the faith of the ignorant.
If the Church — and, in all my treatment of this topic, I must be un-
derstood as using "the Church," not as signifying "the holy Church
universal," but simply in the sense in Avliich antagonistic scientists
employ it — if the Church and religion be the same, the whole argu-
ment must be given up, and it must be admitted that there is a con-
flict between religion and science, and that religion is in the wrong.
Churchmen are guilty of helping to strengthen, if indeed they are
not responsible for creating, this eri-or. It has at length been pre-
sented plumply to the world in the book of Prof. J. W. Draper, enti-
tled a " History of the Conflict between Religion and Science." The
title assumes that there is such a conflict. See how it will read with
synonyms substituted : " History of the Conflict between Loving
Obedience to God's Word and Intelligent Study of God^s TFbr^«."
Does Dr. Draper believe there is such a conflict ? It is not to be
supposed that he does. How, then, did he come to give his book such
a title ? From a confusion of terms, as will be observed by the peru-
sal of three successive sentences in his preface; "The papacy repre-
sents the ideas and aspirations of two-thirds of the population of Eu-
rope. It insists on a political supremacy, .... loudly declaring
that it will accept no reconciliation with modern civilization. The
antagonism we thus witness between religion and science," etc. Now,
if " the papacy " and " religion " be synonymous terms, representing
equivalent ideas, Dr. Draper's book shows that all good men should
do what they can to extii-pate religion from the world ; but if they
are not — and they are not — then the book is founded on a most hurt-
ful fallacy, and must be widely mischievous. Their share of the re-
sponsibility for the harm done must fall to churchmen.

No, these are not synonymous terms. " The Church " is not reli-
gion, and religion is not "the Church." There may be a churcli and
no religion; there may be religion and no church, as there may be an

SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 447

aqueduct without water, and there be water without an aqueduct.
God makes water, and men make aqueducts. Water was before aque-
ducts, and religion before churches. God makes religion, and men
make churches. There are irreligious men in every cliurch, and there
are very religious men in no church. Any visible, organized church
is a mere human institution. It is useful for the purpose of propagat-
ing religion so long as it confines itself to that function and abstains
from all other things. The moment it transcends that limit, it is an
injurious institution. In either case it is merely human, and we
wrono; both relioion and the Church when we claim for the latter that
it is not a human institution. The Church of England is as much a
human institution as the Royal Society ; and the same may be said of
the Church of Rome and the Royal Florentine Academy. A church
is as much an authority in matters of religion as a society is in mat-
ters of science, and no more. " The Church " has often been ojtposed
to science, and so it has to religion ; but " the society " has often
been ojtposed to i-eligion, and so it has to science. " The Church,"
both before and since the days of Christ, has stood in opposition to
the Bible, the text-book of Jewish and Christian religionists, quite as
often as it has to science. But " the society," or " the academy," has
stood in opposition to science quite as often as it has to religion.
Sometimes the sin of one has been laid upon tlie other, and sometimes
the property of one has been scheduled as the assets of the other. It
is time to protest, in the interests of the truth of God, and in the
name of the God of truth, that religion no longer be saddled with
all the faults of the churchmen, all the follies of the scientists, and
all the crimes of the politicians. It w'as not religion which brought
Galileo to his humiliating retraction, about which we hear so much
declamation ; it was " the Church."

But why should writers of tlie history of science so frequently
conceal the fact that " the Church " was instigated thereunto not by
religious people, but scientific men — by Galileo's collahoratcurs ? It
was the jealousy of the scientists which made use of the bigotry of
the churchmen to degrade a rival in science. They began their at-
tacks not on the ground that religion was in danger, but on such sci-
entific grounds as these, stated by a professor in the University of
Padua — namely, that as there were only seven metals, and seven days
in the week, and seven apertures in man's head, there could be only
seven planets ! And that was some time before these gentlemen of
science had instigated the sarcastic Dominican monk to attempt to
preach Galileo down under the text, Viri Galiloei, quid statis adspi-
cientes hi ccelum f

In like manner, politicians have used '* the Church " to overthrow
their rivals. " The Church " is the enHne which has been turned
against freedom, against science, against religion. It would be as
logical and as fair to lay all " the Church's " outrages against human

448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rights arid intellectual advancement at the door of religion as it would
be to lay all its outrages against religion at the door of science and
government, because " the Church " has seldom slaughtered a holy
martyr to the truth without employing some forms of both law and
logic.

Science exists for the sake of religion, and because of religion.
If there had been no love for God in the human race, there had been
no study of the physical universe. The visible cosmos is God's love-
letter to man, and religion seems to probe every corner of the sheet
on which such love is written, to examine every phrase, and study
every connection. A few upstarts of the present day, not the real
men and masters of science, ignore the fact that almost every man
who has made any great original contribution to science, since the
revival of letters, was a very religious man ; but their weak wicked-
ness must not be charged to science any more than the wicked weak-
ness of ecclesiastics to religion.

Copernicus, who revolutionized astronomy, was one of the purest
Christians who ever lived — a simple, laborious minister of religion,
walking beneficently among the poor by day, and living among the
stars by night ; and yet one writer of our day has dared to say, in
what he takes to be the interest of science, that Copernicus was
" aware that his doctrines were totally opposed to revealed truth."
Was anything worse ever perpetrated by theologian, or even ecclesi-
astic ? Could any man believe in any doctrine which he knew was
opposed to any truth, especially if he believed that God had revealed
that truth ? It were impossible, especially with a man having the
splendid intellect and the pure heart of Copernicus, who died believ-
ing in his "Z>e Orbium Ccelestkmi Jievolutionibus,''^ and also in the
Bible. And this is the inscription which that humble Christian or-
dered for his tomb : " Non jjarem Paulo veniam requiro, gratiam
Petri neque posco y sed quam in crucis ligno dederis latroni^ sedulus
oro.''^

Tycho Brahe, who, although he did not produce a system which
won acceptance, did, nevertheless, lay the foundation for practical
astronomy, and build the stairs on which Kepler mounted to his grand
discoveries, was a most religious man. He introduces into one of his
scientific works (" Astronomice Instauratio Mechanical'' p. A) this
sentence: "No man can be made happy, and enjoy immortal life,
but through the merits of Christ, the Redeemer, the Son of God, and
by the study of his doctrines, and imitation of his example."

John Kepler was a man in whose life the only conflict between
science and religion seemed to be as to which should yield the most
assistance to the other. lie wrought as imder Luther's motto,
" Orasse est stiidisse^ He prayed before he woi-ked, and shouted
afterward. The more he bowed his soul in prayer, the higher his in-
tellect rose in its discoveries ; and, as those discoveries thickened on

PLASTICITY OF INSTINCT. 449

his head, it bowed in humbler adoration. And so that single man was
able to do more for science than all the irreligiouc scientists of the last
three centuries have accomplished, while he bore an appalling load of
suftering with a patience that was sublime, and, dying, left this epi-
taph for his tombstone : " In Christo ^^ie obiit.''''

Of Sir Isaac Newton's, and Michael Faraday's, and Sir William
Hamilton's, and Sir James Y. Simpson's religious life, not to mention
the whole cloud of witnesses, we need not tell what is known to all
men. But the history of science shows that not the most gifted, not
the most learned, not the most industrious, gain the loftiest vision, biit
that only the pixre in heart see God. And all true science is a new
sight of God.

Herbert Spencer says : " Science may be called an extension of the
perceptions by means of reasoning " (" Recent Discussions," p. 60).
And we may add, religion may be called an extension of the percep-
tions by means of faith. And having so said, have we not para-
phrased Paul ? " Faith is confidence in things hoped for, conviction
of things not seen " (Heb. xi. 1). Science has the finite for its do-
main, religion the infinite ; science deals with the things seen, and re-
ligion with the things not seen. When Dr. Hutton, of Edinburgh,
announced, in the last century, " In the economy of the world I can
find no traces of a beginning, no prospect of an end," it is said that
scientific men were startled and religious men were shocked. Why
should they be ? The creation of the universe and its end are not
questions of science, and can be known only as revealed to faith.
And so Paul says : " Through faith we apprehend intellectually that
the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that that which
is seen may have sprung from that which is not seen " (Heb. xi. 3).

PLASTICITY OF INSTINCT.

By GEOKGE J. EOMANES.

''VTOW that the doctrine which is maintained by Mr. Douglass A.
-L^ Spalding on this subject has proved itself so completely vic-
torious in overcoming the counter-doctrine of " the individual-experi-
ence psychology" — and this along the whole line both of fact and
theory — it seems unnecessary for any one to adduce additional facts
in confirmation of the views which Mr. Spalding advocates.' I shall
therefore confine myself to detailing a few resixlts yielded by experi-
ments which were designed to illustrate the subordinate doctrine thus
alluded to in Mr. Spalding's article :

' See Popular Science Monthly for January, 1876.

VOL. Till. — 29

45 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" Though the instincts of animals appear and disappear in such
seasonable correspondence with their own wants and the wants of
their oftspring as to be a standing subject of wonder, they have by
no means the fixed and unalterable character by which some would
distinguish them from the higher faculties of the human race. Tbey
vary in the individuals as does their physical structure. Animals can
learn what they did not know by instinct, and forget the instinctive
knowledge which they never learned, while their instincts will often
accommodate themselves to considerable changes in the order of
external events. Everybody knows it to be a common practice to
hatch duck's-eggs under a common hen, though in such cases the hen
has to sit a week longer than on her own eggs. I tried an experiment
to ascertain how far the time of sitting could be interfered with in
the opposite direction. Two hens became broody on the same day,
and I set them on dummies. On the third day I put two chicks a day
old to one of the hens. She pecked at them once or twice, seemed
rather fidgety, then took to them, called them to her, and entered on
all the cares of a mother. The other hen was similarly tried, but
with a very diflerent result. She pecked at the chickens viciously,
and both that day and the next stubbornly refused to have anything
to do with them," etc.

It would have been well if Mr. Spalding had stated whether these
two hens belonged to the same breed ; for, as is of course well known,
diiferent breeds exhibit great variations in t]\e chai'acter of the incu-
batory instinct. Here, for instance, is a curious case : Spanish hens,
as is notorious, scarcely ever sit at all ; but I have one purely-bred
one, just now, that sat on dummies for three days, after which time
her patience became exhausted. However, she seemed to think that
the self-sacrifice she had undergone during these three days merited
some reward, for, on leaving the nest, she turned foster-mother to all
the Spanish chickens in the yard. These were sixteen in number, and
of all ages, from that at which their own mothers had just left them
up to full-grown chickens. It is remarkable, too, that although there
were Bralima and Hamburg chickens in the same yard, the Spanish
hen only adopted those that were of her own breed. It is now four
weeks since this adoption took place, but the mother as yet sliows no
signs of wishing to cast of her heterogeneous brood, notwithstanding
some of her adopted chickens have grown nearly as large as herself.

The following, however, is a better example of what may be called
plasticity of instinct : Three years ago I gave a pea-fowl's egg to a
Brahma hen to hatch. The hen was an old one, and had previously
reared man}' broods of ordinary chickens with unusual success even
for one. of her breed. In order to hatch the pea-chick she had to sit
one week longer than is requisite to hatch an ordinary chick, but in
this there is nothing very unusual, for, as Mr. Spalding observes, the
same thing happens with every hen that hatches out a brood of duck-

i

PLASTICITY OF INSTINCT. 451

lings.' The object with which I made this experiment, however, was
that of ascertaining whether the period of maternal care subsequent
to incubation admits, under peculiar conditions, of being prolonged ;
for a pea-chick x-equires such care for a very much longer time than
does an ordinary chick. As the separation between a hen and her
chickens always appears to be due to the former driving away the lat-
ter when they are old enough to shift for themselves, I scarcely expect-
ed the hen in this case to prolong her period of maternal care, and in-
deed only tried the experiment because I thought that if she did so the
fact would be the best one imaginable to show in what a high degree
hereditary instinct may be modified by peculiar individual experiences.
The result was very surprising. For the enormous period of eighteen
months this old Brahma hen remained with her evex'-growing chicken,
and throughout the whole of that time she continued to pay it unre-
mitting attention. She never laid any eggs during this lengthened
period of maternal supervision, and, if at any time she became acci-
dentally separated from her charge, the distress of both mother and
chicken was very great. Eventually the separation seemed to take
place on the side of the peacock; but it is remarkable that, although
the mother and chicken eventually separated, they never afterward
forgot each other, as usually appears to be the case with hens and
their chickens. So long as they remained together the abnormal de-
gree of pride which the mother showed in her wonderful chicken was
most ludicrous ; but I have no space to enter into details. It may be
stated, however, that both before and after the separation the mother
was in the habit of frequently combing out the top-knot of her son —
she standing on a seat, or other eminence of suitable height, and he
bending his head forward with evident satisfaction. This fact is par-
ticularly noteworthy, because the practice of combing out the top-
knot of their chickens is customary among pea-hens. In conclusion, I
may observe, that the peacock reared by this Brahma hen tui-ned out
a finer bird in every way than did any of his brothers of the same
brood which were reared by their own mother, but that, on repeating
the experiment next year with another Brahma hen and several pea-
chickens, the result was different, for the hen deserted her family at
the time when it is natural for ordinary hens to do so, and in conse-
quence all the pea-chickens miserably perished.

I have just concluded another experiment which is well worth
recording : A bitch ferret strangled herself by trying to squeeze
through too narrow an opening. She left a very young family of
three orphans. These I gave, in the middle of the day, to a Brahma
hen which had been sitting on dummies for about a month. She took
to them almost immediately, and remained with them for rather more

' The greatest prolongation of the incubatory period I have ever known to occur was
in the case of a pea-hen which sat very steadily on addled eggs for a period of four
months, and had then to be forced oflF in order to save her life.

452 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

than a fortnight, at the end of which time I had to cause a separation,
in consequence of tlie hen having suffocated one of the ferrets by-
standing on its neck. During the tvhole of the time that tJie ferrets
were left with the hen the latter had to sit upon the nest y for tlie young
ferrets, of course, were not able to follow the hen about as chickens
would have done. The hen, as might be expected, was very much
puzzled at the lethargy of her offspring. Two or three times a day
she used to fly off the nest, calling upon her brood to follow ; but, upon
hearing their cries of distress from cold, she always returned imme-
diately and sat with patience for six or seven hours more. I should
have said that it only took the hen one day to learn the meaning of
these cries of distress ; for after the first day she would always run in
an agitated manner to any place where I concealed the ferrets, pro-
vided that this place was not too far away from the nest to prevent
her from hearing the cries of disti-ess. Yet I do not think it would be
possible to conceive of a greater contrast than that between the shrill
peeping note of a young chicken and the hoarse growling noise of a
young ferret. On the other hand, I cannot say that the young ferrets
ever seemed to learn the meanings of the hen's clucking. During the
whole of the time that the hen was allowed to sit upon the ferrets
she used to comb out their hair with her bill, in the same way as
hens in general comb out the feathers of their chickens. While
engaged in this process, however, she used frequently to stop and
look with one eye at the wriggling nest-full with an inquiring gaze
expressivfe of astonishment. At other times, also, her family gave her
good reason to be surprised ; for she used often to fly off the nest sud-
denly with a loud scream — an action which was doubtless due to the
unaccustomed sensation of being nipped by the young ferrets in their
search for the teats. It is further worth while to remark that the hen
showed so much uneasiness of mind when the ferrets were taken from
her to be fed, that at one time I thought she was going to desert them
altogether. After this, therefore, the ferrets were always fed in the
nest, and with this arrangement the hen was perfectly satisfied — ap-
parently because she thought that she then had some share in the
feeding process. At any rate she used to cluck when she saw the milk
coming, and surveyed the feeding Avith evident satisfaction.

Altogether I consider this a very remarkable instance of the plas-
ticity of instinct. The hen, it should be said, was a young one, and
had never reared a brood of chickens. A few months before she
reared the young ferrets she had been attacked and nearly killed by
an old ferret which had escaped from his hutch. The young ferrets
were taken from her several days before their eyes were open.

In conclusion I may add that, a few weeks before trying this ex-
periment with the hen, I tried a similar one with a rabbit. In this
case the ferret was newly born, and I gave it to a white doe-rabbit
which had littered six days before. Unlike the hen, however, she per-

FLYING-MACHINES. ETC.

453

ceived the imposture at once, and attacked the young ferret so savage-
ly that she broke two of its legs before I could remove it. To have
made this experiment parallel with the other, however, the two mothers
ought to have littered on the same day. In this case the result would
probably have been different ; for I have heard that under such cir-
cumstances even such an intelligent animal as a bitch may be deceived
into rearing a cat, and vice versa. — Nature.

-♦♦♦-

FLYING-MACHINES AND PENAUD'S ARTIFICIAL BIRD.'

translated from the jouknal de physique,

By ALFEED M. MAYEK,
peofessor in the stevens institute of technologt.

'^VyiTMEROUS attempts have been made at different times to con-
-i-^ struct a machine capable of propelling itself through the air.
All kinds of aerial propellers have in turn been tried ; such as
screws, beating wangs, umbrellas which open and shut during their
reciprocating motion, inclined planes, aerial wheels. But though
many of these projects called forth considerable inventive ability, yet,
until quite recently, the hdicopteron (from k'kiKoc^^ any thing spiral or
twisted, and nrepov, a wing — that is, a machine furnished with an
aerial screw-propeller) was the only type of machine which had suc-
ceeded in raising itself in flight. Several of these helicopterons have
been constructed since 1784, at which date Bienvenu made the first
that flew. The best known and the most perfect was that which
Ponton d'Aniecourt constructed in 1864, and which raised itself for
a moment by a sudden motion to a height of two and a half metres.
It was formed of two superposed right and left handed screws, put in
motion by a watch-spring. All other methods of artificial flight, in-
cluding those of propellers with wings beating the air like those of a
bird, remained ineffective, and were the subjects of conflicting hy-
potheses as to the nature of flight.

In beginning our studies, we have thought that the best means of
getting rid of the multiplicity of hypotheses and of conflicting opinions
would be to divide the flying-machines that have been invented into
a small number of general types ; then to reduce each of these types
to its essential elements, and finally to design a flj'ing-machine of each
of these simplified types possessing all the really essential parts, and
easy to construct.

Leaving out of consideration the inventions which are evi-
dently defective, we have thought it possible to divide the majoi'ity

' The Academy of Sciences of Paris, at its meeting in June, 1875, awarded to M.
Penaud a prize for the discoveries and inventions described in this article.

454 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the systems of artificial flight into helicopter ons^ areoplanes, and
orthopterons (from bpdog, straight, and irrepov, a wing). The helicop-
terons sustain themselves by the aid of screws whose axes of rotation
are nearly vertical. They may be made to progress either by these
vertical screws or by special screw-propellers. The areoplanes have
propelling surfaces which are nearly plane and slightly inclined to the
horizon. A horizontal motion is given to these surfaces generally by
means of screws. Finall}% in the orthopterons, the propelling organs
are surfaces moving in vertical directions, and generally having re-
ciprocating motions. In this system are embraced the wings of birds
and the moving surfaces of the tails of fishes.

The knowledge of the resistance of the air appeared to us the
only guide by which we could arrive at a thorough understanding of
the manner in which a machine could sustain itself by the actions of
its propelling surfaces on this fluid. We entered upon an attentive
study of several imperfectly-understood points appearing to us of
capital importance ; such as the sustaining screw, the aerial inclined
plane, and tlie theory of the equilibrium of flying-machines. The
screw-propeller was well understood from its eflTects in propelling ves-
sels. These researches, which led us to a small number of very simple
general laws, permitted us to determine the manner of action and the
proportions of the machines which we desired to construct.

It remained to find a motor the easiest of application. Wood,
whalebone, and steel, give forces which are at a minimum when re-
ferred to their weight ; caoutchouc is much more powerful, but the
framework necessary to resist its violent tension is necessarily quite
heavy. We then conceived the idea of using the elasticity of the
torsion of caoutchouc, which finally led to an easy, simj^le, and eftec-
tive method of constructing the models of flying-machines.

We applied the new motor first to the helicopteron, after having
previously investigated the curious and valuable actions of caoutchouc
when subjected to various successive torsions. In April, 1870, we pre-
sented models to M. de la Landelle which rose in flight to more than
fifteen metres, hovering and fluttering through large inclined circles,
and sustaining themselves during more than twenty seconds.

The great superiority of these results over those obtained with
preceding helicopterons encouraged us to apply our motor to other
systems of artificial flight. On the 18th of August, 1871, in the pres-
ence of the Society of Aerial Navigation, we succeeded in making an
areoplane fly with various velocities and in difierent directions, around
one of the circles of the garden of the Tuileries. The success of this
machine in its ascending motions and in its perfect equilibrium gave
the first successful exhibition of a machine on the areoplane type.

Measured directly, and irrespective of any hypothesis, the foi-ce
required to sustain and propel the areoplane and the helicoptei-on
proved to be relatively moderate, and did not approach the fabulous

FLYING-MACHINES, ETC. 455

estimations previously given by Navier, This experiment demon-
strated that the muscular strength of birds, although notably greater,
for equal weights, than that of mammals, did not exceed a reasonable
estimation.

Our helicoptei'ons and areoplanes which performed with success
on the 2d of July, 1875, before the Physical Society, have a numerous
oflspring. They have been imitated with various success by Croce-
Spinelli and MM. Montfallet, Petard, and Tantin.

The action of these machines, in fully confirming our ideas and
calculations on the resistance of the atmosphere, encouraged us to
attempt the construction of a mechanical bird with flapping wings.
The diversity of the hypotheses as to the nature of fliglit, proposed in
France and in England, though bearing witness to the difficulties to
be met wnth in the construction of this mechanism, yet rendered the
problem peculiarly interesting. . '^

The experiments heretofore made with mechanical birds had been
very discouraging. M. Artingstall and M. Marey had alone obtained
effective results. M. Artingstall states that, some thirty years since,
he had an artificial bird Avhich flew at the end of a tube jointed on to
a steam-boiler. M. Marey, whose beautiful physiological experiments
are so well known, constructed, in I8V0, artificial insects which, at-
tached to a radial tube carrying a counterpoise equal to two-thirds of
their weight, rose and flew in a circle by the aid of their wings. The
compressed air which set the wnngs in motion was conveyed to them
through the radial tube from a compression-pump worked by hand.*
It remained to gain the two-thirds of the weight of the insect and to
cause the latter to carry with it its motor instead of having the wings
moved by a force conveyed to the insect from without.

Encompassed by the divers hypotheses of the action of the wing
given by Borelli, Huber, Dutrochet, Strauss-Durckeim, Liais, Petti-
grew, Marey, d'Esterno, De Lucy, Artingstall, etc., and in view of the
very complicated motions they had assigned to that organ and to each
of its quills — motions which are, for the most part, inimitable in a me-
chanical bird — W'C decided to reason out for ourselves, by relying on
the laws of the resistance of the air and on some of the most simple
facts of observation, what are the motions of the wing really necessary
to flight. We found — 1. A double oscillation, a depression, and an
elevation of the wings transverse to the path of flight. 2. The change
of the plane of the same during this double motion ; the lower surface
of the wing facing below^ and behind during its depression, so as to
sustain the bird, the same surface of the wing facing below and in
front during its elevation, so that the wing is raised with the least re-
sistance by cutting the air with its edge w^hile the bird flies. These
movements, moreover, were admitted to be correct by a large num-

1 See Fig. 87, on page 202 of Marey's " Animal Mechanism," published in the " Inter-
national Scientific Series."

4^6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

"ber of observers, and have been concisely demonstrated by Strauss-
Durckeim, Liais, and Marey.

But, in considering the difficulty of the construction of our me-
chanical bird, we were obliged, notwithstanding our desire to make a
machine which should be siraj^Ie and easy to understand, to try to
perfect those actions we have somewhat summarily described. It is
evident that the different parts of the wing, from its base to its extrem-
ity, act on the air under very different conditions. The interior part
of the wing, having small velocity, produces little propelling effect
at any moment of its beat ; but it is far from being useless, and one
may imagine how, by presenting its lower face downward and slightly
facing the front, it acts during the rapid translation of the bird, like a
kite, as well while the wing is being elevated as during its down-
ward motion, and thus sustaining in a continuous manner a portion of
the weight of the bird. The middle portion of the wing has a junc-
tion intermediate between that of the interior and that of the outer
portion, or end, of the wing ; so that the wing, during its action, is
twisted on itself in a continuous manner from its base to its extrem-
ity. The plane of the wing at its base varies but little during flight ;
the plane of the median part of the wing is very much displaced on
one and the other side of its mean position ; finally, the outer part of
the wing, and especially its tip, experiences considerable change of
plane. This w^arping of the wing is modified at each instant during
its elevation and depression, in the manner just indicated ; at the
extreme points of its beat the wing is nearly plane. The action of
the winof is thus seen to be intermediate between that of an inclined
plane and that of a screw with a very long and continually variable
pitch.

Notwithstanding the differences found to exist in the hypotheses
of various authors when compared with one another and with the one
just given, still one or the other of these writers confirms the greater
portion of the ideas just advanced. Thus the torsion of the wing had
already been pointed out by Dutrochet, and especially by Pettigrew,
who long maintained this opinion ; only he has taken, according to
our view, the change of form occurring during the elevation of the
wing for that of the form occurring during its depression, and vice
versa. These authoi's clearly saw how the articulations of the bones^
the ligaments of the wing, the imbrication and elasticity of the quills,
bring about the above result. M. d'Esterno had explained the con-
tinuous effect, like that of a kite, of the interior portion of the wing
during its depression and elevation ; and M. Mai'ey had very appropri-
ately designated that portion of the wing as " passive," at the same
time, liowever, maintaining that the most important action of the
wing during flight is due to a general change of its plane produced by
the rotation of the humerus on itself.

According to our view there is a sharp distinction to be made be-

FLYING-MACHINES, ETC. 457

tween hovering and the ordinary flight of progression, while the am-
plitude of the changes in the plane of the extremity of the wing is
essentially a function of the velocity of translation of the bird. At
the extremity of the wing, where the most considerable changes of
plane takes place, these changes equal 90°, and even more, during hover-
ing ; but then displacements of plane are far less in the flight of pro-
gression. According to our calculations the extreme portions of the
surface of the terminal feathers of the ci'ow's w'ing are, during free
flight, inclined forward during the depression of the wing only from
7° to 11° below the horizontal, and from 15° to 20° above the hori-
zontal plane during the elevation of the wing. The plane of the
wino; at its base acts durino- the above motions like a kite inclined at
an angle only of from 2° to 4°.

It is easy to verify the slight inclination of tlie wing, and conse-
quently the smallness of its angles of action in the air, by observing a
flying bird moving in an horizontal line of sight, for we then see only
the edges of the wings. It is, in short, inexact to say that the wing
changes its jilatie ; we can barely say that it changes its j^lcincs. The
trutli is, that it is gradually more and more warped in going from its
base to its extremity. It was so understood, indeed, by an English
author, whose labors we became acquainted with after we had con-
structed our bird, and to him we are indebted for liaving saved us
several researches. The theory of Sir G. Cay ley, published in 1810,
difiers from ours but in a few particulars. He is of the opinion that
the outer portion of the wing in ascending exerts always a propulsive
action, and lie atti'ibutes to the propelling parts and to the sustain-
ing, kite-like parts of the wing, proportions which are relatively the
reverse of those to which w^e have been led by our calculation.

It was with these ideas, favorably judged of by the Academy in
September, 1871, that we undertook the application of the torsion of
caoutchouc to the problem of the mechanical bird. The wings of our
bird are made to beat in the same plane by means of a crank and con-
necting- rods. After several rouefh trials, we found out that the trans-
formation of motion in the machine required a mechanism very solid
relatively to its weight, and I requested M. Tobert, an able mechanist,
to construct out of steel a piece of mechanism designed by my brother,
E. Penaud. The accompanying figure represents the apparatus so
constructed ; C C is the motor of twisted caoutchouc placed above
the rigid rod, PA A, which is the vertebral column of the machine;
from this rod, at A and A, ascend two rigid forks, which serve below
as supports for the crank, C H, which is attached to the twisted
caoutchouc ; and above, at the ends of the forks at 0 and 0, are the
pivots on which the wings oscillate. The links, H S, convert the
motion of rotation of the crank into the reciprocating motion of the
arms, 0 MZi, O M L. At ^ is a steering-tail, which we found by
experience was best made from one of the long feathers of a peacock's

458

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

FLYING-MACHINES, ETC. 459

tail, and which can be inclined upward, or downward, or to one side,
and be loaded witli wax so that the centre of gravity of the machine
can be brought to the proper position.

The warj)ing of the wings, 0 X, is obtained by the mobility ot
the wing and of the little fingers, M N^ supporting them on the large
rods, 0 J/Z, which do not partake of this rotation, A little liga-
ment of caoutchouc, D JB, connects the posterior interior angles ot
the wings with the middle of the central rod of the machine. This
ligament, whose function is similar to that of the posterior paws of the
bat, plays the part of an elastic sheet to our wing, so closely resem-
bling the topsail of a schooner. The torsions of the wing are thus
automatically regulated, as required, by the combined action of the
pressure of the air and of this elastic ligament. The interior third
of the surface of the wing acts like a kite during the elevation as well
as during the depression of the wing. The external two-thirds, cor-
responding to the primary and secondary quills of birds, propel and
sustain the machine during the downward motions of its wings. The
little drawing in the corner shows the wings just about to begin their
downward beat. During the elevation of the wing the terminal
feathers conform to the sinusoidal track along which they progress in
the air ; it thus only cuts the atmosphere without acting against it.
To start the machine, we simply abandon it to itself in the air.

This machine was exhibited before the Society of Aerial Naviga-
tion on the 2d of June, 18V2, and flew several times more than seven
metres — the length of the public hall — raising itself in a continuous
manner, with an accelerated velocity, along a line of flight inclined
15° to 20°. In an open space, the artificial bird fl.ew over twelve to
fifteen metres, elevating itself during this flight to about two metres.
Another model, exhibited before the same society in October, 1874,
flew in an horizontal line, vertically upwai'd, and also ascended ob-
liquely.

On the 27th of last November, at a public exhibition, this model
flew from one end to the other of the hall of the Horticultural Society
{see Aeronaute, February, 1875). On the 2d of July, 1875, it per-
formed with success before the French Physical Society. The ve-
locity of its flight is from five to seven metres per second.

The birds of twisted caoutchouc have been a great success.

M. Hureau de Villeneuve, whose zeal in the study of aerial navi-
gation is well known, and who in his many contributions to the theory
of flight since 1868 has discussed the inclination to the horizon of the
axes of the scapulo-humeral articulations and their posterior conver-
gence, exhibited, on the 20th of June, 1872, a bird moved by twisted
caoutchouc, which, he states, elevated itself vertically to a height of
nearly one metre. Continuing his researches with perseverance, he
again exhibited his apparatus before the Society of Aerial Navigation
on the 13th of January, 1875, after having supplied it with wings

460 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

similar to those of my bird, and after having adojited several of the
peculiarities which had made ray machine successful. He then suc-
ceeded in giving sustained flight to his machine, which we have our-
selves seen fly horizontally nearly seven metres, after having been
started by a slight impulse from the hand. M. Tatin, also, in 1874,
made two very curious artificial birds, vising twisted caoutchouc as a
motor. M. Marey has told us that he saw the first named fly in his
garden, last November, from eight to ten metres. We have seen
the second, nearly identical with our bird, fly in a still more satis-
factory manner.

♦»»

A MUSEUM EXCHANGE.'

By Prof. BURT G. WILDER.

ripHERE are in this country three institutions more or less available
JL for the distribution of material for Natural History instruction:
the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, District of Columbia ; the
(Agassiz) Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts ; and Prof. Ward's establishment at Rochester, New York.

The first is especially rich in American forms, the collections of
government surveys, and the types of Baird's descriptions. There
are many duplicates, but these are required for the elucidation of the
extent of variation within the species, so that they are available for
exchanges in only a limited degree.

The peculiar value of the Cambridge Museum comes from the im-
mense amount of material fiom all j^arts of the world, upon which
zoologists are enabled to pursue extended investigations, either at
the museum, or, under certain conditions, elsewhere.

Agassiz also desired to prepare collections for educational insti-
tutions in Massachusetts, and to provide for teachers an opportunity
for summer instruction and for the collection of specimens.

But it is evident that the above-mentioned establishments and
arrangements are not yet able to meet a rapidly-growing want of the
whole country ; namely, the immediate formation of museums for the
illustration of the courses in natural history which are now generally
demanded, in not only the colleges and universities (whether real or
so called), but also the normal schools, and even those of lower grade.

Such selected collections need not be either very large or very
costly. They should embrace mainly typical forms, but contain also
some of the peculiar or aberrant species of each large group.

It would be well if some one would make out a list of what are
desirable in larger or smaller collections. Meantime, the information

' Presented at the Detroit meeting of the American Association for tlie Advancement
of Science.

A MUSEUM EXCHANGE. 461

and the material are, to a great extent, obtainable from the cata-
logues and tlie museum of Prof. Ward.

A recent examination of this establishment has suggested a brief
sketch of its nature, its capacity for supplying the want above indicated,
and of the additions which might advantageously be introduced.

Prof. Ward was a pupil of Agassiz, and afterward Professor of
Natural History in Kochester University, where he formed a very ex-
tensive and well-arranged museum of geology, mineralogy, paleontol-
ogy, and zoology. Desiring to include with this fac-similes of unique
fossils in other museums, Prof. Ward spent three years in Europe,
and gradually accumulated moulds of famous fossils. The great ex-
pense of this undertaking (nearly $20,000) determined him to make
duplicates of the casts, and thus, by degrees, oi-iginated the now well-
known " Ward Series of Casts of Fossils ; " and at present, in many of
our educational institutions, large and small, the megatherium, iguano-
don, ichthyosaurus, and pterodactyl have become as familiar forms as
the professors themselves.

The usefulness of this branch of the establishment is now gener-
ally recognized, and, with the mineralogical department, has been
graphically described by others,* so we may pass to the consideration
of what has been and may be accomplished by Prof. Ward for the
furnishing of zoological museums.

At present, mounted insects and stuffed birds receive but little of
his attention, but the collections embrace representatives of the lead-
ing groups of the whole animal kingdom, more than 13,000 species
being represented. The echinoderms and Crustacea, being easily pre-
served in a dry state, are very numerous. They have recently been
carefully rearranged and determined by a professional naturalist.

Prof. Ward keeps twenty-two advertisements in foreign journals,
and has correspondents in all parts of the globe, near and remote, so
that scarcely a week passes without his receiving word of the sending
to him of rare forms.

At the time of our visit he was receiving the results of a late trip
to Europe (where he had expended about $10,000 for specimens). On
the same day arrived the skins and skeletons of two camels, the one
from Asia Minor, the other from Turkey. The taxidermists were en-
gaged upon a grizzly bear, a 1,000-pound turtle, and the now- famous
donkey which slew a lion in Cincinnati; while the osteologists were
mounting a whale's skeleton for the Peabody Academy of Science at
Salem, Massachusetts, and would then commence upon a large series
of skeletons for the Smithsonian Institution.

A specimen of the rare tiger-shark {Crossorhinus dasypogon) had
just arrived from Australia.

Ten men are constantly employed in the reception and arrange-

1 As by Prof. E. S. Mor?e, in the American NaUiralist for April, 1873, and Prof.
Alexander Winchell, in the College Courant for October 1, 1870.

462 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ment of these specimens, in the preparation of skins and the mount-
ing: of skeletons. The chief osteoloo;ists and taxidermists were
brought from Europe, and their salaries are more than is received by
many an assistant professor.

In alcohol are fishes and reptiles, such as the JLepidosteus, Polyo-
don, and Amia, of our Western rivers, the Calanioichthys of Africa,
the Siren and Amphiuma of South Carolina, and the Proteus of Eu-
rope; while in dry, upper rooms hang hundreds of skins of quadrupeds,
large and small, from all parts of the world, and carefully labeled.

The excellence and trustworthiness of the work done by Prof.
Ward are further attested by the extent to which he is employed by
the Smithsonian Institution, the Cambridge Museum, and others both
here and abroad. Indeed, it is no unusual thing for material to come
from Europe to Rochester, and be returned to some Continental mu-
seum.

But, while gladly commending what is done, we would offer a
suggestion as to what might be done with great advantage to our
educational institutions and a fair profit to Prof. Ward :

1. Such an establishment should svipply the lower vertebrates, the
lamprey and particularly amphioxus, of which, also, sections might be
prepared for the microscope.

2. There should be kept, or prepared to order, series of embryos
of some common animals : among mammals the pig, and among ba-
trachians the frog, are very easily obtained. All embryos are, in some
respects, more valuable than adults, and, if they were on hand, a de-
mand would surely arise.

3. A series of brains should be added. The models of these,
whether plaster or papier-mache, are poor substitutes for the real
specimens. Nor need the number be very large; a dozen species
would fairly illustrate the modifications of the vertebrate encephalon.

Speaking of brains, we cannot forbear expressing the hope that
Prof. Ward may shortly be able to impress his clients with the truth
of Prof Wyman's saying that " a skull is doubled in value by cutting
in two." The inside is quite as important as the outside, while such
vertical bisection, if carefully made, enables us to secure the two
halves of the brain but little injured.'

. 4. Other anatomical preparations of soft parts, sections and dissec-
tions, are really desired for instruction, and a few typical preparations
could readily be made,

5. Finally, we would suggest to Prof Ward the expediency of

^ A case in point occurs while correcting the proof of this article. Prof, Ward has
received a " blackfish " {Ehhiocephahts melas). Knowing that the Cornell University
would like the brain, he sends me word ; but, as the section of the skull for extraction of
the brain would impair its value for most purchasers, we have to take the w^hole skeleton
also. The brain, by-the-way, weighs nearly live pounds, two pounds more than the
average human brain, and nearly a pound more than that of Cuvier.

ARE THE ELEMENTS ELEMENTARY ? 463

making his establishment a medium of exchange between parties in
diiferent localities. For instance, A lives in Central New York ; he
has plenty of Menobranchus, and would exchange them for Mtnopoma
from the Ohio River, or the gars and spoonbills of the Mississippi, of
which B has more than he wants ; while both these parties desire
sharks, and skates, and pipe-tishes, and the large lamprey from the
seacoast where C lives. To purchase and keep all tliese and many
more such on hand involves an enormous expense and risk to a single
individual ; whereas, if, under certain conditions, Prof. Ward re-
ceived good specimens of these forms, and stored them at the owner's
risk as to fire, and expense as to alcohol, etc., then he could, at a fair
commission, transfer them to those who desired them without the
expenditure now incurred.

The arrangement could be made like that of the naturalists*
agency for books in Salem, Massachusetts, and a periodical list of
specimens and prices could be issued. The prices would serve as
guides for either exchange or direct purchase.

Such a system of transfer would, it seems to us, not only enable
new institutions to rapidly form type collections for class-room instruc-
tion, but also encourage them to collect large numbers of duplicates
of the forms peculiar to their localities. In this way we should ascer-
tain the extent of individual variation, the manner and rate of devel-
opment and growth, and, by preparations made on the spot, the struct-
m-e of the brains and other soft parts, which are seldom perfectly
preserved in specimens sent in alcohol from a distance.

-♦*♦-

ARE THE ELEMENTS ELEMENTARY?

By F. W. CLAEKE,
peofessoe of chemistey and physics in the university of oinoinnati.

WHAT are the so-called chemical elements ? Are they really ele-
ments, or only compounds of remarkable stability ? It would
be hard to find in physical science a question which has been oftener
asked than this. It has furnished all sorts of investigators Avith
abundant food for speculation. Men of the highest scientific ability
have grappled with the problem, and left it still unsolved ; others
have constructed elaborate theories, which claimed to settle every-
thing. Still the debate goes on. We cannot prove that the elements
are truly what we call them, nor can we show beyond all doubt that
they are compound in their nature. We may, however, weigh the
opposing probabilities, and see which side of the question is the
stronger. Whichever way the balance turns, the superstructure of
chemistry will be but little affected. We know that all our recog-

464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

nized compounds are formed by the union together of two or more
supposed elements ; and no revelations concerning the nature of the
latter can well disturb that established knowledge. However we may-
speculate, the experimentally-ascertained facts will remain unaltered.
They may receive slightly diiferent theoretical interpretations, with-
out having their practical bearings changed in the least degree.

The prevalent view of the subject, that the elements are element-
ary, is held by philosophical chemists in a purely provisional way.
We need a convenient working hypothesis, and these sixty-three sub-
stances are elements for aught we absolutely know to the contrary.
As far as we are at present experimentally concerned, then, we call
them elements, bearing always in mind the possibility that they may
be compounds. They have never been decomposed ; we have no
means adequate to their analysis ; not one of them can be obtained
from materials in which it does not already exist. But all this evi-
dence is only negative. How do we know but that some future dis-
covery may render possible the decomposition of these supposed ele-
ments ? Shall we assert positively that we have reached the ultimate
analysis, and may never hope to go any farther ? Obviously, so defi-
nite a statement would be unjustifiable, and no sane chemist would
venture to make it. The uncertainty of the subject may well be illus-
trated by a reference to chemical history. At the beginning of the
present century the alkalies and alkaline earths were thoxight to be
elements. They were not decomposable by any m^eans then known,
so that the supposition was perfectly fair. A very few years passed
away, the galvanic battery was brought into use, and presently it was
found that each of these bodies was a compound, containing a metal
united with oxygen. Perhaps a similar advance in our knowledge
may demonstrate the possibility of decomposing many of the sub-
stances now regarded as elementary. Such a discovery might work
in either one of three ways. It might largely increase the number of
supposed elements, by dividing each one into two or more new bodies.
It might reduce the number by proving that our elements were formed
by the union, in various proportions, of only a very few simpler sub-
stances, Or it might demonstrate the unity of matter, just as recent
science has demonstrated the unity of force, and give us only one true
element underlying all material forms. Such a culmination of our
knowledge would be grand, indeed !

The evidence, then, upon which we assert the elementary nature
of the fifty metals and thirteen non-metals, is very incomplete. On
this side of the question there is really no other important testimony,
save that just cited. Arguing from our present inability to decompose
certain bodies, we assume for convenience that they are indecom-
' posable. Now^ let us see what there is in favor of the opposite view.

One of the first things learned by the student in chemistry is, that
the so-called elements are readily classifiable into a few natural groups.

ARE THE ELEMENTS ELEMENTARY ? 465

The members of any one of these groups resemble each other chemi-
cally in the closest manner, forming compounds of strong similarity,
and often are very much alike in their physical properties also. The
thought at once arises, Can these elements be totally distinct from
each other — have they nothing in common — are these resemblances
only due to chance ? Such a supposition could scarcely be admitted,
since Science excludes chance from her list of natural agencies. These
relationships must mean something — but what ?

If we look beyond the points of similarity to the points of differ-
ence between related elements, we shall find that these too are sub-
ject to regularity. The members of a group vary from each other,
not in a meaningless, helter-skelter way, but systematically, so that
they may be arranged in regular series. Take, for example, the group
formed by the strikingly similar metals, calcium, strontium, and ba-
rium. If, now, we compare these with reference to any physical proj)-
erty, we shall find that strontium will always be between the other
two. It is heavier than calcium and lighter than barium ; and the
same thing holds true of strontium compounds when compared with
the corresponding compounds of its two associates. The integrity
of the series is perfect ; for in no case can the middle member be
placed either at the beginning or the end. The nitrogen group is even
more remarkable. Arranging its recognized members in the order of
their atomic weight, they are as follows : nitrogen, phosphorus, arse-
nic, antimony, and bismuth. The first of these elements is gaseous at
all known temperatures ; phosphorus is a solid, but easily convertible
into a gas by heat ; arsenic is a denser body still, and less readily va-
porized ; antimony follows in regular order; and finally, bismuth,
the heaviest of the series, can be distilled only with considerable dif-
ficulty. Here, then, is a gradation both in specific, gravity and in
boiling-point, the lowest member of the group, in each of these par-
ticulars, being that with the lowest atomic weight ; and the reverse.
If we ascend from these elements to their compounds, we shall also
notice some curious chemical regularities. Each member of the group
unites wdth oxygen to form a pentoxide, from which an acid may be
derived. Compare, now, these five acids : nitric is very strong, and
violently corrosive ; phosphoric is a little weaker, and acts much less
vigorously ; arsenic is feebler still ; antimonic is extremely weak ;
and the corresponding bismuth compound is just barely recognizable
as being an acid at all. Can these regular gradations be purely acci-
dental and meaningless ?

Examples like these might be adduced almost indefinitely. Series
after series could be brought forward, all illustrating the same principle.
Exceptions occur now and then, but they are so few that for present
purposes they may be disregarded. Of course they mean something,
but they are neither sufficiently abundant nor important enough to
affect our arguments. The regularities are so numerous and so re-
VOL. vin. — 30

466 THi: POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

raarkable as to outweigh many times over all seeming variations. All
this evidence is, however, inadequate in one respect : the relations
thus far pointed out cannot be simply expressed in figures. Are there,
then, any numerical relations connecting tlie elements ? This question
may be answered, partly by studying their atomic weights, and partly
by an examination of their specific volumes.

The regularities which connect the elementary atomic weights
have been examined and discussed by many investigators from widely
differing points of view. Some chemists have contented themselves
with the naked facts ; others have considered the bearing of those
facts upon chemical theories ; and a third class, with less caution than
ignorance, have speculated upon them in the wildest and most reck-
less manner. Of course a full summary of the whole subject, however
interesting it might prove, would be out of place in a condensed argu-
ment like this. All we can do here is to glance at a few of the many
relations known, and afterward consider them in their connection with
our main subject. The general reader who cares to go deeper into
the question will do well to consult the original papers of Dumas,
Gladstone, J. P. Cooke, Kremers, Mendelejeff, and others.

Of the relations now under consideration, the one most frequently
cited is as follows : Many elements are most naturally arranged in
threes, of which the middle member has an atomic weight very nearly
a mean between the atomic weights of the other two. Thus we have
calcium, atomic weight, 40 ; strontium, 87.5 ; and barium, 137. Here, if
the value of strontium were 88.5, it would be an exact mean. Again,
chlorine has the atomic weight 35.5 ; bromine, 80 ; and iodine, 127 ; the
second being almost precisely midway between the first and third. A
still closer agreement with theory is furnished by lithium, sodium, and
potassium, whose values are respectively 7, 23, and 39.1. A fourth
example is afforded by potassium, 39.1 ; rubidium, 85.4; and caesium,
133 ; while a fifth case is offered by phosphorus, 31 ; arsenic, 75 ; and
antimony, 122. To be sure, these illustrations afford only an approxi-
mation to regularity ; but then the variations are themselves some-
what regular. In each of these twos the middle term is just a little
too low to be an absolute mean between its associates ; that is, the
variations from theory are all in one direction. It is hardly possible
at present to say whether this means anything, or is only ascribable
to accident. One more example of regularity among atomic weights
is worth noting, namely, the relation which connects the members of
the oxygen group. Here we have oxygen, 16 ; sulphur, 32 ; selenium,
79.5 ; and tellurium, 128. These higher numbers are simple multiples
of the lowest ; there being only a variation of half a unit (minus) in
the case of selenium. Since these elements are very similar in their
chemical relations, this regularity is extremely significant. Can it be
due to chance, and void of real meanins;'?

But all these relations ^iroye nothing — they merely suggest. Stand-

ARE THE ELEMENTS ELEMENTARY ? 467

ing by themselves they would signify comparatively little ; but con-
sidered with other analogous evidence they help to found an almost
overwhelming argument. The concurrent testimony supplied by the
specific or atomic volumes of the elements is particularly strong.

The specific volume of any substance is the quotient obtained upon
dividing its atomic weight by its specific gravity. This value may be
supposed to represent the volume of an atom of the substance plus the
sphere of unoccupied space immediately surrounding and belonging to
it. Leaving theoretical definitions out of account, however, we shall
find, upon comparing the specific volumes of solid and liquid sub-
stances, many extraordinary relations. Often, all the members of an
elementary group have equal values. This is the case with the closely-
related metals platinum, iridium, osmium, palladium, rhodium, and
ruthenium. They have difi'erent atomic weights and difierent specific
gravities ; yet the quotient obtained upon dividing the former by the
latter is the same in every instance. The same thing holds good of
the group formed by iron, cobalt, nickel, chromium, manganese, cop-
per, and perhaps also uranium. Here the regularity extends even
beyond the elements themselves, for their corresponding compounds
have, Vv'ith few exceptions, equal specific volumes also. An altogether
different, but on tlie whole more remarkable, relation is furnished by
the alkaline metals lithium, sodium, potassium, and rubidium; whose
sj)ecific volumes are respectively 11.9, 23. 7, 45.1, and 56.2. These
values are almost exactly multiples of the first, standing to it in the
ratio of 1 : 2 : 4 : 5. The slight variations from accuracy in this case
are very far within the limits of experimental error. Almost as re-
markable multiple relations are found in several other series, and
apply not only to the specific volumes of the solid elements, but to
their values in liquid compounds also. Closely connected with this
subject is that of crystallyie form. As a general, though not invari-
able rule, elements having equal specific volumes are isomorphous ;
that is, crystallize alike ; a fact which may be extended to a very large
number of compound sei'ies as well.

It would be easy to go on to almost an indefinite extent multiply-
ing examples of relationship between the elements. There is hardly
any set of physical properties which may not be made to emphasize
the idea that these substances are internally related. Take, for exam-
ple, their specific heats, which, multiplied by their atomic weights,
give a constant quantity in the neighborhood of 6.3. That is, accord-
ing to the law of Dulong and Petit, all elementary atoms have equal
capacities for heat. But space is limited, so that we must omit the
consideration of many important facts, and pass to the theoretical dis-
cussion of those already cited. All this evidence suggests quite em-
phatically that the elements are not totally distinct and independent
bodies. Are they, then, compounds formed from a few simple sub-
stances, or are they modifications of but one primal matter ? Strong

468 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

arguments may be adduced in favor of either view, although neither
can be yet demonstrated.

The idea that a very few true elements, uniting together in a vari-
ety of proportions, may give rise to all the bodies which we now look
upon as elementary, derives perhaps its strongest support from an
analogy pointed out by Prof. Cooke something like twenty years ago.
He first called attention to the many serial relations which connect
the members of any elementary group, and then showed how much
these groups resemble the homologous series of organic chemistry. In
such a series we have a number of compounds each diflering from its
immediate predecessor in a very definite way. Thus, in the series of
alcohol radicles, we have first the hydrocarbon methyl. Adding to
this an atom of carbon and two of hydrogen, we get the second mem-
ber of the series ; the third is formed by the same addition to the
second, the fourth similarly derived from the third, and so on. The
difterence between the molecular weights of any two successive mem-
bers in this series is always the same. Just so in some groups of ele-
ments, as we have already seen. The atomic weight of lithium is
seven, add sixteen and we get that of sodium, while another increase
of sixteen gives the value of potassium. Again, the atomic weight of
sulphur is that of oxygen plus sixteen ; three times sixteen more brings
us to selenium, and another forty-eight reaches the equivalent of tel-
lurium. Here certain multiples of sixteen are missing ; do they cor-
resj^ond to the atomic weights of undiscovered elements ? Such a
speculation is curious, but not very profitable.

The analogy, then, between the groups of elements and the homol-
ogous series of organic compounds is quite striking, although it may
not be very precise. Hence Cooke suggested that, if the elements
were compounds, their resemblances might be explained by supposing
them to form series like the hydrocarbons, yi which bodies of similar
constitution are akin in general properties. Now, this conception was
certainly very brilliant, and rendered intelligible many important facts
which before it were unclassified. It did not, however, suggest the
possible unity of matter, but merely put the ultimate question regard-
ing the nature of the elements a step farther back. Instead of many,
it gave us the idea of few elementary bodies ; why and how these
diflered were yet to be found out. Prof. Cooke was, fortunately, too
cautious a chemist to put forwaid views of this sort dogmatically ;
he did not offer a theory even ; he only made suggestions to be taken
later at their true value, whatever that might be.

The other side of the question, that of the unity of matter, has
been worked up by several chemists in a variety of ways. Some have
studied the plienomena of crystallization and drawn their conclusions
therefrom ; others have taken up the subject from a dynamical point
of view. Given atoms of one kind only, how to arrange these in dif-
ferent aggregations so as to present all the phenomena offered by our

ARE THE ELEMENTS ELEMENTARY? 469

supf)Osed elements in their relations to the various modes of energy?
Perliaps in the discussion of this problem Gustavus Hiurichs would
stand first. His conclusions may be easily questioned, but the ability
and ingenuity displayed in reaching them cannot be denied.

To the general reader, or to the beginner in chemistry, the difficul-
ties confronting the unitary view of matter may seem to be very great.
Doubtless they are ; but then every side of the subject is beset with
difficulties. Obstacles must be surmounted, and the worst are not in
this direction. The mind unused to speculations of this sort will prob-
ably encounter its greatest embarrassment in trying to understand
how oue substance alone can assume such a diversity of forms. That
such a thing is within the limits of possibility, may be illustrated by
reference to the facts of allotropy and isomerism. Quite a number of
our present elements are known to be capable of existing in a variety
of dissimilar modifications. Carbon is found as charcoal, graphite,
and diamond ; phosphorus exists both in its white and in its red modi-
fications ; oxygen is allotropic as ozone. Similar examples are fur-
nished by arsenic, selenium, and, very notably, by sulpliur. Among
compounds, especially in organic chemistry, many cases occur in which
several different bodies have precisely the same elementary composi-
tion. For instance, the essential oils of rose, bergamot, orange, lemon,
lavender, turpentine, rosemary, nutmegs, myrtle, peppermint, etc.,
unlike as they may be in outward properties, are all composed of car-
bon and hydrogen in exactly the same percentages. The same atoms
occur, but differently arranged. Many other sets of isomeric bodies
are known in which this diversity of atomic arrangement can be dis-
tinctly traced, and the reasons for difference clearly pointed out. The
limitations of space prevent their description here.

Now, since a single element may exist in several different forms,
and since the same atoms can unite together so as to produce com-
pounds very unlike each other, the chief objection to the unitary view
is removed. Why may not all the so-called elements be allotropic
modifications of one, or else isomeric bodies formed by the union of
two or three such modifications ? Such a supposition is by no mea'ns
absurd, although, to be sure, it is not capable of rigid demonstration.
It is only a speculation, but then within it are some fair probabilities.
These may be strengthened by an appeal to spectroscopic evidence,
and to the prevalent hypothesis concerning the origin of our planet.

If we examine the spectra of our supposed elements, we shall no-
tice no more striking fact than the extent to which they differ in com-
plexity. Some bodies give spectra of only one or two lines, while
others are represented by hundreds. This atom emits light of a sin-
gle wave-length, that one gives out rays of nearly half a thousand
different kinds. Now, what do these facts mean ? Do they indicate
structural differences within molecules such that each bright line in a
spectrum corresponds to a true element ? Such a notion, if true,

470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

would lead to an alarming multiplication of elementary bodies, in-
creasing our present confusion to an indefinite extent. If every pos-
sible wave-length of light represented a special element, the num-
ber of elements would be infinite. Clearly, then, this speculation,
although frequently suggested, has very little to recommend it, and
need not be entertained. Still, the fact of varying complexity among
the elementary spectra remains to be accounted for. It certainly sug-
gests a corresponding difference of complexity among the elements
themselves, but of what nature ? This question can hardly be an-
swered directly, although it admits of interesting discussion, for
which, unfortunately, we have little space to spare. Suffice it to say
that spectroscopic phenomena are quite in harmony with the idea
that all matter is at bottom one, our supposed atoms being really vari-
ous aggregations of the same fundamental unit. It is approximately
true that the simpler spectra are furnished by the elements of low
atomic weight, while the multitudes of lines come from the heavier
atoms. There are prominent exceptions to this rule, still it affords
some support to our central idea.

But the spectroscope makes its most emphatic suggestions in favor
of the unity of matter when it is applied to the study of the heavenly
bodies. This subject I discussed in The Popular Science Monthly
for January, 1873, and some months later Lockyer gave it prominence
in England, his paper calling forth a good deal of comment. There-
fore, only a brief resnyne of my original suggestions is desirable now.

Everybody knows that the nebular hypothesis, as it is to-day,
draws its strongest support from spectroscopic facts. There shine
the nebulae in the heavens, and the spectroscope tells us what tliey
really are, namely, vast clouds of incandescent gas, mainly, if not
entirely, hydrogen and nitrogen. If we attempt to trace the chain
of evolution through which our planet is supposed to have grown, we
shall find the sky is full of intermediate forms. The nebuloe them-
selves appear to be in various stages of development ; the fixed stars
or suns differ widely in chemical constitution and in temperature ; our
earth is most complex of all. There are no " missing links " such as
the zoologist longs to discover when he tries to explain the origin of
species. First, we have a nebula containing little more than hydro-
gen ; then a very hot star with calcium, magnesium, and one or two
other metals added ; next comes a cooler sun in which free hydrogen
is missing, but whose chemical complexity is much increased ; at last
we reach the true planets with their multitudes of material forms.
Could there well be a more straightforward story ? Could the unity
of creation receive a much more ringing emphasis ? We see the evo-
lution of planets from ncbula3 still going on, and parallel with it an
evolution of higher from lower kinds of matter.

Just here, perhaps, is the key to the whole subject. If the ele-
ments are all in essence one, how could their many forms originate

THE NATURE OF FLUORESCENCE. 471

save by a process of evolution upward ? How could their numerous
relations with each other, and their regular serial arrangements into
groups, be better explained ? In this, as in other problems, the hy-
potliesis of evolution is the simplest, most natural, and best in accord-
ance with facts. Toward it all the lines of argument presented in
this article converge. Atomic weights, specific volumes, and spectra,
all unite in telling the same story, that our many elements have been
derived from simpler stock.

I know that all this is only speculation, but surely it is not base-
less. Science is constantly reaching forward from the known to the
unknown, partly by careful experiment, and partly by the prophetic
vision of thought. It first discovers facts, and then seeks to interpret
them, although oftentimes the interpretation is not capable of abso-
lute proof. So with the material of this article. We have seen that
many relations connect in some mysterious way those bodies which
we commonly regard as simple, and we have sought to determine
their meaning. What can they mean, save that the elements are not
elementary ? How could the elements have originated but by a pro-
<5ess of evolution ?

THE NATUKE OF FLUORESCENCE/

By Dr. EUGENE LOMMEL,

PROFESSOK OF PHYSICS IN THE TJNIVEBSITY OF ERLANGEN.

THE question now arises. What becomes of the rays that have un-
dergone absorption ? Are they in lact, as they appear to be,
annihilated ? A series of phenomena now to be considered will give
ns an answer to these questions.

If water containing a little esculine, a substance contained in the
bark of the horse-chestnut in solution, be placed in a flask, and the
rays of the sun or of the electric lamp, con-
centrated by a lens situated at about its focal
distance from the vesel (Fig. 1), be directed
upon it, the cone of light thrown by the lens
into the interior of the fluid will be seen to
shine with a lovely sky-blue tint. The parti-
cles of the solution of esculine in the path of
the beam become spontaneously luaunous,^'**-^--^"^^™^™"'"'^'-^"'"^^"
and emit a soft blue light in all directions.

The cone of light appears brightest at the point Avhcre it enters into
the fluid through the glass, and quickly diminishes in brilliancy as it
penetrates more deeply.

There are great numbers of fluid and solid bodies which become

» From "The Nature of Light," No. XIX. of the " International Scientific Series."

472 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

similai-ly self-luminous under the influence of light. This peculiarity-
was first observed in a kind of spar occurring at Alston Moor, in Eng-
land, which, itself of a clear green color, appears by transmitted solar
light of a very beautiful indigo-violet color. From its occurrence in
calcium fluoride the phenomenon has been named ^?<orescewce.

In order to understand more precisely the circumstances under
which fluorescence occurs, the solution of esculine must again be re-
ferred to. The light, before it reaches the lens, must be allowed to
pass through just such another solution of esculine contained in a glass
cell with parallel walls. The cone of light proceeding from the lens,
as long as it passes through the air, does not appear to have under-
gone any material change, it is just as bright and just as white as
before. In the interior of the fluid, however, it no longer presents a
blue shimmer^ but becomes scarcely perceptible.

Thus it is seen that light which has traversed a solution of esculine
is no longer capable of exciting fluorescence in another solution of
esculine. Those rays consequently which possess this property must
be arrested by the first solution of esculine. Similar results are ob-
tained in the case of every other fluorescent substance.

The general proposition can therefore be laid down, that a body
capable of exhibiting fluorescence fluoresces by virtue of those rays
which it absorbs.

In order to determine what rays in particular cause the fluorescence
of esculine, the spectrum must be projected in the usual way ; but,
instead of its being received upon a paper screen, it must be allowed
to fall upon the wall of a glass cell containing a solution of esculine,
that is to say, upon the solution itself, and it must then he observed
in what parts of the spectrum the blue shimmer appears. The red
and all the other colors consecutively down to indigo appear to be
absolutely without efiect. The bluish shimmer first commences in
the neighborhood of the line G (Fig. 2), and covers not only the
violet part of the spectrum, but stretches far beyond the group of
lines Hto^L distance which is about equal to the length of the spec-
trum visible under ordinary circumstances.

From this the conclusion must be drawn that there are rays which
are still more refrangible than the violet, but which in the ordinary
mode of projecting the spectrum are invisible ; these are termed the
xdtra-violet rays. They become apparent in the esculine solution be-
cause they are capable of exciting the bluish fluorescent shimmer in
it. If sunlight have been used in the above experiments, the well-
known Fraunhofer's lines appear upon the bluish ground of the fluo-
rescing spectrum, not only from G to //, but the ultra-violet part also
appears filled with numerous lines, the most conspicuous of which are
indicated by the several letters L %o S (Fig. 2). That these lines,
like the ordinary Fraunhofer's lines, belong properly to solar light,
and do not depend upon any action of the fluorescing substance, is

THE NATURE OF FLUORESCENCE.

473

evident from tbe circumstance that with the electric light they are no
more apparent in the ultra-violet than in the other colors, and further,
because the same lines are seen in the solar spectrum, whatever may
be the fluorescing substance under examination.

Quartz has the power of transmitting the ultra-
violet rays far more completely than glass. If, there-
fore, the glass lens and prism hitherto used for pro-
jecting the spectrum be replaced by a quartz lens
and prism, the ultra-violet part of the spectrum is ren-
dered much brighter and is extended still farther than
before.

The ultra-violet rays of the spectrum can, more-
over, be seen, without the intervention of any fluor-
escing substance, through a glass, or, still better,
through a quartz prism, if the bright part of the
spectrum between.^ and ^ (Fig. 2) be carefully shut
ofi". With feeble illumination its color appears indigo-
blue, but wnth light of greater intensity it is of a
bluisli-gray tint (lavender). The ultra-violet rays thus
ordinarily escape observation, because they produce a
much feebler impression on the human eye than the
less refrangible rays between £ and H.

An explanation is thus aflbrded why the solution
of esculine, apart from its absorption, is colorless when
seen by transmitted light ; for, since it absorbs only
the feebly luminous violet and the entirely impercep-
tible ultra-violet rays, the mixed light that has passed
through it still appears white, and is not rendered ma-
terially fainter.

If the solar spectrum be thrown in the above-
mentioned manner upon the fluid, its fluorescing part
everywhere exhibits the same bluish shimmer ; and
spectroscopic examination shows that this bluish light has always the
same composition, whether it is excited by the G rays, or by the H
rays, or by the ultra-violet rays, and that it is formed of a mixture of
red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. It is thus seen that the dift'erent
kinds of homogeneous light, as far as they are generally effective, pro-
duce compound fluorescent light of identical composition, the con-
stituents of which, nevertheless, are collectively less refrangible thaiiy
or are at most equally refrangible toith, the exciting rays.

Among other fluorescing bodies may be mentioned the solution
of quinine, which is as clear as water, and has a bright-bhie fluores-
cence; the slightly yellow petroleum, with blue fluorescence; the
yellow solution of turmeric, with green ; and the bright-yellow glass
containing uranium, which fluoresces with beautiful bright-green fluor-
escence. It admits of easy demonstration that in these bodies also it is

474

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the more refrangible rays that call forth fluorescence. For, if we illu-
minate them with light which has passed through a red glass, no trace
of fluorescence is visible. But, if the red be exchanged for a blue glass,
the fluorescence becomes as strongly marked as Avith the direct solar
light. A remarkable phenomenon is presented in the splendid bright-
green light Avhich is emitted by uranium glass under the action of
blue illumination.

The highly-refrangible rays which possess in so high a degree the
power of exciting fluorescence are contained in large proportion in the
light emitted by a Geissler's tube filled with rarefied nitrogen. In
order to expose fluorescing fluids to the influence of this light, the ar-
rangement represented in Fig. 3 may be employed with advantage,
A narrow tiibe is surrounded by a wider glass tube, into which the
fluid is introduced by a side opening which can be closed if reqiiired.
Another form of Geissler's tube is represented in Fig. 4, which con-

Ficf. 3— Geisslee's Fluorescence Tcbe.

Fig. 4.— Geissleb's Tube with IlRANiuai
Glass Spheres.

tains in its interior a number of hollow spheres composed of uranium
glass. Where a beam of reddish violet nitrogen light traverses the
tube, the uranium glass balls shine with a beautiful bright-green fluo-

rescent light.

The electric light passing between carbon-points is rich in rays of
high rcfrangibility, indeed the ultra-violet end of its spectrum reaches
even farther than that of the solar spectrum. In the light of the mag-
nesium-lamp the ultra-violet rays are also abundant, and both sources

THE NATURE OF FLUORESCENCE.

475

of light are therefore particularly well adapted to produce fluorescence,
while gas and candle light are nearly inoperative on account of the
small amount of the more i-efrangible rays they contain.

It would nevertheless be incorrect to infer from the above facts
that the more refrangible rays are exclusively capable of exciting
fluorescence. Aredfluid whicli is an alcoholic solution of naphthaline
red, and which in ordinary daylight fluoresces with orange-yellow
tints of unusual brilliancy, will serve to demonstrate that even the
less refrangible rays are capable of producing this efiect. In fact, if
the sjDCCtruni be projected upon the glass cell containing the fluid
(Fig. 5), the yellow fluorescent light will be seen to commence at a
point intermediate to G and D^ and therefore still in the red, and to

FiQ. 5.— Absorption and Fluorescing Spectrum of Naphthaline Ked.

extend over the whole remaining spectrum as far as the ultra-violet.
The strongest fluorescence by far is shown behind the line JD in the
greenish-yellow rays. It then again diminishes, and becomes a sec-
ond time more marked between JE and b ; thence onward the fluo-
rescence becomes fainter, then increases again in the violet, and
gradually vanishes in the ultra-violet. In naphthaline red, therefore,
there are rays of low refrangibility, namely, the green-yellow rays be-
hind X>, by which its fluorescence is most powerfully excited.

The fluorescence spectrum received upon the fluid shows, as we
have already mentioned, three regions of stronger fluorescence, and
the absorption spectrum of naphthaline, which, by placing a small cell
filled with the solution in front of the slit, may be obtained upon a paper
screen, gives a key to the cause of this phenomenon. In this spectrum
Fig. 5 (1), a completely black band is visible in the green-yellow be-
hind Z), a dark band between E and J, while the violet end appears
shaded. On employing a very strong solution of the naphthaline col-
oring material, the whole spectrum vanishes with the exception of the
red end, which remains apparent to a point behind G. If now the
absorption spectrum be compared with that thrown upon the fluid,
the intimate relation between absorption and fluorescence that has
ah'eady been pointed out in the esculine solution is corroborated in
the minutest particulars. For every dark hand in the absorption spec-
trum coi'responds to a bright band in the ^fluorescing spectrum. Every
ray absorbed by the fluid occasions fluorescence, and the fluorescent

476 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

light produced is the brighter, the more completely the ray is ab-
sorbed.

A second example of the excitation of fluorescence by rays of small
refrangibility is exhibited by a solution of chlorophyll. The spectrum
projected upon this green fluid fluoresces of a dark-red color, from JS
to a point within the ultra-violet, exhibiting at the same time bright
bands which correspond with the dark bands in the absorption spec-
trum. Between JB and C, where the greatest amount of absorption
occurs, the fluorescence is also the most marked. But it is the middle
red rays which here act so powerfully as excitants. It is remarkable
that the red fluorescent light which the chlorophyll solution emits
likewise lies, in regard to its refrangibility, between _S and C. Chlo-
rophyll solution aftbrds a proof that all rays of the spectrum, with the
exception of the extreme red in front of ^, are capable of calling forth
fluorescence. Their capacity for doing so depends simply on the
power of absorption of the fluorescing substance. The most refrangi-
ble violet and ultra-violet rays are, however, characterized by the cir-
cumstance that they are capable of exciting all known fluorescing
bodies.

Fluorescent light is only perceived so long as the fluorescent sub-
stance is illuminated by the exciting rays. As soon as the light fall-
ing on it is obstructed, the colored shimmer vanishes. It is only in
the case of some fluorescing solid substances, as, for example, fluor-
spar and uraniiim glass, that, with the aid of appropriate apparatus
(Becquerel's phosphoriscope), a very short continuance of the fluores-
cence may be observed to take place in the dark.

There are, however, a number of bodies which, after being excited
to self-luminosity by a brilliant light, continue to shine for a certain
time in the dark. A series of pulverulent white substances, namely,
the sulphur compounds of calcium, strontium, and barium (which
should be kept in hermetically-sealed glass tubes), do not exhibit the
faintest light in a dark room. Moreover, if they be covered with a
yellow glass and illuminated with the light of a magnesium-lamp, they
remain as dark as before. But if the yellow be exchanged for the blue
glass, and the magnesium-light be allowed to play upon them for a
few seconds only, they emit in the dark a soft light, each powder hav-
ing its own proper tint of color. This power of shining in the dark
after having been exposed to the light is called phosphorescence. The
property is possessed in a high degree not only by the above-named
artificially-prepared substances, but by various minerals, as the dia-
mond, fluor-spar, and a variety of fluor-spar called chlorojjhane.

THE CONTROVERSY ON ACOUSTICAL RESEARCH. 477
THE CONTROYEKSY ON ACOUSTICAL EESEARCH.

TYNDALL ON SOUND.'

THE work of Prof. Tyndall on the philosophy of sound has won
for itself, in its former editions, the highest possible recognition
among scientific men, not only in England, but in other countries. A
little more than a year ago, the second edition of this book was trans-
lated into German under the special supervision of such eminent in-
vestigators as Helmholtz and Wiedemann. In the work before us we
have the third revision of the eminent professor's observations under
this head. In preparing it, he says, he has subjected the previous edi-
tion to a careful reexamination, and, in so doing, has " amended as far
as possible its defects of style and matter, and paid at the same time
respectful attention to the criticisms and suggestions which the former
editions called forth."

In the preface to this publication it is announced by Prof. Tyndall
that the new matter of greatest importance which has been introduced
into it is an account of an investigation which during the past two
years he has been conducting in connection with the Elder Brethren
of the Trinity House. It may not be known to all our readers that
what we call our Lighthouse Board at Washington is known in Eng-
land as " The Trinity House." The title carries us back to the era
when monasticism was prevalent in Europe. In its original charter,
the body was named "The Masters, Wardens, and Assistants of the
Guild, Fraternity, or Brotherhood of the most Glorious and Undivided
Trinity, and of St. Clement, in the Parish of Deptford Stroud, in the
County of Kent." In the year 1836, an act of Parliament vested in
this " Trinity House," as then constituted, the entire control of the
lighthouses of England and Wales, and gave it certain powers over
the lights in Scotland and Ireland. Prof. Tyndall appears to have
entered on his duties as " the scientific adviser " of the Elder Brethren
shortly after his return to England at the close of his lecturing tour in
the United States in the year 1873. In the seventh chapter of the
present volume, under the head of " Researches on the Acoustic Trans-
parency of the Atmosphere in Relation to the Question of Fog-Signal-
ing," he gives the processes and the results of some very interesting
observations which he has conducted under the patronage of the Brit-
ish Trinity House. The general results of these observations had
already transpired, but in the work before us they have received the
professor's definite statement side by side with a narrative of the re-
searches fi-om which they liave been deduced. It is to this portion of
the volume, containing " the new matter of greatest importance," that
we propose to confine our attention in this shoi't review.

' From the Nation of October 28, 1875.

478 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

The reader who turns to this seventh chapter will find that it
opens with an " introduction " professing to give " a summary of
existing knowledge " in the matter of fog-signaling. The writer
states that while the velocity of sound has formed the subject of re-
peated and refined experiments by the ablest philosophers, " the pub-
lication of Dr. Derham's celebrated paper in the ' Philosophical Trans-
actions ' for 1708 marks the latest systematic inquiry into the causes
which affect the hxtensity of sound in the atmosphere.'''' And, after
making this statement, the professor immediately adds as follows :
" Jointly with the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House, and as their
scientific adviser, I have recently had the honor of conducting an in-
quiry designed to fill the blank here indicated.'''' In order still further
to impress on the reader a sense of the magnitude of this " blank,"
Dr. Tyndall indulges in one or two preliminary references which, he
says, " will sufiice to show the state of the question when this [his]
investigation began." The first of these references cites the opinion
of Sir John Herschel to the efiect that fogs and falling rain, and more
especially snow, had been found by Derham " to tend powerfully to
obstruct the propagation of sound." The second of his references is
made to what he calls "a very clear and able letter " addressed by
Dr. Robinson, of Armagh, to the British Board of Trade in 1863. In
this " very clear and able letter " Dr. Robinson states that sound is
the only known means for coping with fogs, but about it, he adds,
" the testimonies are conflicting, and there is scarcely one fact relating
to its use as a signal lohich can he considered as established.'''' But
Dr. Robinson is clear on one point — to wit, that " fog is a powerful
damper of sound."

On the strength of these historical references. Dr. Tyndall ven-
tures the remark that, prior to the investigation conducted by him,
the views enunciated i;nder this head by Derham, Herschel, and Rob-
inson, " wei'e those universally entertained." It was in order to fill
" the blank " indicated by the universal prevalence of such erroneous
opinions that his inquiry, he says, was set on foot. And his inquiry,
he tells us, was begun May 19, 1873.

Now, it is a matter, not only of scientific knowledge, but of pub-
lic notoriety in this country, that extensive researches on " the causes
which afiect the intensity of sound in the atmosphere " had been
made by the United States Lighthouse Board long before Prof.
Tyndall began his investigations. That he should have chosen to
ignore the fact in the body of his present volume becomes only the
more surprising when, on turning to its preface, we find that be was,
as he confesses, " quite aware in a general way that labors, like those
now for the first time made public, had been conducted in the United
States," and " this knowledge," he subjoins, " was not without influ-
ence upon my conduct." If his knowledge of the similar labcj's con-
ducted under this head in the United States was not, as he acknowl-

THE CONTROVERSY ON ACOUSTICAL RESEARCH. 479

edges, without influence on his conduct in giving direction to his
researches, it will naturally occur to ordinary minds that this knowl-
edge should also have been "• not without influence " on his pen when
he was professing to give a summary of the existing state of science
on this subject. And when to this statement of the case, as acknowl-
edged by himself, Ave add that he was made acquainted with the
nature and purport of Prof Henry's explorations on this question, not
only " in a general way," but also in a very special way, it becomes
still more inexplicable that, in defining " the blank " which he claims
to have filled by his recent inquiry, he should have disregarded the
labors and results of American science, and that, too, while profiting
by the instruments and methods of that science in the very conduct
of his investigations. The reader will understand the force of our
remark that Prof. Tyndall was acquainted with the researches of Prof.
Henry, not only " in a general way," but also in a special way, when
we state that a paper by the latter — on the abnormal phenomena of
sound in relation to fog-signaling — was read by its author in the
hearing of Prof. Tyndall at a meeting of the Washington Philosophi-
cal Society, called for the purpose of doing honor to the British sa-
vant wliile he was sojourning in the national capital. And the force
of our remark that he has ignored the results of American science in
magnifying " the blank" which he describes, while profiting by the in-
struments and methods of that science in conducting his inquiry, will
be understood wiien we say that the researches of Prof. Tyndall Avere
prosecuted with the help of a steam-siren, gratuitously lent to him by
the Lighthouse Board at Washington, constructed and patented by
a citizen of Mew York, and introduced by Prof. Henry into the light-
house system of the United States.

We are now prepared for the next stage of this review. It so
happened that while Prof. Tyndall was conducting his researches on
sound in relation to fog-signaling, an officer of the United States Corps
of Engineers, Major Elliot, had been deputed by the Lighthouse
Board at Washington to make a tour of inspection in Europe, with
instructions to report upon matters relative to lighthouse apparatus
and the management of lighthouse systems. Major Elliot reached
London a few days before Prof. Tyndall began his experiments at
Dover, and was courteously invited to be present, but for want of
time was compelled to forego the privilege. The results of the Eng-
lish experiments were, however, subsequently communicated to Major
Elliot by Sir Frederick Arrow, the Deputy Master of Trinity House
(who, we are sorry to say, has since deceased), and were embodied in
his report on the " European Lighthouse Systems," as recently pub-
lished. The publication of Major Elliot's report was accompanied, in
the annual report of the United States Lighthouse Board for the
year 1874, with the following observations :

*' Major Elliot gives a detailed account of a late sei'ies of experinients by the

48 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Trinity House Board on fog-signals. Now, although this account is interesting
in itself to the public generally, yet, being addressed to the Lighthouse Board
of the United States, it would tend to convey the idea that the facts which it
states were new to the board, and that the latter had obtained no results of a
similar kind ; while a reference to the Appendix to this report will show that the
researches of our Lighthouse Board have been much more extensive on this sub-
ject than those of the Trinity House, and that the latter has established no facts
of practical importance which had not previously been observed and used by the
former.''''

The " Appendix " here referred to is from the pen of Prof. Henry,
the chairman of the board, and details elaborate experiments on
sound in relation to fog-signaling, as pursued in the service of the
United States Lighthouse Board since the year 1855. Brought to
book by this " Appendix," Prof. Tyndall asks his readers, in the pref-
ace of the jjresent edition of his volume, to bear in mind that " the
Washington Appendix was published nearly a year after his [my] re-
2)ort to the Trinity House." But in so writing it seems to have es-
caped his notice that in a subsequent part of this same preface he has
confessed that he was "quite aware in a general way " that labors
like his own had been conducted in the United States, and that " tJds
knowledge was not tolthout influence on his conduct.''^ And in so writ-
ing he forgets, too, that he was an interested listener to the paper read
by Prof. Henry on this subject in his hearing while he was in the
United States, and before he had turned any attention at all to the
phenomena of sound in connection with fog-signals. He states in the
body of his book, as already mentioned, that his inquiry under this
head began on May 19, 18V3, several months after his "general"
and his special knowledge of what had been accomplished in this
country. And yet, in the face of all these facts and acknowledgments
he has allowed his " summary of existing knowledge " on the subject
to stand without any recognition of American science in the premises
— a suppression which does as little credit to his scientific generosity
as to his litei'ary art, for he can be convicted of delinquency in re-
spect of the former by the inconsistency of statement into which he
has fallen through a want of dexterity in the latter.

We may, therefore, safely leave the acknowledged record to sub;
stantiate the claims of the United States Lighthouse Board when
they represent that their researches, running through many years,
" are much more extensive on this subject than those of the Trinity
House." It remains for us only to consider the second branch of their
representation — namely, that the latter (the Trinity House) " has
established no facts of practical importatice which had not been pre-
viously observed and used by the former (the United States Light-
house Board)." In support of this statement we may point to the
fact that Prof. Tyndall nowhere pretends to have established by his
researches any improvements whatsoever on the methods or instru-

THE CONTROVERSY ON ACOUSTICAL RESEARCH. 481

raents of fog-signaling as practised in tlie United States. On the
contrary, he acknowledges that in the choice of fog-signals for Brit-
ish use his " strongest recommendation applies to an instrument for
which we are indebted to the United States." He will remember,
moreover, that while he was sojourning in the United States he
souglit and obtained opportunities from Prof. Henry to observe the
operation of the steam-siren in the lighthouse at Sandy Hook. At
that time, if not before, he was made acquainted with the progress
not only of American science but also of American art under this
head. And in view of the fact that, as the " scientific adviser " of
the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House, he has counseled them to
discard their English horns and whistles and to substitute for them
the steam-sirens which have been, for several years, in the use of our
American lighthouses, it would seem that the second branch of the
claim advanced by the board at Washington stands in as little need
as the first of any additional reenforcement at our hands. Bacon re-
joiced in the fact that his philosophy was a philosophy which brought
forth fruit in the service of man. The progress of American science
in this department has been constantly bearing fresh fruit in the
interests of commerce and for the relief of the mariner. DaboU's
trumpet, an American invention, came to supersede the use of gongs,
and bells, and horns, and guns. To-day the steam-siren, an instru-
ment devised and perfected under the direction of the United States
Lighthouse Board, is acknowledged to be without a rival as an effi-
cient foor-signal.

It is no part of our present purpose to institute a critical inquiry
into the conflicting views of Prof. Henry and of Prof, Tyndall with
regard to the hypotheses respectively espoused by each for the ex-
planation of the phenomena of sound in its passage through wide
tracts of air. Prof. Henry believes that the direction and the rate of
wind-currents are important elements in the problems presented by
the phenomena in question. Prof. Tyndall admits that " the well-
known eflect of the wind is exceedingly difficult to explain," but he
insists on making up the fagot of his scientific opinions on the subject
at once and foi'ever without taking the " viewless winds " into his
apcount. He finds a sufficient explanation of all the abnormal phe-
nomena in the assumption of ideal clouds of vapor mingling with the
atmosphere so as to disturb its homogeneity, and thereby to quench
the body of sound. There is nothing in the working hypothesis of
Prof. Henry which excludes any truth there may be in the working
hypothesis of Prof. Tyndall. But, in the present provisional state of
his inquiries on the subject, the former is disposed to question the
sufficiency of the explanation adduced by the latter as an efficient
cause of all the phenomena in question. With the modesty and re-
serve of the true physical philosopher, in the present unfinished state
of scientific inquiry. Prof. Henry waits for the wider knowledge which

VOL. VIII. — 31

482 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

>
shall furnish the basis of an assured induction meeting all the require-
ments of the problem.

Prof. Tyndall, however, is imjjatient of any contradiction. He ad-
mits that he has not verified the effect of wind-currents "by means of
a captive balloon rising high enough to catch the deflected wave," but
none the less he ventures to propound his hypothesis as the last word
of science in the premises. Indeed, he takes great credit to himself
for having been able to rise above "the authority " of Prof. Henry in
this investigation. He says that in one of his "phases of thought"
on the question he passed through the solution " which Prof. Henry
now oiFers for acceptation," " weighed it in the balance," and " found
it wanting." And, as if this language were not supercilious enough,
he proceeds to indulge in the following self-complacent reflections :

" But though it [Prof. Henry's solution of ocean-echoes] thus deflected me
from the proper track, shall I say that authority in science is injurious'? Not
without some qualification. It is not only injurious, but deadly, when it cows
the intellect into fear of questioning it. But the authority which so merits our
respect as to compel us to test aiid overthroio all its supports, before accepting a
conclusion opposed to it, is not wholly noxious. On the contrary, the disci-
plines it imposes may be in the highest degree salutary, though they may end, as
in the present case, in the ruin of authority.''''

It is impossible to conceive of language more expressive of vanity,
conceit, and arrogance, than this ascription of intellectual superiority
to which Prof. Tyndall treats himself on the assumption that he has
laid " the authority " of Prof. Henry in " ruins " upon the question of
atmospheric sound. At no time and in no place has Prof. Henry as-
sumed to speak " by authority " on the subject. The man of straw
whom Tyndall sets up under cover of Henry's name, in order to ex-
hibit upon it the strength and prowess of his intellectual muscle, is a
cheap device of rhetoric which a much inferior man might have dis-
dained to employ in a case like this. The cause of science does not
profit by the self-laudation of its votaries, and Prof. Tyndall's i:)raises
are in the mouths of too many people to render it necessary for him to
praise himself at the expense of Prof. Henry or of anybody else.

REPLY OF PROFESSOR TYNDALL.^

To the Editor of the Nation.

Sir : I have been favored with a copy of the Nation of October
8th, and would ask permission to make a few remarks on the critique
of my work on " Sound " therein contained.

With regard to Prof. Henry, I hope I am not presumptuous in
venturing the opinion, and expressing the belief, that his earlier scien-
tific labors were marked by rare power and originality, and that his
later years have been usefully and honorably employed in the service
'From the Nation of December 23, 1875.

THE CONTROVERSY ON ACOUSTICAL RESEARCH. 483

of his country. Such, if I dare say so, are the sentiments which I
have ever expressed regarding Prof. Henry here and elsewhere.

When I first learned that he was in danger of falling into what I
considered to he grave scientific error, I went as far as friendliness
dared go to avert it. I addressed to him a private letter, in which I
tried to impress upon him the completeness and conclusiveness of the
evidence which he seemed disposed to call in question. He did not
honor that letter with any notice, preferring to discuss the subject
publicly in the " Report of the Washington Lighthouse Board." He
was clearly within his right in doing so ; but I submit that I only
exercised my right when I met him on ground thus chosen by
himself.

No English gentleman that I have consulted can discern in what
I have written any violation of the dignity of scientific debate ; but
your article would lead to the inference that I had both violated com-
mon honesty and taken leave of common-sense. I will not quote your
words, because I cherish the hope that when you have reflected on
them you will regret them. When I say "you," I mean the editor of
the Nation^ whose acquaintance I had the honor to make, and whose
kindness I had the privilege to experience, in New York — I do not
mean the writer of the article. Let me respectfully assure you, then,
that, Avhen I spoke of being " deflected by authority," " Prof.
Henry's solution of ocean-echoes " was not at all in my mind, nor his
" ruin," partial or total, in my calculations. Consider, I pray you, how
impossible it is that this could have been the case. The " deflection"
spoken of is expressly described as occurring at the outset of an inves-
tigation begun in May, 1873, whereas the Washington report contain-
ing Prof. Henry'' s solution of ocean-echoes is the report for 1874,
which did not reach Europe until the spring of 1875. This, then, is
the crumbling foundation on which your critic builds his odious
charge. In verity, the remark on which he pours his peroratory
invective w'as not meant for " laudation " of any kind, but merely to
show the "polar" character of authority — its good side and its bad.

It is easy, as you know, Mr. Editor, to sneer and to assail ; but
less easy to show, without going into details not worth the labor, that
the sneer is unmeaning, and the assault unfair. Nevertheless, the
broad lines on which, in the present instance, I would meet my anony-
mous assailant may, I think, be made clear. He industriously mixes
together things which ought to be kept apart — experiments on fog-
signals and inquiries into " the causes which afliect the transmission
of sound through the atmosphere." The " blank " which I proposed
to fill is stated, with unmistakable clearness, to have reference solely
to such " causes." Neither Herschel nor Robinson, as far as I know,
ever made an experiment on fog-signals ; still I quote them. Why ?
Because they are the most eminent and authoritative exponents of
the theories of acoustic opacity which up to last year were entertained

484 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

by the highest scientific minds. Theirs, moreover, and Arago's (not
Prof. Henry's), was the " authority " which " deflected " me at first.
Apart from the wind, the " causes " of acoustic opacity indorsed by
these eminent men were rain, hail, snow, haze, and fog — everything, in
short, that afiected the optical clearness of the atmosphere. Prior
to the South Foreland investigation, where, I would ask, is a " sys-
tematic inquiry " into these causes to be found ? Surely, if such an
inquiry has been published, it can be courteously pointed out and
calmly discussed. If you can prove its existence you will have the
right to demand from me the very fullest apology and reparation for
stating that " no such systematic inquiry had to my knowledge been
made." Even then I could not charge myself with untruth ; for my
" knowledge " was, and is, arithmetically what I have afiirmed it to
be ; but I can confess ignorance and express regret.

Give me your patience while I endeavor still further to make this
matter clear. As regards the invention of instruments and their prac-
tical establishment as fog-signals, so far was my knowledge behind
" the science of the United States," that I had never seen or heard
one of those great steam-whistles until I met them at the South Fore-
land. The common "siren" is well known to have been a familiar
instrument with me, but the fog-signal I first saw and heard upon its
native soil in America — npt, however, as your critic puts it, but at the
request, twice repeated, of Prof. Henry. Further, to the best of
my recollection, prior to the month of May, 1873, I had only heard
one or two experimental blasts from a fog-trumpet. In such work,
then, I had neither part nor lot ; and, if you will permit me to say so,
though it is of the utmost practical value, I should hardly label such
work with the name of " science." Quite apart from those practical
achievements lies the inquiry into "the causes which afiect the trans-
mission of sound thi"ough the atmosphere." And, if I except the sa-
gacious remark of General Duane which has been so curtly brushed
aside, not a scintilla of light has been cast upon these causes by any
researches ever published by the Lighthouse Board of Washington.

Will you allow me to say, in passing, that Major Elliot, the able
and conscientious ofiicer whose excellent " Report on the Lighthouses
of Europe " was so displeasing to the board, did accept the invitation
to Dover, and that to the present hour I feel indebted to him for the
information and advice given to me at the time ?

Upon my " conduct" and the knowledge which "influenced" it,
your critic rings the changes of his wit. It is, after all, a very simple
and straightforward matter. The "conduct" consisted in my em-
phatic advice to the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House not to con-
fine themselves to home-made apparatus, but to include American ones
in their inquiry. The subsequent trial led to the abandonment of the
English instruments, and the adoj^tion of others from Canada and the
United States. The siren^ for example — which your critic erroneous-

THE CONTROVERSY ON ACOUSTICAL RESEARCH, 485

ly says was lent "gratuitously" to me^ — was paid for in February,
1874, and two others are at this moment on their way from New York
to England. Both by word and deed have we acknowledged our real
obligations to the United States ; but what we did not and could not
acknowledge (for it was non-existent) was, any solution of the conflict-
ing and anomalous results obtained with these fog-signals — results so
conflicting and so anomalous as to cause reflecting minds to entertain
doubts as to the capacity of the observers. Apart from the friend-
ship shown to me at the time, all that I remember of the meeting at
Washington, to which your critic refers, is the utter perplexity of
everybody present, myself included, in regard to the matter in hand.
I had my guess — others had theirs ; but we were quite at sea in our
guesses, without a signal to guide us through the intellectual fog.

Knowing, indeed, the difliculty of the subject, when its investiga-
tion was first proposed to me by the Elder Brethren, I shrank (as
Faraday had done before me) from a work of such obvious labor and
such uncertain scientitic promise. Doggedly, however, we attacked
it, determined to go through the mechanical processes already fol-
lowed by others, even if they led, as regards science, to an equally
barren result. Out of the darkness at length came the dawn. We
prolonged our investigations until they embraced every agent, save
one, to which influence had been previously ascribed. The exception
was snow. This, however, was directly met by observations made
upon the Mer de Glace in the bitter winter of 1859, and which have
been entirely confirmed by the later observations of General Duane.
Having negatived antecedent theories, we wrought our way positively
to the basis of the whole question. This we found in a cloud-world,
invisible to the eye of sense, but as visible and certain to the mental
eye as the ordinary cloud-world of our atmosphere. The lights and
shadows of these " acoustic clouds " — the action of which must, at one
time or another, have been noticed by every peasant within range of
a peal of bells — sufiiced to account for the most astounding variations
of intensity. This, I say, has been established, not only by patient
and long-continued observations afloat, but by laboratory experiments
as indubitable as any within the range of physical science.

And, let me add, it was neither whistles nor trumpets, nor yet the
siren, which pointed out the way to this solution, but experiments
with guns ably served by artillerymen from Dover Castle.

I will not make any further draft upon your generosity, though,
were it worth while to do so, other fallacies of fact and logic in your
critic's article miglit be exposed. He says, or intimates, for example,
that I became " adviser " to the Trinity House after my " lecturing
tour in the United States in 1873." I relieved Michael Faraday of
this duty in May, 1866. My friends in New York have already had

^ It was lent to the Trinity House Corporation ; and I expressly signalize the lending
aa "an act of international courtesy worthy of imitation."

486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to disperse other delusions regarding the "profits" of that "tour."
Such statements are credible to the mean, incredible to the high-
minded, and were therefore never thought worthy of refutation by
me. And why should I now waste a word upon your critic's closing
sentences ? It will not make him noble to be told that envy is igno-
ble ; that, if ever " j^raise " has been adjudged to me by his country-
men, it is not because I went out of my way to seek it. It came to
me unasked — an incident, not an aim — shining, as your own Emerson
would put it, pleasantly because spontaneously, upon the necessary
journey of my life. It was not, I can truly say, the applause of large
assemblies that constituted my chief happiness in the United States,
but the ever-growing proof, for the most part undemonstrative, that,
without swerving from my duty, I had gained a modicum of the affec-
tion of the American people. That I prized, and that I have sought
to keep free from fleck, material or intellectual. For reasons best
known to himself, your critic does not relisli this relation ; and he
will damage it if he can, I cherish the belief that he will be unsuc-
cessful. I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

John Tyndaix.
London, November 23, 1875.

-♦♦♦-

SKETCH OF THOMAS STERRY HUNT, LL. D., F. E. S.

THE subject of the present notice, of whom an excellent portrait
appears in this number, although still in middle life, has made
extensive contributions to American science during the past genera-
tion, and has permanently identified his name with its progress and
development. Choosing two of the most rapidly-advancing sciences,
chemistry and geology, as his field of work, and studying them espe-
cially in their intimate and extensive interactions, he has had a large
and honorable share in giving form to our present knowledge upon
these subjects. Although an indefatigable experimenter and an ex-
tensive observer. Dr. Hunt is also eminently an original and philo-
sophic thinker, and has taken an influential part in the establishment
of the most matured scientific theories. He was eai'ly in the field of
chemical speculation, and aided essentially in that revolution of views
which has ended in the establishment of the "new chemistry."

Thomas Sterry Huxt was born on the 5th of September, 1826, in
Norwich, Connecticut, where he received his early education. He be-
gan the study of medicine, but soon abandoned it for chemistry and
mineralogy, and in 1845 became a private student with the present
Prof. Benjamin Silliman at New Haven, acting meanwhile as chemical
assistant to Prof. B. Silliman, senior, in the cliemical laboratory of

SKETCH OF DR. THOMAS S TERRY HUNT. 487

Yale College. In 1847, while preparing to continue his studies in
Great Britain, he was chosen to be chemist and mineralogist to the
Geological Survey of Canada, then recently established imder the
direction of Sir William Logan, and having its headquarters at Mont-
real. This position he lield for twenty-five years, resigning it in
1872. He was, during this time, for sevei-al years a professor in the
Laval University at Quebec, where he lectured on chemistry and
geology in the French language, and was afterward Professor of
Chemistry and Mineralogy at McGill University, Montreal. Coming
to Boston in 1872 he took the chair of Geology in the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, made vacant by the resignation of Prof. Wil-
liam B. Rogers, a post which he still occupies. He has never married.
His earlier scientific labors were chiefly in the domain of chem-
istry. Prof. B. Silliman, in his " History of American Contributions
to Chemistry," which appeared in the "Proceedings of the Centennial
of Chemistry" {American Chemist for 1874), says:

"The name of no American chemist occurs more frequently, or in a more
important relation to the progress and development of our science during the
past quarter of a century, than that of Dr. Hunt. His contributions have been
equally valuable in theoretical chemistry, in chemical philosophy, and in geo-
logical and mineralogical chemisti'y. No other author has covered a wider
range than he. Not less than one liundred and thirty entries are found under
his name in the second and third series of the American Journal of Science,
and adding those published in Canada, England, and France, and some memoirs
in the proceedings of various American societies, the total roll of his papers
amounts to about one hundred and sixty titles."

A considerable proj^ortion of these, however, relate to pure geology.

From the " History " just quoted, and from a biographical notice
in The American Cyclopaedia, we learn of Dr. Hunt's important
contributions to theoretical chemistry, and his attempts to introduec
into the sciences of chemistry and mineralogy a new philosophy, some
points of which will be found in his address in 1874, at the Centennial
of Chemistry at Northumberland, Pennsylvania, entitled "A Cen-
tury's Progress in Chemical Theory." His papers on these subjects
were widely copied and translated, and have greatly influenced mod-
ern chemistry. At an early date Dr. Hunt prepared a summary of
organic chemistry, which he first defined to be the chemistry of car-
bon and its compounds, and which forms a part of Silliman's "First
Principles of Chemistry" (1872). A statement of some of the aspects
of the science will be found in the last annual address befoi'e the Mas-
sachusetts College of Pharmacy, delivered by him, on "The Relations
of Chemistry to Pharmacy and Therapeutics" (Boston, 1875) ; and Ave
present an abstract of this in the present number. It is said of Dr.
Hunt, in the notice above referred to, that his researches on the chem-
istry of soda and mineral waters have probably been more extended
than those of any other living chemist. These have been both syn-

488 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

thetic and analytic, and we owe to him elaborate studies of the chem-
istry of lime and magnesia, undertaken with reference to the origin
of the native combinations of these bases. Mention should also be
made of his contributions to a chemical cosmogony and to a compre-
hensive theory of chemical and dynamical geology, a sketch of which
will be found in his essay on " The Chemistry of the Earth," in the
" Smithsonian Report " for 1869.

Dr. Hunt's numerous contributions to chemistry and geology in
their technical apjjlications relating to soils, fertilizers, peat, building-
materials, the manufacture of salt, and the ores and metallurgy of iron
and copper, will be found in the publications of the Geological Survey
of Canada, and in part in the proceedings of the Institute of Mining
Engineers. 8ee also his essay on " The Coal and Iron of Southern
Ohio" (Salem, 1874), A large part of the reports of the Canada Sur-
vey during twenty-five years was contributed by him, and also the lat-
ter half of the large volume entitled " Geology of Canada " (1863).

Among Dr. Hunt's later contributions to geology are his studies
of "Granites and Granitic Veinstones;" "The Geognosy of the Ap-
palachians and the Origin of Crystalline Rocks" (1871); and the
"History of the Names Cambrian and Silurian in Geology" (1872),
His views as to the crystalline, stratified rocks, their genesis, their
great antiquity as opposed to the notion of their more recent origin,
and his grouping and classification of them, undertaken after many
years of research and comparison over a wider field than has been
studied by any other American geologist, constitute a new departure
in the science. They have attracted much attention, and, despite some
attacks, are finding a wide recognition, both in this country and in
Europe. The three essays just named, together with some others, on
various subjects of chemical geology, including mineral waters, dolo-
mites, gypsum, petroleum, and ore-deposits, with many notes and addi-
tions, and with selections from his papers on the philosophy of chem-
istry and mineralogy, have lately been published in a volume entitled
" Chemical and Geological Essays " (Boston, 1875). Of this work a
notice appeared in The Popular Science Monthly, vol. vi., p. 372.
It is understood that he is now preparing a " Handbook of American
Geology." During the past summer he has been engaged in the new
Geological Survey of Pennsylvania under Prof. Lesley.

Dr. Hunt was President of the American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science in 1870. He is a member of the National Acad-
emy of Science, the American Philosophical Society, and the American
Academy of Boston. In 1859 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society of London. lie is a member of the Imperial Leopoldo-Caro-
linian Academy of Germany, and of the Geological Societies of France,
Belgium, Austria, Ireland,^ etc. He was a member of the International
Juries at the Great Expositions at Paris in 1855 and 1867, and on the
latter occasion was made an officer of the Legion of Honor.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

489

EDITOR'S TABLE.

SOUNDIN^G A NEWSPAPER FOG.

THE readers of the Monthly will
find elsewhere in our pages an ar-
ticle which appeared several weeks ago
in the Nation, containing an attack upon
Prof. Tyndall, which, from the character
of its charges, and the bitterness of its
tone, excited the surprise and regret of
many. It was replied to by Prof. Tyn-
dall, whose letter we also republish.
It will be seen that the assault is direct-
ly met, and, in his rejoinder to Prof.
Tyndall's letter, the writer in the Na-
tion admits that he was in error, while
his admission covers the main and most
offensive imputations. But, as his fur-
ther comments are calculated to con-
tinue a false impression, and as base
charges always go faster and farther
than their retractions, especially when
considerable time elapses before they
can be authoritatively contradicted, it
is desirable that we should here briefly
review the leading features of the case.
The charge against Prof. Tyndall,
as the reader will see, is generally, that,
in the third and recently -published
edition of his work on "Sound," he
has not done justice to the contribu-
tions of American science toward the
elucidation of the subject of fog-signals.
More specifically it is that, when in this
country, he got information upon the
subject from a paper read by Prof.
Henry, went home and entered upon
the investigation himself, published in
his book the results of his own inqui-
ries, and, while acknowledging that he
knew generally of what had been done
in America, and that it was not with-
out influence on his conduct, yet that
he ignored or " suppressed " from his
summary of existing knowledge upon
the subject any recognition of what
had been accomplished by the United

States Lighthouse Board under the di-
rection of Prof. Henry.

Now, let us see what Prof. Tyndall's
position was as avowed by himself in a
statement widely published in this coun-
try months before the attack in the
Nation was made. The August num-
ber of The Popular Science Monthly
contains, in full, the preface to the
third edition of "Sound," in which
the American relations of the matter
are considered. A summary is there
given of the experiments of Prof. Henry
in regard to the penetration of fog by
sound, and the performance of various
instruments of American construction
designed to be used as coast-signals;
and the remark is added that " it is
quite evident from the foregoing that,
in regard to the question of fog-signal-
ing, the Lighthouse Board of Washing-
ton have not been idle." Prof. Tyndall
states, furthermore, that he had recom-
mended American instruments for fog-
signaling to the British authorities as
superior to the English instruments,
and that they had been adopted on his
recommendation. Every fair-minded
reader, upon perusal of that paper, will
agree, we think, that Prof. Tyndall
wrote truthfully when he said : " In
presence of these facts it will hardly be
assumed that I wish to withhold from
the Lighthouse Board of Washington
any credit which they may fairly claim."
But, having thus testified to the
character, extent, and importance of
American work upon this subject. Prof.
Tyndall proceeds to state what in his
opinion the Lighthouse Board has failed
to do. He says : " My desire is to be
strictly just ; and this desire compels
me to express the opinion that their
report fails to establish the inordinate
claim made in its first paragraph. It

49°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

contains observations, but contradictory
observations ; while, as regards the es-
tablishment of any principle which
should reconcile the conflicting results,
it leaves our condition unimproved."

A distinction is here drawn, and
again recognized in his letter, that
goes to the root of the subject; the dis-
tinction, namely, between experiments
on fog-signals made for direct purposes
of utility, and similar experiments con-
ducted with a view to the establishment
of scientific principles. This discrimi-
nation is all-important. It is no doubt
possible to have both objects more or
less in view in such an inquiry ; but it is
also possible that either may so predom-
inate as to characterize the respective
courses of investigation, and yield very
dissimilar results. Elaborate experi-
ments may promote practical ends, and
contribute little or nothing to science ; or
they may advance scientific knowledge
without any immediate influence upon
practice. It was claimed by Prof. Henry,
in his Appendix to the report of the
Lighthouse Board for 1874, that the
researches of the board had been more
extensive on this subject than those in
England, as well as prior to them ; but
the question remains, To what purpose
were they carried on? The answer to
this question, defining the character and
object of the inquiries, is immediately
given in the statement that the Ameri-
can re.=ults of "practical importance"
are in advance of the English. The
writer in the Nation speaks of " Amer-
ican science " as bearing Baconian fruit,
such as Daboll's trumpet and Brown's
steam -siren. These devices and con-
struction are, no doubt, highly impor-
tant, but there is certainly a wide differ-
ence between the invention of whistles
and systematic inquiries into the causes
of acoustical phenomena. No one doubts
the immense value to the country and
to civilization of the labors directed
by Prof. Henry, as chairman of the
Lighthouse Board ; but he has him-
self declared their practical character,

and how broadly true is this character-
ization appears from a passage in a let-
ter which he wrote to the Secretary of
the Treasury, dated February 22, 1875,
defending the Washington board against
an attack made upon it in Congress. It
is noteworthy, also, as showing that,
when Prof. Henry wishes to protect
himself from adverse criticism, he falls
back upon the verdict pronounced by
Prof. Tyndall in this very matter of
fog-signals. Prof. Henry said : " The
board has a standing committee on
experiments which has accepted and
sought to test every invention that
could be supposed to aid the mariner.
Many illuminants, various devices in
engineering, expedients for floating aids,
plans, and theories of all kinds, have
received its attention. To this accusa-
tion can be opposed on behalf of the
board the verdict of foreign nations,
the tributes of scientific associations,
and the contented judgment of mari-
time and commercial men from whom
no complaints are received. Its buoys
are excellent in their construction ; its
buoy-service is well performed ; its
light-ships are equal to any in the world ;
its lights are entirely satisfactory to the
commercial and nautical men for whose
interest they are maintained; and its
fog-signals surpass, in the finding of
Prof. Tyndall, who conducted a series
of experiments for the Trinity House
Board, those of all other nations, and
have been adopted for England." But
it is claimed that Prof. Henry's inves-
tigations constitute also an important
contribution to "American science," in
relation to fog-signaling. Prof. Tyndall
denies that they have at all advanced
our scientific knowledge upon the sub-
ject, and the writer in the Nation had
this denial before him when he wrote.
It was his plain business, then, to dis-
prove it if he could, and give the evi-
dence that Prof. Tyndall was in error.

The simple question is, What new
scientific principles have been estab-
lished, or what causes elucidated by

EDITOR'S TABLE.

491

Prof. Henry's investigations, constitut-
ing an advance of scientific knowl-
edge in tliis brancli of acoustics, that
Prof. Tyndall has omitted or " sup-
pressed" in liis work? If any tiling
has been accomplished in this country
toward the scientific solution of such
acoustical problems in relation to fog-
signaling — if any new light has been
cast upon the phenomena that ex-
plains anomalies and reconciles contra-
dictions, which was not acknowledged
by Prof. Tyndall in his book — we sub-
mit that it was the obvious duty of the
writer in the Nation to point out what
it was. He should have indicated the
gap in Prof. Tyndall's summary of the
present state of knowledge, or he should
have shown us what principles or re-
sults, there stated, are due to American
research. He says: " It is no part of
our present purpose to institute a critical j
inquiry into the conflicting views of
Prof. Henry and of Prof. Tyndall with
regard to the hypotheses respectively
espoused by each for the explanation
of the phenomena of sound, in its pas-
sage through wide tracts of air." Yet
the whole question turns on the scien-
tific " views " contributed by Prof.
Henry which it is alleged that Tyndall
has ignored. He speaks of the views
"respectively espoused" by the par-
ties; but the question is on the views
originated. Prof. Henry is understood
to adopt the theory propounded by
Prof. Stokes at the British Associa-
tion in 1857, according to which sound-
waves are tilted through the air under
the influence of wind. That theory is
certainly not " suppressed " from the
new edition of " Sound." In his re-
joinder to Prof. Tyndall's letter, the
Nation's critic reaflirms his assertion,
saying, "The question between us is
not one of science^ but of historical
facty But his complaint in the first
article was certainly of the non-recog-
nition of " American science." Obvi-
ously Prof. Tyndall had to decide what
is science and what is not, which looks

to us very much like a scientiflc ques-
tion. In his "summary of existing
knowledge," it was not his* business
merely to chronicle experiments. He
had to deal only with such systematic
inquiries into causes as yield results
properly entitled to take their place
in the body of scientific knowledge.
We do not say that Prof. Henry's re-
searches have failed to extend the do-
main of positive scientific knowledge,
but only that the writer in the Nation
was bound to establish this, before ac-
cusing Prof. Tyndall of delinquency in
not recognizing it.

But it is the closing passage of the
Nation's article which has excited the
greatest surprise, betraying, as it obvi-
ously does, a vicious state of feeling on
the part of the writer. He there rep-
resents Prof. Tyndall as having claimed
to demolish the authority of Prof. Hen-
ry, and as swaggering over the " ruin "
he had accomplished. In half a dozen
hues, Tyndall is accused of "super-
ciliousness," "self-complacency," "van-
ity," "conceit," "arrogance," and "self-
laudation ; " and this upon an utter-
ly false and absurd interpretation of
some incidental remarks in his preface.
The following is the passage that called
forth this storm of ofl'ensive epithets:

"The clew to all the difficulties and
anomalies of this question is to be found in
the aerial echoes, the significance of which
has been overlooked by General Duane, and
misinterpreted by Prof. Henry. And here
a word might be said with regard to the in-
jurious influence still exercised by authority
in science. The affirmations of the highest
authorities, that from clear air no sensible
echo ever comes, were so distinct, that my
'mind for a tim^ refused to entertain the idea.
On the day our observations at the South
Foreland began, I heard the echoes. They
perplexed me. I heard them again and
again, and listened to the explanations of-
fered by some ingenious persons attlie Fore-
land. They were an ' ocean-echo ; ' this is
the very phraseology now used by Prof.
Henry. They were echoes ' from the crests
and slopes of the waves ; ' these are the words
of the hypothesis which he now espouses.
Through a portion of the month of May,

492

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

through the whole of June, and through
nearly the whole of July, 1873, I was occu-
pied with-these echoes ; one of the phases of
thought then passed through, one of the so-
lutions then weighed in the balance and
found wanting, being identical with that
which Prof. Henry now oifers for solution.

"But though it thus deflected me from
the proper track, shall I say that authority
in science is injurious? Not without some
qualification. It is not only injurious, but
deadly, when it cows the intellect hato fear
of questioning it. But, the authority which
so merits our respect as to compel us to test
and overthrow all its supports before accept-
ing a conclusion opposed to it, is not wholly
noxious. On the contrary, the disciplines it
imposes may be in the highest degree salu-
tary, though they may end, as in the present
case, in the ruin of authority. The tmth
thus established is rendered firmer by our
struggles to reach it."

A correspondent of the Nation from
Baltimore, quoting the above passage,
characterizes the "glaring injustice"
of the concluding portion of its arti-
cle, and adds: "Any candid reader
can see that the passage on which your
reviewer bases such serious imputations
cannot possibly bear the interpretation
which every one reading it as given in
your review is compelled to put upon
it. Prof. Tyndall never indicates that it
was the authority of Prof. Henry that
impeded him in his researches." The
sentence italicised in the extract upon
the previous page is perfectly conclu-
sive in showing what Prof. Tyndall did
mean by the authority which embar-
rassed him until he rejected it.

In his letter Prof. Tyndall puts
an end to the charge, so that the Na-
tion is compelled to acknowledge it-
self "in error in supposing that the
claim of Dr. Tyndall to have ruined
authority was aimed at Prof. Henry."
One would think that, when the Na-
tion's critic had been convicted of blun-
dering by a correspondent, and when
his fabric of detraction had been so ef-
fectually demolished by Prof. Tyndall
himself that the writer was compelled
to back out of it, he would have had
the grace to drop the subject. But, on

the contrary, he renews the insulting
imputation. Having made a slanderous
charge entirely upon the assumption
that Prof. Tyndall was exulting in the
ruin of Prof. Henry's authority, and
having barbed his article with this libel,
when it was swept away, he says : "It
would have been more in order for him
to show the propriety of his language
in claiming to have 'ruined' the 'au-
thority ' of any one among his scientific
predecessors, for it was on the alleged
self-conceit implied in such a claim as
made by himself that we based our
' peroratory invective.' "

Now, we aver that there is nothing
in the passage quoted that is open to
the offensive construction here put upon
it, and which never would have been
thought of, but for the unscrupulous
distortion of its meaning by the Na-
tion's critic; but that the real import
of the extract is entirely contrary to
that which has been ascribed to it.
That which was written to enforce the
lesson of cautious self-examination and
circumspection in dealing with the men-
tal difficulties of scientific research is
wrested into an opposite expression of
arrogance and self-conceit. It is not
to be forgotten, here, that the scientific
man, to the extent of his originality
and power, is a questioner of things
established. His attitude is that of an
enemy of authority. It is his recog-
nized business, as evinced by the com-
mon forms of speech, to " subvert " au-
thority, to "break down " authority, to
"overthrow," "crush " and "ruin" au-
thority. Call the motive which impels
the man of science what you please,
the fact remains that in virtue of his
being a man of science, aimiug to ar-
rive at new views, he is a destroyer of
authority. But just because this is his
necessary work he is in danger from
the state of mind it produces ; and it
becomes important not to forget that
there is good as well as bad in author-
ity. Prof. Tyndall simply intimated the
need there is that the inquirer should

EDITOR'S TABLE.

493

be on his guard. Every one familiar
with his writings is aware that he dif-
fers from most of his scientific colleagues
by looking habitually from the subject
he is investigating to the working of
his own mind in the investigation, and
by frequently throwing parenthetical
remarks of a philosophical, rather than
of a strictly scientific significance, into
his expositions. The interjected obser-
vations about authority in the preface
are clearly of this kind. In his "Lect-
ures on Light," second edition, page 80,
he remarks: "Newton's espousal of
the emission theory is said to have re-
tarded scientific discovery. It might,
however, be questioned whether, in the
long-run, the errors of great men have
not really the effect of rendering intel-
lectual progress rhythmical, instead of
permitting it to remain uniform, the
retardation in each case being the pre-
lude to a more impetuous advance. It
is confusion and stagnation rather than
error that we ought to avoid." Now,
the underlying thought in the passage
from the preface above quoted is mani-
festly the same as that here expressed.
The object in both cases is, simply to
bi'ing out the uses of authority, and no
candid reader will recognize any ele-
ment of "self-laudation" in the one
case any more than in the other.

It has hitherto been thought that,
as discoveries are the result of mental
operations, science is always the gainer,
when an intelligent account is given of
the intellectual processes by which a
new result is reached ; but it now seems
that if one refers to his own thoughts
he must expect to be snubbed as an
egotist. And, particularly, if he at-
tains conclusions ot moment, involving
the upsetting of former tlieories, and
where it is of increased importance to
know the mental operations that lead
to them, he will be pretty certain to find
some mocking cynic who will twit him
with his "self-consciousness, explaining
to itself and to others how it grew so
great." It is a little comical, however.

to take lessons in humility from a writer
who mounts the judgment-seat and ex-
hausts the vocabulary of abuse in de-
preciating others ; or to listen to hom-
ilies on modesty from a journal that
sets up each week to criticise all that
is going on in the universe — while both
are convicted of detraction on the basis
of the most brazen perversions.

" TEE CONFLICT OF AGES."

We ask careful attention to the ar-
gument of President White on the " War-
fare of Science," the first installment of
which opens the present number of the
Monthly, and the second of which will
appear in our next issue. The import
of his clear-cut thesis, and the vigor,
learning, and logical force, with which
it is sustained, will command the admi-
ration of all intelligent students of the
subject. But that which makes Presi-
dent White's discussion unique, and es-
pecially valuable, at this time, is tne
copious notes and references by which
it is enriched and fortified, and which
open the way to tlie whole literature
of the question for the benefit of those
who desire to consult the original au-
thorities. At this time, when the hot
temper of controversy leads to much
random and reckless statement, it is
desirable to know, very clearly, what
can be proved, and where the proof can
be found : President White's article is,
therefore, opportune, and will be especi-
ally valued at present, whUe it must also
take its place as a permanent contribu-
tion to a question which is bound to be
of increasing interest in the future.

That we may not be accused of par-
tiality or injustice to opposite views,
we print also, in this number, an elab-
orate and earnest argument, delivered
at the inauguration of Vanderbilt Uni-
versity, by Dr. Deems, on the other
side of the question. The address is
liberal in spirit, and often bold in its
concessions, but we can hardly assent
to its opening declarations. The author

494

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

maintains that " the recent cry of ' the
Conflict of Eeligion and Science ' is fal-
lacious and mischievous to the interests
of science and religion, and would be
most mournful if we did not believe
that, in the very nature of things, it
must be ephemeral. Its genesis is to be
traced to the weak foolishness of some
professors of religion, and to the weak
wickedness of some professors of sci-
ence."

On the contrary, we consider this
conflict to be natural and inevitable, to
be wholesome rather than mischievous ;
and having convulsed the world for
centuries, and being still rife, with lit-
tle prospect of speedy adjustment, we
hardly see how it can be regarded as
'' ephemeral." Nor can it be much de-
pendent upon the attributes here as-
signed to some of the controversialists.
If the said professors of religion were
brayed in a mortar until all their folly
departed from them, and the said pro-
fessors of science were all regenerated,
the relations of the subjects would still
give rise to hostility, and raise up new
antagonists. No truce among the lead-
ers can affect the deeper issues as viewed
by the general mind. Something ought
to be learned from experience, and that
there has been a long and fierce antag-
onism between what has passed under
the name of religion, and what has
passed under the name of science, is
sufliciently shown from the evidence
furnished by President White. That
the antagonism continues, is not because
of the wrong-headedness of a few par-
tisans who are bent upon stirring up
strife, but because science is driving on
with its researches, regardless of any
thing but the new truth it aims to reach,
while the religious world is full of anx-
iety and dread about what is going to
happen as a consequence of this uncon-
trollable movement. Those who think
the existing phase of the alleged conflict
illusive are requested simply to consider
the attitude of mind of the great mass
of devout and sincerely religious people

toward the more advanced scientific
conclusions and scientific men of the
present day. It is no test of the matter
to determine how the great body of re-
ligious people now regard the science
established in former times. The re-
ligious liberality of each age is put upon
its trial by the questions arising in each
age. In our own time biology is the
branch of science that is most progres-
sive and occupies the attention of, per-
haps, the largest number of investiga-
tors who are busy inquiring about the
origin of life, the antiquity of man, cere-
bral psychology, the laws of force mani-
fested in living beings, and the evolu-
tion of organic forms in the course of
Nature. How are such inquiries re-
garded by the multitude of devoutly
rehgious people? Are they not con-
sidered " dangerous ? " Are they not
viewed by. this class exactly as the new
doctrines in astronomy and geology
were viewed by the same class in for-
mer times, that is, as hostile to faith
and subversive of religion ? Is there no
conflict here? Are the brand of "ma-
terialism " which is put upon biological
study in our times, and the charge that
a materialistic science is aiming to cut
up religion by the roots, indicative of
harmony between these parties ? Sci-
ence must go on, and, if her results
thus far are bad, there is no prospect
that they will be better in the future.
There can be only one basis of substan-
tial peace, and that is the entire indif-
ference of religious people, as such, to the
results of scientific inquiry. This they
cannot attain until far better instruct-
ed than at present ; and we apprehend
that it will take very considerable time
to reach that desirable consummation.

£J^D OF THE PENIKESE SCHOOL.

The proposition made three or four
years ago, and due, as we understood,
to Prof. Shaler, to establish a School
of Natural History at Nantucket for the
benefit of the teachers of the country,

EDITOR'S TABLE.

495

and at the time of their vacation, we
thought one of the most feasible and
important educational movements of
the time. The plan was comprehen-
sive, involving the services of some
twenty lecturers who were masters of
the several departments of natural his-
tory ; and it was received with such
favor throughout the country, that it
was certain a very large number of
students would have collected there
to avail themselves of the superior
instruction that could have been af-
forded. The island, besides, was con-
veniently accessible, and the accom-
modations offered by the town ample,
excellent, and moderate in price. There
was, in short, large practical promise in
the enterprise.

But it was not carried out, and in
its stead there grew up another school
in natural history, under the auspices
of Messrs. Agassiz and Anderson, on
another island, difficult of access and
without accommodations. But few pu-
pils could be taken, and the large ex-
penses of the experiment, under the
peculiar circumstances, had to be de-
frayed from without. The necessary
funds not being forthcoming, the proj-
ect .collapsed, and the school is num-
bered among the things that were.
Much regret has been expressed at the
result ; but we shed few tears over the
failure of the Penikese School. Why
should money be wasted in sustaining
a school in an ill-chosen station that
limits its usefulness and entails inordi-
nate expense ? We observe that the
editor of Nature, in announcing the
abandonment of the institution, and
explaining the unpleasant controversy
that accompanied it between Mr. An-
derson, the donor of the island, and the
trustees, speaks in a tone of strong re-
gret at the result. He thinks it un-
fortunate that Mr. Anderson had not
contributed a little more money, as,
"had he done so, those interested in
the success of the school would have
had time to set about raising something

like an endowment fund, and a fine op-
portunity would have ieen afforded to
the United States Government to show
their appreciation of practical scien-
tifia teachers and scientific research.''''
The italics here are our own, and the
suggestion they convey admirably illus-
trates the easy tendency and universal
readiness there is to go to Government
for help to sustain every thing that can-
not be sustained by the appreciation
and liberality of the community. A
school absurdly located, costly, and re-
stricted, is not supported by the pub-
lic— with all its appreciation of educa-
tion and readiness to contribute to it
whenever its contributions are wisely
expended — and so the state is invoked
to assume the burden due to bad calcu-
lations. We think it is a good deal
better that the concern should have
been wound up than to have dragged
along in a precarious way, or got a
subsidy from the Legislature, as it will
perhaps cease to be a hindrance to the
organization of other schools in better
circumstances.

THE EDUCATION QUESTION AT MONT-
PELLIEB.

There are many indications of a
very serious struggle, almost coexten-
sive with civilization, between ecclesi-
astical authority and the liberal spirit
of the age on the subject of education.
Religion may not be responsible for it,
but religious bodies are involved in it,
and it threatens to become a matter of
increasing difficulty, notwithstanding
our vaunted enlightenment and the suc-
cess of free government. The most nu-
merous sect of Christendom has its own
policy on the subject of education, and
clings to it invincibly, though with a wise
discretion in the avowal of its claims.
The passages given in the following
letter are an undisguised statement of
the demands of the Romish Church as
to its right to educate mankind.

The following letter from Prof.

496

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Tyndall, bearing upon this subject, late-
ly appeared in the London Times :

" A learned French friend has favored me
•with a copy of a letter recently published in
France, and bearing the following title :
' Letter of Monsignor the Bishop of Mont-
pellier to the Deans and Professors of the
Faculties at Montpellier.' Its date is the
8th of this month of December, 1875. One
or two extracts from it may not be witli-
out their value for the people of England
and of America, to whom, in our day, has
fallen the problem of education in relation
to the claims of Kome.

" The bishop writes to the deans and pro-
fessors aforesaid :

" 'Now, gentlemen, the holy Church holds
herself to be invested with the absolute right
to teach mankind ; she holds herself to be
the depositary of the truth — not a fragmen-
tary truth, incomplete, a mixture of certain-
ty and hesitation, but the total truth, com-
plete, from a religious point of view. Much
more, she is so sure of the infallibility con-
ferred on her by her Divine Founder, as the
magnificent dowry of their indissoluble al-
liance, that even in the natural order of
tilings, scientific or philosophical, moral or
political, she will not admit that a system
can be adopted and sustained by Christians,
if it contradict definite dogmas. She con-
siders that the voluntary and obstinate de-
nial of a single point of her doctrine in-
volves the crime of heresy, and she holds
that all formal heresy, if it be not coura-
geously rejected prior to appearing before
God, carries with it the certain loss of grace
and of eternity.

" ' As defined by Pope Leo X. , at the Sixth
Council of the Lateran, " Truth cannot con-
tradict itself; consequently, every assertion
contrary to a revealed verity of faith is nec-
essarily and absolutely false." It follows
from this, without entering into the examina-
tion of this or that question of physiology,
but solely by the certitude of our dogmas,
we are able to pronounce judgment on any
hypothesis which is an anti-Christian engine
of war rather than a serious conquest over
the secrets and mysteries of nature.'

" Liberty is a fine word, tyranny a hate-
ful one, and both have been eloquently em-
ployed of late in reference to the dealings
of the secular arm with the pretensions of
the Vatican. But ' liberty ' has two mu-
tually exclusive meanings — the liberty of
Kome to teach mankind, and the liberty of
the human race. Neither reconcilement nor
compromise is possible here. One liberty
or the other must go down. This, in our
day, is the 'conflict' so impressively de-
scribed by Draper, in which every thought-
ful man must take a part. There is no dim-
ness in the eyes of Rome as regards her own
aims ; she sees with a clearness unap-

proached by others that the school will be
either her stay or her ruin. Hence the su-
preme effort she is now making to obtain
the control of education ; hence the asser-
tion by the Bishop of Montpellier of her
' absolute right to teach mankind.' She
has, moreover, already tasted the fruits of
this control in Bavaria, where the very lib-
erality of an enlightened king led to the
fatal mistake of confiding the schools of the
kingdom to the ' doctors of Eome.'

" Your obedient servant,

" John Tyndall.
" Athenaeum, December 16, 1875.'"

The University of Montpellier, to
the deans and faculties of which the
above notification is addressed, is one
of the oldest and most honored univer-
sities of Europe. It was founded in the
twelfth century, its medical faculty by
the Spanish Arabs. Situated in what
was formerly called Languedoc, one of
the southern portions of France, it
has a botanical garden, the first that
was established in Christendom. Its
Observatory has for ages been in re-
pute, its Museums of Natural History
and Fine Art have long been celebrated.
It has made its city one of the intellect-
ual centres of France.

In this university was first trans-
lated into Latin Ptolemy's great Greek
work, the "Alma Gest." One of the
regents was the first European to make
tables of the moon, and to determine
the obliquity of the ecliptic. He is
honorably mentioned by Copernicus.
In literature it is distinguished by being
the seat of the earliest cultivation of a
modern language. From the romance
literature of Langue d'Oc, Petrarch and
Dante took their inspirations.

But in another respect it has a mem-
orable celebrity. Here the Inquisition
was first organized, and Languedoc was
the seat of the most dreadful persecu-
tions that the world has ever witnessed.
Thousands of persons were put to death,
whole cities were burnt. The French
Protestantism of the middle ages was
extinguished by fire and sword. The
professors and doctors of the universi-
ty were expelled from the country.

LITERARY NOTICES.

497

Six centuries have not sufficed to
abate this ecclesiastical bigotry. There
is the Bisho]) of Montpellier claiming
for his Church the exclusive right to
teach mankind. He leaves no doubt as
to what sort of teaching it would be.
Nothing inconsistent with the dogmas
of the Church. None of your asti'on-
omy, or geology, or physiology, or oth-
er atheistic sciences. Let American
colleges and universities lay this thing
to heart ! Their turn may some day
come.

LITERARY NOTICES.

The Nature of Light, with a General
Account of Physical Optics. By Dr.
Eugene Lommel, Professor of Physics
in the University of Erlangen. With
188 Illustrations. D. Appleton & Co.
No. XIX. "International Scientific Se-
ries." Pp. 356.

A BOOK has long been wanted, making
clear to the popular mind the most in-
teresting and important piinciples of the
beautiful science of optics. The subject
is usually treated in a meagre way as a
subdivision in our text-books of physics,
and, even in the largest of these, the dis-
cussion of light is usually very incomplete.
But no subject is more worthy of separate
treatment, and Dr. Lommel has made a
volume well worthy of its position in the
" International Scientific Series." An in-
teresting portion of one of his chapters,
that dealing with the curious and wonderful
phenomena of fluorescence, is given in our
present number, furnishing a fair illustra-
tion of the clearness of the author's writing
and the freshness of his presentation.

In an elaborate notice of the work,
which appeared in Nature^ it is remarked :
'■ In the present treatise. Prof. Lommel
has given an admirable outline of the
nature of light and the laws of optics.
Unlike most other writers on this sub-
ject, the author has, we think wisely, post-
poned all reference to theories of the
nature of light, until the lawfe of reflec-
tion, refraction, and absorption, have been
clearly set before the reader. Then, in the
fifteenth chapter Prof. Lommel discusses
Fresnel's famous interference experiment,
VOL. VIII. — 32

and leads the reader to see that the undu-
latory theory is the only conclusion that
can be satisfactorily arrived at. A clear
exposition is now given of Huyghens's the-
ory, after which follow several chapters on
the diffraction and polarization of light-
bearing waves. The reader is thus led on-
ward much in the same way as the science
itself has unfolded, and this, we think, is
the surest and best way of teaching natural
knowledge."

Mind : A Quarterly Review of Psychology
and Philosophy. No. I., January, 1876.
Pp. 156. Price $1.00, subscription $4.00
a year. Republished by D. Appleton
& Co., New York.

We have here the promise of a periodi-
cal new in its plan, broad and important in
its scope, and very ably sustained. It rep-
resents the new departui'e in psychological
study, from the point of view taken by
Bain and the modern school; in fact, the
project of its establishment is largely due
to Prof. Bain himself, who will have an ac-
tive share in its management, although the
responsible editor is Prof. George Croom
Robertson, of University College, London.
The range and quality of this work will be
best gathered from the following passages
taken from the prospectus :

" MIND will be an organ for the publication
of original researches, and a critical record of
the progress made in Psychology and Philoso-
phy.

"Psychology, while drawing its fundamental
data from subjective consciousness, will be un-
derstood in the widest sense, as covering all
related lines of objective inquiry. Due promi-
nence will be given to the physiological investi-
gation of Nerve-structures. At the same time,
Language and all other natural expressions or
products of mind, Insanity and all other abnor-
mal mental phases, the Manners and Cnstoma
of Races as evincing their mental nature, mind
as exhibited in Animals generally — much of
what is meant by Anthropology, and all that is
meant by Comparative Psychology— will come
within the scope of the Review.

"The practical application of psychological
theory to Education will receive the attention
it so urgently claims at the present time.

"Beyond Psychology, account will be taken
of Logic, iEsthetics, and Ethics, the theory of
mental functions being naturally followed by the
doctrine of their regulation.

" P'or the rest, MIND will be occupied with
general Philosophy. Even as a scientific jour-
nal, it cannot evade ultimate questions of tho
philosophical order, suggested as these are with

498

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

peculiar directness by psychological inquiry.
There is, also, a function truly philosophical
which only the investigator of mind is in a posi-
tion to discharge, the task, namely, of collating
and sifting the results of tbe special sciences
with a view alike to insight and conduct. But
MIND will, ftirlher, expressly seek to foster
thought of hold sweep — sweep that can never he
too bold, so be that it statts from a well-ascer-
tained ground of experience, and looks to come
again there to rest."

The first number well justifies the prom-
ises here made, and there is every reason to
believe that the succeeding issues will do
so in a still greater degree.

Report of the Forty-foitrth Meeting of
THE British Association for the Ad-
vancement OF Science : held at Belfast,
in August, 1874. London : John Mur-
ray, IS'ZS.

One of the most valuable features of the
yearly volumes of the British Association
is the publication of extended " Reports on
Researches in Science," which are annually
made on special subjects by small commit-
tees of eminent men who are themselves
working in those subjects. Tlius, in the
volume before us, there are no less than
thirty such reports, occupying about 360
octavo pages. The Association often aids
in an investigation by the appropriation of
a small sum of money, and in return it
receives a report on the progress of the
work, besides the gratification of having
assisted some research that otherwise might
have been long delayed.

For instance, since 1848 reports have
been given upon the observations of Lumi-
nous Meteors, which contain nearly all the
known facts relating to meteorites, arranged
in an orderly form, and in some degree
sifted. This report for 18Y3-'74 contains 90
pages.

Reports on Earthquake Phenomena, on
Tides, on the Waves of the Atmosphere, on
Magnetic and Meteorological Observations,
and many other similar subjects, are to be
found in the pages of the past volumes, and
often the facts of such reports are collected
nowhere else. From the present volume v.e
extract almost at random the titles of a few
of these reports, which may serve to show
the nature of the subjects which are yearly
brought to the attention of the meetings :
** Report on the Recent Progress and Pres-

ent State of Systematic Botany " (27 pages) ;
" On the Rainfall of the British Isles for
1873-'74 " (43 pages) ; " On the Treatment
and Utilization of Sewage" (14 pages);
" On Cyclone and Rainfall Periodicities in
Connection with Sun-spots " (23 pages) ;
" On the Erratic Blocks of England and
Wales " (8 pages) ; " On Instruments for
measuring the Speed of Ships " (9 pages),
etc. The committees making these re-
ports counted among their members the
most eminent men of England — Lyell, Lub-
bock, Boyd-Dawkins, Bentham, W. K. Chf-
ford, Balfour Stewart, Clerk-Maxwell, Hux-
ley, Galton, Sir William Thomson, Huggins,
Lockyer, De la Rue, and many others
scarcely less known. With such subjects
reported on by so eminent speciaHsts, it is
easy to see how these reports have come to
have so high a value.

The Belfast meeting was attended by
nearly 2,000 members, and over £2,000 was
received from fees, etc. ; £1,080 was appro-
priated for scientific purposes ; £400 for
various works of the section of mathemat-
ics and physics (printing mathematical ta-
bles, rainfall and meteor reports, tliermo-
electricity, etc.) ; £155 for researches in
chemistry ; £280 for various geological ex-
plorations ; £170 for biology ; £100 for the
Palestine Exploration Fund ; £25 for sta-
tistics (economic effect of combinations of
laborers or capitalists) ; and £50 for instru-
ments for measuring the speed of ships.
This abstract will give some idea of the
practical benefit to science which the Asso-
ciation gives, and it is also instructive as
showing for what purposes its money is
spent.

The last 232 pages of the volume are de-
voted to an abstract of (he proceedings of
the sections. We find that the section of
mathematics and physics occupies 44 pages,
the chemical section has 22 pages, geologi-
cal 29 pages, biological 64 pages, geographi-
cal 24 pages, statistical 27 pages, and final-
ly that the mechanical section occupies 20
pages. In a rough way this shows the
amount of attention paid to the varioua
branches at the 1874 meeting, and it is ac-
curate enough to indicate the great amount
of work now doing in biology in England,
which is a noteworthy feature of this and
preceding reports.

LITERARY NOTICES.

499

Strength of Beams under Transverse
Loads. By W. Allan. Pp. 114. Also
Sewerage and Sewage Utilization.
By AV. C. Corfield, M. A. New York :
Van Nostrand. Tp. 128. Price, 50
cents each.

In the first of these two little volumes
the practical builder will find a discussion
of the most important and common cases
of horizontal beams under vertical loads.
The problems are worked out without hav-
ing recourse to the higher matliematies.
The second volume contains, in abridged
form, a series of lectures delivered by Prof.
Corfield before the School of Military Engi-
neering at Chatham, England. The ques-
tion of sewerage and sewage utilization is
one of the urgent problems of modern life,
and it yet awaits satisfactory solution.
Meanwhile, Mr. Van Nostrand does the
public a service by placing within the reach
of all the views of so eminent an engineer
as Prof. Corfield upon these subjects.

Notes op the Manufacture of Pottery
AMONG Savage Races. By Ch. Fred.
Hartt, a. M. Pp. 70. Rio de Janeiro :
South American Mail print.

Prof. Hartt here, in the first place,
briefly considers the question of the origin
of the ceramic art. When, where, how did
it originate? No positive answer can be
given to these questions. Like other hu-
man arts, it is the result of a long evolu-
tion, and its simple beginnings we may
never be able to find out. So much, how-
ever, is certain, namely, that the finest
porcelain wares are the true lineal descend-
ants from the pottery of the savage. The
author next considers the materials em-
ployed and the methods followed in the
building of a vessel. Before the advent of
Europeans, pottery in America was made
by hand, the potter's wheel being unknown.
He finds the method of fashioning vessels
out of coils of clay widely practised in
South America. The manufacture is every-
where exclusively in the hands of the women.

The Difference of Thermal Energy
transmitted to the Earth by Radia-
tion FROM Different Parts of the So-
lar Surface. Pp. 10.

This is a reprint of a communication in
Nature by Mr. John Ericsson, in which he
points out defects in Father Secchi's method

of measuring the intensity of the sun's radi-
ant heat. Secchi's method is that of pro-
jecting the sun's image on a screen, and
then measuring the temperature at different
points by means of tliermopiles. Ericsson
adopts the method of direct observation,
and employs a special apparatus devised by
himself. Mr. Ericsson estimates the ab-
sorption by the solar atmosphere at not
over 0.144 of the radiant heat emanating
from the photosphere. The intensity of
radiation from the border of the sun he
estimates at 0.638 of the intensity of radia-
tion from an equal area of the central region.

Check - List of Noctuidj: of America,
north of Mexico. By A. R. Grote,
A. M. Pp. 28, with Plate. Price, $1.
Buffalo, N. Y. : Reinecke & Zesch.

Op the twelve hundred North American
species of Noctuce, less than thiity, we are
informed by Mr. Grote, are considered iden-
tical with European forms. The facts seem
to point to a common origin of many of the
forms, and it is the author's opinion that
the European and North American JVoctuce
are in part descended from species living
over a common territory, and that the Gla-
cial epoch separated the stocks. The list
of species here given includes a complete
synonymy of the Noctuidce of America north
of Mexico, so far as known. It is invalu-
able to the student of entomology.

State Medicine in its Relations to In-
sanity. By Dr. Nathan Allen. Pp.
31.

Dr. Allen considers the subject of in-
sanity in the six New England States. He
finds that in Massachusetts, from 1850 to
18*70, the increase of insanity was 12 per
cent, greater than the increase of popula-
tion, and the same is to be said of the other
New England States. He favors consign-
ing the chronic insane to homes, instead of
keeping them in hospitals. What they
need is, not medical treatment, but suitable
exercise, sunlight, air, proper nourishment,
etc. He also advocates the adoption by
the State of measures for the prevention of
insanity. The dissemination of more cor-
rect views of the true way of living and a
more rigid observance of the laws of health
and Nature would, no doubt, greatly dimin-
ish the frequency of mental disease.

500

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The New Method of Graphical Statics.
By A. J. Du Bois, C. E., Ph. D. 60 Il-
lustrations. Pp. 80. Price, $2. New
York : Van Nostraud.

This book is made up of a series of ar-
ticles which appeared originally in Van
Nostrand's Engineering Magazine. The au-
thor's object is to win more general atten-
tion to a new method for a graphical solu-
tion of statical problems, which, during the
last ten years, has been gradually developed
and perfected, and which offers to the ar-
chitect, civil engineer, and constructor, a
simple, swift, and accurate means for the
solution of a great number of i^ractical
questions.

Report upon the Condition of Affairs
IN Alaska. By H. W. Elliott. Wash-
ington: Government Printing-Ofiice. Pp.

277.

In 1874 Mr. Elliott was directed by the
Treasury Department to visit Alaska, for
the purpose of studying and reporting upon
the present condition of the seal-fisheries ;
the haunts and habits of the seal ; the
preservation and extension of the fisheries ;
the statistics of the fur-trade ; and the con-
dition of the natives. The results are con-
tained in the volume before us. The work
is full of valuable information. It is divided
into nine chapters, treating of the " Charac-
ter of the Country ; " " Condition of the
Natives ; " " Duty of the United States
Government ; " " Trade and Traders ; "
" The Sea-Otter ; " " The Seal-Islands ; "
"Habits of the Fur-Seal ;" "The Sea-
Lion ; " " Fish and Fisheries ; " and the
" Ornithology of the Prybilov Islands."

OcR Wasted Resources. By William
Hargreaves, M. D. New York : Na-
tional Temperance Society. Pp. 201.
Price, $1.25.

Dr. Hargreaves quotes statistics to
show that, in 1873, the income of the
people of the United States exceeded
$7,000,000,000. He thinks that, to the
use of intoxicating drinks, nearly all of the
crime and pauperism of the country is to
be attributed. He compares the cost of
intoxicating liquors with the total receipts
of sundry industries; sums up the losses of
the country from the trade in liquors ; tries
to show that the use of liquors and the

liquor-trade destroy the influence of educa-
tion. Finall}', he lays down the proposi-
tion that "the use of and the traiSc in
strong drinks impede the progress of the
Christian Church, and the spread of the
gospel."

Notes of Travel in Africa. By C. J.
Andersson. New York : Putnam's Sons.
Pp. 318. Price, $2.00.

There appears to exist in the public
mind a genuine interest in the exploration
of Africa, and the number of books of
African travel published within the last
ten years is enormous. The writings of
C. J. Andersson have in no small meas-
ure contributed to the awakening of this
curiosity, and doubtless the present work,
made up from the memoranda of that dis-
tinguished traveler, will be read with the
same eagerness as his earlier publications.

Dissertations and Discussions. By J.
Stuart Mill. New York ; Holt & Co.
Pp. 294. Price, $2.50.

This is the fifth volume of the " Disser-
tations and Discussions," and it completes
the series. It contains five papers on " Land
Tenure ; " also essays on " Endowments ; "
on " Labor ; " on " Treaty Obligations ; "
cm Maine's " Village Communities ; " Taine's
" Intelligence ; " Crete's " Aristotle ; "
Baer's " L'Avere e I'lmposta ; " and Les-
lie's " Land Question."

A Practical Treatise on Soluble Glass.
By Dr. Lewis Fecchtwanger. Pp. 164.
New York : L. Feuchtwanger & Co.

The author points out the manifold uses
of soluble glass, for instance, as a means
of preserving timber and making it non-
inflammable ; as an ingredient in the com-
position of artificial stone ; for mixing with
paints to be applied to the surface of met-
als, glass, and porcelain ; in soap-making ;
in calico-printing, etc.

Report of the Commissioner of Educa-
tion FOR 1874. Pp. 935.

Contains, in addition to the observa-
tions and suggestions of the commissioner,
a great mass of statistics relating to the
state of education throughout the country
in the year 1874.

MISCELLANY.

501

Dr. Draper's " Conflict." — There have
been published of Dr. Draper's book, " The
Conflict," eight editions in America, and five
in London. It has been translated into
French, and is in its third edition in Paris.
The German translation made by Dr. Rosen-
thal has had a similar success. A Polish
translation has been made in the University
of Warsaw ; a Servian one by Prof. Meta
Rakitch, in Belgrade. The Spanish trans-
lation is by Sefior Arcemis, the astronomer
of Cadiz. The Russian is under examina-
tion by the censorship.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Exploration of the Colorado River of the
West. By Major J. W. Powell. Washing-
ton : Government Printing-Office. Pp.291,
with Maps.

Science By-ways. By R. A. Proctor.
Philadelphia : Lippincott. Pp. 422. Price,
$4.00.

Selection and Use of the Microscope.
By J. Phin. New York : Industrial Publi-
cation Co. Pp. 131. Price, To cents.

Report on the Wisconsin Institution for
the Blind, 1875. Madison, Wis. : E. B. Bo-
lens. Pp. 20.

Bulletin of the United States National
Museum, No. 2. Washington : Government
Printing-office. Pp. 50.

American Journal of Microscopy. Month-
ly. New York : Industrial Publication Co.
50 cents per year.

Forms of Life found in the Oral Cavity.
By C. N. Peirce, D. D. S. Lancaster, Pa.

Pennsylvania Journal of Dental Science.
Pp. 23.

Bridge and Tunnel Centres. By J. B.
McMaster. New York : Van Nostrand,
Pp. 106. Price, 50 cents.

Scientific Monthly. E. H. Fitch, Editor
and Publisher. Toledo, 0. : Pp. 96. Price,
$3.00 per annum.

Geological Notes. By W. B. Rogers.
Pp. 13.

Circulars of the Bureau of Education.
Washington : Government Printing-Ofiice.
Pp. 130.

Vick's Floral Guide for 1876. Roches-
ter. New York : Vick & Co. Quarterly, 25
cents per year.

Geological Survey of Minnesota, 1874.
By N. H. Winchell. St. Paul : Pioneer Press
print. Pp. 36, with Maps.

Transactions of the American Society
of Civil Engineers, 1875. Pp. 49.

Safety- Valves. By R. H. Buell. New
York : Van Nostrand. Pp. 100. Price,
50 cents.

Mammoth Cave of Ken tuck j. By W. S.
Forwood, M. D. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
Pp. 241, with Illustrations.

Three Months in Old Hospitals of Paris.
By R. Ludlam, M. D. Philadelphia : Sher-
man & Co. Pp. 16.

Report of the United States Treasurer,
1875. Washington: Government Printing-
Office. Pp. 67.

Post-Nasal Catarrh. By B. Robinson,
M. D. New York : Trow & Son. Pp. 29.

Does Matter do it all ? By Epes Sar-
gent. Boston: Colby & Rich. Pp. 16.

Zappus Hudsonius, and Lagopus Leucu-
rus. By E. Cones. Washington : Govern-
ment Printing-Office. Pp. 10.

Necessity of a Mechanical Laboratory.
By R. H. Thurston. Philadelphia : W. P.
Kildare, Printer. Pp. 10.

MISCELLANY.

Relatlous of Chemistry to Pharmacy and
Therapeutics. — We present herewith the
main points of an instructive address de-
livered by Dr. T. Sterry Hunt before the
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, on
" The Relations of Chemistry to Pharmacy
and Therapeutics."

With the eighteenth century is connect-
ed the birth of modern chemistry ; and,
while Priestley and Lavoisier are honored
as having given a new impulsion to chemi-
cal theory, the Swedish apothecary Scheele
will always be remembered as one who prob-
ably enriched the science with more dis-
coveries than either of them. The three
brightest names on the roll of great chem-
ists in our century have been gathered from

502

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the ranks of the pharmaceutical profession,
viz., Davy, Liebig, and Dumas. But the debt
owed by chemistry to pharmacy has been
amply repaid : the labors of the chemist
have transformed the pharmaceutical art,
replacing empiricism by science, enriching
the materia medica with a vast number of
new substances, and introducing new pro-
cesses. Such old-fashioned drugs as coral,
egg-shells, and the like, were shown by the
chemist to possess no other value than be-
longs to the calcareous salts of which they
are chiefly composed. Iodine was shown to
be the active principle in the drug, calcined
sponge ; and henceforth iodine takes the
place of the crude and bulky residue from
the burning of sponge. In like manner
quinine and morphine replaced cinchona-
bark and opium.

In cases where the medicinal virtues are
not apparently lodged in a single principle
capable of being isolated, pharmacy has re-
course to other processes, and obtains by
expression, percolation, and evaporation, or
distillation, often in vacuo, concentrated ex-
tracts which enable us to dispense with the
crude drugs. Thus, for a rough example,
by means of the sulphide of carbon the
subtile perfumes of the violet and jasmine
have been isolated. The artificial forma-
tion of urea and valerianic and benzoic
acids opened up a new field for chemistry
and pharmacy. By a careful dissection, as
it were, of certain organic principles, we
have learned to reconstruct them ; and the
triumphs of this method are seen in the ar-
tificial production of indigo, orcine and ali-
zarine, and the odorant principle of vanilla.
What wonder, then, that the chemist should
now aspire to produce, artificially, the active
principles of the poppy and cinchona, and
render cheaper those precious drugs, mor-
phine and quinine ? These problems are
destined to be solved at no distant day.

The history of anaBsthetics is next traced
by the author from the discovery of the
physiological action of nitrous oxide by
Davy to that of chloral by Liebreieh.
From this he passes to the subject of the
chemical changes undergone by drugs in
the animal economy, and the relations of
these changes to physiological action. The
mineral salts of many of the metals, such
as sulphates and chlorides, act, to a great

extent, like foreign substances when taken
into the stomach, forming insoluble com-
pounds with albuminous matters ; but, when
combined with certain organic acids, these
metals are in a condition favorable to ab-
sorption. Thus, it is that the citrates, tar-
trates, and lactates of bismuth, antimony,
iron, etc., are now advantageously employed
in medical practice.

It having occurred to a chemist that
salicylic acid might be antiseptic like car-
bolic acid, he made experiments which re-
sulted in showing that in this almost taste-
less body we possess an antiseptic agent of
great power.

The immense advance made in the phar-
maceutical art and the constant contribu-
tions brought to it by chemistry demand
each year a higher education for the pro-
fession of pharmacy, and the day cannot
be far distant when the need of a regular
training and a thorough scientific education
will be held to be as indispensable for the
pharmacist as for the physician and the
surgeon,

Ilaeckel on Scientifie Institntioc^. — In

his latest book ("Ziele und Wege der
heutigen Entwickelungsgeschichte") Prof.
Haeckel, the great apostle of Evolution in
Germany, announces the discovery of the
following law : " In all the magnificent sci-
entific institutes founded in America by
Agassiz, the following empirical law, loiig
recognized in Europe, has been confirmed,
viz. : that the scientific work of these insti-
tutes and the intrinsic value of their pub-
lications stand in an inverse ratio to the
magnitude of the buildings and the splendid
appearance of their volumes. ... I need
only refer," he adds, " to the small and mis-
erable institutes and the meagre resources
with which Baer in Konigsberg, Schleiden
in Jena, Johannes Miiller in Berlin, Liebig
in Giessen, Virchow in Wiirzburg, Gegen-
baur in Jena, have not only each advanced
his special science most extensively, but
have actually created new spheres for them.
Compare with these the colossal expendi-
ture and the luxurious apparatus in the
grand institutes of Cambridge, Leipsic, and
other so-called great universities. What
have they produced in proportion to their
means ? ''—Fall Mall Gazette.

MISCELLANY.

503

Matarity of Timber-Trees. — A paper in
the " Transactions of the Scottish Arbori-
cultural Society" contains the following in-
formation with regard to the time required
for various kinds of timber-trees to reach
maturity : "Tie oak can never be cut down
so profitably when small as when well ma-
tured, and having plenty of heart-wood.
The timber is seldom of much value until
it has reached the age of 100 years. Ash
can be Jut down more profitably in its
young state than other hard-wood trees.
When clean grown, and from thirty to
forty years of age, it is in great demand
for handle-wood and for agricultural imple-
ments. Beech is of very little value in its
young state, and is seldom cut till well
grown. Birch can be cut down profitably
at about forty years old. Horse-chestnut,
when grown on good soil, and in a shel-
tered position, can be profitably cut down
when it attains large dimensions. Elms
(Scotch and English) should never be cut
until they are from eighty to one hundred
years old. Poplars can generally be profit-
ably sold when about fifty years old. Syca-
more, growing in good soil, may be profit-
ably cut down when about one hundred
years old."

Source of the Nitrogftn used by Plauts.—

The average life of an apple-tree in Nor-
mandy is estimated by M. Isidore Pierre at
fifty years, and its nitrogen product (in
leaves, fruit, wood, and roots) at 26 kilo-
grammes (about 60 pounds). This amount
of nitrogen corresponds to 5,200 kilo-
grammes of farm manure, or 100 kilo-
grammes per year. But the tree is far
from receiving any such amount ; accord-
ing to the author, the most liberal culti-
vator does not supply more nitrogen than
is found in the seeds. The question then
arises. Whence comes the remainder of this
nitrogen ? M. Thenard, in a communication
to the Paris Academy of Sciences, denies
that it comes directly from the soil, or from
the manure, and holds that it is derived
from the air through the soil. In confirma-
tion of this, he cites the grape-vines of Clos-
Vougeot, the youngest of which were plant-
ed in 1234, and which annually receive only
one kilogramme of manure. The amount
of nitrogen contained in this quantity of

manure is inconsiderable, as compared with
what is contained in the grapes, the leaves,
and the wood.

Crania] Measurements. — Two noteworthy
results of the comparative measurements of
the crania belonging to historic and pre-
historic times were dwelt upon by Prof.
Rolleston, in his presidential address to the
Section of Anthropology, at the last meet-
ing of the British Association. It might
be assumed that skulls from the earliest
sepulchres would present the smallest ca-
pacity, and that the size of the brain-case
has since increased with the intellectual de-
velopment of our race. But this assump-
tion is curiously contradicted by the facts.
Indeed, the cubic contents of many skulls
from the oldest known interments consid-
erably exceed the capacity of modern Euro-
pean skulls of average build. Surprise at
such a result may, however, be tempered
by the reflection that the skulls which we
have obtained from the earliest tumuli are
probably those of the chiefs of their tribes,
who may have been selected by virtue of
their great energy. Nor should it be for-
gotten that in savage communities the chiefs
come in for a larger share of food, and are,
consequently, men of well-developed frames,
and of more portly presence than their fel-
lows. As to the poorer specimens of hu-
manity in those days we probably know
nothing, as they were denied burial in the
tumuli, and have left their remains we
know not where. Another curious fact is,
that the female skulls from the earliest
sepultures do not differ in capacity from
the contemporary male skulls to the same
degree as the crania of the two sexes differ
at the present day. But it must be borne
in mind that in those early times there was
a greater struggle for existence, and that
the division of labor was not carried out to
a large extent, so that the tendency to a
differentiation of the crania was less marked
than in modern times.

An Indian Mill.— On the farm of Mr.
HoUis Smith, near Marengo, Calhoun Coun-
ty, Michigan, there exists an interesting
monument of aboriginal life, known in the
locality as " The Indian Mill." As described
in a letter to us by Mr. W. H. Payne, of

504

THE POPULxiR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Adrian, it consists of a great block of free-
stone, about fifteen feet in length and five
feet in width. Near one edge of this block
there is a hole fifteen inches deep, having a
diameter at the top of twenty inches, re-
sembling a large mortar. " At the time of
my visit," writes Mr. Payne, "this 'mill'
was filled with water from recent rains.
This was measured as it was dipped out,
and amounted to fourteen gallons. Early
settlers report that this spot was frequent-
ed by Indians, who brought thither their
corn to be ground or pounded in this stone
mortar. In the vicinity are seen many
broad, smooth-faced stones, whose surfaces
seem to have been highly heated. It is not
improbable that these were used by Indians
whereon to bake their cakes of corn. The
grain was pounded as follows : A spring-
pole was attached to one of the trees which
stood near, and from the free end of this
was suspended over the mortar, by means
of twisted bark, a stone of convenient form
and size. Stones suitable for this purpose
lie beside the 'mill,' and it is probable that
they once served the purpose above indi-
cated."

ExcomiiinHieiited Insects. — A propos of
the efibrts in progress to destroy the phyl-
loxera and other insect scourges in France,
a writer in La Nature gives a curious bit
of information relative to the wjiy in which
such pests used to be proceeded against
when science, save so far as it could be
made to agree with Romish dogmas, had
no existence for the world. In 1120, the
Bishop of Laon formally excommunicated
all the caterpillars and field-mice. In 1488,
the grand-vicars of Autun commanded the
parish priests of the vicinity to enjoin the
weevils to cease their ravages, and to ex-
communicate them. In 1535, the grand-
vicar of Valence cited the caterpillars to
appear before him for trial. He kindly
assigned them counsel for their defense,
and, as they did not appear, proceeded
against and sentenced them, in contuma-
ciam, to clear out of his diocese — a com-
mand which they probably obeyed !

During the seventeenth century, thirty-
seven similar judgments, against both in-
sects and quadrupeds, were issued. One
is on record, during the eighteenth cen-

tury, fulminated against a cow ; and there
is still another, of later date, due to a judge
of Falaise, who condemned and hanged a
sow for killing a child. — Christian Intelli-
gencer.

Patting out Fires at Sea. — Liquid car-
bonic acid is proposed by Lieutenant F. M.
Barber, U. S. Navy, as an agent for extin-
guishing fires ou board ship. His plan, as
communicated to the American Chemist, is
to have, in some suitable place in the ship,
a flask or flasks about three feet in length,
and one foot in diameter, containing about
100 pounds of the gas in the liquid state.
From the top of the flask, a small iron pipe
is to be permanently fitted along the water-
ways throughout the entire length of the
ship. From this main pipe branch pipes
pass to every storeroom and compartment,
each branch to be controlled separately by
means of a cock. On the alarm of fire, the
hatches are to be battened down, the cock
in the bi-anch pipe leading to the compart-
ment where the fire is discovered is to be
opened, and also the cock in the main next
the gas-flask. The liquid gas passes out
through the pipe in the form of vapor as
soon as the pressure is removed, and is
driven to the apartment where the fire is.
This compartment it fills from the bottom
up, without being diluted with the air.
Given the cubic contents of any compart-
ment, and the cubic space occupied by the
cargo in it, sufficient gas can be admitted
so as to render it absolutely certain that no
fire can exist there. By tben shutting the
cock in the main pipe, the remainder of the
gas is kept from vaporizing until such time
as it may be required. This method of
extinguishing fires is absolutely effectual ;
furthermore, it is simple, and involves no
great expense. The only difficulties which
seem to stand in the way of its practical
apphcation, are — 1. The want of an appa-
ratus for the expeditious and economical
production of the liquid gas ; and, 2. The
want of suitable vessels to hold it at all
temperatures. These difficulties, however,
have been removed, and hence there exists
no reason why all ships should not be pro-
vided with this effectual means of prevent-
ing disaster by fire.

In England, an apparatus for extin-

MISCELLANY.

505

guishing fires on shipboard was recently
pateated. This apparatus, the " pyrole-
tor," as it is called, consists of a small
double pump worked by hand, which sucks
lip through a tube on each side of it strong
muriatic acid, and a solution of bicarbonate
of soda; these commingle in a generator
forming part of the pump, and the carbonic-
acid gas and bicarbonate solution pass at
once down a metal pipe to the hold, along
whose keelson runs a perforated wooden
box which admits of the gas passing through
to the burning material. The agent, there-
fore, for the extinction of fire, is dry car-
bonic-acid gas, wliich has no action on the
cargo. The Chemical News describes as
follows an exhibition lately given of the
working of the " pyroletor : " " The entire
hold of a large wooden barge was covered
to a depth of several feet with wood-shav-
ings and cotton-waste saturated with tur-
pentine and naphtha. A temporarily-raised
and by no means air-tight wooden deck,
with loosely-fitting boards, formed the wide
hatchway-covering. The combustible ma-
terial having been set on fire, the flames
immediately ran along the entire cargo and
issued above the temporary deck, which was
then covered with boarding. The ' pyrole-
tor' having been brought into action, the
fire was completely extinguished in four
minutes, though nearly half a gale was
blowing." It is computed that a 1,200 ton
ship requires half a ton of each of the
chemicals, costing about $100.

Pkysical Characters of the British. —

Dr. Beddoe, at the recent meeting of the
British Association, advocated the neces-
sity, from a practical point of view, not
from that of mere scientific curiosity, of
obtaining more extensive and accurate in-
formation as to the physical characters of
man in Britain than could be obtained by
private investigations. He desired to in-
quire thoroughly and systematically into
the rates of growth, average stature, weight,
etc., of men and women under normal or
abnormal conditions, so as to have a fair
starting-point for further investigation and
action. Lord Aberdare said that some
time since it was ascertained that the Irish-
man v/as superior to the Scotchman in vigor,
and that the Englishman was lowest of the

three. This he attributed to the fact that
in Ireland and Scotland children were fed
on food appropriate to them. He moved
that a committee be appointed to collect
observations on the subject of the heights
and weight of human beings in Great Brit-
ain and Ireland, and that a grant of money
be made to defray the expenses of such an
inquiry. This resolution was adopted.

Native Home of the Rocky Monntaia Lo-
cost. — In view of the great interest and
alarm excited by the ravages of the grass-
hoppers in the West last year. Prof. C. V.
Riley, State Entomologist of Missouri, gives,
in the last seventy-five pages of his Seventh
Annual Report, a very full and interesting
account of the natural history of this in-
sect, including the plants it feeds on, the
parasites that feed on it, and a history of
its noted incursions, with the means that
may profitably be employed to arrest its
depredations. From the section on its "na-
tive home " we quote some interesting re-
marks concerning the spread of the insect.

Having in July, 1874, given the opinion
that the swarms of that year Avould reach
the western counties of Missouri too late to
do serious damage, and that they would not
extend eastward beyond a line drawn, at a
rough estimate, along longitude 17° west
from Washington — an opinion, by-the-way,
that was remarkably confirmed by subse-
quent events — the professor here proceeds
to give his reasons for that conclusion:

'Bat it will be asked, 'Upon what do you
base this conclusion, and what security have we
that at some future time the couutry east of the
line you have indicated may not be ravaged by
these plagues from the mountains ? ' I answer
that, during the whole history of tlie species, as
I have attempted to trace it in the chronological
account already given, the insect never has done
any damage east of the line indicated, and there
is no reason to suppose that it eviT will do so
for the future. . . .

"■ ' But why,' it will again be asked, ' will not
the young from the eggs laid along the eastern
limit you have indicated hatch and spread far-
ther to the eastward ? ' Here, again, historical
record serves us, and there are, in addition, cer-
tain physical facts which help to answer the
question.

" There is some difference of opinion as to
the precise natural habitat and breeding-place
of these insects, but the facts all indicate that
it is by naturea denizen of great altitudes, breed-
ing in the valleys, parks, and plateaus of the
Rocky Mountain region of Colorado, and espe-

5o6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cially of Montana, Wyoming, and British Amer-
ica. Prof. Cyrus Thomas, who has had an ex-
cellent opportunity of studying it— through his
connection with Hayden's geological survey of
the Territories — reports it ae occurring from
Texas to British America, and from the Missis-
sippi (more correctly speaking, the line I have
indicated) westward to the Sierra Nevada range.
But in all this vast extent of country, and es-
pecially in the mo»e southern latitudes, there is
every reason to believe that it breeds only on
the higher mountain elevations, where the at-
mosphere is very dry and attenuated, and the
soil seldom, if ever, gets soaked with moist-
ure. . • .

"My own belief is, that the insect is at home
in the greater altitudes of Utah, Idaho, Colorado,
Wyoming, Montana, Northwest Dakota, and
British America. It breeds in all this region,
but particularly on the vast hot and dry plains
and plateaus of the last-named Territories, and
on the plains west of the mountains; its range
being bounded, perhaps, on the east by that of
the buflalo-grass.

"In all this immense stretch of country, as
is well known, there are vast tracts of bar-
ren, almost desert land, while other tracts, for
hundreds of miles, bear only a scanty ve;i:eta-
tion, the short butlalo-grass nf the more fertile
prairies giving way, now to a more luxurious
vegetation along the water-courses, now to the
sage-bush and a few cacti. Another physical
peculiarity is found in the fact that while the
spring on these immense plains often opens
as early, even away up into British America,
as it does with us in the latitude of St. Louis,
yet the vegetation is often dried and actually
burned out before the first of July, so that
not a green thing is to be found. Our Rocky
Mountain locust, therefore, hatching out in un-
told myriads in the hot sandy plains, five or six
thousand feet above the sea-level, will often per-
ish in immense numbers if the scant vegetation
of its native home dries up before it acquires
vvings ; but if the season is propitious, and the
insect becomes fledged before its food-supply is
exhausted, the newly-acquired wings prove its
Balvation. . • . Prompted by that most exi-
gent law of hunger — spurred on for very life— it
rises in immense clouds in the air to seek for
fresh pastures where it may stay its ravenous
appetite. Borne along by the prevailing winds
that sweep over these immense treeless plains
from the northwest, often at the rate of fifty or
sixty miles an hour, the darkening locust-clouds
are soon carried into the more moist and fertile
country to the southeast, where, with sharpened
appetites, they fall upon the crops like a plague
and a blight. . . . The hotter and drier the sea-
son, and the greater the extent of the drought,
the earlier will they be prompted to migrate,
and the farther will they push on to the east
and south.

" The comparatively sudden change from the
attenuated and dry atmosphere of five to eight
thousand feet or more above the sea-level to
the more humid and dense atmosphere of one

thousand feet above that level, does not agree
with them. The first generation hatched in this
low country is unhealthy, and the few that at-
tain maturity do not breed, but become intestate
and ' go to the dogs.' At least, such is the case
in ourown State, and in the whole of theMissis-
eippi Valley proper. . . ."

Temper.itnie and Vegetation in Diflferent
Latitndes. — A communication on this sub-
ject was made by M. Alphonse de Candolle
to the Academy of Sciences of Paris, and re-
ported in the Comptes Rendus for June ^th.
The object of the inquiry was to test the
accuracy of the very common observation
that vegetation comes forward much more
rapidly in spring in northern latitudes than
in the warmer regions of the temperate
zone. Experimenting with seeds of several
species of plants sent to him from Northern
and Southern Europe, he found that those
from the north were most precocious.
Twigs, obtained in the winter, of the white
poplar, tulip-tree, catalpa, and the Carpinus
betulus, from Montpellier, were there tried
with twigs from the same species at Geneva.
They were laid aside, so that their tempera-
ture might become alike, and were then
placed in water, a little sand being put in
the bottom of the jar.

The German, or more northern branches,
leafed out first ; the difference of time be-
tween the leafing of the respective pairs
being from eighteen to twenty-three days.

It is an interesting question, " Why do
northern plants develop more rapidly than
southern ones ? " Prof, de Candolle com-
ments on it in this wise : " The buds of a
tree are in a continual struggle. The later,
like badly-placed ones, develop imperfect
branches which are oftener stifled. The
most precocious prevail, unless indeed they
suffer from frost. In this way comes a
selection, and a successive adaptation of
the tree to the climate."

Buds, by this means, acquire peculiari-
ties which are persistent. If there be
promptness and quickness of growth, these
qualities are continually reproduced. An
instance of the persistency of acquired pe-
culiarities is given in a horse-chestnut tree
near Geneva, which, on a single branch,
produced double flowers about the year
1822, and has continued to do so; and all
the doubled-flowered horse-chestnuts in the

MISCELLANY.

SO?

world are thought to be derived from that
stock.

De Candolle, however, speaks of the
more profound hibernal repose of northern
plants producing in the buds greater sus-
ceptibility to the heat of spring. But,
Prof. Gray, commenting on this in the
American Journal of Science for Septem-
ber, suggestively remarks that " the way in
which this increased susceptibility arises
is not stated," and adds, "that natural se-
lection would operate upon trees as upon
cereal grains, inducing precocious races
better adapted to the short summers, only
more time would be required in case of the
tree."

liiflaeuee of Water oa Climate. — At tiie
.ate meeting of the British Association,
Prof Heunessy read a paper on the " In-
flence of the Physical Properties of Water
on Climate." The object of the paper was
to contradict the opinion formerly expressed
by Sir J. Herschel, that " water does not dis-
tribute heat in any thing like the same de-
gree as land." According to Prof. Hen-
nessy, of all substances largely existing in
Nature, water is the most favorable to the
absorption and distribution of solar heat.
A sandy soil, such as that of the Sahara,
although capable of exhibiting a very high
temperature during the day, becomes cool
during the night, and is one of the worst
media for storing up the heat derived from
sunshine. Water, on the contrary, stores
up heat better than almost any other body.
An objection was offered by Prof Everett,
based ou the generally-accepted fact that
the temperature of the Southern Hemi-
sphere is lower than that of the noruiern,
despite the greater predominance of water
in the former. This Prof. Heanessy de-
nied to be a fact.

Curious Behavior of a Snake. — For the

following account of an interesting exhibi-
tion of serpent-cunning, we are indebted to
Mr. E. Lewis, of Brooklyn : " On the 20th
of June lust, while visiting at the house of
a relative on Long Island, I saw on his
lawn an adder, a species of snake common
in that region. It seemed gentle, and, when
approached, made no effort to escape. Wish-
ing to observe its motions, I touched it with

a stick, when, instead of moving away, it
commenced a series of contortions that
greatly surprised me. Nothing that I had
seen in the motion of serpents of any kind
showed so clearly as did this instance the
extraordinary flexibility of their vertebral
column. The contortions ended by the
creature thrusting its head and open mouth
into the loose dirt on the surface as if in
great distress, when, partially extending
itself and turning on its back, it lay as if
quite dead. I lifted it on the stick, and
carried it some yards, and laid it on the
grass, but observed, in laying it down, that
it showed some rigidity, in its tendency to
turn or lie on its back. Others, who had
witnessed the action of the snake, now
left, and I stepped behind a tree for fur-
ther observation.

" In two or three minutes the head of
the snake rose a little, and I could see
that it was observing the situation. Pres-
ently it turned on its belly, and was in a
position to move away ; but, on being
touched, it turned on its back again.
Finally, it raised its head, turned over,
and, seeing no one, crawled slowly away.

" This behavior in the snake was new to
me, and has not been observed by any
with whom I have conversed concerning it.
It seems to me probable that it arose from
the instinct of self-preservation, or from the
equally strong instinct for preservation of
its young. No young ones were seen, how-
ever, but they may have been near in the
grass, and it was a season of the year when
their presence might be expected. There
was certainly nothing more curious or
strange in the snake's feigning death than
in birds feigning lameness, and other ani-
mals feigning death, when themselves or
their young are in danger ; but I conclude
the phenomenon is unusual with serpents."

A New Enemy of Submarine Cables. —

In 1865 the world-renowned special cor-
respondent of the London Times, W. H.
Russell, modestly gave utterance to a
prophecy which time has since fulfilled
almost to the letter. He then wrote : " As
a mite would in all probability never have
been seen but for tlie invention of cheese,
so it may be that there is some undeveloped
creation waiting perdu for the first piece of

5o8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gutta-percha, which comes down (to the
sea-bottom) to arouse his faculty and fulfill
his functions of life — a gutta-percha boring
and eating teredo^ who has been waiting
for his meal since the beginning of the
wo.'ld." This enemy of submarine cables
has already made his appearance, as was
briefly announced in a recent number of
The Monthly. It is a crustacean, less
than a quarter of an inch in length, and
known as Limnoria terebrans. " One break-
fast which he may take," says Dr. J. H.
Gladstone, " may cost more than the break-
fast of any luxurious Roman epicure in an-
cient times, because he may destroy a whole
cable, and it may take a year to repair the
damage which he may do in a minute."

Hawksbaw on tlie Channel Tunnel. — In

the course of the debate which followed the
reading of a paper on the proposed tunnel
between England and France, at the Bris-
tol meeting of the British Association, Sir
John Hawkshaw made a speech, in which
he expressed his perfect confidence in the
ultimate success of that great undertaking.
" The question arises," said he, " as to the
risk in tuimeling through the chalk. Of
course we cannot measure that risk with
any certainty, but we are constantly in the
habit of undertaking engineering work
which sometimes involves an unknown
amount of risk, and it becomes the busi-
ness of the engineer to encounter these
risks. Prof. Ilebert seems to expect that
the chalk, although it may be continuous,
as we have ascertained it to be, all across
the channel, may have such fissures in it
that, in constructing the tunnel at the depth
we propose to go, it is possible we may cut
through the chalk into the green sand.
Suppose that were so, it would not deter
me from encountering this work. A great
mistake is often made with reference to
the percolation of water. Water, though
it passes through sand, passes with very
slow velocity. I have had to make deep
excavations in sand fifty or sixty feet below
the level of the sea, and though water comes
rather rapidly at first, until it has drawn
away a portion of the water which is in the
sand adjacent to your work, yet, after that,
it comes with extreme slowness. There-
fore, I am not afraid of percolation of water

in that sense. With regard to the percola-
tion of water through the solid chalk, that
is of no consequence ; water passes so
slowly through chalk, that it might con-
tinue to pass, and nobody would care about
it. Of course there is a thing that might
occur which would be serious. If you
could imagine a clear, open fissure from
the bottom of the sea to the tunnel, where
water could pass, there is no doubt, with
that enormous pressure, it would pass with
very great velocity, and would be a very
troublesome thing to encounter. I do not
myself believe in there being any such fis-
sure. That is almost the only difficulty
which, i think, would hinder this tunnel.
I do not mean to say that would stop it,
but it is possible, if we met with a thing
like that, we should have to have recourse
to something else, which I have not yet de-
vised, because I do not expect it."

Sanitary Condition of WateriKg-PIaces.

— At the Baltimore meeting of the Amer-
ican Public Health Association, Prof. Henry
Hartshorne read a report on the sanitary
condition of our popular watering-places.
The report points out the danger to health
at such resorts from the contamination of
drinking-water by soil saturated with sew-
age. To prevent this, one or both of two
measures must be adopted, namely — 1. To
use for cooking and drinking either rain-
water or water conveyed from a distant,
uncontaminated source ; or, 2. To protect
the soil from contamination by the construc-
tion of impervious wells for receiving all
impure matters. The former of these meas-
ures is always safest; for the latter to be
carried out without injury to health requires
close and constant supervision. The report
finally expresses a desire that records of
disease and mortuary statistics of the water-
ing-places in the United States be collected
at some central point

Geology at the Syracuse Cniversity. —

The elementary instruction in geology at
Syracuse University, which heretofore has
been distributed through the first and sec-
ond terms of the collegiate year, will be
given this year during February and March,
so as to occupy the attention of the stu-
dents with this subject almost exclusively

MISCELLANY.

509

during those two months. The plan is in-
tended to accommodate the large number
of persons of all ages who feel the desira-
bleness of an outline acquaintance with
geology, and who might be able to devote
two months to the study, while their con-
venience does not permit them to lake an
entire geological course, or to keep the
study in hand six months or a year. Simul-
taneously with the elementary course, two
advanced courses will be set on foot during
the months named ; one of these courses
will be Lithological, and the other Paleon-
tological. Prof. Alexander Winchell will
have the general direction of this special
school of geology, with numerous assist-
ants, among whom are Prof. James Hall,
Prof. Burt G. Wilder, and Prof. Edward D.
Cope. The school opens on Tuesday, Jan-
uary 25th.

The Value of ViTisectiou. — The question
of vivisection was the subject of an address
by Dr. William Rutherford, at the last
meeting of the British Medical Association.
Physiology, he observed, is an experimental
science. Apart from experiments which are
the result of artifice, disease and accident
are constantly bringing about conditions
which partake of the nature of experiments,
and are sometimes of great physiological
significance. Still, this teaching of disease
and accident leads us but a short way, and
the pursuit of physiological truth by their
aid is often an uncertain, devious, and com-
plicated method. Dr. Rutherford effectively
contrasted the very imperfect and indirect
theoretical method of physiological instruc-
tion in the past with that by demonstration
and experiment in the present time. No
one can doubt for a moment that the rea-
soning, critical faculties are truly educated
where men are trained to see and examine
for themselves the experimental evidence on
which physiological knowledge rests. Dr.
Rutherford holds that definite, critical knowl-
edge of animal mechanism cannot be at-
tained unless students be shown experi-
ments on living animals.

Prolific Peaches. — At a meeting of the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel-
phia, Mr. Meehan exhibited some branches
of peach, in which the young fruit were in

twos and threes from one flower. They
were from the Chinese double-flowering
kind. He remarked that, as is well known,
plants with double flowers are rarely fertile.
Either the stamens are wholly changed to
petals, or the less vital conditions which al-
ways accompany this floral state are une-
qual to the task of producing perfect pistils.
Vitality, however, he observed, is more or less
affected by external conditions, independent-
ly of the mere structure of organs, and this
was well illustrated by the remarkable fer-
tility of the peach last season. This abound-
ing vitality had evidently extended to the
double peaches, and had influenced the de-
velopment of the female organs to an unu-
sual extent. These facts have an interest
in botanical classification. Lindley removed
the cherry, plum, peach, and their allies
from the Rosacece, chiefly because they had
but a single free carpel, and grouped them
as Drupacece. The production of two and
three carpels in this case shows the true
relation, and it might be of use to those
interested in "theories of descent."

Stability of Chinese Civilizatioii. — In ac-
counting for the wonderful cohesion of the
great Chinese Empire, the Prussian traveler
Von Richthofen says that the causes of this
phenomenon are manifold. First, the piti-
less extermination of such tribes as the
Man-tse. Then the complete fusion of un-
cultured races with the civilized Chinese,
from which has resulted an homogeneous
people, with one language, the same man-
ners, and the same traditions. But above
all stands the fact that Chinese civilization
is indigenous. In Europe, civilization is the
result of the eflfbrts of several nations, and
has been attained only at the cost of much
strife and sacrifice, one people transmitting
to another its hard-earned advantages. But
in China civilization was developed in more
orderly fashion, and is the product of the
genius of a single people. The Chinese
have very rarely come in contact with neigh-
boring peoples, nor have they borrowed
from the Hindoos any thing save Buddhism,
and that has certainly been of no advantage
to the nation. For 4,000 years they have
faithfully preserved the religious and polit-
ical principles set forth in the decrees of
the Emperor Yan, and, though again and

510

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

again the edifice raised upon this firm foun-
dation has tottered, it has been again set
up on the same basis. These principles,
which alone uphold the unity of this vast
empire, stand to this day intact, nor does
"Von Richthofen perceive any evidences of
senile weakness in the body politic ; on the
contrary, lie tliinlcs that in the future Chi-
nese civilization will Lave a mighty devel-
opment, without losing any of its native
characteristics. The principles which gov-
erned its first establishment, and which are
still influential in moulding it, are in fact
perfectly in accordance with natural laws,
being simply the application to the social
and political state of the principles of the
paternal authority and filial obedience. In
China the authority of the father of a fam-
ily is unlimited, the obedience of the son is
absolute. The emperor, as the father of
his subjects, the mandarins, his represent-
atives, receive from the people a filial obe-
dience, but at the same time the sovereign
must conform himself to the holy maxims
of Confucius. There may be cases of de-
fection, rebellion ; functionaries may yield
to corruption, as has been the case of late
years ; but sooner or later order will be
restored, and the mandates of the central
power will be again respected to the outer-
most limits of the empire.

Earopeaa Life in India. — The "Value of
European Life in India" was the subject of
a paper read at the last meeting of the Brit-
ish Association by Dr. F. J. Mouat. The au-
thor stated that within the present century
the annual loss of European life in India had
gradually and steadily decreased from about
60 per 1,000 to an average of 15 or 16.
This decrement is still in progress. Among
24,500 Biiti^h army officers in India, from
1861 to 1870, the death-rate from all causes
was not quite 17 per 1,000. In the Madras
Presidency, in the same period, among cor-
responding classes, the average rate was
somewhat less ; and, among carefully-select-
ed European railway employes, the parlia-
mentary returns show the mortality rate to
be about 10 per 1,000. The author ex-
pressed the opinion that the Anglo-Saxon
colonization of the plains of India is impos-
sible ; but that in the hill country a Iiealthy,
vigorous, European population could take

root and flourish. On the whole, he re-
garded the present state of the question as
most encouraging, and that the risks to life
in India of persons who were sound in con-
stitution, and reasonably prudent in their
mode of life, are not much in excess of those
incurred in more temperate climates.

Cost of a Small-Pox Epidemic. — At the

recent meeting of the American Health As-
sociation a paper was read by Dr. Benjamin
Lee, on the cost to the city of Philadelphia of
the small-pox epidemic which existed there
in the winter of 1871-'72. When the disease
first appeared, no effective measures were
taken to combat it. The public treasury
could not bear the expense, it was said ; be-
sides, were any thoroughgoing action to be
taken by the city authorities, traders from
abroad would learn that the disease prevailed
in the city, and would go to other markets.
Dr. Lee's paper is intended to show that
herein the authorities were "penny wise,
pound foolish." The direct and the indi-
rect losses caused to Philadelphia by that
one visitation of small-pox amount to an
enormous sum of money, a small fraction
of which would have sufficed, if judiciously
expended, to insure immunity from the dis-
ease. The losses as computed by Dr. Lee
exceed $20,000,000.

NOTES.

The article on " the Horseshoe Nebula
in Sagittarius " in the number of The Popu-
CLAR Science Monthly for January, 1876,
contains two annoying errors which the
editor desires to correct. In Fig. 2, page
271, the letters IF and ^and also the let-
ters N and S are interchanged.

In Fig. 6, page 279, great injustice is
done to M. Trouvelot's drawing, owing to
the introduction by the engraver of two
bright patches near e and d, and c and A
{see figure). These should be as faint as
the nebulosity near g.

The cores of a pair of enormous ox-
horns were discovered, some years since, in
Adams County, Ohio, at the depth of about
18 feet below the surface of the ground.
According to the American Journal of Sci-
enee they measure nearly 6 feet from tip to
tip, and are 22 inclies in circumference.
The original horns must have been of enor-
mous size, as the core of the horns of tho
ox is about one-third of the entire length.

NOTES.

511

These horns are now in the Museum of the
Cincinnati Society of Natural History.

It is an error to suppose that the lion is
stronger than the tiger. i)r. Haughton has
proved that the strength of the lion in the
fore-limbs is only 69.9 per cent, of that of
the tiger, and the strength of his hind-limbs
only 65.9 per cent. Five men can easily
hold down a lion, but it requires nine men
to control a tiger.

In the course of his researches into the
habits of insects, it was found by Lubbock
that an ant, which has a large number of
larvffi to carry from one place to another,
goes and fetches several other ants to aid
in the work, while, if there are only a small
number of larvte, only a few helpers are
called in.

It is stated by Dr. George Maclean, of
Princeton, in a communication to the editors
of the American Journal of Science, that on
one occasion, after some experiments with
phosphuretted hydrogen, prepared from
phosphorus and solution of potash, on le-
tiring to bed, he found his body to be lumi-
nous with a glow like that of phosphorus
exposed to the air. Some of the gas, es-
caping combustion, or the product of its
burning, must have been absorbed into the
system, and the phosphorus afterward sep-
arated at the surface have there undergone
eremacausis.

Three instances of extraordioarily rapid
growth of plants are recorded in the Gar-
dener's Chronicle. First, a Sequoia gigantea,
planted in 1855, iu Loire-lnferieure, France,
is now more than 72 feet high, and, about
a yard from the ground, has a girth of 7
feet. In the same locality, a plant o( Bam-
busa mitis threw up a stem of more than 22
feet in two months, while a Yucca albospica
produced an inflorescence 8 feet high.

According to Dumas there are two dis-
tinct kinds of ferments : those which, like
yeast, are capable of self-reproduction, and
those which, like diastase and syuaptase,
are without this property. It has been ob-
served by iluntz that ferments of the for-
mer class are neutralized by chloroform ;
not so those of the latter class.

Prof. S. P. Sharples, of Boston, has
drawn up tables showing the range of dif-
ference between different specimens of pure
milk as regards the amount of solid mutter
they contain. The highest percentage of
solid matter is 19.68, the lowest 9.3.

It is stated in a French journal, Le Char-
bon, that experiments made at Bordeaux
with cork, as a substance for developing
illuminating gas, have led to such good re-
sults that it is proposed to establish a cork

gas-house in that city. The waste of cork-
cutting shops is distilled in close vessels,
and tlie flame of the resulting gas is more
intense and whiter than that of coal-gas.
The blue portion of this flame is much less,
and the density of the gas much greater
than that of common illuminating gas.

It is stated by Galton that in England
country boys, of Iburteen years, average an
inch and a quarter more in height, and seven
pounds more in weight, than city boys of
the same age, as shown by the examination
of a large number of boys in country and
city schools.

Dr. Robert Barnes, writing in the Ob-
stetrical Journal, questions the propriety of
admitting women to the practice of medi-
cine. T'lie reason he assigns is, that there
exists a natural incompatibility between
science and the female brain. The church
and the law he considers to be the profes-
sions most congenial to the " somewhat ar-
bitrary character of the female intellect."
Clergymen and lawyers are, as a rule, the
enemies of science, says Dr. Barnes, and in
the women they find their most useful al-
lies.

From observations made in Colorado by
a member of the Academy of Natural Sci-
ences, of Philadelphia, it would appear that
grasshoppers can foresee, and provide, some
time in advance, against certain changes in
the weather. It happened that, while a
party of persons were riding in a carriage,
the question of the probability of rain was
discussed, when suddenly the grasshoppers,
which just before had filled the air, de-
scended like a shower to the ground. In
two or three minutes, not a grasshopper
could be seen in the air, and very soon rain
commenced to fall. Immediately after the
rain had ceased, the insects took flight
again, but in the course of half an hour,
without any particular indication of rain,
they suddenly plunged to the earth again.
Again the rain began to fall. This process
was repeated by the grasshoppers three
times in one afternoon, and each descent
was followed by rain.

Herr Marno, of Gordon's Nile Expedi-
tion, has reported to the Vienna Geograph-
ical Society the particulars of a journey
made by him for a distance of 150 miles to
the southwest of Lado. This brought him
to the Makraka territory, the natives of
which he says resemljle the Niani-Niams, in
respect of their diminutive stature, their
lighter color, and their general habits.

In view of the recent barbarous exhi-
bition at the Tombs, the Scienfijic Ameri-
can recommends the employment of elec-
tricity, as not only sure and instantaneous

512

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in its action, but a painless means of killing
the criminal.

Dumas sums up as follows the results of
numerous experiments made in order to
test the efficacy of the sulpho-carbonate of
potassium, in destroying the grape-phyl-
loxera : In the first place, the phylloxera is
destroyed wherever the solution of the salt
or its vapor penetrates. Secondly, the vine
itself suffers no injury. Occasionally, a
very few living phylloxeras are seen after
treatment ; but these come from other
neighboring vines which have not been
treated with the sulpho-carbonate, or have
been hatched from eggs which have in some
way been protected from the action of the
salt.

Dr. Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm, nat-
uralist attached to the Challenger expedition,
died at sea on the passage from Hawaii to
Tahiti, on September 13, 18*75, aged twenty-
eight years. He was a native of Schleswig-
Holstein, and was educated at the Univer-
sities of Gottingen and Bonn. He early
showed a very strong taste for natural his-
tory, and when only a boy published pa-
pers on the habits of European birds.
After leaving Bonn he was appointed Pri-
vat-Doceut in Zoology in the Munich Uni-
versity. He went to Italy in 1868, making
zoological observations at Spezzia, and in
1872 visited the Faroe Islands. He then
joined the Challenger expedition. He was
a man of unusual acquirements and culture.

The biennial prize of 20,000 francs has
been awarded by the Institute of France to
M. Paul Bert, for his discoveries on the
effects of oxygen in the act of respiration.
Some of the principal results of Bert's re-
searches have been stated in the pages of
the Monthly. According to the eminent
physiologist, Claude Bernard, Bert's discov-
eries are " the most astounding that have
been made since the discovery of oxygen
by Priestley."

The Koyal Society of London has
awarded to Mr. Crookes a " Royal Medal,"
for his various chemical and physical re-
searches, more especially for his discovery
of thallium, his investigation of its com-
pounds, and determination of its atomic
weight, and for his discovery of the repul-
sion referable to radiation.

An interesting experiment made by G.
Plante, and described by him to the Paris
Academy of Sciences, may possibly explain
the spiral form of many of the nebulae.
The two copper electrodes of a battery of
15 elements being immersed in water con-
taining one-tenth of sulphuric acid, the pole
of a magnet is brought near to the end of
the positive electrode. Immediately the
cloud of metallic particles, borne away from

this electrode by the current, assumes in the
liquid a gyratory, spiral motion, resembling
in appearance a spiral nebula.

It will be gratifying to our readers to
learn that the preUminary operations of the
expedition sent under the auspices of the
Hydrographic Office, United States Navy,
to determine telegraphically the relative
longitudes of points in the West Indies,
have been so far successful. Captain
Green, U. S. N., assisted by the officers of
the United States ship Gettysburg, and by
Mr. Rock, civil assistant, has so arranged
his programme that the two temporary ob-
servatories at Havana and Key West are in
the same circuit, and that the signals made
at either station are recorded directly, with-
out the intervention of the observer at the
second station, on his chronograph. It is
to be presumed that an important element
of uncertainty is thus eliminated. All the
arrangements for the work are in good
order, and Captain Green acknowledges
the most cordial assistance from the offi-
cials of the Government and of the cable
companies.

The production of gum in fruit-trees,
M. Prillieux regards as a disease, which he
■nAmQsgummosis. The alimentary substances
in the interior tissues, instead of pro-
moting the plant's growth, are diverted to
the production of gum, and a portion of
them accumulates about gummy centres,
which seem to act as centres of irritation.
The production of gum at the expense of
nutritive matter has no limit short of the
complete exhaustion of the plant. The
best remedy is scarification. To cure the
disease, the materials appropriated to form-
ing gum must be restored to their normal
destination. Hence, a more powerful at-
traction for them must be introduced than
that of the gummy centres. Now, the
woimds of the bark necessitate the pro-
duction of new tissues, and, under this
strong excitation, the reserve matters are
employed in the formation of new cells, and
cease to be attracted in the wrong direc-
tion.

An instrument for the rapid examination
of oils and textures by means of electricity
has been invented by Prof. Palmieri. The
instrument will — 1. Show the quality of
olive-oil ; 2. Distinguish olive-oil from seed-
oil; 3. Indicate wliether olive-oil has been
mixed with seed-oil ; 4. Show the quality
of seed-oils ; 5. It will indicate the presence
of cotton-fibres in silk and woolen textures.

It is stated by Dr. Malherbethat sewing-
silk is sometimes impregnated with acetate
of lead, and that seamstresses are frequently
poisoned by introducing such thread into
the mouth.

HERBERT SPENCER.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

MARCH, 1876.

HYDROGRAPHY.

HYDROGRAPHY (from the two Greek words, vdop, vjater, and
Ypd(p(x), description, is the important branch of physical science
and descriptive geography which has for its object the graphical rep-
resentation of the waters of our globe and their shores, with all their
proj^erties bearing upon navigation.

Their exploration to this end, their description by means of charts
and directions for the use of the navigator, as also the generalization
of the local data in order to ascertain the laws governing the physical
phenomena upon which navigation depends, the winds, currents,
weather, tides, terrestrial magnetism, etc., is the responsible and ardu-
ous task of the nautical surveyor and hydrographer.

The most essential requirement for navigation is charts, general
charts of entire oceans, or parts of them and their shores, compiled
by the hydrographer from existing data, and special charts of smaller
areas, of harbors, roadsteads, etc., prepared from special surveys.
The earliest sea-charts date from the middle of the fourteenth cen-
tury. They were necessarily rude and imperfect, the earth's shape
and dimensions being then unknown, the log for measuring nautical
miles not in use, and the means for ascertaining astronomical posi-
tions very imperfect.

The discovery of America and the Cape of Good Hope, together
with the reformation in astronomy by Copernicus and Galileo, insti-
tuted a new era in geographical knowledge ; the earlier charts of this
period, however, were still grossly inaccurate, especially as regards
geographical positions, and many of the isolated islands of the Pa-
cific Ocean, seen and described by the early Spanish voyagers, have
been searched for at later periods in vain, until islands in positions
differing hundreds of miles from those given to them, but answering
their description completely, have been adopted for them ; many of
VOL. Tin. — 33

514 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the islands shown on the present charts with queries, in regions not
yet sufficiently explored, will prove to have been similarly misplaced
at that early date.

The science of hydrography, by which the correct establishment
of positions and exact delineations of the shores are attained, I'eniained
meagre until the middle of the eighteenth century, when it may be
said to have fairly commenced with the expeditions of Captain James
Cook under the auspices of Great Britain, which were soon followed
by similar undertakings by other nations, especially by France and
Russia, and at a later period by the United States. Almost all these
voyages of discovery and explorations were of circumnavigation, and,
though many localities were examined more or less in detail, in gen-
eral they could only result in skeleton charts to be filled in by sys-
tematic surveys, at a future period, conducted under the direction of
organized institutions. In the first quarter of the present century
hydrog^aphic offices were established by the principal maritime na-
tions for the survey of their waters at home and in their colonies. To
the hydrographic office of Great Britain, which has been liberally
provided with means by the Government, belongs the credit of hav-
ing taken the lead in extending systematic surveys into almost every
water traversed by vessels, and to its zeal and energy all navigators
and commercial communities will ever be deeply indebted. At pres-
ent almost every nation having a seaboard has it hydrographic office
for the survey of its own coast, and to participate in the survey of
such waters as are considered the common possession of nations, and
of the coasts of countries which do not provide for surveys. Almost
every European nation has provided for the trigonometrical survey
of its entire domain.

The British Ordnance Survey, commenced in 1*783, will probably
take ten years yet to complete ; the trigonometrical surveys of
France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the European por-
tion of Russia, are in course of completion ; in other countries they
are in progress. The several governments have also agreed on meas-
ures for the careful connection of the triangialations across the bor-
ders of their states. Where such rigid geodetic operations were
instituted previous to the hydrographic survey of the coasts and wa-
ters, they furnish the hydrographic surveyor, not only with the correct
outlines of the coast, but also with the precise position of the land-
marks upon which he may base his work, or, in other words, a skele-
ton for the same. But, when such surveys are not existing, he is com-
pelled to lay down the coast-line also, with its detail as far inland as
there are landmarks auxiliary to navigation, thus performing the
labors of the topographer as well as those of the hydrographer.
Both require the greatest care, for on the precise establishment of the
landmarks depend in a great measure the delineation of the shore-
line, the establishment of outlying dangers, and the exact location of

HYDROGRAPHY. 515

the soundings, by which the profile of the bottom is represented on
the chart.

Sudden elevations, shoals, and especially submerged rocks, the
great dangers to navigation, sometimes escape the lead as well as the
eye, even in the most careful survey, and are only discovered by acci-
dent, often from disaster. Such dangers are found from time to time
in the most fi-equented harbors, which have been surveyed with the
greatest care. While the land, with the present means, can be laid
down absolutely correct, the hydrographic surveyor can never be
certain that he has thus represented the most essential portion of his
cliart.

The hydrographic features of coasts, not rock-bound, are subject
to changes, gradual by the action of the sea, and sudden by natural
phenomena, as great gales, etc. ; volcanic activity also affects at times
the rock-bound coasts. The mouths of rivers and the embouchures of
inland waters are especially subject to changes by the wash of the dis-
charging waters, and the sediment and debris carried along by them,
which mostly accumulate on the bars, and are shifted to and fro by
the force of the sea before they settle firmly ; the depth of water in the
channels, and even the course of the latter, does not remain the same
for any great length of time, and some bars change with every shift
of the wind. The surveys of such localities will only hold good in
their general features ; in the shore-lines and in the landmarks by
which a vessel may approach and feel her way in ; the more frequent-
ed harbors of this nature require reexamination from time to time.

Several nations have provided for a trigonometrical survey of
their coasts only, in advance of geodetical operations embracing their
entire domain.

The United States Coast Survey was first organized by act of Con-
gress in 1807, which provided for surveying the coasts of the United
States, but the first labors in this field did not commence until 1817,
and were shortly after interrupted; in 1832 they were resumed, and
have since been carried on, with energy and but little interruption, to
the present date.

The United States Hydrographic Office, for the purpose of con-
structing and publishing charts, sailing directions, and all hydro-
graphic information relating to the coasts and waters outside of the
boundaries of the United States, for the use of its marine, both naval
and commercial, and for directing the examination and survey of the
channels of commerce in foreign waters, was established under the
Navy Department in 1866,

Connected trigonometrical surveys have also been instituted for
the waters of the more important of the European colonies, especially
in the West and East India waters and in Australia, but for far the
greater part of the navigated portions of the globe the navigator will
for a long time have nothing but reconnoissances and running surveys.

516 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of which the earlier are more or less rough a«d unconnected, and even
some of later dates cannot be entirely relied upon.

Running surveys, more or less in detail, are generally the precur-
sors of the more strict geodetic survey, but, in order to answer the
wants of navigation, these should always be based upon a triangula-
tion between natural landmarks, checked at reasonable distances by
A^ery careful shore observations for latitude and longitude, and the
latter carried directly from a central position to the most prominent
points of the thus surveyed area and back again, and the central posi-
tion connected in the same manner with the nearest satisfactorily
determined position, to which the longitudes of that locality are gen-
erally referred.

The telegrajjh-cables which already connect many of the most
important places will soon gird the globe in several belts, and will
afford the means for ascertaining great meridional distances with
almost absolute correctness. There will thus be furnished a great
number of primar}^ positions from which the longitude may be carried
in coordinate lines to secondary places. In this manner a network
of points spread over the globe will be attained, corresponding to the
primary and second triangle points of great geodetical operations.

The completeness and correctness of a running survey depend
upon the time devoted to it and the difficulties encountered ; frequent-
ly the coast-line is only traced in from point to point, or from the
shore-ends of the lines of soundings by the eye ; the points of land,
however, especially the salient ones, should always be fixed by angles
to or from the established landmarks, as should also all outlying
dangers and all features bearing directly upon or assisting navigation.

The surveys of harbors and anchorages should be as complete as
possible ; if time jjerraits, beacons should be erected for triangulation,
and the plane-table employed for obtaining the shore-line. The parts
of the latter which are merely traced in approximately should be dis-
tinguished on the chart by a broken line.

The soundings should always be numerous enough to show the
configuration of the bottom of harbors, and off a seacoast the gradual
rise from great depths to the shore, islands, and banks, so that the
characteristic curves of the depths may be shown with precision on
the charts ; for harbors generally the one, two, three, and five fathom
curves are marked ; on coast-charts, those of three, five, ten, twenty,
fifty, and one hundred fathoms.

When sounding from a vessel in motion or from a boat, the lead
should be tried at intervals, even when it is anticipated that the bot-
tom will not be readied, not only on account of the possibility of the
discovery of a sudden elevation, but for the purpose of placing the
negative soundings on the chart, which show conclusively the absence
of danger and that the ground has been examined.

For such negative soundings, as pauch line should be used as the

HYDROGRAPHY. 517

speed of the vessel will permit, and at reasonable distances the deep-
sea lead should be employed to obtain actual depths. Positive sound-
ings exceedinar 100 fathoms should be obtained as far to seaward as
circumstances will permit the survey to be extended.

A difficult task of the hydrographic surveyor is, to search for the
islands and dangers shown on tlie charts, or enumerated in nautical
guides as uncertain in position or of doubtful existence.

Many facts show that the origin of a gi-eat number of these may
be traced to deceptive appearances, to misplacement from faulty ob-
servations or reckoning, or to typographical errors in the reports
published.

Reports of new dangers grow more frequent, as the sea-routes
extend into regions hex-etofore but little traversed, and as the com-
mercial navigator manifests a greater interest in hydrography. All
these obstructions to navigation are placed on the charts, usually with
queries, until they are verified and correctly located, or their non-
existence proved by professional authority through local search. Such
dangers have frequently been found to exist at considerable distance
from the positions given, from indifferent astronomical observations,
or from reckoning referred to observations taken several days before
or after their discovery ; the search must, therefore, be extended over
a considerable area. The search for islands is naturally less difficult
than that for submerged dangers, which on the broad ocean can in
some instances hardly be detected but by chance.

In causing reported dangers of this nature to be erased from the
charts, on the strength of a search which has not been thorough
in every particular, the hydrographer incurs a grave responsibility;
there are a number of instances on record where dangers which
had been searched for most carefully and by very competent authority,
have been replaced exactly in the position from which they were
erased, after they have been assured by the loss of a vessel on them,
and the reexamination of the position in consequence of it.

A correct representation of the character of the bottom of the
waters is very important, not only for the selection of anchorages,
but also as a guide to the navigator when he cannot otherwise obtain
the position. of his vessel, especially when approaching a coast in fogs
and thick weather, or when passing through channels not bordered
by good landmarks ; for this purpose specimens of the bottom should
be brought up for examination, and every change of it noted.

The tidal relations, tidal hour, and the rise and fall at the various
stages of the moon, and in the various seasons, the influence of the
winds upon the tides, etc., can be deduced accurately only by obser-
vations continued through a longer period than the limited time of a
running survey will generally permit. Observers should, if possible,
be left for this purpose at the important points. A lunation is the
shortest period in which approximate data can be arrived at, but ob-

5i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

servations for a shorter time, and by rough means, may prove of some
value, and such should be made daily.

Meteorological observations, the direction and force of the winds,
the appearance of the sky and clouds, temperature, the pressure and
humidity of the atmosphere, etc., should be made at the stations occu-
pied for tidal observations ; they can then be made with more preci-
sion than those usually made on board ship.

Every opportunity should be availed of for gathering information
from intelligent residents in regard to the local, tidal, and meteorolo-
gical relations, in order to complete deficient observations. Perma-
nent currents are correctly ascertained in places where a vessel can
anchor, by various methods of observation, on the deep sea generally
by the difference between the position by observation and that by the
dead-reckoning.

The active hydrographic surveyor will not, while on the ocean,
neglect to aid in the labor of the physicist, by examining into the con-
dition of the water, its temperature at the surface and at various depths,
its specific gravity and salinity, its fauna and flora, and by contributing
to the natural sciences, general geography, geology, and ethnology,
while in regions which may be not at all, or but little, explored.

The hydrographic part of the information thus obtained is laid
down for the use of the navigator in charts and text-books in such a
manner as to be rendered complete without interfering with clearness
and ready comprehension.

Charts must contain with distinctness every featui-e upon which
the navigator relies, coast-line, out4ying dangers, peaks of mountains,
with their height, conspicuous objects, etc. Sea-charts are construct-
ed for publication on Mercator's projection, although this projection
distorts the relative size of the several areas and the bearings of
points ; the more so the farther the chart is extended toward the
poles. Navigators, however, prefer it to the more correct conic pro-
jections, as it represents the meridians and parallels of latitude in
straight lines, thereby facilitating the laying down positions and bear-
ings. The careful hydrographer will plot his work on a conic pro-
jection, and thence transfer it to that of the Mercator. The gno-
monic projection — projecting areas on a plane tangent to the earth
from the earth's centre — represents the great circles, the shortest dis-
tances between two points by straight lines, and in this has advan-
tages for charts of entire oceans. As yet, this projection has not
been used to any extent. All conspicuous objects on which the navi-
gator depends should be given preference in distinctness of delinea-
tion over that of mere detail.

Upon the intricacy of the configuration, especially that of danger-
ous passages, will depend the scale to be adopted, which should not
be so large as to render the chart unhandy, and not so small as to in-
terfere with clearness. Usually the work is first laid down on a scale

HYDR 0 GRAPHY. 5 1 9

large enough to show at a glance any fault in the projection, and then
reduced to the scale decided on for publication. On the latter, objects
of importance, especially dangers to navigation, should be exaggerated
in preference to their not being sufficiently conspicuous. The sound-
ings obtained, especially in harbors, will be far too numerous to repre-
sent them all, even upon the working-sheet ; care must be taken in
selecting the characteristic soundings, which must be reduced to a
certain state of the tide, usually to low water, and they must be
placed on the exact spot representing that in which they were ob-
tained. Heretofore these were expressed in the standard measure of
the country in which the chart was published, but recently the French
metre has been adopted by all maritime nations, excepting Great
Britain and the United States, who use the English fathom and foot.
It is preferable to use on the same chart but one unit, either fathoms
or feet, as the use of both, even with the shading, frequently leads to
error. In order to show better the structure of the bottom, and to
make irregularities more conspicuous, curves of equal depths — fathom-
curves — are laid down. The denomination of the curves depends upon
the depth of water that can be carried into the harbor or along the
coast. Harbor charts generally show the five, three, two, and one
fathom curves, the latter three often distinguished by shades of sand-
ing (dots to represent sand) ; the five-fathom curve is expressed by
rows of five dots on the line of the curve. Coast-charts generally
show in addition a ten, fifty, and one-hundred fathom curve.

The character of the bottom is represented by the first letter, or an
abbreviation of the word, expressing it ; currents by arrows, with the
force in knots per hour or per day placed along them ; buoys and
beacons are shown by conventional signs.

Lines of bearing point out the courses to be steered, and guide
also in avoiding dangers. Views, placed so as not to interfere with
the sailing-ground, show the appearance of the land on the bearings
on which they are taken.

An important feature of the chart is the compass, placed in such
positions as are most convenient for taking off the courses. On har-
bors and special coast-charts the compass-points are generally laid ofi
from the magnetic north line; on general ocean-charts, on which the
variation changes rapidly with the lateral distances from the direction
of the magnetic curves, they are laid oif from the true north.

General charts, and fi-equently harbor-charts, have the projection
drawn over them, from which the latitude and longitude of any point
represented on it can be ascertained minutely; where the projection is
not thus drawn, the astronomical position of a well-defined point is
given, usually under the title, with the mention of the primary posi-
tion to which it has been referred. The title also embraces the tidal
hour, with rise and fall of tide, at the full and change ; the unit of
measure in which soundings and elevations are expressed ; the scale

520 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

on which the chart has been constructed, and an explanation of the
conventional signs used on it ; these latter, however, are generally-
supposed to be known.

General notes regarding the winds, currents, tides, harbor facili-
ties, etc., are frequently added, as also sometimes sailing-directions ;
but generally these are left for text-books, which, under the titles of
" Directions," " Memoirs," " Manuals," or " Pilots," give to the navi-
gator the information obtained by the hydrographer, with the general
results arrived at, which cannot be engrossed on charts.

By a judicious arrangement and a complete index, these should be
made as intelligible and as ready for reference as possible, and should
contain all the points within the area treated on that are of interest
to navigation.

The first treatise on marine surveying, published in a practical
form, was by Alexander Dalrymple, in 1771. This was followed by
the work of M. Beautemps Beaupre, in 1808 ; since which time there
have been published many valuable works on marine surveying,
adapted both to running surveys and to greater geodetical operations.

In hydrographic surveys and exploration, England has always been
foremost. Her Hydrographic Ofiice, dating from 1795, under Al-
exander Dalrymple, was not firmly established until 1828, when Cap-
tain Francis Beaufort became the hydrographer to the British Admi-
ralty ; since which time, under the administration of the line of dis-
tinguished navy officers his successors, it has steadily advanced, to
the inestimable benefit of commerce, both British and foreign. At the
present date the charts of this office number two thousand nine hun-
dred and eighteen, and yet about one-half of the coasts and navigable
waters of the world remain unsurveyed, a great part not even examined.

An interesting skeleton chart of the world, compiled at the British
Hydrographic Office and attached to a paper delivered by Commander
Hull, R. N., superintendent of the Admiralty charts, before the Royal
United Service Institution, showed the portions of the coasts of the
world surveyed, partially surveyed, and only explored. Taking this
continent alone, between the parallels of 60° north and 60° south, be-
yond which whaling-vessels only generally go, it will be found by rough
measurement that about 12,000 miles of the seacoast have been sur-
veyed, 20,000 miles partially surveyed, and that 8,000 have been only
explored. Coasts partially surveyed or only explored require the
utmost caution for safe navigation ; and, even with this, vessels are
constantly in peril. For the remainder of the globe, with exception
of Europe, the proportion of the inadequately-surveyed and almost
unknown coasts and waters is much greater. This should demonstrate
clearly the vast field of labor awaiting the maritime surveyor.

England perseveres in this work, and her hydrographic parties are
found in every quarter of the globe, opening new channels to com-
merce, and defining the dangers of navigation. France, in her publi-

LACE AND LACE-MAKING. 521

cations issuing from her Department des Cartes et Plans, is hai-dly
behind Great Britain ; from the time of the father of French hydrog-
raphy, M. Beautemps Beaupre, to that of its present distinguished
director. Vice- Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, this office has not ceased
to assert its prominence and usefulness, France, however, though
constantly and systematically prosecuting foreign hydrographic sur-
veys, has not carried this work to the same extent as England. Spain,
of late yeai'S, has rested on her laurels of the past, and with other
maritime nations, with exception of casual foreign surveys, has re-
stricted herself to the shores of her own possessions, and to issuing
from time to time valuable publications and information for the bene-
fit of navigation. The United States Hydrographic Office, though
yet in its infancy, has made rapid progress, and now issues a respect-
able number of piiblications ; no permanent system, however, of hy-
drographic surveys has ever been successfully instituted under the
Navy Department. On its own coast, in its waters and harbors, the
work of the United States Coast Survey is extensive, scientific, and
thorough, and many years will yet be required for its completion.

All attempts to inaugurate a system of foi-eign surveys have failed,
though, with intervals of many years, spasmodic eiForts have been
made and expeditions sent from her shores, which have done good
service to hydrography and geographical science, though many and
powerful attempts have been made by those interested in commerce
and navigation to induce legislators to appropriate the small amounts
requisite for this service ; yet, even when s\ich have been organized,
and the hydrographic work was beginning to yield its fruit, the want
of interest and legislation has crushed it out, and necessitated the
withdrawal of the work, leaving only the hope that in time to come
the United States may assist the other great maritime nations in
making more smooth the course of the mariner through the paths of
the great deep. Millions of property have been lost, with thousands
of valuable lives, from the lamentable neglect of continued hydro-
graphic surveys.

LACE AND LACE-MAKING.'

Bv ELIZA A. YOUMANS.

TO think of lace merely as a symbol of vanity is quite to miss its
deeper significance. If the feeling that prompts to personal
decoration be a prober one — and it is certainly a natural and univer-
sal sentiment — then lace has its defense, and we may agree with old

' We cannot give a complete account of lace in a magazine article, but readers who
desire more information are referred to Mrs. Palliser's excellent history of the subject, to
which we are largely indebted, and from which our illustrations are mostly taken.

/ "

522 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Fuller of the seventeenth century, when he says : " Let it not he con-
demned for superfluous wearing, because it doth neither hide nor heat,
seeing that it doth adorn." But the subject has also its graver as-
pects ; for, as science is said to obliterate all diflerence between great
and small, so the history of lace may be said to eftace the distinction
between the frivolous and the serious. Though good for nothing but
decoration, the most earnest elements of humanity have been enlisted
in connection with it. Lace-making, a product of the fii*st rude begin-
nings of art, though complex, and involving immense labor, was yet
early perfected. As a source of wealth, it has been the envy of na-
tions and has shaped state policy ; as a local industry, it has enriched
and ruined provinces ; and, as a provocative of invention, it has
given rise to the most ingenious devices of modern times, which have
come into use only with tragic social accompaniments. The subject
has, therefore, various elements of interest which will commend it to
the readers of the Monthly.

Lace, made of fine threads of gold, silver, silk, flax, cotton, hairs,
or other delicate fibres, has been in use for centuries in all the
countries of Europe. But long before the appearance of lace, jDroperly
so called, attempts of various kinds were made to produce open, gauzy
tissues resembling the spider's web. Specimens of primitive needle-
work are abundant in which this openness is secured in various ways.
The " fine-twined linen," the " nets of checker-work," and the " em-
broidery" of the Old Testament, are examples. This ornamental
needle-work was early held in great esteem by the Church, and was
the daily employment of the convent. For a long time the art of
makinff it was a church secret, and it was known as nuns'-work.
Even monks were commended for their skill in embroidery.

A kind of primitive lace, in use centuries ago in Europe, and speci-
mens of which are still abundant, is called cut-work. It was made in
many ways. Sometimes a network of threads was arranged upon a
small frame, beneath which was gummed a piece of fine cloth, open,
like canvas. Then with a needle the network was sewed to the cloth,
and the superfluous cloth was cut away ; hence the name of cut-work.
Another lace-lrke fabric of very ancient date, and known- as drawn-
work, was made by drawing out a portion of the warp and weft
threads from linen, and leaving a square network of threads, which
wei-e made firm by a stitch at each corner of the mesh. Sometimes
these netted grounds were embroidered with colors. "*

Still another ancient lace, called " darned-netting," was made by em-
broidering figures upon a plain net, like ordinary nets of the present
day. Lace was also formed of threads, radiating from a common centre
at equal distances, and united by squares, triangles, rosettes, and other
o-eometrical forms, which were worked over with a button-hole stitch,
and the net thus made was more or less ornamented with' embroidery.
Church-vestments, altar-cloths, and grave-cloths, were elaborately dec-

LACE AND LACE-MAKING. 523

orated with it. An eye-witness of the disinterment of St. Cuthbert in
the twelfth century says : " There had been put over him a sheet
which had a fringe of linen thread of a finger's length ; upon its sides
and ends was woven a border of the thread, bearing the figures of
birds, beasts, and brandling trees." This sheet was kept for centu-
ries in the cathedral of Durham as a specimen of drawn or cut work.
Darned-netting and drawn and cut work are still made by the peasants
in many countri^.

The skill and labor required in the production of these ornamental
tissues gave them immense value, and only kings and nobles were able
to buy them. But, as this kind of manufacture was encouraged and
rewarded by the courts, it reached great perfection centuries ago. A
search among court records, and a study of old pictures and monu-
mental sculptures, show that it was much worn in the fifteenth cen-
tury ; but it was not known as lace. The plain or figured network
which we call lace was for a long time called passement, a general
term for gimps and braids as well as lace, and this term continued in
use till the middle of the seventeenth century.

Lace was not only known and worn in the fifteenth century, but
its manufacture at that time was an important industry in both Italy
and Flanders (Belgium) ; while in the sixteenth and seventeenth centu-
ries it was extensively made in all the leading countries of Europe.
Two distinct kinds of lace were made by two essentiall)'- different
methods. One was called point-lace, and was made with the needle,
while the other was made upon a stuffed oval board, called a pillow,
and the fabric was hence called pillow-lace. " On this pillow a stiff"
piece of parchment is fixed, with small holes pricked through to work
the pattern. Through these holes pins are stuck into the cushion.'
Tile threads with which the lace is made are wound upon 'bobbins,'
small, round pieces of wood, about the size of a pencil, having around
their upper ends a deep groove on which the thread is wound, a sepa-
rate bobbin being used for each thread. By the twisting and crossing
of these threads the ground of the lace is formed." The pattern is
made by interweaving a much thicker thread than that of the ground,
according to the design pricked out on the pattern.

The making of plain lace-net upon the pillow is thus described:
"Threads are hung round the pillow in front, each attached to a bob-
bin, from which it is supplied and acting as a weight. Each pair of
adjacent threads is twisted three half-turns by passing the bobbins
over each other. Then the twisted threads are separated and crossed
over pins on the front of the cushion in a row. The like twist is then
made by every adjacent pair of threads not before twisted, w^hence
the threads become united sideways in meshes. By repeating the
process the fabric gains the length and width required."

' Sometimes lace-makers who were the wives of fishermen, not being able to buy pins,
used the bones of fish as substitutes. Hence the term bone-lace.

524

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Fig. 1 — Vaienciennes Lappet. Eighteenth Century.

LACE AND LACE-MAKING.

525

Lace consists of two parts: a network called the ground, and the
pattern traced upon it, sometimes called the flower, or gimp (Fig. 1).
In modern lace we may easily distinguish the ground and pattern,
but in the older laces the flowers are not wrought upon a network

Fig. 2.— Honiton Guipuee.

ground, but are connected by ii'regular threads, overcast with button-
hole stitch, and sometimes fringed with loops. These connecting-
threads, called " brides,'''' are sho-wn in Fig. 2.

The network ground is known by the French term reseaii. It
is sometimes called entoilage, on account of its containing the toile

^26

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

flower or ornament, which resembles linen, and is often made of linen
thread. The terms /ow(Z and champ are also applied to it.

The ornamental pattern is sometimes made with the ground as n
Fig. 3, or separately, and then worked in or sewed on {cqopliqiie), Fig. 4.
The open-work stitches seen in the pattern are called modes, jours, or
" fillings."

All lace has two edges, the " footing," a narrow lace which serves
to keep the stitches of the ground firm that it may be sewed to the gar-
ment upon which it is to be worn (Fig. 3) ; and the " pearl," picot,
couromie, a row of little points or loops at equal distances at the free
edsre as shown in the figures.

The manufacture of point-lace was brought to the highest perfec-
tion by the Venetians as early as the sixteenth century. The pattern-

FiG. 3.— Valenciennes lace op Ypkes.

books of that time contain examples of more than a hundred varieties
of this costly lace. Some of these points were world-renowned for
their fineness and exquisite beauty. Point de Venice, en relief, is the
richest and most complicated of all laces. It is so strong, with its
tiers upon tiers of stitches, that some of it has lasted for centuries.
All the outlines are in high-relief, and innumerable benutiful stitches
are introduced into the flowers. Italian influence under the Valois
and Medicis spread the fashion for rich laces, and the Venetian points
were in great demand in foreign countries, particularly in France.
The exportation of costly laces was a source of great ivealth to Venice.
The making of lace was universal in every household, and the secret
of the manufacture of her finest points she jealously guarded. Al-
though both point and pillow lace were made at this time in all the
leading countries of Europe, Flanders was the only rival of Italy in
the markets of the world.

LACE AND LACE-MAKING.

S27

During the sixteenth century there was the most extravagant use
of lace by the court of France. In 1577, on a state occasion, the king
wore four thousand yards of pure gold lace on his dress, and the ward-
robe accounts of the queen are tilled with entries of point-lace. Such
was the prodigality of the nobility at this period in the purchase of
lace that sumptuary edicts were issued against it, but edicts failed to
put down Venetian points ; profusion in the use of lace only increased.
The consumption of foreign lace and embroidery was unbounded.
Immense sums of money found their way annually from France to
Italy and Flanders for these costly fabrics. As royal commands were
powerless against the artistic productions of Venice, Genoa, and Brus-
sels, it was determined by Colbert, the French minister, to develop the
lace-manufacture in France, that the money spent upon these luxuries
might be kept within the kingdom. Skillful workmen were suborned
from Venice and the Low Countries, and placed around in the existing
manufactories and in towns where new ones were to be established.

Fig. 4.— Old Honiton Application.

A declaration of August 5, 1665, orders "the manufacture of all
sorts of works of thread, as well of the needle as on the pillow, in the
manner of the points which are made at Venice and other foreign
countries, which shall be called ' points de France.' " In a few years
a lucrative manufacture was established which brought large sums
into the kingdom. Point de France supplanted the points of Venice
and Flanders, and France became a lace-making as well as a lace-
wearing country.

The manufacture of the most sumptuous of the points de France
was established by the minister at the town of Alen^on, near his resi-
dence. Venetian point in relief was made in perfection in this place
before his death, 1683. In all the points of this century the flowers
are united d bride (Fig. 2), but in the eighteenth century the net-
work ground was introduced, and soon became universal. The name

528 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

point de France for French point-lace was after a time dropped, and
the different styles took the name of the towns at which the)- were
made, as point d'Alencjon and point d'Argentan.

" Point d'Alen^on is made entirely by hand with a fine needle,
upon a parchment pattern, in small pieces, afterward united by invisi-
ble seams. Each part is executed by a special workman. The design,
engraved upon a copperplate, is printed off in divisions upon pieces
of parchment ten inches long, and numbered in their order. Green
parchment is now used, the w'orker being better able to detect faults
in her work than on white. The pattern is next pricked upon |he
parchment, which is stitched to a piece of very coarse linen folded
double. The outline of the pattern is then formed by two flat threads,
which are guided along the edge by the thumb of the left hand, and
fixed by minute stitches, passed with another thread and needle
through the holes of the parchment. When the outline is finished, the
work is given over to the maker of the ground, which is of two kinds,
hride and reseaif. The delicate reseau is worked backward and for-
ward from the footing to the picot. For the flowers the w^orker sup-
plies herself with a long needle and a fine thread; with these she
works the button-hole stitch [point nouk) from left to right, and, when
arrived at the end of the flower, the thread is thrown back from the
point of departure, and she works again from left to right over the
thread. This gives a closeness and evenness to the work unequaled in
any other point. Then follow the anodes and other operations, so that
it I'equires twelve different hands to complete it. The threads which
unite linen, lace and parchment are then severed, and all the segments
are united together by the head of the establishment. This is a work
of the greatest nicety." From its solidity and durability Alen^on has
been called the Queen of Lace.

The manufacture of Alengon lace had greatly declined even before
the Revolution, and was almost extinct when the patronage of Napo-
leon restored its prosperity. On his marriage with the Empress Marie
Louise, among other orders executed for him was a bed furniture —
tester, curtains, coverlet, and pillow-cases, of great beauty and rich-
ness. The patteVn represented the arms of the empiie surrounded by
bees. Fig, 5 is a piece of the ground powdered with bees. The dif-
ferences of shading seen in the ground show where the separate bits
of lace were joined in the finishing. With the fall of Napoleon this
manufacture again declined, and, when in 1840 attempts were made
to revive it, the old workers, who had been specially trained to it, had
passed away, and the new workers could not acquire the art of making
the pure Alencjon ground. But they made magnificent lace, and Na-
poleon in. was magnificent in his patronage of the revived manufact-
ure. One flounce worth 22,000 francs, which had taken thirty-six
women eighteen months to finish, appeared among the wedding-pres-
ents of Eugenie. In 1855 he presented the empress with a dress of

LACE AND LACE-MAKING.

529

AlenQon point which cost Y0,000 francs ($14,000). Among the orders
of the emperor in 1856 were the curtains of the imperial infant's cradle,
of needle-point, and a satin-lined Alen^on coverlet ; christening robe,
mantle, and head-dress, of Alen^on ; twelve dozen embroidered frocks
profusely trimmed with Alen(,-on ; and lace-trimming for the aprons
of the imperial nurses. The finest Alengon point is now made at
Bayeux.

Argentan is another town in France celebrated for its point-lace,
which was not inferior in beauty to that of Alengon. The flowers of

Fig. 5.— ALEN90N Bed made for Napoleon I.

point d' Argentan, as seen in Fig. 6, are large and bold, in high-relief,
on a clear compact ground, with a large, six-sided mesh. This ground
was made by passing the needle and thread around pins pricked into
a parchment pattern, and the six sides were worked over with seven or
eight button-hole stitches on each side. It is called the grande bride
ground, and is very strong.

While it is clear that France derived the art of making Alengon
point from Italy, yet, along with all the countries of Northern Europe,
Germany, and England, she is in the main indebted to Flanders for
her knowledge of the art of lace-making. Flanders, as well as Italy,

VOL. VIII. — 34

53^*

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

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LACE AND LAGE-MAKIXG.

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claims the invention of lace, and, notwithstanding its glorious past,
the lace-trade of Belgium is now as flourishing as at any former pe-

riod. Brussels lace is widely known as point cV Angleterre, for the
reason, it is said, that in the seventeenth century the English, after
vainly attempting to establish its manufacture at home, bought up

532 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tlie finest laces of the Brussels market, smuggled them over to Eng-
land, and sold them as English point (Figs. 7 and 8).

The smuggling of lace is a very important and interesting feature
in its history. From IVOO downward we are told that in England the
prohibition of lace went for nothing. Ladies would have foreign lace,
and if they could not smuggle it themselves the smuggler brought it
to them. " Books, bottles, babies, boxes, and umbrellas, daily poured
out their treasures." Everybody smuggled.

" At one period much lace was smuggled into France from Bel-
gium by means of dogs trained for the purpose. A dog was caressed
and petted at home, fed on the fat of the land, then, after a season,
sent across the frontier where he was tied up, half starved, and ill-
treated. The skin of a bigger dog was then fitted to his body,
and the intervening space filled with lace. The dog was then allowed
to escape, and make his way home, where he was kindly welcomed,
with his contraband charge. These journeys were repeated till the
French custom-house, getting scent, by degrees put an end to the
traffic. Between 1820 and 1836, 40,278 dogs were destroyed, a reward
of three francs being given for each."

The thread used in Brussels lace is of the first importance. It is
of extreme fineness, and the best quality, spun in underground rooms
to avoid dryness of the air, is so fine as to be almost invisible. The
room is darkened, and a background of dark paper is arranged to
throw out the thread, while only a single ray of light is admitted,
which falls upon it as it passes from the distafi". The exquisite fine-
ness of this thread made the real Brussels ground so costly as to pre-
vent its production in other countries. A Scotch traveler, in 1787,
says that " at Brussels, from one pound of flax alone, they can manu-
facture to the value of seven hundred pounds sterling."

In fijrmer times, the ground of Brussels lace was made both by
needle and on the pillow. The needle-ground was worked from one
flower to another, while the pillow-ground was made in small strips
an inch wide, and from seven to forty-five inches long. It required
the greatest skill to join the segments of shawls and large pieces of
lace. The needle-ground is three times as expensive as the pillow, for
the needle is passed four times into each mesh, but in the pillow it is
not passed at all. Machinery has now added a third kind of ground,
called tulle, or Brussels-net. Since this has come into use, the hand-
made ground is seldom used except for royal trousseaux. The flow-
ers of Brussels lace are also both needle-made joorn^ d V aiguille dindi
those of the pillow " point plat." In the older laces the plat flowers
were worked in along with the ground, as lace applique was unknown
(Figs. 7 and 8).

Each process in the making of Brussels lace is assigned to a difier
ent hand. The first makes the vrai reseau; the second the fiaoting;
the third makes the point d Vaiguille flowers ; the fourth, the plat

LACE AND LACE-MAKING.

533

flowers ; the fifth has charge of the open-work (Jours) in the phit ; the
sixth unites the diflerent pieces of the ground ; and the seventh sews

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the flowers upon the ground (application). The master prepares the
pattern, selects the ground, and chooses the thread, and hands all

534

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

over to the workman, who has no responsibility iu these matters.
*' The lace industry of Brussels is now divided into two branches, the
making of sprigs, either point or pillow, for application upon the net-
ground, and the modern point gaze. The first is the Brussels lace,
var excellence^ and more of it is produced than of any other kind. Of
late years it has been greatly improved by mixing point and pillow-
made flowers.

Point gaze is so called from its gauze-like needle-ground, fond
gaze., comprised of very fine, round meshes, Avith needle-made flow-
ers, made simultaneously with the ground, by means of the same
thread, as in the old Brussels. It is made in small pieces, the joining
concealed by sprigs or leaves, like the old point, the same lace-worker
making the whole strip from beginning to end. Point gaze is now
brought to the highest perfection, and is remarkable for the precision
of the work, the variety and richness of the jours, and the clearness
of the ground. It somewhat resembles point d'Alengon, but the work
is less elaborate and less solid. Alengon lace, it is said, could not
compete with Brussels in its designs, which are not copied from Na-
ture, while the roses and honeysuckles of the Brussels lace are wor-
thy of a Dutch painter. When flowers of both pillow and needle-
lace are marked upon the '•'' fond gaze it is erroneously called point de
Venice."

Lace-making is at present the chief source of national wealth in
Belgium. It forms a part of female education, and one-foptieth of the
entire population (150,000 women) are said to be engaged upon it.

But some of the pillow-laces have had immense popularity as well
as those of the needle. Fig. 1 is a beautiful example of the pillow-
lace made at Valenciennes in the eighteenth century.

This kind of lace was first made in the city of Valenciennes, and
the manufacture reached its height in that town about 1780, when
there were some 4,000 lace-makers employed ujjOn it ; but fashion
changed, lighter laces came into vogue, and in 1790 the lace-workers
had diminished to 250, Napoleon made an unsuccessful attempt to
revive the manufacture, and in 1851 only two lace-makers remained,
and they were over eighty years old. At one time this manufacture was
so peculiar to the place that it was said, " if a piece of lace were be-
gun at Valenciennes and finished outside the walls, the part not made
at Valenciennes would be visibly less beautiful and less perfect than
the other, though done by the same lace-maker with the same thread
and pillow," The city-made lace was remarkable for its richness of
design, evenness, and solidity. It was known as the " beautiful and
everlasting Valenciennes," and was bequeathed from mother to daugh-
ter like jewels and furs. It was made by young girls in underground
rooms, and many of these workers are said to have become almost
blind before they were thirty years of age When the whole piece
was done by the same hand the lace was thought much more valuable.

LACE AND LACE-MAKING.

535

Valenciennes lace was made in other towns of tlie province, but
" vraie Valenciennes " onlj' at Valenciennes. The Lille makers, for
instance, would make from three to five ells a day (an ell is forty-eight
inches), while those of Valenciennes would make not more than an
inch and a half in the same time. Some lace-makers made only twen-
ty-four inches in a year; hence the costliness of the lace. Modern
Valenciennes is far inferior in quality to that made in 1780.

The manufacture is now transferred to Belgium, to the great com-
mercial loss of France, for it is the most widely consumed of any of
the varieties of lace. It is the most important of the pillow-laces of
Belgium. Ypres, which is the chief place of its manufacture, began
to make this lace in 1656. In 1684 it had only three forewomen and
63 lace-makers, while in 1850 it numbered from 20,000 to 22,000.
The Valenciennes of Ypres (Fig. 3) is the finest and most elaborate
of any that is now made. On a piece not two inches wide, from 200
to 300 bobbins are employed, and for greater widths 800 bobbins ai'e
sometimes used on the same pillow. The large, clear squares of the
ground contrast finely with the even tissue of the patterns. The
Ypres manufacture has greatly improved since 1833, and has reached
a high degree of perfection. Irish Valenciennes closely resembles
the Ypres lace. Valenciennes lace as fine as that of France was at
one time made in England (Fig. 9).

Fig. 9.— Valenciennes, Northampton, England.

Mechlin is a fine, beautiful lace, made in one piece on the pillow,
and is distinguished by the flat thread which forms its flower. Be-
fore 1665 all pillow-lace, of which the pattern was relieved by a flat
thread, was known as Mechlin lace. " It is essentially a summer lace,
not becoming in itself, but charming when worn over color."

Silk laces were first made about 1745. At first this new fabric was
manufactured from silk of the natural color brought from Nanking
and it was hence called blonde. After a time, however, it was pre-
pared from the purest and most brilliant white silk. " Not every
woman can work at the while lace. Those who have what is locally
termed the haleine grasse (greasy breath) are obliged to confine them-

536 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

selves to black." To preserve purity of color it is made in the open
air in summer, and in winter in the lofts over cow-houses, as the
warmth of the animals enables the workers to dispense with fire,
which makes more or less smoke. The most beautiful blondes were
once made at Caen, biit competition with the machine-made blondes
of Calais and Nottingham has caused the manufacture of wliite blonde
to be abandoned at this place, and its lace-makers now confine them-
selves to making black lace.

The manufacture of black-silk lace was first established in the
town of Chantilly, near Paris, and hence, wherever this fabric is now
made, it is called " Chantilly lace." It is always' made of a lustreless
silk, called " grenadine," which is cojumonly mistaken for thread. As
it was only consumed by the nobility, its unfortunate producers be-
came the victims of the Revolution of 1793, and perished with their
patrons on the scaffold. This put an end to the manufacture for many
years; but in 1835 black lace again became fashionable, and Chantilly
was once more prosperous. But the nearness of Chantilly to Paris
has, of late, increased the price of labor so much that the lace-manu-
facturers have been driven away. The so-called Chantilly shawls are
now made at Bayeux. The shawls, dresses, and scarfs, that are still
made at Chantilly are mere objects of luxury.

The black laces of Caen, Bayeux, and Chantilly, are identical.
The shawls, dresses, flounces, veils, etc., are ma^le in strips and united
by a peculiar stitch. Great pains are taken in Bayeux in the instruc-
tion of lace-makers, so that the town now leads in the manufacture ol
large pieces of black lace. Fig. 10 represents a sample of this lace
of the finest quality and of rich design.

Each country has furnished its special style of lace — Italy its
points of Venice and Genoa ; Flanders its Brussels, Mechlin, and
Valenciennes ; France its point d'Alen^on and its black lace of Ba-
yeux. England has also produced its unique Honiton, and Spain its
silk blondes. Each of these laces is made in other countries, but in
its characteristic lace each nation is unrivaled.

Honiton lace, the only original English lace of importance, was
first made at Honiton, in Devonshii'e, in the seventeenth century.
The art of lace-making is said to have been brought into England
by Flemish refugees, and Honiton lace long preserved an unmis-
takable Flemish character. It is to its sprigs that it owes its repu-
tation. They are made separately, and at first they were worked in
with the pillow-ground; afterward they were sewed on, as shown in
Fig. 4, which is a sample of the Honiton of the last century. The net
is very beautiful and regular. It is made of the finest thread, brought
from Antwerp at a cost of $350 per pound. There was no thread to
be found in the British Islands fit for the purpose. Cotton thread,
perhaps, might be had, but not the linen thread necessary in a work
requiring so much labor, which alone would make it very costly.

LACE AND LACE-MAKING.

537

The manufacture of a piece of net like this, eighteen inches square,
cost 176, and a Honiton veil often cost a hundred guineas.

At the time of the marriage of Queen Victoria, the manufacture of
Honiton lace was so depressed that it was with difficulty the neces-
sary number of lace-workers could be found to execute the wedding

Fia. 10.— Black Lace of Batbus.

lace. Her dress cost £1,000, and was composed entirely of Honiton
sprigs, connected on the pillow by a variety of open-work stitches.
Fig. 11 is one of the honeysuckle sprigs from a flounce afterward
made for her Majesty. "The bridal dresses of their royal high-
nesses the Princess Royal, the Princess Alice, and the Princess of

538

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Wales, were all of Honiton lace, the patterns consisting of the na-
tional flowers, the latter with prince's-feathers intermixed with ferns,
and introduced with the most happy effect." These sprigs are joined
with the needle by various stitches, forming Honiton guipure. Fig. 2,
which, in richness and delicacy, is by many thought to surjjass the fine

Fia. 11.— Honeysuckle Spkig of Modern Honiton.

guipure of Belgium, known as duchesse lace. " The reliefs are em-
broidered with the greatest delicacy, and the beauty of the workman-
ship is exquisite."

Valenciennes and Mechlin were the first laces in which the ground
was wrought in one piece with the design. Until this time all lace
had been guipure — that is, it had consisted of open embroidery, in
which the figures were connected by brides without any thing like a
background. The network ground, which we now take to be the es-
sential thing in lace, was not thought of till the end of the seven-
teenth century. The word guipure means a thick cord over which
silk, gold, or silver thread, is twisted. In the seventeenth century
this guipure, or guip'e, was introduced into lace to imitate the high-

LACE AND LACE-MAKING.

539

reliefs of needle-made points. These were guipure laces. The name
has since been applied to all laces without grounds that have the pat-
terns united by brides. The bold, flowing figures of Belgium and
Italy, joined by a coarse network gi-ound (Fig. 12), are also called
guipure.

The guipure called Cluny, with its geometrical patterns, is a re-
cent lace which derives its name from the circumstance that the first
patterns were copied from specimens of old lace in the Musee de
Cluny.

Thus far we have only spoken of hand-made lace, which, in Italy,
was a purely domestic industry. It was made by women at home,

Fig. 12.— Gotpube. Seventeenth Century.

and each piece of work was begun and finished by the same hand.
But, when the statesman Colbert introduced the manufacture into
France, the principle of the division of labor was adopted, and the
work was done in large factories. By degrees, as we have seen, fine
needle-made net replaced the bride-ground in costly laces, and cheaper
laces of the same style were made upon the pillow. The sprigs were
at first worked into the net ; but at length, in the Valenciennes and
Mechlin laces, the figure was made along with the ground, and it was
the immense success of these laces which led to the invention and
perfection of lace-machines, so that now almost every kind of lace is
made by machinery, and often so perfect that it is difficult for experts
to detect the difference.

540 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" The number of new mechanical contrivances to which this branch
of manufacture has given rise is altogether unparalleled in any other
department of the arts." It was in 1764, a little more than a hundred
years ago, that pillow-made net was first imitated by machinery. It
was called frame-looped net, and was made by using one thread, as in
hosiery, and, like hosiery, the lace would ravel when this thread was
broken. The machine was, in fact, a modification of the stocking-
frame. It was so much improved fi'om time to time that net with
six-sided meshes could be made, which, when stiffened, looked like
cushion-net, but when damp it would shrink like crape.

Another machine was devised for making lace, called the warp-
frame. The lace made by it, like the former, consisted of looped
stitches, but a solid web was produced, which could be cut and sewed
like cloth. In 1795 lace open-work was made by this machine, and
soon afterward durable and cheap figured laces, in endless variety.
" The lightest gossamer blond silk laces, cotton tattings and edgings,
antimacassars and d'oyleys, threaded and pearled, are finished in this
loom, and are the pioneers of higher-priced lace articles throughout
the world. In 1810 there were four hundred warp-looms at work
making the lace called Mechlin-net, and using cotton yarn costing fif-
teen guineas the pound."

But the most important step ever taken in the making of lace was
the invention of the bobbin-net machine. Until this invention ma-
chine-lace was, for the most part, only a kind of knitting that had to
be gummed and stifiened to give it the solidity of net. The great prob-
lem of the time was how to imitate pillow-made net by machinery.
Numerous attempts to do this were made by smiths, weavers, and
lace-makers. Much inventive talent was vainly spent, and many men
of genius fell into poverty through their prolonged and unrequited
efibrts to construct the required machine. Insanity and self-destruc-
tion had ended the careers of some, and disappointment and misfortune
befell them all, until at last the idea of such a machine was regarded
as visionary — it was classed with the perpetual motion.

John Heathcote, the inventor of the bobbin-net machine, was born
in 1783. In youth he was remarkable for his quick acquisition of
knowledge, his thoughtful intelligence, and quiet deportment. He
was early placed at the hosiery manufacture, and at the age of sixteen
he conceived the idea of constructing a machine to make lace. In
1804 he was at work as a journeyman at Nottingham, and is thus de-
scribed by his employer : " Heathcote showed that he had already at-
tained to a thorough knowledge of mechanical contrivances ; was in-
ventive and persevering ; undaunted by difficulties or mistakes and
consequent ill-success ; patient, self-denying, and very taciturn. But
he expressed surprising confidence that, by the application of mechani-
cal principles to the construction of a twist-net machine, his eflTorts
would be ci'owned with success." Being determined to construct a

LACE AND LACE-MAKING. 541

machine for making twisted and traversed net,' he removed to a place
where he could secure privacy and the constant sight of lace-making
upon the pillow. During the time between 1805 and 1808 he perfected
and patented his first machine, by which he could make a breadth of
traversed and twisted net three inches wide. It was pronounced by
Lord Lyndhurst " the most extraordinary machine ever invented ; but
he at once broke it up, and in 1809 patented another, which would
make a wider net and had many other advantages.

" Cushion-made net had half the threads proceeding in wavy lines
from end to end of the piece, and may be represented by warp-threads.
The other threads, lying between the former, pass from side to side
by an oblique course to the right and left, and may be called weft-
threads. If the warp-threads could move relatively to the weft-threads
so as to effect the twisting and crossing, but without deviating to the
right or left hand, and if the w^eft -threads could be placed so that all of
them should effect the twisting at the same time, and one-half of them
should proceed at each operation to the left and the other half to the
right hand (a substitute being also provided for the cushion-pins), lace
would be made exactly as on the cushion," The machine patented by

IL^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^ M

) ^^

B^^fttti

^

'f^XJ^L^^X^^^

r^J:

Hc^r4^Mr4l

^4^^

Fm. 13.

Heathcote secured these results, and increased the production over
the pillow-worker a thousand-fold. The courses of the threads forming
the meshes of the bobbin-net frame may be seen in Fig. 13. When
taken off and extended to their proper shape the meshes have the ap-
pearance shown in Fig. 14.

This wonderful machine was produced by the unaided mechanical
skill of Heathcote ; but in constructing it he met with such diificulties
as led him long after to say that, " if it were to be done again, he
should probably not attempt to overcome them." He was only twen-
ty-six years old when he took the second patent. In 1813 he patented
various improvements upon it and reduced the number of movements
necessary to make a row of meshes. The machine of 1809 employed
sixty movements to make one mesh, which is now done by twelve.
It made one thousand meshes a minute, and only five or six could be
made by hand. A machine of the present day produces thirty thou-

' Net in which great numbers of threads were made to twist with or wrap round each
other, and to traverse, mesh by mesh, through a part or the entire width of the frame.

542 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sand in the same time. This industry is said to surpass all others in
the complex ingenuity of its machinery.

One of the machines used in its production is said by Dr. Ure to
be as much beyond the most curious chronometer in multiplicity of
mechanical device as that is beyond a common I'oasting-jack.

In 1811, when prices had fallen, a Vandal association at Lough-
borough paraded the streets at night with their faces covered, and
armed with swords and pistols, and, entering the workshops, they
broke the machines with hammers ; twenty-seven machines were de-
stroyed in Heathcote's factory. In 1816 fifty-five more were destroyed

Fig. 14.

by the same society. Of the eight men who conspired in the attack
on Heathcote's factory, six were convicted and hung and two trans-
ported for life. Heathcote's loss was estimated at |50,000, which the
authorities ofiered to make up to him if he would reexpend the money
in the county. This he refused to do, and the result was that he left
Loughborough and settled at Tiverton, where he remained until his
death in 1861. Heathcote employed his mechanical skill with un-
wearied energy in improving the lace-manufacture. From 1824 to
1843 he was constantly busy with inventions, and he represented Tiv-
erton in Parliament from 1834 to 1859.

" Bobbin-net and lace are cleaned from the loose fibres of the cot-
ton by the ingenious process of gassing, as it is called, invented by
the late Mr. Samuel Hall, of Nottingham. A flame of gas is drawn
through the laee by means of a vacuum above. The sheet of lace
passes to the flame opaque and obscured by loose fibre, and issues
from it bright and clear, not to be distinguished from lace made of
the purest linen thread, and perfectly uninjured by the flame." The
progressive value of a square yard of plain cotton bobbin-net is thus
stated: In 1809, |25 ; 1813, $10; 1815, $V.50; 1818, $5; 1821, $3;
1824, |2; 1827, |1; 1830, 50 cents; 1833, 32 cents; 1836, 20 cents;
1842, 12 cents; 1850, 8 cents; 1856, 6 cents; 1862, 6 cents.

In 1823, when Heathcote's patent expired, water and steam power
had already beg^in to take the place of hand-labor, and lace-machines
rapidly increased in numbers. Men of all ranks and professions, cler-
gymen, lawyers, and doctors, embarked capital in the business, and

OUR GREAT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY.

543

all Nottingham went mad. Mechanics flocked to the scene, dwell-
ings could not be had, and building-ground sold for |20,000 an acre.
" Thousands of pounds were paid in wages to men who had not seen
a twist-machine, and tens of thousands for machinery that could never
repay the outlay. Improvident men rode to their work, stopping for
drinks of port and claret by the way, and were seen years afterward
receiving parish pay. When the national frenzy of 1825 collapsed,
the effect of this local inflation was fearful. Visions of wealth were
at once dissipated ; many in and out of the trade fell into jaoverty, or
became exiles, and some destroyed themselves."

The extent of the manufacture of lace by machinery in England is
immense. In 1866 there were 3,552 bobbin and 400 Avarp machines,
yielding £5,130,000. There has been no actual census since then, but
in 1872 the returns were certainly not less than £6,000,000.

In France, in 1851, there were 235,000 cushion-iace makers, produc-
ing annually £3,000,000, the whole European production in hand-
made lace being £5,500,000. The bobbin-net machines and warp
frames are extensively used in France, and twenty years ago there
were 50 bobbin-net machines in Belgium, making very fine extra
twist-net on which cushion sprigs are applied.

The invention of machinery for lace-making, however, has not di-
minished the consumption of costly hand-made laces. The rich seem
more eager than ever to obtain the finer products of the needle and
pillow, insisting that the touch, finish, and beauty, of such laces can
never be attained by the products of the lace-frame. On the con-
trary, the writer was recently assured, by the foreman of a leading
lace establishment in London, that no hand-made ground could com-
pare in beauty and perfection of workmanship with some of the ex-
quisite grounds now made by machinery.

-♦*♦-

OUR GREAT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY.

ABOUT five years ago we decided to found a new college. At
that time our denomination had but seven in the State, not one of
them first class, all beggarly, and the nearest fifty miles away. Broth-
er A alone demurred to the project, but, as he was more noted

for mere absti*act scholarship than for practical attainments, his objec-
tions were easily set aside. He thought it would be very unwise to
establish another institution of learning, on the ground that the prev-
alent division of forces tended to lower educational standards ; and he
held that we ought rather to concentrate our energies upon schools
already in existence and struggling to get along. We, on the other
hand, urged the desirability of multiplying means of education. If

544 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

one college is a good thing, surely two must be twice as good, and so
on, indefinitely. Why, then, should we not have a college of our
own, and train up our young men at home, instead of sending them
away to institutions established in distant places for the gratification
of wretched local pride ? Besides, the nearest university to us was
that hot-bed of infidelity founded by the State, and there was great
danger lest our youth should go there and become corrupted. Such a
catastrophe must be prevented at all hazards.

But one argument influenced us above all others, and was, in fact,
unanswerable: we had in our midst a very prominent man, the Hon.
Magnus Virtue, who, after accumulating a large fortune in the manage-
ment of a distillery, had lately retired from business, and joined my
church. Out of the goodness of his heart, and encouraged by my
exhortations, he decided to become a public benefactor, and accord-
ingly oflered us $20,000 for the foundation of a great college to be
called by his ever-to-be-revered name. Here, then, was an opportu-
nity which Ave ought not to neglect. Twenty thousand dollars was a
most munificent gift, and would found an institution better endowed
at the start than any of our near rivals, except perhaps the political
abomination already mentioned. Twenty thousand dollars meant a
fine building ; and surely students' fees would sufiice for the expenses
of running. As for libraries, apparatus, etc., we could easily rely upon
donations and bequests which would, of course, come pouring in i;pon
us as soon as we were well established.

So we organized a board of trtfttees, procured a charter, and set to
work under the title of " Virtue University." This, we thought, had
a grander sound than "" Virtue College," and we well knew how much
the public is influenced by names. Shakespeare's absurd statement
about the odor of a rose is contradicted by universal experience.

The first great task before us was, plainly, the erection of a build-
ing ; and this involved the choice of a site. Here we wei'e very for-
tunate. One of my parishioners, a noted real-estate broker, happened
to own a worn-out farm some two miles from town, and was anxious
to bring it into market. He was a man who clearly recognized the
duty of casting his bread upon the waters whenever a fair j^tospect
of speedy return with interest was discernible ; and so he presented
us with five acres of said land, situated on the top of a steep blufi" a
quarter of a mile from the nearest road. The gift, of course, adver-
tised the rest of his estate, which he at once cut up into building-lots,
and sold at a handsome profit. He got his money, and we got our
site, so both were satisfied. Far be it from me to impugn or even to
suspect his motives. Of course, our building was begun without delay.

Meanwhile we went vigorously to work manipulating the news-
papers, both secular and religious. Every week we caused some item
to appear concerning the progress and prospects of " Our Great
American University." Rumors of expected bequests, and specula-

OUR GREAT AMERICAN- UNIVERSITY. 545

tions about the Faculty were continually finding their way into print.
Our university was to be a model to all other institutions. x\llhough
controlled by our denomination, it was to have no sectarian bias ; its
policy should be conservatively liberal ; morally, intellectually, and
ajsthetically, it might be regarded as the culmination of our American
school-system. Men of national reputation and the greatest ability
Avere to fill professors' chairs ; thorough instruction could be expected
in every department ; languages, literatures, sciences, philoso2)hy, and
art, would occupy the time of the students who were sure to flock in
from all parts of the country. We hoped to eclipse all the colleges
of America, and even to rival the greatest universities of the Old
World. Statements like these, capable as they were of great latitude
in interpretation, served the dou.ble purjDOse of interesting the general
public, and of keeping u\^ our own enthusiasm.

At last our building was finished — a splendid brick structure with
a French roof, a tower, and a belfry. Even a New York architect,
who visited our town, expressed his wonderment and surprise at it.
Of course we were pi'oud of our work, but that pride was lessened
when we discovered that the |20,000 was all expended. The build-
ing had absorbed it completely, and half as much again ; so here we
were, at the end of our tether, with a fine pile of brick-and-mortar, no
money, and a very handsome debt. What was to be done? Our trus-
tees met, and, since most of them were clergymen, this question was
promptly answered. We must appeal to the public. We did so —
begged vigorously on week-days, took up a collection on Sundays,
and, in the course of a month, managed to raise about $3,000. This
went to the builder, who, for the rest of his claim, generously ac-
cepted a mortgage bearing eight per cent, interest.

This unfortunate matter rather cast a damper upon our spirits, but
still we were determined to go along. Here was a debt upon which
interest must be paid, and how could we pay it except by opening the
university and deriving some income from students ? We expected
500 students at $50 per annum each, making $25,000 a year to begin
with, exclusive of gifts and bequests. We could allow $2,000 a year
for interest and sinking-fund, $8,000 for incidental expenses, and all
the rest might go to pay instructors. Seven professors, at $1,800
apiece, with a president at $2,500, would give us indeed a strong
Faculty. So we went bravely ahead on the strength of these calcu-
lations. Adversity only seemed to make our anticipations more
glowing than ever. Such is the power of faith.

All this time Brother A , who had, unfortunately, become a mem-
ber of the board, was a thorn in our flesh, and a stumbling-block in
our path. Not a step was taken without opposition from him ; indeed,
he seemed to consider himself a monitor over all our official actions.
The conceit of these scholars is amazing ! He opposed the erection
of our building as an extravagance, urging that a university needed
vol,. Tin. — 35

546 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

brains more than mere brick-and-mortar. When we decided to get
brains, he again annoyed us, saying that we ought not to employ
professors until we were sure of our ability to pay tliem. Such incon-
sistencies were naturally self-destructive; so we listened politely to
his wild and extravagant ideas, then quietly ignored whatever he said,
and did as we had previously determined. Other colleges had fiije
buildings, contracted debts, and worked on the sure foundations of
faith, hope, and (to be received) charity. We would follow the com-
mon example, and succeed. To this Brother A added that other

colleges sometimes failed, and so might ours ; but I, for one, could not
vmderstand the relevancy of the remark.

So the board agreed, with but one dissenting voice, to appoint a
Faculty. The next step led to squabbles. Every member had some
protege to provide for ; each one desired that certain chairs should
be established and others omitted — no two could agree altogether.
First, of course, we decided to choose a president, for a college with-
out a president would be like a house without a roof. We would,
therefore, appoint a president, and then let him advise us what to do
next ; although taking his advice might be quite another matter. As

was to be expected. Brother A again interfered, saying that a

president would be a useless expense ; that he would merely draw the
highest salary and do the least work of any member of the Faculty.
To sustain his arguments he called our attention to the fact that the
German universities have no presidents, whereupon I jocosely re-
marked that " they could alFord no precedent for us." With their
infidel tendencies they are indeed bad exemplars, and it would be a
great pity if any free American institution should ever copy after them.

After a long and tedious discussion we at last fixed our choice
upon a prominent Eastern clergyman, and ofiered him the splendid
salary of $2,500 dollars a year. His parish, however, paid him $6,000,
and so he gratefully declined our proposition. Several other ventures
resulted in tlie same way, and thus three months passed with nothing
accomplished. Finally, the lightning struck in a most unexpected
quarter, and I, the humble writer of these pages, was really chosen
President of Virtue University. This choice was opposed by Brother

A with more than his usual bitterness ; why, I never could quite

understand. He disclaimed all personal feeling in the matter, pro-
fessed great esteem for me, and all that sort of thing, but thouglit I
was hardly qualified for the place. He pointed out that I had had no
■experience in educational affairs ; that I w^as a graduate, not of a col-
lege, but only of a theological seminary ; and stoutly maintained that
we ought to choose either a thoroughly-trained educator or nobody at
alh Now, it was well knowni that I had successfully, not to say brill-
iantly, served several terms upon the school committee ; and also that
I had once been chaplain of a small college in the northern part of the
State. These facts, coupled with the slirewd suspicion tliat Brother

OUR GREAT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. 547

A would like the appointraent for himself, gave me the election.

I at once entered upon my duties, and began to draw salary. This
was in May, and the university was to open in September. Mean-
while, I was to raise money ; so, after first giving my views concern-
ing the Faculty, I started for New York, begging. In two months I
contrived to secure $1,500 over my expenses, and then returned in
only a very moderate state of jubilation. Why is it that rich men
care so little for the cause of education ?

At last the composition of our Faculty was determined, as fol-
lows : I, as president, was to teach mental and moral })hilosophy,

logic, and finance. Brother A ironically suggested that perhaps

I had better undertake five or six other branches in addition to these,
but I did not feel like being overworked. For professors we were to
have one of Latin, a second of Greek, a third of mathematics, a fourth
of history, a fifth of Englisli literature and rhetoric, a sixth of mod-
ern languages, and a seventh of chemistry and natural philosophy.

As was to have been expected. Brother A bothered us again,

urging that, as long as we were determined to appoint professors, we
ought to do fuller justice to the sciences. But these are comparative-
ly unimportant, as well as rather unsafe, branches of knowledge (if,
indeed, they can be called true knowledge at all), and therefore we
adhered to the scheme given above. "We did, however, draw up a
long plan of studies, including every prominent subject we ever heard
of, and in it relegated astronomy, botany, natural history, and geol-
ogy to the senior year of the college course. They could be taught
at the proj^er time without special professors. This plan or pro-
gi-amme we constructed in the most thoi'ough manner, arranging
hours for each professor, fixing text-books, and stating in which rooms
given recitations should be heard. One of our members — it is easy to
guess who — broached the subject of elective studies, but the rest of
us discountenanced all such experiments. We felt able to arrange a
better course of studies than any student could devise, and hekl firmly
to the idea that what was best for one was best for all. With the
needs of students after graduation we had nothing to do. As for text-
books, not a new one appeared on our list ; we chose only such as
were old and well tried ; that on chemistr}'-, for instance, was the same
which I had studied in the Sleepyville High-School thirty years be-
fore. When our professors arrived they annoyed us a good deal about
changing, but we firmlj^ adhered to our early decisions. The scheme
of hours, however, we did have to rearrange, for in practice it would
not work. We had planned it in such a way that sometimes one pro-
fessor would have to hear two different classes in different rooms at
once ; and in other instances the students were required to be simi-
larly ubiquitous.

I have already mentioned the fact that the election of professors
was attended by much dissension in our board. This began, as usual,

548 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

with Brother A , whose notions were always of the most unprac-
tical kind. He wanted us to employ specialists; men who understood
thoroughly the branches they professed to teach, and who would be
independent of text-books. According to liis extravagant ideas, every
department of knowledge is in rapid growth, and only a man who
devotes himself assiduously to one study is able to teach that study
in accordance with the requirements of modern times. Such nonsense
as this we repudiated. Anybody of ordinary education and intelli-
gence ought to be able to teach any subject by simply taking a text-
book and keeping a lesson or two ahead of the class. As for " ad-
vanced knowledge," the " requirements of modern times," and all
that sort of thing, we distrusted it totally ; under such disguises,
specious and pleasing, dangerous ideas would be sure to creep in and
sap the foundations of our laniversity. "VYe must have nothing rash
nor novel in our institution ; only Avell-tried and approved knowledge
should be taught by the professors. These must be, first, men of
trained moral character and good denominational standing ; mere fa-
miliarity with this, that, or the other study, should be a purely sec-
ondary matter.

At last, after much ill-feeling all round, our professors were ap-
pointed. Four of them were esteemed clergymen of our denomina-
tion, who, having failed at preaching, were glad to find some occupa-
tion. Thus, in divers ways, does a great university benefit the human
race. Another member of the Faculty was a recent graduate of our
leading theological seminary, who accepted a chair until he could find
a pulpit ; two others were lay brethren. We had our greatest diffi-
culty in selecting a professor of chemistry. Several gentlemen ap-
plied, were discussed, and rejected, before we made our final choice.

One, the special loroteg'a of Brother A , had just returned from

Germany, where for three years he had been studying at Heidelberg
under a certain Prof. Bunsen, who was reputed to be a very great
man, but of whom we had never before heard. This young man
brought strong recommendations, but appeared to be dangerous ; so,
as he was not a member of our sect, we rejected him. Another we
were about to elect, when we discovered that he was a Darwinian and
a reader of Tyndall ; so he could not by any means be chosen. At
last we found an apparently harmless yoiing gentleman who had just
graduated from an Eastern scientific school, and him w*e made our

professor. Now a notable event happened. Brother A made a

suggestion which was actually followed ; namely, that we should buy
some apparatus and chemicals. We at once voted to spend three
hundred dollars (recently begged) for fitting up a laboratory, and
appointed a committee to look after the matter. At the next meeting
of the board they reported the purchase of an air-pump, an electrical
machine, some acids, a little phosphorus, a large gas-bag, and sev-
eral retorts. These being the appliances most frequently mentioned

OUR GREAT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. 549

in general literafare, they were undoubtedly the proper things to
have ; and we considered the professor lucky in having them. Brotli-

er A was, of course, dissatisfied with the whole proceeding. He

thought that the money should have been placed at the disposal of
our professor, who knew best how to expend it ; and he also grumbled
because our committee had not bought something called a spectro-
scope. Such an instrument was never heard of in my days, so I sus-
pected it of some occult connection with sjjiritualism, and expressed
myself accordingly. What has science to do with spectres ? The
instrument was never bought.

Before the university opened, all tlie moneys collected during my
Eastern trip, together with minor sums contributed at home, were
expended. All sorts of unforeseen expenses kept rising before us.
There was furniture to buy, of course, and maps, and stationery, and
books. Indeed, a library was indispensable, so we voted to invest a
thousand dollars in books, and placed this sum in the hands of a com-
mittee, of which I was chairman. I think few committees could have
done better than we did. Many valuable works we obtained very
cheaply from a second-hand dealer in New York ; scarcely a new
book was purchased. We were especially careful not to get any
thing which might prove injurious to our young men ; not a volume
of Darwin, Tyndall, or Spencer (except the "Faery Queene "), has to
this day found its way upon our shelves. No, indeed ! we bought
good editions of the old pagan authors, and the works of the early
fathers, and full sets of the sermons j^ublished by the leading lights in
our own denomination. We had also a few histories, some of the
poets, and two or three worn-out schoolbooks upon chemistry and
natural philosophy. I doubt whether any college in the world could
show a more respectable and less dangerous library than the one
which we collected.

At length all was ready for opening. Oar professors were on
hand, our building furnished, our money spent. Now for the rush of
students eager to partake of the intellectual feast so cheaply offered
to them. We had all been very busy drumming up recruits, and con-
fidently expected a large class ; but only thirty appeared. Out of
these, twelve were studying for the ministry, and expected tuition
free. Only eighteen paying students, yielding us an income of $900
a year ; and this Avhen we had calculated upon $25,000 ! Why, it
would pay little more than the interest on our debt, to say nothing
of professors' salaries. In this terrible emergency, the Hon. Magnus
Vii-tue again became our benefactor. I myself went boldly to him,
and told how we were situated. Said I : " The university bears your
name ; if it fails, your reputation will suffer ; ' he that giveth to the
poor lendeth to the Lord. ' " He grumbled a good deal at what he
called our "wretched mismanagement," and especially at our extrav-
agance in the matter of teachers' wages. " Why should we pay a

550 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

professor nearly $2,000 a year, when he had always been able to get
plenty of clerks to work in his office for $600 ? " " Finally, after much
argument, he gave us 810,000, unaccompanied by his blessing. This
relieved our embarrassments for the time being, and we went along
quite swimmingly for the rest of the year,

I wonder if there was ever a college whose professors and trustees
did not occasionally disagree ? We certainly had now and then a
squabble to vary the monotony of our labors, and were obliged in the
board more than once to revet*se decisions of the Faculty. But our
chief difficulty was with the chemist, whose ideas upon some subjects
were, to say the least, extravagant. To begin with : he wanted more
apparatus, said he could do nothing with the "meagre" supply we
had given him, and spoke rather disrespectfully of the committee
which bought it ; he actually referred to certain trustees as " idiots "

(perhaps meaning Brother A ), which may have been true, but was

unquestionably uncivil. It was in vain that I tried to convince the
young man of his unreason; I urged my superior age and experience,
and finally was obliged to crush him by saying, in my most polite
and dignified manner, that I had probably studied chemistry before
he was born, and that my teacher had succeeded brilliantly with no
apparatus at alL He also bothered us for more books ; so we gave
him twenty-five dollars to buy them with, and thus silenced him for a
while. That money he actually spent for works in foreign languages
vv^hich neitlier I nor any student could read. Such is a result of trust-
ing to the judgment of a professor. In the spring our chemist again
broke out in the most absurd manner. It so chanced that some of
our students had entered in advanced classes, a circumstance for
which we failed to provide beforehand, and upon the list of studies
framed by us they found certain branches which they wished to pur-
sue. Among these were the treacherous and valueless natural sci-
ences, for which we had no professors. It was at once found necessary
that these things should be taught : and who was to teach them but
the Professor of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy ? AVe intimated
to that gentleman that such work devolved upon him, and he objected
most irrationally. He claimed that his business was to teach chemis-
try and physics (as he called natural philosophy, though what that
branch has to do with medicine I never could see), and refused to un-
dertake any thing else. How unreasonable ! We only asked him to
hear a few extra recitations in astronomy, natural history, physiology,
botany, and geology, and he must needs object ! He said that he was
a chemist, and knew nothing of these other sciences ; that each of
them Avas the life-work of a specialist ; and that no man living was
competent to undertake even the tenth part of such a task. As we
knew perfectly well that twenty other colleges in the State employed
men who did precisely what he said no man could do, we insisted ;
and the upshot was that he resigned. Then the trustees passed an

OUR GREAT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. 551

ordinance to the effect that any professor in the university could be
called upon to teach any branch, upon penalty of dismissal if he re-
fused. We were determined that our teachers should be men of broad
general culture, and not mere narrow specialists. Of coarse, every
one of them had studied a variety of branches at school or college,
and surely any man ought to be able to teach any thing which he him-
self had ever learned. Brother A objected to our entire proceed-
ing, but we paid no attention to him. Still, his remarks about " smat-
terers" and "educational fraud" could not but be somewhat offensive.

In the course of the year our university received a few minor gifts,
and at commencement we found ourselves with the debt not very
miich increased. Our teachers were nearly paid, but the treasury was
again emj^ty. Two students graduated; and for them we had grand
public exercises, which closed with an appeal to the people for sup-
port. This meant money, and brought in about $500. Upon such
driblets our institution was obliged to run. We must evidently re-
trencli, and we did so by reducing the number of j^rofessors and cut-
ting down salaries. My own salaiy was untouched, however ; but
then, instruction in rhetoric and English literature was added to my
former duties. The professors were to receive $1,000 per annum each,
instead of the $1,800 paid hitherto, and were to be only three in
number. These three were of course selected from among the unfor-
tunate ex-clergymen who served in our original Faculty. One was to
teach ancient languages and history ; another modern languages and
history; the third gave instruction in mathematics, political economy,
and Oriental tongues. The latter item we thought would look well in
our catalogue, and, as the professor had learned Turkish and Arabic
when a missionary during his youth, we put it in. To be sure, he had
about forgotten both languages, but, as he was never actually called
upon to teach them, that made little difference. As for the " natural
sciences," we decided to pass them around. For instance : I would
teach chemistry the first year; then the professor of mathematics was
to take it ; and so on in order through the Faculty until it came my
turn again. Thus we avoided the confusion and annoyance due to
the presence of a scientific specialist upon our working staff. !Now
and then, of course, trifling difiiculties ai*ose in consequence of our
unfamiliarity with the minor details of science. For example : our
classical professor undertook to teach botany the other day, and at-
tempted to show his students how a flower might be analyzed. He
selected a buttercup for purpose of illustration, went through his anal-
ysis, as he thought, according to the book, and made the flower out
to be a water-lily. His students would have lost confidence in him
had he not dexterously attributed his error to misprints in the botany !
But what are such trivial matters in comparison with the great essen-
tials of education ?

This reorganization of the Faculty meant the reorganization of the

552 • THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

entire university, and two enlirely new features were introduced into
it. We established a preparatory department under a lady teacher,
and we voted to admit female students to all of our classes. The lat-
ter measure was adopted rather hesitatingly, having been in a sense
forced upon us by stress of circumstances. We must have students
at any rate, and if vv^e could not get young men we would take young
ladies. The impropriety of thus mingling the sexes was evident to all

except Brother A , who alone really favored the stej) taken ; and

the uselessness of higher education to women was also obvious. How
can women apply Latin and Greek to their household duties, I should
like to know ? What business have they with mathematics ? My own
wife never learned these things, and she has been certainly none
the worse wife to me. But, notwithstanding my apprehensions, the
dangerous move was made, and in consequence 1 have had tribulation
ever since. Not that any scandal has resulted; not that any wrong
has been done ; our troubles come from a totally diiferent source.
These pestilent girls are teasing us to teach them all sorts of out-of-
the-way things: one wants to learn the calculus, of which our mathe-
matical i^rofessor is ignorant ; another asks for a laboratory course in
chemistry such as we are unable to give, and so on. Unhappy for us
was the day that we permitted our thirteen young women to enter the
university. They tell tales about us outside, and thus injure our repu-
tation. We cannot get rid of them, and what are we to do ?

But troubles like these were trifling in comparison with our anxiety
upon pecuniary matters. Counting in our new preparatory depart-
ment we had a few more students than before, but not enough to yield
us the income we needed. The money-question, then, kept staring us
in the face, and no measure we could devise ever quieted it more than
just temporarily. One move was taken at commencement-time — a
move due to my remarkable executive genius — which seemed to tide
us over several months of our trials. We gave the degree of LL. D.
to every millionaire in our county, and made a number of our pojjular
clergymen doctors of divinity. The millionaires took the bait read-
ily, and all save one gave us handsome sums, varying from $500 to
$2,000. The single exception was a retired coal-dealer, who refused
to accept the proflfered degree, saying that he knew nothing about
laws and did not want to doctor them. Shortly afterward he gave
150,000 to a distant college, which was already rich, and claimed to be
undenominational. As for the new D. D.'s, they all exerted them-
selves in our behalf, and raised for us a considerable sum of ready
money. All told, these honorary degrees brought us in nearly $6,000,
which, together with our student-fees, was all we had to sustain our
university through its second college-year.

We are now just entering upon our third season of actual collegi-
ate work, and troubles accumulate over us. Our money is gone, oui
students are deserting to otlier institutions, and, if we had not faitt

THE WARFARE OF SCIEXCE.

553

in our grand enterprise the future v/ould seem dark indeed. Some of
the trustees advocate closing temporarily. Brother A has with-
drawn from the board ; Mr. Virtue refuses to do any thing more for
us ; our creditors are j^roving to be most inveterate duns, and no way
seems to be open for going on. Still, we must go on ; inaction Avould
be fatal. Some rich friend ought to endow us lil)erally — a great uni-
versity like ours cannot be permitted to die. In our two o^Dening
years we have done as much work as did either Yale or Harvard in
the corresponding periods of their youth; why should we not rise as
they have risen ? We appeal to the public at large for support — to
all friends of true education, of high culture, of moral civilization.
Let it not be said in despotic Europe that Americans cared so little
for intellectual advancement that they allowed their most promising
university to fail. Let the rich give us money liberally for the glory
of the denomination which we represent; others who cannot give
should send us their sons and daughters to be educated in the true
principles of life and the faith of the early fathers. No matter how
dark the present may appear, the future is bright before us ; great
success must eventually attend our labors ; unborn generations will
one day look back and say, " Our ancestors sustained that university
in its hour of trial, and have transmitted to us the inheritance of its
greatness." Statesmen, poets, and chieftains, shall hail our university
as their alma inciter^ and contribute gladly to its glory and its support.

-♦♦♦-

THE WxiEFARE OF SCIENCE.'
Bt andeew d. white, ll. d.,

PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNITEE SITT.
II.

I PASS, now, to fields of more immediate importance to us — to
Anatomy and Medicine.

It might be supposed that the votaries of sciences like these would
be suffered to escape attack; unfortunately, they have had to stand in
tlie thickest of the battle.

As far back as the latter part of the thirteenth century, Arnold de
Villa Nova was a noted physician and chemist. Tlie missile usual in
such cases was hurled at him. He was charged with sorcery and deal-
ings with the devil ; he was excommunicated and driven from Spain.'

Such seemed the fate of men in that field who gained even a glim-
mer of new scientific truth. Even men like Cardan, and Paracelsus,
and Porta, who yielded much to popular superstitions, were at once

' Draper, "Int. Dev. of Europe," p. 421. Whewell, "Hist, of tbe Induct. Sciences,"
vol. i., p. 235 ; vol. viii., p. 36. Fredault, "Hist, de la Medecine," vol. i., p. 204.

554 ^^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

set upon if they ventured upon any other than the j^ath which the
Church thought sound — the insufficient path of Aristotelian investiga-
tion.

AVe have seen that the weapons used against the asti'onomers were
mainly the epithets infidel and atheist. We have also seen that the
missiles used against the chemists' and physicians were the epithets
" sorcerer " and " leaguer with the devil," and we have picked up on
various battle-fields another effective weapon, the epithet "Mohamme-
dan."

On the heads of the anatomists and physicians were concentrated
all these missiles. The charge of atheism ripened into a proverb :
" TIbi sunt tres medici, ibi simt duo athei.''^ ' Magic seemed so com-
mon a charge that many of the physicians seemed to believe it them-
selves. Mohammedanism and Averroism became almost synonymous
with medicine, and Petrarch stigmatized Averroists as "men who
deny Genesis and bark at Christ." ^

Not to weary you with the details of earlier struggles, I Avill select
a great benefactor of mankind and champion of scientific truth at the
period of the Revival of Learning and the Reformation — Andreas
Vesalius, the founder of the modern science of anatomy. The battle
waged by this man is one of the glories of our race.^

The old methods were soon exhausted by his early fervor, and he
sought to advance science by truly scientific means — by patient inves-
tigation and by careful recording of results.

From the outset Vesalius proved himself a master. In the search
for real knowledge he braved the most terrible dangers. Befoi-e his
time the dissection of the human subject was thought akin to sacrilege.
Occasionally some anatomist, like Mundinus, had given some little
display with such a stibject ; but, for purposes of investigation, such
dissection was forbidden. Even such men in the early Church as Ter-

' Honorius III. forbade medicine to be practised by archdeacons, deacons, priests, etc.
Innocent III. forbade surgical operations by priests, deacons, or sub-deacons. In 1243
Dominicans banished books on medicine from their monasteries. See Daunou cited by
Buckle, " Posthumous Works," vol. ii., p. 567. For thoughtful and witty remarks on
the struggle at a recent period, see Maury, " L'Ancienne Academic des Sciences," Paris,
1864, p. 148. Maury says: "La faculte n'aimait pas k avoir affaire aux theologiens qui
procedent par anathcjmes beaucoup plus que par analyses."

2 Kenan, " Averroes et I'Averroisme," Paris, 186*7, pp. 327, 333, 335. For a perfectly
just statement of the only circumstances which can justify the charge of "atheism,"
see Dr. Deems's article in Popular Science Monthly, February, 1876.

3 Whewell, vol. iii., p. 328, says, rather loosely, that Mundinus " dissected at Bologna
in 1315." How different his idea of dissection was from that introduced by Vesalius,
may be seen by Cuvier's careful statement that the entire number of dissections by
Mundinus was three. The usual statement is that it is two. See Cuvier, " Hist, des Sci.
Nat.," tome iii., p. 7 ; also, Sprengel, Fredault, and Hallam; also, Littre, "Medecine et
M6decins," chap, on anatomy. For a very full statement of the agency of Mundinus in the
progress of anatomy, see Portal, " Hist, de I'Anatomie et de la Chirurgerie," vol. i., pp.
209-216.

THE WARFARE OF SCIEXCE.

sss

tuUian and St. Augustine held anatomy in abhorrence.* Boniface
VIII. interdicted dissection as sacrilege.'^

Throuo-E this sacred conventionalism Yesalius broke without fear.
Braving ecclesiastical censure and popular fury, he studied his science
by the only method that coiild give useful results. Ko peril daunted
him. To secure the material for his investigations, he haunted gib-
bets and charnel-houses; in this search he risked alike the fires of the
Inquisition and the virus of the plague. First of all men he began to
place the great science of human anatomy on its solid, modern founda-
tions— on careful examination and observation of the human body.
This was his first great sin, and it was soon aggravated by one con-
sidered even greater.

Perhaps the most unfortunate thing that has ever been done for
Christianity is the tying it to forms of science which are doomed and
gradually sinking. Just as in the time of Roger Bacon, excellent but
mistaken men devoted all their energies to binding Christianity to
Aristotle ; just as in the time of Reuchlin and Erasmus, they insisted
on binding Cliristianity to Thomas Aquinas — so in the time of Vesa-
lius, such men made every effort to link Christianity to Galen.

The cry has been the same in all ages; it is the same which we
hear in this age for curbing scientific studies — the cry for what is
called " sound learning." Whether standing for Aristotle against
Bacon, or Aquinas against Erasmus, or Galen against Vesalius, or
making mechanical Greek verses at Eton in*stead of studying the
handiwork of the Almighty, or reading Euripides with translations
instead of Lessing and Goethe in the original, the cry always is for
" sound learning." The idea always is that these studies are safe.

At twenty-eight years of age Yesalius gave to the world his great
work on human anatomy. With it ended the old and began the
new. Its researches, by their thoroughness, were a triumph of sci-
ence ; its illustrations, by their fidelity, were a triumph of art.

To shield himself as far as possible in the battle which he fore-
saw must come, Yesalius prefaced the work by a dedication to the
Empei'or Charles Y. In this dedicatory preface he argues for his
method, and against the parrot repetitions of the mediaeval text-
books ; he also condemns the wretched anatomical' preparations and
specimens made by physicians who utterly refused to advance beyond
the ancient master.

The parrot-like repeaters of Galen gave battle at once. After the

' For TertuUian and Augustine against anatomical investigation, see Blount's " Essays,"
cited in Buckle's " Posthumous "Works," vol. ii.,"pp. 10*7, 108. The passage from St.
Augustine is in " Civ. Dei," xsii., p. 2i. See Abbe Migne, " Patrologia," vol. xl., p. 791.

' For Boniface VIII. and his interdiction of dissections, see Buckle's " Posthumous
Works," vol. ii., p. 567. For injurious effects of this ecclesiastical hostility to anatomy
upon the development of art, see Woltman, "Holbein and His Time," pp. 266, 267. For
an excellent statement of the true relation of the medical profession to religious ques-
tions, see Prof. Acland, "General Relations of Medicine in Modern Times," Oxford, 1868.

556 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

manner of their time, tlieir first missiles were epithets ; ancl, the
almost infinite magazine of these having been exhausted, they began
to use sharper weapons — weapons theologic.

At first the theologic weapons failecL A conference of divines
having been asked to decide whether dissection of the human body
is sacrilege, gave a decision in the negative. The reason is simple ;
Charles V. had made Vesalius his physician, and could not spare
him. But, on the accession of Philip II. of Spain, the whole scene
changed. That most bitter of bigots must of course detest the great
innovator.

A new weapon was now forged. Vesalius was charged with dis-
secting living men,* and, either from direct persecution, as the great
majority of authors assert, or from indirect influences, as the recent
apologists for Philip II. allow, Vesalius became a wanderer. On a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land to atone for his sin, he was shipwrecked,
and in the prime of his life and strength he was lost to this world.

And yet not lost. In this century he again stands on earth. The
painter Ilamann has again given him to us. By the magic of Ha-
mann's pencil, we look once moi'e into Vesalius's cell. Its windows
and doors, bolted and barred within, betoken the storm of bigotry
which rages without ; the crucifix, toward which he turns his eyes,
symbolizes the spirit in which he labors. The corpse of the plague-
stricken, over which he bends, ceases to be repulsive ; his very soul
seems to send forth rays from the canvas which strengthen us for the
good fight in this age.^

He was hunted to death by men who conscientiously supposed that
he was injuring religion. His poor, blind foes destroyed one of re-
ligion's greatest apostles. What was his influence on religion ? He
substituted for repetition, by rote, of worn-out theories of dead men,
conscientious and reverent searching into the works of the living-
God. He substituted for representations of the himian structure —
pitiful and unreal — truthful representations, revealing the Creator's
power and goodness in every line.^

I hasten now to the most singular struggle and victory of medical
science between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Early in the last century, Boyer presented Inoculation as a pre-
ventive of small-pox, in France ; thoughtful j^hysicians in England,
led by Lady Montagu and Maitland, follov^'ed his example.

Theology took fright at once on both sides of the Channel. The

' For a similar charge against anatomical investigations at a much earlier period, see
Littre, " Medecine et Medecins," chapter on anatomy.

2 The original painting of Vesalius at work in his cell, by Hamann, is now at Cornel}
University.

' For a curious example of weapons drawn from Galen and used against Vesalius, see
Lewes, " Life of Goethe," p. 343, note. For proofs that I have not over-estimated Vesa-
lius, see Portal, uhi supra. Portal speaks of him as ^^le genie le plus droit qii'eut V Eu-
rope" and again, " Vcsale me parait un des plus grands homines qui ait existe."

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 557

French theologians of the Sorbonne solemnly condemned the prac-
tice. English theologians were most loudly represented by the Rev.
Edward Massy, who, in 1722, preached a sermon in which he declared
that Job's distemper was probably confluent small-pox, and that he
liad been doubtless inoculated by the devil — that diseases are sent by
Providence for tlie punishment of sin, and that the proposed attemjjt
to prevent them is " a diabolical operation." This sermon was enti-
tled " The Dano-erous and Sinful Practice of Inoculation." Not less
absurd was tlie sermon of the Rev. Mr. Delafaye, entitled " Inocu-
lation an Indefensible Practice." Thirty years later the. struggle was
still going on. It is a pleasure to note one great churchman, Mad-
dox. Bishop of Worcester, giving battle on the side of right reason ;
but as late as 1753 we have the Rector of Canterbury denouncing
inoculation from his pulpit in the primatial city, and many of his
brethren following his example. Among the most common weapons
hurled by churchmen at the supporters of inoculation, during all this
long war, w^ere charges of sorcery and atheism.*

ISTor did Jenner's blessed discovery of Vaccination escape opi^osi-
tion on similar grounds. In 1798 an anti-vaccine society was formed
by clergymen and physicians, calling on the people of England to
suj)press vaccination as " bidding defiance to Heaven itself — even to
the will of God " — and declaring that " the law of God prohibits the
practice." In 1803 the Rev. Dr. Ramsden thundered against it in
a sei'mon before the University of Cambridge, mingling texts of
Scripture with calumnies against Jenner ; but Plumptre in England,
Waterhouse in America, and a host of other good men and true, press
forward to Jenner's side, and at last science, humanity, and right rea-
son, gain the victory."

But I pass to one typical conflict in our days. In 1847 James
Young Simpson, a Scotch physician of eminence, advocated the use
of Anaesthetics in obstetrical cases.

Immediately a storm arose. From pulpit after pulpit such a use
of chloroform was denounced as impious. It was declared contrary
to Holy Writ, and texts were cited abundantly. The ordinary decla-
ration was, that to use chloroform was " to avoid one part of the pri-
meval curse on woman." ^

' See Sprengel, " Histoire de la Medecine," vol. vi., pp. 39-80. For the opposition
of the Paris Faculty of Theology to inoculation, see the "Journal de Barbier," vol. vi.,
p. 294. For bitter denunciations of the inoculation by English clergy, and for the noble
stand against them by Maddox, see Baron, "Life of Jenner," vol. i., pp. 231, 232, and
vol. ii., pp. 39, 40. For the strenuous opposition of the same clergy, see Weld, " His-
tory of the Royal Society," vol. i., p. 464, note. Also, for the comical side of this mat-
ter, see Nichols's " Literary Illustrations," vol. v., p. 800.

2 For the opposition of conscientious men in England to vaccination, see Duns, " Life
of Sir James Y. Simpson, Bart.," London, 1873, pp. 248, 249 ; also Baron, " Life of Jen-
ner," ubi supra, and vol. ii., p. 43 ; also " Works of Sir J. Y. Simpson," vol. ii.

^See Duns, " Life of Sir J. Y. Simpson," pp. 215-222.

558 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Simpson wrote pamphlet after pamphlet to defend the blessing
which he brought into use ; but the battle seemed about to be lost,
when he seized a new weapon. " My opponents forget," said he,
" the twenty-first verse of the second chapter of Genesis. That is
the record of the first surgical operation ever performed, and that text
l^roves that the Maker of the universe, before he took the rib from
Adam's side for the creation of Eve, caused a deep sleep to fall on
Adam."

This was a stunning blow ; but it did not entirely kill the oppo-
sition. They had strength left to maintain that "the deep sleep of
Adam took place before the introduction of pain into the world — in
the state of innocence." ^ But now a new champion intervened —
Thomas Chalmers. With a few pungent arguments he scattered the
enemy forever, and the greatest battle of science against sufiering
was won."

But was not the victory won also for religion ? Go to yonder
monument, in Boston, to one of the discoverers of anaesthesia. Read
this inscription from our sacred volume : " This also cometh from the
Lord of hosts which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working."

I now ask you to look at another part of the great warfare, and I
select it because it shows more clearly than any other how Protestant
nations, and in our own time, have suffered themselves to be led into
the same errors that have wrought injury to religion and science
in other times. We will look very briefly at the battle-fields of
Geology.

From the first lispings of this science there was war. The prevail-
ing doctrine of the Church was, that " in the beginning God made the
heavens and the earth," that " all things were made at the beginning
of the world," and that to say that stones and fossils have been made
since " the beginning," is contrary to Scripture. The theological sub-
stitutes for scientific explanations ripened into such as these — that
the fossils are "sports of Nature," or " creations of plastic force," or
" results of a seminal air acting upon rocks," or " models " made by
the Creator before he had fully decided upon the best manner of cre-
ating various beings. But, while some latitude was allowed among
these theologico-scientific explanations, it was held essential to believe
that they were placed in all the strata, on one of the creation-days, by
the hand of the Almighty; and that this was done for some myste-
rious purpose of his own, probably for the trial of human faith.

In the sixteenth century Fracastoro and Palissy broached the true
idea, but produced little efiect. Near the beginning of the seventeenth
century De Clave, Bitaud, and De Villon, revived it ; straightway
the Theologic Faculty of Paris protested against the doctrine as
unscriptural, destroyed the ofiendiiig treatises, banished the authors

1 See Duns, "Life of Sir J. Y. Simpson," pp. 256-259.

= " Ibid.," p. 260 ; also " Worlis of Sir J. Y. Simpson," ubi supra.

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 559

from Paris, and forbade them to live in towns or enter places of
public resort.'

At the middle of the eighteenth century, Buffon made another
attempt to state simple and fundamental geological truths. The theo-
logical faculty of the Sorbonne immediately dragged him from his
high position, forced him to recant ignominiously and to print his
recantation.

It required a hundred and fifty years for Science to carry the day
fairly against this single preposterous theory. The champion who
dealt it the deadly blow was Scilla, and his weapons were facts re-
vealed by the fossils of Calabria.

But the advocates of tampering with scientific reasoning now re-
tired to a new position. It was strong, for it was apparently based
on Scripture, though, as the whole world now knows, an utterly false
interpretation of Scripture. The new position was that the fossils
were produced by the deluge of Noah.

In vain had it been shown, by such devoted Christians as Bernard
Palissy, that this theory was utterly untenable ; in vain did good men
protest against the injury sure to result to religion by t^ing it to a
scientific theory sure to be exploded : the doctrine that fossils were
the remains of animals drowned at the flood continued to be upheld by
the great majority as " sound doctrine," and as a blfssed means of
reconciling science with Scripture.'

To sustain this " scriptural view," so called, efibrts were put forth
absolutely herculean, both by Catholics and Protestants. Mazurier
declared certain fossil remains of a mammoth, discovered in France, to
be bones of giants mentioned in Scripture. Father Torrubia did the
same thing in Spain. Increase Mather sent similar remains, discovered
in America, to England, "with a similar statement. Scheuchzer made
parade of the bones of a great lizard discovered in Germany, as the
homo diluvii testis^ the fossil man, proving the reality of the deluge.^

In the midst of this appears an episode very comical but very in-
structive ; for it shows that the attempt to shape the deductions of
science to meet the exigencies of theology may mislead heterodoxy
as absurdly as orthodoxy.

• Morley, " Life of Palissy the Potter," vol. ii., p. 315, et seq.

2 Audiat, "Tie de Palissy," p. 412. Cantu, "Hist. Uuiverselle," vol. xv., p. 492.

^ For ancient beliefs regarding giants, see Leopardi, " Saggio sopra gli errori popolari,"
etc., chapter xv. For accounts of the views of Mazurier and Scheuchzer, see Buchner,
" Man in Past, Present, and Future," English translation, pp. 235, 236. For Increase
Mather's views, see " Philosophical Transactions," xxiv., 85. For similar fossils sent
from New York to the Royal Society as remains of giants, see Weld, "History of the
Royal Society," vol. i., p. 421. For Father Torrubia and his G'ujaniolocj'm Espafwla, see
D'Archiac, "Introduction k I'Etude de la Paleontologie stratiographique," Paris, 1864,
p. 202. For admirable summaries, see Lyell, " Principles of Geology," London, 1867 ;
D'Archiac, " Geologic et Paleontologie," Paris, 1866 ; Pictet, " Traite de Paleontologie,"
Paris, 1853; Yezian, "Prodrome de la Geologic," Paris, 1863; Haeckel, " History of
Creation," New York, 1876, chapter iii.

S6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

About the year 1760 news of the discovery of marine fossils in
various elevated districts of Europe reached Voltaire. He too had a
theologic system to support, though his system was opposed to that
of the sacred books of the Hebrews. He feared that these new dis-
coveries might be used to support the Mosaic accounts of the Deluge.
All his wisdom and wit, therefore, were compacted into arguments to
prove that the fossil fishes were remains of fislies intended for food,
but spoiled and thrown away by travelers ; that the fossil shells were
accidentally dropjjed by Crusaders and pilgrims returning from the
-HolyLand; and that the fossil bones of a hippopotamus found be-
tween Paris and Etarapes were parts of a skeleton belonging to the
cabinet of some ancient philosopher. Through chapter after chapter
Voltaire, obeying the supposed necessities of his theology, fights des-
perately the gi'owing results of the geologic investigations of his time.'

But far moreAvide-Si^read and disastrous was the eiiorton the other
side to show that the fossils were caused by the Deluge of Noah.

No supposition was too violent to support a theory which Avas
considered vital to the Bible. Sometimes it was claimed that the tail
of a comet had produced the deluge. Sometimes, by a prosaic render-
ing of the expression regarding the breaking np of the fountains of
the great deep, a theory was started that the earth contained a great
cistern, from which the waters came and to which they retired. By
taking sacred poetry as prose, and by giving a literal interpreta-
tion of it, Thomas Burnet in his " Sacred Theory of the Earth,"
Winston in his " Theory of the Deluge," and others like them, built
up systems which bear to real geology much the same relation that
the " Christian Topography " of Cosmas bears to real geography.
In vain were exhibited the absolute geological, zoological, and astro-
nomical proofs that no universal deluge, or deluge covering any great
extent of the earth, had taken place within the last six thousand or
sixty thousand years ; in vain did Bishop Clayton declare that the
deluge could not have taken place save in that district where Noah lived
before the flood ; in vain was it shown that, even if there had been a
universal deluge, the fossils were not produced by it ; the only an-
swers were the citation of the text — " and all the high mountains
which were under the whole heaven were covered " — and denuncia-
tion of infidelity. In England, France, and Germany, belief that the
fossils were produced by the Deluge of Noah was insisted upon as
part of that faith essential to salvation.'* It took a hundred and twenty

' See Voltaire, " Dissertation sur les Changements arrives dans notre Globe," also
Voltaire, " Les Singularites do la Nature," chapter xii., near close of vol. v. of the Didot
edition of 1843 ; also Jevons, "Principles of Science," vol. ii., p. 328.

"^ For a candid summary of the proofs from geology, astronomy, and zoology, that the
Noachian Deluge was not universally or widely extended, see McClintock and Strong,
" Cyclopaedia of Biblical Theology and Ecclesiastical Literature," article " Deluge." For
general history see Lyell, D'Archiae, and Vezian. For special cases showing bitterness
of the conflict, see the Rev. Mr. Davis's'" Life of Rev. Dr. Pye Smith," passim.

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 561

years for the searchers of God's truth, as revealed in Nature— such
men as Buffon, Linnaeus, Whitehurst, and Daubenton— to push their
works under these mighty fabrics of error, and, by statements which
could not be resisted, to explode them.

Strange as it may at first seem, the war on geology was waged
more fiercely in Protestant countries than in Catholic; and, of all
countries, England furnished the most bitter opponents to geology
at first, and the most active negotiators in patching up a truce on a
basis of sham science afterward.*

You have noted already that there are, generally, two sorts of at-
tack on a new science. First, there is the attack by pitting against
science some great doctrine in theology. You saw this in astronomy,
when Bellarmin and others insisted that the doctrine of the earth re-
volving about the sun is contrary to the doctrine of the incarnation.
So now, against geology, it was urged that the scientific doctrine that
the fossils represented animals which died before Adam, was contrary
to the doctrine of Adam's fall and that " death entered the world by
sin." ^

Then there is the attack by literal interpretation of texts, which
serves a better purpose generally in rousing prejudices.

It is difficult to realize it now, but within the memory of many of
us the battle was raging most fiercely in England, and both these
kinds of artillery were in full play and filling the civilized world with
their roar.

About thirty years ago the Rev. J. Mellor Brown, the Rev. Henry
Cole, and others, were hurling at all geologists alike, and especially
at such Christian divines as Dr. Buckland, and Dean Conybeare, and
Pye Smith, and such religious scholars as Prof. Sedgwick, the epithets
of " infidel," " impugner of the sacred record," and " assailant of the
volume of God."

Their favorite weapon was the charge that these men were " at-
tacking the truth of God," forgetting that they were simply opposing
the mistaken interpretations of Messrs. Brown, Cole, and others like
them, inadequately informed.

They declared geology " not a subject of lawful inquiry," de-
nouncing it as " a dark art," as " dangerous and disreputable," as '* a
forbidden province," as " infernal artillery," and as " an awful evasion
of the testimony of revelation." "^

This attempt to scare men from the science having failed, various
other means were taken. To say nothing about England, it is humili-
ating to human natui*e to remember the annoyances, and even trials,
to which the pettiest and narrowest of men subjected such Christian

* For a philosophical statement of reasons why the struggle was more bitter, and the
attempt at deceptive compromises more absurd in England than elsewhere, see Maury,
" L'Ancienne Academic des Sciences," second edition, p. 152.

^ See Pye Smith, D. D., "Geology and Scripture," pp. 156, 157, 168, 169.
VOL. VIII. — 36

562 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

scholars in our own country as Benjamin Silliman and Edward Hitch-
cock and Louis Agassiz.

But it is a duty and a pleasure to state here that one great Christian
scholar did honor to religion and to himself by standing up for the
claims of science, despite all these clamors. That man was Nicholas
Wiseman, better known afterward as Cardinal Wiseman. The con-
duct of this pillar of the Roman Catholic Church contrasts nobly with
that of timid Protestants who were filling England with shrieks and
denunciations.*

And here let me note that one of the prettiest skirmishes in this
war was made in New England. Prof. Stuart, of Andover, justly
honored as a Hebrew scholar, virtually declared that geology was be-
coming dangerous ; that to speak of six periods of time for the crea-
tion was flying in the face of Scripture ; that Genesis expressly speaks
of six days, each made up of an evening and a morning, and not six
periods of time.

To him replied a j)rofessor in Yale College, James Kingsley. In an
article admirable for keen wit and kindly temper, he showed that
Genesis speaks just as clearly of a solid firmament as of six ordinary
days, and that if Prof. Stuart had got over one difficulty and accepted
the Copei'nican theory, he might as well get over another and accept
the revelations of .geology. The encounter was quick and decisive,
and the victory was with science and our own honored Yale.''

But perhaps the most singular attempt against geology was made
by a fine specimen of the English Don — Dean Cockburn, of York — to
scold its champions out of the field. Without, aj)parently, the simplest
elementary knowledge of geology, he opened a battery of abuse. He
gave it to the world at large, by pulpit and press ; he even inflicted it
•apon leading statesmen by private letters.'

From his pulpit in Yoi'k Minster, Mary Somerville was denounced
coarsely, by name, for those studies in physical geography which have
made her honored throughout the world. ^

But these weapons did not succeed. They were like Chinese
gongs and dragon-lanterns against rifled cannon. Buckland, Pye

' Wiseman, " Twelve Lectures on the Connection between Science and Revealed Re-
ligion," first American edition, New York, 1837.

^ See Silliman^s Journal, vol. xxx., p. 114.

3 Prof. Goldwin Smith informs me that the papers of Sir Robert Peel, yet unpub-
lished, contain very curious specimens of these epistles.

* See "Personal Recollections of Mary Somerville," Boston, 1 874, pp. 139 and 375.
Compare with any statement of his religious views that Dean Cockburn was able to make,
the following from Mrs. Somerville : "Nothing has afforded me so convincing a proof of
the Deity as these purely mental conceptions of numerical and mathematical science
which have been, by slow degrees, vouchsafed to man — and are still granted in these
latter times, by the differential calculus, now superseded by the higher algebra — all of
which must have existed in that sublimely omniscient mind from eternity." — See " Per-
sonal Recollections," pp. 140, 141.

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 563

Smith, Lyell, Silliman, Hitchcock, Murchison, Agassiz, Dana, and a

host of noble champions besides, press on, and the battle for truth is

won.

And was it won merely for men of science ? The whole civilized

world declares that it was won for religion — that thereby was infi-
nitely increased the knowledge of the power and goodness of God.

Did time permit, we might go over other battle-fields no less in-
structive than those we have seen. We might go over the battle-
fields of Agricultural Progress, and note how, by a most curious per-
version of a text of Scripture, great masses of the peasantry of Russia
were prevented from raising and eating potatoes,* and how in Scotland
at the beginning of this century the use of fanning-raills for win-
nowing grain was denounced as contrary to the text " the wind
bloweth where it listeth," etc., as leaguing with Satan, who is " prince
of the powers of the air," and as suflicient cause for excommunication
from the Scotch Church."

We might go over the battle-fields of Industrial Science, and note
how the introduction of railways into France was declared, by the
Archbishop of Besangon, an evidence of the divine displeasure against
country innkeepers who set meat before their guests on fast-days, and
now were punished by seeing travelers carried by their doors ; and
how raih'oad and telegraph were denounced from a noted pulpit as
" heralds of Antichrist." And then we might pass to Protestant Eng-
land and recall the sermon of the Curate of Rotherhithe at the break-
ing in of the Thames Tunnel, so destructive to life and property, de-
claring that "it was but a just judgment upon the presumptuous
aspirations of mortal man." '

We might go over the battle-fields of Ethnology and note how a
few years since an honored American investigator, proposing in a
learned society the discussion of the question between the origin of
the human race from a single pair and from many pairs, was called to
order and silenced as atheistic, by a Protestant divine whose memory
is jvistly dear to thousands of us.*

Interesting would it be to look over the field of Meteorology —
beginning with the conception, supposed to be scriptural, of angels
opening and shutting " the windows of heaven " and letting out " the
waters that be above the firmament " upon the earth — continuing

1 See Haxthausen, " Etudes sur la Russie."

- Burton, " History of Scotland," vol. viii., p. 511. See also Mause Headrigg's views
in Scott's " Old Mortality," chapter vii. For the case of a person debarred from the
communion for " raising the devil's wind " with a winnowing-machine, see works of Sir
J. Y. Simpson, vol. ii. Those doubting the authority or motives of Simpson may be
reminded that he was, to the day of his death, one of the strictest adherents of Scotch
orthodoxy.

2 See Journal of Sir I. Brunei, for May 20, 1827, in " Life of I. K. Brunei," p. 30.

* This scene will be recalled, easily, by many leading ethnologists in America, and es-
pecially by Mr. E. G. Squier, formerly ninister of the United States to Central America.

564 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

through the battle of Fromundus and Bodin, down to the onslaught
upon Lecky, in our own time, for drawing a logical and scientific con-
clusion from the doctrine that Meteorology is obedient to laws.'

We might go over the battle-fields of Cartography and see how at
one period, on account of expressions in Ezekiel, any map of the world
which did not place Jerusalem in the centre, was looked on as im-
pious."

We might go over the battle-fields of Political Economy and note
how a too literal interpretation of scriptural texts regarding taking
interest for money wrought fearful injury, not only to the material
interests, but also to the moral character of hosts of enterprising
and thrifty men, during ages.'

We might go over the battle-fields of Social Science in Protestant
countries, and note the opposition of conscientious men to the taking
of the census, in Sweden and in the United States, on account of the
terms in which the numbering of Israel is spoken of in the Old Testa-
ment.*

And we might also see how, on similar grounds, religious scruples
have been avowed against so beneficial a thing as Life Insurance.^

1 now come to the warfare on Scientific Instruction. I shall not
take time for a sketch of the earlier phases of this warfare, but shall
simply present a few typical conflicts that have occurred within the
last ten years.

During the years 1867 and 1868 war was commenced against cer-
tain leading professors of the Medical School of Paris, especially
against Profs. Vulpian and See, and against the Department of Pub-

• The meteorological battle is hardly fought out jet. Many excellent men seem still
to entertain views almost identical with those of over two thousand years ago, de-
picted in " The Clouds " of Aristophanes.

=* These texts are Ezekiel v. 5 and xxxviii. 12. The progress of geographical knowl-
edge, evidently, caused them to be softened down somewhat in our King James's version ;
but the first of them reads, in the Yulgate, " Ista est Hierusalem, in medio gentium posui
eam et in circuitu ejus terras ;" and the second reads in the Vulgate "in medio terrae,"
and in the Septuagint eiri rov b/j(l)aXbv r^g y^q. That the literal centre of the earth was
meant, see proof in St. Jerome, Commentar. in Ezekiel, lib. ii., and for general proof, see
Leopardi, " Saggio sopra gli errori popolari degli antichi," pp. 207, 208. For an idea of
orthodox geography in the middle ages, see Wright's "Essay on Archaeology," vol. ii.,
chapter " On the Map of the World in Hereford Cathedral."

2 For a very complete history of this opposition of the Church to one of the funda-
mental doctrines of political economy, see Murray, "History of Usury," Philadelphia,
1866 ; also, Lecky, " History of Rationalism," vol. ii., chapter vi. For collateral informa-
tion as to effect of similar doctrines on Venetian commerce, see Lindsay, " History of
Merchant Shipping," London, 1874, vol. ii.

* See Michaelis, " Commentaries on the Laws of Moses," 1874, vol. ii., p. 3. The writer
of the present article himself witnessed the reluctance of a very conscientious man to
answer the questions of a census marshal, Mr. Lewis Hawley, of Syracuse, N. Y., and
this reluctance was based upon the reasons assigned in IL Samuel, chapter xxiv. 1,
and I. Chronicles, chapter xxi. 1, for the numbering of the children of Israel.

5 See De Morgan, "Paradoxes," pp. 214-220,

THE WARFARE OF SCIEXCE. 565

lie Instruction, having at its head the Minister of State, Duruy. The
storming party in the French Senate was led by a venerable and con-
scientious prelate, Cardinal de Bonnechose.

It was charged by Monseigneur de Bonnechose and his party, that
the tendencies of the teachings of these professors were fatal to reli-
gion and morality. A heavy artillery of phrases was hurled, such as
" sapping the foundations," etc., " breaking down the bulwarks," etc.,
etc., and withal a new missile was used Avith much effect, the epithet
of " materialist."

The result can be easily guessed. Crowds came to the lecture-
rooms of these professors, and the lecture-room of Prof. See, the chief
offender, was crowded to suffocation.

A siege was begun in due form. A young physician was sent by
the cardinal's party into the heterodox camp as a spy. Having heard
one lecture of Prof. See, he returned with information that seemed to
promise easy victory to the besieging party. He brought a terrible
statement, one that seemed enough to overwhelm See, Vulpian, Duruy,
and the whole hated system of public instruction in France.

Good Cardinal Bonnechose seized the tremendous weapon. Rising
in his place in the Senate he launched a most eloquent invective against
the Minister of State who could protect such a fortress of impiety as
the College of Medicine ; and, as a climax, he asserted, on the evidence
of his spy fresh from Prof. See's lecture-room, that the professor had
declared, in his lecture of the day before, that so long as he had the
honor to hold his professorship he would combat the false idea of the
existence of the soul {idee de Vame). The weapon seemed resistless,
and the wound fatal ; but M. Duruy rose and asked to be heard.

His statement was simply that he held in his hand documentary
proofs that Prof. See never made such a declaration. He held the
notes used by Prof. See in his lecture. Prof. See, it appeared, belonged
to a school in medical science which combated the idea of an art {idee
d\m art) in medicine. The real expression used was Videe d''un art
— the idea of an art ; the expression which the inaagination of the
cardinal's eager emissary made of it was Videe d''une ame — the idea
of a &oul.

The forces of the enemy were immediately turned. They retreated
in confusion amid the laughter of all France ; and a well-meant at-
tempt to check what was feared might be dangerous in science simply
ended in bringing ridicule on religion, and thrusting still deeper into
the minds of thousands of men that most mistaken of all mistaken
ideas — the conviction that religion and science are enemies.'

' For general account of the Vulpian and See matter, see Revue des Deux Momles,
31 Mai, 1868. " Chronique de la Quinzaine," pp. 763-765. As to the result on popular
thought may be noted the following comment on the affair by the Revue which is as
free as possible from any thing like rabid anti-ecclesiastical ideas: " Elle a ete vraiment
curicuse, instructive, asscz triste et rneme un peu amusaiite."

566 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But justice forbids our raising an outcry against Roman Catholi-
cism alone for this. In 1864 a number of excellent men in Euoland
drew up a declaration to be signed by students in the natural sci-
ences, expressing " sincere regret that researches into scientific truth
are perverted by some in our time into occasion for casting doubt
upon the truth and authenticity of the Holy Scriptures." Nine-tenths
of the leading scientific men of England refused to sign it. Xor was
this the worst. Sir John Herschel, Sir John Bowring, and Sir W. E.
Hamilton, administered, through the press, castigations which roused
general indignation against the proposers of the circular, and Prof.
De Morgan, by a parody, covered memorial and memorialists with ridi-
cule. It was the old mistake, and the old result followed in the minds
of multitudes of thoughtful young men.*

And in yet another Protestant country this same wretched mis-
take was made. In 1868, several excellent Churchmen in Prussia
thought it their duty to meet for the denunciation of " Science falsely
so called." Two results followed. Upon the great majority of these
really self-sacrificing men — whose first utterances showed crass igno-
rance of the theories they attacked — there came quiet and wide-spread
contempt ; upon Pastor Knak, who stood forth and proclaimed views
of the universe which he thought scriptural, but which most school-
boys knew to be childish, came a burst of good-natured derision from
every quarter of the German nation."

Warfare of this sort against Science seems petty indeed ; but it is
to be guarded against in Protestant counti-ies not less than Catholic ;
it breaks out in America not less than in Europe. I might exhibit
many proofs of this. Do conscientious Roman bishops in France
labor to keep all advanced scientific instruction nnder their own con-
trol— in their own universities and colleges ; so do very many not
less conscientious Protestant clergymen in our own country insist that
advanced education in science and literature shall be kej^t under con-
trol of their own sectarian universities and colleges, wretchedly one-
sided in their development, and miserably inadequate in their equip-
ment : did a leading Spanish university, until a recent period, exclude
professors holding the Newtonian theory ; so does a leading American
college exclude professors holding the Darwinian theory : have Cath-
olic colleges in Italy rejected excellent candidates for professorships
on account of " unsafe " views regarding the Immaculate Concej)tion ;
so are Protestant colleges in America every day rejecting excellent
candidates on account of " unsafe " views regarding the Apostolic
Succession, or the Incarnation, or Baptism, or the Perseverance of
the Saints.

And how has all this system resulted. In the older nations, by
a natural reaction, these colleges under strict ecclesiastical control

' De Morgan, " Paradoxes," pp. 421-428 ; also Daubeny's "Essays."

- See the Berlin newspapers fur the summer of 18GS, especially Kladderadatuch.

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 567

have sent forth the most bitter enemies the Christian Church has
ever known — of whom Voltaire and Renan and St. Beuve are types ;
and there are many signs that the same causes are producing the same
result in our own country.

I might allude to anotlier battle-field in our own land and time.
I might show how an attempt to meet the great want, in the State
of New York, of an institution providing scientific instruction, has
been met with loud outcries from many excellent men, who fear injury
thereby to religion. I might picture to you the strategy which has
been used to keep earnest young men from an institution, which, it is
declared, cannot be Christian because it is not sectarian. I might lay
before you wonderful lines of argument which have been made, to
show the dangerous tendencies of a plan which gives to scientific
studies the same weight as to classical studies, and which lays no less
stress on modern history and literature than on ancient history and
literature.

I might show how it has been denounced by the friends and agents
of denominational colleges and in many sectarian journals, how the
most preposterous charges have been made and believed by good
men, how the epithets of " godless," " infidel," " irreligious," " un-
religious," " atheistic," have been hurled against a body of Christian
trustees, professors, and students, and with little practical result save
arousing a suspicion in the minds of large bodies of thoughtful young
men, that the churches dread scientific studies untrammeled by sec-
tarianism.

You have now gone over the greater struggles in the long war
between Ecclesiasticism and Science, and have glanced at the lesser
fields. You have seen the conflicts in Physical Geography, as to the
form of the earth ; in Astronomy, as to the place of the earth in the
universe; in Chemistry and Physics; in Anatomy and Medicine; in
Geology; in Meteorology: in Cartography; in the Industrial and
Agricultural Sciences ; in Political Economy and Social Science ; and
in Scientific Instruction.

In every case, whether the war has been long or short, forcible
or feeble, you have seen this same result-^Science has at last gained
the victory.

In every case too, you have seen that while this ecclesiastical
war, during its continuance, has tended to drive multitudes of
thoughtful men away from religion, the triumph of science has been
a blessing to religion — ennobling its conceptions and bettering its
methods.

May we 'not, then, hope that the greatest and best men in the
Church, the men standing at centres of thought, will insist with pow-
er, more and more, that religion be no longer tied to so injurious a
policy as that which this warfare reveals ; that searchers for truth,
whether in theology or natural science, work on as friends, sure that,

568 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

no matter how much at variance tliey may at times seem to be, the
truths they reach shall finally be fused into each other ?

No one needs fear the result. No matter whether Science shall
complete her demonstration that man has been on the earth not mere-
ly six thousand years, or six millions of years ; no matter whether
she reveals new ideas of the Creator or startling relations between
his creatures ; no matter how many more gyves and clamps upon the
spirit of Christianity she destroys, the result, when fully thought out,
will serve and strengthen religion not less than science/

The very finger of the Almighty has written on history that sci-
ence must be studied by means proper to itself, and in no other way.
That history is before us all. No one can gainsay it. It is decisive,
for it is this : There has never been a scientific theory framed from
the use of scriptural texts, wholly or partially, which has been made
to stand. Such attempts have only subjected their authors to deris-
ion, and Christianity to suspicion. From Cosmas finding his plan of
the universe in the Jewish tabernacle, to Increase Mather sending
mastodon's bones to England as the remains of giants mentioned in
Scripture ; from Bellarrain declaring that the sun cannot be the cen-
tre of the universe, because such an idea vitiates the whole scriptural
plan of salvation, to a recent writer declaring that an evolution the-
ory cannot be true, because St. Paul says that " all flesh is not the
same flesh," the result has always been the same.''

'In an eloquent sermon, preached in March, 1874, Bishop Cummins said, in sub-
stance : " The Church has no fear of Science ; the persecution of Galileo was entirely
unwarrantable ; but Christians should resist to the last Darwinism ; for that is evidently
contrary to Scripture." The bishop forgets that Galileo's doctrine seemed to such colos-
sal minds as Bellarmin, and Luther, and Bossuet, " evidently contrary to Scripture."
Far more logical, modest, sagacious, and full of faith, is the attitude taken by bis former
associate, Dr. John Cotton Smith. " For geology, physiology, and historical criticism,
have threatened or destroyed only particular forms of religious opinion ; while they have
set the spirit of religion free to keep pace with the larger generalizations of modern
knowledge."— {PiCTON, " The Mystery of Matter," London, 1873, p. 72.)

* In the Church Journal, New York, May 28, 1874, a reviewer praising Rev. Dr.
Hodge's book against Darwinism, says : " Darwinism, whether Darwin knows it or not,
whether the clergy, who are half prepared to accept it in blind fright as ' science,' know it
or not, is a denial of every article of the Christian faith. It is supreme folly to talk as
some do about accommodating Christianity to Darwinism. Either those who so talk do
not understand Christianity, or they do not understand Darwinism. If we have all, men
and monkeys, women and baboons, oysters and eagles, all ' developed ' from an original
monad and germ, then St. Paul's grand deliverance — 'All flesh is not the same flesh. There
is one kind of flesh of men, another of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
There are bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial' — may be still very grand in our funeral-
service, but very untrue to fact." This is the same dangerous line of argument which
Caccini indulged in in Galileo's time. Dangerous, for suppose " Darwinism " be proved
true ! For a soothing potion by a skillful hand, see Whewell on the consistency of evo-
lution doctrines with teleological ideas ; also Rev. Samuel Houghton, F. R. S., "Princi-
ples of Animal Mechanics," London, 1873, preface and page 156, for some interesting
ideas on teleological evolution.

THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. ^6g

Such facts show that the sacred books of the world were not given
for any such purpose as that to which so many men liave endeavored
to wrest them.'

Such facts show, too, that scientific hypotheses will be established
or refuted by scientific men and scientific methods alone, and that no
conscientious citation of texts or outcries as to consequences of scien-
tiKc truths, from any other quarter, can do any thing save retard truth
and cause needless anxiety. "^

Is skepticism feai-ed ? All history shows that the only skepticism
which does permanent harm is skepticism as to the value and safety
of truth as truth. N"o skepticism has pi'oved so corrosive to religion,
none so cancerous in the human brain and heart.

Is faith cherished ? All history shows that the first article of a
saving faith, for any land or time, is faith that there is a Power in
this universe strong enough to make truth-seeking safe, and good
enoucjh to make truth-telling useful.

What Science can do for the world is shown, not by those who
have labored to concoct palatable mixtures of theology and science
— men like Cosraas, and Torrubia, and Burnet, and Whiston — but by
men who have fought the good fight of faith in truth for truth's sake
— men like Roger Bacon, and Vesalius, and Palissy, and Galileo.

What Christianity can do for the w^orld is shown, not by men
who have stood on the high places screaming in wrath at the advance
of science — not by men who have retreated in terror into the sacred
caves and refused to look out upon the universe as it is, but by men
who have preached and practised the righteousness of the prophets,
and the aspirations of the Psalmist, and the blessed Sermon on the
Mount, and "the first great commandment and the second which is
like unto it," and St. James's definition of " pure religion and unde-
filed."

It is shown in the Roman Church, not by Tostatus and Bellarmin,
but by St. Carlo Borromeo, and St. Vincent de Paul, and Fenelon,
and Eugenie de Guerin ; in the Anglican Church, not bv Dean Cock-
burn, but by Howard, and Jenner, and Wilberforce, and Florence
Nightingale ; in the German Church, not by Pastor Knak, but by
Pastor Harms ; in the American Church, not by the Mathers and
Stuarts, but by such as Bishop Whatcoat, and Channing, and Muhlen-
berg, and Father De Sraet, and Samuel May, and Harriet Stowe.

Let the warfare of science, then, be changed. Let it be a warfare
in which Religion and Science shall stand together as allies, not
against each other as enemies. Let the fight be for truth of every

' To all who are inclined to draw scientific conclusions from biblical texts, may be
commended the advice of a good old German divine of the Reformation period : " Seek-
ing the milk of the "Word, do not press the teats of Holy Writ too hard."

' For some excellent remarks on the futility of such attempts and outcries, see the
Eev. Dr. Deems, in Popular Sciexce Monthly for February, 1876.

570 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

kind against falsehood of every kind — for justice against injustice —
for right against wrong — for the living kernel of religion rather than
the dead and dried husks of sect and dogma ; and the great powers
whose warfare has brought so many sufferings shall at last join in
ministering through earth God's richest blessings.

4»»-

ON FALLACIES OF TESTIMONY EESPECTING THE

SUPEENATUEAL.

By WILLIAM B. CAEPENTEE, LL.D., F.E. S.

"■^rO one who has studied the history of science can fail to recog-
-L-^ nize the fact that the rate of its progress has been in great
degree commensurate with the degree of freedom from any hind of
prepossession with which scientific inquiry has been conducted. And
the chapters of Lord Bacon's " Novum Organura," in which he ana-
lyzes and classifies the prejudices that are apt to divert the scientific
inquirer from his single-minded pursuit of truth, have rightly been
accounted among the most valuable portions of that immortal work.
To use the felicitous language of Dr. Thomas Brown, " the temple
which Lord Bacon purified was not that of Nature herself, but the
temple of the mind; in its innermost sanctuaries were the idols which
he overthrew ; and it was not till these were removed, that Truth
would deign to unveil herself to adoration."

Every one, again, who watches the course of educated thought at
the present time, must see that it is tending toward the exercise of
that trained and organized common-sense which we call " scientific
method," on subjects to which it is legitimately applicable within the
sphere of religious inquiry. Science has been progressively, and in
various ways, undermining the old "bases of belief;" and men in al-
most every religious denomination, animated by no spirit but that of
reverent loyalty to truth, are now seriously asking themselves,
whether the whole fabric of what is commonly regarded as authorita-
tive revelation must not be carefully reexamined under the seai'ching
light of modern criticism, in order that what is sound may be pre-
served and strengthened, and that the insecurity of some parts may
not destroy the stability of the whole.

I notice, further, among even " orthodox " theologians of the pres-
ent time, indications of a disposition to regard the New Testament
miracles rather as incumbrances, than as props, to what is essential
in Christianity ; of a feeling that they are rather to be explained
away,' than adduced as authoritative attestations of the teachings of

'Thus theologiang of the " philosophic " school argue that miracles are not to be
regarded as departures from the divine order, but are parts of the order originally settled

FALLACIES OF TESTIMONY.

571

Jesus ; and of a perception that to attempt to enforce a belief in them,
On the part of the rising generation, will be either to alienate from
the acceptance of those teachings many of the most cultured and most
earnest young people of our time, or to reduce their minds to that
state of unreasoning subservience to authority which finds its only
logical basis in the Roman Catholic Church. And, moreover, I ob-
serve it to be among those, in various religious denominations, who
are converging to the conclusion that the " authority " of Christianity
most surely consists in the direct appeal it makes to the hearts and
consciences of mankind, who most fully recognize in the life, teach-
ing, and death of Christ, that manifestation of the Divine [cnravyaana
rrjg 66^T]g Koi xO'P(if^''"f]p "^^ vTroardaeoyg avrov ') which constitutes him
their Master and Lord, and who most earnestly and constantly aim to
fashion their own lives on the model of his — that there is the greatest
readiness to admit that the records of that life are tinged by the pre-
possessions, and subject to the inaccuracies, to which all human testi-
mony is liable.

It was nobly said thirty years ago ^ (I believe by Francis New-
man) that " every fresh advance of certain knowledge apparently
sweeps off a portion of (so-called) religious belief, but only to leave
the true religious element more and more pure / and in proportion to
its purity will he its influence for good, and for good only ; " and that,
" little as many are aware of it, faithlessness is often betrayed in the
struggle to retain in the region of faith that which is already passing
into the region of science, for it implies doubt of the value of truth."
Thoroughly sympathizing with this view — in no spirit of hostility to
what is commonly regarded as revealed truth — but with a desire to
promote the discriminating search for what really constitutes revealed
truth, I offer the following suggestions, arising out of the special
studies which have occupied a large part of my life, to the considera-
tion of such as may deem them worthy of attention.

That the whole tendency of recent scientific inquiry has been to
strengthen the notion of " continuity " as opposed to "cataclysms"
and " interruptions," and to substitute the idea of progressive " evo-
lution" for that of "special creations," cannot but be obvious to
every one who is familiar with the progress of inquiry in astronomy,
physical geology, paleontology, and biology. But the scientific theist
who regards the so-called " laws of Nature " as nothing else than
man's expressions of so much of the divine order as it lies within his
power to discern, and who looks at the uninterruptedness of this

in the divine mind — as typified by the well-known illustvation supplied by Mr. Babbage
from his calculating-machine. But this obviously puts altogether on one side the notion
of miracles as extraordinary interpositions, involving a more direct personal agency than
the ordinary uniformity.

' " The brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person."

* Prospective Review, vol. i., p. 53.

572 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

order as the highest evidence of its original perfection, need find (as
it seems to me) no abstract difficulty in the conception that the author
of Mature can, if he will, occasionally depart from it. And hence, as
I deem it presumptuous to deny that there might be occasions which
in his wisdom may require such departure, I am not conscious of any
such scientific " prepossessions " against miracles as would prevent
me from accepting them as facts, if trustworthy evidence of their
reality could be adduced. The question with me, therefore, is simply,
"Have we any adequate historical ground for the belief that such
departure has ever taken place ? "

Now, it can scarcely be questioned that, w^hile the scientific proba-
bility of uniform sequence has become stronger, the value of testi-
mony in regard to departures from it has been in various ways dis-
credited by modern criticism. It is clear that the old arguments of
Lardner, and the modern reproduction of them by Prof. Andrews
Norton (Boston, New England), which in my early days were held as
demonstrating the " genuineness of the Gospels," no longer possess their
former cogency. For the question has now passed into a phase alto-
gether different from that which it presented a century or two ago.
It was then, " Are the narratives genuine or fictitious ? Did the nar-
rators intend to speak the truth, or were they constructing a tissue of
falsehoods? Did they really witness what they narrate, or were they
the dupes of ingenious story-tellers ? " It is now, " Granting that the
narrators wrote what they firmly believed to be true, as having them-
selves seen (or thought they had seen) the events they recorded, or as
having heard of them from witnesses whom they had a right to regard
as equally trustworthy with themselves, is their belief a sufficient
justification for ours ? What is the extent of allowance which we are
to make for ' prepossession ' — 1. As modifying their conception of each
occurrence at the time ; and 2. As modifying their sx;bsequent remem-
brance of it ? And 3. In cases in which we have not access to tlie
original records, what is the amount of allowance which we ought to
make for the accretion of other still less trustworthy narratives around
the original nucleus ? "

Circumstances have led me from a very early period to take a
great interest in the question of the value of testimony, and to occupy
myself a good deal in the inquiry as to what is scientifically termed
its " subjective " element. It was my duty for many years to study
and to expound systematically to medical students the probative value
of different kinds of evidence ; and my psychological interest in the
curious phenomena which, under the names of mesmerism, odylism,
electro-biology, psychic force, and spiritual agency, have been supposed
to indicate the existence of some new and mysterious force in Nature,
led me, through a long series of years, to avail myself of every oppor-
tunity of studying them that fell within my reach. The general result
of these inquiries has been to force upon me the conviction that, as

FALLACIES OF TESTIMONY. 573

to all which concerns the " supernatural " (using that term in its gen-
erally understood sense, without attempting a logical definition of it),
the allowance that has to be made for " prepossession " is so large as
practically to destroy the validity of any testimony which is not sub-
mitted to the severest scrutiny according to the strictest scientific
methods. Of the manner in which, within my own experience, wliat
seemed the most trustworthy testimony has been completely discred-
ited by the application of such methods, I shall give some examples
hereafter.

I would by no means claim for myself or any other scientific man
an immunity from idoln.trous prepossessions; for we must all be guided
in our researches by S07ne notion of what we expect to find ; and this
notion may be very misleading. Thus, when no metal was known
that is not several times heavier than water, it was not surprising that
Dr. Pearson, as he poised upon his finger the first globule of potassium
produced by the battery of Davy, should have exclaimed, " Bless me,
how heavy it is ! " though, when thrown into water, the metal floated
upon it. But while the true disciple of Bacon is on his guard against
" idolatry," and is constantly finding himself inidely handled (as Dr.
Pearson was) by "the irresistible logic of facts" if he falls into it, the
pledged upholder of any religious system can be scarcely other than,
in some degree, an " idolater." The real philosopher, says Schiller, is
distinguished from the " trader in knowledge " by his " always loving
truth better than his system."

Bacon's classification of " idols " is based on the sources of our pre-
possessions; and, although his four types graduate insensibly into
each other, yet the study of them is very profitable. Sir John Her-
schel is, I think, less successful when he classifies them as — 1. Preju-
dices of opinion, and 2. Prejudices of sense ; because an analysis of
any of his " prejudices of sense " shows that it is really a " prejudice of
opinion." My first object is to show that we are liable to be afiected
by our prepossessions at every stage of our mental activity, from our
primary reception of impressions from without, to the highest exer-
cise of our reasoning powers ; and that the value of the testimony
of any individual, therefore, as to any fact whatever, essentially
depends upon his freedom from any prepossessions that can afiect it.

That our own states of consciousness constitute what are, to each
individual, the most certain of all truths — in a philosophical sense (as
J. S. Mill says) the only certain truths — will, I suppose, be generally
admitted ; but there is a wide hiatus between this and the position
that eveiy state of consciousness which represents an external object
has a real object answering to it. In fact, although w^e are acccus-
tomed to speak of " the evidence of our senses " as worthy of the high-
est credit, nothing is easier than to show that the evidence of any one
sense, without the check afforded by comparison with that of another,
is utterly untrustworthy.

574 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

I might pile up instances of visual illusion, for example, in which
the subject would be ready to affirm without the slightest hesitation
that he sees something which greatly differs from the object that actu-
ally forms the picture on his retina ; his erroneous interpretation of
that picture being the result of a prepossession derived from antece-
dent experience. I could show, too, that the same picture may be
interpreted in two different modes : a skeleton-diagram, for example,
suggesting two dissimilar solid forms, according as the eyes are fixed
on one or another of its angles ; and a photograph of a coin or fossil
being seen as a cameo or as an intaglio, according as the position of
the light affects the interpretation of its lights and shadows. Again,
I have before me two pieces of card, A and B, of similar form: when
A is placed above B, the latter is unhesitatingly pronounced the larger ;
if their relative positions be reversed, A is pronounced, with equal
conviction, to be the larger; yet, when one is laid ^(pon the other,
they are found to be precisely equal in size.

So, again, in those more complex combinations of natural objects
which the pictorial artist aims to represent, the different modes in
which the very same scene shall be treated, by two individuals work-
ing at the same time and from the same point of view, show how dif-
ferently they interpret the same visual picture, according to their ori-
ginal constitution and subsequent training. As Carlyle says, " The
eye sees what it brings the power to see."

But mental prepossessions do much more than this; ihej produce
sensations having no objective reality. I do not here allude to those
" subjective sensations " of physiologists which depend upon physical
affections of nerves in their course, the circulation of poisoned blood
in the brain (as in the delirium of fever), and the like ; but I refer to
the sensations produced by mental expectancy^ a most fertile source of
self-deception. The medical practitioner is familiar with these in the
case of " hysterical " subjects ; whose pains are as real experiences to
them as if they originated in the parts to which they are referred.
And I have no reason to doubt that the " sensitives " of Reichenbach
really saw the flames they described as issuing from magnets in the
dark — as a very honest and highly-educated gentleman assured me
that he did, not only when the magnet was there, but when he believed
it to be still there (in the dark), after it had been actually withdrawn.
So there are " sensitives " in whom tlie drawing of a magnet along the
arm will produce a sensible aura or a pricking pain ; and this will be
equally excited by the belief that the magnet is being so used, when
nothing whatever is done.

Now, the phenomena of which these are simple examples appear
to me to have this j)hysiological signification — that changes in' the
cerebrum which answer to the higher mental states act doinncard
upon the sensorium at its base, in the same manner as changes in the
organs of sense act upward upon it ; the very same state of the sen-

FALLACIES OF TESTIMONY. 575

sorium being producible through the nerves of the internal and of the
external senses, and. the very same affection of the sensational con-
sciousness being thus called forth by impressions ab extra and ah intra.
Thus, individuals having a strong pictorial memory can reproduce
scenes from Nature, faces, or pictures, Avith such vividness that they
may be said to see with their " mind's eye" just as distinctly as with
their bodily eye ; and there is an instance on record (which Mr. Ruskin
fully accredits, as well from having seen the two pictures as from his
own similar experiences) in which a painter at Cologne accurately
reproduced from memory a large altar-piece by Rubens, which had
been carried away by the French. Those, again, who possess a strong
pictorial imagination, can thus create distinct visual images of what
they have never seen through their bodily eyes. And, although this
power of voluntary representation is comparatively rare, yet we are
all conscious of the phenomenon as occurring involuntarily in our
dreams.

Now, there is a very numerous class of persons who are subject to
what may be termed " waking dreams," which they can induce by
placing themselves in conditions favorable to reverie ; and the course
of these dreams is essentially determined by the individual's prepos-
sessions, brought into play by suggestions conveyed from without.
In many who do not spontaneously fall into this state, fixity of the
gaze for some minutes is quite sufficient to induce it ; and the " mes-
meric mania" of Edinburgh in 1851 showed the proportion of such
susceptible individuals to be much lai-ger than was previously sup-
posed. Those who have had adequate opjDortunities of studying these
phenomena find no difficulty in referring to the same category many
of the " spiritualistic " performances of the present time, in which we
seem to have reproductions of states that were regarded in ancient
times, under the influence of religious prepossession, as results of
divine inspiration. I have strong reason to believe (from my convic-
tion of the honesty of the individuals who have themselves narrated
to me their experiences) that they have really seen, heard, and felt
what they describe, where intentional deception was out of the ques-
tion ; that is, that they had the same distinct consciousness, in states
of expectant reverie, of seeing, touching, and conversing with the
spirits of departed friends, that most of us occasionally have in our
dreams. And the difference consists in this — that while one, in the
exercise of his common-sense, dismisses these experiences as the crea-
tion of his own brain, having no objective reality, the other, under the
influence of his prepossession, accepts them as the results of impres-
sions ab extra made upon him by " spiritual" agencies.

The faith anciently placed, by the heathen as well as the Jewish
world, in dreams, visions, trances, etc., has thus its precise parallel in
the present day ; and it is not a little instructive to find a very intelli-
gent religious body, the Swedenborgians, implicitly accepting as au-

576 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tboritative revelation the visions of a man of great intellectual ability
and strong religious spirit, but highly imaginative disposition, the
peculiar feature of whose mind it was to dwell upon his own imagin-
ings. These he seems to have so completely separated from his
worldly life, that the Sweden borg who believed himself to hold inter-
course with the spiritual world and Swedenborg the mechanician and
metallurgist may almost be regarded as two distinct personalities.

If, then, the high scientific attainments of some of the prominent
advocates of " spiritualism," and our confidence in their honesty, be
held to require our assent to what they narrate as their experiences,
in regard to a class of phenomena which they declare that they have
witnessed, but which they cannot reproduce for the satisfaction of
other men of science who desire to submit them to the rigorous tests
which they regard as necessary to substantiate their validity, then we
must, in like manner, accept the records of Swedenborg's revelations
as binding on our belief. That they were trxie to him I cannot doubt ;
and, in the same manner, I do not question that Mr. Crookes is thor-
oughly honest when he says that he has repeatedly witnessed the
"levitation of the human body." But I can regard his statements in
no other light than as evidence of the degree in which certain minds
are led, by the influence of strong " prepossession," to believe in the
creations of their own visual imagination.

All history shows that nothing is so potent as religious enthusifism,
in fostering this tendency ; the very state of enthusiasm, in fact, being
the " possession " of the mind by fixed ideas, which overbear the
teachings of objective experience. These, when directed to great and
noble ends, may overcome the obstacles which deter cooler judgments
from attempting them ; but, on the other hand, may also move not
only individuals but great masses of people to extravagances at which
sober common-sense revolts ; as the history of the Flagellants, the
Dancing Mania, and other religious ej^idemics of the middle ages, for-
cibly illustrates. And nothing is more remarkable, in the history of
these epidemics, than the vividness with which people who were not
asleep saw visions that were obviously inspired by the prevalent reli-
gious notions of their times. Thus, some of the dancers saw heaven
opened, and the Saviour enthroned with the Virgin Mary ; while
others saw^hell yawning before their feet, or felt as if bathed in blood ;
their frantic leaps being prompted by their eagerness to reach toward
the one or to escape from the other.

In the next place, I would briefly direct attention to the influence
of prepossessions on those interpretations of our sensational expe-
I'iences which we are prone to substitute for the statement of the ex-
periences themselves. Of such misinterpretations, the records of sci-
ence are full ; the tendency is one which besets every observer, and to
which the most conscientious have frequently yielded ; but I do not
know any more striking illustrations of it than I coiild narrate from

FALLACIES OF TESTIMONY. 577

my own inquiries into mesmerism, spiritualism, etc. The most diverse
accounts of the facts of a seance will be given by a believer and a
skeptic. One will declare that a table rose in the air, while another
(who had been watching its feet) is confident that it never left the
ground; a whole party of believers will affirm tliat they saw Mr.
Home float out of one window and in at another, while a single honest
skeptic declares that Mr, Home was sitting in his chair all the time.
And in this last case we have an example of a fact, of wMch there is
ample illustration, that during the prevalence of an epidemic delusion
the honest testimony of any number of individuals on one side, if given
under a " prepossession," is of no more weight than that of a single
adverse witness — if so much. Thus I think it cannot be doubted by
any one who candidly studies the witchcraft trials of two centuries
back, that, as a rule, the witnesses really believed what they deposed
to as facts ; and it further seems pretty clear that in many instances
the persons incriminated were themselves "possessed" with the notion
of the reality of the occult powers attributed to them. No more
instructive lesson can be found, as to the importance of the "subjec-
tive " element in humfhi testimony, than is presented in the records
of these trials. Thus, Jane Brooks was hung at Chard assizes in 1658,
for having bewitched Richard Jones, a sprightly lad of twelve years
old ; he was seen to rise in the air and pass over a garden-wall some
thirty yards ; and nine people deposed to finding him, in open day-
light, with his hands flat against a beam at the top of the room, and
his body two or three feet from the ground ? If this " lev Jtation of the
human body," confirmed as it is in modeim times by the testimony of
Mr. Crookes, Lord Lindsay, and Lord Adair, to say nothing of the
dozen witnesses to Mrs. Gnjjpy's descent through the ceiling of a
closed and darkened room, has a valid claim on our belief, how are we
to stop short of accepting, on the like testimony, all the marvels and
extravagances of witchcraft ? If, on tlie other hand, we put these wit-
nesses out of court, as rendered untrustworthy by their " preposses-
sion," what credit can we attach to the testimony of any individuals
or bodies doraiixated by a strong religious " prepossession ;" that tes-
timony having neither been recorded at the time, nor subjected to the
test of judicial examination?

Though I have hitherto spoken of " prepossessions " as ideational
states, there are very few in which the emotions do not take a share ;
and bow strongly the influence of these may pervert the representa-
tions of actual facts, we best see in that early stage of many forms of
monomania, in which there are as yet no fixed delusions, but the occur-
rences of daily life are wrongly interpreted by the emotional coloring
they receive. But we may recognize the same influence in matters
which are constantly passing under our observation ; and a better
illustration of it could scarcely be found than in the following circum-
stance, mentioned to me as having recently occurred in the practice

VOL. Tin. — 37

578 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of a distinguished physician : The head of a family having been struck
down by serious illness, this physician was called in to consult with
the ordinary medical attendant ; and, after examining the patient and
conferring with his colleague, he went into the sitting-room where the
family were waiting in anxious expectation for his judgment on the
case. This he delivered in the cautious form which wise experience
dictated : " The patient's condition is very critical, but I see no reason
why he should not recover." One of the daughters screamed, " Dr.

says papa will die ! " another cried out, in a jubilant tone, " Dr.

says papa will get well." If no explanation had been given, the

two ladies would have reported the physician's verdict in precisely
opposite terms, one being under the influence of fear, the other of
hope.

I shall now give a few illustrative examples, from recent experi-
ences, of the contrast between the two views taken of the same phe-
nomena (1) by such as are led by their " prepossessions " at once to
attribute to " occult " influences what they cannot otherwise explain,
and (2) by those who, under the guidance of trained and organized
common-sense, apply themselves, in the first*instance, to determine
whether there be any thing in these phenomena which "natural"
agencies are not competent to account for :

1. When, in 1853, the " table-turning " epidemic had taken so strong a hold
of the public mind that Prof. Faraday found himself called upon to explain its
supposed mystery, he devised a very simple piece of apparatus for testing the
fundamental question, whether there is any evidence that the movements of the
table are due to any thing else than the muscular action of the performers who
place their hands upon it. And having demonstrated by its means (1) that the
table never went round unless the "indicator" showed that lateral pressure had
been exerted in the direction of the movement, while (2) it always did go round
when the "indicator" showed that such lateral pressure was adequately exert-
ed, he at once saw that the phenomenon was only another manifestation of the
involuntary " ideo-motor" action which had been previously formulated, on oth-
er grounds, as a definite physiological principle ; and that there was, therefore,
not the least evidence of any other agency. Yet it is still asserted that the
validity of Faraday's test is completely disproved by the conviction of the per-
formers that they do not exert any such agency ; all that this proves being that
they are not conscious of such exertion — which, to the physiologist, affords no

.proof whatever that they are not making it.

2. So, again. Profs. Chevreul and Biot, masters of experimental science wor-
thy to be placed in the same rank with Faraday, had been previously applying
the same principles and methods to the systematic investigation of the phenomena
of the divining-rod and the oscillations of suspended buttons ; the former of which
were supposed to depend upon some " occult " power on the part of the perform-
er, while the latter were attributed to an hypothetical " odylic " force. And they
conclusively proved that in both cases the results are brought about (as in table-
turning) by the involuntary action of mental expectancy on the muscles of the
performer ; the phenomena either not occurring at all, or having no constancy
whatever, when he neither knows nor guesses what to expect, — The following

FALLACIES OF TESTIMONY. S79

iostance of the application, to the phenomena of the divining-rod, of the very
simple test of closing the eyes, has lately been sent me by an American friend,
who was apparently unaware of its former application by Chevreul and Biot :
" An aged clergyman, of thorough integrity, has for many years enjoyed the
reputation of being specially skilled in the finding of places to dig wells by
means of the ' divining-rod.' Ilis fame has spread far ; and the accounts that
are given by him, and of him, must be, to those who place an implicit reliance
on human testimony, overwhelmingly convincing. He consented to allow me to
experiment with him, and I found that only a few moments were required to
prove that his fancied gift was a delusion. In his own yard there was known
to be a stream of water running a few feet below the surface, through a small
pipe. As he marched over and near this, the rod continually pointed strongly
downward, and several times turned clear over. These places I marked, and
then blindfolded him, and marched him about until lie knew not where he was,
taking him over the same ground over and over again ; and although the rod
went down a number of times, it did not once point to or near the places indi-
cated.''''

3. About twenty-five years ago, when the old phenomena of the oscilla-
tions of suspended buttons, developed by Dr. H. Mayo into a pseudo-scientific
theory of od-force, were strongly exciting public attention, a medical friend of
great intelligence, then residing in the south of France, wrote me long letters
giving the results of his surprising experiences, and asking what I regarded as
their rationale. My reply was simply, " Shut your eyes, and let some one else
observe the oscillations." In a short time I heard from him again, to the efiect
that his reinvestigation of the matter under this condition had satisfied him
that there was no other agency concerned than his own involuntary muscular
movement, directed by his mental expectancy of the results which would ensue.

In the foregoing cases, the honest beliefs of the agents themselves brought
about the results; in the following these beliefs were taken up by the wit-
nesses to the performances of others, in spite of all common-sense probabil-
ity to the contrary, under the influence of their own strong "preposses-
sions."

4. At a spiritualistic seance at which I was present, at an early stage of the
present epidemic, the " medium " pressed down one side of a large loo table sup-
ported on a pedestal springing from three spreading feet, and left it resting on
only two of its feet, with its surface at an angle of about 45°. Having been
admitted to this seance under a promise of non-interference, I waited until its
conclusion ; and then, going over to the table, set it up and left it in the same
position. For I had observed, when this was done by the " medium," that the
edge of the broad claw of each foot, and the edge of its castor, bore on the
ground together, so as to afford a base which, though narrow, was sufficient for
the table to rest on, its weight happening to be balanced when thus tilted half
over. Several persons of great intelligence who were present at this seance (Mr.
Eobert Chambers among the rest) assured me that, if it had not been for my
exposure of this trick, they should have gone away in the belief that the table
was sustained by " spiritual " influence, as in no other way could they suppose
it to have kept its position against the force of gravity.

5. So strong was the impression made by the rope-tying and other perform-
ances of the Davenport brothers, about twenty years ago, upon those who
were already prepossessed in favor of their " spiritualistic " claims, that I was
pressed by men of distinguished position to become a member of a coram'ttec

58o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for their " scientific " investigation. Having a strong prepossession, however, in
favor of the common-sense view that these performances were but the tricks
of not very clever jugglers, and learning that this inquiry was to take place in
a darkened room, and that the members of the committee must form a circle
with joined hands, I at once declined to have any thing to do with it; on the
ground that, to exclude the use of the eyes and hands, which the scientific in-
vestigator uses as his chief instruments of research, was to render the inquiry
utterly nugatory. Now that the tricks of the Davenport brothers have been
not merely imitated but surpassed by Messrs. Cooke and Maskelyne, I suppose
that no truly " rational" person would appeal to them as evidence of " spirit-
ual " agency.

6. During the meeting of the British Association at Belfast in 1874, a lady-
medium of great repute held spiritualistic seances^ at which she distributed flow-
ers, affirmed to have been brought to her then and there by the spirits, fresh
from the garden, with the dew of heaven upon them. As there was nothing
more in this performance than is done every day by an ordinary conjurer, only
the confidence entertained in the good faith of the medium could justify a be-
lief in the " spiritual " transport of the flowers ; but this belief, aided by the
general " prepossession," had been implicitly accepted by many of the witnesses
on such occasions. An inquisitive young gentleman, however, who was staying
in the same house, and did not share in this confidence, found a basin-full of
these flowers (hollyhocks) in a garret, with a decanter of water beside it ; and
strongly suspecting that they had been stored there with a view to distribution
at the seance^ and that the dew would be supplied, when wanted, from the de-
canter, lie conveyed into the water a chemical substance (ferrocyanide of potas-
sium), in quantity so small as not to tinge it, and yet to be distinctly recognizable
by the proper test. On the subsequent application of this test (a per-salt of
iron) to the flowers distributed by the "medium," they were found to give Prus-
sian Hue. — This is no piece of hearsay, but a statement which I have in the
hand of the gentleman himself, with permission to make it public.

But every form of " prejDOSsession " has an involuntary and unsus-
pected action in modifying the memoi'ial traces of past events, even
when they were originally rightly ai:>prehended. A gradual change in
our own mode of viewing them will bring us to the conviction that we
always so viewed them ; as we recently saw in the erroneous account
which Earl Russell gave of his action as Foreign Secretary in the
negotiations which preceded the Crimean War. His subsequently-
acquired perception of what he should have done at a particular junc-
ture wrought him up to the honest belief that he really did it. To
few persons of experience in life has it not happened to find their dis-
tinct impressions of past events in striking discordance with some
contemporary narrative, as perhaps given in a letter of their own.
An able lawyer told me not long since that he had had occasion to
look into a deed which he had not opened for twenty years, but which
h'3 could have sworn to contain certain clauses ; and, to his utter aston-
ishment, the clauses were not to be found in it. His habitual concep
tion of the purpose of the deed had constructed what answered to the
actual memorial trace.

FALLACIES OF TESTIMONY. 581

Xow, this constructive process becomes peculiarly obvious, m a
comparison of narratives given by the believers in mesmerism, spirit-
ualism, and similar " occult " agencies, when there has been time for
the building-up of the edifice, with contemporary records of the
events, made perhaps by the very narrators themselves. Every thing
which tends to prove the reality of the occult influence is exagger-
ated or distorted ; every thing which would help to explain it away
is quietly (no doubt quite unintentionally) dropped out. And convic-
tions thus come to be honestly entertained which are in complete dis-
accordance with the original facts. This source of fallacy was spe-
cially noticed by Bacon ;

" "When the mind is once pleased with certain things, it draws all others to
consent, and go along with them; and though the power and number of in-
stances that make for the contrary are greater, yet it either attends not to them,
or despises them, or else removes them by a distinction, with a strong and per-
nicious prejudice to maintain the authority of the first choice unviolated. And
hence in most cases of superstition, as of astrology, dreams, omens, judgments,
etc., those who find pleasure in such kind of vanities always observe where the
event answers, iut slight and pass hy the instances where it fails, which are
much the more numerous.^'' — Novum Oeganon.

Of the manner in which this constructive process will build up a
completely ideal representation of a personality (with or without a nu-
cleus of reality), which shall gain implicit acceptance among a whole
people, and be currently accepted by the world at large, we have a
" pregnant instance " in the William Tell tradition. For the progres-
sive narrowing-down of his claims, which has resulted from the com-
plete discordance between the actions traditionally attributed to him
and trustworthy contemporary history, leaves even his personality
questionable ; while the turning-up of the apple-story in Icelandic
sagas and Hindoo myths seems to put it beyond doubt that this, at
any rate, is drawn from far older sources. The reality of this process
of gradual accretion and modification, in accordance with current
ideas in regard to the character of an individual or the bearing of an
event, cannot now be doubted by any philosophic student of history.
And the degree in which such constructions involve ascriptions of
supernatural power can be shown in many instances to depend upon
the prevalent notions entertained as to what the individual might be
expected to do.

No figure is more prominent in the early ecclesiastical history of
Scotland than thaj of St. Columba, "the Apostle of the Scoto-Irish,"
in the sixth century. Having left Ireland, his native country, through
having, by his fearless independence, been brought into collision with
its civil powers, and been excommunicated by its Church-synods, he
migrated to Scotland in the year 563, and acquired by royal donation
the island of lona, which was a peculiarly favorable centre for his
evangelizing labors, carried on for more than thirty years among the

582 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Picts and Scots, and also among tbe northern Irish. No fewer than
thirty-two separate religious foundations among the Scots, twenty-one
among the Picts, and thirty-seven among the Irish, many of which
occupied conspicuous places in the monastic history of the earlier
middle ages, seem to have been planted by himself or his immediate
disciples ; the most celebrated of all these being the college of the
Culdees, at lona, which kept alive the flame of learning during a pro-
longed period of general ignorance and superstition, and became a
centre of religious influence, which extended far beyond the range of
its founder's personal labors, and caused his memory to be held in the
deepest veneration for centuries afterward. The point on which I
here desire to lay stress is the continuity of history^ as trustworthy as
any such history can be ; the incidents of St. Columba's life having
been originally recorded in the contemporary fasti of his religious
foundation, and transmitted in unbroken succession to Abbot Adam-
nan, who first compiled a complete " Vita " of his great predecessor, of
which there still exists a manuscript copy, whose authenticity there is
no reason to doubt, which dates back to the early part of the eighth
century, not much more than one hundred years after St. Columba's
death. Now, Adamnan's " Vita " credits its subject with the posses-
sion of every kind of miraculous power. The saint prophesied events
of all kinds, trivial as well as grave, from battles and violent deaths
down to the spilling of an ink-horn, the falling of a book, the omission
of a single letter from a writing, and the arrival of guests at the mon-
astery. He cured numbers of people afllicted with inveterate dis-
eases, accorded safety to storm-tossed vessels, himself walked across
the sea to his island-home, drove demons out of milk-jDails, outwitted
sorcerers, and gave supernatural powers to domestic implements.
Like other saints, he had his visions of angels and apparitions of
heavenly light, which comforted and encouraged him at many a try-
ing juncture, lasting, on one occasion, for three days and nights.

Now, it seems to me beyond all reasonable doubt that St. Columba
was one of those men of extraordinary energy of character and earnest
religious nature who have the power of strongly impressing most of
those with whom they come into contact, moulding their wills and
awakening their religious sympathies, so as to acquire a wonderful in-
fluence over them; this being aided by the commanding personal
" presence " he is recorded to have possessed. And it is not surprising
that, when themselves the subjects of what they regarded as "super-
natural " power, they should attribute to him the exercise of the same
power in other ways. In fact, to their un scientific minds it seemed
quite " natural " that he should so exert it ; its possession being, in
their belief, a normal attribute of his saintship. That he himself be-
lieved in his gifts, and that many wonders were actually worked by
the concurrent action of his own faith in himself and his followers'
faith in him, will not seem unlikely to any one who has carefully

FALLACIES OF TESTIMONY. 583

studied the action of mental states upon the bodily organism. And
that round a nucleus of truth there should have gathered a large ac-
cretion of error, under the influence of the mental preconception whose
modus operandi I have endeavored to elucidate, is accordant with the
teachings of our own recent experience, in such cases as that of Dr.
Newton and the Zouave Jacob. In these and similar phenomena, a
strong conviction of the possession of the power on the part of the
healer seems to be necessaiy for the excitement of the faith of those
operated on ; and the healer recognizes, by a kind of intuition, the ex-
istence of that faith on the part of the patient. Do not several phrases
in the gospel narratives point to the same relations as existing be-
tween Jesus and the sufferers who sought his aid ? The cure is con-
stantly attributed to the "faith" of the patient; while, on the other
hand, we are told that Jesus did not do many mighty works in his
own country "because of their unbelief" — the very condition which,
if these mighty works had been performed by his own will alone,
would have been supposed to call forth its exertion, but which is per-
fectly conformable to our own experience of the wonders of mesmer-
ism, spiritualism, etc. So Paul is spoken of as " steadfastly behold-
ing " the cripple at Lystra, " and seeing that he had faith to be
healed."

The potency of influences of the opposite kind upon minds predis-
posed to them, and through their minds upon their bodies, is shown
in the " Obeah practices " still lingering among the negroes of the
"West India colonies, in spite of most stringent legislation. A slow
pining away, ending in death, has been the not unfrequent result of
the fixed belief on the part of the victim that " Obi " has been put
upon him by some old man or old woman reputed to possess the inju-
rious power ; and I see no reason to doubt that the Obi men or women
were firm believers in the occult power attributed to them.

Every medical man of large experience is well aware how strongly
the patient's undoubting faith in the efiicacy of a particular remedy
or mode of treatment assists its action ; and, where the doctor is him-
self animated by such a faith, he has the more power of exciting it in
others. A simple prediction, without any remedial measure, will
sometimes work its own fulfillment. Thus, Sir James Paget tells of a
case in which he strongly impressed a woman, having a sluggish, non-
malignant tumor in the breast, that this tumor would disperse within
a month or six weeks ; and so it did. He perceived the patient's na-
ture to be one on which the assurance would act favorably, and no one
could more earnestly and effectually enforce it. On the other hand, a
fixed belief on the part of the patient that a mortal disease has seized
upon the frame, or that a particular operation or system of treatment
will prove unsuccessful, seems in numerous instances to have been the
real occasion of the fatal result.

Many of the so-called " miracles " of the Romish Church, such as

584 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that of the "holy thorn" (narrated in tlie "History of the Port-
Royalists "), whicli stood the test of the most rigid contemporary in-
quiry, carried on at the prompting of a hostile ecclesiastical party,
seem to me fully explicable on the like principle of the action of
strongly-excited "faith "in producing bodily change, whether bene-
ficial or injurious ; and nothing but the fact that this strong excite-
ment was called forth by religious influences, which in all ages have
been more potent in arousing it than influences of any other kind,
gives the least color to the assumption of their supernatural char-
acter.

I might draw many other illustrations from the lives of the saints
of various periods of the Roman Catholic Church, as chronicled by
their contemporaries, many of whom speak of therhselves as eye-wit-
nesses of the marvels they relate ; thus, the "levitation of the human
body" — i. e., the rising from the ground, and the remaining unsup-
ported in the air for a considerable length of time — is one of the mira-
cles attributed to St. Francis d'Assisi. But it will be enough for me
to refer to the fact that some of the ablest ecclesiastical historians in
the English Church have confessed their inability to see on what
grounds — so far as externcel evidence is concerned — we are to reject
these, if the testimony of the Biblical narratives is to be accepted as
valid evidence of the supernatural occurrences they relate.

But the most remarkable example I have met with in recent times
of the " survival " in a whole community of ancient modes of thought
on these subjects (the etymological meaning of the term " siapersti-
tion " ) has been very recently made public by a German writer, who
has given an account of the population of a corner of Eastern Austria,
termed the Bukowina, a large proportion of which are Jews, mostly
belonging to the sect of the Chassidim, who are ruled by "Saints" or
" Just Ones." " These saints," says their delineator, " are sly impostors,
w^ho take advantage of the fanaticism, superstition, and blind ignorance
of the Chassidim in the most barefaced manner. They heal the sick
by pronouncing magic words, drive out devils, gain lawsuits, and their
curse is supposed to kill whole families, or at least to reduce them to
beggary. Between the ' saint ' and ' God ' there is no mediator, for he
holds personal intercourse with the Father of all, and his words are
oracles. Woe to those who should venture to dispute these miracles
in the presence of these unreasonable fanatics ! They are ready to
die for their superstitions, and to kill those who dispute them." '

Now, I fail to see what stronger external evidence there is of any
of the supernatural occurrences chronicled in the Old Testament than
that which is afibrded by the assured conviction of this Jewish com-
munity as to what is taking place at the present time under their own
eyes. And, assuming, as I suppose most of us should be ready to do,
that the testimony of these contemporary wonders would break down

* E. Kilian, in Fraser^s Magazine for December, 18Y5.

FALLACIES OF TESTIMONY. 585

under the rigorous test of a searching examination, I ask whether we
are not equally justified in the assumption that a similar scrutiny, if
we had the power to apply it, would in like manner dispose of many
of the narratives of old time, either as distortions of real occurrences
or as altogether legendary.

In regard to the New Testament miracles generally, while failing
to see in what i-espect the external testimony in their behalf is stronger
than it is for the reality of the miracles attributed to St. Columba, I
limit myself for the present to the following questions :

1. Whether the " miracles of healing " may not have had a founda-
tion of reality in "natural" agencies perfectly well known to such as
have scientifically studied the action of the mind upon the body. In
regard to one form of these supposed miracles — the casting out of
Jevils — I suppose that I need not in these days adduce any argument
to disprove the old notion of " demoniacal possession," in the face of
the fact that the belief in such " possession " in the case of lunatics,
epileptics, etc., and the belief in the powers of " exorcists " to get rid of
it, are still as prevalent among Eastern nations as they were in the time
of Christ. And I suppose, too, that, since travelers have found that
the pool of Bethesda is fed by an intermittent spring, few now seri-
ously believe in the occasional appearance of an " angel " who moved
its water ; or in the cure of the first among the expectant sick who
got himself placed in it, by any other agency than his "faith" in the
efficacy of the means. I simply claim the right to a more extended
application of the same critical method.

2. Whether we have not a similar right to bring to bear on the
study of the Gospel narratives the same 'principles of criticism as
guided the early fathers in their construction of the canon, with all
the enlightenment which we derive from the subsequent history of
Christianity, aided by that of other forms of religious belief. The
early Christian fathers were troubled with no doubts as to the reality
of miracles in themselves ; and they testified to the healing of the
sick, the casting out of devils, and even the raising of the dead, as
well-known facts of their own time. But they rejected some current
narratives of the miraculous which they did not regard as adequately
authenticated, and others as considering them puerile. Looking at it
not only as our right, but as our duty, to bring the higher critical
enlightenment of the present day to bear upon the study of the Gospel
records, I ask whether both past and contemporary history do not
afford such a body of evidence of a prevalent tendency to exaggera-
tion and distortion, in the representation of actual occun-ences in
which "supernatural" agencies are supposed to have been concerned,
as entitles us, without attempting any detailed analysis, to believe
that, if we could know what really did happen^ it would often prove to
be something very different from what is narrated.

By such a general admission, we may remove the serious difficul-

586 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ties to whicli I alluded at the outset, difficulties which must, I think,
have been present to the mind of Locke, when he recorded, in the
commonplace-book published by Lord King, the remarkable aphorism
that " the doctrine proves the miracles, rather than the miracles the
doctrine." — Contemporary Heview.

-♦♦♦-

THE FUNCTIONS OF ASSOCIATION IN ITS EELATION

TO LABOK.

By "WILLIAM B. WEEDEN.

rriHE writer is a member of a copartnership chiefly devoted to the
JL business of manufacturing textile fabrics. Within twenty years
this firm has divided interests in different mills with eight persons,
who acted as superintendents or assistant superintendents of the mills
in which they were engaged. These combinations were of the nature
of industrial partnerships, and proved uniformly successful. Of these
eight persons, two were originally factory accountants, two were fin-
ishing overseers, and four were weaving overseers ; all were men who
had served long in the factories, and were outgrowths from factory-
life. If it be true that in the armies of Napoleon every private car-
ried a marshal's hdton in his knapsack, or, as Sydney Smith puts it,
if every English curate is a possible bishop, then these industrial
combinations must have produced better cloth for the people and a
better life in the makers of the cloth, or the laborers who were con-
fined in the factories. The firm owned or controlled ample capital
for their enterprises, and employed the laborers. It needs no argu-
ment to show that the business was more thoroughly done because
these industrial partners wei*e taken from among the laborers ; and it
is likewise evident that each rank of laborers was elevated and stimu-
lated by these promotions.

Under that modei'n system of organization which unites the labor-
ers into one mass, striving to obtain the highest price for their ser-
vices, and combines employers in another assembly seeking to obtain
labor at the lowest price, oi;r industrial partnerships would have been
impossible. If close combinations resulting in certain antagonism,
such as has prevailed in England for a generation, had existed here,
then no links could have reached across from the chain of laborers on
the one side to the chain of employers and capitalists on the other.
These combinations are growing in America ; the life they foreshadow
must differ from the industrial life described above. It was this
thought which led me to consider the matter, and to try to ascertain
the true functions of association. The topic is broader than my
theme, and enters into all phases of civilized society, but I would con-

ASSOCIATION IN ITS RELATION TO LABOR. ^87

aider it in the relations of organized labor, which include the so-called
labor and capital (or capital and labor) disputes. The same principles
of association prevail here which dominate all social action. What
are the powers, the rights, and the limits of association, whether it
be of the employers or the employed ? I shall resolve the question
of rights into that of powers. If there be a legitimate power inher-
ent in these associations, I will not maintain any vested right against
it. This is not strictly accurate, but sufficiently so for this discussion.

In treating of association we must first consider the materials
which make it ; the characteristics of the individuals who associate
themselves together. And here we must remember that the individ-
ual is a social entity of quite recent growth. The Roman, German,
Anfflo-Saxon societies knew nothing of individual men and women.
The Roman family, gens, or house and tribe, the German benefice,
commendation, and guild, the Anglo-Saxon ceorl and eorl castes, with
their tithings and hundreds — all these institutions, mingling in the
stream of history, made each individual into a part of something
other than himself. Society as well as government was classified into
groups, which were further classified and subdivided. The single
individual had no place ; under the Saxon laws he was outlawed, and
might be killed. These groups gradually broke up, under the fric-
tion of modern life. America, as we have been frequently told in the
centennial reminiscences of this period, for two hundred years received
the germinal ideas of Europe. We received, through immigration,
the most characteristic and modern ideas, and incorporated them into
a new political and social life, freed from many restraints still pre-
vailing in the old countries. Politically, the individual was fully rec-
ognized for the first time; socially, he was raised into freer activity
than any society had ever developed ; yet, socially, the individual was
more limited by the influence of the old grouping than he was in his
political relations. These distinctions are important, because they
modify all the subsequent relations of employers and employed, and
control the character of associations in this country.

The associations of employers in America thus far have been loose-
ly formed, and their action on the labor question has been indirect.
The associations of laborers have been modeled after those prevailing
in England, and known as trades-unions. If we would comprehend
the principles of any association of laborers in America, we must
first study the history of these English unions, for the results achieved
by these powerful organizations govern the movements of all labor
agitators, whether they are conscious of it or not. The whole prin-
ciple of ti'ades-unionism has been set forth carefully and candidly by
Mr. Thornton in his work " On Labor." Mr. Thornton is neither a
communist nor a socialist, but an acute and thoughtful Englishman,
with large sympathies, who, whenever his sense of justice will allow,
leans to the side of labor in its struggles with capital. He sees in

q88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

labor, as capital, not theories, but immense and awful facts which
must bruise and grind each other until they are worn into some finer
social relations. The idea that some wrong principles in the first con-
stitution of the facts might be changed, and the whole result might
be ameliorated, never occurs to him. The whole afiair must be fought
out representatively and fairly ; and, when the strongest force has
manifested itself, right will prevail. He admits the many evils of
trades-unionism, stating them with candor and force. But he be-
lieves the institution to be absolutely necessary. He says, on page
320:

"Laborers may, by combining, acquire an influence which, if exercised with
moderation and discretion, employers will in general be willing rather to pro-
pitiate than to oppose. Among the concessions which may in consequence be
obtained by unionists, the most material are those which aflfect the remunera-
tion of labor, and these, it is commonly supposed, cannot, when due solely to
unionist action, be of permanent operation. "We have learned, however, in the
course of the present chapter, that the fact of an increase in the rate of remu-
neration having been artificially caused, furnishes no reason why, in the great
majority of cases, that increase should not be lasting. . . . Such being the eflfi-
cacy of unionism, there is no difficulty in accounting for its popularity without
resorting, in explanation of unionist loyalty, to any of those terrorist theories,
the exaggerations of which have already been exposed, and on which no addi-
tional words need here be expended."

Mr. Thornton supports the extraordinary theory that an artificial
rise of wages may be made into a permanent value by reconstructing
the whole formula of supply and demand as it is enunciated by econo-
mists and men of afiairs. He says, on page 108 :

" The price of labor is determined, not by supply and demand, which never
determined tlie price of any thing, nor yet by competition, which generally de-
termines the price of everything else, but by combination among the masters.
Competition in a small minority of cases, combination in a great majority, have
appeared to be normally the determining causes of the rate of wages or price of
labor."

It is not necessary to refute this theory in its relation to price and
value— it refutes itself ; common facts, occurring since he wrote, have
nullified it. I am only stating the basis of trades-unionism in the
words of its most intelligent advocate. It is interesting to compare
these doctrines of Mr. Thornton with those of Josiah Warren, an
American socialist, who approaches the question from the opposite di-
rection. Mr. Warren works his theory of value, price, and supply and
demand, out of the sovereignty of the individual, as he terms it ; while
Mr. Thornton's comes out of the historic organization of society, po-
litical and social, as well as economical. Mr. Warren was an earnest
man, who has had and now has a great influence in forming the opin-
ions of laborers and labor-agitators in this country. He says in his
pamphlet on "True Civilization" (pages 41, 64, 100) :

ASSOCIATION IN ITS RELATION TO LABOR. 589

" It is now evident to all eyes that labor does not obtain Hs legitimate re-
ward, but, on the contrary, that those who work the hardest fare the worst.
. ... At this point society must attend to the rights of labor, and settle once
for all the great problem of its just reward. This appears to demand a discrimi-
nation, a disconnection, a disunion, between cost and value. . . . Making value,
or ' what a thing will bring,' the limit of its price, stagnates exchange and pre-
vents our wants from being supplied. Now, if it were not a pai't of our present
system to get a price according to the degree of want or suffering of the commu-
nity, there would long since have been some arrangement made to adapt the sup-
ply to the demand. . . . Cost being made the limit of price, would give to the
washer-woman a greater income than the importer of foreign goods ; that this
would entirely upset the present system of national trade, stop all wars arising
out of the scramble for the profits of trade, and demolish all tariffs, duties, and
all systems of policy that give rise to them ; would abolish all distinctions of rich
and poor ; would enable every one to consume as much as he produced, and,
consequently, prevent any one from living at the cost of another without his or
her consent."

The difficulty underlying these two economical theories is the
same, as I understand it. Mr. Thornton, and in a certain degree the
political economists also, convert supply and demand into two entities.
Take his illustration (page 59) :

" Suppose at each of two horse-fairs a horse to be sold valued by its owner
at £50, and suppose there be in the one case two and in the other three persons,
of whom each is ready to pay £50 for the horse, though no one of them can
afford to pay more. In both cases supply is the same — viz., one horse at £50 —
but demand is different, being in the one case two and in the other three horses
at £50. Yet the price at which the horse will be sold will be the same in both
cases, viz., £50."

Here he assigns a metaphysical limit to supply, and yet admits )nly
a portion of the mental process by which that limit is reached. The
fact that the buyers can afford to pay only £50 has little to do with the
price paid. The cause which influences their mental action is, that
they know there are plenty of other horses they can buy at £50, though
there is only one at hand. Economically, the absent horses enter into
the supply nearly as effectively as the one present. This supply, pres-
ent and absent, affects the minds of both buyer and seller, and limits
the price ; the limit is not a metapliysical one, imposed by the compe-
tition of sellers alone, as Mr. Thornton would have us believe, and as
he directly says elsewhere. We must bear in mind that Mi\ Thornton
has been partially approved by Mill and Prof. Cairns, in considering
the weight of his theories. In the relations of capital and labor, he
assumes that capitalists have the same control of the market-price of
labor which he conceives sellers to have in ordinary trade ; hence the
necessity of trades-unionism to resist this control, which could not be
governed by the economical forces of the market ; and hence the
above formula of supply and demand. Mr. Warren's error is essen-
tially the same. In his view,^the price of labor is regulated by a raeta-

59© THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

physical entity, which is not the relation of the labor-supply to the
general market and demand, but is a result of " the want or suffering
of the community." To overcome this entity he would revolutionize
trade and production, abolish profit, and base every transaction on its
cost in labor, without regard to the results of that labor.

Now, as I understand supply and demand in the market, they are
not dead-weights of matter, like a rock crushing my finger; they are
forces like the gravitation controlling the rock, and which I must
recognize if I would keep my finger whole and escape mental distress.
These forces affect laborers and capitalists, producers and consumers
alike, and they are the strongest influence in fixing market-prices. In
fiict, we may consider them the only forces present and active when
the selling price is fixed. All other forces must have been transmuted
before price can be fixed. It is not easy to comprehend these forces,
for Prof. Cairns, while saying * " demand and supply are essentially
the same phenomena regarded from different points of view, conse-
quently general demand cannot increase or diminish except in con-
stant relation with general supply," yet says also they are " not inde-
pendent economic forces." Mr. Mill says : ^

"Demand and supply — the quantity demanded and the quantity supplied —
will be made equal. If unequal at any moment competition equalizes them, and
the manner in which this is done is by an adjustment of the value."

Yet every merchant knows that competition is only one of many
elements which enter into an " equation " of supply and demand. I
dwell on this, not to show the differences of professional economists,
but to illustrate the subtlety of these controlling influences of the mar-
ket-price of labor and commodities. These influences are quite be-
yond the comprehension of a trades-union as such. We may say a
powerful union would employ a leader of great capacity, who would
construe these influences properly ; but the very process which made
him a union-leader would unfit him for a judge of the markets. A
general can lead an army to victory ; but generals, as a class, have
been poor judges of national policy, in war or peace. The union-
leader may extort an advance of wages through the force of his fol-
lowers. But this advance in price must be converted into permanent
exchange value in order to be of benefit to the laborer. One possible
element of this value is the very labor of the unionists themselves
while they were striking for the advance; or the advance may have
carried the products out of relation to all other values. The only
solvents of these delicate problems are the principles of supply and
demand I have stated. They must be interjDreted by social agents
with the highest faculties and the best power of discrimination. If
society proves one of these men and finds him trustworthy, it must

' " Principles of Political Econmy," p. 42.

^ "Political Economy," vol. i., p. 551, American edition.

ASSOCIATION IN ITS RELATION TO LABOR. 591

keep him aud allow birn full play. Like tea and wine tasters, they
must not loe argued with nor forced into unnatural decisions by the
power of numbers. If it be said that a unionist can perform this deli-
cate social duty, let us hear what Mr. Thornton ' says in this regard :

" They " (trades-unions) " tell us plainly what they aspire to is ' control over
the destinies of labor; ' that they want not merc4y to be freed from dictation,
but to dictate — to be able to arrange the conditions of employment at their own
discretion."

Mr. Api^legarth, one of the most accomplished unionists, says :

" The business of the employed is to look after their own interests, leaving
employers, customers, and the rest of society, to look after theirs and to shift for
themselves as they best may."

Firm associations of employers promote the highest economical ends
no better when they antagonize the market, or society economically
considered. The notion long prevailed in trade and manufactures,
that advantages and profits should be secured through monopolies
and arbitrary control of the markets. Modern society has abandoned
this theory; has forced employers and sellers into a larger view of
their own interests through social obligation ; and it will compel
labor-organizations toward the same end by irresistible social laws.
Mr. Thornton admits this principle in another form, for he constantly
says the close organizations of laborers are now compelling absolute
combinations of the employers to oppose them, and that these latter
must surely prevail. Yet he regards the struggle as necessary, and
the only means of bringing order and justice out of clashing class
antagonisms. However this may be in England, and it is not our
business to inquire, in America the principle does not and cannot
prevail. European civilization has left but one citadel to the few, in
their opposition to the many. Chieftainship, social prestige, money,
all pass away from a class if its individual members are not true to
its instincts. One fortress remains, where, intrenched by law, the
privilege of classes can hold all assailants at bay, and can repair the
unthrifty ravages of reckless individuals. Land, the final reservoir
of natural advantage, the sure protector of privilege, is, in Europe,
practically beyond the reach of the many. Li England, the country
of greatest abundance, capital ventures itself commercially not below
five to ten per cent., while it rests content in land at two per cent.
This petty profit shows contrariwise the immense power and value of
land. In our country it is practically free ; the Government gives a
homestead on the open prairie, or, if that be too distant and uncer-
tain, the laborer, riding one hundred miles by rail from a crowded
district in New England, can find cheap, fertile lands, with homestead
buildings abandoned and decaying. It is impossible for one class to
oppress another long, while these doors open freely outward to the

' Pp. 193, 194.

592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

great advantages of Nature aud land. If, according to Mr. Thornton's
theory, employers do not compete for, but combine agains't labor, or,
if they do not compete forcibly enough. Nature does now, and must
for centuries to come, open her arms to the sons and daughters of toil.
It must be remembered that the thriity laborer is always a capitalist
here. The struggle is not betAveen labor and capital, want and plenty ;
it is between the employed with a little capital and the employer with
more. I throw out of the estimate the improvident and reckless; if
socialists or unionists have discovered a method which w- ill give these
classes an even chance, they have found a principle which Omnipo-
tence itself has never ventured to put in pi-actice.

If these principles be true, one may ask. Why do we have strikes
or discontented laborers in America ? I answer, they are the diseases
of health ; inflammations come from turgid arteries as well as from
sluggish veins. Our abounding life has compelled an eager competi-
tion among employers. Employers have invariably tended to over-
production, as capitalists know to their cost. Strikes have hardly
ever advanced the price of labor ; they have never long increased its
exchange value, as I indicated above. There is very little commu-
nistic sentiment in the United States, but many socialistic theories of a
vague sort. That astute public servant, General Butler, would hardly
be found uttering such nonsense, if it were not wanted in the socio-
political market. The "glittering generality" of equality has par-
tially corrupted the good sense of the citizen ; only in part, but the
efi"ect is positive. Things are free, they say ; why not have a better
chance for all ? Not through comjnunism ; property is both new and
old here ; it is sacred as a treasure, arid dear as a newly-born babe in
Anglo-American eyes. Let there be new property ; give us all a new
chance ; the bird of freedom is so 'tarnally strong, why not roast-beef
and two dollars a day ? The American love of speculation tends ia
the same direction.

Then there is another principle moving in harmony with this. In
great emergencies, when the state or social order is threatened, every
American citizen becomes great, and views the State as belonging to
all. In petty affaii-s, and every-day political matters, the average
citizen, small capitalist as well as laborer, views the State as be-
longing to the many considered apart from the few. " The rich have
enough ; let the poor of the State lean to us," they would say. This
blind instinct has entered into strikes and labor-struggles.

The agitators felt that in some way the masses would win, the
constable's club would w^ait on the bayonets, and the militia would
sway with the voters for the poor and against the rich; therefore a
striker might knock a peaceful laborer on the head with impunity.
The common-weal feeling, the American union sentiment as Mr. Was-
Bon puts it, " the sovereignty of rational obligation," must stamp out
this atrocious delusion. I regard this issue of fact in the late Fall

I

ASSOCIATION- IiY ITS RELATION TO LABOR. 593

River strike as the best and almost the only good principle estab-
lished there. The municipal and military power promptly restored
order and left the trades-unionists their peaceable and natural powers
of resistance, all which any association of this sort can legitimately
claim.

The fundamental truths cannot be too deeply impressed on both
employers and employed. Let no employer busy himself in politics
or jurisprudence, about unionist combinations or conspiracies. We
have laws enough now, if we will obey and enforce them. If any
striker or unionist trespasses on the rights at common law of his em-
ployer or brother laborer, punish him with humane haste and com-
passionate severity. One labor-leader says an employer has no more
rio:ht to discharge a man than to dungeon him. That is their busi-
ness individually, and can only be controlled by the larger social and
nobler instincts of humanity. If laborers choose to starve rather than
work for less wages, or employers choose to rust out their mills rather
than take less profits, let them. It is not the business of organized
associations to interfere. Not even the State, the greatest of all asso-
ciations, can control this complication. The issue lies among the
great seething forces of the market indicated above ; they are both
economical aud social, any external pressure will only aggravate the
difficulty.

There can be only one legitimate power in an American labor assor
elation assuming to control the employed ; that, in the famous words
of Adam Smith, is the power of " higgling the market." On every
other side its action is hedged by great social limits which I have
indicated rather than stated. This, like friction in mechanics, is a
necessary function, but is attainable by other means, and is it worth
the social cost involved in associations using all the methods of a
despotism? The general rise in wages has been equal, in countries
unvisited by trades-unions, to that obtained in England, as Mr. Bras-
sey has shown.

Higgling prices through combination is not a creative force, it is
a negative accessory to creative faculties. It involves tremendous
waste of social and economical forces. To quote Thornton (pages
344-346):

" A bricklayer's assistant, wlio by looking on has learned how to lay bricks
as well as his principal, is generally doomed nevertheless to continue a laborer
for life." . . . Bricks beyond Lancashire are excluded. " To enforce the ex-
clusion, paid agents are employed; every cart of bricks coming toward Man-
chester is watched, and, if the contents be found to have come from without the
prescribed boundary, the bricklayers at once refuse to work. ... A master-
mason at Ashton obtained some stone ready polished from a quarry near Mac-
clesfield. His men, however, in obedience to club rules, refused to fix it until
the polished part had been defaced, and they had polished it again by hand,
though not so well as at first ! . . . On the importation of worked stone into
Barrow, the lodge demaaded first that the bases should be worked over again ;
VOL. Tin. — 38

594 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

secondly, wlien this was refused as an impossible interference with the archi-
tects' design, that as much time as would have been required to rework them
should be occupied by the Barrow masons in standing over them."

These are not mere caprices and fancies, they are the certain aber-
rations which misdirected, arbitrary power must cause.

This power of vagary is even more dangerous politically than it
is in the industrial world. The eight-hour league lately attempted to
canvass in favor of Randall for Speaker. What business has a labor
league, an Odd-Fellows' lodge, or a Methodist church, as such, in the
election of an officer of the United States Government ? Let them
consider Shay's insurrection, the slavery rebellion, and Know-Xoth-
ingism, both in its success and its failure.

Politically the genius of America welcomes every individual waif,
allows him all liberty of political association or agitation; and he may
make social or industrial combinations at will. Let any one of these
extra-political associations lift a finger to interfere with a fold of her
political garment, and she will crush it uuder a step heavier than the
tread of Roman legions; she will smite it with an arm swifter and
mightier than the embodied power of feudal or constitutional mon-
archies !

I would not deny the right of the individual laborer to " strike "
when he is wronged beyond endurance. This inheres in him, like the
right of revolution in the citizen — a dangerous power, only to be
evoked in dire need, it cannot be formulated socially. As political
order binds the citizen, so contract, that mystic sacrament of civiliza-
tion, must ever hold the laborer fast ; it can only be overcome by bit-
ter injustice.

It may be said that trades-unionism, thoxxgh vicious in direct
influence, may enlarge the laborer through indirect social action. We
must remember that the laborer here has social opportunities unknown
in Europe. The freemasons, militia companies, Patrick's brother-
hoods, and Good Templars, all found themselves on broad and benevo-
lent ideas ; higgling prices, the one efi*ective force of a trades-union,
can hardly equal these ideas in elevating the laborer. Going back to
our characteristics of American citizens, it is not to be imagined that
we lost all traces of old social groups because we did not represent
them in our political organizations. The individual had become suffi-
ciently socialized to be the unit of state, yet he did not lose all his-
toric antecedents. The old groups show their traces in the American
,as well as in the Italian, German, and Englishman. We have not
changed social laws, but given them new elasticity. Water cannot
be water unless it intermingles freely with air. Society must refresh
itself with new individual units, always moving, always classifying,
always mingling unit and group again, like drop and stream, cloud
and sea, water and air. Trades-unionism, and all socialism, in so far
.as it trenches on the State, is a backward step in this American prog-

MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY. 595

ress. They clasp rigid fetters on movements wliicli were becoming
more supple and elastic. All social organisms are finally parts of the
State* that tangible divine power, the right arm of God in his rela-
tions with men. Tiiere can be no true functions of association which
tend to embarrass the free development of the State — the association
of associations.

MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY.

By Dr. E. GAZELLE.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FKEXCH BY J. FITZGERALD, A. M.

I.

BIOLOGY, or the science of life, is so new a subject of investiga-
tion that its limits are as yet imperfectly ascertained. Meta-
l^hysical ideas have too large a place in our conception of its extent.
When we ask where biology commences, we are met by the problem
of the oriofin of livinc: thino;s. which very often is solved in accordance
rather with preconceived opinions of the system of the universe than
with an independent scientific hypothesis. When we would determine
its limits, we are met by the problems of cognition, and of the causes
determining man's actions ; and again usually it is unscientific preju-
dices that decide whether these problems should be referred to another
science, or treated under a subdivision of biology ; whether we should
range, alongside with phenomena which unquestionably belong to bi-
ology, those other phenomena which experience shows us to be closely
connected with them, associated with them, and which are in such
constant ratio with them in their variations that they appear to de-
rive from them, and from no other source, the conditions of their ex-
istence. The indecision as to the limits of biology results principally
from the difliculty of giving a strict definition of its subject-matter.
Still, in spite of these difficulties, though we cannot say precisely
what life is, where its province commences, where it ends, there exists
between the two extremes — the inorganic world and the mental world
— a very firm ground, imperfectly explored, it is true, but neverthe-
less belonging to biology alone. The various departments which con-
stitute this domain, though they themselves are not all very clearly
defined, are sufficient to give to biology a definite individuality.

Living things present themselves to the observer of Nature as in-
dividuals ; and it was not long before man began to regard them from
another point of view, as forming groups of similar individuals more
nearly allied to one another than to individuals in other groups. At
first these groups were held to be natural ; next it was asked whether,
like individuals, they had a history — a beginning and an ending.

596 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This question, as being one that strikes the imagination, naturally arose
even before science possessed the means of settling it, and preceded,
in the historical order, that thorough study of individuals on whfch its
solution really depends. When men of science had begun to study
living things with other purposes than simply that of deriving from
them knowledge that would be available for the medical art, and had
gained sufficient information for inductive generalizations, they no
longer contented themselves with theories of the origin of groups, but
sought to reduce to general principles the structure of living bodies —
a thing which previously had been considered only from the topo-
graphical point of view, and with reference to what was called the use
of the parts ; and on these general principles they sought to rest a
scientific theory of the origin of natural grouj^s.

A man of keen and powerful intellect, who, had he but lived in our
time, would have attained the summit of fame, with marvelous acu-
men anticipated a doctrine which is steadily tending to become a re-
ceived scientific theory, viz., that the changes which have occurred in
Nature are the efiects of constant natural laws. Ajjplying this idea
to the natural groups of the animal kingdom, he rejected the hypothe-
sis which ascribed to geological catastrophes the destruction of entire
fauniB, and the preparation of the earth's surface for a fresh special
creation. The transformation of lower organisms into higher he re-
ferred to the action of modifications which, though in themselves in-
considerable, became important from repetition and long accumulation,
under the influence of forces whose powers he exaggerated. Species
and varieties he regarded as artificial groups. According to him the
very simplest organisms are derived, by way of spontaneous genera-
tion, from naturally-produced plastic substances ; then they mutually
diverged by imperceptible difierences, so as to constitute a linear series,
which, but for the gaps caused here and there by lost species, would
present to us the aspect of a continuous system. Under favoring cir-
cumstances the organs of an animal are modified ; a change in the
circumstances causes changes in the structure of the individuals be-
longing to a species, and is the starting-point for the formation of a
new species. Crossing, by producing hybrids, still further multiplies
the number of species. And species appear to be fixed, simply because
the circumstances appear to be similarly fixed during the brief period
embraced in our observations. Transformation is the rule, and in the
regular course which it runs we can discover no indications of plan or
purpose.

The ideas of Lamarck, being but ill supported by positive j^roofs,
were looked on as mere speculations, plausible but doubtful, or even
as dreams, unworthy of science ; his generalizations were discredited,
and even now, when they reappear, backed by a powerful array of
facts, but few ever think of giving due honor to their author.

The attempts made at the same period to form generalizations

MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY. 597

with respect to the constituent j^arts of the living individual were
more successful. It was not enough to know in a general way that
the phenomena observed in living things are in the last resort the
same in kind as those which are known as physico-chemical, and that
they obey the same laws. Between the phenomena of living things
and those of inanimate Nature there existed too wide a chasm ; there
was no way of passing, deductively, from physico-chemical laws to
vital phenomena, and the scientific explanation of organic forms and
of functions was of necessity defective. The author of the " Anatomie
generale " simply recognized in organs various elements, which he
grouped in families, with a view to define, under the general name of
tissues, the basis of their structure. In these elements he recognized,
independently of their physical and chemical properties, special prop-
erties which he justly denominated vital, inasmuch as it is by them
that life manifests itself, and which are, properly speaking, the function
of these elements. Bichat's generalizations were, doubtless, in his own
mind, in opposition to the theory which refers vital phenomena to
physico-chemical properties ; in point of fact, they have established a
relation between functional facts and the general properties of matter.
The functional facts of organs are explained by the elementary prop-
erties of the tissues ; and the latter, though we cannot as yet refer
them to physico-chemical properties, are, nevertheless, brought into
remarkably close relation with them through our modern ideas of the
constitution of organic substances and the principle of the equivalence
and transformation of forces.

Still, these relations could not be perceived prior to the discovery
of the relations which connect organisms and their tissues with exter-
nal forces possessed only of physico-chemical properties; and this
conception dates from a time long after Bichat's day. We have rea-
son for believing that the part assigned by Lamarck to the action of
external circumstances upon organisms first suggested this conception,
owing to one of those mysterious operations of the mind which, out
of an idea vaguely descried, and even, perhaps, not accepted in the
form in which it first presented itself, forms a nucleus around which
experience and reasoning group proofs, and which the inventive faculty
develops under the form of a doctrine apparently brand-new. The
doctrine of the action of "general external modifiers," which Blain-
ville sets forth summarily in his " Cours de Physiologic generale et
coraparee," by no means possessed, even in his own mind, all the im-
portance it later assumed in science under the name of "doctrine of
media," after Auguste Comte had given it so prominent a place in his
" Biologie." But, by bringing upon the scene the action of external
circumstances upon the sum total of a living organism, and by calling
attention to the eflfects they produce therein, whether as stimulating
or reviving the functions, or as suspending the same, Blainville pre-
pared the way for a better interpretation of vital phenomena ; and

598 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

though he himself, with all this light, did not attain to the truest con-
ception of life, he nevertheless broke ground for those who afterward
were to do so.

In more recent times biology has been enriched with an enormous
amount of facts for which we are indebted to the labors of natural-
ists, or even of mere breeders, as also to the labors of anatomists and
clinicians, but, above all, to researches in experimental physiology,
wherein the application of physical-science methods to the discovery
of the laws of vital phenomena has been attended with brilliant suc-
cess. Amid the extreme complexity of these phenomena it was diffi-
cult to perceive the relations of succession which unite them, and to
establish positive series. But when men of science refused any longer
to content themselves with observing them as they occur spontane-
ously, and began to vary them by calling in the action of special
agents, then modifications were produced, the true causes of which
were easily recognized. As in the study of inorganic bodies we
learned the laws of their actions and combinations by seeking to find
out with the aid of reagents — which are, in fact, special modifiers —
the way in which they behave under circumstances that are well
known, being fixed beforehand by the observer ; so, in the study of
living bodies, the introduction of experimentation which alters, ac-
cording to a plan determined beforehand, the conditions under which
the functions of life are to be performed, has enabled us to perceive,
with an exactitude previously unknown, tlie organic properties under-
lying these functions. Even in embryogeny, a science which once
seemed to belong to the domain of simple observation, it has been
possible, by way of experimentation, to gain results which shed some
light upon teratology. The employment, in observation, of instru-
ments of precision, and in particular of registering apparatus, and of
all those processes which suppress causes of error resulting from the
personal peculiarities of the observer, gives to the results of research
a degree of certitude which renders indisputable facts properly so
called, the only question that remains being as to whether these re-
sults have been rightly or wrongly interpreted. In addition to an
immense amount of unquestionable facts, in addition to a knowledge
of the elementary properties of organic tissues and an acquaintance
with the special laws which represent the action of these tissues in
presence of these modifiers, this general result has followed the con-
quests of biology, namely, that living bodies are now known to be
subject to the self-same laws which govern inorganic bodies, and that,
under the hand of the experimenter, the course of things within the
tissues is precisely the same as without the tissues ; that in the labo-
ratory the elements of living bodies, like those of inanimate things,
have their own way of affecting the mind that observes them — that is
to say, they possess fixed essential properties which can be determined ;
and what remains yet to be known is, above all, the mode in which

MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY. 599

those orsranic substances are formed which are the basis of living:
bodies. The belief which from day to day is gaining confirmation
from the labors of physiologists is that so boldly exj^ressed by Claude
Bernard, viz., that as the chemist, starting with the knoAvledge of in-
organic bodies, subjects them to his will and creates new bodies, so the
physiologist, starting from organic matter, " by imposing upon it
special conditions, will be able to produce new physiological modifi-
cations and new series of phenomena, thus modifying at will living-
bodies, and even creating them."

At the same time, by comparing and analyzing the different
branches of biology, certain very general laws have been established,
particularly in physiology proper, having a bearing ujjon the develop-
ment of the individual and the relations of the functions to their or-
gans. We are in possession of a certain number of very broad though
purely empiric generalizations on the phenomena upon which the supe-
riority of living things over one another depends. These are, properly
speaking, laws of organic Nature.

First, we have the law of the increase of the mass of the organism,
in virtue of which each living thing attains its full development only
by passing through a series of phases characterized by an augmenta-
tion of its mass, and consequently by an augmentation of the quantity
of force applicable for its physiological actions, as also by an augmen-
tation of the quantity of functional products.

Then thei*e is the law of the multiplication of parts in proportion
as we ascend in the series of living things, this multiplication being
determined by an increase of complexity in the organic machine, in
virtue of the diversity both of the functions which make their appear-
ance and of the organs which result from this diversity of functions.

Again, we have the law of courdination and subordination of func-
tions and organs, in virtue of which, in proportion as complexity is in-
troduced into the oroanism and as the functions and orsjans take on a
more special character, certain functions and the organs performing
them become dependent on other functions and other organs. Be-
sides, a tie of solidarity is established between all the parts of the liv-
ing body, so as to guide them toward a common end, the conserva-
tion of the individual, while at the same time all of the jjarts feel the
reverberation of the actions to which each is subject.

Next comes the law of adaptation, in virtue of which an organism
tends to be so modified as to seem to be specially created to suit the
circumstances amid whicli it exists and the kind of life imposed upon
it by them. This law is still, for many thinkers, the basis of ideas
of final causes by means of which they strive to explain the structure
of livino: thinsrs and the variations observed therein.

Finally, there is the law of heredity, in virtue of which organisms
produce new organisms which repeat their type. Heredity is the law
of fixity; it expresses the tendency to perpetuate a condition of things

6oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which is itself the result of past environments, and to set it up as a
barrier against the influence of new environments.

Descending still deeper, scientific mQn have sought to explain the
constitution of living things, their production, and the existence of
the groups into which we find them divided. Hence three theories
wljich have had different fortunes — the cellular theory, the doctrine
of spontaneous generation, and transformism.

Schwann, applying to the animal organism Schleiden's discoveries
in ve<^etal organisms, showed that the tissues are formed of primor-
dial, i. e., irreducible, elements, called cells, though often these ele-
ments have no cavity and are simply rounded masses. The egg,
which is the starting-point of all animal organisms, is at first merely
a cell, and develops by producing within itself other cells, which are
the primitive materials of the living being. All that the organism is
comes ultimately from the cells, which are converted into living tis-
sues. They adhere to one another end to end, and become flattened,
or lengthened, or ramified ; or they unite and form one common cavity,
keeping their walls only at points where they are not in contact, thus
forming tubes, or fibres, as, for example, in the histological elements
of muscles and nerves.

Some authors have explained the production of cells on the hy-
pothesis of a true spontaneous generation. According to them, cells
are organized in a saline solution, the first step being the deposit of a
nucleolus, around which there forms an envelope called the nucleus,
and finally, at a greater distance, a second envelope, or cell-wall.
But no actual experiment has ever been made on the production of
cells in this way, and hitherto we have no knowledge of a cell being
produced save from a cell. Of this famous theory so much yet re-
mains, viz., that the cell, whatsoever its form and whatever modifica-
tions it may have received, is ever the basis of the vital phenomena.

"One only elementary form " (says Virchow) "runs through the whole or-
ganic world, remaining ever the same ; in vain would we attempt to substitute
any thing else for it ; there is nothing that can take its place. We have come
to regard even the highest formations, whether plant or animal, as being the
sum of a larger or smaller number of like or unlike cells. The tree represents a
mass put together according to a certain law ; each of its parts, leaf or root,
trunk or flower, contains cellular elements. The same is true of the animal
world. Eacli animal represents a sum of vital units, every one of which has in
itself the perfect characters of life. . . . The higher organism, the individual, is
always the result of a sort of social organization, of the union of sundry elements
combined ; it is a mass of individual existences, dependent on each other, though
their dependence is such that each element has its own proper activity; so that,
whatever impulse or excitation other parts may give to the element, the result-
ing function nevertheless emanates from the element itself, and is its own."

The question as to how living bodies arc produced gave rise, a few
years ago, to discussions which have again brought to the surface a

MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY. 601

doctrine wliich was supposed to have been disproved tAvo hundred
years since, and which reappeared in the Last century only to be as-
sailed with Voltaire's sarcasms. I mean the theory of spontaneous
generation, so called — a self-contradictory phrase, by which it w^as
intended to assert that organisms are produced out-and-out without
tlie aid of parents resembling them. While admitting that genera-
tion, sexual or asexual, is the mode of reproduction found among ani-
mals possessed of complex structure, the partisans of spontaneoiis
generation held, on the strength of their exjoeriments, that certain
very low organisms might be developed spontaneously, without spe-
cific germs, in infusions of organic substances. But though in this
dispute experiment has given no definitive verdict — nor, indeed, w'as
such verdict to be expected — still, all the probabilities are on the side
of those who assert the universality of generation by means of germs
developed in the parents; and, in the absence of experimental demon-
stration, we are not without theoretic arguments against the spon-
taneous generation of the comparatively high organisms developed in
infusions. If this doctrine is to be retained, it is not for the purpose
of explaining the formation of organisms, a thing well enough ex-
plained without it, but in order to account for the production of really
primitive living things — i. e., for the appearance of life in a fraction
of organic substance, whether this is still possible in our day, or
whether it was possible only at a time when, under conditions un-
known to us, organic substance originated upon the earth. Thus
stated, the question does not depend on experimentation ; it becomes
a mere exercise of the imagination, and the result is valueless.

"Whatever is to be thought of the theory of the beginnings of life,
one or more first living beings having appeared upon the earth, after
the latter had become capable of supporting them, the question arises
as to the transition from the primitive simplicity to the enormous
degree of variety now existing. Here we have the problem of the
oiigin of species, which is solved by the theory of descent, sometimes
denominated transformism. The old conception ot living Nature as
an infinitely vai'ied assemblage of organisms which faithfully copy cer-
tain types, all of whose parts are governed by the law of final causes,
in our time gives way, not without a fierce struggle, before a new
conception, which represents living Nature as an infinitely varied as-
semblage of organisms which are ever varying under the influence of
external circumstances, while under the influence of heredity they
tend to fix in a type the results of previous variations. At one time
we have, as in breeding, artificial selection; at another time, as among
people who have not yet discovered the laws of breeding, a selection
that, though unsystematic, is nonetheless real ; finally in Nature, with-
out human intervention, a selection based simply on the conditions of
existence. In natural selection, the action of which is by far the most
general and powerful, the fixing of variations results from adaptation

6o2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to the existing conditions. Tliis adaptation finds expression in tbe
survival of the fittest in the struggle for life ; that is to say, those in-
dividuals continue to live and reproduce their kind whose structure
enables them to undergo changed conditions ■without succumbing,
while otliers, because they cannot adapt themselves, perish, leaving
no posterity, no trace of their having ever existed, save, perhaps, in
the geological strata of their epoch. The special advantage which
has once insured the survival of an organism, while its congeners
which possessed no such advantage perished, is fixed by heredity; it
o^rows under the influence of that same law of survival which insures
ihe u]^per-hand in the struggle for life to the organisms possessing the
advantage in the highest degree; in virtue of the law of the coordina-
tion and subordination of parts and functions, it brings about in the
whole organism very extensive modifications which insure its fixity;
and the sum total of the new characters becomes sufficiently stable to
convey to the mind which observes it the impression of the persistence
of forms and the existence of types, whereas in fact there exist only
changes amid which there remain, in virtue of the law of heredity,
traits of resemblance to a common ancestor or stock.

Such are, in brief, the principal laws of biological phenomena, and
the chief theories which have been devised for the purpose of assigning
to them causes. When, in order to establish or to impugn laws and
theories so far-reaching as these, we can have recourse to direct
expei-iment and observation, the mind is satisfied and its certitude
reposes on an immovable basis. But when a theory has to do with
origins in the remote past, or even in the present, but inaccessible to
experiment, our certitude rests on no solid foundation. In the ab-
sence of experiment, we have to be content with opinions formed ac-
cording to the rules of induction and of analogy, and possessing more
or less probability. Among views of this sort, those appear to have
greatest weight which, in their contexture and in the method of their
formation, are most in harmony with those beliefs of which we are
most certain ; which rest on the same general principles ; which, so
to speak, are incorporated with our beliefs, so that, were they to suc-
cumb to criticism, their fall would compromise the entire system. In
other words, they must occupy tlieir own place in a general philosophy,
there appearing as so many links in a chain attached, on the one
liand, to laws and theories which account for them, and, on the other,
to laws and theories which without them cannot be exjilained.

Could we look for this result from the only general system of
philosophy which has existed down to the present day ? Having been
wa-itten at a time when the science of life had for its generalizations
only conclusions from Bichat's researches, the hypotheses of Gall, and
the results of classification, that portion of the positive philosoj^hy
which treats of biology is too far behind the actual state of science to

MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY. 603

serve as its guide ; yet, owing to the largeness of the views there
expressed, Auguste Comte gave to this work a comprehensiveness
which enabled it to take in some of the great biological systems elab-
orated in recent times, and one of his followers has recently declared
that the success of these doctrines does not impair the luiity of the
positive philosophy. It can also be truly said that, if those doctrines
Avere to succumb, the positive philosophy would suffer no loss ; and this
proves that they have no connection wuth this philosophy, and that
they can receive no support from it. Still, in spite of this serious
shortcoming of his philosophy, the services rendered by Augxiste
Comte are very great. He has given a better definition of life than
the one then in vogue; he has perceived that life is a continuous
chain of chemical facts, and to this doctrine he has given forcible ex-
pression; lie has illustrated, by judicious contrast, the relations of
the organism to the medium in w^hich it lives ; he has stated with
great precision the problem of the science of life, which consists in
expressing in the least number of laws of the utmost generality the
harmony which unites the organism to its medium by vital acts ; he
has forcibly shown the close correlation which enables us to infer the
function from the organ, and vice versa ; not to speak of a multitude
of useful and profound considerations upon the structure of living
bodies, on comparative anatomy, and on the physiology of the func-
tions of relation. But it was characteristic of Auguste Comte's phi-
losophy to bind together the parts of its system only by a purely logi-
cal tie, and not at all by establishing relations between the phenomena,
or by showing interdependency of laws. For him it was enough, in
order to assure to biology its place between physico-chemistry and
sociology, if on the one hand a knowledge of physical and chemical
laws is necessary for the study of biological phenomena, and if the
various classes of phenomena pertaining to these sciences really act a
part in the production of vital phenomena; and if, on the other hand,
a knowledge of the life of relation in its highest aspects, i. e., in the
cerebral apparatus, and the elementary intellectual and passional fac-
ulties corresponding thereto, is an essential preliminary of the study
of sociology. Hence, the biological work of Auguste Comte has
not per se had any great influence on researches of this kind. The
general current of his philosophy has exerted a good influence in so
far as it has disinclined men toward theological and metaphysical
explications. But we cannot admit that Comte has founded a philos-
ophy of biology fitted to inspire or to guide research. Biological re-
search is still what it was before the positive philosophy became
popular; it is still restricted to special points ; and, though its spirit
is becoming more and more positive, the reason is because in such re-
search the imagination is brought more and more under subjection to
the laws of scientific investigation. But, meanwhile, we see no indica-
tions of philosophic purpose, no aiming to bring the results obtained
under the dominion of a more comprehensive law.

6o4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

It appears to us that, if a philosophy is to assume this role and to
undertake the guidance of man's thought and action, it must bring for-
ward general principles of such breadth that they will apply to all
orders of phenomena, from the simplest to the most complex — a sys-
tem of laws coordinated by deductive relations, and by its univer-
sality expressing all the phenomena of the universe. "Whether these
general principles are given a priori, as the intuitionists hold, or
whether they are the abstract expression of an experience invariably
and unconditionally repeated, at all events they must be such that
from them all our scientific theories may be deduced ; they must ap-
pear in all our researches as the criterion of the truth of the results, and
they must underlie all our anticipations of truth as the guiding prin-
ciples. Causes, that is to say, the sum of the antecedent phenomena,
whose joint action is necessary for the production of the consequent
phenomenon, or effect, may be as diverse as you please, nevertheless
their relation to their efiect will be expressed by the same general
law.

A philosophy of biology must reduce under these principles of
philosophy all the truths furnished by exiDcrience in the various
branches of investigation pertaining to that science; must explain
them by these principles; must present them to us as necessary, and
the contrary results as illogical and unphilosophical, so as to produce a
twofold eftect, viz., the highest possible harmony in the system of our
knowledges, and an ever-strengthening confirmation of the general
principles which are their abstract expression. We must demand of
it a verdict upon doctrines respecting the constitution of the living
individual and its origin and the constitution of the species to which
the individual belongs, which verdict shall oblige us to accept these
doctrines as corollaries of the same general princiiDles from which the
accepted theories of the other abstract sciences are likewise deduced.
Finally, we must derive from this philosophy of biology the assurance
that the generalizations which it offers to us ai-e grounds iipon which
we can stand securely in our deductions — of course within the province
of biology — respecting man and the human species.

Mr. Herbert Spencer attempts something like this when he rests
the laws of biology upon the theory of changes in the course of things,
as set forth in his "First Principles." The "Principles of Biology"
is the first application of his system of philosophy to a highly-comj^lex
order of phenomena.

It will be well to give a sketch of Mr. Spencer's whole system, so
that we maj'' better understand the meaning of the abstract terms he
employs, and the relations between the general laws on which the sys-
tem is based. We shall thus be in a position to appreciate the author's
application of his system to the more restricted field of biology.

Underlying Spencer's system we find the principle of the persist-
ence of force, " the sole truth which transcends experience," to which

MODERN- PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY. 605

" an ultimate analysis brings us down," and on which " a rational syn-
thesis must build up." From this first principle come as consequences
two correlative principles, viz. : uniformity of law, which is simply
the persistence of the relations between forces, manifested under iden-
tical forms and conditions ; and the principle of the equivalence of
forces, inductively established within the last twenty years. The
researches which resulted in the establishment of this principle rest
implicitly on the persistence of force, inasmuch as they measure all the
precedent forces, which have disappeared, and all the consequent foi'ces,
which have been produced, by the aid of a unit supposed to be con-
stant. If we add two other corollaries, the one relating to the direc-
tion of motion in the line of least resistance, the other to the form of
motion, which is always rhythmic, we have, with the principles of the
continuousness of motion and of the indestructibility of matter (these
representing under two correlative forms the principle of the persist-
ence of force), the sum total of the primary truths which serve as a
basis for knowledge in general. But these principles, however general,
are only analytical truths ; though they are essential to a philosophy,
they do not constitute a philosophy. They are the laws of the action
of forces separately considered. The universal synthesis which is to
constitute philosophy must express the total operation accomplished by
the cooperation of these factors. The law wliich shall formulate this
synthesis must be a law of the changes in forces under the two phases,
matter and motion, by which they are manifested to us: it must be
a principle of dynamics holding good both for the whole of the cos-
mos, and for its every detail. The changes of an object are all pro-
duced by new arrangements of the matter constituting it, and by a
new distribution of the forces which belong to it. Their necessary-
direction is given in evolution in virtue of two principles, both of them
corollaries of the primary principle of the persistence of force : the
law of the instability of the homogeneous and the law of the multiplica-
tion of effects.

Every body tends to pass into a more heterogeneous state, because
each of the units that constitute it is of necessity differently affected
from the others by the combined action of the others upon it ; because
the resulting difference places each unit in different relations with the
incident forces ; finally, because these units, owing to their respective
positions, cannot all receive the action of an external force in the same
direction and with the same intensity. This law, which accounts for
the commencement of the changes, accounts also for its continuance.

At the same time a uniform external force, acting on a body, is
there dispersed; acting on unlike parts, it breaks up into forces differ-
ing in quality and intensity in proportion to the number and diversity
of these parts. The same is to be said of each fraction of the force ;
the process of dispersion goes on increasing, and the result is ex-
pressed by the law of the multiplication of effects.

6o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

By another law, flowing from the same primary principle, the parts
of a whole diverge from one another in proportion to their diversity,
and group themselves together in proportion to their resemblances.
Motions that are alike in direction or intensity, acting on these parts,
drive them in the same direction, and with the same velocity, whence
results an integration of these parts, while those driven by motions
unlike in direction or intensity go in different directions Avith differ-
ent velocities, separate from one another, are disintegrated. This is
the law of segregation, the application of which brings into promi-
nence the heterogeneous character of the products of change, by giv-
ing to their heterogeneity a clearer and more definite nature.

Finally, we note another consequence of the persistence of force.
Every change in an aggi'egation of sensible parts is conditioned by
opposing forces, the one representing action, the other reaction ; the
one the tendency to change, the other resistance ; their antagonism
can end only when equilibrium has been established, by the dissipa-
tion of the excess of the one force over the other. A body subject to
any disturbance whatever, owing to a modification of its circum-
stances, tends toward equilibrium with its new circumstances ; and, as
the different forces acting on it have not the same intensity, those
which are weaker soon find tlieir equilibrium, while those which are
stronger continue to give motion to the body, and then the latter pre-
sents the spectacle of an aggregate whose parts are in an invariable
ratio to each other, while the total aggregate is ever changing its rela-
tions to external objects. This is equilibrium mobile, unstable equi-
librium, and it serves as a transition to a more perfect equilibrium,
or else to a renewal of the internal movements which have already
found equilibrium.

The action of these laws of change of objects and their parts leads
to two contrary results, according to the mode of distribution of the
forces in action. We have evolution, i. e., change with integration
of matter, dissipation of internal motion, increase of the number and
diversity of the parts, whenever the external forces are not such as to
break the bond which unites them ; we have dissolution, continuous or
discontinuous, i. e., a change with disaggregation of matter; absorp-
tion of motion (which, becoming internal, drives the constituent units
with greater velocity) and diminution both of the numbers and of
the diversity of the parts, whenever the external forces are sufficiently
intense to destroy the cohesion of the aggregate and to restore to its
parts their original inde{)endence.

The work of Mr. Spencer in his " Biology " consists in referring to
these general laws the generalizations obtained in the various parts
of the domain of biology, and in discerning those which possess the
character of necessity. This course has the twofold advantage of
giving to these generalizations greater authority, and of introducing
into a coordinated system of philosophy the science whose general-

LESSORS IN ELECTRICITY. 607

ized truths they are. The " Principles of Biology " is thus an attempt
to explain the phenomena called vital, by general -laws common to
phenomena of every kind.

\To be continued.]

-♦♦♦-

LESSONS IN ELECTRICITY.'

HOLIDAY LECTURES AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION.
Br Peofessob TYNDALL, F.K.S.

I.
QIECTIOX 1. Introduction. — Many centuries before Christ, it had
O been observed that yellow amber {elektron) when rubbed pos-
sessed the power of attracting light bodies. Thales, the founder of
the Ionic philosophy (b. c. 580), imagined the amber to be endowed
with a kind of life.

This is the germ out of which has grown tlie science of electricity^
which takes its name from the substance in which this power of at-
ti'action was first observed.

It will be my aim, during six hours of these Christmas holidays,
to make you, to some extent, acquainted with the history, facts, and
principles, of this science, and to teach you how to work at it.

The science has two great divisions ; the one called " Frictional
Electricity," the other " Voltaic Electricity." For the present, our
studies will be confined to the first, or older portion of the science,
which is called " Frictional Electricity," because in it the electrical
power is obtained from the rubbing of bodies together.

Sec. 2. Historic Notes. — The attraction of light bodies by rubbed
amber was the sum of the world's knowledge of electricity for more
than 2,000 years. In 1600 Dr. Gilbert, physician to Queen Elizabeth,
whose attention had been previously directed with great success to
magnetism, vastly expanded the domain of electricity. lie showed
that not only amber, but various spars, gems, fossils, stones, glasses,
and resins, exhibited when rubbed the same power as ambei'.

Robert Boyle (1675) proved that a suspended piece of rubbed
amber, which attracted other bodies to itself, was in turn attracted
by a body brought near it. He also observed the light of electricity,
a diamond, with which lie experimented, being found to emit light
when rubbed in the dark.

Boyle iniagined that the electrified body threw out an invisible,
glutinous substance, which laid hold of light bodies, and, returning to
the source from which it emanated, carried them along with it.

' A course of six lectures, with simple experiments in frictional electricity, before

juvenile audiences during the Christmas holidays.

6o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Otto yon Guericke, Burgomaster of Magdeburg, contemporary of
Boyle, and inventor of the air-pump, intensified the electric power
previously obtained. He devised what may be called the first electrical
machine, which was a ball of sulphur, about the size of a child's head.
Turned by a handle and rubbed by the dry hand, the sulphur-sphere
emitted light in the dark.

Von Guericke also noticed that a feather, having been first at-
tracted toward his sulphur globe, was afterward repelled, and kept
at a distance from it, until, having touched another body, it was again
attracted. He also heard the hissing of the "electric fire," and ob-
served that a body, when brought near his excited sphere, became
electrical and capable of being attracted.

The members of the Academy del Cimento examined various sub-
stances electrically. They proved smoke to be attracted, but not
flame, which, they found, deprived an electrified body of its power.

They also proved liquids to be sensible to the electric attraction,
showing that when rubbed amber was held over the surface of a
liquid, a little eminence was formed, from which the liquid was finally
discharged against the amber.

Sir Isaac Kewton, by rubbing a flat glass, caused light bodies to
jump between it and a table. He also noticed the influence of the
rubber in electric excitation. His gown, for example, was found to
be much more efiective than a napkin. Newton imagined that the
excited body emitted an elastic fluid which penetrated glass.

Dr. \Yall (1V08) experimented with large, elongated pieces of
amber. He found wool to be the best rubber of amber. " A prodi-
gious number of little cracklings" was produced by the friction, every
one of them being accompanied by a flash of light. "This light and
crackling," says Dr. Wall, " seem in some degree to represent thunder
and lightning." * This is the first published allusion to thunder and
lightning in connection with electricity.

Stephen Gray (1729) also observed the electric brush, snappings,
and sparks. He made the prophetic remark, that " though these effects
are at present only minute, it is probable that in time there may be
found out a way to collect a greater quantity of the electric fire, and,
consequently, to increase the force of that power Avhich by several
of those experiments, if we are permitted to compare great things
with small, seems to be of the same nature with that of thunder and
lightning." '

Sec. 3. Tlie Art of Experiment. — We have thus broken ground
with a few historic notes, intended to show the gradual growth of
electrical science. Our next step must be to get some knowledge of
the facts referred to, and to learn how they may be produced and
extended. The art of producing and extending such facts, and of
inquiring into them by proper instruments, is the art of experbnent.

' " Philosophical Transactions," 1708, p. 69. " Ibid., vol. xxxix., p. 24.

LFSSOJVS IN ELECTRICITY.

609

It is an art of extreme importance, for by its means we can, as it were,
converse with Nature, asking her questions and receiving from her
replies.

It was the neglect of experiment, and of the reasoning based upon
it, which kept the knowledge of the ancient world confined to the
attraction of amber for more than 2,000 years.

Skill in the art of experimenting does not come of itself, it is only
to be acquired by labor. When you first take a billiard-cue in your
hand, your strokes are awkward and ill-directed. When you learn to
dance, your first movements are neither gi-aceful nor pleasant. By
practice alone, you learn to dance and to play. This also is the only
way of learning the art of expei'iment. You must not, therefore, be
daunted by your clumsiness at first ; you must overcome it, arud ac-
quire skill in the art hy repetition.

By so doing you will come into direct contact with natural truth
— you Avill think and reason not on what has been said to you in books,
but on<H\'hat has been said to you by Nature. Thought springing from
this source has a vitality not derivable from mere book-knowledge.

Sec. 4. Materials for Experiment. — At this stage of our labors
we are to provide ourselves with the following materials:

a. Some sticks of sealing-wax.

h. Two pieces of gutta-percha tubing, about eighteen inches long
and three-quarters of an inch outside diameter.

c. Two or three glass tubes, about eighteen inches long and three-
quarters of an inch wide, closed at one end, and not too thin, lest they
should break in your hand and cut it.

d. Two or three pieces of clean flannel, ca-
pable of being folded into pads of two or three
layers, about eight or ten inches squai'c.

e. A couple of pads, composed of three or
four layers of silk, about eight or ten inches
square.

/. A board about eighteen inches square,
and a piece of India-rubber.

g. Some very narrow silk ribbon, and a wire
loop, like that shown in Fig. 1, in which sticks
of sealing-wax, tubes of gutta-percha, rods of
glass, or a walking-stick, may be suspended. I
choose a narrow ribbon because it is convenient
to have a suspending cord that will neither
twist nor untwist of itself.

I usually employ a loop with the two ends,
which are here shown free, soldered together.
The loop would thus be unbroken. But you

may not be skilled in the art of soldering, and I therefore choose the
free loop, which is very easily constructed.

VOL. Till. 39

Fig. 1.

6io

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

For tlie purpose of,suspension an arrangement resembling a towel-
horse, with a single horizontal rail, will be found convenient.

h. A straw, Z 7"', Fig. 2, delicately supported on the point of a
sewing-needle iV", inserted in a stick of sealing-wax A, attached below

to a little circular plate of tin.

In Fig.

3 the straw is shown on a

Fig. 2.

larger scale, and separate from its needle. The short bit of straw in
the middle, which serves as a cap, is stuck on by sealing-wax.

i. The name of " amalgam " is given to a mixture of mercury with
other metals. Experience has shown that the efficacy of a silk rubber
is vastly increased when it is smeared over with an amalgam formed
of one part by weight of tin, two of zinc, and six of mercury. A little
lard is to be first smeai'ed on the silk, and the amalgam is to be applied
to the lard. The amalgam, if hard, must be pounded or bruised with a
pestle or a hammer until it is soft. You can purchase sixpennyworth
of it at a philosophical-instrument maker's. It is to be added to your
materials.

'—'—"'—' — ^ipfi

s'

I

Fig. 3

k, I should like to make these pages suitable for boys without
much pocket-money, and therefore aim at economy in my list of
materials. But provide by all means, if you can, a fox's brush, such
as those usually employed in dusting furniture.

Sec. 5. Electric Attractions. — Place your sealing-wax, gutta-percha

LUSSONS IN ELECTRICITY.

611

tubing, and flannel and silk rubbers before a lire, to insure their dry-
ness. Be specially careful to make your glass tubes and silk rubbers
not only warm, but hot. Pass the dried flannel briskly once or twice
over a stick of sealing-wax or over a gutta-percha tube. A very small
amount of friction will excite the power of attracting the suspended
straw, as shown in Fig. 2. Repeat the experiment several times and
cause the straw to follow the attracting body round and round. Do
the same with a glass tube rubbed with silk.

I lay particular stress on the heating of the glass tube, because
glass has the power, which it exercises, of condensing upon its surface,
into a liquid film, the aqueous vapor of the surrounding air. This
film must be removed.

I would also insist on practice, in order to render you expert. You
will, therefore, attract bran, scraps of paper, gold-leaf, soap-bubbles,
and other light bodies, by rubbed glass, sealing-wax, and gutta-percha,
Faraday was fond of making empty egg-shells, hoops of paper, and
other light objects, roll after his excited tubes.

It is only when the electric power is very weak that you require
your delicately-suspended straw. With the sticks, tubes, and rub-
bers here mentioned, even heavy bodies, when properly suspended,
may be attracted. Place, for instance, a common walking-stick in the
wire loop attached to the narrow ribbon. Fig. 1, and let it swing hori-
zontally. The glass, rubbed with its silk, or the sealing-wax, or gut-
ta-percha, rubbed with its flannel, will pull the stick quite round.

Fig. 4.

Abandon the wire loop ; place an q^^ in an egg-cup, and balance
a long lath upon the Q^g, as shown in Fig. 4. The lath, though it
may be almost a plank, will obediently follow the rubbed glass, gutta-
percha, or sealing-wax.

Nothing can be simpler than this lath and e^^ arrangement, and
hardly any thing could be more impi-essive. The more you work with
it, the better you will like it.

Pass an ebonite comb through the hair. In dry weather it* pro-
duces a crackling noise ; but its action upon the lath may be made

6iz THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

plain in any weather. It is rendered electrical by friction against the
hair, and with it you can pull the lath quite round.

If you moisten the hair with oil, the comb will still be excited and
exert attraction ; but, if you moisten it with water, the excitement
ceases ; a comb passed through wetted hair has no power over the
lath.

After its passage through dry or oiled hair, balance the comb it-
self upon the egg ; it is attracted by the lath. You thus prove the
attraction to be mutual: the comb attracts the lath, and the lath
attracts the comb. Suspend your rubbed glass, rubbed gutta-percha,
and rubbed sealing-wax in your wire loop. They are all just as much
attracted by the lath as the lath was attracted by them. This is an
extension of Boyle's experiment with the suspended amber.

How it is that the unelectrified lath attracts, and is attracted by
the excited glass, sealing-wax, and gutta-percha, we shall learn by-
and-by,

A very striking illustx-ation of electric attraction may be obtained
with the board and India-rubber mentioned in our list of materials.
Place the board before the fire and make it hot ^ heat also a sheet of
foolscap paper and place it on the board. There is no attraction be-
tween them. Pass the India-rubber briskly over the paj^er. It now
clings firmly to the board. Tear it away, and hold it at arm's length,
for it will move to your body if it can. Bring it near a door or
wall, it will cling tenaciously to either. The electrified paper also
powerfully attracts the balanced lath from a great distance.

The friction of the hand, of a cambric handkerchief, or of wash-
leather, fails to electrify the paper in any high degree. It requires
friction by a special substance to make the excitement strong. This
we learn by experience. It is also experience that has taught us that
resinous bodies are best excited by flannel, and vitreous bodies by silk.

Take nothing for granted in this inquiry, and neglect no effort to
render your knowledge complete and sure. Try various rubbers, and
satisfy yourself that difterences like that first observed by Newton
exist between them.

Lay bare, also, the true influence of heat in our last experiment.
Spread a cold sheet of foolscap on a cold board — on a table, for
example. If the- air be not very dry, rubbing, even with the India-
rubber, will not make them cling together. But is it because they
were hot that they attracted each other in the first instance ? No,
for you may heat your board by plunging it into boiling water, and
your paper by holding it in a cloud of steam. Thus heated they
cannot be made to cling together. The heat really acts by expel-
ling the moisture. Cold weather, if it be only dry, is highly favor-
able to electric excitation. During the late frost the wiiisking of
the hand over silk or flannel, or over a cat's back, would have ren-
dered it electrical.

LESSONS IN ELECTRICITY. 613

The experiment of the Florentine academicians, whereby they
proved the electric attraction of a liquid, is pretty, and worthy of
repetition. Fill a very small watch-glass with oil, until the liquid
forms a round curved surface, rising a little over the rim of the
glass. A strongly excited glass tube, held over the oil, raises not
one eminence only, but several, each of which finally discharges a
shower of drops against the attracting glass.

Cause the excited glass tube to pass close by your face, with-
out touching it. You feel, like Hauksbee, as if a cobweb were drawn
over the face. You also sometimes smell a peculiar odor, due to a
substance developed by the electricity, and called ozone.

Long ere this, while rubbing your tubes, you will have heard
the " hissing " and " crackling " so often referred to by the earlier
electricians ; and, if you have rubbed your glass tube briskly in the
dark, you will have seen what they called the " electric fire." Using,
instead of a tube, a tall glass jar, rendered hot, a good warm rub-
ber, and vigorous friction, the streams of electric fire are very sur-
prising in the dark.

Sec. 6. Discovery of Conduction and Insulation. — Here I must
again refer to that most meritorious philosopher, Stephen Gray. In
1729, he experimented with a glass tube stopped by a cork. When
the tube was rubbed, the cork attracted light bodies. Gray states
that he was " much surprised " at this, and he " concluded that there
was certainly an attractive virtue communicated to the cork." This
was the starting-point of our knowledge of electric conduction.

A fir-stick four inches long, stuck into the cork, was also found
by Gray to attract light bodies. He made his sticks longer, but
still found a power of attraction at their ends. He then passed on
to packthread and wire. Hanging a thread from the top window
of a house, so that the lower end nearly touched the ground, and
twisting the upper end of the thread round his glass tube, on briskly
rubbing the tube, light bodies were attracted by the lower end of
the thread.

But Gray's most remarkable experiment was this : He suspended
a long hempen line horizontally by loops of packthread, but failed to
transmit through it the electric power. He then suspended it by
loops of silk and succeeded in sending the " attractive virtue "
through 765 feet of thread. He at first thought the silk was efiectual
because it was thin ; but, on replacing a broken loop by a still thin-
ner wire, he obtained no action. Finally, he came to the conclusion
that his loops were effectual, not because they wei'e thin, but because
they wei'e silJc. This was the starting-point of our knowledge of
insulation.

It is interesting to notice the devotion of some men of science to
their work. Dr. Wells finished his beautiful essay on "Dew " when he
was on the brink of the grave. Stephen Gray was so near dying,

6i4

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

when his last experiineuts were made, that he was unable to write out
an account of them. On his death-bed, and indeed the very day be-
fore his death, his description of them was taken from his lips by Dr.
Mortimer, secretary of the Royal Society.

One word of definition will be useful here. Some substances, as
proved by Stephen Gray, possess in a very high degree the power of
permitting electricity to pass through them ; other substances stop
the passage of the electricity. Bodies of the first class are called con-
ductors / bodies of the second class are called insulators.

We cannot do better than repeat here the experiments of Gray.
Push a cork into the open end of your glass tube ; rub the tube, car-
rying the friction up to the end holding the covk. The cork will at-
tract the balanced latb, shown in Fig. 4, with which you have already
worked so much.

But the excited glass is here so near the end of the cork that you
may not feel certain that the observed attraction is that of the cork.
You can, however, prove that the cork attracts by its action upon
light bodies which cling to it. Stick a pen-holder into tlie cork, and
rub the glass tube as before. The free end of the holder will attract
the lath. Stick a deal rod three or four feet long into the cork, even
its free end will attract the lath when the glass tube is excited. In
this way, you prove to demonstration that the electric power is con-
veyed along the rod.

Fig. 5.

Sec. 1. Further Inquiries on Conduction and Insulation. — A lit-
tle addition to our apparatus will now be desirable. You can buy a
book of " Dutch metal" for fourpence, and a globular flask like that
shown in Fig. 5 for sixpence, or at the most a shilling. Find a cork,
C, which fits the flask ; pass a wire, W, through the cork, and bend
it near one end at a right angle. Stick by sealing-wax uuon the other
end of the wire a little plate of tin or sheet-zinc, T, about two inches

LESSONS IN ELECTRICITY. 615

ia diameter. Attach, also, by means of wax to the bent arm, which
ought to be about three-quarters of an inch long, two strips, 7", of the
Dutch metal about three inches long and from half an inch to three-
quarters of an inch wide. The strips will hang down face to face, in
contact with each other. In all cases you must be careful so to use
your wax as not to interrupt the metallic connection of the various
parts of your apparatus, which we will name an electroscope. Gold-
leaf, instead of Dutch metal, is usually employed for electroscopes.
I recommend the " metal " because it is less frail, and will stand
roucrher ixsasfe.

See that your globular flask is di-y and free from dust. Bring
your rubbed sealing-wax, 7?, or your rubbed glass, oiear the little plate
of tin, the leaves of Dutch metal open out ; withdraw the excited
body, the leaves fall together. We shall inquire into the cause of
this action immediately. Practise the approach and withdrawal for a
little time. Now draw your rubbed sealing-wax or glass along the
edge of the tin plate, T. The leaves diverge, and after the sealing-
wax or glass is withdrawn they remain divergent. In the first experi-
ment you communicated no electricity to the electroscope ; in the
second experiment you did. At present I will only ask you to take
the opening out of the leaves as a proof that electricity has been com-
municated to them.

And now we are ready for Gray's experiments in a form different
from his. Connect the end of a long wire with the tin plate of the
electroscope ; coil the other end round your glass tube. Rub the
tube briskly, carrying the friction close to the coiled wire. A single
stroke of your rubber, if skillfully given, will cause the leaves to di-
verge. The 'electricity has obviously passed through the w4re to the
electroscope.

Substitute for the wire a string of common twine, rub briskly, and
you will cause the leaves to diverge ; but there is a notable differ-
ence as regards the promptness of the divergence. You soon satis-
fy yourself that the electricity passes with greater facility through
the wire than through the string. Substitute for the twine a string
of silk. No matter how vigorously you rub you can now produce no
divergence. The electricity cannot get through the silk at all.'

Mr. Cottrell, who has been recently working very hard for you
and me, has devised an electroscope which we shall frequently era-
ploy in our lessons, jlf. Fig. 6, is a little plate of metal, or of wood
covered with tin-foil, supported on a rod of glass or of sealing-wax.
NT is another plate of Dutch metal paper, separated about an inch
from 31. iVZis a long straw (broken off in the figure), and A A' is

' It is hardly necessary to point out the meaning of Gray's experiment where he
found that, with loops of wire or of packthread, he could not send the electricity from
end to end of his suspended string. Obviously the electricity escaped in each of these
cases through the conducting support to the earth.

6i6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a pivot formed by a sewing-needle, and supported on a bent strip of
metal, as shown in the figure. By weighting the straw with a little
wire near iV, you so balance it that the plate N shall be just lifted
away from M. The wire w^ which may be 100 feet long, proceeds
from J/ to your glass tube, round which it is coiled. A single vigor-
ous stroke of the tube by the rubber sends electricity along w to 31 ;

Fig. 6.

iVis attracted downward, the other end of the long straw being lifted
through a considerable distance. In subsequent figures you will see
the complete straw-index, and its modes of application.

A few experiments with either of these instruments will enable
you to classify bodies as conductors, semi-conductors, and insulators.
Here is a list of a few of each, which, however, difier much among
themselves :

Conductors.
The common metals. Solutions of salts.

Well-burned charcoal. Eain- water.

Concentrated acids. ■ Linen.

Living vegetables and animals.

Semi-conductors.

Alcohol and ether. Marble.

Dry wood. Paper.

Straw.

Insulators.

Fatty oils.
Chalk.

Silk.
Glass.

India-rubber.

Wax.

Dry paper.
Hair.

Sulphur
Shellac.

This is the place to demonstrate, in a manner never to be forgot-
ten, the influence of moisture. Assure yourself that your dry silk
string insulates. Wet it throughout, and squeeze it a little, so that
the water from it may not trickle over your glass tube. Coil it round
the tube as before, and excite the tube. The leaves of the electro-
scope immediately diverge. The water is here the conductor. The
influence of moisture was first demonstrated by Du Fay (1733 to

NATURAL EUTHANASIA. 617

1737), who succeeded in sending electricity through 1,256 feet of
moist packthread.

A little reflection will enable you to vary these experiments indefi-
nitely. Rub your excited sealing-wax or glass against the tin plate
of your electroscope, and cause the leaves to diverge. Touch the
plate with any one of the conductors mentioned in the list ; the elec-
troscope is immediately discharged. Touch it with a semi-conductor;
the leaves fall as before, but less promptly. Touch the plate finally
with an insulator ; the electricity cannot j^ass, and the leaves remain
unchanged.

-♦♦*-

NATURAL EUTHANASIA.'

By B. W. EICHAKDSON, M. D., F. K. S.

BY tlie strict law of Nature a man should die as unconscious of his
death as of his birth.

Subjected at birth to what would be, in the after-conscious state,
an ordeal to which the most cruel of deaths were not possibly more
severe, he sleeps through the process, and only upon the subseqxient
awakening feels the impressions, painful or pleasant, of the world into
which he is delivered. In this instance the perfect law is fulfilled,
because the carrying of it out is retained by Nature herself: human
free-will and the caprice that springs from it have no influence.

By the hand of Nature death were equally a painless portion.
The cycle of life completed, the living being sleeps into death when
Nature has her way.

This pui-ely j^ainless process, this descent by oblivious trance into
oblivion, this natural physical death, is the true euthanasia; and it is
the duty of those we call physicians to secure for man such good
health as shall bear him in activity and happiness onward in his
course to this goal. For eiithanasia, though it be open to every one
born of every race, is not to be had by any save through obedience to
those laws which it is the mission of the physician to learn, to teach,
and to enforce. Euthanasia is the sequel of health, the happy death
engrafted on the perfect life.

When the physician has taught the world how this benign process
of Nature may be secured, and the world has accepted the lesson,
death itself will be practically banished; it will be divested equally
of fear, of sorrow, of sufiering. It will come as a sleep.

If you ask what proof there is of the possibility of such a consum-
mation, I point to our knowledge of the natural phenomena of one

' From "Diseases of Modem Life," by Dr. B. W. Richardson, now in press of D.
Applcton & Co.

6i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

form of dissolution revealed to. us even now in perfect, though excep-
tional, illustration. We have all seen Nature, in rare instances, vin-
dicatino- herself despite the social opposition to her, and showing how
tenderly, how soothingly, how like a mother with her foot on the
cradle, she would, if she were permitted, rock us all gently out of the
world ; how, if tlie free-will with which she has armed us were brought
into accord with her designs, she would give us the riches, the beau-
ties, the wonders of the universe for our portion so long as we could
receive and enjoy them; and at last would gently withdraw us from
them, sense by sense, with such imperception that the pain of the
withdrawal would be unfelt and indeed unknown.

Ten times in my own observation I remember witnessing, with at-
tentive mind, these phenomena of natural euthanasia. Without pain,
anger, or sorrow, the intellectual faculties of the fated man lose their
brightness. Ambition ceases or sinks into desire for repose. Ideas
of time, of space, of duty, lingeringly pass away. To sleep and not
to dream is the pressing, and, step by step, still pressing need ; until
at length it whiles away nearly all the hours. The awakenings are
short and shorter ; painless, careless, happy awakenings to the hum of
a busy world, to the merry sounds of children at play, to the sounds
of voices offering aid ; to the effort of talking on simple topics and
recalling events that have dwelt longest on the memory; and then
again the overpowering sleep. Thus on and on, until, at length, the
intellectual nature is lost, the instinctive and merely animal functions,
now no longer required to sustain the higher faculties, in their turn
succumb and. fall into the inertia.

This is death by Nature, and when mankind has learned the truth,
when the time shall come — as come it will — that " there shall be no
more an infant of days, nor an old man who hath not filled his days,"
this act of death, now, as a rule, so dreaded because so premature,
shall, arriving only at its appointed hour, suggest no terror, inflict no
agony.

The sharpness of death removed from those who die, the poignancy
of grief would be almost equally removed from those who survive,
were natural euthanasia the prevailing fact. Our sensibilities are
governed by the observance of natural law and the breach of it. It
is only when Nature is vehemently interrupted that we either wonder
or weep. Thus the old Greeks, fathers of true mirth, who looked on
prolonged, grief as an offense, and attached the word madness to mel-
ancholy, even they were so far imbued with sorrow when the child or
youth died, that they bore the lifeless body to the pyre in the break
of the morning, lest the sun should behold so sad a sight as the young
dead ; while we, who court rather than seek to dismiss melancholy,
who find poetry and piety in melancholic reverie, and who indulge
too often in what, after a time, becomes the luxury of woe, experience
a gradation of suffering as we witness the work of death. For the

NATURAL EUTHANASIA. 619

loss of the cliilcl aud the youth we mouni in the perfect purity of sor-
row ; for the loss of the man in his activity, we feel grief mingled
with selfish regret that -so much that was useful has ceased to be.
In the loss of the aged, in their days of second childishness and mere
oblivion, we sympathize for something that has passed away, and for
a moment recall events saddening to the memory ; but how soon this
consoling thought succeeds and conquers — that the race of the life
that has gone was run, and that for its own sake the dispensation of
its removal was most merciful and most wise !

To the rule of natural death there are a few exceptions. Un-
swerving in her gi-eat purposes for the universal good, Nature has
imposed on the world of life her storms, earthquakes, lightnings, and
all those sublime manifestations of her supreme power which, in the
infant days of the universe, cowed the boldest and implanted in the
human heart fears and superstitions which in hereditary progression
have passed down even to the present generations. Thus she has ex-
posed us all to accidents of premature death, but, with infinite wisdom,
and as if to tell us that her design is to provide for these inevitable
calamities, she has given a preponderance of number at birth to those
of her children who by reason of masculine strength and courage shall
have most frequently to face her elements of destruction. Further,
she has provided that death by her, by accidental collision with herself,
shall, from its very velocity, be freed of pain. For pain is a product of
time. To experience pain the impression producing it must be trans-
mitted from the injured part of the living body to the conscious centre,
must be received at the conscious centre, and must be recognized by
the mind as a reception ; the last act being in truth the conscious act.
In the great majority of deaths from natural accidents there is not
sufficient time for the accomplishment of these progressive steps by
which the consciousness is reached. The unconsciousness of existence
is the first and last fact inflicted upon the stricken organism : the
destruction is so mighty that the sense of it is not revealed.

The duration of time intended by Nature to extend between the
birth of the individual aud his natural euthanasia is undetermined,
except in an approximative degree. From the first, the steady,
stealthy attraction of the earth is ever telling upon the living body.
Some force liberated from the body during life enables it, by self-con-
trolled resistance, to overcome its own weight. For a given j^art of
its cycle the force produced is so efficient that the'body grows as well
as moves by its agency against weight ; but this special stage is lim-
ited to an extreme, say of thirty years. There is, then, another pe-
riod, limited probably also to thirty years, during which the living
structure in its full development maintains its resistance to its weight.
Finally, there comes a time when this resistance begins to fail, so
that the earth, which never for a moment loses her grasp, commences
and continues to prevail, and after a struggle, extended from twenty

620 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to thirty years, conquers, bringing the exhausted organism, which has
daily approached nearer and nearer to her dead self, into her dead
bosom.

Why the excess of power developed during growth or ascent of
life should be limited as to time ; why the power that maintains tlie
developed body on the level plain should be limited as to time; why
the power should decline so that the earth should be allowed to pre-
vail and bring descent of life, are j)roblems as yet unsolved. We
call the force that resists the earth vital. We say it resists death,
we speak of it as stronger in the young than in the old ; but we
know nothing more of it really, from a physical point of view", than
that while it exists it opposes terrestrial weight sufficiently to enable
the body to move with freedom on the surface of the earth.

These facts we accept as ultimate facts. To say that the animal
is at birth endowed with some reserved force, something over and
above what it obtains from food and air, would seem a reasonable
conclusion ; but we have no proofs that it is true, save that the young
resist better than the old. We must, therefore, rest content with our
knowledge in its simple form, gathering from it the lesson that
death, a part of the scheme of life, is ordained upon a natural term
of life, is beneficently planned, "is rounded with a sleep."

-♦♦♦-

SKETCH OF HERBERT SPEXCER.

HERBERT SPENCER was born in Derby, April 27, 1820. He
comes of a race of pedagogues — his father, grandfather, and
uncles, having followed the profession of teaching. He has written a
book upon education, which some people think " theoretical ; " but it
was a product of experience, for he was himself subjected to much
the same method as that he lays down in his work.

The father of Mr. Spencer was a gentleman of fine culture, of
engaging manners, and enlightened views which he carried into prac-
tice as a teacher. He was strongly disinclined to the prevailing
method of imparting knowledge and loading the memory with book
acquisitions. He believed that true mental development can only
come through self-ihstruction, and he constantly encouraged his pupils
to find things out for themselves. He held it to be of great impor-
tance to foster independence and originality of thought. He hence
aimed to arouse feelings of interest, curiosity, and love of inquiry in
the minds of the young, and then leave them to solve their own prob-
lems. One of the objects he constantly sought to attain was to
quicken and give scope to the constructive and inventive faculties.
He was an excellent mathematician, but in dealing with this subject

SKETCH OF HERBERT SPENCER. 621

he sought to secure objects not usually recognized in the niethod of
this study. He prej)ared for the use of beginners a little manual en-
titled " Inventional Geometry," ' consisting of questions and prob-
lems designed to familiarize the pupil with geometrical conceptions,
and to exercise his inventive caj)acity in actual and accurate con-
structions with the use of simple instruments.

It was in this discreet way, never crowding or cramming, but
kindling his interest and leaving him much to himself, that Mr. Spen-
cer conducted the education of his son.

When Herbert was three years of age, his father's health having
broken down, he was compelled to give up his school, and removed to
Nottingham. He here entered into the manufacture of lace by ma-
chinery, which was just then the rage.

Herbert was the only surviving child, and his health was so deli-
cate that his parents had. little hope of raising him. As a lad his
healtli was not strong, although he was not ill ; his constitution being
well balanced but not hardy. His father, fearing that he would give
way under strain, did not jiress him to study. Three years were
spent at Nottingham, in which the boy attended, for a short time, a
common day-school kept by a mistress.

When Herbert was between six and seven the family returned to
Derby, but Mr. Spencer did not resume his school ; he took to private
teaching. The lad did not read until he was seven. The first book
to which he was attracted was " Sanford and Merton." When, after-
ward, he went to school, he was very inattentive and idle, having a re-
pugnance to lesson-learning, and never reciting a lesson correctly that
was leai-ned by rote. He was, however, leniently dealt witli, his father
probably directing that he should not be urged. During boyhood he
was greatly given to playing games, fishing, birds-nesting, country
rambles, gathering wild fruits and mushrooms — all Saturday after-
noons being turned to such purposes. Apart from school-studies, his
father early led him into drawing, especially from objects. During
this same period he encouraged him to keep insects through their
transformations, and for years the finding and rearing of caterpil-
lars, the catching and preserving of winged insects were constant
and enjoyed occupations. He was also incited to make drawings of
these insects. He rarely made friends of bigger boys, being intoler-
ant of any thing like bullying. But his father mentions the fact in
one of his letters that the younger boys were very fond of him ; im-
plying, perhaps, that while he would not be imposed upon by his el-
ders, he did not bully his juniors. The latter part of his school-days
at Derby was passed at a school set up by an uncle who, also having
rational ideas of teaching, carried out his father's views. Among
some dozen or so of boys he was characterized as backward in things
requiring memory and recitation, but as in advance of the rest in in-

' Now in the press of D. Appleton & Co.

622 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

telligence. Drawing from objects was here continued. They liad
some experimental lessons in mechanics, and Herbert took to reading
a good deal ; Rollin's "Ancient History" and many miscellaneous books
being gone through. He found, a very varied literature in his father's
house. Mr. Spencer, Sr., was Secretary of the Derby Philosophi-
cal Society, and also member of a Methodist book-committee. Be-
sides many works of different kinds, there came various periodicals
and magazines — the Lancet, the medical quarterlies, Athencewin,
Chcmxbers's Journal, volumes of travel, and occasionally graver works.
All these he habitually looked into as a boy, picking up medical, me-
chanical, and various information. Mr. Spencer and his brothers,
when they were together, habitually discussed all kinds of questions,
political, ethical, religious, and scientific: All were liberal and inde-
pendent thinkers — radicals when radicalism was unpopular. Both
Mr. and Mrs. Spencer were brought up Methodists, but, during his
boyhood, the father acquired so strong a repugnance toward the
priestliness of the Methodist organization, that he early ceased to
attend their services, and went to Quaker meeting — never adopting
their peculiarities, but approving their unsacerdotal system. As his
mother continued a Methodist, it resulted that on Sunday he went
with his father in the morning, and with his mother in the evening.
The enforced learning of hymns, and reading of chapters, at this
time, produced, a lasting repugnance to Scriptural language.

Mr. Spencer encouraged his son in all kinds of little constructive
operations, as carpentering, the making of his own fishing-tackle, etc.
Readiness in manipulation was thus cultivated. During this period,
Mr. Spencer from time to time had at the house assemblies of his pri-
vate pupils to witness electrical, mechanical, and air-pump experi-
ments. In these Herbert always assisted, becoming thus familiar
with the facts, explanations, and practical manipulations. At the
same time he made chemical experiments. He is reported as being
much in disgrace as a disobedient boy, always more or less in hot
water, which led to desponding anticipations of his future.

At thirteen (1833) he was sent to his uncle, a clergyman, with
whom he remained three years. This uncle, the Rev. Thomas Spen-
cer, Rector of Hinton, was a cultivated scholar, who graduated with
honors at Cambridge. He was a man of great liberality, advanced in
his political views, broad in his theology, and the first clergyman of
the Established Church to take a public and prominent part in the
movement for the repeal of the corn-laws ; having written and pub-
lished extensively upon the subject. He will be remembered by some
as having made a tour through this country some twenty-five years
ago, delivering occasional lectures. His uncle was anxious that Her-
bert should prepare for the universitj^, but he was disinclined to this,
and the question was a matter of controversy between them. His
uncle, however, lived to acknowledge that Herbert probably took the

SKETCH OF HERBERT SPENCER. 623

right view of the matter. Yet his prescribed studies were those
which constitute the usual pi'eparation for a university course. Latin
and Greek, which had been taken up at Derby, though but to little
purpose, were resumed at Hinton, but they were pursued without
interest, and no satisfactory progress was made in them. But in
mathematics the pupil made rapid advancement, being the equal or
superior of fellow-students several years his seniors, who were study-
ing with him. Geometry, trigonometry, algebra, mechanics, and the
beginning of Xewton's " Principia," were gone through. Though his
memory wat never a good one for details, yet it is noted that prin-
ciples were habitually so seized as to remain. The tendency to inde-
pendent exploration was shown in the spontaneous making of prob-
lems, and finding out new demonstrations. Tlie discipline to which
Herbert was subjected was here more decided than it had been at
home. Yet during his stay at ITinton there were various accusations
of disobedience w'hich led to temporary disgrace.

At sixteen (1836) Herbert returned home, and one year was passed
in miscellaneous but not very persistent study. He went through
perspective with his father, on the principle of indejoendent discovery;
the successive problems being put in such ol'der that he was enabled
to find out the solutions himself. There was evidently a natural
readiness here, as during this year he hit upon a curious theorem in
descriptive geometry, which was afterward published with the dem-
onstration in the Civil Engineer's and Architect'' s Journal.

At midsummer, 1837, after being a year at home, he had three
months' experience in teaching, taking the place of assistant in the
school to which he had first gone as a boy. His father had always
been anxious that he should follow the profession of teacher, the dig-
nity of which he estimated highly. This wish was strengthened by
the success which he had in this trial, as he evinced a strong natural
faculty for exposition, and the capacity of leading pupils to feel an in-
terest in their lessons by the use of copious and correct illustrations.

In the autumn of that year, young Spencer was ofiered an engage-
ment under Mr. Charles Fox (afterward Sir Charles Fox), a civil-en-
gineer who had been a pupil of his father, and who subsequently be-
came widely known as the builder of the Great Exhibition building of
1850. He was at that time resident engineer on the London & Bir-
mingham Railway, then in process of construction. Here, partly in
making surveys and drawings, he passed nearly a year, still carrying
on his mathematical studies, and showing in his letters that inven-
tions and improvements were much in his thoughts. In the autumn
of 1838 he was recommended to Captain Moorsum, engineer of the
Birmingham & Gloucester Railway. He took this place, and some
eighteen months were passed in making engineers' drawings, and
other railway works, with some contributions to the Civil En(jimer''s
Journal^ describing improved methods and constructions. Toward

624 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the end of tliis period he became for a tune Captain Moorsxim's engi-
neering secretary, and during this time he devised the little instru-
ment which he called the velocimeter, and described in the Civil
Engineer's Journal. It was for the purpose of calculating, by me-
chanical means, the speeds of locomotive engines from given frac-
tional distances and times, which otherwise required much trouble in
estimating the velocity. Then followed a period of some six months
occupied in out-door works, partly in superintending the completion
of constructions, and partly in testing the performances of engines.

During this period he was led, by collecting fossils, into the study
of geology, and read Sir Charles Lyell's " Principles," then recently
published. The noteworthy fact respecting this is, that in it the
doctrine of Lamarck respecting the develoi^ment of species is there set
forth, combated and rejected. Mr. Spencer cannot say whether he
was before familiar with this doctrine, but he remembers that Lyell's
arguments failed to disprove it to him, and he became, thereafter, a
firm believer in the general idea that all organized beings had arisen
by development (1839). He had so profound a belief in natural cau-
sation, in general so strong a tendency to see a unity of processes in
things, that an hypothesis of this kind, which suggested that the gen-
esis of organisms had arisen from physical actions, was one that he
was prepared to accept as congruous with the system of things known
by experience. Such a notion as that of miracle, utterly inharmonious
with the ideas of cause and law and order which had become ingrained
in him, was inadmissible, and hence the only alternative view pre-
sented itself to his mind as obviously necessary. Nothing ever after-
ward shook this belief. There naturally went along with this a gradual
dropping of the current theology, although Mr. Spencer cannot say
when it began or when it ended. The conception of the natural gene-
sis of things gradually replaced the conception of the supernatural
genesis, and belief in the prevailing creed gradually faded away.

In April, 1841, having declined the offer of an engineering appoint-
ment, Mr. Spencer returned home, intending to carry further his
mathematical studies. Very little came of this intention, however,
and some two years were spent at home in a miscellaneous and seem-
ingly futile manner. Botany occupied his attention for some months.
He made a botanical press and an herbarium. He- practised drawing
to some extent, and made pencil-portraits of various friends. Phre-
nology, of which he did not at that time see the fallacies, occupied
some attention. All the time, however, he had in progress one or
other scheme of invention. Improvements in watch-making, machines
for making type by compression of the metal instead of casting, a
printing-press of a new form, the application of the electrotype for
engraving, afterward known as the glyptograph, occupied his atten-
tion. The great flood in Derby, in 1842, caused by the sudden over-
flow of a tributary of the Derwent, having occurred, Mr. Spencer wrote

SKETCH OF HERBERT SPENCER. 625

a detailed report upon it with proposals for remedy to the town coun-
cil, which was printed by that body. The summer of that year was
spent in a visit at Hinton, and while there he modeled a bust of his
uncle, having during the previous year given some attention to that
art. lie also there commenced contributing to the Nonconformist a
series of letters on the proper sphere of government. These were
completed in the autumn. Shortly after there was commenced in
England a movement called the complete-suffrage agitation, which
arose out of a pamphlet published by the editor of the Nonconformist,
Mr. Miall. In this agitation Mr. Spencer took an active part, becom-
ing the local secretary for Derby, and he was afterward delegate to a
conference at Birmingham, where a futile attempt was made to co-
operate with the Chartists. In the spring of 1843 he went to London,
with the vague idea of getting some literary occupation, and while
there he made an engineering engagement, which lasted a few months
till the work was complete. Returning then to Derby, he was again
occupied chiefly with inventions. The railway mania, which was
rising in 1844, drew him again to engineering, and he was for some
months in charge of a London office, where he had at one time about
sixty men under him. That winter and the subsequent spring were
spent before parliamentary committees. But the lines in which he
was interested failed to be chartered, and he then had much experi-
ence in legal proceedings, helping the engineer to recover his charges.

During 1846 and the beginning of 184Y he was occupied with
inventions, and took out a patent for a sawing and planing machine,
but, the friend who joined him in it going to India, the business
dropped through. During these years he contributed papers to the
Philosophical Magazine and to the Zooist, in one of which he pro-
pounded a view respecting the nature of sympathy, which he after-
ward found that Adam Smith had previously proposed. In 1848 he
commenced writing " Social Statics." In the autumn of that year he
was engaged as the sub-editor of the Economist, and during 1849 and
1850 while occupying that post he completed the volume, his first -con-
siderable work, " Social Statics."

It is unnecessary to sketch here the intellectual labors of Mr.
Spencer, as that has been already done with some degree of fullness
in our pages.*

Much solicitude regarding the disturbed health of Mr. Spencer
has been expressed by many who are interested in the progress of his
work, and exaggerated rumors have been circulated respecting it.
As we have said, his constitution was never robust, but it was sound
in the earlier portions of his life. His health gave way when thirty-
five years old, from intense application in writing " The Principles of
Psychology," published in 1855. Since that time he has been incapa-
ble of steady mental application, and has been compelled frequently

' See Popular Science Monthly for November, 1874.
VOL. vni. — 40

626 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to suspend labor entirely for varying intervals to recover his working
condition. When he entered upon his philosophical undertaking in
I860 — laying out twenty years of original work — his health was so in-
secure that many thought the project foolhardy, and that it would
prove fatal to him. But, forced by painful experience to economize
his energies, he has become an adept in the art of taking care of him-
self; so that, instead of breaking down, his condition has perhaps im-
proved with the progress of his work. He would probably never
have been able to lorite the volumes of his philosophy, but in 1859 he
adopted the expedient of dictation to an amanuensis, and attributes
his power of going on to the immense economy and advantages of this
practice. He has latterly not been so well as usual, for, though turn-
ing off a large amount of work on " The Principles of Sociology," and
also carrying along the " Descriptive Sociology," both of which works
are well advanced, he has yet been interrupted by more prolonged in-
tervals of inability to labor. He has, besides, had to spend a great
deal- of his force in attention to business, which is not a very exhilarat-
ing occupation, as he has now sunk nearly |20,000 in the pi-eparation
and publication of his " Descriptive Sociology." He has, besides, had
to maintain a burdensome correspondence, which growing at last in-
tolerable, he has lately sought relief by lithographing the following
form of a letter, which will explain itself :

" Mr. Herbert Spencer regrets that he must take measures for diminishing
the amount of his correspondence.

" Being prevented by his state of health from writing more than a short
time daily, he makes but slow progress with the work he has undertaken, and
this slow progress is made slower by the absorption of his time in answering
those who write to him. Letters inviting him to join committees, to attend
meetings, or otherwise to further some public object ; letters requesting inter-
views and autographs; letters asking opinions and explanations — these, to-
gether with presentation copies of books that have to be acknowledged, entail
hindrances which, small as they may be individually, are collectively very
serious — very serious, at least, to one whose hours of work are so narrowly
limited.

" As these hindrances increase, Mr. Spencer finds himself compelled to do
something to prevent them. After long hesitation, he has reluctantly decided
to confine himself absolutely to the task which he is endeavoring to accomplish
— to cut himself off from all engagements that are likely to occupy any atten-
tion, however slight, and to decline all correspondence not involved by his im-
mediate work.

" To explain the absence of a special reply to each communication, he has
. adopted the expedient of lithographing this general reply ; and he hopes that
'the reason given will sufiiciently excuse him for not answering, in a more direct
way, the letter of Mr. .

" 37 Queen's Gardens, Batswateb, W."

CORRESP OXDENCE.

627

CORHESPONDElSrCE

"THE CONFLICT OF THE AGES." •
To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly.

DEAR SIR : I have read this morning,
with great pleasure, the article by
President White, in the February number
of your magazine ; and am free to express
gratification at seeing the extracts from
my Vanderbilt University Address placed
in such " goodlie companic."

But you must permit me to express my
surprise at the tone and some of the state-
ments which you make with regard to the
two articles, and to the important subject
which they discuss. You say that you print
my argument because it is "on the other
side of the question," and you would "not
be accused of partiality or injustice- to op-
posite views." This is utterly unaccount-
able to me. President White and myself
are in perfect accord in our articles so far
as " the conflict " is concerned, so much so
that, if we had had a conference previous to
the preparation of our two addresses, we
could scarcely have selected modes of treat-
ment different from those we adopted. We
should possibly have changed the order of
the printing, and let his follow mine. Mine
is a statement of doctrine, and his the proof.
He has written almost nothing in his article
which I might not have written if I had bad.
his ability. He brings a masterly analysis
and great wealth of learning to prove what
I have asserted, and nothing in his article
seems to stand against any thing in mine.
We hold the same thesis, and sometimes
express our ideas ipsissimis verbis. We
both agree, if I have not utterly misappre-
hended President White, that religious men
malve mistakes, and scientific men make
mistakes, but there is no conflict between
true religion and true science, the warfare
of science being with something other than
religion. The first words of mine which
you quote are these : " The 7-cce)ii cry of the
'Conflict of Religion and Science' \s falla-
cious, and mischievotcs to the interests of
both science and religion " (p. 434). Presi-
dent White, in the first sentence of his the-

sis says, " In all modern history, interference
with science in the supposed interest of re-
ligion . . . has resulted in the direst evils
both to religion and to science, and invari-
ably" (p. 385). There we agree, and each
undertakes to show the same thing in his
own way. President White, in the second
sentence of his thesis, says, "All untram-
meled scientific investigation, no matter
how dangerous to religion some of its stages
may have seemed, for the time, to be, has in-
variably resulted in the highest good of
religion and of science." In divers places
in my article the same is set forth and main-
tained. On page 444 1 say, " If, for instance,
a conflict should come between geology and
theology, and geology should be beaten, it
will be so much the better for religion ; and,
if geology should beat theology, still so much
the better for religion,'''' etc. In the next
sentence, "geologists, psychologists, and,
theologists, r)iust all itltimatei,y promote
the cause of religion, because they mnst con-
firm one another's truths and explode one
another's errors," etc. And, next sentence,
"He (the religious man) knows and feels
that it would be as irreligious in him to re-
ject any truth found in Nature as it would
be for another to reject any truth found in
the Bible."

Now, on thi.s showing, my dear sir, I
think that in a review of the two articles you
should be ready to admit that Dr. White
and I are 7wt on " opposite " sides. We are
advocates for the same client, speaking
from different briefs but promoting the same
cause.

But I am sorry to find that, while I
thoroughly agree with Dr. White, you do not.
You consider the conflict to be " natural,"
" inevitable," " wholesome." Dr. White
teaches that " the idea that there is a ne-
cessary antagonism between science and
religion " is " the most unfortunate of all
ideas" (p. 403). You oppose Dr. White
more than you do me, for my moderate
statement is, that it is "fallacious" and
"mischievous."

628

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

I would fain " labor " with you, as some
of our religious brethren say. It grieves
me that you hold that an antagonism be-
tween loving obedience to God — Religion,
and intelligent study of God^s works — Sci-
ence, is "natural," "inevitable," "whole-
some." If that be true it would seem to
follow that the more religious a man is the
less scientific he can be, or, what is worse,
that the more scientific a man the less re-
ligious can he be ! Really you cannot mean
what your statements logically convey. You
cannot mean to teach that, the more wick-
ed a man is, the better he is prepared for
scientific investigation. But do not your
words mean that ?

To prove that there is a necessary conflict
you call attention to " the attitude of mind
of the great mass of devout and sincerely
religious people toward the more advanced
conclusions and scientific men of the pres-
ent day." Who can tell what attitude that
is ? Each man knows his circle of ac-
quaintances ; and here is my testimony : All
" the devout and sincerely religious people "
with whom I am acquainted accept all the
" conclusions " of science so far as they
know them. Some of them go further, and
accept even the hypotheses and guesses of
the most poetic and superstitious of "the sci-
entific men of the day." Thebody of devout
religious people, however, it is fair to add,
do not accept all the guesses. All that can
be reasonably asked of the religious people
is that they shall accept as scientific " con-
clusions " only those teachings of science
in regard to which there is no controversy
among scientific men. A case cannot be
called " concluded " while the argument is
going on in court. The rotundity of the
earth, the heliocentric theory, Kepler's three
laws, are " concluded." No scientific man
of repute expresses the slightest doubt of
those, and the attitude of religious people
toward them is one of thorough acceptance
and genuine faith. There are some religious
people who are evolutionists. Some are
not. But the scientific men, " cis such" are
just as much divided, so that that question
cannot be called concluded.

As to the attitude of religious people

toward advanced scientific men, it would
be difficult to determine, because it would
be difficult to determine who are the " ad-
vanced " scientific men. Whenever they
settle that among themselves, your question
will really have great importance ; but, if
a clique should cry up one man as a burn-
ing and shining light in science, while the
French Academy should be reported to
have rejected him when nominated for mem-
bership, on the ground that It£ is not scien-
tific, need religious people have any attitude
toward him at all ?

But that there is no hostile attitude
toward scientific men is shown by the fact
that any scientific lecturer of ability may
come from Europe to America, and the de-
vout and religious people of the country
will go in throngs to hear him, and pay lib-
erally for the privilege.

You close your article by expressing the
opinion that a "desirable consummation"
to " reach " would be " the entire indiffer-
ence of religious people, as such, to the re-
sults of scientific inquiry." This is amaz-
ing. How can they be ? Religious people
who are not scientific know very well, hav-
ing had their attention freshly called thereto
by Dr. White, the great benefits conferred
on religion by the progress of science, which,
as he admirably says, has " given to religion
great new foundations, great new ennobling
conceptions, a great new revelation of the
might of God." Religious people owe too
much to science, while science owes almost
every thing to religious people, to allow
them to become entirely indifferent, and give
up science wholly to irreligious men.

One thing let us agree on befoi-e we part.
Nothing is advanced and no one is profited
if religious men write and speak as though
no man could be scientific and at the same
time religious ; nor is any thing profited if
men professing to be scientific talk of re-
ligious people patronizinglj', as if they were
simpletons. Can you not say " Amen " to
that, and shake hands with

Very respectfully and truly yours,

Charles F. Deems.

Chtteoh op the Strangbes, I

New York, January 2T, 1876. )

EDITOR'S TABLE.

tzg

EDITOR'S TABLE.

HISTORY AND THE CENTENNIAL.

THERE are symptoms of a revival
of the study of history, or of a
new impulse to it, as a consequence of
the fact that the life of the nation has
reached a round hundred years. His-
tories of the United States are in spe-
cial order, and histories of the world
for common schools are copiously forth-
coming. Tlie importance of history is,
of course, a foregone conclusion ; and
the triple importance of the history of
one's own country goes for self-evident.
This is the wrong year to disturb politi-
cal superstitions, and we are not going
to question the great necessity of read-
ing more about the doings of politicians
for the last hundred years than past
facilities have made practicable. But
we may suggest that it is not an unsuit-
able time to widen and liberalize some-
what our notions of what history prop-
erly is, or should be. That it has hith-
erto dealt mainly with the superficies
of human affairs, with conspicuous sur-
face effects, and with the sayings and
doings of men who have been skillful in
the art of keeping themselves in the
focus of public observation, has come
to be a truism. And, when a history
of the United States is announced, it is
well enough understood that we are to
have a new shaking-up of the- old mate-
rials, with new pictures, but with the
usual account of Indians, constitution-
making, political administrations, and
the wars in which the country has been
engaged.

But is not our impending Centennial
celebration in Philadelphia calculated
to impress upon us the historic interest
of quite a different class of things ? No
doubt there will be collected and placed
on show numerous relics and curiosities
of purely national import; but these
will not constitute the staple attrac-

tions of the exhibition. Its supreme
interest will consist in the array of prod-
ucts which will be there gathered of
the art, science, invention, and skill, of
the world. It is these that have been
appealed to, to signalize and make mem-
orable the hundredth year of our sepa-
rate national life. This is the realiza-
tion of an idea which could hardly have
entered into the dreams of the men who
figured as " founders of the republic."
Their notion of " celebrating " our " In-
dependence " for all time, consisted in
making a prodigious noise, by ringing
bells, and exploding gunpowder. But
now we celebrate this event on a grand
scale, by invoking the cooperation of
the civilized world in the competitive
display of industrial resources, con-
structions, fabrics, and works of use and
beauty, distributed through a hundred
departments of classified variety. And,
of these multitudinous results of man's
inventive and constructive faculty, the
great mass will be the products of the
past century's experience and progress,
of which hardly the germs existed when
we set up in politics for ourselves. And
they will not be the results of adminis-
trative policy or forms of government.
In a large sense they will not belong to
any nation, but to civilization and hu-
manity. They will be, to no small de-
gree, the achievements of enterprise
which politicians of all countries have
done their best to hinder and defeat.
It is the triumph of our time, tliat the
forces that have brought such vast and
benign consequences have overcome
all resistance. They represent the
growth and power of the pacific and
constructive agencies of modern socie-
ty— the headway that has been made
against the political barbarisms of the
past. The chief display at the Centen-
nial will svrabolize the silent revolutions

630

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

of ideas — triumphs achieved by indi-
viduals through heroic self-sacritice,
and unwearying labor, in the seclusion
of the laboratory, the study, and the
workshop. And, as regards popular
history, it is now pertinent to ask if it
might not be wisely extended over this
field of human exploit. The records of
inventive, scientitic, and social progress
might lack something of the tragic ex-
citement that belongs to the chronicles
of battles and campaigns, and might be
read with less avidity than«accounts of
cabinet intrigues, partisan strife, and
gossiping sketches of men who have got
tliemselves voted into the category of
the great ; but, for the serious purposes
of education, would not histories of the
former type be better suited for the
wants of an enterprising, practical, self-
governing people, than those which are
now pressed upon our schools? We
need popular histories of the arts and
sciences, of inventions and discoveries,
of industries and commerce, the devel-
opment of ideas, the order of social
changes, and the working of those deep-
er forces in human affairs which history
has hitherto overlooked, and of which,
indeed, mankind has only become fully
conscious in recent years. "We need
them, but the need is probably no meas-
ure of the demand for them. If they
Avere written, the chances for their
" adoption " would, perhaps, not be
very encouraging. But we may indulge
the hope that the influence of the Cen-
tennial Exhibition will, at any rate, be
favorable to the growth of this branch
of literature.

RETROSPECTS OF OUR PAST HUNDRED
YEARS.

The reviews that have been pub-
lished of what has been done in this
country in the great departments of
thought, during the past century, are
not without promise that the mind of
the time is moving in the direction
desiderated in the preceding article.
The North American Hevieic, for ex-

ample, has published a centennial num-
ber, devoted entirely to the course of
American thought in religion, politics,
abstract science, economic science, law,
and education, from 1776 to 1870. The
papers are able, calm, and philosophic,
without a glimpse of the "spread eagle"
or trace of the " stump," and their gen-
eral tone, in fact, is by no means that
of jubilation.

Mr. J. L. Diman begins by giving an
instructive account of religion in Amer-
ica, and pointing out the leading changes
that have taken place, most important
of which is the complete separation
which has been effected between church
and state. He shows how deep was
the conviction in our early history tliat
laws for "maintaining public worship,
and decently supporting the teachers
of religion," are "absolutely necessary
for the well-being of society." This
view was not the result of ecclesias-
tical prejudice, but was most strongly
advocated by laymen. Chief-Justice
Parsons, not a member of a church, in
entering upon his official caa*eer, ex-
pressed his most solemn conviction "of
the necessity of a public support of
religious institutions ; " and, still later,
Judge Story maintained the same view.
This ground, now generally abandoned
by American Protestants, is that still
held by the Catholic Church, and gives
rise to one of the gravest difficulties of
public policy, that in relation to religion
and state education.

As regards the growth of sects, it
is stated that " a century ago the more
important religious bodies (tested by
the number of churches) were ranked
in the following order: Congi'egation-
al. Baptist, Church of England, Presby-
terian, Lutheran, German Reformed,
Dutch Reformed, Roman Catholic. By
the census of 1870 they stood: Meth-
odist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Roman
Catholic, Christian, Lutheran, Congre-
gational, Protestant Episcopal." The
growth of religious organizations has
outstripped the growth of population.
At the beginning of the Revolution

EDITOR'S TABLE.

631

there were less than 1,950 with a pop-
ulation of 3,500,000, showing a church
for every 1,700 souls. There are now
more than 72,000, which, with a popula-
tion of 38,000,000, would show a church
for every 529. " In other words, while
the population has multiplied eleven-
fold, the churches have multiplied near-
ly tbirty-seven-fold." The most signal
religious fact which the past century
presents is stated to be the growth of
Methodism. When their first confer-
ence met at Baltimore they collected
but sixty preachers, and it was reckoned
that in the whole country they could
muster but twenty more, " By the cen-
sus of 1870 they were credited with
more than 25,000 parish organizations,
and a church property of $70,000,000."
Notice is taken of the tendency to ap-
preciate a more educated clergy, and
of a growing ambition in the matter of
churcli architecture. The general move-
ment, it is said, has led not so much
toward the multiplication of sects as
toward the formation of compact and
powerful religious organizations. But
there has been little reciprocal influence
among ecclesiastical bodies, and no ten-
dency to theological unity. The general
conclusion of the writer is that "a re-
view of our past history should incline
US to place a modest estimate on our
success;" aiid "at the close of a century
we seem to have made no advance
Avhatever in harmonizing the relations
of religious sects among themselves, or
in defining their common relation to the
civil power. . . . Thefunction of Amer-
ican Christianity has been discharged
in a moral and practical, rather than
in a scientific, and theological develop-
ment."

Prof. Sumner's sketch of American
politics for a hundred years is highly
instructive and readable, but on the
whole any thing but flattering to the
national vanity. The " Ring " and the
"Boss " seem to be its latest outcome,
and of the latter character it is said, " he
is the last and perfect flower of the long
development at which hundreds of skill-

ful and crafty men bave labored, and
into which the American people have
put by far the greatest part of their po-
litical energy." Whether in politics
the course of the nation has been on
the whole upward or downward, the
writer considers an open question, but
comforts us with his individual opinion
that we are not degenerating.

Prof. Newcomb, in reviewing the
abstract science of the century, dis-
cusses with much ability the condi-
tions on which the cultivation of pure
science depends, and finds that they
are greatly wanting in this country.
There is a lack of intimate intercourse
among scientific men; of government
appreciation of the aid they require
in devoting themselves to original re-
search. There is, besides, a kind of
national one-sidedness — not merely an
absorption in material interests — a kind
of faith in practical sagacity and the
sufficiency of plain common-sense for
all emergencies, which excludes the
need of more exact methods of thought,
and is inappreciative of the value of
refined and remote inquiries that yield
no palpable or directly useful results.
It is therefore natural " that the devel-
opment of the higher branches of sci-
ence in our country should be marked
by the same backwardness which char-
acterizes the higher forms of thought
in other directions." Prof. Newcomb.
brings out, in an admirable passage, the'
complete antagonism between the ideas
"which animate the so-called 'practi-
cal man' of our country and those
which animate the investigator in any
field which deserves the name of sci-
ence or philosophy ; " from which it
appears that the most potent hindrance
to science with us is that adverse state
of the general mind which prevents our
people from taking interest in it, and
of encouraging those who devote them-
selves to it. lie says : " It is strikingly
illustrative of the absence of every
thing like an effective national pride in
science that two generations should
have passed without America having

632

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

produced any thing to continue the
philosophical researches of Franklin.
. . . Until Henry commenced his expe-
riments there was not an electrical in-
vestigation published in the country,
which the present time has any object
in remembering."

" We have described and illustrated
the generally low state of American
science during the first forty years of
the present century — a state which may
be described as one of general lethargy
broken now and then by the activity
of some first-class man, which, how-
ever, commonly ceased to be directed
into purely scientific channels. Since
1840 there has been a great and gen-
eral increase of activity in some direc-
tions, which, from some points of view,
would seem to have inaugurated an
entirely new state of things, and to
promise well for the future. But there
are also many features of the case
which strongly suggest the backward
state of things from which the present
condition sprung."

After reviewing a large mass of
facts. Prof. Newcomb says : " We must
not conclude, fi-om all this, that no in-
terest in science is taken by the Amer-
ican people, but only that that inter-
est does not manifest itself in such a
way as to promote scientific research."
And his general conclusion is that, " on
the whole, we have not been able to
present the first century in roseate
colors; and, while we can well con-
template the future with hope, we can-
not do so with entire confidence."

Prof. Dunbar's delineation of a cen-
tury of economic science is clear and
cogent, but no more flattering than that
of his predecessor. He gives an in-
teresting account of the varioiis writ-
ings that have been contributed by
prominent men to this question, and,
although it would at first seem that
the practical genius of our people would
here find its legitimate field, and that
what they loved dearest and thought
of most — money, currency, property,
trade — they would be the ones to ex-

plore to the utmost depths ; yet such is
far from having been the case. The
tracing out of unknown laws and the
original discovery of principles are the
same in all spheres of phenomena.
Prof. Dunbar concludes: " Tlie general
result, then, to which, as we believe, a
sober examination of tlie case must
lead any candid inquirer, is that the
United States have thus far done noth-
ing toward developing the theory of po-
litical economy, notwithstanding their
vast and immediate interest in its prac-
tical applications." He shows how it is
that our politicians are interested in
bemuddling economical questions, and
spreading the notion that nothing is
here settled, because the interests are
to be manipulated for selfish ends.
"In the case of the currency question,
then, it appears that the subject, from
the first, came before our public men
in a form which seemed to make its
political bearings too important to be
subordinated to any scientific treat-
ment. The same might be said of the
taritf discussion, which, apart from its
inevitable complication with individual
interests, has never failed also to pre-
sent itself in such sectional or party
relations as to make its settlement turn
largely upon far other considerations
than those of general principles." It is
further shown how the great prosperity
of the country has blinded men to the
injurious influence of economic blun-
dei-s. " The idea that the management
of our resources is of little account so
long as we find ourselves sweeping
along with the current of growth has
for years been the habitual consolation
of our public men, if not an article of
their faith. That it easily leads to in-
difterence, as to the monitions of eco-
nomic law, is sufficiently obvious."

Mr. G. T. Bispham treats of the prog-
ress of American jurisprudence dur-
ing the past century. He first consid-
ers those deviations from English law
which originated in the contrast of phy-
sical features between this country and
England. That country is a compact,

EDITOR'S TABLE.

633

densely - populated island, with small
rivers, forests that are the objects of
jealous care, with cheap labor, and
high-priced land ; contrasting strongly
with the extent of this country — its
enormous streams, sparse population,
cheap lands, imperfect roads, and tim-
ber so abundant that it was an impedi-
ment to improvement. These differ-
ences necessitated marked modifica-
tions in American law to adapt it to
the phyi?ical and geographical pecul-
iarities of the country. Many changes
of jurisprudence, of course, grew out
of the adoption of a new form of gov-
ernment embodied in a new constitu-
tion, which gave a distinctive charac-
ter, in many features, to the system of
American law. It is maintained, also,
that general intellectual influences have
wrought an advance in American juris-
prudence, which is seen in the amelio-
ration of criminal legislation, and in
legislation establishing public or state
education. It is, moreover, contended
that the adoption of written constitu-
tions is an important step of progress
which the world owes to the United
States ; another American step being the
codification and simplification of muni-
cipal law. The writer finally concludes
that " the law in this country has, in
the progress of its hundrec^ years of
life, become (1) more simple, (2) more
Jmmane, and (3) more adaptive ; " and
he thinks that "the pathway it has pur-
sued is one upon which we can turn
our eyes Avith feelings of no little pride."
Prof. D. 0. Gilman sketches the
history of American education, regard-
ing it " in the three stages which are
commonly known as 'primary,' 'sec-
ondary,' and 'superior' instruction."
A large amount of historical informa-
tion is digested, relating to the rise and
progress of the primary-school system,
the course of legislation upon the sub-
ject, the controversies it has involved,
and the diflRculties that have arisen by
the extension of it to the freedmen
of the South. The weakest portion of

the American system is stated to be
that of "secondary" instruction, which
is intermediate between the elementary
and collegiate schools. The maxim
that "our public schools must be
cheap enough for the poorest; good
enough for the best," indicates an ob-
stacle that has long stood in the way of
the organization of higher schools; but
within the last twenty years, especially
within the cities and large towns, many
of these have arisen, and in the "West
have become the favorite means of se-
curing higher instruction. As regards
the " superior " education, it is stated
that, at the commencement of the Revo-
lution, there were nine colleges in eight
of the thirteen colonies. ' These estab-
lishments have multiplied, until " in
1875 the Commissioner of Education
reported the names of 374 institutions,
mostly called universities and colleges,
which are legally entitled to confer
academic degrees, besides independent
schools of law, medicine, and theology,
of which there are 106, and colleges
for women, of which there are 65 ; so
that there are known and recorded 545
degree - giving institutions within the
United States.

The general scope of our " superior "
education is tlius indicated :

" The typical American college has been
a place where a prescribed course of study,
largely devoted to Greek, Latin, and mathe-
matics, with a brief introduction to histori-
cal, political, and ethical sciences, has con-
tinued during four years and led to a bache-
lor's degree."

Various questions regarding our col-
legiate system are ably discussed by
Prof. Gilman, but he hardly touches the
important topic of scientific education.
Perhaps this was from lack of space,
but, as he is engaged in the organiza-
tion of a university to be devoted to the
higher studies, this subject must have
engaged his very serious consideration,
and we hope he will favor the public
with his views upon it at some suitable
time.

^34

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

LITERARY NOTICES.

The Emotions and the AVill. By Alex-
ander Bain, LL. D., Professor of Logic
ia the University of Abeideen. Pp.
604. Price, $5. Kew Yorlc : D. Apple-
ton & Co.

The author of this work stands among
the very foremost in the school of modern
scientific psychology, which has its chief
development in Great Britain. His two
principal works, " The Senses and Intel-
lect " and " The Emotions and the Will,"
are widely known as giving the only com-
plete and systematic account of mental phe-
nomena from a modern point of view. As
we know iiothing of mind, except as an
organic manifestation — as physically em-
bodied and working- its effects through a
complex and wonderful vital machinery —
no exposition of it can be regarded as scien-
tific or complete that leaves the material
side of the phenomena out of account. We
have often insisted upon this, and must
continue to do so ; for the importance of
the truth is only equaled by the inveteracy
with which the futile and exhausted meta-
physical method is still clung to in the
general study of mind. There is hardly a
chapter of either of Dr. Bain's books that
is not a virtual demonstration of the ne-
cessity of including the physical accom-
paniments of mind in any treatment of
it that claims to be scientific in method,
and valuable in application. The general
adoption of these works as college and
high-school text-books would give a new
and valuable element to our higher culture.
Mental philosophy would then become
what it ought to be, a study of human
character, and such an analysis and under-
standing of the constitution of man as
would give us a better interpretation than
hitherto of his relations to surrounding Na-
ture.

The third edition of " The Emotions
and the Will " has been thoroughly revised
at every point. Although it may seem a
hopeless task to introduce quantitative in-
quiries involving much precision into psy-
chology, yet, as Dr. Bain remarks, it is
essential to the scientific handling of the
subject, and he has accordingly given much
attention to the problem of degrees of in-

tensity and force in regard to the feelings,
and to the extension and improvement of
the means adopted in this branch of psychi-
cal investigation.

But perhans the most significant feature
of the new edition of this work is its recon-
struction with reference to the doctrine of
evolution. As the eminent comparative anat-
omist of Germany, Gegenbauer, reorganized
his great biological work so as to bring it
into harmony with evolutionary views, and
as Sir Charles Lyell recast his " Principles
of Geology " so as to base it upon the doc-
trine of development and descent. Dr. Bain
has now done the same thing with his elab-
orate treatise upon the Uiind. Herbert
Spencer had indeed grounded psychology
upon evolution in a remarkable work pub-
lished twenty years ago ; but it was far in
advance of the thought of the time, and
even progressive psychologists have but
slowly come up to his position. Prof. Baia
fully recognizes the eminence and authority
of Mr. Spencer in this field of psychologi-
cal investigation.

The Teacher's Handbook for the Insti-
tute AND THE Class-Room. By William
F. Phelps, M. A., Principal of the State
Normal School, Winona, Minnesota.
Pp. 333. Price, $1.50. New York : A.
S. Barnes & Co.

This little work by an experienced edu-
cator, who is also an enthusiast in his pro-
fession, may be regarded as the outcome
of the mos^ advanced and perfected meth-
ods of instruction in the American school
system. It is a text-book for teachers in
acquiring the art of their vocation, and aims
to familiarize them both with the theoreti-
cal principles and the practical processes
by which general education should be con-
ducted in schools, under the control of the
state. Prof. Phelps is an ardent advocate
of state education, and urges it on the usu-
al ground of political necessity in a popu-
lar government. And whatever question
there may be as to the right or wrong, or
the good and bad of this policy, we have
entered upon it, and are committed to it,
and nothing remains but to meet the re-
sponsibilities and discharge the duties that
grow out of it. Such a system inevitably
results in comprehensive organization.
With system in study there comes grada-

LITERARY NOTICES.

6^?

tion in schools, and with improvement in
methods and results there comes a demand
for the special cultivation of teachers, by
means of institutes and normal schools.

This complex machinery of education
must be thoroughly understood by every
efficient teacher in its principles and practi-
cal working, and Prof. Phelps's book has
been prepared to facilitate this special pro-
fessional culture. It is written with the
warmth of a man who is in earnest, and
with the clearness of one who understands
his subject. Unsettled questions and diffi-
culties in education are recognized, with ju-
dicious suggestions, as in the following pas-

"The question as to what shall be taught in
our common schf^ols is yet to receive a definite
solution. Next in importance to right methods
of teaching ranks the subject-matter of teach-
ing. 'What knowledge is of most worth? What
branches are the most useful, first for disci-
pline, and second for use or particular applica-
tion ? ' Upon this subject we have no settled
policy. As a consequence, many things inferior
usurp the place of those of superior worth. The
dry details of so-called geography, the abstract
definitions, rules, and formulas of grammar,
the comparatively valueless signs and symbols
of algebraic notation, consume a vast amount
of the time that should be devoted to the study
of the earth, its climate and productions in their
relations to man, and the course of human his-
tory; of the English language, as a means of
communication, and of the living sciences which
lie at the basis of all the arts and industries of
life. But it is futile to attempt a revolution in
subject-matters while teachers, their attain-
ments, and methods of work, are so inadequate
to the public needs. It is idle to talk of the ne-
cessity of the elements of physics and chemis-
try, botany and physiology, natural history and
agriculture, so long as we have neither the
knowledge nor the skill requisite to their proper
treatment. Of what value would these sciences
be to the people When mechanically memorized
from the printed page, as are most of the sub-
jects now in our common-school curriculum ?
To be of use, either for discipline or applica-
tion, they must be properly taught by observa-
tion, experiment, aud demonstration. In short,
their objects must be seen, handled, analyzed,
compared, and classified. These practical sci-
ences must be investigated by methods and pro-
cesses analogous to those by which they have
been themselves developed, and thus far per-
fected. Can our children be expected to grope
their way to these natural processes in spite of
their teachers ? or, must the latter first be made
capable of leading the way, inspiring the young
by the fullness of their learning, and the skill of
their methods ? Until our children and youth
learn the right use of their own powers, it is iu

vain to expect that they can master the powers
of Nature, or accomplish any other important
result."

The Uranian and Neptunian Systems, in-
vestigated WITH the 26-inch Equato-
rial OF the United States Natal
Observatory. By Simon Newcomb,
LL. D., Professor United States Navy.
Washington Observations for 1873. Ap-
pendix I. Government Piinting-Office,
1875, pp. 72, 4to.

This pamphlet, separately printed, con-
tains the first published discussion of work
done by the 26-inch Clark refractor of the
Naval Observatory. What this work was,
and how great necessity existed for its pros-
ecution, may be gathered from the first two
paragraphs of the memoir :

" The remoteness of the two outer planets
of our system renders the accurate investiga-
tion of their satellites a task of great difficulty.
This is strongly evinced by the great discord-
ances between the conclusions respecting the
masses of those planets which have been reached
by various observers. Thus, in the case of
Uranus, Von Asten, the latest investigator, cites
a number of determinations of the mass from
recent observations, which range between tj'^j.
and lyjTs [of the sun's mass], so that the largest
result is nearly half as large again as the small-
est. Even difi'erent results, obtained by the
same observer nnder slightly different circum-
stances, were surprisingly discordant. The best
determination was that of Struve ; but even
here there was a difl"erence of four per cent, be-
tween the results from the two [brighter] sat-
ellites. In the case of Neptune, discordances
of the same kind showed themselves ; Struve's
mass being greater than that of Bond by one-
third.

" For these and other reasons, when the 26-
inch equatorial, with an object-glass nearly per-
fect in figure, was mounted at the Naval Obser-
vatory, the observation of the satellites of the
outer planets, with a view of determining not
only the elements of their orbits, but more es-
pecially the masses of the planets, was made
the first great work of the instrument. Enter-
taining the opinion that, in the present state of
astronomy, it was better to do one thing well
than many things inditferently, the minor ar-
rangements of the instrument were all made sub-
servient to the end in view, and no other serious
work of a dissimilar character was attempted
during the continuance of the observations."

It is well known that the two brighter
satellites of Uranus, viz., Oberon and Ti-
tania, are quite faint objects even in the
large 15-inch telescopes of Harvard College
and of Pulkova, but the two interior satel-
lites, Ariel and Umbriel, are incompara-

636

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

bly the faintest and most difficult objects to
observe in the solar system. Indeed, it
is not wholly certain that they have ever
been seen save in the telescopes of Mr,
Lassell (their discoverer), Lord Rosse, and
by the Washington refractor, although
there are several telescopes now mounted
both in Europe and in America which are
adequate for their observation.

The satellite of Neptune, too, is a very
diflBcult object, and hence it is extremely
gratifying to find so many measures of
these satellites as Prof. Newcomb has ob-
tained. The telescope was mounted in
November, 18Y3. From that time to April,
1875, there were made :

31 observations of Oberon.
84 " " Titania.

10 " " Umbriel.

8 " " Ariel.

54 " " Jfepiune^s satellite.

It must be remembered that Neptune
was only observed from July to February,
and Uranus from January to May.

From a consideration of all the meas-
ures of Uranus's satellites, the author as-
signs as the mass of that planet i^guij of
the mass of the sun, and he estimates the
probable error of the denominator of this
fraction at 100, so that we may say that
this mass is not less than -2-2-7-oxri ^"d i^ot
more than •saiorr ; that is, the mass is de-
termined within less than -j^o part of
its value. To understand the nicety of
such measurements as have been made, it
must be remembered that any error in the
measures of the distance of the satellite
from the planet is shown in the resulting
mass of the planet in an amount not pro-
portional to this error directly, but to the
third power of the error.

The times of revolution of the satellites
have been determined with high accuracy
by a comparison of Newcomb's observa-
tions with those of the elder Ilerschel —
the uncertainty in the period of Titania =.
8 "'=''■. 'ZOSSOY, being not more than one sec-
ond of time, or to^sooo ^f the whole amount.

From the relative brightness of the sat-
ellites of Uranus, Prof. Newcomb concludes
that they have masses not more than soooo
of that of Uranus itself, i. e., vastly less
than the mass of our own moon.

It is an interesting fact too that the au-

thor suspects that the nearest of the satel-
lites of Uranus {Ariel) " belongs to that
class of satellites of which the brilliancy is
variable, and depends on its position in the
orbit." With regard to the interesting
question as to the number of satellites of
Uranus, Prof. Newcomb's testimony is as
follows :

" No systematic search for new satellites of
this planet was entered upon, partly because
the season in which Uianns is in opposition is
now an unfavorable one for prosecuting such a
search, and partly because the attempt would
have absorbed so much of the observer's time
and energies as to detract from the excellence
of the micrometer-observations. When faint
objects, which might have been new satellites,
were seen around the planet, their positions
relative to the latter were noted ; but in no in-
stance was any such object found to accompany
the planet. I think I may say, with consider-
able certainty, that there is no satellite within
2' of the planet, and outside of Oberon, having
one-third the brilliancy of the latter, and there-
fore that none of Sir William Herscbel's sup-
posed outer satellites can have any real exist-
ence. The distances of the four known satellites
increase in so regular a way that it cau hardly
be supposed that any others exist between
them. Of what may be inside of Ariel, it is
impossible to speak with certainty, since, in the
state of atmosphere which prevails during our
winter, all the satellites would disappear at 10'
distance from the planet.'

The second section of the memoir deals
with the Neptunian system. Three princi-
pal determinations of the mass of Neptune
have been made :

Bond's, which gives the mass tdiso-
Struve's, " " " " „i„.
Lassell's, " " " " T^rss-

From the work of the Washington tel-
escope the mass results tbsso, which agrees
most remarkably with Bond's previous de-
termination.

No evidence for an elliptic form to the
orbits of any of these satellites has been
made out : " We are thus led to the remark-
able conclusion that the orbits of all the
satellites of the two outer planets are less
eccentric than those of the planets of our
system, and that, so far as observations
have yet shown, they may be perfect circles.
No trace of a second satellite of Neptune
has ever been seen, though several times
carefully looked for, under the finest atmos-
pheric conditions, during July, IS*?*."

We have thus far spoken mainly of the

LITERARY NOTICES,

6.37

most interesting results reached in Prof.
Newcomb's memoir. It contains besides
these a very complete development of the
analytical methods required for the discus-
sion of observations of this class, and prac-
tical hints as to the manner of making and
treating such observations, which are of
great importance. It is a gratifying thing
to be able so soon to announce important
results attained by means of the new tele-
scope at Washington, and to see that so
great a scientific trust as this has been
administered by competent and faithful
hands.

The Scientific Monthly. Pp. 55. Tole-
do, 0. : E. H. Fitch, Editor and Pro-
prietor.

The second number of this magazine
has a diversified table of contents. The
first article (illustrated) is on " The Swal-
low-tailed Kite." There are two articles
by Prof. Charles Whittlesey; the one on
" Kock Inscriptions " in Lorain Co., Ohio,
and the other a comparison of the Indian
and the Mound-Builder. The titles of the
other leading articles are : " Climate and
Disease," "The Brain," "The Arcbippus
Butterfly," and "Some Atmospheric Phe-
nomena." Price, §3.00 per year.

The Journal of Mental and Nervous
Disease. Chicago : 57 Washington
Street. Pp. 175. Subscription, $5 per
annum.

This quarterly commences with the Jan-
uary number a new series. Its editors are
J. S. Jewell, M.D., and H. M. Bannister,
M. D., with Drs. W. A. Hammond, S. Weir
Mitchell, and E. H. Clarke, as associate edi-
tors. This first number of the new series
contains Dr. Hammond's address on "The
Brain not the Sole Organ of the Mind;" a
paper by Dr. R. W. Taylor on " Syphilis of
the Nervous System ;" "Pathology of Te-
tanus," by Dr. Bannister; " Pathology of
the Sympathetic Nervous System," by Dr.
Clark; "Treatment of Inebriates," by Dr.
N. S. Davis ; and " Cerebral Anaemia," by
Dr. T. L. Teed.

Science Byways. By Richard A. Proc-
tor. Pp. 438. Philadelphia : Lippiu-
cott. Price, $4.00.

Under this title Mr. Proctor brings to-
gether sixteen essays, originally published

in various magazines, on a wide range of
topics. Two of these essays have appeared
in the Monthly, namely, " Finding the Way
at Sea," and " Money for Science." The
latter subject the author purposes to discuss
at greater lengfh in a pamphlet soon to be
published. As a popular expositor of sci-
ence Mr. Proctor stands high, and this
volume will be heartily welcomed by the
important pubhc to whom the author ad-
dresses himself. Among the other subjects
treated in the present volume, we may name
the following: "Life in Other Worlds,"
"Comets," "The Sun a Bubble," "The
Weather and the Sun," " Rain," "Have we
Two Brains ? " " Automatic Chess and Card
Playing."

The American Nahiraiist begins the
year 1876 with unproved form and increased
volume ; each number now contains 64
pages. The magazine will be less technical
than heretofore, and will have some addi-
tional departments, devoted to geography
and travel, proceedings of scientific socie-
ties, etc. The first number issued since the
" new departure " opens with a paper by
Prof. A. Gray, entitled " Burs in the Borage
Family." There is also a paper by Kev.
Samuel Lockwood, in his usual lively style,
on Anolk principalis, the American analogue
of the chameleon of the Old World. There
are five other leading articles in this first
number. The Naturalist is now published
by Hurd & Houghton, Boston. Subscription
price, §4 per annum.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Native Races of the Pacific States. By
H. H. Bancroft. Vol. V. New York : D.
Appleton & Co. Price, $5.50. Pp. 796.

Angola and the River Congo. By J. J.
Monteiro. Pp. 366. New York : Macmil-
lan. Price, $2.50.

The Christ of Paul. By George Reber.
Pp. 397. New York : Somerby. Price,
$2.00.

Magnetism and Electricity. By F. Guth-
rie. Pp. 364. New York : Putnams. Price,
$1.50.

Public Instruction in Minnesota. Pp.
285. St. Paul : Pioneer Press print.

638

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The American State. By W. G. Dix.
Pp. 187. Boston : Estes & Lauriat. Price,
$1.50.

Life Histories of Animals. By A. S.
Packard, Jr. Pp. 243. i^ew York: H.
Holt & Co. Price, $2.50.

How to build Ships. By a Seaman. Pp.
62. New York: Van Nostrand. Price,
75 cents.

Hayden's Geological Survey of the Ter-
ritories. Vol. II. Pp. 304, with numerous
Plates. Washington : Government Printing-
office.

Water and Water-Supply. By W. H.
Corfield. Pp. 145. New York: Van Nos-
trand. Price, 50 cents.

Principles of Coal-Mining. By J. H.
Collins. Pp. 150. New York: Putnams.
Price, 75 cents.

Wages and Wants of Science-Workers.
By R. A. Proctor. Pp. 118. London:
Smith, Elder & Co.

Imports and Exports of the United
States. Washington : Government Printing-
office.

Supposed Miracles. By Rev. J. M.
Buckley. Pp. 54. New York: Hurd &
Houghton. Price, 50 cents.

Circulars of the Education Bureau.
Washington : Government Printing-Office.

How to construct a Dairy-Room. By
J. Wilkinson. Pp. 26. Baltimore : J.
Wilkinson. Price, 25 cents.

The Yucca-Borer. By C. V. Riley. Pp.
23. St. Louis : R. P. Studley.

Bulletin of the National Museum. Also
Bulletin of the Geological and Geographical
Survey of the Territories. Washington:
Government Printing-Office.

Proceedings of the Cincinnati Society
of Natural History. Pp.12.

Through and Through the Tropics. By
Frank Vincent, Jr. Pp. 304. New York :
Harper & Brothers.

Early Literature of Chemistry. By H.
C. Bolton. Vol. L Pp. lO. Philadelphia :
Collins, printer.

First Annual Report of the Johns Hop-

kins University. Pp. 34. Baltimore : Boyle
& Son, printers.

American Lsporidas. By J. A. Allen.
Pp. 8.

Pharmacy in Germany. By F. Hoff-
mann. Pp. 12. Philadelphia : Merrihew
& Son, printers.

MISCELLANY.

ExUibitioa of Scientific Apparatns. —

There will be opened next April, at the
South Kensington Crystal Palace, London,
a universal exposition of scientific instru-
ments. This exposition will continue for
six months. Its object is to bring together
as large a number as possible of scientific
instruments possessing an historic interest,
for instance, Tycho Brahe's astrolabes, Gali-
leo's telescopes, Lavoisier's balances, Frank-
lin's lightning-rods, the remnants of Charles's
balloons, Giffard's injector, Leon Foucault's
pendulum and gyroscope, etc. All the cost
of transportation will be borne by the De-
partment of Arts and Sciences. The home
committee consists of one hundred scientific
men, with the lord-chancellor. It is stated
in the Moniteur Induslrlel Beige that an in-
vitation has been sent to every civilized na-
tion to take a part in the exhibition.

Fossil Conifcrfe.— Prof. J. Vv^ Dawson,

in the American Journal of Science for Oc-
tober, invites correspondence from geolo-
gists who have examined the remains of
coniferous trees in the carboniferous rocks
of the United States. Hitherto, he says,
little attention seems to have beftn given
in this country to these remains of ancient
vegetation. In Nova Scotia, several species
are known, and are to some extent charac.
teristic of definite horizons. In the car-
boniferous sandstones of the United States
such remains seem to be frequent, but Dr.
Dawson has seen no detailed account of
them. The subject, he adds, is deserving
of the attention of microscopists in the coal
districts, as there can be little doubt that
several interesting species remain to be dis-
covered; for instance, the curious dicty-
oxylon of Williamson, found also in Nova
Scotia, would probably reward patient slic-
ing of trunks showing structure. The De-

MISCELLANY

639

vonian has treasures of the same kind. In
the United States it has already afforded
Dadoxylon Halli from New York, and D.
Newberryi from Ohio, besides the curious
Ormoxylon £rianum. No doubt other spe-
cies remain to be discovered, especially in
the Upper and Middle Devonian.

Habits of Ileroi it-Crabs. — In the Anier-
ican Journal of Science for October, Mr. A.
Agassiz records some observations on the
hermit-crab. He raised a number of these
animals from a very early stage in their life
till they reached the condition in which
they require the protection of a shell. A
number of shells, some empty, others occu-
pied by living moUusks, were now placed in
the glass dish with the young crabs. The
empty shells were at once taken possession
of. The crabs which were not so fortu-
nate as to obtain untenanted shells remained
riding about upon the mouth of their future
dwelling, and on the death of the tenant,
which generally occurred soon after in cap-
tivity, commenced at once to tear out the
animal, and, having eaten him, proceeded
to take his place within the shell. The
question arises, How did the crab acquire
the faculty of performing this act ? Not by
imitation, in this instance at least. Possi-
bly by inheritance ; Mr. Agassiz, however,
is inclined to regard the act as purely me-
chanical— rendered necessary by the con-
ditions of the young hermit-crab. " When
the moult has taken place, which brings
them to the stage at which they need a
shell, we find important changes in the two
hind-pairs of feet, now changed to shorter
feet capable of propelling the crab in and
out of the shell ; we find, also, that all the
abdominal appendages except those of the
last joint are lost, but the great distinction
between this stage and the one preceding it
is the curling of the abdomen ; its rings are
now quite indistinct, and the test covering
it is reduced to a mere film, so that the
whole abdomen becomes of course very
sensitive. It is, therefore, natural that the
young crab should seek some shelter for
this exposed portion of his body, and, from
what I have observed, any cavity will an-
swer the purpose ; one of the young crabs
having established himself most comfort-
ably in the anterior part of the cast skin of

a small isopod, which seemed to satisty him
as well as a shell, there being several empty
shells at his disposal."

Position of Science in English Scliools. —

In their sixth report the British Commission
on Scientific Instruction relate their obser-
vations on the state of science-teaching in
public and endowed schools. The present
state of scientific instruction in the upper
schools is declared to be extremely unsatis-
factory. The returns furnished by the pub-
lic schools show that, even where science
is taught, from one to two hours' work per
week may be regarded, with very few ex-
ceptions, as the usual time allotted to it in
such classes as receive scientific instruc-
tion at all. Moreover, the instruction in
science is generally confined to certain
classes in the school. Of the 128 minor en-
dowed schools from which returns were re-
ceived, only 18 devote as much as four
hours per week to the teaching of science,
and only 13 have a laboratory of any kind.
The commissioners hold that science is a
complementary and not an exceptional part
of education ; that it should not be re-
garded merely as a by-work, whether to
satisfy the natural curiosity of most, or to
develop the peculiar tastes of a few ; and
that, if need be, Greek should yield place
to it in the universal curriculum.

Llebig's Inflnence on German Science.

— Dr. Thudichum recently delivered a lect-
ure before the London Society of Arts,
on " Liebig's Discoveries, and their Influ-
ence on the Advancement of Arts, Manu-
factures, and Commerce." Toward the end
of the lecture he indicates, as follows, one
of the indirect effects of Liebig's research-
es : " The Prussian and other German uni-
versities now teach students of science and
agriculture in great numbers, where thirty
years ago law and theology filled the audi-
tories. In that time the number of stu-
dents of Protestant theology has decreased
in Prussia from upward of 2,000 to less
than 800, and in Hesse-Darmstadt from 50
to 13. One-sixth of all parsonages are with-
out incumbents, because there is no one to
receive the appointments. Such is the be-
ginning of the great reformation which is
now being wrought in human affairs by sci-
ence."

640

THE POPULAR SCIEXGE MONTHLY.

NOTES.

The Smithsonian Institution is making
a collection to illustrate, at the Centennial
Exhibition, the resources of the United
States as derived from the animal kingdom.
This collection will embrace specimens of
the animals of the United States which are
hunted or collected for economical pur-
poses; the products derived from the va-
rious species ; also the apparatus or devices
employed by hunters, trappers, sportsmen,
and others.

The artesian well at the Collier White-
Lead Works, St. Louis, Missouri, has attained
a depth of over VOO feet, nearly all of which
depth has been through limestone. The
drift is but slightly above the encrinitic
limestone, and has passed through but little
of either sandstone or chert. The boring
commenced in the lower Archimedean lime-
stone.— Scientific American.

A PROFITABLE industry in the vicinity
of Cape May, New Jersey, is the mining of
ancient cedar-logs in the mire of the swamps.
In these swamps, says the Monmouth Dem-
ocrat, are buried enormous trees at a depth
of from three to ten feet. The logs lie one
across another, and there is abundant evi-
dence that they are the growth of succes-
sive forests. The mode of searching for the
logs is as follows : An iron rod is thrust
into the soft mud, over which, often, the
water lies. After several soundings the
workman is able to tell how the tree lies,
which is its root-end, and how thick it is.
He then contrives to get a chip from the
tree, and so determines at once whether it
is worth the labor of mining. A pit is now
dug, into which the water soon flows, filling
it up. The tree is then cut across with a
saw at regular intervals, each section float-
ing to the surface. A layer of such trees
is found covered by another layer and these
again by another, and even a third, while
living trees may still be growing over all.

A MARBLE scroll has been set up in
Westminster Abbey, bearing an inscription
in honor of Jeremiah Horrocks. Among
the labors of his short life the inscription
signalizes the following: Discovery of the
long inequality in the mean motion of Ju-
piter and Saturn ; demonstration of the el-
liptical form of the moon's orbit ; determi-
nation of the motion of the lunar apse ;
prediction, from his own observations, of
the transit of Venus in 1639.

Fifty years ago the great auk was found
in large numbers on the Funk Islands, ofi"
the coast of Newfoundland, but soon after
became extinct. The story of its extermi-
nation is briefly told as follows in the Amer-
ican Naturalist: The birds were hunted

for their feathers by the Newfoundland fish-
ertpen, who would row round them in small
boats and drive them ashore (the auks being
unable to fly) into pounds. The birds were
immersed in scalding water to remove the
feathers, and their bodies were used as fuel
for boiling the water. It is doubtful if the
species Alca impennis now exists anywhere
about the islands of Newfoundland or Lab-
rador.

In the year ending November 30, 1875,
the Royal Society of London lost 29 Fel-
lows by death. Uf these, fourteen were be-
tween 70 and 80 years of age, six between
80 and 90, and three between 90 and 95.
Of all the Fellows now living. Sir Edward
Sabine has been for the longest time a
member of the Society ; he was elected in
1818.

In a paper by John Willis Clarke, pub-
lished in the Contemporarii lieview, it is
stated that the Confederate cruisers Ala-
bama and Shenandoah, by interfering with
the American seal-fishery, preserved the
breed of the fur-seal in the Southern Ocean
from complete extinction.

At a recent meeting of the Buffalo So-
ciety of Natural Science, Profs. Grote and
Pitt announced the discovery of a marine
fucoid in the water-line group. The speci-
men is one of the best preserved of the
kind yet discovered. It shows no close
affinity to any known fucoidal remains.

Lieutenant Cameron reached Loanda in
November, having made the journey from
Zanzibar, including a two months' survey
of Lake Tanganyika, in two years and eight
mouths.

The California Academy of Sciences is
now absolute owner of the property given
to it by Mr. Lick. Its present income, in
the shape of rents, is about $4,000, and this
sum is destined to increase rapidly. Its
members number five hundred, including
seventy-five life members. The donations
to the museum during the year 1875 were
numerous and valuable. At the last annual
meeting the vice-president, Mr. Edwards,
suggested the adoption of some plan of
distributing the members in sections of Ge-
ology, Botany, Entomology, etc., each sec-
tion to assemble weekly and pass upon pa-
pers which, if approved, would be presented
at the fortnightly meetings of the Acad-
emy.

The remains of a mastodon have been
discovered at Lisle, Broome County, New
York. The portions so far found are a
piece of tusk 7 feet 3 inches long, and an-
other piece 2 feet long ; a humerus 38 inch-
es long ; one rib 49 inches long, and 21
shorter ribs ; the atlas, 10 by 17 inches,
and several of the caudal vertebra.

! V^ '^ ^ I %

"^^^^Mf

t

^

6 u/nrvr^^i-i' J'/ ar-J z^x^e^L .

^TAT &7.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

APRIL, 1876.

ON THE BOEDER TERRITOEY BETWEEN THE ANI-
MAL AND THE VEGETABLE KE^GDOMS.

By T. H. HUXLEY, LL. D., F. E. S.

IN the whole history of science there is nothing more remarkable
than the rapidity of the growth of biological knowledge within
the last half century, and the extent of the modification which has
thereby been effected in some of the fundamental conceptions of the
naturalist.

In the second edition of the "Regne Animal," published in 1828,
Cuvier devotes a special section to the " Division of Organized Beings
into Animals and Vegetables," in which the question is treated with
that comprehensiveness of knowledge and clear critical judgment
which characterize his writings, and justify us in regarding them as
representative expressions of the most extensive, if not the profound-
est, knowledge of his time. He tells us that living beings have been
subdivided from the earliest time into animated beings, which possess
sense and motion, and inanimated beings, which are devoid of these
functions, and simply vegetate.

Although the roots of plants direct themselves toward moisture,
and their leaves toward air and light ; although the parts of some
plants exhibit oscillating movements without any perceptible cause,
and the leaves of others retract when touched, yet none of these move-
ments justify the ascription to plants of perception or of will.

From the mobility of animals, Cuvier, with his characteristic par-
tiality for teleological reasoning, deduces the necessity of the exist-
ence in them of an alimentary cavity or reservoir of food, whence
their nutrition may be drawn by the vessels, which are a sort of in-
ternal roots ; and in the presence of this alimentary cavity he natu-
rally sees the primary and the most important distinction between
animals and plants.

VOL. Tin. — 41

642 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Following out his teleological argument, Cuvier remarks that the
organization of this cavity and its appurtenances must needs vary-
according to the nature of the aliment, and the operations which it
has to undergo, before it can be converted into substances fitted for
absorption ; while the atmosphere and the earth supply plants with
juices ready prepared, and which can be absorbed immediately.

As the animal body required to be indei^endent of heat and of the
atmosphere, there were no means by which the motion of its fluids
could be produced by internal causes. Hence arose the second great
distinctive character of animals, 01 the circulatory system, which is
less important than the digestive, since it was unnecessary, and there-
fore is absent, in the more simple animals.

Animals further needed muscles for locomotion and nerves for
sensibility. Hence, says Cuvier, it was necessary that the chemical
composition of the animal body should be more complicated than that
of the plant ; and it is so, inasmuch as an additional substance, nitro-
gen, enters into it as an essential element, while in plants nitrogen
is only accidentally joined with the three other fundamental constitu-
ents of organic beings — carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Indeed, he
afterward affirms that nitrogen is peculiar to animals ; and herein he
places the third distinction between the animal and the plant.

The soil and the atmosphere supply plants with water, composed
of hydrogen and oxygen ; air, consisting of nitrogen and oxygen ; and
carbonic acid, containing carbon and oxygen. They retain the hydro-
gen and the carbon, exhale the superfluous oxygen, and absorb little
or no nitrogen. Tlie essential character of vegetable life is the ex-
halation of oxygen, which is effected through the agency of light.

Animals, on the contrary, derive their nourishment either directly
or indirectly from plants. They get rid of the superfluous hydrogen
and carbon, and accumulate nitrogen.

The relations of plants and animals to the atmosphere are there-
fore inverse. The plant withdraws water and carbonic acid from the
atmosphere, the animal contributes both to it. Respiration — that is,
the absorption of oxygen, and the exhalation of carbonic acid — is the
specially animal function of animals, and constitutes their fourth dis-
tinctive character.

Thus wa-ote Cuvier in 1828. But, in the fourth and fifth decades
of this century, the greatest and most rapid revolution which biologi-
cal science has ever undergone was effected by the application of the
modern microscope to the investigation of organic structure; by the
introduction of exact and easily manageable methods of conducting
the chemical analysis of organic compounds ; and, finally, by the em-
ployment of instruments of precision for the measurement of the physi-
cal forces which are at work in the living economy.

That the semi-fluid contents (which we now term protoplasm) of
the cells of certain plants, such as the Charoe^ are in constant and

THE GROUND BETWEEN ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 643

regular motion, was made out by Bonaventura Corti a century ago;
but the fact, important as it was, fell into oblivion, and had to be re-
discovered by Treviranus in 1807. Robert Brown noted the most
complex motions of the protoplasm in the cells of Tradescantia in
1831 ; and now such movements of the living substance of plants are
well known to be some of the most widely-prevalent phenomena of
vegetable life.

Agardh, and other of the botanists of Cuvier's generation, who
occupied themselves with the lower plants, had observed that, under
particular circumstances, the contents of the cells of certain water-
weeds were set free and moved about with considerable velocity, and
with all the appearances of spontaneity, as locomotive bodies, which,
from their similarity to animals of simple organization, were called
" zoospores."

Even as late at 1845, however, a botanist of Schleiden's eminence
deals very skeptically with these statements ; and his skepticism was
the more justified since Ehrenberg, in his elaborate and comprehen-
sive work on the Infusoria^ had declared the greater number of what
are now recognized as locomotive plants to be animals.

At the present day, innumerable plants and free plant-cells are
known to pass the whole or part of their lives in an actively locomo-
tive condition, in no wise distinguishable from that of one of the sim-
pler animals ; and, while in this condition, their movements are, to all
appearance, as spontaneous — as much the product of volition — as
those of such animals.

Hence the teleoloirical arojument for Cuvier's first diagnostic char-
acter — the presence in animals of an alimentary cavity, or internal
pocket, in which they can carry about their nutriment, has broken
down — so far, at least, as his mode of stating it goes. And, with the
advance of microscopic anatomy, the universality of the fact itself
among animals has ceased to be predicable. Many animals of even
complex structure, which live parasitically within others, are wholly
devoid of an alimentary cavity. Their food is provided for them, not
only ready cooked, but ready digested, and the alimentary canal, be-
come superfluous, has disappeared. Again, the males of most rotifers
have no digestive apparatus ; as a German naturalist has remarked,
they devote themselves entirely to the " Minnedienst," and are to be
reckoned among the few realizations of the Byronic ideal of a lover.
Finally, amid the lowest forms of animal life, tlie speck of gelatinous
protoplasm, which constitutes the whole body, has no permanent di-
gestive cavity or mouth, but takes in its food anywhere ; and digests,
so to speak, all over its body.

But, although Cuvier's leading diagnosis of the animal from the
plant will not stand a strict test, it remains one of the most constant
of the distinctive characters of animals. And, if we substitute for the
possession of an alimentary cavity the power of taking solid nutri-

644 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ment into the body and there digesting it, tlie definition so changed
will cover all animals, excejDt certain parasites, and the few and ex-
ceptional cases of non-parasitic animals which do not feed at all. On
the other hand, the definition thus amended will exclude all ordinary
vegetable organisms.

Cuvier himself practically gives up his second distinctive mark
when he admits that it is wanting in the simpler animals.

The third distinction is based on a completely erroneous concep-
tion of the chemical difi'erences and resemblances between the con-
stituents of animal and vegetable organisms, for which Cuvier is not
responsible, as it was current among contemporary chemists.

It is now established that nitrogen is as essential a constituent of
vegetable as of animal living matter; and that the latter is, chemi-
cally speaking, just as complicated as the former. Starchy substances,
cellulose and sugar, once supposed to be exclusively confined to plants,
are now known to be regular and normal products of animals. Amy-
laceous and saccharine substances are largely manufactured, even by
the highest animals ; cellulose is widespread as a constituent of the
skeletons of the lower animals ; and it is probable that amyloid sub-
stances are universally present in the animal organism, though not in
the precise form of starch.

Moreover, although it remains true that there is an inverse re-
lation between the green plant in sunshine and the animal, in so far
as, under these circumstances, the green plant decomposes carbonic
acid, and exhales oxygen, while the animal absorbs oxygen and ex-
hales carbonic acid; yet the exact investigations of the modern chemi-
cal investigator of the physiological processes of plants have clearly
demonstrated the fallacy of attempting to draw any general distinc-
tion between animal and vegetable on this ground. In fact, the difler-
ence vanishes with the sunshine, even in the case of the green plant;
which, in the dark, absorbs oxygen and gives out carbonic acid like
any animal. While those plants, such as the fungi, which contain no
chlorophyl and are not green, are always, so far as respiration is con-
cerned, in the exact position of animals. They absorb oxygen and give
out carbonic acid.

Thus, by the progress of knowledge, Cuvier's fourth distinction
between the animal and the plant has been as completely invalidated
as the third and second; and even the first can be retained only in a
modified form and subject to exceptions.

But has the advance of biology simply tended to break down old
distinctions, without establishing new ones ?

With a qualification, to be considered presently, the answer to this
question is undoubtedly in the affirmative. The famous researches of
Schwann and Schleiden, in 1837 and the following years, founded the
modern science of histology, or that branch of anatomy which deals
with the ultimate visible structure of organisms, as revealed by the

THE GROUND BETWEEN ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 645

microscope ; and, fx'oni that day to this, the rapid improvement of
methods of investigation and the energy of a host of accurate observ-
ers have given greater and greater breadth and firmness to Schwann's
great generalization, that a fundamental unity of structure obtains in
animals and plants ; and that, however diverse may be the fabrics, or
tissues, of which their bodies are composed, all these varied structures
result from the metamorphoses of morphological units (termed cells^
in a more general sense than, that in which the word " cells " was at
first employed), which are not only similar in animals and in plants
respectively, but present a close fundamental resemblance when those
of animals and those of plants are compared together.

The contractility which is the fundamental condition of locomotion
has not only been discovered to exist far more widely among plants
than was formerly imagined, but, in plants, the act of contraction has
been found to be accompanied, as Dr. Burdon Sanderson's interesting
investigations have shown, by a disturbance of the electrical state of
the contractile substance comparable to that which was found by Du
Bois-Reyniond to be a concomitant of the activity of ordinary muscle
in animals.

Again, I know of no tests by which the reaction of the leaves of the
sundew and of other plants to stimuli, so fully and carefully studied
by Mr. Darwin, can be distinguished from those acts of contraction
following upon stimuli, which are called " reflex " in animals.

On each lobe of the bilobed leaf of Venus's fly-trap {Dionoea mus-
cipula) are three delicate filaments which stand out at right ano-les
from the surface of the leaf. Touch one of them with the end of a
fine human hair, and the lobes of the leaf instantly close together ' in
virtue of an act of contraction of part of their substance, just as the
body of a snail contracts into its shell when one of its " horns " is
irritated.

The reflex action of the snail is the result of the presence of a ner-
vous system in that animal. A molecular change takes place in the
nerve of the tentacle, is propagated to the muscles by which the body
is retracted, and, causing them to contract, the act of retraction is
brought about. Of course the similarity of the acts does not neces-
sarily involve the conclusion that the mechanism by which they are
effected is the same; but it suggests a suspicion orf" their identity
which needs careful testing.

The results of recent inquiries into the structure of the nervous
system of animals converge toward the conclusion that the nerve-
fibres, wliich we have hitherto regarded as ultimate elements of ner-
vous tissue, are not such, but are simply the visible aggregations of
vastly more attenuated filaments, the diameter of which dwindles
down to the limits of our present microscopic vision, greatly as these
have been extended by modern improvements of the microscope ; and
' DarwiQ, " Insectivorous Plants," p. 289.

646 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that a nerve is, in its essence, nothing hut a linear tract of specially
modified protoplasm between two points of an organism — one of
which is able to afiect the other by means of the communication so
established. Hence it is conceivable that even the simplest living
being may possess a nervous system. And the question whether
plants are provided with a nervous system or not thus acquires a new
aspect, and presents the histologist and physiologist with a problem
of extreme difficulty, which must be attacked from a new point of
view and by the aid of methods which have yet to be invented.

Thus it must be admitted that plants may be contractile and loco-
motive ; that, while locomotive, their movements may have as much
appearance of spontaneity as those of the lowest animals; and that
many exhibit actions comparable to those which are brought about
by the agency of a nervous system in animals. And it miist be
allowed to be possible that further research may reveal the existence
of something comparable to a nervous system in plants. So that I
know not where we can hope to find any absolute distinction between
animals and plants, unless we return to their mode of nutrition, and
inquire whether certain differences of a more occult character than
those imagined to exist by Cuvier, and which certainly hold good for
the vast majority of animals and j^lants, are of universal application,

A bean may be supplied with water in which salts of ammonia
and certain other mineral salts are dissolved in due projDortion ; with
atmospheric air containing its ordinary minute dose of carbonic acid ;
and with nothing else but sunlight and heat. Under these circum-
stances, unnatural as they are, with proper management, the bean will
thrust forth its radicle and its plumule; the former will grow down
into roots, the latter grow up into the stem and leaves of a vigorous
bean-plant ; and this plant will, in due time, flower and produce its
crops of beans, just as if it were grown in the garden or in the field.

The weight of the nitrogenous proteine compounds of the oily,
starchy, saccharine, and woody substances contained in the full-grown
plant and its seeds will be vastly greater than the weight of the
same substances contained in the bean from which it sprang. But
nothing has been supplied to the bean save water, carbonic acid, am-
monia, potash, lime, iron, and the like, in combination with phosphoric,
sulphuric, and other acids. Neither proteine, nor fat, nor starch, nor
sugar, nor any substance in the slightest degree resembling them,
has formed part of the food of the bean. But the weights of the car-
bon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, and other ele-
mentary bodies contained in the bean-plant, and in the seeds which it
produces, are exactly equivalent to the weights of the same elements
w^hich have disappeared from the materials supplied to the bean dur-
ing its growth. Whence it follows that the bean has taken in only
the raw materials of its fabric and has manufactured them into bean-
stuffs.

TEE GROUND BETWEEN ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 6^7

The bean has been able to perform this great chemical feat by the
help of its green coloring matter, or chlorophj^l, which, \nider the
influence of sunlight, has the marvelous power of decomposing car-
bonic acid, setting free the oxygen, and laying hold of the carbon which
it contains. In fact, the bean obtains two of the absolutely indis-
pensable elements of its substance from two distinct sources ; the
watery solution, in which its roots are plunged, contains nitrogen but
no carbon ; the air, to which the leaves are exposed, contains carbon,
but its nitrogen is in the state of a free gas, in which condition the
bean can make no use of it ; * and the chlorophyl is the apparatus by
which the carbon is extracted from the atmospheric carbonic acid —
the leaves being the chief laboratories in which this operation is ef-
fected.

The great majority of conspicuous plants are, as everybody knows,
green ; and this arises from the abundance of their chlorophyl. The
few which contain no chlorophyl and are colorless are unable to ex-
tract the carbon which they require from atmospheric carbonic acid, and
lead a parasitic existence upon other plants ; but it by no means fol-
lows, often as the statement has been repeated, that the manufactur-
ing power of plants depends on their chlorophyl and its interaction
with the rays of the sun. On the contrary, it is easily demonstrated,
as Pasteur first proved, that the lowest fungi, devoid of chlorophyl,
or of any substitute for it, as they are, nevertheless possess the char-
acteristic manufacturing powers of plants in a very high degree.
Only it is necessary that they should be supplied with a different
kind of raw material ; as they cannot extract carbon from carbonic
acid, they must be furnished with something else that contains carbon.
Tartaric acid is such a substance ; and if a single spore of the com-
monest and most troublesome of moulds — Penicilliu'm — be sown in a
saucer full of water, in which tartrate of ammonia, with a small per-
centage of phosphates and sulphates is contained, and kept warm,
whether in the dark or exposed to light, it will in a short time give
rise to a thick crust of mould, which contains many million times the
weight of the original spore in proteine compounds and cellulose.
Thus we have a very wide basis of fact for the generalization that
plants are essentially characterized by their manufacturing capacity,
by their power of working up mere mineral matters into complex or-
ganic compounds.

Contrariwise, there is no less wide foundation for the generaliza-
tion that animals, as Cuvier puts it, depend directly or indirectly upon
plants for the materials of their bodies ; that is, either they are her-
bivorous, or they eat other animals which are herbivorous.

But for what constituents of their bodies are animals thus de-
pendent upon plants? Certainly not for their horny matter; nor for

' I purposely assume that the air with which the bean is supplied iu the case stated
contains no ammoniacal salts.

648 THE POPULAR SCIEITCE MONTHLY.

chondrine, the proximate chemical element of cartilage ; nor for gela-
tine, nor for syntonine, the constituent of muscle ; nor for their nervous
or biliary substances ; nor for their amyloid matters, nor, necessarily,
for their fats.

It can be esperimentally demonstrated that animals can make
these for themselves. But that which they cannot make, but must in
all known cases obtain directly or indirectly from plants, is the pecul-
iar nitrogenous matter proteine. Thus the plant is the ideal prolkr
taire of the living world, the worker who produces ; the animal, the
ideal aristocrat, who mostly occupies himself in consuming, after the
manner .of that noble representative of the line of Ziihdarm, whose
epitaph is written in " Sartor Resartus."

Here is our last hope of finding a sharp line of demarkation between
plants and animals ; for, as I have already hinted, there is a border-
territory between the tAVO kingdoms, a sort of no-man's land, the in-
habitants of which certainly cannot be discriminated and brought to
their proper allegiance in any other way.

Some months ago. Prof Tyndall asked me to examine a drop of
infusion of hay, j^laced under an excellent and powerful microscope,
and to tell him what I thought some organisms visible in it were. I
looked and observed, in the first place, multitudes of Bacteria moving
about with their ordinary intermittent spasmodic wriggles. As to the
vegetable nature of these there is now no doubt. Not only does the
close resemblance of the Bacteria to unquestionable plants, such as the
Oscillatoria?, and lower forms of ii^im^^, justify this conclusion, but the
manufacturing test settles the question at once. It is only needful to
add a minute drop of fluid containing Bacteria, to water in which
tartrate, phosphate, and sulphate of ammonia are dissolved, and, in a
very short space of time, the clear fluid becomes milky by reason of
their prodigious multiplication, which, of course, implies the manu-
facture of living Bacterium-stufi" out of these merely saline matters.

But other active organisms, very much larger than the Bacteria,
attaining in fact the comparatively gigantic dimensions of -g-oVo ^^ ^"
inch or more, incessantly crossed the field of view. Each of these had
a body shaped like a pear, the small end being slightly incurved and
produced into a long curved filament, or cilium, of extreme tenuity.
Behind this, from the concave side of the incurvation, proceeded an-
other long cilium, so delicate as to be discernible only by the use of
the highest powers and" careful management of the light. In the cen-
tre of the pear-shaped body a clear round space could occasionally be
discerned, but not always; and careful watching showed that this
clear vacuity appeared gradually, and then shut up and disappeared
suddenly, at regular intervals. Such a structure is of common occur-
rence among the lowest plants and animals, and is known as a contrac-
tile vacuole.

The little creature thus described sometimes propelled itself with

TEE GROUND BETWEEN ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 649

great activity, with a curious rolling motion, by the lashing of the
front cilium, while the second cilium trailed behind ; sometimes it
anchored itself by the hinder cilium and was spun round by the work-
ing of the other, its motions resembling those of an anchor-buoy in a
heavy sea. Sometimes, when two were in full career toward one an-
other, each would appear dexterously to get out of the other's way ;
sometimes a crowd would assemble and jostle one another, with as
much semblance of individual effort as a spectator on the Grands
Mulets might observe with a telescope among the specks representing
men in the valley of Chamounix.

The spectacle, though always surprising, was not new to me. So
my reply to the question put to me was, that these organisms were
what biologists call Monads, and though they might be animals, it
was also possible that they might, like the Bacteria, be plants. My
friend received my verdict Avith an expression which sliowed a sad
want of respect for authority. He would as soon believe that a sheep
was a plant. Naturally piqued by this want of faith, I have thought
a good deal over the matter; and as I still rest in the lame conclusion
I originally expressed, and must even now confess that I cannot cer-
tainly say whether this creature is an animal or a plant, I think it may
be well to state the grounds of my hesitation at length. But, in the
first place, in order that I may conveniently distinguish this "monad "
from the multitude of other things which go by the same designation,
I must give it a name of its own. I think (though, for reasons which
need not be stated at present, I am not quite sure) that it is identical
with the species Monas lens, as defined by the eminent French micro-
scopist Dujardin, though his magnifying power was probably insuffi-
cient to enable him to see that it is curiously like a much larger form
of monad which he has named ^eierow^^Ya. I shall, therefore, call it
not 3Ionas, but Heteromita lens.

I have been unable to devote to my Heteromita the prolonged
study needful to work out its whole history, which would involve
weeks, or it may be months, of unremitting attention. But I the less
regret this circumstance, as some remarkable observations, recently
published by Messrs. Dallinger and Drysdale,* on certain monads,
relate, in part, to a form so similar to my Heteromita lens, that the
history of the one may be used to illustrate that of the other. These
most patient and painstaking observers, who employed the highest
attainable powers of the microscope and, relieving one another, kept
watch day and night over the same individual monads, have been en-
abled to trace out the whole history of their Heteromita ; which they
found in infusions of the heads of fishes of the cod tribe.

Of the four monads described and figured by these investigators,

' " Researches in the Life-history of a Cercomonad : a Lesson in Biogenesis," and
" Further Researches in the Life-history of the Monads," Monthly Microscopical Journal,
1813.

650 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

one, as I have said, very closely resembles Ileteromita lens in every
particular, except that it lias a separately distinguishable central par-
ticle or " nucleus," which is not certainly to be made out in Iletero-
mita lens ; and that nothing is said by Messrs. Dallinger and Drysdale
of the existence of a contractile vacuole in this monad, thougb they
describe it in another.

Their Ileteromita, however, multiplied rapidly by fission. Some-
times a transverse constriction appeared ; the hinder half developed a
new cilium, and the hinder cilium gradually split from its base to its
free end, until it was divided into two; a process which, considering
the fact that this fine filament cannot be much more than xroVoT *^^ ^^
inch in diameter, is wonderful enough. The constriction of the body
extended inward until the two portions were imited by a narrow istli-
mus ; finally they separated, and each swam away by itself, a com-
plete Ileteromita, provided with its two cilia. Sometimes the con-
striction took a longitudinal direction, with the same ultimate result.
In each case the process occupied not more than six or seven minutes.
At this rate, a single Ileteromita would give rise to a thousand like
itself in the course of an hour, to about a million in two hours, and to
a number greater than the generally-assumed number of human beings
now living in the world in three liours ; or, if we give edich Ileteromita
an hour's enjoyment of individual existence, the same result will be
obtained in about a day. The apparent suddenness of the appearance
of multitudes of such organisms as these, in any nutritive fluid to
which one obtains access, is thus easily explained.

During these processes of multiplication by fission, the Ileteromita
remains active; but sometimes another mode of fission occurs. The
body becomes rounded and quiescent, or nearly so, and, while in this
resting state, divides into two portions, each of which is rapidly con-
verted into an active Ileteromita.

A still more remarkable phenomenon is that kind of multiplica-
tion which is preceded by the union of two monads, by a process
which is termed conjugation. Two active Heteromitoe become applied
to one anothei', and then slowly and gradually coalesce into one body.
The two nuclei run into one ; and the mass resulting from the conju-
siation of the two Heteromitce. th\is fused tooether, has a triangular
form. The two pairs of cilia are to be seen, for some time, at two of
the angles, which answer to the small ends of the conjoined monads ;
but they ultimately vanish, and the twin organism, in which all visi-
ble traces of organization have disappeared, falls into a state of rest.
Sudden wave-like movements of its substance next occur; and, in a
short time, the apices of the triangular mass burst, and give exit to a
dense yellowish, glairy fluid filled with minute granules. Tliis pro-
cess, which, it will be observed, involves the actual confluence and
mixture of the substance of two distinct organisms, is eflfected in the
space of about two hours.

THE GROUND BETWEEN ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 651

The authors whom I quote say that they " canuot express " the ex-
cessive minuteness of the granules in question, and they estimate
their diameter at less than ^-g-oVro ^^ ^^ "^^h- Under the highest
powers of the microscope at present applicable, such specks are hardly
discernible. Nevertheless, particles of this size are massive when
compared to physical molecules ; whence there is no reason to doubt
that each, small as it is, may have a molecular structure sufficiently
complex to give rise to the phenomena of life. And, as a matter of
fact, by patient watching of the place at which these infinitesimal
living particles were discharged, our observers assured themselves of
their growth and development into new monads. These, in about
four hours from their being set free, had attained a sixth of the length
of the parent, with the characteristic cilia, though at first they were
quite motionless ; and in four hours more they had attained the di-
mensions and exhibited all the activity of the adult. These incon-
ceivably minute particles are therefore the germs of the Ileteromita ;
and from the dimensions of these germs it is easily shown that the
body formed by conjugation may, at a low estimate, have given exit
to 30,000 of them ; a result of a matrimonial process whereby the con-
tracting parties, without a metaphor, "become one flesh," enough to
make a Malthusian despair of the future of the universe.

I am not aware that the investigatoi-s from whom I have borrowed
this history have endeavored to ascertain whether their monads take
solid nutriment or not ; so that, tliough they help us very much to fill
up the blanks in the history of my Ileteromita, their observations
throw no light on the problem we are trying to solve — Is it an animal
or is it a plant ?

Undoubtedly it is possible to bring forward very strong argu-
ments in favor of regarding Ileteromita as a plant.

For example, there is a fungus, an obscure and almost microscopic
mould, termed Peronospora infestans. Like many other fungi, the
Peronosporce are parasitic upon other plants ; and this particular Pe-
ronospora happens to have attained much notoriety and political im-
portance, in a way not without a parallel in the career of notorious
politicians, namely, by reason of the frightful mischief it has done to
mankind. For it is this Fungus which is the cause of the potato-dis-
ease ; and, therefore, Peronospora infestans (doubtless of exclusively
Saxon origin, though not accurately known to be so) brought about
the Irish famine. The plants afflicted with the malady are found to
be infested by a mould, consisting of fine tubular filaments, termed
hyphoe, which burrow through the substance of the potato-plant,
and appropriate to themselves the substance of their host ; while, at
the same time, directly or indirectly, they set up chemical changes
by which even its woody framework becomes blackened, sodden,
and withered.

In structure, however, the Peronospora is as much a mould as the

652 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

common Penicilliwn / and just as the Penicillium multiplies by the
breaking up of its hyphse into separate rounded bodies, the spores,
so, in the Peronospora^ certain of the hyphie grow out into the air
through the interstices of the superficial cells of the potato-plant, and
develop spores. Each of these hyphse usually gives on several
branches. The ends of the branches dilate and become closed sacs,
which eventually drop ofi'as spores. The spores falling on some part
of the same potato-plant, or carried by the wind to another, may at
once germinate, throwing out tubular pi'olongations which become
hyphae, and burrow into tlie substance of the plant attacked. But,
more commonly, the contents of the spore divide into six or eight
separate jDortions. The coat of the spore gives way, and each portion
then emerges as an independent organism, which has the shape of a
bean, rather narrower at one end than the other, convex on one side,
and depressed or concave on the opposite. From the depression, two
long and delicate cilia proceed, one shorter than the other, and di-
rected forward. Close to the origin of these cilia, in the substance
of the body, is a regularly-pulsating contractile vacuole. The shorter
cilium vibrates actively, and effects the locomotion of the organism,
while the other trails behind, the whole body rolling on its axis with
its pointed end forward.

The eminent botanist, De Bary, who was not thinking of our
problem, tells us, in describing the movements of these " zoospores,"
that, as they swim about, " foreign bodies are carefully avoided, and
the whole movement has a deceptive likeness to the voluntary changes
of place which are observed in microscopic animals."

After swarming about in this way in the moisture on the surface
of a leaf or stem (which, film though it may be, is an ocean to such a
fish) for half an hour, more or less, the movement of the zoospore be-
comes slower, and is limited to a slow turning upon its axis, without
change of place. It then becomes quite quiet, the cilia disappear, it
assumes a spherical form, and surrounds itself with a distinct though
delicate membranous coat. A protuberance then grows out from
one side of the sphere, and, rapidly increasing in length, assumes the
character of a hypha. The latter penetrates into the substance of the
potato-plant, either by entering a stomate or by boring through the
wall of an epidermic cell, and ramifies, as a mycelium, in the substance
of the plant, destroying the tissues with which it comes in contact.
As these processes of multiplication take place very rapidly, millions
of spores are soon set free from a single infested plant ; and from their
minuteness they are readily ti'ansported by the gentlest breeze. Since,
again, the zoospores set free from each spore, in virtue of their powers
of locomotion, swiftly disperse themselves over the surface, it is no
wonder that the infection, once started, soon spreads. from field to
field, and extends its ravages over a whole country.

However, it does not enter into my present plan to treat of the

THE GROUND BETWEEN ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 653

potato-disease, instructively as its history bears upon that of other
epidemics ; and I have selected the case of the Feronospora simply
because it affords an example of an organism, which, in one stage of
its existence, is truly a "monad," indistinguishable by any important
character from our Ileteromita, and extraordinarily like it in some
respects. And yet this " monad " can be traced, step by step, through
the series of metamorphoses which I have described, until it assumes
the features of an organism, which is as much a plant as an oak or an
elm is.

Moreover, it would be possible to pursue the analogy further.
Under certain circumstances, a process of conjugation takes place in
the Feronospora. Two separate portions of its protoplasm become
fused together, surround themselves with a thick coat, and give rise
to a sort of vegetable q^^ called an oospore. After a period of rest,
the contents of the oospore break up into a number of zoospores like
those already described, each of which, after a period of activity,
germinates in the ordinary way. This process obviously corresponds
with the conjugation and subsequent setting free of germs in the
Heteromita.

But it may be said that the Feronospora is, after all, a questionable
sort of plant; that it seems to be wanting in the manufacturing
power, selected as the main distinctive character of vegetable life ;
or, at any rate, that there is no pi'oof that it does not get its proteine
matter ready made from the potato-plant.

Let us, therefore, take a case which is not open to these objec-
tions.

There ai'e some small plants known to botanists as members of the
genus Coleochcete, which, without being truly parasitic, grow uj)on
certain water-weeds, as lichens grow npon trees. The little plant has
the form of an elegant green star, the branching arms of which are
divided into cells. Its greenness is due to its chlorophyl, and it
undoubtedly has the manufactui'ing power in full degree, decom-
posing carbonic acid and setting free oxygen under the influence
of sunlight.

But the protoplasmic contents of some of the cells of which the
plant is made up occasionally divide, by a method similar to that
which effects the division of the contents of the Feronospora-spore ;
and the severed portions are then set free as active monad-like zoo-
spores. Each is oval and is provided at one extremity with two long
active cilia. Propelled by these, it swims about for a longer or
shorter time, but at length comes to a state of rest, and gradually
grows into a Coleochcete.

Moreover, as in the Feronosjyora, conjugation may take place and
result in an oospore; the contents of which divide and are set free as
monadiform germs.

If the whole history of the zoospores of Feronospora and Coleo-

654 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

chcete were unknown, they would undoubtedly be classed among
"monads" with the same right as Ileteromita ; why, then, may not
Ileteromita be a plant, even though the cycle of forms through which
it passes shows no terms quite so complex as those which occur in
Peronospora and Coleochmte f And, in fact, there are some gi-een
organisms, in every respect characteristically plants, such as Chlamy-
domonas, and the common Volvox^ or so-called " Globe animalcule,"
which run through a cycle of forms of just the same simple character
as those of Ileteromita.

The name of Chlamydoinonas is applied to certain microscopic
green bodies, each of which consists of a protoplasmic central sub-
stance invested by a structureless sac. The latter contains cellulose,
as in ordinary plants ; and the chlorophyl which gives the green
color enables the Chlamydomonas to decompose carbonic acid and fix
carbon, as they do. Two long cilia protrude through the cell-wall,
and effect the rapid locomotion of this " monad," which, in all respects
except its mobility, is characteristically a plant.

Under ordinary circumstances the Chlamydomonas multiplies by
simple fission, each splitting into two or into four parts, which sepa-
rate and become independent organisms. Sometimes, however, the
Chlamydonnonas divides into eight parts, each of which is provided
with four instead of two cilia. These " zoospores " conjugate in
pairs, and give rise to quiescent bodies, which multiply by division,
and eventually pass into the active state.

Thus, so far as outward form and the general character of the cycle
of modifications through which the organism passes in the course of
its life are concerned, the resemblance between Chlamydomonas and
Ileteromita is of the closest description. And on the face of the
matter there is no ground for refusing to admit that Ileteromita may
be related to Chlam,ydom.onas^ as the colorless fungus is to the green
alga. Volvox may be compared to a hollow sphere, the wall of which
is made up of coherent Clilamydomonads ; and which progresses with
a rotating motion effected by the paddling of the multitudinous pairs
of cilia which project from its surface. Each yb^voic-monad has a
contractile vacuole like that of Ileteromita lens / and, moreover, pos-
sesses a red pigment-spot like the simplest form of eye known among
animals.

The methods of fissive multiplication and of conjugation observed
in the monads of this locomotive globe are essentially similar to those
observed in Chlamydomonas ; and, though a hard battle has been
fought over it, Volvox is now finally surrendered to the botanists.

Thus there is really no reason v^'laj Ileteromita may not be a plant;
and this conclusion would be very satisfactory, if it were not equally
easy to show that there is really no reason why it should not be an
animal.

For there ai-e numerous organisms presenting the closest resem-

THE GROUND BETWEEN ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 655

blance to Heteromita, and, like it, grouped under the general name of
"Monads," which, nevertheless, can be observed to take in solid nu-
triment, and which therefore have a virtual, if not an actual, mouth
and digestive cavity, and thus come under Cuvier's definition of an
animal. Numerous forms of such animals have been described by
Ehrenberg, Dujardin, H. James Clark, and other writers on the In-
fusoria.

Indeed, in another infusion of hay in which my Heteromita lens
occurred, there were innumerable infusorial animalcules belonging to
the well-known species Colpoda cucullus.^

Full-sized specimens of this animalcule attain a length of between
To 0 ^^ Too" of ^'"^ iiich, so that it may have ten times the length and a
thousand times the mass of a Heteromita. In shape it is not alto-
gether unlike Heteromita. The small end, however, is not produced
into one long cilium, but the general surface of the body is covered
with small, actively-vibrating ciliary organs, which are only longest
at the small end. At the point which answers to that from which the
two cilia arise in Heteromita^ there is a conical depression, the mouth ;
and in young specimens a tapering filament, which reminds one of the
posterior cilium of Heteromita., projects from this region.

The body consists of a soft granular protoplasmic substance, the
middle of which is occupied by a large oval mass called the " nu-
cleus ; " while at its hinder end is a " contractile vacuole," conspicu-
ous by its regular rhythmic appearances and disappearances. Obvi-
ously, although the Colpoda is not a monad, it differs from one only
in subordinate details. Moreover, under certain conditions, it becomes
quiescent, incloses itself in a delicate case or cyst^ and then divides
into two, four, or more portions, which are eventually set free and
swim about as active Colpodm.

But this creature is an unmistakable animal, and full-sized CoJpodce
may be fed as easily as one feeds chickens. It is only needful to
diff'use very finely-ground carmine through the water in which they
live, and, in a very short time, the bodies of the Colpodce are stuffed
with the deeply-colored granules of the pigment.

And if this were not sufficient evidence of the animality of Col-
poda, there comes the fact that it is even more similar to another
well-known animalcule, Paramcecium, than it is to a monad. But
Paramecium is so huge a creature compared with those hitherto dis-
cussed— it reaches y|-g- of an inch or more in length — that there is no
difficulty in making out its organization in detail ; and in proving
that it is not only an animal, but that it is an animal which possesses
a somewhat complicated organization. For example, the surface-layer
of its body is different in structure from the deeper parts. There are
two contractile vacuoles, from each of which radiates a system of
vessel-like canals ; and not only is there a conical depression continu-

' Excellently described by Stein, almost all of whose statements I have verified.

656 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ous witli a tube, which serve as mouth and gullet, but the food in-
gested takes a definite course and refuse is rejected from a definite
region. Nothing: is easier than to feed these animals and to watch
the particles of indigo or carmine accumulate at the lower end of the
gullet. From this they gradually project, surrounded by a ball of
water, which at length passes with a jerk, oddly simulating a gulp,
into the pulpy central substance of the body, there to circulate up one
side and down the other, until its contents are digested and assimi-
lated. Nevertheless, this complex animal multiplies by division, as
the monad does, and, like the monad, undergoes conjugation. It
stands in the same relation to Heteromita on the animal side, as Co-
leochcete does on the plant side. Start from either, and such an in-
sensible series of gradations leads to the monad that it is impossible
to say at any stage of the progress. Here the line between the ani-
mal and the plant must be drawn.

There is reason to think that certain organisms which pass through
a monad stage of existence, such as the Myxomycetes^ are, at one time
of their lives, dependent upon external sources for their proteine-mat-
ter, or are animals, and at another period manufacture it, or are
plants. And, seeing that the whole progress of modern investigation
is in favor of the doctrine of continuity, it is a fair and probable spec-
ulation— though only a speculation — that, as there are some plants
which can manufacture proteine out of such apparently intractable min-
eral matters as carbonic acid, water, nitrate of ammonia, and metallic
salts, while others need to be supplied with their carbon and nitrogen
in the somewhat less raw form of tartrate of ammonia and allied com-
pounds, so there may be yet others, as is possibly the case with the
true parasitic plants, which can only manage to put together materials
still better prepared — still more nearly approximated to proteine —
lantil we arrive at such organisms as the Psorosper'mi(B and the Pan-
histopliyton^ which are as much animal as vegetable in structure, but
are animal in their dependence on other organisms for their food.

The singular circumstance observed by Meyer, that the Torula of
yeast, though an indubitable plant, still flourishes most vigorously
when supplied with the complex nitrogenous substance, pepsin ; the
probability that the Peronospora is nourished directly by the proto-
plasm of the potato-plant ; and the wonderful facts which have
recently been brought to light respecting insectivorous plants, all
favor this view ; and tend to the conclusion that the difterence be-
tween animal and plant is one of degree rather than of kind ; and that
the problem, whether, in a given case, an organism is an animal or a
plant, may be essentially insoluble. — Macmillan's Magazine.

AN INTERESTING BIRD.

65:

A:N' mTERESTrnG BIED.

By J. H. KIDDER, M. D.,

PASSED ASSISTANT SUEGEON, UNITED STATES NAVY.

KERGXJELEN" Island is in latitude 48°-49° south ; longitude 70°
east from Greenwich, That is to say, it is in the South Indian
Ocean, about half-way between the Cape of Good Hope and Austra-
lia, but well to the southward of both. It is rather an archipelago
than an island, innumerable small peaks being grouped around and in
the estuaries of a central mass of volcanic rock, about ninety miles
long by fifty wide, and shaped somewhat like a spider, of which its
numerous long promontories and peninsulas represent the legs. Be-

FiG. 1. — The Seteath-bili, op Keeguelen Island.

ing treeless, barren, uninhabited, and uninhabitable, and situated in a
region given over to boisterous gales and continual rain or snow, it
is a country seldom visited. It was discovered about a hundred years
ago, by the unfortunate Lieutenant Kerguelen, of the French marine,
and about two years afterward found again by Captain Cook, who
gave it the name of Desolation Island. During May, June, and July,
1840, Sir James Clark Koss remained there with the Erebus and Ter-
voL. VIII. — 42

658 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ror; and it is to this visit, and to the fact that Dr. Joseph D. Hooker
was botanist to tlie expedition, that we owe our present full knowl-
edge of the botany of the island. Had it not been long noted as a
favorite breeding-place for the sea-elephant, and hence resorted to
by sealers and whalers, it is doubtful whether any human being, other
than the intrepid explorers already alluded to, would have cared to
visit so desolate and forbidding a spot, until it came to be fixed upon
as a locality whence the transit of Venus could advantageously be
observed.

Lying, as this island does, upon the vei-y skirts of the world,
far removed from any large body of land, and so placed as to be very
unlikely to receive additions to its flora and fauna by the agency of
either winds or currents, it was to be expected that its natural history
would present very many peculiarities, both of form and of adaptation.
Its flora, accordingly, and invertebrate animal life include an unusually
large number of genera and species peculiar to the island and its near
neighbors ; a fact which, considered in connection with its geological
characters, has led some scientific men ' to regard it as one of the few
remaining peaks of a great Antarctic Continent, probably (judging
from its botanical relations) once continuous with that of South
America.

Even among birds there are at least two species not found else-
where, one of which, the Chionis minor of Hartlaub, or White Pad-
dy, sheath-bill, and " sore-eyed pigeon " of sealers and whalers, I pro-
pose to give a short account of.

It was first seen by the transit-of-Venus parties and ship's com-
pany of the Swatara on the 11th of September, 1874, as that ves-
sel was steaming up Royal Sound toward the spot selected as
the observing station of the Kerguelen part of the expedition. It
was a very pretty white bird, of about the size and much the appear-
ance of a large pigeon, which came flying over from the shore, and
alighted on the keel of a boat that had been secured bottom-up at the
stern-davits. It walked up and down the keel of the boat, turning its
head from side to side, and examining with great curiosity the crowd
of interested spectators gathered on the poop, but showing not the
slightest fear. After a few minutes it flew back again, with a note,
while flying, not unlike the " chat-chat " of the common blackbird.
That afternoon several were caught without difficulty ; some were
knocked down with stones, and some were actually taken, unhurt, by
hand, being approached very gradually, and fed with crumbs until
thev came within reach.

The nearer examination thus afforded gave us a plump bird, much
like a pigeon in size and shape, of pure white, very soft and downy
plumage, and with bright black eyes, surrounded by a quite distinct,

^ See "Flora Antarctica," by Dr. J. D. Hooker (London, Reeve Brothers, 1847), vol
ii., pp. 210-220, inter alia.

AN INTERESTING BIRD. 659

pale-pink eyelid (whence tlie name "sore-eyed pigeon"). The bill
was black, conical, and very strong ; the nostrils oval, placed at about
the centre of the bill, and directed fore-and-aft. Covering just half
of the nostril on each side was the curved anterior edge of a saddle-
shaped horny sheath (Fig. 2), also black, and bestriding the posterior
half of the bill. The pommel of the saddle was canted upward, so as
to clear the bill by about three-tenths of an inch ; its cantle was lost
in the short feathers covering the forehead, and the flaps continued
downward on each side, becoming soldered to the upper mandible

Fig. 2.— Head op Chionis Minor.

near its base. On each side they sent up a black fleshy process (ca-
runcle), deeply pitted with lioles, which lay in contact with the upper
eyelid. And, a fact not before observed, on clipping away the fore-
head-feathers, this black fleshy mass was found to extend entirely
across the forehead, like the upj^er part of a black-silk domino, the lit-
tle feathers which hide it during life passing through the holes with
which it was everywhere pitted (Fig. 3). The legs were stout, pale
flesh-colored, and scaly, with large, pavement-like knobs, but not
what ornitliologists call " scutellated," excepting over the upper sur-
faces of the toes. There were four toes, the first or hinder one being
of good size for a hind-toe, and elevated above the rest, arising a lit-
tle to the inner side of the leg. The claws were large, blunt, and
black, and on the wrist-joint of eacli wing was a small black knob,
like a spur (flesh-colored in females and young birds), which was
afterward found to be supported by a distinct bony process, or exos-
tosis, from the bone of the wing. The tail was very slightly rounded,
and composed of twelve feathers — the wing-primaries were ten, and
the first three of equal length.

It may be as well to mention here that this species was erected
by Dr. Hartlaub in 1841, when he wrote to the Hevue Zoologiqiie^

' Revue Zoblogique, 1841, p. 5.

66o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that he had found in the museum at Leyden a new species of chionis,
" patrie inconnue," He called it Chionis minor, and distinguished it
from Forster's Chionis alba, described in 1788, as being of smaller
size, having a black bill and sheath, and a fleshy process of the same
color over the eye. He also noted the color of the thickened eyelid
and of the legs, and gave measurements of the principal dimensions.
In 1842 * appeared in the same journal a draAving of the head of the
Leyden specimen, also from Dr. Hartlaub.

In 1849 it was figured by G, R. Gray,^ being classed by him with
the Gallince or fowl order, and associated with two other curious ant-

Fia. 3.— Bill of Chionis, with Frontal Feathers cut away, to show the Caruncle.

arctic genera, called Thinocorus and Attagis. It would seem proba-
ble that Gray's drawing was made from the Leyden specimen also,
since I have been able to find a record of only three other individu-
als (besides the eleven specimens brought to the National Museum
by myself), all of which were sent to the Zoological Society. These
were : a living specimen sent from Cape Town by Mr. Layard, of
which the skin was exhibited to the society by Mr. Sclater, November
28, 1867 ; ' and two skins received October 26, 1868,' also from Mr.
Layard. All three of these specimens came originally from the Crozet
Islands, which lie about six hundred miles to the west of Kerguelen,
and present substantially the same natural history characteristics.

' Kevtie Zoologique, 1842, pi. 2, Fig. 2. " " Genera of Birds," 1849, p. 522.

3 " Proceedings of Zoological Society," 1867. " Ibid., 1868.

AN INTERESTING BIRD. 661

An egg was received by the Zoological Society' in January, 1871,
and described by Mr. Alfred Newton as the first of either species of
the genus ever known, overlooking Mr. Layard's description of the
egg of C. minor published in 1867." Schlegel gives a figure and
some description,' which I suppose, from the date, to refer also to the
Leyden specimen, but have not yet been able to get access to the
article.

If there ever were any other specimens, I have not been able to
find the record of their receipt ; and, whether there be or not, it is
very evident that the birds are but little known to science, since the
history of the species can be summed up in so few lines.

During a four months' residence on Kerguelen Island I had ample
opportunity for observing the habits of the few living things which
inhabited it, and none were more interesting in their ways than the
chionis. Two or three lived near our huts, frequenting the rocks
along the shore between tides. They were particularly plentiful upon
a bold promontory called Malloy's Point, where many cormorants
nested ; and at another place, some two miles away, where the debris
broken oiF from lofty, precipitous cliffs had made a sort of " lean-to "
of irregular fragments of rocks. Here, likewise, was a nesting-place
for cormorants, and also a great rookery of the curious " rock-hop-
pers," or crested penguins. These two birds were the chosen com-
panions of the chionis, which lived with them on terms of perfect
friendship and close association. One day (October 15th), seeing a
large number of white specks on the farther side of Malloy's Point, I
began to appro'ach them very cautiously, so as to watch their move-
ments at closer quarters. Caution proved, however, to be quite
thrown away in that instance, since so great was the curiosity of the
birds that they would scarcely get out of my way. When I finally
sat down upon a rock and kept perfectly still for a few moments, they
crowded around rae like a mob of street-boys around an organ-grinder.
Others flew up from more distant rocks, apparently called by the
short, rattling croaks of those already near, and some .came almost
within reach of my arm. All seemed perfectly fearless and trustful,
and very unlike in this respect to any other birds that I had ever seen.
They ran with great swiftness over the rocks, stopping now and then
to peck at a common green sea- weed (ulva), upon which they seemed
to feed, shaking the water from it by a rapid, flirting motion of the
bill. In running over the rocks they rather avoided the little pools
of water left by the tide, seeming to dislike wetting their feet.

After sufficient time spent in observation, I changed the cartridges
in my gun for others loaded with small shot, and moved off, so as to
get far enough away to shoot two or three without tearing the skins ;
not without a good deal of compunction at destroying their friendly

' "Proceedings of Zoological Society," 1871, p. 57. * Ibid., 1867, p. 458.

' Handl. Dierk., pi. 5— De Dierk., Fig., p. 232.

662 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

illusions. The interest of all was at once renewed; some started to
follow me, making little swift runs and stopping short to look.
Even after one had been shot they seemed rather startled than fright-
ened by the noise of the gun. A few flew oflf for a short distance,
but most remained, looking from me to the dead bird with great sur-
prise, so that I was enabled to secure four specimens without moving
from where I stood.

On subsequent occasions several specimens were captured alive, by
hand, all that was necessary being to remain perfectly still, and feed
them with breadcrumbs until they ventured within reach. When
brought home, and let loose within-doors, they still showed no fear,
running about the room actively, eating freely what was given thera,
and, oddly enough, fighting fiercely among themselves (a habit which
I never observed an instance of when they were in the open air), but
never using their wing-spurs as weapons. We put several of them
into an extemporized coop, where they fought and pecked at the wood-
work all night, chirping the while so like chickens that I once got up,
thinking that some of our fowls had been fastened into the house.
When shut up in this way they bore the confinement very illy, beat-
ing themselves constantly against the bars of the cage, and pecking
fiercely at the woodwork. They would often stay around the house
for several days, however, when let loose, running with our chickens
and feeding with them like tame pigeons. One, whose wing had been
clipped, remained for a week or more, but finally wandered oif and was
killed by the great southern skua which fills the place of a hawk in
those regions.

Cuvier,' on the authority of Vieillot, attributes to the larger species
a propensity for carrion, and a power of erecting the horny sheath,
neither of which characters was to be found in those which we ob-
served. The Australian species (identical with Chionis alba of Fors-
ter *) was named C. necrophaga by Vieillot on this accoimt, but our
chionis was one of the very few birds never found feeding on carrion.
It was quite omnivorous in its diet, taking with equal readiness bread,
vegetables, and fresh meat. The sheath was found to be firmly sol-
dered to the base of the upper mandible, and therefore could not
possibly be erectile.

About the middle of December (midsummer in the antarctic re-
gion) the sheath-bills began to break up into pairs, and to show signs
of breeding. I never was so fortunate as to find a completed nest,
although I often observed the pairs frequenting the crevices of fallen
rocks, as if preparing to build. By the sealers, of whom several
visited the island diiring our stay, I was informed that they build in
the localities that I had attributed to them, constructing a nest of
grass-stems, and laying three party-colored eggs ; moreover, that they
are exceedingly dexterous in misleading the egg-hunter as to the
1 " Animal Kingdom," Loudon, 1849, p. 250. * Vide " Genera of Birds," Gray, he. dt.

AN INTERESTING BIRD. 663

locality of their nests. The Rev. Mr. Eaton, naturalist to the English
party, kindly gave ine an egg which he had found on the day of our
breaking up camp, January 10th, it being one of a nest of three, and
evidently very fresh. It is a large egg, rather less than a hen's,
pointed like a Guinea-fowl's, and marked by streaks and blotches of
different shades of brown, which are said to vary much in hue in dif-
ferent specimens.

The sheath-bill is not only " an interesting bird " to know, on
account of its trustful and familiar habits, but has been something of
a puzzle to ornithologists from the time of its iirst description, by
Forster, in 1788.' Up to 1841 his species, C. alba {(iiecrophaga^ Vieil-
lot) was the only one known, and has been quite variously classified.
By G. R. Gray it was placed as a member of the fifth family ( Cliioni-
didcB) of the order GalUnce, a place retained for it in the British
Museum Catalogue. Bonaparte associated it with gulls and petrels,
as a member of his tribe Longipennes, order Gavke j and De Blain-
ville,° after a careful anatomical examination, decided that its nearest
afiinities were with the Oyster-catchers {Hcenyiatopus). This last deci-
sion has been accepted as final by ornithologists in general. Mr. W.
K. Parker ' thus refers to another relationship : " There are certain
curious, thoroughly marine plovers (chionis), in which the sheathing
of the upper jaw is very perfect ; they thus retain a struthious charac-
ter, but have it in an exaggerated condition." Were this a proper
place for the discussion of osteological details, it would be easy to
point out other characteristics that might show a very plausible atfin-
ity of chionis to the ostrich !

Not to go deeply into the troubled and doubtful sea of the various
grounds of classification of birds, it will perhaps not be out of j^lace to
mention some of the principal groups of characteristics uj^on which we
rely to determine the place in Nature of any particular bird. First,
there ai*e the external parts: bill, eyes, plumage, feet, legs, etc., I'elied
upon almost entirely by the older writers, and likely to hold their own,
because of their convenience, for a long time yet. Then there is the
digestive system, indicating also some of the affinities based upon
habit. Third, and doubtless most to be relied upon, the structure of
the skeleton, particularly of the skull (Huxley) and sternum, and the
variations in muscular form and attachment. Last, biit by no means,
in my opinion, least, the habits and behavior of the bird during life.

Considered as to externals only, we find Chionis minor with tli'e
general form of a pigeon, the beak of a crow, surmounted by a sheath
declared to be a characteristic of the ostrich family, with stout, knob-
by, short legs and feet, four-toed like a fowl's, but bare for a little way

1 "Enchiridion Hist. Nat. Ins.," p. 37.

^ " Sur la place que doit occuper dans le systeme ornithologique le genre Chionis, ou
Bec-en-fourreau," De Blainville, Ann. Sc. Nat., 1836, vi., p. 93.

2 "Osteology of Gallinaceous Birds," "Transactions of Zoological Society," p. 206.

664 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

above the heel like a wading-bird. The " contour feathers " have a
large dowuy " after-shaft," a characteristic of gallinaceous birds, and
there is a thick, wattle-like caruncle on the forehead, a common feature
of the swan family.

The intestinal canal presents first a large crop^ a rather Xoxv^pro-
ve7itriculus or true stomach, well furnished with tubular follicles, a
decidedly muscular gizzard or grinding-stomach, and two long append-
ages, the caeca, all features which are characteristic of gallinaceous
birds. On the other hand we find the gastric follicles large and tubu-
lar, more like those of the swan than of any other that I know of, and
quite unlike the lobulated follicles of the Gallince. The tendinous
parts of the gizzard, moreover, are at the sides, instead of before and
behind as is the (almost ?) universal rule.

It would probably be neither interesting nor profitable to recapit-
ulate here the various resemblances to and difierences from other
families, presented by the bony framework of the chionis. The feat-
ures of the skull are pretty evenly balanced between those character-
istic of the plovers and of the gulls, with a slight sprinkling of the
ostrich. The breastbone, a part to which great importance is attached
by ornithologists in the determination of afiinities, is decidedly like
that of the gull family, between which and the plovers, considering
only the skeleton, the genus must probably be placed, as De Blainville
has already decided. That is to say, on summing up the various oste-
ological peculiarities which mark the skeleton of this very composite
bird, the greatest number is found to lie on the gull side.

Considered with regard to habits, however, the confusion grows
worse again. It looks and flies like a pigeon, croaks like a crow,
" chats " like a blackbird, or (in confinement) chirps like a fowl. It
lives, to be sure, upon the seacoast, and feeds largely upon small marine
animals and seaweed ; but it dislikes wading, becomes perfectly help-
less when accidentally in the water, and has no idea of swimming.
Its diet is as various as that of fowls, and like them it swallows num-
bers of pebbles to aid digestion. Its natural tendencies seem to be
toward domestication, or at least companionship with man. Like the
plants of Kerguelen, it finds its nearest relatives in Patagonia, although
Africa is so much less distant. How shall we explain all these incon-
gruities ? Perhaps it represents an older, more synthetic form, from
which GaUince, Waders, and Gidls, are descended, preserving its own
identity by its isolated habitat. Perhaps, as the ostrich represents an
ancestral type, its apparent struthious characters may indicate real
relationship after all, handed down from that distant time when all
birds were more nearly allied than now. Since there certainly once
was a time when Kerguelen Island, perhaps then part of a continent,
was habitable, when the tree trunks that are now lying buried in its
northern hills were upright and flourishing forests, perhaps the men
of those days had also a bird tamed, like the domestic fowl ; and per-

THE PROPOSED INLAND SEA IN ALGERIA. 665

haps the chionis is descended therefrom, and its liking for man is an
inhei'ited tendency.

Mr. Darwin exactly expressed the present attitude of this bird to
science, as long ago as the voyage of the Beagle. He found a bird
in Patagonia {T hinochorus rumicivorus) which "nearly equally par-
takes of the characters, different as they are, of the quail and snipe,"
and in this connection proceeds to remark : " A bird of another closely-
allied genus, CMonis alba^ is an inhabitant of the antarctic regions ;
it feeds on seaweed and shells on the tidal rocks. . . . This small fam-
ily of birds is one of those which from its varied relations to other
families, although at present offering only difficulties to the systematic
naturalist, ultimately may assist in revealing the grand scheme, com-
mon to the present and past ages, on which organized beings have
been created."

-♦♦♦-

THE PROPOSED INLAl^D SEA IN ALGEPJA.

By JOHN D. CHAMPLIN, Jr.

AMONG the most revolutionary of the geographical schemes of
the day are the projects of flooding portions of the African
Sahara, and thus restoring to the sea what was once an integral part
of it. In the Pliocene period, according to Sir Charles Lyell, the
great desert was under water between latitudes 20° and 30° N., so
that the southeastern part of the Mediterranean communicated with
that portion of the Atlantic now bounded by the west coast of Africa.
This is indicated not only by the presence of marine shells and other
remains throughout the Sahara, but also by the radical diflerence
between the fauna and flora north and south of it. What was for-
merly separated by a barrier of water is now separated by a barrier
of sand.

There are two principal depressions in the Sahara, the basin called
El-Juf, in the Sahel, north of the Middle Niger, which covers an area
of about 126,000 square miles, and that of the shotts in the Algerian
Sahara.

Mr. Donald Mackenzie, a British engineer, who has investigated
the former depression, affirms that a long valley extends from its
northwest corner to the Atlantic coast opposite the Canary Islands.
It is only necessary, he argues, to cut through the accumulated sands
at its mouth, which is laid down on the maps as the river Belta, to let
in the waters and flood the entire basin. This scheme, advocated by
Mr, J. A. Skertchly, General Sir Arthur Cotton, and others, will prob-
ably result in a thorough exploration of that part of the Sahara and
its alleged outlet. The other project is in a more advanced state.

The depression of the shotts lies at the foot of the Aures Mountains,

666 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sjjurs of the main chain of the Atlas, partly in the province of Con-
stantine in Algeria, and partly in Tunis. Its western extremity is in
latitude 34° 30' K, longitude 5° 65' E,, and it extends thence east-
ward two hundred and thirty-five miles to within about thirteen miles
of the foot of the Gulf of Cabes, or Gabes, in the Mediterranean, an-
ciently the Lesser Syrtis, from which it is now separated by an isth-
mus of sand. The breadth of the depression is about thirty-seven
miles. Within these limits lie several connected lake-beds, called by
the Arabs sJiotts or sehJcas, shott signifying jjroperly the bottom of a
lake left dry by evaporation, and sehha a saline marsh. The largest
of these are Shotts Melrir, or Melgig, whose eastern extremity is
called Es-Selam, El-Rharsa, or Gharsa, and El-Jerid, or Fejej. About
one-half is in French territory, the Tunisian boundary line cutting the
western bank of Shott El-Rharsa.

This great depression is supposed to mark the site of the lake of
Triton, or Tritonis, mentioned by Herodotus, Scylax, Pomponius
Mela, Ptolemy, and other ancient writers, and around which were
localized the Greek divinities Poseidon and Athena, and the Argo-
nautic myth. Into it was driven the good ship Argo, when blown
from her course around the Malean promontory by an adverse wind.
Jason, lost among the shallows, propitiated the local divinity, Triton,
son of Poseidon, by presenting him with the brazen tripod, whereupon
the god, filled with prophetic heat, foretold that a hundred Grecian
cities would spring u]) around Tritonis whenever a descendant of the
Argo's crew should seize and bear away the precious gift. Through
the foresight of the subtle Libyans, who hid the tripod, the prophesy
was unfulfilled, but many noble cities were afterward built north and
east of Tritonis, and along the coast of Syrtis Minor. Indeed, so
numerous were they, and so flourishing as trade-centres, that the
country was named Emporia. All the ancient writers agree in prais-
ing it for its wonderful riches and fertility. Says Scylax : " This
region, which is occupied by Libyans, is most magnificent and fertile ;
it abounds in fine cattle, and its inhabitants are most beautiful and
wealthy." It was within the dominion of Carthage, and here were
the storehouses and granaries from which Rome's great rival supplied
her troops.

But now all is changed. The drying up of the ancient sea has
deprived the land of its moisture, and the once fertile plain between
the mountains and the north bank of the shotts is, with the exception
of a few oases, a sterile waste. Nothing i-emains to tell of former
greatness but ruins, which are said to be scattered over the country
far up into the mountains.

Herodotus, the most ancient writer by whom Tritonis is men-
tioned, says that it was fed by the great river Triton ; but modern
research has failed to identify it, there being now but a few rivulets
which enter it from the mountains on the north, or lose themselves in

TEE PROPOSED INLAND SEA IN ALGERIA. 667

the desert. If there ever was a great river flowing into it, its bed has
been obliterated by the shifting sands.

At a later date Tritonis appears as three connected lakes, called,
respectively, Libyca, Pallas, and Tritonis, which some recognize in the
Shotts Melrir, El-Rharsa, and El-Jerid, It is probable that the mouth
became gradually blocked up with sand, and the lake, no longer
receiving sufficient water from the Mediterranean to supply the waste
from evaporation, separated into several smaller seas, which, by con-
tinued desiccation, became transformed at last into their present con-
dition. When this took place can only be conjectured, but it was
probably in the early centuries of the Christian era. The Arabs pre-
serve the tradition that Shott Es-Selam was a lake at the time of the
Mussulman conquest. They also aver that the lake bed has not been
covered with water during the past hundred years.

Although it has long been known that this desert basin was lower
than the Mediterranean, nothing was positively settled in regard to it
until 1873, when Captain Roudaire, a staff officer of the French army
in Algeria, ascertained the altitude of Biskra, and by a series of level-
ings from that point proved that the western extremity of Shott
Melrir was twenty-seven metres, or nearly eighty-nine feet, below the
level of the sea. The publication of his investigations and an exhaus-
tive discussion of the probabilities of success in reopening the ancient
lake, in the Revue des Deux Mondes (May, 1874), aroused interest in
the project in hope not only of reclaiming the country, but also of
opening a commercial avenue to Southern Algeria. The French liave
long sought to deflect the caravan trade of Middle Africa, which is
now mostly monopolized by Morocco and Tripoli, to Algiers, but in
vain, the increase in prices to be obtained in Algiers not being suf-
ficient to compensate for the increase in distance. But with an inland
sea the circumstances would be changed. The country around it
would resume its ancient character of a littoral province, and the
caravan routes of the Sahara would converge toward a port estab-
lished on its southern border, whence the gold dust, ivory, gums, and
ostrich feathers of Soodan would be shipped. directly to Europe to the
detriment of the Mohammedan markets. Tougourt, too, the French
military post in southern Algeria, now distant nearly two hundred
and fifty miles from the port where its provisions are landed, would
then be only about forty miles from the sea.

Captain Roudaire discusses also the probable climatic changes
which would ensue from reopening the Bay of Triton. He argues
that the northwest winds, which prevail in summer, would be less
violent than now, and the southwest winds, which blow during the
remainder of the season, would be charged with vapor and cause a
greater fall of rain in Algeria, Sicily, and South Italy, without mate-
rially modifying the climate. Tl)is increased rainfall would restore
tlie land to its ancient fertility, and the region of the shotts would

668 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

again become the home of a thriving population and the granary of
North Africa.

To flood the shotts would require only the piercing of the isthmus
between El-Jei'id and the Gulf of Cabes. This is about thirteen miles
wide ; but Captain Roudaire thinks that the curve of altitude would
reach zero at about eleven miles from the Mediterranean, which would
materially reduce the amount of excavation. As the evaporation
would be much greater than in the Mediterranean, a large and con-
stant flow of water from the latter would be necessary to keep it at
its proper level. This would require a canal at least one hundred
yards wide, which could be constructed, it is calculated, at a cost of
twenty million francs. To this amount would have to be added a
sufiicient sum to compensate for the destruction of property in the
Tunisian part of the depression, which would ensue from its submer-
sion. Besides the towns of Nefta and Tozer, there are many douars,
or villages, in the oases, surrounded by cultivated lands and date plan-
tations. These are generally in the lowest part of the depression, for
there only can potable water be found, the higher land being without
springs.

The superior council of Algeria, comprehending the immense ad-
vantages which would accrue to the colony from the consummation
of this scheme, voted in 1873 a sum sufficient to continue the survey,
and a well-appointed expedition, under command of Captain Roudaire,
made a thorough examination of the bed of the Algerian portion of
the shotts in the following year. The French Geographical Society,
taking a national as well as a scientific interest in the question, also
contributed money in furtherance of the object, and deputed M. Du-
verrier, one of its members, to accompany the party. The expedition
entered the depression on the northwest side of Shott Melrir. The
soil there is sand and marl, charged with salt. The many streams
which traverse the country have, with a few exceptions, no running
water, excepting in winter and spring, the season of rains and of the
melting of snow in the mountains. These rivers usually divide, before
reaching the shotts, into several branches, which again subdivide and
form innumerable ramifications. Where these begin to disappear, the
soil, which is charged with salt and almost bare, swells and cracks,
and the water sinks, when the crust reforms. Farther east are naked
plains of marl, level and smooth, and covered with a white incrusta-
tion wliich produces frequent mirages. On the extreme west the river
beds enter Shott Melrir with separating. On the south side are sand
hills and moving sands.

All the shotts are alike in general features. All have flat bottoms
with an inclination too slight to be perceptible to the eye, and all form
basins which receive water-courses. The soil of all contains a great
quantity of salt, which whitens their bed in dry places. But each has
its peculiarities. The west end of Melrir has a bottom of sandy earth,

THE PROPOSED INLAND SEA IN ALGERIA. 669

strewed along the borders with small round and polished quartz peb-
bles. Near the banks is a meagre salsuginous vegetation. In the
interior its bed is clay, filled with crevices, but moist ; farther on the
crevices close and the saturated marl and clay form quagmires in
which horse and rider might be swallowed up.

The eastern end of Shott Melrir, which is called Shott Es-Selam,
presents other general characteristics. Near the banks the bed is
sandy, but toward the middle it forms a hard crust of salt and sand.
Elsewhere the soil is a hard surface of clay, which shines in the sun.
Mirage is very frequent in this shott.

Between the Shotts Es-Selam and El-Rharsa the expedition first
began to encounter obstacles which may seriously interfere with the
projected inland sea. In the intervening country are numerous smaller
shotts, of which that called Mouia-el-Tadjer is the largest. This shott
has a long extension stretching southward, called El-Hadjila, connected
with which on the east is Shott Mouia-el-Tofla. Measurements in the
highest part of the bed of the latter showed it to be more than eleven
feet above the level of the sea. A low ridge separates it from Shott
El-Asloudg, the western border of which is only between six and
seven feet below the sea, and the eastern about twelve feet. Between
this and Shott Bou Dhouil, which is little more than eight feet above
the sea, is an extended ridge of sand. Bou Dhouil is but a short dis-
tance from the Tunisian frontier and the great Shott El-Rharsa. At
this point the expedition ceased its labors and returned to Biskra,
convinced that a secondary canal connecting El-Rharsa and Melrir,
or some of the shotts belonging to its system, would be necessary
before the proposed inland sea could be extended far enough west to
benefit Algeria. This would entail a considerable additional expense,
but whether large enough to seriously afiect the realization of the
scheme cannot be known until the publication of the ofilcial reports.

This expedition made no investigation of the Tunisian portion of
the depression, being evidently under the impression that no insur-
mountable obstacle existed in that part. Whether this belief was
founded on the accounts of the ancient geographers or on an actual
knowledge of the country is not apparent, but it is said that levels
were taken from Shott El-Jerid to the Mediterranean several years
ago by Captain Pricot de Sainte Marie, of the staif of the French army
in Algeria. His report, which is deposited in the archives of the Min-
istry of War in Paris, must have been favorable, else the survey of the
Algerian shotts would scarcely have been undertaken.

It is reported, however, on the contrary, that a survey was made
of the same isthmus in 1874 by M. Fuchs, a French geologist em-
ployed by the government of Tunis to investigate the mineral resources
of the country, who discovered that physical obstacles exist of a nature
to render a canal impossible ; that a range of sandstone hills lies be-
tween El-Jerid and the sea, and that the bed of El-Jerid itself is con-

670 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

siderably above the sea. If this be true, not only is the proposed
inland sea an impossibility, but we must also i-elegate to the domain
of fable the accounts of the great lake of Tritonis, or assign it to
another locality.

■♦»»

ANIMAL PAKASITES AND MESSMATES.

THE fight for a foothold in the animal world brings the combatants
into many strange relations, few of which are more curious and
interesting than those existing between the creatures popularly known
as parasites and the animals which furnish them support. In these
relations all grades of pauperism and criminality are represented.
There is the miserable wretch that lives entirely at the expense of
others, finding it easier to die than to help himself; the poor weak-
ling, willing enough to do what he can, but sure to starve to death
if left wholly unassisted ; the petty thief that sneaks into his neigh-
bor's premises and steals a portion of his store ; and the audacious
robber that boldly appropriates another's substance, and not unfre-
quently adds murder to his list of crimes. In his entertaining and
instructive work on "Animal Parasites and Messmates," ' from which
this article and its illustrations are mainly taken. Van Beneden makes
these different degrees of dependence the basis of a rough but con-
venient classification, by which he separates, what Iiave hitherto been
known as parasites, into three groups, named respectively messmates,
Tnutualists, and parasites.

The messmate is one that takes his place at his neighbor's table
to partake with him of the product of the day's toil. He does not
live directly at tlie expense of his host, but, abiding with him, obtains
thereby better opportunities for securing a supply of food. This mode
of getting a living is very common, and a curious thing about it is
that animals comparatively high in the scale of organization do not
scruple to quarter themselves upon others of much inferior giade. The
fish known to naturalists as fireasfer lives in this relation. He takes
up his lodgings in the digestive tube of a holothurian, and, regardless
of the rules of hospitality, appropriates a portion of all the food that
enters. He thus manages to get himself served by another better
provided than he is with the means of fishing. Dr. Greef found at
Madeira a holothurian over a foot long, in which one of these fishes
was enjoying a peaceful and vigorous existence. Other fishes besides
the fireasfer have been found in similar quarters ; indeed, the situation
appears a very favorable one for this mode of life, since not only
fishes but crustaceans here take up their abode, sometimes in con-
siderable numbers. Prof. Semper has seen holothuriae in the Philip-

' No. XIX. " International Scientific Series," New York, D. Appleton & Co., 18Y6.

ANIMAL PARASITES AND MESSMATES.

6ji

pine Islands which bore considerable resemblance in this respect to a
hotel with its tahle-cVhote.

A somewhat more excusable piece of pauperism is found in the
case of an eel, which ensconces itself in the branchial sac of that
curious fish known as the angler, or fishing-frog (Fig. 1), where he
afterward plays the part of a messmate. Although the eels generally

Fig. 1.— The Angler-Fish.

get their living easily, the angler possesses fishing-implements which
are wanting in them, and, when immersed in the ooze, it carries on
a fishery sufficiently abundant for both. This relationship was first
observed by Risso in the Mediterranean ; the same fish in more north-
ern seas has since been found to harbor, in like manner, an amphipod
crustacean.

Another remarkable example of this kind of association among
tish was made known by Reinhardt, of Copenhagen. A siluroid fish
occurring in Brazil, and possessed of numerous barbules that make
it successful as a fisherman, lodges in the cavity of its mouth some
very small fishes, that for a long time were supposed to be young
siluroids ; it was believed that the mother brought her progeny to
maturity in the mouth, as marsupials do in the abdominal pouch, or
as some other fishes do. But this is a mistake. The supposed young
are perfectly developed adult fish, that, instead of living by their own

6/2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

labor, jjrefer to install themselves in the mouth of a neighbor, and take
tithes of the morsels which he swallows.

The little crab that makes its abode within the shell of the edible
oyster (Fig. 2) is a true messmate, and the oyster is but one of many
bivalve mollusks that give shelter and partial support to these di-
minutive crustaceans. These crabs, called by naturalists Pinnotheres,
though in one sense dej^endents, are at the same time of great service
to the animals within whose shells they receive protection. Van
Beneden says of them: "The pinnothere is a brigand who causes
himself to be followed by the cavern which he inhabits, and which
opens only at a well-known watchword. The association redounds to

Fig. 2.— Oyster Ceab.>

the advantage of both ; the remains of food which the pinnothere
abandons are seized upon by the moUusk. It is the rich man who in-
stalls himself in the dwelling of the poor, and enables him to participate
in all the advantages of his position. The pinnotheres are, in our opin-
ion, true messmates. They take their food in the same waters as their
fellow-lodgers, and the crumbs of the rapacious crabs are doubtless
not lost in the mouth of the peaceful mussel. . . . Little as they are,
these crabs are well furnished with tackle and advantageously placed
to carry on their fishery in every season ; concealed in the bottom of
their living dwelling-place, they choose admirably the moment to
rush out to the attack, and always fall on their enemy unawares.
Some pinnotheres live in all seas, and inhabit a great number of bi-
valve mollusks."

In the examples thus far cited, and in many more that have been
observed, the dependent forms are free to depart whenever they
choose, and are therefore called free messmates. Though for a time
giving up their liberty, they sooner or later resume it, in possession of
all their organs for fishing and locomotion, and in all respects fitted
to live an independent life. There are others, however, that enter
into the same sort of association, and make the relation a permanent
one : these are known as fixed messmates. They are free in their
youth, but, as maturity approaches, and the cares of a family are
thought of, a host is selected in which they establish themselves, and,
throwing aside their fishing and locomotive apparatus, they renounce
the world, and even part with the most precious organs of animal life,
not excepting those of the senses.

' From Morse's " First Book of Zoology."

ANIMAL PARASITES AND MESSMATES.

673

The most interesting fixed messmates are those cirrij^eds or bar-
nacles which, under the names of Coroiiula and Tahicinella (Figs. 3
and 4), cover the skins of whales. They are, like all the rest, free while
young, but later they take shelter on the back or on the head of one of
these huge cetaceans, and, having once chosen their abode, are after-
ward permanent tenants. Each whale lodges a particular species, and

i''iG. 3.— Cor.oNET Habnacle ^Cwonxila diadema).

the manatee, marine turtles, and various sea-snakes, have also their
different sorts. Others establish themselves on their own immediate
relations and on other crustaceans. A pretty genus found near Cape
Yerd, living on the carapace of a large lobster, spreads itself over the

Fig. 4.— BuKROwiNG Barnacle {Tubicimlla traclimlis).

centre of the lobster's back, and looks not unlike a bouquet of flowers.
Fig. 5 shows a fixed messmate attached to a sertularian.

Mutualists, as the name suggests, are animals which live on each
other ; and, though usually confounded with messmates and parasites,
they diflfer from both in making some sort of return for benefits ob-
TOL. Tin. — 43

674

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tained. Many insects shelter themselves in the fur of the mammalia
or in the down of birds, and remove from the hair or the feathers the
pellicle and cjoidermal debris which encumber them. At the same
time they minister to the outward appearance of their host, and are
of great use to him in a hygienic point of view. Animals living in
the water are similarly served by minute crustaceans. These some-
times establish themselves on fishes, and, if there are no scales of the
epidermis which annoy them, there are mucosities which are inces-
santly renewed in order to protect the skin from the continual action
of the water. Among the insects found on the skins of mammals and
birds that yield some return for the hospitality they receive, those
belonging to the family Hicinice, and commonly known as ticks, are
very numerous. Among the many generic divisions, one of the most
interesting has received the name of Trichodectes ,' it contains twenty
species, one of which lives on the dog, another on the cat, another on
the ox ; in a word, there is a distinct species on each of the domestic
mammals. The species infesting the dog has lately attracted especial
attention, from the circumstance that it lodges the larva of the Taenia
cucumerina, a tapeworm common to dogs. The cock, the turkey, and
the peacock, carry each a distinct species of Ricinia?, and oftentimes
several species are found on a single bird. Fig. 6 represents a form
which infests the pygarg or sea-eagle.

Fig. 5.— Ophiodendrum Abietinum on
Sertularia abietina.

Fig. 6.— RiciNue op thb Ptqabg.

Fishes harbor crustaceans instead of insects, frequently in enor-
mous numbei'S. They live on the produce of cutaneous secretions, and
thus, like the ticks, are of service to their hosts. The Caligi and
Arguli, known usually as fish-lice, are among the most common of
these, and both are elegant forms, that change but little in appear-
ance in the course of their lives, and, although permanent tenants when
once established, they retain their fishing-tackle and locomotive ap-
paratus. The greater number of osseous fishes lodge Caligi on the

ANIMAL PARASITES AND MESSMATES.

675

y

n\

surface of their skin, where the tiny creatures iix themselves by means
of strong cables. Fig. 7 represents a species that lodges on the cod,
and it in its turn aftbrds a resting-place for another form — the Udo-
nellce.

A curious creature, with an equally curious
function, that entitles it to a place among mu-
tualists, was discovered some years ago among
the eggs of the lobster, by Van Beneden, who
thus describes it : " It is known that lobsters, as
well as crabs, and the greater part of the Crus-
tacea, carry their eggs under the abdomen, and
that these eggs remain suspended there nntil
the embryos are hatched. In the midst of them
lives an animal of extreme agility, which is, per-
haps, the most extraordinary being that has been
subjected to the eyes of the zoologist. It may
be said, without exaggeration, that it is a biped,
or even quadruped, worm. Let us imagine a
clown from the circus, with his limbs as far dis-
located as possible, we might even say entirely
deprived of bones, displaying tricks of strength
and activity, on a heaj) of monster cannon-balls
which he struggles to surmount ; placing one
foot, formed like an air-bladder, on one ball, the
other foot on another, alternately balancing and
extending his body, folding his limbs on each
other, or bending his body upward like a cater-
pillar of the Geometridce, and we shall then have
but an imperfect idea of all the attitudes which
it assiimes, and which it A^ai"ies incessantly. It
is neither a parasite nor a messmate ; it does not
live at the expense of the lobster, but on one of
the productions of these crustaceans, much in
the same manner as do the Callgi and the
Argidi. The lobster gives him a berth,
and the passenger feeds himself at the
expense of the cargo ; that is to say, he
eats the eggs and the embryos which die,
and the decomposition of which might
be fatal to his host and his progeny.
These HistriohdellcB have the same duty
to perform as vultui-es and jackals, which clear the plains of carcasses.
That which causes us to suppose that such is their appropriate office
is, that they have an apparatus for the purpose of sucking eggs, and
that we have not found in their digestive canal any remains which
resemble any true organism."

Op the Nat- Caligulus ELEaANS.

URAL Size.

Fig. 7.

Female.

676 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

True parasites are beings entirely dependent on their neighbors
for support ; unable to provide for themselves, they are fed wholly at
the expense of others. It is generally believed that they are an ex-
ceptional class of organisms, constituting a group by themselves, and
knowing nothing of the world outside the organ which shelters them.
This is an error. Representatives of all the principal divisions of the
animal kingdom below the vertebrate are found pursuing this mode
of life. There are few jjarasites that are not wanderers at some period
of their lives ; and it is not uncommon to find some which live alter-
nately as noblemen and as beggars. Many are paupers only during
infancy, or at the approach of adult age, living at other times a com-
paratively free and independent life. ISTor are all the members of a
species necessarily parasitic ; sometimes it is only the female that
takes the relation of a dependent, the male continuing his nomad life.
Again, there are cases where, the female being provided for, the male
relies on her for support, and thus the charitable animal which comes
to her help is laid under contribution by the whole family.

Parasites present an extraordinary variety of forms, and differ
very widely in size and aj)pearance, these differences being often re-
markable between the sexes of the same species. The male of the
urubu of Brazil has the usual form of a round long worm, while the
female resembles more than any thing else a ball of cotton, not hav-
ing the slightest analogy with the other worms of the order. As to
the enormous proportions parasites may attain, Boerhaave mentions a
bothriocephalus 300 ells * in length ; and, at the Academy of Copen-
hagen, it was reported that a solitary tapeworm i^Tcenia solium) had
been found 800 ells long. Parasites are found in every region of the
globe, but, like other animals, they observe the laws of geographical
distribution. Some, like the leeches, take their food, and then detach
themselves until the demand for food returns, never becoming identi-
fied for any length of time with their host. Others, like the lernjBans,
commence their parasitic existence when approaching maturity, and
thereafter are permanent dependents ; others, again, like the ichneu-
mons, begin life as parasites, and on reaching maturity assume and
maintain an independent existence ; while still others, like the taenia,
are parasitic from first to last, although changing their abode at a
certain stage of development.

All animals, man included, have their parasites, which usually come
from without, those entering the body being generally introduced
with the food or drink. No organ is exempt from their incursions,
as they have been found in the brain, the ear, the eye, the heart, the
blood, the lungs, the spinal cord, the nerves, the muscles, and even
the bones, Cysticerci have been seen in nearly all these situations,
and worms of various kinds are common in the cavities of the body,
as well as in many of the solid organs, such as the muscles, liver, and

' The Flemish ell is probably meant : this is 27 inches long.

ANIMAL PARASITES AND MESSMATES. 677

kidneys. As a rule, those which inhabit a temporary host install
themselves in a closed organ ; in the muscles, the heart, or the lobes
of the brain ; those, on the contrary, which have arrived at their des-
tination, and which, unlike the preceding, have a family, occupy the
stomach, with its dependencies the digestive passages, the lungs, the
nasal foss*, the kidneys, in a word, all the organs which are in direct
commimication with the exterior, in order to leave a place of issue for
their progeny.

A single animal may carry, not only a great number of individuals
of the same species, but many different species of parasites, and this,
too, without any apparent impairment of health. Indeed, in some coun-
tries their presence is considered indispensable to the highest health,
the Abyssiniaiis, for example, deeming themselves below par unless
they nourish one or many tapeworms. Nathusius speaks of a black
stork which lodged 24 Filarice in its lungs, 16 Syngami tracheales in
its tracheal artery, more than 100 Spiropteroe within the membranes
of the stomach, several hundred of the Holostomiim excavatum in the
smaller intestines, 100 of the Distoma ferox in the large intestines,
22 of the Distoma Mans in the oesophagus, and a Distoma echinatum.
in the small intestine. In spite of this affluence of lodgers, the bird
did not appear to be the least inconvenienced. Krause, of Belgrade,
mentions a colt, two years old, which contained more than 500 As-
carides, 190 Oxyures, 214 Strongyli armati, several million Strongyli
tetracanthi, 69 Tceiiia, 287 Filarice, and 6 Cysticerci. Well supplied
as these animals appear to have been, when we consider the number
of eggs a single worm may produce, the wonder is that parasites are
not more numerous than they are : 60,000,000 eggs have been counted
in a single nematode, and in a single tapeworm more than 1,000,000,000
eggs have been found !

While nearly all animals, including parasites themselves, are made
to contribute to the support of others, those to which man gives food
and lodging are of greatest interest, and he is by no means scantily
provided with this class of dependents. Four different cestodes, or
tapeworms, live in his intestines ; three or four Distoma lodge in his
liver, intestines, or blood ; nine or ten hematodes, or round worms, in-
habit his digestive passages or flesh ; and cysticerci, echinococci, and
hydatids, are also among his guests. He provides a living for three
or four kinds of lice, for a bug, for* a flea, and two ascarides, without
mentioninsc certain inferior organisms which lurk in the tartar of the
teeth, or in the secretions of the raucous membrane of the mouth.
Some of these are confined to him exclusively, others may also find a
home on the lower mammalia ; some make his body their home while
passing through a single stage of development, beginning or finishing
the process, as the case may be, in the body of another animal ; and
others, again, are but day-boarders, taking their meals at his expense,
and finding lodgings elsewhere.

678

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Leeches are true parasites, although asking only food and taking
care of themselves in the intervals of their meals. They suck the
blood of their victim, and, when gorged to the very lips, fall off and
perhaps for many weeks have no further need of assistance. The
vampires of South America obtain support in a similar way, and are
just as truly parasitic, although otherwise leading an independent
life. The best-known leeches are those which prey on man and other
mammals ; but some are found which attack animals of still lower
grade, especially the fishes. The organization of the leech appears
always to be proportioned to that of the host which it frequents, the
lower the grade of the latter the simpler the structure of the former.
Those living on the moUusks are inferior to those found on fishes, and
these again rank below the sorts that attack the mammalia. Fig.
8 (1, 2, 3, 4) shows the different appearances assumed by the skin
after a leech-bite; Fig. 9 represents the structure of the jaws; and
Fig. 10 is a longitudinal section of the body of the leech. The letters

a-

•

1

• •

'' >.

2

A

A

Fig. 8.

€E-

m^='l .

7-1

Fio. 10.

h~i

Fio. 8.— Different Forms of the Bite of a Leech.
Fig. 9.— 1. Sucker, open ; a. Jaws. 2. One op the Jaws m.\gnipied.

Fig. 10.— Section op a Leech: a. Anterior Sucker; 6, Posterior buclier; r, Anns ; d, Stomach ;
ce, CEsophagus; i, Intestine; s s. Glands of the Skin.

ANIMAL PARASITES AND MESSMATES.

679

d d d indicate the different cavities of the stomach that are successive-
ly filled when the creature feeds. These animals vary greatly in size,
appearance, and mode of life. Some are exceedingly minute, and of
delicate structure, while others have been seen that were a foot and a
half long. Most of them are highly voracious, taking sometimes the
weight of their bodies in blood at a single meal. Generally they are
aquatic, but a few species are met with in the brushwood and low forest
growth of the tropics, where they attack both man and beast when
opportunity offers.

Fig. 11.— Gnat {Culex pipiens), Lakva and Nymph.

Gnats or mosquitoes are parasites that get their living in much the
same way as the leeches, that is, they suck the blood of other animals,
man being their most common victim. They differ from the leeches,
however, in the fact that only the females are greedy of blood, the
males living on the juices of plants. The females pierce the skin by
means of an auger with teeth at the end, and after sucking their fill

68o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

distill into the wound a liquid venom which occasions the irritation
that follows the bite. Fig, 11 shows the form of the larva and nymph
of this insect. The former will be recognized as the little " wriggler "
that may be seen in such numbers in stagnant water in summer. For-
tunately, these insects are harmless until they acquire wings, and after
that their life is a short one ; but, unfortunately, they breed at an enor-
mous rate, and thus maintain the supply, to the infinite annoyance of
man and other tender-skinned animals.

Another blood-sucking parasite of both man and beast, whose stay-
ing tendencies are proverbial, is the louse. Fig. 12 represents the
species that inhabits the head of man. The mouth of this insect con^
sists of a sucker contained in a sheath, without articulations. It is
armed at the point with retractile hooks, within which are four bristles

Fig. 12.— Louse of the
Head.

Fig. 13.— Louse op the Head.
2, 3, Sucker.

Fig. 14.— Louse op the Head,
Claw.

that aid in breaking through the skin. They have climbing feet ter-
minated by pincers, with which they maintain their hold on the hairs.
The sucker and claw are illustrated in Figs. 13 and 14. The nits, or
eggs, hatch in five or six days after they are laid, and in eighteen days
more the creature is able to reproduce its kind. Leeuwenhoek calcu-
lated that two females might become the grandmothers of 10,000 lice
in eight weeks.

A not less annoying parasite that lives on the blood of man and
the higher animals is the flea. Both male and female get their living
in this way, and even the larvae are supplied from the same sources by
the mother, who sucks for herself first, and then divides with her
young ones. The ordinary flea [Pulex irritans, Fig. 15) is common
in both Europe and North America. It may be called a fly without
wings, and, together with others of its kind, forms a distinct family
under the name Pulicidm. The four principal species are Pulex irri-
tans of man, Pulex canis of the dog, Pulex musculus of the mouse,
and Pulex vespertilionis of the bat. Great numbers of human fleas,
half as large as the common fly, are found in summer on the sandy

ANIMAL PARASITES AND MESSMATES.

68 1

shores of the Mediterranean, in the neighborhood of Cette and Mont-
pellier. Their presence in this locality is due solely to the circum-
stance that large numbers of pei'sons of both sexes and all classes
come to these places to bathe, and, laying their clothes upon the
sand, leave there a part of their vermin. Van Beneden suggests the
surgical employment of the flea ^s an homceopathic phlebotomist, and
recommends this region as an excellent source of supply in case his
suggestion is adopted. The largest fleas are found upon the bat ;
they sometimes annoy the horse, and there is a species peculiar to
monkeys.

Fig. 15.— Human Flea {Pulex irritam).

The minute creatures known as Acari, or mites, are most of them
parasitic, and they are very Avidely distributed. They are not true
insects, but belong to the Araehnida, having four pairs of legs like
the spiders, with head and thorax closely united. The group includes
those disgusting creatures the itch-mites, magnified representations
of which are shown in Figs. 16 and 17. The mammalia have each

Fig. 10. — Sarcoptes Scabiei, or Male

ACARIUS OF THE ITCH. ThE LoWER

Surface.

Fig. 17.— Sarcoptes Scabiei, Female. The
Upper Surface.

682

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

their particular species, wbicli in many cases are the cause of peculiar
skin-affections. Since the presence of these animals constitutes the
disorder, it may be easily caught ; man may communicate it to the
domestic animals, and they may also give it to him ; it is only the
genus Sarcoptes^ however, that may be thus transferred from animals
to man.

The true parasites just described, and many others. like them, are
nourished by the blood of their neighbors, but they never establish
themselves in the organs of their host, being free throughout their
lives. There is another class that live in freedom while young, but
when arrived at mature age, and the cares of a family are soon to be
assumed, they change in appearance, choose a host, and settle down
for life. The chigoe, a parasite of man in South America, is one of
these. It is only the female, however, that demands both lodging and
provisions, the male (Fig. 18) being contented with pillaging his vic-
tim as he passes by. It is a small species, which pierces the shoes and
clothes with its pointed beak (Fig. 19), and penetrates into the sub-
stance of the skin, generally selecting that of the toes. The male, as

Fig. 18.— Male Chigoe.

Fig. 19.— Head of Cuigoe.

just remarked, takes his food and resumes his wanderings, but the
female seeks a hiding-place for permanent abode, and then grows to
such a monstrous size that the entire insect appears to be nothing
more than a mere appendage to the abdomen, as may be seen in Fig.
20, Besides man, this parasite infests the dog, the cat, the pig, the
goat, the horse, and the mule.

Another form coming within this category, and the terror of trav-
elers on the coast of Guinea, is the Guinea-worm, Filarla inedinensis
(Fig. 21), also found in other parts of Africa, and said by Mitchell to
have been observed in South Carolina. It was long supposed that
this filaria could introduce itself into the cellular tissue of the body
directly through the skin, in the form of a microscopic embryo, but
several recent observers concur in the belief that it is transmitted by
means of the cyclops, a little fresh-water crustacean. This is swal-
lowed in drinking-water, and at the end of six weeks the presence
of the filaria is revealed by tumors, which later develop into open
sores, caused not by the worm itself, but by the dissemination of its

ANIMAL PAjRASITL'S AND MESSMATES.

683

eggs. The tilaria at last is so entirely atrophied that Prof. Jacobson,
after seeing it alive on one of his patients at Copenhagen, wrote to
Blainville : " This luedina worm is not reallv a worm ; it is a sheath
full of eggs." In fact, all the internal organs disappear, and nothing
is found in their place except the eggs and their embryos.

Fig. 20.— Female Chigoe.

Fig. 21.— Young Pilaria of Medina.
1. Anterior Extremity ; c, Mouth. 2. Caudal
Extremity ; d. Anus. 3. Section of the
Body.

The ichneumons and many other insects that lay their eggs in the
living larvae of other species, belong to a class of parasites that be-
gin life as dependents, but that become free and self-supporting on
arrival at adult age. The (Estnis^ or gadfly of the horse (Fig. 22), is

Hinder Part.

Fig. 22.— (Estrus of the Horse. A.ntef.ior Pakt.

thus dependent in its early life. But, instead of making their attacks
on those of their own class, the gadflies prefer to install themselves
on mammals, and sometimes even on man. The eggs are received
into some cavity of the body, nostrils, stomach, or a hole in the skin,
where they hatch and where the larvte feed until the adult state is
reached, when they escape and afterward live in freedom.

There is a large class of parasites generally known as worms, char-
acterized by the circumstance that during their lives they undergo
certain strano^e transformations that can only take place by the pas-

684

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sage of the creature from one animal or host to another. The eggs
are swallowed by some animal, usually a vegetable feeder, they hatch
within its body, enter its tissues, and remain in a state of incomplete
development until transferred to the stomach of another animal which
has eaten the flesh of the first one. Here development recommences,
and goes on to completion, when the process of reproduction begins.
Each species of worm has its particular animals, through the agency

of which these changes occur, and, if in
its passage it gets ofi" the proper track,
that is, enters the wrong animal, it must
either perish, or, as sometimes happens,
find its way by a second transfer into
the body of its destined host. The tape-
worm of man. Taenia solium (Figs. 23 and
24), is a member of this group, belonging
to the Cestoidea, or ribbon-like worms.
These cestoids a,re found in all classes of
vertebrate animals. They exist in two
principal forms. The first or vesicular
form resembles somewhat in appearance
the finger of a glove partly drawn in-
ward. In this shape they are always
lodged in the midst of the flesh, or in a
closed organ, surrounded by a cyst, and

Fis. 23. — TAENIA Solium, or Solitary
Worm.
a, head, or scolex : b, tape formed of many
individuaJs, tne last of which, com-
pletely sexual, separate under the
name of Proglottides, and represent
the adult and complete animal. Each
solitary worm is a colony.

Fig. 24.— a, Rostellum; 6, Crown of Hooks; c c.
Suckers. 1. Scolex of the Tcenia solium. 2.
Hooks expanded ; a, Heel of the Hook.

thus circumstanced the worm is harbored by a host which is to serve
as a vehicle to introduce it into its final host. It is a parasite on a
journey, and usually bears the name of Cysticercus (Fig. 25). In the
second shape it is like a ribbon, it attains a great length, always occu-
pies the intestine, and is mainly occupied in producing eggs, which it

ANIMAL PARASITES AND MESSMATES. 685

turns out by the million. A description of Tmnia solium^ the most
common tapeworm of man, will enable us to understand all the others.
Under its first, or vesicular form, this parasite comes from the flesh
of the pig, where it is often found in large numbers, when the pig is
said to be " measly." This condition of the pig has been attributed
to damp, to feeding on acorns, to hereditary causes, to contagion, and
various other influences, but none of these notions are correct. The

Fig. 25.— Cysticercus.

<i, Upper Part of the Vesicle; h. Place where the Vesicle is about to separate: c, NecU of the

Worm ; d. The Head, showing the Suckers and the Crown of Hooks.

only true cause is the introduction of the eggs of Tmnia solium into
the intestines of the pig* These eggs, or fragments of taenia contain-
ing them, are swallowed by the animal. In the gastric juice of its
stomach the eggs are set at liberty, lose their shells, and there issues
an embryo singularly armed. It carries in front two stylets, in the
axis of the body, and on the right and left sides two other stylets,
which act like fins. These embryos bore into the tissues as the mole
burrows in the soil. The middle stylets are pushed forward like the
snout of the insectivore, and the two lateral stylets act like the limbs,
taking hold of the tissues and forcing the head forward. In this man-
ner the embryos perforate the walls of the digestive tube, and find
their way, by means of the blood or otherwise, to the organ or tissue
which is to become their temporary home. When arrived at this
point they surround themselves with a sheath ; their stylets, no longer
of use, decay ; and at one of the extremities appears a crown of new
hooks, quite different from the former ones, which will serve to anchor
their progeny in the new host to which they are ultimately destined.
This vesicular worm, or cysticercus, fully formed, and without under-
going any change, waits till its host, the pig, or that part of him which
it inhabits, is eaten, and, if its life has not been destroyed on its way
through the frying-pan, it wakes up in some human stomach. Once
there, it instantly quits its torpid state, gets rid of its useless envel-

686 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

opes, passes into the intestine, and, by means of its hooks and suckers,
attaches itself to the intestinal walls, when it begins to gi'ow with
great rapidity, a length of many feet being attained in a few weeks.
The part attached is the mother or head of the taenia, and until this
is dislodged the worm goes on producing segments, or more propei'ly
proglottides, each of which is a perfect sexual being loaded with eggs.
These are successively detached and escape with the evacuations, to
be swallowed, perhaps, by some other pig, in whose flesh a new crop of
cysticerci will soon develop. An egg of the Taenia solmm may be
swallowed by a man instead of passing into the stomach of a pig. It
is hatched in his stomach precisely in the same manner, and the em-
bryo takes up Its lodging in some inclosed cavity. Some have been
found in the eyeball, in the lobes of the brain, in the heart, and in the
muscles. Whatever symptoms its presence may give rise to, it obvi-
ously has no chance for further progress, having selected the wrong
vehicle to travel in. Man harbors not only the Tcenia solium, but an-
other species very similar which natui-alists have only learned to dis-
tinguish from it during the last few years, the Tcenia medio-canellata.
Its cysticercus is found in beef, and is introduced when the meat is
eaten in a raw or partially-cooked state. Tcenia nana and Taenia lata
are the names of other tapeworms inhabiting man, but both are lim-
ited in geographical distribution. The former is found only in Egypt,
and the latter is confined to Russia, Poland, and Switzei-land.

All these internal parasites, including the Trichina spiralis, which
we have not space to speak of further, are introduced into the body
either with the food or the drink, and a simple and efiectual means of
avoiding them is, to thoroughly cook the food and carefully purify the
water.

-♦•♦-

PROFESSOR TYNDALL'S RECENT RESEARCHES.'

OBSERVATIONS ON THE OPTICAL DEPORTMENT OP THE ATMOSPHERE IN REF-
ERENCE TO THE PHENOMENA OP PUTREFACTION AND INFECTION.

PROFESSOR TYNDALL began his paper by alluding to a for-
mer inquiry on the decomposition of vapors, and the formation
of actinic clouds, by light, whereby he was led to experiments on
the floating matter of the air. He referred to the experiments of
Schwann, Schroeder and Dusch, Schroeder himself, to those of the
illustrious French chemist Pasteur, to the reasoning of Lister and its
experimental demonstration, regarding the filtering power of the
lungs ; from all of which he had concluded, six years ago, that the
power of developing life by the air and its power of scattering light

' Abstract of a paper read before the Royal Society, January 18, 1876. From the
British Medical Journal.

PROFESSOR TYNDALUS RECENT RESEARCHES. 687

would be found to go hand in hand. He thought the simple expedient
of examining by means of a beam of light, while the eye was kept
sensitive by darkness, the character of the medium in which their ex-
periments were conducted could not fail to be useful to workers in
this field. But the method has not been much turned to account, and
this year he thought it worth while to devote some time to the more
complete demonstration of its utility.

He also wished to free his mind, and if possible the minds of
others, from the uncertainty and confusion which now beset the doc-
trine of " spontaneous generation." Pasteur has pronounced it " a
chimera," and expressed the undoubting conviction that this being so
it is possible to remove parasitic diseases from the earth. To the
medical profession, therefore, and through them to humanity at large,
this question is one of the last importance. But the state of medical
opinion regarding it is not satisfactory. In a recent number of the
British Medical Journal, and in answer to the question, " In what
way is contagium generated and communicated ? " Messrs. Bi-aidwood
and Yacher reply that, notwithstanding " an almost incalculable
amount of patient labor, the actual results obtained, especially as
regards the manner of generation of contagium, have been most dis-
appointing. Observers are even yet at variance whether these mi-
nute particles, whose discovery we have just noticed, and other dis-
ease-germs, are always produced from like bodies previously existing,
or whether they do not, under certain favorable conditions, spring
into existence de novo.''''

With a view to the possible diminution of the uncertainty thus de-
scribed, he submitted without further preface to the Royal Society, and
especially to those who study the etiology of disease, a description of
the mode of procedure followed in this inquiry, and of the results to
which it has led.

A number of chambers, or cases, were constructed each with a
glass front, its top, bottom, back, and sides being of wood. At the
back is a little door, which opens and closes on hinges, while into the
sides are inserted two panes of glass, facing each other. The top is
perforated in the middle by a hole two inches in diameter, closed aii--
tight by a sheet of India-rubber. This sheet is pierced in the middle
by a pin, and through the pin-hole is passed the shank of a long
pipette ending above in a small funnel. A circular tin collar, two
inches in diameter, and one inch and a half high, surrounds the pi-
pette, the space between both being packed with cotton-wool moist-
ened by glycerine. Thus, the pipette, in moving up and down, is not
only firmly clasped by the India-rubber, but it also passes through a
stuffing-box of sticky cotton-wool. The width of the aperture closed
by the India-rubber secures the free lateral play of the lower end of
the pipette. Into two other smaller apertures in the top of the case
are inserted, air-tight, the open ends of two narrow tubes, intended to

688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

connect the interior space with the atmosphere. The tubes are bent
several times up and down, so as to intercept and retain the paiticles
carried by such feeble currents as changes of temperature might cause
to set in between tlie outer and the inner air.

The bottom of the box is pierced sometimes with a single row
sometimes with two rows of holes, in which are fixed, air-tight, laro-e
test-tubes, intended to contain the liquid to be exposed to the action
of the moteless air.

On the 10th of September the first case of this description was
closed. The passage of a concentrated beam across it through its two
side-windows then showed the air within it to be laden with floating
matter. On the 13th it was again examined. Before the beam en-
tered, and after it quitted the case, its track was vivid in the air, but
within the case it vanished. Three days of quiet sufficed to cause all
the floating matter to be deposited on the sides and bottom, w^here it
was retained by a coating of glycerine, with which the interior sur-
face of the case had been purposely varnished. The test-tubes were
then filled through the pipette, boiled for five minutes in a bath of
brine or oil, and abandoned to the action of the moteless air.

During ebullition, aqueous vapor rose from the liquid into the
chamber, where it was for the most part condensed, the uncondensed
portion escaping, at a low temperature, through the bent tubes at the
top. Before the brine was removed, little stoppers of cotton- wool
were inserted in the bent tubes, lest the entrance of the air into the
cooling chamber should at first be forcible enough to carry motes
along with it. As soon, however, as the ambient temperature was
assumed by the air within the case, the cotton-wool stoppers were
removed.

We have here the oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic acid, ammonia, aque-
ous vapor, and all the other gaseous matters which mingle more or
less with the air of a great city. We have them, moreover, " untor-
tured " by calcination, and unchanged even by filtration or manipula-
tion of any kind. The question now before us is, can air thus retain-
ing all its gaseous mixtures, but self-cleansed from mechanically sus-
pended matter, produce putrefaction? To this question, both the
animal and vegetable worlds return a decided negative. Among
vegetables, experiments have been made with hay, turnips, tea, coffee,
hops, repeated in various ways with both acid and alkaline infusions.
Among animal substances are to be mentioned many experiments
with urine; while beef, mutton, hare, rabbit, kidney, liver, fowl,
pheasant, grouse, haddock, sole, salmon, cod, turbot, mullet, herring,
whiting, eel, oyster, have been all subjected to experiment.

The result is, that infusions of these substances exposed to the
common air of the Royal Institution laboratory, maintained at a tem-
perature of from 60° to V0° Fahr., all fell into putrefaction in the
course of from two to four days. No matter where the infusions

PROFESSOR TYNDALUS RECENT RESEARCHES. 689

were placed, they were infallibly smitten in the end. The number of
the tubes containing the infusions was multiplied till it reached six
hundred, but not one of them escaped infection.

In no single instance, on the other hand, did the air which had
been proved moteless by tlie searching beam show itself to possess
the least power of producing bacterial life or the associated phenom-
ena of putrefaction. The power of developing such life in atmos-
pheric air and the power of scattering light are thus j)roved to be in-
dissolubly united.

The sole condition necessary to cause these long dormant infusions
to swarm with active life is the access of the floating matter of the
air. After having remained for four months as pellucid as distilled
water, the opening of the back-door of the protecting case and the
consequent admission of the mote-laden air suffice in three days to
render the infusion putrid and full of life.

That such life arises from mechanically suspended particles is thus
reduced to ocular demonstration. Let tis inquire a little more closely
into the character of the particles which produce the life. Pour eau
de Cologne into water, a white precipitate renders the liquid milky.
Or, imitating Briicke, dissolve clean gum-mastic in alcohol, and drop
it into water, the mastic is precipitated and milkiness produced. If
the solution be very strong, the mastic separates in curds ; but, by
gradually diluting the alcoholic solution, we finally reach a point
where the milkiness disappears, the liquid assuming by reflected light
a bright cerulean hue. It is, in point of fact, the color of the sky,
and is due to a similar cause — namely, the scattering of light by par-
ticles, small in comparison to the size of the waves of light.

When this liquid is examined by the highest microscopic power,
it seems as uniform as distilled water. The mastic particles, though
innumerable, entirely elude the microscope. At right angles to a
luminous beam passing among the particles, they discharge perfectly
polarized light. The optical deportment of the floating matter of the
air proves it to be composed in part of' particles of this excessively
minute character. When the track of a parallel beam in dusty air is
looked at horizontally through a Nicol's prism, in a direction perpen-
dicular to the beam, the longer diagonal of the prism being vertical,
a considerable portion of the light from the finer matter is extin-
guished. The coarser motes, on the other hand, flash out with greater
force, because of the increased darkness of the space around them.
It is among the finest ultra-microscopic particles, as the author shows,
that matter potential as regards the development of bacterial life is
to be sought.

But, though they are beyond the reach of the microscope, the ex-
istence of these particles, foreign to the atmosphere but floating in it,
is as certain as if they could be felt between the fingers, or seen by
the naked eye. Supi)Osing them to augment in magnitude until they
VOL. VIII. — 44

690 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

come, not only within range of the microscope, but within range of
the unaided senses. Let it be assumed that our knowledge of them
under these circumstances remains as defective as it is now — that we
do not know whether they are germs, particles of dead organic dust,
or particles of mineral matter. Suppose a vessel (say a flower-pot) to
be at hand filled with nutritious earth, with which we mix our un-
known particles ; and that in forty-eight hours subsequently buds
and blades of well-defined cresses and grasses appear above the soil.
Suppose the experiment, when repeated over and over again, to yield
the same unvarying result. What would be our conclusion ? Should
we regard those living plants as the products of dead dust, of min-
eral particles ; or should we regard them as the ofFspi'ing of living
seeds ? The reply is unavoidable. We should undoubtedly consider
the experiment with the flower-pot as clearing up our preexisting
ignorance ; we should regard the fact of their producing cresses and
grasses as proof positive that the particles sown in the -earth of the
pot were the seeds of the plants which have grown from them. It
would be simply monstrous to conclude that they had been " sponta-
neously generated."

This reasoning applies word for word to the development of bacte-
ria from that floating matter which the electric beam reveals in the
air, and in the absence of which no bacterial life has been generated.
There seems no flaw in this reasoning ; and it is so simple as to render
it unlikely that the notion of bacterial life developed from dead dust
can ever gain currency among the members of a great scientific pro-
fession.

A novel mode of experiment has been here pursued, and it may be
urged that the conditions laid down by other investigators in this field,
which have led to different results, have not been strictly adhered to.
To secure accuracy in relation to these differences, the latest words of
a writer on this question, who has materially influenced medical thought
both in this country and in America, are quoted. " We know," he
says, " that boiled turnip or hay infusions exposed to ordinary air, ex-
posed to filtered air, to calcined air, or shut off" altogether from contact
with air, are more or less prone to sv/arm with bacteria and vibriones
in the course of from two to six days." Who the " we " are who pos-
sess this knowledge is not stated. Prof. Tyndall is certainly not
among the number, though be has sought anxiously for knowledge
of the kind. He thus tests the statements in succession.

And, first, with regard to filtered air. A group of twelve large
test-tubes was passed air-tight through a slab of wood coated with
cement, in which, while hot, a heated " propagating glass," resembling
a large bell-jar, was imbedded. The air within the jar was pumped
out several times, air filtered through a plug of cotton-wool being
permitted to supply its place. The test-tubes contained infusions of
hay, turnip, beef, and mutton, three of each, twelve in all. They are

PROFESSOR TYN BALL'S RECENT RESEARCHES. 691

as clear and cloudless at the present moment as they were upon the
day of their introduction; while twelve similar tubes, prepared at the
same time, in precisely the same way, and exposed to ordinary airfare
clogged with mycelium, mould, and bacteria.

With regard to calcined air, a similar propagating glass was
caused to cover twelve other tubes filled with the same infusion. The
" glass " was exhausted and carefully filled with air, which had passed
through a red-hot platinum-tube, containing a roll of red-hot platinum-
gauze. Tested by the searching beam, the calcined air was found quite
free from floating mattei-. Not a speck has invaded the limpidity of
the infusions exposed to it, while twelve similar tubes, placed outside,
have fallen into rottenness.

The experiments with calcined air took another form. Six years
ago, it was found that, to render the laboratory air free from floating-
matter, it was only necessary to permit a platinum-wire heated to
whiteness to act upon it for a sufficient time. Shades containing pear-
juice, damson-juice, hay and turnip juice, and water of yeast, were
freed from their floating matter in this way. The infusions were sub-
sequently boiled, and permitted to remain in contact with the calcined
air. They are quite clear to the present hour ; while the same infu-
sions, exposed to common air, became mouldy and rotten long ago.

It has been aflirmed by other Avorkers on this question, that turnip
and hay infusions, rendered slightly alkaline, are particularly prone to
exhibit the phenomena of spontaneous generation. This was not found
in the present investigation to be the case. Many such infusions have
been prepared, and they have continued for months without sensible
alteration.

Finally, with regard to infusions wholly withdrawn from air, a
group of test-tubes containing difierent infusions was boiled under a
bell-jar filled with filtered air, and from which subsequently the air
was removed as far as possible by a good air-pump. They are now as
pellucid as they were at the time of their preparation more than two
months ago, while a group of corresponding tubes exposed to the
laboratory air has all fallen into rottenness.

There is another form of experiment on which great weight has
been laid ; that of hermetically-sealed tubes. On the 6th of last April,
a discussion on the " Germ-Theory of Disease " was opened before the
Pathological Society of London. The meeting was attended by many
distinguished medical men, some of whom were profoundly influenced
by the arguments, and none of whom disputed the facts brought for-
ward against the theory on that occasion. The following important
summary of these was given by Dr. Bastian : "With the view of
settling these questions, therefore, we may carefully prepare an infu-
sion from some animal tissue, be it muscle, kidney, or liver; we may
place it in a flask whose neck is drawn out and narrowed in the blow-
pipe-flame ; we may boil the fluid, seal the vessel during ebullition,

692 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and, keeping it in a warm place, may await the result, as I have often
done. After a variable time, the previously-heated fluid within the
hermetically-sealed flask swarms more or less plentifully with bacteria
and allied organisms."

Previously to readitig this statement, the author had operated upon
sixteen tubes of hay and turnip infusions, and upon twenty-one tubes
of beef, mackerel, eel, oyater, oatmeal, malt, and potato, hermetically
sealed while boiling, not by the blow-pipe, but by the far more handy
spirit-lamp flame. In no case was any appearance whatever of bac-
teria or allied organisms observed. The perusal of the discussion just
referred to caused the author to turn again to muscle, liver, and kid-
ney, with the view of varying and multiplying the evidence. Fowl,
pheasant, snipe, partridge, plover, wild-duck, beef, mutton, heart,
tongue, lungs, brains, sweetbread, tripe, the crystalline lens, vitreous
humor, herring, haddock, mullet, cod-fish, sole, were all embraced in
the experiments. There was neither mistake nor ambiguity about the
result. One hundred and thirty-nine of the flasks operated on were
exhibited, and not one of this cloud of witnesses offered the least
countenance to the assertion that the liquid within flasks boiled and
hermetically sealed swarms subsequently more or less plentifully with
bacteria and allied organisms.

The evidence furnished by this mass of experiments that Dr. Bas-
tian must have permitted errors either of preparation or observation
to invade his work is, it is submitted, very strong. But to err is hu-
man ; and, in an inquiry so difficult and fraught with such momentous
issues, it is not error, but the persistence in error for dialectic ends by
any of us, that is to be deprecated. The author shows by illustrations
the risks of error run by himself. On October 21st, he opened the
back-door of a case containing six test-tubes filled with an infusion of
turnip, whicb had remained perfectly clear for three weeks, while
three days sufficed to crowd six similar tubes exposed to mote-laden
air with bacteria. With a small pipette, he took specimens from the
pellucid tubes, and placed them under the microscope. One of them
yielded a field of bacterial life monstrous in its copiousness. For a
long time he tried vainly to detect any source of error, and was pre-
pared to abandon the unvarying inference from all the other experi-
ments, and to accept the result as a clear exception to what had pre-
viously appeared to be a general law. The cause of his perplexity
■was, however, finally traced to the tiniest speck of an infusion con-
taining bacteria, which had clung, by capillary attraction, to the point
of one of his pipettes.

Again, three tubes containing infusion of turnip, hay, and mutton,
were boiled on November 2d under a bell-jar containing air so care-
fully filtered that the most searching examination by a concentrated
beam failed to reveal a particle of floating matter. At the present
time, every one of these tubes is thick with mycelium, and covered

PROFESSOR TYNDALUS RECENT RESEARCHES. 693

with mould. Here, surely, we have a case of spontaneous generation.
Let us look to its history.

After the air has been expelled from a boiling liquid, it is diflScult
to continue the ebullition without " bumping." The liquid remains
still for intervals, and then rises with sudden energy. It did so in the
case now under consideration ; and one of the tubes boiled over, the
liquid overspreading the resinous surface in which the bell-jar was im-
bedded. For three weeks the infusions had remained perfectly clear.
At the end of this time, with a view of renewing the air of the bell-jar,
it was exhausted, and refilled by fresh air which had passed through a
plug of cotton-wool. As the air entered, attention was attracted by
two small spots of penicillium resting on the liquid which had boiled
over. It was at once remarked that the experiment was a dangerous
one, as the entering air would probably detach some of the spores of
the penicillium, and diffuse them in the bell-jar. This was, therefore,
filled very slowly, so as to render the disturbance a minimum. Next
day, however, a tuft of mycelium was observed at the bottom of one
of the three tubes; namely, that containing the hay-infusion. It has
by this time grown so as to fill a large portion of the tube. For nearly
a month longer, the two tubes containing the turnip and mutton infu-
sions maintained their transparency unimpaired. Late in December,
the mutton-infusion, which was in dangerous proximity to the outer
mould, showed a tuft upon its surface. The beef-infusion continued
bright and clear for nearly a fortnight longer. The recent cold
weather caused me to add a third gas-stove to the two which had
previously warmed the room in which the experiments are conducted.
The warmth of this stove played upon one side of the bell-jar, causing
currents ; and, on the day after the lighting of the stove, the beef-in-
fusion gave birth to a tuft of mycelium. In this case, the small spots
of penicillium might have readily escaped attention ; and, had they
done so, we should have had here three cases of " spontaneous genera-
tion " far more striking than many that have been adduced.

In further illustration of the dangers incurred in this field of in-
quiry, the excellent paper of Dr. Roberts on " Biogenesis," in the
Philosophical Transactions for 1874, is referred to. Dr. Roberts fills
the bulb of an ordinary pipette up to about two-thirds of its capacity
with the infusion to be examined. In the neck of the pipette he
places a plug of dry cotton-wool. He then hermetically seals the
neck, and dips the bulb into boiling water or hot oil, where he permits
it to remain the requisite time. Here we have no disturbance from
ebullition, and no loss by evaporation. The bulb is removed from the
hot water, and permitted to cool. The sealed end of the neck is then
filed off, the cotton-wool alone interposing between the infusion and
the atmosphere.

The arrangement is beautiful, but it has one weak point. Cotton-
wool free from germs is not to be found, and the plug employed by

694 ^-^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Dr. Roberts infallibly contained them. In the gentle movement of
the air to and fro as the temperature changed, or in any shock, jar, or
motion to which the pipette might be subjected, we have certainly a
cause sufficient to detach a germ now and then from the cotton-wool,
which would fall into the infusion and produce its effect. Probably,
also, condensation occurred at times in the neck of the pipette ; the
water of condensation carrying back from the cotton-wool the seeds
of life. The fact of fertilization being so rare as Dr. Roberts found
it to be, is a proof of the care with which his experiments were con-
ducted. But he did find cases of fertilization after prolonged expos-
ure to the boiling temperature; and this caused him to come to the
conclusion that, under certain rare conditions, spontaneous generation
may occur. He also found that an alkalized hay-infusion was so diffi-
cult to sterilize that it was capable of withstanding the boiling tem-
perature for hours without losing its power of generating life. The
most careful experiments have been made with this infusion. Dr.
Roberts is certainly correct in assigning to it superior nutritive
power. But, in the present inquiry, five minutes' boiling sufficed to
completely sterilize the liquid.

Summing up this portion of his inquiry, the author remarks that
he will hardly be charged with any desire to limit the power and
potency of matter. But, holding the notions he does, it is all the
more incumbent on him to affirm that, as far as inquiry has hitherto
penetrated, life has never been proved to appear independently of
antecedent life.

Though the author had no reason to doubt the general diffusion
of germs in the atmosphere, he thought it desirable to place the point
beyond question. At Down, Mr. Darwin and Mr. Francis Darwin ;
at High Elms, Sir John Lubbock ; at Sherwood, near Tunbridge
Wells, Mr. Siemens ; at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park, Mr. RoUo
Russell ; at Heathfield Park, Miss Hamilton; at Greenwich Hospital,
Mr, Hirst ; at Kew, Dr. Hooker; and at the Crystal Palace, Mr. Price,
kindly took charge of infusions, every one of which became charged
with organisms. But to obtain more definite insight regarding the
diffusion of atmospheric germs, a square wooden tray was penetrated
with a hundred holes, into each of which was dropped a short test-
tube. On October 23d, thirty of these tubes were filled with an in-
fusion of hay, thirty-five with an infusion of turnips, and thirty-five
with an infusion of beef. The tubes, with their infusions, had been
previously boiled, ten at a time, in an oil-bath. One hundred circles
were marked on paper, so as to form a map of the tray, and every day
the state of each tube Avas registered upon the corresponding circle.
In the following description, the term "cloudy" is used to denote the
first stage of turbidity, distinct but not strong. The term " muddy "
is used to denote thick turbidity.

One tube of the hundred was first singled out and rendered mud-

PROFESSOR TYND ALL'S RECENT RESEARCHES. 695

dy. It belonged to the beef-group, and it was a whole day in ad-
vance of all the other tubes. The progress of putrefaction was first
registered on the 26th of October, The map then taken may be thus
described :

Hay. — Of the thirty specimens exposed, one had become " muddy "
— the seventh in the middle row reckoning from the side of the tray
nearest the stove. Six tubes remained perfectly clear between this
muddy one and the stove, proving that difierences of warmth may be
overridden by other causes. Every one of the other tubes containing
the hay-infusion showed spots of mould upon the clear liquid.

Turnip. — Four of the thirty-five tubes were very muddy, two of
them being in the row next the stove, one four rows distant, and the
remaining one seven rows away. Besides these, six tubes had be-
come " clouded." There was no mould on any of the tubes.

£eef. — One tube of the thirty-five was quite muddy, in the sev-
enth row from the stove. There were three cloudy tubes, while seven
of them bore spots of mould.

As a general rule, organic infusions exposed to the air during the
autumn remained for two days or more perfectly clear. Doubtless,
from the first, germs fell into them, but they required time to be
hatched. This period of clearness may be called the " period of
latency," and, indeed, it exactly corresponds with what is understood
by this term in medicine. Toward the end of the period of latency,
the fall into a state of disease is comparatively sudden ; the infusion
passing from perfect clearness to cloudiness more or less dense in a
few hours.

Thus the tube placed in Mr. Darwin's possession was clear at 8.30
A. M. on the 19th of October, and cloudy at 4.30 p. m. Seven hours,
moreover, after the first record of our tray of tubes, a marked
change had occurred. It may be thus described : Instead of one,
eight of the tubes containing hay-infusion had fallen into uniform
muddiness. Twenty of these had produced bacterial slime, which
had fallen to the bottom, every tube containing the slime being cov-
ered by mould. Three tubes only remained clear, but with mould
upon their surfaces. The muddy turnip-tubes had increased from
four to ten ; seven tubes were clouded, while eighteen of them re-
mained clear, with here and there a speck of mould on the surface.
Of the beef, six were cloudy, and one thickly muddy, while spots of
mould had formed on the majority of the remaining tubes. Fifteen
hours subsequent to this observation — viz., on the morning of the
27th of October — all the tubes containing hay-infusion were smitten,
though in diiferent degrees, some of them being much more turbid
than others. Of the turnip-tubes, three only remained unsmitten,
and two of these had mould upon their surfaces. Only one of the
thirty-five beef -infusions remained intact. A change of occupancy,
moreover, had occurred in the tube which first gave way. Its muddi-

696 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ness remained gray for a day and a half, then it changed to bright
yellow green, and it maintained this color to the end. On the 27th
every tube of the hundred was smitten, the majority with uniform
turbidity ; some, however, with mould above and slime below, the
intermediate liquid being tolerably clear. The whole process bore a
striking resemblance to the propagation of a plague among a popula-
tion, the attacks being successive and of different degrees of virulence.

From the irregular manner in which the tubes are attacked, we
may infer that, as regards quantity, the distribution of the germs in
the air is not vmiform. The singling out, moreover, of one tube of
the hundred by the particular bacteria that develop a green pigment
shows that, as regards quality, the distribution is not uniform. The
same absence of uniformity was manifested in the struggle for ex-
istence between the bacteria and penicillium. In some tubes the for-
mer were triumphant ; in other tubes of the same infusion the latter
were triumphant. It would seem also as if a want of uniformity as
regards vital vigor prevailed. With the self-same infusion the mo-
tions of the bacteria in some tubes were exceedingly languid ; while
in other tubes the motions resembled a rain of projectiles, being so
rapid and violent as to be followed with difficulty by the eye. Re-
flecting on the whole of this, the author concludes that the germs
float through the atmosphere in groups or clouds, with spaces more
sparsely filled between them. The touching of a nutritive fluid by a
bacterial cloud would naturally have a different effect from the touch-
ing of it by the interspace between two clouds. But as, in the case
of a mottled sky, the various portions of the landscape are succes-
sively visited by shade, so, in the long run, are the various tubes of
our tray touched by the bacterial clouds, the final fertilization or in-
fection of them all being the consequence. The author connects
these views with the expei'iments of Pasteur on the non-continuity
of the cause of the so-called spontaneous generation, and with other
experiments of his own.'

The tray of tubes proved so helpful in enabling him to realize
mentally the distribution of germs in the air, that on the 9th of No-
vember he exposed a second tray containing one hundred tubes filled
with an infusion of mutton. On the morning of the 11th, six of the
ten nearest the stove had given way to putrefaction. Three of the
row most distant from the stove had yielded, while here and there
over the tray particular tubes were singled out and smitten by the
infection. Of the whole tray of one hundred tubes twenty-seven
were either muddy or cloudy on the 11th. Thus, doubtless, in a con-
tagious atmosphere, are individuals successively struck down. On

' In hospital practice, the opening of a wound during the passage of a bacterial
cloud would have an effect different from the opening of it in the interspace between
two clouds. Certain caprices in the behavior of wounds may possibly be accounted
for in this way.

PROFESSOR TYNDALUS RECENT RESEARCHES. 697

the 12tli all the tubes had given way ; but the diiferences in their
contents were extraordinary. All of them contained bacteria, some
few, others in swarms. In some tubes they were slow and sickly in
their motions, in some apparently dead, while in others they darted
about with rampant vigor. These differences are to be referred to
differences in the germinal matter, for the same infusion was present-
ed everywhere to the air. Here also we have a picture of what oc-
curs during an epidemic, the difference in number and energy of the
bacterial swarms resembling the varying intensity of the disease. It
becomes obvious from these experiments that of two individuals of
the same population, exposed to a contagious atmosphere, the one
may be severely, the other lightly attacked, though the two individ-
uals may be as identical, as regards susceptibility, as two samples of
one and the same mutton-infusion.

The author traces still further the parallelism of these actions with
the progress of infectious disease. The Times of January iVth con-
tained a remarkable letter on typhoid fever, signed "M. D.," in which
occurs the following statement : " In one part of it (Edinburgh), con-
gregated together and inhabited by the lowest of the population,
there are, according to the corporation return for 1874, no less than
14,319 houses or dwellings — many under one roof, on the ' flat ' sys-
tem— in which there are no house-connections whatever with the street-
sewers, and, consequently, no water-closets. To this day, therefore,
all the excrementitious and other refuse of the inhabitants is collected
in pails or pans, and remains in their midst, generally in a partitioned-
off corner of the living-room, until the next day, when it is taken down
to the streets and emptied into corporation-carts. Drunken and
vicious though the population be, herded together like sheep, and with
the filth collected and kept for twenty-four hours in their very midst^
it is a remarkable fact that typhoid fever and diphtheria are simj^ly
unknown in these wretched hovels."

This case has its analogue in the following experiment, which is
representative of a class: On November 30th, a quantity of animal
refuse, embracing beef, fish, rabbit, hare, was placed in two large
test-tubes opening into a protecting chamber containing six tubes. On
December 13th, when the refuse was in a state of noisome putrefac-
tion, infusions of whiting, turnip, beef, and mutton, were placed in the
other four tubes. They were boiled and abandoned to the action of
the foul "sewer-gas" emitted by their two piitrid companions. On
Christmas-day, these infusions were limpid. The end of the pipette
was then dipped into one of the putrid tubes, and a quantity of matter,
comparable in smallness to the pock-lymph held on the point of a
lancet, was transferred to the turnip. Its clearness was not sensibly
aftected at the time ; but, on the 26th, it was turbid throughout. On
the 27th, a speck from the infected turnip was transferred to the
whiting; on the 28th, disease had taken entire possession of the

698 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

■whiting. To the present hour, the beef and mutton tubes remain as
limpid as distilled water. Just as in the case of living men and women
in Edinburgh, no amount of fetid gas had the power of prof»agating
the plague so long as the organisms which constitute the true con-
tagium did not gain access to the infusions.

The universal prevalence of the germinal matter of bacteria in
water has been demonstrated with the utmost evidence by the experi-
ments of Dr. Burdon Sanderson. But the germs in water are in a very-
different condition, as regards readiness for development, from those
in air. In water they are thoroughly wetted, and ready, under the
l)ro2Der conditions, to pass rapidly into the finished organism. In air
they are more or less desiccated, and require a period of preparation
more or less long to bring them up to the stai'ting-point of the water-
germs. The rapidity of development, in an infusion infected by either
a speck of liquid containing bacteria or a drop of water, is extraor-
dinary. On January 4th, a thread of glass almost as fine as a bair was
dipped into a cloudy turnip-infusion, and the tip only of the glass fibre
was introduced into a large test-tube containing an infusion of red
mullet ; twelve hours subsequently, the perfectly pellucid liquid was
cloudy throughout and full of life. A second test-tube containing the
same infusion was infected with a single drop of the distilled water
furnished by Messrs. Hopkin and Williams ; twelve hours also sufficed
to cloud the infusion thus treated. Precisely the same experiments
Avere made with herring with the same result. At this season of the
year several days' exposure to the air are needed to produce the same
effect. On December 31st, a strong turnip-infusion was prepared by
digesting in distilled water at a temperature of 120° Fahr. The infu-
sion was divided between four large test-tubes, in one of which it was
left unboiled, in another boiled for five minutes, and in the two remain-
ing ones boiled, and, after cooling, infected with one drop of beef-
infusion containing bacteria. In twenty-four hoiirs, the unboiled tube
and the two infected ones were cloudy ; the unboiled tube being the
most turbid of the three. The infusion here was peculiai'ly limpid
after digestion ; for turnip it was quite exceptional, and no amount of
searching with the microscope could reveal in it at first the trace of a
living bacterium ; still germs were there which, suitably nourished,
passed in a single day into bacterial swarms without number. Five
days have not sufficed to produce an effect approximately equal to this
in the boiled tube, which was uninfected but exposed to the common
laboratory air.

There cannot, moreover, be a doubt that the germs in the air differ
widely among themselves as regards preparedness for development.
Some are fresh, others old ; some are dry, others moist. Infected by
such germs, the same infusion would require different lengths of time
to develop bacterial life. This remark applies to and explains the
different degrees of rapidity with which epidemic disease acts upon

MUSEUM GODEFFROY. 699

different people. In some, the hatching period, if it may be called
such, is long, in some short, the differences depending upon the dif-
ferent degree of preparedness of the contagium.

The autliors refers with particular satisfaction to the untiring-
patience, the admirable experimental skill, the veracity in thought,
word, and deed, disjslayed throughout the inquiry by his assistant Mr.
John Cottrell, who was zealously aided by his junior colleague Mr.
Frank Valter.

MUSEUM GODEFFEOY.

By Prof. HENEY A. WAED.

TN one of the quarters of the " old city " in Hamburg, untouched by
the great fire of 1842, is a little square around which crowd tall,
narrow buildings with high, pointed roofs. The quaint architecture,
the flat barges in the canal, and the queer trucks with harness enough
on each horse to stock a team of four, remind one of the middle ages ;
but the busy railway-station near by and the forest of shipping on the
Elbe bearing the flags of every civilized nation tell us that this is
the great commercial port of Northern Europe. Here lives Herr C»sar
Godeffroy, one of the merchant-princes of Hamburg, whose ships for
half a century have been sailing over every ocean. His great wealth
has been expended liberally and in many ways, as Hamburgers all
bear witness. But in one unique method Herr Godeffroy has long been
doing a great work for science in Europe — a work that has made his
name honored among the savants of Germany. This is the originating
and sustaining an immense museum, now called after his name; an
establishment which has for its object the collection and distribution
of zoological material, especially in the department of the inverte-
brates.

Herr Godeffroy had a deep love for the beautiful and rare in Nature,
and his captains broiight to him contributions from all seas. This plan
he encouraged, and finally enjoined it upon them, furnishing them be-
fore each departure with nets, dredges, casks of alcohol, and other equip-
ments for collecting largely wherever they went. Most of his ventures
were among the South-Sea Islands, and thence came to him splendid
crustaceans, mollusks, star-fishes, sea-eggs, holothuria, corals, sponges,
sea-fans, and the like. The collection as received increased so over-
whelmingly in quantity and variety (for this systematic and princely
research had developed a marvelous wealth of new forms), that Herr
Godeffroy determined to make it available to science in the fullest
manner possible. So he gave up one of his warehouses, fitted it up
from cellar to garret for the storage and handling of this material, and
engaged curators to assort and put in shape for permanent preserva-

700 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion the fresh arrivals. Specialists were also enlisted to work up each
department, identifying the old and describing the new. Thus some
of the most distinguished German naturalists were employed in this
great storehouse of Nature's wonders. Some of them even found here
opportunities for wider comparison of species than in the Royal Mu-
seums at home.

In other cases material was sent to the highest authoi-ities in the
various classes. Profs. Kolliker and Spengel, for example, have
worked up the mammals ; Sharpe (of the British Museum) aud Drs.
Hartlaub, Finsch, and GriifFe, the birds ; Prof. Peters, the amphibians ;
Dr. Gijnther, the fishes ; Semper, the insects ; Dunker, Monson, Mar-
tens, and Garret, the mollusks ; Liltken, the echinoderms ; Dr. Kirchen-
pauer, Kolliker, and Semper, the ccelenterates ; and Dr. Ehlers, the pro-
tozoans.

This plan, most liberally sustained, has resulted in giving the
Godefiroy Museum a high place among the cabinets of Europe for its
many type-specimens and novelties. The duplicates were freely dis-
tributed to institutions of science in the Fatherland, and to many
specialists beyond it. This munificence in thus aiding investigators
is a theme of praise among professional zoologists on the Continent.
Many of the discoveries among the lower forms of marine life which
have enriched German science during the last two decades may be
credited to the Hamburg storehouse. Rarely have wealth and liber-
ality been combined in a way more grateful to working naturalists ;
and never did science indirectly receive greater material benefit from
one not himself an investigator. For Herr Godefiroy is a merchant,
spending most of his time in his counting-room and at the Bourse, and
superintending cargoes which unite Hamburg with nearly every part
of the world. He visits his museum for an hour or two as a weekly
recreation, looking over the beautiful forms, and hearing from his corps
of workers their most noteworthy observations. It is a phenomenon
too rare in America ; nor is it common even in more intellectual
Europe to find commerce and science thus sharing the attention of the
same mind. A Berlin naturalist, who was in a position to know, told
the writer that Herr Godefiroy had for many years in the early part of
his enterprise expended not less than from six to eight thousand thalers
each year in procuring and working up his natural history material.
It was perhaps to lessen the burden of this outgo by an income, and to
make the institution in part self-supporting and therefore more per-
manent, that in 1865 (?) the founder decided to ofier for sale to Euro-
pean naturalists his stores of duplicate material already acquired
and daily coming in. For this purpose a carefully-prepared catalogue
of the Museum Godefi'roy was issued, with a detailed list of the
species in classified order, giving the author and locality, and the
catalogue number which follows the specimen when it goes forth.
This catalogue is in itself an almost exhaustive list of marine inver-

MUSEUM GODEFFROY. 701

tebrates in the regions which the Godeffroy collectors have visited ;
and what gives it peculiar value is its reliable indication of the
locality of the specimen, coming as it does from a trained collector
sending direct to the establishment. The fifth catalogue, issued in
1874, is a pamphlet of 252 pages, and notes, in close print, the
name, author, locality, and price, in Prussian currency, of about
9,600 species of insects, crustaceans, mollusks, echinoderms, coelen-
terates, and protozoans, besides several hundred vertebrates. Much
of this invertebrate material is in alcohol. The skillful use of this, by
both collector and curator, has allowed the preservation of a large
series of forms which are seldom offered for sale at a natural history
establishment. Such are beautiful coral-polyps and other zoophytes,
physalias, velellas, pyrosomes, salpidse, ascidians, holothurians, arach-
nidse, minute crustaceans, polyzooans, tunicates, and many other
forms of extremest interest to the student, but heretofore rarely obtain-
able. In a word, the Museum Godeffroy, as now conducted, is a vast
storehouse of material available for the cabinets and laboratories of
working naturalists and teachers of comparative zoology in all parts
of the world. It affords a splendid opportunity to our college profess-
ors to obtain those forms so needed in a systematic course of zoologi-
cal lectures or in rounding out the ordinal divisions in their museums.

It may be wondered that so little has been known of this Hamburg
" Zoological Comptoir " in America. The reason is to be found in
the extreme (we had almost said unfortunate) delicacy of Herr Godef-
froy, who has never been willing in any way to publish this as a com-
mercial establishment ; even the catalogue gives only on one page,
accidentally as it were, the facts that the objects are for sale.

The enterprise is carried on purely in the interests of scientific dis-
covery at a yearly expense, beyond returns, of several tTicusand dol-
lars. The staff of collectors, equipped and kept in the field, is very
large. Among those specially engaged at present are the following :

Herr Hildebrand is dredging in the southern part of the Ked Sea
and along the east coast of Africa, and interior in the Somali land, a
region whose fauna is little known. Herr Darnel is at work in Eastern
Australia, having passed through Queensland and penetrated three
hundred miles into the interior, obtaining strange forms of mollusks
and that strangest of fishes — the Geratodiis Fosteri. Six of these fishes,
about two feet long, have been secured by him, and six German muse-
ums have got these ichthyological treasures at two hundred Prussian
thalers each. Also in Australia. Frau Dietrich, a second Madame
Pfeiffer, for the last ten years has been traveling and collecting for
the Godeffroy Museum. Her collections of insects are astonishing in
the number of new forms brought to light. In the rapturous South-
Sea Islands — Samoa, Viti, Pelew, Society, Marshall, and others — Herr
Kubarz and Dr. Garret have resided for more than ten years, cruising
from island to island and making magnificent collections of polyps,

702 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

echinoderms, moUusks, and crustaceans. The observations of these
educated naturalists are familiar to the readers of the " Transactions "
of the German zoological societies. For a long time the discoveries
of this large party of expert collectors were thus freely contributed to
the various scientific publications of Germany and Great Britain, But
in 1873 Herr GodefFroy commenced the Journal of the Museum Godef-
froy, a thick quarto issued in four yearly parts. This journal contains
the elaborate report of distinguished naturalists on the series of speci-
mens submitted to them. Thus Milne Edwards, of the Garden of Plants
at Paris, has described the crustaceans ; and Liitken, of Copenhagen
University, the echinoderms ; and Dr. Giinther, the celebrated ichthy-
ologist of the British Museum, the fishes. The Journal is profusely
illustrated with colored cuts, and takes high rank for its beauty and
scientific value.

Such is the remarkable Museum Godeffroy. As a storehouse of
material for the benefit of working naturalists it stands unique ; and
as an auxiliary to the purest, highest research, it is one of the signs of
the times that wealth is not absorbed in material interests ; that com-
merce counts it an honor to contribute to original investigation. May
the number of such men increase, and such institutions multiply !

-♦♦♦-

THE POLAE GLACIEES.

By C. C. MEEEIMAN.

THE centre of gravity of the earth is the centre of the sphere formed
by the surface of the oceans ; or rather, owing to the flattening
of the earth at the poles, it is a point equally distant, in opposite
directions, from the level of the sea. The waters, being free to move,
must of necessity conform themselves to this equidistance from the
gravitating centre of the whole mass. Inasmuch, then, as any plane
which cuts the earth into two parts through its centre of gravity must
equally divide the weight of the whole earth, it follows also that the
same plane would exactly bisect the great sphei-oid of the oceans. In
each hemisphere the sea-level in all corresponding parts would be at
the same distance from this centre ; and whatever land and mountains
there might be above the ocean in one half would have to be counter-
balanced by land, or an excess of weight of some sort, in the other
half. And this counterpoising weight must itself rise above the level
of the sea, unless we say that one side of the world is composed of
heavier materials than tlie other, of which there is not the least evi-
dence or probability.

If the plane thus dividing the earth be that of its equator, there
will be found in the northern hemisphere about 44,000,000 square miles

THE POLAR GLACIERS. 703

of land, and in the southern, so far as is known, about 16,000,000 square
miles. Now, the great problem in physical geography is. What is
there in the southern hemisphere to counterbalance this great excess
of land in the northern ?

Humboldt has estimated that, if the mountains and highlands of
Asia were leveled down and made to fill up evenly the low places, the
whole continent would have a uniform height of 1,150 feet above the
sea. In like manner. South America would have a height of 1,130
feet ; North America of 750 feet ; and Europe of 6*70 feet. The aver-
age of the whole he estimates at 920 feet. Of the mainlands not
included in the above — namely, Africa, Australia, the polar lands, and
islands — about as much is north as south of the equator. So that we
may safely estimate that there is in the northern hemisphere an excess
of 28,000,000 square miles of land, of the average height above-men-
tioned, to be counterpoised by something yet to be found in the south-
ern hemisphere.

If there is an excess in the quantity or bulk of water south of the
equator over that north of it, then the difference of weight between
this excess and so much land, which is about in the proportion of one
to two and a half, must be added to the unknown quantity which we
are soon to look for above the southern seas. As there is, of course,
the same excess of water-surface south of the equator that there is of
land-surface north of it, and as we may very safely assume that the
oceans have a mean depth of at least 3,220 feet (3|^ X 920) and that the
southern waters average as deep as the northern, it follows that our
unknown quantity is at the very least doubled by the above consid-
erations. We have, therefore, to seek in the southern hemisphere
what will balance 28,000,000 square miles of land at least 1,840 feet
high.

We look over the map of the world, and down near the bottom we
find some uncertain landmarks with many breaks, but on the whole
tracing out very nearly the antarctic circle, and indicating that there
is, covering nearly all that zone, an unexplored and scarcely discov-
ered country. This impenetrable region is estimated to be as large
as the continent of North America, about 8,000,000 square miles.
A very little arithmetic will now prove the bold claim which I here
make, that, even supposing the whole of this region to be land of the
average continental height, there is still required over it all an average
thickness of two and a half miles of solid ice to make the southern
hemisphere equal the northern in weight.

This result of calculation is well confirmed by the information
which all southern navigators have brought back from those most
desolate and ice-bound regions. The zone of the antarctic has been
encroached upon only in a small space south of the Pacific. On every
other side, so far as has been discovered, mountains of ice block the
way on and near the polar circle, which seems to be the great ice-bar-

704 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rier of the south pole. Discoverers suppose what they have looked
upon to be land, but rarely have they ever seen any thing but rolling
ranges of ice and snow rising higher and higher as far as the eye could
reach. In the most open of the south -polar seas, Sir James Ross, in
1841, sailed 450 miles along an unbroken cliff of ice from 150 to 250
feet high, and of unknown depth beneath the water. It was one of
the vast antarctic glaciers pushing down into the sea, from which some
of those southern icebergs were broken off, that navigators have fre-
quently laid down for islands, while the next sailor that voyaged that
way found open water where they were charted.

Not a sign of vegetation, not an indication of thawing, has ever
been discovered within or near the antarctic circle, whereas there
are aboriginal races and numerous settlements of civilized communi-
ties on every side within the arctic circle. The whaleboat or the dog-
sledge has traversed the arctics and found the sea-level in almost every
degree of high latitude. In the south no adventurer has yet pene-
trated within probably 1,500 miles of the centre of greatest cold.
Whence comes this great difference in the climate and ice accumula-
tions of the two poles of the earth ? It is the object of this article to
inquire if in the astronomical relations of our planet there are found
any sufficient causes for such differences.

The path of the earth about the sun once every year is an ellipse,
with the sun in one of the foci or centres. An ellipse is a circular
figure having two centres instead of one; that is, the circumference is
everywhere equally distant from the two centres taken together — the
sum of the two distances is always the same. Therefore, the sun being
in one of these centres, the earth is nearer to it in one half of the year
than in the other. At the present time the nearest approach, or the
perigee, occurs about the 1st day of January; and the earth is at
that time 3,200,000 miles nearer to the sun than it is on the 1st day
of July.

It is a peculiar property of bodies revolving in elliptical orbits,
that they travel faster when near the centre of attraction than when
farther away. It follows, from the second of the three great laws of
planetary motion discovered by Kepler, that the line connecting the
two bodies must pass over equal areas in equal times. The earth
passes through our winter portion of its orbit, that is, from autumnal
to vernal equinox, in eight days less time than through the summer
part of it. In the southern hemisphere, of course, the condition of
things is reversed, and the winter there is eight days longer than the
summer. Moreover, the sun is at its greatest distance from the earth
during the long southern winter, and at its least in the short northern
winter.

Of the two causes, I regard the first as of main importance. Dis-
tance from the sun, whatever theory may be, does not seem to have
much effect upon climate. The southern summers, when the sun is

THE POLAR GLACIERS. 705

over 3,000,000 miles nearer tlie earth, are said to be even some degrees
cooler than the same seasons in corresponding localities of the north-
ern hemisphere. And to take an extreme example. Mars, which is
50,000,000 miles farther from the sun than the earth is, has snow-lines
about its poles which reach no nearer the equator than on our planet
in corresponding seasons. But the excess or diminution of eight days,
in the winters of climates which even in their warmest seasons barely
balance on the thawing point of ice, is a true cause in polar conditions
and differences. Considering that these days affect chiefly the period
of briefest sunshine, it amounts to quite one-twentieth of the whole
power of the sun on a hemisphere. This difference would not be ap-
parent in the warm regions of the globe, where there is always an
excess of heat which is carried off by evaporation and ocean-currents;
but it would exert nearly its full force in polar regions which are un-
affected by those i)ifluences.

It cannot be denied that it is the sun's heat which prevents the
temperature of the earth from sinking to, or very near to, the absolute
zero of cold, wherever in the thermometrical scale that may be. Chem-
ists have produced a cold estimated at 257° below zero, of Fahr.' It
is not by any means probable that this reaches the entire absence of
heat. But, on the supposition that it is so, and that polar regions are
unaffected by the air or water currents of the tropics, then an excess
of eight winter days would lessen a polar temperature 15°, and
unquestionably amount to the difference of an accumulation of ice and
snow year after year, instead of the annual thawing during each sum-
mer, of the winter's increase.

This is precisely what is, or has been, taking place at the respective
poles of the earth. Year after year, probably for a long period, there
has been a steady accumulation of ice-material about the south pole,
adding weight to that hemisphere. Then, in proportion to this in-
crease, the centre of gravity of the earth has moved a little toward the
south ; and the waters, always obedient to this controlling point, have
gradually gathered into the southern seas, covering the lowlands and
plains of islands and continents. At the same time the waters were
drawn away from the north-polar regions, uncoveiing lands, and leav-
ing bays and sounds and inlets innumerable. The geography of the
countries fully corresponds to these inferences. The seas of the arctics
are comparatively shallow and deeply cut up, and the lands are low-
lying. In the antai'ctics the oceans are deep and bayless, and all the
mainlands and islands are precipitous and craggy, as if they were the
peaks and table-lands of mountain-ranges.

It is now the question whether this state of things is a permanent
arrangement — whether we of the north side are always to have the
advantage of extent of territory, of fertile lands and healthful homes

* The temperature of stellar space is estimated by Sir John Herschel and others at
—239° Fahr.

VOL. viii. — 45

7o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in middle latitudes, in short, of all tbat makes the rivalry of nations,
and civilization a necessity. To answer this question it will be neces-
sary to turn again to astronomy, and to study for a few moments
some of its more abstruse problems.

In addition to the rotation of the earth on its axis once every day,
and ils revolution about the sun once in a year, there is also a slow,
rolling motion of the equator, caused by the attraction of the sun on
the excess of matter in equatorial diameters over the polar. It is pre-
cisely as when one touches the rim of a top in rapid motion : there is
set up at once a slow, gyrating or tilting roll, and the upper end of the
stem describes a small circle. Just so the sun lays hold of the protu-
berant rim of the great terrestrial top, and immediately it begins to
oscillate in the long secular period of 25,868 years; while the polar
axis, extended to the heavens, describes in the same length of time a
small circle of 23|-° radius among the northern or southern stars. This
is the motion which occasions what is called the precession of the
equinoxes. The plane of the earth's equator crosses the plane of its
orbit ; and, when the earth is at the points of junction, the days and
nights are equal the world over. These two points, therefore, are the
equinoxes ; and the earth passes through them about the 2tst days of
March and September. Owing to the rolling motion of the equator,
above described, these points, always in the line of intersection of the
two planes, pass successively through the twelve signs or constella-
tions, making slowly the entire circuit of the heavens. The vernal
equinox, which now points to, or is on a line between, the sun and the
constellation of the Fish, after about 26,000 years will have traveled
the great circle of the heavens and come back again to point to the
same cluster of stars which is now overhead at midnight on the 21st
of March.

But the time of this revolution, so far as it affects the climate of
the earth, is modified by the following circumstance : The ellipse or
oblong circle in which the earth revolves about the sun is itself all the
time slowly revolving. The long diameter of it — the major axis —
makes a complete revolution in the heavens once in 110,000 years.
Now, as this revolution is forward, or in the same direction among the
constellations that the sun appears to move, while that of the equinoxes
is retrograde, it follows that the extremities of the major axis, which
are the perigee and the apogee, advance to meet the equinoctial points ;
so that the revolutions, or rather the conjunctions, of the equinoxes,
which have to do with terrestrial climate, are accomplished in the
shorter period of 21,000 years.

Now, all this astronomy amounts simply to this : that in the yeai
of our Lord 1248 the earth was at its nearest approach to the sun on
the 21st day of December, our winter solstice; and that in 10,500
years from that time the same thing will happen on the 21st day of
July, our summer solstice. In the period comprising the first case,

THE POLAR GLACIERS. 707

our winters are short and mild, and our summers long and sunny.
During the cycle which shall comprise the latter case, our winters will
be rio-orous and our summers short. The northern hemisphere is now
having its great summer. In about 10,000 years it will be in the
midst of its great winter; and whatever dilFerences there may be be-
tween the two hemispheres, owing to astronomical causes, will then be
in full force against the northern,

A distinguished Scotch mathematician, Mr. James Croll,* has
estimated that the melting of a mile in thickness of the present ant-
arctic ice would raise the sea-level at the north pole 300 feet, and at
Glasgow 280 feet. We have calculated, from data which were in-
tended to be under-estimates in every case, that there were at least
two and a lialf miles of average thickness in what geographers call
the great ice-cupola of the south pole. If, therefore, not only this
were removed, but an equal quantity of ice were deposited at the north
pole, there would be a deepening of the sea at the arctic circle of
1,500 feet.

Thus it is seen that, as certainly as terrestrial revolutions continue,
in the course of 10,000 years there must come an entire reversal
of polar conditions. The southern waters must be drained off to make
the oceans of an opposite hemisphere. New lands, enriched with the
sediment of a hundred centuries, will rise up to extend the borders of
the old south continents, and islands joining together, will expand
into mainlands. At the same time the northern continents must be in
great part submerged, and their summits and ranges become the bleak
islands and the bold headlands of a tempestuous ocean. Central
Asia, with its broad table-lands, may still retain the name of a con-
tinent; but, beyond a few outlying islands, there will be no Europe,
and but little of North America left. The Atlantic waters will stand
five hundred feet over Lake Superior, and will wash the base of the
Rocky Mountains in all their length. A new Gulf Stream may again,
as it must often have done before, flow up the valley of the Mississippi,
returning the deltas to the prairies, and remaking the beds of the gar-
den of the world. These are no idle or impossible fancies. Not only
are they the results of rigorous calculation, but they accord perfectly
with the unmistakable evidences Avhich the ocean has left, all over our
land, of its recent work and presence.

The time-honored geologist, Sir Charles Lyell, lays great stress on
the quantity of land and the configurations of continents, as chiefly
efficacious in the great climatic changes. But it may be pertinently
asked, What becomes of his continents and configurations when the
seas of one pole advance to the other, as they unquestionably do, as
they cannot but do, every 10,500 years, obedient to the transfer of

' This article was written before the publication of Mr. Croll's recent work on "Cli-
mate and Time," The reference here is to an article published some years since in the
Philosophical Magazine.

7o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

vast ice weiclits from one end of the world to the other? On all the
mountains of New England there are sea-lines at elevations of 2,000
and 3,000 feet, and Lyell himself has recorded the facts. When
the ocean was that deep over Boston, there were no continents in the
northern hemisphere. Undoubtedly the height and direction of moun-
tain-ranges, the trending of sea-shores, and the course of ocean cur-
rents, have much to do with local climates. But, instead of the rela-
tive quantity or location of land and sea having any agency in pro-
ducing the glacial periods, it is these periods which produce the land
and the sea.

So much for the causes and conditions which pertain to the geog-
raphy of the present and the future. When, now, we turn back a few
of the leaves which tell of the past condition of our planet, we imme-
diately see that the same causes have been at work in recent geologi-
cal times on a much more extensive scale — in fact, that they have
been the chief agents in composing and modifying the present surface
of the earth outside of the tropics. Over all the northern portions of
Eurojie, Asia, and North America, are found the unmistakable evi-
dences of extensive and recent ice-work. Bowlders of every size,
some worn and some angular, are scattered in immense quantities
over all the country, on the hills, on the plains, in places where the
only possible explanation is that they were lifted up, carried, and
dropped, just where they are found; and the great iceberg was the
carrier. T!ie face of the rock-beds, wherever brought to view, in the
valleys or on the moimtains, is almost always found to be grovind or
polished, and, over that, grooved and furrowed with nearly parallel
scratches. The Alpine glaciers are doing exactly the same work to-
day. Erratic blocks of foreign origin, and sometimes of enormous
dimensions, are frequently found perched on the very tops of hills, or
stranded high up the mountain-sides ; and the quarries from which
they came are invariably found to the northward, sometimes fifty or
even a hundred miles. It is argued that nothing but polar glaciers
could thus have moved them in uniformly meridional lines. The
scrapings of grounding ice-floes, the marks of ancient sea-shores, and
marine relics and shells, are found at elevations of several thousand
feet above the present ocean-level. There is no escaping the conclu-_
sionthat the northern continents have been, in not remote ages, deeply
submerged beneath an ice-laden sea ; and that the entire polar and
north temperate regions, extending in some places south of the for-
tieth parallel of latitude, have been capped with one massive covering
of ice of great thickness. Precisely the same evidences are found in
South America, and, according to Agassiz, even much nearer the equa-
tor than in North Amei'ica. We have again to search our astronomy
for causes many times more powerful than any thing we have yet
found, for differences of polar temperatures.

The earth is made to revolve in an orbit drawn out of the circular

THE POLAR GLACIERS. 709

form by the combined attractions of the other planets, Jupiter carry-
ing the controlling influence. When the average of all these forces
for long periods is more in one direction than in another, our planet is
drawn away from the sun on that side. Xow, it must occasionally
happen, with the various periods of revolution of the planets, that
they unite at times to produce extreme irregularities. The present
diflerence between the nearest and farthest distance of the sun from
us is 3,200,000 miles. It is found, by calculating back the planetary
orbits and conjunctions, that this focal distance has been as much as
14,000,000 miles. There was, then, an excess of thirty-nine winter
days during each year of the great secular winter of either pole.
This excej^tionally high eccentricity occurred, according to the calcu-
lations of Mr. James Croll, about 850,000 years ago. But it is now
generally thought that we have no need to go back as far as that for
the period of the last glacial epoch : 200,000 years ago the focal dis-
tance was 10,500,000 miles, and the winter excess twenty-eight days.
This, on the supposition heretofore made of the absolute zero of cold
being at least 257° below the freezing-point, would lower the mean
temperature in polar regions 50° Fahr,, and would unquestionably ex-
tend the permanent ice-limits far into the temperate zone. From that
time, down to 70,000 years ago, the eccentricity was continually from
two to four times greater than now. Since about 70,000 years ago, it
has been nearly all the time less than at present. Thus it may fairly be
concluded that the great glacial period of the Post-tertiary era came
to an end with the fourth secular winter in the past, or b, c. 67,000.

This is a very interesting date to us of the genus Aow^o/ for it
must have been about this time, according to all accounts, that our
forefathers made their appearance on the earth. Man, with the long-
haired mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the huge cave-bear, the great
horned reindeer, and numerous other species now extinct, followed
close upon the retreating ice-fields of the bowlder period. Our prime-
val ancestors were a race of hunters, and they subsisted on the most
abundant and magnificent game that the world has ever seen. They
lived in caves or under projecting ledges, and with only flint-headed
weapons contested their lives and homes with savage beasts. They
cracked the bones of animals for their marrow, or crushed them in
stone mortars for the fats and the juices which they contained. It was
the lingering carnivorous instinct to gnaw the bones of their prey.
They had fires at their funeral feasts, but there is little evidence of
their indulging often in the luxury of cooked meats. It was a rude
life, and a hard struggle they must have had for it; but their history
is read in the drift-beds and cave-deposits of Europe, as plainly as
if there had been an Herodotus to write it.

The efiect and bearing of the great ice periods on geological work
and time will be further considered in a second article in continuation
of this.

71 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

MODEEN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY.

By Db. E. gazelles,
translated from the french bt j. fitzgerald, a. m.

n.

"VTOT all matter is capable of performing vital acts. Those sub-
-LM stances alone possess this property which, owing to their pecul-
iar composition, readily undergo molecular changes; that is to say,
whose parts are grouped in very unstable equilibrium, and which
are always ready to form other combinations. This state of insta-
bility is the result of complex combinations of six simple bodies,
which at common temperatixres have a very weak affinity for one
another, but a strong affinity for elements outside of these combi-
nations. Of the six, four, namely oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and
nitrogen, enter into these combinations in large proportions, while of
the other two, namely sulphur and phosphorus, only a few atoms enter;
and these latter elements are so readily oxidized that their presence
increases the instability of the compound. Besides, the atoms of
these simple bodies, though occurring in identical proportions, may be
grouped according to different modes of aggregation (isomerism and
polymerism), and the organic compounds which they make up stand
midway between liquids and solids ; their molecules are highly incon-
stant, whence result two well-known properties : the plasticity of
organic matter, and its permeability to other substances. These
properties are further causes of instability, inasmuch as they expose
the organic substances to a number of disturbing influences. Thus,
organic matter is not only subject to decomposition by light and heat,
but also by the direct or indirect chemical action of bodies entering
it, or acting on it from without. In such cases the effect of the dis-
turbance is to cause the organic substance to pass from a state of rela-
tive instability to one of relative stability, or even to the state of com-
pounds the most stable in the organic world.

At the same time that it undergoes the action of these external
forces — and among external forces we include those developed in
organized beings, but applied to other tissues than those producing
them — at the same time that under the action of these external forces
organic matter suffers decomposition, it becomes the scene of no-
table reactions. Even very inconsiderable changes in the external
forces, which serve as its conditions, produce in it new molecular
arrangements which offer a contrast, in their extent and importance,
to the comparative insignificance of their cause. These new arrange-
ments, being succeeded by more stable combinations, in turn bring
about a disengagement of a great amount of force, in passing from

MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY. 711

a less stable to a more stable equilibrium. The atoms of the organic
substance lose part of their latent motion, which is manifested exter-
nally under the form of heat, electricity, light, nervous force, or me-
chanical motion, according to circumstances. Be the cause which
produces these clianges necessary or not, they are, of necessity, accom-
panied by a disengagement of force ; and we can affirm of any force
whatever expended by an organ of a living being, that it is the
equivalent of a force acting from without upon that being. This is a
consequence of the law of the persistence of force, and it may be pre-
sented under two forms : First, in order that a certain amount of force
may be expended by a living being, there must have taken place,
within that being, a transformation, by decomposition, of a quantity
of organic substance capable of holding that force in the latent stale ;
and, secondly, there can be no transformation of organic matter
holding force in the latent state, without an expenditure of force
wliich shall manifest itself in some shape externally.

In general terms, what we have to consider in living things is,
first, a substance of special composition, and then expenditures of
force by that substance ; and this, too, is what we have in general
terms to consider, in non-living things. The former are distinguished
from the latter by the fact that the changes which constitute their
history are heterogeneous; that they form many series which are
simultaneous, correlative, held together by a tie of mutual dependence,
the result being a high degree of complexity, a phenomenon belonging
to one series haA^ing antecedents and consequents in other simultaneous
series; and above all, that these changes form clearly-defined combina-
tions. This ensemble of characteristics not only enables us to dis-
tinguish living from non-living things, but also to distinguish between
living things themselves and to class them according to their degree of
life. Thus a thing stands all the higher in the vital scale in jtropor-^
tion as, from the beginning to the end of its vital manifestations, it
exhibits a larger number of successive and simultaneous changes, and
as these changes are more heterogeneous and more closely linked to-
gether, and in more definite relations to one another. Between the
lowest animals, rhizopods, planaria, etc., and the highest, the birds of
prey, manmalia, carnivora, man, there is an enormous dissimilarity ;
still the definition applies to them all, and serves to define the difler-
ence which separates them, as also the difierence of the numerous
species lying between these extremes of the animal series.

Though this definition is a good one, inasmuch as it applies to all
living things, and to them alone, nevertheless it is defective in that
it omits the most distinctive peculiarity, namely, the element known
as activity, in other words, those operations whereby living beings
adapt themselves to their conditions of life. The definition should
include the general relations of the living thing to its environment.
The environment, too, has its successive and correlative changes

712 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which, though very diverse, present no definite combinations. Its
composition, no doubt, is definite, and equally so its properties ; but
they are variable, and its variations alter the relations of the environ-
ment to the living being. To all changes of the environment there
are corresponding changes in the living being, otherwise it would
perish. These changes, which follow the laws of vital changes, inas-
much as they are in a definite combination, constitute the activity of
the animal ; the more numerous and frequent they are, the more active
is the life and the higher the rank of the living being in the scale of
life. The degree of correspondence between the living thing and its
environment is also its degree of life, inasmuch as in efl^ect it connotes
an increase in the number and iu the mutual dependence of the vital
changes which constitute life. A perfect correspondence would imply
a perfect life. If to all changes of the environment there were op-
posed, as a counterbalance, changes in the living thing, natural death
would be no more, nor death by disease or by accident, all of which
are signs of a lack of correspondence.'

A definition of life which possesses these characters, and which
expresses in a general formula the law of the changes of structure,
and of the changes of function accompanying them ; that is to say,
which expresses the heterogeneity, the coordination, and the ever-in-
creasing mutual dependence of these changes ; and which at the same
time expresses the ever-increasing correspondence which attaches
them to the changes of the environment by an operation of equilibra-
tion— such a definition makes life to be an evolution, a succession of
states of unstable equilibrium tending to perfect equilibrium ; not

' We must here point out an erroneous statement made by Claude Bernard. In
his article on the "Definition of Life" {Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 Mai, ISTS, p. 345),
this eminent physiologist offers as a complete definition of life a portion of Spencer's
definition, as found in the " Principles of Biology." " The following definition,"
says he, " is proposed by Herbert Spencer : ' Life is the definite combination of het-
erogeneous changes, both simultaneous and successive.' " And he goes on to say :
" Under this abstract form the English philosopher would specially indicate the idea of
evolution and of succession observed in vital phenomena." KM. Claude Bernard had made
this quotation from the "Principles of Biology" itself, he would have read immediately
after this passage the following words: "This is a formula which fails to call up an ade-
quate conception. And it fails from omitting the most distinctive peculiarity — the
peculiarity of which we have the most familiar experience, and with which our notion of
life is, more than with any other, associated. It remains now to supplement the definition
by the addition of this peculiarity" (p. 71). Those who have studied Mr. Spencer's
writings know how cautiously he sets about making a definition. He completes a formula,
first expressed in very general terms, by the successive addition of essential characters,
and for each of these characters he makes a minute analysis. Thus, having given as a
preliminary result the formula quoted by M. Claude Bernard, Mr. Spencer adds that it needs
to be completed, and a few pages further on (p. 74) he adds these words : " In corre-
spondence with external coexistences and sequences." Again (p. 80), he writes : " The
broadest and most complete definition of life will be — The continuous adjustment of
internal relations to external relations." It is evident that M. Claude Bernard did not
derive from the " Principles of Biology " the definition he quotes, and which he con-
demns. But ought he not to have taken it from that work '?

MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY. 713

only an evolution of the individual from the moment when it became
more heterogeneous by the differentiation of parts and functions, but
also an evolution of the ensemble of living beings, from the first ap-
pearance of life in its least differentiated form up to the highest degree
of complexity in structure and function.

If life is an evolution, of what is it an evolution ? If the question
refers to an individual of any given species, the answer is easily given,
for we can study the history of its life from the germinal cell to the
period of its full development, and to the end of its life. But if the
question refers to the ensemble of living Nature, only the middle por-
tion of which is known to us, and the beginning of which we have
no idea of save in imagination, then the reply must be only an hypothe-
sis. We find groups differing from one another by their respective
degrees of vital evolution, and we regard them as being, not as it
wei'e links of one chain, but rather the result of an evolution whicli
has taken different directions owing to different circumstances.
Hence we can admit only one starting-point, though the goals are
many. The divergent lines which we find in the development of the
forms of living things, in the history of life, warrant our supposing
the starting-point to be one, and at this point the evolution hyj^othesis
must jDlace the formation of primordial organic matter, whose reac-
tions with its environment present the first crude examines of vital
function.

The hypothesis which accounts for the production of life by the
spontaneous generation of a complete organism from simple proto-
plasm is irreconcilable with evolution ; this woiald suppose something
more than an evolution, in fact a beginning in the absolute sense,
an enormous hiatus between the causes and their supposed effects.
But on the theory of evolution we can conceive of another mode of
formation. It is possible that even now, under existing cosmical
conditions, organic matter is produced; but it is more probable that
it was formed in an epoch when the cosmical forces now known
to us, especially heat and light, had on earth a greater intensity
than at present. The first types must have been more simple, less
definite, less fixed in form and structure, than the lowest rhizopods
of our day. Indeed, they must have been moi-e nearly allied to
protoplasm than even Haeckel's Protogenes / and, before evolution
could derive from these types our present infusoria, ages and ages
must have elapsed. Strictly speaking, we cannot call the first living
thing an organism at all, in the true sense of that term ; it is stretch-
ing the meaning of words to speak of types in connection with beings
whose form must have been perfectly unstable, and whose organization
had no structure.

Of this quasi-organism we have merely a symbolic conception,
formed by combining two positive, empiric elements, viz., transforma-
tions of substances strictly evolutive, such as we see in the laboratory

714 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the chemist, where organic matter goes through a series of gradual
modifications by which it is adapted to new artificial conditions ; and,
on the other hand, facts observed in the lowest orders of animals
by the biologist. We conceive that, in the primordial world, as now
in the laboratory, higher types of organic substance were formed at
the expense of lower types, and that gradually, after repeated reac-
tions and under favorable conditions, they resulted in organizable pro-
toplasm, a substance which is very susceptible of modification. Pro-
tein, as we know, may exist in upward of one thousand isomeric forms,
and, by combination with itself and with other substances, it yields
products still more complex, and in countless numbers. Hence we can
easily conceive how, under the conditions of heat and liglit tlien exist-
ing on earth, and with the aqueous, mineral, and atmospheric environ-
ment of that epoch, protein may have undergone metamorphoses with-
out end. Under conditions which we can conceive as possible, though
we may not be able to define them exactly, products may have been
evolved fitted to exhibit the rudimentary vital reactions. In this way
we till up the chasm which divides the positive chemical facts of the
higher organic combinations from the biological phenomena of the
lower forms of life.

But another hypothesis is still necessary. " When we come down
to the substances out of which living bodies are formed, we find
groups and sub-groups of manifold and divergent compounds, the
units of which are large, heterogeneous, and unstable in a high de-
gree. Why should we suppose that these combinations must stand
still at the complex colloids which enter into the composition of or-
ganic matter ? Is it not more probable that, in addition to tliese col-
loids, there are developed by a higher combination atoms still more
heterogeneous and compounds still more numerous? If colloids are
unstable, extremely modifiable by very slight incident forces, and in-
capable of assuming the equilibrated form of crystallization, then a
fortiori these new organic atoms are unstable, very modifiable, and of
many different species." They would surpass pi'otein in instability
and plasticity as much as jDrotein surpasses organic matter. Further-
more, these atoms would possess one fundamental property, without
which no explanation is possible in biology, viz., the property of ar-
ranging themselves in certain forms peculiar to the various groups to
which they belong — a property but little understood, though its ex-
istence is unquestionable. We call it polarity^ for want of a better
terra, to indicate the power of manifesting actions in a certain fixed
direction. These atoms we denominate physiological units. They
are developed in every living thing, differentiating themselves from
one another in different organisms by the same causes which differen-
tiate the organisms themselves, and in this way acquiring a diversity
which corresponds to that of the creature they constitute by their ag-
gregation. They follow, step by step, in their modifications the modi-

MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY. 715

lications of the aggregate to which they belong. Tliey undergo tlie
influence of the environment, though indirectly, through this aggre-
gate. Their modifications are new directions, amplitudes of new vibra-
tions, which place them in equilibrium with the forces which the en-
semble of the aggregate, as modified by the environment, brings to
bear upon them. These moditications endure as long as equilibrium
endures, and are ever transmitted to the new units which spring from
the former ones, until, on the equilibrium being disturbed, a new
breaking-up of the existing relations necessitates others.

The hypothesis of physiological units is a necessity, not only in
order to fill up tlie gap which separates the highest products of or-
ganic chemistry from those irreducible elements revealed by the mi-
croscope which we call morphological elements, but also in order to
furnish a substratum for the positive property which serves to account
for the great facts of biology, and to refer them, by formulae expressed
in terms of mechanics, to first principles.

Let us now consider the great facts of biology.

The growth of an organism is an operation essentially like the
growth of a crystal. " Around a plant there exist certain elements
that are like the elements which form its substance ; and its increase
of size is efiected by continually integrating those surrounding like
elements with itself. !Nor does the animal fundamentally differ in this
respect from the plant or the crystal. Its food is a portion of the en-
vironing matter that contains some compound atoms like some of the
compound atoms constituting its tissues ; and, either through simple
imbibition or through digestion, the animal eventually integrates with
itself units like those of which it is built up, and leaves behind unlike
units."

Organic growth differs from inorganic in this, that it has limits.
All conditions remaining the same (a proviso that must always be
made in biology), and the quantity of integrated substance not vary-
ing, we find that, by the principle of the persistence of force, the
growth of the living being must depend on the expenditure. The only
portion of the integrated substance that can serve for growth is the
unexpended residue, the excess of nutrition over expenditure — a quan-
tity which is essentially variable, and which transfers its variations
to the growth, limiting it and diminishing it more or less rapidly from
the moment when the body of the living thing has attained its full
development. Experience shows that the limit of growth is fixed for
those organisms which have large expenditure, and that for those
which have hardly any expenditure this limit gradually recedes ; of
tliis the crocodile is an instance. But there is another element which
must be taken into account, namely, that the definitive volume of an
organism, being the sum of its initial volume and of its successive
increments, must depend upon the initial volume. The definitive vol-

7i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

urae depends also on the organization, which enables the living thing
to assimilate substances in large quantity and to dispose of an amount
of nutrition in excess of the expenditure, just as a large capital, while
it gives the means of undertaking great enterprises, at the same time
yields increased profits.

The integration by an organism of substances homologous with its
own has for its effect a segregation which increases the difference
between the organism and the environment, and at the same time
makes this difference stable. While the organism is being integrated,
at the expense of the environment, by deriving from it special mate-
rials, each organ is being integrated at the expense of the organism,
from which it derives, as from an environment, its special materials.
Like the organism, each organ diverges more and more, by a gradual
segregation, from the organs around about it. The organic units
which constitute it attract other units with the same polarity, diffused
throughout the fluids. This is not always the case, and homologous
units do not always exist ready made in the nutrient fluid. More
generally the organic units find in the fluids only the elements neces-
sary for the production of homologous units, and segregation is per-
fected by a phenomenon of the nature of a genesis. Still in this case,
as in the preceding, the result is a more perfect differentiation of the
parts of the organism, an increase of heterogeneity, and augmentation
of the distinction between the different parts, and ultimately the for-
mation of a structure and of an actual organism. This result is called
development.

Expressed in general terms, development is the transition from a
state of incoherent homogeneity to a state of coherent and definite
heterogeneity ; from a state wherein the parts are all alike, or rather,
where there are no distinct parts, to a state wherein there are parts
clearly defined, with fixed forms and attributes. The bud of a plant
consists of a hemispherical or subconical projection which, at its apex
especially, is made up of a transparent mass of cells not yet organ-
ized into tissues. This mass grows owing to the rapid multiplication
of the cells, lengthens, sends forth other similar projections having a
like homogeneous structure; from this come leaves. As the branch
develops, the cells, which at first were identical, assume different
characters, till at last they lose all resemblance to one another. The
same thing takes place in man. His arm is at first simply a little bud-
ding prominence on one side of the embryo, consisting of simple cells
without any signs of arrangement. Soon there appear vessels, and
later the cartilaginous parts from which are produced the bones, the
gelatin-like bands which afterward are transformed into muscles, etc.
In the individual we see the first phase of existence characterized by a
state of homogeneity wherein nothing is distinct, and we follow step
by step the gradations of its transition to a greater complexity, and to
states characterized by increasing distinction of parts, as their dissim-

MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY. 717

ilarity becoraee greater. And what is true of the individual animal
or plant is equally true of the whole organic world. Baer's law would
lead us to suppose that tlie organic world has developed like the indi-
vidual ; tliat, starting from homogeneity, it has resulted in heteroge-
neity. In the early stages of their existence, all organisms are alike in
most of their characters; somewhat later their structure resembles
that found at the corresponding period in a smaller group; at each
subsequent stage the organism acquires traits which distinguish the
developing embryo from one after another of the groups which before
it resembled ; till finally the class of organisms which it resembles
includes only the species to which the embryo belongs. Thus, in the
process of diffei'entiation, the embryo first acquires those characters
which determine the suh-kingdom to which it belongs, then the class,
then the genus, finally the species. In the series of organisms we
should thus find a succession of states like those which constitute the
history of the individual, with tliis difference, that in the individual
we can make out the link which connects the primitive homogeneity
with the final heterogeneity, while in the series of organisms all we
can do is to connect, with a considerable degree of probability, the
hypothetical starting-point with the positive goal.

Side by side with heterogeneity and distinction of parts in the
structure, we have a correlative result of this same segregative
operation, viz,, differentiation, which tends to produce heterogeneity
and distinction of functions. The expenditure of the force that is
stored up in the shape of materials takes place through the parts of
the organism, however little heterogeneous these may be supposed to
be, and this force is in fact for the parts an incident force M'hich, by
the law of the multiplication of effects, must break up in the process
of differentiation, when applied to heterogeneous parts. The functions
are simjDly the variously-modified forms assumed by the forces disen-
gaged by the organism as they traverse specialized parts ; and, the
more diversified the organs, the more diversified are the functions
they manifest. Of these some may be denominated static, inasmuch
as they serve only to withstand external forces by equilibrating them ;
such, for example, are the functions of the woody axis in plants and
of the skeleton in the vertebrata ; others may be called dynamic, as
producing motion and giving it direction ; such, for example, are the
functions of the circulatory apparatus and its belongings in both king-
doms of the organic world, and of the muscular apparatus in animals.

Like structure, function obeys the law of evolution ; it proceeds
from the homogeneous, the undefined, the incoherent, to the hetero-
geneous, the definite, the coherent. Like structure, function proceeds
from the simple to the composite, from the general to the special.
An important corollary results from this law — one that settles the dis-
pute which has so long divided physiologists \ipon the question as to
which precedes the other, function or structure. If the starting-point

71 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be homogeneity, and if the transition from a structureless to a struct-
ural state is a phenomenon of vital action, then vital action precedes
structure. Life is a system of internal actions adapted to equilibrate
external actions ; actions are the substance of life, its form comes
from structure. Hence action must of necessity precede the fixation
of the structure, which produces the adaptation and gives definite
form to the function. From first to last, function is the determining
cause of structure. But in justice to those who maintain the prece-
dence of structure, it must be added that function, which, as we hold,
is anterior to sti'ucture, nevertheless, regarded as an activity modified
and diflTerent from what it was, assumes its differential, distinguishing
chai*acters only in propoi'tion as the adaptation becomes perfect, and
as equilibrium is established between that portion of internal reaction
which it represents and the external action which it withstands.

At first there are only two functions, corresponding to the struct-
ural distinctions of endoderm and ectoderm, viz., the functions of
accumulation and of expenditure of force. In proportion as each of
the apparatus and each of the corresponding functions become differ-
entiated and subdivided into specialized parts, a third function appears
and takes root ; at first this is a very simple affair, and it employs
an ill-developed apparatus, but gradually it becomes more complex,
and ultimately, in the higher animals, is divided into very definitely
specialized parts. This is the circulatory apparatus, which performs
those operations whereby materials containing latent force are dis-
tributed throughout the organism.

But differentiation is not the only change produced in the organism.
The functions, as they multiply and are better defined, combine,
become dependent on each other, are integrated. Labor is divided, as
they say in political economy, but it is also centralized, and coordi-
nated. Alongside of division of labor we have cooperation : an organ
does not work for itself alone ; it has a special function, but this func-
tion serves to facilitate, or even to render possible, the special function
of some other organ.

As the formation of an organ depends on the function, so the
growth of an organ depends on the growth of the function, and when
once produced it is maintained only when the increase of function
persists. And not only its growth, but also its development (includ-
ing the differentiation of structure which accompanies it), depends on
the development of the function, or, in other words, on the differentia-
tion of tlic reactions of the organism to the forces of the environment.

We shall all the better understand the mechanism of tlie adapta-
tion and of the modifications produced in one another by function and
structure, if we consider what must of necessity occur when an aug-
mentation of function in an organ answers to an augmentation of the
demand for work made by the external conditions. In virtue of the
law of universal rhythm, the result of excess of function is excess of

MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY, 719

wear, and consequent relative impotence of the organ. Thus excess
of function in the organ A cannot go on forever unless the losses are
constantly made good, the wear compensated, its power renovated ;
and tliis cannot be without an augmentation of function in one or
more organs, B, C, D, etc, on the activity of which its own activity
depends. The increase of function in these organs once established by
a definite structure, the organ A not only can preserve its increase of
structure and function, but it has now a firmer basis for growing still
more, for producing another excess of function, and for going farther
in the same direction than otherwise it could have gone. But adap-
tive modifications have a limit, and it is always near at hand, though
it slowly retreats from generation to generation. This we learn from
the mechanism of adaptation. As the function of an organ cannot be
permanently increased save on condition that the functions of those
organs on the action of Avhich it depends have gained a permanent
increment, and as they in turn are conditioned on a permanent incre-
ment in the functions of other organs, it is plain that there is needed
nothing short of a reconstruction of tlie whole organism upon a plan
which shall insure normal provision for the organ that is subject to an
excess of function, and in which this excess of function shall be in fact
a normal process. If equilibrium be disturbed at one point, it is rees-
tablished only by propagating its own disturbance to all the internal
equilibria ; and, in order that it may itself endure, it must not be dis-
turbed by a perturbation of reaction from within ; the internal equi-
libria must be restored at the expense of the forces developed by the
nutrition, and must be fixed by modifications of structure.

So long as this rearrangement of the internal equilibria i-emains
unconsolidated by a reconstruction of the general structure, so long
will the equilibrium produced by the adaptive modification, at the
point affected by the initial disturbance, remain instable. And if,
now, the disturbing conditions from without cease to exist, then the
new structure, no longer sustained, so to spealv, by an excess of tem-
porary function, and receiving from the auxiliary organs, which are
not yet adapted to this service, no permanent excess of function, can
only furnish the same amount of action which it furnished originally.
Little by little the imperfectly modified parts return to their original
functions, and the whole scheme of adaptation comes to naught.
Thus we see that, in virtue of the general laws set forth in the "First
Principles," an adaptive change must quickly find a term beyond
Avhich it cannot progress save slowly — a fact which explains the ap-
parent fixity of species, or the inconsiderableness of such deviations
from a type as can occur during the periods over which our obser-
vations extend. It is plain that a modifying cause, the action of
which persists only for a short time, can prodvice only a transient
modification ; that the complexity of the internal equilibria and their
reciprocal dependence constitute the one great obstacle to the per-

720 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

maiient change of structures and functions ; that a disturbing influ-
ence, even though it were to extend to many generations, can only
modify a race superficially ; and, finally, that, the instant that this
cause ceases to be, the race resumes, slowly but surely, its original
characters.

In fact, the environment is ever changing, and in the enormous cycles
of changes in the conditions surrounding organic life upon the earth
the same conditions have never occurred a second time. Organisms
must follow this movement of variation ; they must be ever undergoing
a process of adaptation, in order to be in equilibrium with the altered
conditions around them. In this necessity for adaptation we recog-
nize a consequence of our first principles. The state of homogeneity
must give way to a state of heterogeneity : a species must be ever
growing more and more varied in its forms ; old species must be ever
breaking up into new. If at one time a species consisted of indi-
viduals alike in all respects, the action of the various forces of the
environment would soon put an end to this uniformity; at the same
time, however, leaving tokens of relationship. But let us go further,
and suppose the conditions to be still more profoundly altered, owing,
for instance, to a climatic perturbation of the habitat, or to an emi-
gration of the species into other habitats ; in that case there will be
difierent sets of conditions, and the groups of individuals will resem-
ble one another, or be unlike, according to the likeness or unlikeness
of the conditions. The connection between changes in the conditions,
changes in function, and changes in structure, is a consequence of the
persistence of force.

The law of heredity, which is antagonistic to the law of variation,
may also be traced back to our first principles. This law represents
the element of fixity in the domain of life. All the organisms of a
given type are descended from organisms of the same type. If we
consider heredity in a succession of organisms, it appears to be inex-
plicable. Many still deny the existence of heredity, and explain the
resemblance of the child to its parentage by a special intervention of
the creative power of Nature. But, if we compare the heredity of
the individual with certain phenomena occurring in the individual,
for example, the repair of tissues, the reproduction of worn-out or
lost parts — a process which in some animals goes so far as to repro-
duce liighly-complex organs or groups of organs (for instance, in liz-
ards, the reproduction of feet and tail ; the reconstruction of the
fresh-water hydra; the restoration of the plant Begonia 2:)liyllomani-
aca from a fragment of its leaf) — we shall perceive that there exists a
tendency to reproduce like products, and that the two orders of phe-
nomena are related. We must suppose them both to be due to the
tendency of the physiological units of an organism to arrange them-
selves in the form proper to that organism. But we need not recog-
nize in this tendency any such mystic entity as an Archmus or a vital

MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY. 721

principle. Sound philosophy should discredit all such fanciful ideas.
The tendency merely signifies that these polarities, being complexeg
of the physiological units, can find equilibrium only in the form of the
adult organism to which they belong. To this equilibrium they tend,
not only by an internal impulsion, but also under the combined action
of external forces : the latter represent the force which arranges the
units in a new order, and the former the direction in which this
force is exerted. Now, the cells which go to reproduce an organ-
ism are in a state of unstable equilibrium and of minimum heteroge-
neity: but they are not indiiferent substances ; they are the vehiclee
of physiological units derived from the parents, and they follow only
the tendency impi-essed upon them by their polarities. The same is
to be said of the elements of the plasma from wliich a tissue or an
organ is reproduced. Thus we see that the resemblance of an organ-
ism to the organisms from which it is sprung is the result of the ten-
dencies proper to the physiological units which have come from the
parents.

In the fecundated germ there are two groups of physiological
units, presenting in their structures slight differences, so that by their
fundamental resemblance they conspire to form an organism of the
species to which the parents belong, and by their diflferences they
give to this organism traits peculiar to each of the two parents. In this
way, simultaneously with transmission of generic and specific char-
acters, we have transmission of those which are peculiar to the indi-
vidual. Further, we see that characters due to variations called acci-
dental or spontaneous, because we are unable to assign their true
cause, must also be transmitted as a tendency of the physiological
units, provided this character has gained in the individual such a de-
gree of stability as henceforth to find its place in that individual's
state of equilibrium. The action of the surrounding conditions will
determine whether l^e tendency of the physiological units is to be
realized or frustrated. The tendency of the physiological units ex-
presses an internal equilibrium, and hence heredity is a consequence
of our first principles.

One character of living things is the faculty of reproducing them-
selves, i. e., of emitting parts of themselves which develop into perfect
individuals. This property, in all respects analogous to that which re-
produces tissues, differs from the latter only as regards the production
of new individuals, or only parts of the same individual. There is an
analogy between the operation of generation and that of repair, but
there is also a difference. In repair the new pi'oducts are aggregated
around the same axis as the old, whereas in generation the new
product soon becomes itself the axis around which the increments
of nutrition group themselves. In reality, the contrasts are in excess
of the analogies ; generation is at bottom an operation of disintegra-
tion. This is very well seen in those low oi-ganisms which produce
yor,. VIII. — 46

722 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

new generations by fission, and abdicate their individuality in favor
of a greater or less number of new individualities. It is also to be
seen in those organisms on whose surface a new organism is formed
by the process of budding. Here the disintegration is perfect, or
nearly so, but in the higher organisms the disintegration affects only
an insignificant portion of the parent.

Why this special disintegration ? Biology can give no answer,
unless we suppose that the genesis of individuals belongs as a genus to
a class of facts including all the phenomena of general disintegration
which attend growth, and which mark the gradual decline of the or-
ganism. This supposition finds its wai'rant in the fact that, as a
general rule, reproduction does not take place until growth and struct-
ural development approach their term, when the molecular forces of
the physiological units find themselves in equilibrium with the forces
of the orojanism as a whole, and with the foi-ces from without. Disin-
tegration would now set in, or, to speak more exactly, disintegration
would now begin to show an excess over integration, for, ever since
the earliest vital phenomenon, disintegration has constantly accom-
panied integration. Among the various modes in which the decline
of the organism is gradually brought about, there is one which re-
sembles all the others, inasmuch as it constitutes a loss to the indi-
vidual, but which differs from them in that it gives rise to new organ-
isms. In a large number of cases among individuals of the lower
orders of organisms, units combined in a certain group, and carrying
away with them, as we have seen, their own proper tendency to find
the equilibrium of their forces in arrangements similar to those in
which they were originally integrated, become detached, and form
the centre of a new integration. But in a very large number of or-
ganisms, and in all higher organisms of both the organic kingdoms,
reproduction takes place by the mixture of two products, the one
germinal, the other spermatic, coming from slightly different physio-
logical units. In virtue of a property found in the simplest organic
elements, and still more markedly present in the complex organic ele-
ments of living things, the mixture of substances which differ little
from one another gives rise to products that are less stable than their
constituent elements. Accordingly, the result of this mixture, name-
ly, the fecundated germ, is farther fi-om the state of equilibrium than
wei'e the units emitted by each of the parents, in the shape of germi-
nal and spermatic cells. The faint tendency which existed in each
of these groups to produce evolutional phenomena is intensified with
the instability of the mixture. From this we may infer, if not the
impossibility, at least the difficulty of an agamic genesis, and the
necessity of a genesis by concurrence of different sexes. This con-
clusion, derived from the law of equilibrium, which itself flows from
the law of persistence of force, seems to be hardly in agreement with
facts, since unquestionably there exists such a thing as agamic gene-

MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY. 723

sis. But agamo-gencsis is not habitual in organisms of very simple
structure, which exhibit the first steps in evolution, and in which
the absence of highly-specialized tissues shows that integration still
possesses its full intensity, and is far removed from equilibrium. Be-
sides, those more complex organisms which exhibit the phenomenon
of agamo-genesis, from time to time reproduce by way of gamo-gene-
sis. After a series of agamic generations, the units of the organism
will find themselves in an attitude approaching that of mutual equi-
librium. The groups of units emitted as germs will no longer be able
to assume arrangements which shall give them the form proper to
their species, and agamo-genesis will be impossible, or very difficult.
The series would come to an end did not sexual generation intervene
periodically, restoring a state of instability, which gives back to the
organism the power of evolution. Another conclusion, which at first
sight appears to contradict the facts, is this, that an organism needs,
in order to reproduction, the concurrence of another organism diifer-
ing slightly from it. This is true of the higher organisms ; but lower
down in the animal scale, and in most phanerogamous plants, her-
raaphrodism is apparently the rule. But, not to speak of the fact that
most frequentljt fecundation takes place in monoecious organisms by
the intervention of anotlier individual, so that such authors as Huxley
and Darwin regard this intervention as the law of reproduction, the
hypothesis which we maintain affords an explanation of hermaphro-
dism in those exceptional cases where it appears to exist beyond
question. On the same principles which account for the variable re-
sults of the union of near kindred, we can understand how, in the
case of hermaphrodites, there may exist simultaneously groups of
physiological units coming from each parent, keeping their proper
tendencies, which find only partial equilibrium, permitting one or
other side to be in excess, and there undergoing the operation of seg-
regation, which produces groups so differentiated that fruitful germs
result from their mixture.

Considered in the light of this hypothesis, generation appears as a
fact of disaggregation, occurring in an organism in process of equili-
bration : as a fact of disaggregation, which ever renews the evolution
of the species, and which retards its equilibrium by multiplying the
conditions under which the species may, under the influence of the
incident forces of the environment, undergo a more perfect elabora-
tion, the result of which shall be a better adaptation of the organism
to its surroundings. Generation is in fact antagonistic to equilibrium,
but this antagonism is only temporary, and causes the organic evolu-
tion to obey the law of universal rhythm.

\To be continued.']

724 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

THE CHAEACTEE OF MODEEN KNOWLEDGE.'

Br J. L. W. THUDICHUM, M. D.

THE science of the present age is distinguishable from the learning
of past ages by many important features. By these it haiS in-
deed somewhat altered the sense originally attributable to its name,
and science has become a word of greater precision, and therefore of a
less broad significance than what may be termed mere knowledge.
This is so little understood, that when lately a great statesman and
orator met some of his constituents in a southeastern suburb of this
metropolis, he informed them, among other things, that science was
merely another term for knowledge. Even if it had been so origin-
ally, and tlie Latin word scientia had been merely the equivalent of
the Saxon word knowledge, it would have to be admitted that the re-
lations have changed by one of those conventions which are silent and
convenient. We hold that the systemic enunciation of mere knowl-
edge is doctrine ; that science is a kind of knowledge, but that not
all knowledge is science. Science is that kind of kno*vledge the cor-
rectness and truth of which can be proved by evidence convincing to
all healthy understandings. Science is a series of potentialized axioms,
which when once mastered are as evident as the simple axioms in
mathematics, wliich are said to be so self-evident as to require no
proof. By this definition a very large amount of human knowledge
or doctrine is at once excluded from the domain of science. The
learning of past ages was mainly imitative, little observant of new
phenomena. Those ages had too much work on hand, first in the de-
velopment of their languages, in which they used imitations countless
in number, next in the shape of securing the conditions of social life in
the form of communities and states. But even where these may be
said to iiave been secured, e. g., at the height of power of the Roman
Empire, science was not developed, and it may be said that this ab-
sence of scientific treatment of the common problems of life has been
one of the principal causes of the downfall of that, and of many other
states. Famines, epidemics, among men and cattle, and wars, are
made possible or necessary only by the absence or faulty application
of the principles taught by science. Science, by teaching that, and
how, these evils are to be avoided, has a field in this generation, of
which the past had not even a distant conception. Imitative learning
shows itself mainly as art, buildings, sculptures, paintings ; all the
mass of temples and gods which fill the world's history and imagina-
tion are of this kind. There is no science about a Greek or Egyptian
temple, simply because there is no value in it ; it does not satisfy, to

' Introductory remarks to a course of lectures on the " Life and Labors of Prof.
Liebig.

THE CHARACTER OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE.

725

our present mode of thinking, one single demand of the understanding.
There is no science about our present homes, or how could they get
filled with sewer-gas, be devoid of arrangements for ventilation, and
have square chimneys. Architecture, so called, is not a science, but
an imitative art, beautiful but blundering. Manufactures have, too
often, been carried on with great disregard of science, with the result
that either empiricism was, for the time, successful enough, or that
the manufacture went simply out of existence. It is the same with
commerce. These arts have worked by tradition, by prescription, by
precedent. They all wait for an infusion of the scientific method, tlie
method of principle based upon natural laws immutable and inde-
structible. While not often scientific themselves, these branches of
human knowledge, administering all the time, for a consideration of
gain to be paid by the recipient, to important human wants, have yet
indirectly advanced science by cither finding and bringing, or by pro-
ducing some of its materials.

Antiquity, then, possessed Ho science, except alone the results of
meditation, which have been termed metaphysics, and which, if al-
lowed to include ethics and logic, have no doubt attained in the treat-
ment of philosophers a high degree of development. The contempla-
tion of Nature, however, in its inorganic and organized shape, and of
the causes determining all motion and development, was not greatly
developed. The power of distinction, the mother of all knowledge,
was not applied to all things, and consequently they termed a process
such as fire an element, and allowed some all-pervading material to
exist under tlie name of the quintessence. Bodies fell to the ground
because they possessed weight; but that the falling was a reciprocal
action between the earth and the body falling upon it escaped their
observation, and was only found by science.

Mere observation is not science, but only the beginning of science.
When a person, sitting in the railway-train, beholds the traveling
shadow, he makes an observation. He begins a scientific inquiry,
when he asks whether the shadow travels as quickly as th& train, so as
to be in a line falling from the sun past the train or whether the
shadow is not a little later. If once the question has arisen, it is im-
material where it is solved, whether upon the railway-train, or the
satellites of Jupiter — the question must lead to the idea that light re-
quires time for traveling ; exact science determines this time by meas-
uring space. Science began its development with the elucidation of
celestial phenomena, and became astronomy, or the doctrine of the
laws according to which heavenly bodies move. Copernicus is from
this point of view the father, the creator of science. Kepler, Galileo,
and Newton, reduced the observations of these phenomena to expres-
sions of regularity Avhich wo call laws. The method once found was
applied to other branches of knowledge; then arose the physiology
of the animal and vegetable world, based upon anatomy as a science.

726 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Harvey made physiology a science, and so on in all branches of
knowledo;e.

Now, let us see what was tlie method by which these results were
obtained. Meditation had of course the inciting share, but furnished
no materials. Observation accumulated the materials of which reflec-
tion might weave a tissue, the test was experiment. If fi'om a knowl-
edge of conditions a result can be predicted, then there is certainty.
Such certainty is science ; it consists of observation, meditation,
knowledge of conditions, knowledge of their results, and therefore of
the connection between results and causes ; these being regular, im-
mutable, within the time accessible to our perceptions, and coercing
everything under their sway, are called natural laws.

Of science, it is allowed that no part comes out of the human brain
alone, not even the ideas of God and Immortality, which Kant claimed
as innate ideas, while allowing all others to be the result of observa-
tion and reflection. The celebrated joke, that, if an Englishman and a
German were asked to produce a camel each, the Teuton would evolve
one out of his inner consciousness while the Briton would produce a
camel of flesh and bone, is a good satire upon innate ideas. Science did
not progress until it rejected all innate ideas or phantasies, and applied
itself deeply to its proper methods, to observation, to meditation on
the correlation of forces, and to experiment. Work, work, and again
work, were the three main features of its success. The search for the
philosopher's stone, for the medicine that should make young, healthy,
happy, and rich, was also work, enormous in amount and extension,
but it was not based upon observation. It left results which science
gathered, the main result being that we cannot prolong our lives for-
ward, but we can, as Kopp has beautifully said, prolong them back-
ward indefinitely, and see the changes of enormous spaces of time pass
before our admiring eyes and minds.

There are three kinds of history, that of our planetary system in
the theory of Laplace, that of our earth in geology, that of living
things in the theory of Darwin. No serious person doubts now that
the teachings of geology deserve the title of an exact science, and that
compared to its coercing character upon the mind of man the convic-
tions derived from written history are feeble in the extreme, and all
contradictory writings, however old, mere nullities. The youngest of
the sciences or branch of science is chemistry, founded by Lavoisier
and Dalton; developed by thousands of clear lieads and nimble hands,
it has in half a century become a recognized power in the afiairs of
man. It has materially improved his estate, and enlarged his mind to
conceptions of an elevating nature ; it has become a ready test of his
reasoning and working power. It has become the handmaid of almost
all the elder sisters of astronomy, teaching the composition of distant
8tar§ ; of geology, teaching the composition and changes of strata and
minerals; of physiology, vegetable and animal, teaching about food,

THE RELATIONS OF SEX TO CRIME. 727

nutrition, growth, changes, death, and decay ; of the healing ai-t,
teaching the nature of evils in the shape of disease, and the means of
curing or mitigating them. This science, too, was develoj^ed by work,
work, work — physical and mental ; its ways were often rugged ; its
endeavors misapprehended, opposed, suppressed. And the great men
whose names are inscribed upon the roll of its principal promotors will
be considered by posterity as benefactors akin to Hercules, removing
evils, establishing the good and true. If we cannot now inscribe their
names and likenesses among the stars, and transfer them to an Olym-
pian abode, yet we can honor them by admiring their works and les-
sons, by sharing and continuing their work, by, as it were, living
their lives with them over again, and thus prolong their memory foi--
ward while we prolong our own in the inverse direction. We ought
to honor them out of gratitude no less than out of the desire to benefit
continuously man's estate. Such feelings have been instrumental in
the cases of those who described the greatness of your Davy, of your
Faraday. Such feelings shall now be the guiding principle in the con-
sideration of the life, works, and philosophy of Justus Liebig. But I
must beg you to understand that I shall proceed by a severe process,
that of analysis, for nothing less than the results of analysis of work
done can establish as proved what many feel as a sentiment. You
will understand both the censure and the acclamation of what we will
call the world ; you will see the necessity for a reform in the pliiloso-
phy of many of us ; you Avill see how the life and labor of one man have
produced vast applications and industi'ies, improved or created a large
commerce, and enhanced or engendered art ; how they have soothed
the pain and anguish of hundreds of thousands under the most severe
trials of human organization, and how they have left a growing har-
vest in the hearts and minds of men all over the world.

-♦♦♦-

THE KELATIONS OF SEX TO CEIME.'

Bt ELY VAN DE WAEKER, M. D.

SEXUAL cerebration may here and there be seen coming to the
surface, amid the complex array of circumstance and causes
which affects woman's criminal career. If I am correct in the use of
the term, and it surely has the merit of expressing the idea designed
to be conveyed by it, we may perceive two forms of sexual mental
action, one normal and the other abnormal. Its action in the normal
phase may be seen in favoring or obstructing her career in crime, in
relation to particular offenses ; while its abnormal manifestations may
be perceived in certain crimes, existing as a direct outcome of its pres-

* Argument continued from Jiinuary Monthly.

728 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ence. It must be observed that sexual cerebration in its relation to
crime is not confined in its operation to the female sex. Its influence
on men may be observed in many of the crimes in which they exceed
their usual ratio of excess over women. Man's tendency to belligerency
evidently accounts in a measure for his great excess in the crimes of
murder and assassination. Attempts have been made to explain this
by the frequency of drunkenness, and the street brawls which it leads
to among men; but, when we take into consideration the fact that the
ratio of the sexes for drunkenness in England is, 1 woman to 1.49
men (Quetelet), we perceive that this cause can but act to a very lim-
ited extent. The sexual mental tendency of man to the wager of
battle, his physical strength, the almost unlimited opportunities af-
forded by the gi'eater range of his activities, enable man to exceed
his usual ratio of excess over woman in these two crimes. Crimes
against property, such as robbery from the person or highway rob-
bery, also offer evidence of the innate cerebral traits of the male. In
this offense man stands almost alone. It requires for its successful
perpetration bravery and daring. These are qualities belonging pe-
culiarly to men. In view of the intensity of feeling which attends all
discussion of matters in which women are concerned, either socially
or sexually, I think it better to qualify the last sentence, by calling
the attention of the reader to the very proper distinction between
moral and physical courage. The first exists as the result of intel-
lectual qualities, education, and moral training ; the last is purely a
phase of sexual cerebration. Some of the most beautiful examples
of moral courage are constantly offered by women. It is the posses-
sion of physical courage which is requisite to the commission of the
crime alluded to, and not its higher prototype, moral courage. This
form of sexual cerebration in the male is the coeflficient of bellisrer-
ency in the perpetration of many crimes, and united to physical
strength is, aside from opportunit)', capable of explaining many of
the circumstances attending man's excess over woman as a ciirainal.

The action of sexual cerebration in its normal expression, as affect-
ing the relation of men to crime, has been traced far enough to de-
monstrate its important influence. Its operation in men is more easily
detected than in women. Man's career as a criminal is attended by
fewer complicating conditions. By the broader field of his activities,
he is directly exposed to criminal influences, while woman is hedged
in by the circumstances of her position. She lives in an atmosphere
of restraining influences, each one of which tends to obscure the effect
of the subtile yet potent sexual mental traits which characterize her as
a woman. The extent to which woman conforms to a common mental
type may be more surely measured by contrasting her as a criminal
with man in his relation to crime, than by studying her alone in her
usual social relations. Crime reveals to us some of the primeval ten-
dencies of society. By crime, notwithstanding all the varied results

THE RELATIONS OF SEX TO CRIME. 729

of civilization — a scion, as it were, grafted upon the parent trunk —
humanity is wedded to its original savagisni. Certain sociologists of
the religious school teach that crime is the outcome of civilization,
that it increases or decreases in proportion to the extent and quality
of religious teaching ; but an examination of the criminal returns of
various peoples shows that crime exists at nearly a fixed ratio without
regard to religion, be it what it may. Some forms of crime are, be-
yond doubt, increased by the artificial needs of society in its civilized
form, infanticide and abortion, for example ; yet even these crimes
prevail universally among the mq^ primitive races. Civilization
has not modified the crime, it has simply changed the motive. With
the tendency to crime existing at the ultimate fibres of man's psychi-
cal life, the expression of sexual cerebration in the criminal conduct
of w^omen assumes a naturalism called forth by no other social rela-
tion. As I have separately examined the matter of sexual mental
types in a former article, all that is necessary here is, to apply the
conclusions there reached to woman's tendency to crime.

The crime of poisoning, with its remarkable ratio, has been used a
few pages back to illustrate the influence of the physical factor. It
was called the weapon of weakness. This weakness is twofold, physi-
cal and mental. Women possess moral courage, but not physical.
Timidity, a shrinking from bodily danger, a fear of combat, each an
analogue of the other, appear as mental traits in the average woman.
Here is an oflfense gauged to woman's mental and physical aptitudes.
By means of poison, a fatal blow may be given by the weakest arm
without the fear of combat, or of physical hurt. To a mind Avith crim-
inal tendencies, hampered by the reflex consciousness of weakness, the
security, the secrecy, are charming. The result is that, as a poisoner,
woman nearly equals man. This equality among the lists of crime no-
where else appears except in offenses against the currency, a crime also
remarkable for its secrecy, and freedom from personal encounter dur-
ing its perpetration. If a further extension of the statistics of crime
against the currency confirms the ratio of the sexes deducible from
Mr. Nelson's tables, it will amount to nearly a demonstration of the
fact here shadowed forth, that woman tends to equal man as a criminal
in those crimes which require neither physical courage nor strength
as conditions of their perpetration. The crime of vagrancy is the only
exception that offers itself, and which loses its force as an exception
under the law of criminal analogies. From the crime of poisoning,
the climax of the criminal tendency, downward through the ligliter
shades of offense, this phase of sexual cerebration may be detected. If
it were possible to give to woman the physical strength of man with
this mental trait existing in its present force as a sexual characteris-
tic, I doubt if it would alter essentially the known ratio of the sexes
for murder and the wounding of strangers — 9 to 100. I venture this
prediction merely for the purpose of illustrating the potency of this

730 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mental factor touching woman's criminal relations. In robbery from
the person, although the enormous disproportion in the ratio is in a
measure explained by differences in physical strength, yet there
remains much of this excess of men to be explained by other means.
That which remains to be explained by means other than that of sex-
ual differences of j^hysical strength may be stated in this way : The
ratio of the strength of the two sexes being fixed at 16 to 26, and the
ratio for crimes in general against property being 26 to 100, we never-
theless find that for the crime mentioned the ratio is reduced to 8 in
100. Here is a difference in ratio between two classes of the same
division of crime of 18 to 100.- Evidently, it is too largely in excess
of the ratio of sti-ength of the sexes, to be entirely accounted for by
that alone. This phase of sexual cerebration, together with woman's
social conditions, is competent to explain the differences remaining
unaccounted for. The crime of self-murder also brings out quite dis-
tinctly the action of this mental trait in women. An examination of
the methods of self-destruction reveals sexual peculiarities. Men prefer
cutting instruments and tire-arms, while women select poison, and hang-
ing and drowning (Quetelet). A collection of nearly five thousand
cases of suicide, by M. Brierre de Boismont,' reveals the fact that
hanging occurs more frequently among women than men, by a large
percentage. It will be noticed that women select those modes of sui-
cidal death which take the matter out of their own hands. They offer
a surety for their fainting sjjirits by closing the avenue of escape be-
hind them. However painful may be the death they seek, after the
fatal draught, the fall, or the plunge, all voluntary power of escape is
beyond their reach. Is it not from the consciousness that lack of
physical courage, or timidity, would involuntarily cause them to escape
from the pangs of death, that they select a method of destruction
which after the painless first step renders such a return impossible ?
Cortes, who knew the temper of his men, burned his ships upon the
shore ; and in the same way women assure tliemselves of the impossi-
bility of return ere they attempt suicide.

The influence of the excess of the emotional life in women over
men, upon their criminal career, is not so marked as that of the psy-
chical traits just considered. I stated in a former chapter that there
was evidence which rendered it probable that those emotions or pas-
sions which serve as the incentives to crime approached in intensity
the same mental conditions in man. In that portion of these contri-
butions devoted to " Sexual Cerebration," emphasis was given to the
fact that the emotional life of woman exceeded that of man. At this
point in the study we can give this practical significance. The emo-
tions offer vulnerable places in woman's moral armor. These mental
sexual attributes which give such grace and beauty to woman's char-
acter cannot exist except at the expense of rigidity and sternness of

' "Recherches Medico-Legale sur Suicide," Paris, 1860.

THE RELATIONS OF SEX TO CRIME. 731

mind. Through all Nature may be found analogies which give prob-
ability to this. Nature, in her forms of fixity and. power, is massive
and. rugged in her outlines ; it is only in her phases of changing,
transient life, that she assumes lines of beauty, delicacy of shape, and
clothes her proportions in the subtile harmonies of color. I do not
deny woman firmness of character; but surely, whatever firmness she
possesses, it is not by reason of her emotions that it exists. Nor do I
wish to be understood as saying that any excess of emotion woman
may possess over man is necessarily the cause of inhei-ent weakness of
character; but, the idea I intend to convey is, that excessive develop-
ment of the emotions affords a way of approach to the firmer charac-
teristics of her mind of those exciting causes of crime, which, without
these avenues, must act with less force as criminal factors. The evi-
dence of this lies in the tendency of woman to exceed in a marked
manner her ratio to crimes in general against the person when ex-
posed to the action of causes which act more or less directly upon her
emotional life. Women perpetrate crimes, involving human life, more
frequently within the circle of their domestic relations than men (Que-
telet). In view of this fact, let us inquire as to the probable motives
which cause women to exceed men in crimes against persons within
this restricted area. If we were to explain it as the result simply of
the great opportunity women have of perpetrating crime in the family,
it leads to the conclusion that women's criminal tendencies exceed
those of men under favorable opportunities, and which men in the
same relation possess to an equal extent. This we know is a wrong
conclusion ; therefore, while we must allow the great facilities afforded
to women a certain value as a factor in this excess, yet it is not ade-
quate to explain the fact. It is in the family that woman finds a field
for the free action of her emotional life. It is as an outcome from these
emotions that the family exists ; it is througli these emotions that the
most deadly wounds may be inflicted upon her morality and self-
respect. In the majority of cases, if through her error, or that
of others, the family is a failure, the woman of the family is a failure
also. In this can be found the strongest argument for encouraging
woman to become expert in some form of labor, so as to enlarge the
field of her self-dependence, that she may be able to secure safety for
herself in the trying hour of domestic misfortune. While the family is
called into existence by reason of the most potent sexual mental traits,
and finds its strength and permanency in a temperate use and even
balance of the emotions, it may become the source of the most active
criminal impulses. Conjugal incontinence, jealousy, a misplaced love,
may create the most deadly strife in the family circle. Es|3ecially is
this true if the criminal tendency exists latent, as an inherited taint,
in the members of the family, and ready to be kindled into life by
emotions which, in others, free from inherited vice, would not pass
beyond the control of the moral faculties. Man, whose activities are

732 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

less confined within the area of domestic life, is more able than woman
to resist the action of the emotions. Another cause, whicli compara-
tively releases man from the criminal tendencies which grow out of a
violated emotional life, is the weaker hold these emotions have upon
his conscious life. These are my reasons for concluding that this ex-
cess over men, as a criminal against persons, within these limits, is the
result of the more active development of the emotions in women.

Considering that, in the purely sexual relations of men and women,
the male is the active and the female the passive one, the ratio between
the sexes for the crime of adultery offers additional confirmation of
the foregoing. For this purpose I shall select the statistics of M. de
Marsangy, than whom none can be selected more favorably disposed
to women. This author places the ratio for men at 528, and women at
472 to 1,000.* As these were cases which came under the notice of
the public prosecutor, it is reasonable to suppose that the circum-
stances attending them were in both sexes of a flagrant character, so
that possibly the usual attitude of the sexes toward each other in this
ofiense was reversed. These ratios render the assumption safe tliat
it is in crimes which grow out of the acute and excessive emotional
life of women that they tend to equal men as criminals. If it were
any tendency to crime, growing out of sexual mental traits possessed
more equally in common than the emotions, which causes tlie tendency
to equality above referred to, it would be reasonable to expect to find
the sexes occasionally approaching a common ratio in crimes against
property, and which could be traced to the same mental traits. But
a careful survey of the field shows this not to be so. Woman's deli-
cacy and keenness of emotional life, when their undue exercise or
unbalanced projDortions seek expression in the criminal act, lead to
crimes against persons, not against property. Even incendiarism, so
commonly practised by men from motives of revenge, is but seldom
attempted by women. The enmities of women are never general.
They are roused by particular persons and special acts ; hence their
revenge takes- an individual direction, not against the property, but
against the person of the enemy. The wounding of parents, and
parricide, exceeding by so large a ratio all other acts of violence
against the person, I believe can be explained in no other way. Ad-
mitting, as I have already done, that the great opportunity afforded of
making attempts upon the persons of parents has some value as a fac-
tor, yet we must bear in mind that, from the nature of their domestic
life, women have opportunities equally as great of inflicting injury
upon others. It follows that opportunity as it affects parents must be
given exceptional v^alue, in order to account for their being the objects
of criminal attempts on the part of daughters, over that cf other
persons holding a domestic relation. The ratio of crimes against par-
ents also makes it very probable tnat tiie purely sexual emotions are

' Isc. d(., table, p. 14*7.

THE RELATIONS OF SEX TO CRIME. 733

not particularly important as factors in the grave class of crime now
under consideration. So far as it relates to parents, these emotions
may be excluded. Other emotions must in parricide be called into
action. But, in poisoning and crimes affecting others beyond parental
relation, I believe the purely sexual emotion is the main ingredient in
the motive. M. Quetelet states that adultery, domestic quarrels, and
jealousy, cause nearly an equal number of poisoning in both sexes ;
but in murder the number of women by the husbands exceeds the num-
ber of husbands by the wives. In poisoning, with the ratio of 91 to
100, for all motives and against unspecified persons, we perceive that
when the crime is brought within the domestic circle and against per-
sons bearing a very close relation to women and narrowed down to
these motives, all differences between the sexes disappear. This is
brought out in order to make clear the fact that women are not worse
than men, but tliat under conditions favorable to their more restricted
sphere of activities, and from motives operating in the direction of
their peculiar psychical traits, they will equal men in the perpetration
of those crimes suited to their strength. Crime, as it relates to men
and is perpetrated by them, conforms in an equal manner to their phys-
ical and mental characteristics, and exists in a ratio with the sphere of
their activities. While a difference of morality may exist between the
sexes, it is not equal to explain the constantly varying ratios of the
sexes, to crime. Whatever the differences of morality may be, it is not
sufiicient to create any difference in the tendency to crime, when the
crime conforms to the conditions just stated. The abnormal action of
mental sexual traits is more often met with among women than among
men. M. Prosper Despine assigns great importance to the moral per-
versions which accompany tlie hysterical tendency in women, and re-
gards it as one of the marked characteristics of sex in crime. Hysteria
in its myriad forms, when it disturbs cerebral function, appears to be
a perversion of the emotional faculties. An offense committed during
an attack of hysterical insanity is. not of course a crime, as I am here
studying it ; but it is a grave question, to what extent may the crim-
inal habit grow out of the perversion of morals which may attend the
hysterical state of mind? In the course of two years' acquaintance
with criminal female convicts, I became impressed with the fact that
nearly every one of them gave evidence of possessing hysterical ten-
dencies. In connection with this tendency, another significant fact
was observed — the power to control the expression of the feelings and
emotions was much less in them than in the average woman. Women
who ai-e liable to attacks of hysterical perversion of the emotions are
usually under the direct influence of the diseased action but a short
time, so that the possibility of criminal attempts at such times is com-
paratively limited. It is not therefore the presence of an actual attack
of hysteria which promotes the tendency to crime; but the impaired
control over the desires and emotions which coexists with the hyst(?ri-

734 'THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cal temperament may lead to this. Which is the cause, and which the
effect, it is difficult to assert. From the prevalence of hysteria among
prostitutes — a class who habitually j^crmit the desires and emotions
to pass beyond healthy control of the will — I infer th|it this precedes
the actual attack of the disease. In some cases, however, hysteria
results from organic derangement, iisually of the sexual organs, and
then the lack of emotional control may be a secondary instead of pri-
mary condition. The criminal resultant, in my experience, is confined
to crimes against property, false accusation, and infanticide. It rare-
ly leads to the more serious crimes against persons, for the reason
that the wrongs of the hysterical are fancied rather than real, which
disappear with the usu^ally prompt return of judgment.

The following history of a false accusation reveals the defective
control over the feelings and the perversion of the sexual emotions
which coexist with the hysterical tendency : Esther was a young
convict, about twenty years old, committed for a term of years
to the Onondaga penitentiary for a second offense of stealing. She
married very young, and lived with her husband but a short time.
Her occupation was that of a domestic, and when not employed
always went to her home, which was respectable. She gave con-
siderable trouble in the shops, by her moody and disobedient ways,
and would often refuse her food, and was then taciturn and despond-
ing. Her cell was situated near the centre of the block, on the sec-
ond gallery, and was lined with pictures cut from the illustrated
newspapers. The collection was remarkable from being made up ot
the pictui'es of men and women, some of them neatly framed with
straws. A cross, made of the thin shavings of wood used to light
cigars with, was prominent among the decorations. She gave me
considerable trouble with her great variety of fancied ailments, and
I believe the girl actually believed in her diseases. The keepers
believed her to be a " beat," a most unfortunate reputation for one
to earn while under the discipline of a penitentiary. Esther startled
the prison officials one morning, by charging the night-watch — a most
estimable young man — with visiting her cell at night. From the
method of locking the cells, this appeared to the officers nearly an
impossible thing for the watchman to do. A careful examination of
the inmates of the adjoining cells failed to elicit any confirming evi-
dence ; yet Esther persisted in her charge, to the gi-eat distress of the
young man. As Leander nightly buffeted with the waves ^f the
Hellespont for the love of Hero, it was thought possible that love
might contend not less successfully with patent locks and prison-bars.
It was therefoi'e considered the safest course to remove the young
man. When Esther was informed of t])e effect of her charge, she at
once retracted. Now, the motive of this accusation constitutes the
essence of the story. Esther loved tlie niglit-watch. She had for
months fed her passion on the sight of the young man. The class of

TEE RELATIONS OF SEX TO CRIME. 735

people to whom this woman belonged do not possess imaginations
sufficiently acute to invest love with any charm. Their relation with
an object of love is emotional; their only gratification is possession.
As possession was impossible, there was yet a way to establish a link
between herself and wished-for lover. She brought a false charge
against a man who had never spoken a Avord to her in his life. She
took pride in the fact that his name was associated with hers in a
manner most congenial to her emotions. It was the nearest approach
to possession possible. This girl was very properly placed upon bread
and water for her offense; but I am quite confident that such a false
accusation, except for purjDOses of revenge, is only possible in a woman
of hysterical tendencies, and in whom the emotions have passed be-
yond the inhibitory power of the moral sense. A false accusation of
this nature is not a very rare one for women to make, and it is usually
accompanied by two noteworthy circumstances — the woman is gen-
erally very young, and the man in some way nearly unattainable by
the accuser.

To the liability of insanity to accompany the hereditary trans-
mission of crime, I have already made sufficient reference ; but the
class described above are not insane, they simply lack the normal
equipoise between the different faculties of mind. As to how far this
may affect the relations of women to the different classes of crime we
have no means of forming an opinion. As it is a mental characteristic
more frequently observed in women than men, it is reasonable to si;p-
pose that it has some influence. Its effect upon the votaries of the
social evil is, however, very great, and careful study will be made of
it in the chapter devoted to woman's crime against her sex.

Particular stress has been laid by other authors upon the fact that
the great excess of men over women in certain crimes against the per-
son, as murder and assassination, was the result of intoxication and
brawlino- to which men are addicted. If this is one of the factors of
such excess, it will be interesting to know it. If this is any explana-
tion, it follows that one sex must so greatly exceed the other in the
matter of intoxication and disorderly conduct, as it is termed by the
police courts, as not only to include the ratio between the sexes for
crimes mentioned, but also to include the chances of no such result
following, as but a small percentage of debauches and brawls results
in either murder or assassination. As it is in great cities that men
addicted to disorderly conduct are mostly to be found, and as there
also they are more liable to terminate in crimes against the person, I
shall select statistics from cities touching upon this matter, bearing in
mind, however, that a perfect contrast between the sexes cannot be
secured, as the offenses under analysis include drunkenness and fight-
ing in the male, and both those, with the addition of prostitution, in
the female. The ratios are based upon the statistics furnished by the
report of the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction. For

736 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the period covered by the reports, 90 per centum of those arrested for
disorderly conduct and intoxication were women. ^ It becomes evident
at once that the excess of men over women, in crimes against the per-
son, cannot to any extent be accounted for by the proneness of men
to intoxication and disorderly conduct, and which we perceive does
not so greatly exceed that of women. Instead of searching among
accidental qualities for the causes of this difference, rather ought we
to examine the mental and physical qualities which exist inherently
in man. From the same source we may gain an idea which bears in
another direction upon this matter. The ratio of drunkenness and
disorderly conduct to total crime, for the sexes separately, furnishes
nearly positive proof that it has but a restricted influence upon the
tendency to crime in general. Thus, these ofienses furnish 41 per
centum of the total crime committed by men ; while, of the total crime
committed by women, 80 per centum is of the same nature. While
tlie number of drunk and disorderly among men is larger by a small
excess than the number of women so addicted, yet women considered by
themselves exhibit twice the tendency to these offenses that men do.
Here, the sex which affords the least measure of total crime gives the
largest ratio, relatively to her own sex, of those offenses which are so
generally supposed to underlie the criminal tendency. The explana-
tion I would offer of this rather unexpected result is, that intoxication
and disorderly conduct are offenses closely allied to vagrancy and its
analogue, prostitution ; that this class represents the effete among
men and women who gravitate into vice from total lack of vitality
and energy to keep themselves up to the level of the average. The
active criminal requires mental and physical energy in order to pur-
sue his course. Any of the conditions of life which depress the physi-
cal powers and deplete mental energy tend to remove those with
criminal tendencies from the order of active criminals, and j)lace them
among those addicted to the minor degrees of crime. While habitual
intoxication and disorderly conduct lead to the lighter offenses against
property, the more serious crimes against property and persons are
comparatively unaffected by these causes, either among men or women.

CAROLINE LUCRETIA HERSCHEL.

By ELIZA A. YOUMANS.

MOST people in this counti-y have heard of Miss Caroline Her-
schel the astronomer. Without knowing much about her, she
has been vaguely regarded by the public as a profound scientific
genius, the strong-minded peer and coadjutor of her brother, the

J "Reports of the Prison Association of New York," Tables "C," " D," " E," "F,"
186Y, and Tables " 0," "D," "E," "F," " G," " H," 1871 and 1873.

CAROLINE LUCRETIA HERSCHEL. 737

illustrious Sir William Herschel. It is stipposed that slie rose above
the narrow sphere of woman's usual domestic life, and sj)ent her time
in studying the universe and making astronomical discoveries. Slie
has been often cited, in the recent discussions of the woman question,
as an illustration of the intellectual equality of the sexes and as demon-
strating to the world what woman is capable of doing in science
when she gets a fair opportunity.

Miss Hersehel's memoirs have just appeared, made up mostly from
her diary and correspondence, edited by Mrs. John Herschel. In this
interesting volume we get a view of her real character, and discover
that the notions generally accepted are widely mistaken. We learn
from her diary and letters that, while she was a thrifty and interested
housekeeper, she had neither the taste, the ambition, nor the mental
qualities, that would have insured distinction in an independent intel-
lectual career. It is seen that she became an astronomer by accident, as
it were, and through the strength of her affection rather than of her
intellect. When she found that her brother had resolved to take her
as his assistant in his astronomic labors, it made her miserable for a
time; and he chose her instead of either of his brothers, not because
of her brilliant mind, but on account of her persevering devotion to his
interests and her dexterity and readiness in doing an assistant's work.

The lesson of this book is very important to ambitious girls who
despise domestic concerns, and long for an " intellectual " career. Her
science, as such, gave Miss Herschel no great enjoyment; her happi-
ness came from her womanly devotion to her brother's ambitious work;
and the book will be found painfully interesting as it discloses the suf-
ering she also experienced as the penalty of this unselfish devotion.

Miss Herschel lived to the great age of ninety-seven years and
ten months, and retained her faculties bright to the last. We give a
portrait, taken from the biography, which represents her at the age
of ninety-two. In the following sketch we shall let her speak for her-
self, as far as practicable, as nothing can exceed the graphic simplicity
of her diary. But, as she was a German, and did not begin to study
English till she went to England, at the age of twenty-two, there are
- defects in her writing, for which the reader will make due allowance.

Caroline Luceetia Herschel was the eighth of a family of ten
children, four of whom died in childhood. Her father was band-master
in the regiment of Guards at Hanover, and all his children had musical
genius. He took great pains to cultivate his sons in music, and sent
them to the garrison school for their routine education. As they grew
up they all became musicians and joined the regiment band. At Det-
tingen, in 1743, the father was wounded and left all night in a wet fur-
row, and lie had ever after an impaired constitution and an asthmatical
affection. This event cast a shadow upon the family, and when Caro-
line was born, in 1750, in the gloomy period of the Seven Years' War,
the mother's temper seems to have been already warped by trouble.
VOL. Tin.— 47

738 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Her turn of mind was practical and jDlodding, while tlie father was
intellectual and aspiring. It is abundantly evident that Caroline had
a bitter and desolate childhood. Expressions of affection or regard
from her relatives were very i"are in her experience, while her own
sympathies had a most precocious development. It is said that when
only three years old she was deeply concerned about family troiables.
Her only sistei*, the oldest child of the family, was married to a mu-
sician named Griesbach. Jacob, the eldest brother, was organist at
the garrison church ; and William, four years younger, was already re-
markable for his splendid talents, apart from music. In the following
passage from her diary we have a picture of the family at this time :

" My brothers were often introduced as solo performers and assistants in the
orchestra of the court, and I remember that I was frequently prevented from
going to sleep by the lively criticism on music on coming from a concert, or con-
versations on philosophical subjects, which lasted frequently till morning, in
which my father was a lively partaker and assistant of my brother WiUiam by
contriving self-made instruments. . . . Often I would keep myself awake that I
might listen to their animating remarks, for it made me so happy to see them so
happy. But generally their conversation would branch out on philosophical
subjects, whenmy brother William and my father often argued with such warmth
that my mother's interference became necessary, when the names of Leibnitz,
Newton, and Euler, sounded rather too loud for the repose of her little ones,
who ought to be in school by seven in the morning. But it seems that on the
brothers retiring to their own room, where they shared the same bed, my brother
William had still a great deal to say ; and frequently it happened that, when he
stopped for an assent or reply, be found his hearer was gone to sleep ; and I
suppose it was not till then he bethought himself to do the same.

" The recollection of these happy scenes coniirms me in the belief that, had
my brother William not then been interrupted in his philosophical pursuits, we
should have had much earlier proofs of his inventive genius. My father was a
great admirer of astronomy, and had some knowledge of that science ; for I re-
member his taking me into the street to make me acquainted with several of the
most beautiful constellations, after we had been gazing at a comet which was
then visible. And I well remember with what delight he used to assist my
brother William in his various contrivances in the pursuit of his philosophical
studies, among which was a neatly-turned four-inch globe, upon which the
equator and the ecliptic were engraved by my brother."

But this little household was soon broken up, the regiment of
Guards being ordered to England in 1755. The parting scenes are
thus described :

"In our room all was mute, but in hurried action; my dear father was thin
and pale, and my brother William almost equally so, for he was of a delicate
constitution, and growing .fast. Of my brother Jacob, I only remember his
starting difficulties at every thing that was done for him, as my father was busy
to see that they were equipped with tho necessaries for a march. The whole
town was in motion, with drums beating to march ; the troops hallooed and
roared in the streets, the drums beat louder. Griesbach came to join my father
and brothers, and in a moment they were all gone. My sister fled to her own

CAROLINE LUC RET I A HERSCHEL. 739

room, Alexander," [her third brother] " went with many others to follow their
relatives for some miles, to take a last look. I found myself now with my
mother, alone in a room all in confusion, in one corner of which my little brother
Dietrich lay in his cradle ; my tears flowed, like my mother's, but neither of us
could speak. I snatched a large handkerchief of my father's from a chair, and
took a stool to place it at my mother's feet, on which I sat down, and put into
her hands one corner of the handkerchief, reserving the opposite one for myself.
This little action actually drew a momentary smile into her face."

They were gone a ye.ar, and of this period of separation she gives
no recollections ; but in her account of their welcome home we see
how affectionate she was and how neglected she felt, and the kind
treatment of her brother William could not fail to make a deep im-
pression upon her susceptible nature :

" My mother, being very busy in preparing dinner, had suffered me to go all
alone to the parade to meet my father, but I could not find him anywhere, nor
anybody whom I knew ; so at last, when nearly frozen to death, I came home and
found them all at table. My dear brother William threw down his knife and
fork and ran to welcome, and crouched down to me, which made me forget all
my grievances. The rest were so happy at seeing one another again that my
absence had never been perceived."

In 1757 it became apparent that William had not the strength to
stay in the Guards in war time, and his parents, with no small diffi-
culty, sent him away to England.

When very young, Caroline went to the garrison school till three
in the afternoon, and then to another school to be taught knitting.
From the time she was six or seven years old, she says:

" I was fully employed in providing my brothers with stockings, and remem-
ber that the first pair for Alexander touched the floor when I stood upright, fin-
ishing the front. Besides this my pen was frequently in requisition for writing,
not only my mother's letters to my father, but many a poor soldier's wife in our
neighborhood to her husband in camp."

From 1757 till 1760 there is another gap in the record, several
pages having been torn from her manuscript belonging to this period.
In 1760 her father came home for good, broken in health and worn
out with hardships, and we are again furnished with some details of
the family history. He devoted himself for the rest of his life to the
musical education of his children, and gave lessons besides to the
numerous pupils who sought his instruction. Next to her brother
William, her father was the object of her dearest love. She was her
mother's companion and, assistant, and, as the income was straitened,
they together did all the housework. The mother was a diligent
spinner, and kept the family well stocked with household linen. Her
sister had not a patient temper, and was sometimes left, with her
goods and chattels, to be taken care of by her mother. As to Jacob,
who was often at home, and who developed into a dandy while in
England, she speaks of him as follows :

740 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" When he came to dine with us it generally happened that before he de-
parted his mother was as much out of humor with him as he was at the beef-
steaks being hard, and because I did not know how to clean knives and forks
with brick-dust." And again: " When he honored the humble table with his
presence, poor I got many a whipping for being awkward at supplying the place
of footman or waiter/'

It is said that his love of luxury was shown in the specimens of
English goods and English tailoring he brought back with him from
England, while all that William brought back was a copy of Locke
" On the Human Understanding," which took all his private means.

When her father came home to stay he helped her some, and yet,
poor man, he did it under difficulties. The parents had never agreed
upon the subject of her education. She says :

" My father wished to give me something like a polished education, but my
mother was particularly determined that it should be a rough but at the same
time a useful one ; and nothing further she thought was necessary but to send
me two or three months to a seamstress to be taught to make household linen.
Having added this accomplishment to my former ingenuities, I never afterward
could find leisure for thinking of any thing but to contrive and make for the
family, in all imaginable forms, whatever was wanting ; and thus I learned to
make bags and sword-knots long before I knew how to make caps and furbe-
lows. . . . My mother would not consent to my being taught French, and my
brother Dietrich was even denied a dancing-master, because she would not per-
mit my learning along with him, though the entrance had been paid for us both ;
so all my father could do for me was to indulge me (and please himself) some-
times with a short lesson on the violin, when my mother was either in good-
humor or out of the way. Though I have often felt myself exceedingly at a loss
for the want of those few accomplishments of which I was thus, by an erroneous
though well-meant opinion of my mother, deprived, I could not help thinking
but that she had cause for wishing me not to know more than was necessary for
being useful in the family ; for it was her certain belief that my brother William
would have returned to his country, and my eldest brother not have looked so
high, if they had had a little less learning. . . , But sometimes I found it scarcely
possible to get through with the work required, and felt very unhappy that no
time at all was left for improving myself in music or fancy-work, in which I had
an opportunity of receiving some instruction from an ingenious young woman
whose parents lived in the same house Avith us. But the time wanted for spend-
ing a few hours together could only be obtained by our meeting at daybreak,
because by the time of the family's rising, at seven, I was obliged to be at my
daily business. Though I had neither time nor means for producing any thing
immediately, either for show or use, I was content with keeping samples of all
possible patterns in needlework, beads, bugles, horsehair, etc., for I could not
help feeling troubled sometimes about my future destiny; yet I could not bear
the idea of being turned into an abigail or housemaid, and thought that with the
above and such like acquirements, and with a little notion of music, I might obtain
a place as governess in some family where the want of a knowledge of French
would be no objection."

As year by year passed by, William's attachment to England grew
stronger. But the poor father, who was failing in strength, became

CAROLINE LUCRE TI A HERS CH EL. 741

more and more eager for his return, and on the 2d of April, 1764, to
the great joy of the family, he made his appearance. The visit was
brief, and gave no hope that he would settle in Hanover. In describ-
ing it, Caroline is spoken of as " the poor little unnoticed girl," and the
event as standing in her memory "fraught with anguish too deep for
words." She was disappointed in her hope of enjoying this visit of
her brother, for it came at the time of her confirmation. She says :

""With my constant attendance at church and school, besides the time I was
employed in doing the drudgery of the scullery, it was but seldom I could make
one of the group when the family were assembled together."

The Sunday fixed for his departure was the very day on which she
was to receive her first communion :

" The church was crowded and the door open. The Hamburger post-wagon
passed at eleven, bearing away my dear brother, from whom I had been obliged
to part at eight o'clock. It was within a dozen yards from the open door ; the
postilion giving a smettering blast on his horn. Its effect on my shattered
nerves I will not attempt to describe, nor what I felt for days and weeks after.
I wish it were possible to say what I wish to say, without feeling anew that
feverish wretchedness which accompanied my walk in the afternoon with some
of my school-companions, in my black-silk dress and bouquet of artificial flowers,
the same which had served my sister on her bridal day. I could think of noth-
ing but that on my return I should find nobody but my disconsolate father and
mother, for Alexander's engagements allowed him to be with us only at certain
hours, and Jacob was seldom at home except to dress and take his meals."

The last years of her father's life are thus described :

"Changes of abode, not always for the better; anxieties, on account of
Alexander's prospects, and Jacob's vagaries; disappointment at seeing his
daughter grow up w^ithout the education he had hoped to give her — were the
circumstances under which the worn-out suiferer struggled through the last
three years of his life, copying music at every spare moment, assisting at a con-
cert only a few weeks before his death, and giving lessons until he was obliged
to keep wholly to his bed. He was released from his sufi"erings at the com-
paratively early age of sixty-one, on the 22d of March, 1767, leaving to his chil-
dren little more than the heritage of his good example, unblemished character,
and those musical talents which he had so carefully educated, and by which he
probably hoped the more gifted of his sons would attain to eminence."

Caroline was now seventeen, with only the barest rudiments of
education, and for the next two years the time passed uneventfully in
household occupations ; but at the age of twenty a new turn was sud-
denly given to her thoughts by the arrival of letters from William,
proposing that she should join him at Bath, in England.

" To make trial if by his instruction I might not become a useful singer for
his winter concerts and oratorios, he advised my brother Jacob to give me some
lessons by way of beginning ; but that, if after a trial of two years we should
not find it answer our expectation, he would bring me back again. This at first
seemed agreeable to all parties, but, by the time I had set my heart upon it, Jacob
began to turn the whole scheme into ridicule, and, of course, he never heard the
sound of my voice except in speaking, and yet I was left in the harassing uncer

742 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

taintj whether I was to go or not. I resolved at last to prepare as far as lay in
my power for both cases by taking every chance, when all were from home, to
imitate, with a gag between my teeth, the solo part of concertos, shalce and all,
such as I had heard them play on the violin ; and I thus gained a tolerable execu-
tion before I learned to sing. I next began to knit ruffles, etc. For my mother and
Brother Dietrich, I knitted as many stockings as would last two years at least."

During all this time she was sorely troubled about her duty in the
matter of leaving her mother, and she thus speaks of her feelings :

" In this manner (making prospective clothes for them) I tried to still the
compunctiou I felt at leaving relatives who, I feared, would lose some of their
comforts by my desertion, and nothing but the belief of returning to them full
of knowledge and accomplishments could have supported me in the parting mo-
ment. . . . My brother William, at last, quite unexpectedly arrived. . . . His
stay at Hanover could at the utmost not be prolonged above a fortnight. . . .
My mother had consented to my going with him, and the anguish at my leaving
her was somewhat alleviated by my brother settling a small annuity on her, by
which she would be enabled to keep an attendant to supply my place. . . . But
I will not attempt to describe my feelings when the parting moment arrived and
I left my dear mother and most dear Dietrich, on Sunday, August 16, 17T2."

After a dismal journey of six days and nights, in an open post-
wagon through Holland, and a stormy passage across the Channel, she
arrived in England on the 26th, bareheaded, her bonnet having been
blown into a canal from the post-wagon, and the first part of her " Rec-
ollections " ends with an account of her experiences in London at this
time.

Before resuming Miss Herschel's diary it is needful to explain that,
at the time she came to live with him, William Herschel was an emi-
nent teacher of music at Bath, an organist with a choir under his man-
agement, a composer of anthems, chants, etc., and director of public
concerts. But he followed music solely for the income it aiforded ;
every leisure moment he could get by night or by day being devoted
to the study of astronomy. He was known among his music-pupils as
an astronomer, and some of them had lessons from him in this science
as well as in music. He early applied his inventive talents to the im-
provement of telescopes. He began by getting from one of the shops
a two-and-a-half-foot Gregorian telescope which served for viewing
the heavens and for studying the construction of the instrument.
Then he began to make instruments himself, which he went on im-
proving and enlarging till at last the mirror for his great forty-foot
telescope resulted. Such were the occupations of the brother whom
Miss Herschel came to England to help. What she did and with what
success is told in the following extracts from her " Recollections : "

"On the afternoon of August 28, 1772, I arrived with my brother at his
house at Bath, No. 7 New King Street. I knew no more English than the few
words which I had on our journey learned to repeat like a parrot, and it may
be easily supposed that it would require some time before I could feel comfort-
able among strangers. But, as the season for the arrival of visitors to the baths

CAROLINE LUC RETT A HERS C HE L. 743

does not begin till October, my brother had leisure to try my capacity for be-
coming a useful singer for his concerts and oratorios, and, being very well satisfied
with ray voice, I had two or three lessons every day, and the hours which were
not spent at the harpsichord were employed in putting me in the way of manag-
ing the family. . . . On the second morning, on meeting iny brother at break-
fast, he began immediately to give me a lesson in English and arithmetic, and
showed me the way of booking and keeping accounts of cash received and laid
out. . . .

" My brother Alexander, who had been some time in England, boarded and
lodged with his elder brother, and with myself occupied the attic. The first
floor, which was furnished in the newest and most handsome style, my brother
kept for himself. The front-room, containing the harpsichord, was always in
order to receive his musical friends and scholars at little private conc^-ts or re-
hearsals. . . . Sundays I received a sum for the weekly expenses, of which my
housekeeping book (written in English) showed the amount laid out, and my
purse the remaining cash. One of the principal things required was to market,
and about six weeks after coming to England I was sent alone among fishwom-
en, butchers, basket-women, etc., and I brought home whatever in my fright I
could pick up. . . . My brother Alexander used to watch me at a distance, un-
known to me, till he saw me safe on my way home. I knew too little of Eng-
lish to derive any consolation from the society of those who were about me, so
that, dinner-time excepted, I was entirely left to myself."

Of the progress of her musical education, we are told that she was
much hindered by being continually called upon to assist in the manu-
facture of telescopes :

"It soon appeared that my brother was not contented with knowing what
former observers had seen, for he began to contrive a telescope eighteen or twenty
feet long, and I had to amuse myself with making the tube of pasteboard for the
glasses, which were to arrive from London, for at that time no optician had set-
tled at Bath. . . . My brother wrote to inquire the price of a reflecting mirror
for, I believe, a five or six foot telescope. The answer was, there were none of
so large a size, but a person offered to make one at a price much above what
my brother thought proper to give. . . . About this time he bought of a Quaker
at Bath, who had made attempts at polishing mirrors, all his rubbish of patterns,
tools, hones, polishers, unfinished mirrors, etc., but all for small Gregorians, not
above two or three inches in diameter.

" Nothing serious could be attempted, for want of time, till the beginning of
June, when some of my brother's scholars were leaving Bath; and' then, to my
sorrow, I saw almost every room turned into a workshop. A cabinet-maker
making a tube and stands of all descriptions in a handsomely-furnished drawnng-
room; Alexander putting up a huge turning-machine (which he had brought in
the autumn from Bristol, where he used to spend the summer) in a bedroom,
for turning patterns, grinding glasses, and turning eye-pieces, etc. At the same
time music durst not lie entirely dormant during the summer, and my brother
had frequent rehearsals at home, where Miss Farinelli, an Italian singer, was
met by several of the principal performers he had engaged for the winter con-
certs. . . . He composed glees, catches, etc., for such voices as he could secure.
As soon as I could pronounce English well enough I was obliged to attend the
rehearsals, and on Sundays at morning and evening service.

" But every leisure moment was eagerly snatched at for resuming some work

/

744 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which was in progress, without taking time for changing dress, and many a lace
ruffle' was torn or bespattered by molten pitch, etc., besides the danger to
which he continually exposed himself by the uncommon precipitancy of all his
actions, of which we had a sample one Saturday evening, when both brothers
returned from a concert between eleven and twelve o'clock, my eldest brother
pleasing himself all the way home with being at liberty to spend the next day
(except a few hours' attendance at chapel) at the turning-bench ; but, recollect-
ing that the tools wanted sharpening, they ran with a lantern and tools to our
landlord's grindstone, in a public yard, where they did not wish to be seen on a
Sunday morning. But my brother William was soon brought back fainting by
Alexandei", with the loss of one of his finger-nails. . . .

"My time was much taken up with copying music and practising, besides
attendance on my brother when polishing, since, by way of keeping him alive, I
was constantly obliged to feed him by putting victuals in his mouth. This was
once the case when, in order to finish a seven-foot mirror, he had not taken his
hands off from it for sixteen hours together. Generally I was obliged to read
to him, while he was at the turning-lathe or polishing mirrors, 'Don Quixote,'
' Arabian Nights Entertainment,' the novels of Sterne, Fielding, etc. ; serving
tea and supper without interrupting the work, and sometimes lending a hand. I
became in time as useful a member of the workshop as a boy might be to his
master in the first year of his apprenticeship. But, as I was to take a part the
next year in the oratorios, I had for a twelvemonth two lessons per week from
Miss Fleming, the celebrated dancing-mistress, to drill me for a gentle-woman
(God knows how she succeeded!). So we lived on, without interruption."

On her first public appearance as the leading treble singer in the
oratorios, her brother gave her ten guineas for her dress, and on the
occasion the proprietor of the theatre pronounced her an ornament to
the stage. If she had chosen to persevere, her biographer says her
reputation as a singer would have been secure, but, like a woman, she
thought more of securing her brother's success than her own. She
steadily decliired to sing in public unless he was conductor. Besides
regular Sunday services, she sang in concerts and oratorios at Bath
and Bristol, all the while carrying on her housekeeping with one
servant. In this way for ten years at Bath she went on " singing
when she was told to sing, copying when she was told to copy, lend-
ing a hand in the workshop," and sympathizing with all the intensity
of her nature in the course of events, which ended by her brother
becoming "the king's astronomer." She sang with him for the last
time at Bath, on Whitsunday, 1782.

The following extract narrates the course of events that led to her
becoming her brother's constant assistant in his astronomical work:

" My brother, applied himself to perfect his mirrors, erecting in his garden a
stand for his twenty-foot telescope. Many trials were necessary before the re-
'quired motions for such an unwieldy machine could be contrived. Many at-
tempts were made by way of experiment against a mirror, before an intended
thirty-foot telescope eould be completed, for which, between-whiles (not inter-
rupting the observations with seven, ten, and twenty foot, and writing papers

' She means hei" brother's ruffles. In thorse days lace was worn by gentlemen, and
she elsewhere speaks of knitting ruffles for her brother.

CAROLINE LUC RET I A HERSCHEL. 7^5

for both the Royal and Bath Philosophical Societies'), gauges, shapes, weights,
etc., of the mirror were calculated and trials of the composition of the metal
were made. In short, I saw nothing else and heard nothing else talked of but
about these things when my brothers were together. Alexander was always very
alert, assisting when any thing new was going forward, but he wanted persever-
ance, and never liked to confine himself at home for many hours together. And
so it happened that my brother William was obliged to make trial of my abilities
in copying for him catalogues, tables, etc., and sometimes whole papers which
were lent him for perusal. I was thus kept employed when my brother was at
the telescope at night. When I found that a hand was sometimes wanted, when
any particular measures were to be made with the lamp, micrometer, etc., or a
fire to be kept up, or a dish of coffee necessary during a long night's watching, I
undertook with pleasure what others might have thought a hardship."

Although the sister's references to the labors and discoveries of her
brother are full of interest, we have no space for them here. SufKce
it that, after the discovery of "the Georgium Sidus in 1781, the name
of William Herschel became famous, and he was soon released from
the necessity of giving any of his time to music. He was sent for
to come with his seven-foot telescope to the king, and the result was
that he was chosen royal astronomer, at a salary of £200 a year."
One or two extracts, from the letters written by William Herschel to
his sister during this preliminary visit to London, will give some idea
of the intimate relation she held in his life. He writes on May 25th :

" . . . . Yesterday I dined with Colonel Walsh, who inquired after you.
There were present Mr. Aubert and Dr. Maskelyne. Dr. Maskelyne, in public,
declared his obligation to me for having introduced to them the high powers,
for Mr. Aubert has so much succeeded with them that he says he looks down
upop 200, 300, or 400, with contempt, and immediately begins with 800. He
has used 2,500 very completely, and seen my five double stars with them. All
my papers are printing, with the postscript and all, and are allowed to be very
valuable. You see, Lina, I tell you all these things. You know vanity is not
my foible, therefore I need not fear your censure. Farewell.

"I am your affectionate brother, William Herschel."

And again, June 3d, he writes :

" Dear Lina : I pass my time between Greenwich and London agreeably
enough, but am rather at a loss for work that I like. Company is not always
pleasing, and I would much rather be polishing a speculum. ... I am intro-
duced to the best company. To-morrow I dine at Lord Palmerston's, next day
with Sir Joseph Banks, etc., etc. Among opticians and astronomers nothing
now is talked of but ^ohat they call my great discoveries. Alas! this shows
how far they are behind, when such trifles as I have seen and done are called
great. Let me but get at it again! I will make such telescopes and see such
things — that is, I will endeavor to do so."

The letter ends abruptly.

Such, in brief, was the intellectual and moral preparation of Miss
Herschel for the life of an astronomer. An account of her experi-
ences in this field will be given in our next number.

' He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society December 6, 1871.

74-6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CORRESPONDENCE.

LEX TALIONIS.

To the Editor of the Popnlar Science Monthly.

THE authors of " The Unseen Universe "
tell us, as appears in a note in your
January number, " It is probable that,
before many years have passed, electricity
will be called upon by an enlightened Legis-
lature to produce absolutely indescribable
torture, thrilling through every fibre of
such miscreants " — in referring to " human
brutes who vent their despicable passions
in murderous assaults on women and chil-
dren."

Evolution by reversion is not encour-
aging.

The refinement of scientific training, in-
dicated by the above extract, is hardly in
the direction of improving civilization.

It is suggested that the " human mis-
creants " are not the products of accident.
May they not be examples of inherited dis-
ease, and therefore properly fit subjects for
insane asylums, or other similar reforma-
tories ? How far may not society itself, in
the locality of these human monsters, be
responsible for their existence ?

May we not hope that an " eye for an

eye " is, in the order of healthy evolution,
to disappear entirely from our penal cor-
rectives, including that relic of barbarism,
capital punishment, even now rapidly dis-
appearing from our statute-books, and in
most States inflicted only for one grade of
crime?

What is the object of all rational pun-
ishment ? Certainly not vengeance — not
vindictiveness.

Is it not, rather — 1. Restitution to soci-
ety or to individuals, so far as possible, for
loss or injury caused by criminals ? 2. Pro-
tection of society from repetition of criminal
acts ? and, 3. Reformation of the culprit ?

If the gallows, and " absolutely inde-
scribable torture, thrilling through every
fibre," provided by enlightened Legislatures,
are the only infallible remedies, then, in-
deed, is our vaunted civilization a sad fail-
ure.

Let us revert to scientific inquisition at
once, and have a commission of savants in
this Centennial year of grace, to resurrect
the beauties of Torquemada. Why not ?

B.

EiCHMOiTD, Indiana, January 10, 18T6.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

MARTINEAU'S REPLY TO TYNBALL.

ONE of the great characteristic ele-
ments of scientific knowledge is
that it is progressive, and the nature of
that progress is to arrive gradually at the
establishment of truth. Science having
fixed upon its methods — methods that
have been vindicated in its history — goes
on with the exploration of phenomena
in all fields, by beginning with imper-
fect evidence and gradually working
out its investigations to the complete-
ness of proof and the firm establish-
ment of facts and principles. This
being so, it follows that those who lead

in science, who are active in its pre-
liminary work, are naturally the most
obnoxious to all those classes who rest
contented with the existing state of
opinion and are the conservators of tra-
ditional belief. It has always been so.
In every phase and stage of advancing
science, it is those that push on with
the pioneer work, who begin to ques-
tion opinions long rooted, trusting to
the wholesomeness of inquiry, and the
validity of long-tested scientific pro-
cedure, that encounter denunciation as
disturbers of the world's intellectual
peace. It was those who initiated in-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

1\1

vestigation in astronomy, geology, phys-
iology, and the various branches of
natural phenomena; and it is those who
are now pushing scientific methods of
thought into fields where they have
hitherto been um-ecognized, that are
most obnoxious to criticism as med-
dlers, disturbers, and destructives. The
world at length accepts the work, and
when it is accomplished will even ap-
plaud those who began it ; but it as
yet by no means recognizes the neces-
sity of sharper questioning, of explora-
tion in new fields, of a more inexorable
scrutiny of old opinions, or the neces-
sity of accepting the initial work of pio-
neer thinkers as legitimate and indis-
pensable.

And so it is that intrepid scientists
like Prof. Tyndall, who push on the
front and give battle right and left, must
take the consequences, as their prede-
cessors have done in tlie past. The
President of the Bi-itish Association
took a step forward at Belfast, and has
been in hot water ever since. He as-
sumed the broad, advanced ground that
the exploration of the universe, so far as
it is accessible to human faculties, be-
longs to science ; and that every system,
doctrine, or belief, that has hitherto
been put forth regarding the nature,
origin, or government of the universe
which lays claim to the character of
knowledge, must submit its pretensions
to be passed upon by the tribunal of sci-
ence. Science having given to man the
universe as we know it, has established
its claim to be intrusted with the whole
field of intellectual exploration into its
methods and laws. It was undoubtedly
a bold step for President Tyndall to
take, but it was inevitable by the logic
of the history of thought. That the
batteries should have been opened upon
him all around was quite natural, and
is but the repetition upon a somewhat
larger scale of what has been going on
in a smaller way ever since the scien-
tific study of Nature began.

One of the controversies which grew

out of the position taken by Tyndall,
before the British Association, was
with Dr. James Martineau, who is car-
rying it on vigorously and expansively.
He first attacked the Belfast Address
in a discourse entitled "Religion as
afi"ected by Modern Materialism," de-
livered to the theological college of
which he is principal. To this Prof.
Tyndall replied in a new preface to the
''Fragments of Science," which ap-
peared in the Monthly of last Decem-
ber. Dr. Martineau now rejoins in the
February Contemporary^ in an elabo-
rate article, with more to come. "We
should be glad to print his paper if it
were within limits practicable for the
Monthly. But twenty-three pages,
with the expectation of as many more,
would consume more space than we can
spare, and it is of less importance that
we should issue it, as Mr. Putnam, Dr.
Martineau's American publisher, will
shortly furnish it to interested readers.

We may, however, briefly take note
of Dr. Martineau's general position.
He assumes tliat mischiefs arise, to
both science and theology, from con-
fusing their boundaries, and these he
attempts to define. He seems to re-
gard them as coordinate departments
of investigation, and " that, in their
dealings with phenomena, science in-
vestigates the ' How,' and theology the
' Whence.' " But on this view theolo-
gy becomes obviously but one division
of science, and is swallowed up by it.
In investigating the " how " of things
we are simply inquiring into one phase
of their order, and in investigating their
" whence " we are but inquiring into an-
other phase of the same order. More-
over, we are finding that the investiga-
tion of the " how " involves the inves-
tigation of the " whence ; " so that both
procedures are directed to the solution
of a common problem. Where are the
defining boundaries when one thing is
lost in another ?

The more common theological po-
sition takes the " whence " out of the

748

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

field of scientific inquiry by relegating
it to the supernatural, and assuming it
to be settled by an infallible preternat-
ural inspiration, which is above the
sphere of science that deals only with
the natural. Orthodoxy plants itself
upon the divine, infallible record, which
by its nature and source is claimed to
be above the reach of science. But
Dr. Martineau is heterodox and cannot
take this ground. His position is, that
the Bible is sacred, but not infallible —
sacred like the sacred books of other
religions. He says: "I am asked how,
after giving up the Old Testament cos-
mogony, I can any longer speak of ' sa-
cred books,' without informing my
readers where to find them .... Can
a literature, then, have nothing sacred
unless it be infallible ? Has the religion
of the present no roots in the soil of
the past, so that nothing is gained for
our spiritual culture by exploring its
history and reproducing its poetry, and
ascending to the tributary waters of its
life ? The real modern discovery, far
from saying there is no sacred litera-
ture, because none oracular, assures us
that there are several; and, notwith-
standing a deepened, because purified
attachment to our own ' origenes ' in
the Jewish and Christian Scriptures,
persuades us to look with an open rev-
erence into all writings that have em-
bodied and sustained the greater pieties
of the world."

By this position the absorption of
theology into science is complete. For
if Christianity has no other or different
claims for the validity of what it oflfers
than half a dozen other religions have —
and impliedly a hundred other relig-
ions— what remains but to accept the
phenomena of religions as a part of the
phenomena of Nature open to scientific
exploration ? And, if thrown upon Na-
ture, we encounter unity and evolution,
and must study the genesis of religious
beliefs, the development of supersti-
tions, and the derivation of theological
systems, as we study the unfolding of

life, or the origin and progress of human
institutions. The underlying principle
of evolution is continuity, the lowest
being connected with the highest by
unbroken lines of unity and causation.
But though committed, as we think, to
this view by the position he has taken.
Dr. Martineau affirms a break in the
upward movement, so abrupt and total
that science cannot cross it. He says,
" Nature, m respect of its higlier affec-
tions, compassion, self-forgetfulness,
moral obligation, is constructed in har-
mony with a world divinely ruled," and
this is the sphere of intuition and the^
ology where science does not belong.
But does the divine rule necessarily
rule out science ? and are not intuitions
in this higher realm as open to be in-
quired of scientifically as instincts in the
lowest sphere? The writer's declara-
tions that it is the office of theology to
explore the " whence " of things, and
that it pertains to the " upper zone " of
human nature, do not quite clear up
the confusion of its boundary relations
to science.

Dr. Martineau labors to point out,
in his present essay, the difficulties that
the "materialist" must encounter in
explaining things by the atomic hy-
pothesis; and in his next article he
promises to show the deficiencies of the
dynamic hypothesis for the same pur-
pose. It is unnecessary to say that, as
a writer, Dr. Martineau is an accom-
plished master of rhetorical effect.

A LIBEL UPON THE INDIANS.

It is an interesting question how the
diflferent races of mankind rank as liars.
Is the capacity to falsify a constant quan-
tity in all the varieties of men, or does
it vary like other qualities ; and, if vari-
able, is it subject to development, and
how do the various tribes of men stand
upon the scale?

A United States Senator has given
us his decisive dictum upon the subject,
and there ought to be wisdom in a sens-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

749

torial dictum. Mr. Windom, of Minne-
sota, is reported as recently saying in
the Federal Senate that " the Indians
are the greatest liars and vagabonds up-
on the face of the earth." With their
rank as vagabonds we have no imme-
diate concern, but in regard to their
grade as liars we think the Senator is
in error ; he is over-modest ; the " great-
ness" which he so freely accords to the
savages, in this respect, belongs pre-
eminently to his own race. The rival-
ries of falsehood between races, like
other rivalries, must depend upon ca-
pacity, culture, and opportunity ; and, in
any competition for honors in deception,
the Yankee has proved from the be-
ginning to be much " smarter " than
the Indian. Our Senator, indeed, if
the reports can be trusted (and they
are white, not Indian reports), might
be taken as a living and conclusive
illustration of the superiority of the su-
perior race in perpetrating falsehood on
an imposing scale. He is said to have
advocated a breach of the treaty by
which the "Black Hills" are reserved
to the Sioux, so as to let in all the white
adventurers that choose to go there ;
that is, to break the faith and pledge
of the Government, and turn the whole
nation into liars by virtue of our repre-
sentative system. This brings out the
exalted advantages in the practice of
falsification possessed by the dominant
race over the uncultivated savages. We
can perpetrate deceit by oflScial machin-
ery. Even in the smallest way, in the
hand-to-hand competition of a huckster-
ing trade, the Yankee may be trusted
anywhere to circumvent, that is, to out-
lie the Indian. But when we consider
the case in its broader aspects, where
the two sorts of people work freely in
their separate social spheres, the Indians
are not to be named as competitors of
the whites in the art of mendacity.
Granting the disposition, they lack the
resources and capacity. Mentally, they
are children, with but little knowledge,
scanty ideas upon a few subjects, and

limited intellectual operations. They
lack the scope, the cultivation, the fa-
cilities for exercise in deceit which are
possessed by the civilized race. With-
out books, newspapers, advertisements,
highly-organized party politics, diplo-
macy, lawsuits, complex business rival-
ries, sectarian strifes, big enterprises, and
fashionable society, what can they do
in the way of duplicity, fraud, imposi-
tion, misrepresentation, artifice, cheat-
ing, forgery, perjury, and the thousand
forms, and grades, and variations of ly-
ing, in which the dominant race is so
proficient ? The civilized man multi-
plies his capacity of falsehood through
division of labor. He not only lies with
his tongue, but with his hands, manipu-
lating falsehood into his manufactures.
He lies by machinery, aijd swindles by
steam. By the printing-press he scat-
ters deceptions like snow-flakes over
the continent. Your civilizee lies with
enterprise, through an army of agents
by post and by telegraph. What can
the " poor Indian," with his " untutored
mind," do in comparison with this?
There was more lying in the manage-
ment of the Northern Pacific Eailroad
than ten tribes of Indians could perpe-
trate in a generation. There is more
lying in one presidential campaign than
all the North American tribes could per-
petrate in a century. The Indians are
no more " the greatest liars on the face
of the earth " than they are the greatest
lawyers, politicians, editors, merchants,
and manufacturers, on the face of the
earth. Fraud, falsification, dissimula-
tion, insincerity, trickery, overreach-
ing, and the innumerable grades and
shades of humbug, are vices of the civ-
ilized man, and he must accept this
with all his other forms of greatness.
The Indian has undoubtedly a rudi-
mental capacity for lying, which gets
somewhat developed along the borders,
by his intercourse with the whites, but
he cannot aspire to the unenviable emi-
nence which Senator Windom ascribes
to him.

750

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

HO W SCIENTIFIC EDUCA TION IS
EVADED.

Of the two great phases of educa-
tional reform, the improvement of its
quality, and the increase of its quantity,
in our judgment, as we have frequent-
ly said, the former is much the most im-
portant. W6 have abundant evidence
on all sides as to how easy it is to ex-
tend education, or that which passes
under its name. And the evidence is
equally abundant and clear of the great
difficulties of improving the quality of
that which is established under the
name of education. And the more it
is extended and organized, and official-
ized, the more formidable are the obsta-
cles to any change of method that shall
make it increasingly rational. A fresh
illustration of the tenacity of tradition-
al ideas, and the ingenuity with which
reforms of great and conceded impor-
tance are evaded and turned to naught,
was lately furnished by Sir John Lub-
bock in pointing out the tactics of the
leading English universities by which
the study of science and the modern
languages is escaped. To show how
the subject stands as a matter of reason
he first called attention to the views
put forth by the several English com-
missions appointed to inquire into the
management of the higher institutions.
The commission of 1861, which took
up the great public schools, reported
that more time should be devoted to
the study of modern languages, while,
as regards science, that it was practi-
cally excluded from the education of
the higher classes in England. "Edu-
cation," they say, "is, in this respect,
narrower than it was three centuries
ago, while Science has prodigiously ex-
tended her empire, has explored im-
mense tracts, divided them into prov-
inces, introduced into them order and
method, and made them accessible to
all. This exclusion is, in our view, a
plain defect, and a great practical evil.
It narrows unduly and injuriously the

mental training of the young, and the
knowledge, interests, and pursuits, of
men in maturer life. Of the large
number of men who have little apti-
tude or taste for literature, there are
many who have an aptitude for science,
especially for science which deals, not
with abstractions, but with external
and sensible objects ; how many such
there are can never be known, as long
as the only education given at schools is
purely literary, but that such cases are
not rare or exceptional can hardly be
doubted by any one who has observed
either boys or men."

In 1868 another commission was ap-
pointed to examine the management of
the English endowed schools. In their
report they say : "We think it estab-
lished that the study of natural science
develops, better than any other studies,
the observing faculties, disciplines tlie
intellect by teaching induction as well
as deduction ; supplies a useful balance
to the studies of language and mathe-
matics, and provides much instruction
of great value for the occupations of

after-life."

Finally, a third commission was ap-
pointed, under the presidency of the
Duke of Devonshire, to inquire into
the state of scientific instruction in
Great Britain, and they report that
" though some progress has no doubt
been achieved, and though there are
some exceptional cases of great im-
provement, still no adequate eftort has
been made to supply the deficiency of
scientific instruction pointed out by the
commissioners of 1861 and 186-t. We
are compelled, therefore, to record our
opinion that the present state of scien-
tific instruction in our schools is ex-
tremely unsatisfactory."

These are well-matured views put
forth with the weight of a large num-
ber of the most eminent names in Eng-
land. The claims of scientific men for
time to be devoted to scientific stud-
ies liave been moderate. Assuming
the number of study-hours in a week

EDITOR'S TABLE.

75^

to be tliirty-eiglit, Dr. Hooker, Prof.
Huxley, and Dr. Carpenter, ask only
for six hours to be devoted to science,
while Prof. Tyndall demands only eight.
The recent commission has shown by a
large number of returns from the en-
dowed schools that, when science is
studied at all, not more than two hours
a week are given to it, while in a large
number it is entirely ignored. Out of
one hundred and twenty of the larger
endowed schools, in more than half no
science whatever is taught, and out of
the whole number only thirteen attach
any weight at all to scientific subjects
in the examinations.

It is by the skillful working of these
"exammations " that the adherents of
the older studies resist the educational
progress of science. The Universities
of Oxford and Cambridge, backed by
the immense authority of these great
institutions, have recently appointed a
joint board to undertake the examina-
tions of schools. The studies are dis-
tributed in four groups: 1. The lan-
guages; 2. Mathematics; 3. Scripture
knowledge, history, etc. ; 4. The sci-
ences. But the certificates are award-
ed under such conditions that the mod-
ern languages and the sciences are vir-
tually suppressed. As Sir John Lub-
bock says, " the result will be to dis-
courage the teaching of French and
German," while " the nominal intro-
duction of science is under the circum-
stances little more than a hollow mock-
ery; " the effect being that "boys may
obtain university certificates while they
know nothing of history, nothing of
geography, nothing of any modern lan-
guage, or of any branch of science."

VIVISECTION VINDICATED.

Theee was a loud and passionate
outcry a year ago in England, which
had its echoes in this country, about
the fiendishness of physiologists in their
experiments upon living animals. They
were represented as devoid of all hu-

manity, indurated and indifferent to
suffering, and as delighting to torture
poor dumb creatures for mere amuse-
ment or class-room show, and on the
most frivolous pretexts of helping on the
progress of science. There was a great
deal of screaming about it, and Hutton,
of the London Spectator, led the cru-
sade, demanding governmental interfer-
ence to restrain the brutalities of the
scientists and protect the helpless vic-
tims of their barbarity. And so, as is
wont with the English, a commission
was appointed to inquire into the mat-
ter, and Hutton was among the com-
missioners. It was a sensible body, and
raked together every thing that claimed
to be evidence upon the subject. Of
course, the stories of horrors which got
such wide credence, turned out to be ab-
surd exaggerations. Brought to book,
the secretary of the " Eoyal Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals "
acknowledged that he did not know a
single instance of wanton cruelty. The
case of the agitators broke down signal-
ly, and after the most patient examina-
tion of the whole subject the commis-
sioners declare that "a general senti-
ment of humanity on this subject appears
to pervade all classes in this country."
They point out how much science is in-
debted, and how much the world owes,
to experiments upon living animals, and
they recognize that in the further prog-
ress of medical science this means of
knowledge cannot be avoided. The com-
mission, in fact, accepts the position
taken by the physiologists themselves
at the British Association in 1871, and
demands only " the reasonable superin-
tendence of constituted authority." The
legislation asked for will not in any
way alter the existing facilities for re-
search or impede its progress, while it
will calm needless apprehension, and
put an end to the odious misrepresen-
tations which have recently been rife
upon the subject. Perhaps the friends
of the lower animals, wlio have been so
ardent in attacking and denouncing

JZ2

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

men of science, will now turn their at-
tention to the butchers, the hunters,
and the fashionable people who torture
their horses in the broad day in the
open streets, and at all hours, in the
sight of everybody, by the use of bear-
ing-reins and gag-bits.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Descriptive Sociology. By Herbert Spen-
cer. Numbers Three and Four. Folio.
Price, $4.00 per No. D. Appleton & Co.

To those who care only for politics on
account of its gossip, personalities, and pass-
ing excitements, or who study it merely as
an art for the attainment of their own selfish
ends, these works need not be commended ;
but those who are interested in working out
the principles of a science that underlies all
politics will be glad to learn that the " De-
scriptive Sociology " of Herbert Spencer is
making fair progress, the fourth number
being now published. This work is not at
all known even by the most inteUigent por-
tion of the American people. They talk
much about society, speculating upon its
origin, declaiming against its evils, and pro-
posing endless nostrums for its relief and
regeneration, but give no attention to the
most serious, thorough, and successful effort
yet made to elucidate the natural laws of so-
cial phenomena. If the value and impor-
tance of Spencer's " Descriptive Sociology "
were at all understood, it would be found in
every public library, in many private ones,
and in all higher educational institutions. It
is nothing less than a series of representa-
tions, almost pictorial in their clearness, of
the constitution of human societies, of all
forms, types, and grades, the world over. It
cives the whole range of social facts that
characterize each community in such an in-
genious scheme of repi'csentation that they
can be compared with extreme facility, and
their elements considered either separately
or as existing together; and either as ad-
vancing by themselves, or as moving on con-
nectedly and under mutual influence. The
industrial, economic, domestic, civil, mili-
tary, aesthetic, moral, religious, and intel-
lectual condition of each community, is given
in a systematic way, which brings out the re-

lations of these social factors ; and the whole
is carefully authenticated by copious and
classified extracts from the best authorities
by which the social facts in the several
cases have been described. Without criti-
cal examination no one can form an idea of
the enormous labor that has been expended
upon these works, nor of their value to the
students of social affairs. Nothing worthy
the name of social science, that is, embrac-
ing wide inductions and comprehensive prin-
ciples, can ever come from the examination
of one example or form of society only ; and,
in the wide sweep of his inquiries, Mr.
Spencer is the first to have given to the
problem of social philosophy its full breadth
of scientific basis.

In the first number of this general work
Mr. Spencer gave us the social history of
England. In the second number he gath-
ered up and organized what is known of the
social life of the extinct or decayed Ameri-
can civilizations. Number Three, now be-
fore us, is devoted to the lowest types of the
social state — the Negritto races and the Ma-
layo-Polynesian races. This was compiled
and abstracted by Prof. David Duncan, a col-
laborator with Mr. Spencer in the execution
of bis enterprise. It represents the social
life of the Fuegians, Andamans, Veddahs,
Australians, Tasmanians, New Caledonians,
New Guinea people, Fijians, Sandwich-
Islanders, Tahitians, Tongans, Samoans,
New-Zealanders, Dyaks, Javans, Sumatrans,
and Malagasy. The environments, inor-
ganic, organic, and sociological of these
communities, and the physical, emotional,
and intellectual characters of each people
are given, and whatever is known or acces-
sible regarding their social habits, peculi-
arities, and modes of life.

Number Four, which is just published,
also elaborated by Prof Duncan, is devoted
to the African races. He delineates the
social aspects of the Bushmen, the Hotten-
tots, the Damaras, the Bechuanas, the Caf-
firs, the East Africans, the Congo people, the
Coast Negroes, the Inland Negroes, the Da-
homans, the Ashantis, the Fulahs, and the
Abyssinians.

We cannot republish these works in the
Monthly, although in the number lor April,
1874, we gave a sample of the tables that
are used, and which necessitated the large
folio form of publication. But those who

LITERARY NOTICES.

753

will take the pains to consult and compare
these works cow issued will quickly see
that we are entering upon a new stage of
social ideas and knowledge. " The proper
study of mankind is man," but it is far from
being the same study in different ages.

A Text-Book of Hcmax Physiologt. De-
signed for the Use of Practitioners and
Students of Medicine. By Austin Flint,
Jr., M. D. Illustrated by Three Litho-
graphic Plates and 313 Woodcuts. Pp.
5*78. Price, %Q. D. Appleton & Co.

Tms work is an abridgment or conden-
sation of Dr. Flint's large treatise upon
physiology, in five volumes. The biblio-
graphical and historical features of the
larger work are mostly omitted, and various
subjects, which are there much elaborated,
are more concisely presented in the single
volume. The more extensive treatise will
retain its place for purposes of reference,
as giving a full account of the literature of
physiology, and a systematic representation
of its facts and principles. Out of this Dr.
Flint has educed a complete working manu-
al, which brings the treatment of the sub-
ject within convenient limits for students,
while it is much more complete as a repre-
sentation of the present state of the science
than any other book we know upon this
topic. A marked feature of the work is its
illustrations, which are large and especially
fine. Many of them are new, and all are
executed in the best style of the engraver's
art. The book is beautifully printed and is
most attractive in appearance ; it may be
commended to all who desire a comprehen-
sive and trustworthy work up to the latest
date, by authority, on the interesting and
important subject of physiology.

Animal Parasites and Messmates. By J.
P Van Beneden, Professor at the Uni-
versity of Louvain. With 83 Illustra-
tions. Pp. 2*74. Price, $1.50. D.Apple-
ton & Co. No. XIX. of the " Interna-
tional Scientific Series."
We give in the body of the Monthly a
sample of the curious and interesting infor-
mation on the economy of animal life to
which this book is devoted. It opens a
new chapter of strange things in the field
of life, to the common reader, and will be
perused' with avidity by all lovers of natural
history. The names of most of the little
VOL. Till. — 48

creatures described will be found somewhat
new to general readers ; but the lively, fa-
miliar, and graphic style of the writer will
go far to compensate for this drawback, as
he is not without a very decided sense of the
comical and humorous side of his remark-
able subject. The author is an eminent au-
thority in zoology, and the work is largely
the result of his own observations and
studies. It is one of the most original
monographs in the series to which it was
contributed.

Life Histories of Animals, including Man :
OR, Outlines of Comparative Embry-
ology. By Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr. New
York : Henry Holt & Co., 1876. Pp.
243. Figures 268.

Since the translation of Siebold's "Com-
parative Anatomy of the Invertebrata," by
Dr. Burnett, accompanied by the valuable
investigations of the translator, and the
publication of " Mind in Nature," by Prof.
H. James Clarke, there has been no general
work published in this country equaling in
importance the one before us. Indeed, we
cannot now recall any work which covers
the same ground ; and as an evidence of its
value it may be stated that the English mag-
azines of science have repeatedly made lib-
eral quotations from some of the chapters,
as they originally appeared in the American
Naturalisf.

Dr. Packard has not only brought to-
gether and richly illustrated a resume of
the labors of the leading embryologists of
Europe — Kowelevsky, Schultze, Schneider,
Metschnikoff, Salensky, Cienkowski, and
others equally distinguished — and also the
work of American naturalists, too, but has
contributed much original matter from his
own published works on insects and Crus-
tacea. The various classes are conveniently
but not too rigidly grouped in a natural
sequence, commencing with the 2foncra,
and ending with Man.

It is refreshing to get hold of a general
work which is strictly in accordance with
the latest interpretations of science, and it
must remain for many years the one stand-
ard work on the subject.

The author, as is the case with ninety,
nine hundredths of the leading investiga-
tors, is an evolutionist, and indeed it would
be difficult to conceive a work of this na-

754

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ture presented in any other light, unless it
were given as a bare descriptive catalogue
of details.

With each group (considered as a special
study) are given a brief sketch of the struct-
ure and habits of some of its leading forms,
their affinities, embryology, and a very use-
ful table of the literature of the subject.
A list of the authors referred to indicates
clearly how few Americans have contributed
to a knowledge of the subject.

The advanced character of the work is
seen in the adoption of Haeckel's terms for
different conditions of the embryo, such as
the morula stage, planula stage, gastrula
stage, etc. The ascidian stage is also recog-
nized in the development of Vertebrata.
Amphiozus is considered separately from the
fishes, the BracJdopoda are placed among
the worms. Altogether it forms one of the
most valuable works of science yet pub-
lis'hed in this country, and it is safe to say
that no working naturalist can do without it.

As a second edition of the work must
soon be demanded, we trust it may be ac-
companied by a table of contents.

AbstPvACT of Results of a Study of the
Genera Geomts and Thomomys, with
Addenda on the Osteology of Geomy-
iDM. By Dr. Elliot Coues. Washing-
ton : Government Printing-Office, 1875.
Pp. 74.

This is a reprint from Major J. W.
Powell's report of his explorations of the
Colorado River, giving a full scientific ac-
count of the little animals known on the
Western prairies as Pocket Gophers. Re-
garding the two genera Geomys and Thomo-
mys as constituting a perfectly natural group
of the grade of a family, Geomyidce, the au-
thor describes them as " among the heaviest
for their inches of any animals in this coun-
try, of squat, bunchy shape, with short, thick
limbs, a short tail, very small or rudimen-
tary ears, small eyes, no appreciable neck,
and thick, blunt head ; and they are as
completely subterranean as the mole itself.
They are rarely or momentarily seen above
the ground ; they excavate endless galleries
in the earth in their search for food, fre-
quently coming to the surface to throw out
the earth in heaps, but plugging up these
orifices as soon as they have served their
purpose."

Geomys contains five (some authors say
seven) well-defined species ; Thomomys but
a single species, including three recogniz-
able races, out of which, by the process of
species-mongering so common with earlier
naturalists, a dozen separate species were
made. While in Geomys the links have disap-
peared and the species are well-pronounced,
in Thomomys the separation is incomplete,
and the connecting forms still visible. " The
genus appears to be working into a number
of species, but the process is still far from
completion." Adopting modern philosophi-
cal views, the author's tendency is to re-
duce the number of species, seeing only
races or varieties where others claim to
have found well-defined species. The sev-
eral species constituting the family are sepa-
rately described. The cranial and dental
characters of the group are afterward treat-
ed, and the work closes with a further de-
scription, communicated by Prof. G. Brown
Goode, of Geomys tuza, a form confined to
Florida, Alabama, and Georgia, and there
known as Salamanders.

Prof. Coues has the rare faculty of
making even technical descriptions interest-
ing, and for this reason the work commends
itself to the attention of other than scien-
tific readers.

Practical Hints on the Selection and Use
OF THE Microscope. By John Phin.
New York : The Industrial Publication
Co., 1875. Pp. 131. Price, 75 cts.

In the preface to this little book the au-
thor tells us that it is intended for begin-
ners in the use of the microscope, a pur-
pose that appears to have been kept well in
mind in the subsequent pages, as the ex-
planations are clear, the directions explicit
and suitably detailed ; and nothing has
been attempted that lies beyond the un-
derstanding of any intelligent girl or boy
of fifteen. After pointing out the numerous
applications of the instrument, that are
every day extending, the simple and com-
pound microscope, and the essential parts
of each, are described. The various forms
in use are next enumerated, with brief de-
scriptions of the most noted ; and then fol-
low practical direction* for the selection of
a microscope, and the requisite accessory
apparatus. Illumination, the manipulation
and care of the instrument, and the collec-

LITERARY NOTICES.

755

tlon and mounting of objects, take up the
remainder of the book. The student is re-
ferred to the larger works of Carpenter and
others for a knowledge of the principles in-
volved in the construction of the microscope,
and of the course of procedure in the sev-
eral departments of study to which it is ap-
plied.

Four Thousand Miles of African Travel.
By Alvan S. Sopthwoeth, Secretary
of the American Geographical Society.
AVith Maps and Illustrations. Baker,
Pratt & Co., New York. Price, $3.50.

The volume of Mr. Southworth is an
interesting contribution to our knowledge of
one of the most important regions of Central
Africa. It is the well-told account of a jour-
ney made by the author as traveling corre-
spondent of the Xew York Herald for the
purpose of exploring the countries of the Up-
per Nile — their aspects, resources, and popu-
lations.

The journey commenced at Cairo on the
2'7th of December, 1871. " At noon on the
Cth of February," says the traveler, " our
Soudan dahabeah was parting the dark, rip-
pling waters of the Blue Nile from the mud-
dy flow of its sister confluent, the White
Nile, and by one o'clock the solitary minaret
of Khartoum was seen above the palms and
acacias ! " This city contains 40,000 inhabi-
tants, is the capital of the Soudan, and is
the finest provincial city of Central Africa.

The chapters in which the author gives
an account of his trip up the White Nile
through the heart of the Soudan are full of
interest. The country is described as won-
derfully fertile. With its present wretched
cultivation it is more productive than the
well-tilled fields of Italy. It abounds in cat-
tle and camels, as well as wild animals.
Under the present government the progress
toward civilization has been immense.
Within fifteen years we are informed, 30,-
000,000 people have been brought in some
degree within the circle of semi-civiliza-
tion. But only incipient steps are taken.
The slave-trade and all the depressing in-
fluences of savagism still bear upon the
people. It is believed that no country in
the world is better adapted to the raising
of cotton than the Soudan.

The author turned back from his trav-
els at Arbah Island, 300 miles southward

from Khartoum, and nearly 2,000 miles
from the Mediterranean.

The volume is enlivened by vivid de-
scriptions of natural scenery and phenom-
ena. On the Nubian Desert the mirage
sometimes breaks the dreary view. " On
the lYth of January we were seemingly en-
compassed by this imponderable mirror.
In the glowing heat the bed of the desert
would seem to rise in rippling waves, and a
line of rocks, at 200 yards distance, kept
common time and looked like a regiment of
men marching off the field in line of battle."
The simooms, sand-storms, and sand-spouts,
as well as the gorgeous tropical scenery, are
vividly described. The horrors of the slave-
trade, and the means by which this and
other barbarisms may be overcome, arc pru-
dently and judiciously treated. Dr. South-
worth has done excellent service in publish-
ing this volume.

The American Journal of Microscopy and
Popular Science. Issued by the Handi-
craft Publication Company, 37 Park Row,
New York. Subscription price, 60 cents
a year

This is a twelve-page monthly devoted
mainly to the interests of microscopy. Its
purpose, as expressed in the prospectus, is
to diffuse a knowledge of the best methods
of using the microscope, of valuable im-
provements in the instrument, and its ac-
cessories ; of new methods of microscopical
investigation, and of the most recent results
of microscopical research. Besides general
articles, of which the number before us offers
a pleasant variety, some of them illustrated,
thei'e is a "Young Folks' Column," '' Our
Work-Table," "Book-Table," " Notes and
Queries," etc.

Report of the Michigan Board of Health,
1874. Lansing: AV. S. George & Co.
Pp. 254.

Among the subjects treated in this re-
port ai-e the entailments of alcohol, drain-
ing for health, poisonous paper, rtlalion
of schools to health, resuscitation of the
drowned, cerebro-spinal meningitis, meteor-
ology of Central Michigan. Of the eight
special reports, five were drawn up by Prof,
R. C. Kedzie, M. D., whose labors are well
known to all who take an interest in sani-
tary science.

7?6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A Guide to the Microscopical Examixa-
TioN OF Drinking-Water. By J. D.
Macdosald, M. D., F. R. S. Pp. 113.
With twenty-four Lithographic Plates.
Price, $3. Philadelphia : Lindsay &
Blakiston. 1875.

This volume is an important contribu-
tion to our knowledge of the extent and
nature of the impurities found in drinking-
water, and the most ready means of de-
tecting and classifying them. In clearness
of method and statement, and style of its
illustrations, the work is admirable. The
author does not attempt to link particular
forms of impurity with specific sanitary
effects, but says further observation may
show their deep sanitary significance.

No one now hesitates to condemn a wa-
ter containing bacteria and fungi, or swarm-
ing with the lower forms of life.

The means by which sediments and float-
ing impurities in water maybe best obtained
and studied is pointed out in a brief intro-
duction.

Section 1 treats of the mineral matters
found in drinking-water ; section 2 gives an
account of the dead and decaying, section
3 of the living forms found in water.

The twenty-four plates comprise over
four hundred figures ; frequently, however,
the same object is presented under different
forms. The volume is an excellent hand-
book, and will greatly facilitate the study
of the important subject of which it treats.

Exploration of the Colorado River of
THE West and its Tributaries ix 18G9,
18Y0, 1871, AXD 1872. Washington:
Government Printing-OfEce. Pp. 291.

This is the first installment of Major J.
W. Powell's exploration and survey of the
Colorado River region. The book consists
of three parts, in the first of which wc have a
journal of the exploration of the canons of
the Colorado in the year 1869 ; in the sec-
ond, an account of the physical features of
the valley of the Colorado ; and in the third,
three chapters on the zoology of the region
explored. The two chapters of the second
part were published in the Moxthlt last
summer. Major Powell kindly permitting us
to copy from advanced sheets, and supply-
ing us with the woodcuts. The present
volume is an exceptionally interesting and
instructive description of the strange and
picturesque country explored.

The Cholera Epidemic of 1873 ix thk
United States. Pp. 1025. Washing-
ton : Government Printing-Office.

CoNTAixs reports made to the Treasury
Department by Dr. Woodworth, superintend-
ent surgeon of the Marine Hospital Service,
and to the War Department by Dr. J. K.
Barnes, Surgeon-General U. S. Army. Dr.
Woodworth's report is brief, and traces
the history of the introduction of cholera
through the agency of the mercantile ma-
rine. The War Department report is di-
vided into three parts, the first being writ-
ten by Dr. Ely McClellan, U. S. Army. This
gives a history of the epidemic of 1873 in the
United States. The second part, by Drs. J.
C. Peters and Ely McClellan, is devoted to
the history of the travels of Asiatic cholera.
In the third part is given the bibliography
of cholera by Dr. J. S. Billings, U. S. Army.

Notes on Certain Explosive Agents. By
Walter N. Hill, S. B. Boston : John
AUyn, 1875. Pp. 71.

This pamphlet contains a large amount
of practical information about several of
the more important explosives now in com-
mon use, suoh as nitro-glycerine and its
various preparations, gun-cotton, and the
picrates and fulminates. Their chemical
composition, mode of preparation, manner
of firing, and the reactions which occur
during explosion, are clearly set forth, and
tables are also given exhibiting their rela-
tive explosive power.

The Taxidermist's Manual : or. The Art
or collecting, preparixg, and preserv-
iXG Objects of Natural Histop.y. By
Thomas Brown, F. L. S. New York :
G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 150. Price,
$1.25.

This is a practical guide to the art of
taxidermy, giving detailed directions for all
the operations required in the preparation
and mounting of natural history specimens.
It contains several plates and a full index.

Soul Problems, with Other Papers. By
Joseph E. Peck. New York : Charles
P. Somerby. Pp. 63. Price, 70 cents.

The problems considered in this essay
are the materiality or immateriality of the
mind, and future personality.. The other
papers are on "The Theological Amend-
ment," and " The State Personality Idea."

LITERARY NOTICES.

757

Stjetlin'g Facts in Modkrn Spiritualism.
By N. B. Wolfe, M. D. Chicago : Ee-
ligio-Philosophical Publishing House.
Pp. 671.

Dr. Wolfe tells us that he has been for
twenty-five years an observer of modern
spiritualism. Had he not published this
book, the world might never have known
the extent of his gullibility. He has only
himself to blame.

Contributions from the Laboratory of
THE State University. By P. Schweit-
zer, Ph. D. Jefferson City, Mo. : Re-
gan k Carter. 1875. Pp. 38.

Two papers by Prof. Schweitzer, printed
from tlie Catalogue of the University, com-
prise this pamphlet. One is upon the " True
Composition of Coal," and the other on
the "Water-Supply of Columbia, Boone
County," with analyses. Both papers are
of value, giving in detail the results of faith-
ful and well-directed laboratory work.

Views and Interviews on Journalism.
Edited bv Charles F. Wingate. New
York : F.' B. Patterson. Pp. 372.

Mr. Wingate allows some of the promi-
nent newspaper editors of the United States
to express their opinions on journalism, its
limits, its tendencies, its perils, its pros-
pects, la some instances the editors are
catechised in an interview, in others their
views are ascertained by reference to the
journals they edit.

The Lower Forms of Life found within
THE Oral Cavity. By C. N. Peirce,
D. D. S. Pp. 23. Lancaster, Pa. : Fenn-
syhania Jotirnal of Denial Science.

The forms of life here spoken of are
six in number, five of them being vegetal
growths, and the sixth an animal organism,
a genus of infusorium. They are all micro-
scopic organisms.

The Prospector's Manual. By W. J.
Schofield. Boston : W. J. Schofield &
Co. Pp. 96. Price, 50 cents.

Intended as a guide to the discovery of
quartz and placer indications of gold and
silver mines. The book further gives de-
scriptions of metalliferous rocks of various
kinds in the New England States and the
neighboring provinces of Canada.

Journal of the American Electrical So-
ciety. Vol. I., No. 1. Chicago: Lake-
side Publishing Co. Pp. 98.

The American Electrical Society, whose
official organ this Journal is, has for its ob-
ject the interchange of knowledge and the
professional improvement of its members,
the advancement of electrical and tele-
graphic science, and the establishment of
a central point of reference. The articles
which appear in the Journal consist chiefly
of papers read at the meetings of the socie-
ty, but papers from other sources on tele-
graphic and electrical subjects are also
given. In the present number, the first
article, which is well illustrated, is by Mr.
Elisha Gray, on " The Transmission of Mu-
sical Tones telegraphically." There is also
an illustrated article on " Quadruples Teleg-
raphy." Among the selected articles we
may name one on Edison's " New Force,"
by Dr. Beard, and a sketch of Sir Charles
Wheatstone. The Publishing Committee,
in a note prefixed to the present numbei-,
state that a second number may be issued
in three or four months. Price, $L60 per
number.

Geological and Natural History Sur-
vey OF Minnesota (1874). By N. H.
Winchell. Pp. 36. St. Paul Fioneer
Fress print.

In this, his third annual report, the State
geologist of Minnesota gives the results of
his researches on the geology of the two
counties of Freeborn and Mower. In the
former county there is an abundance of
peat, most of the marshes being peat-bear-
ing. This peat is of the best quality, and is
gradually coming into use for fuel. Geo-
logical maps of the two counties accompany
the report.

Bulletin of the LTnited States National
Museum. By J. H. Kidder, M. D.
Washington : Government Printing-
Office. Pp. 51.

The present number of the "Bulletin"
is devoted to a description of the ornitho-
logical specimens brought from Kerguelen
Island by the Transit-of-Venus Expedition
of 1874-75. The number of species de-
scribed is twenty-one, belonging to six fami-
lies — Frocellaridce, Sphcniscidce, Laridce,
Fhalacrocoracidoe, Anaiidce, and Chionididce.

758

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

Bdlletin of the Buffalo Society of Nat-
ural Sciences. 1875. Buffalo, N. Y. :
The Courier Company, Printers. Pp.
120.

This issue is No. 4 of Yol. II., and com-
prises nine articles, with an index to the
volume. The articles are No. 16 to No. 24
of the series, eight of which are upon sub-
jects of entomology, and all of value to
specialists in that science.

No. 18 is a check-list of the North Ameii-
can sphinxes by Aug. R. Grote, and No. 20
is a valuable paper by Dr. Scudder, being
a synonymic list of the butterflies of North
America north of Mexico.

Article No. 22, by M. C. Cooke, M. A., of
London, is a synopsis of the disconiycetous
fungi of the United States, in which very
full credit is given to American mycologists
(or assistance rendered.

Necessity of a Mechanical Labor.vtort.
By Prof. R. H. Thurston. Pp. 10.

Prof. Thurston here defines what a
mechanical laboratory ought to be, its
province and its methods. Such a labora-
tory the trustees of the Stevens Institute
of Technology, he informs us, have con-
sented to establish. Such bodies as the
Railway Master-Mechanics' Association, the
Society of Civil Engineers, and the Iron
and Steel Association, have pledged them-
selves to give aid and advice in promoting
the enterprise.

Some Account of Zapus Hudsonics and
Lagopus Leucurus. By Dr. E. Coues.
Washington : Government Printing-
Office. Pp. 14.

Zapus is the name given by Dr. Coues
to a genus which includes only one species,
the "long-legged mouse of Hudson's Bay."
This animal, usually referred to the Muri-
dce, differs from the Muridse, says Dr. Coues,
to a degree warranting the recognition of a
family Zapodidce. With respect to Lagopus
leucurus (the white-tailed ptarmigan). Dr.
Goues remirks upon its breeding-habits, its
nost, and its eggs.

The Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. By
W. S. FoRWooD, M. D. Philadelphia:
Lippincott. Pp. 241.

This is an excellent account of the great
Kentucky Cave. It is not only a trustworthy
guids for the visitor, but something far better

than an ordinary guide-book — an historical
and descriptive account of the Mammoth
Cave, giving explanations of the causes con-
cerned in its formation, its chemisti-y, geol-
ogy, etc., together with full scientific details
of the eyeless fishes. The volume has
twelve lithographic illustrations, also an
original map.

Geological Notes. By Prof. William B,
Rogers. Pp. 13.

The two papers contained in this pam-
phlet are reprinted from the " Proceedings
of the Boston Society of Natural History."
The first of the papers treats of the New-
port conglomerate, and the second of the
gravel and cobble-stone deposits of Vir-
ginia and the Middle States.

Weights, Measures, and Monet, of All
Nations. By F. W. Clarke, S. B.
Pp. 117. New York: D. Appleton k.
Co. Price, $1.50.

This is a very useful little volume, en-
abling the reader to reduce to United
States standartls the money, measui-es, and
weights of every commercial nation in the
world. The work is divided into two parts,
in the first of which we have a classifica-
tion according to countries, arranged alpha-
betically, and, in the second, a set of tables,
giving the value of each unit both in Eng-
lish and in metric standards.

PUBLICATIONS KECEIYED.

Washington Astronomical and Meteoro^
logical Observations (1873). Washington :
Government Printing-Ofiice. Pp. 429.

Reconnoissance of Northwestern Wyo-
ming. By W. A. Jones, U. S. A. Washing-
ton : Government Printing-Ofiice. Pp. 332.

Algebraical Equations. By J. Macnie,
A. M. Pp. 194. New York : A. S. Barnes
& Co. Price, $2.50.

History of the United States. By J. A-
Doyle. Pp. 404. New York : Holt & Co.
Price, $1.40.

Beliefs of the Unbelievers. By 0. B.
Frothingham. New York : Putnams. Price,
$1.

French Political Leaders. By E. King.
Pp. 326. Same publishers. Price, $1.50.

MISCELLANY.

7S9

Filth-Dlsea?es. By J. Simon, M. D. Pp.
96. Boston : James Campbell. Price, $1.

Percy Bysshe Shelley as a Philosopher
and Picformer. By C. Sotherau. Pp. 51.
New York : Somerby. Piice, $1.25.

Algebra for Beginners. By J. Loudon,
3J. A. Pp. 158. Toronto ; Copp, Clark &
Co.

Report on the Public Schools of Colum-
bus, Ohio. Pp. 428. Columbus : S. A.
Glenn,

The Textile Colorlst (Monthly). For
sale in New York by Wiley & Sou. Price,
§1 per number.

Report of New York City Superiatend-
cnt of Schools (1875). Pp. 77. New
York ; Cushing & Bardua print.

Report on the Harvard Museum of Com-
parative Zoology (1875). Pp.68. Boston:
Wright & Potter print.

Message of Governor Tilden (January,
1870).

Chemical Analyses of Fertilizers. Pub-
Jishcd by the Georgia Commissioner of Ag-
riculture. Pp. 44.

The Bible and Science. By J. Weiss.
Pp. 22. Boston: Cochrane & Sampson
print.

Sheep-Husbandry in Georgia. Pp. 24.
Atlanta: Harrison k Co. print.

Sympathy of Religions. By T. W. Hig-
ginson. Pp. 38. Boston: Free Religious
Association. Price, 10 cents.

The Financial Problem. By Hon. E.
Ward. Pp. IS. Washington Congression-
<il Record print.

Charities of New York (1876). Pp. 69.
New York ; Putnams.

Sketch of the Life of J. A. Lapham.
By S. S. Slierman. Pp. 80. Milwaukee:
2\'ews Co. print.

Man's True Relation to Nature. By T.
P. Wilson, M. D. Pp. 26. Cleveland,
Ohio : L. H. White.

Sanitary Condition of Towns. Pp. 32
(Legislative Document). Albany : Weed,
Parsons & Co. print.

Eleiients of Life-insurance. Pp. 32.
Boston : Wright k Potter print.

Variation in Strength of a Muscle. Pp
C. Also, New Form of Lantern Galvanom-
eter. Pp. 3. By F. E. Nipher. Reprint
from American Journal of Science.

Specimens of Milk from Vicinity of
Boston. By S. P. Sliarples, S. B. Pp. 7.

Valedictory Address to the Medico-Le-
gal Society of New York. By C. Bell. Pp„
22.

Meteorology and Health. By W. Bla-
sius. Pp. 5.

MISCELLAMY.

Trkliinotts Pork. — Triduna S2)iralis was
first discovered by Owen, in 1835, in hu-
man muscular tissue. Some twenty years
later the parasite, as seen by Owen, namely,
as a minute worm coiled up within a cyst,
was found by Herbst to be the larva of a
thread-like worm. The latter passes its
life in the intestinal canal, the former in-
habits the muscular tissue. When the flesh
of animals infested by the larvae is taken
into the stomach, the immatuie trichinae
quickly multiply, and in the course of a few
days millions of the encysted larvag may be
found in the muscles. As has been shrewd-
ly conjectured, it is not Improbable that
the prohibition of pork as food, a prohibi-
tion enforced not only among the Jews, but
among various races inhabiting widely-sep-
arate regions of the earth, had its origin in
an observation of injurious consequences
attending the use of swine's flesh. Dr. Sut-
ton's " Report on Trichinosis," noticed in
our January number, is worthy of the at-
tention, not only of medical men, but of the
public. We give herewith the result of his
observations on the cases of the disease
which came under his notice, and of his
examination of hundreds of specimens of
pork :

1. He foimd that all the cases which
came under his observation were produced
by eating uncooked or imperfectly-cooked
pork. 2. He reiterates the uniform teach-
ing of medical observers that the vitality
of the trichinae can be destroyed only by
thorough cooking of the meat, and that the
eating of merely smoked or dried pork is
dangerous. 3. From raici o-copie examina-
tions of pork kiileJ in Southeastern Indi

760

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ana, he found from three to sixteen per
cent, of the hogs afiected with trichinae, the
number of hogs diseased varying greatly in
differeut localities. 4. That ninety per cent,
of the disease produced by trichinous pork
appears as gastero-enteritis, diarrhcea, or
dysentery, ten per cent, only representing
the cases of trichinosis proper.

Penetrating Power of Different Colored

Lights. — An experiment was lately made at
Trieste, to determine how far lights of
different colors penetrate darkness. Half
a dozen lanterns with carefully -selected
glass, and all furnished with oil and wicks
of the same quality, were lighted on the
beach, and then observations were made by
a party in a boat. At the distance of half
a league, the dark-blue lantern was invisible,
and the deep-blue one nearly so ; hence it
appears that blue lights are not adapted for
use in lighthouses, or as signals. Of all the
colors the green was visible for the longest
distance, with the exception of the red,
which ranked next to the white in power of
penetration. Tlie conclusion is, that only
the green and the red arc suitable for sig-
nals ; and the green light the Trieste ob-
servers only recommend for use in conjunc-
tion with white and red lights, inasmuch
as, when viewed from a short distance, an
isolated green light begins to look like a
white one.

Carious Freak of the Cnrly-Willawr—

The following curious facts are communi-
cated by Dr. S. Lockwood to the Botanical
Bulletin: " We have two pendent willows,
known as S-ilit Bjlylonica (more correctly
S. pendula, Moench.), the weeping-willow,
and Salix crinpj, the curly-willow. On the
grounds of Hon. E. W. Scudder, Trenton,
New Jersey, is a fine specimen of each, the
two having a clear distance of twenty -five feet
between tiieir nearest branches. The top-
most branch of the curly-willow, on the side
of the tree next the weeper, is about ten
feet long, and six feet thick, and is densely
covered with leaves. The curious fact is,
that while the rest of this entire tree has
the perfect habit of S. crispa, this large
branch has the perfect habit of S. Bahyloni-
ca. The long pendent branchlets, and every
leaf, are in all respects those of the weeping-

willow. This is true not only of the form
and habit of the leaves, but with positive
exactness also of the color. The true crispa
leaves are a very dark and shiny green
above, and almost a chalky white under-
neath. The pseudo-Bahi/lonica leaves are a
pale yellowish-green above, and still paler,
perhaps pea-green, on their under sides. I
compared them carefully with the leaves of
the neighboring Babj/hnlca, and, excepting
perhaps that the leaves cf the freak were a
little the smaller, a fact of no significance,
there was no difference whatever. Looking
at this great branch, the spectator comes to
regard it as a natural graft. This is an ut-
ter mistake. It is purely an outcropping of
heredity, and is thus an interesting evidence
of the identity of species in the curly and
the weeping willow. Supposing S. Bahyhnica
to be the ancestor, we have here the long-
dormant inherited force asserting itself, and
proclaiming the ancient and wellnigh lost
parentage of S. crispa. It is observable, too,
that the foliage of the branch, thus repre-
senting the true weeper, is much more dense
than that on the rest of the tree represent-
ing the curly-willow. This is the fact re-
specting these trees everywhere. The curly-
willow has this to its disadvantage, its pau-
city of foliage, so that, in pointing back to
its ancestry, it declares tlie leaf-wealth of
the ancient line. As the tree is a very old
one, it is significant that this declaration of
heredity shoul'd appear so late in life."

A Wise Public Bcnefaetor.— In 1868 Sir

Joseph Whitworth presented to the British
nation an annuity of £3,000 per year, which
was vested in the Department of Science
and Art, for the purpose of founding schol-
arships to promote the instruction of young
men in the theory and practice of mechan-
ics and the cognate sciences. He has now
made over to the public his large landed
estates for similar purposes, reserving to
himself a life interest. The Department
of Science and Art is to hold the estates,
subject to the control of Parliament. In
commenting upon this munificent action of
Sir Joseph Whitworth, the London Times
commends his wisdom in trusting Parlia-
ment to adapt his endowment to the va-
rying circumstances of successive times.
" We have had," says the Times, "abundant

MISCELLANY

761

instances of late years of the manner in
which what the Lord-Chancellor describes
as a ' perpetual trust ' has hampered, in-
stead of fostering, the development of the
future. It is not merely that so much
mocey has been wasted, but obsolete rules
and exploded systems have been a lasting
obstacle to the growth of thought and to
the intelligent adaptation of new genera-
tions to new necessities. The law of mort-
main has not been sufficient to avert this
danger, and great institutions like our uni-
versities and public schools have from time
to time come to a dead-lock. Being estab-
lished with no other dominant object in
view than that of perpetuating the systems
of the past, a troublesome outcry has always
been raised when it has become necessary
to adapt them to the present."

Diffasion of fholcra. — Pettonkofer's the-
ory of the spread of cholera — namely, that
it depends on geological and hydrological
conditions — receives confirmation from
the researches of Dr. Decaisne, one of the
foremost hygienists of France. In a com-
munication to the Academic des Sciences,
Dr. Decaisne calls attention to the fact that
the cities of Lyons and Versailles have al-
ways been in a great measure proof against
this disease, though the country round about
has again and again been ravaged by it.
Paris, on the contrary, has often suffered
severely from cholera. In 1832 Lyons en-
tirely escaped the visitation of the epidem-
ic, which ravaged all the rest of the coun-
tr}-. Again, in 1835, Lyons was not attacked
by the cholera in its advance up the Rhone.
In 1849 it made its appearance in one of
the barracks, and a few cases occurred in
the neighborhood ; but three weeks later it
had disappeared. In the autumn of 1853
the cholera prevailed in the department of
Drome; there was an outbreak at Lyons,
the number of cases being 400, with 196
deaths. In 1865 there were only a few
sporadic cases.

According to Pcttenkofer's theory, the
immunity of Lyons is explained partly by
the constitution of the soil, but this expla-
nation applies only to those quarters of the
town which overlie the granite rock, either
directly, or with a bed of clay interposed.
All those portions of the city which rest on

the alluvium owe their immunity to peculiar
conditions of the underground water. The
two instances mentioned above of outbreaks
of the cholera in Lyons coincide with periods
of exceptional drought, when organic matter,
which is usually submerged, underwent de-
composition by the action of the air. But
those portions of the city which owe their
salubrity to the physical constitution of the
soil have always enjoyed immunity. As for
the city of Versailles, the conditions there
are analogous to those found at Lyons. But
Paris rests on Eocene Tertiary formations
which are pei-meable and dry — conditions
which are favorable to the dissemination of
cholera,

Coal-Deposits ia New lork State. — In a

recent popular lecture on the subject of
coal, given under the auspices of the Buffa-
lo Society of Natural Sciences, Prof. A. R.
Grote speaks as follows of the prospects of
finding coal within the limits of the State
of New York : " Though coal exists in
small quantities in the earth below the car-
boniferous formation, it will not pay to mine
it. The Mareellus shale, for instance, is so
charged with bitumen that it can be burnt.
A great deal of money has been wasted in
this State in searching for coal in formations
where it could not be found. More money,
a thousand times over, has been frittered
away than would pay for a new scientific
survey of the State, which is so much need-
ed. Instead of consulting scientific men,
geologists, people have dug vainly, and
wasted time, labor, and money. Within the
borders of our State we have no carbonif-
erous formations, except a bare outcrop-
ping, in the southwestern part, of conglom-
erate belonging to the series. No coal ex-
ists in this State in any quantity."

Observations on tbc Hiigrations of Birds.

— With a view to ascertain the conditions
governing the migrations of birds and certain
other periodical phenomena, the natural-his-
tory editor of Forest and Stream invites the
attention of observers throughout the coun-
try to the subject, and suggests that each
one keep a record of his observations. The
points to be specially ol)served are the fol-
lowing: 1. Whether each species of birds
'is resident throughout the year, is a sum-

762

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mer or winter visitant, or only pas.*es over
a locality in spring or fall. 2. With refer-
once to each species in a given locality,
whether it is "abundant," "somewhat
common," or " rare." 3. What species
breed, and whether more than once in a
season. 4. Dates of arrival, greatest abun-
dance, nest-building, laying eggs, hatching
of young, and beginning of departure of
each species, and when it is last seen in
the fall. 5. What efTects, if any, upon
the relative abundance of particular birds,
in retarding their arrival or hastening
their departure, sudden changes of the
weather, storms, and late and early sea-
sons appear to have. 6. Similar notes upon
the appearance and movements of the quad-
rupeds, reptiles, and fishes of the region,
and upon the time of flowering of trees
and plants. V. Other occurrences consid-
ered noteworthy. It is desirable that rec-
ords of this kind should be kept. As the
writer in Forest and Stream observes, it is
through such observations as these, con-
tinued year after year, that the natural his-
tory of England has become so well known,
and so many persons there have become in-
terested in it. We may add that children
might easily be induced to take an interest
in this kind of natural-history observations,
and so by degrees acquire the faculty of
accurately noting what is going on around
them.

Arctic KcSMrch. — A commission of thir-
teen eminent naturalists, appointed by the
German Government to discuss the ques-
tion of Arctic discovery, have made a re-
port, in which they adopt the advice of
Lieutenant Payer, of the Austrian Expedi-
tion. They do not object to Arctic re-
search, but dissuade from voyages of dis-
covery ; they believe that the advantages to
be derived from the former can be secured
by a safer and surer method. They recom-
mend the establisliment of permanent sta-
tions in those Arctic regions which can be
?afely approached and abandoned at any
time. As a beginning, they recommend
several stations to be formed on the eastern
shore of Greenland, the western shore of
Spitzbergen, and Jan Mayen Island. Houses
should be built, furnished with every regard
to the inclemencv of the cliinato. In eaoli

house the commission would have stationed
a detachment of scholars, sailors, and other
enterprising men, to remain for a term of
years, a ship being sent out for their relief
from time to time.

The men at these stations could do good
work for meteorology, by observing the pe-
riodic recurrence of Arctic phenomena, as
well as any deviation from the ordinary
rule, and would thus be enabled to discover
the reasons for the alternation of storm and
calm at the equator. The connection be-
tween terrestrial magnetism and atmospher-
ic electricity, cable-currents, and the aurora
borealis, can only be investigated in such
high latitudes ; while the laws of terrestrial
magnetism itself will never be thoroughly
appreciated unless the variations of mag-
netism in the far north are studied. Then
as to astronomy, the theory of refraction,
the atmospheric lines of the spectrum, and
the relation between comets and shooting-
stars, to be better known, require continued
observation near the pole. Geodesy, too,
by measurement of degrees and observa-
tion of the pendulum, will arrive at more
definite conclusions respecting the form of
the globe.

Geography, independently of the topo-
graphical details to be ascertained on the
spot, will derive the most valuable geognos-
tic information from further systematic
study. Geology, paleontology, mineralogy,
botany, and zoology, may expect to make
great strides from persistent exploration of
the northern and southern poles, while
physiology and biology will be enormously
advanced by the discovery of the conditions
of life in those cold regions. There was a
time when man in Central Europe led the
life to which Lapps and Eskimos are con-
demned nowadays. To become familiar
with the manners and customs, the religion
and morals, the physical and psychical pe-
culiarities of Arctic races, is to dive into
the distant past, and may probably explain
much that is still unintelligible in our
primeval history.

Force .ind Work. — Work without im-
plies work within. Xo exercise of force
can be made except by the generation and
use of force of which no part enters into
the external result. The use of muscles in-

MISCELLANY

763

Tolves use of nerves. The external force,
if exerted by a muscle, is only part of that
which it produces. Now, the proportion
between these two in their several degrees
is a subject of great practical importance,
and some interesting facts have recently
been published by Ilelmholtz. From these
it is clear that the greater the external force
exerted the greater is the proportion of the
needful internal force — that is, great exer-
tion is more wasteful than moderate exer-
tion. Then force has to be evolved in pro-
portion to the external work done, and
therefore the greater is the wear and tear
of the animal machine. The same increased
proportion of non-productive work is seen
when the external energy is below a moder-
ate amount. It is found, for instance, that
in walking, a speed of three miles an hour
gives the most economical use of the forces.
No doubt in these facts we have an index
to much of the ill effects of the present
high-pressure rate of work and life. The
waste of force is out of proportion to the
work done. More is effected in a given
time, but the body feels it more, and its
working period is proportionately shorter.
These facts cannot be too often repeated or
too constantly remembered by those who
have the regulation of labor. — Lancet.

ContribntioDs to Meteorology. — The

American Journal of Science, for January,
contains the fourth paper by Prof. Loomis,
giving results of recent researches in the
science of meteorology, founded on data
derived chiefly from the weather-maps of
the United States Signal Service.

In a former article attention was called
to the fact that low temperatures at the
surface of the earth are produced by de-
scent of cold air from the upper regions of
the atmosphere. It was shown that, in areas
of high barometer, tlie movement of the
air is outward from the centre, instead of
inward, as in case of low barometer or
storm. This implies a supply from down-
ward motion.

The current notion, that extreme cold is
brought by wind from colder areas, is met
by the fact that, at Yakootsk, in Siberia,
which is about the coldest place in the
Northern Hemisphere, the temperature is
lowest when the air is quite still, and equal-
ly when the wind is from north, south.

east, or west. These results are obtained
from four years' observations at that place,
and are similar to those obtained at New
Haven, except as to direction of wind. It
would be diificult to explain where the ex-
treme cold of Yakootsk came from, except
from the upper atmosphere, seeing that it
is colder than the country round about.

A diurnal variation in the progress of
storms was noticed by Prof. Loomis in a
former paper. This fact suggested to him
the further one that there is a diurnal ine-
quality in the rainfall. This is now shown
by observations made at Philadelphia, not
by the Signal Service maps, which do not
record hourly observations. It appears
that the maximum rainfall occurs at about
six o'clock in the afternoou ; and the mini-
mum at three o'clock in the morning.

By observations which cover a peiiod of
ten years, made at Prague, in Bohemia, it
appears that the greatest rainfall during the
day occurs in the afternoon, the maximum
being from three until six o'clock.

The tracks of storms in America and Eu-
rope, already noticed by Prof. Loomis, are
further considered in this paper. He de-
termined the precise latitude at which the
storm-centres cross certain lines of longi-
tude, and in this way establishes a line
which is the track of the storm-centre ; a
similar method was applied to storms in
Europe. It appears that the average track
is not regular, but varies. In an article
published in July, ISH, it was stated that
the average direction of the storms of the
United States was, for the year, 8° north of
east, and that is correct as a general state-
ment. Connected with the present arti-
cle is a chart, by which it is seen that the
average track of American storm-centres is
over Chicago and Detroit, and is deflected
to the south coast of Newfoundland. From
this point it seems to be continuous over
the ocean, being deflected northward near
the Irish coast, passes over Dublin, and
thence across Denmark. These results,
however, are obtained from the Paris maps,
and the continuity of the line may, in some
measure, depend on the extent of the field
of observations by which it was determined.

The number of storms traced across the
Atlantic Ocean is not large ; they undergo
changes on the ocean, and frequently are
merged in other storms.

764

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The velocity with which storms advance
is further considered in this paper. It was
previously stated that the rate might vary
from a stationary condition for many hours,
or several days, to the extreme velocity of
1,200 miles in a day, or even 57.5 miles an
hour.

By an examination of European maps it
appears that storms over Europe travel at
an average rate of 26.7 miles per hour, and
it was found from examination of American
maps that they move at about the same
rate in thi.s country. But over the Atlantic
Ocean the movement is only 19.6 miles,
showing that the velocity is less over the
ocean than over the land.

This proves that the progress of a storm
is not merely a drifting of the atmosphere;
for, observes the professor, it seems proba-
ble that the average progress of the atmos-
phere in an easterly direction is as rapid
over the Atlantic Ocean as it is over North
America.

IIow K.its and Mice use their Tails. —

To test the correctness of the popular belief
that rats and mice use their tails for feeding
purposes, when the food to be eaten is con-
tained in vessels too narrow to admit the
entire body of the animal, a writer in Na-
ture made the following experiments : Into
a couple of preserve-bottles with n.arrow
necks he put as much semi-liquid fiuit-jelly
as filled them within three inches of the
top. The bottles were then covered with
bladder, and set in a place frequented by
rats. Next morning the covering of each
bottle had a small hole gnawed in it, and
the level of the jelly was lowered to an ex-
tent about equal to the length of a rat's tail
if inserted in the hole. The next experi-
ment was still more decisive. The bottles
were refilled to the extent of half an inch
above the level left by the rats, a disk of
moist paper laid upon the surface, and the
bottles covered as before. The bottles were
now laid aside in a place unfrequented by
rats, until a good crop of mould had grown
upon one of the moistened disks of paper.
This bottle was then transferred to the
pia^e infested by the rats. Next morning
the bladder had again been eaten through
at one edge, and upon the mould were nu-
merous and distinct tracings of the rats'
tails, evidently caused by the animals sweep-

ing their tails about in the endeavor to find
a hole in the paper.

Experiments in Bcet-tnltnrc. — In the

course of their experiments on beet-culture,
Deherain and Fremy planted some beets in
absolutely sterile soils, to which were added
from time to time such substances as were
thought to be essential for the development
of the plant. It was found that the beets
continued in the rudimentary state when
they received in such soils only distilled
water ; they increased slightly in weight
when common water took the place of dis-
tilled ; their development was greater still
when the water contained soluble phos-
phates, or salts of potash ; but yet the
roots never attained the weight of 100
grammes. When for these mineral sub-
stances were substituted ammouiacal salts
or nitrates, the yield was much better.
Normal beets, however, cannot be grown
unless to these nitrogenous fertilizers are
added phosphates and potash salts. It is
worthy of note that, when the beet finds in
the soil nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, and
lime, it develops as well as in a soil con-
taining humus. To establish this point
Messrs. Deherain and Fremy compared the
produce of two such soils, and found that
the beets grown in sterile soil were heavier
than those grown in rich soil.

On examining the beets grown in plots
in the experimental garden of the museum,
the authors found them to be very poor in
sugar, though the soil was very i-ich. From
this it follows that deficiency of sugar in
the beet is not due to exhaustion of the
soil. In seeking the true cause, it occurred
to Messrs. Deherain and Fremy to ascer-
tain how much nitrogen the beets con-
tained, and found it to be very large.
Hence it appeared that a soil rich in nitro-
geneous matters is unfavorable to the pro-
duction of sugar. This conclusion was con-
firmed by sundry analyses of beets grown
at the museum, at the school of Grignon,
and in the departments of Aisne, Nord,
and Eure. All the results positively con-
firm the observations made by the authors,
and their conclusion is that, if beets are
now less rich in sugar than formerly in
those departments which have long pro-
duced them, that fact is not owing to the
exhaustion of the soil and its deprivation

MISCELLANY.

765

of principles necessary for the develop-
ment of the beet ; on the contrary, the
reason of the phenomenon is, that the soil
is too rich in nitrogenous matters, in conse-
quence of the liberal use of manures.

BallooDS and Carrier-Pigcons.— It is re-
lated by a writer in the London Quarterly
Review for July, that when Pilatre de Ro-
zier had descended safely to the earth,
after making the first aerial voyage ever
undertaken by man, Benjamin Franklin,
who at the time (November 21, 1783) was
in Paris, on being asked his opinion of the
brothers Montgolfier's invention, replied,
" A child has just been born." But hith-
erto its growth has been extremely slow.
Nevertheless, the history of aerial naviga-
tion is full of interest, and it is well told by
the writer in the QuarterJu. Some of the
early objections against ballooning were
singular enough. Thus, it was urged that
female honor and virtue would be in con-
tinual peril, if access could be had by
balloons at all hours to the windows of
houses ! Politicians objected that, if the
path of air were to be made free, all limits
of property and frontiers of nations would
be destroyed. As a matter of course, aerial
navigation was denounced as "impious."
And, when the brave Pilatre des Rozier's
balloon took fire in the air over the city
of Boulogne, and he lost his life, many a
one recognized herein the " hand of Provi-
dence," just as the peasant-girl, who saw a
deal chair fall " from heaven," at once de-
cided that it was a part of the household
furniture of the angels. In point of fact,
Gay-Lussac, who happened at the time to
be overhead, had thrown the chair out of
his car, to lighten his aerostat.

During the siege of Paris by the Ger-
mans, a balloon post was established in the
city. At first there appeared to be innu-
merable obstacles in the way of this enter-
prise, the chief one being the difficulty of
obtaining a sufficient number of aeronauts.
In this strait, the aid of seafaring men resi-
dent in the city was invoked, as their train-
ing had made them familiar with operations
and dangers akin to those of ballooning.
From September to January, sixty-four bal-
loons were sent off, and of these fifty-seven
fulfilled their mission. The number of let-
ters thus dispatched was 3,000,000. The

writer in the Quarterly Review mentions
one incident connected with these balloon
voyages which seems hardly credible : On
one. occasion, the crew of a balloon found
themselves over the sea, out of sight of
land. Seeing vessels they made signals for
help, but were not answered, aiid one vessel
Jircd on tliem. The men afterward de-
scended to the earth in Norway.

To carry dispatches and letters into
Paris, carrier-pigeons were employed. The
disj)atches, public and private, were first
printed on pages of folio size, 16 of which
were placed side by side, forming a large
sheet about 54 inches long by 32 wide.
This was reduced by photography to -g^y
of its original area, the impression being
taken on a small pellicle of collodion, two
inches long and 1^ wide, and weighing
about 5 of a grain ; each contained about
2,000 words, or 32,000 words in all, equal
to about 58 pages of this magazine. Every
pigeon carried twenty of these leaves, which
were carefully rolled up and put in a quill.
At the Government office in Paris, the quill
was cut open, and the collodion leaves care-
fully extracted. They were then magnified
by an optical apparatus, copied, and sent
to their destination.

mental OTerwork. — One of the great
evils of modern life, in the estimation of
many eminent physicians, is mental over-
work. It is asserted that affections of the
heart are now more numerous than ever
before, that asylums for the insane are be-
ing overcrowded, and that nervous disor-
ders of every kind are on the increase.
What are the signs which indicate impair-
ment by overwork ? This question is thus
answered in the Sanitary Record: "Over-
work," says the Record, "exists when the
sense of energy once possessed is distinct-
ly impaired ; when it is found an effort to
get through what was once a cheerful task ;
when what was once found comparatively
easy is beginning to be felt a trial ; and
above all when errors or omissions, the di-
rect outcomes of a flagging and wearied
brain, commence to manifest themselves.
To spur on an exhausted brain, and by ap-
plication and longer hours of toil to com-
pel the overtaxed nervous system to com-
plete its round of duty, is one of the most
disastrous and erroneous measures that can

766

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be adopted. Whenever work, itself unal-
tered, looks larger than of yore, and is felt
to be more trying, then the system is com-
mencing to feel the effects of overwork,
which, however, may actually have existed
for some time unnoticed. This is especially
true of the monotonous labor which is under-
gone by the clerks and subordinate officials
of our commercial houses ; if they are free
from the anxieties which affect the princi-
pals, they are the more subject to the
wearing action of monotonous labor. The
institution of bank holidays is a step in the
right direction, and ere long the absolute
necessity for a more decided increase in
the number of national holidays will be
palpable enough. What man can safely do
is not to be measured by his desires, but by
his powers ; and we are all rapidly becom-
ing convinced that incessant toil is not only
undesirable, but that it is uneconomical.
The one day's rest in seven is not now suf-
ficient for our needs."

Frent'h Public Libraries. — In a statisti-
cal work, comparing France with other
European countries, the following interest-
ing notes on public libraries occur: Paris
has six great libraries, the property of the
state, and open to the public, viz. : Biblio-
theque Nationale (900,000 volumes), Biblio-
th&que Mazarine, Bibliotheque de I'Arse-
nal, Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevi^ve, Biblio-
theque de la Sorbonne. Outside of Paris
France has 338 libraries which twenty years
ago contained 3,689,000 printed volumes.
Forty-one of these libraries are open in the
evening. Great Britain has (in its public
libraries) 1,'771,493 volumes, or six volumes
per 100 of the population; Italy 11. Y vol-
umes per 100. In France there are 4,389,000
volumes, or 11.7 per 100 persons; in Aus-
tria 2,488,000 volumes, or 6.9 per 100;
Prussia 2,040,450, or 11 per 100; Russia
852,000, or 1.3 per 100; Belgium 509,100,
or 10.4 per 100. Since 1865 school libra-
ries have been founded neai'ly throughout all
France. We have already in the Monthly
given the statistics of these school libraries,
but we copy the figures again from the
work to which we are indebted for the fore-
going statistics. In 1865 there were 4,833
of these school libraries in France, contain-
ing 180,854 volumes; in 1866, 7,789 libra-
ries, 258,724 volumes; 1867, 11,417 libra-

ries, 721,853 volumes; 1868,12,395 libra-
ries, 988,728 volumes; 1869, 14,395 libra-
ries, 1,239,165 volumes; 1870-'71, 13,638
libraries, 1,158,742 volumes.

Appearances attending tbe Passage of a
Meteor. — In stating the results of his ob-
servations on the passage of a meteorite
seen at Louisville, December 12, 1872, Prof.
J. Lawrence Smith says that it first appeared
as a large red light in the zenith, which
seemed to stand motionless for several sec-
onds, evidently because it was then de-
scending in a line with the eye of the ob-
server. Then starting off with an uncer-
tain, faltering motion, it moved slowly tow-
ard the horizon, gradually fading from a
lurid red to a dark purplish hue, and leav-
ing a dense stream of blue smoke behind,
which remained for several minutes. " These
clouds," continues Prof. Smith, " are not
unfrequently connected with the passage of
these bodies through our atmosphere, and
are usually more striking in the daytime,
or, as in this instance, just after sunset,
when the sun was well situated to light up
the cloud and exhibit it to the observer who
could no longer see the sun. What are
these clouds ? Are they composed of im-
palpable matter abraded from the surface
of these bodies in their passage, or are they
true vapor-clouds ? From a close study of
observations in connection with several
well-known falls of meteorites, I am more
inclined to adopt the former view ; but
there is reason for believing that the vio-
lent disturbance of a portion of the atmos-
phere (much of it, in the rapid passage of
the body, undergoing great condensation),
added to an undoubted electric disturbance
of the atmosphere, would tend to the depo-
sition of moisture, upon the atmosphere
being gradually restored to its former equi-
librium."

Insect-killiDg Plants. — During a botan-
ical tour in Atlantic County, New Jersey,
Mr. Meehan, of Philadelphia, found grow-
ing, near Hammonton, a great number of
plants representing three species of Dro-
sera, namely, D. filiformis, D. long'ifolia,
and D. rotundifoUa. All of these species
had insects attached to them, but many of
the plants had none. The remains of the
insects which have been caught seem to

MISCELLANY

7^7

continue attached to the plant for a long
time, and thus the observer at once per-
ceives which plant has had the benefit of
animal food. No difference in health or
vigor could be detected between those
which had had insects and those which had
not. This, however, docs not by any
means decide the question whether the
plants do or do not digest the insects. As
Mr. Meehan remarks, the case of these
plants is comparable to that of vegetari-
ans and flesh-eaters among mankind ; it is
a question which class is the healthier. A
plant, he said, might feed on insects, and
yet be no healthier than those which lived
as other plants did. But the author does
not see how this faculty of catching and
digesting insects could be developed by
natural selection. " It is beheved," said
he, " that the power to catch insects is a
developed one — a power not possessed by
their predecessors — and developed accord-
ing to the law of natural selection. Unless
insect-catching can be shown to be an es-
pecial advantage, there is nothing to select."
Among the many Droseras observed by
Mr. Meehan on this occasion, only one pre-
sented the phenomenon of the leaf bending
over on itself, and so enfolding the pi'cy.

The Soda -Lakes of Wyominsc. — An ac-
count of the soda-lakes of Wyoming Terri-
tory is given in the report of Mr. Pontcz,
geologist of the Union Pacific Railroad.
He describes two such lakes, the larger one
covering about 200 acres. The average
depth of water in this lake is three feet,
and its specific gravity 1.097. The soda is
nearly all carbonate. The second lake is
situated near the first, and covers about Z^
acres. During the greater part of the year
it is a concrete mass of carbonate-of-soda
crystals. Mr. Pontez excavated to the
depth of six feet without reaching the bot-
tom of the deposit, which is constantly in-
creasing from the influx from the larger
lake. These lakes are situated about 65
miles from Rawlins Station, on the Union
Pacific Railroad. The quality of the car-
bonate is declared to be fully equal to the
imported article. Estimating the quantity
by the specific gravity of the water, its
depth and area, the large lake would yield
on evaporation 78, COO tons, which would
realize, at $45 per ton, §4,510,000. Be-

sides the cost of freight, the expense of
preparing the article for market would be
$4 per ton for evaporating. The small
lake already crystallized, and estimated only
at a depth of six feet and an area of 155,-
000 feet, contains 30,660 tons, which at
$45 per ton would realize $1,379,700.

Befiactiou of Sonndi— Refraction of

sound by the atmosphere was the subject
of a paper read by Prof Osborne Reynolds,
at the last meeting of the British Associa-
tion, in which were given the results of ex-
periments made by the author. He had
confirmed his hypothesis that when sound
proceeds in a direction contrary to that of
the wind it is not destroyed or stopped by
the wind, but that it is lifted ; and that at
sufiiciently high elevations it could be heard
at as great distances as in other directions,
or as when there is no wind. An upward
diminution of temperature had been proved
by Glaisher's balloon-ascents, and he showed,
by experiments with the sounds of firing
of rockets and guns, that the upward varia-
tion of temperature had a great efl'ect on
the distance at which sounds could be heard.
By other observations, he found that when
the sky was cloudy and there was no dew,
the sound could invariably be heard much
farther with than against the wind, but that,
when the sky was clear and there was a
heavy dew, the sound could be heard as far
against a light wind as with it.

The Opinm-IIabit.— The British vice-
consul at Kinkiang, China, in a report to
his government, states certain facts coming
under his own observation, which seem to
show that the opium-habit may exist with-
out detriment to health. During a tour on
the Upper Yang-tse-kiang, he was thrown
into the closest relations with junk-sailors
and others, almo:-t every adult of whom
smoked opium. Their work was of the
hardest, rising at 4 a. m., and working, with
hardly any intermission, till dark, having
constantly to strip and plunge into the
stream in all seasons. The quantity of food
eaten by them was prodigious, and from this
and their work it may be inferred that their
constitution was robust. The two most ad-
dicted to the habit were the pilot and the
cook. On the incessant watchfulness and
steady nerve of the former the safety of the

768

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

junk and all on board frequently depended ;
the other worked hard from 3 a. m. to 10
p. M., and often longer. This cook had a
conserve of opium and sugar, which he
chewed during the day, as he was able to
smoke only at night.

NOTES.

By a mistake of the printer, the heading
to Di'. Jerome Kidder's advertisement in the
last number of the Monthly was made to
read, "Superior 'EXQcivo- Chemical Appara-
tus." It should have read, " Superior Elec-
tro-Medical Apparatus," as it now stands.

Last summer the French Assembly voted
to M. Pasteur a life-pension of 12,000 francs,
in consideration of his public services as a
scientific investigator. Another pension of
6,000 francs was lately allowed him by a
decree of the Marshal-President.

In conjunction with the U. S. Fisheries
Commission the Smithsonian Institution will
exhibit at Philadelphia the resources of the
United States derivable from the waters, in-
cluding the objects themselves, the products
derived from them, the apparatus by which
the objects are captured or utilized, and
finally the means by which they are multi-
plied and maintained in a healthy state. The
last section is intended to illustrate the
present state of pisciculture in this country.

At the annual meeting of the American
Microscopical Society of the City of New
York, held on January 25th, Dr. John B.
Rich was elected President, and Mr. C. F.
Cox, 13 William Street, Secretary for the
present year.

The Loan Collection of Scientific Instru-
ments, soon to be placed on exhibition in
London, will undoubtedly be the most suc-
cessfid enterprise of the kind ever at-
tempted. Nearly every civilized country
will be represented. Not only modern in-
struments, but also those possessing a more
strictly historical interest — such as apparatus
once used by Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Lavoi-
sier, Priestley, Boyle, Herschel, etc. — will
have a place in this collection.

In some parts of Russia tlie young shoots
of the " cat-tail " ( Typha latifolia) are used
as asparagus ; they are said to be delicious.
The plant grows abundantly in the United
States in swampy localities.

Captain Allen Young will sail again
next May, from England, to renew the search
after the remains of Sir John Franklin's
expedition. He will first visit the entrance
of Smith Sound, with a view to receive in-
telligence from the Alert and Discovery.

The death is announced of George Pou-
lett Scrope, the geologist, lie was born in
l^QY, and received his education at Bar-
row School and Cambridge University. In
1825 he published his first scientific work,
" Considerations of Volcanoes." Two years
later he published a treatise on " The
Geology and Extinct Volcanoes of Central
France," a work of signal merit. In 1833
he entered political life as a member of
Parliament, and published a number of
pamphlets on a variety of governmental
topics. His later scientific writings consist
of articles contributed to the Journal of the
Geological Society and the Geological Maga-
zine.

A SIGNAL for the use of the Coast Sur-
vey has been erected on the summit of
Mount Shasta, California, at an elevation of
14,402 feet. It is described in the Scientific
American as being a hollow cylinder of gal-
vanized iron 12 feet high and 2\ feet in di-
ameter, surrounded by a cone of nickel-
plated copper, with concave sides, 3 feet
high and 3 feet in diameter at the base.
The nickel-plated cone is a brilliant reflect-
or and will reflect the sunlight in such a
manner that the reflection can be seen for
a distance of 100 miles or over.

One of the grandest engineering projects
of the time is the union of the Black and
Caspian Seas. The plan is to join by a
canal the tributaries of the Manytch and
the Kouma, two considerable rivers which
drain the northern slope of the Caucasus.
If these two seas were united, the naval
force of Russia would be practically dou-
bled, for then her Caspian fleet could, in
case of necessity, be added to that which
holds the Black Sea.

An old lioness in the Dublin Zoological
Gardens was, during her last illness, much
worried by rats, against which she could no
longer defend herself. A terrier dog hav-
ing been placed in the cage to protect the
sufferer, the lioness at first received him
with a surly growl ; but, when she saw hira
kill the first rat, slie began to appreciate
her visitor. The lioness coaxed the terrier
to her, folded her paws round him, and the
dog slept each night on her breast enfolded
with her paws, and protecting her rest from
disturbance.

It is stated in the Tribune that Prof. S.
S. Ilaldeman recently found in an excava-
tion in the vicinity of Chickies, Pa., a large
number of Indian relics. The collection
includes one hundred pieces of pottery,
sixty stone arrow-heads, an'd one of copper ;
a tomahawk, eight stone chisels, several
mallets and pipe-stems ; also a few of those
instruments commonly called " sinkers,"
but the proper use of which is unknown.

II^DEX.

PAGE

A COREEOTION Ill

Abbott, Dr. Charles 0 73

Acoustical Eesearch 477

Alcohol, is it Food ? 103

American Pedigree of the Camel 124

Ancestors of the British 122

An Interesting Bird. (Illustrated.) 657

Animal Parasites and Messmates. (Illustrated.) 670

Arctic Meteorology 124

Arctic Research 762

Are the Elements elementary ? 463

Art, Modern, Frailty of 379

Association in its Relation to Labor 586

Balloons and Carrier-Pigeons 765

Barnard, Prof. W. S 149

Bastian, Dr. H. C, Sketch of. (Portrait.) 108

Beer, Condensed 250

Beet-Culture 764

Biology, Modern Philosophical 595, 710

Bird, an Interesting. (Illustrated.) 657

Birds, Reptilian Affinities of 124

" Migrations of 761

Boiler-Incrustations 125

Books noticed :

" First Book of Zoology " (Morse) : 115

" Money and Mechanism of Exchange " (Jevons) 117

" Religion and Science " (Shields) 118

"American Academy of Arts and Sciences" 118

" American State Universities " (Ten Brook) 119

" St. Louis Public Schools " 119

" Smithsonian Report " 240

" Bacteria " (Stimson) 243

» Fire-Burial " (Blind) 243

" Missouri State University " 243

" Geological Survey of Indiana " (Cox) 244

" Scripture Speculations " (Stevens) 244

" Arithmetic " (Fish) 244

" Algebraic Problems " (Ficklin) 244

VOL. VIII. — 49

770

INDEX.

Books noticed : ^agb

" Half-Hours with Insects " (Packard) 245

" Manual of Metallurgy " (Greenwood) 245

" Nature and Culture " (Kice) 245

" Currency and Banking " (Price) 373

" Meteorology " (Tice) 373

" American Philological Association " 374

" Marine Hospitals " 375

" Mechanics' Friend " (Axon) 375

" Mechanical Engineer " (Thurston) 376

" Politics as a Science " (Reemelin) 376

" Melanosiderite " (Cooke) 376

" Foetal Manatee " (Wilder) 376

" Gases from Meteorite " (Wright) 376

" Report on Trichinosis " (Sutton) 377

" Preventive Medicine " (Gay) 377

" Health Fragments " (Everett) 377

" Mineral Deposits in Essex County, Massachusetts " (Brockway) 377

" Aerial Locomotion " (Coughtrie) 377

" Half-Hours in Science " . 377

" Pseudomorphs of Chlorite " (Pumpelly) 377

" Irregularities in the Teeth " (Kingsley) 378

" The Cotton-Worm" (Grote) 378

" American Engineer " 378

" Nature of Light " (Lommel) 497

" Mind " 497

" British Association " 498

" Strength of Beams " (Allan) 499

" Pottery among Savages " (Hartt) 499

" Difference of Thermal Energy," etc 499

" Noctuidse of America " (Grote) 499

" State Medicine " (Allen) 499

" Graphical Statics " (Du Bois) 500

" Affairs in Alaska " (Elliott) 600

*' Our Wasted Resources " (Hargreaves) 500

" Travel in Africa " (Andersson) 500

" Dissertations and Discussions " (Mill) 500

" Soluble Glass" (Feuchtwanger) 500

" Report of Commissioner of Education " 500

" Emotions and Will " (Bain) 634

" Teacher's Hand-Book " (Phelps) 634

" Uranian and Neptunian Systems " (Newcomh) 635

" Scientific Monthly " 637

" Journal of Mental Disease " 637

" Science By-ways " (Proctor) 637

" American Naturalist " 637

" Descriptive Sociology " (Spencer) 752

" Human Physiology " (Flint) 753

" Animal Parasites " (Van Beneden) 753

" Life-Histories of Animals " (Packard) 753

" The Genera Geomys and Thomomys " (Ooues) 754

INDEX. 771

Books noticed : ^■*^<*^

" Selection and Use of the Microscope " (Pliin) 754

" African Travel " (Southworth) 755

" American Journal of Microscopy " 755

" Michigan Board of Health " 755

" Examination of Drinking-Water " (Macdonald) 756

" The Colorado and its Tributaries " (Powell) 756

" Cholera Epidemic of 1873 " 756

" Certain Explosive Agents " (Hill) 756

" Taxidermist's Manual " (Brown) 756

" Soul-Problems " (Peck) 756

" Startling Facts in Modern Spiritualism " (Wolfe) 757

" Contributions from the Laboratory " (Schweitzer) 757

" Views and Interviews on Journalism " (Wingate) 757

" Forms of Life within the Oral Cavity " (Peirce) 757

" Prospector's Manual " (Schofield) 757

" Journal of the American Electrical Society " 757

" Survey of Minnesota " (Winchell) 757

" Bulletin of the United States National Museum " 757

" Bulletin of the Buflfalo Society of Natural History " 758

" Necessity of a Mechanical Laboratory " (Thurston) 758

" Zapus Hudsonius " (Coues) 758

Mammoth Cave of Kentucky " (Forwood) 758

Geological Notes " (Eogers) 758

" Weights, Measures, and Money " (Clarke) 758

Booted Eagle 249

Border Territory between the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms 641

British, Ancestors of the 121

" Physical Characters of the 505

Butterworth, Hezekiah 177

Camel, its American Pedigree 124

Canarians, Eeligion of the 269

Canker-Worm 249

Carpenter, Dr. William B 165, 570

Carrier-Pigeons and Balloons 765

Cave-Dwellings in Kentucky 125

Cazelles, Dr. E : 595, 710

Centennial Display of Minerals 251

Champlin, J. D,, Jr 665

Changes in Courses of Rivers 122

Character of Modern Knowledge 724

Chemistry and Pharmacy 501

Chinese Civilization 509

Cholera, Diffusion of 761

Clarke, F. W 463

Climate, Influence of Water on 507

Clinical Thermoscope 123

Coal-Deposits in New York State 761

Comparative Psychology of Man 257

Condensed Beer 250

772 INDEX. .

PAOE

" Conflict, The, of Ages " 493, 627

Coniferse, Fossil 638

Consumption, is it contagious ? 250

Contributions to Meteorology 763

Controversy on Acoustical Kesearch 477

Cost of a Small-Pox Epidemic 510

Cranial Measurements 503

Crawfish, Blind, from Mammoth Cave 397

Curious Behavior of a Snake 507

Curious Indian Eelic. (Illustrated.) 73

Dawson, Dr. J. W., Sketch of. (Portrait.) 231

Deems, Eev. Charles F 434

Deeper Harmonies of Science and Religion. IV 225

Diamond-Cutting. (Illustrated.) 206

Diffusion of Cholera 761

Disease induced from the Influence of the Passions 60

Divining-Rod, its Antiquity 123

Education, Practical 382

" Question at Montpellier 495

" Scientific, how it is evaded 750

Electricity, Lessons in. (Illustrated.) 607

Elements, are they elementary ? 463

End of the Penikese School 494

Engineering, Origin and Development of 33

European Life in India 510

Euthanasia, Natural 617

Excommunicated Insects 504

Exhibition of Scientific Apparatus 638

Fallacies of Testimony respecting the Supernatural ; 570

Fires at Sea 504

Fluorescence. (Illustrated.) 471

Flying-Machines. (Illustrated.) 458

Fog-Signals 380

Force and Work 762

Forests and Rainfall Ill

Formation of Sand-Dunes. (Illustrated.) 357

Fossil Crustacean, A New 124

" Coniferie 688

Freak of the Curly- Willow 760

French Scientific Association 248

Functions of Association in its Relation to Labor 586

Fur-bearing Animals, Changes in Skin of 252

Galton, Francis 345

Geography and Evolution 192

Geology at Syracuse University 508

German Darwinism 235

INDEX.

773

PAOK

Germany, Disproportion of Sexes in 255

Glaciers, Polar 702

GodefFroy Museum 699

Greenland, Life in . 431

Guano-Deposits, Continuity of 250

Guibord, The Case of 367

Gunning, Prof. W. D 180

Haeckel, Prof. Ernst 67, 502

Hamilton, Dr. A. M 88

Hamlin, Dr. A. C 206

Hawkshaw, Sir John 33, 508

Hermit-Crabs, Habits of 639

Herrick, Mrs. S. B 17

Herschel, Caroline Lucretia, Sketch of. (Portrait.) 736

History and the Centennial 629

Holden, Prof. E. S 269

Horseshoe Nebula in Sagittarius. (Illustrated.) 269

Hunt, T. Sterry, Sketch of. (Portrait.) ; 486

Huxley, T. H 641

Hydrography 513

Hydroids. (Hlustrated.) 17

Ice-Action 121

Idol-Worship and Fetich-Worship 158

Indians, A Libel upon the 748

Induced Disease from tlie Influence of the Passions 60

Infection, A'ehicles of 382

Infirmities of Speech 366

Inland Sea, Proposed, in Algeria 665

Insect-killing Plants 766

Insectivoroiis Plants. (Illustrated.) 45

Instinct and Acquisition 310

" Plasticity of 449

Iron and Steel, Testing of 246

Is Alcohol Food? 103

Kangaroo, Natural History of. (Illustrated.) 409

Kidder, Dr. J. H 657

Kitchen-Midden, Contents of a 379

Labor and Association 586

Lace and Lace-making. (Illustrated.) 521

Lakes, Oscillations of 379

Le Conte, Dr. J. L 285

Leighton, William 315

Leland, E. Pt 45

Lessons in Electricity. (Illustrated.) 607

Lewis, E 367

Lex Talionis 746

774 INDEX.

PAGE

Libel, A, upon the Indians 748

Libraries, Public, in France 766

Liebig's Influence on German Science 639

Life in Greenland 431

Lights of Different Colors, Penetrating Power of 760

Limestone, A Piece of 165

Locust of the Kocky Mountains 605

Lommel, Eugene 471

Man, Comparative Psychology of 257

Martineau and Materialism 129

Martineau's Eeply to Tyndall 746

Mayer, Alfred M 453

Mental Faculties, Strange, in Disease 177

" Overwork 765

Merriraan, C. C , 702

Metals, Behavior of, with Hydrogen 254

Meteorite, Passage of a 766

Meteorology of Sun and Earth 75

" Arctic 124

" Contributions to 763

Michels, John 95

Microcephaly 249

Microscope, A Home-made. (Illustrated.) 95

Migrations of Birds 761

Mill, An Indian 503

Mivart, St. George 409

Modern Biological Inquiry 285

" Art, Frailty of 379

" Philosophical Biology 595, 710

" Knowledge, Character of 724

Museum Exchange 460

" Godeffroy 699

Natural Euthanasia 617

IJature of Fluorescence. (Illustrated.) 471

Nebula in Sagittarius. (Illustrated.) 269

Nitrogen in Plants 503

Notes 126, 255, 385, 510, 640, 768

Numerals, Origin of the 380

Obesity, Eeduction of 255

Opium-Habit 767

Opossums, (Illustrated.) 149

Optical Illusion 254

Origin and Development of Engineering 33

Oscillations of Lakes 379

Our Great American University 543

Overwork, Mental 765

Ownership of the Dead 322

INDEX. 775

PAGE

Parasites, Animal. (Illustrated.) 670

Penetrating Power of Different Colored Liglits 7G0

Penikese School, End of the 494

Pharmacy and Chemistry 501

Physical Characters of the British 505

Piece of Limestone, On a IfiS

Plants, Insectivorous. (Illustrated.) 45

" Respiration of ' 248

" Insect-killing 766

Plasticity of Instinct 449

Polar Glaciers ." 702

Pork, Trichinous 759

Prince Rupert's Drops 315

Progression and Retrogression. (Illustrated.) 180

Prolific Peaches 509

Propagation of Waves in Liquids 253

Properties of Protoplasm 67

Proposed Inland Sea in Algeria 665

Public Libraries in France 766

Putrefaction arrested by Pressure 247

" and Infection, Tyndall on 686

Rat, A, in the Telegraph Service 254

Rats and Mice, how they use their Tails 764

Reading as an Intellectual Process 212

Reduction of Obesity 255

Refraction of Sound , 767

Relations of Women to Crime 1, 334

" of Sex to Crime 724

Religion of the Canarians 249

" Science and 434

Remedy for Boiler Incrustations 126

Reptilian Affinities of Birds 124

Respiration of Plants 248

Restoration of Faded Writings 253

Resuscitation of the Drowned 251

Retrospects of our Past Hundred Years , 630

Revivals and Insanity 383

Richardson, Dr. B. W 00, 617

Rivers, Changes in the Courses of 122

Rodriguez, Extinction of Animals in 252

Romanes, George J 449

Ruggles, Samuel B 322

Sand-Blast. (Illustrated.) 300

" Dunes, Formation of. (Illustrated.) 357

Science and Religion 225, 434

" Teaching in English Schools 281

" in Germany and England 369

" The Warfare of 385, 553

" in English Schools 689

776 INDEX.

PAGE

Scientific Institutions 502

'• Education, how it is evaded V50

" Apparatus, Exhibition of 638

Sensory Centres in the Brain 881

Sex and Crime ' 724

Sexes, Disproportion of, in Germany 255

Soda-Lakes of Wyoming 767

Solar Radiation, Intensity of 252

Sound and Fog Signals 380

" Refraction of 767

Sounding a Newspaper Fog " 489

Spalding, D. A 310

Spencer, Herbert 158, 257

" his Philosopliy 235

" Sketch of. (Portrait.) 620

Stanley's Expedition 246

Stewart, Prof. Balfour 75

Strachey, Lieutetiant-General 192

Strange Menttil Faculties in Disease 177

Submarine Cables, A New Enemy of 507

Suicide in Large Cities 88

Sun and Earth, Meteorology of 75

Supernatural, Fallacies of Testimony respecting the 570

Temperature and Vegetation 506

Terrestrial Radiation 252

Testimony respecting the Supernatural, Fallacies of 570

Testing Iron and Steel 246

Thermo-Diffusion 248

Thermoscope, Clinical 123

Thudichum, Dr. J. L. W 724

Timber-Trees, Maturity of 503

Trapping Wild-Turkeys 253

Trichinous Pork 759

Trout-Culture 251

Tuckwell, Rev. W 281

Twins 345

Tyndall, Prof. John 129, 482, 607, 686

" Martineau's Reply to 746

University, Our Great American 543

Use of Bushy Tails 125

Utah, Children in '. . . . 381

Vaile, E. O 212

Van de Warker, Ely 1, 334, 724

Vehicles of Infection 382

Victoria Niyanza, Exploration of 246

Vivisection, Value of 509

" vindicated 751

INDEX. -jjj

FAas

Ward, W. S 300

«' Prof. Henry A. 699

"Warfare of Science 385, 553

Water and Climate 507

Watering-Places, Sanitary Condition of 508

Weeden, WiUiam B 586

Welding, Kationale of 253

Wheatstone, Sir Charles, Sketch of. (Portrait.) 363

Which Universe shall we study ? 112

White, Andrew D 385, 553

Wilder, Burt G 460

Willow, Curly, Freak of the 760

Wise Public Benefactor, A 760

Women, Relations of, to Crime 1, 334

Work, Force and 762

Wyoming, Soda-Lakes of 767

Youmans, Eliza A 521

END OF VOL. vrir.

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